The fallout immediately following the disaster wrought by Hurricane Helene was tragic and traumatizing, but as time has gone on and debris piles slowly disappear, certain secondary woes are being fully realized. 

The last few years have been a helluva ride for Haywood County Commissioner Terry “double down” Ramey. Prior to his 2022 election, Ramey faced criticism over his decade-long nonpayment of county property taxes, so he did what any decent, upstanding, God-fearing man would do — he lied about it and threatened the media for reporting on it. 

By the end of the 1900s, groups of marginalized Americans like women, Blacks, Hispanics and others had made great strides in their respective liberation movements after centuries of subjugation, leaving some to wonder if we’d ever again witness the bravery and sacrifice required when the oppressed refuse to be treated as second-class citizens any longer. 

Evy Leibfarth was welcomed home in style this summer after her medal-winning performance at the Olympics.

In her second Olympic appearance at Paris 2024, the Swain County native took home a bronze medal in the women’s canoe slalom event.

When Tropical Storm Fred cut a half billion-dollar swath of destruction through the eastern part of Haywood County and killed six people in 2021, the tragedy gave residents a chance to come together across political, racial and socioeconomic lines as never before. But it also had another hidden upside, revealed this past September. 

In May, Payton McNabb shrouded herself in the cloak of Big Brother when she took to a Western Carolina University bathroom to film an unsuspecting student. 

This one goes out to the North Carolina General Assembly and Congress, but it will take a little explaining. 

Rep. Chuck Edwards has refused to speak to The Smoky Mountain News since shortly after he was elected in 2022.

He’s been silent on critical issues of national and regional importance — silent on protecting Social Security, silent on preserving veterans health care, silent on what he did to prevent the Pactiv-Evergreen paper mill in Canton from closing, silent on funding our national parks, silent on why North Carolina didn’t get the congressional funding it needs to recover fully from the damage associated with Hurricane Helene. 

You might think people don’t care about local government, but sometimes you’re reminded that they absolutely do.

Bryson City’s town government was served a stark reminder of that concept this year when the town proposed significantly raising the water rates. 

We hate to belabor one topic, but we have more than one marijuana-related award to hand out this year.  

The steamroller award goes to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who launched their cannabis venture despite no shortage of opposition from outside the Qualla Boundary.