Here's a look at today's local headlines:

CHAPEL HILL 2020: Blogger Ruby Sinreich's Tweet about "straight, white affluent men" may have caused a dustup in the town's comprehensive plan talks. But it's not the first time concern about lack of diversity's come up in community conversations about how Chapel Hill should grow. Read Katelyn Ferral's story to learn what the town is doing to bring more voices to the table.     

NO HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Here's an issue the Chapel Hill 2020 folks need to help figure out. When we wrote about Colony Apartments last summer (read my story here), I learned how the Section 8 housing voucher safety net was no longer working for many. Katelyn looked at the situation across the Triangle for today's follow-up. 

It's been a busy week. If you missed it, a jury needed just three hours to convict Laurence Lovette in the murder of Eve Carson. The state Court of Appeals ruled a former Orange County paramedic can be sued in the death of Chapel Hill High football player Atlas Fraley three years ago. And two more rabies cases were confirmed; in one case a dog that was not current on its rabies vaccination had to be killed. 

On our editorial pages, several readers respond (read their letters here) to Chapel Hill developer Carol Ann Zinn's guest column last week (read it here), in which she said anti-growth activists distort the development process and drive up housing costs. Tell us what you think at editor@newsobserver.com. And congratulations to associate editor Dave Hart for winning second place for editorials in the N.C. Press Association contest, announced earlier this week.

Got vintage Aretha playing on the eMac and a big dog at my feet before Christmas dinner this afternoon. I hope you are having a wonderful day, and best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year. Thank you for reading the paper.

Mark           

Sunday’s guest column by Carol Ann Zinn has generated several responses. Zinn recently sold land off N.C. 54 to the UNC Foundation at a major financial loss after failing to win approval for her Aydan Court condominium project (See story here). In her column, she said Chapel Hill’s development process is influenced by no-growth activists and forces developers to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars modifying plans in a lengthy review process that has no guaranted outcome and drives up housing costs.  

Here are a few excerpts from letters that have come in this week. Look for the full versions of these letters Sunday in The Chapel Hill News and at www.chapelhillnews.com.

From Suzanne Haff: "Ms. Zinn has designed and built many wonderful residential communities around Chapel Hill; but, in my opinion, she made a poor choice when she purchased this property –  not a very buildable parcel – and then proceeded to hammer the town with request after request to modify the topography – until it lost all its uniqueness, needed fancy and costly mechanics to control run-off when completed. ...  There is no right as far as I know to do whatever you want to the natural terrain when you purchase a piece of property. She gambled she could convince the council otherwise  and she lost."

From Del Snow: "Carol Ann Zinn is, in fact, an experienced developer with many projects that have been approved in Chapel Hill. Before purchasing the proposed Aydan Court property, she, more than most, should have been clearly aware of all the constraints of the state-designated Significant Natural Heritage Area and the three major ordinances that would have had to be overturned for any development to occur. At every point in the process, these issues were pointed out in staff reports. Our town ordinances are in place to protect our environment, our future, and us. Why did she decide to keep pouring money into a losing proposition in order to force an approval?"

From: Kristina Peterson: "Ms. Zinn should get past this long temper tantrum she’s been having. The development review process does not need to be made easier for flawed development proposals. I am grateful for all the citizen groups and their leaders who give their time freely and generously to support our interests. What would Chapel Hill look like if we hadn’t had heroes like them throughout the years?"

I opened a Facebook account last week. (I actually had one before but deactivated it when people I didn't know kept wanting to become my friends.) This time I decided to keep it about the news and be more welcoming.

With staffer Katelyn Ferral's help, we also created a page for The Chapel Hill News. I invite readers to "like" our page and get daily notifications. (We stand at 17 now, which is sad but a start.) We'll use the page for posts about the newsgathering process and cross posts from the blog.

This is what you call a soft launch. If you have suggestions for what you'd like to see on The Chapel Hill News' Facebook page please comment on our status updates and notes or call me at 932-2003. Thanks.

Today's Phillips story already has prompted a new letter, our sixth, from a parent saying there is too a problem and he's tired of seeing it swept under the rug. We'll bring that to you later.

Here are our local headlines:

BULLYING PROMPTS REVIEW: Superintendent Neil Pedersen says the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district has reviewed bullying complaints at Phillips and found enough to merit a review of procedures there before school reopen this August. Lana Douglas has the story.

COLONY APARTMENTS UPDATE: Town Council members Penny Rich and Sally Greene had said they were worried the sale of Colony Apartments on Ephesus Church Road might remove affordable housing stock from Chapel Hill (Greene has called the apartments "organically affordable" because they're old and cheap.) Well, they were partly right. Read my story today.

