We don't have dates yet, but we do have acts for the big 2012 arena-country shows at Raleigh's Time Warner Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek. And let's just say that, aside from the first two acts listed, this year's schedule is mighty heavy on The Usual Suspects (and is actually most notable for who isn't on it, at least not yet):

(UPDATE -- dates have been added...)

Sugarland (April 28)
Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker, Thompson Square (June 8)
Toby Keith (July 15)
Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan (July 27)
Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, Eli Young Band, Edens Edge (Aug. 10)
Brad Paisley, The Band Perry (Aug. 24)

These six shows go on sale Feb. 3 as part of the venue's annual "country megaticket" package at prices from $129 to $649.

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

HOUSING SALES DIP SLIGHTLY: 603 homes were sold in Orange County in the first six months of the year, down from 608 during the same period a year ago. Dave Hart reports that's much better than most of the Triangle.

SUGARLAND CONSIDERS MOVE: The East Franklin Street dessert cafe is doing so well it may have to leave downtown Chapel Hill. Lana Douglas speaks with owner Katrina Ryan about the price of success.

FOUR TO BE HONORED: Yonni Chapman, Rebecca Clark, Charles Jones and Dan Pollitt. If you don't know some or all of these names, read Katelyn Ferral's story on why the town is about to add their names to the downtown Peace and Justice Plaza outside the Franklin Street post office.

And in today's opinion, Brett Webb-Mitchell says baseball is for everyone, Catherine DeVine says CVS does not spell the end of Carrboro and Rose Aslan says wish your Muslim neighbors a happy Ramadan.

All that plus sports, Arts Week and Flo Johnston on Faith. Remember you can get more local news updates on our new Facebook pages for editor Mark Schultz, The Chapel Hill News and The Durham News.

Thanks for reading,

Mark     

Just two weeks after he won the "American Idol" title, Scotty McCreery took the stage of the live CMT Music Awards tonight. The awards, from Nashville, Tenn., honor the year's top videos on Country Music Television.

Joined by his "Idol" runner-up and friend Lauren Alaina, Scotty talked about the tornadoes that devasted parts of his native North Carolina this spring, as well as parts of Lauren's home state, Georgia, and Missouri and Alabama. The two then introduced the band Sugarland, which sang a special version of its song "Stand Up."

The song can be purchased on iTunes, with proceeds going to the American Red Cross to support tornado victims.

Check out this here photo gallery of shots from the very popular country duo Sugarland's Saturday night show in Raleigh, shot by N&O photographer Scott Sharpe.

Chapel Hill's Sugarland bakery and Angier's Sunni Sky's ice cream shop will be featured at 8 p.m. TONIGHT on the Food Network's new show, "Kid in a Candy Store."

Adam Gertler, who competed on season four of Next Food Network Star, is host of a new show similar to Diners, Drive-ins and Dives but for bakeries and sweets shops. 

Chapel Hill's Sugarland is a bakery and gelato shop with a full bar popular with UNC students. (Our favorite cupcake in a cupcake taste test earlier this year was from Sugarland: a spumoni cupcake. Click HERE.) The press release says Gertler enjoyed a frothy gelato cocktail called a Tartini.

 Sunni Sky's homemade ice cream shop is famous for their spicy hot ice cream flavors called cold sweat and exit wound. (While in the area, the Fuquay-Varina Independent reported on Gertler's visits to Sunni Sky's. Click HERE to read that story.)

The Food Network has a new sugar-themed show, "Kid in a Candy Store," featuring Adam Gertler, the winner of  who competed on season four of Next Food Network star.

The show is sort of like a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives for bakeries and sweets shops. The show premieres 8 p.m., Monday, July 12.

The episode airing July 19 features two local stores: Chapel Hill's Sugarland, a bakery with a full bar popular with UNC students. (Our favorite cupcake in a cupcake taste test earlier this year was from Sugarland: a spumoni cupcake. Click HERE.) The press release says Gertler enjoyed a frothy gelato cocktail called a Tartini at Sugarland.

Also featured on the show is Sunni Sky's homemade ice cream shop in Angier. The shop is famous for their spicy hot ice cream flavors called cold sweat and exit wound.

(While in the area, the Fuquay-Varina Independent reported on Gertler's visits to Sunni Sky's. Click HERE to read that story.)

Chapel Hill's Sugarland Bakery offers Candy Heart cupcakes for Valentine's Day with customized messages. You need to order ahead so call TODAY! Call 929-2100

HERE is a link to the story I wrote earlier about cupcake bakers across the Triangle. 

Chapel Hill's Sugarland now has its gelatos available at A Southern Season. 

The flavors are Strawberry, Raspberry, Blood Orange, European Dark Chocolate, Pistachio and Mint Stracciatella. Other flavors to appear soon include Vanilla, Almond and Peach. 

They all sound delicious!

Sugarland: Live on the Inside (8pm, ABC) - Country band Sugarland performs at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

Jon & Kate Plus 8 (9pm, TLC) - The show returns after a 5-week hiatus. Tonight, Kate and the kids vacation at Bald Head Island in North Carolina while Jon stays home to oversee kitchen renovations. Another new episode follows at 9:30, in which Kate and the kids camp in the backyard.

The Closer (9pm, TNT) - Sosie Bacon, daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, stars as Brenda's niece in an episode about a father who may have falsely confessed to a murder to cover for his schizophrenic son.

Making His Band (10pm, MTV) - The finalists in the contest to be part of Diddy's band move into their new home, and tensions arise between the musicians who have been trained and those who are self-taught. Show features two teens from Wilson, NC.

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (10pm, Bravo) - Kathy gets a wax figure at Madame Tussauds, and then consults author Jackie Collins for tips on how to make her memoir steamier. Kathy also seeks publishing advice from Salman Rushdie and Oprah's buddy, Gayle King.

If you turn on country radio now and wonder why you're hearing the gravelly voice of Hootie & the Blowfish singer Darius Rucker -- yes, he's gone country. And even though "Learn to Live" (due out Sept. 16) isn't the first solo album Rucker has made, it is apparently the one that's breaking up Hootie. The group is reportedly disbanding for the foreseeable future while Rucker gives Nashville a try.

Unfortunately, that means longtime Hootie sideman/Durham resident/original dB Peter Holsapple is out of a job. He broke the news on Saturday in an anguished blog post, which found him ruminating on the Hootie situation as well as the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (which drove him out of New Orleans and back to North Carolina):

Impending unemployment has been riding heavily on my shoulders. Hootie and the Blowfish has decided to hang it up, at least for several years, which means my job will also disappear. I had hoped to play with Darius in his solo country band, but his management had other ideas so that's not going to happen. I'd like to keep playing music, and the sub gig with Sugarland is allowing me to do that at least for a few more dates. After that, I don't know.

What I do know is that it's very difficult to look for jobs when you're watching "Ice Road Truckers" or "Deadliest Catch" or any of those shows that are so prevalent. You feel like a big sissy, unqualified to wrangle either a big fish or a big truck through a desparate situation. You look at the calluses at the ends of your fingertips from guitar playing and you think "how pathetic". No outdoor tan, no ruddy complexion, no bulging muscles and sinew. Just a fishbelly-white middle-aged bent-over guitar player who can type eighty words per minute.

I suspect Holsapple is just too good to stay unemployed for very long; but I'm still hoping the universe throws him a break soon.