With the first week of election filing in the books, voters are starting to see what their Primary Election ballots will look like when they head to the polls on March 3.

What are your thoughts about kids having chocolate milk? Doesn’t it have too much sugar?

My husband has high blood pressure so I need to find a diet for him to follow that I can also eat, and since we are on a fixed income it can’t be expensive.

To the Editor:

I am an older American and live on a fixed income. Some seniors have to choose between their medicines and putting food on the table. That isn’t right. Congress should get together to fix this and control the price of drugs. It is necessary to do and would be appreciated.

Mr. Bob Hunter

LakeJunaluska

To the Editor:

Back on Oct. 3 at WCU’s Opioid Town Hall, I found myself applauding Sen. Jim Davis, R-Macon, for his evolution from a “just say no” stance on drugs to a pro-harm reduction position. It’s nothing short of a miracle to have such a drastic change in point-of-view in such a short amount of time. I (and the senator himself) credit that miracle to the empirical evidence presented to the senator by Tessie Castillo, a harm reduction expert. Sen. Davis claims to be a data-driven person, and with Castillo’s extensive knowledge of the facts surrounding harm reduction, a thinking person would find it difficult to oppose harm reduction efforts after spending time with her. 

Where the senator does not embrace data is in championing the Death-By-Distribution (DBD) bill that went into effect Sunday, Dec. 1. Sen. Davis says he helped draft Death-By-Distribution because Bill Hollingsed came to him as Chief of Waynesville Police and said, “I’m tired of putting young people in body bags.” While that is a compelling statement from a highly-respected law enforcement officer, it is not data. The data on death-by-distribution laws is that they put more young people in body bags. The four states with the strictest death-by-distribution laws (W.V., Ohio, Ill., Penn.) have fatal opioid overdoses that continue to increase in contrast to the rest of the nation, which are finally beginning to plateau. 

With DBD now in effect, based on the data, we can fully expect the opioid overdose death rate to change in our state for the worse. There is concern also that the 2013 Good Samaritan (Good Sam) Law will be kneecapped by the DBD statute. The provisions that protect caller and overdose victim from legal repercussions in a 911 response are already largely disregarded — people who need medical treatment often find themselves handcuffed as soon as they come-to or find themselves with charges, parole violations, etc. when Good Sam protects them from such. What should be a medical issue continues to have punitive repercussions. 

So, in this marginalized population, who are already resistant to seeking medical attention when they need it, DBD will further alienate them from medical care as now an association with an overdose victim could mean a murder charge. “Don’t run, call 911,” is effectively out the window. When asked for comment on DBD’s effect on Good Sam, Sen. Davis claimed he’d made especially certain to not dilute Good Sam when authoring DBD, but when pressed to say how exactly he’d protected Good Sam, Sen. Davis replied, “I’m not a lawyer.” This answer is troublesome to folks who want to see overdose deaths decline. 

Then Sen. Davis went on to say the intention of DBD is to remove “bad players.” “Bad players” is really more accurately “desperate players” in a very not fun game of punishing people with a serious medical condition called Substance Use Disorder. And desperate players do desperate things, such as leaving their friends to die if they face the possibility of 40 years in prison for sharing drugs. That is how I lost my cousin 10 years ago, and while my initial response was anger directed at the people she was doing drugs with, that anger was misdirected. And data, cold hard facts, are what altered my view of the situation.  It would not do my heart or society any good to have the kids my cousin was partying with put in a cage, punished. Substance Use Disorder is punishment enough. The thing that will heal my heart and society is to put resources toward evidence-based solutions to support people living with Substance Use Disorder.

Jesse-lee Dunlap

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC)

A 2,200-acre purchase in McDowell County clinches the second phase of a conservation project that is expected to protect a total 6,000 acres once completed by the end of 2021. 

Lisa McInnis will be the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s new chief of resource management and science, taking over from Jeff Troutman, who retired from the position in March. 

