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VOLUME 149 ISSUE 33 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

CHATHAMNEWSRECORD.COM

THE CHATHAM COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL

STAN GILLILAND / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Bidin’ his time A skeleton waits patiently for Halloween across from the Chatham County Courthouse last week in downtown Pittsboro.

the

BRIEF this week

Trump signs order extending tax-free use of red-dyed diesel during midterm rally Grand Island, Neb. At a campaign rally Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ease limits on the tax-free use of red-dyed diesel. He says the decision will save “millions” for farmers and drive down the cost of all goods with just four weeks to go until the elections. Trump was campaigning for GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts, who is running in Nebraska against an independent candidate backed by national Democrats. Diesel fuel prices have spiked in the aftermath of the war in Iran.

Cornell brings in ex-Justice official Yates to review handling of sex assault claims Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell University trustees have announced that former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates will review how the university handles sexual misconduct complaints. Tuesday’s announcement comes after days of outrage over allegations of a 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house. The review will cover how the university investigates reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary process works and more. Cornell officials have been heavily criticized for their response to a complaint from a woman who told campus police in 2024 that she had been sexually assaulted by multiple fraternity brothers.

A century of life Siler City woman celebrates 100 years of local living By Bob Wachs For Chatham News & Record SILER CITY — It was 1926. America was still finding its way from the effects of World War I, the Roaring ’20s were in high gear, and the Great De-

See LIFE, page A7

COURTESY

Allene Coltrane

Siler City to implement new garbage rules Increasing fines to be added for repeated violations By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record SILER CITY — The Town of Siler City is implementing new rules related to solid waste. At the Siler City Board of Commissioners’ meeting Monday, the board approved revisions to the town code in

order to update and incorporate current language and address operational and regulatory concerns related to waste collection. Notable changes include establishing that the town will provide two roll-out bins for each single-family residence, one for trash and one for recycling, that recycling will be picked up biweekly, that containers must be removed from the collection point no later than 7 a.m. the day following

Siler City radio icon dead at 78 “He made everyone at the radio station feel like a member of his family. He made you feel appreciated.” David Hart, radio personality

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pression was looming on the horizon. Back home, Chatham County was mostly a rural area of small towns and communities, farms and businesses and miles of dirt roads. And in their Siler City home on Oct. 9 of that year, Ernest and Lillian Beck were celebrating the arrival of the first of their five children — daughter Allene. On Oct. 4, Allene Coltrane

celebrated another milestone with family and friends — her 100th birthday. And to say her life has been in, of, around and about Siler City and its people and history is a classic understatement. While Allene was growing up, her father, like many locals, worked at High Point Bending Co. (which later became Boling Chair) while her mother kept the home fires burning. After her days at Paul Braxton School, she worked as a local “Rosie the Riveter,” sewing

Barry Hayes expanded the coverage offered by the local station in numerous ways By Bob Sutton Chatham News & Record SILER CITY — Barry Hayes, a longtime radio station manager with a wide-ranging impact in Siler City, died last week at age 78. Hayes was on the air for 40 years on WNCA AM-1570. “There was so many things Barry did for that radio station,” said David Hart, who worked alongside Hayes and continues to be a host of weekend programming. “He was the heart and soul of that ra-

collection and that violations of the code could result in fines. Within a 12-month period, first violations will result in a written warning and a potential additional fine of $25, a second violation will be a $50 fine, a third is $100 and a fourth would see a fine between $250 and a maximum of $500. “I’m excited about this ordinance,” said Town Manager Jack Meadows. “We’ve been hearing about these problems for a long time, so it’s good news there to

dio station and really across the county.” Hayes was involved in all aspects of the station. By 1982, he was in charge of the small station and the program grew, particularly after the Federal Communications Commission gave clearance for the station to be on the air after dark. Hayes continued to find new avenues for the small town’s station to expand coverage, Hart said. He stepped away from the radio business a few years ago. The nighttime signal led to coverage of local sports, beginning with high school events at Jordan-Matthews and spreading to Chatham Central and Northwood. Hayes was busy with all aspects of the station. He implemented various remote coverage projects that put the station in the community at numerous events and the See ICON, page A3

help enforce some of the issues.” The board also authorized the town manager to negotiate a reduction in term for its lease of property at 200 N. Chatham Ave. The property is currently utilized as the town’s visitor information center as well as for various town administration. The current rent is proposed to increase to just over $10,500, and with operating costs being See RULES, page A2

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

THURSDAY

10.8.26 #163

Jordan commits $10M to UNC School of Social Work to honor mother The largest single gift in the school’s history renames a center for Deloris P. Jordan

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North State Media LLC 303 West Raleigh Street Siler City, North Carolina 27344 Copyright 2026 Trip Hoffend Publisher Jim Sills VP of Local Newspapers Jordan Golson Local News Editor Shawn Krest Sports Editor Dan Reeves Features Editor Ryan Henkel Reporter Stan Gilliland Photographer BUSINESS David Guy Advertising Manager Chatham News & Record (USPS #101160) is published weekly, 52 weeks a year, by North State Media LLC 303 West Raleigh Street Siler City, NC 27344 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Chatham News & Record PO Box 290 Siler City, NC 27344

By Steve Reed The Associated Press SIX-TIME NBA champion and former UNC Tar Heels star Michael Jordan has made a $10 million commitment to the UNC School of Social Work in honor of his mother, Deloris P. Jordan. It’s the largest single gift in the School of Social Work’s history and will expand the reach and impact of the Global Social Development Innovations Center, according to a release Monday. The center will be renamed the Deloris P. Jordan Global Social Development Innovations Center and the Jordan Institute for Families. It will provide financial scholarships for master’s in social work students. Jordan played for the Tar Heels from 1981-84, making the game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game as a freshman. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1986. “My mother has always believed in the power of helping children, families and commu-

MATT KELLEY / AP PHOTO

Team owner Michael Jordan looks on during a NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington in September. nities, and she has spent her life putting that belief into action,” Jordan said in a release. “Honoring her through this gift to the UNC School of Social Work is truly meaningful to my family and to me.” Jordan said that North Carolina will always be home for him. “I’m proud to support the social workers who are on the ground each and every day helping people navigate challenges, find opportunities and build stronger communities,” Jordan said. “I hope this gift helps make it possible for more students to

pursue this important work.” UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee H. Roberts said the school is grateful for Jordan’s generous investment. “Deloris Jordan’s lifelong dedication to children and families is reflected in this investment, which will strengthen the School of Social Work’s ability to improve lives across North Carolina and beyond,” Roberts said. The gift also establishes the Jordan Family Scholars program, which will provide scholarship support to master’s in social work students facing increased financial barriers to graduate education, the release said. Ten students will be named the inaugural Jordan Family Scholars during the celebration. Each will receive a $12,500 scholarship. The Jordan Institute for Families (JIF) was founded in 1996 by Jordan and his family “to help cultivate safe, stable, nurturing families over the life course,” according to the school. The Global Social Development Innovations center was later established in 2017 to advance innovative, evidence-informed approaches that strengthen the well-being of youth and their families.

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CRIME LOG Sept. 28 • Dana Roxanne Vincent, 37, was arrested for second-degree trespass and resisting a public officer. Darreus Vo Shon McNeill, 29, was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of methamphetamine and maintaining a vehicle or dwelling for controlled substances. • Francisco Daniel Gomez Perez, 19, was arrested for first-degree kidnapping and disseminating obscenity in the presence of a minor. • Jayden Mathew Wilson, 18, was arrested for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

Trump names national intelligence director Clayton to lead new federal AI task force The announcement follows a voluntary accord by AI companies to effectively self-police the technology The Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump on Sunday tapped Jay Clayton, his director of national intelligence, to lead a new government task force on artificial intelligence. Trump is calling it the “Super Intelligence Force” be-

cause he has tried to rebrand AI as “super intelligence.” The announcement comes after Trump hosted top executives of AI companies at the White House last week and said they had signed a voluntary accord that would effectively self-police the development of the technology. The task force will coordinate the federal effort “to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and the Internet, and will protect the interests, and improve the lives, of all Ameri-

cans,” Trump said in a post on social media Sunday. The task force will reach out to consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers and AI companies, the Republican president said. Others on the task force include Federal Trade Commission’s chairman Andrew Ferguson; Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer; and Scott Kupor, the director of the Office of Personnel Management. The group will report to Trump and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

CHATHAM

happening Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in Chatham County.

Oct. 9 Moonlight Movie Series: “Toy Story 5” 7-9 p.m. A free drive-in screening in the MOSAIC lot next to Greek Kouzina; the lot opens at 6 p.m., and free tickets are required. Bring a lawn chair or blanket; pets are welcome, and food and drinks are sold on site. MOSAIC at Chatham Park 367 Freedom Parkway Pittsboro

Oct. 10 39th Annual Goldston Old Fashion Day 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Goldston Lions Club’s one-day street festival brings vendors, food and desserts, a kids area, a mechanical bull, pumpkin and face painting and a photo booth. The monthly Main Street Cruise In car show runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the same morning. Downtown Bellevue Street Goldston

Chatham Park’s Fall Fun Fest 3-5 p.m. A free community afternoon with music, barbecue, pumpkin painting, ax throwing, face painting, a balloon artist, lawn games and a bounce house. Parade of Homes entries nearby are open for touring. The NoVi Green 175 Parkland Drive Pittsboro

Oct. 15 Cirque Kikasse: SANTÉ! 6-8 p.m. Quebec’s Cirque Kikasse turns a food truck into a stage for acrobatics, physical comedy and a 35-foot balancing act in a free all-ages outdoor show. The stop is part of the Carolina Theatre of Durham’s centennial programming; RSVP online.

Sept. 29 • Brad Wesley Chandler, 43, was arrested for conspiracy to commit felony larceny, felony larceny and second-degree trespass. • Samuel Garang Akau, 44, was arrested for driving while impaired, failure to carry a valid driver’s license and failure to comply with license restrictions, and other charges.

The Plant 220 Lorax Lane Pittsboro

• Zhari Zhane Goins, 32, was arrested for driving while impaired, child not in rear seat and failure to secure a passenger under 16, and other charges. Sept. 30 • Laura Marie Raneri, 45, was arrested for breaking and entering, identity theft and cruelty to animals, and other charges. • Lori Lee Metzger, 53, was arrested for hit and run, leaving the scene after property damage; driving while impaired; and failure to reduce speed, and other charges.

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Oct. 1 • David Royal Blankenship, 38, was arrested for driving while impaired. • Marquis Taeshaun Newby, 31, was arrested for driving while impaired and required lighting equipment violation. Oct. 2 • Andrew Robert Lofaro, 52, was arrested for driving on a revoked license and expired registration. • John Michael Slochower, 35, was arrested for driving while impaired, failure to yield on a left turn and possession of an open container of alcohol in the passenger area, and other charges. • Kierra Leshae Marsh, 37, was arrested for driving while impaired. • Stephen Lee Dowdy, 58, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a government official, assault on a female and communicating threats, and other charges.

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RULES from page A1 north of $7,000, it’s costing the town nearly $18,000 annually, excluding personnel costs. With certain departments set to relocate in the coming year, the town is wanting to reassess its use of the property. “There were a couple things that we thought would happen that didn’t happen,” said Mayor Donald Matthews. “Nobody’s fault, it just didn’t work out the way we had anticipated.” Matthews also stated a desire to focus more on promoting the space before any final decision is made on the future of the site. The Siler City Board of Commissioners will next meet Nov. 2.

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

Former press secretary Leavitt lands next gig: contributor at Fox News starting next month She joins Kayleigh McEnany and other Trump press secretaries already at the network By Jocelyn Noveck The Associated Press NEW YORK — Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has found her next chapter: She is heading to Fox News. Leavitt will serve as an on-air contributor beginning Nov. 1, the network said Monday. “Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape,” said the network’s CEO, Suzanne Scott. For her part, Leavitt, in the same statement, said she looked forward “to bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House Press Secretary, along with the same energy and candor that defined my tenure, to Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms.” Leavitt, now 29, was the youngest person to hold the role of press secretary. When she left at the end of August, President Donald Trump described her as one of his “most trusted aides.” At the time she said she wanted to spend more time with her two children. Her second child,

“Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape.” Suzanne Scott, Fox News CEO Viviana, was born in May, and she has a 2-year-old son. Leavitt is not the first of Trump’s press secretaries to join Fox. Kayleigh McEnany joined in 2021 and remains at the network. And Dana Perino, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, is a political commentator at the network. Trump, meanwhile, has hired several Fox News personalities to key jobs in his own administration, chief among them Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump has an increasingly thorny relationship with the network, whose key commentators have long given him favorable coverage. He has expressed frustration with Fox coverage choices as recently as Sunday when he bemoaned what he said was the network’s lack of coverage of his rallies. “Sad to see that Fox & Friends (Sunday) is not covering our packed house and incredibly en-

thusiastic (beyond!) Rally that took place in Ohio last night, or the ones in Alabama, Texas, or Oklahoma over the past two days,” he posted on his Truth Social platform. “They were all sold out, with thousands of people trying to get in, and are absolutely phenomenal, better than ever! “Remember, Fox tried this act once before, and almost went out of business (and always right before an election!). That can happen again!” He also criticized the recent firing of longtime Fox financial journalist Maria Bartiromo. The comments came as Trump is embroiled in an increasingly bitter standoff with news outlets whose coverage displeases him, capped by his recent efforts to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds and also to keep CNN out of broadcast pool assignments. A judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the ban, and a hearing is scheduled for Thursday as the news outlets seek relief pending a final resolution of the case. Before becoming White House press secretary, Leavitt served as press secretary for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. She also, at age 25, made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2022 from her home state of New Hampshire. Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks at the Republican convention Sept. 10 in Dallas, Texas. She is joining Fox News as a contributor.

