Are you going away for the holiday? What's your favorite thing to do here at home when everyone else leaves?

How many local ingredients will be in your Thanksgiving dinner?  What are you thankful for?

It seems quite likely that North Carolina could face a recount, so these numbers may change. (And they are never considered truly "final" until certified by the Board of Elections anyway.) But here's how Orange County voted, according to the NC Board of Elections, so far. I don't think any adjustments will change the outcome of these very decisive local races.

Congress:

David Price (i) (DEM)		63.44%	263,151
William (B.J.) Lawson (REP)		36.56%	151,672
			414,823

I just got the following notice from the Chapel Hill Town Manager's offce:

We are saddened by the tragic accident of Valerie Hughes, who died on Oct. 28 after being struck by a bus while crossing a street in Chapel Hill. We wish to express our deepest sympathy to her family and to her friends.

The driver of the Chapel Hill Transit bus involved in the accident, James Orr, was placed on administrative leave without pay immediately. The Town of Chapel Hill conducted an internal investigation consistent with Town policy and statutory guidelines.

Effective November 3, 2008, James Orr, Transit Operator II was terminated as an employee of the Town of Chapel Hill.

The Town Council has expressed an ongoing concern with pedestrian safety, and this unfortunate accident highlights our need to continue and improve upon that effort.

Tonight the ten applicants for the vacant seat on the Chapel Hill Town Council will have the opportunity to make their case to the 8 voters they need to convince: the rest of the Council.

Early voting starts today!  Here's a handy list of locations and hours via the Chapel Hill Herald:

There appears to be a major power outage affecting at least 2,500 Duke Power customers in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and at UNC. Duke says they don't know what the cause is, but they hope to have everything restored bt 4 pm today.

I got most of the above from http://twitter.com/dailytarheel. Follow that and http://twitter.com/orangepolitics for updates. I'm posting from my phone so tweeting is a lot easier than commenting.

(I almost called this post "Who's filling the gap, II.")  With the tragic death of Chapel Hill Town Council Member Bill Thorpe and the certain election of Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board Member Pam Hemminger to the County Commissioners, both bodies will be selecting replacements to fill those seats in the coming months.

Unfortunately, I missed both the Bolin Creek Festival and FestiFall this weekend as I am out of town visiting the Texan branch of my family. How were they?

I've been wondering how the drought and subsequent soggy summer will affect the leaves changing this year. Any theories?

What else is on your minds?

I have to say that besides Eubanks Road, Hillsborough (or of any of our municipalities) is about the worst place I can imagine putting our future waste transfer station. Apparently the two sites being looked at there are in an economic development zone. Unless they are planning for it to heavy industrial development, it doesn't seem like a good fit. (The DTH has a small graphic of the top 10 sites and Hillsborough's response to the two sites on their doorstep.)

These suggestions are so off the wall that I am wondering if they're preparing us for something really awful. I am ready for the Commissioners to get rid of the siting consultants and step up to take some responsibility for our county's garbage for a change.

Yesterday the Chapel Hill News reported without questioning a study* saying that the economic benefit of a new airport in Orange County could be four times the impact of the current Horace Williams Airport. Would a new airport be four times as big and have four times the traffic? Who would want that? And for that matter, who the hell would use it?

I understand the benefit of the current airport to the University, the hospital, and the state. But I just don't see how having an alternative to Raleigh-Durham benefits the average Orange County resident. Most of us don't have private planes, and when we need to fly, we use the commercial airport. The tax benefit to local government is negligible compared to other possible uses of the land.

I'm just not buying this.