Ben-Hur’s long history is captivating
 

Ben-Hur’s long history is captivating

Some authors and critics sniff at best-sellers. I suppose the idea is that a novel appealing to so many thousands…
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HART welcomes Arnette, Dykes
 

HART welcomes Arnette, Dykes

The board of directors of the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (HART) in Waynesville held its annual meeting recently in the…
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Feet in the sand, not your head
 

Feet in the sand, not your head

How could something so beautiful be so ugly? Standing at the edge of the ocean on the Gulf Coast of…
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Lonesome and a long way from home: John Cowan on bluegrass, life
 

Lonesome and a long way from home: John Cowan on bluegrass, life

They wanted to shake things up. In 1971, a young Sam Bush aimed to create a new kind of bluegrass…
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Get real: WNC real estate market comes back swinging
 

Get real: WNC real estate market comes back swinging

Within the residential real estate industry lies an interesting contradiction.  SEE ALSO:• Haywood housing demand is high but inventory is low• Macon…
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Selling a mountain lifestyle: Haywood housing demand is high but inventory is low
 

Selling a mountain lifestyle: Haywood housing demand is high but inventory is low

Brian Cagle is vice president and managing broker at Beverly-Hanks in Waynesville. Beverly Hanks doesn’t sell real estate, however; Beverly-Hanks…
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Macon making sustainable growth in real estate market
 

Macon making sustainable growth in real estate market

It hasn’t been a quick or easy recovery, but Macon County real estate is back on the rise and Realtors…
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Real estate rebounding in Jackson: Double-digit growth in Cashiers area; steady increase elsewhere
 

Real estate rebounding in Jackson: Double-digit growth in Cashiers area; steady increase elsewhere

With the recession nearly a decade in the rearview mirror, the real estate market is once more robust in Jackson…
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Mountain cabins in high demand in Swain
 

Mountain cabins in high demand in Swain

Sherry and Gary Patterson vacationed in Bryson City for the first time about 20 years ago and now they can’t…
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Bryson Senior Living breaks ground
 

Bryson Senior Living breaks ground

Affinity Living Group held a groundbreaking ceremony recently for its new assisted living community, Bryson Senior Living. Pictured moving the…
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Proposed room tax hike already in jeopardy
 

Proposed room tax hike already in jeopardy

A renewed effort to increase Haywood County’s room occupancy tax from 4 to 6 percent has already run into almost…
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Shining Rock receives grant for outdoor classes
 

Shining Rock receives grant for outdoor classes

Shining Rock Classical Academy will be able to construct an outdoor classroom on its campus this year thanks to a…
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Recreation improvements coming to Waynesville
 

Recreation improvements coming to Waynesville

The active, outdoorsy lifestyle favored by residents of Western North Carolina has long been fostered by the Town of Waynesville,…
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Haywood looks to turn tax collector into appointed position
 

Haywood looks to turn tax collector into appointed position

Haywood County Tax Collector Mike Matthews has been a lightning rod for controversy since before he narrowly defeated veteran incumbent…
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Swain hospital: ‘ER is open 24/7’
 

Swain hospital: ‘ER is open 24/7’

Swain Community Hospital is still trying to overcome misperceptions in the community regarding its recent emergency department changes as well…
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FBI raids Qualla Housing Authority
 

FBI raids Qualla Housing Authority

A team of 26 FBI agents descended on Cherokee Feb. 2, filling the Qualla Housing Authority building and wheeling entire…
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Cherokee council votes to impeach Chief Lambert
 

Cherokee council votes to impeach Chief Lambert

To the boos of an outspoken audience, the Cherokee Tribal Council voted 9-3 Feb. 2 to begin impeachment proceedings against…
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Newspapers with real reporters and editors matter
 

Newspapers with real reporters and editors matter

By Frank Queen • Guest Columnist I was surrounded by newspapers growing up. Dad worked for the government in the…
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A once happy week now darkened
 

A once happy week now darkened

We leave for Disney World this weekend.  I should be more excited, but with all that’s going on in our…
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Why rush to repeal ACA?
 

Why rush to repeal ACA?

To the Editor: I am writing to express my concern about the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.”…
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Internet availability a problem in WNC
 

Internet availability a problem in WNC

To the Editor: Regarding Scott McLeod’s piece last week about the availability of internet service (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/19234), it is a big…
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No room for alternative news
 

No room for alternative news

“Ignorance and misinformation, if allowed to prevail in foreign policy, handicaps the country’s security. In a world of complex and…
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Trump’s bigotry exposed in immigration order
 

Trump’s bigotry exposed in immigration order

To the Editor: The very first section of President Donald Trump’s order banning immigrants from seven nations refers to the…
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Hillbilly Elegy author can’t shake the label
 

Hillbilly Elegy author can’t shake the label

“Southern Appalachia is a region about which, perhaps, more things are known that are not true than any other part…
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Twice threatened
 

