North State Journal Vol. 7, Issue 35

State Fair attendance highest since 2018

Raleigh

The annual North Carolina State Fair brought 960,172 visitors to the state fairgrounds in its 11-day run this year, the highest total attendance since 2018.

Benefitting from warm weekend weather in the first and second weeks, the fair’s highest-attended day was Saturday, Oct. 22, with 136,961.

“We were blessed with good weather and we made the most of it,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “It truly was a celebration of our state’s $92.9 billion agriculture industry.”

Obama cuts ad for Beasley

Raleigh

Former President Barack Obama endorsed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley in a new campaign ad that began running Tuesday.

North Carolina, which Obama narrowly won in 2008 and lost in his 2012 reelection, traditionally has been one of the most competitive states for control of the U.S. Senate.

Recent polling, however suggests Republican Ted Budd is pulling away in the contest.

The former president’s support comes two weeks before Election Day, with inperson early voting already underway in North Carolina.

He has also cut endorsement ads for Democratic Senate candidates John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Mandela Barnes of Wisconsin.

Obama has not indicated whether he will travel to North Carolina to campaign for Beasley, according to the Associated Press.

NSJ STAFF

Columbus County sheriff who disparaged black employees resigns Whiteville

A suspended North Carolina sheriff has resigned in the aftermath of a leaked audio recording in which he called black employees by derogatory names and said they should be fired, his attorney announced.

Attorney Michael Mills made the announcement during a hearing on whether Jody Greene, who was elected in 2018, should be removed from office.

District Attorney Jon David had sought Greene’s removal alleging that he had engaged in racial profiling of employees both personally and through those under his command, WECT reported.

David has said that he asked the State Bureau of Investigation to probe allegations of obstruction of justice within the sheriff’s office. That investigation is ongoing.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ted Cruz makes stop in Johnston County Selma

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz urged Republicans in Johnston County to support Ted Budd for U.S. Senate and Bo Hines for U.S. House at a rally Tuesday afternoon in Selma.

Cruz appeared after an eventful trip to New York City in which he battled the hosts of The View and went viral for multiple crowd interactions when he attended Game Four of the ALCS as the Houston Astros defeated the New York Yankees.

He made an impassioned plea for those in crowd to vote and said the basic test for anyone who is still undecided is to ask “is your life better than it was two years ago.”

He ended by predicting there would be not just a “red wave” but a red tsunami on Election Day.

CDC committee has added COVID vaccines to the child immunizations list

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — On Oct. 20, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention committee vot ed unanimously, 15-0, to add a COVID vaccination series to the 2023 immunization schedules for adults and children.

The schedule changes approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) call for children to begin getting Pfizer and Moderna’s primary two-dose series starting when they are 6 months old.

ACIP passed the measure with little discussion and despite some 33,000 comments filed by the public ahead of the meeting.

“A CDC committee of unelected bureaucrats voted unanimously to

add the COVID vaxx to the child hood immunization schedule,” tweeted Republican Congress man Dan Bishop (NC-09). “This decision paves the way for vac cine mandates for children to at tend schools, sports, and daycares across the country. Shameful.”

Bishop also tweeted: “It’s im portant to note that state legis latures have the power to reject these CDC guidelines and ensure that parents can make the best health decisions for their own children. I hope that they take ac tion.”

Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson (NC-08) also issued a statement opposing the move.

“COVID-19 vaccines delivered through Operation Warp Speed helped save lives at the outset of the pandemic. However, I oppose the CDC adding this experimen tal vaccine to the immunization schedule for children who face extremely low risk of danger from

Britain’s new leadership

Top left photo; Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, left, welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. Top right; Britain’s King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak, newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, to become Prime Minister and form a new government, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. Bottom; British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak waves from the steps of 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022.

Will Republicans regain supermajorities in the General Assembly?

Republicans need to lock in 72 seats in the House and 30 in the Senate

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — As Election Day approaches, the battle for control of the North Carolina General Assembly isn’t in question. Both Democrats and Republicans ex pect the GOP to remain in control of the state legislature, as they have been since sweeping into power in 2011.

The question this year is wheth er Republicans can regain ve to-proof supermajorities in both chambers. To achieve that goal, Republicans need to win 72 seats in the House and 30 in the Senate.

“I’m not personally on the bal lot,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper told The Atlantic in a recent inter view. “My ability to stop bad leg

islation is. The effectiveness of the veto is on the line.”

Since taking office in 2017, Coo per has issued a record 75 vetoes; more than double the number issued by all past governors com bined. When Republicans held supermajorities in both chambers during Cooper’s first term, 23 of Cooper’s 28 vetoes were overrid den.

Democrats have 93 candidates and Republicans fielded 113 can didates for the 120 seat races. The number of Republicans running unopposed for House seats out numbers Democrats 27 to seven.

Examples on the Republican side include Richmond County’s Ben Moss, who won the prima ry for House District 52 and will assume the seat since there is no Democratic challenger. The same is true for Republican Jake John son of Polk County in House Dis

See SUPERMAJORITY

By Matt Mercer North State Journal

RALEIGH — Gordon Sondland, who represented the United States in Europe for two years as the ambassa dor to the European Union, knew in his mid-20s that rep resenting his country abroad was something he wanted to do.

“Those that had an ability to serve as a U.S. ambassador under either a Democrat or a Republican president, every single person, man and wom an, described their experience as the most interesting thing they’ve ever done in their life. And, you know, these are people who have done other very interesting things,” said Sondland in an interview with North State Journal ahead of the release of his book “The Envoy.”

“For them to say that really sort of struck a chord with me. And I decided I’d like to do this as well.”

NSJ STAFF

K-12 kids would only be impacted if NC Commission for Public Health adopts the schedule change

Gordon Sondland talks to North State Journal about his new book and his experience in international diplomacy

A successful businessman

‘The most interesting thing you’ll do’: Sondland reflects on politics, diplomacy and Trump

AP PHOTO

Medical personnel vaccinate students at a school in New Orleans on

25, 2022.

AP PHOTOS

Vacationland”

THE WORD: DOES GOD REALLY CARE FOR US?

We may think that our lot is especially hard — and may wish that it were otherwise. We may wish that we had a life of ease and luxury, amid softer scenes — with no briers or thorns, no worries or provocations. We think that then we would be always gentle, patient, serene, trustful, happy. How delightful it would be — never to have a care, an irritation, a trouble, a single vexing thing.

But the fact remains — that the place in which we find ourselves — is the very place in which the Master desires us to live our life. There is no haphazard in God’s world. God leads every one of His children by the right way. He knows where and under what influences, each particular life will ripen best.

One tree grows best in the sheltered valley, another by the water’s edge, another on the bleak mountain-top swept by storms. Every tree or plant is found in the precise locality to enhance its growth. And does God give more thought to trees and plants — than to His own children? No. He places us amid the circumstances and experiences in which our life will grow and ripen the best. The peculiar trials to which we are each subjected — is the exact discipline we each need to bring out the beauties and graces of true spiritual character in us. We are in the right school. We may think that we would ripen more quickly — in a more easy and luxurious life. But God knows what is best for us — He makes no mistakes.

There is a little fable which says that a primrose growing by itself in a shady corner of the garden, became discontented as it saw the other flowers in their mirthful beds in the sunshine, and begged to be moved to a more conspicuous place. Its prayer was granted.

The gardener transplanted it to a more showy and sunny spot. It was greatly pleased — but a change came over it immediately. Its blossoms lost much of their beauty, and became pale and sickly. The hot sun caused them to faint and wither. So it prayed again to be taken back to its old place in the shade. The wise gardener knows best, where to plant each flower.

Just so, God, The divine Gardener, knows where His people will best grow into what He would have them to be. Some require the fierce storms; some will only thrive in the shadow of worldly adversity; and some come to ripeness more sweetly under the soft and gentle influences of prosperity — whose beauty, rough experiences would mar. The divine Gardener knows what is best for each one.

There is no position in this world in the allotment of Providence, in which it is not possible to be a true Christian, exemplifying all the virtues of godliness. The grace of Christ has in it, potency enough to enable us to live godly — wherever we are called to dwell. When God chooses a home for us — He fits us for its peculiar trials.

God adapts His grace to the peculiarities of each one’s necessity. For rough, flinty paths — He provides shoes of iron. He never sends anyone to climb sharp, rugged mountain-sides, wearing silken slippers. He always gives sufficient grace. As the burdens grow heavier — the strength increases. As the difficulties thicken — He draws closer. As the trials become sorer — the trusting heart grows calmer.

Jesus always sees His disciples, when they are toiling in the waves — and at the right moment He comes to deliver them. Thus it becomes possible to live a true and victorious life — in any

circumstances.

Christ can as easily enable Joseph to remain pure and true in heathen Egypt — as Benjamin in the shelter of his father’s love. The sharper the temptations — the more of divine grace is granted. There is, therefore, no environment of trial, or difficulty or hardship — in which we cannot live beautiful lives of Christian fidelity and holy conduct.

Instead, then, of yielding to discouragement when trials multiply and it becomes hard to live right, or of being satisfied with a very faulty life — it should be our settled purpose to live, through the grace of God — a patient, gentle and unspotted life — in the place, and amid the circumstances, He allots to us. The true victory is not found in escaping or evading trials — but in rightly meeting and enduring them.

The questions should not be, “How can I get out of these worries? How can I get into a place where there shall be no irritations, nothing to try my temper or put my patience to the test? How can I avoid the distractions that continually harass me?” There is nothing noble in such living.

The questions should rather be, “How can I pass through these trying experiences — and not fail as a Christian? How can I endure these struggles — and not suffer defeat? How can I live amid these provocations, these testings of my temper — and yet live sweetly, not speaking unadvisedly, bearing injuries meekly, returning gentle answers to insulting words?” This is the true problem of Christian living.

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

COVID-19,” Hudson said. “Just as I have led opposition to COVID vaccine mandates for the military, I will oppose states and districts imposing mandates on children in our schools following today’s vote. As the CDC makes a final deter mination, the agency must come before Congress and explain its decision to the American people.”

“ACIP’s recommendation to add COVID-19 vaccines to the routinely recommended vaccine schedule represents another step in the nation’s recovery,” accord ing to a Centers for Disease Con trol and Prevention (CDC) state ment on the ACIP vote.

The statement also said, “there are no changes in COVID-19 vac cine policy” and ACIP’s actions “simply helps streamline clinical guidance for healthcare provid ers by including all currently li censed, authorized and routinely recommended vaccines in one document.”

The ACIP vote follows news that CDC Director Rochelle Wal ensky came down with COVID-19 just a month after she publicly cel ebrated receiving a booster shot. Only a few COVID vaccines are authorized for children under the age of 18. The Pfizer and Moder na COVID vaccines are still under emergency use authorization for kids under the age of 12 and do not have full FDA approval, and Moderna’s only fully approved

shot is for persons 18 and older. Only the Pfizer BioNTech Comir naty vaccine was fully FDA ap proved late last year for people 12 and up. Comirnaty is the brand name given to the same vaccine already in use.

According to the statement, the CDC “only makes recommen dations for use of vaccines, while school-entry vaccination require ments are determined by state or local jurisdictions.”

Data tracked by the National Academy of State Health Policy shows that 21 states have banned COVID vaccine mandates for school-aged children. Only Cali fornia and the District of Colum bia have COVID vaccine man dates in place, and both mandates have been subject to legal chal lenges.

In North Carolina, the N.C. Commission for Public Health (NCCPH) is the body responsi ble for altering immunization re quirements for children to attend public school.

The NCCPH falls under the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS). The members serve four-year terms with four members appointed by the N.C. Medical Society and nine appointed by the governor. All of the gubernatorial appointees cur rently on the board were either ap pointed or reappointed by Demo cratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Most of the commission mem bers have some medical or rel

evant experience, but one does not: Greg Hatem, a real estate developer. Hatem, a Democrat, has given the maximum donation to Cooper’s gubernatorial cam paigns. Including Hatem, six of the 13 commission members have given donations to Cooper.

The last time changes were made for K-12 immunizations by the NCCPH was in 2014 by mak ing updates conforming to CDC guidelines related to Pneumococ cal Conjugate, Varicella and Me ningococcal vaccines. However, over the last year, the NCCPH has discussed adding COVID vaccines to the list of required immuniza tions for college and K-12 students ages 17 and up.

The topic was first brought up in August 2021 but was tabled. The commission met again virtu ally on Oct. 15, at which time cer tain members joked about what they referred to as “anti-vaxxers” and mask “rhetoric.”

During the meeting held Nov. 3, 2021, the NCCPH’s Chair Ron ald May referenced a “petition” submitted to the rulemaking process and May said it would be addressed at their next meet ing. The petition had been sent to NCDHHS’ State Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson the month prior, in October.

North State Journal identified the unnamed petition and discov ered it was submitted by four pro fessors from Appalachian State University (ASU) and requested

the NCCPH “issue a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for all NC college students” starting with 17-year-olds.

The ASU petition was brought up and voted on at a February 2022 meeting. During that meet ing, member Dr. Doug Sheets said he had contacted the medical so ciety and that “the feeling” of their board of directors was they “could not currently support any COVID vaccine mandate for minors.”

Two members of the NCCPH spoke out in favor of denying the petition prior to the vote, citing personal freedoms as well as ad verse reactions to the vaccines and a lack of long-term studies on the effects of the vaccines in children.

“I think that based on the fact there is an especially high inci dence of adverse effects in chil dren and adolescents — particu larly myocarditis and those type things — that we would really be making a not wise choice to re quire the least affected popula tion of this country, which would be students … adolescents and children … to have the most strin gent requirement,” said Dr. Gene Minton, who added he is a strong proponent of vaccinations but that they should not be requiring it of those who least need it.

Dr. Michael Riccobene also said he favored personal free doms, that he had chosen not to vaccinate his children, and said he felt “every parent and adult should have the right to choose whether

or not they receive the COVID vaccine. I do not think it is in the best interest of the public to take away that right.”

Riccobene and Minton are the only two Republicans currently serving on the NCCPH.

The NCCPH tapped the brakes and ultimately voted unanimous ly to deny the petition. There had also been public pushback leading up to the vote and the commission also received a letter from NCDH HS calling the possible changes “premature.”

“With information about vac cine doses and booster schedul ing still evolving, we believe it is premature for the Commission to codify the immunization schedule through rulemaking. The Com mission could consider adding a COVID-19 vaccine to the child hood immunization schedule at a later date,” stated the letter signed by Assistant NCDHHS Secretary Mark Benton and Dr. Kelly Kim ple, chief of the NCDHHS wom en’s and children’s health section.

If and when the NCCPH acts to add a COVID vaccine to child hood immunizations in North Carolina, state statute says NC CPH is “authorized to exempt from the new requirement chil dren who are or who have been enrolled in school (K-12) on or be fore the effective date of the new requirement.”

NCCPH’s next meeting is Nov. 2. Meeting details can be found at: https://cph.dph.ncdhhs.gov/

trict 113. For Democrats, Guilford’s District-61 Rep. Pricey Harrison is unopposed as Wake County’s D-11 Rep. Allison Dahle.

There are 14 Republicans on the Senate side have no challenger and the party has fielded candidates in all 50 districts except one – the Dis trict 38 seat held by Sen. Mutjaba Mohammed of Charlotte. Demo crats, including Mohammed, have 36 candidates in the running out of 50 seats.

The NC Free Enterprise Foun dation (NCFREE) compiled parti san index rankings for the legisla tive districts.

The competitive districts, which Republicans need to win, have rankings with small lean ratings of either a +1 or +2. In some districts, the rating is an unclear advantage of a +0 that NCFREE has attribut ed to one party or another.

NCFREE ranks 14 House dis tricts as competitive. Four that slightly lean Republican (Districts 12, 35, 59, and 112) and six that lean

slightly Democrat (Districts 2, 5, 18, 36, 54, and 105). The remaining four (Districts 9, 25, 40, and 63) have no clear advantage.

A fundraising email from the N.C. House Republican Caucus lists five races it believes can flip from Democratic control to Repub licans: Districts 9 (Pitt County), 24 (Wilson County), 35 (Wake Coun ty), 63 (Alamance County), and 103 (Mecklenburg County).

For the Senate, NCFREE rates seven races as competitive. Two have a small Democrat lean (Dis tricts 11 and 21) while four have a Republican lean (Districts 4, 7, 17 and 18). District 42 is ranked as having no clear party advantage.

Civitas Partisan Index (CPI) analysis generally lines up with NCFree’s ratings for both chambers with some differences.

According to the CPI ratings, 24 Senate Districts as either lean, like ly, or safe Republican seats and 22 are lean, likely, or safe Democrat ic. The remaining four are toss-up seats with no clear party advantage.

In the House, CPI shows 38 dis

tricts that either lean, likely, or safe Republican and 56 that lean ei ther lean, likely, or safe Democrat. Six are considered toss-ups with a slight Democrat lean.

CPI’s Senate races to watch for Republicans to capture a super majority include five districts; 3, 11, 17, 18, and 42. Both District 17, Democrat Sydney Batch versus Republican Mark Cavaliero, and District 18, Democrat Mary Wil lis Bode versus Republican E.C. Sykes, are in Wake County. Gov. Cooper has intervened in the latter race, publicly endorsing Bode in a campaign ad.

Senate District 19 in Cumber land County between Republi can Wesley Meredith and former Fayetteville City Council member Democrat Val Applewhite may be interesting as well given Gov. Roy Cooper was criticized for his in tervention in that district. Cooper seemingly punished incumbent Democrat Kirk deViere by endors ing Applewhite in the May primary. NCFREE rates the district as a +8 Democrat lean whereas CPI rates it

FILE PHOTO

The

General Assembly is shown in this undated file photo.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

“The Garden of Eden” by Thomas Cole (1828) is a painting in the collection of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Tex

Some GOP voters to hold onto mail ballots until Election Day

By Christina A. Cassidy The Associated Press

ATLANTA — Republican activ ists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year’s midterm elections.

The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or — for voters who receive a mailed ballot — hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8.

The plan is based on theories that fraudsters would be able to manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early.

The calls to hold onto ballots un

til the last minute have grown loud er in recent weeks, according to a review of social media accounts by The Associated Press.

“It’s a lot easier to catch any fraud,” MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has promoted the last-minute voting strategy on podcasts, told the AP in a recent interview. Lindell, through various events, has sought to prove that voting machines were manipulated to favor Biden in 2020.

Trump also has weighed in, say ing at a recent rally that voting on Election Day was best because “it’s much harder for them to cheat that way.”

Discouraging early voting and encouraging voters to hold onto their mailed ballots until Election Day runs counter to efforts by most

campaigns. Republican and Dem ocratic candidates alike typically want to have as many ballots in hand as possible heading into Elec tion Day so they can focus their efforts on getting stragglers to the polls and persuading undecided voters.

It’s unclear whether the messag ing for Republicans to hold onto their mailed ballots is having an effect. In two politically important states, the return rate for mailed ballots is slower than in previous elections — although it also could mean voters there remain undecid ed.

In Georgia, about 23% of mailed ballots have been returned with just over two weeks before Elec tion Day compared to about 35% at about the same time in 2020 and

almost 37% in 2018. As of Oct. 19 in Wisconsin, 45% of mailed bal lots had been returned compared to 56% in at the same point in 2020 and 2018.

Some Democrats also have ad vocated submitting ballots at the last minute — but based more on a political strategy than claims of fraud.

Pam Keith, an attorney, Demo cratic activist and former congres sional candidate in Florida, said she thinks the predictability that Democrats will vote by mail gives Republicans an early hint at turn out levels. That’s why she is advo cating for a surge of ballots at the last minute, catching Republicans off guard.

“By voting early, we are showing our hand,” Keith said. “We show what our turnout number is going to be. And if they know that the overwhelming majority of vote-bymail ballots are in, then they know what they need to do to win.”

Keith’s advice strayed from that of many Democratic candidates, who have encouraged their sup porters to vote early and by mail.

Questions swirl after China’s former leader Hu leaves event

Beijing The twice-a-decade congress of China’s ruling Communist Party is a tightly choreographed event. So when former Chinese President Hu Jintao was guided off stage without explanation — as the world’s media looked on — questions spilled forth.

The speculation ran from a health crisis to an attempted protest by the 79-year-old former leader or a political purge by current President Xi Jinping. Xi has previously gone after retired officials on corruption charges, though never one as highranking as Hu.

China’s tightly controlled state media didn’t report the incident, but the official Xinhua News Agency tweeted in English several hours later — as speculation raged overseas — that Hu was in poor health and needed to rest.

Hu, who has reportedly been in poor health, appeared confused during the incident, although not in obvious distress. While an attendant held his arm, he shuffled off stage right, speaking briefly with Xi and patting Premier Li Keqiang on the shoulder. Throughout the process, most of the other delegates stared silently ahead.

The Xinhua tweet, while believable, didn’t satisfy skeptics, and the truth may never be definitively known.

SONDLAND

despite being a self-described col lege dropout after attending the University of Washington, Sond land said he went to work in the trenches of the Republican Party to work his way into an ambassa dorship.

In any presidential adminis tration, successful fundraisers known as “bundlers” earn spots abroad in roles not served by ca reer diplomats. It was one of these roles in which Sondland would attain when his chance came in 2017 during the transition period of Donald J. Trump — who was elected president in November 2016.

A supporter of Jeb Bush early in the 2016 campaign, Sondland describes talking with Trump and his team — vividly recounting in the book first meeting Trump in the 1980s and coming full circle nearly 30 years later.

Sondland described seeking out Trump after reading about a prob lem he had with the Plaza Hotel — Sondland himself had started in the hotel business with his compa ny and said he wanted to compare notes about similar issues they were having. But at that meeting, which took place at the 1988 Re publican National Convention, Sondland said Trump was “a total d*ck” at the time “and he totally blew me off.”

Their second meeting was during the ’16 campaign and ar ranged by Steve Mnuchin, who would become Trump’s Treasury secretary. Sondland recalled the first meeting in a conversation with Trump. The former presi dent “couldn’t have been nicer” that time, which he brought up the next night.

“And I said, ‘So the next night you were really nice to me.’ And he (Trump) said, ‘Well, of course I was nice to you the next night you were with important people.’ So he says, ‘Are you over it?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m here, aren’t I?’ And he goes, ‘That’s a good point,’” Sond land said about how he reconnect ed with the man who would ulti mately send him to Brussels.

Sondland describes receiving the chance to serve as an ambas sador as akin to being struck by lightning. Little did know at the time he would be at the center of an even rarer event: a presidential impeachment trial.

Each of the numerous individ uals confirmed as ambassadors attends “ambassador school” with government officials and they re ceive a notebook. The complexity of each assignment determines the length of the notebook, Sond land says, comparing for instance a small Caribbean Island to the one he received for the EU — the size of an old-school Yellow Pages telephone book.

“There was no question in my

mind that that was an extremely consequential post. The EU truly is one of the consequential posts in U.S. diplomacy. It’s the foreign leaders of all 27 EU countries,” Sondland said. “My job (at the time) is to keep the United States and the EU as lashed up as possi ble on not just trade and business, but intelligence, commerce, agri culture, military mobility, the list goes on. The meaty part of the job is working directly with the presi dent and the secretary in order to

move our agenda with our largest trading partner and our strongest ally forward.”

Sondland also had a front-row seat in Europe to what was hap pening in Ukraine. He said in the interview that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is “truly be coming one of the consequential military leaders of my generation with no previous experience be cause the guy is really brave.”

He described the Ukrainian president as someone who need

ed to prove himself. One of Sond land’s first discussions in Brussels was about why Ukraine couldn’t attract more Western capital and how it related to long-running corruption issues in the country.

Sondland recalled holding events and embracing Zelenskyy, intro ducing him at the time to the Eu ropean leaders he has relied on since the February invasion.

Sondland briefly became a household name and trending topic on Twitter for his testimony during the 2019 impeachment tri al of Trump. Compelled to testify in front of the entire nation, Sond land recounts in his book how he felt: He wanted to answer ques tions and get back to work, but also criticized those who would “lie, cheat, steal” and use impeach ment to spin narratives.

“From a personal standpoint, it’s hard on you, it’s hard on your family because the notoriety isn’t like you just won the Olympic gold medal,” Sondland deadpanned.

“I was going to tell the truth to the best of my recollection exactly what happened and dispute what people are alleged that happened, that actually did not happen and let the chips fall where they may. I would say with a straight face that was not the agenda of quite a few of the other witnesses. I wanted to go back to Brussels and my job.”

It was a job that Sondland would not have after Trump was acquitted.

As he says in the book, Sond land was given the option to resign or be fired. Feeling he hadn’t done anything wrong, he said wouldn’t resign and was subsequently fired from his post.

“I would do the same thing all over again given all of the same circumstances,” Sondland said.

He adds in the book that what separates him from many oth ers is that he figured out how to manage Trump to get results — and he could take the good, bad and ugly because it comes with the full package. But Sondland strongly disagreed with Trump’s handling of the Jan. 6 riot and said he wouldn’t support a 2024 campaign because Trump couldn’t effectively govern.

On a lighter note, Sondland is a fan of Duke University, where both of his children graduated college in the past few years. He also is longtime friends with U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who introduced Sondland during his Senate con firmation and helped shepherd him through the arduous process.

He also said the CBS show “Madam Secretary” shared sim ilarities with the real State De partment — except the offices, furniture wardrobes and cars are a lot nicer on TV than they are in reality.

“The Envoy” was released on Oct. 25 and can be purchased on Amazon and in bookstores.

The idea that it may have been more than a health issue stemmed from Hu’s somewhat ambiguous relationship with Xi, who succeeded him as party leader in 2012. Xi is the hard-driving son of a Communist elder, while the mild-mannered Hu hails from a family of tea merchants and trained as an engineer.

The spectacle was, in the words of longtime China watcher Bill Bishop, “humiliating.”

The “image of Hu Jintao being led out is a perfect symbol of Xi’s absolute decimation of the ‘Communist Youth League’ faction,” Bishop wrote in his newsletter.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Biden: ‘Legitimate’ for voters to weigh age as he nears 80

Rehoboth Beach, Del. President Joe Biden joked that it’s difficult acknowledging he’s about to turn 80 but said he’s physically and mentally capable of serving a potential second term in the White House.

Biden, who turns 80 on Nov. 20, said it’s “totally legitimate” for voters to question whether someone his age can manage the demanding stresses of the American presidency. Biden made the comment in response to a question about his age during an MSNBC interview that aired Sunday.

He said people should judge for themselves whether he is up to the task as polls show that voters would rather not see a rematch with Donald Trump, the Republican ousted by Biden in 2020. Biden would be 82 on Inauguration Day in January 2025; Trump would be 78.

A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows only about 3 in 10 people questioned want either Biden or Trump to run for president in two years. Just 5 in 10 Democrats want Biden to seek a second term.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COURTESY PHOTO

The Envoy, written by Gordon Sondland, was released on Oct. 25, 2022.

AP PHOTOS

Left, Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, speaks at a Save America Rally prior to former president Donald Trump speaking Jan. 15, 2022, in Florence, Ariz. Right, ballot boxes are lined up as employees test voting equipment at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, Oct. 19, 2022, in Miami

“Those that had an ability to serve as a U.S. ambassador under either a Democrat or a Republican president, every single person, man and woman, described their experience as the most interesting thing they’ve ever done in their life.”

Gordon Sondland

Murphy to Manteo Jones & Blount

October is National Pork Month

The month of October is traditionally recognized as Pork Month to celebrate pork producers and the vital role they play in feeding the world.

North Carolina’s hog and pork processing industry continues to be an economic powerhouse, generating more than $10 billion in economic output for the state, according to a 2019 economic impact report prepared by NC State University.

The report shows that the pork production and processing categories directly contribute $5.9 billion in sales and provide 19,298 jobs. For every job in pork production, an estimated 2.2 additional jobs are created, meaning the industry supports more than 44,000 total jobs in North Carolina, according to the NC Pork Council.

The state’s four largest hog producing counties — Duplin, Sampson, Bladen and Wayne — combine to contribute more than $7.1 billion to the state’s economy and support nearly 19,000 jobs.

WEST

App students, professor receive NASA grants

Watauga County

Three Appalachian State University students and a member of the school’s faculty were awarded NASA North Carolina Space Grants. The money is intended to support research in aerospace and aviation. Dr. James Sherman, a physics and astronomy professor, received a grant along with physics and astronomy students Ethan Barber, Matthew Allen and Samuel DeMay. The grants support one year of funds to continue their research.

APPSTATE.EDU

Pedestrian hit, killed trying to cross highway

Haywood County Laura W. Haberneck, 71, of Spruce Pine, was struck and killed by a vehicle while attempting to cross U.S. 19 in Haywood County last weekend. She was hit by a pickup truck driven by William T. Mayes, 58, of Gaffney, South Carolina. Haberneck was attempting to cross from Lake Junaluska to a campground across the highway. She was pronounced dead before reaching the hospital. Mayes was not charged in the incident.

MY40 TV

Police: 6, including toddler, hurt in shooting

Granville County Police say six people, including a toddler, were shot over the weekend. Oxford police say officers responded to Piedmont Avenue around 9:30 p.m. Saturday for a report of shots fired and found six people suffering from gunshot wounds. Police say the victims ranging in age from 18 months to 64 years old were taken to a local hospital, and four of them were flown to other hospitals. Police did not have details on their conditions. Oxford police and the State Bureau of Investigation are investigating the shooting.

400,000 and up 100,000 to 399,999 50,000 to 99,999 4,00 to 49,999

Under 400 / Undisclosed

AP

Albemarle Secures DOE grant for U.S.-based lithium facility to support domestic EV supply chain

Cleveland County Albemarle Corporation, a global leader in the specialty chemicals industry, announced it has been awarded a nearly $150 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the first set of projects funded by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and the electrical grid, and for materials and components currently imported from other countries. The grant funding is intended to support a portion of the anticipated cost to construct a new, commercial-scale U.S.-based lithium concentrator facility at Albemarle’s Kings Mountain location.

South Carolina food processor to build N.C. facility, create jobs

Scotland County

A South Carolina-based food processor known for supplying U.S. military combat rations will build a facility in a North Carolina county that has one of the state’s highest jobless rates. SO-PAK-CO Inc. and Gov. Roy Cooper announced the company’s $85 million investment in a new processing and packing operation in Laurinburg.

Scotland County’s unemployment rate was 7.7% in August. The company could receive $4.6 million in payments from the state if it meets investment and job-creation thresholds. The average salary for the new jobs will be more than $45,000.

Nonprofits get $500K in grants

Edgecombe County

The North Carolina Community Foundation announced 15 new grants, totaling more than $500,000 to support nonprofits in the state.

One of the recipients is Hill Family Farm Education Center, which received $37,500 to use to strengthen youth enrichment through on-farm experiential recreation opportunities and enhance community food access in Edgecombe County.

Man arrested after found with Molotov cocktails

Former principal shot, killed at motel

Swain County Lambert Wilson, a former educator at Swain County Schools, was shot and killed at a motel he owned in Cherokee. Wilson was shot at El Camino Motel. Before his retirement in 2006, Wilson served as a teacher and principal at Whittier and East Elementary schools in Swain County for 31 years. He also served on the district’s board of education for 12 years.

Drought blamed for fire

Macon County A fire that the North Carolina Forest Service responded to last Thursday is being blamed on drought conditions. The fire started in Snow Hills Falls in the mountains in Macon County and eventually grew to cover 15 acres. The fire was eventually contained, but the blaze is blamed on the drought conditions that have impacted much of the western part of the state. A second fire, at the Lake Lure Adventure Center, was also contained.

Cell biologist from Duke named new president of MIT

Durham County

PR NEWSWIRE

AP County gets $8M in beach grants

WECT

Cooper announces $30M for ‘Clean School Buses’

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper’s office issued a press release on Oct. 17 announcing more than $30.1 million in funding from the N.C. Volkswagen Settlement Program for new “clean school buses.” The awards will pay for 161 new buses across the state, including 43 new electric school buses.

More than $16.5 million of the funding will be for 43 electric school buses and associated charging infrastructure.

“Today is a good day for the health and pocketbooks of North Carolinians as we continue on our path to clean transportation,” Cooper said in the release. “Transitioning to cleaner school buses reduces greenhouse gas emissions, lowers costs to our schools, creates great manufacturing jobs and reduces pollution in our poorer communities.”

The funding comes from Phase 2 of the N.C. Volkswagen Settlement Program, which holds the remaining $68 million of the state’s share of a national settlement with Volkswagen.

Grant recipients include public schools, charter schools and a tribal school in 84 counties. Rural counties will see 130 bus replacements. As the buses are replaced, the old buses are scheduled to be destroyed, “ensuring they no longer pollute the air in communities near schools,” according to the release.

to “support Gov. Cooper’s efforts under Executive Order No. 80 to transition the state motor fleet to zero-emission vehicles, while the remainder will be available for public use.”

DEQ is still accepting rebate applications for Level 2 charging infrastructure installations at workplaces and multiunit dwellings. Applications are on a first-come, firstserved basis and will continue until all of the funding is depleted. Information about the funding and how to apply are on DEQ’s website.

Electric school buses have been criticized over their cost, which can be up to three times more than a gas/dieselpowered bus, coming in at an average of $400,000 per vehicle. The awards listed by DEQ for electric buses show costs landing anywhere from $368,864 to $426,827.

Additionally, charging stations can be expensive and take up more space as well as the battery range being an obstacle when it comes to long bus routes. Most electric buses in current use have been cited to have service ranges of just 100 to 120 miles on a single charge.

The lithium-ion batteries used by electric vehicles, including buses, have also been known to catch fire and if the vehicle is in an accident the fire from the battery can create safety issues because they burn hotter and longer than a normal bus fire.

Pamlico County

WLOS

WLOS

A cell biologist who has spent the past eight years as provost at Duke University has been named president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sally Kornbluth was elected by the MIT Corporation, the school’s governing body. She will officially take over on Jan. 1, succeeding L. Rafael Reif, who in February announced that he planned to step down after 10 years on the job. Kornbluth has been on the Duke faculty since 1994. She says one of the top attractions of MIT was helping students and faculty tackle some of the world’s greatest problems.

Parents of accused shooter express sorrow

Dare County

AP

Wake County The parents of a 15-year-old boy accused of killing five people in a Raleigh shooting rampage released a statement saying they are “overcome with grief” over the deaths. Alan and Elise Thompson issued the statement, acknowledging the pain caused by their son, Austin Thompson. They mourn for the five killed, including their other son, James. Witnesses described in 911 calls that the shooter opened fire with a shotgun in a neighborhood northeast of downtown Raleigh and also shot at least two people on a popular walking trail.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources awarded $20.1 million in grants to eight coastal communities to help with storm damage. The money comes from the Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund and is earmarked for beach nourishment, dune restoration and other remediation projects. Dare County received more than $8 million for three projects. North Dare County Multi-Town Beach Nourishment received $1 million.

A beach renourishment to protect N.C. Highway 12 in Buxton will get $1,557,607. And $5,576,639 will go to Avon Village beach nourishment.

NC.GOV

Geroge Bateman, 31, of Reelsboro, was arrested and charged with possession and manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. The arrest came after police found homemade explosives, including a Molotov cocktail and what looked like a pipe bomb. Police responded to his home after receiving a report that someone was “out of control.” They smelled flammable liquid and uncovered the devices after a search.

“Switching to new low- and zeroemission school buses has immediate public health benefits for the children who ride them and improves air quality in our communities,” said Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser.

According to the release, the new buses will “reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 126 tons over their lifetimes combined.

The full list of awarded projects can be found on DEQ’s website.

The electric buses, however, have had lower maintenance costs and estimated savings for districts of between $4,000 to $11,000 per bus per year over their diesel counterparts.

WITN

DEQ has awarded more than $1 million from the settlement funds to state agencies to install Level 2 zeroemission vehicle charging infrastructure. The 103 charging ports will be installed at 25 sites on state properties ranging from parks to colleges and office buildings.

Thirteen chargers will be used for state agency fleet vehicles and

Earlier this year in March, the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency announced $17 million in electric school bus rebate awards as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the 2021 Diesel Emissions Reduction ACT (DERA). ARP funding totaling $7 million was directed to school districts in underserved communities to replace diesel buses with zero-emission electric models. Another $10 million in DERA rebates were earmarked for 444 school bus replacements nationwide. The EPA’s new Clean School Bus rebate program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides an unprecedented $5 billion over five years, recently closed its application period.

AP

PHOTO VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gov. Roy Cooper speaks with kindergarten student Sankeerthana Lolla while eating lunch at Bethesda Elementary School on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, in Durham.

PIEDMONT

EAST

north STATEment

COLUMN | FRANK HILL

Voter payback for extreme partisanship can be hell

POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLITICIANS just can’t help themselves.

Giving them total control of government is like giving a teenager the keys to the car while the parents are out of town ― chances are much higher that something bad is going to happen rather than good.

This is a bipartisan curse. Republicans overreach when they have total control of government just like far-left progressive liberal Democrats have since they took control of Washington lock, stock and barrel after the 2020 elections.

not extremely partisan one way or the other.

They hate extreme partisanship and all of the subsequent fingerpointing by both sides with a passion. These 85% of regular voters don’t pay much attention to politics between the last election and maybe three weeks ahead of the next one. They are too busy working; raising children; going to church; hiking or discovering new technologies to “save the world” that way instead of politics.

Over 315 million people in America ― don’t give a damn about politics on a daily basis.

The first midterm congressional elections are the first-time voters get a chance to slam on the brakes to stop whoever is in charge from going over the cliff again ― because the pain of the mistakes made by the majority party is too much to bear.

According to The American Presidency Project at UC-Santa Barbara, in the 22 midterm elections from 1934–2018, the President’s party averaged a loss of 28 House seats and four Senate seats. The president’s party gained seats in the House only three times, 9 for FDR in 1934; 8 for Clinton in 1998 and 5 for Bush 43 in 2002.

The president’s party gained seats in the Senate on six occasions ― FDR gained 9 seats in 1934; Kennedy gained 3 in 1962; Nixon gained 2 in 1962; Reagan gained 1 in 1982; Bush 43 gained 2 in 2002 and Trump gained 2 in 2018. The president’s party has gained seats in both houses only twice, 1934 and 2002.

