WCNC Charlotte To Go

Charlotte city leaders are seeking solutions to the city's affordable housing crisis. Monday night, Charlotte City Council discussed several new projects that would bring hundreds of affordable apartments and some homes to the Queen City.  The city of Charlotte is looking to add 602 new and affordable units throughout the city.  "There is a real crisis,"  District 4 councilwoman Renee Perkins John...

The number of  COVID-19 hospitalizations  nationwide are at an all-time low falling 32% over the last two weeks. We are also seeing similar trends here in the Carolinas with South Carolina and most of North Carolina having low community levels. Health officials say hospitalizations are continuing to decrease week after week, and even though the BA.2 subvariant of omicron is becoming more prominent...

A tornado likely touched down near the border of Anson and Stanly counties in North Carolina Thursday. Photos shared by the  Anson County Emergency Management  show severe  weather  storm damage from the possible tornado in the Burnsville community near Polkton. Emergency officials said chicken houses were destroyed, and damage occurred to homes and trees. The National Weather Service in Raleigh ,...

Students at Hopewell High School in Huntersville spent their first day going through  newly installed body scanners  Wednesday morning, as  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools  seeks solutions for  violence on its campuses .  Hopewell is one of  seven schools piloting the scanners  to test how CMS handles them before they're rolled out at every high school in the district. The decision to install the sc...

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein visited Charlotte on Tuesday to discuss the state's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. Stein was joined by the  Center for Prevention Services ,  Queen City Harm Reduction , the  Mecklenburg County Health Department , and other local officials. The discussion focused on the area's allocation of opioid settlement funds, the syringe program, and the neg...

The  Carolina Panthers  training facility project is still in limbo, and a Rock Hill, South Carolina, business owner spoke out about his concerns by writing a letter and sending it to city and county leaders. Ryan Sanderson is the co-founder of the  Knowledge Perk coffee shop .  In his letter, he asked leaders to work together so the Panthers training facility project doesn’t leave Rock Hill.  “I’...

A plan years in the making could pick up some traction on Monday, March 28, from Charlotte City Council. According to Monday's agenda, in 2016, members of SouthPark's business community began discussions to create a municipal service district to "enhance the economic vitality of the area." READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/southpark-municipal-service-district-charlotte-city-counci...

Two former Charlotte teachers filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission  after claiming their attempts to buy the historic  Torrence-Lytle School  in Huntersville were denied while white buyers were offered lower prices.  Tyson and Regina Bates attempted to buy the historic school, which was among the first for Black students in Charlott...

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools  third-graders continue to fall behind in English Language Arts despite returning to the classroom. This was revealed at Wednesday night's school board meeting in a mid-year progress report on college and career readiness in schools in the district. Preliminary reports  show Black and Hispanic third-graders at CMS are still off track to be college and career ready bas...

House Democrats have introduced multiple proposals aimed at sending direct payments to Americans to help cover  high gas prices . The plans have some similarities to the one that sent  $1,400 stimulus checks  to millions last year during COVID-19. The national daily average has been more than $4 per gallon for two weeks. It was $4.25 on Monday, down seven cents from a week ago, but still 72 cents...

York County leaders voted Monday night on a potential plan to save the Carolina Panthers training facility.  In a last-minute vote, members of the York County Council agreed to bring a new financing offer for the infrastructure on the Rock Hill site.  Earlier this month, the Panthers said construction on the new practice facility was put on pause after the city didn't pay an installment on the pro...

The Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that confirmation hearings for  Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson  will begin March 21, keeping the Senate on track for a possible final vote next month. Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee chairman, announced the hearing schedule on Wednesday as Jackson was holding her first meetings with senators on Capitol Hill. Jackson met in the morning with...

Gov.  Roy Cooper  said North Carolina is now  entering the next phase  of the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitalizations and daily cases continue to drop statewide.  "We can look forward with the belief that the worst is behind us," Cooper said. "As we look ahead, it's important to take stock of how far we've come." Cooper praised North Carolina's response during the pandemic, all the way back to the...

