North State Journal Vol. 8, Issue 45

VOLUME 8 ISSUE 45

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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2024

the

BRIEF this week

North Carolina ranks third in U-Haul survey Raleigh North Carolina is the No. 3 growth state in the U.S., moving up one spot from 2022, according to the annual U-Haul® Growth Index analyzing one-way customer moves during 2023.

It is the fourth time in the last five years that North Carolina has been recognized as a top-10 growth state.

Texas netted the largest number of movers in one-way equipment in 2023, marking the third consecutive year it has finished first.

Florida came in second with South Carolina and Tennessee rounding out the top five.

For the fourth year in a row, California registered the largest net loss of one-way movers.

NSJ STAFF

Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism claims, backlash from antisemitism testimony Cambridge, Mass.

Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

Gay is the second Ivy League president to resign in the past month following the congressional testimony. Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, announced her departure just months into her tenure in a letter to the Harvard community.

Following the congressional hearing, Gay’s academic career came under intense scrutiny, unearthing a substantial number of plagiarism allegations over her academic career.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Apparent Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure in Beirut Beirut An apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed Hamas’ No. 2 political leader Tuesday, marking a potentially significant escalation of Israel’s war against the militant group and heightening the risk of a wider Middle East conflict.

Saleh Arouri, who was the most senior Hamas figure killed since the war with Israel began, was also a founder of the group’s military wing. His death could provoke major retaliation by Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to strike back against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire almost daily over the IsraeliLebanese border since Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began nearly three months ago.

NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Welcome to 2024 The sun rises over eastern Wake County in this photo.

Loan documents show Chinese ties at facility slated to house migrant children Former legislative chief of staff launches campaign finance startup

By Matt Mercer North State Journal RALEIGH — When Andrew Tripp left the General Assembly for a job working at the UNC System, he also added the title of entrepreneur.

A lawyer by trade, Tripp worked in private practice before joining the Senate Rules Committee staff working for former Sen. Tom Apodaca and eventually becoming chief of staff to Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Eden).

It was during his time at the legislature interacting with elected officials and staff as well as working with prospective candidates that an idea about helping ease the burden of campaign finance compliance was born.

“One common denomina-

tor I saw was that there’s a whole part of being in an elected office that not many people pay much attention to except during campaign cycles,” said Tripp in an interview with North State Journal.

“Fundraising and campaign finance reporting make those campaigns go whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat, or a Libertarian or anybody, you’ve got an obligation under the law to be transparent about the money coming in and going out of your campaign.”

Tripp said he saw a problem with how campaign finance reporting in the state led to candidates making mistakes with filings that were not out of malice, but due to complexities with state-mandated forms See FINANCE, page A8

Title VI complaint filed over antisemitism at UNC Chapel Hill

By Matt Mercer North State Journal

The complaint, filed by David Weisberg, a Jewish American attorney, alleges UNC Chapel Hill has “unlawfully discriminated against Jewish students based on actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics in vi-

RALEIGH — A Title VI complaint over antisemitism on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus has been filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

See UNC, page A8

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

his portion notarized in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Jan. 6, 2023.

Ling Tie has little to no inRALEIGH — The for- ternet footprint. An internet mer Jewish school campus in search for Tie produced a sinGreensboro that is supposed gle possibly related entry on to be housing unaccompanied LinkedIn for “Chen Ling,” a minor migrant children has woman apparently located in apparently changed hands.

Hong Kong that is listed as Real estate records on file the executive director at Heyi with Guilford County show Holdings and who previously the $26 million loan docu- worked at “Chinarock Capital.” ments on the American HeThe only listing for Heyi brew Academy (AHA) campus Holdings on LinkedIn points property were assigned from to a company with a defunct Puxin Ltd. to Mewebsite that detabroad Internascribes itself as tional Group, LLC having “two indeand Heyi Holdpendent but colGuilford ings L.P. laborative branchPuxin’s CFO County officials es: HEYI Capital Peng Wang exeand HEYI Adviconfirmed cuted the docusory,” that “share a ment and had it that the Biden single goal of supcertified at the administration porting internaU.S. Embassy in tional companies Beijing, China on had contacted in their Chinese Jan. 12, 2023. business and Chithem May 2021 The assignee nese companies as from Metabroad about using the they go global.” is “Wei Yang,” us- campus to house In its 2022 tax ing the title of filings, AHA lists unaccompanied “manager.” Yang, Wei Yang as the who sat on AHA’s minor children. board chair and board as recentShong Gao as the ly as 2022, signed vice president. and had his paperwork nota- The filing also shows AHA dorized in Virginia on Dec. 27, ing business under the name 2022.

“Greensboro Global Academy.”

According to his LinkedIn Established in 2001 for profile, Wang resides in “Oak- the education of Jewish high ton, Virginia,” and is listed as school students, the AHA 100the acre campus has 16 dormitory Founding Partner of Met- buildings, 35 staff apartments, away Capital/ Metabroad and an $18 million athletGroup from Oct. 2010 to pres- ic center equipped with rock ent. climbing walls and an eightPrior to that, Wang was a lane swimming pool.

Project Manager at a company The school began having ficalled BRSC in Beijing China, nancial and operational trouSept. 2003 - March 2006 and ble in 2019 and saw some brief attended Virginia Tech 2007- relief after a publicly traded 2009 Master, Environmental Chinese company called Pux“Research Assistant at Occo- in Ltd. inked a deed of trust quan Watershed Monitoring agreement and a $26 million Lab.” He attended the University of Science and Technolo- See CHILDREN, page A2 gy Beijing. An online profile for Wang also says he worked in real estate as well as working in the past for the Shenhua Group, a Chinese state-owned mining and energy company.

Heyi Holdings L.P.’s assignee is “Ling Tie” with the title of “Director.” Tie signed and had $2.00

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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1.3.24 #417

“One of One” Visit us online nsjonline.com North State Journal (USPS 20451) (ISSN 2471-1365) Neal Robbins Publisher Matt Mercer Editor in Chief Cory Lavalette Managing/Sports Editor Frank Hill Senior Opinion Editor Griffin Daughtry Business/Features Editor Jordan Golson Locals Editor Lauren Rose Design Editor Published each Wednesday

by North State Journal 1201 Edwards Mill Rd. Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27607 TO SUBSCRIBE: 336-283-6305 or online at nsjonline.com Annual Subscription Price: $100.00 Periodicals Postage Paid at Raleigh, N.C. and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: North State Journal 1201 Edwards Mill Rd. Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27607

THE WORD: A NEW YEAR The ending of a year calls for reflection and introspection. It is a good time to take account of our life, to see just how we stand and where. While we should not be consumed by introspection, he is living recklessly who never looks into his own heart to see if all is going well. We need to get our bearings anew now and then, so as to know precisely where we are tending. Understanding where we’re headed is essential, as Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

As we start a new year, wisdom lies in letting go. Like moving from an old house, we should discard what’s no longer needed. Many past experiences, good in their time, are not worth retaining. They’ve served their purpose and should be left behind, making room for new beginnings.

This aligns with Isaiah 43:18-19, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

We must be mindful not to carry forward our mistakes into the new year. Repeating past errors, especially from folly or inexperience, is inexcusable once we have learned from them. Living wisely is about not repeating mistakes, as we are reminded in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

There’s also wisdom in forgetting our past achievements. Dwelling on past glories can hinder growth.

Some people hold onto memories of their good deeds, but those intent on maximizing their lives are quick to move on, understanding the importance of filling each day with purposeful actions and closing each chapter behind them, striving for future accomplishments.

Our duty is to always look forward. We cannot relive the past. If we have squandered opportunities, we can only ask God to forgive our mistakes and help us make amends, as we move forward to new and better living.

We should also leave behind grudges and unkind feelings. The world can be thoughtless, and people often act carelessly. Gathering every fragment of hurt only burdens us. Instead, we should cherish the kind and gentle aspects of the year and forget the unloving parts, as we’re

CHILDREN from page A1

loan to AHA on Sept. 19, 2019.

The document lists Shong Gao as “Vice President” of AHA. At the time that the Puxin loan came through, eight of the school’s board members left with the top positions on the board filled by three individuals; Ni Zhang, Shong Gao, and Wei Yang.

Following the loan agreement, the school was renamed to American Hebrew Academy International School and announced it would reopen for the 2020-21 school year and that it would be accepting non-Jewish students.

The school’s reopening never materialized as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation in 2020.

Even though a Chinese company held the deed of trust and provided the millions in loan money, the school still applied for and was granted $1,486,118 in federal pandemic relief funds through two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.

The two PPP loans totaled $743,059 each; one in May 2020 and one in February 2021.

Both loans appear to have been either forgiven or paid off.

High salaries may also have been part of AHA’s insolvency issues. In particular, tax filings showed Glenn Drew, an area real estate developer and

The American Hebrew Academy campus on Dec. 14, 2023. the school’s longtime CEO, had been drawing a salary for years hovering around $500,000.

According to AHA’s 2019 IRS 990 forms, Drew was paid $670,00. It was also reported that Glenn’s company, RSM Associates, LLC, was paid over $1.46 million for dealing with

the closure of the school.

Around that same time, Guilford County officials confirmed that the Biden administration had contacted them May 2021 about using the campus to house unaccompanied minor children.

In late May 2022, a fiveyear, $178 million contract

UNC from page A1 olation of Title VI,” and that the school has breached a prior resolution reached in 2019 with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

Allegations contained in the complaint point to recent incidents at UNC involving both in-classroom and outside-the-classroom violations of Title VI and the 2019 resolution agreement.

Specific examples include Assistant Professor E. Chebrolu, from the UNC Communications Department, who made alleged antisemitic comments about Israel during a class on Oct. 17, 2023, and made similar statements on Oct. 31. The complaint contends Chebrolu’s statements were unrelated to any valid educational goals.

Additionally, an event on social justice in Palestine, hosted by the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and other departments on Nov. 28, 2023, featured Dr. Rania Masri, who referred to Zionism as a “cancer” and called for its eradication. None of the

AP PHOTO

The UNC Chapel Hill campus Bell Tower is featured in this file photo. speakers expressed support for Israel.

“Oct. 7 for many of us from the region was a beautiful day,” Masri is also quoted as stating “It was the day in which we saw that, we saw our brothers, we saw our fathers, we saw men break out of a concentration camp.”

Weisberg’s complaint also ref-

erences petitions and letters regarding the Nov. 28 event.

Signed onto by over 200 colleagues, Goodwin Distinguished Professor at UNC Family Medicine Dr. Adam Goldstein, published a letter standing against the antisemitism on display in a Nov. 28 event on campus that glorified the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorists.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

“Starry Night Over the Rhone” by Vincent van Gogh (1888) is a painting in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

taught in Ephesians 4:26 to forgive and not let the sun go down on our anger. Carrying any bitterness from an old year to a new one is contrary to God’s teachings.

A new year should mark a new beginning. We should carry into it only what is true, just, honorable, pure and lovely. The old year becomes a field where we’ve sown seeds through our words, acts and influences. Our role is to sow well and leave the harvest to others, content in letting our work speak for itself and leaving all in God’s hands.

A new year is not just a calendar change but an opportunity for personal renewal and growth. We should strive to leave behind the old, learn from our experiences and step forward with hope and positivity, aligned with scriptural guidance.

J.R. Miller was a pastor and former editorial superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Publication from 1880 to 1911.

His works are now in the public domain and his words are part of this article.

Deployed Services shows total funding obligated by RefAssistance ugee and Entrant through HHS at $37,693,421. A second contract through the Interior Franchise Fund lists obligated funds of $140,946,912.

Deployed Services, a veteran-owned business, provides “transparent facility support and logistical services, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE,” according to its website.

The company is based in Rome, N.Y., but has regional offices in seven other states, including one in Raeford.

The website also quotes a testimonial from an unnamed Department of Homeland Security official, stating the group’s teams “acted as an extension of the Government in all oversight and control of contract actions, often providing solutions to ways ahead that were superior to existing requirements, within schedule and budget stipulations.”

SCOTT PELKEY | NORTH STATE JOURNAL Ads for up to 800 workers to start work at the site in July 2022 were allegedly placed by Deployed Services following the was awarded to Deployed Ser- contract being awarded. vices by Biden’s Department of North State Journal visited Health and Human Services for the campus in mid-December a project to house unaccompa- but was denied access and innied minors on the American formation about the site by DeHebrew Academy campus. The ployed Services security guards contract also includes the pos- despite the campus apparently sibility of a five-year extension. remaining empty other than for One related contract for Deployed Services staff.

The letter urges UNC to provide “a safe environment for all members of the UNC community.”

Over 6,500 have signed a petition titled, “Protect Jewish Students: Demand UNC Stop Antisemitism Now,” which is addressed to UNC Chapel Hill’s outgoing Chancellor Guskiewicz.

The petition stresses that UNC Chapel Hill UNC “must act to fulfill its obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect students, faculty, and staff from discrimination based on ethnicity or nationality.”

The petition also called out the inaction of school officials.

“Numerous students, parents, and faculty have approached UNC expressing their concerns about the hostile campus environment for Jews,” the petition reads in part. “Yet, by taking effectively no action while citing “free speech” and “institutional neutrality,” UNC is sending a clear message that eliminationist rhetoric and antisemitic statements are, regrettably, tolerated on campus. SJP has put UNC on notice

“UNC is sending a clear message that eliminationist rhetoric and antisemitic statements are, regrettably, tolerated on campus.”

Goodwin Distinguished Professor at UNC Family Medicine Dr. Adam Goldstein letter regarding their affiliation and endorsement of violence.”

As of a letter dated Dec.22, OCR has agreed to open an investigation into the claims of “Whether the University [UNC Chapel-Hill] responded to alleged harassment of students based on national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) in a manner consistent with the requirements of Title VI.”

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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Plan your 2024 with North State Journal’s can’t miss events North State Journal IN OUR ANNUAl look ahead at the year, mark your calendar with a month-bymonth look at these can’t miss events from Murphy to Manteo.

January: Ski season North Carolina’s mountains feature many ski and snowboarding options for individuals to get a taste of winter weather such as Appalachian Ski Mountain, which opened in 1962, featuring ten slopes and two terrain parks.

Burrowed in the Blue Ridge mountains lies Beech Mountain Ski Resort features skiing and snowboarding on some of the highest elevated slopes in the region.

February: Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day often sends couples away from their usual haunts (and barbecue joints) in search of white tablecloths, beautiful views and elevated menus.

Renowned restaurants such as the Angus Barn in Raleigh, Pittsboro’s Fearrington House and Print Works Bistro in Greensboro have all shown up on OpenTable’s 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in the past five years.

March: NCAA Tournament action returns to Charlotte First and second round action in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament returns to the Queen City March 21-23.

Games will be played at the Spectrum Center in uptown Charlotte as fans from around the country will follow their programs to the Tarheel State for the chance to advance to the regional finals.

April: Azalea Festival in Wilmington Spring in Wilmington means

AP PHOTO

A statue of Andy and Opie Taylor is shown outside the Andy Griffith Playhouse in Mount Airy. the return of the annual celebration of the Azalea. Each year, colorful parades, home tours and nationally known music build to the crowning of the Azalea Queen.

The annual “garden party” at the festival is one of the most sought-after tickets in the state each year.

The USGA awarded four of the next 25 championships to Pinehurst, more than any other course in that time.

Golf fans from all over the world will descend on Moore County to watch stars from the PGA and LIV Golf tours battle for one of the sport’s four major titles.

May: Two weeks of NASCAR action

July: Go to the beach!

The stars of the NASCAR Cup Series come home to North Carolina for back-to-back weekends beginning with the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro with $1 million on the line.

A week later, the series comes to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Memorial Day in the Coca-Cola 600, the series’ longest race of the season.

June: U.S. Open returns to Pinehurst The stars of professional golf come to the Sandhills for the 2024 U.S. Men’s Open at the venerable Pinehurst #2 course.

When the temperatures heat up and the humidity rises, it’s time for summer vacation.

North Carolina’s coast comprises 300 miles of barrier-island beaches, each with its own unique vibe and variety of things to do, according to Visit North Carolina.

The most recent data compiled by state officials show that more than $33 billion is spent annually on trips to and within North Carolina, making it the fifth-largest industry in the state.

August: Back to school If July is the time for sum-

mer vacation, the countdown when the calendar flips to August means it’s time for back to school.

One recent development around schools has been a number of districts defying a state law mandating start and end calendar dates.

In an interview with North State Journal last year, Senate Leader Phil Berger said, “I don’t think there’s a need to change it. If I thought there was a chance that changing it would improve outcomes as far as kids are concerned as far as school is concerned. I would certainly consider that.”

September: Mayberry Days Picturesque Mount Airy, known as Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show, steps back in time with the annual Mayberry Days festival.

The celebration for the whole family comes with activities and events for fans of The Andy Griffith Show such as a checkers tournament, pork chop-eating and apple-peeling

contests, trivia competitions and horseshoes plus entertainment and a parade.

October: Visit the State Fair The N.C. State Fair returns after a successful 2023 in which crowds came in large numbers for the food, livestock, shows and celebration of all things North Carolina.

Figures released by the Department of Agriculture show that over 926,000 attended last year’s fair.

“It is a celebration of the best of North Carolina and feels like an annual reunion that brings together everything that makes North Carolina a great place to live,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

The N.C. State Fair Livestock Sale of Champions drew a record $217,850 in bids, breaking the previous record by $5,350.

Monies from the sale go into a scholarship fund.

November: 2024 general election North Carolina voters will go to the polls on Nov. 5 to make their voices heard in races from president to county-level positions.

On the ballot will be races for governor, state Supreme Court justice, all 14 Congressional seats, and all 170 General Assembly seats.

North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes will be up for grabs and both Republicans and Democrats think they will have the advantage. In 2020, Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden by just 1.3% in the state.

December: Tweetsie Christmas The most wonderful time of the year the chance to indulge in holiday nostalgia with friends and family.

Catch the arrival of Santa Claus as he enters on the train or take a nighttime ride about the historic steam locomotive through a park transformed into a dazzling wonderland with thousands of sparkling lights.

After the train ride visitors can roast s’mores over cozy outdoor fire pits.

46% of North Carolina school board races will be partisan in 2024

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — More school board races will have political parties beside candidate names in the upcoming election cycle.

With the addition of the boards of education for Catawba County, Hickory City, Newton-Conover City, Pamlico County and Polk County, 53 of the 115 school districts in North Carolina will have partisan elections for school board races by 2024, per new session laws.

In addition, SL 2023-1 will make the members of the Thomasville City Board of Education elected using the nonpartisan plurality method, rather than

the seats being appointed by the Thomasville City Council.

The Johnston County Board of Education will remain non-partisan under SL 2023147. The law also dictates staggered four-year terms.

Also, Session Law 202341 places a referendum on the 2024 ballot in Alexander County to alter board of education races from nonpartisan to partisan.

The 53 districts that will have partisan elections for school board races include: Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Carteret, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Craven, Dare, Davie, Duplin, El-

kin, Graham, Greene, Guilford, Harnett, Henderson, Hickory City, Hyde, Iredell-Statesville, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Lincoln, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Mount Airy, New Hanover, Newton Conover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Polk, Rockingham, Rutherford, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Union, Vance, Washington, Winston-Salem/Forsyth, and Yancey.

A little over a decade ago, in 2013, only 10 school boards in the state held partisan elections.

During the 2022 election cycle, 83 of the 115 school districts had board of education races with a total of 290 board seats up for grabs statewide. Out of those 83 districts, 41 were parti-

AP PHOTO

Wayne County Elections Director Anne Risku prepares absentee ballots at the Wayne County Board of Elections office on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in Goldsboro. san races.

During the 2020 election cycle, Republicans ended up sweeping 20 of the 41 partisan races while Democrats only

swept four. Of the 290 seats, 137 were partisan seats and Republicans won 103 of them, or 75%, whereas Democrats won 34, or 25%.

NC divests from Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever over boycott of Israel

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell announced an updated its list of companies subject to divestment and contract restrictions for boycotting Israel with Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. added to the list as well as its parent company Unilever and all its subsidiaries.

A state statute prohibits investments in companies boycotting Israel, and Folwell has ordered the divestment of $40 million in Unilever assets. He also instructed local governments and state agencies to avoid contracting with either company.

The move is in response to Ben & Jerry’s alleged boycott of Isra-

We have policies in place per state law that dictate how we should proceed on any holdings in the retirement system of companies that boycott Israel and their affiliates.

We will follow our policies and the law.”

State Treasurer Dale Folwell el, and Folwell emphasized the importance of adhering to state law and policies, citing concerns

about antisemitism and atrocities against the Israeli people.

“We have policies in place per state law that dictate how we should proceed on any holdings in the retirement system of companies that boycott Israel and their affiliates. We will follow our policies and the law,” Folwell said in a press release. “This is particularly important in this case as we have witnessed the atrocities perpetrated against the Israeli people. There is no place for antisemitism in this state or this country.”

The North Carolina Retirement Systems, managed by the Department of State Treasurer, oversees retirement benefits for over 1 million members and has investments totaling $117.9 billion.

AP PHOTO

A woman walks past the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream shop.

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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OPINION Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor VISUAL VOICES

EDITORIAL | FRANK HILL

The geniuses from Kalorama

Republicans who control states such as Wisconsin and New Hampshire could leave Biden off the ballot in critical swing states.

HAS IT DAWNED ON EVERYONE YET that Barack Obama is the only president who has not moved back home to Hawaii, Chicago or wherever he claims home after his tour in the White House?

Virtually all presidents were like our second president, John Adams, who couldn’t wait to leave Washington. He didn’t even stick around long enough to see his successor, Thomas Jefferson, take the oath of office and move into the White House.

President Obama, his former Attorney General Eric Holder and the rest of his shadow presidency are operating on a daily basis from Obama’s mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. There’s no doubt they are orchestrating every move of the woebegone Biden administration.

Their latest “clever” chess maneuver, in their minds at least, was getting secretaries of state in Colorado and Maine to make unilateral executive decisions to take former President Donald Trump off primary ballots even though primaries start in just a few weeks nationwide.

Have these strategic geniuses taken everything into account?

Apparently not.

Colorado and Maine say Trump committed insurrection against the United States on Jan. 6, 2021, a charge with which he has never been charged. Even if it was part of the undercurrent of the second impeachment of him after he left office, he was acquitted.

All the geniuses from Kalorama have done is make Trump a martyr and a folk hero to millions of his already fervent supporters.

They see what Democrats are doing to him and think, “Hey! If they can do that to Trump, they can and probably will do the same thing to me!”

Score the first F for the Mensas from Kalorama.

Let’s assume that Democrats in Maine and Colorado are able to keep Trump off primary ballots used to determine the GOP candidate for the fall elections. Would that mean Trump would not be able to garner the requisite number of delegates to be the GOP nominee at their convention in Milwaukee in July?

Hardly. Given his enormous lead in the polls today, the number of delegates he would lose in Colorado and Maine would be a minor loss given he will probably sweep GOP delegates in the other 48 states easily to win the nomination. If Colorado, Maine and other states adopt a caucus system, the more motivated and now-enraged activists, all Trump people, will f lood the gates and give Trump resounding wins.

Score the second F so far for the Kalorama brain trust for strategic thinking.

In the slim chance the U.S. Supreme Court allows such a terrible precedent to stand and he is not allowed on the primary or general election ballot in Colorado and Maine, what would prevent the GOP from removing Biden from the ballot in any and all states controlled by the Republican Party? Surely every red state in the south would do it, including Florida and Texas as well as Ohio.

The ten swing states would then become even more critical where being left off the ballot could mean not being able to garner enough electoral votes to get to the 270-vote majority needed to be elected president in 2024.

Republicans who control swing states such as Wisconsin and New Hampshire could leave Biden off the ballot and deny him the chance to win their electoral votes just as Democrats in Colorado and Maine are trying to do to Trump.

Under such a crazy scenario where no candidate garners 270 electoral votes, the selection of the next president would be made in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under the Twelfth Amendment, each state would get one vote which would be determined by a majority vote of each state’s congressional delegation. Currently, the GOP controls 26 state congressional delegations; the Democrats control 22 and two are tied, including North Carolina at 7-7.

However, the selection would be made after the new Congress is seated and sworn-in. Republicans in North Carolina are assured of picking up three and maybe four congressional seats in the 2024 elections which would turn them into a solidly red congressional delegation driving the number to 27 state delegations. Alaska’s sole representative is a Democrat but could be replaced by a Republican which would make the number 28. Depending on whether it is a wave election against the ineptitude of President Biden and his feckless policies, Republicans could control as many as 32 state congressional delegations and the Democrats could control as few as 18.

Score the third and final F for the brain surgeons in Kalorama.

Why not take Biden and Trump off of all state ballots, suspend the 2024 presidential elections; save billions of dollars in interminable and mindless campaign ads and just go right to the House of Representatives in January, 2025 to make the decision?

That might be the only A+ result which could come from this whole fiasco come to think of it.

EDITORIAL | STACEY MATTHEWS

The border crisis isn’t just a red-state issue

President Biden has dissolved the southern border.

AS I’VE NOTED BEFORE, the border crisis has spiraled out of control under Joe Biden’s presidency, with border states like Texas and Arizona seeing record numbers of illegal immigrants pour over the southern border and into our country and the Biden administration doing precious little to stop it.

Because of the federal government’s woeful inaction, not to mention Vice President Kamala “border czar” Harris’ numerous leadership failures on the issue, some states that regularly see inf luxes of illegal immigrants, like Texas and Florida, started bussing some of them to so-called “sanctuary” cities like Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. back in 2022 and continue to do so.

The purpose is twofold.

For starters, it is to give the Democrat mayors in those cities a little taste of what it’s like since they, like Joe Biden, are openborder types who haven’t had to worry about their cities being overrun and resources being depleted by the surges like border cities have.

But most importantly, it is to send a signal to Joe Biden that it is time for this to stop being primarily a red-state problem and for him to start paying attention to it since the mayors in these cities are Democrats to whom he presumably will actually pay attention.

Those Democrat mayors are now raising

the roof, with New York City’s Eric Adams and Chicago’s Brandon Johnson openly pleading with President Biden to help them alleviate the crisis, in between their grumblings about how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are meanies for sending them there.

Biden’s approval numbers on illegal immigration have never been good but the national attention being brought to the issue now because Democrat-run cities are being impacted has caused them to drop even more, with one recent poll showing a dismal 26 percent approval rating.

Another showed an overwhelming majority trusted Congressional Republicans over Democrats to handle the border crisis, with key Democrat voting blocs comfortably putting Republicans over Democrats by double digits on the issue.

Biden’s response to all of this has been to blame the mainstream media, which is pretty astonishing when one considers all the ways they’ve tried to cover for Biden over the three years of his presidency so far.

Amazingly, not even CNN is buying it, with a panel of reporters including two of the network’s anchors agreeing in a Thursday segment on the border crisis that the bussing strategy “has worked from a political perspective,” forcing the Biden administration to reportedly be making

concession after concession in negotiations with House and Senate Republicans on border security.

Though the number of concessions Biden will make remains to be seen, rest assured that he likely wouldn’t be contemplating them at all had Abbott and DeSantis not called his bluff.

“President Biden has dissolved the southern border,” Sen. John Kennedy (RLa.) noted during a Fox News interview last week. “Our problems at the southern border are man-made, and that man’s name is Joe Biden, and the people of Louisiana and the American people know it.”

As the old saying goes, truer words have never been spoken.

Joe Biden is polling poorly on several fronts, with the economy and inf lation being at the top of the list as 2024 roars to life. But ultimately he may find out that the border crisis ends up being his Achilles heel in November, with fed-up voters, even a sizable number of Democrats in blue cities and states heading to the ballot box and saying “Enough is enough.”

North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

COLUMN

COLUMN | SUSAN ESTRICH

‘How Hamas weaponized sexual violence’ THAT IS WHAT The New York Times called it after a two-month investigation in which they reviewed video and photographic evidence, and interviewed some 150 people: “weaponiz(ing) sexual violence.” Israelis have been talking about it for months, horrified at those who wouldn’t believe it. Hamas has denied it, but at this point, there is no denying it.

They behaved worse than animals.

They did it everywhere they struck. These were not isolated acts of a few outliers. What Israelis have been saying, and what The New York Times found, was a pattern of gender-based violence so horrific that the pictures and videos have largely been withheld.

What we are talking about is not simply rape, as if rape is ever simple. The first such story I heard, and one that the Times investigators corroborated, was about a woman who was gang-raped; then one of the attackers took out a box cutter and cut off her breast, and then they tossed it back and forth until it fell in the road.

I heard about it from a guest on my podcast, which is called “No Holding Back.” Rob Garson, the president of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers, had just returned from Israel and he didn’t hold back.

Tossing a woman’s breast back and forth while you gang-rape her and stab her to death. Cutting the heads off women after you repeatedly rape them. Leaving them lying in the road after you slice open their vaginas.

A corpse with dozens of nails driven into the woman’s vagina and her thighs. Some 30 women and girls at the rave site and at two neighboring kibbutzim found with all their clothes torn off, legs spread and signs of abuse of their genitals. Soldiers found naked with gunshots in their vaginas. Terrorists carrying the heads of beheaded women.

A witness described seeing a woman being raped and stabbed every time she flinched and another being

“shredded into pieces.” Two teenage sisters, sprawled on the ground, pajama pants pulled down, semen smeared on her back while her sister lay dead with her clothes cut off and bruises in her groin. Some 24 bodies of women and girls at another kibbutz, naked and half-naked, mutilated and tied up. Seven locations cited on a map where women and girls were raped and killed.

This is not the stuff of war. This is butchery, brutality, inhumanity that should shock the world. As one police superintendent put it, it was a combination of two “ferocious forces,” the hatred of Jews and the hatred of women.

The Israelis are still gathering more evidence of what happened, but there is no doubting the pattern.

This is why Hamas must be destroyed. This is why Hamas must be stopped. This is why a ceasefire is not the answer. How can these people be neighbors? Who are they to complain of innocent blood being shed? Who treats a teenage girl like this? How do you tell her parents that these were the last minutes of their daughters’ lives?

This is not what anyone expected to find, not what the rescuers were looking for when they arrived to cart away bodies for swift burials, consistent with Jewish law. No autopsies were performed in the chaos. This is only what we know about, for certain. Untold numbers of bodies were buried before they could even be examined to determine if they, too, were brutalized before being slaughtered. Witnesses and survivors too traumatized to speak. Horrors too awful to share. Screams without words.

And what does the world say to Israel?

Stop fighting? Let them get away with it?

Would you?

The world did not believe it, did not want to believe it, when the Israelis were the only ones saying it. Maybe they will believe it now.

COLUMN | MICHAEL BARONE

Startling surprises in latest census numbers HOW’S AMERICA DOING? Government statisticians provide mounds of data that provide useful clues, and none more so than the Census Bureau’s estimates of population, announced in the holiday weeks at the end of each calendar year. The latest numbers measure the estimated population of each state as of last July 1 as compared to the constitutionally-required decennial census dated April 1, 2020.

These dates thus cover 39 months, almost exactly one-third of a decade, and in this case, date from the imposition of COVID lockdowns. They have the advantage of covering a unique period, and the disadvantage is that there is some doubt about the accuracy of the April 2020 census.

Readers familiar with the narrative of Sun Belt population gains and Snow Belt population losses will find some surprises in the results. In the Mountain West, chilly Idaho and Montana had percentage gains greater than in sunny Arizona and Nevada; Idaho’s 6.8% gain was the largest in the nation. And Maine and New Hampshire had robust gains, just as northern New England did in the inflationary 1970s (do people seek wood stoves when prices rise?).

These are minor changes. Three major developments stand out much more, each unique to this 39-month period.

1. The three largest metropolitan areas had the largest population losses, in percentages and absolute numbers. California’s population declined by 573,000 (all figures rounded off for clarity), Illinois’ by 264,000, New York’s by 631,000. In percentage terms, the tiny District of Columbia and isolated Hawaii rivaled these losses.

The picture you get is people fleeing COVID restrictions, empty offices and high taxes needed to support lavish public pensions. Expensive and dysfunctional government is a hard sell.

This wasn’t just a regional problem, by the way.

The Northeast outside New York state gained 35,000 people, and the Midwest outside Illinois gained 185,000.

2. The South accounted for almost all the nation’s population gains — and more. The Southern states — which I define as the 11 Confederate states plus West Virginia, Kentucky and Oklahoma — gained 3,822,000 people in the 39 COVID and post-COVID months.

That’s more than the nation’s population gain, thanks to the losses in New York, California and Illinois.

The Southern states’ lower taxes, lighter regulation and lesser imposition of “woke” policies have helped it attract internal migrants and encourage family formation.

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Texas had the largest population gain in 2020-23 (1,357,800), but Florida was not far behind (1,073,000), and the South Atlantic states from Florida north to Virginia accounted for most of the South’s gain (2,123,000), 62% of the national total. Mid-20thcentury demographers saw the New York-centered “megalopolis” as the focus of dynamic national growth.

Now it’s Interstate 95 south of Richmond.

3. The Pacific Rim is shrinking. Just as startling as the South’s gigantic share of the nation’s population gain is the fact of absolute population shrinkage of the Pacific states. California, which gained population every year since the Gold Rush of 1849, has lost 573,000 people in the 39 months since April 2020. Hawaii and Oregon have lost people, too; Alaska has gained only 32 (people, not percent), while Washington has gained just 108,000.

There’s a parallel here with what has been happening demographically on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Japan’s population has been declining, and this historically xenophobic nation has now been admitting immigrants if only to tend to its increasingly elderly population.

South Korea, whose dynamic economic growth since the 1950-53 war has been quasi-miraculous, has one of the lowest fertility rates on earth, and the end of China’s one-child policy in 2016, after nearly 40 years in place, has not resulted in a significantly higher birth rate.

Not so long ago, both sides of the Pacific Rim were seen as the wave of the future, producing outsize shares of world innovation and growth. But population growth seems to have halted there, with little prospect of resuming, and an older and shrinking workforce seems unlikely to produce innovations at anything like the pace once predicted.

COVID and the varying responses thereto seem to have accentuated and exaggerated preexisting demographic trends in this country and perhaps in others as well. These 39 months have seen a startlingly large share of national growth in the South and Mountain states — once the nation’s economic laggards and backwaters.

Even more surprising is the perhaps temporary rush from the nation’s largest metropolitan areas and the almost entirely unpredicted population shrinkage in climatically favored California and the Pacific Rim — trends explicable only as the result of dreadfully destructive public policies.

Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.

BE IN TOUCH Letters addressed to the editor may be sent to letters@nsjonline.com or 1201 Edwards Mill Rd., Suite 300, Raleigh, NC 27607. Letters must be signed; include the writer’s phone number, city and state; and be no longer than 300 words. Letters may be edited for style, length or clarity when necessary. Ideas for op-eds should be sent to opinion@nsjonline.com.

BEN SHAPIRO

The lessons of 2023 2023 WAS A RATHER BAD YEAR. Not as bad as 2024 is likely to be, or as 2020 was.

But bad.

Nonetheless, we ought to learn from the bad as well as the good. So, in a spirit of reflection, I offer a few lessons we ought to remember from this crummy year.

Lesson No. 1: Lots of people do not think like we do. And failure to recognize the truth of this lesson leads to failures of imagination that in turn lead to suffering and death.

When Hamas slaughters infants in their cribs, rapes women in front of their husbands and takes them captive back to Gaza, and tortures and murders civilians, that isn’t because of some outsized grievance. It’s because they do not have the same values as Westerners. Pretending that members of Hamas are simply freedom-loving people who seek material prosperity, quiet family lives and tolerance for those who think differently isn’t just wrong; it’s catastrophically wrong. It’s also leading foolish Westerners to believe that appeasement of Hamas sympathizers will somehow alleviate Hamas’ evil terrorist behaviors, or that current deaths of civilians in the Gaza Strip is the result of Israeli indiscrimination rather than Hamas’ stated war objective of maximizing civilian casualties for the international media.

That’s a lie. And it’s a dangerous lie. It’s the same lie that led to 20 years of terror buildup in the Gaza Strip, funded and then ignored by the West. It’s the same lie that has led to thousands of deaths, both Israeli and Palestinian. It’s the same lie that led the West to import millions of radical Muslims into its heart, endangering both the social fabric and the future of the West itself.

Which brings us to lesson No. 2: The next generation is in serious moral peril. As a recent Harvard-Harris poll showed, 79% of young Americans (18-24) agree that white people are oppressors and people of color are the oppressed; a similarly frightening two-thirds of young people believed that Jews are part of the oppressor class and “should be treated as oppressors.” This bodes ill for the future of republicanism: If Americans can quickly be classified as oppressor or oppressed not based on behavior but based on group identity, we will revert to the tribalism that destroys nations entirely.

Lesson No. 3 of 2023: Weakness breeds aggression. From Afghanistan to Crimea, weakness in the face of America’s enemies breeds aggression. Russia moved on Ukraine not predominantly because it feared NATO’s dominance, but because it sensed Western weakness; right now, the Iranian government is flipping the activation switch on all of its proxy terror groups in the Middle East because of perceived Western cowardice; should the West fail to confront the Houthis in the Red Sea, undoubtedly China will see the West’s unwillingness to expend even minor military resources to retain open trade lanes, and will threaten Taiwan. The same is true with regard to America’s southern border: an open border breeds waves of illegal immigration, which is precisely what we have been seeing. Conversely, strength means facing hard realities and making sacrifices in order to confront them.

Lesson No. 4 from 2023: what goes around comes around. Always.

This has been true for quite a while when it comes to American politics: voiding the judicial filibuster means the other party will cram through nominees on a party line vote; militarizing the executive order will allow the other party’s president to do the same. Today, Democrats seem excited to weaponize the Department of Justice in order to target former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate to face off against President Joe Biden. What are the chances that precedent will be utilized

by Democrats’ opponents in the future?

Refusal to acknowledge this reality means an endless cycle of escalating reprisal that ends only with actual conflict.

One final lesson: incompetence has consequences.

We live in the richest and most powerful country in human history. That truth obscures the effects of incompetence at every level. But not for long. Eventually, the people tire of the incompetence of their leaders — and when they tire of the incompetence of leaders from all sides, they seek radical change to the systems themselves. Often, such changes are more perilous than the incompetence they seek to rectify. Which means that perhaps intermediate institutions — say, political parties — ought to flex their muscle in order to press forward competent people rather than caving to the whims of the moment.

So long, 2023.

Here’s to a better 2024.

Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+.

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Murphy to Manteo

Top employers of NC counties Each year, the North Carolina Department of Commerce publishes a list of the top public and private sector employers in North Carolina’s 100 counties, with rankings derived from average employment numbers from the Employment and Wages program.

This data is based on 2023 results from a sampling of counties across our readership, representing some of the most significant impacts on North Carolina’s economy.

Moore County - 6 #1: Firsthealth Of The Carolinas Inc #2: Moore County Schools #3: Pinehurst Resort And Country Club #4: County Of Moore #5: Pinehurst Medical Clinic Inc

Forsyth County - 2 #1: Wake Forest University Baptist Medi #2: Winston Salem Forsyth County School #3: Forsyth Memorial Hospital Inc #4: Novant Health Inc #5: Wake Forest Univ.

Hoke County - 7 #1: Hoke County Board Of Education #2: Butterball Llc #3: Office Of County Auditor #4: Burlington Industries #5: Conopco Inc

Stanly County - 3 #1: Stanly County Schools #2: Atrium Health #3: Fiberon #4: Wal-Mart Associates Inc. #5: County Of Stanly

Chatham County - 8 #1: Chatham County Schools #2: County Of Chatham #3: Carolina Meadows Inc #4: Mountaire Farms Of Nc Inc #5: Galloway Ridge Inc

Guilford County - 4 #1: Guilford County Bd Of Education #2: Cone Health #3: City Of Greensboro #4: Guilford County Government #5: U S Postal Service

Durham County - 9 #1: Duke University #2: Fidelity Workplace Investing Llc #3: Durham Public Schools #4: Cisco Systems #5: Ibm Corporation

Duplin County - 11 #1: Butterball Llc #2: Duplin County Schools #3: Smithfield Foods Inc #4: House Of Raeford #5: Murphy Family Ventures Llc

Randolph County - 5 #1: Randolph County Board Of Education #2: Technimark Llc #3: Randolph Hospital #4: County Of Randolph #5: Wal-Mart Associates Inc.

Wake County - 10 #1: Wake County Public Schools #2: Nc State University At Raleigh #3: Wake Med #4: Nc Health #5: Amazon.Com Services Inc

New Hanover County - 12 #1: Novant Health New Hanover Regional #2: New Hanover County School System #3: University Of North Carolina At Wil #4: County Of New Hanover #5: Ppd Development Llc

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Short-term rental laws could be changed to address housing issues

Henderson County Henderson County officials are warning residents about fraudulent calls that have been circulating in the community.

Chief Communications Officer Mike Morgan told local outlets there have been recent reports of residents receiving phone calls from individuals claiming to be representatives of the Henderson County Tax Office. “No one from the tax office will ever call unsolicited, demanding money or asking for any kind of information on you,” said Morgan.

He added that these individuals falsely presenting themselves as representatives for the tax office are also disclosing that there will be legal actions to those who refuse to pay. “Telling them their taxes were due and had to pay them immediately or face fines, and maybe imprisonment,” he gave examples of the scam calls.

Buncombe County During the process of developing the Buncombe County 2043 Comprehensive Plan, thousands of community members provided input and shared feedback to develop the vision for the next 20 years. County officials report that a key directive from that process was to mitigate the loss of year-round housing to short-term rentals. To create more long-term rental and owner-occupied housing opportunities, staff from the Buncombe County Planning Department is proposing a series of text amendments to the current zoning Zoning Ordinance that limit where short-term rentals can be located and provide standards for new short-term rentals. According to a 2021 study, Buncombe County’s long-term rental housing gap was 7,699 units, while the housing ownership gap was 2,048 units.

NSJ

WLOS

Hickory named “World’s GreatestCity”

Church vandalized, food stolen from community food pantry

Catawba County Hickory was named the “World’s Greatest City” by How 2 Media and was featured on an episode of the national television series “World’s Greatest Cities!” on Bloomberg TV. According to the site, How 2 Media producers researched hundreds of cities around the world before ultimately selecting Hickory. They said were impressed by the city’s strong sense of community, its vibrant arts and culture scene, its thriving economy, and its commitment to sustainability. The episode of “World’s Greatest!...” featuring Hickory aired last month, highlighting some of the city’s most popular attractions, such as the Hickory Aviation Museum, the Catawba Science Center, and the Hickory Furniture Mart. It also featured interviews with residents and business owners who shared their love for their city.

Gaston County A Gaston County church was damaged after thieves broke in and stole food from it last week. According to the report taken by the Gastonia Police Department an estimated $200 in food was taken from Faith, Hope and Love Church on North Oakland Street. The police report stated that the thieves broke a window, causing an estimated $400 in damage. Workers showed reporters a series of photos which included items they found left behind, which included needles and a pipe commonly used for methamphetamine. There were also about a day’s worth of prepared lunch food for roughly 50 families that had either been stolen or left out to spoil.

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By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

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RALEIGH — During 2023 legislative session, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper issued the third-highest number of vetoes in his two terms with 19, and for the first time since Cooper took office, the General Assembly successfully overrode all of them.

Supermajorities in both chambers gave the legislature a 100% veto override rate during the 2023 long session.

Coming out of the 2022 election cycle, the Senate already had a Republican supermajority but the House was down by a single vote. That vote came along in April 2023 when Mecklenburg Rep. Tricia Cotham’s switched parties from Democrat to Republican.

The 19 bills which saw successful veto overrides during the 2023 session are:

6 7

11

13

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Brunswick County - 13 #1: Brunswick County Board Of Education #2: County Of Brunswick #3: Wal-Mart Associates Inc. #4: Progress Energy Service Co #5: Food Lion

EAST

PIEDMONT

Officials warn of phone scam regarding back taxes

Jones & Blount Cooper could reach 100 vetoes in final year in office

Buncombe County - 1 #1: Mh Hospital Manager Llc #2: Ingles Markets, Inc #3: Veterans Administration Va Ro318 #4: Buncombe County Board Of Education #5: Biltmore Workforce Management Inc

WEST

Off duty police sergeant killed after witnessing gas station crime

Siler City woman struck by truck’s side mirror, suspect flees

Guilford County Sergeant Philip Dale Nix was shot and killed at a Sheetz on Sandy Ridge Road after witnessing a crime and confronting the suspects on Saturday, according to Greensboro Police Chief John Thompson. Another off-duty Greensboro police officer and a Guilford County paramedic were able to render aid to Nix immediately, but the sergeant died at a local medical facility. “He was a loving husband, father, son and brother with 22 years of service to the department and this community,” Thompson said. “We ask for prayers for the family of the fallen officer and our Greensboro PD family.”

Police say that three suspects have been arrested in connection to Nix’s death.

Chatham County Chatham County officials say state authorities are still looking for the driver of a pickup truck after a woman was struck and killed walking along a road last month. The incident happened very early on December 3 along U.S. 64 near Bowers Store Road, according to a statement from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office. Just after 3 a.m., Diana Davis Johnson, 49, of Siler City, was walking east near the westbound lanes of U.S. 64, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said. A vehicle traveling west toward Siler City hit Johnson in the face with its side mirror and fled, according to State Troopers. Officials said they are looking for a 2020 or newer GMC/Chevrolet 2500 pickup truck that is missing a side passenger mirror.

WGHP

Rowan County The Salisbury Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating a vehicle connected with a hit-andrun that killed a bicyclist on Friday, Dec. 29. Officials state that when first responders arrived in the 3600 block of S. Main St., they found a man lying in the road and identified the person as Mark Brotherton, 48, who was dead at the scene. The ensuing investigation revealed that Brotherton was traveling toward Salisbury on his bicycle when he was struck by a vehicle. Brotherton’s ex-wife, Melissa Fitzgerald, said a roadside cross placed at the scene has the names of Brotherton’s five children. She told local outlets she hopes the driver sees it and does what’s right. Officers were able to determine that a possible vehicle involved was a 2008-2015 Nissan Armada with damage to the right headlight area.

QUEEN CITY NEWS WBTV

High school band plays in London on New Year’s Day

NC woman is Powerball’s first 2024 winner

WNCN

Suspect sought in hit-and-run death of cyclist

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Sampson County Pamela Bradshaw, of Clinton, won $1 million just after midnight in Times Square, becoming the Powerball First Millionaire of the Year. The North Carolina Education Lottery and 22 other state lotteries were involved in the promotion. “I’m so blessed,” said Bradshaw told reporters after winning the drawing. “I’m so blessed.”

Bradshaw is the second consecutive North Carolinian to become America’s Powerball First Millionaire of the Year. Last year, a man from Spindale won the Powerball drawing in Time’s Square. According to the North Carolina Education Lottery, Bradshaw’s good luck began with a second-chance drawing held by the lottery system , where she won a VIP trip to New York City. Lottery officials say she was one of five Powerball players chosen across the U.S. who made the trip for the chance to win $1 million in the drawing.

NSJ

Pilot killed in single-passenger plane crash Iredell County North Carolina Highway Patrol reports that Randy Mysliviec, the pilot of a single-engine aircraft, died from his injuries suffered when his plane crashed off of the Kenway Loop in Mooresville on Sunday. NCHP states that Mysliviec was attempting to land his plane at Lake Norman Airport and struck several trees and crashed into an abandoned house site. Preliminary indications from the audio recordings and the appearance of the propellers indicate that the engine was not producing power at the time of the accident, according to an update on Monday by members of the National Transportation Safety Board. According to the NTSB, in about 10 days, the agency will publish a preliminary report with the facts as investigators know them. The full report will take about another 18 months.

WBTV

Missing girl found on Christmas day under trap door in KY home Cumberland County A Fayetteville 16-year-old girl was found on Christmas Day by deputies after she was reportedly lured across state lines and taken to Kentucky. According to local reports, Zackary Jones, 34, had been in communication with the teen through Facebook, where he claimed he was age 19, according to Lincoln County, Kentucky officials. Responding to a domestic altercation call at Jones’ home, deputies discovered drugs and a trap door under a rug in the suspect’s bedroom. The female found under the door was identified as the same 16-yearold girl reported missing on Dec. 8 in Fayetteville. Jones is facing 10 thirddegree charges of rape and another 10 third-degree charges of sodomy. He is also charged with using an electronic device to entice and lure a minor across state lines.

Johnston County Students at Corinth Holders High School was selected to join about 10,000 performers in London’s New Year’s Day Parade. CHHS Band Director Ms. Olivia Dove Spell and her students marched nearly two miles from Piccadilly Circus to Parliament Square. Spell told local news outlets that initially she wasn’t sure if they could make the trip happen, but she said the school managed to find a way. After announcing the opportunity last fall, she said parents, faculty, teachers, and staff pulled together with planning, fundraising and support from sponsors. “We like to think we were picked for being a little different, a little unique and not super traditional.”

WNCN

SB 41 - Guarantee 2nd Amend Freedom and Protections SB 20 - Care for Women, Children, and Families Act SB 364 - Nondiscrimination & Dignity in State Work SB 331 - Consumer Finance Act Amendments SB 329 - Retail Installment Sales Act Amendments SB 299 - Reimburse Late Audit Costs with Sales Tax Rev. SB 582 - NC Farm Act of 2023 HB 750 - Address ESG Factors HB 574 - Fairness in Women’s Sports Act

Mt. Olive Pickle Drop named one of the nation’s best traditions Wayne County USA Today’s 10Best.com recently released its 2023 Readers’ Choice list of the best New Year’s Eve drops in the country, a ranking where each entry “offers its own spin on the occasion with unique items being lowered.” Mount Olive’s Picke Drop was voted No. 7 on this year’s list. “Get an early start on celebrating the new year by watching a glowing pickle drop into a giant pickle jar at 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve,” the short blurb on the site says. “Attendees can enjoy live music, food, fireworks and free pickles.” Sponsored by the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, the event was first held in 1999. A perk for those who attend the event are the free pickles handed out courtesy of the nearly 100-year old local business.

