The East Albemarle water tower stands over East Main Street last Friday afternoon.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
FBI makes arrest in Jan. 6 pipe bombs investigation
Washington, D.C.
The FBI made an arrest on Thursday in its nearly 5-year- old investigation into pipe bombs placed outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. The arrest marks the rst time investigators have settled on a suspect in an act that had long vexed law enforcement, spawned a multitude of conspiracy theories and remained an enduring mystery in the shadow of the dark chapter of American history that is the violent Capitol siege. The suspect in custody has been identi ed as Brian Cole of Woodbridge, Virginia, a Washington suburb.
Average U.S. 30-year mortgage falls to 6.19%, near its lows for year
The average rate on a 30year U.S. mortgage fell again this week, slipping close to its low point so far this year. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average long-term mortgage rate dropped to 6.19% from 6.23% last week. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.69%. This is the second straight weekly drop in the average rate after three straight increases. Mortgage rates are in uenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and in ation.
Gibson, Whittaker elected to lead Stanly school board in 2026
Multiple nominations were made for both leadership roles
By Jesse Deal Stanly County Journal
ALBEMARLE — The Stanly County Board of Education elected Glenda Gibson as chair and Robin Whittaker as vice chair Tuesday night during its nal regular meeting of 2025, marking a change in leadership for the upcoming year.
Neither decision was unanimous, with both votes decided by secret ballot. For the chair position, board member Robin Whittaker nominated Gibson, while Meghan Almond nominated Carla Poplin. In the vice chair race, Poplin nominated Bill So -
renson, and Dustin Lisk nominated Whittaker.
Following the tally, Gibson and Whittaker emerged as the board’s new leaders for 2026; Whittaker and Lisk previously held those respective
roles for the 2025 calendar year.
After the results were announced, Gibson expressed gratitude for the board’s condence and emphasized collaboration moving forward.
“It’s a great honor to be nom-
Albemarle selects grand marshal for 2025 Christmas parade
The parade is scheduled for Dec. 13 at 4 p.m.
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — Following nominations from community members and an evaluation by a parade committee, the 2025 Albemarle Christmas Parade’s grand marshal has been o cially named. Martha Sue Hall will serve as theceremonial leader for the this year’s parade, which
“I am thrilled and honored to be the grand marshal of this year’s Christmas parade.”
inated and elected to serve as your board chair for the coming year,” Gibson said at the end of the meeting. “I’m humbled, and I appreciate your
Martha Sue Hall
COURTESY STANLYTV
The Stanly County Board of Education elected a new chair and vice chair on Tuesday night.
COURTESY CITY OF ALBEMARLE
Martha Sue Hall
grants awarded
Stanly Community Foundation gives nearly $50,000 to local nonpro ts
The Stanly County Community Foundation awarded $48,780 in grants this year to 16 local nonpro ts. The grants support programs in arts and culture, education, health, housing and shelter, human services and youth development.
The Stanly County Community Foundation, established in 1999 as a permanent endowment, is an a liate of Foundation For The Carolinas. For more, visit stanlycounty-cf.org.
This year’s recipients:
Bridge to Recovery
$5,000
Cases For a Cause
$2,000
Central NC Council, Scouting America
$2,500
Esther House of Stanly, Inc.
$5,000
GHA Autism Supports
$1,000
Girl Scouts, Hornets’ Nest Council
$2,500
Homes of Hope Inc.
$5,000
Least of These Carolinas
$2,400
CRIME
Nov. 25
• Patricia Epley Lowder, 35, was arrested for nonsupport of a child.
• Travis James Bennett, 33, was arrested for obtaining property by false pretense, uttering a forged instrument and attempted obtaining property by false pretense.
Nov. 26
• Norman Anthony Marsh, 51, was arrested for driving while impaired, possession of marijuana up to 1/2 ounce, possession of drug paraphernalia, carrying a concealed gun, speeding, no operator’s license and possession of controlled substance on jail premises.
Nov. 27
• Joshua Danerys Rosa Moran, 24, was arrested for driving while impaired, reckless
Rescue Unit of Stanly County
$1,000
Stanly Avengers
$5,000
Stanly Community Christian Ministry
$5,000
Stanly Community College
$3,000
Stanly County Arts Council
$2,000
Stanly County Family YMCA
$3,000
Stanly County Partnership For Children
$2,380
Uwharrie Players
$2,000
driving with wanton disregard and no operator’s license.
Nov. 28
• James Curtis Vanhoy, 50, was arrested for simple a ray, second degree trespass and assault with a deadly weapon.
Nov. 29
• Stacy Ann Cosgrove, 47, was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and maintaining a vehicle/dwelling for controlled substances.
Nov. 30
• Ann Michelle Beacham, 55, was arrested for maintaining a vehicle/dwelling for controlled substances, tra cking in opium or heroin, possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Dec.
7
Breakfast
The
2025
Now Through Jan. 3 From
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
When a crime burns up the narrative
MaGee’s skin color didn’t give her any special advantages on that train car.
IF THE RACES were reversed, Bethany MaGee would be as well known as George Floyd.
MaGee, 26, was recently riding on the L train in Chicago. As she was sitting there, police believe Lawrence Reed, 50, came up behind her and dumped gasoline on her. Despite her attempt to ee, Reed set her on re. She rolled on the ground in a vain attempt to put out the ames. When the train arrived at the station, she left the car while still being burned alive. Two Good Samaritans came to her aid, putting out the re. She survived but su ered severe burns. She faces a long and daunting recovery.
Somehow, this crime gets even more outrageous. Reed had already been arrested 72 times. Yes, you read that correctly. Since 2016, he has been arrested more than 20 times. He previously pleaded guilty to nine felonies.
Just three months before this attack, Reed was in custody. At an August hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Jerrilyn Gumila urged Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez to keep Reed behind bars. Gumila laid out how, three days before the hearing, Reed had knocked a social worker unconscious.
Electronic monitoring “could not protect the victim or the community from another vicious, random and
spontaneous attack,” the prosecutor said.
“I understand your position, but I can’t keep everybody in jail because the state’s attorney wants me to,” MolinaGonzalez said.
She released Reed with electronic monitoring. It didn’t stop him from allegedly setting MaGee on re.
This should be a major national story for at least three reasons. First, the details of the crime are shocking and appalling. The victim is even an attractive young woman, which the propaganda press usually craves. Second, there’s a major scandal here. Police had a career criminal in custody. A judge let him go, despite a prosecutor’s warning that he was a danger. Third, President Donald Trump has been sparring with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson over the city’s safety. In October, Trump even sent the National Guard to Chicago.
A search of The New York Times website for “Bethany MaGee,” however, yielded zero results, as of this writing. The Washington Post didn’t have any either. Days after it occurred, NBC Nightly News nally mentioned it, but used the attack to take a swipe at Trump.
They’re silent because this crime doesn’t t the left’s narrative. It wants you to believe that the criminal justice
system is systemically racist against African Americans. What matters is someone’s group identity, not individual actions. White Americans have special privilege.
This one case shows how laughable those claims are. Reed wasn’t jailed for being black. He was coddled by the justice system despite dozens of arrests. Critical race theory proponents lump people into groups based on their skin tone. They claim that black people are the victims, while white people are the oppressors. Yes, their worldview requires believing that the woman who was set on re was the oppressor. It’s easier to ignore this story than explain that absurdity.
MaGee’s skin color didn’t give her any special advantages on that train car. It didn’t protect Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska when Decarlos Brown Jr. allegedly stabbed her, either. She didn’t have much privilege when most of her fellow passengers ignored her as she bled to death.
America’s criminal justice system has a systemic problem, but it isn’t white supremacy. It’s the judges and prosecutors who protect criminals instead of the public.
Victor Joecks is a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and host of the “Sharpening Arrows” podcast.
A two-pronged Democratic strategy for 2028
The party has distanced itself from earlier calls to disband Immigration and Customs Enforcement or defund the police.
DEMOCRATS APPEAR to have settled on a dual strategy heading into the 2028 election: Sow doubt within the military ranks and present a slate of candidates who project moderation.
The rst prong centers on an emerging talking point — one that suggests members of the armed forces should question whether orders coming from the Trump administration are legal. Figures such as Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin have warned servicemembers that following an “illegal order” could lead to punishment, yet they have o ered no clear de nition of what constitutes such an order.
The result is a manufactured Catch-22: Follow orders now and risk a future Democrat administration declaring them retroactively unlawful, exposing personnel to court-martial. The ambiguity itself becomes a destabilizing tool.
This, the argument goes, forms the core of the Democrats’ “chaos strategy”: cultivating mistrust around the chain of command.
The second prong is more traditional politics — positioning an entire bench of Democratic hopefuls as pragmatic centrists. In the wake of President Donald Trump’s second-term victory, the question was whether the party
would move further toward the Zohran Mamdani wing of the left or tack back toward the middle. Early signs suggest the latter.
