News

The Beaver Queen Pageant is a mix of costumes, excess and shady dealings. It boasts participants with names like Scarlett O'Beavah and Cherry Cherry Bang Bang DaBeava. Saturday is the 7th Annual Beaver Queen Pageant, and it's all for a good cause: raising money for the Durham-based Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association.

Therese Fowler’s new novel “Exposure” (Ballantine Books/2011) is a Romeo-and-Juliet story with a modern twist. Eighteen-year-old Anthony is involved in a secret relationship with 17-year-old Amelia. When Amelia’s father finds naked photos of Anthony on his daughter’s computer, the boy faces potentially devastating legal consequences. The plot is one that mirrors real life. Fowler's son was arrested for sending nude photos to his girlfriend when he was 19.

Archeologist Shawn Patch loves his job. But sometimes, he needs an outlet for the music he hears in his head. He put together an acoustic duo a few years ago, and then started adding musicians. That duo has now grown to a full-fledged Americana band called The Radials. They’ll be at the Broad Street Cafe in Durham tomorrow. Doors open at 5 p.m.

 Lawmakers in the state House have approved a bill that would allow companies offering small loans to increase their interest rates. Jessica Jones reports the companies often target military customers. 

The Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center has released 41 turtles on Topsail Island. More than 4 hundred school children came from surrounding counties to watch yesterday's event. The turtles were escorted down the beach and gently returned to their ocean home. Many of the turtles that were released had been found stunned in last winter's cold water. Jean Beasley, the center's director, said sea turtles are crucial to human survival.

 The State Board of Education voted unanimously on a resolution that sharply criticizes the budget passed by the state senate today. They say it will lead to thousands of teachers and teacher assistants being laid off. 

The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival has canceled its fall season for the first time in 34 years. Administrators made the decision in light of the state budget proposal, which cuts essentially all state funds for the festival. About 15 percent of the organization's $1.1 million budget comes from the state. Artistic director Pedro Silva says the festival has to start looking for other sources of funding as the next fiscal year approaches.

The Sacrificial Poets are a local slam poetry team known for powerful spoken word performances that address important social issues like race and politics. The team believes that art creates change by making statements and asking questions. Later this month, The Sacrificial Poets will travel to Tunisia and Egypt to gather stories from people who witnessed North Africa’s political revolutions firsthand and bring those oral histories home to North Carolina.

A few years ago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Sociology Professor Judith Blau and her teaching assistant Rafael Gallegos were at Abbey Court Apartments complex in Carrboro, NC. They were passing out flyers on behalf of the Latino cultural organization El Centro when they were nearly run off by the police. The irony of the situation – that the Abbey Court neighborhood has a high density of immigrants who need support and services and that Abbey Court had the highest crime rate in Carrboro and a hostile relationship with the police department – was not lost on Blau.

In his heyday in the 1940s and '50s, jazz guitarist Greensboro native Tal Farlow wowed the Down Beat crowd, playing with Charles Mingus, Red Norvo and the like. His large hands and his intrinsic sense of harmony distinguished him from his contemporaries. Farlow walked away from the jazz scene in the late 1950s, but he never let go of his love for the music.