Demand grows for off-duty officers to work special events

haywoodThe rising tide of triathlons, foot races and cycling events in Haywood County is stretching the capacity of spare deputies to provide security on the long-distance routes without a better pay incentive.

Former deputy pleads guilty to obstructing justice

fr deputyA former Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing justice following an Oct. 25 party that involved underage drinking and led to charges of statutory rape against two other men.

Horseplay results in fired Jackson detention officer

law enforcementA Jackson County detention officer was fired this summer after firing a Taser gun on a coworker.

Bear hunting guide brought down after failing to rein in reckless ‘client’

fr bruinBy Katie Reeder • SMN Intern

When Chad Arnold pulled into War Paint Kennels during fall bear season in 2011, Jerry Parker pegged him as just another flat-lander willing to fork out big dough to bag a bear.

The bait battle: paw-lickin’ good

out bearbaitThe hunting community and wildlife officers have been engaged in an ongoing tug-of-war over the practice of baiting bears to make them easier to hunt.

Going rogue: Undercover bear poaching sting uses dubious tactics to trap hunters

coverBy Katie Reeder • SMN Intern

All Chad Crisp took with him was his Bible as he headed into Elkton Federal Correctional Institute in Ohio last week. For a rural mountain boy who’d never left home, 20 months of federal prison would be a long, hard road.

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Cast of characters

“I felt that my heart would burst as I hugged him and told him I loved him and everything would be all right and that we would be back soon,” Linda Crisp, his mother, said. “For a mother, her son – no matter how old he is – is still in some ways a child in her eyes, and she wants to always protect him.”

Cast of characters

something bruinDavey Webb (alias Davey Williams): an agent with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who first started hunting with the Crisps in the fall of 2010.

Franklin officers return to work after deadly shooting

law enforcementTwo officers with the Franklin Police Department are back on duty while the N.C. State Bureau of Investigations continues to look into a deadly shooting involving the officers.

Four arrested for illegal fishing

law enforcementFour men from Buncombe and Henderson counties are facing a slew of Class 3 misdemeanor charges after officers with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission caught them fishing Lake Waterville using gill nets.

Out of the headlines, but not out of the woods

op frThe rioting in Baltimore has settled down and we haven’t heard much out of Ferguson, Missouri, recently. The uproar and incessant debate over what is happening in our inner cities — racism, poverty, violence, drugs, police brutality — has, for the moment, quieted down. But problems don’t go away just because they are left unspoken.

The festering wounds in those towns were on my mind as we settled down Sunday night to watch the award-winning movie “Selma.” The film is about a few weeks in Martin Luther King’s life as he organized and marched in Selma, Alabama. The marchers were specifically calling for an end to laws that kept blacks from voting, and despite the mortal dangers they faced — there were deaths in those few weeks among whites and blacks who supported the marchers — it worked. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act that same month.

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