Game on
Pittsboro’s Brandon Crabtree arrives safely at third during a game for Catawba last season. Crabtree was drafted by the Texas Rangers last week in the MLB Draft.
the BRIEF this week
Trump imposes 50% tari s on Canadian goods, citing disputes over autos, alcohol, cheese
President Donald Trump has imposed 50% tari s on most Canadian goods, declaring that Canada has unfairly discriminated against American autos, alcohol and dairy products. The move, announced Monday, could unleash a new wave of economic chaos, with risks of higher in ation and further fraying of relations between two nations that had been closely woven together before Trump’s return to the White House. The administration o cial previewing the action said that Canada was one of the only nations other than China that retaliated against Trump’s previous tari s and must be held accountable.
Trump opens investigation into Harvard’s aid to international students
The Justice Department is investigating whether Harvard University is allowing Chinese donors to create scholarships that exclude American students. The inquiry adds to a barrage of federal probes the Trump administration has opened in its battle against the Ivy League campus.
Justice Department o cials announced the new review Monday, saying Harvard’s foreign funding disclosures “raised concerns” about possible discrimination against U.S. students. The agency did not specify which scholarship programs are being targeted and emphasized it “has not reached any conclusions.”
$2.00
Siler City commissioners nix event center proposal
The proposed development would have been located on Old U.S. 421 South
By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record
SILER CITY — The Town of Siler City Board of Commissioners has rejected a proposal for a new event center space.
approved back in 2002 in order for the property to be utilized for a trucking business, which is no longer there.
The plan would be to utilize the space for a multifaceted event and cultural resource center with multiple buildings.
The surrounding property is all zoned as Agricultural Residential with single-family residential uses.
The reason for the modi cation was to change the permitted uses to allow for an event venue and community center. The original zoning change was
At the board’s July 20 meeting, it held a public hearing for a major modification to an existing Highway Commercial Conditional Zoning District for approximately four acres of property located at 1311 Old U.S. 421 South.
US soldier killed in Iraq was 30-year-old from Fayetteville
He leaves behind a wife, two young children and a legacy of sel ess service
By Allen G. Breed and Dave Collins The Associated Press
RALEIGH — A U.S. soldier killed in Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone
“I know I’m a hard worker. I learned that from Lindsey. I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be di cult?
Yes.”
Darline Graham, U.S. senator
was a 30-year-old father from Fayetteville who had served for nearly a decade, according to a military statement Tuesday and his family.
Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton will receive a Bronze
The senator is transforming a temporary appointment into a campaign for the full term
By Meg Kinnard
The Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. Darline Graham said Monday she’s running for a full term to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat.
“I’ve made a decision,” Darline Graham told Fox News
Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to sta sergeant. The Army said it was investigating the circumstances of his death Sunday at an air base in Irbil. He leaves behind a 6-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter, his mother said.
Channel host Sean Hannity, according to a clip released of an interview set to air later Monday. “I’m in.”
The entrance of Darline Graham — sworn in last week to ful ll the remaining months of her late brother’s term, which expires in January — into the Republican scramble to select a new Senate nominee further complicates an already rushed process following Lindsey Graham’s death earlier this month.
A weeklong ling period
The proposal stated that the construction would be carried out in three phases, eventually leading to the development of several facilities:
• 1,200-square-foot restroom facility
• Adaptive reuse of the already existing 3,600 square foot multipurpose building for
THE CHATHAM COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton
CRIME LOG
July 13
• Pfunandre Rischel White, 44, was arrested for assault by strangulation, eeing and eluding arrest with a motor vehicle and driving while impaired, and other charges.
• Dwayne Maurice Nettles, 34, was arrested for rst-degree kidnapping, assault by strangulation and assault on a female, and other charges.
• Charlie Loyd Pickard, 46, was arrested for driving while impaired.
• Anthony Lamont Sanders, 61, was arrested for larceny by removing, destroying or deactivating a component; and misdemeanor larceny.
July 14
• Damos Montell Alston, 30, was arrested for felony possession of cocaine and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
• Raekwon Tyrieck Gray, 28, was arrested for felony possession of cocaine and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
• Martavelin Paul Witherspoon, 24, was arrested for possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver marijuana; domestic violence protective order violation; and possession of marijuana, and other charges.
• Jeremy Lamont Edwards, 40, was arrested for breaking or entering, larceny after breaking and entering and possession of stolen goods or property, and other charges.
• Billy Farrell Kiser, 58, was arrested for second-degree trespass.
July 15
• Timothy James Gordon, 39, was arrested for injury to personal property; reckless driving with wanton disregard; and ctitious or altered title, registration card or tag, and other charges.
July 16
• John Jeremy Williams, 30, was arrested for possession of a rearm by a felon, felony possession of cocaine and carrying a concealed gun, and other charges.
• Kristin Gray Vanravestein, 41, was arrested for felony probation violation.
• David Alan Brady, 60, was arrested for driving while impaired.
• Kayla Paige Harris, 29, was arrested for maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance.
July 17
• Kenneth Marvell Reaves, 48, was arrested for felony possession of cocaine, breaking or entering and simple assault, and other charges.
• Sabrina Marie Blossom, 48, was arrested for breaking or entering, possession of drug paraphernalia and misdemeanor larceny, and other charges.
Appeals court rejects Biden’s bid to block release of recordings of ghostwriter interviews
A divided appeals court found public interest outweighs the former president’s privacy claims
By Michael Kunzelman
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal appeals court has rejected a request by Joe Biden to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with a memoir ghostwriter before he was elected president.
A divided three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit suspended its decision until Aug. 3 to allow more time for Biden to consider another appeal.
The panel’s 2-1 ruling late Monday found there is a “substantial” public interest in disclosing the material that Biden wants to keep under wraps. Redactions to the recordings would help protect Biden’s privacy, the majority noted.
“We conclude that any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure,” the ruling says.
Judge Florence Pan, who was nominated by Biden, a Democrat, wrote a dissenting opinion in which she said Biden has shown a “substantial
“The conversations at issue took place in Biden’s home, and the recordings of them were obtained by the government in the course of a criminal investigation that did not lead to an indictment.”
Florence Pan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit judge
privacy interest” in keeping the material hidden.
“The conversations at issue took place in Biden’s home, and the recordings of them were obtained by the government in the course of a criminal investigation that did not lead to an indictment,” she wrote.
The appeal also was heard by D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Gregory Katsas. Srinivasan was nominated by President Barack Obama, a Democrat who chose Biden as his vice president. Katsas was nominated by President Donald Trump, a Republican who lost to Biden in 2020 but was elected again to the White House in 2024.
Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on two memoirs, 2007’s “Promises to Keep” and 2017’s “Promise Me, Dad,” interviewed him at his home in 2016 and 2017. Biden’s lawyers say the conversations were candid, personal and intended to remain private.
The recordings were obtained by special counsel Robert Hur, who investigat-
ed Biden’s handling of classied documents from his time as a senator from Delaware and as Obama’s vice president. Republicans in Congress demanded the material after Hur declined to le charges against the then-president. Biden sued and sought an injunction to prevent the Justice Department under Trump from releasing the recordings to Congress and the conservative Heritage Foundation. The department previously argued that the recordings were exempt from disclosure under public records law.
Biden appealed after U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was nominated by Trump, ruled in June that the public interest in the material outweighed whatever privacy rights Biden had.
Pan noted that the majority is e ectively ruling in favor of immediately disclosing the material by denying Biden’s request for an injunction pending appeal.
“That, of course, will moot this case,” she wrote.
Central Electric providing grants to local educators to fund innovative projects
Teachers, are you looking for new opportunities to fund projects for your classroom?
Central Electric is awarding up to $15,000 in Bright Ideas education grants to local educators in K-12 classrooms for the 2026-27 school year. Educators in K-12 classrooms with creative ideas for learning projects are encouraged to apply for a grant up to $2,000. Grant applications will be accepted through Sept. 15. However, it pays to apply early.
CHATHAM happening
Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in Chatham County.
July 24
The Bulltown Strutters 7–8:30 p.m.
The Durham-based New Orleans-style brass band performs in the Bynum Front Porch Summer Music Series, blending jazz standards, funk and Second Line parade traditions. The show is free, with donations welcome; a food truck will be on site.
Bynum Front Porch 950 Bynum Road Bynum
July 25
Just Peachy Festival 2-9 p.m.
The celebration of peach season features local food, handcrafted beverages, artisan vendors, hourly garden tours and a peach cobbler competition at 5 p.m. Thousand Ways performs the afternoon set; The Radio takes the stage at 6 p.m.
The Plant 220 Lorax Lane Pittsboro
Sonic Blues
7:30-9:30 p.m.
The Triangle-based band performs a fusion of blues, rock, jazz, soul and rhythm and blues. No cover charge.
The City Tap 89 Hillsboro St. Pittsboro
July 26
Wildlife Wonder: The Ins and Outs of Nature Photography 10–11 a.m.
Bates Whitaker, creative content manager with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, covers ethics in nature photography, composition techniques and tips for sharing images responsibly. The free program is presented in partnership with Friends of the Lower Haw.
Chatham Community Library, Holmes Family Meeting Room 197 N.C. Highway 87 N Pittsboro
July 31
Fuzzy Cat sh Band
7:30–9:30 p.m.
Live music at the downtown Pittsboro taproom. No cover charge.
The City Tap 89 Hillsboro St. Pittsboro
All teachers who submit their applications by the early bird deadline of Aug. 15 will be entered into a drawing for one of ve $100 Visa gi cards. Scan the QR code or visit NCBrightIdeas.com for more information or to apply!
EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO
President Joe Biden speaks during a Department of Defense commander in chief farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on Jan. 16, 2025.
Ocials sought phone records of NYT journalists, relatives in e ort to unmask sources
The subpoenas sought records from a reporter’s mother and journalists’ spouses
By Eric Tucker and Jocelyn Noveck
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
President Donald Trump’s administration sought phone records of several New York Times journalists and even those of some of their relatives, according to a motion unsealed Monday — an unusually aggressive attempt to unmask the condential sources of reporters who wrote about Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.
The e orts by the Republican president’s administration to compel the identity of sources in the form of additional subpoenas come at a time when the executive branch’s relationship with the press is increasingly contentious. The e orts, described in a letter-motion led by the Times over the weekend, were more expansive than previously known, the newspaper noted. They also covered a time frame that exceeded the news articles in question.
“Two of the subpoenas seek records beginning on January 1, 2026, long before the events that are purportedly the basis for the Department’s investigation,” lawyers for the Times wrote in the letter. “That timeframe strongly suggests that the Department is using this investigation not to focus on any purported concerns arising from the July 8 and 9 articles, but instead to forage for information about the Journalists’ source relationships more broadly.”
Government says reporters aren’t target
The Justice Department has justi ed the subpoenas by saying that “to be clear, reporters are not the targets, those leaking classi ed information are.”
The additional subpoenas included a request for phone records of one reporter’s mother and two of the journalists’ spouses. The motion noted that the mother in question is a men-
ty concerns involving the jet.
“To be clear, reporters are not the targets, those leaking classi ed information are.”
U.S. Justice Department
tal health professional with con dential client relationships and that one of the two spouses is the general counsel of a law rm.
“The disclosure of additional subpoenas for con dential newsgathering information of the Journalists is deeply concerning, revealing yet another instance of the alarming pattern of conduct detailed in the Motion to Quash,” the news organization’s lawyers wrote.
“These actions demonstrate abuse of the grand jury process, continued bad faith attacks on the Journalists, violations of the Department’s own internal regulations and disregard for the law in this Circuit intended to protect critical First Amendment interests,” the motion stated.
Part of ongoing legal challenge
The Times revealed the government’s actions as part of an ongoing legal challenge to quash subpoenas that the Justice Department served on three journalists who reported on securi-
The original subpoenas, delivered to reporters at their homes, marked a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on media leaks that free press advocates swiftly condemned as a government e ort to intimidate news organizations. It followed an FBI search earlier this year of a Washington Post reporter’s home and the seizure of her electronic devices.
The new jet in question, a present from Qatar that Trump’s administration spent $400 million to retro t and upgrade, recently entered service. But Trump used an older model Air Force One jet to leave a NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month.
The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that the switch had come at the urging of the Secret Service and that the newer plane lacked some of the advanced security features of the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. On social media, Trump denied security concerns.
Trump’s administration has clashed with the press, from newspapers to TV networks to the Voice of America, on multiple fronts since he returned to o ce last year. The methods include lawsuits, administrative actions and public threats.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the press’ ability to operate free of governmental restrictions.
Alaska wants to seize pilot’s plane over 6-pack of beer; Supreme Court will hear his case
The case questions whether property seizure is proportional punishment for a misdemeanor
By Michael Kunzelman The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review an Alaska bush pilot’s claims that state authorities have tried to illegally seize his $95,000 airplane after a passenger brought a six-pack of beer on a ight bound for a dry village.
The pilot, Kenneth Jouppi, sued to block his plane’s seizure after he was convicted of an alcohol-related misdemeanor charge. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in the state’s favor that Jouppi’s plane was subject to criminal forfeiture laws.
