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Coastal Crusaders
When asked how he felt about the catastrophic BP oil spill, Robert Young paused for the first time during the…
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Building boom underway in medical field
Every hospital in the MedWest Health System — which covers Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties — will see new construction…
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Tribe moves to implement DNA testing for new applicants to Cherokee rolls
The Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has passed a new enrollment ordinance that requires DNA testing…
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Beekeeping in the mountains
Editor’s note: This column first appeared in The Smoky Mountain News in June 2003. Honey was a primary sweetening agent…
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Horror in Haywood
Eric S. Brown’s neighbors have probably noticed him — planted in his car day and night, writing furiously in spiral…
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Quarry regulations fall between the cracks
A Waynesville rock quarry where a major slide occurred last year was operating without rules governing the stability or safety…
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Sylva budget passes on split vote
Funding for the Downtown Sylva Association has caused a rift in the Sylva town board for the fifth year running.…
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Perhaps the real terrorists are here among us
By Thomas Crowe • Guest Columnist With the recent rash of mining disasters, oil and gas spills here in the…
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Trooper honored with bridge naming
The N.C. Department of Transportation dedicated the bridge at Exit 31 of Interstate 40 in Haywood County in honor of…
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Runoff election for Swain sheriff sets stage for brisk competition come fall
Swain County residents overwhelmingly chose John Ensley in Tuesday’s Democratic primary runoff for sheriff — those who voted anyway. Ensley,…
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Franklin clinic demonstrates V.A.’s great leap forward
The Veterans Administration’s community-based outpatient clinic in Franklin will be just two years old in August, but it’s already operating…
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Sylva aims to ban downtown workers from parking on main shopping drag
The town of Sylva plans to impose a new parking law to stop shop owners and employees from taking up…
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Swain to hire animal control officer, yet still lacks vehicle and shelter
Long-awaited relief for Swain County’s dire animal control problem has finally arrived. For years, residents had no recourse if a…
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Can’t pop the top
As part of the major renovation of the historic Jackson County Courthouse, workers from Brantley Construction were set to remove…
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Slow corruption
The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell. Plume/Penguin Group, 2008. 196 pages. Several years ago, I read an amazing…
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Summer poses challenge for feeding low-income kids
Thousands of poor and low-income children across Western North Carolina rely on schools to get least at one square meal…
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Quarry expansion plan fuels residents’ complaints
Jackie Shuler has lived in the shadow of the Waynesville rock quarry most of her life. But as blasts have…
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Holding on to an identity
Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf. Clarion Books, 2007. 208 pages. On May 27, 1942, resistance fighters who had…
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Longtime legal counsel receives WCU Trustees’ Award
Rich Kucharski, chief legal counsel for Western Carolina University, became the seventh person in university history to receive one of…
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Watching the world’s game
Every four years the World Cup interrupts business as usual for a month in countries that have nothing else in…
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Sylva woodworker goes back to the future
In our commodity-driven world, it may seem absurd to spend a year making a table. But for Sylva woodworker Brian…
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Quarry plays vital role in economy
Harrison Construction’s rock quarry on Allens Creek in Waynesville mines granite for building roads, driveways and concrete house pads. The…
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Employee pay at center of Jackson County budget debate
With the Jackson County budget a few short weeks from completion, a split emerged among commissioners concerning raises for county…
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Democrats in Swain Sheriff race prepare for runoff
On Tuesday (June 22), Swain County voters will decide which Democrat will face Republican Curtis Cochran in the hotly contested…
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Schools watch, wait and plan as Raleigh budget debate plays out
While university leaders are nervously hoping state lawmakers will pass a budget that looks something like the Senate version, many…
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New SCC president had former career at WCU
The Southwestern Community College Board of Trustees has settled on a replacement for outgoing President Cecil Groves. Last week, the…
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Budget crunch deals blow to WCU
Western Carolina University Chancellor John Bardo fears the budget passed by the General Assembly this year might cast a shadow…
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Macon commissioners whittle away at budget, but tax hike stays
Having already committed to a 1.5 cent tax rate increase to pay for building a new school in the north…
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2010 Cold Mountain Heritage Tour planned in Haywood County
The last Cold Mountain Heritage Tour, sponsored by The Bethel Rural Community Organization, will be held from 9 a.m. to…
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Exploring Sylva’s secret garden
Jay Coward is no stranger to Pinnacle Park. When the work day ends, Coward often trades in his attorney’s suit…
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The Naturalist's Corner
Skulker of the tangles The other morning at 6 o’clock at Hickey Fork in the Pisgah National Forest’s Shelton Laurel…
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Main Street grant doesn’t help economy, it hurts it
By Lynda Bennett • Guest Columnist Protestors in Waynesville recently dismissed Gov. Beverly Perdue’s stimulus grants as simply “baking up”…
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Sunburst Trout chef journeys to D.C. in the name of healthy food
Hundreds of chefs gathered in Washington, D.C., Friday, June 4, to launch Chefs Move to Schools, a program designed to…
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Atmosphere wins over delegates to Lake J’s Methodist conference
Lake Junaluska, a century-old retreat for Methodist clergy and their families, will remain the favored venue for a major annual…
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At long last, Cherokee telling their own story
For decades the story of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians wasn’t their own. Tourists flocked to see Cherokee men…
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Downtown Sylva to get more free parking
Years of complaining by Sylva merchants that there isn’t enough parking downtown has spurred the Sylva town board to lease…
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Public outcry pushes Duke to consider new substation site
Duke Energy wants an option to buy land at the Swain County Industrial Park with the intention of using it…
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WCU grad drowns during tubing trip
A river tubing trip on a sunny day ended in tragedy last week when a recent Western Carolina University grad…
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Apartment complex fills unmet need in WNC
The demand for stress-free, turnkey living was largely an untapped market in the region until the recent debut of VantagePointe…
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The Naturalist's Corner
uddling – a kaleidoscope adventure Maddy (my 4-year-old) and I had been in the woods at Harmons Den checking on…
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Haywood budget cuts pose hardship for some library users
Kaleigh Davis, 12, comes to the Haywood County Public Library with her aunt Marlene Arrington almost every Thursday night. Arrington…
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Trash controversy dominates Haywood budget discussion
When the hour finally arrived for Haywood County commissioners to vote on a budget for the upcoming year, Haywood County…
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Towns demand parity in Haywood trash plan
There was one thing Haywood County commissioners, town officials, private haulers and county employees could all agree upon at last…
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Lake Junaluska at risk of losing most meaningful conference
Despite its peaceful atmosphere and long history as a spiritual center for Methodists, Lake Junaluska may lose the annual United…
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Conservation of tract protects the Pigeon River
A 92-acre tract near the Little East Fork of the Pigeon River in the Bethel community in Haywood County has…
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Civil suit targeting Jackson sheriff fails
“The only reasonable verdict here is for Sheriff Ashe,” Patrick Flanagan told the jury. “He did not commit any wrongdoing…
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An ongoing preservation
This past week, we took our 11-year-old granddaughter, Daisy, who is visiting from Colorado, to the Cherokee Indian Village. She…
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Yearning for ancient ties
The Memory of Gills by Catherine Carter. Louisiana State University Press, 2006. 59 pages. Recently, when Catherine Carter was asked…
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Protection of mountain’s vast tract hinges on funding
An 8,000 acre tract in Transylvania County, the largest block of privately owned wilderness in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains,…
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Economic development that works for the region
A couple of stories we’ve covered in the last two weeks illustrate better than any data the new face of…
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