The county planning board gave approval on the condition that a more adequate plan for the subdivisions fire protection, water and sewer services be ready by the time developers seek Phase 1 approval. The farm has been quarantined as a precaution and none of the hogs has entered the food supply, according to state officials. Asheville is besieged by wealthy people, who, having ruined their own landscapes, feel the need to move here for pristine views, skies and the power of our mountains,...

Along the colonial-era stone streets where striking teachers paralyzed this city nearly a year ago declaring themselves the acting government there are now weddings, foot races and outdoor markets. The shady plaza that served as a shanty-town headquarters for a seven-month insurrection is a now a place where musicians strum guitars, children chase balloons and couples steal private moments. Trouble started last May and intensified in June after state police violently challenged the...

TOM Parker Bowles describes himself as a "rather windy, five-foot-eleven-and-a-half toff" who would "baulk at chewing on placenta or pig's bollocks" But none matches the sea slugs, insects, raw tripe, blowfish and dog delicacies tasted during research for his latest book, The Year of Eating Dangerously. And yet, looking at it from the other side, if you've grown up eating insects there's nothing odd about it -- it's perfectly normal. It's a cheap, sustainable form of protein that is...

The working draft of the proposed ordinance now refers to any camelid or hooved animal such as cattle, bison, swine, goats, sheep, llamas, horses, ponies, donkeys, mules and other hooved animals. Previously, the selectmen had discussed whether a definition of livestock should include poultry, large birds or even bees. The newest version of the proposed law would ban the keeping of such a hooved animal on a lot less than half an acre in the downtown area. The Board of Selectmen inched...

Over the centuries, strange lights were seen in the woods along Mary Dunn Road, so named for a former slave who lived along this route and who was burned to death in 1850 in her little cottage half-way between Hyannis and Barnstable on the Indian Trail according to historian Donald G. Over the centuries, strange lights were seen in the woods along Mary Dunn Road, so named for a former slave who lived along this route and who was burned to death in 1850 in her little cottage half-way...