Great Smoky Mountains National Park is requesting tips from the public to aid in an ongoing investigation of 33 black vultures (Coragyps atratus) dumped on the Foothills Parkway. 

On April 6 at approximately noon, Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers reported a large number of dead birds along the side of the road on Foothills Parkway West.

A second bill bearing the name of the late Western North Carolina state house Rep. Mike Clampitt has been introduced in the General Assembly. 

Titled “Mike’s Law,” the bill aims to reform the state’s approach to both drunk driving and how courts function. Late last month, another bill, titled “Mike Clampitt 1st Responder Tax Fairness Act,” was introduced.

Just as the members of Qualla Enterprises’ board were all suspended, its attorney and chair may have engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. 

Qualla Enterprises, LLC, owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee, is the only cultivator of legal cannabis in the state of North Carolina. It sells recreational products to the public through its subsidiary, Great Smoky Mountains Dispensary.

The United States cannot keep breaking the rules of international law and then congratulate itself for the results. That is the uncomfortable truth exposed by the 2026 military operations in Venezuela and Iran. Both actions removed brutal, destabilizing leaders — one captured and jailed, the other killed. Many around the world understandably welcomed those outcomes. But the way the United States achieved them violated the very legal order that keeps the world from sliding toward permanent conflict. 

To the Editor:

I write you as Western North Carolina's regional director for the Alliance for American Leadership. I am horrified by US actions undermining the autonomy of the Venezuelan people.

The United States should not be putting its hands into Venezuela’s oil production or revenues. Our country should not be making military strikes with the goal of pillaging resources of sovereign nations. 

Law enforcement leaders and elected officials from across Western North Carolina gathered the day before Thanksgiving to remind people about the dangers of consuming alcohol and getting behind the wheel while also reaffirming their commitment to combatting drunk driving. 

The recent history of international relations is fraught with examples where the sanctity of law has been compromised for political expediency. Among the most troubling instances is the Trump Administration’s alarming approach to countering drug cartels — a response that not only skirts the boundaries of legality but also risks undermining the United States’ long-standing commitment to the rule of law on the global stage. 

“Why doesn’t she just leave?” It’s a question asked countless times when trying to rationalize why someone in an abusive relationship continues to remain in that relationship.

Besides blaming the victim, the question also makes some strong assumptions: 

A Domestic Violence Protective Order, sometimes called a restraining order, is one of the most important legal tools available to protect survivors of domestic violence. A DVPO is a court order that forbids an abuser from contacting their victim. If that order is violated, the abuser can face criminal charges. 

It was supposed to be a routine public safety forum, and in a way, it was — the faces were familiar, the frustrations all the same. 

Elected officials, troopers, prosecutors and politicians once again took turns describing a justice system straining under its own weight, a system where clogged courts, half-hearted drug treatment, mental health failures and chronic underfunding blur the thin blue line between order and chaos. Their words carried a sense of urgency, tinged with exhaustion.