Going after the good guys
The fine line between a cop doing one’s duty or overdoing his duty is once again in the grip of…
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Election procedures could use some fundamental fixing
It’s time to change the voting laws and procedures in North Carolina to reflect today’s reality and to help alleviate…
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Looking for ways to fix the health care system
By Mark Jaben Last time, we talked about EMTALA (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act), managed care and…
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The honeymoon ends ... now
In the aftermath of last week’s election, we’ve seen a seemingly endless parade of politicians and pundits on both sides…
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Bush tax cuts soaked the rich
By Kirkwood Callahan • Guest Columnist Every election year there are always claims and counter claims over federal tax policy.…
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The school board, economics and political insight
By the time we hit the streets with this edition and this column is read, the election that has been…
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The real work begins the day after the election
By Rob Schofield This year, those who care about preserving and expanding the common good in North Carolina would do…
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What the health care system needs now
Do the rules of our health care system work anymore? That is the question posed in this column two weeks…
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Front-row Kid dreams of riding once again
“Riding the range once more Toting my old 44 Where you sleep out every night Where the only law is…
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Backpacking Fifth Avenue style in Hazel Creek
By Al Smith • Guest Columnist Hazel Creek Trail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is located in the…
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The horrifying beauty of Halloween made simple
“Excuse me, miss, but did you happen to see a princess and a small cow come through here a minute…
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The value of endorsements
Come Nov. 7, voters will choose candidates based on many different factors. In almost all cases, those choices will be…
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Voters need to look closely at the Good Governance Legion
By Lee Shelton As the Nov. 7 election date approaches, the “Good Governance Legion” is, again, “banging their noise makers”…
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Using development to save mountain farms
Not too long ago there occurred an unlikely meeting of the minds. Sylva developer John Beckman and Whittier farmer William…
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A survival guide for direct-to-consumer ads
By Mark Jaben In the 1970s, a book written about a doctor’s internship experience, The House of God, reached near…
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Finding ways to help the innocent
Over the last two decades, the number of drug-affected infants has been growing. It is estimated that as many as…
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Optimisim reigns at Blue Ridge
The ups and downs across a graph that tell of a business’ profits and losses may not be very interesting,…
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The debate logjam: Politically calculated, popularly mistaken
Democratic congressional candidate Heath Shuler’s decision to back away from a debate with Rep. Charles Taylor sent shockwaves through the…
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Need negative ad material? We’ve got it
Heath Shuler says he will bring integrity and accountability to Washington? Ha! We have here in our satchel 76 examples…
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Where do you get medical advice?
By Mark Jaben I always marvel at people that tell me they haven’t been to a doctor in 25 years.…
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Change of a good kind is in the air
I’m not sure when the characteristics of being frugal and not wasting became derisive traits, why it became wimpy to…
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Despite community pleas, Swain shelves planning board
It appears Swain County commissioners were out of sync with public consensus two months ago when they decided to postpone…
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Segways deserve a place on the greenway
The answer to the problem with Segways on the Little Tennessee Greenway in Franklin is not to enact an outright…
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The needy suffer for the wasteful spending politicians
By Kirkwood Callahan • Guest Columnist Just over a month remains before voters make the decision who will rise and…
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Do what it takes to protect battered women
There was so much blood all over the place that her home looked more like a slaughterhouse. That’s what she…
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New leadership could bode well for Smokies
Each time the president and Congress choose a new leader for the National Park Service, those of us in Western…
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Let the at-risk kids compete
It probably shouldn’t have gotten to me. But it did, in a big way.
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Don’t call me Charlie, I’ll call you
By Margene Roper • Guest Columnist Around 7:30 this evening my telephone rang and I rushed into the house from…
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Memories of Johnson Catolster and the Cherokee little people
I woke up this morning with the echo of Johnson Catolster’ gentle laughter in my head. I had been dreaming…
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The end, perhaps, of the Bush tyranny
In the five years since the terrorists attacked us on 9/11, it has seemed that President Bush could get away…
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Isn’t anyone going to defend the pope?
By Marshall Frank They’re at it again. Once again, the world is held hostage as Christians pray for their lives…
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Flood money decisions important for taxpayers
The media coverage the last three weeks about goings-on inside the Haywood County School System involve very complicated spending matters.…
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Unaffiliated voters are an emerging force
By Kirkwood Callahan • Guest Columnist Political change may arrive with the speed of a tsunami transforming all before it.…
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National park and local communities provide a great mix
It’s a chicken or egg argument, but in this case it doesn’t really matter which is right. Either way the…
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The race is on to Election Day
As the front page of this week’s paper illustrates, it’s election season. Trouble is, it’s just not feeling much like…
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Certain medicines can be a killer combination
By Dr. Allan Zacher & JC Walkup Editor’s note: A recent overdose by a patient inspired Dr. Allan Zacher of…
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Workers need help to secure their future
The month-long celebration of Canton’s centennial Labor Day festival, which had much to offer, wasn’t really about organized labor. Now…
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In Taylor-Shuler race, party does make a difference
By Kirkwood Callahan • Guest Columnist As the final weeks of summer fade into the cooler days of autumn, we…
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Who’s the wimp now?
Just in the past couple of months, I have been forced to confront a prejudice I didn’t really know I…
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Maggie re-invents itself – again
People are saying the new Ghost Town will be a shot in the arm for Maggie Valley. That’s probably an…
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Canary Coalition is leading in the right direction
Too often people tend to write off efforts by the most hard-core social activists as excessive or simply impossible to…
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Jim Black’s enablers carry on
The scandals around N.C. House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, multiply like mushrooms on the forest floor. Yet a casual reader…
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Quarry plan showcases planning shortfalls
Citizens in Jackson County’s Tuckasegee community should consider themselves lucky. The problem, however, is that luck doesn’t always hold. It…
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Immigration and a complicit, angry America
On July 13, the Buncombe County Republican Action Club posted two billboards in Asheville featuring a photograph of a Mexican…
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Unified voices calling for a better big box
When Waynesville leaders met earlier this month to discuss the site plan and variance requests for the proposed big-box development…
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A little surer, a little more lost
I can’t help feeling, just slightly, like we cheated. You be the judge. The table had been set on our…
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The time has come to lift Cuban embargo
This is about political ignorance, ignorance highlighted by the recent news about Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s apparently serious illness.
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Meds vs Medicare
Louis Garnett • Guest Columnist This wasn’t my doctor’s office; it was the vendor exhibit hall at a symposium on…
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Somebody get that cow a pizza
Driving down Russ Avenue on yet another scorching day, I saw a couple of girls out in front of the…
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Alcohol vote reveals changing attitudes, new demographics
Ho-hum. Franklin voters approved the sale of mixed drinks and beer in a vote held last week. Few were surprised…
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