North State Journal Vol. 11, Issue 11

Spring sizzler

Hearing pushed back

Zarutska murder case

Raleigh Decarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of murdering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail system in August 2025, has had his upcoming hearing pushed back. According to court records, Brown’s hearing has been pushed from April 30 to Oct. 27. The hearing change follows a continuance motion led by Assistant Public Defender Daniel P. Roberts on April 7. The motion requested a 180 - day continuance, postponing the hearing originally set for April 30. According to the motion, Brown had been “evaluated at Central Regional Hospital,” and a report issued on Dec. 29, 2025, found he was “incapable to proceed.” Not long after that evaluation report, Brown was indicted in federal court in the Western District of North Carolina and transferred to federal custody where he remains.

U.S. strike on alleged drug boat kills 2 Washington, D.C.

The U.S. military said it launched another strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing two people Monday. The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-tra cking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and killed at least 188 people. Other strikes have taken place in the eastern Paci c Ocean. The strikes have ramped up again in recent weeks, showing that the administration’s aggressive measures to stop what it calls “narcoterrorism” in the Western Hemisphere are not letting up.

Chatham County faces lawsuit over data center moratorium

A complaint claims an $11 million investment and “vested rights” were granted prior to the moratorium

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — A North Carolina land development company has sued Chatham Coun-

ty, claiming that a recently adopted moratorium on data centers unlawfully blocks a long-planned 750-megawatt project on property zoned for heavy industrial use.

Chatham County’s 12-month moratorium blocks new data centers countywide and speci cally designates cryptocurrency mining as a separate

The Wake County Democrat narrowly won the seat by 128 votes in 2024

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — Sen. Terence

Everitt (D-Wake) announced he is resigning from the General Assembly e ective May 1. He represents District 18, covering all of Granville County and part of Wake County. Everitt, in a Facebook post the night of April 28, was vague as to why he is resigning other than mentioning his work at the North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance, writing he is, “determined to defend our state’s democracy at all costs.”

“Over the last 7 years, it has been the honor of my life to serve in the North Carolina General Assembly — rst in the State House, and most recently representing Senate District 18 and the people of Wake and Granville Counties,” Everitt said in his statement.

“In January, I began work-

ing at the North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance where we are working every day to protect the right to vote in North Carolina and ensure fair elections in our state. Since returning to the legislative session, it has become clear that defending our democracy requires my focus and dedication. The Republican majorities in our legislature are hell-bent on assaulting our democracy, suppressing voting rights, and restricting North Carolinians’ access to the ballot box. This is a ght we must win, and I am determined to defend our state’s democracy at all costs.

“For that reason, in consultation with my family and closest advisors, I have made the di cult decision to resign from the North Carolina Senate and will withdraw my name from the 2026 General Election ballot.

“I have immense gratitude for everyone who has been on this journey with me since 2016. I want to sincerely thank all my constituents

The funding spans 85 recovery projects

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the release of another $255.8 million to support 85 recovery projects across North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene, according to an April 23 agency press release. The latest round of Public Assistance Grant funding will reimburse state agencies, local governments and eligible nonpro ts for costs tied to debris removal, emergency pro -

tective measures, and permanent repairs to roads, bridges and public buildings damaged by the hurricane.

The infusion of cash follows a visit to western North Carolina by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in early April.

“I’ve seen rsthand the determination and hard work of those in North Carolina who are still working to rebuild and recover after Helene,” Mullin said. “This additional funding is another step in our commitment to make sure communities have the support they need to clear debris, rebuild critical infrastructure and move

“(DHS) Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin is delivering on the promises he made to the people of Western North Carolina.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.)

See EVERITT, page A3

Funnel cakes get crispy during the Spring Chicken Festival in downtown Siler City on Saturday.

the word | Secrets to a happy life

“As your days — so shall your strength be!” Deuteronomy 33:25

One of the secrets of happy and beautiful life, is to live one day at a time. Really, we never have anything to do any day — but the bit of God’s will for that day. If we do that well — we have absolutely nothing else to do. Time is given to us in days. It was so from the beginning. This breaking up of time into little daily portions means a great deal more than we are accustomed to think. For one thing, it illustrates the gentleness and goodness of God. It would have made life intolerably burdensome if a year, instead of a day — had been the unit of division. It would have been hard to carry a heavy load, to endure a great sorrow, or to keep on at a hard duty — for such a long stretch of time. How dreary our common task-work would be — if there were no breaks in it, if we had to keep our hand to the plough for a whole year. We never could go on with our struggles, our battles, our su ering — if night did not mercifully settle down with its darkness, and bid us rest and renew our strength.

We do not understand how great a mercy there is for us in the briefness of our short days. If they were even twice as long as they are — life would be intolerable. Many a time when the sun goes down — we feel that we could scarcely have gone another step. We would have fainted in defeat — if the summons to rest had not come just when it did.

We see the graciousness of the divine thoughtfulness in giving us time in periods of little days, which we can easily get through with —

and not in great years, in which we would faint and fall by the way. It makes it possible for us to go on through all the long years and not to be overwrought, for we never have given to us at any one time — more than we can do between the morning and the evening.

If we learn well the lesson of living just one day at a time, without anxiety for either yesterday or tomorrow, we shall have found one of the great secrets of Christian peace. That is the way God teaches us to live. That is the lesson both of

King and Co hires Guilford’s Tillman

The county commissioner will serve as vice president of government a airs

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — King and Co LLC, one of North Carolina’s fastest-growing government a airs and strategic consulting rms, announced Guilford County Commissioner Patrick Tillman has joined the company as vice president of government a airs.

King and Co LLC operates as a multistate government affairs and consulting rm, operating o ces in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Michigan and Washington, D.C.

“Pat has spent his career solving hard problems in education, healthcare, and local government, and he has earned

“Pat

the Bible and of nature. If we learn it, it will cure us of all anxiety; it will save us from all feverish haste; it will enable us to live sweetly in any experience.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

J. R. Miller was a pastor and former editorial superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Publication from 1880 to 1911. His works are now in the public domain.

Sebastian King, King & Co managing partner

the trust of leaders across the state,” said Sebastian King, the rm’s managing partner. “Our clients are going to feel the impact immediately.”

The King & Co press release cites Tillman’s experience serving on his local school board, highlighting involvement in education funding, school op -

erations, healthcare policy, nonpro t advocacy and local government budgeting.

“I am honored to join Sebastian and the entire King and Co team,” Tillman said. “This rm has quickly built a reputation for delivering results for clients in Raleigh and DC. I look forward to putting my experience to work for them.”

Tillman’s family legacy of public service was also highlighted. His father, the late Sen. Jerry Tillman, served two decades in the state Senate, including as majority whip.

The rm works with major developers, private companies, statewide associations and towns on issues ranging from land use and healthcare to education and regulatory strategy.

“Adding Pat to our team is a signal of where this rm is headed,” King said. “We are building a bench of practitioners who have actually held the pen on policy — not just observed it. Pat strengthens every practice area we have.”

forward. DHS and FEMA will continue to stand with North Carolina through every stage of their recovery.”

Notable allocations in the new package include:

• $125.5 million to North Carolina Emergency Management for emergency protective measures to safeguard public health and safety, along with ongoing debris removal.

• $57.6 million to the North Carolina Department of Transportation for road repairs or replacement and related emergency measures.

• $42.7 million to Cleveland County for debris removal.

• $5 million to the city of Asheville for debris removal.

• $2.9 million to Madison County for emergency measures supporting critical infrastructure.

• $1.6 million to Yancey County for debris removal.

• $1.5 million to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services for repair or replacement of public buildings.

• $1.4 million to the town of Old Fort for repair or replacement of public buildings.

• $1.2 million to the city of Brevard for road and culvert repairs or replacement.

U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) separately highlighted more than $238 million in approved Public Assistance grants for western North Carolina communities, praising Mullin’s leadership in accelerating the process.

“Secretary Mullin is delivering on the promises he made to the people of Western North Carolina,” said Budd. “I’m grateful that he and his team have worked with me and my Congressional colleagues to direct needed relief to WNC that ensures funds move through the FEMA review process without unnecessary bureaucratic delay.

“Our e orts will continue as new projects are completed every single week. My focus remains on ensuring the federal government continues to do its part and make sure funding reaches our Appalachian communities as quickly as possible, and Secretary Mullin has been an excellent partner in delivering results.”

Budd’s press release lists dozens of individual project worksheets covering bridge repairs, road reconstruction and waterway debris removal in Buncombe, Mitchell, Yancey, Ashe and Transylvania counties, among others.

With this latest funding,

FEMA’s total assistance to North Carolina following Helene now exceeds $5 billion. That includes more than $1.87 billion approved for nearly 2,400 public assistance projects addressing debris, infrastructure and other public property damage. Separately, the agen-

cy has delivered more than $565.6 million in individual assistance to roughly 161,000 families for home repairs, rental support and other needs. On the housing side, FEMA’s temporary housing program for Helene survivors is winding down. Nearly all 234

households that had been in FEMA-provided units have transitioned to long-term solutions. Seventy-two families purchased their FEMA units — some with help from voluntary agencies — and only two families remain in temporary FEMA housing.

REBECCA SANTANA / AP PHOTO

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, center left, listens to a brie ng on hurricane recovery e orts in Lake Lure on April 7.

“The Andes of Ecuador” is a painting by Frederic Edwin Church, a central gure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters. The painting is in the collection of the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem.

Audit nds NC A&T misused $5M in student fees

The school self-reported the issue, which involved at least 24 students linked to school employees

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — North Carolina

A&T University improperly directed more than $5 million in Administrative Recovery Funds (ARF) as nancial assistance to students without any evidence of merit- or need-based criteria, according to a recent investigative special report released by the North Carolina O ce of the State Auditor.

ARF fees are paid by students for housing, dining, parking and other services.

“Through our investigations, we at the State Auditor’s Ofce seek to hold individuals accountable for misguided actions,” State Auditor Dave Boliek said in the press release. “What’s been uncovered at NC A&T represents gross misconduct. Given the ndings of our investigation, we’ve made a criminal referral to the State Bureau of Investigation and I have fully informed and updated the Guilford County District Attorney.”

The audit, which examined ARF usage from July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2025, found that nearly $5.1 million was disbursed as nancial aid, with more than $781,000 going to

EVERITT from page A1

for the trust you’ve placed in me to represent you and your family. While my time in elected ofce has come to an end, I understand the pivotal moment we face in North Carolina’s history. I believe in our state and I look forward to continuing to ght for it with everything I have.”

The North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance (NCVPA) describes itself as “a permanent hub dedicated to defending the right to vote and protecting fair elections across our state.”

NCVPA does not appear to have a lot of activity in recent months. As of this article, the latest news post on the NCVPA website was dated Jan. 13. There is no list of employees or sta currently on the website.

Records on le with the North Carolina Secretary of State show the group was formed as a nonpro t in June 2025. Those records list the incorporator as Michael L. Weisel, a Raleigh area attorney.

“Terence Everitt has been a erce voice for the people of Dis-

land use requiring distinct regulation.

ECO TIP West LLC led the complaint in Chatham County Superior Court last week, seeking to invalidate the county’s Feb. 11 moratorium on data centers and to a rm that its Triangle Innovation West project is exempt.

The company, which owns the site known as TIP West within the county’s Moncure Megasite, argues it had already secured vested rights through substantial investments and ofcial county approvals before the moratorium took e ect.

According to the lawsuit, ECO TIP has spent more than $11 million developing the project, which includes cryptocurrency mining operations alongside traditional data center functions.

The site, near the intersection of Pea Ridge Road and Old U.S. 1, was rezoned for heavy industrial use in 2018 as part of the Moncure Megasite, an area promoted by state and local o cials for large-scale manufacturing and technology projects, including proximity to the planned VinFast automobile factory.

students who were university employees, family members of employees, or had direct personal or professional connections to the institution. Of that amount, more than $238,000 went to 24 students who were either university employees or family members of employees.

Speci c examples detailed in the report include:

• The nephew of the former executive director of the school’s Real Estate Foundation received $73,063.

• The daughter of an NC A&T Center for Teaching Excellence External Advisory Board member received $23,052.

• The son of a former part-time English instructor received $22,545.

• The son of the former associate vice chancellor for campus enterprises received $18,707.

• The daughter of the former assistant vice chancellor for business and nance received $14,888.

In one case, the former vice chancellor for business and

nance allegedly used preferential treatment to award an out-of-state student $49,024 and then authorized an additional $36,654 and $12,000 in tuition assistance for two of the student’s friends.

The report also highlighted actions by the former associate vice provost for enrollment management and the former director of nancial aid operations. Following a discussion be-

trict 18 and for North Carolina,” Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) said of Everitt. “I am grateful for his service, and I respect his decision to focus his energy where he believes it is needed most,” Batch said in a statement. “His decision to go where the ght is hardest and stand in that gap for the people of this state is one I support fully.”

The same evening Everitt resigned, Batch posted an image of herself with former Biden Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on social media.

“Last night was an incredible show of support for the NC Senate Democratic Caucus,” Batch wrote in the post. “As we pass day 300 without a state budget, teachers and state workers are still on 2023 pay facing 2026 costs. Voices like @PeteButtigieg lifting up NC matter more than ever.”

House Republicans’ account on X responded, writing, “Some members’ contributions to the General Assembly are measured in their legislation, their relationships, or their kindness.

tween the two, the associate vice provost’s son was allowed to remain enrolled despite a university policy that would have prevented it, according to the report. He also allegedly received a $10,000 Aggie Club Endowment Scholarship — far exceeding the $2,068 budgeted amount for the award.

Boliek thanked NC A&T Chancellor James R. Martin II for self-reporting the issue and for the university’s cooperation.

UNC System President Peter Hans echoed that sentiment, noting that the university’s internal processes ultimately worked to address the problem.

“I appreciate the work of State Auditor Boliek to complete a rigorous investigation, and I appreciate Chancellor Martin bringing forward the concerns originally,” Hans said. “The chancellor and his team have been diligently working to correct issues and move forward with transparency and accountability. In this situation, the pro-

Their impact on the state transcends party lines. Others are known for getting moved into a supply closet for their lack of decorum.”

The House Republicans account also posted an image of a letter sent by former House Speaker Tim Moore to Everitt

Court documents state that in late October 2025, the county issued a zoning permit con rming the data center was a “use permitted by right” once public water and sewer service became available. The company says utilities were in place, giving it statutory protections under North Carolina law. The moratorium was adopted after community opposition to AI data centers and in what the complaint describes as “closed- door” discussions among county o cials.

ECO TIP contends the ordinance was rushed, lacked required legal ndings and failed to consider alternatives, rendering it invalid. Even if valid,

cess worked to set things right again, and that’s why we have layers of oversight in a public university.”

Martin said the university discovered the problem and immediately contacted the State Auditor’s O ce.

“NC A&T identi ed this problem through our own internal audit process, and I personally contacted State Auditor Boliek because full transparency demands nothing less,” Martin said. “I am grateful to Auditor Boliek and his team for the thoroughness and professionalism of their review. Our students deserve to know that every dollar they pay is managed with integrity, and the corrective actions we have taken re ect that commitment.”

The university agreed with all ndings and outlined several corrective actions, including: • Engaging an external audit rm for an independent review of the nancial aid awarding process.

in 2023 after Everitt had an altercation with Sen. Paul Lowe (D-Forsyth). Part of that heated exchange was caught on camera.

In his letter, Moore told Everitt his o ce would be moved for his security, which ended up being a location that served as a former broom closet in the General Assembly basement. Some media outlets speculated moving Everitt’s o ce was also payback for Everitt calling on the Wake County district attorney to investigate Moore.

Everitt was rst elected to the House in 2018 and was reelected in 2020 and 2022 before moving to the Senate in 2024. He took up the race for the Senate District 18 seat after Mary Wills Bode, also a Democrat, announced in mid-December 2023 that she was retiring after serving one term.

In 2024, Everitt narrowly defeated Republican Ashlee Adams by 128 votes (0.11%). This year’s Civitas has the seat listed as a toss-up.

Democrats in that district will need to pick someone to ll the rest of his term and to

the company argues, its project quali es for an exemption because of its preexisting approvals and expenditures.

At the Feb. 11 public hearing and in a follow-up letter, ECO TIP requested recognition of that exemption, but county ofcials denied the request without detailed analysis and halted processing of the company’s site plan application.

The lawsuit invokes the “expedited judicial review” process available under state law for land-use disputes causing immediate harm. It asks the court to declare the moratorium invalid, con rm ECO TIP’s vested rights and permit-choice protections, exempt the project, award damages for alleged violations of due-process property rights and grant attorney’s fees.

ECO TIP’s manager is Kirk Bradley, chair of Sanford-based Lee-Moore Capital and a member of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors since 2021. The company is represented by Raleigh attorneys Robin Tatum and Mitchell Armbruster of the rm Smith Anderson.

County o cials have not yet led a formal response in court.

• Providing formal training to all nancial aid sta .

• Developing a comprehensive policy and standard operating procedures for internally funded scholarships.

• Conducting a thorough review of all related scholarships with an e ort to recover improperly awarded funds.

• Immediately discontinuing further funding of any identi ed scholarships.

The report lists 15 recommendations focused on stricter policies for ARF usage, eliminating con icts of interest, requiring documentation and secondary reviews for awards, improving segregation of duties, and enhancing monitoring and oversight to prevent management overrides.

NC A&T leadership said it welcomes the recommendations and will continue to cooperate fully with the State Bureau of Investigation and the Guilford County District Attorney’s O ce.

run in November against Chris Stock, a Wake Forest businessman and former aide to Republican Sen. Brent Jackson.

“The families of Wake and Granville County deserve a State Senator who is ready to work from day one,” Stock said in a statement to North State Journal. “I’m running for this seat because we’ve been underserved as a community. And this news doesn’t change that.”

“My campaign isn’t slowing down,” Stock said. “We are going to keep showing up, we’re going to keep talking to families and seniors across Wake and Granville County, and make sure they know I’m in this to lower the cost of living, improve quality of life, and put actual solutions rst. Not rhetoric.”

Everitt is the second N.C. Senate Democrat to resign this year. Graig Meyer stepped down at the end of March to take a role at the NC Justice Center, a left-leaning advocacy group. North Carolina Democratic Party Vice Chair Jonah Garson was picked to assume the remainder of Meyer’s term.

The dispute occurs against a backdrop of surging demand for data centers to support arti cial intelligence training and cryptocurrency operations, and a recent analysis of federal court lings shows AI-related litigation is accelerating rapidly. According to a report by Paige McKirahan, marketing manager at litigation strategy rm DOAR, an examination of 168 federal district court cases in which AI was central to the dispute found lings remained low through 2022 and 2023 before jumping sharply in 2025, with 94 new cases led that year. Early 2026 has already seen 26 additional cases, an indication the trend is continuing. The cases are concentrated in a handful of districts, led by the Northern District of California with 53 lings, followed by the Southern District of New York with 23. OpenAI has been named in 71 suits, more than 40% of the total analyzed. McKirahan notes plainti s are testing a variety of claims involving intellectual property, data use, privacy and liability as courts begin to apply established legal doctrines to emerging generative AI technologies.

CHATHAM from page A1

JENNY KANE / AP PHOTO

COURTESY NCGA

Terence Everitt

COURTESY NC A&T

The North Carolina O ce of the State Auditor issued a report showing the misuse of more than $5 million at North Carolina A&T.

Stay away, be curious with neighborhood wildlife during breeding, nesting season

Baby animals who seem abandoned are often right where their parents left them

By Jack Dura The Associated Press

FOR FOUR YEARS, a mallard has nested behind a bush near the front door of Caitlin Deal’s home in a Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb, o ering an up-close glimpse of nature for her young son and lessons for how people can coexist with wildlife.

The duck, dubbed Martha by the family, sits on her nest for about a month every spring in the tree-lined neighborhood of Eagan, Minnesota. After her eggs hatch around Mother’s Day, the birds toddle away.

“It feels nice that she trusts that area, that she trusts us to be able to come back year after year,” said Deal, whose 4-year-old son Owen’s rst word was “Duck.”

Spring is when wildlife — everything from birds to deer to alligators — bear their young, often in locations more suitable to humans than animals. Experts maintain that with a few exceptions and some preparation, coexisting with creatures usually is easy — and often a lot of fun.

“My two biggest things are: Stay away from the nest or the little family as much as possible, and stay curious,” said Brittney Yohannes, a spokesperson for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. Leave it alone

Find a nest or baby animal?

“One of the best pieces of advice I can give is just understanding that that period of coexisting with this nest or this family will be temporary.”

Brittney Yohannes, Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota spokesperson

Wildlife experts advise leaving it alone. Removing a nest can be illegal under federal law. If a bird has nested in a strange spot, homeowners can call their local wildlife agency for advice, said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Beth Quillian.

‘Timmy’ the whale released in North Sea

The humpback had been stranded o Germany for weeks

The Associated Press

BERLIN — A rescue team on Saturday released from a barge in the North Sea a humpback whale that had been stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March, witnesses said.

Nicknamed Timmy by German media, the whale was spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast March 3, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean.

The mammal’s health deteriorated as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters near the coastal city of Wismar, and unsuccessful e orts to coax it toward deeper seas were livestreamed across the globe.

The environment minister for Germany’s Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state gave the green light for the attempt to save the whale, proposed by a private initiative, despite some warnings from the scienti c community that it may be too much for the animal.

Jens Schwarck, a member of the private initiative who was on site, said the whale was released around 9 a.m. local time, according to the German news agency dpa. The agency reported that the whale was released about 45 miles from the coast of Skagen, Denmark.

Drone footage showed a whale swimming and spouting water near the barge, though it was not immediately conrmed that the animal was indeed Timmy.

A debate emerged about whether to let the whale die in peace or try to assist its return to the Atlantic Ocean. Activists staged protests on the beach in Wismar calling for its liberation, while others have supported new ideas about how the whale could be transported.

PHILIP DULIAN / DPA VIA AP

The humpback whale, nicknamed “Timmy,” recovered from a shallow bay o Wismar is transported toward the North Sea in a ooded cargo ship just before the Danish border in Fehmarn, Germany, last Wednesday.

Some scientists believe the whale had searched for shallow waters because it was weak and needed rest. The veterinarians of the private initiative, however, considered the animal t for transport.

Before the release, a GPS transmitter was reportedly attached to track the whale’s future location, according to dpa.

It is not clear why the whale swam into the Baltic Sea, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. Some experts say the animal may have lost its way while swimming after a shoal of herring or during migration.

Since then, the mammal became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters. It was in clear distress, breathing irregularly and often barely moving for days.

Timmy also su ered from a bad skin condition, related to the Baltic Sea’s low salt content, and rescuers applied pounds of zinc ointment.

Local media produced dayslong livestreams to feed the outsized public attention over the fate of the whale. Online newspapers blasted push alerts with the smallest developments about Timmy’s health.

luccy, of the conservation group Ducks Unlimited. A goose can knock a person to the ground and hit them hard enough to break a bone, he said.

“They’re very, very aggressive. They’re long-lived and they protect their reproductive investment very vigorously,” Coluccy said.

Quillian noted that in parts of the West, people may encounter elk calves, usually in forested and coastal areas, but possibly even near homes. Elk can weigh 500 pounds or more, and cow elk also are incredibly protective of their young.

“It’s amazing to see wildlife, to get that opportunity, but we have to give them distance, respect their space, especially when they have young,” she said.

Besides birds, people often

nd deer fawns curled up in a corner of their yard or by an air conditioning unit. The fawn may appear abandoned, but Quillian said the doe usually has hidden her babe while foraging.

“That is to protect the fawn, to leave it there, sometimes hours at a time, but the doe will come back to that fawn, and that is natural and normal,” Quillian said.

People should leave fawns alone unless there are clear signs they need help.

Protective parents

As cute as the animals may appear, people should remember that wildlife can be, well, wild.

Ducks are docile on the nest, but Canada geese and swans can be aggressive, said John Co-

In Florida, alligators breed and nest from April to June. Female alligators often build nests that resemble piles of leaves near ponds, retention basins and ditches. They aggressively guard their nests, often while hiding in water nearby, said North Florida Wildlife Center Animal Care Manager Darian Dowse.

The key is to keep your distance from mounds of leaves and to keep dogs on sidewalks, away from shorelines.

People with concerns about nests should call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Dowse said.

Dealing with problems

Sometimes animals like raccoons, squirrels or foxes will hole up with their young in spots that just don’t work, such as in a covered boat.

One solution that doesn’t rely on live traps or hiring a pest

control service is to install a shop lamp to ood the area with light, said Tami Vogel, executive director of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. A mom will usually move her young within a couple of days.

People can also install metal mesh to close o sheds and decks, she said.

Vogel said center sta try to educate people about their options.

“We want them to know we’re here as a safety net and what to look for if something goes wrong, and then the good news is, two weeks later, their neighbor may have a similar situation and they can pass along that information,” Vogel said.

What about pets?

Dogs and cats are predators, so the key is to keep them close.

For Deal in Minnesota, a big concern for Martha’s safety revolved around her family’s dog, Piper, who loves to chase animals.

Deal said the family made sure to keep Piper on a leash, and Martha didn’t seem to mind.

Rabbits are incredibly prolific in the Midwest and are one of the most common subjects of calls to the Minnesota center, in part because they nest in yards, Yohannes said.

The center recommends placing a laundry basket over a nest during the day to keep dogs away, and removing it near evening so the mother can tend to her young.

“One of the best pieces of advice I can give is just understanding that that period of coexisting with this nest or this family will be temporary,” Yohannes said.

Suspected hantavirus outbreak on cruise kills 3 people

The World Health Organization is investigating the ship that departed from Argentina

By Gerald Imray

The Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa —

A suspected outbreak of the rare hantavirus infection on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean killed three people, including an elderly married couple, and sickened at least three others, the World Health Organization and South Africa’s Department of Health said Sunday.

In a statement to The Associated Press, WHO said an investigation was underway but that at least one case of hantavirus had been con rmed. One of the patients was in intensive care in a South African hospital, the U.N.’s health agency said, and it was working with authorities to evacuate two other passengers with symptoms from the ship.

Hantavirus, which is found throughout the world, is spread by contact with the urine or feces of infected rodents like rats and mice. The virus gained attention after the late actor Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus infection in New Mexico last year.

Hackman died around a week later at their home from heart disease.

Hantavirus can lead to serious respiratory illness, WHO said. The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While rare, WHO said hantavirus infections can be spread between people.

“WHO is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise vessel sailing in the Atlantic Ocean,” the organization said. “Detailed investigations are ongoing, including further laboratory testing, and epidemiological investigations. Medical care and support are being provided to passengers and

Approximate number of tourists and crew members who were

crew. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing.”

The South African health department said the outbreak happened on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which had left Argentina about three weeks ago for a cruise that included visits to Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and other stops on the way to Spain’s Canary Islands on the other side of the Atlantic.

The MarineTra c global shipping website identi ed the vessel as a Dutch- agged passenger cruise ship. It located it as docked in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, a country o West Africa, on Sunday night.

The rst victim was a 70-year-old man who died on the ship and whose body was removed in the British territory of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, South Africa’s Department of Health said in a statement. The man’s wife collapsed at an airport

in South Africa trying to take a ight to her home country of the Netherlands, the department said. She died at a nearby hospital. The department identi ed the patient in intensive care in a hospital in Johannesburg as a British national. It said that person fell ill near Ascension Island, another remote island in the Atlantic, after the ship left Saint Helena and was transferred from there to South Africa.

Around 150 tourists were onboard the ship at the time of the outbreak, South Africa’s health department said. Several online tour operators said the Hondius, which is described as a specialist polar cruise ship, usually travels with about 70 crew members. WHO said it was working with national authorities and the ship’s operators to conduct a “full public health risk assessment” and provide support for those still onboard the ship.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, meanwhile, was conducting contact tracing in the Johannesburg region to identify if other people were exposed to the infected passengers in South Africa.

There is no speci c treatment or cure for hantavirus infections, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.

MARK VANCLEAVE / AP PHOTO

A female mallard sits on eggs in her nest tucked next to the front door of a home in Eagan, Minnesota, on April 26.

aboard the MV Hondius

COURTESY WIKIPEDIA COMMONS A researcher obtains urine from a hantavirus-infected deer mouse in New Mexico in 2002.

NATION & WORLD

Trump: US will reduce troops in Germany beyond initial withdrawal

The Pentagon announced last week it would pull 5,000 troops

The Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.

— President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. will signi cantly reduce its troop presence in Germany, escalating a dispute with Chancellor Friedrich Merz as he seeks to scale back America’s commitment to European security.

The Pentagon on Friday had initially announced it would pull some 5,000 troops out of Germany, but when asked Saturday about the reason for the move, Trump didn’t o er an explanation and said an even bigger reduction was coming.

“We’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,” Trump told reporters in Florida.

Earlier on Saturday, Germany’s defense minister appeared to take in stride the news that 5,000 U.S. troops would be leaving his country.

Boris Pistorius said the drawdown, which Trump has threatened for years, was expected, and he said European nations needed to take on more responsibility for their own defense. But he also emphasized that security cooperation beneted both sides of the trans-Atlantic partnership.

“The presence of American soldiers in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the U.S.,” Pistorius told the German news agency dpa.

The planned withdrawal faced bipartisan resistance in Washington, with swift criticism from Democrats and concern from Republicans that it would send the “wrong signal”

to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose full-scale invasion of Ukraine recently entered its fth year.

Trump’s decision comes as he seethes at European allies over their unwillingness to join his campaign with Israel against Iran. He has lashed out at leaders like Merz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Merz last week criticized the war in Iran, saying the U.S. is being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and calling out Washington’s lack of strategy.

In another sign of friction, Trump accused the European Union of not complying with its U.S. trade deal and announced plans to increase tari s next week on cars and trucks produced in the bloc to 25%, a move that would be particularly damaging to Germany, a major automobile manufacturer.

At least one EU lawmaker called the tari hike “unac-

ceptable” and accused Trump of breaking yet another U.S. commitment on trade.

A pullout of 5,000 soldiers from Germany would amount to about one-seventh of the 36,000 American service members stationed in the country. The Pentagon o ered few details about which troops or operations would be a ected. When contacted after Trump’s announcement of more cuts on Saturday, the Pentagon did not o er any additional details and referred back to its earlier statement.

The withdrawal of the 5,000 troops is scheduled to take place over the next 6 to 12 months, according to the Pentagon. Trump previously said he would pull 9,500 troops from Germany during his rst term, but he didn’t start the process, and Democratic President Joe Biden formally stopped the planned withdrawal soon after taking o ce in 2021.

Trump ‘not satis ed’ with Iran’s proposal to end the war

The three-week cease re has held despite accusations by both sides

The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD — U.S. President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end the war between the countries, saying Friday he still was not satised while blaming Iran’s “fractured” leadership.

Trump turned back the latest proposal almost as soon as it was delivered. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that Iran handed over its plan to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night.

“They want to make a deal, I’m not satis ed with it, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House, without elaborating on what he saw as its shortcomings.

The shaky three-week ceasere between the U.S. and Iran appears to still be holding, though both countries have traded accusations of violations.

While the cease re has largely halted ghting in Iran, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a stando over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A U.S. Navy blockade stopping Iran’s tankers from getting out to sea has Iran’s economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait.

Negotiations have continued

A man stands in the water, appearing to sh, as bulk carriers, cargo ships and service vessels line the horizon in the Strait of Hormuz o Bandar Abbas, Iran, on April 27.

by phone after Trump called o his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. Trump oated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America’s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

Last Friday, Trump expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, describing it as fractured.

“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” Trump said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”

Discussing a brie ng he had last Thursday with Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, the president said the U.S. has just two options in Iran.

“I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of

“They

want to make a

deal, I’m not satis ed with it, so we’ll see what happens.”

President Donald Trump

them and nish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options,” Trump said. Trump said he believes Iran’s leadership has made some progress toward unifying around a resolution.

“They’ve made strides, but I’m not sure if they’ll ever get there,” he said. “There’s tremendous discord; they’re having a

4 N.J. residents charged with illegally voting

Newark, N.J.

President Donald Trump, right, talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a meeting in the Oval O ce on March 3.

More broadly, about 80,000 -100,000 U.S. personnel are usually stationed in Europe — depending on operations, exercises and troop rotations. The U.S. increased its European deployment after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022. NATO allies like Germany have expected for more than a year that these troops would be the rst to leave.

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart, in a post Saturday on X, said the trans-Atlantic alliance was “working with the U.S. to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany.”

“This adjustment underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defense and take on a greater share of the responsibility for our shared security,” she added, noting “progress” toward a target among NATO allies to each invest 5% of their economic output to defense.

tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a urry of calls last Friday with many of his regional counterparts, including from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country’s latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over the phone Friday with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic e orts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and long-term security arrangements, Kallas’ o ce said in a statement. Kallas also has been in contact with the EU’s Gulf partners.

Pakistani o cials have said e orts were continuing to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S.

Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington, Masood Khan, said the continued exchange of proposals indicates that the U.S. and Iran remain engaged in seeking a diplomatic midpoint.

The proposals also come after leaders of the two countries had exchanged some of their harshest threats, Khan said, fueling fears that military hostilities could resume at any moment.

Since the war began on Feb. 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, where new ghting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.

Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have charged four residents with illegally voting. The U.S. attorney’s o ce for New Jersey said in a statement last week that the four people were not U.S. citizens when they registered to vote and cast ballots in federal elections. The charges range from illegally voting in a federal election to making false statements when applying for citizenship and unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization. Prosecutors say all four voted in at least one federal election from 2020 to 2024, a period that included two presidential elections and one midterm election.

Former congressman Rivera convicted of secret lobbying

Miami A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was convicted last Friday in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on behalf of Venezuela during the rst Trump administration. Jurors found Republican David Rivera, 60, and an associate, Esther Nuhfer, guilty on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of their work for former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Attorneys for Rivera said they plan to appeal.

18 killed in Kenya ooding

Nairobi, Kenya Recent ooding during ongoing heavy rains in Kenya left 18 people dead over the past week, police said Sunday, with most of the deaths attributed to drowning. More than 54,000 households have been a ected by the ooding countrywide, with 6,000 of those being in the capital, Nairobi, according to the Interior Ministry. Dozens of schools and hospitals across the country have ooded, and 17 roads have been cut o . Mudslides have also forced thousands to move to higher ground as water levels in the country’s hydroelectric dams rise.

Mexican governor, mayor step down amid U.S. drug charges

Mexico City Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party in the northwestern Sinaloa state said they would temporarily step down from their posts after the United States charged them and eight other politicians and security o cers with drug tra cking. The indictment against the 10 has shaken Mexico’s political establishment. Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, the highest-ranking o cial named in the indictment, denied accusations that he protected the Sinaloa cartel and helped it smuggle drugs into the U.S. in exchange for political support and bribes. Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil, the mayor of the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacán, named in the indictment, also said he would take leave and denied the charges.

RAZIEH POUDAT / ISNA VIA AP

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN / AP PHOTO

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

EDITORIAL | FRANK HILL

The gift Thomas Je erson gave us from a former slave

“All men are created equal” is one of history’s most powerful declarations outside of any biblical references.

I HAVE BEEN STRUCK by any number of conversations I have had over the years about Thomas Je erson. There is near universal agreement he was a brilliant man, and his writing and in uence were crucial determinants of the republic in which we now live.

However, there is often resistance to giving him his due credit because he owned slaves. It is as if some people discount the one phrase he wrote which is truly immortal now in a secular sort of way and say it couldn’t be as important, groundbreaking and revolutionary as it really is. “All men are created equal” is one of history’s most powerful declarations outside of any biblical references.

I had often wondered what would change the dynamic until I learned about a former slave in the Roman Empire named Epictetus who became a noted Stoic philosopher and gave lectures in ancient Rome and Greece. One of his most important contributions, no doubt due to his previous life as a slave, was his observation that all people are in a very fundamental way equal before the creator of the universe. Kings and slaves may be kings or slaves on earth, but each has a dignity no one can take away. His Stoic teachings were considered and ruminated over by philosophers and writers for close to 1,600 years before they ever came to the attention of a young Je erson in the early 1700s. Being an earnest student with an avarice for reading and knowledge, Je erson read not only about Stoicism but many philosophers

and was educated by the nest teachers. When 1776 came along, he was equipped with the intellectual resources and talent to combine those thoughts in his own voice and manner to declare “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, which, outside of any biblical reference, has to be among the most quoted phrases in recorded human history.

Imagine the di erence it would have made if our schools taught that Je erson was signi cantly in uenced by the teachings of a former slave, leading him to write “all men are created equal” even while owning slaves himself. The focus could then be shifted to the import and impact of the concept itself, the importance of each individual being born with an equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (another gift of Je erson based on his knowledge of other philosophers such as John Locke, among others), and o ering the government policies to protect and promote each right for each person.

Je erson did not come up with either touchstone phrase after being struck by divine lightning while taking a ride on his horse around Monticello one afternoon. He worked long and studied hard to come up with both. We should work just as long and hard to understand why both are so important to us as Americans.

“All men are created equal” was not a commonly heard phrase anywhere in the world before Je erson wrote it. In most of the known world at the time, the exact opposite

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom

No matter who you talk to, they will tell you that their mom is the best mom in the world.

THERE’S A QUOTE from the 1998 movie “Stepmom” that has stuck with me throughout the years as pretty much the perfect quote about moms.

Actress Julia Roberts’ character, Isabel, is talking to Jackie, played by actress Susan Sarandon, in a restaurant. Isabel is going to marry Jackie’s ex-husband, Luke, and thus be a stepmom to Luke’s and Jackie’s two young children, Ben and Anna.

Luke and Jackie had an amicable divorce and are on friendly terms, but Isabel is not viewed in the best of lights by Jackie, and the two have verbal tussles and tension throughout the rst part of the movie.

In the restaurant scene, the two are talking after Isabel has learned that Jackie received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Isabel admits she never wanted to be a mom, but she’s going to try her best, even though she feels she will never be good enough because she will always be compared to Jackie.

Jackie says Isabel is “hip and fresh” compared to her, believing that will make the kids take to Isabel more.

That’s when Isabel tells Jackie that she is “Mother Earth, incarnate” to Ben and Anna.

“You know every story, every wound, every memory. Their whole life’s happiness is wrapped up in you … every single second,” Isabel continues.

That’s how my sisters and I view our mom, who is the center of our universe since we were born. The calm in life’s myriad storms.

She has been there through all the ups and downs, has been our biggest cheerleader in the good times and toughest defender when our backs have been against the wall, and has assured us when we’ve felt like everything was falling apart that everything would be OK.

We marveled at how Mom kept it together after she became a full-time caregiver for my dad in his later years due to multiple health issues. Her focus and devotion to his care meant that some of her doctor appointments fell to the wayside, and four months after we lost him — and amid my transition to becoming her full-time caregiver — we learned she had stage IIIB colon cancer at the age of 79.

It was such a scary time, not knowing what the future held for her. But she handled all the doctor appointments and surgeries

was true — “all men are not created equal” — everyone knew who the rulers were, who the common folk and the slaves were, and how they were supposed to act and live each day. This di erence is what makes America truly exceptional, and we need to know and remember it every day.

Je erson’s genius at dissolving the content of all the high-quality philosophy and history he learned into one impactful phrase is as amazing as anything Albert Einstein or any scienti c genius ever did for mankind. We should celebrate genius regardless of where it comes from or who said it. Without “all men are created equal” and the other clause Je erson is famous for — “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” — the United States would not be the country it has been for more than two centuries and what we all hope it will become for the future.

While it is true Je erson didn’t free his slaves, here we are 250 years later and his words still resonate at the core of who we are as a people, and slavery in America is thankfully long gone. His words long outlived slavery in America. We should be thankful Je erson created these important foundational clauses for our democratic republic and work together to make it work for everyone in order to create a more perfect union as stated clearly in the Constitution written a decade after the declaration.

that followed with such grace despite the di culties, not realizing that she was once again setting an example for me on how to navigate through life in the middle of incredibly challenging adversities.

The role reversals have been a bit tricky, I admit, and she has no trouble reminding me sometimes that she is the mom in this relationship. But we’ve made it work, with me letting her know from time to time that the care I’m giving her is in large part thanks to the life lessons she taught my sisters and me, including when she was caring for my dad, which turned out to be training lessons for me for when I would step into the caregiver role at a later point. No matter who you talk to, that person will invariably tell you that their mom is the best mom in the world. But I can con dently say that mine truly is, something anyone can see merely by walking into a room and seeing her eyes light up when my sisters and I are together with her. That has always been the time when she’s happiest. I love you so much, Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. Thank you for all that you do and for who you are, and for the example you set for all of us.

PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE

A birthday larger than itself: What Albania taught me about America

FOR MORE than 30 years I’ve lived in Albania, that small country north of Greece, south of the former Yugoslavia and east of southern Italy across the Adriatic. It’s a beautiful land, like a hybrid of the Swiss Alps and the French Riviera — but with Roman, Greek and Turkish archaeological sites.

With all its resources, Albania remains one of the poorest nations in Europe, still emerging from centuries of oppression, like a young Forrest Gump trying to run free of his leg braces.

Albania is one of the most staunchly pro-American countries in the world

I’ve learned that Americans born into freedom have a hard time understanding its alternatives or comprehending its costs. Our nation’s 250th birthday is an opportune moment for us to try.

The Albanians love freedom. The motto “Liberty or Death” rings as true for them as for us, but, historically, their national uprisings have resulted in more death than liberty.

Centuries before the United States was born, Albanians adopted the eagle as their symbol and referred to themselves as “sons of the eagle.” Whenever invading hordes reached their coasts, Albanians abandoned their softer plains and took to the harsher mountains to stay free.

In the 15th century, the greatest general you’ve never heard of — Scanderbeg — united the Albanians and staved o a frenzied Ottoman push toward Rome. The Albanians eventually fell and became subjects of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years. Imagine a nation in bondage for twice as long as the United States has existed.

When Albania nally earned its independence in 1912, conditions were miserable — high rates of illiteracy, almost no infrastructure and extreme poverty. In 1913, a conference in London recognized Albania (freedom at last!) but drew borders that awarded half Albania’s lands and population to neighboring Balkan nations (more bondage!).

The world wars wrecked little Albania further, and a communist government emerged from the ashes. Why would freedom-loving Albanians welcome such a repressive regime? Because the bondage of communism was packaged as a “national liberation movement,” and they didn’t understand the ne print.

Albania aligned itself with Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and Maoist China but eventually broke ties with them all, touting itself as the only pure Marxist-Leninist state. One of the popular names for Albanian baby boys was “Marenglen” (MARx-ENGels-LENin). Albania became the most isolated and xenophobic nation in the world — something like today’s North Korea. In 1967, the regime tried to eliminate God from its national consciousness. More than merely suppressing

COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI

religion, the government banned God explicitly in its very constitution. Houses of worship were closed, and clerics were killed or sent to concentration camps. Albania’s relations with the United States were icy at best, and the regime published a book titled “The Anglo-American Threat to Albania.”

It may seem surprising, then, that Albania is one of the most staunchly pro-American countries in the world. Why?

Recently I asked this question to an Albanian colleague a few minutes before giving a speech to the North Carolina Semiquincentennial Committee in Raleigh. Her reply?

“Liria!” — Freedom!

America is rare in the world not so much because it values freedom (many nations claim to) but because it was founded upon freedom. Liberty was the core principle embedded into the minutiae of our political and legal infrastructures, producing remarkably durable founding documents.

It is nearly impossible for American-born citizens to comprehend the all-encompassing prison of tyranny. In my 30-plus years in the Balkans, I’ve heard countless stories of government oppression, spying, paranoia and persecution. When my Albanian friends tell their stories, I believe them, but I cannot identify with them. I can’t conceptualize an existence where the government dictates everything from the books I may read to how many eggs I may buy.

In 1991, the Albanian communist regime fell. On a summer day, Secretary of State James Baker visited Albania — the highest-ranking American o cial ever to visit the nation to that point. Approximately 300,000 Albanians came to hear him in the central square. Imagine the roar of four Bank of America stadiums — not cheering for the Panthers, but thundering “USA! USA!” They chanted so loudly and for so long that Baker could not deliver his prepared remarks. The only words he could interject were “Freedom works!” — perhaps the shortest speech in political history.

Liberty-loving people all around the world love America. Deep down, even many who criticize and curse America long for the freedom she o ers. Albanians love America not necessarily because life is easier here. In fact, many realize that life is harder here. They love America like they loved their rugged mountains — because freedom is worth the e ort.

My prayer is that on our 250th anniversary, Americans will love our country as much as the Albanians do.

David Hosa ook is executive director at the Institute for Albanian and Protestant Studies.

Nazi tattoo? Hamas defender?

No problem, says Chuck Schumer

MAINE GOV. JANET MILLS has suspended her Senate campaign after failing to raise enough money to compete with socialist Graham Platner, who will now almost certainly face the perpetual centrist Republican Susan Collins in the general election.

Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairwoman Kirsten Gillibrand immediately backed Platner, proving that there’s virtually nothing a leftist can say or do that is disqualifying.

So for 20 years, you’ve had a Totenkopf tattoo, which depicts a skull and crossbones, most famously used by Hitler’s Schutzsta el, the paramilitary organization that led, planned and executed the Holocaust?

No problem!

You’d think that picking this symbol out of all symbols that exist in the entire world would be problematic. Not for Schumer, self-styled defender of Jewish interests and author of the book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.”

At this point, what could a progressive say to be shunned by Democrats? What sin could precipitate the party abandoning a candidate?

In keeping with the message of his tattoo, Platner has also praised the Islamic supremacists of Hamas. Let’s face it, that’s not exactly extraordinary among progressives these days.

How about boosting social media posts by neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers like Stew Peters? Does Schumer care that Platner is a self-described “longtime fan” and obsequious podcast guest of Jew-hating conspiracy theorist Nate Cornacchia? Apparently not.

Does it matter to Schumer that the candidate also referred to himself as “communist”?

The stigma of that word is fading quickly on the contemporary left. Some Democrats laugh at the notion that Platner could be both communist and Nazi, even though the two ideologies are quite similar in many respects.

And this communist has also endorsed “revolutionary violence.” Coming o the third attempted assassination of President Donald Trump by a would-be killer who embraced rhetoric virtually indistinguishable from Platner’s, you might assume that a major political party would be concerned about violent rhetoric.

Not Schumer, who, to be fair, once threatened Supreme Court justices if they ruled against his partisan wishes.

What if a Democratic candidate for the Senate referred to rural white Americans as “racist and stupid”?

Not that long ago, that might have posed a small crisis for the national party. Especially in a state like Maine, which, as it turns out, is one, if not the, whitest state in the country and home to lots of rural Americans.

Platner, who plays a working-class oyster farmer, is

the nepo baby of a former assistant district attorney and major Democratic donor and attended a $75,000-per-year Connecticut boarding school. Which is to say, if Democrats fall for his schtick, they may or may not be racist, but they’re de nitely stupid. Listen, everyone makes mistakes, though perhaps something less drastic than permanently inking Nazi imagery on their chest. Platner keeps apologizing for every new comment that pops up, and there will almost certainly be more.

What if the man has shown terrible temperament and judgment, little intelligence and exhibited no perceptible skill that makes him right to serve in the most important deliberative body in the country? No problem.

A few years back, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed the in uence of socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as largely irrelevant, noting that their in uence extended to “like, ve people.”

Well, since that time, Democrats have abetted the rise of the unhinged left at every turn, from communists to cultural wackos, and those preaching revolutionary violence.

The Democratic Party has become such a big tent these days that unapologetic terror-shilling communist Hasan Piker, who tells his millions of followers to “soak the streets in capitalist blood,” has been invited into the movement by popular personalities on the mainstream left such as Ezra Klein and Jon Favreau.

Unsurprising coming from fans of Zohran Mamdani, a devotee of “globalizing the intifada” or, rather, the global violent targeting of Jews. These positions, it seems, only lift your stock on the contemporary left. OcasioCortez is quickly becoming a centrist in her party.

At this point, what could a progressive say to be shunned by Democrats? What sin could precipitate the party abandoning a candidate? It’s di cult to think of anything.

And please, don’t bring up former California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell, who is now dealing with multiple accusations of sexual assault and rape. Democrats lose nothing by abandoning a primary candidate in a deep-blue state.

Come to think of it, the only o ense that could conceivably turn the progressive left against you is openly supporting Israel, as John Fetterman has found out. Otherwise, you’re good.

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of ve books. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

MICHAEL BARONE

The young, violent political left

YOU HAVE TO BE AWFULLY smart to believe something this stupid. In a Manhattan Institute survey of Democratic voters, 46% said they believed it was de nitely or probably true that “the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in July 2024 was orchestrated by his supporters to increase sympathy for him.”

That’s a startlingly high number for a party whose members are increasingly drawn from the ranks of college graduates and those with graduate school degrees. And for a party whose articulate leaders are prone to dismissing Republican talking points as “conspiracy theories.”

It’s uncomfortably akin to the nding of CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski, who reported, after an examination of 4,700 social media posts from Cole Allen, the accused White House Correspondents’ Association dinner assailant, that “he shared a lot of posts claiming the Butler assassination attempt was staged.” Allen, a registered Democrat and small Kamala Harris contributor, evidently shared the view of roughly half of his fellow partisans.

This third assassination attempt on Trump within the past two years is not the only example of violent assaults by leftist or progressive Democrats. There’s the 2017 wounding of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) — then the House majority whip — by a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) aiming to kill Republicans practicing for a two-party congressional baseball game, the 2018 wouldbe assassin stalking the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the killing of Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk in September.

There’s been violence directed at Democrats as well, some of it perhaps motivated by political disagreement. The arson of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (DPa.) o cial residence was motivated by anti-Israel grievances. Other attacks have been by apparently delusional assailants — the killing of Minnesota’s state House speaker, the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband.

After Kirk’s death, a YouGov survey found that 25% of those describing themselves as very liberal, and 17% of liberals said, “political violence can sometimes be justi ed.” Only 9% of self-described moderates and 6% of conservatives agreed. Interestingly, higher education is not an e ective antidote to this view. A Skeptic Research Center survey asking whether “violence is often necessary to create social change” found 40% of those with graduate or professional degrees in agreement, far above the 23% of those with a high school diploma or less.

Among young people, there’s something Tom Wolfe might have called assassination chic, focusing on 27-year-old Luigi Mangione. He’s a graduate degree recipient from the University of Pennsylvania and is accused of shooting a health insurance CEO in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024.

According to Jake Altman, the author of “Socialism Before Sanders,” Democratic Party leaders in Michigan regularly wear pro-Mangione T-shirts. The New York Times hosted Hasan “America deserved 9/11” Piker to explain why Mangione’s alleged act was “not so negative.” And The New Yorker called the Manhattan CEO killing “an e ective act of political consciousnessraising.” Meanwhile, Times columnist Ezra Klein has explained why he would include Piker on his platform.

All of which provides support for the talk radio host Erick Erickson’s conclusion: “The fundamental di erence, again, between left-wing and rightwing violence is that right-wing violence is roundly and loudly condemned and, more and more often, left-wing violence is excused, justi ed or explained away by the American press corps and Democrats.” America is not yet at the stage reached by the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1920s or among Japan’s military rulers in the 1930s, in which the assassination of politicians became almost routine, a means to remove talented individuals from power and to discourage opposing views from being voiced.

But when putatively respectable individuals and institutions on one side of the political spectrum give voice to approval of violence and murder, the Weimar experience comes into view. When one side’s leaders’ rhetoric constantly portrays the opposition leader as another Hitler, it’s not surprising that some of its followers take it on themselves to kill him.

In his manifesto, the would-be Washington Hilton shooter said he was acting against “a pedophile, rapist and traitor.” Those are charges made by many Democrats even though there is no evidence linking Trump with Je rey Epstein’s crimes, even though Trump was found not guilty of rape by a New York jury, and even though special counsel Robert Mueller admitted there was no evidence of Trump colluding with Russia.

Electoral politics is inherently adversarial, and there are plenty of reasonable bases for opposing Trump. But it’s disturbing when large segments of the population, especially the young and educated, nd violence and murder unproblematic. As George Orwell wrote in 1945, “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.”

Better advice came from their elders. Trump said immediately after the attack, “I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our di erences peacefully. We have to resolve our di erences.” Sanders, writing the next day, added, “A functioning democracy relies on the premise that people can express their political views without fear of being attacked or assassinated. Political violence is political cowardice. It is unacceptable in all forms.”

Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime coauthor of “The Almanac of American Politics.” (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

Murphy to Manteo

Treatyourself!

Mother’s Day in North Carolina is the perfect excuse to slow down and treat moms to something truly restorative, and across the state, iconic spa destinations o er experiences that go far beyond a simple gift. In the mountains, places like Westglow Luxury Resort & Spa and The Omni Grove Park Inn Spa provide peaceful, scenic retreats where fresh air and panoramic views enhance every treatment. In central North Carolina, elegance takes center stage at The Umstead Hotel and Spa and Grandover Resort & Spa, where curated spa packages and serene surroundings make it easy to unwind. Meanwhile, coastal escapes like Sanderling Resort Spa bring a calming oceanfront element, blending salt air with soothing therapies. Each of these is consistently rated among the top spas in the region, so whether it’s a full weekend getaway or a single afternoon of pampering, these destinations create meaningful moments and give moms space to recharge, feel appreciated, and enjoy a setting as special as they are.

Top N.C. spa experiences for Mother’s Day

1. The Spa at Omni Grove Park Inn (Asheville)

2. Westglow Luxury Resort & Spa (Blowing Rock)

3. Grandover Resort & Spa, A Wyndham Grand Hotel (Greensboro)

4. The Spa at Fearrington (Pittsboro)

5. The Spa at The Umstead Hotel and Spa (Cary)

6. The Spa at Sanderling Resort (Duck)

PIEDMONT

Asheboro man dies in Florida Keys diving incident

EAST

Fire ghter rescues kitten from car engine, adopts as family pet

viewers to purchase tickets. According to a news release, the lottery will be from May 22-28 at the Grandfather Mountain website. Unlike the Great Smoky Mountains’ event lottery, which is by vehicle, the Grandfather Glows lottery is by each individual. Entries are per person and will be $5, plus tax, the release said. On May 21, the three event dates (and corresponding rain dates) for Grandfather Glows, which began in 2022, will be announced. The release said the event dates will fall sometime between mid-June and mid-July. Lottery winners will be able to purchase a maximum of six tickets. Research on Grandfather Mountain has con rmed the presence of 10 species of re ies, including synchronous and blue ghost re ies, as well as glowworms, all of which only appear together a few weeks per year.

NSJ

Randolph County An Asheboro man is dead after he was found unresponsive in the water while in Florida, according to authorities.

O cials said Edward Stills, 50, was swimming at Marvin Key o the Lower Keys at about 3:20 p.m. Saturday when he was discovered unresponsive in the water. Initial reports indicate he had dived into shallow water. He was then taken to Lower Keys Medical Center on Stock Island, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities said foul play does not appear to be a factor in the incident.

WXII

Shotfest party ends with multiple hospitalizations

2 more charged in deadly teen shooting at Winston-Salem park

Forsyth County

The Winston-Salem Police Department has charged two additional teenagers in connection with a deadly shooting at a Winston-Salem park. Two 15-year-old females were charged with felony inciting to riot. Both juveniles were taken to the Guilford Juvenile Detention Center. Police said there was a “planned ght involving several young individuals” that escalated into a shootout on April 20 at Leinbach Park. Erubey Romero Medina, 17, was found in the parking lot. He had been shot and was declared dead at the scene.

NSJ

Iredell County According to authorities, a party called Shotfest last week turned into chaos and sent 10 people to the hospital. The event took place at Healing Chamber Farms, a 60-acre farm and event space in Iredell County. Reports indicate the event was posted on the app Posh, and that the party was geared toward students at NC A&T. The posting also says more than 3,500 people planned to go for what’s called a “night of nonstop shots and undeniable fun.” O cials said that the party was thrown by a private promoter and is not school sanctioned. EMS said they were called out to help multiple unconscious people. One observer told local media that “neighbors were trying to keep people from trespassing, and we saw one girl passed out. Her friends, we assumed, were trying to carry her back to their car to take her home. She was completely unconscious.”

Lenoir County A kitten rescued by Kinston re ghters now has a new home. The Kinston Department of Fire and Rescue said a resident came to Station 1 on Saturday after hearing sounds coming from her engine. O cials say responders found a small kitten in the engine compartment of the vehicle and it was removed, terri ed but unharmed. O cials say the kitten now has a new name, “Smokey,” and a new home with its rescuer, Fire ghter McIntyre, on his family farm.

WITN

Man charged in armed robbery of surf shop

Ex-NCDHHS employee sentenced to prison in SNAP fraud case

Wayne County

A Wayne County woman and former employee with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services was sentenced to six months in federal prison for her role in a scheme to defraud the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, prosecutors said Monday. According to o cials, 46-year-old Shermeca McCrary was a caseworker with the Division of Social Services when she used her position to access the SNAP accounts of quali ed individuals and convert $102,000 in government funds for her own personal bene t and use from 2021 to 2024.

WNCN

Onslow County A 43-year-old Southport man is facing multiple felony charges following an armed robbery at a Sneads Ferry business on Saturday, according to arrest warrants. The incident occurred Saturday at Tsunami Surf Shop, located at 1288 N.C. Highway 210. Records identi ed the suspect as Shawn Brennan, alleging he entered the store, took property from the business and threatened an employee while displaying what was described as a Draco-style pistol, later identi ed as an airsoft replica. After leaving the store, Brennan allegedly exited into a public parking lot and shopping area while still in possession of the replica weapon. According to arrest warrants, he also attempted to evade law enforcement by changing clothing after the incident. Authorities say those actions were taken with the intent to disguise himself and obstruct justice. Brennan is charged with felony robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony obstructing justice, going armed to the terror of the public and misdemeanor littering.

NSJ

“While we expected to nd some cases, this is higher than we anticipated.”

New Mexico seeks child safety restrictions on Meta apps, algorithms

The lawsuit is also focused on stopping child

sexual exploitation

By Morgan Lee

The Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico state prosecutors are seeking fundamental changes to Meta’s social media apps and algorithms to safeguard children in the second phase of a landmark trial on allegations that platforms such as Instagram have created a public safety hazard.

Opening statements began Monday in the three-week bench trial to decide whether the platforms of Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, pose a public nuisance under state law.

In the rst phase, jurors ordered $375 million in civil penalties against Meta, determining that it knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Prosecutors are now asking a judge to impose fundamental changes aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age veri cation and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

Meta has vowed to appeal the jury verdict and warned that it could eliminate Instagram and Facebook service in New Mexico if forced to comply with impractical mandates.

“The fact that we’re having a trial on nuisance is itself a remarkable outcome,” said Eric Goldman, co-director of the High-Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California. “That theory is not well accepted as applied to the internet, and that

theory doesn’t really t the internet.”

As the trial reconvened Monday, state District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid addressed concerns that the court might overreach its authority.

“I’m probably not the easiest sell on the idea where I would become a one-person legislator, judge and executive branch enforcer,” he said.

Trial could alter algorithms that de ne social media

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the jury verdict punctured the aura of invincibility protecting tech companies from liability for material on their platforms under Section 230, a 30-year-old provision of the U.S. Communications Decency Act.

A Los Angeles jury separately found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children, validating long-standing concerns about dangers of social media.

New Mexico prosecutors are demanding that Meta help remedy a mental health crisis among children through a series of safeguards and chang-

es, including a redesign of algorithms that make content recommendations, so they no longer prioritize constant engagement.

Prosecutors are also targeting other features linked to compulsive use such as “innite scroll,” which continuously loads content; push noti cations; and default settings that show tallies for “likes” and sharing. Their lawsuit also seeks improvements to age veri cation and other steps aimed at curbing child sexual exploitation.

And New Mexico wants child accounts on Meta platforms to have an associated parent or guardian, as well as a court-supervised child safety monitor to track improvements over time.

Meta asserts free speech protections

Executives have said the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive use and that many demands from prosecutors are redundant.

Meta plans to call an array of technical experts as witnesses in arguing that the demands are impractical if not

impossible and would force it to “disregard the realities of the internet.”

The company also argues that its platforms are being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use, leaving children vulnerable on platforms with less robust protections. The company is invoking free speech protections that have shielded social media for decades.

“The state’s proposed mandates infringe on parental rights and sti e free expression for all New Mexicans,” Meta said last week in a statement.

In uence could be far-reaching

The case is the rst to reach trial among lawsuits led by more than 40 state attorneys general on allegations that Meta contributes to a youth mental health crisis. Most are pursuing remedies in U.S. federal court.

Torrez, the state attorney general, said that puts the case in a unique position not only “to try and change the paradigm of how this company does business, but also how Big Tech generally is expected to do business going forward.”

Goldman said prosecutors may be venturing into uncertain legal waters just in seeking age veri cation mandates.

“In practice a court order saying that Facebook had to impose age authentication would have no Supreme Court textual support,” he said. “The Supreme Court might bless it. We don’t know.”

The rst phase of the trial saw six weeks of testimony from witnesses including teachers, psychiatric experts, state investigators, top Meta o cials and whistleblowers who left the company.

Novartis expands Morrisville footprint Morrisville Drugmaker Novartis is adding to its North Carolina footprint again, announcing plans last Thursday to build a new facility at its Morrisville campus as part of a broader push to expand U.S.-based production of nished medicines. The planned 56,200-square-foot building would bring the company’s presence in the state to ve facilities across three sites, further cementing its role in the state’s growing biomanufacturing corridor. The project is separate from — and in addition to — a previously announced $771 million expansion across Durham and Wake counties, according to a company spokesperson.

OpenAI president discloses stake in company worth $30B Oakland, Calif. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and CEO Sam Altman’s top lieutenant, disclosed in court Monday that his stake in the arti cial intelligence company is worth nearly $30 billion. Brockman, who also said he did not invest in OpenAI, took the witness stand Monday in the landmark trial that centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonpro t startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

The company had lost more than $2.5 billion since 2020

By Bernard Condon and Rio Yamat

The Associated Press

SPIRIT AIRLINES, the scrappy discounter that once rattled the industry with cheeky ads and rock-bottom fares, took its nal ight after 34 years of upending the business of ying.

Once worth as much as roughly $5.5 billion on the stock market, the airline known for its bright yellow planes said Saturday it had shut down after itsnal ight departed from Detroit and landed safely in Dallas.

“For more than 30 years, Spirit Airlines has played a pioneering role in making travel more accessible and bringing people together while driving a ordability across the industry,” CEO Dave Davis said in a statement.

The announcement comes after two bankruptcy lings in as many years that allowed Spirit to repay lenders. That was followed in recent months by a nal, mad-dash scramble to save money by cutting routes, squeezing concessions from unions and pursuing a potential nancing deal with the Trump administration that could have provided a lifeline had it panned out.

But in the end, higher jet fuel prices triggered by the Iran war drained cash from the business at an accelerating pace, forcing it to call it quits.

“This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted,” Davis said.

From chartered tours to unbundled fares

It began as Charter One Airlines, which ran vacation tours in the early ’80s, then grew in

popularity and pro ts two decades later with no-frills “unbundled” fares allowing travelers to forgo basic services — bag handling, seat selection, even the printing of tickets — or pay extra. Proudly penny-pinching and irritatingly so for many passengers, Spirit was for years run by the famously frugal Ben Baldanza, who ordered his burgers plain, bristled at paying extra for pickles he didn’t want and ew in the same cramped seats as his customers. He was unapologetic about the airline’s nickel-and-diming them, saying the issue wasn’t that Spirit was cheap, but that passengers were seeing an itemized bill for the rst time — and didn’t like it. For all the complaints, though, Spirit’s model became so in uential that giant airlines with decades more operating history and global destinations found they had to follow suit by slashing prices and introducing “basic economy” fares.

On its nal day of operations, Spirit had safely own

more than 50,000 passengers, a company spokesperson said. The airline was also working to get more than 1,300 crew members back home. About 17,000 employees — some with more than 25 years at the airline — learned Friday they had lost their jobs.

In a memo Saturday to members, the Spirit ight attendants union acknowledged the end of the airline and the toll on workers.

“While the country has had a blast making Spirit the butt of the joke, we’ve built a strength together that could withstand anything that anyone throws at us,” it said. “And that is no joke.”

The provocation playbook

Despite its abrupt end, Spirit left behind a reputation that was impossible to ignore.

Kendria Talton, who ew Friday on Spirit from Dallas to Atlanta with her daughter for a dance competition, arrived at the airport Saturday trying to nd a new way home.

Talton said she had own

Spirit multiple times because of the price. “Other than that, I mean nobody even likes Spirit,” she said. “They’ve always talked about Spirit for years.”

A key part of that image came from its bold, over-the-top ads that some critics slammed as tasteless and indeed sometimes back red.

After the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, the company ran a “Check Out the Oil on Our Beaches” ad, playing on the double entendre of suntan oil and the real black stu . Next up was a “Weiner Sale” after New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was caught in a sexting scandal, an ad that also included the line, “fares just too hard to resist.”

The unraveling

Spirit had been struggling with losses for years, but its going-out-of-business announcement still came as a shock.

Just a few months earlier this year, Spirit said it would likely emerge from its second bankruptcy in the late spring or early summer after striking a preliminary deal with lenders.

Then the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran four days later, sending global crude prices soaring above $100. Gasoline prices followed closely behind and jet fuel prices more than doubled in some markets.

University of Houston student Angelina Deruelle, 23, was at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport on Friday, Spirit’s nal day of operations, after her ight to Texas was canceled. She said the loss of the airline as an a ordable travel option would be difcult to accept.

“I feel like Spirit is just affordable, simple, nothing too fancy,” she said. “It’s just like home.”

The Onion’s Infowars takeover bid in limbo Austin, Texas The Onion’s plan to transform Alex Jones’ Infowars platforms into parody sites is in limbo again. New legal lings by Jones led a Texas appeals court to pause a proposed deal that would give the satirical news outlet control over Infowars as it faces liquidation. The brand’s assets are expected to be sold o due to more than $1 billion in defamation lawsuit judgments Jones owes to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the Connecticut massacre a hoax. A judge had scheduled a hearing Thursday on whether to approve The Onion’s takeover, but it was scuttled because of the appeals court ruling.

FEMA o ering jobs back to employees let go in January

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun o ering new appointments to disaster workers whose contracts were not renewed in January. This move reverses a controversial decision that led to a lawsuit by labor unions, scienti c groups and local governments. U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian informed a U.S. District Court in San Francisco about the new appointments last Friday. The decision follows months of uncertainty over the future of FEMA’s term-limited disaster workers, who make up roughly half the agency’s workforce. It also comes after FEMA reinstated 14 employees who were on paid administrative leave.

NCDOT CASH REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 30

Beginning Cash $2,537,291,413 Receipts (income) $323,194,595 Disbursements $171,872,021 Cash Balance $2,688,706,501

NOAH BERGER / AP PHOTO Meta is being sued over alleged child safety violations. WILFREDO

Garden estates to industrial settings, spring weddings bloom across NC

The season demands exible, full-service planning

By Elizabeth Lincione For North State Journal

SPRING in North Carolina is peak wedding season for a reason — blooming landscapes, mild weather and a range of venues that stretch from pastoral farmland to modern city spaces. For couples planning 2026 ceremonies, the focus is increasingly on exibility, e ciency and venues that can shoulder more of the logistical load.

Across the state, venue operators say demand is steady and expectations are shifting. Couples want scenic backdrops, but they also want streamlined planning, built-in services and spaces that can adapt to their vision.

In Pittsboro, Fearrington Village leans into its roots, o ering garden ceremonies and receptions in a restored barn. The property’s appeal, according to director of weddings and special events Gilda McDaniel, lies in both aesthetics and execution.

“Fearrington Village is situated on an old dairy farm in Chatham County, and the highlight of our property is our garden settings and expansive green areas,” McDaniel said. “Every year, couples gravitate to our property for ceremonies in one of ve garden sites, followed by garden party-style receptions or larger gatherings in our 100-year-old dairy barn.”

The venue accommodates up to 150 guests and operates with an in-house planning team, a model that re ects a broader trend.

“It often comes as a surprise to couples that they do not need as long as expected to plan a full-scale wedding,” McDaniel said. “They can take advantage of a quicker planning process and get married sooner rather than later.”

Near Charlotte, Camelot

Meadows Event Venue o ers a di erent take — a 33-acre property on Lake Wylie with a barn, bamboo forest and multi-

ple ceremony spaces. The venue can host up to 250 guests and emphasizes infrastructure: built-in sound and lighting, ven-

‘The Devil Wears Prada’ struts to rst place with $77M debut

The poorly reviewed “Animal Farm” earned $3.4 million

By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press

TWENTY YEARS after the original, the sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” made a splash in its rst weekend in theaters. Driven largely by women, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” earned $77 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $156.6 million internationally, according to studio estimates Sunday. It easily topped the box o ce and bumped “Michael” to second place, though the musical biopic held well in its second weekend, falling only 44%.

The Walt Disney Co.’s 20th Century Studios opened “The Devil Wears Prada 2” in 4,150 locations in North America.

Women made up about 76% of the ticket buyers, according to PostTrak exit polls; 74% said they would “de nitely recommend” the movie to friends.

Critics were a bit mixed on the sequel, which nds Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs working once more for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly at the ctional “Runway” magazine in a much-depleted media landscape.

The movie cost a reported $100 million to produce — a signi cant boost from the rst movie’s $35 million production

budget. But as lmmaker David Frankel told The Associated Press recently, “As it turns out, you know, by the time you nish paying all the biggest movie stars in the world, you still end up with basically the same budget for making the movie as we did the rst one.”

Stars Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci have been on a fashion-forward global publicity blitz for weeks, with glamorous stops in Tokyo, London and New York. Even Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the Prada-clad devil, has been involved this time, appearing with Hathaway on the Oscars stage and with Streep on the cover of “Vogue.”

The rst movie opened in June 2006 and would go on to earn over $326 million worldwide, not adjusted for in ation. And perhaps more importantly, it rmly became part of the culture thanks in part to its ever-quotable likes (“gird your loins,” “groundbreaking,” “that’s all”). Legacy sequels are never a sure thing, but this time anticipation was high: According to Nielsen, streaming viewership for “The Devil Wears Prada” was up 428% from March 2026 to April 2026. Second place went to Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic “Michael,” which made $54 million in its second weekend in North America, where it’s playing on 3,955 screens. Its running worldwide total is al-

ready $423.9 million. Universal Pictures is handling the international release.

“This is on the great end of what we had speculated might happen, but we were very con

dent that we were going to have a great hold even with the assumption that ‘Prada’ would do a lot of business,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson.

This weekend marks the start of Hollywood’s summer movie season, a crucial 18-week corridor that runs through Labor Day and often accounts for about 40% of the annual box o ce. There are often Marvel blockbusters programmed as the season’s kicko , but the combined power of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael” wasn’t a shabby substitute.

“This is a really solid weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore. “It’s this irresistible combination that more than makes up for the fact that there’s not a Marvel movie to kick o the summer movie season.”

“Prada” alone actually did better business than last year’s summer kicko Marvel movie, “Thunderbolts.” There were several other new lms in theaters this weekend as well, including the Adam Scott-led horror movie “Hokum,” Andy Serkis’ animated adaptation of “Animal Farm” and the Aaron Eckhart- and Ben Kingsley-led

a venue that o ers both indoor and outdoor options, including a conservatory and a magnolia-lined lawn. The site re ects a growing preference for venues that combine character with modern amenities.

Donovan Manor in Fuquay-Varina pushes further into the full-service model. The 15-acre estate o ers exclusive catering, multiple ceremony locations and a full-day rental structure designed to give couples control of the schedule.

Owner Jill Donovan said the property’s appeal is immediate.

“The second I set foot on the property, I knew it was the one,” she said. “When you’re here, you know you’re somewhere special.”

The venue also o ers a scaled-down option — a twohour elopement package that bundles ceremony, orals, photography and a champagne toast. The format re ects a parallel trend: smaller, curated weddings that prioritize experience over size.

On the Outer Banks, Loblolly Estate in Jarvisburg o ers a coastal setting with a 31-acre footprint along Currituck Sound. Owner Renee Wente said couples are arriving with clearer expectations.

dor-ready prep areas and on-site lodging options.

That balance of setting and practicality is increasingly a selling point, particularly for couples managing guest travel and vendor coordination.

In Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood, PINE represents the urban counterpart. The 6,300-squarefoot industrial venue is marketed as a “blank canvas,” allowing couples to customize everything from layout to vendors. Venue manager Jessica Lynch said exibility is central to its appeal.

“Clients bring their own liquor, and we handle the rest,” Lynch said. “It’s full of possibilities.”

The space accommodates up to 680 standing guests and includes a mezzanine for smaller gatherings. Its proximity to light rail and walkable attractions also makes it attractive for out-of-town guests.

In Apex, The Upchurch blends history with restoration. Built in 1905, the former family home has been reworked into

“The couples that tour the estate are looking for venues that o er ease of planning,” Wente said. “They want tables, chairs, décor and recommendations for vendors already in place.”

The estate includes a week-of coordinator and multiple ceremony options, including the Westcott Barn for indoor events. Wente noted that with weddings often reaching $50,000, the margin for error is slim.

“When you are investing that kind of money, nothing can be left to chance,” she said.

Technology is also beginning to in uence the process. Wente said arti cial intelligence is being used to help design layouts and visualize reception setups — tools that allow couples to make decisions earlier and with more con dence.

Across North Carolina, the throughline is clear: Spring still sells itself, but the business of weddings is increasingly about execution. Venues that can combine setting, service and exibility are positioned to capture a season that remains one of the busiest — and most competitive — on the calendar.

survival movie “Deep Water.”

