WFAE Local Content

As Charlotte’s population grows, a new wave of residents is arriving, and not just from up north. More and more South Floridians are moving to the Queen City.

The lottery for students to choose magnet programs opened on Monday, and Superintendent Crystal Hill said families submitted more than 1,200 applications on the first day.

A key North Carolina senator says it is unlikely that the General Assembly will make progress on a new state budget or Medicaid funding next week. Sen. Ralph Hise is a Republican from Mitchell County and a Senate budget writer.

Early voting begins Thursday for November Fourth’s municipal elections across the state. In Mecklenburg County, the biggest issue on the ballot is whether county voters will agree to raise the sales tax by one-percentage point, to 8.25%, to pay for a multi-billion-dollar transportation plan. Early voting runs through November 1st.

Energy experts gathered in Raleigh this week to discuss how North Carolina’s energy grid — and ratepayers’ wallets — will handle the incoming wave of new data centers.

Early voting begins today for municipal elections across the state. CMPD's third quarter crime statistics show an overall decrease despite a rash of high profile incidents in uptown. CMS's School Choice Lottery is now open. Guildford Tech. Community College breaks ground on a new aviation campus.

Charlotte this week is remembering one of its best-known CEOs. Doug Lebda co-founded LendingTree in 1996 and it has become one of the city’s most enduring tech companies. Lebda died Sunday in an ATV accident. He was 55. To talk more about Lebda and other business news of the week, Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry for our segment BizWorthy.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police released third-quarter crime statistics. They show overall decreases despite a rash of high-profile incidents in uptown.

Corning Optical Communications said Wednesday that the company will build a $268 million facility in Hickory to build fiber optic cables and other products. The company will employ more than 130 workers at the new plant, with an average salary of more than $65,000. Corning is set to receive almost $9 million worth of incentives from Hickory and Catawba County, in the form of tax rebates and free land.

Mecklenburg County health officials are urging parents to vaccinate their kids for measles, mumps and rubella amid an ongoing measles outbreak across the border in South Carolina. More than eight cases have been confirmed in Spartanburg County, sending more than 150 unvaccinated kids into quarantine. Measles is highly contagious and a serious illness. Only one case has been confirmed this year in North Carolina.

Early voting begins Thursday, and in Charlotte, races for city council, school board and mayor are on the ballot along with the transit referendum. We look at those and the integrity and security of the vote.

Airports across the country have received a video from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the federal government shutdown. Many, including Charlotte Douglas International Airport, have chosen not to play the message. CLT Airport officials say local law and airport policy prohibit airing the partisan message. A spokesperson also said the Transportation Security Administration doesn’t own the monitors at Charlotte's security checkpoints, adding that “digital screens owned by CLT are designated for static content that helps people find their way around, provides essential travel information and promotes CLT’s revenue-generating services.”