City leaders gathered Monday at David Cox Road Elementary School in northeast Charlotte to celebrate Rosen Publishing’s donation of nearly 10,000 books to Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx’s Mayor’s Mentoring Alliance and other local nonprofits. 

The donation is intended to help improve literacy and guard against summer learning loss among Charlotte’s youth.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education Chair Mary McCray, City Councilwoman Beth Pickering, Rosen Publishing CEO Roger Rosen, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library CEO Lee Keesler, Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners Chair Pat Cotham, and CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison were all in attendance at the celebration. 

We’re starting off the month of June on a warm but dry note, but the same system that brought tornadoes to Oklahoma could bring storms back into the mix on Sunday.

Saturday brought high humidity with highs in the mid 80s. We bump up the rain chances as we head into the second half of the weekend, with a possibility of a late evening thunderstorm associated with an incoming cold front on Sunday night.

The best rain chances are still expected Monday as the front moves through.

The N.C. Department of Transportation will be closing lanes intermittently on Independence Boulevard (U.S. 74) West between Eastway Drive and Briar Creek Road in Charlotte beginning at 3 a.m. Saturday, June 1, weather permitting.

Crews with contractor Ferebee Corp. will be making improvements to the roadway near adjacent manhole covers, requiring temporary lane closures to pour concrete. No closures will be needed in the eastbound lanes.

Officials say all lanes will open by 2 p.m. Saturday.

Motorists may avoid delays by using Monroe Road or Central Avenue as alternate routes to uptown Charlotte.

NCDOT reminds motorists to watch signs for construction information, stay alert and obey the posted speed limit.

For real time travel information at any time, call 511, visit www.ncdot.gov/travel or follow NCDOT on twitter at www.ncdot.org/travel/twitter.