Feature Stories
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HB 805 and Its Impacts on Protesters in North Carolina
On Aug. 25, the North Carolina Senate passed House Bill 805 (HB 805), a bill that, if signed, could have a staggering effect on how protesters are punished in Charlotte and across the state. With a short title that states the goal is to “Prevent Rioting and Civil Disorder,” HB…
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What Charlotte Pride Means in the Age of the NDO
What does Pride mean to you? It’s a question that holds more weight this season for Charlotte’s LGBTQIA+ community. In part because of the return to in-person celebrations cancelled last year due to COVID-19. Also for the first time, we’re not looking at a Charlotte Pride weekend, but an entire…
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A New Option for Charlotteans in a Mental Health Crisis
On a patio tucked behind an old brick two-story house, Susan Hart sat on a glider surrounded by lush green plants under the glow of string lights. She wondered aloud what it would have been like to check herself into a place like this instead of a psychiatric hospital during…
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KnowCLT App Turns Former Streets of Brooklyn Into a Museum
Driving down South McDowell Street near Marshall Park on Aug. 4 during a trip to the bank, Michael Zytkow happened to look to his left at the sidewalk in front of the Sheraton hotel and see someone holding their phone up, aimed at Marshall Park as if to take a…
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Belton Platt to Head Charlotte’s Newest Violence-Interruption Program
[Become a member: These stories are supported by our membership program. Get better connected and join as a Nerve Member today.] During a virtual press conference from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center on Tuesday morning, county and city leaders introduced the site supervisor for a new violence-interruption program, Alternatives to Violence, set…
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Neighbors Demand Answers One Year After Colonial Pipeline Spill
Shannon Ward grew up attending protests and rallies for any number of causes, beginning in the 1960s, but the gathering she attended at Veterans Park in Huntersville on Sunday, July 25, was different. Ward lives just hundreds of feet from the Oehler Nature Preserve, the site of last year’s Colonial…
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Home Prices in Charlotte Reach Record Highs, Leaving Many Behind
They say owning a home is the American dream. If that’s the case and you’re hoping to pursue that dream, the current situation around home prices in Charlotte is the thing of nightmares. With just two weeks of inventory currently available compared to the four to six months that is…
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Sophia Rosenfeld on Truth and Misinformation in History and Today
What is truth and who decides? That is a central question that historian Sophia A. Rosenfeld explores in her book Democracy and Truth: A Short History. Rosenfeld, who will give a free online lecture with the Charlotte Museum of History on Thursday, July 1, is a Walter H. Annenberg Professor…
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Disability Groups Struggle with Abortion/Down Syndrome Debate
Liz Newton was over 30 when she and her husband decided they’d try to have another baby. They already had Clara Ruth and they wanted her to have a sibling. There was this feeling between them that their family was not yet complete. Her first pregnancy had been pretty rough.…
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Melody Gross Reflects on Her First Year Running Courageous SHIFT
As a survivor of domestic violence herself, Melody Gross has long been an advocate for other people who have gone through what she’s experienced, especially Black women. In spring 2020, Gross took the logical next step and launched her company, Courageous SHIFT, which takes a three-pronged approach to fighting back…
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CMPD Use-of-Force Reporting Skews Numbers During Protest Activity
On the night of June 2, 2020, peaceful protesters marched into the intersection of East 5th and North McDowell streets and were hit with nine diversionary explosive devices, also known as flashbangs. This would mark the beginning of the most aggressive large-scale attack on citizens by police in Charlotte’s history,…
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‘The Inclusive Mindset’ Author Pushes Back Against Social Isolation
For most people around the country and the world, the past year has been one of forced social isolation, and the results have been severe. Locally, we’ve seen a rise in domestic violence and road rage, according to CMPD, while staff at Pat’s Place Child Advocacy Center have sounded the…
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Proposed Morgan School Deal the Subject of Heated Debate
Founders of the Cherry Community Organization began organizing in 1969 after the neighborhood’s Morgan School was closed and its students were “bused” to Myers Park, Elizabeth and Eastover elementary schools. There was just one thing missing from this busing plan: the bus. Children living in Cherry were expected to walk…
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Neighbors Commiserate After Phillip Adams Kills Six People and Himself
The shooting deaths of seven people by Phillip Adams on April 7 shocked a community in Rock Hill, South Carolina, as neighbors recalled their last memories with the shooter and the victims while trying to make sense of an inexplicable tragedy. Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70; his wife, Barbara Lesslie, 69;…
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Local Health Officials Respond to Halt in Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
In two separate press conferences Tuesday, officials with Atrium Health and Mecklenburg County Public Health (MCPH) addressed new guidelines handed down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recommending local agencies temporarily pause distribution of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine…
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A Grieving Family Calls for Missing Persons Reform After Pleas Ignored
According to CMPD, more than 3,500 people are reported missing in Charlotte annually. On the department’s website, the protocol for missing persons reports is laid out relatively clearly, with stats that emphasize how rarely a missing persons report is the result of violent crime: 70% are teenagers, mostly runaways, while…
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