Chatham News & Record Vol. 149, Issue 52

Nothing but Nets

Brooklyn Nets rookie Drake Powell speaks to the crowd during his number retirement ceremony before Northwood 20-point win over Uwharrie Charter in Pittsboro last Thursday.

Commissioners approve data center development freeze through 2027

New subpoenas issued in inquiry on response to 2016 Russian election interference

The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in an investigation into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump and the U.S. government response to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. An initial wave of subpoenas in November asked recipients for documents related to the preparation of a U.S. intelligence community assessment that detailed a sweeping, multiprong e ort by Moscow to help Trump defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Rousey, Carano will end MMA retirements, ght each other in May

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano will end their lengthy retirements from mixed martial arts to ght each other May 16 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The bout will be staged by Most Valuable Promotions, the combat sports promotion established by in uencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul. The 39-year-old Rousey hasn’t fought since 2016, while the 43-year-old Carano’s eight-bout MMA career ended in 2009. They’ll ght at 145 pounds for ve ve-minute rounds. Despite their lengthy absences, Rousey and Carano remain two of the most iconic ghters in MMA history after two trailblazing careers. They are the two most famous women to participate in MMA.

The moratorium will be in e ect until Feb. 11, 2027

By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record

PITTSBORO — The Chatham County Board of Commissioners has enacted a temporary moratorium on the development of data centers within the county.

The president endorsed Michael Whatley in his Senate run

By Will Weissert and Allen G. Breed The Associated Press

FORT BRAGG — President Donald Trump celebrat-

The board held a special called meeting Feb. 11 at 4 p.m. to hold a public hearing on the matter, which is required by law before a moratorium can be enacted.

A moratorium, which is a temporary, legal suspension to pause development approvals while updating plans and regulations, is allowed per North Carolina General Statute 160D-107.

ed the special forces members who ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, saying last month’s audacious raid means “the entire world saw what the full military might” of the U.S. can do and ensured “we are feared” by potential enemies around the world.

Addressing soldiers and their families at Fort Bragg, one of

Per the statute, the county must provide four statements of fact to implement a moratorium: a statement of necessity, a statement of applicability and scope, a statement pertaining to the length of the moratorium, and a statement laying out the plan for what the county intends to do during the moratorium in order to address the perceived issue.

the world’s largest military bases, Trump declared, “Your commander in chief supports you totally.” Then, drawing on one of his own campaign slogans, he implored them, “When needed, you’re going to ght, ght, ght. You’re going to win, win, win.”

The president and rst lady Melania Trump also met privately with military families.

Judge sentences teen to life without parole for fatally shooting 5 in Raleigh rampage

“In the blink of an eye, everything changed for those people and for the people that they left behind.”

Patrick Latour, Wake County assistant prosecutor

Austin Thompson killed his brother in a 2022 attack

By Gary D. Robertson The Associated Press

RALEIGH — A judge sentenced an 18-year-old who acknowledged killing ve people in a Raleigh mass shooting to life in prison without parole last Friday, rejecting arguments that he deserved the chance for release decades from now.

Austin David Thompson was 15 during the Oct. 13, 2022, attack that began at his Raleigh home when he shot

and repeatedly stabbed his 16-year-old brother, James. Equipped with rearms and wearing camou age, Thompson then fatally shot four others — including an o -duty city police o cer — in his neighborhood and along a greenway. He was arrested in a shed after a self-in icted gunshot wound to his head.

Thompson pleaded guilty last month to ve counts of rst-degree murder and ve other counts less than two weeks before his scheduled trial.

Thompson, who did not speak in court, was led away

The county argues that the moratorium was necessary due to the amount of water and energy usage that these centers require, adverse environment impacts and noise concerns.

But the visit felt more like a political rally than an o cial visit to celebrate the U.S. armed forces. Trump’s lauding of the raid that toppled Maduro came only after he called to the stage Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chair who has the president’s

Feb. 9

THURSDAY 2.19.26

MARK STOCKWELL / AP PHOTO

Police and ATF agents stand near the Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, R.I., after a shooting at the ice rink on Monday.