They all opened behind “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which made $12.1 million in its fth weekend, and “Project Hail Mary,” which made $8.6 million in its seventh weekend. Neon’s “Hokum” led the newcomers with $6.4 million, rounding out the top ve.

In the top four movies, Dergarabedian has noticed a trend: “Over the past couple of months, moviegoers have really embraced pure, escapist entertainment,” he said.

Top 10 movies by domestic box o ce

This list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” $77 million

2. “Michael,” $54 million

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $12.1 million

“Project Hail Mary,”

$8.6 million

“Hokum,” $6.4 million

COURTESY KRYSTAL KAST PHOTOGRAPHY

A bride and her wedding party pose in front of the restored barn at Fearrington Village in Pittsboro.

SCOTT A GARFITT / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Meryl Streep, from left, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt pose for photographers at the premiere of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” in London.

COURTESY DONOVAN MANOR

The Grand Ballroom at Donovan Manor in Fuquay-Varina o ers a re ned setting with views of the estate’s rose garden through a 26 -foot window wall.

The latest adaptation of William Golding’s 1954 novel

“Lord of the Flies” is available on Net ix.

Net ix’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ o ers harrowing descent into horror

By Mark Kennedy

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Put 40 boys alone on an island and what do you get? Harmony or chaos?

British author William Golding predicted not good things in his harrowing 1954 classic novel “Lord of the Flies,” and a new powerful, kinetic TV adaptation makes an inspired case that he was probably right.

The Net ix series follows more than two dozen British boys in the mid-1950s stranded on a tropical island after a plane crash as they descend into tyranny and violence, making an indictment about the fragility of democracy and the shallow veneer of civilization.

“We’ve advanced socially or we’ve advanced technologically, but those issues are still there,” says David McKenna, who plays a sensible boy nicknamed Piggy. “I would say put 40 boys on

a tropical island today, and the same thing would probably happen, sadly.”

“It can’t help but be chaos”

The series is adapted by Jack Thorne, the writer behind the stage play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and the Emmy-winning TV series “Adolescence,” and directed by his longtime collaborator, Marc Munden.

“A lot of the time it was utter chaos and we tried to lm some of that chaos as well,” says Munden. “It can’t help but be chaos when you’ve got 36 boys under the age of 12.”

Thorne’s four-part adaptation brings a di erent character to the forefront in each episode, starting with the rational Piggy, coming to consciousness after the crash and o ering a voting-based system that allows everyone a voice. “What we need to do is get a sense of exactly what we know,” he says. He meets the cheerful and

friendly Ralph (played by Winston Sawyers), and they gather the rest of the castaways, including a group of choirboys led by the volatile Jack (Lox Pratt) and the soulful Simon (Ike Talbut). There’s also a whole raft of very young boys, dubbed “littluns.”

“I think all of the boys really represent an aspect of the human condition. Jack obviously represents some of the darker aspects,” says Talbut. “Ralph is the charismatic leader, but I think Simon really represents civility and kindness.”

Envy and paranoia bloom

What begins as a plucky, we’re-all-in-this-together spirit — Piggy sings Groucho Marx’s giddy “Hello, I Must Be Going” as he pushes through thick vegetation, still wearing his schoolboy suspenders and tie — soon gets darker as envy and paranoia bloom, rivalries deepen and one of the boys reveals his murderous instincts.

“Playing it nice — it’s boring,” says Jack, who comes o here less as a simple narcissist than as an entitled boy with a fragile ego. “An adventure island, what do we do on it? Nothing but boring things. Toilets. Water. Hut building. Boring.” Munden calls it in many ways a political fable that mirrors current struggles: “One faction led by the dutiful Democrats versus the entitled bully leading another faction.” Talbut sees it as a message about the dangers of groupthink and populism. Thorne has made a few changes to the text, including ashbacks to the boys’ pre-island past to give viewers an insight into their home lives and a scene in which the survivors come across suitcases from the crash.

Unpacking the suitcases — one is Simon’s, which contains his diary — and the other contains women’s clothes — allows the lmmakers to explore the complex relationship between Jack and Simon as well as chart

Oscars organization expands international lm eligibility, addresses AI

Major changes are coming to Hollywood’s biggest night

By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press

THE ORGANIZATION behind the Oscars is for the rst time addressing the use of arti cial intelligence in performances and scripts for the 2027 Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last Friday released updates across many categories, stressing the importance of human authorship while not banning AI.

The new rules also include signi cant changes to the much-criticized international lm category, expanding eligibility to include lms that won top qualifying awards from prestigious lm festivals like Cannes, Venice and Toronto.

“As we do every year, we made a lot of, we think, really smart and progressive changes,” lm academy CEO Bill Kramer told The Associated Press. “Obviously, as the academy becomes more global, we need to think about how we are inviting international lms into the Oscars conversation.”

AI and the Oscars

As part of its annual review of Oscar eligibility rules, the academy is tackling one of the

global lmmaking community’s biggest concerns: generative arti cial intelligence. The new rules state that “the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination” and that the academy and each branch “will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.” They’re also reserving the right to request more information from the lmmaking team about the nature of the use of AI and “human authorship.”

“Humans have to be at the center of the creative process,” said academy president Lynette Howell Taylor. “As AI continues to evolve, our conversations around AI will do so along with that. But for the academy, we are always going to put human authorship at the center of our awards eligibility process.” When it comes to the eligibility of performances, only roles “demonstrably performed by humans with their consent” will be considered. The organization declined to comment on whether the upcoming AI-rendered Val Kilmer performance

would be eligible as the lmmakers have not yet submitted it for consideration.

A likeness is not an actor, for one, but it might also depend on how Kilmer is credited in the lm: As Val Kilmer or something else? One could also take Andy Serkis as Gollum as an example of a human collaborating with technology for the nal performance.

“We will review that on a case-by-case basis,” Kramer said. “We, like everybody in our industry and world, we will be assessing this every year.”

Sweeping changes to international lm eligibility

As its membership has grown much more international, there have been increasing calls for an overhaul to the international lm category, which had been continually criticized as unjust, outdated and subject to political interference. That’s led to independent and dissident lmmakers often pointedly not being submitted to represent the country they’re from.

Last year’s Palme d’Or-winner at Cannes, for instance, “It Was Just an Accident” from Iranian lmmaker Jafar Panahi, was not submitted as Iran’s ocial entry for the 98th Academy Awards, but France’s.

Under the new rules, “It Was Just an Accident” could be considered eligible because it won the top Cannes prize and not be-

the increasing unanchored nature of the boys.

One lad slips on a hoop skirt, another pulls a pair of pantyhose over his face, both playing with drag.

“The idea was that this drag becomes sort of perverted in some sort of way and becomes like another form of armor,” says the director. “I just thought it was a little bit freakier. I wanted to sort of challenge the audience a little bit more with that.”

Filming in Malaysia

Munden studs the episodes with stark images of animals — winged raptors, ants, caterpillars, hermit crabs — grounding the series in the muddy, lush, insect-heavy tropical world, which in this case was the Malay Archipelago, the largest group of islands in the world.

The older boys were permitted to work only ve or six hours a day, while the littlest boys only three.

For the characters on the island, it was harrowing. For the actors, however, it was a bonding experience and, for many, their rst professional acting gig.

“The best ve months of my life,” Talbut says, adding everyone was “just the loveliest person ever.”

cause a country chose to submit it. In addition to the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice and the Platform award at Toronto, other festivals with eligible qualifying awards will also include the Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear, the Busan International Film Festival’s best lm award and the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize.

“That really re ects our desire to honor the lm’s creative team. That is how we approach other categories,” Kramer said.

“And as we become more global, as the lmmaking community becomes more global. I think it’s really about a focus on the lmmakers and less a focus of the country.”

Actors can now be nominated for more than one award in a category

The acting branch is catching up with the rest of the academy in allowing an actor to be nominated for more than one performance in a single category. If, say, this year’s best actor winner Michael B. Jordan has two extraordinary leading performances in two di erent lms in 2026, he could possibly get two best actor nominations.

And about those original songs in the end credits

The organization also clari ed the eligibility of original songs used during a lm’s end credits. For songs in which the rst music cue plays over the end credits, that song must overlap with at least the lm’s last 15 seconds before the credits roll in order to be considered eligible.

The cast had a ball

LISA TOMASETTI / NETFLIX VIA AP

MATT SAYLES / INVISION / AP PHOTO

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has addressed concerns about arti cial intelligence and award eligibility in a new set of rules for nominees and categories.

Far from Philadelphia original, fans hunt for Liberty Bell replicas

Orphan bells are getting a new life

By Allen G. Breed

The Associated Press

RALEIGH — Want to see the Liberty Bell this semiquincentennial but don’t have the time or cheese for a pilgrimage to Philadelphia? Have no fear: Chances are, there’s one at a state Capitol, museum or even a re station near you. It won’t be the original, but it’ll be a dead ringer.

For a savings bond drive in 1950, the Treasury Department commissioned copies of the famously broken bell, one for each U.S. state and several territories. Except for the serial numbers, they were faithful replicas — right down to the Pass and Stow trademark and a faux crack.

There’s a small but growing group of “bell hunters” who’ve dedicated themselves to visiting as many of the replicas as possible. If they were a gang, Tom Campbell would be the ringleader.

“It was a casual thing that turned into an obsession,” Campbell, a graphic designer, said.

Let freedom ring!

Although Fort Collins, Colorado, is now his home, Campbell was born and raised in Philadelphia and visited the original Liberty Bell as a boy.

Ordered for the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, the bell cracked on its rst test ring in the 1750s, was melted down and cast anew. There’s no evidence it was even rung on July 4, 1776; abolitionists rechristened it in the 1830s for the Bible verse encircling its crown, “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.”

No one knows exactly when or how the bell cracked again, but the last major attempt to restore it to ringing condition was in the 1840s.

Campbell didn’t know about the replicas until he moved to Denver in the late 1990s.

“I was wandering around, meeting a friend at a bar for a drink, and cut across the Capitol lawn and saw a full-size Liberty Bell sitting there,” he recalled.

TAKE NOTICE

He read about the bond drive on a small bronze plaque, and a quest was born.

As Campbell and his wife, Dawn Putney, traveled the country, they began building bell trips into their itinerary. One day, she surprised him with his own website, tomlovesthelibertybell.com

“It was just a kind of a fun goof,” he said.

But three decades after he stumbled on that rst bell, Campbell has become the go-to expert on these pieces of Americana.

From France, avec amour

The replicas were cast by the Paccard Foundry, run by a family who’ve been making bells in southeastern France since 1796.

They weigh the same as the original — 2,080 pounds — but di er from the OG bell in one very important respect: metallurgical makeup.

According to the National Park Service, the original was 70% copper, 25% tin and “small amounts of lead, gold, arsenic, silver, and zinc.” In a bell, those other metals amount to “impurities,” said Anne Paccard, the foundry’s communications director and chief for “art of sound” projects, like sculptures that feature bells.

“I must say that the original Liberty Bell is a very poor-quality bell, metallurgically speak-

ing,” she told The Associated Press in a recent email. “The bells we delivered in 1950 are made of a speci c alloy of bronze called ‘airain’: 78% copper, 22% tin, nothing else.”

The Treasury bells toured the country on the backs of atbed Ford trucks equipped with loudspeakers and festooned with red-white-and-blue banners.

“You could buy a savings bond, ring the Liberty Bell, have a party,” Campbell said.

At drive’s end, Treasury gifted the bells to the 48 states and the then-territories of Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The District of Columbia and the Treasury Department each got one as well.

(Three others went to Tokyo, a church in Paccard’s hometown and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, giving that state two bells.)

Trouble is, they came with no guidance and no funds to preserve them.

“A local or state historian described it to me as an ‘unaccessioned artifact,’” Campbell said. “Not every state wanted them necessarily, and not every state knew what to do with them.”

Virginia held a contest, and the people voted to send the bell to Thomas Je erson’s Monticello. It later went into a storage shed until nally nding a home outside a local re station.

More than half have spent

most of their lives outdoors. Time, neglect and exposure to the elements have taken their toll.

Some of the painted-on cracks have faded or disappeared completely. Other bells are displayed without their clappers and/or yokes, or in steel frames that prevent them from being rung.

“At that point, it really transitions to more of a monument than a functional bell,” Campbell said. “And, to me, that’s kind of sad.”

Just like new... sorta

Kansas’ bell languished, disassembled, for years in a Capitol parking garage until state Sen. Elaine Bowers got involved. In October, the reassembled bell — resting on a heated concrete pad and supported by a custom-made wooden yoke, but still sans clapper — was given a place of honor outside the new Docking State O ce Building.

“It just belongs here,” said a beaming Bowers as she stood beside bell No. 21. “It’s a fascinating piece of artwork, but also history that we all should be proud of.”

The Alabama and Idaho bells were shipped to the Bell Foundry Christoph in Charleston, South Carolina, for restoration and are expected to be home in time for the Fourth. Several other bells have also received recent touchups.

Campbell doesn’t set out to

guilt states into xing up and displaying their bells. But if his website happens to nudge them a bit, “maybe I’ll take a little credit for that.”

He’s also helped inspire a new generation of bell hunters. By age 4, Zoe Murphy of Morris County, New Jersey, knew all the state capitals and their ags. At 5, she saw her rst replica in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Now a 14-year-old high school freshman, she has her own website RICA. She’s visited 39 of the bells over the years, from Alabama to Wyoming and even far-o Alaska.

Zoe says traveling the country has given her a deeper appreciation for America’s “collective mix of people and our culture.”

Meanwhile, Campbell’s recent visit to Arizona’s newly restored bell — which was touring the state, complete with a rope for the tugging — brought his toll up to 40. Why does the Liberty Bell resonate with him?

“The fact that a cracked bell is the symbol of the United States is really the perfect symbol of an imperfect union,” he said.

Nothing to see here

Try as they might, it’ll be nearly impossible for these Liberty Bell fans to check all the replicas o their list. Three replicas remain totally unavailable to the public this anniversary year, as far as Campbell can tell. Ironically, one of them is Pennsylvania’s.

For many years, the Treasury bell was the centerpiece of a museum in the former Zion’s Reformed Church of Allentown, where the original was briefly hidden to prevent the British redcoats from melting it down for munitions. But the building changed hands in 2023, and the bell is no longer accessible to the general public while the church is being renovated. (Local ocials are placing a lighter, taller replica in front of the church for the anniversary.)

Last June, North Carolina’s bell was hoisted from its spot across from the Legislative Building in Raleigh amid a multiyear renovation of the state history museum. When the AP asked to see it, the request was politely denied.

“Our Liberty Bell is in a secure storage facility,” spokeswoman Mary Huntley said.

The only replica that’s truly lost is the one sent to Washington, D.C., which went missing from storage in the early 1980s. Campbell suspects it’s long since been melted down.

“That’s 2,080 pounds of bronze,” he says. “So that has a scrap value.“

Notice to Creditors

The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the estate of Daniel Bauer, 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 August 7, 2026 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. Hilary Lohr 1624 Seattle Slew Lane Hope Mills, NC 28348” NOTICE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA County of Cumberland In The General Court Of Justice Superior Court Division Estate File # 26E 000568-250 Administrator’s/Executor’s Notice The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Randall Wayne Blackburn, 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 7th of August, 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 April 2026. Penny Woolard Blackburn Administrator/Executor 1400 Lowbranch Court Fayetteville, NC 28306 Of the Estate of Randall Wayne Blackburn, Deceased

NOTICE IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK ESTATE FILE NO. 26E000659-250

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA CUMBERLAND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR NOTICE

The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Theodore Francis Brown III, deceased, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before the 30th day of July, 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.

This the 30th day of April, 2026. Sarah Leann Brown Administrator of the Estate of Theodore Francis Brown III 7332 Cayman Drive Fayetteville, NC 28306

NOTICE

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE CUMBERLAND COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION FILE NO. 26E000514250

ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTICE

The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Rochelle Byers, deceased, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, hereby noti es all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said decedent to present them to the undersigned on or before July 23, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 23rd day of April, 2026.

Danny M. Byers Administrator 11628 Sidney Crest Avenue Charlotte, NC 28213 Of the Estate of Rochelle Byers, Deceased Publish: April 23, 2026; April 30, 2026; May 7, 2026; May 14, 2026.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

ESTATE FILE NO. 26E000580-250 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND

Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Nathan Davis, 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 July 23, 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 23rd day of April, 2026. Michael E. Davis, Executor of the Estate of Nathan Davis 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

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINAIn the General Court of Justice County of CumberlandSuperior Court Division Estate File #______ Administrator’s/Executor’s Notice The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Elsa Mahler Fleenor, 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 23day ofJuly, 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 16th day of April, 2026_. Maryann Fleenor Ford Administrator/Executor 2501 McFayden Rd Fayetteville, NC 28306 Of the Estate of Elsa Mahler Fleenor, Deceased

NOTICE

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION ESTATE FILE #26E000611-250 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND EXECUTOR’S NOTICE Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Peggy Imogene Gearhart, deceased, 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 present their claim to the undersigned on or before the 23rd day of July, 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. Dated this 23rd day of April, 2026. Billy R. Meha ey,

PRYOR EMERSON HUMPHREY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION / STATE ARCHIVES OF NORTH CAROLINA VIA AP

Onlookers in Raleigh stand around a atbed truck with a replica of the Liberty Bell mounted to it during a savings bond drive in 1950.

Millie Ann Havemann

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS Estate of Shirley Mae Henry All persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the Estate of Shirley Mae Henry, deceased, late of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are hereby noti ed to present such claims to the undersigned on

ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTICE

In the General Court of Justice Superior Court Division Estate File # 26E000457-250 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND

The undersigned having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Dale Patrick Ivey, Deceased, 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 July 16, 2026 at 1411 Maywood Street, Fayetteville, North Carolina 28305, 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 16th day of April, 2026 Carol Greiner Ivey, Administrator

Estate of Dale Patrick Ivey, deceased c/o Gilliam Law Firm, PLLC Post O ce Box 53555 Fayetteville, NC 28305 (910) 485-8899

04/16/2026, 04/23/2026, 04/30/2026 and 05/07/2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

ESTATE OF GWENDOLYN ANN JACOBS

CUMBERLAND County Estate File No. 26E000024-250 All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Gwendolyn Ann Jacobs deceased, of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are noti ed to present their claims to the Administrator Davis W. Puryear, 4317 Ramsey St., Fayetteville, NC 28311 on or before the 31st day of July, 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 Administrator named above. This the 21st day of April, 2026. Davis W. Puryear Administrator of the Estate of Gwendolyn Ann Jacobs Davis W. Puryear Hutchens Law Firm Attorneys for the Estate 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, NC 28311 Run dates: April 30, May 7, May 14, and May 21, 2026

Notice To Creditors

The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Mary Claire Kosterman, 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 23rd day of July, 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 23rd day of April, 2026.

Mary Kosterman Hopkins Executor 509 Thorncli Drive Fayetteville NC 28303 Of the Estate of Mary Claire Kosterman, Deceased

NOTICE

NORTH CAROLINA

CUMBERLAND COUNTY

The undersigned, Oriana Mellot Nivens, quali ed on March 31, 2026 as EXECUTOR of the ESTATE OF EUNICE H. MELLOTT, deceased, this is to notify all persons, rms or corporations having claims against said Estate that they must present them to the undersigned at 7718 Ridgeloch Place, Charlotte, NC 28314 or 125 Applecross Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374, on or before the 1st day of August, 2026, or the claims will be forever barred thereafter, and this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms or corporations indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 30th day of April, 2026. Oriana Mellott Nivens Executor of the Estate of Eunice H. Mellott Jennifer B. Garner Garner Law Firm, PLLC Attorney for Estate 125 Applecross Road Pinehurst, North Carolina28374

Notice to Creditors

Estate of Betty Parker Hobson a/k/a Betty P. Hobson Cumberland County Estate File No. 26E000662-250

All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Betty Parker Hobson a/k/a Betty P. Hobson, Deceased, of Cumberland County, North Carolina, are noti ed to present their claims to Jennifer Moss Davis, Co-Executor of the Estate of Betty Parker Hobson a/k/a Betty P. Hobson, at 1628 Squire Davis Road, Kernersville, NC 27284, or Kimberly Moss Donaldson, Co-Executor of the Estate of Betty Parker Hobson a/k/a Betty P. Hobson, at 260 Devereux Downs, Roswell, GA 30075, on or before the 7th day of August, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.

Parker Hobson a/k/a Betty P. Hobson Kimberly Moss Donaldson, Co-Executor of the Estate of Betty Parker Hobson a/k/a Betty P. Hobson Williford McCauley - Attorney for the Estate of Betty Parker Hobson a/k/a Betty P. Hobson Mailing Address: P. O. Box 53606 Fayetteville, NC 28305 Physical Address: 235 Green Street Fayetteville, NC 28301

Notice to Creditors

The undersigned having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Rachel Hubbard, deceased, late of Cumberland County, this is to notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before 7-23-26 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. 516 Rosewood Drive Stedman, NC 28391 This is

The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Kenneth E. Martin, deceased, late of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, who died on February 17, 2026, does hereby notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned at the address below on or before July 23, 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.

Administrator: Kim Martin 1912 Blake Street Fayetteville, NC 28301

Notice to Creditors

The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Richard Pataky, AKA Richard Anthony Pataky, deceased, late of Cumberland County, do hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said estate to present their claim to the undersigned on or before the 23rd day of July, 2026 (which date is 3 months after the day of the rst publication of this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in the bar of their recovery. All Debtors of the decedent are requested to make immediate payments to the undersigned. This 23rd day of April 2026 Executor: Janine Marie McLaughlin Address: 135 Bridgeport Drive Sneads Ferry, NC 28460 Of the Estate of Richard Pataky AKA Richard Anthony Pataky, Deceased Estate File # 26E000361-250

NOTICE

In The General Court Of Justice.

Superior Court Division. Estate # 26E000606-250. State of North Carolina. Cumberland County. Administrator’sNotice. The undersigned having quali ed as Executor of the Estateof Dorothy Marie Hicks Taylor. deceased,late of Cumberland County. This is to notify all person’s having claims against said Estate to present them to the undersigned at 3712 HeatherbrookeDr., Fayetteville,NC 28306 on or before the 23rd day of July 2026 (date being three months after the day of rst publicationof this notice) or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the Estate will please make immediatepayment to the undersigned this the23rd day of April 2026.DorothyAmanda EastridgePhone: 910-308-1283Administratorof the Estateof DorothyMarie Hicks Taylor

NOTICE

April 13, 2026

Estate of Sheila Louise Vannoy

The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Sheila Louise Vannoy, deceased, late of Cumberland County, hereby noti es all persons having claims against the estate to present them to the undersigned on or before July 23, 2026. Failure to do so will result in this notice being pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 23rd day of April, 2026. Administrator of the Estate of Sheila Louise Vannoy 218 Kristin Ave Spring Lake, N.C. 28390 (Daughter, Kathleen McNeill)

NOTICE

Estate le #26E000588-250 administrators /executors notice the undersigned, having quali ed as administrator of the estate of James M Wilkinson deceased late of Cumberland County I hereby noti ed all persons rms and corporations having claims against said estate to present their claim to the undersigned on or before the 30th day of July 2026 which is 3 months from the date after the day of the rst publication of this notice or this notice will be pleased pleaded in bar of their recovery all debtors of the decedent are requested to make immediate payment to the under signed. This 30th day of April 2026 signed by administrator executor Tina Wilkinson address 1709 bragg Blvd. Fayetteville NC 28303 of the estate of James M Wilkinson, deceased.

Notice to Creditors

The undersigned having quali ed as executor/ administrator of the estate of Donna Kay Click of Cumberland County North Carolina does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said estate to present the to the undersigned at 3712 Gilliam st. Hope Mills, North Carolina 28348 on or before August 7, 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.

May 4,2026

Dawn Renea Selman Stanley Executor/Administrator 3712 Gilliam st Hope Mills, NC 28348

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA In The General Court of Justice County of Cumberland Superior Court Division Estate File #26 E 000722-250

Notice

undersigned, having quali

as Executor of the Estate of Isabelle Perry Westmoreland, 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 7th day of August, 2026 (which 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 7th day of May, 2026

Administrator/Executor Eddie A. Westmoreland 7149 En eld Dr Fayetteville, NC 28303 Of the Estate of Isabelle Perry Westmoreland, Deceased

NEW HANOVER

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of: Dolores J Bradshaw County of Probate: New Hanover County Case Number: 26E000498-640 Notice is hereby given that on April 21, 2026, Letters Testamentary were issued to Valarie M Bradshaw by the Clerk of Superior Court of New Hanover County, in the State of North Carolina, against the estate of Dolores J Bradshaw, deceased. All persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate are required to present them to the undersigned representative at 2058 Willows Creek Lane, Leland, NC, 28451 on or before July 30, 2026 or be forever barred. This 22 day of April, 2026. Valarie M Bradshaw 2058 Willows Creek Lane Leland, NC, 28451

NOTICE

NORTH CAROLINA NEW HANOVER COUNTY NOTICE TO CREDITORS THE UNDERSIGNED, Andrea Galleo, having quali ed on the 30th day of March, 2026, as Administrator of the Estate of David Patrick Galleo (26E000396-640), 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, PLLC, 9111 Market Street, Suite A, Wilmington, North Carolina, 28411, on or before the 20th day of July, 2026, or the claims will be forever barred thereafter, and this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery.All persons, rms, and corporations indebted to said Estate will please make prompt payment to the undersigned at the above address. This 16th day of April 2026.

RANDOLPH

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Co Administrators of the Estate of Donald Sherman Henley, Sr. of Randolph County, NC, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned Co-Administrator at the Law O ce of Andrew J. Weiner, 113 Worth Street, Asheboro, NC 27203 on or before July 16th 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of heir recovery.All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 16th day of April 2026. Donald Sherman Henley, Jr. CoAdministrator David Brent Henley, Co-Administrator Donald Sherman Henley, Sr. Estate Andrew J. Weiner, Attorney Gavin & Cox 113 Worth Street Asheboro, NC27203 Telephone:336-629-2600

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Richard Meredith Hornback, 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 August 3, 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 30th day of April, 2026

Cyndy Dawn Hornback Administratorof the Estate of Richard Meredith Hornback Marion “Beth” McQuaid, Attorney IVEY & EGGLESTON, ATTORNEYS AT LAW 111 Worth Street Asheboro, NC27203 (336) 625-3043 PUBL/DATES: 04/30/26 05/07/26 05/14/26 05/21/26

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of William Charles Norris, of Randolph County, NC, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned Executor at the Law O ce of Richard L. Cox, 113 Worth Street, Asheboro, NC 27203 on or before July 16th 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of heir recovery. All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 16th day of April 2026. Dahlia Gubalane Oldham a/k/a Dahlia Oldham Norris, Executor William Charles Norris, Estate Richard L. Cox, Attorney Gavin & Cox 113 Worth Street Asheboro, NC27203 Telephone:336-629-2600

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Jeanie Lee Parrish a/k/a Jeannie Messick Parrish of Randolph County, NC, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned Executor at the Law O ce of Andrew J. Weiner, 113 Worth Street, Asheboro, NC 27203 on or before July 24th 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of heir recovery.All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 23rd day of April 2026. Lisa Renee Parrish Jeanie Lee Parrish a/k/a Jeannie Messick Parrish Estate Andrew J. Weiner, Attorney Gavin & Cox 113 Worth Street Asheboro, NC27203 Telephone:336-629-2600

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Marie Beeson Pugh of Randolph County, NC, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned Executor at the Law O ce of Richard L. Cox, 113 Worth Street, Asheboro, NC 27203 on or before July 24th 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of heir recovery. All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 23rd day of April 2026. Jan Pugh Dough Marie Beeson Pugh Estate Richard L. Cox, Attorney Gavin & Cox 113 Worth Street Asheboro, NC27203 Telephone:336-629-2600

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Richard James Stinson aka Richard J. Stinson, 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 July 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 16th day of April, 2026

Terry Ann Stinson Administrator of the Estate of Richard James Stinson aka Richard J. Stinson Marion “Beth” McQuaid, Attorney IVEY & EGGLESTON, ATTORNEYS AT LAW 111 Worth Street Asheboro, NC27203 (336) 625-3043 PUBL/DATES: 04/16/26 04/23/26 04/30/26 05/06/26

ROBESON

NOTICE

NORTH CAROLINA ROBESON COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

FILE NO. 25CV003973-770

PENNYMAC LOAN SERVICES, LLC, Plainti , v. JASON BURKLE, and Spouse of, if any; ELISABETH BURKLE a/k/a Elisabeth Barbee, and Spouse of, if any;

SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, AN

OFFICER OF THE UNITED STATES; and

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC.,

Substitute Trustee; Defendants. NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION

TO: Spouse of Jason Burkle, if any

Take notice that a pleading seeking relief against you has been led in the above entitled action.The nature of the relief being sought is as follows:The Plainti in the above entitled action has led with the Clerk of Superior Court’s o ce of Robeson County, North Carolina, a civil action concerning one parcel of real property located at 1006 Maple Street, Lumberton, North Carolina 28358. You are required to make defense to such pleading no later than June 16, 2026 (40 days from date of rst publication) and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought. This the 28th day of April 2026. HUTCHENS LAW FIRM LLP By: ____Bryce Ashby____________________ Claire Collins Dickerho N.C. State Bar No. 44306

Bryce Ashby N.C. State Bar No. 61688

Post O ce Box 2505

Fayetteville, NC 28302

Telephone: (910) 864-6888

Facsimile: (910) 864-6848

Claire.dickerho @hutchenslaw rm.com

Bryce.ashby@hutchenslaw rm.com

Attorneys for Plainti

Dates of Publication: May 7, 2026; May 14, 2026; and May 21, 2026. THIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROM A DEBT COLLECTOR.THE PURPOSE OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS TO COLLECT A DEBT AND ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED WILL BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, except as stated below in the instance of bankruptcy protection. IF YOU ARE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE BANKRUPTCY COURT OR HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED AS A RESULT OF A BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDING, THIS NOTICE IS GIVEN TO YOU PURSUANT TO STATUTORY REQUIREMENT AND FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES AND IS NOT INTENDED AS AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT A DEBT OR AS AN ACT TO COLLECT, ASSESS, OR RECOVER ALL OR ANY PORTION OF THE DEBT FROM YOU PERSONALLY

NOTICE

NORTH CAROLINA ROBESON COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION FILE NO. 25CV006515-770 LAKEVIEW LOAN SERVICING, LLC Plainti , v. DOMINIQUE DASHAUN NORTON, and Spouse of, if any; APRIL TYLER, and Spouse of, if any; SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT; FARMERS FURNITURE a/k/a FARMERS HOME FURNITURE; and SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. Substitute Trustee; Defendants. NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION TO: Dominique Dashaun Norton Spouse of Dominique Dashaun Norton, if any Take notice that a pleading seeking relief against you has been led in the above entitled action.The nature of the relief being sought is as follows:The Plainti in the above entitled action has led with the Clerk of Superior Court’s o ce of Robeson County, North Carolina, a civil action concerning one parcel of real property located at 1602 North Pine Street, Lumberton, North Carolina, 28358. You are required to make defense to such pleading no later than June 2, 2026 (40 days from date of rst publication) and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought. This the 20th day of April 2026. FOUNDATION LEGAL GROUP, LLP By its Partner, HUTCHENS LAW FIRM LLP By: _____Bryce Ashby___________________ Claire Collins Dickerho N.C. State Bar No. 44306 Bryce Ashby N.C. State Bar No. 61688 Post O ce Box 2505

Fayetteville, NC 28302

Telephone: (910) 864-6888

Facsimile: (910) 864-6848

Claire.dickerho @hutchenslaw rm.com

Bryce.ashby@hutchenslaw rm.com

Attorneys for Plainti Dates of Publication: April 23, 2026; April 30, 2026; and May 7, 2026. THIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROM A DEBT COLLECTOR.THE PURPOSE OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS TO COLLECT A DEBT AND ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED WILL BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, except as stated below in the instance of bankruptcy protection. IF YOU ARE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE BANKRUPTCY COURT OR HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED AS A RESULT OF A BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDING, THIS NOTICE IS GIVEN TO YOU PURSUANT TO STATUTORY REQUIREMENT AND FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES AND IS NOT INTENDED AS AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT A DEBT OR AS AN ACT TO COLLECT, ASSESS, OR RECOVER ALL OR ANY PORTION OF THE DEBT FROM YOU PERSONALLY WAKE

Notice to Creditors

Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of DONNA MARIE BOLES, late of Wake County, North Carolina (26E001034910), the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 19th day of July 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 16th day of April 2026. Jackson Marshall Boles Administrator of the Estate of Donna Marie Boles c/o Lisa M. Schreiner Attorney at Law P.O. Box 446 114 Raleigh Street Fuquay Varina, NC 27526 (For publication: 04/16, 04/23, 04/30, 05/07/2026)

NOTICE

FuquayVarina, NC 27526.

Notice to Creditors

Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of KENNETH ROBERT JONES, late of Wake County, North Carolina (26E001210910), the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE

26SP000074-120

Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by William Connolly and Hayley Kathleen Mackiernan (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): William Connolly and Hayley Kathleen Mackiernan) to Tina Sorum, Trustee(s), dated October 31, 2024, and recorded in Book No. 17170, at Page 0067 in Cabarrus County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the promissory note secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the O ce of the Register of Deeds Cabarrus County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will o er for sale at the courthouse door in Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on May 11, 2026 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in Concord in the County of Cabarrus, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows:

Lying and being in Ward No. 2 of the City of Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, and being Lots Nos 8 and 9, and part of an unnumbered lot of the CAMERON McRAE SUBDIVISION, a map of which is recorded in the o ce of the Register of Deeds for Cabarrus County in Map Book 5, page 50, and is more particularly described as follows: BEGINNNING at an iron pin on the southern edge of Edgewood Circle, NE, corner of George W. Alley, same being Lot No. 7 and runs thence with the rear lines of Lots No. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, S. 52-30 W. 125.37 feet to an iron pin the line of Joseph Foil; thence with his line, N. 28- 45 W. 72 feet to an iron pipe, corner of Everett L. Helms; thence with three (3) of Helms’ lines as follows; (1) N. 32-04-27 E. 51.82 feet to an iron pipe; (2) N. 61-09-15 E. 73.31 feet to an iron pin; and (3) S 59-15-45 E. 5.45 feet to a point on the edge of Edgewood Circle; thence with Edgewood Circle as it curves in a generally southeasterly direction at a radius of 40feet, 64.06 feet to a point; then continuing with Edgewood Circle, S. 70-52-34 E. 24 feet to the point of BEGINNING, as surveyed by Billy B. Long, RLS, date August 26, 1997. The above described property was conveyed by J. L. Sides and wife, Nola H. Sides, to John Puckett and wife, Delphia Propst Puckett, by deed dated June 4, 1938, and recorded in Record of Deeds Book No. 148, page 59, and is also that property conveyed by Cameron McRae and wife, Ellen G. McRae, to John Puckett and wife, Delphia P. Puckett, by deed dated June 21, 1947, and recorded

in Record of Deeds Book No. 203, page 210, and is that property conveyed by Everett L. Helms and wife, Neta B. Helms, to Delphia P. Puckett by deed dated April 2, 1993, and recorded in Record of Deeds Book No. 1032, page 159. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 105 Edgewood Circle NE, Concord, North Carolina. Being the same property conveyed by deed recorded in Deed Book 13617, Page 325, Cabarrus County Registry.

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). Should the property be purchased by a third party, 31 CFR 1031.320 requires certain qualifying residential real estate transactions to be reported to the federal government. If you are the successful bidder in this proceeding, you may be required to provide all applicable identifying information about yourself and, if applicable, any entity or trust purchasing the property. 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

NC Sports Hall of Fame inducts 2026 class, B3

Hurricanes forward Taylor Hall, left, celebrates after his winning overtime goal as Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim (6) looks on during Carolina’s 3-2 win Monday in Game 2 of their secondround series in Raleigh.

the Thursday SIDELINE REPORT

MLS PK goal in stoppage time rallies

Revolution to 1-0 win over Charlotte

Foxborough, Mass.

Carles Gil scored on a penalty kick in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time to rally New England to a 1-0 victory Saturday over Charlotte FC, extending the Revolution’s unbeaten streak to six. Gil scored for the third time this season, earning the PK after a foul on Charlotte defender Morrison Agyemang. Kristijan Kahlina had three saves for Charlotte (4-5-2).

PGA

Young nishes o wire-to-wire win at Cadillac Championship

Doral, Fla. Cameron Young called a one-stroke penalty on himself while playing the par-4 second hole after he caused his ball to move in the fairway. And then he made par anyway. It was that sort of week: Young went wire to wire alone on the lead at the Cadillac Championship, a nal round of 4-under 68 getting him to 19 under for the week and six shots clear of Scottie Sche er.

INDYCAR RACING

Sato avoids collision with fox, posts 4th-fastest lap during Indy 500 testing Indianapolis The Brickyard seems to be doubling as a wildlife sanctuary during Indianapolis 500 testing. One day after French driver Romain Grosjean’s car hit and killed a bird as it topped 200 mph, two-time Indy 500 champ Takuma Sato barely avoided a collision with a fox when the animal ran across the track on Wednesday. Sato then posted the fourth-fastest lap in afternoon testing at 225.109 mph.

Hall’s overtime goal keeps Hurricanes perfect in playo s

Carolina erased a twogoal de cit to take a 2-0 series lead over the Flyers

By Cory Lavalette North State Journal

RALEIGH — Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said before Game 2 that his team hadn’t yet faced adversity this postseason.

Now they have — and they passed the test with ying colors.

Taylor Hall drove the net and scored with 66 seconds left in the rst overtime as Carolina erased a two-goal decit and beat the visiting Flyers 3-2 Monday to take a 2-0 series lead.

“We don’t quit,” Hurricanes winger Nikolaj Ehlers said.

Despite getting outshot 15-8 in overtime, the Hurricanes —

as they did in the rst round against Ottawa — held serve at home with an overtime win in the second game of the series.

Defenseman Sean Walker picked up a loose puck in the defensive zone and carried it all the way into the Flyers’ end. He dropped the puck o to Hall, who drove the net and shot on Philadelphia goalie Dan Vladar (40 saves). Jackson Blake took a swipe at the rebound, and Hall located the puck and pushed it past defenseman Travis Sanheim and into the net for the win.

“When you score in overtime it seems like parts of your memory kind of go,” Hall said while trying to recap the goal.

“It was a gritty goal. I didn’t do a very good job of attacking tonight personally. So I got that puck and I just wanted to get

See CANES, page B3

Golden Tempo takes Kentucky Derby

Cherie DeVaux became the rst woman to train the winner of the Run for the Roses

By Stephen Whyno The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After being asked all week about the possibility of becoming the rst woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner, Cherie DeVaux was nearly speechless when Golden Tempo charged from the back of the pack Saturday to make history for her.

“I’m just glad I don’t have to answer that question anymore,” DeVaux said to a rousing round of applause.

DeVaux joined Jena Antonucci, with Arcangelo in the 2023 Belmont, as the only women to train the winner of a Triple Crown race. She was just the 18th woman to saddle a horse in the Derby in its 152year history, and the gravity of the situation came into focus for her days earlier when she saw a young girl on the back-

stretch and realized the impact she is making.

“It really is an honor to be able to be that person for other women or other little girls to look up to,” DeVaux said.

“You can dream big, and you can pivot. You can come from one place and make yourself a part of history.”

DeVaux credits growing up with seven brothers and two sisters for her toughness. After winning the Derby on her rst try eight years after starting her own stable, she thanked her husband for inspiring her to give it a chance.

“I didn’t believe,” DeVaux said. “I started my career here

22 years ago as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed exercise rider. And I would not believe that I would be sitting up here today. Never in my life did I think I would.” It came with a lot of hard work. DeVaux elded questions this week about Golden Tempo’s cracked heels, and she downplayed concerns. She put a lot of time into getting the colt into form, trying blinkers and other things to get the son of Curlin to focus.

Jockey Jose Ortiz even described Golden Tempo as lazy. But Ortiz showed what he and the horse could do Saturday, winning the Derby for the rst time in his 11th try — and doing so in impressive fashion. Ortiz navigated past 17 other horses around the nal turn and made a hard charge down the stretch. With a crowd of more than 100,000 watching and roaring at Churchill Downs, Golden Tempo passed morning-line favorite Renegade — ridden by brother Irad

JEFF ROBERSON / AP PHOTO

Golden Tempo ridden by Jose L. Ortiz won Saturday’s 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby.

KARL DEBLAKER / AP PHOTO

KARL DEBLAKER / AP PHOTO

Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour, center top, protests a call during the third period of Game 2 of the second-round playo series against the Philadelphia Flyers.

THURSDAY 5.7.26

TRENDING

Greg Bi e: New search warrants revealed a potential plot involving “friends” of the former NASCAR driver and his wife, Cristina. A married couple who knew the Bi es allegedly conspired to steal from the couple after they died in a Dec. 18 plane crash. A break-in at the Bi e residence was reported Jan. 8, with $30,000 in cash and other items stolen. There was also suspicious activity on the Bi es’ accounts.

Bryce Young:

The Carolina Panthers o cially signed the fth-year option on the quarterback’s contract, keeping the 2023 No. 1 pick with the team through the 2027 season. GM Dan Morgan reportedly wants to sign Young — who is 14-30 as the team’s starting quarterback — to a long-term deal, although the team still has plenty of time to get that done.

Reese Brantmeier:

The UNC tennis player reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit after the NCAA agreed to overhaul restrictions on athletes accepting prize money before enrolling in college. The NCAA agreed to pay $2.02 million to Brantmeier and former Texas tennis player Maya Joint. The elimination of restrictions to prize money before initial full-time enrollment applies to student athletes in all sports.

Beyond the box score

POTENT QUOTABLES

“I stood up to the bully no di erent than my basketball career.”

Rick Fox, declaring himself a former NBA “enforcer” after the former Tar Heel, now a candidate for political o ce in the Bahamas, had to be held back to avoid a physical confrontation at a campaign event.

“Half the ride I was more scared of what was going on.”

Cooper Flagg after the 19-year-old NBA Rookie of the Year got to ride a few laps around the track at 100 mph with 19-year-old Cup Series rookie Connor Zilisch.

NASCAR

Chase Elliott stayed ahead of Denny Hamlin for the closing four laps after a nal restart to win at Texas. It was his second victory of the season and the 23rd of his career. Elliott led ve times for a race-high 87 laps in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and joined ve-time winner Tyler Reddick as the only Cup Series drivers this season with multiple wins.

Ashley Sanchez scored in the 76th minute and the North Carolina Courage rallied in the second half for a 2-2 tie with the Boston Legacy, preventing the NWSL expansion team from winning its rst match, although Boston got its rst point. The Courage also lost at home to K.C., 2-1.

Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby took an inde nite leave of absence to enter a treatment program for gambling addiction. Sorsby was one of the biggest names in this year’s transfer portal. He arrived from Cincinnati, which announced in February it would sue the quarterback for breaching his NIL contract.

Number of consecutive games Nick Kurtz drew a walk from Apr. 10 to May 1, nishing two games shy of the all-time record, set in 1947. The former Demon Deacon tied Barry Bonds, who did it 23 years ago, for second place.

Streaming provider Prime Video and Duke announced a multiyear agreement to broadcast three of the Blue Devils’ neutral-site nonconference matchups per season. This marks the rst college partnership for Prime Video, which has already taken on live broadcasts of NFL and NBA games among other sports. Duke’s games against UConn, Michigan and Gonzaga next year will appear on Prime Video.

NWSL

NCAA FOOTBALL

STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH / AP PHOTO

NC Sports Hall of Fame inducts 2026 class

Tyler Hansbrough, Leonard Hamilton and John Isner headlined the latest honorees

By Asheebo Rojas North State Journal

A NEW SET of local sports icons now have their memories and impact forever enshrined.

The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame inducted 10 new members in its 2026 class in Greensboro on May 1. The cohort, headlined by ACC basketball legends Tyler Hansbrough and Leonard Hamilton, were honored for their legacies that spanned across the high school, college and professional levels. Chip Beck, Heather Bergsma, Louis Breeden, Richard Huntley, John Isner, Norvell Lee, Eddie Pope and Jerry Winterton made up the rest of the latest class.

The Hall of Fame also dedicated a Wall of Fame at First Horizon Coliseum, displaying the Hall of Famers’ names while its home at the NC Museum of History undergoes renovations.

“This class truly represents the best of the best in North Carolina sports,” Hall of Fame President Rick Webb said. “Through these 10 inductees, we continue our mission to honor the men and women whose achievements and leadership have shaped — and continue to shape — the rich sports legacy of our state.”

Hansbrough made his mark as one of the greatest players in UNC history. The National Col-

legiate Basketball Hall of Famer is the ACC’s leading scorer, and he holds the conference record for career 20-point games. In 2008, he was named the National Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year, ACC Male Athlete of the Year, ACC Tournament MVP, NCAA East Regional Player of the Year, and he earned one of his three consensus rst-team All-American selections.

In the same conference, Hamilton is the winningest coach in Florida State men’s basketball history, achieving a 460-296 record from 2002 to 2025. The Gastonia native ranks fth in all-time ACC wins. He reached eight NCAA tournaments with the Semi-

Top standouts following spring ball

The four local P4 programs have all concluded their spring sessions

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal

ALL AROUND the college football world, spring practices have come to a close, and now everyone’s focus shifts ahead to the start of the 2026 season in the fall.

But who are some of those top players to keep an eye on?

DUKE

Last season’s ACC champs will be aiming to repeat their success, but they’re going to have to do it minus a few key pieces from last year’s group.

The biggest loss was quarterback Darrien Mensah, who left for Miami after one year with the program, but the team is also going to have to replace star receiver Cooper Barkate, who went with Mensah down to Florida.

At quarterback, the battle

to the middle of the ice as much as I could, and I got a shot o and got the rebound. That was an overtime goal, for sure.”

It was Hall’s third goal and team-leading ninth point of the postseason. And the game may not have reached overtime if not for Hall — in the defensive zone.

With eight seconds left in regulation, Hall made a key block on Flyers forward Noah Cates to keep the game tied and force overtime.

“He wants to win,” Brind’Amour said. “So he’s doing whatever he has to do to help the team. And he’s doing it, in that situation obviously, at both ends of the rink. And winning it for us too. He’s been just a great player for us.”

Brind’Amour and his coaching sta deserve credit as well. With his top line of Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov still search-

will be between returning redshirt freshman Dan Mahan, who had a good showing in the Blue and White spring game, and transfers Walker Eget from San Jose State and Ari Patu from Northern Alabama.

There is also going to be a lot of competition at wide receiver, with transfers Jared Richardson and Javen Nicholas and a few young guys in Jaivon Solomon, Brody Keefe and Jamien Little, who all impressed Duke coach Manny Diaz.

“The storyline was really the young wide receivers,” Diaz said. “We have some great competition in that room.”

But with so many unknowns, the Blue Devils look like they may be a run-heavy group with last year’s top running back, Nate Sheppard, returning.

“That’s gonna be a big part of our o ense this year,” Diaz said.

NC STATE

The Wolfpack is the only one of the four Tobacco Road schools that will have a returning starter at the quarterback position, as junior CJ Bailey re-

ing for their rst goal together this postseason, Brind’Amour ipped his lines in the middle of the third period with Carolina trailing by a goal. Jarvis joined Ehlers and Jordan Staal, and the results were immediate. Ehlers, who scored Carolina’s rst-period power-play goal, received the puck in the neutral zone and pushed back the Flyers defense. He dropped the puck to Jarvis at the top of the right circle, and Jarvis snapped a shot past the glove of Vladar to tie the game at 11:21 of the third period.

“(Assistant coach) Je Daniels, who helps me with the forward group — does such a good job — and he’s just like, ‘It’s time,’” Brind’Amour said of mixing up the lines. “And literally the rst shift we did it, that’s what happened. So I’ve got to give him all the credit there for tapping me and saying, ‘OK, look, we waited long enough.’ And it paid dividends.

eight years and ranked among the top 20 in the world for 10 seasons. He won 16 singles titles and eight doubles titles from 2007 to 2023. In 2010, he won the longest match in tennis history (11 hours, 5 minutes) at Wimbledon.

Pope, a High Point native, became one of the state’s most decorated soccer players. At UNC, he was a two-time rst-team All-ACC honoree and a rst-team All-American in 1994. D.C. United selected Pope second overall in the 1996 MLS Draft, and he scored the game-winning goal in overtime to win the rst ever MLS Cup that season. He was also the 1997 MLS Defensive Player of the Year, and he played for the United States men’s national soccer team.

14,411

Aces in John Isner’s ATP career

noles, including four Sweet 16 appearances and an Elite Eight run in 2018. Hamilton also coached at Oklahoma State and Miami, leading the Hurricanes to three NCAA tournaments. Isner became one of tennis’ all-time great servers, nishing his career with the most aces in ATP history (14,411). Standing at 6-foot-10, the Greensboro native was the top-ranked American tennis player for

committed to the Wolfpack for a third season.

“He’s a special young man,” said NC State coach Dave Doeren. “He came here to leave this place better than he found it, and so for him, there’s still meat on the bone.”

While Bailey may be returning, he’s going to have to familiarize himself with a lot of new targets as the Wolfpack is going to have a lot of new blood in the receiver room.

“We lost a lot of production and have a lot of new faces,” Doeren said.

Appalachian State transfer Davion Dozier had a good spring showing, and returner Keenan Jackson is another player who could be taking on a bigger role with the team.

NC State also had some big losses in the linebacker room, but Doeren was fairly impressed with what he saw from the group in spring ball, especially with a pair of power conference transfers in Raul Aguirre and DaKaari Nelson.

“(I was surprisingly impressed with) the linebacker group, just with what we lost there and the unknowns,” Doeren said. “With the growth there and the freshman, that group is competitive right now. There’s really good depth in it.”

UNC

The Tar Heels were one of the most disappointing teams

“He wants to win. So he’s doing whatever he has to do to help the team.”

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour on Taylor Hall

It doesn’t always work that way, but it did tonight.”

The goal was Jarvis’ rst of the postseason.

“It’s always nice to see one go in, especially (since) I’ve had chances and haven’t been doing it, so to step up in a moment like that was huge,” Jarvis said. “The line shu ing, I mean, it seems like every time when I’m with (Staal), stu starts to go in. So hopefully that kick starts the rest of my playo s.”

The Hurricanes were forced to play from behind for the rst time this postseason after the Flyers scored twice in 39 seconds in the opening ve minutes of the

member of the NCCU Athletic Hall of Fame was selected by Cincinnati in the seventh round of the 1977 NFL Draft. He earned rst-team All-Pro honors in 1982. Across his career, Breeden logged 33 interceptions (two returned for touchdowns), three fumble recoveries and four sacks.

Huntley also became an HBCU football legend, rushing for the most yards (6,286) and touchdowns (57) in CIAA history at Winston-Salem State. His rushing record ranks 12th in NCAA Division II history. Huntley was taken by Atlanta in the fourth round of the 1996 NFL Draft. Across six seasons, he rushed for 1,701 yards and 81 touchdowns.

Beck, a Fayetteville native, is a four-time PGA Tour winner. He shot the second 59 in Tour history in the third round of the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational. During his career, Beck spent 40 weeks ranked among the top 10 players in the world.

Bergsma, a High Point native, is a former Olympic speed skater. She earned a bronze medal in team pursuit during the 2018 Winter Games. She also won 88 World Cup speed skating medals and was a four-time world champion in 1,000 meters. During her career, Bergsma set multiple world records.

Breeden built a legacy with NC Central football in the 1970s, leading the team in interceptions in three straight seasons. The Hamlet native and

“The big di erence between this year and last year, for me, is just that we have our team now.”

UNC coach Bill Belichick

in college football last season in Bill Belichick’s rst year at the helm, but the program is hoping its preparation for Year 2 will set them up for success.

“The big di erence between this year and last year, for me, is just that we have our team now,” said UNC coach Bill Belichick.

“We were obviously late coming in on the recruiting end, late coming in on the portal end, and at the end of spring ball, we had a lot of changes before the start of fall camp. We didn’t have anywhere near the continuity we expect to have this year.”

The Tar Heels look like they’ll be a fairly young group in 2026, but there are a few key returners throughout the lineup, including wide receiver Jordan Shipp, running back Demon June and defensive edge Melkart Abou Jaoude, all top performers from last season.

But the biggest question coming out of spring ball is who will be the quarterback.

The Tar Heels brought in a lot of competition this year with Wisconsin transfer Billy Edwards Jr., Texas A&M trans-

game to jump out to a 2-0 lead.

Philadelphia’s league-worst power play converted on its rst chance of the night. With Walker in the penalty box for a delay-of-game penalty, Jamie Drysdale jumped on a loose puck in the slot and red it past Frederik Andersen (34 saves) to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead at 4:02 of the rst period. The lead doubled on the next shift.

After Carolina failed to get a clear in the defensive zone, Flyers captain Sean Couturier scored right in the goal mouth to extend the lead to 2-0 at 4:41 of the opening period. The Hurricanes, however, responded, halving the lead thanks to their power play and a failed clear by the Flyers.

Philadelphia defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen hesitated in shooting the puck down the ice on the penalty kill, allowing Carolina to stay in the zone. Blake then made a circle-to-circle pass to Ehlers,

Lee was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame last week after a highly successful run as the basketball coach at Goldsboro High School. He compiled a record of 455-133 in 26 seasons, including 19 conference titles and a state runner-up nish in 1983. In 1994, Lee took the head coaching position at then-St. Augustine’s College, leading the Falcons to their rst CIAA tournament championship.

Winterton built a dominant wrestling program at Cary High School, serving as the program’s head coach from 1981 to 2010. He led Cary to 11 state tournament titles and eight dual team championships. Winterton coached 42 di erent individual state champions. He nished his stint at Cary with a record of 621-16, including a streak of 138 straight wins.

fer Miles O’Neill, Western Carolina transfer Taron Dickons, returner Au’Tori Newkirk and 2026 commit Travis Burgess.

Right now, Edwards Jr. looks to be the front-runner for the spot, but anything can happen between now and the season opener in Dublin.

WAKE FOREST

The Demon Deacons took a big jump last year in Jake Dickert’s rst year as head coach, and they’ll be hoping to use that as a jumping board for an even better season this year.

The team lost two big pieces of the o ense in quarterback Robby Ashford and running back Demond Clairborne, but it will be interesting to see how UNC transfer quarterback Gio Lopez does just down the road from his former team.

After a fairly disappointing season in Chapel Hill, Lopez will be looking to turn things around in Winston-Salem, and two players who should be big targets for him are Arkansas transfer Kam Shanks and returning receiver Carlos Hernandez, who led the Deacons in receiving yards last year.

“Wake Forest football has never been in a better spot in my mind,” Dickert said. “The health of this football team has never been better, and I’ve never been in a better situation coming out of spring ball than we are now.”

whose one-timer beat Vladar at 10:21 of the rst period for his rst playo goal in a Hurricanes uniform to make it 2-1.

“You want to get one right back, and we were able to do that,” Ehlers said. “After that, it’s a one-goal lead.” And Andersen — who has not allowed more than two goals in his six postseason starts — stopped the last 33 shots he faced.

“That’s just a testament to the type of person he is and the player he is,” defenseman K’Andre Miller said of Andersen. “He’s been doing a great job obviously this entire playo s.” And in overtime, Carolina’s best line in the playo s — Hall, Blake and Logan Stankoven — again came through.

“Every night, it feels like they’re cashing in and being a big part of our group,” Walker said. “To see (Hall) get rewarded, I’m not surprised. They’ve been great all year, but especially in the playo s.”

ALASTAIR GRANT / AP PHOTO

John Isner, left, and Nicolas Mahut pose for a photo next to the scoreboard following their epic 2010 men’s singles match at Wimbledon.

College baseball enters home stretch

A look at which North Carolina teams might be getting a bid later this month

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

CALL IT “come what May.”

It may not have the same poetry as March Madness, but the start of May means crunch time for college baseball. We are two weeks out from the ACC baseball tournament, which will be held in Charlotte this season, and the NCAA selection show comes May 25.

As usual, the state of North Carolina should be well-represented in the tourney, but some of the state’s usual suspects are in serious danger of missing out. Duke, Charlotte, UNC Greensboro and UNC Wilmington have combined for nine NCAA bids in the 2020s. However, the four teams are a combined 92-96, including 37-51 in their respective conferences.

Duke in particular is in danger of snapping its streak of three straight tournaments. The Blue Devils have lost eight of the last nine and 12 of 14, giving up 10 or more runs eight times over that stretch and losing by double digits ve times.

Out of that group, only UNCW has a winning record, and the Seahawks are currently in fourth place in the Coastal, meaning they likely need to win the conference tournament to make the eld.

There are ve other programs in the state with losing records

who will need to win the automatic bid — assuming they nish high enough to participate in their conference tourney — to make the big dance: Gardner-Webb, Elon, Queens, UNC Asheville and NC A&T.

Two other teams have winning records but, like UNCW, are unlikely to be considered for an at-large bid — App State, currently third in the Sun Belt, and Davidson, third in the Atlantic 10. They’ll need to win the conference tournament, and it will be at least a mild upset if they do.

That leaves seven teams in the state who have legitimate chances at playing into June — either as at large teams or as a favorite to win their conference’s automatic bid.

UNC

The Tar Heels appear to be the class of the state. UNC is 37-9-1, 18-7 in the ACC and demolished Duke recently, taking three of four from its rival, including 13-0 and 22-5 run-rule wins. The Heels are the only North Carolina team projected to host a regional and have a national seed when the brackets are revealed.

Their eight remaining games are midweeks against Winthrop and at UNCW, as well as ACC series against Pitt and at NC State.

East Carolina

The Pirates are 29-19-1, 13-8 and two games out of rst in the American. Most mock brackets

Hornets’ Diabate wins Hustle Award, Knueppel misses rookie honor

Charlotte also placed in two other award categories

By Jesse Deal North State Journal

CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Hornets came away from NBA awards season with both a leaguewide honor and a near miss.

Last week, Hornets center Moussa Diabate was named the winner of the 2025-26 NBA Hustle Award, while rookie sharpshooter Kon Knueppel nished second in a tight Rookie of the Year race won by Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg.

The Hustle Award, announced last week by the league, honors players who make e ort plays that do not often appear in the traditional box score but impact winning on a nightly basis.

Unlike most NBA awards, the Hustle Award is not determined by a vote.

Instead, the league uses a formula that weighs nine hustle-related statistics: o ensive box outs, defensive box outs, screen assists, contested 2-pointers, contested 3-pointers, o ensive loose balls recovered, defensive loose balls recovered, de ections and charges taken.

Diabate, a 24-year-old from France in his fourth season, won the award for the rst time after

DERBY from page B1

— just before the wire to win the 1 1/4-mile race in 2:02.27 at odds of 23-1. Their parents were there to witness it.

“I get to ride it almost every year, but to get to win it, it’s just special,” said Ortiz, who also won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday aboard Always a Runner. “I just wish my grandpa was here, but I know he’s looking from heaven. Just very

In elder Jonah Oster and his Campbell teammates could be getting an NCAA tournament bid.

have ECU headed to the Chapel Hill regional, but the Pirates should be safely in the eld, even if they don’t catch UT San Antonio for the regular season crown. ECU hosts Rice and heads to FAU in the nal two conference series and also have a midweek showdown with Campbell.

Wake Forest

The Demon Deacons are sixth in the ACC at 32-17, 14 -13 in league play. Most bracketology projections have Wake just outside the national seeds — ranked near the bottom of the top 25 — and traveling as an at-large team. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and College Station, Texas, have been mentioned as possible destinations.

Wake only has one ACC series left, at Duke, as the Deacs try to

2022

The last NCAA Tournament

stay above .500 in the conference. They also host Western Carolina in a three-game series and have a midweek game at Liberty.

NC State

Likely the nal team in the state with any at-large hopes, the Wolfpack are 30-17, 12-12 in the ACC. D1 has the Wolfpack as one of the last four in, but other projections have State in a little safer position relative to the bub-

ble. Most projections have the Wolfpack in for a daunting trip, perhaps to Athens, Georgia, or Gainesville, Florida.

State has a long road trip to Stanford and a showdown with UNC for its remaining six games, so the push to nish with a winning ACC record could come down to the very end.

Campbell

The Camels are in the Coastal, which is likely a one-bid league. However, Campbell might have a case if it stumbles in the conference tourney. It leads the league with a 33-14 mark, 23-4 in conference play, which is a half-dozen more wins than any other team in the league. Mock brackets have the Camels headed to Conway, South Carolina.

Six of Campbell’s nal eight games are on the road, so the at-large resume could get a big boost or take a hit down the stretch.

Western Carolina

The Catamounts are the state’s other league leader, atop the Southern Conference at 31-17, 12-6 in league. They have three more wins than any other SoCon team and may also have an at-large case if they don’t win the automatic bid. Mocks have Western joining Campbell in Coastal Carolina’s regional.

High Point

The Panthers are 30-17, 12-6 in the Big South, a game out of rst place. They host league leader Winthrop as one of their two remaining series, so High Point has a chance to move into the top spot.

becoming one of the Hornets’ most active interior players. He ranked in the top 11 in six of the nine categories used to determine the honor, including rst in o ensive box outs per minute and fourth in screen assists per minute.

He also averaged career highs of 7.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.99 blocks and 0.77 steals in 26 minutes per game across 73 appearances. Diabate ranked fth in the league in offensive rebounds per game at 3.7 and helped Charlotte nish 44 -38, including a 31-16 mark in his 47 starts.

“It’s only the beginning,” Diabate said. “I very much see it this way. There are a lot of things that I need to do better, but I’m very hopeful and con dent in my abilities and what I can do, especially after this year. For me, it’s all about steps. You don’t want to skip steps.”

Diabate’s high-energy approach made him a popular gure with Hornets fans during Charlotte’s turnaround season. His move into the starting lineup in late December also coincided with a shift in the team’s results, as Charlotte’s primary starting unit went on to produce the NBA’s top net rating from that point forward.

“Last year, it was about trying to nd a way to make the team,” Diabate said. “This year, it was about making an impact, being a winning player and being

happy that I get my goal, my life dream goal achieved.” Golden Tempo paid $48.24 to win, $19.14 to place and $11.90 to show. Renegade paid $7.14 to place and $5.46 to show. Ocelli — who didn’t get into the eld until Thursday when Brad Cox’s Fulle ort was ruled out — paid $36.34 to show after going o at 70-1. “He gave me a really good run and proud of his e ort,” Ocelli jockey Tyler Ga alione said. “We were just not able to

elite at what I do. I think I was able to do a pretty good job with that. De nitely, it’s about adding more, getting stronger and having a better understanding of the game.”

The award gave the Hornets a winner during a week in which Knueppel came up just short of one of the league’s most high-pro le individual honors.

Flagg, Knueppel’s former Duke teammate, was named the 2025-26 NBA Rookie of the Year after one of the closest votes in the award’s recent history. Flagg averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals for Dallas, becoming the rst rookie since Michael Jordan in 1984-85 to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals.

Knueppel still made a strong case in his rst NBA season.

The Charlotte guard aver-

get the job done but hats o to the winner and runner-up. They ran huge races.”

The 152nd Kentucky Derby went on with just 18 horses following a scary incident before the race. Great White was a late scratch by track veterinarians after ipping and throwing his jockey. Great White’s trainer, John Ennis, con rmed to The Associated Press that the big gray gelding and jockey Alex Achard were ne.

aged 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 42.5% from 3-point range, playing a major role in the Hornets’ improvement by 25 wins as they reached the play-in tournament for the rst time since 2022. The former Duke standouts nished rst and second in rookie scoring, becoming the rst former college teammates to accomplish that since Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon in 2004-05.

While Flagg’s late-season scoring surge helped seal the vote, Knueppel’s rookie season gave Charlotte another building block for the future alongside LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and the rest of the Hornets’ young core.

The NBA’s other announced award winners included San Antonio center Victor Wembanyama as Defensive Player of the

Great White became the fth horse scratched this week and the second Saturday. Silent Tactic was ruled out Wednesday, Fulle ort on Thursday and Right to Party on Friday, with Great White, Ocelli and Robusta getting in. The Puma was out, less than 12 hours before post time, because of a swollen leg from a skin infection, but it was too late to replace him. Following Golden Tempo’s victory in the $5 million Run for the Roses, the immediate

Year, Atlanta guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker as Most Improved Player, San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson as Sixth Man of the Year and Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as Clutch Player of the Year. Boston’s Brad Stevens was named NBA Executive of the Year, New Orleans Pelicans center DeAndre Jordan won the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award and Boston guard Derrick White received the NBA Sportsmanship Award, with two Hornets also appearing in the nal results.

Charlotte general manager Je Peterson nished fourth for Executive of the Year, while guard Pat Connaughton placed fth for Teammate of the Year.

The league’s Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year awards remain among the major honors still to be announced.

question was whether he would run back in two weeks in the Preakness Stakes on May 16.

After two of the previous four Derby winners did not participate in the Preakness, DeVaux said it would be determined in the coming days.

“We’re going to let him decide that,” DeVaux said. “We’re going to have to allow him to tell us, because the horse is rst. We’re not here for ourselves. We’re not here for our egos. We’re here for the horse.”

Duke baseball missed

VASHA HUNT / AP PHOTO

NELL REDMOND / AP PHOTO

Hornets center Moussa Diabate, right, battles Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns for a rebound during a game in Charlotte on March 26.

SOLUTIONS FROM LAST WEEK

the BRIEF this week

Presidential Physical Fitness Award returns as Trump revives annual tness test

President Donald Trump is reviving the Presidential Physical Fitness Award as he reintroduces a competitive physical tness test in America’s schools. The award is part of Trump’s revamped Presidential Fitness Test, which had been a public-school xture for decades but was phased out under President Barack Obama. The earlier exam tested children on exercises including a 1-mile run and sit-ups. Those scoring above the 85th percentile received the presidential award. Details of the revived test have yet to be released.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the test is now mandatory in 161 schools on U.S. military installations.

U.S. job openings unchanged at 6.9M in March; hiring improved

U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged at 6.9 million in March, another sign the American labor market remained sluggish even before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy. The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war has clouded the outlook. On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layo s rose in March. But hiring improved and more people quit their jobs — a sign of con dence in the economy.

$2.00

The town will hold a public hearing on the budget on May 18

By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record

SILER CITY — The Town of Siler City Board of Commissioners was presented with the manager’s recommended 2026-27 budget at its May 4 regular business meeting.

Lawmakers in several states are meeting this week

By Kim Chandler, Travis Loller and David A. Lieb The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. —

Lawmakers in several South-

ern states are meeting this week

“Siler City is committed to strengthening infrastructure, promoting responsible economic growth and delivering dependable services to support a safe and thriving community,” said Town Manager Jack Meadows. The budget was focused on ve strategic goals: organizational excellence, economic development, infrastructure and public facilities, public safety and quality of life.

to consider plans that could upend their congressional primaries and redraw U.S. House districts ahead of the November elections, as Republicans move quickly to capitalize on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

A special legislative session responding to the court ruling began Monday in Alabama

Police allege the suspects accessed the family’s bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts in multiple states

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

LESS THAN a month after former NASCAR driver Greg Bi e and his family died in a plane crash last year, investigators say two of their “friends” conspired to break into the empty home and took cash, guns and nancial informa-

In total, the budget is balanced at around $33.25 million, with the general fund (not counting water and sewer) being balanced at approximately $15.6 million.

That is about an 11% increase from last year’s general fund, which was balanced at approximately $13.9 million.

According to Meadows, three of the biggest areas of the budget are public safety, which makes up 26% of it, re (11%) and public works (13%).

and Tuesday in Tennessee. Louisiana lawmakers, who already are in session, also are looking at how to redraw their congressional districts. The Supreme Court on Monday essentially gave them a green light to proceed by approving a request to expedite the court’s formal judgment.

Civil rights activists have countered with rallies, protests and lawsuits challenging the new redistricting e orts. Several hundred protesters gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse on Monday, carrying signs declaring “No new map” and “We ght back! Black Voters Matter.”

tion in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. More than 40 search warrants have been issued, authorities in North Carolina say, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Bi e and his wife Cristina. The suspects did “a lot of planning in an attempt to make a nancial gain” o their deaths, Iredell County Sheri Darren Campbell said. The Associated Press is not naming the pair because no arrests have been made. Bi e, his wife and his two

Last week’s Supreme Court decision striking down a majority-black congressional district

North Chatham Street in downtown Siler City was taken over by the bustling and busy Spring Chicken Festival on Saturday.

PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

April

•

elude arrest with a motor vehicle, reckless driving and failing to heed a light or siren, and other charges.

• Jaqueline Abonza, 28, was arrested for resisting a public o cer.

• Larry Ray Maness, 54, was arrested for assault by strangulation, possession of a controlled substance on prison or jail premises and assault on a female, and other charges.

• Denys Omar Cabrera, 32, was arrested for eeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, driving while impaired and reckless driving, and other charges.

• Rodney Campbell Randall, 34, was arrested for misdemeanor larceny.

• Roberto Cordova, 39, was arrested for assault in icting physical injury on a law enforcement o cer, malicious conduct by a prisoner and breaking or entering, and other charges.

April 29

• Eliezer Serrano Cartagena, 41, was arrested for indecent liberties with a child.

• Keresa Donielle Wright, 36, was arrested for felony stalking and violating a domestic violence protective order.

April 30

• Ricardo Ortiz Hernandez, 31, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, identity theft and assault on a female, and other charges.

• Cedric Laval Vinson, 36, was arrested for eeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, reckless driving and driving on a revoked license, and other charges.

May 1

• Kaleb Clay Dixon, 23, was arrested for breaking and entering, misdemeanor larceny and injury to real property.

• Christopher Blaine Dark, 54, was arrested for driving while impaired, identity theft and resisting a public o cer.

• Jennifer Joel Langston, 49, was arrested for assault and battery, possession of drug paraphernalia and aiding and abetting larceny, and other charges.

May 2

• Aleaha Renne Marr, 32, was arrested for driving while impaired.

• Mark Elijah Davis, 36, was arrested for assault by strangulation, false imprisonment and assault on a female, and other charges.

May 3

• Maria Guadalupe Perez Salazar, 57, was arrested for felony child abuse involving a sexual act, felony aiding and abetting and obstructing justice, and other charges.

Fearrington festival marks 250 years since Halifax Resolves 83

Here’s

Hundreds gather to commemorate North Carolina’s role as the rst colony to formally call for independence

Chatham News & Record sta

PITTSBORO — About 300 people gathered at Fearrington Village on April 25 for the Fearrington Independence Festival, which marked the 250th anniversary of the Halifax Resolves and North Carolina’s early role in the push for independence.

Delegates who unanimously authorized North Carolina’s vote for independence at the Fourth Provincial Congress in April 1776

The Halifax Resolves, adopted April 12, 1776, made North Carolina the rst colony to o cially authorize its delegates to vote for independence from Britain. Meeting at the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina in Halifax, 83 delegates unanimously instructed William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and John Penn to support independence at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The Declaration of Independence was adopted less than three

months later, on July 4, 1776. The festival was part of America 250, the national commemoration of the country’s semiquincentennial, which culminates with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Guilford Courthouse Fife and Drum Corps headlined the event, and a display of classic cars was on hand.

Speakers included Giuliana Greto, a Seaforth High School student who won a local speaking contest about the Declaration, and Ken Samuelson, a retired Army veteran, who read the Declaration of Independence aloud. The Village Singers Chorus led the crowd in singing the national anthem.

The Guilford Courthouse Fife and Drum Corps performed at the festival.

BUDGET from page A1

The budget is primarily based on the property value of the town, which according to Meadows, is approximately $1.42 billion.

From that, the town is proposing a property tax rate of $0.54 per $100 valuation, which is the same as the current rate. According to Meadow, ev-

ery cent of property tax is projected to generate around $140,000 of revenue for the town.

In addition, Siler City is proposing a capital improvement plan totaling just more than $1.277 million, which will cover various town building projects and maintenance.

The board will hold a public hearing on the budget on May 18th.

Teachers, are you looking for new opportunities to fund projects for your classroom?

Central Electric is awarding up to $15,000 in Bright Ideas education grants to local educators in K-12 classrooms for the 2026-27 school year. Educators in K-12 classrooms with creative ideas for learning projects are encouraged to apply for a grant up to $2,000. Grant applications will be accepted through Sept. 15. However, it pays to apply early.

“Sta has done an excellent job at putting this together, not to mention that we have had several meetings of the commissioners hashing this thing out and getting it to where it is today,” said Mayor Donald Matthews. “A lot of good work went into this.”

The Town of Siler City Board of Commissioners will next meet for a regular business meeting on June 1.

All teachers who submit their applications by the early bird deadline of Aug. 15 will be entered into a drawing for one of ve $100 Visa gi cards. Scan the QR code or visit NCBrightIdeas.com for more information or to apply! Central Electric providing grants to local educators to fund

May 7

festival returns for its 22nd spring edition, featuring music performances, dance activities, workshops and camping on a rolling farm in Chatham County. The family-friendly, multigenre world music festival runs through May 10. Shakori Hills Community Arts Center 1439 Henderson Tanyard Road Pittsboro Spring

May 8

George Pauly Nature Trail Ribbon Cutting 3 p.m.

Chatham County o cials will formally open the new 0.6mile George Pauly Nature Trail, a natural-surface path honoring the late conservation advocate and Haw River Assembly supporter who died in 2021. The Haw River Assembly funded the project.

Northeast District Park 5408 Big Woods Road Chatham County

May 9

Chatham County SilverArts Open House 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The public is invited to

artwork submitted by senior competitors in the 2026 Chatham County SilverArts competition, which spans visual arts, literary arts, performing arts, heritage arts and cheerleading.

