Tom Bullock stayed through the end of this past week's Charlotte City Council meeting, and he (and his editor) are glad he did as a surprise debate unfolded. Tom also discusses his preparations for interviewing Diane Rehm, while Lisa Worf discusses legislation that's giving many colleges angst.

Environmental reporter David Boraks joins WFAE Talks for the first time. He talks about the dispute between Tesla Motors and Charlotte-area dealerships. The dealerships say Tesla cars can be sold in Charlotte, as long as dealers sell them. Tesla wants to having its own car lot and sell directly to the public, but many state laws across the country protect dealers from that kind of competition. We’ll also discuss recommendations for Common Core in North Carolina. A committee is recommending only

Of course, we discuss HB 2. Specifically, we take you behind the scenes of our coverage of this week's developments, and Tom Bullock discusses comparisons to a 1990s Colorado law that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down. We also talk about the Patrick Cannon tapes released this week that show the former Charlotte mayor taking bribes.

It's our 70th edition of WFAE Talks. Greg, Lisa, and Tom discuss North Carolina's gubernatorial and U.S. Senate general election races, plus the looming 12th Congressional District Democratic primary between incumbent Alma Adams and Malcolm Graham. They also discuss the movement in Matthews to explore secession from CMS. And speaking of CMS, district officials made a big mistake with its community student assignment survey.

Greg, Lisa, and Tom discuss the March 15th primary, House Speaker Tim Moore's call for a special session to strike down the bathroom provision in Charlotte's updated non-discrimination ordinance, and a $1 million fine for UNC-Chapel Hill because it accepted too many out-of-state students.

The headline says it all: It's been a crazy week for politics in the Carolinas. Greg, Lisa, and Tom discuss it.

Common sense tells you that our politics are polarized. In fact, so does the use of "common sense." Reporter Tom Bullock discusses a story he produced on the topic that's both entertaining and informative. Reporter Michael Tomsic spent time in Winston-Salem this week covering the voter ID trial. He'll discuss how arguments inside the courtroom are different than the public relations spin by groups on both sides of the debate. Plus, the debate over expansion of Charlotte's non-discrimination

Lisa Worf first reported in November on a new teaching method called No Nonsense Nurturing that's being utilized at Project LIFT schools in CMS. This week, No Nonsense Nurturing became the subject of intense national attention after NPR aired a version of Lisa's story on Weekend Edition Sunday. Lisa, Greg, and Tom discuss the teaching method and some of the shoddy reporting by other media outlets that followed up on her story. Speaking of Project LIFT, it's board this week had its only public

In this edition of WFAE Talks, Greg, Lisa and Tom discuss Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts’ promises, the CMS student-assignment debate, and Tom’s upcoming story about Muslim life in Charlotte.

Envision these scenarios for the 2016 election: Americans for Prosperity coordinates campaign strategies with Gov. Pat McCrory's re-election campaign. Or, Moveon.org does the same thing for the campaign of his likely Democratic challenger, Attorney General Roy Cooper. While such coordination is prohibited on the federal level, a recent ruling by the North Carolina Elections Board says state law allows it. WFAE's Tom Bullock reported on the ruling this week, and he talks about it more in this