Police credit good Samaritan for ending a deadly shooting at Rhode Island ice rink

It appears to be a family dispute following a contentious divorce

By Kimberlee Kruesi

The Associated Press

A SHOOTER unleashed a urry of bullets during a Rhode Island youth hockey game, killing two people and injuring three others, in an attack that was cut short when a spectator stepped in to help stop the tragedy, authorities said. Investigators had spoken to nearly 100 witnesses as of Monday evening as they attempt to piece together what happened early Monday afternoon inside the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence. Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Monday that the shooter died from an apparent self-in icted gun wound, though authorities are still investigating.

• Isaiah Xavier Liggett, 27, was arrested for assault on a female and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

Feb. 10

• Eder De Los Santos Rosales, 28, was arrested for driving without an operator’s license, driving while impaired, speeding, open container alcohol violation and failure to maintain lane control.

Feb. 11

• Kelly Rachelle Potts, 43, was arrested for attempted larceny.

• Luis Fernando Oyanedel-Valenzuela, 25, was arrested for second-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit felony larceny, larceny after breaking and entering, possession of stolen goods, injury to real property, injury to personal property and felony conspiracy.

• Brian Edwin Elkins, 52, was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia, driving on a revoked license, expired registration, operating a vehicle with no insurance, failure to reduce speed and expired or no inspection.

Feb. 12

• Melodye Dawn Hudson, 54, was arrested for larceny of a motor vehicle and obtaining property by false pretenses.

Feb. 13

• Cramer Eugene Davey, 39, was arrested for driving while impaired.

• Pamela Myers Bagdis, 71, was arrested for felony larceny, exploiting a disabled or elder adult and obtaining property by false pretenses.

• Chase Michael Riddle, 24, was arrested for simple assault.

• Michael Ferrone Gould II, 19, was arrested for communicating threats.

Feb. 14

• Katherine Julia Koehler, 58, was arrested for simple assault and injury to personal property.

Feb. 15

• Charlotte Reece Cobia, 21, was arrested for driving while impaired.

• Jose Manuel Briones Mortera, 27, was arrested for driving while impaired.

• Shawn Patrick Collins, 53, was arrested for assault by pointing a gun, assault with a deadly weapon, communicating threats and simple assault.

SHOOTING from page A1

in handcu s after the sentencing. Family members of the shooting victims cried as the sentence was handed down. Thompson’s attorneys announced plans to appeal the sentence.

Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway had the option to sentence him to life in prison with the chance for parole after at least 25 years, but Thompson did not face the death penalty given his age at the time of the crimes.

“It’s hard to conceive of a greater display of malice than what I just described,” Ridgeway said, adding that months of planning and fantasizing by Thompson to carry out the rampage also con rmed that Thompson is the rare juvenile o ender “whose crimes re ect irreparable corruption.”

During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors revealed the previously con dential contents of a handwritten note with Thompson’s name and the shooting date found at his family’s house in the Hedingham subdivision.

The note said the “reason I did this is because I hate humans they are destroying the planet/earth,” adding that he killed James Thompson ”because he would get in my way.”

Thompson “cannot tell you why he wrote that note the way that he did,” defense lawyer Deonte’ Thomas said, noting that he had no history of ecological-based anger. “And he cannot tell you why he ran down the streets of Hedingham terrorizing people that day.”

But “he is not unredeemable, he is not incorrigible,” Thomas added in asking Ridgeway to give him the opportunity one day to tell parole commissioners he could “still be a productive person in society.”

Thomas argued that the rampage happened during a behavioral episode caused by medicine he regularly took

“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute.”

Tina Goncalves, Pawtucket police chief

Goncalves credited an unnamed “good Samaritan” who intervened, bringing the attack “to a swift end.” She did not provide details.

It is not entirely clear what precipitated the shooting, who was targeted or why. Unveried video circulating on social media shows players on the ice as popping sounds are heard. Chaos quickly unfolds as players on benches dive for cover, those on the ice frantically skate toward exits and fans ee their seats.