COURTESY FRANK HUISKING

Trump keeps public guessing with hints of what’s coming in new batch of UFO les

Skeptics warn Trump’s promised UFO revelations are unlikely to produce bombshell evidence

By Collin Binkley

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President

Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO les uncovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new revelations around questions of alien life.

Trump started stoking interest in the extraterrestrial in February, directing federal agencies to release their records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has built suspense with tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never before shared by the U.S. government.

“We’re going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven’t,” Trump said at a White House event last week celebrating NASA astronauts. “I think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people.”

Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the secrets. In the rst week returning to o ce, he ordered the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known.

In the buildup to that release, Trump said “the American people deserve transparency and truth.” Now, as he turns to the sky, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-old questions may be on the way. His February directive on social media called for transparency around “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidenti ed aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidenti ed ying objects (UFOs).”

“The rst releases will begin very, very soon,” he told supporters in April at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. “So you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct. You’ll gure it out.”

An expert cautions against raising expectations

Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.

Citing concerns over national security, Congress created an ofce in 2022 to investigate UAP and declassify as much material as possible. The o ce’s 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever con rmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is expected to come soon.

That agency, the All-domain

Anomaly Resolution O ce, is now working with the White House to release “never-before-seen UAP information,” according to a Pentagon statement.

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down. Because that just doesn’t exist.”

Sean Kirkpatrick, former director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution O ce

The o ce’s previous director, however, said Trump’s promises were bluster, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from the war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence o cer who led the o ce until 2023, said he has seen the government’s records and believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down,” he said. “Because that just doesn’t exist.”

Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military often capture jet engines and other hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped objects.

Pentagon not forthcoming on UAP reports, GOP-led panel says

On Capitol Hill, those types of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Trumpaligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is holding back secrets.

The Task Force on the Declassi cation of Federal Secrets has been conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.

Last fall, the task force heard testimony from current and former service members who described UAP encounters. In one case, a senior Navy o cer said he was o the coast of California in 2023 when he saw a glowing “Tic Tac” shaped object emerge from the ocean and link up with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.

Trump’s interest in the subject has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticized what she calls “less than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.

In a March letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identi ed by whistleblowers and labeled with names such as “Spherical UAP in clouds.” Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.

Trump’s entry to the UFO fray drew applause from Luna,

who last year told podcaster Joe Rogan that she has seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can’t hide from our docs request anymore!” Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive.

Vance professes to be “obsessed” with UFO les

Trump appears skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said, “I gured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re really into that. I don’t know if I am.”

Why he made the revelation at that event, held at a megachurch, is unclear. A day earlier, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far from Area 51, a top-secret Cold War test site that has fueled UFO conspiracy theories.

Vice President JD Vance has described himself as “obsessed” with UFO les. In March, he said he has been trying to nd time to investigate Area 51 since he took o ce.

“I’ve still got three more years as vice president,” Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “I will get to the bottom of the UFO les.”

Invoking his Christian faith, Vance said he believes sightings reported to be aliens are actually the work of spiritual demons.

Even before Trump tackled the topic, alien buzz was already in the air.

It’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie, “Disclosure Day.” Former President Barack Obama made a splash in February when he declared on a podcast that aliens are real. He later clari ed that he had seen no evidence but that “the odds are good there’s life out there.”

Trump is hardly the rst president drawn to UFO mysteries. President Bill Clinton has said he once ordered a review of the Roswell Incident — something had crashed in 1947 at a New Mexico ranch and ofcials later said the debris was the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon — around its 50th anniversary in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs before their time in the White House.

The U.S. government has been investigating UFO reports since the 1940s, in part to determine if they represent advanced technology from competing nations or “evidence of o -world technology,” according to the Defense Department’s 2024 report.

In online communities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump’s promise as a step in the right direction; others believe it will come to nothing. For people who follow the topic closely, promises of big revelations have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO sightings.

“There is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the really die-hard folks,” he said. “So in a sense, I think disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected no matter what comes out of this.”

Church News

OAKLEY BAPTIST CHURCH

As Oakley Baptist Church (2300 Siler CityGlendon Road, Siler City) seeks to begin its next chapter, we are enjoying hearing a word from the Lord from various old and new friends. Our service begins at 10:30 a.m., but we also have Sunday School classes for every member of the family at 9:30 a.m. We would be blessed if you joined us for any and all of these speakers in the coming weeks.

May 10 – John Hill

We look forward to meeting you at any of these services and in the future, and invite you to pray with us as we seek a new pastor. To learn more, go to oakleybaptist.org or email us at oakleybaptistchurch@gmail.com. •••

Homecoming at Oakley will be Sunday, May 24 beginning at 10 a.m. for special music and 10:30 a.m. for worship service. Tim Howell will be our guest speaker.

A covered dish lunch will be provided after the service.

Please come and bring a friend! Everyone is welcome!

ROBERTS CHAPEL MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! The Roberts Chapel Missionary Baptist Church family in Goldston cordially invites you to our annual Woman’s Day program on Sunday, May 10 at 11 a.m.

Our speaker for the occasion will be the Rev. Sarah Small, associate minister of Roberts Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Goldston. We look forward to seeing each of you. Please come worship with us and bring a friend.

GOD’S

Share with your community!

Send your birth, death, marriage, graduation and other announcements to community@ chathamnewsrecord.com. ••• Weekly deadline is Monday at noon.

SEMANSKY / AP PHOTO

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

Firsts

She added that giving back to others was part of “paying rent” for her time on Earth.

AS I WALKED ACROSS the parking lot, I heard a strange rustling noise above my head and looked up just in time to see a bird streak past carrying a sheet of plastic, which waved behind the winged creature like the tail of a kite. I alone was there to witness the sight. I hurried into the hospital to tell my friend whom I had come to visit. She chuckled as she admitted that she’d never seen anything like that in her 95 years on the planet. Over the course of her long life, she had also never had an operation. Hadn’t had her tonsils out or a knee replaced, nary a single stent inserted nor cataract removed. Yet she’d been admitted over the weekend with abdominal pain, and later that very afternoon, she was to have an appendectomy. I said I’d never heard of someone her age having her appendix removed, and she

COLUMN | BOB WACHS

said that there was a rst time for everything. I witnessed another rst the previous Saturday at my child’s soccer game when an errant ball was kicked out of bounds, causing an impromptu timeout as it rolled to a stop in front of a wriggling puppy, which prompted players from both teams to forget soccer in favor of the furry little snuggle ball.

Yet another rst had occurred in church the following Sunday when a visitor received Communion. After the worship service, she said that she had worshiped in other churches but had never been invited to the sacrament. I shared this story of a rst Communion with my friend before her appendectomy, and she told me that’s the reason why she and many others had worked so hard to build our church. She added that giving back to others was part of “paying

rent” for her time on Earth, which was a way of putting the idea of service in a way that I’d never quite heard before. Like that bird with the uttering plastic, I carried her words out of the hospital, and now I’ve shared them on this page in the hope that you, too, might be inspired to serve with a joyful and generous heart. After all, you are a rst — a creature of grit and grace, of verve and possibility that has never before existed in the world. And so, it’s a mistake to think that miracles are rare; there are rsts that happen every single day.

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.

Baseball, church homecomings, love and several other signs of spring

Could you imagine if coaches in other sports dressed like their players?

YEARS AGO, A BRITISH poet by the name of Alfred Tennyson penned a poem entitled “Locksley Hall” in which he noted “In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Spring is the season for love.”

Through his 83 years, Alfred — who would later become Alfred, Lord Tennyson — wrote a bunch of poems, partly to earn his keep because for much of Queen Victoria’s long reign, he was the poet laureate of England and Ireland, serving from 1850 until his death in 1892.

Ol’ Alfred pretty much hit the nail on the head with that line about love, at least in part. Spring will do that to you. After all, it’s been a long winter, the days are improving, sap is rising in the trees, the ladies are looking good, and it’s just what we do. But not to diminish Alfred’s observation, there are many other signs of spring upon us now. I’d like to note a few, with the hope we have some spring for a while and don’t go from winter directly into summer with its heat and humidity. One sign is baseball. It comes around in spring. I love baseball. Funny, though, I wasn’t very good at it. My entire playing career spanned about half a season of what was loosely called Little League in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I usually managed to get in three quick swings; not sure I ever got a hit. We played on what I think East Chatham Little League today calls the Upper Field, across the street from Pittsboro Elementary School. There was no dugout or anything fancy. We either stood or sat on an old telephone pole along the third base line and tried not to be hit by a foul ball or errant pitch or throw from the out eld. But still I love it. I’ve been accused of being too slow or clumsy or whatever to appreciate football or basketball or soccer, which I don’t understand at all. In soccer, guys or gals run around for two hours and the score is 1-0. Sometimes there’s more action in the stands than on the eld, especially when some of the European teams set the bleachers on re or start a riot.

I like the strategy of baseball, of just how to pitch to just who, of how sometimes the game, as Yogi Berra said, isn’t over until it’s

over, of how the baseball gods sometimes jerk strings and if you don’t catch the foul pop that on the next pitch the batter will knock a dinger.

I like that baseball team managers dress like the players. Goes back to when they were player-coaches. Could you imagine if coaches in other sports dressed like their players? Tom Landry with shoulder pads or Pat Riley in shorts and sneakers?

Then there’s the phenomenon we call church homecoming or memorial day, not to be confused with the federal Memorial Day in May. Churches have them annually most often on the same day each year — rst Sunday in May, last Sunday in May, second Sunday in June, on Mother’s Day or whatever the local tradition calls for.

From time to time I will have the opportunity to be the Sunday morning speaker at one or two. It’s always a treat, a reminder of the past and its lessons for the future as well as a signal for spring. Nobody ever has homecoming in deep February. That’s because it’s too cold to have “dinner on the grounds,” although most places now have “dinner in the fellowship hall where it never rains and the temperature is not too hot or too cold or too muggy.”

In those carefree days of my childhood as we ate dinner outside, I learned to hold my plate with one hand, my tea with the other, consume a chicken leg without the corn juice getting on my chocolate pie and say “hello” to a fourth cousin once removed without making a mess of him, me or my food. Later on, I would imitate my father, who had learned that if you could nd a ’49 Plymouth with big front fenders then you could use them as a table.

Those events feature good music, good food, good fellowship, good friends. There’s the chance to say “hello” to someone you may not have seen for a while, to meet some new folks, to gure out family relationships and maybe have a little ol’ lady pat you on the head and say, “My, my, Sonny! You sure have grown since I last saw you.” My boyhood friend Bobby Joe High once told me his great-aunt Gertrude, whom he hadn’t seen for years, once at a family reunion patted him on top of his head and told him, “My,

my! Bobby Joe, you’ve grown a foot since I last saw you.” When he later told me about that, he said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I’ve still only got two.”

In fairness to the other side, though, there are some down sides to spring, just as there are thorns on a rose bush. One is pollen. I’m all for the trees reproducing, but have you ever looked at a grain of pollen under a microscope? It looks like a smaller version of a sweet gum ball, all prickly and sharp. Try getting a truckload of those under your contact lenses and then you’ll know pain and agony.

And then there are the spring thunderstorms, although we surely haven’t had many lately. The weather folks often refer to them as “pop-ups.” If one does that all of a sudden where you are, then there’s a 100% chance you’ll get wet and that’ll be the end of your Game 7 of the World Series in your backyard. Funny thing about T-storms, at least for me: When they come knocking, they remind me of my mama. She was not a big fan. I found out later in life it was because lightning once hit her house. She always made sure we were not near a window, did not run water, got quiet and often sat in the middle of a bed. I’m not suggesting we all retire to the bedroom when it storms, but I do remember. Personally, I like rain, but part of that may be because, like snow, I usually don’t have to get out in it unless I forgot to roll up the windows in the pickup.

Mr. Tennyson is also remembered for a number of other sayings, many of which have become part of the conversation of today, at least for some folks. They include “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die” along with “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” and “Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers.” All of that may be true, but for a really meaningful spring saying, nothing beats “Play ball.” Try it.

Bob Wachs is a native of Chatham County and emeritus editor at Chatham News & Record. He serves as pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church.

COLUMN | ANDREW TAYLOR-TROUTMAN

Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde and me

I’m not a bad person, just an ordinary human, probably like you.

YES, MY CHILDREN, there is a witching hour.

A witching hour? It’s not Halloween, is it?

Absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. This witching hour, both yours and mine, is biologically driven and can play havoc with our values. Oy.

Wait, wait, why don’t I know about this witching hour thing?

You’ve more than likely experienced it, countless times, but didn’t know what the heck was happening. The witching hour strikes toward the end of the day, driven by our emptying fuel tank of discipline. “Oh, no, I said what in that email?! Oh, geez.”

This human witching hour is a daily emotional mine eld that no one told us exists. During these witching hours, we’re experiencing behavioral wipeouts of cherished values and bowing (oh, lord!) to temptations we have previously forsworn. No, no! That can’t be true. Sadly, it is.

Our good ol’ biological containers (commonly known as human bodies) need sleep. The wondrous state of sleep helps restore our desired behavioral and cognitive fuel tanks on a daily basis. Voila, a restored human, feeling more whole and bushy-tailed, arises in the morning. This daily restoration means we wake up with a relatively full tank of self-discipline. Going forth, we model our cherished values at every opportunity.

Damn right, we do. However, humans that we are …

“We can only exert so much willpower … and make only so many decisions before we exhaust our stores. We go on autopilot until

COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO

we can replenish by the next morning.” — Kyra Bobinet, Ph.D

Autopilot? You got it. Autopilot leads me (us?) to greater temptations and less willpower. My fuel tank of self-discipline plummets right on down to empty. Autopilot steps in and takes over. For instance, that Snickers bar, hidden (from myself) in the freezer, the one I’ve been able to ignore all day, oh god, by the evening it’s probably going to be a goner. Self-discipline, where art thou?

Truthiness: In conversation, my tongue becomes sharper when I’m under the spell of the witching hour. Feeling powerless, I watch values, such as kindness, dribbling out of my self-discipline tank. Followed, often, by embarrassment and oodles of self-judgment. Major ouches.

I’m not a bad person, just an ordinary human, probably like you. A normal, tired, human whose ability to enact her values is reduced when her self-discipline tank runs out at the end of a day. Can I remember that my diminished fuel tank also opens wide the possibility of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde incursion?

No, please!

Painful remembrances of ill-serving others can be a corrective before I plunge into the greedy maws of the witching hour. If I fail, this vulnerable being tries ordering a decent-sized plate of self-compassion at the end of the evening. Still human, after all these years …

Jan Hutton, a resident of Chatham County and retired hospice social worker, lives life with heart and humor.

When does speech become dangerous?

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

AMERICANS LOVE arguing about free speech. We invoke the First Amendment as a kind of political force eld: You can say whatever you want, whenever you want, without consequence.

But the First Amendment only restricts government action. It does not guarantee you a career, a platform or immunity from backlash. The real question is not whether certain speech is legal but rather what kind of speech deserves social consequences — and what kind doesn’t.

And if we’re talking about reckless political speech, we should talk about Jimmy Kimmel. Years ago, he abandoned comedy in favor of applause lines, tearful monologues and the occasional performance of empathy. He’s an unfunny late-night scold who treats half the country as a punchline.

As annoying as that is, being unfunny is not a crime. The bigger issue is when media gures cross the line from tastelessness into rhetoric that creates a permission structure for violence.

To understand the di erence, it helps to break political speech into three categories.

First: illegal speech.

Yes, illegal political speech exists in America. A classic example: “I want to kill the president.” That’s not merely commentary. It is an actionable, direct threat. There is also incitement. Under the Supreme Court’s Brandenburg standard, speech quali es as incitement only if it is intended to and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

“Someone should do something about the president” is protected, though irresponsible, speech. “Go kill the president” crosses into territory the law can punish. It’s speech but also an attempt to trigger violence.

Second: typical in ammatory rhetoric. American politics is lled with heated language. “Fight like hell.” “We’re going to war with the other party.” That sort of rhetoric can be ugly and excessive, but it is also normal.

We’ve seen how absurd it becomes when people try to treat that as literal incitement. After Gabby Gi ords was shot, some on the left blamed Sarah Palin because a campaign graphic had “targeted” certain districts. That was ridiculous. Using combative imagery is not the same as directing violence.

Third: the permission structure for violence.

A permission structure for violence is created when people repeatedly portray political opponents as monsters.

This is how you create the mental environment where unstable people conclude that violence is justi ed. If the president is

BE IN TOUCH

California copied Europe’s insane energy playbook

EVEN AS U.S. GASOLINE prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising more than half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.

The result is embedded in ation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry. Europeans don’t just pay more to ll their tanks — they pay more for everything that moves on petroleum. Their living standards su er accordingly.

Energy security delivers America’s second big advantage. The U.S. produces more than two-thirds of its own oil and imports the rest mostly from Canada and other friendly Western Hemisphere sources. We are largely insulated from Middle East chaos. Europe, by contrast, lectures the world about “energy transition” while remaining dangerously dependent on imports even as it sits atop known, undeveloped reserves. The same nations that demonize oil and gas refuse to produce their own, choosing instead to outsource vulnerability rst to Russia, then to OPEC and now to U.S. LNG. This is not prudent policy. It is willful self-sabotage clothed in false virtue.

a traitor, rapist, pedophile and mastermind behind a corrupt system, then how else could he be stopped?

This kind of rhetoric leads directly to chaos.

It is also the kind of rhetoric Kimmel has tra cked in for years.

Recently, Kimmel tastelessly joked that Melania Trump had “the glow of an expectant widow.” It was disgusting, and she has every right to be furious. But it wasn’t a call to violence. It was a cheap, ugly joke suggesting she secretly wants her husband dead.

Kimmel later claimed he rejects violent rhetoric, then immediately pivoted to blaming Donald Trump for rhetoric that supposedly inspires violence. It was the standard modern play: Insult someone, then wrap yourself in moral superiority.

But when it comes to rhetoric that encourages violence, it isn’t the widow joke that should be the focus; it’s the conspiracism.

Kimmel has repeatedly called Trump a pedophile, suggested he is connected to Je rey Epstein and involved in a coverup, called him a rapist and accused him of protecting pedophiles, coming after voting rights, enriching billionaires while harming the poor, and manipulating the system to evade accountability.

That is not “normal political speech.” It is speech that turns a political opponent into a movie villain — a gure so corrupt and monstrous that extreme action begins to feel righteous.

This kind of conspiratorial framing has a track record. It fuels ugly episodes of modern political violence: a steady stream of baseless accusations designed to convince audiences that the other side is not merely wrong but evil.

If someone eventually acts on that belief, we shouldn’t pretend it came out of nowhere.

So should Kimmel be red?

Firing him for the Melania joke would be punishing the wrong o ense. A tasteless, bad joke is not the central issue.

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

If America wants to lower the temperature, scrutiny should be directed at conspiratorial storytelling that teaches people to hate.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

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.

Nowhere is this failure more glaring than California, which has imported Germany’s disastrous model wholesale and turned itself into America’s premier energy basket case. With an 81-cent state gas tax, 60 -70 cent cap-and-trade penalty, boutique “California blend” fuel mandates, and layers of environmental rules explicitly designed to punish gasoline and driving, the Golden State routinely posts pump prices $2 above the national average.

In-state production has been strangled. Re neries are closing or idling. The state now imports gasoline from South Korea, the Bahamas and the Middle East, exposing its residents to global shocks while preaching climate alarm orthodoxy.

Gavin Newsom and his bureaucrats want voters to believe it’s all President Donald Trump’s fault, but it isn’t. It is the entirely foreseeable outcome of using tax and regulatory warfare to force a premature energy transition. Instead of transitioning, California is deindustrializing and making its citizens poorer in the process.

The broader lesson is damning. High-tax, high-regulation, import-dependent energy policies do not deliver utopia or planetary salvation. They deliver chronic vulnerability, in ated living costs and economic drag. Europe’s drivers pay double or triple because politicians prioritized revenue and ideology over abundance. California followed suit and became a cautionary tale for the rest of America.

But most U.S. states reap the rewards of the opposite approach: Reasonable taxation that doesn’t treat fuel as a sin, aggressive domestic production that delivers record output and supply chains resilient enough to weather global crises without collapse. Prices rise during supply shocks, but there are no lines at the pump and no systemic shortages. That is the fruit of policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

America’s advantage at the pump is neither accident nor mystery: It is the direct result of rejecting the punitive European model that California eagerly embraced. Policymakers who ignore this lesson are not visionaries: They are ideologues imposing measurable harm on the people they claim to serve.

The current global turmoil should serve as a wake-up call. Punitive taxation and regulatory strangulation of conventional energy produce scarcity, insecurity and higher costs borne by working families.

America’s formula of lower taxes and energy dominance delivers a ordability, resilience and genuine energy security.

Europe — and California — stand as expensive warnings of what happens when nations choose ideology over reality. Americans outside of the Golden State should reject that failing path with zero apology.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. (Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation)

obituaries

Janice Johnson Andrews

Jan. 8, 1946 – May 1, 2026

Janice Johnson Andrews, age 80, of Siler City, passed away on Friday May 1, 2026, surrounded by her loving family.

Janice was born on January 08, 1946, in Chatham County, NC to James Edward and Mary Kathryn Terry Johnson.

Janice was born and raised on a dairy farm in Hickory Mountain. She was in the graduating class of 1964 at Jordan Matthews High School and played basketball all four years. She received a business degree from what is now UNCG.

Following her schooling, she and her husband Mike coowned and operated Andrews Sales. Janice thoroughly enjoyed traveling with her family to the beach and Costa Rica where she loved o shore

Gayle Marie Stinson Daniel

Nov. 29, 1952 – May 2, 2026

Gayle Marie Stinson Daniel, 73, of Siler City, went to her Heavenly home on Saturday, May 2nd, 2026, at UNC Chapel Hill hospital surrounded by family.

Gayle was born November 29th, 1952, in Siler City, to the late Benner Henry Stinson, Sr, and Evangeline Davis Stinson. She is preceded in death by her parents, and her brother, Benner Henry Stinson, Jr.

Gayle was a 1971 graduate of Chatham Central High School where she was the valedictorian and was a member of the Beta Club. She was a lifelong member of Business & Professional Women, and she was the long-term treasurer of the Republican Party of Chatham County. She attended Bonlee Elementary School where she was a majorette. She received her accounting certi cate at Asheboro Business College. After graduating she worked for Siler City Mills, and Dossenbach Furniture Store. She retired from Clapp Brothers Tractor and Implement. After that she was a stay-at-home Maw Maw raising Tristin. Gayle often said she did not have a child of her own, but God sent her Tristin.

shing. If you knew Janice, you knew her pride and joy were her grandchildren that she loved and adored. Janice loved to cook for her family and was known for her country style steak, corn pudding, and coconut pie. Janice loved her Lord and Savior and was a faithful member at First United Methodist Church. In addition to her parents, Janice is preceded in death by her brother, Jimmy Johnson.

Janice is survived by her husband of 61 years, Mike Andrews, Sr.; sons, Michael Andrews, Jr. (MaryDouglas) of Siler City, James Andrews (Molly) of Pittsboro; grandchildren, Kennedy, Michael III, Mary-Maxton, Fisher, Banks, and Tyde; and her two sisters, Sue Renn (Mike), and Kaye Snipes (Dan).

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, May 06, 2026, at 2:00 PM at First United Methodist Church, 1101 W. Raleigh St., Siler City, NC 27344 with Rev. Kyle Burrows o ciating.

In lieu of owers, memorials may be made in Janice’s honor to First United Methodist Church, 1101 W. Raleigh St., Siler City, NC 27344 or the Parkinson’s Foundation, 1350 Broadway, Ste 1530, New York, NY 10018. Smith & Buckner Funeral Home will be assisting the Andrews family. Online condolences can be made at www.smithbucknerfh. com

In her spare time, she loved watching her soap operas and Hallmark movies. Her favorite was her time spent with her grandson. She loved all her cats.

Left to cherish her memory, is her husband of 31 years, William Earl Daniel, Jr.; her grandson, Tristin Elkins; her stepdaughter, Kelly Daniel Elkins; her sisters, Cynthia “Cindy” Stinson White and her husband, Je rey of Wilmington, NC, and Angela Stinson of Sanford; her sisterin-law, Margaret S. Stinson of Goldston; her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Jonathan and Sherry Daniel and their son, JJ of Siler City; her nephews, Christopher Henry Stinson and his wife, Teirtre, and their children, Cayson and Torin, Victor Henry Stinson and his wife, Kendall, and their children, Evelyn and Adeline, and her niece, Amber Brittany Shafer and her husband, Mark, and their children, Abigail, Adelaide, and August; and her special friend, Pam Pike.

In lieu of owers, memorials can be made to Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery Fund, 3835 Bonlee Carbonton Rd, Goldston, NC 27252.

A funeral service will be held Wednesday, May 6th, 2026, at Antioch Baptist Church, at 3 pm. There will be a visitation from 2-3 pm before the service at the church.

Burial will follow in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends at the home of Jonathan and Sherry Daniel, 101 Pine Forest Dr. Siler City, NC 27344 on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026, from 4-6 pm. Smith & Buckner Funeral Home will be assisting the Daniel family. Online condolences can be made at www.smithbucknerfh. com

Dorothy Paschal Frazier

April 29, 2026

Dorothy Paschal Frazier, 91, passed away on April 29, 2026, surrounded by her children.

The daughter of Len Broughton Paschal and Eva Gilbert, Dorothy was born and raised in Siler City, NC.

She was a 1953 Honors Graduate of Siler City High School, and then moved on to Meredith College, where she was a Marshal. She then transferred to the University of Georgia, where she ranked in

Howard Addison Frazier

March 9, 2026

Howard Addison Frazier, 91, a ectionately known as “Sea Breeze,” passed away unexpectedly on March 9, 2026. The son of the late Joseph

the top 5% of her class. Dorothy later returned to Siler City and married her high school sweetheart, Howard Frazier. They were married nearly 65 years, prior to his passing in March of this year.

Dorothy managed to provide much love and support to her three children, while at the same time managing a full-time career. She eventually retired from Farm Credit Service as a loan o cer. She credited her good friend and neighbor Tommy Emerson for encouraging her to pursue career advancement.

Faith in Jesus Christ was especially important to Dorothy. She was a faithful member of Siler City Chapel, and later Rehobeth Methodist Church. Dorothy often encouraged and prayed for all of her family to become followers of Jesus Christ.

One of Dorothy’s unmistakable trademarks was writing notes.

She was a master at expressing her thoughts on paper. It was her way of transferring wisdom, love, guidance and concern to those close to her.

Kenneth Frazier and Lydia Alice Stutts. Howard was born and raised in Siler City, North Carolina. A gifted athlete in his youth, he was a standout high school football and baseball player. His talent earned him a baseball scholarship to Oak Ridge Junior College, where he played until he answered the call to serve his country in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Following his military service, Howard returned home to Siler City and married his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Paschal. A man with a tireless work ethic, he initially served as a brick mason before spending over forty years as a long-distance truck driver. In his retirement, Howard focused on his passion for golf, primarily at the Siler City Country Club. An accomplished player, he recorded seven holes-in-one during his lifetime. Howard was a

Also her brothers Lewis Paschal of Elizabethtown and Barton Paschal of Asheville, her sisters Leona Wichard of Chapel Hill, Vivian Michael (Gary) of Wilmington and Irma Simons of Carrabelle, FL.

Dorothy treasured her grandchildren, Bryan Brantley, Callie Kontoulas (Chris), and Mallory Brantley. And she proudly told everyone she was so grateful to live long enough to spend quality time with her great-grandsons Talon and Lenox Kontoulas, and Joseph Brantley. No services will be held at this time. Memorial gifts may to be sent to Bible Broadcasting Network by clicking here. After the toil and the heat of the day

After my troubles are past

In addition to her parents and husband, Dorothy was predeceased by her sister Jenny Cranford. She is survived by her children, Angela Brantley of Graham, Bentley Frazier of Siler City and Kenneth Frazier (Janice) of Graham.

After the sorrows are taken away I shall see Jesus at last.

man of faith, serving as a lifelong member of Rehobeth Methodist Church. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Dorothy; their three children, Angela Brantley of Graham, Bentley Frazier of Siler City, and Kenneth Frazier (Janice) of Graham; his sister, Rosa Horne of Peachland; and his brothers, Bill Frazier (Diane) of Pitts eld, MA, Earle Frazier (Carol Ann) of Siler City, and Steve Frazier of Whitsett. He was also the proud grandfather of three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Out of respect for Howard’s wishes, a memorial service will not be held. In lieu of owers, gifts to the cemetery fund of Howard’s home church may be sent to Rehobeth United Methodist Church, 850 Kildee Church Road, Ramseur, NC 27316.

Pop star Spears pleads guilty to lesser ‘wet reckless’ charge in DUI case, avoids further jail time

She completed voluntary rehab and will serve summary probation with required substance abuse treatment

By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press

VENTURA, Calif. — Britney

Spears pleaded guilty through her lawyer Monday to a lesser charge that will allow her to avoid jail time after California prosecutors accused her of driving under the in uence of alcohol and drugs.

The 44-year-old pop star, who recently completed a stint at a rehabilitation facility, didn’t appear in Ventura County court. But her lawyer, Michael A. Goldstein, pleaded guilty on her behalf to what’s commonly called a “wet reckless.” That allowed her to be sentenced to one day in jail that the judge said she served when she was booked, one year of probation, a required DUI class and state-mandated nes.

The plea o er was standard for defendants with no DUI history, no crash or injury on the road, and a low blood-alcohol level, the county district attorney’s o ce said. And it’s especially common for defendants who have shown motivation to address their problems and seek

treatment, as Spears did when she voluntarily checked in to a substance abuse treatment center last month.

“I don’t think anybody’s happy about pleading guilty to anything, but under the circumstances, to get this behind her, I think everybody is pleased with the result,” Goldstein said after the hearing. “We appreciate the district attorney recognizing the positive steps that Brit-

ney is taking to help herself.”

Goldstein said Spears returned home after recently completing her rehab stint, and that reports that she left early were “absolutely false.” Asked what’s next for her, he replied, “I don’t know, I’m sure a lot.”

During the brief hearing, Spears received summary probation, which is informal and doesn’t involve mandatory meetings with a probation o -

cer. She temporarily yielded her Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights if she is pulled over, meaning she must automatically yield to searches and sobriety tests. At Goldstein’s request, the judge ruled this would not apply to her home.

District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said after the hearing that Spears had taken “full responsibility,” but he emphasized that DUI is a “serious crime” and said it was essential that she follow the requirements agreed to in court, which include continued substance abuse treatment, weekly visits with a therapist and monthly visits with a psychiatrist.

“We do not want Miss Spears to reo end,” Nasarenko said. She was charged last Thursday with one misdemeanor DUI count, which meant she was not required to appear in court for her arraignment. But her representatives hadn’t said whether she would appear, and the hearing drew an unusually heavy media turnout for Ventura, a seaside city of about 110,000 people roughly 70 miles northwest of downtown LA.

After her March 4 arrest, a representative called her actions inexcusable and said that ideally, the arrest would lead to overdue change in her life. She was pulled over for driv-

BIFFLE from page A1 children, along with three others, died in the Dec. 18 crash, which remains under investigation by the NTSB. Some survivors of those killed are suing the estates of Bi e and the pilot for millions of dollars. According to a search warrant a davit, the husband being investigated met Bi e when the former driver used his private helicopter to deliver aid after Hurricane Helene. The woman attended a Christmas party at the Bi es’ home in Mooresville weeks before the crash. Authorities reported a break-in at the home on Jan. 8, saying $30,000 in cash, two Glock handguns and NASCAR memorabilia were stolen. Search warrants were later executed at two sites, one near the Bi es’ residence and another in a nearby county.

A person seen on surveillance video, identi ed as a woman, appeared to be familiar with the large home’s layout, including the locations of cameras, closets and a safe room, a detective wrote in a search warrant a davit. The intruder spent nearly six hours inside the house the night of Jan. 7 into the following morning.

Evidence showed a cellphone and multiple devices were active on the property during that time, according to the warrant. The only people allowed there would’ve been the administrators of the estate, but they weren’t present. Authorities say they linked the woman to someone who

ing her black BMW quickly and erratically on U.S. 101, the California Highway Patrol said. She appeared to be impaired, took a series of eld sobriety tests, was arrested and was taken to jail, the CHP said.

Authorities said in the criminal complaint that Spears had alcohol and drugs in her system, but they didn’t specify which drugs or list her blood alcohol content.

Spears grew to superstardom in the 1990s and 2000s with hits including “Toxic,” “Gimme More” and “I’m a Slave 4 U.” Most of her nine studio albums have been certi ed platinum, with two diamond titles: 1999’s “… Baby One More Time” and 2000s “Oops! … I Did It Again.” She became a tabloid obsession in the early 2000s and a source of intense public scrutiny as she battled mental illness and paparazzi fought to document the details of her private life.

In 2008, Spears was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, run primarily by her father and his lawyers, that would control her personal and nancial decisions for well over a decade. It was dissolved in 2021. Since then, she has married, divorced and released a bestselling memoir, “The Woman in Me.”

attended Bi e’s celebration of life and said license plate readers placed her husband’s truck near the home that night.

The warrants also describe alleged nancial crimes. Investigators say that bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts tied to the Bi es were accessed online using personal information, with phone numbers and email addresses changed to gain control of funds. Money was then allegedly transferred to accounts not belonging to the family and used for purchases, according to the warrant.

At least one fraudulent check tied to Bi e’s business interests was cashed, and other attempts were made to access accounts. The activity occurred across multiple states. The sheri would not say whether the same suspects in the break-in are being investigated for the nancial crimes, saying the department is waiting for more evidence.

Meanwhile, the plane crash sparked lawsuits against the estates of Bi e and the pilot, Dennis Dutton, who was killed along with his son.

On April 17, the estates of Dutton and his son sued Bife’s estate for at least $15 million each, alleging Bi e failed to properly maintain the plane and operated it in a defective condition. The claims include lost income and “predeath pain and su ering.”

In February, Bi e’s exwife, Nicole Bi e, led a notice of claim against Dutton’s estate on behalf of the couple’s 14-year-old daughter’s estate, seeking at least $10 million for wrongful death.

FREDERIC J. BROWN / POOL PHOTO VIA AP

Michael Goldstein, left, attorney for Britney Spears, speaks during her arraignment in a DUI case at the Ventura County Superior Court in Ventura, California, on Monday.

JOHN RAOUX / AP PHOTO

Greg Bi e looks on during driver introductions before the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Feb. 20, 2022.

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TAKE NOTICE

NOTICE

IN THE PROBATE COURT OF BRADLEY COUNTY, TENNESSEE AT CLEVELAND

IN RE: GEORGIA FRAZIER, Decedent, SANDRA WILDASIN, Petitioner

Docket No.: 2026-PR-92

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Georgia Frazier; Date of Death: January 18, 2026; Docket No.2026-PR-92

Notice is hereby given that on the 17thday of April, 2026, Letters Testamentary in respect to the Estate of Georgia Frazier, deceased, who died January 18, 2026, were issued to the undersigned by the Chancery Court, Probate Division of Bradley County, Tennessee.

All persons,

CREDITOR’S NOTICE

Having quali ed on the 17th day of April 2026, as Executor of the Estate of Benner Henry Stinson, Jr., deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the decedent to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before the 23rd day of July 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the estate should make immediate payment. This is the 20th day of April 2026. Margaret S, Stinson, Executor of the Estate of Benner Henry Stinson, Jr. 904 Delphus Stinson Road Goldston, NC 27252

Attorneys: Law O ces of Doster & Brown, P.A. 206 Hawkins Avenue Sanford, NC 27330 Publish On: April 23, 30, and May 7, 14, 2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against THOMAS BRIEN NEFF, deceased, of Chatham County, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before, the 30th day of July, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.All persons indebted to the Estate will please make immediate payment. This 30th day of April, 2026. PAMELA STRAUB NEFF, Executrix THOMAS BRIEN NEFF

c/o Tillman, Whichard & Cagle, PLLC 501 Eastowne Drive, Suite 130 Chapel Hill, NC 27514

of

HOLLY THOMPSON, CLERK & MASTER APPROVED FOR SUBMISSION BY: WILLIAM J. BROWN (BPR #05450) Attorney for Sandra Wildasin

CHATHAM COUNTY FY27 BUDGET HEARING NOTICE

The Chatham County budget for FY202627 has been submitted to the Board of Commissioners and is available for public inspection on the Chatham County website or in the o ce of the Clerk to the Board, located at 12 East Street in Pittsboro. The Chatham County Board of Commissioners will hold two public hearings on the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 Budget on Monday, May 18, 2026 at 6:00pm and Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 6:00pm. The public is invited to attend the hearing to express their viewpoints. The hearing on May 18, 2026 will be held at the Historic Courthouse located at 9 Hillsboro Street in Pittsboro at 6:00pm.

The hearing on May 19, 2026 will be held at Siler City Town Hall located at 311 North Second Avenue in Siler City at 6:00pm. To speak sign up on the county website or submit written comments to Clerk to the Board Jenifer Johnson at PO Box 1809, Pittsboro, NC 27312 or jenifer.johnson@ chathamcountync.gov.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

ESTATE OF DAVID MANSFIELD BUNNELLFILE NO.26E000166-180 ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against David Mans eld Bunnell, deceased, of Chatham County, NC, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before July 20, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 16th day of April, 2026. Anne E. Bunnell, Executor c/o Whitaker & Hamer, PLLC 121 E. Main Street Clayton, NC 27520 Chatham News + Record 4/16, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7, 2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having quali ed as Personal Representative of the Estate of David Clement McCormick, deceased of Chatham County, North Carolina, on the 2nd day of April, 2026, the undersigned hereby noti es all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against said estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ce of the attorney for the estate on or before the 18th day of July, 2026, or this Notice will be pled in bar of recovery.

All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.Issued this 16th day of April, 2026. Barbara L. McCormick, Personal Representative, c/o Christina Goshaw Hinkle, Attorney for the Estate, 3211 Shannon Road, Suite 400, Durham, NC 27707. Chatham News & Record: 4/16, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7 -

Notice to Creditors

File Number: 26E000115-180

Having Quali ed as Executor of the Estate of John Alfred Gorman, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 16th day of July, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment.

This the 3rd day of April, 2026. Executor for the Estate Lynn Elizabeth Williford 87603 Aycock Chapel Hill, NC 27517

NOTICE

ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against Cathy Blair Regan, deceased, of Chatham County, N.C., are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before July 23rd, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This 23rd day of April 2026. Kimberly Wallace, Executor Estate of Cathy Blair Regan c/o Roberson Law Firm

1829 E. Franklin St., Ste. 800C Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Run Dates: 4/23, 30, 5/7, 14

NOTICE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF CHATHAM LEGAL NOTICE The undersigned, Kenneth Hilliard, having quali ed on April 20, 2026 as Executor of the Estate of Arthur Jackson Hilliard, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, or corporations having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned’s Attorney, Tyler F. Chriscoe, at 135 West New Hampshire Avenue, P. O. Box 371, Southern Pines, North Carolina 28388-0371 on or before the 3rd day of August, 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 30th day of April, 2026. Kenneth Hilliard, Executor Estate of Arthur Jackson Hilliard Tyler F. Chriscoe Attorney for the Estate Poyner Spruill LLP Attorneys at Law P. O. Box 371 Southern Pines, N. C.28388-0371 4:30, and5: 7, 14, 21, 2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

26E000193-180 The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Rachel O. Brooks, 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, 1179 Charlie Brooks Road, Moncure, North Carolina, 27559, on or before the 16th day of July, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment. This 10th day of April, 2026. Amy Jo Brooks 1179 Charlie Brooks Road Moncure, North Carolina27559 GUNN & MESSICK, PLLC P. O. Box 880 Pittsboro, North Carolina27312-0880 April 16, 23, 30, May 7

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

A public hearing will be held by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners on Monday, May 18, 2026, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The public hearing will be held in the courtroom of the Historic Courthouse in Pittsboro, North Carolina at 9 Hillsboro Street, Pittsboro NC 27312. Additional information is available at the Chatham County Planning Department 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.

Testimony is required to be given under oath during the evidentiary hearing for thefollowing item: Quasi-Judicial Request: A quasi-judicial public hearing requested by Margus Properties, LLC and The Towers, LLC for a Special Use Permit Wireless Telecommunications tower of 199 ft, on Parcel 65693, located at 460 Murchison Rd., Goldston, Gulf Township.

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: May 7th and 14th, 2026

CREDITOR’S NOTICE

Having quali ed on the 28th day of April 2026, as Co-Executors of the Estate of Margie W. Johnson, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the decedent to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before the 7stday ofAugust, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the estate should make immediate payment. This is the 29th day of April 2026. Eric Johnson, Co-Executor of the Estate of Margie W. Johnson 5090 Butner Drive Hickory, NC 28602 Brad Johnson, Co-Executor of the Estate of Margie W. Johnson 6307 Whedbee Road Julian, NC 27283

Attorneys: Law O ces of Doster & Brown, P.A.

206 Hawkins Avenue Sanford, NC 27330 Publish On: May 7th, 14th 21st and 28th 2026.

CREDITOR’S NOTICE

Having quali ed on the 23rd day of April 2026, as Executor of the Estate of Sammy Franklin Dickinson, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the decedent to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before the 30th day of July 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the estate should make immediate payment.

This is the 23rd day of April 2026. Jan Rene Boydstun, Executor of the Estate of Sammy Franklin Dickinson 226 Haven Creek Road Apt 101 Pittsboro, N.C., 27312

Attorneys:

Law O ces of Doster & Brown, P.A.

206 Hawkins Avenue Sanford, NC 27330

Publish On: April 30, May 7, 14 and 21 of 2026

Notice to Creditors

Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of MICHAEL JOSEPH MCCORMICK, late of Chatham County, North Carolina (26E000177-180), the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 10th day of August, 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 7th day of May 2026.

Daniel Dylan McCormick

Administrator of the Estate of Michael Joseph McCormick c/o Lisa M. Schreiner

Attorney at Law P.O. Box 446 114 Raleigh Street Fuquay Varina, NC 27526 (For publication: 05/07, 05/14, 05/21, 05/28/26)

NOTICE

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

CHATHAM COUNTY NOTICE TO CREDITORS File No: 26E000078-180

Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of MERLE LEE FEATHERS, deceased, of 13 Danbury Ct., Chatham County, Pittsboro, NC 27312, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned in care of the attorney for the estate on or before July 31, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms, and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 30th day of April, 2026.

Je rey L. Austin Executor of the Estate of Merle Lee Feathers c/o Law O ce of Je rey L. Austin, PLLC 500 Westover Dr. #32043 Sanford, NC 27330 FOR PUBLICATION: The Chatham News & Record 4/30, 5/7, 5/14, and 5/21/2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Thomas Bayard Hollingsworth, Jr., deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the decedent to present them to the undersigned on or before 07/31/2026 or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All claims must be presented in writing and delivered or mailed to:

James D. Hollingsworth, Executor 1309 Snyder Street Durham, NC 27713

This the 26th day of April, 2026. James D. Hollingsworth Executor of the Estate of Thomas Bayard Hollingsworth, Jr. Chatham County Estate File No.: 26E000039-180 Publication Dates (once a week for four consecutive weeks): 4/30/2026 / 5/7/2026] / 05/14/2026 /05/21/2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

ESTATE OF GEORGE DANIEL JOHNSON FILE NO. 26E000201-180

All persons, rms and corporations having claims against GEORGE DANIEL JOHNSON, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before August 7, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in the bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 30th day of April, 2026. KELLY L

JOHNSON, Executor

C/O Caitlin Stone, Attorney for the Estate Pierce Law Group, PLLC 3020 S. Miami Blvd, Ste 201 Durham, NC 27703 A30, 7, 14 and 21

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

26E000222-180 ALL persons having claims against Lois Jane Helburn, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before July 30, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment.

This the 30th day of April, 2026. BRUCE JAMES STEINHARDT, Administrator C/O Pierce Law Group, PLLC 3020 S Miami Blvd, Suite 201 Durham, NC 27703 April 30, May 7, 14, 21 A30, 7, 14 and 21

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

26E000189-180

ALL persons having claims against Joyce Ellis Clark, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Jul 23 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 23rd day of April, 2026.

MELVIN ALAN CLARK C/O SIMPSON LAW FIRM, Executor C/O Simpson Law Firm 1188 Stonecrest Blvd, Suite #105 Fort Mill, SC 29708 A23, 30, 7 and 14

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

26E000227-180 ALL persons having claims against Mary T Schaumburg-Bo nger, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Aug 07 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 7th day of May, 2026. John R Knauf, Executor C/O Beth W Bowen 590 New Waverly Place, Suite 120 Cary, NC 27518 M7, 14, 21 and 28

NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF Dora Elizabeth Bachtel Mathisen All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Dora Elizabeth Bachtel Mathisen, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit them to Barbara Jean Ramsland as Executor of the decedent’s estate on or before July 18, 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 16th day of April 2026. Barbara Jean Ramsland, Executor c/o Janet B. Witchger, Atty. TrustCounsel 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203 Chapel Hill, NC27517

NOTICE

“All persons having claims against the estate of SALLY CHENEY MILLER of Chatham County, NC, who died on February 27, 2026, are noti ed to present them on or before Friday, July 17, 2026 to True Campbell, Executrix for the estate of Sally Cheney Miller, c/o Schupp & Hamilton, PLLC, 3013 Rippy Lane, Hillsborough, N.C.27278, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery.”

DATES: 04/16/2026, 04/23/2026, 04/30/2026, 05/07/2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000175-180 The undersigned LATOYA FOX, having quali ed on the 30TH Day of MARCH 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of ALYEASE FOX, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 23RD Day OF JULY 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 23RD DAY OF APRIL 2026. LATOYA FOX, ADMINISTRATOR 97 RILEY LANE SILER CITY, NC27344 Run dates: A23,30,M7,14p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA

CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#25E000661-180

The undersigned JONATHAN K. MCMILLAN, having quali ed on the 20TH Day of APRIL 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of BOBBY EUGENE MCMILLAN, 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 30TH Day OF JULY 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 30TH DAY OF APRIL 2026. JONATHAN K. MCMILLAN, EXECUTOR 188 LORI LANE SILER CITY, NC27344 Run dates: A30,M7,14,21p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA

CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#26E000257-180

The undersigned GANG NAM YOO, having quali ed on the 30TH Day of APRIL 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of CHUN CHA YOO, 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 7TH Day OF AUGUST 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 7TH DAY OF MAY 2026. GANG NAM YOO, ADMINISTRATOR 354 SKY LANE PITTSBORO, NC27312 Run dates: M7,14,21,28p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000242-180 The undersigned TAMARA TICKLE, having quali ed on the 23RD Day of APRIL 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of ROBERT L. MIMS, 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 30TH Day OF JULY 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 30TH DAY OF APRIL 2026. TAMARA TICKLE, ADMINISTRATOR 309 PINEYWOOD CHURCH RD. CAMERON, NC28326 Run dates: A30,M7,14,21p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000250-180 The undersigned DOROTHY TAYLOR, having quali ed on the 29TH Day of APRIL 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of MATTHEW TAYLOR, JR., deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 7TH Day OF AUGUST 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 7TH DAY OF MAY 2026. DOROTHY TAYLOR, EXECUTOR 300 RIVER BEND ROAD SILER CITY, NC27344 Run dates: M7,14,21,28p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#26E000169-180 The undersigned JAY W. MARSHALL, having quali ed on the 9TH Day of APRIL 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of JOANNE MARSHALL, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16TH Day OF JULY 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 16TH DAY OF APRIL 2026. JAY W. MARSHALL, EXECUTOR 5696 SUGAR GROVE ROAD GREENS FORK, IN47345 Run dates: A16,23,30,M7p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#26E000146-180 The undersigned AMY LYNDON, having quali ed on the 27TH Day of MARCH 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of JAMES M. LYNDON, 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 30TH Day OF JULY 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 30TH DAY OF APRIL 2026. AMY LYNDON, EXECUTOR 17302 BELMONT STAKES LANE CHARLOTTE, NC28278 Run dates: A30,M7,14,21p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#26E000229-180

The undersigned WANDA STAFFORD AND JAMES HADLEY, having quali ed on the 20TH Day of APRIL 2026 as COEXECUTORS of the Estate of JEANETTE LINDLEY HADLEY, 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 30TH Day OF JULY 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 30TH DAY OF APRIL 2026. WANDA STAFFORD, CO-EXECUTOR 4457 SILK HOPE LINDLEY MILL RD. SNOW CAMP, NC27349 JAMES HADLEY, CO-EXECUTOR 4305 SILK HOPE LINDLEY MILL RD. SNOW CAMP, NC27349 Run dates: A30,M7,14,21p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#23E000651-180

The undersigned GEORGE DAVIS CATES, having quali ed on the 9TH Day of APRIL 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of GEORGE DAVIS CATES, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 16TH Day OF JULY 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 16TH DAY OF APRIL 2026.

VIRGINIA B. CATES, EXECUTOR 87 EASY ST. PITTSBORO, NC27312 Run dates: A16,23,30,M7p

Secret Service says suspect opened re on them, was shot near Washington Monument

A minor bystander was shot but not seriously injured during the incident

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man spotted carrying a gun in the vicinity of the White House by plainclothes o cers and agents was shot by law enforcement Monday after he opened re on them near the Washington Monument, the Secret Service said.

Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him. The agents followed him brie y and contacted the uniformed o cers.

The unidenti ed man attempted to ee when uniformed o cers with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man red at the o cers, who returned re.

The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect’s condition.

Quinn said emergency personnel also transported a minor who was shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say de nitively that the bystander, who also

The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest ruling on redistricting could set o more court battles.

was taken to a hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect’s gun. “We’ll let the doctors gure that out,” he said, though he noted that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.”

Quinn said the Washington, D.C., police would investigate the o cer-involved shooting.

The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where Presi-

dent Donald Trump was holding a small business event.

The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the brie ng room, and Trump continued his event without interruption.

The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Asso -

ciation dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service ocer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and was not seriously injured.

Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will nd out.”

from page A1

in Louisiana has unleashed “a wave of nefarious actions” across states that threatens to disenfranchise black voters, Alanah Odoms, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, said Monday.

Trump on Sunday encouraged more states to join in redistricting, saying in a social media post that Republicans could gain 20 House seats. But South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s o ce on Monday said the Republican would not call a special session to redraw the state’s only Democratic-occupied House seat.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second black majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling signi cantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law and provided grounds for Republicans in various states to try to eliminate majority-black districts that have elected Democrats to Congress.

As Republicans forge ahead, U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Je ries touted a redistricting e ort in his home state of New York. But that isn’t expected to result in a new map until 2028. To adopt new districts, New York lawmakers must pass a constitutional amendment twice in two years, and voters would also have to approve it.

National redistricting battle expanding

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once

a decade, after a census, to account for population changes.

But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

On Monday, Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of midterm elections, as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he had signed a redrawn map passed by lawmakers last week that could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a state constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in ve states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states.

The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts. But Republicans have yet to unveil their planned revisions to district lines.

Democrats and civil rights groups have led several lawsuits challenging the election suspension, including another suit led Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway

— to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

Alabama plans for potential primary change

Rather than canceling the state’s May 19 primaries, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.

Federal judges previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of black voters — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map would substantially alter the district now represented by Rep. Shomari Figures, a black Democrat.

Redistricting opponents rallied Monday across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an e ort for us to gain the right to vote,” said Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who as a child participated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Selma. “In 2026, there are still people who are still not exercising that right

to vote, and we are still ghting today, even in an e ort to keep our right to vote.”

Tennessee pushes for new House map

In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee announced a special session starting Tuesday for the GOP-controlled Legislature to break up the state’s one Democratic-held House district, centered on the majority-black city of Memphis.

The move comes after a pressure campaign by Trump and other Republicans to recongure the state’s 9th Congressional District. Previous precedent in Voting Rights Act cases had prevented Republicans from spreading the district’s Democratic voters among neighboring conservative districts and making it winnable. But the law may no longer be an impediment.

“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately re ect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district came together Monday to denounce the move.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map, it is about misrepresentation,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code. “It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.

ROD LAMKEY JR. / AP PHOTO

U.S. Secret Service police respond after a person was shot by law enforcement near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

VOTING

RAHMAT GUL / AP PHOTO

CHATHAM SPORTS

Chatham Central softball dominates to win conference tournament title

The Bears sti ed South Stokes in an 8-1 win

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

BEAR CREEK — Chatham Central’s sprint toward the state softball playo s saw little resistance through the conference tournament checkpoint.

The top-seeded Bears defeated No. 2 South Stokes 8-1 in the Greater Triad 1A/2A conference tournament championship game Friday, sweeping the regular season and conference tourna-

ment titles for the rst time since 2022.

“We tell them to come out, leave it out on the eld, play every game like every game matters,” Chatham Central coach John Warf said. “And that’s what they did.”

Junior Maddie Kaczmarczyk had the best night at the plate, going 2 for 3 with three RBIs.

She also pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts and two hits allowed.

“Every time she steps on the mound, it’s big for us,” Warf said.

“She can throw that inside ball, throw the outside, throw the

high ball, whatever we need her to get the out.”

With the Bears up 2-1 and facing one out in the third inning, senior Sallie Oldham tripled to center eld to score senior Heidi Vicente Perez and junior Chloe Brewer.

Kaczmarczyk followed that two at-bats later with an RBI single, sending Oldham home for a 5-1 lead.

In the circle, Kaczmarczyk allowed one hit in the remaining four innings. To put the game away with loaded bases in the fth inning, she notched a two-RBI single to put the Bears

Eastern Randolph stays hot to win Four Rivers Conference Tournament title

By Asheebo Rojas

ahead by seven runs. Brewer, who got on base with a single, reached home on an error in the prior at-bat. Freshman Lillie Poe singled, and junior Maeson Poe walked before being brought home by Kaczmarczyk.

Chatham Central’s rst inning runs were set up by a walk by

Brewer and a single from Smith. South Stokes committed an error on Smith’s hit, allowing her and Brewer to score. Ellie White put South Stokes on the board with an RBI single in the third inning.

Chatham Central won the season series over South Stokes 3-1.

Prior to Friday’s victory, Chatham Central defeated South Davidson 14-1 in the conference tournament seminal. The Bears logged 15 hits as Brewer and Kaczmarczyk both went 3 for 4 from the plate

Northwood’s boys and girls claimed rst-place nishes in its conference championship track meet

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

BASEBALL

Chatham Charter dominated Clover Garden 10-0 to take the Central Tar Heel 1A conference tournament title on April 30. Senior Garrison Clark struck out seven batters and allowed two hits in ve innings while continuing his streak of shutouts.

Prior to the championship game, the Knights defeated Southern Wake 19-2 in the semi nal.

Seaforth ended its regular season with back-to-back losses to Orange, both by a score of 2-1.

Final conference standings (overall, conference) *conference champion

5. Central Carolina (0-12, 0-8) Greater Triad 1A/2A: 1. South Stokes* (19-6, 11-1); T2. Bishop McGuinness (14 -9, 7-5); T2. Chatham Central (13-9, 7-5); 4. North Stokes (5 -19, 4-8); 5. South Davidson (6-18, 1-11) Four Rivers 3A/4A: 1. Northwood* (14-10, 8-2); T2. Uwharrie Charter (17-7, 7-3); T2. Eastern Randolph (16-11, 7-3); 4. Southwestern Randolph (16-7, 6-4); T5. Jordan-Matthews (6-17, 1-9); T5. North Moore (5-14, 1-9) Big Seven 4A/5A: 1. Cedar Ridge* (19-5, 12-0); 2. Orange (17-7, 9-3); 3. Seaforth (15-9, 8-4); 4. South Granville (12-11, 7-5); 5. Carrboro (6-15, 4-8); 6. Durham School of the Arts (6 -15, 2-10); 7. Webb (2 -17, 0-12)

Final power rankings: 1. Chatham Charter; 2. Seaforth; 3. Northwood; 4. Chatham Central; 5. Jordan-Matthews SOFTBALL

Chatham Charter claimed the Central Tar Heel 1A conference tournament title with a 6-2 win over Clover Garden on April 30. Allie McThe Wildcats took down Northwood 11-1

Central Tar Heel 1A: T1. Chatham Charter* (19-4, 7-1); T1. Clover Garden*; 3. River Mill (10-8, 4-4); 4. Southern Wake (3-11, 2-6);

ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Ben Altenburg

Northwood, track and eld team

Northwood junior Ben Altenburg earns athlete of the week honors for the week of April 27.

In the Four Rivers 3A/4A conference championship track meet, Altenburg picked up three conference titles in the boys’ 110 hurdles (15.07 seconds), long jump (22 feet, 5 inches) and pole vault (10 feet). His title-clinching long jump was a personal best.

Altenburg has been one of Northwood’s most decorated athletes this school year as he won two state championships (pole vault and 55 hurdles) in the indoor season. He’s looking to defend his outdoor pole vault state title from last spring.

SOFTBALL from page B1

and combined for ve RBIs and ve runs.

Chatham Central improved to 21-4 at the end of the tournament. The Bears are rolling into the postseason on a seven-game winning streak in which all games were decided by at least six runs, including three shutouts. They’re entering the playo s with 20 wins for the rst time since 2013, a season in which Chatham Cen-

tral reached the regional nal. Warf said a state championship has been the goal for this season.

“From day one, we’ve known this year is going to be special,” Warf said. “With the new conference realignment, we do have some charter schools in it. Several that are bigger than us have moved on and everything. But from day one, we’ve talked about state championship bound. This is our year to do it.”

American Legion schedules released

Pittsboro will eld a junior team this season

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

THE AMERICAN LEGION baseball season is weeks away from opening day.

Pittsboro will have a junior team this season under the name Circle City Stealth. Circle City is sponsored by Post 283 and coached by John Crowell, Logan Thomas, Matt Glass and Matthew Mospan.

This summer, Chatham will eld senior and junior teams. The senior team will open its season at home against Wake Forest on May 17, and the junior squad will start at Cary on May 19. The seniors will play their home games at Jordan-Matthews, while the juniors play home games at Chatham Central.

So far, Chatham’s senior team coached by Bryce Marsh will feature Colin Dorney (Seaforth, William Peace University), Landon Moser (Jordan-Matthews, Guilford College), Jayden Seawell (Chatham Thunder), Brayden Brewer (Chatham Central), Josh Johnson (Northwood), Brandon Rives (Chatham Charter), Westley Brower (Chatham Central), Calvin Tourville (Wake County Homeschool),

Jaedyn Rader (Seaforth, Catawba Valley CC), Brett Phillips (Chatham Central), Jax Young (Chatham Charter), Carson Jackson (Chatham Central) and Simon Delgado (Northwood alum).

The Chatham junior team coached by Chase Murray has added Cade Chesnutt (Chatham Charter), Kaide Davis (Lee County), Jackson Clark (Chatham Charter), Iker Vicente (Chatham Central), Mason Hayes (Lee County), Austin Morgan (Jordan-Matthews), Reid Caviness (Chatham Central), Channing Thomas (Lee County), Logan Ellis (Chatham Central), Xander Seawell (Chatham Thunder), Blaine Clewis (Chatham Central), Will Murchison (Jordan-Matthews) and Brayden Meulendyke (Seaforth).

Circle City’s roster includes Alex Dolinsky, Bryson Sanders, Carter Crowell, Carter Mospan, Hudson Williford, Jackson Mospan, Jenner Schutte, Keenan Gamber, Mario Sescilla, Miles Gilleland, Nate Patrick, Owen Duncan, Owen Finn, Russ Dreyer, Sam Kristiansen, Skyler Glass, Trevor Green, Tyson Yeager and Zach Nemerovski.

Here are the schedules for each team:

Chatham senior: May 17 — vs. Wake Forest; May 19 — vs. Durham; May 21 — at Wake

Forest; May 22 — at Durham; May 23 — vs. Johnston County (doubleheader); May 24 — vs. Liberty Post 81; May 26 — vs. Aberdeen; May 28 — at Liberty Post 81; May 30 — vs. Durham (doubleheader); June 2 — at Garner; June 10 — at High Point; June 11 — at Hamlet; June 12 — vs. Hamlet; June 14 — at Lexington; June 16 — at Moore; June 18 — vs. Moore; June 22 — at Aberdeen; June 23 — vs. Lexington; June 25 — at Randolph; June 27 — vs. Randolph; June 28 — vs. Liberty Post 81; June 30 — at Liberty Post 81; July 1 — vs. High Point; July 2 — vs. Aberdeen; July 4 — All-Star Game; July 6 — playo s begin Chatham junior: May 19 — at Cary; May 20 — vs. Cary; May 27 — at Eastern Randolph; May 29 — vs. Raleigh; May 31 — at HiToms; June 1 — vs. Pittsboro; June 2 — vs. Moore County; June 4 — vs. Pittsboro; June 8 — vs. Wheatmore; June 9 — at Moore County; June 10 — at Raleigh; June 13 — vs. HiToms; June 16 — at Wheatmore; June 18 — vs. Eastern Randolph; June 23 — at Eastern Randolph; June 24 — vs. Asheboro; June 26 — at Asheboro; June 29 — vs. Hamlet; June 30 — at Hamlet Circle City junior: May 27 — at Cary; June 1 — at Chatham; June 2 — at Cary; June 3 — at High Point; June 4 — at Chatham; June 9 — vs. Hamlet; June 11 — vs. High Point; June 15 — at Liberty; June 17 — at Moore; June 18 — vs. Trinity; June 20 — at Randolph; June 22 — at Liberty; June 24 — at Moore; June 25 — at Trinity; June 27 — at Randolph; June 28 — at Hamlet; July 6 — playo s begin

ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Jordan-Matthews’ Landon Moser is returning to Chatham’s senior team this summer.

White takes on WNBA competition with Nigerian national team

The former Seaforth star scored 16 points against the Lynx

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

FORMER SEAFORTH bas -

ketball star Gabby White got a preview of the pros at the end of last month.

White played with the Nigerian National Team during its WNBA preseason tour, seeing minutes in the D’Tigress’ games against the Los Angeles Sparks on April 25 and the Minnesota Lynx on April 27.

Against the Sparks, she recorded seven points, four assists, two rebounds and two steals in an 89-63 loss. She followed that with 16 points (50% shooting), seven rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block in an 88-79 loss to the Lynx.

That performance earned praise from Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve.

“When White came in, she was terri c,” Reeve said. “She’s going to be a heck of a basket-

CHARLIE NEIBERGALL / AP PHOTO

Gabby White drives up court for UVA during a First Four game against Arizona State in the NCAA Tournament.

ball player, and she’ll be in the WNBA for sure.”

Said White, “I just think my teammates did a really good

job of putting me in the right position to make good plays. I mean, just a lot of ball screens, getting downhill, spacing the oor, you know, stu that I really thrive in.”

This was White’s rst run with Nigeria. After her freshman season at Virginia, Nigeria’s coaching sta reached out to White with an opportunity to join them for training camp and the exhibition games. At rst, she didn’t respond to the team, but after her dad received more information about the o er, she accepted.

White was one of 11 newcomers. A week before the WNBA games, the rookies did a multiday training camp before practicing with the returners. The team also practiced between games and experienced what it was like to travel across the country for games.

“It was so fun just being with the girls, doing our little training camp and then going to go play,” White said. “It felt like we were in the W.”

For White, the experience meant more than just the bas -

ketball played within the lines. By putting on the Nigeria uniform, White was following in her family’s footsteps. Her mother, Joanne Aluka-White, helped Nigeria win its rst Olympic contest in its history during the 2004 Summer Games.

“Just being able to represent her, represent where I come from, it was a surreal feeling,” White said.

White also got to compete against her idols during the WNBA tour.

“I was really just starstruck,” White said.

Growing up, she looked up to Sparks guard and two -time WNBA champion Kelsey Plum. The two actually go back before last week’s matchup. While White was leading Seaforth on a deep playo run in high school, Plum FaceTimed White and gave her a pep talk.

“After the game, I think she kind of recognized me, but we took a picture, and I was like, ‘Hey, do you remember when you FaceTimed a kid?’” White

Reynolds ‘gutted’ as Wrexham misses out on playo s to put Premier League dream on hold

The team saw its unprecedented run of three straight promotions come to an end

By Steve Douglas The Associated Press

WREXHAM’S DREAM of reaching the Premier League is over, for this season anyway.

And for Ryan Reynolds, it was tough to stomach.

“I am completely gutted by today’s result but incredibly proud of our season,” the actor wrote on X after the Welsh club he co-owns missed out on a place in the playo s in the second-tier Championship by drawing 2-2 with Middlesbrough in a dramatic nal round of

the regular season on Saturday.

That allowed Hull to jump ahead of Wrexham and into sixth place — the fourth andnal spot in the playo s — courtesy of a 2-1 win over Norwich in a match played at the same time.

The winning goal for Hull, by Oli McBurnie in the 67th, appeared to be scored from an oside position, but there are no video reviews in the English Football League.

It ended Wrexham’s unprecedented run of three straight promotions under its famous owners — a streak that began by getting out of the fth tier in the 2022-23 season and has been documented in the globally popular, Emmy Award-winning “Welcome to Wrexham” series.

Still, seventh place marked

Wrexham’s highest nish in its history, bettering the 15th position it achieved in the second tier in the 1978–79 season.

“We’ve come a long way in ve years and this was the best result in our 150+ year history,” Reynolds wrote alongside a graphic that showed how Wrexham has risen from the National League. “More to do. But for now, we have so much to be proud of, Reds.”

Elsewhere, Ipswich secured the second automatic promotion spot behind champion Coventry — and an immediate return to the Premier League — by beating Queens Park Rangers 3-0.

Ipswich is owned by U.S. investment group Gamechanger 20 Limited and counts pop

star Ed Sheeran as a minority shareholder. Joining Hull in the playo s, which begin next week and are over two legs, are Millwall, Southampton and Middlesbrough. Millwall will face Hull, and Southampton will meet Middlesbrough.

Best-ever nish by Wrexham

It was a memorable campaign by Wrexham in its rst season in the second tier since the 1980s.

However, the short-term pain was acute, and Wrexham’s players sat on the ground and looked disconsolate after the nal whistle — even though the Hull-Norwich match hadn’t nished.

Wrexham started the day in

said. “And she’s like, ‘Oh my God. Yeah. Before your state championship game or whatever?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ So we talked about it a little bit, and yeah, she was really cool.”

White also shared a more distant link with Lynx guard Courtney Williams through a family friend. When White checked in the game against Minnesota, to her surprise, Williams recognized her.

Performing against her idols and some of the best players in women’s basketball gave White an idea of who she could become.

White aspires to play in the WNBA and wants to continue playing for Nigeria. She’s currently in the process of becoming eligible for a possible opportunity to play with D’Tigress in the FIBA World Cup later this year. She also has the 2028 Summer Olympics in mind.

With the way she played in the two exhibition games, White can feel all those dreams within reach.

“A lot of basketball players have the aspiration to play in the W or playing in the Olympics or something like that,” White said. “But after this, I think now I can see those really coming into fruition, and I have so much con dence in these next couple of years of college and my future.”

sixth place, ahead of Hull on goal di erence, and conceded in the fourth minute to Middlesbrough, only to score through Josh Windass and Sam Smith for a 2-1 lead by the 41st.

Middlesbrough hit back immediately with a 43rd-minute equalizer, but Wrexham nished the stronger, squandering a string of great late chances for a winner that would have secured a playo place on goal di erence.

In the end, Wrexham nished two points behind Hull.

“This squad as it stands, with a preseason together, will be even stronger next year,” said Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson, who oversaw a summer spend of around $40 million last year.

“Of course we’ll always look to add to that to try and give ourselves an even better chance. ... We know where we’d like to strengthen and what we need to improve on. We’ll do that, and we’ll make this squad as strong as we possibly can to mount a challenge next year.”

SIDELINE REPORT

SOCCER

Man United beats Liverpool, will return to Champions League after 2-year absence

Manchester, England Manchester United guaranteed a return to the Champions League next season with a 3-2 win against Liverpool. Kobbie Mainoo’s rst-time strike from the edge of the area won it. Defending champion Liverpool had fought back from two goals down to level the game. But Mainoo’s goal meant United would be playing in European club soccer’s top competition after a two-year absence. Tottenham also climbed out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa.

MLB Reds tie MLB record by walking 7 straight batters in loss to Pirates

Pittsburgh

The Cincinnati Reds issued a Major League Baseball record-tying seven straight walks during the second inning of a 17-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the third time in major league history that a team had walked that many batters consecutively — the rst in more than four decades. Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder walked three batters in the second inning and was replaced by Connor Phillips, who walked the next four, each time with the bases loaded. The Pirates scored ve runs in the inning without a hit.

NBA Knicks, ahead by 47 at half, enjoy rout for ages over Hawks in Game 6

Atlanta

The biggest halftime lead in NBA playo history. The most points and most lopsided win in New York Knicks postseason history, too. By any measure, what the Knicks did to the Atlanta Hawks was a historic blowout. The nal score: Knicks 140, Hawks 89 in Game 6 of the teams’ Eastern Conference rst-round series. New York won the series 4-2 after losing Games 2 and 3 by one point — and then winning the next three games by 16, 29 and 51 points, respectively.

TENNIS

Sinner crushes

Zverev to win Madrid Open, claim record 5th straight Masters 1000 title

Madrid

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner cruised past Alexander Zverev in the nal of the Madrid Open to become the rst man to triumph in ve consecutive Masters 1000 events. Sinner beat the third-ranked Zverev 6-1, 6-2 for his 23rd straight victory. He had already won in Monte Carlo, Miami and Indian Wells this year, and in Paris last year. Zverev lost to Sinner in the semi nals of each of those tournaments. Zverev won in Madrid in 2018 and 2021, and he was runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in 2022.

Panthers RB Brooks’ faith helped him through father’s death, 2 torn ACLs

The former second-round pick got baptized after getting cleared to play

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE — After be-

ing cleared to participate in the team’s o season conditioning program without limitations, Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks celebrated in a way he deemed most appropriate: He got baptized.

Brooks has leaned heavily on his faith to get him through personal and professional issues: the death of his father and two serious knee injuries that have derailed the start of a promising NFL career.

The Panthers selected Brooks in the second round of the draft in 2024. They believed Brooks would overcome a torn ACL in his right knee that prematurely ended his college career late in the 2023 season.

But after months of rehab, Brooks’ debut in Carolina ended after just three games when he tore his ACL a second time.

He missed the rest of his rookie season and all of 2025.

After two surgeries and months of grueling rehab, Brooks said he is “close to 100%.” He has rejoined his teammates on the practice eld with the expectation that he’ll be part of Carolina’s running back rotation in 2026.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” the 22-year-old Brooks said. “I lost my father. I’ve torn my ACL twice. Every single time I reverted back to my faith, and for me, my baptism was a recommitment of my faith — to not only change myself, but from that day forward to stop making excuses for my surroundings.”

Brooks said he has always believed in and followed God.

But during his time away from the football eld he came to realize that he wasn’t fully committed to the process.

“I didn’t live accordingly,” Brooks said. “I used to use the excuse of being around the

locker room my whole football career, whether it’s high school, college or NFL, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m around people who cuss and do all this.’ I kept trying to, I guess, put the blame on others in a sense. And, in reality, I just needed to check myself.”

His father, James “Skip” Brooks, died at 49 on March 28, 2022, due to complications from a blood clot that impacted his heart.

Brooks was a freshman at Texas and had just nished spring practice when his family phoned to tell him. His father had been his biggest fan. He taught him the game. He pushed him to be great.

The death hit Jonathon Brooks and his brother, Jordon, hard.

Months later, they honored their father with matching tattoos, the date of his death etched in Roman numerals on their right forearms. Brooks would tap or point to the tattoo after scoring a touchdown during his three seasons with the Longhorns.

He hasn’t had a chance to do the same at the NFL level.

He’s only played three games as a rookie before reinjuring the knee.

The majority of his NFL career has been spent in the training room.

That can often be a lonely place for a player leaving them feeling outcast, but Brooks said he received constant encouragement and emotional support from the guy he came in to compete with — starting running back Chuba Hubbard. Their relationship has transcended being teammates. They talk. They hang out. And when Brooks got baptized this past Sunday, Hubbard was there.

“He’s been building in his faith, building in his relationship with God, which I think is amazing,” Hubbard said. “And in doing that, I think it also just kind of creates a resiliency in your mind and where you’re going there.”

There is a chance Brooks could wind up pushing Hubbard for carries this season.

Hubbard said there’s nothing he’d like to see more than Brooks succeed after all that he’s been through.

“He’s one of one player and a one of one person,” Hubbard said.

Brooks has faith it will all work out, both football and life.

During the darkest of times — the emotional toll of dealing with a parent’s death and having the game he loves to play stripped away due to injuries — Brooks would remind himself of the story of Job from the Old Testament.

It has taught him to keep God “front and center” moving forward.

“Job had everything, and, Satan attacked him,” Brooks said. “He took his children. His money. His animals, and everything — and he was still rooted in his faith. After that, God gave Job everything he had, times two. So for me, I just feel like a lot has been taken from me — my father, my two ACLs — but I’m staying rooted in my faith and knowing that he has a great plan for me.”

Sorsby gambling addiction casts light on issue that could a ect thousands of college athletes

Many experts worry the known cases are the tip of the iceberg

By Eric Olson The Associated Press

IN THE EIGHT years since the Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports gambling across the country, the bad headlines for college sports have picked up.

This week, the problems were underscored in a dramatic way: Brendan Sorsby, set to become the well-paid quarterback of Big 12 defending champion Texas Tech, stepped away to seek treatment for a gambling addiction. Investigations are reportedly under way involving a potential Heisman Trophy hopeful and his stays at Indiana and Cincinnati before his transfer to Texas Tech ahead of next season.

