North Mecklenburg High School’s women’s soccer team advanced to Saturday’s N.C. 4A championship game with a convincing 5-0 victory over E. Forsyth H.S. Wednesday. Gordon Clark was there to record the scene. In Sports, CLICK HERE>

Updated Friday, 7:30 a.m.
By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library trustees on Thursday approved closing four branches in Charlotte as the system adapts to a big county funding cut for the coming fiscal year. The fate of community branches, including those in Davidson and Cornelius, is uncertain. The library says it needs money from the City of Charlotte and the county’s 6 towns, but the towns have tight budgets of their own. Can local branches survive?

Read the full story

SOURCE: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management Office

The City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have completed an update of a regional “hazard mitigation plan” in coordination with the county’s six incorporated towns and are seeking public comments on the draft through May 28. Read the full story

By ANN DOSS HELMS
The Charlotte Observer

Several North Mecklenburg High School students face citations and school suspensions after allegedly drinking vodka on a prom bus rented by school board member Rhonda Lennon. Read the full story

Rosemary Klein (second from left) received a check for $2,000 from New-Birth church, after being nominated by her student, Alexis Powers (at center). Joining them were: (at far left) Dr. Monique Gardner-Witherspoon, superintendent of the CMS North Learning Community, (second from right) Debbie Higgenbotham, also of CMS, and (at far right) New Birth-Charlotte Bishop Terrell L. Murphy. (Photo courtesy of Bishop Murphy and New Birth-Charlotte)

In a time when the news headlines on education are all about budget cuts and teacher layoffs comes at last a different kind of story — one of teachers being handed large checks and thanked for their service.

“We wanted to recognize the unsung heroes who touch the lives of young people every day,” said Bishop Terrell L. Murphy of New Birth-Charlotte in Huntersville during a church worship service April 18.

Then Bishop Murphy helped hand out checks for $2,000 each to four teachers from the north area of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Among those honored was Rosemary Klein, a Davidson resident and 6th-grade math teacher at Bailey Middle School. Read the full story

Davidson firefighters responded to a variety of minor calls over the past week, from cooking fires to a brush fire to a request by police to help open a vehicle that was damaged in a fatal auto accident over the weekend. Here are the details, plus a summary of the past week’s medical calls: Read the full story

A diner samples a portion of barbecue during Saturday's Fire Barebecue Competition at Ada Jenkins Center. ( (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net))

Even before the 5k road race kicked off or the first plate of barbecue was served on Saturday, the Ada Jenkins Center‘s “Fire 2010″ fund-raiser was shaping up as a success.

Nearly 2,000 people bought tickets in advance for plates, samples or takeout barbecue, Executive Director Georgia Krueger said Saturday morning. And more than 150 runners signed up for a 5K road race. Proceeds from the day’s events will help support programs at the non-profit community services center on Davidson’s West Side. Read the full story

County wants to cut funding in half, which leaves ‘no good solutions,’ director says. All library’s options mean closings, layoffs.

By MARK PRICE
The Charlotte Observer

No matter how it’s handled, a targeted 50 percent cut in money from Mecklenburg County will close libraries in the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

The big question the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s board of trustees is trying to answer is just how many.

Library staff presented three scenarios to the trustees Thursday, the toughest of which calls for closing all 16 community branches. Read the full story