Cory Vaillancourt

Maggie Valley

Politics Editor at Smoky Mountain News

Politics Editor @SmokyMtnNews. Seen/heard WaPo/NPR/CNN & more. Views=mine. Disclaimers=weird. I have friends everywhere. #ncpol #ncga #helene #AVL #NC11

Articles

Joint meeting tonight to probe Jackson’s library concerns - but without public comment

1 week ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

Latest Joint meeting tonight to probe Jackson’s library concerns — but without public comment When Jackson County commissioners and the Fontana Regional Library Board sit down together this evening for a rare joint meeting, there won’t be any public comment, any official votes or even a clearly defined agenda. In an interview just hours before the June 19 meeting, acting FRL Board Chair Cynthia Mason Womble told The Smoky Mountain News that although the library system’s own bylaws mandate...
Jackson commissioners delay budget adoption

1 week ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

After more than an hour of contentious public comment on possible FRL withdrawal, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners reviewed a proposed $107 million general fund budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, presented by County Manager Kevin King. The proposed budget includes a substantial tax hike. Commissioners already held a public hearing for the proposed budget and ware expected to adopt the budget ordinance at the June 17 meeting — but that’s not what happened.
Sylva Town Council rejects resolution of support for Fontana Library system

1 week ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

“This resolution, I just kinda learned about, and I don’t think it’s the job of this board to present a public statement on an issue going on in our community that is very polarizing right now,” Brown said. “We have not vetted this statement as a committee, as a board. We have not discussed it. I didn’t have a hand in crafting it.
A note about numbers

1 week ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

Sure, numbers don’t mean everything, but to some, they’re important. Organizers hope for solid attendance that can testify to an event’s popularity, which is precisely why such self-interested analysis can be unreliable. But with some quick geometry and simple long division, one thing that can be definitively stated is how many people can fit on Haywood County’s most popular protest ground, the Historic Haywood County Courthouse.
‘No Kings’ movement sweeps through Appalachia

1 week ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

A diverse crowd of perhaps 1,500 showed up under sunny skies with temperatures in the 80s to protest what they see as an accelerating slide into authoritarianism. They came not just to protest a man, but a mindset. They came to say, “No Kings.” The mountains of Western North Carolina have always bred a certain kind of independence, a wary relationship with power that long predates the United States itself.
Pless TDA, deannexation bills advance

2 weeks ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

The first, H169, would authorize the Haywood County Board of Commissioners to raise the room occupancy tax from 4% to 6%, but at a cost. All official municipal representation on the TDA’s board would be eliminated, including spending requirements delineated by zip code, and the board’s size would shrink by about half.
WCU official describes secret ‘strategy’ to skirt DEI ban in undercover video

2 weeks ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

The undercover footage was released June 10 by Accuracy in Media, founded in 1969 by conservative economist and media watchdog Reed Irvine. The recording captures Karen Price, WCU’s then-director of institutional assessment, explaining how DEI efforts remain entrenched in the university’s operations. “We’re trying to embed that kind of diversity, equity, inclusiveness — inclusive excellence — really across like every area should have responsibility for that.
‘Islands in the Sky’ launch to highlight Helene survivors, amplify Appalachian voices

2 weeks ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

On June 17, the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville will host the official launch of the Appalachia Comics Project and the debut of its first major initiative — a Kickstarter campaign to fund the graphic novel anthology “Islands in the Sky: The Story of Helene Through Those Who Survived.” The event will feature a lineup of regional comic creators, art previews, exclusive giveaways and a fundraising push to cover production costs.
The cost of ‘free:’ Americans are surviving not because of the system, but in spite of it

2 weeks ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

Latest 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. Pop-up lifelines — the rise of free goods and...
A burning question: Jackson commissioners still considering library withdrawal

2 weeks ago | smokymountainnews.com | Cory Vaillancourt

After another marathon commission meeting filled with passionate public comments that exposed sharp ideological divides and showcased the intense local and regional conversation surrounding public libraries, commissioners have now committed to one last-ditch attempt at compromise, with a June 30 deadline looming.