A re truck is parked at the intersection of McDowell and Cabarrus streets near the Raleigh Convention Center after re ghters and police responded to a rooftop re at the 500,000-square-foot building Monday night. Crews were able to extinguish the re, which o cials said was caused by a “natural gas incident,” in less than an hour. No one was injured, but damage has been estimated at $2 million.
U.S. envoy Witko meets Putin in Moscow Moscow
U.S. special envoy Steve Witko met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, taking a draft peace plan that Washington hopes can bring about an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Ahead of the talks, Putin accused Ukraine’s European allies of sabotaging U.S.-led e orts to end the war, calling their demands “absolutely unacceptable.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was expected to join the meeting, a Kremlin spokesman told reporters. Talks were to involve only Witko , Kushner and an interpreter from the U.S. side.
Costco demands refund of Trump tari s Washington, D.C.
Costco is joining other companies that aren’t waiting to see whether the Supreme Court strikes down President Donald Trump’s most sweeping import taxes. They’re going to court to demand refunds on the tari s they’ve paid. The specialized U.S. Court of International Trade in New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled earlier this year that Trump’s biggest and boldest import taxes are illegal. The case is now before the Supreme Court. In a Nov. 5 hearing, several of the high court’s justices expressed doubts that the president had sweeping power to declare national emergencies to slap tari s on goods. If the court strikes down the tari s, importers may be entitled to refunds on the levies they’ve paid.
Judges OK NC’s new map the BRIEF this week
Jackson takes on Trump as AG
The former congressman has involved the state in more than a dozen actions since taking o ce in January
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
Legislative America 250 Committee hears updates
Revolutionary War Trail opportunities and website additions were discussed
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Semiquincentennial Committee heard presentations and updates on Amer-
ica 250 celebration planning during its November meeting.
The meeting, opened by Committee Co-Chair Rep. Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke) and Sen. Ted Alexander (R-Cleveland), lasted several hours and included multiple presentations. Mike Leonard, senior adviser to the Conservation Fund and a ninth-generation North Carolinian with personal ties
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Je Jackson has racked up participation in at least 17 lawsuits against the Trump administration over his rst 11 months in o ce.
The cases Jackson entered the state into have had mixed results, with several of the lawsuits still active in various courts. In the AmeriCorps funding pause case, Jackson joined the suit on April 24, an injunction was issued in June, and on Aug. 27, the O ce of Management and Budget released $185 million, rendering the suit moot.
A June lawsuit involving grants to law enforcement agencies was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Also from June, the lawsuit over PBS and NPR funding is still
active even though Congress eliminated $1.1 billion in public broadcasting funds this summer. The U.S. Department of Education freezing $6.8 billion in federal education grants for a review on June 30 occurred the day before the funds were scheduled to be released to states July 1. Jackson issued a press release about joining a lawsuit on July 14, but 10 days later, the department released the funding.
Jackson’s participation in the SNAP lawsuit didn’t have long to make an impact and was preceded the prior day by Jackson issuing a “warning” to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He also issued a statement on the SNAP case when a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued, as well as a statement on Nov. 3 following the USDA indicating partial payments were coming. The U.S. Supreme Court put the TRO order on hold Nov. 7, and with the federal government shutdown at an end, the Trump administration withdrew its motions and bene ts have resumed.
“North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and this new map re ects that support.”
N.C. Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Kings Mountain)
Republicans altered two districts in an e ort to claim another seat in Congress
The Associated Press
RALEIGH — A federal three-judge panel last Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at ipping a seat to Republicans as part of President Donald Trump’s multistate redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections.
The map targets the state’s only swing seat, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 northeast counties. The 1st District has been represented by black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.
The three-judge panel unanimously denied preliminary injunction requests after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same judges separately upheld several other redrawn U.S. House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were rst used in the 2024 elections, helping Republicans gain three more congressional seats.
Trump broke with more than a century of political tradition by directing the GOP in North Carolina and several other states this year to redraw maps at mid-decade — without courts requiring it — to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterms.
See JACKSON, page A2
CORY LAVALETTE / NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Jesus called his commandment of love “a new commandment.” Why new? The old law
said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” referring to everyone. But Jesus spoke of loving “your brother” — your fellow Christian. And the measure changed: not “as yourself,” but “as I have loved you.” The world never knew real love until Jesus lived among us. “As yourself” leaves self and others side by side; “as I have loved you” leads to self-sacri ce.
This lesson reaches very practical points. It is not enough to speak eloquently, teach brilliantly, or even give generously. Without love, all is empty. Paul says if he spoke with angelic tongues, understood all mysteries, or gave his body to be burned — and had not love — he would be nothing.
“Love is patient.” It bears with others’ faults.
“Love is kind.” It remains kind even when met with unkindness. Our kindness is often spasmodic, shown only when we feel like it or when nothing crosses us. But nothing ever stopped Christ’s kindness — and nothing should check ours.
“Love is not rude.” It never forgets itself or treats others with contempt. Nothing in Christ’s life is more striking than his unfailing respect for every person he met. He loved them; therefore he honored them. If we shared his regard for human souls, we would not act rudely toward anyone.
A story is told of a woman who discovered that nearly everyone in a New England town belonged to a quiet “Take Heed Society,” pledged to three rules: speak no unkind words, think no unkind thoughts, and do no unkind deeds. The society met nowhere, had no o cers, and assessed no dues. If someone broke the pledge, he ned himself whatever he could a ord and gave it to the rst needy person he met. Such a society in a family, school, or church might help bring the law of love into daily life.
“Love is not easily provoked.” Yet nothing is more common than irritability. People become angry at tri es — objects, accidents, misunderstandings. Many confess bad temper as if it were merely an inherited trait or harmless weakness. But it is a dis guring blemish. Jesus, the perfect model of living, was never provoked. Amid persecution, injustice, and wrong, he never lost his peace. When he commands us to love one another as he loved us, this calmness is part of the pattern.
Loving as Christ loves makes us easier to live and work with. Some people are zealous and energetic — but can never work with others. They must work alone, like a horse that cannot pull in a team. Christ’s love teaches a better way. We must think of others with whom we labor.
Marriage illustrates this. Two formerly separate lives cannot each insist on having its own way. Either one yields to the other, or the two blend into one life. True marriage is the blending — two souls with one purpose. Love unites them so that each gives up self for the other. The same principle should prevail in Christian work. Headstrong individualism must be softened by love.
Jesus sent his disciples out two by two. One worker may be strong where another is weak; together they complement each other. Paul speaks of Christians as “yoke-fellows” — two sharing the same yoke, drawing steadily in the same direction. None of us should insist on our own way. In united counsel there is wisdom. Even in prayer Jesus says two agreeing together have special power.
The Christian who always seeks prominence has not learned Christ’s spirit, for Christ came not to be served but to serve. Love does not demand rst place; it works faithfully anywhere. It seeks counsel from others and does not assert its own opinion as the only wise one. It is content to be overlooked if only Christ is honored. It is patient with the faults of fellow workers and strives to keep the Master as the true leader.
Body cam footage released of Decarlos Brown 911 calls
Brown is accused of the August murder of Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail system
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
RALEIGH — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released body cam footage of o cer interactions with Decarlos Brown Jr. related to misuse of the 911 call system. Brown is accused of murdering Iryna Zarutska on the city’s light rail system in August. He has been charged with rst-degree murder for the stabbing death of Zarutska and was federally indicted for “Violence Against a Railroad Carrier and Mass Transportation System Resulting in Death.”
Brown’s federal indictment
Alternatively, the TRO issued regarding the July FEMA/ BRIC funding lawsuit is an example of a partial success that some lawsuits have had.
North State Journal reached out to the N.C. Department of Justice twice for comment on the lawsuits but received no response.
Earlier this year, lawmakers at the General Assembly sought to curb Jackson from entering into these types of lawsuits through Senate Bill 58. The bill, however, stalled out in mid-March and is still sitting in the House Rules Committee.
The bill sought to prohibit Jackson from suing or participating in a lawsuit against the Trump administration in any action that would result in the invalidation of a presidential executive order.
Senate Bill 58’s language would also block Jackson from advancing “any argument as a participant in any action pending before a state or federal court in another state that would result in the invalidation of any statute enacted by the General Assembly.”
came Oct. 22, exactly two months after Zarutska’s murder. He is currently being held without bond.
The court-ordered release of the footage was included in a press release by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police (CMPD) on Nov. 25. The eight video clips span two 911 calls made by Brown on Jan. 19.
The rst call occurred at approximately 9:22 p.m., with CMPD o cers responding to a welfare check in the 200 block of Hawthorne Lane after Brown, 34, called 911. According to the footage, Brown reported that he believed a “man-made material” had been placed inside his body and was controlling his movements, and he wanted police to investigate.
During the 28-minute interaction, o cers tried to deescalate the situation and repeated-
“An involuntary commitment (IVC) was not obtained in this incident, as Brown did not express intent to harm himself or others.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
ly told Brown to go to a hospital for a medical evaluation. Brown became upset when o cers declined to investigate his claims.
While o cers were still on the scene, Brown called 911 a second time, demanding additional o cers respond to investigate the same concerns. He was then arrested and charged with misuse of the 911 system.
“An involuntary commitment
Jackson’s lawsuits
The lawsuits below, in chronological order, are broken down by month, followed by the total number of lawsuit announcements. Most of the list was compiled from North Carolina Department of Justice press releases.
January (2): N.C. joins lawsuit against Trump birthright order; Jackson sues to block freeze on federal funds
February (3): Jackson wins temporary restraining order to protect people’s data from DOGE; Jackson wins temporary restraining order to prevent unlawful health care cuts; Jackson supports federal government’s e orts to protect preventive health care
April (2): Jackson sues over unlawful $230 million cuts to North Carolinians’ health care; Jackson wins injunction to support western North Carolina recovery
June (2): Jackson advocates to protect nearly $42 million in N.C. law enforcement funding; Jackson takes legal action to defend North Carolinians’ access to critical information during natural disasters
July (3): Jackson joins lawsuit over federal education funding freeze; Jackson joins lawsuit over FEMA program funding; Jackson challenges lack of transparency in federal spending
August (1): Jackson joins labor union lawsuit
“Love one another — as I have loved you.” If we love thus, we will sacri ce anything that Christ’s name may not su er dishonor. Christ built his kingdom by loving and giving himself; we must do the same. We are saved only by his sacri cial love, and we can serve him and others only through sacri cial service.
“As I have loved you” means loving to the uttermost. We must give our lives for the brethren as Christ gave his life for us. We must stop at no cost or e ort in helping and lifting others. Christian love is not a ected by a person’s past or present condition. To love as Christ loved is to love the least and worst until they are lifted up and transformed. To love as Christ loved is to take his love into our own lives — to live gently, patiently, humbly, kindly, forgivingly, and self-denyingly. This is not easy — but Christ’s love was not easy. Much that we call “love” is merely pleasant feeling or gilded sel shness. True love sacri ces, bears, forgives, and endures that others may be blessed.
That is the love that we are to have in our homes, in our friendships, in our business relations, in our companionships. Yes, it costs — you must give up things and pleasures you greatly want. But nothing is truly love that will not sacri ce.
J. R. Miller (1840-1912) was a pastor and former editorial superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Publication from 1880 to 1911. His works are now in the public domain. This is an edited version of his original.
(IVC) was not obtained in this incident, as Brown did not express intent to harm himself or others,” CMPD’s press release states. “An IVC is a legal process that allows an individual to be placed in a treatment facility, regardless of their willingness to go. This process is only pursued when a person experiencing a mental health crisis indicates they may pose a danger to themselves or others.”
CMPD’s Community Policing Crisis Response Team had responded to three similar calls in 2024 made by Brown that also referenced a “man-made material.” According to CMPD, services and assistance were offered during those instances, but Brown refused.
NELL REDMOND / AP PHOTO
Je Jackson, pictured during a campaign event last year in Charlotte, has actively faced o against the Trump administration since becoming attorney general in January.
October (3): Jackson moves to prevent reportedly corrupt HPE/Juniper Networks merger settlement; Jackson sues to win back more than $150 million to lower North Carolinians’ energy costs; Jackson sues USDA for withholding more than $230 million in monthly food assistance to North Carolinians, including 600,000 children
November (1): Jackson sues to protect $17 million for N.C.’s emergency management and rst responders
NELL REDMOND / AP PHOTO
Flowers and photos are left near the tracks where Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on a Charlotte commuter train in August.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
“Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet” by Jacopo Tintoretto (c. 1548) is a painting in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
4 judicial seats on ’26 statewide ballot
The one state Supreme Court seat and three Court of Appeals seats are all held by Democrats
By A.P. Dillon North State Journal
RALEIGH — Seats on North Carolina’s two top courts will be on the ballot in 2026: one on the Supreme Court and three on the Court of Appeals. All four seats are currently held by Democrats.
For both courts, judges are elected statewide and serve eight-year terms.
On the North Carolina Supreme Court, Democratic Associate Justice Anita Earls is facing her rst reelection bid since winning the seat against incumbent Republican Associate Justice Barbara Jackson in 2018 by more than 15% of the vote.
But Jackson wasn’t the only Republican on the ballot; she was joined by Chris Anglin, who registered as a Republican 11 days before ling to run for the seat. His campaign was run by longtime Democratic political operative Perry Woods, and he drew enough votes o Jackson for Earls to win.
During her 2018 run, Earls was backed by former President Barack Obama’s U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who traveled to North Carolina on at
Democrats need to pick up just a handful of seats to win control of the House and impede Trump’s agenda. Besides North Carolina, Republican-led legislatures or commissions in Texas, Missouri and Ohio all have adopted new districts designed to boost Republicans’ chances next year.
In California, voters countered by adopting new districts drawn to improve Democrats’ chances of winning more seats. And the Democratic-led Virginia General Assembly also has taken a step toward redistricting with a proposed constitutional amendment.
Thus far, many lower courts have blocked Trump’s initiatives, only for the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court to put those rulings on hold. That includes a recent ruling in Texas, where a redrawn U.S. House map was engineered to give Republicans ve more House seats.
North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly gave nal approval on Oct. 22 to the redrawn map. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s approval wasn’t needed.
North Carolina Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said last week’s court decision “thwarts the radical left’s latest attempt to circumvent the will
Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry), pictured in September, is challenging Associate Justice Anita Earls in next year’s election for a
least one occasion to campaign for her. Obama and Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee dropped half a million dollars into the North Carolina Democratic Party’s co ers in 2018 but only donated to and endorsed one North Carolina candidate, Earls. Along with then-Attorney General Josh Stein, Earls was tapped by former Gov. Roy Cooper to co-chair his Racial Equity in Criminal Justice task force. Cooper’s task force has been used in early campaigning for
next year’s U.S. Senate race by Republican Michael Whatley as evidence of Cooper’s “soft on crime policies” while governor in the state.
Earls will face North Carolina statehouse Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry), who announced her bid to unseat Earls in May.
On the North Carolina Court of Appeals, there are three seats on the ballot:
• Seat 1: John Arrowood
• Seat 2: Toby Hampson
• Seat 3: Allegra Collins
Collins announced in a LinkedIn post in late May that she will not be seeking reelection.
Two Democrats, James Whalen and Christine Walczyk, have indicated they will run for Collins’ seat.
Whalen was one of the attorneys representing Associate Justice Allison Riggs during her 2024 election legal battles. Walczyk, who has already grabbed an endorsement from former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, is a Wake County District Court judge.
After sweeping statewide judicial races in 2020 and 2022, Republicans currently hold a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court and an 11-4 majority on the Court of Appeals.
The high court maintained the 5-2 majority during the 2024
of the people” in a state that voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. “As Democrat-run states like California do everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans went to work to protect the America First Agenda,” Berger’s statement said.
“North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and this new
map re ects that support,” said Berger. “President Trump deserves a Congress that will ght for American citizens and move his agenda forward. Today’s decision thwarts the radical left’s latest attempt to circumvent the will of the people.”
But others called the decision a bad one.
“This ruling gives blessing to what will be the most gerrymandered congressional map in state history, a map that intentionally retaliates against vot-
election cycle when Riggs was declared the winner against Republican Je erson Gri n, a Court of Appeals judge, after a lengthy legal battle. Riggs won by 734 votes, or 0.02%.
Riggs was an attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice when Cooper appointed her to the appeals court on Dec. 15, 2022. Before Earls’ run in 2018, she and Riggs were partners at that rm.
In September 2023, Cooper elevated Riggs to the Supreme Court to ll the seat of Democrat Mike Morgan, who left the bench to embark on a 2024 gubernatorial bid.
During the 2022 Supreme Court seat elections, Republicans Richard Dietz and Trey Allen beat Democrats Lucy Inman and Sam Irvin by around 5% of the vote in each race. Irvin was a rst-term incumbent associate justice who took o ce in 2016.
For the 2022 Court of Appeals seats, Republican Julie Flood beat Democrat Carolyn Thompson, appointed by Cooper to ll Riggs’ seat. Republican Michael Stading defeated Democrat and former legislator Darren Jackson. Additionally, incumbent Court of Appeals Republicans Donna Stroud and John Tyson were reelected.
The 2020 election saw Republicans win all ve Court of Appeals seats on the ballot. Republican winners who were new to
ers in eastern North Carolina for supporting a candidate not preferred by the majority party,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.
The ruling covers two lawsuits.
One led by the state NAACP, Common Cause and voters sought a preliminary injunction on First Amendment grounds. They said Republican lawmakers unconstitutionally targeted North Carolina’s “Black Belt” instead of Democratic-voting areas with higher white populations because in 2024 they organized and voted for their preferred candidates and had sued over the 2023 con guration of the district.
In the second lawsuit, led by voters, the case for a preliminary injunction rested in part on an argument that the use of ve-year-old Census data due to the mid-decade redrawing of districts violates the Constitution, including the 14th Amendment’s one-person, one-vote guarantee. Additionally, they said, mapmakers relied on race in violation of the First and 14th Amendments.
Attorneys for the Republican lawmakers argued that their map-drawing intentions were political and allowable, not racial, and were part of a “nationwide partisan redistricting arms race.” They rejected assertions about old
the court included April Wood, Fred Gore, Je Carpenter and Gri n. Incumbent Court of Appeals judge Chris Dillon also secured reelection that year. Also in 2020, Republicans won all three of the seats on the ballot that year, including Republican Paul Newby defeating Cooper-appointed Democrat Cheri Beasley for the chief justice spot.
Newby was declared the winner after Beasley conceded following a series of election challenges, and he was installed as the state’s 30th chief justice on Jan. 1, 2021.
The other two seats were won by Republicans Tamara Barringer and Phil Berger Jr., who defeated their Democrat opponents Mark Davis and Lucy Inman, respectively.
Statewide judicial races in North Carolina over the decades have been both partisan and nonpartisan.
When Republicans began winning more judicial races under the partisan ballot labeling structure during the late ’90s through 2002, Democrats, who controlled the General Assembly at the time, changed laws to make the races nonpartisan. That change was reversed after Republicans took majorities in both chambers following the 2010 Tea Party wave. The judicial races became partisan again through House Bill 100, a 2017 measure passed by the General Assembly and later enacted after overriding Cooper’s veto. Earls’ 2018 election was the rst partisan state Supreme Court election since 2002.
Census data and retaliation over activities protected by the First Amendment, saying they don’t align with Supreme Court precedent.
Republicans now hold 10 of the state’s 14 House seats — thanks to the 2023 map — and hope to ip an 11th under the latest redrawing of the 1st District and the adjoining 3rd District. In North Carolina, Trump got 51% of the popular vote in 2024 and statewide elections are often close. Candidate ling for many 2026 North Carolina races began Monday.
The latest challenge said the October map would drop the black voting-age population in the 1st District from 40% in the 2023 map to 32%.
Republicans in part moved counties in the 1st District with signi cant black — and usually highly Democratic — populations to the 3rd District currently represented by Republican Greg Murphy. Recent election results indicate both the 1st and 3rd would favor Republicans. Many of the plainti s challenging the 1st District changes sued earlier over the 2023 House map, alleging that Republicans unlawfully diluted black voting power. But judges dismissed those claims.
North State Journal’s A.P. Dillon contributed to this report.
to the American Revolution, presented on “Revolutionary War Trail Opportunities,” including leveraging state-owned lands for historic trails.
Leonard highlighted existing trails, easements and low- cost enhancements like signage as “great opportunities” to prioritize for the 250th celebrations. His presentation emphasized the Overmountain Victory Trail and the “Race to the Dan” campaign.
“These are things where we have already existing opportunities that all we need to do is take advantage of them,” Leonard said. “And again, I think there are people in this room who can help us take advantage of them.”
Alexander thanked Leonard for the presentation and commented the committee would see what they could do about approaching some of the agencies involved as well as funding from the legislature to develop some of the trails.
Rep. John Torbett (R-Gaston) presented on the “First in Freedom” license plate, discussing its history, design and its original issuance for the bicentennial (1975-80). Torbett
noted the plate was also brought back to honor the Mecklenburg Declaration (May 20, 1775) and Halifax Resolves (April 12, 1776).
“I’ll leave you with Franklin’s words, ‘A republic, if you can keep it’,” Torbett said in closing after urging bringing the plate back for the 250th. “So let’s keep it.”
The committee also received a presentation by Dixie Abernathy titled “In Honor of Our Semiquincentennial: The Ancestral Tree and Patriotic Journey of a Great North Carolina Family.”
Abernathy, a former North Carolina Teacher of the Year and Queens University professor, discussed a three-book trilogy covering the Revolutionary War, post-Civil War recovery and World War II patriotism. She concluded her overview of the books by tying Stuart W. Kramer Jr.’s military exploits and his family’s story of “faith” and “patriotism” to the upcoming 250th anniversary.
In other business, committee member Troy Kickler handed out copies of a committee-branded edition of the North Carolina and U.S. constitutions for public outreach purposes. He also gave an up -
date on working with a Texas museum regarding costs and locations for traveling artifact displays.
Grace Evangelista with the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources gave updates on the committee’s website, including the addition of monthly events, a national celebrations menu, committee member activities and photo submissions. Kickler told the committee members to send
photos and other media to him for placement on the site.
Upcoming planning for events like a celebratory special concert and an “American Constitution” feature lm was among the new business.
Paul Norcross, co-founder of the Celebrate America Foundation, announced a July 3, 2026, brass band and choir concert will be held at the High Point Theater with help of its rst contribution of $25,000
from the Polk Foundation.
“Sen. Alexander’s vision for a concert is coming to fruition,” Norcross told the committee. He said PBS has agreed to record it, adding, “So we’ve got to start raising money aggressively.”
David Garrigus, the lmmaker behind the lm, invited the committee to partner with him for a national screening tour of his lm, which centers on Constitution’s creation.
“This new feature lm unveils the dramatic creation of our Constitution,” said Garrigus, adding that the audience also gets to participate in a live Q&A with an expert panel.
Garrigus said he’s seeking $500 per event in matching funds for dozens of screenings in North Carolina following a similar model he used in Ohio.
Near the end of the meeting, Kickler proposed a letter be drafted commending the Raleigh Sons of the American Revolution chapter for recreating the N.C. Brigade Wagon, which is based on a Swiss artist’s 1781 sketch. A motion was made and passed that Kickler draft the letter and produce it at the next meeting of the committee, which Blackwell said would likely be in January 2026.
LINDSEY MORRISON / CIVIL WAR TRUST
Reenactors carry a banner honoring the Overmountain Victory Trail during a 235th anniversary ceremony for the 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain on Oct. 7, 2015.
AMERICA 250 from page A1 MAP from page A1
GARY D. ROBERTSON / AP PHOTO
State Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Burke), left and standing, presides over the Senate Committee on Elections while it considers legislation to redraw the state’s U.S. House district map at the Legislative O ce Building in October.
CHRIS SEWARD / AP PHOTO
spot on the state Supreme Court.
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end,
publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
EDITORIAL
| FRANK HILL
No income tax — really?
Reducing capital gains tax rates took truly herculean e orts as well.
ONE NEWS CHYRON scrolling across the screen caught my attention leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday. It shined forth like a neon light amidst all the rather mundane Black Friday advertisements and the pro and collegiate football games of the day.
This one almost screamed out to capture my attention: “President Trump Wants to Replace the Individual Income Tax with money from increasing tari s!”
Any conservative who has been involved with government or politics for any length of time would have been positively stunned to hear such a pronouncement at any time since the income tax was added as the 16th constitutional amendment in 1913. Cutting marginal tax rates on a progressive income scale was one major e ort during both the Kennedy and Reagan administrations. Reducing capital gains tax rates took truly herculean e orts as well.
To hear any U.S. president was proposing the elimination of personal income taxes was so unreal, I had to scroll through tons of news articles online just to see if it was true and not some AIgenerated joke.
Somehow, our new country survived from its beginning under our rst Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, until 1913 with revenues accruing almost totally from imposing tari s on foreign goods entering the U.S.
How was that possible, many should ask? For one thing, it would have been
EDITORIAL | STACEY MATTHEWS
almost suicidal for any politician early in our history to propose taxing the new American taxpayer with high rates on anything they owned or made while earning a living after having fought a war to get away from capricious kings and politicians in England who wanted to do exactly the same thing to support the British Empire.
On top of that, the young American republic was very lean at the federal level and left most of the governance to the state and local elected o cials. There were no entitlements to fund, and the military was still in transition from basically a voluntary militia to a professional navy and a small standing army ready to defend America if any foreign power such as Britain, France or Spain decided to invade.
Tari s on expensive foreign goods were enough to cover such a relatively small federal budget expense, especially when compared to the size and scope of the federal government today.
Current estimates put the amount of new tari income at $257 billion in 2025. To put that into perspective, individual income tax collection amounts to close to $2 trillion annually today. New tari s would have to bring in roughly 10 times the current amount to replace the amount that would be lost by eliminating income taxes, as great as that sounds to the 60% of Americans who pay income taxes.
All of which would still be technically, and maybe even mathematically, feasible had Congress and past presidents worked
Laughter changes everything
Laughter and warmth enveloped the home from start to nish to the extent that my mom remarked how it brought back good memories.
IT IS WITHOUT fail that, no matter who you are or where you are in life, you are going to have a bad day here or there, or go through a not-so-pleasant stretch of time when it will feel like things are falling apart and are beyond your ability to x.
While it’s not exactly breaking news that these things are bound to happen, what sometimes gets lost in the midst of the experience is that we can, to some extent, control how we manage to get through them, and that oftentimes involves doing more of one thing: laughing. Think about how you feel when you laugh. It involves rst cracking a smile, which, as I’ve written about before, is a powerful tool in and of itself. It’s an instant mood-lifter on a day that has been particularly trying.
When a smile extends into laughter, that deep, rich kind of laughter that lls your heart and makes your sides hurt, it’s a true game-changer. It makes getting through tough challenges a little (and in some cases a lot more) bearable. You have to be receptive to it, though. I admit there are days I’m not. Someone will try to make me laugh, and my initial response will be to crack a bare-minimum smile, preferring instead to do the whole
“su er in silence” thing. It’s a reaction that doesn’t help me through whatever situation I might be in, but I’m human and am, of course, prone to human failings.
But when I am receptive to it, my mood and my feelings of frustration ease up to a signi cant extent, making me feel more like I can successfully tackle whatever is put in front of me.
I went into Thanksgiving last week with a lot on my mind, having been hit with one thing after another (some big and some small) in the week or so leading up to it. And honestly, though I enjoy the holidays and spending time with family, I wasn’t sure I was going to be much company that day.
But I experienced an instant mood lift as soon as we drove up the driveway to my sister’s house. She and my other sister had walked outside to come help Mom get in the door safely and comfortably, and to assist me with getting everything in that I’d brought over.
They were both laughing as they walked to the car, and it gave me warm feelings, reminding me of way back when we all still lived together and shared the laughs that sisters often do, and of other more recent get-togethers where the smiles and laughs were plentiful.
together to balance budgets and not rung the bell over the past two decades to add tens of trillions to the national debt, which now stands at $36 trillion. Replacing the income tax with tari s would have been far easier without having to pay close to $1 trillion per year in interest on our existing national debt. That interest expense annually is three times the expected amount of new tari revenue alone.
Responsible adults have been warning of the dangers of expanding federal government spending and national debt for the past half-century. We have now painted ourselves into the proverbial corner when it comes to having the exibility to do things such as replace the income tax system with a consumption tax of some sort, which is what a tari winds up being. Instead of being scally prudent with the taxpayer dollar, we have allowed Congress and the White House to push the spend-now pedal through the oor like Thelma and Louise did before they ew into the canyon in 1991.
As attractive as the idea of eliminating personal income taxes may seem to people, don’t start planning that summer vacation in Tahiti just yet. For one thing, eliminating the income tax will most de nitely require action by Congress, rst in the House Ways and Means Committee and then in the Senate Finance Committee. Neither of which would be an easy task with a contentious midterm election coming up in 2026. With control of both the House and Senate up for grabs, attempting to accomplish such a task would make past arduous tax reform e orts look like child’s play by comparison, and worse yet, politically foolish.
In fact, the whole holiday was like that, with us laughing and carrying on. My brothers-in-law were very talkative and in good spirits too. Laughter and warmth enveloped the home from start to nish to the extent that my mom remarked how it brought back good memories for her. We left the house to return home that day, and my heart was so full, with me sincerely believing it was one of the nicest and most enjoyable holidays we’d had together in a long time. I was thankful not just for my family but also to God, who I know had answered a prayer I’d said earlier that morning when I was getting ready for the day’s events. It sounds cliché to say, but laughter really is good for the soul. As noted above, though it won’t solve all of your problems, it helps ease the stress levels associated with whatever mountain you’re having a tough time climbing.
Leave your heart open to it when times are tough. You’ll be surprised at the good it will do you.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
Trump right to strike narcoterrorist boats before they reach our shores
Stateless vessels enjoy no protections under the law of the sea.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S decision to authorize targeted strikes on drug-running vessels leaving the Venezuelan coast has drawn predictable criticism from academics and international bureaucrats. The truth is simple. These actions are lawful, justi ed and long overdue. And the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela created the very threat the United States is now forced to confront. As a state attorney general and a former combat veteran, I believe the legal case is solid and the national security need is undeniable.
For years, Venezuela has acted less like a sovereign nation and more like a staging ground and willing host for transnational cartels, terrorist a liates and organized criminal networks. Under Maduro’s corrupt and collapsing regime, this rogue country has become a launchpad for cocaine tra ckers, a sanctuary for violent groups and a partner of convenience for every antiAmerican actor in the hemisphere. These drug boats do not leave Venezuelan shores by accident. They leave because the regime pro ts from them. They leave because Caracas has abandoned any pretense of controlling its territory. And they leave because Maduro could not care less how many Americans overdose and die as a result.
That’s why Trump is right to act. These are not harmless shing ski s. They are stateless, un agged ghost vessels and semisubmersible craft designed to evade detection while carrying tons of deadly narcotics and fentanyl precursors. They have become the maritime arm of cartel empires that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. Our Congress recognized long ago that the United States has the authority to act against these threats before they make landfall.
The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act allows the United States to interdict stateless vessels or foreign- agged vessels with ag state consent. The Drug Tra cking Vessel Interdiction Act makes it a federal crime simply to operate certain unregistered craft on the high seas with intent to evade detection. These laws form a clear legal foundation for decisive action, and Trump is operating well within that authority.
COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO
The president’s critics try to frame this as reckless escalation. It is not. It is the natural extension of congressional judgment and the president’s constitutional authority to defend this nation. International law supports it too. Stateless vessels enjoy no protections under the law of the sea, and every nation retains the inherent right of self-defense. When drug networks operating openly o the coast of Venezuela push toxic chemicals and narcotics toward our border, the United States has every right, and our president has a sworn duty to stop them.
Maduro stole his last election and can’t be trusted to clean up this mess. A functioning, responsible government would never allow its coastal waters to become a superhighway for narcoterrorist groups. But Venezuela under Maduro is nothing more than a failed state propped up by criminal pro t. Its institutions are hollow. Its military is corrupt. And while its people su er, its leaders enrich themselves by enabling the very cartels tearing American communities apart.
As attorney general of South Carolina, I see rsthand the devastation these drugs in ict on my state’s families. Our sheri s, police chiefs and prosecutors do everything they can, but they are ghting a tough battle to protect our families. The challenge for all of us begins long before the poison reaches our borders, and Trump is right to take that ght to the source.
Strong leadership means confronting threats where they originate, and Trump understands that. Venezuela has enabled the cartels. And America is now safer because the president of the United States is taking action. God bless President Donald Trump.
Alan Wilson was elected South Carolina’s 51st attorney general in 2010. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
What is going on with the
At what point will AI’s promised productivity gains begin to match the scale of the investment poured into it?
THE FATE of the Trump administration — and perhaps Republicans in Congress — is tethered to how Americans feel about the economy. And right now, it’s hard to nd anyone who can say with con dence what the hell is going on.
Last Thursday o ered a fresh reminder of the chaos. As The Wall Street Journal noted, “Stocks surrendered gains and closed sharply lower after a whirlwind day of trading that began after Nvidia posted strong results. The Nasdaq composite led indexes lower after being up on the day more than 2%. It closed 2.2% lower. Nvidia gave up an even bigger gain and nished the day down 3.2%.”
Why the reversal? Because investors suspect there is, in fact, an arti cial intelligence bubble.
It’s not an unreasonable fear. History shows that every transformative technology — from automobiles to the internet — inspires waves of speculation. The presence of a bubble doesn’t mean the technology isn’t revolutionary; it simply means that early hype tends to sweep up both the winners and the doomed. For every Henry Ford, there were dozens of forgotten carmakers. The same was true of the dot-com era: Pets. com vanished, but the internet went on to reorganize modern life.
Arti cial intelligence is inspiring the same mix of excitement and dread. Some companies may never produce the margins to justify today’s investment frenzy. OpenAI, though not publicly traded, sits at the center of countless partnerships with massive rms like Oracle and Nvidia. If it stumbles, the shock could reverberate across the market.
The numbers fueling today’s optimism are staggering. As The New York Times reported, “It would not be a stretch to describe this period of hyperactive growth in the tech industry as a historic moment. Nvidia, which makes computer chips that are essential to building arti cial intelligence, said (last)
BE IN TOUCH
Stop the trial lawyer tax
TRIAL LAWYERS have been the bane of U.S. employers for many decades, sucking blood out of the economy like a swarm of mosquitos.
The most famous case was back in the 1990s, when the courts awarded a $500,000 judgment to a McDonald’s customer who claimed she was burned by co ee that was too scalding hot. Then there was the Washington man who sued a dry cleaner for $50 million for losing a pair of pants.
My favorite was the lawsuit against Bu alo Wild Wings alleging that their “boneless wings” weren’t actually made from deboned chicken wings. Bu alo Wild Wings retorted: “Our hamburgers contain no ham. Our bu alo wings are 0% bu alo.” A federal judge dismissed the class action lawsuit.
Trial lawyers are often “ambulance chasers” who pro t from others’ misery and misfortune, often through class action suits that make tens of millions of dollars for themselves but only a fraction of that for the injured parties. What a deal.
A famous RAND study found that roughly 80 cents of every dollar in damages paid to class action victims were absorbed by legal and administrative costs, and less than 20 cents made its way to the plainti s.
Excessive litigation is estimated to shrink the U.S. productive economy by up to $500 billion a year. Tort costs have exploded in recent years at an annual return of 7.1%, more than twice the in ation rate.
Yes, victims deserve to be compensated for corporate bad behavior, as a matter of justice and to deter dangerous and unlawful behavior.
But just because you have an injured party doesn’t mean you have a company villain. If everyone who breaks a leg skiing could sue the manufacturer of the skis, there would be no skiing.
Back in the 1990s, Republicans put a muzzle on the most rapacious lawyers and passed laws to protect businesses from the most outrageous harassment lawsuits. Lawsuit reform was part of the Republicans’ 1994 “Contract with America.” At that time, about 80% or more of the trial lawyers’ political contributions went into the co ers of the Democratic Party.
economy?
Wednesday that its quarterly pro t had jumped to nearly $32 billion, up 65 percent from a year earlier and 245 percent from the year before that. Just three weeks ago, Nvidia became the rst publicly traded company to be worth $5 trillion.” That’s more than Germany’s entire economy.
But even this explosion of wealth comes with a caveat. Much of the demand for Nvidia’s chips doesn’t mean consumers want AI right now — it means companies are racing to build massive AI systems in the hope that demand will materialize later. To some insiders, it looks less like a revolution and more like a house of cards.
This is the central question: At what point will AI’s promised productivity gains begin to match the scale of the investment poured into it? Until there’s clarity, markets will continue to swing wildly — and so will public con dence.
Workers, meanwhile, face their own concerns. Even if AI succeeds, technological progress has always brought job dislocation. Old roles disappear, new industries emerge, and the economy ultimately becomes more productive. People enjoy better goods at lower costs and work fewer hours than their grandparents did. But the transition is rarely painless.
Both truths can coexist: The United States may be on the cusp of a remarkable economic transformation, and the anxiety surrounding it may be entirely justi ed.
For now, Americans are left watching markets uctuate, industries reorganize, and fortunes rise and fall — all while wondering what exactly the future will bring.
And no government policy can fully soothe that uncertainty.
Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and co-founder of Daily Wire+.
Letters addressed to the editor may be sent to letters@nsjonline.com or 1201 Edwards Mill Rd., Suite 300, Raleigh, NC 27607. Letters may be edited for style, length or clarity when necessary. Ideas for op-eds should be sent to opinion@nsjonline.com.
Contact a writer or columnist: connect@northstatejournal.com
But now trial lawyers are courting the GOP and conservative leaders with a spate of lawsuits against Big Tech and Big Media, two industries that conservatives have traditionally felt are hostile to free markets and conservative values.
Compounding the problem is the new scam called “third-party litigation funding,” which allows law rms to court investors who will fund lawsuits in exchange for getting a share of the judgment if there is a guilty verdict.
Under this practice, unknown investors secretly bankroll lawsuits with “dark money” in the hopes of scoring big verdicts. What’s really nefarious is that the third-party investors, not the injured party, often walk away with the bulk of the jackpot awards.
These lawsuit investment funds are growing rapidly and captured more than $2 billion in new nancing agreements for 2024. The total assets of these funds have grown to $16.1 billion.
This method of encouraging and funding lawsuits is of questionable legality. But it most certainly should be transparent so that defendants and the public know the real economic interests behind those suing employers.
The problem with these arrangements is that juries think they are aiding the victim, when the jackpot award for damages can just as readily be directed to the bank accounts of the investment funds.
The good news is that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has sponsored the Litigation Transparency Act, which would require disclosure of these agreements in federal civil cases.
Some conservative groups are worried that this means they would have to disclose their donors, which could discourage giving. Issa tells us that this is absolutely not the case — donors don’t receive compensation, so they wouldn’t be disclosed in such cases.
Frivolous lawsuits make us all poorer — not just the company that gets targeted. This reduces investment, wages and risk-taking.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced billions of dollars in insurance premium savings, in part due to curtailing frivolous lawsuits advanced by trial lawyer sharks. In other words, a good way to increase a ordability is to reduce legal costs and the trial lawyer tax.
The rest of the country should emulate Florida and end the scams behind thirdparty litigation.
Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity.
Murphy to Manteo
’Tis e season
The holiday season in North Carolina arrives with a feeling of warmth and celebration that stretches from the mountains to the coast.
Wildlife o cials to help elk with toddler swing stuck in antlers
Haywood County An elk with a toddler’s swing entangled in its antlers was seen by Maggie Valley residents last Friday and was reported to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The Haywood County Sheri ’s O ce said it was aware of the elk and had contacted the NCWRC. The NCWRC said a biologist was on the way to the elk and would also provide updates. “We are grateful for our partners at N.C. Wildlife for their quick support, and we appreciate the community members who reported this situation. We care deeply about our local elk population — they are a cherished and iconic part of Maggie Valley,” said Gina Zachary, the public information o cer with the Haywood County Sheri ’s O ce. NCWRC has tips on its website for viewing elk and what to do if anyone sees a distressed elk in the wild. WLOS
bene ts and health care during the nearly six-week government shutdown in October and November. WBTV
PIEDMONT
Man dies after falling into active re pit
Rockingham County
The Rockingham County Sheri ’s O ce is investigating after a man fell into an active re pit and died. According to a press release, on Saturday at 12:11 a.m., the RCSO responded to a reported death in the 300 block of Brushy Mountain Road in Stoneville. Kenneth Dalton, 47, was found dead in his backyard with severe burns on his body. Investigators believe no foul play is involved.
NSJ
Greensboro developer Kotis’ $52M federal ruling in jeopardy
Guilford County
The federal government has appealed an April court decision that awarded Greensboro developer Kotis Associates $52 million in a property takings case involving the city’s rails-to-trails greenway. In a court brief, the U.S. Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division agency said the Court of Federal Claims made several mistakes regarding the proper width of the rights-of-way and how their presence should a ect the value of the land they’re on.
WGHP
NASCAR elite face court battle this week
Mecklenburg County Michael Jordan’s ght against NASCAR headed to federal court Monday in a jury trial that could rip apart the top motorsports series in the United States. The antitrust allegations leveled by Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have exposed salacious personal communications, NASCAR’s nances, and a deep contempt between some top executives in the sport and its participants.
Three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who owns 23XI alongside Jordan and less than a month ago came up just short of his rst Cup Series championship, warned this weekend that the two-week trial in the Western District of North Carolina will be contentious. At issue is the charter system, introduced in 2016, which is NASCAR’s version of the franchise model used by most other professional sports leagues. Being chartered guarantees that car a spot in the 40-car eld for all 38 races, as well as a de ned payout from the weekly purse.
WBTV
EAST
Juveniles identi ed in gun threat on ECU campus
Pitt County ECU police have identi ed a group of boys they believe are responsible for pointing a gun at a pedestrian on campus last week near the ECU Eakin Student Recreation Center. Police now say they have identi ed the suspects, and the group ranges in age from 8 to 14 years old. Authorities believe the suspects used a BB gun that was modi ed by removing the orange safety tip, which made the weapon look more realistic.
WITN
Corrections o cer charged with smuggling drugs into prison
Man charged with using fake money around town
Wayne County A Goldsboro man was arrested after several cases of someone using counterfeit cash were reported at businesses last month in the city, police said last week. The case dates to Oct. 18, when o cers “began receiving multiple calls concerning an individual using counterfeit currency” at businesses, according to a Goldsboro Police Department news release. The fake money was stamped with “For Motion Picture Purposes,” the release said. NSJ
Nash County A woman who works for a Nash County prison is facing several charges after deputies said they found narcotics in her vehicle they believe she intended to smuggle into Nash Correctional Institute. According to the Nash County Sheri ’s O ce, deputies were contacted last Wednesday by people who work at the adult correctional facility. Deputies said a corrections o cer was trying to smuggle contraband inside the prison. Upon arrival, deputies said they were able to search the o cer’s vehicle after gathering information from sta at NCI and talking with the o cer, 37-year-old Shanese Shante Sanders. Deputies said they found approximately 98 grams of synthetic cannabinoid K2 and 19 grams of Suboxone wrapped in clear plastic during their probable cause search in Sanders’ car. According to court documents, Sanders was conspiring to smuggle drugs with 44-year-old Antonio Marquese Geter, who is serving 41½ years for charges stemming from a 2004 shooting in Catawba County.
WNCN
Rep.
NATION & WORLD
Trump extends White House invite to family of fallen Guard member
One was killed and another is in critical condition after last Wednesday’s shooting in Washington, D.C.
By Sophia Tareen
The Associated Press
PRESIDENT DONALD
Trump on Sunday said he’s invited the family of a National Guard member fatally shot last week to the White House, saying he spoke to her parents and they were “devastated.”
U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom died after last Wednesday’s shooting in Washington, D.C., while her seriously injured colleague, U.S. Air Force Sta Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remained in critical condition.
The president said he’s discussed a White House visit for the parents of both members of the West Virginia National Guard.
“I said, ‘When you’re ready, because that’s a tough thing, come to the White House. We’re going to honor Sarah,” Trump told reporters. “And likewise with Andrew, recover or not.”
In recent days, local vigils in West Virginia have honored the soldiers, including one Saturday evening at Webster County High School, where Beckstrom attended classes.
“Sarah was the kind of student that teachers hoped for, she carried herself with quiet strength, a contagious smile and a positive energy that lifted people around her,” said Gabriel Markle, the school’s principal. “She was sweet, caring and always willing to help others.”
Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24 were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard
National Guard member and Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom was killed in last Wednesday’s shooting in Washington, D.C.
as part of Trump’s aggressive crime- ghting plan that federalized the D.C. police force.
A 29-year-old Afghan national faces one count of rst-degree murder and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed in the shooting, which prompted the Trump administration to halt all asylum decisions and pause issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports. Funeral arrangements had not been nalized for Beckstrom, according to Cathy Pettry, the owner of Dodd & Reed Funeral Home in Webster Springs. Pettry said Saturday the home has been in contact with Beckstrom’s family about services.
The hometown crowd, seated in bleachers and folding chairs, lit candles as they heard from clergy and Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who said he had visited Wolfe’s family earlier in the day.
Wolfe, of Martinsburg, entered service in February 2019. He had graduated from Musselman High School in 2019, according to Berkeley County Schools.
He remained hospitalized and “ ghting for his life,” Morrisey said the following day during an interview with Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Brie ng.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told “Fox News Sunday” that she also planned
to meet with Wolfe’s family. Morrisey called it a challenging time for the state.
Calling Beckstrom a “favorite daughter of Webster County,” he said he quickly learned about her reputation as someone with a big heart who loved to serve others. Beckstrom, of Summersville, graduated in June 2023 and enlisted that month. She served with distinction as a military police o cer, according to the West Virginia National Guard. “She had a lot of kindness and she certainly had courage,” Morrisey told the crowd during Saturday’s vigil. “Though her life lasted far too short, she has left a mark that’s going to last forever.”
Princess Aiko’s popularity sparks calls to change Japan’s male-only succession law
Emperor Naruhito’s teenage nephew is currently the only eligible heir from the younger generation
By Mari Yamaguchi
The Associated Press
TOKYO — Japan’s beloved Princess Aiko is often cheered like a pop star.
During a visit to Nagasaki with Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, the sound of her name being screamed by well-wishers along the roads overwhelmed the cheers for her parents.
She turned 24 on Monday, and her supporters want to change Japan’s male-only succession law, which prohibits Aiko, the emperor’s only child, from becoming monarch.
Along with frustration that the discussion on succession rules has stalled, there’s a sense of urgency. Japan’s shrinking monarchy is on the brink of extinction. Naruhito’s teenage nephew is the only eligible heir from the younger generation.
Experts say the female ban should be lifted before the royal family dies out, but conservative lawmakers, including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, oppose the change.
Aiko has gained admirers since debuting as an adult royal in 2021, when she impressed the public as intelligent, friendly, caring and funny.
Support for Aiko as a future monarch increased following her rst solo o cial overseas trip to Laos in November, representing the emperor. During
the six-day visit, she met with top Laotian o cials, visited cultural and historical venues and met with locals.
Earlier this year, Aiko accompanied her parents to Nagasaki and Okinawa. She has followed the example set by her father, who places great importance on passing down the tragedy of WWII to younger generations.
Ikuko Yamazaki, 62, has been using social media to advocate for the succession of the emperor’s rst child regardless of gender. She says not having Aiko as a successor and the insistence on male-only monarchs will cause the monarchy to die out.
“The succession system conveys the Japanese mindset regarding gender issues,” Yamazaki said. “I expect having a female monarch would dramatically improve
women’s status in Japan.”
The 1947 Imperial House Law only allows male-line succession and forces female royals who marry commoners to lose their royal status.
The rapidly dwindling Imperial Family has 16 members, down from 30 three decades ago. All are adults.
Naruhito has only two potential younger male heirs: his 60-year-old younger brother, Crown Prince Akishino, and Akishino’s 19-year-old son, Prince Hisahito. Prince Hitachi, former Emperor Akihito’s younger brother and third in line to the throne, is 90.
Akishino acknowledged the aging and shrinking royal population, “but nothing can be done under the current system.”
“I think all we can do right now is to scale back our o cial duties,” he told reporters ahead
Texas Congressman Nehls to retire in 2026
Washington, D.C.
Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas announced Saturday that he will retire from Congress after his term ends in 2026 to focus on family. Nehls, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, said on social media that he was endorsing his twin brother, Trever, to succeed him in Congress. Troy Nehls entered Congress in 2021 after about three decades in law enforcement and more than two decades in the Army Reserve. Nehls won his district, which is southwest of Houston, by more than 24 percentage points.
Trump commutes sentence of private equity executive
Hallandale Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of former investment manager David Gentile, who was convicted of defrauding investors — the latest in a series of clemency actions Trump has taken in white-collar criminal cases. Gentile had reported to prison on Nov. 14, just days before Trump commuted his sentence, according to a White House o cial who requested anonymity to provide details of the clemency action. Gentile had been the CEO and co-founder of GPB Capital, which had raised $1.6 billion in capital to acquire companies in the auto, retail, health care and housing sectors. He had been sentenced to seven years in prison after an August 2024 conviction.
More than 800 missing after ooding in Southeast Asian Padang Sidempuan, Indonesia
of his 60th birthday Sunday. Japan traditionally had male emperors, but there have also been eight female monarchs. The last was Gosakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770.
The male-only succession rule became law in 1889 and was carried over to the postwar 1947 Imperial House Law.
Experts say the system had only previously worked with the help of concubines who, until about 100 years ago, produced half of the past emperors.
The government proposed allowing a female monarch in 2005, but Hisahito’s birth allowed nationalists to scrap the proposal.
In 2022, a largely conservative expert panel called on the government to maintain its male-line succession while allowing female members of the family to keep their royal status after marriage and continue their o cial duties. The conservatives also proposed adopting male descendants from defunct distant branches of the royal family to continue the male lineage, an idea seen as unrealistic.
The United Nations women’s rights committee in Geneva urged the Japanese government last year to allow a female emperor, saying that not doing so hindered gender equality in Japan.
Japan dismissed the report as “regrettable” and “inappropriate,” saying the imperial succession is a matter of fundamental national identity.
“Though it’s not spelled out, what they’re saying is clearly in favor of male superiority. That’s their ideal society,” Kawanishi, the professor, said.
More than 800 people remained missing Monday after devastating oods killed over 1,000 people last week in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The ooding and landslides killed at least 604 people in Indonesia, 366 in Sri Lanka and 176 in Thailand, authorities said. More than half a million people have been displaced in the region, and water and electrical services were working to be restored.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto urged the world to combat climate change in the aftermath of the disaster.
ICC rejects request to release Duterte from custody
The Hague, Netherlands
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will remain in detention at the International Criminal Court after appeals judges on Friday rejected a request to release him on health grounds. The octogenarian is facing charges of crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement in dozens of killings as part of his so-called war on drugs when in o ce, rst as the mayor of a southern city and later as president. Duterte’s lawyers failed to show that an October decision by the lower chamber was unreasonable, Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza said, addressing the full courtroom in The Hague.
KYODO NEWS VIA AP
Japanese Emperor Naruhito, center left, Empress Masako, center right, and Princess Aiko, right, listen to Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki, left, as they visit the cenotaph for the atomic bombing victims at the peace park in Nagasaki on Sept. 12.
KATHLEEN BATTEN / AP PHOTO
CUMBERLAND NOTICE
ESTATE OF: ISAAC BENNETT Administrator’s NOTICE
The undersigned, having qualited as Administrator of the estate of Isaac Bennett, deceased, late of Cumberland County, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before the 27th day of February , 2026, (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recov-ery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This 27th day of November 2025. Tevi Bennett 1338 Fairmont St. Durham, NC 27713 Administrator of the estate of Isaac Bennett, deceased
Notice to Creditors
The undersigned, Kevin Brown, administrator of the Estate of Clara Jean Brown, deceased, late of Cumberland County, hereby noti es all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said estate to present their claim to the undersigned on or before the 27th day of February, 2026, (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All debtors of the decedent are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned.
This 19th day of November, 2025 Kevin Brown 5906 Lacebark Ln, Durham, NC 27713 of the estate of Clara Jean Brown, deceased
NOTICE
Notice to Creditors Ad – Ruth Mae (Penny) Bryan In The General Court of Justice Superior Court Division Before the Clerk STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA CUMBERLAND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE
The undersigned having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Ruth Mae (Penny) Bryan, deceased of Cumberland County this is to notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before the 20th day of February, 2026 (which date is three months after the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This is the 20th day of November, 2025. Please send correspondence to: Estate of Ruth Bryan, 3113 Braddock Drive, Fayetteville, NC 28301. To run 11/20, 11/27, 12/4, 12/11 Administrator of the Estate of Ruth Mae (Penny) Bryan
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Estate of A. Bryan Carr, Jr. a/k/a Alvis Bryan Carr, Jr. Cumberland County Estate File No. 25E001683-250 All persons, rms and corporations having claims against A. Bryan Carr, Jr. a/k/a Alvis Bryan Carr, Jr.,
Deceased, of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are noti ed to present their claims to Alvis Bryan Carr, III, Administrator of the Estate of A. Bryan Carr, Jr. a/k/a Alvis Bryan Carr, Jr., at 3114 Drury Lane, Fayetteville, NC 28303, on or before the 13th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. Debtors of A. Bryan Carr, Jr. a/k/a Alvis Bryan Carr, Jr. are requested to make immediate payment to the Administrator named above.
This the 13th day of November, 2025. Alvis Bryan Carr, III, Administrator of the Estate of A. Bryan Carr, Jr. a/k/a Alvis Bryan Carr, Jr. Williford McCauley - Attorney for the Estate of A. Bryan Carr, Jr. a/k/a Alvis Bryan Carr, Jr. Mailing address: P. O. Box 53606 Fayetteville, NC 28305 Physical address: 235 Green Street Fayetteville, NC 28301
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Estate of Betty Hyde Carr a/k/a Betty H. Carr a/k/a
Betty Sue H. Carr Cumberland County Estate File No. 25E000535-250 All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Betty Hyde Carr a/k/a Betty H. Carr a/k/a Betty Sue H. Carr, Deceased, of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are noti ed to present their claims to Alvis Bryan Carr, III, Executor of the Estate of Betty Hyde Carr a/k/a Betty H. Carr a/k/a Betty Sue H. Carr, at 3114 Drury Lane, Fayetteville, NC 28303, on or before the 13th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. Debtors of Betty Hyde Carr a/k/a Betty H. Carr a/k/a Betty Sue H. Carr are requested to make immediate payment to the Executor named above. This the 13th day of November, 2025. Alvis Bryan Carr, III, Executor of the Estate of Betty Hyde Carr a/k/a Betty H. Carr a/k/a Betty Sue H. Carr Williford McCauley - Attorney for the Estate of Betty Hyde Carr a/k/a Betty H. Carr a/k/a Betty Sue H. Carr Mailing address: P. O. Box 53606 Fayetteville, NC 28305 Physical address: 235 Green Street Fayetteville, NC 28301
NOTICE IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIORCOURT DIVISON ESTATE FILE # 25E001731-250 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Carolyn E. Epps, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent of exhibit them to the undersigned at 1204 Stans eld Drive Fayetteville, NC 28303 on or before February 20, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms, and corporations indebted to the said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. Dated this 12th day of November, 2025.
NOTICE
ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTICE IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION ESTATE FILE 25E001659-250
State of North Carolina Cumberland County NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as the Administrator of the Estate of Kathy Diane Averitte Culbreth, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms or corporations having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at 262 Rock Hill Road, Fayetteville, North Carolina 28312, on or before February 13, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 13th day of November, 2025. Alex Christopher Culbreth Administrator of the Estate of Kathy Diane Averitte Culbreth, Deceased c/o Gilliam Law Firm, PLLC J. Duane Gilliam, Jr., Attorney PO Box 53555 Fayetteville, NC 28305
11/13/2025, 11/20/2025, 11/27/2025 and 12/4/2025
NOTICE
STATE OF NORTH County of Cumberland
In The General Court Of Justice Superior Court Division Estate File # 25E001785-250 Executor’s Notice The undersigned, having quali ed as executor of the Estate of Mrs. Hattie Mace Fowler, deceased, late of Cumberland County, hereby noti es all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said estate to present their claim to the undesigned on or before the 4 day of March, 2026, (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All Debtors of the decedent are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned. This 4th day of December, 2026. Executor 1019 Hillsboro Street Fayetteville, NC 28301 Of the Estate of Hattie Mace Fowler, Deceased
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
All persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the Estate of Scott William Galley, deceased, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are hereby noti ed to present their claims to the undersigned Executor, Lourdes Galley, on or before February 13, 2026 (which date is 3 months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
Anyone who believes they are owed money by the estate should contact the Executor in writing at the address listed below to ensure proper consideration of their claim. All claims must be submitted in writing and received by the deadline stated above, or they may be barred by law. All persons indebted to the estate are asked to make payment promptly.
This the 11th day of November, 2025.
Lourdes Galley, Executor Estate of Scott William Galley 6912 Saint Julian Way Fayetteville, NC 28314
NOTICE
State of North Carolina In The General Court of Justice County of Cumberland Superior Court Division Estate File # 25E001678-250 Administrator’s/ Executor’s Notice
The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Keith Edward Garner (AKA Edward Kenneth Gardner), deceased, late of Cumberland County, hereby noti es all persons, rms, and Corporations having claims against said estate to present their claim to the undersigned on or before the 16 day of February, 2026, (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All debtors of the decedent are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned. This 11 day of November, 2025. Brooks Gardner___ Administrator 1708 Autumn Ridge Dr. Durham, NC 27712 Of the Estate of Keith Edward Garner (AKA Edward Kenneth Gardner), Deceased.
NOTICE
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA CUMBERLAND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE
The undersigned having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Gregory G. Gates, deceased, late of Cumberland County, hereby noti es all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said estate to present their claim to the undersigned on or before the 4th day for March 2026 (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All debtors of the decedent are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned. This 24th day of November 2025. Stephanie Keating 289 Tree Pharm Dr St. Pauls, NC 28384 Executor of the Estate of Gregory G. Gates.
NOTICE
State of North Carolina County of Cumberland
In The General Court of Justice Superior Court Division Estate File # 25E001730-250 Administrator’s/Executor’s Notice
The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of David H. Gordon, deceased, late of Cumberland County, hereby noti es all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before the 13th day of February, 2026, (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All Debtors of the decedent are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned. This 9th day of November, 2025. Executor of the Estate of David H. Gordon: Anita Gordon, 637 Appalachin Dr., Fayetteville, NC 28311
NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION ESTATE FILE NO. 25E001704-250 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Fulton Harvey Gore, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at 2517 Raeford Road, Fayetteville, NC 28305, on or before February 20, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms, and corporations indebted to the said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. Dated this 20th day of November, 2025. Nicholas A. Gore, Executor of the Estate of Fulton Harvey Gore NICOLE A. CORLEY MURRAY & CORLEY, P.A. N.C. BAR NO. 56459 2517 RAEFORD ROAD FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28305 – 3007 (910) 483 – 4990 COUNSEL FOR EXECUTOR
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
ESTATE OF MIHOKO KNOX
CUMBERLAND County Estate File No. 25E001672-250
All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Mihoko Knox, deceased, of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are noti ed to present their claims to Jewett D. Brown, Executor, at 1416 Elma St., Spring Lake, NC 28390, on or before the 5th day of March, 2026 (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice), or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. Debtors of the Decedent are requested to make immediate payment to the Executor named above. This the 25th day of November, 2025. Jewett D. Brown Executor of the Estate of Mihoko Knox Davis W. Puryear Hutchens Law Firm Attorneys for the Estate 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, NC 28311 Run dates: December 4, December 11, December 18 and December 25, 2025
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA
CUMBERLAND COUNTY
IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NUMBER: 25E001684-250
In the Matter of the Estate of: PATSY MAXWELL
Deceased.
EXECUTOR’S NOTICE
The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Patsy Maxwell, deceased, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before February 20, 2026 (which is three (3) months after the day of the rst publication of this notice), or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. THIS the 20th day of November, 2025.
David Emmitt Maxwell, Jr., Executor of the Estate of Patsy Maxwell, Deceased c/o J. Thomas Neville Yarborough, Winters & Neville, P.A. P.O. Box 705 Fayetteville, NC 28302-0705
Publish: 11/20/2025, 11/27/2025, 12/04/2025 and 12/11/2025
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Kathe L. Nelson, deceased, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at 87 Kimbrough Dr., Lillington, NC 27546, on or before February 20, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment. This the November 18, 2026. Derek Nelson, Executor of the Estate of Kathe L. Nelson 87 Kimbrough Drive Lillington, NC 27546
NOTICE
In The General Court of Justice Superior Court Division Before the Clerk Estate File #10E-633 STATE OF NORTH
CAROLINA CUMBERLAND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE
The undersigned having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of, Goldie Smith Golden Xlanton McMillan Smith CUMBERLAND COUNTY deceased, late of Cumberland County, this is to notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned an or before the 20th day of February 2026, (which date is three months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. Administrator of the Estate of Goldie Smith Golden Xlanton McMillan Smith P.O Box 38014 Charlotte, NC 28278
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Estate of Robert Leslie Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith Cumberland County Estate File No. 25E001779-250 All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Robert Leslie Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, Deceased, of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are noti ed to present their claims to David Neal Smith, Executor of the Estate of Robert Leslie Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, at 4010 Bankshire Lane, Raleigh, NC 27603, on or before the 6th day of March, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. Debtors of Robert Leslie Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith are requested to make immediate payment to the Executor named above. This the 4th day of December, 2025. David Neal Smith, Executor of the Estate of Robert Leslie Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith
Williford McCauley - Attorney for the Estate of Robert Leslie Smith, Jr. a/k/a Robert L. Smith, Jr. a/k/a
Robert L. Smith
Mailing address: P. O. Box 53606 Fayetteville, NC 28305
Physical address: 235 Green Street Fayetteville, NC 28301
Executor’s Notice
IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION ESTATE FILE 25E001646-250 State of North Carolina Cumberland County NOTICE TO CREDITORS The undersigned, having quali ed as the Executor of the Estate of Elizabeth A. Spell aka Elizabeth Autry Spell, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms or corporations having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at 5420 Thompson Circle, Hope Mills, North Carolina 28348, on or before February 27, 2026, or this
day of November 2025, as Limited Personal Representative of the Estate of Sarah Page Fussell Cochrane (17E001585-640), deceased, does hereby notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said Estate that they must present them to the undersigned at DAVID E. ANDERSON,
NEW HANOVER
ORANGE
said estate will please make immediate payment to the above named Executor.
Kendall H. Page 210 N Columbia Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Bar # 14261 Notice to Run: 12/4/2025,12/11/2025, 12/18/2025 & 12/25/2025
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Larry Allen Kearns, late of Randolph County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of the decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ce of Ivey & Eggleston, Attorneys at Law, 111 Worth Street, Asheboro, North Carolina 27203, on or before February 23, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms or corporations indebted to said estate should make immediate payment to the undersigned.
This 20th day of November, 2025
Barbara S. Gallimore aka Barbara Jo Strider Gallimore Executor of the Estate of Larry Allen Kearns Marion “Beth” McQuaid, Attorney IVEY & EGGLESTON, ATTORNEYS AT LAW 111 Worth Street Asheboro, NC 27203 (336) 625-3043
Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of RONALD GENE SMITH, late of Randolph County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of the decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ce of TAYLOR B. CALLICUTT, ATTORNEY AT LAW, PO Box 2445, Asheboro, North Carolina 27204, on or before February 20, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms or corporations indebted to said estate should make immediate payment to the undersigned.
This 20th day of November, 2025
NAME VICKY GILKERSON SMITH
Administrator of the Estate of Ronald Gene Smith, deceased
TAYLOR B. CALLICUTT
ATTORNEY AT LAW PO Box 2445 Asheboro, NC 27204 (336) 953-4661
PUBL/DATES: 11/20/25 11/27/25 12/4/25 12/11/25
NOTICE
Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of LILLIE L. SUGG aka LILLIE MAE LINEBERRY SUGGS, late of Randolph County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of the decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ce of TAYLOR B. CALLICUTT, ATTORNEY AT LAW, PO Box 2445, Asheboro, North Carolina
North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: Parcel Number 9497-94-4161 BEING all of Lot 34 in a subdivision known as Oakridge Estates, plat of the same duly recorded in Plat Book 142, Page 172, Cumberland County Registry, North Carolina. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 3529 Canby Oak Lane, Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to three hours as provided in N.C.G.S. 45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One
of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Manuel D. Gomez and Iris X. Melendez. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to North Carolina General
Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. 7A-308(a)(1). The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being o
“Zootopia 2” delivers creativity, chemistry; falls short of original
Jason Bateman again voices former con artist fox Nick Wilde
By Bob Garver The Sun
2016 WAS A GREAT year for animation. Disney gave the world a new musical masterwork in “Moana.” Pixar had its biggest hit up to that point in “Finding Dory.” Even underdog Laika came out with cult classic “Kubo and the Two Strings.”
But the winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar that year wasn’t any of those lms (“Finding Dory” wasn’t even nominated). It was another Disney movie, “Zootopia.”
It wasn’t a terribly controversial choice either, with critics and audiences alike praising the lm for its more-thoughtful-than-usual look at race relations, symbolized as relations between various species of animals, though usually taking the form of predators vs. prey. The lm was so successful, funny and poignant that I advised Disney to add a whole Zootopia section to their Animal Kingdom theme park. To date, the property has only gotten a single attraction — a 3D movie in the park’s Tree of Life — but it’s in a key location. Anyway, here’s a look at the less-poignant sequel. Following the events of the
ECONOMY from page A9
from higher-end products such as its Smartwater and Fairlife ltered milk brands while at the same time introducing mini cans for those looking to spend less.
“We continue to see divergency in spending between the income groups,” Braun said. “The pressure on middle- and lowend-income consumers is still there.”
AI plays a role
The massive investment in
rst “Zootopia,” bunny police o cer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) was hailed as a hero, along with her unlikely ally, former con-artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman). Now the two are both o cially cops and partnered together as a mismatched-on-paper duo that Judy is determined to turn into the superstars of the station. She decides that the best way for the team to make its mark is to bust a smuggling operation without consulting bu alo police chief Bogo (Idris Elba) or even Nick. Poor communication turns the desired bust into,
data centers and computing power has also contributed to the K-shaped economy by lifting share prices for the so-called “Magni cent 7” companies competing to build out AI infrastructure. Yet so far, it’s not creating many jobs or lifting incomes for those who don’t own stocks.
“What we see at the very top is an economy that is sort of self-contained … between AI, the stock market, the experiences of the wealthy,” Atwater said. “And it’s largely contained. It doesn’t ow through to the bottom.”
PEN & PAPER PURSUITS
well, a bust, and Judy and Nick soon nd themselves at the bottom of the department’s gurative food chain. Nick wants to wait patiently to get out of the (again, gurative) doghouse, but Judy wants to turn things around immediately, so she doubles down and drags Nick into another unauthorized mission, this time to protect the theft of a book that details how the weather accommodates all the animals in Zootopia. The book belongs to the powerful Lynxley family (of lynxes, naturally), and patriarch Milton (David Strathairn) has
graciously decided to display the book at a fancy gala, where Judy interacts with his son Pawbert (Andy Samberg), the most charmingly awkward runt of a family since Hans from “Frozen.”
The book does indeed get stolen by Gary (Ke Huy Quan), a venomous snake. This is a big deal for the city, as for all its supposed inclusivity, reptiles, especially snakes, have been banished from Zootopia for the last century. Judy and Nick naturally want to stop Gary, but there’s more to the story than a simple book theft. If Gary can just use
“Those at the bottom are living with the cumulative impacts of price in ation. At the same time, those at the top are bene ting from the cumulative impact of asset in ation.”
Peter Atwater, William & Mary economics professor
Driven by big gains for companies like Google, Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft, the stock market has risen nearly 15% this year. But the wealth-
iest 10% of Americans own roughly 87% of the stock market, according to Federal Reserve data. The poorest 50% own just 1.1%.
the book for its intended purpose, he can end the reptile ban and make life better for himself, his family and his whole class of animals. But the city at large, including the Lynxleys and stallion mayor Winddancer (Patrick Warburton), is more interested in protecting the accepted truth than the actual one. Judy and Nick have to rely on unconventional resources like beaver conspiracy theorist Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster), all while questioning if they really belong as partners after all.
“Zootopia 2” is a ne movie, if missing some of the magic of the rst. A few too many gags take the form of terrible puns or played-out schtick, but there are more than enough funny jokes to balance them out. What really dinged the lm for me was the idea of the acceptance of the reptilian race hinging on a single piece of information. The Zootopia of the rst movie was too complex to rely on outdated concepts like “banishment.” Prejudice, sure, maybe mistreatment, but not black-and-white banishment. Oversimpli ed shortcuts like these are why this lm can’t measure up to its predecessor. Then again, the worldbuilding is still creative, and the chemistry among the cast is still sharp. It’s a movie that I’m happy to recommend, but as with last year’s “Moana 2,” that happiness is somewhat dulled by remembering the heights that the franchise reached before.
Grade: B-
“Zootopia 2” is rated PG for action/violence and rude humor. Its running time is 108 minutes.
K-shape comes with concerns
Many economists worry that an economy propelled mostly by the wealthiest isn’t sustainable. Perkins notes that should layo s worsen and unemployment rise, middle- and lower-income Americans could pull back sharply on spending. Revenue for companies like Apple and Amazon would fall. Such a cycle could even force the “Mag 7” to pull back on their AI investments and send the economy into recession, he said.
DISNEY VIA AP
Former con artist Nick Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman, and bunny police o cer Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, return in “Zootopia 2.”
NC State pounds UNC in rivalry game, B3
the Thursday SIDELINE REPORT
NCAA FOOTBALL
LSU lures Ki n away from virtual playo
lock Ole Miss
Lane Ki n is leaving his 11-1 Ole Miss team to become the coach at LSU. The decision came two days after Mississippi’s 38-19 victory over Mississippi State in the annual “Egg Bowl.” The timing of the announcement was awkward. It comes shortly before the start of the 12-team College Football Playo , in which the Rebels are likely to be included.
WORLD CUP
Iran boycotting World Cup draw, citing visa restrictions for soccer o cials
Dubai, United Arab Emirates Iran has decided to boycott the World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., next week. The U.S. denied visas to members of the Iranian delegation, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Iranian soccer federation spokesman Amir-Mahdi Alavi said o cials faced visa obstacles beyond sports considerations. The federation reached out to FIFA for help, without response. A U.S. travel ban in a ects citizens from 12 countries, including Iran.
NBA Warriors star Curry
sidelined at least 1 week with quad injury
San Francisco Warriors star Stephen Curry will be sidelined for at least a week with a right quadriceps contusion and strained muscle. He had an MRI exam, and the Warriors said Curry would be reevaluated in a week — meaning he likely will miss at least three games. Golden State’s medical sta and coaches typically use a progression of building back up in practice before an injured player returns to game action.
Duke reaches ACC Championship Game
The ve-loss Blue Devils will face Virginia for an improbable league title
By Shawn Krest North State Journal
AS IMPROBABLE as it may
seem, Duke’s Manny Diaz is headed to Charlotte for the ACC Championship Game. If his rst media availability is any indication, he’ll be bringing the giant chip on his shoulder with him.
“We deserve to be in this game,” he said emphatically.
It’s easy to understand why he’d feel the need to make a case.
The Blue Devils enter with a 7-5 record, tying the worst record by a participant in the history of the game. Entering the nal day of the regular season, there were 128 possible combinations of wins and losses in the games relevant to the title game berths — only 10 resulted in Duke making the game. It just so happened that everything broke the Blue Devils’ way, starting with a win over Wake Forest.