Topics that once dominated Democratic rhetoric — transgender issues, DEI, “equity” — have faded from prominence. Even on immigration, the party has distanced itself from earlier calls to disband Immigration and Customs Enforcement or defund the police. Now Democrats argue that Trump is mostly right about the southern border while accusing him of overreach in prosecuting nonviolent migrants.
The shift toward moderation is visible again in the controversy surrounding Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. A report in The Washington Post claimed the White House, through Hegseth, had ordered the killing of narco-tra ckers who were already disabled and oating in the water — an action that would violate the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit harming combatants who are out of combat.
The White House responded with a statement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to
lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war. With respect to the strikes in question on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral (Frank) Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
A subsequent New York Times report appeared to back o the original claim, suggesting Hegseth had not issued a blanket kill order for incapacitated individuals.
The sequence looked engineered: thinly sourced allegations, followed by clari cations, all feeding a narrative that the Trump administration is reckless — and that only a sober, seasoned Democrat, perhaps someone like Kelly, can restore order.
The broader suggestion is that Democrats understand the electoral limits of their most progressive positions. They may champion them privately, but they are unlikely to run on them. Instead, they will wait until they regain power before turning the taps fully back on.
Ben Shapiro is host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and co-founder of Daily Wire+.
COLUMN | VICTOR JOECKS
COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO
IN MEMORY
TRAN HUU THUAN
NOV. 15, 1958 – NOV. 28, 2025
Tran Huu Thuan, 67, of Albemarle, passed away Friday, November 28, 2025, at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
Mr. Tran was born on November 15, 1958, in Vietnam to the late Tran Phat Hieu and the late Do Thi Ut.
Survivors include his beloved wife of 44 years, Ninh Thi Phuong; daughter, Tran Thi Bich Tram; daughter, Tran Thi Bao Tram and husband, Nguyen Vu Bao Quoc; son, Tran Huu Hoa and wife, Doan Bich Thuy; and seven grandchildren.
Barbara Jean (Taylor) Drye
April 17, 1936 ~ January 14, 2023
Barbara Jean Taylor Drye, 86, of Oakboro, passed away Saturday, January 14, 2023 at her home.
Dwight Farmer
Tom Stoppard, sparkling playwright who won Oscar for ‘Shakespeare In Love,’ dead at 88
His plays won ve Tony awards for “Best Play” in ve di erent decades
James Roseboro
The family will receive friends from 10-11:45 a.m., Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at Hartsell Funeral Home of Albemarle. The visitation will be livestreamed: webcast. The funeral mass will follow at noon at Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Church in Albemarle.
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.
January 24, 1939 ~ January 15, 2023
Dwight Britten Farmer Sr., 83, of Norwood died Sunday morning, January 15, 2023 at Forrest Oakes.
LANNY LEE CRANFORD
JUNE 10, 1941 – NOV. 29, 2025
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.
Lanny Lee Cranford, 84, of Albemarle, passed away Saturday, November 29, 2025, at Atrium Health Stanly Hospital in Albemarle.
Lanny was born June 10, 1941, in North Carolina to the late Charlie Lee Cranford and the late Velma Cranford.
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.
He was also preceded in death by his brothers, Jerry and Robert Daniel Cranford, and his daughter, Donna Forsythe.
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.
The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m., Thursday, December 4, 2025, at Hartsell Funeral Home in Albemarle. A graveside service will be on Friday, December 5, 2025, at 1 p.m. at Palestine Cemetery in Albemarle, o ciated by Rev. Carroll Flack.
Dwight was an avid gardener, bird watcher and Carolina fan.
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.
Lanny was a wonderful husband, father and paw-paw. He was a lifetime member of Palestine Church for 47 years, where he was dedicated to teaching the word of God and living it. He loved his church and would spend many a day caring for its yard maintenance. Lanny enjoyed playing softball for the church and was a Boston Celtics, Boston Red Socks and Carolina Basketball fan. He also enjoyed watching birds at his numerous bird feeders. But Lanny’s most cherished memories were all the times that he got to spend with his family.
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.
Survivors include wife, Nancy Cranford; son Chris Cranford; daughter, Kathy (Doug) Blalock; ve grandchildren; six greatgrandchildren; brother, Doug (Debbie) Cranford; sister, Jane D. (Don) Smith.
Donations may be made to Palestine Community Church of Albemarle, NC.
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.
FREDRICK DOUGLAS RUSH SR.
SEPT. 11, 1948 – NOV. 30, 2025
Fredrick Douglas Rush Sr., 77, of Albemarle, passed away early Sunday morning, November 30, 2025.
The family will have a private ceremony.
Frederick was born on September 11, 1948, in Stanly County to the late Johnny Gar eld Sr. and Gertrude Threadgill Rush. He attended Kingville High School and was a member of The Elks Lodge #227. He was an avid drag racing fan.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his son, Fasto McLendon, and siblings, Gar eld Rush and Sylvia Elaine Rush.
He is survived by his children: Latwanya Lewis (Alfonzo) of New London; Ellis Daniels of Laurel, MD; Carmen Rush of Albemarle, and Fredrick D. Rush Jr. of Albemarle; 24 grandchildren: Deshera, Jamale, August, Marquette, Jaylin, Kaylin, Elijah, MaKenzie, Dash, Jayson, Nezzie, Carson, Jacolby, Kyleigh, Malika, Kaitlyn, Kristen, Carmen, Kadence, Kaziah, Amora, Adalyn, King, and Felix; 12 great-grandchilren; and his best friends: Walter Wall, Bobby Rorie, Sheila Krone, Donna Wall, Joe Fred Ledbetter and Kenneth Chambers.
In Lieu of owers, the family requests memorials to be made to Kingville High School Alumni.
Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in SCJ at obits@stanlyjournal.com Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in Stanly News Journal at obits@stanlynewsjournal.com
June 23, 1967 ~ January 10, 2023
By Jill Lawless The Associated Press
James Arthur Roseboro, 55, of Albemarle, passed away Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at Anson Health and Rehab.
LONDON — British playwright Tom Stoppard, a playful, probing dramatist who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s “Shakespeare In Love,” has died. He was 88.
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.
In a statement Saturday, United Agents said the Czechborn Stoppard — often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation — died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southwest England, surrounded by his family.
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.
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.
“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” they said. “It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger was among those paying tribute, calling Stoppard “a giant of the English theater, both highly intellectual and very funny in all his plays and scripts.
“He had a dazzling wit and loved classical and popular music alike which often featured in his huge body of work,” said Jagger, who produced the 2001 lm “Enigma,” with a screenplay by Stoppard. “He was amusing and quietly sardonic. A friend and companion and I will always miss him.”
King Charles III said Stoppard was “a dear friend who wore his genius lightly.”
Theaters in London’s West End dimmed their lights for two minutes on Tuesday in tribute.
Brain-teasing plays
Darrick Baldwin
January 7, 1973 ~ January 8, 2023
Over a six-decade career, Stoppard’s brain-teasing plays for theater, radio and screen ranged from Shakespeare and science to philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century.
Five of them won Tony Awards for best play: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 1968; “Travesties” in 1976; “The Real Thing” in 1984; “The Coast of Utopia” in 2007; and “Leopoldstadt” in 2023.
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.
Stoppard biographer Hermione Lee said the secret of his plays was their “mixture of language, knowledge and feeling. … It’s those three things in gear together which make him so remarkable.”
He was educated in the Stanly County public schools and attended Albemarle Senior High School, Albemarle.
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.
The writer was born Tomás Sträussler in 1937 to a Jewish family in Zlín in what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. His father was a doctor for the Bata shoe company, and when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939 the family ed to Singapore, where Bata had a factory.
In late 1941, as Japanese forces closed in on the city state, Tomas, his brother and their mother ed again, this time to India. His father stayed behind and later died when his ship was attacked
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.
(1997) explored classical literature and the mysteries of the human heart through the life of the English poet A.E. Housman.
Doris Jones Coleman
October 11, 1944 - January 10, 2023
Stoppard began the 21st century with “The Coast of Utopia” (2002), an epic trilogy about prerevolutionary Russian intellectuals, and drew on his own background for “Rock ’n’ Roll” (2006), which contrasted the fates of the 1960s counterculture in Britain and in Communist Czechoslovakia.
“The Hard Problem” (2015) explored the mysteries of consciousness through the lenses of science and religion.
Free-speech champion
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!
as he tried to leave Singapore. In 1946, his mother married an English o cer, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to threadbare postwar Britain. The 8-year-old Tom “put on Englishness like a coat,” he later said, growing up to be a quintessential Englishman who loved cricket and Shakespeare. He did not go to university but began his career, aged 17, as a journalist on newspapers in Bristol, southwest England, and then as a theater critic for Scene magazine in London.
