AVL Watchdog

AVL Watchdog Non-profit, local news website serving Asheville and Buncombe County. Asheville Watchdog is a free, local, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization.

It was founded in 2020 by veteran professional journalists and media executives living in Asheville, North Carolina. The staff is a mix of paid employees and volunteers. Our mission is to inform and engage the citizens of Asheville and surrounding communities by providing fair, factual and reliable in-depth news stories about local government, institutions, issues, and people. We believe that qual

ity journalism in the public interest is essential for a healthy and successful democracy. We started Asheville Watchdog because local news is in crisis. One-fourth of America’s newspapers have closed in the past 15 years, including 300 in the past two years. More than 1,800 communities nationwide that had local newspapers 15 years ago now have no original reporting. Half of all newsroom jobs vanished since 2008. This means there are fewer reporters to keep watch over state and local government, to dig deep into the issues, and to hold the powerful accountable. At the same time, misinformation is pervasive on social media and even many mainstream news outlets, including deliberate attempts to spread false, biased, or incendiary stories. Asheville Watchdog is committed to truth, verifiable facts, transparency, science, and important context. We do not compete with existing media, but rather try to complement and expand the critical services they provide. Our reporting is offered without charge to Blue Ridge Public Radio, Mountain Xpress, and other local publications. Asheville Watchdog is, for now, a virtual newsroom. For general inquiries, email [email protected].

The WNC Nature Center, well-known for its black bears, river otters, red foxes and other animals, has been shut down sin...
01/10/2025

The WNC Nature Center, well-known for its black bears, river otters, red foxes and other animals, has been shut down since Tropical Storm Helene. In today’s Answer Man installment, John Boyle tells us how the critters there fared.

John also looks into a complaint about Spectrum billing in the wake of Helene, and explores why a reader’s suggestion to harden the path of the city of Asheville’s existing water lines with concrete walls faces some obstacles.

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers: Question: I have heard nothing about the WNC Nature Center or the animals. Were the animals OK after Helene? My answer: Physically, yes. But they’re emotionally wounded about not getting their $750 emergency checks from FE...

A Mission Hospital pharmacy program that provides and tracks patients’ medications to ensure their safety has been plagu...
01/08/2025

A Mission Hospital pharmacy program that provides and tracks patients’ medications to ensure their safety has been plagued by nearly constant turnover for years, Asheville Watchdog has learned.

Despite warnings from a supervisor about dangerous errors that could result from staff departures, hospital leadership did not take significant action to recruit and retain employees, even during a hospital-wide federal investigation and resulting sanctions.

A Mission Hospital pharmacy program that provides and tracks patients’ medications to ensure their safety has been plagued by nearly constant turnover for years, Asheville Watchdog has learned. Despite warnings from a supervisor about dangerous errors that could result from staff departures, hospi...

The state health agency finally released a list of storm-related fatalities this week, more than three months after Trop...
01/07/2025

The state health agency finally released a list of storm-related fatalities this week, more than three months after Tropical Storm Helene, but it includes a woman who died of breast cancer and other inconsistencies that conflict with the agency’s own records.

For months, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services denied public records requests from Asheville Watchdog and other media outlets for information about the deceased. Death certificates, autopsy reports and related documents are public records in North Carolina, but agency spokesmen said they were waiting until the death investigations were complete.

On Monday, the DHHS sent a list to the media. But it contained names only – no ages, circumstances or causes of death, or even a county where each person lived or died.

The state health agency finally released a list of storm-related fatalities this week, more than three months after Tropical Storm Helene, but it includes a woman who died of breast cancer and other inconsistencies that conflict with the agency’s own records. For months, the North Carolina Departm...

Asheville Regional Airport is undergoing a massive, $400 million expansion, called AVL Forward, and a reader asks John B...
01/07/2025

Asheville Regional Airport is undergoing a massive, $400 million expansion, called AVL Forward, and a reader asks John Boyle in today’s Answer Man if the airport plans to take down several general aviation hangars as part of the project. John also looks into what Mission’s plans are for the artwork in the St. Joseph’s Hospital building, which will be demolished. And speaking of hospitals, a reader wants to know what happened to a thick glass roof window in the atrium of Asheville’s VA hospital.

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers: Question: The Asheville Regional Airport Authority has announced the destruction of several general aviation hangars on the south ramp to allegedly make room for commercial planes. No new hangars seem to be mentioned. Does g...