On Monday, however, the nation’s highest court agreed to hear Jouppi’s case. He argues that taking his 1969 Cessna would violate the Eighth Amendment’s “Excessive Fines Clause.” Arguments are expected in the fall.
“I’m in my 80s now, and I’ve been ghting this for over a decade because I see it as my duty to ensure that the Bill of Rights actually means something in protecting against government overreach,” Jouppi said in a statement released by his attor-
“The Excessive Fines Clause was built for cases like this.”
Institute for Justice, attorneys for Kenneth Jouppi
neys at the Institute for Justice.
In April 2012, Jouppi was preparing to y a passenger from Fairbanks to a remote village, Beaver, where alcohol was banned. The passenger had packed beer with other groceries in her luggage. State Police troopers searched Jouppi’s plane before it departed and spotted a six-pack of Budweiser in a shopping bag.
Jouppi, his company and the passenger were charged with a misdemeanor o ense of knowingly transporting an alcoholic beverage into a dry community. The passenger pleaded guilty. A jury convicted Jouppi and the company after a trial. A judge sentenced him to three days in jail.
Jouppi’s attorneys say Alaska’s high court examined his conduct “purely in abstract terms” and didn’t evaluate whether it was part of a broader pattern of criminal activity. And they say it wasn’t.
“Few excessive nes cases will present the issue so sharply; a decision upholding the forfeiture
Church News
OAKLEY BAPTIST CHURCH
As Oakley Baptist Church (2300 Siler City-Glendon Road, Siler City) seeks to begin its next chapter, we are enjoying hearing a word from the Lord with Dr. McCollough. Our service begins at 10:30 a.m., but we also have Sunday School classes for every member of the family at 9:30 a.m. We would be blessed if you joined us!
Gary McCollough – Interim
We look forward to meeting you at any of these services and in the future and invite you to pray with us as we seek a new pastor. To learn more, go to oakleybaptist. org or email us at oakleybaptistchurch@gmail.com.
HOUSE OF PRAYER FELLOWSHIP CHURCH
The House of Prayer Fellowship Church at 549 Horton Road in Goldston warmly invites you to join us for the 20th annual Ronald B. Rainey Memorial Scholarship program on Sunday, July 26 at 3 p.m. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Jackie Goldston, pastor of Christ Church of Deliverance in Sanford. We welcome everyone to come and participate in this special celebration!
CENTER from page A1
small gatherings, classes and community events
• 12,800-square-foot indoor sports center and beauty spa
• 2,400 square feet of covered seating for recreational programming
• Sports eld improvements
• 11,250-square-foot, twostory, multipurpose building
• Parking improvements In addition, the applicants had proposed setting limitations on the hours of operation with hard cuto s at 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends, as well as requiring on-site management to be present for all events. However, the request was recommended for denial 7-0 by the town’s planning board due to concerns with increased tra c, noise, worries
over potential alcohol use and security.
“By statute, we have a planning board, and they recommended rejection before it came to us,” said Mayor Donald Matthews. “We’ve also heard the community say that they did not want it in their community. Those are the two things that hold precedent right now in my mind.”
Following the hearing, the request was eventually denied, with only Commissioners Alec Hauser and Michael Feezor being in favor of the request.
“I have good faith in others to not break the law,” Hauser said. “And in the event they do break the law, we have a sheri to address any of those needs.”
The Town of Siler City Board of Commissioners will next meet Aug. 3.
Share with your community!
Send your birth, death, marriage, graduation and other announcements to community@ chathamnewsrecord.com.
of an airplane for a six-pack is a self-recommending candidate for review,” lawyers from the Institute for Justice wrote in their appeal.
In response, lawyers from the Alaska Attorney General’s o ce argued that the state Supreme Court’s “fact-bound decision” should be allowed to stand.
“Courts across the country apply a multi-factor test to determine whether a ne or forfeiture is grossly disproportional to the gravity of the o ense,” they wrote. “Jouppi does not claim that the four-part standard applied by the Alaska Supreme Court is wrong, only that the court misapplied settled law by giving too much weight to some factors and not enough weight to others.”
Jouppi’s attorneys argue that the ruling from the state’s highest court con icts with case law established in other courts, including U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
“The Excessive Fines Clause was built for cases like this,” they said.
Alaska’s attorneys said Jouppi hasn’t shown how punishing him with forfeiture of his plane is “grossly disproportional to the gravity of his o ense.”
“Alcohol abuse is a serious problem in rural Alaska, and airplanes are sometimes the only realistic means to commit the crime of alcohol importation,” they wrote.
Bible study: Revelation 21:5-8. Church of Living Water; Preacher: James Mitchell.
Warnings! Democrats, fake/lying news media, activist judges, radical Muslims, socialists, communists, haters of Israel, haters of America, haters of Christians, haters of our ICE law enforcement, and supporters of this evil. “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with
enforcement and our Department of War! American citizens, we have an invasion of illegals and criminals killing/raping our citizens. Obama, Biden, and Harris did all this evil to America and its citizens for power and votes. Thank God for President Trump knees! Republicans, get our elections secure and dismantle the corrupt International Criminal Court. America, can’t you understand and hear what God’s Word said? You are of your father the devil. Satan was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When and the father of it. He who is of God hears God’s words! Therefore, you don’t hear because you are see God’s truth, in Jesus’ name.
JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP PHOTO
President Donald Trump exits Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after attending the World Cup nal soccer match Sunday.
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
Modern day parables
Jesus also told stories of ordinary things, like mustard seeds and yeast, that are about the ways God’s kingdom begins small and personal but reveals itself over time.
IT WAS SATURDAY afternoon and blazing hot, plus menacing storm clouds darkened the horizon. My two sons and I headed to the trampoline park for some indoor fun. We were only a mile away when the car started to shake, and I quickly pulled to the side of Highway 64. We had blown a tire.
As cars raced past on the road, the boys helped me unload the car jack and spare tire, then I instructed them to stand back while I tugged at the lug nuts with the hand tool. I was sweating profusely from straining against the bolts and from the pressure of the situation. I wanted to install the spare as quickly as possible and return safely to the road before the thunderstorm broke.
That’s when I heard someone say, “Can I give you some help?”
His name was Lewis. He had stopped his truck upon seeing us, but due to the noise from the highway and my attention to my task, I did not notice until he approached me. He might as well have fallen from the sky like an angel — an angel with cordless power tools. He had the tire installed in what felt like the blink of an eye. Lewis also noticed that the spare was a little at. He had an air compressor in his truck and in ated the tire. By now, the storm clouds were right above us. I shook his hand and thanked him, yet my simple gratitude seemed a pittance compared to what he had done for us. Lewis was all smiles and wished us a great day.
While the Good Samaritan parable comes readily
COLUMN | JAN HUTTON
to mind through my story, I know that Jesus also told stories of ordinary things, like mustard seeds and yeast, that are about the ways God’s kingdom begins small and personal but reveals itself over time as impacting more and more people. I agree with poet Christian Wiman that “no collective consciousness can occur unless and until it is rmly rooted in many, many coherent and vital individual minds.”
There are many problems in our society, yet transformative change most often unfolds slowly and steadily rather than instantly and completely. Hearts soften over time through acts of service to someone in need, and love spreads from person to person. It is like a tiny mustard seed that grows to a large plant or yeast that, though hidden, works from the inside to transform everything.
Once safely on the road, my sons and I agreed that we would remember Lewis. Then they excitedly brainstormed ways that they might help other people. It began to rain, and I turned on the windshield wipers. Their desire to pay it forward left me a little teary. Wiping my eyes, I smiled and whispered a prayer of gratitude.
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.
The Dr. Alan Grant/Sam Neill cascade
What is it about Dr. Alan Grant/Sam Neill that triggered this incredible cascade of condolences?
THERE IT WAS! Childlike wonder, shock and human vulnerability. I mean, literally, he collapsed on the ground in awe. All occurring during the rst few minutes of that iconic lm, “Jurassic Park.” Dr. Alan Grant (actor Sam Neill) had just seen a dinosaur!
Sam Neill died last week, but his 1995 personi cation of Grant in “Jurassic Park” has lived on and on and on and on. For heaven’s sake, I’m not making fun of Neill, or even his beloved, alter ego who, by now, is an international cinematic icon. No way.
Yet here I sit, pondering and pondering the sheer cascade of RIP Sam (or Alan Grant) digital and traditional media posts, falling like heavy rain during hurricane season. In my mind, I’ve compared the volume of RIP Sam Neill versus RIP Robert Redford messaging and have come to the conclusion that Sam’s winning. Wow, versus Robert Redford, of all people. Pretty amazing! What is it about Grant/Neill that triggered this incredible cascade of condolences? Oh my, I can’t forget to mention that now-classic “Jurassic Park” musical overture, part and parcel of the RIP outpourings. Here’s my nonevidence-based theory regarding all the emotional adulation pouring down. It’s the guilelessness of a child, passing over Alan/Sam’s face when seeing his rst dinosaur. Allowing his body to collapse at the sheer enormity of nding there’s actually a Tyrannosaurus rex in Jurassic Park. Completely unembarrassed in fully displaying the panoply of his feelings, some quite childlike, including stumbling over his words. ’Tis Dr. Grant/Neill in his human fullness. Childlike wonder expressed by an adult, however, can be downright embarrassing. There are times when I have a tendency to mask my explicit childlike reactions. Collapsing on the ground in absolute wonder? Ummm, don’t think so. For heaven’s sake, I’m an adult! Whoa, whoa! Yes, I’m an adult, but still in possession
EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP
Actor Sam Neill, pictured in 2024, died July 13 at 78.
of my own treasure trove of childlike reactions regarding the appearance of wonder. Why shouldn’t I express my feelings, aside from cultural embarrassment? (Eeek! She’s doing … what?) So, y’all, here’s to Dr. Alan Grant/Sam Neill for allowing the “Jurassic Park” character to express the full range of his human light. No embarrassment, just wholly human, like the rest of us.
Jan Hutton, a resident of Chatham County and retired hospice social worker, lives life with heart and humor.
Tempus really does fugit
I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around 55 years.
YOU KNOW without me saying it that it’s been hot lately.
Reminds me of another hot July day. It was hot the afternoon of that day, some 55 years ago.
But then, it should have been. July 24. Right in the heart of a North Carolina summer.
On that day back then, I was sweating. My Right Guard had not only surrendered, it had gone over to the enemy. And my dad’s Old Spice after-shave? Long gone to the sun, that great evaporator in the sky. But the temperature wasn’t the only reason I was in a lather.
In a few moments, the young lady who caught my eye when she rst came into my o ce about 14 months earlier was going to walk down the left aisle as a single woman and then leave out the right one as a “Mrs.”
The previous year she was a summer replacement for a Pittsboro lawyer’s secretary who wanted to be at home with her children while they were out of school.
One day she came into the one-room Pittsboro o ce of this newspaper asking for a copy of an estate notice that had been printed in the legal section for the required four weeks. As I lled out the necessary form, I noticed her looking around at the mess that was my o ce — stacks of newspapers on the oor and desk, the scattered notes on legal pads, crumpled papers falling from a trash can onto the oor, the boxes piled on top of one another here and there, the empty Coke cans, the ashtray full of smoked cigarettes and the vacationing bug family in the corner. In other words, it was all the things that made up newspaper o ces of long ago. So, of course, the next words out of her mouth were, “I really like your ling system.”
“Thanks,” I shot back. “I did it myself.”
As she left the building, I followed behind, discreetly, of course. When she went out the door, I said to a fellow in an adjacent o ce, “Earl, who was that?”
“Don’t you know?” was his reply.
“No. If I did, I wouldn’t have asked you.”
“She works next door for lawyer Billy Smith.”
Fortunately for me, I knew where next door was. And I also knew Billy Smith. In time, I wound up spending considerable time there in the following days, so much so that one day Mr. Smith came in from the courthouse, saw me in my customary chair in front of the desk of the object of my a ection and said, “You’re here so much I think I’ll just put you on the payroll.”
On that special day at the church back that hot summer day, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to go through with things. Far from it. Rather, truth be told, it was that deep down inside I knew it was the awareness that although I was a pretty sharp guy, I thought, I was still a babe and was about to take a giant leap into the unknown. After all, I hadn’t had any experience doing this.
However, I did have experience in the art of dating, especially this young lady. We went to lots of movies, mostly at the Varsity and Carolina on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. After we’d been married a short while, she told me sometimes during those days she had wondered if I knew how to do anything other than going to movies. But I submit to you, who wouldn’t want to see “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” six times?
Usually after the movie, we’d go to Amber Alley to the Rathskeller for as much pizza as I could hold. Sometimes we went to the Triple R Fish House in Ramseur with her folks. Not only was I trying to make points with the whole family but I genuinely liked them — and the food. We made ice cream on Sunday afternoons. I sent her owers — about every two weeks — and rode in the back of
the delivery van to her house to show the driver where she lived.
