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Working farmland protection plan being crafted in Swain
 

Working farmland protection plan being crafted in Swain

Swain County farmers, landowners, and other interested individuals are invited to share their thoughts and idea on a new farmland…
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I feel the earth move…
 

I feel the earth move…

It may not have shaken the Richter scale like the stampede of Republican lawmakers and their realtor and developer lobbyists…
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Weather or not: Local Yokel Weather fine tunes forecasts for your neck of the woods
 

Weather or not: Local Yokel Weather fine tunes forecasts for your neck of the woods

Have you ever been told by the evening news to expect three inches of snow overnight, but after stocking up…
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Historian presents a factual story of Cleopatra
 

Historian presents a factual story of Cleopatra

“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” — Cicero, 106 B.C. Stacy…
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A different perspective on guns and government
 

A different perspective on guns and government

To the Editor: As someone who has lived in four different countries and traveled to several others over the last…
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Shame on Jack Debnam and Jackson’s citizens
 

Shame on Jack Debnam and Jackson’s citizens

To the Editor: Friends, they’ve out-waited us. And, motivated by the smell of money, they appear to have outlasted us…
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Some want to lead by using fear
 

Some want to lead by using fear

To the Editor: Don’t let anyone tell you there’s no conspiracy or that conspirators are not busily at work here…
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‘Gun Free Zones’ are danger zones
 

‘Gun Free Zones’ are danger zones

To the Editor: Legislation has created a zone where the only people protected by a “gun free zone” are the…
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U.S. Postal Service should be left intact
 

U.S. Postal Service should be left intact

To the Editor: We have just been through a holiday season during which the U.S. Postal Service and its workers…
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State GOP leaders’ tax plan would benefit wealthy
 

State GOP leaders’ tax plan would benefit wealthy

By Martin Dyckman • Guest Columnist A 1996 New Yorker cartoon — poking fun at Steve Forbes’s presidential campaign plank…
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Muddy waters: WNC feels the blues following unrelenting rainstorms
 

Muddy waters: WNC feels the blues following unrelenting rainstorms

A four-day stretch of heavy rains fell on Western North Carolina, leaving residents wondering if it would ever end. Some…
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Farewell, Mayor Phyllis Waynesville’s longtime town clerk retires
 

Farewell, Mayor Phyllis Waynesville’s longtime town clerk retires

The longest-serving town clerk in Waynesville’s written history will retire next week, taking with her a vast store of institutional…
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Contenders line up to be next Haywood Sheriff
 

Contenders line up to be next Haywood Sheriff

Three men, all with impressive law enforcement backgrounds, are vying to be Haywood County’s next sheriff. The current Sheriff, Bobby…
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New concert venue in the making for Maggie Valley
 

New concert venue in the making for Maggie Valley

Carolina Nights, a closed-down dinner theater in Maggie Valley, could make a comeback as an entertainment venue under new owners.…
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Jackson commissioners hold final say on looser steep slope rules
 

Jackson commissioners hold final say on looser steep slope rules

A rewrite of Jackson County’s development regulations are well underway by the Jackson County Planning Board. It will be several…
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WCU casts wide net to reel back freshmen dropouts
 

WCU casts wide net to reel back freshmen dropouts

With more than 15,000 applications for just 1,500 freshman spots last year, Western Carolina University has no difficulty attracting students.…
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Theories swirl around perplexing mountain lights
 

Theories swirl around perplexing mountain lights

Ghosts, spirits, swamp gas, gnomes and car headlights — there’s no shortage of hyphotheses behind the mysterious phenomenon along the…
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What lies beneath: A night on the town with Sylva’s musical renaissance
 

What lies beneath: A night on the town with Sylva’s musical renaissance

“Once in awhile you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right…”– Grateful…
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Blues-rock spills into WNC
 

Blues-rock spills into WNC

Blues guitarist Husky Burnette will be performing at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, at the No Name Sports Pub in…
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Calling all chocoholics to Bryson City
 

Calling all chocoholics to Bryson City

Cooks of all things chocolate will square off at the “Sixth Annual Chocolate Cook-Off” from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.…
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Rising country group to play Franklin
 

Rising country group to play Franklin

Rising country music group Eden’s Edge will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, at the Smoky Mountain…
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Steep slope rules on the rocks? Jackson planning board seeks middle ground in ordinance rewrite
 

Steep slope rules on the rocks? Jackson planning board seeks middle ground in ordinance rewrite

Jackson County’s planning board is knee-deep in a page-by-page rewrite of the county’s steep slope rules — a controversial process…
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Swain lands state grant for riverside pocket park in Bryson
 

Swain lands state grant for riverside pocket park in Bryson

Plans for a riverfront park behind the historic courthouse in Bryson City got a boost thanks to $150,000 from the…
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Tribe keeps tap flowing for Sequoyah a while longer
 

Tribe keeps tap flowing for Sequoyah a while longer

“If at first you don’t succeed, simply make your case again” is the lesson the executives at the tribally owned…
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PETA protests bear zoos in Cherokee on heels of undercover video
 

