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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It'll be a warm and dry St. Patrick's Day weekend in the Queen City, and there will be plenty of ways to celebrate. See what's happening!

Friday, March 15

Enjoy a cozy night at Camp North End during the Be Kind, Rewind: 90s Movie Series, every Friday from now until March 29. This weekend's show is "Liar Liar." Find more about this free event.

The Hornets play their first of two games this weekend, going against the Phoenix Suns at the Spectrum Center at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $39 and can be purchased here.

You can stream WCNC Charlotte on Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, just download the free app.

Discovery Place Science is the perfect place to unwind for the weekend. It features animal exhibits, science shows, food trucks, drinks, music and more. Find more information here.

Saturday, March 16

Charlotte's St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival are back this Saturday, where you can enjoy entertainment, food, culture and more. The parade kicks off at 11 a.m. and the festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Find more information here.

Come out for St. Patrick's Day family fun in Davidson, benefitting local nonprofit Senior Community Connections. Happening from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Davidson Green. Find more information here.

Have your pick at fresh produce and other products at the South End Farmer's Market. Happening from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Atherton Mill. Find more information here.

Indulge in one of Uptown Charlotte's largest St. Patrick's Day bar crawls. Check-in begins at noon and tickets start at $20. Find more information here.

Bring your friends out to Shamrockin' the Village, a St. Patrick's Day celebration in Ballantyne complete with Irish food & drinks, bagpipers and more. Happening from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Find more information here.

Sunday, March 17

Grab your green & get ready for some St. Patrick's Day shenanigans at this fun bar crawl event. Happening from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets start at $12 and can be purchased here.

Enjoy a sweet celebration of all things Irish at the Cake and Dessert Market at Queen Park Social. The festivities kick off at 5 p.m. Find more information here.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Mobile and online sports wagering across North Carolina took off on Monday, as several licensed gambling operators started taking bets nine months after legislation to authorize such activity statewide became law.

Some of the interactive sports wagering operators, which include big names in the growing field of legalized gambling, and their affiliates held special events to highlight the new gambling options in the nation’s ninth-largest state. North Carolina is now the 30th state, along with the District of Columbia, to offer mobile sports betting, according to the American Gaming Association.

Registered customers within the state’s borders can bet on professional, college or Olympic-style sports.

“North Carolina is a state that we’ve been really dying to get into for a couple of years now,” DraftKings Chief Commercial Officer Jeremy Elbaum said at a public event at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, where retired Carolina Panthers player Greg Olsen placed a ceremonial first online bet. “The way the sports calendar works here, the love for college, the love for NASCAR specifically and obviously the other major sports, has made this a key state for us.”

The North Carolina State Lottery Commission, directed in the June 2023 law authorizing the games to license operators and set rules, announced several weeks ago that wagering on mobile devices and computers would begin at noon Monday. The start date — on the eve of the popular Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament — was not lost on sports enthusiasts.

Gov. Roy Cooper, who signed the sports betting bill approved by the General Assembly into law and an ardent fan of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, said he placed a bet on the team to win the Stanley Cup later this year. He said any monetary winnings would go to the team’s charitable foundation.

“The legalization of sports betting will provide a significant boost to North Carolina’s economy and will allow our thriving sports industry to continue to grow,” Cooper said while releasing a video, pre-filmed before the noon start, of him walking onto the ice at the team’s PNC Arena in Raleigh.

The commission announced the eight initial licensees on Feb. 29. The day after, these operators began setting up accounts for players age 21 and over and receiving monetary deposits. That’s prompted an array of television and social media advertising by gambling operators trying to attract customers with financial incentives.

In addition to DraftKings, the initial sport wagering licenses went to BETMGM and Underdog Sports Wagering; companies doing business as FanDuel Sportsbook, Fanatics Sportsbook, bet365 and ESPN BET; and Caesars Sportsbook, which is associated with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and already operates in-person sports gambling at the tribe’s two casinos in western North Carolina. All eight operators were running Monday, the lottery commission said.

A late adjustment to the 2023 law said that most interactive wagering company applicants had to enter an agreement with an in-state professional team, or certain pro golf or automobile racing venues or governing bodies, to obtain a license. For example, DraftKings has an agreement with NASCAR, while Fanatics Sportsbook is associated with the Hurricanes.

The law also authorizes in-person betting at future sportsbooks that would have to be located at or near certain large sports or racing venues. The commission has said those will open on a case-by-case basis as operators meet requirements. Provisions in the law for the commission to regulate betting on horse races and to set rules for live horse racing also will be implemented in the future.

The legislation will tax sports wagering at a rate equal to 18% of gross betting revenue minus distributed winnings. The revenues could exceed $100 million annually within five years, according to a legislative branch analysis.

