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Local News Roundup: CATS ridership declines; monkeypox cases grow; SC considers more abortion restrictions

CATS buses at the Charlotte Transportation Center.
David Boraks
/
WFAE
CATS buses at the Charlotte Transportation Center.

The Charlotte Area Transit System lost 75% of their bus passengers from 2014 to 2022. With fewer passengers, the system is less efficient — in March of 2022, over 25% of bus routes cost more than $20 per trip, meaning it would be more affordable to buy many of those passengers an Uber, according to a report by WFAE's Steve Harrison.

As of Wednesday there were 12 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Mecklenburg County, according to Raynard Washington, the County’s public health director. That accounts for more than half of the cases confirmed to date in North Carolina.

South Carolina already bans abortion after roughly six weeks. But a House committee in South Carolina suggested this week that almost all abortions could be banned soon, with no exception for rape or incest.

And Charlotte-area leaders are considering adding more toll lanes to Interstate 77. The plan would create toll lanes from Brookshire Freeway to the South Carolina line.

Our round table of reporters discusses those stories and more on the Local News Roundup.

GUESTS

Claire Donnelly, health reporter for WFAE

Danielle Chemtob, investigative reporter for Axios Charlotte

Joe Bruno, politics and breaking news reporter for WSOC

Nick Ochsner, executive producer for investigations and chief investigative reporter for WBTV

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Jesse Steinmetz is Producer of Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins. Before joining WFAE in 2019, he was an intern at WNPR in Hartford, Connecticut and hosted a show at Eastern Connecticut State University.