We have received two letters so far on Sunday's extended interviews with Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Chris Blue on the Yates Motor raid:

From A. Carter Linstead: "Perhaps the questions the CHN interviewer posed could be characterized as 'asking the hard questions.' But to me the interview appeared to reflect an apparent strong bias on the part of the reporter. Virtually every question sounded more like an accusation."

From Niklaus Steiner: "Thank you for the excellent interview with Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Chris Blue. Thanks to probing questions from the interviewer and honest answers from Stancil and Blue, I am now assured that they acknowledge mistakes around these concerns and are taking necessary steps to address them." 

Tell us what you think about these interviews, the police raid or anything else about our coverage of local issues at editor@newsobserver.com.

Over the weekend Chapel Hill Town Manager released a 14-page report responding to the questions in the Community Police Advisory Committee petition to hire a private investigator to review the Yates raid.

The entire report is attached below.

Documents:

In case you're getting a late start on your Super Bowl Sunday paper ...

NO VOTE FRUSTRATES CRITICS: It wasn't Aydan Court, but some say last week's Chapel Hill Town Council vote against Charterwood isn't the first time the town's elected officials haven't listened to the town's appointed officials. The council has a different role to play, of course. Read katelyn Ferral's stor and tell us what you think.

REFUGEES DISCUSS NEEDS: I was driving down Main Street when I saw three Burmese people squatting in a circle on the sidewalk talking. I thought that was interesting, perhaps the way they talked in the refugee camps they came from. I learned a lot when I got to meet soem of the immigrants at the Chapel Hill 2020 meeting at Carrboro Elementary School.

STANCIL, BLUE INTERVIEWS: I want to thank Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Blue for their candor during last week's interviews about the Yates raid. We have received two letters: one saying I was too hard on the men and one saying I asked good questions. 

New My View columnist Julie Moore discovers UNC's women's gymnastics (they're not all skinny teenagers), Aaron Nelson invites you to his state of the community address at noon today in Chapel Hill Town Hall, and letter writer Sam Schanfarber says there's a drug problem at East Chapel Hill and asks why.

Thanks for reading, and remember you can join us on Twitter (@chapelhillnews1), where we're up to 1,200 followers ) and on my Facebook page, as 800 of you already have. You'll find more news, more photographs (see Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton and the masked anarchist) and more ways for you to share what you think.   

Mark       

NOTE: You can now see a new photo from last night on my Facebook page. Tell us what you think about this story here or on the FB comments thread or in a letter to editor@newsobserver.com

A group of anti-capitalist activists briefly occupied a building at the site of a planned CVS drug store in downtown Carrboro today but left about four hours when police told them to leave or they would be arrested.

Mayor Mark Chilton entered the building at 201 N. Greensboro St. across from Carr Mill Mall early this evening.  "I asked them not to damage the property and asked them to leave," he said in an interview. "They asked me to leave."

"I asked them what their plans were. They asked me what my plan was. One of them suggested ice cream. I said I'd be glad to get them ice cream if they wanted to eat it on the sidewalk." 

Demonstrators, many wearing bandanas to cover their faces, heckled the mayor as he stood before television cameras and reporters in the building lobby. They asked Chilton if he was breaking the law by being in the building too. A giant sign hung on the wall that said "Under capitalism we're all under gunpoint."

"Please leave this property," the mayor said in a loud voice at about 7 p.m. "You're trespassing, and there may be other crimes you're committing as well. The time has come for you to leave this building."

Yesterday we brought you an excerpt of our interview with Town Manager Roger Stancil, his first since releasing an action plan and announcing the town has hired a consultant to review police policies and make recommendations for improvement. You can read an account of the interview with Stancil and another with Police Chief Chris Blue in today's N&O and a longer version in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.  Here is an excerpt from our conversation with Chief Blue.

(In his report Jan. 9, Blue, who was out of town that weekend, describes a single attempt by police to speak with the protesters the night of the occupation "with the hope of persuading them to leave the building." A commanding officer stepped through an open garage door but left when confronted by people wearing masks and shouting insults.)

Q: So you're on the phone with your commanding officer. Does he tell you they didn't ask them to leave? Did you have that information?

Blue: No, we didn't have that conversation.

Q: Why not?

Blue: (Pause) Well, I think the best way to answer that is to say that it's difficult to dictate tactics being removed from the scene. We didn't discuss specific tactics.

In tomorrow's N&O and Sunday's Chapel Hill News, we interview Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil about the Yates Motor raid.  Here is an excerpt.

Q: In your Jan. 30 memo, you say “the tactical decision-making process was compromised by a breakdown in external and internal communications.” What was the breakdown?

Stancil: The information the mayor got, he got that totally from me. And I got my information totally from the chief. And as you know, communication is a two-way thing. When I hear information I’m always filtering it through past assumptions.

Q: But what broke down? I’m not getting that.

Stancil: The tactics of the day were never something that were communicated to me. I still believe the people on the scene were making the best decisions they could make with the information they had. Some parts of that could have been communicated differently to me so I could have informed the mayor, and informed the council.

Q: If you’d had better information would you have done anything with it?

Stancil: You know the whole challenge here is hindsight. I believe Chris somewhere in his report said with the benefit of hindsight maybe we used more force than was necessary, something like that. It’s in his report. But at the moment, knowing what people knew who had to make the decision, it’s hard to speculate. What I do know is that with a better flow of communication the council would have had better information about what was happening – not that they would have intervened and not that we would have done anything differently. But people would have had better information.