SB 49 - Parents Bill of Rights HB 808 - Gender transition/ minors HB 488 - Code Council Reorganization & Various Code Amendments HB 618 - Charter School Review Board HB 219 - Charter School Omnibus

SB 512 - Greater Accountability for Boards/ Commissions SB 747 - Elections Law Changes SB 749 - No Partisan Advantage In Elections SB 678 - Clean Energy / Other Changes HB 600 - Regulatory Reform Act of 2023 One of the most highprofile overrides was that of Senate Bill 20, which reduced the state’s elective abortion limit from 20 weeks down to 12 with an exception for rape and incest through 20 weeks. Following the successful override, a lawsuit was filed by Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Dr. Beverly Gray.

Other laws that were enacted following a veto override have also been hit with lawsuits include Senate Bills 512, 747, and 749. The lawsuit over Senate Bill 512 was initiated by Cooper himself with a judge temporarily blocking part of the law in November while the case proceeds.

Heading into the last year of his second term, Cooper holds the state record for most vetoes issued with 94 or 73% of all vetoes issued.

His four predecessors who had veto powers, former Governors Hunt, Easley, Perdue, and McCrory, had collectively issued 35 vetoes.

Hunt issued no vetoes and Easley issued 9 spanning the years 2001-2008. Perdue and McCrory, who both served a single term, issued 20 and 6, respectively.

As of the end of the 2023 long session, the General Assembly has an overall override rate of 45%.

Cooper issued 28 vetoes during the 2017-18 legislative year that included three extra sessions. Of those vetoes, 23 were overridden.

During 2019-20’s session, the governor issued 25 but most of those vetoes never received an override attempt as Republicans had lost their supermajorities in both chambers during the 2018 midterm elections.

Cooper’s 16 vetoes in 202122 and six in 2022-23 would also go mostly unchallenged.

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North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

NATION & WORLD

USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is returning home after extended deployment defending Israel The Associated Press AFTER MONTHS of extra duty at sea providing protection for Israel, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group will be heading home, the Navy announced Monday.

The Ford and its accompanying warships will be replaced by the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan and its accompanying warships, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Carter Hall.

The three vessels had been in the Red Sea and have been transiting toward the Eastern Mediterranean over the last few days.

The Ford will sail for home “in the coming days,” the U.S. 6th Fleet, the European-based U.S. naval command that’s responsible for ships sailing in the Med-

iterranean, said in a statement.

The Ford was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean to be within striking distance of Israel since the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. The carrier stayed in the Eastern Mediterranean while its accompanying warships had sailed into the Red Sea, where they repeatedly intercepted incoming ballistic missiles and attack drones fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited the Ford last month.

Since it was extended in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier have been part of a two-carrier presence bracketing the Israel-Hamas war, underscoring U.S. concerns that the conflict

will widen. The Eisenhower has recently patrolled near the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea waterway, where so many commercial vessels have come under attack in recent weeks.

On Sunday, helicopters from the Eisenhower and its destroyer the USS Gravely responded to a distress call from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, which was under attack by four Iranian-backed Houthi small boats. As the helicopters responded, the boats fired at them with crew-served weapons and small arms and the helicopters returned fire, sinking three of the four boats and killing their crews, the U.S. Central Command said.

The incessant attacks on the commercial ships have led some

companies to suspend transits through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the southern Red Sea and then the Suez Canal.

The Bataan’s accompanying warship the Mesa Verde is a transport dock ship, carrying approximately 2,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Those Marines provide “forces capable of supporting a wide range of missions,” the U.S. 6th Fleet said.

The Carter Hall is a dock landing ship, which carries amphibious landing craft and their crews. Both vessels and the Bataan can support rotary aircraft; the Bataan can also carry and support Marine Corps’ F-35 vertical takeoff fighter aircraft.

North Korea’s new reactor at nuclear site likely to be formally operational next summer Seoul, South Korea A light-water reactor at North Korea’s main nuclear complex will likely be formally operational by next summer, South Korea’s defense minister said, amid suspicions that the North may use it as a new source of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

Concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program deepened recently as the U.N. atomic agency and foreign experts said they’ve detected signs indicating that North Korea had begun operating its light-water reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.

North Korea has long produced weapons-grade plutonium from its widely known 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon. The lightwater reactor would be an additional source of bomb fuels, and observers say its bigger capacity could allow it to produce more plutonium.

Yongbyon has a uranium enrichment facility as well.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

China reaffirms its military threats against Taiwan weeks before the island’s presidential election

AP PHOTO

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, second right, talks with the commanding officer of the USS Gerald R. Ford, Navy Capt. Rick Burgess, right, during an unannounced visit to the ship on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023.

FINANCE from page A1

and software.

“To see people who were gutsy enough to put their hands up to seek office and then be stymied by a software that when you compare it to the retail user, a retail consumer software that is everywhere now on their phone… you can get groceries within an hour on the click of the phone. If you compare that experience with what the software we have right now is, you just have to ask a question, can’t we do better?”

Tripp’s question would lead to the creation of his company named Elecatfile.

He says the company is designed to make it easier for all of those involved in campaigns to have a simple platform to report information that they’re legally required to disclose.

“We all have ideas of, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be great if,’ and then the idea never gets off go. In the case of electrifying my ideas, can’t we have a platform that is like the stuff we see in our phone to buy groceries or file our federal taxes? That was the idea,” Tripp said.

He adds that his wife, Laura, encouraged him to talk to someone to figure out what it could look like.

That led to a meeting with a company in the software and web development space called Dark Horse Solutions to help articulate the idea and how it would get built.

Tripp would learn new terms in the software space, like how software begins with a mockup and wire frames. That process

COURTESY PHOTO

Andrew Tripp is the Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs & General Counsel for the UNC System and founder of Electafile. leads to visual depictions of the website going page by page and making granular adjustments.

Once the adjustments are right, the platform then goes into development and a testing environment.

That involved early morning phone calls for nearly two years and constantly gathering feedback from campaign professionals and treasurers across the

state.

“I didn’t realize is just how much work goes into putting the website or the app that you see on your phone, all the behind the scenes work that goes into building it out and making sure it works,” Tripp said of the process.

His family also got in on the process.

During the testing phase of development, his kids helped

the family dog, Winnie, run for “nearly every office in North Carolina except dogcatcher,” joked Tripp.

To uncover problems and improve how Electafile would operate, he told his kids to try and “break” the site going through all types of scenarios.

“We had Winnie for Senate, Winnie for North Carolina, Winnie for court, county commissioner, uh, and that was always the name we used, which was a lot of good fun to where the developers, one day came back and said, who is Winnie?

She’s very politically active,” said Tripp with a laugh.

In the span of nearly three years, the company has gone from idea to being used in a number of campaigns and political action committees.

The first report filed using Electafile was submitted in July 2022 and has steadily expanded its user base in the year and a half since.

Tripp said he feels gratified when someone new tries out the platform and tells him how much it helps. He said one campaign treasurer told him she nearly tried tears of joy when she realized how much easier Electafile was to use.

“The attention in most media circles is who’s giving money, who’s spending, but the actual reporting of that - there’s statutes and penalties involved,” said Tripp. “I don’t think it gets the kind of attention that maybe it deserves. We try to be accommodating and mission-focused on helping people who are brave enough to put their hand up and try to get into politics.”

Taipei, Taiwan Weeks before Taiwan holds elections for its president and legislature, China renewed its threat to use military force to annex the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Wu Qian on told reporters at a monthly briefing that China’s armed forces would “as always take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard our national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Taiwan’s 23 million people overwhelmingly favor maintaining the island’s defacto independent status, leaving the Jan. 13 polls to be decided largely by concerns over housing prices, health care, employment and education. China has continued sending warships and fighter jets near Taiwan as an intimidation tactic, even as Taiwan’s military said it’s raising alert levels before the vote.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Finland and Sweden set this winter’s cold records as temperature plummets below minus 40 Helsinki Finland and Sweden recorded the coldest temperatures of the winter Tuesday as thermometers plummeted to minus 40 Fahrenheit as a result of a cold spell prevailing in the Nordic region.

In Nikkaluokta, a small village inhabited by the indigenous Sami people in northern Sweden, thermometer showed minus 42.8 Fahrenheit early Tuesday, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported.

“It’s the coldest temperature we have had so far this winter, and it will continue to be quite cold weather in the north,” said SVT meteorologist Nils Holmqvist.

In neighboring Finland, this winter’s cold record was recorded in the northwestern town of Ylivieska where temperatures fell to minus 36 early Tuesday.

A7

normal

WITH MOST STATES under either shelter-in-place or stay-at-h hina lied about the origin of the ONE THING IS CERTAIN; after thisthanks COVID-19 virus cavalierofmanner in orders to local ordissipates state governments,The a majority America WEEK, virus, according to members ied to tell the world there were only “THIS ISof around the globe and in the United will to pay forTHIS this covered up its spre areStates, havingChina to adjust what is being called the “new normal.” and state and local governments, America rldwide panic, economic collapse and (Psalm catastrophe one way or another.

3,341 related has Some of these orders extend at least through the endindeaths ofit”this mon ce or stay-at-home fallen into place. I understand the seriousness of the virus and the need the curve in the novel coronavirus outbrea being thrown out of work.

I know In order to put the crisis causedVirginia’s

by Chinastay-at-home in perspective, zero go into June. millions of Americans th ne orders ty of at Americans to take precautions, but I’m uneasy with how people who simply ask — after all, trends canhas easily ayer least $2.4 trillion in added working from worldwide pandemics can trace their source to theCarolina, Unitedmuted States over costrever the Here in North Democratic Gov.The Roycrisis Cooper stated dur normal.” questions back tohistory. At least four in the 20th century alone have abided by recommendations and ord Reserve backup liquidity to the about the data, and when things can start getting be glad” t our 231-year be that debt plus trillions more a recent coronavirus press can briefing “we just don’t know yet”asifin nd of this month. are treated in some circles with contempt. to stay at home; they’ve practiced social d he U.S. dollar were notnormal the reserve and dad, the directly traced to China: flu,” 1968 “Hong orders Kong flu,” markets state’s stay-at-home will 1977 extend into May. and financial ou Since when1957 did “Asian They’re treated as though we as a society simply must accept flu” without they’ve donned masks. fund any of these emergency have tonot beth th “Russian and the 2002 SARS outbreak.

There is evidence that the currency, would b Perhaps If he does decide to extend it, questions should bewe asked as to We need WALTER E. WILLIAMS questioning per stated during question what the government tells us about when it’s massive safe to begin the The result: a reduction in expected hosp Lenten and of rampant inflation and currency pandemic.

1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic also had its origins in China. measures without immed justification for it.

And the answers should not be vague ones like “ COVID-19 t know yet” if the process of returning back to normalcy.

According to theseasons University of Washingto For me, m government There is 100% agreement, outside oftransparency China, thatofCOVID-19 depreciation. must do this out an abundance Easter of caution.” is China’s No. The government works for us, and we have the right to askin those Metrics and Evaluation model most oftAs ci ant ways and decisions through and honesty originated Wuhan Province probably from the has to pay for th provide a China at all levels It will need tocompletely be explained in detail to the people ofmaking. this state w asked as to the And the longer stay-at-home orders are in place all over the Trump administration, the expected need plomacy has obviouslyquestions. not worked Corinthians Chernobyl. unregulated and unsanitary wet markets.

Some believe it came out of a economic and financial m from our are being told to remain jobless and at home for an undetermined message of become a gue likecentury “we health, country, and the stricter some of them get in states, such as Michigan, peak outbreak was revised down by over 1 orldones of 21st hygiene affliction, so biowarfare lab run by the communist Chinese army. to bring China into the ci scientific experts amount of time why models predicting hundreds of thousands of c hope that we13,000 will and bad thing? thethe more people, sitting at home feeling isolated and/or anxious about ventilators by nearly the num unist regimes never take blame affliction, wi Until China adopts rigorous verifiable policing and regulation of and fair trade. Totalitaria are reliable.

— we need to again enjoy sincere of this state who when will demand August byonce nearly 12,000. orse, because that is not whatthey can get back to providing for their families,their God.” That is what food safety and health protocols, American business has nowhat other or express To know date, what I’ve gone along with the state has asked andregret then they answers.

Here’s the problem: We still don’t know sporting events, yndetermined take advantage of every weakness If you are choice than tofree build redundant manufacturing totalitarian citizens mandated thatplants we do,elsewhere but alongpurely the way I’ve also had governments questions abo housands of cases at the local and state levels should be as forthcoming as they know, what they questions that will allow the economy tothar pushing until they win orLeaders the reflect on concerts, family for national security and safety reasons as well as supply and delivery they find in adversaries the data.

State Republican leaders have, too. living in a free can be with those answers — and again, not vague answers, but concerns. answer First, what is the true coronavirus fatal God’sback. examp don’t and when reliability adversaries gatherings, Unfortunately, when certain types of questions get push asked, there AMERICA’S COLLEGES are rife with society were kedhappens and then with details that give their statements believability. important because it determines whether ent such as the Chernobyl this difficult The most direct way to make China “pay”hope for this is to offer That is, unless an exog they to disaster corruption. The financial squeeze resulting sometimes a disturbing tendency among people to treat thos church some services questions about We should families, be open or closed,meltdown whether we oughtSome to we pu believe that event, not the Star Warsall continue confident supposed from COVID-19 offers opportunities for a to do what we can to keep our U.S. tax credits to companies whosimply willknow source at least halfdata of their in 1986. what they questioning the and asking when we can start getting and many more that presumes Sponsored

by Union and our communities safe. But we still continue more liberalized society wi Sponsored by should also o the dissolution of theourselves, Soviet In this sam bit of remediation.

Let’s first examine what production back in the States.

There is though approximately programor of are Reagan, led d to do, lastUnited I to normal they are$120 conspiracy theorists people wh don’t.as afterdown our own asked, there to of ask questions about the data, because while reasonable stay-at-home ought to lock further. neighbors he mightisbe the root academic corruption, billion worth checked. of American direct investment in plants and equipment inor1989. otherwise don’t care if they get themselves others sick. title of a recent study, ehernobyl. to treatsuggested those by the measures are understandable, they should also have an date. direct investment in the U.S. is about $65We’ve seen rates — Concor the num temporary In inexpiration China. Chinese billion by case fatality Perhaps COVID-19 C Since when did questioning government at all levels become aisba “Academic Grievance Studies and theAmericans, and it is not normal. Not in any way, North State Journal for Wednesday, April 15, 2 starttalking gettingabout back the possibility This is all new to the number of identified COVID-19 cases eady money to bu sacrifices are comparison.

Senators in Washingto thing?

That is what free citizens living in a free society were suppo Corruption of Scholarship.”

The study was are people who shape, should Press remain vigilant and stay safe, at and in theChina denominator are likely wrong.

We Thewe Associated debt we owe them as one wayor toform. get So while health care An investment tax credit of 30% U.S. investment forgiving $1.2 trw over. of China toon do,half lastof I checked. done

by Areo, an opinion and analysis VinFast announces sick. the same time we shouldn’t get comfortable with this so-called “new people have actually died of coronavirus. y have caused the US. Don’t hold your today, or $60 billion, applied to repatriated China to “pay”isfor dam digital magazine. By the way, Areo is short My first American concern asmanufacturing we go along in all this, of course, mythe famil WASHINGTON, D.C. — ls become aAreopagitica, badbutof normal.” signing number has beenbreath overestimated, given th lee” to happen askinitial your elected for a speech delivered by investment to the U.S. would cost the U.S. Treasury $18 billion in waiting for a Chin worried about them catching the virus, and I’m worried I will.

Afte ty were supposed Not one little bit. There’s been no shortage of tax revenue spread over a few years. $18 billion in lost revenue of death, particularly among elderly patie ountable in tangible financial ways for John Milton in defense of free speech. independent dealers hold C suffering from the H1N1 virusis(swine flu) representatives during the 2009topandem tough news for China’s economy Authors Helen Pluckrose, James A. sources suggest the number is dramatical decimal dust compared to the $6 I’ve trillion+ Marshall Plan extra we areprecautions, now this disaster. as some of the world’s biggest been trying to take because all of this brings in the US Lindsay and Peter Boghossian say has that also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah e, to is my family.

Stacey Matthews manyas people are dying home. ed operate as I’m responsible citizens of brands consider or take action to undertaking to save our own economy, notmany of defeated enemies in the It is at about timenot they way too memories of a painful experience I’ d prefer to ar re something drastically wrong ied I will.

After has gone and is a regular contributor to RedStatetoand Legal Insurrection.

Even more importantly, we have no clue ation. shift manufacturing friendlier past. the world like any other But what also makes me lose sleep is how easily most everyone hm inOn academia, Tuesday,especially VinFast, awithin certain shores at a time of unease about 2009 pandemic, actually have coronavirus. Some scientist China has been cheating, stealing, pirating and pillaging American fields within the humanities.

They call global up smart electric vehicle security controls, protectionism l of this brings of identified business now for the past 30 years. They have made no secret that theycases could be an order of ma these fields “grievance studies,” where manufacturer, announced NealinRobbins, publisher | Frank Hill,coronavir senior refer notscholarship to repeat. is not so much based upon and wobbly relations between intend to replace the U.S. as the premier superpower number of people who have had the world and that it has officially signed Beijing and Washington. ost everyone hastruth but finding attending to replace the dollar as the reserve currency with their renminbi. agreements withupon five dealers Count Adidas, Apple and

business & economy Fixingn.c. college corruption FAST

FACTS

US companies are picky about investing in China. The exceptions?

Burgers and lattes A6

Approved Logos

north STA

social grievances.

Grievance scholars in four states across the Samsung among those looking bully students, administrators and other county.

News of these elsewhere. departments intoless adhering to their signings comes than six But as a tumultuous 2023 for worldview. The worldview they promote is Jason the Chinese economy comes to months after the Vietnamese neither scientific nor rigorous. Grievance EDITORIAL | STACEY MATTHEWS a close, there has been at least automaker broke ground studies consist of disciplines such as one bright spot for Beijing when at its newanthropology, manufacturing sociology, gender studies, it comes to foreign investment: plant in Chatham County.

COLUMN | REP. RICHARD HUDSON queer studies, sexuality and critical race American fast-food chains have US customers can now studies. decided a market of 1.4 billion purchase VinFast’s In 2017 and 2018, electric authors Pluckrose, people is simply too delicious to vehicles through these Lindsay and Boghossian started pass up. dealers: Leith VinFast submitting bogus academic papers to KFC China’s parent company (Raleigh, journals NC), Smith Haven queer, AP PHOTO academic in cultural, opened its 10,000th restaurant VinFast (St. James, NY), race, gender, fat and sexuality studies in China this month and aims to Former President Donald Trump speaks after exiting the courtroom for a break at New York VinFast Grapevine toPrinciple determine if they would pass peer have stores within reach of half Supreme Court, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in New York.

“THIS IS THEfallen DAYinto the lord has made seriousness of and the be virus and the (Grapevine, TX), Hiley review accepted for need publication.

WITH MOST STATES under either shelter-in-place or stay-at-home place.

I unders of China’s population by 2026.

Acceptance of dubious research VinFast of Fort Worth in it” (Psalm 118:24). y with how people who simply(Fort ask that McDonald’s is planning to open orders thanks to local or state governments, a majority of Americans to take precautions, but I editors sympathetic to their Worth, TX)getting andfound VinFast that during this challenging tim n thingsjournal can start back to said they were fewer I know and itstoWestern 3,500 new stores in China over China persisted under the presidency of the data, are having adjust totrading what is being called theinvesting “new normal.” questions about intersectional or postmodern leftist vision Wichita (Wichita, KS). working from home or losing a job, it may with contempt. resources in China, versus just many multinational the next four years. And Star- partners, Joe Biden, who took office vowSome of these orders extend at least through the end of this month. normal are treated in som ofThese the world would the problem of dealers will prove initially 10%into whoJune. were investing more. be glad” are shifting investbucks invested $220 million in a companies ing toas dothe more toThey’re counter China’s Bible tells us to do. as Howev a societylow simply muststandards. accept without Virginia’s stay-at-home orders go treated thou academic begin selling the VinFast Surveys of European and Japmanufacturing and distribution ments to other places, such as expanding militaryholiday clout and itsreminded and dad, the Easter has ls us about when it’s safe to begin the Here in North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper stated during question what the govern Several of the fake research papers VF 8 all-electric SUV, with Asia or India, or re- anese companies have shown menacing of neighbors, to im- for, even to thankful and of hopeful alcy. were accepted for publication. The Fat facility in eastern China, its big- Southeast a recent coronavirus press briefing that “we just don’t knowhave yet” if be the process returning back plans to add the VF 6, VF7 similar results. patriating their earnings.

That gest project outside the U.S. prove the country’s treatment of Lenten and pandemic. us, and we have the right to askthey those Studies journal published a hoax paper state’s stay-at-home orders May. Theminorigovernment w and VF9 models when While into China’s market is gi- Uyghur and otherNo. has sapped China of a key enginewill extend This is surely notwhen what Chiethnic Since did that argued the term was me, is an important part o home orders areininthe place all bodybuilding over the Easter seasons If its he economy does decide to to extend questions should be asked asFor to the questions. launch US market. it’s ailing.

Unemployment has yet fully it,gantic, nese President Xi Jinping had when ties, andmy to faith crack down onAnd intel-the longer questioning andas should be replaced making.

As I celebrated Easter with my f hem get exclusionary in states, such Michigan, among young Chinese rose to recover from the disruptions of in mind as he made the case to lectual property theft.

“We are very excited to justification for it. And the answers should notabe vague ones like “we country, and the stricter provide with “fat bodybuilding, as a fat-inclusive government Corinthians 1:4, which reminds us our eeling isolated anxious about over 20% by June, the last time pandemic and a property inAmerican CEOs about the upside the Relations hit a low point in be oneand/or of the first VinFast must do this out of an abundance of caution.” the more people, sittingLo a message of politicized performance.” One reviewer the government released that dustry crisis that has been a drag of China’s “super-large market” February when ordered affliction, so that weBiden may be able toback comfo ng for their families, will demand dealers in the US and the at all levels It will need to be explained in detailhope to the people of this state who when they can get t said, “I thoroughly enjoyed reading this that weare willfalling last month while he was in San on growth. a Chinese balloon thatwhich tra- we our very first North itCarolina, affliction, withspy the comfort are being told to remain joblessdata. and Housing at homeprices for an undetermined answers. article andinbelieve has an important become a and the stock market is down Beijing puts some of the blame Francisco for a summit of world versed the continental United once again enjoy particularly alongside God.”of cases vels should be as forthcoming contribution to make to as thethey field and this amount of time why models predicting hundreds of summer. thousands at the local an nearly 15% since events, the U.S. government policies. leaders. The investments States to be shotLeaders down. Beijing, bad thing?in fast on VinFast’s groundbreaking sporting you are celebrating the Easter season again, not vague answers, but answer journal.” are reliable. Ministry spokes- That’s left many Chinese feeling Ifwhich can be with those Commerce food and other consumer goods, claims self-governed Tai- answer automobile manufacturing “Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity That is what reflect on this message and be comforted ents believability. concerts, family To date, I’ve gone along with what the state has asked and then withterritory, details that wan as its own also give the plant,” said Danny Williams, Reply towhile Washington is curbing person Shu Jueting said recent- nervous about spending.

Feminism as anfamilies, Intersectional God’s example andWe comfort all in n hat we can to keep our Still, bullishness for China as ly, “The U.S. side has repeatedly exports of computer chips and protested a stopover in the U.S. free citizens mandated that we do, but along the way I’ve also had questions about should allthose continue gatherings, Chief Operating Officer of Neoliberal Feminism,” was this difficult time.

Through faith and by h afe. But we should and alsoChoice still continue other industries try to de-risk economic, trade and other advanced technology, don’t politicized by the island’s president, Tsai the data. State Republican leaders have, too. services ourselves, and our comm church living in a free Leith Automotive Group.by Affilia, a accepted for publication and detangle from Beijing may issues and overfit into China’s own blueprint for technology Ing-wen, earlier this year.

China confident we will emerge out of this pand ecause while reasonable stay-at-home Unfortunately, when certain types ofand questions get asked, there is to ask questions about th “After interacting feminist journal forwith social workers. The many more society were stretched the concept of securi- be a profit-increasing modernizing its economy. answered fresh U.S.Icontrols on to be ins this same spirit, continue y shouldpaper also have an expiration sometimes a disturbing tendency among some peoplestrategy to treatInthose measures are understand consisted in part of adate. rewritten VinFast’s executive team for the fast-food industry. ty, abused export control mea“As you try to interpret the sigexports of advanced computafter our own supposed neighbors helping neighbors. nd it is not normal.

Not intheir any way,Two other passage from Mein Kampf. and experiencing simply questioning the data when we can back is all new “We believe there is nostart bettergetting and restricted trade and and asking nals from McDonald’s and Star- sures, er chips and theThis to to Amer temporary In Concord, a shape, hightechnology school senior name d remainhoax vigilant and stay safe, at including bucks” and other papers were published, vehicles firsthand, we to do,chains, last I says investment to normalinasChina though are conspiracy theorists are peoplemake whothem with time to simplify our or structure, by they its own limitsor of form. its ownSo while “Rape Culture and Performativity money to buy a 3-D printer and plastic to mfortable withcaptivated this so-called were byQueer the“new sacrifices are otherwise which don’t care if they themselves or others sick. same time we should the tremendous oppor- on exports ofthe is forcing en-getgiven Phil Levy, chief economist at the enterprises, vital commodichecked. atbrand Urban Dog Parks.”

This paper’s subject and knew it was health care workers out of his own home. tunity to capture increased deto give up opportunisupply chain management firm terprises like graphite, gallium and Since when did questioning government a bad normal.” over. at all levels becometies was dog-on-dog rape.

But the dog rape a perfect addition to the and further benefit were from supposed in the Chinese market and mand Flexport, “note what the indus- ties germanium, all Not metals thing?

That is what free citizens living in a free society oneused littleinbit. paper forced Boghossian, Leigheventually Automotive Group.” our fastest-growing market’s for win-win cooptries are: These are not high-tech opportunities making semiconductors, solar to do, last I checked.

Pluckrose and to prematurely out According to aLindsay press release long-term potential,” McDon- panels, missiles and radar. eration.” burgers.’’ under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah My first concern as we go along in all this, of course, is my family. I’m Stacey Matthews has also themselves.

A Wall Street Journal writer from the Insurrection. company, VinFast A survey released in Sep- ald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski And while some U.S. compaThe relationship appears to dState and Legal had figured out what they were doing. worried them catching I’m worriedcomI will.be After and is a regular saidvirus, as theand Chicago-based anticipates expanding its the U.S.-China Busi- the nies are increasing investments tember byabout stabilizing somewhat as 2023 contribu Some papers accepted for publication suffering from the H1N1 virus (swine flu) during the 2009 itpandemic, pany announced in November Council, which represents in the world’s second-largest ness winds down, highlighted by last dealer network to 125 points in academic journals advocated training I’ve been companies trying to take extra precautions, because all of20% this brings upBiden and Xi meeting was increasing its minority in China, economy, overall foreign invest- American month’s of sale across the US. men like dogs and punishing white male ownership of its McDonald’s lithat the uncertainment began falling this year. suggested outside San Francisco. But since way too many memories of a painful experience I’ d prefer not to repeat. college students for historical slavery by censed stores in China, Macau taken a toll: 43% of its In the July-September quarter, ty has then, Biden’s top advisers have But what also makes me lose sleep is how easily most everyone has asking them to sit in silence on the floor in net foreign direct investment in members said China’s business and Hong Kong to 48%. said there are no plans to shift chains duringconditions class and to be expected to Business Burgers and lattes don’t raise the strategy of tightening reguChina sank to a deficit of $11.8 environment had deteriorated learn from the discomfort. Other papers billion, the first quarterly deficit in the past year, and 83% said the sorts of friction that more lations and blocking U.S.-based in Carolinas worsened y celebrated morbid obesity as a healthy life since Beijing began publishing they were less optimistic about high-tech industries have in high-tech investments in China, in December, Federal choice and advocated treating privately China than they had been three the complicated U.S.-China rethe data in 1998. conducted Reservemasturbation Bank of as a form of As tensions simmer between years ago. Twenty-one percent lationship. Those strains have See CHINA, page A10 sexual violence against women. Typically, Richmond survey finds s academic journal editors send submitted papers out to referees for review. In recommending acceptance for publication, Business conditions in many reviewersworsened gave these the Carolinas inpapers glowing praise.

December, according to a Political scientist Zach Goldberg ran recent survey conducted certain grievance studies by the Federal Reserve concepts through the Lexis/Nexis database, Bank of Richmond.

The to see how often they appeared in our press over the years. general business conditions He found huge increases in the usages index decreased from of “white privilege,” “unconscious bias,” -4 in November to -9and “whiteness.” “critical race theory” in December, while the to college All of this is being taught other conspiracy counts. He The Associated Press expectations index rose students, many of whom become primary also was charged with securities from -2 to 3.

In addition, and secondary school teachers who then fraud and commodities fraud.

NEW YORK — A second trithe sales index frompeople. indoctrinate ourfell young In their letter to Kaplan, prosal of FTX founder Sam Bank1 in November to -19 the I doubt whether the coronavirusecutors noted that they introman-Fried on charges not in following month,crunch but itswill give college caused financial the cryptocurrency fraud case duced evidence about all of the corresponding expectations who are a and university administrators, presented to a jury that convictdropped charges during Bankindex increased from 7 to 22.and jellyfish, crossbreed between a parrot ed him in November is not necman-Fried’s monthlong trial.

The Federal Reserve Bank the guts and backbone to restore academic essary, prosecutors told a judge They said authorities in the respectability.

Far too often, of Richmond concluded thatthey get much this past Friday.

Bahamas still have not respondofalltheir political support from campus three spending indexes Prosecutors told U.S. District ed to their request to bring the grievance people who are members of the fell. The employment Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in a letadditional charges at a second faculty and diversity and index decreased from 14multiculturalter that evidence at a second tritrial. administrative in November tooffices.

6 while al would duplicate evidence alA lawyer for Bankman-Fried The best hope with boards of the wages indexlies remained ready shown to a jury. They also A lawyer for Bankman-Fried detrustees, many serve as yes-men elevated,though and firms reported said it would ignore the “strong clined comment. for thechange university president. a little in their ability I think that public interest in a prompt resA conviction on the additiongood start wouldwith be to find 1950s or 1960s to find workers the olution” of the case, particularly al charges would not result in a AP PHOTO catalogs. Look at the course offerings at necessary skills. Most firms because victims would not benepotential for a longer prison sena time when college graduates knew how fit from forfeiture or restitution FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan federal tence for Bankman-Fried, prosexpect wages to continue to read, write and compute, and make orders if sentencing is delayed. ecutors said. court, June 15, 2023, in New York. increasing over the near them today’s curricula. Another helpful They said the judge can con“Proceeding with sentencterm but anticipate little tool would be to give careful consideration sider the evidence that would be ing in March 2024 without the change in their ability to find to eliminating all classes/majors/minors used at a second trial when he conspiracy charges. He could cur sometime in 2024. delay that would be caused by workers with desired containing thethe word “studies,” such as sentences Bankman-Fried on face decades in prison.

However, prosecutors at the a second trial would advance skill sets over the next six women, Asian, black or queer studies.

March 28 for defrauding cusLast spring, prosecutors time said that they would still the public’s interest in a timely months.

I’d bet thatThe by average restoringyearthe traditional tomers and investors of at least withdrew some charges they present evidence to the jury at and just resolution of the case,” over-yearmission growth to in prices academic colleges, they would $10 billion. had brought against Bank- the 2023 trial about the sub- prosecutors wrote. “The interest paid decreased December, put a serious dentininto the COVID-19 Bankman-Fried, 31, who has man-Fried because the charges stance of the charges. in avoiding delay weighs particwhile growth in prices budget shortfall. been incarcerated since several had not been approved as part The charges that were tem- ularly heavily here, where the received remained nearly weeks before his trial, was con- of his extradition from the Ba- porarily dropped included con- judgment will likely include orWalter E. Williams is a professor of unchanged.

Firms expect victed in early November of sev- hamas in December 2022. spiracy to make unlawful cam- ders of forfeiture and restitution economics at George Mason University. price growth to moderate en counts, including wire fraud, They said the charges could be paign contributions, conspiracy for the victims of the defendant’s over the next year. wire fraud conspiracy and three brought at a second trial to oc- to bribe foreign officials and two crimes.”

VISUAL VOICES

It’s okay to ask questions about when The comfort and ho we begin to get back to normal

Prosecutors say there’s no need for a second trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

A10 NCDOT CASH REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING DEC 28

Total Cash & Bond Proceeds

2,007,484,168 Add Receipts

$56,365,461 Less Disbursements

$54,928,267 Reserved Cash

$125,000,000 Unreserved Cash Balance Total

$5,925,393,790 Loan Balance

$0

Boeing asks airlines to inspect 737 Max jets for potential loose bolt The Associated Press Boeing is asking airlines to inspect its 737 Max jets for a potential loose bolt in the rudder control system, the airplane maker and Federal Aviation Administration confirmed last week.

The FAA said it would be “closely monitoring” the targeted inspections. The agency said Thursday that Boeing issued its inspection guidance to airlines after an international operator found a bolt with a missing nut during routine maintenance. In a separate case, Boeing also discovered an undelivered aircraft that had a nut that was not properly tightened.

“The issue identified on the particular airplane has been remedied,” the Arlington, Virginia, company told The Associated Press on Friday. “Out of

an abundance of caution, we are recommending operators inspect their 737 MAX airplanes and inform us of any findings.”

Boeing added that it will continue to update both customers and federal regulators on the progress.

The FAA said it will remain in contact with Boeing and impacted airlines as the inspections are performed, and potentially “consider additional action based on any further discovery of loose or missing hardware.”

According to Boeing, there have been no in-flight incidents caused by this condition to date — noting that crews’ routine checks would signal if the rudder was not working properly before an aircraft pushes back from the gate.

The company added that all airplanes Boeing is set to deliver onward will have the inspec-

“Out of an abundance of caution, we are recommending operators inspect their 737 MAX airplanes and inform us of any findings.”

Boeing tion (which is estimated to take about two hours per plane) prior to delivery.

U.S. carriers with 737 Max jets in their fleet include United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. All four of these carriers told The Associated Press Friday that they don’t expect operational impacts. Southwest, for example, said it was cur-

rently performing all of these inspections during routine overnight maintenance.

A firm timeline for the inspections wasn’t provided for each airline, but Alaska said it expected to complete the process by the first half of January.

Boeing’s 737 Max jets were grounded worldwide for 20 months after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed a total of 346 people. Investigations focused on an automated flight-control system that pushed the nose of the plane down based on faulty sensor readings. Boeing did not tell pilots and airlines about the system until after the first crash.

The FAA, which also faced criticism for the way it approved the Max jets prior to these deadly crashes, has since moved to provide a more-detailed certification process for large planes and required safety disclosures.

CHINA from page A9

citing the need to safeguard national security.

Both former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner, and Biden have worried about depending on China, a potential adversary, for supplies of critical materials used in many high-tech products. Both have sought to reduce America’s reliance on Chinese factories and have encouraged companies to shift away from China to other countries — so-called “friend-shoring.”

Still, Biden administration officials have said they don’t want to see a total decoupling of the world’s two biggest economies.

“De-risking, yes. Decoupling, no,” Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, said at a recent event in Washington. “We want to continue a major trade and investment relationship with China, just not ... in the realm that might help them leapfrog over us sometime in the next 10 years in military technology.”

Rosemary Coates, executive director of the nonprofit Reshoring Institute, noted that decisions to expand or retrench are relatively easy for a company like McDonald’s or its fast-food rivals.

Franchises “can be opened or closed,” Coates said. “It’s not like you’re investing in an auto plant or some kind of machine shop.”

China’s vast market is vital for many foreign companies: At their annual investors day gathering this month, McDonald’s executives noted that 70 million of the 150 million customers active in its customer loyalty program are in China.

KFC China says growth in its new outlets has averaged more than 22% over the last five years, and it plans to open 1,200 additional stores in the next three years. The chain Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen relaunched its brand in China in August with a flagship restaurant in Shanghai and plans to open 1,700 stores over the next 10 years.

But for all the promise of China’s huge market, U.S. businesses have other reasons to think twice about expanding in China.

In July, the U.S. recommended Americans reconsider traveling to China because of arbitrary law enforcement and exit bans and the risk of wrongful detentions.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has warned Chinese leaders that U.S. businesses might stop investing in their country if they do not address complaints about worsening conditions due to raids on firms, unexplained fines and unpredictable official behavior.

While insisting that China is keen to have foreign investment, Beijing has given no indication it might change trade, market access and other policies that irk Washington and its other trading partners.

“Where do you draw the line?’’ asked Levy, a former White House economic adviser in George W. Bush’s administration.

“Someone might say: For sourcing sensitive computer chips, this has to be done in a place I really trust. … The other extreme is: We’re OK selling them lattes and burgers. But where do you draw the line for the stuff in between — say, automotive parts? What about ball bearings?’’

A sign for The New York Times hangs above the entrance to its building

AP PHOTO

The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for using its stories to train chatbots The Associated Press NEW YORK — The New York Times is striking back against the threat that artificial intelligence poses to the news industry, filing a federal lawsuit Wednesday against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots.

The Times says the companies are threatening its livelihood by effectively stealing billions of dollars worth of work by its journalists, in some cases spitting out Times’ material verbatim to people who seek answers from generative artificial intelligence like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The newspaper’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan and follows what appears to be a breakdown in talks between the newspaper and the two companies, which began in April.

The media has already been pummeled by a migration of readers to online platforms.

While many publications — most notably the Times — have successfully carved out a digital space, the rapid development of AI threatens to significantly upend the publishing industry.

Web traffic is an important component of the paper’s advertising revenue and helps drive subscriptions to its online site.

But the outputs from AI chatbots divert that traffic away from the paper and other copyright holders, the Times says, making it less likely that users will visit the original source for the information.

“These bots compete with the content they are trained on,” said Ian B. Crosby, partner and lead counsel at Susman Godfrey, which is representing The Times.

An OpenAI spokesperson said in a prepared statement that

the company respects the rights of content creators and is “committed” to working with them to help them benefit from the technology and new revenue models.

“Our ongoing conversations with the New York Times have been productive and moving forward constructively, so we are surprised and disappointed with this development,” the spokesperson said. “We’re hopeful that we will find a mutually beneficial way to work together, as we are doing with many other publishers.”

Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment.

Artificial intelligence companies scrape information available online, including articles published by news organizations, to train generative AI chatbots.

The large language models are also trained on a huge trove of other human-written materials, which helps them to build a strong command of language and grammar and to answer questions correctly.

But the technology is still under development and gets many things wrong. In its lawsuit, for example, the Times said OpenAI’s GPT-4 falsely attributed product recommendations to Wirecutter, the paper’s product reviews site, endangering its reputation.

OpenAI and other AI companies, including rival Anthropic, have attracted billions of dollars in investments very rapidly since public and business interest in the technology exploded, particularly this year.

Microsoft has a partnership with OpenAI that allows it to capitalize on the company’s AI technology. The Redmond, Washington, tech giant is also OpenAI’s biggest backer and has invested at least $13 billion into the company since the two

began their partnership in 2019, according to the lawsuit. As part of the agreement, Microsoft’s supercomputers help power OpenAI’s AI research and the tech giant integrates the startup’s technology into its products.

The paper’s complaint comes as the number of lawsuits filed against OpenAI for copyright infringement is growing. The company has been sued by several writers — including comedian Sarah Silverman — who say their books were ingested to train OpenAI’s AI models without their permission. In June, more than 4,000 writers signed a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI and other tech companies accusing them of exploitative practices in building chatbots.

As AI technology develops, growing fears over its use have also fueled labor strikes and lawsuits in other industries, including Hollywood. Different stakeholders are realizing the technology could disrupt their entire business model, but the question will be how to respond to it, said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.

Kreps said she agrees The New York Times is facing a threat from these chatbots. But she also argued solving the issue completely is going to be an uphill battle.

“There’s so many other language models out there that are doing the same thing,” she said.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday cited examples of OpenAI’s GPT4 spitting out large portions of news articles from the Times, including a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigation into New York City’s taxi industry that took 18 months to complete. It also cited outputs from Bing Chat — now called Copilot — that included verbatim excerpts from Times

articles.

The Times did not list specific damages that it is seeking, but said the legal action “seeks to hold them responsible for the billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages that they owe” for copying and using its work. It is also asking the court to order the tech companies to destroy AI models or data sets that incorporate its work.

The News/Media Alliance, a trade group representing more than 2,200 news organizations, applauded Wednesday’s action by the Times.

“Quality journalism and GenAI can complement each other if approached collaboratively,” said Danielle Coffey, alliance president and CEO. “But using journalism without permission or payment is unlawful, and certainly not fair use.”

In July, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories. This month, OpenAI also signed a similar partnership with Axel Springer, a media company in Berlin that owns Politico and Business Insider. Under the deal, users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT will receive summaries of “selected global news content” from Axel Springer’s media brands. The companies said the answers to queries will include attribution and links to the original articles.

The Times has compared its action to a copyright lawsuit more than two decades ago against Napster, when record companies sued the file-sharing service for unlawful use of their material. The record companies won and Napster was soon gone, but it has had a major impact on the industry. Industry-endorsed streaming now dominates the music business.

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

A11

Social media companies made $11 billion in US olt ad revenue from minors, Harvard study finds The Associated Press

SOCIAL MEDIA companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year, according to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published last week.

The researchers say the findings show a need for government regulation of social media since the companies that stand to make money from children who use their platforms have failed to meaningfully self-regulate. They note such regulations, as well as greater transparency from tech companies, could help alleviate harms to youth mental health and curtail potentially harmful advertising practices that target children and adolescents.

To come up with the revenue figure, the researchers estimated the number of users under 18 on Facebook, Instagram,

Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube in 2022 based on population data from the U.S. Census and survey data from Common Sense Media and Pew Research. They then used data from research firm eMarketer, now called Insider Intelligence, and Qustodio, a parental control app, to estimate each platform’s U.S. ad revenue in 2022 and the time children spent per day on each platform.

After that, the researchers said they built a simulation model using the data to estimate how much ad revenue the platforms earned from minors in the U.S. Researchers and lawmakers have long focused on the negative effects stemming from social media platforms, whose personally-tailored algorithms can drive children towards excessive use. This year, lawmakers in states like New York and Utah introduced or passed legislation that would curb social

media use among kids, citing harms to youth mental health and other concerns.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, is also being sued by dozens of states for allegedly contributing to the mental health crisis.

“Although social media platforms may claim that they can self-regulate their practices to reduce the harms to young people, they have yet to do so, and our study suggests they have overwhelming financial incentives to continue to delay taking meaningful steps to protect children,” said Bryn Austin, a professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard and a senior author on the study.

The platforms themselves don’t make public how much money they earn from minors.

Social media platforms are not the first to advertise to children, and parents and experts

have long expressed concerns about marketing to kids online, on television and even in schools. But online ads can be especially insidious because they can be targeted to children and because the line between ads and the content kids seek out is often blurry.

In a 2020 policy paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics said children are “uniquely vulnerable to the persuasive effects of advertising because of immature critical thinking skills and impulse inhibition.”

“School-aged children and teenagers may be able to recognize advertising but often are not able to resist it when it is embedded within trusted social networks, encouraged by celebrity influencers, or delivered next to personalized content,” the paper noted.

As concerns about social media and children’s mental health grow, the Federal Trade

Commission earlier this month proposed sweeping changes to a decades-old law that regulates how online companies can track and advertise to children.

The proposed changes include turning off targeted ads to kids under 13 by default and limiting push notifications.

According to the Harvard study, YouTube derived the greatest ad revenue from users 12 and under ($959.1 million), followed by Instagram ($801.1 million) and Facebook ($137.2 million).

Instagram, meanwhile, derived the greatest ad revenue from users aged 13-17 ($4 billion), followed by TikTok ($2 billion) and YouTube ($1.2 billion).

The researchers also estimate that Snapchat derived the greatest share of its overall 2022 ad revenue from users under 18 (41%), followed by TikTok (35%), YouTube (27%), and Instagram (16%).

This combination of photos shows logos of X, formerly known as Twitter, top left; Snapchat, top right; Facebook, bottom left; and TikTok, bottom right.

AP PHOTO

Resilient economy energizes investors, as financial markets end 2023 up 24% The Associated Press NEW YORK — The S&P 500 closed out 2023 with a gain of more than 24% and the Dow finished near a record high, as easing inflation, a resilient economy and the prospect of lower interest rates buoyed investors, particularly in the last two months of the year.

Stocks closed Friday with modest losses.

The S&P 500 slipped 13.52 points, or 0.3%, to 4,769.83. The benchmark index still posted a rare ninth consecutive week of gains and is just 0.6% shy of an all-time high set in January of 2022.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.56 points, or 0.1%, to 37,689.54 after setting a record Thursday.

The Nasdaq slipped 83.78 points, or 0.6%, to 15,011.35, but that was barely a blemish on an annual gain of more than 43%, its best performance since 2020.

For most of the year, gains in the broader market were driven largely by seven stocks -- Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla. Dubbed the Magnificent 7, they accounted for about twothirds of the gains in the S&P 500 this year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Nvidia lead the group with a gain of about 239%, driven by the mania surrounding

AP PHOTO

A sign for Wall Street is carved into a building located near the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. artificial intelligence.

A strong rally in November and December marked a big psychological shift for investors, said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial, because it went beyond the big technology companies. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies jumped more than 20% over the two months and finished 2023 with a 15.1% gain after falling 21.6% in 2022.

“It was broad participation in the market that reinforced and confirmed gains for smaller company stocks that were particularly important,” Krosby said.

Investors in the U.S. came into this year bearing the bruises of sharp losses for both stocks and bonds in 2022. They expected

inflation to ease further as the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates higher. The trade-off would be a weaker economy and possibly a recession. But while inflation has come down to around 3%, the economy has chugged along thanks to solid consumer spending and a healthy job market.

The stock market is now betting the Fed can achieve a “soft landing,” where the economy slows just enough to snuff out high inflation, but not so much that it falls into a recession. As a result, investors now expect the Fed to begin cutting rates as early as March.

The Fed has signaled three quarter-point cuts to its benchmark interest rate next year. That rate is currently sitting between

5.25% and 5.50%, its highest level in two decades.

Lower rates could add more fuel to the broader market’s momentum in 2024. Wall Street is forecasting stronger earnings growth for companies next year after a largely lackluster 2023, when companies wrestled with higher input and labor costs and a shift in consumer spending.

Bond market investors appeared headed for a third losing year in a row until things turned around starting in late October.

Excitement about potential cuts to interest rates sent bond prices soaring and yields dropping. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which hit 5% in October, stood at 3.88% Friday, up from 3.85% on Thursday.

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.25% from 4.28% from late Thursday. It also surpassed 5% in October.

Many global markets also saw solid gains this year. Indexes in France and Germany made double-digit advances, while Britain’s has climbed just under 4%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 27% in 2023, its best year in a decade as the Japanese central bank inched toward ending its longstanding ultra-lax monetary policy after inflation finally exceeded its target of about 2%.

The Shanghai Composite index lost about 3% this year and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell nearly 14%. Weakness in the property sector and in global demand for China’s exports, as well as high debt levels and wavering consumer confidence have weighed on the country’s economy and the stock market.

U.S. and international crude oil prices were relatively stable on Friday. The price of oil tumbled by more than 10% this year, defying predictions from some experts that it could cross $100 per barrel.

Despite production cuts from OPEC, a war involving energy exporter Russia and another in the Middle East, U.S. benchmark crude dropped nearly 11% in 2023, and a whopping 21% in the final three months of the year.

Increased production in the U.S., now the top oil producer in the world, as well as Canada, Brazil and Guyana offset the reduced output from OPEC. Not all OPEC members participated in the cuts and some countries like Iran and Venezuela are pumping more oil, energy analysts say.

A12

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

South Carolina nuclear plant’s cracked pipes get downgraded warning from nuclear officials The Associated Press JENKINSVILLE, S.C. — Federal regulators have lessened the severity of their warning about cracks discovered in a backup emergency fuel line at a South Carolina nuclear plant northwest of the state capital.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission downgraded its preliminary “yellow” warning for V.C. Summer Nuclear Station issued this October to a final “white” one after owner and operator Dominion Energy showed its generator could still run for six hours in an emergency, the agency announced Thursday.

That demonstration calmed officials’ concerns that Dominion Energy’s failure to maintain cracks and leaks — discovered at

least five times over the past two decades — had neutralized the plant’s ability to cool down its reactors if electricity failed.

The new rating means that the generator is underperforming but still meeting its key targets.

“While not indicative of immediate risk, this finding underscores the need for continuous vigilance and improvement in the plant’s corrective action process,” NRC Region II Administrator Laura Dudes said in a statement.

The plant runs pressurized water heated by uranium fuel through a steam generator. A different loop of steam powers the turbine that makes electricity. Cooling water then condenses the steam, which gets reheated, and the system starts over again.

Officials plan to complete another inspection to see if Dominion Energy fixes the ongoing issues. In a statement to The Associated Press on Friday, the company said it immediately replaced the piping and will install “more resilient piping” early next year. Dominion Energy said the station only needs one power source for safe maintenance, and that the emergency diesel generators are only necessary if two offsite power supplies are unavailable. The company added that the November 2022 fuel oil leak marked the first time in 40 years that such a problem had put an emergency diesel generator out of operation.

