Dancing in the streets
The “Mountain Street Dance” will be held from 6:30-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, in front of the historic courthouse in downtown Waynesville.
Clampitt, Queen face off for fifth time
They’ve now run against each other five times in 10 years so there’s not much voters don’t know about them already, but the first question of the Blue Ridge Public Radio/Smoky Mountain News forum Sept. 24 between Democratic Rep. Joe Sam Queen and his Republican challenger Mike Clampitt took a more substantial purview of their decade-long feud.
Clampitt/Queen forum announced
Republican Mike Clampitt and Democrat Rep. Joe Sam Queen, candidates for the North Carolina House of Representative District 119, will appear at a virtual town hall hosted by The Smoky Mountain News and Blue Ridge Public Radio.
Democratic candidates in WNC call for immediate Medicaid expansion
As the greatest public health crisis in more than a hundred years continues to ravage both the physical and fiscal health of the world, the nation and the state of North Carolina, a group of 15 Democratic candidates is calling for the immediate expansion of Medicaid.
Mau to challenge Queen in 2020
Jackson County Commissioner Ron Mau hopes to unseat Rep. Joe Sam Queen in the 2020 election, announcing before a gathering at the Jackson County Republican Party headquarters Nov. 18 that he will run on the Republican ticket for District 119 of the N.C. House of Representatives.
Rep. Queen announces reelection bid
For the tenth time in his long history of public service, Waynesville Democrat Joe Sam Queen announced his intent to represent his home county of Haywood in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Clampitt makes it official
When North Carolina House District 119 voters get their ballots a little over a year from now, they’ll likely see two very familiar names.
Right from the source: Smoky Mountain Folk Festival celebrates 50 years
Atop a hill on the western edge of downtown Waynesville, just past the invisible line where the delicious smell of down home food stops wafting from nearby Bogart’s Restaurant & Tavern, sits a picturesque century-old home.
With a fresh cup of coffee in hand one recent sunny morning, Joe Sam Queen sat in a rocking chair on the side patio of his serene abode and reminisced about the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival.
What Queen didn’t tell readers about budget standoff
By Patrick M. Gleason • Guest Columnist
What Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, failed to mention in his recent column in these pages is that imposing Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in North Carolina would require state government to spend an additional $6 billion in taxpayer dollars over the next two years alone. Those additional costs would have to be paid by North Carolina taxpayers.
Millions and billions — Correction from last week’s guest column
By Joe Sam Queen • Guest writer
When it comes to talking about millions and billions, getting tongue-tied or misquoted is a hazard of the state budget talks. The numbers are so big that most of us don’t have a grasp of the phenomenal difference they make for real people’s lives, in the economy of our state.