President Biden and his band of far-left progressive liberal socialist Democrats are not only fighting the Republican Party and perhaps billions in independent expenditure campaign spending ― they are fighting historical tendencies in America.

There is something primal in the hearts and minds of partisan political types that screams “Get as much done as quickly as possible so we can save the world from (insert favorite demonic issue)!”

If either major political party gets a clear majority to run the legislative and executive branches knowing that the judicial branch will confirm their view of the Constitution, they should try to get as much done as possible in less than two years before the next election. That is why partisans spent billions to get them elected in the first place ― to get their agenda passed in the first place.

However, partisans always forget that 85% of Americans who vote regularly, meaning less than 50% of adults who are eligible to vote, are

EDITORIAL | STACEY MATTHEWS

Between 500,000 and 750,000 people watch the liberal talk shows on MSNBC on any given night, usually the same people day-in and day-out. Over 2 million people watch the conservative talk shows on FOX every night, usually the same people day-in and day-out.

That means over 315 million people in America ― don’t give a damn about politics on a daily basis. They just want a good job; no inflation; low gas prices; safe streets; great schools and they don’t want people telling them what to do or how to do it on a daily basis.

Right now, they are being barraged by Republican ads telling them that every Democrat on the ballot will support the failed policies of the last two years under President Biden, which is 100% true. Democrats can’t walk back their “Defund the Police!” statements. They can’t walk back their passage of close to $5 trillion more spending which increased the national debt exponentially. They can’t lie about their support of open borders; release of criminals; restriction of domestic oil production; an impractical climate agenda and their support to cancel student debt to millions of wealthy lawyers and doctors.

Recent polling seems to indicate a jailbreak by independent voters who are flocking to vote for Republican candidates across-the-board primarily to say they have had enough of progressive socialist liberal hectoring and harping.

2022 sure doesn’t look like it will be another 1934 or 2002 for the incumbent President’s party. It is starting to feel more like 1994 when Bill Clinton lost 54 seats in Congress and 2010 when the Obama/Biden team lost 63.

ONE THING NO ONE EVER WANTS to hear is that they or one of their loved ones has cancer.

Two weeks ago, I went with my mom to a doctor’s appointment where we found out that she has colon cancer.

Needless to say, we were in a state of shock. After all, the only time we’d ever heard the “C” word as it relates to my family was about 20 years ago when mom’s dermatologist told her she had basal cell skin cancer, which fortunately they caught in the early stages and were able to remove.

After we heard the news, I tried my best to listen to what the doctor said about what the possible options were for treatment because I figured Mom was probably tuning everything else out after what had been said.

“I’ve referred your case to an oncologist that I would send my own mother to,” the doctor told her.

On finding out a loved one has cancer We may not know the plan, but God knows, and I rest in the knowledge that He is in control, that this did not take him by surprise.

Presumably, we’ll learn later this week when we meet with her care team what stage the colon cancer is in. We’re understandably nervous about it, but at least by knowing what it is the right treatment plan can be fine-tuned and put in place.

She’d been having some health issues over the last year or so and we’d been trying to nail down the root causes, but this was something we didn’t expect.

Things have been moving so fast in the process that it almost feels surreal. Surgery has already been tentatively scheduled for just a few weeks from now.

As my mom’s caregiver, I struggled at first with how to respond to her concerns and fears. But then I remembered her faith in God is strong, something she reminded me of not long after the diagnosis.

“We may not know the plan, but God knows, and I rest in the knowledge that He is in control, that this did not take him by surprise,” she said.

There have been tears and a lot of anxious moments as my sisters and

I do what we can to support Mom, to be that shoulder she needs to lean on. But though it’s been tough, toughest of all for Mom, this experience — as scary as it is — is making us stronger and even closer as a family.

It’s also been a reminder to appreciate every moment and the little things in life that are often taken for granted.

To take one precious day at a time.

A few months ago after we lost dad after his 11-year battle with kidney disease, I told myself my No. 1 priority was to get Mom to refocus on her health and well-being because she’d put off her own care many times to make sure he was getting the care he needed.

Now it’s our turn to make sure Mom gets the care she needs and to be there with her every step of the way. My sisters and I will fight with all we have to move mountains if that’s what it takes to help get her better again, for her to be able to enjoy the upcoming holidays with her family without her having to overly worry about her health.

I fervently pray that everything goes well with her surgery and that she will soon be cancer-free on this side, and I ask that others do the same on her behalf.

After all, we only get one mom in life, and though I know I’m a bit biased in saying this, she’s the best and deserves the best life has to offer after spending most of hers putting the needs of others ahead of her own.

North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

VISUAL

Why would anyone vote for a Democrat?

Our economy is many things, but “strong as hell” isn’t one of them.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN may not be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, but he can sure eat ice cream and answer questions about the economy simultaneously.

When a reporter asked him recently in an ice cream shop about the state of our economy, Biden, almost in mid-bite, replied that it is “strong as hell.”

This assessment might come as a surprise to most Americans, who know from regular visits to a grocery store or a gas station that our economy is many things, but “strong as hell” isn’t one of them.

In issuing this proclamation, Biden has demonstrated why no one should vote for any Democrats in the upcoming midterms. There are two ways to interpret his response: Biden either knows the economy is in terrible shape and is lying to avoid taking responsibility for it, or he is clueless about conditions in our country and the hardships Americans are dealing with every day. Neither one of these explanations is a good look for him or his party.

Why should any of us be surprised at this point by the probability that Biden and everyone in his party are either pathologically dishonest or detached from reality or both? I cannot think of a single thing Democrats have done since gaining control of both houses of Congress and the White House that has benefitted Americans.

What have Democrats done regarding our energy policy? They have allowed their obsession with climate change and their hatred of the fossil fuel industry to make us energy dependent after a brief period of energy independence under Trump.

By reducing oil and gas production in our country and pressuring banks to stop lending to fossil fuel companies, Biden and his cohorts have created serious financial and geopolitical consequences for America.

Because the price of fuel is connected to almost every sector of our economy, an increase

EDITORIAL | MICHAEL BARONE

in fuel prices has created an increase in the costs of goods and services. We pay more for food, clothing, entertainment, and transportation. This winter, we will pay more to heat our homes.

Because the Biden administration refuses to produce more oil in America — which would not only lower fuel prices but also create thousands of jobs — we are going hat in hand to other oilproducing countries asking them to sell us oil. So far, all of them have refused.

This issue alone demonstrates the lunacy of Democratic public policy. We sit on some of the largest oil reserves in the world, and we produce the cleanest oil. Yet the ideologues in charge would rather buy dirty oil from countries that mock and despise us than re-open the refineries at home.

If this isn’t madness, I don’t know what is.

Can you think of one aspect of our lives that has improved since the Democrats took control? We spend more on necessities than we did just two years ago. We live in cities where crime rates have increased dramatically, causing businesses and residents to flee. We have had 2-3 million immigrants enter our country illegally because our southern border is wide open (although the Democrats deny this). As a result of our open border, we have a fentanyl crisis that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and is now the leading cause of death among adults between the ages of 18 and 45.

In less than two years, the Democrats have wreaked havoc on our country, and now they are asking for our vote so they can continue implementing their dangerous policies. If they maintain control of Congress, they will continue their out-of-control spending, further weakening our economy and creating even greater hardships for Americans. They have worked hard through their radical policies and persistent dishonesty to lose our trust, and they should be appropriately rewarded by losing our vote.

Fundamentals, from COVID to crime, favor Republicans

Three weeks ago, Republicans seized the lead and are ahead now by slightly more than in 2014, when they won more House seats (247 of 435) than in any election since the 1920s.

IF DEMOCRATS take a drubbing in the off-year elections — and it seems increasingly likely, but not certain, that they will — it will be because they lost their moorings when the country seemed to go crazy with excessive COVID closedowns and irrational obsessions about systemic racism.

Let’s see how the voters’ response is developing.

Republicans regain lead in generic vote for the House

In an era of straight-ticket voting, party support in congressional elections is a good benchmark. The Real Clear Politics average showed Republicans ahead by about 3 points from last November to June. The developments — President Joe Biden’s legislative successes, the Dobbs decision, the restoration of jobs — appeared to reduce Republicans’ lead in August and September.

Three weeks ago, Republicans seized the lead and are ahead now by slightly more than in 2014, when they won more House seats (247 of 435) than in any election since the 1920s. Polls focused on likely voters showed Republicans ahead 48% to 45%.

Fundamentals have taken hold: out-ofcontrol inflation, sparked first by President Donald Trump and then even more by Biden spending to compensate for COVID closedown losses; out-of-control crime, sparked by liberals’ defunding and deactivation of police forces and no-bail and quick-release of criminals. Liberal crime policies are hugely unpopular. Racial quotas and preferences in college admissions, the subject of a Supreme Court case on colleges to be argued on Oct. 31, are opposed by 73% in a Pew Research poll, and quotas have been voted down in eight of nine referenda since 1996, most recently in California in 2020.

Trump fixation is past its sell-by date Immigration was one issue on which the sole rationale for Democrats’ policy was Orange Man Bad. If Trump would build a wall and force asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico, Biden would let everyone in. As New York Times reporter Frank Bruni notes, focusing on Biden rather than Trump “doesn’t exactly track with media coverage of the midterms.” Voters, in contrast, except for Democratic activists who are, in my colleague David Freddoso’s words, “obsessed with Trump to the point of insanity,” are focused on the current rather than the former president.

Hispanics trending Republican Although most news media try to suppress the story, Democrats are also suffering from out-of-control illegal immigration, highlighted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. It turns out that Hispanics, especially in the Rio Grande Valley but also elsewhere, identify not with the illegal immigrants but with the Border Patrol, which has been ordered to let them enter, and with blue-collar workers whose jobs they may threaten.

As Clinton administration veteran William Galston admits in The Wall Street Journal, “The distinctive black experience in America isn’t the template for other minority groups.” Hispanics, it turns out, are more like Italians, as I argued in my 2001 book “The New Americans,” which means they’re moving toward Republicans — where they haven’t been

doled out scraps from big government machines (Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia).

The abortion issue fizzles

Last summer, liberal pundits salivated at the prospect of abortion-rights voters voting Democrat to rebuke the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Women’s Health decision reversing Roe v. Wade. But this month’s New York Times survey found only 5% saying abortion is their top issue, with the Times’ ace analyst Nate Cohn summarizing, “the summer’s abortion/ democracy/guns focus fading.”

My own sense is that many abortion supporters assumed that reversing Roe would make abortion illegal everywhere. As they realized it didn’t, their concern about the issue faded. Meanwhile, Democrats who support legalizing abortion until the moment of birth may be finding themselves on the defensive against Republicans pivoting to popular restrictions on late-term abortions.

Republicans’ “weak candidates” performing better than expected Over the summer, it looked like Republican primary voters, urged on by Trump, had saddled the party with weak nominees for senator and governor in otherwise winnable races. But in recent debates, the Republicans so characterized seem to be holding their own: Blake Masters in Arizona, Herschel Walker in Georgia, J.D. Vance in Ohio. In the single Pennsylvania debate on Oct. 25, the question is not how the fluent Republican Mehmet Oz does, but whether the stroke-disabled Democrat John Fetterman, who has trouble understanding spoken words, will respond to the closed captioning he has insisted on.

Democrats’ blue-state blues

The most startling October development so far is Democrats’ apparent weaknesses in heavily Democratic states like Oregon and New York. Oregon hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 1982, but Republican Christine Drazan is leading in polls for reasons that apparently puzzled a team of New York Times reporters, whose account began by highlighting “liberal disharmony,” big contributions by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and the unexplained unpopularity of retiring incumbent Gov. Kate Brown. Only in the 12th paragraph did they finally make reference to “widespread homelessness and safety fears in Portland, which set a record for murders last year” and the new law decriminalizing “hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.”

The Times found space to mention Oregon’s law welcoming abortion-seekers but failed to mention the antifa violence that plagued Portland during and after the “mostly peaceful” demonstrations and riots in the summer of 2020. Even in Oregon, as Nate Hochman reports in City Journal, there is a distaste for dystopia.

Fundamentals favor the Republicans — fundamentals that have their roots in the COVID closedowns and the racial reckonings, in decisions taken in those delirious times and in their consequences now.

Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of “The Almanac of American Politics.”

Keeping the American Dream alive

I RECENTLY SAW a very troubling poll by the left-leaning Brookings Institution.

In its 2022 American Family Survey, Brookings found the idea of the “American Dream” is dying. The survey of 3,000 Americans found only one-third of respondents believed their children would be better off than they are.

This goes counter to what we’ve thought and been taught for generations — that our children will have the opportunity to be better off financially and non-financially than ourselves.

We can speculate on the many reasons why Americans are more pessimistic.

Inflation is at its highest level in a generation, crime and violence is on the rise. A crisis at the southern border.

Schools are failing children. A “cancel culture” that erodes our freedom of speech. A distrust of government institutions and the media. The list goes on and on. So, where did this idea of the “American Dream” come from?

Ironically, the phrase originated during the Great Depression. James Truslow Adams coined the phrase in his 1931 best-selling book, The Epic of America. Adams described it as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” It’s the idea that America is truly the land of opportunity. That in America anyone regardless of his or her background, sex,race or socioeconomic standing can achieve greatness if they are willing to work hard.

A young lad, the son of the local fire chief, grew up believing in the “American Dream.” His name was Jesse Helms and his life embodied it. From hard scrabble, depression-era Monroe, N.C., Helms went on to serve in the halls of Congress for 30 years. To this day, Jesse Helms remains North Carolina’s longest-serving U.S. Senator, having been elected to office a record five times.

To Helms, the “American Dream” is only possible thanks to America’s free enterprise system, what Helms called the “Miracle of America ― the opportunity to strive and work and earn the things we really want.”

The freedom for individuals to choose businesses, the right to private property, profits as an incentive and competition is vital if we are to maintain the long-term strength of our economy and our nation as a whole. Unfortunately, these ideas are not being taught to many of our young people today. Could this be one of the reasons the idea of the “American Dream” is dying?

Thankfully, Helms’ principles haven’t died. They’re being taught today to thousands of young people across the United States thanks to the work of non-profit Jesse Helms Center Foundation in Wingate, N.C., which is now in its 34th year of existence. The Helms Center’s flagship education and training program is the Free Enterprise Leadership Challenge, known by the acronym FELC.

A program for students ages 13 to 18, FELC teaches young people the power of the free enterprise system and the “American Dream,” how to run and grow a business, earn real money, lead with integrity, and the beauty of hard work.

Through FELC, students don’t simply memorize terms out of a book, they develop profound and lasting connections to the principles that underlie the “American Dream.”

FELC began in 1995 and to date has trained over 11,500 students.

Now this year as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jesse Helms’ first election to the U.S. Senate on November 7, 1972, it’s worth remembering Helms’ commitment to the free enterprise system and his affinity for young people, which he demonstrated by personally meeting with over 100,000 young people during his time in the Senate.

When Helms reluctantly agreed to put his name on The Jesse Helms Center, he insisted it not become a “dusty old museum.” He was adamant that the Center create programs based on traditional American values and principled leadership. He wanted opportunities for young people to learn why he believed the free enterprise system was truly the “Miracle of America.” Today the Center carries on Helms’ legacy, changing young hearts and minds, working to keep the “American Dream” alive.

John Dodd is the President Emeritus of The Jesse Helms Center in Wingate and Chairman of the North Carolina Center Right Coalition Meeting

Another State Fair in the books

IRS Coming to Get North Carolinians

Republicans Win Back the House

We need strong people in Washington who will stand with Americans and not against them. Which is why we support Bo Hines running for Congress in North Carolinas 13 th Congressional District. While Americans are struggling to pay rent, buy milk and eggs, and fill up their gas tanks, President Joe Biden, and his Democrats in Congress, are unleashing an army of tens of thousands of federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to invade the homes of hard-working Americans.

Democrats in Congress passed a phony bill titled the “Inflation Reduction Act” that had a provision hidden in the text giving tens of billions in taxpayer’s cash to the IRS for the purposes of hiring a platoon of new federal agents to collect even more taxes. Soon, voters in North Carolina will have the opportunity to vote in Republicans who will repeal this provision of law.

Democrats think they can bully us around because with more armed IRS agents to get what they want from the American people. Republicans have promised to gut the funding of Biden's armed IRS army with the help of Bo Hines. It is important to send Republicans to Washington to fight this abuse of power and to provide some checks on the

out-of-control actions of the Democrat controlled Washington cabal. Republican leadership in the House and Senate have promised to make it their top priority to repeal this provision on law on day one of the next Congress. Reports indicate that

Republican House leadership has explicitly promised that “on that very first day that we’re sworn in, you’ll see that it all changes. Because on our very first bill, we’re going to repeal tens of thousands of IRS agents. Our job is to work for you, not go after you.” Already, the Chairman of the conservative caucus in the house has a bill to gut funding for the IRS and redirect the money back into the wallets of Americans. If Democrats are allowed to keep control of the Nation’s Capital, keep your papers in order and expect a knock at the door by the tax man demanding to inspect your taxes.

The Democrats’ law gave $80 billion of your tax dollars to increase funding for the IRS to collect even more taxes over the next decade with $46 billion dedicated to enforcement. The Tax Foundation issued a report on August 17, 2022, where they concluded “increased IRS tax enforcement is not a free lunch, as it will likely impose additional compliance costs for the revenue raised.” It is estimated by the Congres sional Budget Office(CBO) that a similar enforcement package would raise $207 in gross revenue and $127 in net additional revenue. Guess where they are going to raise all

that new money? They will take it from hardworking Americans who are already struggling to make ends meet.

The irony is that the feds don’t need more money. Brian Riedl, economist at The Manhattan Institute wrote for the New York Post an Op Ed titled “DC has never gotten this much in taxes — but Dems say it’s still not enough.”

Riedl cited the fact that “this year, Washington will collect $4.8 trillion in tax revenues — $1 trillion more than it collected in 2019” that breaks down to “annual tax revenues have leaped by $7,000 per household and individual income taxes are up 38%” over the past few years.

The fact is that liberal bureaucrats in the federal government don’t need any more money – they need to stop spending so much of your cash they have borrowed from China.

Liberals in Washington want more of your cash to spend and refuse to cut one dollar of waste, fraud, and abuse. We need politicians with fortitude to stand with Americans and not against them. It is time to support Bo Hines to stop bullying Democrats who think they can push citizen around because they have power.

Liberals think they can put more guns in the hands of IRS agents and get what they want – which is more of your hard-earned cash to spend.

and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

PHOTOS BY PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

UNC’s Bacot named preseason AP All‑American

New York

UNC forward Armando Bacot was named to The Associated Press preseason All A merica team, joining big men Oscar Tschiebwe of Kentucky and Drew Timme of Gonzaga, guard Marcus Sasser of Houston and forward Trayce Jackson Davis of Indiana. The 6 foot 11 Bacot tied the NCAA record with 31 double doubles last season and became the first to have six in the same NCAA Tournament while leading UNC to the national title game.

Nantz to call last Final Four in ’23 New York Jim Nantz will step away from calling the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament after next year and will be succeeded by Ian Eagle. Nantz has been a part of CBS’ coverage of the tournament since 1986. He was the studio host for five years before calling his first Final Four in 1991. The 63 year old Nantz will remain the lead voice of the network’s NFL and golf coverage.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Wake tied for 10th, UNC 21st, NC State 24th in AP poll

New York Wake Forest moved up three spots to tied for 10th in The Associated Press college football poll released Sunday. The Deacons (6 1, 4 1 ACC) beat Boston College 45 21 on Saturday and are tied with USC at No. 10 in the rankings.

UNC and NC State were both idle last week but each shifted in the poll. The Tar Heels (6 1, 3 0 ACC) moved up one place to 21st, slipping past Kansas State after the Wildcats lost at TCU. The Wolfpack (5 2, 1 2 ACC) dropped a spot to 24th after Tulane leapfrogged them with a win over Memphis.

Charlotte fires Healy after 1-7 start

Offensive line coach Pete Rossomando will serve as the 49ers’ interim coach

By Jesse Deal North State Journal

CHARLOTTE — Just one day after the Charlotte 49ers suffered a 19-point homecoming loss to Florida International and fell out of bowl contention for the season, fourth-year coach Will Healy was fired by the school.

Charlotte athletic director Mike Hill announced Sunday afternoon that the program de cided to part ways with Healy after the Niners’ 1-7 start to the season. Offensive line coach Pete Rossomando was named inter im head coach for the rest of the 2022 campaign.

Healy, one of the youngest head coaches in college football at 37, finished with a 15-24 record in four seasons at Charlotte.

“We are grateful to Will Healy for the incredible energy and en thusiasm he brought to our pro gram,” Hill said in a press release.

“He made an impact here that will never be forgotten. Sadly, however, our on-field results have not met expectations. Will and his family are special people and we wish them the best.”

Healy’s tenure with Charlotte started on the right foot in 2019 when he led the program to its first winning season and bowl appearance, finishing 7-6 after a loss in the Bahamas Bowl.

But since Healy’s first season in Charlotte, the 49ers have won just eight of 26 games. Just two of

the team’s 14 losses the past three seasons were one-score defeats.

Charlotte opened the 2021 sea son with the program’s first win over a Power Five school when it defeated Duke 31-28. The Niners started the season with a 4-2 re cord but only managed to win one more game the rest of the year.

“I want to thank Mike Hill, Chancellor (Phil) Dubois and Chancellor (Sharon) Gaber for giving me the opportunity and support at this special place,” Healy said in a press release.

We were fortunate to have some special moments. I was able to work with some outstanding coaches and staff members and coach an incredible group of young men. I want to thank the students, boosters and fan base for the support they’ve shown over the years and I apologize for not being able to bring the results that we were striving for. I’m re ally proud of the young men in our locker room. I’m a 49ers fan for life and I know the future of this university is bright.”

Before his dismissal, Healy had been under contract through 2026 after originally signing a deal worth $700,000 annually.

Charlotte owes Healy about $1.65

Wake, NC State prepare for hoops season, B3

Where do Panthers go after tank talk ends?

Carolina lost draft position with its big win but may have found its coach

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

CHARLOTTE — A funny thing happened on the way to the first overall draft pick.

The Carolina Panthers were in line to pick first in next spring’s draft in the “if the sea son ended today” projections, then they got to work setting up their tank job to secure the first pick.

The Panthers trad ed away wide receiver Robbie Anderson, a move that likely had more to do with re moving a locker room cancer than stockpil ing draft capital. Then they traded their best player — running back Christian Mc Caffrey — and the tank was fully in: Stink out loud for C.J. Stroud. Play like dung to draft Bryce Young. Whoever the Panthers identified as their quarterback of the future was as good as theirs.

But it turns out the Carolina Panthers can’t even tank right.

Playing with an interim coach and a third-string quar terback coming off of a neck injury, the Panthers blew the doors off Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs. Suddenly, the Panthers were closer to the NFC South lead than they were to the first overall pick.

“Circle the wagons and come together,” said interim coach Steve Wilks, who made a state ment that he deserved consid eration for the permanent job after getting his undermanned team to turn in their best effort of the season. “That definitely wasn’t a team out there today that was trying to tank it. These guys right here have come to gether. They believe in one an other and it’s about trying to win football games.”

Ironically, after weeks of now-fired head coach Matt Rhule claiming that the Pan thers were “close” to getting

over the hump, the team had its breakthrough game after tak ing a big step backward.

All of which leaves the Pan thers in no man’s land. There are plenty of other pieces on the current roster that could be dealt away to get more draft picks and accelerate the rebuild that is still necessary. But it’s tough for the front office to jus tify further depleting the roster.

Meanwhile, it’s entirely pos sible the Panthers had an emo tional last-stand game, but the talent remaining on the Caroli na roster makes a run to the playoffs unlike ly, even in a division where a .500 record might be enough to fin ish first.

P.J. Walker had a big game, showing he had the accuracy to lead a team and was able to throw the deep ball. After two straight starts and some pre vious appearances off the bench, defensive coordinators have now amassed enough of a tape library to begin countering what he does well.

Backup running backs D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard had big games against the Buccaneers, but car rying the rushing load for the rest of the season seems like a big ask.

If the career backups revert to form, the team could strug gle through a lackluster season instead of being truly terrible. That means a possible 5-12 sea son and a draft spot in the bot tom half of the top 10 instead of first overall. Have a season that’s blah to draft someone from UGA, perhaps.

Still, the team’s refusal to tank, even when the front office appears to be pushing it in that direction, is a big argument in favor of retaining Wilks. The former Arizona head coach is part of the Brian Flores lawsuit against the NFL on behalf of minority coaches who weren’t given a fair opportunity due to discrimination. Flores al legedly turned down offers of a six-figure bribe for each loss he coached the Dolphins to in

JACOB KUPFERMAN | AP PHOTO

The Panthers pulled off an improbable 21-3 win at home over Tampa Bay, making some wonder if the right man to lead the franchise might have been right under the team’s nose in interim coach Steve Wilks.

“Our on-field results have not met expectations.”

Mike Hill, Charlotte athletic director

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST | AP PHOTO

Charlotte fired football coach Will Healy after the 49ers started his fourth season with a 1-7 record.

“That definitely wasn’t a team out there today that was trying to tank it.”

Steve Wilks, Panthers interim coach

TRENDING

Todd Gurley:

The Tarboro native told NFL Network last week that is playing career is over, though he hasn’t yet filed his retirement paperwork. The 10th overall pick out of Georgia rushed for more than 6,000 yards in a six‑year career, the first five with the Rams starting in St. Louis in 2015 — when he was named Offensive Rookie of the Year — and then Los Angeles after the franchise relocated. He was Offensive Player of the Year in 2017, rushing for 1,305 yards to go with 64 receptions for 788 yards. He last played with the Falcons in 2020.

Zion Williamson:

The former Duke star was injured in his third game of the new season in the Pelicans’ overtime win over Utah. The 2019 first overall pick, who missed all of last year with a broken foot, was diagnosed with a posterior hip contusion after crashing to the court on a transition dunk attempt that was blocked from behind during the fourth quarter. Teammate and fellow former Blue Devils standout Brandon Ingram also left the game in the first half with a concussion.

Tony Stewart:

The NASCAR Hall of Famer will make his drag racing debut this weekend at the NHRA Nevada Nationals in Las Vegas. Stewart will compete for McPhillips Racing in a Top Alcohol dragster — a second‑tier division. Stewart is guaranteed a minimum of four passes at Vegas beginning Friday through the first round of eliminations on Sunday. The 51‑year‑old Stewart is in his first season of NHRA ownership.

Beyond the box score

POTENT QUOTABLES

NASCAR

Kyle Larson won for the third time this season, dominating at Homestead‑Miami Speedway on Sunday to deny seven remaining playoff contenders a chance to secure one of four spots in the Cup Series Championship at Phoenix in two weeks. Joey Logano, who won last week at Las Vegas, is the only driver guaranteed a chance to win the title. The remaining seven drivers will compete for the other three spots this Sunday at Martinsville.

Former Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey after his new team, the 49ers, lost 44-23 to Kansas City on Sunday in his first game with San Francisco.

“He’s only 25, but he’s a veteran player.”

Hornets coach Steve Clifford on Fayetteville native Dennis Smith Jr., who started for injured Terry Rozier and had 18 points and six assists in Sunday’s win in Atlanta.

PRIME NUMBER

8Turnovers forced by Duke in Saturday’s 45‑21 win over Miami, the most in an FBS game since Central Michigan had eight turnovers against Wyoming in the 2017 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The Blue Devils recovered five fumbles and intercepted three passes in the win.

The Phillies and Astros will meet in the World Series starting Friday in Houston. Philadelphia beat the Cardinals, Braves and Padres to advance to its first Fall Classic since 2009. The Astros had a first round bye and then swept both Seattle and the Yankees to reach MLB’s final two for the fourth time in six years.

NBA

Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov, left, had his first career regular season hat trick in Carolina’s 6‑4 loss in Edmonton last Thursday. In six games, Svechnikov has seven goals, ranking tied for first in the NHL through Monday’s games. Svechnikov had a hat trick in the 2020 playoff qualifying round against the Rangers.

Chris Paul became the third player in NBA history to reach 11,000 assists Sunday in the Suns’ 112‑95 win over the Clippers. Paul joined John Stockton and Jason Kidd as the only players in NBA history with that many assists. Paul also became the first player in the league with 20,000 points and 11,000 assists.

MARK ELIAS | AP PHOTO

NHL

JASON FRANSON | THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP

MLB

DAVID J. PHILLIP | AP PHOTO

“This was a weird week for me and for them.”

GODOFREDO A. VÁSQUEZ | AP PHOTO

BRETT DAVIS | AP PHOTO

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI | AP PHOTO

NC State has nowhere to go but up

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal

RALEIGH — After finishing as the worst team in the ACC last season at 4-16 with an 11-21 over all record, the NC State men’s basketball will have a new look for the 2022-23 season, headed up by returning sophomore guard Terquavion Smith and graduate transfer guard Jarkel Joiner.

Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts nearly didn’t get Smith back af ter he declared for the NBA Draft following his freshman season, but the 6-foot-4 Greenville na tive ultimately decided to return to Raleigh.

“It was good,” Smith said of the feedback he received by initially entering the draft. “I enjoyed that process a lot, but I feel good to be back with my team and my fami ly. … It’s great vibes.”

Smith’s return gave the Wolf pack its second-leading scorer from last season — he averaged 16.3 points per game and set a school record for most 3-pointers by a true freshman with 96.

Keatts also got an addition from the transfer portal adding a true point guard in Joiner to run the offense. The Ole Miss trans fer averaged 13.2 points and 2.3 assists per game last season and has already brought some vocal leadership to the room, accord ing to Keatts.

“I love to talk, I love to com municate,” Joiner said at the ACC Media Tipoff. “This team is amazing to be around. I’m very vocal. I like talking and being communicative, and learning my teammates from Day 1 was the goal.”

The Wolfpack also have junior center Ebenezer Dowuona, who started 27 games last season and

averaged 4.1 total rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, and senior guard Casey Morsell, who started 20 games and averaged 7.2 points per game, returning.

Sophomore guards Breon Pass, Chase Graham and Alex Nunnal ly, as well as sophomore forward Ernest Ross and redshirt junior forward Greg Gantt — who each missed the majority of last sea son due to injuries — also figure to work into the rotation.

“Ernest and Greg are doing well,” Keatts said of his two re covered players. “I think you guys

will like what they bring to the ta ble. Both of those guys are doing a great job competing, and both of them are healthy right now.”

Overall, however, it will be

mostly a new group for the Wolf pack, who lose Dereon Seabron, Jericole Hellems, Cam Hayes, Manny Bates, Thomas Allen and Jaylon Gibson from last year’s team.

Keatts is hoping the addition of four graduate transfers will help the program turn the page and bring more veteran leadership to the group. Jack Clark comes from La Salle and will comple ment Joiner as a newcomer in the backcourt. Dusan Mahorcic (Utah) and DJ Burns (Winthrop) add size in the paint for NC State.

“When you look at college bas ketball last year, the teams that were really good were the teams that had guys that were experi enced,” Keatts said. “When you’re starting freshman and sopho mores and don’t have other piec es around them, at least three, sometimes four, it’s always hard to win.”

The addition of experienced centers will help a Wolfpack squad that struggled in the front court after Bates went down in the first game of last season.

“We went out and we addressed a lot of our needs,” Keatts said of the additions through the trans fer portal. “We struggled because we had young post guys, so we went out and got two centers that were post guys and that were re ally good players.

“[Burns] is a talented scorer. He’s unique, he’s different. He’s a lefty, post guy. Can really score the basketball. I think one of the most underrated things about DJ is his ability to pass the ball. He may be our second- or third-lead ing assist guy on our team.”

Keatts is entering his sixth season and will be joined by three new assistants on his staff: for mer Wolfpack player Levi Wat kins, Kareem Richardson and Joel Justus.

The expectations for the Wolf pack are low this season — the ACC media picked NC State to finish 10th in the conference — after a brutal 2021-22 season last year, so it can only go up from there.

“I want to get back to Year 1, 2, and 3,” Keatts said about his ex pectations for this season. “I do. We were having fun. No one likes to lose. This program has been built, since I got here, on hard work, dedication and we have fought through a lot of different things.

“From the day I got here to sit ting here now, we’ve dealt with the NCAA, we’ve dealt with in juries, and hopefully we can get past both of them and get back to having fun. We were on the right track, and we want to make last year a one-off.”

Wake Forest looks to win ‘the right games’ this year

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

STEVE FORBES still hasn’t gotten over it.

“If you had told me last year three things: that Alondes Wil liams is going to be Player of the Year, I’d have been like, ‘Yeah, right.’ If I had said it, you’d have said I’m not credible. Jake LaRa via’s going to be a first round pick. C’mon. And we’re not even going to get into the tournament? You’re kidding me.”

Indeed, with the ACC — who would send two teams to the Final Four — considered a down league, Wake’s success in the league was discounted, and the Demon Dea cons were left out of the NCAA field.

Forbes, preparing for his third season as head coach of the Deacs, is still steamed over the snub.

“You’re going to win 13 league games, but you’re not getting into the NCAA Tournament?” he said. “That might have been the biggest fallacy of all, right? There’s no way! But we didn’t.”

Forbes spent much of the offsea son trying to make sure the league didn’t get discounted by the selec tion committee again.

“I said this at the meetings. I’m new. I’m the outlier, coming into the league, but we can’t rest on our

laurels. We can’t rest on the fact that we’re the ACC, we’re the best league, we have the most national championships, we had the most players drafted in the history of the NBA Draft,” he said. “You’ve still got to go out and do it. And when somebody talks down about our league, you’ve got to come back. We can’t just sit there and take it, in my opinion. I’m just not made that way. I said that in the spring.”

Then Forbes set out to make sure, regardless of whether his ACC colleagues took his advice about talking up the league, his team wouldn’t be left out in the cold again. Forbes upgraded Wake Forest’s nonconference schedule.

The Deacs will play two SEC teams (Georgia and LSU), two Big Ten schools (Wisconsin and Rutgers) and play in a holiday tournament that also includes Georgetown.

Just one of those games against power opponents will be in Win ston-Salem.

“We did upgrade our noncon ference schedule,” he said. “Stra tegically, last year, we didn’t have a tough nonconference schedule because we had nine new players coming out of COVID. But visit ing in the spring with the experts, there’s a lot of emphasis on No vember. You can agree with that or not. For me, personally, I think it’s more important to win on the road in the ACC than win in a casino or a ballroom in November.”

The upgraded schedule should produce the opportunity for more Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins, the high-profile victories that impress the NCAA, since Forbes knows he

can’t count on ACC wins to do that for his team.

“We didn’t get a Quad win for beating North Carolina,” Forbes said. “We didn’t get a Quad win for winning at Virginia. Serious ly? C’mon now. Winning at Florida State. Sweeping Florida State.”

Of course, to get “Quad wins,” Forbes needs his Deacs to win some of those big nonconference games. And much like last year, he’s got another team that’s in transition with plenty of new fac es. In addition to Williams, who led the ACC in scoring and assists,

and LaRavia, Wake lost Dallas Walton, Isaiah Mucius, Khad im Sy and Carter Whitt from last year’s 25-win team. That’s five of the top six scorers on the team, the top five shot blockers, the three steal leaders, the top two in as sists and top five rebounders, not to mention two of their top three outside shooters.

To replace them, Forbes has brought in four transfers and three freshmen.

Just like last year when Wil liams, a transfer, blossomed into the league’s best player, Wake’s

incoming transfer class holds the key to the Deacs’ season in their hands.

Point guard Tyrone Appleby led Florida in assists and 3-point ers last season and in assists and steals the year before. He’ll be run ning the show on the floor for the Deacs. Six-foot-10 Andrew Carr led Delaware in 3-point shooting and blocked shots while hitting over 54% from the field. Combi nation guard Jao Ituka was the MAAC freshman of the year while averaging 15.1 points at Marist and hitting 41% from 3. Davion Bradford is a 7-footer from Kan sas State who will join sophomore Matthew Marsh to give Wake a paint presence. They’ll team with Daivien Wil liamson, the lone returning starter from last season. Back for his su per senior fifth season, William son hit 39.5% of his 3s to lead last year’s team and was third in scor ing at 11.8 points per game.

The Deacs have already put one impressive win on the board, pulling away from Ohio State in the second half of a “secret scrim mage” last week.

Of course, in typical Wake For est fashion, that game won’t count when the NCAA selection com mittee meets.

“The reason why we didn’t make it last year, according to the ex perts, was we didn’t win the right games,” Forbes said. “We have to win the right games to take the next step because, obviously, the next step is to go to the tourna ment. These guys know that, and so that’s the plan.”

PANTHERS from page B1

“It didn’t bother me,” Wilks said of the tank talk, “because I really keep my focus on the men in this room right here each and every day. But I just want to put it out there and let you know these men in this room have too much character to even dive into something like that.”

“It was a lot of pride,” Walker said after beating Brady. “You know the guys around, and you can just feel the energy as you came into this building today. You just feel the energy. You feel the vibe of us wanting to go out

there and play this game. We talked last night in our team meeting about making that jump, and today we did.”

When the Panthers are again contending for a playoff spot, it’s possible Walker will have moved on, along with many of the other players now getting an opportuni ty this season. But the team might have found its first key to success in the coach who put his hand up and stopped the tank’s progress.

“I told the guys, ‘Men, we’ve got to go out there with a leap of faith and believe in one another and know that we can get this thing done. Once we do, we will take off,’” Wilks said. “That was the point of emphasis and guys really bought into that.”

10-18

Combined record of the four NFC South teams. The Buccaneers and Falcons are both 3-4, while the Panthers and Saints are each 2-5.

million.

HEALY from page B1 2019. Now Wilks is showing a similar fighting spirit, which rubs off on his players.

Rossomando — the 2012 NCAA Div. II National Coach of the Year with the University of New Haven — will guide the Nin ers against their four remaining opponents: Rice, Western Ken tucky, Middle Tennessee State University and Louisiana Tech.

Charlotte will immediately be gin a national coaching search for Healy’s replacement while also preparing to make a move to the American Athletic Conference in 2023.

Chris Reynolds and Victor Tucker, the 49ers’ all-time lead ing quarterback and wide receiv er, are in their final year of eligi

bility, leaving a hole in the offense for the new coach. Wide receivers Elijah Spencer and Grant Du Bose, who are tops on Charlotte in receptions and receiving yards, could both return next season.

