Charlotte Region

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is moving ahead with plans to cut 880 jobs, and the board will need to decide in March whether to close schools to save money in 2010-11, Superintendent Peter Gorman said today.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools encourages bilingual employees to translate for parents who don't speak English, Superintendent Peter Gorman said in the wake of a lawsuit alleging that a secretary was forced to quit after speaking Spanish to parents at Devonshire Elementary.

Masonry workers stack brick Thursday on scaffolding surrounding a home under construction in Castlegate Homes' Cramer Woods neighborhood in Gastonia. The builder has added options at no extra cost to entice buyers in a weak market. Castlegate Homes has been building - and selling - in two Gaston County communities, helping fuel the area's only fourth-quarter gain in new home sales and the biggest jump in construction.

The city of Charlotte will not be allowed to join a lawsuit to defend itself against South Carolina's appeal to get more water from the Catawba River. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the city's bid to become a party in the suit between North and South Carolina over water rights.

he Nell Rose Bates Affordable Housing Fund will provide seed money to affordable-housing organizations to buy land. One housing group has already benefitted. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership received about $1 million to purchase 4.6 acres in the Steele Creek/Lake Wylie area of southwest Charlotte. The group intends to build 90 affordable apartments on the site.

Environmental officials are investigating a fuel leak that sparked a fire early Monday in northwest Charlotte.

S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster took his bid to derail congressional health-care legislation to Washington on Wednesday, addressing conservative leaders and holding a televised news conference.

With no fanfare and little debate, the S.C. House of Representatives Wednesday voted 102-11 to publicly reprimand Sanford for bringing "ridicule, dishonor, disgrace and shame" to himself and South Carolina. The S.C. House of Representatives voted 102-11 to censure Governor Mark Sanford. "Ladies and gentleman we have lived this nightmare for over seven months," said Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Richland, who headed the impeachment panel and authored the censure resolution. "It's time to put this issue behind us." Here, Harrison answers a question posed by Rep. Kenneth Kennedy, D-Williamsburg, before the vote.

Gastonia police say a love triangle led to a shooting death early Thursday in the middle of a major intersection.

In the Berewick Elementary School gym Saturday, six guys way too old to be Berewick students sweated their way through a game of three-on-three hoops.