Details have not been released about Sorsby’s gambling. But experts estimate that thousands of athletes in men’s college sports are engaged in compulsive gambling.

“Statistically, I think this is still only the tip of the iceberg,” said Keith Whyte, a gambling industry consultant and former executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. “Given the elevated risk factors for young, male college athletes to demonstrate a high propensity to bet on sports and take on other risk-taking behaviors, there’s probably a lot more guys that have problems. So in some ways, I really admire his decision to publicly seek help for a gambling problem.”

The NCAA is the largest organization in college athletics, with some 500,000 athletes across 1,100 schools in three divisions. Its most recent survey of athlete gambling behaviors, released in January 2025, asked 13,306 male athletes across all divisions about their wagering habits.

Some 21.5% (2,861) acknowledged having placed at least one sports wager in the previous year; 10.7% (1,424) acknowledged having done so in the previous month. In Division I, 12.6% of the males (619 of 4,913) reported having gambled at least once in the previous year, 4.7% (231) in the previous month and 1.9% (93) in the previous week.

The NCAA, extrapolating from survey results, estimated about 6,000 mostly male athletes across the three divisions would meet standard diagnostic criteria for problem

gambling in any given year.

College-aged male athletes check a lot of boxes in a compulsive gambler’s pro le, according to Michelle L. Malkin, lead research scholar of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative at East Carolina. Those athletes are in their 20s, highly competitive, aggressive and typically have a refuse-to -lose mentality.

“Just think about the person who’s down 20 points going into the fourth quarter and being told, ‘Keep going, you can still win this game.’ So the lifetime exposure of ‘if I just keep going, it’s going to turn around for me’ is the type of thing that leads to that lower risk aversion, which also leads to this (gambling addiction),” Malkin said.

The introduction of revenue-sharing and name, image and likeness compensation has put extra money in

athletes’ pockets, signi cant amounts in some cases. Sorsby, for example, signed a two-year NIL agreement with Cincinnati that paid him $875,000 last year, according to a lawsuit led by the school seeking a $1 million buyout from Sorsby for transferring to Texas Tech.

Whyte said athletes earning hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars wouldn’t place a lot of importance on losing a few dollars here and there. “That can lead to some risky decisions,” he said.

Eligibility can be at stake for NCAA athletes found to have gambled, and that can keep them from disclosing an addiction.

Malkin said there should be a con dential avenue for an athlete to ask for help, as long as the athlete didn’t bet on their own team. About the only option an athlete would have is to connect with an online therapist. NCAA rules require anyone who works in an athletic department to report gambling activity.

Athletic departments typically put on seminars to warn athletes about gambling and about risks to eligibility. Malkin said most athletes who gamble were doing so before they entered college, so lectures generally won’t stop existing behavior.

Malkin leads a team developing curricula for regular college students and athletes that explains how gambling can become addictive. East Carolina’s “Betting Blueprint” explores healthy gambling,nancial wellness, risk, identifying gambling-related harms and where to seek help.

ANNIE RICE / AP PHOTO

Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, center, watches the school’s NFL football pro day.

JACOB KUPFERMAN / AP PHOTO

Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks looks on before an NFL game last September.

Leod went 3 for 4 with two runs and an RBI. Kynzie Jordan went 4 for 5 with four runs and four RBIs in the Knights’ 13-8 semi nal win over River Mill.

Seaforth clinched its rst regular season conference championship with wins over South Granville (17-1) and Orange (10-2) last week. Alyssa Harris, Blair Hill and Emma Grace Hill homered against the Vikings. Emma Grace Hill hit another home run against Orange, nishing the game 4 for 4 with two RBIs.

After dominant wins over Eastern Randolph (16-0) and Uwharrie Charter (8-1), Northwood fell to Southwestern Randolph 17-0 in the Four Rivers 3A/4A conference tournament championship game. Jordan-Matthews lost to North Moore in the rst round of that same tournament.

Final conference standings (overall, conference) *conference champion

Central Tar Heel 1A: 1. Clo -

ver Garden (21-3, 12-0); T2. River Mill (10-8, 7-5); T2. Chatham Charter (12-8, 7-5); 4. Central Carolina Academy (4 -14, 3-9); 5. Ascend Leadership (0-15, 0-13)

Greater Triad 1A/2A: 1. Chatham Central* (21-4, 8-1); 2. South Stokes (11-11, 7-2); 3. North Stokes (9-12, 3-6); 4. South Davidson (4-16, 0-9)

Four Rivers 3A/4A: 1. Southwestern Randolph* (18-4, 9-1); T2. Northwood (13-10, 6-4); T2. Uwharrie Charter (7-11, 6-4); 4. Jordan-Matthews (11-9, 5-5); 5. North Moore (7-13, 3-7); 6. Eastern Randolph (3-16, 1-10)

Big Seven 4A/5A: 1. Seaforth* (18-2, 12-0); 2. Cedar Ridge (16-7, 10-2); 3. Orange (9-12, 8-4); T4. J.F. Webb (13-7, 5-7); T4. South Granville (7-12, 5-7); 6. Carrboro (4-15, 2-10); 7. Durham School of the Arts (1-19, 0-12)

Final power rankings: 1. Chatham Central; 2. Seaforth; 3. Northwood; 4. Chatham Charter; 5. Jordan-Matthews

BASEBALL from page B1

an error at rst base in senior Bryson Marley’s game-opening at-bat, and two batters later, sophomore Maddox Dunn doubled to bring Marley and junior Cade McCallum home. Later in the rst inning, another error allowed junior Chance Holdaway to load the bases. All three runners scored as an error on a picko attempt allowed Holdaway to reach home for a 5-0 advantage.

By the second inning, the Wildcats were rolling. Eastern Randolph logged ve hits in the inning, including an RBI double from Holdaway, to build a

BOYS’ TENNIS (DUAL TEAM STATE PLAYOFFS)

Chatham Charter advanced to the third round of the 1A bracket after a forfeit from Voyager Academy in the second round.

In the 5A playo s, Seaforth defeated Webb 9-0 and Northside 6-0 in the rst and second rounds respectively. Jordan-Matthews fell to Red Springs 5-4 in the rst round of the 4A playo s.

GIRLS’ SOCCER

Woods Charter moved to 16-0 with shutout wins over Ascend Leadership (8-0), Central Carolina (10-0) and Cornerstone Charter (2-0). Leah Marshall recorded a hat trick, and Lucy Poitras and Annabel Unah scored two goals each against Ascend Leadership. Northwood won three straight games, defeating Jordan-Matthews (8-1) and North Moore twice (3-2 and 3-1).

Seaforth’s three-game win

9-0 lead. Two more defensive mistakes by Northwood helped Eastern Randolph extend its lead to 10 runs in the sixth inning. Northwood nished the game with nine errors.

“I thought we came out at,” Northwood coach Brent Haynes said. “When you come out at and you don’t have a lot of energy, guys just kind of go through the motions. You kind of get in that stagnant kind of body, and it just leads to bad ways.”

Meanwhile, Northwood struggled to get anything going o ensively. On the mound, Marley struck out nine batters and allowed two hits in the rst four

streak was snapped with back-to-back losses to Apex Friendship (2-0) and Holly Springs (3-0).

BOYS’ GOLF

Seaforth won the Big Seven 4A/5A conference tournament with a score of 308. Senior Campbell Meador took the individual conference title after shooting 1 over par.

BOYS’ LACROSSE

Northwood won three straight games last week, including an 8-5 win over Union Pines to hand the Vikings their rst loss. James Flanagan recorded 18 saves in the victory. Seaforth closed its regular season with a 10-9 win over Carrboro and an 18-10 loss to Orange.

GIRLS’ LACROSSE

Seaforth bounced back from a 20-4 loss to Chapel Hill with an 11-6 victory over Carrboro

innings and two outs. McCallum relieved him for an inning and one out and didn’t allow another hit.

“Bryce is one that tries to pitch contact,” Cockman said. “Obviously, he’s not going to throw it by a whole lot of people, but he pitches to his strengths. He pitches to his o -speed. Trusts his guys behind him, and he’s a senior force.”

Senior Dylan Perry batted in the Chargers’ only run of the night (junior Nic Armstrong) with a single in the third inning.

Prior to the championship game, Eastern Randolph defeated No. 2 Uwharrie Charter in the semi nal 12-3 behind

on April 29. Addie Holloway scored four goals in the win. Northwood split the week with a 13-12 win over Riverside-Durham and a 16-0 loss to East Chapel Hill.

TRACK AND FIELD

Northwood’s boys and girls nished rst in the Four Rivers 3A/4A championship meet last week. Jordan-Matthews’ girls were the outright runners-up, and the Jets’ boys tied for second. Here are the local individual conference champions (school, event): Boys: Ezra Roebuck (Northwood, 200 and 400); Sam Bachelor (Northwood, 800 and 1,600); Drew Yell (Northwood, 3,200); Ben Altenburg (Northwood, 110 hurdles, long jump and pole vault); Yadiel Zayas (Jordan-Matthews, 300 hurdles); Northwood (4x200, 4x400 and 4x800); Kamarie Hadley (Jordan-Matthews, triple jump); Jamison Brown (Northwood, discus); Jaxon Green (Northwood, shot put)

McCallum’s 4-for-5, three-RBI and two-run night. The Wildcats logged 15 runs as a team in the win. In the rst round, Eastern Randolph took down North Moore 7-4.

The Wildcats are entering the playo s with a 16-11 record, their best winning percentage before the playo s since the 2017 season. They’re also riding a nine-game winning streak with seven of those wins being decided by double digits.

Last year, Eastern Randolph hit its stride in the playo s, reaching the regional nal after going 11-12-1 in the regular season.

“Our guys are playing with an

Girls: Athena Dispennette (Jordan-Matthews, 400); Gabby Ghitta (Northwood, 800); Sydney Gray (Northwood, 1,600 and 3,200); Khamya Woods (Jordan-Matthews, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles); Northwood (4x100 and 4x800); Jordan-Matthews (4x200 and 4x400); Evelyn Becker (Northwood, long jump); Juanita Perez (Jordan-Matthews, triple jump); Chloe Waldstein (Northwood, pole vault)

Greater Triad 1A/2A championships

Boys: Tyler Congrove (Chatham Central, 100 and 200)

Big Seven 4A/5A

Boys: Jace Jones (Seaforth, 110 hurdles); Ryan Yoder (Seaforth, pole vault); Dylan Watkins (Seaforth, discus)

Girls: Tinsley Borland (Seaforth, 300 hurdles); Amber Brown (Seaforth, long jump); Lyla Jacobs (Seaforth, triple jump)

all-time high con dence,” Cockman said. “They have a lot of energy. They’re loving what they do.”

As for Northwood, it’s heading into the postseason with a 14-10 record. Although the Chargers aimed to keep their pitchers fresh for the playo s instead of going full throttle to win the tournament, Haynes hopes his team’s “worst defensive game” of the year serves as a wakeup call.

“Next week, it’s win or go home,” Haynes said. “We can’t have a mishap like that.”

Said Haynes, “I’m glad it happened this week instead of next week.”

PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Northwood’s Kelis Watson makes a throw from the out eld against Southwestern Randolph on May 1.

this week in history

De Soto reaches Mississippi, Donner Party heads west, Lindbergh baby found

The Associated Press

MAY 7

1915: A German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner RMS Lusitania o the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board.

1945: Nazi Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its role in World War II.

1975: President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

MAY 8

1541: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River, the rst recorded European to do so.

1846: U.S. forces led by Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican forces near modern-day Brownsville, Texas, in the rst major battle of the Mexican-American War.

1945: President Harry S. Truman announced in a radio address that Nazi Germany’s forces had surrendered, stating that “the ags of freedom y all over Europe” on V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.

MAY 9

1754: The famous political cartoon “Join or Die” was rst published by Benjamin Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper.

1914: President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint con-

MAY 12

gressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

1960: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved Enovid for use as the rst oral contraceptive pill.

MAY 10

1775: Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, along with Col. Benedict Arnold, captured the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, New York.

1865: Confederate President Je erson Davis was captured by Union forces near Irwinville, Georgia.

1869: A golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the rst transcontinental railroad in the United States.

MAY 11

1935: The Rural Electri cation Administration was created as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

1946: The rst CARE packages, sent by a consortium of American charities to aid the hungry in postwar Europe, arrived at Le Havre, France.

1981: Reggae artist Bob Marley died at a Miami hospital at age 36 after battling an aggressive skin cancer.

Bob

1780: The besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to British forces in one of the worst American defeats of the Revolutionary War.

1846: The pioneers of the Donner Party left Independence, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail, beginning their ill-fated migration to California.

1932: The body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, New Jersey.

MAY 13

1846: The United States Congress formally declared war on Mexico following clashes along the disputed border; the Mexican-American War would last nearly two years, ending with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in February 1848.

1940: In his rst speech to the House of Commons as British prime minister, Winston Churchill said, “I have nothing to o er but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

1973: In tennis’ rst so-called “Battle of the Sexes,” Bobby Riggs defeated Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1 in Ramona, California. (Billie Jean King later defeated Riggs at the Houston Astrodome.)

AP PHOTO

The four-stack British ocean liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat o the southern coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, sinking in 18 minutes.

JACQUES LANGEVIN / AP PHOTO

Singer

Marley performs during a concert in Bourget, Paris, in 1980.

Former Librarian of Congress Hayden cheered for Authors Guild honor

Other honorees included Amy Tan and Percival Everett

By Hillel Italie

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Nearly a year

since she was abruptly red by President Donald Trump as librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden stood before hundreds of cheering members of the literary community as she received a Champion of Writers Award from the Authors Guild last Monday.

Hayden, 73, who headed the Library of Congress from 2016 -25 and worked in libraries for much of her adult life, cited her profession as a vital bridge between writers and the general public.

“Libraries are where storytelling meets opportunity,” she told the audience gathered for the Guild’s annual dinner-gala, held at Cipriani Wall Street. “They are where a child discovers a rst favorite book, where a new American nds language and belonging, and where research uncovers hidden histo -

Foo Fighters bring stadium show to modest NYC venue

The band opened a ve-song encore with “A320” at Irving Plaza

By Maria Sherman

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Two years ago Foo Fighters almost made a triumphant return to New York City. They performed for a sold- out crowd that summer at Citi Field in Queens — a baseball stadium with room for nearly 42,000 fans — but their ery set was cut short by Mother Nature: A torrential downpour and fearsome lightning made for unsafe and appropriately ominous conditions.

It was fortuitous in some ways; the next two years for the band would be tumultuous. It was also in 2024 that front man Dave Grohl announced he fathered a child outside his marriage. And then in 2025, the band parted ways with drummer Josh Freese after just one tour, hiring Ilan Rubin to replace him two months later. Things have since turned

around. Last week, the band released its 12th full-length studio album, “Your Favorite Toy,” an energetic collection of tracks with an aggressive, fast-paced punk style, distorted vocals and occasional overly compressed production, as The Associated Press’ Dennis Waszak Jr. wrote in his review. Those songs felt at home last Thursday night at the much smaller Irving Plaza in Manhattan, a sold-out space with a capacity of just around 1,000, where the larger-than-life rock band brought a sonic immediacy to the intimate venue.

A secret show for a lucky few

Foo Fighters announced two surprise shows last Wednesday: one at Irving Plaza the next night and another at the Starland Ballroom on Saturday in New Jersey. Tickets were priced at $30, limited to two per purchaser and available only on a rst-come, rst-served basis at 10 a.m. Thursday at each venue. Some fans camped overnight. Others lined up long before 10 a.m. The lucky few able to grab

ry, and where communities see themselves in the pages of literature. Libraries do more than house books. You know that. They connect people to ideas, to knowledge and to one another. They ensure that storytelling is not reserved for the few but shared by all.”

Hayden was among three honorees, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Percival Everett and “The Joy Luck Club” author Amy Tan. Hayden, the rst woman and rst Black person to be appointed librarian of Congress, didn’t refer to Trump or her ouster during her brief remarks. But her speech was an implicit rebuttal to Trump’s attacks against what he calls “woke” culture that have been directed at her and at such cultural institutions as the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution.

She praised libraries as “engines of accessibility and inclusion” and as havens for free expression at a time of record-high book bans.

“In many places today, librarians are under attack for believing in the power of the

JOHN LOCHER / AP PHOTO

Carla Hayden speaks at the Authors Guild Foundation Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.

written word and in the principle that free people should be able to read freedom,” she said.

“Yet librarians remain steady and hopeful.”

The gala was a forum for opposing bans and for other causes crucial to the Guild and to the thousands of published writers it represents.

Author David Baldacci was among those who denounced AI, which has been the subject of various lawsuits led

by writers against Microsoft, OpenAI and other companies that allege their work had been used without their permission for AI generative programs. Baldacci was among several writers present who have been plainti s in legal action, and his name was invoked later in the evening: It was attached to the prize given to Everett, the Baldacci Award for Literary Activism.

Everett, 69, whose “James” won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, is a proli c author and longtime academic who joked that receiving an honor for activism was like being called an athletic chess player. His books are known for their cutting and provocative takes on racism and other subjects, and he referred indirectly to Hayden’s departure by picturing a future — one he nds all too plausible — in which the only kinds of works available at the Library of Congress are the writings of Ayn Rand and other conservative favorites.

“That is where we are, and I can’t tell you how sad I am about this,” Everett said.

tickets to the Irving Plaza show that night wore vintage Foo Fighters merchandise into the venue and bought new designs. They swapped stories about the last time they saw the band and theorized about how they would perform on such a small stage.

When the Foo Fighters emerged, it was six minutes after 8 p.m. “How ya doing?” energetic front man Dave Grohl said in greeting the crowd, promising a lot of new tracks and some “old school.”

And the band delivered: 2002’s “All My Life” and “Times Like These” were next to late ’90s hits like “Monkey Wrench” and “My Hero,” and week-old

“For those who’ve never seen us before, next time we’ll try to make it feel like this.”

Dave Grohl

songs “Spit Shine” and “My Favorite Toy.”

“Sometimes I ask the audience if they love rock ‘n’ roll music,” Grohl told the crowd. “I’m not gonna ask you all because I know you love rock ’n’ roll music.”

Even if the location was

stripped down, the band had no interest in a minimized show. There were no pyrotechnics or reworks or fanfare, sure, but surprises abounded: “Window,” a new song, got its live debut. The band opened a ve-song encore with “A320,” its contribution to the oft-overlooked 1998 “Godzilla” soundtrack.

At one moment, a concertgoer shouted, “Taylor Hawkins forever!” in memory of the band’s late drummer. Grohl instinctively responded, “That’s right!”

“For those who’ve never seen us before,” Grohl said 21⁄2 hours into the set, “next time we’ll try to make it feel like this.”

EDUARDO VERDUGO / AP PHOTO

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl performs during the Corona Capital music festival in Mexico City in 2025.

famous birthdays this week

David Attenborough hits 100, Candice Bergen is 80, Steve Winwood turns 78

THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.

MAY 7

Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead) is 80. Actor/former boxer Randall “Tex” Cobb is 76. Actor Breckin Meyer is 52. Reggaeton musician J Balvin is 41. Actor-comedian Aidy Bryant is 39.

MAY 8

Biologist/TV presenter David Attenborough is 100. Poet Gary Snyder is 96. Singer-songwriter Toni Tennille is 86. Pianist Keith Jarrett is 81. Singer Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire) is 75. Rock musician Chris Frantz (Talking Heads) is 75. Singer Enrique Iglesias is 51. Musician Joe Bonamassa is 49.

MAY 9

Producer-director James L. Brooks is 86. Musician-songwriter Sonny Curtis (The Crickets) is 89. Actor Candice Bergen is 80. Musician Billy Joel is 77. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo is 75. Actor John Corbett is 65. Rock musician Alex Van Halen is 73. Singer Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) is 64.

MAY 10

Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun is 84. Musician-songwriter Donovan is 80. Fashion designer Miuccia Prada is 77. Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi is 67. Singer-activist Bono (U2) is 66. Rapper Young MC is 59.

MAY 11

Rock singer Eric Burdon is 85. Actor Frances Fisher is 74. Former MTV VJ Martha Quinn is 67. Olympic boxing gold medalist Mark Breland is 63. Actor Tim Blake Nelson is 62.

Model Blac Chyna is 38. Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton is 37.

MAY 12

Hockey Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk is 91. Musician Steve

Winwood is 78. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 76. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 76. Actor Ving Rhames is 67. Actor- lmmaker Emilio Estevez is 64. Skateboarder Tony Hawk is 58.

MAY 13

Actor Harvey Keitel is 87. Musician Stevie Wonder is 76. Screenwriter-producer David Simon (“The Wire”) is 67. Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman is 65. Musician Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowsh) is 60.

CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO

Singer Stevie Wonder turns 76 on Wednesday.

SCOTT A. GARFITT / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Designer Miuccia Prada turns 77 on Sunday.

FRANK FRANKLIN II / AP PHOTO Skateboarding pioneer Tony Hawk turns 58 on Tuesday.

the stream

‘The

Robert Pattinson, left, and Zendaya attend the special screening of “The Drama” at Regal Union Square in New

The lm is streaming now on premium on demand.

Drama,’ MUNA, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, ‘The Other Bennet Sister’

Ashley McBryde drops “Lines in the Carpet”

By Mark Kennedy

The Associated Press

“THE DRAMA,” a rom-com that goes bad starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson and the synth-pop group MUNA releasing their fourth studio album, “Dancing on the Wall,” 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: Sam Raimi’s movie “Send Help” starring Rachel McAdams; a TV series based on the unassuming, oft-forgotten Jane Austen sister Mary leads “The Other Bennet Sister”; and country star Ashley McBryde heading into the “Wild” on her latest album.

TO STREAM

MOVIES

“The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Pattinson, is available now on premium on demand after a much-talked-about run in theaters. The lm, written and directed by Kristo er Borgli, recently became the fth A24 release to clear $100 million at the box o ce. Pattinson and Zendaya play a couple whose wedding engagement is derailed after a disquieting revelation. In his review, AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that the lm “wastes two of the planet’s most gorgeous people and will surely get everyone involved in trouble for using a current American tragedy as a plot point.”

In Raimi’s “Send Help,” a woman (McAdams) and her overbearing boss (Dylan O’Brien) are stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. Raimi’s comic survivalist thriller grows increasingly unhinged as their roles reverse. After a theatrical run earlier this year, it debuts Thursday on Hulu.

The Net ix adaptation “Remarkably Bright Creatures” (streaming Friday) turns Shelby Van Pelt’s best-selling novel into a lm starring Sally Field as a widow working at an aquarium. There, she develops a healing bond with a giant Paci c octopus. Lewis Pullman co-stars.

MUSIC TO STREAM

The synth-pop group MUNA will release their fourth studio album on Friday. “Dancing on the Wall” arrives just in time for the approaching warmth — and hedonistic decision-making — of summer. It’s tank top party-pop for the once-heartbroken, now-victorious crowd (like what is found on “So What” and the familiar sounds of the title track) and whoever is the ob -

ject of a ection on the too-fun “Wannabeher.” Also on Friday: Country star McBryde heads into the “Wild” on her latest album. It is her most personal and most rock ’n’ roll collection yet, embodying McBryde’s ery spirit found on “Lines in the Carpet,” a cutting treatise on domesticity, the heartfelt mission statement of the title track and everywhere in between. The record opens with four barnburners fans will

recognize as staples of her live show — “Rattlesnake Preacher,” “Arkansas Mud,” “Water in the River” and “Creosote” — and diversi es from there. Expect big feelings and a playful, wizened heart.

SERIES TO STREAM

If you’re an Austen devotee who loved “Pride and Prejudice,” you’ll recall that Elizabeth and Jane aren’t the only two daughters in the Bennet family. A new series called “The Other Bennet Sister” follows the introspective and awkward but adorable Mary, played by Ella Bruccoleri. Mary steps out of the shadows of her other siblings and nds romance and independence. The show is already a hit in the UK and on social media. Mary gets her time to shine on BritBox. From the backwoods lakes of the Ozarks to the turquoise waters of the Florida Keys, Bill Dubuque, a co-creator of “Ozark,” has created a new series set against the drug world called “M.I.A.” In this crime drama, a daughter who wants nothing more than to separate herself from her family’s drug-running business is

pulled into a quest for vengeance after it’s destroyed. All nine episodes drop Thursday on Peacock.

Dan Stevens is wrongfully committed to a mental hospital where he must battle both supernatural and psychological demons in “The Terror: Devil in Silver.” This “Terror” is the third season of a horror anthology. Besides Stevens, the series features an impressive cast including CCH Pounder, Judith Light and John Benjamin Hickey. It premieres Thursday on both Shudder and AMC+.

Another classic gets reimagined in the new “Amadeus” limited-series starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany. Sharpe plays superstar composer Amadeus Mozart and Bettany is Antonio Salieri, also a successful composer of the time whom history has cast as the lesser talent. Salieri becomes increasingly obsessed with achieving the respect and acclaim that Mozart enjoys. It premieres on Starz on Friday.

VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

Annapurna Interactive’s Mixtape includes tunes by Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Roxy Music and Devo — the kind of alt-rock you might expect in a movie like “Sixteen Candles” or “Dazed and Confused.” So yes, we’re back in the 1990s with three teenagers seeking adventure on their last night of high school. That means skateboarding, sneaking beers, making out, looking for trouble, running from trouble and, to judge from the trailer, oating through space. You can press play Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 or PC. The soundtrack to Wax Heads is more diverse, but all the bands are completely made up. You’ve landed a job at a gnarly store called Repeater Records, and you get to deal with an assortment of eccentric customers who may or may not know what they want. The result is a kind of puzzle game in which you have to sort through their suggestions to track down the perfect vinyl. Patattie Games, the two-person U.K. studio behind Wax Heads, calls it “cozy-punk.” Drop the needle on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S,

or

Switch

PC.

EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP PHOTO

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO

Ashley McBryde performs “Help Me Make It Through the Night” during the 58th Annual CMA Awards in 2024. Her new album, “Lines in the Carpet,” comes out Friday.

MILLIE TURNER / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Ross Garshong and Ellie Buckley pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the lm ‘Send Help’ in London. The thriller lands on Hulu on Thursday.

York.

Duplin Journal

this week

JSCC, ECU establish transfer pathway for technical programs

Kenansville James Sprunt Community College has entered into a new agreement with East Carolina University that establishes a streamlined transfer pathway for students in technical programs. The partnership guarantees admission for JSCC graduates in diesel and heavy equipment, electrical systems and information technology programs, provided they maintain at least a 2.0 GPA. Students will be able to transfer up to 54 credit hours toward a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology at ECU. JSCC leaders said the agreement is designed to reduce barriers to four-year degrees and expand workforce opportunities.

Duplin GOP calls for online video access to county meetings, statewide livestreaming mandate

Duplin County The Duplin County Republican Party has unanimously approved a resolution calling on Duplin County to videotape and post its meetings online for public access. The party also urged the North Carolina General Assembly to require livestreaming of all county and municipal meetings, saying it would increase government transparency.

HCA names NC State dean as commencement speaker

Harrells

5 women aid victims in intersection crash the

Harrells Christian Academy has announced that Garey Fox, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at NC State University, will serve as commencement speaker for the Class of 2026. The ceremony is scheduled for May 21. School o cials said Fox’s career re ects a blend of agriculture, engineering and technology, aligning with the school’s educational mission and agricultural roots.

Wallace-Rose Hill

junior selected for Governor’s School

Wallace Kaylann Leon, a Wallace-Rose Hill High School junior, has been selected for Governor’s School this summer. Leon is a soccer captain, Beta Club leader and AIG student while maintaining top academic performance. Governor’s School brings together high-achieving students from across the state for an intensive academic and arts experience. Governor’s School is one of the state’s most selective academic programs.

$2.00

Strawberry Festival brings strong turnout, community spirit to Wallace

Warsaw mayor alleges barriers to access as board meetings grow contentious

The

By Ena Sellers Duplin Journal

WARSAW — Extended de-

bates over routine procedural actions and increasingly visible divisions at recent Warsaw

By Mark Grady For Duplin Journal

KENANSVILLE — Five

women who work at a nonprofit daycare near Kenansville became heroes recently after assisting the victims of a serious crash that happened near the

board meetings are patterns that Mayor Wesley Boykin says re ect deeper governance challenges within the town.

In an interview with Duplin Journal, Boykin said the issues go beyond what residents

church where the daycare is located. The women were outside the Big Zion AME Zion Church on Summerlin Crossroad Road when they heard and witnessed the wreck. Duplin County ofcials visited the daycare and spoke with the women last week.

“We noticed it was a wreck,”

see during public meetings, describing ongoing administrative friction and di culty carrying out his duties as mayor.

Boykin alleged that Town Manager Lea Turner has denied multiple requests to place items on meeting agendas, has limited his access to information and restricted access to town hall. He also described a recent incident.

“She attempted to deny me entry into the o ce,” Boykin said, recounting an interaction last month when he went to town hall to sign April meeting minutes. “‘You don’t have any business back here.’ This is what the town manager said. “I sent an email before and

said Linda Tyson, who works for the nonpro t daycare and also serves on the Kenansville Board of Commissioners. “We saw the truck go up in the air and ip.”

The vehicle was a van carrying ve men. It had collided with a car in the intersection near the church after one of the vehicles ran a stop sign. Tyson, who has a law enforcement background, noticed there was a small re under the hood of the car, and her

County commissioners weigh property tax authority

The board moved forward with a revised property tax resolution

By Ena Sellers Duplin Journal

KENANSVILLE — Duplin

County Commissioners approved federal funding, infrastructure projects, administrative changes and a revised property tax resolution during their May 4 meeting. A major policy discussion centered on a resolution opposing potential state e orts to restrict or shift county property tax authority to the North Carolina General Assembly. Introduced by Commissioner Wayne Branch, the resolution was supported by concerns raised

through the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC), which has encouraged counties to defend local control. Commissioners shared that locally elected o cials are best positioned to set tax rates based on community needs and warned that state control could reduce exibility and weaken local decision-making. Commissioner Jesse Dowe supported the resolution, noting that counties vary widely in needs and nancial structure, and that state lawmakers may not fully understand local needs. Commissioner Justin Edwards expressed hesitation, saying the issue remains in early stages and that he preferred to wait

“It’s just trying

Lisa Hughes, county manager

training kicked in automatically.

“I just took o running,” Tyson said.

The women found themselves teaming up to handle the situation while they waited for emergency crews to arrive.

The men in the van, now upside down, were all Hispanic. That put Elmita Velasquez to work communicating with the

THE DUPLIN COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Ella Barefoot left, traveled from Clinton to attend the kicko of the 2026 Carolina Strawberry Festival last Friday evening. The Carolina Strawberry Festival drew strong community support throughout the weekend. Turn to A6 for more.

MARK GRADY FOR DUPLIN JOURNAL

Ena Sellers

Editor Michael Jaenicke

Patsy Teachey Advertising Representative

Loretta Carey

O ce Manager

CONTACT US

O ce Phone: 910 463-1240

To place a legal ad: 919 663-3232; Fax: 919 663-4042

Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements: Weekly deadline is Monday at noon

men in her native language. She saw some of the men trying to go back to the van to retrieve items inside.

“I tried to stop them, telling them not to go back, but they wouldn’t listen,” Velasquez said.

She added that the driver, who was unconscious and face down in the dirt, appeared to be the most seriously injured.

“I ipped him over and put something underneath his head,” she said.

Another one of the daycare workers, Betty McKiver Smith, helped Velasquez assist the men in the van.

While Velasquez dealt with the seriously injured driver, Tyson was helping a woman in the other car in the crash get to safety. Another woman and a child involved in the wreck had already evacuated safely.

It wasn’t long before the small re under the hood grew until the car was engulfed in ames. By the time the re department arrived on the scene, the car had completely burned.

All ve women worked togeth-

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Students call for tougher nicotine laws in North Carolina

Advocacy day brings teens to Raleigh to support a bill raising the nicotine purchase age limit and regulating sales

Duplin Journal sta

A STUDENT from Duplin County joined 26 peers representing 14 counties last week at the North Carolina General Assembly to discuss nicotine laws and youth vaping during an advocacy day event. North Carolina currently allows individuals 18 or older to purchase nicotine products and does not require retailers to be licensed, policies that differentiate it from most other states.

“I de nitely felt heard in all of my meetings,” said Madison Kornegay of East Duplin High School. “They were very impressed with the amount of youth that were there today.”

Kornegay was among the group of student advocates who met with their district lawmakers during the 2026 session of the General Assembly to discuss House Bill 430. The proposal would raise the legal purchase age for nicotine products to 21 and establish a licensing system for retailers. It also includes a permit fee intended to fund additional enforcement sta within the state’s Alcohol Law Enforcement Division.

The bill is also known as “Solly’s Law,” named after Solomon Wynn, a 15-year-old who died in 2023 after a vaping-related medical emergen-

COURTESY PHOTO

Duplin County student Madison Kornegay, in pink, and other T21 Teen Council members meet with state Rep. John Bell on April 29 at the North Carolina General Assembly.

“They were very impressed with the amount of youth that were there today.”

Madison Kornegay

cy. His family has since advocated for changes to state law.

“I feel like the message was received better coming from us youth than the adults,” said Kornegay.

During the meetings, students shared observations from their schools, describing vaping as common and accessible.

Educators have reported similar concerns. Halifax County Schools Superintendent Eric Cunningham said incidents involving vaping devices in schools often

involve signs of dependence, which can complicate disciplinary situations.

Bryan House, director of Alcohol Law Enforcement, said his agency often relies on complaints and direct observation.

“We don’t have information for where these businesses are,” House said, noting that some stores appear near schools and military bases and may also sell illegal products.

Rep. Grant Campbell (R-Cabarrus) said stricter nicotine laws could improve long-term health outcomes, including those related to maternal and infant health, and reduce healthcare costs over time.

“In addition, these laws carry substantial cost savings in healthcare in the short, medium and long term,” said Campbell.

PHOTOS

Left, a screenshot from a video captured at the accident near Big Zion AME Zion Church near Kenansville shows the intensity of the car re after the collision. Right, a group of ve women — from left to right, Marcelia Best, Yuketia Bouyer, Elmita Velasquez, Betty McKiver Smith and Linda Tyson — were on the scene to help after the crash.

er to secure the accident scene and get everyone involved to safety. In addition to Tyson’s instinctive reaction, Smith summed up why they felt inspired to put themselves in harm’s way to help complete strangers.

“You’re thinking about your family,” Smith said. “You hope somebody will be there for them in case something like that happens to them.”

NOTICE

To: Brenda Ingram in reference to the property located at 1204 N. Norwood St. Wallace NC 28466. The property is in Violation of Chapter 92: Health and Sanitation/ Nuisance. The Town of Wallace needs you to contact the Planning Director (910-285-4136) to set up a meeting.

The women said this was not the rst serious accident at the intersection, adding the intersection needed a four-way stop.

The daycare, operated by DNA, which stands for Diversity, Nurtures and Achievements, provides after-school care during the school year and daytime care for children in the summer at no charge to the parents.

“You’re thinking about your family. You hope somebody will be there for them in case something like that happens to them.”

Betty McKiver Smith

NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that the Duplin County Board of Equalization and Review will hold its

on Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 2:00 pm in the Commissioner’s Room, Duplin County

224 Seminary Street, Kenansville, NC. This meeting is held for the purpose of review and hearing appeals of listings and valuations.

The Board expects to adjourn on May 21, 2026. In the event of earlier or later adjournment, notice to that e ect will be published in this newspaper. Gary M. Rose, Clerk to the Board of E&R

Here’s a

May 8-9

Creekstone Rising Music Festival

The Creekstone Rising Country Music Festival returns to Tara Creek in Faison featuring rising country artists both nights.

136 Robert Hobbs Road, Faison

May 16

Fireman’s Day in Pink Hill

9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Pink Hill Volunteer Fire and Rescue will host Fireman’s Day. The family-friendly event will include local vendors, a car show, music, kids entertainment, barbecue plates and ra e prizes.

Downtown Pink Hill

Community Baby Shower

10 a.m.

The Duplin County Health Department will host a free Community Baby Shower for expectant moms and moms with newborns 0-3 months old. Free baby supplies available for the rst 30 moms. The event will cover pregnancy and postpartum topics at the Rose Hill Library.

113 South Walnut St., Rose Hill

May 19

Cedar Fork Community Club Meeting

7 p.m.

The Cedar Fork Community Club meets the third Tuesday of each month to discuss activities aimed at supporting the local community.

1412 Cedar Fork Road, Beulaville

May 22

Gold Star Monument Tribute

Noon

The Duplin County Historical Society will hold the ceremony at the courthouse square, honoring county residents who gave their lives in service to the U.S. The Gold Star, established during World War I, represents families who have lost a loved one in military service, and the ceremony serves as a tribute to their sacri ce. Duplin County Courthouse Kenansville

quick look at what’s coming up in Duplin County.

COURTESY

Mount Olive board tables potential charter change

Residents voiced opposition to longer terms and concerns about the proposed property sale price

By Mark Grady For Duplin Journal

THE MOUNT OLIVE Board of Commissioners voted to table two items on the agenda during its Monday night meeting after hearing comments from people during the open forum.

The rst action item to be tabled would approve a change to the town charter which would change election of commissioners from two-year staggered terms to four-year staggered terms. The board held a public hearing on the issue last month during which a commissioner asked the audience to reveal by a show of hands whether they supported a change to four-year terms or to keep the current two-year terms. The majority raised their hands in support of keeping the current two-year staggered terms.

Mount Olive resident Ray McDonald addressed the board during the public forum on Monday and cautioned them not to vote on the ordinance.

“I think if you vote on this tonight and pass it as it’s formed, you will kill the opportunity to have four-year terms,” McDonald said.

He said passing the ordinance as presented would open the board up to be challenged by a referendum to overturn the ordinance. He said the referendum could be forced by collecting signatures.

“It’s not that high a bar to cross to get the signatures,” McDonald said. “In this situation, you need a few hundred signatures and then you’ll have a referendum to vote on something you are trying to add to the charter.”

Another resident, Linda Morgan, also addressed the board and mentioned the results of the April public hearing on the subject.

“We had a public forum on it, and all the commissioners were present,” Morgan said. “The majority of everyone here said they did not want four-year terms. The only thing I see a four-year term doing is locking us into a commissioner.”

The other action item the board voted to table involved considering a bid by the nonpro t ADLA Inc. to purchase the Dr. Spencer Durante Athletic Complex on South Breazeale Avenue for $20,000. The complex is home of the youth football program in town now run

by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

McDonald also expressed concern about that issue in his comments, believing the price is too low. He said between $300,000 and $400,000 had been raised in the community to build the football eld. He said selling it at that price would be “giving away the farm.”

Ervina Wentworth, an attorney representing ADLA Inc., addressed the board and defended the purchase price, saying that many expensive improvements would be made by the nonpro t to the facility, including a running and walking track around the eld that would cost approximately $300,000. She added that

Duplin airport to expand taxiway upgrades with

The allocation will support paving, milling and repainting as airport improvements continue

By Rebecca Whitman Cooke For Duplin Journal

DUPLIN COUNTY Airport

o cials are moving forward with taxiway upgrades after receiving an additional $150,000 in state funding, allowing the project to expand as crews wrap up work on a recently completed connector.

“Saying ‘yes’ to being able to use the funding for this will strengthen our cause to needs in other areas,” Joshua Raynor, airport director, told members at the Duplin County Airport Board meeting on April 28.

Hunter Boniface explained how the extra funds would be used. According to Boniface, the

$150K in state funds

proposed plan would rehab a portion of the north side of the taxiway including milling, paving, and repainting it. Quotes were being requested for the work from the same company that did the rest of the taxiway rehab, S.T. Wooten.

Raynor gave an update on the hangar project.

“All the drywall is up, and they are starting to paint,” Raynor said. “Power is on, the fans are working, the apron concrete has been poured, windows are in, dirt has been removed and sewer connections are in. It should be done by the end of May or start of June.”

The board discussed marketing the hangar, and Raynor said a mass email was planned to target the hangar to potential interests in Wilmington and surrounding areas.

Raynor also shared that reroo ng on the corporate han-

“We are 20 days into a 90-day project, but we are hopeful that it will be straightened out since the progress meeting.”

Joshua Raynor and Hunter Boniface on the fuel farm

gars was done, and the reskinning on the T-hangars should be nished this week. He conrmed that the hydraulic doors that had been discussed were not used because they would not meet the budget.

Boniface and Raynor shared that the fuel farm was o to a slow start, and they had to have a progress meeting to discuss the issues and expectations.

the nonpro t was also working in partnership with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in operating the football program at the eld.

Later in the meeting, Commissioner Vicky Darden made two presentations on behalf of the board. The rst was a certificate of appreciation presented to local pastor Bishop Timothy Dortch and his wife in recognition of their contributions to the community.

Darden also surprised Town Manager Octavious Murphy, asking him and the board to come in front of the commissioners’ table where she presented Murphy with a photo portrait of his mother, who died a week earlier and was buried

“We are 20 days into a 90-day project, but we are hopeful that it will be straightened out since the progress meeting,” they said.

So far, the old fence was removed. Temporary fencing was installed, and grading and piping had begun. Environmental testing returned from Phase 2, indicating that additional testing as well as an environmental management plan, needed to be done because of an issue discovered in the soil between the two northern fuel tanks. The board approved a work authorization amendment to allow up to $19,000 of the project’s budget to be reallocated to cover the need.

Greg VanderMolen gave an update on the apron rehabilitation project.

“The approach survey was recently done, and we should have the required certi cations soon,” VanderMolen said.

He explained that the project should be ready for bidding and funding soon, with a possible start date in the summer of 2027.

Raynor shared that plans are getting updated to access transportation funding for the airport maintenance building.

“The state will feel better

Saturday. Murphy was moved to tears by the gesture. In other business, the board voted to enter into an agreement with the town of Goldsboro to rent a VAC truck and two Goldsboro sta members to assist the town in cleaning sewage lines at a daily rate of $1,655.69. Mount Olive’s VAC truck has been out of service, needing extensive repairs. The board also, on a vote of 3-2, approved restoring Mayor Jerome Newton with full access to the town hall. Commissioners Gena Messer Knode and C.J. Weaver voted against the measure, which had been added to the agenda during the meeting by Mayor Pro Tem Delreese Simmons.

about using transportation dollars on it if it’s on airport property,” Raynor said.

The board discussed getting the necessary paperwork in place to secure funding and start bidding for the work before the funding due date expires in June.

The board discussed and unanimously reappointed four of its members: Chairman Jack Alphin and Board Members Larry Debose, A.J. Connors and Jerry Tysinger.

The board discussed and approved new signage for the airport. The new sign is part of a project by Economic Development to provide uniform signage at the airport and four industrial parks throughout the county. All the signs will feature a brick base, a white lighted sign with interchangeable business slots and the Duplin County logo.

Raynor shared the April fuel report. For April, there were 738 operations, 3,175 gallons of avgas sold and approximately 12,000 gallons of jet fuel sold.

The board discussed gas prices, personnel changes and activity in nearby airports. The meeting adjourned shortly thereafter.

MARK GRADY FOR DUPLIN JOURNAL

Mount Olive Town Manager Octavious Murphy, right, is moved to tears as Commissioner Vicky Darden presents him with a photo portrait of his mother, who died a week earlier.

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

When does speech become dangerous?

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

AMERICANS LOVE arguing about free speech. We invoke the First Amendment as a kind of political force eld: You can say whatever you want, whenever you want, without consequence.

But the First Amendment only restricts government action. It does not guarantee you a career, a platform or immunity from backlash. The real question is not whether certain speech is legal but rather what kind of speech deserves social consequences — and what kind doesn’t.

And if we’re talking about reckless political speech, we should talk about Jimmy Kimmel. Years ago, he abandoned comedy in favor of applause lines, tearful monologues and the occasional performance of empathy. He’s an unfunny late-night scold who treats half the country as a punchline.

As annoying as that is, being unfunny is not a crime. The bigger issue is when media gures cross the line from tastelessness into rhetoric that creates a permission structure for violence.

To understand the di erence, it helps to break political speech into three categories.

First: illegal speech.

Yes, illegal political speech exists in America.

A classic example: “I want to kill the president.” That’s not merely commentary. It is an actionable, direct threat.

There is also incitement. Under the Supreme Court’s Brandenburg standard, speech quali es as incitement only if it is intended to and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

“Someone should do something about the president” is protected, though irresponsible, speech. “Go kill the president” crosses into territory the law can punish. It’s speech but also an attempt to trigger violence.

Second: typical in ammatory rhetoric.

American politics is lled with heated language. “Fight like hell.” “We’re going to war with the other party.” That sort of rhetoric can be ugly and excessive, but it is also normal.

We’ve seen how absurd it becomes when people try to treat that as literal incitement. After Gabby Gi ords was shot, some on the left blamed Sarah Palin because a campaign graphic had “targeted” certain districts. That was ridiculous. Using combative imagery is not the same as directing violence.

Third: the permission structure for violence.

A permission structure for violence is created when people repeatedly portray political opponents as monsters.

This is how you create the mental environment where unstable people conclude that violence is justi ed. If the president is a traitor, rapist, pedophile and mastermind behind a corrupt system, then how else could he be stopped?

This kind of rhetoric leads directly to chaos. It is also the kind of rhetoric Kimmel has tra cked in for years.

Recently, Kimmel tastelessly joked that Melania Trump had “the glow of an expectant widow.” It was disgusting, and she has every right to be furious. But it wasn’t a call to violence. It was a cheap, ugly joke suggesting she secretly wants her husband dead.

Kimmel later claimed he rejects violent rhetoric, then immediately pivoted to blaming Donald Trump for rhetoric that supposedly inspires violence. It was the standard modern play: Insult someone, then wrap yourself in moral superiority.

But when it comes to rhetoric that encourages violence, it isn’t the widow joke

that should be the focus; it’s the conspiracism. Kimmel has repeatedly called Trump a pedophile, suggested he is connected to Je rey Epstein and involved in a coverup, called him a rapist and accused him of protecting pedophiles, coming after voting rights, enriching billionaires while harming the poor, and manipulating the system to evade accountability. That is not “normal political speech.” It is speech that turns a political opponent into a movie villain — a gure so corrupt and monstrous that extreme action begins to feel righteous.

This kind of conspiratorial framing has a track record. It fuels ugly episodes of modern political violence: a steady stream of baseless accusations designed to convince audiences that the other side is not merely wrong but evil.

If someone eventually acts on that belief, we shouldn’t pretend it came out of nowhere.

So should Kimmel be red?

Firing him for the Melania joke would be punishing the wrong o ense. A tasteless, bad joke is not the central issue.

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

If America wants to lower the temperature, scrutiny should be directed at conspiratorial storytelling that teaches people to hate.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author.

(Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

California copied Europe’s insane energy playbook

European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties.

EVEN AS U.S. GASOLINE prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising more than half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.

The result is embedded in ation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry. Europeans don’t just pay more to ll their tanks — they pay more for everything that moves on petroleum. Their living standards su er accordingly.

Energy security delivers America’s second big advantage. The U.S. produces more than two-thirds of its own oil and imports the rest mostly from Canada and other friendly Western Hemisphere sources. We are largely insulated from Middle East chaos.

Europe, by contrast, lectures the world about “energy transition” while remaining dangerously

dependent on imports even as it sits atop known, undeveloped reserves. The same nations that demonize oil and gas refuse to produce their own, choosing instead to outsource vulnerability rst to Russia, then to OPEC and now to U.S. LNG. This is not prudent policy. It is willful self-sabotage clothed in false virtue.

Nowhere is this failure more glaring than California, which has imported Germany’s disastrous model wholesale and turned itself into America’s premier energy basket case. With an 81-cent state gas tax, 60-70 cent cap-and-trade penalty, boutique “California blend” fuel mandates, and layers of environmental rules explicitly designed to punish gasoline and driving, the Golden State routinely posts pump prices $2 above the national average.

In-state production has been strangled. Re neries are closing or idling. The state now imports gasoline from South Korea, the Bahamas and the Middle East, exposing its residents to global shocks while preaching climate alarm orthodoxy.

Gavin Newsom and his bureaucrats want voters to believe it’s all President Donald Trump’s fault, but it isn’t. It is the entirely foreseeable outcome of using tax and regulatory warfare to force a premature energy transition. Instead of transitioning, California is deindustrializing and making its citizens poorer in the process.

The broader lesson is damning. High-tax, high-regulation, import-dependent energy policies do not deliver utopia or planetary salvation. They deliver chronic vulnerability, in ated living costs and economic drag. Europe’s drivers pay double or triple because politicians prioritized revenue and ideology over abundance. California followed suit and became a cautionary tale for the rest of America.

But most U.S. states reap the rewards of the opposite approach: Reasonable taxation that doesn’t treat fuel as a sin, aggressive domestic production that delivers record output and supply chains resilient enough to weather global crises without collapse. Prices rise during supply shocks, but there are no lines at the pump and no systemic shortages. That is the fruit of policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

America’s advantage at the pump is neither accident nor mystery: It is the direct result of rejecting the punitive European model that California eagerly embraced. Policymakers who ignore this lesson are not visionaries: They are ideologues imposing measurable harm on the people they claim to serve.

The current global turmoil should serve as a wake-up call. Punitive taxation and regulatory strangulation of conventional energy produce scarcity, insecurity and higher costs borne by working families.

America’s formula of lower taxes and energy dominance delivers a ordability, resilience and genuine energy security.

Europe — and California — stand as expensive warnings of what happens when nations choose ideology over reality. Americans outside of the Golden State should reject that failing path with zero apology.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. (Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation)

COLUMN | DAVID BLACKMON

COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO

When Warsaw answered a joke with hospitality, the country noticed

A 1977 radio stunt inspired a community e ort that drew national praise

By Rebecca Whitman Cooke and Ena Sellers Duplin Journal

WARSAW — A recently rediscovered scrapbook once kept by former Warsaw mayor John L. Powell Jr. is bringing new life to one of the town’s proudest moments and revealing how far its impact reached.

Placed in the hands of a local resident for safekeeping just a couple of months ago, the scrapbook holds more than photos and clippings from a remarkable weekend in 1977.

Tucked inside are dozens of letters, many still in their original envelopes, sent from across the United States, each congratulating Warsaw for how it responded after becoming the punchline of a joke.

It started as a gimmick. In July 1977, WIS Radio (560 AM) in Columbia, South Carolina, ran what it called a “No Contest Contest,” poking fun at Warsaw and nearby Turkey. The grand prize was a bus ticket to Warsaw by way of Turkey along with “a carton of warm milk, an old magazine and a cheese sandwich.”

The station described Warsaw as an “out-of-the-way hick town.” Rather than object, local leaders organized a plan to welcome the contest winners and turn the joke into an opportunity to showcase the town’s character.

Letters went out to residents and businesses asking for small donations to help host the winning couple, Joseph C. and Joy Wilson of Leesville, South Caro -

WARSAW from page A1

because of the animosity, the disdain that I have been shown, I copy the attorney now on my messages. I get here, and they won’t let me in.”

Duplin Journal contacted Turner for comment about the allegations on April 27 and May 4 but has not received a response.

Separate from the mayor’s claims, recent board meetings have highlighted a range of operational challenges, with divisions among o cials often apparent. Meetings, sometimes lasting two to three hours, have at times become bogged down in procedural uncertainty, particularly over whether items require formal motions or are intended for discussion only. Commissioners have frequently spoken over one another while attempting to clarify how to proceed.

In an interview, Commissioner Ebony Willis-Wells said the issue is rooted in how meetings are structured.

“Often, you hear certain com-

TAX from page A1

for more developed proposals from the state legislature. He also voiced concern about aligning too closely with a statewide position, preferring that Duplin County maintain an independent stance rather than being grouped with all 100 counties through NCACC action.

O cials noted that early state discussions included eliminating property taxes entirely but later shifted toward proposals involving caps or limits on local tax rates. Commissioners raised concerns about how essential services such as EMS and public safety would be funded under such changes.

The board ultimately agreed to revise the resolution to clarify language, including explicitly supporting e orts to reduce tax burdens while opposing restrictions on local authority. The amended resolution passed 3–1. County Manager Lisa Hughes reported that the county applied for federal funding through U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy’s ofce. This includes a $32 mil-

REBECCA WHITMAN COOKE FOR DUPLIN JOURNAL

Above, Joseph C. Wilson, right, and Joy Wilson, left, of Leesville, South Carolina, were guests of the town of Warsaw in 1977 after winning a radio contest that prompted a community response to a local joke. Right, a Big Spring (Texas) Herald article from Oct. 25, 1977, re ects national coverage of Warsaw’s response.

lina. The response was immediate. By August 1977, the couple had been contacted, and plans were set for an Oct. 21-22 visit.

“We are very proud of our town and the surrounding communities and, while Station WIS has put us down with their o -color description of our town, we will try to show you that any citizen in this country would be proud to call Warsaw their hometown,” Powell wrote in a letter to the Wilsons.

Milford Quinn, then owner of Quinn Wholesale Co., vol-

missioners saying, ‘We have always done it this way.’ However, as we all know, the old way of doing things hasn’t always been right and fair. When meetings devolve into hours of circular debate, it’s usually a failure of structure rather than a lack of passion,” said Willis-Wells.

At the April meeting, commissioners noted that the administrative o ce has been reduced from four to three employees responsible for managing municipal operations. Boykin said sta ng shortages alone do not explain the town’s di culties, pointing instead to concerns about leadership responsiveness.

Willis-Wells raised concerns about the town’s administrative structure, where the town manager is also serving as nance ofcer and town clerk.

“The arrangement where one individual holds the titles of town manager, nance o cer and town clerk is a common reality in small-town governance, but it is a ‘high-stakes’ e ciency.” She said the structure creates risk.

lion request for James Kenan High School renovations and $800,000 for the new public safety building. Hughes noted that both projects were submitted under a tight deadline due to the requirements of the congressional funding program. To qualify, projects had to be “shovel-ready,” meaning design work, planning or readiness documentation was already in place to support immediate implementation if funding is awarded. Preliminary feedback suggests the county may receive approximately $1.8 million in total funding. Final funding determinations are still pending and will depend on congressional allocation decisions.

In facility-related business, the board approved an $11,840 drainage contract for the Animal Services facility with Riley Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance. The project will improve stormwater drainage, extend runo systems away from the building and replace mulch with more durable erosion-resistant materials.

Commissioners also adopt-

unteered to y the couple in and back home on his six-passenger private plane. When the Wilsons arrived at Duplin Airport, they were greeted by “200 cheering residents.”

Powell presented them with a key to the town, and they stayed as guests of the Vintage Inn.

A pig pickin’ at the Duplin Country Club set the tone for the weekend. Over the next two days, the Wilsons were hosted by local families and toured through Warsaw’s neighborhoods, historic homes and

“While e cient, this structure creates a ‘single point of failure’ and violates the most basic principles of government oversight,” Willis-Wells said.

She added that oversight is lacking under the current arrangement.

“No adequate checks and balances exist when one person holds these three key roles,” she said.

Willis-Wells also said she does not believe the structure aligns with best practices.

Concerns about oversight extend to employee evaluations.

“I am not aware of any evaluations being done on any town employee. I have spoken with several employees and former employees who stated they have never been evaluated.”

She said this absence contributes to broader issues. She also emphasized the importance of transparency.

“Transparency is the foundation of local government. Without a documented evaluation process, the board cannot fully honor the trust citizens place in them to lead, enforce our laws

ed a new animal shelter emergency boarding policy, allowing temporary fee waivers for pets displaced by emergencies such as house res or vehicle accidents. Animals may be boarded free for up to seven days, with the county manager authorized to extend the waiver to 14 days in special cases. Hughes said the policy is intended to assist residents during emergency situations.

“It’s just trying to help people when they’re in their hour of need,” said County Manager Lisa Hughes. “In my 30 years in government, this is the rst time that I’ve ever had an incident like this happen.”

Administrative updates included several sta ng and structural changes. IT Director Frankie Herring retired April 30, with Brandon James appointed as the new IT director. Also, Deputy County Manager Carrie Shields submitted her resignation e ective May 28.

Hughes also announced an internal restructuring of county purchasing functions, consolidating procurement responsibil-

and as far north as North Dakota and Michigan. By year’s end, Powell had collected 33 letters and clippings from 17 U.S. states and one Canadian province. Many were from individuals who had read about the event and wrote to express support for the town’s response.

“I think it proved that Warsaw wasn’t as bad as the radio announcer thought,” resident Elizabeth Carlton said. “It also proves you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

The North Carolina Department of Commerce also took notice, commending the town’s civic pride and pointing to it as an example of what makes communities across the state strong.

“It’s this kind of spirit, civic pride and enterprise on the part of Tar Heels that has made North Carolina one of the top travel and tourist destinations in the nation,” wrote then-Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Commerce D.M. Faircloth in a letter to Powell.

For those involved, the weekend left a lasting impression.

“It was a good project for the town to work together on,” said W.G. Britt, owner of Duplin Trading Company at the time. “It also helped clean up the town some. The people really put their best foot forward.”

Nearly 50 years later, the scrapbook continues to capture that moment.

landmarks, including Warsaw Baptist Church, the Country Squire, Westwater Gardens, James Sprunt Community College and Liberty Hall — each stop another e ort to show the pride locals felt in their town. And the e ort didn’t go unnoticed. News of how Warsaw responded spread quickly, and the letters preserved in Powell’s scrapbook show just how widely the story resonated.

Newspapers and magazines spread the story as far west as Los Angeles and San Francisco

and manage the town’s resources e ectively.”

Willis-Wells said divisions are a ecting governance.

“I am one vote on this board, and I intend to make it count,” said Willis-Wells. “Over the next three months, my primary focus will be to voice the urgency of completion of a formal evaluation for the town manager to ensure our town’s leadership remains e ective and accountable.”

Boykin has suggested the town explore participation in a National Civility Program, which promotes respectful communication, collaboration and better decision-making practices. At the April meeting, he asked Turner to bring it as a future action item for board consideration.

All members of the board were contacted for comment. As of press deadline, only one commissioner — Willis-Wells — responded to Duplin Journal’s request for comment.

Duplin Journal submitted a public records request under North Carolina Public Re-

ities into a centralized system. A current IT department purchasing/business analyst will transition into a countywide purchasing coordinator role. The change will eliminate the IT-speci c purchasing position in the upcoming budget cycle and is intended to streamline procurement and centralize vendor tracking across departments.

In other business

O cials provided an update on a proposed sewer system project for Calico Bay and East Log Cabin. The system would use low-pressure pumps from individual homes feeding into centralized lines connecting to Wallace and Teachey, depending on nal routing decisions. Estimated costs for the Calico Bay portion are approximately $2.5 million, including construction and engineering. However, participation remains limited, with only seven of roughly 29 parcels expressing interest so far. Monthly costs are projected at $50 to $70 per household, in addition to exist-

“This was a big deal for Warsaw,” said Susan Frederick, the Warsaw resident who was given the scrapbook. “We want those who don’t know to learn about it and those that were there to remember.”

Many of those who organized the weekend are gone, but their legacy remains in the letters they received and the example they set.

For Frederick, the scrapbook documents not only the 1977 event, but shows what a community can accomplish when it comes together.

cords Law to the town manager on April 21. The request sought documents related to agenda-setting and communications, policies governing access to nancial records and administrative o ces by elected o cials, personnel evaluation policies, and any publicly releasable records associated with a $38,500 settlement involving a May 2025 incident with the Warsaw Police Department in which a man alleged personal injuries.

After a follow-up on April 27, Turner provided the following statement.

“We currently have a high volume of records request and we are short sta ed,” the statement said. “Records requests are answered in the order they are received, so please be patient with me. I will get you a response as soon as possible.”

Boykin said he plans to release additional information in the coming weeks outlining his assessment of the town’s progress and ongoing challenges, which he said will provide further clarity for residents.

ing water bills. Commissioners emphasized that feasibility depends on participation levels and funding availability. A follow-up is scheduled for June 1. The board voted to accept a $149,100 Federal Aviation Administration transfer from the Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport Authority to the Duplin County Airport. O cials said the county was noti ed late the previous week and must accept and transfer the funds by June 30 or risk losing them. The grant requires no local match. At the time of approval, sta said it was still unclear whether the funds would supplement or replace existing FAA allocations. The county will also implement a new preagenda review process for Board of Commissioners meetings. A sta -level meeting will now be held before agendas are nalized, involving the county manager, clerk to the board, deputy county manager, nance o cer, HR o cer and relevant sta . The goal is to ensure all supporting documentation is complete before items reach the public meeting.

a berry fun time

Strawberry Festival rolls on despite rainy Saturday

While the weather wasn’t ideal on Saturday for this year’s Carolina Strawberry Festival in downtown Wallace, the weekend still drew strong crowds and plenty of enthusiasm. Friday evening’s festival kicko , featuring the Band of Oz, rides, and a wide variety of food and vendors, brought many out to enjoy the festivities.

As soon as the carnival rides started operating Friday evening, parents and kids lined up, eager to buy tickets and join in the fun.

The real star of the show, strawberries, made their presence known in baskets of fresh berries

from Cottle Organics Farm, as well as on T-shirts and in a variety of foods, including ice cream. Despite Saturday’s rain, many runners participated in the 5K walk and run and the Strawberry Jam one-mile fun run. Even in wet conditions, families continued to turn out to support local vendors and take part in a long-standing community tradition rooted in togetherness and local agriculture. The rainfall was also welcomed across Duplin County after a prolonged dry spell, providing needed relief for area farmers, including strawberry growers.

Two tables of bright red strawberries from Cottle Organics Farm stood out at their booth during the 2026 Carolina Strawberry Festival in downtown Wallace over the weekend.

Haylin Mejia of Wallace tackles the tall rock-climbing wall during the 2026 Carolina Strawberry Festival in downtown Wallace.

Top, friends Asia Faison, left, and Haylie Kemp enjoy a sweet break with strawberry ice cream at the 2026 Carolina Strawberry Festival. Left, Wallace Mayor Jason Wells, right, and Wallace Chamber of Commerce President Brett Roderick welcome the crowd from the main stage at the 2026 Carolina Strawberry Festival. Right, the swings proved to be a popular ride during the 2026 Carolina Strawberry Festival.

PHOTOS BY MARK GRADY FOR DUPLIN JOURNAL

DUPLIN SPORTS Panthers sweep

Three-team photo nish

“They trusted the process,”

Dennis Ly, WRH coach

The ’Dawgs got past the Tigers to share SVC title with JK and Princeton

By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal

TEACHEY — Wallace-Rose Hill is unbeaten when Gabriel Debnam scores a goal.

The junior mid elder scored twice during a 3-0 win over James Kenan last week.

The ’Dawgs’ sixth win since losing to JK a month ago and the Tigers’ win over Princeton a day earlier resulted in a three-way tie atop the Swine Valley Conference leaderboard.

Senior middie Kaylee Guzman added her third score of the season, and WRH benetted when JK’s Aleyah Wilson hurt her shoulder 20 min-

utes into the match and was unable to continue. Wilson scored two late goals when the Tigers beat WRH 2-0 on March 31 in Warsaw.

“That changed the whole complexion of the match for us,” said JK coach Kenny Williams, whose club beat Princeton 2-1 the previous day to set up the matchup. “We were playing pretty well and controlling the play well. Wallace played really well, especially in the mid eld, which put pressure on us in the second half.”

Guzman’s redirected kick 13 minutes into the match came after Wilson had three solid chances of scoring in the box. It stayed 1-0 until the second half, but the Bulldogs’ passing and ball movement was clearly better than JK.

Goalie Gissele Licona made seven saves.

“We’ve worked on it all year long, and tonight it showed,” said WRH coach Dennis Ly. “They trusted the process. Our seniors didn’t want to come o the eld. No one expected us to be in this position, and our communication has been a key. We talk.”

It’s been a historic season for both schools.

WRH (11-7, 10-2) already has its most wins in school history, while JK (13-5, 10-2) collected its most wins since 2017’s squad went 17-4-2.

Debnam pushed in her ninth and 10th goals of the season in the second half.

The rst came nine minutes after intermission, and the second was midway through the second half o passes from Brianna Maradiaga and Bayleen Flores, WRH’s leading scorer with 16.

Debnam, a junior, has scored 10 times in three consecutive seasons. WRH is 8-0

See SOCCER, page B3

Blue Devils to capture ECC championship

East Duplin beat SL 2-1 and 7-6 for its rst ECC title since 2022

By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal

TEACHEY — Good baseball teams nd a variety of ways to win, and capturing one-run games turns the seed into banquet-style entrees.

Following a pair of one-run triumphs, Duplin captured its rst ECC title since 2022 following 2-1 and 7-6 triumphs over South Lenoir (13- 6, 7-3).

The Panthers needed just a split for the crown, which was held from them from 2017 to 2022 by powerhouse Midway, which ED played evenly though were often on the short end of the stick. It was the rst triumph over the Blue Devils in three seasons, covering ve games.

And make no doubt about it, the two wins were possible because of the e orts of a number of players.

In the 7-6 win, Shawn Marshburn, Luke Hall, Gavin Holmes, Jack Tuck and Hayes Lanier each had two hits. Colton Holmes and Brayden Jones each slashed a single and seven Panthers scored. ED (14-5, 10-0)

In the win that clinched the crown, JP Murphy and Gavin Holmes had a key run-scoring singles, Marshburn was 3 for 3 and Silas Jarman had two hits in three trips to the plate.

Thigpen also e ectively used three pitchers — Jones, Murphy and Gavin Holmes — in both wins. Holmes went 41⁄3 innings and Murphy 22⁄3 frames in the second win, while Jones, a freshman, went 32⁄3 innings, Murphy 21⁄3 innings and Holmes a scoreless seventh in the league-clinching victory, inducing three y ball outs to Murphy in center eld.

While the home win after claiming the title was impressive, the road win carries more weight since the Panthers won a tough baseball battle. Holmes, an all-state player from a season ago, drove in the rst run in the third. Murphy, a senior captain, made it 2-0 in the fourth, scoring Tuck, who bunted his way aboard.

ED’s three hurlers held a formidable Blue Devils lineup to six hits. Each were tough in key spots, with runners in scoring position and on ball-strike counts that favored hitters. SL had at least a runner

See BASEBALL, page B3

Road victory delivers Panthers share of ECC title

East Duplin beat South Lenoir 6-5 on the road and fell 5-4 at home to split the crown with the Blue Devils

By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal

DEEP RUN — Winning ugly beats any form of losing.

And though East Duplin softball coach Greg Jenkins described his team’s 6-5 road win over South Lenoir as “our worst game of the season,” it still put the Panthers in the driver’s seat of the ECC. ED would lose a 5-4 heartbreaker three days later to the

Blue Devils (15-7, 8-2) as both schools tied for the top spot in the 3A/4A league.

The split was enough to earn Jenkins and his 25th Panthers squad (17-3, 8-2) the No. 5 seed in the East in the 4A state tournament bracket.

SL, meanwhile, took the No. 6 seed in the 3A.

It was ED’s rst league crown since its 2023 squad went 12-0 in the loop. The two schools also tied for the crown in 2021 with identical 11-1 marks.

That’s all history as the Panthers await the winner of No. 13 First Flight and No. 20 Southwest Onslow for a second-round playo game on May 7. No. 5 Bunn (16-5) and

top seed Randleman (22-2) await as possible matchups.

Panthers slip past Blue Devils

ED had made just eight errors coming into the rst game of its series with SL but bobbled and errantly threw the ball away on ve plays. Jenkins and fans were in shock.

But the Panthers made enough plays and had enough o ense to claim the win.

Winning pitcher Zoe Turner (8-0) retired the side in order in the rst and third, gave up two runs in the second and

See SOFTBALL, page B2

EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

WRH’s Angela Rosales (1), Bayleen Flores (18) and Yasmin Melendez (6) celebrate Gabriel Debnam’s (5) goal against JK.

EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

ED’s Leighton Davis (17) has emerged as a hitter and third baseman for the Panthers.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

SPONSORED BY BILL CARONE

Adrian Glover

Wallace-Rose Hill, track and eld

It’s no secret Adrian Glover has speed. He ashed it on the football eld last fall.

Last week, he documented it on the track at the Swine Valley Conference Championships at Princeton High.

The Wallace-Rose Hill juniors nal lunge in the 200 beat Goldsboro’s Alexandro Innocent by 0.06 seconds as Glover hit the tape in 22.10 and his counterpart in 20.16. But Innocent prevailed by 0.08 seconds in the 100 (10.89 to 10.97).

Glover and Innocent recently showed the big schools how it is done at the Seahawk Invitational at UNCW.

Glover also ran a leg on the Bulldogs’ winning 400 relay team, sharing the baton with Jamari Carr, Matt Wells and Azaryon Clibbons to clip the Goldsboro foursome by 0.08 seconds.

Look for more highlights from Glover in the NCHSAA’s East Region championships in Kinston on May 9, according to longtime track coach Will Je ers.

Tigers, Rebels crash into playo s with loaded lineups

ND shared the CC title and earned the top seed in 2A, while JK is No. 5 in 3A

By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal

TEACHEY — James Kenan and North Duplin took care of business in a big way last week.

Both earned a rst-round bye in the state playo s and will host a second-round a air on May 8.

While it was somewhat expected in Calypso, the Tigers had a record-setting spring.

JK (17-3) won its most games in at least 25 years. Its last winning season was 2022 (12-9).

The Tigers failed to win a game in 2016 and 2018 and just two in 2017, and they were 17-37 from 2023 to 2025.

But the current Tigers can smack the ball around the diamond.

JK scored ve times in the fth inning o Wallace-Rose Hill hurler Payton Tynall and held on for an 9-6 win to sweep the Duplin County rivalry series.

Kenadi Gideons, Scarlett Deluca, Sadie Casteen and Peyton Ezzell each had two RBIs, and Shylah Sloan scored twice and drove in a run.

Jansley Page and Maggie Boone scored on a triple by Isabella Parker as WRH (9-10) went in front 2-0.

JK would take the lead for good in the second with three runs as Deluca and Ezzell each doubled and Gideons singled.

Doubles by Casteen, Ava Jones and Kinzley Sloan put up ve on the scoreboard for JK in the fth.

WRH hung close behind a run-scoring hit by Azee Monk in fourth and an RBI triple by Hannah Baker in the sixth.

Up 9-4 with three outs left, WRH took advantage of three walks by Jones and two errors that scored a pair of runs.

And there is a chance for a third meeting between the two foes.

If No. 12 WRH beats No. 21 Pasquotank (4-10) in the rst round, it will travel to No. 5 JK on May 8. That winner will likely see No. 4 Trask (13-4) in the third round.

The Tigers’ win over Northside-Jacksonville dropped JK one spot in the RPI rankings.

Rebels continue supremacy of Carolina Conference

North Duplin captured a share of rst place in the Carolina Conference last week with mercy rule wins over West Columbus 15-0 and Lakewood 10-0.

SOFTBALL from page B1

stopped the Blues from big innings in the fourth, fth, sixth and seventh frames.

She walked the opening two hitters in the seventh and allowed a run, just as she did in the fourth and sixth.

The senior intentionally walked Rylan Wade, who had homered in the sixth, and then whi ed Lily Cole to end the game.

ED got out of the fth without allowing a run as shortstop Ava Noble recovered from an error by making a jumping catch of a line drive that would have scored two runs.

Lorena Rodriguez keyed a double play in the sixth following the solo shot by Wade, and Turner induced a weak ground ball for the third out.

Noble scored o a sacri ce by Karsyn Parker in the second inning for the rst run of the a air.

SL countered with two in the home half of the inning for its only lead.

It didn’t last long as ED tied it in the third and got key hits from Sophia Jones, Leighton Davis and a run-scoring ground out from Lorena Rodriguez to go in front 3-2.

JK’s Sadie Casteen snags a throw to send WRH’s Sophia Sloan to the dugout. Lilly Fulghum was in the circle three years ago when ND advanced to the 1A nal. ND in No. 1 in the East and will host a secondround playo game on May 8. 7

Strikeouts for ND’s Gracie Higginbotham in three innings during a 10-0 win over Lakewood

The Rebels (13-1, 10-1) have won 10 straight and captured at least a share of the title for the past six years. The No. 1 seed in the 2A playo s will await the winner of Northampton and West Columbus for a second-round game in Calypso.

Senior Lilly Fulghum had three hits and three RBIs in the win over the Vikings. Fulghum was on the mound three years ago when ND made it to the 1A nals. Fulghum didn’t yield a hit and struck out six in three innings.

Marissa Bernal, Wyllow Holmes, Ady Spence and Gracie Higginbotham each had a pair of RBIs.

Fulghum and Bernal each drove in three against the Leopards.

Southpaw Higginbotham threw three innings in the circle, whi ng seven and walking one, while Spence had two hitless innings.

No. 5 Rosewood, No. 4 East Carteret and No. 8 Camden County pose threats in the top half of the bracket. No. 3 Perquimans and No. 2 Manteo are obvious threats in the bottom.

Crusaders to host rst-round playo game

Harrells Christian Academy (9-8, 4-7) thinks it can play with the big players in the NCISAA.

The Crusaders got their chance with an opening 2A playo game against Berean Baptist Academy on May 5. Last week, they escaped with a 6-5 win over Cape Fear (6-5) and then ripped Wilmington Christian 15-0.

In the walk-o win Amory Merritt, Emily Patram, Landry Singletary and Savannah Stevens had RBIs. The Crusaders led 5-3 in the fth, and after a scoreless sixth, both teams scored twice in the seventh.

Breelyn Peed limited the Eagles to one hit, striking out 10 and not allowing a walk. HCA scored four runs in each of the rst three innings.

Mary Willow Rumbold had two hits and drove in three runs. Patram and Peed each had two RBIs.

Freshman Lorena Rodriguez is playing like a seasoned player for ED.