“That game was a microcosm of our season,” Diaz said. “We stayed in the ght. We’ve
been resilient. We’ve valued persistence over perfection.”
The ACC has received criticism from national observers for being a weak conference all season long, and Duke’s shot at the title caused the shouts to get even louder, especially with Miami — an at-large contender for the College Football Playo — getting left out due to ACC tiebreaker rules.
Diaz pointed to the oversized conferences and uneven schedules, as well as the elimination of divisional play, as being the cause of so many ties.
“Any way you do a tiebreaker, somebody’s going to be (upset),” he said. “It’s never going away. We’ll be going to coin ips and algorithms every year. You can turn the knobs and get Duke out and somebody else in — it’s always going to be a beauty contest.”
There was also talk that, should Duke win the ACC title, the Blue Devils would be left out of the playo in favor of a smaller conference champion with a more impressive win-loss record.
“You see this every year, and it’s so silly,” Diaz said. “Records have a lot to do with schedules. We have ve losses, and I wish we’d played better in those games. But we played two 10 -win teams, two nine-win teams and an eight-win team in those games. We had two nonconference losses by one score
See DUKE, page B3
Hurricanes by the numbers through 25 games
Carolina is again o to a hot start
By Cory Lavalette North State Journal
RALEIGH — The Hurricanes hit the 25-game mark of the 2025-26 season atop the Metropolitan Division and tied with Tampa Bay for the best record in the Eastern Conference at 16-7-2. The start has Carolina on track to reach the postseason for the eighth consecutive season, all under coach Rod Brind’Amour. Sunday’s 1-0 overtime win over the visiting Flames gave Brind’Amour his 341st regular season win, the 53rd most all time.
Brind’Amour is one behind Emile Francis for the 23rd most with one franchise and is 29
wins from tying Punch Imlach for the 20th most. As for 2025-26, several Hurricanes have interesting statistics with the regular season nearly a third over.
49.2 — The number of goals Seth Jarvis is on pace for. Jarvis has 15 goals in the season’s rst 25 games. He’s gotten some help because of Carolina’s record — Jarvis has four of the Hurricanes’ ve empty-net goals (Charles Alexis Legault’s rst career goal is the other). That’s tied with Washington’s Tom Wilson and Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel for the most in the NHL this year.
2 — Players who have scored 40 goals since relocation to North Carolina. Eric Staal did it twice (45 in 2025-26 and 40 in 2008-09), and Je O’Neill had 41 in 2000-01.
8.4% — Jarvis’ shooting
NOAH K. MURRAY / AP PHOTO Hurricanes rookie defenseman Joel Nystrom has been called for just one penalty in the rst 19 games of his NHL career.
JASON JACKSON FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Duke linebacker Luke Mergott (34), safety Andrew Pellicciotta (35) and linebacker Kendall Johnson (42) were walking on air late in a win over Wake Forest that paved the way for the Blue Devils’ trip to the ACC Championship Game.
JASON JACKSON FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL Duke’s Sahmir Hagans (2) leaps to catch a touchdown pass against Wake Forest.
THURSDAY 12 4.25
TRENDING
Tre’Von Moehrig:
The Carolina Panthers safety missed the team s home game against the Los Angeles Rams after losing an appeal of a one-game suspension for unsportsmanlike conduct The NFL said Moehrig intentionally hit San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings in the groin near the end the game last Monday night The suspension will cost Moehrig $65 000
Reese Brantmeier:
The UNC senior defeated Berta Passola Folch of California 6-3 6-3 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando to win the NCAA women s tennis title the second singles title in program history Meanwhile, the NC State duo of freshman Victoria Osuigwe and junior Gabriella Broadfoot defeated Vanderbilt s Sophia Webster and Celia-Belle Mohr 7-5 6-4 for the women s doubles crown the second NCAA title in program history both in doubles
The former Asheville Tourists manager was hired by the Colorado Rockies as the club s full-time 40 was interim manager after Bud Black He went 36-86, an improvement over the team s 7-33 start prior to the move
Beyond the box score
POTENT QUOTABLES
“Lies are over star ting Monday morning. It’s time for the tr uth.”
Jordan 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin as the team’s suit against NASCAR heads to cour t this week
“L ook, the sea son ’ s just ended a few minutes ago, OK?”
UNC coach Bill Belichick,
Chapel Hill following a loss to NC State in the
NUMBER
Pr ize money forin sw imming, track and weightlif ting competitions at the Enhanced Games, which w ill debut in La s Vega s in si x months Competitors w ill not undergo dr ug testing The Enhanced Games have been listed on “ per formance products” to the public
WORLD CUP
Charlotte’s Bank of A merica Stadium was one of 14 A merican sites proposed to host games of the 2031 Women’s World Cup by the United States Soccer Federation FIFA released the bid book for the 2031 and 2035 women ’ s tournaments There’s only one bidder for each, a U S -Mexico- Costa R ica-Jamaica proposal for 2031 and a United K ingdom plan for 2035 FIFA w ill formally
The Los A ngeles R ams waived kicker Joshua K ar t y, the star ter for earlier this month The R ams cut K ar t y the day before traveling to his home state to face the Panthers
The Burling ton native and Western A lamance alum was a six th-round draf t pick in 2024
Jordan Brand announced its four-player Class of 2025 NIL roster, including UConn women ’ s basketball sophomore Sarah Strong The Fuquay-Varina graduate won a national title as a freshman It also includes Duke freshmen tw ins Cameron and Cayden Boozer and Sy racuse freshman K iyan A nthony
Missouri and coach Eli Drinkw itz agreed to a new six-year contract, boosting his average pay to $10 75 million annually The coordinator and App State coach has been w ith Missouri since December 2019, leading the Tigers to a
including an 11-2 record and Cotton Bowl v ictor y, made him sought-af ter for current
STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH/ AP PHOTO
NIKE
NC State nishes season strong, stomps rival Tar Heels
While the vibes are high in Raleigh, things feel like they’re only getting worse in Chapel Hill
By Ryan Henkel North State Journal
AFTER MULTIPLE years of close contests, NC State took the belt to the rival UNC on Saturday night in a 42-19 smackdown in Raleigh.
NC State was in control from the start, scoring a touchdown on four straight drives, dominating the trenches and just being better than UNC in practically every facet of the game.
It was the fth straight win for the Wolfpack over the Tar Heels. For NC State coach Dave Doeren, it was his ninth win in 13 meetings against the Tobacco Road rival.
“To me, losing to them is unacceptable,” Doeren said. “I take a lot of pride in these rivalry games.”
Perhaps that success is why it appears Doeren will be stick-
ing around with the program.
While rumors had swirled all season about the NC State head coach potentially retiring at the end of the year, both he and athletic director Boo Coorigan con rmed that Doeren will be back for a 14th season in Raleigh.
“Dave has built a program that is centered on culture and player development — on and o the eld,” Corrigan said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “You can see his passion for this program and the student-athletes in how hard our team plays and competes. I look forward to continuing to nd new ways to support him and the football program.”
“Do I have plans down the road someday to retire? Sure, but I don’t have any plans to do that (now),” Doeren said last month. “I’m gonna keep coaching. I want this place to be as good as it can be. That’s what I want. We’ve done a lot here to make this a stable, successful, competitive program.”
Doeren still has four years
NC State’s Caden Fordham (1) celebrates
UNC.
remaining on his contract, and as the winningest coach in program history, there’s a good chance he nishes out that deal.
At least so long as he can keep having the edge over the university’s bitter rival.
On the other side of I-40, things probably couldn’t have gone much worse for UNC this season.
After making one of the biggest splashes in program history by bringing in arguably the greatest head coach in NFL history, Bill Belichick, the Tar Heels proceeded to have their worst season since 2018, the end of the Larry Fedora era.
Chapel Bill’s rst year was marred by inconsistencies on
Turkey madness: Fallout from local teams’ holiday games
Duke’s men and Wake Forest’s women stayed perfect on Thanksgiving
By Asheebo Rojas North State Journal
NORTH CAROLINA’S ACC basketball teams spent Thanksgiving week on the hardwood. In what can be a crucial stretch of the season, here’s a look at the winners and losers from the holiday contests.
WINNERS
Duke men
The No. 4 Blue Devils kept a so far, so perfect season intact with an 80-71 neutral site win over then-No. 22 Arkansas on Thanksgiving Day. Duke moved to 2-0 against ranked opponents and is continuously proving to be as good as advertised. Down seven with 10 minutes to play, Duke ipped the game with better defensive play and some crucial baskets from star freshman Cameron Boozer, who logged his second 35-point game of the season. Junior guard Caleb Foster also put in his best game of the year (15 points and 8 assists) against a quality opponent. In a tournament-like environment, Duke is showing early signs of being a tough out.
Wake Forest men
The Demon Deacons didn’t participate in a holiday showcase, but they came out of the Thanksgiving week unscathed. Wake Forest picked up
on the road. If this is an issue, that’ll never happen again. Forget about every booking home -and-home series. They want to encourage teams to play good competition, home and away. We could’ve just scheduled better and had nine wins every year.
“Our schedule challenged us,” he continued. “We improved as the year went on. Part of the why we’re in this game is that who we played in and out of the league has been di cult. We learned in our losses to be -
a 99-51 win over Campbell on Nov. 25 and followed that with an 86-73 victory over Northeastern Thursday. For a team that’s two points from two ranked wins, the outcome over a sub-.500 Northeastern team doesn’t seem too impressive, but the Huskies shot the lights out in the rst half (six made 3s). Wake Forest responded in a big way defensively despite a lackluster o ensive second half, and its depth came up huge with 35 bench points. For the rst time this season, Wake Forest is receiving votes for the AP Top 25 poll.
LOSERS
Duke women
A disastrous start to the season got worse over the holiday week. The Blue Devils competed against the nation’s best in the Players Era Championship and got outclassed by then-No. 2 South Carolina 83- 66 on Nov. 26 and then-No. 3 UCLA 89-59 on Thanksgiving. Duke shot under 40% from the oor in both games, including 33% against the Bruins, as it continued to be one of the worst shooting teams in the power conferences. The Blue Devils, who started the year ranked No. 7, are 0-4 against ranked opponents as of Monday.
NC State men
A red-hot NC State team got hit with its rst taste of adversity at the Maui Invitational last week. The Wolfpack went 1-2 at the event, splitting losses to Seton Hall (85-74) and
come a team worthy of being in Charlotte and whatever comes beyond that.” Diaz spent several seasons as defensive coordinator for Middle Tennessee State and Louisiana Tech and is familiar with life in the Sun Belt, Conference USA and other non-power conferences.
“I’m proud of what I did in those leagues,” he said, “but it’s not the same, week in and week out, as playing in the ACC.”
Before worrying about campaigning against Group of Five conference winners for a playo berth, however, Duke needs to
3
Straight losses for Duke’s women as of Monday
Texas (102-97) with an 81-70 win over Boise State. In the losses, scoring wasn’t a problem for NC State, unless it was on defense. Texas made 16 3s, shot 55.8% from the oor and shot 33 free throws, while Seton Hall shot 53.6% from the eld and took 21 free throws in a 50-point second half. NC State, which fell out of the AP poll, has one of the most potent o enses in the nation, but its ACC-worst 76.6 points allowed per game got exposed.
NEUTRALS
UNC men
In what was the start to a crucial part of the season for UNC, the Tar Heels split its Fort Myers Tip-O slate with an 8570 win over St. Bonaventure and a 74-58 loss to then-No. 11 Michigan State. Once again, the front court of Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson anchored the team o ensively in both matchups, and combined with the defensive presence and the oor-stretching abilities of Jarin Stevenson, UNC looks like it’ll have a consistent strength in its bigs. The back court needs to pull its weight, however. The Tar Heels, who hold one of the lowest 3-point percentages in the ACC, shot
“You can turn the knobs and get Duke out and somebody else in — it’s always going to be a beauty contest.”
Manny Diaz, Duke coach
get past Virginia, who won the ACC regular season title.
The Cavaliers were dominant in a 34-17 win over Duke in Durham just two weeks earlier.
“You’ve got to throw out what
bative at times.
The 73-year-old coach refused to give an overview of the season, explain where things might have gone wrong or elaborating on much of anything, which lacks the accountability you’d like to see from the state’s highest-paid public employee, especially given how much fanfare there was and concessions that were made to bring him to Chapel Hill.
While UNC is on to the oseason, where it will try and pick up the pieces, the Wolfpack are going bowling for the 11th time under Doeren, and they’re certainly hoping for a better result than they’ve become accustomed to.
both sides of the ball as the inux of 70 new players never quite seemed to mesh into what UNC general manager Michael Lombardi coined as the “33rd NFL team.” There was also a seemingly never-ending tide of o -the- eld headlines and drama that popped up nearly every week.
It’s hard to imagine the program having a worse go at it in Year 2, but the Tar Heels are looking at an even tougher schedule in 2026. With the volatility of the transfer portal and an expected in ux of high school recruits, can UNC take the necessary steps?
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Belichick said on Saturday, in a presser that felt fairly com-
The Wolfpack have lost their last ve bowl game appearances, most recently losing to ECU in last season’s Military Bowl. Bowl eligibility was something that looked a bit dicey midway through the season for the Wolfpack, but NC State nished the season strong with wins over a top-10 Georgia Tech team, Florida State and UNC.
“We won three of the last four games, so it was a hell of a November,” Doeren said. “Guys hung in there and stuck together. It says a lot about the grit and resiliency, their belief in their coaches and me. Our culture is really strong and it was tested this year, and it stood up to the test.”
While there are still a lot of shoes to drop in terms of bowl selection, early projections for the Wolfpack have included the Gasparilla Bowl, Fenway Bowl, Mayo Bowl and potentially the Military Bowl again.
NC State women
17.4% from 3 against the Spartans, including a combined 1-11 showing from Luka Bogavac and Kyan Evans. The guards once again struggled to slow down opponents’ back court, with Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr. and St. Bonaventure’s Darryl Simmons II combining for more than 40 points.
UNC women
The Tar Heels handled business at the 2025 Cancun Challenge with three straight wins over South Dakota State (83- 48), Kansas State (85-73) and Columbia (80-63). The team’s depth showed out with at least four players scoring in double gures in each game and two games in which the bench scored at least 35 points. However, UNC’s misfortune with the week came from its own conference. The ACC started the year with ve ranked teams, and now three remain in the latest AP poll. UNC will have to keep that in mind and take advantage of its opportunities for good wins in its nonconference slate.
you did in the previous game,” said UVA coach Tony Elliott, who was a Clemson assistant when the Tigers played Notre Dame in 2020 and Virginia Tech in 2011, the last two times that the ACC Championship Game has featured a rematch of the regular season.
“It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to go win this game, play our best four quarters. If (the previous result) gives me any leg up, I’ll try to use it, but I don’t think it matters.”
Duke has come a long way since that loss.
“After the Virginia game,
NC State won both games over Green Bay (79-67) and Southern Miss (110-56) at the Cancun Challenge. Green Bay, which made 10 3s and stuck around with a solid third quarter, pushed the Wolfpack. Yet NC State responded in a huge way with seven scorers reaching double gures against Southern Miss.
Wake Forest women
Wake Forest continued its undefeated season with three wins over Morgan State (93 -35), UCF (65-60) and Illinois State (57-44) in the Puerto Rico Shootout last week. Freshman guard Caitlyn Jones had a huge week with a 15-point night against Morgan State and a 17-point outing against UCF. The Demon Deacons, o to their best start since the 2008 - 09 season, is trending in the right direction, but there is still a lot to learn about this young roster in conference play.
Charlotte was an afterthought,” Diaz said. “I thought the league was beyond us at that point. Our big focus two weeks ago was just win a football game. Beat North Carolina. We did that, and they handed us a bell. Then we did the same thing with Wake Forest.”
Now, as unlikely as it seemed back then or even at the start of the season’s nal day, Duke is one of two ACC teams left standing. And the Blue Devils don’t care who’s rooting against them.
“If you stay in the ght,” Diaz said, “good things happen.”
NAM Y. HUH / AP PHOTO Duke forward Cameron Boozer, right, drives to the basket against Arkansas during the CBS Sports Thanksgiving Classic in Chicago.
KARL DEBLAKER / AP PHOTO
after a sack against
DUKE from page B1
Panthers roller-coaster season back on upswing after big win
Carolina players embrace roles as chemistry helps them create luck
By Shawn Krest North State Journal
SITTING A HALF game out of rst place in the NFC South, the Carolina Panthers would probably have more fans on the bandwagon if it wasn’t such a roller coaster.
The Panthers lose the rst two games of the season, and it’s the same old Panthers — the team that’s gone through head coaches like rolls of athletic tape in recent years.
Then Carolina strung together a three-game winning streak, including a dramatic win over the Dallas Cowboys. That led to a high-pro le showdown with the Bu alo Bills at Bank of America Stadium — that the Bills won in a humiliating 40-9 blowout. An improbable win over the Packers at Lambeau eld was followed by a seven-point outing in a loss to the Saints. An overtime win at Atlanta preceded a rough Monday night in San Francisco.
The Panthers’ prospects are like the old joke about the weather — if you don’t like them, just wait a few minutes, and they’re bound to change.
It’s sunny and warm in Panthers-land heading into the bye week, as the team is coming o a wild home win over the Los Angeles Rams, who came to town as the hottest team in football.
Clearly, the Panthers are better than the darkest days of their playo drought, which is in its eighth season, but just how good are they? Carolina has won six of its seven games by one score — a sign that things are breaking in their favor so far this season.
Coach Dave Canales seems to have defended his reputation as
“I don’t care who does it or how it looks, as long as it gets done.”
Derrick Brown
a quarterback whisperer, transforming Bryce Young from a top draft pick bust-in-the-making to a quarterback who seems to threaten another Cam Newton team record every other week. Against the Rams, he threw his 18th touchdown of the season —
the most since Newton in 2018 — and had the second-highest rating in team history — behind Newton in 2015. He’s also setting league marks for fourth-quarter comebacks, implying that perhaps the Panthers are making their own luck.
Young has plenty of help, however, as a team of role players seems to step up when needed. The o ensive line has seen 10 di erent starting ves in 13 games this season.
On Sunday, Chuba Hubbard, who took a back seat earlier in the season as fellow running back Rico Dowdle got the bulk of the carries, had his number called. Hubbard responded with 83 rushing yards and a receiving touchdown.
Jalen Coker, a second-year receiver who barely escaped training camp cuts both years, caught his rst NFL touchdown. Meanwhile, rst-round draft pick Tetairoa McMillan had just one ball come his way through the rst 53 minutes before he took a fourth-down pass 43 yards for the game-winning score.
“It was fourth down, so I had to make a play,” said McMillan, before correcting himself. “Or somebody on the eld had to make a play.”
On defense, with the Panthers missing injured corner Jaycee Horn and suspended safety Tre-von Moehrig, veteran Michael Jackson turned in a pick-six, rookie safety Lathan Ransom had 11 tackles and a sack, and defensive tackle Derrick Brown — one of the league’s most unsung great players — had a game-clinching strip sack.
Davidson men’s basketball surges to 6-1 start
The Wildcats were 17-16 last season
By Jesse Deal North State Journal
DAVIDSON — Under fourth-year head coach Matt McKillop, the Davidson men’s basketball team is o to a strong 6-1 start to its 2025-26 campaign, positioning itself early as a possible contender in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
The Wildcats appear ready for a strong season coming o a 17-16 nish last year that included a 6-12 mark in conference play. Despite losing its top ve scorers from that squad, McKillop’s revamped group has quickly latched onto a working chemistry.
Davidson, which is 4-0 at home in John M. Belk Arena, has averaged 77.7 points per game while allowing just 70.1.
With traditional A-10 powers such as Dayton, VCU and George Mason looming, the Wildcats’ start has them gunning for their rst conference title since the 2021-22 season — also the last time the team posted a winning record in league play.
The early success has been assisted by the breakout performance of junior guard Hunter Adam, who has scored in double gures in four of his six appearances. It’s been a striking leap from his sophomore year, when he brought in fewer than four points per game.
This season, Adam has averaged 12.5 points while shooting 53% from 3-point range, along with 2.7 rebounds per contest.
Guards Josh Scovens (10.6 points per game), Nick Coval
CANES from page B1
month — he has nine goals in 48 career games.
98.97 — Speed, in miles per hour, of Hurricanes rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin’s shot in the third period of Carolina’s 5-1 win in San Jose on Oct. 14, according to NHL EDGE statistics. It’s the hardest shot by any Hurricanes player this season, and only eight NHL defensemen have had a harder shot through 25 games.
462:58 — Time on ice this season for Nikishin, the second most by a Hurricanes rookie in the rst 24 games of a rookie season since relocation. Only Justin Faulk (532:18) had more
(9.4) and Sam Brown (9.3) have also emerged as consistent scoring options, helping to create a balanced o ensive approach that has seven players averaging at least six points per game.
That depth has allowed Davidson to distribute minutes more evenly than in years past.
“We’ve been pretty balanced with our minutes throughout the year,” McKillop said. “We always talk about big momentum. We always talk about rounds, but we’ve actually started talking about the middle four, which are those last two minutes going into halftime and the rst two coming out.” Highlights from the noncon-
in his rst 24 career games. 320:11 — Time on ice this season for fellow rookie defenseman Joel Nystrom, the 10th most by a Hurricanes player in the rst 19 games of a rookie season.
12 — NHL players with at least 300 minutes played and one or fewer penalties this season. Nystrom has taken just one penalty — a holding infraction in his second career game on Oct. 25 in Dallas. 4 — Long-range goals for defenseman Sean Walker, the most by any player in the NHL this season, according to NHL EDGE. Walker’s four goals are one shy of his total from last season.
ference slate include home wins over Washington State (85-69) and Boston College (59-49), along with a gritty 62-55 road victory at rival Charlotte. Davidson su ered its lone defeat of the season Nov. 23, falling 94-60 to Utah State in the Charleston Classic’s Lowcountry Bracket.
Five days later, the Wildcats bounced back with a 90-74 win over North Carolina A&T, a game played without Adam, who missed time with an injury.
“I thought our o ense was really strong tonight,” McKillop said following the win. “We scored in so many di erent ways, whether it was on oball screens, ball screens, going
.908 — Goalie Brandon Bussi’s save percentage on high-danger scoring chances, the best in the league according to NHL EDGE. Bussi, who is 7-1-0 in his rst eight career starts, has an overall save percentage of .908 as well.
3 — Hurricanes goalies with at least four wins this season, the most of any team. On top of Bussi’s 7-1-0 record, Frederik Andersen is 5-6-2, and Pyotr Kochetkov is unbeaten at 4-0 - 0. Only one other team, Bu alo, has three goalies with at least three wins.
9 — Hurricanes players with at least ve goals. Only Colorado, with 10, has more. Montreal also has nine players with at
“There’s a resilience and depth of character with Derrick,” said Canales. “Where he’s not concerned with what’s happening on the other side of the ball and when the o ense might be struggling for a series or two, you’re going to get the same Derrick Brown regardless. Whatever the score is — we’re up, we’re down — you’re going to get the same Derrick Brown, and that’s what I love to point to for the whole group. Guys, let’s just continue to do our job well. Let’s continue to empty the tank every time you’re out there on the eld, whether it’s in practice or the games. That’s what continues to show up for Derrick.”
If resilience and humility sounds like coach speak, consider that the coach isn’t the only one saying it.
“If we’re being honest, nobody gave us a chance to beat these guys after Monday night,” Brown said. “We lost Jaycee, Tre’ — we lost a lot of pieces of this defense. It just shows the resilience of this team and being able to come in this week and say, screw everything, we have an opportunity to go out here and play a really good team led by a good quarterback. They have a lot of explosive pieces on their o ense, and for us to go out there and win today, it was big. … I don’t care who does it or how it looks, as long as it gets done. This is the most sel ess team I’ve been a part of,”
Whether it’s luck or chemistry, the Panthers are making a run at the playo s as the season enters its nal month. Keep your hands inside the car at all times.
Freshman Ian Platteeuw, a 7-foot forward from Spain, delivered his best games yet, tallying 10 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
“I think we got punched in the face on Sunday, and we had a bad taste in our mouth all week,” Scovens said. “You can tell through practice and through this game, in a sense. So we came out, and it was all about how we responded. Matt told us the whole time that this game is just about how you respond. What’s our identity? I think we showed it tonight.”
Scovens, a transfer from Army, was the Black Knights’ second-leading scorer last season with 15.2 points per game. With an average of 14 points across his past three performances, he said his transition to Davidson has been focused on leadership and consistency.
“I’ve been looking at this season as just trying to catch a rhythm,” Scovens said. “It’s a great environment, but a new environment, so it’s kind of getting used to new play. I think my role on the team as a captain is to just be a leader on whatever it takes, day in and day out. I try to lead and be a dog every day. That’s kind of my identity.”
“As far as the work our guys put in this week to be ready for today, I’m really pleased.”
Matt McKillop, Davidson coach
inside, going inside to then deliver passes. As far as the work our guys put in this week to be ready for today, I’m really pleased.” In Adam’s absence, Scovens led the way with 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists, while Brown added 13 points.
least ve goals. Detroit, Minnesota and Seattle have the fewest with four each. Three Hurricanes defensemen have at least three goals, tied with seven other teams for the most in the league. 10 — Power play goals for the Hurricanes, tied for the fewest in franchise history through 25 games. The Whalers started the 1979-80 season with that many goals on the power play through 25 games, as did the 2015-16 Hurricanes. The franchise had 35 in the opening 25 games of the 1987-88 season while in Hartford, and the most since relocation was 31 in 2007- 08. Carolina’s 73 opportunities so far this season are the fewest for the organization since
The Wildcats’ A-10 schedule begins Dec. 30 with a home matchup against Duquesne, but Davidson’s early-season resume is already generating attention. McKillop’s squad has shown steady improvement on the boards, tighter perimeter defense and the kind of balanced scoring that has de ned a Davidson program that holds a 54.8% winning percentage since 1908. Davidson will host The Citadel on Thursday and Saint Mary’s on Sunday afternoon, stacking up two more nonconference tests that could further solidify the Wildcats’ success as the season takes shape.
Stathead.com started tracking that in 2015-16. 611 — Shots on goal allowed through 25 games, the fewest in franchise history. It is 14 fewer than the previous low, 625 in 2023-24.
13 — Even-strength assists for Shayne Gostisbehere in 16 games this season, two shy of the 15 he had in 70 games last season. Plus 15 — Nikishin’s plus/ minus this season, best on the Hurricanes. The best by a rookie in franchise history was plus 17 for Grant Jennings in 1988-89. Since relocation, Jarvis has the best rookie plus/minus at plus 11 in 2021-22, followed by Jackson Blake at plus 10 last season.
RUSTY JONES / AP PHOTO
Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Derrick Brown closes in on Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Sta ord.
COURTESY DAVIDSON ATHLETICS
Davidson’s Josh Scovens extends for a shot in the Wildcats’ home win over NC A&T on Nov. 28.
been made in the payment of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Anchor Trustee Services, LLC having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the O ce of the Register of Deeds of Moore
AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE FILE NUMBER: 24SP000261-640
Under and by virtue of the power of sale
contained in a certain Deed of Trust executed by GLORIA BURBANK OKUDA DATED APRIL 26, 2021 IN THE AMOUNT OF $120,000.00 AND RECORDED IN BOOK RB6441 AT PAGE 923 IN THE NEW HANOVER COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA, by Anthony Maselli or Genevieve Johnson, either of whom may act, Substitute Trustee, default having been made in the terms of agreement set forth by the loan agreement secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Anthony Maselli or Genevieve Johnson, either of whom may act, having been substituted as Successor Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the O cial Records of New Hanover County, North Carolina, in Book 6708, Page 2712, and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door in New Hanover County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025 at 11:30am, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in the County of New Hanover, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: PARCEL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER(S):
NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 25SP001499-660
Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by John M. Robinson and Melinda Robinson (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): John M. Robinson and Melinda Robinson) to Hilton T. Hutchens, Jr. Esq., Trustee(s), dated September 4, 2024, and recorded in Book No. 6216, at Page 471 in Onslow County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the O ce of the Register of Deeds Onslow County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door in Jacksonville, Onslow County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 10:00
NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 25SP001489-660 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Calipso Sanders and Elizabeth Chavez (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Calipso Sanders) to Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, a Nebraska Corp., Trustee(s), dated October 22, 2024, and recorded in Book No. 6247, at Page 633 in Onslow County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the O ce of the Register of Deeds Onslow County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door in Jacksonville, Onslow County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 10:00 AM on December 10, 2025 and will sell to
AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 23SP000655-660 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Jesse T Cole (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Jesse T Cole) to Pamela S. Cox, Trustee(s), dated November 24, 2020, and recorded in Book No. 5322, at Page 495 in Onslow County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the O ce of the Register of Deeds Onslow County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door in Jacksonville, Onslow County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 10:00 AM on December 10, 2025 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following
which the property is sold.
County, North Carolina, and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door or other usual place of sale in Moore County, North Carolina, at 2:00 PM on December 9th, 2025, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property, to wit: Lot No. 399, Sequoia South, Seven Lakes, as shown on plat thereof recorded in the O ce of the Register of Deeds of Moore County, North Carolina, in Map Book 11 at Page 9. Property commonly known as: 103 Cardinal Lane, West End, NC 27376. Together with improvements located hereon; said property being located at 103 Cardinal Lane, West End, NC 27376 Tax ID: 00018165/853506278680 Third party purchasers must pay the recording costs of the trustee’s deed, any land transfer taxes, the excise tax, pursuant North Carolina General Statutes §105228.30, in the amount of One Dollar ($1.00) per each Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or fractional part thereof, and the Clerk of Courts fee, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes §7A-308, in the amount of Forty- ve Cents (0.45) per each One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) or fractional part thereof with a maximum amount of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00). A deposit of ve percent (5%) of the bid or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale and must be tendered in the form of certi ed funds. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts will be immediately due and owing. Said property to be o ered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS WHERE IS. There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being o ered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, special assessments, land transfer taxes, if any, and encumbrances of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are ShowMeREI NC LLC. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: An order for possession of the
R06209-002-021-031 ADDRESS: 5221 LARGO CT., UNIT 202, WILMINGTON, NC 28409 PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): SCOTT OKUDA, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF GLORIA OKUDA THE LAND DESCRIBED HEREIN IS SITUATED IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER, AND IS DESCRIBED IN DEED BOOK RB6441, PAGE 923 AS FOLLOWS: BEING A UNIT OWNERSHIP IN REAL PROPERTY UNDER AND PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 47C OF THE NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL STATUTES AND BEING MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS UNIT 4C LAKESIDE VILLAGE, PHASE 1B, ON A PLAT ENTITLED “LAKESIDE VILLAGE CONDOMINIUM PHASE 1B” RECORDED IN CONDOMINIUM PLAT BOOK 10 AT PAGES 225 THROUGH 226, IN THE OFFICE OF THE REGISTER OF DEEDS OF NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, REFERENCED TO WHICH IS HEREBY MADE FOR A MORE PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION. TOGETHER WITH ALL RIGHTS AND EASEMENTS, APPURTENANT TO SAID UNIT, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LISTED TO, AN UNDIVIDED INTEREST IN THE COMMON ELEMENTS AND FACILITIES OF LAKESIDE VILLAGE, ALL PHASES, AS SPECIFICALLY ENUMERATED IN THE DECLARATION OF CONDOMINIUM RECORDED IN BOOK 1580, PAGE 0577, AND FOURTH AMENDMENT TO DECLARATION OF CONDOMINIUM, LAKESIDE VILLAGE, A CONDOMINIUM, PHASE 1B, RECORDED IN BOOK 1678, PAGE 0092, IN THE OFFICE OF THE REGISTER OF DEEDS OF NEW HANOVER
AM on December 10, 2025 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Jacksonville in the County of Onslow, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: All of that certain lot or parcel of land situated in Jacksonville Township, Onslow County, North Carolina and more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 34, Block ‘A’, BRYNN MARR SECTION VI-C, Part II as recorded in Map Book 22, Page 145, Slide C-13, Onslow County Registry, which Map by reference incorporated herein. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 133 Silver Leaf Drive, Jacksonville, North Carolina. Commonly Known As: 133 Silver Leaf Drive, Jacksonville, NC 28546 Parcel ID: 043330/351G-120
COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, OR ANY AMENDMENTS THERETO. SUBJECT TO THE EASEMENTS, OBLIGATIONS, RESTRICTIONS, COVENANTS, CONDITIONS AND ASSESSMENTS AS STATED IN SAID DECLARATION AND BYLAWS, AND AS THE SAME MAY BE AMENDED. Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of FortyFive Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1). The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being o ered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws. A deposit of ve percent (5%) of the
Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to three hours as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1). The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being o ered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws. A deposit of ve percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certi ed funds at the time of the sale.
the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Hubert in the County of Onslow, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: All that certain real property situated in the County of Onslow, State of NC, described as follows: The following described real property in the County of Onslow, State of North Carolina, described as: Being all of Lot 57, as shown on that certain plat entitled, “Final Plat, Timber Ridge, Section II”, prepared for Cinnamon Ridge Properties, Inc., by John L. Pierce Surveying and recorded in Book 31, Page 101 through 101A, Slide H-89, and as revised in Map Book 32, Page 38, Onslow County Registry. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 603 Calabash Drive, Hubert, North Carolina. Assessor Parcel Number(s): 053919 Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to three hours as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00)
real estate situated in Jacksonville in the County of Onslow, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 186 as shown on that plat entitled, “Horse Creek Farms, Section V-A” as recorded in Map Book 32, Page 205, Onslow County Registry. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 207 Chaparral Trail, Jacksonville, North Carolina. COMMONLY known as 207 Chaparral Trail, Jacksonville, North Carolina 28546
Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to three hours as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1). The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee
required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1). The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being o ered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.
Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be e ective on a date stated in
purchase price, or seven hundred fty
dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certi ed funds at the time of the sale. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the ling of a bankruptcy petition prior to the con rmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family
If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the ling of a bankruptcy petition prior to the con rmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.
Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 4521.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be e ective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the e ective date of the termination.
A deposit of ve percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certi ed funds at the time of the sale. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the ling of a bankruptcy petition prior to the con rmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the
nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being o ered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws. A deposit of ve percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certi ed funds at the time of the sale. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the ling of a bankruptcy petition prior to the con rmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 45-
SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm, LLP P.O. Box 1028 Fayetteville, NC 28302 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, NC 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslaw rm.com Firm Case No: 27720 - 141134
AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE FILE NUMBER: 25SP000089-890
Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust executed by RENEE L. MANDELL
ANTHONY MASELLI OR GENEVIEVE JOHNSON, EITHER OF WHOM MAY ACT, having been substituted as Successor Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the O cial Records of Union County, North Carolina, in Book 9057, Page 311, and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door in Union County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, on December 16, 2025 at 12:00 PM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in the County of Union, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: PARCEL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER(S): 06096203 ADDRESS: 3006 CORNER STONE DR MATTHEWS, NC 28105 PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): RENEE L. MANDELL AND HUSBAND, BENJAMIN MANDELL THE LAND DESCRIBED HEREIN IS SITUATED IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, COUNTY OF UNION, AND IS DESCRIBED IN DEED BOOK 1036, PAGE 864, AS FOLLOWS: BEING ALL OF LOT 151 OF LAKE PROVIDENCE, PHASE IV, AS SHOWN ON PLAT RECORDED IN PLAT CABINET E, FILE 324, UNION COUNTY REGISTRY, TO WHICH REFERENCE IS HEREBY MADE FOR A MORE PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION. Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. §45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00)
and
17SP003010-910
AMENDED NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE
NORTH CAROLINA, WAKE COUNTY
Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Jason Amen Hetep and Pamela Amen Hetep to Burke & Associates, Trustee(s), which was dated February 1, 2006 and recorded on February 2, 2006 in Book 11803 at Page 00716, Wake County Registry, North Carolina.
Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale
25SP002013-910
OF FORECLOSURE SALE
Book 017041 at Page 01628, Wake County Registry, North Carolina.
Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale
22-114080 IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE OF NORTH CAROLINA SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION WAKE COUNTY 25sp001855-910 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST EXECUTED BY MARY E.
BARBEE DATED DECEMBER 6, 2016 AND RECORDED IN BOOK 16635 AT PAGE 1660 IN THE WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC REGISTRY, NORTH CAROLINA
NOTICE OF SALE
Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the
property situated in Wake County, North Carolina, to wit: THE FOLLOWING REAL PROPERTY SITUATE IN THE COUNTY OF WAKE AND STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS:
BEGINNING AT A POINT 600 FEET SOUTH OF A FARM ROAD AND 204 FEET NORTH OF E. M. CURREN’S SOUTHEAST CORNER; RUNS THENCE NORTH 83° 30’ WEST 93 FEET TO AN IRON STAKE; RUNS THENCE NORTH 6° 30’ EAST 200 FEET TO AN IRON STAKE; RUNS THENCE SOUTH 83° 30’ EAST 93 FEET TO AN IRON STAKE; RUNS THENCE SOUTH 6° 30’ WEST 200 FEET TO THE POINT OF BEGINNING, AND BEING A PART OF THE DUNN PROPERTY LOCATED IN LITTLE RIVER TOWNSHIP, WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA AND SHOWN IN BOOK OF MAPS 1949 AT PAGE 76.
Subject to the Access Easement Agreement recorded 01/31/2020 in Deed Book 017733 Page 01750.
Save and except any releases, deeds of
on December 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Wake County, North Carolina, to wit:
BEING ALL OF LOT 192, LANDINGS AT NEUSE CROSSINGS SUBDIVISION, PHASE 1, AS SHOWN AND RECORDED IN BOOK OF MAPS 2004, PAGES 2155 THROUGH 2158, WAKE COUNTY REGISTRY.
Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record.
Said property is commonly known as 3245 Landing Falls Lane, Raleigh, NC 27616.
A certi ed check only (no personal checks) of ve percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE
on December 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Wake County, North Carolina, to wit: BEING all of Lot 128 in Brookstone Subdivision, Phase 2 as shown on a plat recorded in Book of Maps 2000 page 1011 Wake County Registry.
Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record.
Said property is commonly known as 4436 Cobble Creek Lane, Raleigh, NC 27616.
A Certi ed Check ONLY (no personal checks) of ve percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR
secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Wake County courthouse at 11:00AM on December 18, 2025, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Wake County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Mary E. Barbee, dated December 6, 2016 to secure the original principal amount of $412,500.00, and recorded in Book 16635 at Page 1660 of the Wake County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modi ed by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended. Address of property: 919 Church Street, Morrisville, NC 27560 Tax Parcel ID: 0162244 Present Record Owners: Mary E. Barbee
required by N.C.G.S. §7A-308(a)(1). The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being o ered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws. A deposit of ve percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certi ed funds at the time of the sale. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this
release or prior conveyances of record.
Said property is commonly known as 9736 Metropolitan Drive, Zebulon, NC 27597. A Certi ed Check ONLY (no personal checks) of ve percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED.
Said property to be o ered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being o ered for sale. Substitute Trustee does not have possession of the property and cannot grant access, prior to or after the sale, for purposes of inspection and/ or appraisal. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments,
RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED.
Said property to be o ered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being o ered for sale. Substitute Trustee does not have possession of the property and cannot grant access, prior to or after the sale, for purposes of inspection and/ or appraisal. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Jason Amen Hetep and Pamela Amen Hetep.
An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or
DEED.
Said property to be o ered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being o ered for sale. Substitute Trustee does not have possession of the property and cannot grant access, prior to or after the sale, for purposes of inspection and/ or appraisal. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Georgette Beighle.
An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or
The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Mary E. Barbee. The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property o ered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of ve percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fty dollars ($750.00),
Lori E. Rolin The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Lori E. Rolin. The property to be o ered pursuant to this notice of sale is being o ered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the o cers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property o ered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens and encumbrances
easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are All Lawful Heirs of Willie M. Dunn.
An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be e ective on a date stated in the
parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be e ective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination [NCGS § 45-21.16A(b)(2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the e ective date of the termination.
Pursuant to NCGS §45-21.25A, this sale may be subject to remote bids placed by bidders not physically present at the place of sale, which may be accepted by the person conducting the sale, or their agent”.
If the trustee is unable to convey title to
parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be e ective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination [NCGS § 45-21.16A(b)(2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the e ective date of the termination. Pursuant to NCGS §45-21.25A, this sale may be subject to remote bids placed by bidders not physically present at the place of sale, which may be accepted by the person conducting
whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certi ed funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted. This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any resale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser
this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the ling of a bankruptcy petition prior to the con rmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to
this
WAKE
Help for the holidays
Mountaire’s annual Thanksgiving for Thousands program took place the Saturday before Thanksgiving at the company’s Siler City processing plant, with nearly 10,000 meal boxes assembled by hundreds of volunteers for distribution by local nonpro ts and churches.
See more photos on page A3.
Siler City swears in elected o cials
Commissioner Travis Patterson was unanimously elected as the new Mayor Pro Tem
By Ryan Henkel
Dells donate $6.25B to encourage families to claim “Trump Accounts”
Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged a historic $6.25 billion on Tuesday to provide an incentive to families to adopt new investment accounts for children.
The so-called “Trump Accounts” were created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation but have not yet launched. Through their gift, the Dells will deposit $250 into the investment accounts of 25 million children aged 10 and younger as an incentive for their families to claim the accounts and make investments in the stock market.
Doctor says Trump had screening MRI with “perfectly normal” results
Donald Trump’s doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age. That’s according to a memo from the physician released by the White House on Monday. Sean Barbabella said in a statement that Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group. Barbabella concluded that the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was “perfectly normal.”
$2.00
Chatham News & Record
SILER CITY — At the Siler
City Board of Commissioners’
Dec. 1 meeting, the board underwent a bit of reorganization.
Mayor Donald Matthews and Commissioners Cindy Bray, Albert Alston and Michael Feezor
all took their oaths of o ce following their November election wins and, in addition, Commissioner Travis Patterson was elected unanimously by the board as the new Mayor Pro Tem.
While Matthews, Bray and Alston all had previously served, Feezor is a new face to the board, taking over for former
The Hillmont development will see 23 fewer a ordableunits, but will donate more than $1 million
By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record
CHAPEL HILL
— The Chapel Hill Town Council met Nov. 19 for the nal meeting
“My time in Pittsboro has been the highlight of my professional career and personal life.”
Colby Sawyer
of the current council.
The council will have two new faces at its next meeting, ascouncilmember Karen Stegman resigned from her seat earlier in the year and Adam
Colby Sawyer joined the town in 2022 and was promoted to director in September
Chatham News & Record sta COLBY SAWYER, the Town of Pittsboro’s communications and emergency management director, left at the end of November to become county manager for Pender County.
Sawyer joined Pittsboro in April 2022 as public information o cer and emergency management specialist before being promoted to director in September 2024. During his tenure, he wrote more than $20 million in grants for connectivity, transportation, economic
commissioner and Mayor Pro Tem Lewis Fadely, who decided not to run for reelection.
The board also honored Fadely for his 12 years of service to the town now that his term has ocially ended.
“I cannot at all thank you enough,” said Mayor Donald Matthews. “You made the job so much easier working with you.”
Fadley was presented with a certi cate of appreciation from the police department, a
Searing did not seek reelection.
They will be replaced by the newly elected Louie Rivers and Wes McMahon, both of whom collected the largest share of votes this past November.
Incumbents Paris Miller-Foushee and Camille Berry also won reelection to remain on the council.
resolution by the board of commissioners and a personal gift from the mayor as well.
“This is not a job of one person, this is eight people coming together to lead the town,” Fadley said. “The faces have changed over the years, but the direction has always been the same. We always move forward for the benet of the town.” The Town of Siler City Board of Commissioners will next meet Jan. 12.
The new council will be sworn in Dec. 3.
At the meeting, the council held a public hearing for a conditional zoning modi cation request for a development project — “Hillmont” — located at 146 Stancell Drive and o N.C. 54.
development and hazard mitigation projects. He also created PBO-101, the town’s community engagement program. In 2024, he was named to the International Association
THE CHATHAM COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL
COURTESY
Colby Sawyer
GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
THURSDAY
In Loving Memory Of Roy Foushee
The Foushee family would like to express their gratitude for all of the thoughts and prayers during this di cult time.
We will never be able to thank you all enough for your kindness and your thoughtful ways. Thank you all for the visits, phone calls, texts, cards, flowers, meals, gift cards and every kind word along the way.
We would like to extend a Special Thank You to those who donated contributions towards Gaines Grove Cemetery, especially to the Goldston Fire Dept. and many churches in the community.
With All Our Love, Thank You.
The Foushee Family
NCWRC warns against taming deer after attacks across state
Multiple people have been hospitalized, and a dog was killed by deer raised or regularly fed by humans
North State Journal sta
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) is warning residents who attempts to tame or domesticate deer can have dangerous consequences, following multiple attacks across the state this year. Incidents involving deer attacking people or dogs have been reported in Rockingham, Randolph, Wilkes, Onslow, Iredell and Cherokee counties. Most involved deer that had been regularly fed by residents or illegally raised by humans.
CRIME LOG
Nov. 22
• Alexander Joseph, 19, of Pittsboro, was arrested for sexual exploitation of a minor.
• Shaun Michael Clayton, 34, of Siler City, was arrested for assault on a female and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
Nov. 23
• Shanree Tia Ernesty, 31, of Chapel Hill, was arrested for simple assault, misdemeanor child abuse and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
Nov. 24
• Alexis Flores Briones, 20, of Siler City, was arrested for second degree kidnapping, felony conspiracy and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
• Aerial Danielle Marsh, 42, of Siler City, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
Nov. 26
• Grace Josselyn Godina, 28, of Siler City, was arrested for nancial card theft and obtaining property by false pretenses.
Nov. 27
• Kevin Dean Hammer, 50, of Goldston, was arrested for resisting public o cer, communicating threats, misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, maintaining vehicle/ dwelling/place for controlled substances, possession of cocaine and discharging rearm to incite fear.
• Emilio Fabian TolentinoCalvillo, 26, of Siler City, was arrested for assault and battery, assault on a female and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
• Jacob Ray Phillip, 31, of Bear Creek, was arrested for identity theft, resisting public o cer, larceny of motor vehicle and felony conspiracy.
On Nov. 6, a 70-year-old Wilkes County woman was hospitalized after being gored by the antlers of a male deer near her mailbox. On Oct. 21, a woman in Onslow County was attacked by a 3½-year-old buck that had been illegally raised as a fawn by an acquaintance, suffering a puncture wound to her shoulder and neck along with scrapes and bruises.
In March, a Cherokee Coun-
“A male fawn that is treated like a pet can become a danger as an adult when hormones surge during mating season.”
April Boggs Pope, NCWRC
ty man was treated at an urgent care facility for a lip laceration after being attacked by a neighbor’s alleged pet deer while gardening. More recently, a deer being fed by residents in an Iredell County subdivision killed a dog.
“Deer that lose their fear of humans can act in abnormal ways,” said April Boggs Pope, a deer biologist with the commission. “That male deer that seemed ne or friendly during the rest of the year can become dangerously aggressive during the rut. A male fawn that is treated like a pet can become a danger as an adult when hormones surge during mating season. Deer antlers and hooves can in ict serious injuries.”
In North Carolina, it is unlawful to hold a wild animal in
captivity as a pet. Only licensed wildlife rehabilitators are permitted to rehabilitate fawns.
While feeding deer is not illegal in most areas, the commission advises against hand-feeding or conditioning deer to approach people. Baiting and feeding is prohibited between Jan. 2 and Aug. 31 in Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Areas.
“Attempting to domesticate a wild deer creates safety concerns for people, and it rarely ends well for the deer,” said Colleen Olfenbuttel, the commission’s game mammals and surveys supervisor. “People trying to tame wild deer may think they are doing the deer a favor, but they are putting the deer at higher risk of malnourishment and poor health, as the articial foods provided by residents don’t contain the diverse nutrition needed by wild deer.”
Deer that attack people are typically euthanized, and Olfenbuttel noted that victims are often innocent bystanders rather than those who fed or tamed the deer.
Residents can contact the commission’s Wildlife Helpline at 866-318-2401 to report someone illegally housing deer or for guidance on human-deer con icts.
feeding
‘Rage bait’ named Oxford University Press word of year as outrage fuels social media tra c in 2025
Other contenders included “aura farming” and “biohack”
The Associated Press
LONDON — Oxford University Press has named “rage bait’’ as its word of the year, capturing the internet zeitgeist of 2025.
The phrase refers to online content that is “deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or o ensive,” with the aim of driving tra c to a particular social media account, Oxford said in a statement.
“The person producing it will bask in the millions, quite often, of comments and shares
and even likes sometimes,’’ lexicographer Susie Dent told the BBC. This is a result of the algorithms used by social media companies “because although we love u y cats, we’ll appreciate that we tend to engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us.”
Rage bait topped two other contenders — “aura farming’’ and “biohack’’ — after public comment on a shortlist compiled by lexicographers at Oxford University Press.
“Aura farming’’ means to cultivate a public image by presenting oneself in “a way intended subtly to convey an air of con dence, coolness or mystique.’’ “Biohack’’ is de ned as “an attempt to improve or op -
CHATHAM happening
Dec. 6
timize one’s physical or mental performance, health or longevity.’’ The word of the year is selected by lexicographers at Oxford University Press who analyze new and emerging words, as well as changes in the way language is being used, to identify words of “cultural signi cance.”
Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has selected a word of the year annually since 2004.
Past winners include “podcast” in 2005, “emoji” in 2015, and in 2022 “goblin mode,” which described people who resisted returning to normal life after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dec.
8 Chatham
Dec. 9
tness levels. Bring your own mat. Free to attend; suggested donation of $15.
Front Porch, Bynum General Store 950 Bynum Road Bynum
Dec. 12
Bobby Gales & New Direction Bluegrass – Coming Home for Christmas Doors open at 6 p.m. Concert starts at 7 p.m. Before the concert, there will be a free potluck supper for all attendees. You are not required to bring anything, but extra dishes are always welcome.
Holiday in the Park 5-8 p.m.
This free indoor/outdoor event o ers a variety of holiday festivities, including the opportunity for letters to and photos with Santa, a tree lighting, hayride, and a host of games and craft activities. Vendor applications are now being accepted; contact Leigh.Babcock@ chathamcountync.gov for information.
Northwest District Park 2413 Woody Store Road Siler City
SAWYER from page A1 of Emergency Managers’ “40 Under 40” list. Pender County is a county of about 70,000 people along the coast, just north of Wilmington.
“Colby’s appointment reects his knowledge and expertise, and the strength and readiness of our team,” Mayor Kyle Shipp said.
“My time in Pittsboro has been the highlight of my professional career and personal life,” Sawyer said.
COURTESY NCWRC
A deer wanders through a residential area. Wildlife o cials are warning North Carolina residents against
or attempting to tame deer after multiple attacks this year.
Giving thanks
Mountaire’s annual Thanksgiving for Thousands event saw hundreds of volunteers and company employees pack nearly 10,000 boxes of food for families facing food insecurity this holiday season. Each box held enough food to feed four people, including a Mountaire roaster chicken, corn, green beans, stu ng, gravy, cranberries and brownie mix.
Hamlin breaks down in tears as rst witness testifying at NASCAR antitrust trial
He said signing the charter deal would have been a “death certi cate”
By Jenna Fryer
The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE — The landmark federal antitrust trial against NASCAR opened Monday with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin breaking down in tears minutes into his testimony as the rst witness in a case that could upend the venerable stock car series.
Hamlin’s 23XI Racing, which he co-owns with Michael Jordan, and Front Row Motorsports claim the series is a monopolistic bully that leaves its teams no option but to comply with rules and nancing they don’t agree with.
As Jordan watched from the gallery, Hamlin began to cry and had to stop and compose himself when asked how he got into racing. He disclosed to The Associated Press last month that his father is dying, and he said on the stand he was emotional because his dad “is not in great health.”
“We got to when I was about 20 and a decision had to be made, I could keep racing or go out and work for my dad’s trailer business,” Hamlin testi ed, adding that he later was thinking about what retirement looked like and found a team going out of business. He needed a partner and turned to Jordan, who he had developed a friendship with when the Basketball Hall of Famer owned the Charlotte Hornets and Hamlin was a season-ticket holder.
“If I can’t be successful with Michael as a partner, I knew this was never going to work,” he said.
The references to his early days in auto racing and the
sacri ces his family made were intended to show how di cult it is for both team owners and drivers to make it at the top level of the sport. He said he never would have been able to start 23XI in 2021 had he not partnered with Jordan.
On Tuesday, Hamlin said that agreeing to its charter proposal last fall would have been like signing his own “death certi cate.”
He was asked about line items in 23XI Racing’s budget. He noted how more than $703,000 three years ago was spent on costs to NASCAR ranging from entry fees, credentials for team members to enter the track and even access to Internet signals. He also said he and Jordan spent $100 million to build 23XI and “all it takes is one sponsor to go away and all our pro t is gone.”
Because of Jordan’s presence with the team, Hamlin testied, 23XI has turned a pro t in all but one of its ve seasons of operation. His attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, said in his opening statement that fast-food restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins has never turned a pro t since starting his Front Row team in 2004, a team that won the Daytona 500 in 2021. Kessler said a NA-
Michael Jordan arrives at the start of the antitrust trial between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR in Charlotte on Monday.
SCAR-commissioned study found that 75% of teams lost money in 2024 and added that over a three-year period almost $400 million was paid to the France Family Trust. He said a 2023 evaluation by Goldman Sachs found NASCAR to be worth $5 billion. NASCAR is currently run by Jim France, son of founder Bill France Sr. “What the evidence is going to show is Mr. France ran this for the bene t of his family at the expense of the teams and sport,” Kessler said. Hamlin testifed that the TV deal NASCAR signed ahead of the 2025 season has not been a boon to race teams because of a shift toward streaming sponsors and big-ticket sponsors want to be on television. He also referred to a meeting with NASCAR chairman Jim France, who indicated teams are spending too much and it should only cost $10 million per car. At the heart of the lawsuit is NASCAR’s revenue sharing model, which 23XI and Front Row argue is unfair to race teams that often operate at a loss. Hamlin testi ed it cost $20 million to simply bring a single car to the track over a 38race season, not including overhead expenses such as driver
salary and business operations.
“We cannot cut more. Tell me how to get my investment back? He had no answer,” Hamlin said.
“So why would these people do this if you are just going to lose money because NASCAR isn’t giving you a fair deal?” asked Kessler, “Because you love stock car racing, and there’s nowhere else to do it.”
The charter agreements signed for this year that triggered the lawsuit guarantee the teams $12.5 million in annual revenue per chartered car. NASCAR argues the guaranteed payouts are an increase from $9 million from the previous agreement, but Hamlin noted that 11 of the rst 19 chartered teams are no longer in business.
As for refusing to sign the charter agreements last fall, Hamlin said the last-ditch proposal from NASCAR “had eight points minimum that needed to be changed. When we pointed that out we were told, ‘Negotiations are closed.’”
“I didn’t sign because I knew this was my death certi cate for the future,” he said, later adding: “I have spent 20 years trying to make this sport grow as a driver and for the last ve years as a team owner. 23XI is doing our part. You can’t have someone treat you this unfairly, and I knew It wasn’t right. They were wrong, and someone needed to be held accountable.”
Under cross-examination, Hamlin was asked why he paints a rosier picture of NASCAR on podcast appearances. He replied that he is regurgitating NASCAR talking points because any negative comments can lead to retribution.
All three charters 23XI purchased came from teams that ceased operations, and Hamlin said 23XI paid $4.7 million for its rst charter, $13.5 million for its second and $28 mil-
lion for its third, acquired late last year. He acknowledged purchasing the third charter was a risk because of the pending litigation — and the price concerned him — but it was required if 23XI intends to build itself into a top team.
The charter system guarantees a car a spot in the eld each race week as well as a percentage of the purse. It also gives team owners an asset to sell should they want to get out of the business.
NASCAR attorneys argued that the charter system has created $1.5 billion in equity for the 36 chartered teams. Prior to the charter system, teams raced “open,” with no guarantee they’d make the eld or earn a payout.
“The France family built NASCAR from nothing. They are an American success story,” Johnny Stephenson said in the opening statement for NASCAR. Stephenson is a colleague of Christopher Yates, who had previously handled most of the courtroom arguments for the defendants.
“They’ve done it through hard work over 75 years. That’s the kind of e ort that doesn’t deserve a lawsuit. That’s the kind of e ort that deserves admiration.”
The case has churned through hearings and arguments for more than a year despite calls from other NASCAR teams to settle. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell even helped mediate a failed twoday summit in October.
A NASCAR victory could put 23XI, Front Row and their six combined cars out of business. Their charters — now being held by NASCAR — would likely be sold. The last charter went for $45 million, and NASCAR has indicated there is interest from potential buyers, including private equity rms.
A win for the teams could lead to monetary damages and the potential demolition of NASCAR as it is run today. The judge has the power to unravel a monopoly, and nothing is o the table, from ordering a sale of NASCAR to the dismantling of the charter system.
JENNA FRYER / AP PHOTO
PHOTOS BY GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
In support of Afghan refugees
During those shared meals with Afghan refugees, I had a taste of the multicultural vision found in Luke 13:29.
I AM DEEPLY saddened by the killing of Sarah Beckstrom, the National Guard member. I hold her family in the light. I also pray for the healing of her fellow Guard member, Andrew Wolfe.
I am also concerned about the future of thousands of Afghan refugees in our country. We cannot blame the thousands of Afghans who assisted American soldiers in the war against the Taliban for the actions of a single individual. Military veterans and CIA o cials alike have testi ed that these brave Afghans saved countless American lives. They are here in our country because of our promise to honor their service.
However, Congress has stalled in passing the bipartisan legislation known as the Afghan Adjustment Act. Before extending permanent legal status to our Afghan allies, the bill would provide additional security vetting. But despite several attempts over the past four years, Congress has never adopted the proposal.
This Sunday, Dec. 7, marks 84 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that killed more than 2,400 Americans and launched the United States into World War II. During that war, over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, many of them American citizens, were forced into internment camps solely based on their ethnicity. This denial of rights is a
COLUMN | BOB WACHS
terrible stain on the American history of justice and an insult to people of faith who believe that we are called to love our neighbors of every race.
Like many communities of faith in our area, my church had assisted Afghan families who relocated to the Triangle. We have helped pay rent and also o ered soft skills, like resume writing, to help these allies achieve solid nancial footing in their new country. We have shared meals. Our friends insisted on bringing traditional foods from their homeland, which were delicious! We continue to build these relationships, yet I worry their status in our country is now in jeopardy through no fault of theirs but on account of shameful, xenophobic reactions. Americans are better than that.
During those shared meals with Afghan refugees, I had a taste of the multicultural vision found in Luke 13:29: “And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and they shall sit down in the kingdom of God.” Isn’t that the kind of feast we want to attend? Isn’t that the kind of people we want to be?
Andrew Taylor-Troutman’s newest book is “This Is the Day.” He serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church as well as a writer, pizza maker, co ee drinker and student of joy.
Leave leaves leaving trees … or rake and burn them?
“Keep it between the ditches” was a favorite as we slid behind the wheel learning to drive.
MY FATHER HAD many sayings he imparted to his three sons. Some were original, I think, while others he had heard himself or were a part of the general culture of mankind.
There were the familiar sayings like, “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too” if we were having trouble deciding whether to spend money or to save it. “Keep it between the ditches” was a favorite of his as we slid behind the wheel learning to drive.
Others were speci c to the son in question. He has on more than one occasion reminded me, “You’d lose your head if it weren’t glued on.” Actually he used another part of the human anatomy when sharing that wisdom with me, but you get the picture. To this day, I am still proving him right on that observation.
But there’s one saying my oldest brother says he heard often that I can’t remember and whose origin is, at least according to the masses, lost somewhere never to be found. The saying in question is, obviously, relevant this time of the year; it is — “If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.”
The logic behind that, I think, is that we use those two words — “if” and “but” — too often to be helpful in meeting life head-on. Instead of concentrating on what was or could be, we’d be better o to deal with reality. And it’s the reality of this time of year coupled with that little rhyme that has led me to this point: “If leaves were dollar bills, I’d have lots of money.”
Our little corner of Heaven is in the Chatham County countryside. I like it. We’re close enough to what shopping needs to be done but are free from tra c congestion. At night we see a little of the glow from Siler City or Sanford but can still see the sky and the North Star.
We hear the sounds of Nature’s night … the crickets, bullfrogs in the summer, chattering squirrels and even the unwelcome howl of the coyotes across the woods.
And then there are the trees … shady and cool in the summer, and stark and impressive in the winter … when the leaves are o . I know you can’t have it both ways; you either cut all the trees (ugh!) or you keep the trees and get the leaves. So far this year we’re way behind on raking and burning.
Better Half loves to rake and burn the leaves that are leaving their tree homes. Something about clearing the yard and smelling the smoke. Folks who live in town miss out on much of that, at least the burning part. Rake ’em to the curb and wait for the vacuum truck and hope there’s not much wind until.
As a little guy, my mama tortured me and engaged in child abuse by having me help rake her leaves. During the process, I tried to leave enough time, space and energy to jump into the big piles we’d gathered, at least enough to scatter them all again until she threatened to hide the peanut butter if I didn’t stop. At that point I did.
As her brood aged and scattered and produced their own ock of little folks, arriving at the home place to help rake her leaves became part of the Thanksgiving proceedings. The key was to arrive late enough to miss out on most of the work but not too late to miss dinner.
My brothers had that perfected … which meant I did most of the work.
In time, the Air Quality Police told us we should cease and desist from destroying the atmosphere on Mars as we burned our leaves. After Better Half and I took up residence here, for the longest time we’d rake leaves into a ditch or scatter them into the pasture or dump them in the natural (“ungrassed”) part of our yard to help in the creation of more dirt. And some we even left in piles for the puppy patrol to sleep in.
But in time, the lure of the smoke was too strong. So out came the rakes and the matches, and once again there’s a haze over our place … except that, as noted, we’re way behind. The good news of that is, I guess, that there’s still plenty of smoke to be inhaled.
But as I celebrate more birthdays and realize all over again that I’m not going to outlast Mother Nature and that she can dump more leaves than I can get up, I’m becoming more inclined to leave the leaves and to take another of my dad’s proverbs to heart: “Don’t wish your time away. Pace yourself.”
Thanks, Dad …
Bob Wachs is a native of Chatham County and emeritus editor at Chatham News & Record. He serves as pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church.
Light, ahoy!
I mean, really, where are the squirrel whisperers when you really need them?
ONE FRIGID MORNING last winter, around 6:30 a.m., I’d just washed my hair. Toweling o and suddenly the electrical power goes kaput.
Again.
Our neighborhood has a homeowners association (HOA), a darn good one. Truth be told, however, I believe our neighborhood squirrels share power with the HOA. Those scrambling-everywhere critters (who do not, ever, pay their annual homeowner’s dues) seem to have a continuing a nity for antagonizing the neighborhood’s, highwire, electrical transformers. This ongoing, yearslong, con ict never, ever bodes well for the curious squirrel, and for that matter, the neighborhood’s fondness for experiencing heat and light. Brrrrr …
I mean, really, where are the squirrel whisperers when you really need them?
The temp was a teensy bit below freezing. And, me, with wet hair! Winter knit cap found and pulled over my head. The power’s projected return was three hours. Geez!
Three hours!
Uh-oh, I could feel my brain’s trapdoor beginning to open. My lifelong, hypochondriacally inclined mind surfaced my mother’s long ago, and frequent, warning: “Don’t go out in the cold when your hair is wet! You’ll get sick!” (No homespun wisdom, however, was shared regarding wet hair and invasive cold in my house.)
| DAVID HARSANYI
Suddenly, I’m in hypochondriacal free fall. The fuse for my powder keg of worrying had been sparked. Oh geez, I could get pneumonia … And then the cell phone rings, halting my rapidly accelerating descent into anxiety. A neighbor, also without power, decided desperate measures were called for. In the hopeful belief that McDonald’s, several miles away, would be open, did I want co ee? (The equivalent of asking if I’d like a heated electric blanket, right then and there.)
I felt myself (almost) getting warmer in anticipation of possible co ee. My neighbor called from her car to say she was three minutes away with a large, hot brew. Whoopee!! Hung up, and the electricity returned in the very next moment. That very next moment, 21⁄2 hours earlier than expected.
A wonderful reminder for me that the universe, unexpectedly, o ers light when we least expect it. I forget that portals of light (co ee-bearing neighbors, an open McDonald’s, the return of heat and light) surround me. Generally, I’m not paying attention. Can I periodically remind myself — light, ahoy?
Relaxing; happily sipping my co ee …
Jan Hutton, a resident of Chatham County and retired hospice social worker, lives life with heart and humor.
Marjorie Taylor Greene embodies the inanity of populism
Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
DURING A RECENT stop on her image rehab tour, Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN’s Dana Bash that she is sorry “for taking part in the toxic politics.” It has been, she added, “bad for the country.” A week later, Greene nally did something patriotic by announcing her retirement.
It’s fair to say Greene is one of the most well-known GOP House members in the nation. Greene, though, is famous because her nitwittery has been endlessly highlighted by the media and Democrats to cast the Republican Party as one of hayseeds and conspiracists.
And, in all fairness, Greene might be one of the biggest ignoramuses to ever serve in Congress, which is no small achievement when one considers the “Squad” exists. If I asked you to name a single piece of legislation Greene has sponsored, you would probably be at a loss.
If I asked you to name an important policy she has championed, an uplifting speech she has delivered or an area of expertise she has mastered, you would not think of any because there have been none.
Once the president reportedly dissuaded her from running for higher o ce in Georgia, Greene’s loyalty dissipated. Scorned, she became rudderless and useless. There is nothing left for her because there was not much there to begin with.
Donald Trump has contended that Greene went “BAD” and became a “ranting lunatic.” This is wrong. She has always been a ranting lunatic and an early adopter of the unhinged conspiratorial notions that have now infected so much of the populist right.
“I was a victim, just like you were, of media lies and stu you read on social media,” Greene appealed to the women on “The View” when confronted with her past. It’s undeniable that the (well-earned) collapse of trust in both media and experts has created a vacuum that’s now lled by a horde of hucksters.
Victims such as Greene are easy marks for online con artists and propagandists because they lack a substantive belief system, organizing principles, coherent worldviews or historical perspective to repel conspiracies. Asking questions can be an admirable quality of an inquisitive mind. Asking questions such as “Are spacebased solar lasers built by the Rothschilds starting California wild res?” makes you a paranoid dolt.
Greene, of course, was in on the Pizzagate and QAnon stu from the beginning. She suggested that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas may have been staged by gun control activists and questioned whether the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
TOUCH
BE IN
Florida’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood just the beginning
THIS MONTH, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmier led a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for false advertising.
Not over a billing dispute or a sloppy ad claim. Instead, the country’s largest abortion provider has been telling women that its “product” — speci cally the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — is “as safe as taking a Tylenol.”
The truth is far more serious.
was a “massive false ag.” You would be hard-pressed to nd a conspiracy on the “right” that she did not entertain.
Let us also not forget that Greene was one of the rst — and only — elected o cials to cozy up to the Groypers who are being normalized by the online NatCon Right. Greene spoke at a 2022 white nationalist junior varsity jamboree in Florida held by Tucker Carlson’s friend Nick Fuentes, who believes that Jews are “race traitors,” denies the Holocaust happened and believes segregation was bene cial for black Americans.
At the time, Greene pleaded ignorance of these positions, contending she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people. She never once confronted attendees to rethink their identitarian views, as she basked in their applause. Greene is either mind-bogglingly gullible or an ally. With her, both options are wholly plausible. Let us be charitable and concede it’s the former. Greene is no less credulous these days as she tries to appeal to the left. She broke with Trump by falling for the Democrats’ scaremongering over Obamacare subsidies during the government shutdown. She bought the Gaza “genocide” hoax just like she bought into Pizzagate. A big proponent of releasing the Epstein “ les,” Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
I’m often told that it’s “elitist” to mock these champions of average Americans. We need more “normal” people in Congress, they say. Absolutely. We have too many lawyers and professional activists running in Washington and far too few successful Americans who comprehend the real-world concerns of a diverse population.
To say Greene is a normal American, however, is to contend that a normal American is an imbecile, which is not true. Indeed, there are millions of “average” Americans who are curious, smart, idealistic, capable and problem solvers. The representative of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District possesses none of those attributes.
Greene’s resignation from Congress will take e ect on Jan. 6, 2026, exactly in time for a lifelong pension to kick in. Greene was unable to ful ll a two-year commitment to her constituents because her feelings were hurt. Despite enabling her twice, they should consider themselves lucky. We have always had embarrassingly low standards for electing o cials. But they are not often this low.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.
Letters to the editor may be sent to letters@nsjonline.com or mailed to 1201 Edwards Mill Rd., Suite 300, Raleigh, NC 27607. Letters must be signed; include the writer’s phone number, city and state; and be no longer than 300 words. Letters may be edited for style, length or clarity when necessary. Ideas for op-eds should be sent to opinion@nsjonline.com.
Contact a writer or columnist: connect@northstatejournal.com
As a Florida mother of four daughters, I’m relieved to see our state o cials recognize the increased risks of taking the abortion pill and the life that it ends inside the womb. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. Furthermore, the FDA should take note and remove its approval of all abortion drugs and review these risks in-depth for the safety of all women.
The Florida lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood’s campaign to induce women to purchase abortion drugs by misrepresenting the risks of chemical abortion violates the Florida law. The gross misrepresentation of a drug designed intentionally to take the life of a preborn child can be found on Planned Parenthood’s website, in printed materials, and in television advertisements. In fact, the organization claims that chemical abortion is “extremely safe” in all its descriptions.
However, the data suggests otherwise.
A recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims shows one in 10 women su er severe complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. We’re talking about things like hemorrhaging, infections or even sepsis, which can turn deadly fast. That’s 22 times higher than what the prescription label claims. Doesn’t sound like Tylenol to me.
Chemical abortion involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The rst pill starves the developing baby; the second forces the mother’s body to deliver her dead child through hours of violent cramping and bleeding, often far worse than the “mild period” symptoms Planned Parenthood describes. Postabortive testimonials say they were lied to, left alone on bathroom oors, terri ed and hemorrhaging, some permanently scarred or sterilized.
Planned Parenthood’s lies are a deliberate cover-up for the violence they knowingly in ict. By denying the scienti c fact that life begins at conception, they not only hurt women with these drugs but also take the innocent life in the womb. And abortion pill access is easier than ever, even in our pro-life state. Due to the Biden administration’s elimination of nearly all safeguards, abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam, ultrasound or follow-up care. Furthermore, there are no regulations governing where or to whom these pills are distributed. Women, many of them minors, are left alone to bleed out in their bathrooms, risking their health and future fertility, all while Planned Parenthood cashes in on another customer.
The Florida lawsuit is a crucial step in the process, but we can’t stop here. This ling should be a wakeup call to the FDA, acting as a catalyst for the new HHS leadership to nally review the abortion pill’s risks as promised. Planned Parenthood must be held fully accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. The FDA should immediately remove its approval of all abortion drugs and conduct a thorough, unbiased review for the safety of every mother and the protection of every child.
