Steve Harrison

Since taking over the U.S. Postal Service in June, Greensboro businessman Louis DeJoy has made a number of changes, including a sweeping shake-up of top executives last week. And in an effort to make the organization more financially stable, he’s cut overtime and said late-arriving mail will now be left behind by carriers and delivered the next day. 

Fifty-five years ago Thursday, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. But a key part of that law was removed in 2013, in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder. That 5-4 decision removed section 4(b), which contained a formula to determine which states or counties needed federal approval before making changes to voting.

Forty North Carolina counties were covered under that formula. Its removal touched off a series of battles over voting in North Carolina that’s still unresolved today. 

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.

The last time redistricting was at stake, in 2010, Republicans flipped 20 state legislative chambers from blue to red nationwide, including both houses in North Carolina. They seized control of mapmaking after the census.

This time, Democrats are mobilizing.

President Trump on Thursday called off the Jacksonville, Florida, portion of the Republican National Convention, saying, “it’s not the right time” for a large convention. The GOP last month moved most of the convention from Charlotte after Gov. Roy Cooper wouldn’t guarantee the Republicans a packed house at the Spectrum Center.

Mecklenburg County has 25 full-time contact tracers and another 100 people working part-time to help prevent further spread of the coronavirus. But those workers have been hampered by people not providing phone numbers or addresses for their close contacts.

Mecklenburg County commissioners on Tuesday night discussed shutting down the county again because of rising COVID-19 hospitalizations and confirmed cases.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest over the weekend gave an interview with the Hendersonville Times-News in which he questioned Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s mandate that North Carolinians wear masks in public when social distancing isn’t possible.

A study by Wake Forest Baptist Health has found that between 12-14% of people tested in North Carolina have antibodies for the coronavirus -- meaning they have been exposed to the virus -- with most of them showing little or no symptoms. 

Last week, conservative Madison Cawthorn, who is 24, won a runoff election in the GOP primary for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, which is centered around Asheville.

About a week after North Carolina’s stay-at-home began in late March, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police confronted protesters outside an abortion provider in east Charlotte. Saying the group violated the limit on mass gatherings, CMPD arrested eight anti-abortion rights protesters.

The local host committee for Charlotte's 2020 Republican National Committee said Friday that its work has been met with "broken promises" and that "we need to stop pretending there's any part of the convention that will remain in Charlotte."

The RNC's executive committee voted on Wednesday night to keep official convention business in Charlotte - but it sharply limited the number of delegates attending to 336, according to an RNC official.

Charlotte City Council voted 9-2 on Monday to support a motion by at-large council member Braxton Winston to prohibit the police department from buying tear gas for the next fiscal year, which begins in July.

A proposal by at-large Charlotte City Council member Braxton Winston to prohibit Charlotte police from buying more tear gas faces a tough road to passage Monday, but council members may support a resolution that seeks to have CMPD align with policies from a national organization, Campaign Zero.

Updated 12:55 a.m.

Thursday marked the seventh straight day that demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality were held in Charlotte.

The city of Charlotte said Wednesday that it has spent $14 million to prepare for the Republican National Convention -- an event that may not happen in the city at all.  

President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday evening that the RNC will be "forced to seek another state to host" the event that is slated to be held in Charlotte's Spectrum Center in August. The GOP, however, clarified that the "celebration of the president's acceptance" of the nomination will take place in another city, but the business side of the convention could remain in Charlotte.

Monday the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets of Myers Park  on the fourth day of protests over the death of George Floyd.