Backup quarterbacks Xavi er Williams, James Foster and Trexler Ivey are all options to re place Reynolds at quarterback, while Shadrick Byrd and ChaVon McEachern could also be back as the Niners’ one-two punch at running back.

The most pressing issue for Charlotte’s next coach will be to rebuild a defensive unit that ranks last nationally (131st) in yardage allowed, giving up 280.3 passing yards and 243.3 rushing yards per game.

Coach Steve Forbes and the Demon Deacons are still smarting over their NCAA snub

The Wolfpack men’s basketball team is hoping to rebound with a new look

JASON DECROW | AP PHOTO

Kevin Keatts enters his sixth season at NC State with a revamped roster after the Wolfpack lost a school-record 21 games in 2021-22.

JOHN MINCHILLO | AP PHOTO

Guard Daivien Williamson is the only returning starter on an overhauled Wake Forest roster that will face a tougher nonconference schedule in 2022-23 after being snubbed by the NCAA Tournament committee last season.

“We were on the right track, and we want to make last year a one-off.”

Kevin Keatts, NC State men’s basketball coach

CAA teams, Davidson ready for 2022-23 hoops

By Cory Lavalette North State Journal

IT’S THE END of an era at Da vidson as the Wildcats’ iconic coach is replaced by his longtime assistant and son, and North Carolina’s three Colonial Athletic teams are led by regular season conference champs UNC Wilmington.

Davidson Wildcats 2021-22 record: 27-7 (15-3 Atlantic 10)

For the 34th consecutive sea son, a McKillop will be leading the Wildcats. But for the first time since the 1988-89 season, it won’t be Bob McKillop. The legendary coach re tired after leading Davidson to the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time in his career, and his son Matt will take the reins after being on his father’s staff since 2008.

Top players: Leading scorer Foster Loyer returns to try and help Davidson defend its Atlantic 10 ti tle. Loyer, a redshirt senior guard, averaged 16.2 points last season, ranked second in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage at 43.8% and was named to the preseason A-10 first team. Fellow starter Sam Mennenga (8.4 points, 5.3 rebounds), a redshirt junior for ward from New Zealand, made 51.9 percent of his shots last year.

Key additions: Six-foot-9 Reed Bailey, a three-star recruit from Massachusetts, is the big freshman addition to the Wildcats. David son also added transfers Connor Kochera (William & Mary, 10.9 points, 4.8 rebounds in 2021-22) and David Skogman (Buffalo, 8.0 points, 6.3 rebounds).

Departed players: The Wild cats lose three starters from last year’s team in Hyungjung Lee, Luka Brajkovic and Michael Jones, meaning bigger roles for Grant Huffman and Desmond Watson.

Expectations: Matt McKillop doesn’t enter his first year running the Wildcats with an empty cup board with Loyer and Mennenga providing veteran scoring. That said, Davidson lost some key piec es and was picked to finish sixth in the A-10 by the league’s coaches and media.

Elon Phoenix 2021-22 record: 10-22 (7-11 Colonial)

Mike Schrage left Elon for a position at Duke after posting

a 33-52 record in three seasons with the Phoenix, and the school hired Billy Taylor as his replace ment. Taylor, who was most re cently an assistant at Iowa but has 14 years as a DI head coach, has to rebuild the Phoenix after their top three scorers trans ferred following last season.

Top players: Senior swingman Zac Ervin is the top returning player after averaging 7.1 points for the Phoenix last season. Grad se nior Torrence Watson missed some time with an injury last season but averaged 9.2 points in 20 games.

Key additions: Sean Halloran reunites with Taylor, who had him on his team at Belmont Abbey. It will be a step up in competition for the grad senior, but he made a stunning 52.7% of his 3-point ers last year while averaging 14.4 points. Taylor also added John Bowen III from UNC Wilmington.

Departed players: Darius Bur ford transferred to Illinois State, Hunter McIntosh departed for Ne vada and Michael Graham left for Loyola Marymount, meaning all three of Elon’s top scorers — and the only players to start more than 17 games a year ago — are gone.

Expectations: The Phoenix

will look completely different this season, from both who’s on the bench and who’s leading it. Elon was picked to finish 12th in the 13-team Colonial Athletic Con ference by the league’s coaches.

North Carolina A&T Aggies 2021-22 record: 12-20 (6-10 Colonial)

For the third time in as many years, the Aggies are in a new conference. North Carolina A&T played one year in the Big South after leaving the MEAC before jumping to the Colonial this year. A&T will do it with interim coach Phillip Shumpert leading the way after Willie Jones was abruptly dismissed in mid-August.

Top players: Redshirt junior Marcus Watson was named an honorable mention preseason All-CAA player, and the forward led the Aggies with 12.6 points and six rebounds last year. Guard Demetric Horton, the only oth er player to average double-digit points last season (10.7), also re turns. Duncan Powell, a top-100 recruit in 2021, missed last year with a knee injury but is back.

Key additions: Three-star

guard Tyrese Elliott of Logan ville, Georgia, should contrib ute right away. JUCO transfer Kam Woods, who played a sea son at Troy in 2020-21, is anoth er guard who should factor into Shumpert’s rotation.

Departed players: Guards Kameron Langley and Tyler Maye are gone, so the Aggies will need to replace their veteran leadership.

Expectations: The Aggies were picked to finish 11th in the Colonial by the conference’s coaches, and Shumpert will have his work cut out for him in lead ing A&T on short notice.

UNC Wilmington Seahawks 2021-22 record: 27-9 (15-3 Colonial)

Coach Takayo Siddle was named the Colonial Athletic Con ference’s top coach last season af ter leading the Seahawks to first place in the CAA and winning the school’s first postseason title at the CBI. The third-year coach will have to replace his top two scorers from a 27-9 team.

Top players: Guard Shykeim Phillips was named a preseason

second-team CAA pick after av eraging 11.3 points a season ago. Forward Trazarien White also returns having played more than 22 minutes a night as a freshman and averaging 6.9 points and 4.7 rebounds.

Key additions: Transfer small forward Eric Van Der Heijden comes to UNCW after playing sparingly as a freshman with Ole Miss last year. He played prep basketball at Raleigh’s Millbrook High.

Departed players: Guards Jaylen Sims and Mike Okauru, the team’s top two scorers, are gone, leaving a big hole in the Seahawks’ backcourt. So too are James Baker, who started all 36 games a year ago, and Jaylen Fornes.

Expectations: The Seahawks put together a season reminis cent of those UNCW had under former coach Kevin Keatts. Now Siddle, who coached under the current NC State coach with the Seahawks, will need to show he is capable of doing it again. That will be tough without Sims and Okauru. UNC Wilmington was picked to finish fifth in the CAA by the league’s coaches.

New coach at

look to improve in coaches’

seasons

Longtime Power 5 assistant Michael Schwartz takes over the Pirates

By Shawn Krest North State Journal

JOE DOOLEY’S second tenure in Greenville ended when East Carolina AD Jon Gilbert decided to make a change and go with a first-time coach. Meanwhile in the Southern Conference, both UNC Greensboro and Western Carolina enter the season with second-year coaches.

East Carolina Pirates 2021-22 record: 15-15 (6-11 American Athletic)

East Carolina reached .500 for the first time since 2013-14, but it wasn’t enough. The school parted ways with Dooley, who went 44-67 in his second stint as head coach of the Pirates. In his place is Michael Schwartz, who has been an assis tant coach and staff member for more than two decades at several programs, including Texas, Miami and, most recently, Tennessee.

Top players: The Pirates lose their top six scorers, so there will be some new faces leading the team.

Brandon Johnson led the team in rebounding last season at 5.1 and shooting at 51.8% and returns for his second season. Shot-blocking center Ludgy Debaut is also back for a graduate year. Outside of those two, the team will likely rely on newcomers for much of its pro duction.

Key additions: Former Bos ton College guard Wynston Tabbs arrives as a transfer. He averaged 13.7 points per game last year in

the ACC and shot 40% from 3. French guard Quentin Diboundje arrives after one year at Tennessee and will likely be tutoring his new teammates in Schwartz’s schemes.

ECU also brings in four freshmen, led by the No. 2 prospect from North Carolina in Ezra Ausar. A JUCO transfer and Iowa State’s Jaden Walker round out the group.

Departed players: ECU loses two players that started every game in Tristen Newton and Vance Jack son. The pair were the team’s top two scorers last season. Brandon Suggs, Tremont Robinson-White and J.J. Miles also started more than half of the team’s games last year, and all are gone. Overall, the team loses 82% of last year’s points, 84% of its assists and 89% of its made 3-pointers.

Expectations: The preseason

poll picked East Carolina to finish dead last in the American Athlet ic Conference. With a team filled with newcomers, including the coaching staff, it will be a rebuild ing year for the Pirates. ECU will get a soft nonconference schedule to help get things rolling before hitting the AAC season.

UNC Greensboro Spartans 2021-22 record: 17-15 (9-9 Southern Conference)

In his second season with the Spartans, coach Mike Jones will try to improve on a winning re cord and first round loss in the CBI. He’ll have a veteran team that returns size and its top two playmaking guards. He also adds two impact transfers and two freshmen, so the ingredients are

there to take a step forward.

Top players: The team’s sec ond-leading scorer and rebound er, 6-foot-10 senior Bas Leyte, returns after averaging 9.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game last year. Forward Mohammed Ab dulsalam (6.4 points, 4.8 re bounds) and guard Dante Treacy (6.8 points, 2.8 assists) return for super senior years, while the Langley brothers Kobe (7.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.0 assists) and Keyshaun (8.4, 1.6, 2.3) return for their senior seasons.

Key additions: Mikeal BrownJones, a 6-foot-8 power forward, transfers in after two seasons as a reserve at Virginia Common wealth. Keondre Kennedy trans fers after three seasons with UMBC, including a 14.8-point, 5.1-rebound season last year. Ja len Breath, a freshman who red shirted last year, and new arrival Donovan Atwell round out the group.

Departed players: Guard De’Monte Buckingham, who led the team in scoring (12.5) and re bounding (6.3) last year, graduat ed, and Khyre Thompson moves from the forward position to the coaching staff. The team also los es Miles Jones, a rising junior re serve who suffered a season-end ing injury during practice.

Expectations: Jones has a veteran returning core of contrib utors and adds two experienced veterans to it. The team should have a strong frontcourt presence and a group of upperclassmen at the guard positions. That’s the key to tournament success. In a onebid league, however, they’ll need to outlast Furman, Chattanooga and Wofford in the regular season and SoCon Tournament first.

Western Carolina Catamounts 2021-22 record: 11-21 (5-13 Southern Conference)

Western Carolina finished in last place in the Southern Confer ence last season and was winless

on the road in conference play. In coach Justin Gray’s first sea son, the team suffered its seventh losing campaign in the last eight years, third 20-loss season and fifth 10-loss conference record over that span. It’s back to the drawing board as Gray brings in 11 new players and a new assistant coach for this season.

Top players: The Catamounts only return four players, but they’re all seniors or super seniors with starting experience. Vonteri us Woolbright was the team’s sec ond-leading scorer and rebounder at 9.7 points and 5.8 rebounds. He also led WCU in assists with 3.9 per game. Cam Bacote was third on last year’s team at 8.1 points per game. Tyler Harris (7.2 points and 4.1 rebounds) and Marlow Gilmore (5.6 points, 4.8 rebounds) complete the core of returnees.

Key additions: The Cata mounts add six freshmen and five transfers. Russell Jones Jr. arrives after three years at Winthrop, where he played for Gray — then an assistant — for his first two years. He’s joined by transfers 6-foot-9 forward Colin Granger (Ohio), 6-foot-8 forward Bernard Pelote (Catawba), 6-foot guard Tre Jackson (Iowa State) and Tyzhaun Claude (Morehead State).

Departed players: Nick Rob inson led the team in scoring at 14.1 points and rebounding at 7.3 rebounds. Joe Petrakis (8.0 points) was the team’s leading 3-point shooter. Marcus Banks (7.7 points) also departs. Robinson graduated. Petrakis transferred to Illinois State and Banks will play at Odessa College this year.

Expectations: Gray has plen ty of new faces on this year’s team, including assistant coach Ryan Lightfoot, who was hired to re place Brian Graves. The team has a long way to go to get to respect ability, but Gray has four solid re turning players to build around. A reasonable expectation would be to make a move toward the mid dle in the SoCon standings.

The Wildcats, Elon and NC A&T have new coaches, while UNCW looks to build off its CBI title

BRIAN WESTERHOLT | AP PHOTO

Davidson guard Foster Loyer returns for the Wildcats, who will be led by Matt McKillop after his father, legendary coach

Bob McKillop, retired after last season.

JUSTIN REX | AP PHOTO

East Carolina lost its top six scorers from a year ago, but forward Brandon Johnson, last season’s top rebounder, returns for new Pirates coach Michael Schwartz.

The case connected to the Hua wei probe dates to January 2019. The company, a top executive and several subsidiaries had just been indicted on U.S. charges of finan cial fraud, trade secret theft and sanctions violations.

Wang and He, according to prosecutors, were eager for non-public information about the prosecution and the status of the investigation. They reached out to a contact they had known since 2017, but the person, who was not identified by name, began work ing as a double agent and engaged in a back-and-forth with the de fendants that was overseen by the FBI.

Last year, prosecutors say, the person passed to the defendants a single-page document that ap peared to be classified and that contained information about a purported Justice Department plan to charge and arrest Huawei executives who were living in Chi na. The person said the document had been secretly photographed during a meeting with federal prosecutors.

The document was prepared specifically for the purposes of the prosecution that was unsealed Monday, and the information in it was neither accurate nor an accu rate reflection of any Justice De partment plans, officials said.

The company is not named in the charging documents, and prosecutors declined at Mon day’s news conference to name it, though the references make clear that it’s Huawei.

Spokespeople for Huawei and the Chinese Embassy in Washing ton did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Hua wei has previously called the fed eral investigation “political perse cution, plain and simple.”

“Attacking Huawei will not help the U.S. stay ahead of the competi tion,” the company said in a state ment published in 2020.

In the case linked to Operation Fox Hunt, prosecutors say Chinese agents tried to intimidate an un named person and his family to return to China. Part of the plot, the U.S. alleges, involved having the person’s nephew travel to the U.S. as part of a tour group to de liver threats that included, “Com ing back and turning yourself in is the only way out.”

GM sidesteps economic headwinds; Q3 profit jumps nearly 37%

The Associated Press

DETROIT — General Mo tors’ third-quarter net profit rose 36.7% as vehicle sales began to rebound from persistent parts supply chain troubles.

The Detroit automaker on Tuesday reported earnings of $3.3 billion from July through September, compared with $2.42 billion a year earlier.

The increase was fueled large ly by a 24% sales increase in the U.S., by far GM’s most profitable market. The company said it is seeing improved supplies of com puter chips, allowing it to build more vehicles and increase inven tory on dealer lots.

It’s also selling more expensive pickup trucks and large SUVs. That boosted revenue for the quarter by 56% to a record $41.89 billion, though that’s still short of the $42.1 billion that Wall Street had expected, according to a sur vey by FactSet. More than 80% of GM’s revenue came from North America.

Excluding one-time items, GM

made $2.25 per share, beating es timates of $1.88.

GM reiterated its full-year net income guidance of $9.6 billion and $11.2 billion. GM still ex pects pretax income of $13 billion to $15 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said the company isn’t seeing any sign that demand for new vehicles is slowing despite higher interest rates and infla tion. “Pricing remains strong, demand remains strong for our products,” he told reporters ear ly Tuesday.

Shares rose over 3% before the opening bell.

GM finished and shipped about 75% of the 90,000 vehicles

it built without one part or anoth er in the second quarter, and Ja cobson said the company is seeing better supplies of computer chips and other parts. Dealer inventory as of Sept. 30 rose to 359 million, up from 248 million in the second quarter.

“Overall chips are getting bet ter than certainly where they were a year ago,” he said.

The company has not seen any signs of a recession, but it’s con tinuing to watch the economy, Ja cobson said. It has no plans to cut any workers, but is being selective in hiring, he said.

Yet rising interest rates and high gasoline prices, coupled with persistent inflation, could hurt GM from now into 2023. Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau wrote in a note to investors that al though sales have improved, they have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.

“We believe sales will continue to rebound, but we expect nearterm volatility,” Windau wrote.

The entire auto industry has been hit hard by shortages of

computer chips and other parts since the start of the coronavi rus pandemic. The industry shut tered plants early in the pandem ic, but they came back faster than expected, and by then, the semi conductor industry had switched to making chips for computers, games and other consumer elec tronics.

The auto industry has been trying to get more chips ever since. Windau wrote that the vi rus is still affecting the supply chain and could cause further is sues.

GM’s joint venture in China is recovering from pandemic lock downs, with about $330 mil lion in equity income versus $270 million last quarter.

The company’s Cruise autono mous vehicle unit lost nearly $500 million as it expands a self-driv ing ride-hailing service from San Francisco into Austin, Texas, and Phoenix. There also was an ac counting change for employee stock compensation. The compa ny said it expects Cruise to gener ate $1 billion in revenue in 2025.

Republican committee sues Google over email spam filters

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — The Re publican National Committee has filed a lawsuit against tech giant Google, alleging the com pany has been suppressing its email solicitations ahead of No vember’s midterm elections — an allegation Google denies.

The lawsuit, filed in the Dis trict Court for the Eastern District of California Friday evening, accuses Gmail of “dis criminating” against the RNC by unfairly sending the group’s emails to users’ spam folders, impacting both fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts in pivot al swing states.

“Enough is enough — we are suing Google for their blatant bias against Republicans,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna Mc Daniel in a statement to The As sociated Press. “For ten months in a row, Google has sent cru cial end-of-month Republican GOTV and fundraising emails to spam with zero explanation. We are committed to putting an end to this clear pattern of bias.”

Google, in a statement, denied the charges. “As we have repeat edly said, we simply don’t filter emails based on political affilia tion. Gmail’s spam filters reflect users’ actions,” said spokesper son José Castañeda, adding that the company provides training and guidelines to campaigns and works to “maximize email deliv erability while minimizing un wanted spam.”

The lawsuit focuses on how Google’s Gmail, the world’s larg est email service with about 1.5 billion users, screens solicita tions and other material to help prevent users from being inun dated by junk mail. To try to fil ter material that account holders may not want in their inboxes, Google and other major email providers create programs that flag communications likely to be perceived as unwelcome and move them to spam folders that typically are rarely, if ever, pe rused by recipients.

The suit says Google has “rele gated millions of RNC emails en

masse to potential donors’ and supporters’ spam folders during pivotal points in election fund raising and community build ing” — particularly at the end of each month, when political groups tend to send more mes sages. “It doesn’t matter wheth er the email is about donating, voting, or community outreach. And it doesn’t matter whether the emails are sent to people who requested them,” it reads.

Google contends its algo rithms are designated to be neutral, but a study released in March by North Carolina State University found that Gmail was far more likely to block mes sages from conservative caus es. The study, based on emails sent during the U.S. presiden tial campaign in 2020, estimat ed Gmail placed roughly 10% of email from “left-wing” can didates into spam folders, while marking 77% from “right-wing”

candidates as spam.

Gmail rivals Yahoo and Mic rosoft’s Outlook were more likely to favor pitches from conserva tive causes than Gmail, the study found.

The RNC seized upon that study in April to call upon the Federal Election Commission to investigate Google’s “censor ship” of its fundraising efforts, which it alleged amounted to an in-kind contribution to Demo cratic candidates and served as “a financially devastating exam ple of Silicon Valley tech compa nies unfairly shaping the politi cal playing field to benefit their preferred far-left candidates.”

Since then, the commis sion has approved a pilot pro gram that creates a way for po litical committees to get around spam filters so their fundrais ing emails find their way into re cipients’ primary inboxes. Gmail is participating in the “ Verified

Sender Program, “ which allows senders to bypasses traditional spam filters, but also gives users the option of unsubscribing from a sender. If the unsubscribe but ton is hit, a sender is supposed to remove that Gmail address from their distribution lists.

As of Friday evening, the RNC had not signed up to participate in the pilot program.

Republicans who have tried to cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election without parroting the most extreme and baseless claims about corrupted voting machines and stolen votes have often tried to blame big technol ogy companies like Twitter and Facebook that they allege were biased against former President Donald Trump. A long list of state and local election officials, courts and members of Trump’s own administration have said there is no evidence of the mass fraud Trump alleges.

“We believe sales will continue to rebound, but we expect near-term volatility.”

Jeff Windau, Edward Jones analyst

AP PHOTO

Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel speaks during a Get Out To Vote rally Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, in Tampa, Fla.

Toyota Crown

The answer to a question no one asked

By Jordan Golson North State Journal

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Toy ota Crown confuses me.

I understand why it exists and why it has returned to America af ter decades away. Crown is one of the oldest nameplates in automo tive, but you’ll be forgiven if you’ve never heard of it.

This is the 15th generation of Crown and the first in the US since well before I was born. Toyota swears that it is not a replacement for the departed Avalon, but it takes the same place in the lineup and at nearly the same price point.

The Avalon existed so that peo ple who didn’t care what brand car they drove could buy something a bit nicer than a Camry but cheap er than a Lexus. And there was

a $10,000 price gap between the Avalon and the Lexus ES, which made sense because you don’t want to pay Lexus money for a Toyota… Or do you?

That’s the question I’m strug gling to answer. A fully loaded Toy ota Crown prices out to around $52,000. You can get a wellequipped Lexus ES for that, and I asked Toyota who would buy the Crown over the ES at the same price. Their not-great answer was that the Crown is a bit sportier and would appeal to sporty buyers. About that, I’m not so sure.

It’s not that the Toyota Crown is a lousy car. Far from it. It has an interesting look, appearing to be a bit of a fastback, but it’s just a se dan with a sharply sloping rear window. The seating position is that of a crossover, which should

make it easy for the target market — empty-nesters making around $125,000 per year — to slide in and out of the front seats comfortably.

I drove the top-of-the-line Plat inum trim, which had almost ev ery option you could ever want to fit into it. There was a nice stereo, a panoramic sunroof, ample stor age, and heated and cooled seats.

Interestingly, it brings over the Cli mate Concierge feature from Lex us, where the seats will be auto matically heated or cooled based on your climate control settings. For example, if it’s a cold day, your heat ed seats will turn on automatical ly and turn off again once the car warms up.

There are two power trains avail able, including a new 340-horse power all-wheel-drive hybrid op tion that turns the Crown into

something of a sport sedan. It’s an excellent powertrain that Toyota is clearly excited about, and it will make its way into many other vehi cles over time, I’m sure.

But are empty-nesters mak ing $125,000 a year looking for a sporty, upscale Toyota? The Lexus ES F Sport already exists and fills this slot nicely in the Toyota/Lex us lineup. The whole point of the Avalon was to buy a large premi um sedan without paying a luxury price. The Crown throws that out the window and prices a fully load ed trim like my Platinum similarly to a well-equipped Lexus ES.

Only where the ES is refined and luxurious, the Crown will irri tate you every time you sit in it be cause the steering wheel has a giant Toyota logo in the middle and has a swathe of icky vinyl straight out of

the Toyota Corolla on it. That’s not something I want to see in my new $50,000 Toyota Crown.

Still, the Crown is rather good to drive. The Hybrid Max powertrain is a delight, and the car is quiet, ca pable, and comfortable. On the out side, while the look may be polariz ing (especially in the odd two-tone black and red color), it’s certainly not bad looking and might even be handsome, depending on your pre dilection.

The Crown is the flagship Toyo ta in Japan, and I understand why they wanted to bring it here. But I fear Toyota has misjudged the US market, which is rapidly fleeing se dans for SUVs and crossovers, and besides, Lexus already has a vehicle in this segment and near this price point.

I suspect Toyota will sell a bunch simply on it being new, but I can’t see the Crown being any more suc cessful than the Avalon ones. It’s a niche vehicle in a niche segment. At the very least, it’s certainly a con versation starter.

OF FORECLOSURE SALE

CAROLINA NOTICE OF SALE

Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in the above-referenced deed of trust and because of default in payment of the secured debt and failure to perform the agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the secured debt, the undersigned will expose for sale at public auction at the usual place of sale at the Cabarrus County courthouse at 2:00PM on November 2, 2022, the following described real estate and any improvements situated thereon, in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described in that certain Deed of Trust executed Pam Lyne and Kenneth Lyne, dated March 7, 2008 to secure the original principal amount of $225,000.00, and recorded in Book 8108 at Page 76 of the Cabarrus County Public Registry. The terms of the said Deed of Trust may be modified by other instruments appearing in the public record. Additional identifying information regarding the collateral property is below and is believed to be accurate, but no representation or warranty is intended.

to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, to wit:

The following real property loacated in the County of Cabarrus, State of North Carolina, to-wit:

Being all of Lot 176 of Fox Creek, Phase 1, Map 1, as same is shown on map thereof recorded in Map Book 74 at Pages 84-88, Cabarrus County Registry.

Being the same property as conveyed from Hugo Alberto Padilla Cerda and spouse, Roxana Ayala to Timothy Adam Long, unmarried and Sebastianna Heather Axley, unmarried, as joint tenants with rights of survivorship.

Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record.

Said property is commonly known as 3550 Saddlebrook

Address of property: 1282 Gambel Dr Nw, Concord, NC 28027 Tax Parcel ID: 46813625080000

Present Record Owners: Pam Lyne and Kenneth Lyne

The record owner(s) of the property, according to the records of the Register of Deeds, is/are Pam Lyne and Kenneth Lyne. The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance AS IS, WHERE IS. Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property offered for sale. Any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. This sale is subject to all prior liens

Dr, Midland, NC 28107.

A Certified Check ONLY (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED.

Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. 7A-308(a)(1).

and encumbrances and unpaid taxes and assessments including any transfer tax associated with the foreclosure. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required from the highest bidder and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. Cash will not be accepted. This sale will be held open ten days for upset bids as required by law. After the expiration of the upset period, all remaining amounts are IMMEDIATELY DUE AND OWING. Failure to remit funds in a timely manner will result in a Declaration of Default and any deposit will be frozen pending the outcome of any re-sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Substitute Trustee or the attorney of any of the foregoing.

SPECIAL NOTICE FOR LEASEHOLD TENANTS residing at the property: be advised that an Order for Possession of the property may be issued in favor of the purchaser. Also, if your lease began or was renewed on or after October

undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Timothy Adam Long and Sebastianna Heather Axley.

An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination [NCGS § 45-21.16A(b) (2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for

1, 2007, be advised that you may terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days written notice to the landlord. You may be liable for rent due under the agreement prorated to the effective date

any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988 FAX: (910) 392-8587 File No.: 22-00061-FC01

of

in the County of Cumberland, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows:

Tax Id Number(s): 0415-19-1457-

Land Situated in the City of Fayetteville in the County of Cumberland in the State of NC

Being all of Lot 74, Woods Edge Subdivision, Section Two, per plat of the same duly record in Book of Plats 46, Page 31, Cumberland County Registry. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 2223 Wingate Road, Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Commonly known as: 2223 Wingate Rd, Fayetteville, NC 28304

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. 45-21.23.

sell

North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: The land referred to herein below is situated in the County of Cumberland, State of North Carolina, and is described as follows:

Being all of Lot 31, as shown on a plat entitled “South Peak at Millstone” duly recorded in Plat Book 123, Page 172, Cumberland County, North Carolina Registry. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 3570 South Peak Drive, Hope Mills, North Carolina.

Parcel ID: 0404-76-2581

Commonly known as 3570 S. Peak Drive, Hope Mills, NC 28306

However, by showing this address no additional coverage is provided Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the

for up to one hour as provided in N.C.G.S. 45-21.23.

Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of Forty-Five Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by N.C.G.S. 7A-308(a)(1).

The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition are expressly disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or prior encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and

purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice

State laws.

A deposit of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale.

If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Additional Notice for Residential Property with Less than 15 rental units, including Single-Family Residential Real Property

An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C.G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold.

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SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE

P.O.

Street Fayetteville,

Phone No: (910)

https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No:

Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of foreclosure sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days but not more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in this notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE c/o Hutchens Law Firm P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 Phone No: (910) 864-3068 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm.com Firm Case No: 2825 - 6787

PHOTO COURTESY TOYOTA

CUMBERLAND

CABARRUS

pen & paper pursuits

sudoku solutions

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Two men arrested with enough fentanyl to kill 250K people

Two men were recently arrested after they were found in possession of enough uncut fentanyl to kill over 250,000 people, according to the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office. Luis Angel Ventura Castro, 21, and Omar Garcia Luna, 20, were arrested following a joint operation on behalf of the local sheriff’s office and the Norwood Police Department. Both individuals are from Gainesville, Georgia. According to the police report, Castro and Luna were caught with 517 grams of uncut fentanyl, which carried a street value of $258,000. Both men have been charged with two counts of Level 3 trafficking opium, possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver opium, maintaining a vehicle for controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Currently, Castro and Luna are being held in the Stanly County Jail with a $1 million bond.

Fashion show to support adult care center

Tickets are now on sale for the inaugural Stanly Adult Care Center Fashion Show. The event, titled “Starry Night on the Runway,” will raise proceeds to benefit the adult care center. It is scheduled for Saturday, November 19, at the senior center. A cocktail hour on the back patio kicks things off at 5pm, followed by dinner at 6pm and a fashion show at 6:30pm. Tickets are $30 per person or $50 per couple. Tickets can be purchased at Livi Bug’s Boutique in Albemarle. The fashion show will feature models from Pretty Please Boutique, Make it Personal Embroidery and Custom Apparel, McRae’s Jewelry, and Livi Bug’s Boutique.

History center hosts haunted house

The Stanly County History Center will host a Halloween Haunted House on Friday, October 29. The haunted house runs from 4 to 7pm, and from noon to 4pm on Saturday. It will feature animatronics, ghost stories, fortune telling and a family friendly room with games and prizes for young children. There will be a costume contest on Saturday at 2pm. Attendance to the event is free.

Locust police make arrest of convicted felon in hiding after K9 pursuit

LOCUST — After what officers described as a “highly suspense ful game of hide and go seek,” the Locust Police Department — with the help of a K9 unit — made an arrest of a convicted felon with parole violations on Oct. 24.

The Stanfield Police Depart ment’s K9 Tango located Taylor Barnes, of Midland, hiding inside the gated storage facility off of West Main Street in Locust short ly before 3 a.m.

Barnes was taken to the Stan ly County Jail and charged with possession of a firearm by a con victed felon, resisting a public of ficer, misdemeanor breaking and

entering, first-degree trespass ing, possession of drug para phernalia, and driving with a re voked license; he was later issued a $30,000 bond.

The incident began around 2 a.m. as Locust officers attempt ed to stop the driver of a vehicle for noted suspicious activity. Upon confronting Barnes in his car, he fled the scene on foot, and the in vestigation became an early-morn ing foot pursuit throughout west ern Locust. Officers soon located a firearm in Barnes’ vehicle.

Members of the Stanfield Police Department, along with depu ties from the Stanly County Sher iff’s Office, assisted Locust officers with the search for Barnes.

Ford faces opposition, Sasser unopposed in Stanly legislative races

By Matt Mercer North State Journal

ALBEMARLE — The 2022 election for Stanly County’s rep resentatives to the General As sembly in Raleigh features just one competitive contest: the race for a state Senate seat shared with Rowan County. Republi can State Sen. Carl Ford, who is seeking his third term in the Sen ate, faces off against Democratic nominee Tangela Morgan for the 33rd Senate District.

Ford entered public office as a Rowan County Commission er from 2008-2012, serving as both Chair and Vice Chair. He was elected to the N.C. House of Representatives in 2012 and served three terms. In his time in the House, he was the committee chair for the Committee on State and Local Government for two terms.

He ran for the N.C. Senate in 2018 and has served there since January 2019. In the upper cham

ber, he has been the chairman of the State and Local Government Committee and is a co-chairman of the Joint Legislative Over sight Committee on General Gov ernment. Ford also serves as the Senate Republican Joint Caucus Leader.

In the most recent legislative session, Ford was either a spon sor or co-sponsor of six bills that were signed into law. Those bills included the Farm Act of 2021, Certificate of Need threshold amendments, and bond informa tion transparency.

The American Conservative Union’s Center for Legislative Ac countability has given a 92% rat ing to Ford for his time in the N.C. Senate. In the 2021-22 ses sion, Ford earned a “Conservative Excellence” award.

Morgan is a Stanly County na tive but says she has lived in Row an County for the past 20 years.

According to her campaign web site, she is a former teacher and current school counselor. Morgan

is a leader in the Rowan-Salis bury N.C. Association of Edu cators (NCAE) affiliate and the Rowan-Salisbury NAACP.

She lists six priorities she is running on: education, protect ing abortion, Medicaid expan sion, ending reliance on fossil fu els, raising the minimum wage, and increased broadband service.

“I believe that a safe, thriving community is one in which the citizens are healthy, educated, and gainfully employed. Right now, there are systems and poli cies in place that prevent the citi zens of Rowan and Stanly Coun ty from thriving,” Morgan said in a candidate questionnaire posted by the Rowan County Democrat ic Party.

Following the state’s 2021 re districting session, the boundar ies of the 33rd District were un changed: it covers all of Rowan and Stanly counties. The popu lation split favors Rowan County, which comprises 70% of the dis trict, and Stanly has the remain

Locust Police Department

Per the LPD, Tango jumped over a six-foot tall fence to con front Barnes, and he was taken into custody without incident.

“No injuries were caused by Tango or suffered by Mr. Barnes except possibly to his feelings. Tango was declared the winner of the hide-and-seek match and was

found to be a very humble victor,” the LPD stated in a press release. “The Locust Police Department is extremely appreciative for the al ways outstanding assistance from the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office, Stanfield Police Department, and particularly K-9 SuperTango.”

Tango is a four-and-a-halfyear-old black Dutch shepherd from Ventosa Kennel — a police K-9 training facility — in Scot land Neck, NC.

Three years ago, Stanfield Lt. Jimmy Schneider partnered up with Tango to give their team as sistance in the realms of narcotics, apprehension, and tracking, as the department had gone with a K9 unit for over a decade at that point.

ing 30%.

Based on recent election re sults, it is a strongly Republican district, with recent election re sults giving Republicans nearly 70% of the vote in state races.

In the N.C. House of Represen tatives, incumbent Republican state Rep. Wayne Sasser is unop posed for a third term in the 67th House District.

Following the 2021 redistrict ing session, the district compris

es all of Stanly and Montgomery counties.

Sasser, a registered pharma cist, is the only pharmacist serv ing in the General Assembly.

Stanly County Journal

“Tango was declared the winner of the hide and seek match and was found to be a very humble victor.”

PHOTO VIA STANFIELD POLICE DEPARTMENT

Stanfield Police Department K9 Tango poses for a photograph in this undated file photo. Tango assisted in a successful apprehension of a convicted felon.

FILE PHOTOS

State Sen. Carl Ford (R-33), left, and State Rep. Wayne Sasser (R-67), right.

The Associated Press

IN HER COOKBOOK “My Two Souths,” chef Asha Gomez add ed an intriguing twist to the clas sic chocolate cookie — Nutella. It was an innovative way to intro duce nutty flavor to an otherwise straightforward chocolate cookie dough.

Inspired, we wondered what other nutty spreads would work, so for this recipe from our book “Milk Street Tuesday Nights,” which lim its recipes to 45 minutes or less, we tried natural almond butter. We were thrilled. Besides injecting the cookie with almond flavor, the natural ingredient gave us more control over the finished texture — moist, fudgy and almost brown ie-like.

We made a few other small tweaks — adding cocoa powder and semisweet chocolate to deep en the cookie’s flavor and color without overwhelming the light er milk chocolate — but other wise kept the recipe simple and straightforward.

Sliced almonds pressed onto the tops added crunch, and a final sprinkle of flaky sea salt height ened the other flavors. The result was delicious but intense, so we scaled down the cookie’s size, mak ing it a decadent two-bite treat.

When you’re forming the cook ies, if the dough is very sticky, al low it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. As the milk chocolate solidifies, the dough becomes easier to work with.

Triple-Chocolate Almond Cookies

Start to finish: 30 minutes (20 minutes active) Makes 30 cookies

• 8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

• 130 grams (1 cup) all-purpose flour

• 160 grams (¾ cup packed) brown sugar

• 16 grams (3 tablespoons) cocoa powder

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 3 large eggs

• 2/3 cup roasted almond butter, stirred well

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

• 3/4 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted

• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

• 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt (such as Maldon Sea Salt Flakes)

Heat the oven to 350°F with racks in the upper- and lowermiddle positions. Line 2 baking sheets with kitchen parchment.

Put the milk chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at 50 percent power, stirring every 30 seconds, until completely smooth and melted. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Add eggs and mix thoroughly with a rubber spatula. Stir in the melted chocolate, almond butter, vanilla and chopped semisweet chocolate.

Spread the almonds on a large plate. Divide the dough into 1-tablespoon balls, then lightly press into the almonds, coating one side and slightly flattening them. Arrange 15 of the balls, almond side up, on each of the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Brush the tops lightly with the egg white and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake until the center is set and the edges are no longer glossy, 10 to 13 minutes, rotating the sheets and switching racks halfway through. Let cool completely on the sheets. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.

WEEKLY CRIME LOG

BARNES, TAYLOR ORYAN (W /M/24), RESISTING PUBLIC OFFICER, 10/24/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

BROWN, MARYBETH (W /F/25), ATTEMPTED LARCENY (M), 10/24/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

DENNIS, CLYDE DALE (W /M/24),

RESISTING PUBLIC OFFICER, 10/24/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

♦ RUSSELL, WILLIAM JASON (W /M/49), BREAKING AND OR ENTERING (F), 10/24/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

♦ LEVERICH, NICHOLAS JACOB (W /M/34), ASSAULT AND BATTERY,

10/23/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

♦ CRAWFORD, BRIAN MICHAEL (W /M/41), FIRST DEGREE FORCIBLE RAPE, 10/21/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

♦ HIGGINS, STEPHANIE ERIN (W /F/50), BREAKING AND OR ENTERING (F), 10/21/2022, Stanly

County Sheriff`S Office

♦ KIVETT, BRANDI TRULL (W /F/34), DAMAGE TO PROPERTY - FREE TEXT, 10/21/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

♦ SULLIVAN, BRITIANY NICOLE (W /F/33), POSSESS METHAMPHETAMINE, 10/20/2022, Stanly County

Sheriff`S Office

WESTON, TYLER ALAN (W /M/20), POSSESS METHAMPHETAMINE, 10/20/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

SMITH, DAVID WAYNE (W /M/55), FAIL REGISTER SEX OFFENDER(F), 10/19/2022, Stanly County Sheriff`S Office

MILK STREET VIA AP

This

by Milk Street shows a recipe for Triple Chocolate Almond Cookies.

