Webster’s post office disappears. A town loses its center.

It was always more than just a place to pick up the mail. Long before asphalt and electronic highways reduced time and space to mere trivialities, a quieter system stitched scattered settlements together. The tiny Jackson County municipality of Webster grew up around that system, bringing residents together, creating a sense of identity and promising them that even remote mountain towns belonged to a wider republic. 

2024 A Look Back: Least influential YouTube influencer award

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. 

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