“Dominion Energy’s commitment to safety, along with the NRC’s process for regulating nuclear power stations, ensure

AP PHOTO

The working nuclear reactor is seen at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, April 9, 2012, in Jenkinsville, S.C. we continue to operate to the highest safety standards,” the company said in the statement.

“We thank the NRC for considering additional information we provided, which resulted in categorizing the initial issue as low-to-moderate significance.”

Still, The State Newspaper reported that a leader at a watchdog group said the length

of the problem warranted the more serious finding. The risk is that fires could break out, according to Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The changes from Dominion Energy seem to be “pencil-sharpening exercises that make a bad situation look better on paper,” Lyman told The State.

This photo provided by the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa shows the screen of a Unitronics device that was hacked in Aliquippa, Pa.

AP PHOTO

States and Congress wrestle with cybersecurity at water utilities amid renewed federal warnings The Associated Press HARRISBURG, P.A. — The tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania was perhaps the least-suspecting victim of an international cyberattack.

It had never had outside help in protecting its systems from a cyberattack, either at its existing plant that dates to the 1930s or the new $18.5 million one it is building.

Then it — along with several other water utilities — was struck by what federal authorities say are Iranian-backed hackers targeting a piece of equipment specifically because it was Israeli-made.

“If you told me to list 10 things that would go wrong with our water authority, this would not be on the list,” said Matthew Mottes, the chairman of the authority that handles water and wastewater for about 22,000 people in the woodsy exurbs around a one-time steel town outside Pittsburgh.

The hacking of the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa is prompting new warnings from U.S. security officials at a time when states and the federal government are wrestling with how to harden water utilities against cyberattacks.

The danger, officials say, is hackers gaining control of automated equipment to shut down pumps that supply drinking water or contaminate drinking water by reprogramming automated chemical treatments. Besides Iran, other potentially hostile geopolitical rivals, including China, are viewed by U.S. officials as a threat.

A number of states have sought to step up scrutiny, although water authority advocates say the money and the ex-

pertise are what is really lacking for a sector of more than 50,000 water utilities, most of which are local authorities that, like Aliquippa’s, serve corners of the country where residents are of modest means and cybersecurity professionals are scarce.

Besides, utilities say, it’s difficult to invest in cybersecurity when upkeep of pipes and other water infrastructure is already underfunded, and some cybersecurity measures have been pushed by private water companies, sparking pushback from public authorities that it is being used as a back door to privatization.

Efforts took on new urgency in 2021 when the federal government’s leading cybersecurity agency reported five attacks on water authorities over two years, four of them ransomware and a fifth by a former employee.

At the Aliquippa authority, Iranian hackers shut down a remotely controlled device that monitors and regulates water pressure at a pumping station.

Customers weren’t affected because crews alerted by an alarm quickly switched to manual operation — but not every water authority has a built-in manual backup system.

With inaction in Congress, a handful of states passed legislation to step up scrutiny of cybersecurity, including New Jersey and Tennessee. Before 2021, Indiana and Missouri had passed similar laws. A 2021 California law commissioned state security agencies to develop outreach and funding plans to improve cybersecurity in the agriculture and water sectors.

Legislation died in several states, including Pennsylvania and Maryland, where public water authorities fought bills backed by private water compa-

nies.

Private water companies say the bills would force their public counterparts to abide by the stricter regulatory standards that private companies face from utility commissions and, as a result, boost public confidence in the safety of tap water.

“It’s protecting the nation’s tap water,” said Jennifer Kocher, a spokesperson for the National Association of Water Companies. “It is the most economical choice for most families, but it also has a lack of confidence from a lot of people who think they can drink it and every time there’s one of these issues it undercuts the confidence in water, and it undercuts people’s willingness and trust in drinking it.”

Opponents said the legislation is designed to foist burdensome costs onto public authorities and encourage their boards and ratepayers to sell out to private companies that can persuade state utility commissions to raise rates to cover the costs.

“This is a privatization bill,” Justin Fiore of the Maryland Municipal League told Maryland lawmakers during a hearing last spring. “They’re seeking to take public water companies, privatize them by expanding the burden, cutting out public funding.”

For many authorities, the demands of cybersecurity tend to fade into the background of more pressing needs for residents wary of rate increases: aging pipes and increasing costs to comply with clean water regulations.

One critic, Pennsylvania state Sen. Katie Muth, a Democrat from suburban Philadelphia’s Montgomery County, criticized a GOP-penned bill for lacking funding.

“People are drinking water that is below standards, but selling out to corporations who are going to raise rates on families across our state who cannot afford it is not a solution,” Muth told colleagues during floor debate on a 2022 bill.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Rob Matzie, a Democrat whose district includes the Aliquippa water authority, is working on legislation to create a funding stream to help water and electric utilities pay for cybersecurity upgrades after he looked for an existing funding source and found none.

“The Aliquippa water and sewer authority? They don’t have the money,” Matzie said in an interview.

In March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule to require states to audit the cybersecurity of water systems.

It was short-lived.

Three states — Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa — sued, accusing the agency of overstepping its authority and a federal appeals court promptly suspended the rule. The EPA withdrew the rule in October, although a deputy national security adviser, Anne Neuberger, told The Associated Press that it could have “identified vulnerabilities that were targeted in recent weeks.”

Two groups that represent public water authorities, the American Water Works Association and the National Rural Water Association, opposed the EPA rule and now are backing bills in Congress to address the issue in different ways.

One bill would roll out a tiered approach to regulation: more requirements for bigger or more complex water utilities.

The other is an amendment to

Farm Bill legislation to send federal employees called “circuit riders” into the field to help smaller and rural water systems detect cybersecurity weaknesses and address them.

If Congress does nothing, 6-year-old Safe Drinking Water Act standards will still be in place — a largely voluntary regime that both the EPA and cybersecurity analysts say has yielded minimal progress.

Meanwhile, states are in the midst of applying for grants from a $1 billion federal cybersecurity program, money from the 2021 federal infrastructure law.

But water utilities will have to compete for the money with other utilities, hospitals, police departments, courts, schools, local governments and others.

Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos Inc., which specializes in cybersecurity for industrial-control systems, said the Aliquippa water authority’s story — that it had no cybersecurity help — is common.

“That story is tens of thousands of utilities across the country,” Lee said.

Because of that, Dragos has begun offering free access to its online support and software that helps detect vulnerabilities and threats for water and electric utilities that draw under $100 million in revenue.

After Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, Dragos tested the idea by rolling out software, hardware and installation at a cost of a couple million bucks for 30 utilities.

“It was amazing, the feedback,” Lee said. “You wonder, ‘Hey I think I can move the needle in this way’ ... and those 30 were like, ‘Holy crap, no one’s ever paid attention to us. No one’s ever tried to get us help.’”

2024 LOOK AHEAD

KARL B. DEBLAKER | AP PHOTO

Guard Aziaha James and the Wolfpack start 2024 as the nation’s third-ranked women’s basketball team.

LOOK AHEAD: 2024 TEAM OF THE YEAR

Wolfpack women return to prominence

NFL

Tepper throws drink into crowd after Panthers’ loss Jacksonville, Fla. Panthers owner David Tepper threw the contents of a drink into the crowd near the end of Carolina’s 26-0 loss at Jacksonville on Sunday.

Tepper’s reaction came after rookie Bryce Young was intercepted with less than 3 minutes to play. It was unclear whether Tepper was reacting to something said to him or the latest miscue for the team with the NFL’s worst record. General manager Scott Fitterer was standing near Tepper when he tossed the remnants of his drink while watching the game from a club suite. The Panthers (2-14) dropped to 0-9 on the road and were shut out for the first time since losing to Atlanta in Week 12 in 2002. They also clinched the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft in April — a selection that will go to Chicago. It was the second incident involving Tepper this season. The Panthers owner exited Carolina’s locker room following the team’s 17-10 loss to the Titans on Nov. 26 and yelled an expletive in front of reporters. Tepper fired coach Frank Reich the next day, the second straight season the team has parted ways with its coach in the middle of the season.

NHL

Hurricanes’ Aho named First Star of the week Raleigh Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho was named the NHL’s First Star for the week ending Dec. 31, the league announced Monday. Aho had two goals and nine assists for 11 points in three Carolina wins. He became the fourth player in franchise history to have at least three points in three consecutive games. That included having four points on back-to-back days — the first NHL player to do that since Jeremy Roenick in 1999. Aho has 15 goals and 27 assists for 42 points in 34 games this season for Carolina.

A quick retool by NC State coach Wes Moore is paying dividends

CHRIS CARLSON | AP PHOTO

Panthers owner David Tepper will have another chance to get it right when he hires a new coach this offseason.

LOOK AHEAD: 2024 COACH OF THE YEAR

Panthers’ next coach gets team pointed in right direction We don’t know who it is yet, but the stage is set for a bounce-back season

pick Bryce Young first overall last spring. The fan base has revolted against owner David Tepper, staying away from Bank of America Stadium in droves. For a December game

By Shawn Krest against Atlanta, tickets were North State Journal available on the secondary LOOKING AHEAD to pre- market for a mere 45 cents, dict the award winners for the and they were a tough sell at year to come always requires that price based on the emus to go out on a limb. Rarely, barrassingly weak turnout for however, are we as far out on a the game.

Still, there are a few buildshaky branch as with the look ing blocks that provide ahead to the 2024 some optimism for the North State Journal immediate future. The Coach of the Year.

Panthers have had one We can’t tell you of the top defenses in who next year’s top the NFL this season. coach is yet because he While Brian Burns still hasn’t gotten the may be tough to retain job. But we’re going to roll the dice and say The most wins after a prolonged conthe Carolina Panthers the Panthers tract dispute heading into this year, the rest will have a bouncehave had in of the unit should reback year that should a season in help vault whoever David Tepper’s turn. The defense is an even stronger positive gets their head coachsix years as if the team can someing job into the honor. owner how hold onto coordiSimply put, things nator Ejiro Evero, who couldn’t get any worse in Pantherland. Carolina fired did an outstanding job this a coach in the middle of the year but is about to be snubbed season for the second straight by Tepper for the third straight year and headed into the fi- time. He was passed over for nal game of the season with the head coaching job given a 2-14 record. That wrapped to Frank Reich last offseason, up the top pick in the draft, then didn’t get the interim gig but the Panthers have already See PANTHERS, page B3 traded that away so they could

7

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal NC STATE’S WOMEN’S basketball team has been knocking on the door for a long time.

Ever since coach Wes Moore took over the program in 2013, the Wolfpack have won the ACC Tournament three times, made the NCAA Tournament seven times and reached the Sweet 16 three times. NC State also advanced to the Elite Eight in 2022, coming up four points short of advancing to the Final Four in a double-overtime loss to UConn.

It seemed like momentum was building for the Wolfpack, but the team took a step back last season, finishing eighth in the ACC and losing in a first round upset to Princeton.

Following that disappointing season, Moore had to reshape a roster that was losing four of its five starters.

It’s safe to say what he’s done has worked.

The Wolfpack enter 2024 ranked No. 3 in the nation with a perfect 13-0 record. They’ve picked up several big wins, including an early-season 92-81 victory over then-No. 2 UConn and a 78-60 win against then-No. 3 Colorado.

Unlike many on-the-fly rebuilds, NC State’s rebirth came from within. The Wolfpack’s three returning guards have all become double-digit scorers this season. Junior Aziaha James (15.5 points per game), junior Saniya Rivers (13.3) and senior Madison Hayes (11) have each taken on bigger roles, and frontcourt graduate students Mimi Collins and River Baldwin, who each joined the program last season, are two of the team’s top three rebounders.

That’s without mentioning the impact of true freshman guard Zoe Brooks, who continues to develop into a superstar.

Brooks was the No. 4 guard and No. 9 overall player in the 2023 class, and she has made an immediate impact with the Wolfpack.

Brooks is averaging 10 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals this season, and she had just the second triple-double in school history in NC State’s 80-67 win over Liberty on Dec. 10.

ACC play will offer another challenge for the Wolfpack — five other conference foes were ranked in The Associated Press’ final poll of the calendar year, and two more received votes.

The stiff competition should help NC State hone its skills and be battle-tested for another deep NCAA Tournament run.

The Wolfpack have already knocked off two top-five teams, and 2024 could be the year the program returns to the Final Four for the first time since 1998.

And once you get there, anything is possible.

Even an NCAA championship.

13 Consecutive wins to start the season for NC State

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B2

LOOK AHEAD: 2024 ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Concepcion will cement status as an NC State great The Wolfpack receiver will emerge as one of the nation’s best players in his second season in Raleigh

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal IT’S NOT CRAZY to say true freshman wide receiver KC Concepcion was essentially NC State football’s entire offense in 2023.

He led the team in receiving yards with 839 and receiving touchdowns with 10, numbers nobody else on the Wolfpack approached.

Concepcion nearly had more receiving yards than the next four top targets combined and had more than half of all the team’s receiving touchdowns.

10 Receiving touchdowns for NC State freshman KC Concepcion in 2023 His production didn’t just come through the air: The true freshman was NC State’s second-leading rusher behind quarterback Brennan Armstrong, finishing with 320 rushing yards on just 41 carries.

Oh yeah, and he threw a touchdown pass too.

In total, Concepcion accounted for 25.58% of all of NC State’s offensive yards — all as a freshman.

Concepcion’s 839 receiving yards ranked 59th in the nation and first most among freshmen, and his 10 touchdowns were tied for 15th most in the country and matched Oklahoma’s Nic Anderson for the most among freshmen.

As he continues to mature

KARL B. DEBLAKER | AP PHOTO

NC State wide receiver KC Concepcion is poised for a big second season after totaling 71 catches for 839 yards and 10 touchdowns as a freshman. and develop, there’s no doubt that Concepcion will see his game progress even further.

Add in the evolution of offensive coordinator Robert Anae’s systems in Year 2 and the addition of three-time Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year quarterback Grayson McCall — who transferred from Coast-

al Carolina where he threw for more than 10,000 yards and 88 touchdowns in his career — and Concepcion is NSJ’s pick to be our 2024 Athlete of the Year.

Part of what made Concepcion so impressive was the workload he handled despite being the one weapon opponents knew they had to stop.

Transfer portal additions like Duke running back Jordan Waters (819 rushing yards, 12 touchdowns), Wake Forest wide receiver Wesley Grimes (339 receiving yards, four touchdowns) and UConn tight end Justin Joly (578 receiving yards, two touchdowns) will take some touches from Concepcion in 2024 but

could also free him up during games as opponents have to scheme for other players.

Either way, Concepcion will certainly get his, and if the Wolfpack’s offense can evolve into a multidimensional threat, NC State’s star receiver could go on to have an even bigger year in 2024.

LOOK AHEAD: 2024 NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

Brandon Miller gives Hornets another building block Charlotte’s draft pick has proven worthy of the second overall selection

By Jesse Deal North State Journal WHEN THE Charlotte Hornets selected Brandon Miller last June with the second overall pick in the NBA Draft, the franchise needed the Crimson Tide forward to pan out — both for the team’s future and the morale of its long-suffering fan base.

A third of the way into the 2023-24 season, it’s hard to argue with the Hornets’ decision to select the Antioch, Tennessee, native — and he is NSJ’s pick to be the 2024 Newcomer of the Year.

Miller has made an instant impact on his new team, averaging 14.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists for Charlotte while showing signs that there’s even more to come.

“He’s far better than I thought he would be this early,” Hornets coach Steve Clifford said in December.

The former All-American had a career-high 29 points on Nov. 18 against the New York Knicks, going 5 of 7 on 3-pointers. The 21-year-old has scored at least 20 points in six games as a rookie.

“He’s a really good two-way player,” Clifford added. “We execute when he’s on the floor, and he’s guarding primary scorers on the other team. When you teach him something, he can do it pretty quickly.

“It’s a big deal and a talent.

When you’re around great players, a lot of times you can show them something one time and they can do it that night in a game. He picks things up quickly, he’s very attentive. You can watch film with him, and he’ll ask questions. He’s a throwback-type kid.”

During Miller’s 2022-23 freshman season with the Crimson Tide, he averaged 18.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 37 games as he took home the SEC Player of the Year Award, catapulting his draft stock upward and earning com-

parisons to small forwards like Paul George and Bojan Bogdanovic.

While the Hornets didn’t land 7-foot-4 phenom Victor Wembanyama — the consensus No. 1 pick — Miller has been a

valuable consolation prize and considerable building block for Charlotte’s future.

Although some draft analysts valued G League point guard Scoot Henderson (drafted at No. 3 by Portland) as the bet-

ter prospect, the Hornets were predominantly linked to Miller.

Perhaps Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak thought Henderson would be a redundant draft pick given the team already had LaMelo Ball at

“He’s far better than I thought he would be this early.”

Hornets coach Steve Clifford on Brandon Miller

NELL REDMOND | AP PHOTO

Hornets rookie Brandon Miller has so far lived up to being the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

point guard, or maybe the front office decided Miller was simply the better player.

“By taking him at two, I think that speaks the world of what I think of him,” Kupchak said after draft night. “I know that there were other choices, but this kid is a dynamic wing, he’s got great size, athletic ability and shooting ability. You’ll see him bring it up the court, you’ll see him attack the rim.”

So far, Charlotte’s decision to take Miller over Henderson has worked out. Miller has outplayed Henderson (12.2 points, 4.7 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game) while showing the Hornets that both his floor and ceiling could be even higher than they initially thought.

Among the 2023 draft picks, Miller ranks first in minutes played per game (31.3) and second in points per game behind Wembanyama, who is averaging 19.3 a night.

“He’s one of the best two or three rookies,” Clifford said.

“He’s a total player. This is a big rookie class with a lot of talent.

He’s played a major role, played major minutes. He’s guarded primary scorers. We execute when he’s on the floor. He’s a terrific worker. He’s got a great future.”

There’s no downplaying that Charlotte has struggled over the past few months, winning just seven of its first 30 games as injuries and misfortunes mount.

Miller’s emergence, however, has been a clear bright spot, and he has shown he can both shoot the ball and drive to the basket.

Along with Ball, P.J. Washington and Mark Williams, Miller has already proven he’s part of the Hornets’ foundation.

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B3

LOOK AHEAD: 2024 COMEBACK OF THE YEAR

Healed Svechnikov poised to unleash his promise The Hurricanes power forward is recovered from knee surgery and ready to fulfill his destiny

By Cory Lavalette North State Journal AFTER HAVING surgery on his right knee in mid-March, Andrei Svechnikov missed the rest of the 2022-23 season and the first eight games of this season while recovering. He returned but then missed six more games due to an upper-body injury in November.

That’s the long way of saying that 2023 wasn’t his year.

But Svechnikov has gotten a head start on 2024 — when he’s NSJ’s pick to be the Comeback of the Year.

In the Hurricanes’ final three games of 2023, the 23-year-old totaled four goals and three assists, including scoring his third career regular season hat trick against Montreal on Dec. 28.

“I feel like I’m doing kind of the same thing,” Svechnikov said after his hat trick. “Maybe just feel a little bit lighter, all that stuff.

Hands, skating. Whenever you feel that, you kind of don’t worry about anything.”

That’s surely music to the Hurricanes’ ears.

Svechnikov’s return to form has coincided with him joining a line with Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho, who had a career-best 11 points in those three games.

If the trio can continue their elite play, it could be a boon for Carolina. While the two Finns have long had superb chemistry, Svechnikov, Aho and Teravainen have struggled to click as a line over the past few seasons. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, the SAT Line had scored just five times at 5-on-5 over more than 190 minutes until the last three games when it totaled three goals in under 29 minutes.

The three players have also

KARL B. DEBLAKER | AP PHOTO

Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov returned to action Oct. 27 after undergoing knee surgery in March. helped the Hurricanes’ power play move up to No. 5 in the league entering the new year.

The hope now is that Svechnikov can both remain healthy and deliver on everything expected of him when Carolina took him second overall in 2018.

That means not only putting up points but also continuing to be one of the few true power forwards in the NHL. With 21 points and 49 hits in 22 games, Svechnikov is one of just two players — along with Vancouver’s J.T. Miller — who is averaging more than two hits and close to one point per game.

Many of the NHL’s superstars — Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDa-

in his NFL career.

Houston offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik has been mentioned as a candidate after second overall draft pick CJ Stroud put up better numbers than Young for most of the year under Slowik’s tutelage. He only has one year’s experience as coordinator, however.

Philadelphia’s Brian Johnson, the Chargers’ Kellen Moore, Washington’s Eric Bienemy, Baltimore’s Todd Monken and Seattle’s Shane Waldron round out the offensive coordinator pool.

It’s also possible Tepper goes outside the box and bypasses NFL coordinators for a splashy bigname hire like Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh or soonto-be-former Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

Our best guess is Ben Johnson gets the job and gets the team headed toward .500, which, in the weak NFC South, will have them in the divisional race. And that will be more than enough to earn our nod as 2024’s coach of the year.

Points for Andrei Svechnikov in his first 22 games of the 2023-24 season vid, Auston Matthews and even rookie Connor Bedard, to name a few — fulfilled their promise by their first season.

Others, like Nathan MacKinnon, took time to develop into unstoppable forces.

MacKinnon, the No. 1 pick

by Colorado in 2013, played 300 games in his first four seasons and had 75 goals and 206 points

RUSTY JONES | AP PHOTO

The Panthers’ next coach will likely be an offensive-minded hire who can help salvage the team’s investment in quarterback Bryce Young. journey to the NSJ Coach of the Year Award? If Tepper has his way, it will be Lions offensive co-

was reportedly the top choice last year but opted to withdraw from all coaching searches. If he’s ready to make the jump and hasn’t soured on Carolina — rumor has it members of the team’s roster and staff have warned him about the work environment — the job is likely his.

Of course, Carolina won’t be the only vacancy, and it’s possible another situation may be more promising to Johnson, including staying in Detroit for another year. If the Panthers’ search needs to move on, there are plenty of promising candidates.

Frank Smith could get some interest. The Dolphins’ offensive coordinator presides over the most creative and explosive offense in the league, although head coach Mike McDaniel deserves much of the credit for that. Much like everyone associated with Sean McVay was a must-hire a few years ago, the McDaniel magic could help Smith here, as will his experience working with an Alabama quarterback who struggled early

21

PANTHERS from page B1 when Reich was fired. Now, he should be a top candidate for the job again, but Tepper has indicated he wants another offensive coach to help develop Young.

Young is another promising building block. The top draft pick struggled throughout much of the year. Of course, the coaching change, which was preceded by multiple changes in playcalling duties on the staff, made it far from an ideal environment for an NFL rookie quarterback, as did a line that provided shaky pass protection and had Young running for his life.

Young has shown signs of progress late in the season, however, posting two of his three best passer ratings of the year in Weeks 15 and 16. His 312 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions on Christmas Eve against Green Bay was his best outing of the year as the Panthers put up a season-best 30 points.

So, who will inherit these promising assets and begin their

— 0.69 points per game. He’s averaged nearly twice that — 1.37 points per game — in the next 445 games.

Svechnikov’s first 300 games were slightly better — he had 101 goals and 227 points (0.76 points per game). Svechnikov has increased his point production in his last 69 games, totaling 58 points (0.84 per game). This sea-

son, he’s averaged 0.95 points per game despite working his way back from the knee injury.

Reaching MacKinnon’s level — he’s probably the early front-runner for the Hart Trophy as the league’s top player this season — may be too high of an expectation for Svechnikov. But if he can go from being a 60-point player to a point-per-game player, the Hurricanes’ fortunes will improve.

Add in his physicality — who will ever forget his series-altering hit on Boston’s Hampus Lindholm two seasons ago? — speed, creativity and work ethic, and Svechnikov has the potential to be a unicorn in the NHL. And 2024 could very well be when all of that is realized.

ordinator Ben Johnson, who has worked wonders with Jared Goff and the Detroit offense. Johnson

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B4

LOOK AHEAD: 2024 BOLD PREDICTIONS

Deep postseason runs, rumored relocation, return to Rockingham and realignment fears North State Journal Sports Staff THE NORTH State Journal’s sports staff of editor Cory Lavalette and writers Jesse Deal, Ryan Henkel and Shawn Krest isn’t afraid to be fearless in 2024.

In our annual exercise, each member of the staff has made two bold predictions for the upcoming year. Some may be reasonable, others improbable, but no one can accuse us of being boring.

JESSE DEAL, REPORTER Hornets move on from Kupchak After six years with Mitch Kupchak as president of basketball operations and general manager, the Hornets will go in a different direction and part ways with the three-time NBA champion and former Lakers executive.

New majority owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin will start installing their own people in the front office, which could also mean a coaching search to replace Steve Clifford.

It once appeared Kupchak’s draft choices and free agency decisions had the team moving in the right direction, but the Hornets have made little progress the past few seasons and are in as bad of a spot as they were when he was hired in 2018. The combination of poor roster construction, including adding injury-prone players without adding serviceable depth, and the handling of the Miles Bridges situation has warmed Kupchak’s seat.

In 2022, Charlotte awarded Kupchak an undisclosed multiyear contract extension to stay with the team. But in 2024, Schnall and Plotkin will close that chapter as they look to refresh and revitalize the Hornets.

49ers football takes leap forward Charlotte football coach Biff Poggi made some daring proclamations before the 2023 season about how the 49ers would fare in his first year and the school’s inaugural campaign in the American Athletic Conference.

While a 3-9 (2-6 AAC) campaign isn’t quite what was promised to Niner Nation, the Charlotte athletic department’s buy-in to his system of program-building will pay dividends in Year Two. Florida transfer Max Brown and redshirt freshman Carson Black will battle it out for the team’s quarterback position — a spot where the Niners struggled mightily in 2023 — while the Charlotte roster as a whole becomes a little more talented and a little more effective at achieving the on-field results seventh-year athletic director Mike Hill wants to see.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Niners will continue to move forward after making the jump from dead last in the nation to 62nd in 2023. It will culminate in Charlotte’s first bowl game appearance since its Bahamas Bowl loss in 2019.

SHAWN KREST, REPORTER North Carolina’s ACC teams get wooed With Florida State challenging the ACC’s grant of rights in court and potentially clearing a path for future defections from the league, some of the ACC’s signature teams will be targets for poaching by other power conferences.

UNC will likely be a target by both the SEC and Big Ten, as it is the most established basketball and football power in a state both conferences would like to add to their footprint. With NC State an option for the SEC, UNC will likely lean toward the Big Ten, breaking up the longtime annual rivalry games between the two schools. Another rivalry will also be at risk as Duke may be left out of the power conference shuffle due to its weaker positioning football-wise.

Panthers relocation rumors emerge

BEN MCKEOWN | AP PHOTO

The Hornets are poised to miss the playoffs for the eighth straight season, including the sixth year in a row under GM Mitch Kupchak.

Following midseason coaching changes each of the last two years and a fan base that has stopped coming to games — including embarrassing turnouts against the Vikings and Cowboys that seemed like road games and a December game against Atlanta where tickets couldn’t be sold with a 45-cent price tag on the secondary market — Carolina Panthers team owner David Tepper will be ru-

CHUCK BURTON | AP PHOTO

After the Cup Series’ successful return to North Wilkesboro Speedway, there will be a push to bring NASCAR back to Rockingham. mored to be considering moving the team.

The Panthers’ 10-year contract that tied the team to Bank of America Stadium expired before the 2023 season. That means the financial penalties for moving the team have dropped significantly, and there appears to be little activity on renegotiating a new deal.

RYAN HENKEL, REPORTER NC State football makes expanded playoffs With the NCAA expanding the field to 12 teams, 2024 will be the year NC State qualifies for the college football playoffs.

The Wolfpack finished this season with a 9-4 record despite

one of their weakest offenses in recent years, struggling to cultivate any playmakers outside of star freshman KC Concepcion.

Coach Dave Doeren — with the help of some transfer portal magic — has added several new weapons for his team.

Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall, who’s thrown for more than 10,000 yards and 88 touchdowns in his career, Duke running back Jordan Waters, Notre Dame starting center Zeke Correll, Wake Forest wide receiver Wesley Grimes and UConn tight end Justin Joly are some of the offensive upgrades the Wolfpack will have on hand.

Combined with a solid defense led by recently extended defensive coordinator Tony Gibson, NC State may be able to put it all together in 2024.

The path to the NCAA playoffs starts with a 10-win season and ACC Conference Championship — two things that have evaded Doeren in the past — but the pieces are there for the Wolfpack to have a breakthrough.

Wolfpack wins first women’s basketball title

RUSTY JONES | AP PHOTO

Will the turmoil surrounding the Panthers under owner David Tepper lead to rumors the state’s NFL franchise could be on the move?

Things just feel different in 2023-24 for NC State’s women’s basketball team.

After a disappointing season a year ago that ended with a first round NCAA exit, the Wolfpack lost four of five starters and looked to be on shaky ground for the first time in the Wes Moore era.

It turns out Moore had everything under control.

Through 13 games, the Wolfpack were undefeated with wins over UConn and Colorado, who were ranked second and third in the country, respectively, at the time of NC State’s upsets.

The starting five is composed of returnees taking on bigger roles and has been complemented by promising young talent off the bench.

The Wolfpack already got revenge on the Huskies — who confusingly had the advantage of playing in their home state despite being the lower seed in beating NC State in the 2022 Elite Eight — and have all the momentum to win the program’s first national championship.

CORY LAVALETTE, EDITOR NASCAR plans return to Rockingham After a second straight successful All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro in May, NASCAR announces plans to bring the exhibition race to another longlost North Carolina track. Rockingham Speedway, which was repaved in late 2022, will land more funding from the state to improve its facilities, and with that comes a commitment to bring the All-Star Race to the track in the near future.

The mile-long oval last hosted the Cup Series in 2004, a race fittingly won by Matt Kenseth.

Kenseth had kickstarted his career at Rockingham, winning his first Busch (now Xfinity) Series race at the track in 1998, passing Tony Stewart on the final lap for the victory. Kenseth (a two-time Cup race winner at the track) and Stewart are now both in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and there would be no better way to honor Rockingham than to bring it back for a new generation of fans.

Hurricanes ride Kochetkov to Stanley Cup final After not winning a division title for the first time since the 2019-20 season, the Hurricanes still make it to the NHL’s final two. Carolina is led by goalie Pyotr Kochetkov, who seized control of the starting job in December and never let go, finishing third in Calder Trophy voting as the league’s top rookie.

The Rangers hold on to win the Metropolitan Division, and the two teams meet in Round 2 after the Hurricanes beat the Devils in the first round. Carolina dispatches the favored Blueshirts in six games and then — in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference final — tops the Panthers in a nail-biting seven-game series.

The Hurricanes, unfortunately, can’t get over the last hurdle and lose in six games to the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup final.

Kochetkov still finishes second in Conn Smythe voting as playoff MVP and solidifies himself as Carolina’s answer in net.

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B5

entertainment ‘Wonka’ ends the year No. 1 at the box office, 2023 sales reach $9 billion in post-pandemic best The Associated Press

“We saw this opportunity to go wide at Christmas since there were so few movies and we were confident the movie would be well received.”

Jeffrey Goldstein

NEW YORK — Hollywood closed out an up and down 2023 with “Wonka” regaining No. 1 at the box office, strong sales for “The Color Purple” and an overall $9 billion in ticket sales that improved on 2022’s grosses but fell about $2 billion shy of pre-pandemic norms.

The New Year’s weekend box office this year lacked a true blockbuster. (This time last year, “Avatar: The Way of Water” was inundating theaters.) Instead, a wide array of films – among them “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” “The Boys in the Boat,” “Migration,” “Ferrari,” “The Iron Claw” and “Anyone But You” – sought to break out over the year’s most lucrative box-office corridor.

The top choice, though, remained “Wonka,” Paul King’s musical starring Timothée Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka. In its third weekend, the Warner Bros. release collected an estimated $24 million Friday through Sunday and $31.8 million factoring in estimates for the Monday holiday. That brings the film’s domestical total to $142.5 million.

That bested Warner Bros.’ own “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which, like previous DC superhero films, is struggling. James Wan’s “Aquaman” sequel starring Jason Momoa took in $19.5 million in its second weekend to bring its twoweek haul to a modest $84.7 million including New Year’s Day estimates.

The original “Aquaman,” which ultimately surpassed $1.1 billion worldwide, had grossed $215.4 million over a similar period in 2018 – more than double that of the sequel.

Internationally, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” added $50.5 million.

Weekend sales only tell part of the story this time of year.

From Christmas through New Year’s, when kids are out of school and many adults aren’t working, every day is like Saturday to film distributors.

“The Color Purple,” Blitz Bazawule’s adaptation of the 2005 stage musical from Alice Walker’s novel, debuted on Monday and led all movies on Christmas with $18 million.

Through the week, the Warner Bros. release has grossed $50 million, including $13 million Friday through Sunday.

That’s a strong start for the crowd-pleaser starring Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.

The roughly $100 million production, which boasts Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spiel-

berg and Quincy Jones (all from the 1985 film) as producers, should play well through awards season. It’s nominated for several Golden Globes and expected to be in the Oscar mix.

“We saw this opportunity to go wide at Christmas since there were so few movies and we were confident the movie would be well received,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “Going into the competitive landscape that’s so thin in January and February, the excitement of awards season could really help ignite a bigger box office.”

Despite a blockbuster-less holiday frame, the last weekend of the year pushed the industry past $9 billion in box office for the year in U.S. and Canadian theaters for the first time since before the pandemic. Ticket sales on the year were up 21% from 2022, according to data firm Comscore.

Still, it was a mark that seemed more easily within reach during the summer highs of Barbenheimer when both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were breaking box-office records.

The enormous success of those two films changed the trajectory of Hollywood’s 2023, but so did the monthslong actors and writers strikes. Those forced the postponement of some top films (most notably “Dune: Part Two” ), diminishing an already patchwork fall lineup with few guaranteed ticket-sellers. One exception was the last-minute addition of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” which set a new record for concert films.

This year, Hollywood needed Swift and every penny to reach $9 billion. It crossed that threshold Saturday, with one day to spare. That total, though, still doesn’t come close to the $11 billion-plus years that preceded the pandemic.

The number of wide releases in 2023 came about 20 films shy of those released in 2019.

The production delays caused by the strikes could have an even greater impact on 2024. Several top releases have already been postponed until at least the following year, including “Mission: Impossible” and “Spider-Verse” sequels. After a rocky year for Marvel and a string of less predictable hits, Hollywood will have to hope it can adapt to changing audience tastes – and that another “Barbie” is lurking somewhere.

“It’s an $11 billion business.

We’re climbing our way back,” said Goldstein. “This next year is going to be a big challenge because of the strikes.

But we’re seeing very clearly in 2023, when there are movies

out there that people want to see, they come.”

Meanwhile, a host of releases sought to capitalize over the holidays – and most succeeded.

“This crop of seven wide releases at the end of the year, they got us over the hump of $9 billion,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “This final push of the year provided great insight into what audiences are looking for. It’s movies big and small. It’s different types of movies.”

Though “Wonka” won out as the family movie choice for the holidays, Universal Pictures’ “Migration” is attracting young audiences, too. The animated movie from “Minions”-maker Illumination notched $17.2 million in 3,839 theaters in its second weekend, and $59.4 million since opening.

“The Boys in the Boat,” the George Clooney-directed sports drama, grossed $24.6 million since opening Dec. 25.

The Amazon MGM Studios release, about the U.S. men’s crew in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, wasn’t a smash with critics (58% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore. “The Boys in the Boat,” which cost about $40 million to make, could hold well in coming weeks.

Though romantic comedies have largely migrated to streaming platforms, Sony Pictures’ “Anyone But You” is proving the genre can still work in theaters. The film, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, collected $9 million in its second weekend to bring its total to $27.6 million through Monday.

Sean Durkin’s wrestling drama “The Iron Claw” is also performing well. The A24 film, starring Zac Efron, Holt McCallany and Jeremy Allen White, has grossed $18 million since opening Dec. 22, including $5 million on the three-day weekend. The film dramatizes the tragic story of the Von Erich family.

Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” a project the director sought to make for three decades, took in $10.9 million since launching in theaters on Monday, including $4.1 million for the weekend. While that ranks as one of the biggest debuts for indie distributor Neon, it’s nowhere near what a movie that cost close to $100 million to make needs to turn a profit.

The film, starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, has been celebrated by critics, but appears likely to follow Mann’s previous film, 2015’s “Blackhat” ($19.6 million worldwide against a $70 million budget), as a commercial disappointment.

AP PHOTO

Timothee Chalamet arrives at the premiere of “Wonka” on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023, at Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Calif.

AP PHOTO

Cher poses at the premiere of the documentary film “Sidney,” Sept. 21, 2022, in Los Angeles.

Cher asks court to give her conservatorship over her adult son The Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Cher has filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying the 47-year-old’s struggles with mental health issues and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.

The Oscar and Grammy winning singer and actor on Wednesday filed the petition in Los Angeles Superior Court that would give her temporary control of the finances of Elijah Blue Allman, her son with musician Gregg Allman.

Cher’s petition says that Elijah Allman is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund.

But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.

Reached through his attorney, Elijah Allman said in a phone call with The Associated Press, “I am well, and able, and of sound mind and body.”

He declined to say whether he planned to oppose the petition, or give any further comment.

A court-ordered conservatorship is “urgently needed,” Cher’s filing says. A judge scheduled a January hearing on the issue.

The filing explicitly seeks to keep control of Elijah Allman’s finances from his wife, Marieangela King, from whom he filed for divorce in 2021.

The two remain legally married. A filing from King in October says the couple had agreed to pause the divorce proceedings and work on their marriage, but she had not seen him in person in six months.

Cher’s petition says the couple’s “tumultuous relationship has been marked by a cycle of drug addiction and mental health crises” and that she believes King “is not supportive of Elijah’s recovery.”

Emails seeking comment from an attorney for King and representatives for Cher were not immediately returned.

Cher has two sons, one from each of her marriages — 54-year-old Chaz Bono with the late Sonny Bono, and Elijah Allman, who is the former singer and guitarist of the band Deadsy and is known professionally as P. Exeter Blue.

Conservatorships, known in some states as guardianships, allow courts to give relatives or others control over a person’s money and, at times, their life decisions after they are deemed not competent to make such decisions for themselves.

The issue became widely known when what began as a temporary conservatorship over Britney Spears became a yearslong legal saga and fight with her father.

“I am well, and able, and of sound mind and body.”

Elijah Allman

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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Shirley Bassey and Ridley Scott are among hundreds awarded in UK’s New Year Honors list The Associated Press LONDON — Singer Shirley Bassey, director Ridley Scott and Mary Earps, the goalkeeper for England’s women’s soccer team, were recognized Friday in the U.K.’s New Year Honors list, which celebrates the achievements and services of more than 1,000 people across the country.

Bassey, 86, who is already a dame — the female equivalent of a knight — was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honor for her services to music.

The Welsh singer, best known for her “James Bond” theme songs “Goldfinger” and “Dia-

monds Are Forever,” became the 64th living member of the order, a special status held by no more than 65 people at any one time.

“Entertaining audiences for over 70 years has been a privilege,” she said. “My heart is full of emotion and I am truly humbled.”

Scott, whose films include “Gladiator,” “Alien” and more recently “Napoleon,” was awarded for his services to the U.K. film industry. He was made a Knight Grand Cross, upgrading his previous knighthood.

Other well-known names in entertainment on the list in-

cluded “The Great British Bake Off” judge Paul Hollywood, who was honored for services to baking and broadcasting; and “Game of Thrones” actor Emilia Clarke, who along with her mother were made Members of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, for their work founding a brain injury recovery charity.

Clarke survived two brain hemorrhages and started the SameYou charity to raise awareness about brain injuries and help advocate for better treatments and rehabilitation for survivors.

In sport, Earps was honored along with Lioness players Mil-

lie Bright and Lauren Hemp for their part in helping the Lionesses reach the women’s World Cup final in the summer. England lost 1-0 to Spain in the final in Sydney.

In all, this year’s list includes a total of 1,227 recipients, with 48% of them women. About 14% came from an ethnic minority background.

Many on the list are ordinary people who have served their communities. They include 9-year-old Tony Hudgell, the youngest recipient, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the prevention of child abuse.

Rizwan Javed, a 33-yearold train station assistant, was awarded for helping save 29 vulnerable people at risk of ending their lives at the railway.

U.K. monarchs have awarded honors as part of orders of chivalry since the Middle Ages. In modern times, nominations are submitted to the government’s Cabinet Office and vetted by a committee before being passed on to the prime minister and King Charles III. An exception was Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the Anglican Church, who was awarded a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order by Charles independently of the government.

Welby conducted the service for the king’s coronation, and had the key task of anointing and crowning Charles and Queen Camilla at the ceremony.

TAKE NOTICE

CUMBERLAND NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION ESTATE FILE NO. 23E005028-590 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND Having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Sarah Christian, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at 2517 Raeford Road, Fayetteville, NC 28305, on or before March 13, 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms, and corporations indebted to the said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. Dated this 13th day of December, 2023.

Donna Donaldson, Executor of the Estate of Sarah Christian NICOLE A. CORLEY MURRAY, CRAVEN & CORLEY, L.L.P. N.C. BAR NO. 56459 2517 RAEFORD ROAD FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28305 – 3007 (910) 483 – 4990 COUNSEL FOR EXECUTOR

NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION ESTATE FILE NO. 23-E-2011 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND Having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Frances Marie Cato, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at 2517 Raeford Road, Fayetteville, NC 28305, on or before March 20, 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms, and corporations indebted to the said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. Dated this 20th day of December, 2023.

Tami Marie Robinson, Executor of the Estate of Frances Marie Cato NICOLE A. CORLEY MURRAY, CRAVEN & CORLEY, L.L.P. N.C. BAR NO. 56459 2517 RAEFORD ROAD FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28305 – 3007 (910) 483 – 4990 COUNSEL FOR EXECUTOR

DURHAM NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION

CABARRUS GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION 23 CVS 431 NOTICE OF JUDICIAL FORECLOSURE SALE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CABARRUS Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Plaintiff, vs.

Glenn W. Neal, Jr. a/k/a Glenn Whicker Neal, Jr.; Karen T. Neal; David S. Allen, Jr.; Any Spouse of David S. Allen, Jr.; Deborah A. Allen; Any Spouse of Deborah A. Allen; Viveca Y. Allen-Reed; Any Spouse of Viveca Y. Allen-Reed; Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, Defendant(s).

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, Commissioner, pursuant to the Order/Judgment entered in the above-captioned case on October 12, 2023

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION CABARRUS COUNTY 21SP000151-120 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY RYAN SMITHSON AND STACIE SMITHSON DATED DECEMBER 20, 2007 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 7975 AT PAGE 95 IN THE CABARRUS COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured

NEW HANOVER

NEW HANOVER

EXECUTOR’S NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS The undersigned having qualified as Administrator of the Estate of Carrie Baker, Deceased, late of New Hanover County, North Carolina, (Estate File No. 23E1776) this is to notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against the estate to present such claims to the undersigned at the address set out below, on or before 3rd day of April, 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms, and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 3rd day of January 2024.

Jacob Baker, Administrator 4017 Breezewood Dr Apt. 7307 Wilmington, NC 28412

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION ESTATE FILE 23-E-1568 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA NEW HANOVER COUNTY NOTICE TO CREDITORS The undersigned, having qualified as the Executor of the Estate of Carl Benedetto, late of New Hanover County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms, or corporations having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at 317 Hay Hill Ct., Elgin, South Carolina 29045, on or before March 13, 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 13th day of December 2023.

Alicia Benedetto Executor of the Estate of Carl Benedetto 317 Hay Hill Ct. Elgin, South Carolina 29045 For Publication 12/13/23, 12/20/23, 12/27/23, 01/03/24

NOTICE TO CREDITORS STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER NOTICE TO CREDITORS

WAKE

The undersigned, Margaret Edwards Mason, having qualified as the Executor of the Estate of MARGARET D. EDWARDS, deceased, (Estate File 23E 1698) hereby notifies all persons, firms or corporations having claims against the Decedent to exhibit same to the said Margaret E. Mason, at the address set out below, on or before March 14, 2024 or this case may be pleaded in bar of any payment or recovery of same. All persons indebted to said Decedent will please make immediate payment to the undersigned at the address set out below.

This the 13th day of December, 2023.

Margaret Edwards Mason, Executor OF THE ESTATE OF MARGARET D. EDWARDS 2237 Lakeside Circle Wilmington, NC 28401

NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA DURHAM COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 23-SP-1033 FOR THE ADOPTION OF A MALE MINOR TO: the biological father of Baby Boy Gholson, a male child, born on October 15, 2023 in

Petersburg, Chesterfield County, Virginia.

Take notice that a Petition for Adoption was filed with the Clerk of Superior Court for Durham County, North Carolina in the above entitled special proceeding. The Petition relates to Baby Boy Gholson, a male child, born on October 15, 2023 in Petersburg, Chesterfield County, Virginia to Janeece Gholson. Ms. Gholson

(“Order”), and by virtue of the appointment, power and authority contained in that Order, has been authorized and ordered to sell the property commonly known as 9030 Reid Street, Mount Pleasant, NC 28124 (“Property”).

Said Property is secured by the Deed of Trust executed by Glenn W. Neal, Jr. and Karen T. Neal, dated January 28, 2005 and recorded on February 9, 2005 in Book 5794 at Page 187 and rerecorded/modified/corrected on November 1, 2023 in Book 16703, Page 269 of the Cabarrus County, North Carolina Registry. The Property shall be sold together with improvements located thereon, towards satisfaction of the debt due by Glenn W. Neal, Jr., and secured by the lien against such property in favor of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

PAGE 66 AMONG THE LAND RECORDS OF THE COUNTY AND STATE SET FORTH ABOVE.

The Commissioner will offer for sale to the highest bidder at a public auction at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on January 10, 2024 at 01:00 PM the following described real property (including all improvements thereon) located in Cabarrus County, North Carolina and described as follows: ALL THAT CERTAIN PROPERTY SITUATED IN THE CITY OF MT. PLEASANT, IN THE COUNTY OF CABARRUS AND STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA AND BEING MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED IN A DEED DATED 09/09/2002 AND RECORDED 09/12/2002 IN BOOK 4008,

The above-described property will be sold, transferred and conveyed “AS IS, WHERE IS” subject to liens or encumbrances of record which are superior to such Deed of Trust, together with all unpaid taxes and assessments and any recorded releases.

Neither the Commissioner nor the holder of the debt secured by such Deed of Trust, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Commissioner or the holder of the debt make any representation of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health, or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such

debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Cabarrus County courthouse at 11:00AM on January 17, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Ryan Smithson and Stacie Smithson, dated December 20, 2007 to secure the original principal amount of $127,500.00, and recorded in Book 7975 at Page 95 of the Cabarrus County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record.

Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 8 2 Paddington Drive SW, Concord, NC 28025 Tax Parcel ID: 55395873080000

Present Record Owners: R y a n Smithson and Stacie L. Smithson The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Ryan Smithson and Stacie L. Smithson.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer

And being more particularly described by metes and bounds according to said Deed as follows: BEGINNING at Southwest corner of the Sandy Miller lot in Lawson Jones’ and Sandy Miller’s line; thence South 77 1/2° E. 3 poles and 7-3/4 links to an iron stake in said line; thence North 18° E. 10 poles and 1 link to an iron stake in road running by Church; thence with said road North 72° W. 3 poles and 4 1/4 links to corner of Sandy Miller’s lot in said road; thence South 18 1/2° W. 10 poles and 8 1/2 links to the BEGINNING, containing 32 sq. poles, more or less.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having qualified as Administrator of the Estate of Louis Dale Gullie, late of Wake County, North Carolina (23E005498-910), the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 9th day of March, 2024 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 6th day of December 2023.

Brian Dale Gullie Administrator of the Estate of Louis Dale Gullie c/o Lisa M. Schreiner Attorney at Law P.O. Box 446 114 Raleigh Street Fuquay Varina, NC 27526 (For publication: 12/6, 12/13, 12/20, 12/27/2023)

reports that the putative biological father is entirely unknown and that conception occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ms. Gholson is a 33 year old, White female with long, brown, curly hair and brown eyes. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that you are required to file a response to such pleading not later than 40 days from the first day of publication of this notice, that date being December __, 2023, and upon your failure to do

so the Petitioner will apply to the Court for relief sought in the Petition. Any parental rights you may have will be terminated upon the entry of the decree of adoption.

conditions expressly are disclaimed.

The Commissioner shall convey title to the property by non-warranty deed, without any covenants or warranties, express or implied.

purchasing price will be required at the time of the sale. Any successful bidder shall be required to tender the full balance of the purchase price of bid in cash or certified check at the time the Commissioner tenders a deed for the Property or attempts to tender such deed, and should said successful bidder fail to pay the full balance purchase price of bid at that time, said bidder shall remain liable on said bid as provided for under North Carolina law.

An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 1-339.29 (c) in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the judge or clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current record owners of the property as reflected on the records of the CABARRUS COUNTY Register of Deeds’ office not more than ten (10) days prior to the date hereof are Glenn W. Neal, Jr. and wife, Karen T. Neal.

A cash deposit of five percent (5%) of the

tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

Cash will not be accepted. This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid.

The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an

Kelly T. Dempsey, Attorney for Petitioners, 101 N Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina 28246.

The sale will be reported to the court and will remain open for advance or upset bids for a period of ten (10) days as required by law. If the Commissioner is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit.

Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the Commissioner. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the Commissioner, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

TRUSTEE SERVICES OF CAROLINA, LLC, Commissioner c/o 5431 Oleander Drive, Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 (910) 392-4988 Phone NCSales@brockandscott.com File No.: 19-07292-JUD02

Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is November 29, 2023. _________ ________________ ____________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com Posted: By: 20-109332

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B7

TAKE NOTICE

CABARRUS GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION 20 CVS 1756 AMENDED NOTICE OF JUDICIAL FORECLOSURE SALE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CABARRUS

Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee, in trust for registered Holders of Long Beach Mortgage Loan Trust 2006-1, AssetBacked Certificates, Series 2006-1, vs.

