Today's Phillips story already has prompted a new letter, our sixth, from a parent saying there is too a problem and he's tired of seeing it swept under the rug. We'll bring that to you later.

Here are our local headlines:

BULLYING PROMPTS REVIEW: Superintendent Neil Pedersen says the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district has reviewed bullying complaints at Phillips and found enough to merit a review of procedures there before school reopen this August. Lana Douglas has the story.

COLONY APARTMENTS UPDATE: Town Council members Penny Rich and Sally Greene had said they were worried the sale of Colony Apartments on Ephesus Church Road might remove affordable housing stock from Chapel Hill (Greene has called the apartments "organically affordable" because they're old and cheap.) Well, they were partly right. Read my story today.

MASTER CLASS: Lois Winkler is a new writer for The CHN, and a good one. She has a story today on a program that puts therapy dogs into some Orange County Schools classrooms, where they help children with autism and other special needs learn to read and de-stress. Chris Seward took our photos.

We have a page of your letters on the bullying complaints at Phillips, columns on growth and development, more on that shooting at a sheriff's deputy (a near miss; a bullet hit his radio belt), and much more. If your letter did not get in today, please look for it this coming week. And look online and in Wednesday's paper for photos from this weekend's high school graduations.

Thanks for reading,

Mark 

From correspondent Lynda-Marie Taurasi:

Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich will ask her colleagues Wednesday night to formally oppose the county commissioners’ decision to close the county dental clinic in Car Mill Mall.  

Last month, the commissioners voted 5-2 to consolidate dental services in Hillsborough, saving the county’s budget $65,000.  Commissioners Alice Gordon and Mike Nelson voted against closing the Carrboro clinic.

Rich said the decision stunned her.

“Maybe I am naïve, but I didn’t think it would happen,” she said. “This is not the way we take care of people in our county.”

The county is proposing a voucher system, for those who qualify, to cover the $4 bus trip to Hillsborough. The trip requires taking a Chapel Hill Transit bus to catch the 420 bus to Hillsborough, and then walking several blocks west to the Hillsborough Clinic in the Whitted Building. The voucher system will cost the county $8,000 a year.

Orange County Commissioner Steve Yuhasz serves as a liaison to the Orange County Board of Health. He says the decision to consolidate services has been considered since 2008.  

Yuhasz says the board was reluctant to close the Car Mill location but concluded the county could best serve citizens through a full-time dental clinic in a single location.

Since the Hillsborough location already existed and would be much more easily and economically converted into a full-time clinic, that was the recommendation, he said.

Town Council member Lauren Easthom, who is a dentist, plans to support Rich’s resolution. ‘We’re talking about health care. Their decision was reducing easy access to health care for some of the poorest citizens in our county. We all have tight budgets.”

Look for more on this story in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.

Jim Merritt started a landslide of campaign slogans at the League of Women Voters forum Monday.

"Remember," he said in his closing statement,"Chapel Hill has Merritt."

Next in line was Matt Pohlman: "I don't have any catchy phrases. Pohlman is limiting."

Ed Harrison revived his slogan from 2005: "Common Sense for an Uncommon Town."

Laurin Easthom deconstructed the whole endeavor: "Chapel Hill Has Merritt. Everybody Votes Raymond. For Pease in a Pod. DeHart of Chapel Hill. All I ask is to just, 'Vote Easthom'. I can't think of anything."