This bold action by Uthmeier builds on the courageous leadership of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Florida a national beacon for protecting preborn life over the past several years. From signing the 15-week protection in 2022 to boldly enacting the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2023, banning abortion after six weeks when a baby’s heartbeat can already be detected, DeSantis has stood unapologetically for the most vulnerable among us. He fought tirelessly against the radical Amendment 4 last year, which would have stripped away nearly all protections for preborn children and allowed abortion on demand up to birth in many cases.
Thanks to DeSantis’ leadership and the e orts of pro-life Floridians, Amendment 4 was defeated, falling short of the required 60% even as the abortion industry poured millions into deceiving voters.
Yet the abortion lobby is still attempting a runaround of our laws by ooding Florida with mailorder pills and out-of-state telehealth prescriptions. Chemical abortion already accounts for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide. If we allow these dangerous drugs to ow unchecked into our state, we will undo everything Florida families have fought for.
That’s why this lawsuit matters. That’s why Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to reexamine the abortion pill’s risks matters. And that’s why we must keep pushing until these drugs are removed from the market entirely.
In his X post about the lawsuit, Uthmeier said, “We stand by our women.” But Planned Parenthood does not.
Here in the “Free State of Florida,” under leaders like DeSantis and Uthmeier, we will keep leading the nation by exposing the lies of the abortion industry, defending women and their innocent children, and fostering a culture of life because every human life from conception is sacred and deserves protection.
Kimberly Bird is a communications specialist at Live Action and lives in Florida with her husband and four children. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation. COLUMN
COLUMN
obituaries
IN MEMORY
LARRY M. ARONSON
SEPT. 20, 1932 – NOV. 26, 2025
Larry M. Aronson, age 93, of Moncure passed away peacefully on Wednesday, November 26, 2025 at the Laurels of Chatham in Pittsboro, NC. Larry was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1932, son of Louis Aronson and Yetta Freedman Aronson. Larry was preceded in death by his parents, his beloved wife, Geri, and his son, Cary.
PASTOR VERNON CLARK DAVIS
MARCH 12, 1935 – NOV. 27, 2025
Pastor Vernon Clark Davis, 90, of Bear Creek, went to his Heavenly home on Thursday, November 27th, 2025, at home surrounded by family.
Clark was born on March 12th, 1935, in Johnston County, NC to the late Walter L. “Bo” and Alice S. Davis. He is preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Glenda Davis Johnston; his brother, Wendell Walters Sherwood Davis; and his wife, Mary Lou Whitehurst Davis.
Clark attended Randolph Macon Military Academy on a football scholarship and then went on to attend East Carolina University also on a football scholarship. At the age of 40, he went back to college and attended Bob Jones University. He was a minister for 25 years at Antioch Christian Church, Independent Baptist. He loved going hunting and shing, as well as playing music and singing. Clark could play most musical instruments. He also liked to weld in his spare time. Clark was also a Korean war veteran for the United States Army.
Left to cherish his memory are his son, Mark Aden Davis and his wife, Susan of Bear Creek; his grandchildren, Leighton Davis and his wife Alexis, Lauren Davis Carlson and her husband, Jeremy, Connor Davis and his wife, Colby, and Savannah Davis Crissman and her husband Evan; his three great grandchildren, Riley Davis, Scarlett Davis, and Kacie Chrissman; and his brother, Don Davis.
BILLY JOE COX
APRIL. 1, 1938 – NOV. 27, 2025
Billy Joe Cox, age 87, of Sanford, NC, passed away on Thursday, November 27, 2025, at his home. He was born in Lee County on, April 1, 1938, to the late Roland Wilson Cox and Lessie Lett Cox. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister Mary Elizabeth Reece. Following graduation from high school, Mr. Cox attended King’s Business College, completing his Accounting Degree. He worked as a controller for Hunter Motor Lines, Provident Finance Company and later retiring from Trion, Inc. He served his country in the Army National Guard and was a proud Iron Dukes charter member. Surviving relatives are his wife of 64 years Mary Frances Berryman Cox; daughter Jill Cox; brother, Stanley Wilson Cox; sisters Linda Sue Cox Crompton, and Barbara Ann Cox.
Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in Chatham News & Record at obits@chathamnewsrecord.com
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.
Tom Stoppard, sparkling playwright who won Oscar for ‘Shakespeare In Love,’ dead at 88
His plays won ve Tony awards for “Best Play” in ve di erent decades
By Jill Lawless The Associated Press
LONDON — British playwright Tom Stoppard, a playful, probing dramatist who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s “Shakespeare In Love,” has died. He was 88.
In a statement Saturday, United Agents said the Czechborn Stoppard — often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation — died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southwest England, surrounded by his family.
“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” they said. “It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger was among those paying tribute, calling Stoppard “a giant of the English theater, both highly intellectual and very funny in all his plays and scripts.
“He had a dazzling wit and loved classical and popular music alike which often featured in his huge body of work,” said Jagger, who produced the 2001 lm “Enigma,” with a screenplay by Stoppard. “He was amusing and quietly sardonic. A friend and companion and I will always miss him.”
King Charles III said Stoppard was “a dear friend who wore his genius lightly.”
Theaters in London’s West End dimmed their lights for two minutes on Tuesday in tribute. Brain-teasing plays
Over a six-decade career, Stoppard’s brain-teasing plays for theater, radio and screen ranged from Shakespeare and science to philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century.
Five of them won Tony Awards for best play: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 1968; “Travesties” in 1976; “The Real Thing” in 1984; “The Coast of Utopia” in 2007; and “Leopoldstadt” in 2023.
Stoppard biographer Hermione Lee said the secret of his plays was their “mixture of language, knowledge and feeling. … It’s those three things in gear together which make him so remarkable.”
The writer was born Tomás Sträussler in 1937 to a Jewish family in Zlín in what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. His father was a doctor for the Bata shoe company, and when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939 the family ed to Singapore, where Bata had a factory.
In late 1941, as Japanese forces closed in on the city state, Tomas, his brother and their mother ed again, this time to India. His father stayed behind and later died when his ship was attacked as he tried to leave Singapore.
In 1946, his mother married an English o cer, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to threadbare postwar Britain. The 8-year-old Tom “put on Englishness like a coat,” he later said, growing up to be a quintessential Englishman who loved cricket and Shakespeare.
He did not go to university but began his career, aged 17, as a journalist on newspapers in Bristol, southwest England, and then as a theater critic for Scene magazine in London.
Tragedy and humor
He wrote plays for radio and television, including “A Walk on
the Water,” televised in 1963, and made his stage breakthrough with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” which reimagined Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from the viewpoint of two hapless minor characters. A mix of tragedy and absurdist humor, it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966 and was staged at Britain’s National Theatre, then run by Laurence Olivier, before moving to Broadway. A stream of exuberant, innovative plays followed, including meta-whodunnit “The Real Inspector Hound” ( rst staged in 1968); “Jumpers” (1972), a blend of physical and philosophical gymnastics, and “Travesties” (1974), which set intellectuals including James Joyce and Vladimir Lenin colliding in Zurich during World War I.
Musical drama “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor” (1977) was a collaboration with composer Andre Previn about a Soviet dissident con ned to a mental institution — part of Stoppard’s long involvement with groups advocating for human rights groups in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
He often played with time and structure. “The Real Thing” (1982) was a poignant romantic comedy about love and deception that featured plays within a play, while “Arcadia” (1993) moved between the modern era and the early 19th century, where characters at an English country house debated poetry, gardening and chaos theory as fate had its way with them.
“The Invention of Love” (1997) explored classical literature and the mysteries of the human heart through the life of the English poet A.E. Housman.
Stoppard began the 21st century with “The Coast of Utopia” (2002), an epic trilogy about prerevolutionary Russian intellectuals, and drew on his own background for “Rock ’n’ Roll” (2006), which contrasted the fates of the 1960s counterculture in Britain and in Communist Czechoslovakia.
“The Hard Problem” (2015) explored the mysteries of consciousness through the lenses of science and religion.
Free-speech champion
Stoppard was a strong champion of free speech who worked with organizations including PEN and Index on Censorship. He claimed not to have strong political views otherwise, writing in 1968: “I burn with no causes. I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really.”
Some critics found his plays more clever than emotionally engaging. But biographer Lee said his “very funny, witty plays” contained a “sense of underlying grief.”
“People in his plays … histo -
ry comes at them,” Lee said at a British Library event in 2021. “They turn up, they don’t know why they’re there, they don’t know whether they can get home again.”
That was especially true of his late play “Leopoldstadt,” which drew on his own family’s story for the tale of a Jewish Viennese family over the rst half of the 20th century. Stoppard said he began thinking of his personal link to the Holocaust quite late in life, only discovering after his mother’s death in 1996 that many members of his family, including all four grandparents, had died in concentration camps.
“It would be misleading to see me as somebody who blithely and innocently, at the age of 40-something, thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I had no idea I was a member of a Jewish family,’” he told The New Yorker in 2022. “Of course I knew, but I didn’t know who they were. And I didn’t feel I had to nd out in order to live my own life. But that wasn’t really true.”
“Leopoldstadt” premiered in London at the start of 2020 to rave reviews; weeks later all theaters were shut by the COVID-19 pandemic. It eventually opened in Broadway in late 2022, going on to win four Tonys.
Dizzyingly proli c, Stoppard also wrote many radio plays, a novel, television series including “Parade’s End” (2013) and many lm screenplays. These included dystopian Terry Gilliam comedy “Brazil” (1985), Steven Spielberg-directed war drama “Empire of the Sun” (1987), Elizabethan romcom “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) — for which he and Marc Norman shared a best adapted screenplay Oscar — code breaking thriller “Enigma” and Russian epic “Anna Karenina” (2012). He also wrote and directed a 1990 lm adaptation of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” and translated numerous works into English, including plays by dissident Czech writer Václav Havel, who became the country’s rst post-Communist president.
Stoppard also had a sideline as a Hollywood script doctor, lending sparkle to the dialogue of movies including “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and the Star Wars lm “Revenge of the Sith.”
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his services to literature.
He was married three times: to Jose Ingle, Miriam Stern — better known as the health journalist Dr. Miriam Stoppard — and TV producer Sabrina Guinness. The rst two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by four children, including the actor Ed Stoppard, and several grandchildren.
EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP
Tom Stoppard poses with the award for best play for “Leopoldstadt” at the Tony Awards in June 2023.
Former Black Panther leader H. Rap Brown dies in prison hospital at 82
He was serving a life sentence for killing a Georgia sheri ’s deputy
The Associated Press
BUTNER — H. Rap Brown, one of the most vocal leaders of the Black Power movement, has died in a prison hospital while serving a life sentence for the killing of a Georgia sheri ’s deputy. He was 82. Brown — who later in life changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin — died Sunday at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, his widow, Karima Al-Amin, said Monday.
A cause of death was not immediately available, but Karima Al-Amin told The Associated Press that her husband had been su ering from cancer and had been transferred to the medical facility in 2014 from a federal prison in Colorado.
Like other more militant black leaders and organizers during the racial upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brown decried heavy-handed policing in black communities. He once stated that violence was “as American as cherry pie.”
“Violence is a part of America’s culture,” he said during a 1967 news conference. “... America taught the black people to be
violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression, if necessary. We will be free by any means necessary.”
Brown was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a powerful civil rights group, and in 1968 was named minister of justice for the Black Panther Party.
Three years later, he was arrested for a robbery that ended in a shootout with New York police.
While serving a ve-year prison sentence for the robbery, Brown converted to the Dar-ul Islam movement and
changed his name. Upon his release, he moved to Atlanta in 1976, opened a grocery and health food store, and became an Imam, a spiritual leader for local Muslims.
“I’m not dissatis ed with what I did,” he told an audience in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1998. “But Islam has allowed things to be clearer. ... We have to be concerned about the welfare of ourselves and those around us, and that comes through submission to God and the raising of one’s consciousness.”
On March 16, 2000, Fulton
County Deputy Sheri Ricky Kinchen and deputy Aldranon English were shot after encountering the former Black Panther leader outside his Atlanta home.
The deputies were there to serve a warrant for failure to appear in court on charges of driving a stolen car and impersonating a police o cer during a tra c stop the previous year. English testi ed at trial that Brown red a high-powered assault ri e when the deputies tried to arrest him. Then, prosecutors said, he used a handgun to re three shots into Kinchen’s
HOUSING from page A1
The development was previously approved Nov. 15, 2023, with a maximum allowance of up to 500 units, split amongst ve blocks of multifamily dwellings, and just under six acres of green space.
The project also had a zoning compliance permit issued that would require 43 a ordable units to be developed on the project.
The breakdown of those affordable housing units would be 50% for households earning up to 60% area median income (AMI), and the other 50% would be for households earning up to 80% AMI.
The proposed modi cation, however, would be to amend the a ordable housing plan to change the minimum affordable unit total to 20 units in exchange for a $1.15 million voluntary contribution to the town’s a ordable housing funding program.
“The requested modi cation is in alignment with the Complete Community goals and the Comprehensive Plan,” said Planner Anna Scott My-
“America taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression, if necessary. We will be free by any means necessary.”
H. Rap Brown in a 1967 press conference
groin as the wounded deputy lay in the street. Kinchen would die from his wounds.
Prosecutors portrayed Brown as a deliberate killer, while his lawyers painted him as a peaceful community and religious leader who helped revitalize poverty-stricken areas. They suggested he was framed as part of a government conspiracy dating from his militant days. Brown maintained his innocence but was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life.
He argued that his constitutional rights were violated at trial and in 2019 challenged his imprisonment before a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case.
“For decades, questions have surrounded the fairness of his trial,” his family said Monday in a statement. “Newly uncovered evidence — including previously unseen FBI surveillance les, inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts, and third-party confessions — raised serious concerns that Imam Al-Amin did not receive the fair trial guaranteed under the Constitution.”
“We support both units and having a contribution to the a ordable housing fund. Both are valuable to the town.”
Planner Anna Scott Myers
ers. “We support both units and having a contribution to the a ordable housing fund. Both are valuable to the town.”
According to the applicant, the a ordable units will be distributed throughout the project.
“In this project, the ve largest buildings, which encompass 375 of the 468 units, the a ordable units will be located in all ve of those buildings and all units stemming from studio to one-, two- and three-bedroom units,” said Northwood Ravin Vice President Adam Golden.
The Chapel Hill Town Council will next meet Dec. 3.
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin watches during the sentencing portion of his trial in Atlanta in 2002.
RIC FELD / AP PHOTO
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View Apartments in Siler City is currently accepting applications for 1 & 2 bedroom apartment homes for the waiting list. Amenities include a playground, computer center, on-site laundry facilities, community garden, and income requirements. Housing Choice Vouchers accepted. Apply in-person at 226 Campus Drive, Siler City, NC 27344 from 8:00 to 5:00pm, call 336-895-1128, or email: oakview@partnershippm.com
criminal and eviction records background check required. Handicap accessible units subject to availability. Equal Housing Opportunity. Professionally managed by Partnership Property Management.
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE
A public hearing will be held by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners on Monday, December 15, 2025, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The hearing will be held in the courtroom of the Historic Courthouse in Pittsboro, North Carolina at 9 Hillsboro Street, Pittsboro NC 27312. Additional information is available at the Chatham County Planning Department o ce. Speakers are requested to sign up at the meeting prior to the hearing. You may also sign up on the county website prior to the meeting at www.chathamcountync.gov by selecting the heading County Government, then Commissioner Meetings, then Public 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 and Chatham County Fire Marshal to consider amendments to the Chatham County Subdivision Regulations; speci cally, section 7, Requirements and Minimum Standards For Improvements, Reservations, and Design adopting all standards of the North Carolina State Fire Code and Appendix D by reference. 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: December 4th and 11th, 2025
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
24E000576-180 NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY The undersigned, Jacelyn Schmid, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of John Wayne Hudson, deceased, late of Chatham County, this is to notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before the day of February 18, 2026, or this notice will be plead in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 20th day of November 2025. Jacelyn Schmid Administrator
Marie H. Hopper Attorney for the Estate Hopper Cummings, PLLC Post O ce Box 1455 Pittsboro, NC 27312
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE TOWN OF PITTSBORO
On Monday, December 8, 2025, at 6:00 pm, the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners will hold a legislative public hearing for the following requests at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center at 1192 Hwy 64 Business West: PB-25-596 – Turkey Creek CZ Amendment to PB23-289. A legislative request by Kate Murdoch, McAdams Company, has been submitted petitioning an amendment to PB-23-289 list of permitted uses in the M1-CZ district to include O ce, Medical/Dental and O ce Park, Medical/Dental.
The hearing will be held in person. The public can also watch the hearing 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 December 8, 2025 with written comments or to sign up to speak at the hearing. You can contact Carrie Bailey at cbailey@pittsboronc.gov, (919) 542-4621 ext. 1104, or PO Box 759, Pittsboro, NC 27312. NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS
CHATHAM COUNTY
HAVING QUALIFIED as Executor of the Estate of James Mack Gee late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 11th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 5th day of November, 2025. Henry Gee, Executor of the Estate Of James Mack Gee 2544 Siler City Glendon 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
NORTH CAROLINA
CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#25000649-180
The undersigned, LORETTA WHITEHEAD
BATCHELOR, having quali ed on the 26TH Day of NOVEMBER 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of DIANE B. WHITEHEAD aka BARBARA DIANE BOWERS WHITEHEAD, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 4th Day OF MARCH 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 4th DAY OF DECEMBER 2025.
LORETTA WHITEHEAD BATCHELOR, EXECUTOR 2465 ROSSER ROAD BEAR CREEK, NC 27207 Run dates: D4,D11,18,25p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA
CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#25E000538-180 The undersigned, MARIE O. JOHNSON, having quali ed on the 26th Day of SEPTEMBER 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of DONALD CARSON OLDHAM, SR., deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 13th Day OF FEBRUARY 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 13th DAY OF NOVEMBER 2025. MARIE O. JOHNSON, EXECUTOR 104 ROUNDROCK LANE SANFORD, NC 27330 Run dates: N13,20,27,D4p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Chatham County 25E000625-180
Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Chester Joseph Pletzke, Jr., late of Chatham County, North Carolina, the undersigned do hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claim against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned c/o Guido De Maere, P.A. at 100 Europa Drive, Suite 160, P.O. Box 3591, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 on or before the 20th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 20th day of November, 2025. Jonathan Joseph Pletzke Executor of the Estate of Chester Joseph Pletzke, Jr. Attorney for the Estate: Guido De Maere, P.A. P.O. Box 3591 Chapel Hill, NC 27515-3591
To be published: November 20 & 27, December 4 & 11, 2025
NOTICE
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION 25E000484-180
Having quali ed as Co-Executors of the Estate of Kathy Thompson Whaley of Chatham County, NC,
this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before February 27, 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment.
Ellen Thompson Jones, Co-Executor Rachel Elizabeth Whaley, Co-Executor
Janice A. Walston, Attorney PO Box 279 Wilson, NC 27894-0279
NOTICE
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
NOTICE TO CREDITORS COUNTY OF CHATHAM THE UNDERSIGNED, having quali ed on the 13th day of November 2025, as Executor of the ESTATE OF JAMES REID MORRISON, JR., Deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before February 21, 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 20th day of November, 2025.
CATHERINE BARNETT ALEXANDER EXECUTOR ESTATE OF JAMES REID MORRISON, JR.
c/o Jennifer Dalman, Attorney Walker Lambe, PLLC Post O ce Box 51549 Durham, North Carolina 27717
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS CHATHAM COUNTY
HAVING QUALIFIED as Executor of the Estate of Helen Grace Oldham late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 11th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
This the 5th day of November, 2025. Victoria O. Phillips, Executor of The Estate of Helen Grace Oldham 2747 Edwards Hill 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
NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS CHATHAM COUNTY
HAVING QUALIFIED as Executor of the Estate of Mary R. Parks late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 19th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 12th day of November, 2025. Cheryl Ann Green, Executor of the Estate of Mary R. Parks 314 Pebble Beach Drive Mebane, North Carolina 27302 MOODY, WILLIAMS, ATWATER & LEE
ATTORNEYS AT LAW BOX 629 SILER CITY, NORTH CAROLINA 27344 (919) 663-2850 4tp
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Patricia Hennessy, Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ce of Munson Law Firm PLLC, P.O. Box 1811 Pittsboro, NC 27312, on or before the 20th day of February 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment. This 20th day of November 2025. RUSSELL BARKER, EXECUTOR ESTATE OF PATRICIA HENNESSY
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA NOTICE TO CREDITORS CHATHAM COUNTY
HAVING QUALIFIED as Co-Executors of the Estate of James Thomas Cotner late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 27th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 20th day of November, 2025. John Riley Culberson, Co-Executor of the Estate of James Thomas Cotner 902 Mt. Vernon Hickory Mountain Road Siler City, North Carolina 27344 Ricky Gordon Culberson, Co-Executor of the Estate of James Thomas Cotner
140 Lay N Low Way Goldston, North Carolina 27252 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 Harry F. Knepp, Jr. late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned on or before the 27th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
This the 20th day of November, 2025. Erin Knepp Warrick, Executor of the Estate of Harry F. Knepp, Jr. 149 Pike Drive NW Pikeville, North Carolina 27863
MOODY, WILLIAMS, ATWATER & LEE
ATTORNEYS AT LAW BOX 629 SILER CITY, NORTH CAROLINA 27344 (919) 663-2850
4tp
EXECUTOR’S NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA
CHATHAM COUNTY All persons having claims against the estate of Steve George Zimo, of Chatham County, NC, who died on June 2, 2025, are noti ed to present them on or before February 11, 2026 to Deborah Zimo, Executor, c/o Maitland & Sti er Law Firm, 2 Couch Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery.
Michele L. Sti er MAITLAND & STIFFLER LAW FIRM 2 Couch Road Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Attorney for the Estate
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Billy Hugh Elkins, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, noti es all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned at her address, P. O. Box 266, Goldston, North Carolina, 27252, on or before the 4th day of March, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment. This 26th day of November, 2025. Rebecca L. Elkins
P. O. Box 266
Goldston, North Carolina 27252
GUNN & MESSICK, PLLC
P. O. Box 880
Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312-0880
December 4, 11, 18, 25
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Probate #25E000556-180
All persons, rm and corporations having claims against Carolyn Herberta Huckshorn , late of Chatham County, North Carolina are hereby noti ed to present them to Kristin Rae Huckshorn, as Executor of the decedent’s estate in care of Kendall H. Page, Attorney, 210 N Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 on or before the 6th day of February, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the above-named Executor.
Kendall H. Page
210 N Columbia Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Bar # 14261
Notice to Run: 11/13/2025, 11/20/2025, 11/27/2025 & 12/04/2025
Notice to Creditors
All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Victoria Carol Stephan, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before February 15, 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 13th day of November, 2025.
Kevin Stephan Limited Personal Representative c/o W. Thomas McCuiston 200 Towne Village Drive Cary, NC 27513
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA
CHATHAM COUNTY
25E000603-180
ALL persons having claims against Eric Charles Youmans, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Feb 27 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment.
This the 27th day of November, 2025.
CHE BOYD YOUMANS, EXECUTOR C/O Howard Stallings Law Firm PO Box 12347 Raleigh, NC 27605 N27, 4, 11 and 18
NOTICE
NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF Barbara Russell Hardin All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Barbara Russell Hardin, late of Chatham, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit them to Paul Russell Hardin as Executor of the decedent’s estate on or before February 14, 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 above-named Executor. This the 13th day of November 2025. Paul Russell Hardin, Executor c/o Janet B. Witchger, Atty.
TrustCounsel 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203 Chapel Hill, NC 27517
NOTICE TO CREDITORS STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CHATHAM File Number 25E000652-180
THE UNDERSIGNED, having quali ed on the 1st day of December 2025, as Executor of the ESTATE OF GRANT FRANKLIN KOHER, Deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 5th of March, 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 4th day of December, 2025.
Blanche Guay Koher
EXECUTOR ESTATE OF GRANT FRANKLIN KOHER
c/o Shirley Diefenbach, Attorney Walker Lambe, PLLC Post O ce Box 51549 Durham, North Carolina 27717
NOTICE
NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF EDGAR J. HARLOW All persons, rms and corporations having claims against EDGAR J. HARLOW, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit them to Gregory Herman-Giddens or James Wynkoop as Co-Executors of the decedent’s estate on or before February 16, 2026 c/o Gregory HermanGiddens, 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 above-named CoExecutors. This the 13th day of November 2025. Gregory Herman-Giddens, Co-Executor c/o Gregory Herman-Giddens, Atty. TrustCounsel 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203 Chapel Hill, NC 27517
NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#25E000644-180 The undersigned, LESLIE LEIGH LAFOSSE, having quali ed on the 24TH Day of NOVEMBER 2025 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of BETTY OLIVE FARLESS, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 4th Day OF MARCH 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 4th DAY OF DECEMBER 2025. LESLIE LEIGH LAFOSSE, ADMINISTRATOR 6923 WILLIAMS COUNTRY ROAD STALEY, NC 27355 Run dates: D4,D11,18,25p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#25E000586-180 The undersigned, KRISTINA DAVIS BOGART AND KIMBERLY DAVIS YARBOROUGH, having quali ed on the 23RD Day of OCTOBER 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of BOBBY GENE DAVIS, SR., deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 20th Day OF FEBRUARY 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 20th DAY OF NOVEMBER 2025. KRISTINA DAVIS BOGART, EXECUTOR 906 TANGLEWOOD DR. EXT. SILER CITY, NC 27344 KIMBERLY DAVIS YARBOROUGH, EXECUTOR 407 CALLAWAY ST. SANFORD, NC 27330 Run dates: N20,27,D4,D11p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#25E000304-180 The undersigned, JEFFREY SCOTT KLINKER, having quali ed on the 5th Day of OCTOBER 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of CAROLYN SUE KLINKER, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 13th Day OF FEBRUARY 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 13th DAY OF NOVEMBER, 2025. JEFFREY SCOTT KLINKER, EXECUTOR 2197 LAUREL LAKE RD. SALEMBURG, NC 28385 Run dates: N13,20,27,D4p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#25E000619-180 The undersigned, NORMAN M HILL IV, having quali ed on the 10th Day of NOVEMBER 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of CRYSTAL F. LONG, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 20th Day OF FEBRUARY 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 20th DAY OF NOVEMBER 2025. NORMAN M HILL IV, EXECUTOR 1715 BAEZ CT. VIRGINIA BEACH, VA 23464 Run dates: N20,27,D4,D11p
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
25E000628-180
ALL persons having claims against Gisela Hilda Hecken, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Mar 04 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment.
This the 4th day of December, 2025.
Margit H. Iwanowicz, Executor C/O Howard Stallings Law Firm PO Box 12347 Raleigh, NC 27605
D4, 11, 18 and 25
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY
FILE#24E001626-180
The undersigned, DEREK RILE GREEN, having quali ed on the 20TH Day of OCTOBER 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of ANN BLANKENSHIP GREEN, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 4th Day OF MARCH 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 4th DAY OF DECEMBER 2025.
Melania Trump reveals White House Christmas decorations
“In every community, we are lifted by simple acts of kindness that re ect the enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism, and gratitude,” White House statement
This year’s theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is”
By Darlene Superville The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Melania Trump on Monday unveiled the holiday decorations for her family’s rst Christmas back at the White House and her theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is.”
The decor also nods to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and founding of the United States of America.
Several dozen volunteer decorators from across the country helped deck the halls of the executive mansion with 75 wreaths, 51 Christmas trees, more than 700 feet of garland, more than 2,000 strands of lights, over 25,000 feet of ribbon, over 2,800 gold stars, more than 10,000 butter ies and 120 pounds of gingerbread.
A few things are di erent because President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing to build a ballroom he’s long desired.
This year, the o cial White House Christmas tree, which is always on display in the Blue Room, also honors Gold Star families, those that lost a member during active-duty militaryservice.
That tree was an East Wing xture and the rst one visitors encountered after they entered through those doors, but the building and a covered walkway, or colonnade, connecting it to the White House were demolished by Trump in October as part of his ballroom plan.
Public tours, which had been suspended because of the construction, were set to resume Tuesday but with a shorter route limited to just the State Floor, which includes the East Room; the Green, Blue and Red Rooms; the State Dining Room; the Cross Hall; and the Grand Foyer.
The Library and the Vermeil and China Rooms on the Ground Floor — one level below the State Floor — were cut from the tour route because of the construction.
The White House expects tens of thousands of visitors for holiday tours, receptions and parties before Christmas. Visitors will now enter through the North Portico doors on Penn-
sylvania Avenue using a new, semipermanent walkway and entrance.
A statement from the White House said Christmas is a time to celebrate what makes the U.S. exceptional and that while every home has its own traditions, shared values unite Americans.
“In every community, we are lifted by simple acts of kindness that re ect the enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism, and gratitude,” the statement said. “These moments remind us that the heart of America is strong and that Home Is Where The Heart Is.” Planning for the holidays starts months in advance, and the White House said Melania Trump chose every detail of the decor. Trees in the East Room are trimmed in patriotic red, white and blue and national symbols, including golden eagle tree toppers, to highlight the coming America250 national celebration.
The o cial White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room is decorated with gold stars honoring families that lost a member in the line of ac-
tive-duty military service. The o cial tree traditionally recognizes each state and territory and this year’s r is decorated with ornaments showcasing the o cial bird and ower of each.
The Green Room celebrates family fun, featuring large portraits of the rst and the current presidents, George Washington and Donald Trump, respectively, each made from more than 6,000 Lego puzzle pieces.
Thousands of blue butter ies decorate the Red Room and its tree in a celebration of young people and in tribute to Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future initiative, which is part of her Be Best child-focused initiative, to support people who have been in foster care.
A holiday highlight, the gingerbread White House on display in the State Dining Room shows o the mansion’s South Portico and o ers a special glimpse into the Yellow Oval Room, a sitting room o the Truman Balcony in the president’s private living quarters on the second oor.
It was made using 120 pounds of gingerbread, 100 pounds of pastillage, a sugar-based modeling paste; over 10 pounds of chocolate and 5 pounds of royal icing.
Part of the White House creche is on display in the Grand Foyer while the rest of it is undergoing a restoration overseen by the curator’s o ce.
Most of the tree trimming and hall decking was done after the Trumps decamped to their Florida home early last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. They returned to the White House on Sunday.
PHOTOS BY EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO
A gingerbread White House is on display in the State Dining Room of the White House during a press preview of the Christmas decorations.
CHATHAM SPORTS
Northwood girls fall short of the Stallions for the second time
By Asheebo Rojas
Chatham News & Record
Boys: Northwood 71, Southeast Alamance 56
PITTSBORO — North-
wood rode a late second half run to earn its rst win of the season over former Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference foe Southeast Alamance 71-56 on Nov. 25.
Down 27-22 with two minutes left in the second quarter, the Chargers quickly took the lead with a 6-0 run. Two straight dunks by senior guard Cam Fowler brought Northwood within one, and an inbound steal by junior guard Raje Torres led to a go-ahead layup for junior guard Asher Brooks.
Northwood held the lead for the rest of the game. Senior forward Bakari Watkins led the way with 19 points, junior guard Josiah Brown scored 18 and Fowler nished with 16. Torres ended the night
with a team-high ve steals.
“I think our defensive intensity and pressure and getting good looks on the o ensive end really helped us out,” Northwood coach Matt Brown said.
Josiah Brown, who had just ve points and missed his all three of his 3-point attempts in the rst half, helped extend Northwood’s lead to double digits by draining three triples in the third quarter.
“Spacing was there,” Josiah Brown said. “My team was setting me up for the 3s.” Watkins, playing his rst season for Northwood after three years at Carrboro, was the most consistent and efcient scorer for the Chargers. He shot 7 for 9 from the oor and matched Torres and Brooks for a team-high four assists. He also credited the team’s spacing for his o ensive success. With the win, Northwood avenged a 70-62 loss to Southeast Alamance in the season
opener Nov. 18. Southeast Alamance sophomore Donnie Fairley, who did not play in the rematch, scored 21 points, and Northwood committed 18 turnovers to help the Stallions down the Chargers for the rst time in program history.
“Energy is a big thing,” Fowler said. “Last week, we were in the locker room, we had no energy at all. And we went out there, and it showed. Today, we had energy coming out there, and we played like we wanted to play.”
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
Boys’ basketball
Seaforth senior Declan
Lindquist scored a season-high 17 points to lead the Hawks over Apex 55-51 for their rst win of the season on Nov. 25. Senior Campbell Meador contributed 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Northwood fell to E.E. Smith 53-43 in the Hoops and Dreams Showcase at Methodist University on Saturday. The Chargers are o to their worst three-game start since 2016.
Chatham Charter defeated Providence Grove 5652 on Nov. 24, winning its third straight game. Sophomore Ryder Murphy scored a team-high 17 points while shooting 75% from the oor. Despite 18 points from junior Zaeon Auguste and 17 points from sophomore Nolan Mitchell, Jordan-Matthews lost to Southern Lee 55-53 on Nov. 25. Conference standings as of Sunday (overall, conference)
Four Rivers 3A/4A: 1. Northwood (1-2, 0-0); 2. Uwharrie Charter Academy (1-3, 0-0); 3. Jordan-Matthews (1-3, 0-0); 4. North Moore (0 -1, 0-0); 5. Southwestern Randolph (0-1, 0-0); 6. Eastern Randolph (0-0, 0-0) Central Tar Heel 1A: 1. Woods Charter (2-0, 1-0); 2. Chatham Charter (5-3, 0-0); 3. Southern Wake Academy
North Carolina’s top volleyball players will compete in Chatham County
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
THE STATE’S BEST volleyball players are coming to Pittsboro.
(3-3, 0-0); 4. Clover Garden School (1-2, 0-0); 5. Ascend Leadership (2-4, 0-0); 6. Central Carolina Academy (0-3, 0-0); 7. River Mill (0-6, 0-0) Greater Triad 1A/2A: 1. Bishop McGuinness (10, 0-0); 2. Chatham Central (2 - 0, 0-0); 3. South Stokes (2-0, 0-0);
0-0); 2. Cedar Ridge (1-1, 0-0); 3. Seaforth (1-1, 0-0); 4. South Granville (1-1,
Seaforth will host the second annual North Carolina Volleyball Coaches Association All-Star Game on Saturday. The boys’ game will start at 2:30 p.m., and the girls’ game will follow at 5 p.m. Both games will be streamed on NFHS Network. The girls’ game will feature seniors, while the boys’ game will include players from all grades. Both games will have East and West teams, with the girls’ teams decided by the NCHSAA playo designations and the boys’ teams split geographically by position. Seaforth’s Josie Valgus will be one of two setters representing the East in the girls’ game. Valgus, a TCU signee, recorded career-highs of 434 assists, 234 digs and 30 blocks in the fall. She nished her high school career with 1,294 kills, 791 assists and 1,077 digs. Here are the rosters for each all-star team.
Girls
East: Genevieve Harris (Cardinal Gibbons, setter, Texas signee); Josie Valgus (Seaforth, setter, TCU signee); Maggie Penn (Falls Lake, libero, South Carolina commit); Katie Raymer (Apex, libero, LSU signee); Eva Smith (Chapel Hill, middle hitter, Mizzou signee); Ava Wilkerson (Orange, middle hitter, Houston signee); Jolene Oddo (Cleveland, middle hitter, Tennessee signee); Kayla Stoll (Cedar Ridge, middle hitter); Clara Evans (J.H. Rose, pin, TCU signee); Taylor Bruce (Green Hope, pin, Georgia signee); Britni Silver (D.H. Conley, pin, NC State signee); MaryGrace Gonyeau (Cardinal Gibbons, pin, Virginia signee); Lindley Miller (Green Level, pin, North Carolina signee); Keira Rosenmarkle (Union Pines, pin, Liberty signee); Lainy Evans (Ayden-Grifton, pin) West: Callie Largent (Reagan, setter, Nova Southeastern signee); Jilly Young (Marvin Ridge, setter, Flagler commit); Morgan Falk (Grimsley, libero); Brooke Wilson (Marvin Ridge, libero); Camden Pasour (Kings Mountain, libero,
ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Northwood’s Bakari Watkins works
CHATHAM CENTRAL ATHLETICS / FACEBOOK
Williams celebrates winning the 157-pound division at the Zack Thornburg Memorial Invitational on Nov. 26.
Bakari Watkins
Northwood, boys’ basketball
Northwood senior Bakari Watkins earns athlete of the week honors for the week of Nov. 24.
Watkins led the Chargers with a team-high 19 points in the 71-56 win over Southeast Alamance on Nov. 25. He shot an e cient 7 for 9 from the oor and added six rebounds and four assists.
After spending his rst three seasons at Carrboro, Watkins has made an immediate impact with Northwood. He recorded an 11-point, 12-rebound double-double in the season opener against Southeast Alamance.
Former J-M basketball star to get jersey retired
Lisa Morse will be honored between Friday’s varsity basketball games
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
ANOTHER HALL of fame career will be enshrined amongst the greats who played in Frank N. Justice Gymnasium.
Jordan-Matthews will retire the jersey of former girls’ basketball player Lisa Morse after its home varsity girls’ basketball game against Chatham Central on Friday. Morse, previously known as Lisa Brooks, wore No. 22 and graduated from Jordan-Matthews in 1980. She was inducted into the school’s athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.
As a player, Morse, a 5-foot- 6 guard, scored 1,306 points in her four years with the Jets. She averaged double- gure scoring for three seasons, including 17.8 points per game as a senior.
Morse led the Jets to a 22-3 record in the 1979-80 season while shooting 48% from the oor. She nished her basketball career with three all-conference selections, and she earned News & Observer rst-and second-team All-East honors.
Basketball wasn’t Morse’s only talent. She also played tennis and softball at the varsity level, earning multiple all-conference honors in those sports. In softball, Morse batted .474 through her junior season, and in tennis, she went undefeated in regular season singles matches after her sophomore year. In the classroom, Morse achieved an academic grade average about 90 as a senior, and she was a member of the Beta Club.
After high school, Morse played basketball at Wake Forest alongside high school teammate Kelly Marshall (inducted into the Jordan-Matthews Hall of Fame in 2013). Although the Demon Deacons failed to achieve a winning record in her four years, Morse excelled as a shooter. She recorded multiple 20-point performances throughout her career, including a 21-point showing against UNC in 1982 and a 24-point night against Appalachian State in 1983.
Morse improved her eld goal percentages and scoring average year-by-year leading up to her senior season. By her nal
1,306
Career points for Lisa Morse
year, her shooting abilities became an integral part of Wake Forest’s success.
“A steady player and leader de nitely describes Lisa,” former Wake Forest coach Wanda Briley said ahead of the 1983-84 season.
Morse holds the third-highest career free-throw percentage (82.3%) and the third-highest single-season free-throw clip (86.2% in the 1982-83 season) in Wake Forest women’s basketball history. She also led the team in free-throw percentage as a sophomore.
Following her college career, Morse taught history at Jordan-Matthews and was named the school’s teacher of the year for 2020-21 and 2023-24. She
coached girls’ basketball from 1986-96, girls’ tennis from 1986-95 and again from 201518, and softball for a few years in the 1980s. Morse’s daughter Sarah also played basketball at Jordan-Matthews from 2013-17. As a sophomore, Sarah Morse helped the Jets to a 19-8 record while leading the team in blocks and nishing second on the team in points per game, eld goal percentage, free -throw percentage and 3-point percentage.
Lisa Morse retired from teaching in May.
Jordan-Matthews’ latest jersey retirement will be its third in two years. In 2024, the school retired the basketball jerseys of Terrence Newby, who formerly played for UNC, and current football coach Kermit Carter. Jordan-Matthews retired the football and basketball jerseys of Robert Siler, a 1987 graduate who continued his basketball career at Wake Forest.
ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
COURTESY JORDAN-MATTHEWS ATHLETICS
Lisa Morse dons her No. 22 jersey while playing at Jordan-Matthews before graduating in 1980.
Local boys’ soccer players earn postseason honors
The NCSCA released its All-State and All-Region lists
By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record
THE NORTH CAROLINA Soccer Coaches Association released its All-State and All-Region lists for the 2025 season. Here are the local athletes who earned postseason honors.
Woods Charter
Campbell Blackburn
(1A All State, Midstate
1A/2A/3A All Region)
Sophomore defender Campbell Blackburn nished second on the team with nine goals while taking 11 shots on the year.
Daniel Horil (Midstate
1A/2A/3A All Region)
Senior mid elder Daniel Horil put pressure on defenses, logging 27 shots, the second most on the team, two goals and three assists this fall.
Odin Withrow (Midstate
1A/2A/3A All Region)
Senior defender Odin Withrow was a crucial piece in the Wolves’ defensive success, helping them hold seven opponents scoreless and ve opponents to one goal.
Northwood
Aidan Swaine (3A All State, Midstate 1A/2A/3A All Region)
Senior defender Aidan Swaine tied for the most goals on the team (10) and record-
ALL-STAR from page B1
Lenoir-Rhyne signee); Laney Blevins (East Forsyth, middle hitter, Boston College signee); Denét Houey (Kings Mountain, middle hitter, Lenoir-Rhyne commit); Lydia Chambers (Lake Norman Charter, middle hitter, Queens commit); Jordyn Gray (Cox Mill, pin, Louisville signee); Kinnady Boothe (East Forsyth, pin, High Point signee); Emma Pastusic (Watauga, pin, Citadel signee); Alden Schwartz (Bradford Prep, pin, High Point commit); Gia Lowe (Mooresville, pin, Flagler commit); Natalie Unkrich (Marvin Ridge, pin, Lehigh commit); Scholar Bates (North Mecklenburg, pin, Alabama A&M commit)
Boys
East: Liam Shugart (West Forsyth, setter); Carter Zorn (Union Academy, setter); Luke Rosenburger (Reagan, libero); Cayden Smith (Mt. Pleasant, libero); Niky Capistrano (West Forsyth, middle hitter); Car -
Northwood’s Aidan Swaine was one of three local players to earn All-State honors.
ed ve assists, both of which are career-highs. Out of his 18 shots, 15 were on goal.
Calvin Britt (Midstate 1A/2A/3A All Region)
Sophomore goalkeeper Calvin Britt notched 104 saves in
ter Buchanan (Riverside, middle hitter); Cole Creedle (Eno River, middle hitter); Ben Kaplan (Chapel Hill, pin); Logan Boluc (West Forsyth, pin); Dylan Coulombe (Reagan, pin); Jackson Arnaez (West Forsyth, pin); Brady Milligan (Christ the King, pin); Will Park (Jordan, pin); Bodhi Peoples (Reagan, pin); Cooper Warman (West Forsyth, pin)
19 games. He recorded at least 10 saves in two games, including the Chargers’ second round loss to NCSSM-Durham. Britt helped Northwood achieve nine clean sheets.
Berkely Godehn (Mid-
state 1A/2A/3A All Region)
Junior defender Berkely Godehn was a crucial contributor to Northwood’s clean sheets and solid defensive performances. He scored one goal this fall.
Johnny Santiago (Midstate 1A/2A/3A All Region)
Freshman forward Johnny Santiago made an immediate impact for the Chargers. Santiago tied for the team’s most goals (10). He recorded two games with multiple scores, including a hat trick against Eastern Randolph in October.
Jordan-Matthews
Andres Tepile (4A All State, Burlington 4A/5A/6A All Region)
Senior defender and captain Andres Tepile scored eight goals and notched four assists in his nal high school season. Tepile recorded 23 shots on goal, bringing his goals-to -shots on goal percentage go 34.8%.
Samuel Basilio (Burlington 4A/5A/6A All Region)
Senior mid elder Samuel Basilio, a captain for the Jets, scored seven goals and set up his teammates with 20 assists in the fall.
Jeremy Alvarado (Burlington 4A/5A/6A All Region)
Senior mid elder Jeremy Alvarado nished the season with 23 goals and 14 assists. He scored 35.4% of his 65 shots on goal. Alvarado was one of the captains for the Jets.
GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
Seaforth’s Josie Valgus will represent her school and Chatham County at the NCVBCA All- Star Game.
College football mascots just as good at keeping their identities secret as ring up a crowd
Schools keep the person under the suit a secret, often until graduation
By Mike Householder
The Associated Press
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Ross Ramsey enjoys spending time with fellow alums at Michigan State football tailgates.
These aren’t just any old former Spartans, though.
They were Sparty himself — something few knew when Ramsey and his pals donned the muscular mascot suit two decades ago.
“Once you are done being Sparty, you can tell others that you were Sparty,” said Ramsey, a physician and hospital administrator in Pigeon, Michigan. “And clearly you have a close bond with those others who were in the same role as you, because they couldn’t share that experience with anyone else at the time, either.”
Ramsey and his buddies are members of an elite fellowship of ex-mascots. Men and women who once carried on as Big Al, Alabama’s lovable elephant; the Disney-inspired Oregon Duck; Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger and many more. We’re talking humans in suits, not live animal mascots, which also are xtures on college football Saturdays.
The job for costumed mascots is to re up the crowd, bring a smile to a fan’s face and symbolically represent the university.
“When you think of Michigan State, you think of Sparty. And everybody knows what the mascot is,” said Phil Lator, another former Sparty who joins Ramsey at the tailgates and also successfully concealed his alter ego during his tenure in East Lansing.
Anonymity is the name of the game for many college mascots.
“Some programs value secrecy so highly that multiple performers report to the stadium but only learn in the moment who will actually be suiting up,” said Je Birdsell, a communication professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Birdsell has experience in these matters, having served as Point Loma’s mascot as an undergrad, as well as inhabiting suits for minor league baseball, NBA G League and indoor soccer teams.
“Some schools have traditions where they work hard to keep the performers anonymous so that there can be a big reveal as part of graduation ceremonies,” he said.
Enter Nicole Hurley, who came clean about her Cocky past at South Carolina’s spring commencement, rolling into the arena wearing her cap, gown and
NORTHWOOD from page B1
Girls: Southeast Alamance 52, Northwood 29
After trailing by one at halftime, Northwood got outscored by 22 in the second half on the way to a 52-29 loss to defending 2A state champions Southeast Alamance.
Southeast Alamance senior Clara LaChapelle scored all 10
Seaforth defeated Apex Friendship 54-25 on Nov. 25. The Hawks outscored the Patriots 30-10 in the rst half.
Chatham Charter fell 60 -14 to Providence Grove on Nov. 24. Jordan-Matthews also took a big loss, falling short of Southern Lee 55-8 on Nov. 25. The Jets have lost four straight games to start the season. Conference standings as of Sunday (overall, conference)
Four Rivers 3A/4A: 1. Uwharrie Charter (5-0, 0-0); 2. Southwestern Randolph
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty
much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics”
Nicole Hurley, former Cocky the Gamecock
oversized yellow bird feet of the bird mascot.
“When I walked across the stage, I felt so much joy. The whole arena started to clap and cheer, and it made me emotional,” said Hurley, a pediatric hematology oncology nurse in Charleston, South Carolina.
Only Hurley’s roommates and parents knew about her second life.
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics and created excuses when I was not free on the weekends due to working private events,” Hurley said.
“When people I know would come up to take a photo with me when I was Cocky and they had no idea I was the one under the
of her points in the second half. Senior guard Shaniya Paylor led the Stallions with 11 points, and sophomore Rreanna Johnson contributed 10 points.
Northwood got o to a hot start, leading Southeast Alamance 12-6 at the end of the rst quarter. Seniors Alyia Roberts and Shaylah Glover scored four points apiece in the opening quarter.
“I think our defensive e ort
(0 -1, 0-0); 3. North Moore (0-1, 0-0); 4. Eastern Randolph (0-1, 0-0); 5. Northwood (0-2, 0-0); 6. Jordan-Matthews (0-4, 0-0) Central Tar Heel 1A: 1. Woods Charter (3-1, 0-0); 2. Clover Garden School (1-1, 0-0); 3. Southern Wake Academy (1-2, 0-0); 4. Chatham Charter (2-6, 0-0); 5. Central Carolina Academy (0-3, 0-0); 6. Ascend Leadership (0-4, 0-0); 7. River Mill (0-6, 0-0) Greater Triad 1A/2A: 1. Chatham Central (2-0, 0-0); 2. College Prep and Leadership (5-0, 0-0); 3. Bishop McGuinness (3-1, 0-0); 4. South Stokes (3-3, 0-0); 5. North Stokes (0 -1, 0-0); 6. South Davidson (0-0, 0-0) Big Seven 4A/5A: 1. Orange (1-0, 0-0); 2. Seaforth (20, 0-0); 3. Durham School of the Arts (2-2, 0-0); 4. Carrboro
suit was the craziest feeling.”
Carlos Polanco-Zaccardi, whose years inside Miami’s Sebastian the Ibis costume were known only to a select few, also became pro cient at hiding his true identity. The 2025 graduate of the “U” toted his bird get-up around campus in an enormous du el bag. When confronted, Polanco-Zaccardi would supply a white lie depending on the questioner.
“For my friends, I told them that I was one of the party performers on stilts that perform at weddings, bar mitzvahs and birthday parties,” he said.
Like the Michigan State guys, Hurley and Polanco-Zaccardi, costumed performers at the collegiate level almost always are students.
That intense school pride doesn’t go away for many ex-mascots, long after they’ve stopped wearing the fur. Just ask Scott Ferry, another Sparty alum and tailgate regular whose passion for the green-and-white hasn’t ebbed.
“The spirit of the university is critical,” said Ferry, who these days owns and operates a farm and meat-processing facility an hour south of campus. “We don’t want to just be an individual. We want to be the icon of the university at all times.”
got us to that point,” Northwood coach Kerri Stubbs said.
The Chargers made one eld goal in the second quarter, but continuing their solid defensive performance kept them in the game. However, playing tough defense came with a price. Northwood fell into foul trouble with its ball handlers, Roberts, senior Neah Henry and sophomore Noelle Whitaker, all having
(2-2, 0-0); 5. South Granville (0-2, 0-0); 6. Cedar Ridge (0 -3, 0-0); 7. J.F. Webb (0-3, 0-0) Power Rankings (week of Nov. 24): 1. Seaforth; 2. Chatham Central; 3. Woods Charter; 4. Chatham Charter; 5. Northwood; 6. Jordan-Matthews Wrestling
Boys: Seaforth picked up a conference win with a 58 -21 victory over Carrboro on Nov. 25. In a tri meet with North Moore and Scotland, Chatham Central beat Scotland 47-30 and fell to North Moore 48-36 on Nov. 25.
Top individual performances: Chatham Central’s Carson Williams defeated Lexington’s Qa’Darion Hud-
multiple fouls before halftime.
Southeast Alamance picked up steam behind eight third quarter points from LaChapelle. Roberts, who led the Chargers with 10 points, tried to keep Northwood within reach with ve third quarter points, but it wasn’t enough.
“We just couldn’t quite withstand that defensive e ort that we needed to in the second half,” Stubbs said. “Allowed them to
son in a 15-0 technical fall to win the 157-pound title at the Zack Thornburg Memorial Invitational on Nov. 26. At the same tournament, Jordan-Matthews’ Jakari Blue won the 190-pound division after pinning Trinity’s Grayson Carroll in 1 minute, 17 seconds. Girls: Chatham Central fell 24-6 to Scotland on Nov. 25. Jordan-Matthews nished as runners-up at the Zack Thornburg Memorial Invitational. Northwood fell to Chapel Hill 24-12 and beat Northwest Guilford 24-9 with multiple forfeits in a Thanksgiving Tri on Nov. 25.
Top individual performances: Jordan-Matthews’ Alexandra Zumano Garcia nished rst in the 120-pound
get some transition opportunities and just didn’t win on the board.”
Northwood made one eld goal in the fourth quarter while Southeast Alamance continued to pull away at the free throw line. Turnovers also hurt the Chargers in the second half.
The Stallions defeated the Chargers for the second time this season after winning the rst matchup 73-35 on Nov. 18.
division at the Zack Thornburg Memorial Invitaional after pinning Asheboro’s Brianna Munoz in the championship match. At the same tournament, Brianna Leandro Balderas, also a Jet, beat Asheboro’s Yarislaidy Santiago Ramirez to win the 185-pound title. Chatham Central’s Emilie Nava beat her teammate Yakelin Gomez to win the 165-pound championship at the Zack Thornburg Memorial Invitational.
Swimming
Chatham Central’s Jesse Eskelund nished rst in the boys’ 100 free (50.69 seconds) and second in boys’ 50 free (23.12) at a multiteam meet at Smitheld Recreation and Aquatics Center on Nov. 24.
WILFREDO LEE / AP PHOTO
Miami mascot Sebastian the Ibis leads the team onto the eld before the start of a game.
MARTINA HURLEY VIA AP
Nicole Hurley poses for a photo on the day of University of South Carolina’s commencement ceremony, wearing her cap, gown and Cocky the mascot feet.
SIDELINE REPORT
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Coach who went missing before undefeated team’s playo game wanted on criminal charges
Big Stone Gap, Va. Virginia State Police say a high school football coach who disappeared days ago before his undefeated team’s playo game is being sought on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material and using a computer to solicit a minor. Police say warrants were obtained for 46-year-old Travis Turner, of Appalachia, Virginia. They say the Union High School coach has been missing since last Thursday, when agents headed to his home not to arrest him but as part of an investigation, but learned he was no longer there. They say the search nearby has included drones, dogs and rescue teams.
MLB Ohtani announces he will play for Japan in next year’s World Baseball Classic
Los Angeles
Shohei Ohtani plans to play for Japan in next year’s World Baseball Classic. The two-way Los Angeles Dodgers star made the announcement on social media. Ohtani helped Japan win the 2023 WBC, striking out then-Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout for the nal out of the championship game against the United States. He was named MVP of the tournament. Ohtani won his fourth MVP award this month, shortly after he helped the Dodgers win their second straight World Series title. He did not specify whether he plans to pitch for Japan in the WBC, which begins March 5.
NCAA FOOTBALL
Briles hired by Eastern New Mexico, 9 years after Baylor red him amid scandal
Portales, N.M.
Art Briles was hired as football coach at Eastern New Mexico, getting his rst college head coaching job since Baylor red the two-time Big 12 champion more than nine years ago amid a sexual assault scandal. An NCAA infractions report ve years later ripped him for failing to look into horri c and potentially criminal allegations against his players, but he wasn’t found guilty of any NCAA violations. Briles turns 70 next month. He was o ensive coordinator at Grambling State for less than a week in 2022, and Southern Miss administrators vetoed an attempt to hire Briles as OC.
WNBA
Clark, Reese, Bueckers to make U.S. national team camp debuts
Durham Caitlin Clark will make her USA Basketball national team camp debut when the Americans get together at Duke this month. The Indiana Fever Al-Star had been invited to camps while she was in college at Iowa, but the timing didn’t work out. She’ll be there alongside rst-timers Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, Cameron Brink, Sonia Citron, Veronica Burton, Kiki Iriafen and Rickea Jackson. College players Lauren Betts of UCLA and JuJu Watkins of Southern California are also invited.
What do an axe, bucket, cannon have in common? Meet college football’s beloved rivalry trophies
The weird assortment of objects has a long, emotional history
By Dave Campbell The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — The most-played series in major college football history, the bitter border-state rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin, is punctuated each year with a postgame ritual.
The victors sprint toward Paul Bunyan’s Axe, take turns hoisting the 6-foot shaft above their heads as they parade it around the stadium, and pretend to chop down one of the goal posts. The axe has been awarded annually since 1948.
There’s hardly a richer — or quirkier — tradition in college football than rivalry trophies.
“It’s a way for a community — certainly the students, alumni, fans and faculty, but even more casual fans — to get revved up for a football game,” said Christian Anderson, a University of South Carolina professor whose research focus is on the history of higher education. “There are a lot of people who may not pay attention the whole season, and then the rivalry game comes and they’re a passionate fan for one Saturday.”
Longtime members of the Big Ten boast perhaps the richest history of these one-of-akind prizes. The Little Brown Jug, which is neither little nor brown, dates to the Michigan-Minnesota game in 1903. Wolverines coach Fielding Yost, out of fear the Gophers might tamper with their water, had a student manager buy a jug for the team. After a brutal struggle ended in a tie as Minnesota fans stormed the eld, the container was left behind. The Gophers formally returned it after the Wolverines won the next meeting in 1909.
Minnesota fared better at the beginning with Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig named after the state’s governor, who suggested the trophy to his Iowa counterpart in 1935.
Indiana faces Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket, found in disrepair on a local farm in 1925 with the belief it might
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals.”
Professor Christian Anderson
have been used by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Indiana and Michigan State have competed since 1950 for the Old Brass Spittoon. Illinois and Ohio State have played for a century for the Illibuck Trophy, now a wooden turtle after an ill-fated attempt to award the real thing — a 16-pound snapper. Michigan and Michigan State have fought since 1953 for annual ownership of the Paul Bunyan Trophy, a 4-foot wooden statue of the mythical lumberjack.
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals,” Anderson said. “Maybe we only keep it for a year because it’s a
traveling trophy, but next time we’re going back to get it if we didn’t win it.”
The NCAA certi ed the Territorial Cup played for by Arizona and Arizona State as the oldest known rivalry trophy, awarded after their rst meeting in 1899. It was missing for decades until its rediscovery in a storage area of a church near the ASU campus in 1983.
Nevada and UNLV play for the Fremont Cannon, a 545-pound replica of the cannon the explorer of the same name abandoned in a snowstorm during his trek through the state in 1844.
Notre Dame and USC have the Jewelled Shillelagh, a wooden symbol of a traditional Gaelic war club that was rst presented in 1952.
California and Stanford play for an axe, too, awarded since 1933. Kentucky and Tennessee battle for a beer barrel.
When Mississippi fans
stormed Mississippi State’s eld after a Rebels win in 1926, MSU supporters balked and brawls broke out. To help restore dignity to the rivalry the following year, the student bodies from both schools introduced the Golden Egg, a gold-plated football mounted on a pedestal. Fortunately, the egg never gets too close to Dallas-Fort Worth, where SMU and TCU have played for the Iron Skillet since 1946.
The Slab of Bacon is safely away from the skillet, too.
That was the rst version of the Minnesota-Wisconsin hardware, a wooden slab that went missing in 1943 after the planned exchange following a Gophers victory never took place.
A summer storage cleanout project in Madison in 1994 turned up the trophy, which Wisconsin has since kept on display.
Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki nears pinnacle of Japan’s national sport
The 21-year-old has been named ozeki, the second-highest rating
By Stephen Wade The Associated Press
TOKYO — Ukrainian sumo
wrestler Aonishiki is only 21 but has moved just one step from the top rank of Japan’s national sport.
In an elaborate ceremony last week, he was promoted by the Japan Sumo Association to the rank of ozeki, the rung just below the top.
Only two now hold the top rank of yokozuna — grand champion in English: Japanese Onosato and Mongolia-born Hoshoryu.
“I’m happy, but I feel more strongly about working harder from now on,” Aonishiki said last Wednesday after the ceremony. “There is a higher rank, and that’s my next goal.”
Sumo’s new rising star, who wrestles under the ring name of Aonishiki Arata, was born Danilo Yavhushyshyn in west central Ukraine and has identied his hometown as Vinnytsia. He moved to Japan after Russia invaded Ukraine just over 31⁄2 years ago, the byproduct of a friendship he had made a few years earlier with a Japanese wrestler at a tournament. Japanese media identi-
es him as being the quickest — he’s wrestled only 14 tournaments — to reach the ozeki rank since 1958 when the present tournament scheduling system was installed.
The promotion was inevitable after he won a prestigious tournament on Sunday in western Japan. He defeated Hoshoryu in the deciding match.
He explained earlier that his parents ed to Germany after the invasion and said they are living safely. He said he called them after the big tournament on Sunday and praised them for allowing him to pursue his
interests. He said his mother cried on the phone call. He was told his father did too, but tried to hide it.
“They never scolded me even when I didn’t do well in studies, as they believed in letting me do what I liked to do,” he said last week.
Aonishiki is small by sumo standards. He weighs in the 125 to 135 kilogram range — (between 275 to 300 pounds).
This is slight in sumo — in the range of an NFL lineman — since many wrestlers weigh at least 150 kilograms (330 pounds) and some much more. Sumo experts in Japan say
“I have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Aonishiki
his success comes from keeping a low body position. He can bench press 210 kilograms (460 pounds) — about 50% more than his body weight.
“I need to be stronger all around,” he said. “I have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Non-Japanese sumo wrestlers have excelled in di erent periods in Japan. They have included Mongolians, Hawaiians and now Ukrainians. A second Ukrainian, Shishi Masaru, is also a highly ranked wrestler in Japan.
Ukraine has a very strong tradition in Olympic wrestling. Its last gold-medal winner was Zhan Beleniuk in the Greco-Roman category at the Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021 by the pandemic.
Aonishiki has endeared himself to the Japanese public with his uent command of their language. He said he arrived speaking no Japanese, but picked it up quickly living only with Japanese wrestlers in the sport’s tightly controlled environment.
KYODO NEWS VIA AP
Ukrainian Aonishiki, left, receives a trophy after winning the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka in western Japan.
STACY BENGS / AP PHOTO
Wisconsin players hold up Paul Bunyan’s Axe up after a win over Minnesota.
6 notable songs from reggae star Jimmy Cli , who died at 81
By Hilel Italie The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Like so many Jamaican teens of his time, Jimmy Cli moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country’s independence from Great Britain. A decade later, he helped reggae ascend to the international stage with his starring role in the cult favorite “The Harder They Come” and his featured place on the lm’s classic soundtrack. Here are a few songs that trace the arc of his career, and of reggae.
1962: “Miss Jamaica”
Singing along to an easy, bluesy groove, Cli had a way of sounding both relaxed and fully committed, and he could make a nursery rhyme sound like an anthem: “Roses are red / violets are blue / Believe me / I love you.” He also joined a long popular tradition, most famously expressed in such 1970s standards as Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” and Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” of o ering praise to a very personal kind of beauty.
1968: “Vietnam”
Like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and other anti-war songs, Cli ’s “Vietnam” was drawn from the horrors of those who had served overseas. “Vietnam” was a seething, mid-tempo chant — “Vi-et-nam, Vi-et-nam,” the very name an indictment, in this song for the death of a soldier who had written home to say he would soon be returning, only for his mother to receive a telegram the next day announcing his death.
1969: “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”
One of Cli ’s many talents was looking clear-
“So as sure as the sun will shine / I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine.” Jimmy Cli
eyed at life as it is, and imagining so well what it could be — a paradise made real by the melody, the feel and lyrics of “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” a vision so inevitable even the likes of President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson can’t get in the way.
1969: “Many Rivers to Cross”
Onstage, he sometimes literally jumped for joy, but Cli also could call out the deepest notes of despair. The somber, gospel-style “Many Rivers to Cross” was inspired by the racism he encountered in England in the 1960s and tells a story of displacement, longing, fatigue and gathering rage — but never defeat. “I merely survive because of my pride,” he tells us.
1970: “You Can Get It If You Really Want” Cli ’s political songs were so enduring in part because they were so catchy and because they offered hope without the promise of easy success. Kicked o by a spare horn ri , “You Can Get It If You Really Want” has a lighter mood than “Vietnam” but just as determined a spirit. “You must try, try and try, try and try,” Cli warns.
1972: “The Harder They Come”
The title track to the movie which would mark the high point of his success, “The Harder They Come” has a spiky, muscular rhythm, the kind you could set to the forward march of a mass protest. It’s a sermon of retribution for oppressors — “the harder they fall, one and all” — and of earthly rewards for those who have been robbed: “So as sure as the sun will shine / I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine.”
The artist rivaled Bob Marley as the most prominent musician in the genre
JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP PHOTO
Singer Jimmy Cli performs at The Climate Rally, an Earth Day concert on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2010. The reggae icon died on Nov. 24 at age 81.
this week in history
Nelson Mandela dies at 95, 13th Amendment rati ed, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
The Associated Press
DEC. 4
1783: Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his Continental Army o cers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
1956: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins — later dubbed the “Million Dollar Quartet” — gathered for their rst and only jam session at Sun Records in Memphis.
1991: Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was freed after nearly seven years as a hostage of Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
DEC. 5
1848: President James K. Polk, in an address to Congress, con rmed gold had been discovered in California, igniting the Gold Rush of ’49.
1933: Prohibition ended as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th.
1952: The Great Smog of London settled over the city for ve days, a toxic haze
blamed for thousands of deaths.
2013: Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa’s rst black president, died at age 95.
DEC. 6
1865: The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was rati ed when Georgia became the 27th state to approve it.
1907: A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, killed at least 361 men and boys, the deadliest mining disaster in U.S. history.
1923: A presidential address was broadcast nationally on radio for the rst time as Calvin Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.
1969: A free Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway in California turned deadly when four people died, including one man fatally stabbed by a Hells Angels member working event security.
DEC. 7
1787: Delaware became the rst state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1941: Japan launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The United
1987: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a landmark treaty at the White House ordering the elimination of intermediate-range missiles.
DEC. 9
1965: “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the rst animated TV special based on Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts,” premiered on CBS.
1979: Scientists declared smallpox eradicated worldwide, wiping out a disease that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century.
1990: Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa won Poland’s rst free presidential election since 1926.
DEC. 10
States declared war on Japan the next day.
1982: Charlie Brooks Jr. became the rst U.S. inmate executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.
DEC. 8
1941: The United States entered World War II as Congress declared war on Japan, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1980: Former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment by Mark David Chapman.
‘Father Ted’ writer Linehan cleared by court of harassing transgender activist
The comedic screenwriter claims he was harassed by activists after the incident
The Associated Press
LONDON — The co-creator of British TV sitcoms “Father Ted” and the “IT Crowd” was cleared last Tuesday of harassing a transgender activist on social media, but he was found guilty of damaging their mobile phone during an encounter last year.
Prosecutors alleged that Gary Linehan, an Irish comedy writer known for his outspoken criticism of trans activism, wrote “repeated, abusive, unreasonable” social media posts about Sophia Brooks. He denied the charge.
District Judge Briony Clarke said that while Linehan’s social media posts were “deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary,” they did not amount to harassment. She also questioned if Brooks was as distressed as they made themselves out to be.
But she said Linehan took Brooks’ phone, knocked it to the ground and damaged it outside a conference venue in London in October last year because the writer was “angry and fed up.”
The writer’s lawyer, Sarah Vine, said Linehan had “a momentary lapse of control.” During his trial, the
solutions
57-year-old writer said his “life was made hell” by trans activists and described the plainti as a “young sol-
dier in the trans activist army.” Linehan was ned 500 pounds ($657) and ordered to pay additional costs for
1898: The Treaty of Paris was signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War.
1906: President Theodore Roosevelt became the rst American to win a Nobel Prize, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for helping negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1964: Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he did so “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”
“It is not for this court to ‘pick a side’ in any matter of public debate.”
District Judge Briony Clarke
criminal damage. His lawyer said he planned to appeal the conviction.
Clarke, the judge, told the court her job was to deliver a verdict on the two charges against Linehan, and not on the wider public debate around gender issues.
“It is not for this court to ‘pick a side’ in any matter of public debate,” she said. “This court is not concerned with that debate and does not have to determine and nor should anything in this judgment be viewed as the court determining any issues in relation to it.”
Linehan is known for posts asserting that trans women are men. In September, he was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence against trans women, advocating hitting them if calling police and other measures failed to stop them from using women-only facilities.
His arrest over that case sparked a debate over which online comments constitute hate speech and warrant police intervention. London’s police chief said after the arrest that he did not want o cers “policing toxic culture war debates,” and prosecutors later said Linehan will not face charges over that case.
STEW DEAN - TAM LONDON VIA WIKIPEDIA
Graham Linehan, left, writer of hit comedies including “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd,” appears with author, journalist and lmmaker Jon Ronson in 2010. Linehan has been cleared of harassment charges brought by a trans activist.
RICHARD DREW / AP PHOTO
John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles, was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his New York City apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980.
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famous birthdays this week
Je Bridges celebrates 76, Kim Basinger turns 72, Donny Osmond hits 68, Dame Judi Dench turns 91
The Associated Press THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.
DEC. 4
Actor-producer Max Baer Jr. is 88. Actor Gemma Jones is 83.
Actor Je Bridges is 76. Actor Patricia Wettig is 74. Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson is 70. Basketball Hall of Famer Bernard King is 69. Actor Marisa Tomei is 61. Actor-comedian Fred Armisen is 59. Rapper Jay-Z is 56.
DEC. 5
Author Calvin Trillin is 90. Opera singer Jose Carreras is 79. Musician Jim Messina is 78. Golf Hall of Famer Lanny Wadkins is 76. Football Hall of Famer Art Monk is 68. Comedian-actor Margaret Cho is 57.
DEC. 6
Actor JoBeth Williams is 77. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is 73. Actor Tom Hulce is 72. Comedian Steven Wright is 70. Rock musician Peter Buck (R.E.M.) is 69. Animator Nick Park is 67. Actor Janine Turner is 63. Writer-director Judd Apatow is 58.
DEC. 7
Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky is 97. Actor Ellen Burstyn is 93. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 78. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits is 76. Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird is 69. Actor Je rey Wright is 60. Actor C. Thomas Howell is 59.
DEC. 8
Flutist James Galway is 86. Author Bill Bryson is 74. Actor Kim Basinger is 72. Commentator and columnist Ann Coulter is 64. Actor Wendell Pierce is 63. Actor Teri Hatcher is 61.
DEC. 9
DEC.
Actor Fionnula Flanagan is
Actor-singer Gloria Lor-
Actor Judi Dench is 91. Actor Beau Bridges is 84. World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite is 76. Actor John Malkovich is 72. Singer Donny Osmond is
68. Actor Felicity Hu man is 63. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wall owers) is 56.
10
84.
ing is 79. Jazz musician Diane Schuur is 72. Actor-director Kenneth Branagh is 65. TV chef Bobby Flay is 61. Rock musician Meg White (The White Stripes) is 51.
FRANK FRANKLIN II / AP PHOTO Jay-Z gestures from the sidelines before Super Bowl 59 between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025 in New Orleans. The rapper turns 56 on Thursday.
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH / AP PHOTO
Dame Judi Dench, pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2024, turns 91 on Tuesday.
George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Zac Brown Band, Michelle Pfei er
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds drop “Live God”
The Associated Press
GEORGE CLOONEY playing a dashing movie star with nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” and Zac Brown Band returning with fresh tunes are some of the new television, lms, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also, among the streaming o erings worth your time this week: The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+, Net ix has the American Western series “The Abandons” with women at the center of its story, and Nintendo’s Samus Aran returns with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
MOVIES TO STREAM
Clooney plays a dashing movie star with new nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” (Net ix on Friday), Noah Baumbach’s comic drama about fame and family. As Jay’s youngest daughter (Grace Edwards) prepares for college, a trip to Europe turns into a deeper self-examination. With Adam Sandler as Jay’s long-su ering manager and Laura Dern his publicist. In his review, the AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that “reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+ on Thursday. The Tom Cruise adventure, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, concludes the chapter begun with 2023’s “Dead Reckoning Part One.” Whether dead or nal, a reckoning may be in order for the eight- lm Ethan Hunt franchise. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote: “In a series that has often been best when it’s not taking itself too seriously, dour developments start to feel a little unintentionally silly.”
The Christmas movies cometh. One of the rst out of the gate this year is “Oh. What. Fun.” (Now on Prime Video). Michelle Pfei er stars as a matriarch who, after years
“Reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
Mark Kennedy, AP Film Writer
of handling all the season’s festivities for an ungrateful family, goes missing. Michael Showalter directs a cast including Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary and Dominic Sessa.
