eCourts coming to Western North Carolina: Officials promise greater public access to judicial system
The public in Western North Carolina is about to have more access to the courts than ever before, assuming all goes to plan.
Nostalgia’s great, but ditch the rose-colored glasses
Like a lot of middle-aged-to-older Americans during the holiday season, I’m a person with a healthy nostalgic streak.
The perils of an increasingly technocentric society
At four o’clock in the morning, I am fumbling around in the dark trying to make some hotel coffee for the road.
SCC lands Dogwood Health Trust grant
To help create a pipeline of future health care workers for the region, Dogwood Health Trust has awarded a $500,000 grant to Southwestern Community College’s Health Sciences Division.
WCU sets new legislative goals
Following November’s passage of the “best budget in a decade” for the University of North Carolina System, Western Carolina University has a clean slate for a new wish list. Chancellor Kelli R. Brown presented trustees with the highlights March 4 — an expanded engineering program, salary increases for employees and merit scholarships for in-state students.
When town hall is empty: Boards debate merits of in-person, remote meetings
After a mass migration from boardrooms to cyberspace last spring, one by one Western North Carolina’s public bodies have transitioned back to in-person meetings — with the exception of Sylva’s town board.
What Covid taught us about infrastructure
By Peter Nieckarz • Guest Columnist | We seem to be collectively breathing a sigh of relief as the COVID-19 vaccine continues to roll out and we move towards a post pandemic state of “normalcy.” While we are grateful to be taking our masks off and gathering with friends and loved ones, it is likely that we will not return to the normalcy we knew before the pandemic.
The new trustbusters: Proposed legislation would rein in Big Tech
Over the last two weeks, the most significant set of antitrust laws since the early 1900s were proposed in Congress, but these aren’t your granddaddy’s antitrust laws — instead of targeting expansive Industrial Age monopolies like railroads and oil companies, these five separate bills all take aim at the largest online platforms of the Information Age.
Helpful, innocent, sweet, informative: four reads
As I write this book review, the presidential election is one day away. Like many of my readers, I have followed the online news regarding this race — the polls, the rallies, the daily barrage of commentaries on who deserves our votes. In the next few days, these weighty and acrimonious conflicts will, I hope, be resolved.
Haywood schools close due to ransomware attack
By Boyd Allsbrook • Contributing writer | Internet technology has become the backbone of schools in the time of COVID-19. E-learning has allowed students to carry on their studies while safely at home on a historic scale. However, this reliance on technology has its pitfalls; school systems are now more vulnerable than ever to cyber attacks.
