Mist rises over Lake Tillery and the Uwharrie Mountains in the distance, looking north early in the morning of May 4 with Stanly County to the left and Montgomery County to the right.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Man pleads guilty to murder, other charges for rebomb attack on Jewish demonstrators
A man accused of a rebomb attack on demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, last year has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges. Mohamed Sabry Soliman entered the pleas Thursday in Boulder County District Court. Last June, Soliman threw two Molotov cocktails at people who were demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza. The attack injured 13 people, including an 82-year- old woman who later died. Soliman initially pleaded not guilty to murder and dozens of attempted murder and assault charges. He now faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
FBI searches Virginia Senate leader’s o ce as part of corruption probe
The FBI has searched the Democratic Virginia state Senate leader’s hometown o ce and her neighboring cannabis shop. Wednesday’s action brings into public view what was described as a yearslong corruption investigation. The searches at Sen. L. Louise Lucas’ o ce and cannabis business are part of what two people familiar with the matter call a corruption inquiry. One of the people says the investigation was opened during President Joe Biden’s administration. Lucas said she views the probe as an e ort by the Trump administration to “intimidate and silence the voices of those who stand up to them.”
Twenty-four CTE students earned medals in Greensboro
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — Nine Stanly County students took rst place at the 2026 SkillsUSA North Carolina State Leadership and Skills Conference last month, with two now set to represent the state at the national competition in June.
The Stanly County Board of Education recognized the winners Tuesday night, highlighting achievements within the district’s Career and Technical Education department.
Through SkillsUSA, CTE students compete in events tied to skilled trades, technical elds, leadership and career readiness. On April 15, 57 local students traveled to Greensboro to compete across a wide variety of events.
Twenty-four earned medals, including the nine rst-place nishes.
Albemarle High School’s top winners were Faith Moultrie (Creed) and Conner Fink (Fireghting Intermediate), while North Stanly High School’s Amelia Clark placed rst in Poster.
West Stanly High School had six rst-place winners: Ethan Kesegich (Automotive Service), Sarah Logan (Baking and Pastry), Levi Greene (Masonry), Jared Molina Guifarro (Masonry I), Robert Rock (Masonry Bulletin Board) and Brison Brosseau (Masonry Estimating).
As national quali ers, Kesegich and Greene will travel to Georgia on June 1-5 to compete in the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.
The Warren and Augusta Hume Foundation investment will fund the new center
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
MISENHEIMER — A new literacy training center is in the works at Pfei er University.
According to a recent news release from the university, Pfei er has received a $1.5 million grant award to fund the Regional Literacy Training Center, which is
aimed at improving early literacy instruction and teacher preparation in Stanly, Randolph and Montgomery counties.
The multiyear investment is from the Warren and Augusta Hume Foundation, a Florida-based private foundation that supports educational, literacy and other charitable initiatives.
“Early literacy is foundational to educational success, and rural communities face unique barriers in providing teachers with the training and
“Pfei
Scott Bullard, Pfei er University
THE STANLY COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL
COURTESY STANLY COUNTY SCHOOLS
rst-place winners and advisers received recognition at the Stanly County Board of Education meeting on May 5.
The organization denies allegations it diverted donor money to pay informants in extremist groups
By Sa yah Riddle The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. —
Lawyers for the Southern Poverty Law Center appeared in court Thursday for the rst time since the civil rights group was charged with defrauding donors by failing to disclose that money would be paid to informants inside extremist groups.
The grand jury indictment led April 21 by the U.S. Justice Department is an extraordinary strike against the Alabama-based organization, which works to combat discrimination and racism, particularly in Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
CRIME LOG
April 27
• Dakota Keith Almond, 27, was arrested for felony hit and run causing serious injury or death, felony serious injury by vehicle and driving while impaired, and other charges.
• Candice Michelle Ronquest, 43, was arrested for possession of methamphetamine.
• Bradley Dale Earle, 41, was arrested for assault on a female, misdemeanor crime of domestic violence and communicating threats.
• Jaylan Traveon Rascoe, 21, was arrested for obtaining property by false pretense.
April 28
• Matthew Lane Stegall, 34,
Louisiana and Mississippi.
The SPLC denies wrongdoing, and no individual is charged.
The group has drawn criticism from conservatives, including FBI Director Kash Patel, especially after it included Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA in a report about “hate and extremism.” Kirk was killed during a Utah college appearance in 2025.
Supporters say the SPLC is being unfairly targeted by the Trump administration for its civil rights triumphs.
An arraignment on charges of money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud and false statements to a bank was set for Thursday in federal court in Montgomery.
The Justice Department accuses the organization of defrauding donors by using their money to fund the same extremism it says it ghts. At least $3 million went to infor-
was arrested for injury to real property.
• Calvin Wayne Brock, 61, was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
April 29
• Carlos Eduardo Lopez Aguirre, 35, was arrested for driving while impaired, possession of marijuana and reckless driving, and other charges.
May 1
• Tyler Andrew Whaley, 19, was arrested for driving while impaired, driving after consuming alcohol under age 21 and reckless driving, and other charges.
mants a liated with the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America and other groups between 2014 and 2023, the indictment says.
CEO Bryan Fair said the payments went to con dential informants to monitor threats of violence from the extremist groups. The information gathered helped save lives, he said, and was frequently shared with the FBI.
“We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC,” Fair said when the charges were led.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche recently acknowledged that the organization has a history of sharing information with law enforcement after he was challenged for saying the opposite.
“That’s well-documented, and there’s no dispute there. They aren’t charged with any of that conduct,” Blanche said.
• Kittack Mady, 41, was arrested for misdemeanor larceny.
May 2
• Cody Dylan Riley, 27, was arrested for communicating threats and disorderly conduct.
• Je rey Wayne Rorie, 72, was arrested for assault on a female.
May 3
• Logan Alexander Kinney, 19, was arrested for assault on a female, misdemeanor crime of domestic violence and injury to personal property.
• Christopher Robert Earl Pringle, 41, was arrested for injury to real property and injury to personal property.
Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in and around Stanly County:
May 12
From Whence Cometh Stanly County 7 p.m.
Christopher Bramlett presents a lecture exploring the curious origin of Stanly County’s name, including why the county dropped the “e” found in the family name it honors. The event is part of Albemarle Downtown’s America 250 programming.
Central United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall 172 N. Second St. Albemarle
May 13
Beach Blast 5K 8 a.m.
The Uwharrie Running Club and Vac & Dash host the annual Beach Blast 5K road race through downtown Albemarle, one of the region’s longest-running road races. Postrace festivities include refreshments and age-group awards.
Downtown Albemarle Second Street at Courthouse Albemarle
May 15
Stanly County Habitat for Humanity Vacation Ra e 1 p.m.
Stanly County Habitat for Humanity holds the drawing for its 2026 vacation ra e, a fundraiser supporting a ordable housing construction in the region.
Stanly County Habitat for Humanity ReStore 1506 Highway 24/27 West Albemarle
May 16
Bluegrass Festival at The Lodge on Hatley Farm
Seven bluegrass bands perform at an all-day outdoor festival at The Lodge on Hatley Farm, with food trucks, vendor booths and children’s activities. Admission is $10 at the gate; children 12 and under are free.
The Lodge on Hatley Farm 28338 Hatley Farm Road Albemarle
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end,
publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
The victims of victimhood
The federal government funds more than 100 separate anti-poverty programs.
THE LEFT’S compassion has in icted a terrible price on America’s poor.
In 1964, former President Lyndon B. Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty.” He warned it “will not be a short or easy struggle,” but that “the richest nation on earth can a ord to win it.”
He was right that it wouldn’t be a short or easy struggle. Johnson and Congress created a host of new federal programs, including the Job Corps, Head Start and the O ce of Economic Opportunity. His “Great Society” programs included Medicare and Medicaid. In 1965, he signed a housing bill that included rent subsidies.
It’s grown from there. In 2022, the Cato Institute reported “the federal government funds more than 100 separate anti-poverty programs.”
But Johnson was wrong about two things. First, the U.S. couldn’t a ord it. Government, at the federal, state and local levels, has spent more than $30 trillion ghting poverty. For context, the national debt is more than $39 trillion.
Second, the U.S. didn’t defeat poverty, which was already falling when he announced this e ort. In 1960, the poverty rate was 22.2%. In 1964, it had dropped to 19%. By 1968, it was at 12.8%. For the next few decades, the rate was always within 3 percentage points, up or down, of 13%. In 2024, the poverty rate was 10.6%. It is possible to defeat poverty. The
key isn’t government money but better individual choices.
As a new Institute for Family Studies report detailed, the key is for young people to reach three important milestones. First, they must graduate from high school. Second, they need to obtain a full-time job. Third, they need to marry before having children. Among those who took these steps — in that order — 97% “are not in poverty in their mid-30s, and 86% reach at least the middle class,” the report noted.
Notice something about those steps. The government can’t purchase them. They are choices each individual must make.
This should be thrilling news. There’s a sure re path out of poverty that’s entirely within one’s control, outside of exceptional circumstances.
But promoting this requires rejecting America’s decades-long approach to ghting poverty. In Johnson’s vision, poverty is the fault — and therefore the responsibility — of society. The poor are victims who must be helped. Critical race theory and intersectionality extend this idea even further. They claim the powerful victimize certain groups of people, leaving those individuals unable to improve themselves.
Think about how virtuous this narrative made Johnson and subsequent generations of do-gooders feel. The poor were a helpless lot. They were doomed to wallow in misery and poverty — unless liberals generously gave them other people’s money.