Turner singled to start the two-run fth that put ED in control of a tight game. The Panthers took advantage of two SL errors to lead 6-3. Rodriguez singled and scored in the next inning o an RBI rocket to left eld from Noble. A lunging catch of a line drive o the bat of Jones prevented two runs from crossing the plate in the sixth as left elder Lyndsey Phi-

lyaw made a sensational play. Kellynn Swinson limited the Panthers to four hits in the Blue Devils’ 5-4 win in Beulaville. SL led throughout and 5-1 until ED scored three times in the sixth.

Hunter knocked in two teammates with Jones driving in the third run. Makenzie Herring and Carley Boone combined for ve of SL’s 10 hits and four RBIs.

EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

PHOTOS BY EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

Warren, Williams, Price carry Rebels to seventh victory in nine games

The Bulldogs beat the Tigers to get a rst-round home game in the playo s

By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal

CALYPSO — A pitcher from the old guard and a hitter rising like a Phoenix carried North Duplin to a 4-2 win last week over winless West Columbus.

Rebels right-hander Holden Williams gave up a run in the third and one in the sixth. The senior also drove in a run.

Meanwhile, sophomore Noah Price continued to prove he’s on an elite level by going 3 for 4.

Price, who has cracked 13 hits in his last six games, is hitting .571. He’s had a hit or an RBI in 14 of 15 games this season with 11 walks and one strikeout in 60 plate apperances.

ND got run-scoring hits from Kayden Bowden and Cole Grady and scored all of its runs in the third inning.

Three days later, the Rebels won a 17-11 slugfest with Lakewood for its seventh win in their last nine games. ND (9 - 6, 7-4) tied East Bladen (10-11, 8-4) for third place in the Carolina Conference.

Price, Garris Warren and Keiz Brock each bashed three hits against the Leopards. Grady drove in three runs with two base knocks.

The teams combined for 34 hits. Three Rebels hurlers gave up six walks and eight earned runs.

ND split with second-place

SOCCER from page B1 when she puts the ball in the back of the net this spring. Her only two-goal output came in a 5-3 win over Pender in which she also had two assists.

Goalie Gissele Licona made seven saves.

Flores had a hat trick during

ED’s Gavin Holmes was an all-state shortstop last season. This spring, he’s also contribute heavily to the pitching sta , getting the save against South Lenoir to win the ECC title.

East Columbus and East Bladen while losing two close a airs with Hobbton (16-4, 10 -2).

The No. 12 Rebels were slated host No. 20 Eno River Academy (6-8) this week in the rst round of the 2A playo s.

The winner gets a shot at No. 4 Voyager Academy (15.6) on May 8 in Durham.

Jackson delivers walk- o hit for Bulldogs

Luke Jackson’s shot into the left-center gap drove in the winning run for Wallace-Rose Hill in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 10-9 revenge win over James Kenan.

The junior had three hits and a pair of RBIs on Senior Night.

June graduates Hayden Lovette, Will Brooks and Zachary Fisher were a combined 6 of 11.

Junior Gray James had two hits in three trips and scored twice.

Lovette gave up four runs in six innings while whi ng seven and walking three.

JK scored ve times in the visitor’s half of the seventh to tie the game.

Eli Avent drove in a pair of runs, and twin brother Cal, Shane Braswell and Hunter Grady added RBI singles.

WRH (8-10, 4-7) fell to JK 6-3 on March 31 in Warsaw.

The No. 16 Bulldogs earned a home playo game from the win. They were to host No. 17 Louisburg (7-12).

No. 18 JK (9-10, 4-7) travels to face No. 15 South Columbus (9-12).

a win over Rosewood two days before topping JK. Debnam added an assist, and reserve keeper Salma Sabillion made four saves in the goal. WRH logged its ninth shutout of the season and will play 4A East Duplin (14-6) this week before entering into the 3A playo s. The Panthers

Crusaders nab most

wins since 2022

Harrells Christian Academy has a shot of playing the top team in the NCISAA’s 2A playo s.

The No. 5 Crusaders (13-6, 5-4) have won ve of their last six games, including a two-game sweep of Coastal Plains member Liberty Christian.

HCA beat the Richlands school 23-0 at home and 21-1 on the road with an explosive inning in both a airs.

Davis Rogers, Reid Strickland and Jesse Smith each drove in three runs in the four-inning game in Onslow County that saw the Crusaders tack up 16 runs in the second inning.

Drake Smith and Luke Weeks each added two hits and two RBIs.

A 14-run outbreak in the fth was the highlight of the game in Harrells.

Collin Cole had three hits and four RBIs. Luke Weeks drove in three, Peyton Gomez had three hits and Strickland’s two sin-

beat WRH 5-1 on April 13 in Beulaville.

JK gets a rematch against Southwest Onlsow in Warsaw this week. The Stallions nipped the Tigers 1-0 on April 10 in Jacksonville. Yet there will be a divide between the Tigers and Bulldogs when the playo s start as JK

at second base in four innings.

Nab No. 5 seed in 4A playo s

ED’s sixth straight win came following a four-game tailspin against high-caliber competition during the Easter break.

To say the Panthers responded is an understatement: Losses to North Johnson, Rosewood and Charles B. Aycock came by a combined score of 42-15, though two games were relatively close.

gles allowed two run to cross the plate. If HCA gets past the winner of Rocky Mount Academy (8-11) and Liberty Christian (2-11) it will travel to No. 4 Burlington on May 8 in The Crusaders beat the Eagles (11-10) 9-7 on April 31 and lost an

entered this week as the No. 12 RPI team in 3A, while WRH is 24th. Princeton (14-4-2) may not have its top scorer, Taylar Johnson, but the Johnston County squad in 11th. She has 28 goals but has not played since April 2 because of an injury.

The Panthers earned the No. 5 seed in the 4A playo s and with a bye wait for the winner between No. 12 Roanoke Rapids and No. 21 Fairmont.

The Yellow Jackets gave ED its lone loss in 2022 as the No. 9 seed foiled the top seeded Panthers, who had a 23-game winning streak.

This spring, No. 1 Bunn (19-3) and No. 1 Randleman look like roadblocks for many teams in 4A.

Holmes (.433, six doubles, three triples, 20 RBIs), Marshburn (.507, 7 RBIs) and Tuck (.448, 21 runs, 17 RBIs) are hit-

Sophomore Noah Price (.571) has been a consistent bat in the ND lineup.

ND is getting pitching and hitting from Holden Williams since he returned to the lineup.

8-7 decision to its league foe in 10 innings three days later. The survivor travels to play No. 1 Freedom Christian (17-6) on May 12 in the quarter nals. The top four teams received a bye into the third round, while HCA and three other teams were given rst-round byes.

Williams took solace in the setback to JK. “It’s not what we wanted, but overall it’s been a good regular season,” he said. “But sharing it is better than not having anything at all. We picked a bad night to have a bad night, and Wallace was pumped up and deserved to win.”

ting leaders. Seniors Luke Hall (.309, four doubles, 12 RBIs), Murphy (.245, 17 walks, 10 RBIs) and Colton Holmes (.273, 18 walks, 14 RBIs) have likewise made contributions.

So have underclassmen Lanier (.294, 17 RBIs), Jarman (.258) and Jones (.237), each of whom improved to the varsity level as the season progressed.

It’s taken that kind of team effort to bring ED’s second league title since Thigpen took over in 2017. The Panthers made up for their lack of depth by contributions from nine positions.

EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

PHOTOS BY EDWARDO PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

Rebel booters seek Carolina Conference Tournament title

ND preps for the state tournament; the Panthers and Bulldogs excelled at the conference track championships

By Michael Jaenicke Duplin Journal

CALYPSO — North Duplin shared the Carolina Conference regular season title with Hobbton but can separate itself from the eld by winning the league’s tournament crown this week.

ND (13-2, 10-2) captured the CC by thumping Lakewood 9-0 as Carrly Strickland scored four goals.

Strickland has 25 goals and 10 assists as the Rebels’ top scorer.

Tristen Stemmler had a hat trick to raise her total to 20. Roselin Orozco added two goals and two assists.

Keeper Natalie Carreon stopped three shots in goal, which included a penalty-kick attempt

It is the rst time the Rebels, who started playing soccer in 2013, were even close to winning a championship.

ND’s 13 wins and eight shutouts are the most in its short history.

Sasha Arguijo has been another key contributor. She knocked in three goals during the Lakewood drubbing. The junior has 16 for the season.

Strickland had ve scores and Jazmine Manzanares a pair of goals.

ND will get a bye into the semi nals where it will face the winner of No. 4 Union and No. 5 Lakewood at East Bladen High.

The host school is the third seed and will face No. 6 East Columbus, with the winner face the survivor of No. 2 Hobbton and No. 7 West Columbus.

ND whipped the Wildcats twice this season (4-0 and 3-0), yet losses to the East Bladen 3-0) and Union (2-0) cost the Rebels the outright regular season title.

ND was 8-7 last season, its rst winning season. The previous high for wins was four (’15, ’18 and ’23). The Rebels had a three-win campaign in ’17 and had two wins in ’16 and ’22.

Here’s another way to explain ND’s past: The Rebels were 36 -114 from 2015 to the start of this season.

ND has the 10th-highest RPI among all 2A schools in the state and could be seeded as high as No. 3 in the East when the pairings are announced, though No. 1 Franklin Academy (18-0), No. 5 Camden County (16-3-1), No. 7 Lejeune (9-2-1) and even No. 9 Voyager Academy (12-4) are having banner seasons.

So too is No. 14 Hobbton (12-5), who could jump ND in the ratings with a win over the Rebels in the CC Tournament nals.

First-round games begin May 14.

TRACK AND FIELD

Several double winners at conference championships

Ten Panthers, ve Rebels and three Bulldogs captured individual track and eld events at three conference championships last week.

ND’s Abby Rose and Jair Quintana, ED’s Anamarie Rodriguez and Andraia Scarborough, and Wallace-Rose Hill’s Azaryon Clibbons were double winners.

Rose was nearly a triple winner, taking rst in the 200 (26.76) and 400 (1:05.1) while nishing second in the 100 (12.2) at the Carolina Confer-

ence meet at Lakewood High School.

Quintana was rst in the boys’ 1,600 (5:19) and 3,200 (12:26).

ED’s Rodrigues owned the 400 (1:03.5) and 800 (2:40.1) at the East Central Conference meet at Trask High.

Clibbons was the jump king at the Swine Valley Conference meet, winning the long jump (20-6) and triple jump (40-5).

Both Panthers squads returned from Pender County with tons of medals.

Scarborough controlled the discus (92-10) and shot put (33 -1).

First-place winners were Tabor Holley in the 300 hurdles (51.77), Angela Hernandez in the 1,600 (6:06), Alaina Dela Rosa in the 3,200 (13:48) and Jakayla Carr in the 100 hurdles (17.58).

The Panthers boys were led by winners DJ Davis in the long jump (19-8), Aaron Hall in the triple jump (40-3), Branson Norris in the 100 hurdles (15.88) and Zachary Ball in the 300 hurdles (41.62). Norris was second to Ball in the 300 and was voted the top eld athlete at the meet.

Other rst-place winners at the CC meet included Carell Phillips in the 400 (51.5), Messiah Cooper in the 110 hurdles (15.81) and Katy Lopez in the 3,200 (17:15).

Wallace-Rose Hill’s winners at the Swine Valley Conference championships in Princeton were Adrian Glover in the 200 (22.1) and Kentrel Williams in the 800 (2:16.6). Glover added second-place points in the 100 (10.97), as did Tashi Hu n in the shot (39-7).

WRH’s girls were paced by second-place nishes by Angelina Cavallaro (13.12 in the 100) and Zy’mira Carr (26-10 in the shot).

ND’s Sasha Arguijo (10), who has 16 goals this season, doesn’t get pushed around much in the box area or otherwise.

TOWN OF ROSE HILL PUBLIC HEARING

PUAC / DUPLIN JOURNAL

obituaries

Richard Love Mulliner

Nov. 5, 1947 – April 22, 2026

Richard Love Mulliner, son of Richard L. Mulliner and Ruth Anita Swartz, a devoted husband, father, grandfather (“Poppie”), veteran, and accomplished broadcast engineer, passed away, leaving behind a legacy of courage, curiosity, and a deep connection with those around him.

Born in Los Angeles in 1947, Richard grew up in California alongside his parents and sister, all of whom preceded him in death. From an early age, he carried a natural curiosity, quick wit, and outgoing spirit that would de ne his life and the many paths he followed.

Richard proudly served his country as a member of the United States Army Special Forces from 1966 to 1973 during the Vietnam War. His service was marked by extraordinary bravery and sacri ce. He received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service, re ecting his courage, resilience, and unwavering commitment to others.

Following his military service, Richard pursued training in radio and television technical engineering, launching a distinguished career in broadcast engineering and production. He spent decades in New York contributing his expertise to major networks, including 27 years with ABC/Disney, 9 years with WLNY, and 24 years with CBS, where he was chief engineer until his retirement. Outside of his work, Richard was especially proud of his son, Richard Mulliner Jr., PhD, whose accomplishments in the aviation industry—as a former air tra c controller

Michael “Mickey” Anthony Blue

Sept. 15, 1949 –April 22, 2026

Michael “Mickey” Anthony Blue, 76, of Leland, NC, formerly of Great Meadows, NJ, passed away on Tuesday, April 22, 2026, at the Davis Health Care Center in Wilmington.

He was born on September 15, 1949, in Newark, NJ, and lived in East Newark, Hudson County, until he joined the military, to the late Anthony Blue and the late Winifred Crawford Blue.

Mickey graduated from Queen of Peace High School in 1967, located in North Arlington, NJ. During high school, Mickey was a skilled musician in piano and accordion and played in a band (The Four Echoes) for weddings and other events and competed in band competitions.

1968-1969 - Completed two-year program in aviation mechanics at Teterboro School of

and current pilot—brought him immense pride and joy.

His work took him across the globe, where he played a role in bringing some of the world’s most signi cant moments into people’s homes. Over the years, he traveled extensively, working on coverage of major elections, international sporting events, royal state dinners, and countless historic occasions. He was part of the team behind the 1984 Summer Olympics, earning a Sports Emmy Award, and also received a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on All My Children. He took great pride in being behind the scenes of events that shaped world history.

In retirement, Richard embraced a quieter but no less ful lling chapter of life in Wallace, North Carolina, where he lived with his beloved wife, Louise. There, he found joy on the golf course and built a close-knit community at River Landing. True to his nature, he made friends everywhere he went—e ortlessly connecting with people through his warmth, humor, and genuine interest in connecting with others. Richard happily spent summers afternoons catching sh and lizards, relishing in the joy of his grandchildren.

Richard had a gift for bringing people together. He loved a good toast and knew how to command a room with ease, whether through a well-timed story, a quick laugh, or a heartfelt word. He knew people from all walks of life and never met a stranger— only future friends.

Above all, Richard will be remembered as smart, funny, kind, and endlessly engaging. He always had a story to tell, and those stories—along with the laughter and connection they brought—will live on in the hearts of those who knew him.

Richard is survived by his loving wife, Louise Mulliner; his son, Richard Mulliner Jr.; stepchildren, beloved nieces, his cherished grandchildren; and an extensive family and community of friends who will continue to celebrate his life and legacy. His was a life well lived—full of service, adventure, friendship, and love—and he will be deeply missed.

Services will be announced at a later date.

Aeronautics in Teterboro, NJ.

1969-1973 – Served in the United States Air Force during the height of the Vietnam War, servicing and repairing B-52 bomber aircraft with tours in Guam, Okinawa, the Philippines, and Turkey.

Mickey also served in the Army Reserves and the Air Force Reserves with 23 years combined military service, retiring in 2010. During this time, he also attended New Jersey Institute of Technology to study mechanical engineering, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and then continued his education to obtain his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Management. During this time, he started MAB Construction Company, buying properties and building houses, and doing various home improvement projects.

After obtaining his degrees, Mickey was also employed as an engineer for Chugach Government Solutions based in Picatinny Arsenal.

Mickey is survived by his son, Jamie Blue; his sisters, Susan Porter and her husband, Ken, Elaine Russo and her husband, Henry; his grandchildren, Christopher, James, Alexander; his nephews, Eric Porter, Gary Porter, David Russo; his nieces, Kimberly Porter, Cherlyn Russo, Diane Russo-Cheng; and a host extended family and friends who were loved dearly.

In addition to his parents, Mickey was also preceded in death by his wife, Ellen Blue.

Myrtle Lee Hall

July 22, 1943 – April 23, 2026

Myrtle Lee Hall, 82, of Warsaw, NC, passed away April 23, 2026, in Warsaw, NC. A visitation will be held from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at Hawes Funeral Home. Immediately following the visitation, there will be a celebration of life service.

Interment following the service at Middleton Cemetery in Kenansville, NC.

Katie Maready Brininger

April 28, 1946 – April 26, 2026

Katie Maready Brininger, 79, passed away on Sunday, April 26, 2026, in ECU Health Duplin Hospital, Kenansville, NC

She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Mary Alice Maready. Brothers Elwood Maready, Harley (Ina), L.D. (Lucille), and Winfred Maready A graveside service will be Thursday, April 30, 2026, at 11 a.m. at Frank Maready Cemetery at 340 Cypress Creek Road in Wallace.

She is survived by daughter Krystle Brininger Futrell (Keith) of Wallace, NC; grandson Jameson Futrell of Wallace, NC; granddaughters McKenzie Futrell and Helena Futrell, both of Chinquapin, NC; and Brooklynn Futrell of Wallace, NC; sisters-in-law: Becky Maready (Elwood) and Betty Maready (Winfred), both of Wallace, NC; and special niece and caregiver Diane Conway.

In lieu of owers, donations may be made to Community Funeral Home, P.O. Box 715, Beulaville, NC 28518.

Consonja Hall

April 22, 1958 – April 17, 2026

Kenansville- With deep sorrow, we announce that Ms. Consonja Hall, age 67, was called home to be with the Lord on Friday, April 17, 2026, at ECU Health Kenansville in Kenansville, North Carolina. Her unwavering faith was an inspiration to all, and we nd peace knowing she is resting in the arms of the Savior. The Celebration of Life will be on Friday, April 24, 2026, at 1 p.m. at J. Bernado Memorial Chapel, 195 Kenansville Hwy. Warsaw, NC 28398. There will be no viewing prior to the service. She will be laid to rest at Miller Cemetery, Perry Miller Road, Kenansville, NC.

SPONSORED BY

QUINN MCGOWEN FUNERAL HOME

Annie Fussell

Aug. 9, 1937 – April 25, 2026

Annie Jean Dail Fussell of Rose Hill (NC) departed her earthly life at midday on Saturday, April 25, 2026, while at ECU Health Duplin Hospital in Kenansville. Born on August 9, 1937, she is the daughter of the late Lee Hampton and Beatrice Mobley Dail. Also preceding her in death are her husband—Bill Fussell, and her brother—Haywood Dail. Left to cherish her memory are her children—Anita Caryl Merritts and husband Rick of Burgaw, Pam Yvonne Fusssell of Warsaw, William Mark Fussell of Albemarle, Phillip Fussell and wife Becky of Willard, and Frankie Watkins Young and husband Dennis of Southport; and siblings—Brenda Baker of Kenansville and Lee H. Dail and wife Carolyn of Wallace. Mrs. Fussell was born in Duplin County and spent most of her life there. Her career involved work as a seamstress in local textile mills and was a well-known hairdresser in her neighborhood. A very outspoken person, she was very loved by all. One of her greatest joys in life was entertaining family on every conceivable occasion especially on birthdays where children and grandchildren’s birthdays were always special events. Many of these celebrations were at the “old homeplace” where many memories were made and remembered by family. She always loved playing the piano for anyone to also enjoy. Her friends would always say “she would give her shirt right o her back if she thought someone needed or wanted it”. It should be noted that she cherished everything that anyone ever gave her. A graveside service to celebrate her life is set for 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in the Fussell Family Cemetery (o Corinth Church Road) in Rose Hill.

Geraldine Webber Register

Aug. 16, 1934 – April 25, 2026

Geraldine Webber Register, age 91, of Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, passed from this life to her new eternal life on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at Lower Cape Fear Hospice in Wilmington. She was born on August 16, 1934, in Greene County, the daughter of the late Frank and Mertie Holloman Webber. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Ernest Carl Register. Surviving are her children William Joe Bell, Vernon Wayne Williamson, and James Ray Williamson; her granddaughter Carla; numerous nieces, nephews, extended family and friends that love her dearly. Mrs. Register was a loving mother and caring grandmother who loved her family with all her heart. She was a hard worker when her health permitted. She enjoyed people and spending time with family and friends. She will surely be missed but treasured memories of her will remain in the hearts of those who knew and loved her forever. There are no services planned at this time.

David Arthur Lucas

July 1, 1942 – April 23, 2026

David Arthur Lucas, 83, of Willard, North Carolina, left this earthly life for his eternal rest on Thursday, April 23, 2026. He was born on July 1, 1942, in Darlington County, South Carolina, to the late Arthur Taylor and Amie Hall Lucas. David was also preceded in death by his rst wife, Dollie Howard Lucas, and his son-in-law, Chuck Coates.

David proudly served his country in the US Army. He was employed with Carolina Power and Light Company for 32 years as a lineman. He was a longtime member of Poston Baptist Church but for several years he attended Awaken Church. David also served as a Gideon for many years.

Surviving to cherish his memory is his best friend and wife of 34 years Gayle Batts Lucas; his sons David Arthur Lucas Jr. and wife Lee Ann of Burgaw, NC and Ernest Joseph Lucas of Beaufort, NC; his daughter Cynthia Lucas Coates of Creedmoor, NC; grandchildren Journey Chandler and husband Kyle Gray, Je ery Lucas Chandler, Jesse Lucas and Jennifer, Seth Coates, Cori Melton, Tess Melton, Kala Melton; great grandchildren Traylan Thorpe, Ivory Nash and Adonis Bullard Lee; siblings Virginia Murray of Wallace, Betty Culbreth of Magnolia, Judy Bellamy of Supply, Joyce Rackley of Willard, Donald Lucas of Forest City, NC; Jerry Lucas of Rock Hill, SC and Robert Lucas and wife Rhonda of Reidsville, NC, honorary grandson Johnathon Orr, numerous nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. David was a loving husband and caring father, Paw-Paw, brother and friend. He was a good hearted and kind man who loved his family dearly. David enjoyed hiking, shing, hunting and working on old cars. He was a jack of all trades. There was nothing that David could not do. Most of all, David loved everybody and everybody loved him. He had a heart of gold and loved being a husband, a “Paw-Paw” and “Uncle David”. He looked forward every year spending time with the close-knit group of men he worked with at CP&L at the Outer Banks. David loved to travel and has visited every state in the United States and many places around the world. He loved missions and was a true servant of God. David traveled to Alaska, Cuba and El Salvador on mission trips where he acquired many friends. He served one week a month for one year in Mississippi during the Hurricane Katrina Relief. David hiked over 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail. He also traveled to Oregon and hiked part of the Paci c Crest with his son, David Jr. David loved the Lord and is now receiving his rewards that he laid up in Heaven all these years. He will surely be missed but will never be forgotten.

The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at Quinn-McGowen Funeral Home in Wallace.

Funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 27, 2026, at Poston Baptist Church with Pastor Brad Carter and Pastor Chris Jarman o ciating.

Burial will follow at Rock sh Memorial Cemetery in Wallace, NC. In lieu of owers, the family requests that memorial gifts be sent to Baptist Men Mission, PO Box 1107, Cary, NC 27512, or to The Gideons International, P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, TN 372140800.

Devon Carroll “Bill” Herring

Dec. 7, 1934 – April 26, 2026

Mr. Devon Carroll “Bill” Herring, Mount Olive resident, passed away very peacefully and surrounded by family, early Sunday morning, April 26, 2026, at his home. He was 91. Funeral services were on Tuesday, April 28, at 7 pm. at First Pentecostal Holiness Church of Mount Olive, with visitation afterward. O ciating was Pastor Je rey Dail. Burial was on Wednesday, April 29, at 11 a.m. at Maplewood Cemetery in Mount Olive and included military honors.

A native of the Pleasant Grove community in Duplin graduated from B. F. Grady High School with the class of 1954, after which he enrolled at North Carolina State University. In 1957, he answered Uncle Sam’s call to enlist in the military. It was in the United States Army that he served for two years. Among the places his duty took him were Germany, Austria, and Europe.

After his service discharge, he became employed with FCX in Clayton, and soon thereafter, he relocated to Clinton, becoming manager of the Clinton FCX Service. In 1981, he and his family moved to Mount Olive, and the following year, he became associated with Scott and Jones, Inc., where he was planning coordinator, engineer, and outside salesperson. Remaining

Roger Ross

March 22, 1946 –April 20, 2026

Roger Ross, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, passed away on April 20, 2026, leaving behind a lifetime of love, hard work, and cherished memories for all who knew him.

Roger had the biggest heart and loved his family deeply, especially his grandchildren, who meant the world to him. He never hesitated to drop everything to be there for them. He was someone you could always count on— steady, dependable, and full of love. If there was ever a way to make things better, he would nd it. That’s just who he was.

He was a skilled mechanic who could x just about anything and was always willing to lend a helping hand. He took great pride in passing his knowledge down to his family, teaching them not only how to work with their hands, but the value of patience, dedication, and doing things the right way. His legacy will live on through the hands and hearts of those he taught.

Roger was a hard worker and a provider in every sense. Whether he was selling his homemade

with Scott and Jones until its closure, he retired. In retirement, he thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship and fun moments shared with others at Mount Olive Senior Citizens Center. He was a member of the First Pentecostal Holiness Church of Mount Olive. In his younger years, he and his wife were known to be frequently called upon to provide music and singing at area weddings. He was a proud American and had been a 60-plus-year member of St. John Masonic Lodge.

Mr. Herring is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Michael Carroll Herring and Amy Blackburn Herring, of Mount Olive; his daughter and son-in-law, Media` Herring Lee and Chris Lee, of Mount Olive; beloved grandchildren, Dr. Hannah Lee Carpenter and husband, Andrew Carpenter, of Fountain, Dr. Micah Lee McCullen and husband, Karson McCullen, of Newton Grove, and Elijah Lee of Mount Olive, and his signi cant other, Arabella Crews of Burgaw; a sister-in-law, Faye Howell, of Mount Olive; his “second daughter,” Vicki Outlaw Best, of West Melbourne, Fla.; special cousins, Becky Scott, of Albertson, and Sandra H. Lee of Mount Olive, who made special e orts to call and visit when possible; a special friend, Lynn Joyner, of Mount Olive; many other cousins, and several nieces, nephews, and their families. Bill loved his entire family, and how tting it was that he was called home on the morning of the Herring Family Reunion where he had attained the recognition of being the oldest Herring grandchild.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Carol Ann Howell Herring; an infant grandson, Brandon Carroll Herring; his parents, Taft and Mary Lou Scott Herring; sisters and brothers-inlaw, Jean H. and Cecil Kornegay, and Janet H. and Larry Howard; and a brother-in-law, Ellis Ray Howell.

“Roger’s Fishing Weights” or sharing fresh pecans, he found joy in giving and took pride in the things he created and provided for others.

In his free time, he found peace and happiness shing, enjoying the quiet moments by the water.

He loved to joke and had a way of making people laugh, even in the simplest moments. He would always tell it like it is—his honesty was something people respected and appreciated.

He shared a deep and lasting love with his wife, Melanie, the love of his life. Their bond was truly special, built on years of devotion, partnership, and unwavering care for one another.

He loved her ercely and was always looking out for her, a love that was clear to anyone who knew them.

Roger’s family and friends were his greatest pride and joy. Whether sharing laughs, spending time together, or o ering guidance, he made sure everyone knew how much they meant to him. We were so lucky to have him. His presence was a constant source of comfort, and his love is something that will be carried on forever.

He will be deeply missed but never forgotten by all who loved him.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Melanie Ross; his children, Maria Whaley (James), Michael Garcia, and Roger Scott Ross; his grandchildren, Mikhayla Minton (Chris), Ghabriel Whaley (Logan), Destinie Kornegay (Zion), Jordyn Dick (Daniel), Brodeigh Whaley (Alpha), Dharian Whaley, Lyllianaha Whaley, Ethan Garcia, Payton Garcia, and Lauren Ross; and 9 great-grandchildren. Services are private.

NC, to the late Harvey G. Culbreth and Eliza Sutton Culbreth.

A memorial service will be held at noon on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at Faith Independent Baptist Church, Magnolia, NC. Mr. Culbreth will be buried in Magnolia Cemetery.

Mr. Ralph is survived by wife, Betty L. Culbreth of the home; son, Ralph Culbreth and wife, Jean of Kinston; daughter, Lynette Busbee and Ronald Pigott of Magnolia; grandchildren, David Culbreth and Missy, Aaron Busbee, Amie McClure and Amanda Wood and Gregory; great grandchildren, Barrett, GrayLynn, Braxton, and Bryson McClure; and sister, Jewel Hordinski of Willoughby, Ohio.

Garland Maddox

Aug. 28, 1938 – April 20, 2026

Garland Ervin Maddox, 87, of Beulaville, NC, passed away April 20, 2026, in Kenansville, NC.

Funeral service will be at noon, Monday, April 27, 2026, at Daisy Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Beulaville, NC. Public viewing will be from 11 a.m. to noon (one hour prior to the service). Interment following the service at Daisy Chapel MBC cemetery.

Mildred Wallace

March 12, 1954 – April 20, 2026

Mildred Wallace, 86, of Kenansville, NC, passed away April 20, 2026, at her residence. Funeral service will be at noon on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at The Kingdom Hall, 405 Rosemary Road, Rose Hill, NC. Burial will take place at Devotional Gardens in Warsaw following the service.

Margaret Rivenbark Kennedy

April 24, 1931 – April 21, 2026

Margaret Rivenbark Kennedy, 94, of Willard, NC, passed away Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at the Lower Cape Fear Life Care Center in Wilmington, NC. Born in Pender County on April 24, 1931, she was the youngest daughter of the late William Owen Rivenbark and Maggie Murray Rivenbark. Also preceding her in death were her husband of 61 years, Henry Scott Kennedy; sisters, Lola Rivenbark, Catherine Shephard, and Lillian Romanak; and brothers, William Ivey Rivenbark and Cleveland Rivenbark.

Left to cherish her memory are her sons Henry Scott Kennedy Jr. and wife Brenda of Je erson, NC and William Franklin Kennedy and wife Tammy of Willard, NC who were her care givers for ve years, granddaughters Sherry Ramsey and friend Dan Marks of Wilmington, NC and Windy O’Kelley and husband Scott of Kernersville, NC. In her earlier years, Margaret was employed with Townsend Auto Parts and Blanchard Pontiac in Wallace, NC, as a bookkeeper. Later in life, she worked at Spanky’s Cleaners. She loved working in the yard and gardening. She was a devoted fan of the North Carolina Tar Heels. She was a member of Watha Baptist Church. Graveside services and internment will be Sunday, April 26, at 2 p.m. at Riverview Memorial Park in Watha, NC. The service will be o ciated by the Reverend Scott Kennedy, Pastor at Watha Baptist Church. Active pallbearers will consist of Richard Murray, Roy Evans, Charles Hawley, Todd Peterson, Glenn Batten and Red Robbins.

Robert Ray Hebert

July 1, 1938 – April 20, 2026

Robert Ray Hebert, known a ectionately as “Papa” or Mr. Bob, a longtime resident of Kenansville, North Carolina, passed away on April 20, 2026. He was 87 years old.

Born on July 1, 1938, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Robert’s time in the United States Air Force brought him to Goldsboro, North Carolina. There he began a multifaceted career as an electrical contractor, real estate agent, and all-around entrepreneur. Through his hard work and dedication, he provided a strong foundation for his family while building a life rooted in eastern North Carolina. He later made Kenansville his home for many years and was the beloved husband of Jon Ann Dutton Hebert.

He is survived by his wife, Jon Ann Dutton Hebert; his sister, Juanita Wilson and husband Don, of Covington, Louisiana; his sisterin-law, Joanne Hebert, of Houma, Louisiana; his sister-in-law, Gloria Hebert, of Gladstone, Missouri; his daughter, Terry Lynn Carter, of Stedman, North Carolina; his son, Robert Ray Hebert II, and daughter-in-law, Terri Hebert, of White Oak, North Carolina; his son, James Grady Dutton Jr., and daughter-in-law, Dawn Dutton, of Panama City Beach, Florida; his son, Jonathan Stewart Dutton, and daughter-in-law, Janice Dutton, of Panama City, Florida; seven grandchildren; six greatgrandchildren; and other loving family members who will carry forward his memory. He will be remembered by those who knew him in the Kenansville community for his entrepreneurial spirit and the love he showed his family. Robert was preceded in death by his parents, Alcie and Lillian Hebert; his brother, Darrell “Sonny” Hebert; his brother, Alcie Paul “AP” Hebert Jr.; Paul Ray Hebert, his son; and his son-inlaw, Bobby Carter.

There will be no formal funeral service. Instead, the family will hold a celebration of life at a later date. Details will be announced as they become available. Friends and loved ones are invited to share memories and condolences with the family. Updates can be found through Serenity Funeral Home. In lieu of owers, memorial donations may be made to Word of Faith Food Ministries in Kenansville, NC.

Pinkey Copper

Jan. 4, 1952 – April 20, 2026

Raeford Bruce Kennedy

Feb. 1, 1927 – April 21, 2026

Raeford Bruce Kennedy, 99, died on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at Onslow House, Jacksonville, NC.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Ellen Williams Kennedy, and a son, Craig Kennedy.

The funeral service is Saturday, April 25, 2026, at 3 p.m. at Community Funeral Home in Beulaville, NC. Visitation will take place one hour prior to the service.

Interment will be at East Duplin Memorial Gardens in Beulaville, NC

He is survived by son Andy Kennedy (Joyce) of Roanoke Rapids, NC; grandchildren Kathryn Kennedy-Slagle (Mark) of Hanover, NH, and Carolyn Hennessey (Matthew) of Greensboro, NC; great-granddaughter Laurel Hennessey of Greensboro, NC.

Maggie Gibbons

April 26, 1944 – April 22, 2026

Mrs. Maggie Frances Gibbons, age 81, of Bryans Road, MD, passed away on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, VA.

A viewing will be held on Friday, May 1, 2026, one hour prior to the service from 2:30-3:15 p.m., immediately followed by the funeral service at 3:30 p.m. at the Rose Hill Funeral Home Chapel in Rose Hill, NC. Burial will follow at Little Mission Cemetery in Magnolia, NC.

Left to cherish her precious memories are four daughters: Gail, Angela, Shenita and Kendra; three sisters: Alice, Evelyn and Veretta; eight grandchildren: Ebony, John, Darnell, David, Bryahna, Keonna, KeSean and DaeSean; six great-grandchildren: Chalel, Riley, Ryan, Breon, Zay’d and Zay’mir; numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends that will miss her dearly.

84,

Monday, April 20,

In addition to his parents, Mr. Culbreth was preceded in death by his brothers, Bill and Dewey Culbreth, and his sisters, Goldie Stoddard and Margaret Culbreth.

The family wishes to extend their gratitude to the sta of the Lower Cape Fear Hospice and Life Car Care Center for exemplary care and compassion given to Margaret Kennedy in the nal stage of her life.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Lower Cape Fear Hospice and Life Care Center in her name.

Mrs. Pinkey Mora McArthur Copper, age 74, of Chesapeake, VA, formerly of Duplin County, NC, passed away in Chesapeake, VA. A viewing will be held on Friday, May 1, 2026, one hour prior to the service from 10-10:45 a.m., immediately followed by the funeral service at 11 a.m. at the Rose Hill Funeral Home Chapel in Rose Hill, NC. Burial will follow at Dobson Family Cemetery in Magnolia, NC. Left to cherish her precious memories are four brothers: Earl McArthur Jr., Calvin McArthur, Dexter McArthur, all of Brooklyn, NY and Benjamin McArthur (Marie) of Columbus, GA; four sisters: Angelyn McArthur and Barbara Stephens, both of Brooklyn, NY, Mary Reid of Queens, NY and Quenia D. Kenneybrew of Inglewood, CA; numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends that will miss her dearly.

Ted Ellis Thigpen

March 12, 1954 –April 20, 2026

Funeral Service

Thursday, April 23, 2026

7 p.m. followed by visitation Serenity Funeral Home, Beulaville

A graveside service is Friday, April 24, 2026, at 1 p.m. at East Duplin Memorial Gardens in Beulaville, NC.

Ted Ellis Thigpen, age 72, died Monday, April 20, 2026, at home. He is survived by his wife, Judy Thigpen of Beulaville; sons, Kevin Thigpen of Beulaville, Brian Thigpen and wife Zenda of Beulaville; sister, Joan Price and husband Tony of Pink Hill; brothers, Frankie Thigpen and wife Rhonda of Chinquapin, Phillip Thigpen and wife Cathy of Chinquapin; ve grandchildren, Austin Stewart, Annika Thigpen, John John, Jordan Thigpen, Sara Thigpen, Ty Thigpen; and two great grandchildren, Declan Thigpen, and Landon Thigpen.

Ralph Earl Culbreth

March 18, 1942 –April 20, 2026

Ralph Earl Culbreth,

passed away

2026, at his home in Magnolia, NC. Mr. Culbreth was born on March 18, 1942, in Duplin County,

Stanly NewS Journal

THE STANLY COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Presidential Physical Fitness Award returns as Trump revives annual tness test

President Donald Trump is reviving the Presidential Physical Fitness Award as he reintroduces a competitive physical tness test in America’s schools. The award is part of Trump’s revamped Presidential Fitness Test, which had been a publicschool xture for decades but was phased out under President Barack Obama. The earlier exam tested children on exercises including a 1-mile run and sit-ups. Those scoring above the 85th percentile received the presidential award. Details of the revived test have yet to be released. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the test is now mandatory in 161 schools on U.S. military installations.

U.S. job openings unchanged at 6.9 million in March; hiring improved

U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged at 6.9 million in March, another sign the American labor market remained sluggish even before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy. The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war has clouded the outlook. On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layo s rose in March. But hiring improved and more people quit their jobs — a sign of con dence in the economy.

Justice Department seeks names of 2020 election workers in Ga.’s Fulton County

Atlanta

The Justice Department is seeking the names of every person who worked in the 2020 election in Georgia’s Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold Donald Trump has accused of widespread voter fraud he says cost him victory against Joe Biden in the state that year. Lawyers for the county led a motion Monday to quash a grand jury subpoena requesting the information. The action follows the FBI’s January seizure of ballots and documents from the county. The county’s lawyers argue the subpoena is meant to target the Republican president’s political opponents and is overly broad.

Albemarle council reviews proposed 2026-27 budget

The budget will now go into the review process

By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal

ALBEMARLE — The Albemarle City Council received its rst look on Monday night at the city’s proposed 2026-27 budget that covers the scal year beginning on July 1. Presented by City Manager Darren Rhodes, the proposal will now move into the council’s

Thursdays at the Station kicks o 2026 lineup

The free concert series returns to Market Station

By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal

ALBEMARLE — An annual summer concert series is returning to Stanly County this week for its 26th season.

Organized by Albemarle Parks and Recreation, the 2026 Thursdays at the Station lineup begins Thursday at Market Station, a renovated former railroad depot at 501 W. Main St. in downtown Albemarle. The free weekly concerts

will be held Thursdays from 7:30 to 9 p.m. from May 7 through June 25, with eight performances scheduled over the two-month series.

“The dates are set for Thursdays at the Station at Market Station in beautiful downtown Albemarle,” the Stanly County Convention and Visitors Bureau said.

“Come to Albemarle Downtown at the restored railroad depot on West Main Street for wonderful evenings of entertainment in May and June. These are free concerts — just bring your bag chair, sit back and enjoy the music.”

The 2026 schedule opens

review process, with a budget workshop scheduled for May 12 in the Ray Allen Community Room at City Hall.

The proposed budget includes a general fund budget of $25 million, an increase of $119,925, or about 0.5%, from the current year’s original budget of $24.9 million. It also includes a 3% operating budget cut for departments and a projected 2% increase in employee health insurance costs.

“I’m pleased to report that the city will again discharge all its nancial obligations for the current budget year, and that we project the city will close the year in good nancial position and with adequate fund balances in all funds,” Rhodes said. “This remains in

COURTESY CITY OF ALBEMARLE City Manager Darren Rhodes presents the proposed

city budget Monday night.

Police allege the suspects accessed the family’s bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts in multiple states

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

LESS THAN a month after former NASCAR driver Greg Bi e and his family died in a plane crash last year, investigators say two of their “friends” conspired to break into the empty home and took cash, guns and nancial information in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars.

More than 40 search warrants have been issued, authorities in North Carolina say, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Bi e and his wife Cristina. The suspects did “a lot of planning in an attempt to make a nancial gain” o their deaths, Iredell County Sheri Darren Campbell said. The Associated Press is not naming the pair because no arrests have been made.

Bi e, his wife and his two children, along with three others, died in the Dec. 18 crash, which remains under investigation by the NTSB. Some survivors of those killed are suing the estates of Bi e and the pilot for millions of dollars.

According to a search warrant a davit, the husband being investigated met Bi e when the former driver used his private helicopter to deliver aid after Hurricane Helene. The woman attended a Christmas party at the Bi es’ home in Mooresville weeks before the crash.

Authorities reported a break-in at the home on Jan. 8, saying $30,000 in cash, two Glock handguns and NASCAR memorabilia were stolen. Search warrants were later executed at two sites, one near the Bi es’ residence and

another in a nearby county.

A person seen on surveillance video, identi ed as a woman, appeared to be familiar with the large home’s layout, including the locations of cameras, closets and a safe room, a detective wrote in a search warrant a davit. The intruder spent nearly six hours inside the house the night of Jan. 7 into the following morning. Evidence showed a cellphone and multiple devices were active on the property during that time, according to the warrant. The only people allowed there would’ve been the administrators of the estate, but they weren’t present.

Authorities say they linked the woman to someone who attended Bi e’s celebration of life and said license plate readers placed her husband’s truck near the home that night.

The warrants also describe alleged nancial crimes. Investigators say that bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts tied to the Bi es were accessed online using personal information, with phone numbers and email addresses changed to gain control of funds. Money was then allegedly trans-

ferred to accounts not belonging to the family and used for purchases, according to the warrant.

At least one fraudulent check tied to Bi e’s business interests was cashed, and other attempts were made to access accounts. The activity occurred across multiple states. The sheri would not say whether the same suspects in the break-in are being investigated for the nancial crimes, saying the department is waiting for more evidence.

Meanwhile, the plane crash sparked lawsuits against the estates of Bi e and the pilot, Dennis Dutton, who was killed along with his son.

On April 17, the estates of Dutton and his son sued Bife’s estate for at least $15 million each, alleging Bi e failed to properly maintain the plane and operated it in a defective condition. The claims include lost income and “pre-death pain and su ering.”

In February, Bi e’s ex-wife, Nicole Bi e, led a notice of claim against Dutton’s estate on behalf of the couple’s 14-year-old daughter’s estate, seeking at least $10 million for wrongful death.

Here’s a quick look

May 7

Friends

The

Five

Stanly

7:30 p.m.

The

May 9

Hundreds

annual Still Runs show, featuring live music from Blue Stones and Slim and the Gems, food trucks, a beer garden, valve cover racing, a pinup contest and an awards presentation. Vehicle registration is $25 cash; spectator admission is free. Downtown Albemarle Main Street at Depot Street Albemarle

JOHN RAOUX / AP PHOTO

Greg Bi e looks on during driver introductions before the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Feb. 20, 2022.

THE CONVERSATION

Trip

Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

When does speech become dangerous?

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

AMERICANS LOVE arguing about free speech. We invoke the First Amendment as a kind of political force eld: You can say whatever you want, whenever you want, without consequence.

But the First Amendment only restricts government action. It does not guarantee you a career, a platform or immunity from backlash. The real question is not whether certain speech is legal but rather what kind of speech deserves social consequences — and what kind doesn’t.

And if we’re talking about reckless political speech, we should talk about Jimmy Kimmel. Years ago, he abandoned comedy in favor of applause lines, tearful monologues and the occasional performance of empathy. He’s an unfunny late-night scold who treats half the country as a punchline.

As annoying as that is, being unfunny is not a crime. The bigger issue is when media gures cross the line from tastelessness into rhetoric that creates a permission structure for violence.

To understand the di erence, it helps to break political speech into three categories.

First: illegal speech.

Yes, illegal political speech exists in America.

A classic example: “I want to kill the president.”

That’s not merely commentary. It is an actionable, direct threat.

There is also incitement. Under the Supreme Court’s Brandenburg standard, speech quali es as incitement only if it is intended to and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

“Someone should do something about the president” is protected, though irresponsible, speech. “Go kill the president” crosses into territory the law can punish. It’s speech but also an attempt to trigger violence.

Second: typical in ammatory rhetoric.

American politics is lled with heated language. “Fight like hell.” “We’re going to war with the other party.” That sort of rhetoric can be ugly and excessive, but it is also normal.

We’ve seen how absurd it becomes when people try to treat that as literal incitement. After Gabby Gi ords was shot, some on the left blamed Sarah Palin because a campaign graphic had “targeted” certain districts. That was ridiculous. Using combative imagery is not the same as directing violence.

Third: the permission structure for violence.

A permission structure for violence is created when people repeatedly portray political opponents as monsters.

This is how you create the mental environment where unstable people conclude that violence is justi ed. If the president is a traitor, rapist, pedophile and mastermind behind a corrupt system, then how else could he be stopped?

This kind of rhetoric leads directly to chaos. It is also the kind of rhetoric Kimmel has tra cked in for years.

Recently, Kimmel tastelessly joked that Melania Trump had “the glow of an expectant widow.” It was disgusting, and she has every right to be furious. But it wasn’t a call to violence. It was a cheap, ugly joke suggesting she secretly wants her husband dead.

Kimmel later claimed he rejects violent rhetoric, then immediately pivoted to blaming Donald Trump for rhetoric that supposedly inspires violence. It was the standard modern play: Insult someone, then wrap yourself in moral superiority.

But when it comes to rhetoric that encourages violence, it isn’t the widow joke

that should be the focus; it’s the conspiracism. Kimmel has repeatedly called Trump a pedophile, suggested he is connected to Je rey Epstein and involved in a coverup, called him a rapist and accused him of protecting pedophiles, coming after voting rights, enriching billionaires while harming the poor, and manipulating the system to evade accountability. That is not “normal political speech.” It is speech that turns a political opponent into a movie villain — a gure so corrupt and monstrous that extreme action begins to feel righteous.

This kind of conspiratorial framing has a track record. It fuels ugly episodes of modern political violence: a steady stream of baseless accusations designed to convince audiences that the other side is not merely wrong but evil.

If someone eventually acts on that belief, we shouldn’t pretend it came out of nowhere.

So should Kimmel be red?

Firing him for the Melania joke would be punishing the wrong o ense. A tasteless, bad joke is not the central issue.

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

If America wants to lower the temperature, scrutiny should be directed at conspiratorial storytelling that teaches people to hate.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author.

(Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

California copied Europe’s insane energy playbook

European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties.

EVEN AS U.S. GASOLINE prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising more than half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.

The result is embedded in ation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry. Europeans don’t just pay more to ll their tanks — they pay more for everything that moves on petroleum. Their living standards su er accordingly. Energy security delivers America’s second big advantage. The U.S. produces more than two-thirds of its own oil and imports the rest mostly from Canada and other friendly Western Hemisphere sources. We are largely insulated from Middle East chaos.

Europe, by contrast, lectures the world about “energy transition” while remaining dangerously

dependent on imports even as it sits atop known, undeveloped reserves. The same nations that demonize oil and gas refuse to produce their own, choosing instead to outsource vulnerability rst to Russia, then to OPEC and now to U.S. LNG. This is not prudent policy. It is willful self-sabotage clothed in false virtue.

Nowhere is this failure more glaring than California, which has imported Germany’s disastrous model wholesale and turned itself into America’s premier energy basket case. With an 81-cent state gas tax, 60- to 70-cent cap-and-trade penalty, boutique “California blend” fuel mandates, and layers of environmental rules explicitly designed to punish gasoline and driving, the Golden State routinely posts pump prices $2 above the national average.

In-state production has been strangled. Re neries are closing or idling. The state now imports gasoline from South Korea, the Bahamas and the Middle East, exposing its residents to global shocks while preaching climate alarm orthodoxy.

Gavin Newsom and his bureaucrats want voters to believe it’s all President Donald Trump’s fault, but it isn’t. It is the entirely foreseeable outcome of using tax and regulatory warfare to force a premature energy transition. Instead of transitioning, California is deindustrializing and making its citizens poorer in the process.

The broader lesson is damning. High-tax, high-regulation, import-dependent energy policies do not deliver utopia or planetary salvation. They deliver chronic vulnerability, in ated living costs and economic drag. Europe’s drivers pay double or triple because politicians prioritized revenue and ideology over abundance. California followed suit and became a cautionary

tale for the rest of America.

But most U.S. states reap the rewards of the opposite approach: Reasonable taxation that doesn’t treat fuel as a sin, aggressive domestic production that delivers record output and supply chains resilient enough to weather global crises without collapse. Prices rise during supply shocks, but there are no lines at the pump and no systemic shortages. That is the fruit of policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

America’s advantage at the pump is neither accident nor mystery: It is the direct result of rejecting the punitive European model that California eagerly embraced. Policymakers who ignore this lesson are not visionaries: They are ideologues imposing measurable harm on the people they claim to serve.

The current global turmoil should serve as a wake-up call. Punitive taxation and regulatory strangulation of conventional energy produce scarcity, insecurity and higher costs borne by working families.

America’s formula of lower taxes and energy dominance delivers a ordability, resilience and genuine energy security.

Europe — and California — stand as expensive warnings of what happens when nations choose ideology over reality. Americans outside of the Golden State should reject that failing path with zero apology.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. (Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation)

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Secret Service says suspect opened re on them, was shot near Washington Monument

A minor bystander was shot but not seriously injured during the incident

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man spotted carrying a gun in the vicinity of the White House by plainclothes o cers and agents was shot by law enforcement Monday after he opened re on them near the Washington Monument, the Secret Service said.

Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him. The agents followed him brie y and contacted the uniformed o cers.

The unidenti ed man attempted to ee when uniformed o cers with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man red at the o cers, who returned re.

The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect’s condition.

Quinn said emergency personnel also transported a minor who was shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say de nitively that the bystander, who also was taken to a hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect’s gun. “We’ll let the doctors gure that out,” he said, though he noted

that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.”

Quinn said the Washington, D.C., police would investigate the o cer-involved shooting.

The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where President Donald Trump was holding a small business event.

The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the brie ng room, and Trump continued his event without interruption.

The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service o cer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and was not seriously injured.

Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will nd out.”

Prosecutors say arson suspect in Los Angeles’ Palisades

Fire was angry ‘at the world’

The 29-year-old man pleaded not guilty to starting the massive re

By Christopher Weber The Associated Press

BUDGET from page A1 319 PALMER STREET ALBEMARLE, NC 28001

large part due to the scal restraint of the city’s elected ocials and employees, who have endeavored to ensure that city government operates within its means.”

Key capital projects in the proposed budget include $1.3 million for street preservation, $2.5 million for a new ladder truck and $300,000 for an electric Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition upgrade.

Rhodes said the proposed budget was designed to balance current needs with future obligations.

“This is a budget for now and for our future,” Rhodes said. “In building the budget for scal year 26-27, we recognized the need to address long-term commitments that will impact the budget in coming years. This year, departments were directed to cut their operating budgets by 3%. These budget cuts have

LOS ANGELES — The man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was upset that he didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked, according to court documents led by prosecutors.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, has pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wild res in California history. It began Jan. 7, 2025, in hillside neighborhoods of Paci c Palisades and Malibu and killed 12 people. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a re on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before aring back up a week later.

Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His attorneys say he is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.

An outline of the prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the rst re began — appears in an April 29 pretrial

“This is a budget for now and for our future.”

Darren Rhodes, city manager

been reinvested into capital needs, something we’ve struggled to fully fund on a consistent basis.”

Police and re expenses account for 54% of the total general fund budget. The two de -

“The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

Steve Haney

memo led by the U.S. Attorney’s O ce.

Witnesses reported that Rinderknecht had been driving erratically while on Uber routes around the Palisades on New Year’s Eve, said prosecutors. His passengers described him as “angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed o at the world,’” the memo said.

According to court lings, Rinderknecht ranted to passengers about accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism. In an interview with investigators on Jan. 24, when asked why someone might commit arson in the Palisades, Rinderknecht “responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them,’” and again referenced Mangione’s alleged crime, the documents said.

In addition, prosecutors said Rinderknecht was distraught over a failed relation-

partments are projected to cost

$13.6 million. The city’s employee health insurance costs are projected to increase by 2%, signi cantly lower than the 30% increase experienced in scal year 2026. With no property tax increase, Albemarle’s property tax rate would remain at 61 cents per $100 valuation. The proposed budget also recommends no increase to water rates, assessment rates or tap fees.

Councilmember Benton

ship and upset about thwarted plans for New Year’s Eve.

“My client maintains his innocence as he has from the beginning and we look forward to clearing his name at trial,” Rinderknecht’s attorney Steve Haney said in an email Sunday. “The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

Haney held a news conference in March to call for Rinderknecht’s release from jail in light of evidence he said shows he is not responsible for the blaze. Haney pointed to a deposition in which a re ghter testi ed that he noticed the ground was still smoldering from the re on Jan. 2 and alerted a supervisor that there were hot spots. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit led by re victims against the city.

A battalion chief had testi ed that he walked the perimeter of the burn area four times throughout the day and ensured all hot spots were out.

Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in October, has said he is concerned about the di erences in the re ghters’ testimonies and commissioned an independent report on how the Jan. 1 re was handled.

Haney has said this evidence was not available to the defense when Rinderknecht was indicted.

Dry praised Rhodes for the presentation.

“You did a very good job of putting it together,” Dry said. “In all the years I’ve been here, I don’t think we’ve had anything broken down like this that’s this easy to read and understand.” A public hearing on the proposed budget is set for June 1. The Albemarle City Council will hold its next regular meeting on May 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.

ROD LAMKEY JR. / AP PHOTO

U.S. Secret Service police respond after a person was shot by law enforcement near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

Tennessee Republicans will consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis

The move follows a Supreme Court ruling that shifted protections for majority-black districts

By Kim Chandler, Travis Loller and David A. Lieb The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity a orded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked o in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling signi cantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law and provided grounds for Republicans in various states to try to eliminate majority-black districts that have elected Democrats.

Its impact on congressional representation, speci cally for black Americans, is threatening to undo decades of progress to ensure minority voting rights.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Republicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.

Alabama special session draws protests

Several hundred people protested on Monday shortly before Alabama’s special session

Legislators in Tennessee are considering redrawing

began, including some carrying signs declaring “No new map” and “We ght back! Black Voters Matter.”

Opponents of the redistricting session gathered across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an e ort for us to gain the right to vote,” said Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who as a child participated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Selma. “In 2026, there are still people who are still not exercising that right to vote, and we are still ghting today, even in an e ort to keep our right to vote.”

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.

A three-judge federal panel previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of black vot-

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation. It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Rev. Earle Fisher, Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church

ers — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map could give Republicans a better chance of winning at least one of the two seats currently held by black Democratic lawmakers.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said while promoting the Republican plan. “We had three judges determine how ve million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

CONCERTS from page A1

Thursday with the Stanly County Concert Band, a community ensemble made up of local musicians, music teachers and Pfei er University faculty and students.

Next up, the Stanly County Chorale, a volunteer-led nonpro t community singing group based in Albemarle, will perform May 14.

The lineup continues May 21 with the Salisbury Swing Band, a 16-piece big band based in Salisbury that specializes in 1940s-style swing music.

Reckless Betty Unplugged will take the stage May 28, bringing an acoustic version

of the party band’s mix of new and classic rock.

The June portion of the series begins June 4 with Southern Express, a bluegrass band that has toured the country since 1978.

The Smith Family Choir will bring a choir-based vocal performance to Market Station on June 11, followed by Cabarrus Station, an up -and-coming bluegrass act, on June 18.

The series closes June 25 with the Mod 60’s, a Harrisburg-based retro tribute group.

Soda, water and popcorn will be available for $1 each during the concerts, with proceeds going to the bands.

At a town hall held by a pro-Democratic group, Doug Jones, a former U.S. senator who is running for governor as a Democrat, said Alabama was “ground zero for voting rights, and we are going to be ground zero to make sure we retain those voting rights.”

Tennessee plan targets Memphis district

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-black city of Memphis. The move comes after pressure from Trump.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Lee had said.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district came together Monday to denounce the move.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code. “It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Advocates urge Louisiana voters to cast ballots

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.

Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday on congressional redistricting. Kleinpeter

said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-black congressional districts Democrats and civil rights groups have led several lawsuits challenging the suspension of the state’s congressional primary, including another led Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

A national redistricting battle expands

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of the midterm elections when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in ve states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

Built more than a century ago, Market Station has become one of downtown Albemarle’s historic landmarks and a gathering place for community events.

The depot was built in 1912 as part of the Winston-Salem Southbound Railroad line and has since been repurposed for events, including the Albemarle Downtown Farmers Market and Thursdays at the Station.

The farmers market held its season grand opening Saturday morning, featuring local produce, baked goods, plants, owers and artisan goods. More information about Thursdays at the Station and other local events is available at albemarledowntown.com.

PHOTOS COURTESY CITY OF ALBEMARLE

The Stanly County Concert Band performs at Market Station.

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO

the state’s congressional map.

OBITUARIES

Belmer Morton Ingram

Oct. 22, 1931 – May 3, 2026

Belmer Morton Ingram, 94, of Albemarle, passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 3, 2026, at Trinity Place.

A graveside service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at Porter Baptist Church Cemetery, o ciated by Pastor Flynn Richardson. There will be no formal visitation.

Belmer was born October 22, 1931, in Stanly County to the late Samuel and Annette Kimrey Morton. She was a devoted mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother who found joy in caring for her family. She had a love for cooking and gardening, and her home was often a place of warmth and welcome

She was a faithful member of Porter Baptist Church and retired from Wiscassett Mills after many years of dedicated service.

Belmer is lovingly survived by her children, David Dennis (Jeanne), and Catherine Townsend (Bill); grandchildren, Lisa Ward (Tracy) and John Wayne Hardison; greatgrandchildren, Dylan Ward, Haley Ward, Ian Hardison, and Molly Hardison; sisters, Betty Morgan, Ethel Trull, Tinnie Cowles, and Vickie Almond; as well as many nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husbands, James Dennis in 1962 and Everette Ingram in 2010.

The family would like to express their sincere gratitude to the sta of Trinity Place and Tillery Compassionate Care for the kindness, care, and support shown to Belmer during her declining health.

In lieu of owers, memorials may be made to The Gideons International at gideons.org.

Her family will remember her for her gentle spirit, her devotion to those she loved, and the simple joys she found in everyday life.

Verda M. Cavender

May 9, 1937 – April 30, 2026

Verda M. Cavender, 88, of Albemarle, NC, passed away peacefully on April 30, 2026, at her home with family after a brief illness.

Verda was born May 9, 1937, in Epperson, TN, to the late Pearl Harold West and Beatrice Edwards West.

Verda was a woman of great faith and a devoted member of Main Street United Methodist Church in Albemarle, NC. She was an avid quilter, enjoyed paper crafting, and had a deeprooted love of gardening. Verda loved traveling throughout the United States and learning about di erent cultures and lifestyles. Above all, she treasured time with her family, and her happiest moments were spent when everyone was together.

Verda is survived by her two daughters Patti Brigman of Huntersville, NC and Angela Cavender of Oakboro, NC; her son Daniel Cavender (Lori) of Kannapolis, NC; brother R.B. West (Sandra) of Tellico Plains, TN; sisters Cindy Torbett (Don) of Madisonville, TN; Suzy Holliday of Tellico Plains, TN; and her beloved granddaughter Amanda Brigman of Charlotte, NC and many nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents, Verda was also preceded in death by her loving husband of 63 amazing years, John E. Cavender Jr., and by her brothers, Burkett West, Carson West, Raymond West, Denton West, and David West.

Verda will be remembered for her sweet smile and warm sense of humor, her handmade cards of celebration, support, and encouragement, and her lifelong devotion to serving others. She gave immeasurable love to her family and friends, guided by a deep and abiding faith in God that sustained her through every season of life.

Memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at Main Street United Methodist Church, 1100 West Main Street, Albemarle, NC 28001 o ciated by Rev. Katie Lineberger. Visitation will immediately follow the service. She will be interred at a later date in a private family service at Salisbury National Cemetery.

In lieu of owers, memorial donations may be made in honor of Mrs. Verda Cavender to Main Street United Methodist Church, please designate for the Women in Christ Ministry.

Malcolm Monroe Lowder

Aug. 9, 1932 – April 30, 2026

Malcolm Monroe Lowder, 93, passed away peacefully on Thursday, April 30, 2026.

Born on August 9, 1932, in Albemarle, North Carolina to W.A. and Rosa Lee Lowder. Malcolm was preceded in death by both parents, his brother and his sister.

He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Patty Stillwell Lowder and his two sons, Mark (Suzanne) Lowder of Albemarle, North Carolina, and Dean (Sherry) Lowder of Isle of Palms, South Carolina. He also leaves behind three grandchildren and a greatgrandchild.

The funeral service will be 11:00 am on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at Central United Methodist Church, 172 N. Second St., Albemarle, NC, o ciated by Rev. Dr. David Blankenburg with burial to follow at Fairview Memorial Park, 1425 E. Main Street, Albemarle, NC.

He was a member of Coach Webb’s historic Albemarle High School football teams and then played tailback at N.C. State University in the early 50’s. He was President of All Star Foods, Inc. and General Manager of All Star Hatcheries, Inc. He was also part-owner of All Star Mills, Inc. and Lowder Farms, Inc. In his later years he enjoyed working with his best friend Taft McCoy at McCoy’s Realty.

Malcolm was a devoted follower of Christ and Treasurer of Central United Methodist Church for over a decade and voted Lay Person of the Year in 1996.

Malcolm’s life was marked by hard work, sense of duty, gentle spirit, and generous heart.

Hartsell Funeral Home of Albemarle is serving the Lowder family.

Online condolences may be made at www.hartsellfh.com

IN MEMORY

MARILYN DRAKE

SEPT. 3, 1958 – APRIL 30, 2026

Marilyn Maxine Gragg Drake, 67, of Stan eld, passed away peacefully at her home on Thursday, April 30, 2026.

A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 23, 2026, at Kinza Memorial Baptist Church, o ciated by Pastor Charles Dunevant. The family will receive friends at the church prior to the service from 12:00 until 12:45 p.m.

Marilyn was born on September 3, 1958, in Stanly County, North Carolina, and was the daughter of the late Earl Taylor and Janet Smith Gragg. A devoted member of Kinza Memorial Baptist Church, she lived a life rooted in faith and service. She retired from the Stanly County School System as a cafeteria worker and worked for many years before that as a screen printer in the textile industry.

Those who knew Marilyn will remember her as a deeply loving and giving woman whose faith guided every aspect of her life. She was tender-hearted, compassionate, and protective of those she loved, often serving as a source of comfort and encouragement to many beyond her own family. Her presence in her church was constant and meaningful, and she found great joy in worship, fellowship, and helping wherever she was needed. Her favorite scripture, John 3:16, re ected the faith she carried in her heart, and “The Old Rugged Cross” was especially dear to her.

Marilyn had a warm and personable spirit and made it a point to stay connected with those she cared about, always checking in and o ering support. She found simple joy in tending to her rose bushes and cherished the companionship of her beloved pets.

She is survived by her husband of 47 years, Timothy James Drake Sr.; her sons, Timothy Drake Jr. and ancée Stacey Bowers of Marshville, and Joseph Heath Drake and wife Jennifer of Rosman, North Carolina; her siblings, Sherry Mason and husband Gene of Albemarle, Karen Mauldin and husband Steve of Waynesville, and Lohman Gragg of Charlotte; her granddaughter, Isabella Lynn Drake; and a special friend, Lamar Smith of Concord.

Marilyn’s life was a testament to quiet strength, enduring faith, and unwavering love. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her.

TERESA WHITLEY

MAY 27, 1950 – APRIL 30, 2026

Teresa Meggs Whitley, 75, of Oakboro, passed away peacefully on April 30, 2026, at Atrium Health Stanly. A celebration of life service will be held at a later date.

Born May 27, 1950, in Stanly County, North Carolina, she was the daughter of the late Joseph Henry Meggs and Peggy Allen Thomas Meggs Carey. Teresa dedicated her life to education, serving as an elementary school teacher in both North Carolina and South Carolina. She approached her work with patience, compassion, and a genuine love for her students.

Teresa will be remembered as a kind and loving woman whose gentle spirit touched all who knew her. She was organized, thoughtful, and carried a joyful sense of humor that brought comfort and laughter to those around her. A lifelong learner, she had a deep appreciation for science and the natural world and found great peace in quiet moments of re ection.

She was an avid walker and reader, with a special love for Motown music. Teresa was also a gifted artist, particularly enjoying pen and ink as well as watercolor. She was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and earned her graduate degree from the University of South Carolina.

Above all, Teresa cherished her family. She was devoted to making life easier for those she loved, always seeking to lighten their burdens. Her daughter fondly remembers her most often spoken words, “I love you,” a simple phrase that perfectly captured the depth of her heart.

She is survived by her daughter, Susan Whitley Harris and husband, George, of Florida; her sisters, Kathy Peek and husband, Bill, of Oakboro, and Linda Hartsell and husband, John, of Locust; along with many beloved nieces and nephews.

Teresa’s legacy of kindness, curiosity, and quiet strength will be treasured by all who knew her.

RUTH BROOKS

APRIL 5, 1921 – MAY 1, 2026

Ruth Furr Brooks, of Midland, transitioned from life to life everlasting on Friday, May 1, 2026, at Brookdale Monroe Square. She recently celebrated her 105th birthday on Easter Sunday.

Mrs. Brooks was born April 5, 1921, in Stanly County to the late John Lee Furr and the late Dora Frances Furr. She was also preceded in death by her husband, James Thomas Brooks, 6 brothers, and 4 sisters.

Mrs. Brooks is survived by her loving and devoted daughter, Jan Brooks, of Midland and several nieces and nephews and extended family.

Services are private. In lieu of owers, memorial donations may be made to Mill Grove Church of Midland, 13644 US-601, Midland, NC 28107.

Gerry Conway, comic book writer who co-created Punisher character in Spider-Man, dead at 73

The proli c writer shaped both Marvel and DC’s most iconic characters

By Claire Rush

The Associated Press

GERRY CONWAY, a re-

nowned comic book writer who helped create characters and stories for Marvel and DC, including the Punisher character in the Spider-Man comics, has died. He was 73. In a Monday statement announcing his death, Marvel described Conway as a legendary comic book writer with a prolific career. He died of pancreatic cancer on Sunday in Thousand

Oaks, California, his wife, Laura Conway, told The Associated Press.

“From Spider-Man to the Avengers, Iron Man to Captain Marvel, Gerry Conway has deftly written almost every character in the Marvel Universe,” Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief

C.B. Cebulski said. “Gerry Conway’s legacy has made an undeniable and indelible impact on the Super Hero stories we know and love. He will be dearly missed.” Tributes were also shared on social media.

“While many know his Marvel accomplishments ... Gerry’s contributions to DC were equally impactful and signi cant: shaping Batman, Superman,

the Justice League of America, and co-creating Firestorm, Jason Todd and Power Girl and so many more,” Jim Lee, chief creative o cer and president of DC Comics, said in an Instagram post. “Thank you, Gerry, for the worlds imagined and the heroes created.”

Conway was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 10, 1952. A lifelong fan of comic books, he started writing comic book stories as a teenager, and by the age of 19 he landed work on “The Amazing Spider-Man” — which Marvel’s statement described as “the job that would change his life — and the comic book industry at large — forever.”

Conway’s writing featured

“pivotal moments” that redened the series, Marvel said, such as the death of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s girlfriend. He also co-created the Punisher, a vigilante antihero known for the skull logo on his chest.

The skull imagery has been used by law enforcement in recent years, sparking controversy at times. Nearly a decade ago, Conway objected to police departments putting Punisher decals on their vehicles, saying in a social media post that the character was “a complex morally compromised anti-hero, not to be emulated by cops,” as reported by the Syracuse Post-Standard. Conway had a way of imbu-

ing characters with nuance and emotional depth, Marvel said in its statement.

“Gerry Conway brought real stakes to his writing, able to weave together sensational super heroics with the human and relatable, and in doing so created some of the most memorable stories and characters of all time,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said.

Beyond the Spider-Man comics, Conway wrote for several other major Marvel titles, including “Fantastic Four,” “Thor” and “The Incredible Hulk.”

In a 1981 interview with The Comics Journal, Conway noted how comic books can appeal to both younger and older audiences.

“I’m writing for the youthful part of myself, the primitive part of myself,” he told the magazine. “If an adult likes the books it’s because of a nostalgic feeling for that primitive, easy conceptualization of heroic purpose.”

STANLY SPORTS

Stanly teams open NCHSAA baseball, softball playo s

Three teams received the top seeds in their brackets

By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal

ALBEMARLE — The N.C.

High School Athletic Association state baseball and softball playo s are underway, with nine high school teams from Stanly County receiving bids Monday for this year’s postseason tournaments.

Three local teams earned No. 1 seeds in their respective brackets: West Stanly and North Stanly in baseball, and South Stanly in softball.

First-round games were scheduled for Tuesday, with second-round games set for Friday. The third round is scheduled for May 12, followed by the fourth round on May 15. Regional nals are set for May 19-23, with state championship series scheduled for May 27-30.

In baseball, West Stanly (23 -1) received the top overall seed in the 4A West bracket and a rst-round bye after winning the Rocky River Conference regular-season and tournament championships.

The Colts will host either No. 16 East Gaston (10-11) or

No. 17 West Stokes (9-12) in the second round Friday. North Stanly (22-4) also earned a top overall seed, landing at No. 1 in the 3A West bracket. The Comets, who were Yadkin Val-

ley Conference regular-season co-champions and tournament champions, received a rst-round bye.

North Stanly will host either No. 16 Piedmont Community Charter (12-9) or No. 17 East

Whitley remembered with Stanly Hall of Fame honor

He led Albemarle High School to a state title in 1957

By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal

ALBEMARLE — The late Roger Whitley built a legacy that stretched from a championship football season at Albemarle High School to training nearly 2,500 law enforcement o cers over his career.

Now, the former Bulldogs star will be posthumously recognized on one of his home county’s biggest stages.

Whitley is one of three inductees in the Stanly County Sports Hall of Fame’s 2026 class, which will be honored

during the 34th annual induction ceremony June 16 at Pfei er University’s Stokes Student Center in Misenheimer.

Whitley played for coach H.T. “Toby” Webb’s Bulldogs from 1955-57, anchoring the tackle position during his rst two varsity seasons before moving to fullback as a senior.

The position change proved pivotal, as Whitley averaged nearly 185 yards and two touchdowns per game during Albemarle’s 1957 Western North Carolina High School Activities Association championship season. The honors soon followed in kind.

He earned All-South Piedmont Conference recognition and received all-state nods

from the Charlotte News, Charlotte Observer and Greensboro Daily News. He was also selected to play in the Shrine Bowl, earning All-American recognition from World Week Magazine and Scholastic Magazine, with honorable mention from Sporting News.

Whitley carried his football career to Ferrum Junior College and Mars Hill College, where he played fullback, defensive end and punter from 1961-65. He earned National Junior College Athletic Association All-American honors at Ferrum in 1960 and 1961, and he was later inducted into both schools’ halls of fame.

He remained tied to the sport for 18 years as a football o cial with the North State

Surry (8-12) in the second round. South Stanly (16-10), the Yadkin Valley Conference regular-season co-champion and tournament runner-up, received the No. 5 seed in the 2A West bracket. The Row-

Football O cials Association. O the eld, Whitley devoted his professional life to public service. After four years with the Greensboro Police Department, he served 13 years as a probation and parole ofcer with the North Carolina Department of Justice, working in courts and correction-

North Stanly’s Nolan Ellington pitches during the Comets’ April 16 home win over Community School of Davidson.

dy Rebel Bulls also earned a rst-round bye and will host either No. 12 Christ the King (9 -13) or No. 21 Avery County (7-14) on Friday.

Two other Stanly County baseball teams opened postseason play Tuesday in the 2A West bracket. No. 16 Gray Stone (9-10) hosted No. 17 Mitchell (11-13), while No. 24 Albemarle (3-16) traveled to Ronda to face No. 9 East Wilkes (15-9).

In softball, West Stanly (21-5) received the No. 4 seed in the 4A West bracket after winning the Rocky River Conference regular-season title and nishing as tournament runner-up. The Colts received a rst-round bye and will host either No. 13 Hibriten (14-9) or No. 20 Brevard (7-14) in the second round.

North Stanly (7-13), the Yadkin Valley Conference tournament runner-up, earned the No. 13 seed in the 3A West bracket and hosted No. 20 CHASE (10-14) in a rst-round matchup Tuesday.

South Stanly (21-2) claimed the top seed in the 2A West bracket after winning both the Yadkin Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships.

The Bulls received a rst-round bye and will host either No. 16 Bradford Prep (3 -10) or No. 17 Hayesville (2 -15) on Friday.

Gray Stone (5-12) also landed in the 2A West bracket as the No. 15 seed. The Knights hosted No. 18 Langtree Charter Academy (0-17) in Tuesday’s opening round.

