Julie Rose

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx appears to be on a smooth course for confirmation as the next U.S. Secretary of Transportation. He fielded mostly friendly questions from a Senate Committee today and could be confirmed by the full Senate in a matter of weeks.

Foxx spent the last few weeks in a crash course on transportation department structure and lingo. And he's been meeting the senators who must approve his nomination, so he had a pretty good idea what they'd ask during his confirmation hearing.

The Charlotte Bobcats have called a 6 p.m. press conference on Tuesday where they're expected to announce a name change.

Evan Kent couldn't be more thrilled. For several years, he and his brother have built a grassroots effort to re-christen the team the Charlotte Hornets. They've organized "swarms" of hundreds of nostalgic fans who wear their purple and teal Hornets gear at Bobcats games.

  At first blush, there’s a lot about the power struggle over Charlotte’s airport that makes no sense. After all, both sides in the debate agree the airport has done extraordinarily well under the city’s control. So what’s happened?

A mysterious death, for one.

And WFAE has reviewed internal airport documents that cast doubt over much of what we thought we knew about that incident.

Charlotte police are rapidly expanding their use of technology to detect and locate gunshots in real-time.

The "ShotSpotter" system debuted in Uptown Charlotte during the Democratic National Convention and was expanded to the Grier Heights community in March. It uses a system of microphones to detect gunfire and notify police.

On Monday night, the Charlotte City Council approved $140,000 to extend CMPD's contract with ShotSpotter in the Central District and install it in another neighborhood struggling with violent crime: Albemarle Road and Farm Pond Road.  

The future of the streetcar in Charlotte depends on the city's ability to get more federal funding, says City Manager Ron Carlee. To be precise, Carlee proposes Charlotte pursue a grant for half the $126 million price tag to undertake the next 2.5 mile stretch of streetcar extending to the east and west of Uptown. 

The city council's reaction to the proposal was tepid.

  Once again, the Charlotte City Council is talking streetcars. It's a topic that has dominated even those meetings when it wasn't on the council's agenda.  Monday night it actually is.

  Chinese business people from across the Carolinas will gather in Charlotte Saturday evening to celebrate the rapid growth of the Carolinas Chinese Chamber of Commerce and crown an inaugural set of award recipients.