Last fall, the Town Council was supposed to discuss a petition from member Matt Czajkowski asking town-hall staff to examine how other cities and towns across the U.S. are managing panhandling and homelessness. But the council ran out of time at that meeting and rescheduled that discussion for tonight. A memo for the meeting suggested that panhandling was on the decline, but Franklin Street business-people don't necessarily agree. Check back here for a report on tonight's meeting.

A drunken panhandler threatened to kill a man who had come out of a business on Franklin Street and asked him to move along Saturday night.

Fifty-year-old Miguel Barrada was arrested and charged with assault with a death weapon after the victim told police Barrada had pulled a knife on him.

“The individual was intoxicated and panhandling,” said Chapel Hill Police Lt. Kevin Gunter.