John Frank

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March Commemorates King's Birthday, Enduring Message

By John Frank | January 21

Led by a banner proclaiming, "The Struggle Continues," about 100 area residents marched down Franklin Street on Monday holding colorful signs and singing songs to commemorate the civil rights movement's most revered leader. Speakers during the morning service at First Baptist Church and the rally at the end of the march invoked the class equality and the anti-war spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy.

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Local Peace Movement Goes To D.C. For Protest

By John Frank | January 17

At 5:30 a.m. Saturday, the nation's capital will be quiet. The endless streams of commuters will be obsolete as the crowded interstates will be mostly empty. It will be a Saturday, and the thousands of government workers who bring Washington, D.C., alive every morning will be at home asleep. But at 5:30 a.m., Franklin Street will be bubbling with energy as nearly 400 people pool outside Internationalist Books to depart for what is expected to be the largest anti-war protest in the nation's capital since the Vietnam War.

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Snow Predicted Tonight, Friday; Residents on Alert

By John Frank | January 16

The possibility of snow in the forecast put local governments, power companies and residents into motion Wednesday as they braced for the first winter weather since the December ice storm. The National Weather Service in Raleigh issued a winter storm watch for tonight and Friday morning for the entire Triangle area. A low-pressure system will move off the East Coast, making room for a high- pressure system bringing cold Arctic air into North Carolina by today, according to National Weather Service reports.

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Armed Robbers Attack Local Man

By John Frank | January 10

A 22-year-old Carrboro resident was robbed at gunpoint by two unidentified men Wednesday night in front of his Abbey Court apartment. The victim said he was in his vehicle near the mailboxes in front of the Z Building when he heard someone he thought he knew yelling at him, Carrboro police reports state. One suspect approached his car brandishing a silver semi-automatic handgun and asked the victim to get out. The victim exited the car and, with the gun pointed at his chest, he was told to hand over all his money, reports state.

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Police Investigate Rash of Break-Ins

By John Frank | January 10

Chapel Hill police are looking into the possibility that a rash of recent vehicle break-ins are related. Police arrested two men after a victim saw them fleeing his vehicle in the Culbreth Middle School parking lot. When the victim noticed his car was broken into and his car speakers stolen, he followed the suspects until their green Toyota pickup truck was pulled over for erratic driving by a DMV officer at Fire Station 5 on Bennett Road.

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3 Arrested After Carrboro Resident Finds Men in His House

By John Frank | January 9

Carrboro police are searching for a possible fourth suspect in a Tuesday burglary where three homeless men reportedly broke into a home and stole more than 50 items worth thousands of dollars. The stolen items included a hunting knife, a rifle and two handguns -- one a Civil War-era Remington six-shot revolver worth $1,700, reports state. Police arrested three people in connection with the burglary after the victim returned home from a three-week vacation to find the three suspects eating and watching television in his living room.

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Carrboro Officials Announce That Cleanup of Debris Will Continue Into February

By John Frank | January 8

Carrboro residents will have to wait several more weeks before the debris from the December ice storm is cleaned up completely. But on Tuesday, town officials promised the cleanup will go more quickly now that a debris removal company has been hired. The Board of Aldermen voted 6-0 at a special meeting Tuesday night to award a contract to Five Oaks Builders Inc., of Madisonville, Ky., to take over the debris collection efforts.

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Police Look for 3 Robbery Suspects

By John Frank | January 7

Carrboro police are searching for three men who robbed an 18-year-old man in his home Sunday afternoon. The case is under investigation, but Carrboro police Capt. Daryl Caldwell said police are following several leads on suspects. The victim described one man as a 20-year-old, tall, heavyset white man and another as a 20-year-old, short black man with dark complexion, Caldwell said. He was not able to give police a description of the third suspect.

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Ice Storm's Impact, Cost Linger in Town

By John Frank | January 7

One month after a fierce ice storm brought down tree limbs and power lines and crippled the winter-weary Triangle, local officials still are trying to get a grasp on the massive cleanup effort. Chapel Hill officials estimated early on that they would collect up to 20,000 tons of debris at a cost of almost $1 million. Public Works Director Bruce Heflin said that those initial estimates might be on the high side but that so far the town has double the amount of debris annually collected.

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UNC Employees Renew Efforts For BOT Input

By John Frank | December 2

Despite being denied representation on the Board of Trustees once already, Employee Forum chairman Tommy Griffin has vowed to fight on until the staff has a voice in the governing of the University. Griffin disclosed Sunday his plans to establish a task force of former forum chairmen to develop a report about the importance of employee representation on the BOT. The task force's formation is the latest effort by the Employee Forum to play a larger part in the University's policy formation process. The forum passed a resolution Nov.