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 film presents new revelations about the life of Masa, a photographer whose work in the 1920s and ‘30s played a key role in protecting the Great Smoky Mountains and the Appalachian Trail. -
Lew Bleiweis, the airport’s president and CEO, said the new facility is a crucial part of the airport’s $400 million expansion. -
The twisting, turning stretch of railway known as the Old Fort Loops runs about 13 miles between Old Fort and Swannanoa. It sustained heavy damage during Helene. -
Additional closures will take place in early May, with exact dates and detour information to be announced. -
Langfitt was in Asheville this week to speak to the World Affairs Council of Western North Carolina — and stopped by the BPR studios to talk about his years as a foreign correspondent. -
Western North Carolina’s most populous county lost residents last year after more than two decades of steady growth. -
The project is already in the federal government’s pipeline. The big question now is how local governments will fund their part of it. -
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.
