Local

It looks like the Charlotte Bobcats are getting closer to that big name change that’s been rumored for months. CBSSports.com is reporting that the city’s pro basketball team has begun the process of changing its name to the Hornets. That was the name of Charlotte’s former NBA team, which moved to New Orleans.

North Carolina's unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level in four years, and South Carolina's unemployment rate has declined to the lowest point in five years. That's according to figures released Friday for the month of April.

  On March 11, in the music room of Blythe Elementary in Huntersville, 25 first- and third-grade children stepped on stage to receive the gift of a new violin. The children are the first class of MusicalMinds NC, a free, classical music program for “at-risk” children modeled upon the famed El Sistema schools of Venezuela. On stage with the children was Eduardo Cedeño, conductor of the Lake Norman Symphony Orchestra and one of El Sistema’s first students.

Mecklenburg County Chairman Pat Cotham has taken a lot of heat for the firing of County Manager Harry Jones last week.  So she’s decided to fire back at her nay-sayers by releasing results of a poll she commissioned.   

Cotham’s campaign committee paid Public Policy Polling to ask Mecklenburg residents about the decision to fire Jones.  The results came back in her favor.