It was fitting that District Court Judge Donna Forga was on hand Dec. 3 to swear in the two new Republican commission members that will give the Haywood Commission, for the next two years at least, a first-ever Republican majority — her father Robert was the first Republican elected to the commission in 1994. 

The four westernmost counties in North Carolina can be described with three words — rugged, rural and Republican. 

The only two seats that aren’t up for election on Haywood County’s five-member board of commissioners this November are both held by Republicans. The other three are currently held by Democrats, and have attracted two Democratic incumbents as well as a third Dem candidate seeking to maintain that majority. 

With a net pickup of four seats in the House or six in the Senate, North Carolina Democrats could break the Republican Party’s veto-proof legislative lock on Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper this November. 

November’s General Election is still months away, but that hasn’t stopped the North Carolina Association of Educators from coming hard after freshman Rep. Mike Clampitt, R-Bryson City. 

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders got asked to leave a restaurant because the owner can’t stand her boss’ politics. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Neilsen was heckled at a Mexican restaurant over the administrations policy of illegal immigrant children from their parents. A Democratic lawmaker encourages those opposed to Trump policies to continue to publicly calling out Trump advisers and supporters. 

Macon County Commission Chairman Jim Tate will face fellow Republican challenger John Shearl in the May 8 Primary to claim the District 1 seat on the board. 

Time for spring-cleaning. 

The basement apartment in which I live could use a deep cleaning: dusting, washing, vacuuming. It’s tidy enough — chaos and I were never friends — but stacks of papers need sorting, bookcases beg to see their occupants removed and the shelves rubbed down with a mixture of Pine-Sol and water, and the dusty, spider-webbed eaves cry out for an invasion from the shop-vac and dust mop. 

Outside the Haywood County Justice Center in downtown Waynesville, Haywood County Tax Collector Mike Matthews stands with a slim manila folder in his hands while an attorney nearby reads off a boilerplate legal notice required when the county offers a foreclosed property at auction. 

Sticks and stones may break some bones, but according to a lawsuit filed by one local politico, the memes can sometimes hurt, too.