AVL Watchdog

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

John Boyle has been known to devour a deli sandwich or two in the lunch hour. So the first question in today’s Answer Ma...
01/16/2026

John Boyle has been known to devour a deli sandwich or two in the lunch hour. So the first question in today’s Answer Man is right in his wheelhouse. A reader wants to know why Ingles Markets prominently says it’s proud to serve Boar’s Head meats despite the company’s products leading to a 2024 listeria outbreak that killed 10 people.

The Answer Man also looks into whether the Curbie recycling company is now accepting paper and plastic cups.

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: The marquee at the Ingles Markets grocery store near my home proclaims, “We proudly serve Boar’s Head” products. Given that listeria outbreaks linked to Boar’s Head products killed 10 people in 2024 and sick...

In 2011, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords was nearly killed in an assassination attempt. In today’s Demo...
01/14/2026

In 2011, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords was nearly killed in an assassination attempt. In today’s Democracy Watch, political reporter Tom Fiedler writes about the renowned Asheville speech therapist who aided her recovery and the character she witnessed in Mark Kelly, Giffords’s husband, in the aftermath of the shooting.

As the title implies, this column is about democracy and the necessity of protecting it against people who seize power and lust for more.  For our democracy to flourish – and in the words of Jimmy Carter to be “as open, as compassionate and as decent as the American people” – we must depend...

Over the past year, John Boyle has written a few times about local free speech hero August J. Dachshund, aka Auggie the ...
01/13/2026

Over the past year, John Boyle has written a few times about local free speech hero August J. Dachshund, aka Auggie the Dachshund. John reports the sad news in today’s Answer Man that Auggie, 16, has gone to that great dog park in the sky. John also reports that the University of North Carolina Asheville has big plans for Lipinsky Hall. And he explains why Candace Pickens Park is not an official city of Asheville park.

Before I get to today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers, I’d like to note that local free speech hero August J. Dachshund, aka Auggie the Dachshund, has passed on to that great dog park in the sky. Owner Virginia Harding announced his transition Sunday via an Inst...

The Saniway Vacuum Cleaner Co, known for its high-end products and top-notch customer service, has been a West Asheville...
01/12/2026

The Saniway Vacuum Cleaner Co, known for its high-end products and top-notch customer service, has been a West Asheville fixture since 1961. But the store, located at 505 Haywood Road, will likely close soon, a casualty of shoppers’ shift to Amazon and other online retailers as well as changes in the vacuum manufacturing business model.

That’s a real shame, John Boyle writes in today’s Opinion column.

When Saniway Vacuum Cleaner Co. very likely closes in the coming weeks, West Asheville will lose more than a retail business known for high-end products and top-notch customer service. It will also lose a thread to a disappearing part of the city’s history when mom and pop shops reigned by providi...

In 2022, Donna Smith’s legs were shattered when she was thrown from her wheelchair, which had not been fully secured, wh...
01/11/2026

In 2022, Donna Smith’s legs were shattered when she was thrown from her wheelchair, which had not been fully secured, while traveling in a CarePartners medical transport van. She filed a negligence lawsuit against the van’s driver, Suzanne Lowery; the elder care practice CarePartners PACE; Mission Hospital, because CarePartners is part of the Mission Health system; and Mission’s owner, HCA Healthcare. (Smith’s estate continued the lawsuit following her death in 2023.)

In early 2025, defense attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the case, which they said had been improperly filed. Though he denied the motion to dismiss, their effort to have the suit thrown out has spawned a contentious case-within-a-case. In filings late last year, the Smith family’s attorneys accused the defense of committing legal fraud by filing an affidavit that they knew included false information. The defense has decried the fraud complaint as “breathtakingly dishonest.”

She had been told that there had been an accident, that Donna was hurt really badly, that she might not make it. But when Tamara Ledbetter got to her older sister in Mission Hospital’s intensive care unit, Donna Smith was alive — weeping in pain but lucid enough to describe what had happened th...

A former city of Asheville employee who previously sued the city alleging racial discrimination in a commission appointm...
01/09/2026

A former city of Asheville employee who previously sued the city alleging racial discrimination in a commission appointment has formally challenged the eligibility of Asheville Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley to run for re-election based on questions about her residency.

A former city of Asheville employee who previously sued the city alleging racial discrimination in a commission appointment has formally challenged the eligibility of Asheville Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley to run for re-election based on questions about her residency. “It appears from recent news s...

