When Buncombe County Chief District Court Judge Earl J. Fowler Jr. announced his impending retirement last year, interest in the four-year seat surged. Six candidates jumped into the fray, hashing it out in the nonpartisan September primary. The two highest vote-getters — Patricia A. Kaufmann and Roger T. Smith — will face off in the […]

Critics are questioning Buncombe County District Court Judge Shirley Brown‘s handling of a number of cases — some recent and others dating back years. One centers on why Brown convicted a man of a crime back in 1993 without his lawyer present. Another involves Brown’s written order in a juvenile case — which mysteriously disappeared, […]

A lot of folks like to talk trash, but hardly anybody wants to talk about it. Or so it appears. A mere three people submitted written comments on the Buncombe County Solid Waste Management Plan by the Sept. 20 deadline, reports Solid Waste Planner Ron Townley of the Land-of-Sky Regional Council, which prepared the draft […]

On the heels of a couple of uneventful meetings, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners got down to business Oct. 1, tackling a pair of meaty questions: whether to approve a new cable-TV franchise agreement and whether to increase the sales tax seven months ahead of schedule. They also mulled over whether to sue the […]

In just a few days, the latest extension of Buncombe County’s cable-TV franchise agreement with Charter Communications runs out. At their Oct. 1 meeting, the county commissioners will decide whether to seal a new 12-year deal with Charter or temporarily extend the contract yet again (as they’ve done every few months for the past year […]

“Life is the game that must be played.” — Edwin Arlington Robinson If tennis greats like Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras need coaches to help them through a showdown at the U.S. Open, then why wouldn’t the rest of us need a little help in the big game of life? So goes one of Mark […]

Perhaps the summer doldrums struck the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners last week — or was it a desire to lie low for the sake of their respective parties in the days leading up to the Sept. 10 primary? Whatever the reason, the board breezed through a light agenda on Sept. 3 that focused mainly […]

What price preparedness? For a few days last October, the Buncombe County Health Center was posting daily media advisories on its Web site about the anthrax threat. The national preoccupation had taken a particularly local spin because Floridian Robert Stevens, who’d visited North Carolina (including the mountain region), later became one of the country’s handful […]

District Court isn’t as glamorous as Superior Court. Fewer high-profile cases play out in the courtrooms of District Court, which generally attract much less public attention. But the District Court system touches far more people, and the decisions those judges make in family, criminal and civil cases can have significant impacts on ordinary citizens’ lives […]

Electing judges may sound like a good idea, but how’s the average citizen supposed to figure out who to vote for? All six candidates competing in the Sept. 10 primary have met the minimum requirements for office. And none have been publicly disciplined by the N.C. State Bar, says Carolin Bakewell, counsel to that state […]

If Buncombe County commissioners’ meetings were like movies, last week’s session might be termed a summer sleeper. A draft update of the county’s solid-waste-management plan turned out to be the weightiest topic on the Board of Commissioners’ Aug. 20 agenda, which board members whisked through in just about an hour. Ron Townley of the Land-of-Sky […]

Imagine trekking to court after being nabbed with a speeding ticket. Or finding yourself in a court battle over who should be awarded custody of your child. Wouldn’t you want a say in who will decide your case? You do have a say, actually. This fall, voters will choose who will fill two contested seats […]

“We’re all terrified that all of our loved ones are going to be hanging — with no treatment, no nothing.” — Gayle Wilson, mother of a mentally ill adult Until Kathy Wallace‘s adult son stopped taking medication for his bipolar disorder this spring, she’d probably never imagined that the Buncombe County jail would one day […]

If you have a friend or family member who’s been diagnosed with a mental illness, you may want to check out a free upcoming course. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill’s Family-to-Family Education Program — a 12-week course — will be offered in Asheville from 7-9:30 p.m. on Thursdays beginning Sept. 5. The curriculum […]

Dr. Tom Smith of Asheville doesn’t mince words. The retired psychiatrist serves as spokesman for the Friends of Public Mental Health of North Carolina, a Raleigh-based group whose roughly 1,600 members include both retired and current mental-health workers and others. He’s unabashedly critical of the state’s mental-health-reform plan, which he and other group members believe […]

“Just because an investigation was initiated doesn’t mean there was a smoking gun.” — Buncombe County Attorney Joe Connolly, speaking about a Justice Department probe into the Sheriff’s Department. At the urging of advocates who want more money for public-access TV, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners agreed Aug. 6 to hold off on approving […]

Writ large, public-access TV can go far beyond the Wayne’s World scenario of two guys and a video camera. That’s the pitch Asheville digital-media consultant David McConville of Black Box Studio made to the Buncombe County Economic Development Commission last week. “If we do this right, this could be huge,” McConville told the group on […]

Under pressure from advocates of public-access TV, Buncombe County has been pushing Charter Communications to shoulder the cost of setting up a station and helping to support channels for public-access, educational and government (PEG) programming. But the idea of Charter’s passing on those costs to customers has some PEG advocates crying foul. “That just basically […]