Category Archives: Asheville Attractions

Already having an arsenal of ceramic bowls for themselves at home, Marge Lee and Mark Dierbeck were on the hunt for something different Sunday at the Empty Bowls fundraiser — food and water dishes for the Bend couple’s two cats.

They found what they were looking for, leaving the 12th annual Empty Bowls with a pair of bowls with a matching color scheme. Lee also won a $50 gift certificate in a raffle.

“We did good today,” said Lee, 58.

About 700 people attended the event at Central Oregon Community College’s campus center, where they first picked a handcrafted bowl from hundreds available and then dined on gourmet soup prepared by cooks from the Cascade Culinary Institute at COCC. During the meals, which had three rounds of seating, visitors were entertained by live music and the raffle.

Empty Bowls is the signature fundraising event for NeighborImpact, which offers food, housing and health care to low-income residents in Central Oregon, said Chris Quaka, the communications manager for the Redmond-based nonprofit. The event competes with another benefit, the I Like Pie run on Thanksgiving Day, to bring in the most money for NeighborImpact each year.

This year Quaka expected Empty Bowls to raise about $10,000. I Like

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ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The young elk featured in a viral video playfully head-butting an Asheville photographer has been put to death.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported the elk was euthanized Friday after the Oct. 20 YouTube video, which was viewed more than one million times and featured on national news shows.

The video shows the elk head-butting James York, who was sitting along a trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park taking photographs. York was not injured.

Smokies spokeswoman Dana Soehn said the decision to put the elk to death was a first for the park. Park officials said the elk was a problem before approaching the photographer.

Soehn said the elk had lost its fear of humans after being fed by visitors. She said the animal had demonstrated dangerous behavior that could result in human injury or death.

York, the photographer in the viral video, said he is “truly saddened” that the elk was put to death.

“I was really looking forward to watching him grow up,” he said. “I felt like I bonded with him. I am crushed that he’s gone. I was looking forward to his rack getting bigger and maturing into a bull.”

Read more: The Asheville Citizen-Times

Article source: http://whnt.com/2013/11/18/head-butting-elk-featured-in-viral-video-put-down/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

From the city of Asheville:

ASHEVILLE – On Nov. 20, the public is invited to an open house to learn more about the impacts and responses to this summer’s rainfall, and to discuss what the area can expect from future weather events. The open house, presented by the City of Asheville and UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC), will take place at NEMAC’s 116 Grove Arcade location in downtown Asheville.

The summer of 2013 saw record rainfall in and around Asheville, with storms dumping nearly 12 inches of rain in July alone. That volume of rainfall in such a short period of time presented new challenges to the City of Asheville as Public Works officials responded to incidents like landslides and sinkholes.

“This summer’s rainfall affected many people in our community and had a profound impact on infrastructure and property,” said Assistant City Manager Cathy Ball. “And as a community, we need to have a conversation about what steps we can to take to prepare for and minimize impacts from future storm events.”

The on-site technology provided by NEMAC will offer visitors computer simulations of

Article source: http://www.mountainx.com/article/54250/Nov.-20-open-house-on-city-of-Ashevilles-weather-impact-strategies If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

On Saturday, Asheville’s Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts hosted a community open house.

“We give pataients new perspectives on health and healing,” said Kristin Hill, a rising fourth-year student and clinical intern. “Our medicine focuses on the mind-body-spirit connection, bringing awareness to the patients of their own abilities to heal.”

Visitors streamed into the Daoist Traditions College Acupuncture Clinic on 222 South French Broad Avenue to experience an array of alternative treatments, including cupping, tui na massage and gua sha, as well as pulse diagnosis, lectures on the benefits of healing arts, Chinese medicine and sampling herbal teas. As part of the Great American Smokeout, the clinic also offered National Acupuncture Detoxification Protocol, a special series of ear acupuncture treatments to help smokers kick the habit.

I experienced cupping and tui na massage at the open house after receiving pulse diagnosis. Both treatments focused on relieving pain in my lower back. The suctioning effects of the gliding cups, relaxed my muscles significantly, as did the tui na techniques.

The college clinic gives student interns practical, hands-on experience, while providing patients with in-depth, high-quality and affordable acupuncture and herbal medicine.

“It

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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The young elk featured in a viral online video playfully head-butting a photographer has been euthanized after authorities at the Great Smokies National Park determined he was a safety threat.

WATCH THE VIDEO

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Friday that the elk was euthanized in the wake of the Oct. 20 YouTube video, which has been viewed more than a million times and featured on national news shows. The video shows the elk head-butting James York, who was sitting along a trail taking photographs. York was not injured.

Smokies spokeswoman Dana Soehn says the difficult decision to put the elk to death was made after efforts to keep it away from people failed. She says visitors have been feeding some of the elks, causing the wild animals to lose their fear of humans.

On the YouTube page, photographer Vince M. Camiolo says he is “saddened by the fate of the elk,” and said he was told the decision to euthanize the elk was “based on a pattern of aggressive behavior that began priot to the incident” documented on the video.

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  Article source: http://www.nwcn.com/lifestyles/pets-and-animals/Head-butting-Smokies-elk-in-viral-video-euthanized-232204621.html If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Up De Graff interim pastor at Covenant

Covenant Presbyterian Church at 2101 Kanuga Road has called the Rev. Morse “Mo” Up De Graff to serve the congregation as interim pastor.

Up De Graff is a member of the Interim Pastor Ministries of the Presbyterian Church in America and is well-known throughout the denomination.

He and his wife, Janie, live in the Brevard area, and he recently retired as the director of Ridge Haven, the PCA retreat north of Rosman.

To learn more about the church, visit www.covpca.org or call 828-693-8651.

Sound of Singing Men concert tonight

The Sound of Singing Men concert is set for 7 p.m. tonight at Mills River United Methodist Church, 131 Old Turnpike Road, Mills River.

The 33-voice community singing group will also feature the Singing Laymen, Refuge Ladies and the Mountain Harmony Quartets.

There is no admission charge. A love offering will be taken.

Baptist Fellowship to honor Mills and Smith

WNC Baptist Fellowship at 240 Haywood St., Asheville, invites the community to attend an appreciation service for Peggy Mills and Linda Smith at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Mills is church secretary, and Smith is music director. The appreciation service coincides with the Sunday worship service. A Thanksgiving fellowship meal will follow the service.

Call 828-776-1721 for more

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BEIJING (AP) – Don’t expect a new Chinese baby boom, experts say, despite the first easing of the country’s controversial one-child policy in three decades.

Some 15 million to 20 million Chinese parents will be allowed to have a second child after the government announced Friday that couples where one partner has no siblings can have two children. But the easing of the policy is so incremental that demographers and policymakers are not anticipating an influx of newborn babies at a time when young Chinese couples are already opting for smaller families, driving the country’s fertility rate down to 1.5-1.6 births per woman.

“A baby boom can be safely ruled out,” said Wang Feng, professor of sociology at the University of California Irvine.

Wang noted that although Chinese couples where both parents have no siblings have for some time been allowed to have a second child, many have elected to have only one.

“Young people’s reproductive desires have changed,” he said.

Xia Gaolong and his wife are among those who will be allowed to have a second child as a result of the new policy, but he said he has no intention of giving his 10-year-old son a sibling.

Xia, who runs a tour bus business

Article source: http://www.citizen-times.com/usatoday/article/3613069 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com