the BRIEF this week
Pittsboro launches Chantal recovery resource website
The City of Pittsboro has launched a website with resources to help those a ected by ooding and damage from Tropical Storm Chantal, serving as a centralized hub for storm-related information, guidance and local assistance. Visit it at pittsboronc.gov/chantal
In ation ticks up slightly in June
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month.
Bank of America reports $7.12B net income in Q2, surpasses earnings expectations Charlotte Bank of America Corp. on Wednesday reported second-quarter net income of $7.12 billion. The company said it had earnings of 89 cents per share. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 86 cents per share. The nation’s second-largest bank posted revenue net of interest expense of $26.46 billion, which did not meet Street forecasts.
$2.00
Pittsboro approves multiple city property purchases
The town acquired approximately six acres of property for a total cost $2.15 million
By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record
PITTSBORO — The Town of Pittsboro Board of Commissioners had an agenda primarily
lled with various property matters when it met for its July 14 regular business meeting.
The board approved the purchase of multiple properties, including nearly three acres of property located at 205 JA Farrell St. for the price of $700,000.
“It was appraised for $1.45 million and has a tax value of $857,000, so this is a pretty good
deal,” said Town Manager Jonathan Franklin.
The second purchase was for the acquisition of approximately three acres of property located at 274 Pittsboro Elementary School Road (also known as the RAFI Building) for the price of $1.45 million. The property is intended to be an expansion of the McClenahan Street Park, and the build-
State’s rst standalone children’s hospital coming to Wake County
North Carolina Children’s will bring approximately 8,000 jobs to Apex
The Associated Press
APEX — North Carolina’s rst standalone children’s hospital will be built in Wake Coun-
ty, the project’s health systems announced last Thursday, creating a campus estimated to bring 8,000 jobs to the area.
UNC Health and Duke Health announced in January an agreement to jointly build the proposed 500-bed pediatric hospital and linked facilities in the state’s Research Triangle region, which
includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. At that time, the specific location wasn’t nalized. But leaders of the health systems said last week that the North Carolina Children’s project will be constructed about 20 miles
See HOSPITAL, page A2
Next-generation 911 systems proving their worth in NC, FL
“It’s really quite remarkable how well 911 works despite those challenges.”
Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS
North Carolina’s system saw success during Helene
By Freida Frisaro The Associated Press
NAPLES, Fla. — When an emergency happens in Collier County, Florida, the 911 calls go to one of the most high-tech communications centers in the U.S., where callers can send text and video from the scene to dispatchers. Moving to what’s known as an NG911 — or Next Generation 911 — system is a journey Sheri Kevin Rambosk and Bob Finney, the county’s director of communication, have been on for much of the past decade. It’s a long way from Feb.
16, 1968, when Alabama’s then-House Speaker Rankin Fite made the nation’s very rst 911 call in Haleyville, Alabama, on a bright red, rotary-style landline telephone. That ceremonial call came just 35 days after AT&T announced plans to use 911 as a nationwide emergency number. Today, most calls to 911 originate with cellphones, with dispatchers in upgraded centers using geotracking to get accurate geographic locations from callers.
But the response time in an emergency depends on the type of technology being used at any of the 6,000 emergency communications centers in the U.S.
Buck Moon over North State
July’s full moon rose last week, photographed from the 16th tee at Pinehurst No. 3.
ing will be utilized as o ce and operational spaces for the Parks and Recreation Department and eventually as a community center as well.
“We are in the pre-engineering of a town hall project, and this actually would save us about $1 million on space needed because we’d be pulling Parks and Rec out of that. So essentially we’re getting three acres to improve McClenahan Park for $450,000,” Franklin said. “That’s kind of the way I’m looking at it.”
The board also approved the sale of property, 21 acres of an approximately 54-acre parcel
See BOARD, page A7
“I’m really excited about what the children’s hospital means for children of North Carolina who are sick and in need of the best, most sophisticated, advanced medical interventions to live long, healthy lives.”
Gov. Josh Stein
DAVID SINCLAIR FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
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
July 7
• Stacey Lawrence Currie, 52, of Siler City, was arrested for selling and delivering cocaine, possessing cocaine with intent to sell or distribute, and maintaining a vehicle or dwelling for controlled substances.
July 11
• Lori Beth Loy, 43, of Sanford, was arrested for allowing livestock to roam freely.
• Kenneth Adrian Scurlock, 59, of Siler City, was arrested for violating a domestic violence order.
• Joseph Anthony Farrar, 62, of Moncure, was arrested for making threats and cyberstalking.
from page A1
southwest of downtown Raleigh in Apex, a town of 77,000 already surging in population thanks to the region’s strong technology economy.
The 230-acre campus will also include a children’s outpatient care center, more than 100 behavioral health beds, and a research and education center operated by Duke University and University of North Carolina medical schools.
The campus is poised to be integrated into a long-discussed mixed-use development location called Veridea that will include thousands of new homes, retail, dining, o ce and research space, as well as a new Wake Technical Community College campus.
“This campus will create a brighter, healthier future for generations of children and adolescents across North Car-
olina and the Southeast, and we’re thrilled to have Apex as our home and partner,” UNC Health CEO Dr. Wesley Burks said in a news release.
A groundbreaking for the hospital campus is expected in 2027, with construction anticipated to take six years. North Carolina Children’s Health also issued on Thursday a request for information from potential design and construction contractors for the project.
There are children’s hospitals already in North Carolina, including those operated by the University of North Carolina and Duke University health systems that are attached to their main campuses in the Triangle.
The Apex location “will ensure that the Triangle remains a hub and a destination for the best pediatric scientists, teachers and clinicians — convenient to both medical school campuses,” said Dr. Mary Klot-
The 230acre North Carolina Children’s campus will be part of Veridea, a new mixeduse planned community.
man, dean of the Duke University medical school and a Duke Health executive.
The health systems have said the hospital campus project could cost from $2 billion to $3 billion, with a massive private fundraising e ort ahead.
The project has already received $320 million from state legislators. The next state budget, still being negotiated by House and Senate Republicans that ultimately would head to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s desk, also could contain more project funds.
Stein said in an interview Thursday that beyond the economic opportunity the project will spark, “I’m really excited about what the children’s hospital means for children of North Carolina who are sick and in need of the best, most sophisticated, advanced medical interventions to live long, healthy lives.”
CHATHAM happening
Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in Chatham County:
July 18
Orange County Lockdown at Bynum Front Porch
7-8:30 p.m.
Free musical performance: donations are welcome. This is a family-friendly event with food and beverages available for purchase on-site.
Front Porch, Bynum General Store 950 Bynum Road Bynum
July 19
Chatham Mills Farmers Market
8 a.m. to noon
Producers-only farmers market o ering a wide variety of goods from fresh produce to other groceries, including eggs, cheese, meat, health and wellness items, and crafts. Everything is created by the vendors themselves.
Lawn of the historic Chatham Mills 480 Hillsboro St. Pittsboro
Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge and Tours
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tour the grounds at your own pace with a map provided upon entry and additional details provided by tour guides stationed throughout the grounds. The refuge is home to more than 120 farm animals that have been rescued. Tickets are $95; call 919-533-4013 to book your spot or for more information. 7236 U.S. Highway 87 North Pittsboro
July 22
Community Blood Drive
11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
There is currently a shortfall in required blood bank stores. Type O donations are particularly needed. To make an appointment, contact the American Red Cross at 800-733-2767.
Chatham YMCA 120 Parkland Drive Pittsboro
Share with your community! Send your birth, death, marriage, graduation and other announcements to community@ chathamnewsrecord. com
The weekly deadline is Monday at Noon.
HOSPITAL
COURTESY
Biggest piece of Mars on Earth going up for auction in NY
By Dave Collins and Joseph B. Frederick
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — For sale:
A 54-pound rock. Estimated auction price: $2 million to $4 million. Why so expensive? It’s the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth.
Sotheby’s in New York will be auctioning what’s known as NWA 16788 on Wednesday as part of a natural history-themed sale that also includes a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton that’s more than 6 feet tall and nearly 11 feet long. According to the auction house, the meteorite is believed to have been blown o the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike before traveling 140 million miles to Earth, where it crashed into the Sahara. A meteorite hunter found it in Niger in November 2023, Sotheby’s says.
The red, brown and gray hunk is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby’s says. It measures nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches.
911 from page A1
that receive 911 calls. There is no uniform emergency system in the U.S., so individual cities, counties, states or geographic regions are responsible for operating their own 911 call centers.
While some states have fully updated to NG911 systems, others are still using legacy 911 systems that rely on antiquated equipment.
“We’re just reminded in these last two weeks, with the ooding in Texas, just how important the work of 911 is,” said Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS, which provides infrastructure that passes critical data to emergency centers across the United States.
The future is now for 911
The Collier County Sheri ’s O ce covers 911 calls from an area of about 2,030 square miles that stretches from sandy beaches at the southernmost tip of the Gulf Coast on Florida’s peninsula inland to the Everglades.
It’s a region that has been ravaged by hurricanes this century, including Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricanes Ian and Milton most recently.
That’s why Sheri Rambosk wanted a high-tech emergency operations center.
“We just believe that when we can reduce the response time using technology, it will improve safety and survivability of those calling in,” said Rambosk, who has been sheri since 2009. “And that’s really what we’re all about,
“This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,” Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby’s, said in an interview. “So it’s more than double the size of what we previously thought was the largest piece of Mars.”
It is also a rare nd. There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 o cially recognized meteorites found on Earth, Sotheby’s says.
Hatton said a small piece of the red planet remnant was removed and sent to a specialized lab that con rmed it is from Mars. It was compared with the distinct chemical composition of Martian meteorites discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in 1976, she said.
The examination found that it is an “olivine-microgabbroic shergottite,” a type of Martian rock formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma. It has a course-grained texture and contains the minerals pyroxene and olivine, Sotheby’s says. It also has a glassy surface, likely due to the high heat that burned it when it fell through Earth’s atmosphere, Hatton said. “So that was their rst clue that this wasn’t just some big rock on the ground,” she said.
The meteorite previously was on exhibit at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. Sotheby’s did not disclose the owner. It’s not clear exactly when the meteorite hit Earth, but testing shows it probably happened in recent years, Sotheby’s said.
The juvenile Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeleton was found in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, at Bone Cabin Quarry, a gold mine for dinosaur bones. Specialists assembled nearly 140 fossil bones with some sculpted materials to recreate the skeleton and mounted it so it’s ready to exhibit, Sotheby’s says.
The skeleton is believed to be from the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, Sotheby’s says. It’s auction estimate is $4 million to $6 million.
Ceratosaurus dinosaurs were bipeds with short arms that appear similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex, but smaller. Ceratosaurus dinosaurs could grow up to 25 feet long, while the Tyrannosaurs rex could be 40 feet long.
The skeleton was acquired last year by Fossilogic, a Utahbased fossil preparation and mounting company.
Wednesday’s auction is part of Sotheby’s Geek Week 2025 and features 122 items, including other meteorites, fossils and gem-quality minerals.
Church News
SANDY BRANCH BAPTIST CHURCH
It’s Vacation Bible School time at Sandy Branch! Our theme this year is “S’Mores.” Making s’mores is a great camp re tradition.
When you bite into crunchy, chocolatey, gooey s’mores, they taste so good! Kids will learn that when we experience Jesus in our lives, there is nothing sweeter. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalm 34:8a.
Our VBS will begin with an ice cream party and time of registration starting at 6 p.m. Friday, July 18. On Saturday, July 19, beginning at 9 a.m., we will celebrate the sweetness and goodness of Jesus during Bible Study, crafts, music and games.
We will have lunch around 11 a.m., concluding the day’s activities.
Children preschool through 12 years old are invited. Hope to see you at 715 Sandy Branch Church, Road, Bear Creek.
in Naples, Florida.
keeping people safe and rescuing them when they need it.” Today 61 full-time employees and three part-timers sta two emergency operations centers around the clock. They rely on data that RapidSOS collects from connected buildings, devices, vehicles and even smart watches to send rst responders to emergency scenes. The baseline data is provide free of charge to all 911 centers, Martin said.
Mixing technology with emergency response
As Hurricane Helene was tracking toward north Florida last September, forecasters were predicting it could hit Tallahassee as a major Category 3 storm. O cials in Leon County, which serves the state’s capital and nearby counties on legacy 911 equipment, reached out to Collier County, some 430 miles to the southeast, to see if they could
take over emergency calls if the storm knocked their center out.
Helene moved to the east of Tallahassee, but Collier County was prepared to help if needed.
“Because of the partnership with Rapid SOS, they were able to create a map to where not only did we see our own calls, but we could see exactly where the calls were coming in Tallahassee,” Finney said.
Collier County has also partnered with Charleston, South
Carolina, as a backup 911 center. Each region is fully prepared to take on 911 calls for the other in case their emergency system goes down for any reason.
It’s a similar story in North Carolina, where legislation in 2017 helped establish funding for a next generation 911 system, said Pokey Harris, who serves as president of the National Association of State 911 Administrators and executive director of the North Carolina 911 Board.
Harris said Hurricane Helene provided validation for the upgraded system by being able to direct 911 calls from areas that were devastated by the storm to other parts of North Carolina that were not a ected.
“During Helene, if a citizen could reach a dial tone, even though their local 911 center may have been impacted because of infrastructure devastation, another center somewhere in the state could answer their call,” Harris said.
No federal funding for next-generation systems
Next Generation 911 systems aren’t cheap.
“There has been no federal funding for 911,” Martin, of RapidSOS, said. “It has been in various draft formats as long as I’ve been doing this, and it’s never gotten through Congress.”
There is also no federal oversight of 911, he said.
“It’s really quite remarkable how well 911 works despite those challenges,” Martin said. “I think it’s a testament to the people of 911, not the technology.”
MARTA LAVANDIER / AP PHOTO
Dispatchers work emergency calls at the Collier County Emergency Services Center, last week
The 6-foot-tall skeleton of a Ceratosaurus is also on the block
RICHARD DREW / AP PHOTO
A Martian meteorite, weighing 54.388 lbs., said to be the largest piece of Mars on Earth is displayed at Sotheby’s in New York, last week.
THE CONVERSATION
Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
Grime, mud and love
I don’t know why tragedies happen. They are a mystery, and anyone who claims otherwise is a charlatan whose words are wind and dust.
TROPICAL DEPRESSION CHANTAL caused the Haw River to rise more than 20 feet, yet also resulted in a ood of relief e orts last week in Saxapahaw. “Wash me clean of my iniquity,” prayed the psalmist, “and cleanse me from my sin.” But the Good Lord leaves other cleaning projects to us. That’s how I found myself scrubbing the inside of an oven so that our crew could make meals to deliver to community volunteers.
Don’t misunderstand: Others worked harder than me. There were fallen trees that needed to be cut and moved, waterlogged carpet that had to be pulled up and hauled o , and mud everywhere — so much mud that volunteers had it coming out of their ears! And these hard-working folks labored in near triple-digit temperatures. One of them told me the work was “harder than pushing a wet rope uphill.”
I don’t know why tragedies happen. They are a mystery, and anyone who claims otherwise is a charlatan whose words are wind and dust. However, the way communities respond to su ering inspires me. We are stronger together. My colleague and friend, the Rev. Dr. Jill Du eld, wrote in her new book, “Our individual e orts matter, but our corporate ones increase the salt, light, and leaven exponentially. We need one another’s support and encouragement to stand rm in the faith, despite all
COLUMN | BOB WACHS
the forces threatening to overtake us.”
