Chatham News & Record Vol. 147 Issue 39 by North State Journal

Passing grade

Northwood junior quarterback Grayson Cox (2) throws a pass during the Chargers’ first-round playoff game. Eastern Wayne ended Northwood’s season with a 44-14 win.

the BRIEF this week

Suttles Road closed for improvements

NCDOT has temporarily closed Suttles Road near Chatham Parkway in both directions. The road is scheduled to be closed until Dec. 15, with crews working on drainage and waterline improvements. Motorists are encouraged to detour from Chatham Parkway to U.S. 64, to U.S. 15-501, to Russet Run.

N.C. Supreme Court seat will see recount

The narrowly trailing Republican candidate in the race for a Supreme Court seat has formally requested a statewide recount. Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin sent the request before a midday Tuesday deadline. Associate Justice Allison Riggs led Tuesday by 625 votes over Griffin from more than 5.5 million ballots cast in the race. Recounts in five General Assembly races also have been requested. Republicans would need to flip a state House seat the GOP candidate is currently trailing in if it wants to retain the veto-proof majority that they have held for the past two years.

FEMA administrator supports looking into alleged Trump bias in relief efforts

The head of FEMA said she has encouraged the agency’s inspector general to review whether an employee was acting alone when directing workers helping hurricane victims to avoid homes with yard signs supporting Presidentelect Donald Trump.

$2.00

Developer and hotelier Malcolm Bryant greets guest and city leaders at the Hampton Inn and Suites grand opening in Pittsboro.

Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton gets grand opening in Pittsboro

“We wanted to be part of a community where we could engage with locals, not just a business venture.”

Malcolm Bryant

It’s the county’s first national hotel chain

By Dan Reeves Chatham New & Record

PITTSBORO — A large crowd gathered for the grand opening of the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton, the latest addition to the $200 million Mosaic mixed use development off U.S. 15-501 in Pittsboro. Complete with a jazz trio, catering and ceremonial rib-

bon cutting hosted by Kentucky based real estate firm

The Malcolm Bryant Corporation, local officials including Pittsboro mayor Kyle Shipp were in attendance along with business leaders, the press and guests to celebrate.

The newly opened 120room 78,500 square-foot project will serve as a cornerstone to this community hub.

Mosaic is a bellwether to the rapid growth of Pitts-

TriRiver close to completing analysis of water system service lines

Due to EPA regulations, all community water systems must conduct inventory of service lines to identify any potential presences of lead

By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record

PITTSBORO — The Town of Pittsboro Board of Commissioners had a few different TriRiver Water items presented at its Nov. 12 meeting. For one, the board was given a presentation on the work TriRiver Water is doing toward the submission of water system service line connection inventories to the North Carolina Public Water Supply Section.

“In accordance with the NC Departments of Environmental Quality and Environmental Protection, all community and non-transient, non-community water systems must conduct an inventory of service line materials in their distribution system,” Project Engineer Becky Smith

See OPENING, page A10 See PITTSBORO, page A2

Wolfspeed ousts CEO Gregg Lowe

Thomas Werner, chairman of the board, will serve as executive chairman

By Dan Reeves Chatham News & Record

DURHAM — Tech firm

Wolfspeed has fired its president and CEO, Gregg Lowe, ending his seven-year tenure at the top of the company. Lowe oversaw the transformation of the company from Cree, an LED lighting company, to Wolfspeed, with a focus on the development of silicone carbide chips. But more recently, the firm saw projects canceled and its stock price fall precipitously, from a high of $140 to around $7.

In the interim, Thomas Werner, chairman of the board, will serve as executive chairman, the company said in a press release. In 2022, Wolfspeed picked Chatham County for a new $4.8 billion materials plant with the goal of hiring 1,800 jobs with an average yearly salary of $77,753.

The huge win for central North Carolina came thanks in part to significant tax incentives from state and local governments, which promised nearly $775 million in subsidies if Wolfspeed met hiring and investment goals.

But the company’s board has been displeased as Lowe oversaw a decilne in the compa-

See WOLFSPEED, page A2

“While there is work still to be done, I have every confidence that Wolfspeed will execute on its strategic priorities and extend its silicon carbide leadership in the years to come.”

Gregg Lowe, outgoing Wolfspeed CEO

PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

We stand corrected To report an error or a suspected error, please email: corrections@ nsjonline.com with “Correction request” in the subject line.

When veterinary care is unavailable or unaffordable, ask for Happy Jack® animal healthcare products for cats, dogs, & horses.

Southern States Coop. 742- 2128

Nov. 12

• James Lamonte Cotton, 47, of Bear Creek, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon causing serious injury and possession of a firearm by felon.

Nov. 15

• Jeremy Mark Couch, 39, of Moncure, was arrested for assault on a female.

• Danan Roxanne Vincent, 35, of Siler City, was arrested for failure to appear and possession of stolen goods.

Nov. 17

• Siomara Maribel Sibrian, 23, of Pittsboro, was arrested for simple assault and domestic violence.

• Wuilfredo Noe Perla, 24, of Pittsboro, was arrested for assault on a female.

Nov. 18

• Christian Raul RamirezCuevas, 18, of Broadway, was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without a license.

PITTSBORO from page A1

of Hydrostructures, a civil engineering firm.

As part of the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR), the EPA is requiring the inventory in order to identify any potential presence of lead within each service line connection. According to Smith, more than 75% of the work is complete and TriRiver is working toward 100% completion of the inventory.

“We’ve visually inspected all things that could be inspected and now we’re down to cutting asphalt, cutting sidewalk,” Smith said. “So this is very slowly going, but I think by early next year, we should have everybody’s service line identified that needs to be identified.”

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is investing $15 billion nationwide over five years toward lead service line replacements and to date, Pittsboro and the City of Sanford have received a combined $1.5 million in grant and loan funding to assist with the LCRR compliance.

And in a similar vein, the

WOLFSPEED from page A1

ny’s stock price and, earlier this month, layoffs of some 20% of its global workforce. The staff reduction will not affect the company’s factory in Chatham County, however, one of the

• 298 E. Salisbury Street (Pittsboro), 0.40 Acres, 3 Bedroom/2 Bath, $600,000

• 412 Brampton Close (Pittsboro), .058 Acres, 3 Bedroom/2 Bath, $489,000

• 557 Olives Chapel Road, (Apex),12.802 Acres, 3 Bedroom/3 Bathroom, $2,500,000

• 5765 G Snow Camp Road (Graham), 82.480 Acres, 8 Bedroom/6 Bathroom, $1,900,000

• 209 Democracy Place (Apex), 4.62 Acres, 4 Bedrooms/5 Bathrooms, $1,750,000

• 873 Arrowhead Loop (Pittsboro), 11.06 Acres, 3 Bedrooms/3.5 Bathrooms, $725,000

RESIDENTIAL

board mentioned how TriRiver had held a groundbreaking for a new water filtration facility that’s being constructed in Sanford. Due to the county-wide merger of water services with TriRiver, this filtration facility will also service Pittsboro as well.

“On Oct. 29, we had the groundbreaking for the TriRiver water filtration facility, a multi-town effort there to kick off the construction of that water filtration facility and it will have the same water treatment that we have in Pittsboro today,” said Mayor Kyle Shipp. “So the GAC advanced treatment system will be a part of that facility.”

The board then accepted a $850,000 North Carolina Department of Commerce Rural Downtown Economic Development Grant, which is intended to support downtown revitalization and economic development activity.

According to assistant town manager Kent Jackson, the funding will be utilized for Pittsboro’s downtown streetscape enhancements.

The scope of services that the town submitted to the state

largest single private investments in the state’s history.

“I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead Wolfspeed and work alongside such talented and dedicated colleagues,” Lowe said in a statement. “Over the past sev-

• 4147 Siler City Snow Camp Road (Siler City), 57.43 Acres, 5 Separate Living Spaces, $2,750,000

• 4662 Buckhorn Road (Sanford), 1.31 Acres, 2 Bedrooms/1 Bathroom, $225,000

• 83 Karen Calhoun Road (Pittsboro), 4.36 Acres, 3 Bedrooms/2 Bathrooms, $800,000 LAND

• 1388 Henry Oldham Road (Bear Creek), 4.840 Acres, $135,000

• 188 Cherokee Drive (Chapel Hill),1.150 Acres, $100,000

• 170 Cherokee Drive (Chapel Hill),1.150 Acres, $100,000

• 9311 NC Highway 87 (Pittsboro), 4.602 Acres, $225,000

• 389 Dewitt Smith Road (Pittsboro), 9.109 Acres, 3 Bedroom/2 Bathroom, $525,000 LAND

• 13120 Strickland Road (Raleigh),16.25 Acres, $1,500,000

states that the project area will extend from 37 to 160 Hillsboro Street in the community’s historic downtown district and directly north of the historic Pittsboro roundabout and Chatham County Courthouse.

It also states that, “Once complete, this project will have reconstructed all sidewalks in this area to make them ADA compliant and address severe drainage issues that have been left unaddressed due to inadequate utility funding, while maintaining the important community charm and character that has brought many visitors into downtown.”

The board also held a public hearing for proposed map amendment changes to the Powell Place Multiple-Use Planned District (MUPD), although the item was tabled until the board’s Jan. 13, 2025 meeting.

Finally, the board was also given an update that the ABC Board had distributed $16,980 this past quarter to the Town of Pittsboro.

The Pittsboro Board of Commissioners will next meet Dec. 9.

en years, we have transformed Wolfspeed. … While there is work still to be done, I have every confidence that Wolfspeed will execute on its strategic priorities and extend its silicon carbide leadership in the years to come.”

• 9231 NC Highway 87 (Pittsboro), 5.630 Acres, $250,000

• 48 Swimming Chicken Lane (Pittsboro), 5.060 Acres, $500,000

• 24 Swimming Chicken Lane (Pittsboro), 9.470 Acres, $750,000

• 8636/8710 Johnson Mill Road (Bahama),182.888 Acres, $3,240,000

• 292 Choice Trail (Pittsboro), 4.100 Acres, $285,000

• 0 Chatham Church Road (Moncure),15.94 Acres, $750,000

• 323 Wagon Trace (Pittsboro), 10.255 Acres, $325,000

• 0 Pasture Branch Road (Rose Hill), 29.00 Acres, $1,250,000

• 00 Hamlets Chapel Road (Pittsboro),118.742 Acres, $4,250,000

• 00 Olives Chapel Road (Apex), 33.66 Acres, $3,500,000

• 0 US 64 W (Siler City), 9.670 Acres, $4,500,000

• 0 Mt. Gilead Church Road (Pittsboro), 1.643Acres, $175,000

• 0 JB Morgan Road (Apex), 21.00 Acres, $825,000

• 0 Panama Terrace (Durham), .420 Acres, $38,000

• 37 E Cotton Road (Pittsboro), 0.996 Acres, $100,000

COMMERCIAL IMPROVED

• 140 &148 East Street (Pittsboro), 1.49 Acres, $1,350,000

• 1311 Old US 421 S (Siler City), 3.74 Acres, $260,000

COMMERCIAL UNIMPROVED

• 1700 Hillsboro Street (Pittsboro), 29.79 Acres, $4,500,000

• 10681 US Hwy 64 E (Apex), 3.97 Acres, $1,000,000

THIS WEEK’S VIDEO

Where can you play Pickleball in Chatham County?

Free naloxone kiosk opens in Siler City

The medication can reverse opioid overdoses

Chatham News & Record staff

SILER CITY — A new 24/7 kiosk providing free naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, is now available outside the Chatham County Public Health Department’s Siler City clinic. The kiosk is the first location in Chatham County to offer around-the-

clock access to this lifesaving medication. The climate-controlled outdoor machine, funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina’s Healthy Blue Medicaid plan, was unveiled Nov. 15 following a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included naloxone training for the public. “Our staff have been working hard to make naloxone available to the Chatham community,” said Chatham County Public Health Department

Health Director Mike Zelek in a press release. “The kiosk will allow us to make it available at any time, complementing existing distribution and education efforts.”

The location was chosen for its proximity to health care providers, including Piedmont Health Services and Daymark Recovery Services. In 2022, one in every 1,000 Chatham County residents visited the hospital or died due to opioid overdoses, according to state health department data.

Residents can also access free naloxone at the health department’s Siler City and Pittsboro locations on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Future plans include stocking the kiosk with additional community health resources.

COURTESY CHATHAM PUBLIC HEALTH

THE CONVERSATION

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

| ANDREW TAYLOR-TROUTMAN

Hope on Transgender Day of Remembrance

I also know that transgender people continue to shine their light, and I give thanks for the lives of my friends who gift their joy to our communities.

NOV. 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a memorial to victims of hate crimes. Gwendolyn Ann Smith, a transgender advocate, started this observance in 1999 as a tribute to Rita Hester, a transgender woman killed in 1998. Like many memorials, Transgender Day of Remembrance often involves a candlelight vigil and reading the names of victims lost to violence in the past year.

