Mountain Xpress

“America’s Culinary Cup” premieres in March, Highland Brewing celebrates the Year of the Fire Horse and more local food news.

“I’m angry, but more than that, I am so very sad,” Dr. Patricia Hall said. “It’s heartbreaking — to have an already inadequate health care system be made even more inadequate, to throw away opportunities to improve, even a little.”

The Forest Service and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission have entered a new agreement to help heal Tropical Storm Helene’s adverse impact on wildlife and outdoor economies, and to prepare for the future.

For decades, the Forest Service has relied on a probability model that suggests most such artifacts will be found in relatively flat areas. This rule of thumb has left steeper slopes, which make up the vast majority of North Carolina’s national forests...