Tragedy and humor
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.
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.
Stoppard was a strong champion of free speech who worked with organizations including PEN and Index on Censorship. He claimed not to have strong political views otherwise, writing in 1968: “I burn with no causes. I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really.”
Some critics found his plays more clever than emotionally engaging. But biographer Lee said his “very funny, witty plays” contained a “sense of underlying grief.”
“People in his plays … history comes at them,” Lee said at a British Library event in 2021. “They turn up, they don’t know why they’re there, they don’t know whether they can get home again.”
Doris married Rev. Dr. Ted Coleman in 1966 and had two daughters Amy and Laura. Doris raised Amy and Laura in North Augusta, SC. 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.
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 wrote plays for radio and television, including “A Walk on the Water,” televised in 1963, and made his stage breakthrough with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” which reimagined Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from the viewpoint of two hapless minor characters. A mix of tragedy and absurdist humor, it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966 and was staged at Britain’s National Theatre, then run by Laurence Olivier, before moving to Broadway.
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.
That was especially true of his late play “Leopoldstadt,” which drew on his own family’s story for the tale of a Jewish Viennese family over the rst half of the 20th century. Stoppard said he began thinking of his personal link to the Holocaust quite late in life, only discovering after his mother’s death in 1996 that many members of his family, including all four grandparents, had died in concentration camps.
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. 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.
A stream of exuberant, innovative plays followed, including meta-whodunnit “The Real Inspector Hound” ( rst staged in 1968); “Jumpers” (1972), a blend of physical and philosophical gymnastics, and “Travesties” (1974), which set intellectuals including James Joyce and Vladimir Lenin colliding in Zurich during World War I. Musical drama “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor” (1977) was a collaboration with composer Andre Previn about a Soviet dissident con ned to a mental institution — part of Stoppard’s long involvement with groups advocating for human rights groups in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He often played with time and structure. “The Real Thing” (1982) was a poignant romantic comedy about love and deception that featured plays within a play, while “Arcadia” (1993) moved between the modern era and the early 19th century, where characters at an English country house debated poetry, gardening and chaos theory as fate had its way with them.
“The Invention of Love”
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.
“It would be misleading to see me as somebody who blithely and innocently, at the age of 40-something, thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I had no idea I was a member of a Jewish family,’” he told The New Yorker in 2022. “Of course I knew, but I didn’t know who they were. And I didn’t feel I had to nd out in order to live my own life. But that wasn’t really true.”
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.
Dizzyingly proli c, Stoppard also wrote many radio plays, a novel, television series including “Parade’s End” (2013) and many lm screenplays. These included dystopian Terry Gilliam comedy “Brazil” (1985), Steven Spielberg-directed war drama “Empire of the Sun” (1987), Elizabethan romcom “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) — for which he and Marc Norman shared a best adapted screenplay Oscar — code breaking thriller “Enigma” and Russian epic “Anna Karenina” (2012). He also wrote and directed a 1990 lm adaptation of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” and translated numerous works into English.
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.
EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP
Tom Stoppard poses with the award for best play for “Leopoldstadt” at the Tony Awards in June 2023.
He met her at a recording studio in
The Associated Press
JOAN BRANSON, the wife of British billionaire Richard Branson, has died at age 80.
The business magnate announced his wife’s death last Tuesday on social media. No other details were disclosed.
“Heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away,” he said. “She was the most wonderful mum and grandmum our kids and grandkids could have ever wished for. She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world.”
Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Atlantic airline, space tourism company Virgin Galactic and satellite launcher Virgin Orbit.
In a 2020 blog post, he said he met Joan in 1976 at The Manor, a recording studio in Oxfordshire, England.
“Joan was a down-to-earth
Scottish lady and I quickly realised she wouldn’t be impressed by my usual antics,” Branson wrote.
He said she worked at an antique shop that sold old signs and advertisements.
“I hovered uncertainly out-
British business magnate Richard Branson, right, appears with his wife, Joan Templeman, during a 2018 ceremony honoring him with a star on LA’s Hollywood Walk of Fame.
side the shop, then built up the courage to walk in. ... Over the next few weeks, my visits to Joan amassed me an impressive collection of old hand painted tin signs, which advertised anything from Hovis bread to Woodbine cigarettes,” Branson wrote.
The couple had three children, Holly, Sam and Clare Sarah. Clare Sarah died shortly after birth in 1979.
World War II and D-Day
Charles Shay, D-Day veteran who saved lives on Omaha Beach, dead at 101
He was awarded the Silver Star and France’s Legion of Honor
By Sylvie Corbet and Je rey Schae er The Associated Press
PARIS — Charles Shay, a decorated Native American veteran who was a 19-year- old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and helped save lives, died on Wednesday. He was 101. Shay died at his home in Bretteville-L’Orgueilleuse in France’s Normandy region, his longtime friend and carer Marie-Pascale Legrand said. Shay, of the Penobscot tribe and from Indian Island in the U.S. state of Maine, was awarded the Silver Star for repeatedly plunging into the sea and carrying critically wounded soldiers to relative safety, saving them from drowning. He also received France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, in 2007.
Shay had been living in France since 2018, not far from the shores of Normandy where nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and other nations landed on D-Day on June 6, 1944. The Battle of Normandy hastened Germany’s defeat, which came less than a year later.
“He passed away peacefully surrounded by his loved ones,” Legrand told The Associated Press.
The Charles Shay Memorial group, which honors the memory of about 500 Native Americans who landed on the Normandy beaches, said in a statement posted on Facebook that “our hearts are deeply saddened as we share that our beloved Charles Norman Shay … has returned home to the Creator and the Spirit World.”
“He was an incredibly loving father, grandfather, fatherin-law, and uncle, a hero to many, and an overall amazing human being,” the statement said. “Charles leaves a legacy of love, service, courage, spirit, duty and family that continues to shine brightly.”
Ready to give his life
On D-Day, 4,414 Allied troops lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded. Shay survived.
“I guess I was prepared to give my life if I had to. Fortunately, I did not have to,” Shay said in a 2024 interview with The Associated Press.
“I had been given a job, and the way I looked at it, it was up to me to complete my job,” he recalled. “I did not have time to worry about my situation of being there and perhaps losing my life. There was no time for this.”
On that night, exhausted, he eventually fell asleep in a grove above the beach.
“When I woke up in the morning. It was like I was sleeping in a graveyard because there were dead Americans and Germans surrounding me,” he recalled. “I stayed there for not very long and I continued on my way.”
Shay then pursued his mission in Normandy for several weeks, rescuing those wounded, before heading with American troops to eastern France and Germany, where he was taken prisoner in March 1945 and liberated a few weeks later.
Spreading a message of peace
After World War II, Shay reenlisted in the military because the situation of Native Americans in his home state of Maine was too precarious due to poverty and discrimination. Maine would not allow individuals living on Native American reservations to vote until 1954.
Shay continued to witness history — returning to combat as a medic during the Korean War, participating in U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands and later working at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.
For more than 60 years, he did not talk about his WWII experience.
But he began attending D-Day commemorations in 2007, and in recent years, he has seized many occasions to give his powerful testimony and spread a message of peace.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, Shay’s lone presence marked commemoration ceremonies as travel restrictions prevented other veterans or families of fallen soldiers from the U.S., Britain and other allied countries from making the trip to France.
Sadness at seeing war back in Europe
For years, Shay used to perform a sage-burning ceremony, in homage to those who died, on a blu overlooking Omaha Beach, where the monument bearing his name now stands.
On June 6, 2022, he handed over the remembrance task to another Native American, Julia Kelly, a Gulf War veteran from the Crow tribe. That was just over three months after Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine in what was to become the worst war on the continent since 1945.
Shay then expressed his sadness at seeing war back on the continent.
“Ukraine is a very sad situation. I feel sorry for the people there and I don’t know why this war had to come,” he said. “In 1944, I landed on these beaches, and we thought we’d bring peace to the world. But it’s not possible.”
CHRIS PIZZELLO / INVISION / AP
VIRGINIA MAYO / AP PHOTO
veteran Charles Norman Shay, from Maine, poses at the Charles Shay monument on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France in May 2019.
Next-generation cars could be somewhat cheaper as a result
By Matthew Daly and Alexa St. John The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a proposal to weaken vehicle mileage rules for the auto industry, loosening regulatory pressure on automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and trucks.
The plan, if nalized next year, would signi cantly reduce fuel economy requirements, which set rules on how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline, through the 2031 model year. The administration and automakers say the rules will increase Americans’ access to the full range of gasoline vehicles they need and can a ord.
The National Highway Tra c Safety Administration projects that the new standards would set the industry eetwide average for light-duty vehicles at roughly 34.5 miles per gallon in the 2031 model year, down from a projected 50.4 miles per gallon in 2031 under the Biden-era rule.