Several hundred people gathered Thursday evening in downtown Asheville to protest the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis wo...
01/09/2026

Several hundred people gathered Thursday evening in downtown Asheville to protest the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer a day earlier. Asheville Watchdog photojournalist Starr Sariego chronicled the demonstration.

On Wednesday morning, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old poet, U.S. citizen and mother of three who was acting as a legal observer of ICE activity. Videos showed that Good was attempting to drive away from the scene when the officer,....

North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature has passed several measures in the past two years banning “diversion,...
01/09/2026

North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature has passed several measures in the past two years banning “diversion, equity and inclusion” efforts in schools, public universities, and state government, saying they amount to racial preference.

At its meeting Wednesday, the North Carolina House Select Committee on Government Efficiency heard a lengthy presentation by Asheville attorney Ruth Smith, an unsuccessful 2024 legislative candidate, who alleged that Buncombe County and Asheville are using “equity” to allocate resources based on race in violation of the 14th Amendment, the North Carolina Constitution, and federal anti-discrimination laws, Christine Zhu of NC Newsline reports.

North Carolina state House lawmakers were sharply critical Wednesday of DEI programs in Asheville and Raleigh, the latest Democratic-controlled cities to attract the ire of Republican legislative leaders. The Republican-controlled legislature has passed several measures in the past two years banning...

A few weeks ago, the Answer Man took on a question about the number and types of illegal drugs seized by city and county...
01/09/2026

A few weeks ago, the Answer Man took on a question about the number and types of illegal drugs seized by city and county authorities last year. John Boyle follows that up today when he tells us about the number of fentanyl-related deaths that occurred during that period. He also gets his hands dirty answering a question about how the Metropolitan Sewerage District handles waste material sludge.

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: In a recent edition of Watchdog, the Answer Man answered a question on the seizure of illegal drugs by our city and county law enforcement people. I found the statistics to be very interesting. From what I understan...

Asheville Watchdog has hired award-winning journalist Ted Clifford as an investigative reporter who will focus primarily...
01/08/2026

Asheville Watchdog has hired award-winning journalist Ted Clifford as an investigative reporter who will focus primarily on Mission Hospital and healthcare. Clifford, currently a statewide accountability reporter for The State in Columbia, South Carolina, will start work in Asheville Feb. 2. You can read more about him here.

Asheville Watchdog has hired award-winning journalist Ted Clifford as an investigative reporter who will focus primarily on Mission Hospital and healthcare. Clifford, currently a statewide accountability reporter for The State in Columbia, South Carolina, will start work in Asheville Feb. 2. “I’...

In 2023, the city of Asheville’s $115,000 Missing Middle Housing Study carved a path for creating more homes and more af...
01/07/2026

In 2023, the city of Asheville’s $115,000 Missing Middle Housing Study carved a path for creating more homes and more affordable housing. Two years later, despite support on the City Council, few of its recommendations have been adopted.
Implementation has been stalled by concerns of the Legacy Neighborhood Coalition, which represents historically Black communities, and council members including Antanette Mosley and Sheneika Smith, Mayor Esther Manheimer and some council members say.

Mosley and Sekou Coleman, the coalition’s coordinator, counter that they favor missing middle housing, but have only tried to ensure it doesn’t accelerate gentrification and displacement in vulnerable communities.

Barry Bialik showed off the basic recipe for more affordable housing – small homes on small lots – last month at his cottage development on a 1.1-acre parcel in West Asheville. The eight 1,280-square-foot, partly prefabricated dwellings he is building on lots averaging less than 3,500 square fee...

A major outbreak of measles in South Carolina has spread to Buncombe County, with public health officials announcing thr...
01/06/2026

A major outbreak of measles in South Carolina has spread to Buncombe County, with public health officials announcing three cases Tuesday and expressing concern that more will follow due to decreased vaccination rates and the highly contagious nature of the disease. The Buncombe measles cases are confined to three siblings whose family visited Spartanburg County, South Carolina, one or two weeks before the children became sick, according to an announcement from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The agency said it is not providing any more information about the infections “to protect the family’s privacy.”

But the announcement also warns that “people who visited the Mission Hospital Emergency Department waiting room … between 2-6:30 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2026, might have been exposed.”

A major outbreak of measles in South Carolina has spread to Buncombe County, with public health officials announcing three cases Tuesday and expressing concern that more will follow due to decreased vaccination rates and the highly contagious nature of the disease. The Buncombe cases are confined to...

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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.