Ely Portillo
Senior Editor for News & PlanningEly Portillo is Senior Editor for News and Planning 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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Fired coaches, hired superintendents, a transit system getting back on track after going off the rails: 2023 was a big year for local news in Charlotte. Presented in no particular order, here are 10 of the most significant, interesting and memorable stories we covered in 2023.
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Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police charged a juvenile with breaking into more than 180 cars over two nights, and said they're searching for two more suspects in the case.
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Charlotte-Mecklenburg police on Tuesday released over 30 videos of the arrest last month of two people who claimed they were smoking THC-A, a legal, hemp-derived product with intoxicating effects similar to cannabis. All charges were dropped.
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For the first time since the team's founding, the Carolina Panthers said Wednesday that they won't hold next season's training camp at Wofford College in South Carolina. Instead, the team will hold its training camp at home in Charlotte.
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Over the past few years, the population of homeless people has grown — and become more visible — in Charlotte, and helping to solve the problem won’t be quick, simple or cheap. But local experts say the costs of action should be weighed against the cost of doing nothing.
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Almost 80 years after his P-51 Mustang went missing on a mission over Italy during World War II, Second Lt. Fred Brewer is being laid to rest in Salisbury on Wednesday. Brewer grew up in Charlotte’s Brooklyn neighborhood and graduated from Shaw University.
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Turnout was low in Mecklenburg County’s municipal elections earlier this month — about 15.5%, or right around average for our off-year elections. Preliminary statistics show the people who voted were more likely to be white, female and not Hispanic than the county as a whole.
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Kayla Young, a reporter for WFAE and Spanish-language news organization La Noticia, recently won several awards from two national publishing organizations. Those awards include the José Martí Awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the EPPY Awards from Editor & Publisher Magazine.
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Harvard economist Raj Chetty had a sobering message for people in Charlotte working to increase economic mobility: Don’t expect quick results. In fact, be prepared to wait, and work, for decades.
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Do the 2023 Charlotte municipal elections have any hints about what the future might hold for our region’s transit ambitions? Plans for the Silver Line, Red Line and more lines up to this point hinge on winning support from voters for a 1-cent sales tax referendum that would fund about half of the $13.5 billion price tag.