Campfires are now legal in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the first time since Nov. 15.

License plate sales raised nearly $815,000 to support the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this year, with the grand total rising to $13.3 million since the program launched in 1999.

More than 30 years after the first piece of property was donated toward the creation of DuPont State Recreational Forest, the final acres have been added to complete the land donation from the DuPont company.

Environmental quality projects in Western North Carolina will get a boost thanks to grants from the Duke Energy Foundation, whose Water Resources Fund this year doled out $778,000 to environmental and wildlife programs. 

Haywood Community College Continuing Education Creative Arts is expanding its selection of music classes spearheaded by local musicians Julie and Bryan McConnell.

A reconnaissance flight by the Tennessee Army National Guard was able to locate the missing single engine airplane within Great Smoky Mountains National Park at about 4:43 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 27.The plane was found on an unnamed ridge between Cole Creek and Bearpen Hollow Branch. Paramedics on board were hoisted down to the crash site and confirmed that there were no survivors. The identities of the victims have not been confirmed. 

“The plane is positioned on a very steep mountain side and could be at risk of sliding further down into the drainage,” said Chief Ranger, Steve Kloster. “These search and rescue personnel specialize in high angle rescues and have the best knowledge in making sure we conduct our operations in the safest manner possible.”

Ground teams searched the steep and heavily wooded area on foot Tuesday, but were unable to access some areas due to the rough terrain. A single Blackhawk helicopter was able to fly late afternoon and spotted the wreckage along the last known flight path of the missing aircraft. Recovery efforts of the three victims will begin on Wednesday, Dec. 28.

The plane was in route to the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport from Florida on Monday, Dec. 26, when it went missing over the park at about 4:01 p.m. The three occupants of the plane, David Starling, 41, Kim Smith, 42, and Hunter Starling, 8, were from Bradford County, Florida. The National Transportation Safety Board will be the lead in the investigation of the plane crash.

The National Park Service worked closely with the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, Civil Air Patrol, Federal Aviation Administration, and Tennessee Emergency Management Agency in this search effort. 

Tim Dietz, Ridgefield Farm's  Ranch Manager and Steve Whitmire, owner of Brasstown Beef,  are both proud of the fact that Ridgefield Farm is GAP 4 (Global Animal Partnership www.globalanimalpartnership.org) and BQA (Beef Quality Assurance www.bqa.org) certified. These certifications address the humane treatment of animals.

Major reconstruction is underway at the Massey Branch Boat Access Area on Santeetlah Reservoir, meaning the area will be closed through Feb. 1, 2017.

The Whitewater Falls area of the Nantahala National Forest, near Cashiers, will remain closed indefinitely due to severe wildfire damage. 

Jackson County will be getting three new electric vehicle charging stations thanks to a grant from Duke Energy.

To the Editor:

Nothing in a recent letter (“Please, just check the facts,” Dec. 14, The Smoky Mountain News) rings true, factual and correct or adds any genuine evidence to support the assertions made. 

I don’t know about alt-right (or alt-left) people since those are “politically correct” labels whose meanings constantly shift depending on who you are talking to or whether one political stripe or the other is more susceptible to online scams (my sense is that it is evenly distributed among the population). 

It used to be the case when we had three television network news shows, several radio news networks, hundreds of authentic newspapers and a number of high-quality weekly news magazines that most of them made profits, though not huge, for their respective parent companies. If they didn’t they went out of business. 

Of course, that was when readers/viewers/listeners trusted them and had a reason to trust them — because they reported the facts. Since what passes for an educational system no longer trains young men and women to actually think, why shouldn’t they be taken in by fake news, whether it be from the regime or some bipolar con man?

Speaking of con men, neither Jestin Coler or Paul Horner are reputable sources for citing financial figures as they both are paid liars and as such have no credibility.

Just two fairly recent cases where the mainstream media (MSM) was caught with their fake news pants down are the Rolling Stone Magazine/University of Virginia false rape scandal and the Duke University men’s lacrosse team false rape scandal. Interestingly, in both incidents the msm relied upon single source information — always a bad thing whether it be in the news or intelligence businesses. Do an Internet search to check the authority and factuality of these two examples, unless you are just too lazy to do the work.

You can invariably tell a “letters-to-the-editor-charlatan.” They always lead with personal insults (ad hominem attacks), which are the safe space of someone who has no clue about what they’re talking about. Anger, the irrational road to false confidence, which leads directly to boorishness and disordered ideations, often follows closely thereafter.

And yes, the prime hideout from truth and reality for the forward comrades crowd is the false narrative; a fallaciously written script purposely made to twist the facts of a situation to the false meme that progressives are right and anyone who does not agree with them is wrong. These charlatans will always use non-existent facts and outright lies to construct the delusion du jour and you, gentle reader, can be assured that the meme will change, often constantly, as these charlatans are always exposed as they struggle irrationally and impotently to draw the intellectually wary into their nets.