But feeling good about your actions doesn’t mean your actions are doing good. There are 50-plus years of evidence that the left’s approach to ending poverty doesn’t work.
Look at lottery winners. What could be a better cure for poverty than unexpectedly becoming a millionaire? Yet around one-third of lottery winners eventually declare bankruptcy. It doesn’t matter if your income is $10,000 or $10 million; spending more than you make will cause nancial problems.
What’s needed to escape poverty isn’t money, it’s a di erent set of values. The starting point is to reject victimhood and make better choices, as the Success Sequence lays out.
Yet working full time and getting married can signi cantly reduce government bene ts. The government’s war on poverty has made it nancially costly to take two of the steps that lead people out of poverty. If you want to see these absurdities painted in vivid detail, read Theodore Dalrymple’s book, “Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass.”
The victims of victimhood are the very people the left claims to be trying to help.
Victor Joecks is a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and host of the “Sharpening Arrows” podcast.
(Copyright 2026 Creators.com)
Time for Jerome Powell to go home
He’s used interest rate policy seemingly as a weapon to bludgeon his enemy Trump.
THE MAN just won’t leave the stage.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced last week that he’s going to remain on the Federal Reserve Board until 2028 even as he by law surrenders his chairmanship. The announcement came even after President Donald Trump agreed to drop his unwise lawsuit against Powell for funding a $2 billion new Taj Mahal building down the street from the White House.
Powell will be the rst Fed chair to stay on the Fed’s Board of Directors in 50 years. This isn’t the way it’s done. It’s bad form. Only once did he come within spitting distance of his in ation target. February 2021 was the only month in his whole tenure when in ation hit the range of 1.8% to 2.2%. He’s retiring with a batting average of .011.
Powell, in my opinion as a close Fed watcher, was one of Trump’s worst appointments, as his record proves. Trump agrees with me.
Two-thirds of the time, in ation was well above the target. Would you keep someone with that lousy record in your starting lineup?
He almost rammed the economy into recession with inexcusably high rates in 2018, and then during COVID -19’s aftermath he ooded the economy with cheap money. The in ation rate skyrocketed to 9% — its highest level since the late 1970s. We’re all still paying high
grocery prices because of that monetary blunder. The Fed promised “transitory” in ation, but it was very high for two years.
He’s used interest rate policy seemingly as a weapon to bludgeon his enemy Trump. He slammed Trump’s tari s publicly but refused to acknowledge the disin ationary e ects of Trump’s tax cuts, energy policies and deregulation. He rarely, if ever, spoke out in opposition to the Biden post- COVID-19 $4 trillion debt- nanced spending spree.
He nally relented in lowering rates in 2024, but that timing was suspicious coming a few months before the presidential election. Was he pushing his thumb on the scale to help former Vice President Kamala Harris win the election? You decide.
Powell never learned the supply-side truism that faster growth doesn’t cause in ation, it cures it. When the Fed gets that truism wrong, bad things follow. The Trump tax cuts and “drill, baby, drill” policies expanded economic output. More production means lower, not higher, prices. So why was he squeezing the money supply?
Powell has been emboldened and knighted by the media because of his public spats with Trump. He says he wants to be independent of politics, but no one has played their political cards against Trump more expertly and covertly than Powell.
His announcement to stay on the board can only be explained as pure political retaliation against Trump. It puts Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to replace Powell, in an awkward position as he tries to drive the Fed back in the stable dollar direction. To stay and sit on the bench pouting is what sore losers do.
A CEO doesn’t stick around after they’ve been tossed out as chairman of the board — unless the successor pleads with them to stay. Warsh isn’t doing that. He has Powell’s mess to clean up.
Incidentally, with the news this week that the publicly traded debt now exceeds the annual GDP of the nation, perhaps Warsh should, in his inaugural address as Fed chairman, pledge to recommend that Congress live within its means, and that as a rst step, he will cut the Fed budget and bureaucratic bloat by 10% to 15%.
What a great way to set a good example for the rest of Washington. We don’t need 300 Ph.D. economists at the Fed to screw things up.
Powell can and should go home and write his memoir about how he attempted to undermine Trump every step of the way. It’s bound to be a bestseller.
Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)
COLUMN | VICTOR JOECKS
COLUMN | STEPHEN MOORE
IN MEMORY
BLANCHE MAXINE HARLEY TREECE
MARCH 23, 1930 – MAY 1, 2026
Blanche Maxine Harley Treece, 96, of Garner, formerly of Albemarle, passed away peacefully on May 1, 2026, at the SECU Hospice House in Smith eld, after a brief illness.
A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at Bethany United Methodist Church with Pastor David Cochran o ciating. Burial will follow at Stanly Gardens of Memory. The family will receive friends prior to the service from 1:15-2 p.m. at the church.
Barbara Jean (Taylor) Drye
Carolyn Palmer Trail
Aug. 4, 1937 – May 4, 2026
April 17, 1936 ~ January 14, 2023
Barbara Jean Taylor Drye, 86, of Oakboro, passed away Saturday, January 14, 2023 at her home.
Carolyn Palmer Trail, age 88 passed away on Monday, May 4 after a long battle with metastatic cancer. She was born to Denzel and Lake Erie Palmer on August 4, 1937, and raised in Beckley, West Virginia. Over the years, she was a resident of Norwood, Huntersville and Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Barbara was born April 17, 1936 in North Carolina to the late Robert Lee Taylor and the late Eva Belle Watts Taylor. She was also preceded in death by husband of 61 years, Keith Furr Drye, and brothers, Robert Lee Taylor, Jr. and George Kenneth Taylor.
Survivors include children, Debbie (Mike) Williams of Albemarle, Teresa (Tom) Curry of Oakboro, Douglas (Tammy) Drye of Oakboro; grandchildren, Melissa (Don) Parrish of Albemarle, Samantha (Destiny) Smith of Oakboro, Bradley Smith of Oakboro, Jonathan Stover of Peachland, and Jessie Stover of Lylesville; sisterin-law, Beatrice Goodman; many nieces and nephews; and her beloved cats, Bo and Gar eld.
Barbara was a member of Oakboro Baptist Church for over 60 years. She worked over 30 years at Stanly Knitting Mills. After just two years of retirement, she began managing the Oakboro Senior Center and did that for 18 years until this past week. Barbara was known for her good cooking and always taking care of others. She also loved going on day long shopping trips - she could out walk and out shop people half her age. She kept her mind and body active through gardening, word searches, and various other hobbies.
Carolyn completed primary school in Beckley, followed by nursing school at Je erson Hospital School of Nursing in Roanoke, Virginia. She completed her internship at Chestnut Lodge Psychiatric Hospital in Rockville, Maryland. She also attended Pfei er College and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for further study in art, English and for additional certi cations in nursing. She served at hospitals in Morgantown, West Virginia and in Albemarle, North Carolina. She was licensed to teach nursing courses for Stanly County Community College.
Her enduring interests were in the arts. She had a passion for learning and teaching basket weaving, Belgian bobbin lace, and various forms of ber arts and stitchery. She was a longtime member of several lacing and stitchery groups in Concord, Huntersville, and in Raleigh. Many of her closest friends were the people she met through her arts.
Carolyn lived a brilliant life. She was an exuberant and generous friend to all who knew her. She loved teaching, creating, traveling, parties, and being in the mountains.
Carolyn was married to Dr. Julian S. Trail for 41 years. She was a devoted mother to her three children, Julian Trail Jr. (Wil) of Bethesda Maryland, Mark Trail (Lorri) of Wake Forest, and Karen Trail Martin of Charlotte. She was a proud grandmother to her three grandsons Robert and Harris Trail, and Andrew Martin. Carolyn is also survived by her beloved niece Robin Jarrett of Dallas, Texas. She cherished every minute of the family time they shared. She is preceded in death by her parents and her sister Barbara Jarrett.
In lieu of owers, donations can be made to the Raleigh Lace Museum (https://www. ksclcfoundation.org/museumIX.php). A Celebration of Life party for family and friends will be arranged in Raleigh at a forthcoming date.
Dwight Farmer
January 24, 1939 ~ January 15, 2023
John Benton Harrington
Nov. 11, 1953 – April 30, 2026
Dwight Britten Farmer Sr., 83, of Norwood died Sunday morning, January 15, 2023 at Forrest Oakes.
Dwight was born January 24, 1939 in Stanly County to the late Walter Virgil and Martha Adkins Farmer. He was a 1957 graduate of Norwood High School and was a United States Army Veteran.
John Benton Harrington passed away peacefully on April 30, 2026, at his home in Sacramento, California, surrounded by his family after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born on November 11, 1953, in Albemarle, North Carolina, and was deeply supported by family and friends throughout his illness.
James Roseboro
Born March 23, 1930, in Stanly County, North Carolina, she was the daughter of the late Julius Hampton Harley and Era Elizabeth Harley. Mrs. Treece was a faithful member of Bethany United Methodist Church and devoted her life to her family as a homemaker.
June 23, 1967 ~ January 10, 2023
James Arthur Roseboro, 55, of Albemarle, passed away Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at Anson Health and Rehab.
John B. Kluttz
March 23, 1935 - January 9, 2023
Doris Jones Coleman
Maxine, as she was lovingly known, will be remembered for her warm and welcoming spirit. She was an avid reader, a talented seamstress, a dedicated gardener, and a passionate student of history. A gifted storyteller, she especially loved sharing her memories of growing up during World War II, captivating all who listened. She never met a stranger and was a ectionately known as “Mimi” not only to her family, but to countless others in Albemarle and later in Garner. Her home was a place of comfort, kindness, and belonging.
