As predictable as the mountain laurel and rhododendron, an American Red Cross appeal for blood blossoms each spring and summer — a need that arises annually from increased demand and hundreds of fewer blood drives and donors than at other times of the year due to holidays and vacations.

With more than 1,000 bicyclists expected to converge on our roadways early Saturday, there are two things to remember.

Good law enforcement work at all levels involves cooperation, communication and the ability to work as a team.

We have seen the future — on Sunday, June 3, actually — and the future is strong, fast, gifted, intellectually sharp and most of all, willing to give selflessly to those in need.

Awards, accolades, memorials and even a new caboose — Ashe County has had quite a week.

Ah, Memorial Day … time for time off, backyard barbecues, family, friends and non-moving violations.

It’s no secret that some scammers are more brazen than others, but those who not only impersonate law enforcement officers, but do so under the names of real local officers, top the list.

There is no price you can put on student safety, but $66,046 is a fine place to start.

While we won’t say for sure that spring is finally here — as gardeners know, local lore advises you always have a chance of frost until mid-May — what we do know is that the warmer weather has prompted the beginning of bicycling season, and that always presents a challenge to High Country dr…

Your right to vote is one of the most important rights you will ever exercise. It’s that right which gives you a voice in who will make the governmental decisions which affect the lives of you and your family. Moreover, it’s your right, your vote: walking into a voting booth and casting your…

Did you ever wonder about … anything?

There are many reasons to thank our veterans who served during some of our nation’s bloodiest conflicts, but there is one reason that is overarching: They are quickly disappearing.

North Carolina has a law governing open meetings and public records, a law that is important in protecting citizens’ right to know how public employees and officials conduct the people’s business.

It is not news that our government at all levels is polarizing.

It takes a village … to keep our children safe.

There is so much to be learned from a life well-lived, and by that account, we have much to learn from the life of the Rev. Billy Graham.

How do you thank a person for spending more than four decades mentoring, teaching, tutoring and assisting hundreds of children on and off the court?

There’s a secret to Valentine’s Day, and it’s this: It’s just another day.

Rumors, innuendo, gossip?

Simply, the best — that’s not only what was on display Jan. 29 at the Ashe Post & Times hosted its annual Best of Ashe County business during an awards luncheon in West Jefferson. That’s what is on display every day of the year at each of the businesses who earned the honor.

For Ashe County’s 13 Girl Scout troops, today, Jan. 24, is the day the cookie begins to crumble — and that’s just the way they like it.

Snow storms. Flooding. Fires. Earthquakes. Such disasters, man-made and natural, have a singular commonality — they demand a response.

With nearly a dozen reported and responded to structure fires in the High Country since Jan. 1, the question each family needs to answer is an important one: What is your plan?

Myriad are Santa’s helpers this time of year, and one good example is the work being done by the partnership of Broken Chains Ministry, local churches and area businesses.

Mom was right, but we knew that already. Now, we need to follow her advice.

Virginia O’Hanlon, age 8, wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial.

It was bound to happen — after all , it happens every year against the best wishes of everyone in our community.

Volume 1, issue 1: Welcome to your new newspaper, Ashe County.

“Giving Tuesday” just happened, on Nov. 28, but thousands of people living in the High Country weren’t surprised by the date, were you? After all, so many of us have not only given, but keep on giving — even without a special day to do so on.

As it does every year during this time, an army is set to invade Ashe County.

Want to do something different this weekend?

One of the most telling and important statements made by Josh Stein on Oct. 16 while speaking to a group of students at Appalachian State University was this: “Whether you know it or not, you have friends that are struggling with addiction right now.”

With too many reports — and, one is too many — containing, alluding or outright exhibiting the word “fake” next to the word “news,” it’s important to recognize that you have, in your hand, the tool you need to discern real news from … just about anything else.

There’s a hot topic spreading throughout Ashe County and the rest of the nation this week, and it’s one we would all do well to pay attention to.

When it comes to the issue of protecting your right to know such things as what our government officials are up to before they get up to it, there are no clearer heads than many of the N.C. House representatives of our rural counties. And among those, Rep. Jonathan Jordan (R-Watauga, Ashe) h…

And so it begins.

Local law enforcement and others have set themselves no easy task.

So, now the rest of North Carolina knows what Ashe County has known for years: Tourists love the High Country, and our county in particular.

The Blue Ridge Relay — a 200-mile road relay of which more than half of those miles are run in the High Country — annually fields hundreds of teams and thousands of runners in a race that is a rarity for its kind in the nation based on the sheer mileage, inclines and declines during the cour…

The mountains of North Carolina are not so far removed from the lowlands of Texas.

Unlike seasons past, thanks to a wet summer, Western North Carolina is not in a drought situation. And while that’s certainly good news for the High Country, it’s also news that has the potential to dampen our perspective on the upcoming fall wildfire season.

Cell phones during an emergency are a lifeline, and few are the parents who don’t feel at least some measure of security knowing that their teenager is in constant contact.

You learn to be patient, living in the High Country, and no where is that patience tested more than on our roadways in the summer.

Thumbs-up: to how to do … a lot of different things, as myriad children and families learned Saturday during Ashe County Library’s inaugural “How To Festival.” Through a joint effort of local organizations, entertainers, volunteers and craftsman dozens of activities, displays and demonstrati…

A large group — a very large group, befitting the ceremony — gathered at Ashe County High School a little more than four weeks ago for a solemn occasion: the funeral of U.S. Army Sgt. Dillion Christopher Baldridge. The Ashe County hero was laid to rest after suffering gunshot wounds in Afgha…

A letter on the Samaritan’s Purse website is poignant yet again.

It’s that time of year again.

From the sounds of Christmas bells to the reports of breechloading rifles, it was clear that West Jefferson was once again in the holiday spirit.