The elevator doors to Steve Lott and Mickey Randolph’s floor parted to reveal a hallway filled with art. Paintings glowed gently in the museum-quality lighting.

Steve dug for his keys while explaining he found the work through a lifetime of collecting. He opened the door to the condominium he and his wife share, and a visitor walked into a gallery of outsider art and face-jug pottery.

Framing the pieces was the loft, a space with skylights, narrow-plank floors and industrial windows that frame the southern sky.

Steve and Mickey’s loft is one of eight on the Asheville Art Museum’s Downtown Urban Loft + Art Tour on Thursday. The tour leaves from the museum in 15-minute increments (last departure at 6:30 p.m.) and takes in Alchemy Fine Arts gallery. A reception at the contemporary furniture store Mobilia follows, with music by Eleanor Underhill and local food, beer and wine.

Steve and Mickey bought their loft three years ago as an urban retreat and alternative to their home in Cullowhee. “This is what you always think of when you think of a loft,” Steve said.

The entrance gives way immediately to the kitchen.

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MARYVILLE, TENN. — An East Tennessee mayor is asking the federal government to allow Blount County to take on the financial responsibility of reopening portions of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

October is one of the busiest times of the year for the park, which was closed during the partial government shutdown.

Blount County Mayor Ed Mitchell said that he sent the request to Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. He said the letter asks whether the county can take on reopening parts of the park for tourism at no cost to the federal government.

“The federal government’s decision to shut down the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and, in particular, Cades Cove and the Foothills Parkway, will have a tremendous impact on the citizens of Blount County,” Mitchell said. “This is the peak time for Park visits by tourists from all over our country.

“Many Blount County businesses and citizens rely on Park visitors for their livelihood,” he said. “By Washington denying its citizens’ access to this park, they are depriving their citizens and crippling Blount County businesses.”

Mitchell says he hopes to get a quick response.

“If

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – Vo Nguyen Giap, the brilliant and ruthless self-taught general who drove the French out of Vietnam to free it from colonial rule and later forced the Americans to abandon their grueling effort to save the country from communism, has died. At age 102, he was the last of Vietnam’s old-guard revolutionaries.

Giap died Friday evening in a military hospital in the capital of Hanoi where he had spent close to four years growing weaker and suffering from long illnesses, a government official and a source close to Giap said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because his death had not been formally announced.

Giap was a national hero whose legacy was second only to that of his mentor, founding President Ho Chi Minh, who led the country to independence.

The so-called “red Napoleon” stood out as the leader of a ragtag army of guerrillas who wore sandals made of car tires and lugged their artillery piece by piece over mountains to encircle and crush the French army at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The unlikely victory, which is still studied at military schools, led not only to Vietnam’s independence but hastened the collapse of colonialism across Indochina and beyond.

Giap

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If the federal government shutdown isn’t resolved over the weekend and national parks remain closed, the city of Gaffney will host the annual Battle of Kings Mountain commemoration activities.

Events originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the Kings Mountain National Military Park near Blacksburg included re-enactment demonstrations, lectures and music.

And on Monday,, the anniversary of the 1780 Revolutionary War battle, there was to be a wreath-laying there at the U.S. monument, the arrival of the Overmountain Victory Trail marchers and a keynote speaker. Also, the Overmountain group planned to spend several nights at the Cowpens National Battleground in Chesnee.

Now, the celebration focus is on downtown Gaffney. Officials don’t have a cost estimate for providing extra services, but said the city actively promotes tourism and welcomes visitors who’d hoped to honor Kings Mountain heroes at the actual battleground.

“We’re trying to provide them with an alternate venue,” said Gaffney’s City Administrator James Taylor. “Revolutionary War tourism is part of what we do and this is just part of that effort. We’re delighted to help out.”

Even before the government shutdown, Gaffney had planned to welcome the Overmountain group on Sunday. The

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Near MOUNT PISGAH, N.C. — At a spot 5,000 feet above sea level and 20 miles from the nearest town, an innkeeper decided Friday to defy the federal government and reopen his lodge.

That stand lasted about two hours as National Park Service rangers blocked the entrances to the privately run Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway after owner Bruce O’Connell decided to reopen his dining room, gift shop and country store at noon Friday for lunch. The federal government had forced the inn, in a leased building on federal land,

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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

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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.'”

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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

  Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/cnn-fox-news-slimdown_n_4030360.html?ir=Media If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com