The average price for a gallon of gas in North Carolina  hit a record high of $4.19 last week , and although prices are dropping penny by penny,  drivers are paying a lot more  than they were just a few weeks ago.  At what point  do the rising prices change people's behavior  and driving habits? Experts say a lot of it depends on someone’s personal situation, but some have already changed where th...

The owners of  Brooks' Sandwich House  and  Myers Park Presbyterian Church  are teaming up to build more than a dozen townhomes in east Charlotte to help address the city's  affordable housing crisis . In 2018,  one year before Scott Brooks was shot and killed  at the beloved NoDa restaurant  during an armed robbery , he and his brother David donated a 2-acre tract of land on East Lane Drive, just...

The  Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners  will vote for Wilhelmenia Rembert to temporarily fill the empty at-Large County Commissioner seat. The seat is currently open due to the Board approving a Commissioner At-Large Ella Scarborough’s request for medical leave back in February. Rembert was up against three other candidates for the empty at large county commission seat left open by Ella Sc...

Just six weeks after announcing his career was finished, Tom Brady pulled a stunner on Twitter by saying he will return for his 23rd NFL season. Needless to say this wasn't well received by the Panthers or Carolina fans. Our panel reacts to Brady's announcement, and we joke about what it will look like when we finally retire. For weeks, you've heard reports about the Russian economy collapsing und...

Happy Friday! March 11 will be a mild day in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area with afternoon highs around 60 degrees. Larry Sprinkle has your complete forecast as we get ready for the weekend, plus we're moving our clocks forward. Do you like the change, or do you wish we'd have one standard time all year? Let us know -- Text the show at 704-329-3600! Gas prices are at record highs across North...

In the next few weeks,  Charlotte-Mecklenburg School’s superintendent  is expected to ask the school board to consider millions of dollars in new funding for teachers and staff. The district has seen more than  10% of its staff resign or retire  since the beginning of the school year.  CMS central staff presented a  working budget document  that asks the school board to consider allocating $72.1 m...

The final four applicants have been selected for the open Mecklenburg County Commissioners seat. The seat is currently open due to the Board approving a request for medical leave from  Commissioner At-Large Ella Scarborough.  North Carolina General Statutes (NCGS) § 128-40 permits the Board of County Commissioners to appoint a temporary replacement for the period of the official's leave of absence...

People in the United States can now order four more free,  at-home COVID-19 tests  from the federal government as part of  the Biden administration's effort to increase testing  after the  omicron surge .  The tests can be ordered from  COVIDtests.gov  in a program that's being run in conjunction with the  U.S. Postal Service . Just like the first round of at-home test ordering, entering a U.S. ho...

Face masks will be optional on UNC Charlotte's campus effective Monday, March 7.  The university provided the update on  Monday, Feb. 28,  just days after the  UNC System  issued guidance that makes face masks optional in all indoor settings on campuses within the system effective on that day.  Masks will be optional in all indoor settings at UNC Charlotte, including classrooms and other academic...

Baptist churches across North Carolina are continuing to offer aid with more than 1 million people being displaced due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Baptists on Mission, a Cary-based agency under the  Baptist State Convention of North Carolina  umbrella, is sending teams of volunteers to eastern Europe to support refugees escaping the war.  A six-person team is scheduled to leave for Poland on...

 The South Carolina House on Wednesday unanimously approved allowing two weeks of early voting and other smaller changes to state election laws, uniting Democrats and Republicans on issues that have been contentious in other states. The 114-0 vote sends the bill to the state Senate. Democrats praised Republicans for listening to them and crafting a bill they could support, even if there were a few...

President Joe Biden vowed in his address to check Russian aggression in Ukraine, tame soaring U.S. inflation and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus. Biden declared that he and all members of Congress, whatever political differences there may be, were joined “with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.” He asked the lawmakers crowding the House chambe...