By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

The race for District Attorney is garnering what some may say is an unusual amount of attention, considering that whomever is elected is someone that most of the general public hopes never to have any dealings with.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

The candidates for the District 119 House race describe themselves as polar opposites.

Charles Taylor: The federal government should live up to its 60-year-old commitment to Swain County residents and complete the North Shore Road.

The North Shore Road is proposed to go through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Bryson City to Tennessee along the north shore of Lake Fontana. The area was not always backcountry, however. It was once home to mining and logging towns and farming communities until the construction of Lake Fontana to generate hydropower for the World War II effort.

The lake flooded some communities and isolated others by flooding the only road in and out. With a war on, the government could not afford to build a new road on higher ground. So more than 200 families living in the suddenly isolated region were forced to evacuate. The land was ceded to the park service.

At the time, the government promised to rebuild the road. It signed a legal contract pledging to do so, but hasn’t yet. Families who sacrificed their homes for the war effort believe the government should uphold its promise.

What is the cash settlement?

A group of Swain County residents fed up with the long-standing debate developed an idea several years ago for the federal government to pay a cash settlement in lieu of building the road.

Their premise: like it or not, the road will never be built. Congress will never appropriate and the funds, and even if it did, lawsuits by environmental groups would stop it from happening anyway. So they began lobbying for a cash settlement of $52 million for Swain County, an idea that has gained wide popularity.

The $52 million price for a cash settlement is the accumulated interest on the cost of the road. At the time the road was flooded in 1943, the county owed $694,000 for its construction. Even though the road was flooded, the county spent another 30 years paying off the debt on the worthless road. The cash settlement would compensate the county for the loss of the road.

Over the last two decades, the number of drug-affected infants has been growing. It is estimated that as many as one in 10 babies born in this country has suffered some degree of drug exposure. Due to the short time mothers spent in the hospital after giving birth, many of the infant’s symptoms are less likely to be recognized

— From the state Guardian Ad Litem Web site

When the 30th Judicial District Guardian Ad Litem program holds a workshop this week addressing the issues of substance abuse and social risk factors in infants, chances are good that too few professionals will show up. That’s a shame, because abuse of unborn children remains a major problem in this country, one that gets too little attention.

By Mark Jaben

In the 1970s, a book written about a doctor’s internship experience, The House of God, reached near cult status for its reasonably accurate — if not cynical — portrayal of one intern’s experience surviving medical training.

By Michael Beadle

There are still dark corners in this world yet to be explored.

1. What specific legislation or policies are at the top of your list?

Jobs, to make sure we have infrastructure in place to bring new jobs into our communities.

2. What are three of the most pressing issues facing the people of your district, and how can the state legislature deal with them?

Jobs, as stated above. Second, to draw up legislation dealing with meth lab cleanup, and strengthen laws on meth labs. Three, to take the medicaid burden off the local government.

3. Should the legislature help seniors with property taxes by adjusting the homestead exemption on their homes?

Yes.

4. What is your position on lobbyist and campaign reform?

I voted for lobbyist reform and sponsored a bill to tighten more campaign reform. We can prohibit lobbyists from soliciting campaign contributions.

5. Do you support more extensive state action to help with farmland preservation? If so, what specific measures should be enacted?

.Yes, We could give tax breaks to keep small farms and large acreage in the hands of the farmer. And we can amend the NC Constitution to protect private property from being taken for economic development.

6. What is the most pressing educational need in the state?

We should use national tests to evaluate students performance and remove violent and disrespectful students from classrooms and empower teachers to deal with problem students and strengthen vocational education.

7. What can the state afford to do to help counties with increasing Medicaid costs?

Increase the availability and affordability of healthcare and healthcare insurance.

8. When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A small businessman.

9. What is your favorite television show?

The O’Reilly Factor

10. Describe your philosophy of government in 100 words.

I realize that the people are the government. We as Legislators are there to be a voice for the people and to serve them. We need to prioritize spending, eliminate waste, and make government more efficient be requiring a zero based budget. And by establishing a taxpayer protection act for North Carolinians. and ending the raids from the highway trust fund. By lowering taxes and making sure North Carolinians keep more of their money to invest and do business.

What specific legislation or policies are at the top of your list?

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Macon County’s three Democratic commissioners are facing a challenge from three Republican contenders in a race that could potentially swing the board’s majority rule.

