The day started around 4:30 a.m. That’s when Miguel Torres and Rudy Rodriguez of Lantern restaurant showed up at the Chapel Hill Creamery to dig a pit and start the coals for the goat and lamb that would be cooked Monterrey style.

By 7 a.m. the goat and lamb, wrapped in cactus, banana leaves and foil were in the ground and covered. Passing by, you wouldn’t know that beneath the two stone markers over the freshly disturbed earth something culinary was happening.

Bill Dow of Ayshire Farm serving up warm radicchio
and goat cheese and visiting with Lucy Harris of SEEDS.

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Audio: Carlo Petrini remarks at the Chapel Hill Creamery, May 23, 2007

While Slow Food USA’s executive director Erika Lesser translates, the international movement’s founder, Carlo Petrini, encourages the crowd to eat well, eat less and respect the earth. Photo by Kirk Ross

By Matthew Fiorentino
Correspondent

In the pasture of the Chapel Hill Creamery, filled with the smells of the finest local foods and the audible sighs of gastronomic pleasure, and surrounded by cows, Carlo Petrini, founder of the global Slow Food movement took in the moment.

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

After hearing from part-time employees who would like to see a health care stipend added to their benefits and a group of supporters of dropping the $100 fee for the Town Commons for some kinds of events, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen will take a couple of weeks to study their options for the fiscal 2007-2008 budget.

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By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

OWASA and UNC are testing drinking water after elevated lead levels were found in three new UNC buildings and one that was recently renovated. Testing began after reports that the water tasted unusual in Caudill Labs, Chapman Hall and ITS Manning and in the newly renovated Campus Y.

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Perry Harrison looks at Arlington through the bus window. Photo by Meghan Cooke

By Meghan Cooke
Courtesy of the Carrboro Commons

The memories are still here. Memories of battlefields scarred by the loss of friends, family and comrades years ago. Memories to honor their sacrifice. Memories of one soldier, out of many, remembered by comrades and family for his service and life.

Almost 40 members, family and friends of the American Legion Post 6 of Chapel Hill and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9100 boarded a bus Wednesday, April 25, for a day-long journey to Washington D.C., where they honored Carl L. Fritz and visited the World War II memorial.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

This budget season’s back-and-forth is not just another year of budget negotiations, Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen told parents at a budget meeting on Tuesday.

Pedersen outlined a number of potential budget cuts the schools could face if the district does not receive its requested budget, and stressed the importance of a tax rate increase.

“When we look at the magnitude of the shortfall this year, there’s no way to make reductions that don’t impact the children,” Pedersen said.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education named Ephesus Elementary School principal Susan Wells as principal of Culbreth Middle School last week.

Before joining the Chapel-Hill Carrboro school district in 2004, Wells was assistant principal of Hawfields Middle School in the Burlington-Alamance school system.

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After nearly a week on the run, Bill Clinton, a local pet emu, was caught by Carrboro Animal Control last week and died after reportedly injuring itself during capture.

Former director of the Orange County Animal Shelter Pat Sanford owned the emu. Sanford has about 30 birds, including another emu named Janet Reno.

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CHHS students bike for cancer research
Seven high school students from Chapel Hill will bicycle 3,700 miles across the country this summer to raise funds for cancer research at UNC.

The students will ride with the Washington or Bust Cycle Tour, which starts in Maryland on June 10 and ends 10 weeks later in Washington.

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PTA Thrift Shops recognized its volunteers at the organization’s annual volunteer appreciation day. From left: Volunteers Donald Cooper, Kelly Bennett, Dorothy Horton, Karen Trocke-Kandah and Sheryl Emch. Photo by Barbara Jesse Black

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

With volunteers contributing more than 14,000 hours in 2006, it’s no surprise that the PTA Thrift Shops’ annual volunteer appreciation day last week drew a crowd.
More than 70 people turned out for the event, which was held at the Chapel Hill Museum.

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Project Graduation co-chairs Emily Leadon (left) and Lindsay Clendaniel have been working since September to ensure this year’s celebration is a success. Photo by Susan Dickson

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

After graduation on June 9, seniors from Chapel Hill High School and East Chapel Hill High School will gather for one last hurrah.

Thanks to “Project Graduation” student chairs Lindsay Clendaniel and Emily Leadon and their 55 committee members, this year’s graduates will certainly go out in style.

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Schools receive grants to fund projects

Two Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools have received grants to fund school projects.

Carrboro High School received a $5,950 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Science teacher Robin Bulleri applied for the grant to fund a
biotechnology project at Carrboro High.

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The following is a statement from Speaker Joe Hackney on the House budget.

Just months before the start of this decade, Hurricane Floyd slowly pushed through eastern North Carolina. The storm pulled heavy rains along with it, but at first appeared to be nothing more than another relatively anonymous hurricane.

The truth proved to be far different. In the coming days, rivers spilled over their banks. Widespread flooding destroyed homes, businesses, communities and ways of life. About that same time, recession hit North Carolina and the nation. As we spent millions of dollars in savings to help hurricane victims, our thriving economy stalled, leaving us at times with more than a billion-dollar deficit.

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 By Adam Searing

North Carolina Medicaid is the state health program that covers almost one million children from very low-income families. It also covers another 600,000 people, but only if they fit into very specific categories such as lower-income pregnant women, parents in poverty, very low-income elderly folks and poor people with serious disabilities. In fact, about 70 percent of the money North Carolina spends for Medicaid goes to help the elderly and disabled. If someone who needs health care doesn’t fit into one of these categories it doesn’t matter how poor they are – they won’t qualify for Medicaid.

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By Kirk Ross

After a long weekend of negotiation between my conscience and my palate, I’ve finalized an internal agreement to give up corporate pork.

I know, I know, it seems impossible given the general pervasiveness of wonderful barbecue — not to mention that we are at the dawn of another grilling season. But based on a long-running concern about the economic and environmental consequences of massive hog operations and after spending a good deal of time of late hanging with farmers and the evangelicals of the Slow Food movement, I’m convinced that the price I’m paying for what’s coming from the packing houses of Smithfield, Hormel and others is far too high.

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