Acquiring knowledge has always been a personal responsibility because despite the angry screechings of the kindergarten crowd, human nature does not change. Therefore, a close, skeptical reading of letters to the editor is essential to wending your way closer to the Truth. Merry Christmas.

Carl Iobst

Cullowhee

To the Editor:

Have we ever seen such hypocrisy? The Russians have now hacked the 2016 election, really? Liberal news media are now very concerned about the Russians destroying our democratic process. 

Wasn’t it the media (CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC), among others, whose “journalists” tried to control the results of the election with biased and skewed reporting against the right? Where was this deep concern when the American people were trying to get objective information about the presidential election?

The Federal Communications Commission has publically stated the press are public trustees. The FCC continued that “broadcasters may not intentionally distort the news and that rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest.” Controlling the news and slanting the facts or reporting innuendos are not portions of a democratic process any more than “hacking” by another country.  

Where is the evidence the Russians hacked the election? The media owes the public this truth. If we cannot trust the information we receive from mainstream media and the content of the news is controlled or skewed, we are no longer operating as a democracy anyway.

Let us protect all aspects of the democratic process, not just the portions that agree with personal opinions or bias.

Claudia Knipe

Waynesville

Ashton Zari turns 7 on Christmas Eve, and even though he is in Columbus, Ohio, seeking medical treatment, his only birthday wish is for his community members back home in Macon County to make a donation to a great cause.

Detectives with the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office are looking for two men they believe to be involved with a breaking and entering that occurred in rural Haywood County.

Haywood County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to an alarm call around 8 p.m. Dec. 10 in the Eagles Nest community.

Based on a visit to Brasstown Beef (supplier for Ingles Markets)  for entire post: http://inglesinfoaisle.com/dirty-boots-and-the-basics-of-beef

Summer camps and Envirothon programs in Haywood, Buncombe and Madison counties will benefit from a $25,000 grant awarded to the Southwestern Resource Conservation and Development Council from the Pigeon River Fund.

The Duke Energy Foundation gave a hand toward supporting firefighters battling wildfires this fall with a $100,000 donation.

Last week’s rains caused a downgrading of drought designations across the board in Western North Carolina.

The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) and Jackson County Arts Council (JCAC), co-administrating organizations of this year’s program, are pleased to announce the 2016-17 grantees for Regional Artist Project Grant (RAPG), a program of the North Carolina Arts Council (NCAC).

In 2016, the Haywood County Arts Council’s (HCAC) Gallery Committee set out to improve its Gallery & Gifts retail space in Waynesville to include more retail artists throughout the year. Several local artists provided gifts to the HCAC, improving the capacity and aesthetic quality of the space.

To the Editor:

There was a story with the headline “Haywood County wipes the dust off the bottle” in the December 7 edition of The Smoky Mountain News. Along with the headline was a photo of the Jukebox Junction restaurant with the caption, “Restaurants like Jukebox Junction in rural Bethel can now sell alcohol, if owners so choose.”

To the Editor:

In the recent edition of The Smoky Mountain News, Carl Iobst’s letter seems to indicate that traditional media sources are responsible for their own demise, but the references he cites suggest just the opposite. Fake news is easy and profitable — especially when it feeds stories to the ultra-right minded folks.

To the Editor:

To my friends in Western North Carolina, I will be retiring on December 31.

I am writing a fictional spy novel. Here is the draft outline of it.

By Greg Christopher • Guest Columnist

This time of year, as many people are counting their blessings, they also realize they want to publicly share their good fortune to others by ways of different acts of kindness — to family, friends and even complete strangers. Sometimes, it can be easy to take our good fortune for granted as our day-in and day-out routines take over our minds, so I want to use this Christmas and holiday season as an opportunity for a professional yet humble and thankful evaluation.

As fall visitors flocked to Western North Carolina in mid-October, Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center welcomed a distinguished visitor — former First Lady Laura Bush and a group of her childhood friends.

Ingles Markets in Waynesville: Barber Blvd. Thursday, December 15, 3-6 p.m.

To the Editor:

As President Obama’s impressive term winds down and the focus shifts to speculation about an uncertain, perhaps ominous, future, we do well to recall —and celebrate — the achievements of the past eight years. Over fierce, sometimes malicious, opposition, our 44th president is leaving us a significant trove of lasting benefits. In the area of environmental protections alone, as the Sierra Club reminds us:

• The economic stimulus, instituted after the 2008 meltdown left by the Bush administration, invested $90 billion in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green jobs and technology. As a result, wind-generated electricity has grown three-fold, and solar electricity generation has increased 30-fold (even my wife and I have put 20 solar panels on our roof).

