The much-anticipated Top Chef Jr. will be premiering nationwide next month on Universal Kids, NBCUniversal’s network for kids 2-12. Top Chef Jr. will feature twelve chefs aged 11-14 from across the country, competing for the coveted Top Chef Jr. title and a $50,000 cash prize.

Local kid chef, Jasmine (13), was revealed as one of the top 12 chefs competing in the coveted inaugural series. Jasmine got her start in the kitchen when she was 4 years old by helping her mom and grandma bake. Jasmine now has chef mentors that teach her proper techniques and allow her to volunteer in their restaurants. She earned the nickname “JJ Mastermind” from her uncle because of her problem-solving abilities—whether she’s in the kitchen or playing chess.

Outside of the kitchen, Jasmine enjoys playing sports like basketball, soccer, and volleyball. She also likes to challenge her dad and brother to games of chess and design aprons. At school, Jasmine is known for wearing shirts with a cartoon version of herself on the front. Jasmine’s food dream is to build a culinary empire.

Hosted by Vanessa Lachey and featuring head judge Curtis Stone, the World Premiere of “Top Chef Jr.” will air on October 13 at 8pm ET on Universal Kids.

With a long and vibrant history yet scarce availability, the LGBTQ community can finally be heard and hopefully understood through a new project called the Oral History Project.

Currently, UNC Charlotte houses the LGBTQ’s archival library of special collections, which includes an immense amount of physical materials from past and current LGBTQ events, members, and communities.

“We have currently a little over one hundred feet of linear material, such as manuscript collections, documents, t-shirts, banners, dresses, etc” says Joshua Burford, Assistant Director for Sexual and Gender Diversity at UNC Charlotte.

However, Burford and a few other collaborators have begun a new project that can allow the LGBTQ history to fully be acknowledged and represented in the community, known as the Oral History Project.

The new project will offer the public various recordings of the community’s memories, reminiscences, and opinions on past historical events in the LGBTQ society.

“It’s a really necessary project for LGBTQ communities, especially in the south where our history is wildly understudied” says Burford.

“Recording the history of any community is important, but it is particularly significant for communities which have been underrepresented in the historic record” says Tina Wright, Oral History Interviewer.

Wright specifically points out that this project will enhance the history for the LGBTQ as recordings may be the only current preservation of past events, organizations, places, or people.

“Although I cannot speak for the whole group, I believe that the project’s dream for the future is to create a robust and lasting community oral history project which will grow in scope to reach all aspects of LGBTQ history in the Charlotte area and involve widely diverse groups within the community” Wright states.

This project is currently being archived in the UNC Charlotte’s Special Collections at the Atkins Library, but will be made public through UNC Charlotte’s Goldmine, a digital repository.

For more information, please visit UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library at http://library.uncc.edu/ or you can visit the Goldmine at https://goldmine.uncc.edu/.

Two Charlotte Entrepreneurs are now working to replace Charlotte’s landscaping industry with robots…at least when it comes to mowing lawns.

Their new company, HomeVP, leases robotic lawn mowers, along with regular maintenance and some manual services. They currently have 3 levels of service; basic ($139/month), standard ($179/month), and complete ($209/month), with the higher packages offering weed control, aeration, fertilization, and more.

All packages include a Robomow, which is kept at the client’s home. The machine is similar to the Roomba vacuum cleaner, automatically mowing your lawn at set intervals of time, returning to its charging base whenever it runs out of power, or when it detects that all the grass has been mowed.

Woody Chin and his business partner Nick Sagnella launched their Robomow leasing company earlier this month and already have 10 clients, their goal is to sign up at least 1,000 new clients over the next 2 years.

If you’d like to find out more about their company, check out HomeVP.com.

You could also buy your own Robomow lawnmower for $1,299 on Amazon, or a competitor, such as the WORX Landroid for $936, or the Husqvarna Automower for $1,999. 

AcroYoga has been around since the mid-2000s, but recently, the trend has started to go mainstream, especially here in the Queen City.

The practice took the national media spotlight last year, when Lena Dunham – star and writer of the HBO series Girls – began posting photos of herself on social media, doing extreme yoga poses while balanced on a friend’s feet.

The founders say it is the perfect antidote to a world where real human connections are increasingly lost in a sea of social media. Although can look incredibly challenging, those who practice it insist it becomes easy with the right instruction.

Acroyoga is often done outside, it’s best suited for warm climates and plenty of sunshine. This could be one of the main reasons we’ve seen such an explosive growth in the Queen City. In the past year alone, several AcroYoga clubs have started, and dozens of studios throughout Charlotte are now featuring AcroYoga, including; Y2 Yoga, Okra Yogo, Arrichion Yoga, and several others.

Charlotte has also been witnessing the rapid growth of hot yoga, aerial yoga, and PiYo.

Have you ever tried any of these new yoga trends?

According to the most recent study by United Van Lines, Charlotte is officially now the #9 most moved-to cities in America for 2017.

United Van Lines is the biggest moving company in the country, helping tens of thousands of families move all of their belongings each year.

To determine the top cities being moved to, United analyzed their domestic moves during the peak moving season – between May 1 and August 31 (40% off all yearly moves take place during this time).

Based on their data, the most popular metro areas for U.S. families to move during 2017’s peak season were:

1. Seattle, Washington
2. Dallas, Texas
3. Portland, Oregon
4. Denver, Colorado
5. San Francisco, California
6. Atlanta, Georgia
7. Austin, Texas
8. Las Vegas, Nevada
9. Charlotte, North Carolina
10. Orlando, Florida

What do you think about all the newcomers moving to our city?