Church News SILER CITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Siler City Presbyterian Church at 720 West Third St. in Siler City (across from where the old hospital used to be) is proud to present the Gospel group Redeemed in concert Sunday, Oct. 11 at 5 p.m. Come and join us at Siler City Presbyterian for a wonderful performance of good old-fashioned Southern gospel music sung by the popular gospel group Redeemed. This all-music event will be something everyone will enjoy. Admission for the concert is one can of food for the Chatham Food Pantry. Everyone is welcome! We hope to see you then! Have a blessed day!

ICON from page A1 Sunday morning ministries on the air. “He did so much to get the station out there,” Hart said. He was rooted in local news coverage, Hart said. There was a commitment to have an hourly presence with updated news. Hayes’ extensive local crime reports became must-listen programming, Hart said. “Barry told it like it is,” he said. Hayes also planted the seeds for the “Dial-a-Deal” program that was a swap-shop type of call-in session with residents offering items for sale. “That was real popular because they would call from all over Chatham County and Randolph County,” Hart said. Hayes also had a background in aviation and so he combined the radio component to that. He would pilot small planes, with his obituary saying he would operate an airplane and call in reports that he dubbed from “the Bare in the air.” Many of his mechanical skills were put to use maintaining the radio station and keeping the signal on the air. Hart said it was typical that Hayes would work on the

transmitter and be called to assist other stations in the region when problems arose. Hart had a big role at the stations as well, beginning in sales, taking over a morning show and helping launch the local sports coverage — first as a commentator and eventually handling play-by-play. “I never one time in my life considered Barry my boss,” Hart said. “He made everyone at the radio station feel like a member of his family. He made you feel appreciated.” Visitation will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday at Siler City Presbyterian Church. A funeral service will follow at 1 p.m. Interment will be at Chatham Memorial Park. According an obituary from Smith & Buckner Funeral Home, Hayes began his radio days while in high school (Southeast Guilford) at WCOG in Greensboro. He’s past president of the Siler City Rotary Club, and he was on the board of UNC Chatham Hospital, Central Carolina Community College and the Siler City Authority Advisory Board. He’s survived by his wife, Dacia; daughter, Donna Bramell; sons John Hayes and Randy Hayes; and stepsons Brandon Jones and Benjamin Jones.

JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP PHOTO

THE WAKE UP CALL! Bible study: Revelation 3:1-6, Church of Living Water; Servant: James Mitchell. Sardis is one of the seven churches that God is revealing. Revelation means to unveil, reveal, and uncover. Let’s compare the Sardis church to what’s going on here in America today. The Lord begins by saying the Sardis church is spiritually dead and needs to repent. Wake up, America! Democrats and their supporters are for the government takeover of our healthcare. With the invasion of all the illegals and criminals, it now takes months to get a doctor’s appointment. If the Democrats gain control, it could take six months to a year for needed surgery. These socialist, Marxist, and communist groups will raise your taxes to give free stuff to illegals and radical Islam. Just look at the billions of dollars of fraud that President Trump’s administration is revealing. They have stolen your tax money! We must get out and vote to stop these demonic people. They want to transgender our children. Isn’t this mutilation and child abuse? America needs more law enforcement and more ICE RI¿FHUV WR JHW WKHVH FULPLQDOV RXW RI $PHULFD 6XSSRUW RXU SROLFH Support Israel, our greatest friend! God is calling for America to repent now. God’s judgment is coming! God’s children can overcome and be clothed in His righteousness if we turn back to Christ and the Cross. If you don’t repent, God is giving the wake-up call; He will blot your name out of the Book of Life! I pray all have eyes to see and ears to hear, in Jesus’ name!

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Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

THE CONVERSATION Trip Hoffend, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor VISUAL VOICES

COLUMN | ANDREW TAYLOR-TROUTMAN

Pass it on

I would never wish adversity upon anyone, but I know that hard times can teach worthy lessons.

OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT was born on third base yet was told that he had walloped a triple. He has been coddled and flattered his whole life in the lap of luxury. It’s little wonder that Donald Trump cannot fathom, much less empathize with, the plight of most Americans who have been hurt by his economic policies. My maternal grandfather grew up in Boston during the Great Depression. My grandfather was too proud to beg, but he used to wait by the railroad tracks and try to bait the locomotive firemen to throw pieces of coal at him. This act was only under the pretense of hostility; the firemen would intentionally miss him, knowing he would collect the coal and bring it home to help his parents heat their house. I would never wish adversity upon anyone, but I know that hard times can teach worthy lessons. In between collecting pieces of coal, my grandfather passed the time by adding the numbers written on passing boxcars. He later used his math skills as a successful accountant. At church, volunteers tutor Spanish speakers in English. We hope to pass the light of knowledge to them so that they can take it home and use the flame in other parts of their lives. Though our president and his Republican Party have referred to them as “animals” from “s---hole countries,” they are some of the hardest-working people I know. They are also some of the kindest people

I know, always ready with a warm smile that translates into any language. From them, I learned the proverb “Al mal tiempo, buena cara,” which literally means, “To bad weather, (show) a good face.” My grandfather did not speak Spanish, but he would have agreed with the sentiment. This upcoming election is an opportunity for Americans to rebuke the current administration. But make no mistake: The election will not magically reverse the damage, both economically and socially, wrought by Trump and his yes-men. Rather, the ultimate solution lies with us. It is bigger than any political party. We the people have faced challenges before in our nation’s history, and together we have appealed to our better angels. We can summon the integrity and compassion that are necessary to unite across language, culture and creed. Instead of clenching a fist, we can extend an open hand. We can show a good face in the current political storm and pass on something of value to others, which might transform a society one life at a time. It only takes a bit of coal to get a fire going. 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, coffee drinker and student of joy.

COLUMN | BOB WACHS

If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound? Sometimes there is so much noise that we can’t hear anything.

ABOUT 60 YEARS or so ago (gasp!), Simon and Garfunkel produced what many consider their signature song, “The Sounds of Silence.” As a not-too-sharp-at-the-time teen, I couldn’t see beyond the literal aspects of that idea and concluded two things there and then: One, there’s no such thing as the “sounds” of silence; and two, the two singers were crazy. Since that era, I have learned a thing or two about abstract thought and figures of speech. For instance, now when I happen to mention, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” I really don’t want Shirley to put the ol’ gray mare on the plate. I have also learned there was, in fact, some literal dimension to that piece of music. Have you ever stepped out your door right after the snow stops and just listened? There is a sound of silence. Anyway, I continue to be impressed with what we hear and what we know and think — and don’t — about what we hear. That’s what Simon and Garfunkel were really saying, at least in part — that sometimes there is so much noise that we can’t hear anything. My boyhood friend and chief adviser on all matters from the heart to the pocketbook Bobby Joe High used to note that there is a great deal of difference between “hearing” and “listening.” “I hear what people are saying sometimes,” he would say, “but I’m not going to listen to them.” That is, of course, a bad idea sometimes, say in the case of you’re in the theatre and the place catches on fire and an attendant encourages you to leave while you can. Anyway, I have noticed that sometimes we hear things and unless we can see them, we’re not really sure what we’ve heard or what we think of it. Typically, that tends to bother, annoy or even frighten us a bit. If, for example, I’m sitting in my remote-controlled recliner with a good book and I hear a noise in another portion of the house, my natural inclination will be to get up and go take a look. If that happens at night and the light is on in that part of the house, I don’t mind so much since I can see what’s going on and respond accordingly. If, however, it’s about midnight and I’m the only one up and awake, then the hair on the back of my neck may

stand up just a bit as I hear the sound and listen to it and try to decide what it is and do I want to go check it out or should I wake up Shirley and ask her to go take a peek. Even now as I sit here at the keyboard, I’m hearing a wide range of sounds. There is an airplane from somewhere on its way to Raleigh-Durham. The hum of the ceiling fan is a friend. Hearing “good night, Granddaddy” from some of my grands and listening to a voice mail from the oldest grandson who is taking courses I can’t even pronounce and who once was a little guy who lived with me and who thought I hung the moon is priceless. And there are others. But … the racket I’ve been hearing more and more lately makes me wonder if I’m living in Chatham County or Ogallala, Nebraska. The window in my study is flung open, catching the welcome fall breezes. And as I sit here working away, all of a sudden I hear a pack of coyotes singing their lungs out, and that hair on the back of my neck thing takes over. Part of that is because I hear them but I can’t tell where they are. That’s sort of like it was the night Hurricane Fran roared through. As I sat up throughout the worst of the storm and heard what the dawn’s light would show me was 20 downed trees in the front yard, I realized the worst part was hearing a large tree break and then holding our collective breaths to see where the thing would hit the ground. Then there’s the screeching going on now that I take to be a hawk but don’t know for sure. There’s the hoot of the owl, which doesn’t bother me since I know what that is. And there’s the pretty constant singing from our two porch dogs, who are trying to answer every sound they hear … or think they hear. Maybe it gives them something to do … or maybe they just like to bark. I wonder if they can do that if I put duct tape over their mouths. Then there really would be the sounds of silence. Bob Wachs is a native of Chatham County and emeritus editor at Chatham News & Record. He serves as pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church.

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

COLUMN | JAN HUTTON

COLUMN MICHAEL BARONE

How big?

Instead of keeping this more simple, I seem to be making it more complex. Apologies, again!

DOES GOODNESS need to be BIG? Now, c’mon, folks, how BIG must acts of goodness be for inclusion in the universe’s Sacred Scrolls? Sacred Scrolls? You’ve not heard of the universe’s Sacred Scrolls? I just made the term up, so that’s entirely likely. Fishing around for an umbrella term under which to subsume all the micro, mini, good-sized and large acts of goodness we enact in our lives, and the term Sacred Scrolls just popped right up. Wait a minute, now just wait a minute. Is there a goodness threshold one must reach to be included in these Sacred Scrolls? If so, who sets that threshold? That’s a sticky one. Who determines that you’re GOOD, or NOT GOOD enough, to be inscribed in those Scrolls? Me? You? Fill in the blank with your desired choice(s). Stop! Becoming a little too complex for me. I’m just a gal from the Lone Star State who likes to keep things simple. So all you thinking and feeling folks reading this, do our enacted goodnesses need to be BIG to make it into my just-created Sacred Scrolls? In Sacred Scrolls territory, should we include obituaries, the tales we share about friends’ goodnesses and whatever else counts as being remembered about our humanity? Oh, geez, I so apologize! Instead of keeping this more simple, I seem to be

making it more complex. Apologies, again! In my own (lifetime) search for answers to the query: “Does goodness need to be big for inclusion in the (made-up) Sacred Scrolls?” Dolly Parton came to my rescue. Hard to believe. Since Dolly’s passing, I’ve been making up for decades of my “a pox on Dolly” with periodic deep dives of appreciation into Dolly-land. The late icon brought me an answer to my longtime (really, really longtime) query about goodnesses. Yep, there was Dolly, in my earbuds, as I plugged away on my stationary bike and she was singing, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” No, she didn’t write this song, but it’s the first time I’ve ever really listened to the words. I’ll just thank Dolly outright for bringing much-needed light into my life, just when I needed it. “Put a little love in your heart If you want the world to know We won’t let hatred grow Put a little love in your heart” — Jackie DeShannon If I can share, enact, whatever, all my micro through huge-sized goodnesses, with even a small but honest intention of a little love in my heart, Sacred Scrolls, here I come! Jan Hutton, a resident of Chatham County and retired hospice social worker, lives life with heart and humor.

COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI

A leaner federal workforce is a win for taxpayers

Barely anyone, one suspects, has noticed that the federal workforce has shrunk by around 11%.

ONE OF THE MOST unheralded policy successes of President Donald Trump’s second term has been the purging of many unnecessary federal jobs. The federal government has reduced its workforce by 300,000 jobs since Jan. 20, 2025, bringing it down to a still-bulky 2.7 million employees. Not since President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society vastly expanded the scope of the national government has the federal workforce been at this level. It’s not merely that the feds have shed superfluous jobs — there are still more than 4 million contract workers, after all. It’s that the White House has been targeting all the right institutions. The bloated War Department, with more than 61,000 departures, and the equally bloated State Department, with 37% of its staff gone, experienced the biggest reductions. But most of the buyouts were aimed at agencies and departments that should have been shuttered a long time ago. Take the U.S. Agency for International Development, which, for years, was used to funnel billions to hard-left ideological projects around the world. Virtually its entire staff is gone. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the unaccountable bureaucratic brainchild of progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), has lost roughly 88% of its workers, though it’s still far too big. The Agriculture Department, which, despite its name, is principally a welfare agency that has little to do with farming, experienced tens of thousands of departures. So has another welfare-state institution, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, whose most notable achievement has been helping inflate housing prices. Not every agency is being clipped fast enough, though. Early in his term, Trump signed an executive order directing the dismantling of the Education Department. Yet this intrusive agency, which spends its time propping up unions and undermining local initiatives, has lost only 40% of its staff. Every time Republicans threaten to cut federal jobs, though they rarely follow through, Democrats predict that society will be plunged into chaos and high unemployment. The unemployment rate in September 2024 was 4.1%. In September 2025, it was 4.4%. It’s at 4.1% today. Barely anyone, one suspects, has noticed that the federal workforce has

shrunk by around 11%. They probably wouldn’t notice if it shrank by another 11%. What Democrats really fear is losing power. Federal agencies, government employees and public-sector unions are all bases of political influence for the Left. “This is an attempt at intimidation,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) complained when the Office of Management and Budget released a memo instructing agencies to plan for large-scale layoffs. “Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare.” Why would Democrats be “scared” of a leaner federal workforce? We don’t know how government employees vote, but we can make an educated guess. Around 84% of campaign donations from federal workers went to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024. Federal civilian jobs rose by more than 130,000 under the Biden administration. Around 11% of the approximately 16 million jobs added during Biden’s term were federal, state and local government jobs. Roughly 15% of the total workforce, around 24 million people, still work for the government at all levels. There is more that can be done, not only in trimming the federal workforce but also in decentralizing and dispersing it. The Trump administration promised to relocate more federal jobs out of the Washington area. The political class entrenched around the capital in Virginia and Maryland keeps voting to empower itself. It should be dispersed as much as possible. In 2001, antitax activist Grover Norquist famously proclaimed that his goal was to shrink the federal government until it was small enough to “drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” We’ve learned over the years that it doesn’t work that way. Neither party has any plan to curb spending, and voters don’t seem to be clamoring for one. Shrinking the federal bureaucracy and workforce isn’t going to restrain massive deficit spending and our economy-threatening, turbocharged debt. Still, paring down the size, scope and intrusiveness of a swollen federal government, even if it’s just temporary until Democrats come back into power, is a win for taxpayers. David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

