Here are a few upcoming special dinners and a brunch across the Triangle:

Winston's Grille in North Raleigh has two upcoming special dinners:

• 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 21, a Sierra Nevada beer dinner. The four-course meal with beer pairings costs $44. Go HERE to see the menu on Facebook.
• 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 28, a Wild Horse Winery & Vineyard wine dinner. The four-course meal with wine pairings cost $49.95. The proceeds will benefit the Corolla Wild Horse Fund.Go HERE to see the menu on Facebook.

To make a reservation for either dinner at Winston's Grille, call 919-790-0700.

Chip Smith and Tina Vaughn, former owners of Bonne Soiree in Chapel Hill, will be serving up a special brunch to raise money for The Goathouse Refuge, a no-kill animal shelter in Pittsboro. The shelter was founded by potter Siglanda Scarpa.

The Garden Gourmands Brunch will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 23. Diners will have a choice of fish, vegetarian or vegan meals. To see the menus, go HERE. The cost is $100 per person, $350 for a table of four or $500 for a table of six.

To make a reservation, call 919-542-6815.

For more information about the event or the shelter, go to http://www.goathouserefuge.org.
 

Former workers of Townsends, the Delaware-based poultry processing company that filed for bankruptcy in late 2010, have been awarded a settlement that will pay 859 North Carolina employees for unpaid vacation time.
 
The settlement awards $157,000 to the company's Pittsboro and Siler City workers. The workers were represented in a class action lawsuit by the N.C. Justice Center and the Delaware law firm Margolis Edelstein.
 
Townsends filed for bankruptcy in December 2010 and closed its operations two months later.

The company's North Carolina assets were then acquired by a Ukrainian billionaire, Oleg Bakhmatyuk, for $24.9 million in February 2011.

Omtron, the U.S. shell corporation Bakhmatyuk created, spent $7 million upgrading the Siler City plant. But Omtron abruptly announced in late July that it would close the facilities in Siler City and Mocksville by Oct. 4 and lay off 1,156 workers.

At the time, Townsends also had contracts with nearly 200 chicken farmers in Chatham, Moore, Randolph and Harnett counties.

Omtron still owns the Townsends facilities.

The $157,000 settlement will be distributed among the workers based on how much vacation time they were owed by the company.

Any workers who worked for the Siler City or Pittsboro Townsends plants and lost their jobs between January 5 and February 25, 2011, were not paid owed vacation pay, and have not received a settlement payment should contact Jessica Rocha at the NC Justice Center at 866-446-8398.

Vino!! Wine Shop may be open by the end of June in downtown Pittsboro, according to owner Anna Kizer.

The 1,000-square-foot space will be above The City Tap bar. The shop's address is 89 Hillsboro St., Suite D, Pittsboro.

Kizer says she plans to offer wines from all over the globe and focus on affordable bottles in the $10 to $25 range.

Kizer, 30, grew up in Chapel Hill and graduated from Orange High School. After attending   Rhodes College in Memphis, she enrolled in law school at Campbell University. After four years of commercial litigation, Kizer discovered: "It turns out I liked law school way better than I liked practicing law." So she decided to open this wine shop in Pittsboro with her mother, Carolyn, and brother-in-law, Ascary Arias.

Due to snow in Guilford County and their opponents' problems with travel, Chapel Hill's top-seeded boys' and girls' basketball teams will postpone their first-round games in the NCHSAA Mideast Regional pod to Tuesday evening.

The CHHS girls (24-2) will host No. 16 seed Eastern Guilford (15-12) at 6 p.m. Tuesday. That's followed by a 7:30 p.m. boys game between No. 1 Chapel Hill (25-1) vs. No. 16 seed Southern Guilford (8-17).

The Northwood boys' game with Granville Central in the NCHSAA 2-A Mideast also has been moved, to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The Carrboro girls; game at Northwood is still on for Monday night, with a 6 p.m. start.

Want to put your old Christmas tree to good use than just recycling it? Here's an unusual way to reuse it — donate it to the Carolina Tiger Rescue in Pittsboro.

Down 7-0 after two innings in Pittsboro, a deficit that ballooned to 14-5 by the top of the sixth, North Chatham came back Thursday night to win Game 1 of its American Legion playoff series with Clayton by a 16-15 score.

That puts North Chatham one up versus Clayton at 7 p.m. tonight for Game 2 of the best-of-three series. The game will be played at Smithfield-Selma High School.

Saturday, if necessary, Game 3 will be back at Northwood High School's Donald Horton Baseball Complex at 7 p.m.

Down 7-0 after one inning, a deficit which ballooned to 14-5 midway through the game, North Chatham came back Thursday night to win Game 1 of its American Legion playoff series with Clayton Post 71 by a 16-15 score.

That puts North Chatham one up versus Clayton at 7 p.m. tonight for Game 2 of the best-of-three series in the Area 1 West semifinals. The game will be played at Smithfield-Selma High School.

Saturday, if necessary, Game 3 will be back at Northwood High School's Donald Horton Baseball Complex at 7 p.m.

East Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill and Northwood each won Wednesday night in the NCHSAA boys basketball tournament and will play in sectional finals at 7 p.m. Friday.
East Chapel Hill (22-7) will play at Cap-8 champion Raleigh Wakefield (24-3) in a 4-A section final.
Chapel Hill (20-4) will host North Forsyth (19-8) in a 3-A game.
In a 2-A match-up of Chatham County rivals, Carolina-10 champion Northwood (23-4) will host Siler City’s Jordan Matthews (25-4) Friday in Pittsboro.
Each of the hosts will be playing on their home court for the last time this year. The winners from Friday’s games will advance to the NCHSAA East Regionals, to be contested March 1-5 at the Crown Center’s arena and coliseum in Fayetteville.

From correspondent Tammy Grubb

PITTSBORO -- Free Gidget!

The rallying cry from friends and family is growing as the 5-pound, 7-year-old Yorkshire terrier counts down her days to freedom.

Gidget’s friends have responded to her confinement by posting pictures on Facebook -- www.facebook.com/home.php#!/sanford.animal.hospital -- calling for her immediate release.

Sanford Animal Hospital started the campaign Saturday with a post to its Facebook page about Gidget’s stay in the pokey for biting a vet technician Jan. 24 at Jordan Lake Animal Hospital. Because Gidget’s rabies vaccination expired in October, the Chatham County health director ordered her to be confined for 10 days, as required by state law.

Gidget’s owner, town Commissioner Clinton Bryan, initially asked to keep the dog confined at home. State law allows that option with the local health director’s approval. However, director Holly Coleman said the county’s longtime policy has been to confine animals at an approved facility.

On Friday, Bryan removed Gidget from the first ordered confinement at the Jordan Lake Animal Hospital. When Coleman advised him of the potential consequences, he then took Gidget to Sanford. On Saturday, he sprang her from confinement again. County officials found Gidget on Monday when Bryan’s wife Jane returned her to the Sanford clinic.

Bryan has been charged with a misdemeanor for removing his dog from quarantine and is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 9.

Although Bryan and his wife have declined to comment, Jane Bryan has been communicating with Gidget’s supporters this week via Facebook.

“This has been quite an ordeal,” she wrote Wednesday. “You guys have made this situation a little easier for me by demonstrating your love and support. ‘Life isn't about how to survive the storm but how to dance in the rain.’ ”

Jennifer Dorsey, a family friend who lives in Henderson, said Gidget and her dog Scarlett are great friends, spending vacations every year together at the beach.
“They’re really good friends and really good people,” Dorsey said of the Bryans. “They’ll admit they were late [with her vaccination], but that’s why they were there.”

Dorsey said Bryan warned the staff at Jordan Lake Animal Hospital that the dog might nip them when they gave her the shot and that they should muzzle her or let him hold her.

The whole experience has traumatized the tiny dog, which has never been kenneled or away from her family, even for a short time, Dorsey said. The first time she came home, Gidget started relieving herself inside, something she had never done before, Dorsey said.

Coleman said the incident shows how important it is to keep up with your pet’s rabies vaccinations. The county will hold a $5 vaccination clinic from 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 19 at the Chatham County Animal Shelter, 725 County Landfill Road, she said. Cats should arrive at the clinic in carriers and dogs on leashes.

In today's N&O, correspondent Tammy Grubb reports how a Pittsboro town commissioner coud face misdemeanor charges for removing his Yorkshire terrier from a vet's office after it bit a technician during an exam 

Today, Grubb reports Gidget the dog is back in custody and Town Commissioner Clinton Bryan has been charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor for violating the state’s rabies confinement law. His dog was confined Feb. 24 at the Jordan Lake Animal Hospital after biting a vet technician during an exam. The bite caused a small puncture wound to the technician's finger but was not serious, veterinarian Dr. Leslie Staggs said.

"She's not a mean dog," Staggs said. "She just bit out of fear, and sometimes that does happen."

However, the dog’s rabies vaccination expired in October, and that triggered the state’s 10-day quarantine to check for rabies symptoms.

Typically, the owner is liable for kenneling fees, but Staggs said the animal hospital offered to keep her free. Bryan agreed to leave the dog, but came back Friday to get her. The clinic staff notified the health department, as required by state law.
Chatham County Health Department Director Holly Coleman said she talked with Bryan about the incident on Jan. 25, and on Friday, explained to him the seriousness of his actions and the possible consequences. Bryan then took the dog to her regular vet for confinement at the Sanford Animal Hospital in Lee County.

On Saturday, he returned to Sanford and took the dog again, against the advice of the clinic’s staff.

On Monday, Coleman issued a seizure order for the dog, but before animal control officers could deliver it, they learned that Bryan’s wife, Jane Bryan, had returned the dog to the Sanford clinic’s care. The dog will remain there until Thursday, when its confinement was originally scheduled to end, officials said.

Bryan also was charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor for removing the dog from quarantine. He is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 9 in Pittsboro. Henzey said the penalty for a Class 2 misdemeanor can range from a fine to 30 days in jail.

Bryan has not returned phone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment.
He was appointed to the Town Board in April 2007 to fill the seat left when his father, Clinton Bryan Jr., died after a battle with cancer. He retained his seat in the election held the following November and will be up for re-election this year.