• The auto-industry bailout spurred car and truck manufacturers to agree to increase fuel economy standards to 36.6 mpg by 2017 and 54.5 mpg by 2025, avoiding tons of carbon pollution and pushing a transition to electric vehicles (even I now drive one).

• The EPA has instituted significant air and water safeguards affecting coal-fired power plants, including its Clean Power Plan that calls for cleaning up carbon pollution from existing plants.

• The Defense Department has recognized climate change as a security risk, and put in place a growing number of energy-saving practices.

• Over 20 new national monuments have been designated, protecting 265 million acres of land and water — more than any previous president.

• Prompted by a 2014 agreement between the U.S. and China, a breakthrough global climate agreement has been reached in Paris.

• The Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline has been rejected, a big step toward keeping large parts of our earth home from becoming uninhabitable in our lifetimes by keeping more and more fossil fuels in the ground.

• The Interior Department has placed a moratorium on new coal mining leases on public lands.

And the list goes on.

While we have President Obama to thank for taking these steps to protect our environmental habitat, we know that he could not have done it without the support — and pressure — from the people’s climate movement. That’s us!

So, now with a new administration peopled by climate deniers about to enter the stage, we must redouble our efforts to maintain these gains, keep our global commitments, and protect our planet and our children’s future — already threatened by ever-worsening climate disasters. Here in Western North Carolina we can look to — and support — organizations like the Creation Care Alliance, Mountain True, Appalachian Voices, Haywood Waterways Association, Dogwood Alliance, Southern Environmental Law Center, North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, as they lead us in this crucial effort.

Doug Wingeier

Waynesville

To the Editor:

The traditional news media (newspapers) have killed themselves through poor writing, a lack of balanced reporting, advocacy journalism and an all-around snooty attitude toward their readers/listeners/viewers (“shut up and read/listen/view what we tell you to because we know best”). Increased per issue costs, constant advertisements and big juicy scandals such as the plagiarism affair with Jayson Blair at the Grey Lady (New York Times) 13 years ago didn’t help the industry either.

The two names who lately have seemingly contributed the most towards the demise of traditional media (which started with the opinionated disinformation by Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News television broadcast after the Tet Offensive in 1968 http: //tinyurl.com/hsyrfvg) are Jestin Coler and Paul Horner.

Coler was highlighted recently in a piece that NPR did last Wednesday (http://tinyurl.com/hfrquso) on his company Disinfomedia and the various Internet fake news platforms he has created. Coler is a registered Democrat and he “got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right.” That hate-filled aspiration doesn’t seem to have worked out very well for Jestin.

Horner, another leftist, runs the Internet fake news site National Report where he attempted to torpedo Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions except it backfired on him when Trump managed to get to 270 electoral votes despite Horner’s Soviet-style agitprop campaign. Horner, who allegedly expressed chagrin with that outcome evidently doesn’t understand the meaning of blow-back. Tisk, tisk.

To the forgotten man, the media actually is easily defined. It is whatever media platform purports to write/speak the news; and yes, The Smoky Mountain News gets lumped in with rags such as Fuzz Busted, because anything in 2016 that is not too blatantly trying to sell stuff to the forgotten man is the media. 

I remember as a boy what it was like to watch my grandfather read the papers on a Sunday afternoon, and I came to do so also. He became informed on events near and far and derived great pleasure from the experience. Today, I subscribe to two newspapers and pick up from the box another two free papers regularly. This is mostly for reasons of nostalgia, as it doesn’t seem to be as pleasurable to read the papers for me as it was for my grandfather. And so it goes.

Nota bene: Jon McNaughton’s painting “The Forgotten Man” is probably the inspiration for the phrase in current usage and as such is entirely apropos.

Carl Iobst

Cullowhee

Steady rains over the past week have caused the N.C. Forest Service to lift burning bans for 32 counties, including Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain.

As December unfolds, birders across the globe will embark on a quest to tally as many birds and species as possible over the course of a single day in a 15-mile radius. The Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, now in its 117th year, will feature a variety of local opportunities for expert and novice birders alike to participate in this annual birding experience.

A new-to-science lichen species discovered in March 2016 has been named after Fontana Dam due to its discovery in the forest above Fontana Village. 

With the help of the Blue Ridge Parkway Association, the Appalachian Mural Trail Group began accomplishing its vision on Dec. 1.

When hurricane-force winds met burning, bone-dry forest, the city of Gatlinburg transformed overnight on Nov. 28-29 from lively tourist town to panic-seared disaster area. Gusts clocking in as high as 87 miles per hours blew balls of fire down from the blaze’s origin in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, catching residents and visitors by surprise in the days following Thanksgiving. People raced to evacuate, to escape the flames that threatened to consume the entire city.

