Fresh on the heels of his wife’s victory in the Pennsylvania primary, former President Bill Clinton returned to North Carolina for a series of events in the Piedmont.

Clinton spoke to a crowd of several hundred at the Orange County Baseball field in Hillsborough Wednesday. He told supporters that North Carolina will play an important role in selecting the Democratic nominee. Clinton also made stops at Elon University, Asheboro, Thomasville, and Statesville.

Special Events

Clydefest
Music, food, art and, of course, Clyde Jones are the highlights of the 7th Annual Clydefest, Saturday starting at 11 a.m. This year the festival is at the Bynum ballfield in beautiful downtown Bynum. The fun includes facepainting, fortune telling, critter painting (supervised by Clyde himself) and many “Clyde-inspired” Carnival Games. Entertainment by Tommy Edwards and Friends, Breadfoot, Milagro Saints, Magical Shaun and Ubi-the-Clown.

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Cuidadanos, ¡voten ahora! Lugares y horarios para votar por adelantado en Chapel Hill: Morehead Planetarium, de lunes a viernes, 8am hasta 5pm; Seymour Senior Center, de lunes a jueves de 12pm hasta 8pm. En Carrboro: Carrboro Town Hall, de lunes a viernes de 9 a.m. hasta 5 p.m. Todos los lugares estarán abiertos para votar de 9 a.m. hasta 1p.m. el sábado 3 de mayo, el cual es el último día para votar por adelantado. ¿No se ha registrado? Regístrese para votar y vote al mismo tiempo. Traiga identificación con foto y su dirección de domicilio actual para registrarse.

Platica sobre el comportamiento del niño en lugares públicos. Martes, el 29 de abril de 8am hasta 9:30am en las oficinas de El futuro, 110 W. Main Street, Suite 2H, Carrboro. Van a ver bocadillos. Piden una colaboración de $2. Llame al 338-1929 x504 ó x501 para más información.

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(Healthy Kids Day and Family Fest)

Disfruten de diferentes atracciones para toda la familia mientras aprenden sobre los recursos para la familia que ofrece el condado de Orange. Van a ver juegos y otras actividades para los niños. Este sábado el 26 de abril de 10am hasta 2pm en el Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA, 980 Martin Luther King Jr, Blvd. Patrocinado por el Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA y el Orange County Partnership for Young Children. Llame al 442-YMCA para más información.

Special Events

Really Really Free Market — First Saturdays from 2:30-5:30pm. Town Commons. Come, swap, take!

N.C. Children’s Hospital Benefit Concert with Vince Gill— 100 percent of the proceeds benefit the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. $50-$100. Wed, Apr 30, 8pm. Memorial Hall, Cameron Ave, UNC Campus. 843-3333, carolinaperformingarts.org

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Might as well just bring a tent and a sleeping bag to the Town Commons next weekend.
The sequence of events goes like this:

Friday, May 2 — Arcade Fire, Superchunk rock show and rally for Obama
Saturday, May 3 — Farmers’ Market 30th Anniversary/First Really, Really Free Market of Spring
Sunday, May 4 — Carrboro Day

See what I mean?

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Those are the words being used to describe North Carolina by pundits across the country after Hillary Clinton’s win in the Pennsylvania primary. Anyone who kept an eye on the race for the delegates of that state knows that as it wound down, things got downright nasty. Accusations flew, ads got muddy and ABC debate viewers were witnesses to one of the most god-awful performances ever by our blow-dried press corps.

So kindly — to all the campaign types, the ardent supporters, the sharp-knifed surrogates and especially to all you giant egos in cable news — we offer this advice: Don’t you bring that junk down here. It’s weak, and doesn’t do democracy one whit of good.

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As you may notice, a flood of letters on the upcoming primary rolled into the office this week — items we feel obligated to print. So, with apologies, we’re bumping a story on the effect of gas prices on the local economy until the primary dust has settled. In the meantime, if you have a story or anecdote to add about how prices have affected your business or nonprofit, please email editor@carrborocitizen.com

A reminder that we are seeking fiction and creative non-fiction works by local authors for to run in MILL, our monthly arts, music and literature publication. Stories should be between 500 and 600 words and should pretty much be suitable for the whole family. Send inquiries to editor@carrborocitizen.com

By Chris Fitzsimon 

One week after North Carolina voters head to the polls in the May primary, the General Assembly will convene for its summer session. Lawmakers are likely to spend much of their time in Raleigh struggling to pass a budget based on lower revenue projections and balancing expectations about the session with their November general election campaigns.

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By Mike Nelson 

I know. No one likes to have their taxes raised. Who would?

But sometimes a need is so great that raising a tax is an appropriate course of action. Here in Orange County, we have serious school and park needs. For example, Morris Grove Elementary School, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system’s newest school, hasn’t even opened yet and already we’re looking to start construction on the next elementary school. It’s going to cost an estimated $34 million to build elementary #11. Where’s the money going to come from?

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By Brian Voyce

To present a balance in the editorials and letters on the upcoming vote on the local transfer tax, I present the following guest editorial.

Voting for the home equity/local land transfer tax rewards the financial incompetence of our politicians.

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For the transfer tax

With Orange County growing so fast, it seems we need new schools every time we turn around. Somehow we have to pay for educating these new children, who are our future. Counties have very few options in paying for schools. Mostly, they rely on the property tax. Every property owner has to pay this tax every year whether or not they are contributing to the growth.

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We want to thank Reps. David Price and Mel Watt for their endorsements of Barack Obama, the clear choice for the Democratic nomination.

We are glad they listened to North Carolina voters, more than 2,000 of whom have signed petitions over the past two months asking N.C. superdelegates to back Obama.

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