News Headlines
WCU’s Project Discovery celebrates, reflects on 40th anniversary
Heath Robertson sat at the back of the bus on a college tour trip when he was asked about his future plans. Robertson’s answer? He didn’t have any.
He didn’t think he could afford college, and even if he could, he sure didn’t have the grades.
Blanket auction to benefit local organizations
Students in the professional crafts fiber program at Haywood Community College created 10 blankets to support the community in response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene. These blankets were created during the fall 2024 semester as part of student coursework to give them away for a good cause to help the community.
WNC counties to receive broadband upgrades
The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Digital Equity posted Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program scopes of work to expand high-speed internet access to unserved and underserved homes and businesses at approximately 67,724 eligible locations, in several counties, including Haywood, Macon and Swain.
Canton mill sold
A press release just issued by the St. Louis-based developer who’s been pursuing the site of the shuttered Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton since last May says he’s successfully acquired the site.
The essence of power is a towel
Editor’s note: This story originally ran in The Smoky Mountain News in November 2018 following Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s trip to Georgia to meet President Jimmy Carter. The former president died Dec. 29, 2024.
There, in Sumter County, Georgia, not far from the Alabama line lies the tiny town of Plains (pop. 784), a most unremarkable place home to a most remarkable man.
From low to high: Georgia musicians promote hurricane relief in WNC
Sunny sea-level Savannah, Georgia, is known for a lot of things — historic colonial beauty, low country cuisine and a wide-open bar culture that benefits from/endures one of the nation’s few open container laws — but it also has a rich musical legacy that locals are now using to help victims of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.
Man sues EBCI for wrongful prosecution
A man initially convicted in a Cherokee Tribal Court for playing a role in a debilitating December 2019 ransomware attack is suing the tribe.
Cody Long, the tribe’s former lead systems administrator for its Office of Information and Technology, was held in jail for 454 days and was in solitary confinement for the better part of a year following his initial arrest for tampering with public records and obstructing government functions.
Commissioners delay TDA appointment, again
For the second meeting in a row, Jackson County Commissioners chose to table a routine appointment to the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority Board, leaving a board that has had difficulty filling seats in the past one member down with an applicant willing, ready and waiting in the wings.
School board to consider additional coaching supplements
After a request for an assistant JV volleyball coach prompted a review of coaching supplements in the school system, the Macon County Board of Education is considering funding several additional assistant coaching positions.
