For being soft-spoken and unassuming, Bob Bruns sure isn’t bashful.
The president and chief executive of Charlotte Metro Credit Union doesn’t hold back on his criticism of big banks. He wasn’t shy about soliciting my business (at least four pitches for me to join the credit union in under an hour). And he’s never been tentative about growing Charlotte Metro.
In 30 years as CEO of the ...
Lowe’s Cos. Inc. will donate $1 million to support disaster relief and rebuilding efforts in communities damaged by the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma, Texas and across the Midwest.
As part of the $1 million pledge, the Mooresville-based retailer (NYSE:LOW) will donate $500,000 to the American Red Cross. It will match the earnings of stockcar driver Jimmie Johnson from Sunday’s NASCAR race at ...
Mecklenburg County commissioners return to work tonight, two weeks after the firing of County Manager Harry Jones and a week after board members exchanged insults and accusations in front of reporters and the public.
Tonight, the new budget is on the agenda. The current budget totals $1.3 billion.
Also to be decided: the severance package for Jones, who earned $250,000 per year as county man ...
North Carolina is suing Duke Energy Carolinas over pollution of Charlotte’s Mountain Island Lake Reservoir from coal ash stored in ponds at the coal-burning Riverbend Steam Station.
Frank Holleman, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, welcomed the decision by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The center had filed notice in March that the Catawba R ...
Charlotte-based Trinity Capital Advisors and joint-venture partner Pacific Coast Capital Partners have purchased 25.6 acres of vacant land in Shopton Ridge Industrial Park, where the two firms purchased three industrial buildings from American Asset Corp. earlier this year.
The purchase price for the land, located between Shopton Road and Interstate 485 in southwest Charlotte, was $1.5 million. ...
Mortgage borrowers in North Carolina have received almost $410 million in relief from the landmark National Mortgage Settlement announced last year.
The settlement’s monitor, former N.C. banking commissioner Joseph Smith, released a progress report on the deal today. Nationwide, the report shows the five largest mortgage servicers have provided $50.63 billion in relief to 621,712 borrowers. T ...
Westinghouse Electric Co. has appointed Mark Marano as its next president for the Americas region.
Marano has worked for the last four years at Areva NP in Charlotte as vice president for new plant business development. He will take his new position at the Westinghouse headquarters in New Stanton, Pa., on May 31.
Marano replaces Joe Zwetolitz, who left Westinghouse in February to become pres ...
When it comes to using social media for your business, there are a lot of mistakes that most people know to avoid –- bad-mouthing a customer, deleting a critical comment or posting risqué pictures on the official company Twitter account, to name a few.
But what about mistakes we don’t even know we are making? Those can sink a social-media campaign just as easily, wasting time, money and ef ...
Babcock & Wilcox (NYSE: BWC) CEO Jim Ferland tells PlattsTV that his company is focusing on new technology — particularly small nuclear plants and carbon capture — for future business in the energy industry.
Ferland tells Platts reporter Bill Loveless in an interview this week (see the video below) that there is increasing interest among utilities for an alternative to large nuclear plants. ...
Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon declared his candidacy Tuesday for the Charlotte mayor’s race, the first Democrat to officially announce.
Cannon made the announcement at noon at Elizabeth Park near the Captain Jack statue.
"I am the change-agent," Cannon said in announcing his run. "The leader Charlotte needs."
In early April, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx released a statement that he would ...
A day after threatening to move the fall NASCAR race out of Concord, track owner Bruton Smith blamed Cabarrus County politicians for raising his taxes and not caring about the speedway as much as fans do.On Monday, Smith told WBTV there was a 70 percent chance he would move the October Bank of America 500 race away from Concord to Speedway Motorsports’ Las Vegas track, where he could make m ...
North Carolina has sued Duke Energy for polluting Mountain Island Lake, Charlotte’s major water source, with contaminants from its coal ash lagoons.The N.C. Division of Water Quality added its claims about Mountain Island to an existing lawsuit filed in March. That litigation asked for a court injunction against a Duke subsidiary over coal-ash pollution at an Asheville power plant. It marke ...
Before a crowd of about 50 friends and supporters, Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon today entered the city’s race for mayor, announcing his candidacy to replace Democrat Anthony Foxx, nominated by President Obama as U.S. Transportation Secretary.Cannon, a Democrat, is the council’s longest serving member and the first Democrat to announce his candidacy. His kick-off announcemen ...
Ann Clark, deputy superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, is one of three finalists for Wake County superintendent, the Wake board announced Tuesday. She will meet the public in Raleigh next week.A year ago, Clark was one of three finalists for the superintendent’s job at CMS. The board instead hired Heath Morrison from Reno, Nev., and he promoted Clark from chief academic officer to ...