MUSIC TO STREAM
Zac Brown Band re ects on life’s highs and lows on their new album, “Love & Fear,” out Friday. Some of the singles out so far include the Jimmy Buffett-like “I Ain’t Worried About It,” the weed-friendly “Let It Run” with Snoop Dogg, the
sweet ballad “Butter y” with Dolly Parton” and the anthemic party banger “Give It Away.” Perhaps the best of the bunch is “Hard Run” featuring Mar-
cus King, starting quietly with a twang, building to harmonies and some funk, adding a touch of Broadway and then someery guitar work. The band is
making a splash with the album’s drop date, performing at the Sphere in Las Vegas and kicking o several nights there in December and January.
If you adored Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds last album “Wild God,” here’s some good news: The alternative rock legend and his formidable band is releasing “Live God,” which includes live versions from the album, as well as catalog favorites such as “From Her to Eternity,” “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” and “Into My Arms.” And if you just can’t get enough of Cave, there’s more: The Royal Danish Library has put its “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition” online, allowing fans to explore 300 objects collected or created by Cave during his career.
SERIES TO STREAM
“The Abandons,” a new American Western series comes to Net ix with women at the center of its story. Taking place in the 1850s, Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey star as two widowed women who are the heads of their household and who are ghting over land. Kurt Sutter, who created “Sons of Anarchy,” is behind this one. Nick Robinson and Aisling Franciosi also star. It debuts Thursday.
Starz has a new “Spartacus” series out Friday called “Spartacus: House of Ashur.” Nick E. Tarabay reprises his role as Ashur from “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” and “Spartacus: Vengeance,” which explores what may have happened if the character had survived the events of “Vengeance” instead of being killed. This series also features a woman in a powerful role. Tenika Davis plays a female gladiator.
VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
Fans of Nintendo’s Samus Aran have been waiting a long time for the spacefaring bounty hunter to return to the 3D world of Metroid Prime. At long last, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is here — but it remains to be seen if Samus’ years in limbo have made her stronger. She has landed on a jungle planet lled with hostile wildlife, and another bounty hunter is in hot pursuit. In addition to her usual high-tech arsenal, Samus has gained some psychic powers — not to mention a wicked motorcycle. Can this long-delayed sequel live up to its beloved predecessors? Find out Thursday on Switch and Switch 2.
PETER MOUNTAIN / NETFLIX VIA AP
George Clooney stars in the comic drama “Jay Kelly.”
CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO
Tenika Davis poses for a portrait to promote “Spartacus: House of Ashur” during Comic-Con International in 2025 in San Diego. The series premieres Friday on Starz.
VIANNEY LE CAER / INVISION / AP PHOTO
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will release live versions of songs from their acclaimed album “Wild God” on the upcoming collection “Live God.”
Duplin Journal
the BRIEF this week
State awards Duplin
$32.4M to modernize East Duplin High
Duplin County
A major state investment is coming to Duplin County Schools after $32.4 million was awarded for the renovation of East Duplin High School. The funds, distributed through the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, support major upgrades and will help provide students with a safer, modernized learning environment. Duplin is among 10 districts statewide receiving more than $392 million in lottery-funded grants for school construction and renovation in economically distressed counties.
Duplin seeks 2026 volunteer award nominations
Duplin County Duplin County is accepting nominations for the 2026 Governor’s Volunteer Service Award, honoring individuals, groups, national service members and volunteer managers across a variety of service categories. The county may select up to 10 honorees, with one advancing for the Governor’s Medallion Award. Nominations are due Feb. 13. For more information, call Duplin County Senior Services at 910-296-2140.
Temporary road closure on James Street
Mount Olive
The Town of Mount Olive last week announced a temporary closure of one block of James Street, spanning Chestnut Street to James Street and Center Street to James Street, due to an ongoing demolition project and safety concerns. The closure will remain in e ect until further notice. Residents and drivers are urged to plan alternate routes and exercise caution in the area while work is underway.
Police seek footage after pedestrian accident
Warsaw The Warsaw Police Department is investigating a pedestrian incident on East Chelly Street and is asking the public for any video footage that could assist in the case. According to authorities, a pedestrian walking westbound in the 600 block of East Chelly Street was struck by a vehicle traveling west between 7 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. on Nov. 22. The pedestrian sustained traumatic injuries. Persons with doorbell, residential, business or dashcam footage capturing vehicles in the area during that time are urged to contact the Warsaw Police Department.
$2.00
Holiday spirit outshines freezing temps downtown
Sudan Shriners turned downtown Kenansville streets into a track for their famous Thunderbolt cars during the Kenansville Christmas Parade on Saturday. Turn to A6 for more photos.
Duplin County Animal Shelter faces renewed scrutiny as complaints mount
Former employee and local rescuers report altered records, retaliation, and animal-care lapses as regulators con rm an active probe
By Ena Sellers Duplin Journal
KENANSVILLE — The Duplin County Animal Services Shelter is once again under scrutiny as the North Caroli-
na Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Animal Welfare Section con rmed an active investigation following allegations of irregular practices involving shelter operations.
Hope Tucker, a former medical and intake specialist at DCAS, believes she was red in retaliation for raising concerns about animal welfare issues. County o cials, however, have stated that Tucker was dismissed for using a racial slur.
On Nov. 3, four days before Tucker’s termination, Duplin Journal received a tip about potential misconduct at the shelter. The source claimed an employee had raised multiple concerns but was afraid to go on the record for fear of retaliation. On Nov. 6, Duplin Journal received a complaint sent to AWS and forwarded to multiple media outlets, pleading for the agency to investigate and interview employees
Mount Olive swears in 3 new commissioners
The town nalized wastewater dispute before assigning new oversight roles
By Mark Grady For Duplin Journal
THREE NEWLY elected members of the Mount Olive Board of Commissioners were sworn in during the board’s regular meeting Monday night. Because of higher-than-usual attendance for the ceremony, the meeting was held in the Southern Bank Auditorium on the University of Mount Olive campus.
Harlie Carmichael was sworn in as at-large commissioner, while Gena Messer Knode took the oath as the District 3 commissioner and C.J. Weaver was sworn in as the District 4 commissioner. After the new board was seated, Commissioner Delreese Simmons was elected mayor pro tempore by a 4–1
vote. Messer Knode cast the only vote in opposition. Town Clerk Sherry Davis administered the oaths to the three new commissioners. Mayor Jerome Newton was sworn in for his new term by N.C. House District 10 Rep. John Bell. After being selected as mayor pro tem, Simmons also requested that Bell administer his oath.
After the new board was seated, Newton thanked outgoing board members Barbara Kornegay, Tommy Smith and Danny Keel, presenting each
Retired Yadkin County manager to lead operations during transition
Lisa Hughes returns to public service to oversee county operations focusing on goals and e ciency
By Ena Sellers Duplin Journal
KENANSVILLE — The Duplin County Board of Commissioners announced the appointment of Lisa Hughes as interim county manager after a closed session on Nov. 4. Hughes, who retired as Yadkin County manager earlier this year, will guide county operations during the transition period.
“My role as interim is to continue implementing the goals established by the commissioners and to identify any areas to improve e ciency and e ectiveness,” Hughes told Duplin Journal.
Hughes will work an average of 32 hours per week while the county conducts its search for a permanent manager.
Hughes holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s in public administration from Appalachian State. She also holds a North Carolina Local Government nance o cer certi cation and a North Carolina budget and evaluation certi cation. She previously served Yadkin County for more than a decade, beginning her tenure there as assistant to the county manager in July 2010 before becoming interim county manager and ultimately serving as county manager from 2014 until her retirement on July 1. Her responsibilities during her tenure in Yadkin included oversight of human resources and service as nance o cer.
with a plaque for their service.
Prior to the new board being sworn in, the existing board did take care of a few items of town business during the meeting, including the approval of a settlement with the company Terra Nova in the amount of $50,000. Interim town manager Glenn Holland told the board the town had contracted with Terra Nova in 2023 to clean out three tanks at the wastewater treatment plant at a total cost of $151,408.
THE DUPLIN COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Lisa Hughes
Loretta Carey
O ce Phone: 910 463-1240
To place a legal ad: 919 663-3232; Fax: 919 663-4042
Holiday cheer for ages 60-plus
Get ready to celebrate the holiday season at the annual Senior Christmas Event: Jingle & Mingle on Wednesday, Dec. 10 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Duplin County Events Center. Seniors 60 years and older are invited to enjoy a festive day full of fun, friendship and holiday cheer. The event will feature educational resources, health screenings, live entertainment and festive music, along with a delicious holiday meal to enjoy with friends. Show o your creativity in the Ugliest Christmas Sweater contest, or simply mingle and make memories in a joyful, welcoming atmosphere. For more information, contact the Senior Center at 910-296-2140. The event will be held at 195 Fairgrounds Drive in Kenansville.
Commissioners, school board members and state legislators moved early to secure their place on the 2026 primary ballot
By Ena Sellers Duplin Journal
KENANSVILLE — Duplin County candidates were among the rst to le Monday as North Carolina opened the 2026 statewide primary ling period, which runs through noon on Dec. 19. Local races drew immediate activity, setting the tone for a busy election year ahead. County o ces saw early lings, including incumbent Justin Edwards (R) for Board of Commissioners District 3, and incumbent Dexter Edwards (R) for District 2. Pam Edwards (R) led to keep her seat on the Board of Education for District 2. Amy Price (R) and Crystal Strickland (R) are seeking the clerk of Superior Court seat, while Eric Southerland (R) led for sheri . Incumbent Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R) led for another term in the N.C. House District 4. In District 5, N.C. District Court lings include Mario White (D) for Seat 1 and Morgan H. Swinson (R) for Seat 2, while incumbent Ernie Lee led to continue as district attorney in District 5. Statewide, early lings for U.S. Senate include Republicans Elizabeth A. Temple, Donald M. “Don” Brown and Michael Whatley. North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls (D) led for Seat 1. Court of Appeals candidates include John S. Arrowood (D) and Matt Smith (R) for Seat 1; Tobias “Toby” Hampson (D) for Seat 2; and James Weldon Whalen, D; Christine Walczyk (D); and Craig Collins (R) for Seat 3. Other incumbents announcing plans to run include Sheri Stratton Stokes (R) and Judge Robert H. Gilmore, who will seek N.C. Superior Court Judge in District 5. Gilmore has received an en-
Dec. 4
Pop-Up Shop & Expo
9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Join JSCC’s third annual Pop-Up Shop & Expo, featuring local vendors, holiday cheer and plenty of shopping fun.
James Sprunt Community College, Boyette 113 133 James Sprunt Drive, Kenansville
Dec.
5
Magnolia Tree Lighting Celebration
7 p.m.
dorsement from Judge Henry Stevens, who will not seek reelection in 2026. North Carolina’s primary elections give voters a chance to choose which candidates will represent each political party on the general election ballot. The 2026 statewide primary is scheduled for March 3, 2026. The general election will take place on Nov. 3, 2026.
Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements:
Weekly deadline is Monday at noon
Kick o the holidays in Magnolia with the annual tree lighting celebration at Magnolia Park. The event will feature crafts for kids, classic games, a cake walk, face painting, photo ops and more. Free hot chocolate and cookies will be provided. Bundle up and join your neighbors for this heartwarming annual tradition.
Magnolia Park on Highway 117, Magnolia
Barbecue chicken plate sale
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
St. John’s Lodge No. 13
AF&AM will have a barbecue chicken plate sale on Friday. Delivery is available for the purchase of ve plates or more. Plates include chicken, potatoes, green beans and a roll. Cost is $10 per plate. Proceeds go to help the masonic charity. 113 Lodge St., Kenansville
Dec.
6
Mount Olive Christmas Parade 10 a.m.
The Mount Olive Christmas Parade will be held on Saturday in downtown Mount Olive. For more information, contact the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce at 919-658-3113.
Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in Duplin County:
COURTESY
Rep. Jimmy Dixon, right, poses for a photo with his wife, Bobby Jean, outside the Duplin County Board of Elections o ce last Monday as the candidate ling period for the 2026 statewide primary election opened.
DCS strengthen mental health through FLOCK partnership
The local nonpro t’s $160,000 investment lls critical funding gaps
By Ena Sellers Duplin Journal
ROSE HILL — A partnership between FLOCK, the nonpro t arm of House of Raeford Farms, and Duplin County Schools is helping students access mental health support, with therapy and psychiatric care contributing to improved well-being, academic performance and social functioning.
According to a news release, for the past year the nonprofit has contributed $160,000 to the district’s behavioral health program, supporting virtual and in-person therapy services for students. The program
aims to address unmet emotional, social and physical needs that can a ect learning and social development.
FLOCK board member Dave Witter highlighted the important role schools play in supporting student mental health, noting that providing services on-site allows for early intervention and consistent care that can foster both emotional well-being and academic success.
“Our board recognizes that the dysfunctional emotional state of many children is a problem with several contributing factors,” said Witter. “However, with kids spending most of their daytime in school, what better place to address this need directly.”
According to the nonpro t, student mental health outcomes in Duplin County Schools showed signi cant improvement in the
Olive Pickle Drop on New Year’s Eve.
The company only cleaned out one of the three tanks and invoiced the town for $116,048. Holland said.
“Then they sent us a quote requesting an additional $144,900 to complete the work,” Holland said. “We disagreed with what they had proposed, and we negotiated to a $50,000 settlement.”
In other business, the board voted to approve the application from Pyro Shows Southeast for a standalone re permit for reworks during the annual Mount
During closing remarks, Newton announced that each commissioner would be assigned speci c areas of responsibility for the new term. He said Simmons will oversee the airport and re services, Carmichael will handle infrastructure management, Weaver will oversee the wastewater management moratorium, Commissioner Vicky Darden will oversee housing, and Messer Knode will oversee organizational sta management, including nance and human resources.
2024-25 school year compared with previous years. FLOCK indicated reductions in emergency crisis evaluations from 73 to 18, suicide attempts decreased from 12 to one over a year, cases of suicidal thoughts involving school nurses decreased from 32 to 18 over a year, psychiatric emergencies decreased from 18 to 11, and suspected drug overdoses decreased from 33 to seven.
The release also provided an example of the program’s impact, describing a 15-year-old student who experienced depression, anxiety and di culty coping due to a family member’s chronic or terminal illness. The student and family received therapy throughout the school year, and the student was connected with psychiatric services and began antidepressant treatment. By year’s end, the student showed
reduced depressive symptoms and improved academic and social functioning, although the student continued to process grief. The student is expected to return to high school in the upcoming school year. Duplin County Schools’ mental health program is funded entirely through external grants, and annual funding levels can uctuate. In the 2024 -25 school year, a portion of FLOCK’s contribution was used to cover a projected shortfall in therapy services. According to the nonpro t, its support also funds ve paraprofessional sta members who coordinate virtual and in-person therapy sessions. These sta manage communication among students, families, school personnel and mental health providers, helping reduce the work-
load of nurses, counselors and social workers, and improving overall e ciency.
Kristen Hall, Duplin County Schools’ chief o cer for district e ectiveness, said the structure allows school sta to respond more e ectively to student needs.
“By bringing counseling services directly into our schools, we are removing barriers, responding early, and giving our students the tools to heal and thrive,” said Hall. “We are deeply grateful to FLOCK for recognizing the importance of this work and investing in the well-being of our children and families.”
FLOCK noted the ongoing need for community involvement and encourages other local organizations, particularly those with employees whose children attend the district, to consider supporting the initiative.
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
Christmas past, Christmas present, and the lessons we keep
“The only real blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.” — Helen Keller
ARE YOU AS surprised as I am that another Christmas is almost here? It seems to me that it is in our nature to be surprised by the recurrence of certain annual events even though we know, by experience, that they are sure to come.
Granny was right when she told me, “Remember, son, most of your days will go by slow, but your years will go by fast.” Dr. Seuss once expressed this idea with a thought-provoking question:
“How did it get so late so soon?”
Many of us will, until the old year is gone from the calendar, express memories of Christmases past. Children will listen to the older ones tell stories of how things used to be di erent. You know, like, “I remember when we were lucky to get one nice thing for Christmas.” Or, “I remember when we would go into the woods and cut our Christmas tree.”
Or, “Daddy and Mama didn’t have much money to spend on Christmas, but they made sure all children got something we could use for Christmas.”
Traditions will be relived in our conversations.
But will the good traditions of our past be passed on to the next generation by our actions?
Can the true Spirit of Christmas survive success
and prosperity? Or will a severe dose of poverty and hardship be required to bring us, as a nation, back to the reality of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy?
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end ...” (Isaiah 9)
Governments of man are good and necessary for the success of our communities if we are to live in harmony with each other. Governments led by righteous men and women are approved of God and can enjoy His blessings. But when the organized communities of man depart too far from His teachings, they do not enjoy His blessings. All people in governments can and should bene t from the principles inherent in the true Spirit of Christmas.
What is the true spirit of Christmas?
The answer to this seemingly complicated question is given, in simple words, by Dr. Suess through the Grinch, “a bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling creature with a heart two sizes
Florida’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood just the beginning
Abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam.
THIS MONTH, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmier led a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for false advertising.
Not over a billing dispute or a sloppy ad claim. Instead, the country’s largest abortion provider has been telling women that its “product” — speci cally the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — is “as safe as taking a Tylenol.”
The truth is far more serious.
As a Florida mother of four daughters, I’m relieved to see our state o cials recognize the increased risks of taking the abortion pill and the life that it ends inside the womb. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. Furthermore, the FDA should take note and remove its approval of all abortion drugs and review these risks in-depth for the safety of all women.
The Florida lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood’s campaign to induce women to purchase abortion drugs by misrepresenting the risks of chemical abortion violates the Florida law. The gross misrepresentation of a drug designed intentionally to take the life of a preborn child can be found on Planned Parenthood’s website, in printed materials, and in television advertisements. In fact, the organization claims that chemical abortion is “extremely safe” in all its descriptions.
However, the data suggests otherwise.
A recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims shows one in 10 women su er severe complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. We’re talking about things like hemorrhaging, infections or even sepsis, which can turn deadly fast. That’s 22 times higher than what the prescription label claims. Doesn’t sound like Tylenol to me.
Chemical abortion involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The rst pill
starves the developing baby; the second forces the mother’s body to deliver her dead child through hours of violent cramping and bleeding, often far worse than the “mild period” symptoms Planned Parenthood describes. Post-abortive testimonials say they were lied to, left alone on bathroom oors, terri ed and hemorrhaging, some permanently scarred or sterilized.
Planned Parenthood’s lies are a deliberate cover-up for the violence they knowingly in ict. By denying the scienti c fact that life begins at conception, they not only hurt women with these drugs but also take the innocent life in the womb. And abortion pill access is easier than ever, even in our pro-life state. Due to the Biden administration’s elimination of nearly all safeguards, abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam, ultrasound or follow-up care. Furthermore, there are no regulations governing where or to whom these pills are distributed. Women, many of them minors, are left alone to bleed out in their bathrooms, risking their health and future fertility, all while Planned Parenthood cashes in on another customer.
The Florida lawsuit is a crucial step in the process, but we can’t stop here. This ling should be a wake-up call to the FDA, acting as a catalyst for the new HHS leadership to nally review the abortion pill’s risks as promised. Planned Parenthood must be held fully accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. The FDA should immediately remove its approval of all abortion drugs and conduct a thorough, unbiased review for the safety of every mother and the protection of every child.
This bold action by Uthmeier builds on the courageous leadership of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Florida a national beacon for protecting preborn life over the past several years. From signing the 15-week protection in 2022 to boldly enacting
too small that lived on Mount Crumpit,” who tried to steal Christmas.
When Christmas still came after all his e orts to steal it, he said: “It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!” ... Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more!”
Success and prosperity, unwisely handled, can have a blinding in uence on us all and may fool us into thinking that we can buy Christmas from a store.
With rare personal perspective, Helen Keller observed, “The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not Christmas in his heart.” Bob Hope brings us to this proper conclusion: “My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”
When the ultra-left radicals in our government waged a successful assault on the traditional Christian values embedded in our Constitution and drove God and prayer out of our schools, spiritual decay soon followed. We the people would do well to encourage the men and women in our governments to help preserve the true Spirit of Christmas for future generations, especially in our schools.
Rep. Jimmy Dixon represents Duplin and Wayne counties in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2023, banning abortion after six weeks when a baby’s heartbeat can already be detected, DeSantis has stood unapologetically for the most vulnerable among us. He fought tirelessly against the radical Amendment 4 last year, which would have stripped away nearly all protections for preborn children and allowed abortion on demand up to birth in many cases.
Thanks to DeSantis’ leadership and the e orts of pro-life Floridians, Amendment 4 was defeated, falling short of the required 60% even as the abortion industry poured millions into deceiving voters.
Yet the abortion lobby is still attempting a run-around of our laws by ooding Florida with mail-order pills and out-of-state telehealth prescriptions. Chemical abortion already accounts for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide. If we allow these dangerous drugs to ow unchecked into our state, we will undo everything Florida families have fought for.
That’s why this lawsuit matters. That’s why Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to reexamine the abortion pill’s risks matters. And that’s why we must keep pushing until these drugs are removed from the market entirely.
In his X post about the lawsuit, Uthmeier said, “We stand by our women.” But Planned Parenthood does not.
Here in the “Free State of Florida,” under leaders like DeSantis and Uthmeier, we will keep leading the nation by exposing the lies of the abortion industry, defending women and their innocent children, and fostering a culture of life because every human life from conception is sacred and deserves protection.
Kimberly Bird is a communications specialist at Live Action and lives in Florida with her husband and four children. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
COLUMN | REP. JIMMY DIXON
privately. Tucker was red the following day.
“I was terminated from my job without any prior notice,” she said.
Tucker has since agreed to go on the record and led a formal complaint with state regulators alleging altered documentation intended to hide sta errors, improper euthanasia practices and retaliatory behavior toward employees, rescues and advocates who question shelter practices. Duplin County Interim County Manager Lisa Hughes declined to comment beyond con rming that state inspectors visited the shelter Nov. 17.
The shelter has faced similar scrutiny before. AWS investigated DCAS last year after a complaint alleged failures to vaccinate animals within 14 days of intake, lack of veterinary care for an injured dog and lack of required shade in outdoor areas, resulting in a $1,000 ne.
An April 1, 2024, an inspection report obtained by Duplin Journal noted that the then-shelter director told the state inspector that “the shade cloths were being installed later that day. As of the July 18, 2024, site visit, the shade cloths were not installed and a review of the purchase documents showed that the shade cloths were not ordered until June 18, 2024, with a delivery date expected to be 8-10 weeks from the order date.”
The same report documented that kennels housed kittens with signs of communicable disease among the general population. On a July 24 follow-up visit, inspectors found ve more kittens showing symptoms and con rmed that a cat named Hamza remained unvaccinated despite direct instruction from the inspector to administer a rabies shot.
Documents shared with Duplin Journal show that Duplin County formally requested that civil penalties be rescinded, arguing that some violations occurred under mitigating circumstances.
The county said kittens displaying disease had already been treated with antibiotics and showed improvement, rabies vaccination for some animals was delayed based on veterinary recommendations, and supply-chain issues delayed installation of required shade cloths.
The county highlighted several operational improvements, such as creating a new management position for Animal Services and appointing longtime shelter employee Samantha Lane as the interim director to address administrative de ciencies.
As part of a proposed resolution, the county requested to accept responsibility only for the $200 penalty related to Hamza’s missed rabies vaccination. Additional documentation revealed that in November 2024, state ofcials agreed to reduce the shelter’s ne and placed the remaining $800 on a oneyear hold. The hold is contingent upon no new violations occurring within that period, as any new violation would trigger immediate payment of the ne.
An email from a member of the Duplin County Animal Advisory Board shared with Duplin Journal shows
a member recommending to ban individuals/volunteers from the new shelter before it opened, and recommended creating a list of acceptable rescue groups they “feel will be helpful” to their cause.
Geri Romain, executive director of Wagon Tails Farm, told Duplin Journal that rescues and community members who speak out are met with resistance rather than cooperation.
She described several incidents, including being denied access to a cattle dog mix named Baz they were trying to place. Romain said that sta informed her that Baz was dangerous and scheduled for euthanasia. She also noted that the next day, another rescue inquired about Baz, only to be told he was “an a--hole” and wasn’t going anywhere. When she pressed further to take him in, her request was initially denied. However, after insisting on speaking to a supervisor, her request was ultimately approved.
“He’s the best behaved dog of our entire pack — it turns out, he had a crushed pelvis and was in pain while at the shelter,” she explained.
Romain also recounted rescuing two puppies who tested positive for parvovirus. Despite notifying the shelter, DCAS allegedly took no action.
“They simply said they would consult their vet,” Romain said.
The shelter later euthanized a puppy with the disease and closed to the public for two weeks.
“I, personally, commented that it was a shame that they knew parvo was in the shelter and chose to do nothing until a puppy had to be euthanized,” said Romain. “Immediately, all communication from the shelter ceased.”
Romain said her rescue was later banned from pulling animals.
“It’s a shame that the only rescue based in Duplin County is banned from helping our local county shelter,” Romain added. “Why are they so concerned with who can and can’t come in and what they might nd?”
Concerns over recordkeeping and veterinary care mirror ndings from a 2023 AWS investigation into the shelter’s handling of a dog named Gigi, after a complaint surfaced regarding inaccurate medical records.
Investigators found multiple inconsistencies, “including the absence of documentation for a second heartworm test that shelter sta said had returned a positive result. The only recorded heartworm test, which was conducted on July 27, 2023, showed the result to be negative for heartworms,” stated the report. Investigators also discovered that entries were added to Gigi’s medical record three days after her adoption and included an inaccurate notation stating she appeared “normal” on a date when she was no longer in the shelter’s custody. Additional issues included gaps in medication logs, conicting dosage instructions and failure to detect a chronic ear infection. AWS concluded that the shelter had not maintained required medical records, failed to ensure timely veterinary care and did not fully disclose the dog’s medical condition to the adopter. The shelter was ned $350.
Oaths, holiday plans ll Beulaville town meeting
Swearing-in ceremonies took center stage as town leaders updated residents on infrastructure progress and events
By Rebecca Whitman Cooke For Duplin Journal
BEULAVILLE — The Beulaville Town Board met in a larger room Monday night in anticipation of a crowd as four o cials were sworn in.
After adopting the agenda and approving minutes from previous meetings, the board moved to the swearing-in ceremonies. Town Manager Lori Williams administered the oath of o ce to Mayor Hutch Jones. Jones then swore in Commissioners Gene Wickline and Delmas Highsmith, followed by Town Clerk and Deputy Finance O cer Jennifer Strickland.
Strickland was joined by her husband, Gary Thomas Strickland, and their son, Logan, who assisted in the ceremony. Several family members and
friends attended in support of her appointment.
Following the oaths, the board nominated and approved Wickline as mayor pro tempore.
Public Works Director Ricky Raynor reported that water projects are complete and stormwater work is expected to nish next week. All driveways and parking lots a ected by construction have been repaired, he said. Jones asked commissioners to watch for any areas that appear un nished so the town can address them.
Police Chief Jamie Rogers told the board the police department is preparing to swear in a new o cer and is reviewing applicants for a second opening. He reminded residents of the second annual “Chili with the Chief” event on Dec. 8 and encouraged attendees to bring an unwrapped toy or gift card for the department’s Christmas Toy Drive. Donations will be accepted through Dec. 17 and will support local children in need.
Rogers also noted several November incidents, including the arrest of a sixth suspect in a home invasion case.
Jones asked for an update on code enforcement, and o cials con rmed that regular checks are being conducted throughout town.
The board approved the sale of park property to the highest bidder — the local Baptist church. Members also approved the meeting schedule for 2026. Meetings will continue at 6:30 p.m. on the rst Monday of each month unless the date falls during a holiday week, in which case the meeting will move to the second Monday. Williams presented interest in selling a quarter-acre lot at Stanford and Park streets. The board tabled the item until January to gather more information. She also updated members on a zoning matter at 139 Dogwood Acres Blvd., noting that the Planning Committee ruled the property owner’s Airbnb was not in violation. Williams reminded residents of the upcoming Holly Jolly celebration on Friday, Dec. 12, followed by the Christmas Parade on Saturday, Dec. 13. The board entered a closed session to discuss a complaint and adjourned shortly afterward.
Mayor Hutch Jones, left, swears in Jennifer Strickland as town clerk and deputy nance o cer. Strickland was joined by her husband, Gary, and son, Logan, during Monday’s board meeting.
ENA SELLERS / DUPLIN JOURNAL
The Duplin County Animal Services Shelter is currently
state review amid questions about its operations as
cials work to ensure compliance and proper animal care.
Kenansville glitters as Christmas parade rolls through
Families lled downtown as oats, clowns, candy and holiday cheer took over Main Street
By Mark Grady For Duplin Journal
KENANSVILLE — This past Saturday morning dawned a cold one, with temperatures in the mid-20s, but that did not keep children and adults from lining the streets of downtown Kenansville for the town’s annual Christmas parade.
Fortunately, by parade time, the temperatures had eased into the low 40s, but the breeze
still reminded everyone it was cold outside. By the time the parade kicked o at 11 a.m., the cold was forgotten and the Christmas spirit was quickly in full display. As usual, the parade brought out colorful oats, local queens, trucks from area businesses, the always-popular Dunn Clowns and the famous Shriners riding their Thunderbolt cars. Many entries showered the crowd with candy — and plenty of kids walked away looking like they collected more than they did on Halloween. Here are just a few of the main festive sights from this year’s parade.
Left, you just can’t take them anywhere. The ever-popular Dunn Clowns from the Shriners were a hit with kids, young and old alike, at the Kenansville Christmas Parade on Saturday. Center, while Rudolph and company rest up at the North Pole for the big day, Santa and Mrs. Claus got to ride in style aboard a Kenansville Fire Department truck. Right, what is a parade without queens? The Kenansville Christmas parade featured several of them, including, from left, Miss Rose Hill Teen 2026 Harley Lanier and Miss Rose Hill Teen Carolina Star Mary Blue Hatcher.
PHOTOS BY MARK GRADY FOR DUPLIN JOURNAL
The colors during the 2025 Kenansville Christmas Parade were presented by horseback Saturday morning.
DUPLIN SPORTS
Taylor-made gridiron showdown in Warsaw
The Tigers decked the Jaguars to advance to East Region nal opposite Kinston on Friday
By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal
WARSAW — The James Kenan defense passed a huge test with last Friday’s 51-32 stomping of Farmville Central and its special triple-option attack.
The Tigers o ense continued to bowl over foes with their powerful running game, though showing a few new wrinkles to leave the Jaguars confused.
Jeremiah Hall (21-200) scored three times, Taulil Pearsall (12-137) and David Zeleya (4-16) twice and once via Cal Avent (4-24) as the Ti-
gers improved to 13-0 on Bill Taylor Field in the last two seasons following their fourth-round victory.
The Tigers’ last loss in Warsaw was a 36-15 verdict to Wallace-Rose Hill on Oct. 27, 2023. No. 1 JK (12-1) hosts No. 14 Kinston (10-4) in Friday’s East Region nal on the Tigers’ turf.
JK broke up the game with four second-quarter touchdowns. They hit pay dirt three more times in the second half, though Farmville Central quarterback BJ Gardner (30 -144, 4 TDs) provided thrills for the visitors running the Jaguars’ no-huddle o ense.
“It takes a lot of discipline and preparing, and John Bert (Avent) had a good plan,” said JK head coach and o ensive coordinator Tim Grady about his defensive coordinator’s
role in the win. “Film is one thing. Stopping that quarterback and that o ense live is another thing. He’s fast and mechanically sound with his fakes. From the sidelines, I found it hard to tell when he handed it o .” Hall, who has run for 1,932 yards and 24 scores, sprinted 64 yards for a second quarter touchdown that put JK in front for good at 14-13.
JK’s defense then honed in to stop Farmville Central (8-6), the fourth-place nisher in the Eastern Plains 2A/3A Conference, on its fourth try at a fourth down. The Tigers needed eight plays to score from the Jaguars 43 as Cal Avent scored from the 7 and Pearsall ran for the 2-point conversion for a 22-13 advantage.
TWO PLAYS STOOD out to me during James Kenan’s 51-32 win over Farmville Central in the fourth round of the 3A playo s.
Perhaps it should have been one of several runs by Jeremiah Hall or Taulil Pearsall. Or David Zelay’s fth interception of the season and his running and receiving touchdowns that followed.
The buck stopped when JK’s defense stepped up.
If you’ve watched the Tigers all season, these feats — and some by CJ Hill — are almost standard replay clips.
I didn’t expect Eli Avent to throw a 2-point conversion to twin brother Cal, who grabbed the ball in the right corner of the end zone.
Yet after the play, I imagined it on a sandlot eld when they were younger as the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Eli lays the ball up for his 5-foot-11,
Antonio McKoy, cousin Dashaun, Amir Moore and J’Kaeshi Brunson lead Harrells Christian Academy basketball after a record-breaking 2024-25 season
By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal
HARRELLS — Repeating as a champion is hard.
So is winning 30 games and missing the state nal.
The Harrells Christian Academy basketball team won’t surprise anyone this season as they attempt to nish o its mission from last winter.
The Crusaders lost just one starter — Zicareian Mcneil — from its Big East Conference-winning team that lost in the semi nals of the
NCISAA 2A state tournament last season.
Optimism is high, and the feeling is elevated after the bulk of the team led the Crusaders football team to a 9-3 mark. Antonio McKoy wasn’t in pads. The all-state forward was busy making his nal decision on where to play basketball after his graduation in June.
McKoy, who averaged 25.8 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists, chose to take a full ride to Western Carolina University.
The 6-foot-5, 183-pound guard will play with three fa-
miliar teammates that helped HCA go 30-3 last season, which included monumental wins over Green eld, Fayetteville Academy and a 17-game winning streak.
“He’s picked up where he left o , scoring 36 in the opener (against NCHSAA New Hanover, a 6A school),” said HCA head coach Clayton Hall. “The biggest thing he will deal with is what to do when he’s double-teamed.”
While McKoy won’t be able to pass to 1,000-point sharpshooter Mcneil (14.0 points per game, rst in steals), he will have other great options. Such as cousin and forward
EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL
Zamarion Smith plays a valuable role defensively for JK.
EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL
Western Carolina signee Antonio McKoy averaged more than 25 points and nearly 10 rebounds last season.
EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL
Catching JK running back Jeremiah Hall when he’s in the open eld is di cult. He ran for 200 yards in a win over Farmville Central and has nearly 2,000 yards for the season.
Cave, Farrior, ED begin push to keep Panthers’ tradition alive
It’s not what was lost but what returns that concerns East Duplin girls’ basketball coach Mark Lane
By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal
BEULAVILLE — East Du-
plin tradition in girls’ basketball will continue this season because of work of longtime head coach Mark Lane and a handful of his players who helped the Panthers go 49-6 the past two seasons.
Chief on the list is guard Kinsey Cave, who was Ms. Basketball in Duplin County last season, a player with all the hoops skills necessary, including how she gets her teammates involved.
Cave, a junior, averaged 11.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.3 steals as ED went 25-3, won the East Central 2A Conference and advanced to the fourth round of the NCHSAA 2A playo s.
But the Panthers had heavy graduation losses, which included top post player JaMyah Pickett (10.7 points., 9.7 rebounds) forward Carrie Carr (4.7, 7.4) and defensive specialist Makya Kornegay (4.7, 2.4 assists, 3.5 steals), who sacri ced scoring to make ED stronger on other fronts.
The loss of rebounds is a concern for Lane.
“It’s one of our areas of focus,” he said. “We must get into good position because we not going to out-jump people. It’s
going to have to be a group effort. We lack size but have a lot of quickness.”
Shooting guard Zakoya Farrior is back on the court after su ering a knee injury in 2024.
The senior averaged 9.4 points in 17 games. She hit 25 3-pointers last year, 40 the previous season and 18 as a sophomore.
“She’s still not in top shape after being released in October to do everything,” Lane said.
“She’s working hard on it, but she can still shoot and nish and is strong on the ball.”
Zoe Cavanaugh, a four-year player who shifted into a starter when Farrior went down with an injury, is a valuable player, according to Lane.
“She’s the Swiss Army knife who can go from point guard to post,” Lane said. “She’s so versatile and smart and is so humble.
She’ll do whatever needs to be done as she’s used to me throwing her into some role since her freshman year. She’s a quiet leader who knows what we want.”
ED also lost Ava Noble, a junior, to a knee injury, though it’s unknown if she will play basketball since softball is her top priority. (She hit .538 as a freshman)
ED’s fourth signi cant returnee is Andraia Scarborough, a post player who averaged 3.4 points and 2.9 rebounds and
showed great potential at the end of the winter in 2025.
“She’s an aggressive player who works her body well offensively,” Lane said. “We need her to get a lot of defensive rebounds by using her quickness and footwork.”
Newcomer Bennett Holley is ready for prime time as a freshman.
She scored nine points in a 62-36 season-opening win over Richlands.
“She’s a good shooter who is learning our defensive concepts,” Lane said. Holley is being pushed by classmate Lorena Rodriguez.
“Lorena is long and fast and not yet the shooter she will become, but her length and quickness will bring a lot to the oor for us,” Lane said. “Both her and Bennett are well liked by our girls.”
Rodriguez’s older sister, Anamarie, a point guard and superb soccer players, was the third Panthers to be sidelined with a knee problem.
Lane expects her cat-like quickness to be a player on the court in late December or early January.
Cave, who will play basketball in college, is the one player ED can’t lose to an injury — or for any other reason, including foul trouble.
“We want the ball in her hands more,” Lane said. “We’re hoping she doesn’t have to do it all because she already does so much. She can do it o the dribble, but teams are going to double her. So we need her to nd open teammates.
“We’ll ask a lot of her. But everyone here believes she can do what we ask. We also want to ball in her hands because
she’s a good free-throw shooter.” Juniors Bella Kornegay, Lauren Cottle, Jaden Williams, Zy’Asia Newton and Abigail Cruz and sophomore Eden Haste will play reserve roles for the Panthers as ED looks for a title in the newly formed Swine Valley 4A/3A Conference that includes Southwest Onslow and Clinton from 4A with Trask, Pender and South Lenoir.
“Clinton has everyone back and is the team to beat,” Lane said. “I feel we have our strongest nonconference schedule with two games against Croatan, a trip to Hoggard and then a holiday tournament at Hoggard at the end of the year.”
“We’re quicker and have more speed than last year and need to nd out if we can defend in the half court and rebound so we can run. It’s a new team with new challenges.”
JK’s Smith: Tigers can contend in Swine Valley Conference
Y’Anna Rivers and company hope to be a player in the Swine Valley Conference after returning a .500 team last winter in the ECC
By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal
WARSAW — Former East Duplin player Aaron Smith is happy the Panthers are no longer in the same conference as James Kenan.
Smith wishes the Panthers’ coach good luck and feels his second edition at James Kenan will bene t from the move — and the maturity of its starting unit, which returns in full.
“We were in a very tough conference last year, having to play East Duplin, Kinston and Southwest Onslow twice,” Smith said. “This year, I think we’re capable of winning the conference. Goldsboro is the
about Ya Ya (Rivers) as a complete player,” Smith said. “She’s one of the best around and is improving her game.
“We’ll expect what she gave us and more as she became a better shooter over the o season.”
Post player Aleyah Wilson, who averaged 8.7 points and 4.6 boards, is another valuable returnee.
“She plays bigger than she is and works really hard,” Lane said. “She’s a defensive juggernaut that no one will outwork.
We’re expecting 10 (points) and 10 (rebounds) out of her and feel that’s not a push.”
Point guard Gabii Outlaw (6.3 points) and forward LaBria McGowan (4.8) are both re -
So is McGowan, who is undersized in the paint but tough.
“She can do a little bit of everything,” Smith said. “She knows what every spot does offensively and defensively.
“We’re going to be good, but how well Gabii and LaBria play will be a key to how good we’ll actually be.”
Junior Zaniya Brown (4.4) is penciled in as the fth starter,
and Smith expects to have senior forward Alayjah Wright in uniform by the end of the calendar year.
“Zaniya is fast as lightning and can shoot it,” Smith said. “I like her energy o the bench, but her play makes it a tough call. “Alayjah won’t get many points but will rebound, play defense and do the right things.”
Smith said he’s more concerned with the ‘intangibles” than the Tigers play on the court.
“If we do the culture thing — being on time for practice, holding one another accountable, staying in shape and developing team chemistry — we’ll have a good year. Basketball is the easy part for this group.
“We won by 39 against White Oak and lost by 19 to Croatan without Ya Ya. So, I think we know where we stand initially. We’re a good team.”
Indeed, it’s a whole new ballgame as JK faces Swine Valley foes Princeton, Midway, Rosewood, Spring Creek, Wallace-Rose Hill — and Goldsboro.
EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL
Kinsey Cave was Ms. Basketball in Duplin County last season and will have ED in the running for another 20-win season this winter.
EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL
Y’Anna Rivers has been a rst-team Duplin County basketball player for the previous two seasons.
Yet Garner was relentless, leading a nal Jaguars push that would trim the de cit to 22-19.
Zeleya scored from the 24 after taking a pass from Eli Avent. Hall ran for the conversion on a night in which JK’s kicker Ishmael Covarruibus (61-64 PATs) was unavailable.
Hall had a superb 28-yard run during the short march that extended the margin to 30-19 at halftime.
JK stormed to a 55-yard, nine-play drive to open the third quarter to push the ante to 36-19.
The Tigers wasted an o ensive opportunity after Zelaya intercepted Gardner midway through the quarter by fumbling the ball away.
Gardner made them pay by engineering a “fast” nine-play, 59-yard score that took just 3:01 o the game clock.
Still, the de cit was 36-26, and hope faded for the Jaguars on the next snap as Pearsall went 60 yards for a score and Zeleya added the conversion. JK led 44-26 entering the fourth quarter and more than iced the game with a score from the 4 by Zeleya, though Eli Avent had a 15-yard quar-
terback sneak after drawing the Jags o sides on third-and-1 the previous play.
JK’s defense swarm tackled Farmville Central, led by defensive tackle Cal Avent’s 24 takedowns, three of which were for lost yardage.
Lineman Stedman McIver chipped in with 18, defensive back Hall and free safety Zeleya each had 13, Zamarion Smith 12 and Jacquez Smith 11, which must have made the Jaguars feel as if the entire Tigers defense only made gang tackles.
Freshman fullback Zamareon Brown (23-106) and sophomore running back Carlnell Cotton (11-74, TD) had their moments, but late in the second half, the Tigers wore down the Jaguars, who ran for 376 yards on the ground.
JK’s eld is named after its rst head coach, the late Bill Taylor, who guided the Tigers to unbeaten seasons in 1960 and 1962 and a one-loss campaign in 1961. That’s a 35-1 mark for three seasons.
Gridiron notebook
Kantrell Morrisey and Jacquez Smith also had interceptions. Zeleya’s pick was his fth of the season. He had six
in 2024.
Zamarion Smith, fourth this season in tackles (7.8) behind Zeleya (12.0), Cal Avent (9.8) and McIver (9.8) and Jacquez Smith (8.2), played far better than the number of tackles he made.
Pearsall upped his rushing total to 813 yards. He’s scored 12 times.
Grady is 44-13 since taking over in 2022, which includes back-to-back 12-win campaigns. JK’s lone loss was 44-42 to 5A Southern Nash in Rocky Mount. JK fell to Northeastern in the fourth round last fall and to WRH (17-14), which was avenged in the third round of the 2A playo s (14-13 in overtime).
No. 8 Lincolnton (11-2) faces No. 10 Shelby (11-3) in the West Region nale.
Four classi cations will play for a title at UNC’s Kenan Stadium, with two kicking o at Durham County Memorial Stadium and Lenoir-Rhyne University. Where each classi cation nal is played will be determined by the NCHSAA after the region championships. There will be two games at UNC on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12, and a pair of games on Dec. 13 in Durham and Hickory.
Dashaun McKoy, who averaged 14.1 points and 7.6 boards in 2025. He shot 41% from beyond the 3-point line.
“Certainly, we’ll need him to pick up his scoring to ll the drop o , and he’s capable of doing that,” Hall said. “He’s a competitor and a heck of an athlete and basketball player.”
So is center Amir Moore, who put in 9.4 points and 5.9 boards during his sophomore campaign.
The 6-foot-7, 281-pounder is a banger with a soft shooting touch.
“Great things in store, but he has to avoid foul trouble,” Hall said. “He’s played in some big games and dominated around the basket.”
Point guard J’Kaeshi Brunson (3.2 ppg., 5.9 assists) is also back for his nal run.
“He’s the leader of the team who will need to score a little more but also keep organizing us on both ends,” Hall said.
Look for running back sensation Jeremiah Davis to step into his own. Guard Demetrius Jones and shooting forward Josh Crumpler will also see extended playing time.
“Josh made open shots in our games and needs to do that when Antonio is doubled,” Hall said. “Demetrius played really well in the summer and is still working on steading his football hands, like a few players are doing right now.
“I’ll be using an eight-man rotation, and Jeremiah will spell Amir a little,” Hall said. “He’s athletic, runs the oor, plays sound defense and rebounds really well.”
Even Hall admits that winning 30 games could be unlikely. But he’s not conceding HCA as a contender for a state title.
“Our goal is to win every game,” he said. “The expectations didn’t change. We feel we’re ready to take thenal steps. Right now, we’re just trying to get better day
David Zeleya gets a tush push from his line. The senior scored and had an interception for JK during its 51-32 win over Farmville Central in the fourth round of the 3A playo s.
to day so we have an opportunity when February comes around.”
HCA lost 53-48 to the Burlington School, which fell to Caldwell Academy in the 2A nals.
Yet the Crusaders set a school record for wins.
HCA is 3-1 after four games, falling to New Hanover (85-50) in the opener in which Hall said the Crusaders were not ready for. They have lopsided wins over Wilmington Christian (62-50) and Coastal Christian (82-49) and a close triumph over Westover (64-61).
Hall is smart enough to know that wins are important, but it’s more important to work out concerns as the season progresses and play well late in the campaign. They prep for tough games by playing in the Green eld Christmas Tournament in Wilson on Dec. 19-20 and the Terry Halls Holiday Invitational a few days before New Year’s Eve.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK SPONSORED BY BILL CARONE
Cal Avent
James Kenan, football
Cal Avent made 24 tackles in a fourth-round win over Farmville Central, including three for lost yardage.
But that’s just the beginning.
The senior defensive tackle/ fullback/tight end had a short touchdown run and caught a pass for a 2-point conversion.
For the season, he’s made 127 tackles, 25 of which were for lost yardage. He’s made two sacks and recovered a pair of fumbles.
Last spring, he hit .393 for the JK baseball team.
That Cal Avent is a leader is no accident. It’s a family tradition.
His brother Eli is the starting quarterback for the Tigers. His father, John Bert, is the defensive coordinator. His older brother JT and cousin Ken III were JK quarterbacks. His uncle Ken Jr. guided JK to a pair of state titles. His grandfather Ken Sr. had a 172-105 record as head coach of North Duplin for 25 seasons.
EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL
EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL
RUSHING (all stats courtesy of MaxPreps, may be incomplete)
PLAYER (School) Att-YDs TDs
Jamarae Lamb (WRH) 279-2,398 30
Carell Phillips (ND) 222-2,049 28
Jeremiah Hall (JK) 154-1,932 26
Jeremiah Davis (HCA) 93-1,238 12
VOLLEYBALL
KILLS
PLAYER (School) Kills
Angelina Cavallaro (WRH) 435
Jansley Page (WRH) 433
Kinsey Cave (ED) 178
Maggie Brown (ND) 172
Zoe Cavanaugh (ED) 138
Zoe Turner (ED) 122
Abby Norris (ND) 100
Sophie Jones (ED) 80
Sophia Jones (ED) 72
Bennett Holley (ED) 71
ACES
PLAYER (School) Aces
Zoe Turner (ED) 70
Lilly Fulghum (ND) 63
Marissa Bernal (ND) 59
Karyn Parker (ED) 54
Jansley Page (WRH) 53
211-pound sibling knowing his hands will grip the ball tightly.
The call had to please their father, defensive coordinator John Bert Avent.
And for me, it was a stylistic play that said JK can do more than run its smashmouth double tight end o ense that plows over foes.
When needed, Eli Avent takes his turn, though most times fans believe it’s his running of the pig that garners the most attention despite his 14 touchdown passes this season.
With JK up for good at 14-13, the next time my mouth dropped open was when Cal Avent sacked quarterback BJ Gardner on third down on the next possession. Sometimes a tackle means more than a tackle, and this was the case. It sent a message to both his teammates and the Jaguars.
Even though there would be a lot of points on the scoreboard, JK’s defense was far superior, while allowing nearly 400 yards on the ground. And its o ense is
NOTICES
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA DUPLIN COUNTY
FILE#25E001432-300
The undersigned, TARA J. HOLMES, having quali ed on the 3RD DAY of NOVEMBER, 2025, as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of WILBER WOOLARD BAILEY, deceased, of DUPLIN County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 13TH Day of FEBRUARY 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 13TH Day of NOVEMBER 2025.
TARA J. HOLMES, ADMINISTRATOR 229 WESTONS WOOD RD. PINK HILL, NC 28572
Run dates:N13,20,27,D4p
Shawn Davis (ED) 167-1,207 16
Aaron Hall (ED) 130-919 9
Taulil Pearsall (JK) 72-813 12
Jarrod Miller (HCA) 80-672 11
Jaylon Pope (ND) 67-576 6
Jamari Carr (WRH) 60-491 9
Adrian Glover (WRH) 25-427 7
CJ Hill (JK) 40-421 10
Demet. Jones (HCA) 72-387 7
Karysn Parker (ED) 52
Kinsey Cave (ED) 52
Gracie Higginbotham (ND) 51
Sophia Jones (ED) 46
Kinsey Cave (ED) 52
Angelina Cavallaro, (WRH) 39
Bennett Holley (ED) 39
DIGS
PLAYER (School) Digs
Marissa Bernal (ND) 384
Karsyn Parker (ED) 249
Zoe Cavanaugh (ED) 189
Jansley Page (WRH) 156
Mattie Gavin (WRH) 139
Kinsey Cave (ED) 159
Zoe Turner (ED) 147
Sally Martinez (WRH) 134
Angelina Cavallaro (WRH) 129
Lilly Fulghum (ND) 131
Carrly Strickland (ND) 107
versatile — when it needs to be.
The buck stopped when JK’s defense stepped up to stop a triple-option o ense that puzzles teams, especially those unfamiliar with the principals of beating it.
All Cal Avent did was make 24 tackles.
The Avents, who are both captains on the team, lead in all ways. Cal is a two-way player who is second in tackles on the team and a blocker for an o ense that doesn’t take prisoners when they can be rolled into the turf.
Eli was frequently screaming out encouragement to his brother when JK was playing defense.
Now the seniors face pass-happy Kinston for a berth in the 3A nals in a battle of contrasting styles.
Red-hot Vikings fear no one
Kinston (10-4) beat Northeastern 28-24 to advance to the East Region nale. The Vikings are 6-1 in their last seven games, with the only slip
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Having quali ed as Executor of the estate of Albert John Ferry Jr, late of Duplin County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to present them to the undersigned Executor on or before February 13, 2026 or this notice or same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment. This 13th day of November, 2025. William R Ferry 697 Sumner Road Pink Hill, NC 28572 Executor of the Estate of Albert John Ferry Jr, deceased. 11/13/2025
Dewayne Davis (ED) 40-383 7
Vance Carter (ND) 50-313 3
Quan Stevens (ND) 59-310 9
Isabella Parker (WRH) 107
Bennett Holley (ED) 110
Isabella Parker (WRH) 87
ASSISTS
PLAYER (School) Assists
Mattie Gavin (WRH) 681
Lilly Fulghum (ND) 386
Kinsey Cave (ED) 205
Lauren Cottle (ED) 150
Bennett Holley (ED) 114
BLOCKS
PLAYER (School) Blocks
Gabby Debman (WRH) 117
Kaylee Lovette (WRH) 72
Jansley Page (WRH) 66
Sophia Jones (ED) 55
Kinsey Cave (ED) 30
being a 42-35 loss to Tarboro (12-0 and in the 1A region nal).
They live and die with the pass, as quarterback Tyler Jones (231-344) has thrown for 3,879 yards and 51 touchdowns. Yes, 51 scores for a senior who has started to get looks by Division I schools.
He led a late 70-yard drive to beat the Eagles, which included his 15-yard run to start the march and a 38-yard connection to NC State recruit Tyreek Cooper to win it.
Cooper has 92 catches for 1,955 yards and 29 scores this season.
Yet Marshall-bound WR/DB Brennan Chambers, a 6-foot-5 target, has 58 catches for 934 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Third option Pap Brown (26-427, 6 TDs) would be a top receiver on most teams in the state.
Running back Genesis Wiggins (126-730) is there to keep the defense honest.
Kinston upset its way into the fourth round in 2A in 2024 before falling to Whiteville.
The Vikings were far from
NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS
By Publication State of North Carolina County of Duplin In The General Court Of Justice File NO: 25CV002170-300
Karen Garriss Pacheco Plainti , VS. Wilson Arnulfo Pacheco Defendant,
TAKE NOTICE that a pleading seeking relief against you has been led in the above titled action. The nature of the relief being sought is absolute Divorce. You are required to make defense to such pleading no later than December 30, 2025, said date being forty (40) days from the rst date of publication of this notice, and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought. This 20th day of November 2025.
perfect during the regular season, su ering losses to South Central (21-19) and White Oak (32-26). Yet in the postseason, they stormed past No. 3 Midway (34-13) and No. 6 Pasquotank (34 -20) before slipping past No. 7 Northeastern by rallying from a 13-0 de cit.
“This is the second year in a row we play football in December with a chance to go to the big dance,” said Kinston coach Ryan Gielsman.
Defensive back Justin Gooding had a pair of interceptions and has ve for the season.
Linebacker Christian Ham (8.8 tackles per game), cornerback JeMorris Poole (10.1), strong safety Ex’Zavion Croom (8.1 tackles, 3 interceptions) and defensive linemen Isaiah Newton (4.3) are among the seniors who were starters as sophomores.
“They have size and speed,” Grady said. “My concern is that they’ve played us before recently, so our o ense is nothing new to Ryan (Gielsman). He knows us, and they’ve seen a lot of double
SIDELINE REPORT
tight end o enses.”
Grady said he has challenged his o ensive line to step up its play.
“To do what we want to do, our line has to carry a lot of weight, especially since we have the backs who can make it happen,” he said.
He’s also concerned about the Vikings’ explosive o ense.
“They are very dangerous and have playmakers,” Grady said. “Twenty-one points with a few minutes left is not a comfortable lead against them. They are a con dent group. It’s a lot of us to deal with.”
JK is 4-0 against Kinston all time with all games coming from 2021-24 when the Vikings were in the ECC.
JK won last year 28-25 in a nail-bitter, as it did in 2021 (48- 47). In between were 35-12 and 49-26 victories in ’22 and ’23, respectively.
Though close in proximity, Kinston was a 3A and 4A school in the past, while JK wavered between 1A and 2A.
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Coach who went missing before undefeated team’s playo game wanted on criminal charges
Big Stone Gap, Va. Virginia State Police say a high school football coach who disappeared days ago before his undefeated team’s playo game is being sought on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material and using a computer to solicit a minor. Police say warrants were obtained for 46-year-old Travis Turner, of Appalachia, Virginia. They say the Union High School coach has been missing since last Thursday, when agents headed to his home not to arrest him but as part of an investigation, but learned he was no longer there. They say the search nearby has included drones, dogs and rescue teams.
JAENICKE from page B1
obituaries
David Martin Jr.
March 25, 1949 –Nov. 26, 2025
David Gerone Martin Jr., 76, went home to be with his Lord and Savior on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, at his home with loving family at his bedside.
He was born on March 25, 1949, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the son of David Gerone Martin, Sr., and Lillie Bridgeman Martin. In addition to his parents, David was preceded in death by his son, Bradley “Brad” Martin; grandson, Coby Martin; and sister, Linda Robinette.
David is survived by his beloved wife of 33 years, Dorothy Martin; daughters, April Martin, Connie Phipps, and Ulene Latham (Chris); grandchildren, Ashley Martin, Vincent Morrison, Anthony Morrison, Kalani Martin,
James McCalop
Jan. 31, 1953 – Nov. 30, 2025
Mr. James Carnell McCalop, aka “ Poon Shoon”, passed away on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at his home in Rose Hill.
A viewing will be held at First Missionary Baptist Church in Rose Hill, NC, on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, from 11-11:45 a.m., followed by the funeral service at noon. Burial will follow at Robinson Cemetery in Rose Hill, NC.
Left to cherish his precious memories are his children: Pamela Teresa Brinson of Landover, MD and Tonya M. Hooks (Curtis) of Rose Hill, NC; mother, Aletha Garnett McCalop of Rose Hill, NC; ve sisters: Evelyn Tuten (Arthur), Jacqueline Lisane (Jessie) and Denise Fennell (Tyrone), all of Rose Hill, NC, Diana Brinson of Magnolia, NC and Deborah McCalop of Rose Hill, NC; special friend, Katherine R. Mitchell of Rose Hill, NC; four grandchildren: Zyion A. Kirkland, Jakeina S. Sutton, Curtis M. Hooks, Jr. and Larry T. Hooks; one greatgrandchild, Kairon M. Hooks; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends that will miss him dearly.
Ellery Lamont Strong
April 23, 1962 – Nov. 24, 2025
Mt. Olive- The o ce and sta of J.B. Rhodes Funeral Home and Cremation announce the passing of Mr. Ellery Lamont Strong on Monday, November 24, 2025, at Kitty Askins Hospice Center. Please keep the family in your prayers as they navigate through this di cult time. There will be a Celebration of Life on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at 2 p.m. in the J.B. Rhodes Jr. Memorial Chapel, 1701 Wayne Memorial Drive, Goldsboro, NC 27534. A pub “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Emmalee Ward, Gavin Latham, Brittany Rousseau (Steven), Matthew Latham (Emory), and Lilyanna Crane; great grandchildren, Ray and Vallen; brother, Marshall Martin; sisters, Deborah Savage (Jesse) and Ruth Martin; many nieces and nephews.
David served his country proudly in the US Navy. He retired from Corning, Inc. after working for 23 years. David was a faithful member of Northside Church where prior to his illness he participated in many church projects.
David lived a full life – played Santa for many years and was a fabulous Elvis impersonator in addition to being a great husband, dad, granddad, brother, and friend. David will be missed by his family and many friends. He loved his Lord and Savior and lived his life with trust and faith through all the many years of unwell health. He never gave up of being healed and he is nally healed, at the feet of Jesus.
The family would like to extend a special thank you to the CNA’s and Hospice sta that worked so diligently taking care of David and giving our family support.
The family will receive friends at 2 p.m. Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at Northside Church, with a memorial service beginning at 3 p.m. Pastor Rob Strickland will conduct the service.
Kerry Freeman
Sept. 9, 1967 – Nov. 29, 2025
Kerry Freeman, 58, of Winnabow, passed away on Saturday, November 29, 2025, unexpectedly at home.
She was born on September 9, 1967, in Modesto, California, to the late Tom Freeman and the late Nancy Freeman. Kerry was a loving mother, grandmother, and sister. She loved to travel and spend time with her grandchildren.
Surviving to cherish her memory is her daughter, Alexis McWane and husband, Cameron; her son, Matthew Bowen; grandchildren, Addy, Elly, Ruby; her brother, Mike Freeman and wife, Cindy; her sister, Donna Freeman and husband, Brian Lane; many nieces and nephews; her special cousins, Tammy Bay, John Roberts, Kelly Roberts, and her special friends Shelby Williams, Juanita Freeman.
In addition to her parents, Kerry was also preceded in death by her brother, Bill Freeman.
A visitation will be held from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, at 300 Mallard Roost Dr, Watha, NC 28425.
Deacon
Thomas Edward Tucker Sr.
Oct. 23, 1951 – Nov. 25, 2025
Goldsboro- Deacon Thomas Edward Tucker Sr., 74, completed his earthly journey and transitioned from labor to reward, Tuesday, November 25, 2025, at Greendale Nursing Home & Rehab in Snow Hill, NC. The Celebration of Life will be on Friday, December 5, 2025, at noon at Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church, 2506 New Hope Road, LaGrange, NC 28551. He will be laid to rest at Eastern Carolina State Veterans Cemetery,164 Longs Plant Farm Road, Goldsboro, NC 27534, on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at 2 p.m.
Grace (James) Whatley
Sept. 9, 1929 – Nov. 30, 2025
A kind and gentle soul, a gracious and loving lady, Grace James Whaley entered into the Glory of her Lord on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, November 30, 2025, at the age of 96. She was born on September 9, 1929, in Duplin County, to Walter Raleigh James and Lizzie Luvenia Thompson James.
Many will remember Grace working at Market Furniture in Wallace for many years.
Grace was an extraordinary woman of God whose resounding faith was unmatched. Her brightly shining light often served as a guide to those around her. Those who knew Grace well remember her passion for reading/studying her Bible. She was a true example of what it meant to be a Christian. Her presence in our lives will be forever missed, but we nd solace in knowing she is at peace and rejoicing with her Almighty Father.
The family will receive friends at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at Pin Hook Church, 1650 Deep Bottom Road, Wallace, NC, with funeral service beginning at 2 p.m. Pastor David Walker will conduct the service. Burial will follow in the James Cemetery.
Sallie Whaley
June 29, 1941 – Nov. 24, 2025
Magnolia - Sallie Catherine Quinn Whaley, 84, of Magnolia, passed away Monday, November 24, 2025, at her home. Sallie was born June 29, 1941, in Duplin County to the late Henry Hadnal Quinn and Minnie Dunn Quinn.
Sallie was a hard-working farmer along with her parents and her brothers. In later years, Sallie worked at the grocery store where she always met you with a smile and was willing to help.
A visitation will be held from 7 to 9 pm on Friday, November 28, 2025, at Community Funeral Home of Warsaw.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., November 29, 2025, at Community Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will follow in the Quinn Family Cemetery o J. B. Stroud Road.
Sallie is survived by daughters, Minnie Toler and husband, Gary of Wallace, Jane Thomas of Wilmington, Joni Canady and Regina Whaley of Selma; son, Je rey Elliott of Wake Forest; grandchildren Matthew Updike, Ethan Jones, Jessica Thomas, Sam Thomas and Mary Reid; great grandchildren, Ryann Jones, Malachi Thomas, Naomi Toledo, Layla Reid, Isaiah Reid, Jonah Thomas and David Reid; great-great grandchild, Lylah Carmichael and numerous nephews and nieces.
In addition to her parents, Sallie was also preceded in death by her husband, Gilmer Harold Whaley, son-in-law, Leon Thomas, and brothers, William and Louis Quinn.
SPONSORED BY
QUINN MCGOWEN FUNERAL HOME
Marie Harvey Best
Oct. 20, 1937 – Nov. 20, 2025
Marie Harvey Best, 88, of Warsaw, NC, passed away on November 20, 2025, at Maple Woods Manor in Clio, Michigan. The funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Friday, December 5, 2025, at Hines Chapel Freewill Baptist Church in Warsaw, NC. Interment following the service at Devotional Gardens in Warsaw. Born on October 20, 1937, in Halifax County (En eld), North Carolina, Marie was the daughter of the late Ola Richardson Harvey and Edgar T. Harvey. She grew up surrounded by a large, loving family and carried those strong family values throughout her life.
Marie was a faithful member of St. Jude Disciples of Christ in Warsaw, NC, where she served with dedication. A true entrepreneur and community leader, she was the proud owner of Starlight Restaurant, Best Gardens Apartments, and Best Gardens Housing. Through her businesses, she touched many lives—o ering opportunities, meals, and support to her community for decades.
Sarah Walker
Feb. 18, 1938 – Nov. 29, 2025
Mrs. Sarah Juanita Hardy Walker, age 87, of Magnolia, NC, passed away on Saturday, November 29, 2025, at home.
A viewing will be held at Betholite Missionary Baptist Church in Magnolia, NC, on Saturday, December 6, 2025, from 11:00 -11:45 a.m., followed by the funeral service at noon.
Burial will follow at Boone Family Cemetery in Magnolia, NC.
Left to cherish her precious memories are her daughter, Shari Yvette Jones (Dennis) of Roanoke, VA; two sisters: Katie Faison of Warsaw, NC and Rachel Epps (Leon) of Jackson Heights, NY; two grandchildren: Andre’ Walker (Asia) of Magnolia, NC and Brittanie Blakely of Roanoke, VA; three great-grandchildren; numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends that will miss her dearly.
Marie was known for her gentle spirit, generous heart and the joy she found in life’s simple pleasures. She loved working on puzzles and was a gifted cook. Her famous fried chicken and cornbread were cherished by family, friends and loyal customers alike, not to mention Sunday dinners. Even as her health declined, her warmth, strength, and loving presence remained constant.
Marie was preceded in death by her parents Edgar T. Harvey and Ola Richardson Harvey; her beloved husband, Norman Best; her children, Cynthia G. Best Moore, Gloria J. Best McDu e, and James N. Best; her grandson, Cecil D. McDu e Jr.; and her brothers, William T. Harvey, Alexander Evans, George Harvey and Joe L. Harvey. A devoted mother, grandmother, sister, and pillar of her community, Marie lived a life de ned by hard work, kindness and unwavering faith. She leaves to continue her legacy: She is survived by her grandchildren, David L. Moore (Christie) and Kareem T. McDu e (Antoinette); special greatgranddaughter Kiari Moore; siblings Melissa E. Harvey Britt (Ed) and Jimmie L. Harvey (Barbara); special nephew Dionte’ A. Harvey; special cousins Barbara Faison, Natasha Williams, Lucile Bass, Essie Delvin and Inez Mathis; special friend Sawara Mathis; along with a host of nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends who will forever cherish her memory.
Though Marie’s earthly journey has ended, her legacy of love, service, and devotion will live on in the hearts of all who were blessed to know her. Her light continues to shine through the many lives she touched.
Kitty Davidson
Kitty Davidson of Bradenton (FL) and formerly of Surf City (NC) and Wallace (NC) passed away. Born in Greensboro (NC), she is the daughter of William Baldwin and Jewel Belton Snyder. She is survived by her husband Tom of the home; son--Mark Lashley and his wife Amber of Castle Hayne (NC); daughters-Kelley Johnson and her husband Luke of Clayton (NC) and Jennifer Lamont and her husband Dylan of Kernersville (NC); grandchildren-Claire, Bennett, Cole, Scarlett, and Elayna; siblings--Sherry Snyder of Surf City (NC) and Kevin Snyder and wife Kimberly of Surf City (NC); niece--Madison Snyder of Chapel Hill (NC); and golden retriever--Gus.
Kitty was devoted to the Lord and was a dedicated and loving wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend. She was a True Southern Lady who made everything she touched better. Kitty was a real, nice and kind treasure who will be missed, but remembered with great love and respect.
In lieu of ower donations, please consider a contribution, in her memory, to Mercury One or Our Daily Bread Ministries.
A graveside service to honor Kitty’s life is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday, December 6, 2025, in the Rock sh Memorial Cemetery, 6269 South NC Hwy 41, Wallace, NC. Family will receive friends at the cemetery thirty minutes prior to the service at 10:30 am. Padgett Funeral Home is assisting the Davidson family.
George Ronald Cowan
May 11, 1941 – Nov. 30, 2025
George Ronald Cowan, 84, passed away on Sunday, November 30, 2025.
The funeral service will be Thursday, December 4, 2025, at 7 p.m., followed by visitation at Community Funeral Home in Beulaville, NC. The graveside service will be Friday, December 5, 2025, at 11 a.m. at Cedar Fork Community Cemetery at 967 Cedar Fork Road in Beulaville, NC
He is survived by his wife, Donna B. Cowan of Beulaville, NC; sons George Rusty Cowan (Allison) of Beulaville, NC, and Neill Hoyle Cowan (Bethany) of Durham, NC; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
RaZiah Jocelin Brown
Dec. 19, 2007 – Nov. 28, 2025
Miss RaZiah Jocelin Brown, age 17, of Beulaville, NC, passed away on Friday, November 28, 2025, at ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville, NC.
The funeral service will be held at the Rose Hill Funeral Home Chapel in Rose Hill, NC, on Friday, December 5, 2025, at noon. Burial will follow at the Rose Hill Funeral Home Cemetery in Magnolia, NC.
Left to cherish her precious memories are her parents: Michelle Whitehead (Michael) of Teachey, NC and Johnthy Brown of Pink Hill, NC; grandparents: LaTonya and Kenneth Carter of Beulaville, NC; sister, Dasiona Moore of Pink Hill, NC; Uncle Quincy Melvin (Ti any) and Aunt Comeshia Young; a host of aunts, uncles; two nieces, cousins and friends that will miss her dearly.
Taylor sworn in as Calypso mayor after narrow 3-vote win
Marvin “Marty” Taylor was o cially sworn in as Calypso’s mayor Monday night, with Rep. Jimmy Dixon administering the oath. The race for the mayoral seat was one of the closest contests in Duplin County. Taylor narrowly defeated JoAnne Bowden-Wilson by three votes — 39 to 36, earning 52% of the total ballots cast.
When tra c shifted, the Squire started pouring
The birth of the winery at the Country Squire was inspired by an interstate
By Mark Grady For Duplin Journal
Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series about Duplin County’s journey into becoming wine country.
WHAT DOES Interstate 40 have to do with the creation of a winery? A lot, if you hear the history behind the Country Squire Winery in Kenansville.
Duplin Journal spoke with Country Squire Winery manager Robbie Smith, who revealed the concept came from his mother-in-law, who purchased the Country Squire in 1992.
“My mother-in-law was part of the Duplin County Tourism Board,” Smith said. “She noticed an upswing in the number of wineries in North Carolina. She thought it would be a great crowd drawer.”
The hope was to replace the tra c lost through the area after I-40 was completed.
“A lot of tra c that normally would be coming by us, like people going to Camp Lejeune or going to Fort Bragg, we were no longer getting,” Smith said.
His mother-in-law presented him and his wife with an idea and an o er. They had been married since the mid-1980s, and their children were all teenagers and almost out of high school.
“She o ered to back us in opening a winery if we would run it,” Smith said. “We jumped all over it.”
Jumping all over it meant work, as well as using products sourced from others.
“I raise some of our own
lead Mount Olive parade
By Ena Sellers Duplin Journal
MOUNT OLIVE — For longtime re ghter Greg Wiggins, Mount Olive has always been home. Now, after nearly ve decades of service to the community, he is being honored by the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce as grand marshal of the 2025 Christmas Parade on Dec. 6.
“We are honored to recognize Greg for his longtime commitment to the re service and to our community,” said Julie Beck, Mount Olive Chamber president. “His commitment to making our community a great place to live, work and play is com-
mendable, and that is why he was named this year’s Grand Marshal.”
Wiggins’ connection to Mount Olive began when he moved to the town as a child.
After spending a year abroad in Iran due to his father’s military service, he returned home and graduated from Southern Wayne High School in 1974. From there, Mount Olive became the place where he built a career of decades of service.
Wiggins recently retired following 47 years in re service, including 41 years with the Mount Olive Fire Department. His dedication earned him some of the state’s most respected honors at his retire -
ment celebration — the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, a Town of Mount Olive Proclamation and the O ce of State Fire Marshal Lifetime Achievement Award. Throughout his life, Wiggins poured his time into local organizations and the next generation, from coaching T-ball and Little League to serving with the Mount Olive Jaycees, leading the Southern Wayne FFA Alumni Chapter and participating on the Town’s Board of Adjustments. As an active member of the Mount Olive Masonic Lodge since 1978, he twice served as master, strengthening civic life for decades. At Calypso Baptist Church, he has been a steady presence, serving as a deacon, Sunday School director and member of the pastor search committee.
grapes,” Smith said. “I buy grapes from local growers. I buy juices from all over the country, as a matter of fact, some out of California, some out of New York.”