Such senseless loss of life brings tears. And also anger! It is outrageous that a community of people is subject to violence as well as cruel legislation aimed at snuffing out their rights. Smith wrote, “With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that we remember those we lose and that we continue to fight for justice.”

I also know that transgender people continue to shine their light, and I give thanks for the lives of my friends who gift their joy to our communities. “In the land of the free and the home of the brave,” transgender people, like all of us, are trying to live and thrive, though many of them encounter more resistance than most of us.

On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, I reflect on the word remember. As an act of memory, remembrance is often a mental activity — a calling to mind of someone who, tragically, is no longer physically present.

However, we can also embody the word; the prefix re-

COLUMN | BOB WACHS

What’s the big rush?

I think something like “Frazzletember” is a better and more descriptive name.

THE OTHER DAY I found myself moving up and down the aisles of a local retail establishment in search of a couple of items when I noticed it.

Maybe you’ve already noticed it and I’m just running late, which is nothing all that unusual for me. And I probably should have noticed it if I’d paid attention to the ads in the newspapers. Lord knows, I’d certainly seen them since my style still is to try to devour all parts of the paper from the top left corner of page one to the bottom right of the last page.

But for whatever reason or reasons, I just wasn’t paying attention to the ads and had not caught on … until the other day in that particular store.

The “it” of which I speak is the change in the calendar. It’s not just the time change of late that threw me into a modest funk; now it’s what folks are doing to the calendar.

In case you’re wondering about the specifics of “it” — it’s that we are now in the thirteenth month of 2024.

I’m not sure what the name of “it” is but in about 40 days we’ll finish it and then we’ll go back to December, the 12th month. We did have a few days of the 11th month when November first came in, but that didn’t last all that long.”

“It,” of course, is the Christmas shopping season. That may be a regular ol’ name for it, but I think something like “Frazzletember” is a better and more descriptive name.

Let me go on to add that this observation has nothing to do with the Free Enterprise System of our economy. And I’m all for businesses to buy and sell things and hire people to work … you know, in those things called “jobs” that we’ve all been promised since dirt was invented would be made available.

But I do have a problem with all the rush — and maybe I’m a brick shy of a load here and you can’t have it this way and have a turn toward a robust economy, or at least one that’s not on life support, without having it this way. But this season of the year — fall or autumn, if you prefer — is such a glorious time with its wonderful temperatures and brilliant colors. And then there’s

signifies “again,” and the original meaning of a member was “part of a body.” While we may fall apart and into factions, some of them violent, to “re-member” is to achieve our sacred calling as citizens to put together the different and diverse parts of our nation again and again — e pluribus unum, “out of many, one.”

While we have a lot of work to do in order to fulfill that vision of unity, we also have the transgender community to inspire us. In their poem “The Cave,” Paul Tran uses the metaphor of exploring the subterranean landscape for diving into one’s own consciousness. Many brave people embark on this journey of introspection. “Keep going,” writes Tran. “Deeper and deeper, they saw others had been there.” Courageous people have gone before us, pursuing “life, liberty, and happiness” for themselves.

Tran’s poem also voices the hope of remembrance — we are not alone. E pluribus unum; we have each other. I add an ancient voice of wisdom (Jeremiah 31:13) to give hope on Nov. 20 and every single day of the year: “I will transform their anguish into joy, uncovering solace and even delight amidst their heartache.” May it be so.

Andrew Taylor-Troutman is pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church as well as a writer, pizza maker, coffee drinker and student of joy.

Thanksgiving … and granted not everyone has as much or the same things over which to be thankful but for that day and season to be trampled on is such a pity.

For years, “Black Friday” — not “black” in the sense of a bad dark thing but a day when many retailers go into the black with their financial statements — was the advent of the Advent. Now I see where a number of merchandisers are pushing that up to … oh, around 6 p.m. or so Thanksgiving Day.

So if you like the push and the excitement and the early morning hours and such of shopping, have at it. Just be polite during it all, don’t run over any little old ladies and don’t grab a sweater out of someone else’s hands, especially if his name is “Bubba” and he weighs 300 pounds.

I won’t see you that day. Instead, I’ll be one of the two turkeys at my house.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Bob Wachs is a native of Chatham County and emeritus editor at Chatham News & Record. He serves as pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church.

BE IN TOUCH

Letters addressed to the editor may be sent to letters@nsjonline.com or 1201 Edwards Mill Rd., Suite 300, Raleigh, NC 27607. Letters may be edited for style, length or clarity when necessary. Ideas for op-eds should be sent to opinion@ nsjonline.com.

Contact a writer or columnist: connect@northstatejournal.com

COLUMN

COLUMN | JAN HUTTON

Those mighty fine shoulds

My continuing road to wholeness is sometimes covered in dust and mud, a function of ongoing, and zig-zagging, emotional offroading.

ABOUT THIS “BEING HUMAN” thing. I came into this world, replete with a template for how to travel this human journey. Bet you had one, too.

As a growing human being, sprouting upward, my birthright template was strongly couched in SHOULD language. Vocabulary directed toward teaching me how to live a good life in our culture. Just filled, absolutely filled, with shoulds! “You should do this, should not do that (ever!), and most importantly, you should be this way, only.” (Does this ring a bell?) Some of those birthright shoulds were mighty fine shoulds, mighty fine. Uplifting and instilling caring values. Other shoulds left me struggling for breath because they weren’t me, and never would be. Truth. I’m a tad oppositional at times. A still, very much alive, oppositional youngster sometimes roams free in my psyche. Hearing “I hate shoulds!” in my head, is a good indication my young oppositional one is on a tear. But … hate? C’mon! Not hate. A quality I would not relish having mentioned in some future obituary. “She was known for hating with a passion.” Nope. My birthright template is always (always!) undergoing scrutiny for both welcome and unwelcome shoulds. Identifying an unwelcome current “should” leads directly to “Out, out, damn spot!” Even my inner oppositional kid has easily adopted “shoulds” that propagate peace in my life. Other shoulds, well that’s another story. Those “other” shoulds remain as splinters, causing pain and deflecting me from my unique wholeness.

COLUMN | CONNIE LOVELL

Deconstruction 4

THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA, following the Civil War until about 1900, challenged the country to reconstitute the Union North and the Confederate South into the “Re-United” States.

History gives this effort mixed reviews. The South experienced crushing punishment for supporting slavery and resented the new laws leveled against them. The North feared the freedmen integrating their cities, taking their jobs and spoiling their culture.

With great resolve, Congress passed three constitutional Reconstruction amendments that changed the course of history. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th defined citizenship rights and equal protections for all Americans, and the 15th secured the right for all eligible citizens to vote. The struggle to internalize the tragedy of the Civil War led to the 100-year Civil Rights movement and continues today as we seek to afford peace and justice for all members of American society.

On Nov. 5, 2024, tiny Anson County voted Republican for only the second time since the Reconstruction Era. Settled along the Pee Dee River in 1750, Anson County’s population is 22,500, the median income is $42,000, 98% of the residents are U.S. citizens and 40% are black.

What were they thinking?

The conservative sweep of the 2024 election has demonstrated a desire to peel off the layers of accumulated bureaucracy. Americans want to be confident, not suspicious, of our leaders to fairly apply the law. Obscure regulations are yesterday’s tools of governance. The voters of Anson County may be asking for a “Deconstruction Era.”

In November, 46% of all voters aged 18-29 voted Republican, up 10 points from 2020. The media and Hollywood endorsements could not prevent the younger generation from placing their bet on a thriving, innovative economy if given the right combination of education and incentive. Conservative innovators appealed to the entrepreneurial spirit of the younger worker, fed on the idea of realizing their dream job. For some, it was building the family legacy; for others, the shiny objects of the future, like cryptocurrency and AI, appealed to their sense of adventure.

What was once a noble effort to raise awareness for women’s rights morphed into a rant of unfulfilled promises. This fall, fewer women voted for the liberal agenda than in 2022.

The goal to elevate women to a level playing field has compromised the game, leaving young women unprotected on the field and in the classroom. The original mission of the movement devolved into a

Wholeness? How do I get there? How to keep on expanding into my wholeness? You did ask. My continuing road to wholeness is sometimes covered in dust and mud, a function of ongoing, and zigzagging, emotional off-roading.

Off-roading? What the heck?

Off-roading is an activity of driving (more like bumping along) on unsurfaced roads, tracks such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks and untamed natural terrain.

No doubt about it, off-roading, in the exploration of emotional wholeness, can be downright dirty, challenging, invigorating, painful, and let’s not forget, creative. As a bumpy off-roader, I’ve found self-compassion to be of more use than Dramamine. Rounding sharp corners and, in some cases, actually tipping over? No blame, no shame, just a kind dose of self compassion and get back on the road!

Persevering, always persevering, in the off-roading search for wholeness. My face is often covered with the kicked-up dust of living. But, hey, the contours of my wholeness keep on emerging, minus (thank heavens) those birthright cultural shoulds that were never a fit for me. (Yay!)

The accrual of dirt and mud, courtesy of off-roading explorations? Earthy materials that can morph into clay, shaping and defining the growing edges of our uniqueness. Potters, all. Who knew? See you on a nearby dirt track, growing away …

Jan Hutton, a resident of Chatham County and retired hospice social worker, lives life with heart and humor.

single voting issue that many younger women could not support. The hope of many to raise a family defeated the demand for unrestricted abortion.

Expect to hear more about the other A word: adoption.

Another A word: aspiration. Bill Clinton knew “it’s the economy, stupid” in 1992. The 2024 voters knew it also.

They recognized that the economy cannot function if it is shackled in regulation, stuck with a combustion engine in a hybrid world. The case was made not by politicians but by the greatest minds in manufacturing, technology and finance today. These innovators campaigned for conservatism with confidence and enthusiasm, saying America is not broken; it is disabled with debt.

You can almost hear the citizens of Anson saying, “How can I get some of that?” While the liberal media was reporting the dire condition of our country, Americans were watching the SpaceX Starship hit the mark on the docking station. Nothing but net.

The big loser in the 2024 election was identity politics. To the race-baiting industry, RIP.

The fault line of our two-party system has been blurred by shared friendships, experiences, diverse families and cultures. Our country is no longer a paint-by-numbers canvas where voters are stereotyped by color. We are a collage of dynamic, broad brushstrokes with an infinite palette. The paint will not go back into the tube. The free expression of multiethnic, working-class Americans may have created a renaissance unimagined in 2022.

The big winner was education. Polls suggest this was the biggest factor in the election outcome.

William Galston said it best in The Wall Street Journal: The liberal party has shifted from the factory floor to the faculty club. Conservative values have trumped envy and elitism. We witnessed the awesome power of American ingenuity and the muscle of volunteers who responded to the biblical devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. No questions asked.

President Abraham Lincoln struggled with Reconstruction. Before his assassination, he conjured the 10% Plan, a “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction.” In part, the Southern states could rejoin the Union when 10% of the people in that state took the oath of allegiance to the United States.

Let us consider a “Deconstruction Plan” for the United States. Imagine the debt reduced by 10% and allegiance to our new administration increased by 10%. A pollster would tell you that is a 20-point swing, a solid foundation for a prosperous future.

Connie Lovell lives in Pinehurst.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR | LINDA HUNT WILLIAMS

Key NC asset: low energy costs

To the Editor:

I was surprised and disappointed to see executives of Parkdale Mills blame the imminent closure of their company’s Sanford textile plant, laying off 74 workers, on an alleged “rapid increase in energy costs, which has rendered our business model unsustainable.” Nonsense. The reality is that North Carolina’s energy costs are well below the national average; electricity rates will decrease Jan. 1; our state’s economy is booming; and longstanding, unrelated trade issues plague Parkdale, which has closed factories throughout the low-cost Southeast.

As Parkdale CEO Andy Warlick noted last year in testimony to Congress, America’s textile industry is struggling because of an archaic and unfair “de minimis” trade policy that lets foreign producers and e-commerce distributors such as Shein and Temu export goods here in small batches (under $800 each) to avoid import tariffs. In his almost 4,000-word plea for help, Warlick did not mention energy costs or electricity a single time. He had no reason to.

Manufacturers and other major energy users such as data centers are flocking to North Carolina in part because our electricity is affordable, reliable and

STEPHEN MOORE

Climate change was the big election loser

A FEW DAYS BEFORE last week’s election, Bernie Sanders issued a dire warning to voters: “If Donald Trump is elected, the struggle against climate change is over.”

He had that right.

Climate change fanaticism was effectively on the ballot last week. The green energy agenda was decisively defeated.

It turns out that the tens of millions of middle - class Americans who voted for Trump weren’t much interested in the temperature of the planet 50 years from now. They’re too busy trying to pay the bills. That result shouldn’t be too surprising. Every poll in recent years has shown climate change ranks near the bottom of voter concerns. Jobs, inflation and illegal immigration register much higher on the scale of concerns.

