Asheville Watchdog

A community-focused, non-profit news website dedicated to covering Asheville and Buncombe County is currently being developed.

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Opinion: Why does flying have to be such a nightmare?

3 days ago | avlwatchdog.org | John Boyle

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. Flying makes me philosophical. By that, I mean it makes me ask a lot of existential questions, such as:Do airlines know how to tell time? Do airlines understand what size most American adults are these days? Why do airlines load passengers from the front of the plane to the back of the plane, when the reverse would clearly be more efficient?
Answer Man: Why such extensive tree cutting in Biltmore Forest, especially along creeks? Patton Avenue work downtown still not finished?

1 week ago | avlwatchdog.org | John Boyle

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers:Question: What’s up with all the extensive clearing by FEMA in Biltmore Forest?
Asheville Watchdog sues City of Asheville, alleging open meetings law violations

2 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | Peter Lewis

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. Asheville Watchdog is suing the City of Asheville over its refusal to allow reporters and the public to attend meetings of the Independent Review Committee (IRC), which was created to investigate the causes of a catastrophic water system failure over the 2022-2023 holiday season.
Answer Man: Barley’s Taproom closed for good, or just a redo? Duke power lines still on the ground? Causing fires?

2 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | John Boyle

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers:Question: Barley’s Taproom, the “grandfather” of microbrew-type bars in Asheville since 1994, has been closed for some time, and rumors are that it was sold. Do you know if it will reopen? My answer: And here I thought I was the grandfather of microbrews.
Opinion: DMV driver’s license offices are still a train wreck, but help may be on the way. Maybe…

2 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | John Boyle

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. In a topsy-turvy, unreliable world, you can always count on the North Carolina DMV’s driver’s license offices to provide some constancy. As far as providing reliably long lines and frustrated human beings, that is. One of my first columns here at the Dog, in November 2022, was about long, frustrating waits at the local Division of Motor Vehicles Driver License office on Patton Avenue.
Answer Man: What’s going on with the Mills Gap work? When will Aldi reopen in east Asheville? Mulch choices at Chamber of Commerce questioned?

2 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | John Boyle

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:Question: I know how you love digging into South Buncombe traffic questions. Since probably January, Mills Gap Road has been a mess. At first it seemed blocked periodically for storm debris pickup, but in the last several weeks crews have been taking down trees in what looks like a corridor on both sides of the road. What’s going on?
A paralyzed patient has stayed at Mission Hospital for nearly 4 years. He refuses to leave. The hospital is suing him and his family for trespassing.

3 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | Andrew Jones

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. For nearly 18 years, Eric Penland Jr. has heard the monotonous sound of the ventilator that keeps him alive. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year, its swoosh-swoosh is as regular as a metronome in the stillness of his semi-dark, seventh-floor room at Mission Hospital in Asheville.
Equity Erased: New charges filed against 2 attorneys and ‘housing advocate’ in Buncombe real estate deals

3 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | Sally Kestin

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. Two attorneys and a woman at the center of Asheville Watchdog’s series, Equity Erased, are facing their most serious criminal charges yet. A Buncombe grand jury in March indicted Robert Perry Tucker II and Ilesanmi Adaramola, both attorneys, and Lisa Roberts-Allen on two charges each of obtaining property by false pretenses and two counts of felony conspiracy.
Answer Man: Will flooded FernLeaf Charter school rebuild in Fletcher? Any more improvements at North Fork? • Asheville Watchdog

3 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | John Boyle

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:Question: It looks like the FernLeaf Charter School in Fletcher is being demolished. I know it was flooded, but it looked like the buildings weren’t that badly damaged. Why did it have to be torn down? And where are the kids going to school now? I know they have a building up on a hill overlooking Fletcher.
Buncombe has been losing practicing nurses for five years, data show

3 weeks ago | avlwatchdog.org | Andrew Jones

Subscribe to our free Asheville Watchdog News Alerts and Watchdog Weekly Newsletter. There are hundreds of fewer nurses practicing in Buncombe County today than there were at the start of 2019, even though the supply of nurses has increased both nationally and statewide since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, workforce data analyzed by Asheville Watchdog show.