David Boraks

More than 500 people packed into a school gym in Catawba County Thursday night for a public meeting about how state regulators should require Duke Energy to clean up coal ash at nearby Marshall Steam Station.

It wasn't supposed to be a public hearing, but people demanded to be heard.

The Carolinas Aviation Museum has been in the national spotlight this week on the 10th anniversary of the event at the center of its biggest exhibit — the "Miracle on the Hudson" water landing in 2009. But behind the scenes, big changes are in the works: The museum is being forced to look for a new home.  

The state Department of Environmental Quality has begun public meetings to discuss how coal ash should be cleaned up at six Duke Energy sites around the state. They include plants on Lake Norman and Lake Wylie.

City housing officials say they've received new proposals for 620 units of affordable housing, which, along with prior commitments, would eat up the entire $50 million in Housing Trust Fund bonds that voters approved in November. But officials hope a private-sector fund can help boost the number of units created in the next few years.

Charlotte City Council members approved new rules for electric scooters Monday, but only after a long debate that several members say shows a need to revisit the rules later.

Growth and development have brought an affordable housing shortage in Charlotte. You can see it in neighborhoods all over the city, especially those closest to uptown. In WFAE's series Finding Home, we're examining those challenges every Monday in 2019.

For the second year in a row, North Carolina homeowners quickly snapped up all of Duke Energy's rebates for installing solar panels.

Charlotte leaders spent 2018 talking about how to speed up development of new affordable housing units and save existing ones. In 2019, there will be more money, new partners and new processes for achieving that goal. City leaders now are discussing how to carry out the unprecedented $125 million plan and what it's paying for.

It's been a happy new year so far for the Charlotte transitional housing program Gracious Hands. Since the summer, the group home for formerly homeless women and children has fought eviction from its west Charlotte rental house. But now a donor has stepped in to buy them a new home.

North Carolina lost a lot of old trees this year to storms, like hurricanes Florence and Michael. Those made the headlines along with storm coverage. But hundreds more didn’t, like the two-century-old granddaddy of a tree cut down this week at The Duke Mansion in Charlotte.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited Charlotte Wednesday to announce a $2.5 million grant from his foundation toward the city's efforts to fight climate change. It's part of a $70 million campaign to tackle a problem Bloomberg said Congress and the White House are ignoring.