Mitigation demand holds in Supreme Court
 

Mitigation demand holds in Supreme Court

In a 9-0 vote last week, the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to demand mitigation from hydropower companies…
Read More

Comment

All together now – flash
 

All together now – flash

Around 2 a.m. the other morning I was walking Maddie, my seven-month-old, around the house trying to convince her that…
Read More

Comment

First Tour de Tuck to challenge cyclists
 

First Tour de Tuck to challenge cyclists

A new cycling tradition begins this summer with the debut of the Tour de Tuck Bike Challenge on Saturday, Aug.…
Read More

Comment

Soul Infusion’s fifth
 

Soul Infusion’s fifth

By Chris Cooper Late Friday night, after the festivities died down and the crickets had begun a serenade for the…
Read More

Comment

A man in full: Cashiers Historical Society, biographers, history experts and fans explore the life and complex times of Wade Hampton III
 

A man in full: Cashiers Historical Society, biographers, history experts and fans explore the life and complex times of Wade Hampton III

By Michael Beadle Growing up in South Carolina, Robert Lathan remembers how just about everything and everyone was named after…
Read More

Comment

Mountain Dulcimer Week celebrates an ancient instrument and its role in mountain heritage
 

Mountain Dulcimer Week celebrates an ancient instrument and its role in mountain heritage

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer As a child in Diana Fisher’s music class at Camp Lab School in Cullowhee,…
Read More

Comment

Recommended diversions
 

Recommended diversions

The Pool There is a lot to be said for going out into the woods, finding a quiet, isolated stream,…
Read More

Comment

Money verses morals
 

Money verses morals

During my senior year of high school, my brother, some friends, and I went to a James Bond film festival.…
Read More

Comment

Macon survey
 

Macon survey

The survey in Macon County set out to quantify the value the public places on the landscape. Surveys sought to…
Read More

Comment

Bethel survey
 

Bethel survey

The Bethel survey polled a random sample of 273 residents in Bethel via telephone. The Bethel Rural Community Organization sanctioned…
Read More

Comment

Haywood appoints second committee to study TDA
 

Haywood appoints second committee to study TDA

A study committee charged with examining the role and structure of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority will be formed…
Read More

Comment

Franklin hires Main Street coordinator
 

Franklin hires Main Street coordinator

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer A month into her new job as Franklin’s Main Street Program Coordinator, Nancy Deeks…
Read More

Comment

Pulling the right strings: Lawmakers work to bring home the bacon
 

Pulling the right strings: Lawmakers work to bring home the bacon

It was a big week in the legislative building in Raleigh last week. The House of Representatives would vote on…
Read More

Comment

A moment of your time? Lobbyists courting lawmakers take center stage in Raleigh
 

A moment of your time? Lobbyists courting lawmakers take center stage in Raleigh

Editor’s note: Smoky Mountain News reporter Becky Johnson spent two days in Raleigh last week covering local representatives at work…
Read More

Comment

How to herd a bill
 

How to herd a bill

Sen. John Snow, D- Murphy, had a whopper of a week last week. He had four bills on the table…
Read More

Comment

Sylva slashes funding for downtown group
 

Sylva slashes funding for downtown group

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Faced with a $20,000 budget cut, the Downtown Sylva Association is re-examining its plans…
Read More

Comment

Verizon expands DSL service in rural areas
 

Verizon expands DSL service in rural areas

High-speed Internet access has been expanded into several rural areas in the region thanks to a technology investment by Verizon…
Read More

Comment

Medicinal uses of black cohosh
 

Medicinal uses of black cohosh

“The first large, successful American business run by a woman was said to be the Lydia E. Pinkham Medical Company,…
Read More

Comment

The difference between co-opted and compromised
 

The difference between co-opted and compromised

By Avram Friedman In January of 2006, Jim Hansen, a climatologist advising the Bush Administration, said that we have “at…
Read More

Comment

Saving farms is not about nostalgia
 

Saving farms is not about nostalgia

If you think taking tangible steps to protect farmland is more about nostalgia than anything else, guess again. As change…
Read More

Comment

Support for downtown Sylva is a wise investment
 

Support for downtown Sylva is a wise investment

Sylva town officials have OK’d a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that has just about eliminated funding for the…
Read More

Comment

The battle for the Chattooga rages on
 

The battle for the Chattooga rages on

The Sumter National Forest has fired back at American Whitewater, a paddling organization that is challenging a ban on paddling…
Read More

Comment

Demand leads to expansion at the Purchase Knob
 

Demand leads to expansion at the Purchase Knob

The growing demand from researchers wanting access to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park prompted recent renovations to the Appalachian…
Read More

Comment

Let’s get buggy with it
 

Let’s get buggy with it

“Daddy, Daddy come see!” called Izzy, my four-year-old daughter, running down the sidewalk to catch me as I was leaving…
Read More

Comment

An eclectic night at Guadalupe Café
 

An eclectic night at Guadalupe Café

By Chris Cooper There’s an age-old argument that rears up whenever there are multiple acts on the roster for a…
Read More