“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said. Au-

thorities said both people who died were adults but have not released the identities of the victims.

Goncalves identi ed the shooter as Robert Dorgan, who she said also went by the name Roberta Esposito, who was born in 1969.

Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that left two students dead and wounded nine others, as well as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-in icted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.

“Our state is grieving again,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. “As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”

for acne which dissociated the youth from reality. A psychiatrist who interviewed Thompson and a geneticist testi ed to bolster the explanation.

Ridgeway decided the evidence did not support the conclusion that Thompson’s acts happened while he entered an altered mental state induced by the medication and a genetic abnormality.

Prosecutors dismissed the medication argument as weak and highlighted Thompson’s internet search history on his phone and computer leading up to the attack. They said it included school shootings and were related to guns, assaults and bomb-making materials.

Nicole Connors, 52; Raleigh police O cer Gabriel Torres, 29; Mary Marshall, 34; and Susan Karnatz, 49, also were killed in the rampage. Two other people were wounded, including another police ocer involved in the search for Thompson.

“In the blink of an eye, everything changed for those people and for the people that they left behind,” Wake County assistant prosecutor Patrick Latour said last Thursday while urging a sentence with no potential parole. “And the thing that made it change was not some acne medication. It

CHATHAM happening

Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up in Chatham County:

Feb. 19-26

Virtual Film Screening: “From Sea to Shining Sea”

The Chatham Community Library will present this lm virtually all day on Feb. 19 as part of its America 250 celebrations. The 2025 lm tells the story of Katharine Lee Bates, the woman who penned the poem upon which the song “America the Beautiful” is based. The link to log in to the movie will be available beginning Feb. 19 at Vimeo PRO . A password is required to view; contact social.library@ chathamlibraries.org to request one.

Feb. 21

The History Between the Lines Book Club 9:30 a.m.

Delve into Thomas Healy’s 2021 book, “Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia,” in honor of Black History Month. Participation is free.

Chatham County Historical Museum 9 Hillsboro St. Pittsboro

Feb. 25

Paint & Sip Gathering for Chatham Young Professionals

5-7 p.m.

This guided painting experience is sponsored by the Chatham Chamber and is a networking opportunity for professionals 40 and under. For more information, contact Cheryl Littleton, at 984-265-9172.

Inspire Briar Chapel 152 Market Chapel Road Pittsboro

Feb. 26

Bynum Bite Night at BFP

6-8 p.m.

was the defendant’s knowing, researched, well thought out, planned, decisive actions.”

The judge heard from people like Jasmin Torres, the widow of Gabriel Torres and the mother of their 5-year-old daughter. She asked Ridgeway to sentence Thompson to life without parole, calling him a “monster.”

“Not one of us surviving victims, our families, our friends, our community should ever have to worry about a future where his barbaric self is set free,” Torres said last week.

Thompson’s parents testied they couldn’t explain why their son committed the violence, calling him a normal, happy kid who did well in school and showed no signs of destruction.

Thompson’s father pleaded guilty to improperly storing his handgun that authorities said was found when his son was arrested. He received a suspended sentence and probation.

“We both lost our children, one at the hand of the other. We never saw this coming and still cannot make sense of it,” mother Elise Thompson said last week while telling the families of shooting victims she will “forever be sorry for the pain that this has caused you.”

If you are an area teen with an inner geek — embrace it with kids who have similar interests at this bimonthly event at BFP. There is a virtual reality (VR) headset on-site so you can go beyond this world for a short time. Bring your projects and games and be ready to discuss your personal passion of the moment! Questions? Call Helbragga (John G.) at 919-593-3559.

Front Porch, Bynum General Store 950 Bynum Road Bynum

Feb. 28

Bluegrass Jam Circle

10 a.m. to noon

This free acoustic jam session is open to musicians and singers of all ages and skill levels. There is no admission fee, and the public is welcome to attend.

