The North Carolina Science Leadership Association presented the 2009 Herman Gatling Award for Outstanding Science Education Leadership in North Carolina to Darlene Ryan of Glenwood Elementary. The Gatling Award is presented to a person who has exemplified the high standards of the late Herman Gatling of Durham County. The recipient is someone who has gone…
Keep your pipes working in the cold
By Beth Mechum Staff Writer As the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area buckles in for one of the coldest stretches in recent memory, homeowners and renters have worries beyond their own frozen extremities. Frozen pipes would sure make those necessary hot showers harder to take and those mugs of hot chocolate harder to make. Orange Water and…
Smoking ban clears the air at some establishments while hurting others
By Beth Mechum Staff Writer The North Carolina smoking ban, which outlaws lighting up in most bars and restaurants, went into effect Jan. 2. Given North Carolina’s ties to tobacco, passage of the law took many by surprise, and could have a significant impact on many businesses. But in Carrboro and surrounding towns, it wasn’t…
Pride, no prejudice, Orange County-style
RECENTLY . . . By Valarie Schwartz Pauli Murray didn’t spend much time in Orange County. She visited the plantation house on Smith Level Road named after her kin who had been among the largest land- and slave owners in the county; and I expect she visited the family home in Hillsborough, the site of…
Local, national chambers of commerce square off
By Kirk Ross Staff Writer Anyone can start a chamber of commerce. And as Aaron Nelson, president and CEO of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, points out, many people have – there are about 30 of them in the Triangle alone. But it’s not a local group that concerns Nelson and others; it’s the…
It’s time to fix the state health plan
Adam Linker North Carolina now has an unprecedented opportunity to fix its broken State Health Plan. The State Health Plan Blue Ribbon Task Force that recently convened in Raleigh brings together lawmakers, state officials and other stakeholders to discuss ways to improve the insurance plan that covers more than 660,000 current and retired state employees….
2009: Wall Street bounced back, Main Street got shafted
Robert Reich In September 2008, as the worst of the financial crisis engulfed Wall Street, George W. Bush issued a warning: “This sucker could go down.†Around the same time, as Congress hashed out a bailout bill, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, the leading Republican negotiator of the bill, warned that “if we do not…
The new outsiders
The change in this state’s attitude toward tobacco has been an interesting transition to witness. Twenty-five years ago, you were some kind of puritan if you didn’t light up after a swell meal. I smoked my last cigarette sometime in the first week of January 2003, when we shifted to an outside-only rule at the…
Lemonade
Kudos to the Town of Carrboro and the owners of the property at the corners of Roberson and Greensboro streets for taking one of the fruits of a sour economy (the stalled condo/office complex approved for the site) and squeezing something beneficial from it in the form of scores of new downtown parking spots. Is…
Errata
An ill-placed break in the timeline for 2009 that we ran in last week’s paper could have led some to believe that very little happened last May. Plenty did. You can read the much-more-accurate version online at carrborocitizen.com/main/2010/01/01/timeline-2009/ Also in last week’s edition, we noted that state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird is likely to retire. If…
Letter: Thanks for photo
Thanks so much to Jock Lauterer and Tim Peck for providing the Almanac photo of the 1972 Chapel Hill High School Mens’ Soccer Team. Growing up in town and playing Rainbow Soccer these guys were my mentors, coaches and heroes. This group of athletes were true pioneers in bringing “the beautiful game†to the area….
Transit in Orange County tweaked
Chapel Hill Transit (CHT) will implement schedule changes this Monday. Time adjustments will be made to weekday routes F, G, NS and V to improve schedule reliability and better reflect actual travel times. Time adjustments will also be made to Saturday routes CM, CW, DM, FG and JN. While the service hours for Saturday will…
Public forum on solar energy
UNC’s Solar Energy Research Center will hold a public forum and information session to explore the crucial energy issues of the coming decades. The free event, “A Sustainable Energy Future-Mapping the Way,†will be Friday, Jan. 15, at the William and Ida Friday Center in Chapel Hill. It begins at 5 p.m. with interactive displays…
Chapel Hill Rec programs coming soon
Registration has begun for Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation winter-spring programs. Residents of Chapel Hill and Orange County may register now; non-residents may register beginning Monday, Jan. 18. Camp registration begins on Feb. 1 for Chapel Hill residents, Feb. 8 for Orange County residents and Feb. 15 for non-residents. Pick up a brochure of parks…
Film follows buddies’ journey
ChathamArts’ Sustainable Cinema Series starts the new year off with a Jan. 29 screening of the documentary Looking for Ms. Locklear. Lillington-based filmmakers Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal will be on hand for a post-film discussion. The show begins at 7 p.m. in the Fearrington Village Barn on U.S. 15-501 in Chatham County, midway between…