Group was met with energy and an award from congressman but few in uniform 

When the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians overwhelmingly approved a measure to get into the recreational marijuana business last week, it set up a showdown of sorts with Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) that could have far-reaching negative ramifications for the tribe. 

To the Editor:

As questions continue to swirl over what Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) did to prevent the loss of around 1,000 jobs at Pactiv Evergreen’s paper mill, Edwards is now coming under fire for politicizing a town hall held June 1 at Canton’s Pisgah High School, for rejecting help from Buncombe County legislators and for ridiculing them in the process.

That the American health care coverage system is broken shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, even proponents of the 2010 Affordable Care Act who thought Obamacare would make coverage affordable for everyone. But as long as workers with employer-subsidized health care are forced to rely on the generosity of capitalists for their health and well-being, there will continue to be crises like the one currently unfolding with soon-to-be unemployed workers at Pactiv-Evergreen’s Haywood County facilities.

It’s the inevitable result of human nature.

Addiction has impacted almost every American — even those who’ve never suffered from the disease usually know someone who has. As the crisis has worsened over time, the societal impacts have become impossible to ignore as more Western North Carolina residents and businesses fall victim to property crimes committed by people looking to steal something worth enough to get the drugs they need.

As the man behind the controversial North Carolina-based American Muckrakers PAC, David Wheeler’s had an outsized impact on at least one recent congressional campaign, but in 2024, he’s looking to have that same impact on a race of his own.

The “Back off our Benefits” bus tour rolled into Asheville last week with one simple request — for Congress to protect Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and veterans’ benefits. Western North Carolina Congressman Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson), who faced similar calls from Republican voters last fall, ignored them again.

No one living can remember a time when there wasn’t a paper mill at the heart of Canton. Now, after 115 years in operation, it all comes down to three months.

Last week, reports obtained exclusively by The Smoky Mountain News revealed that Canton’s Pactiv-Evergreen Packaging would scale back production by idling one of its four paper-making machines. The company cited a decrease in demand, but as more information becomes available, it appears the “curtailment” of PM20 could be a tactic employed by Evergreen for leverage in a long-simmering contract dispute with the company’s unionized workforce.