By Lee Shelton

As the Nov. 7 election date approaches, the “Good Governance Legion” is, again, “banging their noise makers” in Haywood County.

Come Nov. 7, voters will choose candidates based on many different factors. In almost all cases, those choices will be their own, as they should. But newspaper endorsements continue to serve a useful purpose for voters.

By Kathleen Lamont

Have you heard?

The recent marriage of sustainable food production and big business is on the rocks.

Robert Holland, 39, has been Macon County Sheriff for four years and with the sheriff's department since 1991. He is married. He graduated from high school in Florida, and attended Southwestern Community College and the N.C. Justice Academy.

Green Salamander — Although listed by the state as endangered and recognized as a species of concern by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the green salamander appears to be stabilizing its populations though the geographic range of its habitats is still quite small.

Here’s how Swain County plans to pay for the school land purchase.

Cowee Mound, a 71-acre site in Macon County and once a major Cherokee village, will be preserved thanks to a joint conservation effort between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.

If you’re not careful, you could miss it.

By Michael Beadle

It’s a chilly fall morning in downtown Bryson City, and U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor steps up into a fire truck to pose for pictures.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

It’s 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, and Andrew Whalen, 11th Congressional District candidate Heath Shuler’s Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director, sits at a small desk in a small office strewn with small stacks of paper.

By Chris Cooper

Rafe Stefanini: Ladies Fancy

Rafe Stefanini is something of a walking encyclopedia of old-time fiddle and banjo music, having dedicated most of his life to hunting down and learning tunes both famous and obscure from all over this country.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Jacob Clark, a sixth-grader at Waynesville Middle School, likes the trumpet.

“It’s easy to play,” he says.

Freakonomics

OK, I’m often late to the game, but this book published a few years is just fascinating. While working Folkmoot this summer one of the guides was reading it, and she explained that it was the freshman summer reading assignment at Appalachian State University.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Mike Bonfoey defeated Republican challenger Donna Forga 34,445 to 29,771 to retain his position as 30th Judicial District Attorney.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

District 119 incumbent Phil Haire, D-Sylva, has once against defeated Marge Carpenter, R-Waynesville, for state House of Representatives. Haire registered 13,099 votes to Carpenter’s 9,267, taking nearly 59 percent of the vote overall.

By Michael Beadle

When John and Suzanne Gernandt’s son Matthew began showing signs of schizophrenia, it might have been misread as teenage rebellion — a phase he would pass through once the hormones settled down.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Democrats swept the Jackson County Board of Commissioners as voters elected Cashiers’ Mark Jones over Republican challenger Geoff Higginbotham to fill the one remaining seat.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Ronnie Beale is the newest Macon County commissioner and will join incumbent Bob Simpson, who won re-election on Nov. 7. Republican candidate Brian McClellan upset incumbent Allan Bryson in the race to represent the county’s Highlands district, giving the board a Republican majority.

By Michael Beadle

Call it a fourth-quarter, game-winning touchdown. A stunning upset over the perennial powerhouse. Pick your sports metaphor.

Sen. John Snow, D-Murphy, handily won his second term in the North Carolina Senate, beating challenger Ken McKim 38,537 to 28,903.

By Al Smith • Guest Columnist

Hazel Creek Trail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is located in the middle of the most extensive roadless area in the eastern United States.

Do the rules of our health care system work anymore? That is the question posed in this column two weeks ago.

By Rob Schofield

This year, those who care about preserving and expanding the common good in North Carolina would do well to treat Wednesday, Nov. 8, as less a day of celebration or mourning and more as the day on which they renew their commitment to studying and articulating a policy agenda that will help to build a modern, moral and progressive state.

By Kirkwood Callahan • Guest Columnist

Every election year there are always claims and counter claims over federal tax policy. Liberals claim Republican income tax cuts benefit the rich and ignore the lower and middle classes.

The non-profit Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation recently awarded a $98,000 grant for rangers to conduct educational outreach programs for students in communities along the Parkway.

By Mark Jaben

Last time, we talked about EMTALA (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act), managed care and how far the pendulum has swung, leading to decreased capacity in the system. The availability and provision of health care is not determined by system planning, but by unintended downstream effects, resulting in uneven, unfair health care rationing. Do the rules of the system still work?

By Chris Cooper

Though Sylva might not qualify as a simmering hotbed of musical and cultural hipness, to a degree it does have it’s own thing going on. We have a reasonable variety of musicians and bands, with several — even some surprising — genres represented.

