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No Kings 3: Protests reshape identity across America

Before the chants started and long before the first speaker took the microphone, people were already drifting toward one another — introducing themselves, comparing stories, soaking up the quiet relief of being in a crowd where, for once, they didn’t feel outnumbered. What emerged in those early moments of the March 28 “No Kings 3”…

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Stein pushes $792M Helene plan as recovery lags

More than 18 months after Hurricane Helene caused roughly $60 billion in damage across Western North Carolina, only about 12% of federal recovery funding has arrived — as FEMA delays persist and questions about the agency’s future mount — leaving displaced families in campers, local governments with budget gaps and Gov. Josh Stein proposing another…

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Canton eyes future with Park Street overhaul

Canton is preparing to turn one of its most flood-prone, long-neglected buildings into something it has rarely been in decades — useful. Once the project is complete, the aging structure at 225 Park St. will become a flexible, flood-adapted gathering space designed not just to survive the next storm but to anchor a broader transformation…

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Fundraising, food, fellowship

The Community Table is in a small and unassuming brick building nestled between Sylva’s Municipal Drive and Poteet Park. It’s also a local lifeline. Every year, tens of thousands of community members visit the nonprofit — which since 1999 has envisioned a Jackson County in which no one “goes to bed hungry” — and are…

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Outdoors

Visitors of Whiteoak Sink reminded of group size limits

As spring approaches, Great Smoky Mountains National Park reminds visitors of group size limits during the popular wildflower season at Whiteoak Sink. Individuals and small groups of eight or fewer people may access the Whiteoak Sink area throughout the wildflower season from April 1 through May 3. Whiteoak Sink is a sensitive area that hosts many rare plants.…

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A&E

Chain Yer Dragon: Rick Mitarotonda of Goose

In October 2020, amid the shutdown and about halfway through the first set of the sold-out Goose drive-in show at the Smoky Mountain Event Center on the outskirts of Waynesville, a friend turned to me and said with a smile, “You know, we’re probably going to follow this band around for the next few decades,…

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Opinion

Let’s stop asking kids what they want to be

When I was young, there were a handful of future professions that my friends and I aspired to be — doctor, nurse, teacher, actor, writer, artist, farmer, lawyer, journalist, astronaut, president, model, fashion designer, rockstar and famous athlete, among others. Personally, I vacillated among several of these through the years, until I ultimately became a…

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