Toward the final stretch — and beyond HAVEN’T WE SEEN this movie before? Voters, weary of a Republican president whose foreign or domestic policies don’t seem to be delivering as promised, seem on the verge of a massive rejection of his party. Republican Polls show Democrats pollster surging. The generic ballot — which party’s Patrick Ruffini candidates would you points out favor for the House of Representatives? — shows that polls in Democrats far ahead of the last four Republicans. Statewide congressional polls show Democrats ahead in large states that elections have had voted Republican for understated president and threatening incumbents in historically Republicans’ Republican states such as actual election Kansas and Nebraska. That’s pretty much the performance picture today. Donald by wide Trump’s job approval has margins in the slipped below 40%, below his numbers at the end of summer. September 2018 and similar to George W. Bush’s in September 2006. Republicans trail in the generic vote by about as much as in 2018 and by wider margins than 2006. All of which provides a strong basis for the professional prognosticators’ predictions that Democrats will overturn the Republicans’ current narrow majority in the House and some justification for those who say they have a majority chance of gaining the four seats that would give them control of the Senate. But there are a couple of caveats here. Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini points out that polls in the last four congressional elections have understated Republicans’ actual election performance by wide margins in the summer, then narrowed in the fall. But this year, there is little sign of such narrowing yet. But perhaps the polls are consistently understating Republican support, as analyst Nate Silver says they have in the last three presidential elections. Many pollsters report it’s much harder to reach Republican respondents, who tend to mistrust media pollsters. And this year, many Republicans seem unhappy with the president and his party. Does that mean they’re just unwilling to be polled or that they will skip voting as well? No one knows the answer. American voters generally, and Democratic politicians in particular, tend to look to government to cure various ills. In that perspective, you can argue — and certainly public opinion polls would suggest most people would — that the nation’s performance in this first quarter of the 21st century has been suboptimal. But the mostly unanticipated performance of the private sector has been better, in technological devices and communication and in fracking technology, which has made the U.S. once again the world’s greatest oil producer, as it was at the outset of World War II. Elon Musk has outperformed the heavily regulated Detroit Three in making a profitable business of building electric cars while outperforming government-run NASA at producing reusable space rockets. Looking back over the century so far, the historian Niall Ferguson admits, “My prophetic vision of decline and fall 25 years ago clearly has not been fulfilled. In relative terms, America is still Number One by any measure except maybe the number of robots.” That despite the disappointments and demerits of successive administrations and Congresses. Whether the Democrats sweep the off-year elections next month or the Republicans once again outpoll the polls, the winners — and losers — might want to keep that perspective in mind. Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of “The Almanac of American Politics.” (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

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Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

obituaries

SPONSORED BY DONALDSON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY We offer an on-site crematory with many options of Celebration of Life services, Traditional, and Green Burials. Call us to set an appointment to come by and learn more.

Gerald White September 27, 2026 On September 27, 2026, under a sun-filled, Carolina-blue sky at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, NC, while listening to stories about his grandson, Gerald Mitchell White peacefully, quietly slipped away. He was a strong, adventurous, talented professional who in his earlier years enjoyed painting,

Barrett (Barry) Hayes Nov. 27, 1947 – Sept. 30, 2026 Barrett (Barry) Hayes, 78, of Siler City left his earthly home on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, to spend eternity with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on November 27, 1947, to Edward Broughton Hayes and Hazel Beane Hayes, who preceded him in death. Barry was an accomplished pilot and had a lifelong fascination with the world around him. Always looking to the sky to see if it would be “a good day to fly”, he could name the birds, weather patterns and the stars. From a childhood of scouting and making model airplanes, Barry could repair or make almost anything. Aviation and radio were his domains, so it was fitting that he combined those talents into a fulfilling career as a broadcast engineer/radio announcer and part-time avionics technician for Causey Aviation. He always said he “didn’t have a job, just hobbies”. During his teenage years, he had a fascination with radio and electronics, even building his own radio transmitter at home and becoming the youngest person on the east coast to pass the FCC broadcast engineering exam. Barry’s career began while in high school as a radio announcer at WCOG in Greensboro. After graduating from Southeast Guilford High School in 1966, he worked on-air for several radio stations and was the technical know-how behind numerous stations across NC, SC and VA. Combining this with aviation, Barry would fly traffic reports over the Raleigh-Durham area and UNC football games, talking to listeners while piloting an airplane — “this is the Bare in the air …” In 1982, Barry accepted the challenge to manage a small AM radio station in Siler City. It quickly became home and he became immersed in the activities of small-town living. He was best known as “the Bare of the air” and owner/operator of Chatham Broadcasting Co. Inc, also known as WNCA AM-

rebuilding his Corvette engine, 396 West St., Pittsboro, NC 27312 | 919-542-3057 | www.donaldsonfunerals.com playing the drums, snow-skiing, and boating. He was dedicated to his family, and his grandson, who as an infant he called his “new puppy”, was his pride and joy. Gerald is survived by his wife Brenda, daughter Heather, grandson Thomas, brother Larry (and family), sisters- and brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews, and their families. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Mabopane Foundation (mabopanekids.org) or the Ronald McDonald May 14, 1938 – Oct. 2, 2026 March 19, 1954 – House of Chapel Hill Sept. 29, 2026 (rmhctriangle.org/donate). Mr. William Beltron Griffin, Condolences may be made at 88, of Sanford, North Carolina, Dennis Clayton David, 72, www.donaldsonfunerals.com passed away peacefully at his of Siler City, North Carolina, Donaldson Funeral Home & home on Friday, October 2, 2026, passed away peacefully on Crematory is honored to serve surrounded by his loving family. Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at the White family. Born on May 14, 1938, in Chatham Hospital. Chatham County, North Carolina, Dennis was born on March William was the son of the late 19, 1954, in Imperial County, Tim Griffin and Ollie Jackson California to the late Billy Joe and 1570. For 40 years, he kept the Fields Griffin. In addition to his Johnnie Hanks David. community entertained and parents, he was preceded in Dennis was a simple and informed of news, weather, death by his brother, J.T. Griffin, humble man with a heart of local events, disasters, politics, and his sisters, Mariel McNeil and gold. He was a gentle giant who gospel messages, obituaries and Ruth McNeil Jones. loved his family deeply and had provided a forum for swapping William was a proud United a wonderful sense of humor. and shopping known as “Dial-AStates Army Veteran and retired He loved to laugh, and he never Deal”. from AT&T after more than 37 met a stranger. His kindness, Always very communityyears of dedicated service. He laughter, and big heart will be minded, he was a former member was a hardworking and talented remembered by all who had the of the Siler City Rotary Club, man who was truly a jack of privilege of knowing him. serving as a past president and all trades. Whether it involved Dennis loved the outdoors and Paul Harris fellow. Formerly, plumbing, electrical work, home enjoyed many simple pleasures he was on the board of Central repairs, or helping a neighbor in life. He was an avid football Carolina Community College and with a project, William seemed fan, especially of the Los Angeles the Siler City Airport Authority to have a gift for fixing almost Rams. He had a special love for Advisory Board. He proudly anything. He was always willing Harley-Davidson motorcycles served on the UNC-Chatham to lend a helping hand to anyone and enjoyed working with his Hospital Board of Trustees from in need. hands. A welder by trade, Dennis 2004 until 2018, an affiliation of Known for his warm also loved blacksmiths and took which he was honored to be a personality and sociable nature, pride in his work. part. William never met a stranger. Dennis lived in California for He liked to retreat to the coast He cherished spending time most of his life before eventually and the ocean air, often taking with family and friends and making North Carolina his home. his cat on the trip there in the could strike up a conversation Throughout his working years, airplane. He studied scripture for with anyone. Above all, he was a he worked for Darrell Andrews answers to the biggest questions devoted husband, loving father, Trucking, Moore’s Welding, and and left a well-worn and marked and loyal friend whose kindness Phillips Trucking. He also worked Bible behind. touched countless lives. at the Purdue Chicken plant in Barry was a people person and William was an avid sports Robbins until its closing. knew many names. You could enthusiast throughout his Above all, Dennis loved his often find him at a community life. He proudly supported the family. He will be deeply missed event talking with locals. He Kansas City Chiefs, the former by those who knew and loved cared about the town of Siler Washington Redskins, and was him. City, its people and its future. a passionate NC State Wolfpack Dennis was preceded in death Family was important to Barry, fan who rarely missed an NC by his parents, Billy Joe and always looking forward to family State basketball or football Johnnie Hanks David; and his reunions, honoring his parents game. He also enjoyed watching grandson, D.J. David. and keeping traditions. NASCAR with his beloved wife, He is survived by his Barry is survived by his wife of Brenda. In addition, he loved children: son Dennis “Clay” C. 35 years, Dacia; a daughter Donna fishing, hunting, traveling, and David, Jr., and wife Elizabeth, H. Bramell and husband Chad, spending time at the beach, daughter Melinda “Mindy” of Asheboro, a son John Hayes creating treasured memories Cabral, and husband Donald, and wife Ann, of Asheboro, a son during his many adventures with daughter Kelsey Price, and Randy Hayes and wife Jennifer, Brenda. husband Ian, son Kyle David of Fuquay-Varina, a step-Son One of the greatest joys of and wife, Denise, son Ronald Brandon Jones and wife Heather, William’s life was the love he Ridgeway and wife Christina ; of Bear Creek, a step-son shared with his wife, Brenda grandchildren, Eli David, Lawson Benjamin Jones and wife Maggie, Moody Griffin. Their relationship Cabral, Coen Price, Kylee David, of Siler City; a brother Gareth began with a four-year courtship James Sprouse, Luke David, Hayes and wife Janet - Durham that blossomed into a loving Jemma David, Emmy David, and Eleven grandchildren, 4 and devoted marriage lasting Sophie Ridgeway, and baby step-grandchildren, and 4 great 57 years. Together for 61 years, girl Ridgeway on the way; two grandchildren. they built a life filled with love, brothers, Kenneth W. David and Family and friends will gather laughter, and unwavering wife, Ladonna, of Bakersville, on Saturday, October 10, 2026, commitment. California, and Lynden C. David from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m. at William is survived by his and wife, Lorraine, of Siler City, Siler City Presbyterian Church. loving wife, Brenda Moody Griffin, North Carolina. Funeral services will follow at 1:00 of the home; his son, William The family will receive friends p.m. in the sanctuary of Siler City Christopher Griffin of Sanford, from 12:45 p.m. until 1:45 p.m. Presbyterian Church. North Carolina; and a host of on Wednesday, October 7, Barry will be laid to rest in extended family members and 2026, at Faith Family Ministries. Chatham Memorial Park. dear friends who will forever Funeral services will follow at The family would like to extend cherish his memory. 2:00 p.m. in the sanctuary of sincere appreciation to the staff Family and friends will gather Faith Family Ministries, with Rev. at Dunmore Senior Living and on Thursday, October 8, 2026, Lowell Pocock Sr. and Rev. Lowell Liberty Home Care and Hospice from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Pocock Jr. officiating. for the love and care shown during Smith & Buckner Funeral Home. Interment will immediately this difficult, but blessed journey. Funeral services will be follow in Chatham Memorial Flowers are welcome, however conducted at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, Park. donations may be made to Siler October 9, 2026, in the chapel of Please share a memory or City Presbyterian Church, Liberty Smith & Buckner Funeral Home, message of condolence for the Home Care and Hospice, or with Rev. Bob Wachs officiating. family in Dennis’s guestbook Gideons International. Musical accompaniment will be below. Please share a memory or provided by Mrs. Shirley Wachs. Smith & Buckner Funeral message of condolence for the William will be laid to rest at Home of Siler City, North family in Barry’s guestbook below. Sandy Branch Baptist Church Carolina, is honored to serve the Smith & Buckner Funeral Cemetery with the rendering of family of Dennis Clayton David. Home of Siler City, North Carolina, military honors. is honored to serve the family of The family invites friends and Barrett (Barry) Wayne Hayes. loved ones to share a memory or message of condolence in William’s guestbook. “A life well-lived leaves a legacy of love, kindness, and service to others. William’s memory will forever remain in the hearts of those who knew and loved him.” Smith & Buckner Funeral Home of Siler City, North Carolina, is honored to serve the family of William Beltron Griffin.

