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1 week ago | 
charlotteobserver.com | Mary Ramsey |Nora O’Neill
July 1 is the start of a new budget year for governments across North Carolina. That will mean tax changes depending on where you live. [email protected] Many Charlotte-area property owners will pay more in property taxes in a couple weeks, but how much more depends on where they live. Counties, cities and towns throughout the region set their latest tax rates in June as part of their budgets for the new fiscal year starting July 1.
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1 month ago | 
charlotteobserver.com | Mary Ramsey |Nick Sullivan |Nora O’Neill
People wait outside the Lucille Giles Center, a shelter run by Roof Above, on Statesville Avenue in Charlotte, NC on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. The center opens at 4 p.m. each day on a first come, first serve basis. Space is available only for the night and people start lining up for a bed in the early afternoon. [email protected] A Charlotte nonprofit focused on homelessness. A city trying to shore up its water supply. A group serving domestic violence survivors.
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Mar 20, 2025 | 
charlotteobserver.com | Ames Alexander |Nora O’Neill
Flooding from Helene pushed Tammy Coates' home in Marshall off its foundation and washed it into the French Broad River. Photo courtesy of Tammy Coates. On paper, it seems clear: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has come to the rescue of many thousands of people in Western North Carolina whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Helene.
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Mar 19, 2025 | 
charlotteobserver.com | Nora O’Neill |Ames Alexander
A single mother of two in Black Mountain is relieved FEMA paid for her family's hotel stay for months after the Helene struck Western North Carolina. But no longer eligible for that aid, she must move a third time since the storm. Eight miles to the west, a family whose home was destroyed by Helene's flooding hasn't been able to get a FEMA trailer - or more than $2,900 in rental assistance.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
charlotteobserver.com | Nora O’Neill |Ames Alexander |Briah Lumpkins
In social media posts Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd said their offices had heard from dozens of people displaced by Hurricane Helene who were being kicked out of their hotels because their FEMA housing vouchers had expired. But much remains unanswered about what led to those complaints and whether missteps by FEMA contributed to the problems. The controversy comes as N.C. Gov.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
newsobserver.com | Nora O’Neill
Amparo has lived in the United States for over 35 years. She has family, a 28-year-old daughter, a dog, a job and friends in North Carolina. But in President-elect Donald Trump's second term, she worries about being sent back to the country she left when she was 18. Amparo, who The Charlotte Observer is referring to only by her middle name because of fears about being deported, paid for a work visa when she first moved to the U.S. from Colombia.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
charlotteobserver.com | Nora O’Neill
Jeffrey Baldwin paid his homeowners association dues on time for over 15 years. So when he went online to pay his annual $700 fee in January 2023, he was shocked to see a request for thousands of dollars. The money accumulated, he discovered, due to a $100 fine for having a vehicle parked in front of his house that allegedly violated his northeast Charlotte neighborhood's rules.
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Dec 31, 2024 | 
newsobserver.com | Nora O’Neill
In North Carolina, some nonprofit employees make millions each year. Compensation for some nonprofit positions in the state has grown steadily over the years. For fiscal year 2017, Duke University's former men's basketball coach Michael Krzyzewski, the state's top nonprofit earner, made $5,801,407 in total compensation. In 2023, he made $8,983,108. During fiscal year 2016, the Wake Forest University Health Sciences CEO made $2,284,045. In 2022, CEO Julie Ann Freischlag brought in $5,824,024.
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Dec 30, 2024 | 
charlotteobserver.com | Nora O’Neill
Some problems from Sunday's strong storms persisted Monday morning as hundreds of Duke Energy customers were still without power and fallen trees in Mecklenburg County caused local traffic detours. There was no activity in Mecklenburg County on Sunday, according to Paige Grande, a spokeswoman for Mecklenburg County Emergency Management. There were, however, potential tornadoes spanning from Union County in South Carolina to Mooresville in North Carolina, Grande said.
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Dec 24, 2024 | 
charlotteobserver.com | Nora O’Neill
That Charlotte parking invoice you got may not be real. The city sent a news release Monday warning residents about an ongoing scam related to the city's on-street parking system. Fraudulent text messages that look like they are from the city's Park It program have been sent out, alerting people about their alleged outstanding parking invoice and asking them to make a payment via an external link, according to the release. The city said these fraudulent messages should be ignored.
