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The Naturalist's Corner: Cornell knows birds – and I don’t
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a citizen-science venture conducted under the auspices of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and…
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WCU announces faculty layoffs
Under a budget cut scenario announced last Friday (March 13), 31.75 employees will be laid off from Western Carolina University…
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Uplifted by the flight of birds
Lately, I’ve been writing a lot about birds. I guess I have them on my mind, in part, because the…
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Agencies, departments reeling from county budget cuts
Non-profit agencies and county departments in Haywood County are still reeling from massive budget cuts announced by commissioners last week.…
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Troubled park hopes to get back on feet
The dire state of finances at Maggie Valley Ghost Town in the Sky led the amusement park to file for…
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Jackson ponders solutions to dry wells
A Jackson County task force appointed last fall to develop solutions to water shortages caused by the drought presented its…
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Runway extension faces funding shortfall
The Macon County Airport Authority is short about $853,000 of what it needs to pay for a controversial runway extension,…
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Moonshiner dead in apparent suicide
Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, 62, was found dead of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in a car near his Parrotsville, Tenn., residence,…
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A tax break for one business is not a plan
Before Haywood County commissioners approve a request to cut property taxes on a business that plans to build an $8…
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Digging up John Williams
Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams. New York Review of Books, 1960 reissued 2007. 274 pages. For those of us who…
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Environmental groups poised to win long battle
Following a prolonged debate, the national forest service wants to close a system of four-wheel drive trails in the Tellico…
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Balsam Range’s mountain mantra
By Christi Marsico • Staff Writer Little girls clacked their clogging shoes while families ate hushpuppies and barbecue in anticipation…
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Another landslide jeopardizes Maggie Valley home
A Maggie Valley man alerted Haywood County officials this week of a landslide posing a risk to his home in…
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What is the Evergreen Foundation?
The Evergreen Foundation was formed by the Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health in 1977. At that time, state mental…
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Task force aims to fix future traffic snarls
A Jackson County task force has entered the nitty-gritty stage in its quest to fix traffic congestion on N.C. 107…
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The Naturalist's Corner: Bat–tling for survival
A mysterious malady is decimating bat populations across the Northeast and spreading south. The malady, called white-nose syndrome (WNS) because…
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A community can provide real help to those in need
By Marsha Crites • Guest Columnist It occurred to me as I was hiking up my mountain today that one…
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Missed deadline costs HRMC potential revenue
Haywood Regional Medical Center could miss out on as much as $750,000 in revenue over the course of a year…
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First things first: How many cars too many?
The Jackson County transportation task force has spent the past several months signing off on a projected traffic count for…
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Artifacts endangered by airport project
When Neal Hoppe dies he wants his body cremated and his ashes spread over the Macon County Airport. “When I…
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Mr. February, me and my wife make happy
I love dogs. Except during that period in my life when I lived in a seemingly endless series of shoebox…
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The curious habits of birds
The curious lifestyles and distinctive habits one can observe in the bird world are continually fascinating. Some things you can…
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Swain leaders divided on contentious fire station plan
By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer Two Swain County commissioners are having second thoughts about a move to end contracted…
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Board members confused about McDevitt contract
Questions continue to follow former Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health director Tom McDevitt — who resigned amid scrutiny last…
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Dillsboro ups the ante as a green town
Two electric vehicles will soon be tooling around the town of Dillsboro thanks to a state grant aimed at reducing…
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Celebrating Southern filmmakers: Flicks for thought
By Christi Marsico • Staff Writer Spotlighting filmmakers from Georgia, Louisiana and Florida, Haywood County Arts Council presents the 2nd…
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State could pull contribution to Duke for dam removal
The $400,000 that Duke Energy was expecting to get from the state to help tear down the Dillsboro dam may…
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Give your vegetable garden a head start
By Jim Janke The last frost date is many weeks away, but everyone is anxious to get vegetable seeds and…
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Climbers asked to relinquish cliffs for peregrine falcons
Wildlife biologists are asking rock climbers to avoid known nesting habitats of the peregrine falcon as breeding and nesting season…
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Conservatism with a small “c”
Ain’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Ant-Imperialism by Bill Kauffman. Metropolitan Books, 2008. 304…
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Popeyed pleasures
Many people who spend some time walking the woodland stream banks and other wet areas here in the Smokies region…
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Swain pushes Bryson fire department aside in turf war
Prominently displayed in the window of the Bryson City Fire Department last week were several signs with the same defiant…
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Physicians, HRMC may partner on surgery center
The prospect of an outpatient surgery center in Haywood County has drawn support from 14 doctors willing to pitch in…
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Press awards recognize ‘dogged commitment’
The Smoky Mountain News won four awards for its news coverage in the recent North Carolina Press Association News and…
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Churches pool to offer refuge for homeless in Sylva, Waynesville
A homeless shelter has opened in Sylva to provide an escape from the frigid nights. The shelter, located at Lifeway…
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Flood Relief Funds: What really happened
By Denise A. Mathis • Guest Column One of the most publicized criminal cases in Haywood County history centered around…
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Waynesville mourns passing of long-time alderman
Waynesville Alderman Kenneth Moore passed away Monday (March 2) after a heart attack. He was 74. Moore was the former…
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The Naturalist's Corner
Peregrine pads protected Rock climbing trails across the Carolina mountains near known peregrine falcon nest sites have once again been…
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Tough year for HRMC teaches hard lessons
It’s a cultural tradition in nearly every society, the firm belief that people and institutions become stronger once they’ve been…
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Canton town manager search drags on
There are just two candidates left in the bid to be Canton’s next town manager, but Mayor Pat Smathers said…
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Franklin man banned from bringing knife to church
A member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Franklin is prohibited from bringing his hunting knife to church after another…
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Canton stuck in bidding quagmire
A flawed bidding process for a demolition job that left a local company out of the loop is causing a…
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New park visitor center to showcase stored artifacts
A design has been finalized for a new $3 million visitor center at the North Carolina entrance to the Great…
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The stories of everyday people: NPR’s StoryCorps coming to Asheville
By Christi Marsico • Staff Writer Capturing a grandmother’s story of survival, a fiancé’s sigh, or a best friend’s joke…
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Airport runway battle heats up in Macon: Cherokee fight to save artifacts from destruction
Emotions are sizzling over a plan to extend the Macon County Airport runway over Cherokee burial grounds and artifacts. At…
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Smokies keeps status as most visited national park
The economy and high gas prices last summer led to slightly fewer visitors in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park…
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New polling place to end Cherokee voters’ commute to Bryson
People in Cherokee will no longer have to drive or hitch rides into Bryson City to cast ballots during early…
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Angry residents call nuisance ordinance ‘a bunch of garbage’
A proposed Haywood County ordinance that prohibits various kinds of waste and junk was harshly criticized by speaker after speaker…
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HRMC: A timeline
Oct. 2006-Feb. 2008 — HRMC has several problems with federal inspectors, culminating in the threat to revoke its ability to…
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Purported mega-development disappears from radar
Cataloochee Wilderness Resort, a 4,500-acre proposed development in Haywood County’s Jonathan Creek community, appears to have fallen off the map.…
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