This column wraps up our annual “year in review” series by Asheville Watchdog journalists. So far you’ve heard from:
Watchdog visual journalist Starr Sariego, whose powerful photos and videos captured the images and emotions of our community throughout the year.
Watchdog reporter, opinion columnist, Answer Man, and bon vivant John Boyle, who provided much needed clarity to the murky water situation in Asheville after Helene;
Watchdog investigative reporter Andrew R. Jones, who scooped the news that patients at Mission Hospital were in “immediate jeopardy” of harm or death because of HCA’s failure to comply with basic safety standards;
Watchdog investigative reporter and co-founder Sally Kestin, who described the heartbreak of reporting on “The Lives We Lost” to Helene, the deadliest and most destructive storm to hit our region in more than a century.
Now it’s my turn.
On behalf of Managing Editor Keith Campbell, Executive Director Linda Topp, outside directors Trish Jones and Marta Reese, and all our other volunteers and part-time contractors, it’s my privilege to tell you why Asheville Watchdog itself was one of the year’s happier stories.
Here’s why: Despite a year of much upheaval and distressing trends in the news industry nationwide, The Watchdog continued its trajectory of rapid growthand secured its place as a reliable, sustainable, primary source of important local news for Asheville and Buncombe County.
This is biased reporting, of course. It’s also bragging. But it’s also to provide a peek into the inner workings of The Watchdog. These days, with public trust in the news media at historic lows, I think it’s important that readers get to know us better not just as neighbors but also as a reliable source of impartial, quality news. Here’s my case:
In early 2020 a small group of volunteer retired journalists and news executives launched Asheville Watchdog as a civic experiment, with one big unanswered question: Would the community support quality, in-depth local news, the kind of fearless, independent journalism that other local media were unable, or unwilling, to tackle?
The answer is now clear: Yes.
Here are the facts:
As of this writing, The Watchdog’s front page — www.avlwatchdog.org — has attracted 1.7 million visitors in 2024 (up 150 percent from 2023). People looked to us for reliable news in a tumultuous year.
Those visitors logged 2.9 million pageviews (up 137 percent over 2023), an astonishing number for a four-year-old online-only news organization. In the local market we trail only the long-established WLOS-TV and Asheville Citizen-Times websites, both of which serve much broader geographic areas. Our growth has been consistent and began long before the “Boyle Water Advisories” and Answer Man columns that became must-reads following Helene.
Asheville Watchdog had 1.7 million visitors to its website in 2024 and 2.9 million pageviews. // Source: Jetpack
Nearly every day throughout 2024, the small but feisty Watchdog team delivered important, thought-provoking, and sometimes heart-breaking news to our neighbors — for free, as a public service to the community.
We’ve posted 388 news, opinion columns, and Answer Man columns so far in 2024, hitting our managing editor’s goal of having something fresh and interesting for our readers every day.
To put that in perspective, just two years ago, in 2022, the Watchdog team posted 88 stories.
We were able to hit that story-a-day milestone in 2024 as a direct result of the financial generosity of our readers, which allowed us to hire a staff of full-time professional reporters and managers. More donations = more hiring. More reporters and editors = more stories of interest to you, the reader.
We truly are grassroots, a community-supported venture. Eighty nine percent of The Watchdog’s annual funding comes from individual donors.
The remainder of our revenue comes from our grants, including through NewsMatch, which until midnight tonight (hint, hint) will match dollar-for-dollar new donations of up to $1,000.
The Watchdog’s journalism team consists of two paid full-time reporters (Boyle and Jones) and a full-time paid managing editor (Campbell), and a visual journalist (Sariego) plus our core team of unpaid, part-time volunteers including Pulitzer Prize winners Fiedler, and John Maines, and Emmy and Murrow award-winner Michelle Feuer.
We also welcomed Michelle Keegan as a part-time marketing and development director. To keep our website and databases humming and secure, we hired contractors Jason Reed and Logan Venderlic.
The Watchdog’s three volunteer co-founders — former Tribune Publishing Co. vice president Bob Gremillion, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Kestin, and former New York Times reporter/editor me — were honored in 2024 as recipients of the Leadership Asheville Forum’s “Circle of Excellence” award for “outstanding and dedicated service to the community.”
We also collected in 2024 the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism for our 2023 four-part investigation of Asheville’s $3 billion tourism industry and its effects on the community. Kestin conceived the series, and teamed with Jones, Boyle, Sariego, and Campbell to produce the national award-winning series.
In 2024 we also said “happy second retirement” to original Watchdog volunteer reporter Barbara Durr (UNCA turmoil, Silver Tsunami), and former Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter John Reinan (artists priced out of River Arts District, legal cannabis). Thank you for your service.
Happily, The Watchdog’s annual revenue grew a bit faster than our expenses in 2024, which will allow us to add another full-time investigative reporter to our paid staff in 2025. Stay tuned.
Although we’re sometimes described as professional cynics, in reality most journalists are optimists; we do what we do because we think we can make a positive difference in the community. Our ability to do that — through our rigorously reported and fact-checked journalism — is imperiled by an incoming president who has repeatedly threatened to punish a free, independent press for doing its Constitutionally protected job.
