Robert Edward Branning of Canton — the escaped inmate who was shot on Main Street in downtown Waynesville two weeks ago — has now been charged with multiple felonies.

Macon County Sheriff’s Office concluded “Operation Thunderstruck” on Sept. 9 with 26 arrests for drug-related offenses while three suspects are still at large. 

Possessing drugs on the Qualla Boundary will get a lot more expensive following a decision this month to ratchet up fines for anyone — enrolled and non-enrolled people alike — caught with illegal substances. 

Because when she dresses like that, she is just asking for it. Because saying “no” is part of the game, not what she really means. Because she got me worked up, and that is on her. Because once you go so far, you just cannot stop. Because we were both drinking and things got a little out of hand. Because she shouldn’t have been here in the first place. Because boys will be boys. Because I’ve got my whole future in front of me.

Haywood County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for an armed and dangerous suspect involved in a June 26 shooting incident in Canton.

I don’t know what to tell my children, so I don’t tell them anything. Not yet anyway. It is the first day of summer vacation, and therefore, the mood in our home is one of revelry. The alarm clocks are off, the swimsuits are airing out on the railing of the deck, and the pancakes are whimsically sprinkled with chocolate chips, in the manner of a big, crooked smile. I don’t know what to tell them, so I don’t tell them anything.

The world is filled with love. The world is filled with rage. The world is filled with hatred. How can all of this be true? How can it be reconciled? How can it even be understood? Another mass shooting, this time in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Fifty people dead. Another young, male killer, and everyone trying, as usual, to assemble pieces of his life into a picture that will explain it, why he chose to go into a nightclub just around last call and start shooting until fifty people were dead. Maybe he had ties to ISIS? Maybe he was homophobic? Maybe he had a history of mental instability?

Cherokee’s Tribal Council was all business this month as members plowed through a list of 15 names proposed for banishment. There wasn’t much discussion, but there was uniformity of intent as councilmembers raised their hands, 15 times in a row, for 15 unanimous votes to forbid those named from ever stepping foot on tribal lands again.

A foot chase by a Waynesville Police officer through downtown Hazelwood just before dawn last week ended with police nabbing suspects wanted for botched break-ins at two local pharmacies and under investigation for a string of larcenies in other towns, as well.

Rev. Howard “Howdie” White, former rector of the Episcopal Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville, is being investigated in two states after being accused of sexual misconduct with minors. 

Two Haywood County men have been apprehended while one woman is still at large in connection with the stabbing of a 33-year-old Clyde man on Jan. 3.