Leo’s Italian Social Opens First Carolina Location in Piedmont Town Center

Charlotte Stories
-
0
Leo’s Italian Social Opens First Carolina Location in Piedmont Town Center

Leo’s Italian Social has announced the opening of its Charlotte location in Piedmont Town Center. This is the restaurant’s first location in North Carolina with two additional locations in Asheville and Cary planned for a late 2022 opening.

Situated in Piedmont Town Center at 4720 Piedmont Row Drive, the 5,000 square foot restaurant offers indoor seating for up to 200 guests and al fresco dining for around 70 on a large open  air patio.

“The story of this restaurant is tied to the story of its community – refreshed, revitalized and bursting with  energy,” said Bret Adams, Founder. “From the view of pizzas cooking in the open kitchen to the large bar that  weaves throughout the dining room into the patio, guests will experience food and community in a new way  when they share in all that Leo’s offers,” said Adams.

The menu features made-from-scratch dishes including pastas, pizzas, baked  bread, and house made desserts. The lunch menu will feature a duo plate options including salads, pizzas, sandwiches, and pasta.

Additional offerings include half price wine bottles every Wednesday, $8 martinis and live music every  Thursday, and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays until 3pm. Social Hours, 7 days a week from 3pm-6pm  featuring $3 off appetizers and pizzas have been voted the best by readership of Cleveland Magazine two  years in a row. The restaurant will also offer kids eat free Mondays and family style pans to go for off-site  special events and business occasions. Reservations are recommended for everyday dining and large events  in the private dining room.

“The concept for our seasonally northern Italian-influenced flavors is very much related to family and friends.  We would like our guests to be able to dine and celebrate with their loved ones and provide them with the  best possible options for food they know and love,” explained Adams.

Essential Funding for Hundreds of NC Families Set to Expire Next Month

Charlotte Stories
-
0
Essential Funding for Hundreds of NC Families Set to Expire Next Month
A coalition of North Carolina organizations committed to the well-being of children signed on to a letter calling on Congress to reauthorize funding for the Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) before it expires on September 30th. Expiration of funding would leave thousands of American families without reliable access to this critical program. No bill has been introduced in Congress to prevent a lapse in funding.
The MIECHV program sends trained professionals, such as nurses, social workers, and early childhood educators, to the homes of high-risk families during pregnancy and early childhood to help with everything from breastfeeding and developmental milestones, to accessing job training or childcare services. MIECHV is proven to reduce preterm births and pediatric emergency room visits, increase kindergarten readiness for children, and improve economic stability and self-sufficiency for mothers. It has also reduced abuse and neglect – you can see the data here.
The most recent numbers show 1,009 participants are enrolled in home visiting in North Carolina, touching over 500 distinct households, with a total of 7,220 home visits made by experts to homes throughout the state – from the biggest cities to the most rural communities.
Despite decades of research showing invaluable outcomes, the future of home visiting for these families is in doubt because Congress has not yet acted. The following local organizations signed on to the letter urging Congress to take action before it’s too late:
Blue Ridge Healthy Families
Catawba Valley Healthy Families
Child Care Services Association
Family Resource Center South Atlantic
Goldsboro Pediatrics
Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina
Think Babies NC Alliance

Waxhaw Native Has Just Been Appointed To Navy’s Prestigious TOPGUN Program

Charlotte Stories
-
0
Waxhaw Native Has Just Been Appointed To Navy’s Prestigious TOPGUN Program

Waxhaw native Jackson Mingledorff has just been appointed to serve as an air traffic controller at the Navy’s most prestigious aviator program ‘TOPGUN’, located in Nevada’s Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon.

“I joined the Navy because it was a new opportunity for me,” said Mingledorff. “I was also interested in the educational benefits, the opportunity to travel and I was excited to have a job I could do for years in the future.”

