Felicia Sonmez
Growth and Development ReporterFelicia Sonmez is a reporter covering growth and development for Blue Ridge Public Radio.
Prior to joining BPR, Felicia worked for more than a dozen years as a print journalist, including as a national political reporter for The Washington Post. From 2013 to 2018, she was based in Beijing, where she worked as a China correspondent for the international wire service Agence France-Presse and as an editor for The Wall Street Journal. She also spent a year in advanced Chinese language study as a Blakemore Fellow at Tsinghua University.
A native of Hackensack, New Jersey, Felicia graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Government. She loves hiking, backpacking and listening to live music. She is the proud owner of a tuxedo cat named Yogurt.
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The effort stems from the partial government shutdown, which has made TSA workers go without pay for more than a month. -
The projects include sewer lines in Ashe County, stormwater drainage in Jackson County, and infrastructure upgrades in Caldwell and Mitchell counties.
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The governor emphasized the economic benefits of tourism, noting that visitors spent nearly $37 billion in the state in 2024 alone. -
The county’s population has boomed in recent decades — but some parts of its infrastructure, especially sidewalks, haven’t kept pace with the growth. -
More than 2.24 million passengers traveled through AVL last year, in the latest marker of Western North Carolina’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene. -
Incumbent Chuck Edwards and farmer Jamie Ager will face off in the midterm election for the congressional seat that represents most of Western North Carolina. -
The region has been selected as one of 10 pilot communities for a national initiative called Right at Home. -
The meeting of G20 finance leaders is scheduled for late August and early September. -
In interviews, more than a dozen voters and local Democratic Party officials expressed a mixture of alarm and optimism ahead of the March 3 primary. -
The selection of Asheville “reflects the Trump Administration’s commitment to the revitalization and resilience of western North Carolina,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