18

Years Roger Whitley served as a football o cial

al facilities across the state. He spent his nal 27 professional years as director of the Criminal Justice Academy at Gaston College in Dallas, where he trained and graduated numerous law enforcement o cers before retiring. He was also active in the Cleveland and Gaston county communities, serving as a Lions Club member and as a member and elder at Pisgah Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church in Gastonia. Whitley died Oct. 16, 2025,

PJ WARD-BROWN / STANLY NEWS JOURNAL

HALL OF FAME Roger Whitley

PJ WARD-BROWN / STANLY NEWS JOURNAL

West Stanly softball celebrates a win earlier this season.

SOCCER

Man United beats Liverpool, will return to Champions League after 2-year absence

Manchester, England

Manchester United guaranteed a return to the Champions League next season with a 3-2 win against Liverpool.

Kobbie Mainoo’s rst-time strike from the edge of the area won it. Defending champion Liverpool had fought back from two goals down to level the game. But Mainoo’s goal meant United would be playing in European club soccer’s top competition after a two-year absence. Tottenham also climbed out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa.

MLB Reds tie MLB record by walking 7 straight batters in loss to Pirates

Pittsburgh

The Cincinnati Reds issued a Major League Baseball record-tying seven straight walks during the second inning of a 17-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the third time in major league history that a team had walked that many batters consecutively — the rst in more than four decades.

Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder walked three batters in the second inning and was replaced by Connor Phillips, who walked the next four, each time with the bases loaded. The Pirates scored ve runs in the inning without a hit.

NBA Knicks, ahead by 47 at half, enjoy rout for ages over Hawks in Game 6

Atlanta

The biggest halftime lead in NBA playo history. The most points and most lopsided win in New York Knicks postseason history, too. By any measure, what the Knicks did to the Atlanta Hawks was a historic blowout. The nal score: Knicks 140, Hawks 89 in Game 6 of the teams’ Eastern Conference rst-round series. New York won the series 4-2 after losing Games 2 and 3 by one point — and then winning the next three games by 16, 29 and 51 points, respectively.

TENNIS

Sinner crushes Zverev to win Madrid Open, claim record 5th straight Masters 1000 title

Madrid

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner cruised past Alexander Zverev in the nal of the Madrid Open to become the rst man to triumph in ve consecutive Masters 1000 events. Sinner beat the third-ranked Zverev 6-1, 6-2 for his 23rd straight victory. He had already won in Monte Carlo, Miami and Indian Wells this year, and in Paris last year. Zverev lost to Sinner in the semi nals of each of those tournaments. Zverev won in Madrid in 2018 and 2021, and he was runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in 2022.

MLB Plane circles Fenway Park for hour towing banner imploring Red Sox ownership to sell team

Boston

A small plane towing a banner imploring Red Sox ownership to sell the team ew over Fenway Park on Friday while Boston and the Houston Astros took batting practice. The plane towed a banner with big red letters reading: “FIRE CRAIG! SELL THE TEAM!” The banner was aimed at Craig Breslow, Boston’s chief baseball o cer, and Red Sox principal owner John Henry. Boston was in last place in the AL East and had already red its manager and ve coaches.

Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements: community@stanlynewsjournal.com Weekly deadline is Monday at noon

State tournament to start on diamond

BASEBALL

SOUTH STANLY (16-10, 9-1 IN CONFERENCE)

• Won vs. Gray Stone Day

• 11-5

Lost vs. North Stanly 11-0

This week’s schedule

• TBD in NCHSAA playo s

WEST STANLY (23-2, 9-1 IN CONFERENCE)

• Won vs. Parkwood 10-0

• Won vs. Mount Pleasant 5-1

This week’s schedule

• TBD in NCHSAA playo s

NORTH STANLY (22-4, 9-1 IN CONFERENCE)

• Won vs. Union Academy 11-0

• Won vs. South Stanly 11-0

Upcoming schedule

TBD in NCHSAA playo s

ALBEMARLE (3-16, 1-9 IN CONFERENCE)

NORTH STANLY (7-13)

• Won vs. Union Academy 1-0

• Lost vs. South Stanly 9-1

Upcoming schedule

• May 5 vs. CHASE in NCHSAA playo s

ALBEMARLE (0-6)

• Season complete

GRAY STONE DAY (5-12)

• Lost vs. South Stanly 15-0

Upcoming schedule

• May 5 vs. Langtree Charter in NCHSAA playo s

GIRLS’ SOCCER

SOUTH STANLY (5-8, 4-6 IN CONFERENCE)

• Lost at Gray Stone Day 3-1

This week’s schedule

• May 5 at Anson

Both wins have come by holding o Denny Hamlin down the stretch

By Stephen Hawkins The Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott went low, got a push from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and held on to become only the second NASCAR Cup driver with multiple wins this season.

Elliott stayed ahead of Denny Hamlin for the closing four laps after a nal restart at Texas on Sunday for his second victory this year. He nished just ahead of Hamlin in both of those wins.

On that nal restart at the 11⁄2-mile Texas track, Elliott took the bottom line and had teammate Alex Bowman behind him. He cleared Hamlin going onto the backstretch and remained in front to the checkered ag.

“I just felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear o of (Turn) 2, I was going to be in a lot of trouble,” Elliott said. “So fortunately Alex gave me a great push. I was able to execute Turns 1 and 2, get clear, and then just kind of manage the last few laps.”

Elliott, voted NASCAR’s most popular driver each of the past eight seasons, got his 23rd career win and his second at Texas, where two years ago he ended a 42-race winless streak. He led ve times Sunday for a race-high 87 laps, nishing

“I was able to execute Turns 1 and 2, get clear, and then just kind of manage the last few laps.”

Chase Elliott

0.407 seconds ahead of Hamlin, closer than the 0.565-second margin when they nished 1-2 at Martinsville in late March.

Bowman, whose spin brought out a caution on lap 93, nished third. Tyler Reddick was fourth after winning ve of the rst 10 races this season for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing.

Hamlin said the late push Elliott got from his teammate was the di erence in Texas.

“It was just enough to slow my momentum and pick his momentum up,” Hamlin said.

“Good, decent day, just one (spot) short.”

Elliott, who started 14th, had already taken the white ag when John Hunter Nemechek wrecked in the back of the eld after contact with Kyle Busch.

The caution ag never came out since Nemechek was able to get his car to the apron.

Chris Buescher was fth, his rst top-10 nish in 17 starts at the track less than an hour from his hometown of Prosper.

Carson Hocevar, the polesitter at Texas for the second year in a row, nished seventh a

week after his breakthrough win at Talladega. He also won the Truck Series race in the Lone Star State last Friday night. He nished a spot behind Daniel Suarez, his Spire Motorsports teammate.

Hocevar led the rst 22 laps last year, three more than he did at the start of this 267-lap race, though he did get back in front for 18 more laps later Sunday.

Corey Heim, in only his third start this year for 23XI Racing, led 69 laps, but with 11 laps left brought out the nal caution of the day, the fourth because of a single-car spinout. The 23-year-old Heim was the Truck Series champion last year.

Bell rung out of the race

Christopher Bell, an Oklahoma native who considers Texas his home track, led 22 laps and was still near the front on lap 69 when he got clipped by Todd Gilliland, who spun ahead of him.

Bell bobbled and then slammed hard into the outside wall along the frontstretch, doing signi cant damage to the front right of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He nished last in the 38-car eld.

“I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom,” said Bell, who had led only six laps total his rst seven starts in Texas. “I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom but I got clipped.”

• No games scheduled

Upcoming schedule

• May 5 at East Wilkes in NCHSAA state playo s

• TBD

GRAY STONE DAY (9-10, 4-6 IN CONFERENCE)

• Lost at South Stanly 11-5

• Won vs. South Davidson 5-3

Upcoming schedule

• May 5 vs. Mitchell in NCHSAA state playo s

• TBD SOFTBALL

SOUTH STANLY (21-2)

• Won vs. Gray Stone Day 15-0

• Won vs. North Stanly 9-1

This week’s schedule

• TBD in NCHSAA playo s

WEST STANLY (21-5)

• Won vs. Parkwood 15-0

• Lost vs. Mount Pleasant 4-3

Upcoming schedule

• TBD in NCHSAA playo s

WEST STANLY (16-3-2, 10 -1-1 IN CONFERENCE)

• Won at Anson 17-0

• Lost at Union Academy 4-2

• Won at Mount Pleasant 7-0

This week’s schedule

• TBD (postseason)

NORTH STANLY (2-16-1, 2-8 IN CONFERENCE)

• Lost vs. Albemarle 3-2

Upcoming schedule

• TBD (postseason)

ALBEMARLE (3-12, 2-8 IN CONFERENCE)

• Won at North Stanly 3-2

• Won at Anson 3-2

Upcoming schedule

• TBD (postseason)

GRAY STONE DAY (10-9, 8-2 IN CONFERENCE)

• Won vs. South Stanly 3-1

• Lost vs. Uwharrie Charter 9-0

• Lost at Concord 3-0

Upcoming schedule

• TBD (postseason)

LM OTERO / AP PHOTO

Chase Elliott crosses the nish line to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Fort Worth, Texas.

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NORTH CAROLINA STANLY

SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 26E000200-830 NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having quali ed as Co-Executor of

Tommy Dewayne Rushing 13526 Brooks Road Stan eld, NC 28163 Co-Executor Tracy Howard Rushing PO Box 1023 Locust, NC 28097 Co-Executor

www.townofredcross.com. For additional information contact the Red Cross

NOTICE

Suzanne Whitley E rd 903 N. Main St. W Locust,

the stream

‘The

Robert Pattinson, left, and Zendaya attend the special screening of “The Drama” at Regal Union Square in New

The lm is streaming now on premium on demand.

Drama,’ MUNA, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, ‘The Other Bennet Sister’

Ashley McBryde drops “Lines in the Carpet”

By Mark Kennedy

The Associated Press

“THE DRAMA,” a rom-com that goes bad starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson and the synth-pop group MUNA releasing their fourth studio album, “Dancing on the Wall,” 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: Sam Raimi’s movie “Send Help” starring Rachel McAdams; a TV series based on the unassuming, oft-forgotten Jane Austen’s sister Mary leads “The Other Bennet Sister”; and country star Ashley McBryde heading into the “Wild” on her latest album.

MOVIES TO STREAM

“The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Pattinson, is available now on premium on demand after a much-talked-about run in theaters. The lm, written and directed by Kristo er Borgli, recently became the fth A24 release to clear $100 million at the box o ce. Pattinson and Zendaya play a couple whose wedding engagement is derailed after a disquieting revelation. In his review, AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that the lm “wastes two of the planet’s most gorgeous people and will surely get everyone involved in trouble for using a current American tragedy as a plot point.”

In Raimi’s “Send Help,” a woman (McAdams) and her overbearing boss (Dylan O’Brien) are stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. Raimi’s comic survivalist thriller grows increasingly unhinged as their roles reverse. After a theatrical run earlier this year, it debuts Thursday on Hulu.

The Net ix adaptation “Remarkably Bright Creatures” (streaming Friday) turns Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel into a lm starring Sally Field as a widow working at an aquarium. There, she develops a healing bond with a giant Paci c octopus. Lewis Pullman co-stars.

MUSIC TO STREAM

The synth-pop group MUNA will release their fourth studio album on Friday. “Dancing on the Wall” arrives just in time for the approaching warmth — and hedonistic decision-making — of summer. It’s tank top party-pop for the once-heartbroken, now-victorious crowd (like what is found on “So What” and the familiar sounds of the title track) and whoever is the ob -

ject of a ection on the too-fun “Wannabeher.” Also on Friday: Country star McBryde heads into the “Wild” on her latest album. It is her most personal and most rock ’n’ roll collection yet, embodying McBryde’s ery spirit found on “Lines in the Carpet,” a cutting treatise on domesticity, the heartfelt mission statement of the title track and everywhere in between. The record opens with four barnburners fans will

recognize as staples of her live show — “Rattlesnake Preacher,” “Arkansas Mud,” “Water in the River” and “Creosote” — and diversi es from there. Expect big feelings and a playful, wizened heart.

SERIES TO STREAM

If you’re an Austen devotee who loved “Pride and Prejudice,” you’ll recall that Elizabeth and Jane aren’t the only two daughters in the Bennet family. A new series called “The Other Bennet Sister” follows the introspective and awkward but adorable Mary, played by Ella Bruccoleri. Mary steps out of the shadows of her other siblings and nds romance and independence. The show is already a hit in the UK and on social media. Mary gets her time to shine on BritBox. From the backwoods lakes of the Ozarks to the turquoise waters of the Florida Keys, Bill Dubuque, a co-creator of “Ozark,” has created a new series set against the drug world called “M.I.A.” In this crime drama, a daughter who wants nothing more than to separate herself from her family’s drug-running business is

pulled into a quest for vengeance after it’s destroyed. All nine episodes drop Thursday on Peacock.

Dan Stevens is wrongfully committed to a mental hospital where he must battle both supernatural and psychological demons in “The Terror: Devil in Silver.” This “Terror” is the third season of a horror anthology. Besides Stevens, the series features an impressive cast including CCH Pounder, Judith Light and John Benjamin Hickey. It premieres Thursday on both Shudder and AMC+.

Another classic gets reimagined in the new “Amadeus” limited-series starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany. Sharpe plays superstar composer Amadeus Mozart and Bettany is Antonio Salieri, also a successful composer of the time whom history has cast as the lesser talent. Salieri becomes increasingly obsessed with achieving the respect and acclaim that Mozart enjoys. It premieres on Starz on Friday.

VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

Annapurna Interactive’s Mixtape includes tunes by Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Roxy Music and Devo — the kind of alt-rock you might expect in a movie like “Sixteen Candles” or “Dazed and Confused.” So yes, we’re back in the 1990s with three teenagers seeking adventure on their last night of high school. That means skateboarding, sneaking beers, making out, looking for trouble, running from trouble and, to judge from the trailer, oating through space. You can press play Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 or PC. The soundtrack to Wax Heads is more diverse, but all the bands are completely made up. You’ve landed a job at a gnarly store called Repeater Records, and you get to deal with an assortment of eccentric customers who may or may not know what they want. The result is a kind of puzzle game in which you have to sort through their suggestions to track down the perfect vinyl. Patattie Games, the two-person U.K. studio behind Wax Heads, calls it “cozy-punk.” Drop the needle on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S,

or

Switch

PC.

EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP PHOTO

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO

Ashley McBryde performs “Help Me Make It Through the Night” during the 58th Annual CMA Awards in 2024. Her new album, “Lines in the Carpet,” comes out Friday.

MILLIE TURNER / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Ross Garshong and Ellie Buckley pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the lm ‘Send Help’ in London. The thriller lands on Hulu on Thursday.

York.

Solution to last week’s puzzle

Solution to this week’s puzzles

Walk the line

A Reynolds High School student wearing impairment goggles attempts to walk a straight line during a sobriety test demonstration last week. The event, hosted with Safe Kids Northwest Piedmont and Brenner Children’s Hospital, rotated students through stations on substance abuse, tra c stops, rst aid and pedestrian safety.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Presidential Physical Fitness Award returns as Trump revives annual tness test

President Donald Trump is reviving the Presidential Physical Fitness Award as he reintroduces a competitive physical tness test in America’s schools. The award is part of Trump’s revamped Presidential Fitness Test, which had been a public-school xture for decades but was phased out under President Barack Obama. The earlier exam tested children on exercises including a 1-mile run and sit-ups. Those scoring above the 85th percentile received the presidential award. Details of the revived test have yet to be released. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the test is now mandatory in 161 schools on U.S. military installations.

U.S. job openings unchanged at 6.9M in March; hiring improved U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged at 6.9 million in March, another sign the American labor market remained sluggish even before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy. The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war has clouded the outlook. On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layo s rose in March. But hiring improved and more people quit their jobs — a sign of con dence in the economy.

$2.00

Attendance boundary changes expected at start of 2027-28 school year

Reassigned students will need to provide their own transportation to remain at current schools

By Ryan Henkel Twin City Herald

WINSTON-SALEM — Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools will be updating its attendance boundaries.

At the WSFCS Board of Education’s April 28 meeting, the board was presented with the implementation plan for the residential attendance boundaries that have been in discussion for the last two years.

“This isn’t so much about maps anymore as much as it is about implementing the maps that have been adjudicat-

ed over the long period where we worked with our community,” said Executive Director of Choice and Magnet Schools Frank Pantano. “This work is necessary maintenance on out-of-date boundaries that will aid in any future changes to the landscape of our district.”

According to Pantano, the update will result in an average travel distance saved of 1.19 miles, a 5.1% improvement in SEO diversity and a 31% reduction in feeder splits.

While 11.7% of student addresses were rezoned, no students will be forced to change schools as a result of the update, however, the district does not have the capability to provide transportation for all families that would be a ected.

“No students would be forced to change and they

“This has been a long time coming and we’re not going to get it perfect, but we’ve comea long way from where we were.”

Board Member Richard Watts

would all have a seat at their current school, and they would be able to opt in to stay in that seat, however, they would need to provide their own transportation,” Pantano said.

According to Pantano, these changes would also result in a net economic impact of around $1.5 million per year in savings due to reduction in bus mileage and estimated improvements in the state budget rating.

The plan is for these changes to go into e ect starting at the beginning of the 2027-28

school year, and impacted families will be noti ed in October of this year and they will be given the option to stay at their currently enrolled schools at that time as well.

“This has been a long time coming, and we’re not going to get it perfect, but we’ve come a long way from where we were,” said board member Richard Watts. “We’re not there yet, but we’re a lot better than we were.”

The WSFCS Board of Education will next meet May 12.

After NASCAR’s Greg Bi e and family died, police now think ‘friends’ stole from them

Police allege the suspects accessed the family’s bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts in multiple states

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

LESS THAN a month after former NASCAR driver Greg Bi e and his family died in a plane crash last year, investigators say two of their “friends” conspired to break into the empty home and took cash, guns and nancial information in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. More than 40 search warrants have been issued, authorities in North Carolina say, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Bi e and

naming the pair because no arrests have been made. Bi e, his wife and his two children, along with three others, died in the Dec. 18 crash, which remains under investigation by the NTSB. Some survivors of those killed are suing the estates of Bi e and the pilot for millions of dollars. According to a search warrant a davit, the husband being investigated met Bi e when the former driver used his private helicopter to deliver aid after Hurricane Helene. The woman attended a Christmas party at the Bi es’ home in Mooresville weeks before the crash. Authorities reported a break-in at the home on Jan. 8, saying $30,000 in cash, two Glock handguns and NASCAR memorabilia were stolen.

BIFFLE, page A2

North State Journal (USPS 20451) (ISSN 2471-1365)

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

Ryan Henkel, Reporter

PJ Ward-Brown, Photographer BUSINESS

David

1201

THURSDAY

BIFFLE from page A1

Search warrants were later executed at two sites, one near the Bi es’ residence and another in a nearby county.

A person seen on surveillance video, identi ed as a woman, appeared to be familiar with the large home’s layout, including the locations of cameras, closets and a safe room, a detective wrote in a search warrant a davit. The intruder spent nearly six hours inside the house the night of Jan. 7 into the following morning.

Evidence showed a cellphone and multiple devices were active on the property during that time, according to the warrant. The only people allowed there would’ve been the administrators of the estate, but they weren’t present.

Authorities say they linked the woman to someone who attended Bi e’s celebration of life and said license plate readers placed her husband’s truck near the home that night.

The warrants also describe alleged nancial crimes. Investigators say that bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts tied to the Bi es were accessed online using personal information, with phone numbers and email addresses changed to gain control of funds. Money was then allegedly transferred to accounts not belonging to the family and used for purchases, according to the warrant.

At least one fraudulent check tied to Bi e’s business interests was cashed, and other attempts were made to access accounts. The activity occurred across multiple states. The sheri would not say whether the same suspects in the break-in are being investigated for the nancial crimes, saying the department is waiting for more evidence.

Meanwhile, the plane crash sparked lawsuits against the estates of Bi e and the pilot, Dennis Dutton, who was killed along with his son.

On April 17, the estates of Dutton and his son sued Bi e’s estate for at least $15 million each, alleging Bi e failed to properly maintain the plane and operated it in a defective condition. The claims include lost income and “pre-death pain and su ering.”

In February, Bi e’s ex-wife, Nicole Bi e, led a notice of claim against Dutton’s estate on behalf of the couple’s 14-year-old daughter’s estate, seeking at least $10 million for wrongful death.

Spears

pleads guilty to lesser ‘wet reckless’ charge in DUI case, avoids further jail time

She completed voluntary rehab and will serve summary probation with required substance abuse treatment

By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press

VENTURA, Calif. — Britney Spears pleaded guilty through her lawyer Monday to a lesser charge that will allow her to avoid jail time after California prosecutors accused her of driving under the in uence of alcohol and drugs.

The 44-year-old pop star, who recently completed a stint at a rehabilitation facility, didn’t appear in Ventura County court. But her lawyer, Michael A. Goldstein, pleaded guilty on her behalf to what’s commonly called a “wet reckless.” That allowed her to be sentenced to one day in jail that the judge said she served when she was booked, one year of probation, a required DUI class and state-mandated nes.

The plea o er was standard for defendants with no DUI history, no crash or injury on the road, and a low blood-alcohol level, the county district attorney’s o ce said. And it’s especially common for defendants who have shown motivation to address their problems and seek treatment, as Spears did when she voluntarily checked in to a substance abuse treatment center last month.

“I don’t think anybody’s happy about pleading guilty to anything, but under the circumstances, to get this behind her, I think everybody is pleased with the result,” Goldstein said after the hearing. “We appreciate the district attorney recognizing the positive steps that Britney is taking to help herself.”

Goldstein said Spears returned home after recently completing her rehab stint, and that reports that she left early were “absolutely false.” Asked

what’s next for her, he replied, “I don’t know, I’m sure a lot.”

During the brief hearing, Spears received summary probation, which is informal and doesn’t involve mandatory meetings with a probation ocer. She temporarily yielded her Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights if she is pulled over, meaning she must automatically yield to searches and sobriety tests. At Goldstein’s request, the judge ruled this would not apply to her home.

District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said after the hearing that Spears had taken “full responsibility,” but he emphasized that DUI is a “serious crime” and said it was essential that she follow the requirements agreed to in court, which include continued substance abuse treatment, weekly visits with a therapist and monthly visits with a psychiatrist.

“We do not want Miss Spears to reo end,” Nasarenko said. She was charged last Thurs-

day with one misdemeanor DUI count, which meant she was not required to appear in court for her arraignment. But her representatives hadn’t said whether she would appear, and the hearing drew an unusually heavy media turnout for Ventura, a seaside city of about 110,000 people roughly 70 miles northwest of downtown LA.

After her March 4 arrest, a representative called her actions inexcusable and said that ideally, the arrest would lead to overdue change in her life. She was pulled over for driving her black BMW quickly and erratically on U.S. 101, the California Highway Patrol said. She appeared to be impaired, took a series of eld sobriety tests, was arrested and was taken to jail, the CHP said.

Authorities said in the criminal complaint that Spears had alcohol and drugs in her system, but they didn’t specify which drugs or

list her blood alcohol content. Spears grew to superstardom in the 1990s and 2000s with hits including “Toxic,” “Gimme More” and “I’m a Slave 4 U.” Most of her nine studio albums have been certi ed platinum, with two diamond titles: 1999’s “… Baby One More Time” and 2000s “Oops! … I Did It Again.” She became a tabloid obsession in the early 2000s and a source of intense public scrutiny as she battled mental illness and paparazzi fought to document the details of her private life.

In 2008, Spears was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, run primarily by her father and his lawyers, that would control her personal and nancial decisions for well over a decade. It was dissolved in 2021. Since then, she has married, divorced and released a bestselling memoir, “The Woman in Me.”

Prosecutors say arson suspect in Los Angeles’ Palisades Fire was angry ‘at the world’

The 29-year-old man pleaded not guilty to starting the massive re

By Christopher Weber The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was upset that he didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked, according to court documents led by prosecutors. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, has pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wild res in California history. It began Jan. 7, 2025, in hillside neighborhoods of Paci c Palisades and Malibu and killed 12 people. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a re on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before aring back up a week later. Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His attorneys say he is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.

An outline of the prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the rst re began — appears in an April 29 pretrial memo led by the U.S. Attorney’s O ce.

Witnesses reported that Rinderknecht had been driving erratically while on Uber routes around the Palisades on New Year’s Eve, said prosecutors. His passengers described him as “angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed o at the world,’” the memo said. According to court lings,

“The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

Steve Haney

Rinderknecht ranted to passengers about accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism. In an interview with investigators on Jan. 24, when asked why someone might commit arson in the Palisades, Rinderknecht “responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them,’” and again referenced Mangione’s alleged crime, the documents said.

In addition, prosecutors said Rinderknecht was distraught over a failed relationship and upset about thwarted plans for New Year’s Eve.

“My client maintains his innocence as he has from the beginning and we look forward to clearing his name at trial,” Rinderknecht’s attorney Steve

Haney said in an email Sunday. “The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

Haney held a news conference in March to call for Rinderknecht’s release from jail in light of evidence he said shows he is not responsible for the blaze. Haney pointed to a deposition in which a reghter testi ed that he noticed the ground was still smoldering from the re on Jan. 2 and alerted a supervisor that there were hot spots. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit led by re victims against the city.

A battalion chief had testied that he walked the perimeter of the burn area four times throughout the day and ensured all hot spots were out.

Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in October, has said he is concerned about the di erences in the re ghters’ testimonies and commissioned an independent report on how the Jan. 1 re was handled.

Haney has said this evidence was not available to the defense when Rinderknecht was indicted.

FREDERIC J. BROWN / POOL PHOTO VIA AP

Michael Goldstein, left, attorney for Britney Spears, speaks during her arraignment in a DUI case at the Ventura County Superior Court in Ventura, California, on Monday.

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

When does speech become dangerous?

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

AMERICANS LOVE arguing about free speech. We invoke the First Amendment as a kind of political force eld: You can say whatever you want, whenever you want, without consequence.

But the First Amendment only restricts government action. It does not guarantee you a career, a platform or immunity from backlash. The real question is not whether certain speech is legal but rather what kind of speech deserves social consequences — and what kind doesn’t.

And if we’re talking about reckless political speech, we should talk about Jimmy Kimmel. Years ago, he abandoned comedy in favor of applause lines, tearful monologues and the occasional performance of empathy. He’s an unfunny late-night scold who treats half the country as a punchline.

As annoying as that is, being unfunny is not a crime. The bigger issue is when media gures cross the line from tastelessness into rhetoric that creates a permission structure for violence.

To understand the di erence, it helps to break political speech into three categories.

First: illegal speech.

Yes, illegal political speech exists in America.

A classic example: “I want to kill the president.” That’s not merely commentary. It is an actionable, direct threat.

There is also incitement. Under the Supreme Court’s Brandenburg standard, speech quali es as incitement only if it is intended to and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

“Someone should do something about the president” is protected, though irresponsible, speech. “Go kill the president” crosses into territory the law can punish. It’s speech but also an attempt to trigger violence.

Second: typical in ammatory rhetoric.

American politics is lled with heated language. “Fight like hell.” “We’re going to war with the other party.” That sort of rhetoric can be ugly and excessive, but it is also normal.

We’ve seen how absurd it becomes when people try to treat that as literal incitement. After Gabby Gi ords was shot, some on the left blamed Sarah Palin because a campaign graphic had “targeted” certain districts. That was ridiculous. Using combative imagery is not the same as directing violence.

Third: the permission structure for violence.

A permission structure for violence is created when people repeatedly portray political opponents as monsters.

This is how you create the mental environment where unstable people conclude that violence is justi ed. If the president is a traitor, rapist, pedophile and mastermind behind a corrupt system, then how else could he be stopped?

This kind of rhetoric leads directly to chaos. It is also the kind of rhetoric Kimmel has tra cked in for years.

Recently, Kimmel tastelessly joked that Melania Trump had “the glow of an expectant widow.” It was disgusting, and she has every right to be furious. But it wasn’t a call to violence. It was a cheap, ugly joke suggesting she secretly wants her husband dead.

Kimmel later claimed he rejects violent rhetoric, then immediately pivoted to blaming Donald Trump for rhetoric that supposedly inspires violence. It was the standard modern play: Insult someone, then wrap yourself in moral superiority.

But when it comes to rhetoric that encourages violence, it isn’t the widow joke

that should be the focus; it’s the conspiracism. Kimmel has repeatedly called Trump a pedophile, suggested he is connected to Je rey Epstein and involved in a coverup, called him a rapist and accused him of protecting pedophiles, coming after voting rights, enriching billionaires while harming the poor, and manipulating the system to evade accountability. That is not “normal political speech.” It is speech that turns a political opponent into a movie villain — a gure so corrupt and monstrous that extreme action begins to feel righteous.

This kind of conspiratorial framing has a track record. It fuels ugly episodes of modern political violence: a steady stream of baseless accusations designed to convince audiences that the other side is not merely wrong but evil.

If someone eventually acts on that belief, we shouldn’t pretend it came out of nowhere.

So should Kimmel be red?

Firing him for the Melania joke would be punishing the wrong o ense. A tasteless, bad joke is not the central issue.

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

If America wants to lower the temperature, scrutiny should be directed at conspiratorial storytelling that teaches people to hate.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author.

(Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

California copied Europe’s insane energy playbook

European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties.

EVEN AS U.S. GASOLINE prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising more than half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.

The result is embedded in ation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry. Europeans don’t just pay more to ll their tanks — they pay more for everything that moves on petroleum. Their living standards su er accordingly.

Energy security delivers America’s second big advantage. The U.S. produces more than two-thirds of its own oil and imports the rest mostly from Canada and other friendly Western Hemisphere sources. We are largely insulated from Middle East chaos.

Europe, by contrast, lectures the world about “energy transition” while remaining dangerously

dependent on imports even as it sits atop known, undeveloped reserves. The same nations that demonize oil and gas refuse to produce their own, choosing instead to outsource vulnerability rst to Russia, then to OPEC and now to U.S. LNG. This is not prudent policy. It is willful self-sabotage clothed in false virtue.

Nowhere is this failure more glaring than California, which has imported Germany’s disastrous model wholesale and turned itself into America’s premier energy basket case. With an 81-cent state gas tax, 60-70 cent cap-and-trade penalty, boutique “California blend” fuel mandates, and layers of environmental rules explicitly designed to punish gasoline and driving, the Golden State routinely posts pump prices $2 above the national average.

In-state production has been strangled. Re neries are closing or idling. The state now imports gasoline from South Korea, the Bahamas and the Middle East, exposing its residents to global shocks while preaching climate alarm orthodoxy.

Gavin Newsom and his bureaucrats want voters to believe it’s all President Donald Trump’s fault, but it isn’t. It is the entirely foreseeable outcome of using tax and regulatory warfare to force a premature energy transition. Instead of transitioning, California is deindustrializing and making its citizens poorer in the process.

The broader lesson is damning. High-tax, high-regulation, import-dependent energy policies do not deliver utopia or planetary salvation. They deliver chronic vulnerability, in ated living costs and economic drag. Europe’s drivers pay double or triple because politicians prioritized revenue and ideology over abundance. California followed suit and became a cautionary tale for the rest of America.

But most U.S. states reap the rewards of the opposite approach: Reasonable taxation that doesn’t treat fuel as a sin, aggressive domestic production that delivers record output and supply chains resilient enough to weather global crises without collapse. Prices rise during supply shocks, but there are no lines at the pump and no systemic shortages. That is the fruit of policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

America’s advantage at the pump is neither accident nor mystery: It is the direct result of rejecting the punitive European model that California eagerly embraced. Policymakers who ignore this lesson are not visionaries: They are ideologues imposing measurable harm on the people they claim to serve.

The current global turmoil should serve as a wake-up call. Punitive taxation and regulatory strangulation of conventional energy produce scarcity, insecurity and higher costs borne by working families.

America’s formula of lower taxes and energy dominance delivers a ordability, resilience and genuine energy security.

Europe — and California — stand as expensive warnings of what happens when nations choose ideology over reality. Americans outside of the Golden State should reject that failing path with zero apology.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. (Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation)

COLUMN | DAVID BLACKMON

COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO

Secret Service says suspect opened re on them, was shot near Washington Monument

A minor bystander was shot but not seriously injured during the incident

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man spotted carrying a gun in the vicinity of the White House by plainclothes o cers and agents was shot by law enforcement Monday after he opened re on them near the Washington Monument, the Secret Service said.

Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him. The agents followed him brie y and contacted the uniformed o cers.

The unidenti ed man attempted to ee when uniformed o cers with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man red at the o cers, who returned re.

The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect’s condition.

Quinn said emergency per -

sonnel also transported a minor who was shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say de nitively that

the bystander, who also was taken to a hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect’s gun.

“We’ll let the doctors gure that

out,” he said, though he noted that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.” Quinn said the Washington,

Trump keeps us up in the air with his hints of what’s coming in a new batch of UFO les

Skeptics warn Trump’s promised UFO revelations are unlikely to produce bombshell evidence

By Collin Binkley

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO les uncovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new revelations around questions of alien life.

Trump started stoking interest in the extraterrestrial in February, directing federal agencies to release their records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has built suspense with tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never before shared by the U.S. government.

“We’re going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven’t,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts. “I think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people.”

Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the secrets. In the rst week returning to o ce, he ordered the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known.

In the buildup to that release, Trump said “the American people deserve transparency and truth.” Now, as he turns to the sky, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-old questions may be on the way. His February directive on social media called for transparency around “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidenti ed aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidenti ed ying objects (UFOs).”

“The rst releases will begin very, very soon,” he told supporters in April at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. “So you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct. You’ll gure it out.”

An expert cautions against raising expectations

Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as unexplained

The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it ies over Washington, March 2, 2022.

anomalous phenomena, or UAP.

Citing concerns over national security, Congress created an o ce in 2022 to investigate UAP and declassify as much material as possible. The o ce’s 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever conrmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is expected to come soon.

That agency, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Ofce, is now working with the White House to release “never-before-seen UAP information,” according to a Pentagon statement.

The o ce’s previous director, however, said Trump’s promises were bluster, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from the war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence o cer who led the o ce until 2023, said he has seen the government’s records and believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down,” he said. “Because that just doesn’t exist.”

Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military often capture jet engines and oth-

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down. Because that just doesn’t exist.”

Sean Kirkpatrick, All-domain Anomaly Resolution O ce former director

er hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped objects.

Pentagon not forthcoming on UAP reports, GOP-led panel says

On Capitol Hill, those types of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Trump -aligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is holding back secrets.

The Task Force on the Declassi cation of Federal Secrets has been conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.

Last fall, the task force heard

D.C., police would investigate the o cer-involved shooting.

The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where President Donald Trump was holding a small business event.

The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the brie ng room, and Trump continued his event without interruption.

The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service o cer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and was not seriously injured.

Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will nd out.”

terrestrial life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said, “I gured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re really into that. I don’t know if I am.”

Why he made the revelation at that event, held at a megachurch, is unclear. A day earlier, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far from Area 51, a top-secret Cold War test site that has fueled UFO conspiracy theories.

Vice President JD Vance has described himself as “obsessed” with UFO les. In March, he said he has been trying to nd time to investigate Area 51 since he took o ce.

“I’ve still got three more years as vice president,” Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “I will get to the bottom of the UFO les.” Invoking his Christian faith, Vance said he believes sightings reported to be aliens are actually the work of spiritual demons.

Even before Trump tackled the topic, alien buzz was already in the air.

It’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie, “Disclosure Day.” Former President Barack Obama made a splash in February when he declared on a podcast that aliens are real. He later clari ed that he had seen no evidence but that “the odds are good there’s life out there.”

testimony from current and former service members who described UAP encounters. In one case, a senior Navy o cer said he was o the coast of California in 2023 when he saw a glowing “Tic Tac” shaped object emerge from the ocean and link up with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.

Trump’s interest in the subject has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticized what she calls “less than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.

In a March letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identi ed by whistleblowers and labeled with names such as “Spherical UAP in clouds.” Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.

Trump’s entry to the UFO fray drew applause from Luna, who last year told podcaster Joe Rogan that she has seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can’t hide from our docs request anymore!” Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive. Vance professes to be ‘obsessed’ with UFO les

Trump appears skeptical about the existence of extra-

Trump is hardly the rst president drawn to UFO mysteries. President Bill Clinton has said he once ordered a review of the Roswell Incident — something had crashed in 1947 at a New Mexico ranch and ofcials later said the debris was the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon — around its 50th anniversary in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs before their time in the White House.

The U.S. government has been investigating UFO reports since the 1940s, in part to determine if they represent advanced technology from competing nations or “evidence of o -world technology,” according to the Defense Department’s 2024 report. In online communities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump’s promise as a step in the right direction; others believe it will come to nothing. For people who follow the topic closely, promises of big revelations have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO sightings.

“There is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the really die-hard folks,” he said. “So in a sense, I think disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected no matter what comes out of this.”

PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP PHOTO

ROD LAMKEY JR. / AP PHOTO

U.S. Secret Service police respond after a person was shot by law enforcement near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

Forsyth SPORTS

Reynolds ‘gutted’ as Wrexham misses out on playo s to put Premier League dream on hold

The team saw its unprecedented run of three straight promotions come to an end

By Steve Douglas

The Associated Press

WREXHAM’S DREAM of reaching the Premier League is over, for this season anyway.

And for Ryan Reynolds, it was tough to stomach.

“I am completely gutted by today’s result but incredibly proud of our season,” the actor wrote on X after the Welsh club he co-owns missed out on a place in the playo s in the second-tier Championship by drawing 2-2 with Middlesbrough in a dramatic nal round of the regular season on Saturday.

That allowed Hull to jump ahead of Wrexham and into sixth place — the fourth andnal spot in the playo s — courtesy of a 2-1 win over Norwich in a match played at the same time.

The winning goal for Hull, by Oli McBurnie in the 67th, appeared to be scored from an oside position but there are no video reviews in the English Football League.

It ended Wrexham’s unprecedented run of three straight promotions under its famous owners — a streak that began by getting out of the fth tier in the 2022-23 season and has been documented in the globally popular, Emmy Award-winning “Welcome to Wrexham” series.

“This squad as it stands, with a preseason together, will be even stronger next year.”

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson

Still, seventh place marked Wrexham’s highest nish in its history, bettering the 15th position it achieved in the second tier in the 1978–79 season.

“We’ve come a long way in ve years and this was the best result in our 150+ year history,” Reynolds wrote alongside a graphic that showed how Wrexham has risen from the National League. “More to do. But for now, we have so much to be proud of, Reds.”

Elsewhere, Ipswich secured the second automatic promotion spot behind champion Coventry — and an immediate return to the Premier League — by beating Queens Park Rangers 3- 0.

Ipswich is owned by U.S. investment group Gamechanger 20 Limited and counts pop star Ed Sheeran as a minority shareholder.

Joining Hull in the playo s, which begin next week and are over two legs, are Millwall, Southampton and Middlesbrough.

Millwall will face Hull, and Southampton will meet Middlesbrough.

Best-ever nish by Wrexham

It was a memorable campaign by Wrexham in its rst season in the second tier since the 1980s.

However, the short-term pain was acute, and Wrexham’s players sat on the ground and looked disconsolate after thenal whistle — even though the Hull-Norwich match hadn’t nished.

Wrexham started the day in sixth place, ahead of Hull on goal di erence, and conceded in the fourth minute to Middlesbrough, only to score through Josh Windass and Sam Smith for a 2-1 lead by the 41st.

Middlesbrough hit back immediately with a 43rd-minute equalizer but Wrexham nished the stronger, squandering a string of great late chances for a winner that would have secured a playo place on goal di erence.

In the end, Wrexham nished two points behind Hull.

“This squad as it stands, with a preseason together, will be even stronger next year,” said Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson, who oversaw a summer spend of around $40 million last year.

“Of course we’ll always look to add to that to try and give ourselves an even better chance ... we know where we’d like to strengthen and what we need to improve on. We’ll do that and we’ll make this squad as strong as we possibly can to mount a challenge next year.”

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Morgan Maxwell

West Forsyth, softball

Morgan Maxwell is a junior pitcher and rst baseman on the West Forsyth softball team.

The Titans enter the playo s at 22-4, and Maxwell has been a huge contributor at the plate and on the mound down the stretch. In a win over Northwest Guilford, she pitched a complete game, one-hit shutout, striking out 19 of the 24 batters she faced. She also drove in three runs with a double and homer. She drove in four runs with two home runs against Parkland and pitched a complete game two hit, 11 inning win over East Forsyth, striking out 18. She is committed to the University of Georgia, where she’ll continue her softball career after her senior season next year.

Elliott wins at Texas to join Reddick as season’s multiple Cup Series winners

Both wins have come by holding o Denny Hamlin down the stretch

By Stephen Hawkins

The Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott went low, got a push from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and held on to become only the second NASCAR Cup driver with multiple wins this season.

Elliott stayed ahead of Denny Hamlin for the closing four laps after a nal restart at Texas on Sunday for his second victory this year. He nished just ahead of Hamlin in both of those wins.

On that nal restart at the

11⁄2-mile Texas track, Elliott took the bottom line and had teammate Alex Bowman behind him. He cleared Hamlin going onto the backstretch and remained in front to the checkered ag.

“I just felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear o of (Turn) 2, I was going to be in a lot of trouble,” Elliott said. “So fortunately Alex gave me a great push. I was able to execute Turns 1 and 2, get clear, and then just kind of manage the last few laps.”

Elliott, voted NASCAR’s most popular driver each of the past eight seasons, got his 23rd career win and his second at Texas, where two years ago he ended a 42-race winless streak. He led ve times Sunday for a race-high 87 laps, nishing 0.407 seconds

ahead of Hamlin, closer than the 0.565-second margin when they nished 1-2 at Martinsville in late March.

Bowman, whose spin brought out a caution on lap 93, nished third. Tyler Reddick was fourth after winning ve of the rst 10 races this season for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing.

Hamlin said the late push Elliott got from his teammate was the di erence in Texas.

“It was just enough to slow my momentum and pick his momentum up,” Hamlin said. “Good, decent day, just one (spot) short.”

Elliott, who started 14th, had already taken the white ag when John Hunter Nemechek wrecked in the back of the eld

after contact with Kyle Busch. The caution ag never came out since Nemechek was able to get his car to the apron. Chris Buescher was fth, his rst top-10 nish in 17 starts at the track less than an hour from his hometown of Prosper. Carson Hocevar, the polesitter at Texas for the second year in a row, nished seventh a week after his breakthrough win at Talladega. He also won the Truck Series race in the Lone Star State last Friday night. He nished a spot behind Daniel Suarez, his Spire Motorsports teammate.

Hocevar led the rst 22 laps last year, three more than he did at the start of this 267-lap race, though he did get back in front

for 18 more laps later Sunday.

Corey Heim, in only his third start this year for 23XI Racing, led 69 laps, but with 11 laps left brought out the nal caution of the day, the fourth because of a single-car spinout. The 23-year-old Heim was the Truck Series champion last year. Bell rung out of the race

Christopher Bell, an Oklahoma native who considers Texas his home track, led 22 laps and was still near the front on lap 69 when he got clipped by Todd Gilliland, who spun ahead of him. Bell bobbled and then slammed hard into the outside wall along the frontstretch, doing signi cant damage to the front right of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He nished last in the 38-car eld.

“I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom,” said Bell, who had led only six laps total his rst seven starts in Texas. “I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom but I got clipped.”

Chase Elliott crosses the nish line to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Fort Worth, Texas.

SIDELINE REPORT

SOCCER

Man United beats

Liverpool, will return to Champions League after 2-year absence

Manchester, England

Manchester United guaranteed a return to the Champions League next season with a 3-2 win against Liverpool. Kobbie Mainoo’s rst-time strike from the edge of the area won it. Defending champion Liverpool had fought back from two goals down to level the game. But Mainoo’s goal meant United would be playing in European club soccer’s top competition after a two -year absence. Tottenham also climbed out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa.

MLB Reds tie MLB record by walking 7 straight batters in loss to Pirates

Pittsburgh

The Cincinnati Reds issued a Major League Baseball record-tying seven straight walks during the second inning of a 17-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the third time in major league history that a team had walked that many batters consecutively — the rst in more than four decades. Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder walked three batters in the second inning and was replaced by Connor Phillips, who walked the next four, each time with the bases loaded. The Pirates scored ve runs in the inning without a hit.

NBA Knicks, ahead by 47 at half, enjoy rout for ages over Hawks in Game 6

Atlanta

The biggest halftime lead in NBA playo history. The most points and most lopsided win in New York Knicks postseason history, too. By any measure, what the Knicks did to the Atlanta Hawks was a historic blowout. The nal score: Knicks 140, Hawks 89 in Game 6 of the teams’ Eastern Conference rst-round series. New York won the series 4 -2 after losing Games 2 and 3 by one point — and then winning the next three games by 16, 29 and 51 points, respectively.

TENNIS

Sinner crushes

Zverev to win Madrid Open, claim record 5th straight Masters 1000 title

Madrid Top -ranked Jannik Sinner cruised past Alexander Zverev in the nal of the Madrid Open to become the rst man to triumph in ve consecutive Masters 1000 events. Sinner beat the third-ranked Zverev 6 -1, 6 -2 for his 23rd straight victory. He had already won in Monte Carlo, Miami and Indian Wells this year, and in Paris last year. Zverev lost to Sinner in the semi nals of each of those tournaments. Zverev won in Madrid in 2018 and 2021, and he was runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in 2022.

Panthers RB Brooks’ faith helped him through father’s death, 2 torn ACLs

The former second-round pick got baptized after getting cleared to play

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE — After being cleared to participate in the team’s o season conditioning program without limitations, Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks celebrated in a way he deemed most appropriate: He got baptized.

Brooks has leaned heavily on his faith to get him through personal and professional issues: the death of his father and two serious knee injuries that have derailed the start of a promising NFL career.

The Panthers selected Brooks in the second round of the draft in 2024. They believed Brooks would overcome a torn ACL in his right knee that prematurely ended his college career late in the 2023 season.

But after months of rehab, Brooks’ debut in Carolina ended after just three games when he tore his ACL a second time.

He missed the rest of his rookie season and all of 2025.

After two surgeries and months of grueling rehab, Brooks said he is “close to 100%.” He has rejoined his teammates on the practice eld with the expectation that he’ll be part of Carolina’s running back rotation in 2026.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” the 22-year-old Brooks said. “I lost my father. I’ve torn my ACL twice. Every single time I reverted back to my faith, and for me, my baptism was a recommitment of my faith — to not only change myself, but from that day forward to stop making excuses for my surroundings.”

Brooks said he has always believed in and followed God.

But during his time away from the football eld he came to realize that he wasn’t fully committed to the process.

“I didn’t live accordingly,” Brooks said. “I used to use the excuse of being around the

locker room my whole football career, whether it’s high school, college or NFL, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m around people who cuss and do all this.’ I kept trying to, I guess, put the blame on others in a sense. And, in reality, I just needed to check myself.”

His father, James “Skip” Brooks, died at 49 on March 28, 2022, due to complications from a blood clot that impacted his heart.

Brooks was a freshman at Texas and had just nished spring practice when his family phoned to tell him. His father had been his biggest fan. He taught him the game. He pushed him to be great.

The death hit Jonathon Brooks and his brother, Jordon, hard.

Months later, they honored their father with matching tattoos, the date of his death etched in Roman numerals on their right forearms. Brooks would tap or point to the tattoo after scoring a touchdown during his three seasons with the Longhorns.

He hasn’t had a chance to do the same at the NFL level.

He’s only played three games as a rookie before reinjuring the knee.

The majority of his NFL career has been spent in the training room.

That can often be a lonely place for a player leaving them feeling outcast, but Brooks said he received constant encouragement and emotional support from the guy he came in to compete with — starting running back Chuba Hubbard. Their relationship has transcended being teammates. They talk. They hang out. And when Brooks got baptized this past Sunday, Hubbard was there.

“He’s been building in his faith, building in his relationship with God, which I think is amazing,” Hubbard said. “And in doing that, I think it also just kind of creates a resiliency in your mind and where you’re going there.”

There is a chance Brooks could wind up pushing Hubbard for carries this season.

Hubbard said there’s nothing he’d like to see more than Brooks succeed after all that he’s been through.

“He’s one of one player and a one of one person,” Hubbard said.

Brooks has faith it will all work out, both football and life. During the darkest of times — the emotional toll of dealing with a parent’s death and having the game he loves to play stripped away due to injuries — Brooks would remind himself of the story of Job from the Old Testament.

It has taught him to keep God “front and center” moving forward.

“Job had everything, and, Satan attacked him,” Brooks said. “He took his children. His money. His animals, and everything — and he was still rooted in his faith. After that, God gave Job everything he had, times two. So for me, I just feel like a lot has been taken from me — my father, my two ACLs — but I’m staying rooted in my faith and knowing that he has a great plan for me.”

Sorsby gambling addiction casts light on issue that could a ect thousands of college athletes

Many experts worry the known cases are the tip of the iceberg

By Eric Olson The Associated Press

IN THE EIGHT years since the Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports gambling across the country, the bad headlines for college sports have picked up.

This week, the problems were underscored in a dramatic way: Brendan Sorsby, set to become the well-paid quarterback of Big 12 defending champion Texas Tech, stepped away to seek treatment for a gambling addiction. Investigations are reportedly under way involving a potential Heisman Trophy hopeful and his stays at Indiana and Cincinnati before his transfer to Texas Tech ahead of next season.

Details have not been released about Sorsby’s gambling. But experts estimate that thousands of athletes in men’s college sports are engaged in compulsive gambling.

“Statistically, I think this is still only the tip of the iceberg,” said Keith Whyte, a gambling industry consultant and former executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. “Given the elevated risk factors for young, male college athletes to demonstrate a high propensity to bet on sports and take on other risk-taking behaviors, there’s probably a lot more guys that have problems. So in some ways, I really admire his decision to publicly seek help for a gambling problem.”

The NCAA is the largest organization in college athletics, with some 500,000 athletes across 1,100 schools in three divisions. Its most recent survey of athlete gambling behaviors, released in January 2025, asked 13,306 male athletes across all divisions about their wagering habits.

Some 21.5% (2,861) acknowledged having placed at least one sports wager in the previous year; 10.7% (1,424) acknowledged having done so in the previous month. In Division I, 12.6% of the males (619 of 4,913) reported having gambled at least once in the previous year, 4.7% (231) in the previous month and 1.9% (93) in the previous week.

The NCAA, extrapolating from survey results, estimated about 6,000 mostly male athletes across the three divisions would meet standard diagnostic criteria for problem

gambling in any given year.

College-aged male athletes check a lot of boxes in a compulsive gambler’s pro le, according to Michelle L. Malkin, lead research scholar of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative at East Carolina. Those athletes are in their 20s, highly competitive, aggressive and typically have a refuse-to-lose mentality.

“Just think about the person who’s down 20 points going into the fourth quarter and being told, ‘Keep going, you can still win this game.’ So the lifetime exposure of ‘if I just keep going, it’s going to turn around for me’ is the type of thing that leads to that lower risk aversion, which also leads to this (gambling addiction),” Malkin said.

The introduction of revenue-sharing and name, image and likeness compensation has put extra money in

athletes’ pockets, signi cant amounts in some cases. Sorsby, for example, signed a two -year NIL agreement with Cincinnati that paid him $875,000 last year, according to a lawsuit led by the school seeking a $1 million buyout from Sorsby for transferring to Texas Tech.

Whyte said athletes earning hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars wouldn’t place a lot of importance on losing a few dollars here and there. “That can lead to some risky decisions,” he said.

Eligibility can be at stake for NCAA athletes found to have gambled, and that can keep them from disclosing an addiction.

Malkin said there should be a con dential avenue for an athlete to ask for help, as long as the athlete didn’t bet on their own team. About the only option an athlete would have is to connect with an online therapist. NCAA rules require anyone who works in an athletic department to report gambling activity.

Athletic departments typically put on seminars to warn athletes about gambling and about risks to eligibility. Malkin said most athletes who gamble were doing so before they entered college, so lectures generally won’t stop existing behavior.

Malkin leads a team developing curricula for regular college students and athletes that explains how gambling can become addictive. East Carolina’s “Betting Blueprint” explores healthy gambling,nancial wellness, risk, identifying gambling-related harms and where to seek help.

ANNIE RICE / AP PHOTO

Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, center, watches the school’s NFL football pro day.

JACOB KUPFERMAN / AP PHOTO

Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks looks on before an NFL game last September.

the stream

‘The

Robert Pattinson, left, and Zendaya attend the special screening of “The

streaming now on premium on demand.

Drama,’ MUNA, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, ‘The Other Bennet Sister’

Ashley McBryde drops “Lines in the Carpet”

By Mark Kennedy

The Associated Press

“THE DRAMA,” a rom- com that goes bad starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson and the synth-pop group MUNA releasing their fourth studio album, “Dancing on the Wall,” 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: Sam Raimi’s movie “Send Help” starring Rachel McAdams; a TV series based on the unassuming, oft-forgotten Jane Austen sister Mary leads “The Other Bennet Sister”; and country star Ashley McBryde heading into the “Wild” on her latest album.

MOVIES TO STREAM

“The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Pattinson, is available now on premium on demand after a much-talked-about run in theaters. The lm, written and directed by Kristo er Borgli, recently became the fth A24 release to clear $100 million at the box o ce. Pattinson and Zendaya play a couple whose wedding engagement is derailed after a disquieting revelation. In his review, AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that the lm “wastes two of the planet’s most gorgeous people and will surely get everyone involved in trouble for using a current American tragedy as a plot point.”

In Raimi’s “Send Help,” a woman (McAdams) and her overbearing boss (Dylan O’Brien) are stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. Raimi’s comic survivalist thriller grows increasingly unhinged as their roles reverse. After a theatrical run earlier this year, it debuts Thursday on Hulu.

The Net ix adaptation “Remarkably Bright Creatures” (streaming Friday) turns Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel into a lm starring Sally Field as a widow working at an aquarium. There, she develops a healing bond with a giant Paci c octopus. Lewis Pullman co -stars.

MUSIC TO STREAM

The synth-pop group MUNA will release their fourth studio album on Friday. “Dancing on the Wall” arrives just in time for the approaching warmth — and hedonistic decision-making — of summer. It’s tank top party-pop for the once-heartbroken, now-victorious crowd (like what is found on “So What” and the familiar sounds of the title track) and whoever is the ob -

ject of a ection on the too -fun “Wannabeher.” Also on Friday: Country star McBryde heads into the “Wild” on her latest album. It is her most personal and most rock ’n’ roll collection yet, embodying McBryde’s ery spirit found on “Lines in the Carpet,” a cutting treatise on domesticity, the heartfelt mission statement of the title track and everywhere in-between. The record opens with four barnburners fans will

recognize as staples of her live show — “Rattlesnake Preacher,” “Arkansas Mud,” “Water in the River” and “Creosote” — and diversi es from there. Expect big feelings and a playful, wizened heart.

SERIES TO STREAM

If you’re an Austen devotee who loved “Pride and Prejudice,” you’ll recall that Elizabeth and Jane aren’t the only two daughters in the Bennet family. A new series called “The Other Bennet Sister” follows the introspective and awkward but adorable Mary, played by Ella Bruccoleri. Mary steps out of the shadows of her other siblings and nds romance and independence. The show is already a hit in the UK and on social media. Mary gets her time to shine on BritBox. From the backwoods lakes of the Ozarks to the turquoise waters of the Florida Keys, Bill Dubuque, a co - creator of “Ozark,” has created a new series set against the drug world called “M.I.A.” In this crime drama, a daughter who wants nothing more than to separate herself from her family’s drug-running business is

pulled into a quest for vengeance after it’s destroyed. All nine episodes drop Thursday on Peacock.

Dan Stevens is wrongfully committed to a mental hospital where he must battle both supernatural and psychological demons in “The Terror: Devil in Silver.” This “Terror” is the third season of a horror anthology. Besides Stevens, the series features an impressive cast including CCH Pounder, Judith Light and John Benjamin Hickey. It premieres Thursday on both Shudder and AMC+.

Another classic gets reimagined in the new “Amadeus” limited-series starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany. Sharpe plays superstar composer Amadeus Mozart and Bettany is Antonio Salieri, also a successful composer of the time whom history has cast as the lesser talent. Salieri becomes increasingly obsessed with achieving the respect and acclaim that Mozart enjoys. It premieres on Starz on Friday.

VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

Annapurna Interactive’s Mixtape includes tunes by Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Roxy Music and Devo — the kind of alt-rock you might expect in a movie like “Sixteen Candles” or “Dazed and Confused.” So yes, we’re back in the 1990s with three teenagers seeking adventure on their last night of high school. That means skateboarding, sneaking beers, making out, looking for trouble, running from trouble and, to judge from the trailer, oating through space. You can press play Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 or PC. The soundtrack to Wax Heads is more diverse, but all the bands are completely made up. You’ve landed a job at a gnarly store called Repeater Records, and you get to deal with an assortment of eccentric customers who may or may not know what they want. The result is a kind of puzzle game in which you have to sort through their suggestions to track down the perfect vinyl. Patattie Games, the two -person U.K. studio behind Wax Heads, calls it “cozy-punk.” Drop the needle

or

on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch

PC.

EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP PHOTO

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO

Ashley McBryde performs “Help Me Make It Through the Night” during the 58th Annual CMA Awards in 2024. Her new album, “Lines in the Carpet,” comes out Friday.

MILLIE TURNER / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Ross Garshong and Ellie Buckley pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the lm ‘Send Help’ in London. The thriller lands on Hulu on Thursday.

Drama” at Regal Union Square in New York. The lm is

STATE & NATION

Legislators in Tennessee are considering redrawing the state’s congressional map.

Tennessee Republicans will consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis

The move follows a Supreme Court ruling that shifted protections for majority-black districts

By Kim Chandler, Travis Loller and David A. Lieb

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity a orded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked o in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling signi cantly altered a decades- old understanding of the law and provided grounds for Republicans in various states to try to eliminate majority-black districts that have elected Democrats.

Its impact on congressional representation, speci cally for black Americans, is threatening to undo decades of progress to ensure minority voting rights.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Re-

publicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.

Alabama special session draws protests

Several hundred people protested on Monday shortly before Alabama’s special session began, including some carrying signs declaring “No new map” and “We ght back! Black Voters Matter.”

Opponents of the redistricting session gathered across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to -Montgomery voting rights march.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an e ort for us to gain the right to vote,” said Sheyann Webb- Christburg, who as a child participated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Selma. “In 2026, there are still people who are still not exercising that right to vote, and we are still ghting today, even in an e ort to keep our right to vote.”

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.

A three-judge federal panel previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of black voters — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation. It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Rev. Earle Fisher, Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church

and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map could give Republicans a better chance of winning at least one of the two seats currently held by black Democratic lawmakers.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said while promoting the Republican plan.

“We had three judges determine how ve million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

At a town hall held by a pro -Democratic group, Doug Jones, a former U.S. senator who is running for governor as a Democrat, said Alabama was “ground zero for voting rights, and we are going to be ground zero to make sure we retain those voting rights.”

Tennessee plan targets Memphis district

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up

the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-black city of Memphis. The move comes after pressure from Trump.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Lee had said.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district came together Monday to denounce the move.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code. “It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Advocates urge Louisiana voters to cast ballots

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.

Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday on congressional redistricting. Kleinpeter said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-black congressional districts

Democrats and civil rights groups have led several lawsuits challenging the suspen-

sion of the state’s congressional primary, including another led Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

A national redistricting battle expands Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of the midterm elections when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP- controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in ve states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO

Horsing around

The new Randolph County Agricultural Center Arena hosted an open arena and exhibition day on Saturday, with local riders putting the new facility — which opened o cially last month — through its paces.

WHAT’S HAPPENING Commissioners approve contract for new medical provider at detention center

Presidential Physical Fitness Award returns as Trump revives annual tness test

President Donald Trump is reviving the Presidential Physical Fitness Award as he reintroduces a competitive physical tness test in America’s schools. The award is part of Trump’s revamped Presidential Fitness Test, which had been a public-school xture for decades but was phased out under President Barack Obama. The earlier exam tested children on exercises including a 1-mile run and sit-ups. Those scoring above the 85th percentile received the presidential award. Details of the revived test have yet to be released. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the test is now mandatory in 161 schools on U.S. military installations.

U.S. job openings unchanged at 6.9 million in March; hiring improved

U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged at 6.9 million in March, another sign the American labor market remained sluggish even before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy. The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war has clouded the outlook. On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layo s rose in March. But hiring improved and more people quit their jobs — a sign of con dence in the economy.

$2.00

IMS Correctional Healthcare was the sheri ’s o ce’s preferred vendor

By Ryan Henkel Randolph Record

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners met May 4 for its regular business meeting with an agenda primarily consisting of contractual matters.

The board rst approved a $1.48 million contract with IMS Correctional Healthcare for medical care at the detention center.

“Currently, we’re with Medico,” said Chief Deputy Steven Nunn. “But we’ve been less than happy with the service they’ve provided over the last

couple of years from sta ng issues to some other issues that have come up.”

According to Nunn, the contract was bid out in March and the department received seven di erent responders ranging in cost from $2.4 to $1.4 million.

IMS’s bid also came in around $500,000 less than Medico’s.

“We’ve spent some time vetting these companies and this is who we kind of hoped would come in at the lowest because we were satis ed with what they said,” Nunn said.

IMS is a North Carolina-based company that has been around since 2000 and currently serves 30 other jail facilities in the state.

The board also approved a $627,000 contract with Piedmont Service Group for HVAC replacements at the Shaw

“This is who we kind of hoped would come in at the lowest.”

Steven Nunn, Randolf County Sheri ’s O ce chief deputy

Building.

“The building was built in the 1970s as a bank, and then the county purchased it in the early 1990s for county use,” said county engineer Paxton Arthurs. “Because of the age of the system, we hired a mechanical engineer to evaluate it, and he basically came back and said that the cooling system was at or past its useful life and recommended that it be replaced.”

Finally, the board approved an approximately $450,000

County touts digital skills lab

With an o cial sponsor, the lab is open to residents with a variety of interests

By Bob Sutton Randolph Record

ASHEBORO — The new Randolph County Agricultural Center has a digital skills lab. The lab is designed to enhance digital literacy and skills in the community.

Hannah Bradley-Cobb, a digital skills agent with the cooperative extension, is involved as the hands-on coordinator for these programs.

“My role is to help people when they need assistance with technology,” she said. “Anybody who is struggling with technology or anyone looking to enhance their skills might be a t for this.”

The lab is located in the Allen Ray McNeill Education & Resource Center at the agricultural center’s campus on U.S. 64.

Bradley-Cobb said the lab is a good t for the new agricultural center.

“Technology is very important to agriculture right now,” she said. The lab can be suitable for people with a variety of interests. Those might include farmers, senior citizens, job seekers and small business owners, Bradley-Cobb said.

Randolph County Manager Zeb Holden said programming in the digital skills lab has involved Randolph County 4-H and a workshop teaching Google apps and tools to residents.

“What is o ered in this lab spans many generations, and we are so excited about the possibilities,” Holden said.

This winter, the county an-

“I’ve seen a lot of interest from people still in the workforce.”

Hannah Bradley-Cobb, Cooperative extension agent

nounced that Randolph Communications is the o cial sponsor of the lab.

Kimberly Garner, CEO/ general manager of Randolph Communications, said the company’s involvement comes in an e ort “to inspire and equip individuals with the skills necessary to thrive in the digital age.”

Bradley-Cobb holds weekly classes on various topics at senior centers and libraries. Those tend to be heavy with the senior population.

contract with Enterprise Permitting and Licensing Software for central permitting software.

“We’ve had a struggle for a very long time with the software that we’ve used in central permitting,” said IT Director R.J. Williamson. “It’s become quite cumbersome and impactful not just to the various business units within the county that use this software but also to citizens, developers and anybody who’s looking to come into Randolph County. What we have is proving to be not optimal.”

According to Williamson, the county already has existing funds set aside for this purpose and no additional funding is required.

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet June 1.

The new agricultural center has provided a nice set-up with plenty of visibility for the digital lab.

“It has been really great,” Bradley-Cobb said. “We’re denitely nonstop busy.”

The agricultural center’s facility has made the instruction more practical for the visitors.

“I can have people come in and do hands-on,” Bradley-Cobb said.

For many of the topics, seniors make up a large percentage of the attendees.

“There’s a digital divide there,” Bradley-Cobb said.

Bradley-Cobb said programs designed to provide a better understanding of articial intelligence have created widespread interest.

“I’ve seen a lot of interest from people still in the workforce,” she said.

Plus, the lab will hold weekly free one-on-one tech sessions for any county resident seeking assistance with a phone, tablet or laptop. Those sessions can be booked by calling 336 -318- 6002.

WARD-BROWN / RANDOLPH RECORD

Trip

Dan

David

THURSDAY 5.7.26

Chimpanzee dies at NC Zoo

Tammy was the oldest animal at the zoo in Asheboro

Randolph Record sta ASHEBORO — The North Carolina Zoo’s oldest animal died last month. A chimpanzee named Tammy died at age 55, according to the zoo.

CRIME LOG

April 27

• Juan Daniel Huerta-Rangel, 38, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for assault on a female, misdemeanor crime of domestic violence and domestic criminal trespass, and other charges.

• Benjamin Lee Kenyon, 38, of Asheboro, was arrested by RCSO for communicating threats and injury to personal property.

• Jairo Ortega Raygoza, 45, of Robbins, was arrested by NCHP for felony hit-and-run with injury, reckless driving to endanger and no operator’s license, and other charges.

• Russell Keith Siebens, 34, of Sophia, was arrested by Asheboro PD for felony possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

April 28

• Benjamin Robert Basile, 67, of Trinity, was arrested by RCSO for assault by pointing a gun and communicating threats.

• Katie Jean Brewer, 34, of High Point, was arrested by RCSO for possession of drug paraphernalia.

• Ti any Ann Cole, 33, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for assault and battery and communicating threats.

• Jason Braxton Cook, 46, of Mebane, was arrested by NCHP for felony breaking and entering.

THURSDAY MAY 7

FRIDAY MAY 8

SATURDAY MAY 9

SUNDAY MAY 10

MONDAY MAY 11

TUESDAY MAY 12

WEDNESDAY MAY 13

Because of her declining health, it was determined the proper step was to euthanize her. Tammy had been at NC Zoo since 1992. She had two children during that time — one has died and the other is at another zoo.

“Tammy was one of the most special animals I’ve had the honor to work with here

• Richard Wayne Williams, 54, of Archdale, was arrested by RCSO for possession of methamphetamine, felony breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering, and other charges.

April 29

• Christopher Scott Lanier, 37, of Rocky Mount, was arrested by RCSO for possession of fentanyl, possession of stolen goods or property and attempted obtaining property by false pretenses, and other charges.

• Corey Alexander Mock, 30, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for habitual impaired driving, driving while impaired and simple possession of a controlled substance, and other charges.

• Joshua Scott Thomas, 29, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for assault in icting serious bodily injury and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

• Randall Scott Weeks, 53, of Rocky Mount, was arrested by RCSO for possession of fentanyl and possession of drug paraphernalia.

April 30

• Justin Jarrell Futrell, 18, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, discharging a rearm in city limits and injury to personal property.

• Elvis Daniel Reagan, 36, of Trinity, was arrested by RCSO for rst-degree statutory sex o ense, second-degree forcible sex o ense and rst-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, and other charges.

• Stephon Omar Silas, 29, of Randleman, was arrested by Asheboro PD for possession of methamphetamine and resisting a public o cer.

May 1

• Douglas Edward Brady, 59, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for assault on a female.

• Tabitha Elizabeth Hall, 36, of Franklinville, was arrested by Asheboro PD for felony possession of cocaine, felony possession of a controlled substance and simple possession of a controlled substance.

• Kelly James Maness, 48, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for felony possession of a controlled substance, simple possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

• Maxine McIver, 63, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for resisting a public o cer.

• Christopher Bryant Moyer, 63, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for possession of a rearm by a felon, assault by pointing a gun and misdemeanor child abuse.

at the zoo,” said Jb Minter, director of animal health and chief veterinarian. “She had a strong personality and didn’t give her trust easily, but when she did, it meant everything. Saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I’ve faced in my career, but ensuring her comfort and welfare was always our top priority.”

Guide

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

May

7

Strawberry Jam Workshop 2 p.m.

• Cecil Jewayne Walden, 48, of Asheboro, was arrested by RCSO for possession of a rearm by a felon; possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver cocaine; felony possession of a controlled substance; and other charges.

May 2

• Kimberly Nicholson, 39, of Candor, was arrested by RCSO for felony possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and open container alcohol violation.

• Martin Cridge, 36, was arrested by RCSO for felony eeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance on jail or prison premises and larceny of a motor vehicle, and other charges.

• Lisa Henderson Foster, 30, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for simple assault and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

• Aaron David Higgs, 39, of Durham, was arrested by Archdale PD for felony possession of a controlled substance, simple possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

• Geovany Pineda Guzman, 26, of Ramseur, was arrested by NCHP for driving while impaired and no operator’s license.

• Deondre Michael Smith, 38, of Raleigh, was arrested by RCSO for common law robbery, possession of a stolen rearm and assault on a female, and other charges.

May 3

• Luis Alvarez Garcia, 30, of Asheboro, was arrested by Asheboro PD for rst-degree burglary, simple possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana paraphernalia, and other charges.

• Bailey Reona Singer, 27, of Greensboro, was arrested by RCSO for felony eeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, felony larceny and possession of stolen goods or property, and other charges.

• Matthew Southerland Smith, 36, of Randleman, was arrested by RCSO for rst-degree trespass.

Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements: community@randolphrecord.com Weekly deadline is Monday at Noon

Hands-on workshop covering the steps to make strawberry jam and preserve it by water bath canning. Registration required; tickets are $10. N.C. Cooperative Extension, Randolph County Center 1880 U.S. Highway 64 East Asheboro

May 9

Learn to Turn Workshop 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The workshop fee is $65 per person. More than 800 pieces of pottery made in the state are on display at the center. For more details, call 336-873-8430.

North Carolina Pottery Center 234 East Ave. Seagrove

Caraway Speedway: Road to the Crown 5:30-10:30 p.m.

The race track joined the NASCAR circuit in 1972 and hosts a weekly series. Tickets can be purchased at the gate. Women and children 11 and under are admitted free. Races feature chargers, mini stocks, UCARS, 602 modi eds and Crown Vics, legends and bandos.

2518 Race Track Road Sophia

May 10

Mother and Son Dance 6 p.m.

Randleman Parks and Recreation hosts its Mother and Son Dance for ages 12 and under. Admission is $15 for two tickets, $5 for each additional ticket. Food and drinks provided; tickets available at the Recreation Center front desk.

Randleman Civic Center 122 Commerce Square Randleman

May

15

Blessing of the Badges Noon

The eighth annual public ceremony honoring law enforcement o cers serving Randolph County, held during National Police Week, will include a brief outdoor service that is open to the public. It will move indoors if it rains.

Randolph County Sheri ’s O ce 727 McDowell Road Asheboro

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

When does speech become dangerous?

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

AMERICANS LOVE arguing about free speech. We invoke the First Amendment as a kind of political force eld: You can say whatever you want, whenever you want, without consequence.

But the First Amendment only restricts government action. It does not guarantee you a career, a platform or immunity from backlash. The real question is not whether certain speech is legal but rather what kind of speech deserves social consequences — and what kind doesn’t.

And if we’re talking about reckless political speech, we should talk about Jimmy Kimmel. Years ago, he abandoned comedy in favor of applause lines, tearful monologues and the occasional performance of empathy. He’s an unfunny late-night scold who treats half the country as a punchline.

As annoying as that is, being unfunny is not a crime. The bigger issue is when media gures cross the line from tastelessness into rhetoric that creates a permission structure for violence.

To understand the di erence, it helps to break political speech into three categories.

First: illegal speech.

Yes, illegal political speech exists in America.

A classic example: “I want to kill the president.” That’s not merely commentary. It is an actionable, direct threat.

There is also incitement. Under the Supreme Court’s Brandenburg standard, speech quali es as incitement only if it is intended to and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

“Someone should do something about the president” is protected, though irresponsible, speech. “Go kill the president” crosses into territory the law can punish. It’s speech but also an attempt to trigger violence.

Second: typical in ammatory rhetoric. American politics is lled with heated language. “Fight like hell.” “We’re going to war with the other party.” That sort of rhetoric can be ugly and excessive, but it is also normal.

We’ve seen how absurd it becomes when people try to treat that as literal incitement. After Gabby Gi ords was shot, some on the left blamed Sarah Palin because a campaign graphic had “targeted” certain districts. That was ridiculous. Using combative imagery is not the same as directing violence.

Third: the permission structure for violence.

A permission structure for violence is created when people repeatedly portray political opponents as monsters.

This is how you create the mental environment where unstable people conclude that violence is justi ed. If the president is a traitor, rapist, pedophile and mastermind behind a corrupt system, then how else could he be stopped?

This kind of rhetoric leads directly to chaos. It is also the kind of rhetoric Kimmel has tra cked in for years.

Recently, Kimmel tastelessly joked that Melania Trump had “the glow of an expectant widow.” It was disgusting, and she has every right to be furious. But it wasn’t a call to violence. It was a cheap, ugly joke suggesting she secretly wants her husband dead.

Kimmel later claimed he rejects violent rhetoric, then immediately pivoted to blaming Donald Trump for rhetoric that supposedly inspires violence. It was the standard modern play: Insult someone, then wrap yourself in moral superiority.