The TOPGUN program was first introduced 52 years ago with the mission of reducing casualties of naval aviators sustained during the Vietnam War. Within a year, this goal was reached with the United States having one casualty for every 12 enemy deaths. Since then, TOPGUN continues to train the finest naval aviators and has inspired one blockbuster movie released in May 1986, with a sequel planned for release in May of 2022.

“I am extremely excited about the impact this movie will have,” said Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, Commander Naval Air Forces. “Much like the trend that followed the original film, I am confident that Top Gun: Maverick will have a tremendous impact on our Navy recruiting efforts which will greatly increase the numbers of brave and talented Sailors among our ranks.”

According to Navy officials, TOPGUN is a prestigious program only open to the top one percent of naval aviators. Aviators who attend the course are trained in a variety of areas including air combat, jet maneuverability, enemy tactics and more.

Largest Floating Solar Power Plant in the Southeast Installed at Fort Bragg

Steve
-
0
Largest Floating Solar Power Plant in the Southeast Installed at Fort Bragg

The Southeast’s largest floating solar plant will be producing power soon at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg in North Carolina after a major utility energy service contract with Duke Energy and its prime contractor Ameresco.

The 1.1-megawatt solar facility is part of a $36 million contract that focused on energy resilience and security at Fort Bragg, including infrastructure modernization, lighting and water upgrades, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, and boiler system improvements.

“Duke Energy’s work with Fort Bragg will lead to better energy efficiency and cost savings at the base,” said Brian Savoy, Duke Energy’s chief strategy and commercial officer. “We’re excited to help put Fort Bragg at the forefront of renewable energy innovation through this unique floating solar facility.”

The floating solar system was built on the Big Muddy Lake located at Camp Mackall. Fort Bragg will own and operate the solar system.

“We are grateful for our relationship with Duke Energy and Ameresco,” said Col. Scott Pence, garrison commander for Fort Bragg. “With this system, the largest floating solar array in the Southeast, we will be able to provide energy resiliency to Fort Bragg operations through sustainable resources. With this partnership, Fort Bragg not only has renewable electricity, but energy security that will be critical with continuing the installation’s mission during a power outage.”

“The opportunity to implement this innovative use of clean energy technology for a military base as notable as Fort Bragg was one that our Federal Solutions team was thrilled to lead on,” said Nicole Bulgarino, Ameresco executive vice president and general manager of Federal Solutions. “The completed floating solar system – still an underutilized technology in the U.S. – will assure the Army’s mission with clean energy. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Duke Energy and Fort Bragg, working to identify additional state-of-the-art opportunities to reduce the installation’s energy consumption and strengthen its resilience.”

The floating solar installation is being paired with a 2-MW battery energy storage system. The system will supply power to Fort Bragg from the local grid and provide power during electric service outages.

“This project fulfills the commitment made in our Army Climate Strategy to increase resilience while delivering clean energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said the Honorable Rachel Jacobson, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment. “When we collaborate with local utilities and industry to promote energy resilience while powering the local grid, it is a winning solution across the board.”

Floating solar is expected to grow quickly over the next decade. Currently, only 2% of new solar installations are on water. But the nation has more than 24,000 human-made bodies of water that could be useful for floating solar development.

North Carolina and Duke Energy are leaders in solar energy. The state is fourth in the nation for overall solar power capacity. Duke Energy owns and operates more than 40 solar facilities in North Carolina – one of which is a 13-MW facility at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Onslow County.

North Carolina Ranked America’s #1 State for Business In 2022

Charlotte Stories
-
0
North Carolina Ranked America’s #1 State for Business In 2022

The State of North Carolina has just been ranked as America’s #1 state for business in 2022.

According to CNBC’s annual state competitiveness ranking, the Tar Heel state edged out the #2 state of Washington with superior Infrastructure, Cost of Doing Business, Economy, and Business Friendliness scores. Since the annual ranking first started in 2007, we’ve usually finished in the top 10, but this is the first year we came out on top.

