It’s past time to keep rehashing the same old arguments about whether having a state lottery is a good idea. It’s on the books and operating now, and it’s impossible to imagine ever going backward.

A new breed of predator beetles that could help fight the hemlock wooly adelgid were released in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park two weeks ago.

The hemlock wooly adelgid is a bug from Asia that has invaded the Southern Appalachian Mountains and is rapidly infesting hemlock trees. Without action, the region could lose nearly all of its hemlock trees within five to 10 years, leaving a gaping hole in the forest ecosystem and the landscape.

By Ed Kelley

Tiptoeing quickly across the Toxaway River, my ankle gaiters did the job and kept the cold water out of my boots. With higher water, fording the river could be dicey. I had chosen the Auger Hole trail in Gorges State Park because I thought it would give me a nice overview of the park and get me deep into the gorges. The trail is a well-maintained road that is driven regularly by Park Rangers.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials say they have been erroneously blamed by some residents for introducing large, black and orange ladybeetles that congregate en masse in residential areas.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

There are two things Arthel Watson fans are sure to mention when asked about the folk musician — his voice and his character.

They say his voice channels everything that is true Americana. They say his character is one bearing a great sense of honesty and professionalism.

As part of an innovative fundraising effort called “Doctors for Doc,” Haywood County physicians affiliated with Haywood Regional Medical Center are helping fund an upcoming concert featuring Grammy Award-winning musicians Doc Watson and David Holt.

By Chris Cooper

The name Radney Foster takes me back to the earlier days of home satellite dishes and music television. It was still a novelty to have access to so many things to watch, and in an effort not to be totally biased musically, I perused the music channels regardless of “stylistic format.”

National Poetry Month

April may have been “the cruelest month” for poet T.S. Eliot, but for me it is truly a gift, a time of budding flowers and warming weather. April is also National Poetry Month, a time to honor what Percy Shelley once called “the best and happiest moments by the happiest and best minds.”

North Carolina is blessed with some wonderful poets — Fred Chappell, Jim Applewhite, Robert Morgan, Reynolds Price, Betty Adcock, Gerald Barrax, Ron Rash (just to name a few) — so if you’re interested in some fine new poetry collections, I strongly suggest Kay Byer’s Coming to Rest, Michael McFee’s Shinemaster and Mark Smith-Soto’s Any Second Now. (Check your local independent bookstore for these treasures and many others.)

In Kay Byer’s Coming to Rest, the North Carolina Poet Laureate is a master of verse crafting complex forms such as the sestina, villanelle and ghazal — even the paradelle (a parody of the villanelle). Byer speaks of travels all over the United States and the world, the journeys we take through a daunting emotional landscape, the still moments we capture in the viewfinder of our mind’s eye. Byer sends the reader lyrical postcards of the American West (“Zuni”), poignant perspectives as a mother (“Pneumonia”), a tribute to her college days at UNC-Greensboro (“The Exotics”), and clues into her new role as laureate — “I’ve already answered my e-mail, my voice / mail, my snail mail. My real work? To take hold.” I love the way she’s able to weave a reference from Edith Piaf in with Wal-Mart sunglasses. There’s a balance between the sublime and the mundane, a reverence for languages of different cultures, an insatiable curiosity wherever she goes, a vulnerability that she wrestles with and embraces.

Michael McFee, an Asheville native and professor of English at UNC-Chapel Hill, has worked as a poet and anthologizer, compiling North Carolina poets and short story writers in wonderful collections. McFee’s latest poetry book, Shinemaster, is a tribute to bygone days, childhood memories of baseball and Bible School, recollections of going to the old gas station, swimming at Lake Junaluska, and going through the cafeteria line at the S & W in downtown Asheville. But McFee does not intend to squeeze a sentimental tear out of every page. On the contrary, he uses his playful gift of language to wax on the subjects of belching, spitting, sneezing, making spitwads, kissing and having sex. There are odes to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” and meteor showers, a lost Valentine’s Day balloon and a fascinating history lesson on sweet potatoes. McFee is a delight to read, graceful, witty and wise.

