Local News Roundup: COVID-19 Numbers Up In NC; Vance High Gets New Name; Early Voting; Remembering Judy Williams

Featured at WFAE

On the next Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup:

North Carolina’s coronavirus numbers are creeping back up under Phase 3, and state Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen urges residents to remain vigilant, stating that she’s no longer able to pinpoint a specific location or cause, and that “this virus is everywhere.”

CMS begins its first round of in-person classes this week as Pre-K students return to school. We’ll get an update on how that went as well as other CMS news, including the week’s COVID-19 numbers and the renaming of Vance High School.

Early voting started this week in North Carolina, and candidates are descending on Charlotte and other locations around the state. We’ll give an update on all things “election,” including how potential voters are responding to news of the scandal in Cal Cunningham’s campaign, and record money raised by South Carolina candidate for U.S. Senate Jaime Harrison.

And we remember Judy Williams, the co-founder of Mothers of Murdered Offspring and anti-violence advocate in Charlotte who supported countless families of murder victims. She died last week after a battle with lung cancer.

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters bring the week’s top news in the local news roundup.

Guests:

Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal.

Glenn Burkins, founder and publisher of qcitymetro.com.

Ann Doss Helms, WFAE’s Education Reporter.

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time” and contributor at WCCB-TV.

Read the rest atWFAE
Oct162020 TAGS: , , , , , , , , , ,

From Clinton to Trump, how U.S. lawmakers have changed their tune on impeachment

Featured at Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

When Bill Clinton faced impeachment more than two decades ago, commentary from the Republican side of the aisle was very different than today’s trial against U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We see with this impeachment, when you compare it to the Clinton impeachment, that it seems to depend if it’s your guy in the hot seat,” said Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Roll Call, a website covering U.S. politics.

Read the rest atCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
Jan252020 TAGS: , , , , , , ,

POLITICAL WRAP: Impeachment Trial; Voter Rights; UK Election

Featured at WCCB Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – After this week’s impeachment vote, debate will continue over a possible Senate trial. Majority leader Mitch McConnell says he’d like it to go quickly. But President Trump has talked about calling witnesses, ranging from Hunter Biden, to the whistleblower, to Congressman Adam Schiff.

Also, this week voting rights are back in the spotlight after a ruling by a circuit court judge in Wisconsin. 234,000 voters, flagged as having possibly moved, will be taken off the registry. The ruling is expected to hurt Democrats in a state President Trump won in 2016.

And in the UK, a landslide victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party. Johnson is promising to “Get Brexit Done,” while President Trump calls the election result a possible “harbinger of what’s to come” in the 202o U.S. election.

Read the rest atWCCB Charlotte
Dec152019 TAGS: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

With ‘lynching’ comment, Trump retreats to his racist comfort zone

Featured at Roll Call

OPINION — When Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley sent her 14-year-old son, Emmett, to visit relatives in Mississippi, she never thought he would return in a casket, a victim of a mother’s nightmare and America’s shame. A group of white men kidnapped, tortured, mutilated and murdered him that summer in 1955 for the “crime” of flirting with a white woman, who years later admitted to lying about their supposed interaction.

Mr. President, that’s a lynching.

Read the rest atRoll Call
Oct242019 TAGS: , , , , ,

Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup: NC Gerrymandering At SCOTUS; Deadly CMPD Shooting; CMS Budget

Featured at WFAE

Charlotte grapples with another deadly police shooting. A CMPD officer shot and killed a man outside a Beatties Ford Road restaurant Monday morning. Police say the man had a gun and posed a threat, but protestors paint a different story.

The long-awaited Mueller report has been handed over. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says it removes a cloud over the president, and now he wants to investigate the FBI for possible anti-Trump bias.

The U.S. Supreme Court once again sounds reluctant to take a stance on partisan gerrymandering as the justices hear arguments over North Carolina’s congressional map.

An official in the Charlotte Catholic Diocese resigned following an allegation of sexual misconduct.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools superintendent Clayton Wilcox seeks a big increase in county funding for the school system, with a focus on teacher pay and the district’s racial disparities.

Also this week, wheels are in motion in the South Carolina legislature to lure the Carolina Panthers headquarters across the state line. Lawmakers gave an initial okay for millions in tax breaks.

Those stories and more on this week’s Local News Roundup.

Guests

Mary C Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com and WCCB

Jonathan Lowe, reporter for Spectrum News

Steve Harrison, WFAE’s political reporter

Glenn Burkins, editor and publisher of Q City Metro

Read the rest atWFAE
Mar292019 TAGS: , , , , , , , ,

Why politicians, and everyone, need to think about legacy

Featured at Roll Call

OPINION — At least the bill was approved on a voice vote. That was the bill that would make lynching a federal crime, passed in the Senate late last week — in 2019.

Let that sink in. The legislation still must be approved by the Democrat-controlled House, which is expected to happen with no problem, and be signed into law by President Donald Trump. But it would be unwise to take anything for granted since similar legislation has stalled for more than 100 years, held up by elected public servants who felt that taking a stand would be too politically risky.

Read the rest atRoll Call
Feb212019 TAGS: , , , , , , ,

Opinion: Forgetting What It Means to Be an American

Featured at Roll Call

The 2004 romantic comedy “50 First Dates” offered a novel, though somewhat implausible, premise — and I don’t mean that Drew Barrymore would find Adam Sandler irresistible. The heroine of the tale, afflicted with short-term memory loss, woke up each morning with a clean slate, thinking it was the same day, with no recollection of anything that happened the day before.

Who knew the president of the United States, most members of a political party and White House staff would suffer from the same condition?

Read the rest atRoll Call
Jan182018 TAGS: , , , , , , , ,

Opinion: The Language of Diplomacy, Democracy — and Division

Featured at Roll Call

“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” then long-shot candidate Donald Trump saidin 2015 of Sen. John McCain’s service and time as a prisoner after his plane was shot down by North Vietnamese troops in 1967. It was a quote that many thought would end Trump’s White House dreams.

That it did not slow the Trump train was a clear sign that something fundamental was broken in America’s definition of what it means to be a patriot.

Read the rest atRoll Call
Sep282017 TAGS: , , , , , ,

Tim Scott’s importance as GOP senator and symbol

Featured at The Washington Post

Yes, the giddiness is almost embarrassing as Republicans congratulate themselves on making history with Congressman Tim Scott tapped to join the U.S. Senate – the only African American in the exclusive club of 100. And no, it’s hardly a quick fix for the party’s troubles attracting minority voters since Scott’s conservative political beliefs will hardly trigger a stampede to the GOP. But Democrats should not discount the man or his symbolism.

Scott’s conservative views and his raised by a hard-working single mom background strike a chord with Americans of every race. His humble thanks to “my lord and savior Jesus Christ” at the Monday announcement of the historic news didn’t hurt, especially in his Southern home. Democrats did nominate an African-American senator who is set to start his second term in the White House, a feat the GOP is far from matching. But in the 113th Congress, Scott will be the only black senator, and he will have an “R” after his name.

Read the rest atThe Washington Post
Dec232012 TAGS: , , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page