By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

So many younguns! And each with his or her own personality!

That Jon and Kate Gosselin are able to individually identify—not only by physicality but personality traits—each of their 2-year-old sextuplets is perhaps the most amazing discovery in the first episode of a new series, “Jon & Kate plus 8,” produced by Carrboro-based Advanced Medical Productions for the Discovery Health Channel (Channel 35 in Carrboro and Chapel Hill). The series premieres next Tuesday, April 10, at 10 p.m. A sneak preview of that first episode made for compelling viewing.

More »

A research team from the UNC Highway Safety Research Center will be surveying pedestrians and bicyclists in April and May at Chapel Hill and Carrboro parks and greenways, shopping centers and other public spaces, including the university campus.

The study, which is being conducted for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), will identify, prioritize and conduct on-site assessments of roadway locations that present safety problems to bicyclists and pedestrians. Once the most serious problem locations are identified and assessed, potential treatments will be suggested.

More »

The Carrboro Fire-Rescue Department has started a new address-marking program to help emergency crews find locations of incidents more quickly.

Because many residences are poorly marked, emergency crews may lose time searching for address numbers while trying to respond to an emergency call. Reflective address markers that are highly visible both day and night are now available for purchase.

The bright blue, fade-resistant signs cost $15 or $20 with a mounting pole. Fire personnel are available to install address markers for residents of Carrboro or the South Orange Fire District.

For more information or to purchase an address marker, call the department at 918-7347 or visit www.townofcarrboro.org/fd

Busting out the Sod — As work on Carrboro High School proceeds on the inside, groundswork continues outside. Crews started rolling out new sod for the school’s athletic fields this week. Photo by Kirk Ross

Carrboro High School to offer wide range of sports

Steven Reinhardt, athletic director at Carrboro High, said the school will have a full league schedule for all sports, with all of the programs that Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill high schools currently have—“Jaguar quality,” says Reinhardt, referring to the school’s mascot. Carrboro High’s teams will compete in the 2A Midstate Conference.

Reinhardt said he is in the process of hiring coaches for all of the teams. Team tryout schedules will be available as coaches are hired.

“There’s tremendous support here for our athletic program,” he added.

More »

Get your tour buttons for annual farm tour

The 12th annual Piedmont Farm Tour is fast approaching, and if you want to pay a visit to any of the 34 farms on this year’s tour you’ll need to get your button. The tour runs over Saturday and Sunday April 21-22. Tickets are $30 per carload for all 34 farms or $10 per carload per farm on the days of the tour. The tour is presented each year by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association and co-sponsored by the association and Weaver Street Market.

Tickets (buttons) and maps for the tour are available locally at both Weaver Street Markets, Fifth Season, Maple View Ice Cream, Niche Gardens, the General Store Café in Pittsboro, Chatham Marketplace, Hillsborough Farmers’ Market and Fearrington Farmers’ Market.

More »

Where’s where?

I know it was only your second issue, but what happened to the “five W’s of good reporting” (who, what, where, when, why) that are supposed to be part of each story?  In the story about the Carrboro moratorium, the “where” was left out, and it was the most important of all the W’s.  New publication or old, it’s the most basic tenant of reporting and the essential foundation for publishing a good newspaper.

David Morgan
Chapel Hill

In an editorial about development north of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, Sage Road was spelled wrong.

Organizers for this year’s Spring Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival announced this week that in addition to more than 50 music and dance performances, the festival will also host a sustainability fair focusing on environmental awareness and sustainability education.
The fair, titled “Abundance Through Harmony and Creativity,” will showcase several area groups and businesses working toward a more sustainable community lifestyle, including:

• The Abundance
•  Foundation;
• GreenStep;
• Chatham Marketplace;
• Carolina Farm Stewardship Association;
• The Haw River Assembly;
• Central Carolina Community College
• Honey Electric Solar;
• Southern Energy
• Management; and Piedmont Biofuels Coop.

Groups will offer a variety of hands-on presentations and exhibits in a “nine-sided Americas indigenous peoples inspired structure.”

The festival is April 19-22 at the Shakori Hills farm near Silk Hope. More information and tickets to the four-day festival are available at www.shakorihills.org or by telephone at (919)542-8142.

-From staff reports

Antibalas plays at the Cat’s Cradle on Saturday.

This week in music: April 4 - April 10

Strange week at Carrboro’s two biggest venues, and a lot of big names too. It starts with Sebadoh on Wednesday at Cat’s Cradle then on to turntablist Kid Koala at the ArtsCenter, followed by Friday’s Sean Lennon show on Friday next door to an all-Dylan show at the ArtsCenter with guitarist Cyril Lance. Got that?

Saturday features Kicking Grass at the ArtsCenter and a three-band Cradle show headlined by Pico Vs. Island Trees, one of the more intriguingly named local groups. The week ends with two anti-shows in a row at the Cradle — Antibalas (they can get all Fela-like) on Sunday and Anti-Flag on Tuesday.

At Open Eye there’s Bus on Friday and Mark Smilor on Saturday.

Over along the West End of the big city, the Cave features Beloved Binge with The Gates of Beauty at the Thursday late show. Friday has an early show by Sea Cow and a late show with Chest Pains. On Saturday Joe Romeo and The Orange County Volunteers play late, very late. El Dorado & The Ruckus play the Caven Tavern on Sunday and Tuesday features Juan Prophet Organization.

At Local 506 there’s a Friday free night show with Tripp, Jeremy Lev and Tad Dreiss and a Tuesday night benefit for C.A.A.R.E.—a Durham-based nonprofit that works on HIV/AIDS education and prevention—with Sweater Weather, Josh Nowlan from Cities, Blackswamp Bootleggers and Carter Gaj.

— from Staff Reports

View a chart showing the decline in great sharks and increase in their prey

Fewer big sharks in the oceans led to the destruction of North Carolina’s bay scallop fishery and inhibits the recovery of depressed scallop, oyster and clam populations along the U.S. Atlantic coast, according to an article in the March 30 issue of the journal Science.

A team of Canadian and American ecologists, led by the late world-renowned fisheries biologist Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has found that overfishing in the Atlantic of the largest predatory sharks—such as the bull, great white, dusky and hammerhead sharks—has led to an explosion of their ray, skate and small shark prey species.

More »