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Tasnim Shamma

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Tasnim Shamma joined WFAE as a reporter in August 2012. Before that, she spent a year as a Kroc fellow reporting, writing, editing, blogging and producing for NPR’s Digital News Desk, Weekends on All Things Considered and the National Desk in Washington, D.C. She also spent three months at NPR member station WLRN, based in The Miami Herald newsroom. She graduated from Princeton's Class of 2011, where she was executive editor for multimedia for The Daily Princetonian. She worked as a video intern, copy editor and reporter at The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Sports Illustrated and Newsweek in New York City and The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. She grew up in Queens, New York and looks forward to new adventures in Charlotte.

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A Trifling Place
3:27 pm
Wed March 20, 2013

A Trifling Place, Episode 7: Turn Green Already!

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Credit Tasnim Shamma
Nine TV displays and several computers are used to monitor the traffic in control room in the old city hall.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
WFAE reporter Lisa Miller and UNC Charlotte professor Martin Kane wait at a red light on Providence Road.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Lisa expresses her frustration with the traffic light signal timing when we return to the office.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
A traffic control room has been located in Charlotte's old city hall, across the Government Center, since the 1970s.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Charles Abel is the transportation systems manager for the city of Charlotte. There is one technician monitoring traffic during morning rush hour and one in the evening.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Changes to individual intersections or groups of intersections can be made using the central system software program called Centracs. It is connected to 90 percent of the traffic signals (green dots) in Charlotte. Blue dots show a lost connection.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
The traffic on North Tryon and West Mallard Creek Church Road moves very slowly during rush hour because the lights take a long time to change.
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Welcome to “A Trifling Place,” a podcast dedicated to exploring the ins-and-outs of Charlotte.

  • Find out how Charlotte's traffic signals work

Every city has its share of traffic issues. In Charlotte, for example, there are a lot of complaints about rush hour near Ballantyne on I-485. (Relief is coming. That section of the road is scheduled to be expanded to three lanes by December 2014.)

But today we're not talking about the quality of the Charlotte region’s roads. We’ll focus on an issue the Charlotte Department of Transportation has a little more control over: traffic lights.

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Local News
6:36 pm
Mon March 11, 2013

Concord City Council To Vote On Flight Training Center Incentive

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Two Marines use simulation training to practice for situations they are unable to rehearse during regular flights in Havelock, N.C.
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Concord city council members will vote this week on whether to give a local flight training center a $56,527  tax rebate over three years to expand. FlyRight is a training center located across the street from the Concord Regional Airport. The company plans to invest $5 million to build a second flight simulator. Concord City Manager Brian Hiatt says he hopes this will translate to more business for the airport.

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Local News
5:25 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Sequestration Cuts To Hit Control Tower At Concord Airport

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A plane parked at the Concord Regional Airport in Concord, N.C.
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What's an airport without a control tower? One that can expect to see a lot less traffic. As part of the sequestration cuts to the federal budget, the Federal Aviation Administration has given the city of Concord official notice that it will end the contract that funds the tower program at Concord Regional Airport.  

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Courts
5:00 am
Tue March 5, 2013

Citizen's Court: Talking It Out With Your Neighbor

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Credit Tasnim Shamma
Assistant District Attorney Bruce Lillie, center, discusses a case with others on the misdemenaor team in citizen's court on December 10.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Judge Theo X. Nixon presides over Citizen's Court in Courtroom 4330 at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Assistant District Attorney Bruce Lillie discusses the new Citizen's Court initiative in Mecklenburg County.
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The Mecklenburg County Courthouse processes up to 1,600 misdemeanor cases a day. And administrators are always looking for ways to bring that number down so that judges have more manageable caseloads. One of the newest initiatives is mediation. Also known as Citizen's Court.

WFAE's Tasnim Shamma spent a day at Citizen's Court to see how well mediation was working … or not.

