Lately, I’ve been writing a lot about birds. I guess I have them on my mind, in part, because the spring migration season is underway. I heard my first Louisiana waterthrush (a warbler) of the year this past Sunday morning. But then again, birds are always on my mind summer, fall, and winter, too. And I’m not alone. Each week that I write about birds, I receive at least 10 emails from readers who share their bird observations and insights with me. Here we go again.     

You often hear that North Carolina’s public universities are the “crown jewel” of the state. While this is indeed true, the deadlock in Raleigh over funding for a new budget continues to hamstring our state’s public institutions. Some of the most urgent needs can be found at Western Carolina University, where the lack of funding is beginning to negatively affect students and faculty.

By Mark Jamison • Guest Columnist | One of the defenses I have heard most often offered for support for Mr. Trump is his defense of unborn life, a term that seems oxymoronic or possibly contradictory but can at least be appreciated when offered with sincere spiritual commitment.

The contradiction, I sense, attaches less to the term itself than in its rather narrow application. This, combined with a worshipful elevation of Mr. Trump to a pedestal his life and words almost certainly don’t support and which seems almost blasphemous when accompanied by tortured explications of scripture and motivated reasoning that stands in for solid theology.

N.C. Department of Transportation crews from three counties worked from sunrise to sunset over four days to clear a rockslide on N.C. 28 about two miles south of U.S. 74 in Swain County.

University of North Carolina System Interim President Bill Roper joined Chancellor Kelli R. Brown to tour the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee on Thursday, March 5,  to highlight the critical needs facing the university as a result of the current state budget stalemate. 

My doctor has said that I need to buy low-sodium or no salt added food. What should I be looking for?

To the Editor:

Imagine a world without your local newspaper. Imagine a world without any newspapers. Where would you get your news about upcoming elections or about what the DOT and county commissioners plan to do with that stretch of road near your house? Would you turn to Facebook? Twitter? Platforms that have been reprimanded repeatedly for allowing the dissemination of false stories meant to manipulate and mislead readers? Speaking of Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg made it very clear that he has no intentions of stopping the spread of fake news across his platform. Why should he halt it? He’s making money either way. 

A couple of weeks ago McClatchy Publishers, parent company of the Miami Herald and Kansas City Star announced a filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy. The plan, according to McClatchy’s creditors, is to reorganize in order to offload massive debt totaling $700 million across the 30 newspaper titles they own — including our state’s two largest papers, The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer. Reorganize is a fancy way of saying trimming the fat, which is a colloquial way of saying putting journalists out of work. 

If you haven’t noticed, this trend of newspapers going belly up, whether shuttering entirely or restructuring at the expense of journalistic integrity, has been a steady occurrence for several years. According to PEN America, 20 percent of all U.S. newspapers have closed since 2004. Dwindling advertising dollars combined with the onslaught of digital takeover by Google and Facebook, has absolutely crushed print media. Today, 225 counties across the U.S. are without a newspaper and of the newspapers still operating, a sizeable number are so broke they can only afford to publish what comes down the wire from the Associated Press. This means no local news for the people living in those communities. 

The thought of not having a local newspaper may not strike others as something worth fretting over, but for me, the thought is terrifying. It should be terrifying for anyone who gives it consideration. Newspaper journalists are the eyes and ears of what’s happening in your community. They are the first on the scene and the ones who literally do the legwork, often thanklessly, of gathering facts and information to share. In fact, 90 percent of the commentary you see on television news and read online comes from the labor and work of newspaper reporters. Your favorite talking heads would be silent bobbing heads if it weren’t for the efforts of journalists. Or worse, your talking heads would simply be spokespersons for the biggest spenders in advertising. 

So why care? Because news matters. An absence of press and the disappearance of local news outlets is an invitation for the growth of misinformation, misunderstanding and propagation of false narratives. It’s handing over the voice of your community to whichever power has the strongest grip (and deepest wallet). The loss of free press is the unraveling of the foundation of our society. As journalist Richard Kluger once said, “Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism; when a great one goes, history itself is denied a devoted witness.”