Plaintiff,

Kareem V. Hammond a/k/a Kareem V. Hammond, Sr.; Dawn Hammond; United States of America; Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, Defendant(s).

Commissioner, pursuant to the Order/Judgment entered in the above-captioned case on July 12, 2023 (“Order”), and by virtue of the appointment, power and authority contained in that Order, has been authorized and ordered to sell the property commonly known as 625 Wilmar Street Northwest, Concord, NC 28025 (“Property”).

Said Property is secured by the Deed of Trust executed by Kareem V. Hammond a/k/a Kareem V. Hammond, Sr. and Dawn Hammond, dated November 7, 2005 and recorded on November 15, 2005 in Book 6368 at Page 141 of the Cabarrus County, North Carolina Registry. The Property shall be sold together with improvements located thereon, towards satisfaction of the debt due by Kareem V. Hammond a/k/a Kareem V. Hammond, Sr., and secured by the lien against such property in favor of Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee, in trust for registered Holders of Long Beach Mortgage Loan Trust 2006-1, Asset-Backed Certificates, Series 20061.

The Commissioner will offer for sale to the highest bidder at a public auction at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on January 10, 2024 at 01:00 PM the following described real property (including all improvements thereon) located in Cabarrus County, North Carolina and described as follows:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Jeremy B. Wilkins,

AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 459 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Joshua Anthony Hubbard and Rachel Natasha Hubbard (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Joshua Anthony Hubbard and Rachel Natasha Hubbard) to John B. Third, Trustee(s), dated June 16, 2021, and recorded in Book No. 15257, at Page 0296 in Cabarrus County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Cabarrus County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 284 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Donald E. Parker, Jr. and Jeanie E. Parker (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Donald E. Parker, Jr. and Jeanie E. Parker) to Richard King & Amy E. Johnson, Trustee(s), dated September 24, 2005, and recorded in Book No. 6323, at Page 326 in Cabarrus County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Cabarrus County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated

CUMBERLAND NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 210 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Pearlie M. Jones (Deceased) (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Pearlie M. Jones, Heirs of Pearlie M. Jones: William Wallace, Lanzo Wallace, Marsena Kupher, Angela Wallace, Krystal Jones Drafall, Billy Jay Jones, Jr., David Lee Wallace; Heirs of David Lee Wallace: Xavier Wallace, Devin Wallace) to David Brunk, Trustee(s), dated December 8, 2005, and recorded in Book No. 7095, at Page 478 in Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Cumberland County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that

23 SP 842 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, CUMBERLAND COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Brenda Saunders to Allan B. Polunsky, Trustee(s), which was dated March 2, 2017 and recorded on March 3, 2017 in Book 10047 at Page 809, Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina.

Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located,

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, CUMBERLAND COUNTY 19 SP 828 Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Ephraim D. Demons, in the original amount of $60,000.00, payable to The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, an Officer of the United States of America, dated January 28, 2005 and recorded on February 1, 2005 in Book 6780, Page 587, Cumberland County Registry.

Default having been made in the payment of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Anchor Trustee Services, LLC having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Cumberland County, North Carolina, and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, CUMBERLAND COUNTY 18 SP 1401 Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Yancey J. McDowell and Jacqueline M. McDowell in the original amount of $127,432.00, payable to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for Carolina Mortgage Co. of Fayetteville, dated May 22, 2003 and recorded on May 29, 2003 in Book 6111, Page 800, Cumberland County Registry.

Default having been made in the payment of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Anchor Trustee Services, LLC having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Cumberland County, North Carolina, and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned

on January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Davidson in the County of Cabarrus, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of LOT 25 of FRAZIER ACRES subdivision, Phase 11B, as shown on plat recorded in Map Book 30 at Page 38 in the Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Public Registry. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 10383 Singletree Lane, Davidson, North Carolina.

Being More Commonly Known As 10383 Singletree Lane, Davidson, NC 28036 Parcel ID # 4673-79-8062 Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00)

in Kannapolis in the County of Cabarrus, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: All that parcel of land in Cabarrus County, State of North Carolina, as more fully described in Deed Book 5699, Page 269 ID# 313575, Being known and designated as Lot 87-90, Section 2, Elmwood Park, filed in Plat Book 12, Page 40. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 563 Westwood Drive, Kannapolis, North Carolina.

By fee simple Deed from Secretary of Housing and Urban Development of Washington, D.C. as set forth in Book 5699, Page 269 dated 12/02/2004 and recorded 12/13/2004, Cabarrus County Records, State of North Carolina.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00)

the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Fayetteville in the County of Cumberland, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: All that certain property situated in the Township of Seventy-First in the County of Cumberland and State of North Carolina, being described as follows: Begin Lot 694 in Subdivision of Devonwood, Section 1, Part 2 A recorded in Book of Plats 33, Page 75, being more fully described in a deed dated 11/17/2003 and recorded 12/16/2003, among the land records of the county and state set forth above, in Deed Volume 6375 and Page 818. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 7008 Darnell Street, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Address: 7008 Darnell St.; Fayetteville, NC 283148605 Tax Map or Parcel ID No.: 0408-00-8730 Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay

or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on January 10, 2024 at 01:30 PM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Cumberland County, North Carolina, to wit: BEING all of Lot 34 as shown on a plat entitled “WOODLAND VILLAGE SECTION ONE, PART A” duly recorded in Plat Book 109, Page 95, Cumberland County, North Carolina Registry.

Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record.

Said property is commonly known as 3946 Brookgreen Drive, Fayetteville, NC 28304.

A Certified Check ONLY (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the

courthouse door or other usual place of sale in Cumberland County, North Carolina, at 2:00PM on January 18, 2024, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property, to wit: Being all of Lot 91, in a subdivision known as Lake Rim Estates, Section Three, Part Two, according to a plat of the same being duly recorded in Book of Plats 55, Page 69, Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina.

Together with improvements located hereon; said property being located at 912 Winterberry Drive, Fayetteville, NC 28314. Tax ID: 9487-60-1536 Third party purchasers must pay the recording cost of the Substitute Trustee’s Deed, any land transfer taxes and the excise tax, pursuant North Carolina General Statutes §105-228.30, in the amount of One Dollar ($1.00) per each Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or fractional part thereof, and the Clerk of Courts fee, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes §7A-308, in the amount of Forty-five Cents (0.45) per each One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) or fractional part

Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door or other usual place of sale in Cumberland County, North Carolina, at 2:00PM on January 18, 2024, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property, to wit: Being all of Lot 12, in a Subdivision known as Williamsburg Plantation, Section One, according to a plat of same duly recorded in Book of Plats 85, Page 15, Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina.

Together with improvements located hereon; said property being located at 1809 Calista Circle, Fayetteville, NC 28304. Tax ID: 0406.18-30-2540 Third party purchasers must pay the recording cost of the Substitute Trustee’s Deed, any land transfer taxes and the excise tax, pursuant North Carolina General Statutes §105-228.30, in the amount of One Dollar ($1.00) per each Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or fractional part thereof, and the Clerk of Courts fee, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes §7A-308, in the

LYING AND BEING SITUATE IN NUMBER TWELVE (12) TOWNSHIP OF CABARRUS COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, AND BEING MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEING ALL OF LOTS 1, 2, & 3, BLOCK F, SECTION 2, SUBDIVISION OF WIL-MAR PARK, ACCORDING TO THE PLAT THEREOF, RECORDED IN MAP BOOK 5, PAGE 45, IN THE OFFICE OF THE REGISTER OF DEEDS OF CABARRUS COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA The above described property will be sold, transferred and conveyed “AS IS, WHERE IS” subject to liens or encumbrances of record which are superior to such Deed of Trust, together with all unpaid taxes and assessments and any recorded releases. Neither the Commissioner nor the holder of the debt secured by such Deed of Trust, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Commissioner or the holder of the debt make any representation of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health, or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such conditions expressly are disclaimed. The Commissioner shall convey title to the property by non-warranty deed, without any covenants or warranties, express or implied.

possession by the judge or clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current record owners of the property as reflected on the records of the CABARRUS COUNTY Register of Deeds’ office not more than ten (10) days prior to the date hereof are Kareem Hammond, Sr. and wife, Dawn Hammond.

remain liable on said bid as provided for under North Carolina law.

The sale will be reported to the court and will remain open for advance or upset bids for a period of ten (10) days as required by law. If the Commissioner is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the Commissioner.

If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the Commissioner, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

JEREMY B. WILKINS, Commissioner 5431 Oleander Drive, Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 (910) 392-4988 Phone NCSales@brockandscott.com

An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 1-339.29 (c) in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in

A cash deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchasing price will be required at the time of the sale. Any successful bidder shall be required to tender the full balance of the purchase price of bid in cash or certified check at the time the Commissioner tenders a deed for the Property or attempts to tender such deed, and should said successful bidder fail to pay the full balance purchase price of bid at that time, said bidder shall

required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to

be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to

be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. 45-21.23.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may

after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination [NCGS § 45-21.16A(b)(2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of

File No.: 22-09963-FC02

thereof with a maximum amount of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00). A deposit of five percent (5%) of the bid or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale and must be tendered in the form of certified funds. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts will be immediately due and owing.

Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS WHERE IS. There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, special assessments, land transfer taxes, if any, and encumbrances of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner of the property is Ephraim D. Demons.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes §45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in

possession by the Clerk of Superior Court of the county in which the property is sold.

a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the Substitute Trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

amount of Forty-five Cents (0.45) per each One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) or fractional part thereof with a maximum amount of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00). A deposit of five percent (5%) of the bid or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale and must be tendered in the form of certified funds. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts will be immediately due and owing.

Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS WHERE IS. There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, special assessments, land transfer taxes, if any, and encumbrances of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner of the property is Jacqueline M. McDowell.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: An order for possession

of the property may be issued pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes §45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the Clerk of Superior Court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination (North Carolina General Statutes §45-21.16A(b)(2)). Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of termination. If the Trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. 7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED. Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record.

To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Brenda Saunders, Unmarried.

An Order for possession of the property may be

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination (North Carolina General Statutes §45-21.16A(b)(2)). Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of termination. If the Trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of

File No.: 08-12916-JUD01

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 16418 - 76215

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 12314 - 53407

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 7692 - 29388

Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988

Anchor Trustee Services, LLC Substitute Trustee By: ___________________________________ _____ David W. Neill, Bar #23396 McMichael Taylor Gray, LLC Attorney for Anchor Trustee Services, LLC 3550 Engineering Drive, Suite 260 Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 404-474-7149 (phone) 404-745-8121 (fax) dneill@mtglaw.com

a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the Substitute Trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Anchor Trustee Services, LLC Substitute Trustee By: ___________________________________ _____ David W. Neill, Bar #23396 McMichael Taylor Gray, LLC Attorney for Anchor Trustee Services, LLC 3550 Engineering Drive, Suite 260 Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 404-474-7149 (phone) 404-745-8121 (fax) dneill@mtglaw.com

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B8 TAKE NOTICE

CUMBERLAND NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 1161 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Trudy Smith Miller (deceased) (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Trudy Smith Miller, Heirs of Trudy Smith Miller a/k/a Trudy Miller: Teena E. Ferguson a/k/a Teena Ferguson Gales, Kenneth Eugene Ferguson) to CB Services Corp., Trustee(s), dated August 25, 2011, and recorded in Book No. 08719, at Page 0798 in Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Cumberland County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Hope Mills in the County of Cumberland, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows:

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 1115 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by James E. Haddock, Jr. and Ashley D. Haddock (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): James E. Haddock, Jr. and Ashley D. Haddock) to John B. Third, Trustee(s), dated August 31, 2020, and recorded in Book No. 10863, at Page 0521 in Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Cumberland County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated

AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 19 SP 1139 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Sharon Lee (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Sharon R. Lee) to Donald Hudson/ McGeachy, Hudson & Zurvael, Trustee(s), dated February 27, 2006, and recorded in Book No. 7160, at Page 357 in Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Cumberland County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Fayetteville, Cumberland

DAVIDSON IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION DAVIDSON COUNTY 23sp555 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY MARVIN DUSTIN REPASS DATED AUGUST 24, 2021 AND RECORDED IN BOOK DE 2498 AT PAGE 104 IN THE DAVIDSON COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust

DURHAM NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 886 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Johnny McQuaig (deceased) (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Johnny McQuaig, Heirs of Johnny McQuaig: Johnetta McQuaig, Johnny McQuaig, Jr.) to Old Republic National Title Insurance Company, Trustee(s), dated January 10, 2022, and recorded in Book No. 9587, at Page 616 in Durham County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Durham County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION 23SP32 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF DURHAM IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY JEVONNE PETTIFORD DATED AUGUST 31, 2021 RECORDED IN BOOK 9447 AT PAGE 607 IN THE DURHAM COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements therein contained and, pursuant to demand of

AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE FILE NUMBER: 23 SP 789 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust executed by PATRICIA ANN SUTTON payable to GENERATION MORTGAGE COMPANY, lender, to LINEAR TITLE & CLOSING, Trustee, dated June 9, 2009, and recorded in Book 6296, Page 1 of the Durham County Public Registry by Goddard & Peterson, PLLC, Substitute Trustee, default having been made in the terms of agreement set forth by the loan agreement secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Goddard & Peterson, PLLC, having been substituted as Successor Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Official Records of Durham County, North Carolina, in Book 9978, Page 464, and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Durham County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, on Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 11:30am, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in the County of Durham, North Carolina,

All that real property situated in the County of Cumberland, State of North Carolina:

Section I, as recorded in Book of Plats 27, Page 49, Cumberland County, North Carolina Registry.

that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. 7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject

to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided

Being the same property conveyed to the Grantor

by Deed recorded 07/01/1984 in Book 2536, Page 203 Cumberland County Registry, to which deed reference is hereby made for a more particular description of this property. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 3402 Beechwood Street, Hope Mills, North Carolina.

Property Address: 3402 Beechwood St

transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not

limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may

after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. 7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at

and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Davidson County courthouse at 10:00AM on January 8, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Davidson County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Marvin Dustin Repass, dated August 24, 2021 to secure the original principal amount of $235,000.00, and recorded in Book DE 2498 at Page 104 of the Davidson County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record.

Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 1963 Old

Mountain Rd, Lexington, NC 27292 Tax Parcel ID: 1502000000041 Present Record Owners: T h e Heirs of Marvin Dustin Repass The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are The Heirs of Marvin Dustin Repass.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject

to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order

for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is December 13, 2023. _________ ____________________________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com Posted: By:

Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 3:00 PM on January 16, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Durham in the County of Durham, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: All that certain lot or parcel of land and more particularly described as follows:

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

LESS AND EXCEPT THE FOLLOWING PROPERTY THAT WAS RELEASED IN THE PARTIAL RELEASE DEED OF TRUST RECORDED IN BOOK 11860 AT PAGE 0401 IN THE CUMBERLAND COUNTY REGISTRY: BEGINNING at a pk nail In the Northwest margin of Beechwood Street’s Cul-de-sac, said pk nail being the common corner between Lots 12 and 13, Pinewood Lakes, Section I, as recorded in Plat Book 27, Page 49, Cumberland County, North Carolina Registry; and runs thence as the dividing line between Lots 12 and 13, North 14 degrees 23 minutes 41 seconds West, 177.35 feet to an existing iron pipe, also a common corner of Lots 12 and 13; thence as a new line, South 15 degrees 51 minutes 55 seconds East, 176.44 feet to an existing iron pipe in the aforesaid margin of Beechwood Street; thence as said margin of Beechwood Street Cul-de-sac, South 63 degrees 33 minutes 33 seconds West, 4.63 feet to the Beginning; Containing 401.52 square feet and being a portion of Lot 12, Pinewood Lakes,

in Fayetteville in the County of Cumberland, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 11, in a subdivision known as Hillendale, and the same being duly recorded in Plat Book 24, Page 44, Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 3516 Clearwater Drive, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Parcel ID: 0439-03-8978 Property Address: 3516 Fayetteville, NC 28311

Clearwater

Drive,

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. 45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. 7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale,

County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Fayetteville in the County of Cumberland, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 36, in a subdivision known as CLIFFDALE POINTE, according to a plat of the same duly recorded in Book of Plats 62, Page 78, Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina.

Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 7301 Melissa Court, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. 45-21.23.

Being all of lot 57, Wynstead at Hope Valley, according to the plat of survey recorded in Plat Book 169, Page 73, Durham County Register of Deeds. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 950 Spring Meadow Drive, Durham, North Carolina.

Being the same property as conveyed to Johnny McQuaig from Wanjun Mi and spouse, Xiaohua Miao by that Deed dated 03/04/2016 and recorded 03/28/2016 in Book / Page/Instrument Number : (7897 / 749 / 2016009085 in the Durham County Records.

Parcel ID(s): 203828

the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Durham County courthouse at 10:00 AM on January 10, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Durham County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Jevonne Pettiford a/k/a JeVonne Michelle Pettiford, dated August 31, 2021 to secure the original principal amount of $250,000.00, and recorded in Book 9447 at Page 607 of the Durham County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 8 Summer Storm Dr, Durham, NC 27704

0

1

and being more particularly described as follows: PARCEL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER(S): 0821-1090-5398 ADDRESS: 2002 JAMES STREET, DURHAM, NC 27707 PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): PATRICIA SUTTON THE LAND DESCRIBED HEREIN IS SITUATED IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, COUNTY OF DURHAM, AND IS DESCRIBED IN DEED BOOK 6296, PAGE 1 AS FOLLOWS: BEING LOT 2, BLOCK B, HUNTER HILLS ESTATES, SECTION ONE, PROPERTY OF T. C. WESTER, AS SHOWN ON A SURVEY AND PLAT BY WILLIAM B. MCINTYRE, LAND SURVEYOR, RECORDED IN PLAT BOOK 15, PAGE 132, NASH REGISTRY. FOR TITLE REFERENCE SEE DEED RECORDED ON 01/08/2004 IN BOOK 2026 AND PAGE 801 Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this

Parcel ID: 0414-98-2789 Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. 45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded

Tax Parcel ID:

210017

The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Jevonne Pettiford.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid

notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS

to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property: An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 17212 - 81070

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 17090 - 80449

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 1254666 - 11212

23-116013

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 16581 - 77267

The date of this Notice is 8th day of December, 2023.

Grady I. Ingle, Attorney for Substitute Trustee Ingle Law Firm, PA 13801 Reese Blvd West Suite 160 Huntersville, NC 28078 (980) 771-0717 Ingle Case Number: 15489-21948

agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

THIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROM A DEBT COLLECTOR. THE PURPOSE OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS TO COLLECT A DEBT AND ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED WILL BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, except as stated below in the instance of bankruptcy protection.

IF YOU ARE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE BANKRUPTCY COURT OR HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED AS A RESULT OF A BANK-RUPTCY PROCEEDING, THIS NOTICE IS GIVEN TO YOU PURSUANT TO STATUTORY REQUIREMENT AND FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES AND IS NOT INTENDED AS AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT A DEBT OR AS AN ACT TO COLLECT, ASSESS, OR RECOVER ALL OR ANY PORTION OF THE DEBT FROM YOU PERSONALLY. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC 110 Frederick St, Suite 200 Greenville, South Carolina 29607 Phone: (470) 321-7112, Ext. 204 Fax: 1-919-800-3528 RAS File Number: [22-075579]

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B9

TAKE NOTICE

FORSYTH NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 623 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Greta Lynn Wylam and Mark Edwrd Wylam a/k/a Mark Wylam a/k/a Mark Edward Wylam (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Mark Edwrd Wylam and Greta Lynn Wylam) to Verdugo Trustee Service Corporation, Trustee(s), dated October 26, 2012, and recorded in Book No. RE 3094, at Page 3829 in Forsyth County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Forsyth County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Winston Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, or the customary

IREDELL IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION IREDELL COUNTY 22SP38 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY MARY C. PARSONS DATED AUGUST 17, 2005 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 1673 AT PAGE 2235 IN THE IREDELL COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 400 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by James Robert Shaw, Jr. and Nichole Shaw (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): James Robert Shaw, Jr. and Nichole Shaw) to Mark Randolph Law, Trustee(s), dated July 31, 2020, and recorded in Book No. 2720, at Page 1425 in Iredell County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Iredell County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 11:00 AM on January 11, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Olin in the County of Iredell, North Carolina, and being more particularly

AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 136 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Thomas Lowrie and Jennifer Lowrie aka Jennifeer Lowrie (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Thomas Lowrie and Jennifer Lowrie) to Gerald W. McNaught, LLC, Trustee(s), dated August 23, 2016, and recorded in Book No. 2440, at Page 1368 in Iredell County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Iredell County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:30 PM

JOHNSTON AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 22SP000413-500 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Shaborn Nesbitt (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Raiford Street 800 Land Trust) to Henderson Law, Trustee(s), dated November 30, 2017, and recorded in Book No. 5089, at Page 932 in Johnston County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Johnston County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Smithfield, Johnston County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 11:00 AM on

NEW HANOVER IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION NEW HANOVER COUNTY 23sp193 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY ALTON ENGLAND AND FIONA ENGLAND DATED JANUARY 10, 2007 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 5131 AT PAGE 2069 IN THE NEW HANOVER COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION NEW HANOVER COUNTY 22sp596 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY DIMITRE DIMITROV AND MARYANN DIMITROV DATED NOVEMBER 15, 2017 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 6103 AT PAGE 580 IN THE NEW HANOVER COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place

location designated for foreclosure sales, at 1:00 PM on January 10, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Clemmons in the County of Forsyth, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: The land referred to herein below is situated in the county of FORSYTH, State of NC and Is described as follows:

property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the

time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise

tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this

contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Iredell County courthouse at 10:00AM on January 9, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Iredell County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Mary C. Parsons, dated August 17, 2005 to secure the original principal amount of $56,500.00, and recorded in Book 1673 at Page 2235 of the Iredell County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record.

Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 1 1 7 Whites Mill Rd, Statesville, NC 28677 Tax Parcel ID: 4743172940.000 Present Record Owners: T h e Heirs of Mary C. Parsons

The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are The Heirs of Mary C. Parsons.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at

the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is October 27, 2023.

_________ ____________________________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com Posted: By:

described as follows: ALL of Lots Nos. Seventy-Three (73), SeventyFour (74), Seventy-Five (75), and Seventy-Six (76) in “CON-LEE HEIGHTS” Subdivision, as platted and planned on a map thereof made by L. B. Grier, Registered Surveyor, on September 16, 1966, and recorded in Plat Book 9, at page 40 in the Iredell County Registry, to which map and plat reference is hereby made for a full and complete description of said Lots. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 178 Con Lee Drive, Olin, North Carolina.

by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at

the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at

least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior

to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the

tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

January 16, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Selma in the County of Johnston, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEGINNING in the Southeast corner of a parcel owned by the Town of Selma as set forth in Deed Book 834, Page 278, Johnston County Registry, at an IPS set in the right of way of South Raiford Street; thence leaving said right of way of South Raiford Street, North 50 deg. 12 min. 31 sec. West 130.20 feet to an IPS set in a 30’ alley; thence following the 30’ alley, North 39 deg. 47 min. 29 sec. East 100.41 feet to an IPS set in the right of way of Jones Street; thence following the right of way of Jones Street, South 50 deg. 12 min. 31 sec.

130.20 feet to an existing concrete monument were Jones Street intersects with South Raiford Street; thence following the right of way of South Raiford Street, South 39 deg. 47 min. 29 sec. West 100.41 feet to the point and place of BEGINNING, and being a lot containing 0.300 acres, (13,074 square feet) and being known as 804 South Raiford Street, North Carolina, as set forth in a survey entitled “Survey for Willie Broadie”, dated April 29, 2004 and prepared by Jimmy C. Barbour, PLS. Together with improvements located thereon; said property now known as and being located at 800 South Raiford Street, Selma, North Carolina.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of

the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to

be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the New Hanover County courthouse at 11:00AM on January 9, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in New Hanover County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Alton England and Fiona England, dated January 10, 2007 to secure the original principal amount of $266,000.00, and recorded in Book 5131 at Page 2069 of the New Hanover County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 6 0 3 3 Shiloh Dr, Wilmington, NC 28409 Tax Parcel ID: R07906004-011-000

Present Record Owners: A l to n England The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Alton England.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or

seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the

landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is November 21, 2023. _________ ____________________________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com

of sale at the New Hanover County courthouse at 10:00AM on January 9, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in New Hanover County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Dimitre Dimitrov and MaryAnn Dimitrov, dated November 15, 2017 to secure the original principal amount of $312,000.00, and recorded in Book 6103 at Page 580 of the New Hanover County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 612 Little Pony Trl, Wilmington, NC 28412 Tax Parcel ID: R08500-002-036-002 Present Record Owners: T h e Estate of Dimitre Dimitrov and The Estate of MaryAnn Dimitrov

The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are The Estate of Dimitre Dimitrov and The Estate of MaryAnn Dimitrov.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever

is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the

agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is December 22, 2023.

All that parcel of Land in Forsyth County, State of North Carolina, as more fully described in Deed Book 2571, Page 874, ID# 4208T009, BEING known and designated as Metes and Bounds Property. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 3832 Tangle Oak Drive, Clemmons, North Carolina.

Commonly Known As: Clemmons, NC 27012

3832 Tangle Oak Dr,

Tax/Parcel Id: 4208T009 Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

This conveyance is made subject to the restrictions in the use of the above described property which are set out in an instrument executed by J. C. McDaniel and wife, Barbara R. McDaniel, on June 8, 1965, and recorded in Deed Book 411, at page 235, in the Iredell County Registry, said restrictions being incorporated in this deed by reference and made fully applicable to the use of the above described property.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased

on January 11, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Mooresville in the County of Iredell, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING Lot No. 4, Palos Verde Estates, Plat Book 48, Pages 11-12, Iredell County Registry. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 115 Palos Verde Drive, Mooresville, North Carolina.

Tax Parcel Number: 4648-23-4322 Property Address: 115 Palos Verde Mooresville, NC 28117

Drive

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.”

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 15250 - 68564

10-009574

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 16551 - 77140

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 13657 - 59850

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 5447 - 32770

22-115020

_________ ____________________________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Aaron Gavin, NCSB# 59503 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com 22-114568

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B10 TAKE NOTICE

RANDOLPH AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 22 SP 307 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Joe Keith Loy and Sandra Loy (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Joe Keith Loy) to Laurel A. Meyer, Trustee(s), dated December 12, 2014, and recorded in Book No. RE2420, at Page 446 in Randolph County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Randolph County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having

23 SP 89 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, RANDOLPH COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Jacquelynn Allred a/k/a Jacquelynne Allred to Chicago Title Insurance Company, a Nebraska Corporation, Trustee(s), which was dated July 15, 2019 and recorded on July 18, 2019 in Book 2658 at Page 1144 and rerecorded/modified/corrected on April 21, 2023 in Book 2854, Page 1591, Randolph County Registry, North Carolina.

Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located,

STANLY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION STANLY COUNTY 23sp136 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY HELEN K. COLEY DATED JUNE 25, 2004 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 1007 AT PAGE 183 AND REFORMED BY ORDER RECORDED AUGUST 14, 2023 IN BOOK 1829, PAGE 571 IN THE STANLY COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 145 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Ronald Drye (Deceased) (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Ronald Drye, Heirs of Ronald Drye a/k/a Ronald L. Drye: Heidi Lopez, Misti M. Kohler) to William R. Echols, Trustee(s), dated June 1, 2005, and recorded in Book No. 1062, at Page 0776 in Stanly County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Stanly County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Albemarle, Stanly County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 11:30 AM on January 10, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Norwood in the County of Stanly, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: Parcel 1 Lying and being in Center Township, Stanly

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23 SP 146 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Ronald Alley, Jr. and Christen Alley (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Ronald Alley, Jr. and Christen Alley) to Huneycutt Law, Trustee(s), dated August 22, 2022, and recorded in Book No. 1796, at Page 1316 in Stanly County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Stanly County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Albemarle, Stanly County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 11:30 AM on January 10, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Albemarle in the County of Stanly, North Carolina,

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, STANLY COUNTY 23 SP 115 Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by James Douglas Davenport and Rene Gardine Davenport aka Rene S. Davenport, in the original amount of $30,000.00, payable to National Equity Corp., dated September 9, 1997 and recorded on October 23, 1997 in Book 0645, Page 0635, Stanly County Registry.

Default having been made in the payment of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Anchor Trustee Services, LLC having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Stanly County, North Carolina, and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door or other usual place of sale in Stanly County, North Carolina, at 2:00 pm on January 18, 2024, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property, to wit: Being all of that certain 1.218 acre parcel of land on the South side of Rocky River Springs Road (State

UNION IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION UNION COUNTY 23sp552 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY OPAL E. SAVAGE DATED DECEMBER 23, 2014 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 6365 AT PAGE 1 IN THE UNION COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured

directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in Asheboro, Randolph County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 10:00 AM on January 9, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Archdale in the County of Randolph, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: Being all of Lot 22 of Aldridge Farms, Section II, a map of which is recorded in Plat Book 27, Page 80 in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Randolph County, North Carolina. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 4216 Huff Road, Archdale, North Carolina.

Parcel ID Number: 7728161772 Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased

or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on January 9, 2024 at 01:00 PM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Randolph County, North Carolina, to wit: Situated in the Township of Liberty, County of Randolph and State of North Carolina: Beginning at an iron stake in the northwest corner of Tabitha Turpin’s property; and running thence north 6 degrees east 84.92 feet to an iron stake; thence south 84 degrees 35 minutes east 221.99 feet to an iron stake in the west line of Stout Chair Company, Incorporated; thence south 6 degrees 28 minutes west 50.27 feet with the line of Stout Chair Company, Incorporated, and Gregson to Gregson’s corner; thence south 6 degrees 44 minutes west 37.15 feet to an iron stake, the corner of Tabitha Turpin; thence north 83 degrees 56 minutes west 221.10 feet to the beginning.

by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of

the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the

property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Said property is commonly known as 525 S Fayetteville St, Liberty, NC 27298.

To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are JEM MARKETING, LLC.

property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

A Certified Check ONLY (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED.

An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination [NCGS § 45-21.16A(b)(2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 2959 - 45904

Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988

Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record.

Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record.

and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Stanly County courthouse at 11:00AM on January 10, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Stanly County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Helen K. Coley, dated June 25, 2004 to secure the original principal amount of $65,550.00, and recorded in Book 1007 at Page 183 of the Stanly County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 724 N 2nd St, Albemarle, NC 28001

Tax Parcel ID: 19635 Present Record Owners: Helen K. Coley (99% interest) and Georgia A. Lamb and J. Arthur Lamb (1% Interest) The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Helen K. Coley (99% interest) and Georgia A. Lamb and J. Arthur Lamb (1% Interest).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject

to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order

for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is December 21, 2023. _________ ____________________________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Aaron Gavin, NCSB# 59503 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com Posted: By:

County, and being more particularly described as follows:

This description taken from a survey prepared

by Rogell E. Hunsucker, R.L.S., L-2488, For Todd Smith Bowers and wife, Teresa S. Bowers on June 22, 1984.

authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family

Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded

releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the

Road #1940) as shown on a plat of Boundary Survey dated July 26, 1995 by Charles E. Moon, North Carolina Registered Land Surveyor of property of James D. and Rene S. Davenport; and being further described as follows: Beginning at a railroad spike in the centerline of Rocky River Springs Road a new corner with James Davenport, located two calls from a nail set at the centerline intersection of Rocky River Springs Road and Southern Road (State Road #1995), namely (1) South 73-04-30 West 604.34 feet to a nail set centerline of State Road #1940 and centerline of a branch; and (2) South 73-30-20 West 223.52 feet to the point of beginning; thence a new line with James Davenport, South 16-0930 East (passing a rebar set at 30.12 feet) a total distance of 233.69 feet to a rebar set in the center of an old road bed, in the line of Charles Phillips (see Deed Book 322, Page 503); thence with the center of said old road and with the line of Phillips, North 76-00 West 336.00 feet to a rebar set; thence North 61-56-30 West 179.59 feet to a nail set at the centerline intersection of Rocky River Springs Road and the old road bed; thence with the centerline of Rocky River Springs Road, four calls: (1) North 86-25-50 East 124.25 feet to a nail set, (2) North 83-40 East 104.76 feet to a nail set, (3) North 80-00 East 100.31 feet to a nail set, and (4) North 76-39-30 East 96.10 feet to a railroad

spike, the point and place of beginning.

Together with improvements located hereon; said property being located at 36106 Rocky River Springs Road, Norwood, NC 28128. Tax ID: 654301078283 Third party purchasers must pay the recording costs of the trustee’s deed, any land transfer taxes, the excise tax, pursuant North Carolina General Statutes §105-228.30, in the amount of One Dollar ($1.00) per each Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or fractional part thereof, and the Clerk of Courts fee, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes §7A-308, in the amount of Forty-five Cents (0.45) per each One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) or fractional part thereof with a maximum amount of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00). A deposit of five percent (5%) of the bid or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale and must be tendered in the form of certified funds. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts will be immediately due and owing.

Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS WHERE IS. There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating

to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, special assessments, land transfer taxes, if any, and encumbrances of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owners of the property are James D. Davenport and Rene S. Davenport.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes §45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the Clerk of Superior Court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination (North Carolina General Statutes §45-21.16A(b)(2)). Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of termination. If the Trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any

reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the Substitute Trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Union County courthouse at 10:00AM on January 11, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Union County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Opal E. Savage, dated December 23, 2014 to secure the original principal amount of $59,300.00, and recorded in Book 6365 at Page 1 of the Union County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 1 1 0 5 Harvard St, Monroe, NC 28112 Tax Parcel ID:

09276055 Present Record Owners: T h e Estate of Opal E. Savage The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are The Estate of Opal E. Savage.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer

tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began

or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is December 22, 2023. _________ ____________________________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Aaron Gavin, NCSB# 59503 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com Posted: By:

BEGINNING at a new iron spike In the centerline of S.R. 1745; this new spike being located N. 42-27-11 E. 62.73 feet by way of a tie line from an existing nail in the centerline of S.R. 1745, this existing nail being S. 46-48-01 E. of an existing iron pipe which is located where the southwestern boundary line of Paul Bowers intersects the right of way of S.R. 1745, and running S. 47-30-36 E. 95.39 feet to a new iron pipe and crossing through a new iron pipe in the edge of S.R. 1745 at 30 feet from the point of beginning; thence turning and running N. 57-3016 E. 309.72 feet to a new nail in the centerline of S.R. 1746 and passing through a new iron pipe at 279.72 feet; thence turning and running with the centerline of S.R. 1746 N. 26-17-47 W. 151.43 feet to a new nail in the centerline of S. R. 1745; thence turning and running with the centerline of S.R. 1745 for the following co-ordinates and distances; S. 60-17-15 W. 47.36 feet to a new nail, thence S. 53-05-37 W. 50.00 feet to a new nail; thence S. 48-13-33 W. 60.01 feet to a new nail; thence S. 44-58-13 W. 100.02 feet to a new nail, thence S. 42-45-00 W. 100.07 feet to a new nail being the point of beginning, This parcel being located on the southwestern corner of the intersection of State Roads 1745 and 1746 and containing 1.00 acre, note or less, subject to the right of way of said State Roads.

and being more particularly described as follows: Lying and being in Stanly County, State of North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: Being all of Lot No.4, as shown on “Final Plat of Vickers’ Plantation, Section One”, dated June 26, 1990, by Martin F. Hennigan, in Plat Book 15, Page 15, Office of the Register of Deeds for Stanly County, North Carolina, reference to which is hereby made. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 2617 Plantation Way, Albemarle, North Carolina.

For reference, see Deed recorded in Record Book 1554, Page 958 in the Office of the Register of Deeds for Stanly County, North Carolina. The following information is included for reference purposes only: Current Parcel ID No.: 6559-04-80-5020 Current Street Address: 2617 Plantation Way, Albemarle, NC 28001

Parcel 2 Being all of that 0.28 acre parcel of land depicted on plat in Plat Book 19. page 115, Stanly County, N.C. Public Registry, reference to which being hereby made.

Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 42318 Bowers Road, Norwood, North Carolina.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or

the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

File No.: 23-02351-FC01

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this

23-115578

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 15673 - 71269

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 16697 - 78086

Anchor Trustee Services, LLC Substitute Trustee By: ___________________________________ _____ David W. Neill, Bar #23396 McMichael Taylor Gray, LLC Attorney for Anchor Trustee Services, LLC 3550 Engineering Drive, Suite 260 Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 404-474-7149 (phone) 404-745-8121 (fax) dneill@mtglaw.com

23-116512

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

B11

TAKE NOTICE

WAKE 22SP002439-910 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE

that .37 acre parcel as conveyed by the Grantor in Deed Book 3808, Page 460. This being the same property conveyed to the Grantor’s recorded September 11, 1985 in Deed Book 3555, page 268, Wake County Public Registry.

Parcel Green

ID: Dr

0026841.

Cary

111 NC

Forest 27511

NORTH CAROLINA, WAKE COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Wallace Bell and Ethel L. Bell to Fidelity National Agency Solutions- a Division of Fidelity, Trustee(s), which was dated October 24, 2008 and recorded on October 29, 2008 in Book 013286 at Page 00411, Wake County Registry, North Carolina.

Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on January 10, 2024 at 10:00 AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Wake County, North Carolina, to wit: Being all of that 1.306 acre tract as listed in Deed Book 3555, page 268, less and except

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION WAKE COUNTY 23SP002758-910 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY BETH D. DALE AND ANN W. DAVENPORT AND THOMAS HAYWOOD DAVENPORT DATED SEPTEMBER 30, 2002 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 9638 AT PAGE 1 IN THE WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION WAKE COUNTY 23SP003037-910 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY MICHAEL A. BEASLEY AND JAIME M. BEASLEY DATED MAY 11, 2005 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 11356 AT PAGE 401 IN THE WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23SP003257-910 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Shannan Vance (deceased) (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Shannan Vance, Heirs of Shannan Vance: Travis T. Vance) to David E. Waters and Anthony B. Olmert, Sr., Trustee(s), dated November 30, 2022, and recorded in Book No. 019211, at Page 01226 in Wake County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Wake County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the Wake County Courthouse door, the Salisbury Street entrance in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, or the customary location

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23SP002797-910 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made

by Craig Marcel Smith (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Craig Marcel Smith) to Stewart Title Guaranty Company, Trustee(s), dated September 7, 2005, and recorded in Book No. 011577, at Page 01022 in Wake County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Wake County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the Wake County Courthouse door, the Salisbury Street entrance in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 1:30 PM on January 8,

22 SP 1037 AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, WAKE COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Sara A. Ciesla and Kevin L. Ciesla to Ronald D. Haley, Trustee(s), which was dated July 26, 2013 and recorded on July 26, 2013 in Book 015378 at Page 02134, Wake County Registry, North Carolina.

Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county

AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 19SP000922-910 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Shirley P. Chen (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Village Capital, LLC) to ***Los Angeles*** CTC Real Estate Services, Trustee(s), dated February 25, 2008, and recorded in Book No. 012993, at Page 02355 in Wake County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds Wake County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the Wake County Courthouse door, the Salisbury Street entrance in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 1:30 PM on

And being more particularly described by metes and bounds on said Deed as follows: BEGINNING at an iron stake in the eastern rightof-way line of Washington Street said stake being located S. 3° 00’ W. 257’ from the intersection of the Easter right-of-way line of Washington Street with the center line of Byrum Street and runs thence with the line of Mack Jones S. 81° 47’ 07” E. 234.67’ to an iron pipe, runs thence S. 8° 10’ 09” W. 263.50’ to an iron pipe, runs thence with the line of Willian Jones N. 77° 07’ 19” W. 213.12’ to an iron pipe in the Eastern right-of-way line of Washington Street, thence with the Eastern right-of-way line of said street N. 03° 00’ E. 247.20’ to the beginning being all of a 1.306 acre tract of land as shown by survey and map of Runa A. Cooper, R.L.S. dated May 7, 1976 and entitled “Property of Cary Realty and Insurance, Inc. Cary Towaship, Wake County, N.C.” Subject to 10’ Sanitary Easement along Eastern property line and 10’ storm sewer easement through portion of property as shown on said Survey.

LESS

AND

EXCEPT:

BEGINNING at an iron pipe on the eastern margin of Washington Street, said pipe being the southwest corner of a tract recorded in Deed Book 3555, Page 278, Wake County Registry and running thence with the said margin of Washington Street North 03° 00’ East 75 feet to an iron pipe; thence a new line South 77° 07’ 19” East 219.90 feet to an iron pipe in the eastern line of the tract of which this is a part; thence with said line South 08° 10’ 09” West 74.13 feet to the southeast corner of said tract; thence with the southern line of said tract, North 77° 07’ 19” West 213.12 feet to the Beginning containing .037 acre as surveyed by George L. Lott, Registered Surveyor, dated May 29, 1986.

Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record.

Said property is commonly known as 111 Forest Green Dr, Cary, NC 27511.

A Certified Check ONLY (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED.

no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record.

To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are ALL LAWFUL HEIRS OF ETHEL L. BELL. An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination [NCGS § 45-21.16A(b)(2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988 File No.: 19-11620-FC02

Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited

of sale at the Wake County courthouse at 11:00AM on January 9, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Wake County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Beth D. Dale and Ann W. Davenport and Thomas Haywood Davenport, dated September 30, 2002 to secure the original principal amount of $92,200.00, and recorded in Book 9638 at Page 1 of the Wake County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record.

Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 4 7 0 5 Treys Ct, Apex, NC 27539 Tax Parcel ID: 0185754 Present Record Owners: T h e Heirs of Beth D. Dale and the Estate of Thomas Haywood Davenport The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are The

Heirs of Beth D. Dale and the Estate of Thomas Haywood Davenport.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is November 21, 2023. _________ ____________________________

Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com Posted: By:

holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Wake County courthouse at 11:00AM on January 9, 2024, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Wake County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Michael A. Beasley and Jaime M. Beasley, dated May 11, 2005 to secure the original principal amount of $488,000.00, and recorded in Book 11356 at Page 401 of the Wake County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

Address of property: 6 6 1 3 Swallowtail Ln, Raleigh, NC 27613 Tax Parcel ID: 0274739 Present Record Owners: Michael A. Beasley and Jaime M. Beasley

The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Michael A. Beasley and Jaime M. Beasley.

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever

is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted.

This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October 1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the

landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The date of this Notice is November 14, 2023. _________ ________________ ____________ Jason K. Purser, NCSB# 28031 Attorney for LLG Trustee, LLC, Substitute Trustee LOGS Legal Group LLP 10130 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 400 Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 333-8107 | (704) 333-8156 Fax | www.

LOGS.com Posted: By:

designated for foreclosure sales, at 1:30 PM on January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Wake Forest in the County of Wake, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: Parcel Number 1840978563

to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this

property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to

be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons

of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the

sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record.

To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Sara A. Ciesla and Kevin L. Ciesla, Wife and Husband.

written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination [NCGS § 45-21.16A(b)(2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988

BEING all of Lot 70, in a subdivision known as “The Townes at Gateway Commons” and same duly recorded in Map Book 2020, Page 1091-1097, Wake County Registry, North Carolina. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 505 Toran Drive, Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant

2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Knightdale in the County of Wake, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 86, of Baywood Forest Subdivision, as same is shown on map thereof recorded in Map Book 1991, Page 1064, Wake Public Registry, reference to which is hereby made for a more particular description. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 5424 Baywood Forest Drive, Knightdale, North Carolina.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.”

courthouse for conducting the sale on January 17, 2024 at 10:00 AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Wake County, North Carolina, to wit: BEING all of Lot 69, Section 2B, Phase Four, Staffordshire Subdivision, as recorded in Book of Maps 1993, Page 221, Wake County Registry.

Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record.

Said property is commonly known as 945 Saint Catherines Drive, Wake Forest, NC 27587.

A certified check only (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED.

January 8, 2024 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Raleigh in the County of Wake, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: All that certain lot or parcel of land situated near the City of Raleigh, Leesville Township, Wake County, North Carolina and more particularly described as follows:Being Lot Number 37, Black Horse Run Subdivision, Section 1, as recorded in Book of Maps 1973, Page 383, Wake County Registry. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 3412 Hackney Court, Raleigh, North Carolina.Source of Title is Book 3258, Page 493 (recorded 03/26/84) Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale,

An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing

transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed.

Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons

23-115880

23-116768

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 16655 - 77762

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 15900 - 72648

File No.: 18-07724-FC02

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit.

The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided

that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination.

Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 1269878 - 9690

B12

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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A memorial to Sgt. Nix outside Greensboro Police headquarters on East Police Plaza. Community members and fellow law enforcement have left flowers, department patches, and notes of remembrance.

WHAT’S HAPPENING More student and government IDs approved for voting The State Board of Elections in North Carolina has authorized 21 additional student and government identification cards for use in voting. This expansion, applicable to both primary and general elections in 2024, supplements the 100 IDs previously approved in July 2023.

The approved IDs for voting include Sandhills Community College, and employee IDs for numerous municipalities and school districts. The full list of acceptable IDs are available at ncsbe.gov/voterID. While a driver’s license is the most common form of ID, the state offers a range of options. A free ID can be acquired from your county board of elections or NCDMV.

NC Medicare Advantage open enrollment now open North Carolina seniors should review their Medicare Advantage plans, with the open enrollment period running from now through March 31, 2024, offering a chance to modify coverage as needed.

During this period, enrollees in Medicare Advantage Plan (Medicare Part C) can switch to a different Medicare Advantage Plan, with or without drug coverage, or revert to Original Medicare. This may also include joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.

Changes will take effect the first day of the month following the plan’s receipt of the coverage request.

Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program counselors, available at 1-855408-1212, provide assistance but are not licensed insurance agents. They do not endorse or sell any products. For further help, the Medicare Plan Finder and 1-800-MEDICARE (1800-633-4227) are also available.

Greensboro police sergeant killed in off-duty incident at gas station Three suspects arrested after shooting cop over stolen beer

Sgt. Nix was a 23-year veteran of the department.

By Jordan Golson North State Journal GREENSBORO — An off-duty Greensboro Police sergeant was shot and killed by suspects who allegedly stole beer from the Sheetz gas station on Sandy Ridge Road in Colfax Saturday night.

Sgt. Philip Dale Nix, a 23-year veteran of the Greensboro Police Department, witnessed individuals stealing beer from the station and was shot after confronting them. Despite immediate aid from another off-duty Greensboro police officer and a Guilford County paramedic, Nix died at a local hospital.

“I am angry, and I’m sad,” said an emotional Greensboro Mayor Nancy B. Vaughn at a Sunday press conference. “It shows the dedication of our police officers that, whether on duty or off

COURTESY GREENSBORO PD

duty, they are always focused on protecting our community and serving our community. And I think he is a hero.”

Three Winston-Salem resi-

dents — Jamere Justice Foster, 18; Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, 18; and John Walter Morrison, 28 — were arrested. Winston-Salem police assisted in

the arrests.

Foster is charged with first-degree murder, while Blackwell and Morrison face accessory charges.

Foster and Morrison are held without bond, and Blackwell’s bond is set at $500,000. Additional charges are being considered.

Arrest warrants allege the stolen beer was valued at $83.45.

The suspects reportedly discussed disposing of the firearm and the getaway vehicle’s license plate.

A “Blue Alert” was sent, the first in North Carolina, according to archives of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, the organization that manages the system. It’s similar to the Amber and Silver alerts for missing children and senior citizens, notifying of an extraordinary threat to law enforcement and the public, and is received on smartphones and broadcast via media outlets.

Saturday’s alert, sent at 6:10 p.m. advised of a Chevrolet EquiSee SHOOTING, page 2

2024 brings key races for Stanly County voters The primary election is scheduled for March 5

By Jesse Deal Stanly County Journal IN BOTH the March 5 primaries and Nov. 5 elections this year, local voters will soon make their mark in reshaping state congressional races, the county’s board of commissioners, and the school board.

Stanly County voters have a history of coming to the polls for their democratic duties.

In 2022, over half (53.6%) of registered voters in the county voted in the November general election, making their voices heard in the ballot box while exceeding the averages of 47.3% in North Carolina and 46% nationally.

Fresh faces to compete in NC House District 67 In three months, Oakboro resident Cody Huneycutt or Albemarle resident Brandon King will win the Republican Party primary race for the District 67 seat of the North Carolina House of Representatives.

With Rep. Wayne Sasser (R) announcing that he will not seek his fourth term, the state congressman has thrown his support behind Huneycutt, who worked for him in a policy advisor role and has eight years of overall experience in the NC General Assembly.

Huneycutt’s opponent, King, is a sitting Stanly County Commissioner and the current owner of Albemarle Outdoor Supply. In November, the GOP winner will compete against Daniel Quick (D) of Badin for Sasser’s seat.

NC Senate District 33 set for rematch of 2022 candidates In a rematch of the 2022 general election for the state Senate’s District 33 seat (representing Stanly County and Rowan County), two China Grove residents — Republican incumbent Sen. Carl Ford and Democrat Tangela (Lucy Horne) Morgan — will face off in November.

Once again, neither nominee has a primary challenger.

Ford came away with 73.3% of the votes (52,235) in 2022, nearly tripling Morgan’s 26.7% (19,058).

Seeking his fourth term in the seat, Ford assumed office on January 1, 2019. He previously represented the 76th district in the NC House of Representatives for three terms beginning in 2013, going unchallenged in three consecutive general elections.

A pair of competitive races for Stanly County Board of Commissioners In the county’s board of commissioners, two of the board’s seven seats are up for grabs this year.

