Celebrate Labor Day with art and craft in Cashiers
 

Celebrate Labor Day with art and craft in Cashiers

The Cashiers Arts and Crafts Show will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 3 and 4 at…
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Discounted Penland classes for locals
 

Discounted Penland classes for locals

Penland School of Crafts has open spaces in several of its eight-week fall classes available at half tuition to Western…
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Haywood’s Got Talent to showcase regional performers
 

Haywood’s Got Talent to showcase regional performers

The Haywood Arts Regional Theater will give area talent a chance to strut their stuff and win prize money in…
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Plein air painters visit the mountains
 

Plein air painters visit the mountains

Area outdoor painters will bring their paint boxes and easels to Macon County for Paint the Macon Mountains on Sept. 10…
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Dance into Labor Day with block party
 

Dance into Labor Day with block party

Waynesville’s Labor Day Block Party will run from 7 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, in downtown. Main Street…
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Browse galleries and studios with Art After Dark
 

Browse galleries and studios with Art After Dark

The Waynesville Gallery Association will present Art After Dark from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 2, in downtown…
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Mountain music returns to its roots at Smoky Mountain Folk Festival
 

Mountain music returns to its roots at Smoky Mountain Folk Festival

Four decades of tradition have built the foundation for the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival, which will launch into its 41st…
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So this comedian walks into a bar in Sylva ...
 

So this comedian walks into a bar in Sylva ...

Terrifying, exciting and kind-of liberating. That’s how Tom Scheve describes the inaugural experience of telling jokes on stage. And usually,…
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Haywood Chamber wraps up record setting membership drive
 

Haywood Chamber wraps up record setting membership drive

The Haywood County Chamber of Commerce exceed goals set for its 2011 “Goin’ Coastal” Membership and Sponsorship Campaign. The campaign…
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Phil Drake to give how-to talk on business success
 

Phil Drake to give how-to talk on business success

Drake Enterprises CEO Phil Drake, who owns a family of 18 businesses based in Macon County, will give a free…
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MedWest urgent care center up and running in Jackson
 

MedWest urgent care center up and running in Jackson

A new urgent care center in Sylva is proving a welcome addition to the community. Before MedWest Health System opened…
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Dog owners lobby for pooch park
 

Dog owners lobby for pooch park

Hampered by a leash law that keeps their canine friends at heel, an ad hoc group of Sylva residents hope…
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Waynesville parking deck could house electric car charging station
 

Waynesville parking deck could house electric car charging station

Electric car owners rejoice. Haywood County may soon be home to two electric car charging stations for the sustainably inclined.…
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A cut above the competition
 

A cut above the competition

Haywood Community College can now boast a national champion after Daniel Jones took the title at the Stihl Collegiate Timbersports…
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Report will provide benchmark on health of WNC’s natural resources
 

Report will provide benchmark on health of WNC’s natural resources

A sweeping status report on natural resources in the mountains is being developed by a regional task force, serving as…
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Sylva native new downtown director
 

Sylva native new downtown director

A 24-year-old with family ties to Jackson County has been hired as the new leader of the Downtown Sylva Association…
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Franklin town board facing no changes
 

Franklin town board facing no changes

There will be no new faces on Franklin’s town board after November’s elections, no matter which way voters decide to…
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Global Poverty Project CEO to speak at WCU
 

Global Poverty Project CEO to speak at WCU

The 28-year-old co-founder and CEO of a global organization committed to eradicating extreme poverty will visit Western Carolina University on…
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Merchants float idea of downtown association in Bryson City
 

Merchants float idea of downtown association in Bryson City

Business owners in Bryson City’s downtown are following in the footsteps of neighboring towns, attempting to put together their own…
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Cherokee election rematch enters into final days
 

Cherokee election rematch enters into final days

Election season is closing in Cherokee, where races for principal chief, vice chief, tribal council and school board members will…
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Waynesville Recreation Center to close for maintenance
 

Waynesville Recreation Center to close for maintenance

The Waynesville Recreation Center will close for routine maintenance work from Sept. 12-18. The center will reopen on Sept. 19…
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Fair tax advocate to speak in Cashiers
 

Fair tax advocate to speak in Cashiers

Laura McCue, district director of N.C. Fair Tax, will be the guest speaker at the Sept. 6 meeting of the…
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Labor Day means fireworks in Maggie
 

Labor Day means fireworks in Maggie

Maggie Valley will have a free Labor Day weekend fireworks on Sunday, Sept. 4, with viewing from the Festival Grounds.…
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Maggie Valley loses another alderman
 

Maggie Valley loses another alderman

Maggie Valley Alderman and motel owner Scott Pauley is leaving his post, pushed out by the region’s sagging economy. Pauley…
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Asheville public radio’s reach threatened by new FM station
 

Asheville public radio’s reach threatened by new FM station

A new FM radio station in Western North Carolina means more than 108,000 people living in the region might not…
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University fights environmental group for rights to radio frequency
 

