reporting live from the federal courthouse, blake hanson, channel 9 eyewitness news. >>> blake, thank you, in the past 30 minutes, charlotte leaders started discussing some major developments that could bring hundreds of new homes and some serious headaches for neighbors. the developer that wants to build 450 apartments with retail space at park road and abby place in south charlotte. the charlotte zoning board will vote on a proposal for another 265 apartments in that same area. now people living nearby say they are worried that the area won't be able to handle all the new traffic. charlotte's d.o.t. says it has plans for new traffic lights and sidewalks in the area to help. we have a crew inside that zoning meeting right now, for you. look for our updates coming up tonight on eyewitness news at 10:00 and 11:00. >>> in the race for the white house tonight, two of the republican candidates trying to stay toward the lead spent time campaigning in our local counties today. reporter greg suskin is live tonight with the message they're spreading five days before the south carolina primary

eyewitness news reporter blake hanson is live with the growing crowd out there. emotions have been running high about this all day. been here since 10:00 this morning when we got here. this event is going on behind us. these are people that are against the ordinance. at an event against the ordinance. there are also people supporting it inside as both sides try to get their message out hours before this crucial vote. >> faith and business leaders supporting the lgbt ordinance met outside the government center this morning. equipped with boxes of petitions and letters ready to hand deliver to council. >> we need to step up to the plate and say all of god's children need to be equally respected and protected. >> they couldn't get outside without an opponent crashing their photo opp. hoping to sway the public against an ordinance they call un-christian. >> it's not going to stop here. this is another steppingstone in the wrong direction. >> you can't make a moral wrong a civil right. >> the tension today is just a lightning rod issue from an ordinance presented as a

blake hanson is live just outside the meeting place with more on the potential battle now brewing between charlotte and the state. blake? >> erica and scott. the heavy rain coming down. that's not why the crowd is dispersing. it's because they're now going into this council chambers. i was just inside the charlotte fire department is inside to make sure they don't go over capacity. but believe it or not, this might not be the end of this battle. i caught up with charlotte mayor jennifer roberts this afternoon just hours ahead of the biggest vote in her time as a city's executive. >> council will listen carefully. and replay what they hear and have a vote. >> the vote might not be the end of it. the governor hinted at legislative action. saying allowing a person with male anatomy to use a female restroom or locker room will most likely cause immediate state legislative intervention which i would support as >> do you think the state should get involved in this? >> the state has the ability to weigh in on a lot of different issues. we'll continue to have good conversations with them about wh

eyewitness news reporter blake hanson obtained court documents that say that investigators arrested the man right before a potentially dangerous confrontation. and blake is live right now at the federal courthouse uptown. blake? >>> erica, investigators say they arrested that man on his and they found duck tape, a machete and zip ties in his rental car. but investigators and an undercover agent was walking every step of the way. 64-year-old james alexander brown is behind bars tonight facing federal charges resulting from a more than yearlong investigation. investigators say an undercover agent met with him back in 2014 to discuss the purchase of large amounts of marijuana. last month the undercover agent said he was interested in buying 48-pounds. according to the affidavit, brown said he currently had 60- pounds. the dea says brown would ship the drug through postal services from the west coast. experts say it's a common tactic for moving drugs. >> it's a relatively moderate sized drug operation. >> brown planned to threaten a confidential source and potentially their 12-year-old son

eyewitness news reporter blake hanson has been following this high profile murder case involving a lake wiley couple for more than a year. and he found out that attorneys may actually try to use the victims in their defense. blake? >>> erica, 7 of the 12 charged in this case have all ready taken plea deems but those still fighting the government's claims might still have a long haul before this is all over. an appeal filed today gives us the shooter of debbie and doug london. these documents by his defense team ask the government to turn over evidence as quickly as possible before a meeting in two weeks with the capitol review committee. that justice department committee reviews death penalty eligible cases and makes a recommendation to the attorney general. >> death penalty cases are just inherently complex. >> legal analyst james wyatt says it's another protection for defendants. >> in the death penalty cases, there are a lot more safeguards than in a usual criminal case. >> the appeal seeks a wide range of evidence. everything from whether or not heartly was coerced by other suspects

