Clampitt, Queen face off for fifth time
They’ve now run against each other five times in 10 years so there’s not much voters don’t know about them already, but the first question of the Blue Ridge Public Radio/Smoky Mountain News forum Sept. 24 between Democratic Rep. Joe Sam Queen and his Republican challenger Mike Clampitt took a more substantial purview of their decade-long feud.
WNC moves into new phase of COVID
As the number of new cases begins to stabilize in Western North Carolina, medical directors urge people to keep doing what they’re doing to prevent another spike.
A train ride through Prohibition-era NC
“We are here on this earth separated from God, so that we might learn and grow.” — Jedidiah Robbins
If there’s anything to the bumperstickers that read “Buy Local” (and I think there is), then that not only applies to the food produced in our region but the literature too.
New players join affordable housing fight
The affordable housing crisis in Western North Carolina isn’t anything new, but it is entering a dangerous new phase due to ever-increasing home values, limited supply and a red-hot real estate market that has refused to use the Coronavirus Pandemic as an excuse to cool down.
Heath Shuler steps off the political sidelines
Even Hollywood screenwriters would be hard-pressed to craft a more quintessentially American story.
The Anthony Amendment: Women’s suffrage in NC and beyond
When the United States Constitution was adopted in 1787, left to the states was the power to determine who should be allowed to vote in elections. While several states indeed permitted some women to vote in various elections, the right of suffrage was far from universal.
Women celebrate a century of suffrage
In recognition of the 19th Amendment’s centennial anniversary this month, The Smoky Mountain News highlights the historic events leading up to the amendment’s ratification in August 1920, perhaps WNC’s most influential suffragette and the importance of the women’s vote in today’s political climate.
COVID-19 deaths in western counties continue to rise
Although the seven-day rolling average of positive COVID-19 tests continues to trend downwards across the state of North Carolina, western counties are beginning to see huge upticks in both cases and deaths.
Local governments show room for improvement in gender pay equality
From the very birth of this nation, the words “All men are created equal” never really meant all men, and it certainly didn’t mean women.
More COVID-19 outbreaks reported in WNC
According to the Haywood County Health Department, a significant number of the close contacts of positive COVID-19 cases recently identified by contact tracers have refused to participate in contact tracing, testing, and/or quarantine.
