A growing tropical storm that’s expected to become a major hurricane is tracking through the Gulf of Mexico and appears to be headed right for Western North Carolina. Local officials aren’t taking any chances.

He fought to get on the ballot, and then fought to get off the ballot. 

Now, after a favorable ruling from North Carolina’s highly politicized Supreme Court, anti-vax conspiracy theorist and Trump endorser Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will have his name removed from North Carolina ballots, costing counties large and small, rural and urban, thousands upon thousands of dollars and delaying the start of absentee voting in a crucial swing state. 

The old paper mill in the heart of Canton will have a new owner by the end of the month — if everything remains on track — according to a three-page letter filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 30.

Sure, mosquitos are an important link in the food chain for amphibians, birds and other insects, but they’re annoying, they’re persistent and they can actually kill you. Two researchers at Western Carolina University are working on a faster, cheaper, more reliable method to identify which ones will. 

A  bipartisan panel of election law experts is largely satisfied with the integrity of the American election system, but they’re also warning about evolving threats from artificial intelligence, foreign governments and home-grown malfeasants spreading rumors and lies about the process and the outcome of the 2024 General Election. 

Remarks given by Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson, stumping for the Democratic presidential ticket during a visit to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, took on a more poignant air due to a tragic coincidence and a surprise guest — suggesting Americans remain especially divided on a controversial issue. 

It’s a name familiar to older North Carolina voters largely due to her father’s two separate eight-year terms as the state’s governor, but Mecklenburg attorney, former House representative and current Sen. Rachel Hunt’s been building her own legacy and is poised to serve as lieutenant governor in what she hopes will be a Gov. Josh Stein administration, if they can both win. 

Visitors to one of the country’s most unique national park units pumped nearly $1.4 billion into local economies in 2023, continuing a growing trend that has powered rural Western North Carolina’s economy over the past decade. 

Editor’s note: This story is a compilation of Smoky Mountain News Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s pop-up daily dispatches, “Via Chicago,” originally published online from the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago the week of Aug. 19. 

Torches were passed at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, even more so than most people might have seen on their television screens. 

The long and winding road to the White House passes through North Carolina, but in this swing state of nearly 11 million people, that road is more likely than in any other to be gravel or dirt. 

Editor’s note: This is the final installment of “Via Chicago,” Smoky Mountain News Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s pop-up daily dispatch from the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Editor’s note: “Via Chicago” is Smoky Mountain News Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s pop-up daily dispatch from the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Look for a new installment each day this week, through Friday.

Editor’s note: “Via Chicago” is Smoky Mountain News Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s pop-up daily dispatch from the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Look for a new installment each day this week, through Friday.

At his Aug. 14 rally in Asheville — billed as an opportunity to deliver remarks on the economy — former President Donald Trump didn’t have much in the way of specifics, but he may have finally found his voice on the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Seeing surging poll numbers and sensing strong momentum, Western North Carolina Democrats spoke out during a press conference in advance of former President Donald Trump’s appearance in Asheville last week, touting nominee Kamala Harris’ working families agenda and suggesting the state — as well as the 11th Congressional District — will be competitive this year. 

Editor’s note: “Via Chicago” is Smoky Mountain News Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s pop-up daily dispatch from the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Look for a new installment each day this week, through Friday.

Clarification: In the original version of this story, SMN reported that TDA Executive Director Corrina Ruffieux said that IDEA of Haywood County was named on the signature line of the grant application along with Misfit Mountain. Documents provided by the TDA show that to be true for the initial application, but not the subsequent revised application, where no organizations are listed on the signature line. The story has been updated to reflect this information. 

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority voted unanimously today to rescind a $10,000 grant it had previously approved, citing its own failure to properly vet the grant application.

Flying in the face of stats from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that say veterans continue to commit suicide at higher rates than non-veterans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week declined to approve MDMA, a psychedelic compound, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. 

So I walk into Gary Carden’s room in the ICU and the first thing he says to me in his sonorous growl is, “OK newspaperman, take this down. I want you to turn this into a story.” 

Tourism remains a critically important component of Western North Carolina’s economy. To ensure it remains strong well into the future, the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is fine-tuning a forthcoming destination master plan that focuses on underutilized assets and what visitors seem to really want — authenticity. 

A “community passport” program with the goal of increasing tourist visits and overnight stays by spotlighting businesses that pledge to fight racism, prejudice and discrimination will roll out in September, and the organization charged with implementing the program is looking to spread the word.  

Since unceremoniously announcing its exit from Canton early in 2023, Pactiv Evergreen, owner of the now-shuttered 115-year-old paper mill, has had very little to say — except which bills it refuses to pay. On July 29, the $6 billion multinational company did it again. 

Buncombe County’s first state park, near the eastern gateway to Haywood County, remains on track for a 2025 opening after the final in-person public input session for master planning concluded at Upper Hominy Fire and Rescue Department on Aug. 1.  

The effects of deadly flooding in 2021 are still being felt in the town of Canton, but thanks to a federal funding request from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), the town is poised to take another huge step toward recovery.