Finally, there’s Mark Smith-Soto’s new collection, Any Second Now. Smith-Soto is a professor of Romance languages and director of the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts at UNC-Greensboro. As a Costa Rican-American, Smith-Soto carries the lush landscape of Central America into breathtaking imagery. Many of the poems in Any Second Now are sonnets, but he takes the form and softens the rhymes so you may not at first recognize these poems as sonnets. In a modern world full of paradox and bizarre juxtaposition, Smith-Soto is able to capture beauty in seemingly insignificant moments of everyday life — channel-surfing, grocery shopping, someone taking off a sweater in a café. In “Ambulance,” he writes, “I’ve just cut the mower off, and now / a siren uncoils in the still air ... The wail deepens, and I am then afraid / as if I could be hurt / without knowing it. ...And still I stand in my yard, watching / color pool into the orange tulips, thinking: / nothing is wrong, not here, not now.” Particularly appealing are his political poems — “President In My Heart” (a satirical twist on a fairy tale and a smart bomb war), “See It On Video” (a tribute to Rodney King) and “Manhattan Buddha” (a tribute to 9/11).

Enjoy National Poetry Month this year by curling up with some of “the happiest and best minds” this earth has to offer.

— By Michael Beadle

April may have been “the cruelest month” for poet T.S. Eliot, but for me it is truly a gift, a time of budding flowers and warming weather. April is also National Poetry Month, a time to honor what Percy Shelley once called “the best and happiest moments by the happiest and best minds.”

By Chris Cooper

What do the words “music career” mean to you? For many it’s big fancy studios, nice cars and whopping cash advances from a record label. Maybe a house in Malibu with a gold plated toilet. Worldwide superstardom and scads of shiny awards? Yeah, right.

Drive-By Truckers: A Blessing and a Curse

I first saw the Truckers eight or nine years ago in a little dive in Asheville called the Basement. There might have been 20 people there, including the staff and guests of the band, but even then it was clear they were onto something beyond their “gimmick” — Lynyrd Skynyrd reincarnated as an alternative rock band — it was equally clear that these guys were in it for the long haul.

By Michael Beadle

It’s Thursday morning and Cherokee High School junior Brandi Oocumma is preparing to read a news story on the radio about the risks and benefits of caesarian deliveries. She wants to become a pediatrician one day, so she likes reading articles about children’s issues.

What began as a request to translate “The Star-Spangled Banner” into Cherokee evolved instead into a new song, the “United Cherokee Nations Anthem,” which was recorded in a studio for the first time at Western Carolina University. The anthem opens with a translation of “O say can you see,” but then takes its own course into messages of strength and the desire for peace.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Voters in Jackson County will elect predominately Democratic county commissioners in this May’s primary elections, regardless of voter turnout.

Twelve of 13 candidates in the county’s unusually large commissioners campaign pool — fueled partly by incumbents choosing not to seek re-election — are running on the Democratic ticket, with three of the four district seats unchallenged by the Republican party.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Michael Morgan sits at a table near the back of Malaprop’s Bookstore Café in Asheville eating from an unlabeled can of applesauce, his 6-foot plus lanky frame casually folded, one leg across the other. He’s dressed in khaki pants and a natural colored striped polo shirt, a short necklace peeking out from its open collar and a small diamond stud earring in his left lobe.

The words still ring in my ears, coming as they did from a teacher who had spent years playing by the book: “I’ve got to spend the money by the end of the school year or it’s gone, so I’m gonna spend it on something.”

By Michael Beadle

Some people bike for the fun of it. Some people bike to race. For Franklin’s Owen Simpson, it’s a bit of both.

Over the past three years, Simpson — who also goes by O.J. — has been pedaling with the Smoky Mountain Racing Team, a Franklin-based organization that promotes cycling for men and women of all skill levels throughout Western North Carolina. Simpson, 30, has a hectic schedule through spring and summer, racing nearly every weekend from now until August. These races have taken him to Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Western North Carolina sites like Tsali in Graham County.

