The Charlotte Post

05/28/2025

Public school supporters want more investment in teachers and students.

The League of Women Voters of Charlotte-Mecklenburg held a press conference Tuesday at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center to raise awareness and call attention to the lack of funding in state-supported schools. Gene Smith, the league’s co-chair, read the Mecklenburg County Community Resolve, a community statement on education that will be presented in Raleigh next month.

North Carolina is 49th in the country in teacher pay and schools across the state struggle with large student-to-teacher ratios. Supporters insist those factors are unsustainable for education opportunity.

Call for lawmakers to improve teacher pay and facilities

05/26/2025

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings’ retirement is still of interest to North Carolina Auditor Dave Boliek.

Jennings announced May 25 he plans to leave the post at year’s end after 33 years with the department. He succeeded Kerr Putney as chief in 2020.

"Serving as the Chief of Police for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has truly been the greatest honor of my career," Jennings said in a statement. "I am incredibly proud of what we've accomplished together – the significant reductions in crime, the strengthening of community trust, and the unwavering dedication I've witnessed from every member of this department. After over 33 years of service, I have decided it is time for me to pass the torch at the end of this year.”

05/26/2025

Join us on June 5 as we kick off Black Music Month with the Music Makers, a weekly webinar conversation with some of Charlotte's most talented artists. First up is violinist Carol Briggs, the "Lady in Red" and a force in the jazz and contemporary music spaces. Register here to attend: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7417470628128/WN_2YK4c4r2T-qOUNzyah75Iw #/registration

05/26/2025

Carolina Panthers general manager Dan Morgan closed April's draft class the way he opened it, bookending his picks with playmaking receivers.

In the first round, he selected Tetairoa McMillan, a big-bodied receiver not known for breakaway speed but equipped with an elite catching radius. In the sixth, Morgan picked Jimmy Horn Jr., whose speed and athleticism stood out during rookie minicamp. With experience as a return specialist and the league poised to introduce new kickoff regulations, he could prove to be a draft steal.

With the Panthers opening their offseason training activities Tuesday at Bank of America Stadium, McMillan and Horn project to join a front-end cast featuring Adam Thielen, Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette.

How will they fit in?

Draft picks Tetairoa McMillan and Jimmy Horn Jr. join experienced corps

05/26/2025

Graduate researchers at North Carolina A&T State University have developed a sustainable wound dressing that could be an upgrade over traditional bandages.

Woundra, developed by nanoscience and nanoengineering doctoral students Hoda Motaghed, Kayla Morgan and Vaishnavi Kandula as well as agriculture and environmental sciences master’s candidate Mahshid Eghbali, presented a laboratory-scale prototype at the Innovation Venture Expo at Delaware State University. The showcase hosted by the 1890 Center of Excellence for Emerging Technologies focuses on advancing scientific innovation and economic development.

“Woundra is my baby and our tagline for the product is, ‘Woundra heals with care, is powered by nature, and is perfected by science,’” said Motaghed, the team’s leader who completed her first semester in the doctoral program after earning a master’s after the spring semester. “Since I was a teenager, I was always curious about skin products and researched how they help people and from then on, I told myself, ‘You will be the one who is going to produce your own skin products. And here I am now.”

Doctoral candidates present engineering prototype at science expo

05/26/2025

It’s a marvel of food technology: ice cream that resists melting.

In a video explaining the science behind it, a seller of food chemicals shows scoops of ice cream holding their shape under hot lights. The super ingredient? Polysorbate 80.

Polysorbate 80 is an emulsifier, a chemical used to control the consistency of thousands of supermarket products. Other widely used emulsifiers or stabilizers include carboxymethyl cellulose, carrageenan, and maltodextrin.

Recently, such ingredients have been showing up in scientific studies for another reason: Researchers say they may cause a variety of health problems.

Studies have found that emulsifiers can alter the mix of bacteria in the gut, known as the microbiome or microbiota; damage the lining of the gastrointestinal tract; and trigger inflammation, potentially contributing to problems elsewhere in the body.

Emulsifiers and stabilizers are among the most common ingredients in ultraprocessed foods, a prime target of the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Ingredients in melt-resistant ice cream linked to assortment of ailments

05/24/2025

Taylor Terry helps match people with their perfect furever friend.