The government’s share will go in part to athletic departments at 13 University of North Carolina system schools, amateur and youth sporting events and gambling addiction education and treatment programs. Some licensees have talked up the “responsible gaming” features on their betting apps.

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Robertson reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.

The first day of spring is almost here, which means allergy sufferers should start preparing for pollen season.

According to the latest forecast from AccuWeather, pollen levels are expected to remain low in Charlotte until Sunday, when they jump to moderate.

The highest pollen counts in North Carolina are usually recorded between the last week of March and the second week of April, a spokesperson for the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality told The News & Observer.

However, peak pollen counts depend on several factors, including the season, weather and time of day, according to Carolina Asthma & Allergy, a medical clinic based in Charlotte.

Here’s what to know about pollen season in Charlotte, when pollen counts are the highest and how to manage your allergy symptoms.

According to Carolina Asthma & Allergy, a clinic based in Charlotte, pollen season varies depending on where it comes from:

Pollen levels are usually highest early in the morning until around midday when plants are releasing pollen, according to Carolina Asthma & Allergy.

“While pollen count is typically low in the evening, some people experience nighttime allergies, the clinic says. “That’s because you may become exposed as the air cools and pollen falls onto surfaces.”

You can also become more exposed to pollen if it collects on your clothes or in your home during the day, according to the clinic.

According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, pollen can trigger allergy symptoms such as:

Medications can help reduce your pollen allergies, according to Carolina Asthma & Allergy. Some medications that can help include over-the-counter Benadryl, Claritin and Zyrtec. Also suggested are nasal corticosteroids like Nasacort, Flonase and Zicam. Decongestants Mucinex and Sudafed work well, too.

Allergy shots, which involve a series of injections that contain a specific allergen to help your body build immunity to it, can also improve symptoms over time.

There are steps you can take to reduce your exposure to things that trigger your allergy symptoms, according to Carolina Asthma & Allergy:

A white N.C. hospital executive was discriminated against following implementation of a diversity and inclusion plan, a federal appeals court ruled.

Fourth Circuit appeals court judges upheld a Charlotte jury’s decision that David Duvall was wrongly fired from Novant Health in 2018 to make room for Black and female employees. As a result, he’ll receive millions of dollars for damages, back pay, interest and benefits. His attorney described the award as one of largest employment law judgments in North Carolina history

“Novant Health—a multibillion-dollar company with tens of thousands of employees and an extensive human resources department—had no record of any documented criticism of Duvall’s performance or reasons for his termination,” said the three-judge panel’s opinion released Tuesday.

The judges called Novant’s request to reconsider evidence “unconvincing” and opposed its suggestion that “the only conclusion a reasonable jury could have reached” would favor the Winston-Salem based hospital.

“Quite the opposite,” wrote Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee.

After Duvall was fired, two women — one white, one Black — took over his duties. Novant later hired a Black woman to permanently replace him, according to court documents.

The panel, which also included judges A. Marvin Quattlebaum and Henry Floyd, did rule in favor of Novant in one regard: punitive damages, which is money defendants pay when their conduct is found to be malicious.

Duvall and his attorney did not prove his boss was aware of laws forbidding discriminatory practices. That cannot be presumed — it must be proved, according to the panel.

The ruling, which comes amid increased scrutiny of corporate diversity initiatives, was “a long, long battle,” said Luke Largess, Duvall’s lawyer, but it was never one rooted in disdain for diversity or aimed at a launch into politics.

Conservative groups say diversity, equity and inclusion programs — or DEI — create unlawful bias against white and male workers, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently banned DEI funding in public colleges.

“He’s no right-wing avatar, “ Largess said of Duvall. “He was a big supporter of DEI (at Novant), but no matter what side of the political spectrum you fall, you can’t fire someone for a diversity goal and no other reason.”

Novant Health said it was disappointed and disagrees with the ruling.

“We firmly stand by our commitment to diversity and inclusion and to assuring equal employment opportunities to all of our current and prospective team members,” wrote a Novant spokesperson in an email.

Duvall, the former senior vice president of marketing and communications, will still receive about $4 million in damages, back pay, interest and benefits. But the judges’ ruling lost him $300,000 in punitive damages. A Charlotte judge had earlier shrunk the $10 million a jury awarded Duvall down to the federal cap of $300,000.

Duvall worked at Novant for nearly five years before he was fired by Executive Vice President Jesse Cureton, who is Black. It was one year after Novant adopted a diversity and inclusion plan.

The Fourth Circuit said Novant’s “shifting, conflicting, and unsubstantiated explanations for Duvall’s termination” supported claims that he was targeted as part of its diversity push, which ousted several other white executives as women and minorities rose to senior leadership roles.

