CURING CRABTREE: City staff is expected to give council members a recommendation on Tuesday for how to best cure the traffic woes around congested Crabtree Valley. It quite possibly could be the long-awaited solution to the decades-old problem. Crabtree for years has been the Triangle’s busiest bottleneck. And several solutions for alleviating the traffic flow have been proposed throughout the past few decades. None, however, has materialized. City staff hosted workshops in the spring with neighbors and business owners who live or work near the mall, which sits at Glenwood Avenue’s intersection with the Beltline.

PIGSKIN FOR YOUNGSTERS: For those of you who have 5- and 6-year-old kids anxious to make their gridiron debut, the Lake Lynn Community Center will offer a youth touch football league this fall. It teaches the skills and fundamentals of America’s new favorite pastime, as well as sportsmanship. Games and practices will be at northwest Raleigh’s Williams Park, primarily on Saturdays starting in September and ending in November. Registration, which includes a shirt, is scheduled for Aug. 17 through 24 at the Lake Lynn Community Center. Cost is $36 for residents and $46 for nonresidents.

FOR PURPLE HEARTS: The Wake Forest Purple Heart Foundation is hosting a dinner Saturday at Tuxedo Junction in downtown Wake Forest for North Raleigh, Franklin County and Wake Forest Purple Heart recipients and their families. Reporter Chelsea Kellner tells a story in Wednesday’s paper about a mother of a slain Vietnam veteran attending this year for the first time. For more information on the dinner, contact Marty Coward at 919-556-3182.

WEB CHANGES: Raleigh’s new website is set to go live today. You’ll find a survey on the home page, and the city invites feedback by sending e-mails to public.affairs@raleighnc.gov. Among the changes: a more robust search engine, and a greater social media presence.

COUNCIL: The City Council is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers. The agenda.

WHERE'S MEEKER?: A light week for the mayor, at least in terms of his mayoral duties. The only events listed on Meeker's schedule are a radio show today and council meeting and public hearing tomorrow.

WIDE, WIDE OPEN: Thousands packed downtown Raleigh Saturday for the fifth annual Raleigh Wide Open concert and event series, which included three stages, more than 20 bands and a combined 20 hours of music (N&O).

ART GOES OVER, UNDER: An “exploration of human identity” is the theme of a new art exhibition on display Tuesday through Sept. 20 in the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex on Hargett Street. It’s sponsored by Raleigh’s Arts Commission and uses textures, layers and color to create canvasses that mirror the artist’s emotions. For more information, call the Arts Commission office at 919-996-3610.

AND THE HIGHEST BIDDER IS...: Heidrick and Struggles. The Wake School board went with the highest-bidding search firm to find its new superintendent. The Illinois-based firm will cost a hefty $82,500. Keung Hui and Tommy Goldsmith have the story this morning.

CHIME IN: The public can chime in this week on a $1.5 billion plan to clean up polluted Falls Lake, the source of drinking water for Raleigh and more than half of Wake County. The N.C. Environmental Commission will hold two meetings this week - one in Raleigh and another in Durham. Report's Sarah Ovaska has the story later this week The Raleigh public hearing will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at Campbell Lodge in the Durant Nature Park, 3237 Spottswood Street.

BACK HOME: N.C. State has hired a new athletic director - Debbie Yow, who grew up rooting for the Wolfpack with her sisters. Her lone goal: win.Check out the photo gallery.

BUMMER FOR BUSINESSES: Delayed construction along a torn-up section of Glenwood Avenue is hurting business owners in Five Points and elsewhere, report Mark Hensch and Bruce Siceloff. Construction will be restricted between Five Points and Wade Avenue until at least late August.

COUNCIL: No meeting this week.

COMING WEDNESDAY: In the North Raleigh and Midtown News sections, read about the public Capital Boulevard workshop, a formerly overweight woman who now leads local fitness efforts, and the latest on the House Creek Greenway - an important connection that eventually will connect two major Raleigh corridors.

Report's Sarah Ovaska writes in today's N&O that John Odom won't swing his vote to the affirmative on the stalled $205 million Lightner Public Safety Center.

It was believed that Odom, the lone Republican on the eight-member council, might switch his vote since the project is without a tax increase, as was first proposed.

This means Lightner might just be the deadest initiative this side of the Crabtree Valley Spreeway.

But Mayor Charles Meeker isn't giving up. He'll continue to court two other council members - likely Thomas Crowder and Russ Stephenson (Bonner Gaylord also opposes the project, but is most unlikely to waiver after his outspoken case against Lightner at a council meeting earlier this year).

Don't expect Crowder or Stephenson to budge.

BEER ME, OR NOT: The state Alcohol and Beverage Control Commission shot down a proposed exemption to state law last week that would have allowed Raleigh to hang the Bud Light logo on its new amphitheater in downtown. That would have brought the city a cool $1.5 million over five years. Instead, they’ll explore other options (perhaps a “Bud Light Concert Series”?). Read the full story.

WHERE”S MEEKER? The mayor’s official schedule:
Monday: Budget deliberations, 4 p.m. at City Hall; East CAC meeting afterwards at Lions Park.

Tuesday: Budget and Economic Development Committee meeting, 11 a.m.; 5:30 p.m. meeting at the Busy Bee with Common Cause, a left-leaning political non-profit that advocates for campaign finance and other reform issues.

Thursday: Health care convention at 8 a.m. at the convention center; ribbon cutting at Transatlantic bank (4801 Glenwood) at 6 p.m.

COUNCIL: No meeting this week.

TWEET TWEET: Follow District E Representative Bonner Gaylord on twitter: @bonnergaylord

BALANCING BUDGETS: The Wake County Commissioners are expected to adopt the county’s $951 million operating budget for the next fiscal year at today’s meeting. That will keep the doors open when the budget year begins July 1. Meanwhile, Raleigh’s council members will continue fine-tuning the city’s budget, handed down by City Manger Russell Allen. It won’t raise property taxes, but find out what it will do in Sarah Ovaska’s report this week.

HOT ISSUE: Contentious discussion at the county meeting might include the school board’s proposal to pay $4.3 million for land in Rolesville as the site for a new high school. The school originally was to be located on Forestville Road, but the school board voted to scrap that site. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker and commissioner Stan Norwalk oppose the move. Read more about the battle.

COMING WEDNESDAY: In the North Raleigh and Midtown Raleigh News sections, learn how some Wakefield residents are finally getting what they were promised a decade ago. Also, a North Raleigh man is reunited with his beloved guitar 35 years after he let it go.

NEED YOUR INPUT: The city is hosting its first public meeting Thursday on how to transform putrid Capital Boulevard into a pretty gateway to the Capital City. So if you have ideas on how to spruce up the corridor, head over to the Bobby Murray Chevrolet on Capital at 6:30 p.m.

LUCK OF THE IRISH: Congrats to Ireland’s Graeme McDowell for winning the U.S. Open yesterday at iconic Pebble Beach, despite a final-round 74. Has absolutely nothing to do with Raleigh, of course – just a great golf tournament. Speaking of golf, Raleigh doesn’t even have its own course. Crazy…