Conrad & Scherer, a litigation firm with its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has filed a lawsuit against Fireblast Global, Inc., James R. Nelson, and Steve Sposato, on behalf of Demetrius Massey, who suffered serious injuries due to a massive explosion during a fire safety training exercise. 

History will whisper through the mountain mists that once upon a time, Pactiv Evergreen’s paper mill in Canton stood as a symbol of industry and economic prosperity for generations. But behind its towering façade, the specter of mismanagement and malfeasance eventually led to a botched closing announcement, a health care coverage crisis and more than a thousand workers helplessly watching their good-paying jobs evaporate like morning dew in the midday summer sun.

More than 100 people came to a public hearing Thursday, Jan. 11, at Haywood Community College in Clyde, that took input on what would be the first changes to black bear hunting season dates since the 1970s — and opinions were mixed.

Declared to be the Year of the Trail more than a year before it even began, 2023 had a lot to live up to.

Six months ago, the eight men gathered on the auditorium stage at Haywood Community College’s Regional High Technology Center were working at Pactiv Evergreen’s century-old paper mill in Canton, looking forward to long and financially rewarding careers there. 

Haywood Community College’s Department of Arts, Sciences, and Natural Resources and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will offer a variety of hunter safety courses this fall.

A recent collaboration between Junaluska Elementary fifth graders, Haywood Community College students and Haywood County Solid Waste and Recycling will keep about 90,000 juice and milk cartons out of the county landfill each school year.

Officials on both the local and the state level have been adamant in demanding Pactiv Evergreen be held accountable for a number of unresolved issues since shortly after the company announced it would halt operations in Canton. But now, a week after the mill’s final whistle blew, they’re adopting a more forceful tone.

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.

When A.L. Freedlander issued the 1966 fundraising challenge that birthed the Haywood Community College campus in Clyde, he envisioned a space dedicated not only to learning, but also to natural beauty. Freedlander gave $250,000 in seed money to the project, but with conditions attached: that the campus become “the most beautifully landscaped area in Haywood County” and that its grounds should contain “a good collection of dahlias,” Freedlander’s favorite flower.