Comment

Recommended diversions
 

Recommended diversions

Pictures of the Week Every Friday CNN features on its Web page a small link to Offbeat Photos and Time’s…
Read More

Comment

Real Mountain dialect
 

Real Mountain dialect

Like hundreds of other mountain folk who grew up listening to “the old folks talking,” I always wanted to be…
Read More

Comment

Delving into dialect
 

Delving into dialect

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Gary Carden was in fifth grade when he learned to be ashamed of his…
Read More

Comment

Momentum keeps building for Stop I-3 coalition
 

Momentum keeps building for Stop I-3 coalition

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer The Stop I-3 Coalition — the grassroots organization that aims to prevent construction of…
Read More

Comment

On Sacred Ground
 

On Sacred Ground

By Michael Beadle Nearly two centuries have passed since the last time Cherokees held a council meeting on the sacred…
Read More

Comment

Reece’s larger-than-life presence will be missed, say friends
 

Reece’s larger-than-life presence will be missed, say friends

Wade Reece, a well-known figure in Maggie Valley civic life and the tourism industry, passed away last week, leaving a…
Read More

Comment

Purt, nigh Lizabethan
 

Purt, nigh Lizabethan

I’m no expert on regional linguistics, but through the years I’ve delighted in the dialect English still spoken here in…
Read More

Comment

Authenticity often doesn’t lend itself to good drama
 

Authenticity often doesn’t lend itself to good drama

Back in 1952, when I was one of a dozen Western North Carolina high school students who wrote winning essays…
Read More

Comment

Truth about kids and synchronicity
 

Truth about kids and synchronicity

Before our son was born almost a year and a half ago, Tammy and I made an important decision. She…
Read More

Comment

Once and for all, stop the influence peddling in Raleigh
 

Once and for all, stop the influence peddling in Raleigh

For most people who live and work in Western North Carolina, the inner workings of our citizen legislature in Raleigh…
Read More

Comment

Bryson City conserves 750 acres bordering Smokies
 

Bryson City conserves 750 acres bordering Smokies

The town of Bryson City finalized a conservation easement this month that will protect a 750-acre tract known as Lands…
Read More

Comment

Feds may reinstate roadless areas in Carolinas, Virginia
 

Feds may reinstate roadless areas in Carolinas, Virginia

A ban on logging and road building in roadless areas of the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests is on track…
Read More

Comment

Can you say inevitable?
 

Can you say inevitable?

I recently saw some previews for the documentary “Grizzly Man.” You may remember the story. Back in 2003, after 13…
Read More

Comment

Macon free dental clinic eyes expansion
 

Macon free dental clinic eyes expansion

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Macon County’s Molar Roller is on the move in a forward direction. The mobile…
Read More

Comment

Green power: no longer a pipe dream
 

Green power: no longer a pipe dream

By Michael Beadle At first it sounds too good to be true. Imagine being able to pipe methane gas from…
Read More

Comment

In need of help
 

In need of help

Steve Salerno’s SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless (ISBN 1-40005409-5, $24.95) is not only an attack on the…
Read More

Comment

Recommended diversions
 

Recommended diversions

“Metropolitan” Writer-director Whit Stillman had a surprise hit with this comedy about a middle-class young man and his encounters with…
Read More

Comment

Big sounds in this intelligent, intentionally bumpy ride
 

Big sounds in this intelligent, intentionally bumpy ride

By Chris Cooper A rather popular band was recently branded with the criticism of being “a small band trying to…
Read More

Comment

A high class affair: HART set to open summer blockbuster ‘My Fair Lady’
 

A high class affair: HART set to open summer blockbuster ‘My Fair Lady’

By Michael Beadle As a Broadway hit, “My Fair Lady” made Julie Andrews a star. As a film, it made…
Read More

Comment

Duke could owe tribe Oconaluftee dam profits
 

Duke could owe tribe Oconaluftee dam profits

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is questioning whether Duke Power concealed the boundary of its hydropower operation on the Oconaluftee…
Read More

Comment

DSA rallies support to oppose funding cut
 

DSA rallies support to oppose funding cut

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Sylva town board members should expect a heated public comment session at their upcoming…
Read More

Comment

Baby steps toward green power
 

Baby steps toward green power

Talitha and Louis Mes erected a 100-foot tall wind tower on a ridge above Crabtree last week to generate environmentally-friendly…
Read More

Comment

Subject to tax, where applicable
 

Subject to tax, where applicable

Every few weeks, Scotty Ellis cruises the newspaper classifieds, scans Web sites and scrounges brochures from kiosks at visitor centers…
Read More

Comment

Waynesville ‘blew them all out of the water’
 

Waynesville ‘blew them all out of the water’

Preliminary results of a zip code market analysis being conducted in Waynesville shows signs of a strong and healthy retail…
Read More

Comment

Willing participation key to Greens Creek cleanup
 

Willing participation key to Greens Creek cleanup

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer Fifty years ago, Jackson County’s Greens Creek was used as a dumping ground —…
Read More

Comment

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.