The recent revelations about Rep. Charles Taylor’s ties to a lobbyist who has confessed to federal bribery charges is a serious problem for this region’s Congressman, a controversy that calls into question his ethics and reveals close ties to the sleazy world of politics and money that encircle so many who make a career of politics.

By Jason Kimenker • Guest Columnist

What makes Sylva great? The people of rural Sylva, North Carolina are as unique as this area is beautiful. This small mountain town is so loved by tens of thousands of visitors year-round. With a population of just over 2,500, the incorporated town of Sylva and her residents share an incredibly rich history with their surrounding mountain communities.

New research on slime molds at the University of Georgia has generated hope for the millions of Americans affected by Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases that a cure could one day be possible.

Western Carolina University students are filming the last scenes from the Theatre in Education Company’s performance of “Young Cherokee,” concluding a year-long theatre initiative that has captured attention at national conferences and connected university students with the Cherokee people.

By Chris Cooper

I’ve seen Danielle Howle completely abandon the stage and microphone in the middle of a song and wander through the audience while singing, beating on the tables and bar counter as her only accompaniment.

Leonard Cohen

What can you say about a man in his 70’s who is an international sex symbol in Paris, Berlin, London and Dublin? (He doesn’t do badly in Melbourne, Madrid and Stockholm either.) I think I’ll call him a role model. Every time his hoarse, whiskey-marinated vocal chords tells me how he went home with Suzanne (to her place by the river) and “touched her perfect body with his mind,” I vibrate like a tuning fork. Hell, I don’t even know what he means by that, but I’m set a-quiver anyway. Let’s talk a little about vintage Cohen.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

This May 2 voters in Jackson County are faced with choosing a board of county commissioners that will enact and enforce ways to shape growth in the coming years.

One hot button issue seemingly is off the table — zoning. All of the candidates interviewed are against the controlled development measure, often billed as the nail in the coffin of any electoral platform.

By Sarah Kucharski

The heated race for sheriff in Jackson County is closing in on the May 2 primary date in which voters will decide which candidate, incumbent Jimmy Ashe or former sheriff Jim Cruzan, will head up the agency for the next four years.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Democratic candidates running for two District 2 seats on the Macon County board of commissioners squared off at a League of Women Voters meeting last Thursday (April 13) in a growth debate that pitted newcomers against natives.

Back-buying

Have you ever noticed that people, for the most part, solidify their tastes — in music, and clothing, and what they like to eat — at a certain time in their younger years?

I don’t mean that we can’t change and broaden our horizons, but that a lot of folks don’t, after that first rush of choices.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

With growth on the forefront of Macon County’s election issues, commissioner candidates have staked out their stance on land use planning. A majority of candidates have recommended taking a cautious approach — avoiding zoning but enacting ordinances that would address more than just health and safety concerns such as those affecting viewsheds and land preservation.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

They’ve said they want to strengthen the economy. They’ve said they want to help bring in higher paying jobs. They agree that doing it will require local schoolchildren to get the best education possible.

Three candidates are running for Swain County chairman in the Democratic Primary.

Three cheers for crime. If moralists have their way, it will only get worse.

How coincidental that within three short weeks of Justice Sam Alito’s long-anticipated confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, the anti-abortion lobby of South Dakota suddenly convinced state lawmakers to pass a sweeping bill outlawing abortion in all instances, except to save the life of a mother. Gov. Michael Rounds has indicated he will sign the bill into law. How little these people know.

White-tail deer will soon start scouting the fields and forests for hiding places to give birth to their fawns this spring.

After giving birth, the doe leaves the fawn lying on the ground and continues foraging for the crucial calories she needs to nurse. The doe returns to the fawn several times a day to nurse and clean it, staying only a few minutes each time before leaving again to seek food.

Five marinas on Fontana Lake have been certified as Clean Marinas in recognition of their efforts to preserve and protect water quality in the Tennessee River system by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the dam at Fontana Lake for hydropower.

By Michael Beadle

Helen Keller is an unruly child. She eats food with her fingers, drops her silverware on purpose, kicks and whines, and throws temper tantrums. She also happens to be blind, deaf and mute with very little way to communicate with others.

