New policy at Tuscola touches off student dissent
 

New policy at Tuscola touches off student dissent

In the 1970s, blue jeans and boys with shaggy hair were as scandalous in Western North Carolina schools as miniskirts…
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Decrepit Swain jail to be bulldozed for extra downtown parking
 

Decrepit Swain jail to be bulldozed for extra downtown parking

Bryson City merchants can expect some relief from the downtown parking crunch once the old Swain County Jail is torn…
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Bar passes on recommending judge for vacant seat
 

Bar passes on recommending judge for vacant seat

Attorneys in the state’s seven westernmost counties sent a message to the governor this week that they don’t want a…
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Manager’s push for outside help raises concerns
 

Manager’s push for outside help raises concerns

Finding a new police chief for Sylva might take more time than anticipated after some of the town’s board members…
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Fines Creek Bluegrass Jam to benefit local scholarships
 

Fines Creek Bluegrass Jam to benefit local scholarships

Get ready for two evenings of bluegrass music and wholesome family fun on Friday, Aug. 27, and Saturday, Aug. 28,…
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The Farewell Drifters come to Stecoah
 

The Farewell Drifters come to Stecoah

The 2010 “An Appalachian Evening” season comes to an end on Saturday, Aug. 28, with one of Nashville’s most exciting…
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HART presents the Southern comedy ‘Catfish Moon’
 

HART presents the Southern comedy ‘Catfish Moon’

The Haywood Arts Regional Theater’s next play never played Broadway, or even New York, but it is one of the…
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Songwriters series continues in Balsam
 

Songwriters series continues in Balsam

Grammy Award winner Leslie Ellis and Grammy Award nominee Casey Kelly will share their creative talents starting 7:30 p.m. on…
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32 Reasons to play free concert for students Aug. 27
 

32 Reasons to play free concert for students Aug. 27

A back to school celebration with local band 32 Reasons will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 27,…
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Old-time musicians and their descendants sought
 

Old-time musicians and their descendants sought

A CD containing 34 1930s-era recordings of music performed by Smoky Mountain musicians will be released in October by the…
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Sign up for watercolor workshops
 

Sign up for watercolor workshops

Registration is going on now for the 2010 calendar of workshops and Art Academy at The Bascom in Highlands. Pat…
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Cartoonists group  presents ‘Shop Talk II’
 

Cartoonists group presents ‘Shop Talk II’

The WNC group of the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society will be presenting a day of “Shop Talk”…
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Free swimming party for families in Canton
 

Free swimming party for families in Canton

Healthy Haywood’s annual Family Fun Day will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Canton…
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Free square dance lessons offered
 

Free square dance lessons offered

The Pisgah Promenaders will host the annual “Back to School Dance” from 7:15 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28,…
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Labor Day Craft Show returns to Maggie Valley
 

Labor Day Craft Show returns to Maggie Valley

More than 100 artists and crafters from all over the Southeast, including Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and Alabama will…
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HCC fiber students create Sandburg rug
 

HCC fiber students create Sandburg rug

Haywood Community College Professional Crafts-Fiber students recently delivered a Navajo rug they crafted to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic…
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Call to artists for Asheville airport exhibit
 

Call to artists for Asheville airport exhibit

Artists from Haywood and Jackson counties are eligible to submit work for the next “Art in the Airport” exhibit at…
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Life-sized whale helps kids learn about art and the environment
 

Life-sized whale helps kids learn about art and the environment

“Cool!” was the typical response from kids as Fun Factory visitors walked in to find a colorful, life-sized killer whale…
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Musician Lorraine Conard plots her own course
 

Musician Lorraine Conard plots her own course

Some musicians just have to discover themselves. Waynesville singer-songwriter Lorraine Conard grew up singing at church and in plays, jotting…
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Overlooks in southern Appalachia
 

Overlooks in southern Appalachia

High-elevation overlooks are one of our finest natural resources. These vantage points allow us to rise above our everyday humdrum…
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A forest guide for the novice
 

A forest guide for the novice

A new book titled The Forests of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park serves as a guide to understanding and…
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Builders can get an edge with HCC green building crash course
 

Builders can get an edge with HCC green building crash course

An eight-week course on the Fundamentals of Green Building will be held at Haywood Community College starting Aug. 30. The…
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Energy expo to feature sustainable lifestyles
 

Energy expo to feature sustainable lifestyles

The tenth annual Southern Energy and Environment Expo this weekend in Asheville will features dozens of programs and exhibits on…
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Photographers sought to document trees of the Parkway
 

Photographers sought to document trees of the Parkway

Photographers should get to work now to come up with their best mountain images for the eighth annual Appalachian Mountain…
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Foot Rx brings 5K race to Jackson County
 

Foot Rx brings 5K race to Jackson County

A cross-country style 5K race in Cullowhee sponsored by Foot Rx of Asheville, a running shoe store, will be held…
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The oil is gone! Long live the oil!
 