October 11, 1944 - January 10, 2023
He was a member of Cedar Grove United Methodist Church where he had served as church treasurer and choir member. He began his career with the Stanly County Sheri ’s Department moving to the Norwood Police Department and retiring as Chief of Police with the Town of Norwood after many years of service.
Mr. Roseboro was born on June 23, 1967 to the late Robert and Delena Shipp Roseboro. He graduated from South Stanly High School and was employed by Triangle Brick. He enjoyed watching football and basketball, especially the Carolina TarHeels and Miami.
John graduated from North Carolina State University in 1977 with a degree in industrial engineering. He went on to build a long and accomplished career as an engineer, retiring from Aerojet Rocketdyne in 2023.
Dwight was an avid gardener, bird watcher and Carolina fan.
He had a deep appreciation for music, travel, humor, and ne dining, and in later years became an accomplished cook himself. John loved sports and was an avid fan of the NC State Wolfpack.
He is survived by his wife Hilda Whitley Farmer; one son D. Britten Farmer Jr. (Mary) of McLeansville, NC; one daughter Sharon Farmer Lowe (David) of Norwood; one sister Geraldine Dennis of Troy; two grandchildren, Dwight Britten “Dee” Farmer III and Whitley Rose Hui Lowe.
John was preceded in death by his parents, Mary Josephine Mabry Harrington and Marshall Brian Harrington. He is survived by his sisters, Louise (Nick) Johnson of Morehead City, North Carolina, and Gail (Tom) Waller of Marshallberg, North Carolina, as well as his nephews and their families.
He was preceded in death by his son Alex, brothers, Tommy and Jimmy, sisters, Nancy, Cornelia Annabell, Glennie Mae, and Betty. Memorials may be made to Cedar Grove United Methodist Church, Cemetery or Choir Fund c/o Pam Smith 36071 Rocky River Springs Road, Norwood, NC 28128.
A private memorial service will be held at a later date in North Carolina. In lieu of owers, memorial contributions may be made to UC Davis Health Hospice, HAS Building, 10850 White Rock Rd., Rancho Cordova, CA 95670, or to Sherwood Healthcare Center, 4700 Elvas Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95819.
Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in Stanly News Journal at obits@ stanlynewsjournal.com
Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in SCJ at obits@stanlyjournal.com
She was one of the beloved “Harley Sisters,” a close-knit group whose bond was marked by deep love, laughter, and faith. Together, they left a lasting legacy of kindness and devotion to the Lord—one that continues through the generations. Maxine’s gentle spirit, sweet Southern charm, and joyful sense of humor remained with her throughout her life, even bringing smiles to her caregivers in her nal days.
In addition to his parents he is preceded in death by his brothers and sisters: Barbara Lee Roseboro, Dorothy Brown, Verna Roseboro, Henrietta Ingram, and Harold Roseboro.
She was the oldest member of Bethany United Methodist Church and, even after moving to Garner, remained devoted—faithfully watching services each Sunday online.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Willie Travis “Red” Treece in 2019; her daughter, Susan Treece Gant in 2020; and several brothers and sisters.
He is survived by his sisters: Helen (James) Roseboro Edwards of Albemarle, Mary Roseboro of Washington DC, and Marion Morrison of Albemarle; brothers: Thomas D. Roseboro of Charlotte, Robert Roseboro (Patricia) of Norwood, and Van Horne; a special friend of over 40 years, Michelle McLendon of the home; special nieces: Nybrea Montague, Knya Little, and Laquanza Crump; special nephews: Robert Jr., Desmond Roseboro, and Marcus Lilly; and God daughter, Daphne Johnson; and special friends, Vetrella Johnson and Ben McLendon.
John grew up in the Millingport community where he drove a school bus and worked at the local gas station during his High School years. He graduated from Millingport High in 1954 and entered into service with the US Airforce immediately afterward. Upon return from the service, he and his high school sweetheart Julie were married in 1956. He graduated from Nashville Auto Diesel College later in 1959 and began his career as a diesel mechanic at Mitchell Distributing Company, moving his growing family to Charlotte where they lived until their retirement.
She is survived by her daughter, Donna Treece Sides of Garner; her grandchildren, USAF Lt. Col. Wesley Reid Sides and wife Dana of Corpus Christi/Padre Island, Texas, Jordan Gant and husband Gregory Connuck of Asheville, and Roger Gant IV and ancée Staci Dubbe of Nashville, Tennessee; her great-grandchildren, Wyatt Reid Sides and Hadley Rhys Sides; and her son-in-law, Roger Gant III of Burlington. She is also survived by her sister, Ladonne H. Hearne of Hampstead; her niece, Linda Hearne Tunner; a number of other nieces and nephews; and a special friend and neighbor, Jatrin Headen, who loved Maxine as her own, along with her dear family.
When John purchased his rst Model A Ford at the age of 17, he said that he took the car to the community mechanic when he had a small problem.The mechanic told him that if he was going to keep the car, he needed to learn to work on it. This is when John’s passion for Model A Fords began and how he spent his happiest days with his best friends from around the globe for the rest of his life!
Doris Elaine Jones Coleman, 78, went home into God’s presence on January 10 after a sudden illness and a valiant week-long ght in ICU. Doris was born on October 11, 1944, in the mountains of Marion, NC while her father was away ghting in the US Navy during World War II. Raymond Jones was so proud to return after the war and meet his little girl! Doris grew up in Durham, NC and graduated from Durham High School. She furthered her studies at Watts Hospital School of Nursing in Durham and graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1966.
Doris married Rev. Dr. Ted Coleman in 1966 and had two daughters Amy and Laura. Doris raised Amy and Laura in North Augusta, SC.
Memorials may be made to SECU Hospice House of Johnston Health, 426 Hospital Rd, Smith eld, NC 27577 or to Bethany United Methodist Church, 2411 US Hwy 52 N., Albemarle, NC 28001.
MICHAEL “MIKEY” ANDREW HARRISON
MAY 26, 2004 – MAY 4, 2026
Michael “Mikey” Andrew Harrison, 21, of Albemarle, passed away Monday, May 4, 2026, at his home.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at Community Full Gospel in Norwood. Pastor Mike Lisk and Pastor Mike Rinehardt will o ciate, and interment will follow at Stanly Gardens of Memory in Albemarle. The family will receive friends on Wednesday evening, May 6, from 6-8 p.m. at Edwards Funeral Home in Norwood.
Doris was an incredible neonatal intensive care nurse for most of her career, and this was her passion. The Augusta Chronicle did a feature on her in 1985. She was a clinical nurse manager in Augusta, Georgia at University Hospital NICU and worked there for 20 years. During this time, Doris mentored young nurses and assisted in saving the lives of so many babies. She also worked for Pediatrician Dr. William A. Wilkes in Augusta for several years prior to her NICU career. Doris retired from the mother/baby area at Atrium Stanly in 2007 after over 40 years of nursing.
Michael was born on May 26, 2004, in Stanly County to Kenny Harrison Jr. and Mitzi Hatley. He enjoyed competing in the Special Olympics, which he participated in for 18 years. He also enjoyed watching his favorite shows and movies, Elmo, Shrek, and Barney. He was a member of Community Full Gospel Church and will be remembered for his big beautiful smile.
At age 50, after years as a Detroit Diesel Mechanic he and Julie decided to take the plunge and open a full Model A Restoration Shop. They thrived at their shop in Cornelius, NC until their retirement in 1998 when they moved back to Cabarrus County. John once again set up shop in his back yard garage where he attracted a loyal group of friends who visited almost daily. While on the farm in Gold Hill, John also began a lifelong love with Alis Chalmers tractors after he restored his Dad’s tractor and began amassing his collection of tractors as well.
He was preceded in death by his grandparents: David and Lenora Smith and Jan Furr; and Uncles Wesley Harrison and William Whitley; Aunts Brea Furr and Judy Poplin; and great-grandmother, Ruth Cranford.
Darrick Baldwin
In addition to his parents, he is survived by his siblings: Jalen Harrison (Heather), Madison Hatley, McKenzie Hatley (Hunter), and Kevin Hatley; grandfather Kent Harrison; and a special caregiver, Shannon Heun.
January 7, 1973 ~ January 8, 2023
Darrick Vashon Baldwin, age 50, entered eternal rest, Sunday, January 8, 2023, Albemarle, North Carolina. Born January 7, 1973, in Stanly County, North Carolina, Darrick was the son of Eddie James Baldwin Sr. and the late Phyllis Blue Baldwin. Darrick enjoyed life, always kept things lively and enjoyed making others smile. His presence is no longer in our midst, but his memory will forever live in our hearts.
John restored many cars of his own and had the crowning achievement of winning the most prestigious award from MARC, The Henry for a restoration that garnered top points. He was also presented with the Ken Brady Service Awardthe highest award given to members at the national level.
LINDA SIDES WHITLEY
JUNE 7, 1953 – MAY 6, 2026
This is what John’s Model A Community had to say upon learning of his death: He was an active member of Wesley Chapel Methodist Church where he loved serving as greeter on Sunday mornings. He also belonged to the United Methodist Men.
Linda Sides Whitley, 72, of New London, passed away peacefully at her home on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, surrounded by the love of her family.
