After eight long months, three local occupiers got some good news on Thursday.

All were acquitted of charges of resisting arrest and obstructing or delaying officers after they were apprehended in January for camping outside old City Hall, where Occupy Charlotte had been since last October.

Jason Dow, Scottie Wingfield and Laura Brooks, among others, were arrested after city council passed an ordinance in late January that essentially prohibits sleeping in tents or making preparations to sleep on city property.

• Grant Baldwin
• Right, CMPD Capt. Jeff Estes talks to occupier Ayende Alcala (left) in January.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually kind of fun. That was my experience during a short spin on a Freewheelin “bus-cycle.” About 20 will be available for rides around Uptown during the Democratic National Convention, though route details haven’t been finalized. (The Republican convention in Tampa will also be getting their share.)

• Lookin' sexy, Dan!

The shaded carts that hold six to nine people are sponsored by health insurer Humana and were unveiled this week. They will be offered free to convention goers or anyone interested in green transportation, with fresh fruit, cold water and free biometric screenings offered at “bus” stations.

Though actor-activist Kal Penn and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter were visiting Charlotte as surrogates for the Obama campaign, both are drawn to Charlotte for other reasons.

• Actor Kal Penn

Penn, the “Harold & Kumar” star and former White House aide, had visited during the 2008 presidential campaign and was back this week to energize young voters. “I love Charlotte,” he told me when we talked in the Uptown Obama for America office on Wednesday, “and in the last two years I’ve gotten really into NASCAR.” When he returns for the convention, he said he wants to check out the NASCAR Hall of Fame, “or even some of the offices I think I would dork out over.” Though Penn hasn’t seen a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he has been to races in Las Vegas and Fontana, Calif. Penn follows drivers Joey Logano and Leilani Munter, known for speaking out on environmental issues. “She’s really socially aware.”

At least it's detailed.

The Secret Service, Charlotte's police and the State Highway Patrol have announced transportations and parking restrictions during the DNC. Most are confined to the Time Warner Cable Arena and Bank of America Stadium, though others parts of Uptown and different highways will be inaccessible at certain times.

Democratic convention developments are coming hot and heavy — very hot if you count a midday outdoor news conference announcing the details of the Sept. 1 media party that will see an estimated 15,000 journalists eating, drinking and watching as local and national acts perform. Time Warner Cable is the event’s main sponsor, with a host of other local businesses involved (full list here). Mert’s Heart and Soul owner James Bazzelle assured me there will be banana pudding on the menu.

• Wikipedia
• San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, 37, will be the Latino keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

That might be enough to lure Bill Clinton, though he’s been watching his diet lately. The big announcement is that the former president will formally place President Obama’s name into nomination on Sept. 5, a sign, as I pointed out in the Washington Post, that both men want to win. Their relationship has been testy at times, but they’ve made peace since the 2008 primary fight between Obama and Hillary Clinton, who as Secretary of State will be staying away from the partisan Democratic Party’s party. A full-throated endorsement by the popular Bill Clinton in his home region will be more than enough to draw a crowd.

Being a columnist in a state where Barack Obama won by 14,000 votes in 2008 means you get to take part in a 2012 conference call with Michelle Obama as she launches an initiative to find, register and get out the vote. It also gets you a brief conversation with Democratic convention delegate Ashley Judd, most known for her acting but in Charlotte to continue the political activism that’s long been a part of her life.

• Wikipedia
• Ashley Judd

Last week, the first lady talked with a few women writers from swing states to launch her It Takes One campaign and explain why it’s important to her husband’s re-election. On Sunday, Judd came to Charlotte to host the Obama campaign’s latest Women Vote 2012 Summit at Central Piedmont Community College. With polls tight, North Carolina remains in the center of the political universe.

I’ve been writing about the involvement of both of the candidates’ spouses in a presidential race that Michelle Obama acknowledged promises to be “even closer than the last one.” It’s no coincidence that Ann Romney fit Greensboro into her schedule last week for a fundraiser and rally, where she praised her husband's business experience without the pushback the candidate himself might face.

Though it’s early, the first lady and the woman who hopes to be are seriously all in.

Convention chairman and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa returned to Charlotte on Monday to join the tableau, which included DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan, vice president of the Charlotte Bobcats Bill Duffy and Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, to mark the passing of the keys at the Time Warner Cable Arena. Work by the convention’s construction team — the temporary re-model will cost an estimated $7 million — has already started, as a hard-hat wearing tour of suites being made media-ready proved. But there were signs that a fall election campaign is being constructed in Charlotte, as well.

Villaraigosa praised the Democrats’ September event as the “most open and accessible convention ever” — mentioning the bookending public events, including the uptown festival and the president’s Bank of America stadium speech — and tweaked Republicans for their Tampa, Fla., convention in August that he said would be held “behind closed doors.”

In Charlotte, the weather and the presidential campaign have been scorching. Catch the advertising wars already being played out on TV?

The Obama campaign has been touting the upward trajectory of economic progress and his women-friendly policies while attacking Mitt Romney’s offshore financial dealings and his record on job creation. The Romney campaign has been touting the GOP’s presumptive candidate’s business background and his plans for Day 1 of his presidency while attacking the Affordable Care Act and Obama’s record on job creation. And it’s only July.

An economic report showed the numbers are improving, but very slowly. Maybe that's why The Washington Post, where I land from time to time, and its closely watched The Fix moved North Carolina from the “toss up” to “lean Romney” category, though it reserved the right to change its mind.