Democrats keep shutdown going to save health care subsidies
As the federal shutdown drags on, Republicans accuse Democrats of prolonging it for political reasons, pointing to stalled votes that could reopen the government and fully restore programs like SNAP. But Democrats say what they’re holding out for isn’t politics — it’s protection. Specifically, protection for millions of Americans who rely on Affordable Care Act subsidies that will soon expire.
We have to fix Social Security
To the Editor:
AARP recently sent out an email with this message:
“Social Security will continue to give people the full amount of money they’ve earned in the next several years. However, payments may be reduced by about 20% if Congress doesn’t act by 2034, according to the Social Security Board of Trustees’ latest report.
Helping those still struggling
To the Editor:
Nearly a year after Hurricane Helene, Western North Carolina is still in the thick of a housing crisis. Families who once had steady jobs are now living paycheck to paycheck, one unexpected setback away from losing their homes.
The cost of ‘free:’ Americans are surviving not because of the system, but in spite of it
Squeezed into a corner room on the ground floor of what was once a grade school in a quiet Waynesville neighborhood, a small free pantry and market provides food, clothing and household goods to some of Haywood County’s most vulnerable citizens at no cost. The pantry is one of many, rooted in compassion and community, but also in contradiction.
Knowing the difference: fact versus opinion
To the Editor:
A few weeks ago Smoky Mountain News Editor Scott McLeod wrote an interesting article spelling out the differences between folks who choose to read or listen to media sources that provide facts and those who get their news from media that primarily give opinions. There’s nothing wrong with opinions if they are backed up by facts. Otherwise, they’re just noise.
Legislative infighting overshadows child care crisis
Without immediate action from the General Assembly, Pandemic-era federal grants to child care providers will run out on July 1 — plunging the state into a child care crisis that will hamper economic and workforce development, make child care more difficult to find and further burden North Carolina’s working parents already feeling the pinch from unaffordable housing and the relentless corporate greed that’s driving inflation.
Pandemic exposes fragile childcare system
On average, it costs parents $9,480 a year for infant childcare in North Carolina, which is $2,126 more than they’ll pay for in-state tuition to a four-year N.C. university.
Odds are stacked against working families
It’s the kind of street – lined with modest, well-kept houses flying U.S. flags – where neighborhood children haphazardly cast their bicycles in piles on a playmate’s lawn to tear off and play in the woods or on a backyard Slip ‘N Slide.
Haywood Arts Regional Theatre finds footing amid pandemic
It’s late morning and situated behind his desk in the back office of the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville is Steven Lloyd. Leaning back in his chair, Lloyd sighed at the question posed to him: what’s the current status of HART?
Western North Carolina’s children are increasingly poor and hungry
For most, childhood is a time of growth, learning and stability nurtured by fertile environmental and economic conditions that ultimately prepare young people to become the leaders of tomorrow.
In much of North Carolina, the future’s not nearly that bright.