. >>> we want to get a live report from blake hanson who is eight miles south of statesville. tell us the conditions you're >> reporter: we hit heavy wind. picking up. eight miles south of statesville on i-77. we're heading down i-77 north to see what's hitting here. it's jerking the truck around as we drive. we're having to slow down a little bit. because the wind is so strong. and the profile of the truck is so large. it's moving us around. all we could see was dark skies to the west. but now the rain is picking up. we're having to slow down on the interstate. and it's getting a lot tougher to see as we get closer to statesville and the storm moves into statesville. any trees down. i'm not sure if you're with us. we talked about how a lot of saturated. have you seen any of those? even on the side. not even moving into the road. but just coming down because of these conditions ? >> we wouldn't be surprised if we see it soon. i haven't had a chance to stand outside yet. but i can feel it in the passenger seat from the wind moving our truck around. >> the wind is very strong ri

at the government center, blake hanson, channel 9 eyewitness news. >>> as blake said people supporting the ordinance delivered petitions this morning. those against it will rally this afternoon in front of the government center. the don't do it charlotte coalition of pastors, community members and others will gather at 4:45 this afternoon. right now clouds are building into charlotte bringing rain for your drive home. and there's more rain, even thunderstorms on the way. meteorologist keith monday is tracking how much you can expect in your neighborhood. it's going to start out slowly today. over the next few days the rain chances keep building up to eventually the thunderstorm chance as we head to the middle of the week. today, gray skies and light showers developing mostly north of town for right now. a good chunk of lincoln county. toward denver this afternoon. mooresville, just south of statesville. light rain into the southern part of iredell county. i-77 between troutman to mooresville. you're going to be pretty soggy the middle of the day today. we'll see light showers building

in the 9 investigation, blake hanson uncovered similar cases and the brazen threat the >> reporter: i was talking to a sales manager earlier this week, he told me about an unusual thing that happened and over the past couple days we followed a trail of information that led us to other victims and the same suspect. in 24 years in business, ace seen quite a bit. but nothing like what happened during a purchase in january. >> bad. that is bad. >> sales manager, mason, said a man came by on the 20th, wanted to buy a $12,000 car out right and used a credit card but it was declined. the customer claimed he was calling the bank. while on the phone, the customer reached over to the card reader. >> he said he would push those 2 buttons here and this would let the transaction go. go through. >> it did go through because as he showed me, it took the card reader offlen. >> there you go. we just charged $144,000 to my >> police tell us the customer, 25-year-old bernardo gray bought 3 cars with bogus cards. we talked with workers at one. >> he took his card and we ran it, swiped it and he put in wh

. >> let's start with blake hanson, he was there when nearly 140 people shared their concerns tonight. blake. >> yeah, that final decision, 7- 4, and council members each had a chance to explain why they were making that decision, but an overwelming amount of time tonight was spent devoted to all the people that came out to speak their opinions on this. most of the talk tonight was taken up by those people that came out. 140 people signed up to speak. 90 of those from c tap on the community, they would have a tough time doing so. by my rough count, about 50 50/50. those for made a much of the discussion about a quality while those against the ordinance focused on some of the safety concerns that they had. it was largely civil inside. city leaders had to take a break to respect the speaker that was up at that time. just in the last hour, we got that final decision, 7-4 in favor of passing the ordinance and we caught up with people leaving either deflated or fired up. >> i think we said we were world class city before we were, but i believe we've become that over the last five or so yea

. >> he talked to reporter blake hanson about his big mistake. >> reporter: this morning, john fetteras was at the charlotte airport, getting ready to go on vacation. this afternoon, we saw him on the other side of the jail building. and we ran to catch up with him. >> excuse me. >> former unc chair walked out of jail around 2:00 this afternoon. >> do you regret what happened? >> of course. it was a stupid mistake on my part. >> police say he went through the airport security with a gun in a bag. he told me it was in a briefcase, that he usually doesn't use to carry a gun. and he forgot. >> no. i never have a gun in. was taking my children to the firing range. >> got you. >> my adult children. >> he stepped down as board chairman in october. he was elected chair in 2014, after first serving on the board in 1995. the charlotte attorney said at the time he stepped down to make way for new leadership. >> reporter: what happened to him today isn't an uncommon situation for the tsa. just last week, the agency announced it seized 62 guns in a one-week span. 51 of those were loaded. 18 had rou