The New Yorker

Waynesville’s James Joyce is not only an excellent writer (as evidenced in his latest work Use Eagles If Necessary). He’s also a guy who appreciates fine writing.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Cable subscribers in Jackson and Macon counties are facing the possibility of losing local ABC affiliate WLOS Channel 13 unless cable provider Mediacom and Sinclair Broadcast Group can reach an equitable agreement before Dec. 1.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Officials with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on Monday unveiled plans for a new Associate in Fine Arts degree focusing on Native American art to be offered in collaboration with Southwestern Community College.

It’s time to change the voting laws and procedures in North Carolina to reflect today’s reality and to help alleviate a confusing situation that could hurt candidates and confuse voters.

By Michael Beadle

Like artists inspired by the drama of their own lives, some art studios have their own back story.

By Chris Cooper

Music, and the artists that make it, have no choice but to evolve as time goes by. For many rock-oriented instrumentalists that came into prominence during the 80s, this has been a difficult thing.

“Dexter”

There is so much bad television that I’m usually way behind the curve on good new shows because I lack the time or patience to wade through the dreck to find the occasional jewel. But I could not resist this show, which debuted a few weeks ago on Showtime, because it stars Michael C. Hall, who played David Fisher on the late, great, and much mourned “Six Feet Under.” Hall’s new show takes his old show’s La Danse Macabre to a new level altogether — the protagonist is a serial killer, albeit a serial killer who kills only people who “deserve it.” Hall is such an amazing actor that he somehow manages to make Dexter sympathetic without pandering and without the script conveniently providing a backstory of cliches that are supposed to account for the character’s tormented behavior. The show is well written and smartly paced, and the cast, although comprised mainly of relative unknowns, is good enough that Hall will not have to carry the show alone. In just five episodes, it has already become our favorite show. I wish Rachel Griffiths’ (Brenda, from “Six Feet Under”) new show, “Brothers and Sisters,” were half as good, but I had to bail after just two episodes because I found the show too weepy and cloying to bear, and the entire family — every brother and every sister — insufferable. If Dexter were somehow to make a guest appearance, that herd of whiners would be thinned considerably. I’d tune in for that.

Tom Petty, Highway Companion

Can it really be 30 years since Petty first invaded FM radio with American Girl, followed three years later by his breakthrough album, Damn the Torpedoes, an album right up there with Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, and Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan as 70s albums that EVERYBODY had and knew by heart. Highway Companion hardly marks a comeback for Petty — he’s been slugging away all these years, producing records on a regular basis with and without the Heartbreakers, but this is the first one since 1989’s Full Moon Fever to really register with me. Fast ones, slow ones, Mike Campbell on guitar ... all in all, vintage Petty. And on a sunny summer day tooling down the highway listening to FM radio, I’d as soon hear half a dozen of these songs as “Refugee.”

— By Chris Cox

An ongoing lawsuit against the owners of Smoky Mountain Golf Course alleges numerous problems with the course’s management under its out-of-state owners.

Recreation programs in Haywood County could get a huge boost from tourism dollars if commissioners follow through on a recommendation made at the Monday work session.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

About 80 area residents gathered at the Jackson County Recreation Center Thursday night to learn more about the county’s new land development plan and discuss the future of growth.

Haywood County Commissioners made several changes to the slope development ordinance before passing it. The ordinance kicks in when a cut-and-fill slope exceeds a certain threshold. That threshold is what commissioners altered. Here’s the net effect of the changes:

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for any cut-and-fill slope taller than 10 feet.

• Change: This measure was eliminated.

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for any earth moving activity on natural slope cuts that exceeds 40 percent.

• Change: This measure was eliminated.

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for a cut slope that exceeds a 1 to 1 ratio of run to rise.

• Change: Applies only to slope cuts that exceed 15 feet in height.

• Proposed: A slope stabilization plan is required for a fill slope that exceeds a 1.5 to 1 ratio of run to rise.

• Change: Applies only to slopes that exceed 15 feet in height.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

The Macon County Planning Board wants county commissioners to enact a moratorium on any construction over 38 feet in height to temporarily stop construction of a 10-story high-rise condominium just outside of Highlands.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Most business and property owners have reacted positively to a Downtown Sylva Association proposal to create a municipal service district that would tax the downtown area to pay for improvements, say DSA officials.