A new noise ordinance in Asheville goes into effect in mid-September. For the first time in 20 years, City Council on Tuesday approved ceilings and specific hours for sound levels, with separate limits for sound coming from residential, commercial and industrial districts.

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New Asheville Sound Code Limits Volume As Council Leaves Room For Adjustments

A more than a year-long investigation into Mountaire Farms poultry plant in Siler City, NC found a common hiring practice is making an already dangerous job worse for undocumented workers.

Investigation Into NC Poultry Plant Finds Disparities Impacting Migrant Workers

For some artists, the pandemic was a time for creation and reflection. As part of BPR and Foxfire Museum's oral history project Jackson County poet Louise Runyon shared her poetry about pandemic - and her family connection to Western North Carolina. She was interviewed by Foxfire Museum curator Kami Ahrens in March 2021. Louise Morgan Runyon: I'm Louise Morgan Runyon and I live in Jackson County, North Carolina. And I moved here only two years ago, but I have come up to this place for my entire life. All of my family is from here and has been here for eight generations as they like to say. And, so it's always been my plan and my dream to return to these mountains and live here. My grandfather, Ralph Siler Morgan Sr.--the first--was my mother's brother; I'm sorry, was Lucy and Rufus's brother. And there were three other children that lived, I believe, and I think three that died. I grew up in the mountains--in New York City and in the mountains of North Carolina. My mother was born in

COVID-19 In Appalachia: Poetry And Legacy In WNC

The State Department of Transportation is re-evaluating a controversial road project in Haywood County after criticism from residents and municipalities.

NCDOT Adjusts Haywood Bridge Replacement Timeline

News of over 1000 unmarked graves of children found at an indigenous residential school in Canada hit home for members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee in the mountains of Western North Carolina. This year's 'Miss Cherokee' Amy West requested support from Tribal Council this month for an event in honor of the children found at places like the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia. "That's 1500 tribal members, children and speakers that our community has lost. This hits very close to home with me," said West at the meeting. West says her great grandmother attended Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. This school is well-known as the first Native American boarding school founded by Col. Richard Pratt whose motto was, "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." There are 1 86 marked graves on the grounds of students who died while attending the school , according to the Carlisle Indian School Project . The Canadian schools were modeled after Carlisle. Although, Canada changed the model

Miss Cherokee To Host Walk In Honor Of Indigenous Children Who Died At Residential Schools

Homelessness was the key issue in the most recent municipal elections in Haywood County. In late 2019, newly-elected leaders in the Town of Waynesville created a task force to gather information. It's now issued recommendations, which will likely generate new controversy.

Haywood Homelessness Task Force Issues Report

Supporters say they will keep showing up until the tribal council for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians hears their call to recognize same-sex marriage. Just like last month, tribal council members voted for a second time not to read a resolution that would change the Cherokee code to recognize same-sex marriage. But at Thursday's meeting, almost 20 Eastern Band members turned out to show their support for the measure. They included Big Cove resident Tamara Thompson, who submitted the resolution. She spoke first after the council voted 7-5 against it. "The culture against LGBTQ people is hurtful, it's physically hurtful. I'm Cherokee. If you read my shirt it says, 'We are family,'" said Thompson. Tribal Council member Chelsea Saunooke voted for the resolution. She shared that she has known since 2 nd grade that she is a member of the LGBTQ community. "And I even told my granny about everything and she says, "I love you no matter what. Only you know your heart. And I said, 'Yes. I

Tribal Council Refuses To Hear Same-Sex Marriage Resolution Again

Right now, the mountains of Western North Carolina are in the thick(et) of berry season. BPR reports on the history of fruit picking in our region: Farmers who had extra produce and not enough workers to pick it used to offer locals the option to pick fruits and vegetables themselves for a lower cost. That started what is now called U-Pick, explains Sarah Hart, communications coordinator for Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project(ASAP). "Blackberries, blueberries and strawberries have long been good U-Pick crops," said Hart. ASAP started in the 1990s as regional farmers began transitioning away from growing tobacco. Now the nonprofit's mission is to connect the community with local food. That includes a local guide with more than 80 U-PICK farms across the region. The U-Pick guide is on page 73. "Agri-tourism is a piece of that with people visiting the amazing farms that are all around them. And U-Pick is a really fun way to do that," said Hart. Strawberry season is ending and

U-Pick: WNC Berry Season History And Tips

Town Branch, also called Nasty Branch, is the longest creek that flows through Asheville. It's also the most polluted. Environmentalists and residents of the Southside neighborhood are hoping to change that, and in the process, they're also hoping to reverse the current of development in the city.

Southside Voices Play Vital Role In Plans To Revitalize "Nasty Branch"

A local biologist who's been making waves for her research into jellyfish that reside in freshwater ecosystems, including some here in Western North Carolina is part of an international campaign to protect and better understand marine life in a vast stretch of salt water - most of us will never see. UNC Asheville Assistant Professor of Biology Rebecca Hel m, PhD, spends much of her time trying to find and study the tiny freshwater jellyfish that reside in the ponds and lakes in Western North Carolina. "Keep your eye out for little nickel size, semi clear, slightly greyish jellyfish moving around," says Helm. "They look like jellyfish. They have that very stereotypical pulsing movement, and they seem to collect in certain areas of a pond. And that's one of the things we're hoping to figure out, you know, why do they go to these particular areas? Are they actively moving to those areas, is the circulation of the pond sort of moving them around - we want to find out." But lately, It's the

WNC Jellyfish Biologist Campaigns For High Seas

The City of Asheville wraps up a series of public discussions about reparations on Thursday. The final of the three "Truth Telling" presentations looks to guide policymakers toward improving and healing areas where the city's Black community has been disproportionately harmed.

'Truth Telling' Series Aims To Guide City Toward Reparations

On Saturday, former President Donald Trump made one of his first major public appearances since losing the 2020 election, addressing a North Carolina Republican Party convention in Greenville. If there were any lingering questions over Trump's continuing influence among party loyalists, he answered them that night.

Trump Uses NC Speech To Assert Party Control

On April 19th 1980, citizens of Asheville rallied to stop a swath of downtown from becoming a shopping mall. They tied together pieces of cloth and outlined the proposed 11-block development, calling it "The Wrap." Preservationists and community activists are bringing back that same method to save a historic stretch of the Charlotte Street neighborhood.

Preservationists, Neighbors Plan To 'Wrap' Site Of Proposed Charlotte St. Development

Three states box in Western North Carolina - Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. All three responded to the pandemic much differently than North Carolina did. BPR reports on a study which examined which approach worked better. COVID restrictions - even now almost 15 months later - look very different across Western North Carolina's borders. Sean Mulholland is a professor of Economics at Western Carolina University. He notes that Democratic North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper put more COVID restrictions in place than his Republican counterparts in neighboring states. "It fell to governors across the country to effectively shut down most industries, particularly those that had people interacting with each other in small, confined spaces," said Mulholland. He's also associate director of the Center for Study of Free Enterprise. County-By-County Mulholland studied the impact of these policies on unemployment, as well as hospitalizations and death rates. During a recent town hall, he

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