News

Fran Redic is normally pretty nervous about medical stuff. She’s had a few surgeries -- on her rotator cuff, her sinuses and a lumpectomy -- and she worried a lot about anesthesia.  

“My brain goes first to all of the complications,” Redic said. “I always go to, ‘What are the side effects? What are the bad things that can happen?’”

Eddie Glaude, the chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton, is the author of a new book called “Begin Again,” about the writer James Baldwin, and how his work reflects on modern race relations in America.

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

In 1865, nearing the end of the Civil War, thousands of formerly enslaved people were promised 40 acres and, eventually, a mule. This was likely the first attempt in American history at reparations for Black Americans. It never came to pass.

Gaston County commissioners voted 6-1 Monday night to move a Confederate monument that has stood in front of the courthouse since 1912.

The Carolina Hurricanes are battling it out in Toronto. The NBA is back with one North Carolina native making a big splash and another one, so-so. Plus there are changes with the Carolina Panthers, including the kicker position. Longtime Charlotte Observer sportswriter Langston Wertz Jr. joins us to talk about those developments for our segment Time Out For Sports.

People living on the street is nothing new in Charlotte. But the coronavirus pandemic has brought encampments into the open, including onto vacant lots near uptown. They're both a highly visible effect of the pandemic and a reminder of Charlotte's longstanding shortage of affordable housing. 

Sunday, June 21, 2020, was the saddest Father’s Day that Eliana and Daniel Kusak’s family has ever had, as they suspected that they had already been infected by the coronavirus. The symptoms progressed day by day: chills, body aches, headaches, nausea. 

North Carolina health officials reported more than 1,900 new coronavirus cases Friday, and 21 additional deaths were attributed to COVID-19 as hospitalizations were down slightly. In June, Mandy Cohen, the state’s health secretary, said she was concerned the numbers were going in the wrong direction. But in an interview Friday, she was more optimistic.

Friday, July 31, 2020

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reverses course on its back-to-school plan. New “last call” rules for alcohol sales go into effect statewide at 11 p.m. Friday. Coronavirus still dominates the news, but has Charlotte reached its peak?  President Trump says he will accept the GOP nomination for president in North Carolina. Will it be in Charlotte?  And a possible conflict of interest on Charlotte City Council.  

Stephanie Sneed is stressed. 

She has two kids — rising second- and seventh-graders — enrolled in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ all-remote academy for the fall semester. 

“The upcoming school year has my anxiety level off the charts,” Sneed said. 

For the first three full months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mecklenburg County paramedics responding to 911 calls found an unusually high number of dead bodies when they arrived.

Mecklenburg County's health director says she's worried that contact tracing isn't working and that makes it hard to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board voted unanimously Thursday to cancel in-person orientation and join at least 52 other North Carolina school districts in an all-remote opening Aug. 17.

Thursday, July 30, 2020

As we approach the fall, students are preparing for school amid a pandemic. How will online education be different than last spring, how can it be done safely, and how will it impact learning in the short and long term?

Insurance giant Centene passed up a much more lucrative offer to put its regional headquarters just over the border in South Carolina. The company, which announced this month it will build the facility in Charlotte's University City area, qualifies for up to $450 million in state and local incentives. Public records show South Carolina and York County offered twice that much in an attempt to get the development project.