OPINION

COLUMN | U.S. REP. RICHARD HUDSON

A nation that’s safe

SAFETY AND SECURITY.

Violent crime rates, such as motor theft and homicide, including of law enforcement, have reached record highs over the past two years.

Establishing these for our nation are two of the most fundamental responsibilities of the federal government. In fact, when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution, they made this abundantly clear. In the Preamble, the Constitution states that one of the main reasons for our government’s formation was to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” While this may seem like a straightforward, common sense idea, those currently in charge of running our government appear largely incapable of realizing it.

Under President Joe Biden and Washington Democrats, our nation’s security has been compromised across multiple fronts. Under one-party rule, our border security has been severely diminished. Since Biden took office, we have had more than 3.5 million illegal crossings at our southern border. We have also had close to 900,000 known “Got-Aways” who have entered the country since this time last year. Failing to secure the border and stop illegal crossings endangers our communities. It also exposes them to threats such as fentanyl, which is robbing a generation of Americans of their lives. Last year, 3,759 people died from opioid overdoses in North Carolina alone. Nationally, fentanyl is a leading cause of death for adults aged 18-45.

Additionally, the Left’s anti-police and soft-on-crime agenda has jeopardized public safety nationwide as crime rates continue to skyrocket in communities across the country. Violent crime rates, such as motor theft and homicide, including of law enforcement, have reached record highs over the past two years.

Finally, Washington Democrats have weakened our national security by failing to stand up to adversaries like China. The Biden administration has attempted to cut deals with dictatorships like Iran and Venezuela. Attacking American energy production has put our interests and European allies at risk, especially as winter approaches. And the botched

COLUMN | DENNIS PRAGER

withdrawal from Afghanistan emboldened bad actors like Putin and resulted in the senseless deaths of 13 brave U.S. service members last year.

The safety and security of you, your family, and our nation have been put at risk due to policy missteps out of Washington. Yet, House Republicans have a plan called our “Commitment to America” to create a nation that’s safe.

We will work to secure our border and combat illegal immigration by reinstating solutions like the “Remain in Mexico” policy, giving Customs and Border Patrol the resources and support it needs, and finishing the wall. We will also take serious steps to stop the flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl and reduce overdose deaths. To that end, I am proud to have cosponsored legislation like the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act of 2021 and the HALT Fentanyl Act, bills that will help keep this deadly drug off our streets, as well as improve addiction treatment services nationwide.

Furthermore, we will work to tackle the crime wave plaguing our communities by rejecting the anti-police, soft-on-crime agenda and giving law enforcement the resources and support they need to get the job done. Our plan hires 200,000 more police officers. This means we also need new technological investments through legislation like my Next Generation 911 bill. It will modernize our 9-1-1 infrastructure with updated technology that lets people in danger call, text, or even send a photo to 911 dispatchers. This will greatly improve the ability of first responders to save lives.

Finally, House Republicans are committed to improving our national security by investing in our military’s strength and readiness, standing up to hostile nations like Russia, China, and Iran, and pursuing American energy independence in order to end our reliance on foreign countries for fuel.

As the Constitution plainly states, protecting the security and safety of the American people is one of the chief roles of our government. As your Congressman, I remain committed to creating a nation that’s safe and building a better future for you and your family.

Richard Hudson is serving his fifth term representing North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and in House leadership as the Republican Conference Secretary.

Explaining conservativism II: Why the Left hates it

“SINCE AT LEAST THE WORLD WAR II generation, most parents who held conservative values either did not think they had to teach their children those values or simply did not know how to do so. Most still don’t. If asked to define conservative values, most conservatives will be tongue-tied.”

That’s what I wrote in Part I in explaining why I am writing “Explaining Conservativism.”

S+A=B:

I discussed the preeminent value of conservativism — freedom, and the preeminent freedom — of speech.

In Part II, I will discuss an equally important conservative value, which derives from the word itself.

Conservativism conserves.

Conservativism attempts to conserve the best of the past — the best art, literature and music, the best standards, values and wisdom. Conservativism then passes the best of everything to every succeeding generation.

The Left — meaning progressives, not necessarily liberals — loathes the fact that conservativism preserves the past. That is why “change” is one of the most cherished words in the Left’s vocabulary. There is nothing more threatening or, perhaps more important, boring, to a leftist than preserving the past. “New” and “change” provide leftists meaning and excitement.

As one involved in the music world (I periodically conduct orchestras), I have always been struck by how important it is to orchestra CEOs, music professors and especially music critics that as much “new” music be played as possible. If a conductor prefers to program the classics, he is deemed a reactionary, while conductors who regularly program new music are heroes in the music world.

Music critics rarely discuss the question that preoccupies conservatives: Is this new piece of music good, let alone nearly as good as the classics? What matters to music critics is that the music is new — and, these days, that it was composed by a nonwhite person, ideally a woman.

Conservatives ask whether new music is good enough to warrant being played. They are preoccupied with excellence, not with newness or “change.”

This difference between conservatives and leftists/progressives applies to virtually every realm of life.

It explains the decision of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of English to remove a large mural of Shakespeare and replace it with a mural of a gay female poet of color. No one in his or her right mind thinks that this poet is the equal of Shakespeare. But the members of the Penn English Department are not concerned with literary excellence.

Shakespeare’s picture wasn’t replaced because his writing was surpassed. He was replaced because he was male, white and straight. And most of all, he was replaced because he was old. He is an “old (or dead) white European male,” in the words of the Left.

Change and newness are so vital to leftists that a progressive who cared first and foremost about excellence would cease to be a progressive. Why are “new” and “change” intrinsic to leftism?

One reason, as noted, is excitement. Excitement is important to human beings because it provides an adrenalin rush and because it seems to be an antidote to boredom. When your child complains that he or she is bored, your child is really saying, “I want some excitement.” It is difficult to overstate how important boredom is in shaping human conduct.

As I have long argued, S+A=B: Secularism plus affluence equals boredom. And boredom, in the contemporary world, leads to leftism. Leftism is an endless search for exciting causes such as saving the world from alleged extinction; fighting “racism” and “white supremacy” in a largely nonracist America; combating “fascism” in what was — for more than 200 years, until the Left changed it — the freest country in the world; trying to force society to accept a brand-new definition of human sexual identity — namely that, contrary to all of recorded history, it is nonbinary. All these exciting causes are led by the affluent and secular. In other words, the bored.

A second reason for the Left’s love of the new and love of change is that if traditional standards of excellence are preserved, the talentless will fail. Just as the cultural Left fought to award every young person a trophy whether or not his or her team actually won, the Left declares every piece of junk “art.”

The conservative wants to pass on to every generation the best that human beings have created. Depriving young people of the greatest art, literature, music and ideas is a form of child abuse. The result has been generations of ignorant and foolish people, many of whom are actively working toward the opposite of what the “progressive” label suggests: taking society backward.

I would wager a serious sum of money that most American college students could not spell “Beethoven,” let alone recognize any of his music; has never heard of Dostoevsky; and would not recognize a single sculpture or painting by Michelangelo. Instead, they learn about “preferred pronouns.”

For these reasons, the end of conservativism must lead to the end of Western civilization. When you don’t conserve the ideas and art, the religious moral values, and even the nuclear family that made Western civilization the most advanced civilization — materially, morally, scientifically and artistically — ever devised, you will no longer have that civilization. You will have morally confused, emotionally broken, lonely and angry young people — who will eventually wreak havoc on all that is good and worthy of surviving.

We conservatives want to conserve the beautiful, the profound and the wise.

What does the Left wish to conserve? The answer is: nothing. That’s why everything the Left touches it destroys. The less you conserve, the more you destroy.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His commentary on Deuteronomy, the third volume of “The Rational Bible,” his five-volume commentary on the first five books of the Bible, will be published in October.

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

SIDELINE REPORT

NFL NFL looking into refs, Bucs WR Evans Charlotte

The NFL said it is looking into what transpired between two game officials and Tampa Bay wide receiver Mike Evans in the tunnel of the stadium after the Buccaneers’ 21-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Two videos show side judge Jeff Lamberth and line judge Tripp Sutter approaching Evans and having a short inaudible exchange before he appears to write something on a slip of paper handed to him by the officials. According to the CBA agreement between the NFL and the NFL

Referees Association game officials are not allowed to “ask players, coaches or any other team personnel for autographs or memorabilia.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Michigan’s Harbaugh calls PSU’s Franklin ‘ringleader’ in scuffle

Ann Arbor, Mich Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Penn State coach James Franklin acted as a “ringleader” when the No. 4 Wolverines and No. 13 Nittany Lions clashed nearly two weeks ago, dismissing Franklin’s claim that a policy change was needed to keep things orderly beneath Michigan Stadium. A lot of heated words were exchanged and Michigan players reportedly said Penn State players threw peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at them as the teams headed to the locker room at halftime of a close game that the Wolverines won in a 4117 rout on Oct. 15.

MLB

Bochy comes out of retirement to take Rangers job

Arlington, Texas Bruce Bochy is coming out of a short retirement in hopes to get a title for the home team. The 67-year-old Bochy was introduced Monday as the new manager of the Texas Rangers. He won the first of his three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants in the old Rangers ballpark in 2010. He was presented by Texas general manager Chris Young, who had pitched for the manager in San Diego before that.

Bochy hasn’t managed since 2019, when he stepped away after 2,003 wins over 25 seasons with the Giants and Padres, who he took to the World Series in 1998.

OLYMPICS

Russian runner stripped of 2012 gold medal for doping

Monaco

Ten years after the London Olympics, 400-meter hurdles champion Natalya Antyukh has been disqualified for doping.

The Russian’s case means Lashinda Demus of the United States is set to be upgraded to the gold medal.

Antyukh was already serving a four-year ban in a previous case judged by the Court or Arbitration for Sport last year. That stripped her results from 2013 to 2015.

The new ruling based on historical evidence recovered from a Moscow testing laboratory database further disqualifies Antyukh from mid-July 2012. At age 39, Demus is in line to become an Olympic champion.

Larson holds off Chastain, wins at Homestead

Only Joey Logano is assured a chance to win the title at Phoenix heading into the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville

By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson found his way back into NASCAR’s headlines. This time, for a much more pleasant reason.

Larson held off Ross Chastain to cap a dominant showing at Home stead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, after leading 199 of the 267 laps over the 1½ mile course.

It was Larson’s third win of the season, coming two weeks after the reigning Cup champion was eliminated from this year’s playoffs

— and a week after he was inten tionally spun by Bubba Wallace in an act of retaliation at Las Vegas.

On Sunday, the suspended Wal lace was watching. Larson, mean while, was winning.

“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” Larson said.

AJ Allmendinger was third and Austin Dillon fourth, as Chevrolets took the top four spots.

Even though Larson can’t win the title, his Hendrick Motor sports team still can — now hav ing clinched a spot in the field that will decide the owners’ champion ship in Phoenix.

“We’re still technically not out of it,” Larson said. “I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team. We’re go ing to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”

And he will drive Phoenix as if

he’s driving for his own title.

“Oh, yeah,” Larson said. “Duh.”

It wasn’t exactly close at the end; Larson beat Chastain to the line by 1.261 seconds. Chastain could have clinched a berth in the winnertake-all Phoenix race for the title if he had won at Homestead.

The four-car field for the driv ers’ title race will be finalized next week in Martinsville, with seven drivers heading there to compete for three remaining spots. Only Joey Logano, through his win at Las Vegas last week, has his berth clinched.

Phillies, Astros will start World Series on Friday

Houston swept the Yankees to win the American League while Philadelphia dispatched the Padres in the NL

By Ben Walker The Associated Press

BRYCE HARPER and Kyle Schwarber breaking the Bank in Philly. Yordan Alvarez launching moonshots in H-Town.

Dusty Baker trying for a most elusive win. Justin Verlander, too.

A fired-up Harper and All-Stars J.T. Realmuto and Zack Wheel er stepping onto baseball’s biggest platform for the first time.

The Philadelphia Phillies, of all teams, are headed to the World Se ries. Against those back-for-more Houston Astros.

A pretty tasty matchup starting Friday night at Minute Maid Park, a Fall Classic full of vibrant sights, scents and sounds.

Harper already has hit five home runs this postseason. In the signature swing of his career, his eighth-inning drive against San Diego on Sunday in Game 5 sent the Phillies into the World Series for the first time since 2009 and earned him the NL Championship Series MVP.

The Astros are 7-0 this postsea son after finishing off a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Alex

Bregman’s go-ahead single keyed a 6-5 win Sunday night.

With the likes of Jose Altuve, ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña, Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm, this World Series is a best-of-seven matchup representing some of the game’s best present and future. Plus a good piece of the past — re member, these teams have played each other nearly 600 times.

There was the thrilling 1980 NL Championship Series, when Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carl ton and the Fightin’ Phils outlast ed Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome on the way to their first World Se

ries title.

Years later, closers Brad Lidge, Billy Wagner, Mitch Williams and Ken Giles spent time with both clubs. So did future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Robin Roberts.

And this neat piece of history — the Phillies were the first team to ever beat Houston, back in 1962 when the expansion Colt .45s lost at Connie Mack Stadium.

The Phillies are also the most recent team to beat the Astros. Way back on Oct. 3, Philadelphia opened the final series of the regu lar season with a 3-0 win at Hous ton, with Schwarber homering

Expect chaos.

“Track position’s going to be so huge,” Denny Hamlin said. “You’re going to see aggressive driving.”

Hamlin is on the wrong side of the cutline going into Martinsville. Chastain is second, Chase Elliott is third and William Byron is fourth.

“It took a good part of the race to get up there and get the car turn ing,” Chastain said. “Incredible day on pit road by the boys.”

There will be a race within the race next week. Chastain doesn’t need to win to clinch a berth in the field for the title race, but he didn’t seem too interested in all the mathematical permutations af ter getting out of his car in Home stead.

“We’re just going to go race,” Chastain said. “That’s all I know how to do.”

Hamlin is five points back of Byron, followed by Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in eighth.

Among the playoff drivers, af ter runner-up Chastain, Hamlin was seventh, Bell 11th, Byron 12th, Elliott 14th, Blaney 17th, Logano 18th and Briscoe 36th in the 36car field.

twice as Aaron Nola outpitched Lance McCullers Jr.

The Astros then closed out an AL-best 106-56 record by winning the next two behind Verlander and Framber Valdez — Philadelphia still leads 297-283 in their headto-head matchups, mostly all be fore Houston moved from the Na tional League to the American League in 2013.

Houston then swept Seattle in the AL Division Series and the Yankees in the ALCS featuring its winning formula of imposing starting pitching, a dominant bull pen and a lineup full of home run hitters such as Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.

This marks the Astros’ fourth trip to the World Series in six years and their only title in 2017 was tainted by an illegal sign-stealing scandal. Last season, they lost to Freddie Freeman and the under dog Atlanta Braves in six games.

The Phillies, meanwhile, looked like a big zero this year before get ting to this point in October.

Stuck at 21-29 going into June, they fired manager Joe Girardi a few days later and put the inter im tag on bench coach Rob Thom son. Then suddenly, the Phillies took off.

They overcame Harper’s broken thumb, sidelining the two-time NL MVP for two months, beat out Milwaukee for the final play off spot in going 87-75, and quick ly topped NL Central champion St. Louis in the wild-card round. Philadelphia eliminated defend ing World Series champ Atlanta in the NLDS and topped San Diego in the NLCS.

DAVID J. PHILLIP

Catcher Garrett Stubbs and the Phillies will try to top Martin Maldonado and the Astros when the teams meet starting Friday for the 2022 World Series.

JOHN LOCHER | AP PHOTO

Joey Logano celebrates after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Las Vegas.

“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long.”

Kyle Larson

Hail to the who? Tanya Snyder drops Commanders for old name

former nickname, telling the crowd, “Hail to the ’Skins and hail to the Commanders.”

North Stanly overtaken by Mount Pleasant in 28-10 home loss

Two other Stanly teams were involved in shutouts

By Jesse Deal North State Journal

VISITING MOUNT Pleasant handed North Stanly a 28-10 defeat Friday in a key Yadkin Valley Conference matchup.

The Tigers (7-2, 4-0) remained undefeated in confer ence play after beating the Comets (5-4, 2-2) at R.N. Jef fery Stadium. North proved unable to slow Mount Pleasant running back Keegan Moose, who torched the Comets for more than 200 yards of offense.

North running back Cam Smith picked up 76 rushing yards along with 107 receiving yards, and quarterback Chance Blake threw for 258 yards but had a few turnovers.

The Comets will stay in the county and travel to Albemarle (3-6, 1-2) for their regular season fi nale on Friday night.

Monroe 61, West Stanly 0

By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press

LANDOVER, Md. — Under investigation and under scruti ny like never before, team own er Daniel Snyder was nowhere to be seen at the rally that preced ed the Washington Commanders’ “homecoming” game Sunday.

Instead, his wife, Tanya, greet ed the sparse crowd of fans who showed up to meet players from the past as the renamed fran chise celebrated 90 years since its founding.

Maybe she forgot about the branding change that discarded the club’s offensive nickname, be cause at the conclusion of her re marks — which, oddly enough, included a reference to “seven de cades of fantastic football” — she declared: “Hail to the Redskins! And let’s beat Green Bay.”

The second part did happen, thanks to the way backup quar terback Taylor Heinicke, start ing in place of the injured Carson Wentz, rebounded from a 1-for-7 start that included a pick-6 and steered the Commanders past four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rod gers and the stumbling Packers 23-21.

Washington (3-4) welcomed back dozens of former players who paraded around the stadi um, then met with fans, before the game. Among those attend ing: Pro Football Hall of Fame member Art Monk and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Mark Rypien.

Team president Jason Wright also threw in a reference to the

This came at the end of a week in which Daniel Snyder — who once vowed never to change the name of his franchise but did in 2020 during a national reckoning about racism — was a main top ic at the league’s owners’ meet ings in New York. And not in a good way, even though he was not a part of the formal agenda.

He is the subject of several in quiries — by Congress, by the NFL, by the attorney general of D.C. — that cover allegations of sexual misconduct and financial impropriety. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose team hap pens to be Washington’s opponent next week, said there’s “merit to remove” Snyder, which would re quire a vote by 24 of the 31 oth er owners.

There would also be anoth er way, of course, for Snyder to move on, and spectators at Sun day’s game shouted it as a sugges tion when his wife was shown on a video board: “Sell the team!”

West Stanly’s losing streak hit six games fol lowing its biggest loss of the season, a 61-0 shut out on the road against Monroe.

The Colts (3-6, 0-3) struggled across the board on Friday against their Rocky River Conference opponent as the Redhawks (8-1, 3-0) scored 42 first-half points to cruise to victory. Monroe cur rently stands as one of the top 2A teams in the state.

West will close out its season at Anson (3-6, 0-3) on Friday.

Albemarle 34, Union Academy 0

Albemarle put together one of its best performances of the season Friday, shutting out Union Academy 34-0 on the road.

Now sitting at .500 against Yadkin Valley Conference opponents, the Bulldogs (3-6, 2-2) were more than the Car dinals (1-8, 0-4) could handle, building on a quick 13-0 lead and eventually running away with the game.

Albemarle and North Stanly will play this week in a show down of teams tied for third place overall in the conference.

South Stanly (forfeit)

South Stanly announced on Oct. 21 that it would forfeit the remaining two games on its schedule due to injuries. The Bulls will finish the season winless in 10 games.

By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press

RIDGELAND, S.C. — Just about everyone was in the mood to celebrate except for Rory McIl roy.

It had been eight years since McIlroy played the week before the Masters, so he decided to skip the Match Play and instead go to the Texas Open to get into a com petitive mood going into Augusta National.

Instead, he missed the cut by two shots, and that wasn’t the worst of it. For reasons he can’t re call, McIlroy had to wait until the next morning to get home to Flor ida. He was staying in a massive hotel on site at the TPC San An tonio.

“I guess there was some par ty on Friday night and I was feel ing pretty bad,” McIlroy said. “Got back up to my hotel room and went to order room service and they said it will be a 2½ hour wait.

So I basically missed the cut, went to bed on an empty stomach and I was like, ‘Let’s just wake up to morrow and start again.’”

Moments like that are what made Sunday so sweet. He seized

on his opportunity to return to No. 1 in the world by winning the CJ Cup in South Carolina, complet ing what he refers to as a “journey” that had multiple starting points and stops along the way.

One of them was the Texas Open. It wasn’t the only cut he missed this year, but he was No. 9 in the world and the road back felt just as long as when he was as low as No. 16 only eight months earli er.

“If someone had told me on the Friday night of the Valero Texas Open when I missed the cut that I would be world No. 1 by October, I would have asked them what they were smoking,” McIlroy said. “It’s just been a wild six months.”

The final stop was more signifi cant than he realized.

The CJ Cup in South Carolina was his sixth straight top 10.

Chasing No. 1 is difficult enough. Fall out of the top 10 and it can seem even harder, even though it’s a thin line among the top 20 players.

“It’s fractions you’re talking about,” McIlroy said. “Sometimes you can feel further away than you actually are. But again, that’s the great thing about this game. You’re only a couple of weeks away from feeling really good about yourself and getting some good finishes and getting some momen tum on your side.

“It didn’t concern me that I

dropped out of the top 10 for a cou ple of weeks last year, but again, being used to the position in the world of golf that I am, it probably made me feel further away than I actually was.”

Since the world ranking be gan in April 1986, only three oth er players have been at No. 1 lon ger than McIlroy — Woods (683 weeks), Greg Norman (331 weeks) and Dustin Johnson (135 weeks). McIlroy begins his 107th week this year, and the way he’s going, it might stay that way for at least the rest of the year.

McIlroy always says staying at No. 1 can be tougher than getting there. He might make an excep tion this time. From a bad Ryder Cup to his lowest world ranking since turning 21, from not being able to order room service, this felt like a long time coming.

The 33-year-old is back on top of men’s golf for the first time in more than two years

The co-CEO and wife of Washington owner Dan Snyder ended a rally with “Hail to the Redskins”

2Shutout wins for Albemarle this season after the Bulldogs blanked Union Academy 34-0

“Hail to the Redskins! And let’s beat Green Bay.”

Tanya Snyder, co-CEO of the Commanders

STEPHEN B. MORTON | AP PHOTO

McIlroy’s road back to No. 1 felt longer than it really was

Rory McIlroy, left, celebrates with his caddie after winning the CJ Cup on Sunday in Ridgeland, South Carolina.

AL DRAGO |

AP PHOTO

Tanya Snyder, Washington Commanders co-owner and co-CEO, speaks before the team’s game Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

Murdaugh uses public docs to sow doubt he killed wife, son

By Jeffrey Collins The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Months after accusing disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh of killing his wife and son, South Carolina investiga tors and prosecutors have released few details about the evidence that they believe connect him to the shootings

That’s led Murdaugh’s lawyers to file a flurry of court documents requesting information from the prosecution, seeking to publicly weaken the case before the Janu ary trial has begun.

The defense attorneys argue that there was unknown DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fin gernails. They also have a different suspect, Murdaugh’s friend Curtis Eddie Smith, arguing that he failed a lie detector test regarding the killings. Murdaugh has already ad mitted to asking Smith to arrange Murdaugh’s own death to defraud his life insurance company.

Those defense documents even boosted a story from Smith that prosecutors later said had no ev idence to back it up — that Paul Murdaugh killed his mother, Mag gie, when he caught her with a groundskeeper at the family’s Col leton County hunting lodge and the groundskeeper then shot the son.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, has pro claimed his innocence ever since June 2021, when he found the bod ies, each shot several times. He has said through his lawyer he “loved them more than anything in the world.”

It took more than 13 months for authorities to indict Murdaugh on two counts of murder and his trial is set to begin Jan. 23 after defense attorneys asked to hold it as quick

ly as possible.

Even after the charges, prosecu tors and investigators have released little on how they linked Murdaugh to the deaths or why a man who had no criminal history and was part of a wealthy, well-connect ed family that dominated the le gal community in tiny Hampton County might have wanted to kill his own family members.

In the months since the deaths, Murdaugh’s life has crumbled. He was fired from the law firm found ed by his family for stealing money and then lost his law license. Pros ecutors said he was a drug addict who helped run a money launder ing and pain killer ring and stole about $8 million from settlements for wrongful death or injury he se cured for mostly poor clients.

As part of the back and forth about evidence in the upcoming murder trial, prosecutors have di vulged slightly more of their case. Notably, there is a cellphone vid

eo of Murdaugh, his wife and son near dog kennels around 8:44 p.m. the night they are killed. Cellphone data indicates Murdaugh left at 9:06 p.m. and his frantic 911 call to report he found the bodies near the kennels came at 10:06 p.m.

Murdaugh’s attorneys have re quested a FBI report analyzing all the cellphone data, saying such re cords are crucial to their defense.

“There is nothing to indicate ... in the next 20 minutes, he butch ers his son and wife, executes both of them in a brutal way,” defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said. “He’s then on the phone talking to another lawyer from his car in a very convivial way.”

The defense also said they need ed more complete gunshot residue reports after a few particles were found on Murdaugh. His attorney claim the particles likely landed on his clothing when he picked up a gun to protect himself after finding the bodies.

Authorities have not tested Smith’s DNA and the defense said it has no findings from the source of genetic material found on the clothing of the victims.

Murdaugh’s defense also wants complete notes from a blood spat ter report after a small amount of his wife’s blood was found on his shirt. The lawyers said the blood came when Murdaugh “frantically attended his wife’s bloody corpse.”

Prosecutors insisted they turned over every bit of evidence they have and what’s missing is mostly in complete reports. They said the de fense was aware of that when they had a friendly conversation just be fore the motions were filed.

“This manner of conducting liti gation says a lot about the defense’s true motives,” South Carolina Dep uty Attorney General Creighton Waters wrote in his response.

It’s clear from the pretrial backand-forth that the prosecution does not have any eyewitnesses or video of how Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, were killed on June 7, 2021. But prosecutors said people are frequently convict ed through scientific evidence and circumstances that put them near the scene or give them a motivation for wrongdoing.

“If every murder case needed a confession and an eyewitness, it would be open season out there,” Waters said in court Thursday.

In the months before his mur der trial, Murdaugh’s lawyers are focusing on Smith, who authorities said was supposed to shoot Mur daugh on the side of a lonely high way in September 2021.

Murdaugh allegedly planned his own killing so his surviving son could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy. In the end, Smith

Control of US Senate could come down to tight Nevada race

By Rebecca Boone The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — A frenzied race for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat is shaping up to be one of the closest in the country and both candidates hope their messages on abortion, immigration, inflation or public safety will tip the balance in their favor.

The stakes for Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Lax alt are especially high. The winner could determine which party con trols the Senate and the GOP con siders Nevada one of its best oppor tunities to turn a blue seat into red.

The race has become increasing ly neck-and-neck in recent weeks, with many polls showing the can didates just a percentage point or two apart. As Election Day draws near, both are continuing to fol low the same campaign playbooks as their national parties, with Cor tez Masto rallying voters around threats to abortion access and Lax alt focusing on the economy.

“We don’t need any more male politicians telling women what we can and can’t do with our own bodies,” Cortez Masto wrote in a post pinned to the top of her Twit ter account in September. She has echoed the refrain in several cam paign ads, contending Laxalt would support increased abortion restrictions — and perhaps a na tionwide ban — if elected to Con gress.

Laxalt, meanwhile, has the en dorsement of the anti-abortion group National Right to Life and has called himself “pro-life.” In a June news release, Laxalt called the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision

overturning Roe v. Wade “a historic victory for the sanctity of life.”

He has said the change is “settled law” because Nevada voters had al ready made abortion legal, but he also expressed support for a refer endum that would restrict abor tion after 13 weeks instead of the 24-week limit currently allowed by the state constitution.

If the Republican Party can flip just one Senate seat, they will win control of the chamber, along with the power to control judicial nomi nations and policy debates through 2024.

Still, Laxalt’s campaign has

worked to keep the focus on issues like immigration and the economy rather than abortion. He has re peatedly cited rising gas prices and inflation as reasons voters should choose him over Cortez Masto.

“At some gas stations in Reno, gas prices have soared to $7 per gallon,” his campaign wrote in an early October news release. The statement attempted to pin the prices on Cortez Masto’s votes on energy issues, such as her efforts to limit oil and gas leasing on lands with “low or no” potential for devel opment.

Cortez Masto is a member of the

Senate Energy and Natural Re sources Committee, as well as the finance, Indian affairs and bank ing, housing and urban affairs committees.

Both candidates have used their experience as former attorneys general — Laxalt from 2015 to 2019 and Cortez Masto from 2007 to 2015 before becoming senator in 2017 — to demonstrate their sup port for law enforcement.

Laxalt has been endorsed by the Nevada Fraternal Order of Police and the Public Safety Alliance of Nevada. Cortez Masto has the en dorsement of the Nevada Police

said the gun fired as he and Mur daugh fought over the weapon, the bullet only grazing Murdaugh’s head.

Smith’s attorneys say he did not kill Maggie or Paul Murdaugh. They argue Alex Murdaugh’s law yers are looking for anyone else to blame for the killings, so they have seized on a lie detector test where Smith allegedly showed a reaction when asked if he shot the victims or was present when they were killed.

Murdaugh’s lawyers said Smith knew the area around the dog ken nels where the bodies were found because they were a drug drop. They also point out Smith’s DNA had not been tested as of mid-Oc tober.

“I’m not saying he did it. I’m just saying it certainly sounds like he could have done it,” Harpootlian said.

Prosecutors have pointed out that spike during the test could have been an emotional reaction as a result of Smith feeling guilty about the circumstances leading up to the crime, even if he had no involvement. They said Smith’s DNA is being tested now and re sults of lie detector tests aren’t ad missible in court by themselves.

Murdaugh’s attorneys also used court papers to make public a sto ry Smith said he heard about Mag gie Murdaugh’s affair directly lead ing to the killings. It didn’t explain how the groundskeeper avoided ar rest or detection in the 16 months since.

Prosecutors in court papers called it “salacious scuttlebutt that is offensive to the memory of his victims.”

“It’s very telling they want to make this case about Eddie Smith,” Waters said.

Union, the Nevada Law Enforce ment Coalition and the Nevada As sociation of Public Safety Officers.

In early October, Cortez Mas to announced she helped to secure more than $21 million in feder al funding that would go to police departments, state government agencies and tribes to boost law enforcement efforts and criminal justice programs.

They have each have sought to court veterans, with Laxalt high lighting his service as a U.S. Navy judge advocate general in Iraq and an assistant professor of law at the U.S. Naval Academy. Cortez Mas to has talked about legislation she helped get through Congress, in cluding a bill guaranteeing health benefits and compensation for vet erans exposed to Agent Orange and others to protect VA benefits for student veterans and improve access to mental health services.

Cortez Masto has raised more than $44 million and spent all but about $5 million by the end of Sep tember, according to OpenSecrets, an organization that tracks cam paign finance and spending data.

Laxalt brought in more than $13 million and spent about $9 million during the same time period but was aided by an influx of political action committee funding. Outside groups spent more than $39 mil lion opposing Cortez Masto and roughly $29 million opposing Lax alt, according to OpenSecrets.

Nevada has rejected every GOP presidential candidate since 2004, but by increasingly narrow mar gins. In 2020, President Joe Biden won by only 2.4 percentage points.

Laxalt has close ties to Trump as he co-chaired Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign in Nevada. Trump has visited Nevada twice to stump for Laxalt and GOP guber natorial candidate Joe Lombardo, who is running against Democrat ic Gov. Steve Sisolak.

AP PHOTO

This combination of photos shows Nevada Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt speaking on Aug. 4, 2022, in Las Vegas, left, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., speaking on April 26, 2022, in Washington, right.

PHOTO VIA AP

Alex Murdaugh, center, talks with his defense attorney Dick Harpootlian after a hearing in Colleton County on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022.

Rev. Kenneth William Martin

August 1, 1949 - October 22, 2022

Rev. Kenneth William Martin, 73, of Albemarle entered the gates of Heaven and laid his eyes on his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Saturday, October 22, 2022.

Born August 1, 1949 in Waltham, MA, he was the son of the late Clarence O. Martin and Phyllis Atkinson Martin. He was a graduate of Fruitland Bible Institute in 1980 and served as a minister for over 45 years. He served churches in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Rev. Martin loved serving the Lord and was honored to lead thousands to Christ during his ministry. He was a loving husband, father, papaw, and pops.

Rev. Martin is survived by the love of his life for almost 50 years, Diane Todd Martin of the home, two children Kristin Cline and husband Jody of Locust and Blake Martin and wife Jamie of Locust, a brother Neil Martin and wife Mary of Florida, and two grandchildren, for whom he said he always had a soft spot in his heart, Reagan Umberger and Camryn Umberger.

The family requests that those wishing to make memorials in Rev. Martin's honor, do so to the NC Baptist Children's Home, 204

obituaries

Claudine Basinger Hinson

August 4, 1932 - October 16, 2022

Claudine Basinger Hinson, 90, of Albemarle, passed Sunday, October 16, 2022 away in her home.

Mrs. Hinson was born August 4, 1932 in Stanly County, NC to the late Walter Monroe Basinger and Ramona Iris Culp Basinger. She was the owner of Hinsons Poultry and had a mind for business. Mrs. Hinson was a very giving person and she loved working in her garden. Claudine was a member of Pine Grove Methodist Church.

Claudine was preceded in death by her husband, Max. M. Hinson on April 10, 2022 and a son, David Hinson.

She is survived by a son, Richard Hinson (Shelia) of Albemarle; daughter-in-law, Robin Hinson of Albemarle; granddaughter, Ginny Seedhom (Rani); grandson, Parker Hinson (Makayla) and great granddaughter, Alette Seedhom.

Mildred Bowers Russell

August 19, 1929 - October 18, 2022

Mildred Bowers Russell, 93, of Albemarle passed away on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in Woodhaven Court.

Born August 19, 1929 in Stanly County, NC she was the daughter of the late Claude Houston Bowers Sr. and Ellen Catherine Allen Bowers. She attended Catawba College and Morgan Business School. Mildred retired from Collins and Aikman as a purchasing agent. She was a member of Union Chapel United Methodist Church.

She was preceded in death by her husband Carl Lawson Russell and son Carl Lynn Russell.

Survivors include a sister Carolyn Bowers Russell of Albemarle and sisters-in-law Marie Bowers and Merle Bowers as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

Mildred is also preceded in death by three brothers, William Bowers, Robert Bowers and C.H. Bowers.

Nancy Pauline "Polly" Furr

February 25, 1944 - October 17, 2022

Nancy Pauline “Polly” Furr, 78, of Albemarle, NC, passed away peacefully on October 17, 2022, after a brief battle with cancer.

Polly was born on February 25, 1944 in Stanly County, NC to the late Reather Cornelius Furr, Sr. and the late Gladys Taylor Furr. She was a classically trained fine artist, brilliant illustrator, and independent thinker. After graduating Albemarle High School, she was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, earning her BFA in commercial design.

She lived an artist’s life, creating countless logos and ads, while receiving national and industry awards for her work.

She was also preceded in death by her brothers, Reather Cornelius “RC” Furr, Jr. and Roland Anthony Furr, and sister-inlaw Phyllis Marbry Furr, nieces, Susan Furr Underwood, Caroline Furr Norton and nephew, A. Wayne Furr.

She is survived by sister-in-law, Frances Ingram Furr, and nieces and nephews Cornetha Furr Holcomb, Arthur L. Furr, Henry C. Furr, Kelvin C. Furr, Audrey Furr Lowder and many great nieces and nephews.

Brenda Thompson

December 21, 1948 ~ October 21, 2022

Brenda Lefler Thompson 73 of Mt. Gilead died Friday Morning, October 21, 2022 at LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville, Tenn.

Brenda was born December 21, 1948 in Richmond County to the late Harvey Dillion and Sadie Ross Thompson Lefler. She was a textile retiree and a member of Whitecrest Baptist Church.

She is survived by her husband Wayne “Whitey” Thompson of the home. One son, Barry Ross Thompson (Tammy) of Albemarle. Two brothers, Jim Lefler (Martha) of Mt. Gilead and Mike Lefler (Vickie) of Troy.

Her Mother-in;law, Mae Bell Thompson of Albemarle. Three grandchildren, Megan, Gage and Spencer Thompson and three great-grandchildren, Malachi, Mila and Kennedy Thompson.

She was preceded in death by her son, Darrell Wayne Thompson and nine brothers and sisters, Edna Thompson, Dorothy Brookshire, Rachel Bowles, Jan Dangler, Kay Moore, Flossie Harris, Bob Lefler, Jerry Lefler and Janie Byrd.

Mary Mabry

June 26, 1939 ~ October 20, 2022

Mary Foreman Mabry 83 of Nor wood died Thursday Afternoon, Oc tober 20, 2022 at her home.

Mary was born June 26, 1939 in Stanly County to the late Charles Henderson and Nellie Drye Fore man. She was a homemaker and a member of Silver Springs Baptist Church.

She is survived by her husband Banks Mabry of the home. One daughter, Evette Mabry Austin (Rodney) of Marshville and one son, Wesley Banks Mabry of Norwood. One brother, Junior Foreman (Glen da) of Norwood and Hilda Kimrey of Oakboro. Three grandchildren, Seth Austin (Loren), Kenneth Austin (Emily) and Kathryn Austin. One great-granddaughter, Sadie Dawn Austin.

She was preceded in death by six brothers and two sisters, Jim, Ted, Rayvon, Fred, Frank and Jerry Foreman, Molly Adkins and Barba ra Britt.

Robert John McCabe

June 13, 1953 - October 17, 2022

Robert John McCabe, 69, of New London, passed away Monday, October 17, 2022 at Atrium Health Cabarrus.

