Finding meaning in a disordered world
 

Finding meaning in a disordered world

Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option: A Strategy For Christians In A Post-Christian Nation (Penguin Random House, 2017, 255 pages) has…
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Knowing your neighbors: Vecinos health program is a bridge between migrant workers and the outside community
 

Knowing your neighbors: Vecinos health program is a bridge between migrant workers and the outside community

Whittier has been home to Elda Chafoya DePaz and her three children for less than a year, but it’s not…
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Coleman pleads guilty to murder
 

Coleman pleads guilty to murder

Tony Alan Coleman, 52, of Waynesville, recently pled guilty as charged to murder and felony child abuse in the death…
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Mine safety training saves a life
 

Mine safety training saves a life

Wresting huge chunks of granite from a hillside is inherently dangerous work, but the safety training provided at one Waynesville…
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Franklin to offer outdoor family movies
 

Franklin to offer outdoor family movies

Families will be able to enjoy free outdoor movies in Franklin in the next couple of months thanks to a…
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Haywood Tax Assessor to retire
 

Haywood Tax Assessor to retire

After 19 years with county government, former Haywood County Tax Collector and current Haywood County Tax Assessor/Solid Waste Administrator David…
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Haywood tax collections up
 

Haywood tax collections up

Haywood County Tax Collector Mike Matthews told the Haywood County Board of County Commissioners Aug. 7 that preliminary tax collection…
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Best use for Franklin property still being debated
 

Best use for Franklin property still being debated

The town of Franklin has been sitting on a valuable piece of land for more than 12 years and still…
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Back to the water: Friends, family remember Bryson City Olympian
 

Back to the water: Friends, family remember Bryson City Olympian

Adam Clawson of Bryson City spent some of his best days on the water. At 8 years old, he tied…
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Tribal Council approves special election
 

Tribal Council approves special election

Cherokee came one step closer last week to having a special election to fill the vacant vice chief’s seat, but…
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Antique toy museum moves into Cowee School
 

Antique toy museum moves into Cowee School

Jim Geary has been collecting toys since he was a boy in 1950. The fascination and hobby that has stuck…
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Cherokee approves needle exchange program
 

Cherokee approves needle exchange program

A needle exchange program will likely be underway in Cherokee by the end of the year following Tribal Council’s unanimous…
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Haywood Republicans boot Miller
 

Haywood Republicans boot Miller

High political drama — the likes of which is not often seen in rural counties — came to a head…
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Veterans’ seminars have ‘beneficial impact’
 

Veterans’ seminars have ‘beneficial impact’

Asheville Republican Congressman Mark Meadows hosted his fourth annual Veterans’ Solutions Seminar in Waynesville last week, and judging by the…
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Meadows gets an earful at town hall
 

Meadows gets an earful at town hall

A boisterous crowd in a packed auditorium on the campus of Blue Ridge Community College engaged in a lively two-hour…
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Roundabout: YES swings through WNC
 

Roundabout: YES swings through WNC

Spanning over six decades, British prog-rock act YES were recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Although…
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Reckless hikers should pay for rescue
 

Reckless hikers should pay for rescue

To the Editor: I read about the rescue at Yellowstone Falls in the July 26 edition of The Smoky Mountain…
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Immigration laws need enforcing
 

Immigration laws need enforcing

To the Editor: This is in response to Mr. Paul Strop’s letter from the June 7 issue. There is a…
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Franklin 4th of July a huge success
 

Franklin 4th of July a huge success

To the Editor: On behalf of the Franklin Chamber of Commerce, I would like to thank those who helped to…
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High-speed enforcement too dangerous
 

High-speed enforcement too dangerous

To the Editor: The recent accident involving a state trooper and the elderly couple near Balsam was a tragedy for…
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Mission’s plea falls on deaf ears
 

Mission’s plea falls on deaf ears

To the Editor: Dear Mission Health, I saw your full page ad in the July 19 issue of The Smoky…
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Supermarket flowers
 

Supermarket flowers

My mom loved fresh flowers. It was a fun routine for my dad, sister and I to pick up a…
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Plotting Cullowhee Dam’s future: Organizations weigh environmental and financial costs of repair and removal
 

Plotting Cullowhee Dam’s future: Organizations weigh environmental and financial costs of repair and removal

Nearly a century old, the aging Cullowhee Dam is at a crossroads — with risk of failure increasing, Western Carolina…
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Become part of the garden tour
 

Become part of the garden tour

While Western North Carolina is still in the thick of summer 2017, the Haywood County Master Gardeners are already looking…
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Smokies volunteers honored
 

Smokies volunteers honored

The team of skilled volunteers that organized the mission to connect with the next generation of park users during the…
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Gleaners needed
 

