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Knight rolls with the punches
By Chris Cooper It’s pretty rough going for the characters in Chris Knight’s songwriting. There’s booze, violence and regret lurking…
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Recommended diversions
Hands on the wheel For less than $20, you can buy a decent hands-free earset for your cellular phone. I’m…
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Three dark gems
Almost a decade ago, I wrote an unabashed rave review of Howard Bahr’s The Black Flower (1997), a darkly beautiful…
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Appearance commission holds its own
“You can do better.” That was the message last week from Waynesville town leaders to developers of a Super Wal-Mart,…
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Haywood Extension receives Pigeon River Fund grant
The Haywood County center of the NC Cooperative Extension Service has received a $15,000 grant from the Pigeon River Fund.…
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Keeping downtown alive: Revitalization organizations debate how to best improve downtown communities, as Sylva refocuses following a major spending cut
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer With a quick trip on Main Street in downtown Sylva, it’s easy enough to…
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Maggie Valley Country Club’s transformation moves along
As part of its transformation to an upscale club and resort, the new Maggie Valley Club is in the midst…
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Sylva mulls over creating ETJ
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Residents from Jackson County’s Allen’s Branch community said they didn’t know exactly what Sylva…
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A legacy of lookers
From time to time, I like to reflect upon the plant hunters, botanists and horticulturalists that first entered these mountains…
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Somebody get that cow a pizza
Driving down Russ Avenue on yet another scorching day, I saw a couple of girls out in front of the…
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Meds vs Medicare
Louis Garnett • Guest Columnist This wasn’t my doctor’s office; it was the vendor exhibit hall at a symposium on…
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Elk population on the rise
The elk herd in Cataloochee Valley added at least eight babies to its ranks this summer, giving the herd a…
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WCU professor leads Elwha project
Thanks to a National Science Foundation grant-funded project led by a Western Carolina University professor, 25 young people from Washington’s…
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Beak tweaking or evolution
One of the tenets of the theory of evolution is a phenomenon known as character displacement. Character displacement states, in…
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Peregrine falcons make a tenuous comeback
Peregrine falcons, a recovering endangered species, once again nested successfully this spring on Whiteside Mountain in Highlands.
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First-Ever Tour de Tuck to challenge cyclists
Cyclists will be testing their legs and lungs on the roads of Western North Carolina later this month in the…
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The Moonlight shines again: Maggie lights up with Moonlight Race
Checking email has gotten a lot more exciting for Wendy Johnson lately. As the organizer for the 28th Annual Maggie…
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Monarch migration
The king of insect migration – King Billy – will soon be gliding its way to Mexico by the millions.…
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Remarkable talent shines in Rosser’s latest
By Chris Cooper Man, I don’t want to start off with the whole “He’s done it again!” thing. You know,…
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HCC Film and Video students finish film by one of their own
Students in Haywood Community College’s Film and Video Production Technology Program just finished an original film written by one of…
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Documentary to look at past century of Canton’s history
Canton’s 100th Labor Day Celebration will feature three showings of a 30-minute documentary about the town’s history at 7:30 p.m.…
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Recommended diversions
Storytelling The term “storytelling” has been acquired by a diverse number of creative folks from musicians (the late Harry Chapin,…
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TrueBlueGrass: 24th annual Cherokee Bluegrass Festival draws on traditional roots
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer For the past 24 years, crowds have gathered at Happy Holiday Campground in Cherokee…
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Captives and Captivations
Narratives of confinement have long held a fascination for readers. From Saint Paul’s account of his imprisonment to modern stories…
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Blue Ridge shows profit
By Michael Beadle Profits are up for Blue Ridge Paper Products nearly two years after devastating floods washed through the…
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Community appeals to Jackson commissioners
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Members of a grassroots citizens group rallying against a proposal to build a rock…
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Ghost Town comes to life
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Once more, for the last time — Ghost Town has sold. The announcement came…
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Loan obtained for Waynesville fire station
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., has helped Waynesville obtain a loan of $2 million to construct its new fire station.
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New neighbors: Change is moving into Jackson County’s Tuckasegee community
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer About half way between Sylva and Cashiers on N.C. 107, between Jackson County’s Caney…
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Sylva set to expand planning district
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Sylva Town Board members are expected to move forward with plans to make the…
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The turkey’s role in Cherokee culture
The come back of the wild turkey in the southern mountains in recent years is one of the notable success…
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The time has come to lift Cuban embargo
This is about political ignorance, ignorance highlighted by the recent news about Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s apparently serious illness.
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A little surer, a little more lost
I can’t help feeling, just slightly, like we cheated. You be the judge. The table had been set on our…
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Unified voices calling for a better big box
When Waynesville leaders met earlier this month to discuss the site plan and variance requests for the proposed big-box development…
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Strange happenings in music today
By Chris Cooper Here are a few things about “modern” rock and pop that I’ve found interesting (in a morbid…
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Recommended diversions
“Scoop” The world’s been in need of a good Woody Allen film and this murder-mystery/comedy fabulously fills the void. As…
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Betrayed, rejection and self-destruction
15 years ago, Donna Tautt’s The Secret History managed to acquire an amazing following among university students in the United…
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$5 million upgrade planned prior to May 2007 opening
As the new owners of Ghost Town in the Sky pondered whether the dated mountaintop amusement park was a good…
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Cotton selected as Haywood manager
David B. Cotton of Seven Lakes has been named Haywood County manager
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Grant allows Sylva to conserve Fisher Creek
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer The Town of Sylva has been awarded a $3.5 million grant from the Clean…
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From military campaign to political campaign
If politics makes strange bedfellows, then surely Rutherford Trace offers some curious pillow talk in the legislative halls of Raleigh…
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Quarry opponents get county support
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer The grassroots group United Neighbors of Tuckasegee celebrated another victory in the battle to…
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Reunion emotional for many former Ghost Town workers
When Todd Berrong, a former gun fighter at Ghost Town amusement park, walked through the gate of his old stomping…
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Rutherford Trace: Local historians examine the legacy of a shock-and-awe Revolutionary War campaign against the Cherokee
By Michael Beadle To some, it was a crucial military campaign early in the Revolutionary War, an unprecedented patriot force…
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Sylva set to extend planning jurisdiction to Allen’s Branch
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Town aldermen are moving ahead with plans to vote the Allen’s Branch community into…
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Wal-Mart rolls out unique design
The controversy over a proposed Super Wal-Mart complex in Waynesville took a turn at a town planning board meeting this…
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Chinquapins a hardy, unusual shrub
Do you have chinquapins growing on your property or in your vicinity? If so, you’re fortunate. For my money, “the…
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Immigration and a complicit, angry America
On July 13, the Buncombe County Republican Action Club posted two billboards in Asheville featuring a photograph of a Mexican…
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Quarry plan showcases planning shortfalls
Citizens in Jackson County’s Tuckasegee community should consider themselves lucky. The problem, however, is that luck doesn’t always hold. It…
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