“North Carolina is proud of its economic success that continues to garner national recognition like being CNBC’s Best State for Business,” said NC Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. “Last year, we announced more than 24,000 new jobs and investments exceeding $10.1 billion from future-focused companies in fields like biotechnology, computers, and electric vehicles. There are many factors for our success, including our central East Coast location, premier quality of life and low cost of business, but our greatest asset is our diverse and highly-skilled workforce that is supported by our top-rated education system. We will continue to focus on creative partnerships for talent development as we evolve to meet the demands of existing, new, and future employers like Apple, Toyota, and FUJIFILM that call North Carolina home.” 

To determine the ranking of the states, CNBC analyzed 88 metrics across 10 different categories of competitiveness. Each category was then weighted based on how frequently states use them as a selling point in economic development marketing materials (you can read the full methodology here).

While North Carolina came out on top, South Carolina was ranked among the bottom half, coming in at #36 overall.

AMERICA’S TOP STATES FOR BUSINESS 2022

OVERALL RANK STATE WORKFORCE INFRA-STRUCTURE COST OF DOING BUSINESS ECONOMY LIFE, HEALTH & INCLUSION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION BUSINESS FRIENDLINESS EDUCATION ACCESS TO CAPITAL COST OF LIVING
1 North Carolina 12 17 26 1 28 5 22 14 2 22
2 Washington 4 29 33 3 6 2 31 17 20 38
3 Virginia 11 9 25 20 13 17 6 2 6 30
4 Colorado 1 16 36 11 12 9 16 11 22 34
5 Texas 2 14 12 8 49 4 34 21 3 14
6 Tennessee 15 8 8 2 42 28 23 11 22 5
7 Nebraska 32 22 16 13 7 24 12 24 32 19
8 Utah 8 32 17 6 29 26 10 41 12 25
9 Minnesota 21 4 41 16 5 6 32 15 13 26
10 Georgia 3 11 38 7 39 12 32 10 13 4
11 Florida 6 13 30 4 39 16 39 19 22 27
12 Iowa 20 37 19 17 10 18 28 24 29 7
13 North Dakota 31 21 21 37 4 35 1 26 34 24
14 Indiana 48 1 2 10 43 23 18 35 13 9
15 Ohio 41 2 4 27 29 11 43 22 3 12
16 Michigan 26 19 9 21 29 15 20 27 11 12
17 Pennsylvania 28 12 22 45 22 7 26 5 9 32
18 Oregon 9 33 34 15 8 13 46 32 26 46
19 Illinois 26 3 31 44 23 8 40 6 8 20
20 Idaho 40 42 15 5 20 34 3 48 34 31
21 Kansas 35 6 6 43 29 38 17 20 19 2
22 South Dakota 43 36 11 12 27 36 8 39 10 29
23 Wisconsin 37 15 13 30 35 19 38 15 32 23
24 Massachusetts 24 31 49 26 13 10 21 1 6 47
25 Missouri 49 10 1 17 46 19 36 27 29 6
26 Kentucky 17 18 6 34 36 22 42 39 38 17
27 Maryland 10 22 44 31 18 14 29 18 13 44
28 Delaware 5 20 37 22 24 32 26 42 13 36
29 California 16 25 48 17 26 1 48 11 1 48
30 Montana 33 45 27 9 24 46 5 33 38 28
31 Vermont 50 22 39 33 1 37 14 8 45 41
32 Wyoming 18 35 23 40 20 40 2 29 45 20
33 Alabama 13 38 24 27 38 21 25 34 34 3
34 Arizona 7 6 35 22 50 29 4 42 41 33
35 New Hampshire 22 47 32 29 15 39 8 6 48 37
36 New York 46 28 42 36 19 2 44 4 5 49
36 South Carolina 29 27 28 13 47 31 23 29 41 18
38 Oklahoma 35 26 2 34 48 30 14 47 22 14
39 Connecticut 14 39 45 47 17 25 11 8 26 43
39 Nevada 29 5 20 25 41 47 7 50 26 35
41 Arkansas 38 30 13 24 37 40 29 37 20 10
42 New Jersey 23 34 43 50 8 27 47 3 13 40
43 Maine 43 49 40 32 2 44 19 23 47 39
44 West Virginia 43 42 10 39 34 49 49 44 38 8
45 Rhode Island 39 44 47 41 16 33 36 29 29 42
46 Hawaii 19 39 50 48 3 40 35 38 49 50
46 New Mexico 25 39 29 42 44 43 44 45 41 11
48 Louisiana 42 48 5 45 45 45 41 35 37 16
49 Alaska 34 50 46 38 11 50 12 49 49 45
50 Mississippi 47 46 17 49 33 48 50