William Beltron Griffin

Dennis Clayton David

Lisa Jones Hudson Aug. 1, 1960 – Sept. 27, 2026 Lisa Jones Hudson, age 66, died at her home on Sunday, September 27, 2026, after a courageous battle with cancer. She was born on August 1, 1960, to the late Betty Lou Thomas Jones. Lisa graduated from Northwood High School in 1978 and from Queens College. She married the love of her life, Thomas Cole (T.C.) Hudson, Jr. and they were married for 42 years. Lisa worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then worked alongside her husband as Vice President at A-1 Specialized Transport, Inc. Lisa was an active, lifelong member of Mount Gilead Baptist Church and an active member of Coolwater Cowboy Church. She served as church treasurer at Mount Gilead for many years along with serving on almost all committees at one point or another. Lisa is survived by her husband, T.C., and her children Bethany and Cole Hudson, Katie Crosby (Gabe), three sisters, Joan Nipper (Rusty), Beth McLaurin (David), Debbie Morris (Randy), nieces, nephews, aunts, uncle, and great niece. Lisa enjoyed spending time with her family - going anywhere and everywhere with her sisters, “the Jones Girls,” and her children. T.C. and Lisa enjoyed traveling with their children on many adventures. She never missed a single sporting practice or game, field trip, academic achievement, or church event in support of her children. A visitation was held at Donaldson Funeral Home on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, and the funeral followed at Mount Gilead Baptist Church on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The committal followed the funeral service at Mount Gilead Baptist Church Cemetery, 1785 Mount Gilead Road, Pittsboro, NC 27312. If you wish to share flowers in tribute to Lisa, they are welcome. If you prefer memorial donations, they can be sent to Mount Gilead Baptist Church Mission Action Fund or to Coolwater Cowboy Church.

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

Outgoing NC senator Tillis calls vote for Hegseth ‘biggest regret of my career’ in new book The Republican senator says in his book he also “should’ve stopped” RFK Jr. By Mary Clare Jalonick The Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says in a new book that his deciding vote to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in January 2025 is the “biggest regret of my career” and that he also “should’ve stopped” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from becoming Health and Human Services secretary in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term. In “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” out Tuesday, the North Carolina senator defends his decision at the time to not be “the lone voice in the wilderness” preventing Trump’s nominees from confirmation. But he makes clear he was always skeptical about allegations about Hegseth’s turbulent management style, treatment of women and excessive drinking — all of which Hegseth denied. “I know for a fact that there are others like me,” Tillis writes, “Republicans who agreed to go along with the early demands of the Trump team no matter how

ridiculous they were, believing that failing to do so would mean the end of their political career, and who now see that things have gone way too far.” He writes that he can count at least 30 of his GOP colleagues who have “expressed reservations (to put it mildly) about many of the president’s actions in private. Then, when the reporters showed up with their cameras and microphones, they’d have nothing but nice things to say.” Tillis, who announced last year that he would not run for reelection in a “breaking point” with the president on his sweeping tax and spending cuts package, is publishing the book in his final months in office. He joins a long list of Republicans who have ratcheted up their public denunciations of Trump once they had less to lose politically. Still, Tillis mostly deflects full blame from Trump, saying, “my beef is not with him, but the idiots he’s got working for him.” He calls the president “an amazing political talent.” At the same time, he warns of a slippery slope toward authoritarianism and urges his colleagues to “wake up” and push back on Trump more often, for their own political good. Executive overreach, he says, doesn’t work and sooner or later, “comes back to bite

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN / AP PHOTO

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) arrives for a hearing on Capitol Hill on July 30, in Washington, D.C. the majority party in the ass.” Tillis also predicts a “bloodbath” for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. “All along, we’ve had multiple chances to get off the path and avoid the giant bronze monster chasing us down,” he writes. The book is filled with cuss words and condemnations. He criticizes Trump’s tariffs, the aggressive immigration raids that Tillis says were an effort to “intentionally sow disorder” and the Iran war, which he initially supported. He said the war can only end with a coalition of willing nations and if Trump gets “Pete Hegseth the hell out of the way.” Tillis pushed Hegseth’s con-

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“I had no intention of letting my colleagues outsource their courage to me while they pretended to go along with the questionable nomination President Trump had put forward.” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) firmation vote late into the evening on Jan. 24, 2025, as he weighed his decision, talking to the White House, people who had worked with Hegseth and Hegseth himself. In the end, he said he couldn’t corroborate the worst allegations and would support Hegseth’s confirmation. His vote brought the total to 50-50, and Vice President JD Vance broke the tie. On his vote for Kennedy, Tillis writes, “I guess it’s easy to say now, but I’m the one who has to live with that vote and all the havoc Kennedy’s tenure has caused the country as a result.” On both votes, he says he didn’t want to be the deciding factor. “I had no intention of letting my colleagues outsource their courage to me while they

pretended to go along with the questionable nomination President Trump had put forward,” he writes. If you oppose Trump on everything, “you lose all influence,” Tillis says. “If you oppose him and lose, you are in even worse shape.” He strongly criticizes several of Trump’s other initial picks for the Cabinet in the book, including former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Tillis’ surprise announcement in June 2025 that he wouldn’t be running for reelection came as he escalated criticism against Trump and his “Big Beautiful Bill” of tax and spending cuts. Trump attacked Tillis on social media after the senator said he couldn’t support the bill’s cuts to Medicaid. Tillis says he thought to himself, “I’m done.” “Everyone reaches a breaking point,” he writes. He texted the president asking him to look for his replacement in the Senate, to which Trump replied “I am! DJT.” In May 2026, Trump again attacked Tillis, calling him a “QUITTER!” on social media, among other insults. Tillis ends the book with a profanity-laced text he sent to the president in response.

LIFE from page A1 canteen covers for the war effort while also working at Rose’s Five and Dime. Not long after World War II, in 1947, she married Roy Coltrane from Liberty, a Marine who fought bravely with thousands of his comrades at Midway and Iwo Jima. From their wedding day at the old Pilgrim Holiness Church (now First Wesleyan) through 71 years of marriage, they raised two daughters — Valerie C. Dorsett and Kay C. Watts — who also live, married and raised their own children in Siler City. And although life was changing for Allene, one thing wasn’t — her commitment to and involvement in her community. As somewhat of a pioneer, she was a member in 1964 of the first nurse aide graduating class of then Central Carolina Technical Institute (now Central Carolina Community College), embarking on years of service at Chatham Hospital. Prior to that, she had worked in local textile mills, Wood’s Department Store and the Siler City Shoe Show. “She loved nothing more than greeting customers with a big, radiant smile,” said daughter Valerie. “Her calling to care for others only grew from that point,” she added. “She started visiting residents in local nursing homes, taking them flowers she had grown and spending time with them to bring a bit of sunshine to their day.” In time, Allene moved beyond nursing homes to become a volunteer with Community Home Care and Hospice, putting in 13 years there until she was 93. “Mama anchored her life around her profound faith and a simple, beautiful rule — that we’re all God’s children, and we should love one another,” Valerie said. “She’s a longtime dedicated member of Community Baptist Church, where she did her best to live up to Christian principles. She shared her faith with others, witnessing to them and does even today if she sees something she thinks isn’t right.” And even as she eclipses the century mark in age, she remains a member of the Siler City Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, having served as the star point Martha for more than 30 years. Although busy in work, Allene had a lighter side, as well. She was known to many Siler City residents as the lady who drove her 1968 Mustang around town sing-

“She’s ready to go to Heaven ‘if the Lord wants me,’ but ‘I’ll live as long as the Lord wants me to live.” Allene Coltrane’s daughter Valerie ing “You Are My Sunshine,” “Over the Rainbow,” and “Que Sera, Sera” mixed in with a healthy dose of Southern gospel. Eventually, she gave her Mustang, still pristine and drivable, to her grandson for him to cherish. In time, the car found its way to the showroom at Welford Harris Ford, where it was originally purchased. There it remained on display for several days, admired by the public as well as Welford and Pat Harris, original owners of the dealership. She renewed her license at 95 and continued driving until her son-in-law convinced her he would be her escort wherever she wanted to go. “She finally relented,” Valerie said, “but continues always to be ready to go somewhere given the opportunity.” A woman of varied interests, Allene is locally famous at church and family gatherings for what Valerie says are “picture-perfect” chocolate meringue pies, deviled eggs, and the hydrangeas and daylilies she grew. “She loved to scrounge the local thrift stores and yard sales for books, flower vases and prizes for bingo at church and the West Chatham Senior Center,” Valerie said. “She was a talented craftsman — sewing, painting, embroidery, decoupage.” Today, Allene still lives in her home of 65 years. “She’s grateful for that, and we’re grateful for the help of the caregivers that make it possible,” Valerie said. “While her world has grown a bit smaller and quieter in recent years, her heart remains as full as ever. She continues to love being surrounded by the warmth of those she holds dear, telling everyone she meets, ‘I love you.’ “ Valerie said her mother never spoke of hoping to reach 100. “She’s led a really good life,” Valerie said, “and it’s been a labor of love for her. Now that it’s here, she’s excited. And she would tell you her secret to life is her strong faith. She tells everybody she’s ready to go to Heaven ‘if the Lord wants me,’ but ‘I’ll live as long as the Lord wants me to live.’”

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

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CREDITOR’S NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having qualified on the 28th day of September 2026, as Administrator of Sabastian Barron deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the decedent to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before the 8th day of January 2027 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms and corporations indebted to the estate should make immediate payment. This is the 29th day of September 2026. W. Woods Doster Administrator of the Estate of Sabastian Barron 206 Hawkins Avenue Sanford, NC 27330 Attorneys: Law Offices of Doster & Brown, P.A. 206 Hawkins Avenue Sanford, NC 27330 Publish On: October 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of 2026

Having qualified as Personal Representative of the Estate of Lee Melvyn Marcus, deceased of Chatham County, North Carolina, on the 9th day of September, 2026, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against said estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the office of the attorney for the estate on or before the 19th day of December, 2026, or this Notice will be pled in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This 17th day of September, 2026. Elaine Marcus, Personal Representative, c/o Larry H. Rocamora, Attorney for the Estate, McPherson, Rocamora, Nicholson, & Hinkle, PLLC; 3211 Shannon Road, Suite 400, Durham, NC 27707. Chatham News + Record: 9/17, 9/24, 10/1, 10/8

Notice to Creditors

LEGISLATIVE PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

All Persons, firms and corporations having claims against Helen B. Brooks, deceased, of Chatham County, N.C., are notified to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before January 1, 2027, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the deceased are asked to make immediate payment. This first day of October, 2026. Helen L. Dark, Executor Estate of Helen B. Brooks P. O. Box 512 Pittsboro, N. C. 27312

TOWN OF PITTSBORO, NC On Monday, October 12, 2026, at 6:00 pm, the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners will hold the following legislative public hearing in person at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center at 1192 Hwy 64 Business West, Pittsboro: PB-25-606 – Chatham Habitat for Humanity is requesting to subdivide approximately 25.91 acres located on two (2) parcels (PIDs: 7769 & 91558) into 72 single-family residential attached units (all townhomes) through a Major Subdivision Preliminary Plat. The site is located along I.E. Taylor Rd and Roberts St, north of Roberson Creek and south of East St. The hearings will be held in person. The public can also watch the hearings live on the Town’s YouTube channel at https:// www.youtube.com/@townofpittsboronc/ streams. Members of the public must attend in person if they wish to speak at the hearing. Contact the Town Clerk, Carrie Bailey, by 4 pm on October 12, 2026, with written comments or to sign up to speak at the legislative hearing. You can contact Carrie Bailey at cbailey@pittsboronc.gov, (919) 542-4621 ext. 1104, or PO Box 759, Pittsboro, NC 27312.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS ALL PERSONS, firms and corporations having claims against BEVERLY A. BROWN, deceased, of Chatham County, are notified to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before December 17, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the Estate will please make immediate payment. This 17th day of September, 2026. AMY WALKER CAGLE, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE ESTATE OF BEVERLY A. BROWN c/o Tillman, Whichard & Cagle, PLLC 501 Eastowne Drive, Suite 130 Chapel Hill, NC 27514

NOTICE TO CREDITORS ALL PERSONS, firms and corporations having claims against LILIANA MATHY, deceased, of Chatham County, are Here’s the information notified to exhibit the same to the you requested on Dental insurance undersigned on or before the 17th day FIRST-CLASS MAIL of December, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the Estate will please make immediate payment. This 17th day of September, 2026. LISA M. HUGHES, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF LILIANA MATHY c/o Hughes & Leighton PLLC 916 Prince Street, Suite 200 Alexandria, VA 22314 O

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NOTICE TO CREDITORS The undersigned, having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Joseph Yunker Kenlan, Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the offices of Tillman, Whichard & Cagle, PLLC, 501 Eastowne Drive, Suite 130, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, on or before the 24th day of December 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment. This 24th day of September, 2026. JANICE BRADLEY RIEVES, EXECUTOR ESTATE OF JOSEPH YUNKER KENLAN

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

TAKE NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

26E000516-180 The undersigned, having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Mary Hondros Pappas, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, notifies all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned at her address, P. O. Box 1515, Pittsboro, North Carolina, 27312, on or before the 1st day of January, 2027, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment. This 25th day of September, 2026. Cathleen Pappas Whitted P. O. Box 1515 Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312 October 1, 8, 15, 22

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY 26E000386-180 ALL persons having claims against DAVID JOSHUA BENELIYAHU, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are notified to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Dec 24 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 24th day of September, 2026. c/o DIANE WOLBER BENELIYAHU, Executor C/O Jones Branz & Whitaker LLP 4030 Wake Forest Rd. Ste. 300 Raleigh, NC 27609 S24, 1, 8 and 15

NOTICE

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#19E000259-180 The undersigned ANGELA SPINKS DUPLIN, having qualified on the 3RD Day of MAY 2024 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of LOUISE BREWER SPINKS, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 1ST Day OF JANUARY 2027, 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 1ST DAY OF OCTOBER 2026. ANGELA SPINKS DUPLIN, EXECUTOR 551 MARGARET PL GARNER, NC 27529 Run dates: O1,8,15,22P

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF Patricia Ann Eubanks Horton All persons, firms and corporations having claims against Patricia Ann Eubanks Horton, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are notified to exhibit them to Jeffrey Wayne Horton as Executor of the decedent’s estate on or before December 26, 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 24th day of September 2026. Jeffrey Wayne Horton, Executor c/o Janet B. Witchger, Atty. TrustCounsel 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203 Chapel Hill, NC 27517

NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS CHATHAM COUNTY HAVING QUALIFIED as Administrator of the Estate of Ruben Josue Perez Corona a/k/a Jose DeJesus Robles Cruz of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 31st day of December, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 23rd day of September, 2026. Pompeya Corona Gonzalez, Administrator Of the Estate of Ruben Josue Perez Corona a/k/a Jose DeJesus Robles Cruz 1680 Devils Tramping Ground Road Bear Creek, North Carolina 27207 MOODY, WILLIAMS, ATWATER & LEE ATTORNEYS AT LAW BOX 629 SILER CITY, NORTH CAROLINA 27344 (919) 663-2850 4tp

NOTICE NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS CHATHAM COUNTY HAVING QUALIFIED as Executor of the Estate of Bruce Landon Clark of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 7th day of January, 2027, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 30th day of September, 2026. Tony Landon Clark, Executor of the Estate of Bruce Landon Clark 4085 Piney Grove Church Road Siler City, North Carolina 27344 MOODY, WILLIAMS, ATWATER & LEE ATTORNEYS AT LAW BOX 629 SILER CITY, NORTH CAROLINA 27344 (919) 663-2850 4tp

Notice to Creditors Having qualified as Personal Representative (or Executor/ Administrator) of the Estate of Patricia Eileen Clark, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before 01/01/2027 - typically 90 days from first publication date, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms, and corporations indebted to said estate are asked to make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 1st day of October, 2026. James Clark, Personal Representative 2133 Farrington Rd Apex, NC 27523

NOTICE TO CREDITORS ESTATE OF ZELOTA MARKHAM McDONALD CHATHAM COUNTY CLERK OF COURT FILE No.: 26E000545-180 All persons, firms and corporations having claims against ZELOTA MARKHAM McDONALD, deceased, of Chatham County, N.C., are notified to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before January 4, 2027 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This 1st day of October, 2026. Douglas Edward Markham P.O. Box 130923 Houston, TX 77219 Publication dates: October 1, 2026, October 8, 2026, October 15, 2026 & October 22, 2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS ESTATE OF JAMES RALPH STARLING FILE NO. 26E000436-180 ALL PERSONS, firms, and corporations having claims against James Ralph Starling, deceased, of Chatham County, N.C., are notified to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before December 24, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 24th of September, 2026. Betsy Starling, Executor of the Estate of James Ralph Starling, c/o Amanda Honea, Attorney, 1255 Crescent Green, Suite 200, Cary, NC 27518.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having qualified as Personal Representative of the Estate of Vivian Barnett Brown, deceased of Chatham County, North Carolina, on the 8th day of September, 2026, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, firms, and corporations having claims against said estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the office of the attorney for the estate on or before the 26th day of December, 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 24th day of September 2026. Gloria Ruth Weissman, Personal Representative, c/o Christina G. Hinkle, Attorney for the Estate, McPherson, Rocamora, Nicholson & Hinkle, PLLC; 3211 Shannon Road, Suite 400, Durham, NC 27707. September 24, October 1, 8, 15 2026

NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000525-180 The undersigned MARK BAXTER, having qualified on the 15TH Day of SEPTEMBER 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of BARBARA LUDWIG, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 24TH Day OF DECEMBER 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 24TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2026. MARK BAXTER, EXECUTOR 812 KEITH ROAD WAKE FOREST, NC 27587 Run dates: S24,O1,8,15P

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000534-180 The undersigned HEATHER CULBERSON, having qualified on the 22ND Day of SEPTEMBER 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of BOYD LEE CULBERSON, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 8TH Day OF JANUARY 2027, 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 8TH DAY OF OCTOBER 2026. HEATHER CULBERSON, EXECUTOR 675 VANDER OLDHAM ROAD BEAR CREEK, NC 27207 Run dates: O8,15,22,29P

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000437-180 The undersigned JOANN ELAINE FARRAR, having qualified on the 4TH Day of AUGUST 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of DIONE O’BRIAN FARRAR, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 8TH Day OF JANUARY 2027, 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 8TH DAY OF OCTOBER 2026. JOANN ELAINE FARRAR, EXECUTOR 114A JOHN HENRY DRIVE SILER CITY, NC 27344 Run dates: O8,15,22,29P

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000522-180 The undersigned ROBIN HOLLAND MCDUFFIE, having qualified on the 11TH Day of SEPTEMBER 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of FRED JACKSON HOLLAND, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 24TH Day OF DECEMBER 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 24TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2026. ROBIN HOLLAND MCDUFFIE, EXECUTOR 86 BLUEBERRY HILL ROAD PITTSBORO, NC 27312 Run dates: S24,O1,8,15P

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000531-180 The undersigned JOHN R. HEATH, having qualified on the 22ND Day of SEPTEMBER 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of JOHN F. HEATH, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 1ST Day OF JANUARY 2027, 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 1ST DAY OF OCTOBER 2026. JOHN R. HEATH, EXECUTOR 114 JACK BENNETT ROAD CHAPEL HILL, NC 27517 Run dates: O1,8,15,22P

NOTICE OF GENERAL ELECTION CHATHAM NORTH CAROLINA The statewide general election will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Voters will be asked to show photo ID when they vote. All voters will be allowed to vote with or without ID. Voters who lack ID can get one for free from their county board of elections. Find out more at ncsbe.gov/voter-id. Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000062-180 The undersigned JULIA S. JOHNSON, having qualified on the 26TH Day of MARCH 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of RUBY SEYMOUR, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 1ST Day OF JANUARY 2027, 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 1ST DAY OF OCTOBER 2026. JULIA S. JOHNSON, ADMINISTRATOR 115 WATER TOWER RD. MONCURE, NC 27559 Run dates: O1,8,15,22P

Early voting will be held at the following locations from Thursday, October 15, 2026, through Saturday, October 31, 2026.

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE A public hearing will be held by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners on Monday, October 19, 2026, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The public hearing will be held in the courtroom of the Historic Courthouse in Pittsboro, North Carolina at 9 Hillsboro Street, Pittsboro NC 27312. Additional information is available at the Chatham County Planning Department office. Speakers are requested to sign up at the meeting prior to the hearing. You may also sign up on the county website prior to the meeting at www. chathamcountync.gov by selecting the heading County Government, then Commissioner Meetings, then Public Comment. The public hearing may be continued to another date at the discretion of the Board of Commissioners. The purpose of the Public Hearing is to receive input, both written and oral, on the issues listed below. Legislative Request: A legislative public hearing requested by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners to consider amendments to the Chatham County Subdivision Regulations; specifically, Section 5 Process for Subdivisions, Section 6 Specifications for Documents to be Submitted, Section 7 Requirements and Minimum Standards for Improvements, Reservations and Design, Section 8 Development Prerequisite to Final Approval, and Section 11 Appendix A: Certification Forms for Initial and Final Approvals. Substantial changes may be made following the public hearing due to verbal or written comments received or based on the Board’s discussions. Notice to people with special needs: If you have audio or visual impairment, unique accessibility requirements or need language assistance, please call the number listed below prior to the hearing and assistance may be provided. If you have any questions or comments concerning these issues, please call the Chatham County Planning Department at 919-542-8204, or write to P.O. Box 54, Pittsboro N.C. 27312. Please run in your paper: October 8th and 15th, 2026

Absentee ballots will be mailed to voters who have requested them beginning September 4, 2026. Absentee ballots must be received by the county board of elections no later than 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, November 3, 2026. A voter can fill out an absentee ballot request at votebymail.ncsbe.gov, or by filling out a request form provided by the county board of elections office. The request must be received through the website or by the Chatham Board of Elections by 5 p.m. October 20, 2026. Contests on the ballot include U. S. Senate, U.S. House, N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice, N.C. Court of Appeals Judge, District Court Judge, N.C. House and Senate, and county offices Board Commissioners, Board of Education, Sheriff, & Soil and Water Conservation Board Members. There are three Statewide Referendum proposing amendments to the N.C. Constitution on the ballot. All persons who are registered to vote with the Chatham County Board of Elections may vote in this election. The voter registration deadline for this election is 5 p.m. Friday, October 9, 2026. Eligible individuals who are not registered by that deadline may register and vote at any early voting site during the early voting period. Individuals registering to vote at an early voting site will be required to provide current documentation of their residence (for example, a government ID, other government document, or a paycheck, bank statement, or utility bill). Voters voting in person are entitled to assistance by an election official, or, if assistance is needed due to disability or illiteracy, by a qualified person of their choice. Voting sites are accessible to all voters. Curbside voting is available for voters who are not able to enter voting sites without physical assistance because of age or physical disability. Questions? Call the Chatham County Board of Elections Office at 919-545-8500 or send an email to elections@chathamcountync.gov. Theron VanDusen, Chair Chatham County Board of Elections

NOTICE TO CREDITORS The undersigned, having qualified as Limited Personal Representative for the purpose of providing notice to creditors without administration of the estate of Rene Rasmussen, Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the offices of Munson Law Firm PLLC, P.O. Box 1811, Pittsboro, NC 27312, on or before January 8, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment. This October 8, 2026. Sofia Collins, Limited Personal Representative Estate of Rene Rasmussen

Email ads@ chathamnr.com to submit JSHZZPÄLK HKZ

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Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

Creative ways to answer scammers who won’t stop calling your phone The only way to stop constant ringing in your ears

Erika Hoffman keeps a red “NO!” button and a squeaky chicken beside her landline, two tools she uses to answer the steady stream of scam calls interrupting her day.

By Erika Hoffman For Chatham News & Record IN MY STUDY, next to my computer and phone, where I compose my oeuvres, like this one, sits a red “NO!” button, given me by my old college roomie whose advice was that this device comes in handy when grandchildren visit. Immediately, my mind jumped to an image of my 10 grandkids whining for more candy, soda, chips, the iPad or who knows what. This bright red button with capitalized letters and exclamation punctuation in white has a variety of modi operandi when it comes to denying a request. Press it, and it might say “NO!” in an authoritative voice. Press again, and it will say, “No!” in an emphatic, urgent voice. A third push on the button, and it’ll reply with a deep, masculine “No” in no uncertain terms. The fourth time it’s pushed, it spells out the word: N—O. With a fifth pounding, the button screams “NO!!!!” The sixth time, it utters “No, no, no, no, no,” in quick succession, fading off by the final “no.” An indignant “no” is heard if you mash it again. On the eighth try, a different voice says, “NO!” The ninth time, “No” is repeated three times. “For the last time, ‘No!’” greets you on your 10th pounding of the button. I’ve discovered a new use for this device. Scammers phone me relentlessly throughout the day and during a lot of the evening. Sometimes, I let my landline in the kitchen answer. There’s an answering machine there. Other times, the phone next to my computer in the

PHOTO BY ERIKA HOFFMAN

study rings incessantly, interrupting my concentration and deep thoughts about whatever I’m composing. Then I pick up the receiver to stop the irritating jingling. Often, I’ll hear a robot ask me if my roof needs repair or if I need a loan or something about car warranty or insurance. I jab my “No” button sitting next to my phone.

When the umpteenth caller that day asks if I need help with my funeral costs, I fist-bump my red button repeatedly. This past year, my old college roomie gave me a squeaky chicken she got at the dollar store. Now, I vary my routine. I’ll squeeze my bright-yellow chicken, which lets loose an annoying, piercing squawk in re-

sponse to their never-ending questions. The bot on the other end desperately wants me to answer “yes,” probably to record my voice. Other times, the scammers seek more info than the simple “yes.” Folks have called and announced gravely that police are now holding my grandson, and they’ll patch me through to

someone who can help get him released. When they connect me to whomever, I exclaim, “Oh, heavens! Has that 9-year-old been driving drunk — again?” Then there’s a click! Many call about medical alert devices and inquire, in a very concerned voice, “Please, could you tell me your age?” “110!” Then a click. Scammers will want to know if I have Medicare A or B. If I pause, they’ll add, “Can you hear me?” I remove a puzzle piece from my youngest grandkid’s Melissa & Doug Sound Puzzle, and a dog barks or a mouse squeaks or a pig squeals. Often, if not a robot, the person requesting information speaks with a thick accent, almost unintelligible, with a lot of folks in the background as though they are phoning from a call center half a world away. I’ll inquire who is calling. “John Smith,” the caller answers, without skipping a beat. “C’mon, I know it’s you,” I say cheerfully. Then a click. Each season, extremely polite, mannerly men phone to tell me they are in the area and want to come by to show me rugs. Ever since I went to Turkey about 20 years ago, I hear from these carpet guys. What’s worrisome is if some long-lost pal calls up, and I don’t recognize the voice. I’m afraid I’ll unleash my bag of tricks, and they’ll think I’ve lost my marbles. Frequently, a recording will ask me, after I’ve said I don’t recognize the voice, “Do I sound that bad?” To that, I respond, “Not bad, not bad at all for a robot.” The line goes dead. These bots are smart. Ergo, this is my phone life now; it makes me yearn for those days of my childhood when we had party lines with neighbors, and you could entertain your little inquisitive mind by listening clandestinely to their conversations. “Those were the days, my friend ...”

CHATHAM SPORTS

STAN GILLILAND / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth’s Abigail Valgus, left, and Arden Kelly block at the net against Pinecrest’s Emily Regtuyt during last week’s match.

Seaforth maintains winning pace Woods Charter captured a conference championship Chatham News & Record staff

STAN GILLILAND / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth’s Ally Forbes (7) sends the ball across the net last week against Pinecrest.