At the end of 2024, Asheville lost a trio of longtime community leaders. On Dec. 17, funeral home owner and business pio...
01/06/2025

At the end of 2024, Asheville lost a trio of longtime community leaders. On Dec. 17, funeral home owner and business pioneer Julia Ray died at age 110. Asheville businessman, local columnist and cowboy-hat wearing amateur historian Jerry Sternberg died at age 94 on Christmas Day. And on Dec. 27, Leslie Anderson, who played a key role in the revitalization of downtown Asheville, died at age 74.

As John Boyle writes in his Opinion column today: “All three of these Asheville residents operated the same way — mostly behind the scenes, and not looking for the glory. They all had a passion for Asheville and Buncombe County, and they wanted to make it a better place to live and work.”

Sometimes, 94 years really isn’t enough living. That’s how long Asheville businessman, local columnist and cowboy-hat wearing amateur historian Jerry Sternberg lived before dying on Christmas Day.  When I talked to Gene Bell about Sternberg late last week, the former director of the Housing Aut...

In the first Answer Man of 2025, a reader asks John Boyle why the two I-26 rest stops just south of Asheville’s airport ...
01/03/2025

In the first Answer Man of 2025, a reader asks John Boyle why the two I-26 rest stops just south of Asheville’s airport have had such haphazard signage following their closures after Tropical Storm Helene. John also takes on two questions about Fletcher’s Bill Moore Community Park.

Before we get to today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers, allow me to wish you a happy 2025. This might well be a doozy of a year, but let’s go into it with a positive attitude.  So here’s to 2025 — may we have no more natural or man-made disasters! […]

Ingles lost power in 80 of its 198 stores from Tropical Storm Helene, and all stores were unable to process credit or de...
12/31/2024

Ingles lost power in 80 of its 198 stores from Tropical Storm Helene, and all stores were unable to process credit or debit cards, requiring cash-only transactions “for various periods of time,” according to the company’s newly released annual report.

Power was out for up to 13 days at some stores. Four closed temporarily due to damage; one has reopened and the other three are expected to open in 2025, the report said.

Ingles lost power in 80 of its 198 stores from Tropical Storm Helene, and all stores were unable to process credit or debit cards, requiring cash-only transactions “for various periods of time,” according to the company’s newly released annual report. Power was out for up to 13 days at some st...

While Asheville's potable water has been restored for more than a month, readers still have many questions about its qua...
12/31/2024

While Asheville's potable water has been restored for more than a month, readers still have many questions about its quality and the efforts that were taken to restore service. In today's Answer Man, John Boyle explores the safety of the chemicals the Water Resources used at the North Fork Reservoir. He also tells us about the South Asheville Mission emergency room in Arden.

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers: Question: In a recent piece on Asheville’s water system, I wish you’d asked how many tons of aluminum sulfate and lye (sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda) has been dumped into the North Fork Reservoir. I hope eve...

In Asheville Watchdog’s final look back at 2024, Executive Editor Peter Lewis details the trajectory of the rapid growth...
12/31/2024

In Asheville Watchdog’s final look back at 2024, Executive Editor Peter Lewis details the trajectory of the rapid growth of our newsroom, which has secured its place as a reliable, sustainable, primary source of important local news for Asheville and Buncombe County.

Throughout the tumult of this past year, our growing audience has looked for us for reliable news. We look forward to the work ahead in 2025, knowing that strong, local journalism will be more important than ever.

Thanks for reading our work and supporting us. Have a Happy New Year!

This column wraps up our annual “year in review” series by Asheville Watchdog journalists. So far you’ve heard from: Now it’s my turn.  On behalf of Managing Editor Keith Campbell, Executive Director Linda Topp, outside directors Trish Jones and Marta Reese, and all our other volunteers and...

Asheville Watchdog political reporter Tom Fiedler has covered politics — from school board races to presidential campaig...
12/30/2024

Asheville Watchdog political reporter Tom Fiedler has covered politics — from school board races to presidential campaigns — for 52 years. But the slew of lies from both parties in 2024 was beyond anything he has seen.

In the wake of Jimmy Carter’s death, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiedler writes in an Opinion column that remembering the former president – and the life of integrity he led – is especially important in these times.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” – Joseph Goebbels, January 12, 1941 If I were to write a headline over a story summarizing the essence of the 2024 elections, it would be this: the year of the new Big Lie.   You’d think by [.....

In the days following Tropical Storm Helene, Asheville Watchdog made a commitment to tell the stories of the 43 people w...
12/30/2024

In the days following Tropical Storm Helene, Asheville Watchdog made a commitment to tell the stories of the 43 people who died in Buncombe County. Investigative reporter Sally Kestin explains how our 10-part Lives We Lost series was launched, the challenges The Watchdog faced in our reporting, and what we learned from writing about the lives and deaths of our fellow community members.

