Reality, outcomes and education spending
This deserves emphasis, given the central role that public education plays in North Carolina political debate: our schools have vastly…
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It is a sad day, indeed
Thursday night, the Haywood Regional Medical Center Board chose to breach the hospital’s contract with Haywood Emergency Physicians rather than…
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Give the lasting gift of independent media
Several years ago, as Christmas approached, I remember my youngest daughter saying, “I can’t imagine what I want for Christmas;…
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Selling national forest land is just a bad idea
The proposed sale of U.S. Forest Service land to find money for counties who have lost revenue from declining timber…
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Temporary high-rise ban a wise move
The last thing Macon County — or any of the counties west of Asheville — needs is a high-rise condominium…
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Affordable college is available
By Bill Rhodarmer I read with interest a recent column in a local news publication concerning the high cost of…
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Reinstating draft could be a good thing
Jan. 20, 1961. Inauguration Day. The words that stuck in the minds and hearts of all citizens: “Ask not what…
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The joy of jogging was the eating
There was a time, about 18 years and 80 pounds ago, that I actually enjoyed jogging. I was never exactly…
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Sylva’s elected leaders should take the lead
Downtown Sylva Association members are doing all the legwork on discussing the creation of a special downtown taxing district. At…
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Backroom deals should all just go away
In the years I’ve been going to Swain County, David Monteith has emerged as a barometer of sorts. One may…
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A Christmas swap shop atop a mountain – now that’s the spirit
Listen! Did you hear that? I’ve been hearing it for weeks now, the faint but steadily growing whisper of something…
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The meaning of this one escapes me
When tragedy strikes and someone we know is suddenly gone, we are still compelled to go looking for them in…
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Haywood slope law not as good as it could be
Here’s the main problem with the slope development ordinance passed last week by Haywood County commissioners: it wasn’t the ordinance…
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What the system needs now
By Mark Jaben In an earlier column, I discussed whether cutting costs should be the underlying motive for our health…
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A prime time for North Shore debate to end
It’s time to end this debate.With another pro-settlement county board, the election of Swain Count native and pro-settlement congressman Heath…
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Memories prevent me from celebrating Veterans Day
By Jim Joyce In five hours and twenty minutes it will be midnight and Veterans Day 2006 will be over.…
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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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