🗞️ John Coltrane's son will headline the festival in his father's hometown

🗞️ Tanglewood is getting a championship disc golf course, and finishing its big trail loop

🗞️ Pepsi signs a 10-year deal with Wake Forest, and the jobs are close to home

🗞️ Heads up: Hanes Mill Road bridge and U.S. 52 ramps close this weekend

⛈️ Hot, humid, storms likely | High: 87°F | Low: 68°F

Summer turns up the volume today. It stays hot and sticky with a feels-like near 95, and forecasters have the whole area under a severe thunderstorm watch. Scattered storms are likely in the afternoon and evening, and a few could turn strong, so keep an eye on the sky and have a way to get weather alerts if you are out and about.

One of the great names in jazz is coming home, in a way.

Ravi Coltrane, a saxophonist and the son of the legendary John Coltrane, will be a featured performer at the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival in High Point, the city where his father grew up. The festival runs September 5 and 6, and Ravi is scheduled to play on Saturday the 6th.

He is in strong company. The two-day lineup includes Grammy-winning soul artist Ledisi, bass virtuoso Victor Wooten and The Wooten Brothers, Raul Midón, Cyrille Aimée, Mike Phillips, and the NC Coltrane All-Star Band. Gates open at 3 p.m. each day, and tickets and details are at coltranejazzfest.com.

There is more around the edges, too. The weekend kicks off Friday, September 4 with a benefit golf outing at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, and that evening the High Point Theatre hosts an interactive masterclass with Victor Wooten and The Wooten Brothers, full of stories and demonstrations. It is a genuinely big cultural weekend right next door, and a nice one to put on the calendar now.

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If Tanglewood Park is part of your family's rotation, and for a lot of us it is, there is some fun stuff coming.

The 1,100-acre Forsyth County park along the Yadkin River is adding a 24-hole disc golf course built for real, championship-level play. Picture a six-hole warm-up area, 18 holes winding through the woods with multiple tee pads, 54 baskets for different shot angles, and a picnic shelter that doubles as a clubhouse, all on about 24 acres across from the Brunstetter Aquatic Center. "It should be a destination for disc golf," said Chris Weavil, director of Forsyth County Parks and Recreation. It is already 80 to 85% done and is expected to open in September.

There is good news for walkers and runners too. The park is designing the fourth and final phase of its paved multi-use trail, which will connect the current dead end near the maintenance center to the path near the Manor House. When it is finished, you will have a roughly 4-mile, mostly shaded loop through the heart of Tanglewood. An observation deck near the river is in the works as well.

None of this is instant, parks tend to grow bit by bit as money comes together, and the trail work has been going since 2012 with a target of fall 2027. But between the disc golf course this fall and the finished loop to come, there is a lot to look forward to at one of our favorite places to get outside.

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Here is a local business handshake with a Kernersville-area angle.

Wake Forest University announced a new 10-year contract making Pepsi Bottling Ventures its exclusive beverage supplier, expanding a relationship that used to be mostly about athletics into the whole campus, including the Reynolda Campus, Wake Downtown and the Graylyn Estate. New university president Peter Rodriguez called it "far more than a beverage agreement," pointing to scholarships, paid internships, student career opportunities and even name-image-and-likeness support for Demon Deacon athletes.

Why it matters here: Pepsi Bottling Ventures runs two production facilities right in the Union Cross Business Park on the Winston-Salem and Kernersville line, employing more than 550 people between them. Wake Forest specifically framed the deal as a bet on regional partners, so a big, long-term contract like this helps anchor jobs that plenty of our neighbors hold.

Founded in 1943 and based in Raleigh, Pepsi Bottling Ventures is the largest independent bottler of PepsiCo drinks in the country. The deal also promises more low- and zero-sugar options on campus, upgraded vending, and some sustainability and recycling work. Not bad for a soda contract.

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A quick one for your weekend planning, especially if you haul anything to the landfill.

As part of the state's Hanes Mill Road Widening project, an NCDOT contractor will close the Hanes Mill Road bridge and the ramps at U.S. 52 starting Friday, July 31 at 9 a.m. The work is expected to wrap up by noon on Sunday, August 2, weather permitting. During the closure, access to the Hanes Mill Road Solid Waste Facility, the county landfill, will be limited, so if a dump run is on your Saturday list, plan around it.

The contractor will handle traffic control and detours will be posted, but the simplest advice is to avoid the area and take an alternate route if you can. If you want to check conditions before you head out, NCDOT keeps real-time road closures and detours updated online.

Check NC road conditions