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She went to Julliard and played viola in Mozart’s motherland, but she was best known for her muffins, staff writer Jesse DeConto writes in this Sunday's Chapel Hill News.

Margaret Alice Middleton died last month, just three weeks shy of her 65th birthday. From 1987 to 1997, “Maggie” and her life partner Jane Hamborsky built a business from selling muffins at the Carrboro Farmer’s Market to running Maggie’s Cafe & Espresso Bar, a European-style eatery famous for Jane’s espresso milkshakes and Maggie’s chicken salad sandwiches.

“She got her juniper berries from Yugoslavia for that,” Jane said this week. “She was real picky about what went into it. The juniper berries were her magical little secret that a lot of people wouldn’t even think of.”

Maggie fought off cancer beginning in 1998, but a recent MRI found a tumor on her spine. Hamborsky said she died of a heart attack in her sleep. A celebration of life service and funeral will be held at 3 p.m. on her birthday, Friday, July 10, at Chapel of the Cross.

Read more about Maggie in Sunday's Chapel Hill News. 

That cheesburger and fries may be doing more harm than to your waistline.

On his blog Leading from the Left, Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson laments the county board's recent failure to ban new drive-thru windows in its jurisdiction.

Sure, they’re convenient. But when a car idles for an hour, Nelson says, it emits nearly 4 lbs of CO2. “Of course, we don't idle our cars for an hour at any one time. But add up how many cars are idling in line at a fast-food restaurant the next time you drive past or at the bank.”

The proposed ban failed by a 3-4 vote. Nelson, Bernadette Pellisier and Alice Gordon voted for the proposal. After the vote failed, Commissioner Barry Jacobs moved to discuss the matter again in the fall and requested additional information.

"He may eventually vote for a ban, so the battle is not yet lost,” Nelson says.

I go away on one week's furlough and my gym and the Varsity both close ... I'm trying out Carolina Fitness this week (what do people think of it?), but what am I gonna do about my movie venues?

Bryan Grossman, a former Varsity employee and 2009 UNC poli sci grad wrote to us after our recent coverage of the downtown movie theater. He says he thinks a downtown theater can still work and that owner Bruce Stone could have done more to keep it going.

"I feel as though a lot of the reasons for its financial demise have been overlooked," he writes. "There are some simple reasons why people did not attend movies there more often. I don't think it is really an issue of arthouse vs. non arthouse."

Here are his suggestions for what we now have to hope will be a new owner: 

1. Accept credit cards
2. Promote films playing there (if only through fliers around town).
3. Use the space for more events that the business owner could rent out.
4. Better compensate employees (at least get something beyond the measly tip glass)                                                 5. Encourage more friendly service.
6. Truly gauge which movies will work in the area and which will not.
7. Have an open house poster sale and advertise this sale throughout town.

What do you think? In the age of Netflix and buck-a-flick boxes at Harris Teeter, can downtown Chapel Hill support a movie theater? Tell us and if we get enough signed responses we'll print them in a future issue.

Just a note to let you know that the News & Observer's higher education blog - Campus Notes - now has a twitter presence.

We want to use it to get the word out about our higher education reporting.

The address is twitter.com/campus_notes.

Michael Gering just announced he is running for re-election to the Hillsborough Town Board of Commissioners. Here is his statement:

When I ran for election in 2001, and again in 2005, I wanted to help shape Hillsborough’s future in order to preserve its unique qualities, improve its financial health, and enhance the quality of life of all its citizens. I’m proud that the town has made progress towards these goals, and I would like to continue guiding Hillsborough’s future in constructive ways.

Here are a few of the things I’ve done over the past eight years:
    •    I initiated the town’s purchase of 20 acres of the Collins property, currently the site of the HYAA baseball fields.  This exciting purchase has made possible a future train station and other municipal services. I am the chairman of the newly-formed committee that will start the planning process for this area.
    •    I chaired the task force that responded to the county’s plans to locate a waste transfer station in our economic development district.
    •    I am the chairman of the Way-Finding Signage Committee, which has created a recommendation to the Town Board for replacing many of the signs cluttering our streets with an attractive and coordinated system of signs to guide tourists and others into and around Hillsborough.
    •    For the last six years I have been the Town Board’s representative on the Hillsborough Tourism Board, and I am currently its chairman. We are in the process of implementing a Tourism Ambassador program and an updated internet presence.
    •    I co-chaired the US 70/Cornelius Street Task Force, a joint effort with the county that created a plan to improve and redevelop the Cornelius Street portion of US 70.
    •    I led the Town Board in opposing an asphalt plant and in changing our ordinances to prevent similar proposals in the future.
    •    I chaired the Town Clock Restoration Committee.  We guided the renovation of the old county courthouse clock in time for Hillsborough’s 250th anniversary celebration in 2004.
    •    I co-chaired a task force that helped educate the Town Board on senior housing options and how best to address them in Hillsborough.
    •    I initiated the work that led to the creation of the water rate assistance program, which helps people who need temporary assistance in paying their water bills.
    •    I worked on many other efforts to improve our town, including: the Churton Street Corridor Task Force, the Library Services Task Force, the Orange Grove Road Task Force, and school capacity planning.

Although we face many challenges, these are exciting times for Hillsborough. In recent years, our downtown has seen a new vitality, the town has opened new parks, and we have improved our economic base through new developments that include senior housing and a community college.  Through it all, Hillsborough continues to preserve and celebrate our natural and historic heritage. There is still work to be done, and I have the experience needed to lead the town forward.  I love this town and would be honored to continue guiding its efforts to be a vibrant, safe and prosperous community.