Mr. McCabe was born June 13, 1953 in Somerville, NJ to the late John Jerome McCabe and Betty Marie Ketrow McCabe. He was the Vice President of Wade Door Services, and he worked in Albemarle with Advance Auto Parts. Robert loved working outdoors and cooking. Mr. McCabe worked with the Highland Games, and he had a deep-down laugh. He attended Palestine United Methodist Church.

Robert is survived by his wife, Darlene Almond McCabe of the home. He is also survived by two sons, Jason McCabe of Elsworth, ME and Coty McCabe (Jennifer) of Albemarle, NC; two daughters, Melissa McCabe of NC and Bobbie Brown (Will) of Maiden, NC; two brothers, Raymond McCabe (Darlene) of Monmouth Junction, NJ and Dennis McCabe (Nancy) of Jim Thorpe, PA; three sisters, Eleanor Belmonte (Charles) of Spring Hill, FL, Donna Loggia (Mario) of Spring Hill, FL and Cindy Agluar (Omar) of Bound Brook, NJ; nine grandchildren, J.D. McCabe, Ashley Jensen, James Hubbard, Hailey McCabe, Maya McCabe, Belle McCabe, Ava Thompson, Liam Brown and Bristol Brown and four great grandchildren, Jaden Mc Cabe, Emmette Poe, Sofia Jenson and Braden Hubbard.

The family requests that donations be made to, Stanly Funeral and Cremation Care of Albemarle, P.O. Box 207, Albemarle, NC 28002 to assist with the funeral expenses.

Kenneth Gene Russell

July 16, 1934 - October 17, 2022

Kenneth Gene Russell, 88, of Albemarle passed away in his home on Monday, October 17, 2022. Born on July 16, 1934 in Stanly County, NC, he was the son of the late Ora Lowder Russell and Jetter J. Russell. He was a member of Congregational Christian Church where he served as Chairman of the Official Board, Chairman of the Deacons, Member of the Trustee Board, Choir Member, Sunday School Teacher, and Church Treasurer. He was the Manager of Carolina Tire Co. for 25 years and Co-Owner of Russell's of Albemarle (Economy Auto Supply). He was a veteran of the US Army and was both a Mason (Albemarle Lodge #703 A. F. and A. M.) and a Shriner. In addition, Mr. Russell coached many softball and basketball teams: Men's, Women's, middle school, high school teams and also served as President of the Albemarle Band Boosters and was a member for many years.

He was preceded in death by his wife Carlene Doby Russell in 2017. Survivors include Debra Russell Eudy (Lynn) of Albemarle and Lisa Russell Talbert (Oscar) of Albemarle, five grandchildren Ryan Eudy, Meleah Oliver, Derek Almond, Kaleigh Turner, and McKinley Almond, and six greatgrandchildren Jayden Oliver, Ella Eudy, Peyton Oliver, Bryn Turner, Cory Eudy, and Aaron Turner.

Mary Mabry

June 26, 1939 ~ October 20, 2022

Mary Foreman Mabry 83 of Norwood died Thursday Afternoon, October 20, 2022 at her home.

Allen Austin May 19, 1951 ~ October 14, 2022

Allen Ray Austin, 71, of Monroe, passed away Friday, October 14, 2022.

Allen was born on May 19, 1951 to the late Cecil Ray and Geraldine Little Austin. He graduated from West Stanly High School in 1969. He was a member at Hopewell Baptist Church.

In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his son, Landon Ray Austin, brother Gerald Austin, and brother in law, Rex Burleson.

He is survived by his family, Kara Austin, Matthew Cripps, Sandra Burleson, Shane Burleson, Tina Eudy, and Kodi Smith Austin.

Mary was born June 26, 1939 in Stanly County to the late Charles Henderson and Nellie Drye Foreman. She was a homemaker and a member of Silver Springs Baptist Church.

She is survived by her husband Banks Mabry of the home. One daughter, Evette Mabry Austin (Rodney) of Marshville and one son, Wesley Banks Mabry of Norwood. One brother, Junior Foreman (Glenda) of Norwood and Hilda Kimrey of Oakboro. Three grandchildren, Seth Austin (Loren), Kenneth Austin (Emily) and Kathryn Austin. One greatgranddaughter, Sadie Dawn Austin.

She was preceded in death by six brothers and two sisters, Jim, Ted, Rayvon, Fred, Frank and Jerry Foreman, Molly Adkins and Barbara Britt.

Rev. Kenneth William Martin

August 1, 1949 - October 22, 2022

Rev. Kenneth William Martin, 73, of Albemarle entered the gates of Heaven and laid his eyes on his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Saturday, October 22, 2022.

Born August 1, 1949 in Waltham, MA, he was the son of the late Clarence O. Martin and Phyllis Atkinson Martin. He was a graduate of Fruitland Bible Institute in 1980 and served as a minister for over 45 years. He served churches in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Rev. Martin loved serving the Lord and was honored to lead thousands to Christ during his ministry. He was a loving husband, father, papaw, and pops.

Rev. Martin is survived by the love of his life for almost 50 years, Diane Todd Martin of the home, two children Kristin Cline and husband Jody of Locust and Blake Martin and wife Jamie of Locust, a brother Neil Martin and wife Mary of Florida, and two grandchildren, for whom he said he always had a soft spot in his heart, Reagan Umberger and Camryn Umberger.

The family requests that those wishing to make memorials in Rev. Martin's honor, do so to the NC Baptist Children's Home, 204

obituaries

Claudine Basinger Hinson

August 4, 1932 - October 16, 2022

Claudine Basinger Hinson, 90, of Albemarle, passed Sunday, October 16, 2022 away in her home.

Mrs. Hinson was born August 4, 1932 in Stanly County, NC to the late Walter Monroe Basinger and Ramona Iris Culp Basinger. She was the owner of Hinsons Poultry and had a mind for business. Mrs. Hinson was a very giving person and she loved working in her garden. Claudine was a member of Pine Grove Methodist Church.

Claudine was preceded in death by her husband, Max. M. Hinson on April 10, 2022 and a son, David Hinson.

She is survived by a son, Richard Hinson (Shelia) of Albemarle; daughter-in-law, Robin Hinson of Albemarle; granddaughter, Ginny Seedhom (Rani); grandson, Parker Hinson (Makayla) and great granddaughter, Alette Seedhom.

Mildred Bowers Russell

August 19, 1929 - October 18, 2022

Mildred Bowers Russell, 93, of Albemarle passed away on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in Woodhaven Court.

Born August 19, 1929 in Stanly County, NC she was the daughter of the late Claude Houston Bowers Sr. and Ellen Catherine Allen Bowers. She attended Catawba College and Morgan Business School. Mildred retired from Collins and Aikman as a purchasing agent. She was a member of Union Chapel United Methodist Church.

She was preceded in death by her husband Carl Lawson Russell and son Carl Lynn Russell.

Survivors include a sister Carolyn Bowers Russell of Albemarle and sisters-in-law Marie Bowers and Merle Bowers as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

Mildred is also preceded in death by three brothers, William Bowers, Robert Bowers and C.H. Bowers.

Nancy Pauline "Polly" Furr

February 25, 1944 - October 17, 2022

Nancy Pauline “Polly” Furr, 78, of Albemarle, NC, passed away peacefully on October 17, 2022, after a brief battle with cancer.

Polly was born on February 25, 1944 in Stanly County, NC to the late Reather Cornelius Furr, Sr. and the late Gladys Taylor Furr. She was a classically trained fine artist, brilliant illustrator, and independent thinker. After graduating Albemarle High School, she was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, earning her BFA in commercial design.

She lived an artist’s life, creating countless logos and ads, while receiving national and industry awards for her work.

She was also preceded in death by her brothers, Reather Cornelius “RC” Furr, Jr. and Roland Anthony Furr, and sister-inlaw Phyllis Marbry Furr, nieces, Susan Furr Underwood, Caroline Furr Norton and nephew, A. Wayne Furr.

She is survived by sister-in-law, Frances Ingram Furr, and nieces and nephews Cornetha Furr Holcomb, Arthur L. Furr, Henry C. Furr, Kelvin C. Furr, Audrey Furr Lowder and many great nieces and nephews.

Brenda Thompson

December 21, 1948 ~ October 21, 2022

Brenda Lefler Thompson 73 of Mt. Gilead died Friday Morning, October 21, 2022 at LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville, Tenn.

Brenda was born December 21, 1948 in Richmond County to the late Harvey Dillion and Sadie Ross Thompson Lefler. She was a textile retiree and a member of Whitecrest Baptist Church.

She is survived by her husband Wayne “Whitey” Thompson of the home. One son, Barry Ross Thompson (Tammy) of Albemarle. Two brothers, Jim Lefler (Martha) of Mt. Gilead and Mike Lefler (Vickie) of Troy.

Her Mother-in;law, Mae Bell Thompson of Albemarle. Three grandchildren, Megan, Gage and Spencer Thompson and three great-grandchildren, Malachi, Mila and Kennedy Thompson.

She was preceded in death by her son, Darrell Wayne Thompson and nine brothers and sisters, Edna Thompson, Dorothy Brookshire, Rachel Bowles, Jan Dangler, Kay Moore, Flossie Harris, Bob Lefler, Jerry Lefler and Janie Byrd.

Mary Mabry June 26, 1939 ~ October 20, 2022

Mary Foreman Mabry 83 of Nor wood died Thursday Afternoon, Oc tober 20, 2022 at her home.

Mary was born June 26, 1939 in Stanly County to the late Charles Henderson and Nellie Drye Fore man. She was a homemaker and a member of Silver Springs Baptist Church.

She is survived by her husband Banks Mabry of the home. One daughter, Evette Mabry Austin (Rodney) of Marshville and one son, Wesley Banks Mabry of Norwood. One brother, Junior Foreman (Glen da) of Norwood and Hilda Kimrey of Oakboro. Three grandchildren, Seth Austin (Loren), Kenneth Austin (Emily) and Kathryn Austin. One great-granddaughter, Sadie Dawn Austin.

She was preceded in death by six brothers and two sisters, Jim, Ted, Rayvon, Fred, Frank and Jerry Foreman, Molly Adkins and Barba ra Britt.

Robert John McCabe

June 13, 1953 - October 17, 2022

Robert John McCabe, 69, of New London, passed away Monday, October 17, 2022 at Atrium Health Cabarrus.

Mr. McCabe was born June 13, 1953 in Somerville, NJ to the late John Jerome McCabe and Betty Marie Ketrow McCabe. He was the Vice President of Wade Door Services, and he worked in Albemarle with Advance Auto Parts. Robert loved working outdoors and cooking. Mr. McCabe worked with the Highland Games, and he had a deep-down laugh. He attended Palestine United Methodist Church.

Robert is survived by his wife, Darlene Almond McCabe of the home. He is also survived by two sons, Jason McCabe of Elsworth, ME and Coty McCabe (Jennifer) of Albemarle, NC; two daughters, Melissa McCabe of NC and Bobbie Brown (Will) of Maiden, NC; two brothers, Raymond McCabe (Darlene) of Monmouth Junction, NJ and Dennis McCabe (Nancy) of Jim Thorpe, PA; three sisters, Eleanor Belmonte (Charles) of Spring Hill, FL, Donna Loggia (Mario) of Spring Hill, FL and Cindy Agluar (Omar) of Bound Brook, NJ; nine grandchildren, J.D. McCabe, Ashley Jensen, James Hubbard, Hailey McCabe, Maya McCabe, Belle McCabe, Ava Thompson, Liam Brown and Bristol Brown and four great grandchildren, Jaden Mc Cabe, Emmette Poe, Sofia Jenson and Braden Hubbard.

The family requests that donations be made to, Stanly Funeral and Cremation Care of Albemarle, P.O. Box 207, Albemarle, NC 28002 to assist with the funeral expenses.

Kenneth Gene Russell

July 16, 1934 - October 17, 2022

Kenneth Gene Russell, 88, of Albemarle passed away in his home on Monday, October 17, 2022. Born on July 16, 1934 in Stanly County, NC, he was the son of the late Ora Lowder Russell and Jetter J. Russell. He was a member of Congregational Christian Church where he served as Chairman of the Official Board, Chairman of the Deacons, Member of the Trustee Board, Choir Member, Sunday School Teacher, and Church Treasurer. He was the Manager of Carolina Tire Co. for 25 years and Co-Owner of Russell's of Albemarle (Economy Auto Supply). He was a veteran of the US Army and was both a Mason (Albemarle Lodge #703 A. F. and A. M.) and a Shriner. In addition, Mr. Russell coached many softball and basketball teams: Men's, Women's, middle school, high school teams and also served as President of the Albemarle Band Boosters and was a member for many years.

He was preceded in death by his wife Carlene Doby Russell in 2017. Survivors include Debra Russell Eudy (Lynn) of Albemarle and Lisa Russell Talbert (Oscar) of Albemarle, five grandchildren Ryan Eudy, Meleah Oliver, Derek Almond, Kaleigh Turner, and McKinley Almond, and six greatgrandchildren Jayden Oliver, Ella Eudy, Peyton Oliver, Bryn Turner, Cory Eudy, and Aaron Turner.

Allen Austin May 19, 1951 ~ October 14, 2022

Allen Ray Austin, 71, of Monroe, passed away Friday, October 14, 2022.

Allen was born on May 19, 1951 to the late Cecil Ray and Geraldine Little Austin. He graduated from West Stanly High School in 1969. He was a member at Hopewell Baptist Church.

In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his son, Landon Ray Austin, brother Gerald Austin, and brother in law, Rex Burleson.

He is survived by his family, Kara Austin, Matthew Cripps, Sandra Burleson, Shane Burleson, Tina Eudy, and Kodi Smith Austin.

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in SCJ at obits@ stanlyjournal.com

STATE & NATION

Biden juggling long list of issues to please Dem coalition

By Colleen Long The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Presi dent Joe Biden wants to tame infla tion. He wants Congress to protect access to abortions. He wants to tackle voting rights. And he’s taking on China, promoting construction of new factories, addressing climate change, forgiving student debt, par doning federal marijuana convic tions, cutting the deficit, working to lower prescription drug prices and funneling aid to Ukraine.

Biden is trying to be everything to everyone. But that’s making it hard for him to say he’s focused on any single issue above all others as he tries to counter Republican mo mentum going into the Nov. 8 elec tions.

“There’s no one thing,” Biden said when questioned about his top pri ority.

“There’s multiple, multiple, multiple issues, and they’re all im portant. ... We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. You know, that old expres sion.”

Biden’s exhaustive to-do list is a recognition that the coalition of Democratic voters he needs to turn out Election Day is diverse in terms of race, age, education and geog raphy. This pool of voters has an expansive list of overlapping and competing interests on crime, civ il rights, climate change, the feder al budget and other issues.

The Republican candidates try ing to end Democratic control of Congress are narrowly directing messaging on the economy, crime and immigration.

In the 2020 election, AP Vote

Cast suggests, Biden drew dispro portionate support from women, black voters, voters younger than 45, college graduates and city dwell ers and suburbanites. But in mid term elections that normally fa vor the party not holding the White House, it requires Biden to appeal to all those constituencies.

“Coherence and cohesion have al ways been a challenge for the mod ern Democratic Party that relies on a coalition that crosses racial, eth nic, religious and class lines,” said Daniel Cox, a senior fellow in poll ing and public opinion at the con

servative American Enterprise Institute. “It takes considerable po litical talent to maintain a coalition with diverse interests and back grounds. Barack Obama managed to do it, but subsequent Democrats have struggled.”

Biden devoted his public remarks last week to abortion, gasoline pric es, infrastructure and student debt forgiveness.

Cox said there are signs that Biden’s 2020 coalition is fracturing, with younger liberal voters not that enamored with him, and he does not appear to have done much to

shore up Hispanic support.

But compared with 2016, when Trump won the presidency, Biden made relative progress with one prominent bloc that generally favors Republicans: white voters without a college degree, as he won 33% of their votes compared with 28% who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to a 2021 analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Keeping those voters in the Dem ocratic coalition could be essential for maintaining control of the Sen ate.

Biden has traveled repeatedly

Control of Congress: What’s at play in the 2022 midterms?

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dem ocrats have held both chambers of Congress and the presiden cy for the last two years, but they may not have such consolidated power for much longer.

Republicans are favored to win the House in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, bolstered by frustra tion over the economy and advan tages in the redistricting process that takes place every 10 years. But Democrats are working to hold their ground, campaigning on maintaining access to abor tion and other issues.

The outlook is murkier in the Senate, where Republicans are bidding to take back control. Sev eral races in key battleground states are tight, leading Senate Republican leader Mitch McCon nell to say the chances of his par ty winning a majority are just 5050.

A look at control of Congress and what will happen if Repub licans win a majority in either chamber in the election: What if the House flips?

Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have held the majority since 2018, when they won control in then-Presi dent Donald Trump’s first mid term election. Republicans could take back the House if they net

just five seats in dozens of com petitive districts, and they are trying to win dozens.

History also gives Republicans reason for optimism. In the mod ern era, the party that’s held the White House has lost congressio nal seats in virtually every firstterm president’s midterm elec tion.

If Republicans win the House

What would a GOP House mean for Biden?

Democratic priorities like ac cess to abortion, addressing cli

mate change and stricter gun control would immediately be sidelined. And most, if not all, of President Joe Biden’s agenda would be effectively dead for the final two years of his term.

Still, nothing becomes law without Biden’s signature. Bills to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and deal with mili tary issues are necessary for gov ernment to function. Those bills are likely to become flashpoints in negotiations between the GOP, Democrats and the White House.

Biden, who served in the Sen ate for decades, has often tout ed his bipartisan credentials and said he wants to work with Re publicans. But there would be little appetite for that in a GOP Congress that has made opposi tion to Biden its top priority.

What about the Senate?

While the Senate could tilt ei ther way after the midterm elec tions, the majority party is still likely to have the slimmest of margins. That means Biden will be able to find a bit more common ground there, no matter who is in charge. Much of Biden’s legis lative achievements in office have been the byproduct of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.

Still, a Republican-led Sen ate could pass bills sent over by a GOP House, putting political pressure on Biden. And the GOP

to Pennsylvania, campaigning for Senate nominee John Fetterman with the goal of picking up a seat in the state.

“Democrats need to hold on to as much of that bloc as possible, espe cially in key whiter states like Penn sylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin,” said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The test for Democrats is how to address broader concerns about the economy and inflation that affect everyone, while also highlighting the specific issues that could ener gize various segments of their base. That can involve trade-offs.

As Republicans have made crime a national issue, Biden’s message that he backs the police could help with white voters. But it could also turn off younger voters in Senate races in Georgia and Florida who believe the police are part of the problem, said Alvin Tillery Jr., a professor at Northwestern Univer sity and director of its Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy.

Tillery said he doesn’t know how the president can bridge those dif ferences, though Biden could be in a better position to focus on the policing overhaul that Democrats tried to negotiate with Republicans — only to be unable to reach a con sensus that would be able to clear a GOP filibuster.

“Maybe they’ve blunted some Re publican attacks, but they’ve also softened support for people who turned out for them in the 2020 election,” Tillery said. “I don’t know how they solve for that, except to say they need to be more vigorous in saying the things they wanted to achieve were blocked in the Senate.”

would regain control of commit tees and, with it, the power to conduct investigations and over sight of the administration.

A Republican Senate could also make life difficult for Biden by blocking or delaying passage of the president’s judicial and execu tive branch nominees.

What if Democrats win?

If Democrats were to hold the Senate and Republicans win the House, the two chambers would be unlikely to find much common ground. But Republicans could try to win over Democratic Sen ate moderates on some legisla tion.

If Democrats were able to keep the House and the Senate, they would likely restart negotiations on some of Biden’s agenda items that were never passed, includ ing his new package of social and economic programs that stalled amid internal Democratic dis agreements.

What does the House map look like?

The majority of House dis tricts aren’t competitive, thanks to a redistricting process that al lows state legislatures to draw their own congressional lines if they decide to. Many legislatures draw lines to give advantages to one party or the other.

Still, dozens of seats are in play, including many of those held by Democrats who won in suburban districts in 2018, winning the ma jority for the party that year.

on Nov. 8, the GOP caucus will elect a new speaker and take pow er on Jan. 3, 2023. They will run every committee and decide what bills come to the House floor.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE |

AP PHOTO

President Joe Biden speaks about deficit reduction in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., Friday, Oct. 21, 2022.

AP PHOTO

The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.

Randolph record

COUNTY NEWS

Lancaster Upholstery Inc. to relocate and expand

Lancaster Inc., a luxury upholstery maker in Archdale, is planning to relocate and expand with a $5 million investment in a new North Carolina facility. According to the company, they are looking to build a 60,000-square-foot plant, which is three times the size of their current location. Once Lancaster relocated, the business is expecting to create an additional 27 new jobs with an average annual salary of $46,000 over five years, in addition to maintaining their current 25 full-time employees. According to the Economic Development Corporation, this expansion will generate opportunities for jobs in farming, sewing, upholstery, marketing, customer care, and management, as well as benefit local suppliers to the company. The new facility will be constructed on Archdale Road and is expected to be operational by 2024.

Man arrested for attempting throw woman from moving vehicle

A man is currently facing charges after allegedly attempting to push a woman out of a moving vehicle. The incident, according to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, took place on Wednesday, October 12. Randolph County Communications received a 911 call from the woman in question, and dispatchers claim they heard the woman and a man arguing before losing contact. Moments later, the woman called from a different phone number and informed deputies of her location.

Gregory Lopez Tadeo, 29, was arrested and charged with felonious restraint, misdemeanor assault on a female, misdemeanor injury to personal property, and misdemeanor interfering with emergency communication.

Tadeo was taken to the Randolph County Detention Center, where he was also served an outstanding order for arrest for failure to appear on a felony charge. Tadeo was given a $30,000 total secured bond between all of his charges.

Early voting continues in Randolph County

Randolph Record

ASHEBORO — More than 4,000 Randolph County resi dents cast ballots across the first three days of early voting for next month’s general election.

Voting opened last Thursday, with 1,858 voters heading to the polls on the first day.

Another 1,799 people cast bal lots Friday, and then 599 cast bal lots Saturday.

Each day, the largest turnout came at the Randolph County Board of Elections headquarters in Asheboro. Those totals were 800, 724, and 194.

The next-busiest location was the old Braxton Craven School in Trinity, with a total of 1,186.

The Randleman Civic Center drew 663 voters, and Franklin ville United Methodist Church had 689 voters.

Early voting continues at those locations through November 5. Election day is November 8, which is when voters must vote at their designated precinct.

Here are the early voting loca tions for Randolph County:

• Randolph County Board of Elections Office at 1457 N Fayetteville St., Asheboro, NC 27203

• Braxton Craven School Gym at 7037 NC Hwy 62, Trinity, NC 27370.

• Franklinville United Methodist Church at 227 W. Main St., Franklinville, NC 27248.

• Randleman Civic Center at 122 Commerce Sq., Randleman, NC 27317.

Hours of Operation:

• Monday through Friday: 8:00 am until 7:30 pm,

• Saturday October 22 and October 29 from 8:00 am until 1:00 pm, or Saturday November 5 from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm.

Note: Early Voting sites are different than your Election Day voting location.

Asheboro Fly-in

Top, 2 1950’s Pilatus airplanes fly over head in formation during the Annual Asheboro Fly-in in Asheboro. Bottom left, Sunnyvale Hyde of the All Veterans Paratroopers group drops into the Asheboro airport with an American Flag during the Asheboro Fly-in. Bottom right, Thousands of people visited the Asheboro airport on Oct. 15 for their Annual Fly-in.

Liberty man repeats title with big watermelon

By Bob Sutton Randolph Record

RALEIGH — Andrew Vial of Liberty calls his watermel on-growing expertise a hobby.

It’s a pretty good one.

Vial was the winner again in the Great Pumpkin & Watermel on Weigh-off that’s associated with the North Carolina State Fair at the North Carolina State Fair grounds.

Vial was the winner with an en try of 306 pounds.

There were 22 watermelons en tered into the contest.

A year ago, Vial’s 341-pound en try was the largest in the history of the N.C. State Fair.

Vial, 39, puts in up to 60 hours a week tending to his crop of wa termelons.

Second place went to Patrick

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

North Carolina State Senator Dave Craven speaks during the Randolph County GOP Politics in the park at Bicentennial Park in Asheboro, on October 23.

NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Andrew Vial’s entry showed up big again at the State Fair.

OPINION

COLUMN | U.S. REP. RICHARD HUDSON

A nation that’s safe

SAFETY AND SECURITY.

Violent crime rates, such as motor theft and homicide, including of law enforcement, have reached record highs over the past two years.

Establishing these for our nation are two of the most fundamental responsibilities of the federal government. In fact, when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution, they made this abundantly clear. In the Preamble, the Constitution states that one of the main reasons for our government’s formation was to “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” While this may seem like a straightforward, common sense idea, those currently in charge of running our government appear largely incapable of realizing it.

Under President Joe Biden and Washington Democrats, our nation’s security has been compromised across multiple fronts. Under one-party rule, our border security has been severely diminished. Since Biden took office, we have had more than 3.5 million illegal crossings at our southern border. We have also had close to 900,000 known “Got-Aways” who have entered the country since this time last year. Failing to secure the border and stop illegal crossings endangers our communities. It also exposes them to threats such as fentanyl, which is robbing a generation of Americans of their lives. Last year, 3,759 people died from opioid overdoses in North Carolina alone. Nationally, fentanyl is a leading cause of death for adults aged 18-45.

Additionally, the Left’s anti-police and soft-on-crime agenda has jeopardized public safety nationwide as crime rates continue to skyrocket in communities across the country. Violent crime rates, such as motor theft and homicide, including of law enforcement, have reached record highs over the past two years.

Finally, Washington Democrats have weakened our national security by failing to stand up to adversaries like China. The Biden administration has attempted to cut deals with dictatorships like Iran and Venezuela. Attacking American energy production has put our interests and European allies at risk, especially as winter approaches. And the botched withdrawal

COLUMN | DENNIS PRAGER

from Afghanistan emboldened bad actors like Putin and resulted in the senseless deaths of 13 brave U.S. service members last year.

The safety and security of you, your family, and our nation have been put at risk due to policy missteps out of Washington. Yet, House Republicans have a plan called our “Commitment to America” to create a nation that’s safe.

We will work to secure our border and combat illegal immigration by reinstating solutions like the “Remain in Mexico” policy, giving Customs and Border Patrol the resources and support it needs, and finishing the wall. We will also take serious steps to stop the flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl and reduce overdose deaths. To that end, I am proud to have cosponsored legislation like the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act of 2021 and the HALT Fentanyl Act, bills that will help keep this deadly drug off our streets, as well as improve addiction treatment services nationwide.

Furthermore, we will work to tackle the crime wave plaguing our communities by rejecting the anti-police, soft-on-crime agenda and giving law enforcement the resources and support they need to get the job done. Our plan hires 200,000 more police officers. This means we also need new technological investments through legislation like my Next Generation 911 bill. It will modernize our 9-1-1 infrastructure with updated technology that lets people in danger call, text, or even send a photo to 911 dispatchers. This will greatly improve the ability of first responders to save lives.

Finally, House Republicans are committed to improving our national security by investing in our military’s strength and readiness, standing up to hostile nations like Russia, China, and Iran, and pursuing American energy independence in order to end our reliance on foreign countries for fuel.

As the Constitution plainly states, protecting the security and safety of the American people is one of the chief roles of our government. As your Congressman, I remain committed to creating a nation that’s safe and building a better future for you and your family.

Richard Hudson is serving his fifth term representing North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and in House leadership as the Republican Conference Secretary.

Explaining conservativism II: Why the Left hates it

“SINCE AT LEAST THE WORLD WAR II generation, most parents who held conservative values either did not think they had to teach their children those values or simply did not know how to do so. Most still don’t. If asked to define conservative values, most conservatives will be tongue-tied.”

That’s what I wrote in Part I in explaining why I am writing “Explaining Conservativism.”

S+A=B:

I discussed the preeminent value of conservativism — freedom, and the preeminent freedom — of speech.

In Part II, I will discuss an equally important conservative value, which derives from the word itself.

Conservativism conserves.

Conservativism attempts to conserve the best of the past — the best art, literature and music, the best standards, values and wisdom. Conservativism then passes the best of everything to every succeeding generation.

The Left — meaning progressives, not necessarily liberals — loathes the fact that conservativism preserves the past. That is why “change” is one of the most cherished words in the Left’s vocabulary. There is nothing more threatening or, perhaps more important, boring, to a leftist than preserving the past. “New” and “change” provide leftists meaning and excitement.

As one involved in the music world (I periodically conduct orchestras), I have always been struck by how important it is to orchestra CEOs, music professors and especially music critics that as much “new” music be played as possible. If a conductor prefers to program the classics, he is deemed a reactionary, while conductors who regularly program new music are heroes in the music world.

Music critics rarely discuss the question that preoccupies conservatives: Is this new piece of music good, let alone nearly as good as the classics? What matters to music critics is that the music is new — and, these days, that it was composed by a nonwhite person, ideally a woman.

Conservatives ask whether new music is good enough to warrant being played. They are preoccupied with excellence, not with newness or “change.”

This difference between conservatives and leftists/progressives applies to virtually every realm of life.

It explains the decision of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of English to remove a large mural of Shakespeare and replace it with a mural of a gay female poet of color. No one in his or her right mind thinks that this poet is the equal of Shakespeare. But the members of the Penn English Department are not concerned with literary excellence.

Shakespeare’s picture wasn’t replaced because his writing was surpassed. He was replaced because he was male, white and straight. And most of all, he was replaced because he was old. He is an “old (or dead) white European male,” in the words of the Left.

Change and newness are so vital to leftists that a progressive who cared first and foremost about excellence would cease to be a progressive. Why are “new” and “change” intrinsic to leftism?

One reason, as noted, is excitement. Excitement is important to human beings because it provides an adrenalin rush and because it seems to be an antidote to boredom. When your child complains that he or she is bored, your child is really saying, “I want some excitement.” It is difficult to overstate how important boredom is in shaping human conduct.

As I have long argued, S+A=B: Secularism plus affluence equals boredom. And boredom, in the contemporary world, leads to leftism. Leftism is an endless search for exciting causes such as saving the world from alleged extinction; fighting “racism” and “white supremacy” in a largely nonracist America; combating “fascism” in what was — for more than 200 years, until the Left changed it — the freest country in the world; trying to force society to accept a brand-new definition of human sexual identity — namely that, contrary to all of recorded history, it is nonbinary. All these exciting causes are led by the affluent and secular. In other words, the bored.

A second reason for the Left’s love of the new and love of change is that if traditional standards of excellence are preserved, the talentless will fail. Just as the cultural Left fought to award every young person a trophy whether or not his or her team actually won, the Left declares every piece of junk “art.”

The conservative wants to pass on to every generation the best that human beings have created. Depriving young people of the greatest art, literature, music and ideas is a form of child abuse. The result has been generations of ignorant and foolish people, many of whom are actively working toward the opposite of what the “progressive” label suggests: taking society backward.

I would wager a serious sum of money that most American college students could not spell “Beethoven,” let alone recognize any of his music; has never heard of Dostoevsky; and would not recognize a single sculpture or painting by Michelangelo. Instead, they learn about “preferred pronouns.”

For these reasons, the end of conservativism must lead to the end of Western civilization. When you don’t conserve the ideas and art, the religious moral values, and even the nuclear family that made Western civilization the most advanced civilization — materially, morally, scientifically and artistically — ever devised, you will no longer have that civilization. You will have morally confused, emotionally broken, lonely and angry young people — who will eventually wreak havoc on all that is good and worthy of surviving.

We conservatives want to conserve the beautiful, the profound and the wise.

What does the Left wish to conserve? The answer is: nothing. That’s why everything the Left touches it destroys. The less you conserve, the more you destroy.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His commentary on Deuteronomy, the third volume of “The Rational Bible,” his five-volume commentary on the first five books of the Bible, will be published in October.

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

SIDELINE REPORT

NFL NFL looking into refs, Bucs WR Evans Charlotte

The NFL said it is looking into what transpired between two game officials and Tampa Bay wide receiver Mike Evans in the tunnel of the stadium after the Buccaneers’ 21-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Two videos show side judge Jeff Lamberth and line judge Tripp Sutter approaching Evans and having a short inaudible exchange before he appears to write something on a slip of paper handed to him by the officials. According to the CBA agreement between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association game officials are not allowed to “ask players, coaches or any other team personnel for autographs or memorabilia.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Michigan’s Harbaugh calls PSU’s Franklin ‘ringleader’ in scuffle

Ann Arbor, Mich Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Penn State coach James Franklin acted as a “ringleader” when the No. 4 Wolverines and No. 13 Nittany Lions clashed nearly two weeks ago, dismissing Franklin’s claim that a policy change was needed to keep things orderly beneath Michigan Stadium. A lot of heated words were exchanged and Michigan players reportedly said Penn State players threw peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at them as the teams headed to the locker room at halftime of a close game that the Wolverines won in a 4117 rout on Oct. 15.

MLB

Bochy comes out of retirement to take Rangers job

Arlington, Texas Bruce Bochy is coming out of a short retirement in hopes to get a title for the home team. The 67-year-old Bochy was introduced Monday as the new manager of the Texas Rangers. He won the first of his three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants in the old Rangers ballpark in 2010. He was presented by Texas general manager Chris Young, who had pitched for the manager in San Diego before that.

Bochy hasn’t managed since 2019, when he stepped away after 2,003 wins over 25 seasons with the Giants and Padres, who he took to the World Series in 1998.

OLYMPICS

Russian runner stripped of 2012 gold medal for doping

Monaco

Ten years after the London Olympics, 400-meter hurdles champion Natalya Antyukh has been disqualified for doping.

The Russian’s case means Lashinda Demus of the United States is set to be upgraded to the gold medal. Antyukh was already serving a four-year ban in a previous case judged by the Court or Arbitration for Sport last year. That stripped her results from 2013 to 2015.

The new ruling based on historical evidence recovered from a Moscow testing laboratory database further disqualifies Antyukh from mid-July 2012. At age 39, Demus is in line to become an Olympic champion.

Larson holds off Chastain, wins at Homestead

Only Joey Logano is assured a chance to win the title at Phoenix heading into the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville

By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson found his way back into NASCAR’s headlines. This time, for a much more pleasant reason.

Larson held off Ross Chastain to cap a dominant showing at Home stead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, after leading 199 of the 267 laps over the 1½ mile course.

It was Larson’s third win of the season, coming two weeks after the reigning Cup champion was eliminated from this year’s playoffs

— and a week after he was inten tionally spun by Bubba Wallace in an act of retaliation at Las Vegas.

On Sunday, the suspended Wal lace was watching. Larson, mean while, was winning.

“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” Larson said.

AJ Allmendinger was third and Austin Dillon fourth, as Chevrolets took the top four spots.

Even though Larson can’t win the title, his Hendrick Motor sports team still can — now hav ing clinched a spot in the field that will decide the owners’ champion ship in Phoenix.

“We’re still technically not out of it,” Larson said. “I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team. We’re go ing to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”

And he will drive Phoenix as if

he’s driving for his own title.

“Oh, yeah,” Larson said. “Duh.”

It wasn’t exactly close at the end; Larson beat Chastain to the line by 1.261 seconds. Chastain could have clinched a berth in the winnertake-all Phoenix race for the title if he had won at Homestead.

The four-car field for the driv ers’ title race will be finalized next week in Martinsville, with seven drivers heading there to compete for three remaining spots. Only Joey Logano, through his win at Las Vegas last week, has his berth clinched.

Phillies, Astros will start World Series on Friday

Houston swept the Yankees to win the American League while Philadelphia dispatched the Padres in the NL

By Ben Walker The Associated Press

BRYCE HARPER and Kyle Schwarber breaking the Bank in Philly. Yordan Alvarez launching moonshots in H-Town.

Dusty Baker trying for a most elusive win. Justin Verlander, too.

A fired-up Harper and All-Stars J.T. Realmuto and Zack Wheel er stepping onto baseball’s biggest platform for the first time.

The Philadelphia Phillies, of all teams, are headed to the World Se ries. Against those back-for-more Houston Astros.

A pretty tasty matchup starting Friday night at Minute Maid Park, a Fall Classic full of vibrant sights, scents and sounds.

Harper already has hit five home runs this postseason. In the signature swing of his career, his eighth-inning drive against San Diego on Sunday in Game 5 sent the Phillies into the World Series for the first time since 2009 and earned him the NL Championship Series MVP.

The Astros are 7-0 this postsea son after finishing off a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Alex

Bregman’s go-ahead single keyed a 6-5 win Sunday night.

With the likes of Jose Altuve, ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña, Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm, this World Series is a best-of-seven matchup representing some of the game’s best present and future. Plus a good piece of the past — re member, these teams have played each other nearly 600 times.

There was the thrilling 1980 NL Championship Series, when Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carl ton and the Fightin’ Phils outlast ed Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome on the way to their first World Se

ries title.

Years later, closers Brad Lidge, Billy Wagner, Mitch Williams and Ken Giles spent time with both clubs. So did future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Robin Roberts.

And this neat piece of history — the Phillies were the first team to ever beat Houston, back in 1962 when the expansion Colt .45s lost at Connie Mack Stadium.

The Phillies are also the most recent team to beat the Astros. Way back on Oct. 3, Philadelphia opened the final series of the regu lar season with a 3-0 win at Hous ton, with Schwarber homering

Expect chaos.

“Track position’s going to be so huge,” Denny Hamlin said. “You’re going to see aggressive driving.”

Hamlin is on the wrong side of the cutline going into Martinsville. Chastain is second, Chase Elliott is third and William Byron is fourth.

“It took a good part of the race to get up there and get the car turn ing,” Chastain said. “Incredible day on pit road by the boys.”

There will be a race within the race next week. Chastain doesn’t need to win to clinch a berth in the field for the title race, but he didn’t seem too interested in all the mathematical permutations af ter getting out of his car in Home stead.

“We’re just going to go race,” Chastain said. “That’s all I know how to do.”

Hamlin is five points back of Byron, followed by Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in eighth.

Among the playoff drivers, af ter runner-up Chastain, Hamlin was seventh, Bell 11th, Byron 12th, Elliott 14th, Blaney 17th, Logano 18th and Briscoe 36th in the 36car field.

twice as Aaron Nola outpitched Lance McCullers Jr.

