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Spoof Awards 2021: Improv Award
The Cherokee Tribal Council displayed profound mastery of improv’s cornerstone rule of thumb, “Yes, and,” as it spent much of…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Happy Hour Award
Residents of the Qualla Boundary and Robbinsville can now join the rest of the state in a collective 5 p.m.…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Nicolas Cage Award
This one goes to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which, like the much-memed Hollywood actor, just seems to be…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Gambler Award
As Kenny Rogers famously sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Monkeywrench Award
This award goes to the members of the Waynesville Task Force on Homelessness who were hell bent on not doing…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Rumble Award
Rumble is a women’s newsletter started by the female staff members at The Smoky Mountain News. The tagline for Rumble…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Grinch Award
The Grinch Award goes to Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran, but not for the reasons you may think. We know…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Being A Woman Award
Maggie Valley Town Planner Kaitland Finkle has experience in her field, multiple master’s degrees and a clear, coherent way of…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Better Late Than Never Award
As the late, great rocker Tom Petty once opined, “The waiting is the hardest part,” and it sure seemed that…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Mr. Congeniality Award
And what a year it was for Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers.
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Winter of Our Discontent Award
After 27 years of loyal service to the Main Street merchant community in Waynesville, Wall Street Books got booted. The…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Sashay My Way Award
When legendary Drag Queen RuPaul kicks a queen off his reality tv show for up and coming drag queens, he…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Most Likely to Get My Vote Award
The winner of this year’s “most likely to get my vote award,” goes to John Hinton. While other politicians seem…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The WTF Award
The first-ever award for mismanaging and destroying a longstanding community institution goes to … that longstanding community institution itself.
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Person of the Year Award
This year was a challenging year in so many ways, but that was especially true in Western North Carolina.
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Carpetbagger Award
As if Henderson County native David Madison Cawthorn’s meteoric rise to fame wasn’t surprising enough, Cawthorn’s Nov. 11 announcement that…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Good Sport Award (a.k.a. Bullsh*t Award)
All teachers everywhere are recipients of the Bullsh*t Award every year for what they have to put up with, whether…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Woke Citizens Award
Cullowhee Valley School stole the running for the Woke Citizens Award when it voted to retire its outdated Rebel mascot,…
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Grandfather Mountain animal habitats prepare for winter
Trimming a tree for the holidays? So are Grandfather Mountain’s resident elk. Each year, the resident animals at Grandfather Mountain receive…
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An A.T. alternative: Long-distance trail under construction for the western Appalachians
As the Appalachian wilderness trail Benton MacKaye dreamed up in 1921 becomes busier and busier, a geographically scattered group of…
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Youth racing starts soon at Cataloochee
Alley Cat Youth Racing will return to Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley this winter, with the first races scheduled…
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Music video advocates for wildlife crossings
A new music video featuring Asheville-based band The Fates aims to raise awareness for an ongoing effort to make wildlife…
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Drought persists in N.C.
Despite widespread rains last week, the drought situation in North Carolina hasn’t changed much, according to a map published Dec.…
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Smokies project will require filling in small wetland
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park plans to build an annex to its existing headquarters building, and a comment period…
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Flat Top Manor renovation complete
A $2.4 million rehabilitation is complete at the iconic Flat Top Manor, located at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park on…
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Streambank project will cause GSMNP lane closure
A streambank stabilization project in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will cause a three-month lane closure along the Townsend…
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More than just a ride on the rails
In the years after the Civil War, train travel in America exploded. Rail lines soon crisscrossed the country, bringing travelers…
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We all have something to give
It was a tight space, but that’s often the deal with parallel parking. There were three bicycles in the bed…
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The problem with Sylva Sam
To the Editor: Recently I decided to take a closer look at the new plaques added to “Sylva Sam,” Jackson…
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Is this how democracy dies?
To the Editor: Mark Meadows (former congressman from North Carolina and President Trump’s White House chief of staff) may very…
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Jim Stevens was a true mountain man
To the Editor: Recently, we lost a true mountain man. You may have known him as Jim Stevens or maybe…
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Haywood Eye Care celebrates 70 years
Haywood Family Eye Care has been a fixture of eye care in Western North Carolina for nearly 70 years.
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Omicron spreading fast
Haywood County Public Health has received notice of 120 new cases of COVID-19 in the last week compared to 156…
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Haywood Rotary Clubs deliver Christmas boxes
Members from three Rotary Clubs in Haywood County delivered 651 Christmas dinner boxes Dec. 21 to local families. The Christmas…
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Incarcerated at Christmas: Swain inmates thankful for family visitations
Swain County Detention Center became a place of reunions and redemption during the last few weeks as inmates had their…
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Congress ends EBCI challenge to Catawba casino
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ last hope for stopping the Catawba Indian Nation from building a casino in North…
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WCU trustees approve athletics fee hike
The Western Carolina University Board of Trustees voted unanimously during its Dec. 3 meeting to recommend a schedule of fees…
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Swain County Schools faces recruitment, retention obstacles
In the midst of the third school year affected by COVID-19, school systems are keenly aware of the stress the…
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Franklin Town Council fills vacant seat
Adam Kimsey will join the Franklin Town Council after the board unanimously appointed him to fill a two-year unexpired term.
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‘I’ve just never seen water that angry’
By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | Poet T.S. Eliot wrote that there’s something about growing up beside a…
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Cherokee gaming LLC to expand its reach
The company the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians formed earlier this year to purchase Caesar’s Southern Indiana Casino hopes to…
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JAM program gives students sense of place
There is a special moment that happens whilst playing music, a moment when concentration takes over as a musician uses…
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This must be the place: Catch a wave and take in the sweetness, think about it, the darkness, the deepness
It’s 8:53 a.m. Room 159. Super 8 Motel. Christiansburg, Virginia. Upon exiting the room in time for the 9 a.m.…
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New directors at Cherokee museum
The Museum of the Cherokee Indian is expanding its leadership with the appointment of two new directors.
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New Report Sounds Alarm on Affordable Housing — Again
By Barbara Durr • Asheville Watchdog | This story was originally published by Asheville Watchdog, an independent nonprofit news team serving Asheville…
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Emergency shelter operations conclude in Haywood
Haywood County’s emergency shelter operations for Tropical Storm Fred survivors have concluded this week, four months after sheltering first began…
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Public hearing slated for RV moratorium in Maggie
Maggie Valley Town Hall was packed Tuesday evening for the regular December Board of Aldermen meeting. This was the first…
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A rose amongst the thorns
Steve Brooks is a prolific artist, poet and writer who has lived in Asheville for 10 years now, having moved…
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‘More than a road’: New superintendent discusses her vision for the Blue Ridge Parkway
Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, Tracy Swartout made some of her favorite childhood memories traveling the 469-mile ridge road…
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