We won’t back down. Strong, local journalism is more important than ever. Thanks to the support of the community, The Watchdog looks forward to 2025 full of hope and determination.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Peter H. Lewis is The Watchdog’s executive editor and a former senior writer and editor at The New York Times. Contact him at plewis@avlwatchdog.org.To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-01 08:16:00
(The Center Square) – Taxpayers in North Carolina will face an average tax increase of $2,382 if the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires at the end of the year, says the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
Results of analysis were released Thursday morning by the nonprofit organization billing itself a “nonpartisan research and educational affiliate of the National Taxpayers Union.” Its four state neighbors were similar, with South Carolina lower ($2,319) and higher averages in Virginia ($2,787), Georgia ($2,680) and Tennessee ($2,660).
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of eight years ago was a significant update to individual and business taxes in the federal tax code. According to the Tax Foundation, it was considered pro-growth reform with an estimate to reduce federal revenue by $1.47 trillion over a decade.
Should no action be taken before Jan. 1 and the act expire, the federal standard deduction would be halved; the federal child tax credit would decrease; higher federal tax brackets would return; the federal estate tax threshold will be lower; and some business tax benefits will be gone.
The foundation, in summarizing the impact on North Carolina business expensing, says the state conforms to Section 168(k). This means “only 60% expensing for business investments this year and less in future years. State policymakers could adopt 100% full expensing, particularly since the state conforms to the Section 163(j) limit on interest expense and the two provisions were meant to work together.”
The foundation says business net operation loss treatment policies in the state “are less generous than the federal government and impose compliance costs due to lack of synchronization with the federal code and are uncompetitive with most other states.”
The National Taxpayers Union Foundation also says lawmakers “should at least be conscious of any retroactive provisions when selecting their date of fixed conformity.” North Carolina is among 21 states conforming to the federal income tax base “only as of a certain date” rather than automatically matching federal tax code changes – meaning definitions, calculations or rules.
The foundation said nationally the average filer will see taxes raised $2,955. It estimates an increase for 62% of Americans. The biggest average increases by state are in Massachusetts ($4,848), Washington ($4,567) and Wyoming ($4,493) and the lowest are in West Virginia ($1,423), Mississippi ($1,570) and Kentucky ($1,715).
Individual wages, nationally, are expected to go down 0.5%, reducing economic growth by 1.1% over 10 years.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
The content primarily reports on the potential impact of the expiration of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, relying heavily on analysis from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, which describes itself as a nonpartisan organization but is known to advocate for lower taxes and limited government intervention, positions typically aligned with center-right economic policies. The article uses neutral language in presenting facts and data and does not explicitly advocate for a particular political viewpoint; however, the emphasis on tax increases and business expensing challenges following the expiration suggests a subtle alignment with pro-tax-cut, business-friendly perspectives associated with center-right ideology. Thus, while the article largely reports rather than overtly promotes an ideological stance, the framing and source choice reflect a center-right leaning.
www.thecentersquare.com – By David Beasley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-30 21:25:00
(The Center Square) – Authorization of sports agents to sign North Carolina’s collegiate athletes for “name, image, and likeness” contracts used in product endorsements is in legislation approved Wednesday by a committee of the state Senate.
Authorize NIL Agency Contracts, known also as Senate Bill 229, is headed to the Rules Committee after gaining favor in the Judiciary Committee. It would likely next get a full floor vote.
Last year the NCAA approved NIL contracts for players.
Sen. Amy S. Galey, R-Alamance
NCLeg.gov
“Athletes can benefit from NIL by endorsing products, signing sponsorship deals, engaging in commercial opportunities and monetizing their social media presence, among other avenues,” the NCAA says on its website. “The NCAA fully supports these opportunities for student-athletes across all three divisions.”
SB229 spells out the information that the agent’s contract with the athlete must include, and requires a warning to the athlete that they could lose their eligibility if they do not notify the school’s athletic director within 72 hours of signing the contract.
“Consult with your institution of higher education prior to entering into any NIL contract,” the says the warning that would be required by the legislation. “Entering into an NIL contract that conflicts with state law or your institution’s policies may have negative consequences such as loss of athletic eligibility. You may cancel this NIL agency contract with 14 days after signing it.”
The legislation also exempts the NIL contracts from being disclosed under the state’s Open Records Act when public universities review them. The state’s two ACC members from the UNC System, Carolina and N.C. State, requested the exemption.
“They are concerned about disclosure of the student-athlete contracts when private universities don’t have to disclose the student-athlete contracts,” Sen. Amy Galey, R-Alamance, told the committee. “I feel very strongly that a state university should not be put at a disadvantage at recruitment or in program management because they have disclosure requirements through state law.”
Duke and Wake Forest are the other ACC members, each a private institution.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article primarily reports on the legislative development regarding NIL (name, image, and likeness) contracts for collegiate athletes in North Carolina. It presents facts about the bill, committee actions, and includes statements from a state senator without using loaded or emotionally charged language. The piece neutrally covers the issue by explaining both the bill’s purpose and the concerns it addresses, such as eligibility warnings and disclosure exemptions. Overall, the article maintains a factual and informative tone without advocating for or against the legislation, reflecting a centrist, unbiased approach.
SUMMARY: Donald van der Vaart, a former North Carolina environmental secretary and climate skeptic, has been appointed to the North Carolina Utilities Commission by Republican Treasurer Brad Briner. Van der Vaart, who previously supported offshore drilling and fracking, would oversee the state’s transition to renewable energy while regulating utility services. His appointment, which requires approval from the state House and Senate, has drawn opposition from environmental groups. Critics argue that his views contradict clean energy progress. The appointment follows a controversial bill passed by the legislature, granting the treasurer appointment power to the commission.
