WNC poverty: Hidden in plain sight
ASHEVILLE - Eric Howell holds painful memories of his futile treks up and down Asheville's thoroughfares looking for work. He pleaded with hiring managers at fast-food restaurants, grocery chains and retail stores. He said he was a hard worker, that he had children to feed and that he just wanted a paycheck in exchange for a day of labor. Even staffing agencies turned him away. "It was just no, no, no," said Howell, a 28-year-old Brevard native who moved back to Western North Carolina's urban center in 2009 to make a better life for himself. Continue reading here at Citizen-Times.com. This article is the first in a series on poverty in Western North Carolina. The work was done in partnership with the Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Equal Voice Journalism Fellowship. |
2017 North Carolina Press Association |
Discovering Emma: A kindergartner's transgender journey
ARDEN - A chart hangs in a hallway between the bedrooms of a sister and her two brothers. Their parents – as many parents do – have etched lines marking the height of each child over the years. The smallest among them is Colton, the third son of Amy and Kevin. The blond-haired, green-eyed baby loved to snuggle, said the child's mother. Each mark represents a year of memories, she said. As the children reach new heights, they develop their own personalities and transform in ways beyond a parent's control. By age 6, the name "Colton" had all but disappeared from the chart. It had been replaced by “Emma,” a name the child gave herself as she began to discover her gender identity and her parents decided they would not force her to be someone she is not. Continue reading here at Citizen-Times.com. |
2017 North Carolina Press Association |
Asheville's Minority Business Program lags
ASHEVILLE – With millions in government contracts at stake in a sweeping riverfront redevelopment, advocacy and community development organizations are questioning whether the city is doing enough to ensure local businesses owned by African-Americans share in the work. The city is set to accept bids soon for jobs tied to the East of the Riverway Multimodal Network project— a $36 million River Arts District makeover to improve roads, build greenways and add sidewalks linking thousands of homes with businesses, parks and schools. Advocates say the city has a poor record of hiring and nurturing minority firms and that improvements to its Minority Business Program have been slow in coming, despite directives in the 1990s to do more. They fear that the East of the Riverway project will leave behind local black businesses wanting to share in revitalizing the traditionally African-American neighborhoods nearby. The city’s track record on awarding contracts to black-owned firms is bleak at best. Continue reading here at Citizen-Times.com. |
From the Judges: "A thorough story that sheds light on a hidden problem." |
Local woman settles pregnancy discrimination case
WEAVERVILLE - When Jamie Cole took out an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against her employer in October 2014, she wondered if anyone would listen. The mother of three wanted to stand up for women everywhere when she alleged pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. Even if she didn't win, she knew she had to do right by her now 3-year-old daughter. Now, just over one year after the EEOC said it would investigate her charges against Sava Senior Care's Brian Center Health and Rehabilitation in Weaverville, Cole received an answer. "I almost want to cry," said Cole of the news. "Since I won the case, their polices are going to be changed, and that right there is worth a million bucks." Continue reading here at Citizen-Times.com. |
From the Judges: "This story of a victory for pregnant women in the workplace unfolds nicely into a strong read. Loved the way the writer started with a crucial moment a few years in the past and deftly built the story around it." |
'Living transgender: Life beyond the confines of a pronoun Allison Scott tried to kill herself when she was 10. The Asheville native wrapped a cord from a vacuum cleaner around her neck and choked herself so hard that she passed out. When her grandmother found her, the embarrassed child lied and said it was an accident. She said she had been playing cowboy and using the cord as an imaginary lasso. No one questioned the story. Scott’s depression, stemming from confusion over her gender identity, was something that wasn’t discussed in the southern home during the mid-1980s. Though she would often ask her mother why she was born a boy and why the kids bullied her at school, her father encouraged her to “man up.” Despite Scott’s affinity for dressing like a girl when no one was watching, she says her dad made it clear: No son of his was “going to be a faggot.” Continue reading here at Citizen-Times.com. |
2018 North Carolina Associated Press |
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Midwest oil mining a crude idea to many: Are we now scraping the bottom of the barrel?
Some 1,500 miles northwest of Minneapolis, the luscious green boreal forests that once lined the banks of the Athabasca River have been flattened. All that's left is an empty, lonely, gray moonscape. That, and the drills. The machines push deep into the earth, farther than they ever have before, in order to extract a thick black syrup that sticks together with the sand and dirt to form a tar-like gritty dough. This is a dense and viscous form of petroleum called bitumen. It's oil, and the U.S. wants it. Continue reading here at CityPages.com. Local couples fight for gay rights in wake of Proposition 8: GLBT community continues to stare down obstacle Doug Benson and Duane Gajewksi are marriage junkies. Like many gay couples, they have multiple anniversaries. Since they met in the 1990s—Doug was vacuuming at the DFL office in Duluth where he worked and Duane mistook him for a janitor—they have attempted marriage five times. In 1993 the couple was rejected for a marriage license in St. Louis County. In 2000 they traveled to Vermont for a civil union. Three years later they went to Thunder Bay, Canada, for a quaint, legal ceremony. Their last stop was in 2004 in San Francisco after Mayor Gavin Newsom issued a directive to the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, claiming that the California Constitution's equal-protection clause gave him authority to do so. For the first time, the couple had a marriage recognized, albeit temporarily, by some form of the American government. "That was the best Valentine's Day ever," says Benson, 54, his smile peeking out from a thick brown beard Continue reading here at CityPages.com Holly Collins returns after 14 years in hiding: The battered woman fled to Amsterdam with her children in defiance of a court order Last Sunday, Holly Ann Collins walked off a plane and stood on Minnesota ground for the first time in 14 years. Her friends cheered, waving signs in celebration. "Holly, a champion for children," one read. Another said, "Welcome home." "It's not a nightmare anymore," said a friend as she held Collins's hand. "You're back. This is the real thing." Collins slowly surveyed the crowd who had come to greet her. One by one she recalled the people from her past. There was John, the boy she used to babysit when he was four years old. "He was just this high," Collins said, looking the young man over. Tears rolled down her face as she made her way through the group. "I can't believe it. Look at all you." Continue reading here at CityPages.com. |
From the Judges: "Beth writes with the direct force of a battering ram, clear and incisive. Great stuff!" |