For the contested At-Large seat, Locust resident and incumbent Scott Efird will challenge Stanfield resident Levi Greene See RACES, page 2

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Stanly County Journal ISSN: 2575-2278 Neal Robbins, Publisher Jim Sills, VP of Local Newspapers Jordan Golson, Local News Editor Shawn Krest, Sports Editor Jesse Deal, Reporter Ryan Henkel, Reporter BUSINESS David Guy, Advertising Manager Published each Wednesday as part of North State Journal 1550 N.C. Hwy 24/27 W, Albemarle, N.C. 28001 TO SUBSCRIBE: 336-283-6305 STANLYJOURNAL.COM Annual Subscription Price: $100.00 Periodicals Postage Paid at Raleigh, N.C. and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: North State Journal 1201 Edwards Mill Rd. Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27607

CRIME LOG December 21 x Corey Allen Higgins, aged 33, was arrested for obtaining property under false pretense. Bond was denied.

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Rosebriar restaurant to host ribbon cutting The restaurant is celebrating one year under new ownership

By Jesse Deal Stanly County Journal ALBEMARLE — While the new year has just begun, the Stanly County Chamber of Commerce is already set for its first ribbon-cutting ceremony of 2024.

The event, scheduled for the afternoon of January 3rd, celebrates the Rosebriar restaurant’s first anniversary under its new ownership.

For nearly 40 years, the Rosebriar has been in business as a local eatery serving the county, specializing in sandwiches, burgers and — most notably — a wide selection of homemade

RACES from page 1

in March’s GOP primary race of Stanfield. In November, the winner of the two Republicans will have a Libertarian challenger in Melvin B. Poole of Oakboro, who previously served on the county’s school board for 22 years.

In the other commissioners’ race seeking the District 5 seat,

pies. Rosebriar’s pie menu includes traditional favorites such as coconut custard, strawberry custard, banana split, almond joy, chocolate silk and German chocolate.

At the end of 2022, Albemarle resident and former Rosebriar owner Gail Burris announced her retirement in a social media post, stating that Wes and Melissa Eudy would be purchasing the restaurant as it continued under their new ownership as of Jan. 3, 2023.

As fans of the restaurant after eating there many times, the Eudys were natural successors to the Burris’ ownership period.

“It is bittersweet, as I am leaving my baby the Rosebriar after 35 years,” Burris wrote. “I will miss all my customers who have become friends and family, but I am blessed beyond measure to

two GOP candidates — incumbent Peter Asciutto of Albemarle and Billy Dean Mills of Albemarle — will meet in the March primary.

At-Large seat brings potential change to Stanly County Board of Education While five of the Stanly school board’s seven seats are up for election, all but one are unop-

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turn it over to Melissa and Wes Eudy, who will love and cherish it and continue what Alan and I have built. They have the heart to go forward and make it better yet.”

One year later, the Rosebriar is flourishing under its new owners as it takes some of its services to new and unprecedented heights, especially in the pie-making category.

Last month, Atrium Health Stanly used a grant from the

Stanly Health Foundation to purchase 644 pies from Rosebriar, distributing the desserts to employees as a token of gratitude during the holiday season.

During one week in late December, Rosebriar’s staff made over 800 pies, more than double their previous weekly record.

“There are literally pies from the floor to the ceiling, everywhere. We’ve even got them stuck in nooks and crannies,” Melissa Eudy said in a video message on Dec. 21, documenting the process that led to the pie-making frenzy. “I do this because I have some amazing support from our staff. It was absolutely amazing to watch…The real heroes here are the nurse leadership team at the hospital that reached out and asked us to do this. We are so grateful for what the hospital staff does every day and grateful that they let us be a part of recognizing and appreciating all those employees.”

Catering menus and private room reservations for the Rosebriar, located at 528 Wiscassett Street, can be found at RosebriarAlbemarle.com.

posed.

Republican incumbents Bill Sorenson of Norwood (District 2), Glenda Gibson of Albemarle (District 3), Vicky Watson of Gold Hill (District 4), and Carla Poplin of Albemarle (District 5) are each running unchallenged to hold their current school board seats.

For the Stanly County Board

of Education At-Large race, Albemarle resident and incumbent Rufus Lefler (R) and Meghan Almond (R) of Stanfield will challenge each other in March. In 2022, Almond came within 67 votes and less than one percentage point (50.4% and 49.6%) of overtaking board member Dustin Lisk in the District 1 seat race.

During one week in late December, Rosebriar’s staff made over 800 pies, more than double their previous weekly record.

December 22 x David Adam Hathcock, aged 36, was arrested for misdemeanor larceny.

Bond amount set at $500.

December 23 x Anton Delrico Harris, aged 28, was arrested for breaking or entering a motor vehicle, misdemeanor larceny, felony larceny, and two counts of felony larceny of a motor vehicle. Bond amount set at $33,000.

COURTESY PHOTOS

Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, Jamere Justice Foster, John Walter Morrison (L to R).

December 27 x Latavias Shanell Bennett, aged 40, was arrested for nonsupport of a child, trafficking in methamphetamine, possession with intent to manufacture, sell, or deliver schedule IIcontrolled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and misdemeanor child abuse. Bond amount set at $155,302.39.

December 28 x Brandon Lee Blue, aged 40, was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, communicating threats, possession of drug paraphernalia, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Bond amount set at $10,000.00. x Manuel Alejandro Churion, aged 44, was arrested for misdemeanor probation violation and assault on a female. Bond amount set at $6,000.00.

SHOOTING from page 1

nox with NC tag KKA-4332, “last occupied by 2 black males in their early to mid 20’s, one wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants with black shoes, with a green/gray toboggan, one sus-

pect wearing a jean jacket with fur and gray sweatpants, with tennis shoes.” The alert was canceled at 7:52 p.m.

Sergeant Nix worked across numerous assignments at Greensboro PD in his 23 years, including the Criminal Inves-

tigations Division, Patrol Corporal, Patrol Sergeant, and his current assignment as Supervisor of the Family Victims Unit.

He was also a Team Leader on the department’s Peer Support Team for 12 years and Assistant Team Leader of the GPD Hon-

or Guard.

The Greensboro Police Department will share more on a fundraiser for the Nix family on its Facebook page. A memorial has been set up at police headquarters at 100 E Police Plaza in Greensboro.

RE-ELECT

PETER ASCIUTTO

YOUR CONSERVATIVE VOICE FOR STANLY COUNTY COMMISSIONER ELECTIONS MATTER. YOUR VOTE COUNTS. Paid for by Asciutto for County Commissioner

Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements: community@stanlyjournal.com Weekly deadline is Monday at Noon

Stanly County Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

OPINION Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor VISUAL VOICES

COLUMN | BETSY MCCAUGHEY

Stop funding the ‘rights for migrants’ legal scam You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin.

AS A RECORD NUMBER OF MIGRANTS invade the U.S., wreaking pain on New York City and other communities, one group is winning bigtime: the public advocacy lawyers. Their business is to constantly sue to win more so-called rights for migrants. Rights to shelter, rights to meals, rights to health care, even the right to vote in local elections.

Who pays the bills on both sides of these lawsuits? You do. Taxpayer money largely funds these legal combatants, which include the Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Aid Society, and Vera Institute of Justice.

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin. It’s absurd, but it’s about to get worse.

On Dec. 14, the New York City Council passed Resolution 556, calling on the state legislature to guarantee, as a right, that all migrants have lawyers paid for by taxpayers when they go to immigration court. It would be a “first-in-the-nation” guarantee.

Resolution 556 would give migrants more rights than American citizens have.

No one else is guaranteed a publicly funded lawyer in civil court matters such as housing court issues or divorce.

Yikes, the city council’s proposal would make the Big Apple even more of a magnet for migrants than it already is.

Who’s behind this push? The Vera

Institute of Justice, for one.

Vera claims we “need a federally funded universal legal defense service” for migrants. In short, a national army of left-wing lawyers paid by you. What better place to launch this lunatic idea than at the New York City Council?

The Vera Institute is not the only organization cashing in on migrants’ rights.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams went to court for temporary relief from the rigid rules and settlements that define what the city must provide the homeless, as tens of thousands of homeless migrants arrive.

Immediately, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless swooped in, claiming his plan would “gut” the longstanding rights of the homeless.

These lawsuits are largely funded by you, through grants and contracts from the city and state. Manhattan Judge Gerald Lebovits urged the parties to compromise, and arranged for the lawyers on all sides, representing the city, the state and the migrants, to meet in his chambers several times.

This scam is being repeated all over the nation. The Justice Action Center — also publicly funded — is suing the Biden administration on behalf of Haitian asylum seekers whose rights it claims were violated by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on horseback trying to stop them as they crossed the Rio Grande. Lawyers for the migrants and lawyers for the Biden administration will cross swords. Never

mind who wins. They’re all being paid by us.

It’s a free country. Anyone can sue. But why should we be paying for these legal boxing matches?

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the remedy for New York City’s mounting woes is to sue the federal government for more money. Wrong. That would send more wasted funds down the litigation rathole.

Cuomo also argues that the “right to shelter” should apply to all the counties, instead of just Gotham, and that state lawmakers should “fairly distribute” the migrant burden statewide. Spoken like a pol who is eyeing a city position and no longer cares about the rest of the state.

The notion that there is a “right to shelter” in the state Constitution was concocted by the Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit in 1981. It has tied the hands of city leaders ever since. It should be legally challenged. Extending that questionable right to migrants who just arrived here, and then imposing it statewide, would compound the wrong.

Tell lawmakers to stop funding the legal advocacy industry with our money.

It’s time to break the stranglehold these publicly funded lawyers, under the guise of doing good, have on our city and nation.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.

COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI

The drive-by smears of Clarence Thomas never end

Innuendo masquerading as reporting is the point.

MOST CLARENCE THOMAS hit pieces can’t stand up to perfunctory scrutiny. But the newest doesn’t even make any sense.

In a new five-person-bylined article, anti-Supreme Court outfit ProPublica takes a decades-old offhand complaint the justice made about his salary and spins it into a nefarious conspiracy. In 2000, Thomas apparently groused about his pay to “vocal conservative” Rep. Cliff Stearns. (The justice was hardly alone. It was a big issue in the 2000s.)

This interaction, we are informed, “set off a flurry of activity across the judiciary and Capitol Hill.” By “flurry of activity,” ProPublica means a single memo in which the possibility of raising justices’ salaries was discussed.

Like all SCOTUS smears, the piece is loaded with performative journalistic jargon — “newly unearthed documents,” for instance — meant to make it look like ProPublica is engaging in acts of reporting rather than activism.

Thomas, for example, doesn’t merely have rich friends like every other important person in D.C. He hangs out with a “coterie of ultrarich men.”

Thomas doesn’t attend policy gatherings like every other important person in Washington. He jets off to “off-therecord” conferences at a “five-star beach resort” and sails on a “162-foot yacht” — alternatively known as a “superyacht.”

Painting completely innocuous and standard behavior as weird and scurrilous is a hallmark of the constant effort to smear Thomas. Hey, look at Thomas and his “high-end RV” and look at that “elite circle” he’s running with.

Oh, sure, they give out scholarships to thousands of kids, but everyone knows what it’s really about: Thomas is a puppet of wealthy white folks.

“Precisely what led so many people to offer Thomas money and other gifts remains an open question,” notes ProPublica. This is the key sentence in the article. What “precisely” led antiSCOTUS dark money groups to send ProPublica millions is not an open question.

Innuendo masquerading as reporting is the point. Its purposeful implication is that Thomas can be bought. By my estimation, at least two-thirds of the article rehashes the outlet’s previous stories about Thomas’ relationship with Harlan Crow, who never had a case in front of the justice.

The hit lacks any evidence Thomas engaged in unethical behavior to benefit anyone, much less himself. Nothing prohibits justices from attending conferences. Nothing prohibits them from having friends. Nothing prohibits them from taking out loans to buy a house or an RV. Nothing prohibits them from whining about their salaries.

If anything, the story only confirms that Thomas, one of the least wealthy members of the court, would rather grouse about a lack of money-making opportunities than seek them out unethically.

But it’s also important to remember that no single story about “conservative” SCOTUS justices really matters in and of itself. The quality of the journalism isn’t the point. The quality sucks. The point is flooding the zone.

Much like the Russia collusion hoax, this is a compounding smear. The point is to sell the effort as an emerging story and organic journalism. The payoff never comes.

It all allows establishment media outlets to casually mention the “ethics” “controversies” that “surround” or “swirl around” Thomas. It allows anti-court pundits, who have no problem with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson pulling in millions in book deals from billion-dollar corporate entities, to pretend that “democracy” is under threat from the court. It allows half-wit senators to spin conspiracy theories and thousands of full-blown nitwits to get “Clarence Thomas” trending on X. It helps Democrats delegitimize the high court, the purpose of the entire project.

All non-leftist justices have been the target of these sloppy hits, but there is a fervent disdain for Thomas, who’s committed the gravest sin of defying the Left’s racial stereotypes. He shows contempt for a media that’s been trying to destroy him for more than 30 years by remaining consistently “conservative.”

His enemies have yet to offer any instance where this justice has deviated from his long-held legal philosophy of adherence to the Constitution as written.

And that’s the real problem.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.”

3

Stanly County Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

4 SIDELINE REPORT

SPORTS

MLB

The Knicks traded former Duke guard RJ Barrett to Toronto.

Oft-injured Sale traded to Braves from Red Sox Atlanta Chris Sale’s injury-filled career with the Boston Red Sox ended when the 34-year-old left-hander was traded to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Vaughn Grissom. Boston also is sending cash to the Braves, covering a portion of the $27.5 million salary the seven-time All-Star is owed in 2024. That’s the final guaranteed season of a $160 million, sixyear contract. Sale was acquired by Boston from the Chicago White Sox in December 2016 and has made nine trips to the disabled and injured lists with the Red Sox, mostly due to shoulder and elbow ailments.

NHL

Former Hurricanes defenseman Bear signs with Capitals Washington, D.C. The Washington Capitals signed defenseman Ethan Bear to a two-year contract last week. The deal is worth a pro-rated $4.125 million and carries a salary cap hit of $2.0625 million for the rest of this season and the 2024-25 season. Bear is coming off shoulder surgery after being injured playing for Canada at the world championships last spring.

The 26-year-old gives Washington additional depth on the blue line.

Bear is joining his fourth NHL organization after starting with Edmonton and playing one season with both Carolina and Vancouver.

MMA

McGregor says he’s returning to UFC Las Vegas Conor McGregor says he’s returning to the octagon for a fight against Michael Chandler on June 29 in Las Vegas.

McGregor made the announcement Sunday in a video posted to one of his social media accounts.

A UFC spokesperson did not confirm nor deny the fight. The 35-year-old McGregor, who hasn’t fought in the octagon since 2021, appeared to be at a restaurant drinking a glass of wine in the video.

He said the bout would be in the middleweight class.

The 37-year-old Chandler posted on social media in response to McGregor’s announcement, saying he always said he wanted McGregor at his biggest, baddest and best.

NBA

Slovenian guard Dragic announces retirement Miami Goran Dragic, a former All-Star guard with the Miami Heat and the leader of Slovenia’s team that won the EuroBasket championship in 2017, announced his retirement Sunday. Dragic spent 15 seasons in the NBA and played for seven teams — Phoenix, Houston, Chicago, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Toronto and the Heat. He was part of the All-NBA team in 2013-14, the same season in which he was voted the league’s most improved player, and made his lone All-Star appearance in 2018. Dragic, 37, averaged 13.3 points and 4.7 assists in his career.

AP PHOTO

Former Duke standout RJ Barrett traded to hometown Raptors The Knicks also sent Immanuel Quickley to Toronto for OG Anunoby

By Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press NEW YORK — The New York Knicks traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday and got back OG Anunoby, dealing two of their top offensive players but likely getting a boost to their defense with last season’s NBA leader in steals.

The Knicks also acquired Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn, while sending the Raptors a 2024 second-round pick belonging to Detroit.

The deal, which sends Barrett to his hometown team, left both clubs shorthanded for their games Saturday night. The Raptors lost in Detroit, where the

Pistons snapped their NBA record-tying losing streak at 28 games, while the Knicks fell in Indiana.

“Immanuel is a young, talented playmaker who we believe will provide a spark on both ends of the court. RJ is a versatile wing who is, of course, well-known in his hometown, and seeing him in a Raptors uniform will be a special moment for our fans and for all Canadians,” Toronto vice chairman and president Masai Ujiri said in a statement.

“It’s never easy to say goodbye, especially when players like OG and Malachi have spent their careers with our team. We wish Precious, Malachi and OG all the best.”

The deal comes four months after the Knicks filed a lawsuit against the Raptors, alleging they had conspired to steal thousands of videos and other scouting secrets after hiring a former Knicks

scouting employee.

Anunoby figures to step right into Barrett’s forward spot in the Knicks’ starting lineup. The 6-foot-7 swingman is averaging 15.1 points and had his highest-scoring game of the season when the Raptors visited the Knicks on Dec. 11, scoring 29 points.

“OG’s complete offensive game and ability to defend multiple positions will enhance our team on both ends of the court,” Knicks president Leon Rose said.

Barrett — who played one season at Duke in 2018-19 — averages 18.2 points but has struggled lately with his outside shot, going 2 for 12 from 3-point range over the last two games. The No. 3 pick in the 2019 draft helped the Knicks reach the playoffs twice in the last three seasons after missing them the previous seven.

Quickley was the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year

award last season, but there has been speculation he could be moved since the Knicks declined to give him a contract extension before this season. They will have to replace his 15 points per game off the bench and ability to play both guard positions.

“RJ and Immanuel both began their professional careers in Knicks uniforms and their contributions both on and off the court have had a great impact on this city and organization,” Rose added.

Achiuwa averaged 8.9 points and 6.1 rebounds in 153 games for the Raptors after they acquired him from Miami in August 2021.

The 6-8 forward could help the Knicks up front after they lost starting center Mitchell Robinson to a stress fracture in his ankle.

Flynn was a 2020 first-round pick who averaged 5.4 points in 175 games for the Raptors.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough dies at 84 The South Carolina native won three straight Cup titles in the 1970s

By Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press CALE YARBOROUGH, considered one of NASCAR’s all-time greatest drivers and the first to win three consecutive Cup titles, died Sunday. He was 84.

NASCAR announced the death of the Hall of Famer and South Carolina native in a statement. No cause was given.

“Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen. His combination of talent, grit and determination separated Cale from his peers, both on the track and in the record book,” said Jim France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR. “He was respected and admired by competitors and fans alike and was as comfortable behind the wheel of a tractor as he was behind the wheel of a stock car.”

Known for his fierce toughness and grit, Yarborough won the Daytona 500 four times and the Southern 500 at his home track of Darlington Raceway five times. His 83 Cup Series victories are tied with Jimmie Johnson for sixth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list, and Yarborough ranks fourth with 69 pole positions.

But one of his most famous moments came in the 1979 Daytona 500, the first to be televised

live flag to flag across the country. Yarborough, a Golden Gloves boxer who also earned a football scholarship to Clemson, crashed while racing with Donnie Allison on the final lap for the win.

The two drivers got out of their wrecked cars to fight, Allison’s brother, Bobby, pulled over to join the scrap and it was two Allison brothers versus Yarborough as Richard Petty crossed the finish line first.

It was a breakthrough moment for NASCAR, which, because of a snowstorm on the East Coast, was being shown on live television to its largest audience ever.

On X.com, Petty’s account offered condolences to the Yarborough family.

“His rivalry and competitive spirit with The King will always be a renowned part of NASCAR History, showcasing their mutual respect and the intensity of their competition on the track,” the post said.

Yarborough quit full-time racing after winning six races in 1980 and finishing second in the Cup standings after winning three straight crowns from 197678. He said at the time it was to spend more time with his three daughters. During his NASCAR Hall of Fame induction speech in 2012, Yarborough said he felt like he’d completed his journey from the bottom rung of the ladder to the top.

“I sure hoped I was going to get to this point because working in the back of the fields in that hot sun would make you want to do

AP PHOTO

Cale Yarborough, considered one of NASCAR’s all-time greatest drivers and the first to win three consecutive Cup titles, died Sunday. He was 84. something else,” he said. “I always dreamed of … ending up where I have ended up tonight.”

After retirement, Yarborough opened and operated a used car dealership in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina and served on the Florence County Council.

“The NASCAR industry and our millions of fans have lost one of the grittiest and most successful superstars of all time,” Winston Kelley, executive director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “Cale’s remarkable legacy and accomplishments in NASCAR will live in our minds, our hearts and the archives of the NASCAR Hall of Fame forever.”

Yarborough is survived by his wife, Betty Jo, and daughters Julie, Kelley and B.J.

“His rivalry and competitive spirit with The King will always be a renowned part of NASCAR History, showcasing their mutual respect and the intensity of their competition on the track.”

Richard Petty, on X.com, on the death of Cale Yarborough

Stanly County Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

5

Stanly County Athletes of the Year

Akala Garrett

Cole Smith

GIRLS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

BOYS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

PHOTO COURTESY TEXAS ATHLETICS

Albemarle, track & field It’s hard to imagine a better performance to close out a high school career. Garrett won state titles in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and 200 meters, setting state championship records in all three races and overall state records in two of them. She also won indoor championships in the 300 meters, 500 meters and 55 meter hurdles, finishing her North Carolina high school career with a total of 16 state titles. She also repeated as national champion in the 100 meters and 400-meter hurdles, finishing with five national crowns and a pair of World U20 titles.

She’s now running for the University of Texas and finished second in the 60-meter hurdles in her first collegiate indoor meet at the start of December.

COURTESY PHOTO

North Stanly, baseball The 6-foot2 righthander helped lead North Stanly to first place in the Yadkin Valley Conference with a 10-2 league record, 15-11 overall. Smith started the year by receiving a Rising Star Class of 2024 Award from the local Hot Stove Dinner, then pitched his way onto the All-State team striking out 122 batters in 69 innings, meaning nearly two out of every three outs he recorded was by strikeout. Smith posted a 1.32 ERA and will be headed to the University of North Carolina after his senior season in 2024.

His fastball was clocked in the upper 80s over the summer and he also features a curve, change and slider in his repertoire. Perfect Game has him rated among the top 500 prospects in the class, nationally

Honorable Mentions: Shalyn Bell, North Stanly volleyball and basketball; Aniston Talbert, North Stanly volleyball; Amari Baldwin, Albemarle basketball and volleyball; Addi Barbee, West Stanly volleyball; Lily Huneycutt and Teagan Ritchie, West Stanly softball; Kassie Swink and Mattie Poulos, South Stanly softball;

Honorable Mentions: Rene Salazar, West Stanly basketball and football; Ja’Zyion Geiger and Kaine McLendon, Albemarle football; Carson Morton, West Stanly baseball.

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6

Stanly County Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

MILLENIAL MONEY

5 financial New Year’s resolutions for 2024

By Chanelle Bessette NerdWallet THE NEW YEAR is upon us, and it’s a great time to plan for your financial future. Here are five financial resolutions to consider for 2024.

GET A HIGH-INTEREST SAVINGS ACCOUNT Interest rates are still high on savings accounts right now, especially high-yield online savings accounts. Some accounts are offering more than 5% annual percentage yield, which is 10 times more than the national average on savings accounts. Take advantage of this “free” money by opening a new account with a high rate or upgrading your current one. Just make sure you avoid fees as much as possible, and choose a bank or credit union that is easy for you to access, either through remote customer service or in person.

FOCUS ON STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT For many, student loan payments resumed in 2023. If you’re feeling anxious or uncertain about how much you owe, it’s best to face the numbers head-on and see if there’s any way you can reduce your pay-

AP PHOTO

The likeness of Benjamin Franklin is seen on U.S. $100 bills. ments. For example, if you earn less money now than you did before student loan payments were paused, then updating your income in your student loan portal may change the amount of your income-driven repayment.

There’s another way you might be able to reduce your payment if you’re on an income-driven repayment plan: If you have a retirement fund, you may want to consider putting some money away as a way to reduce your student loan payment.

“If you put your money in a

pre-tax retirement account, that lowers your taxable income for the year,” says Jen Mayer, an accredited financial counselor and founder of the Brooklyn, New York-based firm Fully Funded.

“The percentage that you’re paying for income-driven repayment is going to be lower.”

BUILD YOUR FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SET SOME GOALS Though personal finance isn’t a standard part of an Ameri-

can education, there are plenty of ways to learn more about budgeting, saving and investing.

Whether you browse reputable sites online, check out finance books from your library, or talk to a certified financial planner or other licensed expert, there are lots of people who are eager to impart their financial knowhow.

As you learn more about personal finance, you might find yourself getting inspired to create your own financial goals.

Perhaps you want to retire early, save for a down payment on a house or build a healthy emergency fund. Once you’ve nailed down your goals, you can determine how much money you’ll need, then set a timeline for saving it.

TRY USING AI FOR YOUR FINANCES In 2023, artificial intelligence chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard became popular tools for research and advice. In 2024, you can experiment with using them for your finances. You can give a bot specific prompts, such as “My salary is $50,000, and I want to save $5,000 by the end of the year. How can I do that?” and it can do the math for you, calculating what you need to save and suggesting how to cut

Tennessee proposes 1st express toll lanes around Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville

By Jonathan Mattise The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee transportation officials on Monday recommended that new, optional toll lanes be added to some highways around Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville.

At a news conference, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said the sections would include Interstate 24 between downtown Nashville and Murfreesboro; Interstate 65 between downtown Nashville and Spring Hill; Interstate 24 in Chattanooga around Moccasin Bend; and Interstate 40 west of downtown Knoxville near where it splits with Interstate 75.

The department is recommending to lawmakers and a new state transportation board that the first project be the Nashville-to-Murfreesboro corridor.

It will be years before anyAP PHOTO thing can be built. Officials will first need to complete fur- Long exposure photo shows cars and trucks moving on a highway. ther studies, as well as a bidding process to select which Tennessee’s details emerged and Arkansas over the Missisprivate entity would win con- Tennessee is to lure drivers who tracts. The state can contract are willing to pay a fee — which after lawmakers passed Gov. sippi River. The need to replace with private entities to develop, usually increases as traffic does Bill Lee’s massive roadway the 75-year-old bridge became build, finance, maintain or op- — to avoid congestion. Simi- funding law earlier this year, glaring when a crack was diserate the lanes. Tennessee ex- lar express lanes can be found which allows the new toll covered on the adjacent Inpects to close on its first deal across the South in Texas, Flor- roads. At Monday’s news con- terstate 40 bridge, temporarifor a choice lane project some- ida, Georgia, North Carolina ference, state transportation ly shutting it down to traffic in and Virginia, as well as plac- officials also discussed plans 2021 and forcing a slew of cars time in 2026.

In a state that currently has es such as California, Colorado, to replace the Interstate 55 and semi-trucks onto Interbridge that connects Memphis state 55. no tolls on roads, the goal in Washington and Minnesota.

back on different expenses. You can also instruct a chatbot to find you good deals for things like groceries, school supplies, gifts and more. Just remember that AI pulls information from various sources, and those sources may not always be accurate. Be sure to double-check any information you receive by doing the math yourself, checking with an expert or going to a reputable website to learn more.

SET UP RECURRING DONATIONS TO A NONPROFIT Recurring donations provide reliable income to nonprofit organizations, which allows them to plan their budgets more easily. If you’re interested in setting up recurring donations for a particular nonprofit, there are several ways you can do this.

Check with your employer to see if they match donations and if they have an online portal to do so. This can be an easy way to make your donations go further.

Before you make any donations, you may want to do an internet search for the organization to confirm that it is a 501(c) (3). These organizations are considered tax-exempt by the U.S. government, so you’ll be eligible to write off these donations when you do your taxes.

The goal is to lure drivers who are willing to pay a fee — which usually increases as traffic does — to avoid congestion.

The Interstate 55 project is expected to cost some $787 million. Tennessee and Arkansas have applied for a federal grant to cover half of it, and the two states would split remaining costs.

In addition to offering toll lanes as an option, the Republican governor’s road funding bill sets aside $3 billion for projects to be split equally among four regions. It also includes $300 million in transportation grants for local governments.

The law also raises electric vehicle fees and introduces a new one on hybrids, which the governor’s team has said will better reflect what those drivers would be paying in federal and state gas taxes. Like other states, Tennessee pays for its roads through gas taxes, a revenue stream that looks less reliable as more people switch to fuel-efficient and electric cars.

The new funding law avoids a traditional tax increase. Critics say the toll lanes will mostly benefit drivers who can afford paying for a quicker ride.

The department on Monday announced a 10-year plan totaling $15 billion, which also accounts for the state’s regular road funding sources. Fifty-five percent of the $15 billion goes toward construction projects, while 45% pays for road work, bridge repairs and other needs.

Stanly County Journal for Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Stanly County Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

obituaries obituaries

24

Barbara Jean (Taylor) Drye Robert L.

April 17, 1936 ~ January 14, 2023

Garmon Sr.

Barbara Jean Taylor Drye, 86, November 11, 1933 - December of Oakboro, passed away Saturday, 22, 2023 January 14, 2023 at her home.

Robert Leslie Garmon, Sr, Barbara was born April 17, 1936 90, ofCarolina Norwood, NC, in North to the latepassed Robert away Friday December 22, Lee Taylor and the late Eva Belle 2023 at his home surrounded Watts Taylor. by his She wasfamily. also preceded in death Mr. was born by husbandGarmon of 61 years, Keith Furr November 11, 1933, inLee Allen Drye, and brothers, Robert County, Kentucky and he was Taylor, Jr. and George Kenneth the son of the late Omar and Taylor.

Lena Garmon.

Survivors include children, Garmon wasofpreceded DebbieMr. (Mike) Williams in deathTeresa by his(Tom) wifeCurry Carolyn Albemarle, Gaddy Garmon.

Other of Oakboro, Douglas (Tammy) survivors include a son Robert Drye of Oakboro; grandchildren, L. Garmon, Jr. ofofAlbemarle, Melissa (Don) Parrish Albemarle, NC, four daughters Becky Samantha (Destiny) Smith of Brantley and Smith husband Dennis Oakboro, Bradley of Oakboro, Jonathan Stover of Peachland, and of Marshville, NC, Tammy Jessie Stoverand of Lylesville; Cauble husbandsisterTed of in-law, BeatriceNC, Goodman; many Norwood, and Elizabeth nieces and nephews; and her beloved Feidler and husband Kevin cats,ofBo and Garfield.

Norris, TN and Anna Barbara was a member of NC. Bundesman of Charlotte, Oakboro Baptist Church Shannon for over Ten grandchildren 60 years.

She worked over 30 years Harrington, Dennis Brantley, at Stanly Knitting Mills. After just Jr., Dustin Brantley, Lesley twoCauble, years of Amanda retirement,Cauble, she began managing the Oakboro Senior Erin Beth Pinkston, Jesse Center and didCaroline that for 18Bundesman, years Garmon, until this pastBundesman week. Barbara wasJulia Kendall and known for her good cooking and Feidler and fifteen greatalways taking care of others. She also grandchildren. loved going on day long shopping trips - she could out walk and out shop people half her age. She kept her mind and body active through gardening, word searches, and various other hobbies.

Dwight Farmer

January 24, 1939 ~ January 15, 2023

Charlene Worthington Dwight Britten Farmer Sr., 83,

of Norwood died morning, November 29,Sunday 1943 — DecemJanuary 15, 2023 at Forrest ber 21, 2023 Oakes.

Dwight was born January 24, Charlene Worthington, 80, 1939 in Stanly County the late of Stanfield, passedtogracefully Walter Virgil andof Martha into the arms JesusAdkins on Farmer.

He was a 1957 graduate Thursday, December 21, 2023, ofwith Norwood High and was family

by School her side. a United States Army Veteran.

She was the daughter of the He wasLloyd a member of Cedar Grove late Piercing Clark and United Methodist Church where he the late Elsie Mae Clark. had served as church treasurer and Charlene was married to choir member. He began his career John Worthington. Their with the Stanly County Sheriff’s marriage lasted 43 years, and Department moving to the Norwood was Department an earth-shaking, onceasin Police and retiring a lifetime love. made Chief of Police withThey the Town ofsure to laugh at each other, pray Norwood after many years of service. together, pick one another, Dwight was anon avid gardener, and care for one another. bird watcher and Carolina fan.

Charlene was He is survived by preceded his wife Hilda in death

by Vonda Dotson Whitley Farmer; one son D. Britten (daughter), Ricky Joe Amick Farmer Jr. (Mary) of McLeansville, (grandson), Dixie Counts NC; one daughter Sharon Farmer (sister), Doris Ryan (sister), Lowe (David) of Norwood; one Terry Clark (brother), Gordon sister Geraldine Dennis of Troy; two Clark (brother). grandchildren, Dwight Britten “Dee” Surviving family members Farmer III and Whitley Rose Hui include her husband, John Lowe.

Worthington, Jr.in ofdeath Stanfield; He was preceded by daughters, Connie Tommy Little (Tony) his son Alex, brothers, and of Stanfield, Rebecca Furr Jimmy, sisters, Nancy, Cornelia Annabell, Mae, son, and Betty.

(Ricky) Glennie of Concord; John Memorials may be made to Cedar Worthington (Gail) of North Grove Methodist Church, Port,United FL; granddaughter, Cemetery Choir(Lee) Fund of c/o Pam TabathaorFloyd Smith 36071 Rocky River JT Springs Albemarle, grandson Road, Norwood, NC 28128.

Bailey (Sharonda) of Charlotte, granddaughter, Zoe Furr of Salisbury; great-grandchildren, Tyler Dennis, Brandon Dennis (Kirsten), Cody Dennis (Sarah), Courtney Dennis, Mya Bailey, and Ella Bailey; great-greatgrandchild, Grayson Dennis.

James Roseboro

June 23, 1967 ~ January 10, 2023

Robert Dewitt Kimbrell, Jr.

James Arthur Roseboro, 55, of Albemarle, passed away Tuesday, January Health April10, 9, 2023 1934 at —Anson December 21, and Rehab.

2023 Mr. Roseboro was Kimbrell, born on Jr., Robert Dewitt June 1967 to the late Robert 89, 23, of Matthews, passed away and Delena Shipp Roseboro.

Thursday, December 21, He 2023 graduated fromVeterans South Stanly at NC State Home in High School and was employed by Salisbury.

Triangle Brick.

Heborn enjoyed watching Robert was April 9, football and basketball, especially the 1934 in North Carolina to the Carolina TarHeels and Miami. late Robert Dewitt Kimbrell In addition to his parents he is and the late LaValette Killian preceded in death by his brothers Kimbrell. and sisters: Barbara Lee Roseboro, He was alsoVerna preceded Dorothy Brown, Roseboro, in death by wife, Lorine Henrietta Ingram, and Harold B. Kimbrell; brother, Jon Roseboro.

Kimbrell; and by sister Margaret He is survived his sisters: Campbell.

Helen (James) Roseboro Edwards Robert was a wonderful of Albemarle, Mary Roseboro father, andMarion ofhusband, Washington DC, and grandfather.

He served in Morrison of Albemarle; brothers: the United States Air Force Thomas D. Roseboro of Charlotte, whereRoseboro he operated as a of Robert (Patricia) mechanic, radar Norwood, andspecializing Van Horne; ainspecial technology. wasMichelle a founding friend of over 40He years, member of the Northlake Assembly McLendon home; special of God, formerly known as nieces: Nybrea Montague, Knya Evangel Temple. Robert Little, and Laquanza Crump; special enjoyedRobert tinkering with cars, nephews: Jr., Desmond Roseboro, Marcus Lilly; watchingand sports, and hadand a love God Daphne Johnson; for daughter, music that led him to singand special in thefriends, churchVetrella choir. Johnson and Ben Survivors McLendon.include son, Kevin (Amy) Kimbrell of Harrisburg, NC. daughter, Kim (Chris) Auten of Matthews, NC; grandchildren, Kristina (Eric) Auten, Justin (Rachel) Auten, Kathryn Kimbrell and Karissa Kimbrell; sister, Diane Kimbrell.

Darrick Baldwin

Sybil Christine Burton

November 27, 1934 — December 30, 2023 Sybil Christine Burton, 89, of Concord, passed away Saturday, December 30, 2023 at Tucker Hospice House, surrounded by her loving family.

Sybil was born November 27, 1934 in Gastonia, North Carolina to the late Jesse and Irene Hooker.

She was also preceded in death by her husbands Clyde Long and Alfred Burton, and brother Thomas Wayne Hooker.

Survivors include daughter, Cindy Riley (Brad), daughter, Kathy Morrison (Philip), son, Nelson Hudson (Mark), grandchildren, Shelia Lister (Ted), Nathan Morrison (Lani), Philip Morrison II, Brookelyn Riley (Kennon), David Riley, and Charles Hunt (Tish), 10 great grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren.

January 7, 1973 ~ January 8, 2023

Darrick Vashon Baldwin, age 50, entered eternal rest, Sunday, January 8, 2023, Albemarle, North Carolina.

Born January 7, 1973, in Stanly County, North Carolina, Darrick was the son of Eddie James Baldwin Sr. and the late Phyllis Blue Baldwin.

Darrick enjoyed life, always kept April 16, and 1936enjoyed — December things lively making 22, others smile. His2023 presence is no September 7, 1943 ~ December longer in ourElizabeth midst, but his memory Shirley Mullis 30, 2023 will forever87, liveof inConcord, our hearts.NC Dorton, Harvey William Garrett He wasaway educated in the Stanly passed Friday, December passed away on Saturday, County public and attended 22, 2023 at schools her home.

December 30, 2023 at his home. Albemarle Senior High School, Shirl was born April 16, Harvey was born on Albemarle.

1936 in Concord, NC to the late September 9, 1943 to the late He was a great conversationalist Raymond Mullis and the late Harvey Dempsey Garrett and loved meeting Lula Mullis. people. Darrick and Ollie Gibson Garrett. never metwas a stranger andin always She preceded death He was a textiles retiree and showed and compassion his by herlove husband, William for "Bill" after retirement worked with fellowman. also loved his dog, MarshallHe Dorton; sisters, Metrolina Greenhouses.

Rocky.

Ruby "Boots" Poston and He is survived by his wife, He isJean survived by his father, Billie "Bill" Smith; and Shirley Garrett of the home, Eddie J. Baldwin Sr.; sisters: Crystal granddaughter, Mary Deane and his sister, Geneva Wright of (Eric) Jackson, LaFondra (Stoney) Dorton.

Medley, and Morgan Baldwin; Huntersville.

Survivors include son, Shane Eddie Baldwin Jr., Anton In addition to his parents, he brothers: Dorton; daughter, Shannon D. Baldwin, and Lamont Baldwin; a is preceded in death by his step Baker; son, Roman Dorton and host of other relatives and friends. A daughter Rebecca Lee McNeil. wife Meredith, all of Concord, limb has fallen from our family tree.

NC; Anna We willand notgrandchildren, grieve Darrick’s death; and Brady Baker, Davis and we will celebrate his life. We give Estella Dorton. thanksgiving for the many shared

Harvey Garrett

Shirley Elizabeth Mullis Dorton

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in SCJ at obits@stanlyjournal.com

memories.

John B. Kluttz March 23, 1935 - January 9, Sarah Gathings 2023 Morton John grew up in the Millingport

community where he-drove a school January 23, 1944 December bus and worked at the local gas 20, 2023 station during hisGathings High School years.

Sarah “Sissy” He graduated Morton, 79 offrom NewMillingport London, High inaway 1954 and entered into passed December 20, serviceatwith US Airforce 2023 the the McWhorter immediately afterward.

UponNC. Hospice House in Monroe, return the service, he and his Ms. from Morton was born high school Julie were January 23,sweetheart 1944 in Anson married NC in 1956.

Helate graduated from County, to the William Nashville Auto Diesel College later in and Beulah Gathings.

1959 began his career as aindiesel Ms.and Morton is preceded mechanic at Mitchell Distributing death by her husband Fred Company, moving his growing Lee Morton, Jr. She is also family to Charlotte they lived preceded in deathwhere by brothers: until their retirement.

Monroe, Joe, Junior, Hayward, When John purchased his first Bob, and Kermit Gathings and Model A Ford at the age of 17, he sisters: Kay Short and Francis said that he took the car to the Gathings.

She is survived by community mechanic when he had brothers: Wayne Gathings a small problem.The mechanicand told Thomas Gathings (Lynda). him that if he was going to keep the Ms. Morton lovingly car, he neededistoalso learn to work on remembered all sher nieces it. This is whenby John’ passion for and nephews: Billy Gathings, Model A Fords began and how he Patty Ratliff (Anthony), Peggy spent his happiest days with his best Hooks (Billy), Danny Gathings friends from around the globe for the (Ellen), Tammy rest of his life! Timmons, Debbie At ageHouston 50, after (Scott), years as a Detroit George Short (Melanie), Diesel Mechanic he and Julie Joey Gathings (Barbara), decided to take the plunge and Donna Talbert Wayne open a full Model(Rick), A Restoration Gathings, Tonya Bowers, Shop. TheyJr., thrived at their shop in Tony Gathings (Carmen), Cornelius, NC until their retirement Kelly O’Brien (Adrian), in 1998 when they moved back to Karen Striker (Robert), Jamie Cabarrus County.

John once again set up shop(Tammy), in his backMellissa yard garage Gathings where (Cory), he attracted a loyal group of Davis Perry Gathings friends who visited daily. and Melina Rousealmost (Brandon).

While on the farm in Gold Hill, John also began a lifelong love with Alis Chalmers tractors after he restored his Dad’s tractor and began amassing his collection of tractors as well.

John restored many cars of his own and had the crowning achievement of winning the most prestigious award from MARC, The Henry for a restoration that garnered top points. He was also presented with the Ken Brady Service Award the highest award given to members at the national level.

This is what John’s Model A Community had to say upon learning of his death: He was an active member of Wesley Chapel Methodist Church where he loved serving as greeter on Sunday mornings. He also belonged to the United Methodist Men. February 1, 1948 by —his December John is survived wife 2023 Julie Ussery23, Kluttz, for 66 years Eugene Kinard, Sr., of Robert the home.

He is also survived 75, Harrisburg, away by aofson John Davidpassed Kluttz (Kim) on Saturday,NC; December 23, of Oakboro, two daughters, 2023.

Sally Simerson of Denver, CO and Mr.Tusa Kinard was born on CO; Betsy (John) of Lafayette, February 1, 1948, toBonnie the late three grandchildren, Kluttz Joseph Gerald, Sr.Richfield, and Sarah Sammons (Ben) of NC Stille Kinard. In addition (Sarah) to his John Alexander McKinnon parents, he was alsoSeth preceded of Asheville, NC and William in death by(Amanda) his wife, Angel McKinnon of Germany; Andrews Kinard and brother five great-grandchildren, Charlotte, Meredith, Grant,Kinard, VictoriaJr. and Joseph Gerald Ronan.

John is also preceded Robert is survived by hisin death by his parents, Kluttz and son, Robert EugeneJ.S. Kinard, Mary Kluttz; a large Jr. andWyatt wife Clayton Tina; daughter, and lovingKinard; group of brothers and Kimberly son, Michael sisters, Jack Kluttz, Annie Kinard andMethias wife Sarah; Lou Kluttz Honeycutt, Jake Nelson grandchildren, Ava Kinard, Kluttz,Kinard, Julius Kluttz, Mary Patricia Grant Lily Dawrs, PhillipsDawrs, and a grandson, Oscar PenelopeKevin Miller, Fowler Kluttz.

Matthew Miller; brother, Steven Kinard; sister, Sarah Kinard Wingate and husband Earl.

Robert Eugene Kinard, Sr.

7

Doris Jones Coleman Ralph Hudson

7

October 11, 1944 - January 10, July 22, 1932 2023 ~ December 20, 2023 Ralph Hudson, 91,Coleman, of Doris Elaine Jones 78, Norwood, away went home passed into God’ s presence on Wednesday evening, December January 10 after a sudden illness and 20, 2023week-long at Atriumfight Health a valiant in ICU. Cabarrus in Concord.

Doris was born on October 11, Ralph was born Julyof22, 1944, in the mountains Marion, 1932 in Stanly County the NC while her father was to away fighting the US Navy during late PearlinClifford Hudson and WorldMae WarFrick.

II. Raymond Jones was Flora soHe proud to return afterhis the war and proudly served meet hisin little up in country thegirl!

USDoris Armygrew as an Durham, NC and After graduated from Atomic Veteran. serving High School.

She furthered inDurham the military, Mr. Hudson her studies at Watts&Hospital worked at Collins Aikman School of Nursing in Durham and Corporation in Norwood. graduated as a Registered Nurse in Ralph enjoyed being outside 1966. and always had big gardens. In Rev. Dr.patch Ted the Doris fall hemarried planted a big Coleman in 1966 and had two of collards and other greens. daughters Amy and Laura.that Doris He would have so many he raised Amy and Laura in North put a sign by the road letting Augusta, SC. folks know to help themselves.

Doris was neonatal In additionantoincredible his parents, he intensive care nurse for most of her is preceded in death by his son, career, and this was her passion.

Ashley Dale Hudson; brothers, The Augusta Chronicle did a feature Bryce Hudson and Vervle on her in 1985. She was a clinical Hudson. nurse manager in Augusta, Georgia is survived by his wife, atHe University Hospital NICU and Ann Livingston Hudson of worked there for 20 years. During the daughter Sandra thishome; time, Doris mentored young Helms (Greg) of Norwood; nurses and assisted in saving the daughter law,babies.

CindyShe Hudson lives of so in many also ofworked Norwood; grandsons, for Pediatrician Dr.Nick William Helms(Jacki) of Albemarle A. Wilkes in Augusta for several and A.prior D Hudson of Norwood; years to her NICU career. Doris great granddaughters , Eva area at retired from the mother/baby Claire Helms Susanna Atrium Stanlyand in 2007 after over 40 Helms. years of nursing.

Doris was a gentle and sweet spirit and loved her Lord. She never met a stranger, and she always left you feeling uplifted after talking with her. She would often claim that she had “adopted” friends into her immediate family, and honestly, she never made a distinction between the two. Positivity radiated from her like sunlight. She was selfless, funny, smart, and sentimental. During her lifetime she was an active member of First Baptist Church of Durham, First Baptist Church of Augusta, Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Augusta, and Palestine United Methodist Church in Albemarle.

She especially loved helping at church with older adults, youth, and children.

She 2, was especially talented May 1926 - December 22, at sewing from a young age and 2023 made gifts for friends, Christmas Spicy Opal Barefoot Price, ornaments, Halloween on Costumes, 97, passed peacefully doll clothes,22, pageant prom December 2023,dresses, at Trinity dresses, tote bags, scarves, Place in coats, Albemarle.

Opal was outfits for Amy and in Laura, and born May 2, 1926, Johnston Christening gowns for each of her County, to the late Braxton C grandchildren. and Betty Morgan Barefoot.

Doris was preceded in death by Opal was active in her her father Arthur Raymond Jones, church, Kerr Memorial Baptist her mother Mary Ellen Cameron inJones, Concord as sister long as her and her Maryanne health allowed, and Ogden Jones Brantley.

Baptist wheninclude she lived in Survivors her two Wilmington. precious daughters: Amy Cameron She was(partner preceded in deathNeal Coleman Dr. Edward by her husband, James Lacy Chernault) of Albemarle, NC, and Price, Kovess, Oliverio Hoover, Laurabrothers Lindahl Coleman and BC Barefoot, (husband David) ofsisters Cincinnati, Ohio; Mildred Lee, Mercedes Weekly, seven grandchildren: Cameron Atelia Caddell DavidSmith, Oliverio,Juanita Stephanie Jae Dejak, and Marjorie Washburn.

Luca Beatty Oliverio, Coleman John She isCarson survived

by Oliverio, daughters Dejak, Joseph Ryan Jennifer Concord, and NicholasPrice Dejak,ofand Jadon Richard Barbara and husband Oliverio;Blalock and numerous in-laws, Daniel Stanfield.

Almost nieces, of nephews, cousins, and loved daughters include Phyllis ones.

Herschenfeld, Ronda York, and April Vaillancourt.

Opal Price

Stanly County Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

8

STATE & NATION Retirements could tip control of the House majority. Republicans have the early edge

By Kevin Freking The Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — A chaotic year for the House came to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in this year’s elections.

About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won’t seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Meanwhile, only 14 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.

“Members sort of knew that this is what the institution is currently like when they chose to run for office,” said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank that maintains a database of vital statistics on Congress, including retirements. “Some of them may well be feeling frustrated at this point in time, but anybody who has been elected to Congress in recent years, they’re not surprised at what they’re finding when they are getting to Washington.”

Republicans had the most high-profile exits. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., became only the third lawmaker to be expelled by colleagues since the Civil War. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the first-ever speaker removed from that office by his colleagues. He opted to leave effective Dec. 31 rather than serve among the rank-and-file.

But it’s the departure of a handful of Democrats in competitive districts that has Republicans thinking the overall retirement picture gives them an advantage in determining who will control the House after the 2024 elections.

AP PHOTO

The Capitol Dome is seen as lawmakers prepare to depart for the holiday recess, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.

Reps. Katie Porter of California, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia proved they could win toss-up congressional districts in good election cycles for Democrats and not-so-good cycles.

They are all seeking higher office within their home states. Porter and Slotkin are running for the U.S. Senate. Spanberger is running for governor in 2025.

Democrats are also losing sixterm Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan to retirement, leaving them with another competitive open seat to defend in a state that will be crucial in the presidential election. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., is not seeking reelection

due to health challenges in a district that leans Democratic but is more competitive than most.

On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans leaving office generally represent districts that Democrats have little chance of flipping. They’ll be replaced

by Republicans, predicted Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the House Republican campaign arm.

“Retirements are a huge problem for the Democrats. They’re not a problem for us,” Hudson said.

The exception is Santos, who represented a competitive New York district. Democrats hope former Rep. Tom Suozzi can win

back the seat, which he gave up when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

Sometimes, legislators in the states tip the scales in determining the makeup of Congress. It’s one reason there are so few competitive races.