The move is the latest action by the Trump administration to reverse Biden-era policies that encouraged cleaner-running cars and trucks, including electric vehicles, and it sparked criticism from environmental groups. Burning gasoline for vehicles is a major contributor to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
“From day one I’ve been taking action to make buying a car more a ordable.” Trump said at a White House event that included top executives from two of the largest U.S. automakers. The rule reverses a Biden-era policy that “forced automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs, drove up prices and made the car much worse,” Trump said.
The action is expected to save consumers about $1,000 o the price of a new car, Trump said.
New cars sold for an average of $49,766 in October, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Automakers applauded the planned changes, which came amid industry complaints that the Biden-era rules were dicult to meet.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said the planned rollback was “a win for customers and common sense.”
“As America’s largest auto producer, we appreciate Pres-
ident Trump’s leadership in aligning fuel economy standards with market realities. We can make real progress on carbon emissions and energy eciency while still giving customers choice and a ordability,” he said.
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said the automaker appreciates the administration’s actions to “realign” the mileage standards “with real world market conditions.”
Since taking o ce in January, Trump has relaxed auto tailpipe emissions rules, repealed nes for automakers that do not meet federal mileage standards and terminated consumer credits of up to $7,500 for EV purchases.
Environmentalists decried the rollback.
“In one stroke Trump is worsening three of our nation’s most vexing problems: the thirst for oil, high gas pump costs and global warming,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign for the Center for Biological Diversity.
“Gutting the (gas-mileage) program will make cars burn more gas and American families burn more cash,’’ said Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All program. “This rollback would move the auto industry backwards, keeping polluting cars on our roads for years to come and threatening
the health of millions of Americans, particularly children and the elderly.”
“People want the gasoline car”
Trump has repeatedly pledged to end what he calls an EV “mandate,” referring to Democratic President Joe Biden’s target that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. EVs accounted for about 8% of new vehicle sales in the United States in 2024, according to Cox Automotive.
Trump called Democrats’ efforts to promote EVs “insane,” adding, “People want the gasoline car.”
No federal policy has required auto companies to sell EVs, although California and other states have imposed rules requiring that all new passenger vehicles sold in the state be zero-emission by 2035. Trump and congressional Republicans blocked the California law earlier this year.
Transportation Secretary Sean Du y urged his agency to reverse existing fuel economy requirements, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, soon after taking o ce. In June, he said that standards set under Biden were illegal because they included use of electric vehicles in their calculation. EVs do not run on gasoline. After the June rule revision, the tra c safety administration was empowered to update the requirements.
The new rules “are going to allow the automakers to make vehicles that Americans want to purchase, not vehicles that Joe Biden and (former Transportation Secretary Pete) Buttigieg want to build,” Du y said Wednesday. Under Biden, automakers were required to average about 50 miles per gallon of gas for passenger cars by 2031, compared with about 39 miles per gallon today. The Biden administration also increased fuel-economy requirements by 2% each year for light-duty vehicles in every model year from 2027 to 2031, and 2% per year for SUVs and other light trucks from 2029 to 2031. At the same time, it called for stringent tailpipe rules meant to encourage EV adoption.
The 2024 standards would have saved 14 billion gallons of gasoline from being burned by 2050, according to the trafc safety administration’s 2024 calculations. Abandoning them means that in 2035, cars could produce 22,111 more tons of carbon dioxide per year than under the Biden-era rules. It also means an extra 90 tons a year of deadly soot particles and 4,870 additional tons a year of smog components such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds going into the air in coming years.
Mileage rules have been implemented since the 1970s energy crisis, and over time, automakers have gradually increased their vehicles’ average e ciency.
Putin says he can’t agree to certain points in US proposal to bring end to Ukraine war
Steve Witko and Jared Kushner met with the Russian president in Moscow
By Dasha Litvinova
The Associated Press
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways o .
U.S. President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the ghting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. But the e ort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witko , and son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected to meet later Thursday with the Ukrainian delegation led by Rustem Umerov following the Americans’ discussions with Putin at the Kremlin.
Putin said his ve-hour talks Tuesday with Witko and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful” but also “di cult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.
Putin spoke to the India Today TV channel before he landed Thursday in New Delhi for a state visit. Ahead of the broadcast of the full interview, Russian state news agencies Tass
and RIA Novosti quoted some of his remarks.
Tass quoted Putin as saying that in Tuesday’s talks, the sides “had to go through each point” of the U.S. peace proposal, “which is why it took so long.”
“This was a necessary conversation, a very concrete one,” he said, with provisions that Moscow was ready to discuss, while others “we can’t agree to.”
Trump said Wednesday that Witko and Kushner came away from the marathon session con dent that Putin wants to nd an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he added.
Putin refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other ocials involved o ered details of the talks.
“I think it is premature. Because it could simply disrupt the working regime” of the peace effort, Tass quoted Putin as saying.
European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as U.S. o cials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump’s peace drive.
French President Emmanuel Macron met in Beijing with China’s leader Xi Jinping, seeking to involve him in pressuring Russia toward a cease re.
Xi, whose country has provided strong diplomatic support for Putin, did not say respond to France’s call but said that “China supports all e orts that work towards peace.”
Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday.
A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.
The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.
“Their impression was very strongly that (Putin would) like to make a deal.”
President Donald Trump
A 6-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said. Authorities planned emergency meetings to nd alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.
Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration. Overall, Russia red two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, o cials said. Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said.
GRIGORY SYSOYEV, SPUTNIK, KREMLIN POOL PHOTO VIA AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sit inside a limousine after arriving at the Palam Air Base in New Delhi, India, on Thursday.
Marine robotics rm will resume deep-sea search for MH370 plane that vanished decade ago
They have a new “no- nd, no-fee” contract with Malaysia
The Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR, Malay-
sia — Malaysia’s transport ministry said Wednesday that a private rm will resume a deep-sea hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 later this month, more than a decade after the jet vanished without a trace.
The search will be carried out by Texas-based marine robotics rm Ocean In nity, which signed a new “no- nd, no-fee” contract with Malaysia’s government in March.
It is unclear if the company has new evidence of the plane’s location. Ocean In nity CEO Oliver Punkett reportedly said last year that the company had improved its technology since 2018, when the rm made its rst seabed search operation under a similar deal and found
PARADE from page A1 is scheduled for Dec. 13 at 4 p.m. in downtown Albemarle.
The annual Albemarle Christmas Parade will feature festive oats, school and community groups, and holiday performances throughout downtown.
“I am thrilled and honored to be the grand marshal of this year’s Christmas parade,” Hall said. “I want to personally invite you to come out and celebrate the season with us in downtown Albemarle. You’ll see creative entries from local schools, churches, businesses and community groups, with each one full of holiday cheer. And yes, there will be plenty of candy for the kids and kids at heart. Just bring your family and friends to join in this holiday tradition.”
Hall has served on the Albemarle City Council for 22 years, including as mayor pro tem
BOARD from page A1
con dence in me. Congratulations to Ms. Whitaker for being elected vice chair. To everybody that’s on this board, I look forward to working with you. I know you work hard, and I thank you for your dedication and your commitment to ensuring the best educational outcomes that we can possibly have for our students in Stanly County Schools. That is what it’s all about — it’s for our students.”
Whittaker, who led the board throughout 2025, re ected on her experience as chair and said she looks forward to continuing in a supportive role next year.
nothing. Punkett has said the rm is working with many experts to analyze data and had narrowed the search area to the most likely site.
Earlier this year the rm restarted the seabed search operation at a new 5,800-square-mile site in the Indian Ocean after Malaysia’s government gave it the greenlight, but the search was halted in April due to bad weather.
Ocean In nity will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.
The Boeing 777 plane disappeared from radar shortly after taking o on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a ight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its ight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any
since 2015. Before joining the city council, she served six years on the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, where she became the rst woman ever elected to the board.
“Hall has dedicated her life to public service and community leadership,” the city said in a statement. “Her selection as grand marshal honors decades of tireless work on behalf of Albemarle, Stanly County and communities across North Carolina.”
Her resume includes serving on the Centralina Regional Council of Government’s Executive Board, the League’s Board of Directors and its Risk Management Board of Trustees.
For the past 18 years, Hall has also been a member of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force, chairing the Unintentional Death Prevention Subcommittee for the past 12 years.
“I urge any board members that if you have an opportunity to chair the board, it really gives you a di erent perspective of things,” Whittaker said. “I feel like we had a good year, made some progress and moved forward, but I am looking forward to stepping down and moving into the role of vice chair. I’m excited to be able to serve under Ms. Gibson, and I just want to thank her for her willingness to lead the board again. I know she’s chaired the board in the past.”
In her closing comments, Whittaker also looked ahead to the upcoming 2026 election cycle, calling on the community to support county commis-
clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands. Apart from those small fragments, no bodies or wreckage have ever been found.