SEAFORTH WON three volleyball matches last week, including two in the Big Seven Conference, to maintain a share of first place in the league. The Hawks smacked visiting Oxford Webb 25-5, 25-10, 25-4 as Sarah Beth Smith contributed 14 kills and Ally Forbes had 19 service points. Seaforth traveled to South Granville for a 25-17, 25-11, 25-15 success that included Smith’s 16 kills, Arden Kelly’s 12 service points and Abigail Valgus’ 25 assists and 11 digs. In between those league matches, the Hawks defeated visiting Pinecrest 25-18, 25-22, 25-20. Forbes had 16

kills, Smith racked up 13 service points, Isabelle Valgus had 18 digs and Abigail Valgus supplied 31 assists. • Woods Charter won three times last week in the Central Tar Heel 1A Conference to clinch the regular-season championship. The Wolves took down the two teams that had shared second place by winning road matches at Clover Garden and River Mill. The 25-23, 15-25, 27-25, 25-19 triumph against Clover Garden was followed the next night by a 25-14, 25-21, 25-21 outcome against River Mill. Woods Charter capped the week by dominating visiting Southern Wake by 25-5, 25-2, 25-6. • Chatham Charter posted a 24-26, 25-12, 25-16, 25-8 home victory against Ascend Leader-

ship in the Central Tar Heel 1A Conference. The Knights then lost in three sets at Clover Garden. • Northwood notched a 25-11, 25-17, 25-22 home victory against Jordan-Matthews in the Four Rivers Conference, buoyed by Emory Fox’s 13 kills and eight service points apiece from Stacy Ortiz, Genna Lance and Fox. Ortiz added 14 assists. • Winless Jordan-Matthews suffered Four Rivers Conference road defeats to Northwood and Southwestern Randolph sandwiched around a home loss to Union Pines. In a 25-19, 26-24, 25-19 loss at North Moore, Northwood’s Lexie Smith provided eight kills. • Chatham Central entered last week on a four-match winning streak and concluded the week on a three-match skid. There were losses to visiting Wheatmore and Bishop McGuinness, along with a 25-17, 22-25, 24-26, 16-25, 17-15 road setback at South Stokes.

Northwood tops Seaforth, Jordan-Matthews Seaforth in OT post routs in league openers flag football game PREP FOOTBALL

Two quarterbacks from Chatham County each threw for five touchdowns Chatham News & Record staff HILLSBOROUGH — Duncan Parker connected on five touchdown passes and threw for 404 yards as Seaforth began its Big Seven Conference schedule by hammering host Orange 48-0 last Friday night. Parker was 14 for 20 in the air. He also scored on one of his two runs for 86 yards on the ground. The Hawks are 5-1. Jude O’Neill caught two of the touchdown passes, while Max Hinchman, Ben Taylor and Mason Pooley had the other scoring catches. Tyler Truesdale led the Hawks’ defense with 10 tackles.

Friday’s games • Cedar Ridge at Seaforth • College Prep and Leadership Academy at Chatham Central • Northwood at Jordan-Matthews

O’Neill had an interception and caused a fumble. Orange (2-4) was credited with 156 yards of total offense — all on the ground. Jordan-Matthews 36, North Moore 8: Khalil Sherrod threw five touchdown passes as Jordan-Matthews opened Four Rivers Conference competition by smacking visiting North Moore. Sherrod completed 12 of 14 throws for 241 yards as the Jets (4-3 overall) won their second game in a row. JJ White and Lennox Mor-

decai each caught two touchdown passes. Jaden Fisher had the other touchdown reception. White finished with four catches for 91 yards. Stryker Murray ran for 126 yards on 18 carries for North Moore (0-7). Beau Lambert scored the Mustangs’ touchdown on a run. Eastern Randolph 42, Northwood 0: At Ramseur, Cade McCallum threw for three touchdowns and Kobe Walker ran for two touchdowns as the Wildcats (4-3) opened Four Rivers Conference play with a dominating home victory. Walker rushed for 126 yards. Cameron Hinton added a touchdown run. Cainan Glover, Jaydon Spruill and Braylon Little had touchdown catches. Northwood (2-4) was held to 59 total yards of offense.

A girl from Chatham Charter finished the league’s tennis tournament at the top Chatham News & Record staff PITTSBORO — Northwood won 22-21 in overtime against Seaforth on Alaina Toomer’s pass to Noelle Whitaker in last week’s game. The Chargers forced overtime by scoring on Toomer’s pass to Camryn Lux with 12 seconds to play in the fourth quarter. Emma Grace Hill threw three touchdown passes for Seaforth. Northwood also beat Central Carolina Academy 49-0, with Lux intercepting two passes. Seaforth notched victories against Jordan-Matthews by 19-6 and vs. Central Carolina

6-0

Conference dual record for Chatham Charter girls’ tennis

Academy by 44-0. GIRLS’ TENNIS At Siler City, Maggie Moody of Chatham Charter is the Central Tar Heel 1A Conference singles champion. Moody claimed that title by defeating teammate Kaylee Moffitt. The Knights went 6-0 in conference dual matches.

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Duncan Parker

PREP SOCCER

Chargers hit strong stretch The Northwood team rolled into conference competition on an upswing Chatham News & Record staff A FOUR-GAME winning streak allowed the Northwood boys’ soccer team to reach the 10-win mark for the season last week. The Chargers opened Four Rivers Conference play with two victories. They topped host Eastern Randolph 3-1 and then went on the road for a 2-1 overtime victory against Jordan-Matthews. • Jordan-Matthews’ first league game came with a 3-0 victory against visiting North Moore, with two goals from Enrique Granados and another goal from Elvis Nino. Emilio Rocha made five saves for the shutout. • Seaforth’s four-game winning streak ended with a 1-0 overtime loss to visiting Orange in the Big Seven Conference last week. The Hawks won earlier in the league in conference play by trouncing visiting South Granville 7-1. • Woods Charter posted an 8-0 victory against visiting Chatham Charter in a Cen-

STAN GILLILAND / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth’s Caleb Serrano, left, competes with Orange’s Oliver Santos Duron for the ball during last week’s boys’ soccer game. tral Tar Heel 1A Conference game. The Wolves also defeated visiting The Hawbridge School 9-0

to push their league record to 6-0. Chatham Charter ended last week on a six-game losing streak.

GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth, football Duncan Parker is a senior quarterback on the Seaforth football team. He also plays baseball and basketball for the Hawks. Seaforth is 5-1 on the season, and Parker has been a big reason why. In last week’s win over Orange, he threw for 404 yards, completing 14 of 20 passes and throwing five touchdowns. It was his second 400-yard game of the season and third game with at least five touchdown passes. He also ran for 86 yards, scoring once on the ground. As if that wasn’t enough, he also had five tackles on defense. For the season, Parker is third in all of NCHSAA (all classes) in passing yards and fourth in total yards. He leads the Big Seven 4A/5A in both categories and is third in rushing.

STAN GILLILAND / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth’s Keegan Hentila attempts to control the ball with Orange’s John Williams IV approaching.

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

ACC continues ongoing quest for football respect Pitt is the latest conference team looking for national recognition By Will Graves The Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Pat Narduzzi is tired of ACC football being a punching bag in the polls and seemingly everywhere else. The pathologically unfiltered Pittsburgh coach is ready for the league to start punching back. Narduzzi landed the first but likely hardly the last salvo of the season just moments after the Panthers fended off Virginia Tech on the road last Friday, a game decided on a missed 36-yard field goal as time expired. In the frantic aftermath, the longest-tenured coach in Pitt history encouraged AP Top 25 voters to “wake your (butts) up,” just as Narduzzi promised ACC commissioner Jim Phillips he would after the Panthers improved to 5-0. Narduzzi wasn’t just stumping for Pitt, which did sneak in at No. 25 when the latest poll was released Sunday, but the entire conference. What else is there to do after being told before the showdown

with the Hokies that it marked the first time two Power Four programs entered a game with identical 4-0 records and neither was ranked? “It’s disrespectful to the ACC,” Narduzzi said Monday. If Narduzzi sounds a little touchy, maybe it’s because he has grown increasingly annoyed about repeatedly hitting the same talking points to an audience not particularly interested in listening. While he leans into the fight, part of him wonders why one always seems to be necessary. Well, actually maybe he doesn’t wonder. “I think it’s all the brands,” Narduzzi said, seemingly alluding to the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference. “Everybody wants to look at the logo and gets all infatuated with logos and all that stuff.” The Big Ten has six teams ranked this week. The SEC has nine. The ACC? Just three: No. 4 Miami, with SMU at 24, one spot ahead of the Panthers. Narduzzi knows there’s a part of him that is trying to have it both ways. He repeatedly said during September that the early season polls don’t matter. Yet he knows he’s in the minority, and it’s much easier for

MATT FREED / AP PHOTO

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi argues a call. him now at 60 to put the poll in what he considers the proper perspective. As if to prove a point, he made a not-so-veiled reference to an unnamed program that had a number next to its name earlier in the season, a number that has since vanished. “I mean, you look at the school down the road gets into the Top 25, and what did they really do to get into the Top 25?” he said. Asked later who he was referring to, Narduzzi just laughed, though longtime rivals West Virginia and Penn State both fit the profile.

The Panthers are hardly the only ACC team off to a promising start but unable to make serious inroads in an effort to change the perception of the league. Wake Forest is 4-1, with its lone loss a game effort against the Hurricanes. The Demon Deacons edged an improved Purdue team by two on the road earlier in the season, did the same to disappointing Louisville and crushed Stanford by 54 points on Saturday, the biggest-ever blowout win in conference play for a charter member of the ACC. Duke is unbeaten at 4-0 with a victory at Illinois on its resume. Neither the Demon Deacons nor the Blue Devils currently find themselves ranked. “Your stomach starts to turn, and you’re like, ‘Golly, we’ve got a lot of work ahead,’” Narduzzi said. The ACC would like the conversation around the league to evolve to the point where an in-conference loss doesn’t send a team’s stock tumbling, a courtesy voters extended to Mississippi State this week, which dropped just one spot after getting drilled at home by SEC rival Alabama by 33 points. It doesn’t appear to be there

yet, as the bid for national relevance instead of national curiosity drones on. Three years ago, the CFP committee left unbeaten Florida State out of the then-four-team playoff after quarterback Jordan Travis was hurt late in the season. Two years ago, SMU received the lone ACC bid as the 11th seed when the CFP expanded to 12. Last year, Miami made the CFP as the 10th seed and made it all the way to the title game. By the time the Hurricanes reached the final, the nip/tuck nature of their at-large bid was largely forgotten. Yet rather than Miami’s success serving as a stamp of approval that the league as a whole is legit, it seems to merely have certified the impression that “The U” is back. The rest of the conference it plays in, seemingly not so much. So Narduzzi will keep banging the drum. Asked if he feels his almost defiant stance is as much about saying the quiet part out loud for an entire league as it is for the program he’s run for 146 games and counting, he nodded. “Absolutely,” the fourth-longest-tenured Power Four coach said. “Absolutely.”

CHUCK BURTON / AP PHOTO

Wake Forest tight end Kamrean Johnson, right, catches a touchdown pass as Miami linebacker Mohamed Toure defends on Sept. 18 in Winston-Salem.

Local Service Directory

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

SIDELINE REPORT NFL

Giants release receiver Beckham Jr. after 3 games, zero catches Odell Beckham Jr.’s return to the New York Giants lasted just three games with no catches. The Giants released Beckham and signed receiver/returner Braxton Berrios, a Raleigh native, off the practice squad. The 33-year-old Beckham was thrown at just once during his brief cameo back with the team that drafted him. Beckham made the roster out of training camp after being out of football for more than a year. Berrios was out of practice squad promotions, hence the need to clear a spot.

Former Falcons center Van Note, 6-time Pro Bowl center, dead at 80 Atlanta Jeff Van Note, a six-time Pro Bowl center who spent all 18 seasons of his NFL career with Atlanta and was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor in 2006, died at 80. A cause of death was not released. Van Note was selected out of Kentucky in the 11th round of the 1969 NFL Draft. He originally joined the Falcons as a linebacker before being moved to center by then-coach Norm Van Brocklin.

NCAA FOOTBALL

Barstool’s Portnoy pulled from Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” appearance Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports will no longer make appearances on Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” pregame show, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The Athletic was the first to report on Fox Sports’ decision. The Barstool Sports founder said on social media that it was Ohio State and coach Ryan Day who forced Fox Sports to take them off the show.

NCAA HOCKEY

Arizona State asks former state chief justice to lead review of hockey player’s collapse Arizona State asked a former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court to lead an independent review of the collapse of hockey player Matthew Mayich during an outdoor workout in August. Scott Bales will review Arizona State’s findings and information provided by attorneys representing the Mayich family and hockey team members, as well as by law enforcement. The 21-year-old Mayich collapsed during a workout on the first day the NCAA allows official activities. He suffered from exertional heat stroke that reduced flow of oxygen to his brain and is unlikely to recover.

SOCCER

Sullivan — just 17 — becomes youngest USMNT player to score in 3-0 win vs. Mexico Glendale, Ariz. Cavan Sullivan became the youngest player to score for the U.S. men’s national team, leading them to a 3-0 victory over Mexico. At 17, Sullivan scored in the 62nd minute, intercepting a pass from Mexico’s goalkeeper. Fellow teenager Julian Hall added a goal in the 28th minute, marking his third international goal in three games. Malik Tillman capped the scoring in the 84th minute. This match was the first meeting between the rivals since Mexico’s 2025 Gold Cup win.

SAM MORRIS / AP PHOTO

Chase Briscoe (19) leads the field during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Las Vegas.

