More Boy Scouts programming open to girls

Darrian Childers is quitting Boy Scouts after joining a local troop about three years ago when his family moved to Waynesville. 

The 16-year-old made his decision not long after the Boy Scouts of America announced its decision to allow girls to participate in more of its programming alongside the boys. While Childers has really enjoyed his time with the Scouts, he doesn’t think the organization is moving in the right direction. 

Growing the greens: Agritourism flourishes in Western North Carolina

For generations, American farmers have plowed the fields, milked the cows and slopped the hogs to the seasonal rhythms of nature. In Western North Carolina, a meaty living could be wrest from this hardscrabble land with the constant backbreaking toil associated with a traditional farming lifestyle. 

Could those old farmers of yore ever have imagined people actually wanting to pay money to experience some of the most onerous and monotonous tasks they ever had to perform?

Future of farming: Agritourism activities key to fruitful business

Many farmers today understand they can’t put all their eggs in one basket. 

Paying the price: Will checkered past haunt congressional candidate?

Last week, Phillip Price prevailed in a competitive three-way Democratic primary for the right to challenge incumbent Asheville Republican Congressman Mark Meadows in November.

Tourism now the top industry in the region

By Nick Breedlove • Guest Columnist

On May 6-12 we celebrate National Tourism Week, and this year’s theme from the U.S. Travel Association is “Then and Now.” 

In my role as Director of the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority, my goal is to create awareness about what a special place this area is and to inspire others to travel here and spend a night, or two or three. 

The forlorn calls of the yellow-billed cuckoo

Editor’s note: This column first appeared in The Smoky Mountain News in May 2008. 

O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee Bird,

Or but a wandering Voice?

— William Wordsworth

Walking in someone else’s story: Swain students find common ground with NYC students

On the surface, students in Swain County grow up worlds apart from students in New York City. 

#MeToo: Shedding the stigma around sexual assault

Five years ago, Haywood County resident Janelle Smith was working late when a much older male colleague she’d thought of as a friend and mentor cornered her and attempted to sexually assault her. Although she fought him off, the incident left her feeling physically violated, emotionally upset and, she said, ashamed. 

Women’s municipal government group reorganizes

Representatives from the revamped North Carolina Women in Municipal Government visited Maggie Valley last weekend to recruit women from the towns of Western North Carolina. 

A closer look at festivals in Western North Carolina

The proud communities that make up Western North Carolina were once mountain towns that played host to several successful blue-collar industries. We’re talking about logging, furniture, paper products, auto parts, beverages, textiles, and so on. The country needed things, and needed them fast, and folks here made those products with their bare hands.

These companies found a crucial, much-needed balance alongside the serene beauty and endless natural resources of our forests, rivers and wildlife.

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