Durham solar panel innovator Semprius is two weeks away from opening a manufacturing facility in Henderson that is expected to employ more than 250 people at assembling the world's most efficient solar panels.

Semprius said today it will open its facility Sept. 26. Company officials, and many supporters in industry and government, see the Semprius plant as a milestone for the Durham startup and a potential leap forward for clean energy.

The 60-employee company says its high-efficiency panels will bring down costs to the point that solar energy will no longer require government subsidies. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology vouched for those claims by listing Semprius on the university's prestigious roster of the world's most important emerging technologies.
 

Chapel Hill High School won a coin flip Saturday to get the top seed in the Carolina-6 Conference's girls basketball tournament. That means, if they win their semifinal game on Wednesday, that the Tigers would host the finals for both boys and girls in the Carolina-6 Conference  tournament on Friday night.

Facing budget cuts of more than $2 million, Legal Aid of North Carolina plans to eliminate about 30 positions and close its offices in Smithfield, Boone and Henderson by the end of September.

Those three offices have served about 2,000 households a year in Johnston, Harnett, Sampson, Allegheny, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes, Vance and Yancey counties.

The nonprofit looked at furloughs and salary cuts but the reductions in funding were too great, said George Hausen, Legal Aid of North Carolina's executive director.

Legal Aid's total budget was around $20 million a year before the cuts.

By closing rural offices, Legal Aid hopes to maximize the number of poor people it serves at its current funding level.

"We serve poor people, and in the rural areas we have to travel a much greater distance to serve fewer people," Hausen said.

"In order to keep the numbers high and serve as many poor people as we possibly could we decided that we needed to circle the wagons in the big, urban offices."

The Old Schoolers of Henderson rolled their way to victory in scratch and handicapped divisions during the Capital Area USBC Association’s annual B.H. Barbour Senior Tournament held Dec. 3-5 at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Raleigh.

The bowling organization recently released official results.

In the team handicapped competition, the Old Schoolers rolled a 3,031 total to win the $800 top prize. Second place and $400 went to a Raleigh team called Whatever with a 2,905.

Former East Chapel Hill coach Darian Harris has taken over as the head coach at Northern Vance. He welcomed slightly more than 70 players to preseason drills earlier this week.
Harris, who taught business and marketing classes at East Chapel Hill High School, left last spring after some teaching positions were sliced in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system.
He takes over in Henderson from Cedric Crudup, whose Viking teams over the last four years went 13-32 overall and 7-13 in the Carolina-Nine 3-A Conference. That includes an 8-4 record two years ago,
His new post means Harris will be back in Chapel Hill this fall. His Vikings open Carolina-Nine play Oct. 8 at Orange High and then visit Chapel Hill High School on Oct. 15.

Former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley talks about the thoroughbred racing business, coaching and, of course, Blue Devils basketball.