Archives for December 2017

Charlotte Talks: Local News Roundup Recaps 2017’s Top Stories

What DIDN’T happen in 2017?

Charlotte grappled with its highest murder count since the early 1990s. Police were at a loss for an explanation for the sharp increase, which disproportionately impacted the African-American community.

The city’s first African-American female mayor, Vi Lyles, took office after unseating incumbent Jennifer Roberts in the Democratic primary. Young newcomers were elected to form a majority on the City Council.

The national reckoning with sexual harassment found its way to the Carolina Panthers front office, leading to the swift downfall of owner Jerry Richardson.

House Bill 2, which put transgender rights in the national conversation, went by the wayside.

new school superintendent, Clayton Wilcox, took the helm at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as the dust settled on a controversial student assignment.

Mike Collins and the reporters who covered these and other stories put it all into perspective.

GUESTS

Tom Bullock, reporter, WFAE (@TomWFAE)

Glenn Burkins, editor and publisher, Q City Metro (@glennburkins)

Mary C. Curtis, Roll Call columnist (@mcurtisnc3)

Ann Doss Helms, education reporter, The Charlotte Observer (@anndosshelms)

2018 Politics Preview and Predictions

CHARLOTTE, NC — Will 2018 beat 2017 when it comes to political surprises? WCCB Political Contributor Mary C. Curtis takes a look at what’s in store in Charlotte and beyond.

Opinion: Thinking Small When the Big Picture Looks Cloudy

Polls that show a view of Congress mighty low and sinking fast invariably find voters more satisfied with their own representatives. Thumbs-down verdicts for Washington and the “swamp” in general often turn rosier when dealing with particulars.

That fact, plus gerrymandered districts and restrictive voting laws, is reason enough for Democrats to be cautious when predicting a 2018 blue electoral wave. Americans are thinking small these days, preferring to stick with the familiar and close-to-home when confronted with issues that gobble up all the oxygen in the room and the brain.

At the least, taking time for family, home, neighborhood and church is one way to make sense of life and change the things you can, as the famous “Serenity Prayer” counsels. It’s the opposite of traditional advice to look at the “big picture” for perspective when little things don’t go your way.

Senate Passes Largest Tax Overhaul in Three Decades

CHARLOTTE, NC — A New Bill Ends the Year and Transforms the Tax System. It looks as though the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress will get its win, a legislative accomplishment, and a big one. The major overhaul of the nation’s tax system will be passed without any support from Democrats and without one public hearing. Polls show that it and President Donald Trump are unpopular, but will that change as the effects of the bill start to shake out?

Political Contributor, Mary C. Curtis weighs in.

Charlotte Talks News Roundup

This week on the Friday News Roundup…

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools now has a new school board. We’ll go over the new leadership and find out how this board  may affect student assignment and education throughout the system.

Cardinal Innovations continues to make headlines after the state stepped in to remove its CEO and board after allegations of financial mismanagement. An update on the story.

Could City Council go back to televising its citizen comment sessions? We discuss what Council Member Braxton Winston is doing in support of that possible move.

Charlotteans near Park Road are upset about the closing of the Park Terrace Movie Theatre. Why the closure? What will happen next? We discuss what we know.

Light Rail is now 10 years old, and still growing. We take a look back at those first days of the Light Rail and why the opposition of public funding for the rail still exists.

We cover those stories and much more with Mike Collins and the roundup reporters on the Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup.

Guests:

Tom Bullock, reporter for WFAE

Ann Doss Helms, reporter for The Charlotte Observer

Mary C. Curtis, columnist at Roll Call and contributor at WCCB-TV

Opinion: The Commandments According to Roy Moore Take a Hit

In the Alabama Senate race, both sides went to church — Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones took their appeals to their faithful, which, for the most part, worship the same God but came to wildly different electoral conclusions.

On Tuesday, Jones won. The miracle of a Democrat winning a statewide race in deep-red Alabama actually happened. It was not the divine intervention Moore had prayed for, perhaps pointing out the danger when you so shamelessly use the word of the Lord to divide.

Doug Jones Defeats Roy Moore in Alabama

CHARLOTTE, NC — In deep-red Alabama, Democrat Doug Jones pulled off an upset win over Republican Roy Moore to fill a U.S. Senate seat. With the national and international spotlight on the state, Alabama voted to break with its recent tradition – and go against the candidate heartily endorsed by President Trump in a state he handily won. (Mary C. Curtis)

Political Contributor, Mary C. Curtis weighs in on what happened and what this means.

The (Un-) Making of Icons in Africa

Which African leaders qualify as an icon? Perhaps this is always a controversial question, but it was much easier to answer, say, 25 years ago, when the public memories of Pan-Africanist champions such as Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere were still fresh, Nelson Mandela had just walked out of prison, and Robert Mugabe was a widely respected leader. Today, lists like New African’s 2004 “100 greatest Africans of all time” – in which these leaders took the top four places – seem somewhat stale. Beyond famous musicians, artists and authors, the time of easy consensus on who is an “African icon” seems past. The sands are shifting beneath the political icons of old.

Opinion: The Need for a Royal Distraction on This Side of the Pond

Though it was heresy in some quarters at the time, I cared not one whit when Prince Charles took Lady Diana Spencer as his bride — and yes, it was pretty much him choosing her as a suitable spouse. I did not indulge in the ritual some Anglophile friends bragged about, setting clocks to wake up to view the 1981 spectacle in real time while nibbling on some British-like snack.

I did not care about the carriage, the bridal party or the design of the wedding dress. These were folks with a guaranteed income, home and life, and I had more serious concerns.

Black Catholics are the past and future of the U.S. church

When you think about the history of American Catholicism, images of Irish, Italian, German and Polish immigrant parishes probably come to mind. Think about the future of the U.S. church, and you’ve probably been told it’s Latino. But the story of the church, in the United States—past, present and future—is the story of black Catholics.

On this week’s show we talk with Mary C. Curtis, an award-winning journalist and columnist at Roll Call, who recently wrote about the African-American Catholic experience for America. We ask her how the church can address the sin of racism, about the gifts black Catholics bring to the church and what she thinks about Pope Francis five years in.