But if you asked the elite of America in the top 1% of income, climate change is seen as an immediate and existential threat to the planet. Our poll at Unleash Prosperity earlier this year found that the cultural elites were so hyperobsessed with climate issues, they were in favor of banning air conditioning, nonessential air travel and many modern home appliances to stop global warming. Our study showed that not many of the other 99% agree.

Wake up, Bernie and Al Gore.

Climate change has become the ultimate luxury good: The richer you are, the more you fret about it. Among the elite, obsessing about climate change has become a favorite form of virtue signaling at the country club and in the faculty lounges. There is almost no cross the green elites — the people who donate six figures or more to groups like the Sierra Club — aren’t willing to make lower-income Americans bear to stop global warming. Herein lies the political curse of the climate issue. A millionaire doesn’t care much if the price of gas rises by $1 per gallon or if they have to pay another $100 a month in utility bills. But the middle-class hates paying more. It wasn’t just economic concerns that turned voters against climate crusaders like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Workers weren’t too thrilled with the heavy fist of government commanding them to buy an electric vehicle — whether they wanted one or not.

It hasn’t helped the greens’ cause that the same progressives out to save the planet with grandiose transformations and global government seem to have no problem with the garbage polluting the streets of our major cities, or the graffiti or the feces and urine smell on the street corners of San Francisco and New York City. That’s real pollution. And it’s affecting us here and now.

The good news is, this year’s voter revolt against the radical green agenda isn’t a vote for dirtier air or water. The air we breathe and the water we drink is cleaner than ever — a point that Trump correctly made. We will continue to make progress against pollution.

But the nonsense of “net zero” use of fossil fuels is a bridge way too far. The destruction of jobs historically held by blue-collar union workers ripped right into the heart of the Democratic Party’s traditional voting base.

In their zeal to save the planet, Democrats forgot to visit the steel mills, construction sites and auto plants to ask those workers what they thought.

Well, now we know. Americans recognize their shrinking paychecks and the higher price of gas they pay at the pump is the real clear and present danger to their way of life. If Democrats don’t start to get that, they too will go to bed worrying about their jobs.

Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He is also an economic adviser to the Trump campaign. His new book, coauthored with Arthur Laffer, is “The Trump Economic Miracle.”

plentiful. Our industrial electricity rates are 23% below the national average. North Carolina is a less expensive place to do business than most other states, thanks also to its low taxes, favorable regulatory environment, modest construction costs, affordable cost of living and well-trained workforce. Parkdale Mills faces serious economic challenges that Congress should address. But claiming that North Carolina’s energy costs are high is to spin a mighty yarn indeed.

Linda Hunt Williams lives in Sanford and formerly served in the state house.

obituaries

Herbert Huttson Reed

Oct. 23, 1942 –Nov. 4, 2024

Herbert Huttson Reed, 82, of Pittsboro died peacefully on November 4th, 2024, after a brief illness. Herb was the last child born to Mary Alyce Little and Jesse Huttson Reed of Beaumont, Texas. His parents and two older sisters, Joan Henry and Joyce Rubio, preceded him in death by a long shot. He also far outlived a dear nephew, Paul Rubio, and the mother of his children and longest life partner, Sandra Reed. He is survived by his two children and their families: Amy Pulliam of Pittsboro and husband, Charlie, and their children - Oscar, Hildegard, and Eliza; and John Reed of Wilson, Wyoming and wife, Heather, and their children - Isaac and Sandra. He also leaves behind a niece, 3 nephews, their families, and several dear friends. Herb’s childhood stories evoked a Normal Rockwell idyll of comic books, after-school cookies, and five sets of jeans at the start of each school year. He was jumping on a trampoline at the YMCA when friends stopped by to see if he wanted to enroll in college. He went on to earn two bachelor’s degrees: in Economics and Engineering. He served 6 years in the US Marine Corps Reserves. An avid reader, he studied physics and astronomy in his spare time. Professionally, he worked as an Engineer in commercial

Sarah Margaret Oldham Cameron

Sept. 6, 1942 –Nov. 12, 2024

Sarah Margaret Oldham Cameron, 82, widow of David Evans Cameron, died Tuesday, November 12, 2024, at her residence.

Born September 6, 1942, in Sanford, NC, she was the daughter of the late Oswald Clarence Oldham and the late Barbara Faye Randolph Oldham. She was a faithful member of Summerton Presbyterian Church. She enjoyed being a member of the church choir and hosting activities at the local nursing home.

Surviving are three children, Babbs Edwards of Summerton,

construction managing and estimating dozens of large projects all over the country. Herb had an enduring and lifelong passion for motorcycles. A pioneer of off-road riding and van life, he and Sandy camped and rode dirt bikes every spare weekend. He served as President of the Trail Riders of Houston and competed in many Enduros including Caney Creek and Fort Hood along with his family. Many happy memories were made riding trails with elementary-school-aged Amy & John. In later years, he switched to road bikes, traveling thousands of back-road miles in Texas and North Carolina. He passed along his enthusiasm for motorcycles to his kids and nephews, which continues today to the third generation. Many of Herb’s friends and family will miss his wit, humor, and artistic skill. His sketches won many games of Pictionary (but paled in comparison to true artistic endeavors by his sister, nephew, and granddaughter). He is already missed by the community at the Chatham County Aging Services in Pittsboro, which was “the best kept secret in town” and treated Herb like family in his final years. Herb came to realize his privilege and was a staunch supporter of Democrats from Bill Clinton onward. He proudly cast his final vote for Kamala Harris just days before his hospitalization. Using his vote to protect social security, women’s rights, and freedom for all Americans was incredibly important to him. Donations in Herb’s honor may be made to the Chatham County Democratic Party or the Chatham County Library.

“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.” -Maya Angelou

The family will host a memorial gathering at a later date.

Sarah Lynn Bellon (Tom) of Florence and Branton Edwards of Florence; six grandchildren, Adam, Camryn, Henna, Ethan, Thomas, and Mikell; three great grandchildren, Emery, Penelope and Ophelia; and a brother, Walker Lynn Oldham (Judy) of Southern Pines.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husbands, Henry Branton Edwards, Sr. and Emmett L. Mikell.

A Service of Witness to the Resurrection in Thanksgiving to God for Sarah Cameron will be held at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, November 16, 2024, at Summerton Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Vikki Brogdon officiating.

The family will receive friends immediately following the service in Clarkson Hall at Summerton Presbyterian Church.

Memorials may be made to Summerton Presbyterian Church, 16 S. Cantey Street, Summerton.

Stephens Funeral Home & Crematory, 304 N. Church Street, Manning, is in charge of arrangements, (803) 435-2179. www.stephensfuneralhome.org

IN MEMORY

offer an on-site crematory with many options of Celebration of Life services, Traditional, and Green Burials. Call us to set an appointment to come by and learn more.

PATSY WOLFE TRUELOVE

FEB. 26, 1941 – NOV. 14, 2024

Medical Center Cary Hospital, surrounded by her family. She was born in Johnston County, NC on February 26, 1941, daughter of Arthur Baynes Wolfe and Annie Louise Blalock Wolfe. Patsy enjoyed spending time with her family, she enjoyed when her great and great-great grandchildren came to visit with her, eating lunch and going shopping with Michelle and Joyce. She also loved going to the beach and making fudge and Chocolate pies. She enjoyed putting puzzles together and playing games on her phone. Patsy was preceded in death by her parents, Five sisters: Sally Iona Wolfe, Brenda Wood, Joyce Johnson, Barbara Jane Daniels, and Susan Perez, Four brothers: Ronald Wolfe, Thelbert Wolfe, Charles Wolfe, and Billy Ray Wolfe. Funeral Service will be conducted at 11:00 AM on Monday (11/18/2024) at Ebenezer United Methodist Church, Apex NC with the Rev. Patrick Jones, Officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Patsy is survived by her husband of sixty-one years Ralston Lane Truelove of the home, Two sons: Anthony Baynes Truelove (Joyce) of New Hill, NC. And Joel Lane Truelove (Linda) of Warrenton, VA. Two sisters: Mylinda W. Eubanks of Dunn, NC and Peggy W. Hackney of Siler City, NC. Four grandchildren: Michelle Howell (Kris) Nicole Horton (Josh) Alex Truelove, and Emily Truelove. Five great-grandchildren: Hannah Truelove, Jordan Howell, Skylar Howell, Ryder Horton, and Raelynn Horton. One great-great grandchild Mason Sloan and two more great-great grandchildren on the way.

DONALD L. KEY

APRIL 17, 1947 – NOV. 13, 2024

Donald L. Key passed away peacefully on November 13, 2024, after a lengthy illness. Don was born in Mt. Airy, NC on April 17, 1947, to Kermit and Ruth Key (preceded in death). They moved the family to Sanford, NC where they opened Key’s Upholstery in 1949, located in the original location in Jonesboro. Key’s Upholstery, Inc. is still family owned and in operation today. Don is survived by his wife Kay; children Elizabeth (Keith Thomas) and Jamey. Don has been blessed with 4 grandchildren Tanner, Graham, Logan and Mackenzie. Don has 4 siblings: Joyce (Wayne Thomas), Ted (Claudia Key), Lisa (Carl Brown), and Karen (Donna Ward). Karen preceded Don’s death.

LOUISE ARNOLD WADDELL

NOV. 26, 1935 – NOV. 14, 2024

Louise Arnold Waddell, age 88, of Sanford, passed away and went to be with her Heavenly Father on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at Central Carolina Hospital surrounded by her loving family. She was born in Lee County, NC on November 26, 1935, to the late Ernest Wade Arnold and Lovie Arnold of Sanford. Louise worked with Carolina Wholesale florist and in other factories until her retirement from Moen in 1998 after 17 years of service to care for her beloved husband, Johnny, upon his declining health. Louise was a faithful and dedicated member of Wayside Evangelical Presbyterian Church. She was a loving mother and grandmother who never knew a stranger and offered everyone a smile. Louise was predeceased by her loving husband, Johnny Waddell; son Carl Wayne Waddell; twin granddaughters Kelsey Jo Honeycutt and Brittany Marie Honeycutt and brothers Tyree, Wilbur and Rupert Arnold. She is survived by her daughters Patricia Hamilton and husband Roger of Broadway and Debbie Honeycutt and husband Billly Joe of Sanford; grandchildren Angela Hamilton (Gilbert), Chris Hamilton, Cassidy Honeycutt, and Stacy Waddell; greatgrandchildren Abby Riojas, Alex Riojas, Peyton Hamilton, Trinity Simmons, JJ Simmons; sisters Lucille, Annie Mae, Estelle, Edna and Shirley and brothers John and Reece.

JAMES KILGORE

JAN. 22, 1952 – NOV. 13, 2024

James Kilgore, 72, of Siler City, died peacefully at his home, Wednesday, November 13, 2024.

James was born in Pike County, Kentucky to the late Willard Preston Kilgore and the late Anna Mildred Mitchell Kilgore on January 22, 1952. He was a coal miner for 20 years before moving to Siler City. James retired from Frontier Spinning in Sanford, NC. He enjoyed being outside either hunting or fishing. James loved his family, especially his grandson, Alex.

James is survived by his wife of 53 years, Melinda Hayes Kilgore; daughter, Rebecca Kilgore; grandson, Alex James Kilgore; sisters, Faye Kilgore, Mary K. Church, and Debbie Medlin; brothers, Robert Kilgore, and Roger Kilgore; and many nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.

MARGIE JEFFERSON DALYRYMPLE

NOV. 15, 2024

Margie Jefferson Dalrymple, age 95, passed away peacefully on Friday, November 15, 2024. She was born in Penbrook, Virginia to the late Thomas Jefferson and Malley Barbour Jefferson. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband Jack Dalrymple; daughter Ava Diaz; son-in-law Joey Diaz and siblings Vera Lumpkin, Irene Martin, Walter Jefferson, Bertha Barker and H.C. Jefferson. Margie retired from Eaton Corporation. She is survived by her grandson Joey Lee Diaz, II of Sanford and special nieces and nephews who have been her support over the past few years. A graveside service will be Monday, November 18, 2024 at 2:00 PM at Lee Memory Gardens.

BRUCE WAYNE JAMES

NOV. 15, 2024

Bruce Wayne James, age 65, of Sanford, passed away on Friday, November 15, 2024 at Sanford Health and Rehabilition.

He was born in Kanawha County, West Virginia to the late Jesse Lee James, Jr. and Barbara Kincaid James. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister Carol Ross. A talented artist of wood, music, and words, his legacy lives on through his work and the memories shared with his loved ones. He also enjoyed sketching and painting. In his spare time, he worked as a disc jockey at WPJL radio station in Raleigh. He was humble, kind and considerate. He loved his family, but more importantly he loved Jesus.

Bruce is survived by sisters Amy Rue (Johnny) of Kure Beach and Ora “Cookie” Sharum (Andrew) of Sanford; six nieces and nephews and ten great-nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 from 12:30 pm until 1:50 PM at Calvary Church. A funeral service will follow at 2:00 PM with Rev. Curtis Norris officiating. Burial will follow in church cemetery.