Doris was a gentle and sweet spirit and loved her Lord. She never met a stranger, and she always left you feeling uplifted after talking with her. She would often claim that she had “adopted” friends into her immediate family, and honestly, she never made a distinction between the two. Positivity radiated from her like sunlight. She was sel ess, funny, smart, and sentimental. During her lifetime she was an active member of First Baptist Church of Durham, First Baptist Church of Augusta, Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Augusta, and Palestine United Methodist Church in Albemarle. She especially loved helping at church with older adults, youth, and children.
A graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 11, 2026, at Stanly Gardens of Memory with Rev. Keith Walters o ciating. The family will receive friends from 5-7 p.m. on Sunday, May 10, 2026, at Stanly Funeral and Cremation Care of Albemarle.
Linda was born on June 7, 1953, in Stanly County to the late Wilburn and Margie Lambert Sides.
He was educated in the Stanly County public schools and attended Albemarle Senior High School, Albemarle.
She is lovingly survived by her devoted husband of 53 years, Tommy Whitley; her son, Barry Whitley (Camey) of New London; her cherished grandchildren, Hannah Whitley and Tommy Wayne Whitley; her sister, Jana Deese; her nephew, Travis Roberts; and many beloved nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her nephew, Lee Deese.
He was a great conversationalist and loved meeting people. Darrick never met a stranger and always showed love and compassion for his fellowman. He also loved his dog, Rocky.
He is survived by his father, Eddie J. Baldwin Sr.; sisters: Crystal (Eric) Jackson, LaFondra (Stoney) Medley, and Morgan Baldwin; brothers: Eddie Baldwin Jr., Anton Baldwin, and Lamont Baldwin; a host of other relatives and friends. A limb has fallen from our family tree. We will not grieve Darrick’s death; we will celebrate his life. We give thanksgiving for the many shared memories.
She was especially talented at sewing from a young age and made gifts for friends, Christmas ornaments, Halloween Costumes, doll clothes, pageant dresses, prom dresses, coats, tote bags, scarves, out ts for Amy and Laura, and Christening gowns for each of her grandchildren.
Linda will be remembered as a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and friend who never met a stranger. She had a special gift and compassion for animals, dedicating much of her life to caring for them through wildlife rehabilitation and raising exotic animals. If an animal was hurt or in need, Linda was always willing to help. She was also well known for her beautiful birthday and wedding cakes, as well as for the kindness and care she showed to everyone around her. Linda had a nurturing spirit and helped care for countless children throughout the years, leaving a lasting impact on all who knew and loved her.
The family would like to express their heartfelt gratitude to the sta of Tillery Compassionate Care for the compassionate care and support shown to Linda during her declining health.
In lieu of owers, memorials may be made to Tillery Compassionate Care, 960 N. First Street, Albemarle, NC 28001.
John is survived by his wife Julie Ussery Kluttz, for 66 years of the home. He is also survived by a son John David Kluttz (Kim) of Oakboro, NC; two daughters, Sally Simerson of Denver, CO and Betsy Tusa (John) of Lafayette, CO; three grandchildren, Bonnie Kluttz Sammons (Ben) of Rich eld, NC John Alexander McKinnon (Sarah) of Asheville, NC and Seth William McKinnon (Amanda) of Germany; ve great-grandchildren, Charlotte, Meredith, Grant, Victoria and Ronan. John is also preceded in death by his parents, J.S. Kluttz and Mary Wyatt Clayton Kluttz; a large and loving group of brothers and sisters, Jack Methias Kluttz, Annie Lou Kluttz Honeycutt, Jake Nelson Kluttz, Julius Kluttz, Mary Patricia Phillips and a grandson, Kevin Fowler Kluttz.
The family would like to thank everyone for their prayers, love, and support during this di cult time. Linda’s kindness, compassion, and gentle spirit will forever be treasured and remembered by all who knew her.
Doris was preceded in death by her father Arthur Raymond Jones, her mother Mary Ellen Cameron Jones, and her sister Maryanne Jones Brantley. Survivors include her two precious daughters: Amy Cameron Coleman (partner Dr. Edward Neal Chernault) of Albemarle, NC, and Laura Lindahl Coleman Oliverio (husband David) of Cincinnati, Ohio; seven grandchildren: Cameron David Oliverio, Stephanie Jae Dejak, Luca Beatty Oliverio, Coleman John Dejak, Carson Joseph Oliverio, Ryan Nicholas Dejak, and Jadon Richard Oliverio; and numerous in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins, and loved ones.
GRANT from page A1
resources they need,” Pfei er
President Scott Bullard said in the release. “This investment allows Pfei er to respond to a critical regional need by supporting today’s educators while preparing the next generation of teachers to enter the classroom ready to meet the needs of early readers.”
Focused on evidence-based reading instruction for kindergarten through fth grade, the new center will be designed to strengthen early literacy preparation for current and future educators through hands-on training grounded in the science of reading, Current teachers will have access to workshops, coaching and shared learning opportunities centered on practical classroom strategies instead of stand-alone professional development sessions.
“With this support, Pfei er University is creating a practical, sustainable resource that bene ts both educators and students,” Bullard said. “By investing in early literacy where the need is greatest, we are helping ensure that more children learn
COURTESY PFEIFFER UNIVERSITY
to read well, early, and for life.”
Along with supporting current educators, the center will expand literacy instruction within Pfei er’s undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs, as education students will receive added preparation in early literacy strategies before entering the classroom.
Scholarships will also be available for education majors who complete literacy-focused classroom experiences and agree to teach in one of the partner counties for three years after graduating.
“This partnership represents an exciting opportunity for our
Pfei er University received a $1.5 million grant from the Warren and Augusta Hume Foundation to establish a Regional Literacy Training Center.
district and the entire region,” said Lynn Plummer, Stanly County Schools’ chief academic o cer. “Strengthening literacy instruction remains one of our most important priorities, and this investment supports the kind of sustained, high-quality professional learning our teachers need to continue growing in their craft. Just as importantly, it strengthens our ability to recruit and retain high-quality educators who are committed to serving our communities.”
The center will begin work with Stanly County in its rst year, followed by Randolph and Montgomery counties in subsequent years.
He turned a modest billboard business into one
By David Bauder The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Ted Turner, a brash television pioneer who raced yachts, owned huge chunks of the American West and transformed the news business by launching CNN and introducing the 24 -hour cable news cycle, died Wednesday. He was 87. Turner died surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversees his vast business interests.
Turner owned professional sports teams in Atlanta, defended the America’s Cup in yachting in 1977 and donated a stunning $1 billion to United Nations charities. He married three women — most famously actor Jane Fonda — and earned the nicknames “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South.” He once bragged: “If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect.” He was slowed in later years by Lewy body dementia. Long out of the television business, he concentrated on philanthropy. His garrulous personality sometimes overshadowed a risk-taking business acumen. By the time he sold his Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in 1996, Turner had turned his late father’s billboard company into a global conglomerate that included seven major cable networks, three professional sports teams and a pair of hit movie studios.
President Donald Trump, reacting to Turner’s death, called him “one of the Greats of All Time.”
The creation of CNN Turner’s signature achievement was creating the Cable News Network, the rst 24 -hour, all-news television network in 1980. In part, Turner’s own frustration with television news was the instigator. He often worked past 8 p.m., after the ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts had already gone o the air.
He took a chance by starting the operation in the early days of cable television, living in an apartment above its Atlanta o ce.
CNN’s breakthrough moment came during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. Most television journalists had ed Baghdad but CNN stayed, capturing arresting images of a war’s outbreak.
Turner was promised a continued role in CNN after his company’s sale to Time Warner but was gradually pushed out, much to his regret.
“The mistake I made was losing control of the company,” he later said.
Building TBS SuperStation
Robert Edward Turner III was born Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati. When he was 9, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. After being expelled from Brown University, Turner came to Atlanta to work for his domineering father’s billboard company, Turner Advertising.
After his father’s 1963 suicide, Turner took over the company. In 1970, he bought an independent UHF station with a weak signal that didn’t even cover Atlanta.
On Dec. 17, 1976, he began transmitting the station to cable systems across the coun-
try via satellite. It became the TBS SuperStation. TBS’ motley collection of old movies and sitcom reruns was augmented by Turner’s acquisition of baseball’s Atlanta Braves. Perennial doormats, the Braves slowly attracted fans nationwide through their superstation exposure. In the 1980s, Turner went deeply into debt to buy MGM, a move again greeted with skepticism. But the acquisition gave his company a library of vintage movies that eventually were parlayed into the TNT and Turner Classic Movies networks. He revealed his ambitions as a younger man: “I used to tell people I wanted to become the world’s greatest sailor, businessman and lover all at the same time.”
Acquiring sports teams and land
For much of his life a partying roustabout who wooed beautiful women, the lean, mustachioed sportsman married three times. He was married to Fonda from 1991 to 2001. She tired of his philandering and divorced him, although they remained friends. Perhaps Turner’s greatest love was for the land. He acquired millions of acres in ranches complete with roaming bu alo and was Nebraska’s largest private landholder. Researchers at Texas A&M University credited his donation of a few bulls in 2005 with helping increase the genetic diversity of the last herd of southern Plains bison.
He had a net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023 but had dropped o Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 richest Americans in 2021.
“See, my life is more an adventure than a quest to make money,” Turner once said.
Turner managed to insult many with his shoot-from-the -lip style. An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians “losers” and “Jesus freaks,” later apologizing for both remarks.
Dedication to various causes
Turner, the father of ve children, grabbed a leadership role in American philanthropy with his Sept. 18, 1997, pledge to give $1 billion to United Nations charities.