I know there are forces, both natural and human, that overwhelm and destroy. Only love can rebuild and heal. When we seek to love our neighbors after a tragedy, love has kitchen grime beneath its ngernails and mud in its ears.
Last week at church, we were busy preparing the food that others had donated. A local farm gave 147 pounds of zucchini. Others pooled their resources to contribute a cooler full of beef. A woman in Durham gave a brand-new generator, and a man, who had taken a red-eye ight to help his mother-in-law in her ooded apartment, picked up the generator in a borrowed truck and said with a tearful smile, “This means more than I can say.”
Many things defy explanation, yet we are given the chance to love: in the grime beneath our ngernails, in the mud coming out of our ears and in the smile on someone’s weary yet hopeful face, there is the extraordinary found lodged in the ordinary, a quick catch of the in nite in the always-arriving present.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman’s newest book is “This Is the Day.” He serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church as well as a writer, pizza maker, co ee drinker and student of joy.
No time like the present to say, do what we should
I loved my stu but gradually began to want it out of sight of other folks, especially visitors so they wouldn’t know what a messy fellow I was.
IT’S BEEN ALMOST 40 YEARS since the good folks who built our house built our house. By now, many of them have retired, while others have gone on to that great building project in the sky.
Many — actually most — of the details of that e ort are lost to memory or we never knew them because we weren’t always around while the work was going on. And besides, the folks doing the work were folks we trusted to do a good job, so we didn’t need to hang around and get in their way. I can’t remember a lot of the conversations about what we wanted in our house beyond some initial discussions. And through the years of living here, Better Half and I have been pleased with how things turned out. There is, however, one part of the house I really like — the room on the front of the house we call my “study.” It sits at a corner, which means when Mother Nature gives us something other than 98 degrees and a hot wind that I can throw open the windows and catch a great breeze.
But the best feature of the room, as far as I’m concerned, is one wall of built-in oor to ceiling bookcases. And, again, I don’t remember a discussion with the builder about putting them in, but I’m so glad he did.
So, for almost 40 years, I’ve had a wonderful resource … but I’ve been remiss in using it.
Better Half had some idea when, thanks to her dedication and hard work she reeled me in almost 55 years ago, that I was a pack rat. She had seen my newspaper o ce when we were dating and knew I had a terrible sickness called “Save-itis,” which means you save everything you ever had or that belonged to your parents or anyone else you liked.
Maybe she thought she could reform me or maybe she was just overcome with joy. Whatever the issue was, the reform never came. I continued to collect stu — books, newspapers, magazines, trinkets, even some junk, you name it — for years. By the time we moved into our house I had quite a collection. After all, it had been a work in progress for almost 55 years.
Logically, then, the prospect of lling up a room with a truckload of shelves prompted more stu to be brought in until it go to the point about the only room in the room
was a path. I loved my stu but gradually began to want it out of sight of other folks, especially visitors so they wouldn’t know what a messy fellow I was. I even took to closing the door even when it was just family.
Finally, even I had had enough. Better Half once spent a week away visiting our niece out of state, and I resolved to surprise her by cleaning out the study, trashing the trash and rearranging the keepings on those nice shelves. And the best way — the only way — I reasoned was to take everything out of the room and sort it back in.
A week wasn’t long enough.
When Better Half returned, the living room was covered with stu ; a couch and some chairs held a collection of my book collection and assorted stu was here and there.
Today, I’m still not through, but I’m beginning to see the light at the end of that famous tunnel everyone talks about. I’ve dusted most of the shelves, arranged books by topic, given away a trunk load of volumes and thrown away large amounts of trash.
All the while this has been going on, I’ve had a nagging thought — this has been a ne room all along with great possibilities. Why, then, did I delay in using it as it was intended to be used? Was it procrastination? Fatigue? Laziness?
From that thought then it was then only a short hop to why have I not taken advantage of all the opportunities to interact with people? To visit folks I love? To write that long overdue note? To make that telephone call? To tell someone how important they are — to me and others? To tell someone, “I love you”?
I’m pretty sure we all have “bookcases” in our lives, resources that will make our lives and those of others a little sweeter. I can’t get back the 40-plus years my study was many times a junk room, but I can do better from here.
I just need a few more days to get the rest of the stu o the oor. And then, watch out, world.
Bob Wachs is a native of Chatham County and emeritus editor at Chatham News & Record. He serves as pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church.
COLUMN | ANDREW TAYLOR-TROUTMAN
Are you cracked, too?
I try to make excuses for myself, obscure what just occurred, or just make peace, as best I can, with the fact that I will always, always be a growing and imperfect human.
WHAT WORD that often makes me feel downright embarrassed, contracting my shoulders and blinking my eyes, uncomfortably, as in “Did I really say or do that?” Vulnerable. That word. Vulnerable. Yep, those oh-so-human qualities that I’d just love to keep behind locked doors. “I’m weak! I was so inappropriate!” But, damn, that locked door just wants to open sometimes. The sheer e ort of hiding my vulnerabilities from other human eyes can be absolutely exhausting.
You think you’re the only one who has embarrassing moments in your past (OK, truth be told, even just ve minutes ago)?
The continuing shame of how we might have done things di erently, trying to deny our perceived loneliness, our sadness. Of course, as you know, you are the only person in the United States who ever feels lonely or sad. Right?
Give me a break! Our culture applauds our “yay” emotions — joy, contentment, ll in your own favorites here. And our “not-so -yay” vulnerable emotions? Ooo-wee, I can just feel the shame rising in my face when I display my human vulnerabilities. My mistakes, my being human-ness, my ouches I really don’t want you to see. So often, I’m ready to have light shine only on my goodnesses. My frailties? Not so much. Whoa, suddenly thunderstruck! Winding its way through my slightly muddled brain, I hear, “What does the full range of one’s humanity mean?”
| SUSAN ESTRICH
Oh, great question! Here’s my current makeshift answer. Ready? The Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz”! No, no, not kidding you, or myself (I don’t think?) The good ‘ol Tin Man (hey, go back and watch the movie!) seems, to this imperfect human, wed to the path of nding a human heart, even within his tin embodiment.
I’m rather like that Tin Man, clink, clanking around. Bumping into things and then making peace with the fact that I have bumped into yet another person or thing in an unwanted fashion. I try to make excuses for myself, obscure what just occurred or just make peace, as best I can, with the fact that I will always, always be a growing and imperfect human.
Do I have room in my heart for my own vulnerabilities? Oh gosh, so hard to say, but I often learn the most fruitful life lessons from those self-same frailties and vulnerabilities. Once I can acknowledge them, that is. Ouch.
The late, great, Canadian folk singer Leonard Cohen wrote what I think is an anthem for imperfect humans, i.e., all of us.
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect o ering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in…”
I may be cracked, but that’s how my light gets in. What’s your status?
Jan Hutton, a resident of Chatham County and retired hospice social worker, lives life with heart and humor.
The Justice Department whistleblower
Reuveni was a respected career prosecutor. He spent the rst Trump administration defending Trump’s immigration policies.
“IF THEY CAN do this sort of thing to Abrego Garcia, to 238 people that nobody knows, and send them to CECOT forever with no due process, they can do that to anyone,” Erez Reuveni, a former Justice Department lawyer who has led a whistleblower complaint with the Senate Judiciary Committee told The New York Times. “It should be deeply, deeply worrisome to anyone who cares about their safety and their liberty, that the government can, without showing evidence to anyone of anything, spirit you away on a plane to wherever, forever.”
Reuveni was a respected career prosecutor. He spent the rst Trump administration defending Trump’s immigration policies. But this time, he insists, is di erent. This time, Justice Department lawyers are being told to mislead the courts, and ignore them.
“The Department of Justice is thumbing its nose at the courts, and putting Justice Department attorneys in an impossible position where they have to choose between loyalty to the agenda of the president and their duty to the court,” Reuveni added.
In his whistleblower complaint, Reuveni describes how the administration invoked a rarely used federal law to send immigrants to the notorious Salvadoran prison, even as Emil Bove, formerly Trump’s personal lawyer and now a senior Justice Department o cial and nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals, told subordinates, including Reuveni, that the Justice Department may end up ignoring court orders, using an expletive to make his point.
Of course, the administration denies everything. But as The New York Times carefully puts it: “text messages, phone records and emails viewed by the Times appear to bolster the whistle-blower’s version of events, o ering a behind-thescenes recounting of private meetings and conversations that show Justice Department leaders pressing to take audacious legal risks.”
BE IN TOUCH
COLUMN
JENNY BETH MARTIN
Democrat leaders must condemn political violence — now
DEMOCRAT LEADERS have a problem on their hands: According to Axios, “Democrat members of Congress are facing a growing thrum of demands to break the rules, ght dirty — and not be afraid to get shot” in their e orts to oppose the Trump administration. As the leader of the nation’s largest Tea Party group, I can say from my own experience in dealing with grassroots activists angry with the actions of their political opponents that now is the time for Democrat leaders to stand up and squelch those demands — or live to regret it. In recent weeks, we’ve seen disturbing scenes playing out all over the country: In Alvarado, Texas, “10 violent assailants equipped with tactical gear and weapons” attacked the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility on July 4; in McAllen, Texas, a man was shot and killed outside a Border Patrol facility after ring dozens of rounds at Border patrol and local police o cers on July 7; and in Portland, Oregon, protesters rioted at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility with reworks and knives over a period of weeks. All of this, supposedly, was done in protest of federal immigration policies. What may be even more disturbing, however, is the deafening silence from Democrat Party leaders as these violent acts are carried out by those aligned with their cause.
It’s time for Democrats in positions of power to do what responsible leaders must do: Call for peace, condemn violence, and demand that activists reject lawlessness, no matter how passionately they may disagree with the Trump administration or its policies. Failing to do so is not just irresponsible — it’s dangerous.
Audacious legal risks? Also known as lying to the courts, misleading and misinforming them, which Reuveni was red for refusing to do.
In his complaint and in the interview with the Times, Reuveni detailed how another Justice Department lawyer misled a federal judge on March 15, when the administration sent several planes of migrants to El Salvador. The lawyer said that he did not know whether such removals were imminent. A colleague listening to the hearing texted Reuveni an expletive, followed by: “That was just not true. ... He knows there are plans for AEA removals within the next 24 hours.”
Reuveni replied, “Yes he does.”
Later that evening, Reuveni sent another text that referred to Bove’s expletive: “Guess we are going to say f--- you to the court. Super.”
His colleague responded, “Well, Pamela Jo Bondi is,” then added, “not you.”
Records Reuveni gave to Congress show State Department o cials o ered to negotiate with the Salvadoran government in order to get Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
O cials at the Department of Homeland Security rejected these e orts, insisting that he was a dangerous gang member who could not be returned. As the Times reports, “Career lawyers at the Justice Department struggled to carry out ambiguous instructions from their superiors in apparent contradiction of judicial orders.”
Democrats now argue Bove is un t to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The jury is still out on this one. Does it mean if he’s not quali ed for the bench, he goes back to telling Justice Department lawyers to defy the courts? This is not business as usual. The Justice Department is rotten. And the sh rots from the head.
Susan Estrich is a lawyer, professor, author and political commentator.
Letters to the editor may be sent to letters@nsjonline.com or mailed to 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.
Contact a writer or columnist: connect@northstatejournal.com
I remember very clearly what it was like during the earliest days of the Tea Party movement. Americans were deeply frustrated, and they were angry about the direction the country was heading. They were concerned about the future their children would inherit. And they had every right to speak up, organize and protest. But what we never allowed was violence. As leaders, we took it upon ourselves to ensure that people who were angry channeled that energy into constructive civic engagement, not chaos. We taught people how to hold signs, not Molotov cocktails.
We Tea Party activists became famous not only for our passionate defense of liberty and limited government, but also for our peaceful, orderly protests — where we picked up after ourselves. That wasn’t a coincidence. It was the result of leadership that emphasized respect for the rule of law and for our fellow Americans, even when we strongly disagreed with many of them.
Today, Democrat Party leaders are failing their movement in that regard. The far-left fringe of their grassroots base is increasingly resorting to intimidation, destruction of property and even violence against law enforcement authorities. And far too many Democratic politicians are choosing to wink and nod, or worse, remain silent — perhaps because they fear losing support from their most radical activists.
That is not leadership. That is cowardice.
It’s also hypocrisy. Many of these same Democrat leaders spent years warning about the dangers of political violence. They claimed to stand for norms, for institutions, for the peaceful transfer of power and civil debate. But where are those voices now? Where are the calls for deescalation, for restraint, for returning to the rule of law? Where is the rm condemnation of those who bring violence to the front doors of ICE facilities?
Democrat leaders cannot pretend they don’t have a role in this. Grassroots energy is not a faucet you can turn on and o . Once you start inciting rage, once you elevate rhetoric that suggests your political opponents are monsters, it’s only a matter of time before someone takes that rhetoric seriously and acts on it. That’s why responsible leadership matters so much. When emotions run hot, leaders must step in to cool them down, rather than fan the ames.
When the Tea Party was growing, I, along with other Tea Party leaders, made a conscious e ort to insist on nonviolence, even when we were met with condescension and false accusations. We stayed the course because we believed in the American system. And because of that discipline, we helped change the political landscape peacefully and productively.
Now it’s time for the leaders of the Democrat Party to show the same courage and discipline. They must look their grassroots activists in the eye and say, “Violence is wrong. Period. This is not who we are.” Until they do that, they will continue to bear a measure of responsibility for the lawlessness being carried out in their name.
America needs passionate debate. It needs dissent. It even needs protest. But it does not need mobs in the streets or riots outside federal buildings, and it most assuredly does not need people shooting at law enforcement authorities. It needs leaders with the moral clarity to say: enough. For the sake of our republic, I hope they nd the strength to say it. Before it’s too late.
Jenny Beth Martin is honorary chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action. This article was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
COLUMN
obituaries
Robert Carrol Wrenn
March 17, 1949 –July 12, 2025
Robert Carrol Wrenn “The Hulk”, 76, of Siler City, passed away at his home Saturday, July 12, 2025, at his home surrounded by his family.
Robert was born in Chatham County, NC on March 17, 1949, to the late Carrol Willis Wrenn and Sara Bruton Wrenn. In addition to his parents, Robert was preceded in death by his brother, David Willis Wrenn.
He was 1967 graduate of Jordan Matthews High School and a 1971 graduate of Guilford College. Robert had a love for lumber and thus was a coowner of Wrenn Brothers Inc. He was past member of the Home Builders Association and his love for log homes led him to donate ooring to Central Carolina Community College for tiny homes. He was a volunteer for ringing the bell at Christmas, where he had the honor of having the highest money donations in 2023 for The Salvation Army. He was a member of First United Methodist Church. He always enjoyed his time as a member
Phyllis Smith Hayes
June 9th, 1955 –July 10th, 2025
Phyllis Hayes, 70, of Roanoke Rapids passed away on Thursday, July 10, 2025. Born and raised in Siler City, NC, Phyllis went on to obtain Bachelor’s degrees from both Meredith College and East Carolina University. She began her career dedicated to caring for others through the eld of nursing in 1982. Working in many di erent settings of healthcare in the Halifax County area, she was able to share her compassionate heart while caring for others.