We went out once in July and then pretty much every night in August before she went back to UNC Greensboro for her senior year. I went to see her occasionally during the weeks of that year, but I paced myself. I never went more than three or four times during any one of those sevenday spans and went only on days ending in “y”. She came home on weekends, which made things convenient. We’d go to her grandma’s, go to the mall, go here, go there, go anywhere or stay home and play Rummy. It didn’t matter. I just wanted to be where she was. We even went to UNC football games on glorious autumn Saturdays, sometimes with my dad, who once told me if I didn’t try to win her heart there was something wrong with me.
There wasn’t.
And I did … try, that is.
And then there came the time when I thought I had done that but, also being a sometimes-dense guy, I wasn’t really, really, really sure, and I didn’t want to get shot down. So I devised a plan to nd out her thoughts but to save face in case I had misread the signals. Sitting in her driveway late one December night in my 1970 Mustang with the big V-8, the oormounted transmission and the heavy-duty suspension with the Michelin steel-belted radials — the car that could take a curve above the posted limit and stay on the road — I posed what I thought was the ultimate smooth question.
We’d been listening to mood music for a while when I said to her, “What would you say if I were to ask you to marry me?” See, I reasoned by saying it that way, I hadn’t really asked her if the answer wasn’t going to turn out good for me. Without missing a beat, she replied, “Why don’t you try it and nd out?”
So I did. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Lately, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around 55 years. See, 55 is how old my dad was when I thought he was ancient. Fiftyve years is how long other people have been married. I’m not even old enough to be 55, much less be married that long. But although my mind says I’m 37, the body says, “Whoa! Not so fast.”
Those years have brought us much happiness, some sadness but little regret, two children — the 50-somethings who used to be teenagers who lived at my house — and eight grands. And now I know why they’re called “grand”; it’s because they are. Remind me to show you my pictures the next time I see you.
Along the way, we’ve buried our parents and other family folk, lost some good friends, endured many surgeries, lived in a number of places and had several careers. And, again as they say (whoever “they” are), “it’s all good.” In short, I’d do it all over again. She didn’t know it that day when she came into my o ce, but she was seeing a foretaste of her future. Today, in my study, there are stacks of newspapers, books here and there, assorted piles of notes, memorabilia on the shelves. But no bugs, Coke cans — I’ve switched to tea — and no cigarette butts or ashes. I quit shortly after we wed.
So as Bob Hope often said, “Thanks for the memories.” It was a good day for me, both of them, that day she came into my o ce and that hot Chatham County summer day of ’71.
Did I mention I’d do it all over again if she would?
Bob Wachs is a native of Chatham County and emeritus editor at Chatham News & Record. He serves as pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church.
On the Iran war, NATO chief agrees with Trump the media buried the lede
WHY DO SO MANY Americans oppose the war against Iran?
The biggest reason is that they do not believe Iran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. If Iran was nowhere near a bomb, President Donald Trump’s decision to use military force looks unnecessary, even reckless. But if Iran was close, as Trump claims, the debate changes dramatically. That is why NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s recent assessment should have been a major news story.
During his June 24 Oval O ce meeting with Trump, Rutte said: “This is, rst of all, about the nuclear capability Iran was basically getting its hands on — and that would have been a threat to the region. It would’ve been a threat to the whole world.” The next day, Rutte was even more direct. “We know they were close,” he said, while commending the United States “for making sure that the world stays safe from Iran with a nuclear capability.”
Rutte’s statement does not, of course, establish as a matter of fact that Iran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, let alone how close. But it is unquestionably newsworthy that the secretary general of NATO assessed Iran’s nuclear progress substantially the same way Trump did.
Rutte’s statement did not merely express the view that Iran should never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. Nearly everyone says that. He o ered an assessment of how close Iran was to acquiring nuclear capability — and that assessment closely tracked Trump’s own.
Rutte is not a member of the Trump administration. His agreement therefore carried independent weight, even if critics believed his praise was tactical. The media need not endorse his judgment. They merely had to report it prominently and scrutinize it as they would any other signi cant claim. But they did not.
The Associated Press focused heavily on Rutte’s e orts to atter and reassure Trump because he threatened to reduce America’s military commitment to Europe. Reuters likewise described Rutte as using “ attery” to ease tensions over Iran and NATO. Those were legitimate news angles. But where was the comparable emphasis on Rutte’s nuclear assessment?
CBS reported on how Rutte praised Trump for setting back Iran’s nuclear capabilities but did not highlight Rutte’s far more consequential assessment that Iran was “basically getting its hands on” that capability. Similarly, a review of coverage by NBC, ABC, NPR, PBS, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times found no prominent treatment of Rutte’s explicit agreement with Trump on Iran’s nuclear proximity.
Suppose Rutte said Iran was nowhere close to obtaining nuclear capability, that Trump exaggerated the threat and that the war was unnecessary. It would have led broadcasts and been cited as independent proof that Trump misled the country.
Imagine the headlines: “NATO Head Disputes Trump’s Claim on Iran’s Proximity to Acquiring a Nuclear Weapon”; “NATO Secretary General Undercuts Trump’s Rationale for the Iran War”; or “NATO Leader Sides With Americans Who Question the Iran War.”
Instead, Rutte’s assessment was overshadowed by stories about Trump’s grievances with NATO and Rutte’s conspicuous praise of the president. Was Rutte attering Trump? Quite possibly. After all, Trump angrily criticized European allies for failing to join the military operation against Iran and raised the possibility of pulling American troops out of Europe.
But that does not render Rutte’s nuclear assessment unimportant.
Whatever many in the media think about Trump’s veracity, Rutte’s comment is most certainly newsworthy and merited far more attention. Skeptical journalists could have quoted Rutte, o ered evidence against his assessment and questioned whether he was merely currying favor.
What they should not have done was treat the statement as though it barely mattered. And, days later, after Iran violated the cease re memorandum, Rutte again backed Trump by calling the renewed U.S. strikes “absolutely necessary.”
The war has damaged Trump’s approval ratings. It has become increasingly likely that this con ict may drag on for some time, drive gas prices higher and risk more military casualties. The question remains: Is this a war worth ghting?
Iran has shown time and again it is willing to kill its own people and allow them to su er to allow its regime to remain in power. What would this regime do with nuclear weapons? Again, as to Iran’s proximity to obtaining this nuclear capability, the NATO secretary general agrees with Trump.
The public deserves to know about it.
obituaries
Duane Ward, former Blue Jays pitcher and World Series champion, dead at 62
Ward holds the franchise record with 121 career saves
By Ian Harrison The Associated Press
TORONTO — Duane
Ward, a two-time World Series champion and one of the most accomplished relievers in Toronto Blue Jays history, has died of natural causes, the team announced Sunday. He was 62.
The team said Ward arrived in Toronto last Friday with several former teammates from the 1992 and 1993 championship teams but was absent from Saturday’s pregame ceremony celebrating those victories with a statue unveiling.
More than two dozen players, coaches and executives from those teams took part in the event inside and outside the Rogers Centre.
“Duane will always be a cherished part of the Blue Jays
family, and we will be forever grateful for his contributions to our organization and to baseball in Canada,” the team said in a statement.
Before their game Sunday against the Chicago White Sox, the Blue Jays paid tribute to Ward with a scoreboard montage and a brief moment of silence.
They declined further comment on the circumstances of Ward’s death.
Ward appeared in 452 games for Toronto between 1986 and 1995. His 121 career saves are the most in franchise history.
Ward earned his lone All- Star appearance in 1993, going on to lead the American League with 45 saves. That total remains the Blue Jays’ single-season record.
Ward was the winning pitcher in the Game 6 of the 1993 World Series against Philadelphia, which was decided by Joe Carter’s series-winning home run.
Kaylee Hottle, deaf ‘Godzilla’ actor, killed in car crash at 18
Her father publicly forgave the 19-year-old driver involved in the fatal crash
By Rebecca Boone and Larry Lage
The Associated Press
KAYLEE HOTTLE, a deaf actor best known for her starring role in two “Godzilla” lms, died in a car crash in Maryland early Tuesday morning, the Frederick County Sheri ’s Ofce said. She was 18.
Hottle was one of two passengers in the car when it went o the road and hit a culvert in Ijamsville before 3 a.m. The driver was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the other passenger declined medical treatment, according to a news release from the sheri ’s o ce. Excessive speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, which is under investigation, the sheri ’s o ce said.
Hottle was a native signer of American Sign Language, and her family members are also deaf. Her parents, Joshua and Ketsi Hottle, shared emotional video statements about her death on social media sites.
“Kaylee’s mom and four siblings are crushed,” her father said in ASL in a post from an airport. “They are together at home, grieving. I am on my way to Maryland to bring Kaylee’s body back home.”
Hottle’s heart stopped before she arrived at a hospital, transported by air from the scene of the accident, her father said. “Very grateful for the 18 years we had together — and wish we had more,” he said.
Joshua Hottle also reached out to the driver, described by the sheri ’s o ce as a 19-year-old Frederick man.
“I have forgiven you,” her fa-
ther said. “Don’t let this incident ruin the rest of your life.”
“I still feel Kaylee is with us,” her mother said in ASL in a post.
In “Godzilla vs. Kong” and the sequel, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” Hottle played an orphaned girl named Jia who sees beyond Kong’s threatening appearance and forms a special bond with the monster, communicating with him using sign language.
“I’m so devastated to hear this. You will be deeply missed Kaylee,” her “Godzilla” co-star Millie Bobby Brown posted on Instagram.
Co-star Alexander Skarsgård, who learned ASL to communicate with Hottle, told the pop culture website Junkee in 2021 that he and others were impressed by the young ingenue’s professionalism and her ability to quickly incorporate the director’s notes into her acting.
In a 2024 interview with The Associated Press, Hottle said through an interpreter that she hadn’t watched monster movies before she was cast in “Godzil-
la,” so her father helped her understand the genre.
“I look up to a lot of people, but the one person I look up to, the few people I look up to mostly, are my parents and my sisters,” Hottle said.
Hottle said that when she was working on the rst lm, she was a bit concerned about whether she would be able to return to her “normal life,” afterward.
“People do recognize me at school, yes, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be,” Hottle said.
Hottle previously appeared in a 2021 television episode of “Magnum P.I.” She was listed as appearing in the upcoming lm “What Doesn’t Kill Us.”
“I’m so heartbroken. My heart goes out to her family during this unimaginable time,” Alaqua Cox, her co-star in that lm and fellow deaf actor, wrote on Instagram.
Other prominent deaf actors also shared messages of grief online.
“I am absolutely gutted about the passing of sweet Kaylee Hottle. May her beauty and talent be a memory for eternity,” Oscar winner Marlee Matlin wrote on Instagram.
Fellow Oscar winner Troy Kotsur, who starred in the lm “Coda,” wrote that Hottle’s death made him think of his own daughter, and reminded him not to take time for granted.
“I have no words to express on what happened this morning,” Kotsur wrote, o ering his “deepest condolences” to the Hottle family.
O cials with Texas School for the Deaf in Austin also announced Hottle’s death on Facebook, writing that counseling and support services would be available to her classmates and friends.
Celebrate the life of your loved
JON BLACKER / THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP
Players and coaches of the Toronto Blue Jays recognize a moment of silence on the announcement of the death of former Blue Jays pitcher Duane Ward prior to the start of their game against the Chicago White Sox in in Toronto on Sunday.
RICHARD SHOTWELL / AP PHOTO
Kaylee Hottle appears at the premiere of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” in Los Angeles on March 25, 2024.
WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT VIA AP
Kaylee Hottle, pictured in a scene from “Godzilla vs. Kong,” died in a car accident on Tuesday in Maryland.
Tates ght extradition to UK where brothers face rape, sex tra cking charges
The new allegations involve four victims spanning 2010 to 2017
By David Fischer The Associated Press
MIAMI — Social media in-
uencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will ght extradition to the United Kingdom where the brothers are accused of rape and sex tra cking, their lawyer said Monday, suggesting their arrest in Miami was politically motivated.
The Tates appeared in federal court Monday for the rst time since their arrest on Saturday and are being held in federal detention. In the coming weeks, a U.S. district judge will consider whether they meet the conditions for extradition. U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis set another hearing for Monday.
The brothers, normally photographed in tailored suits and tted shirts, wore tan jail uniforms and handcu s during the brief hearing.
An attorney for the brothers, Joseph McBride, insisted they should remain in the U.S.
“We are of course objecting to extradition because Andrew and Tristan are innocent, McBride said after the heading. “They’ve never done nothing wrong. They shouldn’t be ex-
tradited for crimes they did not commit.”
The brothers were surprised when they were arrested, McBride said, adding that the attempt to have them extradited was politically motivated.
“There’s no question about it,” he told reporters.
He suggested the Tates case
“had a lot to do with” former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to step down and said it was no coincidence that the brothers were arrested after meeting “friends in Washington, D.C.”
“We went to see our Congress people in D.C., and now we’re getting arrested. This
feels political,” McBride said.
On Sunday, McBride said he was con dent the extradition request would be denied.
Prosecutors in Britain said the new charges relate to four new victims and were brought after authorities received evidence from Bedfordshire Police in southeastern England.
