Carrboro planners may have rebuffed a Family Dollar developer’s designs for settling in an Alabama Avenue historic neighborhood, but local opponents of the discount store aren’t breaking out the party hats and streamers just yet. “We’ve been having these small victories,” said community resident Anissa McLendon. “But we can’t celebrate 100 percent, maybe we can […]
Billy Ball
Bio: Billy Ball is an INDY Week staff writer.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/billy_k_ball
Posted inUncategorized
Commissioners approve sewer for 751 South
Builders of the controversial 751 South in Durham County now have their sewer. Water is another story. As expected, Durham County commissioners on Monday voted 4-1, with Commissioner Ellen Reckhow the lone dissenter, to ink a contract with developer Southern Durham Development (SDD) that would connect the long-stalled project to the county’s sewer system. SDD […]
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Durham Commission could consider sewer for 751 South
The commission meets Monday, July 23, at 7 p.m. at 200 E. Main St., Second Floor. Alex Mitchell hears it. He knows opponents of his bustling 751 South, a mega mixed-use development targeted for southern Durham County, want him to abandon his controversial project long delayed by lawsuits, environmental headaches, angry neighbors and a lack […]
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Study: Pennsylvania fracking not to blame for water salinity
A new study released this week by Duke University researchers seems to excuse fracking from at least one groundwater hazard in Pennsylvania. The report, issued by researchers in Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, indicated “natural pathways” in drill-heavy northeastern Pennsylvania could be to blame for elevated levels of underground salts and gases in the […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Making moonshine and the taxes you’ll owe
Download North Carolina’s moonshine laws Remember the bearded hipster who slipped you some homemade moonshine at that music festival one time? Remember how you convinced yourself you weren’t breaking the law, but that it would be the hipster on the hook if the cops caught wind of it? Think again, according to Jeff Lasater, special […]
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Chapel Hill is reconsidering restrictions on bed-and-breakfasts
When the King’s Daughters Inn shuttered its doors in Durham in 2006, the 82-year-old structure was failing. Once offering dormitory housing to women on the edges of Duke University, the structure had declined over the years. Only a handful of women were living inside the building, then a retirement facility, when it closed. Three years […]
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Tillis ignores Carney’s pleas to correct her vote on fracking bill
A mistake. That’s what a vote overriding Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the controversial fracking bill came down to in the N.C. General Assembly late Monday. Five-term Democratic Rep. Becky Carney of Mecklenburg County has been on record opposing the controversial Senate Bill 820, a piece of GOP-backed legislation that could clear the way for […]
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Perdue vetoes fracking bill—what’s next?
On Sunday, the lame-duck Gov. Bev Perdue handed down her third veto of GOP-backed legislation in four days when she axed Senate Bill 820, a controversial measure paving the way for hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking,” in North Carolina as soon as 2014. It comes days after the governor used the veto power on […]
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Undocumented immigrants circumspect about Obama directive on deportations
Find out more about the deferred deportation program at www.dhs.gov. Viridiana Martinez is many things. She’s been a Sanford resident since she was 7 years old after her Mexican father crossed the border with a visa to work North Carolina tobacco fields. The visa has long since expired, but Martinez and her family remain. She’s […]
Posted inNews
751 South’s power play on water service
Denied sewer and water by Durham city leaders, builders of the controversial 751 South development may be going through Raleigh to get what they want out of Durham. Lawmakers in the N.C. House of Representatives were expected to consider legislation Tuesday that would effectively force the city to extend utilities to the 167-acre mixed-use project […]