 Amanda Singletary

Waynesville

To the Editor:

At the recent Waynesville Town Board meeting on Feb. 11, there was a motion to support Medicaid expansion under House Bill 655. I appreciated the input of law enforcement, medical professionals, and community members to endorse this expansion. However, I take issue with the work requirements put forth in the bill. 

I am personally able to afford health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, though by a shoestring. I have a $7,000 deductible and, beyond the cost of my premium, I spend around 200 additional dollars each month for mental health care. It is not a stretch for me to imagine that others in our community struggle to access healthcare at all. Haywood County has a 16.6 percent poverty rate, or almost 10,000 people. The wage gap that prevents our neighbors from accessing healthcare is between $6,000 and $16,000. 

Work requirements do not solve the problem of access to healthcare. Sixty percent of those with Medicaid coverage already work, and those who don’t are unable because of disabilities, caregiving, or inability to find full-time work. They are the ones in need of healthcare, in order to be well enough to work in the first place. Not to mention, work requirements cost taxpayers more money, due to the cost of bureaucratic paperwork to enforce the work requirements. 

Haywood County faces a current crisis, linked between the issues of homelessness, mental health, addiction, and poverty. Work requirements will not properly address these issues. I support HB5/SB2 to close the Medicaid coverage gap. I demand that our town council members do the same as we move forward with this issue. 

Abigail Ahlberg, DownHomeNC

Waynesville

A race scheduled for April 4 honoring hometown hero Riley Howell has been postponed due to coronavirus concerns. 

N.C. Department of Transportation officials recently awarded a $450,000 contract to increase the stability of a hill beside U.S. 19/74 in the Nantahala Gorge that has suffered from recent slides.

It was another good year for community journalism in Western North Carolina, and writers from The Smoky Mountain News were a big part of it, taking home more editorial awards — 21 — than any other newspaper in its class. 

By Todd Vinyard • Contributing Writer | Western Carolina University basketball has been using the hashtag #ItsComing on social media this season to describe year two under head coach Mark Prosser. After a Catamount season featuring an improvement of eleven wins from seven to 18, maybe they might want to prepare for #ItsHere.

By Todd Vinyard • Contributing Writer | Alex Gary, a former student-athlete on the Western Carolina University baseball team who is currently serving as senior associate athletics director for development at Oregon State University, is the next director of the Catamount athletics program.

If someone has diabetes should they be buying sugar-free products?

After a month-long closure for tree removal operations, a portion of the Davidson River Campground in the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard reopened on Feb. 22. 

To the Editor:

I want to thank Scott McLeod for his encouragement to all of us in his “From the Publisher” portion of the Friday Xtra digital newsletter last Friday morning. With us not knowing what others are going through, it is a wonderful reminder to be kind and compassionate as well as always treating people like we want to be treated. Thanks again!

Sheriff Greg Christopher

Haywood County Sheriff

To the Editor:

One of the blessings or curses of too many philosophy classes at university is an appreciation for critical thinking skills. Many of these skills are becoming less and less prevalent in modern discourse. Applying those skills to politics is critical to making sound judgements in the voting booth.

Over the last several weeks I have noted political ads in the news and have been using them to help make my voting decisions. Specifically, three ads caught my attention. Two are Republican and one is Democratic. I am registered as unaffiliated. One ad is for the 11th Congressional District race, one ad is for the N.C. House and one ad is for District Court Judge. The first two are objective statements of qualifications for the office and clearly state who paid for the ad.

The third (for District Court judge), I consider to be deficient in that  it lacks objectivity (cherry picked topics with no supporting evidence) some of which to my mine are not really reasons to vote for or against a candidate. Example: “Was Not Always a Lawyer” says nothing as I imagine none of the three candidates was always a lawyer.  It does not carry a “paid for” statement. 

I intend to pay attention to ads that give real information about a candidate, their endorsements, and their positions and not ads that offer little or no helpful information. Such ads only inform my opinion about the candidate running the ad.