The grapes Smith grows are cultivated in a vineyard on his farm and in another vineyard in Kenansville, adjacent to the Country Squire Restaurant.
The journey to learning how to make wine began close to home at James Sprunt Community College.
“My wife had taken a course at James Sprunt, so she knew a little bit about winemaking,” he said. “I was raised on a farm, so I knew a little bit about growing stu , and we put two and two together.”
Smith said he has been “hitting the road” for the last 20 years promoting the restaurant, the winery and the motel.
When asked if eastern North Carolina had become “Napa Valley East,” Smith laughed.
“Well, people in Napa Valley would disagree with that,” he said.
One notable di erence in eastern North Carolina winemaking is the focus on one type of grape.
“We basically stick with the muscadines,” Smith said. “There are some guys a little further out east that are trying to raise some of the vinifera grapes, but we’ve done really well with muscadines. Our muscadine sales way outnumber our vinifera grape sales in eastern North Carolina.”
Smith believes that having two well-known wineries in Duplin County — Country Squire and Duplin Winery — bene ts both businesses.
“People come to visit us and they’ll come visit Duplin Winery, and vice versa.”
COURTESY MOUNT OLIVE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Retired Mount Olive re ghter Greg Wiggins will serve as grand marshal of the 2025
Mount Olive Christmas Parade on Dec. 6.
Greg Wiggins was named grand marshal
COURTESY PHOTO
Stanly NewS Journal
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Dells donate $6.25B to encourage families to claim “Trump Accounts”
Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged a historic $6.25 billion on Tuesday to provide an incentive to families to adopt new investment accounts for children. The so-called “Trump Accounts” were created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation but have not yet launched. Through their gift, the Dells will deposit $250 into the investment accounts of 25 million children aged 10 and younger as an incentive for their families to claim the accounts and make investments in the stock market.
Doctor says Trump had screening MRI with “perfectly normal” results
Donald Trump’s doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age. That’s according to a memo from the physician released by the White House on Monday. Sean Barbabella said in a statement that Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group. Barbabella concluded that the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was “perfectly normal.”
Stanly commissioners name new chair, vice chair, committees
The commissioners also appointed applicants for two county boards
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — The Stanly County Board of Commissioners met Monday night for its annual reorganizational meeting where a new chairman and vice chairman were chosen for the 2026 calendar year. Commissioners Scott E rd and Bill Lawhon were unanimously elected as chair and vice chair, respectively, succeeding Commissioners Mike
Barbee and Brandon King in those roles.
“Board, thank you so much for your con dence,” E rd said. “Before we go any fur-
ther, I would like to say thank you to Chairman Barbee and Vice Chairman King for all your service this year to our board. I know in some ways it’s
Albemarle police chief briefs council on code enforcement e orts
The presentation highlighted compliance e orts across the city
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — Albemarle Police Chief Ryan Manley provided city leaders with a detailed code enforcement update during Monday night’s Albemarle City Council meeting.
In his presentation, Manley said the Albemarle Police Department’s code enforcement team has made “signif-
icant progress” over the past three months in addressing nuisance and property violations across the city.
“Our mission remains clear: to preserve and enhance the health, safety and welfare of our community,” Manley said. “Our work is not done alone, and we rely on several of our governmental partners. We collaborate closely with the Albemarle Fire Department’s Fire Marshal’s O ce and Stanly County building inspectors. Together, we ensure that
been challenging, but I certainly appreciate your service.”
For board and committee assignments, Lawhon and King were appointed to the Economic Development Commission, while Commissioners Patty Crump and Trent Hatley will serve on the Consolidated Human Services Board. E rd was named to the Partners Behavioral Health Management Board, the Library Board and the Centralina Council of Governments, with Barbee serving as Centralina’s alternate. King and Hatley were also appointed to the Airport Authority.
PHOTOS BY DAN REEVES / STANLY NEWS JOURNAL
COMMUNITY NEWS
Concert band to perform holiday favorites Thursday
The Stanly County Concert Band will present its annual Christmas concert Thursday at 7 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Albemarle.
Admission is free, but the band asks attendees to bring a nonperishable food item to donate to Stanly Community Christian Ministries. The concert typically collects about 200 pounds of food for the ministry.
The program features a mix of holiday favorites and encore performances from the band’s fall concert, including “Patapan,” a French carol dating to 1720; a Christmas Pops Medley with “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Jingle Bells,” and
NCWRC warns against taming deer after attacks across state
Multiple people have been hospitalized, and a dog was killed by deer raised or fed by humans
Stanly News Journal sta
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) is warning residents who attempts to tame or domesticate deer can have dangerous consequences, following multiple attacks across the state this year.
Incidents involving deer attacking people or dogs have been reported in Rockingham, Randolph, Wilkes, Onslow, Iredell and Cherokee counties. Most involved deer that had been regularly fed by residents or illegally raised by humans.
On Nov. 6, a 70-yearold Wilkes County woman was hospitalized after being gored by the antlers of a male deer near her mailbox.
On Oct. 21, a woman in Onslow County was attacked by a 3½-year-old buck that had been illegally raised as a fawn by an acquaintance, su er-
ing a puncture wound to her shoulder and neck along with scrapes and bruises.
In March, a Cherokee County man was treated at an urgent care facility for a lip laceration after being attacked by a neighbor’s alleged pet deer while gardening. More recently, a deer being fed by residents in an Iredell County subdivision killed a dog.
“Deer that lose their fear of humans can act in abnormal ways,” said April Boggs Pope, a deer biologist with the commission. “That male deer that seemed ne or friendly during the rest of the year can become dangerously aggressive during the rut. A male fawn that is treated like a pet can become a danger as an adult when hormones surge during mating season. Deer antlers and hooves can in ict serious injuries.”
In North Carolina, it is unlawful to hold a wild animal in captivity as a pet. Only licensed wildlife rehabilitators are permitted to rehabilitate fawns.
While feeding deer is not illegal in most areas, the
commission advises against hand-feeding or conditioning deer to approach people. Baiting and feeding is prohibited between Jan. 2 and Aug. 31 in Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Areas.
“Attempting to domesticate a wild deer creates safety concerns for people, and it rarely ends well for the deer,” said Colleen Olfenbuttel, the commission’s game mammals and surveys supervisor. “People trying to tame wild deer may think they are doing the deer a favor, but they are putting the deer at higher risk of malnourishment and poor health, as the articial foods provided by residents don’t contain the diverse nutrition needed by wild deer.”
Deer that attack people are typically euthanized, and Olfenbuttel noted that victims are often innocent bystanders rather than those who fed or tamed the deer.
Residents can contact the commission’s Wildlife Helpline at 866-318-2401 to report someone illegally housing deer or for guidance on human-deer con icts.
Dec.
5
An Albemarle
Downtown Christmas 5:30-8 p.m.
Dec. 6
From
Hands ... Holiday Craft Show
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sponsored by the Stanly Arts Guild, this is an opportunity to support local artisians while doing your holiday gift shopping.
330-C N. 2nd St. Albemarle
Norwood Christmas on the Square
4-8 p.m.
Norwood Farmer’s Market hosts this annual event with a holiday tree lighting, music, train rides for children and an arts and crafts vendor market.
124 N. Main St. Norwood
Candy Cane Crossing
8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Christmas festivities that encourage young readers is the theme of the day with a reading train conductor, a postal box for Santa, and other family-friendly holiday activities. Tickets are $5 per child.
Stanly CountyPartnership Children 1000 N. 1st St., #8 Albemarle
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“A Nutcracker Spectacular.” The evening concludes with an audience sing-along to “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
Marjorie Taylor Greene embodies the inanity of populism
Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
DURING A RECENT stop on her image rehab tour, Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN’s Dana Bash that she is sorry “for taking part in the toxic politics.” It has been, she added, “bad for the country.” A week later, Greene nally did something patriotic by announcing her retirement.
It’s fair to say Greene is one of the most well-known GOP House members in the nation. Greene, though, is famous because her nitwittery has been endlessly highlighted by the media and Democrats to cast the Republican Party as one of hayseeds and conspiracists.
And, in all fairness, Greene might be one of the biggest ignoramuses to ever serve in Congress, which is no small achievement when one considers the “Squad” exists. If I asked you to name a single piece of legislation Greene has sponsored, you would probably be at a loss. If I asked you to name an important policy she has championed, an uplifting speech she has delivered or an area of expertise she has mastered, you would not think of any because there have been none.
Once the president reportedly dissuaded her from running for higher o ce in Georgia, Greene’s loyalty dissipated. Scorned, she became rudderless and useless. There is nothing left for her because there was not much there to begin with.
Donald Trump has contended that Greene went “BAD” and became a “ranting lunatic.” This is wrong. She has always been a ranting lunatic and an early adopter of the unhinged conspiratorial notions that have now infected so much of the populist right.
“I was a victim, just like you were, of media
lies and stu you read on social media,” Greene appealed to the women on “The View” when confronted with her past. It’s undeniable that the (well-earned) collapse of trust in both media and experts has created a vacuum that’s now lled by a horde of hucksters.
Victims such as Greene are easy marks for online con artists and propagandists because they lack a substantive belief system, organizing principles, coherent worldviews or historical perspective to repel conspiracies. Asking questions can be an admirable quality of an inquisitive mind. Asking questions such as “Are space-based solar lasers built by the Rothschilds starting California wild res?” makes you a paranoid dolt.
Greene, of course, was in on the Pizzagate and QAnon stu from the beginning. She suggested that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas may have been staged by gun control activists and questioned whether the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a “massive false ag.” You would be hard-pressed to nd a conspiracy on the “right” that she did not entertain.
Let us also not forget that Greene was one of the rst — and only — elected o cials to cozy up to the Groypers who are being normalized by the online NatCon Right. Greene spoke at a 2022 white nationalist junior varsity jamboree in Florida held by Tucker Carlson’s friend Nick Fuentes, who believes that Jews are “race traitors,” denies the Holocaust happened and believes segregation was bene cial for black Americans.
Florida’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood just the beginning
Abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam.
THIS MONTH, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmier led a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for false advertising.
Not over a billing dispute or a sloppy ad claim. Instead, the country’s largest abortion provider has been telling women that its “product” — speci cally the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — is “as safe as taking a Tylenol.”
The truth is far more serious.
As a Florida mother of four daughters, I’m relieved to see our state o cials recognize the increased risks of taking the abortion pill and the life that it ends inside the womb. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. Furthermore, the FDA should take note and remove its approval of all abortion drugs and review these risks in-depth for the safety of all women.
The Florida lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood’s campaign to induce women to purchase abortion drugs by misrepresenting the risks of chemical abortion violates the Florida law. The gross misrepresentation of a drug designed intentionally to take the life of a preborn child can be found on Planned Parenthood’s website, in printed materials, and in television advertisements. In fact, the organization claims that chemical abortion is “extremely safe” in all its descriptions.
However, the data suggests otherwise.
A recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims shows one in 10 women su er severe complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. We’re talking about things like hemorrhaging, infections or even sepsis, which can turn deadly fast. That’s 22 times higher than what the prescription label claims. Doesn’t sound like Tylenol to me.
Chemical abortion involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The rst pill
starves the developing baby; the second forces the mother’s body to deliver her dead child through hours of violent cramping and bleeding, often far worse than the “mild period” symptoms Planned Parenthood describes. Post-abortive testimonials say they were lied to, left alone on bathroom oors, terri ed and hemorrhaging, some permanently scarred or sterilized.
Planned Parenthood’s lies are a deliberate cover-up for the violence they knowingly in ict. By denying the scienti c fact that life begins at conception, they not only hurt women with these drugs but also take the innocent life in the womb. And abortion pill access is easier than ever, even in our pro-life state. Due to the Biden administration’s elimination of nearly all safeguards, abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam, ultrasound or follow-up care. Furthermore, there are no regulations governing where or to whom these pills are distributed. Women, many of them minors, are left alone to bleed out in their bathrooms, risking their health and future fertility, all while Planned Parenthood cashes in on another customer.
The Florida lawsuit is a crucial step in the process, but we can’t stop here. This ling should be a wake-up call to the FDA, acting as a catalyst for the new HHS leadership to nally review the abortion pill’s risks as promised. Planned Parenthood must be held fully accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. The FDA should immediately remove its approval of all abortion drugs and conduct a thorough, unbiased review for the safety of every mother and the protection of every child.
This bold action by Uthmeier builds on the courageous leadership of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Florida a national beacon for protecting preborn life over the past several years. From signing the 15-week protection in 2022 to boldly enacting
At the time, Greene pleaded ignorance of these positions, contending she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people. She never once confronted attendees to rethink their identitarian views, as she basked in their applause. Greene is either mind-bogglingly gullible or an ally. With her, both options are wholly plausible.
Let us be charitable and concede it’s the former. Greene is no less credulous these days as she tries to appeal to the left. She broke with Trump by falling for the Democrats’ scaremongering over Obamacare subsidies during the government shutdown. She bought the Gaza “genocide” hoax just like she bought into Pizzagate. A big proponent of releasing the Epstein “ les,” Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges. I’m often told that it’s “elitist” to mock these champions of average Americans. We need more “normal” people in Congress, they say. Absolutely. We have too many lawyers and professional activists running in Washington and far too few successful Americans who comprehend the real-world concerns of a diverse population. To say Greene is a normal American, however, is to contend that a normal American is an imbecile, which is not true. Indeed, there are millions of “average” Americans who are curious, smart, idealistic, capable and problem solvers. The representative of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District possesses none of those attributes.
Greene’s resignation from Congress will take e ect on Jan. 6, 2026, exactly in time for a lifelong pension to kick in. Greene was unable to ful ll a two-year commitment to her constituents because her feelings were hurt. Despite enabling her twice, they should consider themselves lucky. We have always had embarrassingly low standards for electing o cials. But they are not often this low.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.
the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2023, banning abortion after six weeks when a baby’s heartbeat can already be detected, DeSantis has stood unapologetically for the most vulnerable among us. He fought tirelessly against the radical Amendment 4 last year, which would have stripped away nearly all protections for preborn children and allowed abortion on demand up to birth in many cases.
Thanks to DeSantis’ leadership and the e orts of pro-life Floridians, Amendment 4 was defeated, falling short of the required 60% even as the abortion industry poured millions into deceiving voters.
Yet the abortion lobby is still attempting a run-around of our laws by ooding Florida with mail-order pills and out-of-state telehealth prescriptions. Chemical abortion already accounts for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide. If we allow these dangerous drugs to ow unchecked into our state, we will undo everything Florida families have fought for.
That’s why this lawsuit matters. That’s why Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to reexamine the abortion pill’s risks matters. And that’s why we must keep pushing until these drugs are removed from the market entirely.
In his X post about the lawsuit, Uthmeier said, “We stand by our women.” But Planned Parenthood does not.
Here in the “Free State of Florida,” under leaders like DeSantis and Uthmeier, we will keep leading the nation by exposing the lies of the abortion industry, defending women and their innocent children, and fostering a culture of life because every human life from conception is sacred and deserves protection.
Kimberly Bird is a communications specialist at Live Action and lives in Florida with her husband and four children. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI
Why doing good also makes us feel good, during holiday season, beyond
Volunteering brings people closer to their communities
By Christina Larson The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The holiday season is a time for giving thanks, giving gifts — and for many, a time for giving back.
Food banks, services that deliver meals to seniors and other U.S. charities typically see a surge in volunteering between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. But there are good reasons to volunteer at any time of the year.
Alfred Del Grosso volunteers weekly to work the lunch shift at Shepherd’s Table, a food bank in Silver Spring, Maryland. “I feel more connected to the broader community,” he said.
Most Thursdays, the retired chemist from Kensington, Maryland, also lends an unpaid hand to help clear fallen trees and brush from local trails with the Potomac Appalachian Trail
Club. “It’s mostly volunteers who help maintain the trails,” he said.
Researchers who study human evolution and social psychology say that giving back is deeply rooted in human nature. Volunteers say they feel closer ties to the communities they serve.
“When we feel grateful for all we have, that motivates us to do good things for other people who have helped us, and also to do good things for new people,” said Sarah Schnitker, a psychologist at Baylor University.
“There’s a nice upwards reciprocal spiral between gratitude and generosity,” often enhanced at holiday times, she said.
For many in the U.S., the season most associated with giving, receiving and volunteering runs from Thanksgiving through Hanukkah and Christmas to New Year’s.
But around the world, a giving season or festival is present in many cultures, said Amrisha Vaish, a developmental psychologist at the University of Virginia.
“Nearly all cultures have events or public festivals that al-
low people to express gratitude,” she said. “In Hinduism, Divali is a time of lights and festiveness and good eating, but also a time in which people give gifts to really express what people have meant to them.”
For Muslims, Ramadan, which ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr, is a time for reection, gratitude and acts of charity. Many Buddhist traditions also emphasize gratitude.
The common purpose of such seasons, which also include nonreligious acts of service, is to reinforce our natural cooperative tendencies, Vaish said.
“In human evolutionary history over hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve had to become cooperative in order to work together and survive as a species,” she said.
“We don’t have sharp claws, high speed, many other natural abilities. But what we do have is that we’re super cooperators; we can do more in groups than alone.”
Of course, humans aren’t always cooperative and generous
— sometimes we’re also sel sh and stubborn.
The tension between sel shness and altruism was recognized even by Darwin, said Michael Tomasello, a psychologist at Duke University. “That’s why life is so complicated. We have all these motives mapped together.”
But re ecting with gratitude on what we have, and seeing others do good, can encourage our most generous tendencies, experts say.
On an individual level, “giving, volunteering and generosity have the ability to increase our sense of meaning and purpose in life,” said Jenae Nelson, a developmental psychologist at Brigham Young University
“There’s a quick dopamine hit sometimes called the ‘helpers high.’ But there’s also that deeper reward of helping us to establish purpose and meaning,” she said. “By helping other people and believing that small acts can change the world, you can bring coherence to your own life.”
After Mia Thelen retired as a nurse in Owosso, Michi-
gan, she began volunteering for the American Red Cross, starting out by minding the o ce phones during blood drives before gradually taking on more organizational and administrative responsibilities.
“It’s a good way to spend your time, making the lives of others a little easier,” Thelen said. “I wanted to do something that helps the community.
“And I’m learning a lot: learning computer skills, learning communication skills. I have great co-volunteers.”
She enjoys feeling more connected with her neighbors.
Another common holiday tradition — sending greeting cards to family and old friends — also provides a chance to enhance or renew social ties, which people are often surprisingly reluctant to do, said Lara Aknin, a social psychologist at Simon Fraser University.
Her research has shown that “people are actually hesitant to reach out to old friends, they worry about being a burden or an inconvenience,” she said. But on the ip side, “people who’ve just heard from old friends report it as a really positive experience.”
So go ahead and write those cards or make those phone calls, she said. Use the holidays as an excuse to reconnect, and share a laugh or a warm mulled drink.
‘Rage bait’ named Oxford University Press word of year as outrage fuels social media tra c in 2025
Other contenders included “aura farming” and “biohack”
The Associated Press
“We tend to engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us.”
Susie Dent, lexicographer
LONDON — Oxford University Press has named “rage bait’’ as its word of the year, capturing the internet zeitgeist of 2025. The phrase refers to online content that is “deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or o ensive,” with the aim of driving tra c to a particular social media account, Oxford
CODES from page
properties are safe, maintained and compliant with city and state standards.”
Over the past quarter, the city’s code enforcement team received 116 complaints, including 37 code violations and 79 nuisance violations. The team also removed 190 illegally posted signs, issued 116 warnings, sent 83 notices of violation and scheduled 12 hearings.
The division, which was moved under the APD, now includes a full-time chief code enforcement o cer and a secondary o cer as it handles issues ranging from tall grass and junk vehicles to abandoned structures.
said in a statement.
“The person producing it will bask in the millions, quite often, of comments and shares and even likes sometimes,’’ lexicographer Susie Dent told the BBC. This is a result of the algorithms used by social media companies “because although we love u y cats, we’ll appreciate that we tend to engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us.”
Rage bait topped two other contenders — “aura farming’’
Residents can report problems through albemarlenc. gov, where complaints are categorized as either code or nuisance violations. Manley said the most common issues continue to involve overgrown grass, inoperable vehicles and dilapi-
dated or abandoned buildings.
In addition to general enforcement, the department has worked closely with property
and “biohack’’ — after public comment on a shortlist compiled by lexicographers at Oxford University Press.
“Aura farming’’ means to cultivate a public image by presenting oneself in “a way intended subtly to convey an air of condence, coolness or mystique.’’ “Biohack’’ is de ned as “an attempt to improve or optimize one’s physical or mental performance, health or longevity.’’
The word of the year is selected by lexicographers at Oxford
owners to assist with demolitions and renovations at several locations.
Three demolitions have recently taken place at 731 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, 1231 East Main St. and 901 Concord Road. The team is also coordinating with owners of properties at 443 Colston St., 624 South Center St. and 435 Watt St. to address structural concerns.
Manley also highlighted progress at 300 South First St., where gra ti has been removed and stagnant water eliminated.
Renovations are scheduled to begin June 1, 2026, and a hearing is planned for Dec. 15 to determine the necessary repairs under city ordinances.
Councilmembers praised the department’s proactive approach and expressed support for continued transparency and community engagement.
University Press who analyze new and emerging words, as well as changes in the way language is being used, to identify words of “cultural signi cance.” Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has selected a word of the year annually since 2004. Past winners include “podcast” in 2005, “emoji” in 2015, and in 2022 “goblin mode,” which described people who resisted returning to normal life after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is just another great example of your commitment to the city and your leadership ability,” Councilmember Bill Aldridge told Manley. “As we sit up here trying to recruit business and new residents, this is a very important area of opportunity for us to clean the place up. As you drive through downtown, getting grati o the buildings and getting the tall grass removed are really important when we look to attract new industry or residents.”
City o cials agreed to receive code enforcement updates every three months to keep the public informed of progress and challenges.
The Albemarle City Council will hold its next regular meeting on Dec. 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.
COURTESY CITY OF ALBEMARLE
Albemarle Police Chief Ryan Manley presented a code enforcement update at the Albemarle City Council meeting on Monday night.
Melania Trump reveals White House Christmas decorations
This year’s theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is”
By Darlene Superville
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Melania Trump on Monday unveiled the holiday decorations for her family’s rst Christmas back at the White House and her theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is.”
The decor also nods to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and founding of the United States of America.
Several dozen volunteer decorators from across the country helped deck the halls of the executive mansion with 75 wreaths, 51 Christmas trees, more than 700 feet of garland, more than 2,000 strands of lights, over 25,000 feet of ribbon, over 2,800 gold stars, more than 10,000 butter ies and 120 pounds of gingerbread.
A few things are di erent because President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing to build a ballroom he’s long desired.
This year, the o cial White House Christmas tree, which is always on display in the Blue Room, also honors Gold Star families, those that lost a member during active-duty military service.
That tree was an East Wing xture and the rst one visitors encountered after they entered through those doors, but the building and a covered walkway, or colonnade, connecting it to the White House were demolished by Trump in October as part of his ballroom plan.
Public tours, which had been suspended because of the construction, were set to resume Tuesday but with a shorter route limited to just the State Floor, which includes the East Room; the Green, Blue and Red
Commissioner Billy Mills will serve on the Fire District Commission and the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, while Lawhon was selected for the Senior Services Board. Crump will represent the county on the Rural Planning Organization Board, with Mills serving as her alternate. Lastly, Hatley was appointed to the Stanly Water and Sewer Authority, with Barbee as the alternate.
The board and committee assignments all received unanimous support from the
commissioners. Later in the meeting, the commissioners provided feedback on the new chair positions.
“I congratulate Mr. E rd on being the chair,” Barbee said. “It has been an up-and-down year, but I appreciate everybody backing me up on it. I look forward to serving out the rest of the term.” Lawhon added, “I want to recognize Commissioner Barbee and Commissioner King for serving as chair and vice chair. Thank you for that extra bit of service.”
Following the’ organizational procedures, the commission-
the State
and the Grand Foyer.
and the Ver-
meil and China Rooms on the Ground Floor — one level below the State Floor — were cut from the tour route because of the construction.
The White House expects tens of thousands of visitors for holiday tours, receptions and parties before Christmas. Visitors will now enter through the North Portico doors on Pennsylvania Avenue using a new, semipermanent walkway and entrance.
A statement from the White House said Christmas is a time to celebrate what makes the U.S. exceptional and that while every home has its own traditions, shared values unite Americans.
“In every community, we are lifted by simple acts of kindness that re ect the enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism, and gratitude,” the statement said. “These moments remind us that the heart of America is strong and that Home Is Where The Heart Is.”
Planning for the holidays starts months in advance, and the White House said Melania Trump chose every detail of the decor.
Trees in the East Room are trimmed in patriotic red, white and blue and national symbols, including golden eagle tree toppers, to highlight the coming America250 national celebration.
The o cial White House Christmas tree in the Blue
Room is decorated with gold stars honoring families that lost a member in the line of active-duty military service. The o cial tree traditionally recognizes each state and territory and this year’s r is decorated with ornaments showcasing the o cial bird and ower of each.
The Green Room celebrates family fun, featuring large portraits of the rst and the current presidents, George Washington and Donald Trump, respectively, each made from more than 6,000 Lego puzzle pieces.
Thousands of blue butter ies decorate the Red Room and its tree in a celebration of young people and in tribute to Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future initiative, which is part of her Be Best child-focused initiative, to support people who have been in foster care.
A holiday highlight, the gingerbread White House on display in the State Dining Room shows o the mansion’s South Portico and o ers a special glimpse into the Yellow Oval Room, a sitting room o the Truman Balcony in the president’s private living quarters on the second oor.
It was made using 120 pounds of gingerbread, 100 pounds of pastillage, a sugar-based modeling paste; over 10 pounds of chocolate and 5 pounds of royal icing. Part of the White House creche is on display in the Grand Foyer while the rest of it is undergoing a restoration overseen by the curator’s o ce.
Most of the tree trimming and hall decking was done after the Trumps decamped to their Florida home early last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. They returned to the White House on Sunday.
ers approved appointments to the Board of Equalization and Review and the Senior Services Advisory Board.
Larry McGuire and Kodi Smith were newly appointed to the Board of Equalization and Review, joining reappointed Vice Chair Garrett Allen. Polly Martin, Ava Plott and Roland Thomas were named to ll three vacancies on the Senior Services Advisory Board.
The Stanly County Board of Commissioners will hold its next regular meeting on Jan. 5 at 6 p.m. in the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons.
Rooms;
Dining Room; the Cross Hall;
The Library
PHOTOS BY EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO
A Ginger Bread House decorates the State Dining Room of the White House during a press preview of the Christmas decorations.
OBITUARIES
IN MEMORY
Montie Lee (Hartsell) Clem
Dec. 6, 1931 – Nov. 16, 2025
Montie Lee (Hartsell) Clem, a North Carolina native, passed away peacefully Sunday morning, Nov. 16, 2025, at her home in Frederick, Md. Her death at age 93 was from natural causes.
Born Dec. 6, 1931, in Stanly County, N.C., she was the only child of James Ellis and Dora Ann Treece Hartsell, and the beloved wife of the late Rev. Joseph H. Clem, who predeceased her in 1993. The couple met while attending Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., and married following their graduation in 1954.
A member of the Endy High School Class of 1950, Montie earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Catawba College, then began her career in Lancaster, Pa., where she taught from 1954 to 1957 while her husband attended Seminary. She loved primary education, so after raising her family she returned to teaching in Frederick County, Md., public schools from 1967 to 1992. During that time, she received a master’s degree from Shepherd
College in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Memories of Montie are fondly cherished by two sons and daughters-in-law, Michael and Kathleen of Libertytown, Md., and Ellis and Robin of Fair eld, Pa.
Montie enjoyed travel. In retirement she visited 44 U.S. states and many foreign parts around the globe, from Great Britain to New Zealand, Canada to Scandinavia, Australia to Germany, Russia to Bermuda, and France to Fiji. She experienced a variety of transportation on her excursions, including camel, steamboat, and hot air balloon. A sociable, jocular person, Montie made many friends on her trips. Throughout her life Montie remained a loyal supporter of her alma mater as a member of the Catawba College True Blue Society. She also belonged to the Frederick County Retired School Personnel Association, Maryland Retired School Personnel Association, and the Frederick Memorial Hospital Select Club.
A graveside service will be held at Pine Grove Methodist Church Cemetery, Albemarle, at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, where she will be laid to rest with her husband and parents.
In lieu of owers, the family requests memorial contributions be made in their mother’s honor to Pine Grove Methodist Church Cemetery Fund, 28766 NC 24/27 Highway, Albemarle, NC, 28001, or The Catawba Fund at Catawba College, 2300 West Innes St., Salisbury, NC, 28144. Hartsell Funeral Home of Albemarle is serving the Clem family. Online condolences may be made at www.hartsellfh.com
DELORES LOWDER WYATT
FEB. 23, 1950 – NOV. 24, 2025
Delores Ann Lowder Wyatt, 75, of Gold Hill, passed away peacefully on November 24, 2025, at Bethany Woods Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. A private family service will be held to honor and celebrate her life.
Born February 23, 1950, in Mecklenburg County, NC, Delores was the daughter of the late Martin Delmar Lowder and Martha Barbee Lowder. Delores devoted her career to Stanly Regional Medical Center, where she served faithfully as Food Service Director. She was known for her strong work ethic, her kindness, and her deep loyalty to both her family and her sta . Delores cared for her employees as if they were her own family, always willing to lend a hand, o er encouragement, or give the shirt o her back.
She especially loved the Christmas season, nding joy in decorating, celebrating, and creating warm holiday memories for those she loved.
Delores is survived by her husband of nearly 55 years, Tommy Lee Wyatt; her son, Jason Wyatt and wife Alicia of Jacksonville, NC; her brother, Steve Lowder and wife Teresa of Albemarle; two nephews, Michael Lowder and wife Laura of Albemarle, and Nathan Wyatt and wife Dominique of Statesville; brother-in-law, Larry Wyatt of Gold Hill; numerous great nieces and great nephews, and her beloved dog, Holly.
The family requests that memorials be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at stjude.org.
CRAIG ALLEN THOMAS
FEB. 2, 1969 – NOV. 29, 2025
He was born in Charlotte on February 2, 1969, to Julia Wolfe Thomas and Carl Holland Thomas.
Craig received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Urban and Regional Planning. After receiving his degrees, he worked for various towns in the Charlotte area, most recently as Planning Director for the Town of Midland.
He married Brenda Campany on July 18, 1998, at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte. After meeting through mutual friends from UNC, they quickly learned that they shared a love for the outdoors - hiking, camping, mountain biking, playing tennis, and competing in co-ed softball leagues.
Craig loved working in the public sector and the relationships he made within this relatively small community, but his favorite job by far was being a father. He deeply cherished the four years he was a stay-at-home dad for Seth and Peyton. He lled their days with the perfect combination of learning and fun, which helped shape the adults they are today.
Craig never tired of spending countless hours with Seth drawing maps, completing crosswords, and driving to train stations and train crossings (often multiple times a day much to Peyton’s disappointment) to count the number of engines and cars as they went by. They would talk about where the trains came from, where they were going, and what they had on board.
Peyton and Craig had their own imaginative world. They would dance and sing, bake, play dress-up, have spa days, build crutches, cardboard cars, and tightropes, and go on regular outdoor adventures. They shared the same smart wit and quirky sense of humor. There is nothing he wouldn’t do for his little girl.
Through the years, Craig’s dogs were a constant source of light for him. From Honey barking “Happy Birthday” to Greta, Craig and Brenda’s rst dog, to Tanner and Duste. Lastly, he absolutely adored his sidekick Josie. He gave her the best rst three years of her life full of car rides, running outside, and kitchen dance parties.
Craig was blessed with the rare gift of being able to nd extreme joy in everyday activities - playing tennis with neighborhood buddies and friends, Sunday lunches with his mom, pranking people at the o ce, and sharing funny dad jokes with anyone who would listen. Everyone who knew him knew he bled Carolina Blue. He could recite stats from any Carolina football or basketball game, even those that occurred before he was born.
Craig was predeceased by his father, Carl Holland Thomas Jr. Besides his mother, he is survived by his wife, Brenda, son Seth (Boston), daughter Peyton (New York City), sister Leesa Clardy (Jim) of Charlotte, brother Scott (Dorothy) of Gainesville, FL, and several adored nieces and nephews.
There will be a visitation on Wednesday, December 3, 5-8 p.m. at Hartsell Funeral Home, Harrisburg, NC, and a memorial service on Thursday, December 4, 11:00 a.m. at Saint Stephen United Methodist Church, 6800 Sardis Rd, Charlotte, NC. Memorials in Craig’s honor may be made to the Humane Society of Concord and Greater Cabarrus County, 2010 Wilshire Ct. SW Concord humanesocietyofconcord.org.
LARRY EUGENE LITAKER
Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in Stanly News Journal at obits@ stanlynewsjournal.com
FEB. 6, 1950 – NOV. 29, 2025
Larry Eugene Litaker, 75, of Albemarle, passed away peacefully at his home on Saturday, November 29, 2025.
A funeral service to honor his life will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, in the Stanly Funeral Home Chapel, o ciated by Rev. Eddie Barbee. The family will receive friends at the funeral home beginning at 2 p.m.
Born February 6, 1950, in Stanly County, Larry was the son of the late Robert William Litaker and Ruby Faye Whitley Litaker. He spent many years working for Charlotte Pipe in Charlotte before retiring to farm, a role that suited his hardworking, down-to-earth nature.
Larry enjoyed the simple, meaningful pleasures of life. He loved shing and hunting, spending time at the beach, and had a special appreciation for old muscle cars. These passions brought him joy and gave him countless memories with those he loved.
Larry is survived by his wife, Linda Litaker, of the home; his children, Lionel Litaker (Nikki) of Albemarle and Leighanne Banemanivong (Smith) of Albemarle; and his grandchildren, Lindsay Litaker, William Litaker, Weston Banemanivong, and Gracelyn Benemanivong.
He was preceded in death by his grandson, Holden Benemanivong, whose memory remained close to his heart.
VIVIAN POLK GREGORY
JUNE 28, 1941 – NOV. 30, 2025
Vivian Carol Polk Gregory, 84, of Norwood, peacefully passed away on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at Atrium Health Stanly.
In accordance with the family’s wishes, there will be no formal services at this time.
Born June 28, 1941, in Stanly County, she was the daughter of the late George and Ruby Polk. Vivian devoted many years to the textile industry before her retirement and was a faithful attendee of Freedom Holiness. She will be remembered as a caring wife, a devoted mother, and a proud grandmother whose love was felt deeply by her family.
She is lovingly survived by her husband, Grady E. Gregory; her daughters, Talina Gregory (Rob Avila) of Kennebunkport, ME, and Neka Gregory Watson of Norwood, NC; and her cherished grandchildren, Dante Rhys Avila and Kaia Lynn Watson. She is also survived by her sister, Crystal Wooten (Mike).
STANLY SPORTS
West Stanly boys storm past Gray Stone with big second half
The game was tied 28-28 at halftime
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
MISENHEIMER — With an o ensive surge after halftime, the West Stanly boys’ basketball team earned its rst victory of the season Nov, 24, defeating Gray Stone 72-50 in Misenheimer.
The Colts (1-2) and Knights (0-3) were tied 28-28 at the break before West Stanly broke loose in the second half. The Colts outscored Gray Stone by seven in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth to secure the win.
West Stanly opened the second half with a 19-7 run, briefly allowing the Knights to trim the margin before pulling away for good with a 23-point fourth quarter.
Senior guard Drew Hatley led all scorers with 26 points, while fellow seniors Cade Hinson and Cooper Crisco added 17 and 10, respectively.
The win marked a step in the right direction for a West Stanly program seeking its rst winning season since 2021-22. The Colts went 10-15 last year, including 5-8 in Rocky River Conference play.
Gray Stone, still chasing its rst winning season in program history, nished 3-17 and 0-11 in Yadkin Valley Conference play last year. West Stanly was set to host Albemarle on Tuesday before visiting South Stanly on Friday. The Knights hosted Anson on Tuesday and will travel to CATA on Wednesday.
North Stanly 53, East Rowan 44
Entering the season with 12 consecutive winning seasons, the North Stanly Comets (1-0) opened their schedule with a nine-point home win over the East Rowan Mustangs (2-2) on Nov. 19.
Pfei er soccer players awarded CSC Academic All-District honors
“Their achievements not only highlight individual excellence but also re ect the supportive environment at Pfei er University that fosters both academic success and athletic prowess.”
Pfei er Athletics
Three Falcons advanced to the Academic All-America ballot
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
MISENHEIMER — Ten
Pfei er University soccer players have been recognized among the honorees on the 2025 Academic All-District Soccer Teams, as selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC).
Six Falcons from the men’s squad and four from the women’s team earned the distinction, highlighting a balance of athletic and academic success.
Representing the men’s program were Alex Michael, Wesley Hooker, Jaiden Wright, Juan Cabrera, Seth Limbert and Benji Landaverde. Together, the six selections accounted for a full third of the 18 USA South Athletic Conference honorees.
The Pfei er men’s soccer team posted a superb 2025 season, nishing with a 13 - 0 - 4 overall record and an undefeated run through the regular season under coach Tony Faticoni for the USA South title.
From the women’s team, Kaylee Ollis, Crysty Flores-Perez, Yasmin Flores-Perez and Karlie Pressley were included, making up four of the 23 league representatives.
The Falcon women’s soccer team experienced a more di cult 2025, nishing with a 2-12-1 overall record and 1-7-1 in USA South conference play under coach Acasio Roche III.
Academic All-District honorees are considered for advancement to the CSC Academic All-America ballot, which recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for excellence both on the eld and in the classroom.
Pfei er’s Michael, Hooker and Limbert each earned that additional honor and have ad-
COURTESY COLLEGE SPORTS COMMUNICATORS
A combined 10 players from Pfei er’s soccer programs have been awarded CSC Academic All-District honors.
vanced to the national ballot.
The All-America teams are scheduled to be announced Dec. 16.
“Their achievements not only highlight individual excellence but also re ect the supportive environment at Pfei er University that fosters both academic success and athletic prowess,” Pfei er Athletics said in a statement. “Pfei er’s honorees have balanced rigorous academic schedules with the demands of collegiate athletics, embodying the ideal of the student-athlete.”
Each year, CSC’s Academic All-District program honors standout student athletes across multiple sports and divisions for their dedication to both their grades and competition. The program separately recognizes honorees in NCAA Division I, Division II, Division III and NAIA.
The Division III Academic All-America program is partially supported by NCAA Division III’s national governance structure, which assists CSC in administering the awards for the 2025-26 academic year.
For more information on the CSC Academic All-District and Academic All-America programs, visit academicallamerica.com.
The Comets, who nished 22-7 overall and 8-3 in Yadkin Valley Conference play last year, made it to the second round of the NCHSAA 2A state playo s in 2024-25. North Stanly played at Montgomery Central on Tuesday and will head to Bradford Prep on Wednesday.
Game-high point total for West Stanley’s Drew Hatley
Albemarle 58, Uwharrie Charter Academy 47
In their fourth game of the season, the Albemarle Bulldogs (2-2) topped the Uwharrie Charter Eagles (1-3) 58-47 in Asheboro on Nov. 25, snapping a two-game skid following losses to Forest Hills and Anson.
Albemarle’s two wins already match its total from last season’s 2-21 campaign, which included a 2-9 record in YVC play.
The Bulldogs traveled to West Stanly on Tuesday and will continue on the road two days later to face Bishop McGuinness on Thursday.
Piedmont 59, South Stanly 39
The South Stanly Rowdy Rebel Bulls (0-1) fell behind by 20 points at halftime and couldn’t rally in a road loss to the Piedmont Panthers (2-2) on Nov. 24.
South Stanly is coming o a 17-9 season in which it nished second in Yadkin Valley Conference play at 8-2 and reached the second round of the 1A state playo s. The Bulls hosted CATA on Tuesday and then welcomed Anson to Norwood for a game on Wednesday.
COURTESY GRAY STONE ATHLETICS / FACEBOOK
Goalkeeper Matthew Lappin was named all-region and all-state.
Local boys’ soccer players earn postseason honors
The NCSCA released its All-State and All-Region lists
Stanly News Journal sta
THE NORTH CAROLINA Soccer Coaches Association released its All-State and All-Region lists for the 2025 season. Here are the local athletes who earned postseason honors.
Named to the 1A/2A/3A All Region for the Charlotte Area region were:
Walker Bullard
Gray Stone Day junior mid elder
Matthew Lappin
Senior goalkeeper
Auden Pethel
Senior mid elder
Lappin led the Yadkin Valley conference in goals-against average and was seventh in Class 2A. Bullard led the Knights in scoring, was third in goals and second in assists. He was also named all-region last season. Pethel was second on the team in goals.
Named to the 4A/5A/6A All Region team for Charlotte Metro region was:
Blessings Byamunga
West Stanly sophomore striker/mid elder
Byamunga led the Colts in goals and points while ranking second on the team in assists.
Gray Stone assistant Wesleigh Little was named all state assistant coach for class 2A. Lappin and Bullard were also named to the all-state team for class 2A.
Number of local athletes named All Region in boys’ soccer
West Stanly’s Cooper Crisco drives to the hoop during the Colts’ road matchup at Gray Stone on Nov. 24.
Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki nears pinnacle of Japan’s national sport
The 21-year-old has been named ozeki, the second-highest rating
By Stephen Wade
The Associated Press
TOKYO — Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki is only 21 but has moved just one step from the top rank of Japan’s national sport.
In an elaborate ceremony last week, he was promoted by the Japan Sumo Association to the rank of ozeki, the rung just below the top. Only two now hold the top rank of yokozuna — grand champion in English: Japanese Onosato and Mongolia-born Hoshoryu.
“I’m happy, but I feel more strongly about working harder from now on,” Aonishiki said last Wednesday after the ceremony. “There is a higher rank, and that’s my next goal.”
Sumo’s new rising star, who wrestles under the ring name of Aonishiki Arata, was born Danilo Yavhushyshyn in west central Ukraine and has identi ed his hometown as Vinnytsia.
He moved to Japan after Russia invaded Ukraine just over 31⁄2 years ago, the byproduct of a friendship he had made a few years earlier with a Japanese wrestler at a tournament.
Japanese media identies him as being the quickest — he’s wrestled only 14 tournaments — to reach the ozeki rank since 1958 when the present tournament scheduling system was installed.
The promotion was inevitable after he won a prestigious tournament on Sunday in western Japan. He defeated Hoshoryu in the deciding match.
He explained earlier that his parents ed to Germany after the invasion and said they are living safely. He said he called them after the big tournament on Sunday and praised them for allowing him
“I have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Aonishiki
to pursue his interests. He said his mother cried on the phone call. He was told his father did too, but tried to hide it.
“They never scolded me even when I didn’t do well in studies, as they believed in letting me do what I liked to do,” he said last week.
Aonishiki is small by sumo standards. He weighs in the 125 to 135 kilogram range — (between 275 to 300 pounds). This is slight in sumo — in the range of an NFL lineman — since many wrestlers weigh at least 150 kilograms (330 pounds) and some much more.
Sumo experts in Japan say his success comes from keeping a low body position. He can bench press 210 kilograms (460 pounds) — about 50% more than his body weight.
“I need to be stronger all around,” he said. “I have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Non-Japanese sumo wrestlers have excelled in di erent periods in Japan. They have included Mongolians, Hawaiians and now Ukrainians. A second Ukrainian, Shishi Masaru, is also a highly ranked wrestler in Japan.
Ukraine has a very strong tradition in Olympic wrestling. Its last gold-medal winner was Zhan Beleniuk in the Greco-Roman category at the Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021 by the pandemic.
Aonishiki has endeared himself to the Japanese public with his uent command of their language. He said he arrived speaking no Japanese, but picked it up quickly living only with Japanese wrestlers in the sport’s tightly controlled environment.
KYODO NEWS VIA AP
Ukrainian Aonishiki, left, receives a trophy after winning the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka in western Japan.
College football mascots just as good at keeping their identities secret as ring up a crowd
Schools keep the person under the suit a secret, often until graduation
By Mike Householder
The Associated Press
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Ross Ramsey enjoys spending time with fellow alums at Michigan State football tailgates.
These aren’t just any old former Spartans, though.
They were Sparty himself — something few knew when Ramsey and his pals donned the muscular mascot suit two decades ago.
“Once you are done being Sparty, you can tell others that you were Sparty,” said Ramsey, a physician and hospital administrator in Pigeon, Michigan. “And clearly you have a close bond with those others who were in the same role as you, because they couldn’t share that experience with anyone else at the time, either.”
Ramsey and his buddies are members of an elite fellowship of ex-mascots. Men and women who once carried on as Big Al, Alabama’s lovable elephant; the Disney-inspired Oregon Duck; Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger and many more. We’re talking humans in suits, not live animal mascots, which also are xtures on college football Saturdays.
The job for costumed mascots is to re up the crowd, bring a smile to a fan’s face and symbolically represent the university.
“When you think of Michigan State, you think of Sparty. And everybody knows what the mascot is,” said Phil Lator, another former Sparty who joins Ramsey at the tailgates and also successfully concealed his alter ego during his tenure in East Lansing.
Anonymity is the name of the game for many college mascots.
“Some programs value secrecy so highly that multiple performers report to the stadium but only learn in the moment who will actually be suiting up,” said Je Birdsell, a communication professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Birdsell has experience in these matters, having served as Point Loma’s mascot as an undergrad, as well as inhabiting suits for minor league baseball,
BASKETBALL ROUNDUP
Big week for North Stanly girls
Stanly News Journal sta
SOUTH STANLY BOYS’ BASKETBALL
0 -1, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley
2A/3A (17-9 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Lost 59-39 at Piedmont
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 vs. Central Academy
• Dec. 3 vs. Anson
• Dec. 5 vs. West Stanly
SOUTH STANLY
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
0 -1, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley
2A/3A (1-20 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Lost 67-31 at Piedmont
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 4 vs. Bishop McGuinness
• Dec. 5 at Anson
ALBEMARLE
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
2-2, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley (25 -5 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Lost 42-21 at Uwharrie Charter Academy
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 at West Stanly
• Dec. 4 vs. Bishop McGuinness
• Dec. 5 at Anson
WEST STANLY
BOYS’ BASKETBALL
1-2, 0 - 0 in Rocky River
4A/5A (10 -15 last year)
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics”
Nicole Hurley, former Cocky the Gamecock
NBA G League and indoor soccer teams.
“Some schools have traditions where they work hard to keep the performers anonymous so that there can be a big reveal as part of graduation ceremonies,” he said.
Enter Nicole Hurley, who came clean about her Cocky past at South Carolina’s spring commencement, rolling into the arena wearing her cap, gown and oversized yellow bird feet of the bird mascot.
“When I walked across the stage, I felt so much joy. The whole arena started to clap and cheer, and it made me emotional,” said Hurley, a pediatric hematology oncology nurse in Charleston, South Carolina.
Only Hurley’s roommates and parents knew about her second life.
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics and
created excuses when I was not free on the weekends due to working private events,” Hurley said. “When people I know would come up to take a photo with me when I was Cocky and they had no idea I was the one under the suit was the craziest feeling.”
Carlos Polanco-Zaccardi, whose years inside Miami’s Sebastian the Ibis costume were known only to a select few, also became pro cient at hiding his true identity. The 2025 graduate of the “U” toted his bird get-up around campus in an enormous du el bag. When confronted, Polanco-Zaccardi would supply a white lie depending on the questioner.
“For my friends, I told them that I was one of the party performers on stilts that perform at weddings, bar mitzvahs and birthday parties,” he said.
Like the Michigan State guys, Hurley and Polanco-Zaccardi, costumed performers at the collegiate level almost always are students.
That intense school pride doesn’t go away for many ex-mascots, long after they’ve stopped wearing the fur. Just ask Scott Ferry, another Sparty alum and tailgate regular whose passion for the greenand-white hasn’t ebbed.
“The spirit of the university is critical,” said Ferry, who these days owns and operates a farm and meat-processing facility an hour south of campus. “We don’t want to just be an individual. We want to be the icon of the university at all times.”
• Dec. 2 vs. Central Academy
• Dec. 3 vs. Anson
• Dec. 5 vs. West Stanly
NORTH STANLY BOYS’ BASKETBALL
1- 0, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley (22-7 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• No games
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 at Montgomery Central
• Dec. 3 at Bradford Prep
• Dec. 5 at Maiden
NORTH STANLY GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
4 - 0, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley (13-13 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Won 65-35 vs. Anson
• Won 60-44 vs. Union Academy
• Won 48-40 (OT) vs. Montgomery
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 3 at Bradford Prep
• Dec. 5 at Maiden
ALBEMARLE
BOYS’ BASKETBALL
2-2, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley (2-21 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Won 58-47 at Uwharrie Charter Academy
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 at West Stanly
Last week’s scores:
• Won 72-50 at Gray Stone Day
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 vs. Albemarle
• Dec. 5 at South Stanly
WEST STANLY
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
1-2, 0 - 0 in Rocky River
4A/5A (14 -12 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Won 53-27 at Gray Stone Day
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 vs. Albemarle
• Dec. 5 at South Stanly
GRAY STONE DAY BOYS’ BASKETBALL
0 -3, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley (3-17 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Lost 72-50 vs. West Stanly
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 vs. Anson
• Dec. 3 at Central Academy
• Dec. 6 vs. Elevation Prep Academy
GRAY STONE DAY GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
0 -3, 0 - 0 in Yadkin Valley (2-17 last year)
Last week’s scores:
• Lost 72-50 vs. West Stanly
This week’s schedule:
• Dec. 2 vs. Anson
• Dec. 3 at Central Academy
graduations and other announcements: community@stanlynewsjournal.com | Weekly deadline is Monday at Noon
MARTINA HURLEY VIA AP
Left, Miami mascot Sebastian the Ibis leads the team onto the eld before the start of a game. Right, Nicole Hurley poses for a photo on the day of University of South Carolina’s commencement ceremony, wearing her cap, gown and Cocky the mascot feet.
WILFREDO LEE / AP PHOTO
NOTICES
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• Program Head, Accounting
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• Technician, Facility Services
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Public Hearing Notice
The City of Locust will hold a public hearing on Thursday, December 11, 2025, at 7:00 pm in the Joel Huneycutt Community Room to hear citizens comments for or against the conditional rezoning request submitted by, BPD Elkin, LLC, parcel pin# 55653028560000 Cabarrus &, 6719 NC Hwy 24/27, Locust NC
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 25E000591-830
Having quali ed as Executrix of the estate of Ann Green Mundy deceased, of Stanly County, North Carolina, This is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate of said Ann Green Mundy to present them to the undersigned on or before February 27, 2026 or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment.
This 26th day of November, 2025 Donna P. Shaver 41350 Cotton Tree Lane New London, NC 28127
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 25E000598-830
Having quali ed as Co-Executors of the estate of Reba H. Watkins a/k/a Reba Hill Watkins deceased, of Stanly County, North Carolina, This is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate of said Reba H. Watkins a/k/a Reba Hill Watkins to present them to the undersigned on or before February 20, 2026 or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment.
This 19th day of November, 2025 James Taylor Smith 49679 Quail Trail Road Norwood, NC 28128 Herman Francis Smith PO Box 936 Walkertown, NC 27051 Co-Executors
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 25E000584-830
Having quali ed as Co-Executors of the estate of Sherrill Edwin Clark deceased, of Stanly County, North Carolina, This is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate of said Sherrill Edwin Clark to present them to the undersigned on or before February 20, 2026 or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment.
This 19th day of November, 2025 Brenda Shoe 16217 HWY 73 E Mt. Pleasant, NC 28124 Co-Executor Annette Harkey 28410 NC 73 HWY Albemarle, NC 28001 Co-Executor
NOTICE OF ALBEMARLE CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARINGS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to the general public that the City of Albemarle City Council will conduct public hearing(s) concerning the item(s) listed below at the dates, times, and location provided herein:
Annexation (AX 25-01) and Initial Zoning (ZMA 25-05).
Annexation requested by petition, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 160A-31, and a request for Initial Zoning, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 160D-602, of approximately +/- 42.14 acres along Sweet Home Church Road (Tax Records 1496, 19922, 19945) from Stanly County RA, and G-B, and City of Albemarle R-8 (Neighborhood Residential) to City of Albemarle R-15 Cluster (Conservation Residential). The amendment to the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Albemarle, North Carolina, by transfer from Stanly County, changes the city’s boundaries through voluntary annexation of the aforementioned parcel.
Annexation (AX 25-02) and Initial Zoning (ZMA 25-06).
Annexation requested by petition, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 160A-31, and a request for Initial Zoning, pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 160D-602, of approximately +/-26.16 acres located nearest NC 24-27 Bypass W and Judy Street (Tax Records 4245) from Stanly County RA to City of Albemarle R-10 (General Residential). The amendment to the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Albemarle, North Carolina, by transfer from Stanly County, changes the city’s boundaries through voluntary annexation of the aforementioned parcel.
Rezoning (ZMA 25-04). Request for a Zoning Map Amendment for one parcel totaling +/- 10.03 acres located at the end of Sta ord Drive (Tax Record 20000) to change the existing split zoning of HID (Heavy Industrial District) and R-10 (General Residential) to R-10 (General Residential).
Rezoning (ZMA 25-07). Request for a Zoning Map Amendment for one parcel totaling +/- 0.5 acre located at the corner of Ash Street and Moose Street (Tax Record 21833) to change the existing zoning of LID (Light Industrial District) to R-8 (Neighborhood Residential).
Envision Albemarle 2045 - Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Request for adoption of the Albemarle 2045 Comprehensive Land Use Plan represents the goals, policies, and recommendations for guiding the city’s future land use and physical development. It is the key policy document that helps make the City livable and prosperous by aligning physical development with environmental, social, and economic issues. The document enhances the coordination of services and improves decision-making functions.
The hearing(s) will be conducted in the City Council Chambers of City Hall, located at 144 N Second St., Albemarle, N.C. 28001 at the following time(s): Monday, December 15th, 2025, at 6:30 p.m.
All interested parties are invited to attend the hearing. Anyone wishing to speak for or against this action shall adhere to applicable City policies and statutes regarding open meetings. The City Council’s approved agenda can be found on the city’s website, www.albemarlenc.gov
Dated: November 24, 2025
Publish: Wednesday, December 3, 2025, & Wednesday, December 10, 2025
George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Zac
Brown
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds drop “Live God”
The Associated Press
GEORGE CLOONEY playing a dashing movie star with nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” and Zac Brown Band returning with fresh tunes are some of the new television, lms, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also, among the streaming o erings worth your time this week: The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+, Net ix has the American Western series “The Abandons” with women at the center of its story, and Nintendo’s Samus Aran returns with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
MOVIES TO STREAM
Clooney plays a dashing movie star with new nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” (Net ix on Friday), Noah Baumbach’s comic drama about fame and family. As Jay’s youngest daughter (Grace Edwards) prepares for college, a trip to Europe turns into a deeper self-examination. With Adam Sandler as Jay’s long-su ering manager and Laura Dern his publicist. In his review, the AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that “reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+ on Thursday. The Tom Cruise adventure, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, concludes the chapter begun with 2023’s “Dead Reckoning Part One.” Whether dead or nal, a reckoning may be in order for the eight- lm Ethan Hunt franchise. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote: “In a series that has often been best when it’s not taking itself too seriously, dour developments start to feel a little unintentionally silly.”
The Christmas movies cometh. One of the rst out of the gate this year is “Oh. What. Fun.” (Now on Prime Video). Michelle Pfei er stars as a matriarch who, after years
Band, Michelle Pfei er
“Reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
Mark Kennedy, AP Film Writer
of handling all the season’s festivities for an ungrateful family, goes missing. Michael Showalter directs a cast including Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary and Dominic Sessa.
MUSIC TO STREAM
Zac Brown Band re ects on life’s highs and lows on their new album, “Love & Fear,” out Friday. Some of the singles out so far include the Jimmy Buffett-like “I Ain’t Worried About It,” the weed-friendly “Let It Run” with Snoop Dogg, the
sweet ballad “Butter y” with Dolly Parton” and the anthemic party banger “Give It Away.” Perhaps the best of the bunch is “Hard Run” featuring Mar-
cus King, starting quietly with a twang, building to harmonies and some funk, adding a touch of Broadway and then someery guitar work. The band is
making a splash with the album’s drop date, performing at the Sphere in Las Vegas and kicking o several nights there in December and January.
If you adored Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds last album “Wild God,” here’s some good news: The alternative rock legend and his formidable band is releasing “Live God,” which includes live versions from the album, as well as catalog favorites such as “From Her to Eternity,” “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” and “Into My Arms.” And if you just can’t get enough of Cave, there’s more: The Royal Danish Library has put its “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition” online, allowing fans to explore 300 objects collected or created by Cave during his career.
SERIES TO STREAM
“The Abandons,” a new American Western series comes to Net ix with women at the center of its story. Taking place in the 1850s, Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey star as two widowed women who are the heads of their household and who are ghting over land. Kurt Sutter, who created “Sons of Anarchy,” is behind this one. Nick Robinson and Aisling Franciosi also star. It debuts Thursday.
Starz has a new “Spartacus” series out Friday called “Spartacus: House of Ashur.” Nick E. Tarabay reprises his role as Ashur from “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” and “Spartacus: Vengeance,” which explores what may have happened if the character had survived the events of “Vengeance” instead of being killed. This series also features a woman in a powerful role. Tenika Davis plays a female gladiator.
VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
Fans of Nintendo’s Samus Aran have been waiting a long time for the spacefaring bounty hunter to return to the 3D world of Metroid Prime. At long last, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is here — but it remains to be seen if Samus’ years in limbo have made her stronger. She has landed on a jungle planet lled with hostile wildlife, and another bounty hunter is in hot pursuit. In addition to her usual high-tech arsenal, Samus has gained some psychic powers — not to mention a wicked motorcycle. Can this long-delayed sequel live up to its beloved predecessors? Find out Thursday on Switch and Switch 2.
PETER MOUNTAIN / NETFLIX VIA AP
George Clooney stars in the comic drama “Jay Kelly.”
CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO
Tenika Davis poses for a portrait to promote “Spartacus: House of Ashur” during Comic-Con International in 2025 in San Diego. The series premieres Friday on Starz.
VIANNEY LE CAER / INVISION / AP PHOTO
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will release live versions of songs from their acclaimed album “Wild God” on the upcoming collection “Live God.”
Solution to last week’s puzzle
Solution to this week’s puzzles
K&W closes suddenly
A sign on the door of K&W Cafeteria in Greensboro announces the chain’s permanent closure. K&W, the Winston-Salem-based cafeteria that had been serving Southern comfort food since 1937, abruptly closed all nine remaining locations on Dec. 1. The company had 28 locations before the pandemic but led for bankruptcy in 2020 and was later acquired by Piccadilly Restaurants. More than 300 employees lost their jobs, and no reason was given for the sudden closure.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Dells donate $6.25B to encourage families to claim “Trump Accounts”
Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged a historic $6.25 billion on Tuesday to provide an incentive to families to adopt new investment accounts for children. The socalled “Trump Accounts” were created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation but have not yet launched. Through their gift, the Dells will deposit $250 into the investment accounts of 25 million children aged 10 and younger as an incentive for their families to claim the accounts and make investments in the stock market.
Doctor says Trump had screening MRI with “perfectly normal” results
Donald Trump’s doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age. That’s according to a memo from the physician released by the White House on Monday. Sean Barbabella said in a statement that Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group. Barbabella concluded that the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was “perfectly normal.”
$2.00
Privately raised funds to go toward more of WSFCS outstanding debt
More than $4 million has been raised so far by private citizens
By Ryan Henkel Twin City Herald
WINSTON-SALEM — The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners has approved the allowance of privately collected funds for more of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools’ outstanding debt.
At the board’s Nov. 20 meeting, it approved a resolution authorizing the use of privately raised funds to pay o the WS -
“This is simply continuing a commitment that we made to help the community in Forsyth County be a part of rescuing our public school system.”
Commissioner Dan Besse
FCS debt to ESS pursuant to the conditional forgiveness resolution that was approved on Oct. 9.
Per the agreement, once the school board paid o their debt to the Department of Public Instruction, which has occurred, the two boards would then mutually have to agree on the next
section of debt to be paid o . The choice of the school board was the debt owed to ESS.
“I certainly want to thank all the community members who have contributed to this fund, particularly as we move forward and look ahead to a lot better days on the debt part,” said board chair Don Martin.
“This is simply continuing a commitment that we made to help the community in Forsyth County be a part of rescuing our public school system,” said Commissioner Dan Besse.
So far, just over $4.165 million has been raised privately to help pay o the district’s outstanding debt.
Commissioners Gloria Whisenhunt and Richard Linville voted against the resolution.
“In the past I have voted against this forgiveness, and I will vote against it again today,” Whisenhunt said.
Hamlin breaks down in tears as rst witness testifying at NASCAR antitrust trial
He said signing the charter deal would have been a “death certi cate”
By Jenna Fryer The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE — The landmark federal antitrust trial against NASCAR opened Monday with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin breaking down in tears minutes into his testimony as the rst witness in a case that could upend the venerable stock car series. Hamlin’s 23XI Racing, which he co-owns with Michael Jordan, and Front Row Motorsports claim the series is a monopolistic bully that leaves its teams no option but to comply with rules and nancing they don’t agree with.
As Jordan watched from the gallery, Hamlin began to cry and had to stop and compose himself when asked how he got
into racing. He disclosed to The Associated Press last month that his father is dying, and he said on the stand he was emotional because his dad “is not in great health.”
“We got to when I was about 20 and a decision had to be made, I could keep racing or go out and work for my dad’s trailer business,” Hamlin testi ed, adding that he later was thinking about what retirement looked like and found a team going out of business. He needed a partner and turned to Jordan, who he had developed a friendship with when the Basketball Hall of Famer owned the Charlotte Hornets and Hamlin was a season-ticket holder.
“If I can’t be successful with Michael as a partner, I knew this was never going to work,” he said.
The references to his early days in auto racing and the sacri ces his family made were intended to show
DAN REEVES / TWIN CITY HERALD
JENNA FRYER / AP PHOTO
Michael Jordan arrives at the start of the antitrust trial between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR in Charlotte on Monday.
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THURSDAY
4
FRIDAY
NCWRC warns against taming deer after attacks across state
Multiple people have been hospitalized, and a dog was killed by deer raised or regularly fed by humans
North State Journal sta
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) is warning residents who attempts to tame or domesticate deer can have dangerous consequences, following multiple attacks across the state this year.
Incidents involving deer attacking people or dogs have been reported in Rockingham, Randolph, Wilkes, Onslow, Iredell and Cherokee counties. Most involved deer that had been regularly fed by residents or illegally raised by humans.
On Nov. 6, a 70-year-old Wilkes County woman was hospitalized after being gored by the antlers of a male deer near her mailbox. On Oct. 21, a woman in Onslow County was attacked by a 3½-year-old buck that had been illegally raised as a fawn by an acquaintance, su ering a puncture wound to her shoulder and neck along with scrapes and bruises.
In March, a Cherokee County man was treated at an urgent care facility for a lip laceration after being attacked by a neighbor’s alleged pet deer while gardening. More recently, a deer being fed by residents in an Iredell County subdivision killed a dog.
“Deer that lose their fear of
BOARD from page A1
“The way the language of it is and the way it was before, for me, it’s saying that I’m OK with what has occurred, and I’m not,” Linville said. The board also held a public hearing for an amendment to the county’s uni ed development ordinance to revise sign regulations for parks and recreation areas open to the public.
NASCAR from page A1
items in 23XI Racing’s budget. He noted how more than $703,000 three years ago was spent on costs to NASCAR ranging from entry fees, credentials for team members to enter the track and even access to Internet signals. He also said he and Jordan spent $100 million to build 23XI and “all it takes is one sponsor to go away and all our pro t is gone.”
Because of Jordan’s presence with the team, Hamlin testied, 23XI has turned a pro t in all but one of its ve seasons of operation. His attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, said in his opening statement that fast-food restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins has never turned a pro t since starting his Front Row team in 2004, a team that won the Daytona 500 in 2021. Kessler said a NASCAR-commissioned study found that 75% of teams lost money in 2024 and added that over a three-year period almost $400 million was paid to the France Family Trust. He said a 2023 evaluation by Goldman Sachs found NASCAR to be worth $5 billion. NASCAR is currently run by Jim France, son of founder Bill France Sr. “What the evidence is going to show is Mr. France ran this for the bene t of his family at the expense of the teams and sport,” Kessler said. Hamlin testifed that the TV deal NASCAR signed ahead of the 2025 season has not been a boon to race teams because of a shift toward streaming
“The county is currently developing a 200-plus acre agriculture and recreation park north of Tobaccoville, which is expected to draw out-of-town visitors for regular use and special events,” said Project Planner Dan Roberts. “As such, the county believes an appropriately sized sign would help visitors more easily nd the park.”
The park entrance is located in a zoning district that limits sign area to 18 square feet,
sponsors and big-ticket sponsors want to be on television. He also referred to a meeting with NASCAR chairman Jim France, who indicated teams are spending too much and it should only cost $10 million per car.
At the heart of the lawsuit is NASCAR’s revenue sharing model, which 23XI and Front Row argue is unfair to race teams that often operate at a loss. Hamlin testi ed it cost $20 million to simply bring a single car to the track over a 38-race season, not including overhead expenses such as driver salary and business operations.
“We cannot cut more. Tell me how to get my investment back? He had no answer,” Hamlin said.
“So why would these people do this if you are just going to lose money because NASCAR isn’t giving you a fair deal?” asked Kessler, “Because you love stock car racing, and there’s nowhere else to do it.”
The charter agreements signed for this year that triggered the lawsuit guarantee the teams $12.5 million in annual revenue per chartered car. NASCAR argues the guaranteed payouts are an increase from $9 million from the previous agreement, but Hamlin noted that 11 of the rst 19 chartered teams are no longer in business.
As for refusing to sign the charter agreements last fall, Hamlin said the last-ditch proposal from NASCAR “had eight points minimum that
humans can act in abnormal ways,” said April Boggs Pope, a deer biologist with the commission. “That male deer that seemed ne or friendly during the rest of the year can become dangerously aggressive during the rut. A male fawn that is treated like a pet can become a danger as an adult when hormones surge during
however, county sign regulations currently allow parks and recreation areas larger than 1,000 acres to have freestanding signs of up to 75 square feet in area. The amendment would therefore change the regulation to allow parks and recreation areas of 100 acres or more to have the same sign requirements.
Finally, the board approved the publication of a $2.65 million o er for the Hall of Jus-
needed to be changed. When we pointed that out we were told, ‘Negotiations are closed.’”
“I didn’t sign because I knew this was my death certi cate for the future,” he said, later adding: “I have spent 20 years trying to make this sport grow as a driver and for the last ve years as a team owner. 23XI is doing our part. You can’t have someone treat you this unfairly, and I knew It wasn’t right. They were wrong, and someone needed to be held accountable.”
Under cross-examination, Hamlin was asked why he paints a rosier picture of NASCAR on podcast appearances. He replied that he is regurgitating NASCAR talking points because any negative comments can lead to retribution.
All three charters 23XI purchased came from teams that ceased operations, and Hamlin said 23XI paid $4.7 million for its rst charter, $13.5 million for its second and $28 million for its third, acquired late last year. He acknowledged purchasing the third charter was a risk because of the pending litigation — and the price concerned him — but it was required if 23XI intends to build itself into a top team.
The charter system guarantees a car a spot in the eld each race week as well as a percentage of the purse. It also gives team owners an asset to sell should they want to get out of the business.
NASCAR attorneys argued that the charter system has created $1.5 billion in equity for the 36 chartered teams.
mating season. Deer antlers and hooves can in ict serious injuries.”
In North Carolina, it is unlawful to hold a wild animal in captivity as a pet. Only licensed wildlife rehabilitators are permitted to rehabilitate fawns.
While feeding deer is not illegal in most areas, the commission advises against hand-feeding or conditioning deer to approach people. Baiting and feeding is prohibited between Jan. 2 and Aug. 31 in Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Areas.
“Attempting to domesticate a wild deer creates safety concerns for people, and it rarely ends well for the deer,” said Colleen Olfenbuttel, the commission’s game mammals and surveys supervisor. “People trying to tame wild deer may think they are doing the deer a favor, but they are putting the deer at higher risk of malnourishment and poor health, as the arti cial foods provided by residents don’t contain the diverse nutrition needed by wild deer.”
Deer that attack people are typically euthanized, and Olfenbuttel noted that victims are often innocent bystanders rather than those who fed or tamed the deer.
Residents can contact the commission’s Wildlife Helpline at 866-318-2401 to report someone illegally housing deer or for guidance on human-deer con icts.
tice property located at 200 North Main St. for upset bids.
Medsolutions Compounding Pharmacy is the current largest bidder, and it is proposing to renovate the property as a mixed-use development that will eventually host restaurants, tness centers and other commercial uses.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners will next meet Dec. 4.
Prior to the charter system, teams raced “open,” with no guarantee they’d make the eld or earn a payout.
“The France family built NASCAR from nothing. They are an American success story,” Johnny Stephenson said in the opening statement for NASCAR. Stephenson is a colleague of Christopher Yates, who had previously handled most of the courtroom arguments for the defendants.
“They’ve done it through hard work over 75 years. That’s the kind of e ort that doesn’t deserve a lawsuit. That’s the kind of e ort that deserves admiration.”
The case has churned through hearings and arguments for more than a year despite calls from other NASCAR teams to settle. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell even helped mediate a failed twoday summit in October.
A NASCAR victory could put 23XI, Front Row and their six combined cars out of business. Their charters — now being held by NASCAR — would likely be sold. The last charter went for $45 million, and NASCAR has indicated there is interest from potential buyers, including private equity rms.
A win for the teams could lead to monetary damages and the potential demolition of NASCAR as it is run today. The judge has the power to unravel a monopoly, and nothing is o the table, from ordering a sale of NASCAR to the dismantling of the charter system.
COURTESY NCWRC
A deer wanders through a residential area. Wildlife o cials are warning North Carolina residents against feeding or attempting to tame deer after multiple attacks this year.
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
Marjorie Taylor Greene embodies the inanity of populism
Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
DURING A RECENT stop on her image rehab tour, Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN’s Dana Bash that she is sorry “for taking part in the toxic politics.” It has been, she added, “bad for the country.” A week later, Greene nally did something patriotic by announcing her retirement.
It’s fair to say Greene is one of the most well-known GOP House members in the nation. Greene, though, is famous because her nitwittery has been endlessly highlighted by the media and Democrats to cast the Republican Party as one of hayseeds and conspiracists.
And, in all fairness, Greene might be one of the biggest ignoramuses to ever serve in Congress, which is no small achievement when one considers the “Squad” exists. If I asked you to name a single piece of legislation Greene has sponsored, you would probably be at a loss. If I asked you to name an important policy she has championed, an uplifting speech she has delivered or an area of expertise she has mastered, you would not think of any because there have been none.
Once the president reportedly dissuaded her from running for higher o ce in Georgia, Greene’s loyalty dissipated. Scorned, she became rudderless and useless. There is nothing left for her because there was not much there to begin with.
