The Charlotte Hornets won their season opener Wednesday night in the newly renovated Spectrum Center, downing the Brooklyn Nets 136-117 in front of a capacity crowd of more than 19,500 fans. Nine Hornets scored in double figures, including rookies Kon Knueppel and Ryan Kalkbrenner who both started. Brandon Miller led the way with 25 points.

Early voting in Mecklenburg County expands to all 21 sites on Thursday for the Nov. 4. municipal elections. All sites can be found here.

You can probably picture one right now: A vacant, overgrown piece of land, maybe fenced off, where nothing ever seems to get built even though everything around it is booming. These lots dot Charlotte, blank spaces in a sea of construction that become permanent question marks. The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter this week dug into the question of what plagues some of these more prominent spots.

With the municipal election less than two weeks away, the Charlotte Muslim Caucus plans to host a forum with elected officials about the transit sales tax referendum on the ballot on Nov. 4.

The role of voter integrity groups in shaping same-day voter laws was explored on Day 3 of a federal trial in Winston-Salem.

Ahold Delhaize USA will establish an East Coast distribution center in Alamance County.

State House and Senate leaders say this week's legislative session on redistricting likely marks their final votes of 2025 — which would end the year with no agreements on Medicaid funding or a full state budget.

The discovery of three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes was confirmed this week by the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, which said the mosquitoes likely arrived by freight.