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. 

It’s nice to have an elected board of representatives who care about their county and are willing to fight for what they think is right.

Well, maybe fight isn’t the right word — that is, unless you’re on Swain County’s board of commissioners. 

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.

Sylva first considered a proposal to address panhandling in November 2022 but ultimately decided against it after a majority of the board and several members of the public spoke out in opposition to the measure. 

Haywood County Schools’ stock just keep rising. This year the school system was ranked sixth out of 115 school districts in the state following the release of testing data. This is compared to its seventh place ranking the year prior and 10th place ranking just a few years ago. 

It makes potheads giggle and cops roll their eyes, and in Western North Carolina this year, the stoner holiday 4/20 became newsworthy.

An event to commemorate the special weekend was held Friday and Saturday, April 19 and 20, at the Smoky Mountain Event Center in Haywood County, and it drew the scrutiny of some in the community. 

After Hurricane Helene rocked the eastern reaches of Western North Carolina, Crystal Cochran sprang into action.

A resident of Sylva, mother and Gold Star military wife, Cochran jumped at the opportunity to aid in efforts by Operation Airdrop to get supplies into Western North Carolina and distributed to the hardest hit areas in the region. 

Following this year’s budget season, Macon County maintains its position with the lowest property tax of any county in the state of North Carolina at $0.27 cents per $100 of assessed property value.

This year both Jackson and Swain counties received state grants of $52 million to build new middle schools. For Jackson County, this will be the first traditional middle school the county has ever had and will serve middle grade students in place of the four K-8 schools that do so now. 

Maconians are known among the citizens of Western North Carolina for robust and regular public input at local government meetings and this year was no different. But there was one issue in particular that galvanized the citizens of Macon County to stand together and speak up — efforts to weaken the county’s floodplain ordinances. 

While it certainly appears that a “red wave” washed over the United States on Nov. 5, that’s not exactly the case in North Carolina, where Democrats held onto critical Council of State offices and made solid gains where it really counts — in the General Assembly. 

Editor's note: Hurricane Helene has already produced flash flooding and dangerous winds across the region, and it has come on the heels of heavy rains, downed trees, sporadic tornadoes and some minor flooding due to a separate system that entered the region from the west. Smoky Mountain News Staff will be out gathering photos and firsthand reports throughout Friday and beyond. This page will be updated with those pictures and stories as they come in from across our coverage area, but you can always find more on our Facebook, Instagram and X accounts.

The exhibit “Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson” will run through June 28 in the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. 

Dan Desjardins’ presentation of his book “Oscar Wilde and the Art of Lying” will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 

The Blue Ridge Parkway is proposing a significant increase to camping fees, with public comments accepted through Friday, March 15. 

Volunteers are wanted to help the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission stock trout into the West Fork Pigeon River in Haywood County beginning at 10:30 a.m. Monday, March 4. 

Join MountainTrue’s 18th annual caravan around the Lake Chatuge shoreline to view a variety of birds 7:30-9:30 a.m. Saturday, March 9. 

Following CEO Laurel Rematore’s announcement that she intends to retire at the end of 2024, Smokies Life, formerly known as the Great Smoky Mountains Association, has launched a national search for her successor. 

Celebrate International Women’s Day with a hike and trail workday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at Cold Mountain Trailhead in Panthertown Valley Backcountry Recreation Area. 

Celebrate CSA Month by lining up your source for fresh fruits and vegetables this growing season, with a CSA Fair planned for 4-5:30 p.m. Friday, March 8, at the YWCA of Asheville. 

Dive into the natural history of black bears at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, at the Reuter Center at the University of North Carolina Asheville. 

The Great Smokies Eco-Adventure, a fundraising event for Discover Life in America, will be held April 21-23 near Gatlinburg. 

A new Carolina Mountain Club trail crew, dubbed the Extra Mile Crew, has been formed to work on trail sections likely to be missed by existing crews. 

Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail will hold its annual gathering May 3-5 at Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, with an agenda that includes guided hikes, excursions, trail building workshops and more. 

Learn the fundamentals of archery during a youth program 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at the Cashiers/Glenville Recreation Center. 

Lake Junaluska hosted youth groups from across the Southeast recently during its annual Winter Youth Retreats.

The Sylva Tourism Development Board announced that, following its nomination online to be the next Tesla Supercharging site, the charging station is now open. 

Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital recently held a special recognition luncheon to honor staff members who reached significant milestones in their tenure as employees of the hospitals.

The Letter of Interest deadline for the Affordable Housing Development Fund- Haywood County is 5 p.m. Friday, March 1. Until that time, Haywood County will accept Letters of Interest from qualified public, private and nonprofit organizations who want to apply for financing for multifamily or single-family housing rehabilitation and new construction projects in the county.

The Jackson County Board of Elections announced the appointment of Amanda Allen as the new director of elections effective Feb. 26. The vote to appoint Allen was a unanimous decision of the Board. 

The 56th annual Juried Undergraduate Exhibition will run through March 22 at the Fine Art Museum in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.  

Trekking through fresh snowfall on the Appalachian Trail, Carolina Mountain Club volunteers and U.S. Forest Service staff installed a new bear box at Little Laurel Shelter — part of a larger CMC initiative to replace traditional bear cables with boxes at each of the 10 A.T. shelters the club maintains. 

Applications are open to the second annual Tremont Writers Conference, slated for Oct. 23-27 at Tremont’s campus in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, through April 30. 

Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted an application that Northbrook Carolina Hydro II LLC submitted in November seeking to relinquish its license to generate power from Ela Dam on the Oconaluftee River.

The new Blue Ridge Parkway bridge over Interstate 26 in Asheville is now just 3 feet from connecting, but several operations and several weeks remain before the two sides will meet.

The Benton MacKaye Trail Association is looking for volunteers to adopt six trail sections in North Carolina, taking ownership of their regular monitoring and maintenance. 

Take a Leap Day hike to Laurel Knob at 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 29, in Panthertown Valley. 

Help keep tabs on water quality in Western North Carolina by joining the Volunteer Water Information Network. 

Haywood County has a new recreation director with the appointment of Elizabeth “Elli” Flagg, who started her new job Feb. 19. 

Learn to tie flies with the best during the Fly Tyers Retreat 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at the Maggie Valley Pavilion in Maggie Valley. 

A slate of prescribed fires is planned through the end of May on the Cherokee National Forest in southeastern Tennessee, with some smoke impacts possible over the state line in North Carolina.