The Hendersonville Children’s Choir will begin rehearsals for its fall season from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 2101 Kanuga Road, Hendersonville.

Registration will take place from 4 to 4:30 p.m.

Rehearsals are every Monday through Dec. 16. The choir members are the guest artists for The Hendersonville Symphony’s “Carolina Christmas.”

The cost for members is $40 per semester with an $80 family cap. Scholarships are available.

Visit www.henderson villechildrenschoir.org or call 828-696-4968 to pre-register and receive more information.

BRCC auditions for ‘The Laramie Project’

Auditions for the Blue Ridge Community College Drama Department’s fall production of “The Laramie Project” are at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday in the Patton Auditorium.

Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. Roles for all ages, genders and races are available. The performance dates are Nov. 20-24.

The play is based on the story of Matthew Shepard. In October 1998, the gay college student was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo.

Five weeks later, Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, and over the course of the next year, conducted more than 200 interviews with people

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Although celebrating a death seems strange, celebrating a life does not. Especially when the life in question was that of native son and local author Thomas Wolfe, who passed away at age 37 on the morning of September 15, 1938.

Wolfe was just shy of his 38th birthday — he’d turn 113 this October. Which would, of course, be nearly impossible. Then again, it would be just as unlikely for the average person to turn out the body of work that Wolfe did in his brief life. Still, even three-quarters of a century since his pasting, Wolfe is best known for Look Homeward Angel, his sprawling and barely fictional work based on his hometown.

In celebration of Wolfe’s life and writing, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site holds a special reception as part of its second-Saturday programming. Visit the memorial (located at Old Kentucky Home, the former boarding house run by Wolfe’s mother, Julia) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tours will focus specifically on death in the Wolfe family and Victorian death traditions and will leave every hour on

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LEXINGTON, Va. – Freshman Kristen Whitehurst scored two goals, one in each half, to propel the VMI Keydets past the Delaware State Hornets, 2-0, in women’s soccer action Sunday afternoon at Patchin Field in Lexington. The win gave the Keydets their first two-match win streak since 2009 and their first clean sheet against a Division I opponent since Sept. 16, 2011.

The eventual game-winner came in the 37th minute, when Nicole Blixt sent a low, arching pass into the box from the left flank. Myranda Emery quickly found Whitehurst, cutting in from the right of DSU (0-4) goalkeeper Katelyn Koslosky, and the freshman tipped it home to give the Keydets a 1-0 advantage. The Keydets added on in the 86th minute, when Meredith Baldasare made a perfect pass from 20 yards out, finding Whitehurst cutting into space on Koslosky’s right once again. The freshman took three dribbles and drilled it by Koslosky, icing the second straight VMI (2-3) win.

On the defensive end, Emily Marbury pitched the shutout for the Keydets as, for the first time this season, VMI used just one goalkeeper in a game. Marbury moved to 2-2 with the win, as she was credited with four saves. Koslosky also

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For two centuries or so, the Uwharrie River dam backed up water to power a grist mill, continuing to wall off the river even after the mill ceased operating in the 1970s.

Last month, a dam-busting coalition that seeks to restore naturally flowing waterways demolished the 12-foot-high Lassiter Mill Dam.

The dam’s removal opened 15 miles of the upper Uwharrie, northeast of Albemarle. It now connects 40 free-flowing river miles that one day will welcome the return of a saltwater fish – in the eastern Piedmont, surrounded by the Uwharrie Mountains, nearly 200 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

The fish is the American shad, a regular visitor to Piedmont rivers more than 100 years ago. In spring, shad for eons made their way from the Atlantic Ocean via the Great Pee Dee River in South Carolina, into North Carolina’s Pee Dee River. From the Pee Dee, schools of shad peeled off and swam up the Uwharrie (pronounced yuu-WAHR-ee) to spawn in the river and its tributaries.

The silvery, hard-fighting, 2-to-6-pound fish could return by the thousands beginning in five years. They’ll hitch a ride around the Blewett Falls and Tillery dams,

Article source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/09/07/4294561/dams-destruction-will-help-bring.html If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

NEW ORLEANS — NFL’s schedulers always find a way to send the Atlanta Falcons to the Superdome for landmark games.

In 2006, for the first one played in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the visitors were flattened by an emotional freight train.

Now comes Sean Payton’s return from his bounty ban before a fan base that has eagerly awaited the chance to cheer for the club’s only championship-winning coach in a meaningful game.

And by regular-season standards, a game with the Falcons is as meaningful as it gets for the Saints.

“The city is very excited. We’re very excited and it’s going to be a special game,” Saints tight end Jimmy Graham said. “I would say definitely it’s one of the most significant games we’ve started with.”

Saints players are careful not to make direct comparisons between the first game after Katrina with Payton’s first game back. Of course they are different. Still, there is a convergence of factors that spike the level of excitement for Sunday’s regular-season opener between a proud Saints team trying to bounce back from the 7-9 season they endured while Payton was away, and a rival

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The Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary has had a rough year, so it’s time for a party.

The Elisha Mitchell Audubon Society, which owns and manages the sanctuary in North Asheville, will host an afternoon party, 1-4 p.m. this Sunday, Sept. 8, to celebrate the completion of the many improvements made to the Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary, 1056 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville.

Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary ecofilter pond filled with debris

The celebration will feature exhibitors, nature activities for children and adults, live raptors, and music. Naturalists will be stationed along the boardwalk ready to tell visitors about the many unique features of the sanctuary and the flora and fauna found there.

The party is open to the public. 

General parking for the celebration is available at the North Asheville Library, right next door. Handicapped parking will be available at the sanctuary itself. People are encouraged to use public transportation or to come by bike and use the new bicycle rack near the Great Blue Heron sculpture. 

In addition to all the improvements, including new boardwalks and viewing areas at the bird sanctuary, the natural area has had some major headaches this past year.

Stormwater and

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For the second weekend in a row in the last days of this finally beautiful summer in Western North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway is OPEN completely from end to end for driving traffic, and most likely through the end of October.

That means the section closed due to the famous “crack” north of Asheville is re-opened from Milepost 376 at Ox Creek Road in Asheville to Milepost 355 at Mt. Mitchell State Park. Crews created temporary bypass lanes through the slope failure area, which reopened on Monday, Aug. 26.

Craggy Gardens Visitor Center on Blue Ridge Parkway

But remember, this is no shortcut. The speed limit in this section of the roadway has been reduced to 15 mph to ensure public safety while traveling through the bypass area. Drivers are strongly encouraged to reduce speed as they approach this area. The reduced speed limit will be strictly enforced.

The Craggy Gardens Visitor Center and Picnic Area, located at Milepost 364, is also now open. This is probably one of the most beautiful areas on the parkway, so be sure to take advantage this weekend.

Take a hike up to Craggy Pinnacle or Craggy Flats to

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