It was a chilly February morning in 2020 when Clemson, South Carolina, resident Heyward Douglass laid eyes on the legendary monarch butterfly wintering grounds, first discovered only 45 years before. Oyamel fir trees covered the south-facing slopes of the Neovolcanic Mountains west of Mexico City, and millions of monarch butterflies covered the fir trees, 8,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level.

As a stark reminder of the toll that substance abuse has taken on families across the country and across Western North Carolina, a small group of Macon County residents will travel to Washington, D.C., later this month to help erect a temporary cemetery made up of hundreds upon hundreds of hand-painted tombstones.

New state testing results reveal that schools in Western North Carolina are in the process of a mixed recovery from COVID-era learning disruptions, something state officials say may take years.

A $542,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, matched by more than $200,000 from the Dogwood Health Trust, will help fund six regional projects intended to alleviate some of the pressure in the affordable housing market.

The conversation around police reform has cooled down slightly over the last year, but that doesn’t mean law enforcement agencies around the state aren’t quietly implementing new policies — policies that came on the heels of the movement that gained steam after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020.

Candidates have filed and the races are set for school board elections this November.

Starved for supply, realtors in the Asheville region are listing fewer homes than at this time last year as pricing continues to climb.

After passing in Congress, President Biden signed the Keep the Kids Fed Act  on June 23, partially extending school meal flexibilities just days before they were set to expire.

As Pisgah Legal Services continues to grow and better serve its clientele, a key challenge has simply been getting word of its ability to help low-income households out to the public.

Vecinos, a free and charitable clinic providing bilingual primary and behavioral health care in Western North Carolina, is leading a $5.6 million effort to better serve the region’s uninsured and low-income residents by bringing multiple health and social services under one roof.