First, an admission: I didn’t get to talk to Kenny Wayne Shepherd at all. No interview or anything.

Kind of a bummer, because it means I couldn’t ask him how it feels to look back on a performing and recording career that began while he was still in his mid-teens. His debut, 1997’s Ledbetter Heights, went certified platinum, and both Trouble Is ... and Live On earned Grammy nominations in 1999.

Every year when the local tailgate farmers markets begin opening, it’s a good time to ponder just what it means to be able to hop down to some designated spot and buy produce, flowers and other goods fresh from a local farm. More to the point, perhaps, we would do well to imagine what it would be like if we couldn’t.

The sight of bobbing caravans of inflatable kayaks floating down Richland Creek through Waynesville will return on Saturday, May 6 when Whitewater of Waynesville, a.k.a. WOW, opens back up for its second season.

Climbing the 80 rickety feet of metal and wood got my adrenaline flowing a bit.

Once up there, I found it to be a precarious perch, especially since the plywood floor was rotten and some of it missing. I was in the old fire tower atop Mt. Sterling in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. From my vantage inside the tower, I had a great view of most of the northern section of the main crest of the Smokies, which is also the North Carolina/Tennessee state line and the route of the Appalachian Trail.

By Marshall Frank • Columnist

Time to send a message to our government leaders. Our democracy is ruled by the will of the people. It appears our president, and our senators and congressional representatives from both parties have forgotten that.

By Lew Garnett

Without his ever knowing it, Blaine Richardson was one of my heroes.

It was a recent breezy Saturday at our karate school, where over the past few years I’d fought a sharp contest between my 50-year-old body and my 20-year-old expectations.

Beach Trips

My first vacation of any real length is coming up in two weeks’ time. My boyfriend and I are heading south to Delray Beach, Fla. — a place picked solely for being home to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, and for having the word “beach” in its name.

By Chris Cooper

There’s this thing that can happen when you research an artist for a review. I’m not sure what the technical term for it is, but it goes something like this: you find that many people (usually well respected peers, in this case Rodney Crowell or Todd Snider) have incredibly good things to say about the artist and their latest album.

By Michael Beadle

There’s so much art to see in downtown Waynesville, gallery owners are now offering to keep their businesses open extra hours.

For the first Friday of the month starting this May, the Waynesville Gallery Association is kicking off the fourth season of Art After Dark. The latest evening stroll begins this Friday, May 5, with live music, free snacks and drinks, opening exhibits, and meet-the-artist receptions in a dozen art galleries that line Main Street and adjoining Depot Street.

Local writer Jeanne Nutter, 72, of the Caney Fork Community took first place in the Jackson County Extension and Community Association’ s recent Cultural Arts Contest.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

In a landslide win, Jackson County Sheriff Jimmy Ashe held off challenger and former sheriff Jim Cruzan in what many have called the election’s most heated race.

Former North Carolina Highway Patrolman C.D. Jenkins emerged from a field of three Democrats to win the Macon County Sheriff’s primary and the opportunity to run against incumbent Sheriff Robert Holland.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Sylva residents have decided — it’s time for a good stiff drink.

Voters approved mixed beverage sales 257 to 182. Only 34 voters chose not to cast ballots on the measure.

Political newcomer Ronnie Beale and incumbent Bob Simpson beat two other Democrats in Tuesday’s primary and will move on to the Nov. 7 general election against two Republicans.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Jackson County will usher in a new board of commissioners committed to addressing the county’s growth issues with the election of pro-planning candidates William Shelton, Tom Massie, Joe Cowan and Mark Jones in Tuesday’s primary election.

By Michael Beadle

Incumbent Kirk Kirkpatrick and newcomers Charles “Skeeter” Curtis and Bill Upton have won the top three slots in the Haywood County commissioner Democratic primary. Incumbent commission chairman Mark Swanger and former commissioner Bill Noland were the fourth- and fifth-place vote-getters, respectively, according to unofficial results at the Haywood County Board of Elections.

• Costs — Before you book a reservation at a B&B, be sure you check the fine print and know the total cost of your stay. Inns have room taxes that are added on to the bill and there may be additional charges.