Help needed in Mission-BCBS fight
 

Help needed in Mission-BCBS fight

To the Editor: The ugly fight between Blue Cross and Mission Hospital has no winners. Thousands of Western North Carolina…
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Rep. Meadows is hung up on the wall
 

Rep. Meadows is hung up on the wall

To the Editor: Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, does a disservice to all Americans, but particularly to legal immigrants, by fanning…
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Disparaging terms are divisive
 

Disparaging terms are divisive

To the Editor: I am growing increasingly weary of hearing and reading the far right’s use of disparaging terms to…
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Living Well: A look at health and fitness in WNC
 

Living Well: A look at health and fitness in WNC

• Creason reflects on 40 years as Jackson's swim teacher• Bodybuilders take natural approach to health, strength• Moss pushes the…
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Bodybuilders take natural approach to health, strength
 

Bodybuilders take natural approach to health, strength

When you can’t find motivation to get up early to hit the gym or can’t find the self-control to avoid…
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Pushing the boundaries with the power of CrossFit
 

Pushing the boundaries with the power of CrossFit

Josh Moss’s professional world revolved around property management and vacation rentals at the time he decided to open a CrossFit…
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Creason reflects on 40 years as Jackson County’s swim teacher
 

Creason reflects on 40 years as Jackson County’s swim teacher

For someone who’s spent decades introducing thousands of children to the joy of swimming, Mike Creason’s relationship with water didn’t…
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Waynesville Yoga Center: Bending over backward for beginners
 

Waynesville Yoga Center: Bending over backward for beginners

Haywood County competes favorably with Buncombe County in a number of areas; while employment, housing, cultural attractions and tourist amenities…
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Diabetes prevention program focuses on families
 

Diabetes prevention program focuses on families

Healthy living is a whole-family affair with the Cherokee Turning Point program, a seven-week course that aims to reach kids…
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A smooth way to start your day
 

A smooth way to start your day

Like salads, smoothies are what you make of them — and you can easily make them into a high-fat, high-calorie…
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Bending and Beer: Yoga teachers reaching broader audience with pints
 

Bending and Beer: Yoga teachers reaching broader audience with pints

Yoga instructors have been trying to convince people for years that the exercise has amazing benefits for everyone, but still…
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Wild Market offers natural solutions
 

Wild Market offers natural solutions

Located amidst the ice cream shops and candy stores in Maggie Valley’s Market Square is a different kind of establishment…
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Jackson health building to be renovated
 

Jackson health building to be renovated

After years of discussion, Jackson County is ready to move forward with plans to address the needs of its aging…
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What’s in the cards? Holdin’ or foldin’ — Haywood economic developers play to win
 

What’s in the cards? Holdin’ or foldin’ — Haywood economic developers play to win

Since late spring, this Smoky Mountain News series on economic development has attempted to define the landscape in which Haywood…
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Pets at Waynesville fests?
 

Pets at Waynesville fests?

If you stick around in local government long enough, you could find yourself considering the repeal of an ordinance that…
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Brunch booze on the menu in Waynesville?
 

Brunch booze on the menu in Waynesville?

After the North Carolina General Assembly’s recent passage of the so-called “brunch bill,” municipal governments in Haywood County have been…
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Sylva revises demonstrations ordinance following Charlottesville violence
 

Sylva revises demonstrations ordinance following Charlottesville violence

The town of Sylva now has new rules governing when and where parades and demonstrations can take place, with revisions…
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Franklin mayor to help lead new mayors group
 

Franklin mayor to help lead new mayors group

Franklin Mayor Bob Scott will help lead a new organization of North Carolina mayors dedicated to improving life in all…
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Franklin officers to carry life-saving drug
 

Franklin officers to carry life-saving drug

The Franklin Town Council recently approved a $700 expense that will allow the town’s police force to be armed with…
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Bryson City applies for sewer improvement grant
 

Bryson City applies for sewer improvement grant

After three failed attempts, the Bryson City Board of Aldermen is once again applying for a Community Development Block Grant…
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Tribal Council candidates speak: Eight incumbents face 16 challengers Sept. 7
 

Tribal Council candidates speak: Eight incumbents face 16 challengers Sept. 7

With the election for Cherokee Tribal Council just one week away, The Smoky Mountain News continues its series profiling the…
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Tribal members announce candidacy for vice chief
 

Tribal members announce candidacy for vice chief

There’s still no guarantee whether a special election will be held to choose the next vice chief of the Eastern…
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Three women arrested for child abduction
 

Three women arrested for child abduction

The Waynesville Police Department responded to the report of a child abduction from Frazier Street Thursday afternoon.
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Comment

Civil War monuments don’t stand a chance
 

Civil War monuments don’t stand a chance

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — Nobel prize winning author William Faulkner This oft-trotted out line from…
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Comment

Eclipse reveals glimmer of unity, and it feels good
 

Eclipse reveals glimmer of unity, and it feels good

I can admit now that by the time the day of the eclipse finally arrived, I was so tired of…
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Comment