But when it comes to rhetoric that encourages violence, it isn’t the widow joke

that should be the focus; it’s the conspiracism. Kimmel has repeatedly called Trump a pedophile, suggested he is connected to Je rey Epstein and involved in a coverup, called him a rapist and accused him of protecting pedophiles, coming after voting rights, enriching billionaires while harming the poor, and manipulating the system to evade accountability. That is not “normal political speech.” It is speech that turns a political opponent into a movie villain — a gure so corrupt and monstrous that extreme action begins to feel righteous.

This kind of conspiratorial framing has a track record. It fuels ugly episodes of modern political violence: a steady stream of baseless accusations designed to convince audiences that the other side is not merely wrong but evil.

If someone eventually acts on that belief, we shouldn’t pretend it came out of nowhere.

So should Kimmel be red?

Firing him for the Melania joke would be punishing the wrong o ense. A tasteless, bad joke is not the central issue.

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

If America wants to lower the temperature, scrutiny should be directed at conspiratorial storytelling that teaches people to hate.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author.

(Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

California copied Europe’s insane energy playbook

European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties.

EVEN AS U.S. GASOLINE prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising more than half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.

The result is embedded in ation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry. Europeans don’t just pay more to ll their tanks — they pay more for everything that moves on petroleum. Their living standards su er accordingly.

Energy security delivers America’s second big advantage. The U.S. produces more than two-thirds of its own oil and imports the rest mostly from Canada and other friendly Western Hemisphere sources. We are largely insulated from Middle East chaos. Europe, by contrast, lectures the world about “energy transition” while remaining dangerously

dependent on imports even as it sits atop known, undeveloped reserves. The same nations that demonize oil and gas refuse to produce their own, choosing instead to outsource vulnerability rst to Russia, then to OPEC and now to U.S. LNG. This is not prudent policy. It is willful self-sabotage clothed in false virtue.

Nowhere is this failure more glaring than California, which has imported Germany’s disastrous model wholesale and turned itself into America’s premier energy basket case. With an 81-cent state gas tax, 60-70 cent cap-and-trade penalty, boutique “California blend” fuel mandates, and layers of environmental rules explicitly designed to punish gasoline and driving, the Golden State routinely posts pump prices $2 above the national average.

In-state production has been strangled. Re neries are closing or idling. The state now imports gasoline from South Korea, the Bahamas and the Middle East, exposing its residents to global shocks while preaching climate alarm orthodoxy.

Gavin Newsom and his bureaucrats want voters to believe it’s all President Donald Trump’s fault, but it isn’t. It is the entirely foreseeable outcome of using tax and regulatory warfare to force a premature energy transition. Instead of transitioning, California is deindustrializing and making its citizens poorer in the process.

The broader lesson is damning. High-tax, high-regulation, import-dependent energy policies do not deliver utopia or planetary salvation. They deliver chronic vulnerability, in ated living costs and economic drag. Europe’s drivers pay double or triple because politicians prioritized revenue and ideology over abundance. California followed suit and became a cautionary tale for the rest of America.

But most U.S. states reap the rewards of the opposite approach: Reasonable taxation that doesn’t treat fuel as a sin, aggressive domestic production that delivers record output and supply chains resilient enough to weather global crises without collapse. Prices rise during supply shocks, but there are no lines at the pump and no systemic shortages. That is the fruit of policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

America’s advantage at the pump is neither accident nor mystery: It is the direct result of rejecting the punitive European model that California eagerly embraced. Policymakers who ignore this lesson are not visionaries: They are ideologues imposing measurable harm on the people they claim to serve.

The current global turmoil should serve as a wake-up call. Punitive taxation and regulatory strangulation of conventional energy produce scarcity, insecurity and higher costs borne by working families.

America’s formula of lower taxes and energy dominance delivers a ordability, resilience and genuine energy security.

Europe — and California — stand as expensive warnings of what happens when nations choose ideology over reality. Americans outside of the Golden State should reject that failing path with zero apology.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. (Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation)

COLUMN | DAVID BLACKMON

COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO

Rita Renee´ Wilson

May 11, 1958 – April 29, 2026

Rita Renee´ Wilson, age 67 of Randleman, passed away on April 29, 2026, at Moses Cone Hospital.

Renee was born in Charlotte on May 11, 1958, to Kenneth and Jo Ellen Pennington Wilson. She was formerly employed as a social worker at Staywell. Renee´ loved trying new things. Her hobbies include cooking, gardening, and her owers. She enjoyed becoming part of her community, making sure to always talk to her neighbors every day. Renee´ enjoyed sitting on the porch and loved going to the mountains, especially Meadows of Dan in Virginia. Her most important life decision was receiving Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Renee´ was always known as a “Daddy’s Girl.” Kenneth preceded her in death.

She is survived by her furbabies, Missy and Honey, whom she loved very much; mother, Jo Ellen Cranford; brother, Bryan Wilson; sister, Rebecca Nelson; stepsisters, Marda Camp and Donna Dickens.

The family will receive friends on Saturday, May 2, 2026, from 12:00-12:50 pm at Pugh Funeral Home, 437 Sunset Avenue in Asheboro. Funeral services will follow on Saturday at 1:00 pm at the Glenn “Mac” Pugh Chapel with Pastor Jerry Pennington o ciating. Interment will be held at Randolph Memorial Park.

Lee Duke

Dec. 14, 1960 – April 29, 2026

Arnold Lee Duke, 65, of Asheboro, NC, died Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at his residence.

A private family service will be held at a later date.

Born December 14, 1960, in Randolph County, Lee was the son of the late Ernest Duke Jr., and Louise Steed Duke Cox. Lee loved the fast life. Riding his Harley Davidson, hunting, shing, and entertaining friends were some of the best times to him. Hosting cookouts, going to bike rallies, especially Bike Week at Myrtle Beach, and enjoying his Busch Light were his favorite things to do. Lee was the life of the party. You accepted him the way he was or you didn’t. Either way, it didn’t bother him.

The most important thing in his life was his family. He loved them deeply, especially his grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

In addition to his parents, Lee was preceded in death by his wife, Robin Butcher Duke, and stepfather, Joe Dean Cox.

Survivors include his son, Zachary Duke (Ashley); sisters, Tina Duke Luther (John), Tracey Duke Wilkerson (Je ); grandchildren, Keegan Duke, Christopher Spivey, Madison Spivey; nieces and nephews, Lucas, Wesley, Kasey; and great nieces and nephews, Eliza, Lynley, Lainey, and Callie.

A very special thank you would like to be extended to Hospice of Randolph, and especially to his caregiver, Cassie Burleson.

Memorials may be made to Hospice of Randolph, 416 Vision Drive, Asheboro, NC 27203; or the Concerned Bikers Association, 10411 Beagle Club Road, Charlotte, NC 28214.

Dorothy Frazier

Jan. 23, 1935 – April 29, 2026

Dorothy Paschal Frazier, 91, passed away on April 29, 2026, surrounded by her children.

The daughter of Len Broughton Paschal and Eva Gilbert, Dorothy was born and raised in Siler City, NC.

She was a 1953 Honors Graduate of Siler City High School, and then moved on to Meredith College, where she was a Marshal. She then transferred to the University of Georgia, where she ranked in the top 5% of her class.

Dorothy later returned to Siler City and married her high school sweetheart, Howard Frazier. They were married nearly 65 years, prior to his passing in March of this year.

Dorothy managed to provide much love and support to her three children, while at the same time managing a full time career.

She eventually retired from Farm Credit Service as a loan o cer.

She credited her good friend and neighbor Tommy Emerson for encouraging her to pursue career advancement.

Faith in Jesus Christ was especially important to Dorothy. She was a faithful member of Siler City Chapel and later Rehoboth Methodist Church. Dorothy often encouraged and prayed for all of her family to become followers of Jesus Christ.

One of Dorothy’s unmistakable trademarks was writing notes. She was a master at expressing her thoughts on paper. It was her way of transferring wisdom, love, guidance and concern to those close to her.

In addition to her parents and husband, Dorothy was predeceased by her sister Jenny Cranford.

She is survived by her children, Angela Brantley of Graham, Bentley Frazier of Siler City and Kenneth Frazier (Janice) of Graham.

Also her brothers Lewis Paschal of Elizabethtown and Barton Paschal of Asheville, her sisters Leona Wichard of Chapel Hill, Vivian Michael (Gary) of Wilmington and Irma Simons of Carrabelle, FL.

Dorothy treasured her grandchildren, Bryan Brantley, Callie Kontoulas (Chris), and Mallory Brantley. And she proudly told everyone she was so grateful to live long enough to spend quality time with her great-grandsons, Talon and Lenox Kontoulas, and Joseph Brantley. No services will be held at this time.

After the toil and the heat of the day

After my troubles are past

After the sorrows are taken away I shall see Jesus at last.

Frances Roberts Elkins

Aug. 9, 1941 – April 28, 2026

Frances Moreleen Roberts Elkins, 84, passed away April 28, 2026, at Cross Road Retirement Community in Asheboro, NC.

Fran was born August 9, 1941, in Greeneville, Tennessee. She graduated from Greeneville High School, where she met her high school sweetheart, Walt. During their marriage of 66 years, they lived in Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina. She spent several years as a homemaker and then went on to have careers in orthodontic practices and insurance o ces in the High Point, NC area, where her upbeat personality and warmth left a lasting impression on patients and customers alike.

Fran was a woman of the Christian faith who lived by Matthew 7:12: Do to others what you would have them do to you. Her values were evident in her everyday actions. Known for her fun-loving and bubbly personality, Fran never met a stranger and was always ready to lend a helping hand. Her generosity knew no bounds, and she delighted in performing random acts of kindness that brightened the lives of those around her. There was truly never a dull moment when Fran was present; her energy and spirit were infectious.

She is survived by her devoted husband, James Walter “Walt” Elkins; her daughters Angela Kahn (Glenn) and Sandra Tysinger; her cherished grandchildren Michael Kahn (Danielle), Matthew Kahn (Emily), Carley Tysinger (Spencer White), and Cole Tysinger; as well as ve beloved great-grandchildren, Colby Hopkins, Caitlyn Davis, Annie Kahn, Elsie Kahn, and Miller Frances Kahn. “Mimi’s” family was the center of her world, and she took immense pride in their accomplishments and joy in their company. She is also survived by nieces, Trina Estepp and Kelly Andrews, and many dear friends.

Fran was predeceased by her parents, Arlin and Malsena Roberts; her stepfather, Leland LaFollette; her brother, Harold Roberts, and a niece, Cindy Roberts Woods.

Her legacy of love, kindness, and generosity will continue to inspire all who had the privilege of knowing her. May her memory bring comfort to those who mourn her passing and serve as a reminder of the beauty, color, and laughter she brought into the world.

The family would like to express extreme gratitude to Cross Road Retirement Community Memory Care in Asheboro, NC, for their loving care of Fran for the last two years. Heartfelt thanks also goes to the wonderful support that Amedysis Hospice care provided to her at the end of her life.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.

In lieu of owers, her family would love for you to consider a random act of kindness for someone of your choice. Also, memorial donations can be made to Cross Road Retirement Community, Attn: Finance Department, 1302 Old Cox Road, Asheboro, NC 27205. Please indicate that your gift is in memory of Fran Elkins and is designated for the Memory Care Unit.

Doris Smith

April 28, 1938 –April 30, 2026

Doris Jean “Jeannie” Brown Smith, 88, of Denton, NC, passed away peacefully on April 30, 2026, surrounded by her family. Doris entered into the arms of her Lord and Savior, where she will have eternal peace.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, May 4, 2026, at Balfour Baptist Church, 1643 N. Fayetteville St., Asheboro, NC, with Pastor Mark Wilburn and Rev. Gary Jones o ciating. The family will receive friends from 12:00-1:45 p.m. prior to the service. Burial will follow at the Smith Family Cemetery in Denton.

Doris was born on April 28, 1938, in Moore County. She was the daughter of the late Curtis and Rona Brown. She attended Robbins Elementary School and graduated from Elise High School in Robbins, NC. She retired from Randolph Community College as the food services manager after 24 years of employment.

Doris was a wonderful wife of 64 years, a loving mother of four boys, a grandmother to seven grandchildren, and ten greatgrandchildren. She was loved by all who knew her and was referred to by many as “Mom Doris”.

Doris loved to travel and visited 48 states including Alaska and Hawaii. She loved working in her owers, reading and word puzzles. She was a wonderful cook and baker, and she loved decorating for all occasions especially at Christmas. She loved spending time with family, friends, and her wonderful neighbors. She loved her church and church family at Balfour Baptist Church where she was a member.

In addition to her parents, Doris was preceded by her son, Mark Smith, and brothers Michael Brown, Edward Brown, and David Brown.

Doris is survived by her husband, Jay H. Smith Jr.; sons, Harris Smith (Tammy), Rodney Smith (Donna), Andy Smith (Nita); daughter in law, Dawn Baker; grandchildren, Jessica Glenn (Doug), Josh Smith, Dallas Smith, Bridgette Martin (Chad), Christian Smith (Christine), Rebecca Smith De Hernandez (Abe), Evan Smith; great grandchildren, Stephen, Kalin, Kenna, Colton, Rita, Luke, Elijah, Judah, Ayden, Harper; sisters, Nell Gaines (Danny), Judy Upchurch (Robert), Barbara Morgan; and sister in law, Kathleen Brown.

In lieu of owers, donations can be made to Balfour Baptist Church, Honduras Mission Fund, 1642 N. Fayetteville St., Asheboro, NC 27203.

Robert Irwin Sotsky

Dec. 25, 1930 – April 27, 2026

Robert Irwin Sotsky, born on December 25, 1930, in New York, New York, passed away peacefully at the age of 95 on April 27, 2026, in West End, North Carolina. He was a revered husband, father, step-father, and grandfather, whose warmth and dedication to family will be fondly remembered and deeply missed.

Robert spent his professional career in sales within the furnishings and home decor industry, where he was known for his diligence and a able nature. Beyond his career, Robert had a profound love for family, plants, and gardening, re ecting his nurturing spirit and appreciation for life’s growth and beauty. In his early years, Robert served in the Navy, an experience that instilled in him values of honor and service. He also enjoyed yachting when he was younger, a pastime that connected him with the freedom and adventure of the open sea. Throughout his life, he maintained a passion for traveling, exploring new places, and embracing diverse cultures. Robert’s devotion to his beloved wife, Lynn Sotsky, whom he cherished for 42 wonderful years, was truly exceptional. Their love, often described as akin to a “Notebook Movie Love,” was a testament to their enduring bond and partnership. His love for Lynn was bigger than life itself, and his legacy of love continues through her and their extended family.

Preceded in death by his father, Harry F. Sotsky, Robert is survived by his dear wife, Lynn. Though no formal services will be held, Robert’s memory will live on in the hearts of those who knew and loved him. He lived life to the fullest, leaving behind a legacy of love, laughter, and cherished memories. May he rest in peace, knowing his life was well-lived and wellloved.

Delores Davis Cox

Nov. 10, 1936 – April 28, 2026

Delores Davis Cox, age 89, formerly of Asheboro, passed away on April 28, 2026.

The family will receive friends on Thursday, May 7, 2026, from 10:30-11:00 am at Randolph Memorial Park. A graveside service will follow on Thursday at 11:00 am at Randolph Memorial Park.

Patricia Biddix

Dec. 31, 1954 – May 1, 2026

Patricia Biddix, a beloved resident of Asheboro, North Carolina, passed away peacefully on May 1, 2026, at the age of 71.

Born on December 31, 1954, in Asheboro, she was the cherished daughter of the late Nathan J. White and Virginia D. White.

Patricia dedicated her life to being a Homemaker, skillfully managing her household with dedication and love. She was known for her passion for gardening, where she found solace and joy, as well as her fascination with the weather, which she followed with keen interest.

Raised in the Baptist faith, Patricia’s beliefs and values were re ected in the strength and determination she exhibited throughout her life. Her strongminded and driven nature was a source of inspiration to those around her, as she faced life’s challenges with unwavering resolve.

Patricia is lovingly remembered by her surviving family, including her brother John Daniel White and his wife Janey of Dobson, NC, her brother Frank White of Salisbury, her daughter Michele Williams of Archdale, and her son Carl Wilkerson of Asheboro. She leaves behind four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, each of whom held a special place in her heart.

Preceded in death by her parents, Patricia’s legacy continues to live on through her family and the memories they shared. In accordance with her wishes, no formal services will be held.

Patricia Biddix will be deeply missed by all who knew her. She leaves behind a legacy of love, strength, and resilience that will forever be cherished by her family and friends.

Elizabeth Ross

June 1, 1948 – April 28, 2026

Elizabeth Ross, a dedicated nurse and cherished member of her community, passed away peacefully on April 28, 2026, in Asheboro, North Carolina. She was born on June 1, 1948, in Utica, New York, and lived a life full of service and love, reaching the age of 77. Throughout her life, Elizabeth was known for her compassionate nature and tireless dedication to her work as a nurse. Her caring spirit extended beyond her profession and into her personal life, where she nurtured a deep love for gardening, found solace in reading, and engaged passionately with political issues. As a woman of Christian faith, she drew strength and wisdom from her beliefs, contributing to her community with kindness and grace.

Elizabeth was preceded in death by her father, Frederick Quackenbush, who she always remembered with fondness and respect. She is survived by her beloved sons, Robert and Richard Ross, who were the center of her world and carry forward her legacy of love and integrity.

At this time, there are no services scheduled. Elizabeth’s family requests that those who wish to honor her memory do so in their own special way, perhaps by tending to a garden, reading a treasured book, or engaging in a thoughtful discussion about the world around us.

Elizabeth Ross will be dearly missed by all who knew her. Her warmth, wisdom, and unwavering dedication to those she loved will remain forever in the hearts of her family and friends.

Garry Warren Wall

Nov. 2, 1956 – April 28, 2026

Garry Warren Wall, age 69, of Asheboro, passed away on April 28, 2026.

Garry was born on November 2, 1956, in Asheboro, North Carolina, to Warren Calvin Wall and the late Evelyn Faye Hancock Wall. He was a graduate of Southwestern Randolph High School.

Garry enjoyed many things in life and especially loved spending time with his family. He was an avid NASCAR fan and had a great appreciation for rearms and his gun collection. He was knowledgeable about classic cars and enjoyed talking about them with others. Garry also loved baseball and played often in his younger years. He enjoyed traveling, family trips to the beach, and grilling out for those he loved, especially cooking steaks and burgers.

He worked for many years in the furniture industry, where he was known for his hard work and dedication.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Warren Calvin Wall and Evelyn Faye Hancock Wall. Garry is survived by his daughter, Jessica Brooke Wall Hall (Ronny) of Randleman; his son, Brandon Wall; his grandchildren, Parker Hall, Ava Hall, Aaron Redwine, and Lauren Wall; his signi cant other, Carolyn Hunt; and his brother, Ricky Wall (Kathy) of Asheboro.

A visitation will be held on Sunday, May 3, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Pugh Funeral Home. Funeral service will be held on Monday, May 4, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at Mt. Pleasant Church, 2415 Hoover Hill Road, with Pastor Marvin Patterson o ciating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

Ashley Stewart Fetner

July 22, 1945 – May 2, 2026

Ashley Stewart Fetner, 80, of Asheboro, passed away on Saturday, May 2, 2026, at his home.

A memorial service will be conducted at 3:00 p.m., Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Cross Road Baptist Church, Asheboro, with Pastor Justin Curry and Pastor Rob Burns o ciating. The family will receive friends following the service in the Christian Life Center.

Born on July 22, 1945, in Richmond County, NC, Ashley was the son of the late Ross Harding Fetner and Elizabeth Stevens Stewart Fetner. Ashley graduated from Randolph Community College, where he studied photography and would later become an instructor there. While in Columbia, SC, he was the owner and operator of Ashley Fetner Photography. Ashley was a member of Cross Road Baptist Church in Asheboro.

Surviving are his wife, Kay McCall Fetner of the home, son, Aaron Heath Fetner (Maelanie) of Apex, and brother-in-law, Chris McCall (Janice) of Rougemont, NC.

Memorials may be made to Alzheimer’s Association Western Carolina Chapter, 4600 Park Rd., Suite 250, Charlotte, NC 28209; or to Hospice of Randolph, 416 Vision Drive, Asheboro, NC 27203.

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in Randolph Record at obits@ randolphrecord.com

Alex Zanardi, auto racing champ who won Paralympic golds between life-altering accidents, dead at 59

He was beloved in motorsport and was a favorite of fans and drivers

By Andrew Dampf

The Associated Press

ROME — Alex Zanardi, the Italian auto racing champion-turned-Paralympic gold medalist whose career was marked by two life-altering accidents, has died. He was 59.

Zanardi’s family announced his death on Saturday, saying that he died last Friday night.

“Alex died peacefully, surrounded by the a ection of those closest to him,” the family said in a statement without providing a cause of death.

In 2020, Zanardi was seriously injured in a handbike accident after crashing into an oncoming truck during a relay event in Tuscany. Zanardi suffered serious facial and cranial trauma in the crash and was put in a medically induced coma.

Nearly 20 years earlier, Zanardi lost both of his legs in an auto racing crash.

“Italy loses a great champion and an extraordinary man, capable of turning every challenge of life into a lesson in courage, strength, and dignity,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said on X.

“Alex Zanardi knew how to bounce back every time, facing even the toughest challenges with determination, clarity, and a strength of spirit that was truly exceptional,” Meloni added. “He gave all of us much more than a victory: he gave hope, pride, and the strength to never give up. ... Thank you for everything, Alex.” Zanardi won two championships in CART — 1997 and 1998 — in the United States before a brief return to Formula One. He returned to America and was

racing in Germany in a CART event in 2001 when both of his legs were severed in a horri c accident the weekend after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. CART raced only because the series was already in Germany at the time of the attacks and could not return to the U.S. After the 2001 crash, Zanardi was in a coma for three days and his heart stopped at least once.

NASCAR driver Max Papis, who knew Zanardi from childhood in Italy, recalled visiting

his friend in the hospital, where Zanardi glanced at Papis’ new shoes.

“He said, ‘Look at the positive side of this. For a long time I will not have to spend money buying those,’” Papis said.

During his recovery, Zanardi designed his own prosthetics — he joked that he made himself taller — and learned to walk again. He then turned his attention to hand cycling and developed into one of the most accomplished athletes in the world. He won four gold medals

“Alex died peacefully, surrounded by the a ection of those closest to him.”

Zanardi family statement

and two silvers at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics, competed in the New York City Marathon and set an Ironman record.

When he won a Paralympic race in 2012 at Britain’s Brands Hatch circuit where he had competed as a young driver, Zanardi celebrated the full-circle moment by holding his bike aloft one-handed as he sat on the track.

“Probably a lot of people watching me doing (this) to some degree against all odds maybe they are going to say, ‘Bloody hell, if Zanardi did this, I can try. I can try,’” he told The Associated Press at the time. “A good attempt always brings a result.”

His spirit, will, and determination gave the beloved Italian a larger-than-life persona. When he returned to the U.S. in 2019 to compete for BMW at the Rolex 24 of Daytona without his prosthetics, he was the most revered driver in a eld that included F1 champion Fernando Alonso.

Drivers from around the world sought out Zanardi for photographs and were transxed as he told elaborate tales of his adventures in the nearly two decades since many had seen him.

Zanardi used specially adapted cars with hand controls for gas and brake to take up racing again after the 2001 accident — and well enough to win races in various series.

Stefano Domenicali, the

president and CEO of F1, said he was “deeply saddened by the passing of my dear friend,” calling Zanardi “truly an inspirational person, as a human and as an athlete.”

“He faced challenges that would have stopped anyone, yet he continued to look forward, always with a smile and a stubborn determination that inspired us all,” Domenicali added. “While his loss is profoundly felt, his legacy remains strong.”

Zanardi’s death came on the same day — May 1 — that fellow driver Ayrton Senna died in a crash during an F1 race in Imola in 1994.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said on X that Zanardi’s racing career and “journey from life-changing accident to Paralympics gold medalist made him one of sport’s most admired competitors and an enduring symbol of courage and determination.”

Noted for his infectious smile and fanciful storytelling, Zanardi was praised by Pope Francis after his 2020 crash as an example of strength amid adversity. Francis penned a handwritten letter of encouragement assuring Zanardi and his family of his prayers.

Zanardi’s family added that it “thanks everyone who is sharing their support right now and asks for respect during this time of mourning.”

Funeral details were still to be announced, the family said.

A moment of silence was to be observed in Zanardi’s honor before Saturday’s F1 sprint race in Miami Gardens, Florida. Also, the Italian Olympic Committee called for a minute of silence to be observed at all sports events in Italy over the weekend.

Zanardi, who was born in Bologna, is survived by his wife, Daniela, and son, Niccolò.

ALASTAIR GRANT / AP PHOTO

Alessandro Zanardi celebrates winning the gold medal after he competed in the man’s road cycle individual time trial H4 category at the 2012 Paralympics games in London in 2012.

STATE & NATION

Tennessee Republicans will consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis

The move follows a Supreme Court ruling that shifted protections for majority-black districts

By Kim Chandler, Travis Loller and David A. Lieb

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity a orded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked o in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling signi cantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law and provided grounds for Republicans in various states to try to eliminate majority-black districts that have elected Democrats.

Its impact on congressional representation, speci cally for black Americans, is threatening to undo decades of progress to ensure minority voting rights.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Re-

Prosecutors

Palisades

The 29-year-old man pleaded not guilty to starting the massive re

By Christopher Weber

The Associated Press

publicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.

Alabama special session draws protests

Several hundred people protested on Monday shortly before Alabama’s special session began, including some carrying signs declaring “No new map” and “We ght back! Black Voters Matter.”

Opponents of the redistricting session gathered across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an e ort for us to gain the right to vote,” said Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who as a child participated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Selma. “In 2026, there are still people who are still not exercising that right to vote, and we are still ghting today, even in an e ort to keep our right to vote.”

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.

A three-judge federal panel previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of black voters — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation. It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Rev. Earle Fisher, Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church

and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map could give Republicans a better chance of winning at least one of the two seats currently held by black Democratic lawmakers.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said while promoting the Republican plan.

“We had three judges determine how ve million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

At a town hall held by a pro-Democratic group, Doug Jones, a former U.S. senator who is running for governor as a Democrat, said Alabama was “ground zero for voting rights, and we are going to be ground zero to make sure we retain those voting rights.”

Tennessee plan targets Memphis district

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up

the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-black city of Memphis. The move comes after pressure from Trump.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Lee had said.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district came together Monday to denounce the move.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code. “It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Advocates urge Louisiana voters to cast ballots

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.

Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday on congressional redistricting. Kleinpeter said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-black congressional districts

Democrats and civil rights groups have led several lawsuits challenging the suspen-

say arson suspect in Los Angeles’

Fire was angry ‘at the world’

and Malibu and killed 12 people. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a re on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before aring back up a week later.

LOS ANGELES — The man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was upset that he didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked, according to court documents led by prosecutors. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, has pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wild res in California history. It began Jan. 7, 2025, in hillside neighborhoods of Paci c Palisades

Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His attorneys say he is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.

An outline of the prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the rst re began — appears in an April 29 pretrial memo led by the U.S. Attorney’s O ce.

Witnesses reported that Rinderknecht had been driving erratically while on Uber routes around the Palisades on New Year’s Eve, said prosecu-

“The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

Steve Haney

tors. His passengers described him as “angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed o at the world,’” the memo said.

According to court lings, Rinderknecht ranted to passengers about accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism. In an interview with investigators on Jan. 24, when

asked why someone might commit arson in the Palisades, Rinderknecht “responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them,’” and again referenced Mangione’s alleged crime, the documents said.

In addition, prosecutors said Rinderknecht was distraught over a failed relationship and upset about thwarted plans for New Year’s Eve.

“My client maintains his innocence as he has from the beginning and we look forward to clearing his name at trial,” Rinderknecht’s attorney Steve Haney said in an email Sunday.

“The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

sion of the state’s congressional primary, including another led Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

A national redistricting battle expands

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of the midterm elections when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in ve states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

Haney held a news conference in March to call for Rinderknecht’s release from jail in light of evidence he said shows he is not responsible for the blaze. Haney pointed to a deposition in which a reghter testi ed that he noticed the ground was still smoldering from the re on Jan. 2 and alerted a supervisor that there were hot spots. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit led by re victims against the city.

A battalion chief had testied that he walked the perimeter of the burn area four times throughout the day and ensured all hot spots were out.

Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in October, has said he is concerned about the di erences in the re ghters’ testimonies and commissioned an independent report on how the Jan. 1 re was handled.

Haney has said this evidence was not available to the defense when Rinderknecht was indicted.

RandolpH SPORTS

State champ nds path to collegiate mats

The two-time titlist and winningest Wheatmore wrestler has looked for the best route to law school

By Bob Sutton Randolph Record

TRINITY — Dominic Hittepole didn’t mind the pressure of high-level wrestling matches during a career that involved four appearances in the state tournament and two championships.

That’s because the Wheatmore standout had a plan and made sure to follow through on it.

So his quest to end up in law school took careful considerations across the past few months as he pondered his next moves o the mat. Those have led to giving him more opportunities in the wrestling room as he has pledged to compete for The Citadel.

“I was kind of missing wrestling,” Hittepole said. “I was go -

“It’s going to be a lot, but I can do it.”

Dominic Hittepole, Wheatmore wrestler

ing to regret not being able to wrestle in college.”

But next will be boot camp with the Marines, leaving Wheatmore with an early graduation. He’ll report next

week for close to three months so he’ll be quali ed to serve in the reserves. He’ll be on an ROTC scholarship at The Citadel.

Becoming a Division I wrestler is a nice twist.

“It was a goal, but it wasn’t the main goal,” he said. “It’s helping me with getting everything situated (in pursuit of a law degree). It’s a step up in training.”

Hittepole won more than 200 high school matches, the top mark in Wheatmore history.

His nal bout came by winning the 190-pound title in Class 3A in February.

“That’s a feat in itself getting 200 wins,” Wheatmore coach Kyle Spencer said. Perhaps more complicated was guring out how to extend his wrestling career. At one point last fall, he pointed to Division II Newberry as a likely destination but then reconsidered.

The former UCA coach and ex-Eastern Randolph athlete will be back in the county

By Bob Sutton Randolph Record

RANDLEMAN — Former Uwharrie Charter Academy coach Brad Monroe will be the next boys’ basketball coach at Randleman.

“It really was a perfect t,” Monroe said. “Our values in what we believe in align.”

Monroe replaces Daniel Mitchell, who previously announced that he was stepping down from the Randleman position to relocate to the western part of the state.

Monroe, who also was athletics director at UCA, coached the Eagles for eight seasons. They ended with winning records in ve of those seasons.

“I knew I always had that coaching itch,” Monroe said of returning to that role. “I think Randleman is one of the premier jobs for men’s basketball in the county.” Monroe, 36, also will be an assistant with Randleman’s football team. He’ll teach physical education. Monroe’s UCA team won the 2021-22 Piedmont Athletic Conference Tournament with an upset of Providence Grove in a game played at Randleman. That was Monroe’s second-to-last season with the UCA team. Randleman and UCA are

no longer in the same conference. Earlier in Monroe’s time at UCA, the Eagles won conference regular-season and tournament championships in the Central Tar Heel 1A Conference.

Monroe is a 2008 Eastern Randolph graduate and later played basketball for Guilford College. His past includes

Lopsided results bene tted teams from Randolph County prior to the state playo s

Randolph Record sta RANDLEMAN’S baseball team secured a conference championship for the 17th consecutive season by winning two games last week against Ledford. The Tigers needed to win both to tie with Central Davidson atop the Piedmont Athletic Conference with 11-1 records. The teams split two league meetings. Randleman whipped Ledford 13-3 at home with Tate Andrews hitting a grand slam. Jake Riddle providing three hits and scoring two runs and John Kirkpatrick handling the pitching in the ve-inning game. In last Thursday’s rematch, Randleman rolled to a 15-0 six-inning road victory with

Riddle and Andrews combining for the shutout. Andrews drove in three runs and Jackson Hill tripled and doubled. The PAC didn’t hold a conference tournament.

Four Rivers Conference Third-seeded Eastern Randolph put together two upsets with lopsided victories to win the conference tournament.

The Wildcats blew out host and top-seeded Northwood 11-1 on Friday night, defeating a team coached by their former coach Brent Haynes. Bryson Marley struck out nine batters in 42⁄3 innings and Cade McCallum followed with 11⁄3 shutout innings of relief. Maddox Dunn knocked in three runs, and Chance Holdaway, Isaiah Batchelor and Marley all scored three runs.

Eastern Randolph built a nine-game winning streak

JANN ORTIZ FOR RANDOLPH RECORD

Wheatmore wrestler Dominic Hittepole won his second state championship earlier this year. After examining options, he has decided to pursue collegiate wrestling at The Citadel as part of his long-term pursuits of going to law school.

PJ WARD BROWN / RANDOLPH RECORD

New Randleman boys’ basketball coach Brad Monroe is a past coach for Uwharrie Charter Academy.

Price Kidd

Asheboro, baseball

Kidd has been a key contributor at the plate and on the mound.

The senior became one of the Blue Comets’ leading hitters as he’s at or near the top in several categories.

As a pitcher, Kidd is atop the team’s list in terms of innings pitched.

Entering this week’s state playo s, Asheboro had won 13 games to match the program’s highest win total since the 2016-17 season.

Asheboro girls soar in TAAC meet

The Blue Comets are the host school for a regional meet this weekend

Randolph Record sta

ASHEBORO — Asheboro’s girls’ track and eld team won the Triad Area Athletic Conference championships last week, and the Blue Comets will be home for an even bigger competition.

Asheboro’s girls shared rst place with Northern Guilford in the conference meet at Southeast Guilford, boosted by individual titles in four events.

Jalaya Showers was the 100-meter champion in 11.98 seconds and winner of the long jump at 17 feet, 2 inches. She was second in the 200.

Asheboro’s Christy Price won the triple jump at 32-5½, followed by teammate Nyla Price.

Trynitee Brady of Asheboro captured the shot put at 31-1.

Asheboro’s boys were the TAAC runners-up behind Southeast Guilford.

Aaron Tyson of Asheboro won three events — the high

jump at 6 feet, the pole vault at 14 feet and the triple jump at 41-8. He was second in the long jump.

Teammate Michael Mark won the 110 hurdles in 15.31 seconds and he was second in the 300 hurdles.

• Asheboro is the host for the Class 6A Central Regional meet Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.

Central Carolina 3-A Conference

There were several individual champions from Randolph County in the league meet, though East Davidson’s girls and host West Davidson’s boys were team champions. Wheatmore was the boys’ runner-up.

In girls’ events, Providence Grove’s Laurel Bernhardt won two events — 800 (2:30.30) and 1,600 (5:27.38) — while teammate Lyndsay Broder was the winner in the 300 hurdles (49.24). The Patriots also won the 1,600 relay (4:32.25).

Wheatmore’s Kylyn Surratt won the triple jump (31-6¾), Kahmarii McNeill claimed the 100 hurdles (18.47) and Scar-

Cougars cruise in conference tourney

Southwestern Randolph’s softball team didn’t allow a run in two dominant triumphs

Randolph Record sta

time as a middle school coach in Trinity.

“Eventually, I knew I wanted to get back in the school system,” he said.

After leaving UCA, he worked for Vertical Raise, a fundraising company. He’ll leave a position as strength and conditioning coach at The Point, a charter school in Jamestown, in June.

Monroe said he’s familiar with the culture at Randleman from his time as an athlete at Eastern Randolph.

“If you cut me, there’s still green and gold in there,” he said.

But now his attention is focused on Randleman. He said the fabric of the Tigers’ program provides a great foundation, though there are bound to be subtle changes.

“We want to do it in our own way,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how talented a Randleman team is, they’re

“It doesn’t matter how talented a Randleman team is, they’re going to play a certain way.”

Brad Monroe, new Randleman coach

going to play a certain way.” Randleman nished with a 15-10 record during the past season when it reached the third round of the Class 4A state playo s. That followed a 23-2 mark in 2024-25. There were eight seniors on this past season’s team. Monroe has spent time with some of his new players. “We’ve got some hungry guys coming up,” he said. “Guys that are hungry to expand their roles.” Mitchell led the program for 14 seasons with a 220-110 record.

SOUTHWESTERN Randolph needed three innings to secure the Four Rivers Conference Tournament championship Friday night.

The top-seeded Cougars blasted visiting Northwood 17-0 behind Katelyn West’s no -hit pitching and her three runs batted in at the plate.

Chloe Eudy smacked a game-ending three-run home run, Alyssa Harris drove in two runs and scored three times, Maddie Strider also drove in three runs, Jada Freeman had two doubles, and Kami Dunn and Nauttica Parrish both scored two runs.

Third-seeded Northwood was shut out for the rst time this season.

Earlier in the week, Southwestern Randolph needed

six innings for a 10-0 victory against fth-seeded North Moore in the semi nals with Chloe Eudy and Alyssa Harris pitching and Kami Dunn rapping a two-run home run. Bristol Marine added three hits and scored two runs.

Northwood topped sixthseeded Eastern Randolph 15-0 to start the tournament and then handled second-seeded Uwharrie Charter Academy 8-1.

Piedmont Athletic Conference

Ella Rogers drove in two runs in the eighth inning as Randleman won the conference championship with an 8-6 victory against host Central Davidson in a showdown for rst place to end the regular season last Thursday. The league didn’t have a tournament. Rogers ended up with three hits and three runs batted in. Kinzie Ivey pitched seven innings and Rogers nished the job.

lett Hildreth was rst in the 3,200 (13:05.13) On the boys’ side, winners included Wheatmore’s Noah Wyrick in the shot put (41-11), Wheatmore’s Ayden Fitzgerald in the 3,200 (10:42.83), Providence Grove’s Nick Straughn in 110 hurdles (16.84) and Trinity’s Giovanni Jaimes in the 800 (2:10.51).

Four Rivers Conference

At Robbins, Northwood won the boys’ and girls’ team championships in the meet at North Moore, though three athletes from Randolph County were multiple-event winners.

For girls, Southwestern Randolph sprinter Kiersten Litell won the 100 (13.01) and the 200 (27.75).

Eastern Randolph had thrower Mirianna Corea as a two-event winner by capturing the discus (129-7) and shot put (39-6). Also from Eastern Randolph, Roxanne Davis was the top high jumper at 5-0.

For boys, Eastern Randolph’s Caden Revelle won the 100 (11.37) and high jump (6 -2).

Southwestern Randolph’s 400 relay of Thomas Costello, Leland Davis, Devonte Dukes and Devon Jenkins won in 45.22 seconds. In the team standings, the Cougars shared second place with Jordan-Matthews.

Uwharrie Charter Academy has remained in good shape in its conference race

Randolph Record sta

WHEATMORE is the Central Carolina 3-A Conference champion in girls’ soccer.

The Warriors clinched it with a 3-0 victory at Providence Grove last week that came with goals from Tatum Wagner, Kayla

Rosenbaum and Hallie Meyer. Second-place Trinity had a 3-2 overtime loss to visiting West Davidson. Earlier, Trinity’s 6-3 road victory against Thomasville stretched the winning streak to three games.

• Uwharrie Charter Academy stayed alone in rst place in the Four Rivers Conference after topping host North Moore 5-1 and drilling visiting Eastern Randolph 9-0. The Eagles also produced a 9-0 victory at Gray Stone Day School.

Randleman went 12-0 in league play, and Central Davidson was 10-2.

Earlier in the week, Ivey pitched Randleman to a 4-2 victory at third-place Ledford. Kadie Green scored two runs.

Central Carolina 3-A Conference

Top-seeded West Davidson defeated second-seeded Providence Grove 7-1 in the tournament nal.

The Patriots scored on Callie Lambert’s home run.

A day earlier, Lambert homered during a 12-2 semi nal victory in ve innings against third-seeded East Davidson. Adi Johnson scored four runs. Campbell Ziemba pitched a complete game.

Fourth-seeded Wheatmore hammered sixth-seeded Thomasville 15-0, aided by home runs from Kylie Hemric and Skylar Pittman. West Davidson bounced Wheatmore 10-0.

Triad Area Athletic Conference

Fourth-seeded Asheboro advanced via fth-seeded Northeast Guilford’s forfeit in the quarter nals before falling 15-0 to top-seeded Northern Guilford in the semi nals.

• Kayla Hernandez had two goals and Jordin George also scored in Southwestern Randolph’s 3-2 victory against visiting Jordan-Matthews.

• Asheboro had a 3-3 tie at Eastern Guilford in the Triad Area Athletic Conference. Asheboro then defeated visiting Southeast Guilford 3-2 on Friday.

• Randleman defeated visiting High Point Central 2-0 in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.

Asheboro’s Price Kidd throws a pitch during a March baseball game.

MONROE from page B1

Duggins delivers in Chargers race

The card at Caraway Speedway included some closes nishes

Randolph Record sta

SOPHIA — Brody Duggins won the rst of ve special Charger Challenge races by capturing Saturday night’s feature at Caraway Speedway.

Duggins had the pole position for the 50-lap race and mostly dominated.

Matthew Smith was the runner-up, followed by Cody Gri n, Ben Banker and Tyler Bush.

The next Charger Challenge race is June 13.

• In 602 Modi eds, David Creed top the eld ahead of Dustin Croon eld for the 35 laps.

• In UCARs, Tito Clapp was declared winner of dual 10-lap features.

Clapp was ahead of Mason Vance in the rst race, with

SOCCER

COURTESY CARAWAY SPEEDWAY Brody Duggins

Skyler Hughes in third. In the rematch, Josh Phillips and Hughes were rst and second, respectively, across the nish line, but they were moved to the bottom of the standings because of camber violations, leaving Clapp as the winner.

Man United beats Liverpool, will return to Champions League after 2-year absence

Manchester, England Manchester United guaranteed a return to the Champions League next season with a 3-2 win against Liverpool. Kobbie Mainoo’s rst-time strike from the edge of the area won it. Defending champion Liverpool had fought back from two goals down to level the game. But Mainoo’s goal meant United would be playing in European club soccer’s top competition after a two-year absence. Tottenham also climbed out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa.

BASEBALL from page B1

prior to entering the state playo s. In the conference tournament semi nals, Holdaway pitched a complete game and drove in four runs as the Wildcats upended second-seeded Uwharrie Charter Academy 12-3. McCallum had four hits and Batchelor scored three runs.

Eastern Randolph beat sixth-seeded North Moore 7-4 behind pitching from Dunn, McCallum and Holdaway at the beginning of the week.

Fourth-seeded Southwestern Randolph eliminated fth-seeded Jordan-Matthews 9-1 as Lucas Connor homered

WRESTLING from page B1

Hittepole, 18, regularly pondered the route that would be most scally prudent with the long-range quest for law school.

“It took me a while to think about it. I think there is a little bit more a ordable ways I can pursue my college,” he said. “Especially with me wanting to go to law school, I think I could pursue it in a way that gives me more debt-free than wrestling in college. There’s a lot to keep up with. I think I could handle it. I just think there are a lot more things I can do to keep me debt-free throughout my college career. I just want to really make sure I’m set up for the future as best nancially as possible.” In the meantime, there was more to accomplish at Wheatmore.

That nal match

After walking o the prep mats for the last time at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, there was more of the usual for Hittepole. He was typically critical of his performance but pleased with the outcome.

“Even though I had a bad match,” he said in assessing the bout against Polk County’s Styler Blackwell. “The rst period I was a little shaky, very tense.

Tony Price was the runner-up in the second race, followed by Vance, Jake Cline and Justin Smith.

• The Mini Stocks feature lasted 20 laps with Brandon Cotts the winner ahead of Mason Troxler, Cody Gwynn, Matt Alley and Steven Hedrick.

• For Crown Vics, Christian Morris had a narrow victory on Corey Watt in the 12-lap race, with Cody Mullen, Ricky June and Corey Luejten in the next few spots. TJ Gibson was third on the track, but his car failed an inspection so he was moved to the end.

• In U.S. Legends Cars, Scotty Benford prevailed ahead of Ethan Jaques, Collin Vanasse, Tony Arnold and Cal Anderson in the 25-lap feature.

• In Bandoleros, Charlie Evans won ahead of Carter Kennedy.

There’s another race card at the track Saturday, with the events including a 99-lap Limited Late Models race.

MLB

Reds tie MLB record by walking 7 straight batters in loss to Pirates

Pittsburgh

The Cincinnati Reds issued a Major League Baseball record-tying seven straight walks during the second inning of a 17-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the third time in major league history that a team had walked that many batters consecutively — the rst in more than four decades. Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder walked three batters in the second inning and was replaced by Connor Phillips, who walked the next four, each time with the bases loaded. The Pirates scored ve runs in the inning without a hit.

and Brady Arm eld rapped a triple and two doubles. Matthew Blankenship was the winning pitcher. The Cougars were ousted in a 3-2 semi nal loss at Northwood despite Logan Weidman pitching a complete game with nine strikeouts.

Central Carolina 3-A Conference

Third-seeded West Davidson overcame a two-run decit to defeat top-seeded Trinity 13-4 in the tournament nal at Finch Field in Thomasville. Trinity ace Lincoln Coble took the loss. Peyton Williams homered for the Bulldogs. Earlier in the week, Trinity

trounced fourth-seeded East Davidson 14-4 with Walker Parrish driving in ve runs, and Brody Little hit a two-run home run.

Second-seeded Providence Grove lost 7-5 to West Davidson in the semi nals. The Patriots led 5-3 going to the sixth inning.

Third-seeded West Davidson edged sixth-seeded Wheatmore 11-10 in the quarter nals. Nathan Oxendine homered for Wheatmore.

Triad Area Athletic Conference

Second-seeded Asheboro fell 9-3 to third-seeded Northern Guilford in the semi nals.

Really waited to open up. … Hopefully, no one looks at my nals match, they just see the result.”

Hittepole had mostly been stoic during and following matches regardless of the stakes. His reputation equated to extreme gentlemanly conduct that in its own quiet way was di cult to overlook.

So when he pulled o a backip following his second championship, it was worth noting.

“In the end, I don’t want to be cocky,” he said. “I don’t want to promote myself as being that

way. I really want to be content. So I really didn’t know what to do. I was very humble about my win.

“I’m more content. I’m not really a ashy person. You see the pictures. You see the guys doing crazy stu , it’s cool. Personally, I like to keep to myself. It’s more of a personal win rather than this is for everyone else. It’s more for me.”

Yet internally, the nerves churned because of his desire to end it the right way.

“Now it’s over,” he said at the time. “Six months ago, I was

stressing about this moment.

As the season goes by, ‘What do I need to do? What do I need to do?’ every day. … This second ring did it all for me. I’m content now. I can rest.”

Then, any wrestling in Hittepole’s future had been undetermined.

“It has been a long process,” he said. “Touching up some details and see if I can work some things out.”

Leaving a lasting impression

Joy was expressed in di erent ways when Hittepole became a multitime state champion. Spencer stood in the arena and teared up when discussing the wrestler.

“He has done a lot for our program,” Spencer said. “He does everything right.”

There’s plenty to digest when a high school career has been all-encompassing. The 200-win mark landed Hittepole in rare territory.

“I can’t remember probably three-quarters of them,” he said. “Even my losses from freshman year, I still can’t recall. The state championships, I can vividly remember those. My regular season, sometimes they get a little blurry.”

He placed fourth in the state as a freshman and was a runner-up as a sophomore.

So Hittepole was a regular participant each February in Greensboro.

“It’s surreal. It feels like I haven’t been here four times,” he said. “It just goes by so fast every year.”

The last go-around, having already secured a state title a year earlier, allowed him to have a calmer mindset.

“It feels more normal. There’s less pressure,” he said. “Freshman year, you step on the mat, you see the lights and the coliseum, you get a little stage fright sometimes. Senior year, it’s more like you’re wrestling in the circle on the mat rather than for everyone else. It makes it so much easier.”

Spencer said there’s a cumulative e ect of all Hittepole’s experiences.

“To put in as much work as he has put in, you have to feel you’re con dent you can go out and win,” Spencer said.

Hittepole didn’t play football as a senior, allowing for more wrestling preparation. This spring, he joined the golf team rather than competing in track and eld.

Next, there’s an array of the unknown with new experiences approaching with the Marines and The Citadel, but this is the path that he plotted.

“It’s going to be a lot, but I can do it,” Hittepole said.

JANN ORTIZ / FOR RANDOLPH RECORD

Assistant coach Tony Hairston, left, and head coach Kyle Spencer help Dominic Hittepole recognize his 200th career victory during this year’s state tournament in Greensboro.

Former Librarian of Congress Hayden cheered for Authors Guild honor

Other honorees included Amy Tan and Percival Everett

By Hillel Italie

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Nearly a year since she was abruptly red by President Donald Trump as librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden stood before hundreds of cheering members of the literary community as she received a Champion of Writers Award from the Authors Guild last Monday.

Hayden, 73, who headed the Library of Congress from 2016-25 and worked in libraries for much of her adult life, cited her profession as a vital bridge between writers and the general public.

“Libraries are where storytelling meets opportunity,” she told the audience gathered for the Guild’s annual dinner-gala, held at Cipriani Wall Street. “They are where a child discovers a rst favorite book, where a new American nds language and belonging, and where research uncovers hidden history, and where communities see themselves in the pages of literature. Libraries do more than house books. You know that. They connect

people to ideas, to knowledge and to one another. They ensure that storytelling is not reserved for the few but shared by all.”

Hayden was among three honorees, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Percival Everett and “The Joy Luck Club” author Amy Tan. Hayden, the rst woman and rst Black person to be appointed Librarian of Congress, didn’t refer to Trump or her ouster during her brief remarks. But her speech was an implicit rebuttal to Trump’s attacks against what he calls “woke” culture that have been directed at her and at such cultural institutions as the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution.

She praised libraries as “engines of accessibility and inclusion” and as havens for free expression at a time of record-high book bans.

“In many places today, librarians are under attack for believing in the power of the written word and in the principle that free people should be able to read freedom,” she said. “Yet librarians remain steady and hopeful.”

The gala was a forum for opposing bans and for other causes crucial to the Guild and to the thousands of pub -

lished writers it represents.

Author David Baldacci was among those who denounced AI, which has been the subject of various lawsuits led by writers against Microsoft, OpenAI and other companies that allege their work had been used without their permission for AI generative programs. Baldacci was among several writers present who have been plainti s in legal action, and his name was invoked later in the evening: It was attached to the prize given to Everett, the Baldacci Award for Literary Activism.

Everett, 69, whose “James” won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, is a proli c author and longtime academic who joked that receiving an honor for activism was like being called an athletic chess player. His books are known for their cutting and provocative takes on racism and other subjects, and he referred indirectly to Hayden’s departure by picturing a future — one he nds all too plausible — in which the only kinds of works available at the Library of Congress are the writings of Ayn Rand and other conservative favorites.

“That is where we are, and I can’t tell you how sad I am about this,” Everett said.

Oscar lost, found after director forced to check statue for JFK ight

Pavel Talankin won the award for “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — After being forced to check his Academy Award on a trans-Atlantic ight, recent winner Pavel Talankin’s Oscar went missing before an airline tracked it down two days later.

Talankin, who co-directed the best documentary winner “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” didn’t expect to have to check his statuette for a ight from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport bound for Frankfurt, Germany, last Wednesday. But a Transportation Security Administration agent said it couldn’t go on board.

“At the airport, a TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon,” Talankin’s co-director, David Borenstein, said last Thursday night in a post on Instagram.

“Pavel didn’t have a bag to check it in, so the TSA put the Oscar in a box and sent it to the bottom of the plane,” added Borenstein. “It never arrived in Frankfurt.”

After Borenstein’s announcement prompted an international outcry, the airline Lufthansa last Friday said it had found the lost Oscar.

“At the airport, a TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon.”

David Borenstein

Lufthansa added that an

“internal review of the circumstances is ongoing.”

In March, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” won the Academy Award for best documentary, and Talankin and Boren-

“We can con rm that the Oscar statue has now been located and is safely in our care in Frankfurt,” the airline said in a statement. “We are in direct contact with the guest to arrange its personal return as quickly as possible. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologized to the owner.”

stein’s acceptance speech supplied one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony. Talankin — the “Mr. Nobody” of the lm — was a teacher and activities director in a small-town school in Russia who captured on video his students’ lessons, chants and songs promoting Putin’s war in Ukraine. He smuggled his hard drives out of the country to collaborate with Borenstein, who lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Talankin, speaking in Russian through a translator, said from the stage: “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now.”

The TSA didn’t immediately respond to queries last week.

JOHN LOCHER / AP PHOTO

Pavel Talankin, winner of the award for documentary feature lm for “Mr. Nobody against Putin,” attends the Governors Ball after the Oscars on March 15 in Los Angeles.

Carla Hayden speaks at the Authors Guild Foundation Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.

JOHN LOCHER / AP PHOTO

famous birthdays this week

David Attenborough hits 100, Candice Bergen is 80, Steve Winwood turns 78

THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.

MAY 7

Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead) is 80. Actor/former boxer Randall “Tex” Cobb is 76. Actor Breckin Meyer is 52. Reggaeton musician J Balvin is 41. Actor-comedian Aidy Bryant is 39.

MAY 8

Biologist/TV presenter David Attenborough is 100. Poet Gary Snyder is 96. Singer-songwriter Toni Tennille is 86. Pianist Keith Jarrett is 81. Singer Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind and Fire) is 75. Rock musician Chris Frantz (Talking Heads) is 75. Singer Enrique Iglesias is 51. Musician Joe Bonamassa is 49.

MAY 9

Producer-director James L. Brooks is 86. Musician-songwriter Sonny Curtis (The Crickets) is 89. Actor Candice Bergen is 80. Musician Billy Joel is 77. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo is 75. Actor John Corbett is 65. Rock musician Alex Van Halen is 73. Singer Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) is 64.

MAY 10

Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun is 84. Musician-songwriter Donovan is 80. Fashion designer Miuccia Prada is 77. Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi is 67. Singer-activist Bono (U2) is 66. Rapper Young MC is 59.

MAY 11

Rock singer Eric Burdon is 85. Actor Frances Fisher is 74. Former MTV VJ Martha Quinn is 67. Olympic boxing gold medalist Mark Breland is 63. Actor Tim Blake Nelson is 62.

Model Blac Chyna is 38. Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton is 37.

MAY 12

Hockey Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk is 91. Musician Steve Winwood is 78. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 76. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 76. Actor Ving Rhames is 67. Actor- lmmaker Emilio Estevez is 64. Skateboarder Tony Hawk is 58.

MAY 13

Actor Harvey Keitel is 87. Musician Stevie Wonder is 76. Screenwriter-producer David Simon

(“The Wire”) is 67. Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman is 65. Musician Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowsh) is 60.

CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO Singer Stevie Wonder turns 76 on Wednesday.

SCOTT A. GARFITT / INVISION / AP PHOTO Designer Miuccia Prada turns 77 on Sunday.

FRANK FRANKLIN II / AP PHOTO

Skateboarding pioneer Tony Hawk turns 58 on Tuesday.

the stream

‘The

Robert Pattinson, left, and Zendaya attend the special screening of “The

at Regal

in New

The

is streaming now on premium on demand.

Drama,’ MUNA, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, ‘The Other Bennet Sister’

Ashley McBryde drops “Lines in the Carpet”

By Mark Kennedy

The Associated Press

“THE DRAMA,” a rom-com that goes bad starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson and the synth-pop group MUNA releasing their fourth studio album, “Dancing on the Wall,” 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: Sam Raimi’s movie “Send Help” starring Rachel McAdams; a TV series based on the unassuming, oft-forgotten Jane Austen sister Mary leads “The Other Bennet Sister”; and country star Ashley McBryde heading into the “Wild” on her latest album.

MOVIES TO STREAM

“The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Pattinson, is available now on premium on demand after a much-talked-about run in theaters. The lm, written and directed by Kristo er Borgli, recently became the fth A24 release to clear $100 million at the box o ce. Pattinson and Zendaya play a couple whose wedding engagement is derailed after a disquieting revelation. In his review, AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that the lm “wastes two of the planet’s most gorgeous people and will surely get everyone involved in trouble for using a current American tragedy as a plot point.”

In Raimi’s “Send Help,” a woman (McAdams) and her overbearing boss (Dylan O’Brien) are stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. Raimi’s comic survivalist thriller grows increasingly unhinged as their roles reverse. After a theatrical run earlier this year, it debuts Thursday on Hulu.

The Net ix adaptation “Remarkably Bright Creatures” (streaming Friday) turns Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel into a lm starring Sally Field as a widow working at an aquarium. There, she develops a healing bond with a giant Paci c octopus. Lewis Pullman co-stars.

MUSIC TO STREAM

The synth-pop group MUNA will release their fourth studio album on Friday. “Dancing on the Wall” arrives just in time for the approaching warmth — and hedonistic decision-making — of summer. It’s tank top party-pop for the once-heartbroken, now-victorious crowd (like what is found on “So What” and the familiar sounds of the title track) and whoever is the ob -

ject of a ection on the too-fun “Wannabeher.” Also on Friday: Country star McBryde heads into the “Wild” on her latest album. It is her most personal and most rock ’n’ roll collection yet, embodying McBryde’s ery spirit found on “Lines in the Carpet,” a cutting treatise on domesticity, the heartfelt mission statement of the title track and everywhere in-between. The record opens with four barnburners fans will

recognize as staples of her live show — “Rattlesnake Preacher,” “Arkansas Mud,” “Water in the River” and “Creosote” — and diversi es from there. Expect big feelings and a playful, wizened heart.

SERIES TO STREAM

If you’re an Austen devotee who loved “Pride and Prejudice,” you’ll recall that Elizabeth and Jane aren’t the only two daughters in the Bennet family. A new series called “The Other Bennet Sister” follows the introspective and awkward but adorable Mary, played by Ella Bruccoleri. Mary steps out of the shadows of her other siblings and nds romance and independence. The show is already a hit in the UK and on social media. Mary gets her time to shine on BritBox. From the backwoods lakes of the Ozarks to the turquoise waters of the Florida Keys, Bill Dubuque, a co-creator of “Ozark,” has created a new series set against the drug world called “M.I.A.” In this crime drama, a daughter who wants nothing more than to separate herself from her family’s drug-running business is

pulled into a quest for vengeance after it’s destroyed. All nine episodes drop Thursday on Peacock.

Dan Stevens is wrongfully committed to a mental hospital where he must battle both supernatural and psychological demons in “The Terror: Devil in Silver.” This “Terror” is the third season of a horror anthology. Besides Stevens, the series features an impressive cast including CCH Pounder, Judith Light and John Benjamin Hickey. It premieres Thursday on both Shudder and AMC+.

Another classic gets reimagined in the new “Amadeus” limited-series starring Will Sharpe and Paul Bettany. Sharpe plays superstar composer Amadeus Mozart and Bettany is Antonio Salieri, also a successful composer of the time whom history has cast as the lesser talent. Salieri becomes increasingly obsessed with achieving the respect and acclaim that Mozart enjoys. It premieres on Starz on Friday.

VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

Annapurna Interactive’s Mixtape includes tunes by Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Roxy Music and Devo — the kind of alt-rock you might expect in a movie like “Sixteen Candles” or “Dazed and Confused.” So yes, we’re back in the 1990s with three teenagers seeking adventure on their last night of high school. That means skateboarding, sneaking beers, making out, looking for trouble, running from trouble and, to judge from the trailer, oating through space. You can press play Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 or PC. The soundtrack to Wax Heads is more diverse, but all the bands are completely made up. You’ve landed a job at a gnarly store called Repeater Records, and you get to deal with an assortment of eccentric customers who may or may not know what they want. The result is a kind of puzzle game in which you have to sort through their suggestions to track down the perfect vinyl. Patattie Games, the two-person U.K. studio behind Wax Heads, calls it “cozy-punk.” Drop the needle on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch or PC.

EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP PHOTO

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO

Ashley McBryde performs “Help Me Make It Through the Night” during the 58th Annual CMA Awards in 2024. Her new album, “Lines in the Carpet,” comes out Friday.

MILLIE TURNER / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Ross Garshong and Ellie Buckley pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the lm ‘Send Help’ in London. The thriller lands on Hulu on Thursday.

Drama”

Union Square

York.

lm

HOKE COUNTY

Powering up the past

Members of Raeford-Hoke Museum — from left to right, Austin Douglas, Jewely Schroeder and

a $5,500 America 250 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Presidential Physical Fitness Award returns as Trump revives annual tness test

President Donald Trump is reviving the Presidential Physical Fitness Award as he reintroduces a competitive physical tness test in America’s schools. The award is part of Trump’s revamped Presidential Fitness Test, which had been a public-school xture for decades but was phased out under President Barack Obama. The earlier exam tested children on exercises including a 1-mile run and sit-ups. Those scoring above the 85th percentile received the presidential award. Details of the revived test have yet to be released. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the test is now mandatory in 161 schools on U.S. military installations.

U.S. job openings unchanged at 6.9M in March; hiring improved U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged at 6.9 million in March, another sign the American labor market remained sluggish even before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy. The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war has clouded the outlook. On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layo s rose in March. But hiring improved and more people quit their jobs — a sign of con dence in the economy.

Commissioners approve internet expansion project

The proposed development will serve the northwestern portion of the county

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal

RAEFORD — The Hoke County Board of Commissioners has approved a project that aims to expand internet access within the county.

At its May 4 regular business meeting, the board held a public hearing for a special use permit request by Lumbee River Electric Membership Corp. for the purpose of constructing a data communication site (optical line terminal facility).

“In a nutshell, this is basically a distribution site for the internet,” said Electrical Consulting Engineers Allison McIntyre, who was representing the applicant.

The property in question is 0.11 acres located at 2160 Ashemont Road and is currently zoned Residential Agricultural.

The site would have to be cleared, and once it is, it will include an OLT box, a generator and a 500 -gallon propane tank on the site in case of short-term power outages and will be enclosed by a 6 -foot-high chain-link fence.

According to the applicants, the project is being funded by a state grant and will cov-

“We have to be thinking about the future and the growth.”

Chairman James Leach

er more than 400 homes in the northwestern part of the county. “We have to be thinking about the future and the growth,” said Chairman James Leach. “We don’t want to be a county without good technology for our youth, those in school, those in college and those at home. This is the world we live in now.”

There were concerns raised during the public comment period about this project being potentially connected to data centers, which have become a hot-button issue statewide, but the commissioners stated that there was no such connection with this project.

“I’ve been studying data centers for the last three years,” said Vice Chair Harry Southerland in response to community concerns. “And this right here is not a data center. You would have to do a whole lot of work to make this one of those centers, and this site doesn’t have the land capacity.”

The Hoke County Board of Commissioners will next meet May 18.

After NASCAR’s Greg Bi e and family died, police now think ‘friends’ stole from them

Police allege the suspects accessed the family’s bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts in multiple states

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

LESS THAN a month after former NASCAR driver Greg Bi e and his family died in a plane crash last year, investigators say two of their “friends” conspired to break into the empty home and took cash, guns and nancial information in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. More than 40 search warrants have been issued, authorities in North Carolina say, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Bi e and

naming the pair because no arrests have been made.

Bi e, his wife and his two children, along with three others, died in the Dec. 18 crash, which remains under investigation by the NTSB. Some survivors of those killed are suing the estates of Bi e and the pilot for millions of dollars.

According to a search warrant a davit, the husband being investigated met Bi e when the former driver used his private helicopter to deliver aid after Hurricane Helene. The woman attended a Christmas party at the Bi es’ home in Mooresville weeks before the crash.

Authorities reported a break-in at the home on Jan. 8, saying $30,000 in cash, two Glock handguns and NASCAR

o their deaths, Iredell County Sheri Darren Campbell said. The Associated Press is not

THE HOKE COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL

museum curator Betty Perkins — celebrate

COURTESY RAEFORD-HOKE MUSEUM

JOHN RAOUX / AP PHOTO

Greg Bi e looks on during driver introductions before the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Feb. 20, 2022.

(USPS 20451) (ISSN 2471-1365)

THURSDAY

BIFFLE from page A1

memorabilia were stolen. Search warrants were later executed at two sites, one near the Bi es’ residence and another in a nearby county.

A person seen on surveillance video, identi ed as a woman, appeared to be familiar with the large home’s layout, including the locations of cameras, closets and a safe room, a detective wrote in a search warrant a davit. The intruder spent nearly six hours inside the house the night of Jan. 7 into the following morning.

Evidence showed a cellphone and multiple devices were active on the property during that time, according to the warrant. The only people allowed there would’ve been the administrators of the estate, but they weren’t present. Authorities say they linked the woman to someone who attended Bi e’s celebration of life and said license plate readers placed her husband’s truck near the home that night.

The warrants also describe alleged nancial crimes. Investigators say that bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts tied to the Bi es were accessed online using personal information, with phone numbers and email ad-

Prosecutors say arson suspect in Los Angeles’ Palisades Fire was angry ‘at the world’

The 29-year-old man pleaded not guilty to starting the massive re

By Christopher Weber The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was upset that he didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked, according to court documents led by prosecutors. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, has pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wild res in California history. It began Jan. 7, 2025, in hillside neighborhoods of Paci c Palisades and Malibu and killed 12 people. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a re on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before aring back up a week later.

Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His attorneys say he is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to ful-

dresses changed to gain control of funds. Money was then allegedly transferred to accounts not belonging to the family and used for purchases, according to the warrant. At least one fraudulent check tied to Bi e’s business interests was cashed, and other attempts were made to access accounts. The activity occurred across multiple states. The sheri would not say whether the same suspects in the break-in are being investigated for thenancial crimes, saying the department is waiting for more evidence.

Meanwhile, the plane crash sparked lawsuits against the estates of Bi e and the pilot, Dennis Dutton, who was killed along with his son.

On April 17, the estates of Dutton and his son sued Bife’s estate for at least $15 million each, alleging Bi e failed to properly maintain the plane and operated it in a defective condition. The claims include lost income and “pre- death pain and su ering.”

In February, Bi e’s exwife, Nicole Bi e, led a notice of claim against Dutton’s estate on behalf of the couple’s 14 -year-old daughter’s estate, seeking at least $10 million for wrongful death.

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ly extinguish the earlier blaze.

An outline of the prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the rst re began — appears in an April 29 pretrial memo led by the U.S. Attorney’s O ce.

Witnesses reported that Rinderknecht had been driving erratically while on Uber routes around the Palisades on New Year’s Eve, said prosecutors. His passengers described him as “angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed o at the world,’” the memo said. According to court lings,

“The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.” Steve Haney

Rinderknecht ranted to passengers about accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, capitalism and vigilantism. In an interview with investigators on Jan. 24, when asked why someone might commit arson in the Palisades, Rinderknecht “responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them,’” and again referenced Mangione’s alleged crime, the documents said.

In addition, prosecutors said Rinderknecht was distraught over a failed relationship and upset about thwarted plans for New Year’s Eve.

“My client maintains his innocence as he has from the beginning and we look forward to clearing his name at trial,” Rinderknecht’s attorney Steve

Haney said in an email Sunday. “The o ered motive that my client started a re on NYs Eve because he did not have a date speaks for itself.”

Haney held a news conference in March to call for Rinderknecht’s release from jail in light of evidence he said shows he is not responsible for the blaze. Haney pointed to a deposition in which a reghter testi ed that he noticed the ground was still smoldering from the re on Jan. 2 and alerted a supervisor that there were hot spots. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit led by re victims against the city. A battalion chief had testied that he walked the perimeter of the burn area four times throughout the day and ensured all hot spots were out.

Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who was appointed in October, has said he is concerned about the di erences in the re ghters’ testimonies and commissioned an independent report on how the Jan. 1 re was handled.

Haney has said this evidence was not available to the defense when Rinderknecht was indicted.

podcast local to Hoke-Raeford, NC, with Ruben Castellon and Chris Holland.

Jonathan Rinderknecht

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

When does speech become dangerous?

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

AMERICANS LOVE arguing about free speech. We invoke the First Amendment as a kind of political force eld: You can say whatever you want, whenever you want, without consequence.

But the First Amendment only restricts government action. It does not guarantee you a career, a platform or immunity from backlash. The real question is not whether certain speech is legal but rather what kind of speech deserves social consequences — and what kind doesn’t.

And if we’re talking about reckless political speech, we should talk about Jimmy Kimmel. Years ago, he abandoned comedy in favor of applause lines, tearful monologues and the occasional performance of empathy. He’s an unfunny late-night scold who treats half the country as a punchline.

As annoying as that is, being unfunny is not a crime. The bigger issue is when media gures cross the line from tastelessness into rhetoric that creates a permission structure for violence.

To understand the di erence, it helps to break political speech into three categories.

First: illegal speech.

Yes, illegal political speech exists in America.

A classic example: “I want to kill the president.” That’s not merely commentary. It is an actionable, direct threat.

There is also incitement. Under the Supreme Court’s Brandenburg standard, speech quali es as incitement only if it is intended to and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

“Someone should do something about the president” is protected, though irresponsible, speech. “Go kill the president” crosses into territory the law can punish. It’s speech but also an attempt to trigger violence.

Second: typical in ammatory rhetoric.

American politics is lled with heated language. “Fight like hell.” “We’re going to war with the other party.” That sort of rhetoric can be ugly and excessive, but it is also normal.

We’ve seen how absurd it becomes when people try to treat that as literal incitement. After Gabby Gi ords was shot, some on the left blamed Sarah Palin because a campaign graphic had “targeted” certain districts. That was ridiculous. Using combative imagery is not the same as directing violence.

Third: the permission structure for violence.

A permission structure for violence is created when people repeatedly portray political opponents as monsters.

This is how you create the mental environment where unstable people conclude that violence is justi ed. If the president is a traitor, rapist, pedophile and mastermind behind a corrupt system, then how else could he be stopped?

This kind of rhetoric leads directly to chaos. It is also the kind of rhetoric Kimmel has tra cked in for years.

Recently, Kimmel tastelessly joked that Melania Trump had “the glow of an expectant widow.” It was disgusting, and she has every right to be furious. But it wasn’t a call to violence. It was a cheap, ugly joke suggesting she secretly wants her husband dead.

Kimmel later claimed he rejects violent rhetoric, then immediately pivoted to blaming Donald Trump for rhetoric that supposedly inspires violence. It was the standard modern play: Insult someone, then wrap yourself in moral superiority.

But when it comes to rhetoric that encourages violence, it isn’t the widow joke

that should be the focus; it’s the conspiracism. Kimmel has repeatedly called Trump a pedophile, suggested he is connected to Je rey Epstein and involved in a coverup, called him a rapist and accused him of protecting pedophiles, coming after voting rights, enriching billionaires while harming the poor, and manipulating the system to evade accountability. That is not “normal political speech.” It is speech that turns a political opponent into a movie villain — a gure so corrupt and monstrous that extreme action begins to feel righteous.

This kind of conspiratorial framing has a track record. It fuels ugly episodes of modern political violence: a steady stream of baseless accusations designed to convince audiences that the other side is not merely wrong but evil.

If someone eventually acts on that belief, we shouldn’t pretend it came out of nowhere.

So should Kimmel be red?

Firing him for the Melania joke would be punishing the wrong o ense. A tasteless, bad joke is not the central issue.

The central issue is rhetoric that treats political opponents as criminals without proof, assigns monstrous motives without evidence and creates a cultural climate where violence feels justi ed.

If America wants to lower the temperature, scrutiny should be directed at conspiratorial storytelling that teaches people to hate.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author.

(Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

California copied Europe’s insane energy playbook

European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties.

EVEN AS U.S. GASOLINE prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising more than half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.

The result is embedded in ation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry. Europeans don’t just pay more to ll their tanks — they pay more for everything that moves on petroleum. Their living standards su er accordingly. Energy security delivers America’s second big advantage. The U.S. produces more than two-thirds of its own oil and imports the rest mostly from Canada and other friendly Western Hemisphere sources. We are largely insulated from Middle East chaos.

Europe, by contrast, lectures the world about “energy transition” while remaining dangerously

dependent on imports even as it sits atop known, undeveloped reserves. The same nations that demonize oil and gas refuse to produce their own, choosing instead to outsource vulnerability rst to Russia, then to OPEC and now to U.S. LNG. This is not prudent policy. It is willful self-sabotage clothed in false virtue.

Nowhere is this failure more glaring than California, which has imported Germany’s disastrous model wholesale and turned itself into America’s premier energy basket case. With an 81-cent state gas tax, 60 -70 cent cap-and-trade penalty, boutique “California blend” fuel mandates, and layers of environmental rules explicitly designed to punish gasoline and driving, the Golden State routinely posts pump prices $2 above the national average.

In-state production has been strangled. Re neries are closing or idling. The state now imports gasoline from South Korea, the Bahamas and the Middle East, exposing its residents to global shocks while preaching climate alarm orthodoxy.

Gavin Newsom and his bureaucrats want voters to believe it’s all President Donald Trump’s fault, but it isn’t. It is the entirely foreseeable outcome of using tax and regulatory warfare to force a premature energy transition. Instead of transitioning, California is deindustrializing and making its citizens poorer in the process.

The broader lesson is damning. High-tax, high-regulation, import-dependent energy policies do not deliver utopia or planetary salvation. They deliver chronic vulnerability, in ated living costs and economic drag. Europe’s drivers pay double or triple because politicians prioritized revenue and ideology over abundance. California followed suit and became a cautionary tale for the rest of America.

But most U.S. states reap the rewards of the opposite approach: Reasonable taxation that doesn’t treat fuel as a sin, aggressive domestic production that delivers record output and supply chains resilient enough to weather global crises without collapse. Prices rise during supply shocks, but there are no lines at the pump and no systemic shortages. That is the fruit of policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

America’s advantage at the pump is neither accident nor mystery: It is the direct result of rejecting the punitive European model that California eagerly embraced. Policymakers who ignore this lesson are not visionaries: They are ideologues imposing measurable harm on the people they claim to serve.