Phyllis later went on to teach, guide, and develop the next generation of nurses through the Halifax Community College’s Nursing Program.
Phyllis later returned to school and pursued her Master’s in Nursing and worked the last several years of her career as a Nurse Practitioner in cardiac medicine.
Outside of caring for others, Phyllis was heavily involved with the church community. She shared her love for music by participating in the choir and playing the piano for services when needed. At home, Phyllis
of the Chatham County Wildlife Club. Robert loved being outdoors. He was an avid sherman and enjoyed being on his boat as much as possible. He never met a stranger and enjoyed going to Walmart, to people watch and talk. Playing cards with his buddies and listening and telling stories with them was a fond past time. Robert had a love for animals especially his dog, Aussie, his grand dog, Honey, and grand cat, Tigre. Above all the other things he loved his family, they were his pride and joy. Whenever he was with them there was always a lot of laughter.
Robert is survived by his loving wife of 43 years, Jane Je ress Wrenn; one son, Adam Wrenn and wife, Kaitlyn; and one daughter, Elizabeth “Beth” Wrenn. He is also survived by his brother Neil Wrenn and wife, Vivian; sister-in-law, Victoria Hutchins; and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.
The Celebration of Robert’s Life will be held Saturday, July 19th, 2025, at 11:00 a.m., at The First United Methodist Church with Rev. Kyle Burrows o ciating. A visitation will follow.
The family request in lieu of owers memorials be made to the Chatham County Wildlife Club, PO Box 561 Siler City, NC 27344, or Southeastern Lumber Manufacturer’s Association (SMLA), 200 Greencastle Rd., Tyrone, GA 30290. Smith & Buckner Funeral Home is serving the Wrenn family.
Online Condolences may be made at www.smithbucknerfh. com
thoroughly enjoyed reading, gardening, and tending to her loyal companion, Todd. Company was always welcome and many stories were shared with familiar faces. After retirement, she was fully committed to volunteering in church initiatives, such as backpack buddies and the community food bank. She was an avid supporter of the Carolina Hurricanes and other local sports teams, including ECU and NCSU.
Phyllis was preceded in death by her father, Frank W. Smith and mother, Ellen Scott Smith. Phyllis leaves behind her husband of 45 years, David Hayes; her sons, Douglas, Daniel, and Jonathan Hayes, daughters-in-law, Corinne and Kari Hayes, along with 8 grandchildren, Emalynn, Celeste, Valerie, Khloe, Rylee, Wyatt, Wilson, and Natalie. Additional surviving relatives include her brother, F. Lewis Smith and sister-in-law, Bonnie Smith; nephew, Kenneth Smith; brother-in-law, Bob Hayes; sisters-in-law, Debbie Hayes and Judy Hayes.
The family would like to express a special thank you to the doctor and sta of ECU North’s Oncology Unit for the care received.
A celebration of Phyllis’ life will be held at 3:00 PM on Sunday, July 20, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church of Roanoke Rapids, the church she was a dedicated member for 45 years. A reception will be held immediately after the service in the fellowship hall. The service will be available for viewing online through the church’s media feed.
In lieu of owers, the family encourages donations to First Presbyterian Church food bank funds, a cause very close and dear to Phyllis’ heart.
Herbert Franklin Pike
July 2, 2025
Herbert Franklin Pike, 79, of Pinehurst, passed away peacefully on July 2, 2025.
Born and raised in Siler City, North Carolina, Herb earned an Undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University and
IN MEMORY
a Master’s degree from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, both in Physical Education. Herb competed on the baseball team while at Wake Forest. He taught and coached in North Carolina public schools for about 25 years before retiring and following his dream to earn his PGA Class A certi cation to become a PGA Teaching Pro. Herb’s love of golf was obvious to everyone who knew him, and he shared this love through coaching golf for over 45 years, the majority of those years he spent at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC, and at Sandhills Community College in Southern Pines, NC. He was also a recreational sherman and enjoyed sharing this pastime with his kids, grandkids, and extended family. He is survived by his children, Katie Starck, and her husband Paul Starck, and Emily Pike;
LAURA GRACE GARNER DUNN
APRIL 8, 1948 – JULY 8, 2025
Laura Grace Garner Dunn, 77, of Asheboro, passed away on Tuesday, July 8, 2025 at Randolph Hospice House. Visitation will be held on Thursday, July 10, 2025 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Joyce-Brady Chapel. The funeral will be at 2:00 p.m. on Friday July 11, 2025 at High Falls Christian Church, where she was a member, with Pastor Chris Wilson presiding. Burial will follow at Beulah Baptist Church. The family will receive friends at the High Falls Christian Church fellowship hall following the interment. Grace was born in Chatham County on April 8, 1948 to Ed Everette Garner and Dorothy Shields Garner. She worked at B.B. Walker Shoe Co. as a district manager for 33 years. Grace enjoyed singing in the church choir, gardening and working in her owers. She loved her family, her church and her church family. She adored her grandchildren.
ROBIN MITCHELL PATE
JAN. 19, 1975 – JULY 10, 2025
Robin Mitchell Pate, age 50 of Vass, NC, passed away on Thursday (7/10/2025) at her home. She was born on January 19, 1975, daughter of the late Bonnie Hilliard. She was preceded in death by her mother, grandmother, Claudette Sykes, step-grandfather Billy Sykes and her grandfather, Harry Mitchell. Robin enjoyed going to the beach and spending time with her family. She loved to cook, had a sweet soul and was very helpful to others. She never complained and always saw the good in people and in every situation. A celebration of life service will be held at a later date. She is survived by her husband of 25 years, Thelbert “Gene” Pate of Cameron, NC; daughters, Hannah Marie Rivas of Vass, NC and Jessica and her daughter, Ameila of Mebane, NC; sister, Meghan Rigsbee (Austin Davis) of Rougemont, NC; uncle James Mitchell of Ocean Isle Beach, NC; aunts, Patty Nipper of Mebane, NC and Donna Dorton of Roxboro, NC; nephew, Hunter Sykes and niece, Cydney Sykes.
JAMES ROBERT “DOODIE” BEAL
NOV. 15, 1946 – JULY 7, 2025
James Robert “Doodie” Beal, 78, of Bear Creek, passed away on Monday, July 7, 2025 at The Siler City Center. The funeral service will be held at 11:00 am on Thursday, July 10, 2025 at Joyce-Brady Chapel with Kevin Poe presiding. The family will receive friends following the service. Doodie was born in Chatham County on November 15, 1946 to Vernie and Ruth Yow Beal. He was a retired inmate supervisor for the City of Sanford. Doodie loved being a cowboy and rodeoing. He enjoyed roping, bull riding and training youngsters in the “cowboy way”. Doodie was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his son, Cli Beal (Cheri), of Texarkana, TX; sister, Gayle Hughes (Dallas), of Newport, TN; grandchildren, Halie Shipley (Nathan), Madison Basso (Tony), Trevor Beal and Kutter Keys, all of New Boston, TX; great-grandchild, Jovie Kate Shipley, of New Boston, TX; niece, Sabrina Beal Oates, of Bear Creek; special caregivers, Jay and Gail Matthews , of Carthage and a host of family and friends.
grandchildren Connor and Ethan Starck; brother Jerry Pike and his wife, Wilma; his beloved nieces and nephew, Patty, Darla, Chad, and Ginna.
A visitation with the family will be at 11am and a Celebration of Life will be at 12 pm on Saturday, July 12 at Loves Creek Baptist Church in Siler City, 1745 East 11th Street, Siler City, NC 27344. Services will be o ciated by Reverend Jason Dickerson. In lieu of owers, donations in Herb Pike’s name can be made to First Tee Triangle (https:// rstteetriangle.org/), a program to teach kids the game of golf as a way to build inner strength and self-con dence. Smith & Buckner Funeral Home will be assisting the Pike family.
Online condolences can be made at www.smithbucknerfh. com
JANE FRANCES SWINDELL BARRINGER
FEB. 2, 1929 – JULY 6, 2025
Jane Frances Swindell Barringer of 490 Barringer Road, Sanford, NC passed away at home on Sunday, July 6,2025. She was born on February 2, 1929, to Alma Hayman and Lindsey Swindell of Elizabeth City, in Pasquotank County, NC. She graduated from Elizabeth City High School in 1947, where she was a ve-year member of the marching band. She graduated from the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina in 1951 with a degree in History and came to Sanford the same year to teach history at Sanford High School. Jane Swindell married Paul Jehu Barringer, Jr of Sanford in 1956, and in 1960 they renovated Bridge Road Farm in the Deep River section of Lee County, where they raised their family.
WILFORD “BUD” MANUEL TURMAN
AUG. 5, 1943 – JULY 2, 2025
Master Sergeant (United States Army Retired) Wilford “Bud” Manuel Turman ,81, of Sanford, North Carolina passed away peacefully on July 2, 2025, at Central Carolina Hospital. He was born on August 5, 1943, in Hominy, Oklahoma. Bud was the son of Phoebe Rose Fite and Wilford “Wally” Turman. He was one of fteen children. At the age of 17, with the permission of his mother, he enlisted in the United States Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he began and ended his military career. He distinguished himself during his twenty years of service and was awarded several medals, badges, and decorations. He was awarded the Master Parachutist Badge, National Defense Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Meritorious Unit Commendation and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. He served honorably as a member of the elite 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (the Green Berets) and with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. From 1967 -1969 he served two tours in Vietnam. He loved his country and sacri ced his life for the many freedoms we are blessed to have today. After retiring, he became one of many veterans who served his country well. Bud was a man of many talents and believed in having a strong work ethic. As part of his enjoyment ,as a civilian, he earned a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, coached youth football in Fayetteville, North Carolina and loved making cherished memories with his family, playing football, and visiting the mountains of North Carolina. To his grandchildren, he was a ectionately known as “Papa Mud,” a name that captured both his warmth and gentle humor. After serving in the Army, he founded several successful heating and air conditioning businesses, including the locally respected “Bud-Air.” He maintained his HVAC license until the age of 80 further re ecting his commitment to community and mentorship.
Debbie Horton
BOARD from page A1
located along Moncure Pittsboro Road, to Chatham Park for the sale price of $1.2 million.
“We had the value opinion done and it was anywhere from $800,000 to $900,000, so I think the town got a good deal on this one too,” Franklin said.
The commissioners approved utilizing $800,000 of the revenue from the sale for various Parks and Recreation projects, including bathrooms at Rock Ridge as well as various up t and improvements at Kiwanis Park, Knight Farm Park and Town Lake Park.
The board also held two public hearings, including a voluntary, contiguous annexation petition for approximately 33.5 acres of property located on Old Graham Road and between Oakwood Drive and Brookstone Lane.
The commissioners raised questions about potential ooding control for the future development and the applicant assured them that they would go above the standards set forth by the town.
“The stormwater control features of this project are going to meet whatever the Pittsboro requirements are,” said attorney Nicolas Robinson, who was representing the applicant. “In addition, after conferring with the developer and the engineer, we will size the stormwater pond in excess of the town’s requirements, and we pledge to make it as large as practical.”
The board also held a public hearing for a conditional rezoning request for nearly 17 acres of property located at 220 Lorax Lane (The Plant) from Heavy Industrial to a Community MixedUse Conditional Zoning
President Bill Clinton listens to David Gergen, right, during a Rose Garden news conference May 29, 1993.
David Gergen, adviser to 4 presidents, dies
By Patrick Whittle The Associated Press
DAVID GERGEN, a veteran of Washington politics and an adviser to four presidents in a career spanning decades in government, academia and media, has died. He was 83.
Gergen worked in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Over the years, he served as a speechwriter, communications director and counselor to the president, among other roles.
Dean Jeremy Weinstein of the Harvard Kennedy School, with which Gergen had a long relationship, said Gergen died of a long illness. Gergen “devoted decades of his life to serving those who sought to serve,” said Hannah Riley Bowles, a former co-director of the school’s Center for Public Leadership, where Gergen was the founding director.
“David was a principled leader of unmatched character, integrity and kindness, who chose to see goodness in every person he met,” Riley Bowles said.
Al Gore, who served as Clinton’s vice president, posted on X, “Of the countless ways that David Gergen contributed to our great country, what I will remember him for most was his kindness to everyone he worked with, his sound judgment, and his devotion to doing good in the world.”
David Richmond Gergen was born in North Carolina and graduated from Durham High School before atttending Yale University and the Harvard Law School, according to a biography on the Harvard Kennedy School website. He would go on to receive 27 honorary degrees over the course of his career.
Gergen founded the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and remained there as professor of public service emeritus until his death, according to the school’s website.
After serving in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, Gergen took his rst White House job in 1971, serving as a speechwriting assistant for Nixon. Bipartisanship and collaboration were hallmarks of his long career, said colleagues who paid testimonials on social media last Friday.
He was also a media personality who worked as a senior political analyst for CNN. In his 2022 book “Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made,” he wrote: “Our greatest leaders have emerged from both good times and, more often, challenging ones. … The very nest among them make the di cult calls, that can ultimately alter the course of history.”
A private burial is scheduled for Mount Auburn Cemetery on Monday, said Mark Douglass, director of Douglass Funeral Home in Lexington, Massachusetts. A larger memorial service at Harvard will be held in the coming weeks, Douglass said.
“It’s been in use since at least 2005 as a manufacturing site and as an entertainment destination,” said Planning Director Randy Cahoon-Tingle. “The primary rationale for this conditional rezoning is to bring most of the existing uses into conforming status and adapt to reuse one of the primary structures to create an indoor event space.”
Following each hearing, the board approved the requests.
The board then approved a major subdivision plat for Chatham Park Section 6.2 Phase 2. The plan for this phase constitutes approximately six acres with 57 single-family residential lots (29 single-family detached and 28 townhomes) planned for development.
The Town of Pittsboro Board of Commissioners will next meet Aug. 11.
Your Journey Starts Here...
Get your learner’s permit this summer! Teenagers at 14 ½ years old may enroll in our teen class which includes 30 hrs of in-class instruction, and 6 hrs of behind-the-wheel lessons, and vision/medical screening before getting the learner’s permit.
New Classes: 7/14-7/18 • 7/21-7/25
Weekend Classes:
8/1 - 5:00pm-8:00pm; 8/2&8/3 - 9:00am-3:00pm 8/8 - 5:00pm-8:00pm; 8/9&8/10 - 9:00am-3:00pm
Contact & Operating Hours centralcarolinadrivingschool@gmail.com | 984-315-0430 M-F 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Weekends by appointment only. Visit our website www.centralcarolinadrivingschool.com
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP PHOTO
Born in North Carolina, he went to Durham High School
CLASSIFIED ADS
REAL ESTATE
LEARN ABOUT LANDChatham Land Experts, www. learnaboutland.com - 919-3626999.
JY2,tfnc
FOR RENT
2 B/R, 1 BATH MOBILE HOME FOR RENT – Bonlee/Bear Creek Area – No Pets, No Smoking, Leave a message – 919-8375689.
4tp,J10,17,24,31
POWELL SPRINGS APTS.
