Ely Portillo
Executive EditorEly Portillo is Executive Editor at WFAE. In this role, he is responsible for planning and editing daily news coverage, as well as working on newsletters, digital content and long-term projects. A longtime Charlotte journalist, Ely worked at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and the Charlotte Observer before coming to WFAE.
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What's in the Tiawana Brown indictment: COVID relief loans and a birthday party with a rented throneOn Thursday, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Russ Ferguson announced that Charlotte City Council member Tiawana Brown has been indicted on federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, stemming from allegedly fraudulent loan applications for COVID relief funds. -
Charlotte City Council member Tiawana Brown and her daughters have been charged with fraud related to pandemic-era relief funds, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina said Thursday. -
President Trump's new tariffs are partly on, partly on hold and partly up in the air — but some businesses around Charlotte are already seeing the impact. That includes Asian grocery stores, which import most of their goods from some of the countries facing the highest tariffs, such as China and Vietnam. The Ledger’s Cristina Bolling joins WFAE's Ely Portillo to discuss this, and more, on this week's BizWorthy. -
A long-awaited bill that would allow Mecklenburg County voters to vote on a one-cent sales tax increase for transportation has been filed in the state Senate. -
Charlotte and other cities across North Carolina are grappling with a little-noticed provision in the sweeping disaster relief and government reform bill approved by Republicans last month over former Gov. Roy Cooper's veto. There are concerns that the bill limits municipalities’ ability to set local land use regulations. -
Outgoing Governor Roy Cooper has commuted the death sentences for 15 inmates on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That’s a little more than a tenth of the total number of inmates on North Carolina’s death row.
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American Airlines, the main carrier at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, briefly stopped all its U.S. flights early Tuesday morning. That FAA ground stop was lifted later Tuesday morning. -
North Carolina elections officials say they won’t order a full hand recount of more than 5.5 million ballots cast in the race for a state Supreme Court seat. -
Charlotte City Council on Monday voted to approve a deal to provide developers with a $19 million subsidy for a major redevelopment in south Charlotte. -
North Carolina elections officials plan to wrap up on Tuesday a partial hand recount of ballots in the contest for a state Supreme Court seat.
