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DKos Asheville Open Thread: * 1/7/2005 – 20 years on DK [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-04
Welcome to DKos Asheville
EST 2/13/2011
This space appears each weekend with links to news and opinion from Asheville and Western North Carolina, and the floor is open for comment and discussion. Wishing all a good day from this still beautiful part of the world.
“Daily Kos fights for a progressive America by empowering its community and allies with information and tools to directly impact the political process.”
On Tuesday, I will be celebrating twenty official years as a member of Daily Kos. I lurked for about a year before being totally pulled in by the words, the camaraderie and a sense of something new and powerful, a fresh way to understand and act on the politics that had driven me since my youth. Here are some highlights from my time here so far. In 2006, shortly after signing up, I fell in with a group of members who had just started a Front Page diary series called Election Diary Roundup. Over the course of six years of elections, the team republished down ticket posts with the goal of never missing a single one. Eventually we reformatted the project, and it is still active today under the name of Down Ticket Rescues. Have a click and check it out. If you want to help republish down ticket efforts yourself, please let me know. My favorite times here were the years when our DKos Asheville crew held semi regular meetups in Asheville and beyond, including Roanoke and Mtn. Mitchell. We even got to host a big weekend event with DK staff and kos. They were all really nice gatherings of some really fine people having a really fine time. The T-shirt above is from our first meetup at The Bywater in Asheville. BTW, Helene took the entire building and yard down the river on September 29th. In 2011, I stepped into this role of publishing a weekly roundup of local news and such, and not long after, started a similar weekly with a wider news footprint focusing on North Carolina politics, culture and more, including a series on waterfalls and another on lighthouses. Please stop by North Carolina Open Thread tomorrow and every Sunday. Regular post time is 1:00 PM. Through all these twenty years, the people I’ve met have proven to be the site’s best feature. Kindness is sometimes not given its due in this world, but it lives in abundance here, even through heated exchanges. I learn things everyday, appreciate perspectives I had not considered, and find enjoyment and comfort just by being here. Twenty years and countless hours well spent. Thanks Daily Kos.
Now, onto the news! Start the new year with some laughs. After that, our brand new Governor just announced fresh Helene recovery measures through executive order, the Nature Center gives animal recovery updates, a report on the Cherokee Indian Tri-Council’s breakup, a cold weather CODE PURPLE announcement for the weekend, and helpful information on FEMA’s latest extension for assistance. As they said in the olden times, please jump the fold for more.
Editor’s note: The following story is part of Xpress’ annual Humor Issue. This is a satirical piece that is not meant to be taken seriously. Happy New Year.
Dear Tourists,
I know, I know — you told me to stop writing to you. You said, “Please respect my boundaries,” but a big part of me thinks you’re just playing hard to get. I know you. You’re a flirt. So here I am, penning yet another letter because … well, I miss you. Desperately.
Remember all those things I said before Hurricane Helene? Like, “If I have to dodge one more group of six wine-drunk ‘Bride Tribe’ bimbos in matching cowboy hats, I’m going to offer a walking tour straight off the nearest cliff.” Or that time I accidentally tweeted: “Why don’t y’all skip the Blue Ridge Parkway and drive yourselves right back to the cesspool of sick, twisted Floridian fatuity whence you came, you leathery-skinned douchebag monsters?” Well … I didn’t mean that.
I was joking. Sometimes my jokes don’t land. It happens.
The truth is, Asheville isn’t the same without you. And by that, I mean our economy is literally in the toilet. It turns out we need your obscenely obnoxious bachelorette parties, your leaf-peeping lunacy and your insatiable thirst for $9 cardamom oat milk lattes. Who else is going to buy $80 artisanal, locally made, epoxy resin buttplugs? Who’s going to pay $400 a night to stay in a converted school bus on someone’s 5-acre farm in West Asheville? Who’s going to wait 45 minutes for gluten-free avocado toast at a brunch spot we locals can’t afford?
This piece, and several other really funny ones, manages to laugh at our quirky little selves as we get on with our lives. It is featured in this week’s Mountain Express.