MASTER CLASS: Lois Winkler is a new writer for The CHN, and a good one. She has a story today on a program that puts therapy dogs into some Orange County Schools classrooms, where they help children with autism and other special needs learn to read and de-stress. Chris Seward took our photos.

We have a page of your letters on the bullying complaints at Phillips, columns on growth and development, more on that shooting at a sheriff's deputy (a near miss; a bullet hit his radio belt), and much more. If your letter did not get in today, please look for it this coming week. And look online and in Wednesday's paper for photos from this weekend's high school graduations.

Thanks for reading,

Mark 

Today's issue is dedicated to S.K. List, my co-editor a lifetime ago on The Ithaca Times. It was my second newspaper job out of college, and the one where my heart glommed on to my work ... which might have been a mistake but too late now.

Each winter, with the central New York snow piled high and the winds so chilling you cursed as you walked the dogs (I did anyway), we asked readers to share their stories. We called it Readers' Writes, and we were humbled by the outpouring of talented, personal stories we received.

For papers to work, readers need to feel a connection, that the paper they hold in their hands or read online is their paper. So today, in the spirit of The Ithaca Times, we bring you our second annual Readers' Writes issue.

Once again, readers astounded me. I was moved as I read about the "little red-haired boy" who arrived after Joan Miner (left) thought everything was fine with two yellow cats and scuffy terrier. I felt Blaine Paxton Hall's pride (and wanted to know more) at owning, at age 58, his first home. I smiled at Jane Schroeder's photo of Scout patiently waiting for his walk, and felt a catch in my throat reading Mary Jane Young's essay on growing up during another Depression. (That's her at age 5, left.)

Thank you, everyone, who made this issue of Readers' Writes even bigger than our first.

And thank you, S.K. List, who taught me by example, to never take what we do for granted.      

Happy New Year,

Mark

If you're like me you read part of the paper over dinner. Here's a look at today's local headlines:

"SOUL" MAN: Ed Camp made me laugh. He sent a photo of himself for today's story on his being named the director of the ArtsCenter. "Wouldn't you like to send one where you're smiling?" I e-mailed him back. "I am smiling," he said. He may not look it, but read our story to find out more about the man everyone says is passionate about the community and eagerly looking forward to his new job.

UP ON THE ROOF: Always liked the James Taylor version ("Handyman" too). ... Kidzu, the children's museum on Franklin Street, still hopes to move to the top of the Wallace Parking Deck on East Rosemary Street. So why did board chairman Jonathan Mills recently tell Mayor Foy time was running out? Read our story and find out.

RANTING REPUBLICANS I was sure we'd get some calls this morning about our coverage of the Chatham Democrats meeting last weekend. Pretty partisan rhetoric, as you'd imagine. But the only call was about our political cartoon. Just for the record, cartoons do not reflect the position of the paper, just that of the cartoonist. Read Spencie Love's story to find out what the Democratic Senate hopefuls told the party faithful.

NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER: I still miss writer Rolland Wrenn, longtime columnist. I don't know if wisdom comes with age or some people are just born with it (or both). Read Eunice Brock because she's smart, writes about important things and knows how to tell a story.   

Flo Johnston wries about the Kol Haskalah in this week's faith column. Randy Young recaps the fifth annual UNC Wellness Sprint Triathlon and Michelle Johnson says come get radicalized in Carrboro (like you'd go anyplace else).

Enjoy the respite from the heat, and thanks for reading,

Mark       

Of course the big news is what people are saying at tonight's meetings on the possible Millhouse Road transfer station site and Carolina North. Those happened too late to make tomorrow's community paper. Here are the headlines there:

5,000 APPEALS: That's how many property owners challenged their revaluations during the informal appeals process that just ended. Abut 55 percent of the appeals resulted in changed values, "99.5 percent" of them lower, says Tax Assessor John Smith. Read why some other property owners also had their valuations lowered -- without even having to ask.

ARTS AND MUSIC: What do puberty and budget cuts have to do with each other? (OK, got your attention?) Read correspondent Colin Campbell's story to find out why fewer teachers could mean fewer boys in school chorus next year. (And a big thanks to Colin, who started his new job at the Smithfield paper yesterday. We will be looking for a part-time writer to pick up his police blotter in the coming weeks.)

FREEDOM HOUSE: We ran out of room for this story in Sunday's paper. Julian March reports on Freedom House's $2 million-plus expansion and what it means for substance abusers trying to get clean.

