Meadows and Shuler team up to push for ‘Road to Nowhere’ money

The effort to secure compensation for Swain County from the federal government for a road it never completed has been a long and twisted tale, full of contentious political debate among Western North Carolina congressmen both old and new. The issue is now back in the news, as current GOP Rep. Mark Meadows has joined […]

Bothwell, a Roosevelt Democrat

In the President’s State of the Union speech, he masterfully called America to rally to the vision of inclusiveness and fairness he has sought to implement through his presidency. Despite shrill Republican propaganda to the contrary, Obama has accomplished saving the country from complete financial meltdown, even over the unbridled and, at times, irrational opposition […]

Sunday open thread

Interstate 40 was cleared, Asheville City Council retreated, the downtown Bank of America closed up, the role of religion was fiercely debated at the Buncombe County Board of Education, Shuler bowed out, the city looked at restricting newspaper boxes, Council headed to East Asheville, and a deal over the Occupy Asheville camp remained out of reach. Whew. It was a busy, busy news week in Asheville.

Rep. Heath Shuler won’t seek re-election, will retire from Congress *Updated*

After denying speculation for months that he wouldn’t seek re-election to Congress, Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler (NC11) reversed course Feb. 1 and announced that he will retire from the office when his current term ends in January. *This post was updated Feb. 2 with a video of Democrat Cecil Bothwell responding to the news. With Shuler out of the race, Bothwell is currently the only Democrat contending for the seat.*

NRCC targets Rep. Heath Shuler, charging Democrat “negligenc­e” in failed deficit reduction deal

An email sent out by the National Republican Congressional Committee targets 11th District Rep. Heath Shuler, blaming the Haywood County Democrat for what seems to be the impending failure of the bipartisian “Super Committee” to endorse a plan to cut the deficit. Although Shuler wasn’t on the committee, the national effort could be the opening salvo in its effort to soften his support and unseat him next year.

Video: Take a tour of Asheville’­s newly proposed Congressio­nal Districts

Take a tour of the controversial proposed dividing line between North Carolina’s 10th and 11th Congressional Districts with Xpress reporters Jake Frankel and David Forbes. The proposed line would divide Asheville, placing most of the city in the 10th District (currently represented by Republican Patrick McHenry of Hickory), while leaving some portions in Democrat Heath Shuler’s 11th District.

Local Matters: Freedom of the press, council candidates and redistrict­ing

In this edition of Local Matters—the Xpress weekly news podcast—reporter David Forbes talks about the recent removal of newspaper boxes by the County and the recent announcement of candidates for Asheville City Council, and reporters Christopher George and Jake Frankel talk about the heated meetings around the new congressional redistricting plan. Hosted by News Editor Margaret Williams.

Rep. Shuler reportedly considerin­g athletic director job at UT Knoxville

Tony Basilio, host of the The Edge radio program on WVLZ radio in Knoxville, TN, is reporting that Western North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler is considering taking a job as the athletic director of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he gained national attention as a top quarterback in the early 1990s. What do you think? Does this seem like a job that Rep. Shuler would potentially leave his congressional seat for?

Beware the "Dirty Air Act"

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on what could best be called the "Dirty Air Act" — legislation that would permanently allow our nation’s biggest polluters to dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into our air. Although the bill gained enough votes to pass in the House, I am pleased that our […]