The oil is gone! Long live the oil!

A week or so ago White House energy adviser Carol Browner was hitting the morning TV circuit, telling anyone who…
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A few wrong turns on the way to paradise
 

A few wrong turns on the way to paradise

I grabbed my guidebook and pen and wrapped my camera in a plastic grocery bag as it started to rain.…
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The allure of falling water
 

The allure of falling water

Although most people are drawn to waterfalls, many pause before they can articulate why. For some, it’s the sound of…
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Coffee with poet Bill Everett
 

Coffee with poet Bill Everett

Poet Bill Everett, author of Red Clay Blood River, will appear at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 19, as this month’s…
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Authors release photographic history of Waynesville
 

Authors release photographic history of Waynesville

Michael Beadle and Peter Yurko have published a new photographic history of Waynesville in honor of the town’s bicentennial this…
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Authors of two new mountain memoirs speak
 

Authors of two new mountain memoirs speak

Jean Boone Benfield, of Asheville, will read from her new book, Mountain Born: A Recollection of Life and Language in…
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A grim look at Appalachia
 

A grim look at Appalachia

Authors often dig into their childhood to mine for the coal and diamonds of their books. Sometimes they use the…
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Wheels Through Time is a great place to visit
 

Wheels Through Time is a great place to visit

To the Editor: I recently had occasion to take a 10-day camping and motorcycling trip. Maggie Valley was selected as…
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Nothing good about another Wal-Mart
 

Nothing good about another Wal-Mart

To the Editor: The dollar signs twinkling in the aldermen’s eyes were glaringly visible at the town of Franklin meeting…
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Honor suffragists by voting in November
 

Honor suffragists by voting in November

To the Editor: In a column dated Aug. 13, Gail Collins of The New York Times reminds us that August…
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Shuler vote keeps public servants at their jobs
 

Shuler vote keeps public servants at their jobs

To the Editor: I commend Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., for his support of H.R. 1586, the “Education, Jobs, and Medicaid…
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Our thanks to the Haywood health board
 

Our thanks to the Haywood health board

To the Editor: Tuesday night (Aug. 10) the Haywood County health board voted to table the amendment (for 90 days)…
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Kituwah was the wrong place for development
 

Kituwah was the wrong place for development

To the Editor: Some locations just aren’t suitable for development, let alone to be utilized by a major utility project.…
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On this vacation, we were definitely packing heat
 

On this vacation, we were definitely packing heat

Edisto, SC – Heat like this has a relentlessness that is unnerving. You try giving it the slip, it follows…
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Chevy hybrid put through the paces
 

Chevy hybrid put through the paces

When General Motors began looking for a good place to test the power of a new Hybrid car being released…
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Benefit dinner planned for Catman2 shelter
 

Benefit dinner planned for Catman2 shelter

The Balsam Mountain Inn will have a special dinner at 6 and 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 24 to provide donations…
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Arts building debate focuses on cost, green technology, and importance of craft industry
 

Arts building debate focuses on cost, green technology, and importance of craft industry

A crowd of 50 Haywood Community College supporters turned out Monday at a two-and-a-half hour public hearing to urge county…
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Waynesville’s special police unit puts new spin on fighting crime
 

Waynesville’s special police unit puts new spin on fighting crime

Not long ago, Waynesville’s historic Frog Level district was fraught with littered beer bottles and an unrelenting band of vagrants.…
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Trying for a lifetime to forgive
 

Trying for a lifetime to forgive

Inside Mary J. Messer’s cozy Bargain Books in Waynesville, hundreds of thousands of books are stacked ceiling high. Messer sits…
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Retired general to speak to Jackson GOP
 

Retired general to speak to Jackson GOP

The Jackson County GOP’s Orville Coward Forum on Public Issues program featuring Retired U.S. Marine Corp Gen. Geoff Higginbotham will…
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Cherokee’s new nerve center pushes the envelope inside and out
 

Cherokee’s new nerve center pushes the envelope inside and out

State-of-the-art defines just about everything the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians builds these days. Gorgeous architectural lines, native mountain building…
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Jackson businesses checked for taxable equipment
 

Jackson businesses checked for taxable equipment

Jackson County launched a comprehensive audit two years ago to make sure businesses are paying enough taxes on all their…
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Jackson Paper says tax bill tallied unfairly
 

Jackson Paper says tax bill tallied unfairly

After being hit with a county audit of its machinery, Jackson Paper factory in Sylva is disputing what it considers…
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Cowee hatches plans for community center of the first degree
 

Cowee hatches plans for community center of the first degree

According to public input so far, a reworked Cowee School could bear close resemblance to another historic Western North Carolina…
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“Fantasies in Fiber and Fabric” come to life
 

“Fantasies in Fiber and Fabric” come to life

“Fantasies in Fiber and Fabric,” an exhibition of three-dimensional garments, hats, bags, and one-of-a-kind original dolls by Toni Carroll, will…
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