SOLIDER from page A1
“I will never recover from this,” his wife, Mia Gonzalez-Swinton, posted Monday on Facebook. “We had so many plans for when you got back, I’m sick to my stomach.” She said she was noti ed Sunday that he had been killed.
Two U.S. Army soldiers were also killed in Jordan last week while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. They were the rst U.S. troop deaths from direct Iranian re since the opening days of the war.
Swinton’s wife and kids were the center of his world, his mother, Christel Swinton Andujar, told The Associated Press.
“His legacy will live on through the countless lives he touched, the laughter he shared, the strength he gave others, and the unconditional love he poured into his family,” she said via text message. “He will forever be missed, forever honored, and forever our hero.”
Swinton enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg.
He lived in Spring Lake, a popular o -base location for Fort Bragg families, according to public records. The military gave his hometown as nearby Fayetteville.
“Sgt. Swinton was an experienced noncommissioned ocer who took great pride in his work and the people around him,” said Brig. Gen. John L. Dawber, commanding general of the Army Air and Missile Defense Command. “He answered the call to duty with courage, honor, and sel ess dedication.”
Renewed ghting between the U.S. and Iran is ongoing, with both sides launching barrages of strikes. Iran has attacked U.S. allies in the region, and American soldiers are stationed across the Middle East.
The allegations, spanning 2010 to 2017, include rape, assault, tra cking and o enses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”
The brothers are already charged with rape, bodily harm, human tra cking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other alleged victims in the U.K. between 2012 and 2015.
Their lawyer said in a statement Saturday that he believed the arrests were “greenlighted by a low-level functionary” at the Justice Department without input from leadership.
But the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the arrests were approved by leadership of its Criminal Division.
The new allegations are the latest in a long-running international legal saga involving the Tates that has spanned the U.S., Britain and Romania. The brothers have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Their social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities.
The dual U.S. and British citizens moved to Romania in 2016. They were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations, and the Romanian case hasn’t gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.
Last year, they were allowed to leave Romania and ew to Florida.
The Defense Department identi ed the soldiers killed in Jordan as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. They were also with Army Air and Missile Defense Command units.
A third service member was reported missing after the attack. U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said “unidenti ed remains” have been found and were being examined.
Iranian authorities say U.S. strikes in just the past three weeks have killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 500 others.
Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people. Workers on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also died in the con ict.
The U.S. State Department said in a new warning to Americans that “Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the war is necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Trump, a Republican, now faces political pressure to bring the war to a close and avoid the kind of prolonged Middle East con ict he had campaigned against. The escalation has pushed oil prices higher in recent weeks.
Swinton Andujar said her son was the kind of person who could light up a room with his humor and contagious laugh.
“Michael had a remarkable ability to excel at whatever he set his mind to,” she said. “He knew when it was time to laugh and when it was time to be serious. Whether serving his country, supporting his family, or helping a friend, he gave his whole heart and expected nothing in return.”
JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON / AP PHOTO
Fayetteville native Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton was killed Sunday in Iraq.
JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON, POOL / AP PHOTO
Andrew Tate, right, and his brother Tristan arrive at an event April 11 in Miami.
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NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Having quali ed as Co-Executors of the Will of Jacqueleene Bowen Dobbins, a/k/a Jacqueleene B. Dobbins, Jacqueleene Dobbins, and Jackie Dobbins, late of Chapel Hill, Chatham County, North Carolina, the undersigned do hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at One West Fourth Street, Suite 1200, WinstonSalem, NC 27101, on or before the 23rd day of October, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.
This the 23rd day of July, 2026.
JAMES TALMAGE DOBBINS, III, and STEVEN EARL DOBBINS, CO-
EXECUTORS OF THE WILL OF JACQUELEENE BOWEN DOBBINS Kimberly H. Stogner Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP One West Fourth Street – 12th Floor Winston-Salem, NC 27101 July 23rd, 30th, August 6th and 13th, 2026
NOTICE
EXECUTORS NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS All persons, rms, and corporations having claims against Willie R. Parker, Jr., deceased of Chatham County, North Carolina, are hereby noti ed to present their claims by mailing them to Cheryl Parker Jarmon, Executor of the Estate of Willie R. Parker, Jr., 1901 Village Crossing Drive, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27517 before the 2nd day of October, 2026, or such claims will be forever barred. Debtors of the decent are requested to make immediate payment to the Estate through its Executor. File No.: 26-E-000350-180
This is the 2nd day of July, 2026 Published July 2, 9, 16 and 23, 2026 NOTICE NORTH CAROLINA FILE NO: 26E000346-180 CHATHAM COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK ESTATE OF DONETTA JANE DELISLE
EXECUTORS NOTICE TO CREDITORS THE UNDERSIGNED having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Donetta Jane Delisle, Deceased, in the O ce of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the said Decedent to present the same to the undersigned on or before October 16, 2026, said date being at least three months from the date of the rst publication or posting of this Notice as indicated below, or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment. This Notice is given pursuant to the provisions of G.S. 28A-14-1.
This 7th day of July, 2026. Name and Address of Executor Brian Gordon 1460 Brentwood Way Earlysville MD 22936 Name and Address of Attorney: Steven Lundberg 1155 Kildaire Farm Rd, Ste. 204 Cary, NC 27511
Date of Publication: July 16, 23, 30, and August 6, 2026
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Kathy VanLeur Moll, Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ces of Munson Law Firm PLLC, P.O. Box 1811 Pittsboro, NC 27312, on or before the 2nd day of October, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment. This 2nd day of July, 2026.
LESLIE LEMUS SOTELO, EXECUTOR ESTATE OF KATHY VANLEUR MOLL
Notice to Creditors
ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against Robert Aloysius Messemer Jr., deceased, of Chatham County, NC, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before October 9th, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 9th day of July, 2026. Lyn Messemer, Executor, c/o Bagwell Holt Smith P.A., 111 Cloister Court, STE 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of William Norman Sharpe, Jr., Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ces of Tillman, Whichard & Cagle, PLLC, 501 Eastowne Drive, Suite 130, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, on or before the 9th day of October, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment.
This 9th day of July, 2026. SARAH ELIZABETH TILLMAN, EXECUTOR ESTATE OF WILLIAM NORMAN SHARPE, JR.
PUBLIC NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the Silk Hope Volunteer Fire Department will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. The meeting will be held at: Silk Hope Volunteer Fire Department 8110 Silk Hope-Gum Springs Road Siler City, NC 27344 The public is invited to attend.
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
26E000323-180 ALL persons having claims against MARGARET HELEN PEARSON, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Oct 09 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 9th day of July, 2026.
NOTICE NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF JAMES GUY COBLE, DECEASED, 26E000391-180 All persons, rms and corporations having claims against JAMES GUY COBLE, Deceased, are noti ed to exhibit them to MARK COBLE, ANCILLARY EXECUTOR for the decedent’s estate on or before the 21ST day of October, 2026, at the o ce of LOCKAMY LAW FIRM, P.A., Attorneys, 3130 Hope Valley Road, Durham, North Carolina 27707, Attention: MARK COBLE, or be barred from their recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment to the above-named estate c/o MARK COBLE, ANCILLARY EXECUTOR. MARK COBLE, ANCILLARY EXECUTOR of JAMES GUY COBLE, Deceased
JOSHUA S. BARTON, Attorney LOCKAMY LAW FIRM, P.A. 3130 Hope Valley Road Durham, North Carolina 27707
NOTICE
Estate of Dwane Edward Porter AKA Dwane E. Porter, Chatham County Estate File No. 26E000401-180:
All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Dwane Edward Porter AKA Dwane E. Porter, deceased, of Travis County, TX. with an estate in Chatham County, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before October 16, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 16th of July, 2026. Rebecca Marie King, Ancillary Executor C/O Elizabeth Boyette, Boyette Law, PLLC 4509 Creedmoor Road Suite 201 Raleigh, NC 27612
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Estate of Celine Danielle Levine Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Celine Danielle Levine, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at 5842 Fayetteville Road, Suite 113, Durham, NC 27713, on or before the 24th day of October, 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms, corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This is the 17th day of July, 2026 Shani Levine Cohen, Executor of the Estate of Celine Danielle Levine Dori J. Dixon Southpoint Estate Planning Attorney for the Estate 5842 Fayetteville Road, Suite 113 Durham, North Carolina, 27713 FOR PUBLICATION: 07/23/2026, 07/30/26, 08/06/26, 08/13/26
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
26E000362-180 ALL persons having claims against Estate of Gent Hito, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Oct 02 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment.
This the 2nd day of July, 2026. ENTON P. HITO, Executor C/O Schell Bray PLLC P.O. Box 21847 Greensboro, NC 27420 J2, 9, 16 and 23
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
26E000285-180 ALL persons having claims against STEPHEN RAY THOMAS, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Oct 16 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 16th day of July, 2026. LAURA THOMAS LUTTERLOH, CoExecutor THOMAS E LAYTON, Co-Executor C/O LAYTON & CARRAWAY, PA 680 Lutterloh Road Pittsboro, NC 27312 J16, 23, 30 and 6
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000410-180 The undersigned, TERRI TALBOTT GUNTER, having quali ed on the 7TH Day of JULY 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of CAROLYN MCDUFFIE TALBOTT, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day of October 2026, 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 23RD Day of July 2026. TERRI TALBOTT GUNTER, EXECUTOR 179 ASHBURY CHURCH RD. SANFORD, NC 27330 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000294-180 The undersigned, SHEREESE R. MYERS, having quali ed on the 19TH Day of MAY 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of CLARISSA T. NEAL, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day of October 2026, 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 23RD Day of July 2026. SHEREESE R. MYERS, ADMINISTRATOR 2012 RAJ DR. DURHAM, NC 27703 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000418-180 The undersigned, EMEILIA WICKER ELLIS, having quali ed on the 14TH Day of July 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of DANA L. WICKER, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day of October 2026, 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 23RD Day of July 2026. EMEILIA WICKER ELLIS, ADMINISTRATOR 7695 SILER CITY SNOW CAMP RD SILER CITY, NC 27344 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000409-180 The undersigned, JILL POPE CAGLE, having quali ed on the 7TH Day of JULY 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of DORIS POPE TANT, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day of October 2026, 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 23RD Day of July 2026. JILL POPE CAGLE, EXECUTOR 145 CEDAR RUN PITTSBORO, NC 27312 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000421-180 The undersigned, CAROL A. CHESLAK, having quali ed on the 14TH Day of JULY 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of EDWARD ALAN BARNES, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day of October 2026, 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 23RD Day of July 2026. CAROL A. CHESLAK, EXECUTOR 2326 VALENCIA TERR CHARLOTTE, NC 28226 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000412-180 The undersigned Audrey Diane May Braswell, having quali ed on the 9th Day of July 2026 as Executor of the Estate of John H. May, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16TH Day OF October 2026, 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 16TH Day of July 2026. AUDREY DIANE MAY BRASWELL 1837 MONCURE PITTSBORO RD. MONCURE, NC 27559 Run dates: Jy16,23,30,A6p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000390-180 The undersigned Antoinette DiBenedetto having quali ed on the 30th Day of June 2026 as Executor of the Estate of Libby Ann Capaldi deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16th Day of October 2026, 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 16th Day of July 2026. ANTOINETTE DIBENEDETTO, EXECUTOR 517 OAKWOOD AVE. RALEIGH, NC 27601 Run dates: Jy16,23,30,A6p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000414-180 The undersigned MARY COX, having quali ed on the 13TH Day of July 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of SUSAN FRANCES REA, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day of October 2026, 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 23RD Day of July 2026. MARY COX, EXECUTOR 84 LITTLE CREEK LANE SILER CITY, NC
27344 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000424-180 The undersigned, WALTER CALVIN WRENN, having quali ed on the 16TH Day of JULY 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of TABITHA H. WRENN, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day of October 2026, 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 23RD Day of July 2026. WALTER CALVIN WRENN, ADMINISTRATOR 1183 EDDIE PERRY ROAD
PITTSBORO, NC
27312 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000174-180
The undersigned Victoria Wyatt Partin, having quali ed on the 2nd Day of July 2026 as Administrator of the Estate of Kathleen V.Wyatt, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16TH Day of October 2026, 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 16TH Day of July 2026. Victoria Wyatt Partin, Administrator 520 Rocky Hills Rd. Pittsboro, NC 27312 Run dates: Jy16,23,30,A6p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000381-180
The undersigned ROSS D. THRAILKILL, having quali ed on the 1ST Day of July 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of WILLIAM BENTON THRAILKILL, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16TH Day of October 2026, 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 16TH Day of July 2026. ROSS D. THRAILKILL, EXECUTOR 220 THRAILKILL LANE PITTSBORO, NC 27312 Run dates: Jy16,23,30,A6p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000411-180
The undersigned Gwendolyn Jones York having quali ed on the 8th Day of July 2026 as Executor of the Estate of William Mike York, Jr., deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16TH Day OF October 2026, 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 16TH Day of July 2026.