Herlda Senhouse, second-oldest U.S. resident, dies at age 113

She was born in West Virginia in 1911

The Associated Press

WELLESLEY, Mass. — Herlda Senhouse, who founded a jazz dance group to raise money for black students in the 1950s and lived to become the second-oldest person in the United States, has died at age 113.

Senhouse died “peacefully in her sleep” on Saturday, said Stephanie Hawkinson, public information officer for the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, where Senhouse had lived for the last four decades.

“She never missed an opportunity to learn more, do more, experience more,” said Hawkin-

Herlda Senhouse attends her 113th birthday celebration on Feb. 28, 2024, in Wellesley,

son, who met Senhouse on her 108th birthday and had celebrated with her every year since.

Born Feb. 28, 1911, in Piedmont, West Virginia, Senhouse was sent to live with an aunt in Woburn, Massachusetts, at age 16 and graduated from Woburn High School. According to the Boston Globe, she dreamed of becoming a nurse but was turned away by a nursing school after it had met its quota of two black students in 1931. She later worked as a housekeeper for several families and founded the Boston Clique Club, which raised money to improve educational opportunities for black students in Boston.

At age 105, she enrolled in the New England Centenarian Study, which seeks to deter-

mine how people like her age so slowly while delaying or escaping aging-related disease. She also bequeathed her brain to researchers, Hawkinson said.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the oldest person in the United States is Naomi Whitehead, 114, who lives in Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Hawkinson said Senhouse often said the secret to her longevity was never having children, though she enjoyed children and caring for them. She surrounded herself with a community of relatives, friends and members of her church, and was always up for an adventure, Hawkinson said.

“She was truly an inspiration to so many in our community,” she said.

Chatham County Aging Services Weekly Activities Calendar

Monday, November 25

Pittsboro Center For Active Living

8:15 a.m. - Total Body Conditioning

9 a.m. - Couch to 5K Run/Walk Training

10 a.m. - Geri-Fit

10:45 a.m. - Reading Out Loud with Gaines

11 a.m. - Karaoke

1 p.m. - Mahjong

2 p.m. - Table Tennis

6 p.m. - Virtual Caregiver Support Group Siler City Center For Active Living

9 a.m. - Strong & Fit

10 a.m. - Cornhole; Wellness Screenings with UNC Health

2 p.m. - Strength & Tone

Tuesday, November 26 Pittsboro Center for Active Living

8:30 a.m. - Small Group Training

9 a.m. - 3G’s Men’s Group; Couch to 5K Walking Group

10 a.m. - Woodcarvers; Cardio Drumming

10:30 a.m. - Gym Orientation; Crafting Your Own Grief Journey; Thanksgiving Celebration

1 p.m. - Rummikub

2 p.m. - Zumba Gold

3 p.m. - Healthy Lifestyles with Alan Siler City Center for Active Living

8 a.m. - Quilting and Sewing Time

9 a.m. - Cardio Drumming

9:45 a.m. - Sunshine Walkers

10:15 a.m. - Tuesdays with Talyse

1 p.m. - Rook, Phase 10 & Rummikub

2 p.m. - Fitness Room Orientation (by appointment only) Wednesday, November 27 Pittsboro Center for Active Living

8:15 a.m. - Cardio & Upper Body Exercise

9 a.m. - Quilting; Couch to 5K Run/Walk Training

10 a.m. - Chair Yoga with Liz; Music Jam Session

11 a.m. - Bowling

1 p.m. - Hand & Foot Card Game

2 p.m. - Table Tennis Siler City Center for Active

10 a.m. -

1 p.m. -

Ted Olson, lawyer who argued Bush recount, same-sex marriage cases, dies at 84

He served as solicitor general under George W. Bush

By Lindsay Whitehurst and Russ Bynum The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. —

Former U.S. Solicitor General

Ted Olson, who served two Republican presidents as one of the country’s best known conservative lawyers and successfully argued on behalf of samesex marriage, died Wednesday. He was 84.

The law firm Gibson Dunn, where Olson practiced since 1965, announced his death on its website. No cause of death was given.

Olson was at the center of some of the biggest cases of recent decades, including a win on behalf of George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida presidential election recount dispute that went before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Even in a town full of lawyers, Ted’s career as a litigator was particularly prolific,” said Mitch McConnell, the longtime Senate Republican leader. “More importantly, I count myself among so many in Washington who knew Ted as a good and decent man.”

Bush made Olson his solicitor general, a post the lawyer held from 2001 to 2004. Olson had previously served in the Justice Department as an assistant attorney general during President Ronald Reagan’s first term in the early 1980s.

During his career, Olson argued 65 cases before the Supreme Court, according to Gibson Dunn.

“They weren’t just little cases,” said Theodore Boutrous, a partner at the law firm who worked with Olson for 37 years. “Many of them were big, blockbuster caes that helped shape our society.”

Those included the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 case that eliminated many limits on political giving, and a successful challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“He’s the greatest lawyer I’ve ever worked with or seen in action,” said Boutrous, who worked so closely with Olson that they were known at Gibson Dunn as “the two Teds.”

“He was an entertaining and forceful advocate who could go toe-to-toe with the Supreme Court justices in a way few lawyers could. They respected him so much.”

One of Olson’s most prominent cases put him at odds with many fellow conserva-

tives. After California adopted a ban on same-sex marriage in 2008, Olson joined forces with former adversary David Boies, who had represented Democrat Al Gore in the presidential election case, to represent California couples seeking the right to marry.

During closing arguments, Olson contended that tradition or fears of harm to heterosexual unions were legally insufficient grounds to discriminate against same-sex couples.

“It is the right of individuals, not an indulgence to be dispensed by the state,” Olson said. “The right to marry, to choose to marry, has never been tied to procreation.”

A federal judge in California ruled in 2010 that the state’s ban violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court let that decision stand in 2013.

“This is the most important thing I’ve ever done, as an attorney or a person,” Olson later said in a documentary film about the marriage case.

He told The Associated Press in 2014 that the marriage case was important because it “involves tens of thousands of people in California, but really millions of people throughout the United States and beyond that to the world.” His decision to join the case added a prominent conservative voice to the rapidly shifting views on same-sex marriage across the country.

Boies remembered Olson as a giant in legal circles who “left the law, our country, and each of us better than he found us. Few people are a hero to those that know them well. Ted was a hero to those who knew him best.”

Olson’s personal life also intersected tragically with the nation’s history when his third wife, well-known conservative legal analyst Barbara Olson, died on Sept. 11, 2001. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.

In recent years, his other high profile clients have included quarterback Tom Brady during the “Deflategate” scandal of 2016 and technology company Apple in a legal battle with the FBI over unlocking the phone of a shooter who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015.

The range of his career and his statute on the national stage were unmatched, said Barbara Becker, managing partner of Gibson Dunn.

“Ted was a titan of the legal profession and one of the most extraordinary and eloquent advocates of our time,” Becker said in a statement.

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in Chatham News & Record at obits@chathamnewsrecord.com

ANDREW HARNIK / AP PHOTO

Former United States Solicitor General Ted Olson, center, speaks with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, right, in September 2017 in Washington, D.C.

STEPHANIE HAWKINSON / TOWN OF WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS, VIA AP

Massachusetts.

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Cooper grants 2 pardons, 6 commutations

The pardons went to two men whose convictions had been vacated

The Associated Press

RALEIGH — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has commuted what have been lengthy sentences served by six criminal offenders in state prisons — five of whom were convicted of murder — and granted pardons to two others.

Those pardons of innocence that the outgoing governor also signed on Wednesday give the persons wrongly imprisoned for erroneous felony convictions the ability to seek monetary compensation from the North Carolina Industrial Commission.

One such pardon was issued to Mark Crotts, who was once convicted of murdering an elderly Alamance County couple in 1990. Crotts served two years in prison, but his convictions were set aside by a court, and he was ultimately acquitted in a retrial.

The other pardon went to Darron Carmon, who was convicted in 1994 of robbery with a dangerous weapon at a Pitt County convenience store and served more than seven years in prison. Carmon, now a pastor, maintained his innocence. He was exonerated after a judge in 2022 vacated his conviction as new evidence surfaced.

Four of the commutations originated from recommendations by a special board that Cooper created during his second term to review petitions from people sentenced to prison for crimes committed while they were under the age of 18. Cooper also granted commutations to two other offenders sentenced in the 1990s to life in prison without parole. During

that time, a law contained a process by which their sentences can be reviewed after 25 years by a trial judge in the county where the conviction happened and the state parole commission. While that review law has since been repealed, it still applies to such offenders convicted during that era, Cooper’s office said.

“Ensuring careful review of

cases while taking executive clemency action is a responsibility I take seriously,” Cooper said in a news release. “All of these individuals are deserving of clemency and we will continue to work to protect our communities and improve the fairness of our criminal justice system.”

The commutations based on Juvenile Sentence Review Board recommendations went

to George Lesane, 47, who has served over 30 years for the murder of Larry McCormick in Robeson County; Donte Santiago, 40, who has served more than 23 years for the murder of Frederick Howell in Onslow County; Kirston Angell, 35, who has served 17 years for the murder of Bobby Boles and assault of two other victims in Davie County; and Terence Smith, 42, who has served nearly 25 years for his involvement in a robbery where three people were injured in Forsyth County.

Lesane and Smith will be released Nov. 27, while Santiago becomes parole-eligible immediately and Angell parole-eligible in January 2027, according to Cooper’s office.

The other two commutations following recommendations by judges and the parole board were granted to Penny Jarrett, 60, who has served 27 years of a life-without-parole sentence for the murder of Henry Draughn in Guilford County; and Jesse Graham, 71, who has served 26 years of a life-without-parole sentence for the murder of Jimmy Harris, also in Guilford County. Jarrett and Graham also become parole-eligible immediately.

Cooper’s news release identified various activities and rehabilitative efforts that each of the six offenders receiving commutations have participated in while behind bars.

People are skipping urban areas in favor of far-flung exurbs

Communities on the outskirts of the suburbs are some of the fastest growing

By Mike Schneider The Associated Press

HAINES CITY, Fla. — Not long ago, Polk County’s biggest draw was citrus instead of people. Located between Tampa and Orlando, Florida’s citrus capital produces more boxes of citrus than any other county in the state and has devoted tens of thousands of acres to growing millions of trees.

But last year, more people moved to the county than to any other in the United States, almost 30,000.

Bulldozed citrus groves in recent years made way for housing and big box stores that could one day merge the two metropolitan areas into what has half-jokingly been dubbed, “Orlampa.”

The migration — and property sprawl — reflects a significant kind of growth seen all over the

from page A1

country this decade: the rise of the far-flung exurbs.

Outlying communities on the outer margins of metro areas — some as far away as 60 miles from a city’s center — had some of the fastest-growing populations last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Those communities are primarily in the South, like Anna on the outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area; Fort Mill, South Carolina, outside Charlotte; Lebanon outside Nashville; and Polk County’s Haines City. For some residents, like Marisol Ortega, commuting to work can take up to an hour and a half one-way. But Ortega, who lives in Haines City about 40 miles from her job in Orlando, says it’s worth it.

“I love my job. I love what I do, but then I love coming back home, and it’s more tranquil,” Ortega said.

A pandemic exodus and more

The rapid growth of far-flung

exurbs is an after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Census Bureau, as rising housing costs drove people further from cities and remote working allowed many to do their jobs from home at least part of the week.

Polk County’s Hispanic population has grown from one-fifth to more than one-quarter of the overall population over the past five years, driven by Puerto Rican migration from the island after 2017’s Hurricane Maria and then from New York during the pandemic.

The county has grown more diverse with the share of non-Hispanic white residents dropping from 61% to 54%, and it has also gotten more educated and wealthier, according to the Census Bureau. Despite the influx of new people, the county’s Republican leanings have remained relatively unchanged.

Yeseria Suero and her family moved from New York to Polk County at the start of the decade after falling in love with the pace of life and affordability

during a visit. Still, there were some cultural adjustments: restaurants closing early, barbecue and boiled peanuts everywhere, strangers chatting with her at the grocery store. Suero is now involved with the tightknit Hispanic community, and her two boys are active in sports leagues.

“My kids now say, ‘Yes, ma’am,’” she said. Recent hurricanes and citrus diseases in Florida also have made it more attractive for some Polk County growers to sell their citrus groves to developers who build new residences or stores.

Over the past decade, citrus-growing there declined from 81,800 acres and almost 10 million trees in 2014 to 58,500 acres and 8.5 million trees in 2024, according to federal agricultural statistics.

“It hasn’t been a precipitous conversion of citrus land for growth,” said Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a grower’s group. “But certainly you see it in northern, northeastern Polk.”

An exurb of an exurb Anna, Texas, more than 45 miles north of downtown Dallas, is seeing the same kind of migration.

“We

While

It was the fourth-fastest growing city in the U.S. last year, and its population has increased by a third during the 2020s to 27,500 residents. Like Polk County, Anna has gotten a little older, richer and more racially diverse. Close to 3 in 5 households have moved into their homes since 2020, according to the Census Bureau.