Donald Trump has contended that Greene went “BAD” and became a “ranting lunatic.” This is wrong. She has always been a ranting lunatic and an early adopter of the unhinged conspiratorial notions that have now infected so much of the populist right.
“I was a victim, just like you were, of media
lies and stu you read on social media,” Greene appealed to the women on “The View” when confronted with her past. It’s undeniable that the (well-earned) collapse of trust in both media and experts has created a vacuum that’s now lled by a horde of hucksters.
Victims such as Greene are easy marks for online con artists and propagandists because they lack a substantive belief system, organizing principles, coherent worldviews or historical perspective to repel conspiracies. Asking questions can be an admirable quality of an inquisitive mind. Asking questions such as “Are space-based solar lasers built by the Rothschilds starting California wild res?” makes you a paranoid dolt.
Greene, of course, was in on the Pizzagate and QAnon stu from the beginning. She suggested that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas may have been staged by gun control activists and questioned whether the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a “massive false ag.” You would be hard-pressed to nd a conspiracy on the “right” that she did not entertain.
Let us also not forget that Greene was one of the rst — and only — elected o cials to cozy up to the Groypers who are being normalized by the online NatCon Right. Greene spoke at a 2022 white nationalist junior varsity jamboree in Florida held by Tucker Carlson’s friend Nick Fuentes, who believes that Jews are “race traitors,” denies the Holocaust happened and believes segregation was bene cial for black Americans.
Florida’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood just the beginning
Abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam.
THIS MONTH, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmier led a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for false advertising.
Not over a billing dispute or a sloppy ad claim. Instead, the country’s largest abortion provider has been telling women that its “product” — speci cally the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — is “as safe as taking a Tylenol.”
The truth is far more serious.
As a Florida mother of four daughters, I’m relieved to see our state o cials recognize the increased risks of taking the abortion pill and the life that it ends inside the womb. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. Furthermore, the FDA should take note and remove its approval of all abortion drugs and review these risks in-depth for the safety of all women.
The Florida lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood’s campaign to induce women to purchase abortion drugs by misrepresenting the risks of chemical abortion violates the Florida law. The gross misrepresentation of a drug designed intentionally to take the life of a preborn child can be found on Planned Parenthood’s website, in printed materials, and in television advertisements. In fact, the organization claims that chemical abortion is “extremely safe” in all its descriptions.
However, the data suggests otherwise.
A recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims shows one in 10 women su er severe complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. We’re talking about things like hemorrhaging, infections or even sepsis, which can turn deadly fast. That’s 22 times higher than what the prescription label claims. Doesn’t sound like Tylenol to me.
Chemical abortion involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The rst pill
starves the developing baby; the second forces the mother’s body to deliver her dead child through hours of violent cramping and bleeding, often far worse than the “mild period” symptoms Planned Parenthood describes. Post-abortive testimonials say they were lied to, left alone on bathroom oors, terri ed and hemorrhaging, some permanently scarred or sterilized.
Planned Parenthood’s lies are a deliberate cover-up for the violence they knowingly in ict. By denying the scienti c fact that life begins at conception, they not only hurt women with these drugs but also take the innocent life in the womb. And abortion pill access is easier than ever, even in our pro-life state. Due to the Biden administration’s elimination of nearly all safeguards, abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam, ultrasound or follow-up care. Furthermore, there are no regulations governing where or to whom these pills are distributed. Women, many of them minors, are left alone to bleed out in their bathrooms, risking their health and future fertility, all while Planned Parenthood cashes in on another customer.
The Florida lawsuit is a crucial step in the process, but we can’t stop here. This ling should be a wake-up call to the FDA, acting as a catalyst for the new HHS leadership to nally review the abortion pill’s risks as promised. Planned Parenthood must be held fully accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. The FDA should immediately remove its approval of all abortion drugs and conduct a thorough, unbiased review for the safety of every mother and the protection of every child.
This bold action by Uthmeier builds on the courageous leadership of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Florida a national beacon for protecting preborn life over the past several years. From signing the 15-week protection in 2022 to boldly enacting
At the time, Greene pleaded ignorance of these positions, contending she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people. She never once confronted attendees to rethink their identitarian views, as she basked in their applause. Greene is either mind-bogglingly gullible or an ally. With her, both options are wholly plausible. Let us be charitable and concede it’s the former. Greene is no less credulous these days as she tries to appeal to the left. She broke with Trump by falling for the Democrats’ scaremongering over Obamacare subsidies during the government shutdown. She bought the Gaza “genocide” hoax just like she bought into Pizzagate. A big proponent of releasing the Epstein “ les,” Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
I’m often told that it’s “elitist” to mock these champions of average Americans. We need more “normal” people in Congress, they say. Absolutely. We have too many lawyers and professional activists running in Washington and far too few successful Americans who comprehend the real-world concerns of a diverse population. To say Greene is a normal American, however, is to contend that a normal American is an imbecile, which is not true. Indeed, there are millions of “average” Americans who are curious, smart, idealistic, capable and problem solvers. The representative of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District possesses none of those attributes. Greene’s resignation from Congress will take e ect on Jan. 6, 2026, exactly in time for a lifelong pension to kick in. Greene was unable to ful ll a two-year commitment to her constituents because her feelings were hurt. Despite enabling her twice, they should consider themselves lucky. We have always had embarrassingly low standards for electing o cials. But they are not often this low.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.
the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2023, banning abortion after six weeks when a baby’s heartbeat can already be detected, DeSantis has stood unapologetically for the most vulnerable among us. He fought tirelessly against the radical Amendment 4 last year, which would have stripped away nearly all protections for preborn children and allowed abortion on demand up to birth in many cases.
Thanks to DeSantis’ leadership and the e orts of pro-life Floridians, Amendment 4 was defeated, falling short of the required 60% even as the abortion industry poured millions into deceiving voters.
Yet the abortion lobby is still attempting a run-around of our laws by ooding Florida with mail-order pills and out-of-state telehealth prescriptions. Chemical abortion already accounts for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide. If we allow these dangerous drugs to ow unchecked into our state, we will undo everything Florida families have fought for.
That’s why this lawsuit matters. That’s why Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to reexamine the abortion pill’s risks matters. And that’s why we must keep pushing until these drugs are removed from the market entirely.
In his X post about the lawsuit, Uthmeier said, “We stand by our women.” But Planned Parenthood does not.
Here in the “Free State of Florida,” under leaders like DeSantis and Uthmeier, we will keep leading the nation by exposing the lies of the abortion industry, defending women and their innocent children, and fostering a culture of life because every human life from conception is sacred and deserves protection.
Kimberly Bird is a communications specialist at Live Action and lives in Florida with her husband and four children. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI
Why doing good also makes us feel good, during holiday season, beyond
Volunteering
brings
people closer to their communities
By Christina Larson The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The holiday season is a time for giving thanks, giving gifts — and for many, a time for giving back.
Food banks, services that deliver meals to seniors and other U.S. charities typically see a surge in volunteering between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. But there are good reasons to volunteer at any time of the year.
Alfred Del Grosso volunteers weekly to work the lunch shift at Shepherd’s Table, a food bank in Silver Spring, Maryland. “I feel more connected to the broader community,” he said.
Most Thursdays, the retired chemist from Kensington, Maryland, also lends an unpaid hand to help clear fallen trees and brush from local trails with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. “It’s mostly volunteers who help maintain the trails,” he said.
Researchers who study human evolution and social psychology say that giving back is deeply rooted in human nature. Volunteers say they feel closer ties to the communities they serve.
“When we feel grateful for all we have, that motivates us to do good things for other people who have helped us, and also to do good things for new people,” said Sarah Schnitker, a psychologist at Baylor University.
“There’s a nice upwards reciprocal spiral between gratitude and generosity,” often enhanced at holiday times, she said.
For many in the U.S., the season most associated with giving, receiving and volunteering runs from Thanksgiving through Hanukkah and Christmas to New Year’s.
But around the world, a giving season or festival is present in many cultures, said Amrisha Vaish, a developmental psychologist at the University of Virginia.
“Nearly all cultures have events or public festivals that allow people to express gratitude,” she said. “In Hinduism, Divali is a time of lights and festiveness and good eating, but also a time in which people give gifts to really express what people have meant to them.”
“When we feel grateful for all we have, that motivates us to do good things for other people who have helped us, and also to do good things for new people.”
Sarah Schnitker, psychologist
For Muslims, Ramadan, which ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr, is a time for reection, gratitude and acts of charity. Many Buddhist traditions also emphasize gratitude.
The common purpose of such seasons, which also include nonreligious acts of service, is to reinforce our natural cooperative tendencies, Vaish said.
“In human evolutionary history over hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve had to become cooperative in order to work together and survive as a species,” she said.
“We don’t have sharp claws, high speed, many other natural abilities. But what we do have is that we’re super cooperators; we can do more in groups than alone.”
Of course, humans aren’t always cooperative and generous — sometimes we’re also sel sh and stubborn.
The tension between sel shness and altruism was recognized even by Darwin, said Michael Tomasello, a psychologist at Duke University. “That’s why life is so complicated. We have all these motives mapped together.”
But re ecting with gratitude on what we have, and seeing others do good, can encourage our most generous tendencies, experts say.
On an individual level, “giving, volunteering and generosity have the ability to increase our sense of meaning and purpose in life,” said Jenae Nelson,
a developmental psychologist at Brigham Young University
“There’s a quick dopamine hit sometimes called the ‘helpers high.’ But there’s also that deeper reward of helping us to establish purpose and meaning,” she said. “By helping other people and believing that small acts can change the world, you can bring coherence to your own life.”
After Mia Thelen retired as a nurse in Owosso, Michigan, she began volunteering for the American Red Cross, starting out by minding the o ce phones during blood drives before gradually taking on more organizational and administrative responsibilities.
“It’s a good way to spend your time, making the lives of others a little easier,” Thelen said. “I wanted to do something that helps the community.
“And I’m learning a lot: learning computer skills, learning
communication skills. I have great co-volunteers.”
She enjoys feeling more connected with her neighbors.
Another common holiday tradition — sending greeting cards to family and old friends — also provides a chance to enhance or renew social ties, which people are often surprisingly reluctant to do, said Lara Aknin, a social psychologist at Simon Fraser University.
Her research has shown that “people are actually hesitant to reach out to old friends, they worry about being a burden or an inconvenience,” she said. But on the ip side, “people who’ve just heard from old friends report it as a really positive experience.”
So go ahead and write those cards or make those phone calls, she said. Use the holidays as an excuse to reconnect, and share a laugh or a warm mulled drink.
“Bad actors who exploit loopholes in our regulatory systems are putting everyone at risk. This is unacceptable.”
Nearly half of the 16,000 truck driving schools could be forced to close
By Josh Funk The Associated Press
NEARLY 44% OF THE 16,000 truck driving schools in the U.S. may be forced to close after a review by the federal Transportation Department found they may not be complying with government requirements.
The Transportation Department said Monday that it plans to revoke the accreditation of nearly 3,000 schools unless they can comply with training requirements in the next 30 days. The targeted schools must notify students that their accreditation is in jeopardy. Another 4,000 schools are being warned they may face similar action.
Separately, the Department of Homeland Security is auditing trucking rms in California owned by immigrants to verify the status of their drivers and whether they are qualied to hold a commercial driver’s license.
This crackdown on trucking schools and companies is the latest step in the government’s
e ort to ensure that truck drivers are quali ed and eligible to hold a commercial license. This began after a truck driver that Transportation Secretary Sean Du y says was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. Du y has threatened to pull federal funding from California and Pennsylvania over the issue, and he proposed signi cant new restrictions on which immigrants can get a commercial driver’s license but
a court put those new rules on hold.
“We are reining in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses,” Du y said.
The Transportation Department said the 3,000 schools it is taking action against failed to meet training standards and didn’t maintain accurate and complete records. The schools are also accused of falsifying or manipulating training data.
The list of schools being target-
ed wasn’t immediately released.
Trucking industry groups have praised the e ort to tighten up licensing standards and ensure that drivers can meet basic English pro ciency requirements the Trump administration began enforcing this summer. But groups that represent immigrant truck drivers say they believe many quali ed drivers and companies are being targeted simply because of their citizenship status.
“Bad actors who exploit loopholes in our regulatory systems are putting everyone at risk. This is unacceptable,” said Paul J. Enos, CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association. “We are focused on solutions and resolute on seeing them implemented.”
Truck drivers of the Sikh faith have been been caught in the cross re and faced harassment because the drivers in the Florida crash and another deadly crash in California this fall were both Sikhs.
The North American Punjabi Truckers Association estimates that the Sikh workforce makes up about 40% of truck driving on the West Coast and about 20% nationwide. Advocacy groups estimate about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers work in the U.S.
Paul J. Enos, Nevada Trucking Association
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond immediately to questions about the e ort to verify the immigration status of truck drivers, but the United Sikhs advocacy group said they have heard directly from Punjabi company owners about these aggressive audits of immigration records.
“Sikh and immigrant truckers with spotless records are being treated like suspects while they keep America’s freight moving,” the United Sikhs group said. “When federal agencies frame lawful, licensed drivers as risks, it doesn’t improve safety — it fuels xenophobia, harassment, and even violence on the road. Any policy built on fear instead of facts endangers families, civil rights, and the national supply chain.” California moved to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses after federal o cials raised concerns that they had been issued improperly to immigrants or allowed to remain valid long after a driver’s work permit expired.
GENE GALIN FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL
program in Siler City last month. Nearly
JAE C. HONG / AP PHOTO
A student driver helps his classmate as they practice driving in reverse.
Forsyth SPORTS
Under clouds, Olympic ame begins journey to this summer’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
Weather forced the lighting ceremony indoors
By Derek Gatopoulos and Petros Giannakouris
The Associated Press
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece
— The Olympic ame began its journey to the Milan Cortina Winter Games — missing a little of its usual magic.
Bad weather lashing western Greece forced organizers to move the torch-lighting ceremony indoors, from Olympia’s ancient stadium and temples to a nearby museum.
The ame is lit by focusing the sun’s rays with a concave mirror. But with skies overcast, ocials used a backup ame kindled during a brief spell of sunshine at rehearsal.
Greek rower Petros Gaidatzis launched the torch relay, which, after reaching Italy, will be carried across the host country by about 10,000 runners before the Feb. 6–22 competition.
The sun eventually cooperated, making an appearance over rain-soaked Olympia during the indoor ceremony.
“It’s incredibly memorable and a little bit emotional for me to be standing here,” said IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who was overseeing her rst torch lighting after being elected to the post in March. “It feels like the past and the present are really coming together. We are extremely happy that today’s ceremony reminds us what the games stand for.”
Italy is hosting its third Winter Games, but preparations have been plagued by cost overruns and construction setbacks.
Organizers say there’s plenty for fans to look forward to: a program featuring 116 medal events, the debut of ski mountaineer-
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Emmanuel (Manny) Zayas
ing, higher female participation and the return of NHL players to Olympic hockey.
After a short tour of Greece and a handover on Dec. 4, the ame will begin a 63-day, 12,000-kilometer relay through all 110 Italian provinces, highlighting cultural sites and host venues before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony.
“Over the next few weeks, the Olympic ame will pass through all the Italian provinces, 60 cities, 300 towns, 20 regions and all the UNESCO sites. It will travel from the northern peaks to the southern shores,” said Giovanni Malago, head of the Milan Cortina Organizing Committee. Speakers at Wednesday’s ceremony urged world leaders to recognize the spirit of the Olympic Truce — an ancient Greek tradition pausing con icts during the games to allow safe participation.
“Today humanity is going through a time of multiple and parallel crises. Wars proliferate from Europe to the Middle East and from Asia to Africa. So we should honestly admit that a so-
ciety at war is a failed society,” the mayor of Ancient Olympia, Aristidis Panayiotopoulos, said. “The ame allows us to again recall the values that guide humanity, values that were born and forged here.”
Despite moving indoors, the ceremony retained its traditional elements: sculptural dance gestures by performers dressed as priestesses and male kouroi, and invocations in Greek to the ancient gods. Artemis Ignatiou, the ceremony’s artistic director, said the team had prepared for the possibility of bad weather and that, despite the setback, “we gained something special: the energy of the museum and the archaeological space itself.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, Ignatiou said dancing among the statues “gave the ceremony a timeless feeling.”
A separate ame for the March 6–15 Winter Paralympics will be lit Feb. 24 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.
Winston-Salem, Special Olympic competitions
Manny Zayas is a Winston-Salem area resident and a Special Olympics veteran.
Zayas has competed in the Special Olympics for Team Forsyth County for more than a decade and has won multiple medals, including several for roller skate racing at various distances.
In the recent in Special Olympics North Carolina Fall Tournament, held in Charlotte, Zayas took home a gold medal in the Softball Individual Skills Contest.
College football mascots just as good at keeping their identities secret as ring up a crowd
Schools keep the person under the suit a secret, often until graduation
By Mike Householder
The Associated Press
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Ross Ramsey enjoys spending time with fellow alums at Michigan State football tailgates.
These aren’t just any old former Spartans, though.
They were Sparty himself — something few knew when Ramsey and his pals donned the muscular mascot suit two decades ago.
“Once you are done being Sparty, you can tell others that you were Sparty,” said Ramsey, a physician and hospital administrator in Pigeon, Michigan. “And clearly you have a close bond with those others who were in the same role as you, because they couldn’t share that experience with anyone else at the time, either.”
Ramsey and his buddies are members of an elite fellowship of ex-mascots. Men and women who once carried on as Big Al, Alabama’s lovable elephant; the Disney-inspired Oregon Duck; Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger and many more. We’re talking humans in suits, not live animal mascots, which also are xtures on college football Saturdays.
The job for costumed mascots is to re up the crowd, bring a smile to a fan’s face and symbolically represent the university.
“When you think of Michigan State, you think of Sparty. And everybody knows what the mascot is,” said Phil Lator, another former Sparty who joins Ramsey at the tailgates and also successfully concealed his alter ego during
his tenure in East Lansing. Anonymity is the name of the game for many college mascots.
“Some programs value secrecy so highly that multiple performers report to the stadium but only learn in the moment who will actually be suiting up,” said Je Birdsell, a communication professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Birdsell has experience in these matters, having served as Point Loma’s mascot as an undergrad, as well as inhabiting suits for minor league baseball, NBA G League and indoor soccer teams.
“Some schools have traditions where they work hard to keep the performers anonymous so that there can be a big reveal as part of graduation ceremonies,” he said.
Enter Nicole Hurley, who came clean about her Cocky past at South Carolina’s spring commencement, rolling into the arena wearing her cap, gown and oversized yellow bird feet of the bird mascot.
“When I walked across the stage, I felt so much joy. The whole arena started to clap and cheer, and it made me emotional,” said Hurley, a pediatric he-
matology oncology nurse in Charleston, South Carolina. Only Hurley’s roommates and parents knew about her second life.
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics and created excuses when I was not free on the weekends due to working private events,” Hurley said.
“When people I know would come up to take a photo with me when I was Cocky and they had no idea I was the one under the suit was the craziest feeling.”
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics”
Nicole Hurley, former Cocky the Gamecock
Carlos Polanco-Zaccardi, whose years inside Miami’s Sebastian the Ibis costume were known only to a select few, also became pro cient at hiding his true identity. The 2025 graduate of the “U” toted his bird get-up around campus in an enormous du el bag. When confronted, Polanco-Zaccardi would supply a white lie depending on the questioner.
“For my friends, I told them that I was one of the party performers on stilts that perform at weddings, bar mitzvahs and birthday parties,” he said.
Like the Michigan State guys, Hurley and Polanco-Zaccardi, costumed performers at the collegiate level almost always are students.
That intense school pride doesn’t go away for many ex-mascots, long after they’ve stopped wearing the fur. Just ask Scott Ferry, another Sparty alum and tailgate regular whose passion for the green-and-white hasn’t ebbed.
“The spirit of the university is critical,” said Ferry, who these days owns and operates a farm and meat-processing facility an hour south of campus. “We don’t want to just be an individual. We want to be the icon of the university at all times.”
COURTESY SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTH CAROLINA
THANASSIS STAVRAKIS / AP PHOTO
Actress Mary Mina, right, playing the role of high priestess, passes the Olympic ame to the rst torchbearer, Greek rower Petros Gaidatzis, during the ame lighting ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
WILFREDO LEE / AP PHOTO
Miami mascot Sebastian the Ibis leads the team onto the eld before the start of a game.
MARTINA HURLEY VIA AP
Nicole Hurley poses for a photo on the day of University of South Carolina’s commencement ceremony, wearing her cap, gown and Cocky the mascot feet.
SIDELINE REPORT
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Coach who went missing before undefeated team’s playo game wanted on criminal charges
Big Stone Gap, Va. Virginia State Police say a high school football coach who disappeared days ago before his undefeated team’s playo game is being sought on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material and using a computer to solicit a minor. Police say warrants were obtained for 46-year-old Travis Turner, of Appalachia, Virginia. They say the Union High School coach has been missing since last Thursday, when agents headed to his home not to arrest him but as part of an investigation, but learned he was no longer there. They say the search nearby has included drones, dogs and rescue teams.
MLB Ohtani announces he will play for Japan in next year’s World Baseball Classic
Los Angeles Shohei Ohtani plans to play for Japan in next year’s World Baseball Classic. The two-way Los Angeles Dodgers star made the announcement on social media. Ohtani helped Japan win the 2023 WBC, striking out then-Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout for the nal out of the championship game against the United States. He was named MVP of the tournament. Ohtani won his fourth MVP award this month, shortly after he helped the Dodgers win their second straight World Series title. He did not specify whether he plans to pitch for Japan in the WBC, which begins March 5.
NCAA FOOTBALL
Briles hired by Eastern New Mexico, 9 years after Baylor red him amid scandal
Portales, N.M.
Art Briles was hired as football coach at Eastern New Mexico, getting his rst college head coaching job since Baylor red the two-time Big 12 champion more than nine years ago amid a sexual assault scandal. An NCAA infractions report ve years later ripped him for failing to look into horri c and potentially criminal allegations against his players, but he wasn’t found guilty of any NCAA violations. Briles turns 70 next month. He was o ensive coordinator at Grambling State for less than a week in 2022, and Southern Miss administrators vetoed an attempt to hire Briles as OC.
WNBA
Clark, Reese, Bueckers to make U.S. national team camp debuts
Durham Caitlin Clark will make her USA Basketball national team camp debut when the Americans get together at Duke this month. The Indiana Fever Al-Star had been invited to camps while she was in college at Iowa, but the timing didn’t work out. She’ll be there alongside rst-timers Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, Cameron Brink, Sonia Citron, Veronica Burton, Kiki Iriafen and Rickea Jackson. College players Lauren Betts of UCLA and JuJu Watkins of Southern California are also invited.
What do an axe, bucket, cannon have in common? Meet college football’s beloved rivalry trophies
The weird assortment of objects has a long, emotional history
By Dave Campbell The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — The most-played series in major college football history, the bitter border-state rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin, is punctuated each year with a postgame ritual.
The victors sprint toward Paul Bunyan’s Axe, take turns hoisting the 6-foot shaft above their heads as they parade it around the stadium, and pretend to chop down one of the goal posts. The axe has been awarded annually since 1948.
There’s hardly a richer — or quirkier — tradition in college football than rivalry trophies.
“It’s a way for a community — certainly the students, alumni, fans and faculty, but even more casual fans — to get revved up for a football game,” said Christian Anderson, a University of South Carolina professor whose research focus is on the history of higher education. “There are a lot of people who may not pay attention the whole season, and then the rivalry game comes and they’re a passionate fan for one Saturday.”
Longtime members of the Big Ten boast perhaps the richest history of these one-of-akind prizes. The Little Brown Jug, which is neither little nor brown, dates to the Michigan-Minnesota game in 1903. Wolverines coach Fielding Yost, out of fear the Gophers might tamper with their water, had a student manager buy a jug for the team. After a brutal struggle ended in a tie as Minnesota fans stormed the eld, the container was left behind. The Gophers formally returned it after the Wolverines won the next meeting in 1909.
Minnesota fared better at the beginning with Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig named after the state’s governor, who suggested the trophy to his Iowa counterpart in 1935.
Indiana faces Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket, found in disrepair on a local farm in 1925 with the belief it might
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals.”
Professor Christian Anderson
have been used by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Indiana and Michigan State have competed since 1950 for the Old Brass Spittoon. Illinois and Ohio State have played for a century for the Illibuck Trophy, now a wooden turtle after an ill-fated attempt to award the real thing — a 16-pound snapper. Michigan and Michigan State have fought since 1953 for annual ownership of the Paul Bunyan Trophy, a 4-foot wooden statue of the mythical lumberjack.
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals,” Anderson said. “Maybe we only keep it for a year because it’s a
traveling trophy, but next time we’re going back to get it if we didn’t win it.”
The NCAA certi ed the Territorial Cup played for by Arizona and Arizona State as the oldest known rivalry trophy, awarded after their rst meeting in 1899. It was missing for decades until its rediscovery in a storage area of a church near the ASU campus in 1983.
Nevada and UNLV play for the Fremont Cannon, a 545-pound replica of the cannon the explorer of the same name abandoned in a snowstorm during his trek through the state in 1844.
Notre Dame and USC have the Jewelled Shillelagh, a wooden symbol of a traditional Gaelic war club that was rst presented in 1952.
California and Stanford play for an axe, too, awarded since 1933. Kentucky and Tennessee battle for a beer barrel.
When Mississippi fans
stormed Mississippi State’s eld after a Rebels win in 1926, MSU supporters balked and brawls broke out. To help restore dignity to the rivalry the following year, the student bodies from both schools introduced the Golden Egg, a gold-plated football mounted on a pedestal. Fortunately, the egg never gets too close to Dallas-Fort Worth, where SMU and TCU have played for the Iron Skillet since 1946.
The Slab of Bacon is safely away from the skillet, too.
That was the rst version of the Minnesota-Wisconsin hardware, a wooden slab that went missing in 1943 after the planned exchange following a Gophers victory never took place.
A summer storage cleanout project in Madison in 1994 turned up the trophy, which Wisconsin has since kept on display.
Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki nears pinnacle of Japan’s national sport
The 21-year-old has been named ozeki, the second-highest rating
By Stephen Wade The Associated Press
TOKYO — Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki is only 21 but has moved just one step from the top rank of Japan’s national sport.
In an elaborate ceremony last week, he was promoted by the Japan Sumo Association to the rank of ozeki, the rung just below the top.
Only two now hold the top rank of yokozuna — grand champion in English: Japanese Onosato and Mongolia-born Hoshoryu.
“I’m happy, but I feel more strongly about working harder from now on,” Aonishiki said last Wednesday after the ceremony. “There is a higher rank, and that’s my next goal.”
Sumo’s new rising star, who wrestles under the ring name of Aonishiki Arata, was born Danilo Yavhushyshyn in west central Ukraine and has identied his hometown as Vinnytsia. He moved to Japan after Russia invaded Ukraine just over 31⁄2 years ago, the byproduct of a friendship he had made a few years earlier with a Japanese wrestler at a tournament. Japanese media identi-
es him as being the quickest — he’s wrestled only 14 tournaments — to reach the ozeki rank since 1958 when the present tournament scheduling system was installed.
The promotion was inevitable after he won a prestigious tournament on Sunday in western Japan. He defeated Hoshoryu in the deciding match.
He explained earlier that his parents ed to Germany after the invasion and said they are living safely. He said he called them after the big tournament on Sunday and praised them for allowing him to pursue his
interests. He said his mother cried on the phone call. He was told his father did too, but tried to hide it.
“They never scolded me even when I didn’t do well in studies, as they believed in letting me do what I liked to do,” he said last week.
Aonishiki is small by sumo standards. He weighs in the 125 to 135 kilogram range — (between 275 to 300 pounds).
This is slight in sumo — in the range of an NFL lineman — since many wrestlers weigh at least 150 kilograms (330 pounds) and some much more. Sumo experts in Japan say
“I
have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Aonishiki
his success comes from keeping a low body position. He can bench press 210 kilograms (460 pounds) — about 50% more than his body weight.
“I need to be stronger all around,” he said. “I have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Non-Japanese sumo wrestlers have excelled in di erent periods in Japan. They have included Mongolians, Hawaiians and now Ukrainians. A second Ukrainian, Shishi Masaru, is also a highly ranked wrestler in Japan.
Ukraine has a very strong tradition in Olympic wrestling. Its last gold-medal winner was Zhan Beleniuk in the Greco-Roman category at the Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021 by the pandemic.
Aonishiki has endeared himself to the Japanese public with his uent command of their language. He said he arrived speaking no Japanese, but picked it up quickly living only with Japanese wrestlers in the sport’s tightly controlled environment.
KYODO NEWS VIA AP
Ukrainian Aonishiki, left, receives a trophy after winning the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka in western Japan.
STACY BENGS / AP PHOTO
Wisconsin players hold up Paul Bunyan’s Axe up after a win over Minnesota.
the stream
George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Zac
Brown Band, Michelle Pfei
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds drop “Live God”
The Associated Press
GEORGE CLOONEY playing a dashing movie star with nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” and Zac Brown Band returning with fresh tunes are some of the new television, lms, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also, among the streaming o erings worth your time this week: The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+, Net ix has the American Western series “The Abandons” with women at the center of its story, and Nintendo’s Samus Aran returns with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
MOVIES TO STREAM
Clooney plays a dashing movie star with new nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” (Net ix on Friday), Noah Baumbach’s comic drama about fame and family. As Jay’s youngest daughter (Grace Edwards) prepares for college, a trip to Europe turns into a deeper self-examination. With Adam Sandler as Jay’s long-su ering manager and Laura Dern his publicist. In his review, the AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that “reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+ on Thursday. The Tom Cruise adventure, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, concludes the chapter begun with 2023’s “Dead Reckoning Part One.” Whether dead or nal, a reckoning may be in order for the eight- lm Ethan Hunt franchise. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote: “In a series that has often been best when it’s not taking itself too seriously, dour developments start to feel a little unintentionally silly.”
The Christmas movies cometh. One of the rst out of the gate this year is “Oh. What. Fun.” (Now on Prime Video). Michelle Pfei er stars as a matriarch who, after years
er
“Reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
Mark Kennedy, AP Film Writer
of handling all the season’s festivities for an ungrateful family, goes missing. Michael Showalter directs a cast including Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary and Dominic Sessa.
MUSIC TO STREAM
Zac Brown Band re ects on life’s highs and lows on their new album, “Love & Fear,” out Friday. Some of the singles out so far include the Jimmy Buffett-like “I Ain’t Worried About It,” the weed-friendly “Let It Run” with Snoop Dogg, the
sweet ballad “Butter y” with Dolly Parton” and the anthemic party banger “Give It Away.” Perhaps the best of the bunch is “Hard Run” featuring Mar-
cus King, starting quietly with a twang, building to harmonies and some funk, adding a touch of Broadway and then someery guitar work. The band is
making a splash with the album’s drop date, performing at the Sphere in Las Vegas and kicking o several nights there in December and January.
If you adored Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds last album “Wild God,” here’s some good news: The alternative rock legend and his formidable band is releasing “Live God,” which includes live versions from the album, as well as catalog favorites such as “From Her to Eternity,” “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” and “Into My Arms.” And if you just can’t get enough of Cave, there’s more: The Royal Danish Library has put its “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition” online, allowing fans to explore 300 objects collected or created by Cave during his career.
SERIES TO STREAM
“The Abandons,” a new American Western series comes to Net ix with women at the center of its story. Taking place in the 1850s, Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey star as two widowed women who are the heads of their household and who are ghting over land. Kurt Sutter, who created “Sons of Anarchy,” is behind this one. Nick Robinson and Aisling Franciosi also star. It debuts Thursday.
Starz has a new “Spartacus” series out Friday called “Spartacus: House of Ashur.” Nick E. Tarabay reprises his role as Ashur from “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” and “Spartacus: Vengeance,” which explores what may have happened if the character had survived the events of “Vengeance” instead of being killed. This series also features a woman in a powerful role. Tenika Davis plays a female gladiator.
VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
Fans of Nintendo’s Samus Aran have been waiting a long time for the spacefaring bounty hunter to return to the 3D world of Metroid Prime. At long last, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is here — but it remains to be seen if Samus’ years in limbo have made her stronger. She has landed on a jungle planet lled with hostile wildlife, and another bounty hunter is in hot pursuit. In addition to her usual high-tech arsenal, Samus has gained some psychic powers — not to mention a wicked motorcycle. Can this long-delayed sequel live up to its beloved predecessors? Find out Thursday on Switch and Switch 2.
PETER MOUNTAIN / NETFLIX VIA AP
George Clooney stars in the comic drama “Jay Kelly.”
CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO
Tenika Davis poses for a portrait to promote “Spartacus: House of Ashur” during Comic-Con International in 2025 in San Diego. The series premieres Friday on Starz.
VIANNEY LE CAER / INVISION / AP PHOTO
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will release live versions of songs from their acclaimed album “Wild God” on the upcoming collection “Live God.”
STATE & NATION
Melania Trump reveals White House Christmas decorations
This year’s theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is”
By Darlene Superville The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Melania Trump on Monday unveiled the holiday decorations for her family’s rst Christmas back at the White House and her theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is.”
The decor also nods to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and founding of the United States of America.
Several dozen volunteer decorators from across the country helped deck the halls of the executive mansion with 75 wreaths, 51 Christmas trees, more than 700 feet of garland, more than 2,000 strands of lights, over 25,000 feet of ribbon, over 2,800 gold stars, more than 10,000 butter ies and 120 pounds of gingerbread.
A few things are di erent because President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing to build a ballroom he’s long desired.
This year, the o cial White House Christmas tree, which is always on display in the Blue Room, also honors Gold Star families, those that lost a member during active-duty military service.
120
That tree was an East Wing xture and the rst one visitors encountered after they entered through those doors, but the building and a covered walkway, or colonnade, connecting it to the White House were demolished by Trump in October as part of his ballroom plan.
Public tours, which had been suspended because of the construction, were set to resume Tuesday but with a shorter route limited to just the State Floor, which includes the East Room; the Green, Blue and Red Rooms; the State Dining Room; the Cross Hall; and the Grand Foyer.
The Library and the Vermeil and China Rooms on the Ground Floor — one level below the State Floor — were cut from the tour route because of the construction.
The White House expects tens of thousands of visitors for holiday tours, receptions and parties before Christmas. Visitors will now enter through the North Portico doors on Pennsylvania Avenue using a new,
semipermanent walkway and entrance.
A statement from the White House said Christmas is a time to celebrate what makes the U.S. exceptional and that while every home has its own traditions, shared values unite Americans.
“In every community, we are lifted by simple acts of kindness that re ect the enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism, and gratitude,” the statement said. “These moments remind us that the heart of America is strong and that Home Is Where The Heart Is.”
Planning for the holidays starts months in advance, and the White House said Melania Trump chose every detail of the decor.
Trees in the East Room are trimmed in patriotic red, white and blue and national symbols, including golden eagle tree toppers, to highlight the coming America250 national celebration.
The o cial White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room is decorated with gold stars honoring families that lost a member in the line of active-duty military service. The o cial tree traditionally recognizes each state and territory and this year’s r is decorated with ornaments showcasing the o cial bird and ower of each.
The Green Room celebrates family fun, featuring large portraits of the rst and the current
presidents, George Washington and Donald Trump, respectively, each made from more than 6,000 Lego puzzle pieces.
Thousands of blue butter ies decorate the Red Room and its tree in a celebration of young people and in tribute to Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future initiative, which is part of her Be Best child-focused initiative, to support people who have been in foster care.
A holiday highlight, the gingerbread White House on display in the State Dining Room shows o the mansion’s South Portico and o ers a special glimpse into the Yellow Oval Room, a sitting room o the Truman Balco-
ny in the president’s private living quarters on the second oor.
It was made using 120 pounds of gingerbread, 100 pounds of pastillage, a sugar-based modeling paste; over 10 pounds of chocolate and 5 pounds of royal icing.
Part of the White House creche is on display in the Grand Foyer while the rest of it is undergoing a restoration overseen by the curator’s o ce.
Most of the tree trimming and hall decking was done after the Trumps decamped to their Florida home early last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. They returned to the White House on Sunday.
PHOTOS BY EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO
Dozens of trees, thousands of lights and more than ve miles of ribbon make up the enormous White House holiday display.
Pounds of gingerbread in the edible White House
Randolph record
K&W closes suddenly
A sign on the door of K&W Cafeteria in Greensboro announces the chain’s permanent closure. K&W, the Winston-Salem-based cafeteria that had been serving Southern comfort food since 1937, abruptly closed all nine remaining locations on Dec. 1. The company had 28 locations before the pandemic but led for bankruptcy in 2020 and was later acquired by Piccadilly Restaurants. More than 300 employees lost their jobs, and no reason was given for the sudden closure.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Dells donate $6.25B to encourage families to claim “Trump Accounts”
Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged a historic $6.25 billion on Tuesday to provide an incentive to families to adopt new investment accounts for children. The so-called “Trump Accounts” were created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation but have not yet launched. Through their gift, the Dells will deposit $250 into the investment accounts of 25 million children aged 10 and younger as an incentive for their families to claim the accounts and make investments in the stock market.
Doctor says Trump had screening MRI with “perfectly normal” results
Donald Trump’s doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age. That’s according to a memo from the physician released by the White House on Monday. Sean Barbabella said in a statement that Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group. Barbabella concluded that the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was “perfectly normal.”
County to upgrade voting equipment
The new machines are updated versions of what the county has already been using
By Ryan Henkel Randolph Record
ASHEBORO — Darrell Frye was again reelected as the chairman of the Randolph County Board of Commissioners when the group met Monday for its regular business meeting.
Kenny Kidd was reelected as vice chairman.
“We do have lots of issues that are in front of us, but we also have some good things that are going on in our county,” Frye said. “It’s a great county, a good place to live and raise our children and be a part of that process. I thank you for your con dence and look forward to serving the citizens of this county.”
Frye has served as a Randolph County commission-
er since being rst elected in 1982.
The board then approved the purchase of new voting equipment from Elections Systems and Software.
“The legislature passed a bill that came into e ect in January, and that essentially made a lot of changes in our absentee voting processes, our provisional processes and due dates,” said Melissa Kirstner, county elections director. “Part of the changes were to move up and speed up the timing of getting our results out on election night. So now we have to do things faster than ever before.”
The equipment, which is just newer versions of what the county is already using, will cost just under $330,000 for 32 new voting tabulators, ballot boxes, high-speed counters and software.
The funding for the upgrades were already allocated in the current year’s budget
“This is going to give us a seamless voting system that all
works well together,” Kirstner said.
Kirstner said the old equipment will be traded back to the company for a $34,000 discount on the new equipment.
The board also held a public hearing for potentially supporting an economic development project in the Town of Ramseur.
Earth Retention Industries, a company specializing in the design and supply of retaining wall solutions, acquired property in Ramseur and is looking to repurpose an existing building to establish a manufacturing operation in the county.
“The company is committed to an investment of at least $350,000 in building renovations, making the project eligible to apply for a North Carolina Commerce Building Reuse Grant of $175,000,” said Crystal Gettys, Randolph County Economic Development Corporation business recruitment director. “The total investment in renovations, machin-
Company expands to Asheboro, expects to bring 300 jobs
The former location of a major furniture company will be the site used
Randolph Record sta
ASHEBORO — Environmental Air Systems, headquartered in High Point, selected Asheboro as a site for a major expansion of its structural assembly operations, potentially bringing 300 new jobs to Randolph County. This expansion supports the Specialized Volumetric Modular Industry, which serves markets including pharmaceutical, data, and semiconductor sectors.
Environmental Air Systems delivers infrastructure solutions by integrating mechani-
cal, electrical and building automation system design. By combining design-assist services, o -site manufacturing and on-site construction, EAS ensures seamless project execution from concept through completion.
The company chose Asheboro due to workforce availability, nancial viability and strategic speed-to-market advantages, according to information in the announcement.
“Our EAS Leadership team is proud and honored to join the Asheboro community and support its families,” EAS president Allen Absher said in a statement. “We are looking forward to bringing industry back to a fantastic community that has lost several key industry partners over the past few years.”
The company will lease the former Klaussner Furniture facilities at 4402 U.S. 200 South in Asheboro, now owned by Schwarz Properties, and plans to invest at least $20 million in building renovations, machinery and equipment. New jobs will pay average annual wages of $55,133, the company said. Environmental Air Systems quali ed for an incentives package that includes:
• $3.289 million from a Job Development Investment Grant.
• $500,000 from a Building Reuse Grant (application approval pending).
• $506,000 in local incentives across ve years, split between Randolph County ($209,000), City of Asheboro ($297,000)
ery and equipment is likely to well exceed the $350,000 committed.”
Gettys said the company is also committed to creating 22 new jobs that will pay $57,048 as an average annual wage, exceeding the county’s average wage of $49,355. In total, those new jobs will amount to around $1.2 million in new annual payroll in Ramseur
Following the hearing, the board approved a $4,375 local match for the application of a building reuse grant.
“The EDC believes that Earth Retention Industries project is a good economic development project for the Town of Ramseur, increasing the value of the building, generating investment in new machinery and equipment and resulting in the creation of 22 new jobs above our average pay,” Gettys said.
The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet Jan. 5.
“This project is another great example of the City of Asheboro working with our partners and the private sector to support job creation and encourage signi cant investment in Randolph County,” said David Smith, whose term as Asheboro’s mayor ends this month. “It is important to keep in mind that this project was not guaranteed to happen here. There were other jurisdictions that wanted to be making this announcement but due to our relationships, we were able to bring it and the bene ts to our community.”
Darrell Frye, chair of the Randolph County Board of Commissioners, said EAS has a proven track record in the region.
The Randolph County Economic Development Corporation worked in conjunction with Asheboro and Randolph County on this project. Among other groups listed as involved was Randolph Community College.
DAN REEVES / RANDOLPH RECORD
THURSDAY
North State Journal
(USPS 20451) (ISSN 2471-1365)
Randolph Record (ISSN 2768-5268)
Trip Ho end, Publisher
Jim Sills, VP of Local Newspapers
Cory Lavalette, Senior Editor
Jordan Golson, Local News Editor
Shawn Krest, Sports Editor
Dan Reeves, Features Editor
Lauren Rose, Design Editor
Bob Sutton, Randolph Editor
Ryan Henkel, Reporter
P.J. Ward-Brown, Photographer
BUSINESS David Guy, Advertising Manager
County residents face charges in sex-crime sweep
The Invictus Task Force involved multiple agencies in a special operation
Randolph Record sta SEVERAL RANDOLPH County residents face charges as part of wide-sweeping law enforcement e ort that resulted in nearly two dozen arrests on sex-crime related charges.
The multijurisdiction Invictus Task Force worked as part of a 12-day sting operation in October. Charges were announced in mid-November. The operation involved identifying child predators and in-
CRIME LOG
Nov. 24
• Jason Everhart, 51, of Archdale, was arrested by Archdale PD for possession of methamphetamine, possession of stolen rearm, tra cking in methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a rearm by felon.
• Lindsay Scarbrough Buckley, 39, of Sophia, was arrested by Archdale PD for maintaining a vehicle/ dwelling/place for controlled substance, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
POSTMASTER:
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• Bobby Jones, 45, of Asheboro, was arrested by RCSO for assault in icting physical injury on law enforcement/ probation/parole o cer, injury to personal property, resisting a public o cer, assault with a deadly weapon with minor present, simple assault and
THURSDAY DEC. 4
FRIDAY DEC. 5
SATURDAY DEC. 6
SUNDAY DEC. 7
MONDAY DEC. 8
TUESDAY DEC. 9
WEDNESDAY DEC. 10
dividuals who’ve shared child pornography online.
The multicounty operation was dubbed Operation Ghost Wire.
Among those arrested from Randolph County was Jacob Dylan Tally, who was charged with 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation. Tally’s bond was set at $1 million.
As part of the investigation, compliance checks resulted in previously convicted sex o enders for the following violations:
• Ervin Blankenship of Asheboro was charged with three counts of failure to register online identi ers and placed under a $300,000 bond.
communicating threats.
Nov. 25
• William Clontz, 53, of Liberty, was arrested by Liberty PD for misdemeanor breaking and entering.
• Timothy Harris, 36, of Seagrove, was arrested by Asheboro PD for simple possession of Schedule II controlled substance, simple possession of Schedule IV controlled substance, possession of marijuana paraphernalia and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Nov. 26
• Timothy Harris, 36, of Seagrove, was arrested by RCSO for possession of controlled substance on prison/jail premises.
Nov. 27
• Kevin Alston, 48, of Ramseur, was arrested by
• Devin Wayne Clark of Randolph County was charged with illegal possession of a rearm by a previously convicted felon and placed under a $15,000 bond.
• Logan James Conley of Archdale was charged with failure to register online identi ers and placed under a $250,000 bond. The law enforcement approach, according to police authorities, involved undercover o cers going online and posing as children. There were also tips received through the Center for Missing and Exploited Children to identify people tra cking child pornography online.
RCSO for resisting a public o cer, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession with intent to manufacture/sell/ deliver Schedule I controlled substance, possession with intent to manufacture/sell/ deliver Schedule II controlled substance and possession with intent to manufacture/sell/ deliver cocaine.
• Leigh Locklear, 36, of Asheboro, was arrested by RCSO for breaking and entering a motor vehicle, felony possession of Schedule II controlled substance and resisting a public o cer.
Nov. 28
• David Brown, 55, of Durham, was arrested by Asheboro PD for misdemeanor larceny, possession of stolen property, breaking and entering, simple possession of Schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
NCWRC warns against taming deer after attacks across state
Multiple people have been hospitalized, and a dog was killed by deer raised or regularly fed by humans
North State Journal sta
RALEIGH — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) is warning residents who attempts to tame or domesticate deer can have dangerous consequences, following multiple attacks across the state this year.
Incidents involving deer attacking people or dogs have been reported in Rockingham, Randolph, Wilkes, Onslow, Iredell and Cherokee counties. Most involved deer that had been regularly fed by residents or illegally raised by humans.
On Nov. 6, a 70-year-old Wilkes County woman was hospitalized after being gored by the antlers of a male deer near her mailbox. On Oct. 21, a woman in Onslow County was attacked by a 3½-year-old buck that had been illegally raised as a fawn by an acquaintance, su ering a puncture wound to her shoulder and neck along
In March, a Cherokee Coun-
“A male fawn that is treated like a pet can become a danger as an adult when hormones surge during mating season.”
April Boggs Pope, NCWRC
ty man was treated at an urgent care facility for a lip laceration after being attacked by a neighbor’s alleged pet deer while gardening. More recently, a deer being fed by residents in an Iredell County subdivision killed a dog.
“Deer that lose their fear of humans can act in abnormal ways,” said April Boggs Pope, a deer biologist with the commission. “That male deer that seemed ne or friendly during the rest of the year can become dangerously aggressive during the rut. A male fawn that is treated like a pet can become a danger as an adult when hormones surge during mating season. Deer antlers and hooves can in ict serious injuries.”
In North Carolina, it is unlawful to hold a wild animal in captivity as a pet. Only licensed wildlife rehabilitators
are permitted to rehabilitate fawns.
While feeding deer is not illegal in most areas, the commission advises against hand-feeding or conditioning deer to approach people. Baiting and feeding is prohibited between Jan. 2 and Aug. 31 in Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Areas.
“Attempting to domesticate a wild deer creates safety concerns for people, and it rarely ends well for the deer,” said Colleen Olfenbuttel, the commission’s game mammals and surveys supervisor. “People trying to tame wild deer may think they are doing the deer a favor, but they are putting the deer at higher risk of malnourishment and poor health, as the arti cial foods provided by residents don’t contain the diverse nutrition needed by wild deer.”
Deer that attack people are typically euthanized, and Olfenbuttel noted that victims are often innocent bystanders rather than those who fed or tamed the deer. Residents can contact the commission’s Wildlife Helpline at 866-318-2401 to report someone illegally housing deer or for guidance on human-deer con icts.
Randolph Guide
Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in Randolph County:
Dec.
4
“Oklahoma!”
The Randolph Youth Theatre Company presents the classic musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. For more information, visit RYTC.org.
Sunset Theatre 234 Sunset Ave. Asheboro
Dec. 5
Asheboro Christmas Parade
7 p.m.
The town’s annual Christmas parade will be celebrated with a number of oat entries, musical performances and contributions from local businesses and chorus groups.
135 Sunset Ave. Asheboro
Dec. 6
Petty’s Garage Christmas Cruise-In
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This cruise-in and car show is open to all makes and models of cars. No preregistration required. Visitors will also be able to tour the Pettys’ Garage & Museum. Photos with Santa and various vendor opportunities will also be on-site.
311 Branson Mill Road Randleman
Archdale Community Christmas 4-8 p.m.
Tons of yuletide celebrations are packed into this community gathering: a tree lighting, live nativity, visits with Santa, ice skating, a petting zoo, rides, and vendors with food and drinks. Creekside Park 214 Park Drive Archdale
Dec.
8
Just a Christmas Evening: The Sequel 7 p.m.
This is a special holiday song concert featuring Jace Burroughs. Tickets can be purchased at J. Brewer & Co. (323 N.C. Highway 49) or by calling 336-302-7197. A portion of all proceeds supports the Ronald McDonald House.
Sunset Theatre 234 Sunset Ave. Asheboro
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end,
publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
Marjorie Taylor Greene embodies the inanity of populism
Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
DURING A RECENT stop on her image rehab tour, Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN’s Dana Bash that she is sorry “for taking part in the toxic politics.” It has been, she added, “bad for the country.” A week later, Greene nally did something patriotic by announcing her retirement.
It’s fair to say Greene is one of the most well-known GOP House members in the nation. Greene, though, is famous because her nitwittery has been endlessly highlighted by the media and Democrats to cast the Republican Party as one of hayseeds and conspiracists.
And, in all fairness, Greene might be one of the biggest ignoramuses to ever serve in Congress, which is no small achievement when one considers the “Squad” exists. If I asked you to name a single piece of legislation Greene has sponsored, you would probably be at a loss. If I asked you to name an important policy she has championed, an uplifting speech she has delivered or an area of expertise she has mastered, you would not think of any because there have been none.
Once the president reportedly dissuaded her from running for higher o ce in Georgia, Greene’s loyalty dissipated. Scorned, she became rudderless and useless. There is nothing left for her because there was not much there to begin with.
Donald Trump has contended that Greene went “BAD” and became a “ranting lunatic.” This is wrong. She has always been a ranting lunatic and an early adopter of the unhinged conspiratorial notions that have now infected so much of the populist right.
“I was a victim, just like you were, of media
lies and stu you read on social media,” Greene appealed to the women on “The View” when confronted with her past. It’s undeniable that the (well-earned) collapse of trust in both media and experts has created a vacuum that’s now lled by a horde of hucksters.
Victims such as Greene are easy marks for online con artists and propagandists because they lack a substantive belief system, organizing principles, coherent worldviews or historical perspective to repel conspiracies. Asking questions can be an admirable quality of an inquisitive mind. Asking questions such as “Are space-based solar lasers built by the Rothschilds starting California wild res?” makes you a paranoid dolt.
Greene, of course, was in on the Pizzagate and QAnon stu from the beginning. She suggested that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas may have been staged by gun control activists and questioned whether the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a “massive false ag.” You would be hard-pressed to nd a conspiracy on the “right” that she did not entertain.
Let us also not forget that Greene was one of the rst — and only — elected o cials to cozy up to the Groypers who are being normalized by the online NatCon Right. Greene spoke at a 2022 white nationalist junior varsity jamboree in Florida held by Tucker Carlson’s friend Nick Fuentes, who believes that Jews are “race traitors,” denies the Holocaust happened and believes segregation was bene cial for black Americans.
Florida’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood just the beginning
Abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam.
THIS MONTH, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmier led a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for false advertising.
Not over a billing dispute or a sloppy ad claim. Instead, the country’s largest abortion provider has been telling women that its “product” — speci cally the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — is “as safe as taking a Tylenol.”
The truth is far more serious.
As a Florida mother of four daughters, I’m relieved to see our state o cials recognize the increased risks of taking the abortion pill and the life that it ends inside the womb. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. Furthermore, the FDA should take note and remove its approval of all abortion drugs and review these risks in-depth for the safety of all women.
The Florida lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood’s campaign to induce women to purchase abortion drugs by misrepresenting the risks of chemical abortion violates the Florida law. The gross misrepresentation of a drug designed intentionally to take the life of a preborn child can be found on Planned Parenthood’s website, in printed materials, and in television advertisements. In fact, the organization claims that chemical abortion is “extremely safe” in all its descriptions.
However, the data suggests otherwise.
A recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims shows one in 10 women su er severe complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. We’re talking about things like hemorrhaging, infections or even sepsis, which can turn deadly fast. That’s 22 times higher than what the prescription label claims. Doesn’t sound like Tylenol to me.
Chemical abortion involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The rst pill
starves the developing baby; the second forces the mother’s body to deliver her dead child through hours of violent cramping and bleeding, often far worse than the “mild period” symptoms Planned Parenthood describes. Post-abortive testimonials say they were lied to, left alone on bathroom oors, terri ed and hemorrhaging, some permanently scarred or sterilized.
Planned Parenthood’s lies are a deliberate cover-up for the violence they knowingly in ict. By denying the scienti c fact that life begins at conception, they not only hurt women with these drugs but also take the innocent life in the womb. And abortion pill access is easier than ever, even in our pro-life state. Due to the Biden administration’s elimination of nearly all safeguards, abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam, ultrasound or follow-up care. Furthermore, there are no regulations governing where or to whom these pills are distributed. Women, many of them minors, are left alone to bleed out in their bathrooms, risking their health and future fertility, all while Planned Parenthood cashes in on another customer.
The Florida lawsuit is a crucial step in the process, but we can’t stop here. This ling should be a wake-up call to the FDA, acting as a catalyst for the new HHS leadership to nally review the abortion pill’s risks as promised. Planned Parenthood must be held fully accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. The FDA should immediately remove its approval of all abortion drugs and conduct a thorough, unbiased review for the safety of every mother and the protection of every child.
This bold action by Uthmeier builds on the courageous leadership of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Florida a national beacon for protecting preborn life over the past several years. From signing the 15-week protection in 2022 to boldly enacting
At the time, Greene pleaded ignorance of these positions, contending she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people. She never once confronted attendees to rethink their identitarian views, as she basked in their applause. Greene is either mind-bogglingly gullible or an ally. With her, both options are wholly plausible.
Let us be charitable and concede it’s the former. Greene is no less credulous these days as she tries to appeal to the left. She broke with Trump by falling for the Democrats’ scaremongering over Obamacare subsidies during the government shutdown. She bought the Gaza “genocide” hoax just like she bought into Pizzagate. A big proponent of releasing the Epstein “ les,” Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges. I’m often told that it’s “elitist” to mock these champions of average Americans. We need more “normal” people in Congress, they say. Absolutely. We have too many lawyers and professional activists running in Washington and far too few successful Americans who comprehend the real-world concerns of a diverse population. To say Greene is a normal American, however, is to contend that a normal American is an imbecile, which is not true. Indeed, there are millions of “average” Americans who are curious, smart, idealistic, capable and problem solvers. The representative of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District possesses none of those attributes. Greene’s resignation from Congress will take e ect on Jan. 6, 2026, exactly in time for a lifelong pension to kick in. Greene was unable to ful ll a two-year commitment to her constituents because her feelings were hurt. Despite enabling her twice, they should consider themselves lucky. We have always had embarrassingly low standards for electing o cials. But they are not often this low.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.
the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2023, banning abortion after six weeks when a baby’s heartbeat can already be detected, DeSantis has stood unapologetically for the most vulnerable among us. He fought tirelessly against the radical Amendment 4 last year, which would have stripped away nearly all protections for preborn children and allowed abortion on demand up to birth in many cases.
Thanks to DeSantis’ leadership and the e orts of pro-life Floridians, Amendment 4 was defeated, falling short of the required 60% even as the abortion industry poured millions into deceiving voters.
Yet the abortion lobby is still attempting a run-around of our laws by ooding Florida with mail-order pills and out-of-state telehealth prescriptions. Chemical abortion already accounts for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide. If we allow these dangerous drugs to ow unchecked into our state, we will undo everything Florida families have fought for.
That’s why this lawsuit matters. That’s why Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to reexamine the abortion pill’s risks matters. And that’s why we must keep pushing until these drugs are removed from the market entirely.
In his X post about the lawsuit, Uthmeier said, “We stand by our women.” But Planned Parenthood does not.
Here in the “Free State of Florida,” under leaders like DeSantis and Uthmeier, we will keep leading the nation by exposing the lies of the abortion industry, defending women and their innocent children, and fostering a culture of life because every human life from conception is sacred and deserves protection.
Kimberly Bird is a communications specialist at Live Action and lives in Florida with her husband and four children. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI
Russell Allen Gray
Sept. 14, 1952 –Nov. 23, 2025
Russell Allen Gray, age 73, of Sophia, passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday, November 23, 2025. He was born September 14, 1952, in Beckley, West Virginia, the son of the late Ruth Ellen Calhoun Gray and E.C. Allen Gray.
Surviving are his wife of 22 years, Janet Williamson Gray; sister, Shelma Hammond of Greensboro, NC; children like his own, James “Jim” Akines and wife Chelsea of Sophia, NC and Joshua Akines and wife Kylie of Sophia, NC; grandchildren, Timmy, Mia, Aaron, Cooper, Declan and Paisley; nieces, Victoria Coble and husband Shane and Catherine Goetz and husband Stefan; two great nieces, two great nephews; and many cousins.
Russell graduated from Randleman High School, followed by UNCG in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. He worked for Moses Cone brie y, then bought the family business, Sophia Sewing, which employed many from the community. Most of his career, Russell was a photographer, traveling the East coast for Glamour Photos, PCA, doing church directories and later school photography, which he retired from. Russell, a member of Sophia Baptist Church, served as a Deacon and Sunday school teacher for many years, along with other committees in the church. He joined the Greensboro Jaycees in 1978 and actively worked on projects across all areas. Junior Miss, he served as chairman and a judge throughout the years, and also the Kmart GGO to the Wyndham in gallery control. Russell was awarded the highest recognition possible with the US JCI Senate, which gave him lifetime membership internationally. Russ is now with his Lord and Savior, where he has no pain or sickness. To all his family and friends who know our Lord and Savior personally, this is not goodbye forever, just see you later. Russ will be missed by all his family, friends, and also his four-legged fur buddies, whom he loved and spoiled rotten.
A celebration of life will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at Sophia Baptist Church, 4082 Millikan Road, Sophia, NC 27350. The family will receive friends from 1-3 p.m. prior to the service at the church. Memorials may be made to the Non-Pro t Piedmont Triad Ambulance and Rescue (PTAR) or the Sophia Baptist Church Playground Fund.
Willie Keaton Williams
June 17, 1934 – Nov. 24, 2025
Willie Keaton Williams, age 91, a resident of Belhaven, died Monday, November 24, 2025, at her home.
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at 1 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church in Belhaven with Rev. Bob Hudak o ciating.
Willie was born on June 17, 1934, in Beaufort County to the late Benjamin F. and Harriet Wilson Keaton O’Neal. She was a retired educator.
Survivors include her husband, Carter S. Williams of the home, son, Myers Williams (Colleen) of Belhaven, and daughter, Catherine Tucker (John) of Bath.
Anyone wishing to make a memorial contribution in Willie’s name is asked to consider Gentiva Hospice, 222 Stewart Parkway, Suite 100, Washington, NC 27889, or St. James Episcopal Church, 545 East Main Street, Belhaven, NC 27810
Jerry Shelton
Sept. 26, 1952 –Nov. 26, 2025
Jerry Don Shelton, 73, of Asheboro, passed away on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m., Sunday, November 30, 2025, at Ridge Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Mike Woolard o ciating.
Born September 26, 1952, in Montgomery County, Mr. Shelton was the son of the late Robert Douglas and Nannie Ruth Batten Shelton. Mr. Shelton had a natural gift for music, playing almost any instrument, and a special love of the electric guitar. He found joy spending time at Carolina Beach and in the mountains, especially in Gatlinburg, TN. He was born with a good sense of humor, never missing a chance to make someone laugh. Beyond the humor and the music, Mr. Shelton was a dedicated and hardworking man.
In addition to his parents, Mr. Shelton was preceded in death by his daughter, Mandie Shelton, his grandson, Matthew Williams, and his sister, Cathy Ledwell.
He is survived by his wife, Sandra Shelton of the home; daughters, Krystal Johnson (Arthur) of Asheboro, Jennifer Jamison of Ft. Bragg; sisters, Sue Dorsey (Michael), Vicky Luck (Tommy) all of Asheboro; brother, Ronnie Shelton of Asheboro; grandchildren, Maggie Shelton (Brandon), Luke Williams, Zarek York, Ceara York, Dezarae Harris, Timothy Jamison, Bridgett Jamison, Aaron Johnson, Reagan Johnson, Matthew Johnson, Ethan Johnson; several great grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and his beloved dog, “Ginger”.
The family will receive friends at Ridge Funeral Home from 1-2 p.m. on Sunday, prior to the funeral service.
Jane Lee Cooke
Dec. 24, 1951 – Nov. 28, 2025
Jane Lee Cooke, lovingly known as “YaYa,” age 73, passed away peacefully at her home on November 28, 2025, surrounded by her family. Born on December 24, 1951, she was the daughter of the late Ralph Arnett Lee Sr. and Mildred Ward Lee.
Jane is survived by her devoted husband of 50 years, Alton Wayne Cooke of Washington, NC; her daughter, Ellen Cooke Chrismon and husband Chris Chrismon of Pinetown, NC; her son, Patrick Lee Cooke of Pinetops, NC, and daughter-in-law, Jennifer Strickland Cooke of Pinetops, NC. She was the proud grandmother of Lawson Overstreet, Turner Cooke, Reed Barkley, Charlotte Grace Cooke, and Maverick Chrismon, each of whom brought her immeasurable joy.
She is also survived by her sisters Betsy Lee Hodges (Kyle) of Grimesland, NC, and Cindy Lee Jones (Charlie) of Sanford, NC; her brother Ralph “Randy” Arnett Lee Jr. (Bonnie) of Williamston, NC; sister-in-law, Faye Cooke Boykin of Wilson, NC; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and extended family members. Jane cherished her lifelong friendships, especially those with her beloved college friends Laura Lee Slate and Marie Roddan.
A 1974 graduate of Meredith College, Jane dedicated more than 30 years to teaching elementary school students in Wilson and Wake Counties. She was a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the NC Retired School Personnel Association (NCRSPA), and Delta Kappa Gamma. Her passion for education, her unwavering commitment to her students, and her warm, steady presence left a lasting impact on countless lives.
After retiring, Jane made it her priority to spend as much time as possible creating wonderful memories with her grandchildren, family, and friends. She was an avid gardener, and her owers brought her countless moments of joy. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend—someone whose kindness, generosity, and grace enriched the lives of everyone who knew her.
Visitation with the family will be held at Paul Funeral Home & Crematory in Washington, NC (900 John Small Ave) on December 1, 2025, at 1 p.m., followed immediately by a memorial service at 2 p.m. in the Paul Funeral Home & Crematory chapel. A private family graveside service will be held at a later date.
Jane leaves behind a legacy of love, dedication and quiet strength that will be cherished forever.
Flowers are welcome, or memorials may be made to the charity of one’s choice.
Nicky Kyle Bullock Sr.
Nov. 18, 1950 – Nov. 24, 2025
Nicky Kyle Bullock Sr., age 75, a resident of Washington, died Monday, November 24, 2025, at ECU Health Medical Center. Graveside funeral services will be held on Saturday, November 29, 2025, at 1 p.m. at Oakdale Cemetery with Thomas Hamilton o ciating. The family will receive friends on Friday evening from 6-8 p.m. at Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington.
Nicky was born on November 18, 1950, in Pitt County to the late John Murphy Bullock and Mattie Mae Briley Bullock. He was a graduate of Stokes/ Pactolus High School and attended Pitt Community College. Nicky was a US military veteran. On August 22, 1969, he married Theresa Cherry, who preceded him in death on August 22, 2019. Nicky was a textile engineer, working at DuPont for 33 years and DSM/Avient for 18 years, retiring in 2025. He enjoyed playing golf, his grandchildren and working hard. He was a member of Journey Church. Nicky was preceded in death by three brothers and two sisters.
Survivors include his sons, Nicky Kyle Bullock Jr. of Washington, Je rey Bullock (April) of Washington and Kevin Scott Bullock of Washington, his brother, Barry Lynn Bullock (April) of Stokes, his grandchildren, Liam Kyle Bullock, Elaina Leigh Bullock, Landon Allen Bullock, Christian Willis Bullock, Gabe Scott Bullock and Reesa Lee Cope-Bullock.
Cynthia Ann “Sis” Delaney Dawes
Dec. 15, 1932 – Nov. 30, 2025
Cynthia Ann “Sis” Delaney Dawes, age 92, of Lexington, passed away on November 30, 2025, at Southfork Memory Care Facility in Winston-Salem.
Mrs. Dawes was born in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, on December 15, 1932, as one of six children to Floyd and Carrie Fagan Delaney. Cynthia was a graduate of Sault Sainte Marie High School, where she served as head cheerleader. Sis was a bookkeeper by trade and was formerly employed with the Sault Sainte Marie Telephone Company, Montgomery Ward in Tampa, Florida and Merita Bread Bakery in Charlotte. Sis had a great sense of humor, loved to ice skate, and do jigsaw puzzles.
In addition to her parents, Sis was preceded in death by her ve brothers, Claude Delaney, Pat Delaney, Edwin “Tu y” Delaney, Jack Delaney, and William “Bill” Delaney.
She is survived by her daughter, Kelly Honeycutt, and husband, Eddie, of Gastonia; son, Rick Dawes, and wife, Tracy, whom she loved as her own; grandchildren, Katie Dawes (Greg) and Patrick Dawes (Alora); and three greatgrandchildren.
The family would like to express a special thank you to Sis’s friend, Melissa, for her wonderful compassion and loving care. In lieu of owers, memorials may be made to Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care, 945 Zephyr Road, Dobson, NC 27017.
Michael Dean White
June 26, 1954 –Nov. 26, 2025
Michael Dean White, 71, of Asheboro, died Wednesday, November 26, 2025, at Randolph Health in Asheboro.
Funeral service will be announced in the coming days.
Mr. White was born on June 26, 1954, in Randolph County, the son of the late Calvin White and Juanita Lassiter White. He had an expansive career working for Champagne Dye, Prestige Industries, Energizer, and Black & Decker. He enjoyed various outside activities like shing, hunting, and traveling, but also enjoyed doing crafts, going to the local concerts around Asheboro, and spending time with his family, especially his grandkids, who knew him as “Paw Paw Dean” or “Dino”. Mr. White was a man who loved life and people. He never met a stranger and could hold a conversation forever with anyone willing. In addition to his parents, Mr. White was preceded in death by his brother, Todd Thomas White. He is survived by his daughter, Amanda Jean White Stevens (Robert); grandchildren, Matthew Hogue, Jacob Hogue, Isaiah Hogue, Desirae Stevens, Zeanna Stevens; greatgrandchildren, Lukas Hogue, Lance Hogue; nephew, Josh White; niece, Ashley Ellis; great niece and nephew, Braden Ellis and Brynna Ellis.
March 29, 1940 –Nov. 29, 2025
Paul Miller Roth, 85, of Asheboro, passed away on Saturday, November 29, 2025, at Novant Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
A Memorial Service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at Lo in Funeral Home Chapel in Ramseur with Rev. John Gunter o ciating. The family will receive friends prior to the service from 1-1:45 p.m. Paul was born in Orleans County, NY, and was a 1957 graduate of Lyndonville High School. He retired from General Motors and, in later years, moved to Asheboro, North Carolina. Paul enjoyed being outdoors, working in his yard and woodworking. He enjoyed boating and was the former Vice Commodore of the OOYC Yacht Club. Paul was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Lydia Miller Roth, his sisters, Helen Callan and Patricia Shenbergr, as well as his brothers, Leon, Fred, Lester, Bob and Pete Roth.
Survivors: loving wife of 55 years, Joleen Waters Roth, children, Darryl Roth (Amy) of Ramseur, Martin Roth of Rochester, NY, Je Plummer of Waterford, NY, Madaleen Plummer Lunn of Holley, NY, eleven grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, as well as several nieces, nephews, cousins and family friends.
In lieu of owers, memorial donations may be made to Landmark Baptist Church, PO BOX 158, Asheboro, NC 27204.
Paul Miller Roth
Joyce Boyd Godley
Dec. 26, 1936 – Nov. 24, 2025
Joyce Boyd Godley, 88, of Washington, North Carolina, passed away peacefully on November 24, 2025, at the Service League of Greenville Hospice House. Born on December 26, 1936, in Pinetown, NC, Joyce grew up in the tightknit community she cherished throughout her life.
A graduate of Pantego High School, Joyce worked as a dedicated bookkeeper for FCX for 30 years and later for W.B. Gerard in Washington, NC, until her retirement. She met her husband, Nathan Brooks Godley, while working at the Dr Pepper bottling plant, Roberson Beverage, and they were married in December of 1955. Joyce, lovingly known as Granny, was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. She was strong and determined, facing life’s challenges with resilience and grace, and her love and guidance left a lasting impact on everyone who knew her.
A devout Christian, Joyce’s faith shaped every aspect of her life. She was a longtime member of Second Baptist Church in Washington and took great pride in her involvement with the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU). She also participated in the Glory Bound Senior Group and poured her heart into the Samaritan’s Purse Shoebox Ministry, lovingly sewing hundreds of dresses and shorts for children around the world.
Joyce was an avid sewer and quilter, a craft she learned from her mother. She also loved assembling puzzles, reading, and sharing her quick humor and frank, honest personality. She was a remarkable cook and baker, delighting in making homemade fudge, Chex-mix trash, and chocolate pies. When her grandsons and their families visited, she especially enjoyed preparing her signature chicken pastry, chicken and rice soup, and chicken salad, lling her home with love and warmth. Joyce also had a lifelong passion for collecting Santa Claus gurines, which brought joy to everyone who visited.
Family was at the heart of Joyce’s life. She cherished the time she spent with her brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews, valuing the deep and enduring bond they shared.
Joyce was especially close to her sister Charlotte, visiting nearly every day for years to enjoy co ee and relaxing moments together on the porch.
She was preceded in death by her parents, John Thomas Boyd and Martha Frances Boyd Boyd; her husband, Nathan Brooks Godley; her son, Michael Wayne Godley; her siblings William “Roy” Boyd, Clinton Gar eld Boyd, Wade Harold Boyd, Dallas Thomas Boyd, Charlotte Boyd Myers, Frances Boyd Brooks, Revonda Boyd Summers, and Phyllis Boyd Alligood; and several half-brothers and half-sisters.
Joyce’s legacy lives on through her grandsons, Michael “Ryan” Godley and wife Ashley, and Justin Brooks Godley and wife Melissa, and through the joy of her great-granddaughter, Penelope Kate Godley. She is also survived by several nieces and nephews, including special nieces Rachel “Annette” Clark, Carolyn Heath, and Teresa Singleton.
A visitation will be held on Sunday, December 7, at 1 p.m. at Second Baptist Church in Washington, NC, followed by the funeral service at 1:30 p.m. A Graveside service will follow at Pamlico Memorial Gardens in Washington, NC.
In lieu of owers, the family invites memorial contributions to the “Joyce Boyd Godley” memorial, given online through Samaritan’s Purse Shoebox Ministry (Operation Christmas Child) or through Second Baptist Church in Washington, NC. This ministry was especially close to Joyce’s heart and re ects her lifelong desire to share God’s love with children around the world.