GWENDOLYN JONES YORK, EXECUTOR 41 OAKMONT LANE SILER CITY, NC 27344 Run dates: Jy16,23,30,A6p NOTICE
NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF Kathryn Haeng Nan Kim All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Kathryn Haeng Nan Kim, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit them to Grace Kim as Administrator of the decedent’s estate on or before October 24, 2026, c/o Janet B. Witchger, Attorney at Law, 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, or be barred from their recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment to the abovenamed Executor. This the 23rd day of July 2026. Grace Kim, Administrator c/o Janet B. Witchger, Atty. TrustCounsel 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203 Chapel Hill, NC 27517
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000322-180
The undersigned Douglas Pierce Leonard, having quali ed on the 22nd Day of JUNE 2026 as Executor of the Estate of ANNA LEE LEONARD, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 2ND Day OF OCTOBER 2026, 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 2ND DAY OF JULY 2026. DOUGLAS PIERCE LEONARD, EXECUTOR 637 SILVERBERRY ROAD PITTSBORO, NC 27312 Run dates: Jy2,9,16,23p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA
CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000404-180
The undersigned TARA GAINES BURNS AND BEN PHILIP GAINES, JR., having quali ed on the 7TH Day of JULY 2026 as Co-Executors of the Estate of BEN PHILIP GAINES, SR., deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16TH Day OF OCTOBER 2026, 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 16TH DAY OF JULY 2026. TARA GAINES BURNS, CO-EXECUTOR 4456 THOMPSON MILL RD. GRAHAM, NC 27253
MAIL TO: BEN PHILIP GAINES, JR., CO-EXECUTOR PO BOX 56 GOLDSTON, NC 27252 Run dates: Jy16,23,30,A6p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#26E000380-180
The undersigned ROBERT LYNN HARGROVE, having quali ed on the 26TH Day of JUNE 2026 as Executor of the Estate of PEARL FAYE HARGROVE, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 9TH Day OF OCTOBER 2026, 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 9TH DAY OF JULY 2026. ROBERT LYNN HARGROVE, EXECUTOR 906 N. GARDEN AVE. SILER CITY, NC 27344 Run dates: Jy9,16,23,30p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
26E000374-180 NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY The undersigned, Oceanna Sha er, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Michael Hunter Sha er, deceased, late of Chatham County, this is to notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before the day of October 7, 2026 or this notice will
NOTICE
JESSE SEAGROVES, EXECUTOR 3800 MCLAURIN ROAD BEAR CREEK, NC 27207 Run dates: Jy23,30,A6,13p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Mae Geraldine Stats, Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ces of Munson Law Firm PLLC, P.O. Box 1811 Pittsboro, NC 27312, on or before the 23rd day of October, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment. This 23rd day of July, 2026. CHRISTOPHER K. SMITH, ADMINISTRATOR ESTATE OF MAE GERALDINE STATS Public Notice
North Carolina Environmental Management Commission/NPDES Unit 1617 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 Notice of Intent to Issue an NPDES Wastewater Permit NC0039471 Bennett Elementary School WWTP The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission proposes to issue a NPDES wastewater discharge permit to the person(s) listed below. Written comments regarding the proposed
Granddaughter’s code word o ers lesson in ego, age, empathy
Stand tall above “tall poppy syndrome”
By Erika Ho man For Chatham News & Record
WHEN YOU VISIT Europe, millions of scarlet poppies greet you, especially in Provence, France. They bend in the wind, droop with the rain and sway continually as though greeting you with a wave of their petals. Impressionist artists of the late 19th century featured these beauties in their landscape paintings. Think Van Gogh.
I’ve always enjoyed the popping prettiness of red poppies. Also, when I hear the word “poppies,” I recall a poem by John McCrae, a Canadian physician, who penned “In Flanders Fields” after witnessing the devastation caused by artillery during trench warfare in World War I. Dormant poppy seeds sprouted in the roughed-up land where missiles and men
“In Flanders elds the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row.”
John McCrae
had fallen. Though the famous poem evokes sadness, it is about rebirth, too. Until recently, I’d never heard of the “tall poppy syndrome.” Now, knowing the meaning of this idiom, I think I’ll use it more. It will be a clandestine method of denoting what I perceive as arrogant, egocentric behavior or, worse, narcissism. I guess this expression, referring to someone who thinks himself better than ordinary poppies (people), is a clever way of pointing out nonempathetic behavior without directly saying, “Watch out for that jerk.” Instead, say, “Over there’s a tall poppy.” Perchance, the narcissist overhears you. Of course, he’ll surmise you
are complimenting his height.
(LOL) I never thought about “code words” much until recently, when taking care of my 5½-year-old granddaughter for a week. Last Thursday, we entered the parking lot of Harris Teeter, a grocery store that awards a senior discount every Thursday. An elderly couple, gazing down at their next steps, crossed in front of my car. I braked fast.
Heidi said to me, “Jeezh! Those grasshoppers didn’t look both ways.”
“What?” I asked my granddaughter.
“The grasshoppers!” she said, pointing at the twosome crossing the street slowly.
“The older people?”
“My mom says not to call people ‘old.’ Just call them ‘grasshoppers,’” said my serious granddaughter, who looked surprised I didn’t know this rule.
I laughed. “I’ll have to remember that,” I replied. “And Heidi, when we enter this grocery store, you must stay by my side or hold my hand at all times. Understand? No running about. Especially no darting around the produce.”
“Why, Ama?”
“Too many grasshoppers on the loose!”
opened Tuesday for the special Republican primary, which will be Aug. 11. On Friday, President Donald Trump said that Darline Graham had his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to seek the nomination, adding, “RUN, DARLINE, RUN!”
Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to serve the remainder of her brother’s term. In his announcement, McMaster made no reference to Darline Graham as a placeholder or symbolic appointment, although a person familiar with McMaster’s thinking but unautho -
rized to speak publicly said the governor, in selecting Darline Graham, had never contemplated that she would run for the seat herself.
Before the emergence of Darline Graham — and their Oval O ce meeting after she was sworn in — Trump had previously suggested he could back a potential candidacy from Rep. Russell Fry, who said Monday he would o cially enter the special primary. Several other noteworthy politicians, including Rep. Ralph Norman, have already gotten in, and others like Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette have been eyeing a run. Rep. Nancy Mace announced Monday
she would not enter the contest.
Darline Graham told Hannity she had been “praying a lot” about how to navigate her new role.
“It is a tremendous amount of pressure,” she said.
“I know I’m a hard worker. I learned that from Lindsey,” Darline Graham said. “I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be dicult? Yes.”
Funeral services for Lindsey Graham are scheduled to be held next week in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina. A preliminary report from the medical examiner said he suffered a tear in his aorta.
The millions in Lindsey Gra-
ham’s campaign account aren’t funds that Darline Graham could directly access in a run of her own, according to Bradley A. Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
Under federal rules, Lindsey Graham’s campaign would be limited to transferring just $2,000 to a potential Darline Graham candidacy. However, Smith said there is no limit on how much it could transfer to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which could — thanks to a Supreme Court decision last month — “spend an unlimited amount in coordination with Darline’s campaign.”
ERIKA HOFFMAN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Red poppies bloom in Chatham County.
GRAHAM from page A1
SEAN RAYFORD / AP PHOTO
Darline Graham speaks to the press after being appointed to ll the vacancy created by the death of her brother, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R- S.C.).
CHATHAM SPORTS
Lin wins U.S. Girls’ Juniors in Durham
The Canadian topped Wake Forest recruit Amelie Zalsman to win
Chatham News & Record sta
DURHAM — Clairey Lin of Canada won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, beating Amelie Zalsman of St. Petersburg, Florida, 5 and 4 in the 36-hole nal at Durham’s Old Chatham Golf Club.
The 16-year-old Lin, the stroke-play medalist, is the second straight Canadian winner.
Aphrodite Deng won last year in Georgia.
“I’ve always wanted to be on the big stage and inspire some people and work hard and see it pay o ,” Lin said. “To be able to do that today is amazing.”
The 17-year-old Zalsman is set to play for Wake Forest in 2027.
“I’ve played so much golf the past two weeks,” Zalsman said. “I’m just really proud of myself for making it this far and my body, honestly, just sticking with me.”
Deng skipped her title defense to play in the Evian Championship last week in France.
“I’ve always wanted to be on the big stage and inspire some people and work hard and see it pay o .”
Clairey Lin
The event combined two days of stroke play to determine the eld of 64 for elimination match play, which occupied the rest of the week. Lin shot a 66 on Monday and
Pittsboro native chosen in MLB Draft
Brandon Crabtree was an All-American at Catawba
Chatham News & Record sta
PITTSBORO native Brandon Crabtree was selected in the 2026 MLB Draft in Philadelphia earlier this month. Crabtree, who played in high school for Grace Christian in Raleigh, was an All-American at Catawba last season, hitting .413 with 24 doubles, 18 home runs and 73 RBIs. He
played rst base for the Indians. He’s the rst Catawba player drafted since 2019 and the rst position player from the school since 2017.
Crabtree was drafted by the Texas Rangers with the 14th pick of round 16, No. 477 overall. He’s the earliest Catawba player selected since 2015 and the highest for a position player from the school since 2008.
Crabtree was named the 2026 South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year last
season as well as a Division II rst-team All-American. He led Catawba to the national semi nals of the NCAA Division II College World Series. The selection marks a high point for what has been a well-traveled college career for Crabtree, who was one of the state’s top baseball recruits in the class of 2023. He ranked as high as No. 37 on some evaluations and was committed to play at NC State. He was sidelined with injuries for a year, however, and transferred to Gaston College for his freshman year. He hit .331 with .962 OPS that year and .397, 1.158 as a sophomore. He then transferred to Catawba where, in addition to his other honors, he
See CRABTREE, page B3
65 on Tuesday to win the medal as the top scorer in stroke play. She missed the 21-year-old tournament record low score by one stroke. Zalsman nished in a tie for seventh after stroke play, shooting 67-72 to nish eight shots back.
Southern Pines’ Maria Isabella Errichetto shot 73-68 to qualify for match play in a tie for 17th.
Pikeville’s Ella June Hannant was part of the tie at 17th after shooting 69-72.
Wake Forest signee Vidhi Lakhawala tied for 28th at 72-70. Raleigh’s Jenna Kim shot
72-74 to qualify for match play, making the cut with one stroke to spare. Cary’s Victoria Davis missed the cut by one shot, shooting 70-78. Pinehurst’s Riley Grimm shot 73-77 to miss. Among other future players at North Carolina colleges to miss the cut, UNC Wilmington signee Kanchana Duangsam Rudd shot 74 -78. Campbell’s Miah Rivas shot 75-76. Gardner-Webb recruit Ellie Benson shot 78-77. App State’s Addison Douglass shot 80-87.
Chatham County’s season ended with a Tuesday doubleheader
Chatham News & Record sta THE CHATHAM County Yardbirds closed their regular season with a doubleheader on Tuesday, after press time.
Heading into that nal night, the Birds had continued to turn around a slow start, playing .500 ball over their previous six games. Chatham split a wild doubleheader against the Sanford Spinners that saw 53 runners cross the plate. Chatham won
See GOLF, page B2 See YARDBIRDS, page B3
LOGAN WHITTON / USGA
Clairey Lin poses with the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championships trophy.
COURTESY CATAWBA ATHLETICS
Pittsboro’s Brandon Crabtree starred at Catawba before getting drafted by the Texas Rangers earlier this month.
WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Landon Parker, of Burlington, had a two-homer game during a week that was full of o ense for the Yardbirds and their opponents.
Simon Schreiber
Simon Schreiber is a Chapel Hill native and will play baseball for USC Sumter next season. He’s currently an out elder for the Chatham County Yardbirds in the Old North State League summer collegiate wood bat season.
As the season hits the home stretch, Schreiber is red hot. He went 6 for 9 with three doubles in a doubleheader against Sanford. He then walked and drove in a run against Wake Forest, followed by two runs and a stolen base in a 1-for-3 day against Danville. He wrapped up the week by going 2 for 2 with a double, run scored and RBI against Clayton.
GOLF from page B1
Hannant won her opening match over Savera Sandhu, who conceded due to illness. Hannant was leading the match at the time. She then topped Keya Naik, 4 and 3, to move to the round of 16. It took 22 holes for her to top Japan’s Anna Iwanga to move to the quarter nals, where Anna Bell eliminated her, 2 and 1. Errichetto beat Korea’s Yisoo Min 4 and 3 to advance in the rst round and topped Puerto Rico’s So a Rivera 4 and 2 to make the nal 16. Her run then ended, 4 and 3, to Bell. Lakhawala lost to Canada’s Shauna Liu in the round of 64, 2 and 1. Kim fell to Jude Lee in the rst round, 3 and 2.
Fox makes birdie on nal hole to claim British Open title
The 39-year-old wins his rst major
By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press
SOUTHPORT, England —
The hard work for Ryan Fox was just getting to the 18th hole in the British Open with a share of the lead. Still to come was the toughest hole at Royal Birkdale, which had yielded only four birdies to the 76 players who had already come through Sunday.
For a 39 -year-old from New Zealand, the son of an All Blacks rugby star who once only dreamed of having a card on any tour, this was no time to back down.
