Quick hits: British mayor still looking for 'Lost Colony,' and N.C. toll is one of a kind

Lost Colony found at last?

"An English mayor is seeking to solve one of the biggest mysteries in American history: what happened to the settlers who were part of the so-called Lost Colony, Britain's The Guardian reported Friday.

"Andy Powell, mayor of Bideford, on England's southwestern coast, is convinced the English settlers who mysteriously disappeared from modern-day Roanoke Island joined the local Native American tribe, an assertion he says can be verified with DNA evidence in both America and Britain," according to NewsCore.

"Tales about blue-eyed Croatoans and white men spotted in the tribe seem to support Powell's hypothesis, but historians have never been able to verify what really happened. ..."

N.C. to establish first interoperable toll road in U.S.

"The N.C. Turnpike Authority signed a $5.9 million contract Tuesday for technology that will enable the state to collect tolls electronically on the 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway.

"No cash-collection tollbooths are planned for TriEx, now under construction in Research Triangle Park and western Wake County. The state's first modern toll road will open in RTP in 2011 and in western Wake in 2012. ...

"The contract also will enable North Carolina to collect electronic tolls from drivers who have E-ZPass transponders and debit accounts with turnpike agencies in northeastern states, and from those with transponders that use different technology in Florida, Texas and other southern states," according to reports.