Richard Gould

Waynesville

To the Editor:

Just when I thought it was safe to be optimistic about the trajectory of our country, I came up from my crouch and took a double gut punch. That one-two punch left me reeling from what I’d just seen and felt.

When the Senate voted not to allow any witnesses or additional evidence to be admitted during their hurried impeachment proceedings, I dropped a tear of anger and loss. How can one even hope to find the truth and offer transparency without hearing from those directly involved on the front lines? Blocking testimony from the highest-ranking staffers in the field is the most blatant way to insure that the facts are never heard. 

This comes after weeks of the president specifically instructing government employees to ignore congressionally issued subpoenas to testify before recognized bipartisan committees, giving our Constitution a swift right hook, busting the collective lip of truthfulness. 

Even before the trial began, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed that he’d not only be in the President’s corner with the stool and a pep talk between rounds, but also with the assurance that he would fix the fight from the beginning with help from his complicit cohorts in the chamber to hamstring the opponent — transparency. The truth and any unbiased hearing would be buried under the canvas cover along with another piece of our democracy. 

Shock and disbelief fell across many American faces as our long-held faith and belief in the sacred process of fair and equal justice and our national character were thrown into the ropes with a little fancy footwork by those whose job it is to defend those very ideals. This is not how our systems of checks and balances and due process work, this is how thugs, gangs, dictators and mob bosses operate. The only thing missing here was the sound of kneecaps breaking.

I couldn’t watch any of the proceeding that followed, knowing that a complete sham and cover-up was taking place, and all the world had a ring-side seat, our Constitution reduced to bookies bet sheets and birdcage liner. The pre-arranged acquittal followed, not because of our unbiased, equally applied system of government, but in spite of it.

An emboldened lightweight emerged, eager to retaliate against his critics, knowing that his spineless backers in the Senate, including our own Sen. Tom Tillis, were giving him the green light and freeing him from any accountability going forward, regardless of rules, law or sense of decency. 

He celebrated by throwing Purple Heart recipient Lt. Col.Vindman and his fellow soldier brother, along with world-respected US Ambassadors Gordon Sondland (EU) and Marie Yovanovitch (Ukraine) out on their asses for providing information and testimony as requested by investigators, and required by law (incidentally!).

 In the meantime, he disgraces previous recipients of the Medal of Freedom by awarding it to his ass-kissing, bigoted pal Rush Limbaugh with a bare-knuckled jab into American honor. He followed with his appointed lapdog Attorney General William Barr directed to intervene in a presiding judge’s sentence for his long-time dirtbag buddy Roger Stone in yet another flagrant abuse of power, usurping the distinct separation between the judicial and executive branches of government. 

Now, officially above the law and given free rein to re-make our legal system to his benefit, the most recent series of punches that landed on America’s face make a mockery of our institutions and those who sacrificed and died to defend and protect them. 

My 2020 hope is that the nation can gather the collective courage and conviction to get up off the floor and come back swinging with the conjoined political punches of Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammed Ali. It’s imperative that voters deliver the needed knock-out blow to this blatant assault on our democracy. We want our nation back.

We don’t want to hear the ref count to three and await our democracy’s final bell sounding.

It’s up to us in November to land that massive punch, sending the dirty fighter and his backers to the locker room defeated, marking a win for America’s future as the real democracy champions.

John Beckman 

Cullowhee

By Steve Wall • Guest Columnist | There are over 200 cases of coronavirus that have appeared in Italy, with three deaths as of Feb. 21. It’s possible patient one had symptoms for five days before seeking help. 

Currently, there are over 500,000 people in North Carolina who have no medical insurance, and several thousand are here in the mountains. Careful health surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation show that people with no medical insurance delay seeing a medical provider for financial reasons. Is it inconceivable that someone with a highly contagious disease could remain under the radar, and without knowing it, spread the infection, because a visit to the ER and lab test could cost them $300 or more out of pocket.