Evergreen Construction introduces its newest independent living community for adults 55 years or older, 1 and 2 bedroom applications now being accepted. O ce hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 919-533-6319 for more information, TDD #1800-735-2962, Equal housing opportunity, Handicapped accessible. A2,tfnc
ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS now for one-bedroom apartments, adults 55 years or older. Water included, appliances furnished, on-site laundry, elevator, keyless entry. Section 8 accepted. No security deposit. Application fee $25 per adult. Call Braxton Manor, 919-663-1877. Handicap accessible. Equal Housing Opportunity. J14,tfnc
FOR SALE
3 CEMETARY PLOTS FOR SALE – CHATHAM MEMORIAL PARKHwy.64, Siler City, NC. Please call Cheryl Powers at 910692-2539 or Diane Hairr at 336402-4552. 4tpJ10,17,24,31
AUCTIONS
RICKY ELLINGTON
AUCTIONEERS - Equipment, business, liquidation, estates, land, houses, antiques, personal property, coins, furniture, consignments, bene ts, etc., NCAL #7706, 919-548-3684, 919-663-3556, rickyellingtonauctions@yahoo. com.
Jy6,tfnc
SERVICES
CASH PAID FOR JUNK CARS AND PICKUPS – Call 336-5813423 Jy17,24,31,A7p
RAINBOW WATER FILTERED VACUUMS, Alice Cox, Cox’s Distributing - Rainbow - Cell: 919-548-4314, Sales, Services, Supplies. Serving public for 35 years. Rada Cutlery is also available.
A26,tfnc
JUNK CARS PICKED UP Free of charge. Due to many months of low steel prices and unstable steel markets, we cannot pay for cars at this time. Cars, trucks, and machinery will be transported and environmentally correctly recycled at no charge. 919-542-2803.
A2,tfnc
LETT’S TREE SERVICE - tree removal, stump grinding, lot clearing. Visa & Master Card accepted. Timber. Free estimates. 919-258-3594. N9,tfnc
dishwasher are included in the rent. Rent starts at $630 and up. 400 Honeysuckle Dr., Pittsboro, NC 27312 919-542-5410 TDD 1-800-735-2962
Email: pittsborovillage@ECCMGT.com
TAKE NOTICE
SUTTLES ROAD IN THE TOWN OF PITTSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA WHEREAS, it appears that permanently closing a portion of Suttles Road within the Town of Pittsboro is not contrary to the public interest and that no individual owning property in the vicinity of said portion of Suttles Road proposed to be closed would thereby be deprived of reasonable means of ingress and egress to his or her property; NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS RESOLVED by the Board of Commissioners of the Town of Pittsboro as follows: That pursuant to Section 160A-299 of the North Carolina General Statutes, the Town intends to permanently close that portion of Suttles Road containing 57,853 square feet (1.328 acres) that is depicted on a survey by Thomas M. Grzebien, Professional Land Surveyor entitled “Right Of Way Abandonment Exhibit
NOTICE
1A Towers, LLC is proposing to construct a 199foot overall height monopole telecommunications structure located near 714 N Dogwood Avenue, Siler City, Chatham County, North Carolina (35° 43’ 41.9” N, 79° 28’ 12.4” W). The proposed tower is anticipated to utilize FAA Style E (medium intensity, dual red/white strobes) lighting.
1A Towers, LLC invites comments from any interested party on the impact the proposed undertaking may have on any districts, sites, buildings, structures, or objects signi cant in American history, archaeology, engineering, or culture that are listed or determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Comments may be sent to Environmental Corporation of America, ATTN: Annamarie Howell, 1375 Union Hill Industrial Court, Suite A, Alpharetta, GA 30004 or via email to publicnotice@eca-usa.com. Ms. Howell can be reached at (770) 667-2040 x 108 during normal business hours. Comments must be received within 30 days of the date of this notice. In addition, any interested party may also request further environmental review of the proposed action under the FCC’s National Environmental Policy Act rules, 47 CFR §1.1307, by notifying the FCC of the speci c reasons that the action may have a signi cant impact on the quality of the human environment. This request must only raise environmental concerns and can be led online using the FCC pleadings system at www.fcc.gov or mailed to FCC Requests for Environmental Review, Attn: Ramon Williams, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554 within 30 days of the date that notice of this proposed action is published on the FCC’s website. Refer to File No. A1316914 when submitting the request and to view the speci c information about the proposed action. 25-002541/CLS
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
25E000284-180
ALL persons having claims against Barbara M. Perkin, Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before October 1, 2025, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 3rd day of July, 2025. MARTIN JACK PERKIN, Administrator C/O Monroe, Wallace, Morden & Sherrill, PA 3225 Blue Ridge Road, Suite 117 Raleigh, NC 27612 July 3, 10, 17 and 24
NOTICE
NOTICE OF DISCHARGE OF UNTREATED SEWAGE
The City of Durham had a discharge of untreated wastewater from our wastewater collection system at an aerial sewer line located at 3001 Cameron Boulevard of approximately 82,650 gallons. The discharge occurred on July 7, 2025 for approximately 8 hours. The untreated wastewater entered into Sandy Creek in the Cape Fear River Basin. Crews set up a bypass pump to prevent further discharge and pumped the untreated wastewater back into the sewer system. The aerial line was repaired and placed back into service. This notice was required by North Carolina General Statutes Article 21, Chapter 143.215C. For more information, contact Kenny Willard, Collection System Maintenance Superintendent, at (919) 560-4344.
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Muriel Crowley Harris, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said estate to present them, duly veri ed, to the undersigned at 344 West John Street, Matthews, NC 28105, on or before October 18, 2025, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate settlement with the undersigned. This the 17th day of July, 2025. John T. Harris, Executor of the Estate of Muriel Crowley Harris, Chatham County File No. 24E001335-180, c/o Garrity & Gossage, LLP, 344 West John Street, Matthews, NC 28105.
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Nellie D. Tripp, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, are hereby noti ed to present them to April Tripp Parker, Executrix of the Estate of Nellie D. Tripp, Estate File Number: 25E000251180, on or before September 29, 2025, in care of the below address, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to Nellie D. Tripp, please make immediate payment. Publication dates: June 26. 2025, July 3, 2025, July 10, 2025, and July 17, 2025. This 26th day of June, 2025 April Tripp Parker, Executrix c/o Lisa K. Vira, Attorney at Law The Vira Law Firm, P.A. 205 West Main Street, Suite 207 Carrboro, NC 27510
919-918-8000 (telephone)
919-919-7887 (facsimile) info@vira-law.com
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA
CHATHAM COUNTY
25E000299-180
ALL persons having claims against Jacqueline O’Gorman, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Sep 26 2025, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 26th day of June, 2025. PATRICIA HURLMAN, Co-Executor DENISE M NOWAK, Co-Executor C/O Brown Estate Planning and Elder Law P. O. Box 920 Graham, NC 27253
J26, 3, 10 and 17
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#24E001437-180 The undersigned, PAMELA KITZMAN, having quali ed on the 10th Day of SEPTEMBER, 2024 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of ELIZABETH E. JOHNSON, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to him on or before the 26th Day OF SEPTEMBER 2025, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 26th DAY OF JUNE 2025. PAMELA KITZMAN, EXECUTOR 1096 EPPS CLARK RD. SILER CITY, NC 27344 Run dates: J26, Jy3,10,17p
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS
CHATHAM COUNTY
HAVING QUALIFIED as Administrator CTA of the Estate of Richard Drayton Peter late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 16th day of October, 2025, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 9th day of July, 2025. Linda P. Crabtree, Administrator CTA of the Estate of Richard Drayton Peter 25 Joe Brown Road Bear Creek, North Carolina 27207 MOODY, WILLIAMS, ATWATER & LEE ATTORNEYS AT LAW BOX 629 SILER CITY, NORTH CAROLINA 27344 (919) 663-2850 4tp
NOTICE
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION COUNTY OF CHATHAM FILE NO. 25CV000703-180
GILDA H. LAMBERT, Plainti , vs. JOHN DOE and MRS. JOHN DOE, NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION if married, and other UNKNOWN OWNERS, in esse and not in esse, being the owners of the Property described herein unknown to the Plainti , together with all assignees, heirs at law, and devisees of MARY LEE HORTON, together with all of her creditors, and lienholders regardless of how or through whom they claim, and any and all persons claiming any interest in the estate of MARY LEE HORTON Defendants.
TO: JOHN DOE and MRS. JOHN DOE, if married, and other UNKNOWN OWNERS, in esse and not in esse, being the owners of the Property described herein unknown to the Plainti , together with all assignees, heirs at law, and devisees of MARY LEE HORTON, together with all of her creditors, and lienholders regardless of how or through whom they claim, and any and all persons claiming any interest in the estate of MARY LEE HORTON Take notice that a Complaint has been led in the above entitled action. The nature of the relief being sought is to quiet title and obtain a declaratory judgment on real property in Chatham County, North Carolina described in the Complaint.
You are required to le a response to the Complaint not later than the 26th day of August, 2025, said date being 40 days from the rst publication of this notice in order to participate in and receive further notice of the proceeding, including notice of the time and place of any hearing, and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the Court for the relief sought.
This the 11th day of July, 2025. GUNN & MESSICK, PLLC
By: /s/ Paul S. Messick, Jr. N.C. State Bar No. 2979 Post O ce Box 880
Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312
Telephone: (919) 542-3253
Facsimile: (919) 542-0257
Email: pm@gunnmessick.com
Attorney for Plainti
NOTICE
Newspaper Advertisement The Town of Siler City will host its Community Forum for District 4 & 5 on July 31, 2025 at 6 p.m. Attendees may bring comments and questions regarding community topics for the Town to address. First United Methodist Church, 1101 West Raleigh Street, Siler City, NC 27344. Town Commissioners may be present, but no town business will be conducted. For more information, contact the Town of Siler City’s Communications/Administrative Support Specialist, Lorie Johnson, at ljohnson@silercity.gov.
Anuncio en el periódico El Ayuntamiento de Siler City celebrará su Foro
Comunitario para los Distritos 4 y 5 el 31 de julio de 2025 a las 18:00 h. Los asistentes podrán aportar comentarios y preguntas sobre temas comunitarios que el Ayuntamiento deberá abordar. Primera Iglesia Metodista Unida, 1101 West Raleigh Street, Siler City, NC 27344. Los comisionados municipales podrán asistir, pero no se tratarán asuntos municipales. Para obtener más información, comuníquese con la especialista en comunicaciones y soporte administrativo de la ciudad de Siler City, Lorie Johnson, en ljohnson@silercity.gov .
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
All persons having claims against Rolf Peter Lynton of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to present them to Rebecca Nandani Lynton, Executor of the Estate of Rolf Lynton, at NextGen Estate Solutions, 1340 Environ Way, Chapel Hill, NC 27517 or before September 26, 2025. Failure to present a claim in timely fashion will result in this Notice being pleaded in bar of recovery against the estate, the Executor, and the devisees of Rolf Peter Lynton. Those indebted to Rolf Lyton are asked to make prompt payment to the Estate. This the 26th day of June, 2025. Rebecca Lynton, Executor C/O Brittany N. Porter, Attorney NextGen Estate Solutions 1340 Environ Way, Chapel Hill, NC 27517
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#25E000365-180
The undersigned, MELYNNA JOHNSON DOWD, having quali ed on the 9th Day of JULY, 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of FAYDEENE R. JOHNSON, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to him on or before the 17TH Day OF OCTOBER 2025, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 17TH DAY OF JULY 2025.
MELYNNA JOHNSON DOWD, EXECUTOR 148 VALLEY OAK COURT LEXINGTON, NC 27295
Run dates: Jy17,24,31A7p
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE
A public hearing will be held by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners on Monday, July 21, 2025, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The hearing will be held in the courtroom of the Historic Courthouse in Pittsboro, North Carolina at 9 Hillsboro Street, Pittsboro NC 27312. Additional information is available at the Chatham County Planning Department o ce. Speakers are requested to sign up at the meeting prior to the hearing. You may also sign up on the county website prior to the meeting at www.chathamcountync.gov by selecting the heading County Government, then Commissioner Meetings, then Public Input/Hearing Sign Up. The public hearing may be continued to another date at the discretion of the Board of Commissioners. The purpose of the Public Hearing is to receive input, both written and oral, on the issues listed below: Legislative Request: A legislative public hearing requested by the Chatham County Planning Board for amendments to the Chatham County Ordinance Establishing a Planning Board; Speci cally, section 1 A, B, and C; section 2 A, B, C, D; section 3 A, B, C, E; and sections 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 to modernize the terminology and change the initial member appointment date. Additional changes may also be made to include amendments required from a recent update to the Chatham County Advisory Committee Policy. Substantial changes may be made following the public hearing due to verbal or written comments received or based on the Board’s discussions. Notice to people with special needs: If you have an audio or visual impairment, unique accessibility requirements or need language assistance, please call the number listed below prior to the hearing and assistance may be provided. If you have any questions or comments concerning these issues, please call the Chatham County Planning Department at 919-542-8204 or write to P.O. Box 54, Pittsboro N.C. 27312. Please run in your paper: July10th and 17th, 2025
NOTICE
EXECUTOR’S NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA
CHATHAM COUNTY All persons having claims against the estate of Nancy Meltzer, of Chatham County, NC, who died on July 11, 2022 are noti ed to present them on or before October 15, 2025 to Robert N. Maitand, II, Executor, c/o Maitland & Sti er Law Firm, 2 Couch Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery.
Michele L. Sti er MAITLAND & STIFFLER LAW FIRM
2 Couch Road Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Attorney for the Estate
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS CHATHAM COUNTY
HAVING QUALIFIED as Executor of the Estate of Nancy Paschal Price late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 16th day of October, 2025, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 9th day of July, 2025.
Thomas King Price, III, Executor of the Estate of Nancy Paschal Price 301 South Dogwood Siler City, North Carolina 27344 MOODY, WILLIAMS, ATWATER & LEE ATTORNEYS AT LAW BOX 629 SILER CITY, NORTH CAROLINA 27344 (919) 663-2850 4tp
Notice to Creditors
All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Edith Fomby Gibbons, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before October 20, 2025 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 17th day of July, 2025. Donna M. Beaudoin, Administrator c/o W. Thomas McCuiston 200 Towne Village Drive Cary, NC 27513
NOTICE
ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against RICKEY MICHAEL RIDDLE, deceased, of Pittsboro, Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before October 17, 2025, or this notice will pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the Decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This 17th day of July, 2025. Nicholas Michael Riddle, Executor, c/o Elizabeth K. Arias Esq., Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP, 555 Fayetteville Street, Suite 1100, Raleigh, NC 27601.
Notice of Discharge of Untreated Sewage in Orange County
Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) had a discharge of approximately 172,200 gallons of untreated wastewater from the collection system near Bartram Drive and Kings Mill Road in Chapel Hill. The discharge was discovered on July 7 at 9:30 a.m. and lasted for about 23 hours. The untreated wastewater reached Morgan Creek in the Cape Fear River Basin. OWASA was able to isolate an additional 795,900 gallons of untreated wastewater and pump it back into the collection system to prevent further discharge.
Orange Water and Sewer Authority had another discharge of approximately 81,000 gallons of untreated wastewater from the collection system near Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Bolinwood Drive in Chapel Hill. The discharge was discovered on July 7 at 11:30 a.m. and lasted nine hours. The untreated wastewater reached Bolin Creek in the Cape Fear River Basin. OWASA bypassed the damaged sewer manhole to prevent further discharge.
Orange Water and Sewer Authority also had a bypass of the UV disinfection treatment step for about 2.7 million gallons at the Mason Farm Wastewater Treatment Plant due to a partial and temporary failure of the UV disinfection system. The bypass occurred between 5:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on July 7. The Mason Farm Wastewater Treatment Plant discharges into Morgan Creek upstream of Jordan Lake in the Cape Fear River Basin. The UV disinfection system has been fully repaired.