The Astros then closed out an AL-best 106-56 record by winning the next two behind Verlander and Framber Valdez — Philadelphia still leads 297-283 in their headto-head matchups, mostly all be fore Houston moved from the Na tional League to the American League in 2013.

Houston then swept Seattle in the AL Division Series and the Yankees in the ALCS featuring its winning formula of imposing starting pitching, a dominant bull pen and a lineup full of home run hitters such as Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.

This marks the Astros’ fourth trip to the World Series in six years and their only title in 2017 was tainted by an illegal sign-stealing scandal. Last season, they lost to Freddie Freeman and the under dog Atlanta Braves in six games.

The Phillies, meanwhile, looked like a big zero this year before get ting to this point in October.

Stuck at 21-29 going into June, they fired manager Joe Girardi a few days later and put the inter im tag on bench coach Rob Thom son. Then suddenly, the Phillies took off.

They overcame Harper’s broken thumb, sidelining the two-time NL MVP for two months, beat out Milwaukee for the final play off spot in going 87-75, and quick ly topped NL Central champion St. Louis in the wild-card round.

Philadelphia eliminated defend ing World Series champ Atlanta in the NLDS and topped San Diego in the NLCS.

DAVID J. PHILLIP

Catcher Garrett Stubbs and the Phillies will try to top Martin Maldonado and the Astros when the teams meet starting Friday for the 2022 World Series.

JOHN LOCHER | AP PHOTO

Joey Logano celebrates after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Las Vegas.

“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long.”

Kyle Larson

Wildcats, Tigers win routs to set up title clash

THE SHOWDOWN for the Piedmont Athletic Conference foot ball championship is set for Friday night.

That comes after more blowouts across the league, including romps for co-leaders Eastern Randolph and Randleman last Friday night. Those teams meet for the title in Ramseur.

Here’s a look at games from the second-to-last week of the regular season:

Eastern Randolph 62, Wheatmore 0

At Trinity, the visiting Wildcats posted their highest point total of the season in their last road game as Stratton Barwick threw for four touchdowns.

Barwick was 9-for-14, with two of the scoring passes going to Ethan Frye. D.J. Thomas and A.J Ran dle also caught touchdown passes. Running back Ervodd Cassady ran for three touchdowns as part of his 88-yard outing on the ground.

Eastern Randolph (8-1, 4-0) will try to repeat as PAC champions with this week’s game. Cassady is a transfer from Randleman.

Wheatmore (2-7, 1-3) suffered its fourth shutout of the season in its home finale.

Randleman 70, Trinity: At Randleman, the Tigers continued their impressive turnaround from last season by winning their regu lar-season home finale.

Amarion Moton ran for four touchdowns, and Tyshaun Goldson scored on a reception and a punt re turn.

Randleman (7-2, 4-0) notched its third shutout of the season, holding Trinity (4-5, 0-4) to 32 yards of to tal offense.

Moton had 55 yards on seven carries. Christian Long threw for two touchdowns on 8-for-10 pass ing for 156 yards.

Moton’s touchdowns came on runs of 13, 17, 1, and 1 yard. Daylan Atkins scored on an 11-yard carry.

Goldston made an 18-yard touch down catch and returned the punt

WEEK 11 SCHEDULE

Friday’s games

Randleman at Eastern Randolph

Southwestern Randolph at Trinity Wheatmore at Providence Grove Montgomery Central at Asheboro

for 50 yards.

Aiden Robinson and Ama ri Ferdna also match touchdown catches, the latter on a pass from Logan Laughlin.

Providence Grove 48, Southwestern Randolph 21

At Asheboro, the visiting Patriots jumped out to a 17-0 first-quarter lead on the way to ruining the Cou

gars’ home finale.

Zane Cheek scored on two runs while gaining 111 yards on 17 car ries, and Zander Cheek had one touchdown run as part of 131 rush ing yards on ten attempts. Zander Cheek also scored on a touchdown pass from Andrew Canter.

Karson Bowman scored on a run and returned a fumble for a touch down.

Providence Grove (6-3, 2-2) also received a big game on defense from linebacker Chase Whitaker, who made nine tackles, caused two fum bles, and intercepted a pass. Tucker Batten kicked two field goals.

Southwestern Randolph (5-4, 1-3) has lost two games in a row for the first time this season. Quarter back Easton Clapp rushed for 112 yards and threw a touchdown pass to Eli Gravely. Clapp also made 15 tackles on defense.

Ledford 56, Asheboro 7

At Ledford, the visiting Blue Comets (1-8, 0-4) trailed 35-7 at halftime. The Panthers (8-1, 3-1) bounced back from a road loss to Oak Grove a week earlier.

Asheboro scored first on Michael Brady’s 10-yard run.

Julie Johnston

Cougars win tourney, start defense of state crown

SOUTHWESTERN Randolph had a strong showing to begin de fense of its Class 2-A state cham pionship in volleyball.

The Cougars, who are the No. 2 seed in the West Region, opened the playoffs by defeating visiting Surry Central 25-9, 25-13, 25-11 on Saturday.

Madelyn Smith provided 13 kills and nine digs, Riley Key had ten kills, Raegan LeRoy provid ed 30 assists, and Carleigh Whit ston made ten digs to go with four aces for Southwestern Randolph (24-3).

“Defense back there, that has been our rock,” Southwestern Randolph coach Darby Kennedy said.

Also in Class 2-A, 13th-seed ed Randleman dispatched 20th-seeded Bandys 14-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-22 in a home match be hind Chloe Dixon’s 18 kills and 18 digs and Gabi Carter’s 12 kills.

Kenzie Roach supplied 29 as

sists and 13 digs, Karli Kenning ton turned in 19 digs, Camryn Vickery added ten assists for the Tigers (17-5).

Three other teams from Ran dolph County lost in road match es.

No. 18 seeded Providence Grove fell 25-23, 25-23, 25-23 to No. 15 seed East Davidson. No. 29 seed Wheatmore came up short in a 2510, 25-5, 25-6 loss at fourth-seed ed East Surry. No. 32 seed Trinity was ousted in a 25-12, 25-19, 2516 loss at top-seeded McMichael.

In Class 1-A, Uwharrie Charter Academy dispatched Piedmont Athletic Conference rival Eastern Randolph 25-18, 25-19, 25-23 in the first round. UCA (15-7) swept the Wildcats (5-14) for the third time this season.

Conference tournament

Southwestern Randolph held momentum going into the Class 2-A state playoffs.

The Cougars followed their reg

ular-season title in the PAC by capturing the conference tourna ment as well.

Southwestern Randolph defeat ed visiting Randleman 25-12, 2624, 23-25, 21-25, 15-11 in Wednes day night’s final.

Madelyn Smith produced 24 kills and 16 digs, and Gra cie Hodgin had 23 kills and nine digs. Raegan LeRoy’s 64 assists were critical for the offense. Coley Shiflet had 31 digs, and Carleigh Whitson made 26 digs for South western Randolph (23-3).

Randleman (16-5), which hand ed the Cougars their lone PAC reg ular-season defeat, received 30 digs from Haley Hinshaw, 28 digs from Karli Kennington, and 17 digs and ten kills from Chloe Dix on. Camden Scott had 12 kills, and Kenzie Roach chipped in with 17 assists and ten digs.

Southwestern Randolph took down fourth-seeded Providence Grove a night earlier in the semi finals after receiving a bye in the quarterfinals.

Randleman, which had a 12-match winning streak snapped, was playing its third match in three nights after sweeping East ern Randolph in the quarterfinals and sweeping defending champi on Uwharrie Charter Academy in the semifinals.

Southwestern Randolph, volleyball

As the Cougars try to repeat as Class 2-A state champions, underclassmen are playing key roles. But Johnston is among the seniors on the roster.

Last week, the Cougars won three matches. They took down Providence Grove in a sweep and then won a five-set match against Randleman to capture the Piedmont Athletic Conference Tournament.

Then on Saturday, the Cougars won against East Surry in the first round of the state playoffs.

Johnston is a setter and outside hitter.

PREP ROUND UP

Providence Grove runners win league meet

Randolph Record

TRINITY — Providence Grove won the girls’ and boys’ team championships for cross country in vastly different man ners in the Piedmont Athletic Conference on Wheatmore’s 3.1mile course last week.

The girls’ competition marked a tie between Providence Grove and Uwharrie Charter Academy with 34 points apiece using the five scoring runners from each team. The Patriots prevailed be cause their sixth runner came in 18th compared to UCA’s 30th place for its sixth runner.

The girls’ individual winner was Eastern Randolph’s Breck en Snotherly in 21 minutes, 38 seconds. Providence Grove had the next two finishers with Jen sen Auman (23:33) and Mia Browder (23:51) before UCA’s Jazmin Palma (24:07).

In the boys’ race, Providence Grove, with 21 points, was well ahead of UCA’s 69.

Robert Burton of Providence Grove was the individual win ner in 19:04. That gave him a 47-second edge on Trinity’s Jose Castillo.

Providence Grove’s Kaden Shoptaw (19:52) and Kelton Shoptaw (19:53) held the next two spots.

Girls’ golf

At Monroe, Caroline Wright shot 75 to win the Class 1-A/2-A

Central Regional at Stonebridge Golf Club.

That helped Providence Grove win the regional team title.

Morgan Hilig with 95 and Anna Holloway with 111 were the other scorer for the Patriots. They all qualified for this week’s state tournament.

Eastern Randolph’s Macken zie Gee (95, tied for eighth) and Madison Canoy (109, tied for 15th) also qualified for states.

In Class 3-A, Asheboro qual ified for the state tournament by placing second in the Central Regional at Whispering Springs River Course.

Salem Lee of Asheboro shot 76 to place second in the region al. Morgan Coward (109) and Addison Allen (110) were the other Blue Comets.

Girls’ tennis

All three Randolph Coun ty entrants were eliminated in the first round of the dual-team state playoffs.

In Class 2-A, PAC champion Wheatmore was the No. 9 seed in the West Region and lost 8-1 to No. 8 seed Shelby. Sec ond-seeded Lincoln Charter eliminated No. 15 seed South western Randolph 5-2 despite victories from Andee Bullard and Sammie Parks.

In Class 1-A, top-seed ed Mount Airy blanked No. 16 seed Uwharrie Charter Acade my 6-0.

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL Julie Johnston of Southwestern Randolph delivers a serve Saturday during the Class 2-A state playoffs.

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Randleman’s Gabi Carter, left, and Mollie Hall defend at the net in the Class 2-A first-round matchup against visiting Bandys on Saturday.

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Randleman’s Amarion Moton leaps Trinity’s Jacob Hodges on the way to a touchdown.

Randolph Record

Randolph Record

PREP VOLLEYBALL

Randolph Record

SOPHIA — Track champions were determined Saturday night in the regular-season finale at Caraway Speedway.

Only one of the season-long champions actually won the last race in his respective division.

Here’s a look at how it unfolded:

In Late Models, Coy Beard se cured his second track champion ship in three seasons after driving Donnie Apple’s No. 8 car to a sec ond-place finish.

Jeff Sparks won Saturday’s race, with Cade Brown in third.

Tony Black was the runner-up points, and Apple ended up third, with Daniel Schadt fourth and Jeffrey Wood fifth.

In Modifieds, Carson Loftin

placed seventh in the last race of the season, but that was barely good enough for the track cham pionship.

Loftin ended up with a fourpoint edge on Cody Norman. Jax son Casper was third in the stand ings, followed by Carlos Gray and Lee Jeffreys.

Josh Lowder was the race win ner, so he won the division’s first and final races of the season. He edged Jeffreys, while Norman was third.

In Mini Stocks, Jimmy Crigger won for the fifth time in 2022, and that was enough for the division points championship.

Rudy Hartley was second in points, followed by Alex Higgin son, Tommy Raino, and Levi Holt.

In Saturday’s finale, Joe Mc

Next at Caraway is the North-South Shootout set for November 4-5. The main event for this Modifieds action is the 125-lap feature November 5, though there are also Late Models tour division teams and CARS Pro Late Models and 602 Modifieds.

Donald was second, and Billy Cameron Jr. was third.

onship. Rose only needed to start the race to seal the points title.

Allen Vance was the race win ner, with Toby Layne in third and Corey Rose and Tommy Raino rounding out the top five.

Matthew Smith was sixth in the race to secure second place in the points standings and earn the di vision’s Rookie of the Year status.

In the UCARs class, Daniel Hughes became the track champi on while claiming fourth place in the race.

Corey Rose was second in points, followed by Caleb Allred, Josh Phillips, and Steven Collins.

As for the race, Jeremy Kidd notched his first victory of the sea son at the speedway, crossing the line ahead of Rose. Allen Vance was third.

In a special 10-lap race for non-winners in the UCARs divi sion, Ron Mock took the top spot, with Kidd in second. The race took place prior to the feature.

Legacy cars made an annu al appearance at the speedway on race night, and Justin Oplinger was the winner in a race short ened based on laps because of a time limit. Several crashes creat ed a start-and-stop tone. Alyssa Mendenhall was the runner-up, followed by Ethan Glenn, David Smith, and Andon Mendenhall.

In a 10-lap Bootleggers race, Robbie Perkins was the winner. In Enduros, Criggers was the winner.

Next at Caraway is the NorthSouth Shootout set for November 4-5. The main event for this Mod ifieds action is the 125-lap feature November 5, though there are also Late Models tour division teams and CARS Pro Late Models and 602 Modifieds. Racing begins at 1:30 p.m.

In the Challenger class, Brian Rose placed second in the final race to clinch the division champi

obituaries

Earl Owen Wilkins

January 12, 1942 — October 22, 2022

Earl Owen Wilkins, age 80 of Asheboro, passed away on October 22, 2022, surrounded by his family. Earl was preceded in death by his parents, Charlie Elmo and Gladys Hicks Wilkins and siblings: Alease Farrar, Elmo Wilkins and Brenda Gravitte.

Earl attended North High School in Durham, NC, and was a veteran of the US Army serving during the Vietnam War. He attended Suggs Creek Primitive Baptist Church and retired as a truck driver for Roadway Trucking and a member of Teamsters #391. Earl was an avid golfer and enjoyed playing with his many friends. He will be truly missed.

Earl is survived by his wife: Brenda Pate Wilkins of the home, sons: Kelly Wilkins and wife Wynnie of Hawaii, Todd Wilkins and wife Dani of Tampa, Fl., and stepson: Scott Pate of Asheboro, NC.; granddaughter: Sarah Causey and husband, Travis; step grandchildren: Gage Pate, Dylan Pate, Logan Pate and Megan Pate; and great grandchild: T.J. Causey.

The family wishes to express a very special “Thank You” to Hospice of Randolph staff and the family and many friends for their loving support and care giving to Earl and his family.

Dr. Ranbir Singh

July 10, 1939 — October 21, 2022

Dr. Ranbir Singh passed away peacefully on 10/21/22 in Asheboro, NC at the age of 83, surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife Harjit (Dimpy), and precious children Tejbir, Gunita, and Chetan.

Dr. Singh was born on July, 10th, 1939, and spent his youth in Punjab, India. Realizing a passion for helping others, he attended Medical College Patiala and earned a degree with highest honors in Orthopedic Surgery.

Ranbir met and married Dimpy in 1974. The couple immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. Dr. Singh found true happiness in the town of Asheboro, where he founded the Asheboro Orthopedic Clinic in 1978, and served the community for nearly four decades. His children remember him for his kind demeanor, generous nature, sense of humor, and as a loving father who encouraged them to pursue their passions.

Ranbir enjoyed fishing, boating, hunting, cooking, traveling, and music. He was a consummate entertainer, and he loved to socialize with family, colleagues, and newfound friends alike. He was an active and dedicated member of the Atlantic Coast Sikh Association and Rotary Club. Dr. Singh was a generous and caring individual who was passionate about his profession, and he found it a true pleasure to help and heal others. The family would like to thank his caregivers at Clapps and Hospice for their dedication to his comfort and care.

Richard Lewis Hunt

August 17, 1939 — October 20, 2022

Richard Lewis Hunt, age 83 of Asheboro, passed away on Thursday, October 20, 2022 at the Hinkle Hospice House in Lexington.

Richard was born in Randolph County on August 17, 1939 to Clifford and Eliza Jane Gallimore Hunt. Richard graduated from Farmer High School in 1959 and loved to fox hunt. He was a diehard New York Yankee and NC State Wolfpack fan. He worked for Bossong Hosiery and later worked for and retired from Energizer. Richard attended New Union United Methodist Church. He had a very giving heart and loved his grandchildren and great grandchildren beyond measure. In addition to his parents, Richard is preceded in death by his wife, Shelby Hunt; six brothers, and two sisters.

Richard is survived by his three sons, Mark (Phyllis) Hunt, Bruce (Regina) Hunt, and Scott (Ingrid) Hunt all of Asheboro; grandchildren, Ashley (Brian) McGraw, Casie (Anthony) Copple, Corey (Hannah) Hunt, Elizabeth (Cal) Scheinert, Victoria (Joe) Migoley, Troy Hunt, Mason (Haleigh) Hunt, and Benjamin Hunt; eleven great grandchildren; and his sisters, Nancy Harvell and Coleen Tolley.

The family would like to give a special thank you to the nurses, staff, and doctors at Crossroads Memory Care Unit and the Hinkle Hospice House. They would also like to specifically thank his caregivers, Ellen Parnell and Joy Schmack for all the love and care they provided for Richard.

Diane B. Brady

December 10, 1952 — October 24, 2022

Diane B. Brady, 69, of Siler City, passed away on Monday, October 24, 2022 surrounded by her loved ones at her home.

Mrs. Brady was born in Chatham County on December 10, 1952, the daughter of Jack and Martha Garner Beavers.

Diane was a member of Carbonton United Methodist Church. She was a Christian lady who was very active in her church. Diane retired after many years as an LPN. She loved doing things for others. Diane enjoyed baking and was always cooking for everyone. In addition to her parents, Diane is preceded in death by her brother, Richard Beavers.

She is survived by her husband of 50 years, Tony Edward Brady; son, James Anthony Brady and wife Andrea of Staley; sister, Jackie Britt; brother, Eugene Beavers and wife Alice Faye of Siler City; grandchildren, Zachary Burkett and wife Johnna, and Ashley Ledbetter; and great grandchild, Ellanor Burkett.

Mabel Fields James July 10, 1925 — October 21, 2022

Mabel Fields James, 97, of Goldston, passed away on Friday, October 21, 2022.

Ms. James was born in Chatham County on July 10, 1925, the daughter of John Robert "Bob" and Meta Roach Fields.

Mabel was a member of Antioch Baptist Church. She was married in 1941 to Thelbert Thomas James, Sr.. Mabel worked for many years at Townsend. She always had a positive attitude, never complained and was a hard worker. She enjoyed being in her kitchen cooking. Mabel loved to travel to many places, a few of her favorites were Winnabow and Bolivia. In addition to her parents, she is preceded in death by her husband; son, Dennis James; and brother, James Fields.

She is survived by her sons, Zeb James and wife Barbara of Arapahoe, NC, and J.R. James and wife Ellen of Charlotte; daughter in law, Billie Jo Mote James of Goldston; grandchildren, Brandon James (Daniella), Barry James (Carly), Chris James (Abigail), Casey Ray James (Sienna); and great grandchildren, Keene, Myles, Jesse, Brewer, Jackson and Thomas.

Ida Elizabeth Green, 90, of Seagrove, passed away Friday, October 21, 2022 at her home.

Elizabeth was born on February 12, 1932, in Randolph County, to the late William Daniel Reeder and Ida Elizabeth Kennedy Reeder. She loved flowers and gardening. Elizabeth was the champion of chicken and dumplings, and cooked for many occasions.

In addition to her parents, Elizabeth was preceded in death by her husband, Bud Green; son, Rickey Green; and 13 brothers and sisters.

Elizabeth is survived by her daughters, Peggy Jordan and husband Tommy of Seagrove, Tammy Cagle of Asheboro, Lynne Greene and husband James of Little River, SC, Patsy Simmons of Seagrove; sons, Larry Green and wife Libby of Asheboro, Ron Green and wife Pat of Asheboro, Leon Green and wife Wendy of Asheboro; 13 grandchildren, 2 step grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, and one great great grandchild Memorials may be made to Hospice of Randolph, 416 Vision Drive, Asheboro, NC 27203

Donnette Honeycutt

April 10, 1946 — October 19, 2022

Mary Donnette Causey Honeycutt, 76, of Sophia passed away October 19, 2022 at Randolph Hospice House.

Donnette was a native of Randolph County and a graduate of Randleman High School. She was a member of Caraway Baptist Church and retired with 33 years of service as a teacher assistant at Randleman Elementary School. Also known as Nan Nan, she was spunky, happy, loved shopping at Belk's, dancing and listening to Elvis. Donnette never met a stranger and her grandchildren were her pride and joy. Donnette is preceded in death by her parents, Donald and Nellie Causey, and her brother, Topper Causey.

Donnette is survived by her husband of 57 years, Harvey Honeycutt; daughters: Keisha Brady (Ricky) of Randleman and Terrie Honeycutt of Pleasant Garden; grandchildren: Brittany Massengill (Tripp), Teryn Millikan, Katelyn Hayes (Travis), Hannah Rush and Drake Brady (Holly Cannon); great grandchildren: Candace, Tinley and 1 on the way; brother, Gene Causey of Randleman; and her special dog, Millie.

Memorials may be made at Caraway Baptist Church, P.O. Box 399, Sophia, NC 27350 or Hospice of Randolph , 416 Vision Dr. Asheboro, NC 27203.

Mark Dane Saunders

August 3, 1957 — October 22, 2022

Mark Dane Saunders, 65, of Biscoe, passed away on October 22, 2022 at First Health Hospice.

Mark was born in Randolph County on August 2, 1957, to John and Ethel Cooper Saunders Sr. He was a brick mason and he enjoyed fishing, guns and spending time with his family.

He is survived by his wife Teresa Palmer Saunders of the home; sons Mark Joseph Saunders of Florida; Joshua Saunders of Georgia; sister Laverne Hurley of Candor; brothers John Frank Saunders Jr. (Sandra) of Star and Anthony Saunders of Troy. Five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers memorials can be made to First Health Hospice Foundation- 150 Applecross Rd. Pinehurst, NC 28374.

December 30, 1966 ~ October 16, 2022

Jewel Dianne Wall, 55, passed away at her home, Sunday, October 16, 2022. Born December 30, 1966 in Randolph County, she was the daughter of the late Clyde Herman Glass and Charlotte Voncannon Glass.

Jewel was a homemaker and enjoyed spending time with her family. She was preceded in death by her husband Michael Carroll and her parents.

Jewel is survived by her children, Jessica Lowery Chriscoe and her husband Matthew, Jason Lowery and his wife Christy, Tiffany Daniel and her husband Jerry, Brandi Wood and her significant other Matt Woods, and Thomas Wood; grandchildren, Tyler Belton, Caitlyn Chriscoe, Noah Chriscoe, Mason Chriscoe, Caleb Chriscoe, Bella Lowery, Jerry Daniel Jr, Kaylee Wood, and Lily Woods; and sister, Lora Wall.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Jewel’s honor to Randolph Hospice Home, 416 Vision Drive, Asheboro, NC 27203.

Amanda Jameson October 21, 1987 ~ October 13, 2022

On October 13, 2022 Amanda was taken into the Lord’s hands to join her beloved Father and Sister in heaven. Boorn October 21, 1987 in Plattsburgh, New York, she is survived by her mother, Cynthia Jameson; sister, Karen Jameson; soulmate, Andrew Jordan; as well as her 96 year old grandmother, 3 Aunts, 2 Uncles, nieces and nephews. She was proceeded in death by her father, Gary Jameson and sister Katie Jameson.

Anyone that knew Amanda understood she was a kind and wonderful soul, always willing to lend a helping hand to those who needed it. Amanda was a hard worker, she always found time to help others even after working 12 hour shifts. She had a profound gift for taking care of animals of all kinds, occasionally adopting the sick and abandoned. Her strength and loving spirit left this world a better place and a mark on the souls lucky enough to have known her. She will be deeply missed and forever remembered in the hearts of those who loved her.

Ida Elizabeth Green February 12, 1932 - October 21, 2022

Jewel Dianne (Glass) Wall

STATE & NATION

Biden juggling long list of issues to please Dem coalition

By Colleen Long The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Presi dent Joe Biden wants to tame infla tion. He wants Congress to protect access to abortions. He wants to tackle voting rights. And he’s taking on China, promoting construction of new factories, addressing climate change, forgiving student debt, par doning federal marijuana convic tions, cutting the deficit, working to lower prescription drug prices and funneling aid to Ukraine.

Biden is trying to be everything to everyone. But that’s making it hard for him to say he’s focused on any single issue above all others as he tries to counter Republican mo mentum going into the Nov. 8 elec tions.

“There’s no one thing,” Biden said when questioned about his top pri ority. “There’s multiple, multiple, multiple issues, and they’re all im portant. ... We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. You know, that old expres sion.”

Biden’s exhaustive to-do list is a recognition that the coalition of Democratic voters he needs to turn out Election Day is diverse in terms of race, age, education and geog raphy. This pool of voters has an expansive list of overlapping and competing interests on crime, civ il rights, climate change, the feder al budget and other issues.

The Republican candidates try ing to end Democratic control of Congress are narrowly directing messaging on the economy, crime and immigration.

In the 2020 election, AP Vote

Cast suggests, Biden drew dispro portionate support from women, black voters, voters younger than 45, college graduates and city dwell ers and suburbanites. But in mid term elections that normally fa vor the party not holding the White House, it requires Biden to appeal to all those constituencies.

“Coherence and cohesion have al ways been a challenge for the mod ern Democratic Party that relies on a coalition that crosses racial, eth nic, religious and class lines,” said Daniel Cox, a senior fellow in poll ing and public opinion at the con

servative American Enterprise Institute. “It takes considerable po litical talent to maintain a coalition with diverse interests and back grounds. Barack Obama managed to do it, but subsequent Democrats have struggled.”

Biden devoted his public remarks last week to abortion, gasoline pric es, infrastructure and student debt forgiveness.

Cox said there are signs that Biden’s 2020 coalition is fracturing, with younger liberal voters not that enamored with him, and he does not appear to have done much to

shore up Hispanic support.

But compared with 2016, when Trump won the presidency, Biden made relative progress with one prominent bloc that generally favors Republicans: white voters without a college degree, as he won 33% of their votes compared with 28% who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to a 2021 analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Keeping those voters in the Dem ocratic coalition could be essential for maintaining control of the Sen ate.

Biden has traveled repeatedly

Control of Congress: What’s at play in the 2022 midterms?

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dem ocrats have held both chambers of Congress and the presiden cy for the last two years, but they may not have such consolidated power for much longer.

Republicans are favored to win the House in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, bolstered by frustra tion over the economy and advan tages in the redistricting process that takes place every 10 years. But Democrats are working to hold their ground, campaigning on maintaining access to abor tion and other issues.

The outlook is murkier in the Senate, where Republicans are bidding to take back control. Sev eral races in key battleground states are tight, leading Senate Republican leader Mitch McCon nell to say the chances of his par ty winning a majority are just 5050.

A look at control of Congress and what will happen if Repub licans win a majority in either chamber in the election: What if the House flips?

Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have held the majority since 2018, when they won control in then-Presi dent Donald Trump’s first mid term election. Republicans could take back the House if they net

just five seats in dozens of com petitive districts, and they are trying to win dozens.

History also gives Republicans reason for optimism. In the mod ern era, the party that’s held the White House has lost congressio nal seats in virtually every firstterm president’s midterm elec tion.

If Republicans win the House

What would a GOP House mean for Biden?

Democratic priorities like ac cess to abortion, addressing cli

mate change and stricter gun control would immediately be sidelined. And most, if not all, of President Joe Biden’s agenda would be effectively dead for the final two years of his term.

Still, nothing becomes law without Biden’s signature. Bills to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and deal with mili tary issues are necessary for gov ernment to function. Those bills are likely to become flashpoints in negotiations between the GOP, Democrats and the White House.

Biden, who served in the Sen ate for decades, has often tout ed his bipartisan credentials and said he wants to work with Re publicans. But there would be little appetite for that in a GOP Congress that has made opposi tion to Biden its top priority.

What about the Senate?

While the Senate could tilt ei ther way after the midterm elec tions, the majority party is still likely to have the slimmest of margins. That means Biden will be able to find a bit more common ground there, no matter who is in charge. Much of Biden’s legis lative achievements in office have been the byproduct of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.

Still, a Republican-led Sen ate could pass bills sent over by a GOP House, putting political pressure on Biden. And the GOP

to Pennsylvania, campaigning for Senate nominee John Fetterman with the goal of picking up a seat in the state.

“Democrats need to hold on to as much of that bloc as possible, espe cially in key whiter states like Penn sylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin,” said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The test for Democrats is how to address broader concerns about the economy and inflation that affect everyone, while also highlighting the specific issues that could ener gize various segments of their base. That can involve trade-offs.

As Republicans have made crime a national issue, Biden’s message that he backs the police could help with white voters. But it could also turn off younger voters in Senate races in Georgia and Florida who believe the police are part of the problem, said Alvin Tillery Jr., a professor at Northwestern Univer sity and director of its Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy.

Tillery said he doesn’t know how the president can bridge those dif ferences, though Biden could be in a better position to focus on the policing overhaul that Democrats tried to negotiate with Republicans — only to be unable to reach a con sensus that would be able to clear a GOP filibuster.

“Maybe they’ve blunted some Re publican attacks, but they’ve also softened support for people who turned out for them in the 2020 election,” Tillery said. “I don’t know how they solve for that, except to say they need to be more vigorous in saying the things they wanted to achieve were blocked in the Senate.”

would regain control of commit tees and, with it, the power to conduct investigations and over sight of the administration.

A Republican Senate could also make life difficult for Biden by blocking or delaying passage of the president’s judicial and execu tive branch nominees.

What if Democrats win?

If Democrats were to hold the Senate and Republicans win the House, the two chambers would be unlikely to find much common ground. But Republicans could try to win over Democratic Sen ate moderates on some legisla tion.

If Democrats were able to keep the House and the Senate, they would likely restart negotiations on some of Biden’s agenda items that were never passed, includ ing his new package of social and economic programs that stalled amid internal Democratic dis agreements.

What does the House map look like?

The majority of House dis tricts aren’t competitive, thanks to a redistricting process that al lows state legislatures to draw their own congressional lines if they decide to. Many legislatures draw lines to give advantages to one party or the other.

Still, dozens of seats are in play, including many of those held by Democrats who won in suburban districts in 2018, winning the ma jority for the party that year.

on Nov. 8, the GOP caucus will elect a new speaker and take pow er on Jan. 3, 2023. They will run every committee and decide what bills come to the House floor.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE | AP PHOTO

President Joe Biden speaks about deficit reduction in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., Friday, Oct. 21, 2022.

AP PHOTO

The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.

Football season ending

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Hoke County Bucks lose final game regular season game

The Hoke County Bucks played their last regular season game this past Friday in a home conference matchup with Pinecrest. The final score at Raz Autry Stadium was 3512. Hoke County finished with an overall record of 5-5, with a conference record of 3-3. The Bucks finished fourth in the Sandhills Athletic Conference, placing behind Pinecrest, Richmond, and Scotland. Lee County, Union Pines, and Southern Lee finished their season behind the Bucks. Hoke County will wait for the final games of this week to find out if and when they will play in the North Carolina High School State Playoffs for 2022.

Early Voting continues in Hoke County

Early voting officially started last Thursday, October 20, and will continue to runs through November 5, the Saturday before Election Day. By voting early, you can avoid long lines, access more flexible voting hours and locations, and have a chance to register or update your registration on-site. Here are the early voting locations for Hoke County:

HOKE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS OFFICE at 227 N Main St., Raeford, NC 28376.

Hours of Operation:

• Monday through Friday: 8:00 am until 7:30 pm

• Saturdays from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm.

ROCKFISH COMMUNITY CENTER at 2749 Lindsay Rd., Raeford, NC 28736.

Hours of Operation:

• Monday through Friday: 8:00 am until 7:30 pm

• Saturdays from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm.

Note: Early Voting sites are different than your Election Day voting location.

NC appeals court rules who will hear Opportunity Scholarship suit

Commissioners approve funding match for Tia Heart grant

By Gary D. Robertson The Associated Press

RALEIGH — A legal challenge to North Carolina’s taxpayer-fund ed scholarship program for K-12 children to attend private schools — focused on claims of bias based on religion and sexuality — must be heard by three trial judges, the state Court of Appeals ruled on last week.

The majority on an appeals court panel reversed last year’s decision by Wake County Supe rior Court Judge Bryan Collins, who ruled the lawsuit filed by sev eral North Carolina parents in 2020 should remain before a sin gle judge.

Republican legislators defend ing the “Opportunity Scholarship Program” created in 2013 appealed Collins’ decision, saying three Su perior Court judges are required to hear the case because the litigation was seeking to throw out the pro gram in its entirety on grounds it violates the state constitution.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have said the scholarships are lawful in some formats but unconstitutional as carried out in each of their in dividual circumstances, so only a

single judge should preside. For ex ample, some plaintiffs are in samesex marriages who say they’re be ing discriminated against because some private religious schools ben efiting from student grants oppose LGBTQ rights or expel openly-gay students.

The scholarships are considered one of the chief education policy accomplishments for Republicans at the General Assembly since they took control of the legislature over a decade ago. Nearly 23,000 stu dents in low- and middle-income families received awards during the last school year, and over $63 million in grants are being dis bursed this school year, according

to program data. Program opponents include Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the North Carolina Association of Educators, which deride the awards as vouchers.

The General Assembly agreed in the 2000s to start using panels of three trial judges to hear redis tricting challenges so as to prevent plaintiffs from “judge shopping” by filing cases in certain counties. Their use was expanded in 2014 to cover any lawsuit that sought to declare a state law “facially” un constitutional, or in every situa tion. The chief justice, who is cur rently Republican Paul Newby, appoints the three judges in these

Halloween Booze It & Lose It campaign begins

Law enforcement around the state will be utilizing DWI checkpoints and extra patrols Oct. 24-31

North State Journal

RALEIGH — There’s nothing scarier than the consequences of driving while impaired. To discour age drivers from getting behind the wheel after drinking this Hallow een, law enforcement will be step ping up patrols and using check points and saturation patrols as part of the statewide Booze It & Lose It campaign Oct. 24-31.

Many families will be hitting the streets this Halloween season to enjoy trick-or-treating and we want everyone to have a good time,” said Mark Ezzell, director of the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Pro gram. “People who drink and drive can turn a good time into a tragedy.

If you’re going to drink, never get behind the wheel.”

Instead, people who decide to drink should find a sober ride home by phoning a friend or calling a taxi or a ride service, Ezzell said.

More than 250 people have been killed this year in alcohol-related crashes in North Carolina. In 2021, 423 people died on North Carolina roads due to alcohol-related crash es. Twenty-eight of those deaths oc curred during the Halloween Booze It & Lose It enforcement campaign period.

Driving while impaired can also be expensive. People charged with DWI can lose their license and pay thousands of dollars in court fees.

“With large numbers of people out and about, and days getting shorter – it’s more imperative than ever to make good decisions when you get behind the wheel, so we can keep everyone safe this Halloween season,” Ezzell said.

Mark Ezzell

matters, each of them from a dif ferent region.

Writing the majority decision, Court of Appeals Judge April Wood said it’s plain that the law suit seeks to strike down the pro gram completely and prevent stu dents from being awarded grants. No evidence has been presented that the plaintiffs applied for schol arships or were unconstitutionally denied enrollment to the program, she added.

The “plaintiffs have been unable to identify any conceivable remedy for their claims that would not re quire either rewriting the statute or imposing sweeping court super vision on scholarship approvals by regulators,” Wood wrote. “These remedies are unmistakable mark ers of a facial challenge.”

Court of Appeals Judge Rich ard Dietz sided with Wood. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Toby Hampson wrote that it was prema ture for the appeals court to decide the breadth of the challenge in the lawsuit, and thus who should hear the case at trial.

Given the split 2-1 ruling by the Court of Appeals, the state Su preme Court would be obligated to review Tuesday’s decision if the plaintiffs appeal. In 2015, the jus tices ruled 4-3 that people who challenged the program’s legality failed to prove it violated the con stitution.

PHOTO VIA NC COURT OF APPEALS

The NC Court of Appeals building in Raleigh.

“Many families will be hitting the streets this Halloween season to enjoy trick-or-treating and we want everyone to have a good time.”

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Former NFL player and Bucks head coach George M. Small talks to Dexter Foster after a touchdown during a game against Union Pines on Oct. 13, 2022. Hoke County finished with an overall record of 5-5, with a conference record of 3-3.

WEEKLY CRIME LOG

♦ Posey, James Kemp (W/M/57) Possession of Schedule II CS

10/24/2022 Hoke County Sheriff’s Office

♦ Harrington, Altwoine Cortez (B/M/41) Assault on a Female 10/23/2022 Hoke County Sheriff’s Office

♦ Harrington, Tavares Anthony (B/M/34) Possess Methamphetamine 10/18/2022 Hoke County Sheriff’s Office

Little, Larry (B/M/65) Assault on a Female 10/18/2022 Hoke County Sheriff’s Office

♦ Neely, Preston (W/M/27)

Domestic Violence Order 10/18/2022 Hoke County Sheriff’s Office

♦ McNeill, Byron Augustus (B/M/43) Larceny Felony 10/18/2022 Hoke County Sheriff’s Office

Our priorities are on the ballot

I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS about the new Aquatic Center being built on Fayetteville Road, just a few miles from Cumberland County. The Center has a large pool and a smaller pool and several offices and basketball courts. I heard of a website called Moody’s that lists business and financial information to find the credit rating for Hoke County. According to the website, Hoke County has a good credit rating.

Do we want more pools or schools?

Our County Commissioners did not ask the taxpayers of Hoke County if they wanted this facility, nor were the taxpayers told about where the money would come from to repay the loans. The lack of transparency on this project is appalling, especially when it comes to how it will be financed and by whom.

