A second Cackalacky banner on display in Carrboro was stolen again and the company is responding by giving away free bumper stickers at Cliff’s Meat Market.

The stickers are available free while supplies last. For more information, visit www.cackalacky.com.

And, if you have the banner, please give it back.

To evaluate its garbage services and reduce waste, the Orange County Solid Waste Department is conducting an online survey for businesses. The survey can be found at www.co.orange.nc.us/recycling/news. The data will be used to improve waste services and respondents are eligible for prizes including gift certificates and parking tokens.

Pictured above is musician Dave Laney. Last week, a car making a left from Main Street onto Fidelity Street struck Laney’s bicycle broadside. He sustained a broken arm and foot. Gigs were cancelled. He’s standing outside his home with his cat, Mittens, and what’s left of his bike. The accident was one of several involving cars and bikes that have happened over the past couple of weeks. With weather warming and more bikers out on the streets, The Citizen would like to remind all drivers to keep a close lookout and to remind motorists to share the road.

Photo by Kirk Ross.

The Orange County Health Department’s Dental Health Program will host a free dental-education workshop for parents of children age 5 and under on Feb. 20 from 6 to 7 p.m.

The program is hosting the workshop as part of National Children’s Dental Health Month. For the workshop, the dental staff of Dr. Avni Rampersaud will explain how nutrition, regular dental visits and proper brushing can lead to good oral health for children.

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By Jack Carley
Staff Writer

Tonight (Thursday) the OWASA board of directors will discuss a report calling for stage three water restrictions, which include surcharges, by mid-March if the area does not see more rain by the end of the month.

For homes, surcharges would multiply the cost of water depending on how much is used. For non-residential customers, the surcharge is an extra 25 percent.

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Everyone who’s ever picked up a paintbrush and touched a canvas knows the thrill and release of creation. The joy of pressing the shutter on an old Leica camera and hearing that click as you immortalize the look of a stranger or a towering building or golden-hued sunlight resting on the treetops. The nurture of knitting, the mood of music, the praise of poetry; these are the pleasures of being an artist.

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The February 6 article “HFCS: A ban worth getting excited over” may mislead consumers about high-fructose corn syrup.

Dr. Walter Willett, Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Department Chairman, told The New York Times, “There’s no substantial evidence to support the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity.”

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On a nature hike two weeks ago, I was totally grossed out when I glanced over the bridge railing over a small stream on a dirt road and saw five deer carcasses. Bloated and stinking, they spanned the pool created by the turbulence of water falling from the culvert under the road. The remains of three other deer and one hog were also in the ditches near this bridge. I had pointed out to the other nature lovers that horns had been removed from one skull with a hacksaw and small emerging tusks could be seen on the pig, but I didn’t call anyone over to look at the gruesome scene below the bridge. This sight is all too familiar.

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By Jim Warren

Climate change is causing extensive damage at an accelerating rate. Oxfam International reports that weather disasters have quadrupled in 20 years, with a quarter billion people impacted annually. Arctic sea ice could be gone by summer 2012 – further disrupting weather systems. And the world’s top scientists recently amplified their call for urgent reduction of greenhouse gases.

Yet Duke Energy is beginning construction of a large coal-fired power plant near Charlotte, using crafty public relations to imply the new Cliffside plant would be “good for the environment.”

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Politicians seeming not to care
Politicians always like to quote the state motto that appears on the state seal in front of the Legislative Building in Raleigh when they are making speeches and promising to be responsive to the people they represent.

The motto is “Esse Quam Videri” — “To be rather than to seem” — a noble sentiment that is part of any definition of leadership. North Carolina would be much better off if more elected officials tried to live up to the motto, instead of only using it for rhetorical flourishes when asking for votes.

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Between a packed board of commissioners meeting schedule and a four-class schedule at Carolina, Orange County Commissioner Valerie Foushee said this week she plans to find time to file for re-election.

Foushee, a former chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board of Education who won a seat on the board of commissioners in 2004, said she wants to continue to work on making sure school construction and renovations proceed at a proper pace. But should she win another term, Foushee, 52, said she wants to concentrate on county responsibilities that are not as visible as schools – including affordable housing, reducing homelessness and maintaining a health and human services safety net at a time when the state’s mental health system is in crisis.

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The Chatham County Board of Elections will host a Voting Equipment Forum Feb. 27 at the Agricultural Auditorium in Pittsboro from 6 to 9 p.m. Any interested person is invited to attend. This forum provides an opportunity to view the voting equipment that is in use in Chatham County and to voice your opinions or concerns that relate to voting equipment.

Absentee ballots will be available starting Monday in the new election between Pittsboro town commissioner candidates Hugh Harrington and Michele Berger. Harrington’s six-vote victory last fall was challenged by Berger, and after it was revealed that at least 17 residents received the wrong ballots the county and state boards of election called for a new election. Election Day has been set for March 18, preceded by a month-long absentee voting cycle. Any voter registered in the town of Pittsboro at the time of the new election is eligible to vote in the special election. More »

Fundraising numbers reported by state Senate candidates Moses Carey and Ellie Kinnaird show Carey took in $31,180 in the last seven months of 2007 and reported $28,204 cash on hand. Kinnaird, the incumbent, raised $6,065 and reported $19,293 in cash on hand at the end of the reporting cycle. Kinnaird had considered retiring this year but announced in late October she would seek re-election.

Word filtered out this week that last Thursday Sen. Hillary Clinton paid an unannounced visit to John Edwards’ Orange County home for a talk about the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Edwards, who dropped out of the running in early February, won four delegates in New Hampshire, 14 in Iowa and eight in South Carolina. A meeting with Sen. Barack Obama, who swept this week’s Potomac primaries, is being scheduled.