Major Homebuilder Investing Millions Into Kings Mountain Facility

Charlotte Stories
-
0
Major Homebuilder Investing Millions Into Kings Mountain Facility

NVR Inc (parent of Ryan Homes, Heartland Homes, and NV Homes) just announced plans to launch a major multi-million dollar expansion in Kings Mountain.

The Cleveland County expansion will add 58 new jobs and significantly increase the capacity of their prefab and distribution facilities, allowing them to build more homes at a faster pace all across the Charlotte region.

According to a press release from the governor’s office, NVR’s expansion will be facilitated, in part, by a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) approved by the state’s Economic Investment Committee. Over the course of the 12-year term of the grant, the project is estimated to grow the state’s economy by more than $516 million.

“We are excited to welcome these additional jobs and increased investment to Cleveland County,” said N.C. Senator W. Ted Alexander. “With affordable corporate taxes and creative training systems, this announcement further validates that North Carolina is indeed the best place to do business.”

6 Small Ways Charlotte Can Help Students and Teachers This School Year

Charlotte Stories
-
0
6 Small Ways Charlotte Can Help Students and Teachers This School Year

As students and teachers head back to the classroom, they are turning to GoFundMe to seek financial assistance for all their back-to-school needs. Rising inflation is taking a toll on household budgets across the country, making help from the community more important than ever.

Below is a list of fundraisers in the Charlotte area to help students and teachers:

Cynthia Sloan-Bailey is an educator who teaches at a Title One School. She says: “In recent years my school system has removed novels from our libraries and this includes class sets of books (textbooks too). I have no class sets of novels. Struggling students need an actual book in their hands. Many of the novels students can relate to are not readily available from the internet.”
Screen Shot 2022-08-02 at 3.19.03 PM.png
Elena Avilez is starting a new adventure in her teaching career at West Rowan High School. She says: “I am asking family, friends and my community to help me raise funds for my classroom set up and student supplies. I am looking forward to share my Hispanic cultural background to help improve my students educational experience.”
Screen Shot 2022-08-02 at 3.19.13 PM.png
Tony Loco Soto is fundraising for the North Newton Elementary Back to School Bash happening on August 18th.
Screen Shot 2022-08-02 at 3.19.29 PM.png
Lilly is raising money for the first annual Bookbag Drive in honor of her baby girl Nyria who died last year due to spina bifida and hydrocephalus. She says: “Help me celebrate her life by Shining her light back to our community. The first day of school sets the tone for the school year. Let’s help our youth begin the year with positivity.”
Screen Shot 2022-08-02 at 3.19.38 PM.png
David Cunningham is a Professional School Counselor at Queen City STEM School in Charlotte. He says: “After researching and speaking to students and colleagues, I believe a Calm Room can benefit our student body. Calm Rooms are meaningful social-emotional learning (SEL) environments where students can cool down and learn how to self-regulate their bodies and emotions. That’s a big help for a nation of exhausted teachers, too, who need more positive tools for struggling kids and teens.”
Screen Shot 2022-08-02 at 3.19.48 PM.png
Hilary Marshall and Kara Sease are sharing a new-to-us classroom this year. They say: “We both teach English Language Learners. Almost all of our students have been in the  United States less than 5 years. This will be some students first time setting foot in an American school! All our students are striving to become English proficient while adjusting to American culture and expectations.”
Contact info:
Screen Shot 2022-08-02 at 3.20.02 PM.png

