Mountain Xpress

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An interactive-video project that keys in on the issue of mountaintop-removal coal mining will be featured at the Copenhagen climate conference this month. Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore narrates the project’s introductory video. Created by Google Earth Outreach and two regional environmental groups — Coal River Mountain Watch and Appalachian Voices, a Boone-based organization that publishes a ... Full Story »

Property owners have 90 days to appeal zoning decisions Stanley to continue as vice chair It was the last meeting of the year, and the Buncombe County commissioners had few items on their agenda. True to form, they kept it short and sweet: The whole meeting took less than an hour. Another go: Commissioner Carol Peterson gives Vice Chair Bill Stanley a handshake of congratulation after he was ... Full Story »

Stewart David knows how to stir the pot. The longtime Asheville resident has been a persistent presence in the Mountain Xpress Letters section since the early '90s. He's also contributed several commentaries (most recently "Greenwashed," July 1 Xpress). Spreading the word: Animal-rights activist Stewart David has been speaking up ad speaking out in Asheville since 1990. Photo by Jonathan Welch ... Full Story »

Thanks to a new shipment of the H1N1 flu vaccine, the Buncombe County Health Center will hold an open clinic from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Biltmore Square Mall. For the first time this season, the vaccine will be free to everyone who shows up. “A shipment of H1N1 vaccine arrived this week that will enable the Health Center to open the community clinic to everyone interested in ... Full Story »

Here’s a live video feed from a Republican congressional candidate forum being held tonight at Western Carolina University. The event is being hosted by the Young Americans for Liberty and is being webcast by Bobby Coggins, a blogger known by the handle “Thunderpig.” You can follow him on Twitter here. Several area Republicans have said they plan to file for election in 2010 to seek their party ... Full Story »

Mountain Xpress staff reporter David Forbes covered the Dec. 4 presentation of proposal for a local barter/alternative currency system by the Asheville Curency Project. Pending Forbes’ completion of his detailed coverage of the meeting and the project, here’s a summation of his Twitter-based comments, sent during the meeting. • Crowd gathering at Bobo’s for the Asheville Currency Project ... Full Story »

The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy got $43,000 in grants to help farmers In Sandy Mush, Fairview & Spring Creek. The Janirve Foundation awarded $18,000 for SAHC’s Farmland Preservation Initiative, which has already protected over 3,000 acres of working farms in Buncombe, Madison and Haywood Counties. The Janirve grant will enable SAHC to reach out to additional farmers in ... Full Story »

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners kept their last meeting of the year short — under an hour — which was just long enough to give countywide zoning final approval and keep Vice Chair Bill Stanley in his spot for another year. The commissioners gave final approval, 4-1, to reinstate countywide zoning. While zoning passed by the same margin at the board’s Nov. 17 meeting, state law ... Full Story »

Asheville Citizen-Times employees will be forced to take unpaid time off in the first three months of next year, according to a new round of cost-saving measures announced by corporate owner Gannett Co. this week. The furloughs, which will affect employees at all of Gannett’s 82 community newspapers, started this year when Gannett required employees to take unpaid time off in the first and ... Full Story »

On Jan. 5, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners may replace an official prayer before its meetings with a moment of silence, according to County Attorney Michael Frue. Contrary to Frue’s original announcement, the commissioners have not yet made a decision. “I probably erred by implying they had taken action or made a decision,” Frue told Xpress. “I shouldn’t have assumed they would ... Full Story »

The UNC-Asheville chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society will stage a protest at the Federal Building on Patton Avenue in response to the planned escalation of the Afghanistan war. The group announced the protest Thursday via its website, two days after President Barack Obama’s address in which he promised 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. According to the group’s press release ... Full Story »