“I did say to my caddie Dean (Smith) that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I’d live with the consequences if I stu ed it up,” Fox said.
It turned out to be the stu of major champions.
The drive was powerful and pure. The 9 -iron from 175 yards looked good in the air and even better on the ground when it settled 12 feet below the hole. The birdie putt was the biggest of his life.
Fox closed with four birdies over his last six holes — and one bogey that felt equally important — for a 2-under 68 and a one-shot victory over hard-luck Cameron Young for his rst major title.
“I was going to try to win the tournament, and I’d live with the consequences if I stu ed it up.”
Ryan Fox
This was pure theater to cap o a week of so much drama — three record-tying rounds of 62, Bryson DeChambeau’s animated protest over a two -shot penalty, Tommy Fleetwood thrilling and teasing his hometown crowd to massive ovations on every hole.
Four players had a share of the lead at some point in thenal round. Young was atop the leaderboard for two hours without hitting a shot anywhere but the range because he nished his astonishing 6 -under 64 as the last few groups were on the front nine.
Young was on the range when he heard the massive roar and knew it was over. He bowed his head, lifted his driver and tapped the ground before packing up when Fox made his nal birdie.
“Everyone practices on the green — you’ve got a putt to win a major championship, to win The Open. It’s not like that in real life. It’s not a very comfortable feeling,” Fox said. “It’s certainly very
enjoyable when you see it go in.”
He thrust those powerful arms into the air and on the phone with his family moments later. He was heard telling them, “You asked me to bring a trophy home, and I am, aren’t I?”
Sam Burns, the 54 -hole leader, lost a two -shot lead and didn’t make birdie over the last 12 holes to nish two shots behind.
Defending champion Scottie Sche er somehow managed to stick around until the end. He closed with a 67 and shared fourth with Fleetwood.
Fox won for the 10th time worldwide. He is the oldest rst-time major champion since Henrik Stenson was 40 at Royal Troon 10 years ago. Fox nished at 10 -under 270.
“I’m not quite sure how I hit that putt on 18. Look, it is a dream come true,” Fox said. “Looking at that trophy now, it’s the rst time I’ve seen it up close. So it’s pretty amazing.”
Fox was a late bloomer, a European tour rookie at age 30 and a PGA Tour rookie when he was 37. His goal when he started was to have a tour card. Now he’s a major champion.
“I said to my team last night at dinner, if you’d have given me my career up until yesterday when I turned pro, I’d have jumped at that,” Fox said, speaking with the claret jug at his side. “I don’t know what to think now.”
SIMON_SCHREIBER711 / INSTAGRAM
DAVID GOLDMAN / AP PHOTO
Ryan Fox of New Zealand poses with the Claret Jug trophy after winning the British Open.
How Italian sculptor created World Cup trophy that became iconic soccer prize
This year’s cup was the 14th to use the current design
By Niccolò Lupone
The Associated Press
MILAN — The Italian sculptor who designed the FIFA World Cup trophy wanted to capture three sporting emotions in a single spiraling form: the athlete’s struggle, the fan’s jubilation and the moment of victory.
On Sunday, Spain lifted the trophy after the 2026 World Cup nal.
Here’s what to know about the most coveted prize in soccer. World Cup trophy designed in Milan
Silvio Gazzaniga designed the trophy in his studio in Milan’s Brera neighborhood after FIFA issued an open competition for a new design when Brazil took permanent possession of the original trophy by winning its third World Cup in 1970.
The design, now familiar to generations of World Cup fans, features two gures swirling up toward an orb representing the Earth.
“When he started to design the cup, he was sketching a huge number of drawings and nally started to develop the idea to have the world and this symbol that it is like a two DNA spirals, that are moving up,” said Giorgio Gazzaniga, the designer’s son who was a teenager at the time.
The elder Gazzaniga, a sculptor and trophy designer who died in 2016, worked for G.D.E. Bertoni Srl and created some of the most prestigious trophies in the world, including the UEFA Cup and European Super- Cup.
Previous trophy stolen, never recovered
The rst World Cup Trophy,
CRABTREE from page B1
was rst-team all- defense at rst base.
At Grace Christian, he helped lead the Crusaders to the 1A N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association state title in 2022, and the championship game in 2021 and 2023. He hit .613 with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs as a senior and was named rst-team all-state.
introduced for the inaugural tournament in in 1930, depicted the Greek goddess Nike and was known as the Jules Rimet Trophy, for the tournament’s founder. FIFA commissioned a replacement after Brazil earned permanent possession of the original after becoming the rst nation to win three World Cups.
The Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen twice — rst in 1966 while on public display in England, before being recovered by a dog named Pickles beneath a hedge in south London, according to FIFA. It was stolen again from the Brazilian Football Confederation headquarters in 1983 after Brazil had taken permanent possession. It has never been re-
YARDBIRDS from page B1
the opener by a 20 -17 score then fell 11-5 in the nightcap.
Cary’s Gabriel Ferrell drove in four runs and scored four, Durham’s Andrew Riedel plated three in a ve-hit night, and Greensboro’s Nick Papciak went deep in the win.
The Yardbirds stayed hot at the plate and got back on the winning side of the ledger with a 6 -1 win over Sanford in
covered and is widely believed to have been melted down.
More than 50 proposals were submitted, but only Gazzaniga presented a full model — which permitted the jury to appreciate both the form and the story it conveyed, his son said.
“There is the world, which stands above all else, there is the athlete’s exertion, there is the athlete’s movement within the metal, and the athlete’s body is rough, rugged, for it has su ered, had to ght, and struggled for victory,’’ the younger Gazzaniga said.
“That victory is expressed through arms that resemble the wings of Victory, capturing not only the athlete’s triumph but
the third game of their series.
The opponent changed but runs continued to cross the plate as Chatham fell to the Wake Forest Fungo 13-3.
Durham’s Jack Bolte went 3 for 3 in the loss, scoring two of the team’s three runs.
Chatham then exploded against the Danville Dairy Daddies, winning 16 -7. Danville, in the midst of a double- digit losing streak that put them behind the Yard-
also the jubilation of the fan,” he said.
Gazzaniga’s family has preserved his o ce at a new location on the outskirts of Milan, including drawings, the original prototype submitted to FIFA and a wax cast.
The o cial World Cup trophy hoisted by the winning captain at the end of the nal is 14 inches tall cast in 18- carat gold, sitting on a base featuring two rings of green malachite, symbolizing the playing elds.
After the tournament, the original trophy goes back to FIFA, which keeps it at its Swiss headquarters between World Cups. The winning team brings home a gold-plated replica.
birds in the standings, served up a half-dozen home runs to the Birds. Chatham Charter’s Aidan Allred went deep in a 1-for-3 day. Ferrell homered and drove in two. Burlington’s Landon Parker went yard twice, driving in four. Papciak and Riedel rounded out the longball parade. The week closed with another slugfest as the Clayton Clovers got the better of Chatham, 14 -2.
FIFA no longer lets threetime winners keep the original.
This is the 14th World Cup to use Gazzaniga’s design, and FIFA has decided to keep the trophy in use at least through the 2038 tournament, according to Gazzaniga’s website.
The younger Gazzaniga still vividly remembers watching the 1974 World Cup nal at home with his family as West Germany faced the Netherlands. It was the rst time his father’s trophy was presented at the World Cup.
“The real explosion of joy came when the German team raised the cup in Munich and the whole stadium erupted,” he said. “That was the moment an object became an icon.”
a
LUCA BRUNO / AP PHOTO
Giorgio Gazzaniga, son of the late sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, inserts the original plaster World Cup trophy sculpture into a wooden case.
Home runs for the Yardbirds in
16-7 win over Danville, including two by Landon Parker
Young waited and waited some more, but another British
The former Demon Deacon is still searching for his rst major
By Steve Douglas
The Associated Press
SOUTHPORT, England — Cameron Young was waiting on the range at Royal Birkdale, driver in hand, when a huge roar came that he didn’t want to hear.
Just a stone’s throw away on the 18th green, Ryan Fox had holed a 12-foot birdie putt to win the British Open.
There’d be no playo for Young.
No chance to end his wait for a rst major championship title.
The American and former Wake Forest golfer bowed his head, swung his driver gently over his shoulder then back onto the ground, and trudged o .
Some 2½ hours earlier, Young had been on that 18th hole himself, getting up-and-down from a greenside bunker — he actually nearly holed it — to salvage bogey and shoot 64 for what would remain the lowest score of the nal round.
Then came the long, agonizing wait to discover whether his 9 -under 271 total would be enough to win.
Young had some food, cleared out his locker — “for e ciency’s sake,” he said — and spent some time in the players’ lounge.
By 6 p.m., he was practicing on the putting green.
And around half an hour later, the spectators in the huge grandstands lining one of the most famous walks in golf gave him the bad news.
Add Birkdale to the 29 -year-old Young’s close calls
Open slipped from his grasp
“I had a chance to win with not everything I’ve got. So I think that’s a good takeaway.”
Cameron Young
at the majors, following a runner-up nish at the British Open in 2022 — he made eagle on the nal hole to be one stroke back from Cameron Smith at St. Andrews — and a tie for third at the Masters this
year after sharing the 54 -hole lead. Now up to No. 4 in the world, the widespread belief in gol ng circles is that Young’s time will come. That’s because he has risen to elite company this year with wins at The Players Championship in March and the Cadillac Championship at Doral, in front of President Donald Trump, a couple of months later.
Young says his score “could have been 60”
Speaking after his round, Young said he thought 10 -un-
der par would have a “decent chance” of victory. So it proved.
And he would have got there — or maybe better — had he not found a fairway bunker on No. 18 after choosing to hit driver. He barely got out of the sand with his second shot that struck the top of the bunker wall and spilled out 20 yards forward, and went on to scramble for a bogey.
A par there would have seen him match the lowestnal-round score in a major.
A birdie? Well, that would have won him the whole thing.
Flight hours, miles of World Cup travels of FIFA head Infantino in
The FIFA president saw games in all 16 venues
By Rio Yamat
The Associated Press
MULTIPLE FLIGHTS in a single day. Nearly 60,000 miles.
More than 100 hours aloft.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino got some serious air time over the course of the 2026 World Cup, the tournament’s most far- ung edition ever. He crisscrossed North America for matches, meetings and other appearances during the competition, which took place in three countries, 16 cities and four time zones, and ended with Sunday’s nal in New Jersey.
To track his travels, The Associated Press analyzed ight logs for a private business jet used by Infantino in recent years, along with photos taken by AP photographers and images posted on Instagram by FIFA and the head of world soccer’s governing body himself. The analysis shows that by the time Spain emerged as champion, he had have own far enough to circle the planet almost 21⁄2 times.
Access to a Gulfstream G650 jet from the eet of the Qatari government made Infantino’s prodigious jet-setting possible. The aircraft is operated by the private charter division of Qatar Airways, a World Cup sponsor.
Since a June 9 ight from Los Angeles to Mexico City ahead of the tournament’s opening match, the aircraft averaged more than one ight a day and on multiple days made more than three, according to ight-tracking site FlightAware.
Along with attending matches, Infantino’s itinerary included stops in New York for an interview on “Fox & Friends” and in Miami for a FIFA summit attended by representatives from the organization’s 211 member associations. He also ew to Doha to attend the funeral of
numbers
Qatar’s former emir before returning to the U.S. in time for the World Cup semi nals. FIFA did not respond to an emailed request for comment about Infantino’s travel schedule and arrangements.
Here’s a look at some of the numbers racked up by the person overseeing the tournament that featured a record 104 matches spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the largest geographic footprint in World Cup history.
44 MATCHES
The number of World Cup matches Infantino attended. FlightAware showed the Gulfstream originally was scheduled to y from New Jersey to Miami in time for the third-place match between England and France but never
took o . Thunderstorms caused ight delays at New York City area airports on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
16 STADIUMS
Infantino saw at least one match at all 16 World Cup venues. Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, where he attended ve games, is the venue he visited the most.
13
The number of days Infantino attended two matches, often at stadiums located hundreds of miles apart.
21 AIRPORTS
The Gulfstream mostly used the host cities’ main international airports during the tour-
nament but sometimes relied on smaller general and business aviation airports, including Atlanta’s Fulton County Executive Airport and Miami’s Opa Locka Executive Airport.
23 The number of international border crossings the jet made within North America through the semi nals.
115 FLIGHT HOURS
The ight time the Gulfstream amassed during the tournament, not including repositioning ights and 29 hours of travel for the funeral in Qatar, equaling nearly ve full days in the air and enough for a commercial plane traveling at typical cruising speed to y from New York to Los Angeles 20 times.
“It could have been 60,” Young said of his round that included a front-nine 29.
“I played a great round of golf,” he added, “and I did it in a really good way.”
Young’s thoughts after Fox completed victory are a mystery because he declined to talk to the media.
He surely will regret his 3- over 73 on Saturday that came after two 67s and dropped him to a tie for 20th overnight.
“I had a chance to win with not everything I’ve got,” he said. “So I think that’s a good takeaway.”