Connie Lee Boteler Bowie
Feb. 3, 1955 – Nov. 27, 2025
Mrs. Connie Lee Boteler Bowie, age 70, a resident of Chocowinity, NC, died Thursday, November 27, 2025, at the Windsor House in Windsor. A memorial service will be held later in Maryland.
Mrs. Bowie was born in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on February 3, 1955, the daughter of the late Charles Boteler and the late Edna Irene Sterling Boteler. She was a graduate of Largo High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. On August 12, 1995, she married Ronald Beall “Ronnie” Bowie, who survives. She dedicated her time to her family as a homemaker who had also worked in childcare. Mrs. Connie loved children, cooking, baking, yard work, and decorating for birthdays and holidays. She was a member of St. Barnabus Episcopal Church in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Surviving along with her husband: Ronnie of the home are two daughters: Jacqueline “Michele” Bowie-Hinojosa and her husband Anthony of Killeen, TX, and Wendy Lynn Bowie of Perryville, MD; two sisters: Debbie Matheny and her husband Mark of Ruther Glen, VA, and Peggy Boone of Odenton, MD; and two grandchildren: Isa BowieHinojosa, and Ellie BowieHinojosa.
In lieu of owers, the family kindly asks that memorial contributions be made to Alzheimer’s Association, Eastern NC Chapter, 5171 Glenwood Ave, Site 101, Raleigh, NC 27612.
Robin DeMasi Ferdna
Nov. 8, 1955 – Nov. 27, 2025
Robin Florence DeMasi Ferdna, age 70, of Asheboro, North Carolina, passed away on November 27, 2025.
Robin was born on November 8, 1955, in Orange, New Jersey, to Lewis DeMasi and Mary Neely. She was a loving, devoted, and ercely family-oriented woman whose life revolved around those she cherished most.
She adored her family and especially treasured the time she spent with her grandchildren— whether taking them on memorable trips to Universal Studios and Disneyland or simply spoiling them with love, attention, and anything they set their hearts on. Robin loved going to the beach, enjoyed taking little adventures, and found joy in creating special moments with the people she loved. She was caring, strongwilled, and always giving— someone who would do anything for her family without hesitation.
My mommy was a woman of strength, compassion, and endless love—someone who gave everything she had to her family and never asked for anything in return. Her warm spirit, steady presence, and generous heart touched everyone around her. She devoted her life to her children and grandchildren, always showing up with encouragement, wisdom, and unconditional love. Mommy, you will forever be missed.
Robin is survived by her ancé, Donald Matthews; her sons, John Ferdna (Laura) and Eric Ferdna (Denise); her daughter, Haylynn Ferdna (Leny); grandchildren, David Ferdna, Miranda Fraser (Dalton), Amari Ferdna, and Liam Guzman; and her great-grandchild, Jericho Fraser; and her sisters: Janis Mills and Pam Matthinson.
Visitation will be held on Friday, December 5, from 5-7 p.m. at Pugh Funeral Home. A funeral service will follow on Saturday, December 6, at noon in the Glenn “Mac” Pugh Chapel, 437 Sunset Avenue in Asheboro, with Pastor Lois D. Johnson o ciating.
Kevin Daryl Kivett
Aug. 10, 1967 – Nov. 24, 2025
Kevin Daryl Kivett, 58, of Archdale, passed away Monday, November 24, 2025, at The Randolph Hospice House in Asheboro.
Funeral services will be held at noon on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at West Asheboro Church of God in Asheboro. Pastor Travis Cooke and Pastor Chris Davis are o ciating. Burial will follow at Gilmore Memorial Park, Julian. Born on August 10, 1967, in Guilford County, NC, Kevin was the son of Jerry Kivett and the late Beverly Payne Kivett. He was a hard worker, who worked for Target, Greensboro Bus Authority and Cracker Barrel. Kevin graduated from Eastern Guilford High School in Gibsonville, North Carolina. Kevin had many hobbies. He enjoyed watching basketball and keeping the statistics for his high school team. He loved working in the yard, landscaping and growing roses. Cooking was another thing he enjoyed and his peanut butter pie was the best. He helped with the youth group at his previous church, The Rock. Kevin loved his family, especially his grandkids. He treasured the times with them and picked them up every Wednesday from school and spent the day with them.
In addition to his mother, Kevin was preceded in death by his brother, Rodney Todd Kivett. Survivors include his son, Taylor Kivett (Hannah) of Archdale; father, Jerry Kivett (Lori); sisters, Genia Hightower (Chris) of Burlington, Kristen Johnson (Adam Beeson) of Climax; brothers, Je Kivett (Kimberly) of Randleman, Greg Kivett (Rebecca) of Climax; grandchildren, Braden Kivett, Montgomery Kivett, Silas Kivett; and 13 nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m., Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at Ridge Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Asheboro.
The family invites you to celebrate Kevin’s life with owers or, if you prefer, with donations to the Randolph Hospice House in Asheboro, NC. Donations can be sent to Randolph Hospice House, 416 Vision Dr., Asheboro, NC, 27203.
Mary Foreman Sugg
March 21, 1941 –Nov. 29, 2025
Mary Foreman Sugg, 84, of Asheboro, passed away Saturday, November 29, 2025, at Harmony at Greensboro in Greensboro.
A private family memorial service will be held at a later date at Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church, Seagrove.
Mary was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Medical Technology in 1978. She was a medical technologist for almost 30 years after working at the Red Cross and Presbyterian Hospital until her retirement in 2006. Her love for horses and the outdoors re ected a spirit both free and grounded, full of life. With quick wit and a warm heart, she brought laughter and light to all who knew her. She cherished her family deeply, found joy in her travels, and treasured the many friendships and connections she made along the way. To know her was to learn from her—about resilience, joy, and the beauty of living fully. Mary was preceded in death by her parents, James R. and Helen Lewis Foreman. Survivors: husband, Charles Floyd Sugg, of the home, daughters, Lynda Hollar and husband, Ron, of Siler City and Amanda Honeycutt, of Asheboro, sons, Steven Patrick White and wife, Heidi, David White and wife, Evonne, both of Jacksonville, FL, sisters, Deanna Foreman, Barbara Boven, both of Constock, MI, and Judy Sackett and husband, Bob of Richland, MI, twelve grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren. In lieu of owers, memorials may be made to Lewy Body Dementia Association, 912 Killian Hill Road, S.W., Lilburn, GA 30074.
Former Black Panther leader H. Rap Brown dies in prison hospital at 82
He was serving a life sentence for killing a Georgia sheri ’s deputy
The Associated Press
BUTNER — H. Rap Brown, one of the most vocal leaders of the Black Power movement, has died in a prison hospital while serving a life sentence for the killing of a Georgia sheri ’s deputy. He was 82. Brown — who later in life changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin — died Sunday at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, his widow, Karima Al-Amin, said Monday.
A cause of death was not immediately available, but Karima Al-Amin told The Associated Press that her husband had been su ering from cancer and had been transferred to the medical facility in 2014 from a federal prison in Colorado.
Like other more militant black leaders and organizers during the racial upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brown decried heavy-handed policing in black communities. He once stated that violence was “as American as cherry pie.”
“Violence is a part of America’s culture,” he said during a 1967 news conference. “... America taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression, if
necessary. We will be free by any means necessary.” Brown was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a powerful civil rights group, and in 1968 was named minister of justice for the Black Panther Party.
Three years later, he was arrested for a robbery that ended in a shootout with New York police.
While serving a ve-year prison sentence for the robbery, Brown converted to the Dar-ul Islam movement and changed his name. Upon his release, he moved to Atlanta in 1976, opened a grocery and health food store, and became an Imam, a spiritual leader for
local Muslims.
“I’m not dissatis ed with what I did,” he told an audience in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1998.
“But Islam has allowed things to be clearer. ... We have to be concerned about the welfare of ourselves and those around us, and that comes through submission to God and the raising of one’s consciousness.”
On March 16, 2000, Fulton County Deputy Sheri Ricky Kinchen and deputy Aldranon English were shot after encountering the former Black Panther leader outside his Atlanta home. The deputies were there to serve a warrant for failure to appear in court on charges of driving
a stolen car and impersonating a police o cer during a tra c stop the previous year.
English testi ed at trial that Brown red a high-powered assault ri e when the deputies tried to arrest him. Then, prosecutors said, he used a handgun to re three shots into Kinchen’s groin as the wounded deputy lay in the street. Kinchen would die from his wounds.
Prosecutors portrayed Brown as a deliberate killer, while his lawyers painted him as a peaceful community and religious leader who helped revitalize poverty-stricken areas. They suggested he was framed as part of a government conspiracy dating from his militant days.
Brown maintained his innocence but was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life.
He argued that his constitutional rights were violated at trial and in 2019 challenged his imprisonment before a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case.
“For decades, questions have surrounded the fairness of his trial,” his family said Monday in a statement. “Newly uncovered evidence — including previously unseen FBI surveillance les, inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts, and third-party confessions — raised serious concerns that Imam Al-Amin did not receive the fair trial guaranteed under the Constitution.”
RIC FELD / AP PHOTO
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin watches during the sentencing portion of his trial in Atlanta in 2002.
STATE & NATION
Melania Trump reveals White House Christmas decorations
This year’s theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is”
By Darlene Superville The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Melania Trump on Monday unveiled the holiday decorations for her family’s rst Christmas back at the White House and her theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is.”
The decor also nods to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and founding of the United States of America.
Several dozen volunteer decorators from across the country helped deck the halls of the executive mansion with 75 wreaths, 51 Christmas trees, more than 700 feet of garland, more than 2,000 strands of lights, over 25,000 feet of ribbon, over 2,800 gold stars, more than 10,000 butter ies and 120 pounds of gingerbread.
A few things are di erent because President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing to build a ballroom he’s long desired.
This year, the o cial White House Christmas tree, which is always on display in the Blue Room, also honors Gold Star families, those that lost a member during active-duty military service.
That tree was an East Wing xture and the rst one visitors encountered after they entered through those doors, but the building and a covered walkway, or colonnade, connecting it to the White House were demolished by Trump in October as part of his ballroom plan.
Public tours, which had been suspended because of the construction, were set to resume Tuesday but with a shorter route limited to just the State Floor, which includes the East Room; the Green, Blue and Red Rooms; the State Dining Room; the Cross Hall; and the Grand Foyer.
The Library and the Vermeil and China Rooms on the Ground Floor — one level below the State Floor — were cut from the tour route because of the construction.
The White House expects tens of thousands of visitors for holiday tours, receptions and parties before Christmas. Visitors will now enter through the North Portico doors on Pennsylvania Avenue using a new,
semipermanent walkway and entrance.
A statement from the White House said Christmas is a time to celebrate what makes the U.S. exceptional and that while every home has its own traditions, shared values unite Americans.
“In every community, we are lifted by simple acts of kindness that re ect the enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism, and gratitude,” the statement said. “These moments remind us that the heart of America is strong and that Home Is Where The Heart Is.”
Planning for the holidays starts months in advance, and the White House said Melania Trump chose every detail of the decor.
Trees in the East Room are trimmed in patriotic red, white and blue and national symbols, including golden eagle tree toppers, to highlight the coming America250 national celebration.
The o cial White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room is decorated with gold stars honoring families that lost a member in the line of active-duty military service. The o cial tree traditionally recognizes each state and territory and this year’s r is decorated with ornaments showcasing the o cial bird and ower of each.
The Green Room celebrates family fun, featuring large portraits of the rst and the current
presidents, George Washington and Donald Trump, respectively, each made from more than 6,000 Lego puzzle pieces.
Thousands of blue butter ies decorate the Red Room and its tree in a celebration of young people and in tribute to Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future initiative, which is part of her Be Best child-focused initiative, to support people who have been in foster care.
A holiday highlight, the gingerbread White House on display in the State Dining Room shows o the mansion’s South Portico and o ers a special glimpse into the Yellow Oval Room, a sitting room o the Truman Balco-
ny in the president’s private living quarters on the second oor. It was made using 120 pounds of gingerbread, 100 pounds of pastillage, a sugar-based modeling paste; over 10 pounds of chocolate and 5 pounds of royal icing.
Part of the White House creche is on display in the Grand Foyer while the rest of it is undergoing a restoration overseen by the curator’s o ce.
Most of the tree trimming and hall decking was done after the Trumps decamped to their Florida home early last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. They returned to the White House on Sunday.
PHOTOS BY EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO
Dozens of trees, thousands of lights and more than ve miles of ribbon make up the enormous White House holiday display.
Pounds of gingerbread in the edible White House
RandolpH SPORTS
Cougars coach could see special group developing
Southwestern Randolph’s championship team had the right ingredients
By Bob Sutton Randolph Record
GREENSBORO — Not to be mistaken with the overall di cult task of winning a state championship, Southwestern Randolph boys’ soccer coach Jimmy Walker had a particular perspective on
the accomplishment of his team.
That’s because as he guided the Cougars to their rst state title, he was in charge of a determined group that was united on achieving one goal.
“I promise, this is the easiest coaching job I’ve had,” Walker said. “They’ve been a dream to coach. It is my honor to be around these guys.”
There was plenty of talent to go with the motivation that surfaced for the Cougars.
Southwestern Randolph com-
pleted the mission with last month’s 3-0 victory against Newton-Conover in the championship tilt on the Guilford College campus.
The overriding theme for the Cougars was to honor the memory of Pedro Ortiz-Perez, a teammate who died in a spring 2024 shooting.
“We just want to honor his memory, and we don’t want to let it go,” Walker said.
Walker is in his third stint as coach of the Southwestern Ran-
Southwestern Randolph girls begin season with early glitch
There have been mixed results for Asheboro’s boys’ and girls’ teams early in the season
Randolph Record sta
ASHEBORO — There will be no long season-opening winning streak for the Southwestern Randolph girls’ basketball team this season.
The Cougars opened the season with a 39-27 loss to Ledford last week, trailing 21-12 at halftime.
Last season, Southwestern Randolph won its rst 25 games before a Feb. 21 setback.
There was a splattering of games involving area teams last week.
• Uwharrie Charter Academy improved to 5-0 by topping visiting Albemarle 42-21 as Nevaeh Staples racked up 16 points and Lainey Thomas had 14 points.
• Providence Grove clobbered visiting Chatham Charter 60-14.
• Asheboro split pair of home games. Northwest Guil-
ford rolled past the Blue Comets 52-25 before Asheboro’s Maliyah Brady had 20 points in a 53-18 romp past Thomasville. Laneane Scherer added 17 points in the victory.
Asheboro, in its second game of the season, notched its rst victory under rst-year coach Wes Luther on Nov. 21
See BASKETBALL, page B2
dolph program. Before the latest return to the helm for the 2022 season, he had been working with middle school teams.
“When I saw that group at the middle school, I said that’s something special, so I’ve got to see this thing out,” Walker said.
Those players are now seniors who formed the core for this year’s title team.
After the group made it through a challenging seven-win freshman season, it was time for the Cougars to shine.
“It was like watching a jet take o ,” Walker said. Then there was a 21-win season, a 25-win season and this year’s 27-1 record.
“I said that’s something special, so I’ve got to see this thing out.”
Jimmy Walker, Southwestern Randolph coach
While it will be a season to remember for the Cougars, Walker said he sees it as much more than capturing the hardware associated with a championship.
“What they have done (in the title game) and during their careers, they’ve got little fans and those little fans are going to be tomorrow’s champions,” Walker said. “… They have de nitely put this program on the map.”
“It’s going to be a long time before I’m privileged to be able to coach a team with so many weapons, and tactically we could do whatever we want,” Walker said.
Wildcats come up short to Shelby
The Wildcats had scoring chances in the second half when they were denied points in the Class 3A showdown
Randolph Record sta RAMSEUR — Even on a night with a large point total, Eastern Randolph’s football season ended because the Wildcats were denied scoring a little more.
Shelby held o Eastern Randolph inside the 5-yard line in the waning minutes and secured a 43-41 victory in the fourth round of the Class 3A state playo s Friday night. The 10th-seeded Golden Lions (11-3) will meet eighth-seeded Lincoln (11-2), a 55-20 winner against West Davidson, in the West Regionalnal. Third-seeded Eastern Randolph’s season ended with a 10-3 record.
The Wildcats were ousted from the playo s on their home eld for the fourth time in ve seasons.
Kobe Walker ran for three touchdowns for Eastern Randolph, while Cade McCallum threw touchdown passes to Caden Revelle and Cainan Glover. Eastern Randolph’s troubles deep in Shelby territory were evident a couple of times. The Wildcats were stopped near the goal line in the third quarter. Eastern Randolph had a chance to pull even with 4:47 remaining on Glover’s 7-yard touchdown reception, but a two-point conversion attempt failed. But the Wildcats recovered an ensuing onside kick and moved the ball into scoring position as part of a 10-play possession before giving up the ball on a failed fourth down.
Lan Farmer threw for three touchdowns and ran for two touchdowns. Farmer racked up 388 passing yards for Shelby, with Jonas White (98 receiving yards), Immanuel Collins (90 receiving yards) and Kendrick Jawon (60 receiving yards) scoring one touchdown apiece. Woods also ran for a touchdown.
Southwestern Randolph boys’ soccer players celebrate a goal during the Class 4A state nal last month.
JANN ORTIZ FOR RANDOLPH RECORD
Southwestern Randolph’s Maddie Strider clutches the ball in front of Ledford’s Carmen Hughes during last week’s game.
Nevaeh Staples
RANDOLPH RECORD
UCA, girls’ basketball
Staples, a senior, has been among the leaders of the Eagles’ strong opening stretch to the season. They entered December with an undefeated record.
Staples has been the leading scorer or co-leader for UCA in three of its rst ve games, including a 12-point e ort last week vs. Albemarle. She’s a UCA program record holder for single-game points based on a 34-point outing last season.
She has been an all-conference selection the past two seasons. In both those seasons, she was UCA’s leading scorer and rebounder.
BASKETBALL from page B1
by winning 57-40 at Trinity.
• Wheatmore had a 42-4 blasting of host North Moore.
• Southern Lee won 53-34 at Eastern Randolph.
Boys’ basketball
Asheboro responded from a setback by winning the next night, defeating visiting Thomasville 69-55 as Jewel Barrett-Riggins tallied 20 points and Nirey White had 19 points.
The Blue Comets earlier lost 65-56 to visiting Northwest Guilford following road victories during the rst week of the
season against Rockingham County and Trinity.
• Southwestern Randolph fell 82-46 in its opener to visiting Ledford despite Trivett Kennedy’s 15 points.
• Wheatmore prevailed for the rst time in three games by winning 68-48 at North Moore with Avery Ivey pouring in 28 points.
• Providence Grove dropped a 56-52 home decision to Chatham Charter, losing its second close outcome in as many games. Andrew Thomas had 23 points, and Will Dabbs added 16 points for the Patriots.
• Uwharrie Charter Academy fell to 1-3 with a 58-47 home loss to Albemarle.
Trinity wrestlers dominate in Asheboro tourney
Several teams have had individual champions in events across the rst couple weeks of the season
Randolph Record sta
ASHEBORO — Trinity wrestlers were the team champions in the Zack Thornburg Memorial Tournament last week at Asheboro High School.
The Bulldogs won seven individual titles.
The winners for Trinity were Jeven Palmeri (106 pounds), Aiden Burkholder (113), Stephen Cross (120), Edgar Vasquez (126), Simeon Hammett (150), Haris Idrees (165) and Joseph Trahan (285).
Runners-up for Trinity were Ezekiel Martinez (106), Omega Edge (132), Trent Walker (138), Hezekyah Matson (144), Addam Bernal (165) and Grayson Carroll (190).
Asheboro’s winners were Oscar Zelaya (132) and Owen Chidester (215), with runner-up Quanta McRae (175).
Southwestern Randolph didn’t have a champion, but Leland Davis (150) and Rafael Flores (215) placed second.
In the girls’ tournament, Asheboro was the top team followed by Trinity. Asheboro’s Andreaona Thornton (100) and Andrea Thornton (126-138) and Trinity’s Bri-
ana Joyce (heavyweight) were undefeated.
Tigerland Classic
At Jamestown, Asheboro’s Zelaya (132 pounds) and Providence Grove’s Jeremiah Payne (120) and Aiden Poplin (126) were individual champions in the 17-school competition with Ragsdale as the host.
Cecil Mock Invitational
At Ramseur, Wheatmore’s champions were 132-pounder Ayden Sumners and 190-pounder Dominic Hittepole, while Spencer Moore (150) and Payton Russo (285) were runners-up on Nov. 22. Sumners didn’t allow a point in three bouts.
For host Eastern Randolph, Lucas Kennedy (126) and David Lambright (132) placed second. Southeast Guilford won the team title with 175½ points among 13 teams, with Montgomery Central second with 154 followed by Central Davidson (145½) and Wheatmore (141).
Red Wolf Classic
At Hillsborough, Uwhar-
rie Charter Academy had individual champions Paxton Kearns (126), Travis Nobles (157) and Lorenzo Alston (175) in the 29-team event at Cedar Ridge. Kearns took 5:18 for a technical fall against Southern Lee’s Erick Gutierrez in the title bout, and Alston won thenal with a second-period technical fall of Cardinal Gibbons’ Ryan Thompson. Nobles defeated Kernersville Glenn’s Misael Rivera 18-11 in the championship match.
The Eagles compiled 280 points for second place behind Northwest Guilford’s 282 among 30 teams.
Caleb Saldana (138) was a runner-up for UCA, while Ayven Virasone Chitavong (113), Brennan Worrell (144) and Jesse Bowles (215) all placed third. On the girls’ side, Grace Redding (235) of Asheboro was a champion, pinning Roxboro Person’s Tylanii Lunsford in 3:40 of the nal.
Trojan Duals At Catawba, Trinity defeated Hunter Huss, host Bandys, Charlotte Latin, Bradford Prep and Rutherford-Spindale Central to capture the title. Palmeri, Burkholder, Cross, Vasquez, Edge, Matson, Hammett and Trahan all won ve matches for the Bulldogs.
Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki nears pinnacle of Japan’s national sport
The 21-year-old has been named ozeki, the second-highest rating
By Stephen Wade The Associated Press
TOKYO — Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki is only 21 but has moved just one step from the top rank of Japan’s national sport.
In an elaborate ceremony last week, he was promoted by the Japan Sumo Association to the rank of ozeki, the rung just below the top.
Only two now hold the top rank of yokozuna — grand champion in English: Japanese Onosato and Mongolia-born Hoshoryu.
“I’m happy, but I feel more strongly about working harder from now on,” Aonishiki said last Wednesday after the ceremony. “There is a higher rank, and that’s my next goal.”
Sumo’s new rising star, who wrestles under the ring name of Aonishiki Arata, was born Danilo Yavhushyshyn in west central Ukraine and has identied his hometown as Vinnytsia.
He moved to Japan after Russia invaded Ukraine just over 31⁄2 years ago, the byproduct of a friendship he had made a few years earlier with a Japanese wrestler at a
“I have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Aonishiki
tournament. Japanese media identies him as being the quickest — he’s wrestled only 14 tournaments — to reach the ozeki rank since 1958 when the present tournament scheduling system was installed.
The promotion was inevitable after he won a prestigious tournament on Sunday in western Japan. He defeated Hoshoryu in the deciding match.
He explained earlier that his parents ed to Germany after the invasion and said they are living safely. He said he called them after the big tournament on Sunday and praised them for allowing him to pursue his interests. He said his mother cried on the phone call. He was told his father did too, but tried to hide it.
“They never scolded me even when I didn’t do well in studies, as they believed in letting me do what I liked to do,” he said last week.
Aonishiki is small by sumo standards. He weighs in the
125 to 135 kilogram range — (between 275 to 300 pounds). This is slight in sumo — in the range of an NFL lineman — since many wrestlers weigh at least 150 kilograms (330 pounds) and some much more.
Sumo experts in Japan say his success comes from keeping a low body position. He can bench press 210 kilograms (460 pounds) — about 50% more than his body weight.
“I need to be stronger all around,” he said. “I have to be bigger, and I still need to learn a lot more about sumo.”
Non-Japanese sumo wrestlers have excelled in di erent periods in Japan. They have included Mongolians, Hawaiians and now Ukrainians. A second Ukrainian, Shishi Masaru, is also a highly ranked wrestler in Japan.
Ukraine has a very strong tradition in Olympic wrestling. Its last gold-medal winner was Zhan Beleniuk in the Greco-Roman category at the Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021 by the pandemic.
Aonishiki has endeared himself to the Japanese public with his uent command of their language. He said he arrived speaking no Japanese, but picked it up quickly living only with Japanese wrestlers in the sport’s tightly controlled environment.
PJ WARD-BROWN /
Aonishiki, left, receives a trophy after winning the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka in western Japan.
pen & paper pursuits
this week in history
Nelson Mandela dies at 95, 13th Amendment rati ed, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
The Associated Press
DEC. 4
1783: Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his Continental Army o cers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
1956: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins — later dubbed the “Million Dollar Quartet” — gathered for their rst and only jam session at Sun Records in Memphis.
1991: Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was freed after nearly seven years as a hostage of Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
DEC. 5
1848: President James K. Polk, in an address to Congress, con rmed gold had been discovered in California, igniting the Gold Rush of ’49.
1933: Prohibition ended as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th.
1952: The Great Smog of London settled over the city for ve days, a toxic haze blamed for thousands of deaths.
2013: Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa’s rst black president, died at age 95.
DEC. 6
1865: The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was rati ed when Georgia became the 27th state to approve it.
1907: A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, killed at least 361 men and
boys, the deadliest mining disaster in U.S. history. 1923: A presidential address was broadcast nationally on radio for the rst time as Calvin Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.
1969: A free Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway in California turned deadly when four people died, including one man fatally stabbed by a Hells Angels member working event security.
DEC. 7
1787: Delaware became the rst state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1941: Japan launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The United States declared war on Japan the next day.
1982: Charlie Brooks Jr. became the rst U.S. inmate executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.
DEC. 8
1941: The United States entered World War II as Congress declared war on Japan, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1980: Former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment building by Mark David Chapman.
1987: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a landmark treaty at the White House ordering the elimination of intermediate-range missiles.
DEC. 9
1965: “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the rst animated TV special based on Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts,” premiered on CBS.
1979: Scientists declared smallpox eradicated worldwide, wiping out a disease that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century.
1990: Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa won Poland’s rst free presidential election since 1926.
DEC. 10
1898: The Treaty of Paris was signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War.
1906: President Theodore Roosevelt became the rst American to win a Nobel Prize, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for helping negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1964: Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he did so “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”
1967: Soul singer Otis Redding, 26, and six others died when their plane crashed into a Wisconsin lake.
RICHARD DREW / AP PHOTO
John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles, was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his New York City apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980.
SIPHIWE SIBEKO / AP PHOTO
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s rst black president who died on Dec. 5, 2013, at age 95, is remembered for his enduring role in ending apartheid.
6 notable songs from reggae star Jimmy Cli , who died at 81
The artist rivaled Bob Marley as the most prominent musician in the genre
By Hilel Italie
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Like so many Jamaican teens of his time, Jimmy Cli moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country’s independence from Great Britain. A decade later, he helped reggae ascend to the international stage with his starring role in the cult favorite “The Harder They Come” and his featured place on the lm’s classic soundtrack.
Here are a few songs that trace the arc of his career, and of reggae.
1962: “Miss Jamaica”
Singing along to an easy, bluesy groove, Cli had a way of sounding both relaxed and fully committed, and he could make a nursery rhyme sound like an anthem: “Roses are red / violets are blue / Believe me / I love you.” He also joined a long popular tradition, most famously expressed in such 1970s standards as Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” and Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” of o ering praise to a very personal kind of beauty.
1968: “Vietnam”
Like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and other anti-war songs, Cli ’s “Vietnam” was drawn from the horrors of those who had served overseas. “Vietnam” was a seething, mid-tempo chant — “Viet-nam, Vi-et-nam,” the very name an indictment, in this song for the death of a soldier who had written home to say he would soon be returning, only for his mother to receive a telegram the next day announcing his death.
1969: “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”
One of Cli ’s many talents was looking clear-eyed at life as it is, and imagining so well what it could be — a paradise
Jimmy Cli performs at The Climate Rally, an Earth Day concert on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2010. The reggae icon died on Nov. 24 at age 81.
“So as sure as the sun will shine / I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine.”
Jimmy Cli
made real by the melody, the feel and lyrics of “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” a vision so inevitable even the likes of President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson can’t get in the way.
1969: “Many Rivers to Cross”
Onstage, he sometimes literally jumped for joy, but Cli also could call out the deepest notes of despair. The somber, gospel-style “Many Rivers to Cross” was inspired by the racism he encountered in England in the 1960s and tells a story of displacement, longing, fatigue and gathering rage — but never defeat. “I merely survive because of my pride,” he tells us.
1970: “You Can Get It If You Really Want”
Cli ’s political songs were so enduring in part because they were so catchy and because they o ered hope without the promise of easy success. Kicked o by a spare horn ri , “You Can Get It If You Really Want” has a lighter mood than “Vietnam” but just as determined a spirit. “You must try, try and try, try and try,” Cli warns.
1972: “The Harder They Come”
The title track to the movie which would mark the high point of his success, “The Harder They Come” has a spiky, muscular rhythm, the kind you could set to the forward march of a mass protest. It’s a sermon of retribution for oppressors — “the harder they fall, one and all” — and of earthly rewards for those who have been robbed: “So as sure as the sun will shine / I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine.”
Atkinson’s Revolutionary War trilogy to be adapted into graphic editions
American history meets comic book form in “The British Are Coming”
By Hillel Italie
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Prize-winning military historian Rick Atkinson, a comic book fan growing up, hadn’t imagined his own work being suitable for the illustrated format.
Ten Speed Graphic announced last Tuesday that a graphic edition of “The British Are Coming,” the rst volume of Atkinson’s acclaimed Revolutionary War trilogy, will be out next June, shortly before the country’s 250th anniversary. Five more graphic books are planned, to be written by Nora Neus and illustrated by Federico Pietrobon, with Atkinson in close collaboration.
“They are entirely amenable to my suggestions, ‘This isn’t quite right,’ or ‘I think this needs to be explained,’” Atkinson told The Associated Press. “With the drawings, I pointed out that John Adams, at the time the revolution began was a relatively young man. And they had made him look like the paunchy, bald John Adams of the vice presidency. And they xed it.” Atkinson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his World War II
“The British Are Coming: The Graphic Edition, Volume One” by Rick Atkinson reimagines the Revolutionary War in illustrated style.
book “An Army at Dawn,” has been working on his revolutionary trilogy for a decade and published the second volume, “The Fate of the Day,” this spring. Widely regarded as among the best living military historians, he was a featured commentator in Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution” documentary and has made numerous joint appearances with the lmmaker. He is currently working on thenal book of his trilogy. The author says that he was
SOLUTIONS FOR THIS WEEK
“I saw that the comic books of my youth have evolved considerably and I was enthused about it.”
Rick Atkinson
initially skeptical about the new project. With early memories of Superman comics, he wondered how any illustrator might adapt deeply researched books that run longer than 500 pages. But the graphic format has been used on everything from “The Odyssey” to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. Atkinson changed his mind after Ten Speed Graphic, a Penguin Random House imprint, sent him several adaptations, including of the life of Frederick Douglass and Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny.”
“I saw that the comic books of my youth have evolved considerably, and I was enthused about it,” Atkinson said. “They said, ‘We acknowledge this is serious history that you do. We don’t intend to dumb it down. Our ambition is to widen the audience, to pitch this story of the American founding to an audience that perhaps might be intimidated by a 560-page book.’”
JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP PHOTO Singer
famous birthdays this week
Je Bridges celebrates 76, Kim Basinger turns 72, Donny Osmond hits 68, Dame Judi Dench turns 91
The Associated Press THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.
DEC. 4
Actor-producer Max Baer Jr. is 88. Actor Gemma Jones is 83. Actor Je Bridges is 76. Actor Patricia Wettig is 74. Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson is 70. Basketball Hall of Famer Bernard King is 69. Actor Marisa Tomei is 61. Actor-comedian Fred Armisen is 59. Rapper Jay-Z is 56.
DEC. 5
Author Calvin Trillin is 90. Opera singer Jose Carreras is 79. Musician Jim Messina is 78. Golf Hall of Famer Lanny Wadkins is 76. Football Hall of Famer Art Monk is 68. Comedian-actor Margaret Cho is 57.
DEC. 6
Actor JoBeth Williams is 77. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is 73. Actor Tom Hulce is 72. Comedian Steven Wright is 70. Rock musician Peter Buck (R.E.M.) is 69. Animator Nick Park is 67. Actor Janine Turner is 63. Writer-director Judd Apatow is 58.
DEC. 7
Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky is 97. Actor Ellen Burstyn is 93. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 78. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits is 76. Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird is 69. Actor Je rey Wright is 60. Actor C. Thomas Howell is 59.
DEC. 8
Flutist James Galway is 86. Author Bill Bryson is 74. Actor Kim Basinger is 72. Commentator and columnist Ann Coulter is 64. Actor Wendell Pierce is 63. Actor Teri Hatcher is 61.
DEC. 9
Actor Judi Dench is 91. Ac-
tor Beau Bridges is 84. World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite is 76. Actor John Malkovich is 72. Singer Donny Osmond is 68. Actor Felicity Hu man is 63. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wall owers) is 56.
DEC. 10
Actor Fionnula Flanagan is 84. Actor-singer Gloria Loring is 79. Jazz musician Diane Schuur is 72. Actor-director Kenneth Branagh is 65. TV chef Bobby Flay is 61. Rock musician Meg White (The White Stripes) is 51.
FRANK FRANKLIN II / AP PHOTO
Jay-Z gestures from the sidelines before Super Bowl 59 between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025 in New Orleans. The rapper turns 56 on Thursday.
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH / AP PHOTO
Dame Judi Dench, pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2024, turns 91 on Tuesday.
the stream
George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Zac
Brown Band, Michelle Pfei
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds drop “Live God”
The Associated Press
GEORGE CLOONEY playing a dashing movie star with nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” and Zac Brown Band returning with fresh tunes are some of the new television, lms, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also, among the streaming o erings worth your time this week: The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+, Net ix has the American Western series “The Abandons” with women at the center of its story, and Nintendo’s Samus Aran returns with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
MOVIES TO STREAM
Clooney plays a dashing movie star with new nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” (Net ix on Friday), Noah Baumbach’s comic drama about fame and family. As Jay’s youngest daughter (Grace Edwards) prepares for college, a trip to Europe turns into a deeper self-examination. With Adam Sandler as Jay’s long-su ering manager and Laura Dern his publicist. In his review, the AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that “reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
The latest “Mission: Impossible” lm, “The Final Reckoning,” begins streaming on Paramount+ on Thursday. The Tom Cruise adventure, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, concludes the chapter begun with 2023’s “Dead Reckoning Part One.” Whether dead or nal, a reckoning may be in order for the eight- lm Ethan Hunt franchise. In her review, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr wrote: “In a series that has often been best when it’s not taking itself too seriously, dour developments start to feel a little unintentionally silly.”
The Christmas movies cometh. One of the rst out of the gate this year is “Oh. What. Fun.” (Now on Prime Video). Michelle Pfei er stars as a matriarch who, after years
er
“Reality and ction beautifully weave in and out in Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood.”
Mark Kennedy, AP Film Writer
of handling all the season’s festivities for an ungrateful family, goes missing. Michael Showalter directs a cast including Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary and Dominic Sessa.
MUSIC TO STREAM
Zac Brown Band re ects on life’s highs and lows on their new album, “Love & Fear,” out Friday. Some of the singles out so far include the Jimmy Buffett-like “I Ain’t Worried About It,” the weed-friendly “Let It Run” with Snoop Dogg, the
sweet ballad “Butter y” with Dolly Parton” and the anthemic party banger “Give It Away.” Perhaps the best of the bunch is “Hard Run” featuring Mar-
cus King, starting quietly with a twang, building to harmonies and some funk, adding a touch of Broadway and then someery guitar work. The band is
making a splash with the album’s drop date, performing at the Sphere in Las Vegas and kicking o several nights there in December and January.
If you adored Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds last album “Wild God,” here’s some good news: The alternative rock legend and his formidable band is releasing “Live God,” which includes live versions from the album, as well as catalog favorites such as “From Her to Eternity,” “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” and “Into My Arms.” And if you just can’t get enough of Cave, there’s more: The Royal Danish Library has put its “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition” online, allowing fans to explore 300 objects collected or created by Cave during his career.
SERIES TO STREAM
“The Abandons,” a new American Western series comes to Net ix with women at the center of its story. Taking place in the 1850s, Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey star as two widowed women who are the heads of their household and who are ghting over land. Kurt Sutter, who created “Sons of Anarchy,” is behind this one. Nick Robinson and Aisling Franciosi also star. It debuts Thursday.
Starz has a new “Spartacus” series out Friday called “Spartacus: House of Ashur.” Nick E. Tarabay reprises his role as Ashur from “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” and “Spartacus: Vengeance,” which explores what may have happened if the character had survived the events of “Vengeance” instead of being killed. This series also features a woman in a powerful role. Tenika Davis plays a female gladiator.
VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
Fans of Nintendo’s Samus Aran have been waiting a long time for the spacefaring bounty hunter to return to the 3D world of Metroid Prime. At long last, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is here — but it remains to be seen if Samus’ years in limbo have made her stronger. She has landed on a jungle planet lled with hostile wildlife, and another bounty hunter is in hot pursuit. In addition to her usual high-tech arsenal, Samus has gained some psychic powers — not to mention a wicked motorcycle. Can this long-delayed sequel live up to its beloved predecessors? Find out Thursday on Switch and Switch 2.
PETER MOUNTAIN / NETFLIX VIA AP
George Clooney stars in the comic drama “Jay Kelly.”
CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO
Tenika Davis poses for a portrait to promote “Spartacus: House of Ashur” during Comic-Con International in 2025 in San Diego. The series premieres Friday on Starz.
VIANNEY LE CAER / INVISION / AP PHOTO
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will release live versions of songs from their acclaimed album “Wild God” on the upcoming collection “Live God.”
HOKE COUNTY
K&W closes suddenly
A sign on the door of K&W Cafeteria in Greensboro announces the chain’s permanent closure. K&W, the Winston-Salem-based cafeteria that had been serving Southern comfort food since 1937, abruptly closed all nine remaining locations on Dec. 1. The company had 28 locations before the pandemic but led for bankruptcy in 2020 and was later acquired by Piccadilly Restaurants. More than 300 employees lost their jobs, and no reason was given for the sudden closure.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Dells donate $6.25B to encourage families to claim “Trump Accounts” Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged a historic $6.25 billion on Tuesday to provide an incentive to families to adopt new investment accounts for children. The so-called “Trump Accounts” were created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation but have not yet launched. Through their gift, the Dells will deposit $250 into the investment accounts of 25 million children aged 10 and younger as an incentive for their families to claim the accounts and make investments in the stock market.
Doctor says Trump had screening MRI with “perfectly normal” results
Donald Trump’s doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age. That’s according to a memo from the physician released by the White House on Monday. Sean Barbabella said in a statement that Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group. Barbabella concluded that the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was “perfectly normal.”
Leach, Southerland reelected as board chairman, vice chair
Three paid internships positions will be created within the Health Department
By Ryan Henkel North State Journal
RAEFORD — The Hoke County Board of Commissioners met Dec. 1 for its regular business meeting.
The board held a vote for its annual restructuring and reelected James Leach as chairman and Harry Southerland as vice chairman for the upcoming year.
“Thank each of you,” Leach said. “We do our best, and
that’s all we can do to serve you well, fair and equal.”
The board also held two public hearings for special use permits.
The rst hearing was to consider the allowance of a family cemetery on 0.5 acres of property on a 18.84-acre parcel located behind 7195 Turnpike Road.
In Hoke County, family cemeteries are allowed in RA-20 zoning districts with a special use permit.
According to the applicant, the cemetery will be used only for immediate family, and it will be both fenced in and buered with natural vegetation.
The second hearing was to
“We do our best and that’s all we can do to serve you well, fair and equal.”
James Leach, board chairman
consider allowing a mini storage warehouse facility on a portion of a 30-acre parcel located on Rock sh Road.
According to the applicant, this will be a two-phase project, with around 200 units to be constructed in the front section and the back section developed as needed should the front
section become fully utilized.
The hours of operation will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., although customers can pay extra for 24/7 access.
The board also approved the implementation of three paid internship positions with the Hoke County Health Department for health education students to help promote public health careers in Hoke County.
“This o ers a potential job opportunity, experience in the eld and just acquaints them with public health, especially in a rural county like Hoke County,” said Health Director Helene Edwards.
Hamlin breaks down in tears as rst witness testifying at NASCAR antitrust trial
He said signing the charter deal would have been a “death certi cate”
By Jenna Fryer The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE — The landmark federal antitrust trial against NASCAR opened Monday with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin breaking down in tears minutes into his testimony as the rst witness in a case that could upend the venerable stock car series.
Hamlin’s 23XI Racing, which he co-owns with Michael Jordan, and Front Row Motorsports claim the series is a monopolistic bully that leaves its teams no option but to comply with rules and nancing they don’t agree with.
As Jordan watched from the gallery, Hamlin began to cry and had to stop and compose himself when asked how he got into
racing. He disclosed to The Associated Press last month that his father is dying, and he said on the stand he was emotional because his dad “is not in great health.”
“We got to when I was about 20 and a decision had to be made, I could keep racing or go out and work for my dad’s trailer business,” Hamlin testi ed, adding that he later was thinking about what retirement looked like and found a team going out of business. He needed a partner and turned to Jordan, who he had developed a friendship with when the Basketball Hall of Famer owned the Charlotte Hornets and Hamlin was a season-ticket holder.
“If I can’t be successful with Michael as a partner, I knew this was never going to work,” he said. The references to his early days in auto racing and the sacri ces his family made were intended to show how di cult it is for both team owners and
DAN REEVES / NORTH STATE JOURNAL
JENNA FRYER / AP PHOTO
Michael Jordan arrives at the start of the antitrust trial between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR in Charlotte on Monday.
CHAIRMAN from page A1
The internship will be available to students at Fayetteville State University and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and it will be fully funded through grant funding.
“I think this will help encourage people to work in counties like Hoke County and give their services,” said Commissioner Tony Hunt.
The board also approved the disbursement of up to $200,000 in opioid funding to Bransjunsic and Tia Heart.
“When you have people in the community, people that can stand before us and give a description of what they’ve done and be accountable to these
WEEKLY FORECAST
THURSDAY
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NASCAR from page A1
noted how more than $703,000 three years ago was spent on costs to NASCAR ranging from entry fees, credentials for team members to enter the track and even access to Internet signals. He also said he and Jordan spent $100 million to build 23XI and “all it takes is one sponsor to go away and all our pro t is gone.”
Because of Jordan’s presence with the team, Hamlin testied, 23XI has turned a pro t in all but one of its ve seasons of operation. His attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, said in his opening statement that fast-food restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins has never turned a pro t since starting his Front Row team in 2004, a team that won the Daytona 500 in 2021. Kessler said a NASCAR-commissioned study found that 75% of teams lost money in 2024 and added that over a three-year period almost $400 million was paid to the France Family Trust. He said a 2023 evaluation by Goldman Sachs found NASCAR to be worth $5 billion. NASCAR is currently run by Jim France, son of founder Bill France Sr. “What the evidence is going to show is Mr. France ran this for the bene t of his family at the expense of the teams and sport,” Kessler said.
Hamlin testifed that the TV deal NASCAR signed ahead of the 2025 season has not been a boon to race teams because of a shift toward streaming sponsors and big-ticket sponsors want to
dollars, that’s what I’m going to support 100%,” said Commissioner Allen Thomas.
The board currently has a little over $1.1 million in total opioid funding and are expecting to receive around $1.2 million more over the next ve years.
“I’m sure this board is well appraised of the various opioid funds that continue to come down, but I will say that outside of this main settlement, the county manager and I have seen no more dollars come into Hoke County,” said Emergency Services Director Andrew Jacobs. “This is all we’ve been given.”
The Hoke County Board of Commissioners will next meet Dec. 15.
be on television. He also referred to a meeting with NASCAR chairman Jim France, who indicated teams are spending too much and it should only cost $10 million per car.
At the heart of the lawsuit is NASCAR’s revenue sharing model, which 23XI and Front Row argue is unfair to race teams that often operate at a loss. Hamlin testi ed it cost $20 million to simply bring a single car to the track over a 38-race season, not including overhead expenses such as driver salary and business operations.
“We cannot cut more. Tell me how to get my investment back? He had no answer,” Hamlin said.
“So why would these people do this if you are just going to lose money because NASCAR isn’t giving you a fair deal?” asked Kessler, “Because you love stock car racing, and there’s nowhere else to do it.”
The charter agreements signed for this year that triggered the lawsuit guarantee the teams $12.5 million in annual revenue per chartered car. NASCAR argues the guaranteed payouts are an increase from $9 million from the previous agreement, but Hamlin noted that 11 of the rst 19 chartered teams are no longer in business.
As for refusing to sign the charter agreements last fall, Hamlin said the last-ditch proposal from NASCAR “had eight points minimum that needed to be changed. When we pointed
that out we were told, ‘Negotiations are closed.’”
“I didn’t sign because I knew this was my death certi cate for the future,” he said, later adding: “I have spent 20 years trying to make this sport grow as a driver and for the last ve years as a team owner. 23XI is doing our part. You can’t have someone treat you this unfairly, and I knew It wasn’t right. They were wrong, and someone needed to be held accountable.”
Under cross-examination, Hamlin was asked why he paints a rosier picture of NASCAR on podcast appearances. He replied that he is regurgitating NASCAR talking points because any negative comments can lead to retribution.
All three charters 23XI purchased came from teams that ceased operations, and Hamlin said 23XI paid $4.7 million for its rst charter, $13.5 million for its second and $28 million for its third, acquired late last year. He acknowledged purchasing the third charter was a risk because of the pending litigation — and the price concerned him — but it was required if 23XI intends to build itself into a top team. The charter system guarantees a car a spot in the eld each race week as well as a percentage of the purse. It also gives team owners an asset to sell should they want to get out of the business.
NASCAR attorneys argued that the charter system has created $1.5 billion in equity for the 36 chartered teams. Prior
to the charter system, teams raced “open,” with no guarantee they’d make the eld or earn a payout.
“The France family built NASCAR from nothing. They are an American success story,” Johnny Stephenson said in the opening statement for NASCAR. Stephenson is a colleague of Christopher Yates, who had previously handled most of the courtroom arguments for the defendants.
“They’ve done it through hard work over 75 years. That’s the kind of e ort that doesn’t deserve a lawsuit. That’s the kind of e ort that deserves admiration.” The case has churned through hearings and arguments for more than a year despite calls from other NASCAR teams to settle. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell even helped mediate a failed two-day summit in October.
A NASCAR victory could put 23XI, Front Row and their six combined cars out of business. Their charters — now being held by NASCAR — would likely be sold. The last charter went for $45 million, and NASCAR has indicated there is interest from potential buyers, including private equity rms.
A win for the teams could lead to monetary damages and the potential demolition of NASCAR as it is run today. The judge has the power to unravel a monopoly, and nothing is o the table, from ordering a sale of NASCAR to the dismantling of the charter system.
A podcast local to Hoke-Raeford, NC, with Ruben Castellon and Chris Holland.
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
Marjorie Taylor Greene embodies the inanity of populism
Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
DURING A RECENT stop on her image rehab tour, Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN’s Dana Bash that she is sorry “for taking part in the toxic politics.” It has been, she added, “bad for the country.” A week later, Greene nally did something patriotic by announcing her retirement.
It’s fair to say Greene is one of the most well-known GOP House members in the nation. Greene, though, is famous because her nitwittery has been endlessly highlighted by the media and Democrats to cast the Republican Party as one of hayseeds and conspiracists.
And, in all fairness, Greene might be one of the biggest ignoramuses to ever serve in Congress, which is no small achievement when one considers the “Squad” exists. If I asked you to name a single piece of legislation Greene has sponsored, you would probably be at a loss. If I asked you to name an important policy she has championed, an uplifting speech she has delivered or an area of expertise she has mastered, you would not think of any because there have been none.
Once the president reportedly dissuaded her from running for higher o ce in Georgia, Greene’s loyalty dissipated. Scorned, she became rudderless and useless. There is nothing left for her because there was not much there to begin with.
Donald Trump has contended that Greene went “BAD” and became a “ranting lunatic.” This is wrong. She has always been a ranting lunatic and an early adopter of the unhinged conspiratorial notions that have now infected so much of the populist right.
“I was a victim, just like you were, of media
lies and stu you read on social media,” Greene appealed to the women on “The View” when confronted with her past. It’s undeniable that the (well-earned) collapse of trust in both media and experts has created a vacuum that’s now lled by a horde of hucksters.
Victims such as Greene are easy marks for online con artists and propagandists because they lack a substantive belief system, organizing principles, coherent worldviews or historical perspective to repel conspiracies. Asking questions can be an admirable quality of an inquisitive mind. Asking questions such as “Are space-based solar lasers built by the Rothschilds starting California wild res?” makes you a paranoid dolt.
Greene, of course, was in on the Pizzagate and QAnon stu from the beginning. She suggested that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas may have been staged by gun control activists and questioned whether the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a “massive false ag.” You would be hard-pressed to nd a conspiracy on the “right” that she did not entertain.
Let us also not forget that Greene was one of the rst — and only — elected o cials to cozy up to the Groypers who are being normalized by the online NatCon Right. Greene spoke at a 2022 white nationalist junior varsity jamboree in Florida held by Tucker Carlson’s friend Nick Fuentes, who believes that Jews are “race traitors,” denies the Holocaust happened and believes segregation was bene cial for black Americans.
Florida’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood just the beginning
Abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam.
THIS MONTH, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmier led a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for false advertising.
Not over a billing dispute or a sloppy ad claim. Instead, the country’s largest abortion provider has been telling women that its “product” — speci cally the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — is “as safe as taking a Tylenol.”
The truth is far more serious.
As a Florida mother of four daughters, I’m relieved to see our state o cials recognize the increased risks of taking the abortion pill and the life that it ends inside the womb. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. Furthermore, the FDA should take note and remove its approval of all abortion drugs and review these risks in-depth for the safety of all women.
The Florida lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood’s campaign to induce women to purchase abortion drugs by misrepresenting the risks of chemical abortion violates the Florida law. The gross misrepresentation of a drug designed intentionally to take the life of a preborn child can be found on Planned Parenthood’s website, in printed materials, and in television advertisements. In fact, the organization claims that chemical abortion is “extremely safe” in all its descriptions.
However, the data suggests otherwise.
A recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims shows one in 10 women su er severe complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. We’re talking about things like hemorrhaging, infections or even sepsis, which can turn deadly fast. That’s 22 times higher than what the prescription label claims. Doesn’t sound like Tylenol to me.
Chemical abortion involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The rst pill
starves the developing baby; the second forces the mother’s body to deliver her dead child through hours of violent cramping and bleeding, often far worse than the “mild period” symptoms Planned Parenthood describes. Post-abortive testimonials say they were lied to, left alone on bathroom oors, terri ed and hemorrhaging, some permanently scarred or sterilized.
Planned Parenthood’s lies are a deliberate cover-up for the violence they knowingly in ict. By denying the scienti c fact that life begins at conception, they not only hurt women with these drugs but also take the innocent life in the womb. And abortion pill access is easier than ever, even in our pro-life state. Due to the Biden administration’s elimination of nearly all safeguards, abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam, ultrasound or follow-up care. Furthermore, there are no regulations governing where or to whom these pills are distributed. Women, many of them minors, are left alone to bleed out in their bathrooms, risking their health and future fertility, all while Planned Parenthood cashes in on another customer.
The Florida lawsuit is a crucial step in the process, but we can’t stop here. This ling should be a wake-up call to the FDA, acting as a catalyst for the new HHS leadership to nally review the abortion pill’s risks as promised. Planned Parenthood must be held fully accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. The FDA should immediately remove its approval of all abortion drugs and conduct a thorough, unbiased review for the safety of every mother and the protection of every child.
This bold action by Uthmeier builds on the courageous leadership of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Florida a national beacon for protecting preborn life over the past several years. From signing the 15-week protection in 2022 to boldly enacting
At the time, Greene pleaded ignorance of these positions, contending she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people. She never once confronted attendees to rethink their identitarian views, as she basked in their applause. Greene is either mind-bogglingly gullible or an ally. With her, both options are wholly plausible.
Let us be charitable and concede it’s the former. Greene is no less credulous these days as she tries to appeal to the left. She broke with Trump by falling for the Democrats’ scaremongering over Obamacare subsidies during the government shutdown. She bought the Gaza “genocide” hoax just like she bought into Pizzagate. A big proponent of releasing the Epstein “ les,” Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges. I’m often told that it’s “elitist” to mock these champions of average Americans. We need more “normal” people in Congress, they say. Absolutely. We have too many lawyers and professional activists running in Washington and far too few successful Americans who comprehend the real-world concerns of a diverse population. To say Greene is a normal American, however, is to contend that a normal American is an imbecile, which is not true. Indeed, there are millions of “average” Americans who are curious, smart, idealistic, capable and problem solvers. The representative of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District possesses none of those attributes. Greene’s resignation from Congress will take e ect on Jan. 6, 2026, exactly in time for a lifelong pension to kick in. Greene was unable to ful ll a two-year commitment to her constituents because her feelings were hurt. Despite enabling her twice, they should consider themselves lucky. We have always had embarrassingly low standards for electing o cials. But they are not often this low.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.
the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2023, banning abortion after six weeks when a baby’s heartbeat can already be detected, DeSantis has stood unapologetically for the most vulnerable among us. He fought tirelessly against the radical Amendment 4 last year, which would have stripped away nearly all protections for preborn children and allowed abortion on demand up to birth in many cases.
Thanks to DeSantis’ leadership and the e orts of pro-life Floridians, Amendment 4 was defeated, falling short of the required 60% even as the abortion industry poured millions into deceiving voters.
Yet the abortion lobby is still attempting a run-around of our laws by ooding Florida with mail-order pills and out-of-state telehealth prescriptions. Chemical abortion already accounts for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide. If we allow these dangerous drugs to ow unchecked into our state, we will undo everything Florida families have fought for.
That’s why this lawsuit matters. That’s why Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to reexamine the abortion pill’s risks matters. And that’s why we must keep pushing until these drugs are removed from the market entirely.
In his X post about the lawsuit, Uthmeier said, “We stand by our women.” But Planned Parenthood does not.
Here in the “Free State of Florida,” under leaders like DeSantis and Uthmeier, we will keep leading the nation by exposing the lies of the abortion industry, defending women and their innocent children, and fostering a culture of life because every human life from conception is sacred and deserves protection.
Kimberly Bird is a communications specialist at Live Action and lives in Florida with her husband and four children. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI
Why doing good also makes us feel good, during holiday season, beyond
Volunteering brings people closer to their communities
By Christina Larson
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The holiday season is a time for giving thanks, giving gifts — and for many, a time for giving back.
Food banks, services that deliver meals to seniors and other U.S. charities typically see a surge in volunteering between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. But there are good reasons to volunteer at any time of the year.
Alfred Del Grosso volunteers weekly to work the lunch shift at Shepherd’s Table, a food bank in Silver Spring, Maryland. “I feel more connected to the broader community,” he said.
Most Thursdays, the retired chemist from Kensington, Maryland, also lends an unpaid hand to help clear fallen trees and brush from local trails with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. “It’s mostly volunteers who help maintain the trails,” he said.
Researchers who study human evolution and social psychology say that giving back is deeply rooted in human nature. Volunteers say they feel closer ties to the communities they serve.
“When we feel grateful for all we have, that motivates us to do good things for other people who have helped us, and also to do good things for new people,” said Sarah Schnitker, a psychologist at Baylor University.
“There’s a nice upwards recip-
Nearly half of the 16,000 truck driving schools could be forced to close
By Josh Funk The Associated Press
NEARLY 44% OF THE 16,000 truck driving schools in the U.S. may be forced to close after a review by the federal Transportation Department found they may not be complying with government requirements.
The Transportation Department said Monday that it plans to revoke the accreditation of nearly 3,000 schools unless they can comply with training requirements in the next 30 days. The targeted schools must notify students that their accreditation is in jeopardy. Another 4,000 schools are being warned they may face similar action.
Separately, the Department of Homeland Security is audit-
rocal spiral between gratitude and generosity,” often enhanced at holiday times, she said.
For many in the U.S., the season most associated with giving, receiving and volunteering runs from Thanksgiving through Hanukkah and Christmas to New Year’s.
But around the world, a giving season or festival is present in many cultures, said Amrisha Vaish, a developmental psychologist at the University of Virginia.
“Nearly all cultures have events or public festivals that allow people to express gratitude,” she said. “In Hinduism, Divali is a time of lights and festiveness and good eating, but also a time in which people give gifts to really express what people have meant to them.”
For Muslims, Ramadan, which ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr, is a time for reection, gratitude and acts of
charity. Many Buddhist traditions also emphasize gratitude.
The common purpose of such seasons, which also include nonreligious acts of service, is to reinforce our natural cooperative tendencies, Vaish said.
“In human evolutionary history over hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve had to become cooperative in order to work together and survive as a species,” she said.
“We don’t have sharp claws, high speed, many other natural abilities. But what we do have is that we’re super cooperators; we can do more in groups than alone.”
Of course, humans aren’t always cooperative and generous — sometimes we’re also sel sh and stubborn. The tension between selfishness and altruism was recognized even by Darwin, said Michael Tomasello, a psycholo-
ing trucking rms in California owned by immigrants to verify the status of their drivers and whether they are qualied to hold a commercial driver’s license.
This crackdown on trucking schools and companies is the latest step in the government’s e ort to ensure that truck drivers are quali ed and eligible to hold a commercial license. This began after a truck driver that Transportation Secretary Sean
Du y says was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. Du y has threatened to pull federal funding from California and Pennsylvania over the issue, and he proposed signi cant new restrictions on which immigrants can get a commercial driver’s license but a court put those new rules on hold.
“We are reining in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses,” Du y said.
The Transportation Department said the 3,000 schools it is taking action against failed to meet training standards and didn’t maintain accurate and complete records. The schools are also accused of falsifying or manipulating training data.
The list of schools being targeted wasn’t immediately released.
Trucking industry groups have praised the e ort to tight-
Volunteers help pack boxes as part of Mountaire’s annual Thanksgiving for Thousands program in Siler City last month. Nearly 10,000 meals were packed and distributed.
“When we feel grateful for all we have, that motivates us to do good things for other people who have helped us, and also to do good things for new people.”
Sarah Schnitker, psychologist
a nurse in Owosso, Michigan, she began volunteering for the American Red Cross, starting out by minding the o ce phones during blood drives before gradually taking on more organizational and administrative responsibilities.
“It’s a good way to spend your time, making the lives of others a little easier,” Thelen said. “I wanted to do something that helps the community.
gist at Duke University. “That’s why life is so complicated. We have all these motives mapped together.”
But re ecting with gratitude on what we have, and seeing others do good, can encourage our most generous tendencies, experts say.
On an individual level, “giving, volunteering and generosity have the ability to increase our sense of meaning and purpose in life,” said Jenae Nelson, a developmental psychologist at Brigham Young University
“There’s a quick dopamine hit sometimes called the ‘helpers high.’ But there’s also that deeper reward of helping us to establish purpose and meaning,” she said. “By helping other people and believing that small acts can change the world, you can bring coherence to your own life.”
After Mia Thelen retired as
“And I’m learning a lot: learning computer skills, learning communication skills. I have great co-volunteers.”
She enjoys feeling more connected with her neighbors.
Another common holiday tradition — sending greeting cards to family and old friends — also provides a chance to enhance or renew social ties, which people are often surprisingly reluctant to do, said Lara Aknin, a social psychologist at Simon Fraser University.
Her research has shown that “people are actually hesitant to reach out to old friends, they worry about being a burden or an inconvenience,” she said. But on the ip side, “people who’ve just heard from old friends report it as a really positive experience.”
So go ahead and write those cards or make those phone calls, she said. Use the holidays as an excuse to reconnect, and share a laugh or a warm mulled drink.
up about 40% of truck driving on the West Coast and about 20% nationwide. Advocacy groups estimate about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers work in the U.S.
en up licensing standards and ensure that drivers can meet basic English pro ciency requirements the Trump administration began enforcing this summer. But groups that represent immigrant truck drivers say they believe many quali ed drivers and companies are being targeted simply because of their citizenship status.
“Bad actors who exploit loopholes in our regulatory systems are putting everyone at risk. This is unacceptable,” said Paul J. Enos, CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association. “We are focused on solutions and resolute on seeing them implemented.”
Truck drivers of the Sikh faith have been been caught in the cross re and faced harassment because the drivers in the Florida crash and another deadly crash in California this fall were both Sikhs.
The North American Punjabi Truckers Association estimates that the Sikh workforce makes
Integrity Open Arms Residents of the Month
Lee Hobson
Robert General has been a resident at Open Arms since August 2021. He was born in South Carolina, relocated to Richmond Virginia and later moved to North Carolina. Robert enjoys BINGO, church and knitting. He is a joy to have here at Open Arms Retirement Center.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond immediately to questions about the e ort to verify the immigration status of truck drivers, but the United Sikhs advocacy group said they have heard directly from Punjabi company owners about these aggressive audits of immigration records.
“Sikh and immigrant truckers with spotless records are being treated like suspects while they keep America’s freight moving,” the United Sikhs group said. “When federal agencies frame lawful, licensed drivers as risks, it doesn’t improve safety — it fuels xenophobia, harassment, and even violence on the road. Any policy built on fear instead of facts endangers families, civil rights, and the national supply chain.” California moved to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses after federal o cials raised concerns that they had been issued improperly to immigrants or allowed to remain valid long after a driver’s work permit expired.
Lee Hobson has been with the company for over 15 years and the residents truly love him for his warm personality and the time he spends with them. When he is not in the kitchen preparing delicious meals you can often find him leading cooking classes and sharing his passion for food with the residents. He also enjoys spending time with his family playing cards and watching sports.
Mrs. Florence Herbert has been a resident here since May 2021. She moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania to escape the bad weather. Florence enjoys word searches, BINGO, watching TV and spending time with her friends on the Special Care Unit at Integrity Open Arms.
Mrs. Betty Purcell is from Raeford, North Carolina. She moved into our assisted living this past June. Besides being the mother of two, she worked for many years at Burlington Mills. Betty enjoys church, watching youtube and doing word searches.
Integrity would like to thank
happy to discuss your needs or questions. W here to help!
GENE GALIN FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL
HOKE SPORTS
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Kierra Rush
Hoke County girls’ wrestling
Rush is a senior on the Hoke County girls’ wrestling team. She is coming o a fourth-place nish at states as a junior and looks to improve on that in her senior campaign.
At the King of Wake tournament last week, Rush got a win by fall over Millbrook’s Ella Friedman at 1:37 to take rst place at 138 pounds.
Rush also recorded her 100th career win last week.
Hoke introduces Hollingsworth as new head baseball coach
Girls’ wrestling has a big tournament
North State Journal sta
Wrestling
The Hoke girls’ wrestling team had a strong showing at the King of Wake tournament. Isabella Maurice got a pinfall win to take rst place at 100 pounds. Kierra Rush nished rst at 138. Jada Lebron earned a pinfall win to nish rst at 145. Nadia Barber got a fall for rst place at 152. Noelia Hipolito took rst at 165. Harley Hardin (120) took second. Andi Wright (132) and Quinnisha McCrimmon (235) took third.
Baseball
The Hoke County baseball team introduced its new head coach. Jeremy Hollingsworth, a longtime assistant with the varsity team and JV coach, will take over the squad. Hollingsworth has also coached baseball at Sandy Grove and East Hoke Middle Schools as well as several travel league teams.
Basketball
Hoke County boys’ basketball won its third straight game to start the season, 64-57 at St. Pauls. The undefeated run then ended with a 68-43 loss to Trinity Christian.
Machai Brown had 11 points in the win, with Gabriel McLeod adding 10. Josiah Jacobs led the way with 13 against Trinity.
The Bucks host Seventy-First this week and open next week with a trip to Westover.
The Hoke girls won their third
straight to start the season, 56-47 at St. Pauls. Karmen Campbell led the way with 25 points and 10 rebounds. JaNiyah Leak and Brylah Scott each added 11 rebounds.
The Lady Bucks host Seventy-First this week, looking to match last season’s win total.
College football mascots just as good at keeping their identities secret as ring up a crowd
Schools keep the person under the suit a secret, often until graduation
By Mike Householder The Associated Press
EAST LANSING, Mich. —
Ross Ramsey enjoys spending time with fellow alums at Michigan State football tailgates. These aren’t just any old former Spartans, though.
They were Sparty himself — something few knew when Ramsey and his pals donned the muscular mascot suit two decades ago.
“Once you are done being Sparty, you can tell others that you were Sparty,” said Ramsey, a physician and hospital administrator in Pigeon, Michigan. “And clearly you have a close bond with those others who were in the same role as you, because they couldn’t share that experience with anyone else at the time, either.”
Ramsey and his buddies are members of an elite fellowship of ex-mascots. Men and women who once carried on as Big Al, Alabama’s lovable elephant; the Disney-inspired Oregon Duck; Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger and many more. We’re talking humans in suits, not live animal mascots, which also are xtures on college football Saturdays. The job for costumed mascots is to re up the crowd, bring a smile to a fan’s face and symbolically represent the university.
“When you think of Michigan State, you think of Sparty. And everybody knows what the mascot is,” said Phil Lator, another former Sparty who joins Ramsey at the tailgates and also successfully concealed his alter ego during his tenure in East Lansing.
Anonymity is the name of the game for many college mascots.
“Some programs value secrecy so highly that multiple performers report to the stadium but only learn in the moment who will actually be suiting up,” said Je Birdsell, a communication professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Birdsell has experience in these matters, having served as Point Loma’s mascot as an undergrad, as well as inhabiting suits for minor league baseball, NBA G League and indoor soccer teams.
“Some schools have traditions where they work hard to keep the performers anonymous so that there can be a big reveal as part of graduation ceremonies,” he said.
Enter Nicole Hurley, who came clean about her Cocky past at South Carolina’s spring commencement, rolling into the arena wearing her cap, gown and oversized
COURTESY HOKE WRESTLING / FACEBOOK
COURTESY HC BUCKS ATHLETICS / FACEBOOK Jeremy Hollingsworth takes over as Hoke County’s varsity baseball coach.
WILFREDO LEE / AP PHOTO Miami mascot Sebastian the Ibis leads the team onto the eld before the start of a game. See MASCOTS, page B2
MASCOT from page B1
yellow bird feet of the bird mascot.
“When I walked across the stage, I felt so much joy. The whole arena started to clap and cheer, and it made me emotional,” said Hurley, a pediatric hematology oncology nurse in Charleston, South Carolina.
Only Hurley’s roommates and parents knew about her second life.
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics and created excuses when I was not free on the weekends due to working private events,” Hurley said. “When people I know would come up to take a photo with me when I was Cocky and they had no idea I was the one under the suit was the craziest feeling.”
Carlos Polanco-Zaccardi, whose years inside Miami’s Sebastian the Ibis costume were known only to a select few, also became pro cient at hiding his true identity. The 2025 graduate of the “U” toted his bird get-up around campus in an enormous du el bag. When confronted, Polanco-Zaccardi would supply a white lie depending on the questioner.
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics”
Nicole Hurley, former Cocky the Gamecock
“For my friends, I told them that I was one of the party performers on stilts that perform at weddings, bar mitzvahs and birthday parties,” he said. Like the Michigan State guys, Hurley and Polanco-Zaccardi, costumed performers at the collegiate level almost always are students.
That intense school pride doesn’t go away for many ex-mascots, long after they’ve stopped wearing the fur. Just ask Scott Ferry, another Sparty alum and tailgate regular whose passion for the greenand-white hasn’t ebbed.
“The spirit of the university is critical,” said Ferry, who these days owns and operates a farm and meat-processing facility an hour south of campus.
“We don’t want to just be an individual. We want to be the icon of the university at all times.”
What do an axe, bucket, cannon have in common? Meet
college football’s
beloved rivalry trophies
The weird assortment of objects has a long, emotional history
By Dave Campbell The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — The most-played series in major college football history, the bitter border-state rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin, is punctuated each year with a postgame ritual.
The victors sprint toward Paul Bunyan’s Axe, take turns hoisting the 6-foot shaft above their heads as they parade it around the stadium, and pretend to chop down one of the goal posts. The axe has been awarded annually since 1948.
There’s hardly a richer — or quirkier — tradition in college football than rivalry trophies.
“It’s a way for a community — certainly the students, alumni, fans and faculty, but even more casual fans — to get revved up for a football game,” said Christian Anderson, a University of South Carolina professor whose research focus is on the history of higher education. “There are a lot of people who may not pay attention the whole season, and then the rivalry game comes and they’re a passionate fan for one Saturday.”
Longtime members of the Big Ten boast perhaps the richest history of these one-of-akind prizes. The Little Brown Jug, which is neither little nor brown, dates to the Michigan-Minnesota game in 1903. Wolverines coach Fielding Yost, out of fear the Gophers might tamper with their water, had a student manager buy a jug for the team. After a brutal
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals.”
Professor Christian Anderson
struggle ended in a tie as Minnesota fans stormed the eld, the container was left behind. The Gophers formally returned it after the Wolverines won the next meeting in 1909. Minnesota fared better at the beginning with Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig named after the state’s governor, who suggested the trophy to his Iowa counterpart in 1935.
Indiana faces Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket, found in disrepair on a local farm in 1925 with the belief it might have been used by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Indiana and Michigan State have competed since 1950 for the Old Brass Spittoon. Illinois and Ohio State have played for a century for the Illibuck Trophy, now a wooden turtle after an ill-fated attempt to award the real thing — a 16-pound snapper. Michigan and Michigan State have fought since 1953 for annual ownership of the Paul Bunyan Trophy, a 4-foot wooden statue of the mythical lumberjack.
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals,” Anderson said. “Maybe we only keep it for a year because it’s a traveling trophy, but next time we’re going back to get it if we didn’t win it.”
The NCAA certi ed the Territorial Cup played for by Arizona and Arizona State as the
oldest known rivalry trophy, awarded after their rst meeting in 1899. It was missing for decades until its rediscovery in a storage area of a church near the ASU campus in 1983.
Nevada and UNLV play for the Fremont Cannon, a 545-pound replica of the cannon the explorer of the same name abandoned in a snowstorm during his trek through the state in 1844.
Notre Dame and USC have the Jewelled Shillelagh, a wooden symbol of a traditional Gaelic war club that was rst presented in 1952. California and Stanford play for an axe, too, awarded since 1933. Kentucky and Tennessee battle for a beer barrel.
When Mississippi fans stormed Mississippi State’s eld after a Rebels win in 1926, MSU supporters balked and brawls broke out. To help restore dignity to the rivalry the following year, the student bodies from both schools introduced the Golden Egg, a gold-plated football mounted on a pedestal. Fortunately, the egg never gets too close to Dallas-Fort Worth, where SMU and TCU have played for the Iron Skillet since 1946.
The Slab of Bacon is safely away from the skillet, too. That was the rst version of the Minnesota-Wisconsin hardware, a wooden slab that went missing in 1943 after the planned exchange following a Gophers victory never took place.