Although the water situation in the area seems to be improving thanks to the recent rains, the town of Waynesville Water Treatment staff discovered another unintended side effect of the low water levels.

The Junaluska Sanitary District experienced a discharge of untreated sewage from a blockage in a line located Southeast of Loop Road in Clyde this afternoon.

With a high number of ballots being rejected from the Nov. 8 election, Jackson County’s NAACP branch is asking for testimony from voters who cast a provisionary ballot.

I normally buy plain yogurt and sometimes there's a slightly yellow liquid floating on top. What is that and is it still safe to eat the yogurt?

To the Editor:

I would like to thank you for your excellent opinion piece in the Nov. 22 issue of the The Smoky Mountain News.  

Prior to the election I had a conversation with a friend of mine, a young college student. She expressed some positive feelings toward Hillary Clinton but said she was voting for Trump because Clinton was not a Christian. I asked her why she believed that. She seemed to have concluded this from listening to her boyfriend and social media. 

I presented her with what I felt were concrete examples to contradict her assumption. In response, she dismissed my examples in favor of her own set of “facts.” 

This example reinforced my concern that we have raised a generation of young Americans seriously lacking critical thinking skills. Karl Marx wrote that “Religion is the opium of the masses.” I am beginning to think that social media is the new opiate.

Margery Abel

Franklin

To the Editor:

While I agree with many of the concerns you have with fake news (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/18865), it didn’t start with social media or the internet. The “people [who] are too lazy to search out the truth or they just don’t really care” have existed since before Gutenberg, not just with the advent of social media. Your so-called “legitimate” media have been in free-fall for decades. Yellow Journalism started with newspapers, not social media. The only difference is one of magnitude.

You ask, “What happens to democracy in a post-factual age? We have no idea because it hasn’t happened before.”

You couldn’t possibly be serious. The old media have no equal when it comes to distorting facts or simply making them up. Contrary to your assertion, they have been doing it for years. And, I won’t even count the network quiz show scandals.

Charles Hammond, in an editorial in the Cincinnati Gazette, wrote, “General [Andrew] Jackson’s mother was a Common Prostitute brought to this country by British soldiers. She afterwards married a Mulatto Man, with whom she had several children, of which General Jackson is one!!!”

Who knew at the time that FDR was a cripple or that JFK was a drug and sex addict? It was only with the conspiratorial aid of a complicit media that it was covered up. But, only those favored by the media received, and continue to receive, partiality.

Using a quote from Thomas Jefferson to “re-emphasize civic education in our public schools” is rather peculiar when you consider that while he served as Secretary of State, he was the impetus to founding the National Gazette to counter the influence of the Gazette of the United States, a Federalist newspaper. He subsidized the paper with grants from the State Department. Back then, as now, it was all about politics. Fake news has been with us for generations.

Then there is Dan Rather’s Killian documents controversy. The New York Times with the plagiarism of Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg. NYT’s John F. Burns and Newsday’s Roy Gutman’s reportage of the Balkans wars. Jack Kelley at USA Today. Brian Williams. Stephen Glass. Janet Cooke. George Stephanopoulos.

Don’t forget that Newsweek had to retract a story claiming the Quran had been flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay by U.S. prison guards.

Last, but by no means least, is Walter Cronkite. Despite his sobriquet of  “The most trusted man in America,” his political slanting was so egregious that CBS replaced him as anchor at the 1964 political conventions with Robert Trout and Roger Mudd. He also led the media lies about the Tet Offensive. Cronkite lied. Young men died.

In a rare, candid essay Will Rahn, managing director of politics for CBS News Digital, confessed that the White House Press Corps “were all tacitly or explicitly  #WithHer.” “Journalists, at our worst, see ourselves as a priestly caste. We believe we not only have access to the indisputable facts, but also a greater truth, a system of beliefs divined from an advanced understanding of justice…. We must become more impartial, not less so. We have to abandon our easy culture of tantrums and recrimination. We have to ... admit that, as a class, journalists have a shamefully limited understanding of the country we cover.”

I’m certain a good many of your readers are not surprised by the content of his essay, but are surprised at the admission.

We realize the media haven’t changed much from the days of the New York Times’ Walter (“you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs”) Duranty and his ill-gotten Pulitzer Prize despite lying about the Holomodor. That’s why, when Donald Trump points to the media at his rallies and calls them liars, the response is overwhelmingly in agreement.

Timothy Van Eck

Whittier

Haywood County has been declared a primary disaster area due to drought, making family farms eligible for federal assistance such as Farm Service Agency emergency loans.

Each of the Waynesville Judo Club’s six members came home with a medal from their Oct. 29 competition at University of Tennessee Knoxville.

North Carolina is working to establish rules for a pilot program allowing industrial hemp production, with the newly formed N.C. Industrial Hemp Commission holding its first meeting this month.