The current global turmoil should serve as a wake-up call. Punitive taxation and regulatory strangulation of conventional energy produce scarcity, insecurity and higher costs borne by working families.

America’s formula of lower taxes and energy dominance delivers a ordability, resilience and genuine energy security.

Europe — and California — stand as expensive warnings of what happens when nations choose ideology over reality. Americans outside of the Golden State should reject that failing path with zero apology.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. (Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation)

COLUMN | DAVID BLACKMON

COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO

Secret Service says suspect opened re on them, was shot near Washington Monument

A minor bystander was shot but not seriously injured during the incident

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A man spotted carrying a gun in the vicinity of the White House by plainclothes o cers and agents was shot by law enforcement Monday after he opened re on them near the Washington Monument, the Secret Service said.

Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said plainclothes agents spotted the man around 3:30 p.m. in the area near the White House complex and saw the imprint of the weapon on him. The agents followed him brie y and contacted the uniformed o cers.

The unidenti ed man attempted to ee when uniformed o cers with the Secret Service approached him. Quinn said the man red at the o cers, who returned re.

The alleged gunman was transported to a local hospital. Quinn said he had no information on the suspect’s condition.

Quinn said emergency per -

sonnel also transported a minor who was shot but not seriously injured. Quinn said he could not say de nitively that

the bystander, who also was taken to a hospital, was struck by shots from the suspect’s gun.

“We’ll let the doctors gure that

out,” he said, though he noted that “investigators believe he was struck by the suspect.” Quinn said the Washington,

Trump keeps public guessing with hints of what’s coming in new UFO les

Skeptics warn Trump’s promised UFO revelations are unlikely to produce bombshell evidence

By Collin Binkley

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO les uncovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new revelations around questions of alien life.

Trump started stoking interest in the extraterrestrial in February, directing federal agencies to release their records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has built suspense with tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never before shared by the U.S. government.

“We’re going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven’t,” Trump said at a White House event last week celebrating NASA astronauts. “I think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people.”

Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the secrets. In the rst week returning to o ce, he ordered the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known.

In the buildup to that release, Trump said “the American people deserve transparency and truth.” Now, as he turns to the sky, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades- old questions may be on the way. His February directive on social media called for transparency around “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidenti ed aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidenti ed ying objects (UFOs).”

“The rst releases will begin very, very soon,” he told supporters in April at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. “So you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct. You’ll gure it out.”

An expert cautions against raising expectations

Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.

The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it ies over Washington, March 2, 2022.

Citing concerns over national security, Congress created an ofce in 2022 to investigate UAP and declassify as much material as possible. The o ce’s 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever con rmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is expected to come soon.

That agency, the All- domain Anomaly Resolution Ofce, is now working with the White House to release “never-before-seen UAP information,” according to a Pentagon statement.

The o ce’s previous director, however, said Trump’s promises were bluster, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from the war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence o cer who led the o ce until 2023, said he has seen the government’s records and believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down,” he said. “Because that just doesn’t exist.” Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military often capture jet engines and oth-

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down. Because that just doesn’t exist.”

Sean Kirkpatrick, All-domain Anomaly Resolution O ce former director

er hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which, Kirkpatrick said, explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped objects.

Pentagon not forthcoming on UAP reports, GOP-led panel says

On Capitol Hill, those types of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Trump-aligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is holding back secrets.

The Task Force on the Declassi cation of Federal Secrets has been conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.

Last fall, the task force heard

D.C., police would investigate the o cer-involved shooting.

The Secret Service encouraged people to avoid the area as emergency crews responded to the shooting not far from the White House, where President Donald Trump was holding a small business event.

The White House was briefly locked down as authorities investigated the incident. The Secret Service ushered journalists who were outside into the brie ng room, and Trump continued his event without interruption.

The incident drew a large police presence, coming just over a week after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident, in which a Secret Service o cer was shot, although he was wearing body armor and was not seriously injured.

Quinn said it was not known yet whether the Monday incident was related to Trump. “I’m not going to guess on that,” Quinn said. “Whether or not it was directed to the president or not, I don’t know, but we will nd out.”

traterrestrial life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said, “I gured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re really into that. I don’t know if I am.”

Why he made the revelation at that event, held at a megachurch, is unclear. A day earlier, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far from Area 51, a top -secret Cold War test site that has fueled UFO conspiracy theories.

Vice President JD Vance has described himself as “obsessed” with UFO les. In March, he said he has been trying to nd time to investigate Area 51 since he took o ce.

“I’ve still got three more years as vice president,” Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “I will get to the bottom of the UFO les.”

Invoking his Christian faith, Vance said he believes sightings reported to be aliens are actually the work of spiritual demons. Even before Trump tackled the topic, alien buzz was already in the air.

It’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie, “Disclosure Day.” Former President Barack Obama made a splash in February when he declared on a podcast that aliens are real. He later clari ed that he had seen no evidence but that “the odds are good there’s life out there.”

testimony from current and former service members who described UAP encounters. In one case, a senior Navy o cer said he was o the coast of California in 2023 when he saw a glowing “Tic Tac” shaped object emerge from the ocean and link up with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.

Trump’s interest in the subject has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co - chairs the task force. Luna has criticized what she calls “less than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.

In a March letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identi ed by whistleblowers and labeled with names such as “Spherical UAP in clouds.” Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.

Trump’s entry to the UFO fray drew applause from Luna, who last year told podcaster Joe Rogan that she has seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can’t hide from our docs request anymore!” Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive. Vance professes to be “obsessed” with UFO les

Trump appears skeptical about the existence of ex-

Trump is hardly the rst president drawn to UFO mysteries. President Bill Clinton has said he once ordered a review of the Roswell Incident — something had crashed in 1947 at a New Mexico ranch and ofcials later said the debris was the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon — around its 50th anniversary in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs before their time in the White House.

The U.S. government has been investigating UFO reports since the 1940s, in part to determine if they represent advanced technology from competing nations or “evidence of o -world technology,” according to the Defense Department’s 2024 report.

In online communities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump’s promise as a step in the right direction; others believe it will come to nothing. For people who follow the topic closely, promises of big revelations have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO sightings.

“There is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the really die-hard folks,” he said. “So in a sense, I think disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected no matter what comes out of this.”

PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP PHOTO

ROD LAMKEY JR. / AP PHOTO

U.S. Secret Service police respond after a person was shot by law enforcement near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

HOKE SPORTS

Hoke softball wins conference title,

earns state playo bid

North State Journal sta

HOKE BASEBALL lost itsnal eight games to fall to 8-15 on the season. That left the Bucks on the outside when the NCHSAA released its state championship brackets. Since Hoke didn’t get a spot in the class 8A bracket, its season is over. Hoke nished with its most wins since 2019 and a six-win improvement over last season.

The team loses an accomplished senior class led by inelder/pitcher Jayden Hollingsworth, who led the team in batting, on-base percentage, home runs, steals, runs, hits and slugging. Also moving on is Carson Hewitt, the team’s ERA leader, catcher Julian Person and pitcher Damien Morris- Schmidt.

The softball team received a bid to the postseason, earning a No. 5 seed in the 8A bracket.

The Bucks opened with No. 12 Green Level, with the winner

The Hoke softball team poses with its conference championship banner.

facing No. 4 William Amos Hough. Hoke is on a four-game winning streak, which earned the Bucks a conference champi-

onship and set a school record for wins. They enter the postseason at 18 -5. Green Level is 7-12, and Hough is 19 -5.

Elliott wins at Texas to join Reddick as season’s multiple Cup Series winners

Both wins have come by holding o Denny Hamlin down the stretch

By Stephen Hawkins

The Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott went low, got a push from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and held on to become only the second NASCAR Cup driver with multiple wins this season.

Elliott stayed ahead of Denny Hamlin for the closing four laps after a nal restart at Texas on Sunday for his second victory this year. He nished just ahead of Hamlin in both of those wins.

On that nal restart at the 11⁄2-mile Texas track, Elliott took the bottom line and had teammate Alex Bowman behind him. He cleared Hamlin going onto the backstretch and remained in front to the checkered ag.

“I just felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear o of (Turn) 2, I was going to be in a lot of trouble,” Elliott said. “So fortunately Alex gave me a great push. I was able to execute Turns 1 and 2, get clear, and then just kind of manage the last few laps.”

Elliott, voted NASCAR’s most popular driver each of the past eight seasons, got his 23rd career win and his second at Texas, where two years ago he ended a 42-race winless streak. He led ve times Sunday for a race -high 87 laps, nishing

“I was able to execute Turns 1 and 2, get clear, and then just kind of manage the last few laps.”

Chase Elliott

0.407 seconds ahead of Hamlin, closer than the 0.565 -second margin when they nished 1-2 at Martinsville in late March.

Bowman, whose spin brought out a caution on lap 93, nished third. Tyler Reddick was fourth after winning ve of the rst 10 races this season for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing.

Hamlin said the late push Elliott got from his teammate was the di erence in Texas.

“It was just enough to slow my momentum and pick his momentum up,” Hamlin said.

“Good, decent day, just one (spot) short.”

Elliott, who started 14th, had already taken the white ag when John Hunter Nemechek wrecked in the back of the eld after contact with Kyle Busch.

The caution ag never came out since Nemechek was able to get his car to the apron.

Chris Buescher was fth, his rst top -10 nish in 17 starts at the track less than an hour from his hometown of Prosper.

Carson Hocevar, the polesitter at Texas for the second year in a row, nished seventh a

week after his breakthrough win at Talladega. He also won the Truck Series race in the Lone Star State last Friday night. He nished a spot behind Daniel Suarez, his Spire Motorsports teammate.

Hocevar led the rst 22 laps last year, three more than he did at the start of this 267-lap race, though he did get back in front for 18 more laps later Sunday.

Corey Heim, in only his third start this year for 23XI Racing, led 69 laps, but with 11 laps left brought out the nal caution of the day, the fourth because of a single - car spinout. The 23 -year-old Heim was the Truck Series champion last year.

Bell rung out of the race

Christopher Bell, an Oklahoma native who considers Texas his home track, led 22 laps and was still near the front on lap 69 when he got clipped by Todd Gilliland, who spun ahead of him.

Bell bobbled and then slammed hard into the outside wall along the frontstretch, doing signi cant damage to the front right of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He nished last in the 38 - car eld.

“I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom,” said Bell, who had led only six laps total his rst seven starts in Texas. “I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom but I got clipped.”

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

William Leak

Hoke County, track

William Leak is a senior on the Hoke County track team. He is no stranger to our Athlete of the Week award, and our honors join what must be a very crowded trophy case for him.

Leak added to his recognition, getting named to the High School OT all-state boys’ track team, the fourth time he’s earned the honor. Leak was one of four athletes on this year’s team to earn a repeat spot on the team, and he’s one of nine athletes named all-state in multiple events, earning it for long jump and triple jump. Leak also won conference titles in both events, winning the Mid-South long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 6 inches and the triple jump with a 46-6.5 jump. He also nished third in high jump and 11th in discus.

Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements:

hokecommunity@northstatejournal.com

Weekly deadline is Monday at noon

SIDELINE REPORT

SOCCER

Man United beats

Liverpool, will return to Champions League after 2-year absence

Manchester, England Manchester United guaranteed a return to the Champions League next season with a 3-2 win against Liverpool. Kobbie Mainoo’s rst-time strike from the edge of the area won it. Defending champion Liverpool had fought back from two goals down to level the game. But Mainoo’s goal meant United would be playing in European club soccer’s top competition after a two -year absence. Tottenham also climbed out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa.

MLB Reds tie MLB record by walking 7 straight batters in loss to Pirates

Pittsburgh

The Cincinnati Reds issued a Major League Baseball record-tying seven straight walks during the second inning of a 17-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the third time in major league history that a team had walked that many batters consecutively — the rst in more than four decades. Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder walked three batters in the second inning and was replaced by Connor Phillips, who walked the next four, each time with the bases loaded. The Pirates scored ve runs in the inning without a hit.

NBA Knicks, ahead by 47 at half, enjoy rout for ages over Hawks in Game 6

Atlanta

The biggest halftime lead in NBA playo history. The most points and most lopsided win in New York Knicks postseason history, too. By any measure, what the Knicks did to the Atlanta Hawks was a historic blowout. The nal score: Knicks 140, Hawks 89 in Game 6 of the teams’ Eastern Conference rst-round series. New York won the series 4 -2 after losing Games 2 and 3 by one point — and then winning the next three games by 16, 29 and 51 points, respectively.

TENNIS

Sinner crushes

Zverev to win Madrid Open, claim record 5th straight Masters 1000 title

Madrid Top -ranked Jannik Sinner cruised past Alexander Zverev in the nal of the Madrid Open to become the rst man to triumph in ve consecutive Masters 1000 events. Sinner beat the third-ranked Zverev 6 -1, 6 -2 for his 23rd straight victory. He had already won in Monte Carlo, Miami and Indian Wells this year, and in Paris last year. Zverev lost to Sinner in the semi nals of each of those tournaments.

Zverev won in Madrid in 2018 and 2021, and he was runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in 2022.

Panthers RB Brooks’ faith helped him through father’s death, 2 torn ACLs

The former second-round pick got baptized after getting cleared to play

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE — After being cleared to participate in the team’s o season conditioning program without limitations, Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks celebrated in a way he deemed most appropriate: He got baptized.

Brooks has leaned heavily on his faith to get him through personal and professional issues: the death of his father and two serious knee injuries that have derailed the start of a promising NFL career.

The Panthers selected Brooks in the second round of the draft in 2024. They believed Brooks would overcome a torn ACL in his right knee that prematurely ended his college career late in the 2023 season.

But after months of rehab, Brooks’ debut in Carolina ended after just three games when he tore his ACL a second time.

He missed the rest of his rookie season and all of 2025.

After two surgeries and months of grueling rehab, Brooks said he is “close to 100%.” He has rejoined his teammates on the practice eld with the expectation that he’ll be part of Carolina’s running back rotation in 2026.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” the 22-year-old Brooks said. “I lost my father. I’ve torn my ACL twice. Every single time I reverted back to my faith, and for me, my baptism was a recommitment of my faith — to not only change myself, but from that day forward to stop making excuses for my surroundings.”

Brooks said he has always believed in and followed God.

But during his time away from the football eld he came to realize that he wasn’t fully committed to the process.

“I didn’t live accordingly,” Brooks said. “I used to use the excuse of being around the

locker room my whole football career, whether it’s high school, college or NFL, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m around people who cuss and do all this.’ I kept trying to, I guess, put the blame on others in a sense. And, in reality, I just needed to check myself.”

His father, James “Skip” Brooks, died at 49 on March 28, 2022, due to complications from a blood clot that impacted his heart.

Brooks was a freshman at Texas and had just nished spring practice when his family phoned to tell him. His father had been his biggest fan. He taught him the game. He pushed him to be great.

The death hit Jonathon Brooks and his brother, Jordon, hard.

Months later, they honored their father with matching tattoos, the date of his death etched in Roman numerals on their right forearms. Brooks would tap or point to the tattoo after scoring a touchdown during his three seasons with the Longhorns.

He hasn’t had a chance to do the same at the NFL level.

He’s only played three games as a rookie before reinjuring the knee.

The majority of his NFL career has been spent in the training room.

That can often be a lonely place for a player leaving them feeling outcast, but Brooks said he received constant encouragement and emotional support from the guy he came in to compete with — starting running back Chuba Hubbard. Their relationship has transcended being teammates. They talk. They hang out. And when Brooks got baptized this past Sunday, Hubbard was there.

“He’s been building in his faith, building in his relationship with God, which I think is amazing,” Hubbard said. “And in doing that, I think it also just kind of creates a resiliency in your mind and where you’re going there.”

There is a chance Brooks could wind up pushing Hubbard for carries this season.

Hubbard said there’s nothing he’d like to see more than Brooks succeed after all that he’s been through.

“He’s one of one player and a one of one person,” Hubbard said.

Brooks has faith it will all work out, both football and life. During the darkest of times — the emotional toll of dealing with a parent’s death and having the game he loves to play stripped away due to injuries — Brooks would remind himself of the story of Job from the Old Testament.

It has taught him to keep God “front and center” moving forward.

“Job had everything, and, Satan attacked him,” Brooks said. “He took his children. His money. His animals, and everything — and he was still rooted in his faith. After that, God gave Job everything he had, times two. So for me, I just feel like a lot has been taken from me — my father, my two ACLs — but I’m staying rooted in my faith and knowing that he has a great plan for me.”

Sorsby gambling addiction casts light on issue that could a ect thousands of college athletes

Many experts worry the known cases are the tip of the iceberg

By Eric Olson The Associated Press

IN THE EIGHT years since the Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports gambling across the country, the bad headlines for college sports have picked up.

This week, the problems were underscored in a dramatic way: Brendan Sorsby, set to become the well-paid quarterback of Big 12 defending champion Texas Tech, stepped away to seek treatment for a gambling addiction. Investigations are reportedly under way involving a potential Heisman Trophy hopeful and his stays at Indiana and Cincinnati before his transfer to Texas Tech ahead of next season.

Details have not been released about Sorsby’s gambling. But experts estimate that thousands of athletes in men’s college sports are engaged in compulsive gambling.

“Statistically, I think this is still only the tip of the iceberg,” said Keith Whyte, a gambling industry consultant and former executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. “Given the elevated risk factors for young, male college athletes to demonstrate a high propensity to bet on sports and take on other risk-taking behaviors, there’s probably a lot more guys that have problems. So in some ways, I really admire his decision to publicly seek help for a gambling problem.”

The NCAA is the largest organization in college athletics, with some 500,000 athletes across 1,100 schools in three divisions. Its most recent survey of athlete gambling behaviors, released in January 2025, asked 13,306 male athletes across all divisions about their wagering habits.

Some 21.5% (2,861) acknowledged having placed at least one sports wager in the previous year; 10.7% (1,424) acknowledged having done so in the previous month. In Division I, 12.6% of the males (619 of 4,913) reported having gambled at least once in the previous year, 4.7% (231) in the previous month and 1.9% (93) in the previous week.

The NCAA, extrapolating from survey results, estimated about 6,000 mostly male athletes across the three divisions would meet standard diagnostic criteria for problem

gambling in any given year.

College-aged male athletes check a lot of boxes in a compulsive gambler’s pro le, according to Michelle L. Malkin, lead research scholar of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative at East Carolina. Those athletes are in their 20s, highly competitive, aggressive and typically have a refuse-to-lose mentality.

“Just think about the person who’s down 20 points going into the fourth quarter and being told, ‘Keep going, you can still win this game.’ So the lifetime exposure of ‘if I just keep going, it’s going to turn around for me’ is the type of thing that leads to that lower risk aversion, which also leads to this (gambling addiction),” Malkin said.

The introduction of revenue-sharing and name, image and likeness compensation has put extra money in

athletes’ pockets, signi cant amounts in some cases. Sorsby, for example, signed a two -year NIL agreement with Cincinnati that paid him $875,000 last year, according to a lawsuit led by the school seeking a $1 million buyout from Sorsby for transferring to Texas Tech.

Whyte said athletes earning hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars wouldn’t place a lot of importance on losing a few dollars here and there. “That can lead to some risky decisions,” he said.

Eligibility can be at stake for NCAA athletes found to have gambled, and that can keep them from disclosing an addiction.

Malkin said there should be a con dential avenue for an athlete to ask for help, as long as the athlete didn’t bet on their own team. About the only option an athlete would have is to connect with an online therapist. NCAA rules require anyone who works in an athletic department to report gambling activity.

Athletic departments typically put on seminars to warn athletes about gambling and about risks to eligibility. Malkin said most athletes who gamble were doing so before they entered college, so lectures generally won’t stop existing behavior.

Malkin leads a team developing curricula for regular college students and athletes that explains how gambling can become addictive. East Carolina’s “Betting Blueprint” explores healthy gambling,nancial wellness, risk, identifying gambling-related harms and where to seek help.

ANNIE RICE / AP PHOTO

Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, center, watches the school’s NFL football pro day.

JACOB KUPFERMAN / AP PHOTO

Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks looks on before an NFL game last September.

William McLaughlin

Dec. 1, 1932 – April 28, 2026

Mr. William H. McLaughlin, age 93, went home to be with his Heavenly Father on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. The Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, May 3rd, at 2:00 PM at Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church.

William will be greatly missed.

Larry Allbrooks

June 23, 1953 –April 30, 2026

Mr. Larry Allbrooks, age 72, went home to rest with his Heavenly Father on Thursday, April 30, 2026. The Celebration of Life will be held on Friday, May 8th, at 2:00 PM at Leach Springs Missionary Baptist Church.

Larry will be greatly missed.

Robert Pearson

Oct. 8, 1949 – April 28, 2026

Mr. Robert Micheal Pearson, age 76, went home to be with his Heavenly Father on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. A Memorial Service to Honor his Life and Legacy will be held on Sunday, May 3rd; 1:00 PM at the Pauline T. Buie Chapel. Robert will be greatly missed.

Jesse James Taylor Jr.

Aug. 14, 1942 – April 30, 2026

He was born in New Hanover, North Carolina, on August 14, 1942, to the late Jesse James Taylor Sr. and Mary Louise Hendrix.

Alongside parents, Jesse was preceded in death by his wife of 59 years, Patsy Taylor; his daughter, Teresa Adams; his granddaughters, Hannah and Abigail McBryde; his grandson, Matthew Rockholt; and his brother, George “Booboo” Hendrix.

Jesse was a hard worker and devoted provider for his family who was very punctual, and was always early. He was an avid bowler and golfer, enjoyed games of skill, and loved visiting the casino. He enjoyed trips to the mountains and taking Sunday drives with his family, and spending time with them, especially his wife, Patsy. Jesse took pride in everything he did and loved to win. He will be missed dearly by his family and friends.

He is survived by his two daughters, Beverly Taylor of Raeford, NC, and Deborah McBryde and her husband, Mike, of Laurinburg, NC; his son, Jesse James Taylor III, and his ancée, Pamela Brady, of Holden Beach, NC; a special granddaughter, Sarah Bullard and her husband, Charles, of Maxton, NC; nine grandchildren; thirteen greatgrandchildren; his sister, Barbara Odom of Raeford, NC; and his brother, Robert Taylor of Holden Beach, NC.

A visitation is scheduled for Tuesday, May 5, 2026, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Crumpler Funeral Home, 131 Harris Avenue, Raeford, NC 28376, with Pastor Glenn Vollrath o ciating.

The service will begin at 3:00 p.m., with burial immediately following at the City of Raeford Cemetery.

Diara Love

Aug. 30, 2001 –April 27, 2026

Diara Vilette Love, lovingly known as “Dee,” was born on August 30, 2001. Diara departed this life into eternity on Monday, April 27, 2026. She was the cherished daughter of Darrick Love and Ashley Love, and a loving mother to her son, Takashton Locklear.

Diara was our sunshine, bringing warmth, light, and love into the lives of everyone who knew her. She was deeply loved and truly cherished by her family and friends.

She leaves to treasure her memory with her siblings, Ashleigh Love of Red Springs and Darrick Love II, a ectionately known as “Little D.” She was also dearly loved by her grandparents, Ken Tickle and Wanda Love-Tickle, and Jimmy and Donna Jacobs.

Diara attended Red Springs High School, where she was known as an intelligent, creative, and kind young woman. She had a passion for capturing life’s special moments through photography, especially when it came to her baby boy. Her love for Takashton was endless. Everything she did was centered around giving her son the best life possible.

Diara found joy in both the beauty of God’s creation and in serving others. She loved the outdoors, the beach, butter ies, ladybugs, and animals especially cats, dogs, and chickens. She also found great happiness in her time working at Helping the Orphans Thrift Store in Red Springs, where she looked forward to every shift with excitement, always arriving with a warm smile and a willing heart.

She was taught about Jesus, and that foundation of faith shined through in the love, and kindness she showed to others each day.

Above all, Diara was sel ess. She gave of herself freely, always putting others before her own needs, and loving deeply and wholeheartedly. She was truly a gift to us all and though our hearts are broken, we nd comfort in knowing she left us her greatest gift, her beloved son, Takashton.

Though her time here was far too short, Diara’s love, light, and legacy will live on forever in the hearts of all who knew and loved her.

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in Randolph Record at obits@ randolphrecord.com

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in NSJ at obits@ northstatejournal.com

Gerry Conway, comic book writer who co-created Punisher character in Spider-Man, dead at 73

The proli c writer shaped both Marvel and DC’s most iconic characters

By Claire Rush The Associated Press

GERRY CONWAY, a re-

nowned comic book writer who helped create characters and stories for Marvel and DC, including the Punisher character in the Spider-Man comics, has died. He was 73.

In a Monday statement announcing his death, Marvel described Conway as a legendary comic book writer with a prolific career. He died of pancreatic cancer on Sunday in Thousand Oaks, California, his wife, Laura Conway, told The Associated Press.

“From Spider-Man to the Avengers, Iron Man to Captain Marvel, Gerry Conway has deftly written almost every character in the Marvel Universe,” Marvel Comics Editor-in- Chief

C.B. Cebulski said. “Gerry Conway’s legacy has made an undeniable and indelible impact

on the Super Hero stories we know and love. He will be dearly missed.”

Tributes were also shared on social media.

“While many know his Marvel accomplishments ... Gerry’s contributions to DC were equally impactful and signi cant: shaping Batman, Superman, the Justice League of America, and co - creating Firestorm, Jason Todd and Power Girl and so many more,” Jim Lee, chief creative o cer and president of DC Comics, said in an Instagram post. “Thank you, Gerry, for the worlds imagined and the heroes created.”

Conway was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 10, 1952. A lifelong fan of comic books, he started writing comic book stories as a teenager, and by the age of 19 he landed work on “The Amazing Spider-Man” — which Marvel’s statement described as “the job that would change his life — and the comic book industry at large — forever.”

Conway’s writing featured “pivotal moments” that rede-

AP

ned the series, Marvel said, such as the death of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s girlfriend. He also co - created the Punisher, a vigilante antihero known for the skull logo on his chest.

The skull imagery has been used by law enforcement in recent years, sparking controversy at times. Nearly a decade ago, Conway objected to police departments putting Punisher decals on their vehicles, saying in a social media post that the character was “a complex morally compromised anti-hero, not to be emulated by cops,”

as reported by the Syracuse Post- Standard.

Conway had a way of imbuing characters with nuance and emotional depth, Marvel said in its statement.

“Gerry Conway brought real stakes to his writing, able to weave together sensational super heroics with the human and relatable, and in doing so created some of the most memorable stories and characters of all time,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said.

Beyond the Spider-Man comics, Conway wrote for several other major Marvel titles, including “Fantastic Four,” “Thor” and “The Incredible Hulk.”

In a 1981 interview with The Comics Journal, Conway noted how comic books can appeal to both younger and older audiences.

“I’m writing for the youthful part of myself, the primitive part of myself,” he told the magazine. “If an adult likes the books it’s because of a nostalgic feeling for that primitive, easy conceptualization of heroic purpose.”

LAURA CONWAY VIA

Gerry Conway poses for a photo at Montreal Comiccon in Montreal in July 2018.

STATE & NATION

Legislators in Tennessee are considering redrawing the state’s congressional map.

Tennessee Republicans will consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis

The move follows a Supreme Court ruling that shifted protections for majority-black districts

By Kim Chandler, Travis Loller and David A. Lieb

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity a orded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked o in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling signi cantly altered a decades- old understanding of the law and provided grounds for Republicans in various states to try to eliminate majority-black districts that have elected Democrats.

Its impact on congressional representation, speci cally for black Americans, is threatening to undo decades of progress to ensure minority voting rights.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Re-

publicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.

Alabama special session draws protests

Several hundred people protested on Monday shortly before Alabama’s special session began, including some carrying signs declaring “No new map” and “We ght back! Black Voters Matter.”

Opponents of the redistricting session gathered across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to -Montgomery voting rights march.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an e ort for us to gain the right to vote,” said Sheyann Webb- Christburg, who as a child participated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Selma. “In 2026, there are still people who are still not exercising that right to vote, and we are still ghting today, even in an e ort to keep our right to vote.”

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.

A three-judge federal panel previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of black voters — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation. It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Rev. Earle Fisher, Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church

and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map could give Republicans a better chance of winning at least one of the two seats currently held by black Democratic lawmakers.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said while promoting the Republican plan.

“We had three judges determine how ve million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

At a town hall held by a pro -Democratic group, Doug Jones, a former U.S. senator who is running for governor as a Democrat, said Alabama was “ground zero for voting rights, and we are going to be ground zero to make sure we retain those voting rights.”

Tennessee plan targets Memphis district

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up

the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-black city of Memphis. The move comes after pressure from Trump.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Lee had said.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district came together Monday to denounce the move.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code. “It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Advocates urge Louisiana voters to cast ballots

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.

Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday on congressional redistricting. Kleinpeter said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-black congressional districts

Democrats and civil rights groups have led several lawsuits challenging the suspen-

sion of the state’s congressional primary, including another led Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

A national redistricting battle expands

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of the midterm elections when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP- controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in ve states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO

MOORE COUNTY

Field of dreams

Pinecrest baseball team defeated Palisades 6-3 on Tuesday, taking

Charlotte on Friday for the second-round game.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Presidential Physical Fitness Award returns as Trump revives annual tness test

President Donald Trump is reviving the Presidential Physical Fitness Award as he reintroduces a competitive physical tness test in America’s schools. The award is part of Trump’s revamped Presidential Fitness Test, which had been a public-school xture for decades but was phased out under President Barack Obama. The earlier exam tested children on exercises including a 1-mile run and sit-ups. Those scoring above the 85th percentile received the presidential award. Details of the revived test have yet to be released. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the test is now mandatory in 161 schools on U.S. military installations.

U.S. job openings unchanged at 6.9M in March; hiring improved

U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged at 6.9 million in March, another sign the American labor market remained sluggish even before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy. The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war has clouded the outlook. On Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layo s rose in March. But hiring improved and more people quit their jobs — a sign of con dence in the economy.

Commissioners approve multiple contracts

MCS to use lottery funds for repair projects

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal

CARTHAGE — The Moore County Board of Commissioners met May 5 with a variety of contractual matters on the agenda.

The board rst approved two sheri ’s o ce items: a ve -year, $198,000 contract with Securitas Technology Corporation to be the sole source provider for security equipment at the detention center, and a contract with Moseley Architects for architectural and engineering services related to the proposed Moore County Sher-

i ’s Forensic Services Facility.

“Our current forensics services have grown into various spaces throughout our agency throughout the years, and we have a need to unify those forensics services into a common area and to have room to expand for additional services in years to come,” said Major Eric Galloway.

The proposed facility is anticipated to be approximately 7,000 square feet in size and located near the Rick Rhyne Public Safety Center.

$1.5M

The amount of lottery funds requested by the

The board also approved the Moore County Schools Board of Education’s request to draw down $1.5 million from the state’s Public School Building Repair and Renovation Lottery Fund for summer repair projects.

The four projects that the school system has speci cally identi ed are the roof replacements at the Child Nutrition Building and Union Pines High School, the canopy roof repairs at North Moore High School and the replacement of lift stations at West Pine Middle School and Sand-

hills Farm Life Elementary.

The district had around $2.2 million in funding available, and so this will leave them with about $735,000 in the fund. Whatever isn’t spent on the projects will be returned to the fund.

The board then approved a ve-year contract extension with Hilco Transport at a price not to exceed $180,000 per scal year, for the hauling of recyclable materials to Pratt Industries in Fayetteville and a contract with Infrastructure Solutions Group for the purchase of a mainline sewer camera trailer setup for approximately $225,000.

“Our old camera bit the dust and is no longer usable,” said Public Works Director Brian Patnode. “This is an important tool for us as it allows us to get underground, get in our sewer systems and see if we have any problems. We feel like this one is the best option for the county.”

The Moore County Board of Commissioners will next meet May 19.

After NASCAR’s Greg Bi e and family died, police now think ‘friends’ stole from them

Police allege the suspects accessed the family’s bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts in multiple states

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

LESS THAN a month after former NASCAR driver Greg Bi e and his family died in a plane crash last year, investigators say two of their “friends” conspired to break into the empty home and took cash, guns and nancial information in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars.

More than 40 search warrants have been issued, authorities in North Carolina say, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Bi e and his wife Cristina. The suspects did “a lot of planning in an at-

tempt to make a nancial gain” o their deaths, Iredell County Sheri Darren Campbell said. The Associated Press is not naming the pair because

arrests have been made.

and his two

gation by the NTSB. Some survivors of those killed are suing the estates of Bi e and the pilot for millions of dollars. According to a search warrant a davit, the husband being investigated met Bi e when the former driver used his private helicopter to deliver aid after Hurricane Helene. The woman attended a Christmas party at the Bi es’ home in Mooresville weeks before the crash.

Authorities reported a breakin at the home on Jan. 8, saying $30,000 in cash, two Glock handguns and NASCAR memorabilia were stolen. Search warrants were later executed at two sites, one near the Bifes’ residence and another in a nearby county. A person seen on surveillance video, identi ed as a woman, appeared to be

DAVID SINCLAIR FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL

The

the rst round of the 8A state playo s. They’ll travel to Myers Park in

THE MOORE COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Moore County Schools Board of Education

JOHN RAOUX / AP PHOTO

Greg Bi e looks on during driver introductions before the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Feb. 20, 2022.

5.7.26

FRIDAY

THURSDAY

“Join the conversation”

We stand corrected

To report an error or a suspected error, please email: corrections@nsjonline.com with “Correction request” in the subject line.

CRIME LOG

April 27

• Joshua Ryan Campos, 30, of Southern Pines, was arrested by Southern Pines PD for indecent exposure.

• Kamon Rashem Benjamin, 30, of Lumberton, was arrested by Southern Pines PD for felony larceny and felony conspiracy.

• Victoriano Velazco Cruz, 49, of Candor, was arrested by MCSO for no operator’s license and no liability insurance.

• David Harold Daugherty, 34, of Fayetteville, was arrested by MCSO for possession of drug paraphernalia; delivering or accepting a blank or open title; ctitious or altered title, registration card or tag; and other charges.

• Brenda Joy Monsell, 24, of Cameron, was arrested by Robbins PD for simple possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

• Anderson Stewart Townsend, 19, of Robbins, was arrested by Robbins PD for eeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving on a revoked license, and other charges.

• Yovani Sanchez Velazquez, 30, of Je erson, was arrested by MCSO for possession of marijuana, open container after consuming alcohol and no operator’s license, and other charges.

• Bryant Lee Voss, 58, of Robbins, was arrested by MCSO for misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

• Zarnell Orlando Wilson, 64, of Southern Pines, was arrested by Aberdeen PD for disorderly conduct in a public building.

April 28

• David Rayvon Lewis, 47, of East Providence, was arrested by Southern Pines PD for misdemeanor crime of domestic violence and assault on a female.

• Chad Tyler Rouse, 34, of Vass, was arrested by MCSO for simple assault.

Pop star Spears pleads guilty to lesser ‘wet reckless’ charge in DUI case, avoids further jail time

She completed voluntary rehab and will serve summary probation with required substance abuse treatment

By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press

VENTURA, Calif. — Britney Spears pleaded guilty through her lawyer Monday to a lesser charge that will allow her to avoid jail time after California prosecutors accused her of driving under the in uence of alcohol and drugs.

The 44-year-old pop star, who recently completed a stint at a rehabilitation facility, didn’t appear in Ventura County court. But her lawyer, Michael A. Goldstein, pleaded guilty on her behalf to what’s commonly called a “wet reckless.” That allowed her to be sentenced to one day in jail that the judge said she served when she was booked, one year of probation, a required DUI class and state-mandated nes.

The plea o er was standard for defendants with no DUI history, no crash or injury on the road, and a low blood-alcohol level, the county district attorney’s o ce said. And it’s especially common for defendants who have shown motivation to address their problems and seek treatment, as Spears did when she voluntarily checked in to a substance abuse treatment center last month.

“I don’t think anybody’s happy about pleading guilty to anything, but under the circumstances, to get this behind her, I think everybody is

pleased with the result,” Goldstein said after the hearing.

“We appreciate the district attorney recognizing the positive steps that Britney is taking to help herself.”

Goldstein said Spears returned home after recently completing her rehab stint, and that reports that she left early were “absolutely false.”

Asked what’s next for her, he replied, “I don’t know, I’m sure a lot.”

During the brief hearing, Spears received summary probation, which is informal and doesn’t involve mandatory meetings with a probation ofcer. She temporarily yielded her Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights if she is pulled over, meaning she must automatically yield to searches and sobriety tests. At Goldstein’s request, the judge ruled this would not apply to her home.

District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said after the hearing that Spears had taken “full responsibility,” but he emphasized that DUI is a “serious crime” and said it was essential that she follow the requirements agreed to in court, which include continued substance abuse treatment, weekly visits with a therapist and monthly visits with a psychiatrist.

“We do not want Miss Spears to reo end,” Nasarenko said.

She was charged last Thursday with one misdemeanor DUI count, which meant she was not required to appear in court for her arraignment. But her representatives hadn’t said whether she would appear, and the hearing drew an unusually heavy media turnout

moore happening

Here’s a

for Ventura, a seaside city of about 110,000 people roughly 70 miles northwest of downtown LA.

After her March 4 arrest, a representative called her actions inexcusable and said that ideally, the arrest would lead to overdue change in her life.

She was pulled over for driving her black BMW quickly and erratically on U.S. 101, the California Highway Patrol said. She appeared to be impaired, took a series of eld sobriety tests, was arrested and was taken to jail, the CHP said.

Authorities said in the criminal complaint that Spears had alcohol and drugs in her system, but they didn’t specify which drugs or list her blood alcohol content.

Spears grew to superstardom in the 1990s and 2000s with hits including “Toxic,” “Gimme More” and “I’m a Slave 4 U.” Most of her nine studio albums have been certi ed platinum, with two diamond titles: 1999’s “… Baby One More Time” and 2000s “Oops! … I Did It Again.” She became a tabloid obsession in the early 2000s and a source of intense public scrutiny as she battled mental illness and paparazzi fought to document the details of her private life.

In 2008, Spears was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, run primarily by her father and his lawyers, that would control her personal and nancial decisions for well over a decade. It was dissolved in 2021.

Since then, she has married, divorced and released a bestselling memoir, “The Woman in Me.”

BIFFLE from page A1

familiar with the large home’s layout, including the locations of cameras, closets and a safe room, a detective wrote in a search warrant a davit. The intruder spent nearly six hours inside the house the night of Jan. 7 into the following morning. Evidence showed a cellphone and multiple devices were active on the property during that time, according to the warrant. The only people allowed there would’ve been the administrators of the estate, but they weren’t present. Authorities say they linked the woman to someone who attended Bi e’s celebration of life and said license plate readers placed her husband’s truck

near the home that night.

The warrants also describe alleged nancial crimes. Investigators say that bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts tied to the Bi es were accessed online using personal information, with phone numbers and email addresses changed to gain control of funds. Money was then allegedly transferred to accounts not belonging to the family and used for purchases, according to the warrant.

At least one fraudulent check tied to Bi e’s business interests was cashed, and other attempts were made to access accounts. The activity occurred across multiple states. The sheri would not say whether the same suspects in the break-in are being investi-

Michael Goldstein, left, attorney for Britney Spears, speaks during her arraignment in a DUI case at the Ventura County Superior Court in Ventura, California, on Monday.

May 7

Mother’s Day Puppy Yoga 6:30 p.m.

Rec

gated for the nancial crimes, saying the department is waiting for more evidence.

Meanwhile, the plane crash sparked lawsuits against the estates of Bi e and the pilot, Dennis Dutton, who was killed along with his son.

On April 17, the estates of Dutton and his son sued Bife’s estate for at least $15 million each, alleging Bi e failed to properly maintain the plane and operated it in a defective condition. The claims include lost income and “pre-death pain and su ering.”

In February, Bi e’s ex-wife, Nicole Bi e, led a notice of claim against Dutton’s estate on behalf of the couple’s 14-year-old daughter’s estate, seeking at least $10 million for wrongful death.

Rec

May 8

BBQ Dollars for Scholars Fundraiser 10:30 a.m.

The Robbins Rotary Club hosts a barbecue fundraiser with plates for $15. Proceeds support college scholarships for graduating seniors at North Moore High School. First Baptist Church-Robbins 651 Hemp St. Robbins

May 9

Carthage Buggy Festival 9 a.m.

The 37th annual festival celebrates the town’s buggy-making heritage, featuring more than 150 craft and food vendors, live music, a classic car show, animal adoptions and a free children’s zone. New for 2026, Bingo games run every 15 minutes starting at 11 a.m. with cash prizes up to $300.

Historic Downtown Carthage 1 Courthouse Square Carthage

Harmony Run 5K 9 a.m.

A music-themed 5K trail run open to all skill levels. All proceeds support the Union Pines Chorus Department’s trip to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Union Pines High School

1981 Union Church Road Cameron

Union Pines Athletics Rise Up Gala 5:30 p.m.

The Union Pines Booster Club hosts an evening gala fundraiser to support athletics programs at Union Pines High School.

The Fair Barn 200 Beulah Hill Road Pinehurst

FREDERIC J. BROWN / POOL PHOTO VIA AP

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL VOICES

California copied Europe’s insane energy playbook

European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties.

EVEN AS U.S. GASOLINE prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3-$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising more than half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.

The result is embedded in ation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry.

Europeans don’t just pay more to ll their tanks — they pay more for everything that moves on petroleum. Their living standards su er accordingly.

Energy security delivers America’s second big advantage. The U.S. produces more than two-thirds of its own oil and imports the rest mostly from Canada and other friendly Western Hemisphere sources. We are largely insulated from Middle East chaos.

Europe, by contrast, lectures the world about “energy transition” while remaining dangerously dependent on imports even as it sits atop known, undeveloped reserves. The same nations that demonize oil and gas refuse to produce their own, choosing instead to outsource vulnerability rst to Russia, then to OPEC and now to U.S. LNG. This is not prudent policy. It is willful self-sabotage clothed in false virtue.

Nowhere is this failure more glaring than California, which has imported Germany’s disastrous model wholesale and turned itself into America’s premier energy basket case. With an 81-cent state gas tax, 6070 cent cap-and-trade penalty, boutique “California blend” fuel mandates, and layers of environmental rules explicitly designed to punish gasoline and driving, the Golden State routinely posts pump prices $2 above the national average. In-state production has been strangled. Re neries are closing or idling. The state

now imports gasoline from South Korea, the Bahamas and the Middle East, exposing its residents to global shocks while preaching climate alarm orthodoxy.

Gavin Newsom and his bureaucrats want voters to believe it’s all President Donald Trump’s fault, but it isn’t. It is the entirely foreseeable outcome of using tax and regulatory warfare to force a premature energy transition. Instead of transitioning, California is deindustrializing and making its citizens poorer in the process.

The broader lesson is damning. High-tax, high-regulation, import-dependent energy policies do not deliver utopia or planetary salvation. They deliver chronic vulnerability, in ated living costs and economic drag. Europe’s drivers pay double or triple because politicians prioritized revenue and ideology over abundance. California followed suit and became a cautionary tale for the rest of America.

But most U.S. states reap the rewards of the opposite approach: Reasonable taxation that doesn’t treat fuel as a sin, aggressive domestic production that delivers record output and supply chains resilient enough to weather global crises without collapse. Prices rise during supply shocks, but there are no lines at the pump and no systemic shortages. That is the fruit of policy grounded in reality rather than fantasy.

America’s advantage at the pump is neither accident nor mystery: It is the direct result of rejecting the punitive European model that California eagerly embraced. Policymakers who ignore this lesson are not visionaries: They are ideologues imposing measurable harm on the people they claim to serve.

The current global turmoil should serve as a wake-up call. Punitive taxation and regulatory strangulation of conventional energy produce scarcity, insecurity and higher costs borne by working families.

America’s formula of lower taxes and energy dominance delivers a ordability, resilience and genuine energy security.

Europe — and California — stand as expensive warnings of what happens when nations choose ideology over reality. Americans outside of the Golden State should reject that failing path with zero apology.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. (Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation)

What is President Trump doing?

CHANGE, by its very nature, is disruptive. President Donald Trump has no trouble disrupting things in order to bring about the change he envisions. This makes lots of people nervous, including people on our own side. They worry that too much is going on at the same time and that his change is chaotic. Most of us thought he’d work to change things back to the way things were before the Democrats started acting “crazy woke” and destroying our country. But that’s not what he’s doing. The change he is instituting isn’t taking us back — it’s taking us forward into a new future. And what looks like chaos is actually a methodical and cohesive whole-of-government strategy.

Basically, Trump is draining the swamp, attacking fraud and energizing our economy here at home while he systematically repositions American geopolitical power to weaken China and its in uence around the world. From Greenland to the Panama Canal, the Abraham Accords to Mexican cartels, Venezuela to the Shield of the Americas, and nally to Iran — every one of these moves is designed to make America First — ensuring we command an overwhelming and positive impact as we reshape the world. There are risks involved — but also massive rewards. It can’t be done overnight, but it is being done. Naturally, the media will be trying nonstop from now until Election Day to depress and discourage Republicans from voting. Don’t let them! Ditch the gloom and doom and keep your eye on the big picture. The Golden Age is on its way. May God bless our president!

Pilar Page is president of Moore Republican Women and lives in Pinehurst.

Trump is draining the swamp, attacking fraud and energizing our economy.

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

COLUMN | DAVID BLACKMON

COLUMN | PILAR PAGE

Trump keeps us up in the air with his hints of what’s coming in a new batch of UFO les

Skeptics warn Trump’s promised UFO revelations are unlikely to produce bombshell evidence

By Collin Binkley

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. —

President Donald Trump says the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO les uncovered by his administration, generating a mix of buzz and skepticism as he hints at new revelations around questions of alien life.

Trump started stoking interest in the extraterrestrial in February, directing federal agencies to release their records related to extraterrestrial life and UFOs. Since then, he has built suspense with tantalizing updates, teasing an imminent release of documents never before shared by the U.S. government.

“We’re going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven’t,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event celebrating NASA astronauts. “I think some of it’s going to be very interesting to people.”

Trump has relished in portraying himself as the president who spills the secrets. In the rst week returning to o ce, he ordered the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The disclosures revealed little beyond what was already known.

In the buildup to that release, Trump said “the American people deserve transparency and truth.” Now, as he turns to the sky, the president has struck a similar tone, suggesting answers to decades-old questions may be on the way. His February directive on social media called for transparency around “alien and extraterrestrial life, unidenti ed aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidenti ed ying objects (UFOs).”

“The rst releases will begin very, very soon,” he told supporters in April at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. “So you can go out and see if that phenomena is correct. You’ll gure it out.”

An expert cautions against raising expectations

Even before Trump’s directive, the Pentagon was years into a process to declassify and release government documents related to UFOs, now often referred to as unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP.

Citing concerns over national security, Congress created an ofce in 2022 to investigate UAP and declassify as much material as possible. The o ce’s 2024 debut report revealed hundreds

of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever con rmed a sighting of alien technology. A second report covering more recent sightings is expected to come soon.

That agency, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Ofce, is now working with the White House to release “never-before-seen UAP information,” according to a Pentagon statement.

The o ce’s previous director, however, said Trump’s promises were bluster, a “shiny object” to distract Americans from the war with Iran. Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and former career intelligence o cer who led the o ce until 2023, said he has seen the government’s records and believes there are no bombshell revelations to be found.

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down,” he said. “Because that just doesn’t exist.”

Videos purporting to show alien technology tend to have mundane explanations, he said. Modern infrared cameras used by the U.S. military often capture jet engines and other hot objects in a long thermal bloom, which, Kirkpatrick said,

explains viral videos of speedy, pill-shaped objects.

Pentagon not forthcoming on UAP reports, GOP-led panel says

On Capitol Hill, those types of videos have caught the attention of a small group of Trumpaligned Republicans who insist the Pentagon is holding back secrets.

The Task Force on the Declassi cation of Federal Secrets has been conducting its own investigation into reports of mysterious aircraft near U.S. military installations, which the panel says pose a threat to national security and the armed forces.

Last fall, the task force heard testimony from current and former service members who described UAP encounters. In one case, a senior Navy o cer said he was o the coast of California in 2023 when he saw a glowing “Tic Tac” shaped object emerge from the ocean and link up with three similar objects. They sped away in an instant, he said.

Trump’s interest in the subject has energized congressional Republicans, including Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who co-chairs the task force. Luna has criticized

what she calls “less than adequate” transparency from the Pentagon.

In a March letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Luna demanded dozens of UAP videos identi ed by whistleblowers and labeled with names such as “Spherical UAP in clouds.”

Her deadline for Hegseth came and went, and no videos were produced.

Trump’s entry to the UFO fray drew applause from Luna, who last year told podcaster Joe Rogan that she has seen evidence of “interdimensional beings.” The Pentagon “can’t hide from our docs request anymore!” Luna said on social media after Trump’s directive. Vance professes to be ‘obsessed’ with UFO les

Trump appears skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Addressing the Turning Point USA crowd in Phoenix, he said, “I gured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re really into that. I don’t know if I am.” Why he made the revelation at that event, held at a megachurch, is unclear. A day earlier, Trump had spoken in Las Vegas, not far from Area 51, a top-secret Cold War test site

“Readers should not get their hopes up that there’s going to be some document with photos, interviewing the aliens when they came down. Because that just doesn’t exist.”

Sean Kirkpatrick, former director, All-domain Anomaly Resolution O ce

that has fueled UFO conspiracy theories.

Vice President JD Vance has described himself as “obsessed” with UFO les. In March, he said he has been trying to nd time to investigate Area 51 since he took o ce.

“I’ve still got three more years as vice president,” Vance told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “I will get to the bottom of the UFO les.” Invoking his Christian faith, Vance said he believes sightings reported to be aliens are actually the work of spiritual demons.

Even before Trump tackled the topic, alien buzz was already in the air.

It’s back in Hollywood with an upcoming Steven Spielberg movie, “Disclosure Day.” Former President Barack Obama made a splash in February when he declared on a podcast that aliens are real. He later clari ed that he had seen no evidence but that “the odds are good there’s life out there.”

Trump is hardly the rst president drawn to UFO mysteries. President Bill Clinton has said he once ordered a review of the Roswell Incident — something had crashed in 1947 at a New Mexico ranch and ofcials later said the debris was the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon — around its 50th anniversary in 1997. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan claimed to have seen UFOs before their time in the White House.

The U.S. government has been investigating UFO reports since the 1940s, in part to determine if they represent advanced technology from competing nations or “evidence of o -world technology,” according to the Defense Department’s 2024 report. In online communities devoted to UFOs, some see Trump’s promise as a step in the right direction; others believe it will come to nothing. For people who follow the topic closely, promises of big revelations have never lived up to the hype, said Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University professor who wrote a book on the history of UFO sightings.

“There is almost no satisfaction that is possible for many of the really die-hard folks,” he said. “So in a sense, I think disappointment can almost be guaranteed to be expected no matter what comes out of this.”

PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP PHOTO

The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it ies over Washington, March 2, 2022.

MOORE SPORTS

Baseball, softball head to states

North State Journal sta

THE NCHSAA brackets were released for the state baseball and softball playo s.

BASEBALL

North Moore enters as the No. 22 seed in the 3A bracket. The Mustangs, who are 5-14 on the year, opened against 11 seed Northwood after press time. The Chargers are 14-10. The winner of that game will face No. 6 Midway, which got an opening-round bye. The Raiders are 16-7 and nished rst in the Swine Valley 2A/3A conference.

Union Pines received a rst-round bye as the No. 6 seed in Class 6A. The Vikings are

17-9 and will face the winner of No. 11 Harnett Central against No. 22 East Chapel Hill. Harnett Central is 13-10, while East enters the playo s at 7-14.

Pinecrest enters the 8A playo s at 18-7, earning the No. 7 seed. The Patriots beat No. 10 Palisades 6-3 on Tuesday. They now face No. 2 seed Myers Park, which is 22-4 and was unbeaten in conference play.

SOFTBALL

North Moore is 7-13 and drew a 19 seed in the 3A bracket. The Mustangs face No. 14 Wake Preparatory Academy, which is 7-10. The winner will move on to face No. 3 Farmville, which is 18-6 and won the Eastern Plains

2A/3A conference with an undefeated league mark.

A loss to Triton in their last game may have spoiled an undefeated season, but it didn’t keep 22-1 Union Pines from drawing the top seed in Class 6A. The Vikings drew a rst-round bye and will face the winner of No. 16 Northern Nash and No. 17 Western Harnett. Northern Nash is 9-9, while Western Harnett is 8-13.

Pinecrest softball lost its last four games to nish 8-12. The Patriots didn’t receive a bid to the 8A bracket, ending their season. It also ended the high school career of senior Amaris Welch, who led Pinecrest in doubles and was third in stolen bases.

Pinecrest senior Amaris Welch, center, poses with teammates during the team’s senior day ceremony.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Jadyn

Lamielle

Pinecrest, girls’ soccer

Jadyn Lamielle is a senior on the Pinecrest girls’ soccer team. She will play in college for Maryville next season.

The Patriots are undefeated, and Lamielle has been a team leader. She recently had six goals over a two-game span, scoring four times against Overhills and twice against Pine Forest. She ranks 12th in Class 8A in goals and 14th in points.

Elliott wins at Texas to join Reddick as season’s multiple Cup Series winners

Both wins have come by holding o Denny Hamlin down the stretch

By Stephen Hawkins

The Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — Chase Elliott went low, got a push from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and held on to become only the second NASCAR Cup driver with multiple wins this season.

Elliott stayed ahead of Denny Hamlin for the closing four laps after a nal restart at Texas on Sunday for his second victory this year. He nished just ahead of Hamlin in both of those wins. On that nal restart at the

Chase Elliott crosses the nish line to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Fort Worth, Texas.

11⁄2-mile Texas track, Elliott took the bottom line and had teammate Alex Bowman behind him. He cleared Hamlin going onto the backstretch and remained in front to the checkered ag.

“I just felt like, man, if I didn’t get clear o of (Turn) 2, I was going to be in a lot of trouble,” Elliott said. “So fortunately Alex gave me a great push. I was able to execute Turns 1 and 2, get clear, and then just kind of manage the last few laps.”

Elliott, voted NASCAR’s most popular driver each of the past eight seasons, got his 23rd career win and his second at Texas, where two years ago he ended a 42-race winless streak. He led ve times Sunday for a race-high 87 laps, nishing 0.407 seconds

ahead of Hamlin, closer than the 0.565-second margin when they nished 1-2 at Martinsville in late March.

Bowman, whose spin brought out a caution on lap 93, nished third. Tyler Reddick was fourth after winning ve of the rst 10 races this season for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing.

Hamlin said the late push Elliott got from his teammate was the di erence in Texas.

“It was just enough to slow my momentum and pick his momentum up,” Hamlin said. “Good, decent day, just one (spot) short.”

Elliott, who started 14th, had already taken the white ag when John Hunter Nemechek wrecked in the back of the eld

after contact with Kyle Busch. The caution ag never came out since Nemechek was able to get his car to the apron.

Chris Buescher was fth, his rst top-10 nish in 17 starts at the track less than an hour from his hometown of Prosper.

Carson Hocevar, the polesitter at Texas for the second year in a row, nished seventh a week after his breakthrough win at Talladega. He also won the Truck Series race in the Lone Star State last Friday night. He nished a spot behind Daniel Suarez, his Spire Motorsports teammate.

Hocevar led the rst 22 laps last year, three more than he did at the start of this 267-lap race, though he did get back in front

for 18 more laps later Sunday.

Corey Heim, in only his third start this year for 23XI Racing, led 69 laps, but with 11 laps left brought out the nal caution of the day, the fourth because of a single-car spinout. The 23-year-old Heim was the Truck Series champion last year.

Bell rung out of the race

Christopher Bell, an Oklahoma native who considers Texas his home track, led 22 laps and was still near the front on lap 69 when he got clipped by Todd Gilliland, who spun ahead of him. Bell bobbled and then slammed hard into the outside wall along the frontstretch, doing signi cant damage to the front right of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He nished last in the 38-car eld.

“I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom,” said Bell, who had led only six laps total his rst seven starts in Texas. “I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom but I got clipped.”

DAVID SINCLAIR FOR NORTH STATE JOURNAL

SIDELINE REPORT

SOCCER

Man United beats

Liverpool, will return to Champions League after 2-year absence

Manchester, England Manchester United guaranteed a return to the Champions League next season with a 3-2 win against Liverpool. Kobbie Mainoo’s rst-time strike from the edge of the area won it. Defending champion Liverpool had fought back from two goals down to level the game. But Mainoo’s goal meant United would be playing in European club soccer’s top competition after a two-year absence. Tottenham also climbed out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Aston Villa.

MLB Reds tie MLB record by walking 7 straight batters in loss to Pirates

Pittsburgh

The Cincinnati Reds issued a Major League Baseball record-tying seven straight walks during the second inning of a 17-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the third time in major league history that a team had walked that many batters consecutively — the rst in more than four decades. Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder walked three batters in the second inning and was replaced by Connor Phillips, who walked the next four, each time with the bases loaded. The Pirates scored ve runs in the inning without a hit.

NBA Knicks, ahead by 47 at half, enjoy rout for ages over Hawks in Game 6

Atlanta

The biggest halftime lead in NBA playo history. The most points and most lopsided win in New York Knicks postseason history, too. By any measure, what the Knicks did to the Atlanta Hawks was a historic blowout. The nal score: Knicks 140, Hawks 89 in Game 6 of the teams’ Eastern Conference rst-round series. New York won the series 4-2 after losing Games 2 and 3 by one point — and then winning the next three games by 16, 29 and 51 points, respectively.

TENNIS

Sinner crushes

Zverev to win Madrid Open, claim record 5th straight Masters 1000 title

Madrid

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner cruised past Alexander Zverev in the nal of the Madrid Open to become the rst man to triumph in ve consecutive Masters 1000 events. Sinner beat the third-ranked Zverev 6-1, 6-2 for his 23rd straight victory. He had already won in Monte Carlo, Miami and Indian Wells this year, and in Paris last year. Zverev lost to Sinner in the semi nals of each of those tournaments. Zverev won in Madrid in 2018 and 2021, and he was runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in 2022.

Panthers

RB

Brooks’ faith helped him through father’s death, 2 torn

The former second-round pick got baptized after getting cleared to play

By Steve Reed The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE — After being cleared to participate in the team’s o season conditioning program without limitations, Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks celebrated in a way he deemed most appropriate: He got baptized.

Brooks has leaned heavily on his faith to get him through personal and professional issues: the death of his father and two serious knee injuries that have derailed the start of a promising NFL career.

The Panthers selected Brooks in the second round of the draft in 2024. They believed Brooks would overcome a torn ACL in his right knee that prematurely ended his college career late in the 2023 season.

But after months of rehab, Brooks’ debut in Carolina ended after just three games when he tore his ACL a second time.

He missed the rest of his rookie season and all of 2025.

After two surgeries and months of grueling rehab, Brooks said he is “close to 100%.” He has rejoined his teammates on the practice eld with the expectation that he’ll be part of Carolina’s running back rotation in 2026.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” the 22-year-old Brooks said. “I lost my father. I’ve torn my ACL twice. Every single time I reverted back to my faith, and for me, my baptism was a recommitment of my faith — to not only change myself, but from that day forward to stop making excuses for my surroundings.”

Brooks said he has always believed in and followed God.

But during his time away from the football eld he came to realize that he wasn’t fully committed to the process.

“I didn’t live accordingly,” Brooks said. “I used to use the excuse of being around the

ACLs

locker room my whole football career, whether it’s high school, college or NFL, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m around people who cuss and do all this.’ I kept trying to, I guess, put the blame on others in a sense. And, in reality, I just needed to check myself.”

His father, James “Skip” Brooks, died at 49 on March 28, 2022, due to complications from a blood clot that impacted his heart.

Brooks was a freshman at Texas and had just nished spring practice when his family phoned to tell him. His father had been his biggest fan. He taught him the game. He pushed him to be great.

The death hit Jonathon Brooks and his brother, Jordon, hard.

Months later, they honored their father with matching tattoos, the date of his death etched in Roman numerals on their right forearms. Brooks would tap or point to the tattoo after scoring a touchdown during his three seasons with the Longhorns.

He hasn’t had a chance to do the same at the NFL level.

He’s only played three games as a rookie before reinjuring the knee.

The majority of his NFL career has been spent in the training room.

That can often be a lonely place for a player leaving them feeling outcast, but Brooks said he received constant encouragement and emotional support from the guy he came in to compete with — starting running back Chuba Hubbard. Their relationship has transcended being teammates. They talk. They hang out. And when Brooks got baptized this past Sunday, Hubbard was there.

“He’s been building in his faith, building in his relationship with God, which I think is amazing,” Hubbard said. “And in doing that, I think it also just kind of creates a resiliency in your mind and where you’re going there.”

There is a chance Brooks could wind up pushing Hubbard for carries this season.

Hubbard said there’s nothing he’d like to see more than Brooks succeed after all that he’s been through.

“He’s one of one player and a one of one person,” Hubbard said.

Brooks has faith it will all work out, both football and life. During the darkest of times — the emotional toll of dealing with a parent’s death and having the game he loves to play stripped away due to injuries — Brooks would remind himself of the story of Job from the Old Testament.

It has taught him to keep God “front and center” moving forward.

“Job had everything, and, Satan attacked him,” Brooks said. “He took his children. His money. His animals, and everything — and he was still rooted in his faith. After that, God gave Job everything he had, times two. So for me, I just feel like a lot has been taken from me — my father, my two ACLs — but I’m staying rooted in my faith and knowing that he has a great plan for me.”

Sorsby gambling addiction casts light on issue that could a ect thousands of college athletes

Many experts worry the known cases are the tip of the iceberg

By Eric Olson The Associated Press

IN THE EIGHT years since the Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports gambling across the country, the bad headlines for college sports have picked up.

This week, the problems were underscored in a dramatic way: Brendan Sorsby, set to become the well-paid quarterback of Big 12 defending champion Texas Tech, stepped away to seek treatment for a gambling addiction. Investigations are reportedly under way involving a potential Heisman Trophy hopeful and his stays at Indiana and Cincinnati before his transfer to Texas Tech ahead of next season.

Details have not been released about Sorsby’s gambling. But experts estimate that thousands of athletes in men’s college sports are engaged in compulsive gambling.

“Statistically, I think this is still only the tip of the iceberg,” said Keith Whyte, a gambling industry consultant and former executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. “Given the elevated risk factors for young, male college athletes to demonstrate a high propensity to bet on sports and take on other risk-taking behaviors, there’s probably a lot more guys that have problems. So in some ways, I really admire his decision to publicly seek help for a gambling problem.”

The NCAA is the largest organization in college athletics, with some 500,000 athletes across 1,100 schools in three divisions. Its most recent survey of athlete gambling behaviors, released in January 2025, asked 13,306 male athletes across all divisions about their wagering habits.

Some 21.5% (2,861) acknowledged having placed at least one sports wager in the previous year; 10.7% (1,424) acknowledged having done so in the previous month. In Division I, 12.6% of the males (619 of 4,913) reported having gambled at least once in the previous year, 4.7% (231) in the previous month and 1.9% (93) in the previous week.

The NCAA, extrapolating from survey results, estimated about 6,000 mostly male athletes across the three divisions would meet standard diagnostic criteria for problem

gambling in any given year.

College-aged male athletes check a lot of boxes in a compulsive gambler’s pro le, according to Michelle L. Malkin, lead research scholar of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative at East Carolina. Those athletes are in their 20s, highly competitive, aggressive and typically have a refuse-to -lose mentality.

“Just think about the person who’s down 20 points going into the fourth quarter and being told, ‘Keep going, you can still win this game.’ So the lifetime exposure of ‘if I just keep going, it’s going to turn around for me’ is the type of thing that leads to that lower risk aversion, which also leads to this (gambling addiction),” Malkin said.

The introduction of revenue-sharing and name, image and likeness compensation has put extra money in

athletes’ pockets, signi cant amounts in some cases. Sorsby, for example, signed a two-year NIL agreement with Cincinnati that paid him $875,000 last year, according to a lawsuit led by the school seeking a $1 million buyout from Sorsby for transferring to Texas Tech.

Whyte said athletes earning hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars wouldn’t place a lot of importance on losing a few dollars here and there. “That can lead to some risky decisions,” he said.

Eligibility can be at stake for NCAA athletes found to have gambled, and that can keep them from disclosing an addiction.

Malkin said there should be a con dential avenue for an athlete to ask for help, as long as the athlete didn’t bet on their own team. About the only option an athlete would have is to connect with an online therapist. NCAA rules require anyone who works in an athletic department to report gambling activity.

Athletic departments typically put on seminars to warn athletes about gambling and about risks to eligibility. Malkin said most athletes who gamble were doing so before they entered college, so lectures generally won’t stop existing behavior.

Malkin leads a team developing curricula for regular college students and athletes that explains how gambling can become addictive. East Carolina’s “Betting Blueprint” explores healthy gambling,nancial wellness, risk, identifying gambling-related harms and where to seek help.

ANNIE RICE / AP PHOTO

Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, center, watches the school’s NFL football pro day.

JACOB KUPFERMAN / AP PHOTO

Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks looks on before an NFL game last September.

Richard

Hu

Aug. 15, 1940 –April 28, 2026

Richard M. Hu , age 85, passed away on April 28, 2026, at FirstHealth Hospice House in Pinehurst.

Born on August 15, 1940, in Lakewood, Ohio, to the late Melvin and Edna Hu .

In addition to his parents, Richard was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia Andrus, in 2025.

He is survived by two children, Timothy Hu and Deborah Hu Dupuis; brother, Kurt Flanagan; sister, Lynn Flanagan; also survived by three grandchildren, Kyra Hu , Taylor Dupuis, and Nathan Dupuis.

Services to be held at a later date.

Clifton McQueen

June 21, 1942 –April 29, 2026

Clifton McQueen, 83, Wagram, departed this life on April 29, 2026. A funeral service will be held at 12:00 p.m. Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Nazareth Missionary Baptist Church. Internment will follow in the McQueen Family Cemetery, Wagram.

Lawrence Ring

Feb. 26, 1933 – April 30, 2026

Lawrence Ring, age 93, of Vass, passed away peacefully at his home on Thursday, April 30, 2026.

A lifelong resident of Moore County, Lawrence was the son of the late Troy and Nellie Garner Ring. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Barbara Ann Williams Ring, who passed in 2010; his son, Kenneth Lawrence Ring; his brother, Ernest Ring; and his sister, Grace Thompson. Lawrence dedicated his life to farming the land he loved. From his early years growing tobacco to raising poultry, his work re ected a deep connection to the soil and a strong work ethic that de ned his life. In his younger days, Lawrence had a spirited side and enjoyed racing cars on the dirt track in Rockingham. Outside of farming, he found joy in simple pleasures, hunting, shing, and spending time tending to his yard.

Lawrence is survived by his daughter, Deborah Lewis and her husband, Harry of Carthage; sister, Helen Ross of Whispering Pines; daughter-in-law, Marie Ring of Vass; two grandchildren, Clay Lewis and Kenneth Ring Jr. (Rebecca) and their ve children, Ann-Marie, Greyson, Joel, Merrick, and Nathaniel.

A graveside service will be at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at New Home Baptist Church Cemetery, 1000 Lobelia Road, Vass, NC 28394 with Chaplin Rae Ferrarini o ciating.

Charles “Charlie” Casterton Davis

April 15, 1954 –April 26, 2026

Charles “Charlie” Casterton Davis of Fox Fire Village, age 72, passed away peacefully at home on April 26, 2026.

Charlie was born on April 15, 1954, in Cook County, Illinois, to the late Harwell and Virginia Davis. Graduating from high school and college much earlier than his peers, he achieved dual majors from Georgia Tech and the University of Alabama. Charlie had a very successful career in IT management and enjoyed his retirement fully relaxing outside with his dog Gunner at his beautiful home overlooking the golf course. He loved spending time with his family, woodworking and working on his house and yard. He was also an accomplished photographer, capturing memories of his family that are forever cherished. He is survived by his daughter, Tabi Wideman, and his former wife and best friend, Bernetta Davis.

6 grandchildren, Roc, Malyssa, Allyana, Zachary, Joshua, and Rylan, whom he and Bernetta adopted and jointly raised.

A brother, Harwell Davis, and 2 sisters, Martha Anderton and Ginger Weed, and their families.

He is preceded in death by his oldest daughter, Christina Wideman, and son in law Chad Wideman.

Charlie will be remembered for his presence in the lives of those who knew him. His memory will live on through the people he touched throughout his life. The sun will shine a little less bright over the golf courses he loved to play. He will forever be his daughter’s hero.

No services are planned at this time.

Lee Ann Hertzberg

Feb. 24, 1956 – April 27, 2026

Lee Ann Hertzberg, 70, of Southern Pines, North Carolina, passed away peacefully at home on April 27, 2026. Born on February 24, 1956, in Wayne, New Jersey, Lee was the daughter of the late Jeanne and John Baker, formerly of Pinehurst, North Carolina. She was also preceded in death by her beloved brother, Richard Baker.

Lee will be lovingly remembered by her sister-inlaw, Lisa Baker; her nephews, Jonathan Baker and his wife Lauren, Stephen Baker and his wife Megan, and Andrew Baker; as well as three great-nieces, one great-nephew, and many cousins.

Lee was a devoted and protective big sister, known for ercely looking out for her younger brother throughout their childhood. In later years, she showed that same deep sense of care and commitment as she faithfully tended to her parents, ensuring they were supported and loved. She had a quick wit and a wonderful sense of humor that brought light and laughter to those close to her.

Her kindness extended beyond family, and she will be remembered for her compassion, her strong spirit, and the meaningful connections she formed throughout her life.

She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her.

Crystal Cianchetta

Dec. 25, 1953 –April 25, 2026

Crystal Ann (Mays) Cianchetta of Vass, NC, passed away peacefully at her home on April 25, 2026.

Crystal was born in Fort Worth, TX, on December 25, 1953. She eventually moved to LaGrange, NY, where she graduated from Arlington High School and met the love of her life, Tony Cianchetta. They were married for 54 years and have three children and ve grandchildren.

Crystal was known for her loving and kind personality that made others feel welcome and included. She enjoyed many hobbies, including gardening, playing the piano, and spoiling her Shih Tzu, Cassie. She loved hosting dinners, celebrating holidays with her family, and vacationing in Emerald Isle and Beech Mountain. She is survived by her beloved husband, Tony; her daughter, Jennifer Riordan and husband Ray; her son, Anthony Cianchetta and wife Erika; and her son David Cianchetta and partner Deanna Norris. She was the proud grandmother of Caleb, Noah, Antonella, Camilo, and Valentina, and she enjoyed spending time with Deanna’s daughters.

Crystal was involved in many local clubs, including Woodlake Birds and Blooms Club and Woodlake Women’s Club. She and Tony were also active members of the Vass Lions Club, where they pioneered the Vass Lions School Garden Program and led it for 12 years. Crystal devoted countless hours to researching her family genealogy, which ultimately led to her induction into the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, May 16, at 2:00 PM at Cox Memorial Funeral Home Chapel, 4888 US Highway 1, Vass, NC 28394. The family will receive friends immediately following the service.

In lieu of owers, donations may be made in memory of Crystal Cianchetta to the Vass Lions Club, PO Box 1228, Vass, NC 28394.

STATE & NATION

Legislators in Tennessee are considering redrawing the state’s congressional map.

Tennessee Republicans will consider redrawing US House district covering majority-black Memphis

The move follows a Supreme Court ruling that shifted protections for majority-black districts

By Kim Chandler, Travis Loller and David A. Lieb

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity a orded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked o in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map.

The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling signi cantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law and provided grounds for Republicans in various states to try to eliminate majority-black districts that have elected Democrats.

Its impact on congressional representation, speci cally for black Americans, is threatening to undo decades of progress to ensure minority voting rights.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Re-

publicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.

Alabama special session draws protests

Several hundred people protested on Monday shortly before Alabama’s special session began, including some carrying signs declaring “No new map” and “We ght back! Black Voters Matter.”

Opponents of the redistricting session gathered across the street from the historic Alabama Capitol, where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of thousands after the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an e ort for us to gain the right to vote,” said Sheyann Webb-Christburg, who as a child participated in the 1965 Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Selma. “In 2026, there are still people who are still not exercising that right to vote, and we are still ghting today, even in an e ort to keep our right to vote.”

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called legislators into a special session to consider contingency plans for special primary elections in hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will let Alabama switch congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.

A three-judge federal panel previously ordered Alabama to use a court-selected map — with a second district that has a substantial number of black voters — until a new map is drafted after the 2030 Census. Alabama appealed that decision

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation. It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Rev. Earle Fisher, Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church

and has asked the court, in light of the Louisiana ruling, to let it revert to a 2023 map drawn by Republican state lawmakers. That map could give Republicans a better chance of winning at least one of the two seats currently held by black Democratic lawmakers.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said while promoting the Republican plan.

“We had three judges determine how ve million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

At a town hall held by a pro-Democratic group, Doug Jones, a former U.S. senator who is running for governor as a Democrat, said Alabama was “ground zero for voting rights, and we are going to be ground zero to make sure we retain those voting rights.”

Tennessee plan targets Memphis district

Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up

the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-black city of Memphis. The move comes after pressure from Trump.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Lee had said.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district came together Monday to denounce the move.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code. “It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.”

Advocates urge Louisiana voters to cast ballots

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved quickly to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.

Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday on congressional redistricting. Kleinpeter said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-black congressional districts

Democrats and civil rights groups have led several lawsuits challenging the suspen-

sion of the state’s congressional primary, including another led Monday in federal court. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.

A national redistricting battle expands Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.

Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts ahead of the midterm elections when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.

All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in ve states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.

GEORGE WALKER IV / AP PHOTO