Under an executive order, North Carolina will be able to purchase up to 1,000 temporary housing units for victims of Hurricane Helene without going through a lengthy procurement process, newly-sworn-in Gov. Josh Stein announced Thursday in Asheville.
The executive order, one of five issued Thursday, is Stein’s first official act as governor after being sworn in on Jan. 1. That same day, his office announced the visit to Asheville with Stein saying during his swearing-in ceremony that North Carolina must “act with urgency” in Western North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene.
Stein’s first order addressed the need for more temporary housing in the area, and will temporarily waive procurement regulations for mobile housing units.
“When I have met with affected folks here in the mountains, the need for housing assistance and the repairing of private bridges and roads has come up in nearly every conversation. Western North Carolina, I want you to know that I hear you,” he said.
In response to questions from BPR on Thursday, the governor’s office said a third-party vendor will reach out directly to families who are eligible for temporary housing units. They must have applied for FEMA assistance and be approved, according to a spokesperson.
After every storm, nature blooms again; and just like nature, the WNC Nature Center will reopen in the future. Until then, the animals are being well taken care of by the Nature Center’s incredible team. Let’s learn how a few species adapted during the weeks following Tropical Storm Helene.
Wild animals need food, water, shelter and space to survive. Animals under human care, like those at the Nature Center, have the same needs, but they are provided by their incredible keepers. For weeks following Helene, the Nature Center, along with other community members, did not have potable water. So, similar to many individuals during that time, the Nature Center received a little help from a friend to meet the needs of a few animals.
Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife nonprofit that coordinates wildlife rehabilitation efforts in WNC. Some of the animals at the Nature Center came to us from Appalachian Wild. After Helene, a few of the Nature Center’s amphibians and reptiles were selected to be housed at AppWild. The few animals that were moved were species who naturally are more sensitive to water quality.
Hellbenders are an example of a species that need good water quality to survive. Why is this important? Hellbenders have external gills during their larval stage, but around 2 years of age, their gills disappear and they breathe entirely through their skin. A frill, a loose fold of skin, runs from the base of their neck down to their tail on each side of their body to increase surface area. They need clean, oxygen rich water to survive. This makes them a bioindicator for their ecosystem. A bioindicator determines the overall health of an ecosystem. Without access to clean water, their population would not thrive.
One of the three legs of the tripod that is Tri-Council has decided to withdraw from participation. The Legislative Branch of the Cherokee Nation (Okla.) passed Res. No. 24-114 on Monday, Dec. 16 withdrawing their tribe from the Tri-Council which is an annual meeting of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (N.C.), the Cherokee Nation, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (Okla.).
Res. No. 24-114 states in part, “Cherokee Nation has participated in Tri-Council, which was formed on the basis that it ‘united the Legislative Branches of government of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), the Cherokee Nation, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB) in Oklahoma’…”
It continues, “In practice, Tri-Council does not achieve its legislative objectives but instead serves as a forum for the UKB to attack the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation and to falsely claim rights under Cherokee treaties, including but not limited to jurisdictional rights within the Cheroke Nation Reservation.”
The legislation went on to state, “…it is in the (Cherokee) Nation’s best interest to pursue collaboration with EBCI and/or UKB in forums and by means that are not divisive and which do not provide UKB with a platform for its attacks on Cherokee Nation tribal sovereignty.”
News release from the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Coalition Steering Committee: Purpose of Code Purple: Is to provide a coordinated effort among Asheville and Buncombe County shelters and other organizations to provide emergency overflow shelter to people experiencing homelessness. During Code Purple, participating shelters will provide more beds with fewer requirements than their typical programming. Code Purple sites will also work with participants to refer them to ongoing shelter and housing options. Families will be triaged on a case by case basis and may be offered hotel options if no other shelters are available. Both locations are wheelchair accessible. (CLICK STORY TITLE FOR DETAILS) FEMA extends deadline for Helene assistance
FEMA extends deadline for Helene assistance
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