Ellen Pitt has dedicated the last two and a half decades to combatting drunk driving in Western North Carolina, and the one of the latest fronts in that fight involves her quest to get courts to use continuous alcohol monitoring bracelets for defendants in “high-risk” DWI cases. 

Haywood County is reminding local business owners that the county’s tourism development authority is conducting a survey to assess recovery progress, current needs and ongoing challenges in the wake of Hurricane Helene. 

The annual “Thunder in the Smokies” summer motorcycle rally will be held June 27-29 at the Maggie Valley Fairgrounds.

The oldest and largest motorcycle rally in the Great Smoky Mountains, the weekend celebration will feature live music, dozens of vendors, motorcycle shows/games, prizes and much more. 

Elizabeth and Quintin Ellison will share their poetry and photography book created with the late George Ellison, “Land of Blue Shadows: Mountain Life in Verse & View,” at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 

Last weekend, Haywood County’s Republican Party hosted a fundraiser at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds that featured music, professional wrestling, a car show and a hearty helping of conservative politics.

Following the event, event organizer and Haywood GOP Treasurer Kim Genova thanked the volunteers that made the event go smoothly, as well as those who turned out. 

Since 1932, the ashlar veneer of the Haywood County Courthouse in Waynesville has borne silent witness to memorable events in local and national history — the Great Depression, World War II, Korea, the Civil Rights era, Vietnam, 9/11, Afghanistan, the Gulf Wars and most recently the county’s first LGBTQ+ Pride celebration — but a gathering on Flag Day, the same day President Donald Trump celebrated his birthday with a military parade in Washington, D.C., may prove to be just as enduring. 

I get asked about it after every protest I’ve been to, from Andrews to Asheville, from Chicago to Washington, D.C., and everywhere in between. 

Rally attendance is one of the most debated aspects of any public gathering — be it left, right, center, secular or spiritual. At outdoor venues that don’t use ticketing and don’t have fences or walls to contain the crowds, estimates can be even more difficult. 

A pair of local bills pushed by Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) — one welcomed by most, another, not so much — have recently taken important steps through the General Assembly, but still have a long way to go if they’re to become law.  

My office is cool and our building on Montgomery Street in Waynesville is quiet. Almost everyone who works at The Smoky Mountain News has gone home for a few minutes to tend to kids, dogs, wives and husbands as it’s one hour before the annual first Friday in June birthday bash celebrating another year of putting out this weekly print newspaper (and now a seven-day-per-week news website).  

To the Editor:

On May 22, the House of Representatives voted to pass a budget bill (The One Big Beautiful Bill) that drastically cuts America’s clean energy tax credits. Make no mistake: these cuts will hurt North Carolina and the Town of Waynesville if they become law.