Nothing represents a community’s diversity better than its public schools. Each school is a cultural melting pot of ethnicities, identities, beliefs and social classes that intersect at a single location. The challenge for educators is ensuring an equitable learning environment for every student that is free of judgment based on perceptions and stereotypes. 

Dogwood Health Trust has awarded more than $3.7 million to a diverse range of 259 nonprofit and government agencies from every county and the Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina through its Immediate Opportunities and Needs grant program. 

Yes, but the difference isn’t in the nutrition!

To the Editor:

During his State of the Union address to Congress, President Donald Trump repeated more than 20 of his more common lies according to fact checking organizations. To be clear, these are not misstatements. They are flat-out lies that have been debunked.

In my opinion, the most egregious was his contention that he and the Republicans are protecting the coverage for preexisting conditions. While Trump was making that statement his administration was in court suing to eliminate such protections.

Trump claimed that drug prices went down this year. However, there are reports that pharmaceutical companies had actually raised prices on a range of medications. Payments by third party payers did not show a decrease. Only if someone switched from a name brand medication to a generic would you expect a decrease in prices.

Then there is the Trump claim that this is the best economy ever – made more than 250 times before. But by a variety of measures this is false. The rate of growth is the same or maybe now a bit less than under Obama and lower than it was from 1997-1999 under Clinton. Unemployment was lower during Lyndon Johnson’s administration and was also lower in 1953. The gross domestic product rate of increase was more during the 1950s and 1960s than during Trump’s administration.

Trump keeps claiming that his tax cuts were the biggest in history. Reagan’s tax cuts were larger. But to slow the deficits those cuts created, Reagan also raised taxes a number of times. In Trump’s case his tax cut has increased the national debt by trillions of dollars without doing much, if anything, for the economy. The vast majority of the cuts benefited the top 5 percent. This week we find out that to pay for those tax cuts Trump proposes to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Trump claimed that the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners increased 47 percent. According to economists this is total BS. Nothing supports the claim. Even if there was some indication of a percent increase, it is likely to be largely a statistical illusion. Many low-wage earners have no net worth — they live paycheck to paycheck. Anything bigger than zero will look like a big percentage increase.

Trump repeatedly claims that he is investing $2.2 trillion to “rebuild” the military. The reality is that Trump is adding up the budgets for three years. The truth is his annual budgets for the military were no bigger than Obama’s.

 What about those 12,000 factories that Trump claimed America had gained? About 80 percent of those “factories” employ fewer than 6 people. If you run a bicycle shop that puts together custom bicycles, you are a “factory” under Trump’s definition. In reality the manufacturing sector of the economy is in a bit of a recession. Some companies may be starting new production, but others, like Harley Davidson have moved to other countries due to Trump’s trade war tariffs.

 Just about anything Trump claims needs to be considered a lie unless proved otherwise, because the odds are that he is lying. Look at what he actually does, not what he says.

Norman Hoffman

Waynesville

To the Editor:

The President of the United States (no longer to be confused, or considered synonymous with, “Leader of the Free World”) confessed on an almost daily basis to having used foreign aid as a lure to coerce the head of a foreign government (an ally under attack by a common foe) to make a public announcement that it’s investigating his political opponent in the upcoming election. He’s even bragged about being untouchable because he’s sitting on the evidence while refusing to cooperate or allow certain officials to testify.

Trump was successfully impeached because Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives did their job. But his trial in the Senate stalled when the Majority Leader — who had already demonstrated his contempt for procedure by arbitrarily strong-arming the previous President out of a Supreme Court nomination — took a similarly bold approach to trivial details, such as hearing testimony from witnesses.

That Senate Republicans would buy into Alan Dershowitz’ cockamamie, inane rhetorical hogwash was extreme even for them. Dershowitz, in defending the President, asserted that since “every public official ... believes that his election is in the public interest,” therefore, “if a president does something that he believes will help him get elected is in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid promo that results in impeachment.” And to think, Harvard University actually pays this looney-toon to teach law.

