Asheville

Buncombe County Puts Slave Records Online

Shawn Wen and Isaac-Davy Aronson — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:13:13 +0000

During the Great Depression, the New Deal funded a project to collect the narratives of former slaves. Sarah Gudger came forward to give an account of her life as a slave in Buncombe County. Her testimony was the same brutal story that is familiar to many of us. She described a “hard life” of nothing but “work, work, work,” under the threat of abuse.

President Obama Visits Asheville To Discuss Jobs, Manufacturing

Gurnal Scott — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:45:58 +0000

President Obama made Asheville the first stop of a three-day trip to push economic proposals he made in his State of the Union address this week. The president got a tour yesterday of the Linamar machine parts plant before making some remarks. Canada-based Linamar moved to Asheville after a Volvo plant left taking hundreds of jobs with it. The president says he'd like to see the federal government help make Linamar's example more common in cities that have been hit hard economically.

Downton Abbey & Biltmore – How Similar Are They?

Laura Candler — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:57:54 +0000

If you’ve watched just one episode of the popular PBS television series Downton Abbey, then you’ll know that the show is set in the early 1900s in an extravagant manor in the English countryside and that it revolves around the personal lives of the privileged Crawley family and their bustling “downstairs” staff.

Appalachian Trail Turns 75

Isaac-Davy Aronson — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:10:00 +0000

The Appalachian Trail turns 75 this week. The nearly 2,200-mile route runs from Georgia to Maine.

Steve Paradis is the Chief Operating Officer of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. He says the trail serves much the same purpose today as it did when it was completed in 1937.

Steve Paradis: It was proposed as a footpath that would connect small working communities and provide an opportunity for people to essentially escape the, if you will, the rat race along the east coast and to rejuvenate their spirit and refresh their souls.

Asheville Restaurants Go Green

Jeremy Loeb — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Asheville is known as a sort of local food-haven. Now it's leading the way in an effort to reduce the environmental impacts of restaurants. The Asheville Independent Restaurant Association is using a $258,000 grant from the North Carolina Green Business Fund to make upgrades in 18 Asheville restaurants.

Court Declares Two Men Innocent

WUNC News — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:50:00 +0000

A panel of three judges has found two North Carolina men innocent of a murder to which they had once pleaded guilty.

The judges announced their decision Thursday in Asheville after nearly two weeks of testimony in the cases of Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxsin.

Both men had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Walter Bowman of Fairview at his home in 2000. They claimed they agreed to the pleas to avoid the possibility of getting the death penalty or spending life behind bars.