13
Number of times during the World Cup that FIFA president Gianni Infantino attended games in two di erent cities on the same day
5 HOURS AND 44 MINUTES
Excluding the journey to Qatar, the ight that took the longest lasted 344 minutes and went from Miami to Seattle, where Infantino attended the Belgium-Egypt match June 15. The ight time is the same length as three full World Cup matches from kicko to nal whistle.
28 MINUTES
The shortest ight time, excluding repositioning ights, was a 28-minute hop from Seattle to Vancouver on July 6 — about the length of a network TV sitcom like “Friends” with commercials. Infantino attended the United States-Belgium match in Seattle that day before watching Switzerland face Colombia in Vancouver the following day.
59,281 MILES
The distance the jet traveled during the tournament, excluding the journey to Qatar and back for the funeral, according to the AP analysis. That’s more than round-trip ights between New York and Singapore, Los Angeles and Doha, Qatar, and London and the Australian city of Perth combined.
5,772 MILES
The most miles covered in a single day’s itinerary was on June 26, which started with a morning ight from Miami to Dallas. From there, the plane went to Seattle, where Infantino attended the Egypt-Iran match. The nal leg departed Seattle late that night and landed the next morning in Miami. Infantino watched Colombia face Portugal there.
GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO
FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends the World Cup quarter nal match between Norway and England in Miami.
PETER MORRISON / AP PHOTO
Cameron Young tosses his club after missing a putt on the 7th green during the nal day of the British Open.
SIDELINE REPORT
MLB Japanese slugger Sasaki to sign with Marlins, forgo professional career in home country
Hanamaki, Japan Japanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki will sign with the Miami Marlins and forgo a professional career in his home country. The Marlins selected Sasaki out of Stanford in the eighth round of the MLB Draft, but the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks also selected him in the rst round of the Nippon Professional Baseball draft, setting up a di cult decision. Sasaki played under Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani’s father, Toru, and is Japan’s all-time high school home run leader with 140. He opted out of the Nippon league’s draft to play at Stanford.
NBA
NBA “continuing to look into” circumstances regarding Bucks’ signing of Trent Milwaukee The NBA is investigating the circumstances surrounding the Milwaukee Bucks’ signing of Gary Trent Jr. Reportedly, the NBA was investigating the signing for possible circumvention of the salary cap. Trent received a four-year, $64 million deal while he’s coming o one of his least productive seasons. The concerns over salary cap circumvention involve whether there was a prior agreement that Trent would be rewarded now if he signed below-market deals each of the last two years.
NHL Yzerman abruptly steps down as Red Wings general manager
Detroit Steve Yzerman has abruptly stepped down as general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. Yzerman’s resignation to move to an advisory role to CEO Chris Ilitch comes several weeks after captain Dylan Larkin’s trade request. The Red Wings say their search for a new head of hockey operations is already underway. Yzerman spent his entire 22 -year Hall of Fame playing career with Detroit from 1983 -2006, captaining it to the Stanley Cup three times. He was a successful GM in Tampa Bay before returning to Detroit in 2019.
NCAA FOOTBALL
Kicko Game announces NIL deal with Auburn before opener against Baylor
Atlanta The A ac Kicko Game has announced a name, image and likeness deal with Auburn leading up to the Tigers’ game against Baylor on Sept. 5. The Peach Bowl and Kicko Game said the multimillion dollar deal marks the rst time a neutral-site college football game has incorporated NIL compensation for student athletes. The NIL agreement also will involve third-party entities. As many as two dozen Auburn studentathletes will promote the game through social media posts, public appearances, advertisements, in-game promotions, branding opportunities and interviews.
Wolves believe Ball’s pure point guard play, joyful style will ‘elevate’
entire team
The former Hornets standout will team with
Anthony Edwards
By Dave Campbell
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — LaMe-
lo Ball came to Minnesota at a steep price.
The opportunity with a cost of two proven power forwards and multiple draft picks was deemed worthwhile by the Timberwolves in their ongoing attempt to make the last and most di cult step toward an NBA title.
“I think he’ll elevate us,” president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said, “and our environment will be conducive to his continued growth as well.”
Eager to gain one of the league’s true point guards and lessen the ballhandling and playmaking burden on superstar Anthony Edwards, the Wolves had to swallow hard and surrender valuable assets.
Completing a complicated four-team trade with Brooklyn, Charlotte and Chicago, Minnesota acquired Ball and guard Josh Green and sent fan favorite Naz Reid and a package of draft picks — a 2033 unprotected rst-rounder, rst-round swaps in 2028, 2029 and 2030, and second-rounders in 2029, 2032 and 2033 — to the Hornets.
Second-leading scorer Julius Randle went to the Nets, who swapped the 28th overall selection in the draft last month for No. 33 that landed the Wolves guard Isaiah Evans. That rst part of the trade also created the salary cap space necessary for the Wolves to re-sign guard Ayo Dosunmu.
“He enjoys life. He enjoys playing. You don’t want to make this anything but where it’s a joyous atmosphere.”
Tim
Connelly, Wolves president of basketball operations
Edwards was the rst overall pick in the 2020 draft. Ball went third. Green was the 18th selection by Dallas and McDaniels was 28th, giving the Wolves four rst-round picks from that year.
“Well, we have none for the next 10 years,” Connelly quipped at the introductory news conference for Ball and Green last Tuesday at Target Center. “It’s all about quality, not quantity, right?”
All four of those 2020 draftees are still 25 and younger, giving the Wolves con dence they’ll continue to contend — “bites at the apple” is Connelly’s description — as long
as Edwards is on their roster.
“I’ve known Ant for a minute, so we’ve been talking,” Ball said. “Everybody’s excited, and we’re ready to get to work.”
Ball played in only 43% of the games over a three-year stretch from 2022-25 before a promising 2025-26 season that helped propel the Hornets into the play-in games. He has shown a recklessness on and o the court at times too. But the Wolves will give him a stronger team around him than he ever had with the Hornets, and six years into his NBA career the 6-foot-7 Ball is still just 24.
“You’ve got to have a big backcourt. We learned that through the playo s this year,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said.
The ip side of Ball’s penchant for undisciplined or ashy plays is a carefree style the Wolves could use. One of the undercurrents of their underachieving season that ended with a second-round loss to San Antonio was a moodiness that became part of their collective personality. Too many players took too long to shake o un-
productive games or frustrating stretches.
“This is supposed to be fun,” Connelly said. “He enjoys life. He enjoys playing. You don’t want to make this anything but where it’s a joyous atmosphere.”
The void left by the departure of Randle and Reid could be lled rather neatly by a certain free agent who has included the Wolves on his list of teams worth considering. Meet Minneapolis, the city’s tourism arm, even took out digital billboards in Los Angeles to add a light-hearted element to the pitch for LeBron James.
“This is a place where you’re going to have a lot of fun and win a lot of games,” ,” Connelly said. “We’re trying to change the narrative of how this organization is viewed. We’re kind of proud of who we are, and certainly, wherever LeBron ends up, he’s going to make that place much, much better. I like who we are and we’re pretty proud of who we are. Hopefully that’s appealing, not just to LeBron, but to any free agent.”
ACC looks to corporate sponsorships as way to boost bottom line of league revenue
Commissioner Jim Phillips continues to search for new sources
By Aaron Beard The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE — Jim Phillips has spent his ve-plus-year tenure as Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner trying to generate more revenue for a league facing nancial pressures even with yearly record hauls.
For his league — and across the national landscape in the revenue-sharing era, for that matter — that has included more emphasis on corporate sponsorships.
Finding event sponsors for naming rights. Securing deals for advertisements on conference TV networks. It’s all about looking for ways to sell those options and supplement the media rights payouts and earnings from postseason success that stand as core engines of the college nancial system.
And stacking every bit helps in a time when schools are allowed to pay athletes directly.
“I don’t know if it’s pressure, but it’s the reality,” Phillips said during the league’s preseason football media days. “To me, it’s the reality of this role and it’s reality of our league. We have to continue to nd incremental dollars each and every year that continue to grow.”
That’s been a particular focus for Phillips, too, in dealing with a signi cant revenue gap behind the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference since his spring 2021 arrival.
The league reported about $826.5 million in total revenue in tax lings covering the 2024 -25 sports season, with schools earning a full distribution share getting an average of $47.1 million.
That continued the ACC’s
upward trajectory; the league reported $617 million for 2021-22 in Phillips’ rst full season, good for a full-share average of $39.4 million. And Phillips said the league would crack $900 million in total revenue for the just- completed 2025-26 season.
By comparison, the Big Ten and SEC both crossed the $1 billion mark in total revenue in their 2024 -25 lings, with the Big Ten paying an average of nearly $79.9 million to full-share members while the SEC came in at nearly $72.4 million. The biggest way to move the needle for a league looking to change its nancial picture typically is media rights contracts. The ACC is locked into a deal with ESPN — both for its base TV rights and the August 2019 launch of the ACC Network — through the 2035-36 season. The TV revenue continues to increase, but Phillips said at least some gains have come through corporate sponsorships, such as investment management rm T. Rowe Price putting its name on the
“You can’t wait around, you can’t just kind of sit on your hands as it relates to some of these other areas and not fully explore and commit to nding those additional dollars.”
Jim Phillips, ACC commissioner
men’s basketball tournament. The ACC has doubled its list of corporate sponsorships to nine in the past ve years, a list that includes Apple, Dr Pepper, Gatorade and Allstate. The league announced a deal with AI cybersecurity rm ReliaQuest, which includes advertising through ESPN, ESPN parent company Disney and the ACC Network. That goes with other adjustments such as changes to the league’s revenue- distribution model to reward programs that generate higher TV viewership
and the “success initiative” that allows schools to keep money generated by their own postseason success.
“You can’t wait around, you can’t just kind of sit on your hands as it relates to some of these other areas and not fully explore and commit to nding those additional dollars,” Phillips said. “All of that stu adds up incrementally.” In its most recent report, SponsorUnited estimated that Power Four schools generated about $1 billion in corporate sponsorship revenue across roughly 6,300 deals for the 2025-26 season.
That equated to about $9.7 million per school in the ACC and $11.2 million for the Big 12. The SEC ($21.5 million) and Big Ten ($16.1 million) led the way, with the Big 12 as the only league lacking its own TV channel.
“There’s not a lot of places where you can go to an AD and say, ‘Look, I think we could potentially generate $5-10 -20 million annually if we think di erently about this side of the business and we can control it,’” Lynch said. “So it becomes a really intriguing space to look and say if we invest there, we could potentially extract a lot of dollars and generate a lot that we weren’t doing before.”
In the ACC’s case, that meant hiring Anthony Macri last September as its rst chief revenue o cer.
He’s helping schools in determining their own options on anything from patches on jerseys to arena signage. And unlike selling a nite number of tickets for an event, corporate sponsorships could o er layers of revenue options.
“We have a chance to really grow that area,” Macri said. “It’s been an underleveraged opportunity that has unlimited growth potential, so that gives us a lot of room to push on.”
KORMANN / MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE VIA AP
AARON BEARD / AP PHOTO
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips speaks during ACC Kicko preseason football media days on July 15 in Charlotte.
Minnesota Timberwolves’ newly acquired point guard LaMelo Ball is introduced at a press conference.
this week in history
Winehouse dead at 27, Tuskegee experiment exposed, Hitler leads Nazi Party
The Associated Press
JULY 23
1903: The Ford Motor Company sold its rst car, a Model A, for $850.
1997: The search for Andrew Cunanan, the suspected killer of designer Gianni Versace and others, ended as police found his body on a houseboat in Miami Beach, dead from an apparent suicide.
2011: Singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.
JULY 24
1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate her throne to her 1-year-old son James.
1847: Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.
1969: The Apollo 11 astronauts — two of whom were the rst humans to set foot on the moon — splashed down safely in the Paci c.
JULY 25
1866: Ulysses S. Grant was named general of the Army of the United States, the rst ocer to hold the rank.
1898: U.S. military forces landed in Guánica, Puerto Rico, during the Spanish-American War; Puerto Rico would become a self-governing U.S. commonwealth with the adoption of a constitution.
1972: The Tuskegee syphilis study was exposed, revealing that federal health o cials had denied treatment to hundreds
Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh died at 37 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, on July 29, 1890, two days after su ering a gunshot wound believed to have been self-in icted.
of black men with the disease for decades, even after penicillin became widely available as an e ective cure in 1947.
JULY 26
1775: The Continental Congress established an independent postal system and appointed Benjamin Franklin its postmaster general.
1847: The western African country of Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, declared its independence.
1863: Sam Houston, former president of the Republic of Texas, died in Huntsville at age 70.
JULY 27
1789: President George Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign A airs, forerunner of the Department of State.
1866: Cyrus W. Field nished laying out the rst successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”
Maximilien Robespierre
1953: The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of ghting on the Korean peninsula that killed an estimated 4 million people.
JULY 28
1794: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine during the French Revolution.
1914: World War I began as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
JULY 29
1836: The newly completed Arc de Triomphe was inaugurated in Paris.
1858: The United States and Japan signed the Harris Treaty, formalizing diplomatic relations and trading rights between the two countries.
