Workshops help gardeners, farmers go organic Whether you’re a home gardener, a beginning commercial grower or a professional farmer, if you’re interested in growing organic, then you’ll want to check out the 10th annual Organic Growers School on Saturday, March 15 at Blue Ridge Community College (near Flat Rock). The daylong event will include 36 […]
Author: Webmaster
Showing 8296-8316 of 9872 results
Council urges state to join EPA lawsuit
At last month’s annual retreat, the Asheville City Council made a commitment to work on improving the region’s air quality. At their Feb. 25 formal session, Council member Holly Jones pressed her colleagues to live up to that promise. Seizing a rare lull in the evening’s proceedings, Jones publicly questioned City Attorney Bob Oast about […]
Asheville City Council
“Are you the one that was at the peace rally last week sitting in the tree shouting ‘No war, no war’? … Who are you? These are all freedoms that have been afforded to you through the sacrifice of others … many of whom gave their life just for you. What have you done to […]
No resolution in sight
“If this plant is sold off in pieces and no one buys the environmental liabilities, then we’ll be left holding the bag.” — French Broad Riverkeeper Phillip Gibson Wrapped tighter than ever in an intricate financial web that so far has defied all attempts to unravel it, RFS Ecusta may never again spin out the […]
Union officials left scratching heads
Six hundred workers lost their jobs when the RSF Ecusta plant in Transylvania County closed its doors after the owner declared bankruptcy. The closure and the layoffs seemingly marked the end of a long, bitter labor dispute between the unionized workers and plant owner Nathu Puri. But a new chapter in this saga was written […]
Will work for (lower) wages
The recent closings of Agfa and Ecusta, two of Transylvania County’s biggest employers, have hit local families hard. In December, Transylvania’s unemployment rate stood at 13.3 percent — the highest in the state. A mere two years ago, the county boasted the third-lowest unemployment rate in North Carolina. And while some former Ecusta and Agfa […]
Smart growth, clean air
For the past several years, environmental groups, the medical community and the tourism-and-travel industry have worked hard to address Western North Carolina’s degraded air quality by pushing for the cleanup of the largest pollution sources in our state — the 14 coal-fired utility plants. Mountain residents should be proud that our citizens and legislators led […]
Buncombe County Commission
Most of us are unhappy about paying our bills once; but a flap between the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and the county school board raised the specter of the county’s paying certain bills twice — an idea that didn’t seem to sit well with the commissioners. At their Feb. 18 meeting, Child Care Services […]
The big ride
Outside downtown, many parts of Asheville today give little hint of the past. In these areas, new development has transformed the urban landscape almost beyond recognition, leaving barely a trace of the landscape, the farms, the neighborhoods that have been displaced. But Asheville City Transit Route 9 provides a window into what’s been lost and […]
Notepad
Local publisher seeks true-to-life juvenile fiction When Steven Roxburgh began his career in publishing at Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York three decades ago, the icons of popular fiction for young adults were privileged, sports-car-driving career teens like Nancy Drew. There’s no market, he was told, for serious, gritty juvenile fiction. But Roxburgh had […]
Let’s really support our soldiers
“The time for dissent is passed once the war is declared,” one Asheville resident wrote in a recent letter to the editor of a local publication, echoing the sentiments of many who fear for the lives of their loved ones in this coming war. “Don’t undermine the morale of our troops now that they’re deployed,” […]
Kings of the weird frontier
Q: Who’s the tougher audience, Robert Fripp or God? A: Oh, pu-lease! Our Lord never fired Bill Bruford, the drummer’s drummer. If you opted for the Divine, then you’ve obviously never taken a serious ride on the roller coaster that is King Crimson, the on-again-off-again 35-year vehicle for founding member Fripp’s vision of music as […]
Closing ranks
Gods and Generals may boast the best-trained extras in Hollywood film history. On Feb. 21, the Civil War epic — including thousands of faceless actors who bring battle scenes to life — opened nationwide to what has become, today, an unprecedented abundance of history buffs, re-enactors and Southern sympathizers who find validation in Civil War […]
Be afraid, be very afraid
Still looking for an antidote to Valentine’s Day? You could do worse than check out Asheville Community Theatre’s current production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The play, which opened, ironically, on the official Day of Love, runs through March 2. Love, however, has precious little to do with Woolf, which chronicles both the alcoholic […]
Old-school rules
“If he didn’t like your drawing, he would walk by and reach over and grab the paper and roll it up and throw it in the trash and keep walking,” a laughing Benajmin Long recalled of the teaching style favored by one of his former art instructors. “That’s not what we’re trying to do here […]
Life in the Earle-y 21st century
Few records prove themselves so immediately indispensable as Steve Earle’s El Corazon. Throughout that classic 1997 album — which travels effortlessly from finger-picked ballads to bluegrass romps, old-style-country love songs and Nirvana-loud rock anthems — Earle’s songwriting is consistently impressive and memorable, not only for his guitar and mandolin work, but for the instant-legend lyrics […]
Funny in the fast lane
As recently as three years ago, African-American comics Bernie Mac, Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey and D.L. Hughley were, despite extensive touring and numerous television appearances, relatively obscure. But Spike Lee’s The Original Kings of Comedy, a filmed performance from the four comics’ nearly $40-million concert tour, which began its lengthy run in 1997, made […]
Books to break up by
It seems a particularly cruel stroke that Valentine’s Day falls in the coldest stretch of winter. The glimmer and rush of the holidays behind us, we see nothing ahead but sunless skies, biting winds and a long, slushy trudge toward an elusive spring. And in the midst of this gray wasteland blooms Love’s Big Day. […]
Notepad
Give a bird a home Here’s a chance to get creative, help out a feathered friend — and support a worthy cause. Dirt and Sky People Gallery (51 N. Lexington Ave. in downtown Asheville) is hosting the First Annual Birdhouse Auction, slated for Friday and Saturday, March 28-29. Donated birdhouses, from simple to elaborate, are […]
Asheville City Council
“‘Smart growth’ is growth that happens in someone else’s neighborhood,” proclaimed Asheville resident Jim McClure during the Asheville City Council’s Feb. 11 formal meeting. And though he made it clear that he was speaking tongue in cheek, McClure’s comment nonetheless encapsulated the resistance city officials predictably face whenever they advocate infill housing. A tenet of […]
A long, hard look
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may be taxed. That is, of course, provided the state legislature agrees to the 1-cent increase in the local prepared-food-and-beverage tax proposed by the Asheville City Council at their annual retreat, held at UNCA’s Kellogg Center in Hendersonville. The proposal, one of several goals set during the […]