Read below for extended exerpts of our Q&A with District 1 County Commissioner candidate Mark Dorosin.

Here's a look at today's local headlines:

HOTEL, APARTMENTS PROPOSED: A developer will bring a plan to the Town Council later this month for a hotel and student apartments at the corner of Estes Drive and MLK Boulevard across from Amity Church. The change would require a rezoning and appears aimed at serving the future Carolina North campus planned for across the boulevard.

UNPAID SCHOOL LUNCH TAB: The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education wants to forgive about $45K in unpaid lunch tabs. In some cases, parents owe more than $600. Tom Hartwell reports the board voted 4-2 against sending the unpaid bills to a collection agency.

BRUSHSTROKES: BEIJING: In this month's visual arts column Debbie Meyer interviews Barbara Tyroler about her exhibit opening this month at the FedEx center on the UNC campus. Debbie has also started a monthly arts feature in our sister publication, The Durham News.

Former Mayor Ken Broun responds to Chas Gaertner's downtown criticism in today's letters (Broun has bought a unit in 140 West and says the project is a sign of good things to come). Also in today's letters, writer Judy Hogan says poet Jacki Shelton Green needs your help.

And in other news today, look for a report later today on last night's meeting of the Chapel Hill Community Policing Commitee (lots of talk there about what defines a "critical incident" and how to respone to one), and we'll get opening arguments in the first trial associated with the nine accused killers of Josh Bailey four years ago. Tammy Grubb is in the courtroom.

And tonight, Dave Hart will be in Carrboro for a forum for candidates for the Orange County Board of Commissioners District 1 seat: incumbent Pam Hemminger, Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich and former Carrboro Alderman Mark Dorosin are seeking two seats.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

Two different pictures are emerging about the situation taking place at the new Walnut Creek Elementary School.

As noted in today's article, Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata acknowledged that an enrollment cap is needed at Walnut Creek to deal with overcrowding. But Tata, pointing to the additional resources provided to the school, says that Walnut Creek is "on the right track."

In contrast, Cash Michaels calls the overcrowding situation a "crime." He accuses Tata and the Republican board majority "of literally turning their backs on the growing problem there."

UPDATE

Click here for an updated version of the article in The Carolinian that Cash Michaels wrote about the crowding situation at Walnut Creek.

Today's N.C. Court of Appeals ruling on the Open Meetings lawsuit against the Wake County school system has something for both sides.

Supporters of the school board majority will focus on the fact that the three-judge panel unanimously agreed to not reinstate the lawsuit, which had been tossed out by Superior Court Judge Bill Pittman.

But critics of the board majority will likely focus on how the panel agreed that the school board had violated the Open Meetings Law during the March 23, 2010 meeting.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, WITH REACTION FROM THE UNC CENTER FOR CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION

Could the Wake County school board still be slapped with a preliminary injunction accusing it of violating the state's Open Meetings Law?

As noted in today's article, the N.C. Court of Appeals will hear Thursday the appeal of the lawsuit that accused the school board of violating the Open Meetings Law back in March. Wake County Superior Court Judge Bill Pittman dismissed the suit in May.

At issue is how Pittman found that the school board had acted unreasonably during the March 23 board meeting. But he dismissed the lawsuit after determining Wake had changed its practices and was now acting reasonably to accommodate crowds.

The legal fight will go on over the lawsuit accusing the Wake County school board majority of violating the state's Open Public Meetings Law.

The plaintiffs filed an appeal Monday over the dismissal of the lawsuit. In a press release, they said they had appealed "fearing a recurrence of unreasonable attendance polices in future board meetings."

“A legal declaration that the Board violated the Open Meetings Act is absolutely meaningful to me and to many other parents in our community,” said Barbara Garlock, one of the plaintiffs, in the press release. “The Board should be held accountable for its pattern of disregard of standards, policies, rules, laws, the spirit of the laws—all of which protect and promote citizen interests.”

You can add Newsweek to the list of national publications that's putting an unfavorable light on the Wake County school board' majority's efforts to end the diversity policy.

In an item that will appear in the March 29 issue of Newsweek, Tony Dokoupil suggests that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan take a closer look at the claims of resegregation going on in North Carolina's public schools. He notes Wake along with the state NAACP complaint against Wayne County's schools and the increase in 90 percent poverty schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg since the district ended race-based busing.

"And last month in Wake County, a newly elected school board voted to end an income-based diversity program that has been copied across the country," Dokoupil writes.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children is accusing the new Wake County school board majority of violating due process rights and trying to dismantle the diversity policy without proper consideration.

In a press release sent Tuesday night, the CCCAAC blasts the board majority for introducing agenda items without prior notice to the public or the members of the board minority. The group also argues that the board hasn't considered how the diversity policy helps low-income children or that most students live near where they attend school.

"The meetings of the new Wake County School Board demonstrated just how far the new Board majority will go to push through its ideological agenda to dismantle the nationally-acclaimed student diversity policy and replace it with a plan designed to lead to resegregation and racially identifiable, high-poverty schools," the CCCAAC writes.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST ON THE AUTHOR OF THE PRESS RELEASE 

The state NAACP is not happy with the Wake County school board's rejection of the group's request for 45 minutes at a board meeting.

As noted in today's article by Jim Wise, the NAACP is circulating a petition calling for school board chairman Ron Margiotta to give them the time. At Sunday's NAACP-sponsored meeting, NAACP members passed out the home telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of school board members.

"The NAACP is not going to be ... told it can come to a committee," Barber said at the rally.