Spoof Awards 2021: Better Late Than Never Award
As the late, great rocker Tom Petty once opined, “The waiting is the hardest part,” and it sure seemed that…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Person of the Year Award
This year was a challenging year in so many ways, but that was especially true in Western North Carolina.
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Mr. Congeniality Award
And what a year it was for Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers.
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Spoof Awards 2021: The WTF Award
The first-ever award for mismanaging and destroying a longstanding community institution goes to … that longstanding community institution itself.
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Spoof Awards 2021: Sashay My Way Award
When legendary Drag Queen RuPaul kicks a queen off his reality tv show for up and coming drag queens, he…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Most Likely to Get My Vote Award
The winner of this year’s “most likely to get my vote award,” goes to John Hinton. While other politicians seem…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Carpetbagger Award
As if Henderson County native David Madison Cawthorn’s meteoric rise to fame wasn’t surprising enough, Cawthorn’s Nov. 11 announcement that…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Good Sport Award (a.k.a. Bullsh*t Award)
All teachers everywhere are recipients of the Bullsh*t Award every year for what they have to put up with, whether…
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Spoof Awards 2021: Woke Citizens Award
Cullowhee Valley School stole the running for the Woke Citizens Award when it voted to retire its outdated Rebel mascot,…
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Spoof Awards 2021: The Winter of Our Discontent Award
After 27 years of loyal service to the Main Street merchant community in Waynesville, Wall Street Books got booted. The…
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Grandfather Mountain animal habitats prepare for winter
Trimming a tree for the holidays? So are Grandfather Mountain’s resident elk. Each year, the resident animals at Grandfather Mountain receive…
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‘I’ve just never seen water that angry’
By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | Poet T.S. Eliot wrote that there’s something about growing up beside a…
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Haywood Eye Care celebrates 70 years
Haywood Family Eye Care has been a fixture of eye care in Western North Carolina for nearly 70 years.
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Omicron spreading fast
Haywood County Public Health has received notice of 120 new cases of COVID-19 in the last week compared to 156…
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Haywood Rotary Clubs deliver Christmas boxes
Members from three Rotary Clubs in Haywood County delivered 651 Christmas dinner boxes Dec. 21 to local families. The Christmas…
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Incarcerated at Christmas: Swain inmates thankful for family visitations
Swain County Detention Center became a place of reunions and redemption during the last few weeks as inmates had their…
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Congress ends EBCI challenge to Catawba casino
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ last hope for stopping the Catawba Indian Nation from building a casino in North…
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WCU trustees approve athletics fee hike
The Western Carolina University Board of Trustees voted unanimously during its Dec. 3 meeting to recommend a schedule of fees…
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Swain County Schools faces recruitment, retention obstacles
In the midst of the third school year affected by COVID-19, school systems are keenly aware of the stress the…
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Public hearing slated for RV moratorium in Maggie
Maggie Valley Town Hall was packed Tuesday evening for the regular December Board of Aldermen meeting. This was the first…
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Franklin Town Council fills vacant seat
Adam Kimsey will join the Franklin Town Council after the board unanimously appointed him to fill a two-year unexpired term.
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New Report Sounds Alarm on Affordable Housing — Again
By Barbara Durr • Asheville Watchdog | This story was originally published by Asheville Watchdog, an independent nonprofit news team serving Asheville…
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Cherokee gaming LLC to expand its reach
The company the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians formed earlier this year to purchase Caesar’s Southern Indiana Casino hopes to…
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Emergency shelter operations conclude in Haywood
Haywood County’s emergency shelter operations for Tropical Storm Fred survivors have concluded this week, four months after sheltering first began…
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Ghost Town developer pleads his case
Ghost Town developer Frankie Wood made his case to members of the Maggie Valley business community during a presentation at…
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Herrons offer home to family that lost everything
By Bill Graham • Special to SMN | For Ed Herron, childhood at Lake Junaluska in the 1960s was idyllic.…
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Operation Medicine Drop
North Carolina created Operation Medicine Drop to help people safely dispose of medications and prescription drugs. A series of locations…
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Cherokee passes casino smoking ban
Casinos in Cherokee and Murphy will be permanently smoke-free following a majority vote from Tribal Council Dec. 9, codifying a…
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Jackson declares Darrell Woodard Day of Service
Jackson County and the Town of Sylva have officially declared Dec. 10 as Darrell Woodard Day of Service.
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Plea agreement delayed in Sylva man’s Jan. 6 case
Lewis Easton Cantwell, a Sylva resident facing charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building, was…
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Cashiers-Glenville recreation plan approved
Jackson County commissioners have approved a Cashiers-Glenville Recreation Center Master Plan that will include the construction of a splash pad…
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Nikwasi story told in traveling Smithsonian exhibit
The history of the Nikwasi Mound in Franklin will soon be part of a Smithsonian Museum traveling exhibit that will…
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Cherokee supports Nikwasi grant effort
Tribal Council voted Dec. 9 to support the Nikwasi Initiative’s efforts to land $5 million in grant funds for a…
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Cawthorn’s Uncivil War
Congressman’s invasion into new district is triggering an intra-party reckoning By TOM FIEDLER | When Madison Cawthorn revealed his plan to…
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Relief funds aim to keep up with difficulties in schools
Just after the Coronavirus Pandemic broke out in the United States in March of 2020, the CARES Act was signed…
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Regional honors given to Haywood community groups
The WNC Honors Awards, a program of WNC Communities, is built on a 72-year tradition of recognizing rural community development…
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COVID-19 cases rise following holiday
In the week since the last press release, Haywood County Public Health has received notice of 170 new cases of COVID-19, doubling…
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Grant will allow Jackson to expand Pre-K
When Dr. Dana Ayers became Superintendent of Jackson County Public Schools in June 2021, two of her top priorities were…
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Supreme Court suspends candidate filing, moves 2022 Primary
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended candidate filing for all offices for the 2022 primary election.
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‘Snuffed Out’: Unannounced dam release covers Oconaluftee in sediment
It was around 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 4, when Ken Brown’s phone started lighting up with photo texts depicting…
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Rescue funds to assist local governments
Signed by President Joe Biden on March 17, 2021, the American Rescue Plan will provide $1.88 trillion in federal funds…
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Students visit Hazel Creek
Eighth-grade students from Mountain Discovery Charter School in Bryson City went on a five-day and four-night backpacking up Hazel Creek.
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WCU master plan: The focus areas
If the proposed master plan is adopted, over the coming years the university will focus its development efforts on five…
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Ten years ahead: WCU trustees mull master plan proposal
At a board retreat this month, Western Carolina University trustees got their first look at a draft proposed 10-year master…
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Sylva still undecided on ARP projects
Sylva is slated to receive a total of $880,000 in American Rescue Plan funds, but the town has not yet…
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Jackson uses ARP money to assist nonprofits
The American Rescue Plan, signed into law March 6, allocated $350 billion for state and local relief in response to…
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Census tract limits Swain’s options for ARP spending
Swain County Board of Commissioners voted to spend its American Rescue Plan allocation on pay for employees since a guideline…
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Bryson City approves one-time bonuses
Bryson City Council approved premium pay for 32 employees during a Dec. 6 board of aldermen meeting.
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Franklin approves premium pay policy
Franklin Town Council has agreed on how to spend $73,000 of the town’s $1.3 million allocation from the American Rescue…
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Macon uses rescue funds to increase employee pay
Macon County decided early on to invest all of its American Rescue Plan allocation toward county employees.
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