Enlarge Members of Occupy Charlotte gather near uptown Friday night. (Photo: Charlotte Observer)

Posted: January 4th, 2012 Lee Howard

When you’re an 11- or 12-year-old girl, especially at Christmas, what do you think about? New shoes? A pony? Not Micah Fagala , 11, or her sister, Kelli, 12. They stock the food pantry Micah created at Benton Heights Presbyterian Church in Monroe. Kelli also has been raising money for the Union County Community Shelter.

We all have a right to free speech, even if that means burning the flag. Just dig a pit first. This was the lesson learned by an Occupy Charlotte member who was jailed last week after helping burn two U.S. flags in the uptown area.
Fort Mill resident Alex Tyler and three others were jailed, not for burning the flag, but on charges stemming from careless use of a fire because they didn't use a fire pit.

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx last year led the effort that landed the Queen City the Democratic National Convention. (The Dem’s Big Party is coming up in September.) Foxx, regarded locally as Newsmaker of the Year, also swept the polls for a second term this past fall. Foxx describes his various victories as “improbable.”

So, when did stories about North Carolina politics ring in the New Year sounding like something you’d read in the Chicago Trib? Harold Cogdell throws his Democratic Party affiliations aside to assume the chairmanship of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. And former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory hopes to unseat Gov. Bev Perdue, even as the State Board of Elections has opened an investigation into McCrory’s campaign finances.

LaWana Mayfield’s election to the Charlotte City Council last fall seems have to surprised some, including Mayfield. The first openly gay Charlotte City Council member says she had her own trepidations about running. But, as it turns out, her sexual orientation didn’t matter to voters.

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