Three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina have essentially been left with little opportunity to return after GOP lawmakers in the state drew new boundaries for their congressional districts. What were once competitive seats became near locks for whichever Republican emerges from the state’s primary elections.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson

Alex Murdaugh’s pursuit of a new murder trial is set for an evidentiary hearing this month The Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. — The new judge handling the fallout over Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions plans to hold an evidentiary hearing late this month.

Murdaugh’s lawyers want another trial in the killings of the former lawyer’s wife and younger son, citing allegations that the court clerk improperly influenced the jury. The defense will get to put forth evidence at a three-day hearing expected to begin Jan. 29, according to a tentative schedule shared by a media liaison for former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal.

Jurors, the clerk and even the trial judge might have to testify under oath.

Murdaugh is serving life imprisonment without parole af-

AP PHOTO

Alex Murdaugh, center, is led out of Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies after being convicted March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. ter a jury found him guilty this March of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in

June 2021. He got sentenced this November for stealing about $12 million to an addi-

tional 27 years behind bars under a plea deal that resolved scores of state crimes related to money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud.

Toal must decide whether to run back a murder trial that lasted six weeks, involved over 70 witnesses and included about 800 exhibits. The state’s highest court appointed Toal to oversee the weighty matter of a new trial after Judge Clifton Newman recused himself.

Newman, who rose to celebrity in true crime circles for his deft guidance of the highly watched case, is set to leave the bench after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Central to the appeal are accusations that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill tampered with the jury. Murdaugh’s lawyers said in a Septem-

decided to run for attorney general rather than attempt to run again for a Charlotte-area seat that he had just won in the 2022 midterms. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a fellow freshman who flipped a toss-up district in the last election, also announced he would not be running, and would focus instead on a potential U.S. Senate bid in 2026. And Rep. Kathy Manning said she won’t file for reelection under the current maps but would run if a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new districts is successful.

Manning said the city of Greensboro in her district was split into three pieces and combined with rural counties. She won in 2022 by a margin of 9 percentage points, but she said the new district gives a 16-point advantage to a Republican candidate.

Democrats are hoping court-ordered redistricting in Alabama and Louisiana will favor their side and effectively make the redistricting battles a wash.

Ambition is also playing a role in the retirement trends. About half of the Democrats not seeking reelection to the House are seeking office elsewhere. That includes three members running for the seat once held by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who entered the Senate in 1992 and served more than three decades before her death in September.

Slotkin is running for the seat Sen. Debbie Stabenow has held for more than two decades. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is running for president against fellow Democrat Joe Biden.

“If you are interested in a higher office, you’re going to be sensitive to when those things come up. They don’t always come up,” Reynolds said.

ber filing that the elected official asked jurors whether Murdaugh was guilty or innocent, told them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and pressured jurors to reach a guilty verdict for her own profit. Hill is also said to have flown to New York City to be with three jurors during their post-trial television interviews and allegedly shared journalists’ business cards with jurors during the proceedings.

Hill has denied the allegations i n a sworn statement, saying she neither asked jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt before deliberations nor suggested to them that he committed the murders.

Adding to the intrigue is the recent revelation that Hill plagiarized part of her book about the case. Hill’s attorneys acknowledged in a Dec. 26 statement that Hill submitted a BBC reporter’s writing to her co-author “as if it were her own words.” The attorneys expressed Hill’s remorse and said the book has been unpublished “for the foreseeable future.”

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VOLUME 8 ISSUE 45 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2024 | RANDOLPHRECORD.COM

SUBSCRIBE TODAY: 336-283-6305

Randolph record THE RANDOLPH COUNTY EDITION OF THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

A memorial to Sgt. Philip Dale Nix outside Greensboro Police headquarters on East Police Plaza. Community members and fellow law enforcement have left flowers, department patches, and notes of remembrance.

WHAT’S HAPPENING More student and government IDs approved for voting The State Board of Elections in North Carolina has authorized 21 additional student and government identification cards for use in voting. This expansion, applicable to both primary and general elections in 2024, supplements the 100 IDs previously approved in July 2023.

The approved IDs for voting include Sandhills Community College, and employee IDs for numerous municipalities and school districts. The full list of acceptable IDs are available at ncsbe.gov/voterID. While a driver’s license is the most common form of ID, the state offers a range of options.

A free ID can be acquired from your county board of elections or NCDMV.

NC Medicare Advantage open enrollment thru March 31 North Carolina seniors should review their Medicare Advantage plans, with the open enrollment period running from now through March 31, 2024, offering a chance to modify coverage as needed.

During this period, enrollees in Medicare Advantage Plan (Medicare Part C) can switch to a different Medicare Advantage Plan, with or without drug coverage, or revert to Original Medicare. This may also include joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. Changes will take effect the first day of the month following the plan’s receipt of the coverage request.

Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program counselors, available at 1-855408-1212, provide assistance but are not licensed insurance agents. For further help, the Medicare Plan Finder and 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-6334227) are also available.

This enrollment period is exclusively for current Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees.

Greensboro police sergeant killed in off-duty incident at gas station Three suspects arrested after shooting cop over stolen beer

Sgt. Nix was a 23-year veteran of the department.

By Jordan Golson North State Journal GREENSBORO — An off-duty Greensboro Police sergeant was shot and killed by suspects who allegedly stole beer from the Sheetz gas station on Sandy Ridge Road in Colfax Saturday night.

Sgt. Philip Dale Nix, a 23year veteran of the Greensboro Police Department, witnessed individuals stealing beer from the station and was shot after confronting them. Despite immediate aid from another off-duty Greensboro police officer and a Guilford County paramedic, Nix died at a local hospital.

“I am angry, and I’m sad,” said an emotional Greensboro Mayor Nancy B. Vaughn at a Sunday press conference. “It shows the dedication of our police officers that, whether on duty or off

COURTESY GREENSBORO PD

duty, they are always focused on protecting our community and serving our community. And I think he is a hero.”

Three Winston-Salem residents — Jamere Justice

Foster, 18; Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, 18; and John Walter Morrison, 28 — were arrested.

Winston-Salem police assisted in the arrests.

Foster is charged with

first-degree murder, while Blackwell and Morrison face accessory charges. Foster and Morrison are held without bond, and Blackwell’s bond is set at $500,000. Additional charges are being considered.

Arrest warrants allege the stolen beer was valued at $83.45. The suspects reportedly discussed disposing of the firearm and the getaway vehicle’s license plate.

A “Blue Alert” was sent, the first in North Carolina, according to archives of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, the organization that manages the system. It’s similar to the Amber and Silver alerts for missing children and senior citizens, notifying of an extraordinary threat to law enforcement and the public, and is received on smartphones and broadcast via media outlets.

Saturday’s alert, sent at 6:10 p.m. advised of a Chevrolet Equinox with NC tag KKA4332, “last occupied by 2 black See SHOOTING, page 2

High Point pastor tries to push wife’s coworker into McDonald’s deep fryer She said employees ‘disrespected’ her

By Jordan Golson North State Journal A PASTOR in High Point is accused of trying to push a man’s head into a deep fryer at McDonald’s on South Main Street, after the pastor’s wife told him her employees were “disrespecting” her.

The police investigation accuses Dwayne Waden, 57, of High Point, of entering the McDonald’s, walking around the

counter, and placing “his hands around the neck of the victim pushing his head toward the deep fryer.”

His wife, Latoya Gladney, was a trainee manager at the restaurant. She is no longer employed there, the local franchise confirmed to CBS News, saying “the safety and security of our employees and customers is our top priority.”

Waden’s Facebook page says he is a pastor with Elevated Life International Ministries.

In November, he posted a message about purpose being tied to success and a journey in dis-

covering who God is.

The incident was caught on the restaurant’s security cameras, which police were able to view. Waden allegedly punched the victim several times in the face and did not stop until other employees pulled him off.

Waden was released on a $1,000 bond and is expected in court later this month.

The High Point Police Department has an ongoing “Coffee With A Cop” program where citizens can meet and interact with law enforcement.

The next Coffee With A Cop is Tuesday, January 9 at 8 a.m.

at the McDonald’s in High Point where the incident occurred.

$2.00

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

2 WEDNESDAY

1.3.24

NC Zoo celebrates 1 millionth visitor in 2023 The Liu family received VIP treatment and a Zoo membership

“Join the conversation” North State Journal (USPS 20451) (ISSN 2471-1365) Neal Robbins, Publisher Jim Sills, VP of Local Newspapers Jordan Golson, Local News Editor Shawn Krest, Sports Editor Bob Sutton, Randolph Editor Scott Pelkey, Breaking News Jesse Deal, Reporter Ryan Henkel, Reporter P.J. Ward-Brown, Photographer

By Scott Pelkey Randolph Record WITH JUST a few days before the end of the year, the North Carolina Zoo exceeded one million guests in a calendar year for the first time in its history.

On Dec. 27, Ran Liu and his family became the one millionth visitor to the North Carolina Zoo in 2023. The previous record for highest attendance in a calendar year was 930,002, set in 2022.

“Being recognized as the mil-

lionth guest was a pleasant surprise and an honor,” says Liu, a Zoo member according to a press release from the Zoo. “I look forward to the day when [the Zoo] celebrates two or three million guests in a year,” he explains. “Everyone should experience it for themselves. I encourage others to come, volunteer, or find a way to get involved with the great work the Zoo is doing for animals and conservation.”

Liu received V.I.P. treatment along with a gift basket, including a Family Membership and a Zoo gift collection.

Attendance at the NC Zoo has been steadily on the rise since 2015. The Covid-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders caused attendance to drop

to its lowest level in 2020 with only 350,039 guests visiting that year. However, by 2022 attendance levels had not only bounced back but exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

In 2023, guests were shattering monthly attendance records and by Oct. 31 the zoo was sitting at just over 920,000 guests for the year. Finally, with only 4 days left in 2023, the Zoo hit the one million-guest milestone, just ahead of the Zoo’s 50th anniversary in 2024.

“The North Carolina Zoo is more than a destination; it’s a community of individuals united by our love of the planet and its inhabitants,” said North Carolina Zoo CEO and Director Patricia Simmons in a press release. “As we prepare to celebrate our golden anniversary in 2024, we are honored and grateful that so many guests have joined our mission and shared our commitment to saving wildlife and wild places. We look forward to the next million guests and the strides we will take together toward a brighter, more sustainable future for our world.”

Sergeant Nix worked across numerous assignments at Greensboro PD in his 23 years, including the Criminal Investigations Division, Patrol Corporal, Patrol Sergeant, and his current assignment as Supervisor of the Family Victims Unit.

He was also a Team Leader on the department’s Peer Support

Team for 12 years and Assistant Team Leader of the GPD Honor Guard.

The Greensboro Police Department will share more on a fundraiser for the Nix family on its Facebook page. A memorial has been set up at police headquarters at 100 E Police Plaza in Greensboro.

already at the Randolph County Jail. Bond was denied.

December 26

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CRIME LOG December 12 x Harley Aviles-Hernandez, 22, was arrested by the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office for felony assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. He was issued a $25,000 secured bond. x Jason Scott Stephens, 35, was arrested by the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office for felony larceny by employee and misdemeanor possession of stolen goods. He was issued a $5,000 unsecured bond. x Jesus Alexandro Castro, 29, was arrested in Cumberland County, NC on a warrant from the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office for felony larceny of motor vehicle, felony possession of stolen goods, misdemeanor simple assault and misdemeanor communicating threats. He was issued a $7,500 secured bond.

December 15 x Craig Lamonte Bradley, 39, was charged with felony breaking and or entering, felony larceny after break/ enter, felony possession stolen goods/property, felony obtain property by false pretense and misdemeanor second degree trespass. He was issued a $3,000 secured bond.

December 17 x Dalton Ray Hamlett, 27, was charged with felony possession phone/ communications device by inmate, misdemeanor larceny, misdemeanor possession of tobacco by inmate, misdemeanor possession stolen goods/property, while

December 19 x Giovani Reyes, 26, of Asheboro was arrested and charged with driving while impaired and driving without a driver’s license. A secure bond was set at $1,000.

December 21 x Christopher Lee Andrews, 48, was arrested and charged with failing to register as a sex offender.

December 22 x Elvis Berry, 20, was arrested on outstanding warrants for intent to sell/ deliver marijuana, felony possession of marijuana and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. He was issued a written promise to appear.

December 24 x Serena Tabatha York, 50, of Asheboro was arrested and charged with felony larceny from person, simple assault, and assault with a deadly weapon. Bond was denied under NC law due to the incident being domestic in nature.

December 25 x Brandon Tyler FlinchumFenti, 19, was arrested by the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office for felony larceny, felony possession of stolen goods, misdemeanor unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and misdemeanor possession of stolen goods.

He was issued a $25,000 secured bond.

x Roger Dale Hill, 40, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for felony possession of methamphetamine. He was issued a written promise to appear. x Timothy Shane Haney, 47, was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant for felony assault by strangulation, misdemeanor assault on a female, and misdemeanor communicating threats.

December 27 x Taylor Louis Bradshaw, 32, was arrested by the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office and charged with felony break/ enter to terrorize/injure, misdemeanor communicating threats, and misdemeanor second-degree trespass. He was issued a $5,000 secured bond.

December 28 x Donnie Aryes Ramey, 33, of Garner, was arrested by the Asheboro Police Department for possession of methamphetamine, possession of a scheduleVI controlled substance, possession of marijuana paraphernalia, and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released with no bond was issued. x Treyon Jamar Hairston, 31, of Rockingham, NC, was arrested by the Asheboro Police Department and charged with felony possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a schedule-VI controlled substance, possession of marijuana paraphernalia, and carrying a concealed gun. He was released from jail on a written promise to appear.

Randolph

Guide The Randolph Guide is a quick look at what’s going on in Randolph County.

January 6 Adopt And Play Saturdays 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Randolph County Animal Services hosts monthly Adopt & Play on the first Saturday of each month.

Fun activities and plenty of furry friends looking for forever homes. Adoption fees on specific animals have been reduced for this event.

Contact (336) 683-8235 for more information.

The Liberty Showcase Theater presents The Lovesick Drifters 7 p.m.

Garrett Newton’s Hank Williams, Sr. Tribute Show takes you back in time to experience the life and songs of Hank Williams Sr.! If you are a Hank fan, trust us, you don’t want to miss what Garrett Newton has put together! Tickets from range from $20 to $45.

January 8 OneBlood Blood Drive – Planet Fitness Asheboro 2 – 7 p.m.

OneBlood will be holding a blood drive at Planet Fitness in Asheboro (1560 E Dixie Dr) from 2 – 7 p.m. Donor receive a OneBlood long sleeve t-shirt and $20 e-gift card.

Walk-ins available or make an appointment at oneblood.org

January 11 Hot Glass Cold Beer 5:30pm The glass artists at Starworks will put on their first fiery demonstration of 2024.

Special guest artists, live music from singer-songwriter Wake Moody, rotating food trucks, and a large selection of hot and cold beverages, locally crafted wines, beer, pastries, locally prepared sandwiches, desserts, and other snacks at Starworks Café & Taproom. This is a family friendly event for all ages. Tickets are $5 at StarworksNC.org.

January 12 The Liberty Showcase Theater presents SAIL ON Beach Boys Tribute 8 p.m.

Sail On plays the music of The Beach Boys.

Performing all the classic hits, plus some treasures from the brilliant extended catalog. Tickets range from $25 to $55.

Red Cross Blood Drive – Movement Bank, Randleman 12 – 5 p.m.

The American Red Cross will host a blood drive at Movement Bank in Randleman from 12-5 p.m. Walk-ups welcome or schedule an appointment at redcrossblood.org.

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

OPINION

de

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor VISUAL VOICES

COLUMN | BETSY MCCAUGHEY

Stop funding the ‘rights for migrants’ legal scam You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin.

AS A RECORD NUMBER OF MIGRANTS invade the U.S., wreaking pain on New York City and other communities, one group is winning bigtime: the public advocacy lawyers. Their business is to constantly sue to win more so-called rights for migrants. Rights to shelter, rights to meals, rights to health care, even the right to vote in local elections.

Who pays the bills on both sides of these lawsuits? You do. Taxpayer money largely funds these legal combatants, which include the Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Aid Society, and Vera Institute of Justice.

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin. It’s absurd, but it’s about to get worse.

On Dec. 14, the New York City Council passed Resolution 556, calling on the state legislature to guarantee, as a right, that all migrants have lawyers paid for by taxpayers when they go to immigration court. It would be a “first-in-the-nation” guarantee.

Resolution 556 would give migrants more rights than American citizens have.

No one else is guaranteed a publicly funded lawyer in civil court matters such as housing court issues or divorce.

Yikes, the city council’s proposal would make the Big Apple even more of a magnet for migrants than it already is.

Who’s behind this push? The Vera

Institute of Justice, for one.

Vera claims we “need a federally funded universal legal defense service” for migrants. In short, a national army of left-wing lawyers paid by you. What better place to launch this lunatic idea than at the New York City Council?

The Vera Institute is not the only organization cashing in on migrants’ rights.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams went to court for temporary relief from the rigid rules and settlements that define what the city must provide the homeless, as tens of thousands of homeless migrants arrive.

Immediately, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless swooped in, claiming his plan would “gut” the longstanding rights of the homeless.

These lawsuits are largely funded by you, through grants and contracts from the city and state. Manhattan Judge Gerald Lebovits urged the parties to compromise, and arranged for the lawyers on all sides, representing the city, the state and the migrants, to meet in his chambers several times.

This scam is being repeated all over the nation. The Justice Action Center — also publicly funded — is suing the Biden administration on behalf of Haitian asylum seekers whose rights it claims were violated by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on horseback trying to stop them as they crossed the Rio Grande. Lawyers for the migrants and lawyers for the Biden administration will cross swords. Never

mind who wins. They’re all being paid by us.

It’s a free country. Anyone can sue. But why should we be paying for these legal boxing matches?

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the remedy for New York City’s mounting woes is to sue the federal government for more money. Wrong. That would send more wasted funds down the litigation rathole.

Cuomo also argues that the “right to shelter” should apply to all the counties, instead of just Gotham, and that state lawmakers should “fairly distribute” the migrant burden statewide. Spoken like a pol who is eyeing a city position and no longer cares about the rest of the state.

The notion that there is a “right to shelter” in the state Constitution was concocted by the Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit in 1981. It has tied the hands of city leaders ever since. It should be legally challenged. Extending that questionable right to migrants who just arrived here, and then imposing it statewide, would compound the wrong.

Tell lawmakers to stop funding the legal advocacy industry with our money.

It’s time to break the stranglehold these publicly funded lawyers, under the guise of doing good, have on our city and nation.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.

COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI

The drive-by smears of Clarence Thomas never end

Innuendo masquerading as reporting is the point.

MOST CLARENCE THOMAS hit pieces can’t stand up to perfunctory scrutiny. But the newest doesn’t even make any sense.

In a new five-person-bylined article, anti-Supreme Court outfit ProPublica takes a decades-old offhand complaint the justice made about his salary and spins it into a nefarious conspiracy. In 2000, Thomas apparently groused about his pay to “vocal conservative” Rep. Cliff Stearns. (The justice was hardly alone. It was a big issue in the 2000s.)

This interaction, we are informed, “set off a flurry of activity across the judiciary and Capitol Hill.” By “flurry of activity,” ProPublica means a single memo in which the possibility of raising justices’ salaries was discussed.

Like all SCOTUS smears, the piece is loaded with performative journalistic jargon — “newly unearthed documents,” for instance — meant to make it look like ProPublica is engaging in acts of reporting rather than activism.

Thomas, for example, doesn’t merely have rich friends like every other important person in D.C. He hangs out with a “coterie of ultrarich men.”

Thomas doesn’t attend policy gatherings like every other important person in Washington. He jets off to “off-therecord” conferences at a “five-star beach resort” and sails on a “162-foot yacht” — alternatively known as a “superyacht.”

Painting completely innocuous and standard behavior as weird and scurrilous is a hallmark of the constant effort to smear Thomas. Hey, look at Thomas and his “high-end RV” and look at that “elite circle” he’s running with.

Oh, sure, they give out scholarships to thousands of kids, but everyone knows what it’s really about: Thomas is a puppet of wealthy white folks.

“Precisely what led so many people to offer Thomas money and other gifts remains an open question,” notes ProPublica. This is the key sentence in the article. What “precisely” led antiSCOTUS dark money groups to send ProPublica millions is not an open question.

Innuendo masquerading as reporting is the point. Its purposeful implication is that Thomas can be bought. By my estimation, at least two-thirds of the article rehashes the outlet’s previous stories about Thomas’ relationship with Harlan Crow, who never had a case in front of the justice.

The hit lacks any evidence Thomas engaged in unethical behavior to benefit anyone, much less himself. Nothing prohibits justices from attending conferences. Nothing prohibits them from having friends. Nothing prohibits them from taking out loans to buy a house or an RV. Nothing prohibits them from whining about their salaries.

If anything, the story only confirms that Thomas, one of the least wealthy members of the court, would rather grouse about a lack of money-making opportunities than seek them out unethically.

But it’s also important to remember that no single story about “conservative” SCOTUS justices really matters in and of itself. The quality of the journalism isn’t the point. The quality sucks. The point is flooding the zone.

Much like the Russia collusion hoax, this is a compounding smear. The point is to sell the effort as an emerging story and organic journalism. The payoff never comes.

It all allows establishment media outlets to casually mention the “ethics” “controversies” that “surround” or “swirl around” Thomas. It allows anti-court pundits, who have no problem with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson pulling in millions in book deals from billion-dollar corporate entities, to pretend that “democracy” is under threat from the court. It allows half-wit senators to spin conspiracy theories and thousands of full-blown nitwits to get “Clarence Thomas” trending on X. It helps Democrats delegitimize the high court, the purpose of the entire project.

All non-leftist justices have been the target of these sloppy hits, but there is a fervent disdain for Thomas, who’s committed the gravest sin of defying the Left’s racial stereotypes. He shows contempt for a media that’s been trying to destroy him for more than 30 years by remaining consistently “conservative.”

His enemies have yet to offer any instance where this justice has deviated from his long-held legal philosophy of adherence to the Constitution as written.

And that’s the real problem.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.”

3

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

4

SPORTS

SPONSORED BY

2024 IS THE YEAR TO

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MLB

Former Duke standout RJ Barrett traded to hometown Raptors

Oft-injured Sale traded to Braves from Red Sox

The Knicks also sent Immanuel Quickley to Toronto for OG Anunoby

SIDELINE REPORT

Atlanta Chris Sale’s injury-filled career with the Boston Red Sox ended when the 34-yearold left-hander was traded to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Vaughn Grissom.

Boston also is sending cash to the Braves, covering a portion of the $27.5 million salary the seven-time All-Star is owed in 2024. That’s the final guaranteed season of a $160 million, six-year contract. Sale was acquired by Boston from the Chicago White Sox in December 2016 and has made nine trips to the disabled and injured lists with the Red Sox, mostly due to shoulder and elbow ailments.

NHL

Former Hurricanes defenseman Bear signs with Capitals Washington, D.C. The Washington Capitals signed defenseman Ethan Bear to a two-year contract last week. The deal is worth a pro-rated $4.125 million and carries a salary cap hit of $2.0625 million for the rest of this season and the 202425 season. Bear is coming off shoulder surgery after being injured playing for Canada at the world championships last spring. The 26-year-old gives Washington additional depth on the blue line. Bear is joining his fourth NHL organization after starting with Edmonton and playing one season with both Carolina and Vancouver.

MMA

McGregor says he’s returning to UFC Las Vegas Conor McGregor says he’s returning to the octagon for a fight against Michael Chandler on June 29 in Las Vegas. McGregor made the announcement Sunday in a video posted to one of his social media accounts. A UFC spokesperson did not confirm nor deny the fight.

The 35-year-old McGregor, who hasn’t fought in the octagon since 2021, appeared to be at a restaurant drinking a glass of wine in the video.

He said the bout would be in the middleweight class. The 37-year-old Chandler posted on social media in response to McGregor’s announcement, saying he always said he wanted McGregor at his biggest, baddest and best.

NBA

Slovenian guard Dragic announces retirement Miami Goran Dragic, a former AllStar guard with the Miami Heat and the leader of Slovenia’s team that won the EuroBasket championship in 2017, announced his retirement Sunday. Dragic spent 15 seasons in the NBA and played for seven teams — Phoenix, Houston, Chicago, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Toronto and the Heat. He was part of the All-NBA team in 2013-14, the same season in which he was voted the league’s most improved player, and made his lone All-Star appearance in 2018.

Dragic, 37, averaged 13.3 points and 4.7 assists in his career.

TRACK & FIELD Former Ugandan

By Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press NEW YORK — The New York Knicks traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday and got back OG Anunoby, dealing two of their top offensive players but likely getting a boost to their defense with last season’s NBA leader in steals.

The Knicks also acquired Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn, while sending the Raptors a 2024 second-round pick belonging to Detroit.

The deal, which sends Barrett to his hometown team, left both clubs shorthanded for their games Saturday night. The Raptors lost in Detroit, where the Pistons snapped their NBA record-tying losing streak at 28 games, while the Knicks fell in Indiana.

“Immanuel is a young, talented playmaker who we believe will provide a spark on both ends of the court. RJ is a versatile wing who is, of course, well-known in his hometown, and seeing him in a Raptors uniform will be a special moment for our fans and for all Canadians,” Toronto vice chairman and president Masai Ujiri said in a statement.

“It’s never easy to say goodbye, especially when players like OG and Malachi have spent their careers with our team. We wish Precious, Malachi and OG all the best.”

The deal comes four months after the Knicks filed a lawsuit against the Raptors, alleging they had conspired to steal thousands of videos and other scouting secrets after hiring a former Knicks scouting employee.

Anunoby figures to step right into Barrett’s forward spot in the Knicks’ starting lineup. The 6-foot-7 swingman is averaging 15.1 points and had his high-

AP PHOTO

The Knicks traded former Duke guard RJ Barrett to Toronto. est-scoring game of the season when the Raptors visited the Knicks on Dec. 11, scoring 29 points.

“OG’s complete offensive game and ability to defend multiple positions will enhance our team on both ends of the court,” Knicks president Leon Rose said.

Barrett — who played one season at Duke in 2018-19 — averages 18.2 points but has struggled lately with his outside shot, going 2 for 12 from 3-point range over the last two games. The No. 3 pick in the 2019 draft helped the

Knicks reach the playoffs twice in the last three seasons after missing them the previous seven.

Quickley was the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year award last season, but there has been speculation he could be moved since the Knicks declined to give him a contract extension before this season. They will have to replace his 15 points per game off the bench and ability to play both guard positions.

“RJ and Immanuel both began their professional careers in Knicks uniforms and their con-

tributions both on and off the court have had a great impact on this city and organization,” Rose added.

Achiuwa averaged 8.9 points and 6.1 rebounds in 153 games for the Raptors after they acquired him from Miami in August 2021.

The 6-8 forward could help the Knicks up front after they lost starting center Mitchell Robinson to a stress fracture in his ankle.

Flynn was a 2020 first-round pick who averaged 5.4 points in 175 games for the Raptors.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough dies at 84 The South Carolina native won three straight Cup titles in the 1970s

By Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press CALE YARBOROUGH, considered one of NASCAR’s all-time greatest drivers and the first to win three consecutive Cup titles, died Sunday. He was 84.

NASCAR announced the death of the Hall of Famer and South Carolina native in a statement. No cause was given.

“Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen. His combination of talent, grit and determination separated Cale from his peers, both on the track and in the record book,” said Jim France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR. “He was respected and admired by competitors and fans alike and was as comfortable behind the wheel of a tractor as he was behind the wheel of a stock car.”

Known for his fierce toughness and grit, Yarborough won the Daytona 500 four times and the Southern 500 at his home track of Darlington Raceway five times. His 83 Cup Series victories are tied with Jimmie Johnson for sixth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list, and Yarborough ranks fourth with 69 pole positions.

But one of his most famous moments came in the 1979 Daytona 500, the first to be televised live flag to flag across the country. Yarborough, a Golden Gloves boxer who also earned a football

scholarship to Clemson, crashed while racing with Donnie Allison on the final lap for the win.

The two drivers got out of their wrecked cars to fight, Allison’s brother, Bobby, pulled over to join the scrap and it was two Allison brothers versus Yarborough as Richard Petty crossed the finish line first.

It was a breakthrough moment for NASCAR, which, because of a snowstorm on the East Coast, was being shown on live television to its largest audience ever.

On X.com, Petty’s account offered condolences to the Yarborough family.

“His rivalry and competitive spirit with The King will always be a renowned part of NASCAR History, showcasing their mutual respect and the intensity of their competition on the track,” the post said.

Yarborough quit full-time racing after winning six races in 1980 and finishing second in the Cup standings after winning three straight crowns from 197678. He said at the time it was to spend more time with his three daughters. During his NASCAR Hall of Fame induction speech in 2012, Yarborough said he felt like he’d completed his journey from the bottom rung of the ladder to the top.

“I sure hoped I was going to get to this point because working in the back of the fields in that hot sun would make you want to do something else,” he said. “I always dreamed of … ending up where I have ended up tonight.”

After retirement, Yarborough

opened and operated a used car dealership in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina and served on the Florence County Council.

“The NASCAR industry and our millions of fans have lost one of the grittiest and most successful superstars of all time,” Winston Kelley, executive director of

the NASCAR Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “Cale’s remarkable legacy and accomplishments in NASCAR will live in our minds, our hearts and the archives of the NASCAR Hall of Fame forever.”

Yarborough is survived by his wife, Betty Jo, and daughters Julie, Kelley and B.J.

Auto, Home, Life and Health Insurance A proud, lifelong resident of Randolph County, I've been protecting families since 2011.

I look forward to helping you with your insurance needs.

Please give me a call today.

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336-629-9187 • robert.stover@ncfbins.com 140 NC Hwy. 42 North, Asheboro, NC 27203 Office: (336) 629-9187 | Fax: (336) 626-6838 | robert.stover@ncfbins.com

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

5

BEST OVERALL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

SPORTS IN REVIEW

Plenty of special sports Kynnedi moments to savor in 2023

Routh

By Bob Sutton Randolph Record HERE’S A LOOK at some of the top sports-related story topics in Randolph County in 2023: ** The gym at Trinity High School was named in honor of longtime boys’ basketball coach Tim Kelly. ** Uwharrie Charter Academy’s wrestling team won the Class 1-A dual team state championship by defeating Avery County in Greensboro. ** Eastern Randolph’s Brecken Snotherly set a school record for points in a girls’ basketball game by posting 51 against Trinity. Snotherly had a stellar senior season before going on to play for East Tennessee State. ** Aldo Hernandez and Lorenzo Alston of Uwharrie Charter Academy won individual state wrestling championships in Class 1-A, while Southwestern’s Jose Flores nabbed a heavyweight title in Class 2-A. ** The greatest season in Eastern Randolph boys’ basketball history closed on a downer with a loss to Wilson Prep in the Class 1-A state final at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. The Wildcats finished with a 29-3 record under first-year coach Johnny Thomas. ** Bear Bradley, a former Wheatmore football coach most recently at Southern Guilford, returned to a Randolph County school to be the coach at Trinity. ** There was a coaching change for Randleman’s highly successful girls’ basketball team with Brandon Varner (103-20 in five seasons) stepping down and Steve Rightmyer hired to take over. The Tigers had backto-back undefeated PAC regular seasons and followed by league tournament titles. ** Wheatmore’s girls’ soccer team was back in the Class 2-A state final, but this time the Warriors didn’t win it all. Manteo claimed the title. ** Uwharrie Charter Academy captured the Class 1-A state championship in baseball under first-year coach Rob Shore. The Eagles swept North Moore in the best-of-3 finals.

To reach the last week of the season, UCA had to win a West Region final series vs. PAC rival Eastern Randolph.

Kynnedi Rough of Wheatmore goes up for a shot last season during a Piedmont Athletic Conference game.

SCOTT PELKEY | RANDOLPH RECORD

It was another special season for Southwestern Randolph’s volleyball team and coach Darby Kennedy. ** There was only one American Legion baseball team representing Randolph County for 2023 as Eastern Randolph Post 81 took the season off amid a player shortage. ** Renovation delays at McCrary Park meant the Asheboro ZooKeepers, a summer collegiate team in the Coastal Plain League, played home games early in the season at UNC Greensboro. ** Caraway Speedway drew some large crowds. A June racing card that included former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson in a Late Models competition drew plenty of buzz. ** Randolph County Post 45 was again the host team for the American Legion baseball Southeast Regional at McCrary Park. Post 45 was among the final three teams remaining, falling to Florence (S.C.) Post 1 in 11 innings of a must-win game.

Randolph County finished with a 25-8 record, including a 2-2 mark in the regional. ** Asheboro had a new coach, with Calvin Brown leaving Providence Grove to join the Blue Comets. His former school defeated his current team in a non-conference matchup. ** Southwestern Randolph held an induction for the inaugural class of the school’s Sports Hall of Fame with 14 individuals in this group.

** Southwestern Randolph won the PAC volleyball title and advanced to the Class 2-A West Region semifinals. ** Eastern Randolph won its third consecutive conference championship in football. This time, it took a one-point victory at Randleman in the final game of the regular season to pull it off.

But the postseason also was a repeat for the Wildcats, who lost to eventual state champion Mt. Airy for the second year in a row.

Randleman’s season shaped up as special with the Tigers winning their first nine games. They played much of the season with coach Shane Timmons out of state tending to his daughter’s medical situation, a development that drew a lot of attention with opposing teams sending their well wishes to the Tigers. ** Eastern Randolph lineman Jani Norwood put together a distinguished high school football career and signed to play at the University of North Carolina. ** Thad Moffitt, grandson of Richard Petty, signed to compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for 2024. He attended high school at Wheatmore. ** Holiday high school basketball returned to Asheboro after a three-year absence. Southwestern Randolph’s girls and Asheboro’s boys were champions after three days of tournament competition at Asheboro High School.

PREP BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Asheboro blows through tourney field by beating three county teams Randolph Record ASHEBORO — The Asheboro boys’ basketball team breezed through three games in the http://SportsTone.net Christmas Invitational on its home court.

The tournament didn’t provide much variety for the Blue Comets, who defeated teams it had already defeated a total of five times earlier this season.

The title game Friday night at least proved to be a rubber match, with Asheboro trouncing Randleman 63-41 after the teams split two earlier meetings.

Jerquarius Stanback of Asheboro was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He averaged 24.7 points per game across three games.

The Blue Comets (11-1) entered the new year on an eightgame winning streak.

Asheboro opened by defeating Providence Grove 72-40. In the semifinals, the Cougars took down Southwestern Randolph 69-30.

In the first boys’ game of tournament, Randleman defeated Eastern Guilford 53-52 on Connor Cassidy’s free throw with 3.5 seconds to play. Chase Farlow scored 15 points and Tyshaun Goldston had 12 points to lead Randleman.

The Tigers had an easier time in the semifinals, defeating West Brunswick 63-45.

Southwestern Randolph end-

+20( 3/$7( 027256

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Connor Cassidy of Randleman goes up among Eastern Guilford players during last week’s holiday tournament at Asheboro. ed up fourth, falling 55-43 to West Brunswick in the thirdplace consolation game. The Cougars opened the tournament by topping North Carolina Leadership Academy 66-50.

Trinity went 2-1 in the tournament for a fifth-place finish.

The Bulldogs lost 63-56 to West Brunswick in the first round.

Trinity responded to defeat Eastern Guilford 71-50 and Providence Grove 66-53.

Providence Grove ended up sixth, defeating N.C. Leadership Academy 58-55 in the first consolation round before falling to

Trinity.

Lee County Tournament At Sanford, Eastern Randolph won its final two games after falling in the opener.

Lee County topped the Wildcats 73-61 in the opening round.

Eastern Randolph ended up in fifth place after defeating Western Harnett 58-56 and Overhills 66-53.

Those results put Eastern Randolph’s record at 4-4, reflecting one more loss than all of last season.

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Wheatmore, girls’ basketball Routh has been a contributor for Wheatmore during what has been a bounce-back season for the Warriors.

Wheatmore placed third in the Ledford Christmas Tournament last week.

Routh, a junior, has been among the consistent scorers for the Warriors, who’ve had a relatively balanced attack.

In the tournament, Wheatmore won 51-26 vs. host Ledford before falling 51-41 to East Davidson. The Warriors capped their tournament participation by defeating West Davidson 53-32.

With a 9-4 record entering January, the Warriors have matched last season’s win total.

Routh also played on the school’s volleyball team.

PREP GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Cougars collect tourney title with strong defense Randolph Record ASHEBORO — The Southwestern Randolph girls’ basketball team didn’t need big offensive numbers to win the http://SportsTone.net Christmas Invitational last week.

The Cougars handled things with their defense.

So the outcome was three victories in three days in the tournament at Asheboro High School.

The Cougars finished their tournament run by controlling West Brunswick 45-30 in Friday night’s title game. West Brunswick was held to 10 second-half points after a 2020 halftime score.

Jordin George of Southwestern Randolph was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. She scored 11 points in the West Brunswick game.

Maddie Strider was the top scorer for the Cougars in the championship game with 14 points.

Southwestern Randolph, which improved to 11-1 this season, outscored the Trojans 20-5 at the free-throw line.

The Cougars defeated North Carolina Leadership Academy 66-25 and Providence Grove 42-31 on the first two days of the tournament. This marked the second year in a row that Southwestern Randolph won an eight-team holiday tournament.

Providence Grove opened this year’s tournament by drubbing Asheboro 60-23.

Randleman fell 55-42 to Eastern Guilford in the event’s first game, while Trinity lost 48-15 to West Brunswick later on Day 1.

In consolation games, Randleman stopped Trinity 49-10, while Asheboro edged North Carolina Leadership Academy 52-48.

In the third-place game, Eastern Guilford defeated Providence Grove 62-36. Fifth place went to Randleman with a 41-38 victory against Asheboro. North Carolina Leadership Academy beat Trinity 43-11 for seventh place.

A tie game turned in Southwestern Randolph’s favor in the tournament final.

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

6 MILLENIAL MONEY

5 financial New Year’s resolutions for 2024

By Chanelle Bessette NerdWallet THE NEW YEAR is upon us, and it’s a great time to plan for your financial future. Here are five financial resolutions to consider for 2024.

GET A HIGH-INTEREST SAVINGS ACCOUNT Interest rates are still high on savings accounts right now, especially high-yield online savings accounts. Some accounts are offering more than 5% annual percentage yield, which is 10 times more than the national average on savings accounts. Take advantage of this “free” money by opening a new account with a high rate or upgrading your current one. Just make sure you avoid fees as much as possible, and choose a bank or credit union that is easy for you to access, either through remote customer service or in person.

FOCUS ON STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT For many, student loan payments resumed in 2023. If you’re feeling anxious or uncertain about how much you owe, it’s best to face the numbers head-on and see if there’s any way you can reduce your pay-

AP PHOTO

The likeness of Benjamin Franklin is seen on U.S. $100 bills. ments. For example, if you earn less money now than you did before student loan payments were paused, then updating your income in your student loan portal may change the amount of your income-driven repayment.

There’s another way you might be able to reduce your payment if you’re on an income-driven repayment plan: If you have a retirement fund, you may want to consider putting some money away as a way to reduce your student loan payment.

“If you put your money in a

pre-tax retirement account, that lowers your taxable income for the year,” says Jen Mayer, an accredited financial counselor and founder of the Brooklyn, New York-based firm Fully Funded.

“The percentage that you’re paying for income-driven repayment is going to be lower.”

BUILD YOUR FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SET SOME GOALS Though personal finance isn’t a standard part of an Ameri-

can education, there are plenty of ways to learn more about budgeting, saving and investing.

Whether you browse reputable sites online, check out finance books from your library, or talk to a certified financial planner or other licensed expert, there are lots of people who are eager to impart their financial knowhow.

As you learn more about personal finance, you might find yourself getting inspired to create your own financial goals.

Perhaps you want to retire early, save for a down payment on a house or build a healthy emergency fund. Once you’ve nailed down your goals, you can determine how much money you’ll need, then set a timeline for saving it.

TRY USING AI FOR YOUR FINANCES In 2023, artificial intelligence chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard became popular tools for research and advice. In 2024, you can experiment with using them for your finances. You can give a bot specific prompts, such as “My salary is $50,000, and I want to save $5,000 by the end of the year. How can I do that?” and it can do the math for you, calculating what you need to save and suggesting how to cut

Tennessee proposes 1st express toll lanes around Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville

By Jonathan Mattise The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee transportation officials on Monday recommended that new, optional toll lanes be added to some highways around Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville.

At a news conference, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said the sections would include Interstate 24 between downtown Nashville and Murfreesboro; Interstate 65 between downtown Nashville and Spring Hill; Interstate 24 in Chattanooga around Moccasin Bend; and Interstate 40 west of downtown Knoxville near where it splits with Interstate 75.

The department is recommending to lawmakers and a new state transportation board that the first project be the Nashville-to-Murfreesboro corridor.

It will be years before anything can be built. Officials will first need to complete further

AP PHOTO

Long exposure photo shows cars and trucks moving on a highway. studies, as well as a bidding process to select which private entity would win contracts. The state can contract with private entities to develop, build, finance,

maintain or operate the lanes.

Tennessee expects to close on its first deal for a choice lane project sometime in 2026.

In a state that currently has no

tolls on roads, the goal in Tennessee is to lure drivers who are willing to pay a fee — which usually increases as traffic does — to avoid congestion. Similar express lanes can be found across the South in Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, as well as places such as California, Colorado, Washington and Minnesota.

Tennessee’s details emerged after lawmakers passed Gov. Bill Lee’s massive roadway funding law earlier this year, which allows the new toll roads. At Monday’s news conference, state transportation officials also discussed plans to replace the Interstate 55 bridge that connects Memphis and Arkansas over the Mississippi River. The need to replace the 75-year-old bridge became glaring when a crack was discovered on the adjacent Interstate 40 bridge, temporarily shutting it down to traffic in 2021 and forcing a slew of cars and semi-trucks onto Interstate 55.

The Interstate 55 project is ex-

back on different expenses. You can also instruct a chatbot to find you good deals for things like groceries, school supplies, gifts and more. Just remember that AI pulls information from various sources, and those sources may not always be accurate. Be sure to double-check any information you receive by doing the math yourself, checking with an expert or going to a reputable website to learn more.

SET UP RECURRING DONATIONS TO A NONPROFIT Recurring donations provide reliable income to nonprofit organizations, which allows them to plan their budgets more easily. If you’re interested in setting up recurring donations for a particular nonprofit, there are several ways you can do this.

Check with your employer to see if they match donations and if they have an online portal to do so. This can be an easy way to make your donations go further.

Before you make any donations, you may want to do an internet search for the organization to confirm that it is a 501(c) (3). These organizations are considered tax-exempt by the U.S. government, so you’ll be eligible to write off these donations when you do your taxes.

pected to cost some $787 million.

Tennessee and Arkansas have applied for a federal grant to cover half of it, and the two states would split remaining costs.

In addition to offering toll lanes as an option, the Republican governor’s road funding bill sets aside $3 billion for projects to be split equally among four regions. It also includes $300 million in transportation grants for local governments.

The law also raises electric vehicle fees and introduces a new one on hybrids, which the governor’s team has said will better reflect what those drivers would be paying in federal and state gas taxes. Like other states, Tennessee pays for its roads through gas taxes, a revenue stream that looks less reliable as more people switch to fuel-efficient and electric cars.

The new funding law avoids a traditional tax increase. Critics say the toll lanes will mostly benefit drivers who can afford paying for a quicker ride.

The department on Monday announced a 10-year plan totaling $15 billion, which also accounts for the state’s regular road funding sources. Fifty-five percent of the $15 billion goes toward construction projects, while 45% pays for road work, bridge repairs and other needs.

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Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

7

obituaries

24

Andy Brett Auman

September 4, 1980 ~ November 20, 2023 Andy Brett Auman, age 43, of Cary passed away November 20, 2023 at his residence. He was born September 4, 1980 in High Point, North Carolina the son of Jackie Sue Pryor Auman and the late Morris Edwin Auman.

Andy enjoyed his job and making his coworkers have a brighter day at New York Pizza in Cary, North Carolina. He had a free spirit, made friends everywhere he went, enjoyed playing the guitar and telling jokes.

Left to cherish his memory are his mother, Jackie Auman; brothers, Todd Auman and wife Brenda and Owen Auman; sister, Caitlyn Auman; nephew, Hunter Anderson; best friend, Valerie Jelton; and numerous beloved aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Betty Aileen Watson Malone

January 28, 1948 ~ December 20, 2023 Betty “Betty Boop” Aileen Watson Malone, age 75, of Asheboro passed away December 20, 2023 at her home. She was born January 28, 1948 in Maxton, North Carolina the daughter of the late Samuel James Watson and Annie Aileen Phillips Watson.

She is also preceded in death by her daughter, Cassandra Lynn Gerrald.

She met the love of her life, Thomas Malone, as high school sweethearts and they were married for 60 years.

Betty loved her dogs and referred to her Chows as her “babies”. She enjoyed cooking for family, gardening, crafting, travel to the beach and mountains and always had a diet Mountain Dew wherever she went. Most of all, she loved spending time with family and accompanying her husband when they traveled for work.

Left to cherish her memory are her husband, Thomas Malone; daughter, Carren Ann Anast; son-in-law, Buck Gerrald; granddaughter, Victoria Alicia Miller and husband Chris; great grandchild, Christopher Thomas Miller; fur babies, Star, Mya and B.B.; and numerous other beloved family and friends.

James Hoyt Keeling

February 27, 1951 ~ December 16, 2023 James Hoyt Keeling, known affectionately as Jimmy, passed away peacefully on December 16, 2023, at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. He was born on February 27, 1951, in Randolph County, the beloved son of the late James Milton and Eva Branson Keeling.

Jimmy lived a fulfilling life, leaving behind cherished memories for his family and friends. He dedicated himself to his work, proudly owning and operating a successful auto body shop for 35 years. After retiring, he shifted his focus to his family and indulged in his many hobbies.

One of Jimmy’s greatest joys was attending cruise-ins with his loving wife, Cindy, by his side. Together, they reveled in the beauty of their restored pride and joy, a 1964 1/2 rangoon red Ford Mustang that they had painstakingly brought back to its former glory. Their shared passion for restoration created lasting memories and deepened their bond.

In addition to his wife, Cindy Johnson Keeling, Jimmy is survived by his devoted son, James, and his wife, Susan. He also leaves behind numerous other dear family members and friends who will miss him dearly.

Jerrie York

May 9, 1943 - December 21, 2023 Jerrie Mae Abernathy York, 80, of Asheboro, died Thursday, December 21, 2023, at Clapp's Convalescent Nursing Home in Asheboro.

Jerrie was born on May 9, 1943, in York Co., SC. She was retired from Prestige Fabricators. Jerrie was a member of Holly's Chapel Pentecostal Holiness Church.

She was very active and loved to be outside. Jerrie was known to be a social butterfly and she loved spending time with her grandchildren.

Jerrie was preceded in death by her husband, Henry York; mother, Clara Sexton Culp; brothers, Billy Culp, and Tommy Culp.

She is survived by her daughter, Tina York (John Horsfall) of Dahlonega, GA, stepdaughter, Sandra Manuel (John) of Ruffin, NC; stepson, James York (Glenda) of Randleman; grandchildren, Victor Oxendine, Becky Dixon (Kevin), Danny Manuel, Danna Manuel (Lenny); great grandchildren, Rhett Oxendine, Bryson Fulp, Winter Dixon, Levi Dixon, Hailey Manuel and Katie Manuel.

Ruth Ann Brown Allred

December 30, 1945 — December 22, 2023 Ruth Ann Brown Allred, age 77, of Asheboro passed away on December 22, 2023 at the Randolph Hospice House.

Mrs. Allred was born in Asheboro on December 30, 1945 to Earl and Allene Pugh Brown and was a graduate of Coleridge High School.

Ruth Ann was formerly employed with Acme-McCrary Corporation. Ruth Ann loved her Lord and her church, Balfour Baptist Church, where she was a member of the choir and WMU. She loved to travel.

In addition to her parents, Ruth Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Woodrow Allred, Jr., brothers and their wives, Roy and Betty Brown and Russell and Doris Brown, and her niece, Karen Brown.

Ruth Ann is survived by her nieces, Susan Hogan (Phillip) of Asheboro, Kim Sumner (Chris) of Asheboro, and Tammy Johnson of Tennessee; nephew, Bobby Brown of Wilmington; and cousin, Phyllis Allen (Joe) of Ramseur.

Linda May Oxendine

December 8, 1957 ~ December 22, 2023 Linda May Oxendine, of Climax, North Carolina, born on December 8, 1957, passed away on December 22, 2023.

She was a loving wife, mother, sister and grandmother.

She shared a deep connection with her husband, Levon Oxendine, and found immense joy in her two daughters, Amanda June May (married to Bruce Hammonds) and Jessica Bailey. Her grandsons, TJ and Dylan Bailey, brought her great happiness.

Linda’s parents, Julian and Barbara Bulla, preceded her in death. She had two sisters, Julia Carter (husband Martin, son Brandon-wife Audrey and two daughters; Callie and Reagan), and Betsy Bulla.

In addition to her biological family, Linda had another sister, Carol Vincent.

Linda was a woman of many passions. Her faith in God was unwavering, providing a source of strength and comfort throughout her life. She had deep appreciation for family and learning about her past relatives. She loved her church and her church family.

An avid lover of animals and wildlife, Linda’s compassion extended to all creatures, big and small. She had a unique ability to connect with the natural world, finding solace and wonder in its beauty. The mountains and beaches held a special place in her heart, and she reveled in the beauty of nature. Linda shared a love for horses with her husband Levon. In her earlier years, she enjoyed cutting hair and always loved drawing and painting. Her artistic talents were inherited from her father, Julian Bulla, who instilled in her a passion for painting.

