The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the General Assembly will put to bed a bill to confiscate the City of Asheville’s real estate holdings at the Asheville Regional Airport. The bill angered members of city council. At their meeting Tuesday, they batted around ideas about who to contact. Esther Manheimer, who has experience working in Raleigh, said letters were futile. She has long recommended that the city retain a lobbyist. Since time was too short for that, and she considered the bill a done-deal, she recommended negotiating a clause or two to get the city something off its legislative wish list. Her peers did not understand. To their credit, they are too idealist to play politics. According to the article in the Citizen-Times, the FAA provides the authority for the seizure of lands purchased by a local government with tax dollars. State Senator Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) indicated the bill will possibly be roused again in the non-controversial legislative short-session next year.