Front Porch, Bynum General Store 950 Bynum Road Bynum

Colbert says CBS’s network lawyers pulled Talarico interview from ‘Late Show’ over FCC equal time fears

By Meg Kinnard

The Associated Press

LATE-NIGHT host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.

“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said on his program, ”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”

The situation, which came just hours before early voting began in Texas’ primary elections, comes as media institutions navigate around changing broadcast guidance, issued under the Trump administration, governing how they interview political candidates.

Talarico posted part of the interview on social media, call-

ing it “the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.” Broadcast networks have been required to give equal time to political candidates, but that rule hasn’t traditionally been applied to talk shows.

In January, the Federal Communications Commission issued new guidance warning late-night and daytime hosts that they need to give political candidates equal time, with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr questioning the talk show exemption and positing that hosts were “motivated by partisan purposes.”

“The FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona de news exemption,” according to the public notice.

In his comments, Colbert noted that the equal time provision applies to broadcast but not streaming platforms. Subsequently, his nearly 15-minute interview with Talarico was posted to the YouTube page for Colbert’s show, with the host noting speci cally that the segment was only appearing online and not on broadcast.

Talarico posted a nearly minute-long clip of the sit-down on X, adding that, “This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see. His FCC refused to air my interview with

Central Electric awards two Cooperative All-Stars Sports Camp Scholarships annually to local students in Chatham, Harnett, Lee, or Moore counties. A young man will be selected to attend the Carolina Basketball School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a young woman will be selected to attend the Wolfpack Women’s Basketball Camp at N.C. State University in Raleigh.

Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried we’re about to ip Texas.”

Neither CBS nor the FCC immediately responded to messages seeking comment Tuesday, Early voting began Tuesday in Texas, where Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett are among the Democrats seeking election to the U.S. Senate seat currently held by four-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn. The primary election is March 3. Carr, appointed by Trump to lead the agency last year, has often criticized network talk shows, suggesting last year that probing ABC’s “The View” — whose hosts have frequently been critical of Trump — over the exemption might be “worthwhile.”

Colbert’s days in his host chair are limited, following CBS’ announcement last year that it was canceling his show this May for nancial reasons, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape.

But the timing of that announcement — three days after Colbert criticized the settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story — led two U.S. senators to publicly question the motives behind the move, which served to remove from air one of Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.

Church News

OAKLEY BAPTIST CHURCH

As Oakley Baptist Church (2300 Siler CityGlendon Road, Siler City) seeks to begin its next chapter, we are enjoying hearing a word from the Lord from various old and new friends. Our service begins at 10:30 a.m., but we also have Sunday School classes for every member of the family at 9:30 a.m. We would be blessed if you joined us for any and all of these speakers in the coming weeks.

On Feb. 22, we’ll hear from Stephanie Moody Sha er, manager of Chaplaincy and Faith Relations for Baptist Retirement Homes (thrivemorenc.org). This is a faith-based, not-for-pro t organization committed to providing quality care and a meaningful way of life for older adults through senior living communities across North Carolina and is linked to the Southern Baptist Convention. And nally, Spencer Andrews will return on March 1 to speak. Andrews is the former youth pastor at Oakley and is currently ministering at Grace Hill Church in Pittsboro (gracehillchatham. com), a church he helped plant.

We look forward to meeting you at any of these services and in the future, and invite you to pray with us as we seek a new pastor. To learn more, go to oakleybaptist.org or email us at oakleybaptistchurch@gmail.com.

BOARD from page A1

Speci cally, the moratorium is intended to address data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining and any uses associated with data processing facilities (other examples the county provided included AI computing and modeling, web services and hosting, as well as genome sequencing).

Currently, the county’s UDO does not have any speci c language to address data centers as they exist toda,y and with their constant evolution, time is needed to properly develop ordinances to address them.

“The server capacity changes every six months in these data centers, and what you can put in 10,000 square feet today is going to increase in a couple of years,” said Planner Hunter Glenn. “So we have been researching the language that we would be allowed to put in our ordinances that’s legal, but also would allow us to expand our regulations in the future to kind of cover what we think might happen. We need to be ready to regulate what’s happening now and in the future.”