Christians will not be silenced
 

Christians will not be silenced

To the Editor: In response to Editor Scott McLeod’s column about public prayers (www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/20540), secular society would like nothing better…
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Comment

Get insurance out of health care
 

Get insurance out of health care

To the Editor: Can we please stop referring to access to health care insurance as “access to health care” and…
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Comment

Don’t let mobs distort history
 

Don’t let mobs distort history

To the Editor: How many times have we heard or said “history repeats itself?” I’d say often regarding everything from…
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Comment

Robert E. Lee deserves respect
 

Robert E. Lee deserves respect

To the Editor: There was a man who was born at Stratford Hall, Virginia, and his boyhood home was in…
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Comment

There’s somethin’ happenin’ here
 

There’s somethin’ happenin’ here

To the Editor: Donald Trump has vowed to build a wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico. He even claims that…
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Comment

Time to enjoy the bounty of your flower garden
 

Time to enjoy the bounty of your flower garden

[Before moving on to the primary subject of this column (yard gardens), I’d like to share some impressions with you…
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Comment

Protecting mountain gold: Balsam uses dye to thwart ginseng poachers
 

Protecting mountain gold: Balsam uses dye to thwart ginseng poachers

Brian McMahan and Johnny Nicholson can both remember boyhood days spent in the mountains, hunting the elusive ginseng plant. Coveted…
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Comment

Fontana algal bloom keeps growing
 

Fontana algal bloom keeps growing

A potentially harmful algal bloom continues to grow in parts of Fontana Lake, and state officials are warning people to…
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Comment

Conservation easement created in Weaverville
 

Conservation easement created in Weaverville

A 310-acre conservation easement has been established at the watershed feeding the Town of Weaverville in Buncombe County, protecting the…
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Comment

New trail established at Grandfather Mountain
 

New trail established at Grandfather Mountain

There is now a new way to access the Profile Trail at Grandfather Mountain State Park in Avery County following…
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Record-breaking hiker embarks on the MST — with kids in tow
 

Record-breaking hiker embarks on the MST — with kids in tow

Having already claimed the record for the fastest thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, Jennifer Pharr Davis, of Asheville, is now…
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Comment

None too likeable characters, but a good story
 

None too likeable characters, but a good story

Alcohol, alcoholism, and alcoholics appear frequently in literature. Shakespeare’s Falstaff is a son of Bacchus. Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder and…
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Comment

Play by your own rules
 

Play by your own rules

An iconic mandolin and fiddle player, Sam Bush has rewritten the game of bluegrass, especially when it comes to live…
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Comment

Balsam Range turns 10 atop IBMA nominations
 

Balsam Range turns 10 atop IBMA nominations

Leading this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association awards with eight nominations, Haywood County group Balsam Range is atop the mountain…
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Comment

Chatham County Line
 

Chatham County Line

Formed in Raleigh in 1999, Chatham County Line has emerged as one of those unique branches of tone and approach…
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Comment

Canton Labor Day: Ricky Skaggs
 

Canton Labor Day: Ricky Skaggs

Throughout the 1980s, Ricky Skaggs was the toast of country music. Twelve #1 hits, eight CMA and ACM awards, a…
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Comment

The ‘Canton Comeback’
 

The ‘Canton Comeback’

When the Town of Canton relaunched its Labor Day Festival a couple years ago, it was in a crucial move…
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Comment

This must be the place: ‘Tired, but wiser for the time’
 

This must be the place: ‘Tired, but wiser for the time’

The trifecta. By this past Monday morning, I was running on fumes heading back to my humble abode in downtown…
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Comment

A monumental issue
 

A monumental issue

Lost in the ugliness of the recent Charlottesville violence is the fact that the demonstration was originally centered around the…
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Comment

Governments across the nation consider removing Confederate monuments
 

Governments across the nation consider removing Confederate monuments

The demonstrations in Charlottesville are already shaping up to be a watershed moment in American history; consequently, local governments across…
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Comment

Eighty-six seconds of sunlessness: Eclipse viewers throng to Clingmans Dome
 

Eighty-six seconds of sunlessness: Eclipse viewers throng to Clingmans Dome

Expectation reigned at Clingmans Dome the morning of Aug. 21 as buses rolled in carrying the 1,325 people lucky enough…
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Comment

Solar eclipse: A day with two sunrises
 

Solar eclipse: A day with two sunrises

Packing to watch the sun disappear felt like packing for work, camping and an emergency evacuation all at once.
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Comment

Solar eclipse: ‘Just wait a while, for the right day’
 

Solar eclipse: ‘Just wait a while, for the right day’

Covered in sweat, I could feel the slight trickle of ice water dripping down my leg.
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Comment

Solar eclipse: Game of chance
 

Solar eclipse: Game of chance

It was like watching the slowest sporting event ever. Spectators with their eyes toward the sky shouted in excitement and…
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Solar eclipse: We shall go on playing
 

Solar eclipse: We shall go on playing

Strange days, as Doors front man Jim Morrison famously sang, have found us.
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