“Best in the West: North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District Forum” are a series of two debates across Sept 4-5 between retired USAF Col. and Democratic nominee Moe Davis, against the young rising star of the Republican Party Madison Cawthorn. Hosted by Blue Ridge Public Radio, Mountain Xpress and Smoky Mountain […]
Author: J. B. Bost
Western Carolina University adds 22 new COVID cases during first week of instruction
Editor’s note: As a result of an ambiguously-worded COVID “dashboard,” the original version of this article, first published Aug. 20, erroneously listed the number of new cases as 8 and not 22. University administration convened a working group Aug. 21 to address the website to ensure the accuracy of future […]
Maggie Valley protests to reignite Aug. 1
The July 18 march in Maggie Valley had managed to catch some Saturday afternoon rain, though it was less of a portent and more of an annoyance, I would imagine. I wouldn’t know, I was sitting at home, watching the protest on Facebook live via Smoky Mountain News. A camouflaged […]
Four Sylva businesses in three days close temporarily from employees testing positive for COVID
North Carolina, despite logging record numbers of new cases over the past two weeks, including a new single-day record of almost 2,500 on July 11, still maintains the “safer-at-home” phase 2 of reopening. One of the defining provisions of this phase is the 50% capacity allowance for dining-in at restaurants. […]
Factions War Over Sylva’s Confederate Statue
Editor’s note: JB is in favor of removing the statue but has attempted to present this article relatively free of bias. In the wake of the George Floyd protests, the 2017 call to remove the local confederate statue “Sylva Sam” from the steps of the old courthouse is reawakened and […]
Ghosts and Moore
She had always been drawn to Moore building. “It’s not the ghosts that scare me, it’s getting caught and getting kicked off campus.” Fired, right when she was about to be working on campus again, the recent graduate who moved back to Cullowhee to be close to her people. “It’s […]
John Hoppenthaler to Give Poetry, Essay Reading at Western Carolina
John Hoppenthaler, poet, essayist, Associate Professor of English at East Carolina University, and a decade-long personal assistant to the immortal Toni Morrison, will be reading his work at Western Carolina on Tuesday, September 10, 2019, in Coulter Building, room 304, beginning at 5 p.m. This event is open to the […]