Absolutely batty: The Nature Conservancy is now taking reservations for hikes at its Bat Cave Preserve in Hickory Nut Gorge. The relatively short, easy walk passes through woods boasting rare vegetation and arrives at the mouth of the largest granite-fissure cave in North America. The two-hour hikes are offered Wednesdays and Saturdays from June 7 … Read more
Beginning the evening with a somber group prayer and cautiously guarded optimism, friends, family and other supporters of GOP congressional candidate Carl Mumpower ended the night in banner-waving, balloon-floating joy as their candidate won a close race. Mumpower, 55, now faces the much more daunting task of unseating first-term incumbent Rep. Heath Shuler in the … Read more
On Dec. 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed for having ordered the suppression of rebellious Kurds in Iraq. That campaign left 180,000 Kurds missing and presumed dead. But an illuminating confession revealed that Hussein said no WMDs [weapons of mass destruction] were left after 1991. Ronald Kessler (The New York Times) interviewed George Piro—the last … Read more
Boiled-frog syndrome: That’s where the frog, when it’s put into cold water, seems quite nonchalant as the water heats up to an intolerable degree. When the temperature finally hits 212 F, the frog dies. It’s a metaphor, of course—for us. We have been heating up our world without acknowledging the symptoms, and through denial have … Read more
The nationally known charity Dogs Deserve Better, headquartered in Tipton, Pa., completed a 12-state tour of the southern states, including North Carolina. They had been inundated with calls for help to visit and videotape some of the many areas in our state with chained, lonely and forgotten dogs. They were amazed at the number of … Read more
Some in the media call it a split decision, but on the whole, May 6 was a win for the Obama campaign. Obama won the considerably bigger state by the considerably bigger (14 percentage points) margin, outperforming the polling that had suggested a Clinton surge and compiling a net gain of about 13 pledged delegates. … Read more
Is Fairview sure that a toxic invasion [that would] severely compromise the quality of our wells and drinking water is not about to happen? Golf courses are water-guzzling, chemical-leaching properties. Right now, deforestation for Phase I of the Tiger Woods golf course for The Cliffs [at High Carolina] has begun—to the bare ground—and we have … Read more
The federal corruption trial of former Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford continued this week with the prosecution bringing out an array of confessed illegal-gambling operators, who testified that they’d bribed Medford or his deputies—including former reserve Capt. Guy Penland, who’s also on trial—in return for protection and favors. Scene of a crime?: The parking lot … Read more
A thin crowd had settled into Magnolia’s Raw Bar & Grille on election night. In one corner of the downtown Asheville watering hole, a muted TV flashed images of Dancing With the Stars—high kicks and twists, sparkle tights and stretch vests. Beneath the dancing, a crawler announced less frivolous happenings—the incoming results of the local … Read more
About a year ago, the Asheville City Council set an ambitious long-term goal for reducing the city’s contribution to climate change: an 80 percent cut in city government’s carbon emissions by 2050. That means looking for ways to conserve, retrofitting city facilities with more energy-efficient technologies, and generally shrinking Asheville’s carbon footprint at a rate … Read more
