Chapel Hill’s Town Council is slated to vote on the draft Chapel Hill 2020 plan at 7 p.m. Monday at Chapel Hill Town Hall. Chime in about the draft in the Comments section below. It’s likely no coincidence that “The Evolution of a City,” the angular, Carolina blue-tinted artwork by an East Chapel Hill High […]
Billy Ball
Bio: Billy Ball is an INDY Week staff writer.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/billy_k_ball
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Fracking’s fate rests with Bev Perdue
To frack or not to frack, this is the question for N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue. The lame-duck governor could ultimately be the one who decides the state’s fracking future. Not surprisingly, the N.C. House of Representatives gave its approval of fracking Thursday, although drilling opponents are likely to see opportunity in the 66-43 vote, which […]
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Carrboro residents fighting Family Dollar discount store
For decades, residents of Carrboro’s historic Alabama Avenue have kept it in the family. Anissa McLendon lives in a home once owned by her beloved grandmother. McLendon’s next-door neighbor is her mother. A few doors down, longtime resident Larry Worth lives on property once owned by his grandmother, too. Worth’s family once owned much of […]
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Environment NC: wind, not gas
As N.C. House of Representatives leaders prepare to debate the controversial Senate Bill 820, a GOP-backed measure that could open the state’s borders to fracking in two years, environmental advocates are making the case for offshore wind as a cleaner alternative. Leaders with Environment North Carolina say they will release their report (titled “Wind Mills, […]
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We have no fracking gas
Not 40 years. Not 30 years. Not even 10 years. Six years: That’s how long natural gas resources in the Deep River Basin would meet the state’s demand, according to a much-awaited U.S. Geological Survey assessment of gas resources released Tuesday. That amount is far short of leaders’ predictions that the state’s supply of shale-trapped […]
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Fact-checking the fracking jobs claims
Chances are good that fracking bill will pass A Senate commerce committee gave its approval Tuesday morning of a reworked Senate Bill 820 crafted by Senate and House Republicans that opens the controversial legislation up for speedy votes in the full chambers. The bill, which is expected to pass in both the House and Senate, […]
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140 West and other condo projects press on, amid concerns of some citizens
From this fourth-story perch, high in the ascending structure of Chapel Hill’s mighty 140 West project, you can see it all. To the east, there is the roofing of the town’s iconic Top of the Hill brewery and the sprawling UNC-Chapel Hill campus. To the west, there is Carrboro and the towering Greenbridge development. To […]
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After Amendment 1, local governments weigh health insurance options
Wait and see. That’s the muted message this week from local government leaders after the lopsided Amendment 1 vote in North Carolina last weeka vote that propelled the state’s gay marriage sentiment into the national discourse. But in the Triangle, where more than 60 percent of voters filled in the oval “against” the amendment, a […]
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Sen. Rucho’s fast track to fracking
Somewhere in Mecklenburg County, miles from the believed natural gas trove beneath rural Chatham County and job-starved Sanford, is a dentist with drilling on the brain. Bob Rucho, the six-term state senator with the Matthews dentistry practice, holds tremendous sway in Raleigh. In 2011, his fingerprints were all over Senate redistricting; he also authored a […]
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Where’s Howard Clement?
Durham City Councilman Howard Clement, a revered civil rights icon and retired attorney, has a résumé like a history book. He was there in July 1963 when activists helped to integrate Durham’s Carolina Theatre during the civil rights movement. He was there in August 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I have […]