Terry is a full-time cockapoo and goldendoodle breeder who became attached to the breeds after adopting a cockapoo as a student at North Carolina A&T State University. Pups range $3,500 to $4,000.

“It’s just my passion,” Terry said. “This is what God called me to do, just to help animals, save animals, create animals, give them to families.”
https://www.thecharlottepost.com/news/2025/05/24/business/love-for-animals-turns-into-a-doggone-passion/

05/24/2025

The impact of tariffs on imported goods will be felt by Americans sooner or later.

Small businesses that usually operate with tight budgets and narrow margins are bracing for economic changes with President Donald Trump’s self-imposed taxes on goods coming from other countries. As a result, it can affect day-to-day operations, and their customers by extension.

Kwindarius Sapp, owner of Q’s Culinary Cart in Charlotte, said while he hasn’t felt the impact yet, he hopes it won’t impair business.

“First of all, I am hoping that the products don’t get too out of hand as far as the pricing,” he said. “We have kind of already dealt with inflation during the Covid-19 time period, so we have been seeing a lot of those prices get back to normal. It is closer to normal now than back then. The hope is that the tariffs won’t reverse that and make things skyrocket again.”

Taxes on imports – real and threatened – roil confidence in the American economy

05/23/2025

The best Black college baseball and softball players will display their talents next week in Charlotte and Kannapolis.

The HBCU All-Star Weekend May 29-31 showcases on HBCU players that aren’t always in the spotlight. Weekend passes are $50 and available at minorityprospects.com/HBCU. Individual event tickets are also available.
The battle of the bands (May 29) and baseball game (May 31) will be held at Atrium Health Ballpark, 1 Cannonballer Way in Kannapolis. The softball game (May 30) is at Stick Williams Dream Fields, 7531 Tuckaseegee Road.

All events are scheduled for 7 p.m.

Includes softball and battle of the bands showcase

05/23/2025

Black artists are collaborating to share their experiences and realities.

The Chop Shop Artists Collective, made up of Black and brown artists and educators from across the nation, will debut its first exhibition, “We Are Here” at The Harvey B. Gantt Center on May 23 from 6-9 p.m. The exhibit will remain on display through Oct. 26.

Founded in 2020, the collective’s goal is to unify Black artists from across the U.S. They gather monthly.

“We as a group of Black and brown artists wanted to be collaborative, we wanted to be supportive to each other, our whole idea is community,” he said. “I heard someone recently on a podcast say that community breaks into two words: common unity.”

National collective brings Black experience and stories to canvas

05/23/2025

Charlotte City Council member Tiawana Brown is facing a federal indictment of wire fraud.

Brown, 53, and her daughters Tijema Brown, 30, and Antionette Rouse, 33, are charged with conspiring to falsely obtain more than $124,000 in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, according to Russ Ferguson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. The elder Brown, who represents District 3, which encompasses west Charlotte, said the indictment is politically motivated to interfere with her re-election.

“I am not here to be tried in the media,” Brown said in a statement, adding the allegations were connected to actions at least four years before she was elected in 2023. “However, I must address the allegations against me by the United States District Court. I will have my day in court, and I trust the process.”

US attorney alleges misleading statements on COVID-19 relief applications

05/23/2025

Next week’s Philadelphia Dance Company’s Charlotte performance is a homecoming of sorts for Joan Myers Brown.

Philadanco, one of the nation’s top contemporary dance troupes, will perform May 28 at Knight Theater at Levine Center for the Arts, 430 S. Tryon St. Tickets start at $35 and available at GanttCenter.org or by calling (704) 372-1000. A reception and fireside chat with Brown, Philadanco’s founder, and Ayisha McMillan Cravotta of Charlotte Ballet Academy starts at 6 p.m.

The troupe will also participate in a May 27 masterclass at the Harvey B. Gantt Center at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the performance, pre-reception and masterclass are available at ganttcenter.org.

The North Carolina tie is important to Brown, 93, a Philadelphia native whose mother Nellie was a nuclear scientist and father Julius was a restaurateur.

“My father was born in a city nobody knows,” she said. “Wadesboro, North Carolina. A small town near South Carolina.”

Dance troupe at Knight Theater and Harvey B. Gantt Center May 27-28