Pam Bunch

Women in North Carolina have made significant social and economic advances in recent decades, but the need for further progress remains. Many of North Carolina’s women are vulnerable to challenges such as unemployment, a persistent wage gap, poverty, and the high cost of child care. In addition, women in the state experience stubborn disparities in opportunities and outcomes—disparities that exist among women of different race and ethnic groups as well as among women from various geographic areas within the state.

President Eisenhower was a war hero as well as a President. But how many of us can really remember hearing anything much about his two terms as President of the United States? Author Evan Thomas turns the lights on a President in the vein of John Wayne: Tough, but a man who worked mostly behind the scenes using surrogates to act on his behalf. It was all a part of his two-term struggle to never tell anyone what he was really thinking about pending wars, the use of the nuclear weapon, his compassion and understanding of how the world really works, and his long-term serious illnesses.

North Carolina has staked its claim as the state where the real first gold rush took place. The documentary entitled "Gold Fever and the Bechtler Mint" was filmed in Rutherford County and other locations across the state, and was produced and directed by UNC-TV's Scott Davis. The movie tells the story of the Bechtler Mint during the years when North Carolina was the major gold-mining state, and of Christopher Bechtler of Rutherfordton, who, in 1832, minted the first one-dollar gold coin in the nation - 17 years before the U.S. Mint.

For many,  education is a necessity to start a new career, to move up the ladder in your current career or even just for fun. Community Colleges have become the hub of that type of learning in North Carolina – as well as other states – and the perfect place to start can be through Continuing Education. For example, I first saw an e-mail from Marnie Beaver here at Isothermal Community College about a class called 'Creating Mobile Apps with HTML5'.  I was literally blown away.

  With every single day, there is another news story about this candidate or that candidate, this political ad or that one, this lie or that one and, yes, even this truth or that one.

 With so much coverage during any election, is it any wonder that most of us just want to tune it all out?         

In the third in a series discussing the variety of entertainment available all around us here in Western North Carolina, I took a look at Chapman Cultural Center, just across the border in Spartanburg, SC.  Each of the previous offerings has been different in the types of entertainment offered, for whom the entertainment is selected, and,  in the case of the Chapman Cultural Center, the fact that it is possible to bring together an entire county's worth of organizations under one giant umbrella.

  The new season of arts and cultural events is here, and in my second of a series of examples of what is available in our coverage area, I'm speaking with Lori Davis of Arts and Cultural Events - or ACE - in Culowhee at Western Carolina University. Although located at a college - like my first example, The Foundation Performing Arts Center - ACE is different in that WCU is a university that is known for its arts and cultural programs.

Open Hearts Art Center is one of the most quiet organizations in Asheville. The fact that I had never heard of it before I was contacted about doing a story on the organization is no real surprise.  Sometimes when I get going in one direction, I miss everything that happens around me.  But it seems I'm not the only person who hasn't heard about Open Hearts and all of the wonderful, exciting things these folks do for 'differently-abled' adults from ages 18 to 70-something.