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be U.S. Transportation Secretary, will be questioned Wednesday afternoon by the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee – the first step toward a likely full confirmation.Since Foxx was nominated in late April, he has drawn little criticism from Republicans in the Senate or conservative ...
Department of Public Safety Secretary Kieran Shanahan will no longer practice law on the side while he holds public office, his former law firm announced Tuesday afternoon.He has transitioned out of his practice at the law firm he started in 2001, and will be on a temporary leave of absence from that firm and from practicing law at all.The announcement came after The News & Observer reported last ...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wants Duke Energy to explain why a flood gate at its Oxford Dam on Lake Hickory failed to fully open during flooding early this month.As up to 11 inches of rain sent water surging down the Catawba River on May 5, Duke opened a flood gate in the dam three feet to release rising water downstream.The next morning, as lake levels continued to rise, Duke tried t ...
The father of a murdered 2-year-old was dragged from a Mecklenburg County courtroom Tuesday after he began shouting at the man accused of killing his son.The child’s 2010 shooting death is at the center of a murder case that opened Tuesday.It took two deputies to get Charles Robinson out through the courtroom doors. His outburst came after the trial had begun, and a Charlotte-Mecklenburg poli ...
In a rare moment of bi-partisanship, the North Carolina House Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution honoring Mecklenburg County on the 250th anniversary of its founding.The resolution recounted the county’s founding in 1762 and the decision by Lord Augustus Selwyn five years later to sell 360 acres to a group of settlers for 90 British pounds. Today, the resolution said, that land is know ...
A teacher in Alexander County has been suspended for alleged inappropriate behavior with her student.Nikki Setzer Icard, a math teacher at Alexander Central High School, is charged with indecent liberties with an 18-year-old male student.The school suspended Icard without pay, pending the outcome of the investigation.Icard graduated from the school herself in 2001. She started teaching there 2005. ...
Union County commissioners have chosen a site on Hemby Road in Weddington for a 180-foot water tower.Commissioners unanimously approved the plan Monday night, picking that site over a Weddington-Matthews Road location. The board also directed the county public works department to seek zoning approval from Weddington to build the tower.On May 13, Weddington’s board passed a preliminary endorse ...
A Lincoln County man has been charged with filing a fake report of vehicle theft, in an effort to get money from an insurance company, the sheriff’s office says.William Minford Chatham III, 38, of Vale, was arrested Monday on two charges of felony insurance fraud. He was released on $5,000 bond, the sheriff’s office says.Investigators say Chatham filed a claim last Oct. 13 that someo ...
It’s official: The Charlotte Bobcats plan to be the Charlotte Hornets.The Bobcats formalized that intent at a 6 p.m. news conference at Time Warner Cable Arena, featuring team owner Michael Jordan.As expected, the Bobcats wouldn’t be able to implement this change until the start of the 2014-15 season, as it would take that long to do all the rebranding.The Bobcats formally requested perm ...
Charlotte Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith says Charlotte might be on its way to losing one of its two spots on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series schedule. During an interview Monday with WBTV, Smith said there was a 70 percent chance he would move the October NASCAR race weekend at CMS to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Smith’s Speedway Motorsports Inc. owns both facilities. Las Vegas cu ...
The Charlotte Bobcats will get a top-five pick via Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery (8:30 p.m., ESPN), and based on the odds, they’ll most likely choose fourth.Will the Bobcats select a long-term keeper? History suggests the odds aren’t great.Since their inception in 2004, the Bobcats have made top-five selections four times. An Observer study last spring demonstrated top-fiv ...
It’s official: The Charlotte Bobcats plan to be the Charlotte Hornets.The Bobcats formalized that intent at a 6 p.m. news conference at Time Warner Cable Arena, featuring team owner Michael Jordan.As expected, the Bobcats wouldn’t be able to implement this change until the start of the 2014-15 season, as it would take that long to do all the rebranding.The Bobcats formally requested perm ...
A day after threatening to move the fall NASCAR race out of Concord, track owner Bruton Smith blamed Cabarrus County politicians for raising his taxes and not caring about the speedway as much as fans do.On Monday, Smith told WBTV there was a 70 percent chance he would move the October Bank of America 500 race away from Concord to Speedway Motorsports’ Las Vegas track, where he could make m ...
Mike Fox remembers the last ACC baseball tournament at Durham Bulls Athletic Park all too well. It may not even be over yet.In 2011, North Carolina played in one game that didn’t start until after midnight, was suspended at 1:55 a.m. and wasn’t completed until 17 hours later. That was the first of two games for North Carolina that day, the second lasting until 12:30 a.m. There was a ...
