What’s in the news for today?

It was such a beautiful day yesterday that we spent a lot of it outside. So we’re just catching up. Here’s what we’re checking out:

NYT: Asheville, an Appalachian Shangri-La
First off this Sunday, we get big play in the Sunday New York Times with a short story on how to spend 36 hours in our wonderful mountain metropolis. It’s hard to argue with this story’s list of what’s cool about our town.

Our favorite family farm, Imladris, gets a shout-out. Our favorite dive bar, the Root Bar, gets some love. There are the predictable mentions of the Grove Arcade, Mela, Early Girl, Old Europe and the WNC Farmer’s Market. The River District artist studios get noticed, too, and if you click on the photo slide show, you’ll see a picture of Genie Maples studio. It’s not the perfect list of all things Ashvegas, but it’s not bad for some city slickers blowing into town for a weekend.

On the teevee box
WLOSers, following up on the story of 10 Madison High School football players getting kicked off the team last week, anonymously quote one of the players who says drug use was the reason for the player suspensions. But what sort of drug use? Steroids? Meth? Weed?… Also, WLOSers went up to Washington with a group of local veterans and followed the old guys as they checked out the WWII memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Really kinda neat to see the reception these guys got.

We just want somebody to check the one stat that gets used over and over – that more than 1,000 World War II veterans die each day. Is that really true? Where did that statistic come from?

Wanna be in the movies?
Mountain Xpress is looking for extras for the 9:45 a.m. filming Wednesday of a promotional trailer outside its offices. 6:14 Films is making the trailer, which will be shown between movies at the upcoming Asheville Film Festival.

Pack Square lawsuit
The local newspaper breaks a story about a group of people filing a lawsuit challenging the controversial sale of a piece of land right on City/County Plaza, just a stone’s throw from City Hall. The story says that a group of people that claim to be descendants of George Willis Pack, an early benefactor of the city, have filed a lawsuit. The suit says the land was meant to always remain for public use. Instead, Buncombe County commissioners recently sold the parcel to developer Stewart Coleman, who plans to build condos there. This is going to be an interesting case, although Coleman says five lawyers have told him the property sale is solid.