. >> i'm blake hanson. warmth initially. your monday morning won't be as bad as mondays can be. it is so warm out there, 60 degrees. that's what we have now in up concord 58. shelby it's 59. doppler9is dry. for the morning drive. rain later monday. at least for tomorrow morning the showers kept across the mountains. i want to draw your attention to what will be going on across greensboro and triad. northeast winds taking over, clouds thickening. that's the carolina wedge, cooler air moving through that gets stuck over charlotte. when you have the cooler air masses battling each other with warmer air to the south, that's the recipe for strong thunderstorms. >>> thanks, john. we'll be monitoring conditions overnight and whether it will impact your morning drive tomorrow. you can get traffic and weather every 10 minutes starting at 4:30 on eyewitness news daybreak. >>> developing tonight, channel 9 was the only news outlet to get a copy of an e-mail of the governor to a charlotte council >> we reported this as breaking news at 6:00. since then we've been digging into both sides ahe

i am blake hanson. >> i am liz foster. our meteorologists say it will start as snow and turn to freezing rain. tonight we have a team of reporters monitoring the roads to school closure. we begin with chief meteorologist steve udelson with a timeline of the wintery mix. >> i believe this will be good news for a lot of folks, not much happening right now, we north and wes of charlotte the last couple hours, didn't amount to much. the bigger batch is over central tennessee, northern alabama racing towards the carolinas, 250 miles off to our west. temperatures as cold as they have been all day. upper 20s to near 30 charlotte south, low 20s from i-40 into the mountains where it is in the teens. the air is absolutely bone dry and will be a real battle going on between this dry air and the moisture coming in. a lot of it, now according to latest futurecast will be gobbled up before it reaches the ground. there is the risk of freezing rain for sure around the charlotte area through the morning drive but not necessarily a lot. the

the quarter...morgan hanson...always guard the inbounder...she pops out for the triple...chargers led it by 3 after three. in the fourth, mount marty takes the lead but kaylee blake trying to get back into it...the low post game gets them within two. but alex kneeland and the lancers, a little too strong...they snap the chargers 7 game win streak, 88-81. the charger men saw their winning streak end last weekend, trying to start another. lancers with the early lead but austin homan kicks it out to clay harreld...money from deep, bcu takes the one point lead. then check out the move from shane graves, the fake...and the take...the lead up to five. then graves in trouble, he finds ricky williams...the big senior lays it up 102-59 some other gpac scores tonight...lexi ackermrm went over one thousand points and morningside got revenge on northwestern, 80-65. the red raider men force a split though, they beat the stangs, 82-65. and in mitchell dordt falls to a pair of ranked teams. the defender women lose 80-57 and the men can't pull the upset either...they drop it 82-67. iowa hosting penn state, alex walker's alma mater. early on...adam woodbury gets the dish and the

the quarter...morgan hanson...always guard the inbounder...she pops out for the triple...chargers led it by 3 after three. in the fourth, mount marty takes the lead but kaylee blake trying to get back into it...the low post game gets them within two. but alex kneeland and the lancers, a little too strong...they snap the chargers 7 game win streak, 88-81. the end last weekend, trying to start another. lancers with the early lead but atin homan kicks it out to clay harreld...money from deep, bcu takes the one point lead. then check out the move from shane graves, the fake...and the take...the lead up to five. then graves in trouble, he finds ricky williams...the big senior lays it up and in...bcu all over mount marty, 102-59. some other gpac scores last night...lexi ackerman went over one thousand points and morningside got forecast... scott:good morning siouxland. we have some cold conditions as we wake up this morning in the teens and 20s. we've got some flurries. the wind is pretty calm at 10 miles per hour or less. passing through the dayplanner, it looks like overall we'll have a pretty nice day with sunshine and a high of 30. lukas thanks scott... honda is ex