Following an hour of public discussion with comments both for and against the mor-

To be eligible to apply, the student must be in the sixth or seventh grade during the upcoming school year, have permission from a parent or guardian to attend the overnight camp and must provide their own transportation if selected to attend.

Scan the QR code or visit CEMCPower.com for more information or to apply. e deadline for applications to both camps is March 31.

atorium, the commissioners unanimously approved the moratorium without further deliberation or discussion.

The temporary moratorium will be in e ect from Feb. 11, 2026, the date of its adoption, until Feb. 11, 2027.

“We had originally started with a di erent timeline that was a little shorter than this, but then we heard from some other jurisdictions that a year was sort of the standard and would allow us to do everything we needed to do,” said Planner Hunter Glenn.

During that time, county sta intend to spend time studying the impacts of data centers, developing land use regulations to mitigate the negative impacts associated with those speci c uses and undergo the legislative processes required for UDO text amendments.

The board could vote to end the moratorium early should it feel it addressed all the items earlier than the full year.

“If we are able to get the language and get this done sooner than a year, without sacri cing quality, of course,” said Commissioner Karen Howard.

The Chatham County Board of Commissioners will next meet March 16.

Share with your community!

Send your birth, death, marriage, graduation and other announcements to community@chathamnewsrecord.com.

Weekly deadline is Monday at noon.

THE CONVERSATION

Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

Our unfinished work

The document was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

I WRITE ON Presidents

Day.

Originally designated to recognize George Washington’s birthday, Presidents Day is also a time when Americans remember Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, who was also born in February.

I have spent the morning re ecting upon Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In November 1863, less than ve months after the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the deadliest days of the Civil War, Lincoln delivered his famous remarks at the ceremony dedicating a national cemetery for the battle’s fallen Union soldiers. This address is an extraordinary piece of writing; in less than 300 words, he honored the dead and called Americans to the cause of rebuilding democracy — the “un nished work” of his time.

Lincoln speci cally referenced the Declaration of Independence, emphasizing that the document was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Note his use of the word “proposition.” The original Constitution legalized slavery and

COLUMN | BOB WACHS

de ned slaves as less than fully human. It also gave unequal status to women. Lincoln recognized that the Civil War was “testing” the true nature of America’s claims for freedom and justice for all. After honoring the sacri ce of the soldiers, Lincoln called the living to the “great task” with “increased devotion to that cause.” The words of Hebrews 12:1 match these themes of honoring those who have gone before us in “the great cloud of witnesses,” while still “running the race with perseverance” or remaining dedicated to the holy tasks of today.

The former president’s humility also inspires me. He wrote, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,” but added that our country “can never forget what (the soldiers) did here.” I believe that, because Lincoln refrained from self-aggrandizement, his words have had a lasting impact. True humility uses opportunities to point to the contributions of others.

In our time, we have many voices seeking to bene t, even pro t, from controversies,

Did Alexander Graham Bell really have all this in mind?

Some have touted technology as a timesaving device. Finally, at this tender age in life, I have come to know you can’t really “save” time.

WHEN AT&T or Verizon or another techno out t introduces the latest “must-have” communications gadget, I’m amazed at 8,000 folks sleeping out for a week or at least overnight in 15-degree weather to be rst in line to get one.

I’m also amazed how much they’ll pay for them, especially since some other technogadget will be introduced within the next 15 minutes, rendering their new toy obsolete.

That fascination with technology is overwhelming to me. I admit to having a cell phone. Let me say that up front. And it can do things other than make and receive calls, which is all I really want. That way I won’t miss hearing from one of the two 50-somethings who used to be teenagers who lived at my house calling to tell me how much they appreciate all the wisdom I’m sharing and have shared with them. Or I won’t miss hearing from Shirley that she’s cut and split and stacked that tractor-trailer load of rewood for the rest of winter.