Schuyler Crouch, 29, and his wife wanted to buy a house in a closer-in exurb like Frisco, where he grew up, so they could settle down and start a family. But prices there have skyrocketed because of population growth.

In Anna, they fell in love last year with a house that was more reasonably priced. They both work in Frisco, about 30 miles away, and it has become their go-to for eating out or entertainment instead of downtown Dallas, even though not long ago Frisco itself was considered a far-flung outpost of the metro area. Still, Crouch said he has noticed the exurbs keep getting pushed further north as breakneck growth makes affordable housing out of reach in neighborhoods once considered on the fringes of the metro area.

“The next exurb we are going to be living in is Oklahoma,” he joked.

fore has the city — or county, for that matter — offered a nationally branded hotel.

“This hotel is a welcome addition to the area,” Pittsboro Mayor Kyle Shipp said. “Pittsboro and the county are growing rapidly, and this really punches above its weight. It’s great to have it open.”

MIKE SCHNEIDER / AP PHOTO

These newly-constructed apartments were built on a former citrus grove nearby Haines City, Florida.

PJ WARD-BROWN / NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Gov. Roy Cooper speaks at

night party in Raleigh earlier this month.

CHATHAM SPORTS

Northwood, Chatham Central fall in the first round of football playoffs

Both teams struggled to stop the run Friday

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

GOLDSBORO — No. 26

Northwood couldn’t overcome its offensive struggles in a 4414 season-ending loss to No. 7 Eastern Wayne in the first round of the 2A state football playoffs Friday.

Four turnovers and multiple drops killed the Chargers’ offensive rhythm while Eastern Wayne found success in the air and on the ground all night long.

“Just like any football game ever, if you can’t stop the run and you can’t run the ball, it’s going to be a long night,” Northwood coach Dalton Brown said.

As a team, Eastern Wayne rushed for 301 yards. Junior quarterback Izeiah Oates led the team with 101 yards and a

score on 11 carries, and seniors Earl Mclean and Jay Whisonant and sophomore Tykel Battle each recorded at least 50 yards on the ground. Oates also had a good night through the air with 241 passing yards and four touchdowns. Two Eastern Wayne receivers went for more than 70 yards, but Oates’ favorite target was junior Charlie Thomas, who caught the Warriors’ first score in the opening quarter and the last score in

Chatham County girls’ basketball preview: Mid-Carolina 1A/2A edition

Seaforth eyes a state title in the 2024-25 season

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

LAST YEAR, the path to a Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference title ran through Chatham County, and this season, the county’s girls’ basketball teams are looking to keep it that way.

The 2024-25 season began this week for the county’s noncharter schools as Jordan-Matthews tipped off the season against Trinity on Monday. Sea-

forth, the defending regular season conference champions, got started Tuesday against Apex Friendship, while Northwood, the defending conference tournament champions, and Chatham Central will start play Thursday. Here’s a look at what to expect from each team before they fully dive into the thick of the regular season.

Seaforth

Seaforth has come close to a state title the past two seasons, but it doesn’t want any more

room between itself and the ultimate goal this time around.

After ending last year with a rough loss to eventual state champions North Pitt in the regional finals, the Hawks want revenge.

This season, vengeance will start with using the team’s experience and bond as an advantage. The Hawks are returning multiple players from last season’s squad, including its core of Gabby White, Katie Leonard, Mia Moore and Peyton Collins, and this preseason, operating as

See GIRLS, page B3

the fourth quarter on a 52-yard bomb. But as the Warriors’ offense hummed, Northwood barely made a sound. For starters, the Chargers couldn’t establish much of a run game. Northwood rushed for well under 100 yards and suffered multiple plays stopped in the backfield. As a result, the Chargers relied heavily on their passing attack, but that wasn’t any prettier.

Northwood threw the ball 29 times but only completed eight passes. The rest consisted of drive-halting drops, three interceptions and flustered incompletions from the Warriors’ relentless pressure, which resulted in two sacks.

“Execution, strength, physicality,” Brown listed as the factors missing from Northwood’s offense. “We got outmuscled

Chatham County boys’ basketball preview: Mid-Carolina 1A/2A edition

looks to stay on top after the Drake Powell era

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

THE BOYS’ basketball landscape for Chatham County’s Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference teams looks much different going into the 2024-25 season. With new coaches, players moving around and the conference’s former best player Drake Powell moving on to UNC, the

path for a conference title is wide open. Or is it?

This year has the potential to host one of the most competitive seasons within the county and the most competitive season in the conference since Northwood joined last year. Northwood, the defending conference regular season and tournament champions, will get started at Green Level Saturday at 8 p.m., Seaforth begins at Carrboro Friday at 7:30 p.m., Chatham Central

Northwood

ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Eastern Wayne quarterback Izeiah Oates (center) keeps the ball on a rush during a playoff win that ended Northwood’s season. Oates rushed for 101 yards in the game.

PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth’s Katie Leonard drives with the ball during last year’s season-ending playoff loss to North Pitt. Leonard is back with a strong core of returning players.

New Seaforth coach John Berry shouts instructions to his team at the JordanMatthews jamboree earlier this month.

GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth’s boys’ soccer historic season comes to an end, winter sports begin

Basketball season got underway for the charter schools

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

BOYS’ SOCCER

WARSAW — The magical playoff run for No. 28 Seaforth came to an end Friday after a 3-0 loss to No. 13 James Kenan in the third round of the 2A bracket.

James Kenan’s Peter Omega knocked in two goals within two minutes of each other in the final eight minutes of the second half, sending the Tigers to the fourth round of the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

The Tigers controlled most of the possession out the gate, and after numerous shots, Robert Ordones kicked in the first goal of the night with 24 minutes remaining in the first half.

“They were very fast and a very athletic team, as you saw,” Seaforth coach Giovanni Viana said. “There really wasn’t anything. It’s just the little details. If you look at their last two goals, we had guys defending, but no one stepped to the ball. And, we didn’t take our chances when we had them.”

Seaforth began to settle in toward the end of the opening half, though, taking a more patient approach to find goal opportunities. The Hawks had plenty of chances to tie or take the lead before halftime, including a missed free kick from sophomore Andreas Trinado, a missed rebound immediately after and another missed free kick. With eight minutes left in the half, senior striker Logan

PLAYOFFS from page B1

and we got outphysicaled.”

Down 22-0 at halftime, Northwood had a chance to cut the deficit coming out of the break, but an interception by senior Rahkeem Faison kept the Chargers at bay.

Oates made it a 28-0 game halfway through the third quarter with a 4-yard touchdown run, and on Northwood’s following possession, junior Jeremiah Faison came away with the second pick of the game.

Northwood didn’t find the end zone until the middle of the fourth quarter when junior Cam Fowler caught two touchdown passes to avoid the shutout.

The Chargers officially finished the season with a 6-5 overall record (6-6 with the unrecorded loss to Hoke County), winning at least six games for the second season in a row.

“Hate that the season is over,” Brown said. “Any year that you have end in a loss is not a great feeling, especially for the seniors who have had a different head coach all four years. It’s tough. They’re super resilient.”

Pender 76, Chatham Central 14

No. 29 Chatham Central

Sparrow broke free down the field for a chance to tie the game at one goal apiece, but the lead pass was a bit too far and landed in the goalkeeper’s hands before Sparrow could get to it. “We had a lot of young guys and a lot of sophomores out there, and I think there were moments when we got nervous, especially in the first half,” Viana said. Said Viana, “Scoring for us has been a challenge all season. Even last game, we dominated and missed so many opportunities, so it’s just getting more clinical and more poised in front of the goal.”

couldn’t stop senior running back Jeremiah Johnson in its 76-14 loss to No. 4 Pender in the first round of the 1A playoffs Friday. Johnson rushed for 242 yards and six touchdowns on just 10 carries, securing his seventh 200-yard rushing game of the season. Three other Pender rushers found the end zone, and the team combined for 473 yards on the ground.

Although the outcome wasn’t what the Bears hoped for, this season has been quite historic for the school. With the unrecorded 11th game win over East Columbus (24-12) on Nov. 8, Chatham Central won multiple games for the first time since 2018, and the most recent win was its largest margin of victory since beating Jordan-Matthews 19-6 in 2022. The 14 points scored Friday were also the most it has scored in a playoff game since 2012 when the Bears scored 20 points in a loss to South Stanly. Chatham Central played in three games decided by one possession, which matches the most since 2018 (three games).

“I wish I had more time with this group,” Chatham Central coach Derrin Little said in a Facebook post following Friday’s game. “They build a brotherhood that will never be broken.”

This year, we came back, and I didn’t make those mistakes.”

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Chatham Charter is off to a decent start to the season following its 61-27 season-opening win over Research Triangle on Nov. 8.

The Knights started the week with a 62-58 overtime win over NCSSM-Durham on Nov. 11.

Senior Brennan LaVelle recorded a monster 28-point, 20-rebound double-double, but it was junior Gabe McKoy who knocked in the two free throws to send the game into overtime.

NCSSM-Durham 37-24 on Nov. 11. Chatham Charter had won the previous three meetings over the Unicorns.

Chatham Charter bounced back with a 43-24 win over Eno River on Nov. 15, but it took a tough 60-13 loss to Uwharrie Charter Friday.

Woods Charter lost its season opener to Cornerstone Charter 31-10 on Nov. 14. The Wolves ran into a similar problem as the boys’ team as they struggled to hit shots.

Despite the season’s ending, Seaforth’s latest playoff run was one to remember, especially for the program’s first four-year senior class.

The Hawks won their first ever playoff game, and in the second round against Manteo, they tied the game at one goal apiece with just 24 seconds left in regulation and won in PKs.

“It was a little unexpected to get this far, but I’m very happy with it,” senior goalkeeper Jack Haste said.

Said Sparrow, “I’m very happy because last year, we lost in the first round of the playoffs due to a lot of mistakes I made.

Chatham Charter picked up back-to-back victories after beating Eno River 58-46 on Nov. 14. However, Uwharrie Charter handed the Knights their first loss Friday, 46-25. Woods Charter fell to Cornerstone Charter 36-34 in its season opener on Nov. 14. The Wolves couldn’t overcome a poor shooting night as they shot just 25% from the floor and missed eight free throws. Sophomore Levi Haygood led the Wolves with nine points while going 3-for-3 from the field. Central Tar Heel 1A standings (as of Sunday): 1. Chatham Charter (3-1, 0-0); 2. Southern Wake Academy (3-0, 0-0); 3. Woods Charter (0-1, 0-0); 4. River Mill (0-2, 0-0); 5. Triangle Math and Science (0-3, 0-0); 6. Ascend Leadership (00, 0-0); 7. Clover Garden School (0-0, 0-0)

BASKETBALL

GIRLS’

After its 61-15 season opening win over Research Triangle on Nov. 8, things haven’t been as easy for Chatham Charter. The Knights fell to

Central Tar Heel 1A standings (as of Sunday): 1. Chatham Charter (2-2, 0-0); 2. Triangle Math and Science (1-2, 0-0); 3. Woods Charter (0-1, 0-0); 4. Ascend Leadership (0 -1, 0-0); 5. River Mill (0-2, 0-0); 6. Southern Wake Academy (0 -2, 0-0); 7. Clover Garden School (0-0, 0-0)

WRESTLING

Wrestling teams around the county began their seasons last week. Here are the results.

Seaforth, the defending 2A individual team champions, got off to a hot start with three wins over Asheboro (70-12), Athens Drive (49-30) and Southern Lee (65-12) in a home meet Nov. 13. The Hawks took on the defending back-to-back 1A state champions Uwharrie Charter at home Friday, but they fell short 44-28.

Jordan-Matthews fell to South Davidson, 60-24, and The North Carolina Leadership Academy, 48-36, at its home tri-meet on Nov. 13. Northwood fell to Northwest Guilford, 77-0, and Pinecrest, 80-0, in the Pinecrest quad meet on Nov. 13. The Chargers had numerous forfeits in both matches.

How Can You Plan For Incapacity?

We all hope to enjoy long, healthy lives, retaining the ability to think clearly and make our own decisions. But life doesn’t always work out that way — which is why you need to prepare for a potential incapacity that could affect your independence and possibly create financial problems for your family.

So, in thinking about incapacity planning, you may want to consider the following arrangements:

• Health care power of attorney – When you establish a health care power of attorney, you name someone, such as a spouse or adult child, to make medical decisions on your behalf, should you become incapable of making them on your own due to disability or illness. These decisions include choosing doctors, treatments and care facilities.

• Financial power of attorney – With a financial power of attorney, you designate someone to assume a variety of duties for you in case you become incapacitated. These tasks include investing, selling property, paying bills and debts, collecting Social Security benefits and adding or changing insurance policies.

