During a visit to Canton Tuesday, May 2, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser met with a room full of leaders in local government, business and education. They held a wide-ranging conversation about the ongoing response to the impending closure of Canton’s 115-year-old paper mill — and Biser made it clear that she intends to hold Pactiv Evergreen accountable for cleaning up any messes left behind.

North Carolina faces many challenges. You and I may disagree with how to rank those challenges, or what to do about them, but we share a belief that our state could be a better place than it is today.

New data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis show that 2021 was a year of growth for the outdoor economy in North Carolina — but that the industry is still working to make up ground it lost during the pandemic. 

By Moe Long • Rumble Contributor | Like many millennials, I was sold the hope of a college degree and told that if I followed this path of education into a career, I'd be set. In fact, I was often told I’d be much better off than those who didn’t seek this path.  

After emerging from the early stages of the Coronavirus Pandemic virtually unscathed, Haywood County’s lodging industry rebounded with a year that exceeded all expectations. 

There’s not yet a lot of information about the latest economic development announcement made by Haywood County commissioners — the fourth in four weeks — but coupled with the previous three, “Project Surrey” pushes total spending commitments in the county to nearly $60 million since early April. 

The cross situated over Lake Junaluska has been lit at night for years to give railroad workers some guiding light and inspiration as they rolled through Haywood County.

Workers, businesses, schools and local governments impacted by the Coronavirus Pandemic will benefit from a comprehensive, bi-partisan relief plan that appropriates billions in aid while also modifying and clarifying a substantial number of regulations and deadlines rendered untenable by state and local “stay home” orders.

Way back, way back, like three or four weeks ago, our little company was on track for its best year ever.

Our print newspaper was going strong and we had just added a new, energetic and driven sales professional. Our digital footprint was growing faster than we had expected, and our staff was brimming with new ideas to help local businesses get their message out via several online platforms. Our niche publishing sector had grown significantly in the last 12 months, adding two annual magazines and the four-time-per-year Blue Ridge Motorcycling Magazine to our portfolio.

While not yet a humanitarian tragedy in terms of lives lost, the Coronavirus Pandemic has quickly become an economic tragedy in terms of livelihoods lost. Intuitively, local and statewide “stay home” orders have resulted in large-scale unemployment, but counterintuitively, there are still plenty of places putting out the proverbial  “now hiring” signs all across Western North Carolina.