So, what are we left with? We seem to be cursed with an assemblage of elected officials to whom the Constitution of the United States means nothing, to whom taking an oath (in God’s name) means nothing, to whom representative government, checks and balances, democracy, and the rule of law, mean nothing. The United States Senate, by acquitting Donald Trump, has chosen to reject evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president whose abuse of power the Founders specifically created the Senate to counteract.

Americans have no choice but to conclude that self-centered fear of intervention by Trump into their reelection campaigns has made Republican senators not just supporters of this incorrigible, unmanageable and unchangeable president, but eager accomplices in his aggressive and egregious misuse of executive privilege and (perhaps unwittingly) decisively weakening their own power.

It’s almost as if these senators thought themselves unworthy (with the exception of Mitt Romney (Republican of Utah) of removing this unfit president from office despite their constitutional and moral responsibility to do so if the evidence warranted it and (despite new evidence having been barred from the trial by Sen. Mitch McConnell and Republican senators) from what we knew already, this president clearly met the criteria justifying impeachment and removal from office.

No one described the Senate trial better than Ross K. Baker, distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University, when he said: “What we are witnessing is a Senate in the act of institutional suicide.”

It has been stated and written in one way or another by so many writers ...  the Founders tried to lay what they perceived would be a permanent foundation for a new nation striving toward its ideals and future greatness. They clearly anticipated and feared someone like Donald Trump, and tried their level best to give us the remedies and protections we’d need to shield and preserve our people and our nation. Unfortunately, because senators chose to violate their oaths and to disregard the Constitution, the safeguards were unable to protect us from the president’s wrongful acts. Let us hope the Republic the framers envisioned doesn’t fail as well.

David L. Snell

Franklin

A Canton student was one of six youth statewide to win the 2020 AgYouth Leadership Award from Carolina Farm Credit. 

Haywood Waterways Association had a hard time choosing from the many people and organizations deserving of its annual awards recognizing outstanding effort to protect Haywood County’s waterways. Five winners received three awards during the organization’s annual membership dinner in December 2019. 

The generosity of Waynesville farmer Gene Christopher has allowed the Haywood Gleaners to gather, box and deliver more than 4,000 pounds of apples to the food insecure of Haywood County in the past month. 

Updated: 2/19/20 10:30 a.m

Jody Vance Jones, 26, of Clyde, has been charged with murdering his father Marion Jones and for attempting to murder his brother Hunter Jones. There is no bond at this time.

More than a hundred people crammed Franklin’s Macon County courthouse to speak both for and against designating the county a “Second Amendment sanctuary” on Feb. 11, but the debate left more questions than answers and resulted in no action being taken. 

Haywood County’s financial position remains strong ahead of talks about next year’s budget, but a host of challenges will test commissioners’ resolve to keep spending low and fund balance high. 

Western North Carolina residents are now eligible for half-off tuition for all 2020 classes at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown.

It's February, which means Waynesville merchants are once again offering special discounts for locals the entire month of February. Look for the big red heart at participating downtown businesses.

Early voting is underway in Western North Carolina for the March 3 Primary Election. View sample ballots here:

The North Carolina State Board of Education recently voted to renew the charter for Shining Rock Classical Academy for another seven years. 

It seems like every year (and sometimes every month) there’s a new weight loss diet that makes the news. From the “Grapefruit Diet” and the “Cabbage Soup” diet where specific foods are eaten regularly to versions of low carbohydrate diets like Atkins and Keto and more recently some version of fasting. But will these diets work for you if your goal is weight loss?

The Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina has acquired 330 acres of what is expected to be a 651-acre project in Morganton. 

The Seed Library of Waynesville is now open, with donated seeds available for free of charge to members of the Haywood County Public Library. 

A years-long environmental assessment process is complete with the issuance of a final decision on the Twelve Mile Project on the Appalachian Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest in Haywood County. Work will begin this year and continue for 10 years or more. 

