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Health insurance may disappear under GOP To the Editor: It makes no difference if you support the current administration or…
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Celebration crashers
My bride and I celebrated our anniversary by ditching the kids and renting a cabin near Blue Ridge, Ga., for…
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WOW releases 2019 charity calendar
WOW has produced a semi-nude calendar featuring its own members for seven years and all proceeds go toward the nonprofit’s…
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Nevertheless, she persisted
Almost two years ago, I traveled to Iowa with a close friend of mine. We visited her hometown to see…
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The real problem in Haywood’s tax office
Haywood County GOP leaders last week took the podium at a public meeting and proceeded to act as shills for…
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Mountains at a running pace
Andrew Shepherd has only been a runner for about two years. But when he took up the hobby, he was…
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MST birthday weekend logs 2,700 miles
An initial tally shows that 434 hikers cumulatively covered 2,756 miles of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail during its birthday weekend Sept.…
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Haywood tourism continues to grow
The fiscal year for Haywood County’s Tourism Development Authority ended June 30, and now that all the data are in,…
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Cherokee widens window for election law changes
Tribal Council extended its deadline to complete a slew of amendments to its election ordinance with a unanimous vote during…
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Pretrial release program comes to Western NC
Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, Haywood and Jackson counties will be the first judicial district in the state to pilot a…
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District Attorney under fire for ‘mishandling’ cases
District Attorney Ashley Welch doesn’t have an opponent in the 2018 election, but an online petition to remove her from…
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Jackson schools see gains and losses in school performance
Jackson County Schools showed mostly level performance over last year with the release of statewide school performance data for 2017-18…
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Bridge over Lake Junaluska now open
The bridge over the Lake Junaluska dam is now open to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. All are invited to attend…
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Waynesville mayor takes plea deal in forgery case
Waynesville attorney Gavin Brown pled guilty Sept. 18 to two felony counts stemming from an incident in which he forged…
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Obamacare navigator funding eliminated
Jan Plummer is the Obamacare Navigator program coordinator at Mountain Projects, but probably not for much longer. Unsurprisingly, after a…
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Workforce housing coming to Sylva
Work will begin next year on a new apartment complex in Sylva aimed at providing housing rates affordable to working-class…
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Community comes together to offer veterans services
It’s no secret homelessness across the region is a problem, but as in most parts of the country, it’s a…
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Chimney Rock reopens
Chimney Rock State Park is now reopen, complete with a working elevator, after a tough year that included extensive damage…
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National park volunteers receive regional recognition
Great Smoky Mountains National Park volunteers received regional recognition through the George and Helen Hartzog Awards Program for Outstanding Volunteers…
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Live animal programs offered for schools
Schools and other educational organizations in Western North Carolina have the opportunity to bring wildlife education programs to their home…
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Golf tourney a win for charity
The Maggie Valley Lions Club raised more than $10,000 for local charities with its 10th annual Golf Tournament and Silent…
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This must be the place: I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the earth began
It will mark 1,000 days straight. This past Tuesday, I will have gone for a run 1,000 days in-a-row. “The…
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Woman injured in bear encounter
A Swannanoa woman sustained serious, though non-life-threatening, injuries Tuesday, Sept. 18, after an encounter with a black bear.
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Haywood Schools wants you to help plan future
When Dr. Bill Nolte was promoted to superintendent of Haywood County Schools this past summer, one of the first things…
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Elders and Woody vie for Jackson County Commission seat
Jackson County Commissioner Charles Elders is seeking a fourth term in office this campaign season, but challenger Gayle Woody is hoping election results will instead seat her for a first term.
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A mile-high view: State-level squabble stalls Jackson County conservation project
To call the view stretching out below the 5,462-foot bald “spectacular,” “impressive” or even “jaw-dropping” would be an understatement. It…
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Man found dead in Smokies after two-day search
A man and a bear are dead following an ill-fated ginseng hunt in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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Mis-identifying mushrooms is a risky mistake
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Smoky Mountain News in September 2004. The cool and humid forests and…
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God’s broadcasting station — the great outdoors
When I taught homeschool seminars in Latin, history, and literature in Asheville, I would wait for a cold spell in…
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A love so full it could send us all ways: A conversation with Gavin Rossdale
In the mid-1990s, just as the raucous nature of the grunge scene in the United States was hitting its peak,…
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In my life, I’ve loved them all
With the massive rainfall from Tropical Storm Florence on Sunday, my truck carefully navigated its way through deep puddles and…
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SCC grad receives prestigious award
Although Yesenia Navarro grew up with few material possessions, she always believed one catalyst for change was within her grasp…
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It’s OK to not be OK: Suicide prevention takes center stage at Folkmoot
Imagine this — you’re atop a hundred-story building, and it’s on fire. As the flames and smoke close in, you…
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Tax cut has not trickled down
To the Editor: Today the American economy is strong. The percentage of American unemployed is down, the Dow Jones industrial…
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It is too late for Kavanaugh
By Hannah McLeod • Guest Columnist The vote to approve Brett Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court of…
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Acknowledging differences and embracing brotherhood
For many years, I thought of myself as one of Flannery O’Connor’s “Christ-haunted” characters, living my life in a kind…
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Florence’s gas gouging passes WNC
While Hurricane Florence spared much of The Smoky Mountain News coverage area when it rolled through the region last week,…
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Haywood detective fired for theft
The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office has requested the assistance of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to conduct a…
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Political or not, Haywood tax collector issue won’t go away
More than a year after a contentious public comment session during which the Haywood County Board of Commissioners weighed the…
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WCU chancellor search resumes
While the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors has yet to release a revised search process for Western Carolina…
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Housing shuffle planned at WCU
Student housing at Western Carolina University will see a massive shuffle over the coming years as university leadership looks to…
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Allegations of fraud, failure haunt Ghost Town developer
For months, Valerie Oberle has been the public face of the three-person partnership supposedly taking shape at the long-shuttered Ghost…
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We need to know more about HCA’s plans
By Bob Scott • Guest Columnist The proposed Mission/HCA sale could be the most significant event — negative or positive…
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Macon sheriff candidate gets Giglio order
Accusations of dishonesty and inappropriate behavior lodged against Macon County sheriff candidate Eric Giles have led the district attorney’s office…
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Cherokee from the heart: Beloved Woman reflects on a wandering life rooted in Cherokee language
If anyone ever had an excuse to leave her hometown and never return, it would be Myrtle Driver Johnson. Born…
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State of emergency in Haywood, Canton, Maggie Valley
Early on Sept. 14, a flurry of press releases from Haywood County, the Town of Maggie Valley and the Town…
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Hurricane Florence resources for Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina may not be over-“Flo”-ing with water just yet, but the region is awash in information about available…
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As the buckeyes fall, I await my old friend
The sounds, the feel of the coming fall is always comforting, like reconnecting with an old and dear friend. It…
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My mission: outer order, inner calm
My name is Susanna and I am terribly unorganized. I’m not a messy person or a hoarder, just disorganized. My…
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