PETA protests bear zoos in Cherokee on heels of undercover video

Despite being warned not to return to Cherokee without tribal permission, animal rights activists gathered once again last Saturday in…
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Cherokee brings more health care in-house with new hospital
 

Cherokee brings more health care in-house with new hospital

When pediatricians at Cherokee Indian Hospital retreat to their desk between patients to log data, research puzzling symptoms or review…
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Canton’s fight to keep Camp Hope takes a new turn
 

Canton’s fight to keep Camp Hope takes a new turn

Canton leaders are pondering how much time and money to invest in an abandoned summer camp and mountain property left…
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Schools weigh cost of increased safety
 

Schools weigh cost of increased safety

Officer Michael Harrison has confiscated everything from buck knives and Airsoft pistols from students at Swain High — but never…
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Veteran apartment proposed in Canton
 

Veteran apartment proposed in Canton

An empty eyesore in Canton’s downtown could get a new lease on life. The former Jackson’s Appliance store, at the…
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Headwaters now BearWaters after trademark tangle
 

Headwaters now BearWaters after trademark tangle

Beer had been flowing from the taps of Headwaters Brewing Company in Waynesville for just a few months when the…
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DSS says faith-based aid groups help fill in gaps
 

DSS says faith-based aid groups help fill in gaps

As government aid shrinks and church groups step up to fill the void, the thin and sometimes fuzzy line between…
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Looking out on a busy day in Bryson City
 

Looking out on a busy day in Bryson City

For some, graveyards are morbid places. When I was a boy, I never liked to pass by or walk through…
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Global warming series aims to inspire change
 

Global warming series aims to inspire change

A six-week discussion course on climate change called “Global Warming: Changing Course” is being put on by the Western North…
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Lake Junaluska a top spot for winter birding
 

Lake Junaluska a top spot for winter birding

The Highlands Plateau chapter of the Audubon Society will go birding at Lake Junaluska on Monday, Jan. 21, to mark…
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Haywood Waterways to launch endowment fundraising campaign
 

Haywood Waterways to launch endowment fundraising campaign

The Haywood Waterways Association has named their endowment fund the “Joetta Rinehart Endowment Fund” in honor of one of the…
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Deputy superintendent retires from GSMNP
 

Deputy superintendent retires from GSMNP

Kevin FitzGerald, deputy superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park since 2006, retired this month after 34 years with…
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Freeze your icicle off at winter bike race
 

Freeze your icicle off at winter bike race

Riders are invited to compete and spectators are invited to watch at the Icycle Mountain Bike Race at Fontana Village…
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Devil’s Courthouse logging proposal criticized by environmental groups
 

Devil’s Courthouse logging proposal criticized by environmental groups

Proposed logging below Devil’s Courthouse in the Pisgah National Forest is being widely decried among outdoor recreation groups and environmental…
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Up in flames?
 

Up in flames?

I sit this morning being bathed in luxurious rain. The kind of life-affirming, life-giving rain the Smokies are noted for.…
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Saving Shuckstack: Age, weather and vandalism take their toll on Smokies’ firetower
 

Saving Shuckstack: Age, weather and vandalism take their toll on Smokies’ firetower

Its bolts are rusting, floor planks are rotting, and its windowpanes shattered. The roof is pocked with holes that let…
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An America divided by class
 

An America divided by class

For the past 80 years more and more Americans have linked themselves economically to the machinations of the federal government.…
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WCU events to commemorate legacy of Martin Luther King
 

WCU events to commemorate legacy of Martin Luther King

Western Carolina University will be hosting a week of events from Jan. 21 to 26 celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.
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One-man comedy show at HART in January
 

One-man comedy show at HART in January

The comedy “21A” will be hitting the stage at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18-19 and 3 p.m. Jan. 20 in the…
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Folk duo comes to Sylva
 

Folk duo comes to Sylva

Bryson City husband/wife singer-songwriters Liz and AJ Nance will be performing at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, and Friday, Feb.…
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All friends were strangers at one time
 

All friends were strangers at one time

John Driskell Hopkins was driving in his truck when it struck him. It was a song. Radiating from his satellite…
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Loosening development regulations a bad idea
 

Loosening development regulations a bad idea

To the Editor: I am adamantly opposed to the rescinding or changing of the current steep slope and mountain-top ordinances…
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Something strange is haunting our dreams
 

Something strange is haunting our dreams

The teenage cashier at the grocery store is conversing with a customer. “That’s right,” she says. “The only thing that…
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Are the ‘possums adapting to headlight glare
 

Are the ‘possums adapting to headlight glare

Where have all the opossums gone? People worry about cerulean warblers and frogs and honeybees and ash trees and hemlocks…
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New soil and water expert named
 

New soil and water expert named

Waynesville native John Ottinger has been named District Conservationist for the Haywood and Madison counties Soil and Water Conservation District.
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Food cables help backpackers ward off bears
 

Food cables help backpackers ward off bears

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has provided $800 from its specialty license plate funds to help secure backpackers’ food from bears…
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