Simply Cheris. . .

This is the last year that the CIAA Basketball tournament is contracted to be in Charlotte. Here's my hope, I hope another city comes in and takes the tournament away. Yes, I live in Charlotte. The greatest CIAA school in the world, Johnson C. Smith University, is in Charlotte but the City of Charlotte doesn't deserve this tournament. Over the last nine years, the city has made an average of $50 Million. The CIAA has made $9 Million for the member schools scholarships. That. Is. Not. Right. According to The Charlotte Observer , "Last year, the CIAA rebuffed the city’s request to exclusively negotiate a contract extension. Instead, the association has said it will issue a formal request that all interested cities submit proposals. At stake is one of the city’s biggest tourism events, estimated to generate more than $40 million in economic impact." If the City of Charlotte is making that much money off the league, there is no way in habanero hell that th...

Master Gunnery Sergeant Janel A. Spencer and Colonel Stephanie C. Smith spoke to me Friday evening at the CIAA Basketball Tournament. Let me explain how big this is, Spencer has reached the highest enlisted rank in the Marines. And Smith -- she's one step away from being a one-star general. And they are Marines--The Few. The Proud. Smith will be delivering a speech to the ladies of Johnson C. Smith and Shaw University before Saturday's championship game. I'm sure that's going to be a hell of a motivation speech.

While hanging out at the Time Warner Cable Arena during the CIAA Basketball Tournament, I saw a lady at a booth in a wedding dress. So, I had to stop and find out why she had on a wedding gown. Author Kontrena Clark was dressed in the wedding gown to promote her novel, the day i met a wolf. Check out the video.

While CIAA 2012 is going pretty smoothly -- and about to wind down -- Friday, I saw some shenanigans. First, I drove past the North Carolina Music Factory looking for the Winston-Salem State Alumni party and I saw that the venue, which usually boasts about free parking, was charging $10 to park in it's lots. As a matter of fact, the parking signs normally say FREE! Well, not today. Notice the white sheet covering the word Free. Then,  I went to dinner Friday night in South End. There's a parking deck behind the restaurant where I went to eat. Normally, it's free to park there. After all, Charlotte Center City Partners wants people to come to South End to eat, visit the galleries and the shops there and street parking is limited. Well, tonight that free deck was charging $10 to park there. And less than an hour later, the parking fee was $20. Charlotte hosts big events all the time. I've never seen parking fees like this before. Not during NASCAR Speed Street...