A raccoon found in Efland tested positive for rabies on Monday at the State Laboratory of Public Health.

Residents in the vicinity of Carrington Lane and Chestnut Ridge Church Road on Monday found their three dogs attacking the raccoon.

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The Orange County Fire Marshal has issued a countywide open-burning ban.

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued an open-burning ban for all 100 counties in the state last week. The state ban prohibits all open burning 100 feet or more from an occupied dwelling. Orange County expanded the ban to all open burning, regardless of the distance from a structure.

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The Town of Carrboro is accepting submissions for the Carrboro Youth Poetry Contest.

Participants must be 18 or younger, a resident of Carrboro and a poet. The contest will be divided into elementary, middle and high school levels, and each level will have one first-place winner and one honorable mention.

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The UNC School of Law plans to relocate to Carolina North by fall 2012, Jack Boger, dean of the law school, announced Friday.

The decision to leave main campus came after architectural reports by the SmithGroup concluded that construction of a new building to facilitate growth within the law school would be more practical than expanding and renovating the building that currently houses the school.

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The Orange County Human Relations Commission and the Office of Human Rights and Relations will host the 2007 Pauli Murray Human Relations Awards on February 24 from 3 to 5 p.m.

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More than 1,100 UNC students have committed to stand on their feet for 24 hours on Friday at the 10th annual UNC Dance Marathon.

The event celebrates the conclusion of the participants’ yearlong fundraising efforts in support of North Carolina Children’s Hospital.

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The Carnivore Preservation Trust will host its inaugural Black Tie and Tails Ball on Saturday at the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh.

The event will start at 7 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction, which will feature more than 70 items, including artwork, jewelry, iPods and more. A seated gourmet dinner and a live auction, featuring trips to Spain and Florida, Carolina Panthers tickets and more, will follow. The evening will conclude with dancing.
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Special Events

1st Annual Collectors Fair hosted by the Town of Carrboro and the N.C. Recreation and Parks Department. Sat, Feb 23, 9am-3pm. Century Center, 100 N Greensboro St. Collectible items such as coins, stamps, trading cards, comic books, dolls, toys & more will be on hand. Vendor booths available for $25-$35. Call Brendan Moore at 918-7392 or bmoore@townofcarrboro.org for more info.

Lunchbox Concert Series — Thursdays through Mar 6. Bring lunch to the Century Center and hear live music from noon to 1pm. Free coffee provided by Open Eye Café. 100 N Greensboro St. Call 918-7385 or visit townofcarrboro.com/rp/cc.htm for more info.

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NC Cooperative Extension Service and NC Choices will hold a farm marketing workshop tonight (Thursday) at 6:30 at the Schley Grange Hall, about five miles north of Hillsborough.

Mac Baldwin of Baldwin Family Farms in Yanceyville will discuss his marketing strategies for his grass-fed beef. In addition, Annie Baggett of Sunshine Lavender Farms in Schley will discuss marketing a wide variety of lavender products.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a plan for the county’s interim management of the farmers’ market at the new Public Market House in Hillsborough.

In August, two opposing groups appealed to the board for control of the Hillsborough Farmers’ Market and have since split into separate markets. Both markets asked to administer the farmers’ market at the new Public Market House, but the commissioners, expressing aversion at being forced to choose between the two groups, decided the county would run the market for an interim period.

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Our story last week incorrectly reported the stormwater mitigation cost estimate for a potential town-leased parking lot behind the KFC on East Main Street. The cost is estimated to be between $100,000 and $200,000.

The cyclists’ life

Thank you so much for the picture and caption highlighting recent autos hitting bicyclists. As a daily commuter to work through Carrboro and Chapel Hill, I am aware that we bikers can be hard to see and seem annoying to car drivers. But, it can be annoying to us bikers to have to avoid deadly obstacles in our bike lanes everyday, including cars, buses, broken glass and other debris. I just wanted to remind people that not only are we as bicyclists conserving energy and helping reduce carbon emissions, but we are actively making your car commute faster and easier by eliminating the number of cars on the road. So perhaps instead of honking angrily at us and veering into the bike lanes, you could give us a friendly wave and remember we are all just trying to get to where we are going, just like you.

Thanks.

Ben Davis
Carrboro

By Isabel Geffner

The recent attention given to the Report to the Joint Education Legislative Oversight Committee on the Annual Report on Dropout Events and Rates in North Carolina has brought into clear focus many of the challenges that lie ahead of us for addressing the needs of our state’s most at-risk youth. Too many of our young people are turning away from school too early, and their futures may be compromised unless we do something now.

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By Elaine Mejia

Recently, a North Carolina judge ruled against Wal-Mart in the giant retailer’s lawsuit against the state of North Carolina. In 2005, the state sent Wal-Mart a bill claiming that the retailer owed $33.5 million in back taxes. Wal-Mart paid up (probably to avoid heavy interest penalties later on) but then sued in state court in 2006 to have the money returned.

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As a community
There was a frustrating inevitability to the failure of the state’s effort to farm out the care of its citizens with developmental disabilities and those in need of mental health care to the free market. The signs of an impending collapse were there and became even clearer over the past year as the leadership of the state system moved on and more and more providers said they could not continue under new payment rates set by the state.

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