A summer storage cleanout project in Madison in 1994 turned up the trophy, which Wisconsin has since kept on display.
MARTINA HURLEY VIA AP
Nicole Hurley poses for a photo on the day of University of South Carolina’s commencement ceremony, wearing her cap, gown and Cocky the mascot feet.
STACY BENGS / AP PHOTO
Wisconsin players hold up Paul Bunyan’s Axe up after a win over Minnesota.
Lydia Wilson
March 4, 1961 – Nov. 21, 2025
Lydia Wilson, born on March 4, 1961, passed away on November 21, 2025, at the age of 64.
Nov. 4, 1959 – Nov. 27, 2025
Judi Danielle Palmer passed away on November 27, 2025, at the age of 66. She was born on November 4, 1959.
Ronnie H. Hamm
Aug. 9, 1959 – Nov. 25, 2025
Ronnie H Hamm, born on August 9, 1959, passed away on November 25, 2025, at the age of 66.
David Michael Deskin
May 14, 1983 – Nov. 19, 2025
David Michael Deskin passed away on November 19, 2025. He was born on May 14, 1983, in Ft Benning, Georgia, to Diane Deskin and the late Roger Deskin.
David was a proud Diesel Mechanic who loved listening to loud rock music. He loved the Dallas Cowboys, his tools, and his truck. Some of his happiest times were spent working on vehicles with his children. David also enjoyed playing videos games with his family.
He is survived by his wife, Tracey Deskin; his son, Brandon Deskin; his daughter, Amber Deskin; his mother, Diane Deskin; and one sister, Terrie Deskin.
obituaries
Joan Harlow Balfour
Sept.13, 1933 – Nov. 23, 2025
Joan Harlow Balfour, age 92, passed away peacefully on November 23, 2025, surrounded by her family and loved ones.
Joan was born and raised in Amory, Mississippi to the late James and Louise Harlow.
Alongside her parents, Joan was preceded in death by her husband of 44 years, John Balfour Sr.
After Joan graduated from the University of Greensboro, Joan and John Balfour established their home in Lumber Bridge, NC where her husband grew cotton. Her experience as the wife of a cotton grower led her to become an advocate for agriculture. She was named to two positions with the National Cotton Women’s Committee, a volunteer force of women dedicated to promoting U.S. Cotton.
Joan was a dedicated member of Lumber Bridge Presbyterian Church for many years until her health declined. She served on a number of committees at her church, and she was a District President of the Fayetteville Presbytery.
Additionally, she served on the Board of Directors of the Hoke Civic Center and was on the board of the Raeford Chapter of the North Carolina Symphony. She also served as an o cer of the Hoke County Arts Counsel.
Joan is survived by her son, John and his wife Suzanne; her grandsons, Jonathan and his partner, Bailey, Glenn and his wife, Jordan; greatgrandchildren, Jones, Jennings, Jameson, and Gracie.
The Balfour family would like to give a special thanks to Joans Caregivers, Vivian Gibson, Sheila Kittrell, and Lisa Carroll. They would also like to recognize Pruitt Health Hospice and Palliative Care for all of the excellent care they provided.
A visitation will be held on Saturday, November 29, 2025, from 1-2 p.m. at Lumber Bridge Presbyterian Church, 400 N Fayetteville Street, Lumber Bridge NC, 28357. A Funeral Service will follow at 2 p.m. with an immediate burial at the Lumber Bridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
In Lieu of owers, donations can be made to the Lumber Bridge Presbyterian Church Music Department.
Melody McFarlane
April 3, 1955 – Nov. 18, 2025
On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, Melody McFarlane passed away peacefully at home in Raeford, NC. She was a Vietnam-era veteran with the United States Air Force and a professional typesetter/desktop publisher.
She was both an avid reader and arts and crafts enthusiast.
She is survived by her son Embrey Young and his wife Angela of Waynesboro, VA, her son Alan Cleveland and his partner Krissy of Raeford, NC and their 4 children, and her Brother James Crawford of Colorado Springs, CO. Services will be private.
Ellodene Dennis Lamberton
Jan. 5, 1930 – Nov. 21, 2025
Mrs. Ellodene Dennis Lamberton went to be with her Lord in the early morning hours of Friday, November 21, 2025, while in her home in the company of her sons and grandson. Ellodene was born on January 5, 1930, to George and Dorothy Dennis of West Clarksville, NY.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 61 years, Perry Lamberton, and by their daughter, Natalie. Also by her four brothers, Robert, George, Manley, and Ronald.
She is survived by her three sons Michael (Kay), Kelly, and Brad Lamberton and by her siblings Betty Dunshie, Sharon (Melvyn “Butch”) Robinson and James Dennis. She is also survived by her six grandchildren: Jason Lamberton (Christine), Natalie Lamberton (Andy Hall), Jamie Carroll-Kilic (Alper), Mackenzie Lamberton, Dana Lamberton, and Trevor Lamberton and by ve greatgrandchildren: Benjamin, Noah, Bentley, Tyson, and Sophie.
A special thanks to Ms. Tammy Wilkerson for her loving support of Ms. Ellodene and the Lamberton family during this di cult time.
Ms. Ellodene was a member of the class of 1947 at Richburg Central School. She then brie y attended Rochester Business School. She moved to Lumberton, NC with her husband and sons in 1968, after which she spent her career as a Legal Secretary.
Ms. Ellodene was a lovely lady whose primary focus in life was always to put her family before herself. She was happiest when surrounded by her sons and other family members, sharing time, food, and stories together. Her delightful laugh and beaming smile would brighten up any group of which she was a part.
After moving to Lumberton, she and her husband, Perry, took up the sport of golf, which had a lasting impression on her children and grandchildren who still enjoy the sport today. She and Perry enjoyed many travels in their time, including several cruises and, for many years, an annual trip to their home state of New York, where they would spend time in their cabin with their family and friends.
She was skilled at quilting, crocheting, painting, canning and baking. She enjoyed a nightly Manhattan, a favorite of the Lamberton family, and playing with her children and grandchildren in a game of cribbage (occasionally letting them win, but more often skunking them). She enjoyed spending time at the beach soaking up the sun and reading a good book, but especially sharing stories and time with her family at the end of the day.
A family friend says, “It’s a sad event, of course. But boy, she ran the marathon, stayed healthy. She was the nicest lady, but was tough too, and that really paid o in the long run.”
Ms. Ellodene was a member of the First Baptist Church of Red Springs, where friends are invited to attend a celebration of life on Thursday, December 4 at 2 p.m. A private family burial will take place in her hometown of West Clarksville, NY, at a later date.
Former Black Panther leader H. Rap Brown dies in prison hospital at 82
He was serving a life sentence for killing a Georgia sheri ’s deputy
The Associated Press
BUTNER — H. Rap Brown, one of the most vocal leaders of the Black Power movement, has died in a prison hospital while serving a life sentence for the killing of a Georgia sheri ’s deputy. He was 82. Brown — who later in life changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin — died Sunday at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, his widow, Karima AlAmin, said Monday. A cause of death was not immediately available, but Karima Al-Amin told The Associated Press that her husband had been su ering from cancer and had been transferred to the medical facility in 2014 from a federal prison in Colorado. Like other more militant black leaders and organizers during the racial upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brown decried heavy-handed policing in black communities. He once stated that violence was “as American as cherry pie.”
“Violence is a part of America’s culture,” he said during a 1967 news conference. “... America taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression, if necessary. We will be free by any means necessary.”
Brown was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a powerful civil rights group, and in 1968 was named minister of justice for the Black Panther Party.
Three years later, he was arrested for a robbery that ended in a shootout with New York police.
While serving a ve-year prison sentence for the robbery, Brown converted to the Dar-ul Islam movement and changed his name. Upon his release, he moved to Atlanta in 1976, opened a grocery and health food store, and became an Imam, a spiritual leader for local Muslims.
“I’m not dissatis ed with what I did,” he told an audience in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1998. “But Islam has allowed things to be clearer. ... We have to be concerned about the welfare of ourselves and those around us, and that comes through submission to God and the raising of one’s consciousness.”
On March 16, 2000, Fulton County Deputy Sheri Ricky Kinchen and deputy Aldranon English were shot after encountering the former Black Panther leader outside his Atlanta home. The deputies were there to serve a warrant for failure to appear in court on charges of driving a stolen car and impersonating a police ofcer during a tra c stop the previous year.
English testi ed at trial that Brown red a high-powered assault ri e when the deputies tried to arrest him. Then, prosecutors said, he used a handgun to re three shots into Kinchen’s groin as the wounded deputy lay in the street. Kinchen would die from his wounds.
Prosecutors portrayed Brown as a deliberate killer, while his lawyers painted him as a peaceful community and religious leader who helped revitalize poverty-stricken areas. They suggested he was framed as part of a government conspiracy dating from his militant days.
Brown maintained his innocence but was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life.
He argued that his constitutional rights were violated at trial and in 2019 challenged his imprisonment before a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case.
“For decades, questions have surrounded the fairness of his trial,” his family said Monday in a statement. “Newly uncovered evidence — including previously unseen FBI surveillance les, inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts, and third-party confessions — raised serious concerns that Imam Al-Amin did not receive the fair trial guaranteed under the Constitution.”
RIC FELD / AP PHOTO
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin watches during the sentencing portion of his trial in Atlanta in 2002.
Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in NSJ at obits@northstatejournal.com
Judi Danielle Palmer
STATE & NATION
Melania Trump reveals White House Christmas decorations
This year’s theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is”
By Darlene Superville The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Melania Trump on Monday unveiled the holiday decorations for her family’s rst Christmas back at the White House and her theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is.”
The decor also nods to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and founding of the United States of America.
Several dozen volunteer decorators from across the country helped deck the halls of the executive mansion with 75 wreaths, 51 Christmas trees, more than 700 feet of garland, more than 2,000 strands of lights, over 25,000 feet of ribbon, over 2,800 gold stars, more than 10,000 butter ies and 120 pounds of gingerbread.
A few things are di erent because President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing to build a ballroom he’s long desired.
This year, the o cial White House Christmas tree, which is always on display in the Blue Room, also honors Gold Star families, those that lost a member during active-duty military service.
120
Pounds
That tree was an East Wing xture and the rst one visitors encountered after they entered through those doors, but the building and a covered walkway, or colonnade, connecting it to the White House were demolished by Trump in October as part of his ballroom plan.
Public tours, which had been suspended because of the construction, were set to resume Tuesday but with a shorter route limited to just the State Floor, which includes the East Room; the Green, Blue and Red Rooms; the State Dining Room; the Cross Hall; and the Grand Foyer.
The Library and the Vermeil and China Rooms on the Ground Floor — one level below the State Floor — were cut from the tour route because of the construction.
The White House expects tens of thousands of visitors for holiday tours, receptions and parties before Christmas. Visitors will now enter through the North Portico doors on Pennsylvania Avenue using a new,
semipermanent walkway and entrance.
A statement from the White House said Christmas is a time to celebrate what makes the U.S. exceptional and that while every home has its own traditions, shared values unite Americans.
“In every community, we are lifted by simple acts of kindness that re ect the enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism, and gratitude,” the statement said. “These moments remind us that the heart of America is strong and that Home Is Where The Heart Is.”
Planning for the holidays starts months in advance, and the White House said Melania Trump chose every detail of the decor.
Trees in the East Room are trimmed in patriotic red, white and blue and national symbols, including golden eagle tree toppers, to highlight the coming America250 national celebration.
The o cial White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room is decorated with gold stars honoring families that lost a member in the line of active-duty military service. The o cial tree traditionally recognizes each state and territory and this year’s r is decorated with ornaments showcasing the o cial bird and ower of each.
The Green Room celebrates family fun, featuring large portraits of the rst and the current
presidents, George Washington and Donald Trump, respectively, each made from more than 6,000 Lego puzzle pieces.
Thousands of blue butter ies decorate the Red Room and its tree in a celebration of young people and in tribute to Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future initiative, which is part of her Be Best child-focused initiative, to support people who have been in foster care.
A holiday highlight, the gingerbread White House on display in the State Dining Room shows o the mansion’s South Portico and o ers a special glimpse into the Yellow Oval Room, a sitting room o the Truman Balco-
ny in the president’s private living quarters on the second oor.
It was made using 120 pounds of gingerbread, 100 pounds of pastillage, a sugar-based modeling paste; over 10 pounds of chocolate and 5 pounds of royal icing.
Part of the White House creche is on display in the Grand Foyer while the rest of it is undergoing a restoration overseen by the curator’s o ce.
Most of the tree trimming and hall decking was done after the Trumps decamped to their Florida home early last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. They returned to the White House on Sunday.
PHOTOS BY EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO
Dozens of trees, thousands of lights and more than ve miles of ribbon make up the enormous White House holiday display.
of gingerbread in the edible White House
MOORE COUNTY
Fox trot
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Dells donate $6.25B to encourage families to claim “Trump Accounts”
Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged a historic $6.25 billion on Tuesday to provide an incentive to families to adopt new investment accounts for children. The so-called “Trump Accounts” were created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation but have not yet launched. Through their gift, the Dells will deposit $250 into the investment accounts of 25 million children aged 10 and younger as an incentive for their families to claim the accounts and make investments in the stock market.
Doctor says Trump had screening MRI with “perfectly normal” results
Donald Trump’s doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age. That’s according to a memo from the physician released by the White House on Monday. Sean Barbabella said in a statement that Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group. Barbabella concluded that the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was “perfectly normal.”
$2.00
Picerno back in as chairman of Moore County Board of Commissioners
The multiple-time chair was elected back into the top seat on Dec. 1
By Ryan Henkel North State Journal
CARTHAGE — The Moore County Board of Commissioners met Dec. 1 for their nal regular business meeting of the year. At the onset of the meeting, the board elected Nick Picerno as chairman and Jim Von Canon as vice chairman.
Picerno has served on the Moore County Board of Commissioners for more than 10 years and has been chairman multiple times throughout his
tenure. Von Canon is in the middle of his rst term on the board.
“I do want to thank the board for putting your trust in me to be your chairman again this year,” Picerno said. “I look forward to working with Jim and letting him run a few meetings to get him ready for future chairmanship.”
Kurt Cook served as the previous chairman, with Picerno serving as vice chair.
“I’d like to thank Chairman Picerno and the sta for guiding me through this year,” Cook said. “It was very educational, and it was fun. I learned a ton, and it was an honor and a privilege.”
“I do want to thank the board for putting your trust in me to be your chairman again this year.”
Chairman Nick Picerno
“I’d like to congratulate Mr. Cook on a successful year as chairman and Chairman Picerno on a successful year as vice chairman,” said county manager Wayne Vest. The board also held public hearings for three amendments to the county’s Uni ed Development Ordinance. The amendments address
language requiring additional actions from property owners for combining nonconforming lots, allow for telecommunication towers to be constructed on state-owned land without conditional rezoning so long as they do not pose a hazard to military aircraft, and allow for the placement of manufactured homes in the urban transition subdistrict.
Following each hearing, the board approved all three amendments.
The board also approved the issuing of an RFQ in search of a rm to provide updates to the UDO in conjunction with the updated land use plan.
Hamlin breaks down in tears as rst witness testifying at NASCAR antitrust trial
He said signing the charter deal would have been a “death certi cate”
By Jenna Fryer The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE — The landmark federal antitrust trial against NASCAR opened Monday with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin breaking down in tears minutes into his testimony as the rst witness in a case that could upend the venerable stock car series.
Hamlin’s 23XI Racing, which he co-owns with Michael Jordan, and Front Row Motorsports claim the series is a monopolistic bully that leaves its teams no option but to comply with rules and nancing they don’t agree with.
As Jordan watched from the gallery, Hamlin began to cry and had to stop and compose himself when asked how he got into
racing. He disclosed to The Associated Press last month that his father is dying, and he said on the stand he was emotional because his dad “is not in great health.”
“We got to when I was about 20 and a decision had to be made, I could keep racing or go out and work for my dad’s trailer business,” Hamlin testi ed, adding that he later was thinking about what retirement looked like and found a team going out of business. He needed a partner and turned to Jordan, who he had developed a friendship with when the Basketball Hall of Famer owned the Charlotte Hornets and Hamlin was a season-ticket holder.
“If I can’t be successful with Michael as a partner, I knew this was never going to work,” he said.
The references to his early days in auto racing and the sacri ces his family made were intended to show how di cult it is for both team owners and
DAVID SINCLAIR FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL
Huntsman Lincoln Sadler leads the Moore County Hounds onto the eld at Cameron’s Meadow in Southern Pines during the annual Blessing of the Hounds on Thanksgiving morning. The event marks the formal opening of the foxhunting season.
THE
JENNA FRYER / AP PHOTO
Michael Jordan arrives at the start of the antitrust trial between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR in Charlotte on Monday.
THURSDAY 12.4.25
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North State Journal
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CRIME LOG
Nov. 23
• Jacob Liam Armstrong, 27, was arrested by MCSO for rst degree trespass, breaking and entering, larceny after breaking or entering, possession of schedule II controlled substance, and 16 other charges including multiple counts of felony larceny and larceny of motor vehicle.
Nov. 24
• Kenny Lee Welch, 46, was arrested by MCSO for possession of controlled substance in prison or jail premises, possession of methamphetamine, possession of schedule III controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of schedule VI controlled substance and possession of marijuana paraphernalia.
• Curtis Dwayne Wyatt, 35, was arrested by MCSO for misdemeanor domestic violence.
Nov. 26
• Nathan Jay Locklear, 26, was arrested by MCSO for misdemeanor larceny.
• John Allen Ness, 46, was arrested by Robbins PD for assault on individual with disability and assault on a female.
Nov. 27
• James Legrand Brown Jr., 65, was arrested by Pineblu PD for possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving while license revoked, expired registration and possession of schedule VI controlled substance.
Nov. 28
• Savannah Ellyn McLeod, 31, was arrested by MCSO for possession of methamphetamine, maintaining vehicle/dwelling/place for controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Nov. 29
• Ricardo Alvarado, 38, was arrested by MCSO for misdemeanor domestic violence.
K&W closes suddenly
A sign on the door of K&W Cafeteria in Greensboro announces the chain’s permanent closure.
K&W, the Winston-Salem-based cafeteria that had been serving Southern comfort food since 1937, abruptly closed all nine remaining locations on Dec. 1. The company had 28 locations before the pandemic but led for bankruptcy in 2020 and was later acquired by Piccadilly Restaurants. More than 300 employees lost their jobs, and no reason was given for the sudden closure.
BOARD from page A1
“We just went through the land use plan update in October, and there are several updates to the uni ed development ordinance that have been necessitated from that, as well as other changes from concerns that have been brought up by the board on other topics as well,” Planning Director Ruth Pedersen said. “Sta could do the updates, but we also have the option of hiring a consul-
NASCAR from page A1
noted how more than $703,000 three years ago was spent on costs to NASCAR ranging from entry fees, credentials for team members to enter the track and even access to Internet signals. He also said he and Jordan spent $100 million to build 23XI and “all it takes is one sponsor to go away and all our pro t is gone.”
Because of Jordan’s presence with the team, Hamlin testied, 23XI has turned a pro t in all but one of its ve seasons of operation. His attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, said in his opening statement that fast-food restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins has never turned a pro t since starting his Front Row team in 2004, a team that won the Daytona 500 in 2021.
Kessler said a NASCAR-commissioned study found that 75% of teams lost money in 2024 and added that over a three-year period almost $400 million was paid to the France Family Trust. He said a 2023 evaluation by Goldman Sachs found NASCAR to be worth $5 billion. NASCAR is currently run by Jim France, son of founder Bill France Sr.
“What the evidence is going to show is Mr. France ran this for the bene t of his family at the expense of the teams and sport,” Kessler said. Hamlin testifed that the TV deal NASCAR signed ahead of the 2025 season has not been a boon to race teams because of a shift toward streaming sponsors and big-ticket sponsors want to be on television. He also referred to a meeting with NASCAR chairman Jim France, who indicated teams are spending too much and it should only cost $10 million per car.
At the heart of the lawsuit is NASCAR’s revenue sharing model, which 23XI and Front Row argue is unfair to race teams that often operate at a loss. Hamlin testi ed it cost $20 million to simply bring a single car to the track over a 38race season, not including over-
tant to do these updates for us.”
“It might be good to put some space between our sta , the UDO and the land use plan,” Picerno said. “Since you’re so close to it and you went through it, this would give an outside person’s eyes a chance to see things that might make our land use plan and UDO airtight as far as them all being very consistent”.
Finally, the board approved a resolution supporting a 45-mph school zone for the S.T.A.R.S.
head expenses such as driver salary and business operations.
“We cannot cut more. Tell me how to get my investment back? He had no answer,” Hamlin said.
“So why would these people do this if you are just going to lose money because NASCAR isn’t giving you a fair deal?” asked Kessler, “Because you love stock car racing, and there’s nowhere else to do it.”
The charter agreements signed for this year that triggered the lawsuit guarantee the teams $12.5 million in annual revenue per chartered car. NASCAR argues the guaranteed payouts are an increase from $9 million from the previous agreement, but Hamlin noted that 11 of the rst 19 chartered teams are no longer in business.
As for refusing to sign the charter agreements last fall, Hamlin said the last-ditch proposal from NASCAR “had eight points minimum that needed to be changed. When we pointed that out we were told, ‘Negotiations are closed.’”
“I didn’t sign because I knew this was my death certi cate for the future,” he said, later adding: “I have spent 20 years trying to make this sport grow as a driver and for the last ve years as a team owner. 23XI is doing our part. You can’t have someone treat you this unfairly, and I knew It wasn’t right. They were wrong, and someone needed to be held accountable.”
Under cross-examination, Hamlin was asked why he paints a rosier picture of NASCAR on podcast appearances. He replied that he is regurgitating NASCAR talking points because any negative comments can lead to retribution.
All three charters 23XI purchased came from teams that ceased operations, and Hamlin said 23XI paid $4.7 million for its rst charter, $13.5 million for its second and $28 million for its third, acquired late last year. He acknowledged purchasing the third charter was a risk because of the pending lit-
Charter School o of U.S.-1.
“There’s been a lot of conversations in the making, the county has been facilitating discussions between the Stars Charter School o cials, the NCDOT o cials, our sheri ’s o ce o cials in order to try and address the tra c ow, safety and vehicle speed concerns in the area when school is in session,” Vest said.
The Moore County Board of Commissioners will next meet Jan. 6.
igation — and the price concerned him — but it was required if 23XI intends to build itself into a top team.
The charter system guarantees a car a spot in the eld each race week as well as a percentage of the purse. It also gives team owners an asset to sell should they want to get out of the business.
NASCAR attorneys argued that the charter system has created $1.5 billion in equity for the 36 chartered teams. Prior to the charter system, teams raced “open,” with no guarantee they’d make the eld or earn a payout.
“The France family built NASCAR from nothing. They are an American success story,” Johnny Stephenson said in the opening statement for NASCAR. Stephenson is a colleague of Christopher Yates, who had previously handled most of the courtroom arguments for the defendants.
“They’ve done it through hard work over 75 years. That’s the kind of e ort that doesn’t deserve a lawsuit. That’s the kind of e ort that deserves admiration.”
The case has churned through hearings and arguments for more than a year despite calls from other NASCAR teams to settle. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell even helped mediate a failed two-day summit in October. A NASCAR victory could put 23XI, Front Row and their six combined cars out of business. Their charters — now being held by NASCAR — would likely be sold. The last charter went for $45 million, and NASCAR has indicated there is interest from potential buyers, including private equity rms.
A win for the teams could lead to monetary damages and the potential demolition of NASCAR as it is run today. The judge has the power to unravel a monopoly, and nothing is o the table, from ordering a sale of NASCAR to the dismantling of the charter system.
moore happening
Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in and around Moore County:
Dec. 4
Robbins Christmas Tree Lighting 5:30 p.m.
The annual tree lighting ceremony begins with a parade at 6 p.m., followed by photo opportunities with Santa starting at 7 p.m.
Downtown Robbins
Dec. 5
The 2025 Broad Street Holiday Fashion Show 7-9 p.m.
This presentation of holiday fashion and accessories available at 14 boutiques in Southern Pines will be accompanied by a light show and live DJ. General admission tickets are $20; VIP tickets, which include priority seating and an open bar, are $55.
Sunrise Theater 250 NW Broad St. Southern Pines
Dec. 6
Sensory Santa Visit 2025 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This special event for families with sensory sensitive and medically fragile children features photos with Santa Claus. Vendors will also be on hand with information about community resources available for these families. Moore County Parks and Recreation Center 155 Hillcrest Park Lane Carthage
15th Annual War for Tots Warhammer 40k Charity Tournament
This event features a ra e, model auction and special in-game ticket sales, with all proceeds going to Toys for Tots. In-game tickets and dice reroll tickets will be sold for $1 each and can be used in any game. Entry fee is $25 (with $10 for each entry going to the charity). Limited to 30 players; call Hit Point Hobbies at 910-692-8447 to register.
Come AS You Are Evangelistic Center 135 N. Sycamore St. Aberdeen
Starring Chevy Chase, this movie has become a modern Christmas classic. Rated PG-13; tickets are $10.
Sunrise Theater 250 NW Broad St. Southern Pines
DAN REEVES / NORTH STATE JOURNAL
THE CONVERSATION
Trip
Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
Marjorie Taylor Greene embodies the inanity of populism
Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges.
DURING A RECENT stop on her image rehab tour, Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN’s Dana Bash that she is sorry “for taking part in the toxic politics.” It has been, she added, “bad for the country.” A week later, Greene nally did something patriotic by announcing her retirement.
It’s fair to say Greene is one of the most well-known GOP House members in the nation. Greene, though, is famous because her nitwittery has been endlessly highlighted by the media and Democrats to cast the Republican Party as one of hayseeds and conspiracists.
And, in all fairness, Greene might be one of the biggest ignoramuses to ever serve in Congress, which is no small achievement when one considers the “Squad” exists. If I asked you to name a single piece of legislation Greene has sponsored, you would probably be at a loss. If I asked you to name an important policy she has championed, an uplifting speech she has delivered or an area of expertise she has mastered, you would not think of any because there have been none.
Once the president reportedly dissuaded her from running for higher o ce in Georgia, Greene’s loyalty dissipated. Scorned, she became rudderless and useless. There is nothing left for her because there was not much there to begin with.
Donald Trump has contended that Greene went “BAD” and became a “ranting lunatic.” This is wrong. She has always been a ranting lunatic and an early adopter of the unhinged conspiratorial notions that have now infected so much of the populist right.
“I was a victim, just like you were, of media
lies and stu you read on social media,” Greene appealed to the women on “The View” when confronted with her past. It’s undeniable that the (well-earned) collapse of trust in both media and experts has created a vacuum that’s now lled by a horde of hucksters.
Victims such as Greene are easy marks for online con artists and propagandists because they lack a substantive belief system, organizing principles, coherent worldviews or historical perspective to repel conspiracies. Asking questions can be an admirable quality of an inquisitive mind. Asking questions such as “Are space-based solar lasers built by the Rothschilds starting California wild res?” makes you a paranoid dolt.
Greene, of course, was in on the Pizzagate and QAnon stu from the beginning. She suggested that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas may have been staged by gun control activists and questioned whether the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was a “massive false ag.” You would be hard-pressed to nd a conspiracy on the “right” that she did not entertain.
Let us also not forget that Greene was one of the rst — and only — elected o cials to cozy up to the Groypers who are being normalized by the online NatCon Right. Greene spoke at a 2022 white nationalist junior varsity jamboree in Florida held by Tucker Carlson’s friend Nick Fuentes, who believes that Jews are “race traitors,” denies the Holocaust happened and believes segregation was bene cial for black Americans.
Florida’s lawsuit against Planned Parenthood just the beginning
Abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam.
THIS MONTH, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmier led a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for false advertising.
Not over a billing dispute or a sloppy ad claim. Instead, the country’s largest abortion provider has been telling women that its “product” — speci cally the abortion pill drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — is “as safe as taking a Tylenol.”
The truth is far more serious.
As a Florida mother of four daughters, I’m relieved to see our state o cials recognize the increased risks of taking the abortion pill and the life that it ends inside the womb. Planned Parenthood should be held accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. Furthermore, the FDA should take note and remove its approval of all abortion drugs and review these risks in-depth for the safety of all women.
The Florida lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood’s campaign to induce women to purchase abortion drugs by misrepresenting the risks of chemical abortion violates the Florida law. The gross misrepresentation of a drug designed intentionally to take the life of a preborn child can be found on Planned Parenthood’s website, in printed materials, and in television advertisements. In fact, the organization claims that chemical abortion is “extremely safe” in all its descriptions.
However, the data suggests otherwise.
A recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims shows one in 10 women su er severe complications within 45 days of taking mifepristone. We’re talking about things like hemorrhaging, infections or even sepsis, which can turn deadly fast. That’s 22 times higher than what the prescription label claims. Doesn’t sound like Tylenol to me.
Chemical abortion involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The rst pill
starves the developing baby; the second forces the mother’s body to deliver her dead child through hours of violent cramping and bleeding, often far worse than the “mild period” symptoms Planned Parenthood describes. Post-abortive testimonials say they were lied to, left alone on bathroom oors, terri ed and hemorrhaging, some permanently scarred or sterilized.
Planned Parenthood’s lies are a deliberate cover-up for the violence they knowingly in ict. By denying the scienti c fact that life begins at conception, they not only hurt women with these drugs but also take the innocent life in the womb. And abortion pill access is easier than ever, even in our pro-life state. Due to the Biden administration’s elimination of nearly all safeguards, abortion drugs are now sent through the mail with no requirement for an in-person exam, ultrasound or follow-up care. Furthermore, there are no regulations governing where or to whom these pills are distributed. Women, many of them minors, are left alone to bleed out in their bathrooms, risking their health and future fertility, all while Planned Parenthood cashes in on another customer.
The Florida lawsuit is a crucial step in the process, but we can’t stop here. This ling should be a wake-up call to the FDA, acting as a catalyst for the new HHS leadership to nally review the abortion pill’s risks as promised. Planned Parenthood must be held fully accountable for deceiving women and killing their preborn children. The FDA should immediately remove its approval of all abortion drugs and conduct a thorough, unbiased review for the safety of every mother and the protection of every child.
This bold action by Uthmeier builds on the courageous leadership of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made Florida a national beacon for protecting preborn life over the past several years. From signing the 15-week protection in 2022 to boldly enacting
At the time, Greene pleaded ignorance of these positions, contending she was merely there to “talk to an audience” of young people. She never once confronted attendees to rethink their identitarian views, as she basked in their applause. Greene is either mind-bogglingly gullible or an ally. With her, both options are wholly plausible.
Let us be charitable and concede it’s the former. Greene is no less credulous these days as she tries to appeal to the left. She broke with Trump by falling for the Democrats’ scaremongering over Obamacare subsidies during the government shutdown. She bought the Gaza “genocide” hoax just like she bought into Pizzagate. A big proponent of releasing the Epstein “ les,” Greene will almost surely take a dive down every rabbit hole that emerges. I’m often told that it’s “elitist” to mock these champions of average Americans. We need more “normal” people in Congress, they say. Absolutely. We have too many lawyers and professional activists running in Washington and far too few successful Americans who comprehend the real-world concerns of a diverse population. To say Greene is a normal American, however, is to contend that a normal American is an imbecile, which is not true. Indeed, there are millions of “average” Americans who are curious, smart, idealistic, capable and problem solvers. The representative of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District possesses none of those attributes. Greene’s resignation from Congress will take e ect on Jan. 6, 2026, exactly in time for a lifelong pension to kick in. Greene was unable to ful ll a two-year commitment to her constituents because her feelings were hurt. Despite enabling her twice, they should consider themselves lucky. We have always had embarrassingly low standards for electing o cials. But they are not often this low.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.
the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2023, banning abortion after six weeks when a baby’s heartbeat can already be detected, DeSantis has stood unapologetically for the most vulnerable among us. He fought tirelessly against the radical Amendment 4 last year, which would have stripped away nearly all protections for preborn children and allowed abortion on demand up to birth in many cases.
Thanks to DeSantis’ leadership and the e orts of pro-life Floridians, Amendment 4 was defeated, falling short of the required 60% even as the abortion industry poured millions into deceiving voters.
Yet the abortion lobby is still attempting a run-around of our laws by ooding Florida with mail-order pills and out-of-state telehealth prescriptions. Chemical abortion already accounts for more than 60% of all abortions nationwide. If we allow these dangerous drugs to ow unchecked into our state, we will undo everything Florida families have fought for.
That’s why this lawsuit matters. That’s why Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to reexamine the abortion pill’s risks matters. And that’s why we must keep pushing until these drugs are removed from the market entirely.
In his X post about the lawsuit, Uthmeier said, “We stand by our women.” But Planned Parenthood does not.
Here in the “Free State of Florida,” under leaders like DeSantis and Uthmeier, we will keep leading the nation by exposing the lies of the abortion industry, defending women and their innocent children, and fostering a culture of life because every human life from conception is sacred and deserves protection.
Kimberly Bird is a communications specialist at Live Action and lives in Florida with her husband and four children. This column was rst published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI
Volunteering brings people closer to their communities
By Christina Larson
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The holiday season is a time for giving thanks, giving gifts — and for many, a time for giving back.
Food banks, services that deliver meals to seniors and other U.S. charities typically see a surge in volunteering between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. But there are good reasons to volunteer at any time of the year.
Alfred Del Grosso volunteers weekly to work the lunch shift at Shepherd’s Table, a food bank in Silver Spring, Maryland. “I feel more connected to the broader community,” he said.
Most Thursdays, the retired chemist from Kensington, Maryland, also lends an unpaid hand to help clear fallen trees and brush from local trails with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. “It’s mostly volunteers who help maintain the trails,” he said.
Researchers who study human evolution and social psychology say that giving back is deeply rooted in human nature. Volunteers say they feel closer ties to the communities they serve.
“When we feel grateful for all we have, that motivates us to do
good things for other people who have helped us, and also to do good things for new people,” said Sarah Schnitker, a psychologist at Baylor University.
“There’s a nice upwards reciprocal spiral between gratitude and generosity,” often enhanced at holiday times, she said.
For many in the U.S., the season most associated with giving, receiving and volunteering runs from Thanksgiving through Hanukkah and Christmas to New Year’s.
But around the world, a giving season or festival is present
in many cultures, said Amrisha Vaish, a developmental psychologist at the University of Virginia.
“Nearly all cultures have events or public festivals that allow people to express gratitude,” she said. “In Hinduism, Divali is a time of lights and festiveness and good eating, but also a time in which people give gifts to really express what people have meant to them.”
For Muslims, Ramadan, which ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr, is a time for reection, gratitude and acts of charity. Many Buddhist tradi-
tions also emphasize gratitude. The common purpose of such seasons, which also include nonreligious acts of service, is to reinforce our natural cooperative tendencies, Vaish said.
“In human evolutionary history over hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve had to become cooperative in order to work together and survive as a species,” she said.
“We don’t have sharp claws, high speed, many other natural abilities. But what we do have is that we’re super cooperators; we can do more in groups than alone.”
Of course, humans aren’t always cooperative and generous — sometimes we’re also sel sh and stubborn.
The tension between sel shness and altruism was recognized even by Darwin, said Michael Tomasello, a psychologist at Duke University. “That’s why life is so complicated. We have all these motives mapped together.”
But re ecting with gratitude on what we have, and seeing others do good, can encourage our most generous tendencies, experts say.
On an individual level, “giving, volunteering and generosity have the ability to increase our sense of meaning and purpose in life,” said Jenae Nelson, a developmental psychologist at Brigham Young University
“There’s a quick dopamine hit
sometimes called the ‘helpers high.’ But there’s also that deeper reward of helping us to establish purpose and meaning,” she said. “By helping other people and believing that small acts can change the world, you can bring coherence to your own life.”
After Mia Thelen retired as a nurse in Owosso, Michigan, she began volunteering for the American Red Cross, starting out by minding the o ce phones during blood drives before gradually taking on more organizational and administrative responsibilities.
“It’s a good way to spend your time, making the lives of others a little easier,” Thelen said. “I wanted to do something that helps the community.
“And I’m learning a lot: learning computer skills, learning communication skills. I have great co-volunteers.”
She enjoys feeling more connected with her neighbors.
Another common holiday tradition — sending greeting cards to family and old friends — also provides a chance to enhance or renew social ties, which people are often surprisingly reluctant to do, said Lara Aknin, a social psychologist at Simon Fraser University.
Her research has shown that “people are actually hesitant to reach out to old friends, they worry about being a burden or an inconvenience,” she said. But on the ip side, “people who’ve just heard from old friends report it as a really positive experience.”
So go ahead and write those cards or make those phone calls, she said. Use the holidays as an excuse to reconnect, and share a laugh or a warm mulled drink.
up about 40% of truck driving on the West Coast and about 20% nationwide. Advocacy groups estimate about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers work in the U.S.
Nearly half of the 16,000 truck driving schools could be forced to close
By Josh Funk
The Associated Press
NEARLY 44% OF THE 16,000 truck driving schools in the U.S. may be forced to close after a review by the federal Transportation Department found they may not be complying with government requirements.
The Transportation Department said Monday that it plans to revoke the accreditation of nearly 3,000 schools unless they can comply with training requirements in the next 30 days. The targeted schools must notify students that their accreditation is in jeopardy. Another 4,000 schools are being warned they may face similar action.
Separately, the Department of Homeland Security is audit-
ing trucking rms in California owned by immigrants to verify the status of their drivers and whether they are qualied to hold a commercial driver’s license.
This crackdown on trucking schools and companies is the latest step in the government’s e ort to ensure that truck drivers are quali ed and eligible to hold a commercial license. This began after a truck driver that Transportation Secretary Sean
Du y says was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. Du y has threatened to pull federal funding from California and Pennsylvania over the issue, and he proposed signi cant new restrictions on which immigrants can get a commercial driver’s license but a court put those new rules on hold.
“We are reining in illegal and reckless practices that let poorly trained drivers get behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses,” Du y said.
The Transportation Department said the 3,000 schools it is taking action against failed to meet training standards and didn’t maintain accurate and complete records. The schools are also accused of falsifying or manipulating training data.
The list of schools being targeted wasn’t immediately released.
Trucking industry groups have praised the e ort to tight-
en up licensing standards and ensure that drivers can meet basic English pro ciency requirements the Trump administration began enforcing this summer. But groups that represent immigrant truck drivers say they believe many quali ed drivers and companies are being targeted simply because of their citizenship status.
“Bad actors who exploit loopholes in our regulatory systems are putting everyone at risk. This is unacceptable,” said Paul J. Enos, CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association. “We are focused on solutions and resolute on seeing them implemented.”
Truck drivers of the Sikh faith have been been caught in the cross re and faced harassment because the drivers in the Florida crash and another deadly crash in California this fall were both Sikhs.
The North American Punjabi Truckers Association estimates that the Sikh workforce makes
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond immediately to questions about the e ort to verify the immigration status of truck drivers, but the United Sikhs advocacy group said they have heard directly from Punjabi company owners about these aggressive audits of immigration records.
“Sikh and immigrant truckers with spotless records are being treated like suspects while they keep America’s freight moving,” the United Sikhs group said. “When federal agencies frame lawful, licensed drivers as risks, it doesn’t improve safety — it fuels xenophobia, harassment, and even violence on the road. Any policy built on fear instead of facts endangers families, civil rights, and the national supply chain.” California moved to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses after federal o cials raised concerns that they had been issued improperly to immigrants or allowed to remain valid long after a driver’s work permit expired.
MOORE SPORTS
Union Pines falls in state quarter nals
Vikings miss out on trip to nal four of states
North State Journal sta
THE HISTORIC Union Pines football season came to an end Friday. After winning their rst conference title in more than 50 years and advancing farther in the playo s than any Vikings team in a generation, Union Pines lost in the NCHSAA state quarter nals.
Union Pines, the No. 4 seed in Class 6A, fell to top-seeded Jacksonville. The undefeated Cardinals rolled to a 34-7 win.
Running back Amari Pearson, the second-ranked rusher in N.C. Class 6A, ran for 145
yards on 10 carries, including a 97-yard run. Quarterback Anthony Washington passed for 144 yards and two scores while rushing for 64 and another two touchdowns. The Jacksonville defense rang up 16 tackles for loss, four sacks, an interception and three fumble recoveries.
The loss ended Union Pines’ season at 11-2. The Vikings say goodbye to their class of seniors, including:
Leading receiver Hayne Tobias Conference sportsmanship award winner Kaeden Sovey
Conference defensive player of the year Elijah Clayton Conference o ensive lineman of the year Tay Tranel All conference quarterback Ian Hicks
Quarterback Ryan Greene Receivers Talik Graham, Robert Johnson, Michael Chafn, Je rey Leone and Deacon Smith Defensive linemen Domanic Bean, Ryan Richardson, Ryan Kimbrough and Noah Gassaway
Linebackers Drew Dougherty, Sam Wiggins, Hunter Huskey and Brody Muhly
Defensive interceptions leader Jonah Thienel
Running back Curnie Sanders O ensive linemen Bryce Harris, Avery Neal and Will Morton Defensive backs Nick Cameron, Graham Webb, Jayden Looney and William Wallace
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Vince and Chris Powierski
Special Olympics, golf
Chris, left, and Vince Powierski Jr., right, are Moore County residents and Special Olympics veterans.
Vince Sr. is the coach of Team Moore County’s golf team, and both of his sons are competitors on the team. Chris has competed for more than two decades in more than a half dozen di erent events; Vince for close to a decade. The two have previously represented North Carolina at the Special Olympics USA Games.
The brother team paired up at last month’s Special Olympics North Carolina Fall Tournament at the Charles T. Myers Golf Course in Charlotte. They brought home a silver medal in Golf Level 3 Uni ed Team Play.
College football mascots just as good at keeping their identities secret as ring up a crowd
Schools keep the person under the suit a secret, often until graduation
By Mike Householder
The Associated Press
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Ross Ramsey enjoys spending time with fellow alums at Michigan State football tailgates.
These aren’t just any old former Spartans, though.
They were Sparty himself — something few knew when Ramsey and his pals donned the muscular mascot suit two decades ago.
“Once you are done being Sparty, you can tell others that you were Sparty,” said Ramsey, a physician and hospital administrator in Pigeon, Michigan. “And clearly you have a close bond with those others who were in the same role as you, because they couldn’t share that experience with anyone else at the time, either.”
Ramsey and his buddies are members of an elite fellowship of ex-mascots. Men and women who once carried on as Big Al, Alabama’s lovable elephant; the Disney-inspired Oregon Duck; Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger and many more. We’re talking humans in suits, not live animal mascots, which also are xtures on college football Saturdays.
The job for costumed mascots is to re up the crowd, bring a smile to a fan’s face and symbolically represent the university.
“When you think of Michigan State, you think of Sparty. And everybody knows what the mascot is,” said Phil Lator, another former Sparty who joins Ramsey at the tailgates and also successfully concealed his alter ego during his tenure in East Lansing.
Anonymity is the name of the game for many college mascots.
“Some programs value secrecy so highly that multiple performers report to the stadium but only learn in the moment who will actually be suiting up,” said Je Birdsell, a communication professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Bird-
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics”
Nicole Hurley, former Cocky the Gamecock
sell has experience in these matters, having served as Point Loma’s mascot as an undergrad, as well as inhabiting suits for minor league baseball, NBA G League and indoor soccer teams.
“Some schools have traditions where they work hard to keep the performers anonymous so that there can be a big reveal as part of graduation ceremonies,” he said.
Enter Nicole Hurley, who came clean about her Cocky past at South Carolina’s spring commencement, rolling into the arena wearing her cap, gown and oversized yellow bird feet of the bird mascot.
“When I walked across the stage, I felt so much joy. The whole arena started to clap and cheer, and it made me emotional,” said Hurley, a pediatric hematology oncology nurse in Charleston, South Carolina.
Only Hurley’s roommates and
parents knew about her second life.
“There were countless moments that I had to change into my suit in my car, pretty much lie to every person about how I worked a job in athletics and created excuses when I was not free on the weekends due to working private events,” Hurley said. “When people I know would come up to take a photo with me when I was Cocky and they had no idea I was the one under the suit was the craziest feeling.”
Carlos Polanco-Zaccardi, whose years inside Miami’s Sebastian the Ibis costume were known only to a select few, also became procient at hiding his true identity. The 2025 graduate of the “U” toted his bird get-up around campus in an enormous du el bag. When confronted, Polanco-Zaccardi would supply a white
lie depending on the questioner.
“For my friends, I told them that I was one of the party performers on stilts that perform at weddings, bar mitzvahs and birthday parties,” he said.
Like the Michigan State guys, Hurley and Polanco-Zaccardi, costumed performers at the collegiate level almost always are students.
That intense school pride doesn’t go away for many ex-mascots, long after they’ve stopped wearing the fur. Just ask Scott Ferry, another Sparty alum and tailgate regular whose passion for the green-and-white hasn’t ebbed.
“The spirit of the university is critical,” said Ferry, who these days owns and operates a farm and meat-processing facility an hour south of campus. “We don’t want to just be an individual. We want to be the icon of the univer-
at all times.”
SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTH CAROLINA
COURTESY UNION PINES VIKINGS FOOTBALL / FACEBOOK
The Union Pines football team poses for a postseason photo.
sity
WILFREDO LEE / AP PHOTO
Miami mascot Sebastian the Ibis leads the team onto the eld before the start of a game.
MARTINA HURLEY VIA AP
Nicole Hurley poses for a photo on the day of University of South Carolina’s commencement ceremony, wearing her cap, gown and Cocky the mascot feet.
Lillian Mae Rutherford
Nov. 24, 1941 – Nov. 24, 2025
Lillian Mae Rutherford, 84, of Southern Pines, passed peacefully at her home on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.
Born in Wellsville, NY, Nov. 24, 1941, she was the daughter of the late Charles and Peggy Ford Spence. After her high school graduation, Lillian served in the U.S. Navy from 1959 to 1961. She had worked for the American Gas Association, retiring in 2000 as an Executive Secretary. After relocating to Moore County, Lillian worked as an Executive Assistant for St. Joseph of the Pines.
Lillian was the wife of the late Col. Bruce Rutherford, USMC (Ret.). She was the mother of the late Stacey Marie. Lillian is survived by her sister Gloria Klein (Charley), and son - in - law Mike Rutherford (Andrea). She leaves behind her constant and loving companions, her cats, Ava and Penny.
Special thanks to the wonderful care provided by the nurses of Palliative Care and Gentiva Hospice and the prayers of family and friends.
Phyllis Kern Frederiksen
May 13, 1931 – Nov. 29, 2025
Phyllis Kern Frederiksen, age 94, of Vass - Woodlake, passed away peacefully on Saturday, November 29, 2025, at FirstHealth Hospice House, surrounded by her family.
Phyllis was born in Illinois on May 13, 1931 to the late Phillip William and Lydia Miller Kern. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Leland Frederiksen, daughter, Carol Ruth Frederiksen, sisters, Marie, Lucille, Katherine, Dorothy.
She is survived by her daughter, Lynne Frederiksen Brawn of Fuquay Varina, son, Eric Frederiksen (Sheila) of Mebane; grandchildren, Jennifer, Karl (Monse), Kurt, Kelly, Casey (Lee).
In lieu of owers, donations may be made to Cameron Presbyterian Church, 600 Carthage Street, Cameron NC 28326 or Vass Lions Club, P O Box 1228, Vass NC 28394 in memory of Phyllis.
Walter F. Hundley Jr.
April 28, 1937 – Nov. 27, 2025
Walter F. Hundley Jr., of Seven Lakes, passed away on Thanksgiving morning at Quail Haven Retirement Village under hospice care.
Born April 28, 1937, in Crewe, Virginia, to the late W.F. and Anne Hundley. In addition to his parents, he was also preceded in death by his sister, Nancy.
Walter is survived by his wife of 65 years, Mitzi Hundley of Seven Lakes; son, Brad Hundley of Marion, North Carolina; daughter, Paige White of Sanford, North Carolina; and grandchildren, Kaitlyn, Emily, and Alex.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, December 5, 2025, at Chapel in the Pines, 581 Seven Lakes Drive, Seven Lakes, NC 27376, with Reverend Paul James o ciating.
In lieu of owers, the family requests a donation to the charity of one’s choice or the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina.
Crystal Lee Williams
March 16, 1983 –Nov. 25, 2025
Crystal Lee Williams, age 42, of Spring Lake, NC, passed away on November 25, 2025. Crystal was born in Cumberland County, NC, on March 16, 1983, to Tommie Lee McNeill and Julia Eve Holder.
Crystal loved all things selfcare, doing her makeup, and always keeping herself clean and polished. She had a heart for helping others and pursued that passion through her work and studies in phlebotomy and nursing. Crystal also cherished her beloved pets: Willie, Twilight, and Knibbles.
Crystal is survived by her children, Christian Madrid, Cianna Madrid and Cashlyn Madrid; husband, Jamie L. Williams; parents, Tommie Lee McNeill and Julia Eve Holder. May Crystal rest in peace with her grandmother, Shirley Ann (Mammie).
The family will receive friends on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, from 11 a.m. to noon at Boles Funeral Home, Southern Pines—graveside service to follow at Crossroads Community Church Cemetery. Memorial contributions can be made to her father, Tommie McNeill.
Ted Franklin Derr Sr.
Jan. 5, 1946 – Nov. 25, 2025
Ted Franklin Derr Sr. was born January 5, 1946, to George Edward Derr and Virginia Irene Hammack in Mecklenburg County, NC. He passed away on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, at his home, surrounded by his family. Ted was a graduate of Stanley High School class of 1964, and he was a graduate of the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, NCSHP 47th class. Ted served the State of North Carolina on the North Carolina State Highway Patrol from January 5, 1970, until his retirement on October 1, 1998. After retirement, he continued serving the citizens of Moore as a Moore County Deputy Sheri from December 5, 1998, until his retirement on December 31, 2019. He also retired from service with the Robbins Rescue Squad. Ted was a public servant for the citizens of Moore County for over 50 years. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Tony Derr, and his sister Donna Bumgardner. He is survived by his spouse of 37 years, Anna Carter Derr, and his children, Ted Franklin Derr Jr. (Royilyn), Dawn Derr Hupko (Joe) and Laura Brewer Wilkerson (Chris).
Ted was the grandfather of Matthew Scott (Mandie), Abby Hupko, McKylee Wilkerson and CJ Wilkerson, and the greatgrandfather of Jaxon Morris, Maverick Scott and Maylyn Scott.
Ted was an avid motorcyclist who enjoyed many motorcycle trips across the US and Ireland with friends. He also enjoyed horseback riding and hunting. At home, he enjoyed watching the Western Channel 24/7, especially his hero, John Wayne. Ted was a loving husband, father, and friend to many. He will be deeply missed.
Graveside service, with NCSHP Honors, will be at 11 a.m., Saturday, November 29, 2025, with Reverend Farrell Hussey o ciating, at Tabernacle United Methodist Church Cemetery. The family will gather with friends following the service in the church fellowship hall.
The family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, November 28, 2025, at Kennedy Funeral Home and at other times at the home.
Memorials can be made in memory of his community service to Robbins Fire and Rescue, P.O. Box 987, Robbins, NC 27325, and to the Tabernacle United Methodist Church Cemetery Fund, P.O. Box 395, Robbins, NC 23235.
Cynthia Lee McKenzie
Sept. 4, 1951 – Nov. 25, 2025
Cynthia Lee McKenzie, age 74, passed away peacefully on November 25, 2025. Born on September 4, 1951, in Beaufort, South Carolina, she was the beloved daughter of Floyd and Betty Blackman Connelly.
A dedicated wife and mother. Cindy found the greatest joy in caring for her family. She loved them fully, ercely, and without hesitation. Her home was a place of comfort and laughter, and her presence a source of strength to all who knew her. She was a longtime member of Summer Hill Baptist Church. Cynthia was preceded in death by her parents; her daughter, Lori Sellers; her brother, Jerry Connelly; and her granddaughter, Alessandra Calhoun.
She is survived by her devoted husband of 37 years, Charles McKenzie, who cherished her endlessly. She is also survived by her daughters, Christy Tarlton, Ginny Scott, and Mandi & Rob Calhoun; her grandchildren, Jeremiah Scott, Hunter Scott, and Brooklyn Calhoun; and sonin-law Cli Scott. Cynthia leaves behind a family connected by her warmth, her patience, and the love she instilled in each of them.
A graveside service will be at Summer Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Carthage on Monday, December 1, 2025, at 2 p.m. The family will receive friends prior to the service at 1 p.m. in the Church sanctuary. Pastor Joe Carpenter is o ciating.
In lieu of owers, the family asks that donations be made to St. Jude’s.
Bradley Taft Wilson
June 5, 1940 – Nov. 30, 2025
Bradley Taft Wilson, 53, passed away Sunday, November 30, 2025, at his home. Funeral service will be 3 p.m., Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at Acorn Ridge Baptist Church. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends prior to the service, beginning at 2 p.m. A complete obituary will be posted when available.
Paula Jean Foreman
Nov. 12, 1950 – Nov. 29, 2025
Paula Jean Foreman, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, passed away unexpectedly on November 29, 2025, surrounded by the people who loved her most. Born on November 12, 1950, Paula spent her life pouring her heart into her family and the people around her.
Paula was known for her independence, her strength, and her unwavering devotion to those she cared about. She carried a quiet resilience through every chapter of her life, meeting challenges with grace and always nding a way to support others even in the midst of her own hardships. She was the steady voice of reason, the one who showed up, and the one who loved without hesitation.
Family meant everything to Paula. She raised her children with a rm but gentle hand, teaching them the value of hard work, compassion, and standing on their own two feet. She adored her grandchildren and took immense pride in every milestone, big or small. Paula was looking forward to becoming a great-grandmother in December to baby Elias, a joy she held close to her heart.
Paula is survived by her loving husband, Paul Foreman; her children, Jason Stonesifer and his wife Amy, Je Foreman and his wife Rebecca, Julie Foreman, and Joddi Thompson. She is also survived by her mother, Beverly Jean Morgan; her brothers, David Smith and his wife, Susan, and Brent Morgan and his wife, Teresa.
She leaves behind her cherished grandchildren: Chase Thompson and his wife, Ashley, Andrew Thompson, Brandon Stonesifer and his wife, Victoria, Brian Stonesifer and his wife, Estefania, Jordan Stonesifer, and Kaylin Roble and her husband, Christian. Paula was also blessed with two great-grandchildren, Nova and Stella, with another, baby Elias, arriving in December. She was preceded in death by her son, Jarrod Foreman, and her sister, Judy Braman.
Paula leaves behind a family who will forever be grateful for her love, her guidance, and the strength she instilled in each of them. Though her absence leaves an ache that words cannot fully capture, the memories she created will remain a source of comfort and light.
A celebration of Paula’s life will be held at Boles Funeral Home in Southern Pines on Saturday, December 6, from 1-3 p.m. Her family invites all who knew her to join in honoring the life of a woman who gave so much of herself to others.
She will be deeply missed, always remembered, and forever loved.
Richard C. “Dick” Mills
March 16, 1942 –Nov. 25, 2025
Richard C. “Dick” Mills, 83, passed away peacefully on November 25, 2025, at FirstHealth Hospice House in Pinehurst, North Carolina, surrounded by his loving family. He was born on March 16, 1942, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dick married the love of his life, Marlene C. Thoben, on June 25, 1966, in Middletown, New York. The two began their journey together with a honeymoon to Niagara Falls. They purchased their rst home in Wappingers Falls in 1968, where they raised their family and built lifelong friendships. In 1995, Dick’s career with IBM brought them to Holly Springs, North Carolina, and after retirement, they settled in Pinehurst, where they enjoyed many ful lling years.
A proud veteran, Dick served in the United States Air Force from 1961 to 1965, including a station assignment in Okinawa, Japan. Following his military service, he built a distinguished 37-year career with IBM, working in East Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, and Raleigh. In retirement, he embraced life with enthusiasm— traveling with Marlene, woodworking, tending his yard and gardens, tackling countless DIY projects, and giving back to his community through Meals on Wheels volunteer work.
Golf was one of Dick’s greatest passions. A dedicated player, he enjoyed the game at least three times a week until very recently. He was a member of the IBM Country Club in Poughkeepsie and Whispering Pines Country Club. His skill and love for the sport led him to achieve three holes-in-one, including a remarkable one at age 79 at Whispering Pines.
Dick gave generously of his time to others, including many years as a Boy Scout leader in Wappingers Falls. He was known not only for his kindness, steady presence, and warm smile, but also for his love of a good debate, his endearing stubborn streak, and his unmistakably sharp sense of humor. These qualities made him unforgettable and added a spark to every conversation. Above all, he was a loving husband, father, brother, uncle, and friend, and he will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved him.
Dick is survived by his children, J. David Mills of Boulder, Colorado, and Wendy Mills of Wendell, North Carolina; his siblings; Deborah Kristo -Dupuis of Sterling, Massachusetts, Paul Mills (Pam) of Dover Plains, New York, and Gary Mills of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; his nieces Krista Barto (Mills), Courtney Adams (Mills), Chelsey Mills; and nephew, Paul Mills. He was preceded in death by his parents, James and Bernice Mills.
The family extends their heartfelt appreciation to the sta of FirstHealth Hospice & Palliative Care in Pinehurst for their exceptional care and loving support during Dick’s nal days. A memorial service in Dick’s honor will be held on Monday, December 8, 2025, at 11 a.m., at Community Congregational Church’s Fellowship Hall in Southern Pines. Celebrant Ryan Jacobson will be presiding.
In lieu of owers, please consider a donation to a charity of your choice or to FirstHealth Hospice & Palliative Care, 251 Campground Road, West End, NC 27376.
Aileen Wiseman Garland
Aug. 31, 1930 – Nov. 24, 2025
Aileen Wiseman Garland, 95, of Pinehurst, NC, died peacefully after a brief illness on November 24, 2025. She was born August 31, 1930, in Crossnore, NC, to Earl and Wilma “Billie” Wiseman. She called Marion, NC, home and always considered herself a mountain girl. At the age of 16, she married the love of her life, Max Garland, on September 22, 1946. They lived in Marion, NC, brie y in Edenton, NC, and eventually moved to Charlotte, where she and Max raised their two children, Steve and Enola, and welcomed their rst grandchildren, twins Kayla and Karey. Later in life she trained to be a surgical tech at Presbyterian Hospital and enjoyed years of employment.
In 1988, she and Max retired to Pinehurst NC to live near Enola and Tom as they added ve grandchildren. She was an active Granny who loved to take her grandchildren on little adventures around town she called “scooterpooting.” Her grandchildren were especially impressed with the fact that she rode the Tweetsie train as a child when it ran between Avery County, NC, and Johnson City, TN. She treasured each grandchild and was blessed with six great-grandchildren as well. She was a woman of unwavering faith in Christ and remained active in the Presbyterian church throughout her life. In the 1970s, she served as one of the rst women elders in the Mecklenburg Presbytery and continued with active church involvement at Community Presbyterian in Pinehurst, teaching a Women’s Sunday School class into her eighties. Community Bible Study was a joy for over 20 years allowing her to meet women of all ages sharing in their love of Christ and the Word of God. In 2019, she received the Presbyterian Women Honorary Life Membership Award.
She was preceded in death by her parents, brother Sandy, husband Max, and son-in-law Tom Lineberger. She is survived by her son Steve Garland (Carolyn) of Rock Hill, SC and daughter Enola Lineberger of Pinehurst. Grandchildren include: Kayla Grein (Eric) and Karey Vera all of Charlotte, Martha Lineberger of Brooklyn, NY; Tommy Lineberger (Heather) of West End, NC, Pete Lineberger of Washington,D.C., Steve (Virginia) of Raleigh and Eva Aileen Lineberger of Atlanta, GA. Great Grandchildren Tyler Palm, Nic Vera, Cassie Palm and Bella Vera all of Charlotte, Carly Lineberger of West End, NC, and Libby Lineberger of Raleigh.
Aileen lived a life of service, purpose and love and will be remembered fondly by all who knew and loved her. She was quick with a wink, a smile and a hug.
Burial will be on Friday, November 28, at Tanglewood Cemetery in Linville, NC, with a funeral on Saturday, November 29, at 11 a.m. at Community Presbyterian in Pinehurst, NC. All are welcome.
Memorials may be made to: Young Life in the Sandhills, PO BOX 1198, Southern Pines, NC 28388, or Community Presbyterian Church, 125 Everette Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374.
Maurice Wayne Richardson
July 14, 1947 – Nov. 28, 2025
Maurice Wayne Richardson, 78, of Clinton, North Carolina, passed away on November 28, 2025. Born on July 14, 1947, to Fred and Jean Richardson, Wayne grew up with a deep appreciation for the outdoors and a love for the simple, meaningful things in life.
Wayne was a man who found joy in nature. He loved hunting, shing, taxidermy, tending to his cows, and spending time outside. His two precious dogs, Susie and Abbie, were never far from his side, bringing him immense comfort and companionship. He could always make everyone laugh, and he never met a stranger.
He is survived by his devoted wife and high school sweetheart, Brenda Richardson; his sons Kenneth Richardson (Jacquelynn) of Moncure and Jimmy Richardson (Judy) of Biscoe; and his stepson Justin Hobbs (Leslie) of Wilmington. Wayne was a proud grandfather and greatgrandfather. His grandchildren include Monica Schultz, Brandi Richardson, Brittany Richardson (Matthew), Ethan Richardson (Danielle), James Wayne Richardson (Reva), Katie Burleson (Jacob), Meredith Locklear (Justin), Luke Hobbs and Shelby Hobbs. His great-grandchildren include Tatyanna Hayes, Mark Hayes Jr., Colton Mayes, Natalie Richardson, Pierce Foushee, Emily Mayes, Dawson Richardson, Wyatt Richardson, Kade McEntire, Gabriel Locklear, Ryan Richardson, Piper Richardson, Noah Locklear, Jemma Burleson and Emsley Jo Richardson.
Wayne loved his family ercely and took great pride in each generation that followed him.
A graveside service will be held on Monday, December 1, 2025, at 1 p.m. at West End Cemetery. A reception will follow at West End Presbyterian Church, Crawford Hall, where family and friends are invited to gather, share memories, and celebrate Wayne’s life.
Wayne will be remembered for his strong work ethic, gentle spirit, love of the outdoors and unwavering devotion to his family.
Wallace Mack
April 24, 1940 – Dec. 1, 2025
Wallace Mack, age 85, of Vass, passed away on Monday, December 1, 2025, at his home, surrounded by his family.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Monday, December 8, 2025, at noon at Cox Memorial Funeral Home Chapel. The family will receive friends immediately following the service at the funeral home.
He proudly served his country in the U.S. Army. He was a loving father, uncle, grandfather and friend and will be greatly missed.
Wallace was born in South Carolina to the late Walter Mack and Bessie Missouri Mack. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sisters, Annie Mae, Fannie Bell, Edna Louise, Betty Lee, and his brother, Walter.
He is survived by his children, Sharon Lacy (Billy) of Raeford, Wallace Otto Mack (Lisa) of Charlotte, Annette Kearns (Samuel) of Vass, Thabit Bey of Colorado; eleven grandchildren and fteen great-grandchildren.
Todd Brantley Hunt
Aug. 2, 1963 – Nov. 28, 2025
Todd Brantley Hunt, 62 of West End, NC, passed on Friday, November 28, 2025, in Gassaway, WV.
Todd was born August 2, 1963, in Pinehurst to the late John D. Hunt and Patricia (McKenzie) Hinson. Todd was known for his steady presence, unwavering love, and dependability as a husband, father, son, and friend. He dedicated much of his life to his career as a project manager and estimator for Barnhill Contracting, but outside of the workplace he enjoyed shing at the lake, cooking on the grill, working on cars, and playing many golf matches with his buddies. He loved cheering on NC State at tailgates, relaxing at home with Atlanta Braves games on TV, and spending quiet afternoons watching golf. He also had a deep love for music, and he could spend hours enjoying his favorite movies and TV shows, especially classic westerns, Marvel lms, and anything inspired by the comic books he grew up with. Most importantly, Todd was a good, admirable Christian man who was a loving and devoted husband and father. A man’s whose patience, sel essness, wisdom, strength, and amazing sense of humor made a lasting impact on everyone who knew him. His wife and children will forever remember the lessons he taught, the warmth he gave, and the love he showed every single day. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Cristen (Carr) Hunt; two daughters, Jordan Leigh Hunt of West End, and Emma Claire Hunt of Raleigh, NC; a son, Brantley Thomas Hunt of Charlotte, NC; his father and mother-in-law, Rachel and Tom Carr of West End; a step-father, Larry Dean Hinson of Hamlet, NC; stepbrother, Larry Dean Hinson II and wife Dana of China Grove, NC; an aunt, Mitzi McKenzie of West End; uncle, Robert Hunt and wife Claudia of Carthage; a nephew, Cooper Dean Hinson of Boone, NC; and two cousins, Kelly and Corey Curlee.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Thursday, December 4, 2025, at the First Baptist Church in Pinehurst, followed by a reception held in the church fellowship hall.
Sammy Hilliard Hill
May 14, 1933 – Dec. 1, 2025
Sammy Hilliard Hill, 92, of Southern Pines, passed away on December 1, 2025, at Quail Haven.
Born on May 14, 1933, in Moore County to the late Jack and Blanch Hill. Sammy was a faithful member of Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Billie Joyce Hill; brother, Webster Hill; sisters, Helen Stutts, Bessie Jordan and Nora Monroe.
He is survived by one brother, Bob Hill; and two sisters-in-law, Virginia Hill and Maxine Hill; also survived by nieces, nephews and other family and friends.
A visitation will be held on Thursday, December 4, 2025, from 4-6 p.m. at Boles Funeral Home in Southern Pines. A funeral service will be held on Friday, December 5, 2025, at 11 a.m. at Boles Funeral Home in Southern Pines. Interment Pinelawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
Andrea Lynn Maness
March 19, 1968 –Nov. 24, 2025
Andrea Lynn Stevens Maness passed away peacefully at her home, surrounded by love, with her devoted husband, Todd Maness, and their daughter, Erin Maness, by her side. She was comforted by family and close friends in her nal moments.
Andrea was a proud graduate of Fayetteville State University, where she earned her degree Magna Cum Laude, re ecting her dedication, intelligence, and strong work ethic. She devoted her life to protecting and advocating for children through the Department of Social Services. Andrea began her career with Moore County DSS and concluded her years of service with Harnett County DSS, working in Children’s Services, where she tirelessly served vulnerable children and families. Her work was not just a profession — it was a calling guided by compassion, integrity, and a sincere desire to keep families safe and supported.
Andrea was a kind, gentle, and sel ess soul whose warmth touched everyone she encountered. She never mistreated anyone or any living thing and lived her life with grace, humility, and quiet strength. Her legacy of love, service, and devotion will live on through all who were blessed to know her.
She is survived by her devoted husband, Todd; her cherished daughter, Erin Maness; her loving father, Vernon Stevens; and her brother, Brian Stevens.
Andrea will be forever cherished, deeply missed, and lovingly remembered.
Funeral services will begin at 2 p.m., Saturday, November 29, 2025, at Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church in Robbins. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service. Burial will be in the church cemetery following the funeral service.
Mildred Faye Leslie
April 18, 1941 – Nov. 24, 2025
Mildred Faye Leslie, age 84, of Sanford, passed away at her home on Monday, November 24, 2025, with her husband and grandson by her side. Born in Harnett County on April 18, 1941, she was the daughter of the late William and Alice Gregory Leslie. Faye was a dedicated homemaker throughout her life.
She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Fred L. Leslie; her daughter, Sheila Godfrey (and husband Victor) of Cameron; and her son, Greg Leslie (and wife Lynn) of Orange City, Florida, grandchildren Brad Leslie (and wife Nicole), Adam Leslie, Jonah Godfrey (and wife Sophia), and Tyler Godfrey; seven great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Monday, December 1, at Priest Hill Presbyterian Church, with the Rev. Archie Stevens o ciating—burial following in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends at Fry & Prickett Funeral Home on Sunday, November 30, from 5-7 p.m. Memorials may be made to Priest Hill Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 176, Carthage, North Carolina, 28327.
STATE & NATION
Melania Trump reveals White House Christmas decorations
This year’s theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is”
By Darlene Superville The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Melania Trump on Monday unveiled the holiday decorations for her family’s rst Christmas back at the White House and her theme is “Home Is Where the Heart Is.”
The decor also nods to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and founding of the United States of America.
Several dozen volunteer decorators from across the country helped deck the halls of the executive mansion with 75 wreaths, 51 Christmas trees, more than 700 feet of garland, more than 2,000 strands of lights, over 25,000 feet of ribbon, over 2,800 gold stars, more than 10,000 butter ies and 120 pounds of gingerbread.
A few things are di erent because President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing to build a ballroom he’s long desired.
This year, the o cial White House Christmas tree, which is always on display in the Blue Room, also honors Gold Star families, those that lost a member during active-duty military service.
120
Pounds of
That tree was an East Wing xture and the rst one visitors encountered after they entered through those doors, but the building and a covered walkway, or colonnade, connecting it to the White House were demolished by Trump in October as part of his ballroom plan.
Public tours, which had been suspended because of the construction, were set to resume Tuesday but with a shorter route limited to just the State Floor, which includes the East Room; the Green, Blue and Red Rooms; the State Dining Room; the Cross Hall; and the Grand Foyer.
The Library and the Vermeil and China Rooms on the Ground Floor — one level below the State Floor — were cut from the tour route because of the construction.
The White House expects tens of thousands of visitors for holiday tours, receptions and parties before Christmas. Visitors will now enter through the North Portico doors on Pennsylvania Avenue using a new,
semipermanent walkway and entrance.
A statement from the White House said Christmas is a time to celebrate what makes the U.S. exceptional and that while every home has its own traditions, shared values unite Americans.
“In every community, we are lifted by simple acts of kindness that re ect the enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism, and gratitude,” the statement said. “These moments remind us that the heart of America is strong and that Home Is Where The Heart Is.”
Planning for the holidays starts months in advance, and the White House said Melania Trump chose every detail of the decor.
Trees in the East Room are trimmed in patriotic red, white and blue and national symbols, including golden eagle tree toppers, to highlight the coming America250 national celebration.
The o cial White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room is decorated with gold stars honoring families that lost a member in the line of active-duty military service. The o cial tree traditionally recognizes each state and territory and this year’s r is decorated with ornaments showcasing the o cial bird and ower of each.
The Green Room celebrates family fun, featuring large portraits of the rst and the current
presidents, George Washington and Donald Trump, respectively, each made from more than 6,000 Lego puzzle pieces.
Thousands of blue butter ies decorate the Red Room and its tree in a celebration of young people and in tribute to Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future initiative, which is part of her Be Best child-focused initiative, to support people who have been in foster care.
A holiday highlight, the gingerbread White House on display in the State Dining Room shows o the mansion’s South Portico and o ers a special glimpse into the Yellow Oval Room, a sitting room o the Truman Balco-
ny in the president’s private living quarters on the second oor.
It was made using 120 pounds of gingerbread, 100 pounds of pastillage, a sugar-based modeling paste; over 10 pounds of chocolate and 5 pounds of royal icing.
Part of the White House creche is on display in the Grand Foyer while the rest of it is undergoing a restoration overseen by the curator’s o ce.
Most of the tree trimming and hall decking was done after the Trumps decamped to their Florida home early last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. They returned to the White House on Sunday.
PHOTOS BY EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO
Dozens of trees, thousands of lights and more than ve miles of ribbon make up the enormous White House holiday display.
