A bill introduced by Macon County Republican Rep. Karl Gillespie that seeks to bolster North Carolina’s local sawmill industry has garnered widespread bipartisan interest for its potential economic, environmental and housing affordability benefits. 

Despite Hurricane Helene’s disruption of the region’s tourism industry, the entity charged with collecting and spending room occupancy taxes in Haywood County to promote visitation has presented a 10-year master plan outlining a comprehensive strategy for sustainable tourism development. 

Newly released economic data measuring the outdoor recreation industry’s impact on the U.S. economy shows that, despite ongoing economic challenges, the industry continues to be a powerful driver in North Carolina. 

A pair of undeveloped parcels at the southwest corner of Asheville Highway and Howell Mill Road have undergone a zoning change that will clear the way for more badly needed residential development. 

The Macon County Industrial Park will be getting a new tenant after county commissioners approved a lease for TECO Inc. Solid State Lighting, a Tennessee corporation.

With widespread reports of abuse and fraud, the bail bonds industry in the U.S. doesn’t have the best reputation.

Long before the Oct. 3, 1880, arrival of the first scheduled train in Asheville, the American railroad has been romanticized in both story and song, on stage and on screen.

Trains took us to our baby, or away from our baby. Trains took us off to war, or home to peace. Trains opened vast swaths of the American West to settlement, bringing with them jobs, growth, trade and prosperity while quietly gliding over miles upon miles of cold steel rail.

One needn’t look further than industries like Sylva’s Jackson Paper, Canton’s Evergreen Packaging and Waynesville’s Giles Chemical for evidence of how rail access benefits the economy in small Western North Carolina towns.

A new business or a new family moving to town isn’t solely due to the luck of the draw.

Likewise, a shuttered mill or dilapidated neighborhood isn’t solely due to being dealt a bad hand.

Advanced manufacturing and machining in Western North Carolina just got a huge boost from a Fortune-500 multinational conglomerate with more than $127 billion in yearly revenue.