According to the county’s website, the Commissioners borrowed $39.7 million to be repaid in full in the year 2052. That is 30 years of principal and interest payments on the taxpayers of little Hoke County. The cost to operate and insure this enterprise is all at the taxpayers’ expense, and the price tag is much higher than expected. Our leaders didn’t ask the citizens if they wanted to pay for this Aquatic Center.

Hoke County is growing because of our active and retiring military and our small-town charm. With people coming, many homes are being built with very little new industry. New homes bring more children to educate, and we need more schools now.

The decision was made to only have one high school that will house and educate approximately 6,000 children a year. And the current high school is in disrepair. To me, this spells trouble with overcrowding and possibly less education for our children’s future. A new high school is needed in the eastern part of our county near the Sandy Grove or Rockfish area. One of our political candidates has said, “do we want more pools or schools”? He further states that we already have a $39.7 million debt. Do we want to add to that?

Another item the taxpayers will be considering soon is the need for a new courthouse. Our 100-year-old courthouse has seen its better days and, when considering the loan for a new structure, adds more debt to the $39.7 million.

Our financial obligations are increasing and putting more of a strain on the taxpayers. These decisions are reprehensible, done in reverse.

There are so many smaller, more efficient ways to benefit Hoke County citizens. We need a regulation soccer field. We need to establish better care for our animals. We need the best police protection needed for our growing population.

The future of Hoke County is on the ballot right now. We can choose free-spending leaders or a more fiscally responsible path that helps people but doesn’t mortgage our future to do it.

Johnny Boyles lives in Raeford, N.C.

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior

editor

COLUMN

JOHNNY BOYLES

AP PHOTO

Wayne County Elections Director Anne Risku prepares absentee ballots at the Wayne County Board of Elections office on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in Goldsboro

SIDELINE REPORT

NFL NFL looking into refs, Bucs WR Evans Charlotte

The NFL said it is looking into what transpired between two game officials and Tampa Bay wide receiver Mike Evans in the tunnel of the stadium after the Buccaneers’ 21-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Two videos show side judge Jeff Lamberth and line judge Tripp Sutter approaching Evans and having a short inaudible exchange before he appears to write something on a slip of paper handed to him by the officials. According to the CBA agreement between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association game officials are not allowed to “ask players, coaches or any other team personnel for autographs or memorabilia.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Michigan’s Harbaugh calls PSU’s Franklin ‘ringleader’ in scuffle Ann Arbor, Mich Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Penn State coach James Franklin acted as a “ringleader” when the No. 4 Wolverines and No. 13 Nittany Lions clashed nearly two weeks ago, dismissing Franklin’s claim that a policy change was needed to keep things orderly beneath Michigan Stadium. A lot of heated words were exchanged and Michigan players reportedly said Penn State players threw peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at them as the teams headed to the locker room at halftime of a close game that the Wolverines won in a 41-17 rout on Oct. 15.

MLB Bochy comes out of retirement to take Rangers job Arlington, Texas Bruce Bochy is coming out of a short retirement in hopes to get a title for the home team. The 67-year-old Bochy was introduced Monday as the new manager of the Texas Rangers. He won the first of his three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants in the old Rangers ballpark in 2010. He was presented by Texas general manager Chris Young, who had pitched for the manager in San Diego before that. Bochy hasn’t managed since 2019, when he stepped away after 2,003 wins over 25 seasons with the Giants and Padres, who he took to the World Series in 1998.

Larson holds off Chastain, wins at Homestead

By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson found his way back into NASCAR’s headlines. This time, for a much more pleasant reason.

Larson held off Ross Chastain to cap a dominant showing at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, after leading 199 of the 267 laps over the 1½ mile course.

It was Larson’s third win of the season, coming two weeks after the reigning Cup champion was eliminated from this year’s play offs — and a week after he was in tentionally spun by Bubba Wal lace in an act of retaliation at Las Vegas.

On Sunday, the suspended Wal lace was watching. Larson, mean while, was winning.

“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” Larson said.

AJ Allmendinger was third and Austin Dillon fourth, as Chevro lets took the top four spots.

Even though Larson can’t win the title, his Hendrick Motor sports team still can — now hav ing clinched a spot in the field that will decide the owners’ champion ship in Phoenix.

“We’re still technically not out of it,” Larson said. “I can’t win the championship, but it means more

to me to win it as a team. We’re go ing to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”

And he will drive Phoenix as if he’s driving for his own title.

“Oh, yeah,” Larson said. “Duh.”

It wasn’t exactly close at the end; Larson beat Chastain to the line by 1.261 seconds. Chastain could have clinched a berth in the winnertake-all Phoenix race for the title if he had won at Homestead.

The four-car field for the driv ers’ title race will be finalized next week in Martinsville, with seven drivers heading there to compete for three remaining spots. Only Joey Logano, through his win at

Las Vegas last week, has his berth clinched.

Expect chaos.

“Track position’s going to be so huge,” Denny Hamlin said. “You’re going to see aggressive driving.”

Hamlin is on the wrong side of the cutline going into Martins ville. Chastain is second, Chase Elliott is third and William Byron is fourth.

“It took a good part of the race to get up there and get the car turning,” Chastain said. “Incred ible day on pit road by the boys.”

There will be a race within the race next week. Chastain doesn’t need to win to clinch a berth in the

Phillies, Astros will start World Series on Friday

Houston swept the Yankees to win the American League while Philadelphia dispatched the Padres in the NL

By Ben Walker The Associated Press

BRYCE HARPER and Kyle Schwarber breaking the Bank in Philly. Yordan Alvarez launching moonshots in H-Town.

Dusty Baker trying for a most elusive win. Justin Verlander, too. A fired-up Harper and All-Stars J.T. Realmuto and Zack Wheel er stepping onto baseball’s biggest platform for the first time.

The Philadelphia Phillies, of all teams, are headed to the World Se ries. Against those back-for-more Houston Astros.

A pretty tasty matchup starting Friday night at Minute Maid Park, a Fall Classic full of vibrant sights, scents and sounds.

Harper already has hit five home runs this postseason. In the signature swing of his career, his eighth-inning drive against San Diego on Sunday in Game 5 sent the Phillies into the World Series for the first time since 2009 and earned him the NL Championship Series MVP.

The Astros are 7-0 this postsea son after finishing off a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Alex

Bregman’s go-ahead single keyed a 6-5 win Sunday night.

With the likes of Jose Altuve, ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña, Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm, this World Series is a best-of-seven matchup representing some of the game’s best present and future. Plus a good piece of the past — re member, these teams have played each other nearly 600 times.

There was the thrilling 1980 NL Championship Series, when Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carl ton and the Fightin’ Phils outlast ed Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome on the way to their first World Se

ries title.

Years later, closers Brad Lidge, Billy Wagner, Mitch Williams and Ken Giles spent time with both clubs. So did future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Robin Roberts.

And this neat piece of history — the Phillies were the first team to ever beat Houston, back in 1962 when the expansion Colt .45s lost at Connie Mack Stadium.

The Phillies are also the most recent team to beat the Astros. Way back on Oct. 3, Philadelphia opened the final series of the regu lar season with a 3-0 win at Hous ton, with Schwarber homering

field for the title race, but he didn’t seem too interested in all the mathematical permutations af ter getting out of his car in Home stead.

“We’re just going to go race,” Chastain said. “That’s all I know how to do.”

Hamlin is five points back of Byron, followed by Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in eighth.

Among the playoff drivers, af ter runner-up Chastain, Hamlin was seventh, Bell 11th, Byron 12th, Elliott 14th, Blaney 17th, Logano 18th and Briscoe 36th in the 36car field.

twice as Aaron Nola outpitched Lance McCullers Jr.

The Astros then closed out an AL-best 106-56 record by winning the next two behind Verlander and Framber Valdez — Philadelphia still leads 297-283 in their headto-head matchups, mostly all be fore Houston moved from the Na tional League to the American League in 2013.

Houston then swept Seattle in the AL Division Series and the Yankees in the ALCS featuring its winning formula of imposing starting pitching, a dominant bull pen and a lineup full of home run hitters such as Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.

This marks the Astros’ fourth trip to the World Series in six years and their only title in 2017 was tainted by an illegal sign-stealing scandal. Last season, they lost to Freddie Freeman and the under dog Atlanta Braves in six games.

The Phillies, meanwhile, looked like a big zero this year before get ting to this point in October.

Stuck at 21-29 going into June, they fired manager Joe Girardi a few days later and put the inter im tag on bench coach Rob Thom son. Then suddenly, the Phillies took off.

They overcame Harper’s broken thumb, sidelining the two-time NL MVP for two months, beat out Milwaukee for the final play off spot in going 87-75, and quick ly topped NL Central champion St. Louis in the wild-card round.

Philadelphia eliminated defend ing World Series champ Atlanta in the NLDS and topped San Diego in the NLCS.

Only Joey Logano is assured a chance to win the title at Phoenix heading into the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville

JOHN LOCHER | AP PHOTO

Joey Logano celebrates after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Las Vegas.

Chiropractic

Veteran’s Administration covers

Dr. Tony Santangelo,

named NC Chiropractic Association Chiropractor of the Year, based on community service & the profression

DAVID J. PHILLIP

Catcher Garrett Stubbs and the Phillies will try to top Martin Maldonado and the Astros when the teams meet starting Friday for the 2022 World Series.

Hail to the who?

Tanya Snyder drops Commanders for old name

cause at the conclusion of her re marks — which, oddly enough, included a reference to “seven de cades of fantastic football” — she declared: “Hail to the Redskins! And let’s beat Green Bay.”

By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press

LANDOVER, Md. — Under investigation and under scruti ny like never before, team own er Daniel Snyder was nowhere to be seen at the rally that preced ed the Washington Commanders’ “homecoming” game Sunday.

Instead, his wife, Tanya, greet ed the sparse crowd of fans who showed up to meet players from the past as the renamed fran chise celebrated 90 years since its founding.

Maybe she forgot about the branding change that discarded the club’s offensive nickname, be

The second part did happen, thanks to the way backup quar terback Taylor Heinicke, start ing in place of the injured Carson Wentz, rebounded from a 1-for-7 start that included a pick-6 and steered the Commanders past four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rod gers and the stumbling Packers 23-21.

Washington (3-4) welcomed back dozens of former players who paraded around the stadi um, then met with fans, before the game. Among those attend ing: Pro Football Hall of Fame member Art Monk and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Mark Rypien.

Team president Jason Wright also threw in a reference to the former nickname, telling the crowd, “Hail to the ’Skins and hail to the Commanders.”

This came at the end of a week in which Daniel Snyder — who once vowed never to change the name of his franchise but did in 2020 during a national reckoning about racism — was a main topic

at the league’s owners’ meetings in New York. And not in a good way, even though he was not a part of the formal agenda.

He is the subject of several in quiries — by Congress, by the NFL, by the attorney general of D.C. — that cover allegations of sexual misconduct and financial impropriety. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose team

happens to be Washington’s op ponent next week, said there’s “merit to remove” Snyder, which would require a vote by 24 of the 31 other owners.

There would also be anoth er way, of course, for Snyder to move on, and spectators at Sun day’s game shouted it as a sugges tion when his wife was shown on a video board: “Sell the team!”

McIlroy’s road back to No. 1 felt longer than it really was

The 33-year-old is back on top of men’s golf for the first time in more than two years

By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press

RIDGELAND, S.C. — Just about everyone was in the mood to celebrate except for Rory McIl roy.

It had been eight years since McIlroy played the week before the Masters, so he decided to skip the Match Play and instead go to the Texas Open to get into a com petitive mood going into Augus ta National.

Instead, he missed the cut by two shots, and that wasn’t the worst of it. For reasons he can’t recall, McIlroy had to wait until the next morning to get home to Florida. He was staying in a mas sive hotel on site at the TPC San Antonio.

“I guess there was some par ty on Friday night and I was feel ing pretty bad,” McIlroy said. “Got back up to my hotel room and went to order room ser vice and they said it will be a 2½ hour wait. So I basically missed the cut, went to bed on an emp ty stomach and I was like, ‘Let’s just wake up tomorrow and start again.’”

Moments like that are what made Sunday so sweet. He seized on his opportunity to return to No. 1 in the world by winning the CJ Cup in South Carolina, com pleting what he refers to as a “journey” that had multiple start ing points and stops along the way.

One of them was the Texas Open. It wasn’t the only cut he missed this year, but he was No. 9 in the world and the road back felt just as long as when he was as low as No. 16 only eight months earlier.

“If someone had told me on the Friday night of the Valero Texas Open when I missed the cut that I

would be world No. 1 by October, I would have asked them what they were smoking,” McIlroy said.

“It’s just been a wild six months.”

The final stop was more signif icant than he realized.

The CJ Cup in South Carolina was his sixth straight top 10.

Chasing No. 1 is difficult enough. Fall out of the top 10 and it can seem even harder, even though it’s a thin line among the

top 20 players.

“It’s fractions you’re talking about,” McIlroy said. “Sometimes you can feel further away than you actually are. But again, that’s the great thing about this game. You’re only a couple of weeks away from feeling really good about yourself and getting some good finishes and getting some momentum on your side.

“It didn’t concern me that I

dropped out of the top 10 for a couple of weeks last year, but again, being used to the position in the world of golf that I am, it probably made me feel further away than I actually was.”

Since the world ranking be gan in April 1986, only three oth er players have been at No. 1 lon ger than McIlroy — Woods (683 weeks), Greg Norman (331 weeks) and Dustin Johnson (135 weeks).

McIlroy begins his 107th week this year, and the way he’s going, it might stay that way for at least the rest of the year.

McIlroy always says staying at No. 1 can be tougher than getting there. He might make an excep tion this time. From a bad Ryder Cup to his lowest world ranking since turning 21, from not being able to order room service, this felt like a long time coming.

The co-CEO and wife of Washington owner Dan Snyder ended a rally with “Hail to the Redskins”

AL DRAGO | AP PHOTO

Tanya Snyder, Washington Commanders co-owner and co-CEO, speaks before the team’s game Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

STEPHEN B. MORTON | AP PHOTO

Rory McIlroy, left, celebrates with his caddie after winning the CJ Cup on Sunday in Ridgeland, South Carolina.

By Rebecca Boone The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — A frenzied race for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat is shaping up to be one of the clos est in the country and both can didates hope their messages on abortion, immigration, inflation or public safety will tip the bal ance in their favor.

The stakes for Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Lax alt are especially high. The winner could determine which party con trols the Senate and the GOP con siders Nevada one of its best op portunities to turn a blue seat into red.

The race has become increas ingly neck-and-neck in recent weeks, with many polls showing the candidates just a percentage point or two apart. As Election Day draws near, both are continu ing to follow the same campaign playbooks as their national par ties, with Cortez Masto rallying voters around threats to abortion access and Laxalt focusing on the economy.

“We don’t need any more male politicians telling women what we can and can’t do with our own bodies,” Cortez Masto wrote in a post pinned to the top of her Twit ter account in September. She has echoed the refrain in several campaign ads, contending Laxalt would support increased abortion restrictions — and perhaps a na tionwide ban — if elected to Con gress.

Laxalt, meanwhile, has the en dorsement of the anti-abortion group National Right to Life and has called himself “pro-life.” In a June news release, Laxalt called the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade “a histor ic victory for the sanctity of life.”

He has said the change is “set tled law” because Nevada voters had already made abortion legal, but he also expressed support for a referendum that would restrict abortion after 13 weeks instead of the 24-week limit currently al lowed by the state constitution.

If the Republican Party can flip just one Senate seat, they will win control of the chamber, along with the power to control judicial nominations and policy debates through 2024.

Still, Laxalt’s campaign has worked to keep the focus on issues like immigration and the econo my rather than abortion. He has repeatedly cited rising gas pric es and inflation as reasons vot ers should choose him over Cor tez Masto.

“At some gas stations in Reno, gas prices have soared to $7 per gallon,” his campaign wrote in an early October news release. The statement attempted to pin the prices on Cortez Masto’s votes

on energy issues, such as her ef forts to limit oil and gas leasing on lands with “low or no” poten tial for development.

Cortez Masto is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as the finance, Indian affairs and banking, housing and urban af fairs committees.

Both candidates have used their experience as former attor neys general — Laxalt from 2015 to 2019 and Cortez Masto from 2007 to 2015 before becoming senator in 2017 — to demonstrate their support for law enforcement.

Laxalt has been endorsed by the Nevada Fraternal Order of Po lice and the Public Safety Alliance of Nevada. Cortez Masto has the endorsement of the Nevada Po lice Union, the Nevada Law En forcement Coalition and the Ne vada Association of Public Safety Officers.

In early October, Cortez Mas to announced she helped to secure more than $21 million in feder al funding that would go to police departments, state government agencies and tribes to boost law enforcement efforts and criminal justice programs.

They have each have sought to court veterans, with Laxalt high lighting his service as a U.S. Navy judge advocate general in Iraq and an assistant professor of law at the U.S. Naval Academy. Cor tez Masto has talked about leg islation she helped get through Congress, including a bill guar anteeing health benefits and com pensation for veterans exposed to Agent Orange and others to pro tect VA benefits for student veter ans and improve access to mental health services.

Cortez Masto has raised more than $44 million and spent all but about $5 million by the end of September, according to OpenSe crets, an organization that tracks campaign finance and spending data.

Laxalt brought in more than $13 million and spent about $9 million during the same time pe riod but was aided by an influx of political action committee fund ing. Outside groups spent more than $39 million opposing Cor tez Masto and roughly $29 mil lion opposing Laxalt, according to OpenSecrets.

Nevada has rejected every GOP presidential candidate since 2004, but by increasingly narrow margins. In 2020, President Joe Biden won by only 2.4 percentage points.

Laxalt has close ties to Trump as he co-chaired Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign in Nevada. Trump has visited Nevada twice to stump for Laxalt and GOP gu bernatorial candidate Joe Lom bardo, who is running against Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak.

Murdaugh uses public docs to sow doubt he killed wife, son

By Jeffrey Collins The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Months after accusing disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh of killing his wife and son, South Carolina investiga tors and prosecutors have released few details about the evidence that they believe connect him to the shootings

That’s led Murdaugh’s lawyers to file a flurry of court documents requesting information from the prosecution, seeking to publicly weaken the case before the Janu ary trial has begun.

The defense attorneys argue that there was unknown DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fin gernails. They also have a different suspect, Murdaugh’s friend Curtis Eddie Smith, arguing that he failed a lie detector test regarding the killings. Murdaugh has already ad mitted to asking Smith to arrange Murdaugh’s own death to defraud his life insurance company.

Those defense documents even boosted a story from Smith that prosecutors later said had no ev idence to back it up — that Paul Murdaugh killed his mother, Mag gie, when he caught her with a groundskeeper at the family’s Col leton County hunting lodge and the groundskeeper then shot the son.

Alex Murdaugh, 54, has pro claimed his innocence ever since June 2021, when he found the bod ies, each shot several times. He has said through his lawyer he “loved them more than anything in the world.”

It took more than 13 months for authorities to indict Murdaugh on two counts of murder and his trial is set to begin Jan. 23 after defense attorneys asked to hold it as quick ly as possible.

Even after the charges, prose cutors and investigators have re leased little on how they linked Murdaugh to the deaths or why a man who had no criminal history and was part of a wealthy, well-con nected family that dominated the legal community in tiny Hampton County might have wanted to kill his own family members.

In the months since the deaths, Murdaugh’s life has crumbled. He was fired from the law firm found ed by his family for stealing money and then lost his law license. Pros ecutors said he was a drug addict who helped run a money launder

ing and pain killer ring and stole about $8 million from settlements for wrongful death or injury he se cured for mostly poor clients.

As part of the back and forth about evidence in the upcoming murder trial, prosecutors have di vulged slightly more of their case. Notably, there is a cellphone vid eo of Murdaugh, his wife and son near dog kennels around 8:44 p.m. the night they are killed. Cellphone data indicates Murdaugh left at 9:06 p.m. and his frantic 911 call to report he found the bodies near the kennels came at 10:06 p.m.

Murdaugh’s attorneys have re quested a FBI report analyzing all the cellphone data, saying such re cords are crucial to their defense.

“There is nothing to indicate ... in the next 20 minutes, he butch ers his son and wife, executes both of them in a brutal way,” defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said. “He’s then on the phone talking to another lawyer from his car in a very convivial way.”

The defense also said they need ed more complete gunshot residue reports after a few particles were found on Murdaugh. His attorney claim the particles likely landed on his clothing when he picked up a gun to protect himself after find ing the bodies.

Authorities have not tested Smith’s DNA and the defense said it has no findings from the source of genetic material found on the clothing of the victims.

Murdaugh’s defense also wants complete notes from a blood spat ter report after a small amount of his wife’s blood was found on his shirt. The lawyers said the blood came when Murdaugh “frantically attended his wife’s bloody corpse.”

Prosecutors insisted they turned over every bit of evidence they have and what’s missing is mostly in complete reports. They said the de fense was aware of that when they had a friendly conversation just be fore the motions were filed.

“This manner of conducting liti gation says a lot about the defense’s true motives,” South Carolina Dep uty Attorney General Creighton Waters wrote in his response.

It’s clear from the pretrial backand-forth that the prosecution does not have any eyewitnesses or video of how Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, were killed on June 7, 2021. But prosecutors said people are frequently convict

ed through scientific evidence and circumstances that put them near the scene or give them a motivation for wrongdoing.

“If every murder case needed a confession and an eyewitness, it would be open season out there,” Waters said in court Thursday.

In the months before his mur der trial, Murdaugh’s lawyers are focusing on Smith, who authorities said was supposed to shoot Mur daugh on the side of a lonely high way in September 2021.

Murdaugh allegedly planned his own killing so his surviving son could collect on a $10 million life insurance policy. In the end, Smith said the gun fired as he and Mur daugh fought over the weapon, the bullet only grazing Murdaugh’s head.

Smith’s attorneys say he did not kill Maggie or Paul Murdaugh. They argue Alex Murdaugh’s law yers are looking for anyone else to blame for the killings, so they have seized on a lie detector test where Smith allegedly showed a reaction when asked if he shot the victims or was present when they were killed.

Murdaugh’s lawyers said Smith knew the area around the dog ken nels where the bodies were found because they were a drug drop. They also point out Smith’s DNA had not been tested as of mid-Oc tober.

“I’m not saying he did it. I’m just saying it certainly sounds like he could have done it,” Harpootlian said.

Prosecutors have pointed out that spike during the test could have been an emotional reaction as a result of Smith feeling guilty about the circumstances leading up to the crime, even if he had no involvement. They said Smith’s DNA is being tested now and re sults of lie detector tests aren’t ad missible in court by themselves.

Murdaugh’s attorneys also used court papers to make public a sto ry Smith said he heard about Mag gie Murdaugh’s affair directly lead ing to the killings. It didn’t explain how the groundskeeper avoided ar rest or detection in the 16 months since.

Prosecutors in court papers called it “salacious scuttlebutt that is offensive to the memory of his victims.”

“It’s very telling they want to make this case about Eddie Smith,” Waters said.

AP PHOTO

This combination of photos shows Nevada Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt speaking on Aug. 4, 2022, in Las Vegas, left, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., speaking on April 26, 2022, in Washington, D.C., right.

obituaries

James, (Jimmy)

Edward Collins

September 8, 1959 ~ October 21, 2022

Mr. James Edward (Jimmy) Collins of Raeford Passed away on Friday, October 21, 2022, at his home

Jimmy was born on September 8, 1959, in Cumberland County. He is preceded in death by his father Roger Grantham Collins, Jr.

He is survived by a daughter Dana Collins of Raeford, his mother Bobbie Jean Collins of Raeford, a brother

Roger E. Collins of Raeford, 2 sisters

Cathy McMillan of Whiteville, NC, and Lisa Collins of Raeford, 1 nephew Hugh Brian McMillan of Supply, NC

Margie Phipps McKay

February 6, 1945 ~ October 20, 2022

Mrs. Margie Phipps McKay of Raeford went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Thursday, October 20, 2022, at the age of 77.

Mrs. McKay was born in Cumberland County on February 6, 1945, to the late Oscar Fenny Phipps and Magnolia Walters Phipps. She was a member of Living Faith Ministries Church in Raeford, NC.

She is survived by her husband William H. McKay of Raeford, NC, a brother, Robert Phipps and his wife Gwen of Rome GA, nieces Hope Tharp, Love Daniels, and Joy Lumpkin all of Rome, GA., nephews, Keith Phipps, and his wife Kim of Wilmington, NC, Jimmy Phipps and his wife Angie of Parkton, NC, Karen Phipps of Fayetteville, NC, Janet Singletary, and her husband Mark of Hope Mills, NC, Anthony Barfield of St. Pauls, NC, Joel Barfield of St. Pauls, NC, Dan Barfield of Lumberton, NC, and Barbara Mitchely of Roanoke VA, Oscar Phipps Jr. of Roanoke, VA.

Burial will be in the Cumberland Memorial Gardens in Fayetteville, NC.

Sharon Kay Strickland

August 12, 1942 ~ October 19, 2022

Mrs. Sharon Kay Strickland of Raeford, NC went to be with her Lord and Savior on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, surrounded by her family at First Health Moore Regional Hospital.

She was born in Long Beach, CA on August 12, 1942, to the late George Livingston and Evelyn Griggs Livingston.

Sharon was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Richard Lee Strickland Sr., sister, Lois, and her husband Patrick McGovern, and her brother, Clifford Livingston.

She was a proud veteran of the US Navy as the admiral’s secretary. She was a proud grandmother and greatgrandmother and loved spending time with her family.

She is survived by her children, Shielah Strickland, and her husband Bradley Page of Raeford, NC, Timothy Strickland of Independence, MO, Richard Lee Strickland Jr. and his wife Christine of Newbern, NC, Dyanna Strickland of Arlington, TX, 6 grandchildren, Richard Lee Strickland III and his wife Mara, Morgan Thomson and her husband Lawrence, Tymmy Strickland, Arrin Davis and his wife Morgan, Eric Strickland and his wife Courtney, Kyle Strickland, 7 great-grandchildren, Annabella, Emma, Sawyer, Ethan, Nora, Brida, Richard Lee IV, her brothers, Charles Livingston and David Livingston.

Dario Clifton Bocker

May 10, 1959 ~ October 14, 2022

Mr. Dario Clifton Bocker age, 63 transitioned from earth to glory on October 14, 2022.

He leaves to cherish his loving memories his wife Edilma Ana Bocker, children: Ramel Sidiqui Bocker, Jarren Ronaldo Bocker; siblings: Angela Goode, Vicki Bocker, Stephanie Bocker, Arturo Bocker, Leroy Bocker; three grandchildren along with a host of other family and friends. He will be greatly missed.

Willie Thomas Lentz Jr.

October 12, 1950 ~ October 20, 2022

Mr. William (Willie) Thomas Lentz Jr. of Raeford, NC passed away peacefully at home on Thursday, October 20, 2022.

Willie was born in Moore County on October 12, 1950, to the late William T. Lentz Sr. and Aline Edwards Daniels.

He was preceded in death by his wife and best friend, Helen (Ma) Woodcox Lentz, and his sister Kay McMillian.

Willie retired from the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

He is survived by his sister Jean Lentz McDiarmid and her husband Johnny of Raeford, daughters by marriage, Cindy Baxley and her husband John, Wendy Fabian and her husband Allan, and Betty Baxley and her husband William, all of Raeford, NC, grandchildren, Megan (Jason), Austin, and Ethan, great-grandchildren, Tyler, Hunter, Emma, and Dakota, great-greatgranddaughter, Everly, nieces, Joli (Tim), Jenny (William), Anna, nephew Bobby (Barbara), great nieces, Cathy, Aline, and greatnephews, William and Everett.

He is also survived by his dear friends, Butch, Larry, Tommy, and Harold.

SPONSORED BY CRUMPLER FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATION

Jessica Breann Felber

January 31, 1987 ~ October 17, 2022

Ms. Jessica Breann Felber passed into eternity on Monday, October 17, 2022, in Raeford, NC at the age of 35.

Jessica was born in California on January 31, 1987.

She was preceded in death by her grandfather, Frederick R. Stowell, and her best friend Chad Herrera.

Jessica’s life would seem too short for those who didn’t understand her, but for those who knew Jessica knew that the quality of life far outweighs the quantity of time in which one lives.

Jessica was very strong-minded and enjoyed the outdoors. Her favorite places to be were either the woods or the beach. She was a loving and giving advocate for those who could not advocate for themselves and was an avid animal lover. She always put others’ needs before her own. She was bright-spirited, strongwilled, extremely caring, and giving. She never met a stranger she didn’t make smile.

She was also influential in the business world, including having overseen staff and personnel at 27 different Waffle House restaurants under her leadership as a Hiring Manager.

Jessica is survived by three sisters, Brittany Felber, Taylor Allen and Michelle Felber, four brothers, Dakota Felber (Florencia) Christopher Felber, Jan Felber and James Felber, two birth daughters, Gracelyn Hope Musselwhite and Cali Sky Rameriz, her father, Jan Richard Felber (Joanne), and her mother, Lisa Ellen Horne, uncle, Michael Stowell (Terri), and her cousin Dianna Lorraine Kramer.

Willie White

July 29, 1942 ~ October 17, 2022

Mr. Willie White age, 80 transitioned from earth to glory on October 17, 2022. He was the son of the late Charlie and Lillian White. He leaves to cherish his loving memories his daughter, Gwendolyn Maxwell; sisters: Mary H. White, Lillian Davis (Kirk), brother, Melvin L. White (Ralene), along with a host of other family and friends. Willie will be greatly missed.

William Sean McDonald

July 28, 1971 ~ October 17, 2022

Mr. William Sean McDonald age, 51 transitioned from earth to glory on October 17, 2022.

He leaves to cherish his loving memories his son, Kevonte Shammond McDonald; mother, Ledella McDonald Davis (Gary); sister, Shanette Covington; aunt, Lenora Ware along with a host of other family and friends. Sean will be immensely.

December 12, 1979 ~ October 19, 2022

Mr. James Dwight McNeill of Raeford, NC passed away surrounded by his family on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, at First Health Moore Regional Hospital at the age of 42.

Dwight was born on December 12, 1979, in Cumberland County, NC.

He was previously employed with Time Warner Cable.

He is survived by his parents, Mike and Pat of Raeford, NC, a brother, Patrick McNeill, and his wife Shelley of Dothan AL, two nephews, Andrew and Matthew McNeill who are students at Auburn University, and a longtime friend, Casey Long.

Dexter Lee Thomas

April 27, 1957 ~ October 17, 2022

Dexter Thomas departed this life on Monday, October 17, 2022 at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. He is survived by his daughters; Tara McMillan and Tammie Graham. He is also survived by his grandchildren; Janasia Cobb, Aniyah Verren, Jaida McMillan, Isaiah Hudson, and Devin Hudson.

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in NSJ at obits@northstatejournal.com

James Dwight McNeill

Sample Ballot Hoke County, NC

Not an o cial Ballot Produced by Hoke GOP

Celebrating a score

Wake Forest wide receiver A.T. Perry (9) celebrates after his touchdown catch against Boston College during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Winston-Salem, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Early voting begins in Forsyth County

Residents of Forsyth County began early voting last week, and county officials say they expect a bigger early voting turnout than in previous midterm elections. The county has a dozen one-stop early voting locations, including: Brown & Douglas Community Center

Clemmons Branch Library

Forsyth County Government Center

Kernersville’s Paddison Memorial Library

Lewisville Branch Library

Mazie Woodruff Center

Miller Park Rec Center

Old Town Rec Center

Rural Hall Branch Library

Southside Branch Library

Winston First Assembly of God Anderson Center at WSSU

Voting started Oct. 20 and continues through Nov. 5. Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

O’Neill faces rare challenger in DA race

Board of Commissioners clears outstanding IRS debt related to 2010 School Construction Bonds

Multiple grants approved by commissioners

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal

WINSTON-SALEM — The Forsyth County Board of Com missioners met Thursday with a handful of agreements, grants and contracts on the agenda for poten tial approval.

The board first approved a res olution authorizing the execution of the closing agreement between Forsyth County and the Com missioner of Internal Revenue to resolve a finding related to the 2010D Qualified School Construc tion Bonds.

“This is really a settlement re lated to the accounting of a feder al credit program related to fairly complicated bonds,” said Coun ty Manager Dudley Watts. “They

were issued taxably with an incen tive to issue those and then they’d be repaid by the federal govern ment. It was a timing issue where we were in dispute with the IRS around how we interpreted the dates, but we will resolve this mat ter moving forward with this.”

According to Vice Chair Don Martin, the issue arose from dif ferences in the understanding of due dates between the county and the IRS.

Along with the resolution, the board also approved the appropri ation of $61,906.19 in order to pay the resolution amount from the IRS finding.

The board then approved an amendment to the FY22-23 bud get ordinance to appropriate $50,000 in INSPIRE Grant funds from the Appalachian Region al Commission for a Recovery to Work Employer Credential pro gram that will provide employees

with a framework for implement ing a recovery inclusive workplace that integrates employers into the recovery ecosystem.

The board also approved an amendment to the 2020 Motor Vehicles and Mobile Equipment Replacement Capital Projects Or dinance to appropriate $32,675 of claims proceeds, an amendment to the FY 2022-23 Budget Or dinance to appropriate $65,000 in grant funds from the Appala chian District Health Department to support Environmental Health Activities.

The board entered in multiple agreements, one with Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods for the Implementation of Cure Violence Winston-Salem/Forsyth County using $1,080,398 in ARPA fund ing, an interlocal agreement be tween Forsyth County and Wilkes County to provide A1C screening for the minority diabetes preven

Board of Education approves resolution in support of Education Collaborative

WXII

Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill, a Republican, has competition as he runs for his fourth term. Denise Hartsfield, a Democrat who retired last year after 19 years as a district court judge, will challenge O’Neill for the county’s top prosecutor seat. On her campaign website, Hartsfield says she would push to be more inclusive and more collaborative in seeking solutions beyond just punishment. She said she also wants to diversify the office and make it more responsive to the community.

WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL

Facility upgrades at Hall-Woodward Elementary approved

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal

WINSTON-SALEM — The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education met Tuesday, October 11, where they were given an update on Educa tion Collaborative as well as their Magnet and Choice Schools.

The board approved a resolu tion supporting the Education Collaborative to better support and fund programs at WSFCS.

“Traditionally, the school dis trict has had continued collab oration with local foundations such as Z. Smith Reynolds Foun dation, the KBR Foundation and the Winston-Salem Foundation as ongoing support for programs and services aligned to our dis trict’s strategic initiatives,” said Executive Director of Strategy/

Innovation Dr. Paula Wilkins. “But one of the things we need to look ahead to now is how do we create sustainable funding part nerships to help fund continued programs that are supporting the district? As we look over the next couple of years, it’s going to be critical to see how do we begin to think about replacing that fund ing once our ESSER funding ex pires.”

According to Dr. Wilkins’ pre sentation, the vision for The Ed ucation Collaborative is, “it will seek to leverage evidence-based practices, proven outcomes, and research to fund and support ini tiatives that will improve com munity outcomes for public school children in Forsyth Coun ty. The Education Collaborative will work as its own 501c3 as a Collaborative Partner and sup port of WS/FCS with its own de cision-making board . The board of the EC will be comprised of community leaders, donors, ed ucators, parents, students, and

district leaders with a propos al that the WS/FCS always serve as a member of the board as an ex-officio member and with the WS/FCS Board of Education providing a recommendation of a board member representative to serve a term on the board.”

“One reason that I feel we need something like this is that a long time ago, when technology in the classroom was a new idea, we had to go to the community and raise $3 million to put technology in classrooms,” said board mem

tion program as the lead agency for region 3, and a lease agree ment between Forsyth County and Wake Forest University Bap tist Medical Center on behalf of its Besthealth for Business for lease of county-owned property located at 725 N. Highland Avenue.

In additional grant funding, the board accepted a $65,000 Amer ican Rescue Plan Act - Environ mental Health Funds Grant from the Appalachian District Health Department that was awarded to the Forsyth County Department of Public Health in order to to re cruit, retain and train personnel and a $170,000 multi-year grant from the National Association of County and City Health Officials to support overdose prevention strategies. Forsyth County will partner with Twin City Harm Re duction Initiatives for the NAC

ber Marilyn Parker. “Every time it’s like we have to do this capi tal campaign that churches do to raise money for things the school district needs or that needs to be ongoing and not always in flux. I just think this community has risen to the occasion every time that something is needed for our schools and I think this will be the perfect way to allow our com munity to be involved again in a way that can make our school system even greater than it is.”

The board was also given an update on the status of the dis tricts Magnet and Choice schools.

“In terms of our Mag net Schools Programming, we have been off to a great start in July and August,” said Chief of Choice/Magnet Schools Dr. Kar en Roseboro. “We also created some strategic partnerships for each of our pathways.”

According to Dr. Roseboro, for the Visual and Performing Arts Schools, partners include North Carolina A+ schools, the Arts Council, Wake Forest Universi ty Fine Arts and the Little The ater, for the STEM and STEAM schools, partners include Forsyth Tech: NC STEM Alliance and Project Lead the Way and for the IB and Dual Language schools,

“How do we create sustainable funding partnerships to help fund continued programs that are supporting the district?”

Dr. Paula Wilkins

CHUCK BURTON | AP PHOTO

SIDELINE REPORT

NFL NFL looking into refs, Bucs WR Evans Charlotte

The NFL said it is looking into what transpired between two game officials and Tampa Bay wide receiver Mike Evans in the tunnel of the stadium after the Buccaneers’ 21-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Two videos show side judge Jeff Lamberth and line judge Tripp Sutter approaching Evans and having a short inaudible exchange before he appears to write something on a slip of paper handed to him by the officials. According to the CBA agreement between the NFL and the NFL

Referees Association game officials are not allowed to “ask players, coaches or any other team personnel for autographs or memorabilia.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Michigan’s Harbaugh calls PSU’s Franklin ‘ringleader’ in scuffle

Ann Arbor, Mich Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Penn State coach James Franklin acted as a “ringleader” when the No. 4 Wolverines and No. 13 Nittany Lions clashed nearly two weeks ago, dismissing Franklin’s claim that a policy change was needed to keep things orderly beneath Michigan Stadium. A lot of heated words were exchanged and Michigan players reportedly said Penn State players threw peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at them as the teams headed to the locker room at halftime of a close game that the Wolverines won in a 4117 rout on Oct. 15.