Robert Burton, a volunteer in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was recently chosen as the grand prize winner in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s 2018 Share the Experience employee photography contest. 

An anonymous donor is offering $300,000 toward repairs on the Blue Ridge Parkway — but only if other Parkway supporters match the donation by June 30, 2020. If the fundraising campaign falls short, the gift will be forfeited. 

The number of wildlife jobs relating to bat research has spiked significantly in recent years, and a mini grant from the Haywood Community College Foundation will help ensure HCC students get the training they need to enter that burgeoning field. 

The Panthertown Map Association has donated $7,500 to Friends of Panthertown.

Mercy Urgent Care will open its newest facility in Waynesville in early 2020. 

The North Carolina Department of Commerce released the county tier designations for 2020 this week. The designations, which are mandated by state law, play a role in several programs that assist in economic development.

To the Editor:

Our NC 11th Dist. Rep. Mark Meadows suggested that he is bored with his job when he stated recently that “... it’s hard for me to stay awake and listen to all of this,” and “we were probably checking our Twitter feed more than we were paying attention” while referring to testimonies before the House Intelligence Committee. 

In October 2018 Meadows stated in a local interview that “I’ve gone from not running on term limits to being a strong advocate for term limits. I think that four terms, really, for a House member should be about right.” In January of this year, Meadows co-sponsored H.J. Res. 20 to limit House of Representatives to only three terms.

Rep. Meadows is in his fourth term; he’s had the job longer than he thinks he should; and he’s bored with it all. Do Western North Carolina a favor, Mark, and show us you mean what you say about term limits.

We have a good replacement: a military veteran who’s interested in protecting our WNC environment; believes in our founding fathers’ system of checks and balances; and knows that WNC workers can’t really live on $7.25 per hour. He’s Maj. Steve Woodsmall.

John H. Fisher

Hendersonville

To the Editor:

Those of us who watched the impeachment inquiry testimony and some of the factual news reports afterward learned a number of facts. Here are a few.

1. He did it. Trump abused his power for personal benefit. Based on multiple accounts, Trump withheld meetings and military aid from Ukraine to get the Ukrainian president to announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. Whether you choose to call that a bribe, extortion, or quid pro quo, it remains an abuse of power. Ambassador Gordon Sondland clearly stated under oath that this is the case. Testimony of other witnesses supported this fact.

2. The extortion almost worked until the whistleblower complaint got discovered by Congress. The Ukrainian president had even scheduled an interview to announce the bogus investigation, but when word got out about the extortion, the interview was canceled. Eventually most of the aid got released and the jig was up.

3. Trump was not interested in actually doing anything about corruption. The requirement on the Ukrainian president was to announce an investigation. He was not asked to actually begin an investigation, according to people directly involved in the negotiations. Getting political dirt was the only motivation.

4. Trump and Republicans are promoting a Russian propaganda lie. The story that Ukraine had anything to do with the 2016 election was cooked up by Soviet President Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence. One of the most impressive witnesses testified under oath that the Ukraine story was orchestrated by Russia to stir up dissent in the U.S. and that repeating that lie did a disservice to the country. The intelligence department has briefed Senators of the fact that Russia started the lie about Ukraine. Despite this, many Republicans keep repeating this lie that Trump likes. Trump is biased against Ukraine because Putin, Rudy Giuliani, and other keep telling him the lie that Ukraine supported Hillary and attacked him.

5. The hold on the military aid probably was against the law. Congress had passed a law decades ago requiring aid that had been appropriated and approved by Congress had to be released and could not be held by the president.

6. The hold on military aid had a negative effect on our national security. The hold weakened Ukraine in dealing with Russia both militarily and diplomatically. The hold also made the U.S. appear to be an unreliable ally to every other country on the planet. Other countries are not as likely to trust the U.S. and commitments we make.

