Charlotte talks local news roundup: panthers fire rivera; mayor talks homicides; mls for charlotte?

FRIDAY, DEC. 6, 2019 PANTHERS COACH RON RIVERA IS FIRED AS OWNER DAVID TEPPER PREPARES FOR A NEW ERA AND AS HE AWAITS A DECISION ON MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER COMING TO TOWN. A NEW CHARLOTTE CITY

COUNCIL IS SWORN IN, BUT ONLY THREE MEMBERS ARE NEWCOMERS. MAYOR VI LYLES BEGINS HER SECOND TERM AND ADDRESSES OUR HOMICIDE PROBLEM, AND CANDIDATE FILING BEGINS WITH NEW MAPS.   After

several weeks of back-to-back losses and a tough season so far for the Carolina Panthers, Head Coach Ron Rivera has been fired. The Panthers began the season with an injured Cam Newton.

They’re now 5-7 and have had four losses in a row. Is there a way to scrape together a positive ending to this season? We expect to hear an answer later this month about whether Charlotte

will land the next new Major League Soccer team. Sources say that Charlotte’s got a good shot to land the expansion team, which would be owned by Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper.

Charlotte City Council, including its three newest members, was sworn in Monday night. Newcomers Victoria Watlington from District 3 and Renee Perkins Johnson from District 4 joined former

state Sen. (and City Council member before that) Malcom Graham from District 2 in their new seats on the council. Also sworn in was Mayor Vi Lyles, for a second term. In her remarks, she

addressed Charlotte’s homicide count, which rose to 103 on Monday night. She said that violent crime will be a focus of the council in 2020, and said that “we must change”. And North

Carolina’s candidate filing is open for the 2020 elections, in the same week that a panel of judges in the state say that the new legislative maps drawn last month for the U.S. House will be

used for next year's elections. Mike Collins and his panel of journalists will bring you those stories and much more on the "Charlotte Talks" local news roundup. _GUESTS:_

STEVE HARRISON, WFAE’s political reporter  NICK OCHSNER, WBTV news reporter  DANIELLE CHEMTOB, reporter for the Charlotte Observer ERIK SPANBERG, managing editor for the Charlotte Business

Journal