Several Chapel Hill Transit employees will take to the stage Saturday when they perform a one-act play about Rosa Parks.

"Why Should I Move?" will be presented at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4, on a central corridor stage in Chapel Hill's University Mall. The free public performance is beng held in conjunction with Black History Month.

The play re-enacts the day Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, an act of defiance that helped spark the Civil Rights movement. Chapel Hill Transit bus driver Michele Sykes plays "old Rosa," who narrates the play, describing the events of 56 years ago. Sheila Neville plays "young Rosa." Other transit employees portray the bus driver, the white passenger who demanded that Park give up her seat, and the police officer who arrested her.

An a capella group of Chapel Hill Transit employees will provide musical counterpoint to the events on stage.

The cast originally performed the piece at Hargraves Community Center during a town employee celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Kathy Williams of UNC's PlayMakers Repertory Company coached the actors in preparing for their roles, and PlayMakers provided the costumes.

Today is National Signing Day, when high school athletes from fall sports make their official commitments to college teams.

While several high school seniors who play Olympic sports are signing as well, much of the emphasis for many schools is placed on football programs.

Locally, offensive lineman William Heine of East Chapel Hill has committed to Georgetown and Chapel Hill's R.J. Quick has signed on for Winston-Salem State.

Heine, a 6-5, 280-pound senior played at right tackle for East, helping to protect record-setting QB Drew Davis in coach  Bill Renner's "five-wide" offense. Heine will be joining his brother James at Georgetown, who's a pitcher for the Hoyas' baseball team.

Quick, not the biggest Tiger at  5-11, 180 pounds, was still one of the biggest guns as a top receiver for coach Issac Marsh as CHHS went 10-3 last season. He was also one of the quickest, no pun intended, with 4.5 speed.

The University of North Carolina is announcing its commitments — including Phil Williamson of Jordan — from the Class of 2012 this afternoon. See UNC Now (http://blogs.newsobserver.com/uncnow) for the latest on Carolina's recruits, and ACC Now (http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/home) for updates on Duke and N.C. State.

Here's a look at today's local headlines, but first ... make sure to read today's N&O story about Durham Public Schools' opposition to a new charter school. Did you know 9 percent of Durham students attend charter schools, the highest percentage on the state? See the story here.

PLACE TO HOLD ON: Photographer Mark Dolejs took some beautiful pictures for new correspondent Jamie Kennedy's story on St. Basil the Great Romanian Orthodox Church. Our features editor is going to pick this story up for a full N&O run and says the church is planning a big Feb. 26 picnic. 

LIBERTY REPAIRS DEADLINE: Does this seem to be taking a long time? The city wil hold a demolition by neglect hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in City Hall. Read Jim Wise's story to see what they're trying to figure out. 

O, ROMEO: No one from the Duke Lemur Center had called back when we wrote this story for the N&O last week. We added their comments the next day for the story in today's paper, and it just got even sadder. It only costs $10 to visit the Lemur Center by the way.

The city wants the art taken off the Duke Park traffic circle at Markham and Glendale. Carlton Koonce talks with the folks at YO:Durham in today's My View. And a reader from Down Under challenges the logic behind gun laws. Plus Flo Johnston on faith, a preview of this month's NC Comedy Festival and more. 

Thanks for reading,

Mark

Saw Bob, my 85-year-old inspiration at the gym this morning. He said he liked the story we did a few weeks back on the Chapel Hill couple that had Michael Brown paint a portrait of them on their garage door.  Nice to be reminded it's not all about police raids and solid waste transfer stations. 

But speaking of police raids, here's a look at today's local headlines in The Chapel Hill News.

ROAD WORK SILT: The town was still waiting yesterday for DOT's report on how Weaver Dairy Road construction runoff ended up in Eastwood Lake. The print photo doesn't do the scene justice, so I've attached it here. Thanks to James Protzman for calling us about this. Lots of stories start like this, just like Betty Neese and her garage door portrait.

POLICE TRAINING: The discussion changed tone this week as the town manager said police were not prepared for the unique situation posed by the Yates Motor Co. building takeover. His memo talked about civil disobedience, which is how the acivists had characterized their action. The town has created a special page on the Yates Motor incident; you can see it here.

While we're on the subject ... a reader called yesterday to confirm his reading of the facts in the incident. He was well informed until he added this all got overblown because staff writer Katelyn Ferral " got her feelings hurt."  That's not correct, I told him. Katelyn did get cuffed with zip ties and told to lie on the ground, but she has been professional throughout. Without her photos, as shown at Monday's court hearing. we would only have a verbal he said/she said of what happened that day.

RAIL LINE DEBATE: We have two items concerning the future light rail line proposed to connect Chapel Hill and Durham in today's paper. Katelyn has the latest from the Town Council, who like the George King Road option, and the Orange County commissioners, some of whom don't like it at all. And in today's My View, columnist Mark Zimmerman asks just where is this train taking us?

There's a lot more: the 12th annual NC Comedy Festival, a column from Steve Hutton on tuition and another from Jeff Kingan proposing a new solution to our garbage dilemma. 

Thanks for reading, wherever you read us; we're up to 1,100 followers on our Twitter feed (@chapelhillnews1) and my Facebook page (cracked the 800 friends mark yesterday).

Mark