Twice threatened

In the land of the noonday sun, there lives a noonday snail. The noonday globe snail, Petera clarkia Nantahala is…
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Drought on the retreat
 

Drought on the retreat

A week of rainy weather put drought on the retreat, with the classification of extreme drought absent from North Carolina…
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Grant to help kids explore the Great Smokies
 

Grant to help kids explore the Great Smokies

A $20,000 Google Field Trip Days grant will help the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont give more kids and…
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FAQ: The effects of WNC’s 2016 fire season
 

FAQ: The effects of WNC’s 2016 fire season

Did the fires hurt wildlife?  Prescribed burning is often used as a tool to benefit wildlife by regenerating their habitat,…
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Wildfire impacts range from barely there to complete char, but true effects remain to be seen
 

Wildfire impacts range from barely there to complete char, but true effects remain to be seen

It’s a warmer-than-average January day, the contours of the mountains visible from the highway beneath a thin covering of leafless…
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Haywood man arrested for murder
 

Haywood man arrested for murder

Wayne Littrell, 72, of the Coleman Mountain community of Haywood County, was arrested Sunday, Jan. 29, and charged with the…
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‘Indivisible’ citizens group forms in Sylva
 

‘Indivisible’ citizens group forms in Sylva

There will be a meeting of the Indivisible Sylva NC group at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the Jackson…
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WNC progressive group gaining momentum
 

WNC progressive group gaining momentum

What started as a small group of like-minded people helping each other deal with aftermath of Election Day has now…
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Restoring hope for a community
 

Restoring hope for a community

Until last year, the old house languishing on Academy Street on Bryson City United Methodist Church’s property was seen as…
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Cherokee council considers results of investigation into chief’s administration
 

Cherokee council considers results of investigation into chief’s administration

Rumors have been flying on the Qualla Boundary since an investigation into contract awards and human resources actions under Principal…
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Huge expansion planned for Hazelwood Ingles
 

Huge expansion planned for Hazelwood Ingles

Ingles Markets Inc. is growing in Waynesville again — this time, on Brown Avenue in Hazelwood.
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Comment

Federal hiring freeze will have local impacts
 

Federal hiring freeze will have local impacts

A blanket freeze on federal hiring is having a local impact as the agencies tasked with managing Western North Carolina’s…
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Comment

Room tax increase isn’t a slam dunk
 

Room tax increase isn’t a slam dunk

Every few years, elected officials at the local and county levels of government dribble the ball down the court, passing…
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Comment

Transitional district taking shape along Howell Mill Road
 

Transitional district taking shape along Howell Mill Road

The Jan. 24 rezoning of three tracts along Howell Mill Road signals a continued effort by the town of Waynesville…
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Comment

Lake Junaluska fire district in the works
 

Lake Junaluska fire district in the works

The recent addition of eight full-time firefighters to the town of Waynesville — at a cost of $530,000 per year…
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Comment

A fix-it list for the record books
 

A fix-it list for the record books

Think your honey-do list is long? Wait until you meet Jack Carlisle.
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Lake Junaluska forges go-it-alone path after abandoning merger with Waynesville
 

Lake Junaluska forges go-it-alone path after abandoning merger with Waynesville

After five years of trying to merge with the town of Waynesville, the Lake Junaluska community has given up and…
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Tracing the fire’s path
 

Tracing the fire’s path

Now that the wildfires that ravaged Western North Carolina a couple of months ago are no longer active, U.S. Forest…
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The love that we need: WNC welcomes Hayes Carll
 

The love that we need: WNC welcomes Hayes Carll

Sitting in the back of his tour van in a Texas parking lot on a recent cold prairie night, Hayes…
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This must be the place: Ode to Butch Trucks, Texas sunsets
 

This must be the place: Ode to Butch Trucks, Texas sunsets

Popping the tailgate down in my truck, I jumped up, my eyes gazing straight ahead.
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Our allegiance is to the ideals, not to a president
 

Our allegiance is to the ideals, not to a president

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then…
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Comment

The digital divide is still way too wide
 

The digital divide is still way too wide

It was just a press release, one among the dozens a week that media outlets receive and that may or…
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Comment

How much did legislators get from Duke?
 

How much did legislators get from Duke?

To the Editor: Those job killing North Carolina Republicans are at it again. The Republican General Assembly has cost North…
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Comment

Federal dollars fuel WNC farmland conservation: $8 million allocation is region’s largest ever
 

Federal dollars fuel WNC farmland conservation: $8 million allocation is region’s largest ever

Land conservation groups across the region found something to celebrate this month when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced an…
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Winter storm causes road closures
 

Winter storm causes road closures

Two U.S. Forest Service roads in Madison County have been closed for safety reasons,
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Waynesville Rec Center breaks records
 

Waynesville Rec Center breaks records

A record 149,600 visits were recorded at the Waynesville Recreation Center in 2016, busting the previous record of 149,574 set…
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