The North Carolina Beat

A Mecklenburg County senator is pressing lawmakers to overhaul North Carolina’s yearlong wait to end a marriage, calling the state’s divorce rules antiquated and costly. Sen. Woodson Bradley, D-District 42, is using her own six-year divorce and a stalled Senate bill to argue that current NC divorce law traps people in legal limbo long after a marriage is over. Bradley is a lead sponsor of Senate Bill 626, the Domestic Violence Divorce Reform Act.

DaBaby’s first restaurant sat for its first Mecklenburg County health inspection, and the numbers are now public. No Knife Chicken & Waffles at 700 Atando Ave. scored 94.5 on Sept. 18, 2026 — an A grade under North Carolina rules, with 5.5 points deducted and seven risk-factor violations logged. Official scorecard: 94.5, seven risk-factor violations, zero repeats.

A federal judge in Charlotte sentenced a former city councilwoman back to prison on Tuesday. Tiawana Brown sentenced to 10 months closed a COVID-loan case that began while she still held a District 3 seat. Tiawana Brown U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell imposed the term after a three-hour hearing in the Western District of North Carolina. Brown, 53, had pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Newly released documents from the Jackson County District Attorney’s office shows how prosecutors coordinated an independent forensic review in the Nolan Wells death investigation weeks before a grand jury declined to bring charges.

MISSISSIPPI – A Jackson County grand jury has closed the criminal inquiry into the July death of Nolan Xavier Wells, returning a unanimous “no true bill” and leaving no one charged. Nolan Wells, 18, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was a wide receiver for Southwest Mississippi Community College and previously played at Ocean Springs High School. The decision, released Monday by District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, means there are no charges in death of Nolan Wells based on the evidence presented.

An NC A&T student dies saving sister after a kayak capsized on Lake Norman, and state wildlife officers recovered his body the next afternoon. Dorian Jackson, 21, of Greensboro, went under Saturday evening while trying to pull his sister onto his kayak. Jackson vanished just before 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, near Hearthstone Court in Terrell, a Catawba County community about 35 miles northwest of uptown Charlotte. Searchers found him in the 32,475-acre lake around 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20.

Four-year-old Caleb Flax was asleep in his bed when a bullet tore through a northwest Charlotte home. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say the child was struck around 3 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, after gunfire hit multiple houses in the 900 block of Grassy Patch Lane. Medics rushed him to a hospital with life-threatening wounds. He was pronounced dead at 7:18 a.m. A woman in a nearby house was shot in the thigh and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Police have not released her name.

President Donald Trump’s White House media ban locked CNN, Politico, and MS NOW off the grounds over the weekend. By Monday, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News had frozen the shared television pool that feeds pictures of the president to the world. Trump announced the lockout Friday on Truth Social, calling the three organizations “fake news” and warning that other outlets could follow.

Parents of students at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, North Carolina are circulating a Ragsdale High School assault allegation involving a freshman boy in a campus bathroom during “Freshman Friday.” Guilford County Schools and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office had not released a public statement as of Monday afternoon.

WILSON, N.C. — Ku’Shiyah Williams, a Wilson native, makes her professional boxing debut tonight against Chrisean Rock at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor. Williams posed in Baltimore before Saturday’s debut on Skyy Myles Promotions’ The Supper. Photo IG: @kush.dondada The bout is part of Skyy Myles Promotions’ “The Supper” on Saturday, Sept. 19. Both women are billed for sanctioned pro debuts. Days before the opening bell, a Baltimore face-off turned physical.