Judge David Cayer, who presided over the original case and refused Novant’s request to throw out all punitive damages, said it would be “unreasonable to infer that Cureton was ignorant of federal anti-discrimination laws.”

“A reasonable juror could infer that Cureton, as a high-level executive at a large corporation, had knowledge of federal anti-discrimination laws, understood the goals of the D&I Program, and was willing to terminate a white male in order to advance diverse candidates and promote Defendant’s clearly stated goal to promote diversity and inclusion,” he wrote.

The Court of Appeals disagreed Tuesday, saying Largess offered no evidence of Novant Health’s or Cureton’s training to establish the requisite knowledge of federal anti-discrimination law.

Largess, even while cross-examining Cureton, never established his personal knowledge of federal anti-discrimination law, “let alone that he perceived a risk that (Cureton’s) decision to fire Duvall would violate it,” Agee added.

Despite the court of appeals’ interpretation, Duvall said he is grateful.

“A unanimous panel of appellate court judges gave me a voice against a powerful employer,” he wrote in a statement. “... Sadly, it is with the slimmest of odds that employees get their day in court, let alone prevail. I hope my nearly six-year journey is helpful to others who lose their livelihood unfairly.”

In 2018, Novant had about 30,000 employees. It now has nearly 40,000 across North Carolina and South Carolina. In 2022, it operated on $7.5 billion in revenue, its website states.

“We continue to believe having a workforce that reflects the communities we serve allows us to provide the personalized care our patients need to reach their best possible health,” the company said.

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Julia Coin covers local and statewide topics — including destructive fires, illegal gambling and the pervasiveness of drugs in schools — as The Charlotte Observer’s breaking news and courts reporter. Michigan-born and Florida-raised, she studied journalism at the University of Florida, where she covered statewide legislation, sexual assault on campus and Hurricane Ian’s destruction.

CHARLOTTE — Authorities are sounding the alarm in North Carolina, saying illegal marijuana products are being sold at gas stations and smoke shops across the state, and there’s little regulation in place to control where these products are ending up.

9 Investigates found that while some cannabis shops test their products to make sure they’re safe and legal, other popups and smaller smoke stores aren’t doing that -- and technically, they don’t have to.

In North Carolina CBD products are only legally allowed to contain 0.3% THC, but as lawmakers in Raleigh found out on Tuesday, not every product is within the legal limit.

Bryan House, the director for North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE), told the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety the agency is seeing more and more complaints about THC products and said the bulk of the complaints were related to unregulated tobacco shops.

“Just to give you a snapshot of that trend, in 2023, we’ve tested 65 products and 52 of those came back over the legal 0.3% THC limit and the range is from just above [the legal limit] all the way to 9.79% delta nine THC,” House said.

THC products like Delta-8 THC live in a gray area within state laws. Delta-9 THC is the main psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana --- which is still considered an illegal drug both federally and under state laws. However, Delta-8 THC is another cannabinoid compound that can affect users, and THC-A is a compound that converts to Delta-9 THC when it’s heated and inhaled.

EXPLAINER: What kind of THC is legal in North Carolina?

There’s no law in North Carolina that sets an age limit for possessing hemp products.

“It’s a concern, we’re getting reports from schools across the state that and really across the nation. We’re seeing the media articles of young people who are found in possession of, you know, gummies or edibles or even vape products that have the THC in it,” House said.

Michael Sims is the co-founder of Crowntown Cannabis, with three shops in the Charlotte area. He says he does all he can to sell cannabis responsibly, and that starts with his suppliers.

“They get the products tested with certified labs, and then we randomly pull products off our shelves and send them to testing as well,” Sims told Channel 9′s Hunter Sáenz.

But Sims doesn’t have to do that. These shops aren’t regulated in North Carolina.

The ALE is governed by state law which grants the agency the authority to oversee alcohol and lottery sales. Although there is a provision in state law to oversee tobacco products as well, House said vape shops don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the ALE if they don’t have an ABC permit.

“If a business has neither an ABC or a lottery permit, we don’t have any inspection authority at that location, nor do we have full subject matter jurisdiction on that,” he said. “We’re really in the Wild West in this industry.”

Sims says he and others in the industry would welcome new rules to level the playing field against stores that aren’t testing their products.

“We want regulation!” Sims told Sáenz. “We want regulation that helps the industry grow but doesn’t impede us and shut the industry down.”

One recommendation, Sims suggested, is to require shops like Crowntown Cannabis to have a license to sell their products.

Any cannabis product with more than 0.3% Delta 9 THC is illegal in all of North Carolina. However, Mecklenburg County doesn’t prosecute simple marijuana possession charges, according to a memo from District Attorney Spencer Merriweather.

(WATCH: Start date set for marijuana dispensary on Western NC reservation)