A few weeks after John Lassiter backed out of a League of Women Voters debate over a format he said included too many rebuttals, now he won't have to contend with any.

That's because instead of having a mayoral debate, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg League of Women Voters is holding a mayoral forum.

Lassiter and Anthony Foxx will appear separately and have 30 minutes each to answer questions.

Amanda Raymond, the local league's debate director, says this format made more sense than canceling the event altogether.

Two Charlotte universities today received huge gifts.

Johnson C. Smith University was awarded a record grant of $5.7 million from the Duke Endowment. The school says the money will be used to help establish new programs.

UNC Charlotte, meanwhile, will receive about $1.9 million for its motorsports engineering program.

A trust fund established for the late NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki is making the donation. Kulwicki was also an engineer.

The Wells Fargo Cultural Campus and office tower on Tryon Street are nearing completion, after more than six years of planning and construction. Last week, the Knight Theater opened to a full house. The new Gantt African American Cultural Center opens its doors next week. WFAE's Julie Rose reports on what's next.

The cultural campus and office tower are an $800 million project and it's Bob Bertges' job to keep it all on track. But there's one question he gets more than any other.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools continues to look into redrawing boundaries. This week, the district released new options at Eastover Elementary and Myers Park High. WFAE's Simone Orendain reports CMS has been talking school boundaries for the past seven months.
Superintendent Peter Gorman says he can think of three other periods when this much time was spent on CMS boundaries.

When computer maker Dell announced last week it will close its Winston-Salem plant and lay off more than 900 workers, Governor Bev Perdue said she hoped to get back every "red cent" the state had given the company in economic incentives.

That package could have totaled more than $300 million from state and local government. So far, Dell has collected on about $30 million of that, and the state now appears unlikely to get it all back.

WFAE's Julie Rose reports:

Nature Deficit Disorder
We're joined by the man who coined the term "nature deficit disorder." Richard Louv is the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. He works to educate others about the importance of getting kids outside and into nature and away from the TV. We'll talk about the reasons behind the trend that has driven children out of the woods and fields and how to overcome this trend.
Guest
Richard Louv - Author of Last Child in the Woods and Chairman of the Children and Nature Network