Federal shutdown threatens food aid in WNC
Waynesville resident Sam Wilds is blind, cannot work, uses her entire Social Security disability check for household bills, has approximately $50 left on her SNAP card for the month of October, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.
‘Keeping the lights on:’ In the public lands of the Blue Ridge, a complicated and unusual federal shutdown
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Nearly one month into the federal government shutdown, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park remains open to the public, and the National Forest Service’s logging and disaster response capabilities remain active.
Step up, or step down: Whatley blames Democrats after calls to resign grow louder
Hurricane Helene recovery czar Michael Whatley is blaming Democrats for the growing chorus of criticism over his job performance — but in heavily Republican Western North Carolina, it’s not just Democratic voices calling for Whatley to be replaced or step down.
There are ways to fix Social Security
To the Editor:
I read with interest the opinion piece in the LTE section on Sept. 2 regarding Social Security by Glenn Duerr.
Mr. Duerr is right that the trust fund isn’t on a permanently secure path under the current rules. Projections do show a shortfall "if nothing changes.” So calling attention to solvency isn’t wrong.
Big ‘Bad’ Bill is gonna hurt
To the Editor:
The Congress has to finalize the Big “Bad” Bill (for most of us) by Oct. 1 or face a government shutdown. This means Congress still has the rest of September to “fix” the worst parts of this bill if they want to before the final vote by Oct. 1.
Who would have believed?
To the Editor:
A year ago …. who would have thought …
That the richest man in the world who helped elect the president with $290 million would be appointed to a bogus government agency and then walk in to real agencies with his teenage hackers with handles like “Big Balls” and fire thousands of government employees, destroying decades of institutional knowledge and dismantling agencies and parts of agencies that work on behalf of and protect American citizens.
A vote for the OBBB will harm Americans
To the Editor:
This is a letter I sent to Sen. Thom Tillis:
Because you had the courage to create and make that presentation to the Senate on what war criminals and enemies of freedom Putin and the Russian regime overall are, I hold out hope that you will vote against — or abstain from voting — for the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” or the Senate version of the House budget reconciliation bill with its sneak attack on our republic.
We should fear Trump’s rogue agents
To the Editor:
On June 12, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the following statement during a news conference regarding about 4,700 U.S. military troops in Los Angeles: “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
Project 2025’s vision is not my America
To the Editor:
Most of us now understand that Project 2025, brainstorm of the ideologues at the Heritage Foundation and barely mentioned a year or so ago, is very real and that — right now — our federal government is being radically restructured in accordance with that 900-plus page manifesto as it seeks to consolidate power in the executive branch; to consolidate power to the will or whim of the president.
SNAP cuts will harm the hungry
To the Editor:
Yesterday a small but dedicated group of resistors gathered on the corner of Dillard Road and Main Street, here in Highlands. We engaged in a silent protest in response to recent cuts in SNAP and Medicaid benefits in the Big Beautiful Bill passed by the House of Representatives.