Briscoe fends off Larson’s last-lap surge to win in Las Vegas All three stages went to Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who got maximum points By Kirk Kern The Associated Press LAS VEGAS — Chase Briscoe held off a last-lap charge from points leader Kyle Larson to win the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Briscoe swept all three stages on the 1.5-mile track to earn the maximum 75 playoff points. Larson lost control on the final stretch, hit the wall and collided with Tyler Reddick, who slid into the infield but still recovered to finish third. “I saw Kyle charging hard behind me on those final laps,” Briscoe said. “He was pushing as hard as he possibly could on the high line, and I just tried to stick to my defensive marks, stay smooth, and protect the

bottom. When you’re driving for a guaranteed spot in the Championship 4, nobody is going to give an inch.” It was Briscoe’s first career Cup Series victory in Las Vegas, where he led a race-high 175 laps. Briscoe also moved up to sixth in The Chase standings. Denny Hamlin, who entered second in the playoff standings, finished 16th and was shut out of stage points. Hamlin is still second but fell 40 points behind Larson. “I know everyone looks at the points lead and talks about the buffer we have, but I don’t view the gap like that at all,” Larson said. “There are still a lot of points on the table, a lot of restarts left, and anything can happen down the stretch.” Briscoe takes second stage Briscoe drove back from third place to pass Austin Cindric late in the second stage for

“When you’re driving for a guaranteed spot in the Championship 4, nobody is going to give an inch.” Chase Briscoe the win. Cindric finished second in the stage, followed by Christopher Bell in third. Larson salvaged a stage point by finishing 10th, while Hamlin was shut out of stage points in 14th. Briscoe gambles for first stage points Briscoe won the opening stage ahead of Bell and Ryan Blaney. Briscoe elected not to pit for tires during a late green-flag pit cycle, holding off the field on the restart to secure the stage victory.

Hamlin led the first 39 laps and was running third when he spun three laps before the end of the stage. Although he avoided major damage and continued, the lack of a caution flag caused him to fall back to 28th at the stage break. Hamlin set the fastest lap of the stage at 29.572 seconds on the third lap. “We had the speed to run up front, we showed that on the pole run and early in Stage 1,” Hamlin said. “But when you lose 25 spots, you spend half the race just working your way back to where you belong.” Larson, who started sixth, endured a 26-second green-flag pit stop while his pit crew made rear suspension adjustments. After dropping to 32nd place, he worked his way back to 24th by the end of the stage. Though he briefly fell off the lead lap, Larson regained it on lap 45 when a caution flew for a Zane Smith spin.

Robot umpires flip 54% of challenged calls in ABS debut as teams learn to time appeals Catchers were much more successful at challenging than batters

“This is a new instinct of knowing when to challenge and instinctively within a second.”

By Ronald Blum The Associated Press NEW YORK — Robot umpires overturned 54% of challenged calls in the first season of the Automated Ball-Strike System, and catchers were far more successful than batters. The Cincinnati Reds had a net gain of 16.8 runs. The Los Angeles Angels were next at 14, followed by the Athletics (12.3) and Minnesota (10.1). Cleveland was 30th at minus-13.4, and several other playoff teams rated poorly by that metric: the Los Angeles Dodgers (26th, -8.5), Tampa Bay (25th, -7.8). Houston’s Jose Altuve topped batters with 5.6 projected runs gained, followed by Seattle’s Cal Raleigh (4.6), Colorado’s Kyle Karros (4.5) and Cincinnati’s Sal Stewart (4.4) and JJ Bleday (4.1). The Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki led with 5.7 runs projected lost in defensive challenges, just ahead of the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (5.5), the Cubs’ Ian Happ (5.2) and Michael Busch (5.1), and the New York Mets’ Brett Baty (3.5). Milwaukee’s William Contreras led catchers with 5.2 projected runs prevented, just in front of Cleveland’s Patrick Bailey (5.1), the Mets’ Francisco Alvarez (4.5) and San Diego’s Freddy Fermin, Kansas City’s Carter Jensen and Drew Romo of the Chicago White Sox (all 4.3). “It’s like a new muscle for players to learn,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “You have instincts over what to do in certain situations. This is a new instinct of knowing when

Aaron Boone, Yankees manager Pittsburgh was least successful at 47%, with the White Sox and Cleveland at 49% each, and Baltimore and San Diego at 50%. CAROLYN KASTER / AP PHOTO

A call is overturned to a walk by the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System, during a game in Cincinnati to challenge and instinctively within a second, oh, that’s a ball. What’s the situation?” There were 10,557 challenges, an average of 4.35 per game, and 5,686 led to overturned decisions. Catchers succeeded on 59% of their challenges, while batters had a 49% success rate and pitchers — who seldom challenged compared to catchers and batters — were at 40%. Contreras, Realmuto stand out among players Contreras led all catchers with 185 challenges, and he also won the most with 105 (57%). Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto had the highest success rate among catchers with at least 75 challenges at 81%. He was followed by the Cubs’ Carson Kelly (69%), Cincinnati’s Tyler Stephenson and Colorado’s Hunter Goodman (68% each), and Detroit’s Dillon Dingler (66%). The lowest percentages among those with 75 or more

challenges were Alvarez (47%), Fermin, Romo (48%) and Edgar Quero of the White Sox (49%). Stewart led batter challenges with 51 appeals and won 28 (55%). Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper was next with 47, winning 21 (45%). On success rate, Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno (68%) led batters with 20 or more challenges, followed by Miami’s Esteury Ruiz (65%) and Raleigh (64%). Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela and Colorado’s Willi Castro were at 25%, the lowest success rate among players with at least 20 challenges. Tampa Bay’s Yandy Díaz had 686 plate appearances without attempting a challenge, by far the most in the majors by a batter, ahead of Toronto’s Nathan Lukes (450). Díaz has said he’d consider challenging a call in the World Series. Cincinnati’s 62% success rate led MLB, followed by the Athletics and Arizona (60% each), the Cubs (59%), Texas (58%), Detroit and Philadelphia (57% each) and Miami (56%).

Players more aggressive with ABS challenges in late innings Knowing teams lose their right to challenge after two incorrect appeals, players used ABS less often early in games. There were more challenges in the ninth than any other inning — sometimes because teams knew there would be no later innings to save them for — even though many games end without the bottom half. ABS was used in 1,366 ninth-inning challenges, with a 40% success rate. The average for innings 1-3 was 1,005 challenges with a 61% success rate. Teams also got more aggressive as the season went on. Challenges per game rose from 3.76 in March to 4.60 in August and 4.61 in September, with most of that increase in catcher appeals. “You can overthink it if you let yourself,” Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said. “You start talking about saving it for certain situations, it probably doesn’t end well. My message was the lower the leverage, the more certainty you have to have.”

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

NASCAR shrugs off fisticuffs, swearing, heads back to old tracks as it embraces rugged past The organization seems to have lightened penalties on drivers fighting By Dave Skretta The Associated Press CARSON HOCEVAR traded a few haymakers with popular driver Ryan Blaney in a pit-road fracas at Bristol in September. The two tangled in the closing laps, the contact sending Blaney into the wall and ending his race — and maybe his title hopes. When Hocevar pulled his car onto pit road after a third-place finish, his foil was standing there waiting for him. Hocevar got the better of the dust-up, leaving Blaney with a shiner under his right eye. Thousands of fans who had stuck around to watch Joey Logano take the checkered flag seemed to roar even louder for the postrace fight. “I was surprised, and so was everybody else. But luckily, I have a height advantage on Ryan, I guess,” Hocevar said later. “If we were in a running competition, I’m screwed. No matter who it is, I can’t run. So luckily, standing still, I can do OK and defend myself.” Perhaps even more surprising was what NASCAR did in the aftermath: nothing. No penalties. No fines. Not even a slap on the wrist. “We’re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said during an appearance on former driver Kevin Harvick’s podcast before adding: “We’ll watch what happens the rest of the way.” The decision was seen by many as NASCAR embracing a “Boys, have at it” attitude that had been displaced for a generation by a squeaky clean corporate image that somehow seemed out of place. It harkened back to the 1979 Daytona 500, when Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers, Donnie and Bobby, got into perhaps the most famous fistfight in NASCAR history, and the days when Dale Earnhardt Sr. was using the bumper of his famed

COLIN E. BRALEY / AP PHOTO

Carson Hocevar, right, interacts with fans before a NASCAR Cup Series race. black No. 3 to drive rivals out of his way on the way to seven Cup Series championships. Intentional or not, the Bristol fight was another example of NASCAR turning back to its roots. “I feel like we’ve kind of gone that direction quite a bit here recently,” Logano said. “It seems like the American pride is definitely in the game, and I feel like the drivers, the brands they have right now, are more that direction than they have been in the past. It was there for a moment when a lot of drivers were, I don’t know, a little more higher society, if you will, right? It seems like everyone is more into their hotrods again, and you know, being a little more blue collar, I guess.” Many drivers still trace the roots of NASCAR to the short tracks of the South, which

the series seemed to abandon during the 1990s and early 2000s, when races moved to purpose-built, almost cookie-cutter tracks amid a northern and westward expansion. The move may have briefly fed a popularity explosion, but in the long run, it also might have alienated some of its base that treasures NASCAR’s historical ties to the moonshine runners of old and the outlaw image the sport has long embraced. North Wilkesboro is a prime example. The fan-favorite track in rural North Carolina opened in 1947, almost simultaneous to NASCAR’s founding, and hosted Cup Series races until 1996, at which point it sat idle for decades. But it has made a comeback in recent years, hosting the All-Star race from 2023-25, and Logano was victorious in

“We’re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion.” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR CEO July when the series returned with a regular-season race. “The community just loved having the race there,” driver Michael McDowell said. “You could just feel that when you got there.” Or take the Clash, which from 1979-97 led into the Daytona 500 every February. NASCAR took the exhibition race from Florida to the Los Angeles Coliseum for a three-year stretch beginning in 2022, but the novelty wore off after just

one year. So, the organization took the race to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem for the past couple of years and will take it back to Daytona in February. “We’ve all been very fortunate in the garage area to make it to top-level motorsports,” driver Chris Buescher said. “But we all came from that short-track racing background in some way, shape or form. This is all our background.” For many, so is dirt-track racing on bullrings scattered across the country. Those small-town stock car races were once a proving ground for guys like Earnhardt, whose first race car was a 1956 Ford Victoria that “The Intimidator” ran on dirt tracks around North Carolina. Turns out NASCAR is starting to feel dirty again.

Shesterkin becomes 18th NHL goaltender to score goal The goalie was the first New York Rangers goalie to do it

New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin reacts after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

By Stephen Whyno The Associated Press NEW YORK — Igor Shesterkin shot the puck down the ice toward the empty net like he has done so many times before. Then his view was blocked by players standing in the way. “I didn’t see the puck land,” Shesterkin said, “so I didn’t know can I celebrate or not.” It landed perfectly and bounced into the net with 2:34 left on the clock. The crowd went crazy and his New York Rangers teammates mobbed him in celebration as Shesterkin became the 18th goaltender in NHL history to score a goal and first to do it for the Rangers. “I feel like probably a dozen times I’ve been on the bench thinking, ‘OK, this one goes in,’ and he barely misses,” longest-tenured Rangers player Mika Zibanejad said after Shesterkin’s goal capped off a 5-1 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday night in the home opener at Madison Square Garden. “Just seeing this one go in, the way he played today and obviously the amount of chances that he’s had to do that and now finally get it, it was great.” The first goal of his career is the 21st by an NHL goalie, counting the playoffs. After trying often over his first seven seasons, he thought he would celebrate differently, but getting screened made him hesitate. “I was just a little bit shy and didn’t know what I can do,” Shesterkin said. “Maybe next

PAMELA SMITH / AP PHOTO

time. I will keep trying to score one more time.” Serenaded by chants of “Igor! Igor!” from fans delighted to see him finally cash in, Shesterkin got to lead the parade of players skating to the bench to fist-bump smiling teammates. “It’s pretty nice,” Shesterkin said. “I never did it before, so it’s a lot of fun.” The goal tied Shesterkin with Zibanejad, Gabriel Perreault and newcomers Pavel Dorofeyev and Eeli Tolvanen for the team

lead in goals through two games. “He’s not just a great goalie — he’s a great goal-scorer right now,” Dorofeyev said. “I have a serious competitor right now, so got to keep an eye on him.” Shesterkin had the opportunity because Lightning coach Jon Cooper pulled Andrei Vasilevskiy off and on the ice during the third period for an extra attacker. The goal was the first by a goalie since friend and fellow Russian Ilya Sorokin of the Islanders got credit last season

when he was the last to touch the puck before it went into Nashville’s net. “Yeah, this one counts,” said Shesterkin, who was also terrific at the other end, stopping 24 of 25 Lightning shots. Hall of Fame Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist on social media called him “Igor the goal scorer” and said, “It was just a matter of time.” Coach Mike Sullivan knew the shot had a chance to go in by the time it was at center ice.

He’s glad Shesterkin finally accomplished the feat. “Obviously one of his strengths is his ability to handle the puck,” Sullivan said. “When those moments occur for a team, they are great moments. You can see the raw emotion on the players on the bench. Shesty, he’s such a great goalie. He makes so many timely saves for us. When he has a moment like that, I think the guys, they get pretty fired up about it. It was a lot of fun.”