How to Build Your Own VPN

Sharon Anderson
-
0
How to Build Your Own VPN

VPNs are incredibly popular cybersecurity tools. Over the years they have become more and more famous, not only for their ability to protect your devices while you’re online but also for giving you the ability to change your virtual location on a dime.

There’s a whole host of VPNs to choose from, but did you know that you can build your own VPN? You will require some technical knowledge, and it does come with a couple of downsides that you need to know about.

Overall though, you can create your very own VPN on your device for between $5 and $10. If you need to ensure that your device is safe and secure at all times, keep reading to find out how to create your own VPN, as well as the features you might find to be missing from it compared to a premium VPN.

What is a VPN?

Before we get into building your own VPN, let’s first explore what a VPN does and how it works. This is important to understand if you want to build your own VPN. While premium VPNs are readily available on app stores and all across the internet. 

The primary purpose of a VPN is to encrypt your internet connection. This will prevent anyone from snooping through your personal data. With an encrypted connection, not even the government or your internet service provider will be able to keep track of your internet history.

Moreover, a VPN will hide your IP address, which will mask your physical location. This is done by allowing you to connect to a secure global server in another country or city around the world. 

Challenges of Building your Own VPN

Building your own VPN is not easy, but it’s a great solution if you don’t trust VPN companies and want to be sure that the data on your device is secure. You can also use this homemade VPN rather than paying monthly subscription fees. But, if homemade VPNs were all that impressive, more people would go through trouble making their own. There are some drawbacks to having a homemade VPN though.

The first drawback is that you can’t beat internet censorship. Internet censorship has become a common theme in many countries around the world. Some countries are so strict that you can’t even access social media platforms or foreign news websites. If you want to bypass these firewalls, you’ll need to invest in a premium VPN.

You also won’t be able to unblock the regional restrictions that many entertainment platforms and sports live streaming sites have. In other words, there’s no way to bypass geo-blocking with your homemade VPN. This is an important feature for many VPN users, so it could also be a reason to invest in a premium VPN instead.

How to Build Your Own VPN

If you still want to create your own VPN for excellent privacy and security, let’s get into how you can do that. You’re going to need some VPS (virtual private server) hosting and ansible scripts.

At the end of the day, your homemade VPN will work the same, but instead of using a VPN’s servers to reroute your internet traffic, you’re going to be trusting a cloud server. Your real IP address will still be masked, but instead of choosing which country’s server you would like to connect to, it will be replaced with the IP address assigned to the server.

The first step is to find yourself a virtual private server. You’ll need to choose a virtual cloud service provider that suits your needs and also your budget. This is where your server will be hosted, so it’s important to do thorough research into the cloud service provider to see if they meet your needs. 

Make sure to check the location of the cloud service provider. Your IP address will be replaced with the address assigned to the server, so if you use a server in Germany for example, you won’t be able to use your VPN for torrenting. In addition, if you want better connection speeds and stability, it’s best to choose a server that is close to your physical location.

These are the most popular cloud hosting services:

  • DigitalOcean
  • Amazon EC2
  • Amazon Lightsail
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Vultr
  • Google Compute Engine
  • DreamCompute
  • Scaleway
  • Linode

The next step is to use Ansible scripts. Using these will drastically reduce the time it takes to get your VPN up and running. Ansible scripts allow you to complete complex IT actions at the click of a button. Algo VPN is the most popular option that allows you to create a secure tunnel connection to your chosen cloud server.

