Charlotte-area restaurant and entertainment group, Stomp, Chomp & Roll will host a cookie recipe contest to benefit national nonprofit organization, Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Finalists in the contest will be invited to have their cookies judged on Friday, July 1 at 2 PM at The Flying Biscuit Park Road (4241 Park Rd) for a chance to win a place on the menu for their cookies at all six Stomp, Chomp & Roll locations until September 30, to recognize Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. First place also includes free food for a year at any Stomp, Chomp & Roll location. Submit your

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With little change from their straw-vote decision last week, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners voted to adopt a $1.38 billion budget on Tuesday that gives more to education and libraries, creates a fund to better manage debt, and provides for employee merit raises. The BOCC adopted the Fiscal Year 2012 budget at its regular meeting on June 7, 2011, at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. The spending plan covers July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012, and includes a property tax rate decrease of almost 2 cents. The tax rate for the total $1,385,005,882 budget is 81.66 cents per $100

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You may have seen the PepsiCo Dream Machine kiosks at your local, Charlotte-area Rite Aid store. Starting Friday, June 10, we invite you to recycle your plastic bottles and aluminum cans in Dream Machine kiosks or bins along Tryon street during the Taste of Charlotte food festival. PepsiCo’s Dream Machine is the official recycling partner for the event, and PepsiCo will have exciting giveaways and opportunities for you to interact with Dream Machines at the PepsiCo Dream Machine tent located at Booth #97 on Tryon Street, near the corner of Trade Street. This is more than just recycling – the

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Eight prominent local and internationally-known turntable technicians descend on EpiCentre on Saturday night, June 18, for the Inaugural Summer DJ Fest presented by dbraun Promotions. DJ Fest will include performances by Los Angeles-based DJ RJ Spinher, one of the best-known club DJs on the west coast; DJ Enferno, best known for his work with Madonna as both her touring DJ and for his assistance on musical arrangements and programming in the studio; DJ Roonie G, who incorporates innovative video into each of his sets, is a three-time winner of the Clubworld Best VJ Award and was ranked the No. 9

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Local budget cuts are reducing or eliminating physical education and sports programs in public schools and parks and recreation departments. Some school teams are only surviving on financial donations from parents, and those donations are drying up. With childhood obesity rates at all-time highs, parents have the daunting task of finding ways to keep their kids active and engaged. To make matters worse, local parents looking for fun, organized sports alternatives for children often find local athletic leagues can lack both fun and organization. Half of all kids quit a sports team by age 12 due to cutthroat competition, pressure

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The fourth annual Heart of a Champion Day athletic screening for high school student athletes attending Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) will be held at Carolinas College of Health Sciences, 1200 Blythe Blvd., Saturday, June 4, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. More than 400 medical volunteers will screen nearly 2,000 high school students who have pre-registered. Sponsors are CMS, CMC, CMC Sports Medicine, Levine Children’s Hospital, Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute and OrthoCarolina. Sanger, eCardio and McKesson are providing financial support. Screenings will include an electrocardiogram and echocardiogram to check for heart abnormalities that can lead to sudden death. For the

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Charlotte native Emily Maynard won the heart of Brad Womack on ABC’s hit reality show “The Bachelor” earlier this year on WSOC-TV Channel 9. Now the reality juggernaut is coming to the Queen City to see if any other southern belles have what it takes to fight for the final rose. Casting producers from “The Bachelor” will be on hand at AT&T Alive After Five on Thursday, June 16, searching for prospective bachelorettes to appear on the next season of “The Bachelor.” Registration begins at 4:30 p.m. and on-camera interviews will run through 10 p.m. at SUITE, located adjacent to

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Multi-platinum recording artist Sugar Ray will perform under the Charlotte sky at the open-air Pavilion at EpiCentre on Saturday night, June 25 as part of the Bud Light Summer Concert Series. Sugar Ray exploded onto the mainstream in the summer of 1997 with the single “Fly” from their sophomore album Floored. “Fly” spent four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart and pushed Floored to double-platinum status with over two million albums sold. The band’s 1999’s follow-up, 14:59, produced two more top ten hits, “Every Morning” and “Someday.” “When it’s Over” from Sugar Ray’s self-titled 2001 album was the group’s

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The Charlotte Museum of History will be open to the public for FREE on Saturday, May 28. CMPD’s specialized units will be on site with displays and demonstrations from noon until 3:00 p.m. The Beneath the Badge exhibit tells the history of policing in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. While the exhibit has been at the museum for more than a year, this is the last weekend it will be open to the public. Please review the attachment for additional information.

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After scouring the country, Petside.com, the online destination for pet owners and pet enthusiasts, has released its list of the Top 10 Pet-Friendly U.S. Cities: www.Petside.com/TopPetCities. The rankings, which take into consideration the number of dog parks and major pet stores, vets per population, pet-friendly city events and varying city pet policies, feature the best of the best of pet-friendliness across the nation. Coming in at the top of the list is sunny San Diego, California! With a human population of 1.3 million, and a pet population of 1.2 million, San Diego has more than a dozen dog-friendly beaches and

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