Jerry Wayne James

Nellie Lyndon Harrison

September 3, 1934 — December 23, 2023 Nellie Lyndon Harrison, age 89, of Asheboro passed away Saturday, December 23, 2023 at Clapp's Nursing Home.

Mrs. Harrison was born September 3, 1934 in Randolph County to Carl and Vera Lyndon. She was a member of Faith Temple Baptist Church and was formerly employed with Crown Hosiery, Cranford Hosiery, Crawford Knitting and worked in the cafeteria at Randleman Middle School.

Mrs. Harrison was a kind and friendly lady with a bright and sunny personality and never met a stranger. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband of 35 years, Fred Harrison; daughter, Robin Greer; step-daughter, Kathy Kinsey.

She is survived by daughters, Lynn Campbell (Jimmy) of Randleman, Freda Malone (Joseph) of Asheboro, Cindy Gallimore of Madison, Diane Owen of Archdale, Pat Hurbert of Florida; sons, Jimmy Owen of Trinity, Donald Owen of Archdale; 23 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

Ruby Agnes Holt

July 16, 1924 — December 23, 2023 Ruby Agnes Saunders Holt, age 99, of Troy, NC, passed away on Saturday, December 23, 2023 at Autumn Care of Biscoe, NC. Ruby was born in Montgomery County on July 16, 1924 to the late John Cleveland Saunders and Mary Caroline Mullinex Saunders.

She worked for many years as an Inspector at Troy Drapery.

Ruby loved family gatherings, loved to cook and was known especially for her Coconut Cake. She enjoyed doing Word searches. She was a life-long member of Uwharrie Methodist Church.

She is survived by her sons: David Holt (Rose) of Kinston, NC and Ronald "Ron" Holt (Libby) of Randleman; five grandchildren: April Jeup, Heather Holt, Joseph Holt, Roger Pierce, and Tanya Pierce; eight great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Woodrow Holt Sr., brothers, Elton, Tommy, Bradley and J.C. Saunders, and sister Lois Lucas.

June 13, 1946 ~ December 24, 2023 Jerry Wayne James, Sr., age 77, of Davidson County, passed away on December 24, 2023, at Kindred Hospital. Born on June 13, 1946, Jerry lived a fulfilling life surrounded by his loved ones.

Jerry is preceded in death by his parents, Henry James and Mary Byerly James Driver, as well as his children, Jeffrey James and Linda James.

He leaves behind a loving family and friends who will cherish his memory. His wife, Tonya James, stood by his side throughout their journey together, sharing some of the most enjoyable years together.

Jerry’s sons, Jake James (Jessica), Roy James (Rebecca), Jerry James Jr. (Stacy), and Trey White, will forever remember Jerry’s loving nature. He is also survived by his siblings, Carolyn Feezor, Kenny Kirkus (Brenda), and Elmer “Bud” James.

Jerry’s presence will be deeply missed by his grandchildren: Ashley Lynch (Dallas), Josh Lynch (Amber), Jerry James III (Winter), Allison, Jada, Mia, Kayla, Jeff Jr., Christian, Roy Jr., Julianna, Kody, and Kerstynn. Additionally, his great-grandchildren Braylon, Skilynn, Colton, Brantley, Dustin, Linda, Everlee, and Amara brought immense joy to his life. Jerry is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews and cousins and friends.

Mary Carolyn Radcliff

July 2, 1942 ~ December 22, 2023 Mary Carolyn Beverly Radcliff, age 81, most recently a resident of Siler City, North Carolina passed away peacefully on December 22, 2023.

She was born July 2, 1942 in New Orleans, Louisiana the daughter of the late James and Delilah Beverly and Hampton and Marceline Banks. She is also preceded in death by her beloved husband, George Franklin Radcliff; and two sons, James Kenneth Radcliff and George Anthony Radcliff.

Mary graduated from Central High School in Mobile, Alabama and attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. She enjoyed reading, puzzles, games, sewing and crafting.

She was a talented seamstress and used her skill to create elaborate trains and gowns for the Mardi Gras Court in Mobile, Alabama.

Left to cherish her memory are her son, Randy Olando Radcliff; daughter, Carolyn Delilah Radcliff; grandchildren, Chelsie Amaris Radcliff, Caleb George Radcliff, and Aleecia Jones; great grandchildren, Keelan Salam Kamara and Khalanah Sylai Kamara; sisters, Cynthia Finkley, Paulette Williams, Leonora J. Williams and Angela Dock; a host of nieces, nephews, church family and other family and friends.

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

8

STATE & NATION Retirements could tip control of the House majority. Republicans have the early edge

By Kevin Freking The Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — A chaotic year for the House came to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in this year’s elections.

About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won’t seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Meanwhile, only 14 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.

“Members sort of knew that this is what the institution is currently like when they chose to run for office,” said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank that maintains a database of vital statistics on Congress, including retirements. “Some of them may well be feeling frustrated at this point in time, but anybody who has been elected to Congress in recent years, they’re not surprised at what they’re finding when they are getting to Washington.”

Republicans had the most high-profile exits. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., became only the third lawmaker to be expelled by colleagues since the Civil War. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the first-ever speaker removed from that office by his colleagues. He opted to leave effective Dec. 31 rather than serve among the rank-and-file.

But it’s the departure of a handful of Democrats in competitive districts that has Republicans thinking the overall retirement picture gives them an advantage in determining who will control the House after the 2024 elections.

AP PHOTO

The Capitol Dome is seen as lawmakers prepare to depart for the holiday recess, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.

Reps. Katie Porter of California, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia proved they could win toss-up congressional districts in good election cycles for Democrats and not-so-good cycles.

They are all seeking higher office within their home states. Porter and Slotkin are running for the U.S. Senate. Spanberger is running for governor in 2025.

Democrats are also losing sixterm Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan to retirement, leaving them with another competitive open seat to defend in a state that will be crucial in the presidential election. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., is not seeking reelection

due to health challenges in a district that leans Democratic but is more competitive than most.

On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans leaving office generally represent districts that Democrats have little chance of flipping. They’ll be replaced

by Republicans, predicted Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the House Republican campaign arm.

“Retirements are a huge problem for the Democrats. They’re not a problem for us,” Hudson said.

The exception is Santos, who represented a competitive New York district. Democrats hope former Rep. Tom Suozzi can win

back the seat, which he gave up when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

Sometimes, legislators in the states tip the scales in determining the makeup of Congress. It’s one reason there are so few competitive races.

Three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina have essentially been left with little opportunity to return after GOP lawmakers in the state drew new boundaries for their congressional districts. What were once competitive seats became near locks for whichever Republican emerges from the state’s primary elections.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson

Alex Murdaugh’s pursuit of a new murder trial is set for an evidentiary hearing this month The Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. — The new judge handling the fallout over Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions plans to hold an evidentiary hearing late this month.

Murdaugh’s lawyers want another trial in the killings of the former lawyer’s wife and younger son, citing allegations that the court clerk improperly influenced the jury. The defense will get to put forth evidence at a three-day hearing expected to begin Jan. 29, according to a tentative schedule shared by a media liaison for former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal.

Jurors, the clerk and even the trial judge might have to testify under oath.

Murdaugh is serving life imprisonment without parole af-

AP PHOTO

Alex Murdaugh, center, is led out of Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies after being convicted March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. ter a jury found him guilty this March of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in

June 2021. He got sentenced this November for stealing about $12 million to an addi-

tional 27 years behind bars under a plea deal that resolved scores of state crimes related to money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud.

Toal must decide whether to run back a murder trial that lasted six weeks, involved over 70 witnesses and included about 800 exhibits. The state’s highest court appointed Toal to oversee the weighty matter of a new trial after Judge Clifton Newman recused himself.

Newman, who rose to celebrity in true crime circles for his deft guidance of the highly watched case, is set to leave the bench after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Central to the appeal are accusations that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill tampered with the jury. Murdaugh’s lawyers said in a Septem-

decided to run for attorney general rather than attempt to run again for a Charlotte-area seat that he had just won in the 2022 midterms. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a fellow freshman who flipped a toss-up district in the last election, also announced he would not be running, and would focus instead on a potential U.S. Senate bid in 2026. And Rep. Kathy Manning said she won’t file for reelection under the current maps but would run if a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new districts is successful.

Manning said the city of Greensboro in her district was split into three pieces and combined with rural counties. She won in 2022 by a margin of 9 percentage points, but she said the new district gives a 16-point advantage to a Republican candidate.

Democrats are hoping court-ordered redistricting in Alabama and Louisiana will favor their side and effectively make the redistricting battles a wash.

Ambition is also playing a role in the retirement trends. About half of the Democrats not seeking reelection to the House are seeking office elsewhere. That includes three members running for the seat once held by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who entered the Senate in 1992 and served more than three decades before her death in September.

Slotkin is running for the seat Sen. Debbie Stabenow has held for more than two decades. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is running for president against fellow Democrat Joe Biden.

“If you are interested in a higher office, you’re going to be sensitive to when those things come up. They don’t always come up,” Reynolds said.

ber filing that the elected official asked jurors whether Murdaugh was guilty or innocent, told them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and pressured jurors to reach a guilty verdict for her own profit. Hill is also said to have flown to New York City to be with three jurors during their post-trial television interviews and allegedly shared journalists’ business cards with jurors during the proceedings.

Hill has denied the allegations i n a sworn statement, saying she neither asked jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt before deliberations nor suggested to them that he committed the murders.

Adding to the intrigue is the recent revelation that Hill plagiarized part of her book about the case. Hill’s attorneys acknowledged in a Dec. 26 statement that Hill submitted a BBC reporter’s writing to her co-author “as if it were her own words.” The attorneys expressed Hill’s remorse and said the book has been unpublished “for the foreseeable future.”

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Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

ENTERTAINMENT Kanye West arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, Feb. 9, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

AP PHOTO

The rapper Ye, who has a long history of making antisemitic comments, issues an apology in Hebrew

By Maria Sherman The Associated Press The rapper formerly known as Kanye West has a long history of making antisemitic comments and just apologized to the Jewish community in an Instagram post written in Hebrew.

In the Tuesday post, he apologized to the Jewish community “for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions.”

The rapper legally changed his name to Ye in 2021. The statement arrives less than two weeks after Ye went on an antisemitic rant in Las Vegas while promoting his upcoming album. In the rant, he made insidious insinuations about Jewish influence and compared himself to Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler.

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has a long history of making antisemitic comments, apologized to the Jewish community in an Instagram post written in Hebrew on Tuesday.

“I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions,” Ye wrote.

“It was not my intention to offend or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused,” continued the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021.

The statement arrives less than two weeks after Ye went on an antisemitic rant in Las Vegas while promoting his upcoming album “Vultures,” due out Jan. 12. In the rant, he made insidious insinuations about Jewish influence and compared himself to Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler.

“After causing untold damage by using his vast influence and platform to poison countless minds with vicious antisemitism and hate, an apology in Hebrew may be the first step on a long journey towards making amends to the Jewish communi-

ty and all those who he has hurt,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement to The Associated Press and other news outlets on Tuesday. “Ultimately, actions will speak louder than words but this initial act of contrition is welcome.”

The American Jewish Committee, however, criticized Ye’s use of Hebrew in the apology.

“Beyond being bizarre and possibly a ploy to gain more attention, the Hebrew apology — posted without translation — is inaccessible to most American Jews who do not speak the language,” the AJC said in a statement to the AP. “To be sure, using Hebrew to communicate with the Jewish community intentionally denies most American Jews— and, consequently, non-Jews—the ability to directly see Kanye’s apology.”

“While he claims that he is committed to learning and greater understanding, this apology speaks to ‘any pain I may have caused,’ rather than acknowledging the pain that he has caused,” the AJC continued.

Ye has a history of offensive and antisemitic comments, including repeated praise of Hitler and the Nazis. He also once suggested slavery was a choice and called the coronavirus vaccine “the mark of the beast.” In October 2022, he was criticized for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at his Paris Fashion Week show and tweeted that he was going to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale, DEFCON. Later that month, the Balenciaga fashion house cut ties with Ye and he lost the lucrative partnership with Adidas that helped catapult him to billionaire status over his remarks.

“Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they

violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness,” the German sportswear company said at the time. Adidas has sold hundreds of millions of euros in remaining Yeezy shoes, donating part of the profits to groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change.

(Recently, though, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said on a podcast episode that he didn’t think Ye “meant what he said and I don’t think he’s a bad person.” Gulden later apologized, the Anti-Defamation League said.)

He was also dropped by talent agency CAA, and his documentary with MRC Entertainment was scrapped. He was locked out of his accounts on Instagram and what was then known as Twitter, though he has since returned to both platforms.

This isn’t the first the rapper has apologized for his antisemitic comments. He expressed some remorse for his “death con 3” tweet on a podcast in October 2022, characterizing the initial tweet as a mistake and apologizing to “the Jewish community.”

He also went on “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”

“I will say I’m sorry for the people that I hurt with the confusion that I caused,” he said on the show. But less than two months later, he told conspiracy theorist and host Alex Jones that he sees “good things about Hitler.”

“We’ve seen this behavior from Kanye before — the antisemitic rant and the follow-up apology,” the American Jewish Committee said.

Ye’s latest apology ends with him saying he’s committed to “learning from this experience” and plans on “making amends.”

A representative for Ye did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for further comment.

9

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

10

135th Rose Parade boasts floral floats, sunny skies as California tradition kicks off the new year The Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. — Floral floats, marching bands and equestrian units took to the streets under a sunny California sky as the 135th Rose Parade drew hundreds of thousands of spectators on New Year’s Day. The Pasadena, California, tradition on Monday featured Broadway legend Audra McDonald as grand marshal and the theme “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language.” The top prize, the 2024 Sweepstakes Trophy, went to the San Diego Zoo for the float “It All Started With a Roar,” depicting its mascot Rex the Lion and celebrating wildlife conservation. Huge crowds lined the parade route. Many camped out on sidewalks overnight.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Floral floats, marching bands and equestrian units took to the streets under a sunny California sky as the 135th Rose Parade drew hundreds of thousands of spectators on New Year’s Day. The Pasadena tradition on Monday featured Broadway legend Audra McDonald as grand marshal and the theme “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language.”

SOLUTIONS FOR THIS WEEK

The Downey Rose Float Associate float moves along the parade route at the 135th Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Jan. 1, 2024.

AP PHOTO

After recent rains and gray skies, there was plenty of sun for the 8 a.m. start of the spectacle with a military flyover of a B-2 stealth bomber.

Among the fanciful floats was Kaiser Permanente’s colorful “Symphony of You,” which featured 8,000 roses and received the President Award for most outstanding use and presentation of flowers.

The top prize, the 2024 Sweepstakes Trophy, went to the San Diego Zoo for the 55foot (16.8-meter) float “It All Started With a Roar,” depicting its mascot Rex the Lion and celebrating wildlife conservation.

The scheduled performers included Destiny’s Child singer Michelle WIlliams, “The Voice”

winner Cassadee Pope and “American Idol” champion Jordin Sparks.

Huge crowds lined the 5.5mile (8.8-kilometer) parade route. Many camped out on sidewalks overnight, staking out their spots in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve. The parade was briefly interrupted by about 50 pro-Palestinian protesters carrying a banner demanding a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. They blocked the route before peacefully dispersing under police orders, said city spokesperson Lisa Derderian.

McDonald was set to toss the coin before the 110th Rose Bowl college football game between Alabama and Michigan.

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Amazon Prime ads on movies and TV shows will begin in late January The Associated Press IF YOU ARE an Amazon Prime Video user, get ready to see ads on movies and TV shows starting next month.

Prime will include ads beginning on Jan. 29, the company said in an email to U.S. members this week, setting a date for an announcement it made back in September. Prime members who want to keep their movies and TV shows ad-free will have to pay an additional $2.99 per month.

Amazon is also planning to include advertisements in its Prime service in the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as Canada, Mexico and Australia next year.

The tech giant follows other major streamers –- such as Netflix and Disney –- who have embraced a dual model that allows them to earn revenue from ads and also offer subscribers the option to opt out with a higher fee.

Amazon said in its email that it will “aim to have meaningfully fewer ads” than traditional TV and other streaming providers.

The ads, the company said, “will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”

Amazon will “aim to have meaningfully fewer ads” than traditional TV.

Solution for the puzzle in last week’s edition.

AP PHOTO

The Amazon Prime Video streaming app is seen on an iPad screen.

12

Randolph Record for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Was 2023 a tipping point for movies? ‘Barbie’ success and Marvel struggles may signal a shift

By Jake Coyle The Associated Press NEW YORK — Eight years ago, Steven Spielberg predicted that the superhero movie would one day go “the way of the Western.”

Spielberg’s comments caused a widespread stir at the time.

“Avengers: The Age of Ultron” was then one of the year’s biggest movies. The following year would bring “Captain America: Civil War,” “Deadpool” and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” The superhero movie was in high gear, and showing no signs of slowing down.

But Spielberg’s point was that nothing is forever in the movie business. These cycles, Spielberg said, “have a finite time in popular culture.” And the maker of “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park” and “Jaws” might know a thing or two about the ebbs and flows of pop-culture taste.

As 2023 draws to a close, no one is sounding the death knell of the superhero movie. The Walt Disney Co.’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made $845.6 million worldwide and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($691 million) was one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Marvel is still mightier than any other brand in the business.

But more than ever before, there are chinks in the armor of the superhero movie. Its dominance in popular culture is no longer quite so assured. A cycle may be turning, and a new one dawning.

For the first time in more than two decades, the top three movies at the box office didn’t include one sequel or remake: “Barbie,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Oppenheimer.” The last time that happened was 2001, when “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Shrek” and “Monsters, Inc.” topped the box office.

No, it’s not exactly a lineup of originality like, say, 1973, when “The Exorcist, “The Sting” and “American Graffiti” led all movies in ticket sales. “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros.,” based on some of the most familiar brands in the world, will generate spinoffs and sequels of their own.

But it’s hard not to sense a shift in moviegoing, one that

AP PHOTO

From left, Gabrielle Roitman, Kayla Seffing, Maddy Hiller and Casey Myer take a selfie in front of an “Oppenheimer” movie poster before they attended an advance screening of “Barbie,” Thursday, July 20, 2023, at AMC The Grove 14 theaters in Los Angeles. might have reverberations for years to come for Hollywood.

“There’s an inflection point in 2023,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “ Barbenheimer is just one part of that story. Audiences, they want to be challenged. I think the tried and true is not necessarily working.”

Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” from Warner Bros., was the year’s runaway hit, with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales worldwide.

It was a blockbuster like none seen before: an anarchic comedy that set a string of records for a movie directed by a woman.

Nearly as unprecedented was the success of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” a threehour drama that nearly grossed $1 billion. As different as it and “Barbie” were, they were each original feats of cinema and personal statements by its directors.

At the same time, the Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel, a hit-making machine like none other in movie history, faltered like never before. “The Marvels” marked a new low for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, collecting $200

million globally. DC Studios, in the midst of a revamp, saw disappointing results for “The Flash” and “Blue Beetle” before watching “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” sink to a $28.1 million debut.

Both Marvel and DC have already made moves to right their ships. Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, has called turning around Marvel his top priority.

He said the superhero studio has suffered greatly from too many films and series leading to “diluted quality.” The James Gunn, Peter Safran-led DC, meanwhile, won’t officially launch until 2025 with “Superman Legacy.”

In the meantime, something else will have to fill the void. That was a theme in 2023, too, when the writers and actors strikes marred release plans and forced the delay of several films including Warner’s “Dune: Part Two,” Sony’s next “Ghostbusters” movie and MGM’s “Challengers.”

Those disruptions will continue in 2024. Analysts aren’t expecting a banner year for Hollywood in part because films like the next “Mission: Impossible”

film and the “Spider-Verse” sequel, both delayed by the strikes, won’t make their original dates.

Overall ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters for 2023 are expected to reach about $9 billion, according to Comscore, an improvement of about 20% from 2022. The industry is still trying to regain its pre-pandemic footing, when ticket sales regularly surpassed $11 billion. Output of wide-releases in 2023 (88) still trailed those in 2019 (108) by 18.5%.

Hollywood is still coaxing moviegoers back to theaters — something “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer” and “Mario” went a long way to helping.

“It reinforced something that we’ve known for 100 years in the business: People like going to the shared experience out of the home,” says Jeffrey Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “They love being entertained. Movies are a good financial proposition and can bring in a mass audience.”

“It probably started with ‘Mario’ last April,” adds Goldstein.

“I think that showed audienc-

es again that theaters are a fun place to be to. And it showed studios and content creators: Up your game.”

If 2023 is any guide, hits will come from increasingly unpredictable places.

That was the case with “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” a film released just two months after Swift’s recorded concerts in a first-of-its-kind distribution deal with AMC Theatres. It grossed $250 million worldwide, and was followed by the similarly released “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” another No. 1 debut.

More surprising was “Sound of Freedom,” a $15 million film from the independent Angel Studios, which matched Swift with $250 million worldwide. It was released with a unique “pay it forward” program that allowed people to donate tickets.

Going into 2023, no one was betting “Sound of Freedom” would outgross “The Marvels” or that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” would have a bigger opening weekend than “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

“There are going to be examples of big-budget, traditional blockbusters that do well,” says Dergarabedian. “But for every one of those, there have been two that failed. An audience that’s finding a lot of interesting material on streaming is becoming more open to films like ‘Godzilla Minus One,’ Indian cinema, Japanese anime. There’s a shift in audience taste and studios need to get a handle on this.”

That poses as much of a challenge as an opportunity to studios. If more-of-the-same no longer has quite the same appeal for moviegoers, an industry that for years has depended on sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes to make up the bulk of its profits may require new creativity.

The Western didn’t vanish all at once. After two decades of ubiquity, it began going out of style in the 1960s. And the Western, of course, continues to be rich territory for filmmakers.

This year, 81-year-old Martin Scorsese made his first Western in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the three-hour-plus $200 million epic from Apple Studios.

The superhero movie, likewise, won’t ever die. But its heyday might have reached its endgame.

AP PHOTO

The marquee of the Los Feliz Theatre features the films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” on July 28, 2023, in Los Angeles. The films both premiered the same weekend.

VOLUME 8 ISSUE 45 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2024 | HOKE.NORTHSTATEJOURNAL.COM | SUBSCRIBE TODAY: 336-283-6305

HOKE COUNTY THE HOKE COUNTY EDITION OF THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

A memorial to Sgt. Nix outside Greensboro Police headquarters on East Police Plaza. Community members and fellow law enforcement have left flowers, department patches, and notes of remembrance.

WHAT’S HAPPENING More student and government IDs approved for voting The State Board of Elections in North Carolina has authorized 21 additional student and government identification cards for use in voting. This expansion, applicable to both primary and general elections in 2024, supplements the 100 IDs previously approved in July 2023.

The approved IDs for voting include Sandhills Community College, and employee IDs for numerous municipalities and school districts. The full list of acceptable IDs are available at ncsbe.gov/voterID. While a driver’s license is the most common form of ID, the state offers a range of options. A free ID can be acquired from your county board of elections or NCDMV.

NC Medicare Advantage open enrollment now open North Carolina seniors should review their Medicare Advantage plans, with the open enrollment period running from now through March 31, 2024, offering a chance to modify coverage as needed.

During this period, enrollees in Medicare Advantage Plan (Medicare Part C) can switch to a different Medicare Advantage Plan, with or without drug coverage, or revert to Original Medicare. This may also include joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.

Changes will take effect the first day of the month following the plan’s receipt of the coverage request.

Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program counselors, available at 1-855408-1212, provide assistance but are not licensed insurance agents. For further help, the Medicare Plan Finder and 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800633-4227) are also available.

Greensboro police sergeant killed in off-duty incident at gas station Three suspects arrested after shooting cop over stolen beer

Sgt. Nix was a 23-year veteran of the department.

By Jordan Golson North State Journal GREENSBORO — An off-duty Greensboro Police sergeant was shot and killed by suspects who allegedly stole beer from the Sheetz gas station on Sandy Ridge Road in Colfax Saturday night.

Sgt. Philip Dale Nix, a 23-year veteran of the Greensboro Police Department, witnessed individuals stealing beer from the station and was shot after confronting them. Despite immediate aid from another off-duty Greensboro police officer and a Guilford County paramedic, Nix died at a local hospital.

“I am angry, and I’m sad,” said an emotional Greensboro Mayor Nancy B. Vaughn at a Sunday press conference. “It shows the dedication of our police officers that, whether on duty or off duty, they are always focused on protecting our community and

COURTESY GREENSBORO PD

serving our community. And I think he is a hero.”

Three Winston-Salem residents — Jamere Justice Foster, 18; Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, 18; and John Walter Morrison, 28 — were arrested. Win-

ston-Salem police assisted in the arrests.

Foster is charged with first-degree murder, while Blackwell and Morrison face accessory charges.

Foster and Morrison are held without bond, and Blackwell’s

NC Wildlife Resources Commission’s 2024 Top Shot Challenge North State Journal THE NORTH CAROLINA Wildlife Resources Commission has announced a new program aimed at improving target shooting skills.

The 2024 Top Shot Challenge is a 12-month, themed target shooting program that will be offered at six agency shooting ranges across the state.

“Besides target shooting being an enjoyable sport for many people, it creates an opportunity to improve shooting skills and become more familiar handling a firearm, which is a recommended safety measure for firearm owners,” said NCWRC’s shooting range facilities manag-

er Josh Jernigan in the press release.

The ranges in which the challenge will be offered are the John Lenz Hunter Education Complex in Richmond County, the Flintlock Valley Shooting Range in Montgomery County’s Uwharrie National Forest, the Odom Shooting Range in Northampton County, the Wake County Firearms Education and Training Center, the Wayne E. Smith Cold Mountain Shooting Range in Haywood County, and the R. Wayne Bailey-Caswell Shooting Range in Caswell County.

The Top Shot challenge will be offered in three categories: rifle of any caliber, handgun of any caliber and 0.22-caliber ri-

fles and pistols.

The rules include that participants will shoot targets at 50 yards, no lead sleds or locking devices allowed, front supports only (stocks may not touch the table), no caliber .50 BMG or larger, participants must use the targets provided at the range and all other range rules must be followed Participants will receive a themed patch for each monthly challenge they complete. They may attempt the challenge once per day, per month for each themed challenge until they complete it and make-up challenges will be offered in August.

Visit ncwildlife.org for more information.

bond is set at $500,000. Additional charges are being considered.

Arrest warrants allege the stolen beer was valued at $83.45.

The suspects reportedly discussed disposing of the firearm and the getaway vehicle’s license plate.

A “Blue Alert” was sent, the first in North Carolina, according to archives of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, the organization that manages the system. It’s similar to the Amber and Silver alerts for missing children and senior citizens, notifying of an extraordinary threat to law enforcement and the public, and is received on smartphones and broadcast via media outlets.

Saturday’s alert, sent at 6:10 p.m. advised of a Chevrolet Equinox with NC tag KKA-4332, “last occupied by 2 black males in their early to mid 20’s, one wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants with black shoes, with a green/gray toboggan, one suspect wearing a jean jacket with fur and gray sweatpants, See SHOOTING, page 2

Participants will receive a themed patch for each monthly challenge they complete.

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Hoke Sheriff looking for catalytic converter thief North State Journal THE HOKE County Sheriff’s Office is looking for an individual accused of stealing a catalytic converter off a vehicle at Shepley’s Automotive on Dec. 8.

The images show an individual believed to be the suspect, and the Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in identifying them.

If you know this individual or his whereabouts, please call 911, the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office at 910-875-5111, or stay anonymous by calling the Sheriff’s Tip Line at 910-878-1100. The investigation is ongoing. tigation is ongoing.

A weekly podcast getting to the facts across the state, around the world and at home HERE in Raeford, Hoke County, NC.

x Caleb Bryandt Edmiston, 25, is charged with two counts of Resisting Arrest/ Hinder & Delay, Felony Breaking and Entering, and First-degree Arson.

His bond amount is $23,000. x Larry Eugene Koonce, 58, is accused of Sexual Exploitation - Second Degree, with a bond set at $75,000.00.

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Hoke Sheriff looking for robbery suspect North State Journal THE HOKE County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a robbery suspect after an incident on the 9000 block of Fayetteville Road on December 23, 2023 where the victim claimed to have been in a physical altercation with an assailant.

The suspect was identified as James Curtis Shipman. He is wanted for Attempted Common Law Robbery, Second Degree Kidnapping and or Assault on Female and Simple Assault and the Hoke Sheriff is asking for the public’s help in finding him.

If you know his whereabouts, please call 911, the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office at 910875-5111, or stay anonymous by calling the Sheriff’s Tip Line at 910-878-1100. The investigation is ongoing.

Wanted suspect James Curtis Shipman

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SHOOTING from page 1 with tennis shoes.” The alert was canceled at 7:52 p.m.

Sergeant Nix worked across numerous assignments at Greensboro PD in his 23 years, including the Criminal Investigations Division, Patrol Corporal, Patrol Sergeant, and his current assignment as Supervisor of the Family Victims Unit. He was also a Team Leader on the department’s Peer Support Team for 12 years and Assistant Team Leader of the GPD Honor Guard.

The Greensboro Police Department will share more on a fundraiser for the Nix family on its Facebook page. A memorial has been set up at police headquarters at 100 E Police Plaza in Greensboro.

Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements: hokecommunity@northstatejournal.com Weekly deadline is Monday at Noon

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

OPINION Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor VISUAL VOICES

ief

COLUMN | BETSY MCCAUGHEY

Stop funding the ‘rights for migrants’ legal scam You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin.

AS A RECORD NUMBER OF MIGRANTS invade the U.S., wreaking pain on New York City and other communities, one group is winning bigtime: the public advocacy lawyers. Their business is to constantly sue to win more so-called rights for migrants. Rights to shelter, rights to meals, rights to health care, even the right to vote in local elections.

Who pays the bills on both sides of these lawsuits? You do. Taxpayer money largely funds these legal combatants, which include the Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Aid Society, and Vera Institute of Justice.

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin. It’s absurd, but it’s about to get worse.

On Dec. 14, the New York City Council passed Resolution 556, calling on the state legislature to guarantee, as a right, that all migrants have lawyers paid for by taxpayers when they go to immigration court. It would be a “first-in-the-nation” guarantee.

Resolution 556 would give migrants more rights than American citizens have.

No one else is guaranteed a publicly funded lawyer in civil court matters such as housing court issues or divorce.

Yikes, the city council’s proposal would make the Big Apple even more of a magnet for migrants than it already is.

Who’s behind this push? The Vera

Institute of Justice, for one.

Vera claims we “need a federally funded universal legal defense service” for migrants. In short, a national army of left-wing lawyers paid by you. What better place to launch this lunatic idea than at the New York City Council?

The Vera Institute is not the only organization cashing in on migrants’ rights.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams went to court for temporary relief from the rigid rules and settlements that define what the city must provide the homeless, as tens of thousands of homeless migrants arrive.

Immediately, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless swooped in, claiming his plan would “gut” the longstanding rights of the homeless.

These lawsuits are largely funded by you, through grants and contracts from the city and state. Manhattan Judge Gerald Lebovits urged the parties to compromise, and arranged for the lawyers on all sides, representing the city, the state and the migrants, to meet in his chambers several times.

This scam is being repeated all over the nation. The Justice Action Center — also publicly funded — is suing the Biden administration on behalf of Haitian asylum seekers whose rights it claims were violated by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on horseback trying to stop them as they crossed the Rio Grande. Lawyers for the migrants and lawyers for the Biden administration will cross swords. Never

mind who wins. They’re all being paid by us.

It’s a free country. Anyone can sue. But why should we be paying for these legal boxing matches?

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the remedy for New York City’s mounting woes is to sue the federal government for more money. Wrong. That would send more wasted funds down the litigation rathole.

Cuomo also argues that the “right to shelter” should apply to all the counties, instead of just Gotham, and that state lawmakers should “fairly distribute” the migrant burden statewide. Spoken like a pol who is eyeing a city position and no longer cares about the rest of the state.

The notion that there is a “right to shelter” in the state Constitution was concocted by the Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit in 1981. It has tied the hands of city leaders ever since. It should be legally challenged. Extending that questionable right to migrants who just arrived here, and then imposing it statewide, would compound the wrong.

Tell lawmakers to stop funding the legal advocacy industry with our money.

It’s time to break the stranglehold these publicly funded lawyers, under the guise of doing good, have on our city and nation.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.

COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI

The drive-by smears of Clarence Thomas never end

Innuendo masquerading as reporting is the point.

MOST CLARENCE THOMAS hit pieces can’t stand up to perfunctory scrutiny. But the newest doesn’t even make any sense.

In a new five-person-bylined article, anti-Supreme Court outfit ProPublica takes a decades-old offhand complaint the justice made about his salary and spins it into a nefarious conspiracy. In 2000, Thomas apparently groused about his pay to “vocal conservative” Rep. Cliff Stearns. (The justice was hardly alone. It was a big issue in the 2000s.)

This interaction, we are informed, “set off a flurry of activity across the judiciary and Capitol Hill.” By “flurry of activity,” ProPublica means a single memo in which the possibility of raising justices’ salaries was discussed.

Like all SCOTUS smears, the piece is loaded with performative journalistic jargon — “newly unearthed documents,” for instance — meant to make it look like ProPublica is engaging in acts of reporting rather than activism.

Thomas, for example, doesn’t merely have rich friends like every other important person in D.C. He hangs out with a “coterie of ultrarich men.”

Thomas doesn’t attend policy gatherings like every other important person in Washington. He jets off to “off-therecord” conferences at a “five-star beach resort” and sails on a “162-foot yacht” — alternatively known as a “superyacht.”

Painting completely innocuous and standard behavior as weird and scurrilous is a hallmark of the constant effort to smear Thomas. Hey, look at Thomas and his “high-end RV” and look at that “elite circle” he’s running with.

Oh, sure, they give out scholarships to thousands of kids, but everyone knows what it’s really about: Thomas is a puppet of wealthy white folks.

“Precisely what led so many people to offer Thomas money and other gifts remains an open question,” notes ProPublica. This is the key sentence in the article. What “precisely” led antiSCOTUS dark money groups to send ProPublica millions is not an open question.

Innuendo masquerading as reporting is the point. Its purposeful implication is that Thomas can be bought. By my estimation, at least two-thirds of the article rehashes the outlet’s previous stories about Thomas’ relationship with Harlan Crow, who never had a case in front of the justice.

The hit lacks any evidence Thomas engaged in unethical behavior to benefit anyone, much less himself. Nothing prohibits justices from attending conferences. Nothing prohibits them from having friends. Nothing prohibits them from taking out loans to buy a house or an RV. Nothing prohibits them from whining about their salaries.

If anything, the story only confirms that Thomas, one of the least wealthy members of the court, would rather grouse about a lack of money-making opportunities than seek them out unethically.

But it’s also important to remember that no single story about “conservative” SCOTUS justices really matters in and of itself. The quality of the journalism isn’t the point. The quality sucks. The point is flooding the zone.

Much like the Russia collusion hoax, this is a compounding smear. The point is to sell the effort as an emerging story and organic journalism. The payoff never comes.

It all allows establishment media outlets to casually mention the “ethics” “controversies” that “surround” or “swirl around” Thomas. It allows anti-court pundits, who have no problem with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson pulling in millions in book deals from billion-dollar corporate entities, to pretend that “democracy” is under threat from the court. It allows half-wit senators to spin conspiracy theories and thousands of full-blown nitwits to get “Clarence Thomas” trending on X. It helps Democrats delegitimize the high court, the purpose of the entire project.

All non-leftist justices have been the target of these sloppy hits, but there is a fervent disdain for Thomas, who’s committed the gravest sin of defying the Left’s racial stereotypes. He shows contempt for a media that’s been trying to destroy him for more than 30 years by remaining consistently “conservative.”

His enemies have yet to offer any instance where this justice has deviated from his long-held legal philosophy of adherence to the Constitution as written.

And that’s the real problem.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.”

3

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

4 SIDELINE REPORT

SPORTS

MLB

Oft-injured Sale traded to Braves from Red Sox Atlanta Chris Sale’s injury-filled career with the Boston Red Sox ended when the 34-year-old left-hander was traded to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Vaughn Grissom. Boston also is sending cash to the Braves, covering a portion of the $27.5 million salary the seven-time All-Star is owed in 2024. That’s the final guaranteed season of a $160 million, six-year contract. Sale was acquired by Boston from the Chicago White Sox in December 2016 and has made nine trips to the disabled and injured lists with the Red Sox, mostly due to shoulder and elbow ailments.

NHL

Former Hurricanes defenseman Bear signs with Capitals Washington, D.C. The Washington Capitals signed defenseman Ethan Bear to a two-year contract last week. The deal is worth a pro-rated $4.125 million and carries a salary cap hit of $2.0625 million for the rest of this season and the 202425 season. Bear is coming off shoulder surgery after being injured playing for Canada at the world championships last spring. The 26-year-old gives Washington additional depth on the blue line. Bear is joining his fourth NHL organization after starting with Edmonton and playing one season with both Carolina and Vancouver.

MMA

McGregor says he’s returning to UFC Las Vegas Conor McGregor says he’s returning to the octagon for a fight against Michael Chandler on June 29 in Las Vegas. McGregor made the announcement Sunday in a video posted to one of his social media accounts. A UFC spokesperson did not confirm nor deny the fight.

The 35-year-old McGregor, who hasn’t fought in the octagon since 2021, appeared to be at a restaurant drinking a glass of wine in the video.

He said the bout would be in the middleweight class. The 37-year-old Chandler posted on social media in response to McGregor’s announcement, saying he always said he wanted McGregor at his biggest, baddest and best.

AP PHOTO

The Knicks traded former Duke guard RJ Barrett to Toronto.

Former Duke standout RJ Barrett traded to hometown Raptors The Knicks also sent Immanuel Quickley to Toronto for OG Anunoby

By Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press NEW YORK — The New York Knicks traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday and got back OG Anunoby, dealing two of their top offensive players but likely getting a boost to their defense with last season’s NBA leader in steals.

The Knicks also acquired Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn, while sending the Raptors a 2024 second-round pick belonging to Detroit.

The deal, which sends Barrett to his hometown team, left both clubs shorthanded for their games Saturday night. The Raptors lost in Detroit, where the

Pistons snapped their NBA record-tying losing streak at 28 games, while the Knicks fell in Indiana.

“Immanuel is a young, talented playmaker who we believe will provide a spark on both ends of the court. RJ is a versatile wing who is, of course, well-known in his hometown, and seeing him in a Raptors uniform will be a special moment for our fans and for all Canadians,” Toronto vice chairman and president Masai Ujiri said in a statement.

“It’s never easy to say goodbye, especially when players like OG and Malachi have spent their careers with our team. We wish Precious, Malachi and OG all the best.”

The deal comes four months after the Knicks filed a lawsuit against the Raptors, alleging they had conspired to steal thousands of videos and other scouting secrets after hiring a former Knicks

scouting employee.

Anunoby figures to step right into Barrett’s forward spot in the Knicks’ starting lineup. The 6-foot-7 swingman is averaging 15.1 points and had his highest-scoring game of the season when the Raptors visited the Knicks on Dec. 11, scoring 29 points.

“OG’s complete offensive game and ability to defend multiple positions will enhance our team on both ends of the court,” Knicks president Leon Rose said.

Barrett — who played one season at Duke in 2018-19 — averages 18.2 points but has struggled lately with his outside shot, going 2 for 12 from 3-point range over the last two games. The No. 3 pick in the 2019 draft helped the Knicks reach the playoffs twice in the last three seasons after missing them the previous seven.

Quickley was the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year

award last season, but there has been speculation he could be moved since the Knicks declined to give him a contract extension before this season. They will have to replace his 15 points per game off the bench and ability to play both guard positions.

“RJ and Immanuel both began their professional careers in Knicks uniforms and their contributions both on and off the court have had a great impact on this city and organization,” Rose added.

Achiuwa averaged 8.9 points and 6.1 rebounds in 153 games for the Raptors after they acquired him from Miami in August 2021.

The 6-8 forward could help the Knicks up front after they lost starting center Mitchell Robinson to a stress fracture in his ankle.

Flynn was a 2020 first-round pick who averaged 5.4 points in 175 games for the Raptors.

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5

Hoke County Athletes of the Year

Landen Kayeliana Nelson Bonner BOYS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

GIRLS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

HOKE COUNTY SCHOOLS TWITTER/X ACCOUNT

Hoke County, wrestling The 132-pounder finished fourth in the state 4A tournament as a senior to start 2023. Nelson finished his final year of high school wrestling with a 49-5 record. He repeated as Mideast Regional 4A champ after winning in the 138-pound division as a junior. This year, Nelson cruised to the title while allowing zero points to be scored against him in the regional competition. He was also one of six Hoke County wrestlers to take All-County honors in the 2022-23 season and signed a letter of intent to wrestle at UNC Pembroke, although he’s not currently listed on the Braves’ roster.

Honorable Mentions: Salah Sutton and Jaylen Sturdivant, Hoke County basketball; Jose Vazquez De La Cruz and Larry Ariza Diaz, Hoke County soccer; Nathan Oakes and Geronimo Oxendine, Hoke County wrestling; Brandon Saunders and Tre’jan Williams, Hoke County football.

HOKE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL SOCIAL MEDIA

Hoke County, volleyball, basketball Kayeliana Bonner is a junior outside hitter and defensive specialist for the Bucks’ girls’ volleyball team.

Hoke went 8-13 this season, including a fifth-place finish in the Sandhills Conference.

Bonner led the way, topping the Bucks in kills and service aces, placing second in blocks and third in digs and receptions. She also started the year as a member of the Lady Bucks basketball team in the 2022-23 season, leading Hoke in steals and assists while finishing second on the squad in scoring and shooting percentage.

Honorable Mentions: Karmen Campbell and Lailah Crowder, Hoke County basketball; Janiya Holmes and Abigail Watts, Hoke County volleyball; Alaina Goins, Hoke County softball;

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North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

6 MILLENIAL MONEY

5 financial New Year’s resolutions for 2024

By Chanelle Bessette NerdWallet THE NEW YEAR is upon us, and it’s a great time to plan for your financial future. Here are five financial resolutions to consider for 2024.

GET A HIGH-INTEREST SAVINGS ACCOUNT Interest rates are still high on savings accounts right now, especially high-yield online savings accounts. Some accounts are offering more than 5% annual percentage yield, which is 10 times more than the national average on savings accounts. Take advantage of this “free” money by opening a new account with a high rate or upgrading your current one. Just make sure you avoid fees as much as possible, and choose a bank or credit union that is easy for you to access, either through remote customer service or in person.

FOCUS ON STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT For many, student loan payments resumed in 2023. If you’re feeling anxious or uncertain about how much you owe, it’s best to face the numbers head-on and see if there’s any way you can reduce your pay-

AP PHOTO

The likeness of Benjamin Franklin is seen on U.S. $100 bills. ments. For example, if you earn less money now than you did before student loan payments were paused, then updating your income in your student loan portal may change the amount of your income-driven repayment.

There’s another way you might be able to reduce your payment if you’re on an income-driven repayment plan: If you have a retirement fund, you may want to consider putting some money away as a way to reduce your student loan payment.

“If you put your money in a

pre-tax retirement account, that lowers your taxable income for the year,” says Jen Mayer, an accredited financial counselor and founder of the Brooklyn, New York-based firm Fully Funded.

“The percentage that you’re paying for income-driven repayment is going to be lower.”

BUILD YOUR FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SET SOME GOALS Though personal finance isn’t a standard part of an Ameri-

can education, there are plenty of ways to learn more about budgeting, saving and investing.

Whether you browse reputable sites online, check out finance books from your library, or talk to a certified financial planner or other licensed expert, there are lots of people who are eager to impart their financial knowhow.

As you learn more about personal finance, you might find yourself getting inspired to create your own financial goals.

Perhaps you want to retire early, save for a down payment on a house or build a healthy emergency fund. Once you’ve nailed down your goals, you can determine how much money you’ll need, then set a timeline for saving it.

TRY USING AI FOR YOUR FINANCES In 2023, artificial intelligence chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard became popular tools for research and advice. In 2024, you can experiment with using them for your finances. You can give a bot specific prompts, such as “My salary is $50,000, and I want to save $5,000 by the end of the year. How can I do that?” and it can do the math for you, calculating what you need to save and suggesting how to cut

Tennessee proposes 1st express toll lanes around Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville

By Jonathan Mattise The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee transportation officials on Monday recommended that new, optional toll lanes be added to some highways around Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville.

At a news conference, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said the sections would include Interstate 24 between downtown Nashville and Murfreesboro; Interstate 65 between downtown Nashville and Spring Hill; Interstate 24 in Chattanooga around Moccasin Bend; and Interstate 40 west of downtown Knoxville near where it splits with Interstate 75.

The department is recommending to lawmakers and a new state transportation board that the first project be the Nashville-to-Murfreesboro corridor.

It will be years before anything can be built. Officials will first need to complete further studies, as well as a bidding process to select which private entity would win contracts. The state can contract with private entities to develop, build, finance, maintain or operate the lanes. Tennessee expects to close on its

AP PHOTO

Long exposure photo shows cars and trucks moving on a highway. first deal for a choice lane project sometime in 2026.

In a state that currently has no tolls on roads, the goal in Tennessee is to lure drivers who are willing to pay a fee — which usually increases as traffic does — to avoid congestion. Similar express lanes can be found across the

South in Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, as well as places such as California, Colorado, Washington and Minnesota.

Tennessee’s details emerged after lawmakers passed Gov. Bill Lee’s massive roadway funding law earlier this year, which al-

lows the new toll roads. At Monday’s news conference, state transportation officials also discussed plans to replace the Interstate 55 bridge that connects Memphis and Arkansas over the Mississippi River. The need to replace the 75-year-old bridge became glaring when a crack

back on different expenses. You can also instruct a chatbot to find you good deals for things like groceries, school supplies, gifts and more. Just remember that AI pulls information from various sources, and those sources may not always be accurate. Be sure to double-check any information you receive by doing the math yourself, checking with an expert or going to a reputable website to learn more.

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was discovered on the adjacent Interstate 40 bridge, temporarily shutting it down to traffic in 2021 and forcing a slew of cars and semi-trucks onto Interstate 55.

The Interstate 55 project is expected to cost some $787 million.

Tennessee and Arkansas have applied for a federal grant to cover half of it, and the two states would split remaining costs.

In addition to offering toll lanes as an option, the Republican governor’s road funding bill sets aside $3 billion for projects to be split equally among four regions. It also includes $300 million in transportation grants for local governments.

The law also raises electric vehicle fees and introduces a new one on hybrids, which the governor’s team has said will better reflect what those drivers would be paying in federal and state gas taxes. Like other states, Tennessee pays for its roads through gas taxes, a revenue stream that looks less reliable as more people switch to fuel-efficient and electric cars.

The new funding law avoids a traditional tax increase. Critics say the toll lanes will mostly benefit drivers who can afford paying for a quicker ride.

The department on Monday announced a 10-year plan totaling $15 billion, which also accounts for the state’s regular road funding sources. Fifty-five percent of the $15 billion goes toward construction projects, while 45% pays for road work, bridge repairs and other needs.

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North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

7

obituaries

Betty Lou Taylor

June 1, 1931 ~ December 25, 2023 Betty Lou Townsend Taylor, of Red Springs, NC went to be with her Lord and Savior on December 25, 2023, at the age of 92.

Betty was born in Pennsylvania on June 01, 1931, to the late Harold and Bessy Townsend.

Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, James Howard Taylor.

She was a devout member of the Red Springs First Baptist Church. She enjoyed traveling including to 48 states, all over Western Europe, and Northern Africa. Betty was a dedicated wife and a loving, caring, and compassionate mother, and grandmother. She was wellliked and loved and always had a smile on her face.

Betty is survived by her two children, Martha Jane Taylor and Jack Harrison Taylor; grandchildren, Megan MaagBranham, and Aaron Harrison Taylor; great-grandchildren, Kaylee Jayne Maag-Smith, Jaylee Michelle Fulmer, and Jayjeet Fulmer.

Leroy Douglas

July 31, 1952 ~ December 23, 2023 Mr. Leroy Douglas age, 71 transitioned from Earth to Glory on December 23, 2023.

He was the son of the late Ambrosia & Lula Douglas. His sister Lula Baldwin proceeded him in death.

Leroy leaves to cherish his loving memories his children: Lee Randa Finkley, Leroy Douglas Jr., Charles Ezzel Wall, Brian Douglas, John Wall, Clyde Wall, Leroy Junior Douglas, Jerry Douglas, Mary Shaw; god daughter; sister, Jennie McLaughlin; brothers: Charles Douglas, Sam Douglas, Isaac Douglas; fourty grandchildren, thrity three great grandchildren along with a host of other family and friends. Leroy will be greatly missed.

Alphonso Graham

October 24, 1958 ~ December 22, 2023 Mr. Alphonso Graham transitioned from Earth to Glory on December 22, 2023.

He was the son of the late Zebedee and Elnora Graham.

Alphonso leaves to cherish his loving memories his siblings: Naomi Neal, Judy Graham-Evans, Andrea N. Graham, Zebedee T. Graham, James A. Graham, Alexander Graham along with a host of other family and friends. He will be greatly missed.

Willie "Frank" Branch

Willie Frierson

Elizabeth Ann (Holt) Clark

October 12, 1935 ~ December 20, 2023 Elizabeth “Ann” Holt Clark went to be with her Lord and Savior on December 20, 2023, at the age of 88.

Ann was born in Hoke County, NC on October 12, 1935, to the late William and Robie Holt.

Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Edward “Bub” Currie Clark; and three sisters, Juanita Foster, Vivian McDonald, and Charlotte Davis.

She was a member of the Raeford Evangelical Methodist Church. She retired from Proctor Silex in Southern Pines.

Ann loved her church, family, and friends.