After twin tragedies in 2021 and 2023, the town of Canton still has a substantial list of ongoing projects in various stages of completion — in addition to the usual long-range planning initiatives most municipalities at some point undertake.

Just months after a staff realignment meant to free up then-Town Manager Nick Scheuer to focus on recovery and resiliency efforts in the wake of twin tragedies, Scheuer has submitted his resignation to Canton’s town attorney and governing board. 

Eight days is what it took to shock the world and cast the contentious 2024 Presidential race down untrodden paths. 

Nestled away on seven acres in a nondescript warehouse above Canton, not visible from the road, sits an animal rehab facility unlike most others in this wild and rugged region.

News of President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 presidential race may have shocked some observers, but North Carolina’s Democratic delegates appear fired up and ready to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s new nominee.

A rezoning of the former paper mill parcel in Canton has replaced an expiring industrial development moratorium, maintaining the town’s limited control of the site despite the possibility of an impending sale to a developer with unknown intentions. 

Haywood County commissioners approved two funding recommendations from its Affordable Housing Development Committee that will increase affordable housing stock at no cost to Haywood County taxpayers. 

Consultants finally delivered to Haywood County commissioners a report on the results of a secretive, long-awaited “listening post exercise” meant to chart Haywood County’s economic development vision — revealing in the process that there was no input from average working-class residents, an omission that may prompt some to question the applicability of the report’s findings despite the project’s tagline of “stronger together.” 

Pactiv Evergreen, owner of the now-shuttered paper mill in Canton, announced last week that it had agreed to sell its Pine Bluff, Arkansas paper mill and an extrusion facility off Howell Mill Road in Waynesville to a South American company for $110 million during the fourth quarter of 2024, if traditional closing conditions are met and foreign antitrust regulators approve. 

With the eyes of the state, the region and the county on the Town of Canton — flood recovery is approaching its third year and the sting of losing a major employer last June is still fresh — Canton’s governing board took the opportunity to reiterate its core missions of transparency and accountability during a special called meeting on the morning of July 16.  

Buried deep within a 40-page regulatory reform bill that became law last week, a new policy handed down by the Republican-led General Assembly will require tax collectors in every North Carolina county and municipality to install a sign “in a conspicuous manner” on each parcel subject to a lien for delinquent property taxes. 

A stopgap measure that will partially fund expired federal grants for child care providers finally found Gov. Roy Cooper’s pen, but advocates maintain that it’s too little, too late — and just kicks the can down the road for another five months. 

A visually stunning amalgamation of images — both historic and aspirational — now adorns Waynesville’s Pigeon Community Multicultural Development center, breathing new life into an old neighborhood and commemorating the important role of the structure in regional Black history. 

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority announced last week that it had awarded just over $250,000 in grants to 18 organizations for more than two dozen community projects all across the county. 

For many, a Pride festival is a fairly straightforward event, a celebration of unity among people marginalized for who they are and who they love. But in a purer sense, Haywood County’s historic first Pride festival and a competing prayer meeting held the night before were both compelling exercises of constitutionally protected rights, suggesting maybe — just maybe — that Americans can, in fact, disagree without being disagreeable.

The shuttered paper mill at the heart of Canton is still there — for now. One day it won’t be, but a forthcoming monument will ensure the generations of papermakers that made Canton great won’t ever be forgotten.

Raymond Valentine has seen a lot of things in his long life, but after 80 years he doesn’t have to wait much longer to see a Pride festival in the rugged Appalachian county where he’s lived nearly his entire life. 

Appraisers are still in the field putting the finishing touches on the upcoming countywide property reappraisal set to take effect Jan. 1, 2025, but Haywood County commissioners are already battling misinformation about why it’s happening and what effect it could have on next year’s property tax bills. 

Most people don’t realize that some accidental opioid overdoses are reversible with the quick administration of an opioid antagonist called naloxone, commonly found as a nasal spray and sold under the brand name of Narcan. 

In the second split budget vote in the last four years, Waynesville’s Town Council approved a property tax hike of 3.98 cents to address mounting capital needs and maintain competitive employee compensation packages meant to reduce costly turnover. 

Without immediate action from the General Assembly, Pandemic-era federal grants to child care providers will run out on July 1 — plunging the state into a child care crisis that will hamper economic and workforce development, make child care more difficult to find and further burden North Carolina’s working parents already feeling the pinch from unaffordable housing and the relentless corporate greed that’s driving inflation. 

Hoping to build on the momentum of a successful off-year election cycle, even amid violent threats, members of Western North Carolina’s LGBTQ+ community are wary of what might happen in the General Election and are calling for the codification of rights already enjoyed by other Americans. 

Commissioners voted unanimously June 3 to accept Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead’s proposed annual budget which, in spite of inflation, forthcoming debt for a jail expansion and the loss of a major employer last year, contains no tax increase.

A rare public impasse by Council Members over the Town of Waynesville’s proposed budget will leave things unsettled for the time being, foreshadowing prolonged negotiations over an all-but-certain tax increase. 

Amid complaints from neighbors, the new owners of the Waynesville Inn and Golf Club once again saw their proposed 12-unit Longview development shot down after Town Council found it to be inconsistent with several aspects of the town’s land management plan.