Category Archives: Asheville Attractions

The government shutdown and the congressional impasse that caused it have given rise to an unlikely band of rebels linked by frustration and their determination to defy federal mandates and steel barriers.

The rebellion means veterans see their World War II Memorial, trash is collected on Washington streets, and parks are open in Wisconsin.

In Washington, where the city government is funded under congressional supervision, past federal shutdowns meant “non-essential” district workers were idled. This time, Mayor Vincent Gray, with the City Council’s blessing, declared every city worker an essential employee, making it business as usual for 32,000 employees.

“Just because the House can’t agree with the Senate is not a reason for citizens’ trash to not be picked up,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said.

Sally Manning, 88, dodged the barricades at

Article source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/03/government-shutdown-rebels/2916473/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

CNN’s Carol Costello criticized the Fox News website for calling the government shutdown a “slimdown.”

The site has persisted in its unique choice of descriptor, even contradicting the network’s actual television coverage.

“Tell that to the roughly 800,000 federal workers going home without a paycheck,” Costello said on Wednesday. While Congress continues to play politics with their jobs and continues to make money, I’m not so sure they would consider this a ‘slimdown.'”

Also on HuffPost:

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• U.S. Post Office letter carrier Jacob Ribald peeks into the window of the Bureau of Land Management office on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 in Las Cruces, N.M. “I have a lot of mail for them,” said Ribald, “at least I tried, right?” The door is locked and a sign is posted saying that the site is closed because of the government shutdown. (AP Photo/The Las Cruces Sun-News, Robin Zielinski )

• Budget Battle Tennessee

  Ranger Dean Paulk posts a closure sign in the window of the visitors center at Shiloh National Millitary Park Tuesday, October 1, 2013 in Shiloh, Tenn. Paulk an enforcement officer, is considered necessary to the security of the park and will stay on duty through the shutdown, most of

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By Jon Ostendorff, USA TODAY

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Rob Miller, general manager of the Pisgah Inn, watched the news this week as World War II veterans pushed past barricades to get to their memorial in Washington after the federal government shut down.

He got to thinking about his own situation at the inn along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The government owns the building and the land. The National Park Service had given him until 6 p.m. Thursday to shut down and kick out his 78 guests.

He called Bruce O’Connell, owner of Pisgah Inn Inc., who was in Mexico. O’Connell had seen the same report about the veterans. They came up with a plan.

“We thought if those guys can do it, we can

Article source: http://www.wltx.com/news/article/251536/2/Blue-Ridge-Lodge-To-Defy-Shutdown-Order If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

CHEROKEE — Florida resident Joe Bresnahan was among campers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park who learned that their vacation had been cut short by the government shutdown.

He had a message for Congress.

“When everybody goes to the polls next year, if there is an incumbent, regardless of party, vote for the other person,” he said. “Get them out. Fire every damn one of them. They need to be gone.”

The shutdown caused headaches across the nation Tuesday as nonessential government agencies closed in the wake of the political impasse over the Affordable Care Act. Congress failed to agree on a budget late Monday, meaning many federal workers were off the job.

Park rangers closed Smokemont campground near Cherokee, where Bresnahan was staying, around noon.

The shutdown, which also closed campgrounds along the Blue Ridge Parkway, could mean an economic loss for places like Cherokee and Asheville that depend on tourism revenue from fall leaf-lookers and park visitors.

Cathy Latham, owner of four shops in Cherokee, said the uncertainty of the shutdown is the worst part. October is her most profitable month. About 75 percent of her customers come

Article source: http://www.blackmountainnews.com/article/20131002/NEWS/310020034/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

ASHEVILLE — Meteorologists for the National Weather Service are still on the job, but scientists who study long-term climate changes have been furloughed.

The National Climatic Data Center in the federal building in downtown Asheville was shut down on the first day of a government shutdown that affected 800,000 federal employees nationwide and hundreds of jobs locally.

Furloughed workers across federal agencies cleared out of their offices. They left voice messages on their phones, explaining they couldn’t respond until funding was restored.

But the federal building wasn’t closed, and not all climate research stopped. The Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites-NC, an academic research office of N.C. State University, is still open for business, said director Otis Brown.

“We have plenty to keep us busy,” Brown said.

But without federal counterparts or resources to rely on, the CICS staff have had to reorder priorities in working with the vast troves of weather data stored inside the building.

U.S. courts remained in session and mail delivery continued, along with health care for veterans at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Oteen.

Air traffic was unaffected at the Asheville Regional

Article source: http://www.blackmountainnews.com/article/20131002/NEWS/310020036/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

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WASHINGTON, October 1, 2013 – If only the old, new and middling granite stones in Asheville’s Omni Grove Park Inn could talk. A century of stories abound about U.S. presidents, celebrities and others, some who started married life at the inn, then celebrated anniversaries and later family milestones within.

There are tales about big business deals and conferences , which occur regularly at the inn. The design of the hotel epitomizes the Arts and Crafts era and has hosted nearly three decades of gatherings by antique dealers and collectors of those who embrace the genre.

The inn’s most “storied” guest is The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who with his wife Zelda, are often credited with inventing the 1920’s Jazz Age. The pair were deep into their personal demons during the summers of 1935 and 1936 when Fitzgerald occupied rooms 441 and 443, drinking and brooding over his wife who was a patient in the local mental hospital.

Autumn is a great time to call, as the

Article source: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/contemporary-christian-travel/2013/oct/2/ashevilles-omni-grove-park-inn-launches-second-cen/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Dana Johnson dreamed of getting married in Yosemite National Park ever since, as a child, she saw a wedding with the park’s breathtaking vistas and Yosemite Falls as a backdrop.

Almost two decades later, the 27-year-old nurse from San Diego is set to be married Friday at the park’s Glacier Point.

Maybe. The government shutdown means national parks are closed and Johnson’s dream wedding — like weddings scheduled in parks across the country — is up in the air.

On Capitol Hill, public tours were canceled but members of Congress and most of their staffs continued to work — but with no apparent progress.

For many federal employees, the first day of the shutdown was really a half-day. Furloughed workers were told to report

Article source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/01/government-shutdown-real-people/2900677/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com