Commissioners hire a new Mecklenburg County manager. Rain helps firefighters battling mountain wildfires. A wrinkle in the race for state supreme court. And South Carolina women's basketball team and Duke men's basketball team each head to the Final Four.

In Silicon Valley, there is a group referred to as the PayPal Mafia — the founders and employees of PayPal who later started their own successful tech companies. In Charlotte, we have the Passport Mafia which springs from a company called Passport, which provided employees with experience in building a business and helped birth more than a dozen startups. Is Charlotte an entrepreneur’s kind of place?

Since 2020, large public safety training centers have been cropping up around the country. Last summer, Central Piedmont Community College announced plans to build a facility in Matthews to provide training for police, fire and Medic personnel. These projects have faced opposition nationally and locally.

On the next Charlotte Talks, the trees are leafing out, the azaleas are blooming, the grass is greening – all sure signs that spring is here and that means gardeners should be working hard to capitalize on the season. A lot of people turned to gardening during the pandemic and stuck with it, and whether you have a typical suburban plot of land or an apartment balcony with flowerpots, we have advice for gardeners, info on native plants, even ways to incorporate chickens into your gardens.

Laws are being proposed and passed nationwide and in North Carolina to loosen gun restrictions. All of this is happening even though nearly 47,000 people died in the U.S. in 2023 from gun-related injuries.

Charlotte City Council member Tariq Bokhari steps down to become deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. Mecklenburg County remains a point of irritation for ICE while immigrants face a massive court backlog due to a lack of resources. And Charlotte continues to woo the CIAA in an effort to bring its tournaments back to town.

Ninety-eight years ago, the Carolina Theatre was born. It closed in 1978 and has sat vacant for nearly half its lifetime — 47 years. Now, it’s set to make a comeback. After years of construction, the theater has been restored to its former glory but also as a state-of-the-art masterpiece.

On the next Charlotte Talks, a conversation about the true story captured in the musical, "Parade," with playwright Alfred Uhry and Rabbi Steven Lebow.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis recently released recordings of death threats he’s received. Both candidates for the N.C. Supreme Court say they have received threats. And the U.S. Marshals Service reports this is happening around the country to many other officials, including judges. Where do political dissension and free speech rights end?

After years of several Democratic sheriffs in North Carolina opting out of a federal immigration program, the General Assembly passed a law requiring them to participate. The purpose is to aid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in removing undocumented immigrants. But in Mecklenburg County, there remains an ongoing dispute over the law. Sheriff McFadden joins us to share his point of view.