Malaysia’s transport ministry said in a brief statement Wednesday that Ocean In nity will search intermittently from Dec. 30 for a total of 55 days, in targeted areas believed to have the highest likelihood of nding the missing aircraft.
“The latest development underscores the government of Malaysia’s commitment in providing closure to the families a ected by this tragedy,” it said.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, “We ... appreciate the e orts made by the Malaysian side.”
Ocean In nity declined to comment on the search Wednesday in response to an Associated Press email requesting details.
Hall retired in 2014 after more than 30 years with the North Carolina Administrative O ce of the Courts, where she helped develop and implement programs such as Drug Treatment Courts, Family Court, Truancy Court and the Guardian ad Litem Program.
In recognition of her service, she received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine — one of North Carolina’s highest honors — that same year.
In May, Hall was elected president of the North Carolina League of Municipalities, representing more than 540 towns, cities and villages statewide; she is the rst person from Albemarle to hold that statewide leadership role.
This past October, she was presented the Vann Langston Public Service Award from the Retired Government Employees Association.
sioner candidates who will prioritize public education.
“This county can’t a ord to be stagnant. Our students deserve better and our county deserves better,” she said. “We’re far behind where we should be, and adequate funding is critical for this school system to move forward. My commitment is going to remain the same: to push this board forward and for us to keep moving. We need the funds, but we will nd the way to do what we need to do.”
The Stanly County Board of Education’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Jan. 6 at 6:15 p.m. in the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons.
STANLY SPORTS
South Stanly freshman runner honored after historic state title
Kenadie Baker won the NCHSAA 2A state championship
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — A state champion runner from South Stanly High School was recognized Tuesday night during the Stanly County Board of Education meeting. Superintendent Jarrod Dennis introduced freshman Kenadie Baker, allowing her to meet and shake hands with members
of the school board in celebration of the NCHSAA 2A girls’ cross-country individual title she achieved on Oct. 31.
With the win, Baker became the rst girls’ cross-country state champion in Stanly County history and just the second individual cross-country state champion from the county.
“Her hard work, determination and unwavering commitment have paved the way for this remarkable achievement,” Stanly County Schools said in a statement. “Kenadie was formally recognized at last night’s Board of Education meeting, where she
Pfei er women open USA South play with 3 consecutive wins
The Falcons are 5-2 to start the 2025-26 season
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
MISENHEIMER — The Pfei er University women’s basketball team has opened its 18-game USA South Athletic Conference slate with a statement.
The Falcons (5-2, 3-0 USA South) sit atop the league standings two weeks into conference play, aiming for the program’s rst winning season since 2017-18.
Under third-year head coach Vontreece Hayes, Pfei er is building o last season’s 11-13 nish that included an 8-8 conference mark and fth-place standing. This year, the Falcons’ renewed energy has translated to results early, notching ve wins by the rst week of December.
Pfei er opened conference play Nov. 22 with an 87-77 win at Greensboro, followed by a 76-53 home victory over Salem
“We are reaching for really high goals this year.”
Vontreece Hayes, Pfei er coach
three days later. On Tuesday, the Falcons downed Meredith 67-44 in Misenheimer, extending their league streak to three games. Meredith outscored Pfei er 21-17 in the opening quarter, but the Falcons’ defense clamped down, holding the Angels to just two points in the second. Junior guard Lola Cabaniss-Ali lled the box score with 12 points, seven rebounds and ve steals while leading a defensive turnaround that halted Meredith’s early momentum.
“In the second quarter, I think it was our coach,” said Cabaniss-Ali, Pfei er’s leading rebounder at six boards per game. “She wanted us to give more. We’ve been working on that in practice. We came prepared, poised and com-
“You have to have that dedication and athleticism to do what she did.”
Vicky Watson, Stanly County Board of Education member
was celebrated for this extraordinary milestone and the inspiration she brings to our schools and community. Way to go, state champion!”
Baker’s winning time of 18:17.44 at the 2A girls’ championship in Kernersville was nearly 10 seconds faster than runner-up Annie Lewis of Swain County. Her performance also ranked as the 13th-fastest time overall among all eight classications that weekend.
The South Stanly standout completed an undefeated 2025 season, posting wins at the Carolinas Kicko , Hare and Hounds, and the Stanly County Championships. Her dominance came despite an unexpected setback.
Just two weeks before the 2A
Central Regional, Baker was struck by a vehicle while running in Norwood, su ering an injury to her left foot that led to bruising and swelling. However, she avoided serious harm and went on to claim both the regional and state titles in consecutive meets.
“I ran cross-country in high school, but I never turned in any times like the young lady that was here tonight,” board member Carla Poplin said. “As a freshman, that’s very impressive, so congratulations to her.”
Board member Vicky Watson echoed that praise: “I really applaud her. You have to have that dedication and athleticism to do what she did.”
Baker capped o her fall season with another strong showing at the Brooks South XC Championship in Charlotte on Nov. 29, nishing 17th out of 137 runners in the high school girls’ 5,000-meter race with a time of 19:40.60.
Pfei er’s Peyton McPeters celebrates during the Falcons’ home win over Meredith.
posed, so that’s what we did.”
Through three conference games, Pfei er has outscored opponents by nearly 20 points per contest, driven by what Hayes calls a team-wide mindset.
“We’ve been using this slogan of ‘more to give,’” Hayes said. “More energy, more production from the bench and starters. Even the lingo of that, we say rst group and second group because anybody can start on this team.
We always have more to give.” Hayes added that the team’s early matchups have served as important preparation for tougher competition ahead.
“We are reaching for really high goals this year,” she said. “We’re trying to compete with the top four in that conference. So with these games — Greensboro, Salem and Meredith — our measurements are getting us prepared for N.C.
Wesleyan, Methodist and Brevard. I hope to see a high level of competitiveness.”
Sophomore guard Ava Hairston leads Pfei er with 15.6 points per game, while junior guards Lettie Michael (11.4) and Miya Horton (11.0) round out a trio of double-digit scorers. The Falcons will visit N.C. Wesleyan on Saturday before heading to Guilford on Thursday for a nonconference matchup.
COURTESY STANLY COUNTY SCHOOLS
South Stanly’s Kenadie Baker shakes hands with Stanly County Board of Education Member Carla Poplin on Tuesday night.
COURTESY PFEIFFER ATHLETICS
What do an axe, bucket, cannon have in common? Meet college football’s beloved rivalry trophies
The weird assortment of objects has a long, emotional history
By Dave Campbell The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — The most-played series in major college football history, the bitter border-state rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin, is punctuated each year with a postgame ritual.
The victors sprint toward Paul Bunyan’s Axe, take turns hoisting the 6-foot shaft above their heads as they parade it around the stadium, and pretend to chop down one of the goal posts. The axe has been awarded annually since 1948.
There’s hardly a richer — or quirkier — tradition in college football than rivalry trophies.
“It’s a way for a community — certainly the students, alumni, fans and faculty, but even more casual fans — to get revved up for a football game,” said Christian Anderson, a University of South Carolina professor whose research focus is on the history of higher education. “There are a lot of people who may not pay attention the whole season, and then the rivalry game comes and they’re a passionate fan for one Saturday.”
Longtime members of the Big Ten boast perhaps the richest history of these one-of-a-kind prizes. The Little Brown Jug, which is neither little nor brown, dates to the Michigan-Minnesota game in 1903. Wolverines coach Fielding Yost, out of fear the Gophers might tamper with their water, had a student manager buy a jug for the team. After a brutal struggle ended in a tie as Minnesota fans stormed the eld, the container was left behind. The Gophers formally returned it after the Wolverines won the next meeting in 1909. Minnesota fared better at the beginning with Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig named after the state’s governor, who suggested the trophy to his Iowa counterpart in 1935. Indiana faces Purdue for the
Old Oaken Bucket, found in disrepair on a local farm in 1925 with the belief it might have been used by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Indiana and Michigan State have competed since 1950 for the Old Brass Spittoon. Illinois and Ohio State have played for a century for the Illibuck Trophy, now a wooden turtle after an ill-fated attempt
to award the real thing — a 16-pound snapper. Michigan and Michigan State have fought since 1953 for annual ownership of the Paul Bunyan Trophy, a 4-foot wooden statue of the mythical lumberjack.
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals,” Anderson said. “Maybe we only keep it for a year because it’s a traveling trophy, but next time we’re
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals.”
Professor Christian Anderson
going back to get it if we didn’t win it.”
The NCAA certi ed the Territorial Cup played for by Arizona and Arizona State as the oldest known rivalry trophy, awarded after their rst meeting in 1899. It was missing for decades until its rediscovery in a storage area of a church near the ASU campus in 1983.
Nevada and UNLV play for the Fremont Cannon, a 545-pound replica of the cannon the explorer of the same name abandoned in a snowstorm during his trek through the state in 1844.
