On the night of Sept 7. a sleeping 3-year-old boy was shot and killed after 150 rounds of bullets were shot into his home, police said. Two days earlier, a 16-year-old also lost his life to gun violence; a 14-year-old was arrested for that homicide. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police suspect these cases are connected and have ties to area high schools. Local activists and violence experts join us to discuss how teens are getting guns, and what can be done to prevent the deadly violence.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board voted this week to maintain a mask mandate in schools, while Lincoln County's school board voted to make masks optional. Union County Public Schools stopped contact tracing and quarantines, but state health officials told the school board there to follow COVID-19 requirements or face possible legal action. Mecklenburg County employees are suspended for noncompliance of COVID testing rules and fear is high at three area schools connected to recent shootings.

This week's guest on SouthBound is Adia Victoria, a singer from Nashville by way of South Carolina. She explores a spooky, moody brand of roots music on her new album, “A Southern Gothic.”

The sights you see, the people you meet, the life experiences that shape your hours, days, and years. How would you paint a picture of your day-to-day? If you were to ask Petrov, named one of Charlotte's most promising up-and-coming bands, you may find that the best kind of journal is a musical one (or, at the very least, one that is soundtracked by dreamy rock music).

COVID-19 has torn through the largely rural and racially diverse community. In the past two weeks, 37 people have died from the disease. That represents more than 10% of those who have died from COVID-19 in the county since March of 2020.

Half of all South Carolinians eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine are now fully inoculated. The milestone announced Thursday by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control comes as a recent spike in cases driven by the delta variant has begun to decline.

French law had set a Sept. 15 deadline for the country's 2.7 million health care workers to get vaccinated. The ones who didn't get a jab were suspended, the country's health minister says.

North Carolina's top health official, Dr. Mandy Cohen, told the Union County school board it could face "legal action" if it doesn't change the district's quarantine rules by Friday. But the board has no plans to meet.