The N.C. State Fairgrounds, home to many events in Tar Heel history, this year will host North Carolina’s largest celebration of Latino heritage, as well. After six years at Chapel Hill High School, La Fiesta del Pueblo is relocating this year, a move necessitated by renovations planned during the school’s summer hiatus. The fairgrounds, just […]
Jennifer Strom
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Deep Trouble
In a Las Vegas ballroom on Oct. 24, the international scuba diving industry elite gathered in black tie to celebrate their heroes–dead, alive and outgoing. Upon Peter Bennett, one of the latter, they bestowed a lifetime-achievement award for his work at Divers Alert Network, the Durham-based non-profit he has led since 1980. Clasping his silver […]
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Gatewood leaving Durham NAACP
Late last month, Durham NAACP leader the Rev. Curtis Gatewood castigated a group of his colleagues for endorsing Superintendent Ann Denlinger’s plan to close the achievement gap, accusing them of breaking ranks without consulting black parents and community leaders who feel disenfranchised by the school system. A few days later, Gatewood came out strongly against […]
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Black leaders back Denlinger
On Saturday, Oct. 19, something unprecedented in Superintendent Ann Denlinger’s nearly six-year reign in the Durham Public Schools will happen: A group of African- American community leaders will gather to throw both their symbolic support and their elbow grease behind one of the superintendent’s initiatives. “She is doing what is right for the children, and […]
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How Bunkey Won
A coalition of development interests from around the Triangle shepherded the campaign to unseat Chatham County Commissioner Gary Phillips, who led the board’s slow-growth movement, The Independent has learned. The Triangle Community Coalition, an umbrella group based in Raleigh that represents homebuilders, realty associations and chambers of commerce, among others, coached and supported a group […]
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Anti-lottery forces come up winners
In the 10 weeks that a lottery referendum sat on the state house daily calendar this summer, lawmakers seeking to balance North Carolina’s books declined to raise revenue by closing corporate loopholes while at the same time cutting money to schools and social service programs, eliminating pay raises for state workers, and planning to keep […]
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The Real Winners in Chatham: Developers
Since Bunkey Morgan won the Democratic primary for county commissioner on Sept. 10, things are looking up in Chatham County. Well, for the developers, anyway. “The election, from a business standpoint, had a positive outcome,” says Raleigh real estate magnate Tommy Fonville. “Bunkey is a more pro-business, pro-growth person, and I think that’s positive.” Fonville’s […]
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Pro-development Forces at Work in Chatham Races
California pollsters have been posing a lot of slanted questions to Chatham County voters lately, but the real riddle is this: Will development interests control the county commissioners’ Democratic primary on Sept. 10? Big-money manipulation barreled into rural county politics in August, when an expensive push poll promoting a pro-growth agenda rang in from San […]
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Lining ‘Em Up
Early on the morning of July 10, North Carolina lottery proponents were feeling pretty good about their odds. Gov. Mike Easley, their chief, had been working hard alongside his supporters to round up the votes he needed in the House of Representatives. Easley was already counting on lottery tickets to help him fill a growing […]
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Body beautiful
Four or five years ago, The Body Shop launched a charming advertising campaign with the slogan, “There are three billion women in the world who don’t look like supermodels, and only eight who do.” The posters of average women were a shrine to reality for all of us who grew up with Barbie and landed […]