Damaged infrastructure from excessive rainfall and unprecedented ooding caused by Tropical Depression Chantal led to the discharges of untreated sewage and bypass of wastewater treatment.
This notice is required by the North Carolina General Statutes, Article 21, Chapter 143.215C. For more information, contact Katie Hall of OWASA at (919) 537-4236.
PUBLIC NOTICE
LEASE OF COUNTY PROPERTY
The Board of Commissioners of Chatham County intends to enter into a lease agreement for the following County-owned property: LOVE CHATHAM, INC. intends to lease o ce space located in a building located at 57 Camp Drive, Pittsboro, in Chatham County, North Carolina, all as more de nitely described on the attached Exhibit
NOTICE
NORTH
FARRELL,
will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 3RD DAY OF JULY 2025. JANET COOK FARRELL PO BOX 156 PITTSBORO, NC 27312 Run dates: Jy3,10,17,24p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#24E001582-180
The undersigned, BONNIE LYNN LEONARD, having quali ed on the 6th Day of NOVEMBER, 2024 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of OLLIE WALTER WRENN, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to him on or before the 26th Day OF SEPTEMBER 2025, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 26th DAY OF JUNE 2025. BONNIE LYNN LEONARD, EXECUTOR 637 SILVERBERRY PITTSBORO, NC 27312 Run dates: J26, Jy3,10,17p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#25E000215-180
The undersigned, PENNY REDDY, having quali ed on the 16th Day of APRIL, 2025 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of MUTYALA KRISHNA REDDY, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to him on or before the 10TH Day OF OCTOBER 2025, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 10TH DAY OF JULY 2025. PENNY REDDY, ADMINISTRATOR 125 CEDAR ELM RD. DURHAM, NC 27713 Run dates: Jy10,17,24,31p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#25E000317-180
The undersigned, JENNIFER LEE GOODSPEED, having quali ed on the 11th Day of JUNE, 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of JUDITH KAYE BREYER, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to him on or before the 10TH Day OF OCTOBER 2025, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 10TH DAY OF JULY 2025. JENNIFER LEE GOODSPEED, EXECUTOR
Start small, dream big: A Chicken Soup story could launch your writing career
Writing a short personal essay might be the rst step toward a byline
By Erika Ho man For Chatham News & Record
SO YOU WANT to write the great American novel, do you?
Although you’ve never published before — not even a letter to the editor — you’re up for the challenge, eh? Why? Because you have a great idea, a unique idea. All that’s left is to write it down, you say. Maybe it’s fully formed and, like Athena, it’s sprouting from your head the way the goddess appeared from the paternal mind of Zeus. Your genius oeuvre needs only one small thing: You to take a seat, pick up a ballpoint pen and let ’er rip. This could happen. You may be a pantser and don’t need to outline the tale with arcs of action, emotion and intention. You may have gured out a satisfying resolution although you’re writing by the seat of your pants. Or maybe you’re a planner and will take the time to outline your plot diligently and then all you need do is ll in the blanks like a paint-by-number project.
Yet if I were a lottery a cionado, I’d wager a bet that your
in the heart of anything! Next, you’ll dutifully stow your manuscript away physically or cyberly. And you’re o to seek a new passion — one less demanding of your time, energy and listening skills. Pickleball?
novel won’t proceed much past the 5,000-word point. You’ll hit a wall, or you’ll lose gusto for the story, or you might reread what you’ve composed thus far and decree it — boring. The stake
Mass. assisted-living facility ravaged by deadly evening re
Nine were killed and 30 more hurt at the 70-resident facility
By Michael Casey The Associated Press
FALL RIVER, Mass. — Flames roared through an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, killing nine people and trapping residents inside, including some who leaned out of windows and screamed for help, authorities said Monday. At least 30 people were hurt.
A re ghters union said inadequate sta ng hindered the response to the blaze and contributed to the death toll, though the mayor criticized that characterization, and the re chief suggested no number of rst responders would have been enough. Meanwhile, several residents who praised reghters and police for heroic rescue e orts said sta members did little to help.
“They didn’t knock on one door,” Robert Cabral said. “They just ran.”
Fire ghters responded to the Gabriel House facility in Fall River, about 50 miles south of Boston, at about 9:50 p.m. Sunday and were met with heavy smoke and ames at the front of the building. The Bristol County district attorney’s o ce said in a statement that the re’s cause “does not appear to be suspicious at this time.” Its origin remains under investigation, authorities said.
Lorraine Ferrara, one of about 70 residents at the facility, awoke to a neighbor pounding on her door. She tried to make her way through the smoke in the hallway but retreated to her room as the sprinkler system shot hot water onto her back.
As her room led with smoke, Ferrara opened her window and yelled. A re ghter broke the window and carried her down the ladder, she said.
“I really thought I was going to die,” she said. “I thought there was no way out.”
That fear mixed with anger as she watched two employees run from the building.
“They left us alone and ran out into the parking lot,” she said. “I was hanging out the window — ‘Help! Help!’ and they just kept running.”
The dead ranged in age from
61 to 86, authorities said. The Bristol County district attorney’s o ce identi ed seven of the deceased as Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86. The ofce said a 70-year-old woman and 77-year-old man were still pending noti cation of family.
Mackin’s nephew, Austin Mackin, in an emailed statement from family members, described his aunt as “gifted beyond words.”
“We will all miss Kimmy,” the statement read. “Beyond being exceptionally kind, few knew that she was a brilliant musician.”
She received a full ride scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, and after graduating, she toured around the world as rst chair viola, the statement said. During the latter part of her career as an instrumentalist, she played in the Boston Philharmonic.
Gabriel House opened in 1999 and has 100 units, according to Massachusetts Executive O ce of Aging and Independence. Its website promotes studio apartments “for those seniors who cannot a ord the high end of assisted living” as well as group adult foster care within walking distance of shopping, restaurants and churches.
“If an emergency occurs, no matter the time, there will be someone ready to help,” the website states.
Dennis Etzkorn, the facility’s owner, declined to comment Monday, but o cials said he was cooperating with what Fire Chief Je rey Bacon called “a very extensive investigation.”
District Attorney Tom Quinn called the re a “terrible tragedy” in a statement that also commended rst responders “bringing many of the residents to safety while being confronted with very di cult circumstances.”
Fire ghters union decries lack of sta , equipment
About 50 re ghters responded to the scene, including 30 who were o -duty. Police also helped break down doors and carried about a dozen residents to safety. Five injured reghters were released from the hospital Monday.
ing a true story of fewer than 1,200 words and tailoring it to t one of the themes presented by “Chicken Soup for the Soul.”
In truth, your story is already written on the walls of your mind. You’ve lived it. Now what you must do is tell the events in an engaging way, so folks enjoy reading your life’s vignettes and learning from them. You must master the craft of evoking a response in your reader. It’s your chore to make a stranger curious enough to spend ve minutes of his busy life nding out what happened to you and why it mattered. Just as a novel has a theme, your short narrative will contain a takeaway message. In some way this message will have relevance for the reader and be worth his while to hear it.
tion, you’ll have a clip — a credit to mention in future query letters to agents when you do peddle your novel. Start small. This nugget of advice may seem hackneyed, but it’s solid counsel. Rome wasn’t built in a day is a cliché because it’s true. It’s useful information applicable to every complex endeavor.
Creating a book that matters — which means someone wants to absorb and digest it — isn’t done in a day, a week or a month. Yet composing a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” story can be completed in a few hours, and, having done so, you’ll have learned much about writing in general.
Let’s rewind. Hold up. Back up. Beep-beep-beep. I was you. And now I’m Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner. I have a few words of wisdom gleaned the hard way — from having been there, done that. Everything you want to accomplish by composing a novel you can do by writ-
“Chicken Soup for the Soul” receives 6,000 submissions for each anthology. They choose 101 from that pile. Your odds are about 1 in 60. Actually, your chances are better than that because you’re going to put some thought into creating your piece, and you’re going to edit and revise it. Before zooming it o , you’ll reread it aloud to yourself. And who says you can’t submit more than one tale? When your story is accepted, you’ll be exposed to editors, publishers and other writers. Your validation will be a paycheck. In addi-
So pick a prompt provided by “Chicken Soup for the Soul” on its website and right away, write away. Today you pen a non ction personal essay, tomorrow a novel, down the road a sequel and later perhaps a series. With publishing and marketing successes, you’ll nd writing even more exhilarating. Completing projects is empowering and satisfying. Ful lling those human needs — pursuing your passion and accomplishing a goal — will give you authentic, priceless, calm happiness. And a byline! N’est-ce pas? Hey, Hollywood may come knocking. You never know!
O cials with the re ghters union said the closing of re companies and cutbacks on sta have been a problem for decades.
If sta ng had been at the nationally recommended level, eight more re ghters would have been at the scene, said Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters union.
Capt. Frank O’Reagan said there was no breathing equipment available when he arrived, so he started going door to door on the third oor without an air tank until the smoke got to him.
O’Reagan’s brother and fellow re ghter Michael O’Reagan said he was shocked that 40 minutes after re ghters arrived, a large part of the building had not been searched.
“We did the best we could with what we had, and what we had was not enough,” said Michael O’Reagan, president of the Fall River re ghters union.
Mayor Paul Coogan said the re department is sta ed based on the recommendation from the re chief.
“We sta the re department at the number the chief asked for,” he said. “We’re not even 24 hours into this and that’s going to be a priority, not the families?”
Joe Alves, who lives several houses down from the facility, said he saw o cials pulling bodies, people in wheelchairs and injured pets out of the building, with some pouring water bottles on burns.
“It was terrible,” he said, choking up slightly.
Clever Parra, who lives behind the facility, said he joined
several other neighbors to help evacuate residents through the windows. The 40-year-old construction worker described going up a ladder and seeing a man inside attempting to open a window to escape the ames. After trying on his own, Parra turned to a re ghter to break the window.
The re ghter “sent the guy to me feet rst and I take the guy out and bring him down,” he recalled.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey o ered state assistance to the city’s mayor, condolences to the families of those who died and gratitude to rst responders.
Brian Doherty, president of the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association, said state o cials were working with long-term care facilities to nd homes for displaced residents.
Paul Lanzikos, a former Massachusetts Secretary of Elder A airs and co-founder of the advocacy group Dignity Alliance, said the group was concerned by what has been reported about the lack of re drills, low number of sta for a highly dependent population and safety issues such as a broken elevator and air conditioners in the windows.
“It’s a terrible tragedy that should have never happened,” Lanzikos said.
City is one of the poorest in Massachusetts
With about 94,000 residents, Fall River is the state’s 10th-largest city and one of its poorest. The blue-collar communi-
ty in southern Massachusetts was once a global center for textile manufacturing, but it suffered population loss and economic hardship as the industry declined. Recent decades have seen some new development and investment, but the city has also been rocked by scandal. Former Mayor Jasiel Correia was convicted in a corruption trial and sentenced to six years in prison in 2021.
Survivors of the re were ushered to a temporary housing center about half a mile from their former home, many of them in shock after losing most of their belongings.
Some broke down in tears, others threw out names — desperate to know who was still alive. Sta ers handed out sandwiches, beverages and even canes for those who did not have time to grab their medical equipment in the smoke and ames.
Neal Beck, who had lived at Gabriel House for six years, said he was rescued by ladder from his bathroom window.
“I’ve been homeless before,” Beck said. “I guess I’ll be homeless again.”
Head cook Paul Ferreira was o the clock Sunday night but rushed to the scene and watched as bodies were removed from the building. He grew emotional describing the community of people who have long struggled to nd a ordable housing.
“Not knowing it was the last time I was cooking for them, it’s sad. They become part of your family,” Ferreira said. “Some of these people have no family members. Where are they going to go now?”
DANNY JOHNSTON / AP PHOTO
A 1930s era typewriter sits on a desk in the loft of a converted barn once used as a studio by author Ernest Hemingway on his then in-laws’ property in Piggott, Arkansas.
Hey, Hollywood may come knocking. You never know!
STEVEN SENNE / AP PHOTO
An investigator takes measurements Monday near an entrance to the Gabriel House assisted-living facility following a re that started late Sunday in Fall River, Massachusetts.
CHATHAM SPORTS
Top storylines ahead of 2025-26 high school football season
A new landscape is on the horizon for the local teams
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
AFTER TOMORROW, the high school football season is ve Fridays away.
Chatham County’s four teams will kick o their seasons Aug. 22. This year, the football landscape will look much di erent from the past two seasons as the local teams will no longer play in the same conference.
Seaforth, now a 5A school, will join the Big 7 4A/5A conference, and Chatham Central, still a 1A program, will play in the Greater Triad 1A/2A conference. Northwood (3A) and Jordan-Matthews (4A) will remain together in the Four Rivers 3A/4A conference.
With a new alignment brings new opponents, new rivalries and new expectations. Some teams are looking to simply improve, while others are looking to knock down the door on playo success.
Along with the other fresh developments with Chatham County football, here’s a look at the top storylines heading into the 2025 season.
New-look schedules
So long automatic playo
36
Days until the rst game of the 2025 season on Aug. 22
berths for conference champions. Playo spots are all based on MaxPreps’ RPI formula now, meaning every game is a must-win for postseason hopes. Local teams won’t have too many light Fridays this season, though. In its nonconference slate, Northwood will face three teams that made the playo s in 2024, including Harnett Central, which went 8-3 and made the 3A playo s last year, in its season opener, Asheboro and North Surry.
Jordan-Matthews will play Carrboro for the third straight year to open the season (the Jets lost by double digits both times) and end its nonconference schedule with American Leadership Academy-Johnston, which went 7-3 last season. For the Jets and the Chargers, their conference doesn’t get easier with North Moore coming o a third-round playo appearance and Eastern Randolph notching double-digit wins in each of the last four years.
Seaforth will also have a challenging nonconference schedule with Southeast Alamance,
Princeton, Northwood and North Moore — all playo teams in 2024 — queued up. For Chatham Central, every game may be a dog ght, but the competition raises with a familiar opponent in North Moore and Bishop McGuinness. Can the local teams handle the new schedules and win big games this year?
Seaforth breakthrough?
Seaforth’s Tolbert Matthews is the newest coach in the county, and many eyes will be xed on what the Hawks do in his rst season. Last year, Seaforth made improvements on the eld, especially on the defensive end, but it still fell short of its rst playo appearance after losing three games by a eld goal or less.
In this new era, Seaforth is in its best position yet to break through. The Hawks are one of three teams in their conference to win at least three games in 2024 (Carrboro and South Granville) and will have a good chance to make a playo push to end the season. The question is whether the Hawks can turn those close losses into wins.
Next steps for Jordan-Matthews, Chatham Central
Jordan-Matthews and Chatham Central made
See FOOTBALL, page B2
Whitaker’s post-grad journey lands him at Division I program
The former Northwood guard will return home against UNC in December
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
FORMER NORTHWOOD
guard Fred Whitaker Jr. is bear-
ing the fruits of a seed planted early in his high school career.
East Tennessee State’s men’s basketball program, coached by Desmond Oliver at the time, started noticing Whitaker after his freshman year of high school. As a small but crafty young guard, Whitaker averaged 9.7 points, 3.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds on the Chargers’ 2021 state runner-up team.