By combining Algo VPN and cloud hosting services such as DigitalOcean, you can get your VPN set up and running in a matter of hours. Here’s an outline of the process:

  1. Create your DigitalOcean account.
  2. Download the Algo VPN file and unzip it.
  3. Install the VPN dependencies using the appropriate command lines.
  4. Run the installation wizard
  5. Find the configuration profiles in the “Configs” directory and double-click on them.
  6. Return to your terminal and start the deployment.

The exact process and steps required to get your homemade VPN setup may vary depending on your device and the services you choose.

Are There Advantages to Creating Your Own VPN?

While it might seem like a lot of trouble to create your own VPN, there are some good reasons why you might want to go through the process to get one set up. 

Firstly, there is the prospect of using disposable VPNs. Disposable VPNs will shift your internet traffic from your internet service provider to your chosen cloud hosting service. Services like DigitalOcean will let you boot up a new server every time you connect to it, and you can delete this instance and the associated data after every session to make it look like it never existed.

Building your own VPN lets you bypass the expensive monthly subscription fees that come with premium VPNs. The majority of cloud hosting services can cost as little as $5, and some of them, such as Amazon AWS, will even offer you one year for free.

Charlotte Sees #21 Largest Monthly Rent Increase

Charlotte Stories
-
0
Charlotte Sees #21 Largest Monthly Rent Increase
Inflation is currently at its highest rate in 40 years, and rapidly rising housing costs are a key contributor. While the market has cooled slightly from last summer’s peaks, the national median rent has still jumped by 12% in the past year. And with spiking mortgage rates now sidelining potentially homebuyers, the coming months could bring additional competition for rentals amid a market that is already historically supply-constrained.
For the latest data, you can see Apartment List’s August Rent Report here, complete with median rent and price growth data through July 2022. Some highlights below:
  • Rents in Charlotte increased 1.7% month-over-month in June, compared to a 1.3% increase nationally. Month-over-month growth in Charlotte ranks #21 among the nation’s 100 largest cities.
  • Year-over-year rent growth in Charlotte currently stands at 17.2%, compared to 12.5% at this time last year. Year-over-year growth in Charlotte ranks #18 among the nation’s 100 largest cities. Rents in Charlotte are up by 28.2% since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
  • Median rents in Charlotte currently stand at $1365 for a 1-bedroom apartment and $1496 for a two-bedroom.
Check out the full Charlotte report here, and for a complete look at national trends, read you can read the national report here.

Concord Mills Announces New List of Retailers

Charlotte Stories
-
0
Concord Mills Announces New List of Retailers

Concord Mills today announced the additions of a variety of unique new retailers, of which some are now open and others are coming soon to North Carolina’s largest retail, entertainment and dining destination.  

In addition to the added retailers and services, Concord Mills has unveiled a ridesharing pickup zone for visitors to easily access Ubers, Lyfts and taxis coming and going from the mall. 

Now open:

  • Komma Tea: Komma Tea encourages shoppers to take a break and put a “komma” in their life, while carefully crafting each drink to maximize flavor without compromising quality. 

Located next to Five Below and Glamour Nails. Second location coming soon

  • The Inspiration Co.: Founded in 2017, The Inspiration Co. is interrupting the fashion industry with one-of-a-kind jewelry, gifts and apparel, featuring sayings that inspire change, encourage faith and ignite passion. 

Located next to J. Crew Factory 

  • Ride Sharing Pickup Zone: With this newly designated area outside the mall, shoppers can safely and conveniently access their ridesharing services in one central location. 

Located outside Entrance 6

Recently re-opened:

  • Starbucks: Starbucks offers handcrafted beverages, premium teas, fine pastries and other delectable treats at locations around the world. 

Located next to Rack Room Shoes

Coming soon:

  • Alex Baby & Toy: A new toy store concept, carrying brands including G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Lego, Marvel, Star Wars and more. 

Opening in September, located next to Burlington

1...518519520...1,319Page 519 of 1,319