Lisa Stuckey, who has served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools' board for eight years, will not seek re-election for a third term.

Stuckey shared the news with The News & Observer today, a week before the Orange County Board of Elections begins accepting candidate applications. The seven-member school board will see three vacancies this year, including Stuckey's.

Board members Jean Hamilton and Greg McElveen, whose terms also expire this year, have not yet announced their plans.

Stuckey has been the chairwoman of the board for five years, overseeing the construction and opening of three-year-old Carrboro High. All three of her children have attended Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.

Stuckey's term ends in December.

UPDATE: McElveen, who has only been on the board for a year serving out county commissioner Pam Hemminger's term, told us this morning he plans to run for re-election. Hamilton confirmed to WCHL last night that she will not be running again.

Carrboro Alderwoman Randee Haven O’Donnell announced her re-election bid Monday at a solar panel installation on the Town Commons.

She said the partnership between Communities in Schools of Orange County and Solar Tech South shows the town doing its part to prepare for a greener future. ,

Carrboro isn't just jumping on the bandwagon when it comes to solar energy,” she said in a statement. “Before the national economic decline, before “green jobs” became a catch phrase, I started conversations and plans to forge partnerships like this one to propel Carrboro into viable solar energy use, solar business development, workforce training, and consumer use.”

Among her accomplishments, Haven-O’Donnell said
-- She has worked through the Greenway Summit and the Greenways Commission to foster dialogue, get community input, and enact the town’s greenway plan.
-- She has worked with the county commissioners to reconstitute the Orange County Library Services Task Force “to advance the cause of County branch libraries in general and a southwest branch library in downtown Carrboro specifically.”
-- She has worked to preserve Bolin Creek, serving as one of the town's representatives on the Leadership Advisory Council to UNC for Carolina North. “Note that while UNC would not promise preservation in perpetuity, as I had advocated, they have agreed to preserve the Carolina North tract in Carrboro for the next 50 years,” she said.  

She said she also has sought to promote business and workers, as a member of Carrboro's Economic Sustainability Commission, the Local Living Economy Task Force, the emergent Greater Carrboro Business Community group and in the town's efforts to locate a site for day laborers.

Four seats on the Board of Aldermen are up. Mayor Mark Chilton, running for re-election, faces a challenge from community organizer Sammy Slade. Alderman John Herrera has decided not to seek another term. Alderwoman Jacquie Gist has said she probably will. (She may have made this more definite in the week I was away.)  The official filing period opens Monday.

Main Street Properties, the developers of the 300 East Main Street redevelopment project, now expect to break ground around the first of the year.

Partner Laura Van Sant says construction of the hotel -- one of five buildings planned for the shopping center that houses the Cat's Cradle and The ArtsCenter -- should take place in early 2010. Developers had previously said the project might begin in the second half of this year.

The hotel would be a Hampton Inn or Hilton Garden Inn. Van Sant they are leaning to a Hampton Inn.

The developers have also requested a meeting with town of Carrboro staff to see if the town would like to lease spaces in the planned parking deck. The deck will have more spaces than tenants need in the early stages of the project, Van Sant said.  

                           Photo Courtesy of ECHHS website

Following their June win on BET's nationally-syndicated program "106 and Park Wild Out Wednesday," the Wildcats cheerleaders from East Chapel Hill High are gearing up for a return visit to the show Aug. 5.

The girls on the team are hoping their formula of "sassy but classy" (not to mention the support of friends and family who can vote on BET's website at home) will help them beat their new competition.

You can watch a clip of their June performance on BET's website here.

The show is scheduled to broadcast live Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. on BET.

One after the other, all nine Town Council members showered accolades upon town and university staff Monday night for creating the development agreement that will regulate Carolina North over the next 20 years. The council approved the document in a unanimous vote Monday night.

"I am really happy to support this development agreement," said Mayor Kevin Foy. "It turned out to be a really excellent, innovative document that is worth all the time that we put into it. The way that it's going to play out over time is really good for the university and it's good for the town."

Council member Bill Strom was next. "For years, I wondered how the heck are we going to get this done, because it is so complex. How are we going to get a deal that serves everyone's interest? The atmospherics aligned. I believe that it does create the right mix of opportunity and oversight for both the university and the town. ... Supporting UNC's growth in the long-run is the right thing to do."

Laurin Easthom thanked the citizens whose inputs helped to shape the agreement. "We have the appropriate triggers and thresholds and oversight," she said. "I look forward to continuing to work with the university."

Sally Greene said she was speechless. "The fact that there's so little to say up here speaks volumes," she said.

Jim Ward said town and gown must continue to cooperate. "We are joined at the heart. What is good for one is good for the other, 95 percent of the time."

Matt Czajkowski told Chancellor Holden Thorp he hoped the UNC-CH trustees would endorse the agreement on Thursday. "I am enormously optimistic that the growth of Carolina North is going to lead to the continued growth of commercial dynamism," he said.

Mark Kleinschmidt praised the work of Town Manager Roger Stancil. "You've really demonstrated extraordinary leadership," he said.

Ed Harrison celebrated more than 300 acres of conservation easements on the Carolina North property as "some of the most protected open space that you can have."

Jim Merritt thanked Stancil and other town staff for bringing him up to speed on Carolina North in only 8 months on the job. "I think we came up with a great document," he said.