January

Jan. 10: Occupy Chapel Hill-Carrboro takes down its tents at Peace and Justice Plaza outside the downtown post office on Franklin Street after three months.

Jan. 30: A judge defers prosecution or assigns prayers for judgment against a group of activists charged with the November 2011 Yates Motor building occupation.

February

Feb. 4: Activists briefly occupy the former WCOM community radio station at 201 N. Greensboro St. in Carrboro to protest plans for a CVS.

Feb. 12:. The Carrboro Board of Alderman appoint veteran Arizona administrator David Andrews to be the town’s new manager effective, March 15.

March

March 1: Greenbridge, the 10-story condominium project, is officially foreclosed on after developers of the $60 million ran $1.6 million over budget.

March 1: The state Board of Education approves the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter School, the first charter school in Chapel Hill and third in the county.

March 2: Wal-Mart formally applies to build a 148,000 square-foot store on U.S. 15-501 in northern Chatham County, just south of Chapel Hill.

March 23: Dwight Bassett steps down as the Town of Chapel Hill’s economic development director to take a similar post in Raleigh.

March 26: The Chapel Hill Town Council votes 5-4 to become the first town in the state and nation to ban handheld and hands-free cell phone use while driving.

April

April 15: Katie Ricks becomes the first open lesbian to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) since the denomination opened ordination to LGBT candidates in July 2010.

May

May 8: A judge sentences Brian Minton to life in prison in the death of Josh Bailey in 2008.

May 22: The Carrboro Board of Aldermen unanimously approve a $5.1 million redevelopment of the PTA Thrift Shop in Carrboro.

May 25: Chahnaz Kebaier, a mother of two, is fatally shot outside Scroggs Elementary School in Southern Village; police charge her husband with murder.

June

June 5: John Lloyd Snipes, owner of the ‘Heelraiser’ and Santa in the Hillsborough holiday parade, dies at 52 in his Hillsborough home.

June 7: Aspen Square management of Massachusetts pays $7.1 million for the former Abbey Court/Old Well condominiums on Jones Ferry Road in Carrboro.

June 19: The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau unveils its new $300,000 “Edge of the Triangle” campaign inviting visitors to “travel to the fringe of mainstream.”

July

July 30: Duke diver Nick McCrory, an East Chapel Hill High graduate, wins the bronze medal in the men’s 10-meter synchronized diving event.

August

Aug. 2: Publisher Robert Dickson announces he is ending the Carrboro Citizen in a column called “Buy this newspaper.”

Aug. 2: Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson sides with George’s Towing lawsuit, voiding town towing rules and ban on cell phone use while driving

Aug. 17. Chapel Hill teacher Bert Wartski and Anne Thompson go to court to protest their involuntary transfers to other schools. They will lose.

Aug. 16: UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp announces he has asked former Gov. Jim Martin and a national consultant to investigate the academic fraud scandal.

Aug. 28: Ernie Dollar, the indefatigable director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, announces he has taken a job as director of the Raleigh City Museum.

September

Sept. 7: UNC sophomore Faith Hedgepeth is found dead in her Chapel Hill apartment. Police release little information about her death, and her murder remains unsolved.

Sept. 9: Matt Kupec, a star quarterback for UNC who later returned to become its chief fundraiser, resigns after an investigation shows he and university fundraiser Tami Hansbrough took personal trips together at the university’s expense.

Sept. 17: UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp announces his resignation, effective in June 2013

Sept. 21: Singer songwriter Tift Merritt headlines a free concert on the Carrboro Town Commons

Sept. 24: The Chapel Hill Town Council narrowly approves the controversial Charterwood development off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

October

Oct. 12: Former UNC President Bill Friday dies at 92.

Oct. 16: First Lady Michelle Obama visits Chapel Hill.

Oct. 27: UNC freshman David Shannon is found dead; police say he fell from machinery at the Ready Mixed Concrete Plant in Carrboro

November

Nov. 1: Dwight Bassett returns to Chapel Hill Town Hall

Nov. 6: Orange County voters approve quarter-cent sales tax for bus and light-rail transit plan

Nov. 20: The Orange County Board of Commissioners approve public smoking ban

December

Dec. 1: The Carrboro Jaguars, in only their sixth year as a varsity team, compile a 15-1 record, losing in the NCHSAA 2AA championship in a 30-27 nailbiter.

Dec. 3: The Chapel Hill Town Council votes 5-2 to allow religious, political and social issue ads on buses. A visible disclaimer will state the town does not endorse the opinions expressed.

Dec. 19: A Chapel Hill advisory board begins a review of giant posters of Dean Smith, Roy Williams and Michael Jordan in a new restaurant at East 54 to see if they are signs subject to town rules.

Dec. 20: No-show classes and poorly managed independent studies within UNC’s African and Afro-American studies department stretch back at least to 1997, according to a report from former Gov. Jim Martin. The review finds 216 courses with problems, but says the problems represent an academic scandal, “not an athletic scandal.”