Helene will go down in history not just for the immense damage it caused but also the lives lost – 43 in Buncombe County alone. That statistic will forever be associated with a disaster once unimaginable for a landlocked, mountainous region. Like you, we at Asheville Watchdog listened to the news ...

2024 was a year of tumult for Mission Hospital.Early in the year, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plac...
12/27/2024

2024 was a year of tumult for Mission Hospital.

Early in the year, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services placed the HCA Healthcare-owned hospital in immediate jeopardy because of deficiencies in care. Investigative reporter Andrew R. Jones broke the news, along with several other revelations about the hospital throughout the year.

In the latest installment of Asheville Watchdog’s year in review series, Andrew reflects on many of the major stories he wrote about the largest hospital in western North Carolina, kicking off with the federal sanction, the strongest a medical facility can face.

Editor’s Note: As 2024 comes to a close, Asheville Watchdog staffers take you back and inside their most memorable stories and news events of the year. I was driving down I-26 on Jan. 11 when I got the call. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had a document I’d been hunting for mo...

For nearly eight weeks this fall, the city of Asheville’s 63,000 water customers lacked potable water, thanks to the dev...
12/26/2024

For nearly eight weeks this fall, the city of Asheville’s 63,000 water customers lacked potable water, thanks to the devastation that Tropical Storm Helene inflicted on the distribution system.

Helene destroyed a bypass line located 25 feet underground, along with two main transmission lines, 24 and 36 inches in diameter. The storm destroyed the roads leading to the North Fork Reservoir, Asheville’s main source of water. It also made the usually clear reservoir a turbid mess, requiring the city and the U.S. Corps of Engineers to take action.

Reporter and columnist John Boyle covered the water outage relentlessly, with frequent Boyle Water Advisories and numerous answers to readers’ questions in his Answer Man columns. Today, John looks back at the crisis, the city’s response and what lies ahead for the water system.

I’ve joked for weeks now that I’m going to sell my own T-shirts in Asheville that read: “Today’s mood: Turbid.” It’s fair to say “turbidity” is probably the word of the year in these parts. OK, maybe it’s just behind “Helene,” but that is a name that must not be spoken aloud. W...

On this Christmas Day, Asheville Watchdog kicks off its series looking back at 2024. In the coming days, we’ll be bringi...
12/25/2024

On this Christmas Day, Asheville Watchdog kicks off its series looking back at 2024. In the coming days, we’ll be bringing you our award-winning staff’s recollections of some of the stories they covered this year.

Today photojournalist Starr Sariego shares a collection of images she captured throughout 2024 – a year that none of us will forget.

Happy holidays from all of us at The Watchdog.

So much of the human spirit in Appalachia centers on community. For hundreds of years we have supported one another during good times and bad. And in 2024, there was plenty of bad. Our world was turned upside down in September when Tropical Storm Helene caused such unimaginable loss of life and dest...

Since Tropical Storm Helene, many of our rivers and streams have taken on a strange blue/green color. In today’s Answer ...
12/24/2024

Since Tropical Storm Helene, many of our rivers and streams have taken on a strange blue/green color. In today’s Answer Man, John Boyle looks into what’s caused the change in hue and whether it’s a sign of toxins. Staying on the topic of water, John finds out why Mission Hospital and the VA Medical Center continued bringing in outside water after the city announced it was safe to drink from Asheville’s system.

And if you’ve noticed a guy standing at the corner of Patton Cove Road and U.S. 70 giving drivers a friendly wave of his cowboy hat and a thumbs up sign and wondered who he is, John has the answer.

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: My question is related to the waterways around western North Carolina and their health. I live near the Swannanoa River. The past few weeks the river has been a blue/green color. It’s almost glacial looking. Some ...

Like so many, the Zara family has been through so much hardship since Tropical Storm Helene.In a holiday week Opinion co...
12/23/2024

Like so many, the Zara family has been through so much hardship since Tropical Storm Helene.

In a holiday week Opinion column, John Boyle touches on the themes of resilience and hope, recounting how they narrowly escaped the Swannanoa River’s floodwaters and face a gargantuan task to restore the house they’ve called home for 10 years.

“We’ve been really fortunate to have a lot of family and friends and community support, and those kinds of things have all come together to create a bigger effect,” John Zara said.

It’s a little ridiculous to sugarcoat 2024. Tropical Storm Helene saw to that, leaving a trail of destruction in these mountains the likes of which no one alive had ever witnessed. The Sept. 27 storm particularly pummeled Buncombe County, where 43 people died, and it really drew a bullseye on Swan...

