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 – Thirteen years ago Nikita Smart gave birth to her daughter with the help of strangers. She and the girl’s father had split. Her family lived out of town. So the hospital in Fort Myers, Florida, had a sitter stay in the room during labor.

Friends stopped by to check on her, but Smart encouraged them to leave. They had jobs to get to and children to look after. "I was just totally alone,” said Smart, who was considered high-risk because of pre-eclampsia, a potentially dangerous pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure.

Smart, 44, is now training to be a doula and leading efforts in Pisgah View and Hillcrest apartments to make sure expecting African-American mothers in those publicly subsidized neighborhoods never feel like help is far away.

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ASHEVILLE - Rani Khan "caught" her first baby when she was just 4 years old. Her mother, a natural health advocate, had planned a home birth and Khan's sister came sooner than expected. It was just Khan and a birth assistant there to help the laboring woman. The toddler had pushed a chair to the wall to reach the rotary phone and call for help, but the baby came before the midwife arrived.
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Kahn's mother labored for only 15 minutes. The young girl was sitting on a futon when she witnessed her sister's first breath. It was an experience she never forgot. By age 39, Kahn, now a certified nurse midwife, has delivered some 3,000 babies, even though she has no children of her own.

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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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FRANKLIN - Mission Health’s chief executive offered a somber apology to the people of Macon County on Friday as he announced plans to build a new $43 million replacement community hospital with no labor and delivery services.

Dr. Ronald Paulus, president and CEO of Mission Health, speaking at a news conference in Asheville, said the nonprofit regional health care system was faced with two bad alternatives in an increasingly regulated and expensive health care environment.  “We are very sorry that we cannot keep this program open," he said. "We looked at every possibility that we could conceive of ... We just couldn't find a way."

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CHARLOTTE - The DACA student facing the threat of deportation returned to university Tuesday relieved that all she had to do was study for exams.

Sthefany Flores Fuentes, of Forest City, had planned to drive to Charlotte Wednesday morning for an immigration meeting that could have led to her deportation to Honduras.

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LEICESTER - Dozens of rabbits discovered living in what a local animal welfare center says was an inhumane environment have been rescued.

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue recently took care of more 120 rabbits after it got notification from a neighbor of a hoarding situation in Leicester.

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ASHEVILLE - Mia Birdsong travels the U.S. to challenge assumptions people have about poverty and family. She will speak at the Diana Wortham Theatre at 6 p.m. April 25. The public is invited.

Buncombe County Health and Human Services and the Buncombe County Family Justice Center are hosting the event titled, "The Ripple Effect with Mia Birdsong."

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MILLS RIVER - Whether it was a school house or a church, the brick building nestled inside the neighborhood on Presbyterian Church Road has served Western North Carolina's children for more than 100 years.

Sunday a dozen gathered to search for colorful eggs before an Easter Sunday service at Mills River Presbyterian Church where secular and religious traditions combined this holiday.
The church has added more children's activities in recent years to accommodate a growing congregation.

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FOREST CITY - Sthefany Flores Fuentes spent last week studying for final exams and wrapping up class projects. Until late Monday she had no idea whether she would see the payoff for her hard work.
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The 20-year-old honors student at Gardner-Webb University had planned to drive to Charlotte Wednesday morning for an immigration meeting that could lead to her deportation to Honduras.

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ASHEVILLE - A man was charged with one count of assaulting a government official with a deadly weapon after authorities say he lunged toward a sheriff's deputy with a knife displayed. The crime is a felony.

Joshua D. Gibson, 30, of Canton, was arrested Friday. Warrant documents allege he displayed a knife and moved toward Deputy R. Fisher while the officer was trying to escort him out of a building.

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ALEXANDER - A Candler man was arrested Saturday, charged with defrauding an innkeeper, breaking and entering and simple assault.
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Authorities say Cory A. Jackson, 21, broke into a building on Dry Leaf Road in Alexander. Warrant documents allege he caused more than $200 of damages and struck a person inside. 

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ASHEVILLE - University of North Carolina Asheville senior JaNesha Slaughter says there is something about stories. Data and numbers can provide analysis, but the narrative is what moves people to change.

Slaughter, a political science major, spent part of her senior year documenting how housing policies locally have impacted the most marginalized populations. The school was one of five universities and colleges in the state to win support from The Facing Project, a nonprofit that connects people through stories to strengthen communities. 