1890: Artist Vincent van Gogh, 37, died of an apparent self-in icted gunshot wound in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
1914: Transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. became operational with the rst test conversation between New York and San Francisco.
1921: Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party.
On July 25, 1972, news reports exposed the Tuskegee syphilis study, revealing that federal health o cials had withheld treatment from hundreds of black men for decades, even after penicillin became the standard cure in 1947.
VINCENT VAN GOGH VIA WIKIPEDIA
NATIONAL ARCHIVES VIA AP
Biden will publish ‘Promise Me, America’ memoir after November midterms
Reports of the book have circulated for more than a year
By Hillel Italie The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Former
President Joe Biden will publish a memoir, “Promise Me, America,” which he says will touch upon everything from the economy to his decision to drop his bid for reelection. The memoir is scheduled to come out Nov. 17, publisher Little, Brown and Company told The Associated Press. The timing of the book — two weeks after midterm elections in which Democrats seek to regain control of Congress — could raise concerns within Biden’s party by putting him back into the spotlight.
Democrats remain divided on Biden’s legacy, with many blaming his ill-fated determination to seek a second term for Republican President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Leaders hope to keep the fall campaign focused on Trump and his re -
Shakira, Madonna, Muppets take World Cup stage with BTS, Bieber
Jennifer Hudson, Post Malone and Tom Cruise opened the closing ceremony
By Andrew Dalton
The Associated Press
MADONNA, Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira each brought a bit of one of their hits to the World Cup’s rst halftime show in a whirlwind performance Sunday that also squeezed in Burna Boy, Ted Lasso and many Muppets. The show at what’s otherwise known as MetLife Stadium, outside New York, was an attempt to bring Super Bowl vibes to the World Cup, but the 11-minute performance was considerably more packed than the usual one-headliner, 13-minute American football counterpart.
Madonna opened the show with her 2000 dance-pop hit “Music,” joined by star Brazilian soccer players of yesteryear, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. It started with an apparently prerecorded piece in a roller rink
before she rode into the stadium on a dune buggy, singing, “Music, makes the people come together.”
Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel led an orchestra through the White Stripes’ sports anthem “Seven Nation Army,” while the Muppets house band — including drummer Animal in lieu of Meg White — provided furry shakes in the background.
K-pop sensations BTS took to the eld in variations of red and black moments later singing “Dynamite” following a nod to Norway’s Viking row.
Promoting the upcoming season of “Ted Lasso,” Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, in character, pumped up Justin Bieber, who changed the tempo with “Everything Hallelujah,” performed with an acoustic guitar.
“All right young man, let’s go! It’s your big shot!” Sudeikis said to Bieber. “Go out there, don’t be nervous, nobody’s watching.”
Shakira and Burna Boy followed with their o cial World Cup anthem “Dai Dai,” heard before all 104 kicko s during this tournament. The
cord, and any leaks or promotional e orts before votes are cast could draw frustration.
“‘Promise Me, America’ is about the challenges we faced as a nation. It’s about the decisions I made and why I made them,” Biden said in a video statement accompanying last week’s announcement. “It’s about why I chose to run for reelection and why I chose to step aside.”
The former president has referred to the possibility of publishing a memoir during public remarks, appearing to suggest at one point that it would be released before November’s election.
Vowing as a candidate to “restore the soul” of his country, Biden was sworn into o ce in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to stop his certi cation as president. Biden’s term was de ned by a wide range of con icts and achievements, from his handling of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to the passage of ambitious infrastruc-
“Promise
ture and economic aid bills.
But many readers will likely want to know more about his health while president, including the disastrous debate in June 2024 against Trump that led to his giving up his reelection bid. Biden was the oldest man
to serve as president, and his health was a source of speculation for much of his term; Biden and his White House advisers have faced intense criticism from Democrats and Republicans for allegedly concealing the extent of his problems. A notable book release from 2025, Jake Tapper’s and Alex Thompson’s “Original Sin,” was subtitled “President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”
That year, Biden announced he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
A Little, Brown spokesperson said that Biden plans to tour on behalf of the book and give interviews. In his video announcement, Biden said that many people had been asking him how he was doing.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time with my family. I’m dealing with a cancer diagnosis, been getting treatment, and it’s going really well,” he said. “I want to thank all those who have o ered their prayers and support and well-wishes. It’s meant the world to me and to Jill.”
Colombian superstar was barefoot, wearing a dress of yellow and pink feathers and surrounded by similarly clad dancers — including a group of children — before the Afrobeats icon joined her in the song whose refrain is an Italian version of “Let’s go!”
The show wrapped with the PS22 Chorus of elementary-school students from Staten Island, backed by Dudamel and joined by Chris Martin — the Coldplay singer who curated the performance — along with Shakira and many more Muppets and “Sesame Street” characters, including Kermit, Miss Piggy, Count
von Count and Cookie Monster. Dudamel and about 40 musicians — about half from the New York Philharmonic and half from Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra — were on the eld.
Jennifer Hudson, Robbie Williams and others performed a slew of anthems, Post Malone brought an old hit and a new tune, and Tom Cruise gave an earnest hype -’em-up speech in the prematch closing ceremony.
British singer and former Take That member Williams performed his FIFA anthem “Desire” wearing a blue bedazzled track suit. He was joined by Pussycat Dolls member Ni-
Korean boy band
perform during the halftime show of the World Cup nal soccer match between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday.
cole Scherzinger and Italian singer Laura Pausini in blue spangled gowns. Next was Post Malone, who walked on to the New York/ New Jersey Stadium pitch covered with a tarp showing the New York skyline.
Cruise, who was also part of the Paris Olympics’ closing ceremony, followed them with a speech delivered in polo shirt and jeans.
“Today only two teams remain: España!” Cruise said, pausing for cheers before adding, “y Argentina!” “Let us celebrate a tournament that brought the world together,” he said.
ASHLEY LANDIS / AP PHOTO
LITTLE, BROWN AND CO. VIA AP
Me, America” by Joe Biden is set to be published in November by Little, Brown and Co.
South
BTS
famous birthdays this week
Woody Harrelson is 65, Jennifer Lopez turns 57, Elizabeth H. Dole is 90
The Associated Press
THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.
JULY 23
Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 90. Actor Ronny Cox is 88. Rock singer David Essex is 79. Actor Woody Harrelson is 65. Rock musician Slash is 61. Actor Charisma Carpenter is 56. Singer Alison Krauss is 55. Actor Daniel Radcli e is 37.
JULY 24
Actor Dan Hedaya is 86. Actor Robert Hays is 79. Actor Michael Richards is 77. Actor Lynda Carter is 75. Movie director Gus Van Sant is 74. Basketball Hall of Famer Karl Malone is 63. Retired MLB All-Star Barry Bonds is 62. Actor-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 58. Actor-singer Jennifer Lopez is 57.
JULY 25
Folk-pop singer-musician Bruce Woodley (The Seekers) is 84. Rock musician Jim McCarty (The Yardbirds) is 83. Model-actor Iman is 71. Rock musician Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) is 68. Actor Matt LeBlanc is 59.
JULY 26
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard is 87. Football Hall of Famer Bob Lilly is 87. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Darlene Love is 85. The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger is 83. Actor Helen Mirren is 81. Actor Sandra Bullock is 62.
JULY 27
Singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry is 84. Actor-director Betty Thomas is 79. Olympic gold medal gure skater Peggy Fleming is 78. Singer Maureen McGovern is 77. Comedian Bill Engvall is 69. Comedian Maya Rudolph is 54.
JULY 28
Music conductor Riccardo Muti is 85. Former sena-
Barry
tor and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley is 83. “Gar eld” creator Jim Davis is 81. TV producer Dick Ebersol is 79. Actor Sally Struthers is 79. Architect Santiago Calatrava is 75.
JULY 29
Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum-Baker is 94. Former Sen. Elizabeth H. Dole is 90. Artist Jenny Holzer is 76. Documentary lmmaker Ken Burns is 73. Style guru Tim Gunn is 73. Rock singer-musician Geddy Lee (Rush) is 73. Country singer Martina McBride is 60. Actor Wil Wheaton is 54.
ANDY KROPA / INVISION VIA AP
Actor Daniel Radcli e turns 37 Thursday.
ANDY KROPA / INVISION / AP PHOTO Supermodel Iman turns 71 Saturday.
JEFF CHIU / AP PHOTO
Former slugger
Bonds turns 62 Friday.
the stream
Charli xcx, ‘The Dink,’ ‘Stuart
Fails to Save
the Universe,’ ‘72 Hours,’ ‘Splatoon
“Ransom Canyon” returns for its second season
The Associated Press
CHARLI XCX’S NEW album and a pickleball movie starring Jake Johnson 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 this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: the “Big Bang Theory” spin-o “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” “72 Hours” and the Nintendo game “Splatoon Raiders.”
MOVIES TO STREAM
Pickleball is the target of the new Apple TV comedy “The Dink,” starring Jake Johnson as a tennis pro who “almost beat Andy Roddick” and reluctantly takes up the popular sport while recovering from an injury. The movie, streaming Friday, co -stars Ben Stiller, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris and Patton Oswalt.
Kevin Hart goes on a bachelor party trip with some 20-somethings after being accidentally included in the group chat in the new Net ix comedy “72 Hours,” streaming Friday. Said 20-somethings are played by “SNL” cast members Marcello Hernández, Kam Patterson and Ben Marshall and Mason Gooding as the groom-to-be.
“Blue Heron,” now streaming on the Criterion Channel, made The Associated Press’s list for best movies of the year so far. Film writer Jake Coyle wrote, “Sophy Romvari’s exquisite and soulful directorial debut melds documentary and ction, past and present. It’s based on her own childhood, when her Hungarian parents moved their family of six to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. … It’s an aching, probing memory piece.”
Another movie that made our list, “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” has a quite di erent tone. This silly, loindie about two slacker buddies (Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol) who concoct crackpot schemes to land a gig at the To-
“Sophy Romvari’s exquisite and soulful directorial debut melds documentary and ction, past and present.”
Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer
ronto music venue, the Rivoli, is a gem that begins streaming on Hulu on Friday. I wrote that I’m proof that no prior knowledge is needed to get on their goofy wavelength and enjoy the ride — and all the “Back to the Future” references.
MUSIC TO STREAM
Charli xcx performs at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England in 2025. Her new album, “Music, Fashion, Film,” drops Friday.
Raiders’
have only continued to skyrocket in the time since, and Tyla has proven to be no one-hit wonder. She’s paved her own path. On Friday, she will release her sophomore album, “A*POP.” It’s the next evolution of her sound, which features a dancehall collaboration with Zara Larsson, “She Did It Again,” the amapiano-pop “Chanel” and so much more.
SERIES TO STREAM
The socially awkward comic bookstore owner Stuart from “The Big Bang Theory” leads a new spino called “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.” Played by Kevin Sussman, Stuart fumbles a physics project created by “Big Bang” OG characters Sheldon and Leonard that leads to chaos he must undo. Other cast members Lauren Lapkus, Brian Posehn and John Ross Bowie reprise their roles from the original series. It premieres Tuesday on HBO Max. Minka Kelly and Josh Duhamel return for Season 2 of Net ix’s “Ransom Canyon.” The romantic drama follows two longtime friends, Quinn O’Grady and Staten Kirkland, who nally got together in Season 1 after years of teetering on a relationship. The happy couple is challenged as Kelly’s Quinn questions whether small town life is enough for her. This while Duhamel’s Staten is trying to stake his claim in the family ranch. The new season premieres Tuesday.
VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
“BRAT” summer came and stayed and eventually went — and what would be built in its absence? Charli xcx claims the dance oor is dead on her latest album, “Music, Fashion, Film,” out Friday. She’s making “Rock Music” this time around, at least, her version of it: a bit troll-y, a bit sincere, full of distorted guitars and processed vocals. But her pop heart remains intact, like on the depressed and dreamy “SS26.” If that’s not enough to inspire curiosity, perhaps this is: The album’s sole feature credit is Canadian auteur and beloved horror lmmaker David Cronenberg on its closer, “No One Lasts Forever.”
Grammy-winning South African artist Tyla burst onto the
mainstream with her 2023 global hit “Water.” It married R&B, pop and amapiano — a style of music which translates to “the pianos” in the Zulu language, a fusion of Kwaito house music and jazz, often driven by log drums. And it did so at a time where hunger and curiosity for African music were at an all-time high. Afrobeats
Nintendo’s Splatoon franchise brought a vivid twist to the multiplayer combat arena, mostly by replacing bullets with multicolored ink. “Splatoon Raiders” takes you out of the arena entirely with a treasure hunt across an exotic archipelago. Don’t expect a mellow vacation, though — these islands are lled with hostile wildlife known as Salmonids. Naturally, collecting more treasure lets you beef up the gear you need to defeat the monsters. “Raiders” aims to provide a satisfying solo experience for Splatologists, but you can also play co-op with up to three friends. Start squirting Thursday on Switch 2.
Mary Steenburgen attends the photo call for
Dink” at CityPickle Hudson Yards on July 14 in New York.