Starbucks opposition continues
Community opposition to Starbucks Coffee continued in Asheville, NC this week, with another incident of vandalism and more individuals serving free organic coffee in front of the store.

The local Charlotte Street branch of the multinational coffee corporation has been the target of popular opposition since the beginning of its construction earlier last year. Several incidents of vandalism occured while the building was under construction.

On Thurs. Apr. 1, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times, bricks were thrown through four windows on the Charlotte Street-facing side of the building. The incident occurred before the store’s opening, and no one was reported injured. There have been unconfirmed reports of graffiti accompanying the broken windows, although as of press time, the store manager was unavailable for comment. The windows were boarded up shortly after the store opened on that morning.

Several individuals have also been serving free organic coffee on the sidewalk in front of the store for the past two weeks. On Sun., Apr. 4, from 1:00-2:00pm, local protesters were again on the sidewalk serving free coffee and engaging in dialogue with passersby on how Starbucks allegedly harms local economies, supports unfair trade, and contributes to ecological violence. Some would-be customers accepted the free coffee and chose not to patronize the shop, while others proceeded to buy from Starbucks as planned.

The group will be serving free coffee every Sunday afternoon at 12:30 pm. (AGR)

Abuse survivor gets four years for shooting of former boyfriend
Linda Evans, an Asheville, NC, woman accused of shooting her ex-boyfriend to death, was sentenced four to six years in prison on Thurs., Apr. 1. Controversy has surrounded the Evans case, because she claimed the killing was done in self-defense after surviving seven years of abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. Evans had pled guilty to manslaughter on Mon., Mar. 29, just as she was about to be tried for first-degree murder in a retrial of an Oct. 2003 case.

Evans had obtained a restraining order in Nov. 2001, after Wiley Carroll Earley, her former boyfriend, had allegedly been threatening her with repeated death threats over the telephone. However, on the day of the shooting, Evans had brought Earley, a mechanic, to her home to work on her automobile, after which Earley raped her twice. Evans claimed that the shooting was a result of these attacks, out of fear that she would be raped again. According to Evans, Earley threatened to rape her again just before the shooting.

Supporters, organized in part by Our Voice, a local rape and domestic violence advocacy group, stood outside the court house during the trial, protesting the charge of premeditated murder. Prosecutors claimed that because Evans re-loaded the weapon, it was not self-defense.

After the sentencing, Our Voice’s executive director said, “Our Voice supports Linda Evans in her decision to accept voluntary manslaughter charges, and we support her throughout any jail time that she will be doing… In a perfect world we wish she hadn’t had to go through this trial process, because we really believe that self defense is not first degree murder, but that is what happened, and [Our Voice] empowers and supports her in the choice that she made.” (AGR)

Hijack of local anti-war billboard attempted
On Mar. 20, the local peace group Veterans for Peace dedicated a two-piece Iraq billboard memorial at the corner of Hilliard and Lexington Avenues to those killed in the Iraq conflict. One side of the billboard posts the current total of the war dead; the other lists the US dead by name.

On Thurs. Apr. 1, two people using a truck from Lamar Advertising were caught attempting to cover over the billboards with a sign bearing an American flag and stating “Support Our Troops.”

When told that the billboards were private property and not Lamar property, the two quickly backed off and stated that they must have made a mistake and the signs were to go elsewhere. Asheville police were contacted and said they believed that the hijacking was simply “a mistake.” (NC Indymedia)