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DACA
1:18 pm
Fri March 1, 2013

A 'Modern Day Scarlet Letter': Protesting Pink Licenses

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Credit Tasnim Shamma
Alfredo Esparza, 19, is a DACA applicant and member of United 4 The Dream. He holds a mock license in uptown Charlotte.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Cruz Rodriguez, 17, is a student organizer with United 4 The Dream.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Protesters gathered in uptown Charlotte to protest the license design for DACA applicants.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Passersby were invited to take photos with the poster and were handed leaflets about the licenses.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Protesters made signs about the pink licenses.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Passersby were invited to take photos with the poster and were handed leaflets about the licenses. They will post the photos on pinklicense.tumblr.com
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Dozens of immigrants stood on the corner of Trade and Tryon Street yesterday afternoon in Uptown Charlotte to protest the design of North Carolina's driver's license for young illegal immigrants.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced earlier this month that it would be issuing driver's licenses and identification cards to immigrants who are granted deferred action status by the Obama administration.

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A Trifling Place
4:11 pm
Thu February 28, 2013

Charlotte 2024? A Checklist For The Olympics

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Charlotte has expressed interest in hosting the Olympics ... but does it even meet the requirements?
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Last week, the U.S. Olympic Committee sent a letter to the mayors of the 25 largest cities (Charlotte ranks 19th) and ten other cities that expressed interest in hosting in the past. But as The New York Times notes, many of the cities on the list don't even meet the requirements the USOC demands.

Let's take a look at Charlotte:

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Crime
3:58 pm
Fri February 22, 2013

Family Of Dead Pastor Asks Judge To Show Mercy

Credit South Carolina Department of Corrections
Twenty-two year old Mary Reames began a one-year prison sentence last week. She was convicted of hitting and killing a 71-year-old man while driving under the influence.
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A woman who killed a pastor while drunk and high on drugs will only serve a one year prison sentence – in part because the pastor's family asked the judge to show mercy.

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Crime
9:13 am
Thu February 21, 2013

Learning How To Expunge A Criminal Record

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Credit Tasnim Shamma
Legal Aid's Cindy Patton delivers a talk on how to get an expunction.
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More than 200 people showed up for the expungement seminar.
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We’ve all done things we wish we could take back and start over. It’s harder for some than others – especially if that mistake involves a criminal conviction. But some people with a criminal past can wipe the slate clean if enough time has passed. Melange Health Solutions held a seminar on Tuesday to teach locals how to expunge their records in hopes of increasing their chances at employment.

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Immigration
12:03 am
Tue February 19, 2013

NC Driver's Licenses To Have Different Look For Immigrants On Deferred Status

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The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced last week that it would be issuing driver's licenses and identification cards to young illegal immigrants who are granted deferred action status by the Obama administration. But local immigration activists are not happy with how the licenses look.  

Deferred Action allows young people who came to the U.S. before they turned 16 to get work permits. But states have struggled with what that means in terms of granting drivers' licenses.

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A Trifling Place
9:41 am
Mon February 18, 2013

A Trifling Place, Episode 6: When Cankerworms Attack

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Credit Tasnim Shamma
Up close view of cankerworms stuck on Tanglefoot on a willow oak tree outside the city's Landscape Management office.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Cankerworms stuck on Tanglefoot on a willow oak tree outside the city's Landscape Management office.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
Trees along the street in Wesley Heights have black bands around them to trap cankerworms.
Credit Tasnim Shamma
An old tree in the Beatties Ford neighborhood of Charlotte.
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Welcome to "A Trifling Place," a podcast dedicated to exploring the ins-and-outs of Charlotte.  

In our last episode (Charlotte's Tree Obsession), we ended with this sound bite: "Die, cankerworm, die!" 

That's city arborist Donald McSween back in 2008 when WFAE's Lisa Miller followed him on his war against the cankerworms.

He also had some help: citizen soldiers like Sophia Hollingsworth. 

"We picked them off and didn’t feel bad at all about mooshing them because we felt it was one less cankerworm," Hollingsworth says. "And I don’t feel bad about any of them dying. It’s the canopy that Charlotte is known for and the trees are more important than the caterpillars. Hate the green monster."

Five years later, the fight against the inch-long creatures continues.

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