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Graveyard Fields celebrates new look
Better public access and trail improvements for Graveyard Fields, one of the most popular spots on the Blue Ridge Parkway,…
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Native plants take root in new Cherokee greenhouse
Native plants are getting a boost in Cherokee with the opening of a 2,200-square-foot greenhouse designed to produce and propagate…
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Nantahala Racing Club and N.C. Wildlife Federation win funds for youth programs
The Nantahala Racing Club and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation came out on top in an online voting contest from…
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Booming triathlons bring economic impact to Haywood
More than 1,200 outdoor atheletes will converge on Lake Logan in Haywood County this weekend for the annual Lake Logan…
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Training initiative garners award for WCU instructor
Sam Fowlkes, who teaches paddlesports and rescue at Western Carolina University, has received prestigious recognition in the field of technical…
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Beyond blueberries: Backyard cornucopia revealed at native plants conference
Taking a walk with Ila Hatter is the outdoors equivalent of sitting beside a scrapbooker as she pages through the…
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Stephen King’s newest is more noir than horror
Each time Stephen King is interviewed, he finds himself responding to the same question: “Where do you get your ideas?”…
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This must be the place
When the camera bulb flashed, it hit me — had it really been that long? Standing in the Belhurst Castle,…
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BBQ Festival & Car Show in Franklin
The 6th Annual Mountain High BBQ Festival and Car Show will be held Aug. 8-9 at the Wayne Proffitt Agricultural…
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Knight brings ‘Songcatcher’s Notebook’ to Bryson
“A Songcatcher’s Notebook: Traditional Music and Storytelling” with singer-songwriter/storyteller Lee Knight will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 31,…
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Sylva welcomes Whitewater Bluegrass Co.
The Whitewater Bluegrass Company will perform as part of the Concerts on the Creek Series at 7: 30 p.m. Friday,…
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WCU dance program director wins national teaching award
Karyn Tomczak, director of the Western Carolina University dance program, will receive the 2014 Dance Teacher Award for Higher Education…
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In other beer news
A home brewing class for beginners will be led by Clark Williams of Frog Level Brewing Company every Tuesday from…
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Franklin brewery readies for spring opening
As the snow melts in Southern Appalachia, the beer will begin to flow from the taps of the Lazy Hiker…
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Bryson brewer named ABA president, hits the road
In the last two weeks, Joe Rowland has soaked in the California sunshine, rafted the Grand Canyon, wandered the Rocky…
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Fracking in a perfect world still problematic
To the Editor: The issue of fracking by the oil and gas industry — already one of the most controversial…
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Giving voters advice and attacking Sen. Davis
To the Editor: Most letters to the editor are benign or overly active, but the one in the July 2…
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Honest survey or deceitful phone ad?
To the Editor: Recently “SSI” surveys popped up on my called ID and in a moment of curiosity I answered…
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‘Trust’ is insufficient check on any elected official
Most anyone who has worked for a living, volunteered, or held elected office has stood at the edge of the…
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New talent and old influences enter jam genre
By Chris Cooper Approaching the “jam band” thing from some very different angles, Umphrey’s McGee manage to bring shades of…
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$254 million Harrah’s expansion targets baby boomers
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel is planning a $254 million expansion and upgrade of its operations, including a third hotel…
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Wonderful words
Like many of my fellow writers and readers, I am a sucker for word books. I love dictionaries —…
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Recommended diversions
“Bubble” Director Steven Soderbergh, the darling of the Sundance film festival, had an audacious idea. Take a bare bones script…
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Residents irate about DOT’s plan for Hazelwood Elementary road
A $1.66 million plan to build middle turn lanes on Plott Creek Road from Hazelwood Elementary School to Sulphur Springs…
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Waiting for the smoke to clear: Officers deal with the professional and emotional aftermath of using a gun in the line of duty
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Law enforcement officers might spend their entire careers without ever firing their gun in…
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Lyon was among WNC’s notable botanist
Andre and Francois Michaux, and John Fraser, and soon to be followed by Thomas Nuttall, Asa Gray, and Moses Ashley…
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A primer on the right way to use a gun
By Sarah Kucharski On a chilly, rain soaked Sunday morning the last weekend of January I stood under a peaked,…
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Small towns make for different news
I remember the specific moment in my journalism career when I sealed my future as a small-town newspaperman. I was…
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Time for change at Cherokee’s ‘Unto These Hills’
“It’s going to be a bit of a change, but change is not always bad. This is just one little…
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TDA board on track, confident in director
By Dori Pope • Guest columnist I recently had the honor and exciting challenge of being voted the Chair of…
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Bigfoot: personal encounter?
For 12 years, Wanda Childers has brushed off encounters with a mysterious creature lurking around her trailer in the Whittier…
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The hunt for Bigfoot comes to town
Stealth is not the preferred modus operandi of the Bigfoot team when they roll into town. Their black suburban, bound…
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The Bigfoot crew
The team of Bigfoot researchers who came to Cherokee last week to investigate reports of a mysterious creature encounter run…
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We’ll weather the weather, whatever it is
One of my daughter Izzy’s favorite videos is “Little Bear’s Winter Tales.” She likes the episode with the blizzard. The…
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Open government always a good thing
It’s easy for elected leaders to say they support open government. Proving that support is something altogether different and more…
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A thank you for helping hands
Editor’s note: Barbara McCarty worked on a flood task force that allocated more than $800,000 in private donations to victims…
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Land trusts launch national vetting process
Land conservation trusts cropping up across Western North Carolina and the rest of the country will soon be able to…
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The guns of winter
There was a blast from Vice President Dick Cheney’s 28-gauge shotgun — a gun, by the way, that one Web…
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A pickle of a Prong
I felt like I should have had crampons on my boots, like the spikes mountain climbers use on ice. The…
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Boggs represents country music’s greatest hope
Though it’s become a standard target for critical blasting, not all of modern country music is bad. Keith Urban turned…
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Pivot points: WCU art museum presents poetry and painting from three inter-related generations
By Michael Beadle “Pivot Points” is not your typical art exhibit. Then again, the new Fine Art Museum on the…
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Recommended diversions
Joni Mitchell “Anything that moves me, influences me.” — Joni Mitchell
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Undressing: Sex, scandal and character
Campus Sexpot: A Memoir! by David Carkeet. The University of Georgia Press, 2005. 137 pages. Before I was 10 pages…
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Bethel gets $30,000 for flood recovery
The North Carolina Rural Center has provided a $30,000 grant to Haywood County to assist with flood recovery and flood…
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Board made wrong decision, says press attorney
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Jackson County commissioners’ failure to follow state Open Meetings Law was a failure to…
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Closed session minutes reveal reasons for EDC probe
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer A Superior Court Judge has ruled that Jackson County Commissioners acted illegally when they…
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Haywood schools appear ready to pass tobacco ban
Haywood County schools could go tobacco free starting in the fall of 2007, banning smoking and chewing not only for…
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Up in the air no longer: Judge’s ruling keeps McClure on the airport authority
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Jackson County Airport Authority members are hoping to get on with business following a…
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Gilfillan’s Burnt House to Paw Paw
Several weeks ago I was perusing the used bookstores in Asheville, where there are, somewhat surprisingly, at least four excellent…
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With Mike gone, train’s call is truly lonesome
Mike and I were not exactly a match made in heaven. In fact, I didn’t think we were much of…
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