Gleaners needed

The harvest is rolling in, and Haywood Gleaners is looking for volunteers to help get the leftovers from the field…
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NPS re-establishes partnership with Oconaluftee Job Corps Center
 

NPS re-establishes partnership with Oconaluftee Job Corps Center

For the first time in 10 years, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is operating a career development center aimed…
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The Naturalist's Corner: Rock Hill on the river
 

The Naturalist's Corner: Rock Hill on the river

My family and I were in the Rock Hill, S.C.-Charlotte area a few weeks back to visit my sister and…
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Searching for the 60s
 

Searching for the 60s

If you are one of those people who thinks that the 1960s hippie culture was only about sex, drugs and…
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Free clinic coming to Bryson City, Murphy
 

Free clinic coming to Bryson City, Murphy

Free medical, dental, eye and veterinarian services will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis Aug. 2-10 in Bryson City…
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Elected officials in Swain proud to pray
 

Elected officials in Swain proud to pray

Praying in public has never been something politicians in Swain County have shied away from and it’s unlikely the recent…
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Public prayer not part of Jackson and Sylva commission meetings
 

Public prayer not part of Jackson and Sylva commission meetings

Within recent memory, public prayer hasn’t been part of official meetings of the Jackson County or Sylva boards of commissioners.
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Macon governments avoid praying at meetings
 

Macon governments avoid praying at meetings

With all the controversy and uncertainty about the right and wrong way to do it, the town and county governments…
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In whose name? Haywood commissioners asking for trouble in prayer case
 

In whose name? Haywood commissioners asking for trouble in prayer case

Just days after an important ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on legislator-led prayer, Haywood County and its…
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The letter and the spirit: Local governments wrestle with prayer
 

The letter and the spirit: Local governments wrestle with prayer

Public prayer in government has long been a contentious issue, but a recent court ruling has North Carolina municipalities scrambling…
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Formed by the mountains: Cherokee elder reflects on 93 years of service to tribe and country
 

Formed by the mountains: Cherokee elder reflects on 93 years of service to tribe and country

The Cherokee of Jerry Wolfe’s early memory is a different place than the Qualla Boundary of today. Wolfe, 93, remembers…
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Election signups end in Jackson
 

Election signups end in Jackson

Jackson County will have enough candidates running to fill the seats available following an extended sign-up period for the Webster…
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McCoy to run for vice chief
 

McCoy to run for vice chief

Councilmember Teresa McCoy, of Big Cove, has announced her intention to run for vice chief in the special election that…
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Special election coming to Cherokee
 

Special election coming to Cherokee

After months in limbo, the fate of Cherokee’s vacant vice chief seat has been decided — following a narrow vote…
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What’s in the cards? Diversify or die
 

What’s in the cards? Diversify or die

Like bubbles bobbing atop bathwater, the sectors of Haywood County’s economy are separate but often attached to each other in…
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Health care upheaval leaves WNC residents with questions
 

Health care upheaval leaves WNC residents with questions

As Republicans in Congress attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Mission Health threatens to cancel its contract with…
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Mission offers its own health care plan
 

Mission offers its own health care plan

If Mission Health doesn’t strike a deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina by October, the health system…
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Republican disloyalty proceedings to begin
 

Republican disloyalty proceedings to begin

The continuing saga of the Haywood County Republican Party’s attempts to deal with a troublesome member of an antagonistic faction…
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Congressman Meadows to hold local meetings
 

Congressman Meadows to hold local meetings

Residents in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District will soon have a few opportunities to reach out to their congressman and…
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Finding a balance: Tipping Point Brewing closes, new location set for Brevard
 

Finding a balance: Tipping Point Brewing closes, new location set for Brevard

It’s 12:15 p.m. Sunday. On a normal weekend, Tipping Point Brewing in downtown Waynesville would have been open for 45…
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This must be the place: ‘We will get by, we will survive’
 

This must be the place: ‘We will get by, we will survive’

Happy birthday, Captain Trips. On this day (Aug. 1) some 75 years ago, Jerome Garcia was born in San Francisco.…
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WCU chancellor’s cancer relapses
 

WCU chancellor’s cancer relapses

A year after a surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor was deemed successful, Western Carolina University Chancellor David Belcher…
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Woman hit with drug charges
 

Woman hit with drug charges

Haywood County Deputies with the assistance of the Maggie Valley Police Department K9 arrested Brandy Marie Grogan, 35, Thursday evening…
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Haywood drug traffickers plead guilty
 

Haywood drug traffickers plead guilty

Anthony Scott Price, 29, of Waynesville, was stopped by Waynesville Police Officer Tyler Howell at 2:30 a.m. after driving erratically…
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Gallery: Parade of Nations
 

Gallery: Parade of Nations

Each year, one of the highlights of the 10-day Folkmoot Festival is the Parade of Nations. This year, 10 groups…
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