The 41st Stellar Awards came to the Spectrum Center Saturday — gospel music's biggest night, in Charlotte for the first time ever, after a two-year chase by the city's own visitors authority. Kirk Franklin hosted, Tasha Cobbs Leonard took the Aretha Franklin Icon Award, and Charlotte's Pastor John P. Kee performed. Two days earlier that same agency reported Mecklenburg visitor spending hit a record $6.47 billion. Here's what didn't make the press release: the record is up 1.5%, and consumer prices rose 2.7% over the same year — so in real terms the visitor economy didn't grow, it slipped. That's the number Charlotte cites when it spends public money on an arena, a stadium and a convention center. Plus: cooling stations and free transit rides in dangerous heat, a former Wells Fargo VP's discrimination suit in federal court here, Charlotte FC's 3-1 win, and the last day of Pride.

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Sources this episode: WBTV, WFAE, CRVA, gospelmusic.org, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Charlotte Area Transit System, Charlotte FC

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