Category Archives: Asheville Attractions

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Updated: Thursday, January 9 2014, 09:10 PM EST

The fight is on to get women to keep their tops on in Asheville. Asheville City Council has said they can’t enforce a topless ordiance because of a state law. Now the Chamber of Commerce says they called state law makers to help fix it.

Topless women aren’t good for business. At least that’s concern raised to the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. The annual topless rally brings a flood of flesh downtown. But chamber president Kit Cramer says toplessness is considered a nuisance by both business people and visitors. It’s currently allowed under state law.

“If the city has said they need assistance from the state in order to enforce an ordinance, fine, we will ask the state for that assistance and see if we can go ahead and end this drama,” said Cramer.

Carson called Senator Tom Apodaca to help. Chair of the Rules Committee, Apodaca wants Asheville to join other cities around the state who have ordinances that prevent toplessness.

Topless rallies have been organized in downtown Asheville for the past three years. The Chamber of Commerce says the hope this prevents another from happening this year.

The General Assembly will take a

Article source: http://www.wlos.com/shared/news/features/top-stories/stories/wlos_topless-debate-14692.shtml If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Joined by former parkway Superintendent Phil Francis and other park advocates, the Environment North Carolina Research Policy Center held a news conference Thursday at the Parkway’s Visitor Center to release its new report, “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”

The report details how the parkway and 400 other NPS units have been affected by $350 million in cuts to the National Park Services’ operating budget since 2010. They include $784,000 lost by the parkway and $62,000 lost by the Carl Sandburg Home last March due to across-the-board cuts known as sequestration.

Budget cuts have forced parkway administrators to cancel ranger-led education programs, reduce staff and close some campgrounds, visitor centers and picnic areas along the 469-mile linear park, the most heavily used NPS unit in the country with 17 million visitors annually.

Representatives from Environment North Carolina, the Carolina Mountain Club and Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway said they hope the report will help act as a catalyst for citizens to write their congressmen in support of full funding for national parks in ongoing 2014 budget negotiations.

“Two of the things that are most open to the public, regardless of income, are our (public) schools and our parks,” said Hugh Stephens, past chairman

Article source: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20140109/ARTICLES/140109892 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

BEIJING – Dennis Rodman sang Happy Birthday to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Wednesday before leading a team of former NBA stars for a game of “basketball diplomacy” that has been criticized by rights groups.

Rodman took on a North Korean team in the capital Pyongyang in an exhibition game that excited a capacity crowd of around 14,000 at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium.

Kim watched the game from a special seating area along with his wife and other senior officials and their wives.

Rodman sang Happy Birthday before the start of the game in which the North Korean team scored 47 points to 39 for the Americans before the teams were mixed for the second half. Rodman played in the first half and then sat next to Kim during the second half.

Rodman, 52, a former star for the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, insists he is trying to forge a bridge between the West and his “good friend” Kim. But Amnesty International, the NBA and the family of an American missionary jailed in North Korea have accused him of giving an image boost to a despot whose regime has starved millions of its people, imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens and

Article source: http://www.citizen-times.com/usatoday/article/4368605 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

The beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway is still mostly shrouded in a nice sheet – or several inches thick – of ice, snow and other winter offerings, but the 11-mile stretch known affectionately as the Asheville Corridor, or Asheville Commuter Zone, is open for vehicle traffic now.

That is the section from South Asheville near the Arboretum at Milepost 393 at N.C. 191/Brevard Road, up north through the Folk Art Center at MP 382 at U.S. 70/Tunnel Road.

The Visitor Center at MP 384 and the Folk Art Center are open regular hours. There is lots to see and do there, as well as flush toilets (yay!) and trailheads to the Mountains-To-Sea Trail, so take advantage.

The Park Service does allow pedestrians and cyclists to park safely along the side of the road near closed gates – as long as you’re not blocking the gates – and walk or ride your bike behind the gate. If you’ve got snowshoes or cross-country skis, even better!

But seriously bundle up every bit of skin you have. It’s still only about 14 degrees in Asheville today and brutally cold. Frostbite can set in on fingers and toes, even those

Article source: http://blogs2.citizen-times.com/outdoors/2014/01/08/parkway-through-asheville-corridor-open-today/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

   BOX SCORE (PDF)

BOILING SPRINGS – Jaron Lane scored 19 of his game-high 26 points in the second half and UNC Asheville held off Gardner-Webb, 81-77, Wednesday in both teams’ league opener.

Gardner-Webb (7-9, 0-1 Big South) jumped out to a 23-9 lead in the early going and had a stranglehold on momentum, but Asheville (7-8, 1-0 Big South) went on a 10-0 run to get back in the game – and closed the half on a 27-7 blitz that gave the visitors a 36-30 lead at the half.

Asheville then came out of the locker room on fire, making their first six shots to push the lead to 45-33 less than two minutes in. Gardner-Webb was able to get the lead back to single digits, but Asheville kept its shooting at a high level the rest of the way.

A layup with 12:43 from Tyler Strange cut the lead to 51-46, but a 3-pointer from lane and a layup from center D.J. Cunningham got the advantage back into double digits. With just under seven minutes to play, Gardner-Webb was finally able to force errors and get back into contention.

Tyrell Nelson drained a jumper with 6:57 left, sparking a 12-2

Article source: http://www.gwusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=10300&ATCLID=209368263 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

A slightly bigger chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway is open to vehicular traffic today, aka Polar Vortex Day, in Asheville. The parkway is open to driving from Milepost 382 at the Folk Art Center just north of the U.S. 70 entrance, to Milepost 393.6 at N.C. 191/Brevard Road. The Visitor Center and Folk Art Center are open.

The rest of the parkway in North Carolina, which contains the most mountains section of the 469-mile roadway, is closed for snow and icy conditions.

It’s a good time to think about what the parkway means to our community, economically, aesthetically, recreationally, all of those things. The parkway has certainly been through its share of turmoil over the past year, with the sequester cuts, the government shutdown and road failures and closures. Check out the upcoming presentation on the parkway this Thursday:

Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center will release a new analysis, “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” exposing the impacts of funding cuts to the Blue Ridge Parkway– and to North Carolinians’ enjoyment of “America’s Favorite Drive.”

The analysis comes as President Obama readies his proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 and final Congressional budget negotiations get underway.

WHEN: 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 9

WHO: Liz

Article source: http://blogs2.citizen-times.com/outdoors/2014/01/07/budget-cuts-threatening-blue-ridge-parkway-theme-of-thursday-talk/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com