JUNETEENTH: Ernest Dollar's parents had a sense of humor. And to his credit, so does Dollar, the director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. But there's nothing funny about his lecture on slavery in Orange County tomorow. Read what he has to say about it in the My View column on the front page.

Plenty more, including the return of "What's Up With That?", in which we tell you what that big pile of dirt on Eubanks Road is all about.

As always, thanks for reading,

Mark     

Here's a look at tomorrow's headlines:

PHONY FLIERS: Read Jesse's post below this one for part of the story. Read our CHN story for more. Criticism of the Greenbridge project is rising along with the towers along West Rosemary Street. Read what people are saying and what the developers have to say in return on our front page and on our op ed page. And tell us what you think about the project and the debate in a letter to the editor at editor@nando.com.

PANTRIES IN DEMAND: The IFC is almost giving away twice as much food as it did two years ago. The numbers are up at Orange Congregations in Mission in the central and northern part of the county. Read Dave Hart's story on how local food pantries are trying to keep up with demand as the recession drags on.  

'O' CRUEL WAR': That would be the Civil War, and that would be Ernie Dollar, Chapel Hill preservationist, in Federal (Union) garb on our front page. Find out why in this second story by Dave in tomorrow's paper.   

EXCLUSION BY DESIGN: Augustus Cho is going to provoke some people with his My View column. After getting fliers home from his children's schools for African American parents meetings and Latino parents meetings, he got to wondering, "Why were such racial/cultural specific meetings even necessary." Read his column and see if you agree.

And don't forget to watch Anoop tonight. N&O music critic David Menconi has some great suggestions for what Quentin Tarantino soundtrack song Chapel Hill's Clef Hanger should sing in tonight's "American Idol" show.

Plenty more, lots of letters, Martha Tyson on why Carrboro isn't giving up on getting its own full-service library, and Flo Johnston writes about cats -- in church. 

Thanks for reading,

 Mark

Here's a look at tomorrow's headlines:

TAXING TIMES: Orange Tax Revolt is calling on the county commissioners to rescind the 2009 tax revaluation. At least three North Carolina counties have done it. We spoke to one of them, and to two local legal experts who tell us why Orange County should not follow suit.

DENSITY REDUX: The Chapel Hill Town Council will talk again Monday about whether to extend high density zoning outside downtown. Then they'll talk about Ayden Court, where Carol Ann Zinn says she can either build a lot of (relatively) affordable, environmentally friendly townhouses (if she gets the density) or a lot fewer high-end luxury homes. Read Jesse James DeConto's preview of how the meeting is shaping up.

PEDERSEN'S PREDICAMENT: Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen wrote a budget assuming no local funding increase. It included $900,000 in cuts just to keep pace with rising costs and student enrollment. Now, Colin Campbell reports, the superintendent and school board must cut deeper as county and state governments grappled with the recession.

A UNC expert tells us how the university is fighting global warming, Jesse reports on the latest news in high school athlete Atlas Fraley's death, and reader Jim Postma says it's time for a Proposition 13-like movement in Orange County.

Great day, enjoy the sunshine ... and thanks for reading,

Mark

Here's a look at tomorrow's paper:

FAULTY TOWERS?: Some 100 people showed up for a meeting two weeks on Greenbridge and what it signals for the Northside community. Emotions were running high. Read Colin Campbell's report and a guest column by developer Tim Toben on how developers are trying to respect the neighborhood even as their seven- and 10-story condominium towers forever alter it.

UNC'S WAITING GAME: The cuts are coming, but Chancellor Holden Thorp says he can't say when or how extensive. Eric Ferreri went to this week's meeting between administrators and members of the Employee Forum. Read his story to see how UNC is coping with the worst economic crisis in most of our lives.        

DENSITY: Staff writers Jesse DeConto and former staffer Lisa Hoppenjans won honors two years ago for a report that asked whether Chapel Hill was becoming a mini city. We ran sketches of the future Lot 5 condos. But reader response was tepid. It's hard to get people interested in theoretical ideas (more on that in a future post with Mike Collins of Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth). We can now ditch the theory. Between Greenbridge and East 54, the high rises are rising. Read what some readers think on our editorial page.     

There's more. Debbie Meyer writes about the new Chagall exhibit at University Mall, Lyle Estill's ready for a bus between Pittsboro and Chapel Hill, and Superintendent Neil Pedersen tells us why the budget he'll bring the school board Thursday night is unlike any other in his 17 years. (Of course if you read our blog, you already know about that.)

Thanks for reading -- wherever you read us,

Mark