• Counter Culture Coffee's Lem Butler used his advances barista skills to capture the top honors at the 2010 Southeast Barista Championship.
• Duke University junior Jasmine Thomas is one of eight nominees for the national 2010 Nancy Lieberman Award.
• Duke University researcher Mark Onaitis brought home a grant from the NC chapter of the National Lung Cancer Partnership from its 2010 Young Investigator Research Grant competition.
• Former Duke star Christian Laettner earned a spot on the 2010 class for the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
• Duke University Muslim Chaplain Imam Abdullah Antepli will have the honor of giving the opening prayer to the U.S. House of Representatives on March 3 in Washington, D.C.
• The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Duke Basketball player Jon Scheyer as one of 30 midseason candidates for the 2010 Naismith Trophy, awarded annually to the collegiate national player of the year.

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• Magnolia Grill earned recognition as a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant and Outstanding Service in the 2010 James Bread Foundation Awards competition.
• Scott Howell of Nana's has been recognized for his talents as a semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast in the 2010 James Bread Foundation Awards competition.
• The Durham, NC MSA ranked 6th on Hanley Wood Market Intelligence's list of Healthiest Markets among the top 100 U.S. Housing Markets.
• Paula Rosine Long, a 2009 Duke University graduate, was one of 29 students from outside the United Kingdom to receive a Gates Cambridge Scholarship that covers the full cost to study at Cambridge University in England.
• Durham County is the 11th-healthiest county in North Carolina, according to a report by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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• The Durham, NC MSA ranked #22 on the Gallup Poll's Overall Well-Being Composite Score for Medium and Small Metro Areas.
• The Latino Community Credit Union brought home the Southern Growth Policies Board's 2010 Innovator award in recognition of its efforts to improve economic opportunities and quality of life in North Carolina.
• Durham Public Schools will continue to close the achievement gap between African-American male students and their peers with help from a grant secured from the NEA Foundation for the Redefining Futures for African-American Males Initiative.
• iContact was ranked the #1 Email Marketing Service Provider and Resource for Web professionals according to Website Magazine's 2010 Top 50 rankings.
• The City of Durham's sound financial management of its water and sewer operations has been rewarded through affirmation of its 'AAA' bond rating from Fitch Ratings allowing the City to borrow money at the lowest interest rates available.
• The Hillandale Golf Course golf shop earned a spot among the "100 Best Golf Shops" for the 23rd consecutive year and was one of 25 public facilities honored according to Golf World.
• RTI International has developed a revolutionary lighting technology that is more energy efficient than the common incandescent light bulb and does not contain mercury, making it environmentally safer than the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb.
• Durham Pastor Laurie Hays Coffman's 30-minute film, "Coming Out, Coming In: Faith, Identity, Belonging," earned the distinction of Topical Documentary of the year as awarded by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

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• DPAC - Durham Performing Arts Center made the list of the top 100 theater venues on the planet according to Pollstar magazine's Top Worldwide Theater Venues.
• Sara Foster, of Foster's Market, earned Restaurateur of the Year and Michael Martino, of the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, was honored as the Lodging Operator of the Year from the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association.
• North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics senior Lanair Lett is one of 40 finalists nationwide and the only finalist from North Carolina in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search.
• Durham, NC got an A rating and placed 94th on the list of America's 100 Drunkest Cities indicating that Durham is one of the most sober in the country.
• Durham-based SportsMedia Technology Corp. provided the technology to broadcast the timing, scoring, and statistics for the Super Bowl on Sunday for the 10th year.

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• Durham's Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble garnered recognition from the Washington Post as a way to commemorate Black History Month.
• Durham-based kora player Mamadou Diabate was recognized with his first Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional World Music Album for the recording "Douga Mansa".
• The Durham Performance Learning Center earned kudos from Bill Gates in his 2010 Annual Letter on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's website.
• Duke Men's Basketball Senior guard Jon Scheyer was celebrated for his talent as one of ten nationwide named a 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalist.
• The Ronald McDonald House in Durham (North Carolina's first) is celebrating its 30th anniversary having served nearly 30,000 families over the past three decades.
• The City of Durham's Purchasing Division earned the highest award a purchasing department or division can obtain within the Carolinas Association of Governmental Purchasing, the Sustained Professional Purchasing Award for 2009.
• The Avery Boys & Girls Club of Durham is celebrating its 70th anniversary of providing a safe and nurturing place for boys and girls to grow and learn.

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