Notre Dame and USC have the Jewelled Shillelagh, a wooden symbol of a traditional Gaelic war club that was rst presented in 1952. California and Stanford play for an axe, too, awarded since 1933. Kentucky and Tennessee battle for a beer barrel.
When Mississippi fans stormed Mississippi State’s eld after a Rebels win in 1926, MSU supporters balked and brawls broke out. To help restore dignity to the rivalry the following year, the student bodies from both schools introduced the Golden Egg, a gold-plated football mounted on a pedestal. Fortunately, the egg never gets too close to Dallas-Fort Worth, where SMU and TCU have played for the Iron Skillet since 1946.
The Slab of Bacon is safely away from the skillet, too. That was the rst version of the Minnesota-Wisconsin hardware, a wooden slab that went missing in 1943 after the planned exchange following a Gophers victory never took place.
A summer storage cleanout project in Madison in 1994 turned up the trophy, which Wisconsin has since kept on display.
Under clouds, Olympic ame begins journey to this summer’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
Weather forced the lighting ceremony indoors
By Derek Gatopoulos and Petros Giannakouris The Associated Press
ANCIENT OLYMPIA,
Greece — The Olympic ame began its journey to the Milan Cortina Winter Games — missing a little of its usual magic.
Bad weather lashing western Greece forced organizers to move the torch-lighting ceremony indoors, from Olympia’s ancient stadium and temples to a nearby museum.
The ame is lit by focusing the sun’s rays with a concave mirror. But with skies overcast, o cials used a backup ame kindled during a brief
spell of sunshine at rehearsal.
Greek rower Petros Gaidatzis launched the torch relay, which, after reaching Italy, will be carried across the host country by about 10,000 runners before the Feb. 6–22 competition. The sun eventually cooperated, making an appearance over rain-soaked Olympia during the indoor ceremony.
“It’s incredibly memorable and a little bit emotional for me to be standing here,” said IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who was overseeing her rst torch lighting after being elected to the post in March. “It feels like the past and the present are really coming together. We are extremely happy that today’s ceremony reminds us what the games stand for.”
Italy is hosting its third Winter Games, but preparations
“It
feels like the past and the present are really coming together.”
Kirsty Coventry, IOC president
have been plagued by cost overruns and construction setbacks.
Organizers say there’s plenty for fans to look forward to: a program featuring 116 medal events, the debut of ski mountaineering, higher female participation and the return of NHL players to Olympic hockey.
After a short tour of Greece and a handover on Dec. 4, the ame will begin a 63-day, 12,000-kilometer relay through all 110 Italian provinces, highlighting cultural sites and host
venues before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony.
“Over the next few weeks, the Olympic ame will pass through all the Italian provinces, 60 cities, 300 towns, 20 regions and all the UNESCO sites. It will travel from the northern peaks to the southern shores,” said Giovanni Malago, head of the Milan Cortina Organizing Committee. Speakers at Wednesday’s ceremony urged world leaders to recognize the spirit of the Olympic Truce — an ancient Greek tradition pausing con icts during the games to allow safe participation.
“Today humanity is going through a time of multiple and parallel crises. Wars proliferate from Europe to the Middle East and from Asia to Africa. So we should honestly admit that a so-
ciety at war is a failed society,” the mayor of Ancient Olympia, Aristidis Panayiotopoulos, said.
“The ame allows us to again recall the values that guide humanity, values that were born and forged here.”
Despite moving indoors, the ceremony retained its traditional elements: sculptural dance gestures by performers dressed as priestesses and male kouroi, and invocations in Greek to the ancient gods.
Artemis Ignatiou, the ceremony’s artistic director, said the team had prepared for the possibility of bad weather and that, despite the setback, “we gained something special: the energy of the museum and the archaeological space itself.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, Ignatiou said dancing among the statues “gave the ceremony a timeless feeling.”
A separate ame for the March 6–15 Winter Paralympics will be lit Feb. 24 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.
STACY BENGS / AP PHOTO
Wisconsin players hold up Paul Bunyan’s Axe up after a win over Minnesota.
Actress Mary Mina, right, playing the role of high priestess, passes the Olympic ame to the rst torchbearer, Greek rower Petros Gaidatzis, during the ame lighting ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
THANASSIS STAVRAKIS / AP PHOTO
Caleb Wilson
Special Olympics medalist
Caleb Wilson, right, is a Stanly County resident and multiple Special Olympics medalist.
Last month, Wilson competed in Special Olympics North Carolina Fall Tournament at the Charles T. Myers Golf Course in Charlotte. Teaming with Willis Flowers, left, the duo won silver in golf level 2 alternate-shot team play.
Share with your community! Send us your births, deaths, marriages, graduations and other announcements: community@ stanlynewsjournal.com
Weekly deadline is Monday at noon
Flagg didn’t wilt without Davis, now Mavericks hope they ourish together
By Schuyler Dixon
The Associated Press
DALLAS — Cooper Flagg followed Anthony Davis’ bank shot with a jumper of his own, then blocked a jump hook from Anthony Wiggins at the other end before scoring a contested layup on an assist from Davis.
Just like that, the rookie No. 1 overall pick and the 10 -time All-Star combined to seal Dallas’ 118-108 victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, extending the rst winning streak of the season for the Mavericks to three games.
Flagg knew his NBA career would start without help on the court from star guard Kyrie Irving, who is recovering from an ACL tear last March. The 18-year-old former Duke standout also had to persevere for a month without Davis, who was sidelined with a left calf strain.
A loss in Davis’ return at the Los Angeles Lakers last week
dropped the Mavericks to 5-15, but they won a night later without him before consecutive victories over Denver and the Heat, two teams that should be playo contenders.
“When you talk about the stars, he didn’t have the two stars on the oor, so he had to endure the best wing defender, and I thought he did an incredible job,” coach Jason Kidd said. “When you look at the clutch situations, he responded in a positive way. For an 18-year-old to be leaned on without AD or Ky out there, I thought he responded in a positive way.”
While Davis was out, Flagg found himself in the company of LeBron James a couple of times.
In a 118-115 victory over New Orleans last month, Flagg had 29 points, seven rebounds and ve assists. James is the only other player with at least 25 points, ve rebounds and ve assists in a game as an 18-year-old.
“It’s so much better for us when he’s out there.”
Cooper Flagg
With Davis resting on the second night of a back to back in a 114-110 victory at the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday, Flagg became the youngest player in NBA history to score 35 points. He and James are the only 18-year-olds with 30-point games.
“I think I learned a lot throughout that period, and as a team I think we learned a lot as well,” Flagg said. “Obviously it wasn’t the start we were looking for or hoping to have, but I think it’ll give us a lot of gratitude moving forward. If we can nd success and we can think back to a really rocky start, I think I grew a lot in that time period as well.”
Flagg was 9 of 13 from the eld and led Dallas with 22 points against the Heat, and he is shooting 57% in the four games since Davis returned. They did get ve games together to start the season, but Flagg wasn’t quite as assertive then.
Four-time champion and 13-year veteran Klay Thompson has come out of a shooting slump recently, which also has helped ease the burden on Flagg.
Thompson scored 17 points in his relatively new role o the bench against the Heat, and Davis had 17 points and 17 rebounds.
“It’s so much better for us when he’s out there,” Flagg said about Davis. “I think just between him and Klay on the court at the same time, the amount of gravity that those two guys have of just pulling defenses toward them and just creating space out there, it’s huge for me.”
It’s far from a guarantee that Davis can stay healthy, with him missing more games than he has played since the oft-injured forward was acquired in the much-criticized trade that sent superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers last February.
If Davis stays on the court, Flagg will have part of the formula the Mavs envisioned with title-winning vets easing his transition to the NBA after he essentially turned pro a year earlier than other one-and-done college stars. And that’s not even including Irving, who presumably could return sometime after Jan. 1.
“You’re going to have to put your best defender on someone, and so most of the time that’s AD,” Kidd said. “So he gets the secondary defender, and for him, it’s his ability to get to the paint but also to be able to play o AD, where he doesn’t have to do everything like he did here early on, where we were asking him to be the point guard, score, defend, do everything, which he’s not afraid of doing, but now he has some help.” Davis illustrated it by combining with Flagg to score the nal eight Dallas points to stop a Miami rally close out the Heat.
JULIO CORTEZ / AP PHOTO
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg (32) and forward Anthony Davis (3) react after a basket against the Miami Heat.