7. EU ambassador Sondland, Rudy Giuliani, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and others were acting outside the normal diplomatic channels and excluded career diplomats from what they were up to. Trump was directing the rogue group assigned the task of digging up or making up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. All three — Sondland, Giuliani, and Pompeo — were in direct contact with Trump in doing his bidding outside of standard diplomatic channels.

8. You did not need to listen to the hearings to know that Trump is trying desperately to cover up what happened. He has ordered virtually everyone to ignore subpoenas in violation of the Constitution and the law. Patriotic career, non-partisan diplomats came forward to testify under oath about what they knew, did, heard, and saw. Only because of patriots who place country above loyalty to a cult leader do we know about what happened.

9. Facts don’t matter to Republicans. This became abundantly clear in interviews with a variety of Republicans in both the House and Senate. Distressingly, facts do not appear to matter to a lot of Republican voters either. The lengths to which people are going through to either deny that which is irrefutable or claim that it doesn’t matter or is normal is astounding. 

Bill Clinton got impeached because he denied getting oral sex from a woman. The case today is of a president abusing his power to get personal gain at the expense of the country and an ally and then doing everything in his power to cover it up. Only Putin and Russia benefit from Trump’s actions. I leave you with the facts to draw your own conclusions.

Norman Hoffman

Waynesville

A plan to cut down encroaching trees and shrubs in the White Oak Bottoms bog near Standing Indian Campground in Macon County is accepting public comment through Dec. 9. 

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted on Nov. 19 to advance two key conservation bills. 

The Haywood County Arts Council has announced the eight local photographers who have been selected for publication in the 2020 “Seasons of Haywood County” calendar. 

Small Business Saturday is November 30th. This is a good day and week to support local Western NC businesses including those that supply Ingles Markets. Buy products for your holiday meals, for gifts for family and friends, or just stock up for yourself!

MountainTrue is recognizing six people for their work to preserve Western North Carolina’s natural heritage through its annual awards. 

Retired Haywood Community College forestry instructor John Palmer has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement award in the annual EcoForesters’ Root Cause Awards. 

The recently released summer camp schedule for The Learning Center at PARI includes two residential camp programs, each offering the chance to learn through hands-on science, technology and astronomy-themed workshops. 

Jim Goddard, a volunteer in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has received the National Park Service Southeast Regional Hartzog Award for Enduring Service, recognizing him for the skills, talent and time he has shared with the park for well over two decades. 

To the Editor:

In response to Kevin Brock’s letter to the editor regarding my vote on the North Carolina budget override veto vote held on September 11, I stand by the vote today as I did then. As I have stated multiple times when asked, frankly I have never experienced more misinformation being spread about a situation. I would like to clarify facts regarding how and why I voted yes on the override of the budget.

Haywood County took home top three honors and prestigious Calico Cat award for 2019. The WNC Honors Awards is built on a 70-year tradition of recognizing rural community development clubs for their innovative ideas and grassroots solutions. 

Some things about olive oil you may not know:

• When storing olive oil, keep it away from major heat sources like your stove or oven as well as away from windows and fluorescent lighting. That means you shouldn’t keep your olive oil on a shelf over your oven or in a window.

Extra Virgin olive oil and “olive oil” are not the same thing?

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) – is produced bycrushing olives without heat or chemicals.It can have different flavors and different colors depending on where the olives are grown. Smoke point 350 deg-410 deg F.
• Olive Oil – is produced bycrushing and then refining the olives and is a blend of refinedolive oil and extra virgin/virgin olive oil.Olive oil has a higher smoke point (390 deg-468 deg F) than EVOO
• Once opened, you should planon usingolive oil within a few months.

Source: North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA)

Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN

Ingles Markets Corporate Dietitian

twitter.com/InglesDietitian

facebook.com/LeahMcgrathDietitian

800-334-4936

Better Business Bureau is reminding consumers that the online “Secret Sister” gift exchange and similar invitations are illegal and should be ignored. The campaign, which was first big in 2015, has again been circulating on social media sites, in particular Facebook.