A lot happened throughout the next four years. Whitaker further developed into a Division I prospect, playing at IMG in Florida for one season after high school. ETSU got a new head coach in Brooks Savage
“I’m just trying to learn as much as I can.”
Fred Whitaker Jr.
— but the connection remained intact. Whitaker is now preparing for his rst collegiate season with the Buccaneers, and so far, the transition has been “smooth.”
“It’s time to keep learning — learning concepts and things like that,” Whitaker said.
Although he was a key piece of Northwood’s successful teams featuring current Brooklyn Net Drake Powell from 2020-24, Whitaker didn’t feel quite prepared for college ball after graduating.
“Since I got injured my junior year of high school, I basically didn’t play AAU that
Harrington earns preseason recognition ahead of seventh season
The former Northwood standout will play at Georgia Southern this fall
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record FORMER NORTHWOOD
football standout Brendan Harrington has high expectations going into his seventh college season. Harrington, a linebacker at Georgia Southern, earned third-team All-Sun Belt preseason honors by Athlon Sports on July 5. It’s his second preseason all-conference nod of the summer as Phil Steele magazine named Harrington to its All- Sun Belt third team on June 19. After su ering back-to -back season-ending injuries in 2022
66
Tackles for Brendan Harrington in 2024
and 2023, Harrington returned as one of App State’s top defensive players last fall. The 6-foot, 225-pound veteran played in all 11 games and led the Mountaineers with 66 tackles — including three tackles for loss, one fumble recovery and a pass breakup. Harrington had one of his best performances of the year with a game-high 11 tackles in a win over James Madison on Nov. 23. Following the season, he earned All-Sun Belt honorable mention honors for
See HARRINGTON, page B3
baby steps
PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Fred Whitaker Jr. throws down a dunk during a 2023-24 game when he was a senior at Northwood. He has continued his basketball career in college and will return to the area for a game later this year.
GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Northwood’s Robert Tripp runs around Jordan-Matthews defenders in a 2024 matchup. The Chargers and Jets remain in the same conference this season.
Boys’ soccer schedules for local teams
The season will begin statewide on Aug. 11
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
THE NORTH Carolina High School Athletic Association boys’ soccer season will begin on Aug. 14 in Chatham County. Here’s a look at the schedules for each local team.
(* denotes conference games)
Jordan-Matthews (Four Rivers 3A/4A)
Aug. 15 — at Southern Alamance; Aug. 20 — at Providence Grove; Aug. 22 — at Currituck County; Aug. 25 — at Lee County; Aug. 27 — vs. Providence Grove; Sept. 3 — at Central Davidson; Sept. 5 — at Franklin Academy; Sept. 8 — vs. Phoenix Academy; Sept. 10 — vs. Central Davidson; Sept. 15 — at Phoenix Academy; Sept. 18 — vs. Lee County; Sept. 22 — at Asheboro; Sept. 25 — vs. Southern Alamance; Sept. 29 — at North Moore*; Oct. 1 — at Northwood*; Oct. 6 — vs. Southwestern Randolph*; Oct. 8 — at Uwharrie Charter*; Oct. 13 — vs. Eastern Randolph*; Oct. 15 — vs. North Moore*; Oct. 20 — vs. Northwood*; Oct. 22 — at Southwestern Randolph*; Oct. 27 — vs. Uwharrie Charter*; Oct. 29 — at Eastern Randolph* Northwood (Four Rivers 3A/4A)
Aug. 14 — vs. Southern Alamance; Aug. 18 — vs. Graham; Aug. 20 — at Carrboro; Aug. 21 — vs. Hillside; Aug. 25 — at Southern Alamance; Aug. 27 — at Graham; Sept. 3 — at Seaforth; Sept. 5 — vs. Carrboro; Sept. 8 — at Eastern Alamance; Sept. 10 — vs. Eastern Alamance; Sept. 11 — at Southern Lee; Sept. 16 — vs. East Chapel Hill; Sept. 18 — vs. Southern Lee; Sept. 24 — vs. Seaforth; Sept. 29 — vs.
at J.F. Webb*; Oct. 27 — vs. South Granville*; Oct. 29 — vs. Orange*
Woods Charter (Central Tar Heel 1A)
Di erent conferences this season for Chatham County’s
Eastern Randolph*; Oct. 1 — vs. Jordan-Matthews*; Oct. 6 — at North Moore*; Oct. 8 — at Southwestern Randolph*; Oct. 13 — vs. Uwharrie Charter*; Oct. 15 — at Eastern Randolph*; Oct. 20 — at Jordan-Matthews*; Oct. 22 — vs. North Moore*; Oct. 27 — vs. Southwestern Randolph*; Oct. 29 — at Uwharrie Charter*
Seaforth (Big Seven 4A/5A)
Aug. 13 — vs. Green Level; Aug. 18 — vs. Chapel Hill;
boys’ soccer teams
Aug. 20 — at Western Alamance; Aug. 25 — at Eastern Alamance; Sept. 3 — vs. Northwood; Sept. 8 — at Southeast Alamance; Sept. 10 — vs. East Chapel Hill; Sept. 15 — at Carrboro*; Sept. 17 — at Cedar Ridge*; Sept. 22 — at Durham School of the Arts*; Sept. 24 — at Northwood; Sept. 29 — vs. J.F. Webb*; Oct. 1 — at South Granville*; Oct. 6 — at Orange*; Oct. 8 — vs. Carrboro*; Oct. 13 — vs. Cedar Ridge*; Oct. 15 — vs. Durham School of the Arts*; Oct. 22 —
Sept. 2 — vs. East Wake Academy; Sept. 5 — vs. American Leadership Academy-Johnston; Sept. 8 — vs. River Mill*; Sept. 10 — at Chatham Charter*; Sept. 15 — vs. Northern Durham; Sept. 17 — at Ascend Leadership*; Sept. 19 — at American Leadership Academy-Johnston; Sept. 24 — Clover Garden*; Sept. 29 — at Southern Wake Academy*; Oct. 1 — at River Mill*; Oct. 6 — vs. Chatham Charter*; Oct. 15 — vs. Central Carolina Academy*; Oct. 17 — vs. Ascend Leadership*; Oct. 22 — vs. Southern Wake Academy*
Chatham Charter (Central Tar Heel 1A)
Aug. 27 — vs. Phoenix Academy; Sept. 3 — vs. Cornerstone Charter; Sept. 8 — vs. Eno River; Sept. 9 — vs. Eastern Randolph; Sept. 10 — vs. Woods Charter*; Sept. 15 — at Central Carolina Academy*; Sept. 17 — vs. Clover Garden*; Sept. 19 — at Cornerstone Charter; Sept. 22 — at Southern Wake Academy*; Sept. 23 — at Eastern Randolph; Sept. 24 — vs. River Mill*; Sept. 29 — at Ascend Leadership*; Oct. 1 — at Phoenix Academy; Oct. 6 — at Woods Charter*; Oct. 8 — vs. Central Carolina Academy*; Oct. 13 — at Clover Garden*; Oct. 15 — vs. Southern Wake Academy*; Oct. 20 — at River Mill*; Oct. 22 — vs. Ascend Leadership*; Oct. 28 — at Eno River
Celtics’ Stevens shuns idea team in rebuild with Tatum out
The former Duke star will miss the season with a torn Achilles
By Kyle Hightower
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Even before Jayson Tatum limped o the court with a torn Achilles tendon during the Celtics’ Eastern Conference semi nals loss to the New York Knicks, Brad Stevens knew big changes would be on tap for the franchise this o season.
Yes, big spending on free agents and contracts had lured in key players like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, who, combined with stars Tatum and Jaylen Brown, ultimately helped Boston capture the NBA championship in 2024.
But keeping the core of that roster intact next season with Tatum possibly missing all of it while rehabbing from his injury would have come with a combined payroll and luxury tax bill of more than $500 million. And as a team exceeding the second apron of the salary cap, it would have also meant additional penalties limiting ways they could sign or trade for players.
“We’ve known for a long time that hard decisions were coming,” Stevens said on the decisions to trade both Holiday and Porzingis. “The second apron is why those trades happened. I think that is pretty obvious. And the basketball penalties associated with those are real. ... So that was part of making the decision to push and put
FOOTBALL from page B1
last year, improving their win totals from 2023 by one game each. Both programs look to keep the progress going this fall, and although a playo appearance may be too large of a jump, extra wins will be signs the programs are headed in the right direction.
FRANK FRANKLIN II / AP PHOTO
Trainers help Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum (0) o the court after he was injured during the Eastern Conference semi nals.
our chips on the table and go for the last two years.”
Now under that dreaded second apron, it’s also brought about a di erent way of looking at what’s next for the Celtics. As the team’s president of basketball operations, Stevens knows their approach will have
For the Bears, the key will be nishing games. Last season, Chatham Central was in good position to knock o the Jets and Graham, but it couldn’t hold onto early leads. As for the Jets, improving on the eld starts at being competitive outside of the Chatham Central game. A big indicator of a bright
to change while Tatum is out.
But as a former coach, he also said he’s never going to put a ceiling on any team’s potential.
“My expectations are always the same — compete like hell to win the next game,” he said.
Stevens said he doesn’t want to hear any mention of the term
future at Jordan-Matthews will be its ability to turn blowouts into close losses and possible upsets.
Northwood building on playo appearances
Despite having three di erent head coaches in the past
“rebuild” this upcoming season.
“That’s not going to be part of the lexicon in our building, and that’s the way we’re going to focus moving forward,” he said. While the team could make additional moves to get completely out of the luxury tax,
three seasons, Northwood is coming o back-to-back playo appearances. But after two straight rst round exits, the Chargers are looking to make a deeper run, especially as they go into a second year with the same coach for the rst time since 2020.
Northwood will look to take
“My expectations are always the same — compete like hell to win the next game.”
Brad Stevens
Stevens said it’s not the mandate he’s been given by incoming team owner Bill Chisholm.
“Bill has been pretty clear from the get go that he wants to make sure that we’re prioritizing basketball assets and the ability to retool this thing at the highest level that we can,” Stevens said. “The most important acquisition that we’re going to be able to make in the next couple of years is getting Tatum out of a (walking) boot. We’re not beating that one. So that’s going to be the best thing that can happen for us.”
Both Tatum and Brown, who had minor knee surgery last month, were in the Celtics’ facility last Tuesday rehabbing. According to Stevens, Tatum was moving “really fast” in his walking boot, while Brown was already getting shots up and is expected to get full clearance for basketball activities soon.
In the meantime, Stevens said he’s completely comfortable with Brown being the team’s focal point on the court. He thinks it’s a challenge that Brown welcomes and one that he’s proven an ability to excel in during previous times Tatum has been sidelined by injury.
“He’s ready for any challenge, and he always has been,” Stevens said.
care of business in the regular season to not only make the postseason but also earn home eld advantage. The Chargers struggled on the road in their last two playo appearances, and they’ll have plenty of chances to improve their RPI standing and earn that honor in 2025.
PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Jordan-Matthews’ Manuel Estrada attacks Southeast Alamance’s defense in 2024.
Overman siblings compete in international rodeo event
Zane Overman makes the short go in steer wrestling
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
A COUPLE OF local siblings took their rodeo skills to the big stage last week.
Recent Chatham Central graduate Zane Overman and his younger sister Addison, a junior, competed in the International Finals Youth Rodeo at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center in Shawnee, Oklahoma, from July 6-11.
Zane, who played baseball and basketball for the Bears, nished 14th in steer wrestling and quali ed for the short go, or nal round. He took the steer down in 4.9 seconds in the rst round and advanced despite a score of 17.5 seconds in the second round.
Addison, who plays basketball at Chatham Central, com-
1st
Place in breakaway roping belongs to Addison Overman for the 2024-25 NCHSRA season
peted in the pole bending and breakaway roping competitions, earning a score of 2.7 seconds in the second round of roping. She nished 26th overall in pole bending.
The IFYR is one of the most prestigious youth rodeo competitions with more than 1,000 contestants from around the world. Contestants compete for more than $250,000 in prize money alongside scholarships, nightly jackpots and championship saddles and buckles.
Prior to last week’s competition, the Overmans earned
championship titles and high places at the conclusion of the North Carolina High School Rodeo Association Finals in May.
Addison nished the season as the breakaway roping champion and the team roping reserve champion, or second place. She landed in third place in pole bending and fourth in barrels.
Zane nished the 2024-25 NCHSRA season as the reserve champion steer wrestler and nished eighth in team roping. He won a round during the steer wrestling competition at the nals, and he earned the Je Hinson Memorial and NCHSRA Merit and State scholarships.
The local cowboy and cowgirl are both competing in the National High School Finals Rodeo this week at Sweetwater Events Complex in Rock Springs, Wyoming. The event started Sunday and will nish Saturday.
from page B1
whole summer,” Whitaker said. “So I was kind of behind, and my senior year didn’t go as I planned. So I wasn’t feeling like I was ready to go to college at that point. We just looked into some decisions, and we gured out that a post grad year would be best.”
He landed at IMG, where he played for the post-graduate team. Going against junior college and Division II and III competition, Whitaker got acclimated to a more physical style of basketball, and he felt like he improved overall “in every aspect,” especially his IQ.
While learning how to be a high-level athlete on the court, he also learned what it takes to be successful o the court.
“I never lived on my own, so that was one big step that it helped me with,” Whitaker said. “Our practices were like college practices that I’m experiencing right now. I really didn’t take the weight room serious until I got to IMG, so that helped me out. And just being
from page B1
the second time in his career. Harrington signed with Georgia Southern in February. He used eligibility in 2019, 2021 and 2024, and received extra seasons after the two year-ending injuries and COVID-19 in 2020. Prior to his fresh start in Statesboro, Georgia, Harrington made an immediate impact at App State. He played in 11 games as a true freshman in 2019, and after a 10-tackle rookie season, he tran-
a college athlete, there’s a lot of people that went through college, coach in college, and they just taught me lessons.”
Whitaker thrived at IMG, averaging 16.3 points, 5.2 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game.
His play garnered interest from Division I schools, like USC Upstate. One day, Whitaker’s coach sent him a text saying ETSU wanted to talk.
“I just fell in love with it ever since,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker didn’t get to visit the school because of the late timing of his recruitment, but the coaching sta was enough to pull him in.
“I connected with them very well,” Whitaker said. “I loved everything they were talking about and stu like that. I also like the city. It’s kind of like a bigger Pittsboro. The community loves basketball here. They support it very well. I think in the SoCon, they lead the league in fan attendance, they were telling me. So I was attracted to that, too. And just the team also. We’ve got an
sitioned into a starter in 2020. Harrington recorded 48 tackles and four interceptions (including a pick-six against Texas State) in 12 starts as a sophomore, earning second-team All-Sun Belt honors from Pro Football Focus and an All-Sun Belt honorable mention selection. Injuries began to a ect his career as a junior in 2021. Harrington appeared in all 13 games that season but only started a total of seven (six of the rst seven matchups) after being forced to sit out of the Elon game in Week 3.
Aidan Allred
Chatham Charter alum, baseball
Aidan Allred, the former Chatham Charter baseball standout, earns athlete of the week honors for the week of July 7.
