Shining Rock hires new head of school
More than seven weeks after a series of grievances were filed against Shining Rock Classical Academy’s interim head of school,…
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‘Zero Waste’ group forms in Haywood
Recycling is great but there is more people can do if they want to keep trash out of the landfill…
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Trillium Gap Trail Temporarily Closed Due to Trail Conditions
Trillium Gap Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be temporarily closed through Thursday, July 11, due to…
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Public comment open for new voting rules
The N.C. State Board of Elections is seeking public comments through July 12 on proposed rules changes related to the…
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Waynesville chief calls it a career
As a 28-year veteran of the Waynesville Police Department, Captain Brian Beck — soon to be interim chief of police…
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Distillery reform bill could soon advance
A regulatory reform bill intended to bring parity for North Carolina’s distillers with its craft brewers continues to make its…
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State budget coming down to the wire
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has a budget. The N.C. House of Representatives has a budget. The N.C. Senate has…
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Hemp Farm expands operations in Macon
An industrial hemp farm will be expanding its operations into the Macon County Business Development Center after commissioners approved a…
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Recovery community looks for new meeting space
Many have probably passed by the Triangle Club on Miller Street in Waynesville without realizing what it was, but those…
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N.C. Senator, Cherokee chief spar in opposing op-eds
In his first public statement on a bill he cosponsored in March, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., wrote an op-ed published…
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DA declines to prosecute SRCA interim director
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of stories on Haywood County’s public charter school, Shining Rock Classical…
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Shining Rock projects lower enrollment for 2019-20
Shining Rock Classical Academy’s 2019-20 budget, passed by the board on June 19, will shrink slightly, due to lower projected…
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Oconaluftee Job Corps saved from closure
The nine Job Corps CCC centers slated for closure this September, including the Oconaluftee center in Cherokee, will remain open…
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Cherokee constitution resolution withdrawn
An effort to get a proposed constitution on the Cherokee ballot as a referendum question this September will not come…
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Still no hire for Shining Rock school director position
Six weeks after a set of grievances were filed against a Shining Rock Classical Academy administrator who appeared to be…
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Global market for recyclables is down in the dumps
Local governments try to do their best in keeping recyclables out of local landfills, in part because it extends the…
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Local waste management resources expensive, finite
Most people don’t give a lot of thought to what happens when they throw something away, but the ecological and…
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Market is down, but Macon County recycling continues
While the global market for recyclable materials can fluctuate month to month, Macon County residents are encouraged to continue utilizing…
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Single stream increases recycling in Swain
Swain County has had a recycling program in place since the 1990s, but a recent change over to a single-stream…
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WOW donates $10,000 to Sharin Care
Women of Waynesville recently donated $10,000 to Sharin Care, a fund designated to help relieve the financial burdens associated with…
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Rep. Queen invites labor secretary to Oconaluftee
In an effort to save the Oconaluftee Job Corps Center from being shut down, N.C. Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville,…
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Major expansion set to open at Pathways
As homelessness continues to rise in Western North Carolina, Haywood County’s innovative and effective adult shelter is about to cut…
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Haywood takes precaution amid measles outbreak
As public health officials continue to monitor the measles outbreak across the nation, Haywood County Schools will be taking more…
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Shining Rock holds illegal meeting to dismiss parent grievances
Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of stories on Haywood County’s public charter school, Shining Rock Classical Academy,…
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Canton alderman resigns
Just 18 months after winning the second of two open alderman seats in the town of Canton, James Markey told…
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Franklin cuts nonprofit funding from budget
The town of Franklin’s adopted 2019-20 budget will not include funding for local nonprofit organizations as it has in the…
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Macon County raises taxes to fund public education
The property tax rate in Macon County will be increasing by half a cent after commissioners approved a 2019-20 budget…
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Waynesville man arrested for solicitation, stalking
Leonard “LJ” Green, of Waynesville, was arrestedby June 11 by the Waynesville Police Department for Solicitation for Prostitution and two…
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NAACP mulls lynching monument in Haywood County
Last month, members of the Haywood Branch of the NAACP took a trip to Montgomery, Alabama to visit a museum…
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Oconaluftee Job Corps center to close
For more than 50 years, disadvantaged youth struggling to find their way in the world have had the chance…
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Jackson County to vote on budget
Jackson County Commissioners held a special-called meeting Tuesday, June 11, to vote on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019-2020,…
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Haywood County to welcome Revolutionary War monument
Earl Lanning was just a little boy in Haywood County during the 1930s, he developed three ambitions. “I used to…
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McCoy, Sneed will be General Election principal chief candidates
Voters made their choices during last week’s Primary Elections in Cherokee, with Teresa McCoy coming in as the top vote-getter…
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Records show Catawba casino developer donated to bill sponsors
Federal campaign finance records show that Wallace Cheves, developer for a proposed Catawba Indian Nation casino in Kings Mountain, donated…
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No tax increase in Waynesville budget
It's starting to sound like a broken record in Haywood County as North Carolina’s municipal budget season comes to a…
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Hemp processing operation coming to Canton
Haywood County’s latest economic development victory — a state-of-the-art, $12 million hemp processing facility — means that Canton will become…
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Interstate 40 closed indefinitely after another rockslide
Less than four months after a rockslide in Haywood County closed a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 40, it’s happened again.…
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Abundant Labs to open hemp processing facility in Canton
Haywood County’s latest economic development victory – a state of the art, $12 million hemp processing facility – means that…
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Jackson County to vote on budget June 11
The Jackson County Commissioners will adopt the budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 in a special-called meeting at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday,…
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SEC claims Waynesville businessman defrauded clients
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently charged investment adviser Stephen Brandon Anderson, 41, of Waynesville, with defrauding clients by overcharging…
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Curriculum coordinator proposed for Jackson Schools
In the last few years, Jackson County has poured significant investment into its public schools, including $9 million in much-needed…
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Primary Election results return to Cherokee
Preliminary results are in from Cherokee’s June 6 Primary Election.
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2007: Journey from the Road to Nowhere
If you can’t understand why people in Swain County are distrustful of the federal government, then you are among those…
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Twenty years later, another edition done
In the beginning, one doesn’t even think about the long run. When you’re fighting every day to survive, there’s no…
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1999: Smokies works to overcome hurdles
It’s no coincidence that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the subject of The Smoky Mountain News’ first-ever front-page…
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2001: Elk return to Western North Carolina
“A large herd gathered last week on a remote, historical farmstead maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in…
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2003: The end of Eric Rudolph’s run
He was a seasoned dumpster diver by now. For the last three summers, he’d regularly swoop down in the dead…
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2004: Floods ravage Western North Carolina
The tiny central Haywood County town of Clyde lies more than 270 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, more than 400…
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2005: State passes education lottery system
Nearly 15 years after the North Carolina General Assembly narrowly passed a bill establishing an education lottery system, state legislators…
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2008: Real estate takes a major hit
The housing bubble was finally bursting in 2008 as the Great Recession became the new reality in Western North Carolina…
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