He promoted a range of humanitarian causes. Turner joined former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn to start the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based nonpro t dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
As he poured millions into nonpro ts on a global scale, Turner was also fond of spreading his wealth in small ways. He once gave $500 to a volunteer re department that helped extinguish a blaze on one of his ranches.
JASON DECROW / AP PHOTO
Actress Jane Fonda and CNN founder Ted Turner pose together at the United Nations Foundation Global Leadership Dinner in 2013 in New York.
Man charged in DC shooting was walking along path of Vance’s motorcade, agent says
The suspect red at o cers, striking a teenage bystander in the leg
By Michael Kunzelman
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A
man accused of ring a gun at law enforcement o cers near the Washington Monument this week was walking along the path of Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court ling Wednesday.
Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was shot multiple times during Monday’s confrontation and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he said, “‘F—k the White House’ and “Kill me, kill me, kill me,’” a Secret Service agent said in an a davit.
The sworn statement does not specify whether investigators believe Marx had a particular target.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement that her o ce “will pursue the most serious charges available against anyone who brings gun violence to our streets, particularly when that violence unfolds steps from the seat of our government and the path of the
Vice President of the United States.”
Marx was walking along the path of Vance’s motorcade when o cers spotted him near the intersection of 15th Street and Independence Avenue. The o cers were responding to a Se -
cret Service agent’s report that Marx was seen near the White House complex with a rearm concealed on the right side of his body, the a davit says.
Marx pulled a rearm from his waistband as he ran away from Secret Service o cers and
red at one of them, but a bystander behind the o cer was shot in the leg, the a davit says. O cers returned re and struck Marx in his abdomen, a hand and his left arm, according to the ling. It says Marx spit at o cers as they provided
him with aid after the shooting.
The teenage bystander was not seriously injured and has been released from a hospital, ABC News reported. ABC was rst to report what the suspect allegedly said after the shooting.
Marx was charged in a complaint with assaulting o cers with a dangerous weapon, discharging a rearm during a violent crime and being a felon in possession of a rearm and ammunition.
The shooting came just over a week after a California man tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner while armed with guns and knives. Cole Tomas Allen has been charged in that incident with attempting to assassinate the president and ring a gun at a Secret Service o cer.
Around the time of Monday’s shooting, President Donald Trump was holding a small business event at the White House, which was briefly locked down as authorities investigated.
Online court records did not immediately list the name of a lawyer representing Marx.
Marx has used aliases, including Michael Patrick and Michael Zavici, according to the a davit. It says Marx had a 2011 drug tra cking conviction in Florida that made it illegal for him to possess a rearm.
Andrew relocated to the Sandringham Estate following ties to Epstein scandal, eviction from longtime home
By Danica Kirka
The Associated Press
LONDON — A man has been arrested on suspicion of possessing an o ensive weapon after reports that the former Prince Andrew was threatened by a masked man while walking dogs near his home.
Norfolk Constabulary said that the arrest came Wednesday evening after a man was reported “behaving in an intimidating manner” near the home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in eastern England.
“O cers attended, and the man was arrested on suspicion of a public order o ense and possession of an o ensive weapon,” the force said Thursday.
The suspect is being held for questioning at a nearby police station. The term o ensive weapons covers knives, truncheons and other items used to cause injury. Police didn’t specify what type of weapon was involved.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a man wearing a ski mask ran toward the former royal while shouting abuse. It said the in-
cident occurred near the Sandringham Estate while the former prince was out walking his dogs, and that Andrew and his protection o cer
got in their car and sped away. Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, moved to the king’s private Sandringham Estate, about 100 miles north of London, after he was evicted from his longtime home near Windsor Castle following revelations about his friendship with Je rey Epstein.
Andrew, 66, now lives at Marsh Farm, a property on the Sandringham Estate, after leaving Royal Lodge last year. He was stripped of all his honors and titles and banished from public view by the royal family after years of scandal over his money woes and links to questionable characters, including Epstein.
One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giu re, alleged that she was forced to have sex with the then-prince three times starting when she was 17. He denied it, but eventually settled the case for an undisclosed sum and acknowledged Giu re’s suf-
fering as a victim of sex tra cking. Giu re died by suicide in April 2025, aged 41. In February, he became the rst senior British royal in almost 400 years to be arrested when he was held for hours by British police on suspicion of misconduct in public o ce in a case related to his links to Epstein. It was an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment.
Police previously said they were “assessing” reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor and convicted sex o ender, in 2010, when the former prince was the United Kingdom’s special envoy for international trade.
Correspondence between the two men was released by the U.S. Justice Department along with millions of pages of documents from the American investigation into Epstein.
ROD LAMKEY JR. / AP PHOTO
Metropolitan Police Department o cers respond after a person was shot by law enforcement near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH / AP PHOTO
Britain’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, looks around as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, England, on April 20, 2025.
Note former cellmate claims to have found after Epstein’s suspected suicide attempt released
A judge released the note after The New York Times asked for it to be unsealed
By Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister The Associated Press
Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org
NEW YORK — A note Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate claimed he found after the millionaire sex o ender’s rst suspected jail suicide attempt was made public Wednesday, years after being sealed and locked in a courthouse vault as part of an unrelated legal dispute.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, ordered the release of the note after The New York Times asked him last week to unseal it and other documents in a case involving the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request.
Few people had known about the note until Tartaglione, a former police o cer serving a life sentence for killing four people, mentioned it last year on writer Jessica Reed Kraus’ podcast.
Tartaglione claimed he discovered the note in a book after Epstein was found on the oor of their cell at a Manhattan federal jail on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around thenancier’s neck. That was about three weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell in what
authorities concluded was a suicide.
“They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” said the short note, which is hard to decipher in some places. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”
“NO FUN,” the note concludes, with those words underlined. “NOT WORTH IT!!”
It is unclear who wrote the note Tartaglione claimed to have found. It wasn’t mentioned in the lengthy government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein’s death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department’s recent release of les on the late nancier.
In a written ruling, Karas said he weighed the privacy interests of third parties, including Epstein, before ruling to release the note. He said existing case law suggests that privacy interests of a deceased person, such as Epstein, “are vastly reduced and disclosure of the deceased’s information is unlikely to ‘work a concrete harm.‘”
According to jail records, Epstein had friction marks and skin irritation on his neck from
U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK VIA AP A document released Wednesday by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York shows a note that Je rey Epstein’s former cellmate said he found after Epstein’s reported suicide attempt in July 2019.
“They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!”
the suspected July 23 attempt. Jail o cers said he was breathing heavily but responsive. One o cer reported at the time that Epstein said he believed Tartaglione had tried to kill him, according to a memo included in the Justice Department’s les. Jail o cials placed Epstein on suicide watch for 31 hours after the incident before downgrading him to psychiatric observation — his status when he killed himself. According
to jail records, he denied trying to harm himself, telling a jail psychologist that suicide was against his Jewish religion and that he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain.
A chronology included in the les states that Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 attempt. The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s criminal case and was placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.
Both men were interviewed by jail personnel on July 31, 2019, according to jail records.
Epstein said he had never had any issues with Tartaglione, wasn’t threatened by
him and didn’t “want to make up something that isn’t there.” Tartaglione said he didn’t have any issues being Epstein’s cellmate, though he said they kept their conversations to a minimum. On July 23, he said, he thought Epstein was having a heart attack because his eyes were open and he appeared to be snoring.
Epstein and Tartaglione shared a cell for about two weeks, beginning soon after Epstein’s July 6, 2019, arrest and ending with the suspected suicide attempt. Both were awaiting trials — Epstein on sex tra cking charges and Tartaglione on charges that in 2016 he killed four men, including a man he tortured and strangled over stolen drug money.
Tartaglione, who had been an o cer in the Hudson River Valley village of Briarcli Manor, was convicted in 2023. He is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in California and has petitioned President Donald Trump for a pardon.
Epstein was without a cellmate when he was found dead at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, on Aug. 10, 2019. Authorities have pointed to a series of missteps by jail personnel — including browsing the internet and sleeping when they should’ve been checking on Epstein — for allowing him to take his own life.
O cials said they found a handwritten note in Epstein’s cell at the time of his death, but that it didn’t appear to be a suicide note. Rather, they said, it appeared to be a list of grievances about conditions at the jail, including about food, showers and the presence of bugs.
Thomas, seated in 1991, becomes second longest-serving justice in
Amid ethics controversies, the conservative justice has become the court’s most in uential ideological force
By Lindsay Whitehurst
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The rst baby boomer on the Supreme Court hit a milestone on Thursday, becoming the second-longest serving justice in history at a time when his in uence has never seemed greater.
Once an outlier on the nation’s highest court, Justice Clarence Thomas has become a towering gure in the conservative legal movement over the last decade as he helped secure landmark rulings on abortion, voting and Second Amendment rights.
The only justice with a longer tenure is liberal William O. Douglas. Thomas would overtake Douglas in 2028 if he remains on the court — and there’s no sign he plans to retire anytime soon.
“I think he’s more energized and excited now than when I rst met him,” said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration after his time as a Thomas clerk three decades ago.
Thomas was con rmed in 1991 after contentious hearings that included sexual harassment allegations. More recently, his acceptance of luxury trips has raised a storm of ethics questions. He’s nevertheless gone from near-silence at oral arguments to asking the rst questions and penning a landmark ruling expanding Second Amendment rights.
