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Soaring demand strains CMC psychiatric hospital

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mecklenburg

Published June 13, 2010 at 5:48 a.m.

Growing demand on Mecklenburg County's mental health system has made it harder for dangerously ill patients to get the help they need, an Observer investigation found ... With perennial overcrowding at the county's 66-bed psychiatric facility, some patients who threaten themselves or others are instead given medicine and sent home - sometimes with disastrous results ... Since March, advocates have pointed to the case of Kenny Chapman as evidence that the mental health system is overwhelmed.

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How a quiet bank executive built lavish life on stolen money

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mecklenburg, n.c. state, wachovia

Published June 13, 2010 at 5:50 a.m.

Scott Welch accumulated. He bought golf carts and landscaped extravagantly and turned a modest ranch house into a striking estate. He had a log cabin playhouse built for his children and a pier built for his speedboat. And all of it was not terribly notable for a Wachovia executive in the midst of the Charlotte banking boom ... Welch himself seemed unremarkable - quiet and well-liked by most neighbors and colleagues, a family man who took his children to sporting events around Mooresville and

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Teens struggle to pay for funeral

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mecklenburg

Published May 9, 2010 at 4:55 p.m.

Three weeks ago, Tonya Lockhart's children fulfilled their dying mother's final wish. Now they're worried they won't have the money to lay their mom to rest ... Lockhart was diagnosed with cervical cancer in April 2009. As her health worsened, she told her children she wanted them to graduate from high school ... After spring break, Lockhart was admitted for what would be her final stay at Presbyterian Hospital. A week later, in the hospital's chapel, North Mecklenburg High School held an early

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Charlotte sports official dies of cancer

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mecklenburg, n.c. state

Published May 9, 2010 at 6:51 a.m.

Charlotte's Bob Lawing - who helped keep order on the football fields and basketball courts of the Carolinas and throughout the country - died Thursday of cancer ... Lawing, 58, was a former football and basketball referee in the ACC who had been an NFL official since 1997. He also worked for his family's T.R. Lawing Realty Inc ... As a student at East Mecklenburg High, Lawing began officiating when he was 14 in the Myers Park Trinity Little League program ... After graduating from N.C. State,

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4 arrested in teen's murder

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mecklenburg

Published May 3, 2010 at 1:39 p.m.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have arrested four men and are looking for a fifth person in the murder of a 17-year-old West Mecklenburg High School senior who was shot to death 24 hours earlier ... Police say the four men in custody face murder charges in the death of Deandre Demacus Kidd, who had been planning to attend the senior prom in two weeks and graduate next month ... He was shot to death inside a car about 4 a.m. Sunday, after he and three other people stopped at a west Charlotte

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Pistol Pete left mark on Charlotte

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n.c. state

Published Dec. 17, 2009 at 3:25 a.m.

Pete Maravich had dozens of huge scoring performances in a dazzling college career at Louisiana State. He scored more than 60 points in three games. In only three college seasons, he set an NCAA career scoring record that still stands ... But the best college game in the life of the best college basketball scorer in history might just have been the one Maravich played 40 years ago this week against Clemson ... It happened in Charlotte on Dec.20, 1969 ... In front of a crowd of 7,282 at the

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Analyst: Replace Ken Lewis with … Ken Lewis

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bank of america, bank of america's

Published Nov. 20, 2009 at 3:25 p.m.

A well-known bank analyst has an unorthodox solution for Bank of America's CEO search: bring back Ken Lewis ... Dick Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities, wrote a note to clients this morning saying he thinks the embattled Lewis could return for a second act. Bove, who has supported Lewis throughout the past year, says he believes that the bank's managers and large investors also want Lewis to return ... Lewis “knows this company better than anyone else and he knows how to operate it,”

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Infant died today, a week after pregnant mom's killing

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mecklenburg

Published Sept. 20, 2009 at 3:33 p.m.

Tiffany Wright's infant girl – delivered by doctors as her mother died Monday from a gunshot wound – has also died, according to a spokesperson for Carolinas Health Care System ... Tiffany was eight-months pregnant when she was shot in the head Monday waiting for her school bus. But the baby died early this morning, after nearly a week in critical condition. No other details were available ... Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are investigating Tiffany's death, and call her adoptive brother Royce

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Unsolved killings leave Rocky Mount edgy

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unc

Published Aug. 15, 2009 at 6:59 a.m.

They spent their nights jumping in and out of strange cars, trolling otherwise empty streets lined with decaying storefronts and boarded-up homes. Many sold sex to support drug habits or children left in the care of worried, hardworking grandmothers ... Even when they were picked up for drugs or prostitution, nights in jail looming, they called home to let their families know they were OK. Then, one by one, the calls stopped ... Since 2005, nine women who lived at the edges of the poor community

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Suspect in fatal shooting at gas station turns himself in

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mecklenburg

Published Aug. 12, 2009 at 11:47 a.m.

A homicide early Sunday at a gas station less than a mile from the Plaza-Midwood entertainment district was a random killing between strangers that escalated from angry words to bullets in just a few minutes ... Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say the victim, 41-year-old Stephen Hill, left a nearby party to go to the Citgo gas station just before 1 a.m. to make a purchase ... Police say Damon Temple, 28, drove into the station parking lot, argued briefly with Hill, and then shot and killed him ...

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