VOLUME 148 ISSUE 12 | THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2025
CHATHAMNEWSRECORD.COM
DAVID J. PHILLIP / AP PHOTO
A good walk spoiled Takumi Kanaya, of Japan, walks on the on the 13th hole for the PGA Championship, taking place this weekend at Quail Hollow in Charlotte.
the
BRIEF this week
Air Force Reserve colonel announces bid for lieutenant governor Raleigh U.S. Air Force Reserve Col. Dr. Josh McConkey announced his candidacy for North Carolina lieutenant governor Tuesday. McConkey is an emergency physician, author of “Be The Weight Behind The Spear” and founder of The Weight Behind the Spear Foundation, a nonprofit providing disaster relief. The Republican says his campaign will focus on faith, family, freedom and service while championing conservative principles, including parental rights, fiscal responsibility and public safety. McConkey came fifth in the 2024 GOP primary for U.S. House District 13.
Inflation fell again in April as some tariffs went into effect Washington, D.C. Inflation cooled for the third straight month in April even after some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect. Consumer prices rose 2.3% in April from a year ago, the Labor Department said Tuesday, down from 2.4% in March and the smallest increase in more than four years. Grocery prices dipped 0.4% from March to April in what will come as a relief to many people stretching family budgets for the basics. It was the biggest decline in food costs at home since September 2020, the government said. Egg prices fell sharply, declining 12.7%, the most in 41 years.
Georgia Tech linguist Lelia Glass points to a diagram showing how the pronunciation of certain words by metro Atlanta residents has changed over several generations.
Is the Southern accent fixin’ to disappear? In Raleigh, the trigger point in the decline of the Southern accent was the opening in 1959 of the Research Triangle Park.
It’s fading with younger generations and new transplants moving in By Mike Schneider The Associated Press GROWING UP in Atlanta in the 1940s and 1950s, Susan Levine’s visits to New York City relatives included being the star of an impromptu novelty show: Her cousin invit-
The $3.2 million ask will cover the free meal program and teacher supplements By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record
ed over friends and charged 25 cents a pop for them to listen to Levine’s Southern accent. Even though they too grew up in Atlanta, Levine’s two sons, born more than a quarter century after her, never spoke with the accent that is perhaps the most famous regional dialect in the United States, with its elongated vowels and soft “r” sounds.
PITTSBORO — The Chatham County Schools Board of Education took another step toward finalizing its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. At its May 12 meeting, the board approved the district’s proposed local current expense budget request for FY 2025-26. The appropriation request to the county totals nearly $3.2 million and accounts for supplements, fixed employee benefits cost, fixed operational costs, the free meals program, stipend, current expense appropriation requests, charter school transfers and capital outlay. The district’s total current expense fund for 2025‑26 is just over $53.3 million, a 3.79% increase from the prior year. The priorities for CCS in the upcoming year driving
See ACCENT, page A10
See BOARD, page A10
Feds set timeline for Helene aid to farmers “Farmers operate on extremely tight margins, and to rebuild from a storm of this magnitude could be impossible for some to shoulder.” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
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SHARON JOHNSON / AP PHOTO
School board approves local appropriation request
Georgia will exempt Helene payments from state income taxes By Jeff Amy The Associated Press FORSYTH, Ga. — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law last week to exempt federal crop insurance and disaster payments following Hurricane Helene damage from Georgia state income taxes, but it could be months more before some federal money starts flowing to farmers in the hardest-hit states. The U.S. Department of Agriculture published a schedule last Wednesday to start disbursing disaster aid, part of a $100 billion package passed by Congress in December.
ARVIN TEMKAR / ATLANTA JOURNALCONSTITUTION VIA AP
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks before signing Hurricane Helene relief bills at the Georgia Forestry Association in Forsyth last Thursday. The September storm cut a swath from Florida’s Big Bend across eastern Georgia and See AID, page A2