Appalachian

WASHINGTON -- Mark Sanford, after a detour to the governor's office and, infamously, to Argentina, is back in Washington as a member of Congress.  The former three-term congressman and two-term governor was sworn in Wednesday as the representative for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, after a comeback victory in a special election last week. In brief remarks after taking the oath of office, Sanford declared himself "humbled" to return. "Each one of our lives involve different journeys.

WASHINGTON - Two years after Mark Sanford left the South Carolina governor's office tarred by an adultery scandal, he has completed an unlikely political comeback to win a special congressional election, holding the seat for Republicans. Sanford defeated Democratic neophyte Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of the late-night satirist Stephen Colbert, in the Republican-leaning 1st Congressional District on Tuesday. He reclaims a House seat he once held for three terms. The bitter race had been expected to be tight, but the Associated Press called it just 90 minutes after the polls closed.

"This is the easy part," says Barry Rice, half-sliding, half-falling down a ravine through a latticework of dead branches. Decades ago, lush stands of Darlingtonia californica — emerald plants coiled like fanged cobras ready to pounce — grew at this spot in the northern reaches of the Sierra Nevada. Deep in the ravine, the air is hot and dead. Pieces of bark that have sloughed off trees make every step a danger — nature's equivalent of a thousand forgotten skateboards cluttering a driveway.

About 60 people of various ages are noisily stomping, clapping, and twirling at a school in North Hills. It's not some strange ritual, but an Appalachian clog-dancing class. "It's my favorite thing," said homemaker Diane Kaisanlahti, one of the enthusiastic students. "I'd even miss Roseanne's show (for it)." The class is taught by Walt Spellmeyer and his wife Helen, who first became hooked on the dance form after they saw a group of cloggers at a Rock-a-thon picnic in 1980.

FAMILIAR sights along the Appalachian Trail -- a backpacker, a trail heading uphill, a thick forest -- are being stamped into metal as North Carolina issues specialty license plates dedicated to the Georgia-to-Maine route. The nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conference, which preserves, promotes and manages the 2,167-mile trail, will receive $20 for each trail-on-a-plate requested.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The upset specialists were upset. Appalachian State, three weeks removed from winning at Michigan, had its 17-game winning streak ended by Southern Conference rival Wofford, 42-31, on Saturday. Wofford's Jeremy Marshall scored on a reverse and a halfback pass. The Terriers (3-1) took it to the Mountaineers (3-1) from the start in the conference opener for both teams. Wofford held Appalachian State's powerful running game to 98 yards through the first three quarters.

The recording industry, which seldom fails to respect composers' major anniversaries, particularly those slighted in the concert hall, has been sparing indeed in its recognition of the 90th birthday of Aaron Copland, arguably the most important musician this country has produced. Three years ago, CBS started issuing on CD its splendid collection of composer-conducted performances of the 1970s, with the object of completing the re-release project in time for Copland's 90th birthday last month.

The federal government's efforts to relocate the Appalachian Trail as it crosses the Cumberland Valley have exploded in a dispute that pits farmers against hikers, landowners against the National Park Service. The Park Service wants to move a 15-mile section of the trail because it does nothing more than follow two- and four-lane roads, nearly all lacking side paths on which hikers can walk.

In the forests of southern Appalachia, a tiny pest small enough to float on the breeze -- a bug called the hemlock woolly adelgid -- is slowly poisoning the hemlock trees that make up much of the green canopy. The trees are part of the much admired scenery of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The weapons available to fight the adelgids are expensive and labor-intensive.

Across the parched southern Appalachians, firefighters battled wildfires that have burned nearly 47,000 acres and have cast such a heavy blue haze that drivers are turning on their headlights during the day. No significant rain has fallen in the area for more than a month, transforming the once-beautiful fall foliage into tinder. Nearly all the blazes have been blamed on careless campers or arsonists.