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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Here’s more of what’s going around, including a growing movement to ban plastic straws in Asheville. Here we go:

-A growing national environmental movement to ban plastic straws is starting to take hold here in Asheville. Bouchon restaurant is working on doing away with them while promoting a social media campaign with the hashtag #ashevillelaststraw. Earlier this year, Asheville Brewing Company announced that it would no longer use plastic straws and replace them with compostable paper straws. Other Asheville restaurants are using a type of plastic straw that is compostable, according to Ashvegas food writer Stu Helm, who called on local restaurants to do away with plastic straws in a column earlier this year.

-Plastic straws, discarded by the millions, can pose a threat to marine life, reports the New York Times, which notes that New York City is considering banning them. Other groups and cities have declared war on plastic straws. And the European Union is considering a ban on plastic straws and other “single-use plastics.”

-Beer City backlash? A graffiti vandal recently used spray paint to write “No More Breweries” and “Fuck Beer City” across the front of the new One World Brewing location coming together on Haywood Road in West Asheville.

-Starbucks coffee shops across the U.S. and in Asheville are closing early today (Tuesday) so that employees can take part in racial bias training. The move comes after Starbucks employees at a coffee shop in Philadelphia called the police to complain about two black men sitting in a coffee shop, waiting for a meeting and refusing to leave.

-The beloved Joey’s Pancake House reopened last Friday in Maggie Valley under new ownership, BPR News reports.

-Check out the MountainTrue nonprofit’s State of the French Broad River Watershed 2018 report.

-Asheville City Councilman Vijay Kapoor wants his colleagues to reconsider the series of votes they took last week to limit police searches. Kapoor says he wants the motions rescinded and the actions to move through City Council’s normal process for taking action, including going through council’s committee process and offering plenty of opportunity for public comment, Mountain Xpress reports. Here’s the full Ashvegas report on that series of votes, which included a majority of City Council voting to ask the city manager to work with Police Chief Tammy Hooper on a policy to require written consent in certain types of police searches.

-Ben Teague, executive director of the Economic Development Coalition for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, announced last week that he will join Biltmore Farms as a vice president for strategic development. Clark Duncan, who has been managing existing business and industry services for the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville & Buncombe County for the past several years, will take Teague’s post.

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

1 Comment

  1. Kevin May 30, 2018

    I love seeing a ban on straws. But its low hanging fruit. While the pollution they create is considerable globally, they pale in comparison to all other plastics especially the plastic drinking bottle. It’s estimated that in 32 years the ocean will have a higher weight of plastic floating in it that it will weight of sealife. We have to do better than straws. We have to challenge our lifestyles now and understand that the conveniences we all enjoy and take for granted now is only going to lead to tomorrow’s burden. Changes must be made or we don’t deserve this planet.

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