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

entertainment this week in history Apollo 7 launched, Columbus lands in San Salvador, MLK wins Nobel Peace Prize The Associated Press OCT. 8 1862: Union forces beat back a Confederate offensive at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky’s largest and bloodiest Civil War engagement, resulting in thousands of casualties and helping ensure the state remained under Union control. 1871: The Great Chicago Fire began; more than 300 people died and more than 17,000 structures were destroyed during the three-day blaze. 2016: Hurricane Matthew made landfall on the South Carolina coast, triggering severe flooding and several deaths in the Carolinas, days after devastating parts of the Caribbean and killing more than 500 people in Haiti alone. OCT. 9 1967: Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Che Guevara, 39, was executed by the Bolivian army a day after his capture. 1985: Strawberry Fields, a memorial to former Beatle John Lennon in New York’s Central Park, was dedicated. 2012: Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, to 30 to 60 years in prison following his conviction on 45 counts related to the sexual abuse of boys. OCT. 10 1845: The U.S. Naval Academy was established in Annap-

olis, Maryland, with an inaugural class of 50 students. 1935: George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess,” featuring an all-black cast, opened on Broadway and began a run of 124 performances. 1966: The Beach Boys’ single “Good Vibrations,” written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, was released by Capitol Records. OCT. 11 1776: The Battle of Valcour Island was fought on Lake Champlain off present-day New York state; British forces captured or destroyed most of an American fleet under the command of Benedict Arnold. 1968: Apollo 7, the first crewed flight of the Apollo program, was launched. 1991: Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. OCT. 12 1492: Christopher Columbus’s first expedition made landfall on what is now San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. 1870: Gen. Robert E. Lee, former overall commander of the Confederate States Army in the Civil War, died in Lexington, Virginia, at age 63. 1997: Musician and activist John Denver died when the experimental light plane he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay off the California coast. OCT. 13 1792: The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion, later known as the White House, was laid by President George Washington during a ceremony in the District of Columbia. 1972: A Uruguayan char-

AP PHOTO

Singer-songwriter John Denver died Oct. 12, 1997, when the experimental plane he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay. tered flight carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes. In order to stay alive, survivors resorted to feeding off the remains of some of the dead. 2010: Thirty-three men were rescued from a collapsed Chilean mine after being lifted one by one in capsules 69 days after they were trapped 2,300 feet underground. OCT. 14 1066: Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings. 1944: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took his own life rather than face trial and certain execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler. 1947: U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 rocket engine-powered aircraft over a California desert, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier. 1964: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings, fought Oct. 14, 1066, when William the Conqueror’s Norman forces defeated the English.

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Depeche Mode fans flock to Prague’s Charles Bridge to recreate 1988 band photo The British group appealed to fans of goth, New Wave and electro-rock By Karel Janicek The Associated Press

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PRAGUE — A constant eye-catching queue that forms daily at a sculpture on Prague’s Charles Bridge has become a new feature of the 14th-century landmark. Tourists have long flocked to the bridge over the Vltava River to visit the statue of St. John of Nepomuk. Now, visitors are lining up at the nearby Pietà sculpture to recreate an iconic 1988 photograph of music icons Depeche Mode. The British electro-rock band first crossed the Iron Curtain in March 1988 to play a historic concert in Prague, then the capital of communist Czechoslovakia. They returned that November with renowned Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn, who captured them exploring the city for photographs that later appeared in his book, “Depeche

PETR DAVID JOSEK / AP PHOTO

Jorge Sanchez of Los Angeles holds a 1988 photo of Depeche Mode while waiting to recreate it near Prague’s Charles Bridge on Sept. 24. Mode: Strangers.” One black-and-white image has a particular appeal for fans: Dave Gahan and Martin Gore standing beside the Pietà sculpture. Fans have been making the pilgrimage for years, but photographs of a mass gathering on the bridge between the band’s Prague concerts in 2024 appear to have helped fuel a modern-day boom.

Currently, the photo recreated by the visiting fans is trending with millions of views on social media. Jorge Sanchez, from California, and his wife were among the recent visitors. “Well, I remember seeing the picture from way back, and then I kind of remember, and I looked it up, and I learned that it was here, so I wanted to make sure I took a

picture,” Sanchez said. “I think it fit at the time, you know, with their music, you know, and their message and their music with your personal Jesus and all of that, so it’s kind of fitting.” Maria Hofer and Lara Hinteregger came from Austria. “We just saw this on Pinterest or on TikTok, and it’s kind of one of the most famous pictures you can take here in Prague,” Hofer said. “So we wanted to do it as well,” Hofer said. “Yeah, and we also like the vibe of the music. We feel like it fits the vibe of the city pretty well,” Hinteregger added. St. John Nepomuk was tortured to death at the request of King Wenceslas IV in 1393 because he refused to violate the seal of the confession and reveal to him the sins of his wife. His dead body was thrown into the river from Charles Bridge. It is said that touching the polished engravings of the event placed at the pedestal of the Nepomuk statue will bring luck and ensure a return to Prague.

Blues legend turns 90, celebrated at sold-out Radio City Music Hall show John Mayer, Derek Trucks and more showed up for “Buddy’s Got the Blues” By Hillel Italie The Associated Press NEW YORK — Two months past his 90th birthday, Buddy Guy is still up for a little bragging, a lot of cursing and a long night of partying. The blues great was celebrated last Thursday night with a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall in New York, where a lineup of guest musicians and a house band led by Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan had the audience on its feet for much of the three-hour-plus “Buddy’s Got the Blues” concert. Guy was only on-stage part of the time, but his name was heard throughout and his spirit always present. One of the last of the Chicago bluesmen who thrived in the mid-20th century, Guy has become so much the ideal of the genre that musi-

cians didn’t need to perform his songs to summon his legend. John Mayer, with an ache in his voice on Otis Redding’s “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,” and Eric Gales and Joe Bonamassa jamming on the Jimmy Reed standard “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” seemed as fitting as Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks reviving an old Guy-Junior Wells favorite, “Messin’ with the Kid.” But no one was going to top the guest of honor. Guy, wearing a dark cap, dark pants and a polka-dot shirt, opened the show with a long, raunchy acoustic workout of John Lee Hooker’s “I’m in the Mood” and only seemed to get friskier after bringing out his electric guitar. He leered and joked with longtime friend Shemekia Copeland on a duet of “Rock Me Baby,” left no doubt about the meaning of “to buzz all night long” in Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee” and carried on a lot more when joined by one of his few contemporaries, Bob-

solutions

CHARLES SYKES / INVISION VIA AP

Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., John Mayer, Derek Trucks and others perform at “Buddy’s Got the Blues: A 90th Birthday Concert Celebration” at Radio City Music Hall in New York last Thursday. by Rush, just a month away from his 93rd birthday. Everyone came on at the end for an all-out, self-fulfilling “Got My Mojo Workin.’” Guy is still making plans. His team announced this week that he has a new album out next year, produced by Jordan and featuring multi-instrumentalist Ivan Neville, bassist Willie Weeks and others who played at Radio City Music Hall. Guy didn’t seem at first to

have a lot on his mind last Thursday besides the next double entendre or the next profanity. “Help me f--k up this song,” he liked to call out. But the tributes offered by the younger performers and the presence of Rush, who testified that he would have walked from Mississippi just to be here, left him moved and near tears. “I didn’t think this many people would be coming out for a 90-year-old man,” Guy said, af-

“This is the greatest day I ever had in my life.” Buddy Guy ter confiding he didn’t have the strength to blow out that many “f--kin’ candles” on the cakes brought out at the end. “This is the greatest day I ever had in my life.”

Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

famous birthdays this week Paul Hogan celebrates 87, David Lee Roth turns 72, Joan Cusack hits 64 The Associated Press THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week. OCT. 8 Actor Paul Hogan is 87. Comedian Chevy Chase is 83. Author R.L. Stine is 83. Actor Sigourney Weaver is 77. Musician Robert “Kool” Bell (Kool & the Gang) is 76. Comedian Darrell Hammond is 71.

TERRY RENNA / AP PHOTO

NASCAR Hall of Famer and Kannapolis native Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns 52 on Saturday.

OCT. 9 Musician Nona Hendryx is 82. Musician Jackson Browne is 78. Actor Robert Wuhl is 75. TV personality Sharon Osbourne is 74. Actor Tony Shalhoub is 73. Actor Scott Bakula is 72. Actor-TV host John O’Hurley is 72. Film director Guillermo del Toro is 62. Singer PJ Harvey is 57. OCT. 10 Actor Peter Coyote is 85. Entertainer Ben Vereen is 80. Actor Charles Dance is 80. Author Nora Roberts is 76. Rock singer David Lee Roth is 72. Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre is 57. Actor/TV host Mario Lopez is 53. NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 52.

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Robert “Kool” Bell turns 76 on Thursday.

OCT. 11 Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry is 99. Actor Amitabh Bachchan is 84. Singer Daryl Hall (Hall and Oates) is 80. Actor Joan Cusack is 64. Actor Jane Krakowski is 58. OCT. 12 Journalist Chris Wallace is 79. Singer-songwriter Jane Siberry is 71. Actor Hiroyuki Sanada is 66. Jazz musician Chris Botti is 64. Actor Hugh Jackman is 58. Actor Kirk Cameron is 56. OCT. 13 Gospel singer Shirley Caesar is 88. Singer-musician Paul Simon is 85. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is 84. Singer-musician Sammy Hagar is 79. NBA coach Doc Rivers is 65. Football Hall of Famer Jer-

EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION VIA AP

Musician Nona Hendryx turns 82 on Friday. ry Rice is 64. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen is 55. OCT. 14 Former White House counsel John W. Dean III is 88. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren is 87. Football Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner is 79. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi is 65. Actor Steve Coogan is 61. TV host Stephen A. Smith is 59. Singer Usher is 48.

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Chatham News & Record for Thursday, October 8, 2026

the stream

REBECCA BLACKWELL / AP PHOTO

Pitbull performs between World Cup matches at a public watch party at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami on June 13. His new album, “Pitcoin” drops Friday.

Oasis doc, Pitbull, ‘Carrie’ series, ‘Gears of War: E-Day,’ ‘Disclosure Day’ One of Stephen King’s classics gets the TV treatment on Netflix By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press “DISCLOSURE DAY” and a new album from Pitbull are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also, among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger,” Troye Sivan’s fourth album and the highly anticipated game “Gears of War: E-Day.” MOVIES TO STREAM Even if you don’t think you care much about Oasis or the long feud between Noel and Liam Gallagher that led to the band’s very abrupt breakup in 2009, you might be surprised to find yourself drawn in by the documentary “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger,” coming to Hulu and Disney+ on Friday. At the Venice Film Festival, more than a few nonfans, including me, found themselves fighting back tears during the film, which chronicles their 2025 reunion tour. It’s not hard-hitting or even terribly revelatory, but its portrait of forgiveness, of fandom and of the music, all adds up to something quite moving. Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” is finally beaming onto Peacock. Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt star in the sci-fi thriller, which builds on Spielberg’s longstanding fascination with extraterrestrials. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote that it’s “a classic, big-hearted Spielberg adventure through and through, with ordinary people rebelling against shadowy secret keepers in the name of the truth … blowing the whistle, in classic paranoid conspiracy thriller style.” Ben Affleck directed, co-wrote and stars in the kidnapping thriller “Animals,” about a Los Angeles mayoral candidate (Affleck) and his wife (Kerry Wash-

EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Josh Hartnett, from left, Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway attend the premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ “Verity” at AMC Lincoln Square on Sept. 29 in New York. ington) who are scrambling to figure out a ransom payment for their son’s kidnappers. Debuting on Netflix, Gillian Anderson co-stars. John Cena plays an undercover CIA agent who brings his childhood friends, including Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Arturo Castro and Teyonah Parris, on a globe-trotting action adventure in “Matchbox: The Movie,” streaming on Apple TV. Yes, that’s Matchbox as in the Mattel toys. MUSIC TO STREAM It’s always summertime in the heart of a new Pitbull record. Mr. Worldwide will release “Pitcoin” on Friday — 24 songs of good time bangers and an impressive list of collaborators. (A small sampling includes Lil Jon, Jason Derulo, Enrique Iglesias, Wiz Khalifa and Bon Jovi. You read that last one correctly — and yes, the song features a strong sampling of “It’s My Life.”) Grab a drink — or

EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION VIA AP

Steven Spielberg attends the “Disclosure Day” premiere at David H. Koch Theater on June 8 in New York. a bald cap — and hit play on “Damn I Love Miami.” In the decade-plus since Sivan emerged a multilayered, experimental pop talent on his debut, “Blue Neighbourhood,” the Australian singer has only

grown more inventive. His forthcoming fourth studio album, “She’s the Best,” further establishes him as the thinking person’s club musician of choice — avant-garde in some moments, stunningly convention-

al in others (see: the sample of Madonna’s “Music” on the single “Party.”) Set the lights to low. SPOOKY SERIES TO STREAM Mike Flanagan, the horror storyteller behind Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House,” has adapted Stephen King’s 1974 debut novel “Carrie” for television. Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie White, a high school outcast with telekinetic powers. Samantha Sloyan, a frequent Flanagan collaborator, whose credits include “Hill House,” “Midnight Mass” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” plays her mother, Margaret White. Flanagan wrote and executive produced the eight-episode series and directed four episodes. The full run is now streaming on Prime Video. Josh Hartnett has a busy October. The actor is one of the stars of the thriller “Verity” in theaters now and leads Netflix’s “Below.” He plays a Newfoundland fisherman whose family and neighbors come under threat from a sea creature lurking offshore. Mackenzie Davis and Charlie Heaton co-star in the six-episode limited series. It premieres Thursday. VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY When Microsoft’s “Gears of War” debuted in 2006, humanity’s fight against the vicious Locust Horde was well underway. “Gears of War: E-Day” takes us back at long last to the Locusts’ emergence — that’s what the “E” stands for — on the planet Sera. Franchise heroes Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago are there for the eruption, and you can team up with a friend to take on the prequel storyline. You can also join forces in co-op survival mode or enjoy competitive combat against other online teams. The campaign begins on Xbox X/S and PC. Annapurna Interactive has become a prominent advocate of small-scale, narrative-heavy games by switching focus with every release. May’s “Mixtape” was about three teenagers; “Forever Ago” stars a 70-something man named Alfred. To deal with a broken heart, he sets out on a road trip with his dog and his camera. Indie studio Third Shift promises a tale that balances grief and regret with hope and new friendships. Hit the road Thursday on Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.