The motive behind one Republican candidate’s bid for the open Haywood County Register of Deeds seat is proof she’s not qualified for the job, says her Republican Primary Election opponent.  

“I feel like someone that does not know the law should not be running for a job just trying to get back at us as a vendetta because we would not issue a marriage license,” said Stacy Cutshaw Moore, one of two candidates running to replace the longtime incumbent Democratic incumbent, Sherri Rogers, who is retiring. 

Last Monday marked the likely end of a career of service for outgoing Franklin Mayor Jack Horton. But, that career began decades before he ever held elected office. 

Horton, who served six years as mayor of Macon County’s largest town, also had a prior career as a town and county manager, mostly in Western North Carolina. While there are similarities and differences in those two duties, Horton said he’s tried to keep one guiding principle on the horizon the whole time. 

Macon County will begin the consolidation of its county board of public health in January.

The vote to move forward with the consolidation came during the Nov. 13 board of commissioners meeting. In the months leading up to the vote, there was serious concern voiced by members of the community, as there were rumblings that commissioners intended to take over human relations and policy-setting operations for the crucial agency. 

In-person early voting continues through Saturday, Nov. 1. Voters can vote in-person at their county board of elections and are able to register to vote the same day if necessary. 

Hours of operation can vary among polling places. Voters can find their polling place and the operating hours by checking voter registration at vt.ncsbe.gov. 

On Oct. 1, Republican-controlled Congress shut down the federal government, bringing a renewed round of confusion, finger-pointing and uncertainty to tourism-reliant Southern Appalachia — a region still paying the price for generational poverty, and still struggling with recovery from Hurricane Helene more than one year ago.  

As on any other rainy late summer morning in Southern Appalachia, the sun rose over densely wooded, knobby green peaks cloaked in a thick downy mist.

At a large, nondescript warehouse off Swannanoa River Road just outside downtown Asheville, it may have looked like any other day — workers bustling about, trucks coming in and out — but for MANNA FoodBank, which fights food insecurity in a historically poverty-stricken region by serving up to 190,000 people a month, this day would be unlike any other for perhaps the last thousand years. 

To the Editor:

Western Carolina University is only one of many public institutions being infected with the disease of Trumpism. Single-handedly Trump has mandated that diversity can no longer be promoted in hiring, curriculum, and even in student populations.

To the Editor:

America’s founders rejected monarchy for a reason: no one should ever hold unchecked power. That’s why Indivisible and others rally under “No Kings,” because that principle is under direct assault.

On the nine-month anniversary of Hurricane Helene, Gov. Josh Stein signed the North Carolina General Assembly’s fifth major installment of recovery funding — a sweeping $575 million package aimed at rebuilding roads, bridges, schools and government infrastructure across the state’s western region while omitting the $60 million in small business grant support that House lawmakers had supported. 

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.