I’m guessing most of my beer guzzling friends have already – but just in case – go to www.stopthencbeertax.com and sign the petition to stop North Carolina – already with the 4th highest state beer tax – from raising taxes even higher.

For more info, check out these articles below:

• http://donttaxourbeer.com/pages/beer.html
• http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/n_c_has_fourth_highest_beer_tax
• http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/jul/02/012030/new-beer-tax-hard-to-swallow/opinion/
• http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2008/05/12/daily6.html?f=et85&ana=du_B

You can help prevent this; please sign this in support of  the protection of our mountain streams and improving water quality with additional stream side vegetation. Read more about the issue below & help spread the word!

From RiverLink.org

The amount of failing streams in the French Broad River Watershed has increased by 75% in the last two years and the City of Asheville is proposing rules that would reduce one of the most vital protections for the river. Stream side vegetation is currently protected to prevent harmful pollution from entering the river. The proposed rules would reduce those protections and leave the French Broad River vulnerable to further water quality decline.

There is a proposal under consideration by the City of Asheville to reduce stream side protections throughout Asheville. This change refers to changes of the stormwater ordinance buffer rules. The current ordinance specifies 30ft buffers on all mapped streams and the new rule would be very convoluted and confusing. It is based on slope, disturbed area, and stream type. It would be too confusing to enforce, too confusing for many developers to understand and ultimately a reduction for the protection of our streams.

With the water quality of streams getting worse throughout the state, many other communities are increasing the stream side protections in response to this threat. Communities like Hendersonville, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Charlotte, and dozens of other NC towns have 50ft vegetative setbacks, but Asheville is considering reducing their protections down to 8 and 10ft in many circumstances. This is the wrong proposal at the wrong time. Asheville should be leading way not heading in the other direction.

You can also read more information and stay up to date at RiverLink.org

See page 13-14 of the proposed stormwater ordinance for the new buffer chart…
http://www.ashevillenc.gov/uploadedFiles/Residents/Public_Services/Stormwater/ProposedRevisedStormwaterOrdinance.pdf

Click the link below for scientific studies on buffers…

NC Wildlife Resource Buffer Guidelines

Literature Review on Buffer Widths

Buffer Cost Benefit

Buffer Guidebook

Buffer Fact Sheet

~ CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION ~

It’s no secret that broadband speeds in North Carolina are a bit behind the times. For that matter, the U.S. as a whole is shamefully slow compared to much of the world. With broadband customers in places like the French Alps getting speeds of 6Mbps down and close to 1Mbps up for about $40, and J:COM customers in Japan with access to 160Mbps service, you’d think that getting the same here would be easy. But luckily for us, companies like Time Warner Inc. and Embarq are doing what they can to make sure that doesn’t happen.

DailyTech has an article up about a current battle for service between big cable and the town of Wilson, NC. Time Warner Inc. has, until recently, been pushing a ‘metered’ service – selling the interwebs to you by the bit. While they have seemingly caught on from the backlash that this wasn’t going to fly so well – now they’re making sure customers’ city-provided service in Wilson, NC doesn’t fly either. Wilson’s Greenlight Inc. started offering 100Mbps service, coupled with phone and cable TV package prices that significantly beat Time Warner Inc. and Embarq’s offerings. But instead of competing with more comparable services, the two big cable companies decided to whine to the government.

Rather than admit defeat to the pesky local service and go quietly, Time Warner Inc. and Embarq decided to take the fight to the state government, lobbying for several years to get the state government to pass laws to try to destroy the local effort.  And sure enough, thanks to a lot of hard work (and money), the cable companies are close to getting their wish — North Carolina’s State Senate have proposed bills to not only effectively crippling or banning the local service, but also to prevent such services from getting funds under the broadband portion of the national Stimulus law.

So next time you have to call your cable or DSL company for something that they enevitably screwed up themselves – go ahead – get in a little quality bitch time and let ‘em know how you really feel. And maybe ask them why they’re service is slower than rural France.