RALEIGH - North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is criticizing a state budget provision by Senate Republicans that his administration says would block federal food stamp benefits to more than 130,000 people who qualify because they’re also receiving other government benefits.
The change approved in the Senate budget proposal last week would roll back eligibility requirements for what’s called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that had been expanded during the Great Recession. 

Households making no more than slightly above the federal poverty level would qualify for the food help if the provision became law. That would put added pressure on already stretched food pantries and make it harder for families to move out of poverty, advocates say. In Buncombe County, 3,100 people would lose food assistance, of which 1,100 are children. Across the region, more than 9,500 people would lose the assistance, 33 percent younger than age 18

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ASHEVILLE - The city has turned to a Denver firm for a $320,000 yearlong business disparity study. BBC Research and Consulting should begin work in June to assess the state of city contracting with minority- and white women-owned businesses, said Brenda Mills, an economic development specialist for the city of Asheville.

The firm will analyze five years of data and organize surveys, focus groups and community meetings to understand the city's contracting and purchasing patterns. Municipalities wanting to legally justify a race-based minority business program must undertake an independent study, she said.
The city last did this research in the 1990s, shortly after its program was formed.

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ASHEVILLE – Organizers of a police support rally said Wednesday they have canceled the event over fears it could turn violent. Former Asheville City Councilman Carl Mumpower said he doesn't trust groups planning a counterprotest at the same time Thursday.

"Certainly my intention whenever possible is to challenge with as much enthusiasm as I can to highlight the absurdity of some of these folks," he said. "I haven't said things like, 'Burn this b—h down.'"

The stepfather of Michael Brown made that comment to protesters after a grand jury failed to indict a white police officer who killed Brown, a black 18-year-old. 

Area LGBTQ groups said they planned the counterprotest to affirm that black lives matter and to share stories of black transgender and cisgender women who they say are also targeted by police. "Regardless of whether pro-police rallies happen, we are committed to supporting black queer and transgender people who have been and continue to be oppressed by racism and transphobia," said an organizer who goes by the name Lichen LP.

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ASHEVILLE – Abortion-rights activists held vigil outside the governor's mansion in Raleigh amid statewide concern last year as North Carolina ordered an overhaul of safety regulations for abortion providers. Those protests have subsided, and what's left of demonstrators on the issue in Asheville includes three to four people who meet weekly to hold signs opposing abortion outside a planned new clinic.
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It's not that passions on the issue have been set aside, but disagreement on proposed new regulations has calmed in North Carolina. In a rare movement of accord, the state's largest abortion providers and abortion-rights advocates sided with state officials earlier this week, tentatively agreeing on proposed rule changes for abortion providers.

The changes up for public review come in response to a 2013 legislative directive mandating that the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services create new requirements for abortion providers.  They include the right to annually inspect any licensed clinic and standards for building codes, record-keeping, nurse staffing qualifications, emergency procedures and post-operative care.
Rules for certification of abortion clinics have not been updated in nearly 20 years, DHHS noted in a Nov. 14 fiscal impact analysis of the proposed regulations.

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ASHEVILLE – Buncombe County women came together Saturday morning at the YWCA of Asheville to learn about public policies affecting equality for women and to prioritize action items. After listening to remarks by state and local officials and representatives from area advocacy and nonprofit groups, the crowd of about 50 voted access to health care and economic self-sufficiency as its top legislative priorities.Violence against women and female civic participation were also highly ranked. 

Every two years before the state General Assembly's long term session, North Carolina Women United hosts the forum to set its Buncombe County Women's Agenda. State Rep. Susan Fisher and state Sen. Terry Van Duyn kicked off the event discussing why equality has yet to be achieved, charging Buncombe County residents to bring about change.

Women's issues are cross cutting, they said. Fighting for women and families defies political and economic division. "We have still much, much work to do," said Fisher who spoke first to the energetic crowd, encouraging them to develop an agenda that will resonate with men, women and children across the state.

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RALEIGH – The chief administrator of North Carolina's courts says Republican party leaders may have misled magistrates on whether they could refrain from performing same-sex marriages.

John Smith, director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, detailed his concerns in a three-page letter to Senate leader Phil Berger, who along with more than two dozen Senate Republicans had asked in an Oct. 24 letter that he revise a directive ordering magistrates to perform civil weddings for gay couples or face losing their jobs.

Several magistrates have quit rather than perform same-sex marriages since two federal judges last month blocked enforcement of the state's gay marriage prohibition approved by voters in 2012. The rulings came when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case that overturned Virginia's similar ban.

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BRYSON CITY – Swain County Magistrate Judge Gilbert Breedlove resigned Monday because of his personal objection to same-sex marriage. 

"It was my only option," said Breedlove, 57. "We were directed we had to perform the marriages, and that was just something I couldn't do because of my religious beliefs."
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Breedlove has been a magistrate for nearly 24 years. He started in 1990 and became ordained as a pastor in 1997.

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ASHEVILLE – Area register of deeds offices said officials would issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples regardless of their own beliefs. "Same-sex marriages are against my Christian beliefs, but I have taken an oath, and I have to uphold my oath and do what the law tells me to do," Polk County Register of Deeds Sheila Whitmire said.
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A memo sent Friday by the NC Values Coalition, encouraging state officials with "sincere religious or moral beliefs" to refrain from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, went to register of deeds offices throughout the state following a court ruling that North Carolina's gay marriage ban was unconstitutional.

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ASHEVILLE — Entering the Smith-Hendrix household can be a little insane, warned Leigh Smith as she opened the door to her modest West Asheville home, found on a quiet residential street.
With two children younger than 5, there are seldom moments of silence.

Before the door even closed, Joe, 3, squirmed off his mother's hip to eagerly show off the picture he had drawn of a scary monster. His older sister, Quinn, 4, put down the book she was reading and vied for attention.

The house may be a bit crazy, but it's filled with love, said Smith, 41, as she gently hushed the children's chatter and sat down next to her wife, Crystal Hendrix.

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ASHEVILLE – Police and bomb-sniffing dogs responded to a bomb threat at the William H. Stanley Center on Woodfin Street Monday morning, after a caller made disparaging comments about the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses, said Natalie Bailey, spokeswoman for the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office. No explosives were found and the building was not evacuated.

"We have protocols and procedures in place to keep everybody safe, and in this particular instance everything worked the way it should," Bailey said. "Our folks went out and checked and nothing was found. Once they did that, people were able to go on and get their licenses."

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