MLB

Bochy comes out of retirement to take Rangers job

Arlington, Texas Bruce Bochy is coming out of a short retirement in hopes to get a title for the home team. The 67-year-old Bochy was introduced Monday as the new manager of the Texas Rangers. He won the first of his three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants in the old Rangers ballpark in 2010. He was presented by Texas general manager Chris Young, who had pitched for the manager in San Diego before that.

Bochy hasn’t managed since 2019, when he stepped away after 2,003 wins over 25 seasons with the Giants and Padres, who he took to the World Series in 1998.

OLYMPICS

Russian runner stripped of 2012 gold medal for doping

Monaco

Ten years after the London Olympics, 400-meter hurdles champion Natalya Antyukh has been disqualified for doping.

The Russian’s case means Lashinda Demus of the United States is set to be upgraded to the gold medal.

Antyukh was already serving a four-year ban in a previous case judged by the Court or Arbitration for Sport last year. That stripped her results from 2013 to 2015.

The new ruling based on historical evidence recovered from a Moscow testing laboratory database further disqualifies Antyukh from mid-July 2012. At age 39, Demus is in line to become an Olympic champion.

Larson holds off Chastain, wins at Homestead

Only Joey Logano is assured a chance to win the title at Phoenix heading into the season’s penultimate race at Martinsville

By Tim Reynolds The Associated Press

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson found his way back into NASCAR’s headlines. This time, for a much more pleasant reason.

Larson held off Ross Chastain to cap a dominant showing at Home stead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, after leading 199 of the 267 laps over the 1½ mile course.

It was Larson’s third win of the season, coming two weeks after the reigning Cup champion was eliminated from this year’s playoffs

— and a week after he was inten tionally spun by Bubba Wallace in an act of retaliation at Las Vegas.

On Sunday, the suspended Wal lace was watching. Larson, mean while, was winning.

“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long,” Larson said.

AJ Allmendinger was third and Austin Dillon fourth, as Chevrolets took the top four spots.

Even though Larson can’t win the title, his Hendrick Motor sports team still can — now hav ing clinched a spot in the field that will decide the owners’ champion ship in Phoenix.

“We’re still technically not out of it,” Larson said. “I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team. We’re go ing to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.”

And he will drive Phoenix as if

he’s driving for his own title.

“Oh, yeah,” Larson said. “Duh.”

It wasn’t exactly close at the end; Larson beat Chastain to the line by 1.261 seconds. Chastain could have clinched a berth in the winnertake-all Phoenix race for the title if he had won at Homestead.

The four-car field for the driv ers’ title race will be finalized next week in Martinsville, with seven drivers heading there to compete for three remaining spots. Only Joey Logano, through his win at Las Vegas last week, has his berth clinched.

Phillies, Astros will start World Series on Friday

Houston swept the Yankees to win the American League while Philadelphia dispatched the Padres in the NL

By Ben Walker The Associated Press

BRYCE HARPER and Kyle Schwarber breaking the Bank in Philly. Yordan Alvarez launching moonshots in H-Town.

Dusty Baker trying for a most elusive win. Justin Verlander, too.

A fired-up Harper and All-Stars J.T. Realmuto and Zack Wheel er stepping onto baseball’s biggest platform for the first time.

The Philadelphia Phillies, of all teams, are headed to the World Se ries. Against those back-for-more Houston Astros.

A pretty tasty matchup starting Friday night at Minute Maid Park, a Fall Classic full of vibrant sights, scents and sounds.

Harper already has hit five home runs this postseason. In the signature swing of his career, his eighth-inning drive against San Diego on Sunday in Game 5 sent the Phillies into the World Series for the first time since 2009 and earned him the NL Championship Series MVP.

The Astros are 7-0 this postsea son after finishing off a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Alex

Bregman’s go-ahead single keyed a 6-5 win Sunday night.

With the likes of Jose Altuve, ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña, Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm, this World Series is a best-of-seven matchup representing some of the game’s best present and future. Plus a good piece of the past — re member, these teams have played each other nearly 600 times.

There was the thrilling 1980 NL Championship Series, when Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carl ton and the Fightin’ Phils outlast ed Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome on the way to their first World Se

ries title.

Years later, closers Brad Lidge, Billy Wagner, Mitch Williams and Ken Giles spent time with both clubs. So did future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Robin Roberts.

And this neat piece of history — the Phillies were the first team to ever beat Houston, back in 1962 when the expansion Colt .45s lost at Connie Mack Stadium.

The Phillies are also the most recent team to beat the Astros. Way back on Oct. 3, Philadelphia opened the final series of the regu lar season with a 3-0 win at Hous ton, with Schwarber homering

Expect chaos.

“Track position’s going to be so huge,” Denny Hamlin said. “You’re going to see aggressive driving.”

Hamlin is on the wrong side of the cutline going into Martinsville. Chastain is second, Chase Elliott is third and William Byron is fourth.

“It took a good part of the race to get up there and get the car turn ing,” Chastain said. “Incredible day on pit road by the boys.”

There will be a race within the race next week. Chastain doesn’t need to win to clinch a berth in the field for the title race, but he didn’t seem too interested in all the mathematical permutations af ter getting out of his car in Home stead.

“We’re just going to go race,” Chastain said. “That’s all I know how to do.”

Hamlin is five points back of Byron, followed by Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in eighth.

Among the playoff drivers, af ter runner-up Chastain, Hamlin was seventh, Bell 11th, Byron 12th, Elliott 14th, Blaney 17th, Logano 18th and Briscoe 36th in the 36car field.

twice as Aaron Nola outpitched Lance McCullers Jr.

The Astros then closed out an AL-best 106-56 record by winning the next two behind Verlander and Framber Valdez — Philadelphia still leads 297-283 in their headto-head matchups, mostly all be fore Houston moved from the Na tional League to the American League in 2013.

Houston then swept Seattle in the AL Division Series and the Yankees in the ALCS featuring its winning formula of imposing starting pitching, a dominant bull pen and a lineup full of home run hitters such as Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.

This marks the Astros’ fourth trip to the World Series in six years and their only title in 2017 was tainted by an illegal sign-stealing scandal. Last season, they lost to Freddie Freeman and the under dog Atlanta Braves in six games.

The Phillies, meanwhile, looked like a big zero this year before get ting to this point in October.

Stuck at 21-29 going into June, they fired manager Joe Girardi a few days later and put the inter im tag on bench coach Rob Thom son. Then suddenly, the Phillies took off.

They overcame Harper’s broken thumb, sidelining the two-time NL MVP for two months, beat out Milwaukee for the final play off spot in going 87-75, and quick ly topped NL Central champion St. Louis in the wild-card round.

Philadelphia eliminated defend ing World Series champ Atlanta in the NLDS and topped San Diego in the NLCS.

DAVID J. PHILLIP

Catcher Garrett Stubbs and the Phillies will try to top Martin Maldonado and the Astros when the teams meet starting Friday for the 2022 World Series.

JOHN LOCHER | AP PHOTO

Joey Logano celebrates after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Las Vegas.

SPONSORED

“Definitely the best run we’ve had all year long.”

Kyle Larson

STATE & NATION

Biden juggling long list of issues to please Dem coalition

By Colleen Long The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Presi dent Joe Biden wants to tame infla tion. He wants Congress to protect access to abortions. He wants to tackle voting rights. And he’s taking on China, promoting construction of new factories, addressing climate change, forgiving student debt, par doning federal marijuana convic tions, cutting the deficit, working to lower prescription drug prices and funneling aid to Ukraine.

Biden is trying to be everything to everyone. But that’s making it hard for him to say he’s focused on any single issue above all others as he tries to counter Republican mo mentum going into the Nov. 8 elec tions.

“There’s no one thing,” Biden said when questioned about his top pri ority. “There’s multiple, multiple, multiple issues, and they’re all im portant. ... We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. You know, that old expres sion.”

Biden’s exhaustive to-do list is a recognition that the coalition of Democratic voters he needs to turn out Election Day is diverse in terms of race, age, education and geog raphy. This pool of voters has an expansive list of overlapping and competing interests on crime, civ il rights, climate change, the feder al budget and other issues.

The Republican candidates try ing to end Democratic control of Congress are narrowly directing messaging on the economy, crime and immigration.

In the 2020 election, AP Vote

Cast suggests, Biden drew dispro portionate support from women, black voters, voters younger than 45, college graduates and city dwell ers and suburbanites. But in mid term elections that normally fa vor the party not holding the White House, it requires Biden to appeal to all those constituencies.

“Coherence and cohesion have al ways been a challenge for the mod ern Democratic Party that relies on a coalition that crosses racial, eth nic, religious and class lines,” said Daniel Cox, a senior fellow in poll ing and public opinion at the con

servative American Enterprise Institute. “It takes considerable po litical talent to maintain a coalition with diverse interests and back grounds. Barack Obama managed to do it, but subsequent Democrats have struggled.”

Biden devoted his public remarks last week to abortion, gasoline pric es, infrastructure and student debt forgiveness.

Cox said there are signs that Biden’s 2020 coalition is fracturing, with younger liberal voters not that enamored with him, and he does not appear to have done much to

shore up Hispanic support.

But compared with 2016, when Trump won the presidency, Biden made relative progress with one prominent bloc that generally favors Republicans: white voters without a college degree, as he won 33% of their votes compared with 28% who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to a 2021 analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Keeping those voters in the Dem ocratic coalition could be essential for maintaining control of the Sen ate.

Biden has traveled repeatedly

Control of Congress: What’s at play in the 2022 midterms?

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dem ocrats have held both chambers of Congress and the presiden cy for the last two years, but they may not have such consolidated power for much longer.

Republicans are favored to win the House in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, bolstered by frustra tion over the economy and advan tages in the redistricting process that takes place every 10 years. But Democrats are working to hold their ground, campaigning on maintaining access to abor tion and other issues.

The outlook is murkier in the Senate, where Republicans are bidding to take back control. Sev eral races in key battleground states are tight, leading Senate Republican leader Mitch McCon nell to say the chances of his par ty winning a majority are just 5050.

A look at control of Congress and what will happen if Repub licans win a majority in either chamber in the election: What if the House flips?

Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have held the majority since 2018, when they won control in then-Presi dent Donald Trump’s first mid term election. Republicans could take back the House if they net

just five seats in dozens of com petitive districts, and they are trying to win dozens.

History also gives Republicans reason for optimism. In the mod ern era, the party that’s held the White House has lost congressio nal seats in virtually every firstterm president’s midterm elec tion.

If Republicans win the House

What would a GOP House mean for Biden?

Democratic priorities like ac cess to abortion, addressing cli

mate change and stricter gun control would immediately be sidelined. And most, if not all, of President Joe Biden’s agenda would be effectively dead for the final two years of his term.

Still, nothing becomes law without Biden’s signature. Bills to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and deal with mili tary issues are necessary for gov ernment to function. Those bills are likely to become flashpoints in negotiations between the GOP, Democrats and the White House.

Biden, who served in the Sen ate for decades, has often tout ed his bipartisan credentials and said he wants to work with Re publicans. But there would be little appetite for that in a GOP Congress that has made opposi tion to Biden its top priority.

What about the Senate?

While the Senate could tilt ei ther way after the midterm elec tions, the majority party is still likely to have the slimmest of margins. That means Biden will be able to find a bit more common ground there, no matter who is in charge. Much of Biden’s legis lative achievements in office have been the byproduct of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.

Still, a Republican-led Sen ate could pass bills sent over by a GOP House, putting political pressure on Biden. And the GOP

to Pennsylvania, campaigning for Senate nominee John Fetterman with the goal of picking up a seat in the state.

“Democrats need to hold on to as much of that bloc as possible, espe cially in key whiter states like Penn sylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin,” said William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The test for Democrats is how to address broader concerns about the economy and inflation that affect everyone, while also highlighting the specific issues that could ener gize various segments of their base. That can involve trade-offs.

As Republicans have made crime a national issue, Biden’s message that he backs the police could help with white voters. But it could also turn off younger voters in Senate races in Georgia and Florida who believe the police are part of the problem, said Alvin Tillery Jr., a professor at Northwestern Univer sity and director of its Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy.

Tillery said he doesn’t know how the president can bridge those dif ferences, though Biden could be in a better position to focus on the policing overhaul that Democrats tried to negotiate with Republicans — only to be unable to reach a con sensus that would be able to clear a GOP filibuster.

“Maybe they’ve blunted some Re publican attacks, but they’ve also softened support for people who turned out for them in the 2020 election,” Tillery said. “I don’t know how they solve for that, except to say they need to be more vigorous in saying the things they wanted to achieve were blocked in the Senate.”

would regain control of commit tees and, with it, the power to conduct investigations and over sight of the administration.

A Republican Senate could also make life difficult for Biden by blocking or delaying passage of the president’s judicial and execu tive branch nominees.

What if Democrats win?

If Democrats were to hold the Senate and Republicans win the House, the two chambers would be unlikely to find much common ground. But Republicans could try to win over Democratic Sen ate moderates on some legisla tion.

If Democrats were able to keep the House and the Senate, they would likely restart negotiations on some of Biden’s agenda items that were never passed, includ ing his new package of social and economic programs that stalled amid internal Democratic dis agreements.

What does the House map look like?

The majority of House dis tricts aren’t competitive, thanks to a redistricting process that al lows state legislatures to draw their own congressional lines if they decide to. Many legislatures draw lines to give advantages to one party or the other.

Still, dozens of seats are in play, including many of those held by Democrats who won in suburban districts in 2018, winning the ma jority for the party that year.

on Nov. 8, the GOP caucus will elect a new speaker and take pow er on Jan. 3, 2023. They will run every committee and decide what bills come to the House floor.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE |

AP PHOTO

President Joe Biden speaks about deficit reduction in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., Friday, Oct. 21, 2022.

AP PHOTO

The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Retired Major Sarah Pearson to speak at Moore County Veterans Memorial

Retired Major Sarah Pearson of the US Army is expected to speak at this year’s Veterans Day Ceremony at the Moore County Veterans Memorial in Carthage on November 5. Pearson, who retired out of Fort Bragg after 20 years of active military service, was an Army aviator and CH-47 pilot. She was deployed in multiple operations both locally and internationally, including Hurricane Katrina, humanitarian relief operations in Pakistan, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Kuwait. Major Pearson will be the first woman speaker at a Moore County Veterans Memorial Veterans Day Ceremony. The ceremony is set to begin at noon and will include a Presentation of the Colors by the Union Pines High School Navy ROTC, the Presentation of Wreaths by local civic organizations, and music by Larissa Glassman and Vic Thompson.

Aberdeen man charged with firstdegree murder

An 18-year-old man was arrested last Wednesday after investigators from the Moore County Sheriff’s Office searched two homes on R Sands Road in connection to a shooting in Aberdeen. Christian Isaiah Robinson, of Aberdeen, was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury. He is accused of the shooting of 24-year-old Michael McLaughlin on Sherwood Drive, which took place on Saturday, October 15. He is currently being held at the Moore County Detention Center under a $500,000 secured bond.

Anyone with additional information regarding this case is encouraged to contact the Moore County Sheriff’s Office at (910) 9472931 or the Crime Tip Line at (910) 947-4444.

Moore man arrested for kidnapping and statutory rape

The Moore County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man last Friday after officers received a report regarding a case of statutory rape against a minor child. According to the sheriff’s office, the child met the suspected after talking to them on an online chat application.

Investigators arrested 22-year-old Sebastian Scott Swanson and charged him with one count of felony statutory rape, two counts of felony statutory sex offense, two counts of felony indecent liberties with a minor child, one count of felony soliciting a minor by electronic device, and one count of felony first-degree kidnapping. Swanson is being held at the Moore County Detention Center and was placed under a $750,000 secured bond.

MOORE

Union Pines volleyball advances

Altercations in Moore County middle school caught on video

One parent posted about the assault on her child on Facebook

By A.P. Dillon North State Journal

RALEIGH — Multiple videos posted by the Instagram account “Cantfinddisacc” show nearly a dozen fights recorded by students at Crain’s Creek Middle School in Moore County.

The videos surfaced in Septem ber and early October and the ac count now appears to have been deleted. North State Journal staff downloaded and reviewed the vid eos which show both spontaneous fighting inside and outside class rooms on the middle school cam pus as well as seemingly planned fights on school property.

13-year-old Noah Ashburn dis plays his bruises after being as saulted by a classmate at Crains Creek Elementary in Moore Coun ty on Oct. 7, 2022. Image courtesy of the Ashburn family.

Parent Sami Ashburn told North State Journal in an in terview that her 13-year-old son Noah was attacked by another stu dent on Oct. 7 and has since been diagnosed with a concussion.

Her son managed to get away

from his attacker and then fled the room. Ashburn said that didn’t stop the student who attacked Noah from trying to follow him by assaulting a male teacher called in to block the doorway.

Commenters on Ashburn’s Oct. 7 post about the attack have ques tioned where the teacher was during the attack, but Ashburn doesn’t blame her and pointed out the class was being adminis tered at that time by a 19-year-old substitute. The substitute did call for help from another classroom when the fight started. Ashburn said it was her understanding that bus drivers and substitutes were instructed “not to put hands on a student” to break up a fight.

Ashburn expressed her frus tration with school officials who told her it was up to the School Resource Officer (SRO) to press charges against Noah’s attacker.

“He [the SRO] said he was go ing to try to take it all the way,” said Ashburn. “But he also made the comment that he could press charges, but as far as [the student] being suspended or expelled or not allowed back on school property, that it was up to only the admin istration… that it was not in his hands at all.”

Ashburn said she hasn’t heard anything else from the SRO since

the day of the attack and had been told that SRO has been “out sick for the last week and a half.”

She also told North State Jour nal that she was in “disbelief” they could not press charges by them selves. Ashburn recounted that she and a friend attempted to file a criminal complaint later that eve ning with the Moore County Sher iff but turned her away.

“The sheriff’s department told me and confirmed that, yes, you cannot press charges yourself,” said Ashburn. She said the Moore County Sheriff’s Department said it was “not in their jurisdic tion” and was up to the SRO to file charges.

Ashburn posted video of the at tack to her Facebook page on Oct. 14 along with photos of her son’s injuries that include a black eye.

“* ATTENTION PARENTS *

If you have children, grandchil dren, nieces, and nephews that go to Crains Creek middle school I urge you to read this post,” Ash burn wrote. “Your children’s safe ty is at risk. Last Friday while Noah was minding his own busi ness with his friends another stu dent whom I want you to keep in mind was nowhere in the group of kids Noah was with, came out of nowhere and attacked Noah with the motive to kill.”

The lengthy Facebook post goes on to describe her son being “body slammed” and strangled while the student attacking him was screaming, “I’m going to F*****g kill you.”

“He went through with those threats and tried to succeed,” Ash burn told North State Journal. In North Carolina, it is a Class H felony to communicate mass vi olence on educational property.

Ashburn also wrote that “not one time did administration con tact me. Noah himself contact ed me… hours later.” She also said that “They 100% tried to victim blame my son” and revealed she was made aware that her son’s at tacker had already made threats against the school the day prior to the assault on her son. In her post, Ashburn said the threat lan guage included “F****** someone up” and “I’ll kill all the 8th grade boys.”

Facebook subsequently cen sored the video on the post and Ashburn reposted the video.

Moore County Schools Direc tor of Communications Catherine Nagy issued the following state ment to North State Journal:

“Throughout the country, so cial media accounts posting vid eos of fights and other instances at schools and on school buses ex ist. Schools within MCS are no ex ception. As to the specific Insta gram account in question, some of those videos are more than a year old and some are more recent. I am not aware of the status of that account at this time, as it is not an

Board considering moving out of compliance with NC general statute regarding school calendar start date

By Ryan Henkel North State Journal

CARTHAGE — The Moore County Board of Education met Tuesday, October 11, where they were presented with a land-use study and information regarding the North Carolina general statute on school calendars.

The board was presented with a report by the Operations Research and Education Laboratory with in the Institute of Transportation Research and Education of the In tegrated Planning for School and Community Study and Land Use Study conducted for Moore County.

“The last time this type of study was conducted was presented to the board in January of 2018,” said Executive Officer for Operations John Birath. “Good practice with

districts is to continue to revisit this and assess where you are relative to the forecast projections, growth, and development every three to five years. Since the mid-90s, the coun ty has been working with ITRE and OREd on this task of forecast ing and presenting to the board in formation relative to the decisions that need to be made. They repre sent multiple districts and do the studies about a dozen or so a year across the state. They are a valuable tool and asset to be used, and this information you will find beneficial as you engage.”

“What we are is an unbiased third-party evaluation research group that strives to depoliticize the school planning process and we’re able to do that through GIS analysis, stakeholder interviews, mathematical modeling, and ap plied decision science,” said Pro gram Manager Thomas Dudley.

The report found that Moore County is experiencing steady growth thanks to three factors. The first is a change in market de

mand, preferences, and the expan sion of telework and remote work, where people are looking to relo cate to communities with more ru ral characteristics and feel but with a high level of amenities, high-qual ity healthcare, and recreational op portunities. The second growth factor is Moore County being a mil itary family destination with Fort Bragg. The third and final factor is due to a regional manufacturing boom and the spillover effect.

The report listed additional fac tors for growth, including Moore County having an advanced health care cluster, a large golf/resort/rec reation industry, and industrial sites.

“In addition to the land use study, another important factor that we consider as part of the membership forecast looking forward is your resident live birth history,” said Program Manager Thomas Dud ley. “What we see in most districts in North Carolina during this time

Board of Education presented with land use study in order to address projected capacity concerns in district schools

PJ WARD-BROWN | NORTH STATE JOURNAL

Union Pines Brisi Gonzalez sets the ball against Triton during the 3A east NCHSAA playoffs at Union Pines High School in Cameron, on Oct. 22. The Vikings won in 3 sets to advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs on Tuesday.

official MCS social media ac count.

As to the statement by the parent of the victim of an Octo ber 7 incident and the ability of the MCS Police to file charges, it is not accurate. The inci dent is still under investigation and if MCS Police choose to file charges, it will be referred to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

The safety of our students is our highest priority. We take any acts of bullying or violence in our schools very serious ly and will take swift action to ensure that those who perpetu ate violence are disciplined and charged according to the law.”

In an Oct. 16 post, Ashburn published the text of emails be tween herself and Crain’s Creek Principal Melonie Jones ques tioning the district’s ability to protect her son, violations of Moore County Public Schools’ Core Beliefs to support all stu dents, as well as citing disci pline policies that would apply.

My leadership team and I met last week to discuss a plan to continue to support Noah,” Jones’ response to Ash burn said. “I can assure you that Noah and the student have been assigned to differ

1

span looking back to 2014 is typ ically a small decline, but that is not the case here.”

The biggest outcome from the report for Moore County Schools was the Membership Forecast: Out-of-Capacity Table which shows a 10-year projection for ev ery school in the district and how that would impact school capacity so that MCS knows where to allo cate resources to address those in creases in population.

“When we looked at this in 2018, we had a lot of red lines on the chart, which meant that we had a lot of schools already at capac ity or moving into the out-of-ca pacity status really quickly,” said Vice Chair Lib Carter. “If you look at this chart now, our high schools aren’t in good shape because we haven’t made any attempt to bring them under control yet, but our el ementary and middle schools look so much better with the numbers that are currently enrolled. It’s not that the numbers have gotten so much smaller, but it’s that we’ve been able to redistrict, build new schools and accommodate more children at those schools and it’s totally put us back in the green.”

The board was also present ed with the status of their mas ter facility plan, which includes the modernization, renovation, or replacement of various facilities across the district, from gymna siums, to athletic and performing arts facilities, to entire schools.

“Clearly, the taxpayers of Moore County and the school district don’t have unlimited funds,” said board member Robert Levy. “We can’t do all the things that we want to do, so we’re going to have to pri oritize, and we’re going to have to also, as much as we want to do for everybody, we’ve gotta look at the numbers.”

ent teams, so they will not be in any classes together; in ad dition, neither will they have Encore classes together nor be in the same area while eat ing lunch. The teachers are re quired to be in the hallways during transitions, and the ad ministrators and SRO are fre quently in the hallways during transitions as well.”

Last November, videos of three violent brawls that oc curred the month prior at High Point Central High in the Guil ford County School District appeared on social media and were sent to the North State Journal by concerned parents.

Around the same time as the Guilford fights were occurring, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public School System was also seeing waves of fights that were also caught on video.

WBT’s Brett Jensen report ed at the time that “A big brawl between students and family members occurred Tuesday af ternoon at dismissal at Ranson Middle School, where at least one teacher was injured. As a result, new pickup rules are in place. All students have to re main in school until their par ents or guardians arrive.” On Nov. 3, Jensen also reported that 15 guns had been found in CMS schools since Aug. 25.

Also, at board member David Hensley’s request, the board was presented with info on NC gener al statute 115C-84.2: School Cal endars.

According to the statute, the start date for a school year can be no earlier than the Monday clos est to August 26 and the end date no later than the Friday closest to June 11.

“We’ve wrestled with these re strictions over the years,” said Chief Officer for Academics and Student Support Services Dr. Mike Metcalf. “I think it’s fair to say that both our external com munity and our internal commu nity would love for us to present a calendar where we had a semes ter that ends before the December break and a second semester that begins after the December break. But that is a struggle when you’re trying to build in between these two start and end dates.”

The calendar also has to cover nine months and a minimum of 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruc tion and no exemption waivers to the statute are given out for edu cational purposes.

“I was shocked when I went to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and in big, bold letters it said, ‘Waivers based upon academic concerns would not be considered,’” Hensley said. “That is criminal. If the political process is not going to work, we just need to tell them that we’re not going to do it, and hopefully, other school districts in the state will join us.”

According to Dr. Metcalf, there are a few counties that are out of compliance with the statute, those being Gaston, Cleveland, Ruth erford, and Surrey counties, ac cording to the report to Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee as of June 15, 2022. To Dr. Locklair, there are clear

ly defined actions against or con sequences for being out of compli ance.

“This has been an issue forev er,” Hensley said. “What brought this to the front of my mind was Dr. Locklair’s community engage ment meeting that was held a cou ple of weeks ago, and this came up. During the time, I asked Dr. Met calf if there were any educators or administrators that are in sup port of this calendar, and the an swer was, ‘Not a single one.’ This is a rare opportunity to unite every body in doing what’s best for the education of our students.”

The board approved a motion to compose and send a letter to involved parties, such as the gov ernor, the general assembly, and other school boards, on the board’s desires to go against the calendar statute in order to have an earlier start date as well as compose an editorial to be published in sup port of a change to the school cal endar statute.

“After looking into this and talking to many, many people, this odd school calendar is 100% driv en by the North Carolina Tourism lobby, which wants school to start later in the year so they can get two weeks of additional vacation rentals out on the Outer Banks,” Hensley said. “Talking with Sen ator McInnis, he says that having end-of-grades after the holiday break results in a 3-5% decrease in end-of-grade tests. We have a constitutional responsibility to provide a sound, basic education to all of our children. That is in the North Carolina constitution, but that’s being usurped by a lob by. And because of a tourism lob by, we are being required to nega tively affect the education of all of our children.”

The Moore County Board of Education will next meet Novem ber 7.

moore happening

Oct. 27

Trivia Thursday at the Brewery 6pm

Come out for Trivia at the Southern Pines Brewery! Enjoy fun and prizes each Thursday. Southern Pines Brewing Company is located at 565 Air Tool Dr., Southern Pines, NC.

Oct. 28

Trunk or Treat

5pm – 7pm

Join the Boys & Girls Club of the Sandhills and Moore Montessori Community for a fun Trunk or Treat event! The event is open to all children ages 5-11 and will take place at the gravel lot behind the school. Moore Montessori is located at 255 S May St. in Southern Pines.

Frights and Pints

5:30pm – 9:15pm

Come out to Aberdeen Lake Park, which is located at 301 Lake Park Crossing, for a spooky movie, yard games, and adult beverages! Bring your own seating!

Pinecrest vs Union Pines Varsity Football

7:30pm

Come out and watch the Pinecrest Patriots take on Union Pines High School at the John W. Williams Athletic Complex!

North Moore Varsity Football

7:30pm

Come out and watch the North Moore Mustangs varsity football team take on Chatham Central at home!

Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in Moore County:

OPINION

Brian’s story – part I

BRIAN TOLD HIS STORY. He was raised in Moore County, good athlete, solid student. His three older brothers were adequate role models, each for different reasons; one was fun, another was creative, the oldest had ambition. His parents were together in their home and in their faith. In community college, he branched out a bit and began to party with friends, taking his first drink at a beach party; Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

He did not abuse alcohol, but he did use it to be cool, fit in and attract girls. One night at a party, he downed an “OC,” OxyContin. That was it. He never took another drink. He discovered he could be the cool, fun guy all day and all night and still function. His downward spiral began. His girlfriend left, his money ran out, and he hit the street. One of a million young men with the same sad story.

Fentanyl is the newest weapon of mass destruction. It is poisoning our most precious resource, our children. In 2021, 27% of high school students used illicit drugs. Overdose deaths increased by 29.6%. From March 2020 – March 2021, 96,779 deaths by overdose were reported.

One in six Americans take some form of pain prescriptions and depression medication. The demand for chemicals is so great that people are willing to buy them on the black market, risking opioids contaminated with fentanyl. Young women are using and abusing, but statistically, men are four times more likely to overdose, and the drug of choice is opioids. Why?

Today we have a generation of men without a country. Their role in our culture has been undermined by a strengthening maternal society that values the soft skills of nurturing, empathizing, and compromising. These are important qualities but must be balanced with authority, fortitude and leadership. Our young men are failing in school, dropping out of college, “quietly quitting’ the workforce, and choosing to remain on the sidelines. Military recruitment is down nearly 25%. Loss of self-esteem and respect has led them to defeat and alienation. Masculinity is so yesterday.

The fight has been brought to our turf, and it is time to engage. The increase in drug use and the incredible destruction that is poisoning our young men and women cannot be accidental. It is simply too big to be an unintended consequence of immigration or medical research, or relaxed prosecution.

The statistics do not lie. We know where fentanyl is manufactured and processed. We know who is responsible, and we know who is profiting. Do you know of any other business that intentionally kills off its clientele? One kilo of fentanyl contains 250,000 lethal doses. Last June in Colorado, State Patrol seized 48 kilos in one vehicle. Since March 2021, Texas law enforcement officers have seized over 342

million lethal doses, enough to kill every man, woman, and child in America. Why do we allow this to continue?

Where are the weapons needed to win this war? The answer may lie in where the weapons are stashed. In March, Congress passed the massive Inflation Reduction Act to fund climate change, energy, and Income tax enforcement. Ukraine has garnered $54 Billion in cash and military assistance, but the horrible war we fight for the lives of a generation goes on in our backyards with almost no attention. Only the thousands of families who have lost loved ones feel the pain of defeat.

There can be no greater cause than saving our generation and, by extension, our country from the threat of extinction by inaction. In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a War On Drugs. At that time, about 4% of the population was abusing marijuana. In 2020, the National Survey on Drug Users and Health reported that 21.4% of Americans over the age of twelve have a substance use disorder. We must declare a Second War on Drugs and end this devastation to our culture and our country. Enlist in this war with whatever means you have to fight for the soul of America.

Fortunately, Brian lived to tell the rest of his story, which will come next week.

Connie Lovell lives in Pinehurst.

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

Robin Calcutt Rollie Sampson

Ken Benway

Pauline Bruno

Shannon Davis Pamela Thompson

AP PHOTO

An arrangement of Oxycodone pills sit next to a bottle in New York on Aug. 29, 2018.

COLUMN | CONNIE LOVELL

Debra Sue Adee

May 28, 1958 - October 19, 2022

Debra Sue Adee, 64, of Aberdeen passed away peacefully on October 19, 2022 at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst.

She was born May 28, 1958 in Moore County, NC. She attended Pinecrest High School and Sandhills Community College. She worked as the Laundry Manager at CCNC for approximately 25 years, until her health forced her to stop working. Debra loved plants and gardening, Nascar racing and UNC Basketball.

She is survived by her husband of 34 years, Thomas Adee; sons, Jamie Faircloth (Ryan), Ricky Faircloth, Matthew Adee; daughter Cari Adee; granddaughter Bella Faircloth; father Jim Brinkman and two sister-in-laws Linda Garner and Teresa New.

She was preceded in death by her mother Frances Stoots Brinkman.

A celebration of life service will be announced at a later date.

Margaret Viola Behrens Minor

December 20, 1937 - October 22, 2022

Margaret Viola Behrens Minor, 84, of Carthage, NC passed away peacefully October 22, 2022 at her home.

She was born December 20, 1937 in Elkhorn, WI to the late Alfred and Amy Dennie Behrens. Margaret worked until retirement for Perdue. She enjoyed going to Silver Sneakers and feeding and watching hummingbirds in her yard. She devoted time to her entire family and but provided long-term care to her grandson AJ. She was a loving mother, grandmother, greatgrandmother, sister, and friend. She will be deeply missed by her family and friends.

She is survived by her children Penny Minor Johnson (James Thompson), Gregory Minor (Betsy) and Vicky Lynn Minor; grandchildren, Angel (Marshall), A.J., Michael (Tailor), Amy, Timmy, Cruse (Katelyne), Chase, Robin (Landon), Christa, and Delano; great-grandchildren, Jordan, Corey, Madisyn, Nicholas, Blaison, Carson, Avery, Michael, Sterling, Lexus and Mercedes; two sisters, Betty Sargent and Lillian Greidanus; family friend Nathaniel Johnson; and many other extended family members.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her children, Franklin Minor, Michael Minor, Walter Minor and Bille Jo Duros; siblings Alfred Behrens, Walter Behrens, Peter Behrens, Amanda Gutierrez, and

Karen Deann Ross

March 9, 1962 - October 16, 2022

Karen DeAnn Ross, age 60 of Pinebluff, North Carolina passed away surrounded by her family on Sunday, October 16, 2022. Karen was born in Clinton, North Carolina on March 9, 1962 to Houston Barefoot and Augerine Jewel Justice Barefoot. Houston was a proud WWII Veteran and his family meant ev erything to him. Augerine loved music and traveling. Karen was a proud Mother of three, she loved her family. She enjoyed making pottery, music, gardening, and had several bird feeders and bird houses to feed & watch birds and squirrels. Karen is survived by her hus band, Melvin Ross, Daughters Krystal Agic (Jacob Agic), Kerri McLean (Jeff McLean), Katlyn Lathan, Granddaughters Chris tian Agic, Emma Cook, Kara Lathan, and Victoria McLean. Karen was preceded in death by her parents; Houston & Augerine Barefoot.

Americo "Rick" Bilotti, Jr.

April 11, 1953 - October 16, 2022

Americo Anthony Bilotti, Jr. “Rick”, 69, of Pinehurst passed away peacefully on October 16, 2022 at Pinehurst Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center in Pine hurst.

He was born April 11, 1953 in Jersey City, NJ to the late Amer ico and Jeanie Amatrudi Bilotti.

Americo was a devout Catholic and attended both St. Anthony and Sacred Heart Roman Cath olic churches. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus while attending St. Anthony. The ma jority of his working career was spent as a driver with the United Parcel Service. He retired from Ups after 35 years of service, and for over 20 years his route was in the Hamlet, NC area. He loved to Kayak and participated in 5/10/12 K marathons and triathlons. His second home, especially after re tirement was FirstHealth Fitness Center, where he was recognized for several fitness achievements. He is survived by his sons Joseph Bilotti (Amy) and Nicholas Bilot ti; their mother Janice Bilotti; sis ters Tina Bilotti (Dody) and Teri Feggler (Mark); two nieces, Kirsti Russell (Russ) and Sarah Feggler; and two nephews, Nathan and Noah Feggler.

Rev. Dr. Homer Craig Phifer, Jr.

September 12, 1932 - October 17, 2022

Rev. Dr. Homer Craig Phifer, Jr. died on October 17, 2022. He was born in Hamlet, NC on September 12, 1932 to the Homer C. Phifer, Sr. and Elizabeth Dale Crowell Phifer. He grew up in Jacksonville, FL. He graduated from Davidson College in 1954. Receiving a commission through the ROTC program at Davidson he served two years in the US Army following graduation. After this service he attended and graduated from Union Theological Seminary (now Union Presbyterian Seminary) in Richmond, VA with a Masters of Divinity degree.

He was ordained in the Montpelier Presbyterian Church in Wagram, NC in 1959 by the former Fayetteville Presbytery. In addition to Montpelier he served the Old Town Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem, NC, the First Presbyterian Church in Thomasville, NC and the Arlington Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, FL. While in Thomasville he earned his Doctorate of Ministry degree from Union Seminary.

In 1985 he became the Executive Presbyter and Stated Clerk of Shenandoah Presbytery with an office in Harrisonburg, VA. Upon his retirement in 1997 the Presbytery made him Executive Emeritus. That same year he and his wife Martha moved to Pinehurst.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife Martha Nelson Phifer.

Paul F. Bride

February 2, 1937 - October 14, 2022

Paul F. Bride, 85, of Southern Pines, passed away peacefully at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hos pital on Friday, Oct. 14 , 2022.

Born in New York City on Feb. 2, 1937, he was the son of the late Frederick and Gertrude Bride. Paul is survived by his brother, Robert Bride, of Ft. Lauder dale, Florida. Paul worked as a Museum Curator for many years in New York City before his retirement to the Sandhills in the mid to late 1990s. Paul was a member of the Village Chapel in Pinehurst. He was also actively involved in the Rotary Club of Pinehurst and was a generous supporter of the Club’s programs as well as the programs of Rotary International. Paul thoroughly enjoyed the arts, classical music, travel, reading, and frequent vis its to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in NSJ at obits@northstatejournal.com

He is survived by his son Craig and his wife Lynne, of Pinehurst; grandson Nathan (wife Samantha) and greatgrandsons Watson and William; and grandson Scott (wife Alexis) and great-granddaughters Sophia and Farah.

The family is very grateful to the staff of Pinehurst Medical Clinic and Pinehurst Surgical Clinic, especially Dr. David Hipp and Dr. Joshua Sesek and their staff for the excellent care provided. Finally, to the staff at Aegis Family Care Home in Southern Pines and the many members and friends of Community Presbyterian Church who made Homer’s life so full and meaningful, eternal thanks for your care, concern and compassion.