Morrow Chase
Let’s Work Together
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the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the e ective date of the termination. Dated: 10/22/2025
Philip A. Glass, Trustee Nodell, Glass & Haskell, L.L.P. Posted on 10/22/2025 Exhibit A Lying and being in Stanly County, State of North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: Being known and distinguished as Lot Number Seventeen (17) in Block Number Three (3), as the same is shown and designated upon the TALLASSEE POWER COMPANYS Plan of Lot of Lots No. 1, dated January 1, 1919, and led in Plat Book No. 2, Page 80, Records of Stanly County, North Carolina, to which plat reference is hereby made for a complete description of said lot by metes and bounds. For reference, see Deed recorded in Record Book 1517, Page 236 in the O ce of the Register of Deeds for Stanly County, North Carolina. See also Deed Book 1579, Page 300, Stanly County Register of Deeds. Subject to easements, restrictions and rights of way of record, and utility lines and rights of way in existence over, under or upon the above-described property. PIN: 666004823767 Property Address: 44 Kirk Place, Badin, NC 28009
NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 25E000592-830 NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY Having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of the late, ROSA BURR PINKSTON AKA ROSA B. PINKSTON, deceased, late of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the Estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before February 21, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment. This the 23rd day of November, 2025. Randy Thomas Pinkston 17018 Randalls Ferry Rd. Norwood, NC 28128 Scarborough Law, PLLC Whitney T. Scarborough 107 A East Wade Street Wadesboro, NC 28170 Please publish: 11:23,30;
The
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Growing exotic pet trade drives illegal sales online, leads to push for tighter rules
Countries around the globe are debating new regulations on pets
By Michael Casey The Associated Press
A GROWING EXOTIC pet trade has conservationists calling for stronger regulations to protect the reptiles, birds and other animals in the wild that are increasingly showing up for sale on internet marketplaces and becoming popular on social media.
The two-week Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora nished last week in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Several proposals related to the pet trade were considered.
Participants have proposed tighter regulations or complete bans on the trade of several species, including iguanas from the Galápagos Islands, more than a dozen species of Latin America tarantulas and an odd-looking turtle from Africa.
“What we’re seeing is the pet trade much more looking at reptiles, amphibians. People want rare species, and they don’t have to go into a pet shop,” said Susan Lieberman, vice president for international policy at the nonpro t Wildlife Conservation Society. “They go online and there are thousands of animals, including endangered species, illegally obtained species, all available on the internet.”
Internet drives illegal trade
In the past, the trade was dominated by sales in animal parts like elephant ivory and tiger bones. But Matt Collis, the senior director of international policy at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said live animals for the pet trade are increasingly turning up on the internet.
“The dramatic growth in online marketplaces has put consumers directly in touch with wildlife traders and criminals around the world,” Collis said. “In today’s society where pretty much anything can be bought with a click of a button and shipped anywhere in the world in a matter of days, no wildlife is safe.”
Social media in uencers, who have made owning exotic pets cool, are also contributing to the problem, Collis said.
Several of the species proposed for greater protection at the CITES conference are in Latin America, where an IFAW report last year found illegal trade is on the rise. The report, covering 18 Spanish speaking Latin American countries, says there were more than 100,000 animals seized or poached from 2017 to 2022, with seizures increasing every year.
The report found the live pet trade accounted for a growing piece of the trade, with reptiles representing about 60% of the animals, while nearly 30% were birds and more than 10% were amphibians. Many animals were traded locally or regionally, but there was also evidence of animals shipped to collectors in Europe, Asia and the United States.
More than 90% of the seized wildlife destined for Europe were live animals, con rming the demand for pets was a key driver of the illegal trade, the report said. Tortoise, vipers up for protection
Among the reptile species up for tighter trade controls is Home’s Hinged-back Tortoise, a critically endangered turtle found in West Africa that has a unique hinge on its back allowing it to close o its back legs and tail. A commercial ban on the trade in the turtle was approved Tuesday.
There are proposals to regulate the trade in two vipers species endemic to Ethiopia, two species of rattlesnake found mostly in Mexico, the leaf-tailed gecko from Australia and two species of sloths from South America, which are increasingly turning up in sloththemed cafes in Asia. A ban on the commercial trade in the vipers was approved Tuesday, but the rattlesnake propos-
al was rejected. The gecko and sloth proposals were expected to be considered.
A proposal from Ecuador would ban the trade in marine and land iguanas from the Galapagos, which are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered or vulnerable. There are concerns that the illegal trade could further destabilize the population, which already faces threats from invasive species, rising tourism and uctuations in weather associated with El Nino.
In its CITES proposal, Ecuador said it doesn’t permit commercial export of iguanas, and collecting them from the Galapagos has been prohibited for decades. But Ecuador raised concerns that traders are capturing
and transporting young iguanas by boat or overland to ports and evading authorities by mislabeling them as captive bred. Most of the iguanas are destined for Japan and other Asia countries, and they can sell for as much $25,000 on the black market.
The United States supports the iguana, sloth, viper, tortoise and gecko proposals but is opposed to the rattlesnake listing.
CITES permits abused
A species can be banned for trade in its home range but sold online by traders who abuse the CITES permitting process and captive breeding rules and then take advantage of importing countries that don’t bother to check if the animals come from the wild, Collis said.
“They go online and there are thousands of animals, including endangered species, illegally obtained species, all available on the internet.”
Susan Lieberman, Wildlife Conservation Society
“In theory, under CITES rules, the countries issuing those export permits should be checking that these animals, and crucially their parentage all the way back to the founder stock, were legally acquired in order for an export permit to be granted,” Collis said. “But that is not happening.”
Countries issue permits without verifying animal origins, which helps tra ckers launder animals from illegal sources, “undermining the very framework meant to protect these species,” he said.
The CITES proposals draw attention to a long-running problem with captive breeding of exotic species, according to Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
“When the treaty was drafted in the early 1970s, there wasn’t a lot of captive breeding and people thought, ‘Well, if they’re bred in captivity, it’ll take pressure o the wild,” she said. “Sounds good, except it doesn’t work that way. Breeding in captivity also creates a market, but they’re cheaper from the wild. And also it’s a great way to launder.”
Pet traders fear proposals go too far
A proposal that was rejected would have regulated the trade in more than a dozen species of tarantulas. Bolivia, Argentina and Panama note they are “among the most heavily traded groups of invertebrates” with more than half all species available online. The proposal would have permitted the trade in the spiders as long as there is proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.
“Some tarantula species are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation due to their long life span, limited geographic range and low reproductive rate,” according to the proposal. “Alarmingly, most of them are not regulated internationally, despite the high availability of hundreds of species in international trade.”
The United States Association of Reptile Keepers opposed the tarantula listing, calling it “incongruous” for rolling many species into a single proposal.
The association, which advocates for responsible private ownership and trade in reptiles and amphibians, suggested other reptile proposals re ect government overreach, noting the pro ered changes to iguana sales are unnecessary since current regulations “provide adequate protection.”
“Most species have limited trade in captive bred specimens which is not a threat to wild populations,” David Garcia, the organization’s legal counsel and its delegate at the CITES conference, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, many countries, groups, and individuals take the nonsensical position that the way to limit threats to wild populations is to make the captive reproduction of those species more di cult.
But a report from the nonpro t Center for Biological Diversity, shared with The Associated Press and due to be released Dec. 8, found that the United States was among the biggest markets for the pet trade, importing on average 90 million live amphibians, arachnids, birds, aquarium sh, mammals and reptiles each year.
“Wildlife exploitation, including for the pet trade, is a major driver of the global extinction crisis,” the report said. “One million species are on track to face extinction in coming decades unless action is taken to address species loss. Addressing the United States’ role in the exotic pet trade must be a top priority to stem this crisis and protect biodiversity for future generations.”
MARY ANN CHASTAIN / AP PHOTO
Giant leaf-tailed geckos hang on the wall of their cage, July 31, 2008, in Columbia, South Carolina, as Ed Diebold, director of animal collections at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, talks about the mating habits of the geckos.
ANDRE PENNER / AP PHOTO
Sloths sleep at the Emilio Goeldi Museum during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit on Nov. 13 in Belem, Brazil.
ADRIAN VASQUEZ / AP PHOTO
A marine iguana suns on the edge of a boardwalk in San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands in 2020.
famous birthdays
this week
Kim Basinger turns 72, Donny Osmond is 68, Dame Judi Dench hits 91
THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.
DEC. 7
Linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky is 97. Actor Ellen Burstyn is 93. Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 78. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits is 76. Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird is 69. Actor Je rey Wright is 60. Actor C. Thomas Howell is 59.
DEC. 8
Flutist James Galway is 86.
Author Bill Bryson is 74. Actor Kim Basinger is 72. Commentator and columnist Ann Coulter is 64. Actor Wendell Pierce is 63. Actor Teri Hatcher is 61.
DEC. 9
Actor Judi Dench is 91. Actor Beau Bridges is 84. World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite is 76. Actor John Malkovich is 72. Singer Donny Osmond is 68. Actor Felicity Hu man is 63. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wall owers) is 56.