The Randolph Ropin’ Roosters’ all-star shortstop had an outstanding plate performance against the Wilkes County Moonshiners despite a 20-7 loss on July 8. To start the top of the third inning, Allred smashed the second pitch of the count over the right eld wall, bringing the Ropin’ Roosters within one run. He nished the game going 2 for 4 with two runs and an RBI. Allred has been one of Randolph’s better hitters this season. As of Monday, he’s achieved a .319 batting average with the team’s second-most hits (tied with Aidan Cannaday at 15 hits) and the third-best OPS amongst batters with at least 20 at-bats
older team, so I feel like I can learn a lot from the guys that have been through the process already.”
Whitaker announced his commitment on May 17.
Donning No. 23, the 5-foot-11 guard will return home when the Buccaneers play UNC in Chapel Hill on Dec. 16. Whitaker will get to play in front of his family and some of the Northwood community once again, and he’ll get to suit up against a former teammate in Jarin Stevenson.
“I’m pretty excited,” Whitaker said. “Everybody’s going to be there, and it’s going to be pretty fun.”
For now, the task is to take feedback from his coaches and develop until the season opener this fall. It’s planting season again, and this time, the fruits are competing at the highest level.
“I’m just trying to learn as much as I can,” Whitaker said. “I’m just trying to gure out everything, get my body right, compete and things like that. Just trying to win, too.”
Against UNC in the 2022 season opener, Harrington su ered the rst of his season-ending injuries.
He recovered in time to start in the 2023 opener against Gardner-Webb, but in the following week’s bout at the Tar Heels, he was met with similar disappointment. Harrington injured his knee in an overtime loss and was kept out of action for another year. Prior to his nal season at App State, Harrington was named a team captain for the second year in a row.
Before college, Harrington participated in football, basketball and track at Northwood, and on the football eld, he was a playmaker on both sides of the ball. As a three -time all-conference linebacker and running back, he recorded 64 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, ve sacks and one interception while also putting up 840 rushing yards, 322 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns (16 rushing, two receiving) as a senior. Harrington received other high honors in his high school
career, including two all-region selections. In his junior season, Harrington also played defensive back, grabbing four interceptions. The three-star prospect initially committed to UNC after receiving an o er from the Tar Heels before his senior season. But after former Carolina head coach Larry Fedora was red, Harrington decommitted. Harrington will begin his Georgia Southern stint against Fresno State on Aug. 30 at 6:30 p.m.
PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
HARRINGTON
GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Fred Whitaker Jr. goes up for a layup in the 2024 Mid- Carolina 1A/2A conference tournament nal against Chatham Central.
WHITAKER
COURTESY ANGELA OVERMAN
Zane (second from left) and Addison Overman (far right) pose with their parents, Steven (left) and Angela (right), as Zane shows o his medal for nishing top 15 in steer wrestling.
SIDELINE REPORT
NCAA SPORTS
Big East, ESPN reunite with 6-year media rights deal
The Big East Conference and ESPN announced a six-year digital media rights deal.
Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said in a statement the agreement gives “all 22 of our sports — especially women’s basketball and Olympic sports — the visibility they’ve earned and the access our fans expect.” ESPN had the rights to the Big East from 1980 to 2013. The revived partnership comes after ESPN lost Big Ten media rights to Fox, NBC and CBS in 2022. ESPN+ will stream more than 300 Big East events annually.
MMA Couture airlifted to burn unit following crash
Kansas City
Two-time UFC champion
Randy Couture was hospitalized with rst-, secondand third-degree burns, multiple trauma injuries and smoke inhalation, following a crash during a drag racing training run. Couture was preparing to make his NHRA debut later this month when the 62-year-old crashed and had to be airlifted to a burn center.
CYCLING
LeMond receives Congressional Gold Medal at Capitol ceremony
Washington Greg LeMond, one of the most decorated cyclists in American history as a three -time Tour de France winner, has been honored with the Congressional Gold Medal. The 64-year-old LeMond received the medal during a ceremony at the Capitol with his wife, Kathy, and children in attendance. It was announced he’d receive the medal in 2020, but the pandemic delayed his ceremony. Johnson presented the medal alongside Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson of California and former Republican Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia.
NCAA FOOTBALL
BYU quarterback
Retzla transferring following tumultuous few months
Provo, Utah
BYU quarterback Jake Retzla is transferring after a tumultuous few months that included being named in a civil sexual assault suit that was later dismissed. Retzla reportedly faced a suspension for violating the honor code at the university, which is run by the Mormon church, after acknowledging a consensual sexual relationship in his defense against the lawsuit. Retzla threw for 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns with 12 interceptions last season. BYU coach Kalani Sitake avoided commenting on Retzla ’s situation, saying it was a private matter.
TENNIS
Williams, who hasn’t competed in year-plus, accepts wild card for the DC Open
Washington
Venus Williams has accepted a wild-card invitation to play singles at this month’s DC Open. It would be the seven-time Grand Slam champion’s rst tournament in more than a year. Williams turned 45 in June. She is listed as “inactive” on the WTA Tour’s website. Williams hasn’t competed in an o cial match since the Miami Open in 2024. The hard-court tournament begins with qualifying next weekend.
US soccer great Heath hoping Club World Cup spurs more growth
The former Tar Heel is working for FIFA on the tournament study group
By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Tobin Heath might know something about what makes soccer resonate within the U.S. Her resume, in part: She won NCAA titles in college at UNC, then went on to win two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. women’s national team and two World Cup titles as well, all of that coming after she was inspired by the 1999 Women’s World Cup. And so far, she thinks the Club World Cup could have a similar e ect. Heath — who is working as part of FIFA’s technical study group for the tournament alongside the likes of former
Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger, former German star and U.S. men’s national coach Jurgen Klinsmann and others — said Saturday that a match she attended earlier this month between Bayern Munich and Boca Juniors, with a full and jammed stadium in South Florida playing host to that matchup, shows what could be possible in this country.
“As an American, it was one of the coolest experiences of my life to witness that passion and energy,” Heath, during a FIFA brie ng with the technical group, said. “It’s something I never believed I could see in my own country. And the stadium was literally shaking. You could feel it, and the fans were absolutely incredible. So, I know the power of these home competitions. ... I know the power of these games in our country, to change the landscape of this game in our country.”
The attendance for the games in the Club World Cup has varied widely; some stadiums are jammed, some pretty much empty. But FIFA is looking to build momentum toward the World Cup that’s coming to North America next year. “This is a fantastic dress rehearsal for us,” Heath said.
Only one U.S.-based team made the knockout stage: Messi’s Inter Miami, though some wonder if that’s a club that will have a true pronounced e ect on soccer in this country. Messi is the biggest name in the sport and has an enormous following everywhere, one that obviously existed long before he came to Miami two years ago.
“Messi has not the best data of this tournament, but he’s certainly the most in uential player of this tournament because without him Inter Mi-
ami would never qualify,” Wenger said.
The job of the technical study group is simple: watch all the matches, either live or on television (with the bene t of many screens and angles), assess style of play and determine what is making teams successful. The level of data collected from these matches is beyond deep; reports are more than 50 pages thick and measure everything from time it takes a team to recover possession after a giveaway to how hard players are sprinting at key times of a match.
“This tournament has blown me away,” Heath said. “It’s made me even more excited for the summer to come, and I couldn’t be more proud of this country. It shows that football is deeply embedded and deeply personal to our country. I can’t wait to see the growth.”
Sinner beats Alcaraz to win rst Wimbledon title
The 22-year-old Spainard lost his rst Grand Slam nal after ve wins
By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press
LONDON — Jannik Sinner insisted early on at Wimbledon that he put an excruciating loss to Carlos Alcaraz in their epic French Open nal behind him. Sinner was sure that one defeat wouldn’t haunt him, wouldn’t prevent a quick recalibration and certainly wouldn’t mean a thing at the All England Club. Sure was right about all of that.
Exactly ve weeks after the devastating defeat at Roland-Garros against his rival, Sinner reversed the result, beating two-time defending Wimbledon champion Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to win his rst championship at the grass-court major.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you win or you lose the important tournaments. You just have to understand what you did wrong. Trying to work on that — that’s exactly what we did. We tried to accept the loss and then just kept working,” Sinner said Sunday, his shiny gold hardware in his hands. “And this is, for sure, why I’m holding this trophy here.” The No. 1-ranked Sinner earned his fourth Grand Slam title overall, moving him one away from No. 2 Alcaraz’s total as the two no-longer-ris-
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you win or you lose the important tournaments.”
Jannik Sinner
ing-but- rmly-established stars of the game separate themselves from the rest of the pack in men’s tennis.
Sinner, a 23-year-old Italian, put an end to several streaks for Alcaraz, a 22-year-old Spaniard, who had been 5-0 in Grand Slam nals.
Alcaraz had won their last ve matches, most famously across ve sets and nearly 51⁄2 hours on the red clay of the French Open on June 8. Sinner took a two-set lead, then held a trio of match points but couldn’t close the deal.
“Today was important not just because it was a Grand Slam nal, not just because it was Wimbledon, and not just because Carlos had won the last ve matches against him,” said Darren Cahill, one of Sinner’s two coaches, who had planned to leave the team at the end of 2025 but now might stick around. “He needed that win today. So he knew the importance of closing this one out when he had the opportunities.”
Asked during Week 1 at Wimbledon whether what happened in Paris created lingering doubts, Sinner immediately re-
plied: “Why negative feelings?
Because I lost in (that) nal?”
Then he continued: “No. Look, it’s a new tournament, new Grand Slam, new surface. I’m not concerned about my level I can play. ... I’m not concerned that one loss can in uence you for so long a time. I believe that here is a new chance that I can do something good.” Great, even. This time, he didn’t waver, asserting himself in a match that featured moments of terri c play by both men but also the occasional lapses — and one memorable, brief, interruption right before a Sinner serve when a Champagne cork came ying out of the stands and settled on the turf.
With Prince William and Princess Kate in the Royal Box,
along with King Felipe VI of Spain, Alcaraz stepped into the sunlight bathing Centre Court with a career-best 24-match unbeaten run. He had won 20 matches in a row at the All England Club.
“The things that went his way in Paris,” Sinner said, “went my way this time.” When it ended, he put both hands on his white hat. After embracing Alcaraz, Sinner crouched with his head bowed, then pounded his right palm on the grass.
He has participated in four consecutive major nals, including triumphs at the U.S. Open — shortly after the world learned about a doping case that eventually led to a three-month ban — and the Australian Open.
JOANNA CHAN / AP PHOTO
JEFF ROBERSON / AP PHOTO
Tobin Heath, left, is congratulated by teammate Megan Rapinoe after scoring during the an international friendly soccer match against New Zealand in 2019. The former UNC and U.S. National Team star is now consulting on the FIFA Club World Cup.
Italy’s Jannik Sinner receives the trophy from Kate, Princess of Wales, after beating Carlos Alcaraz of Spain to win the men’s singles nal at Wimbledon.
Van Gisbergen dominates on another road course, wins at Sonoma to extend streak
The win is his third in the last ve races
By Jenna Fryer
The Associated Press
SONOMA, Calif. — Another road course win was so expected for Shane van Gisbergen that Trackhouse Racing had extra tires ready for his Sonoma Raceway victory celebration.
Van Gisbergen won for the third time in ve races and second straight on Sunday when he dominated on the California road course. The New Zealander once again showed he’s in a completely di erent class on road and street courses than his rivals as he led 97 of 110 laps to win from pole at Sonoma Raceway.
He celebrated with the traditional burnout, then his Track-
house crew changed the tires on the No. 88 Chevrolet so he could do a second smoke-inducing spin on his way to Victory Lane. He also kept with his own tradition and kicked a rugby ball into the grandstands.
“It means everything. That’s why I race cars. I had an amazing time in Australia, and then to come here and the last couple weeks, or years, actually, has been a dream come true,” said van Gisbergen. “I’ve really enjoyed my time in NASCAR. Thanks, everyone, for making me feel so welcome. I hope I’m here for a long time to come.”
All three of his wins this year have been from pole — which tied him with Je Gordon for a Cup Series record of three consecutive road course victories from the top starting spot.
Gordon did it between the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
He joins Christopher Bell,
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson as the only drivers with three wins this season, and this one moved him into third for playo seeding. Van Gisbergen was 33rd in the standings and not yet quali ed for the playo s just ve weeks ago.
Victory No. 4 for van Gisbergen — who stunned NASCAR in 2023 when he popped into the debut Chicago street course race from Australian V8 Supercars and won — seemed a given before teams even arrived at the picturesque course in California wine country. His rivals have lamented that “SVG” has a unique braking technique he mastered Down Under that none of them — all oval specialists — can ever learn.
That win in Chicago two years ago led van Gisbergen to move to the United States for a career change driving stock cars for Trackhouse Racing.
“It
means everything. That’s why I race cars.”
Shane van Gisbergen
He and Ross Chastain have pumped energy into the team over this summer stretch with Chastain kicking it o with a Memorial Day weekend victory at the Coca-Cola 600.
Van Gisbergen is the fastest driver to win four Cup Series races — in his 34th start — since Parnelli Jones in 1969.
He’s also the winningest driver born outside the United States.
“It’s unreal. To do Chicago, an experience that I really enjoyed, and never thought it would lead to more let alone moving over here and doing things,” he said.
“Its been amazing, everything that I hoped it could ever be.”
The Sonoma win made it four victories for Trackhouse in eight weeks. Van Gisbergen was second from pole in Saturday’s X nity Series race.
Chase Briscoe was second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that’s probably what it was like,” said Briscoe after not being able to pass van Gisbergen on two late restarts — the last with ve laps remaining.
“That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He’s just so good. He’s really raised the bar on this entire series.”
Briscoe was followed by Chase Elliott in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Michael McDowell in a Chevy for Spire Motorsports was fourth and Christopher Bell in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing was fth.
Shane van Gisbergen kicks a rugby ball to celebrate winning the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.
GODOFREDO A. VÁSQUEZ / AP PHOTO
Justin Bieber releases ‘Swag,’ his longawaited seventh album
The 31-year-old has sold more than 150 million records worldwide
By Maria Sherman The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Never say never! Justin Bieber surprised fans Friday by releasing “Swag,” his seventh studio album, hours after he teased it on billboards and social media posts.
It is his rst album since 2021’s “Justice” and rst since becoming a father last year.
“Inspired by his devotion as a husband and father, this new era of music has fueled a deeper perspective and more re ective sound, resulting in some of his most personal music yet,” Def Jam Recordings said of the 21-track album.
Billboards depicting Bieber were found by fans Thursday in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Los Angeles. The singer also shared images of billboards on his ofcial Instagram account along with a track list that included song names like “All I Can
Take,” “Walking Away,” “Dadz Love” and “Forgiveness.”
Recommendations for an intimate new album
There’s a lot to love across the 21 tracks of the intimate “Swag.”
Here are a few choice cuts.
“Daises” — The second track on the album may very well be its strongest; an exemplar in Bieber’s slow-burn brand of alternative R&B-pop, now anchored with lo- guitar. Here, his sweet voice is pronounced — exactly what his most dedicated fans want to hear.
“Devotion” ft. Dijon — Dijon is a rising R&B voice; some fans might be familiar with his 2021 debut album “Absolutely” or his contribution to Bon Iver’s “SABLE, fABLE” from earlier this year. He makes for a standout collaboration on “Swag,” a sweet song about deepening a ection.
