Durham · Chapel Hill · Raleigh · August 5, 2026

Moon Photos, Jerk Chicken, and Five-Dollar Oysters

⚡ Quick Hits

🦪 Skrimp Shack on North Duke Street is selling a quarter pound of fried oysters for $5 today.
🌶️ NC Jerk Fest is free at Durham Central Park on Saturday.
🚗 Chapel Hill police have logged 320 car break-ins so far this year.

First Up

Christina Koch hung a print of Earthrise, the Apollo 8 shot from 1968, on her dorm wall at NC State, back when she was studying physics and electrical engineering and shooting soccer games and the State Fair for the Technician on the side. In April she was aboard Artemis II and took the photo everyone is now calling Earthset — Earth dropping below the lunar horizon. NC State throws her a homecoming August 24 and 25, and the Welcome Home Celebration is the part open to the public. (INDY Week)

📰 Around the Triangle

Storms cut power to more than 7,000 Durham customers: a tree came down and took most of south Durham's grid with it before crews restored service. (WRAL)
Duke Energy posted $2.6 billion in profits: earnings for the first half are up almost 12% from a year ago while state regulators deliberate on its rate-hike request. (WUNC)
$5 oysters on North Duke today: Skrimp Shack is marking National Oyster Day with a quarter pound of fried oysters for $5 instead of $10, one order per person. (Skrimp Shack)
Chapel Hill police assigned a team to car break-ins: 14 cars were hit over the weekend and 320 have been reported this year, and the new team is looking for patterns. (Chapelboro)
An Orange County church's land was sold without the owner knowing: a property more than a decade in the making was nearly lost to an elaborate real estate scam. (ABC11)
Wake County schools are cutting another $17.6 million: a raise to the locally funded teacher salary supplement is one of the things that may go. (WUNC)
CAM Raleigh is selling its building: the contemporary art museum has been at 409 W. Martin Street for 15 years. (WUNC)
The hemp ban vote is off until November: hundreds of hemp advocates filled the halls of the legislative building and the NC House decided not to take the vote. (NC Newsline)

📅 Plan Your Week

🥁 Wednesday, August 5 (Today)

Batala Drumming Practice: The Pavilion at Durham Central Park, 7 to 9 p.m. The local drum group rehearses out in the open, which is better than it sounds. (Details)
Wine Down Wednesday: La Vita Dolce, Southern Village, Chapel Hill, 5 to 8 p.m., music at 6. Tenth year running. (Details)
Free Acro Yoga: Pullen Park, Raleigh, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Yoga crossed with acrobatics, beginners included. Bring a mat. (Details)

🎭 Thursday, August 6

Doodle & Drink: Ment Beverage Co., Durham. Bring the sketchbook, comic, or half-finished thing you're stuck on. (Details)
The Winks & Rouge Cabaret: Durty Bull Brewing, Durham. Burlesque and drag open stage. (Details)
Wolves on the Run: the dock at Lake Raleigh, Raleigh. A social run or walk, open to anyone. (Details)

🏺 Friday, August 7

Indelible: Tattooed Ceramics opens: Claymakers, 470 Salem Street, Durham. Forty ceramic pieces by 14 potters, painted with designs by 20 tattoo artists. (Details)
Tour: A Closer Look at "Care and Concern": Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. Half an hour, a handful of new acquisitions, an educator who knows them. (Details)
First Friday Market & Movie: Zootopia: Moore Square, Raleigh. Market first, then the movie on the grass. 👨‍👩‍👧 (Details)

🌶️ Saturday, August 8

NC Jerk Fest: Durham Central Park, 3 to 9 p.m. A free celebration of Jamaican independence, organized around jerk chicken. 👨‍👩‍👧 (Details)
Downtown Durham African American Historian-Guided Tour: meets at CCB Plaza. A walking tour of Black Wall Street led by a local historian. (Details)
Sip & Create: Soap Making: The Glass Jug Downtown, Durham, 2 to 4 p.m. Make soap in a brewery, which is a combination nobody asked for and everybody enjoys. (Details)
Container Gardening 2.0: JC Raulston Arboretum, Raleigh, morning session. How to keep pots alive through the back half of August. (Details)

🍹 Sunday, August 9

Tiki Cocktail Class: Durham Distillery, Durham, 3 p.m. Rum, citrus, spice, and how to keep them from fighting. (Details)
DRIFT Rooftop DJ Sets: The Velvet Hippo on Orange Street, Durham, 4 to 7 p.m. Music off the roof, every Sunday. (Details)

💬 Heard Around Town

Durham PD is declining to hand over its Flock license-plate camera logs, calling them a record of a criminal investigation, after residents asked for them under the public records law. (Thread)
A Durham vegetarian went line by line through INDY Week's best-veg rankings and pointed out that the third-place "vegan" restaurant serves fish. (Thread)
A Chapel Hill high schooler got his landscaping business fully licensed and insured, with about two weeks left before school starts back. (Thread)
Somebody started a Triangle donut argument. Opening nominations: Tepuy up on Capital Boulevard, and Bakers Dozen in Cary and Apex for the pink-box classics. (Thread)

🏡 Triangle Pulse

📊 Stat of the week: Durham County had 1,207 homes on the market in July, 13.1% more than a year ago, and the median list price slipped 2.3% to $428,623. (Realtor.com research data, July 2026)

More to choose from and asking prices nudging down. Sellers are competing with more neighbors than they were last August.

Before You Go

A longtime volunteer at the Animal Protection Society in Durham has one tip for anyone coming to adopt a cat: don't show up during nap time. (Thread) Somebody else is hunting for land conservation and wildlife rehab groups around Durham and Raleigh that need volunteers. (Thread)

🧠 Brain break: today's Daily Fury is live. Five questions, the same five for everyone. Defend the Triangle's honor.

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