Doug Marlette at his studio in Tulsa. Photo by Tom Gilbert courtesy of the Tulsa World

By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette died on Tuesday when a Toyota Tacoma in which he was a passenger hydroplaned off a rain-soaked highway near Holly Springs in northern Mississippi, some 50 miles south of Memphis. According to the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the truck hit a slick spot, left the road and struck a sign, then a tree. Marlette, 57, was killed instantly. He is survived by his wife, Melinda Marlette, and their son, Jackson. He lived in both Hillsborough and Tulsa, Oklahoma.   More »

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

Now that the county commissioners have completed their 2007-08 fiscal year budget, the schools must decide the changes, cuts and additions to make to this year’s school budget.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education will consider potential changes to the 2007-08 school year budget at meetings tonight and next Thursday.

Superintendent Neil Pedersen has made recommendations to the board regarding the budget, including possible reductions as well as priority enhancements.

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Carrboro High School’s buildings are complete, but the grounds and roadways are sill being prepared. Photo by Robert Dickson

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

Carrboro High School athletic teams may be able to use the school’s new athletic fields prior to its opening after all, but students who want to volunteer to get the school ready may still have to wait.

Principal Jeff Thomas said this week he’s been concerned that since it’s likely to be mid-August before a traffic light being installed at Rock Haven Road and Smith Level Road will be operational, students might not be allowed access to the school site.

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

House Speaker Joe Hackney says the lengthy prison sentence for his predecessor underlines the consequences of breaching the public trust.

Former House Speaker Jim Black was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for accepting $29,000 from chiropractors in exchange for favorable legislation. Black, who served four terms as Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, is the highest-ranking state official to be convicted of corruption.

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Carrboro alderman Dan Coleman (right) flips his driver’s license to Director of Elections Barry Garner (second from left) during the opening hours of filing season on Friday. Coleman carpooled with (left to right) Chapel Hill Council members Sally Greene, Cam Hill and Bill Strom. Photo by Kirk Ross

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Carrboro Planning Board member Lydia Lavelle, who came close to being appointed to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen last year, has filed for election to the board.

In a statement released last week, Lavelle, who lost a close vote to Dan Coleman for the appointment to the seat vacated by Mark Chilton after he won the 2005 contest for mayor, said her priorities will include open space and greenways, diversifying the town’s tax base and to “carefully steward Carrboro’s growth and development.”     More »

By Ken Moore

One of the childhood memories I hold vividly is the neighbor’s giant mimosa tree, under which I spent many days playing with fragrant silky flowers in summer and twisted little bean pods in the fall. The mimosa, also called silk tree (Albizia julibrissin), remains for me one of the most exotically beautiful of all trees.

And exotic it is. Having been introduced from Asia in the mid-1700s, it has now made itself at home throughout North Carolina and the entire southeast. I’m still trying to get rid of one I set in my yard two decades ago. Similarly, staff of the N. C. Botanical Garden continue to eradicate a persistent population along the Coker Pinetum on Manning Drive.

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Want to cheer in the Jaguars and participate in the first season at Carrboro High School in style?

Carrbro High School band director Frank Jones says he’d like to hear from students interested in being members of the Carrboro High School Drum Line and Color Guard.

Interested students are asked to contact  Jones by phone at 291-0295, or via e-mail at fjones@chccs.k12.nc.us.

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

After hearing from disgruntled workers earlier this month, the board of directors of Weaver Street Market announced this week that they have decided to uphold a decision by the cooperative’s management to move some operations to Hillsborough.

Saying that after a review of workers’ concerns about moving jobs from Carrboro to a centralized food preparation center in Hillsborough and the process by which the decision was made, the board agreed that general manager Ruffin Slater conducted a proper exploration of the options consistent with the cooperative’s mission and philosophy.

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Three Triangle businesses will present a green building workshop series, starting with an all-day introductory workshop on July 21.

Paul Konove of Carolina Country Builders, architect Alicia Ravetto and Bob and Maria Kingery of Southern Energy Management have formed GreenPros to present workshops on green building design and construction for construction professionals and the general public.

The introductory workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Pittsboro at the Central Carolina Community College Multipurpose Room. To pre-register, call the college’s Continuing Education department at (919) 542-6495, ext. 223. For more information, visit www.greenprostraining.com.

County Manager names head of Orange County Human Rights and Relations
County Manager Laura Blackmon has named Hillsborough resident Shoshannah Smith as head of Orange County Human Rights and Relations.

Smith will coordinate the county’s human relations work, including enforcement of the Civil Rights Ordinance and responses to discrimination and human relations issues. In addition, she will support the Human Relations Commission and the Commission for Women.

Smith served as the director of education policy at the Center for Community Action in Lumberton. She holds a law degree from UNC and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and gender studies from the New College of Sarasota in Florida. She replaces James Spivey, who has been serving as interim head of Human Rights and Relations since January.

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For the love of money

It would be sad if it were just a slip — a moment of weakness in an otherwise distinguished career. But it wasn’t, and while certainly there are sad parts to the decline and fall of former House Speaker Jim Black, most of the story is and should be an infuriating example of the level to which “business as usual” has sunk in state government.

Jones Street, be it the legislature or the administration down the block, is awash in influence peddling — some of it perfectly legal and aboveboard, but driven just the same by readily available cash and eager hands to rake it in.    More »

By Kirk Ross

Did progressives in North Carolina get screwed by Democratic successes in the past election?

That’s the uncomfortable question being asked around the state by people who thought that an increased margin would give Dems enough confidence to advance key issues, mainly in the area of health care.

But in a turn that reveals the mysterious physics of politics, the increase of a majority in the legislature — mainly in the Senate — has sent state policy into retrograde in a couple of key areas.   More »

By Chris Fitzsimon 

House and Senate leaders continue to make steady progress in resolving the differences between the two chambers’ spending plans as lawmakers continue their push to pass a final budget by Friday.

That deadline seems difficult to meet unless they come to an agreement on taxes and a plan for the state to take over the county share of Medicaid, two topics that hover over all the predictions about reaching a final budget, though legislative leaders aren’t saying much about either one.

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Editor’s note: We neglected to run this letter from our friend Roland Giduz in time for Hillsborough’s Hog Day festival, but its message is still clear. Here it is — with apologies for the delay.

It should be Hogg day
Everybody is happy about the occasion of the 25th annual Hog Day on June 15 in Hillsborough. It’s a fine celebration that has become the premiere festival in this Land of Orange.

But the sponsors are yet dreadfully missing the boat. It should rightfully and proudly also be celebrated as Hogg Day. By this homonym it would also recognize one of Hillsborough’s and North Carolina’s historically most important citizens - James Hogg.

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By Barry Jacobs

The deed is done. The fun is over. The Orange County budget has been adopted for the fiscal year that started on July 1.

OK, I’m exaggerating — the budget process is not fun. Balancing competing interests and demands within perpetual financial constraints is challenging and bracing, but not most folks’ idea of a good time.

Funding choices reveal our county’s concerns, priorities, beliefs, needs and aspirations. And, unlike the state Legislature’s budget process, the county commissioners make their judgments in the full light of day, our every deliberation a public session, with ample opportunities for residents to speak their minds and to make their cases.

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