DEC. 10
Actor Fionnula Flanagan is 84. Actor-singer Gloria Loring is 79. Jazz musician Diane Schuur is 72. Actor-director Kenneth Branagh is 65. TV chef Bobby Flay is 61. Rock musician Meg White (The White Stripes) is 51.
DEC. 11
Actor Rita Moreno is 94. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is 82. Singer Brenda Lee is 81. Singer Jermaine Jackson is 71. Rock musician Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) is 67. Hockey Hall of Famer Daniel Alfredsson is 53.
DEC. 12
Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Pettit is 93. Singer Dionne Warwick is 85. Hall of Fame race car driver Emerson Fittipaldi is 79. Actor Bill Nighy is 76. Gymnast-actor Cathy Rigby is 73. Singer-musician Sheila E. is 68. Actor Jennifer Connelly is 55. Actor Mayim Bialik is 50.
DEC. 13
Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 100. Music/ lm produc-
DARRON CUMMINGS / AP PHOTO
Larry Bird speaks after resigning as Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations during a news conference in 2017. The former Boston Celtics power forward turns 69 on Sunday.
ANDY KROPA / INVISION / AP PHOTO Tom Waits attends the premiere of “Father Mother Sister Brother” at Alice Tully Hall during the 63rd New York Film Festival in 2025 in New York. The singer-songwriter turns 76 on Sunday.
er Lou Adler is 92. Baseball Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins is 83. Rock musician Je “Skunk” Baxter is 77. Rock musician Ted Nugent is 77. Actor Steve Buscemi is 68. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 58. Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is 36.
6 notable songs from reggae star Jimmy Cli , who died at 81
very personal kind of beauty.
1968: “Vietnam”
By Hilel Italie
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Like so many Jamaican teens of his time, Jimmy Cli moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country’s independence from Great Britain. A decade later, he helped reggae ascend to the international stage with his starring role in the cult favorite “The Harder They Come” and his featured place on the lm’s classic soundtrack.
Here are a few songs that trace the arc of his career, and of reggae.
1962: “Miss Jamaica”
Singing along to an easy, bluesy groove, Cli had a way of sounding both relaxed and fully committed, and he could make a nursery rhyme sound like an anthem: “Roses are red / violets are blue / Believe me / I love you.” He also joined a long popular tradition, most famously expressed in such 1970s standards as Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” and Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” of o ering praise to a
Like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and other anti-war songs, Cli ’s “Vietnam” was drawn from the horrors of those who had served overseas. “Vietnam” was a seething, mid-tempo chant — “Viet-nam, Vi-et-nam,” the very name an indictment, in this song for the death of a soldier who had written home to say he would soon be returning, only for his mother to receive a telegram the next day announcing his death.
1969: “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”
One of Cli ’s many talents was looking clear-eyed at life as it is, and imagining so well what it could be — a paradise made real by the melody, the feel and lyrics of “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” a vision so inevitable even the likes of President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson can’t get in the way.
1969: “Many Rivers to Cross”
Onstage, he sometimes literally jumped for joy, but Cli also could call out the deepest notes of despair. The somber,
‘Father Ted’ writer Linehan cleared by court of harassing transgender activist
The comedic screenwriter claims he was harassed by activists after the incident
The Associated Press
LONDON — The co-creator of British TV sitcoms “Father Ted” and the “IT Crowd” was cleared last Tuesday of harassing a transgender activist on social media, but he was found guilty of damaging their mobile phone during an encounter last year.
Prosecutors alleged that Gary Linehan, an Irish comedy writer known for his outspoken criticism of trans activism, wrote “repeated, abusive, unreasonable” social media posts about Sophia Brooks. He denied the charge.
District Judge Briony Clarke said that while Linehan’s social media posts were “deeply unpleasant, insulting and even unnecessary,” they did not amount to harassment. She also questioned if Brooks was as distressed as they made themselves out to be.
But she said Linehan took Brooks’ phone, knocked it to the ground and damaged it outside a conference venue in London in October last year because the writer was “angry and fed up.”
gospel-style
“Many Rivers to Cross” was inspired by the racism he encountered in England in the 1960s and tells a story of displacement, longing, fatigue and gathering rage — but never defeat. “I merely survive because of my pride,” he tells us.
1970: “You Can Get It If You Really Want”
Cli ’s political songs were so enduring in part because they were so catchy and because they o ered hope without the promise of easy success. Kicked o by a spare horn ri , “You Can Get It If You Really Want” has a lighter mood than “Vietnam” but just as determined a spirit. “You must try, try and try, try and try,” Cli warns.
1972: “The Harder They Come”
The title track to the movie which would mark the high point of his success, “The Harder They Come” has a spiky, muscular rhythm, the kind you could set to the forward march of a mass protest. It’s a sermon of retribution for oppressors — “the harder they fall, one and all” — and of earthly rewards for those who have been robbed: “So as sure as the sun will shine / I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine.”
“It is not for this court to ‘pick a side’ in any matter of public debate.”
District Judge Briony Clarke
criminal damage. His lawyer said he planned to appeal the conviction.
Clarke, the judge, told the court her job was to deliver a verdict on the two charges against Linehan, and not on the wider public debate around gender issues.
“It is not for this court to ‘pick a side’ in any matter of public debate,” she said. “This court is not concerned with that debate and does not have to determine and nor should anything in this judgment be viewed as the court determining any issues in relation to it.”
Linehan is known for posts asserting that trans women are men. In September, he was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence against trans women, advocating hitting them if calling police and other measures failed to stop them from using women-only facilities.
His arrest over that case sparked a debate over which online comments constitute hate speech and warrant police intervention. London’s police chief said after the arrest that he did not want o cers “policing toxic culture war debates,” and prosecutors later said Linehan will not face charges over that case.
The artist rivaled Bob Marley as the most prominent musician in the genre
The writer’s lawyer, Sarah Vine, said Linehan had “a momentary lapse of control.” During his trial, the
dier in the trans activist army.” Linehan was ned 500 pounds ($657) and ordered to pay additional costs for
STEW DEAN - TAM LONDON VIA WIKIPEDIA
Graham Linehan, left, writer of hit comedies including “Father Ted” and “The IT Crowd,” appears with author, journalist and lmmaker Jon Ronson in 2010. Linehan has been cleared of harassment charges brought by a trans activist.
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH / AP PHOTO
Dame Judi Dench, pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 2024, turns 91 on Tuesday.
JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP PHOTO
Singer Jimmy Cli performs at The Climate Rally, an Earth Day concert on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2010. The reggae icon died on Nov. 24 at age 81.
this week in history
U.S. enters World War II, smallpox eradicated, Saddam Hussein captured
The Associated Press
DEC. 7
1787: Delaware became the rst state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1941: Japan launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The United States declared war on Japan the next day.
1982: Charlie Brooks Jr. became the rst U.S. inmate executed by lethal injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.
DEC. 8
1941: The United States entered World War II as Congress declared war on Japan, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1980: Former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment building by Mark David Chapman.
1987: President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a landmark treaty at the White House ordering the elimination of intermediate-range missiles.
DEC. 9
1965: “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the rst animated TV special based on Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts,” premiered on CBS.
1979: Scientists declared smallpox eradicated worldwide, wiping out a disease that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century.
1990: Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa won Poland’s rst free presidential election since 1926.
DEC. 10
1898: The Treaty of Paris was signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War.
1906: President Theodore Roosevelt became the rst American to win a Nobel Peace Prize for helping negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1964: Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the No -
Joseph
bel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he did so “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”
1967: Soul singer Otis Redding, 26, and six others died when their plane crashed into a Wisconsin lake.
DEC. 11
1816: Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th U.S. state.
1936: Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Wareld Simpson.
1978: Nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry was stolen from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at New York’s JFK Airport, a record-setting heist later immortalized in “Goodfellas.”
2008: Former Nasdaq chairman Bernie Mado was arrested, accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out the life savings of thousands of people and wrecked charities.
DEC. 12
1870: Joseph H. Rainey of
South Carolina became the rst black lawmaker sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.
1963: The East African nation of Kenya declared independence from Britain; it became a republic exactly a year later.
1985: An Arrow Air charter crashed after takeo from Gander, Newfoundland, killing 248 American soldiers and eight crew members.
DEC. 13
1862: Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside launched failed frontal assaults against entrenched Confederate troops at the Battle of Fredericksburg; the battered Northern army withdrew two days later after su ering heavy casualties.
1937: Japanese forces seized the Chinese city of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War and began a weekslong massacre that killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 civilians, prisoners of war and soldiers.
2003: Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole beneath a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit.
AP PHOTO
A small boat rescues a USS West Virginia crew member after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.
MATHEW BENJAMIN BRADY / U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS VIA WIKIPEDIA
H. Rainey of South Carolina made history on Dec. 12, 1870, by becoming the rst black lawmaker to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