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ASHEVILLE - The billboard that sparked reaction around the nation came down Tuesday and was replaced with a message to thank the supporters of a downtown jewelry store.
The new ad says, "Asheville rocks." The "o" is a sparkling diamond.

"We are sorry if we offended anybody, we did have thousands more supporters than we have people who were offended so we wanted to thank our supporters," Eva-Michelle Spicer, co-owner of Spicer Greene Jewelers, told the Citizen-Times.

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ASHEVILLE — Keynon Lake founded My Daddy Taught Me That in 2012 in part because of his father.
A social worker and community service navigator for Buncombe County Health and Human Services, Lake was constantly going in and out of single-parent, fatherless homes. Although he knew he would never be able to fill the gap, he could provide role models to male youth and offer them some stability. He could also honor the work of his dad.

Bennie Lake, who passed away in 2010, played ball for the Harlem Globetrotters, before spending three decades working at the Juvenile Evaluation Center in Swannanoa. He was also deeply committed to youth and sports, leading a program called The Hot Shot, a camp for the state's best basketball shooters, and founding Up Front Sports Management, a business focused on encouraging young athletes to continue their education.

He did a lot for Asheville, helping youth and families, Lake said. "He was a local hero. If you got in trouble or needed advice or guidance, you would call on him."

These days, local youth are going to his son.

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ASHEVILLE – For as long as I can remember, my Christmases have always involved giving, not just to friends and family, but to total strangers whom I only know from a tag.
Every year growing up, our church would have a Salvation Army Angel Tree in the back. Without fail, one Sunday my mom would take us to pick out a child. Not all families can afford gifts, she would explain. Pick someone to help out. I used to think this was glorious fun. Some years I'd pick a baby, other years I'd find someone my own age. I would daydream about the person I was helping, using the clues provided. I knew their name, gender and age. There was also a short wish list, so I knew the things they liked.

Buying Angel Tree gifts and wondering about the children behind the tags is a tradition I carried with me into adulthood. Each year, as I do my own Christmas shopping, I always grab one or two tags from the Angel Tree at the mall. New to Asheville, I was delighted a few weeks ago when a colleague told me that the Citizen-Times participates in Angel Tree giving. She left two tags on my desk — one for a middle-school-aged boy named Jonathan who wanted a basketball, and another for a girl, Nashana, who was addicted to Barbie and Hello Kitty.

When the Salvation Army of Buncombe County invited me to come volunteer at the toy giveaway and actually watch parents come and get their gifts, I couldn't believe it. After all these years, I was finally going to see the faces behind the tags.

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ASHEVILLE – The question isn't so much why their protests matter, when in reality the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers happened hundreds of miles away. The real question is what happens next locally to keep frustrations from boiling over into violence as they have in other parts of the country, community activists say. "The environment here is ripe for it," said James Lee, a minister at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church. "It's almost like having an open flame in a room with gas. It's only a matter of time before something explodes."

Hundreds of people have joined in at least seven rallies across Buncombe County since a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown and another grand jury in New York City failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, who was allegedly selling loose cigarettes.

In some cases, demonstrators held pictures of Reynolds High football player A.J. Marion, who was killed in 2013 by an Asheville police officer following a residential break-in, report of a gunshot and ensuing foot chase. Like Brown, Marion was unarmed and the officer was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

Black Americans have spent decades under siege, said Tyrone Greenlee, executive director of Christians for a United Community, a local nonprofit interdenominational collaboration of churches that works to address the root causes of racism and racial disparity through advocacy, education and training.

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ASHEVILLE – The best thing about CARING for Children's big house in West Asheville on Thursday evening was the people inside. While it was true that each girl there had her own story of abuse and neglect that would make anyone's heart flinch, you wouldn't know that by siting down to a meal.

"We're just like anyone else," said resident Zena Redmond, 18. "We want the same things; we just don't always get the same things, or even get them at all."

Called Cornerstone, the house is a transitional living home for girls ages 16-21 with nowhere else to go. Just like my sister and I used to do in the early 1990s, the girls at Cornerstone style each other's hair. They argue with their moms over the phone. They eat dinner in their pajamas. They have dreams of being models, actresses and teachers. They can't wait to finish high school and go off to college.
They take turns doing chores. They share rides to school. And, even though they won't all admit it over this particular meal of pork chops, cabbage and mashed potatoes, Redmond insists, they see each other as family.

Sometimes they love each other; other times they can't wait to get away.

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