When establishing a health care or financial power of attorney, you may need to decide whether it’s “durable” or “springing.” A durable power of attorney typically takes effect immediately after you sign it, have it notarized and witnessed. So, the person you’ve chosen to have power of attorney — sometimes called an “agent” — can act on your behalf whenever you choose. On the other hand, you could select a power of attorney that “springs” into effect only when you become incapacitated — hence, the “springing” designation.

One issue affecting a springing power of attorney involves the speed with which it can be enacted. Generally, it won’t go into effect

until a licensed physician declares in writing that the person granting the power of attorney is indeed incapacitated. This could cause a problem if your chosen agent needs to act quickly on your behalf. It’s because of this potential delay that a durable power of attorney is often favored over a springing power of attorney. However, everyone’s circumstances are different, so if you have a choice between a durable or springing power of attorney, you may want to consult with an estate-planning professional for guidance.

Apart from the health care and financial powers of attorney, you may also want to consider one other incapacity-related legal document — a living will. When you establish a living will, you describe the steps you would or wouldn’t want taken to keep you alive, along with other medical decisions, including pain management and organ donation. Obviously, the decision to create a living will is highly personal, involving your feelings about selfsufficiency and the circumstances that define the quality of life you wish to have. But the mere fact of having a living will can relieve your loved ones of having to make potentially agonizing decisions.

Planning for an incapacity may not be the most pleasant task — but it’s an important one. Of course, you may never become incapacitated at all, but by making the proper arrangements, you can make things easier for yourself and your family — just in case.

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

Edward Jones, Member SIPC

EDUARDO PUAC FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Seaforth’s Logan Sparrow (12) fights for the ball against a James Kenan player. Sparrow and the Hawks fell to Kenan, however, 3-0, ending their season.

ASHEEBO ROJAS / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

Junior quarterback Izeiah Oates drops back to pass during Eastern Wayne’s playoff win over Northwood. Oates threw for four touchdowns and also rushed for 101 yards.

Seaforth students display signs and flags at a football game earlier this fall. The Hawks have the largest student body in Chatham County, according to NCHSAA data.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its final average daily membership numbers for the 2024 25 school year last week. The numbers will be used to reclassify member schools into eight classifications starting next year.

ADMs are the student populations from the first 20 days of the academic year. The top 32 schools by ADM numbers will be in 8A, and the rest of the

classifications will receive an even split. Here’s the ADM numbers and the expected classifications for each of Chatham County’s high schools:

Seaforth

1,123 (5A)

Jordan Matthews 901 (4A)

Northwood 676 (3A)

Chatham Central 335 (1A)

Chatham Charter 194 (1A)

Woods Charter 185 (1A)

Sandhills CC volleyball finishes historic season in nationals

Former Jordan-Matthews

standout Reagan Smith plays for the Flyers

By Asheebo Rojas Chatham News & Record

AFTER WINNING the

Mid-Atlantic District title over Butler County Community College on Nov. 2, Sandhills Community College volleyball competed in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national tournament last week.

Sandhills CC earned the fourth seed in the bracket and fell in the second round to No. 5 Century 3-0 on Thursday. The Flyers went on to beat No. 8 Owens 4-1 in a consolation match Friday, but they lost to No. 10 Dallas North Lake 3-2 in the fifth-place match Saturday to end its season with its best ever finish in nationals (sixth) and the most ever wins in a single season (37-7 overall record).

Brennan LaVelle

Chatham Charter, boy’s basketball

Brennan LaVelle, a senior forward for the Chatham Charter boys’ basketball team, earns athlete of the week honors for the week of Nov. 11.

In the Knights’ 62‑58 overtime win over NCSSM Durham on Nov. 11, LaVelle recorded a 28 point, 20 rebound double double to help his team pull out the close win. Both the 28 points and the 20 rebounds were career highs for LaVelle. LaVelle is looking for a huge bounce back season after suffering a season ending injury toward the end of last year. Through the first four games of the season as of Monday, LaVelle is averaging 13.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

a unit has been a focus. Seaforth coach Charles Byrd said the team’s “togetherness” has improved from last year and there’s a “different” energy in practices. However, the Hawks will be without two key post pieces in Jocelyn Gesner and Sydney Ballard, who transferred to different schools. Gesner is now at Blair Academy in New Jersey, while Ballard is now down the road at Northwood.

his team is “more hungry” this year with more competitiveness showing out in practice, and the team has built good chemistry in the preseason. Offensively, the young newcomers, especially Lizzie Alston and Griselda Escobar, have brought solid shooting to the picture alongside scoring sophomores Yamilet Lozano and Jada Scott are returning to the group from last year. Another freshman the Jets are excited for is guard Zuri Nava.

“This year on July 31, the team sat down and put on paper goals they wanted to achieve this season,” Sandhills CC coach Alicia Riggan said. “They wanted to win region, win the region tournament, host and win districts and get an automatic bid to nationals. That didn’t stop there. They wanted to not just go, but compete. We did just that.”

recorded four kills, a solo block and a block assist.

The Flyers defeated No. 13 Rochester Community and Technical College in the first round Thursday 3-1, winning its first game in the national tournament for the first time in school history. Former Jordan-Matthews all-state volleyball player Reagan Smith, a freshman, combined for four kills in the first two tournament games. She also poured in four kills in the win over Owens. In the district title-clinching win over Butler County CC, Smith

“Reagan Smith has been a great asset to the program,” Riggan said. “She has transitioned from playing middle to playing right side for the majority of the season. She is a great blocker and has great ball placement. She is a wonderful young lady full of energy and is a great teammate.”

Sandhills CC also won the National Championship Sportsmanship Award for the first time in school history.

Each year, Central Electric sponsors two rising high school juniors or seniors on the trip of a lifetime to Washington, D.C. in connection with the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. While in D.C., you’ll join 1,800 other students from across the country to meet members of Congress and learn more about American history and electric cooperatives. The trip will be hosted in June 2025 and the deadline for all applications is Jan. 20. Scan the QR code or visit CEMCPower.com to apply or to find out more information.

With less size, the Hawks look to play a lot faster and with a lot more space than in the past. Offensively, they’ll look to attack the basket and outrun opponents, and defensively, they feel they can switch onto any position.

Northwood

Northwood’s roster will look very familiar during the 2024-25 season. The Chargers are also returning much of last season’s core, including Natalia Whitaker, Neah Henry, the Glover twins, Alyia Roberts and Madelyn Brooks, but some newcomers will have the team playing a bit differently this year.

With the addition of Ballard and sophomore Princess Amedakah in the post, the Chargers will look to play with more physicality and use their newfound size to their advantage. Northwood still wants to play at a fast pace like it did last season, but it also wants to dominate the paint on both ends of the floor.

Last season, a lack of size hurt Northwood, especially in those matchups with Seaforth when rebounding and finishing in the paint didn’t come easy. The Hawks won every meeting in which they outrebounded the Chargers, and in Northwood’s one win over Seaforth last year, the rebounding battle went in Northwood’s favor.

Combining a solid post game with the experience and veteran leadership of a Whitaker-led backcourt could make the race for the conference title even more interesting than last season. The Chargers are aiming high with goals of a state title, and winning a very competitive conference could be a strong indicator of what’s in store for this group.

Jordan-Matthews

Jordan-Matthews will have plenty of new faces making significant contributions this season.

The Jets have a roster full of freshmen and sophomores who will look to play scrappy, full of energy and hustle all over the court. Coach Lamont Piggie said

In their jamboree scrimmages on Nov. 9, Jordan-Matthews showcased the ability to score from multiple spots on the floor. Scott, normally a post player, even knocked down some midrange shots while providing spacing, and Escobar hit numerous 3s. Jordan-Matthews will also play at a fast pace offensively, and it hopes its aggressive defensive approach can help the team create fast break opportunities.

With a young, hungry squad that’s looking to win more than last year, make the playoffs and hopefully win a playoff game, the Jets could be a tough opponent to play against while also being a surprise team in the conference standings.

Chatham Central

Last year, Seaforth, Northwood and Southeast Alamance hung around the top of the conference, but Chatham Central quietly finished right behind them in fourth place.

This season, the Bears want to increase their paw print on the conference, though, and not just play against the best, but compete and even beat the best.

Chatham Central lost some significant pieces from last year’s squad to graduation, including Katherine Gaines, Kelsey Hussey and Lauren Caviness, but the team is confident in its mix of returners and newcomers. Freshmen Addison Goldston and Addison Overman look to help out with shooting and dominating the paint, and freshman Belle Douglass has impressed senior Mattie Underwood, one of the team’s best defenders, with her tenacity and hustle on the defensive end.

The Bears still aren’t the biggest team in terms of physical size, so they’ll look to once again play up tempo and with speed. On top of its goals to finish better than fourth in the conference and earn a higher seed in the 1A playoffs, Chatham Central wants to get a lot of quick layups and use its swiftness as an advantage.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

The Sandhills Community College volleyball team poses for a team photo at Nationals.

GENE GALIN FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD

GIRLS from page B1

Paul believes he can fight for a title, but Tyson might be done in the ring at 58

The

By Schuyler Dixon The Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jake

Paul believes he can fight for a championship belt within two years.

Mike Tyson might be finished in the ring after the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion’s first sanctioned pro bout since 2005, the eight-round bout won by Paul in a lopsided unanimous decision.

There will continue to be questions for Paul over when he will fight a contender in his prime, as opposed to aging for-

opens at home against South Davidson Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Jordan-Matthews already started its season at Trinity Monday.

Here’s a look at what to expect from each team before they fully dive into the thick of the regular season.

Northwood

Powell and former standout point guard Fred Whitaker are no longer Chargers, but that doesn’t change the championship-level standard at Northwood.

Northwood is still aiming for a state championship just like any other year, and with its returners and newcomers forming a different-look roster, the Chargers will also play a different brand of basketball on the court.

Since the summer, the Chargers have been working toward a “flow offense” with more sets designed for open shooters, more off-ball screens and a more versatile arsenal of defensive looks.

Even without football players Cam Fowler, Beau Harvey, Isaiah Blair, Hayes Burleson and transfer Raje Torres in the team’s early scrimmages, the new offensive flow has been working, especially for sophomore Josiah Brown, a transfer

mer champs, mixed martial artists or journeymen boxers.

The 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer’s answers have been consistent, and now he has a timeline.

“I think it could happen in the next 24 months,” Paul said.

“I truly, truly believe in my skills and my ability and my power. And the cruiserweight division is seemingly open for the taking on that timeline.”

Tyson, whose last fight before retiring was a loss to Kevin McBride 19 years ago, said he was confident in taking on Paul because of an entertaining exhibition against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020.

A shorter fight with shorter rounds (two minutes instead of three) and heavier gloves fell far short of entertaining.

The International Boxing

who looks to bring elite playmaking and 3-point shooting to the team.

Combining Brown’s addition with Fowler’s slashing style of play, more perimeter shooting from Harvey and junior Chad Graves looking to be more dominant in the paint this year, the Chargers are looking to be a lethal offensive team. Defensively, Blair looks to step in as Northwood’s top dog with senior Jaylen Scurlock, sophomore Reece Adams and Graves’ shot-blocking ability also playing a big role in stopping offenses from scoring.

Although Northwood may not be as much of a lock to win the conference as it once was, the Chargers will still be a very tough team to dethrone this season.

Seaforth

With a new head coach in John Berry and impactful players such as Tyshawn Davenport and Kooper Jones graduating after last season, Seaforth will approach things differently in its 2024-25 campaign.

The Hawks are looking to play more as a team this season, placing their emphasis on defense. Seaforth wants to be pests on the defensive side of the ball, while offensively, the Hawks are looking to practice more pa-

Hall of Famer came at Paul hard in the opening seconds and briefly again to start the second round. Otherwise, he mostly let Paul come to him, and Paul said he thought Tyson was too fatigued to be a threat beyond the third round.

Still, Tyson wouldn’t say immediately afterward it was his last fight after the officially recorded loss dropped his record to 50-7 with 44 knockouts.

“It depends on the situation,” Tyson said.

But Tyson said he had gone in the ring “one last time” in a social media post.

“I almost died in June,” Tyson wrote on X. “Had 8 blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”

There’s no question the

tience and finding the best shot.

Although Seaforth doesn’t have a lot of size, the Hawks can still be dangerous with elite scorers Nate Emerson and Noah Lewis returning. Berry is also excited for junior Declan Lindquist who has emerged as a leader and a versatile asset that can play multiple positions. Seaforth may experience growing pains early this season as it adjusts to a new system and gets the execution down, but to the Hawks’ advantage, many of the players that were around to have Berry as their JV coach a few seasons ago already know what to expect. Players such as junior Austin Smith and Campbell Meador are excited to see how the sets work as much of this offseason has been a review of what they’ve already known.

But with so many moving parts going into the year, time will tell how good Seaforth can be in its first season in a new era. As the Hawks work to put it all together, the goal is to simply “maximize” its abilities while putting out a product the school can be proud of.