It’s nearly party time in uptown Charlotte, and that means motorists planning to navigate their way through center city will have to contend with street closings as part of the annual Food Lion Speed Street event.Charlotte transportation officials will close a number of uptown streets at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, with more closures coming Thursday morning.Commuters will get their streets back Su ...
They have running water and electricity, of course. Some of them have Wi-Fi. And they even have a mayor.“I got that title a few years ago,” says Harry Wiley, proclaimed by fellow temporary residents of Turn-4 Family Campground as their mayor. “I guess that’s my job out here.”Wiley and his wife Judy bring their camper trailer twice a year from Johnson City, Tenn., ...
BUFFALO, N.Y. A night after Jordan Danks set the Charlotte Knights franchise record for walks, the Knights outfielder had his best offensive game of the season. Danks had three hits, including two home runs, Andre Rienzo tossed six solid innings, and the Charlotte Knights beat the Buffalo Bisons 5-1 Monday in an International League game.Entering the game, Danks had seven hits, six runs scored an ...
NCHSAA Baseball Tuesday’s fourth round 4A West: West Forsyth at South Meck, 7; McDowell at Skyland Roberson 3A West: Foard at Patton; Weddington at Marvin Ridge 2A West: Smoky Mountain at West Lincoln; Randleman at Piedmont 1A West: E. Surry at S. Stanly; Lincoln Charter at Hendersonville NCHSAA Softball Tuesday’s fourth round 4A West: North Davidson at SE Guilford; Alexander Central ...
Maddie Lowe remembers last year’s 3A outdoor track state championship as though it were yesterday.After a standout sophomore season at Northwest Cabarrus, including a South Piedmont Conference title and a 3A Midwest regional runner-up finish in the 1,600-meter run, Lowe thought she was on the brink of being a state-title contender.Lowe finished 16th out of 16 runners in that event last year ...
B.J. Beecher and Ryan Harvey were better when they stepped onto a tennis court together than when they played individually.The Concord High duo complemented each other’s style of play as the Spiders’ top doubles team.“With B.J.’s power and big serve, and Ryan’s finesse, left-handedness and quickness, they were just a unique combination that made them really good, ...
Two years ago, then-sophomores A.T. Cashwell, Chris Johnson and Trent Jones were teammates of the best class of senior golfers that Jay M. Robinson High has ever had.Led by Trevor Cone, Thomas Farrell and Andrew Geddes, the Bulldogs finished sixth at the 3A state tournament in 2011.Now seniors, Cashwell, Johnson and Jones hoped to return to the state meet for the first time since their sophomore s ...
Ivan Acuna left his parents, his friends and his teammates behind in his native Caracas, Venezuela, last summer to give himself the opportunity to chase his baseball dreams.When the 18-year-old arrived in Huntersville to live with his older brother, Jesus, and enrolled at Hopewell High, he knew he didn’t have much time to waste.“This is my only year here,” said Acuna. “ ...
No matter what the question, performance artist John W. Love Jr.’s answer is yes. In his experiential installation and one-man show, Love invites viewers to “contemplate notions of ‘yes.’ ”Click to Continue »]]>
Kirk Franklin headlines JoyFest with gospel artists Marvin Sapp, Fred Hammond and United Tenors, Le’Andria Johnson, Isaac Carree, Charlotte JoyFest talent search winner Angie Cleveland, rappers LeCrae and Humble Tip,Click to Continue »]]>
Thirty-two young women made their debut in Charlotte at 49th annual Cotillion…Click to Continue »]]>
On a damp, cool Saturday afternoon, five Latina teens shouted encouragement to their team members suspended 55 feet above their heads on a ropes course at Davidson College?s Erwin Lodge.Click to Continue »]]>
It’s a chilly spring day, with lots of wind, so I was pretty startled when Okefenokee Adventures guide Joey Griffin commanded me to take off my shoes and climb out…Click to Continue »]]>
Members of Charlotte’s African-American community intertwined with North Carolina Dance Theatre on April 12 for Step Up, a benefit for the troupe’s Dancers’ Fund. It provides financial support so the…Click to Continue »]]>
Tammie Davis and daughter Brittani Manning had visions of a better life and saw education as the key to getting there. They carpooled to the Dallas campus of Gaston College.Click to Continue »]]>
A 22-year-old Charlotte teacher donated bone marrow that gave Jordan Jemsek, suffering from leukemia, a chance at survival.Click to Continue »]]>
Karin Kish is a stay-at-home mother of two wants to help expand the human rights of women and children around the world. Kish has recently taken a step towards that…Click to Continue »]]>
Charlotte, N.C.?s ?American Idol? celebrates hot new album, ?Side Effects of You?.Click to Continue »]]>
