A group of folks allegedly raising funds on behalf of an out-of-state church have sparked complaints and questions from Franklin residents puzzled, and sometimes troubled, by the troupe’s origin and tactics.

Well raise my electric bill … again.

Duke Energy is looking to hike its rates by nearly 10 percent.

Two tight-pocketed Macon County commissioners, who have voted consistently against all sorts of new government spending, have decided to go on the offensive and push for a tax decrease.

Sewage and what to do with it has posed a complicated set of problems for the community of Cashiers — problems that could put in peril the area’s economic development as much as the public’s health.

Macon County Schools are facing a $2 million budget shortfall and are hoping the county will come to the rescue.

That leaves county commissioners with a difficult decision: inject substantial amounts of money into the school system or force the school board to make difficult cuts.

Walmart in Sylva was asking for the town board to grant them an exemption for a larger storefront sign. But instead of getting a pass on the existing ordinance, the town board decided to change the sign law as it applies to everyone.

A Waynesville man who works for Norfolk Southern Railway was buried and killed by a landslide in the middle of the night Sunday while surveying tracks for storm damage following a weekend of unrelenting rains throughout the region.

The state fund that helped conserve miles of riverfront, protect thousands of acres of undeveloped mountainsides and build countless sewer and water projects in Western North Carolina is hanging on by a thread.

The Jackson County Planning Board debated where to draw the line between safety and individual rights last month in its ongoing rewrite of steep slope rules.

Specifically, should driveways to homes on steep slopes have to meet safety standards?

In several counties in Western North Carolina, a showdown between the printed word and the digital age could soon take place. A bill has passed the N.C. Senate that allows some town and county governments in the region to opt out of placing legal and public notices in the community newspapers of record and instead put them on a government website.

Shortly after takeoff, the Smoky Mountain Flying Club is having to re-route its course. 

The flying club nearly lost an $11,000 non-refundable down payment on an airplane after a deal with investors went bad.

Sylva town leaders once again have a public hearing on the docket to decide the fate of oversized Walmart signs, but are once again wondering whether representatives of Walmart will stand them up.

A state-of-the-art training facility built by Drake Software is the latest addition to Macon County’s economic landscape.

Ask vacationers why they pick Jackson County, and you might heard words like “escape,” “relief” and “tradition.” 

As Lieutenant James Rossi took the stage in his fatigues, a toddler’s voice cut across the auditorium, breaking the otherwise formal and borderline somber ceremony marking the imminent deployment of local National Guard troops to Afghanistan.

As the manhunt ends, the nation begins to cope and the primary suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing either lay dead or in custody, Dr. Allan Panter, a Sylva emergency room doctor who visited Boston for the race, is still reliving — in vivid detail — the brutal events of that day.

Macon County commissioners narrowly voted last week to buy a 50-acre tract for $550,000 to create a sprawling baseball and recreation complex. It would take another $550,000 to put in the first two baseball diamonds and a parking lot.

Macon County government employees will have a fatter paycheck now, thanks to a new pay plan approved last week by commissioners. Three of the five commissioners voted in support of the pay raises.

Ten suspects have been charged in connection with a rash of property crimes in the Cashiers and Glenville area.

Western Carolina University is open to suggestions — from students, faculty and the general public — as it undergoes a campus-wide planning process that will steer infrastructure at the institution for the coming decade.

Sylva town officials are staring down three unsightly options to balance the upcoming year’s budget: tax increases, budget cuts or both.

None of the choices have much appeal to board members, but it’s understood that something must be done to alleviate the town’s budget woes. Sylva’s government is carrying a $193,000 budget deficit going into the next fiscal year.

The Jackson County Tourism Development Authority is the latest voice to enter the fray as the county ponders a $700,000 grant to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in exchange for the promise of more tourists.

Judaculla Rock, a prehistoric gem of the Cherokee and the most heavily inscribed petroglyph in the East, is putting Jackson County on the map.

Statewide parks and recreation funding is clashing with fiscal austerity in the current state budget process, in a showdown that has environmentalists and local governments bracing for the worst.

Don’t light, chew, smoke or spit that tobacco in Jackson County parks, and if you do, you could be slapped with a $50 fine. That is the gist of a proposed law that will soon be voted on by county commissioners.

All loaded up and no place to shoot — such is the plight of gun owners in Macon County, especially when its raining or snowing outside. That’s because the closest indoor shooting range to Franklin is as far as Asheville or Brevard.

