ASHEVILLE – Paying the rent isn't the hard part for Lori Campbell, a former home health care aid left out of work when she hurt herself helping a client climb out of a bathtub.

Like hundreds of others in Western North Carolina, it's keeping the heat on during the winter that can get out of reach.

Appeals for help with heating bills climbed in the mountains last winter, a problem made worse at the time by shrinking federal funds and late changes in government eligibility guidelines that left some aid money unspent.

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ASHEVILLE – Operation North State needs the public’s help creating holiday themed North Carolina care packages for 1,500 of the state’s deployed troops.
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The NC Cares Christmas Boxes will utilize North Carolina people, places, products and pride to bring a little holiday cheer to soldiers, said Terry Snyder, founder of Operation North State, one of the fastest growing military support service organizations in the state.

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ASHEVILLE – With so much at stake in this year's election, area nonprofits are stepping up their efforts to get out the vote in innovative ways.

Children First / Communities In Schools printed 40,000 copies of its 2014 Buncombe County Voter Guide, the most it has printed to date.

"Five or six years ago, we were just printing them off the printer in our office," said Allison Jordan, executive director of the nonprofit which focuses on empowering children and their families.

​Read more here. 

WAYNESVILLE – Just in case there isn't enough cuteness in your life, Sarge's Animal Rescue Foundation just put the "Parkway Puppies" up for adoption. "They are eating like pigs, picking on each other, acting like puppies," said Debbie Slater, operations manager at the shelter. 

"They're getting a little spoiled though," she added.

The abandoned dogs made local fame last month after they were rescued near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

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ASHEVILLE – The new Arthur R. Edington Education and Career Center, a training site for green jobs, will be dedicated in a public event this week. A tour of the facility will be offered after the ceremony, which starts at noon Saturday.
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Housed in the former W.C. Reid Center, 133 Livingston St., the Asheville Housing Authority recently renovated the building and renamed it to honor Arthur R. Edington, former principal of the Livingston Street School.

​Partners envision the center will be a place where people from the surrounding neighborhoods will have access to education, job training, support services and other resources, strengthening residents' self-sufficiency and empowerment, reported the Asheville Housing Authority in a press release.

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ASHEVILLE – Nearly every week, local LGBT youth advocate Jim Faucett gets an e-mail from a parent terrified that their child is gay.

The first thing he tells them is, “Thank you. Your kid is likely to be OK.”

“Having support at home makes a world of difference,” said Faucett, executive director of Youth OUTright WNC, a local nonprofit that offers discussion groups and social activities for LGBT and questioning teens.

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ASHEVILLE Things that happen in Asheville are not limited to Asheville anymore, Elizabeth Colton, distinguished journalist and former diplomat, said at the country club on Wednesday. 

Especially with the advent of social media, "you never know where a story is going to go," said the Asheville native, who has worked in more than 100 countries as an Emmy Award wining journalist for ABC News and a former employee of the United Nations and the U.S. State Department.

​"It could go on and have an impact with followers around the world," Colton said in her speech, "Beyond the Headlines: Deciphering the News of Global Politics & Diplomacy."

​Read more here. 

ASHEVILLE – Lance Edwards, community investment director at the United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County, was elected to the statewide board of directors for the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits.
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“I think it’s great,” said Edwards, of West Asheville, whose primary role at United Way is to oversee the annual competitive grant-making process and serve as the institution’s liaison to its community partners. ​“I work with so many nonprofits locally, it will be nice to be able to share best practices. Serving on the board will help me keep my finger on the pulse of statewide trends.”

​Read more here. 

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."

​Read more here.