Mainspring Conservation Trust has expanded its physical presence in the Franklin river district by purchasing half of an acre adjacent to its current office building on East Main Street.

Environmental groups working for the benefit of waterways and watersheds in Haywood, Buncombe and Madison counties were awarded $262,000 in the most recent round of grants from the Pigeon River Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.

A grant from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy will allow Friends of the Smokies to improve bear safety infrastructure at A.T. campsites in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

Panthertown Valley is one of 14 locations nationwide to be selected as a 2020 Leave No Trace Hot Spot. 

Lake Junaluska’s greenhouse is heading into the winter fully renovated, thanks to a charitable gift Dale Stanton-Hoyle made in honor of his mother, Barbara Stanton. 

To the Editor:

In the 1930s FDR’s administration passed the New Deal. The centerpiece of this legislation was Social Security. Republicans branded this “communism,” a danger to our capitalist system. 

To the Editor:

We need to be clear that the impeachment inquiry is about extortion and not quid pro quo. Quid pro quo (one thing for another) refers to a mutually desired transaction. Both parties get something they want for mutual benefit. A bribe is quid pro quo because each party gets what each wants. A political donor giving a million dollars in exchange for getting a prized ambassadorship is quid pro quo.

To the Editor:

In the stifling summer humidity of Philadelphia a couple of centuries ago, a group of men put their John Hancocks (one of them literally) on a document that many Americans claim to hold dear. Those brave and principled men pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor when they declared war against King George III. 

Folkmoot is proud to partner with the Mountain Memories organization and Waynesville’s own Bob Plott to launch the Mountain Memories performance series at historic Queen Auditorium on the Folkmoot campus.

The series opens with “Mountain Memories No. 1: A Hazelwood Gathering” at Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Waynesville. Doors open at 6 p.m. with food and beverages available in the cafeteria. The “Mountain Memories” show starts at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. 

If you’re trying to cut down on added sugar, you may be looking for some lower calorie on non-caloric sweetening options. Here are different options you should spot at your Ingles Market:

SYLVA – N.C. Department of Transportation officials have awarded an emergency repair contract to Buckeye Bridge to repair a bridge on Interstate 40 in Haywood County that will require the westbound lanes to be closed for up to five days this month. 

By Jesse-lee Dunlap • Guest Columnist

After last Tuesday’s town hall forum at Frog Level Brewing, I found myself shocked and dismayed by the number of folks who without any shame stood up in public and asked city officials to move homelessness out of their eyesight. I also found myself very proud of my mayor and other community members who stood up for our homeless population.

To the Editor:

I keep trying to grasp how a brewery can be the voice for a community battling addiction. 

A new drought map released Thursday, Oct. 31, shows conditions normalizing throughout the state for the first time since an Oct. 3 map listed nine counties as experiencing severe drought with 48 counties in moderate drought. 

A celebration of life for Aurelia Turpin Kennedy, co-founder of the Nantahala Outdoor Center, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at NOC near Bryson City. 

It’s hunting season in Western North Carolina, and non-hunters are encouraged to be proactive about ensuring their safety while in the woods.

Cataloochee Ski Area became the first ski resort on the East Coast — and one of 11 nationwide — to open for the 2019-2020 season with the first tracks made as of 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3. 

It used to be that meat jerky was something that was primarily purchased by hunters, campers, fishermen and military soldiers as a convenient, portable and satisfying snack. With the advent of low carbohydrate (low carb) diets like Whole30, Keto and Paleo, more of the general public has looked to find snacks that are high in proteim - and the spotlight is on jerky.

Voters across Western North Carolina will be making important local decisions at the polls this election season, including choosing who will lead their small town as mayor for the next few years. The Smoky Mountain News talked to mayoral candidates in Waynesville, Maggie Valley and Franklin about their vision for the future.