Feature Stories
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Animal Rescues in Charlotte See New Gaps in the System
For Lori Konawalik, it was a day of success and sadness. Konawalik is the owner of Mac Tabby Cat Café, a bar and coffee shop in NoDa that doubles as an animal rescue, where patrons relax and interact with felines available for adoption. She remembers the café had just celebrated…
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‘College Refund 2020’ Class-Action Suit Names UNC Charlotte
A student is suing UNC Charlotte and other schools in the UNC System for failing to adequately reimburse students after transitioning to online-only classes in light of COVID-19, part of a country-wide campaign dubbed College Refund 2020. Brady Wayne Allen, a senior finance major from Winston-Salem, is party to a…
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The Three Phases to Reopen North Carolina Explained
The last two months have been perhaps the most economically devastating time frame of the past 100 years, but this week we were shown some light at the end of the tunnel. Gov. Roy Cooper and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) announced on Monday a…
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N.C. Judge to Decide in Lawsuit Seeking Statewide Prisoner Releases
By the end of the week, a Superior Court judge is expected to issue an order in a lawsuit that calls on North Carolina officials to approve a significant number of prisoner releases in response to the spread of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The decision will regard only…
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Charlotte Pride Cancels Annual Celebrations Planned for Summer
Leaders with Charlotte Pride and Charlotte Black Pride announced this morning that all in-person Pride events originally scheduled for July and August are cancelled. The cancellation covers all events involved with Charlotte Black Pride Week, scheduled for July 12-19; the Charlotte Pride Festival and Parade, scheduled for Aug. 1-2; and…
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Sanitation Workers in Charlotte Feel Endangered in Crisis
As an employee at the City of Charlotte Solid Waste Services department (SWS), which collects garbage, recycling and other waste from Charlotte’s residents, Joshua has seen his workplace change dramatically to combat the spread of COVID-19. But he and many of his coworkers in the sanitation field are worried that…
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Charlotte’s Homeless Search for Help as Services Dry Up
When we met Tony and Nancy on a recent Wednesday afternoon, they were just two of nearly 100 people sharing upwards of 70 tents in the area outside the gates of the Urban Ministry Center (UMC). The encampment popped up at the intersection of North College and North Tryon streets…
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Community College Instructors Worry for Students as Classes Transition
The world has shut down, but class is still in session. That’s the message conveyed by the region’s community colleges, long the go-to education options for working families and individuals striving to better their lives. When area community colleges started reducing on-campus activities to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in…
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Protesters Resume Activities Outside Charlotte Clinic Following Arrests
For years now, anti-abortion protesters have demonstrated in front of A Preferred Women’s Health Clinic (APWHC) in east Charlotte, with groups like Cities4Life attempting to convince women to go through with their pregnancies, and a coalition called Love Life Charlotte hosting large gatherings on the surrounding properties to pray and…
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ourBRIDGE for Kids Adapts in a Crisis with New Drop-Off Services
Like most folks in the United States, Sil Ganzó didn’t spend much time pondering the implications of the COVID-19 virus during January and February. It wasn’t until early March that things became real for the founder and executive director of ourBRIDGE for KIDS, an after-school program for Charlotte’s immigrant and…
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Health-Care Workers and Officials Prepare for COVID-19 Peak
[The following is an updated version of a story that ran in our print issue before changes were announced regarding plans to build a field hospital on UNC Charlotte’s campus. All changes are up to date as of April 9.] When I first spoke with Melissa, a nurse working at…
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Grassroots Movement Supplies Health-Care Workers with Needed Equipment
According to a February report from the Mecklenburg County Health Department, 25 to 35% of local health-care providers could fall ill as a direct result of the coronavirus outbreak by the time it’s all said and done, and with projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicting the…
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Coalition Pushes for Census Participation Amid COVID-19 Concerns
Judging by social media, every day is some sort of national holiday, be it to honor dogs, wine or pancakes. Today, however, is actually Census Day, and though it’s not as fun as a hashtag for sharing pictures of puppies or pastries, it has real-life implications for underserved communities locally…
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A Look at the Life of a Resident at Risk
You’ve seen the joke many times, you may have even told it. Every day on social media for weeks now, there are multiple people posting something along the lines of, “I’ve been social distancing for years,” or “Self-quarantine is something I’m used to.” It’s good for a few likes between…
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Mecklenburg County Issues Stay-at-Home Order Beginning Thursday
The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners held a public policy meeting at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center this afternoon, at which Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio announced that the county will implement a countywide stay-at-home order beginning Thursday, March 26, at 8 a.m. and ending April 16. The order prohibits residents…
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Students Evacuate UNC Charlotte with Concerns About Their Future
By 5 p.m. today, UNC Charlotte’s campus will officially be empty of students, and nobody knows when they’ll be coming back. Following Tuesday’s order that residence halls be vacated by Friday afternoon, students have been lugging their things up and down dorm-room staircases throughout the week, and come Monday, classes…
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