HCA Healthcare plans to demolish Mission Hospital’s St. Joseph’s campus, whose origins date back more than a century, As...
12/20/2024

HCA Healthcare plans to demolish Mission Hospital’s St. Joseph’s campus, whose origins date back more than a century, Asheville Watchdog has learned. Mission spokesperson Nancy Lindell said that a teardown was the only way forward after Tropical Storm Helene had compounded existing issues on the campus.

HCA Healthcare plans to demolish Mission Hospital’s St. Joseph’s campus, whose origins date back more than a century, Asheville Watchdog has learned. Mission spokesperson Nancy Lindell said Thursday that a teardown was the only way forward after Tropical Storm Helene had compounded existing issu...

In today’s Answer Man, John Boyle takes on a question about Arden’s post office, where a reader reports chaotic conditio...
12/20/2024

In today’s Answer Man, John Boyle takes on a question about Arden’s post office, where a reader reports chaotic conditions, including long lines and packages piling up.

John also looks into the accuracy of reports that Waste Pro, the outgoing trash contractor for Buncombe County, is dumping waste bins in the county landfill. And a reader wants to know why Buncombe’s Graphical Information System (GIS) maps lack an overlay that shows road blockages and construction locations.

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: Over the past 10 days, we’ve been getting notices that U.S. Postal Service packages can’t be delivered due to various reasons like, “driveway was blocked,” and “customer requested hold at post office.” T...

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LIVE NOW! Asheville Watchdog hosts a conversation with former Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron. Baron has a long, distinguished career in journalism. During his tenure at the Post, the Post won seven Pulitzer Prizes. He's also served as executive editor of The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe, where he led that newsroom to a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Boston Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal. (The movie Spotlight chronicled Baron and The Globe's pursuit of the story.) Pulitzer-winning Watchdog political reporter Tom Fiedler will chat with Baron about his career and his latest book, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post.

Join Asheville Watchdog as we celebrate our 4th birthday with a public forum and panel discussion that gives you an inside look at local journalism in our community. Local news is in crisis nationwide — even as the need for reliable news has never been greater. Join our panel of local news leaders for a lively discussion of issues important to the local media scene, including a shrinking news industry, “fake news,” AI-generated stories, changing technologies, the challenges of covering local government and businesses, and much more. Speakers: Former Asheville Citizen Times reporter, now Asheville Watchdog reporter John Boyle; Asheville Watchdog Managing Editor Keith Campbell; Mountain XPress Managing Editor Thomas Calder; Blue Ridge Public Radio News Director Laura Lee; Asheville Watchdog Executive Editor Peter H. Lewis (moderator); WLOS-TV News 13 News Anchor and Investigative Journalist Ty Russell.

LIVE NOW: On Thursday, February 22, Medical providers and others who have a combined 231 years working in Mission Hospital and other Mission facilities will discuss their concerns with the CMS-approved Plan of Correction submitted by HCA to address the findings of Immediate Jeopardy. Speakers include: State Senator Julie Mayfield Nurse Advocate Karen Sanders Dr. Robert Kline, retired family physician Dr. Mike Messino, retired oncologist Rev. Missy Harris, minister and former Mission Hospital chaplain

LIVE NOW: Elected officials and community members are holding a press conference in response to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ findings on Feb. 1 of immediate jeopardy at Memorial Mission Hospital and Asheville Surgery Center due to non-compliance with the Medicare conditions of participations. Speakers: Julie Mayfield, State Senator, District 49 Brownie Newman, Chair, Buncombe County Commission Esther Manheimer, Mayor of the City of Asheville Maureen Copoloff, Mayor of Brevard Holly Jones, representing North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein Victoria Hicks, Health Equity Coalition Rev. Missy Harris, minister and former Mission Hospital chaplain Dr. Mike Messino, retired oncologist Kerri Wilson, nurse at Mission Hospital, representing National Nurses United John Nicolay, retiree

Asheville Watchdog is LIVE with a panel of experts at A-B Tech to talk about possible solutions for restoring quality healthcare to Western North Carolina. The entire event will be streamed here and posted to our page in case you missed it while it happened. Subscribe to the Watchdog for free news alerts here: https://avlwatchdog.org/subscribe-for-alerts/

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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing Asheville and Buncombe County with news in the public interest. Founded and run by volunteer award-winning journalists and media executives now living here, the Watchdog will provide content that is free and widely accessible. We have no political or private agenda but simply believe that journalism is a public service essential to democracy. Local news matters, and a healthy, strong Asheville depends on well-informed citizens.