Jordan-Matthews

Jordan-Matthews lost its standout big man Brennen Oldham to Chatham Central and guards Neil Wiley and Kelton Fuquay to graduation this off-

younger Paul will be back in the ring. The former social media influencer started boxing about 41/2 years ago and has always said he wants to be a championship fighter.

“He’s a very good fighter,” said Tyson. Paul still has plenty to prove, though. He is 11-1 with seven knockouts, the only loss to Tommy Fury, the less-accomplished brother of former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

The first live sports event on Netflix was viewed in 60 million households.

According to reports, Paul’s payday was $40 million, compared with $20 million for Tyson.

Organizers estimated the AT&T Stadium crowd at 72,000, and it appeared to be a legitimate number.

season, but it still has some really good pieces returning or joining the team for the first time.

The Jets are much younger and now led by junior guard Kamarie Hadley, who looks to be their veteran scorer this season. Hadley said he’s improved his ball handling, decision making and shooting this offseason as he looks to take on a larger role on the team.

As Jordan-Matthews also returns senior guard Elijah Hughes and sophomore forward Zaeon Auguste, two players who played important roles last season, it also welcomes a crafty freshman guard in Nolan Mitchell. Mitchell took on a lot of the scoring responsibility as a freshman in the Jets’ early scrimmages, showcasing solid speed, finishing and decision making.

The Jets will also have size with freshman Matthew Victorino who will add to the athleticism of the team. Jordan-Matthews, a team wanting to anchor itself on its defense, will look to use its athleticism to its advantage in man to man and lots of pressing to create easy baskets on offense.

With eight freshmen and sophomores on the roster, youth may get in the way of what Jordan-Matthews wants to accomplish this season, but

“There may never be another moment like this in boxing, but I believe we can find something,” Paul said. “And I think there are a few names out there that make sense, that the events will be just as big.”

In the days before his fight with Tyson, Paul mentioned super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, considered one of the best boxers in the world.

An opponent of that magnitude is probably at least several fights away for Paul, and it might not be long before age becomes an issue for the 34-yearold Alvarez.

Paul’s camp will never question its ability to put on a show.

“Boxing is ebbs and flows, ups and downs, big events, small events, medium-size events,” said Nakisa Bidarian, Paul’s promoter. “Our philosophy is it’s not about what is the decision that happens in the ring. It’s about the attitude that you have and the product you create and how you entertain the fans. And there’s no more entertaining of an athlete than Jake Paul.”

it can be a surprisingly tough team to deal with if it can limit freshman mistakes and impose its up-tempo style of play on its opponents.

Chatham Central

Last year, Chatham Central was the only county team to give Northwood some problems in their matchups, and with Oldham now on the roster, the Bears could be even more dangerous this season.

Chatham Central is returning a senior core of Reid Albright, Luke Gaines and Aidan Johnson who all led the Bears to a second-place finish in the conference last season.

Last year, the Bears relied heavily on guard play and perimeter shooting, but with Oldham’s presence down low, the team has more ways to score. Oldham’s addition will also be huge on the defensive side of the ball as Johnson was already a solid rim protector and rebounder. The Bears will also have Nick Glover, its football standout, in the backcourt which should also add some athleticism that left with Devonte Johnson graduating. Should the new pieces fall into place like it hopes they will, Chatham Central will look to once again compete for a conference title.

BOYS from page B1

heavily hyped fight saw the YouTube star defeat the aging former champ

SIDELINE REPORT

NBA Ball fined $100K for making ‘offensive and derogatory comment’ in postgame interview

New York

Charlotte Hornets guard

LaMelo Ball has been fined $100,000 for making what the NBA called “an offensive and derogatory comment” during a televised postgame on-court interview. Ball made the comment Saturday on FanDuel Sports Network shortly after the Hornets defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 115-114.

Sideline reporter Shannon Spake asked Ball about the team’s defensive strategy against Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo on the game’s final play, and Ball used an anti-gay slur while delivering his answer. The $100,000 fine was the maximum allowed by league rule.

NASCAR

23XI Racing, Front Row can compete in 2025 while suing NASCAR after clause removed from contracts

Charlotte

The two teams suing NASCAR over an antitrust complaint will compete in 2025 as “open teams” after NASCAR removed anticompetitive release claims that will allow them to race while the legal process continues. 23XI Racing, owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports refused to sign take-it-orleave it revenue sharing offers. They have filed a federal antitrust lawsuit and asked for an injunction to be recognized as chartered teams while the lawsuit continues. NASCAR lifted an anticompetitive release requirement from the open agreement that allows 23XI and Front Row to race in 2025 as open teams.

NCAA BASKETBALL

Pitino defeats son in latest coaching clash as No. 22 St. John’s tops New Mexico

New York Rick Pitino defeated his son in their latest coaching clash as No. 22 St. John’s passed its first real test this season, topping New Mexico 85-71. All five starters scored in double figures for the Red Storm to make a winner of their Hall of Fame coach in a family affair at Madison Square Garden. Richard Pitino, coach of the Lobos, fell to 1-3 in matchups against his father. The previous two losses came when Rick Pitino was at Louisville. Richard Pitino beat his dad’s Iona team two years ago at The Pit.

NCAA FOOTBALL

LSU coach Kelly screams at one player, gets yelled at by another in loss at Florida

Gainesville, Fla. LSU coach Brian Kelly was caught on camera screaming at one player and getting yelled at by another. The sideline scenes were clear signs of frustration as LSU lost a third consecutive game, 27-16 at unranked Florida. The LSU fanbase might be out of patience with Kelly. The coach appeared to get into it with receiver Chris Hilton in the first half. Late in the third quarter, cameras captured receiver Kyren Lacy yelling at Kelly on the sideline after an empty possession.

McIlroy ends year with another win in Dubai and 6th title as Europe’s best

2024 saw success, heartbreaking near misses and personal turmoil for Rory McIlroy

The Associated Press

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

— Rory McIlroy ended a tumultuous year packed with emotion on and off the golf course with a pair of trophies and plenty of tears.

McIlroy closed with a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory Sunday in the World Tour Championship. He also captured his sixth title as Europe’s No. 1 player.

And then the 35-year-old from Northern Ireland couldn’t speak, choked up with emotion as he contemplated the wins and losses, and everything else in between.

“I’ve been through a lot this year, professionally and personally,” McIlroy said. “It feels like the fitting end to 2024. I’ve

persevered this year a lot.”

He won four times — two of them on the PGA Tour — and tied the late Seve Ballesteros by winning his sixth title in the Race to Dubai, formerly the Order of Merit. Two more and he can match Colin Montgomerie for the record.

“I’ve really made it a priority of my schedule over the last few years to give myself the best chance coming into the end of the year to win the Race to Dubai. I don’t see that being any different for the foreseeable future,” McIlroy said. “Going for my seventh next year and try to chase Monty down.”

He also threw away a chance at the U.S. Open by missing two short putts over the last three holes at Pinehurst No. 2, finishing one behind Bryson DeChambeau. He was on the verge of finally winning on home soil until Hojgaard stunned him with a late charge in the Irish Open at Royal Country Down.

WNBA corporate sponsors are growing

Women of color and LGBTQ+ players are often ignored in endorsement opportunities

By Claire Savage The Associated Press

IN A BANNER YEAR for women’s professional sports, athletes who dominate their game are reaping the financial benefits.

The WNBA is a leading example. Last month, it wrapped up a historic season that notched all-time viewership and attendance records while racking up brand deals and corporate sponsorships for its players along the way.

Many of the WNBA’s young stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese brought deals with them from their playing days in college, including name, image and likeness agreements that became endorsements with such companies as Nike, Reebok and Gatorade. Players of different backgrounds landed a variety of other endorsement deals with companies like CarMax and State Farm.

But for all those enjoying their newfound riches, there are still some players who are being left out. The WNBA recently partnered with Kim Kardashian’s underwear brand SKIMS, which featured women of color as well as LGBTQ+ players in its ads. The compa-

ny received pushback, however, for excluding masculine-presenting athletes in its May campaign.

“Not the papis of the league being forgotten again,” Phoenix Mercury’s Natasha Cloud posted on X after SKIMS’ “Fits Everybody” campaign dropped.

Two-time all-star Natasha Howard of the Dallas Wings also criticized the campaign, saying it felt “like a smack” for the league’s more masculine presenting players, and that it is “absolutely” harder for black LGBTQ+ athletes to get brand deals.

“I feel like a lot of people don’t want to see queer or lesbian people on the face of anything,” Howard said.

SKIMS did not respond to requests for comment.

Cloud and Howard decided to forge their own path. Both women scored partnerships with Woxer, a Latina and LGBTQ+-owned women’s boxer brand that offers a line designed for gender nonconforming customers.

Miami-based Alexandra Fuente, Woxer’s founder, said that working with Howard, Cloud and Las Vegas Aces’ Kierstan Bell “was just a great match,” and the company is planning to collaborate with many more female athletes in the future.

“I think the major brands give deals to people that fit the box, and that is a great thing

“I’ve been through a lot this year, professionally and personally.”

Rory McIlroy

McIlroy revealed in May that he had filed for divorce, and equally stunning was word a month later that the divorce proceedings had been scrapped and they would try to work it out. His wife, Erica, and 4-year-old daughter Poppy were in Dubai cheering his latest victory.

It was a lot for McIlroy, and the emotions when it was over bore that out.

“To finish the year like this, it’s a dream come true,” McIlroy said at the closing ceremony, where he hoisted the enormous World Tour Championship trophy and the Harry Vardon Trophy for winning the season points title.

“It’s been hard at times,” he said. “Had a lot of close calls. To finish the year off the way I did today means the world to me.”

McIlroy won $5 million — $3 million from the tournament prize fund, and a $2 million bonus for the Race to Dubai.

McIlroy won for the 37th time worldwide as he bids to take his place among European greats. The mention of Ballesteros made him emotional for all the Spaniard has meant to the development of the European tour.

“I think everyone knows what Seve means to European golf and to Ryder Cup players. (In the) European Ryder Cup locker room, all we have are quotes of Seve. We had a changing room with Seve’s shirt from ’95, the last Ryder Cup he played,” McIlroy said as he wiped away more tears.

“And for me to be mentioned in the same breath, I’m very proud.”

because it leaves opportunity for brands like us,” Fuente said. “For us ... everybody’s in the box.”

But for mainstream brands, partnering with athletes who don’t fit the traditional mold in today’s increasingly polarized cultural landscape fraught with anti-diversity backlash creates “this collective risk that some brands are unwilling to take,” according to Ketra Armstrong, University of Michigan professor of sport management and director of the Center for Race & Ethnicity in Sport.

Many brands are ”middle of the road, and want to be safe, and don’t want to offend other pockets of their consumers,” Armstrong said.

But brands are missing the mark when they overlook black LGBTQ+ women, said Univer-

sity of Massachusetts Amherst sport management professor Ajhanai Keaton, who studies the intersection of race and gender identity.

Like some of its players, the WNBA’s fan base also holds fluid gender identities, plus companies may underestimate how much consumers with different identities admire and relate to LGBTQ+ players, Keaton said. “Sponsors and brands are way behind the curve on this.”

For anyone who questions the marketing potential and social capital of Black LGBTQ+ athletes, Keaton added, they need only glance at the comment sections of their Instagram posts, which are filled with fire emojis, heart eyes emojis, and, “‘Where’d you get those shoes?’”

TONY GUTIERREZ / AP PHOTO

Dallas Wings’ Natasha Howard handles the ball as she works against the Indiana Fever in a WNBA game.

ALTAF QADRI / AP PHOTO

Rory McIlroy poses with the DP World Tour Championship trophy and the Race to Dubai trophy after winning the World Tour Golf Championship.

Stars celebrate Quincy

Jones,

Bond producers, more at honorary

The Governors Awards is a de-facto campaign stop for Oscar hopefuls

By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Many of Hollywood’s biggest stars gathered in Los Angeles Sunday night for the annual Governors Awards.

The event, put on by the film academy’s board of governors, honored the late Quincy Jones, James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, filmmaker Richard Curtis and casting director Juliet Taylor. It’s also a de-facto campaign stop for Oscar hopefuls as awards season gets underway.

Broccoli and her brother Wilson followed in her father’s footsteps receiving the rarely given Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, celebrating the work of producers. Albert “Cubby” Broccoli accepted his own trophy (then a bust of Thalberg) at the 1982 Academy Awards as they looked on from the audience.

“It’s very humbling,” Broccoli told The Associated Press.

Oscar’s event

“I think of so many people who have come before us, so many people I wish had been given the honor who aren’t with us anymore.”

James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli

“I think of so many people who have come before us, so many people I wish had been given the honor who aren’t with us anymore.” Curtis, a writer and director known for his contributions to romantic comedies like “Love, Actually,” “Notting Hill” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was recognized for a lifetime of charitable work with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Getting an Oscar was a lifetime dream for him — as a teenager he used to try to shield himself from the news so that he could watch the broadcast the next night in the U.K.