The phone/gizmo I have does take pictures, but I don’t know how to make that happen. I know for a fact it does have a camera somewhere because occasionally I’ll pull it out of my pocket, ip the top to make a call and see my feet or pants legs on the screen as I wave the phone wildly to make it stop.

In addition, there’s a calendar, which is something that used to be only on your wristwatch or kitchen cabinet. And it has an alarm clock. That way I can sleep not

only through my bedside alarm but also the one on the phone, if I could gure out how to set it and hadn’t lost the directions that came with it.

There’s also a world time clock. That’s very helpful. For instance, did you know that at this very moment it is 9:05 in Caracas and 5:06 in Baku – wherever that is. There’s also a calculator, a stop watch to see how long the chocolate cake stays on the table, a converter in case I want to see what U.S. dollars are worth in Baku (wherever that is) and a tip calculator in case I want to leave more than a dime.

The reality here, at least for me, is that all I want is some way to be like E.T. and phone home if necessary. By this time, no doubt, you might be thinking I am a grumpy old man, which may not be far from the truth except that I’m not particularly old. Lest you think di erently, I do know and understand we’re not all alike, and what I may adore could be disgusting to someone else. I’m OK with that. It’s just that, to me, all this dependency and love a air with technology and more instant information has downsides.

One is what bloggers call “TMI” — too much information. What, for instance, do I need to know about what time it is in Baku (wherever that is)? TMI leads to overload, which soon leads to blowout, as in our heads blow out with too much information in them.

Some have touted technology as a

including tragic ones. Social media has created so-called “con ict entrepreneurs” or “con ict pro teers” who attract a large following because of their hot takes on issues. These people often use their platform to denigrate others, thereby hoping to elevate themselves and increase their following. In contrast, Lincoln recognized the unifying power of a public ritual of mourning. He understood that shared rituals can represent the best of a society and its vision for itself as a community. In grief, we can dig deeper than the super cial and ephemeral di erences and speak to a shared nobility of purpose and belonging. That shared nobility is what makes America great and remains “un nished work” for all who love their country and, more importantly, their neighbors.

Andrew Taylor-Troutman’s newest book is This Is the Day. He serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church as well as a writer, pizza maker, co ee drinker and student of joy.

time-saving device. Finally, at this tender age in life, I have come to know you can’t really “save” time. You can only spend it. The electric can opener that used to sit on our kitchen counter was going to save time. It nally became apparent it took longer to get the can to stay up there and then wipe o the gadget when the string bean juice spilled than it did to use the old hand crank model. I think that electric can opener is now resting comfortably at the bottom of a land ll.

What I’m really whining about, of course, is the fast pace of today’s society where demand for something in China has made our currency worth less, making it necessary for me to do more to scrape up enough dollars to pay for a gallon of diesel so I can put out hay to the cows to make enough money to pay Uncle Sam at the end of the year so he can pay $40,000 for an Air Force One toilet seat.

I can see why some folks simply throw up their hands and say, “What the heck.”

As soon as I can, I’m going to make a note — with paper and pen — to look into that. I make lots of notes, then usually lose them. Maybe a good thing would be to use the memo pad part of my cell phone to list where the notes are, if I could only nd the thing.

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

Bargain basement peace building (or is it grace?)

Why am I so embarrassed about crying? For one thing, I’m unused to sharing my tears with those I don’t know, and even with those I do know.

THIS IS JUST so embarrassing. So, so embarrassing. I’m on my iPad, watching the many, many miles of journeying Fort Worth Buddhist monks, nally reaching the Washington, D.C., National Cathedral. Metal barriers are holding back thousands of people who’ve chosen to witness this event, the end of a singular 2,300-mile walk. And I’m crying. How embarrassing is that? I’m not a Buddhist but inhabit a hybrid category, Jewish Quaker. A little bit of everything, I suppose. And I’m still crying. Why am I so embarrassed about crying? For one thing, I’m unused to sharing my tears with those I don’t know, and even with those I do know. (Texans don’t cry?) And, lo and behold, here I am sharing my tears with all of you who choose to read this. Going granular. I’ve been watching the monks’ journey for almost two months now. These strangely garbed, sa ron-robed, sandal-wearing (occasionally barefoot) monks traipsing up and down Southern hills and valleys, pushing through a harsh winter, accompanied by Aloka, their peace dog. I mean, does this sound absolutely weird or what? A pilot for a new TV show and we’re the test audience?

