Spoof Awards 2021: Better Late Than Never Award
As the late, great rocker Tom Petty once opined, “The waiting is the hardest part,” and it sure seemed that…
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: The Person of the Year Award
This year was a challenging year in so many ways, but that was especially true in Western North Carolina.
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: The Mr. Congeniality Award
And what a year it was for Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers.
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: The WTF Award
The first-ever award for mismanaging and destroying a longstanding community institution goes to … that longstanding community institution itself.
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: Sashay My Way Award
When legendary Drag Queen RuPaul kicks a queen off his reality tv show for up and coming drag queens, he…
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: Most Likely to Get My Vote Award
The winner of this year’s “most likely to get my vote award,” goes to John Hinton. While other politicians seem…
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: The Carpetbagger Award
As if Henderson County native David Madison Cawthorn’s meteoric rise to fame wasn’t surprising enough, Cawthorn’s Nov. 11 announcement that…
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: Good Sport Award (a.k.a. Bullsh*t Award)
All teachers everywhere are recipients of the Bullsh*t Award every year for what they have to put up with, whether…
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: Woke Citizens Award
Cullowhee Valley School stole the running for the Woke Citizens Award when it voted to retire its outdated Rebel mascot,…
Read More
Spoof Awards 2021: The Winter of Our Discontent Award
After 27 years of loyal service to the Main Street merchant community in Waynesville, Wall Street Books got booted. The…
Read More
Grandfather Mountain animal habitats prepare for winter
Trimming a tree for the holidays? So are Grandfather Mountain’s resident elk. Each year, the resident animals at Grandfather Mountain receive…
Read More
‘I’ve just never seen water that angry’
By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | Poet T.S. Eliot wrote that there’s something about growing up beside a…
Read More
Haywood Eye Care celebrates 70 years
Haywood Family Eye Care has been a fixture of eye care in Western North Carolina for nearly 70 years.
Read More
Omicron spreading fast
Haywood County Public Health has received notice of 120 new cases of COVID-19 in the last week compared to 156…
Read More
Haywood Rotary Clubs deliver Christmas boxes
Members from three Rotary Clubs in Haywood County delivered 651 Christmas dinner boxes Dec. 21 to local families. The Christmas…
Read More
Incarcerated at Christmas: Swain inmates thankful for family visitations
Swain County Detention Center became a place of reunions and redemption during the last few weeks as inmates had their…
Read More
Congress ends EBCI challenge to Catawba casino
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ last hope for stopping the Catawba Indian Nation from building a casino in North…
Read More
WCU trustees approve athletics fee hike
The Western Carolina University Board of Trustees voted unanimously during its Dec. 3 meeting to recommend a schedule of fees…
Read More
Swain County Schools faces recruitment, retention obstacles
In the midst of the third school year affected by COVID-19, school systems are keenly aware of the stress the…
Read More
Public hearing slated for RV moratorium in Maggie
Maggie Valley Town Hall was packed Tuesday evening for the regular December Board of Aldermen meeting. This was the first…
Read More
Franklin Town Council fills vacant seat
Adam Kimsey will join the Franklin Town Council after the board unanimously appointed him to fill a two-year unexpired term.
Read More
New Report Sounds Alarm on Affordable Housing — Again
By Barbara Durr • Asheville Watchdog | This story was originally published by Asheville Watchdog, an independent nonprofit news team serving Asheville…
Read More
Cherokee gaming LLC to expand its reach
The company the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians formed earlier this year to purchase Caesar’s Southern Indiana Casino hopes to…
Read More
Emergency shelter operations conclude in Haywood
Haywood County’s emergency shelter operations for Tropical Storm Fred survivors have concluded this week, four months after sheltering first began…
Read More
Ghost Town developer pleads his case
Ghost Town developer Frankie Wood made his case to members of the Maggie Valley business community during a presentation at…
Read More
Herrons offer home to family that lost everything
By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | For Ed Herron, childhood at Lake Junaluska in the 1960s was idyllic.…
Read More
Operation Medicine Drop
North Carolina created Operation Medicine Drop to help people safely dispose of medications and prescription drugs. A series of locations…
Read More
Cherokee passes casino smoking ban
Casinos in Cherokee and Murphy will be permanently smoke-free following a majority vote from Tribal Council Dec. 9, codifying a…
Read More
Jackson declares Darrell Woodard Day of Service
Jackson County and the Town of Sylva have officially declared Dec. 10 as Darrell Woodard Day of Service.
