Archived (29807)
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Shining Rock holds illegal meeting to dismiss parent grievances
Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of stories on Haywood County’s public charter school, Shining Rock Classical Academy,…
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Canton alderman resigns
Just 18 months after winning the second of two open alderman seats in the town of Canton, James Markey told…
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Franklin cuts nonprofit funding from budget
The town of Franklin’s adopted 2019-20 budget will not include funding for local nonprofit organizations as it has in the…
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Macon County raises taxes to fund public education
The property tax rate in Macon County will be increasing by half a cent after commissioners approved a 2019-20 budget…
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Carry me back to the days I knew then: Rock Hall of Famer Denny Laine rolls through WNC
Simply put, singer/guitarist Denny Laine is one of those mystical characters you cross paths with almost serendipitously. He’s an old…
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This must be the place: In a minute I’ll be free and we’ll be splashing in the sea
On Monday morning, as I woke up, packed and said goodbye to Bonnaroo for this year, I can say —…
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Waynesville man arrested for solicitation, stalking
Leonard “LJ” Green, of Waynesville, was arrestedby June 11 by the Waynesville Police Department for Solicitation for Prostitution and two…
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A rare look into Swain County's past
Editor’s note: This column first appeared in a June 2005 edition of The Smoky Mountain News. Several weeks ago I…
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Bears active in Panthertown
Recent reports of increased bear encounters in Panthertown Valley have prompted a call for caution among visitors.
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A vision for the Tuck: New WATR director looks to make strides in water quality improvement
The Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River has a new leader. Two years after former executive director Roger Clapp retired…
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Jackson County to vote on budget
Jackson County Commissioners held a special-called meeting Tuesday, June 11, to vote on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019-2020,…
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NAACP mulls lynching monument in Haywood County
Last month, members of the Haywood Branch of the NAACP took a trip to Montgomery, Alabama to visit a museum…
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McCoy, Sneed will be General Election principal chief candidates
Voters made their choices during last week’s Primary Elections in Cherokee, with Teresa McCoy coming in as the top vote-getter…
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Haywood County to welcome Revolutionary War monument
Earl Lanning was just a little boy in Haywood County during the 1930s, he developed three ambitions. “I used to…
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No tax increase in Waynesville budget
It's starting to sound like a broken record in Haywood County as North Carolina’s municipal budget season comes to a…
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Hemp processing operation coming to Canton
Haywood County’s latest economic development victory — a state-of-the-art, $12 million hemp processing facility — means that Canton will become…
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Records show Catawba casino developer donated to bill sponsors
Federal campaign finance records show that Wallace Cheves, developer for a proposed Catawba Indian Nation casino in Kings Mountain, donated…
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Opposing abortion because of the victim
To the Editor: In the June 5 issue of The Smoky Mountain News, Hannah McLeod imputes the motives of those…
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Thanks for speaking out so forcefully
To the Editor: I commend Hannah McLeod for speaking so forthrightly and forcefully about the new extreme abortion laws.
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Twenty down, 20 more to go
To the Editor: Hats off to Scott McLeod and the staff at SMN for navigating two decades of informative, entertaining…
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Thank the hard-working journalists
To the Editor: Congratulations The Smoky Mountain News for its 20th anniversary. As a fifth-generation journalist, I thoroughly enjoyed reading…
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Respect for others missing in Edwards’ response
In the most recent edition of the SMN (June 5), I read a guest editorial written by Mr. Sam Edwards…
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You won’t make friends like this again
By the time she was 4-years-old, my daughter was better at making friends than I have ever been. When we…
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Oconaluftee Job Corps center to close
For more than 50 years, disadvantaged youth struggling to find their way in the world have had the chance…
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Interstate 40 closed indefinitely after another rockslide
Less than four months after a rockslide in Haywood County closed a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 40, it’s happened again.…
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Abundant Labs to open hemp processing facility in Canton
Haywood County’s latest economic development victory – a state of the art, $12 million hemp processing facility – means that…
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Jackson County to vote on budget June 11
The Jackson County Commissioners will adopt the budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 in a special-called meeting at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday,…
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Primary Election results return to Cherokee
Preliminary results are in from Cherokee’s June 6 Primary Election.
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The art of togetherness
Five years ago, Michelle and Robby Railey had one question in mind. “How do we get to the next level?”…
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Passion is no excuse for spreading error
Upon seeing Hannah McLeod’s recent guest column published in these pages on May 29, my first reaction was that it…
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When the universe offers gifts, unwrap them
The final school bells have rung. When I was teaching, the last few weeks of school were grueling and felt…
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Kids in Parks logs one million TRACK Trails adventures
In its mission to engage children with the outdoors, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s Kids in Parks program is marking…
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Lime treatment reverses acid rain effects
You can’t always believe what you see. The water in our mountain streams is sometimes polluted even though it appears…
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Mainspring expands to Sylva
Mainspring Conservation Trust now has an office in downtown Sylva.
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The Naturalist's Corner: 20 years are in the can; as they say in the biz
I can’t, thinking back now, remember what the two floors below us were at 9 Main Street, in 1999 when…
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Loving every word of it, all 630,000
Let’s start with some basic mathematics. For 20 years, I have reviewed books for The Smoky Mountain News. For some…
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Fariello receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Author and curator Anna Fariello was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Folk Art Center during the annual meeting…
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This must be the place: No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language and knowledge
The first week I lived and worked in Western North Carolina, I slept underneath my desk in the old newsroom…
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Crafting together community: How craft beer impacted WNC
According to recent numbers, there are around 75 breweries within Asheville and greater Western North Carolina. And 19 of those…
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Twenty years later, another edition done
In the beginning, one doesn’t even think about the long run. When you’re fighting every day to survive, there’s no…
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1999: Smokies works to overcome hurdles
It’s no coincidence that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the subject of The Smoky Mountain News’ first-ever front-page…
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2001: Elk return to Western North Carolina
“A large herd gathered last week on a remote, historical farmstead maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in…
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2003: The end of Eric Rudolph’s run
He was a seasoned dumpster diver by now. For the last three summers, he’d regularly swoop down in the dead…
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2004: Floods ravage Western North Carolina
The tiny central Haywood County town of Clyde lies more than 270 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, more than 400…
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2005: State passes education lottery system
Nearly 15 years after the North Carolina General Assembly narrowly passed a bill establishing an education lottery system, state legislators…
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2007: Journey from the Road to Nowhere
If you can’t understand why people in Swain County are distrustful of the federal government, then you are among those…
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2008: Real estate takes a major hit
The housing bubble was finally bursting in 2008 as the Great Recession became the new reality in Western North Carolina…
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2009: Ghost Town comes crashing down
Decades after it first opened in 1962, Ghost Town in the Sky still commands a wistful loyalty from thousands of…
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2012: Table games come to Harrah’s
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, an economic powerhouse that employs 5 percent of the workforce in the seven western counties and…
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2013: Southern Loop scrapped for good
For a road that has never existed, the infamous Southern Loop of Sylva sure has gotten a lot of ink…
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