The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season began today, and Gov. Josh Stein urged North Carolinians to have a plan in place in case tropical weather impacts the state this season. Although the National Hurricane Center predicts a below-normal season, North Carolinians know that it takes only one storm to affect communities statewide.  

Friends, family and allies dressed in red, some with signs like “no more stolen sisters” and “gun violence is on the rise,” gathered on May 5 at Oconaluftee Island Park. They’d shown up for the Qualla Boundary’s seventh annual missing and murdered Indigenous relatives/people march, coinciding with national week of action events across the country in communities impacted by what some scholars describe as a “a modern form of genocide.”  

To the Editor:

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your focus on sexual violence (REACH special section, www.smokymountainnews.com), for the column by Dr. Sara Vogel, for the article about the middle school prevention program.

I haven’t even finished reading it all, but this is important and I wanted you to know how much it is appreciated.

REACH, the Haywood County nonprofit whose mission is to support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, recently moved into the house formerly occupied by KARE, the organization dedicated to helping child victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

The following articles highlight the work being done locally to help prevent domestic violence and sexual assault in Haywood County and the surrounding area:

Safe Dates is a three-to-four-day Hazelton Betty Ford Foundation course about healthy relationships, and for nearly 20 years, Buffy Queen has been bringing it to Haywood middle schools. 

She started at KARE House, a Haywood County advocacy center responding to child abuse and neglect through outreach and intervention, after a grant enabled the nonprofit to train a staff member through the nationally recognized curriculum. 

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. REACH advocates routinely work with victims and survivors of all forms of sexual assault and abuse. After 38 years in this work, I can say, without reservation, that sexual assault, particularly child sexual assault, is our most underreported crime. It devastates victims in innumerable ways and leads to many other forms of both victimization and perpetration. 

 At the foot of the Kuwohi Observation Tower at the highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail unveiled a new stone marker for the trail’s western terminus.

The unveiling marks a milestone moment for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a 1,175-mile footpath that crosses North Carolina from the Tennessee state line at Kuwohi to the Atlantic Ocean at Jockey’s Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks.

Western North Carolina is a region defined by resilience. Mountain communities have endured floods, factory closures, rising housing costs and the slow erosion of public institutions with a steadiness that deserves admiration. None has beaten our people. 

But there is one challenge the region has not met with the same determination: demanding better from the people elected to represent it. 

The Pigeon River Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC) awarded 12 grants totaling $350,365 to environmental groups working to improve surface water quality, enhance fish and wildlife habitats, expand public use and access to waterways, and increase water quality awareness in Buncombe, Haywood, and Madison counties. With these grants and since 1996, the Pigeon River Fund has distributed $10,594,556 in grants.  

Keohana Lambert’s presentation was catalyzed by a question.

“What’s one word comes to mind when you think about the intersection of [Native Americans] and justice?” she asked, eyes searching the audience. 

The responses were rapid-fire.

“Nonexistent.”

“I think it’s a myth.”

“Invisible.”