Update: Cabela’s recently announced it was slowing its plans to open more stores to only four this year.

Retailer says it has no plans for store at Buckhorn Road development

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Though not certain that Cabela’s is indeed the anchor tenant for the recently announced Buckhorn Village retail and mix-use center, a competitor of the outdoor retailer is already gearing up for a fight.

David Ewald, a public-affairs consultant who works for Cabela’s competitor Gander Mountain, said he’s heard that Cabela’s may be considering locating a store in the 128-acre site off I-85/I-40 in Orange County. If so, Ewald says, be prepared to hear that an economic incentives package is part of the mix. There are three Gander Mountain stores in North Carolina, located in Fayetteville, Greensboro and Morrisville.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

A Chapel Hill man has been charged with murdering his son-in-law in the Carrboro Plaza parking lot Monday evening.

Garland Mcray King Jr., of 900 Sesame Rd., was apprehended by police shortly after 6 p.m. Monday. King, 65, was found in possession of a handgun. The victim, 59-year-old James Kenneth Imonti, was found unconscious, lying face down, having been shot once in the back. He was transported by Orange County EMS to UNC Hospitals, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

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By Valarie Schwartz

Having grown up with a creek behind my house, it thrilled me to learn when I moved to Chapel Hill in 1994 that Bolin Creek flowed only a few yards beyond my new home. During the five years I lived there, few days passed without spending time with my dog, exploring and enjoying the many varieties of nature offered along property — mostly in Carrboro — that abuts, and some that encompasses, the future Carolina North.

A woodpecker pecking high above in a tree; an owl swooping down repeatedly warning of her nearby nesting brood; ripples, pools and glides repeating down the stream; fallen trees forcing new paths following a storm; descriptions of some of the many sights gifted to frequenters of Bolin Creek.

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Nelson and Stella Chen pose with security officer James Latta, who found Mrs. Chen’s lost engagement ring in the parking lot. Photo by Kirk Ross.

By Emily Burns
Staff Writer

Most children taunt each other with the phrase “finders, keepers; losers, weepers” when they find a toy that belongs to another child buried in the sandbox. But as they grow up, not all of them realize that finders shouldn’t always be keepers. James Latta, a security officer at Carr Mill Mall, did.

As he was patrolling the lot in front of Fleet Feet Sports on the afternoon of Jan. 11, Latta noticed something unusual — a diamond ring — lying on the ground between two cars. He moved closer to the ring, studying it carefully, and then picked it up and placed in his pocket before continuing his rounds.

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Coral Honeysuckle flowering in mid-winter. Photo by Ken Moore.

By Ken Moore

It’s the dead of winter, and two summer-flowering vines have captured my interest. A Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, caught my eye two weeks ago when it screamed across my deck for attention from beneath its cap of snow! Several clusters of scarlet tubular flowers continue to flower in spite of the subsequent below-freezing temperatures. It’s the nature of this native vine to flower off and on throughout the summer into mid-December. Flowering now in midwinter is unusual. But, hey, that’s nature!

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Orange Water and Sewer Authority officials are sill not sure what caused a major water main break on a chilly morning last week that led to the loss of about 500,000 gallons or roughly 7 percent of the utility’s daily water consumption.

Officials said the break in an 8 inch diameter water main near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and North Street happened at about 1:20 a.m. OWASA crews responded and shut off water in the area at about 3:30 a.m. and closed the street.

About 100 OWASA customers in the North Street-Cobb Terrace area were without water until the break could be repaired.

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards ended his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday, telling supporters at a rally in New Orleans to continue to fight for a more just and equitable society.

Edwards ended his campaign where it began in the city’s still devastated Ninth Ward.

“Do not turn away from these great struggles before us. Do not give up on the causes ‘that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what’s possible, because it’s time for all of us, all of us together, to make the two Americas one,” he told supporters.

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