University fights environmental group for rights to radio frequency

Western Carolina University, eager to broadcast Catamount sports and other school-based programming to a larger audience than it can currently…
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Airwaves up for grabs: Enviro group makes bid for grassroots radio
 

Airwaves up for grabs: Enviro group makes bid for grassroots radio

The Canary Coalition, a nonprofit group rooted in Jackson County that fights for air quality, might soon take to the…
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Religious graduation speech in Macon raises issues over separation of church and state
 

Religious graduation speech in Macon raises issues over separation of church and state

The Macon County School system has changed its tune on the controversial preacher who delivered an overtly religious speech at…
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Bible reading makes a comeback
 

Bible reading makes a comeback

In an out-of-the-way room on the ground floor, seven congregants of Longs Chapel United Methodist Church in Lake Junaluska gather…
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Oliver deserves more credit for his writing skills
 

Oliver deserves more credit for his writing skills

I started to write this column about Duane Oliver before I discovered that he has just published what he tells…
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Farm bill supports water quality efforts
 

Farm bill supports water quality efforts

If you are farming in Haywood County, the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service is accepting applications to support efforts that…
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Don’t just own a forest, manage it for wildlife and tax benefits
 

Don’t just own a forest, manage it for wildlife and tax benefits

Learn how to manage forests for wildlife and timber production, plus review tax strategies and estate planning at an upcoming…
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Taste of the Market to feature Jackson farmers
 

Taste of the Market to feature Jackson farmers

The Jackson County Farmers Market will hold its annual “Taste of the Market” starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27,…
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Professor to talk about human-animal relationships
 

Professor to talk about human-animal relationships

Hal Herzog of Western Carolina University will discuss the complications of human-animal relationships, the focus of his recently published book,…
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Time to break out that camera
 

Time to break out that camera

Shutterbug alert: A fall field photography program will run for four weeks starting in September in Haywood County. Class members…
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Blue Ridge Breakaway tops 400 participants
 

Blue Ridge Breakaway tops 400 participants

More than 400 riders participated in the second Blue Ridge Breakaway, held this Saturday (Aug. 20) in Haywood County. The…
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Grant money to fund gardening research, education in Haywood
 

Grant money to fund gardening research, education in Haywood

Need help paying for research or educational outreach about the environment, gardening or horticulture? The Haywood County Master Gardener Volunteer…
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Budding gardeners hone greenthumbs
 

Budding gardeners hone greenthumbs

Young gardeners from Junaluska Elementary School won first place recently in a landscape design competition at the N.C. Master Gardeners…
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Testifying
 

Testifying

I just wanted to shout an amen to brother George Ellison’s Aug. 10 Back Then column, “Late summer is an…
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Get your horse vaccinated
 

Get your horse vaccinated

A horse in the eastern part of the state tested positive this month for Easter Equine Encephalomyelitis, a warning to…
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Dahlia show coming to Waynesville
 

Dahlia show coming to Waynesville

Three local dahlia growers in Haywood County, Jack Leatherwood, Johnny Trantham and Ken Zula, were recently visited by Southern Living…
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A great race makes a comeback
 

A great race makes a comeback

There aren’t too many road races in Western North Carolina with the storied history of the Maggie Valley Moonlight Race,…
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Ron Rash to read from new poetry collection
 

Ron Rash to read from new poetry collection

Ron Rash will visit City Lights Bookstore to read from his first poetry book in 10 years, Waking, at 1…
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McDarris reads from new book at Blue Ridge Books
 

McDarris reads from new book at Blue Ridge Books

Local author Vivian McDarris will read from her recent book, Black Fog, at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, at…
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Rash’s new book of poetry evocative, resonant
 

Rash’s new book of poetry evocative, resonant

When I was nine years old, I once caught a 12-inch brown trout at the point where two small Jackson…
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When it comes to stings, all aren’t created equal
 

When it comes to stings, all aren’t created equal

A number of readers have informed me that the agonizing sting I described in last week’s column was the work…
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Lake issue raises complex questions
 

Lake issue raises complex questions

To the Editor: Thank you for the thoughtful, informative and balanced article on Lake Emory in Franklin. I would like…
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Park proposals add insult to injury
 

Park proposals add insult to injury

I recently wrote in the Swain County newspaper about a singularly misguided proposal by Great Smoky Mountains National Park leadership…
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The man behind the town An unabashed champion of Canton, Pat Smathers nears the end of his dozen year tenure
 

The man behind the town An unabashed champion of Canton, Pat Smathers nears the end of his dozen year tenure

Pat Smathers is what you might call a born politician. His first campaign was pitching Terry Sanford’s 1960 run for…
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What’s in their wallets? Salaries could be a factor in upcoming tribal election
 

What’s in their wallets? Salaries could be a factor in upcoming tribal election

Cherokee tribal elections are little more than a week away, and with the economy topping the list of major issues,…
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