Enlarge Sedgefield Middle science teacher -- and TOY -- Karen Meadows. (The Charlotte Observer)

Posted: May 25th, 2011 Greg Lacour

Some stories worth sharing this week:

• The Rev. Billy Graham, though an occasional player in partisan politics, tends to inspire at least respect across religious and cultural lines. Not so his son, the Rev. Franklin Graham, who’s been a far more polarizing and divisive figure – as discussed in this Observer story, which says the younger Graham acts and speaks more in the manner of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell than his own father. What’s your take on the Grahams? Is Franklin Graham’s more combative approach the best way to build trust across cultural lines in an increasingly multicultural society?


• The Latin American Coalition, Muslim American Society and Vietnamese Society have joined in a complaint to the Justice Department, alleging that North Carolina’s courts violate the rights of people who speak little or no English by failing to provide free interpreters in civil cases. The state provides interpreters in criminal cases.


• The developers of the controversial ReVenture Park project have apparently decided to scale back their plans.


• Hmm. “The same cab company that has been rejected for a contract with the Charlotte airport because its owners are convicted felons also has a lucrative contract with Mecklenburg County's Department of Social Services.”


• Teachers at Sedgefield Middle School put on an end-of-the-year skit poking fun at the familiar student-teacher dynamic. Toward the end, one of the teachers had a surprise announcement for eighth-grade science teacher Karen Meadows: She’d been named Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ Teacher Of the Year. Congratulations, Ms. Meadows!

Posted: May 24th, 2011 Greg Lacour

The Charlotte nonprofit Mothering Across Continents is trying to raise awareness of (and money for) its worldwide humanitarian projects by selling books.

But not just any books. They’re 10 nonfiction titles that tell stories of committed “ordinary people” driven to serve poor communities around the globe. MAC kicked off the I Care Book Fair, appropriately enough, on Mother’s Day, and the organization plans to keep it going until at least Mother’s Day 2012.

“I don’t know if we can say yet” whether the Book Fair will extend beyond a year, said Cindy Ballaro, who’s managing the project. “We’re committed to this first year, and I think we’ll just have to see where we are a year from now and decide if we want to continue with it.”

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Posted: May 23rd, 2011 Greg Lacour

A muggy morning, the sky milky-gray like weak coffee with too much cream, and only a few people at Common Market. The band drags their gear out of a minivan in the parking lot. Stacey’s here with her new husband, Chris. Cool. Q’s not here yet. We wait a while. It’s early yet.

This is the new anchor for Art In the A.M., the monthly Crossroads morning art experiment that kicked off in November. It hopped from place to place at first, then last month settled at the CM SouthEnd on South Tryon Street. Good, central location, and the staff sets out a spectacular spread – free coffee, pastries, fresh fruit, some granola with yogurt. People start making little breakfast parfaits in clear plastic cups. Q shows. Alex Green from CLT Blog is ready to livestream. Things get started.

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Posted: May 22nd, 2011 Tonya Jameson

The dismal statistics detailing African Americans’ precarious status – high school graduation rates, income levels, incarceration rates – weren’t a surprise to the 50 or so men and women at the Harvey B. Gantt Center on Thursday. It is those stats and others that brought attendees to hear Andrea Simpson’s talk, "Post-Racial America In the Age of Obama."

Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Richmond, is author of “The Tie that Binds: Identity and Political Attitudes in the Post-Civil Rights Generation.” In the book, Simpson examines the black identity.

Simpson prodded the audience to discuss black identity in an era when the country elected the first black president. She didn’t need much prodding. The nearly two-hour discussion was spirited long after Simpson shut down her PowerPoint presentation.

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