Following the appointment of three conservative justices by Republican President Donald Trump, Thomas is now the most senior member of a supermajority that’s also overturned abortion as a constitutional right, ended a rmative action in col-
Supreme Court history
lege admissions and sharply limited the Voting Rights Act.
“The court has radically moved in his direction over the course of his time on the court,” said Stanford University law professor Pamela Kar-
lan. Thomas’ seniority means he can decide who writes an opinion if he’s part of a majority that doesn’t include Chief Justice John Roberts, a factor that can nudge other votes behind closed doors, Karlan said.
“The court has radically moved in his direction over the course of his time on the court.”
Pamela
Karlan, Stanford University law professor
O the bench, Thomas’ sphere of in uence also includes his large, close-knit network of former clerks, who have served in the Trump administration and are increasingly lling out the ranks of federal judges.
“That is an important legacy that he will leave,” said Sarah Konsky, director of the Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. “Even as justices’ own time on the court winds down, signi cant in uence lives on through their clerks.”
That’s not to say Thomas’ time on the court is up. In a recent speech, Thomas tied the nation’s highest ideals to a conservative vision of limited government — and launched a broadside on progressivism seen by critics as unfair and inappropriate. In the room at the University of Texas, though, it earned a standing ovation.
Thomas, who became the second Black member of the court, now has a tenure that tops 34 years, putting him ahead of Justice Stephen J. Field, who was appointed by Lincoln before the end of the Civil War and served as the only 10th justice until 1897.
For Thomas, 77, it’s a long way from the hearings at which his nomination by Republican President George H.W. Bush was nearly derailed by allegations that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill, a charge he forcefully denied.
Thomas has more recently come under scrutiny for lavish, undisclosed trips from a GOP megadonor and the conservative political activism of his wife, who backed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The justice has said he wasn’t required to disclose the trips he took with friends and ignored calls to recuse himself from cases related to the election.
On the court, though, recent years have also brought perhaps the most signi cant work of his career, especially a 2022 opinion he wrote that found people generally have the right to carry a gun in public. The justice did not respond to a request for comment on his tenure.
His own jurisprudence has changed little over the years, said Scott Gerber, author of “First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas.” Even as the majority moves his way, he’s continued to write dissents that get noticed.
“He’s incredibly consistent,” Gerber said. Once known for solo dissents, “now he writes majority opinions.”
DOUG MILLS / AP PHOTO
Supreme Court Justice Nominee Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia, listen during his nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 10, 1991.
NEW YORK STATE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY VIA AP Je rey Epstein
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP PHOTO
From left, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts sit for a new group portrait in 2022.
Worries about AI’s risks to humanity loom over trial pitting Musk against OpenAI’s leaders
The lawsuit centers on whether OpenAI abandoned its nonpro t mission for pro t
By Barbara Ortutay and Matt O’Brien
The Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — At the heart of the trial pitting Elon Musk against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a moment when they found common cause on an ever more pressing question: how to protect humanity from the risks of arti cial intelligence.
It turned sour, and the jury is charged with settling the ensuing legal dispute between the two Silicon Valley titans.
But the unresolved questions about the dangers of AI have been looming over the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, since the trial began last week. The technology itself is not on trial – the judge has warned lawyers not to get “sidetracked” by questions about its dangers – but witness testimony has touched on concerns around workforce disruptions and the prospect raised by Musk that superhuman AI might one day kill us all.
Musk, the world’s richest person, led the case accusing his fellow OpenAI co-founder of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonpro t. Altman, in turn, accuses Musk of trying to hobble the ChatGPT maker for the bene t of his own AI company.
One witness, AI pioneer Stuart Russell, said that the “winner-take-all” power struggle over AI’s future is itself threatening humanity.
Musk’s lawyers brought Russell to the stand as an expert witness, at the rate of $5,000 an hour. The University of California, Berkeley computer scientist listed a host of AI dangers, from racial and gender discrimination to job displacement, misinformation and emotional attachments
that take some AI chatbot users down a spiral of psychosis.
“Whichever company develops AGI rst would have a very big advantage” and an increasingly big lead over everyone else, Russell told the court, using the initials for arti cial general intelligence, a term for advanced AI technology that surpasses humans at many tasks.
Judge’s warning hasn’t kept out talk of AI’s dangers
The trial centers on the 2015 birth of OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk.
Both Musk and Altman, who has not yet testi ed in the trial, have said they wanted OpenAI to safely develop AGI for the bene t of humanity and not for any one person’s gain or under any one person’s control. And both camps allege it’s the other guy who was trying to control it.
A jury of nine people selected from the San Francisco Bay Area will get to say which one of them is telling the truth.
Early on, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers warned lawyers, particularly Musk’s, not to delve into broader AI concerns that go beyond Musk’s claims that OpenAI violated its charitable mission.
“This is not a trial on the safety risks of arti cial intelligence. This is not a trial on whether or not AI has damaged humanity,” Gonzalez Rogers told lawyers before jurors arrived at the federal courthouse.
Still, Musk managed to skirt that guidance in his testimony last week. Asked to describe arti cial general intelligence, Musk said it is when AI becomes “as smart as any human,” and added that “we are getting close to that point,” and AI will be smarter than any human as soon as next year.
Musk said he has “extreme concerns” about AI and has had them for a long time. Musk said he wanted a “counter-
point” to Google, which at the time had “all the money, all the computers and all the talent” for AI, with no counterbalance.
“I was concerned AI would be a double-edged sword,” he said.
Musk, OpenAI each say they are working for humanity’s bene t
During his testimony, Musk repeatedly said that he could have founded OpenAI as a for-pro t company, just like the other companies he started or took over. “I deliberately chose this,” he said, “for the public good.”
The judge expressed some skepticism. In comments to lawyers last week before the jury came into the room, Gonzalez Rogers pointed out that Musk, “despite these risks, is creating a company that is in the exact same space,” referring to the billionaire’s xAI arti cial intelligence company, which launched in 2023 and has since merged with Musk’s rocket company SpaceX.
OpenAI’s side also claims its goals are to bene t the public. OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman, a defendant in Musk’s lawsuit along with Altman and their company, said he thought the technology OpenAI was developing was “transformative” — bigger than corporations, corporate structures and bigger than any one individual. It was, he said, “about humanity as a whole.”
Brockman testi ed this week that his No. 1 goal was always the “mission” of OpenAI and it was Musk who sought unilateral control over the company.
Brockman recalled a meeting where at rst Musk seemed open to the idea of Altman being OpenAI’s CEO. In the end, however, “he said people needed to know he was in charge.”
In addition to damages, Musk is seeking Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board. If Musk wins, it could derail OpenAI’s plans for an initial public o ering of its shares.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman, foreground, exits the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, on April 30, 2026.
SKILLSUSA from page A1
“Not all contests in SkillsUSA are national qualifying contests, so some of these rst-place winners don’t get to go on to the next level,” Stanly CTE Director Mandy Melton said. “In June, Ethan and Levi will represent the state of North Carolina in their respective elds at the 2026 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta. We are extremely proud of all of you. You represented us well, and you will continue to represent Stanly County well.”
ity Chapter award under the same program.
“We are extremely proud of all of you.”
Mandy Melton, Stanly CTE director
The designation requires between 240 and 300 points on the CEP rubric and recognizes chapters demonstrating outstanding student-led initiatives across the SkillsUSA Framework of personal, workplace and technical skills.
South Stanly earned a Qual-
On a school level, West Stanly also earned the SkillsUSA Gold Chapter of Distinction, the highest state-level honor in the Chapter Excellence Program.
“These students have demonstrated exceptional skill, dedication and passion in their respective elds, representing their schools and our district with excellence,” Stanly County Schools said in a statement. “We are incredibly proud of these students for their hard work and achievements, and wish our national quali ers the very best as they advance to the next level.”
The Stanly County Board of Education’s next regular meeting is scheduled for June 2 at 6:15 p.m. in the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons.
GODOFREDO A. VÁSQUEZ / AP PHOTO
STANLY SPORTS
Stanly softball teams win, baseball teams fall in playo openers
Seven local teams reached Friday’s second round
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — Two Stanly County softball teams kept their seasons alive Tuesday, while two local baseball teams were eliminated in the rst round of the state playo s. In total, nine high school baseball and softball teams from the county received postseason bids Monday, with sev-
en advancing to Friday’s second round through either rst-round byes or Tuesday victories. The third round is set for Tuesday, followed by the fourth round Friday.
In softball, North Stanly opened postseason play with a home win in the 3A West bracket. The No. 13 Comets (8 -13) defeated No. 20 CHASE (10-15) 13-5 on Tuesday, advancing to a second-round road matchup at No. 4 Pine Lake Prep (14-3). Meanwhile, Gray Stone moved on in the 2A West
bracket with a dominant rst-round performance. The No. 15 Knights (6-12) hosted No. 18 Langtree Charter Academy (0-18) and won 15-0, setting up a Friday second-round game at No. 2 Roxboro Community (18-2). Two other local softball teams opened the playo s with rst-round byes.
West Stanly (21-5), the No. 4 seed in the 4A West bracket, hosted No. 13 Hibriten (13-9) in Friday’s second round. The Colts entered the postseason after winning the Rocky River Con-
ference regular-season title and nishing as conference tournament runner-up.