Oh, who am I kidding? In a country struggling with our humanity, across all our vast and painful divides, many of us have been visited by spontaneous tears and gentle bowing, courtesy of the rag-tag monks’ journey of peace. A gift.

COLUMN | DAVID HARSANYI

Shut up and ski

“U.S. athletes shouldn’t be stooges for foreigners.”

DOES ANYONE REALLY believe the international media cares what Olympic snowboarders and curlers think about President Donald Trump’s ICE raids or whatever panic de jour is on the menu this week? Of course not. They want U.S. athletes to bash the American government on the world stage.

Nothing stops athletes from speaking their mind about political issues whenever or wherever they like. Doing it at the Olympics is, at best, in poor form and, at worst, unpatriotic.

Skier Hunter Hess took the bait in Milan, or more likely, couldn’t wait to preen for the foreign press, noting that he had “mixed emotions” representing his country. “It’s a little hard,” he said. “There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t.” And just because he’s wearing the ag, Hess went on, “doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

Who’s happy with everything that goes on in their country? Not a single thinking person, that’s who. Olympic athletes go to the Games to transcend these di erences and represent national ideals and aspirations, not whine about political parties that happen to be in charge. U.S. athletes shouldn’t be stooges for foreigners. Go o on politics when you get home.

Of course, not one American in Beijing in 2022 was asked what they thought about the Biden administration’s online censorship. Not that we should have wanted to hear about that, either. And not one French, Swedish, Danish or German athlete will ever be asked if they feel qualms about representing countries that deport illegal immigrants.

The subtext of the queries in Milan, and Hess’ answer, rests on an assumption that something especially nefarious is going on in the United States, which deserves rebuke; something worse, apparently, than goes on in any other country participating in the games.

This outlook, as anyone who understands anything about the world knows, is lunacy. China, incidentally, sent a delegation of 286 people to the Winter Olympics in Milan. One of them is freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who, Google’s AI — apparently translating text from the original Chicom propaganda — tells me “is competing in the 2026 Winter

BE IN TOUCH

Nonetheless, as di cult as it is to admit, the phrase bargain-basement peace building keeps sidling through my head. No monk insult intended, but to make sure, I googled the meaning of bargain basement. “A part of a store where goods are sold cheaply, typically because they are old or imperfect.”

That would be me, at least the portion about being older and imperfect. And I bet those wonderful journeying monks would be the rst to admit that they too are imperfect humans. Yet look at what they accomplished, garbed as strangely as they were, among the often staid culture of our South.

Truth. My feet are much too tender to go barefoot, and I would freeze in a sa ron robe. But a bargain-basement peace builder I could be. Imperfect as all get out. As loving as any particular moment can try to summon from within me. Which means, not always. That too is truth (and oh-so human.)

Might you consider joining a newly burgeoning network of bargain basement peace builders? No membership fee required

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a eld. I’ll meet you there” — Ha z

(Come on, gang!)

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

COLUMN

Je ries and Schumer denounce Trump’s ‘Racist’ video — but who are they to complain?

ON PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S social media platform, someone in the administration — the White House o ered di erent versions of how this happened — posted a 62-second cartoon video set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

This was posted on a Thursday night and, following cries of “racism,” was removed by noon the following day. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the reaction “fake outrage.” Trump said: “I guess during the end of it, there was some kind of picture people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either, but I didn’t see it. I just, I looked at the rst part, and it was really about voter fraud.”

Asked by a reporter, if he condemns the racist part of the video, Trump said, “Of course I do.”

Olympics in Milan-Cortina, aiming to inspire a new generation of Chinese skiers, speci cally girls, while balancing her Chinese heritage and American upbringing.”