“Go Baby” — Bieber married the model Hailey Bieber (nee Baldwin) in 2018; she’s long been source material for his most loving tracks. “Go Baby” is a standout for that reason. “That’s my baby, she’s iconic,” he opens the
track, “iPhone case, lip gloss on it,” referencing her Rhode skincare and beauty brand, which sold to Elf Beauty in a $1 billion deal.
“Walking Away” — Marriage isn’t easy; that’s clear on “Walking Away,” a slightly-more-up-tempo track where Bieber makes his dedication evident. It’s the perfect song for dancing in the kitchen with your partner.
“All I Can Take” — The throwback opener “All I Can Take” has a vintage groove — echoes of Beiber’s early work, now matured to re ect his current adult reality. He sounds as sweet as ever in the prechorus, his declaration of “Ooh, baby, don’t it feel good? Baby, don’t it feel nice? / Ooh, baby, don’t it feel good? You don’t have to think twice.”
Bieber before “Swag”
Bieber, the two-time Grammy Award winning singer and Canadian pop idol who revolutionized teen pop and social media fame, is best known for his silky R&B pop lyric tenor, demonstrated on the diamond-selling “Baby,” “Sorry,” and “Stay” with the Kid Laroi. At the beginning of his career, and as a tween, Bieber began working with Usher and the in uential music manager Scooter Braun.
In 2023, Bieber sold the rights to his music — all six of his albums, including hits like “Sorry” and “Baby” — to Hipgnosis, a U.K-based music investment company.
‘Hotel Ukraine’ wraps up Cruz Smith’s detective Renko book series on a high
The rst in the series, “Gorky Park,” was published in 1981
By Anita Snow The Associated Press
ARKADY RENKO now fumbles with his keys at the door as his Parkinson’s disease gradually grows worse.
The legendary Russian detective has struggled to keep his declining health a secret, but the worsening symptoms have become impossible to hide. Still, Renko is determined to crack the case of a Russian defense ocial mysteriously murdered in his Moscow hotel room as Russia’s war on Ukraine rages.
The murder takes place at the Hotel Ukraine, a well-known hotel in the heart of Moscow, one of the towering Stalin-era buildings known as the Seven Sisters.
“Hotel Ukraine” is the 11th and last installment in the popular Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith that he launched in 1981 with his blockbuster “Gorky Park.” Books like “Red Square,” “Havana Bay” and “Stalin’s Ghost” followed.
We don’t nd out until we get to the acknowledgments at the book’s end to learn that Smith, like Renko, has also been concealing a Parkinson’s diagnosis for years until it was clear he had to step aside.
SIMON & SCHUSTER VIA AP
“Hotel Ukraine” is the 11th and nal installment in the Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith.
The revelation is sure to sadden Smith’s loyal fans who have followed the ctional detective’s career from Moscow’s Cold War days to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the rise of the Russian oligarchs
But the a cionados of the Renko novels will still have a gem in Smith’s latest, which upholds Smith’s reputation as a great craftsman of modern detective ction with his sharply drawn, complex characters and a compelling plot.
It’s a fresh international detective tale with a backstory pulled straight from recent headlines, referencing world leaders like presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Joe Biden of the U.S.
It’s also a well-informed personal look at how the worsening e ects of Parkinson’s can affect an individual, as Renko nds he can still drive, and he can still talk on the phone, but he can’t do both at the same time.
When Renko’s superiors discover his health problems, they place him on paid sick leave. But that doesn’t stop the intrepid detective from continuing his investigation, alongside his lover, journalist Tatiana Petrovna.
Renko discovers a Russian military group was involved in the killing and is being helped on the sly by Marina Makarova, a government o cial and former lover who he is working with on the o cial probe.
After a somewhat slow start, the action in the novel speeds up as the story advances, and the end approaches with multiple twists and surprises.
“It is surprising to think that I have had Parkinson’s for almost 30 years. For most of that time I have been remarkably well,” Smith writes in the acknowledgements. “But this disease takes no prisoners, and now I have nished my last book. There is only one Arkady, and I will miss him.”
this week in history
Bolsheviks execute Czar Nicholas II with family, Disneyland opens, man walks on moon
JULY 17
1902: Willis Carrier produced a set of designs for what would become the world’s rst modern air-conditioning system.
1918: Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
1936: The Spanish Civil War began as right-wing army generals launched a coup attempt against the Second Spanish Republic.
1955: Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, after its $17 million yearlong construction; the park drew a million visitors in its rst 10 weeks.
JULY 18
1536: The English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.
1863: During the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina.
1925: Adolf Hitler published
the rst volume of his autobiographical manifesto “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle).
JULY 19
1812: During the War of 1812, the First Battle of Sackets Harbor in Lake Ontario resulted in an American victory as U.S. naval forces repelled a British attack.
1969: Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
1979: The Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza ed the country.
JULY 20
1917: The World War I draft lottery began when Secretary of War Newton Baker, blindfolded, drew number 258 from a glass bowl in the Senate o ce building.
1944: An attempt by a group of German o cials to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb failed as the explosion only wounded the Nazi leader.
1951: Jordan’s King Abdullah I was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman who was shot dead on the spot by security.
NEIL ARMSTRONG / NASA VIA AP
Re ections of Neil Armstrong, the U.S. ag, lunar module and TV camera appear in Buzz Aldrin’s visor as Armstrong took the photo during the rst moonwalk in history on July 20, 1969.
1969: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the rst men to walk on the moon.
JULY 21
1925: The so-called “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (The conviction was later overturned.)
1861: During the Civil War, the rst Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1944: American forces landed on Guam during World War II, capturing it from
the Japanese some three weeks later.
1954: The Geneva Conference concluded with accords dividing Vietnam into northern and southern entities.
JULY 22
1933: Aviator Wiley Post landed at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the rst solo ight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.
1934: Bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater.
1942: The Nazis began transporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp.
1943: American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily, during World War II.
JULY 23
1903: The Ford Motor Company sold its rst car, a Model A, for $850.
1958: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II named the rst four women to peerage in the House of Lords.
2011: Singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.
Jennifer Hudson to headline Whitney Houston estate’s annual gala
The foundation raises money for the Children’s Defense Fund and St. Jude Children’s Research
By Maria Sherman
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — No one could replace the inimitable talent that was Whitney Houston. But when you need someone to sing her timeless tracks, the great EGOT (that’s Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner) Jennifer Hudson has proven time and time again that she’s up for the job.
Hudson will headline the fourth annual Whitney Houston Legacy of Love gala on Aug. 9, presented by The Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation and Primary Wave Music. The event, held at the St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta on what would have been Houston’s 62nd birthday, doubles as a celebration of 40 years since the launch of her career. Houston’s self-titled debut album was released in 1985.
The Legacy of Love gala will bene t the late singer’s foundation aimed at helping young people. A grant will also be awarded to the Los Angeles-based Kids in the Spotlight, an organization that seeks to heal and empower children through storytelling and lmmaking.
Houston founded the Whit-
Though Whitney is known worldwide for her exemplary talent in music and entertainment, one of the things she loved more than anything was supporting children and our youth.”
Pat Houston, co-host
ney Houston Foundation for Children in 1989 with the goal of empowering youth, providing resources to unhoused children, giving out college scholarships, and raising funds for charities like the Children’s Defense Fund and St. Jude Children’s Research. A charity auction will raise money for the foundation, which is now called the Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation.
Other performers include R&B singer-songwriter Meli’sa Morgan and Jimmy Avance.
The gala will also feature a preview performance of the upcoming orchestral tour, “The Voice of Whitney: A Symphonic Celebration,” conducted by William R. Langley.
“This year marks Whitney’s fortieth anniversary and our fourth Annual Legacy of Love Gala and we are delight-
solutions
ed how the foundation has developed and expanded over the past four years,” co-host Pat Houston said in a statement. She is Houston’s sister-in-law and the executor of her estate. Houston died in February 2012
at age 48. “Though Whitney is known worldwide for her exemplary talent in music and entertainment, one of the things she loved more than anything was supporting children and our youth. She always reached
back to various communities globally.”
In addition to Pat Houston, the gala will be hosted by Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier. Clive Davis, CCO of Sony Music, is honorary chair.
CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO
Jennifer Hudson, pictured performing during the 2025 BET Awards, will host the fourth annual Whitney Houston Legacy of Love gala on Aug. 9.
*Must set up Auto Draft for 2nd Month. Offer valid through February 1st 2024.
famous birthdays this week
Martha Reeves celebrates 84, Carlos Santana is 78, Gisele Bundchen turns 45
The Associated Press THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.
JULY 17
Sportscaster Verne Lundquist is 85. Bassist Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath is 76. Actor Lucie Arnaz is 74. Actor David Hasselho is 73. TV producer Mark Burnett (“Survivor,” “The Apprentice”) is 65. Actor Nancy Giles (“China Beach”) is 65.
JULY 18
Actor James Brolin is 85. Singer Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas is 84. Bluegrass singer Ricky Skaggs is 71.
JULY 19
Singer-bassist Alan Gorrie of Average White Band is 79. Guitarist Brian May of Queen is 78. Actor Campbell Scott is 64.
JULY 20
Singer Kim Carnes is 80. Rock musician Carlos Santana is 78. Basketball Hall of Famer Ray Allen is 50. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen is 45.
JULY 21
Author Michael Connelly is 69. Comedian Jon Lovitz is 68. Actor/singer Charlotte Gainsbourg is 54. Actor Rory Culkin is 36.
JULY 22
Movie writer-director Paul Schrader is 79. Actor Danny Glover is 79. Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks is 78. Rock singer Don Henley is 78. Jazz musician Al Di Meola is 71. Actor Willem Dafoe is 70.
JULY 23
Actor Woody Harrelson is 64. Rock musician Slash is 60. Basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton is 57. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is 52.
AMY HARRIS / INVISION /AP PHOTO
Iconic guitarist Carlos Santana, pictured performing in 2022, turns 78 on Sunday.
ANDY KROPA / INVISION / AP PHOTO
Monica Lewinsky, the former Clinton White House intern, turns 52 on Wednesday.
MARTIN MEISSNER / AP PHOTO
Actor David Hasselho poses for photographers upon arrival at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2022. The “Baywatch” star turns 73 on Thursday.
the stream
Dragons, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Billy Joel, ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’
“Surf Girls” returns to Prime Video for a second season
The Associated Press
THE LIVE-ACTION remake of the animated lm “How to Train Your Dragon” and a two -part, ve-hour documentary on Billy Joel are some of the new television, lms, music and games headed to a device near you. Also, among the streaming o erings worth your time: The long-delayed third album from rapper Roddy Ricch, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” returns for its third and nal season and two arcade favorites — Donkey Kong and Pac-Man — get reinvented for gamers.
MOVIES TO STREAM
Movie theaters are crowded enough this summer that one recent box-o ce hit is already coming to homes. Universal Pictures’ “How to Train Your Dragon” is available on premium video on demand. The live-action remake of the DreamWorks Animation dragon tale has surpassed $500 million in global ticket sale. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr raved: “Unlike so many live-action remakes of animated lms, it also doesn’t feel super uous, or, worse, like a poor imitation of its predecessor.”
Joel recently canceled his summer tour after being diagnosed with a brain disorder. But “Piano Man” fans can still get their Joel x in “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” a two-part, vehour documentary. Part one will arrive on HBO and HBO Max on Friday, with part two following on July 25. Directors Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin cover Joel’s life and career, with interviews with Joel, his family, his ex-wives and musicians including Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney.
Petra Costa’s “Apocalypse in the Tropics” (Net ix), documents the rise of the far right in Brazil. Costa’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated “The Edge of Democracy,” digs into the role of the evangelical movement in bringing former president Jai Bolsonaro to power. Bolsonaro
is currently standing trial for an alleged coup attempt in 2023, a trial that U.S. President Donald Trump has called a “witch hunt.”
MUSIC TO STREAM
Delayed from February, rapper Roddy Ricch returns with his third album on Friday, “The Navy Album.” The Compton rapper, who appeared on Kendrick Lamar’s “GNX,” has put out a few singles from the new collection, including “Survivor’s Remorse” and “Lonely Road.” The latter features Terrace Martin and was released with a video of him cruising through the city seeing angels and the lyrics: “Roddy rap like the rent due/Roddy tell ‘em the whole truth.”
Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” has been everywhere in 2025; it’s a big, ino ensive ballad with loosely religious themes and meticulously designed to the pull at heartstrings. And it succeeds, due in part to the fact that Warren sings in a faux-British accent. On Friday, he’ll release his debut full-length on Atlantic Records, “You’ll Be Alright, Kid.” Expect a lot more soul and get the tissues ready. Fresh o a hot new track for the summer blockbuster “F1” soundtrack, Puerto Rican rapper and singer Myke Towers will release a new album, “Island Boyz,” on Friday. It’s just what the heart wants during these hot months — feel good reggaeton, urban pop and Latin trap.
SERIES TO STREAM
Are you Team Jelly sh or Team Bonrad? If you have no idea what that means you probably don’t watch “The Summer I Turned Pretty. “ The show returns for its third and nal season on Prime Video. It’s about a young woman named Belly (Lola Tung,) who is torn between two brothers, Jeremiah and Conrad, played by Gavin Casalegno and Christopher Briney. The series is based on a trilogy of books by Jenny Han. In the second season of Prime Video’s “Surf Girls” series, cameras follow ve up-and-coming female surfers who travel the globe to compete in the Chal-
lenger Series. “Surf Girls: International” focuses on both new and returning surfers that were featured in season one. A goal is to spotlight women in a sport that has often been skewed by
sexism. All ve episodes drop Thursday. Reese Witherspoon is an executive producer. In the lms “The Dry” and “Force of Nature: The Dry 2,” Eric Bana played a federal agent
“Unlike so many live-action remakes of animated lms, (“How to Train Your Dragon”) also doesn’t feel super uous, or, worse, like a poor imitation of its predecessor.”
Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
investigating murders in his native country of Australia. In the new Net ix series “Untamed,” Bana plays a U.S. law enforcement o cer investigating the mysterious death of a woman at Yosemite National Park. Sam Neill, Rosemarie DeWitt and Wilson Bethel also star. It premieres Thursday.
VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
For a guy who started o as a villain, Donkey Kong has proven to be one of Nintendo’s most versatile heroes, doing everything from driving to playing drums to (seriously) teaching math. Donkey Kong Bananza focuses on what he does best: punching things. Someone has stolen his bananas, so it’s up to DK to smash his way through the Underground World in pursuit of the culprits. It’s the rst 3D adventure for the big lug in a long time, and Nintendo has said it comes from the same team that developed the bestselling Super Mario Odyssey. Start swinging Thursday on Switch 2.
Another arcade favorite — Pac-Man — returns in Shadow Labyrinth, although publisher Bandai Namco has radically altered the pellet-chomper. Here, you play as Swordsman No. 8, an explorer who is accompanied by a mysterious yellow orb named Puck. As you traverse the 2D alien world, you may be reminded of a di erent classic: 1986’s Metroid. There are some levels that look more like Pac-Man mazes, though, and you will still hunt and be hunted by ghosts — which are now called “G-Hosts.” It’s a weird and edgy approach to the legend, and it arrives Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch and PC.
CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO
“Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” a new two-part, ve-hour documentary about the life and career of the “piano man,” hits HBO and Max on Friday.
ANDREW PARK / INVISION / AP PHOTO
Gerard Butler arrives at the premiere of “How to Train Your Dragon.” The live-action remake is now streaming on premium video on demand.