Read More
Plea agreement delayed in Sylva man’s Jan. 6 case
Lewis Easton Cantwell, a Sylva resident facing charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building, was…
Read More
Cashiers-Glenville recreation plan approved
Jackson County commissioners have approved a Cashiers-Glenville Recreation Center Master Plan that will include the construction of a splash pad…
Read More
Nikwasi story told in traveling Smithsonian exhibit
The history of the Nikwasi Mound in Franklin will soon be part of a Smithsonian Museum traveling exhibit that will…
Read More
Cherokee supports Nikwasi grant effort
Tribal Council voted Dec. 9 to support the Nikwasi Initiative’s efforts to land $5 million in grant funds for a…
Read More
Cawthorn’s Uncivil War
Congressman’s invasion into new district is triggering an intra-party reckoning By TOM FIEDLER | When Madison Cawthorn revealed his plan to…
Read More
Relief funds aim to keep up with difficulties in schools
Just after the Coronavirus Pandemic broke out in the United States in March of 2020, the CARES Act was signed…
Read More
Regional honors given to Haywood community groups
The WNC Honors Awards, a program of WNC Communities, is built on a 72-year tradition of recognizing rural community development…
Read More
COVID-19 cases rise following holiday
In the week since the last press release, Haywood County Public Health has received notice of 170 new cases of COVID-19, doubling…
Read More
Grant will allow Jackson to expand Pre-K
When Dr. Dana Ayers became Superintendent of Jackson County Public Schools in June 2021, two of her top priorities were…
Read More
Supreme Court suspends candidate filing, moves 2022 Primary
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended candidate filing for all offices for the 2022 primary election.
Read More
‘Snuffed Out’: Unannounced dam release covers Oconaluftee in sediment
It was around 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 4, when Ken Brown’s phone started lighting up with photo texts depicting…
Read More
Rescue funds to assist local governments
Signed by President Joe Biden on March 17, 2021, the American Rescue Plan will provide $1.88 trillion in federal funds…
Read More
Students visit Hazel Creek
Eighth-grade students from Mountain Discovery Charter School in Bryson City went on a five-day and four-night backpacking up Hazel Creek.
Read More
WCU master plan: The focus areas
If the proposed master plan is adopted, over the coming years the university will focus its development efforts on five…
Read More
Ten years ahead: WCU trustees mull master plan proposal
At a board retreat this month, Western Carolina University trustees got their first look at a draft proposed 10-year master…
Read More
Sylva still undecided on ARP projects
Sylva is slated to receive a total of $880,000 in American Rescue Plan funds, but the town has not yet…
Read More
Jackson uses ARP money to assist nonprofits
The American Rescue Plan, signed into law March 6, allocated $350 billion for state and local relief in response to…
Read More
Census tract limits Swain’s options for ARP spending
Swain County Board of Commissioners voted to spend its American Rescue Plan allocation on pay for employees since a guideline…
Read More
Bryson City approves one-time bonuses
Bryson City Council approved premium pay for 32 employees during a Dec. 6 board of aldermen meeting.
Read More
Franklin approves premium pay policy
Franklin Town Council has agreed on how to spend $73,000 of the town’s $1.3 million allocation from the American Rescue…
Read More
Macon uses rescue funds to increase employee pay
Macon County decided early on to invest all of its American Rescue Plan allocation toward county employees.
Read More
