Anita Bennett, protagonist in Durham's small-business loan scandal of few years back, has been in court again, and she's still in a heap of trouble.

Not to mention causing it. To wit, Bennett hasn't been paying her court-ordered restitution for bilking the city out of $828,000 while running its small-business loan program, Senior Assistant City Attorney Sherri Zann Rosenthal told the City Council Thursday.

By David Menconi
dmenconi@newsobserver.com

DURHAM – Well, the fifth time was the charm. After standing the Triangle up four times on concert dates since 2005, Aretha Franklin finally showed up, holding forth Thursday night at the Durham Performing Arts Center. And the fact that she was actually good made for a nice bonus.

Franklin brought along lots of backup firepower, of course, a score or so of musicians billed as the Aretha Franklin Orchestra. She made exactly the sort of entrance you’d expect of a diva of her stature, striding onstage in a white fur coat to a breathless introduction: “Your queen, my queen, THE QUEEN of Soul – Aaaaaaaaaaretha FRANKLIN!”

It was an unusual concert, to say the least. Not many shows feature the mayor coming out halfway through to hand over the key to the city, as Bill Bell did Thursday night.

“You don’t need a key, we built this house for you,” Bell said with a gesture taking in DPAC’s plush environs. “So you got to come back.”

Whether she will or not, Franklin made her mark Thursday night, credibly pulling off everything from En Vogue covers to a bit of standup comedy. Franklin will turn 70 next month, and she has undeniably lost a step or two over the years. But reports of her voice’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Besides, Franklin at three-quarters capacity is still better than just about anyone else out there.

Although Franklin never directly addressed her multiple no-shows, she did offer up a song selected for atonement purposes, “I Wanna Make It Up To You.” Her gospel roots were never far away, with many songs – starting with “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” which came up second in the 90-minute set – going to church on the outro. And when she really reached down and wailed, she still made you feel it. “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” just about melted the house down, and “Chain of Fools” wasn’t far behind.

Best of all was “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” the one song where Franklin sat at the piano to play as well as sing. She started out somewhere between church and honkytonk before quickly taking a turn for the verse into a full-on gospel raveup, complete with call, response and Hallelujah’s to the heavens. Even her band was applauding by the end.

The show closed with “Respect,” Franklin’s longtime signature, and she took her bows as the band vamped on.

“See you next time,” she said.

Promise?

Menconi: 919-829-4759 or blogs.newsobserver.com/beat

Patience has never come as easily to Christian Laettner as, say, intensity.

And so while Laettner loved a lot of things about running his own basketball academy for the past couple of years in Jacksonville, Fla., he never completely had the serenity required to nurture high school players.

As a result, Laettner contacted Chris Lauten, a former Duke manager who now works in the front office of the NBA’s Development League. Lauten eventually put Laettner in touch with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants’ ownership after the Mad Ants fired their head coach and promoted an assistant to replace him in early January.

ATLANTA -- N.C. State’s 61-52 ACC victory against Georgia Tech on Thursday was built on the memories of what happened the last time the two teams played.

It was a month ago, when the Yellow Jackets exposed the Wolfpack defensively, shooting 51 percent in an 82-71 win in Raleigh.

“That hurt us,” said Wolfpack Mark Gottfried.

But it also served N.C. State well on Thursday in Philips Arena. The Wolfpack (18-7, 7-3 ACC) clamped down defensively on Georgia Tech (9-15, 2-8), forcing the Yellow Jackets into a 32.2 percent shooting night on its way to a third consecutive triumph.

As Austin Rivers comes down from his adrenaline rush of a Wednesday night, the person who may have the best idea of how Rivers’ one shot will affect his Duke legacy is Jeff Capel.

It’s conceivable that Rivers’ game-winning 3-pointer was the Blue Devils’ most memorable shot in the series with North Carolina since Capel hit a running 30-footer at the end of the first overtime of the teams’ Feb. 2, 1995 game.

There are differences between the two buzzer-beaters, with the most notable being that Capel’s effort didn’t win the game for Duke – North Carolina ended up outlasting Duke 102-100 in double overtime.

Canes general manager Jim Rutherford said today he has met with forward Tuomo Ruutu to discuss Ruutu's future with the team, and said a decision should be reached next week.

Rutherford said Ruutu, due to become an unrestricted free agent after the season, expressed a desire to stay with the team.

"These meetings are to see where the player is at, what they think of the team, whether he likes being in the organization, those things," Rutherford said. "Tuomo is a player we really like, and he said he likes being with the team. That's an important first step and we had a good meeting.

"The next hurdle may be the bigger hurdle, but at least we know we're on the same page."

Three N.C. State basketball recruits have been selected to play in the 35th McDonald's All-America boys basketball game on March 28 in Chicago.

The Wolfpack recruits are Rodney Purvis of Raleigh Upper Room; Tyler Lewis, who played at Forsyth Country Day in 2010-11 and is at Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill this season; and T.J. Warren, who played at Durham Riverside and Raleigh Word of God before going to Brewster Academy for this season.

All three grew up playing in North Carolina.

Duke recruit Rasheed Sulaimon of Houston (Texas) Strake Jesuit and North Carolina recruit Marcus Page of Linn-Marr (Iowa) Marion also are on the all-star team.

Scotty McCreery, the reigning "American Idol" from Garner, has received a double dose of good news: he now has a second gold single and he's up for a second country music award.

"The Trouble With Girls," the second single from Scotty's album, "Clear As Day," was just certified as a gold record, meaning more than 500,000 copies shipped. Scotty's first single, "I Love You This Big," also went gold. The CD has reached both gold and platinum status. A platinum album has sold at least 1 million copies.

Scotty also learned that he is a nominee for New Artist of the Year at the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Devils' Dennard, Heels' Kenny Smith and Pack's Fuller among those to be honored

The Wake County school system's new online survey on the bell schedule proposal is now live

Click here to take the survey. The survey runs through 10 p.m. on Feb. 16.

Comments will be provided to school board members before they discuss the proposal again on Feb. 21.