“This is particularly a special award, but it’s not work for which one expects praise or needs praise,” he said. Taylor is even less accustomed to being publicly celebrated for her contributions to cinema as a casting director. In

her over four decades of work, she cast classics like “Annie Hall,” “Working Girl,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Schindler’s List.” While she was excited about the honorary Oscar, she was even happier that her peers are soon going to be regularly recognized. Starting with films released in 2025, the film academy will give a new competitive Oscar to casting directors.

The Governors Awards are often an emotional affair. With no television cameras or band there to play you off during a speech, it’s a night where friends and colleagues get to pay tribute to that year’s honorary Oscar recipients, many of whom are later in life. But this 15th event took on an added sadness when Jones died earlier this month. Jones was still honored on Sunday with a tribute to his life, work and legacy.

The physicians are available Monday through

John Cheesborough,

Cheesb

Dawn E. Kleinman,

this week in history

“Blackbeard” killed; “Origin of Species” published; Kennedy assassinated; Oswald shot

NOV. 21

1920: On “Bloody Sunday,” the Irish Republican Army killed 14 suspected British intelligence officers in the Dublin area; British forces responded by raiding a soccer match, killing 14 civilians.

1980: An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to the CBS prime-time soap opera “Dallas” to find out “who shot J.R.” (The shooter turned out to be J.R. Ewing’s sister-in-law, Kristin Shepard.)

NOV. 22

1718: English pirate Edward Teach — better known as “Blackbeard” — was killed during a battle off what is now North Carolina.

1935: A flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, California, carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.

1963: John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was shot to death during

a motorcade in Dallas; Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.

1986: Twenty-year-old Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight boxing champion in history.

NOV. 23

1971: The People’s Republic of China was seated in the United Nations Security Council.

1980: An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.

1984: Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie completed one of the most famous passes in college football history, connecting with Gerald Phelan for a 48yard touchdown with no time left on the clock as Boston College defeated the Miami Hurricanes, 47-45.

NOV. 24

1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

1963: Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in a scene captured on live television.

1971: A hijacker calling him-

JIM ALTGENS / AP PHOTO

President John F. Kennedy waves from his car in a motorcade approximately one minute before he was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Riding with Kennedy was first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Nellie Connally, and her husband, Texas Gov. John Connally, who was also shot but survived.

self “Dan Cooper” (but who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper”) parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom; his fate remains unknown.

1991: Queen singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.

NOV. 25

1783: The British evacuated New York during the Revolutionary War.

1914: Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California.

1986: The Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

1999: Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle.

2016: Fidel Castro died at age 90.

NOV. 26

1825: The first college social fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Society, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, New York. 1950: China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea.

NOV. 27

1901: The U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.

1924: Macy’s first Thanksgiving Day parade — billed as a “Christmas Parade” — took place in New York.

Linkin Park returns on ‘From Zero,’ band’s first album since Chester Bennington’s death

It’s a reference to their earliest days

By Maria Sherman The Associated Press

LINKIN PARK, the inventive American rap-rock band who wove electronica into its heavy, melodic compositions, return with their first new album in seven years, “From Zero.” It’s a reference to their earliest days — when the band was known as Xero — a reclamation of their angry and ascendant sound, and something else entirely.

It started in September. Linkin Park debuted their first new music since the 2017 death of lead singer Chester Bennington: a new song titled “The Emptiness Machine,” with new singer Emily Armstrong of the band Dead Sara and drummer Colin Brittain, joining returning members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix and Joe Hahn. (Shinoda and Armstrong share vocal duties.)

It was a surprising return; as AP wrote at the time, Armstrong’s performance style comfortably continuing the

band’s legacy. Her full-throated vocals recalled Bennington without attempting parody. That spirit continues throughout “From Zero,” Armstrong stretching out a scream into the kind of raspy, vibrato-fake out immediately recognizable as a Bennington-ism. In his absence, however, Shinoda takes more of the vocal lead. And in some points, it is to the band’s detriment, like on “Cut the Bridge.” Elsewhere, it’s a revisitation to “Meteora”-era LP, like on the fistful “Heavy Is the Crown.” Ultimately, he makes a fine solo leader.

More melodic moments may sound like the work of another band entirely when performed by Armstrong, like on “Over Each Other,” but that’s quickly abandoned for the nu-metal ferocity of the track that follows, “Casualty.”

It’s an easy impulse, to look for Bennington on this album. One of the most rewarding moments arrives on “Two Faced”: “I can’t hear myself think,” Armstrong speaksings, before launching into a guttural bellow, “Stop yelling at me.” It has echoes of Linkin Park’s career-defin -

ing hits, like “One Step Closer.” The necessary reminder to the listener, then, should be that this is the same band just in the midst of a transformation. Much is intact: The album is produced by Shinoda

and it sounds it; signatures of Hahn, the band’s DJ, turntablist and creative director, exist throughout.

But it is also possible the controversy surrounding Armstrong will overshadow some

For some Linkin Park fans, it is a nonstarter. For the others who will dive into “From Zero,” there are echoes of the band they loved.

fans’ enjoyment of the record. Shortly after the new lineup debuted, the singer posted a statement on Instagram that many took to mean her appearance at an early court hearing for “That ‘70s Show” star Danny Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the rape of two women in 2023.

Shortly thereafter, Bennington’s mother, Susan Eubanks, told Rolling Stone she had no idea the band was going to continue on without her son — and that they previously said they’d give her a heads up; they did not. For some Linkin Park fans, it is a nonstarter. For the others who will dive into “From Zero,” there are echoes of the band they loved.

WARNER RECORDS VIA AP

“From Zero” is Linkin Park’s first album since the 2017 death of lead singer Chester Bennington.

famous birthdays this week

Goldie Hawn hits 79, Bjork is 59, Scarlett Johanson turns 40, Ben Stein is 80

The Associated Press

THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.

NOV. 21

Actor Marlo Thomas is 87. Actor Juliet Mills (“Passions,” “Nanny and the Professor”) is 83. Actor Goldie Hawn is 79. Director Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive,” “Holes”) is 78. Singer Bjork is 59.

NOV. 22

Comedian-director Terry Gilliam (Monty Python) is 84. Guitarist-actor Steven Van Zandt (The E Street Band, “The Sopranos”) is 74. Actor Richard Kind (“Spin City,” “Mad About You”) is 68. Actor Jamie Lee Curtis is 66. Actor Scarlett Johansson is 40.

NOV. 23

Actor Franco Nero (“Django,” “Camelot”) is 83. Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (“Basic Instinct,” ″Showgirls”) is 80. inger-actor Miley Cyrus is 32.

NOV. 24

Country singer Johnny Carver is 84. Former Beatles drummer Pete Best is 83. Actor-comedian Billy Connolly is 82. Singer Lee Michaels is 79. NOV. 25

Singer Bob Lind is 82. Actor-game show host Ben Stein is 80. Actor John Larroquette is 77. Singer Amy Grant is 64. Actor Christina Applegate is 53. NOV. 26

Impressionist Rich Little is 86. Singer Jean Terrell (The Supremes) is 80. Bassist John McVie of Fleetwood Mac is 79.

NOV. 27

Director Kathryn Bigelow is 73. TV personality Bill Nye (“Bill Nye the Science Guy”) is 69. Actor William Fichtner (“Mom,” “Invasion”) is 68.

RICHARD SHOTWELL / INVISION / AP PHOTO

Actor Goldie Hawn turns 79 on Thursday.

CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO E Street Band guitarist and “Sopranos” actor Steven Van Zandt turns 74 on Friday.

BEBETO MATTHEWS / AP PHOTO Political speech writer turned actor and TV host; Ben Stein celebrates 80 on Monday.

Jackson in ‘The Piano Lesson,’

‘Cruel Intentions’ gets TV treatment

Kim Deal of The Breeders and The Pixies releases her debut solo album

By The Associated Press

ARIANA GRANDE and Cynthia Erivo teaming up for the soundtrack to the upcoming movie “Wicked” and a TV series based on the 1999 film “Cruel Intentions” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also, among the streaming offerings worth your time: Season three of Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm directing August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” for Netflix and the animated tale in “Spellbound” with a heroine voiced by Rachel Zegler.

MOVIES TO STREAM

Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” streaming Friday on Apple TV+, is a wartime odyssey about a 9-year-old biracial boy (Elliott Heffernan) who, after being sent to the countryside during the Nazi bombing of London, tries to get home to his mother (Saoirse Ronan). “Blitz,” McQueen’s first narrative feature since 2018’s “Widows,” sometimes feels stuck between a conventional war drama and something more adventurous.

Denzel Washington’s quest to bring the works of August Wilson to the screen have already produced several exceptional films, and performances, in “Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” In “The Piano Lesson” (on Netflix Friday), he hands the reins to his son, Malcolm Washington, who makes his directorial debut in a production starring John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, Samuel L. Jackson, Erykah Badu, Ray Fisher and Corey Hawkins. The film, set in 1930s Pittsburgh, is about a family wrestling with the legacy of a family heirloom, and of slavery.

Following its first foray into feature film animation, 2022’s “Luck,” Skydance returns with another original animated tale in “Spellbound” (on Netflix Friday, Nov. 22).

The film, set in the magical world of Lumbria, is about a young girl (voiced by Rachel Zegler) who must save the rulers of Lumbria, her parents (Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem), after they’re turned into monsters. “Spellbound,” produced by former Pixar boss John Lasseter, features original songs from Disney legend Alan Menken.

NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

Kim Deal, the center of bands like the Breeders and the Pixies, will release her debut solo album on Friday, “Nobody Loves You More,” via the influential indie label 4AD Records. The project has been in the works for many years — beginning with tracks like “Are You Mine?” and “Wish I Was,” dating back to 2011 — but no matter, it still sounds like some left-of-center future, from the Steve Albini-produced “Coast” to noisy, clangorous world-building of “Crystal Breathe.” “Beat by beat I expel your point of view,” Deal declares. “The heels of my imagination digging into you I start a new life/Beat’s gonna lead us/ Live on.”

For those hoping for something a bit more classic, look no further: PBS’s “Great Performances” anthology series, which features musicals, operas, plays, ballets and concerts, will spotlight the great Patsy Cline on Friday, broadcast on PBS and available to stream on the PBS app.

“Patsy Cline: Walkin’ After Midnight” celebrates the country music giant on stage at

Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium with performances by Wynonna Judd, Ashley McBryde, Mickey Guyton, Kristin Chenoweth, Rita Wilson and more, with interviews from her husband, Charlie Dick, and famous friends like Loretta Lynn.

We’ve already gotten an Ariana Grande album this year with “eternal sunshine,” but there’s more on the way. On Friday, her voice is all over the soundtrack for the movie “Wicked” as Glinda, opposite Emmy-, Grammy- and Tony Award-winner Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. The album is part of a two-fer, with the first 11 songs from the first chapter of the two-part film adaptation. That means two of the musical’s best tunes will be available — “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.” Also listen for Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey and Jeff Goldblum.

SHOWS TO STREAM

In “Interior Chinatown,” actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang plays a Chinese American background actor in a police procedural who dreams of becoming a leading man. It’s adapted from a novel by Charles Yu, who also

served as showrunner of the series. Taika Waititi is an executive producer. “Interior Chinatown” is streaming on Hulu. It’s the beginning of sophomore year for the ladies of Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”

The show, created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, follows roommates at a fictional college in Vermont. Season three, premiering Thursday, brings back original leads Pauline Chalamet, Amrit Kaur and Alyah Chanelle Scott but will wrap up Reneé Rapp’s storyline. She quit the show to focus on her music career. Mia Rodgers and Gracie Lawrence have been added to the mix as series regulars. Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina have more problems when season two of “Based on a True Story” begins streaming Thursday on Peacock. Season one saw their characters, Ava and Nathan, launch a true crime podcast with an actual serial killer (played by Tom Bateman). In the new episodes, the couple are new parents attempting to return to a normal life until a string of murders draws them back into amateur sleuthing.

The 1999 film “Cruel Intentions” starring Reese Wither-

spoon, Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar remains a cult classic, but Prime Video has updated the story with a TV series. Sarah Catherine Hook and Zac Burgess play wealthy stepsiblings who hatch a plan to seduce and deceive one of their college classmates, who also happens to be the daughter of the vice president of the United States. The show also has plenty of Easter eggs in it that call back to the movie.

VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

The Ukrainian developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl have overcome some serious obstacles — not the least of which being the need to move from Kyiv to Prague after the Russian invasion in 2022. The premise of the game is that the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl has been hit with a second explosion, unleashing monstrous mutations and other anomalies. Your job is to enter the “Exclusion Zone” and try to prevent the chaos from spreading. It’s a creepy blend of the first-person shooter, horror and survival genres, ready to play on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

HULU / PEACOCK / MAX VIA AP

“Interior Chinatown,” “Based on a True Story” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls are landing on a screen near you this week.

AMY HARRIS / INVISION/ AP PHOTO Indie rock icon Kim Deal of The Breeders and The Pixies will release her debut solo album, “Nobody Loves You More,” on Friday.