South Stanly (21-2), the top seed in the 2A West bracket, also had a rst-round bye. The Bulls, who won both the Yadkin Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships, hosted No. 17 Hayesville (3-15) on Friday. In baseball, Gray Stone and Albemarle both saw their seasons end in the rst round of the 2A West bracket. No. 16 Gray Stone (9-11) fell 7-1 at home to No. 17 Mitchell
(12-13) on Tuesday, while No. 24 Albemarle (3-17) lost 14-0 on the road to No. 9 East Wilkes (16-0) in Ronda.
Three Stanly County baseball teams advanced to the second round by virtue of rst-round byes.
West Stanly (23-1), the top overall seed in the 4A West bracket, hosted No. 17 West Stokes (10-12) on Friday. The Colts entered the playo s after winning their regular-season and tournament championships.
North Stanly (22-4), the No. 1 seed in the 3A West bracket, hosted No. 17 East Surry (9-12). The Comets were regular-season co-champions and tournament champions.
South Stanly (16-10), the No. 5 seed in the 2A West bracket, hosted No. 12 Christ the King (10-13) in the second round.
Pfei er men’s lacrosse wins NCAA opener at home
Falcons topped Transylvania to advance to second round
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
MISENHEIMER — Pfei er’s men’s lacrosse team opened the NCAA Division III Tournament with a second-half surge Wednesday afternoon, earning a 15-8 rst-round win over Transylvania at Lefko -Mills Field in Misenheimer.
The Falcons (16-2), selected as a host site for the opening round of the national tournament, advanced to Saturday’s second round against Christopher Newport in Newport News, Virginia.
That contest is scheduled for noon.
Pfei er entered the matchup on a 12-game winning streak after securing its fourth consecutive USA South Tournament championship with a 23-7 win over Southern Virginia on May 2. The conference tournament title was the Falcons’ fth in program history.
The Falcons also have won four straight USA South regular-season titles and have not lost a conference game since 2023.
“We are extremely proud of our student-athletes, coaches and sta for earning the right to compete at home in the NCAA Championship,” Pfei er athletic director Je Childress said prior to the win. “Hosting an NCAA postseason event is a tremendous honor for our university and a re ection of the
quality of our men’s lacrosse program and our athletics sta .”
Transylvania (12-5) entered the NCAA Tournament on a four-game winning streak after claiming the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship with a 23-0 shutout win over Hanover College on April 26. Pfei er set the tone early Wednesday, building a 5-1 lead after one quarter with ve di erent players nding the net. Transylvania answered in the second quarter, cutting the
Falcons’ lead to 8-6 by halftime. The Falcons regained control after the break, scoring ve unanswered goals to open the third quarter. Pfei er outscored the Pioneers 7-2 in the second half to pull away for the home victory.
Junior mid elder Trent Orr led Pfei er with three goals, while senior attacker Tiger Hopkins, sophomore attacker Dylan Sullivan, junior attacker Ethan Miles and senior mid elders Bashwyn Fitch and Will Rivera each scored twice.
Junior mid elder Collin Finley helped steady the Falcons’ o ense in the second half, recording two assists down the stretch, including the pass on Hopkins’ game-sealing fourth-quarter goal.
Senior goalkeeper Korbin Hamilton anchored Pfei er’s defensive e ort with 17 saves as Transylvania nished with 33 shots. The win gave Pfei er its rst NCAA Tournament victory since 2024 after the Falcons were eliminated in the rst round last season.
Pfei er’s Michael Keane (94) and Tiger Hopkins (23) celebrate during a Falcons win.
“We are extremely proud of our student-athletes, coaches and sta for earning the right to compete at home in the NCAA Championship.”
Je Childress, Pfei er athletic director
PJ WARD-BROWN/STANLY NEWS JOURNAL
Albemarle’s Adam Jordan hauls around the bases during the Bulldogs’ loss to South Stanly on April 16.
COURTESY PFEIFFER ATHLETICS
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 coowns 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 o side 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 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 n-
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 di-
visions. 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
ished 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.”
“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.”
Michelle
L. Malkin, ECU gambling research scholar
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.
CODY FROGGATT/PA VIA AP
Wrexham’s Josh Windass reacts at the end of the loss to Middlesbrough.
ANNIE RICE / AP PHOTO
Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, center, watches the school’s NFL football pro day.
Panthers RB Brooks’ faith helped him through father’s death, 2 torn ACLs
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
Sammie Lowder
North Stanly, softball
Sammie Lowder is a sophomore on the North Stanly softball team. She also plays volleyball and basketball.
The Comets opened the NCHSAA playo s as the No. 13 seed in class 3A and posted a 13-5 win over CHASE to advance. Lowder went 5 for 5 with a double, three runs scored and four RBIs.
For the season, Lowder leads North Stanly in all three triple crown categories, as well as doubles, triples and runs scored. She’s in the top 10 in NC Class 3A in slugging, home runs and RBIs.
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.”
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The former second-round pick got baptized
JACOB KUPFERMAN / AP PHOTO
Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks looks on before an NFL game last September.
Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks (24) lies on the ground and is seen by trainers after su ering a leg injury.
TERRANCE WILLIAMS / AP PHOTO
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CITY OF LOCUST
LOCUST, NC EAST BASIN GRAVITY OUTFALL
REPLACEMENT General Notice
City of Locust (Owner) is requesting Bids for the construction of the following Project: East Basin Gravity Outfall Replacement Bids for the construction of the Project will be received at the Joel Honeycutt Community Room in Locust City Hall located at 186 Ray Kennedy Drive, Locust, NC 28097, until Wednesday, June 10, 2026 at 2:00 PM local time. At that time the Bids received will be publicly opened and read.
The Project includes the following Work: Replacing +/-3,100-LF of 8” PVC Gravity Sewer with 2,870-LF 15” PVC Gravity Sewer & 230-LF of 16” DISP Gravity Sewer, eighteen (18) 4’ Diameter Manholes, 230-LF of 30” SCP, and other appurtenances.
The Project has an expected duration of 270 days.
Obtaining the Bidding Documents The Issuing O ce for the Bidding Documents is: Chambers Engineering, PA 129 N. First Street Albemarle, NC 28001 Prospective Bidders may obtain or examine the Bidding Documents at the Issuing O ce on Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30 AM –4:30 PM and may obtain copies of the Bidding Documents from the Issuing O ce as described below. Partial sets of Bidding Documents will not be available from the Issuing O ce. Neither Owner nor Engineer will be responsible for full or partial sets of Bidding Documents, including addenda, if any, obtained from sources other than the Issuing O ce. Bidding Documents may be purchased from the Issuing O ce during the hours indicated above. Upon Issuing O ce’s receipt of payment, electronic documents will be sent via the Issuing O ce’s designated website. Bidding Documents are available for purchase in the following formats:
Format: Electronic download of Bidding Documents from the Issuing O ce
Cost: Free
Prospective Bidders shall contact the Issuing O ce by phone at 704-984-6427 or by email at rcarter@ce-pa.com to request and obtain Bidding Documents.
Pre-bid Conference A pre-bid conference for the Project will NOT be held.
Instructions to Bidders For all further requirements regarding bid submittal, quali cations, procedures, and contract award, refer to the Instructions to Bidders that are included in the Bidding Documents.
The Owner reserves the right to reject any and all bids, as may in the judgement of the governing board, serve its best interest and further reserves the right to waive irregularities and informalities in any bid submitted.
This Advertisement is issued by:
Owner: City of Locust By: Cesar Correa
Title: City Manager Date: May 10, 2026
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as the Administrator of the Estate of Emory G. Hayman, late of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the Estate to present such claims to the undersigned Administratrix on or before the 31st 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 the 10th day of April, 2026.
Mark J. Hayman Administrator 218 Andrews Street Norwood, NC 28128
David A. Beaver
Attorney for the Administrator 160 N. First Street (P.O. Box 1338) Albemarle, NC 28001 (28002)
704-982-4915
Dates of publication: April 18 & 25 and May 2 & 9, 2026.
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as the Administrator of the Estate of Walter Charles Rideout, late of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the Estate to present such claims to the undersigned Administrator at 9512 Emory Grove Road, Gaithersburg, MD 28077-3502 on or before the 14th day of August, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment.
This the 29th day of April, 2026.
Lee Rideout Administrator of the Estate of Walter Charles Rideout 9512 Emory Grove Road Gaithersburg, MD 28077-3502
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned has quali ed as Administrator CTA of the
rms, or corporations having claims against said decedent, or his estate, to present the same to the undersigned Administrator, duly itemized and veri ed on or before the 26th day of July, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the said decedent are hereby requested to pay the said indebtedness to the undersigned Administrator. This the 16th day of April, 2026. Nancy Lee Administrator of the Estate of Chai Lee 32751 Valley Drive Albemarle, NC 28001 PUBLISH: April 26, May 3, 10, 17, 2026. James A. Phillips, Jr. Attorney for the Estate P.O. Box 1162 117 W. North Street Albemarle, NC 28002-1162
David A. Beaver Attorney for the Administrator 160 N. First Street (P.O. Box 1338) Albemarle, NC 28001 (28002) 704-982-4915
Dates of publication: May 9,16, 23 and 30, 2026
NOTICE NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 26E000173-830
NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having quali ed as Executrix of the estate of Barbara A. Pennington a/k/a Barbara Harrington Pennington deceased, of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate of said Barbara A. Pennington a/k/a Barbara Harrington Pennington to present them to the undersigned on or before July 26, 2026 or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make
Air conditioning battery program for renters could help cities manage grid stress during heat waves
Batteries can power AC units during peak hours, easing power grid strains
By Kiki Sideris
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — When a heat wave hits, millions of air conditioners switch on at once, straining the electric grid and driving up the risk of outages — and residents’ power bills. To ease that strain, power companies may ask customers to do something many probably won’t: Set the air conditioner a few degrees higher.
