As our local government budget sessions ended, there was a lot of hand wringing in Orange County and Chapel Hill about our fiscal future. Savings are being depleted. Education needs more funding. Capital improvements to government buildings and schools are being deferred. Property taxes are being increased with the prospect of higher rates to come. It’s beginning to look like past policies put us on an unsustainable path. We need more revenues. To that end Orange County is finally adding infrastructure to some of its economic development districts and Chapel Hill has approved redevelopment plans for Glen Lennox and the commercial areas around Eastgate.
Month: July 2014
Toyota, Ford, Honda & Chevrolet dominate Consumer Reports 2014 car-brand perception survey
Consumers continue to distinguish Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet as the leading brands overall, but several others, including Tesla and Subaru, are moving up the rankings, according to Consumer Reports’ annual Car-Brand Perception Survey. Toyota has a 25-point advantage over second-place Ford, reflecting a five-point gain over the year prior for Toyota and a three-point improvement for Ford. It could be interpreted that the safety concerns that saw the Toyota score stumble a few years ago have faded, returning the brand to its position as the perceived industry leader.
Central Carolina Community College Chatham Provost Allen retires
Central Carolina Community College in Chatham County has changed a lot since Dr. Karen Allen was hired in 1988 — and she was instrumental in bringing about those changes. Twenty-six years later, she has bid farewell to the college, retiring as of June 30. The college hired Allen in 1988 as its continuing education coordinator in Chatham County. In 1996, the Chatham resident became the college’s provost for the county with the responsibility to lead and grow the college as it served Chatham’s growing population and need for vocational, continuing, and university transfer education.
Arrest made in the shooting death of a Siler City man
Investigators from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office made an arrest in the investigation of a shooting that left one man dead in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 1. The incident occurred just outside of Siler City at a residence located at 163…
What newspapers won’t say about anti-election reform lawyers
Much has been written about the attorneys the Governor and the legislative leaders have hired to defend the Voter Information Verification Act (VIVA) against lawsuits brought by the NC-NAACP, the ACLU and the U.S. Justice Department. In contrast, to date, there have been no stories spotlighting the army of attorneys involved for the plaintiffs. Many of the attorneys are associated with the groups suing North Carolina, such as the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, League of Women Voters, ACLU, NAACP, Common Cause, and Unifour Onestop Collaborative, not to mention Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.