After struggling through a year of poor fundraising, the veterans’ memorial in Franklin desperately needs to sell some bricks.

The great Dillsboro train debate rolled on in Jackson County Monday with a public hearing this week on whether the county should give the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad $700,000 in exchange for the promise of more riders and tourists.

A study that revealed that most Macon County government employees were underpaid compared to counterparts in other North Carolina counties is catching flack from some critics for alleged design flaws, as well as calling into question the worth of a public servant.

In late February, a Macon County youth was checked into the local emergency room in need of psychological care. Because the hospital, Angel Medical Center, does not provide that type of service, he spent the night in the ER while awaiting transfer to a state inpatient facility that treats juveniles with mental health issues.

Ivan Abrahams didn’t come to hold the top spot in the World Methodist Council because he abided by the rules. At more than one point in his spiritual career, he was a bit of a thorn in the clergy’s side.

The Jackson County Planning Board voted last Thursday to eliminate a pivotal component of the county’s steep slope building rules.

The planning board wants to do away with a controversial limits on how many homes can be built on steep slopes. It is one of the most stringent parts of Jackson’s steep slope rules, and the most stringent of its kind in the region.

Howard Brown doesn’t sleep well when there’s rain in the forecast.

His trout farm in Nantahala — teaming with $400,000 worth of rainbow trout at any given time — has twice been victim of near miss landslides from a road on a too-steep slope above him.

Jackson County is one step closer to giving money to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad to outfit the scenic rail line with a refurbished steam engine in hopes of getting a tourist boost in return.

Walmart has asked Sylva leaders for a pass on local sign regulations as it prepares to replace its older signs with a new design and logo.

A large residential development proposed near Western Carolina University could boost Cullowhee’s revitalization movement and cater to the region’s professional crowd seeking an outdoor lifestyle, but its proximity to the Tuckasegee River has also attracted criticism from area environmentalists.

State funding cuts for magistrate judges are taking a toll on rural counties and the judges themselves. Long hours, a growing workload and a shrinking workforce are changing the way this staple position in the state justice system does business.

Jackson County planning board members are considering whether to re-start a landslide hazard mapping initiative that was axed by the state two years ago.

A team of state geologists had been creating landslide hazard maps for every mountain county. They had just started working on Jackson two years ago when conservative state lawmakers terminated the project, due both to state budget constraints and controversial aspects of the landslide maps.

In a move that could save nearly 100 jobs and keep a Franklin factory from closing, an English-based company struck a deal early this week to purchase the assets of the Whitley Products plant, a struggling metal manufacturer.

For nearly $3 million, Tricorn Group bought Whitley’s Franklin factory and equipment owned by the company, some of it located at another plant site in Indiana, according to a press release from Tricorn. The property was valued at more than $4 million and had been held by a third party receiver since January.

Jackson County commissioners have postponed a decision on hiring deputies to man the county’s elementary schools.

The school board and sheriff’s office made a joint request recently for funding for four additional deputies to serve as school resource officers in elementary schools. The issue of cops in schools has taken center stage nationally since the Sandy Hook shooting late last year. While school resource officers are common in high schools, traditionally they have been rare in elementary schools.

There’s a new sheriff in town.

Greg Christopher, a 51-year-old former lieutenant in the N.C. State Patrol, assumed the role of top lawman in Haywood County this week.

Sylva and Jackson County are at an impasse on the creation of a single Alcoholic Beverage Control board to run the existing liquor store in Sylva and a new one proposed in Cashiers.

Jackson County could be going from zero to high-speed in no time.

Two internet providers are laying plans to beam wireless internet into rural and remote reaches of Jackson — areas that until now have been underserved when it comes to high-speed internet access.

The far-flung Nantahala School in the remote reaches of Macon County is putting a financial drain on local coffers, prompting county leaders to ask the state for extra money to cover the cost of operating such an isolated school.

Nantahala School goes from kindergarten to 12th grade but has only about 100 students. The small student population makes for small class sizes — some grades with as few as five students.

After spending $200,000 to build a new parking lot shared by five downtown Sylva businesses, the property owner lost a state grant she was initially promised to help with the cost.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office made a pitch to commissioners this week for four additional sheriff’s deputies to be placed in four of the county’s elementary schools — Fairview, Cullowhee Valley, Scotts Creek and Smokey Mountain Elementary.

In a new state of high alert, schools face tough choices when confronted by a threat from a student: is it a precursor to real violence or simply the empty words of imprudent children?