To the Editor:

These comments are offered in rebuttal to a previously published letter. 

The first sentence in the letter states “The hysterical, savage, and frenzied attacks on President Trump by Democrats, the media, powerful deep state and political establishment has been going on since the day he was elected.”

I submit that this is partially true. I for one (not part of most of the groups mentioned and certainly not a member of the “global elite” because I don’t have any money) have opposed him ever since he lied and accused Obama of not being an American. Also, the attacks on Trump have been met with equal vigor and vitriol by Trump and his supporters. I note that Trump has plenty of heeled supporters who contribute generously to try to keep him in office.

What is totally true is that Trump is singularly unfit to hold public office. His countless lies, nasty rhetoric, misuse of his office, and traitorous behavior toward Russian interference in our electoral processes are clear (to cite Sen. Lamar Alexander). His views on global climate change are a threat to us all. His tax breaks for the wealthy (he promised to balance the budget — remember that one?) are increasing our staggering debt and will come back to burden our children. His trade efforts are hurting family farms and have yet to show positive results. He promised to bring back our industrial base and that has not materialized. His foreign policy supports dictators around the world. Further, Trump’s attacks on the “media,” meaning anyone who disagrees with him, are disgraceful and untrue because the “media” reports what he does (except for Fox News, which totally supports him) 

I only hope that there are enough Democrats and others to rid us of him in November.

Owen Rothberg

Waynesville

To the Editor:

I served two terms on Asheville’s City Council and am a former candidate for Congress in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. In other words, I’m pretty engaged in electoral politics. I bring that experience to every election, evaluating candidates in light of their platforms and with regard to their personal commitment to ideas that I believe are in the best interest of our community, the state and the nation.

In this year’s congressional race in the 11th District Democratic Primary, I offer my full endorsement of Michael O’Shea. There is no issue more important to our collective future than addressing the global climate crisis. O’Shea fully supports the Green New Deal which is the only plan offered that has any chance of averting the life-threatening effect of our current policies. Further, O’Shea has endorsed Bernie Sanders, the only presidential candidate whose platform might move the United States toward economic justice, demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share.

Western North Carolina needs Michael O’Shea to represent our interests and to reverse the devastating efforts of Rep. Mark Meadows who has done all he could do to advance benefits for the rich during his years in office.

Cecil Bothwell

Asheville

The historic Shelton House in Waynesville is currently in need of volunteers for an array of upcoming events. 

CULLOWHEE – It is starting to get very busy for members of the Student Democracy Coalition at Western Carolina University. Led by students, the nonpartisan group engages faculty, staff and organizations across campus that are interested in increasing student civic engagement. And 2020 is a big election year, with local, state and presidential races at stake.

TOPTON – A rockslide has closed U.S. 19/74 in the Nantahala Gorge for the remainder of today and at least through the daylight hours on Friday. 

If you love to run and enjoy the scenic views of the Smoky Mountains, come out on Saturday, April 4, 2019 for a two-race event in Waynesville, N.C. The town will be abuzz with runners of all ages and skill levels. 

Do you grocery shop at Ingles Markets with your children? Sometimes this can be stressful and difficult to manage. Here are some ideas on how to keep kids engaged, learn something new… and maybe even lend a helping hand.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation will receive 100 free hours of public relations and marketing services as part of the Stand Up Initiative from Asheville-based Darby Communications and Status Forward. 

Tremont Institute is a finalist for an international education award in recognition of its Community Leaders Fellowship program. 

A 68-acre conservation purchase in Catawba County is expected to become part of the planned Wilderness Gateway State Trail, which is intended to meander thorugh Catawba and Burke counties and along the Rutherford-McDowell county line. 

Support wildlife in North Carolina with a voluntary contribution to the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Fund on line 30 of the N.C. state income tax form. 

To the Editor:

Our N.C. House Rep. Joe Sam Queen is fulfilling every campaign promise he made two years ago. Here is the latest example, one that affects people, especially school-age children, here in WNC’s most isolated areas the most.