Now, a renter-friendly pilot program in New York City is testing a di erent approach: plug-in batteries that can power air conditioners o ine during peak demand, helping take pressure o the grid at its most stressed moments while still keeping residents cool.
“It’s basically a souped-up version of the power bank that you would use to charge your phone when you go out,” said Andrew Wang, the chief executive o cer of Every Electric, the company behind the pilot, which has partnered with the city’s energy company Con Edison.
The devices, about the size of a microwave, charge when electricity demand is low and then run window AC units for a few hours when demand spikes. It’s one of many partners participating in Con Edison’s demand response programs, which pay customers to reduce or shift electricity use to support the grid.
The pilot program is expanding to more than 1,000 homes this summer and participants can get rewarded in cash rebates.
Experts say the initiative reects the broader shift toward so-called virtual power plants, in which many small, distributed energy resources are coordinated to reduce strain during peak demand. When scaled, solutions like this could have a signi cant impact on power reliability and a ordability.
Why electricity gets pricier during heat events
When electricity demand spikes, utilities often turn to backup power plants that don’t run as often, and are typically less e cient and more polluting, said Kevin Brehm, a manager at RMI, a nonpro t that researches energy systems and the transition to clean power.
Over time, those spikes can push utilities to build more power plants, often fossil-fuel-based, to meet demand, with the costs eventually passed down to consumers.
“There’s a question of emissions, and then there’s also a really important question around a ordability,” said Brehm. That’s why power companies often ask residents to conserve energy during the hottest days of the year and set higher rates during peak hours to encourage people to conserve power. Those strategies “can be hard to rely on because they don’t know ex-
“It’s basically a souped-up version of the power bank that you would use to charge your phone when you go out.”
Andrew Wang, Every Electric chief executive o cer
actly how consumers are going to behave,” Brehm added. That’s where solutions like Every Electric’s can help.
Battery networks can take o pressure
Utilities and governments are increasingly looking for ways to manage rising electricity demand as heat waves become more frequent and intense.
One approach is Every Electric’s demand response program, which pays customers to reduce or shift electricity use
during periods of high demand.
Virtual power plant programs are another solution expanding state by state. They connect thousands of small energy devices, like home batteries or smart appliances, and coordinate them to send power back to the grid when demand spikes, easing strain without building new plants. California, for example, is working to develop one of the world’s largest, paying hundreds of thousands of participants to send stored energy back to the grid during extreme climate events. Most of these programs are limited to homeowners with solar panels.
Con Edison said batteries can help reduce peak demand, support renewable energy and lessen the need for new infrastructure.
Every Electric’s program works speci cally for people with window AC units, who are typically renters, though it does not export power back to the grid. Instead, it reduces de-
bidder shall be required to tender the full balance of the purchase price so bid in cash or certi ed check at the time the Substitute Trustee tenders to
mand by using stored battery power.
Still, Brehm said programs like it are part of the broader push to integrate consumer energy devices into the grid and reward the services they provide.
“I can’t put solar panels on my roof,” said Bianca Pasternack, a New York City renter enrolled in the program. “This is at least something that’s accessible and easy. It was very set-it-and-forget-it.”
Pilot program of plug-in batteries to AC units growing
The battery plugs into the AC unit, then into the wall outlet. It’s connected to a smartphone app that detects when demand is low, charging the battery during o -peak hours and using it to power the AC during peak times, usually from 1 to 4 p.m. or 4 to 8 p.m. during the hottest months.
Participants can also earn money for taking part, roughly the equivalent of the cost of a July electric bill, according to the company. Pasternack said she received a $100 gift card at the end of the season.
The company says its pilot is growing from about 200 kilowatts of exible capacity last year to roughly 2 megawatts this summer and could expand much further. By comparison, California’s program exceeds 200 megawatts. The company is looking to expand to other cities, Wang said.
Although Every Electric’s program currently operates at a small scale, Brehm says systems like this could meaningfully reduce strain on the grid if they reach enough households.
“It’s a matter of how we’re able to get to that scale,” he said, noting that widespread adoption is a key issue that depends on how easily the technology can be deployed and integrated into the grid. He added that Every Electric’s installation process is easily accessible.
“It’s plug and play, and you don’t need a ton of permissions.”
NOTICE
Stanly County Schools Exceptional Children’s Department Public Notice
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEAPart B, Public Law 108.446) Project is presently being amended. The Project describes the special education programs that Stanly County Schools proposes for Federal funding for the 2026-2027 School Year. Interested persons are encouraged to review amendments to the Project and comment on the implementation of special education under this Federal Program. All comments will be considered prior to submission of the amended Project to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh, North Carolina. The IDEA-Part B Project is open to the public for review and comments during the week of May 18 -May 22, 2026 in the o ce of Megan DePasquale, Executive Director of Exceptional Children’s Programs, located at 1121 Austin St, Albemarle, NC, 28001. Please call 704-961-5300 to schedule a time to review the Project.
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator for the Estate of Tab Dwain Little, deceased, late of Stanly County, NC. hereby noti es all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the said decedent to present to the undersigned on or before August 15, 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to said estate are noti ed to make immediate payment. Brittney Jordan Little, Administrator for the estate of Tab Dwain Little, Estate File 25e000407-830, c/o Jacob Shelton, Attorney at Law, PO Box 1385, Mt. Pleasant, NC 28144.
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. A cash deposit of 5% of the purchase price will be required at the time of the sale. Remote bidding will not be accepted pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes Section 45-21.25 (a). Credit bids on behalf of the Noteholder will be accepted. Any successful
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NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 26E000175-830 NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having quali ed as Administratrix of the estate of Debra Staton Furr deceased, of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate of said Debra Staton Furr to present them to the undersigned on or before July 26, 2026 or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment. This the 26th day of April 2026. Amanda Je ries 204 S. Love Chapel Road Stan eld, NC 28163 Administratrix
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE
SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 26E000142-830 NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having quali ed as Administratrix of the estate of Tommy Wayne Furr deceased, of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate of said Tommy Wayne Furr to present them to the undersigned on or before August 5, 2026 or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment. This the 3rd day of May 2026. Becky Furr Jenkins 2204 Quail Drive NC Concord, NC 28027 Administratrix
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 26E000033-830 NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having quali ed as Administrator of the
ALYSSA GOODMAN / AP PHOTO
Sonam Velani hooks up a battery from Every Electric to power an air conditioner as part of a pilot program with the city’s energy company Con Edison to reduce pressure on the electrical grid April 27 in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
famous birthdays this week
Steve Winwood turns 78, Dennis Rodman is 65, David Byrne turns 74, Janet Jackson is 60
THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.
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 Blow sh) is 60.
MAY 14
Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Pérez is 84. Filmmaker George Lucas is 82. Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis is 75. Musician David Byrne is 74. Actor Tim Roth is 65. Actor Cate Blanchett is 57. Filmmaker So a Coppola is 55. Former NFL running back Frank Gore is 43. Actor Amber Tamblyn is 43. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is 42.
MAY 15
Artist Jasper Johns is 96. Counterculture icon Wavy Gravy is 90. Actor-singer Lainie Kazan is 86. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson is 86. Musician Brian Eno is 78. Actor Chazz Palminteri is 74.
MAY 16
Actor Danny Trejo is 82. Actor Pierce Brosnan is 73. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Olga Korbut is 71. Baseball Hall of Famer Jack Morris is 71. Actor Debra Winger is 71. Singer Janet Jackson is 60.
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
Former Librarian of Congress Hayden cheered for Authors Guild honor
honorees
Other
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.
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.”
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.
Dave Grohl
JOHN LOCHER / AP PHOTO
Carla Hayden speaks at the Authors Guild Foundation Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.
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.
this week in history
Donner Party heads west, Lindbergh baby found, settlers establish Jamestown, Virginia
The Associated Press
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.
MAY 12
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.)
MAY 14
1607: Jamestown, the rst permanent English settlement in North America, was established by members of the Virginia Company.
1804: The Lewis and Clark expedition, organized to explore the Louisiana Territory and the Paci c Northwest, began its journey near present-day Hartford, Illinois.
1948: The independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv by David Ben-Gurion, who became its rst prime minister.
MAY 15
1800: President John Ad-
ams ordered government of-
ces to relocate from Philadelphia to the newly constructed city of Washington in the federal District of Columbia.
1862: President Abraham Lincoln signed an act establishing the Department of Agriculture.
1928: Mickey Mouse made his rst public appearance in a test screening of the short “Plane Crazy.” (He made his formal debut six months later in “Steamboat Willie.”)
MAY 16
1929: The rst Academy Awards were presented. “Wings” won Outstanding Picture, while Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor were named best actor and best actress.
1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising came to an end as German forces crushed the Jewish resistance and destroyed the Great Synagogue.
1966: The Chinese Communist Party issued the May 16 Noti cation, criticizing “counterrevolutionary revisionists” and marking the start of the Cultural Revolution.
JACQUES LANGEVIN / AP PHOTO
Singer Bob Marley performs during a concert in Bourget, Paris, in 1980.
WALLY FONG / AP PHOTO
Bobby Riggs, 55, hits a backhand against Australia’s Margaret Court, 30, during their widely publicized match in Ramona, California, on May 13, 1973. It was the rst match in what became known as the “Battle of the Sexes.”