She is survived by her daughter, Vicky Rae Clark; grandchildren, Ian Leigh Potts (Hollie), and Miranda Clark Noland (Kris); greatgrandchildren, Weston Leigh Potts, Griffin Holt Noland, and Hallie Brooks Noland; one sister, Patricia Steadman; and a multitude of nieces and nephews.

October 31, 1945 ~ December 15, 2023 When peace like a river attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul… It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Mr. Willie Frierson who entered into eternal rest on December 15, 2023 at his residence.

September 19, 1943 ~ December 26, 2023 Mr. Willie “Frank” Branch of Raeford, went home to be with his Lord and Savior surrounded by his family on Tuesday, December 26, 2023, at the age of 80.

Mr. Branch was born in Robeson County on September 19, 1943, to the late Charlie Howard Branch and Evelyn Wilkerson Branch. He served as Scout Master for Troop 404 in Raeford for many years.

He is survived by his wife Brenda “Gail” Todd Branch of Raeford, NC; two sons, Jason Branch and his wife Robyn of Raeford, NC, Todd Branch and his wife Stacy of Robbins, NC, a daughter, Wendy Branch Jackson and her husband Mark of Winterville, NC, four grandchildren Morgan Branch, Andrew Branch, Henry Jackson and Elizabeth Smith and her husband Caleb, three great-grandchildren, Jaxson Smith, Noah Smith and Brayson Kindred, two brothers, Howard Branch and Ronnie Branch and his wife Barbara all of Raeford, NC.

Tim Murray

May 6, 1956 ~ December 28, 2023 Mr. Tim Murray, of Raeford, NC went to be with his Lord and Savior on Thursday, December 28, 2023, at the age of 67.

Tim was born in Tazewell, Virginia on May 06, 1956, to the late Fritz and Thelma Murray.

Along with his parents, he was preceded in death by his son, Christopher Lee Murray; and several siblings.

He was a member of the Wagram Church of God. He loved the Dallas Cowboys, taking vacations, and spending time with his family. Tim was an incredible husband, father, and grandfather. He loved his grandbabies.

Tim is survived by his wife, Michelle Murray; children, Heather Murray Freeman (Jeremy), and Brandon Murray (Kerry); grandchildren, Zoe Brooke Whaley, Nicholas Stewart, Ryland Freeman, Eli Murray, and Cole Murray; siblings, Juanita Cooper, Bill Murray, Bob Murray (Sue), Bernice Murray, and Mae Carroll (David); and a host of other relatives.

Jerry Kennedy

April 19, 1944 ~ December 26, 2023 Mr. Jerry W. Kennedy, of Raeford, NC went to be with his Lord and Savior on Tuesday, December 26, 2023, at the age of 79.

Jerry is survived by his four children, Stephanie Raynor (Andy), Jerry Kennedy, Jr. “Bit”, Tonya Taylor (Paul), Chrissie Summerlin (Lee “Talley”); six grandchildren; and two greatgrandchildren.

Celebrate the life of your loved ones.

Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in NSJ at obits@northstatejournal.com

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

8

STATE & NATION Retirements could tip control of the House majority. Republicans have the early edge

By Kevin Freking The Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — A chaotic year for the House came to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in this year’s elections.

About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won’t seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Meanwhile, only 14 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.

“Members sort of knew that this is what the institution is currently like when they chose to run for office,” said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank that maintains a database of vital statistics on Congress, including retirements. “Some of them may well be feeling frustrated at this point in time, but anybody who has been elected to Congress in recent years, they’re not surprised at what they’re finding when they are getting to Washington.”

Republicans had the most high-profile exits. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., became only the third lawmaker to be expelled by colleagues since the Civil War. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the first-ever speaker removed from that office by his colleagues. He opted to leave effective Dec. 31 rather than serve among the rank-and-file.

But it’s the departure of a handful of Democrats in competitive districts that has Republicans thinking the overall retirement picture gives them an advantage in determining who will control the House after the 2024 elections.

AP PHOTO

The Capitol Dome is seen as lawmakers prepare to depart for the holiday recess, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.

Reps. Katie Porter of California, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia proved they could win toss-up congressional districts in good election cycles for Democrats and not-so-good cycles.

They are all seeking higher office within their home states. Porter and Slotkin are running for the U.S. Senate. Spanberger is running for governor in 2025.

Democrats are also losing sixterm Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan to retirement, leaving them with another competitive open seat to defend in a state that will be crucial in the presidential election. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., is not seeking reelection

due to health challenges in a district that leans Democratic but is more competitive than most.

On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans leaving office generally represent districts that Democrats have little chance of flipping. They’ll be replaced

by Republicans, predicted Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the House Republican campaign arm.

“Retirements are a huge problem for the Democrats. They’re not a problem for us,” Hudson said.

The exception is Santos, who represented a competitive New York district. Democrats hope former Rep. Tom Suozzi can win

back the seat, which he gave up when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

Sometimes, legislators in the states tip the scales in determining the makeup of Congress. It’s one reason there are so few competitive races.

Three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina have essentially been left with little opportunity to return after GOP lawmakers in the state drew new boundaries for their congressional districts. What were once competitive seats became near locks for whichever Republican emerges from the state’s primary elections.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson

Alex Murdaugh’s pursuit of a new murder trial is set for an evidentiary hearing this month The Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. — The new judge handling the fallout over Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions plans to hold an evidentiary hearing late this month.

Murdaugh’s lawyers want another trial in the killings of the former lawyer’s wife and younger son, citing allegations that the court clerk improperly influenced the jury. The defense will get to put forth evidence at a three-day hearing expected to begin Jan. 29, according to a tentative schedule shared by a media liaison for former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal.

Jurors, the clerk and even the trial judge might have to testify under oath.

Murdaugh is serving life imprisonment without parole af-

AP PHOTO

Alex Murdaugh, center, is led out of Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies after being convicted March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. ter a jury found him guilty this March of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in

June 2021. He got sentenced this November for stealing about $12 million to an addi-

tional 27 years behind bars under a plea deal that resolved scores of state crimes related to money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud.

Toal must decide whether to run back a murder trial that lasted six weeks, involved over 70 witnesses and included about 800 exhibits. The state’s highest court appointed Toal to oversee the weighty matter of a new trial after Judge Clifton Newman recused himself.

Newman, who rose to celebrity in true crime circles for his deft guidance of the highly watched case, is set to leave the bench after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Central to the appeal are accusations that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill tampered with the jury. Murdaugh’s lawyers said in a Septem-

decided to run for attorney general rather than attempt to run again for a Charlotte-area seat that he had just won in the 2022 midterms. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a fellow freshman who flipped a toss-up district in the last election, also announced he would not be running, and would focus instead on a potential U.S. Senate bid in 2026. And Rep. Kathy Manning said she won’t file for reelection under the current maps but would run if a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new districts is successful.

Manning said the city of Greensboro in her district was split into three pieces and combined with rural counties. She won in 2022 by a margin of 9 percentage points, but she said the new district gives a 16-point advantage to a Republican candidate.

Democrats are hoping court-ordered redistricting in Alabama and Louisiana will favor their side and effectively make the redistricting battles a wash.

Ambition is also playing a role in the retirement trends. About half of the Democrats not seeking reelection to the House are seeking office elsewhere. That includes three members running for the seat once held by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who entered the Senate in 1992 and served more than three decades before her death in September.

Slotkin is running for the seat Sen. Debbie Stabenow has held for more than two decades. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is running for president against fellow Democrat Joe Biden.

“If you are interested in a higher office, you’re going to be sensitive to when those things come up. They don’t always come up,” Reynolds said.

ber filing that the elected official asked jurors whether Murdaugh was guilty or innocent, told them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and pressured jurors to reach a guilty verdict for her own profit. Hill is also said to have flown to New York City to be with three jurors during their post-trial television interviews and allegedly shared journalists’ business cards with jurors during the proceedings.

Hill has denied the allegations i n a sworn statement, saying she neither asked jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt before deliberations nor suggested to them that he committed the murders.

Adding to the intrigue is the recent revelation that Hill plagiarized part of her book about the case. Hill’s attorneys acknowledged in a Dec. 26 statement that Hill submitted a BBC reporter’s writing to her co-author “as if it were her own words.” The attorneys expressed Hill’s remorse and said the book has been unpublished “for the foreseeable future.”

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THE FORSYTH COUNTY EDITION OF THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

A memorial to Sgt. Nix outside Greensboro Police headquarters on East Police Plaza. Community members and fellow law enforcement have left flowers, department patches, and notes of remembrance.

WHAT’S HAPPENING More student and government IDs approved for voting The State Board of Elections in North Carolina has authorized 21 additional student and government identification cards for use in voting. This expansion, applicable to both primary and general elections in 2024, supplements the 100 IDs previously approved in July 2023.

The approved IDs for voting include Sandhills Community College, and employee IDs for numerous municipalities and school districts. The full list of acceptable IDs are available at ncsbe.gov/voterID. While a driver’s license is the most common form of ID, the state offers a range of options.

A free ID can be acquired from your county board of elections or NCDMV.

NC Medicare Advantage open enrollment thru March 31 North Carolina seniors should review their Medicare Advantage plans, with the open enrollment period running from now through March 31, 2024, offering a chance to modify coverage as needed.

During this period, enrollees in Medicare Advantage Plan (Medicare Part C) can switch to a different Medicare Advantage Plan, with or without drug coverage, or revert to Original Medicare.

This may also include joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. Changes will take effect the first day of the month following the plan’s receipt of the coverage request.

Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program counselors, available at 1-855408-1212, provide assistance but are not licensed insurance agents. For further help, the Medicare Plan Finder and 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800633-4227) are also available.

Greensboro police sergeant killed in off-duty incident at gas station Three suspects arrested after shooting cop over stolen beer

Sgt. Nix was a 23-year veteran of the department.

By Jordan Golson Twin City Herald GREENSBORO — An off-duty Greensboro Police sergeant was shot and killed by suspects who allegedly stole beer from the Sheetz gas station on Sandy Ridge Road in Colfax Saturday night.

Sgt. Philip Dale Nix, a 23year veteran of the Greensboro Police Department, witnessed individuals stealing beer from the station and was shot after confronting them. Despite immediate aid from another off-duty Greensboro police officer and a Guilford County paramedic, Nix died at a local hospital.

“I am angry, and I’m sad,” said an emotional Greensboro Mayor Nancy B. Vaughn at a Sunday press conference.

“It shows the dedication of our police officers that, whether on

COURTESY GREENSBORO PD

duty or off duty, they are always focused on protecting our community and serving our community. And I think he is a hero.”

Three Winston-Salem res-

idents — Jamere Justice Foster, 18; Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, 18; and John Walter Morrison, 28 — were arrested.

Winston-Salem police assisted in the arrests.

High Point pastor tries to push wife’s coworker into McDonald’s deep fryer She said employees ‘disrespected’ her

By Jordan Golson Twin City Herald A PASTOR in High Point is accused of trying to push a man’s head into a deep fryer at McDonald’s on South Main Street, after the pastor’s wife told him her employees were “disrespecting” her.

The police investigation accuses Dwayne Waden, 57, of High Point, of entering the McDonald’s, walking around the counter, and placing “his hands

around the neck of the victim pushing his head toward the deep fryer.”

His wife, Latoya Gladney, was a trainee manager at the restaurant. She is no longer employed there, the local franchise confirmed to CBS News, saying “the safety and security of our employees and customers is our top priority.”

Waden’s Facebook page says he is a pastor with Elevated Life International Ministries.

In November, he posted a message about purpose being tied to success and a journey in discovering who God is.

The incident was caught on

the restaurant’s security cameras, which police were able to view. Waden allegedly punched the victim several times in the face and did not stop until other employees pulled him off.

Waden was released on a $1,000 bond and is expected in court later this month.

The High Point Police Department has an ongoing “Coffee With A Cop” program where citizens can meet and interact with law enforcement.

The next Coffee With A Cop is Tuesday, January 9 at 8 a.m. at the McDonald’s in High Point where the incident occurred.

Foster is charged with first-degree murder, while Blackwell and Morrison face accessory charges. Foster and Morrison are held without bond, and Blackwell’s bond is set at $500,000. Additional charges are being considered.

Arrest warrants allege the stolen beer was valued at $83.45. The suspects reportedly discussed disposing of the firearm and the getaway vehicle’s license plate.

A “Blue Alert” was sent, the first in North Carolina, according to archives of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, the organization that manages the system. It’s similar to the Amber and Silver alerts for missing children and senior citizens, notifying of an extraordinary threat to law enforcement and the public, and is received on smartphones and broadcast via media outlets.

Saturday’s alert, sent at 6:10 p.m. advised of a ChevroSee SHOOTING, page 2

His wife, Latoya Gladney, was a trainee manager at the restaurant. She is no longer employed there.

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Twin City Herald for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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COLUMN | BETSY MCCAUGHEY

Stop funding the ‘rights for migrants’legal scam

Twin City Herald Neal Robbins, Publisher Jim Sills, VP of Local Newspapers Jordan Golson, Local News Editor Shawn Krest, Sports Editor Ryan Henkel, Reporter Jesse Deal, Reporter P.J. Ward-Brown, Photographer

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin.

BUSINESS David Guy, Advertising Manager Published each Wednesday as part of North State Journal 1201 Edwards Mill Rd. Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27607 TO SUBSCRIBE: 336-283-6305 nsjonline.com Annual Subscription Price: $100.00 Periodicals Postage Paid at Raleigh, N.C. and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: North State Journal 1201 Edwards Mill Rd. Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27607

We stand corrected To report an error or a suspected error, please email: corrections@ nsjonline.com with “Correction request” in the subject line.

Get in touch

Twin City Herald

www nsjonline.com

SHOOTING from page 1

let Equinox with NC tag KKA4332, “last occupied by 2 black males in their early to mid 20’s, one wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants with black shoes, with a green/gray toboggan, one suspect wearing a jean jacket with fur and gray sweatpants, with tennis shoes.” The alert was canceled at 7:52 p.m.

Sergeant Nix worked across numerous assignments at Greensboro PD in his 23 years, including the Criminal Inves-

AS A RECORD NUMBER OF MIGRANTS invade the U.S., wreaking pain on New York City and other communities, one group is winning big-time: the public advocacy lawyers. Their business is to constantly sue to win more so-called rights for migrants. Rights to shelter, rights to meals, rights to health care, even the right to vote in local elections.

Who pays the bills on both sides of these lawsuits? You do. Taxpayer money largely funds these legal combatants, which include the Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Aid Society, and Vera Institute of Justice.

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin. It’s absurd, but it’s about to get worse.

On Dec. 14, the New York City Council passed Resolution 556, calling on the state legislature to guarantee, as a right, that all migrants have lawyers paid for by taxpayers when they go to immigration court. It would be a “first-in-the-nation” guarantee.

Resolution 556 would give migrants more rights than American citizens have. No one else is guaranteed a publicly funded lawyer in civil court matters such as housing court issues or divorce.

Yikes, the city council’s proposal would make the Big Apple even more of a magnet for migrants than it already is.

Who’s behind this push? The Vera Institute of Justice, for one.

Vera claims we “need a federally funded universal legal defense service” for migrants.

In short, a national army of left-wing lawyers paid by you. What better place to launch this lunatic idea than at the New York City Council?

The Vera Institute is not the only organization cashing in on migrants’ rights.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams went to court for temporary relief from the rigid rules and settlements that define what the city must provide the homeless, as tens of thousands of homeless migrants arrive. Immediately, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless swooped in, claiming his plan would “gut” the long-standing rights of the homeless.

tigations Division, Patrol Corporal, Patrol Sergeant, and his current assignment as Supervisor of the Family Victims Unit.

He was also a Team Leader on the department’s Peer Support Team for 12 years and Assistant Team Leader of the GPD Honor Guard.

The Greensboro Police Department will share more on a fundraiser for the Nix family on its Facebook page. A memorial has been set up at police headquarters at 100 E Police Plaza in Greensboro.

These lawsuits are largely funded by you, through grants and contracts from the city and state. Manhattan Judge Gerald Lebovits urged the parties to compromise, and arranged for the lawyers on all sides, representing the city, the state and the migrants, to meet in his chambers several times.

This scam is being repeated all over the nation. The Justice Action Center — also publicly funded — is suing the Biden administration on behalf of Haitian asylum seekers whose rights it claims were violated by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on horseback trying to stop them as they crossed the Rio Grande.

Lawyers for the migrants and lawyers for the Biden administration will cross swords. Never mind who wins. They’re all being paid by us.

It’s a free country. Anyone can sue. But why should we be paying for these legal boxing matches?

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the remedy for New York City’s mounting woes is to sue the federal government for more money. Wrong. That would send more wasted funds down the litigation rathole.

Cuomo also argues that the “right to shelter” should apply to all the counties, instead of just Gotham, and that state lawmakers should “fairly distribute” the migrant burden statewide. Spoken like a pol who is eyeing a city position and no longer cares about the rest of the state.

The notion that there is a “right to shelter” in the state Constitution was concocted by the Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit in 1981.

It has tied the hands of city leaders ever since.

It should be legally challenged. Extending that questionable right to migrants who just arrived here, and then imposing it statewide, would compound the wrong.

Tell lawmakers to stop funding the legal advocacy industry with our money. It’s time to break the stranglehold these publicly funded lawyers, under the guise of doing good, have on our city and nation.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.

COURTESY PHOTOS

Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, Jamere Justice Foster, John Walter Morrison (L to R).

Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements: forsythcommunity@northstatejournal.com Weekly deadline is Monday at Noon

Twin City Herald for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

SPORTS

3 SPONSORED BY

the better pa ing to earn a stitutions,” U don’t know w now.”

The outbre for millions taking virtu while also d about tuition

Forsyth County Athletes of the Year

Jordan Harrison Smart Lewis GIRLS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

BOYS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

A.J. LEWIS’ TWITTER/X ACCOUNT

West Forsyth, baseball

REAGAN PRINCIPAL BRAD ROYAL TWITTER/X ACCOUNT

Reagan, volleyball Jordan Smart finished her final high school season the same way she spent most of her career at Reagan. The Raiders went 37-1, the third one-loss season of Smart’s four years at Reagan. She also earned her fourth All-Conference honor after a season in which she led the team in aces and assists and was second in digs. She led the conference in aces and the entire state in assists.

With 1,081 of the team’s 1,266 assists on the year, Smart became the first Reagan player to top 3,000 career assists, despite having most of the 2020 season curtailed due to the COVID pandemic. Smart will now continue her volleyball career at James Madison after signing a letter of intent with the school.

Honorable Mentions: Gabrielle Nichols, Reagan volleyball; Aurora Rosa, West Forsyth volleyball; Raegan Williams, West Forsyth soccer; Gracie Vickery, East Forsyth lacrosse; Allison Boyd, RJ Reynolds field hockey; Abby Wyss, Reagan lacrosse; Paige Sidney, West Forsyth golf; Ellie Acrey, Reagan golf; Alivia Gurley, West Forsyth lacrosse; Shaymiah Bailey, Walkertown basketball; La’Niya Simes, East Forsyth basketball; Haley Hanes, West Forsyth track & field; Caroline Echols, RJ Reynolds track & field.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound righthander finished his senior season for the 19-9 West Forsyth Titans. His fastball hits 95, with a spin rate of near 2400 (about 100 more than the MLB average), Lewis is headed to the University of North Carolina.

A two-way player with the Titans, Lewis posted a 1.27 ERA with 106 strikeouts in 66 innings, his second straight season topping 100 Ks on the mound. At the plate, he batted .410 with 34 RBIs and 10 homers.

In addition to his fastball, which has increased by more than 10 MPH over his high school career, Lewis has a curve, slider and changeup. Perfect Game has him rated as one of the top 100 righthanders in the country and No. 4 in the state. He was named Central Piedmont Conference player of the year and set a velocity record for the Carolina Disco Turkeys summer league team, hitting 96.4 mph.

Honorable Mentions: Bryce Baker, East Forsyth football; Caman Chaplin and Desmond Jackson, West Forsyth football; Landan Callahan, Reagan football; George Lawson and John Templeton, Forsyth Country Day cross country; Jonathan Koger, Reagan track & field; Tyson Adams, West Forsyth track & field; Kyle Haas, Forsyth Country Day golf; Antoine Jones Jr., RJ Reynolds basketball; Will Gray, East Forsyth basketball; Igor Carvalho, North Forsyth soccer; Haegen Paschold, West Forsyth soccer; Chandler Welsh, RJ Reynolds cross country and track & field; Tate Shore, Reagan cross country and track & field; Braxton Stewart, East Forsyth baseball; Nick Hampton, RJ Reynolds lacrosse; Hank Williams, Forsyth Country Day tennis;

Twin City Herald for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

4

STATE & NATION

Retirements could tip control of the House majority. Republicans have the early edge

By Kevin Freking The Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — A chaotic year for the House came to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in this year’s elections.

About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won’t seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Meanwhile, only 14 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.

“Members sort of knew that this is what the institution is currently like when they chose to run for office,” said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank that maintains a database of vital statistics on Congress, including retirements. “Some of them may well be feeling frustrated at this point in time, but anybody who has been elected to Congress in recent years, they’re not surprised at what they’re finding when they are getting to Washington.”

Republicans had the most high-profile exits. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., became only the third lawmaker to be expelled by colleagues since the Civil War. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the first-ever speaker removed from that office by his colleagues. He opted to leave effective Dec. 31 rather than serve among the rank-and-file.

But it’s the departure of a handful of Democrats in competitive districts that has Republicans thinking the overall retirement picture gives them an advantage in determining who will control the House after the 2024 elections.

AP PHOTO

The Capitol Dome is seen as lawmakers prepare to depart for the holiday recess, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.

Reps. Katie Porter of California, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia proved they could win toss-up congressional districts in good election cycles for Democrats and not-so-good cycles.

They are all seeking higher office within their home states. Porter and Slotkin are running for the U.S. Senate. Spanberger is running for governor in 2025.

Democrats are also losing sixterm Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan to retirement, leaving them with another competitive open seat to defend in a state that will be crucial in the presidential election. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., is not seeking reelection

due to health challenges in a district that leans Democratic but is more competitive than most.

On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans leaving office generally represent districts that Democrats have little chance of flipping. They’ll be replaced

by Republicans, predicted Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the House Republican campaign arm.

“Retirements are a huge problem for the Democrats. They’re not a problem for us,” Hudson said.

The exception is Santos, who represented a competitive New York district. Democrats hope former Rep. Tom Suozzi can win

back the seat, which he gave up when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

Sometimes, legislators in the states tip the scales in determining the makeup of Congress. It’s one reason there are so few competitive races.

Three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina have essentially been left with little opportunity to return after GOP lawmakers in the state drew new boundaries for their congressional districts. What were once competitive seats became near locks for whichever Republican emerges from the state’s primary elections.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson

Alex Murdaugh’s pursuit of a new murder trial is set for an evidentiary hearing this month The Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. — The new judge handling the fallout over Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions plans to hold an evidentiary hearing late this month.

Murdaugh’s lawyers want another trial in the killings of the former lawyer’s wife and younger son, citing allegations that the court clerk improperly influenced the jury. The defense will get to put forth evidence at a three-day hearing expected to begin Jan. 29, according to a tentative schedule shared by a media liaison for former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal.

Jurors, the clerk and even the trial judge might have to testify under oath.

Murdaugh is serving life imprisonment without parole af-

AP PHOTO

Alex Murdaugh, center, is led out of Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies after being convicted March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. ter a jury found him guilty this March of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in

June 2021. He got sentenced this November for stealing about $12 million to an addi-

tional 27 years behind bars under a plea deal that resolved scores of state crimes related to money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud.

Toal must decide whether to run back a murder trial that lasted six weeks, involved over 70 witnesses and included about 800 exhibits. The state’s highest court appointed Toal to oversee the weighty matter of a new trial after Judge Clifton Newman recused himself.

Newman, who rose to celebrity in true crime circles for his deft guidance of the highly watched case, is set to leave the bench after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Central to the appeal are accusations that Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill tampered with the jury. Murdaugh’s lawyers said in a Septem-

decided to run for attorney general rather than attempt to run again for a Charlotte-area seat that he had just won in the 2022 midterms. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a fellow freshman who flipped a toss-up district in the last election, also announced he would not be running, and would focus instead on a potential U.S. Senate bid in 2026. And Rep. Kathy Manning said she won’t file for reelection under the current maps but would run if a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new districts is successful.

Manning said the city of Greensboro in her district was split into three pieces and combined with rural counties. She won in 2022 by a margin of 9 percentage points, but she said the new district gives a 16-point advantage to a Republican candidate.

Democrats are hoping court-ordered redistricting in Alabama and Louisiana will favor their side and effectively make the redistricting battles a wash.

Ambition is also playing a role in the retirement trends. About half of the Democrats not seeking reelection to the House are seeking office elsewhere. That includes three members running for the seat once held by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who entered the Senate in 1992 and served more than three decades before her death in September.

Slotkin is running for the seat Sen. Debbie Stabenow has held for more than two decades. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is running for president against fellow Democrat Joe Biden.

“If you are interested in a higher office, you’re going to be sensitive to when those things come up. They don’t always come up,” Reynolds said.

ber filing that the elected official asked jurors whether Murdaugh was guilty or innocent, told them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and pressured jurors to reach a guilty verdict for her own profit. Hill is also said to have flown to New York City to be with three jurors during their post-trial television interviews and allegedly shared journalists’ business cards with jurors during the proceedings.

Hill has denied the allegations i n a sworn statement, saying she neither asked jurors about Murdaugh’s guilt before deliberations nor suggested to them that he committed the murders.

Adding to the intrigue is the recent revelation that Hill plagiarized part of her book about the case. Hill’s attorneys acknowledged in a Dec. 26 statement that Hill submitted a BBC reporter’s writing to her co-author “as if it were her own words.” The attorneys expressed Hill’s remorse and said the book has been unpublished “for the foreseeable future.”

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VOLUME 8 ISSUE 45 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2024 | MOORE.NORTHSTATEJOURNAL.COM | SUBSCRIBE TODAY: 336-283-6305

MOORE COUNTY THE MOORE COUNTY EDITION OF THE NORTH STATE JOURNAL

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

A memorial to Sgt. Nix outside Greensboro Police headquarters on East Police Plaza. Community members and fellow law enforcement have left flowers, department patches, and notes of remembrance.

WHAT’S HAPPENING More student and government IDs approved for voting The State Board of Elections in North Carolina has authorized 21 additional student and government identification cards for use in voting. This expansion, applicable to both primary and general elections in 2024, supplements the 100 IDs previously approved in July 2023.

The approved IDs for voting include Sandhills Community College, and employee IDs for numerous municipalities and school districts. The full list of acceptable IDs are available at ncsbe.gov/voterID. While a driver’s license is the most common form of ID, the state offers a range of options.

A free ID can be acquired from your county board of elections or NCDMV.

NC Medicare Advantage open enrollment thru March 31 North Carolina seniors should review their Medicare Advantage plans, with the open enrollment period running from now through March 31, 2024, offering a chance to modify coverage as needed.

During this period, enrollees in Medicare Advantage Plan (Medicare Part C) can switch to a different Medicare Advantage Plan, with or without drug coverage, or revert to Original Medicare.

This may also include joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. Changes will take effect the first day of the month following the plan’s receipt of the coverage request.

Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program counselors, available at 1-855408-1212, provide assistance but are not licensed insurance agents. They do not endorse or sell any products. For further help, the Medicare Plan Finder and 1-800-MEDICARE (1800-633-4227) are also available.

This enrollment period is exclusively for current Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees. Coverage changes must be completed by March 31.

Greensboro police sergeant killed in off-duty incident at gas station Sgt. Nix was a 23-year veteran of the department.

Three suspects arrested after shooting cop over stolen beer

By Jordan Golson North State Journal GREENSBORO — An off-duty Greensboro Police sergeant was shot and killed by suspects who allegedly stole beer from the Sheetz gas station on Sandy Ridge Road in Colfax Saturday night.

Sgt. Philip Dale Nix, a 23-year veteran of the Greensboro Police Department, witnessed individuals stealing beer from the station and was shot after confronting them. Despite immediate aid from another off-duty Greensboro police officer and a Guilford County paramedic, Nix died at a local hospital.

“I am angry, and I’m sad,” said an emotional Greensboro Mayor Nancy B. Vaughn at a Sunday press conference. “It shows the dedication of our police officers that, whether on duty or off duty,

COURTESY GREENSBORO PD

they are always focused on protecting our community and serving our community. And I think he is a hero.”

Rockingham teen brings Christmas cheer to Pinehurst senior residents Grayson Wrenn’s heartfelt gift-giving initiative lights up Quail Haven Village North State Journal PINEHURST — This Christmas, the residents of The Inn at Quail Haven Village experienced the joy of the season thanks to a thoughtful gesture by a Rockingham teenager. Grayson Wrenn, a 10th-grade student at Richmond Early College High School in Hamlet, decided to make the holiday special for the seniors at the Pinehurst community.

Wrenn, whose grandfather is a resident at The Inn, organized a gift-giving initiative as part of his Beta Club project. He raised funds, carefully selected, and personally delivered presents to 50 residents in rehabilitation and skilled nursing care at the senior living community. The

gifts ranged from stuffed animals to warm blankets and fragrant soaps.

He wanted to ensure that every resident would have at least one present to open on Christmas. “I knew how much they would love a good Christmas present,” he said according to a news release.

Amy Kirk, the activities director at Quail Haven Village, recounted the heartwarming scene as residents opened their presents. “Some residents were crying tears of joy,” she said. The act of kindness left many residents touched by the generosity of someone they had never met.

“It was truly a day that I’ll never forget.”

Quail Haven Village is a full-service rental retirement community offering a spectrum of living options for seniors. The community provides everything from independent living to skilled nursing care.

Three Winston-Salem residents — Jamere Justice Foster, 18; Z’quriah Le’Pearce Blackwell, 18; and John Walter Morrison, 28

— were arrested. Winston-Salem police assisted in the arrests.

Foster is charged with first-degree murder, while Blackwell and Morrison face accessory charges.

Foster and Morrison are held without bond, and Blackwell’s bond is set at $500,000. Additional charges are being considered.

Arrest warrants allege the stolen beer was valued at $83.45. The suspects reportedly discussed disposing of the firearm and the getaway vehicle’s license plate.

A “Blue Alert” was sent, the first in North Carolina, according to archives of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, the organization that manages the system. It’s similar to the Amber and Silver alerts for missing children and senior citizens, notifying of an extraordinary threat to law enforcement and the public, and is received on smartphones and broadcast via media outlets.

Saturday’s alert, sent at 6:10 See SHOOTING, page 2

First Medicaid expansion data shared for Moore County Nearly 2,000 Moore County residents already enrolled North State Journal MORE THAN 600,000 North Carolinians are newly eligible for health coverage through a recent expansion of NC Medicaid, and the state has recently shared numbers on how many residents have enrolled in the expansion.

Moore County has seen 1,980 newly eligible adults sign up for Medicaid, some 3.6 percent of the county’s 54,637 adult population between 19 and 64 years of age. This data is current as of December 1, though the data was only recently made available by the state. Numbers will be updated monthly.

“Hundreds of people each day are gaining health care coverage and getting the care they need,” said NC Health and Human Services Secretary Kody H.

Kinsley in a press release. “Our work continues with state and community partners to support enrollment efforts to ensure as many people as possible can get covered.”

In total, 272,937 North Carolina residents have signed up for the program, with nearly 33 percent of whom are under the age of 30. Most of that 273,000 were part of the family planning population who were automatically moved to full Medicare coverage as part of the expansion.

To learn more (including income requirements) or to find out if you’re eligible, visit medicaid.nc.gov.

$2.00

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

2 WEDNESDAY

1.3.24

“Join the conversation”

Neal Robbins, Publisher Jim Sills, VP of Local Newspapers Jordan Golson, Local News Editor Shawn Krest, Sports Editor A.P. Dillon, Reporter Ryan Henkel, Reporter Jesse Deal, Reporter P.J. Ward-Brown, Photographer BUSINESS David Guy, Advertising Manager Published each Wednesday as part of North State Journal 1201 Edwards Mill Rd. Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27607 TO SUBSCRIBE: 336-283-6305 MOORE.NORTHSTATEJOURNAL.COM Annual Subscription Price: $100.00 Periodicals Postage Paid at Raleigh, N.C. and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: North State Journal 1201 Edwards Mill Rd. Suite 300 Raleigh, NC 27607

We stand corrected To report an error or a suspected error, please email: corrections@nsjonline.com with “Correction request” in the subject line.

CRIME LOG December 20 x Stewart James Tyner, 34, homeless, was arrested by the Moore County Sheriff’s Office for breaking and entering a motor vehicle. He is currently held on a $5,000.00 secured bond.

December 21 x Richard Aaron Jackson, 35, of Star, was arrested by the Moore County Sheriff’s Office for possession of methamphetamine, maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place for controlled substances, and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is currently held on a $20,000.00 secured bond. x Robert Nmn Brunner, 59, of Southern Pines, was arrested by the Southern Pines Police Department for first-degree statutory sex offense and indecent liberties with a child.

He is currently held on a $500,000.00 secured bond.

December 22 x Bryan Darrell McNeill, 50, of Robbins, was arrested by the Moore County Sheriff’s Office on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine, possession, manufacture, and sale of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, and maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/ place for controlled substances.

He is currently held on a $125,000.00 secured bond.

December 27 x Corey Alonzo Dumas Jr, 27, homeless, was arrested by the Aberdeen Police Department for possession of a controlled substance on prison/jail premises and for violating felony probation. He is currently held on a $20,000 secured bond.

December 28 x Jeffrey Washington Jr, 35, of Southern Pines, was arrested by the Moore County Sheriff’s Office for assault on a female, cyber stalking, and probation violation. He is currently held on a $6,500.00 secured bond.

COLUMN | BETSY MCCAUGHEY

Stop funding the ‘rights for migrants’ legal scam AS A RECORD NUMBER OF MIGRANTS invade the U.S., wreaking pain on New York City and other communities, one group is winning bigtime: the public advocacy lawyers. Their business is to constantly sue to win more so-called rights for migrants. Rights to shelter, rights to meals, rights to health care, even the right to vote in local elections.

Who pays the bills on both sides of these lawsuits? You do. Taxpayer money largely funds these legal combatants, which include the Coalition for the Homeless, Legal Aid Society, and Vera Institute of Justice.

You’re paying to be legally coerced into providing more for migrants, even at the cost of cutting vital city services — kind of like hiring your own assassin. It’s absurd, but it’s about to get worse.

On Dec. 14, the New York City Council passed Resolution 556, calling on the state legislature to guarantee, as a right, that all migrants have lawyers paid for by taxpayers when they go to immigration court. It would be a “first-in-the-nation” guarantee.

Resolution 556 would give migrants more rights than American citizens have. No one else is guaranteed a publicly funded lawyer in civil court matters such as housing court issues or divorce.

Yikes, the city council’s proposal would make the Big Apple even more of a magnet for migrants than it already is.

Who’s behind this push? The Vera Institute of Justice, for one.

Vera claims we “need a federally funded universal legal defense service” for migrants. In short, a national army of leftwing lawyers paid by you. What better place to launch this lunatic idea than at the New York City Council?

The Vera Institute is not the only organization cashing in on migrants’ rights.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams went to court for temporary relief from the rigid rules and settlements that define what the city must provide the homeless, as tens of thousands of homeless migrants arrive.

Immediately, the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless swooped in, claiming his plan would “gut” the longstanding rights of the homeless.

These lawsuits are largely funded by you,

through grants and contracts from the city and state. Manhattan Judge Gerald Lebovits urged the parties to compromise, and arranged for the lawyers on all sides, representing the city, the state and the migrants, to meet in his chambers several times.

This scam is being repeated all over the nation. The Justice Action Center — also publicly funded — is suing the Biden administration on behalf of Haitian asylum seekers whose rights it claims were violated

by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on horseback trying to stop them as they crossed the Rio Grande. Lawyers for the migrants and lawyers for the Biden administration will cross swords. Never mind who wins.

They’re all being paid by us.

It’s a free country. Anyone can sue. But why should we be paying for these legal boxing matches?

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the remedy for New York City’s mounting woes is to sue the federal government for more money. Wrong. That would send more wasted funds down the litigation rathole.

Cuomo also argues that the “right to shelter” should apply to all the counties, instead of just Gotham, and that state lawmakers should “fairly distribute” the migrant burden statewide. Spoken like a pol who is eyeing a city position and no longer cares about the rest of the state.

The notion that there is a “right to shelter” in the state Constitution was concocted by the Coalition for the Homeless in a lawsuit in 1981. It has tied the hands of city leaders ever since. It should be legally challenged. Extending that questionable right to migrants who just arrived here, and then imposing it statewide, would compound the wrong.

Tell lawmakers to stop funding the legal advocacy industry with our money. It’s time to break the stranglehold these publicly funded lawyers, under the guise of doing good, have on our city and nation.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.

moore

happening

Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in and around Moore County:

January 4 Moore County Farmers Market 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Fresh seasonal produce, meat and other local products year round at the lot beside the Armory (604.

W Morganton Rd, Southern Pines).

Austentatious, a Jane Austen Film Series Pride and Prejudice 7 p.m.

Pick up your quill and parchment—write all of your closest connections.

Austentatious, a Jane Austen film series, is coming to the Sunrise Theatre.

Our Austen celebration will begin with the 2005 adaptation of her seminal work Pride and Prejudice.

Ticket Prices at $7.50.

Doors open at 6:30 PM.

January 6 Hounds on the Ground 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Join us for our annual traditional mounted hunt!

Watch as members of the Moore County Hounds. The hunt will start at 9 am and is free and open to the public.

Tailgating is welcome!

Please gather in the front parking lot at the entrance to the Boyd House at 555 Connecticut Ave (the Connecticut Ave entrance).

January 7 SHOOTING from page 1

p.m. advised of a Chevrolet Equinox with NC tag KKA4332, “last occupied by 2 black males in their early to mid 20’s, one wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants with black shoes, with a green/gray toboggan, one suspect wearing a jean jacket with fur and gray sweat-

pants, with tennis shoes.” The alert was canceled at 7:52 p.m.

Sergeant Nix worked across numerous assignments at Greensboro PD in his 23 years, including the Criminal Investigations Division, Patrol Corporal, Patrol Sergeant, and his current assignment as Supervisor of the Family Victims Unit.

He was also a Team Leader on

the department’s Peer Support Team for 12 years and Assistant Team Leader of the GPD Honor Guard.

The Greensboro Police Department will share more on a fundraiser for the Nix family on its Facebook page. A memorial has been set up at police headquarters at 100 E Police Plaza in Greensboro.

TUNE INTO The John and Maureen show

Sundays

1 - 2PM WEEB 990 AM 104.1 and 97.3 FM

MOORE CITIZENS FOR FREEDOM

MOORE COUNTY Remember that we live in the best country, the best state, and by far the best county.

MOORE COUNTY, WHAT A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE!

Instructor’s Demonstration Day and Class Registration Event 2 – 4 p.m.

Start the New Year off by taking an inspiring art class or workshop! Visit the League and watch their instructors as they demonstrate the various mediums that they will be teaching in 2024 - then register for the classes that interest you! Takes place at the Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange Street, Aberdeen.

January 8 Red Cross Blood Drive 10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

The Red Cross will be holding a blood drive at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club (150 Ridge Road Southern Pines, NC). Walkins welcome or register online at redcrossblood. org.

Sandhills Photography Club 7 p.m.

Meetings take place in the Sandhills Horticultural Gardens Visitors Center (3395 Airport Rd Pinehurst, NC). The Sandhills Photography Club is open to all levels of people interested in photography and the sharing of information in the Southern Pines area of NC. Guests are welcome to attend.

ing

North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

3

SPORTS Moore County Athletes of the Year Marshall Landry

Tyne Ross

BOYS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

GIRLS’ ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

MISSISSIPPI STATE SPORTS INFORMATION

Pinecrest, tennis In the spring Landry finished his senior year by winning the state title, after finishing third and second, respectively, the previous two years. Landry capped an undefeated season in singles by not losing a set in the state tournament. He became the first Pinecrest state tennis champion since Karen Atkins and Katie Carpenter won girls’ doubles in 1986 and the first on the boys side since Tony Bass and David Blue won doubles in 1980.

Landry signed with Mississippi State and went 4-2 in singles and 4-1 in doubles during the fall season, winning the GT Fall Invite doubles title with partner Nemanja Malesevic.

Honorable Mentions: Jakarey Gillis and Nathan Rogers, North Moore football; Colby Pennington, North Moore basketball, football and golf; Ricky Betancourt, Anthony Parra and Christopher Betancourt, North Moore soccer; Ricardo Mercado and Jadin Baptist, Pinecrest football; Justin Travers, Jayden Dobeck and Riley Merchant Pinecrest wrestling; Tyler Donze, Pinecrest soccer; Corbin Weeks, Union Pines cross country; Zack Gilbertson, Pinecrest cross country; Colby Wallace, Pinecrest baseball; Christian Hackett, Union Pines track & field; Nicholas Mascolino, Union Pines wrestling; Deacon Medwick and Weston Thomson, Pinecrest lacrosse; Carson Bertagnole and Holland Giles, Pinecrest golf.

PHOTO CREDIT: TYNE ROSS’ TWITTER/X ACCOUNT

Union Pines, tennis and volleyball Plenty of high school athletes play multiple sports.

Most don’t do it in the same week.

In a typical week for Union Pines senior Tyne Ross this fall, she had 26 kills, 3 blocks and 25 digs in a volleyball match on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, she won first singles, 6-0 in a tennis match against Scotland.

On Thursday, she had to let someone down, since the volleyball game and tennis match conflicted. She went with a straight set win on the tennis court.

While she chose tennis that night, her future might be at the volleyball net. She’s committed to play for the NC A&T volleyball team next year after leading Union Pines in kills, digs and hitting percentage. She also went through the tennis regular season without losing a set.

Honorable Mentions: Briana St. Louis, Union Pines track & field and soccer; Jacey Olsen, Pinecrest volleyball; Zanodiya McNair, Pinecrest basketball; Logan Maness, North Moore softball and tennis; Kaitlyn Kruczek, Boonyanant Rujiranan and London Fitzgerald, Pinecrest golf, Karsen Corbett and Allie Hirst, Pinecrest lacrosse; Janie Spicer, Union Pines lacrosse.

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North State Journal for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

4

obituaries

Rev. Michael Branscome

August 10, 1951 - December 20, 2023 Rev. Michael Branscome ,72, of Pinehurst passed to his heavenly home peacefully surrounded by his family on December 20, 2023.

Mike and his Wife Linda celebrated 50 years of Marriage in December and family was so important to Mike. He shared his love for his kids and 5 grandchildren to anyone that would listen.

Mike loved to preach, play golf, read, watch college basketball and follow anything to do with Wake Forest University.

Mike was preceded in death by his parents Posey and Velma Branscome. Mike is survived by his Wife Linda, Daughter, Amy Garner (Kevin), Son Michael Branscome Jr. (Heather) 5 grandchildren, Dylan, Emma, Katie, Stephen and Campbell, Sister, Debbie Maynard (Steve), Brother, Butch Branscome (Amy) 2 nieces and 2 nephews.

Inez Gehrig Bundy

May 2, 1931 - December 21, 2023 Inez Gehrig Bundy, 92 of Pinehurst, passed away on December 21, 2023.

Born on May 2, 1931 in Saginaw, Michigan to the late Herman and Bessie Gehrig.

Inez loved Christmas and instilled that love in all three of her children.

In addition to her parents and siblings, Inez was preceded in death by her loving husband, Rev. Robert F. “Bob” Bundy, Sr. She is survived by three children, Lori Bundy, Dr. Rob Bundy and Gregory Bundy; also survived by five grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

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Debbie Lynn Hannah Pope

August 25, 1957 - December 22, 2023 Debbie Lynn Hannah Pope, 66, of West End, NC went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Friday, December 22, 2023.

Debbie was born in Moore County, NC to the late James Kenny Hannah and the late Martha Jane Saunders Hannah.

She is survived by her daughters, Heather Furr Bryant (John) and Patricia Lea McNeill (Michael); grandchildren, Shelby Bryant, Dylan Fry, Jeremy Fry, and Michael McNeill, Jr.; her siblings, Elgie Brand (Jim), Bill Hannah (Shaw), Junior Hannah (Phyllis), Brenda Bowyer (Billy), Dean Hannah (Sonia), and Dana Pope.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband Ricky Lynn Pope; an infant child; two grandchildren, Kayla Bryant and Edyn McNeill; siblings, Doris Moore and Jean Jenkins; as well as two other infant siblings.

Kathleen Ann Marshall

April 28, 1942 - December 22, 2023 Kathleen Ann was born on April 28, 1942, in Santa Cruz, California, to Raymond and Vermae Laverty. She was one of three children having a sister, Gwen, and a brother, Keith.

Kathy met Gerald George Marshall. On November 6, 1965, they were married.

Kathy was a very devoted wife and she and Jerry were blessed with three children: David, Debra, and Douglas. Throughout the years, the family would grow to eventually include five grandchildren: Kristiana, Joseph, Matthew, Hannah, and Brandon.

Kathy is survived by Gerard, her husband of 58 years; her son, David and his wife Lisa Hernandez; her daughter, Debra and her husband Vincent Wade; her son, Douglas and his wife Kristina; her five grandchildren, Kristiana Wade, Joseph Wade, Matthew Marshall, Hannah Boyer and Brandon Boyer; her sister, Gwen Laverty; and her brother, Keith Laverty.

Patricia Ann Skinner

September 6, 1944 - December 29, 2023 Patricia Ann Kotulka Skinner, 79, of Southern Pines, NC passed away on Friday, December 29, 2023.

She was born September 6, 1944 in Quakertown, PA to the late Francis and Annis Joy Kotulka. She and her husband lived in Colmar, Pennsylvania from 1974 until they moved to Carthage, NC in 1997.

She delighted most in time spent with family and friends and had a deep love for animals. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her well.

She is survived by two daughters, Michele Skinner and Christina Waidell, her husband, Kirk; two grandchildren, Robert (Tony) Skinner and Sydney Waidell; also survived by brother, Frank Kotulka, his husband Charles; and sister, Joanne Sweinhart, her husband Bruce.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her loving husband of 54 years, Robert Milton Skinner.

Patricia Anne Michael McDonald

Pam Black Sullivan

November 4, 1964 - December 24, 2023 Pam Sullivan of West End passed away on Sunday, December 24, 2023.

Pam was born in Moore County on November 4, 1964, to James and Christel Koehler Black.

Pam was a very caring person and enjoyed reaching out to those who needed a helping hand. She also loved cooking for others. Pam loved animals and especially loved her dog, Skeeter.

She is preceded in death by her daughters, Sarah Sullivan and Shannon Sullivan.

She leaves behind her father, James Black, and his wife, Helen of Fayetteville; her mother, Christel Black of Pavo, GA; her brother, Michael Black of Winston-Salem; many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

March 19, 1945 - December 27, 2023 Patricia Anne Michael McDonald, 78, of Southern Pines, NC passed away Wednesday, December 27, 2023.

Patricia was born March 19, 1945 in Moore County, to the late Charles and Margaret Louise Chriscoe Michael.

To know Patsy was to love her. When you were in her presence, she would surely make you smile.

She is survived by two children; Todd McDonald of Camden, SC and Jackie McDonald Boreliz and her husband David of Whispering Pines; five grandchildren, Nadia Boron, Joshua Boron, Kye Boreliz, Peyton McDonald and Jack McDonald; sister Vickie Michael McInnis (Richard); brother Charles Marvin “Mike” Michael, Jr. (Mary).

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her loving husband of 56 years, James Duncan McDonald, Jr. in 2021 and brother Terry Lee Michael.

Dietrich Ernst Kattermann

December 5, 1933 - December 31, 2023 Dietrich Ernst Kattermann, age 90 passed away December 31, 2023 at FirstHealth Hospice House.

He was born in Munich and immigrated to the US in 1955 with his brothers to work on his uncle’s farm in New Jersey.

His uncle was his sponsor and when he was old enough, he joined the Army and served two years in the 38th infantry.

Dietrich transitioned to the army reserves achieving the rank of sergeant.

He is survived by his wife Francesca of the home; sons Nick Kattermann and John Di Piazza; daughters Joan Lockwood and Sonia Lloyd; brother Fritz Kattermann.

Dietrich is predeceased by son Jeff, brother George, and sister Irmtraut.

Doris Mae Shoe

May 20, 1929 - December 21, 2023 Doris Mae Sorrell Shoe, age 94, formerly of Moore County, died Thursday, December 21, 2023 at her home. Mrs. Shoe was preceded in death by her husband Larry and her son Gary. She is survived by her daughters: Doris Jean West of Spartanburg, SC; Martha Jane Thuston of Rolesville, NC, Carol Anne Nicely of Whispering Pines; Mary Beth Mozingo of Farmville, NC; 14 grandchildren, and 27 great grandchildren.

John Richard Watts

May 25, 1950 - December 24, 2023 John Richard (Dickie) Watts, 73 of Southern Pines died on December 24, 2024.

He was born in Spartanburg, SC on May 25, 1950. He was the fourth child of Col. (Ret.) Gene Watts and Katie Watts. He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers, Gene and Roger Watts. He is survived by four sisters Pam Garty, Marianne Nicholson, Kathy Reid, and Lizzie Watts. He is also survived by niece Kathleen O’Brien and honorary brother Larry Evans and seven other nieces and nephews.

He had a special love for animals, especially his cats.

He will be sorely missed by his family, friends, and partners in crime.

Proudly supporting you every step of the way on your grief journey.

CONTACT

www.bolesfuneralhome.com Email: md@bolesfuneralhome.com Locations in: Southern Pines (910) 692-6262 | Pinehurst (910) 235-0366 | Seven Lakes (910) 673-7300

@BolesFuneralHomes