Julie Rose

First Lady Michelle Obama rallied a few thousand supporters in a hangar at the Charlotte airport this afternoon. It was the last major Obama campaign event in North Carolina of the 2012 election.  WFAE's Julie Rose was there and joined WFAE's Mark Rumsey by phone from the rally. 

RUMSEY: Julie, why did Michelle Obama come here today?

Unbeknownst to many South Carolina voters, they're being asked to change the state's constitution next week, and the outcome will affect future elections. 

In South Carolina, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately. About half of states do it that way – including North Carolina.  Next week, South Carolina voters will have a chance to change that and put their top two executives on the same ticket.  

But the constitutional amendment on South Carolina's ballot Tuesday has garnered little attention.

The much-anticipated arrival of Southwest Airlines at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport will not bring more flights or cheaper fares, says Aviation Director Jerry Orr.

Southwest will fly six flights a day from Charlotte beginning next April. But AirTran - which Southwest is replacing -  flew seven flights daily, including three to Atlanta. Southwest will fly to Baltimore, Chicago, Houston and Orlando, but not Atlanta. 

Property owners hoping to learn if the 2011 tax values assigned to their neighborhoods will be re-done because of errors will have to wait at least a few more weeks. The firm hired by Mecklenburg County to evaluate the property revaluation process will not share details of its findings until a county commission meeting on Nov. 13.  And even then, there are significant hurdles in fixing whatever flaws the firm uncovers.

The cyber-attack that experts already believe is the largest on a state tax agency - ever - just got bigger. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said Wednesday the tax returns of more than 650,000 businesses may also have been exposed – on top of the 3.6 million individual returns previously announced.

“I am probably more frustrated than you know to have to do these daily press conferences, but what I will tell you is as we go through this process, every time we find out something new we are gonna continue to tell you,” said a grim-faced Haley.

The cost to build Duke’s coal-fired plant in Edwardsport, Indiana was already about a billion dollars over original estimates.

Now the testing of new technology to burn coal more cleanly at the plant is taking longer than expected and adding $180 million to the cost.

Duke spokeswoman Angeline Protogere says this should be the last expensive delay for the Edwardsport plant.

“We believe this is a realistic cost for the project,” says Protogere.

Charlotte City Council members Tuesday held the second of three special budget meetings scheduled before the end of the year, seeking a solution to their months-long impasse. Whether or not to include a streetcar line in the city’s near-term spending plan remains the sticking point.

The streetcar is only $119 million of a more than $900 million proposal to raise property taxes and spend the money on projects meant to spur development in struggling areas of Charlotte.

More than a quarter of a million South Carolina residents have signed up for free credit protection since the state announced a major hacking incident that exposed 3.6 million Social Security numbers and more than 300,000 credit and debit card numbers at the Department of Revenue. 

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said Tuesday the credit monitoring company Experian has agreed to cap expenses to the state at $12 million. Haley says any taxpayer who enrolls in the free coverage will have their credit reports scrutinized daily for an entire year.   

Republican Pat McCrory frequently references the need for a “fresh voice” in Raleigh during his campaign for North Carolina governor.

“It is gonna take an outsider – an outsider to break up this Good Ole Boy, Good Ole Girl system that has been in control for far too long within our state government,” said McCrory in his first televised debate against Democrat Walter Dalton.