The only notable “heritage” of the one-party communist state, which doesn’t represent the will of the Chinese people, is that it’s in contention for being the most murderous regime in history. Yet the media’s e usive coverage of Gu’s performance, poise and overall decency is something to behold. Reuters ran a three-person bylined piece of Gu discussing her “rediscovering joy in skiing, navigating rising competition and reframing her relationship with fear.” Gu, in an interview with the o cial Olympic site, “talks pressure, the haters, and inspiring young girls after a life-changing Beijing 2022.”

The Chinese government also reportedly spent around $6.64 million on Gu and fellow U.S.-born athlete Zhu Yi. So that’s a perk, for sure.

Couldn’t Gu, worth somewhere north of $23 million, inspire Chinese girls in the United States rather than under the ag of a tyranny? Or how about representing Taiwan? Americans with dual citizenship who are unable to make the United States squads will occasionally compete for other nations. Even then, they rarely join tyrannies and geopolitical foes. It’s one thing to buy cheap stu from communist China and quite another to wear its ag.

Anyway, Gu is in no position to lecture anyone about decency.

As others have pointed out, reporters, deeply concerned about the ability of Americans to represent their awed nation, have yet to ask Gu about the plight of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai, recently sentenced to 20 years for exercising his right to free expression. There has been nothing on the 50 or so journalists being held in prison. Gu has criticized Trump but o ers nothing but praise for a regime that throws women into concentration camps where they are systemically raped and used as forced labor?

Maybe Hess can think about that the next time he’s ripping the United States abroad.

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner and author of ve books. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

The video shows Trump’s head attached to a lion con dently strolling through the jungle. Other animals dance as the Trump lion saunters through. On the heads of the other animals are well-known Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Joe Biden, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, House Minority Leader Hakeem Je ries and others. Near the end for about one second, the video showed the heads of former President Barack Obama and former rst lady Michelle Obama on the heads of monkeys. A screenshot of the Barack and Michelle heads on apes went viral. That Biden’s face was on that of a banana- eating orangutan did not seem to disturb anyone. The outrage was predictable. “Racist” Donald Trump strikes again! Those crying out included Je ries and Schumer. Je ries said, “He de nitively needs to apologize. It was a disgusting video ... even a handful of Republicans ... nally showed some backbone in pushing back against the president’s malignant, bottom-feeder-like behavior.”

But Je ries has his own record of “malignant, bottom-feeder-like behavior.”

As a college student, Je ries praised two of the country’s most prominent antisemites: his uncle and City College of New York professor Leonard Je ries — who compared Jews to “dogs” and “skunks,” and claimed “rich Jews nanced the slave trade — and Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan, who has a decades-long record of antisemitism. Hakeem Je ries has long insisted he only “vaguely remembers” defending them. But in 2023, CNN reported the Binghamton University Black Student Union, of which he was a leader, invited Uncle Leonard to speak. When Jewish students protested, Hakeem Je ries “led a press conference” to defend his uncle, despite later saying that “he did not recall any press coverage” of the controversy.

CNN said Hakeem Je ries’ 1992 op-ed undermines claims he wasn’t aware of uncle’s antisemitic controversy. He wrote that his uncle challenges the “existing white supremacist educational system and long-standing distortion of history. His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and in ammatory, erroneous accusations.”

In a research paper called “Dr. Je ries and the Anti-Semitic Branch of the Afrocentrism Movement,” Kenneth Stern with the American Jewish Committee wrote, “Leonard Je ries was already known for his teaching that blacks are racially superior to whites because blacks, whom he calls ‘sun people,’ have more melanin in their skin than whites, whom he calls ‘ice people.’” But Hakeem Je ries defended his uncle.

After this CNN report, the Republican Jewish Coalition said, “Minority Leader Hakeem Je ries owes the Jewish community an explanation as to why he lied and attempted to cover up his defense of these revolting antisemites.”

At the time, Hakeem Je ries also described black conservatives as “token,” “opportunists” and “house negroes.” He wrote, “Clarence Thomas was appointed by George Bush to the highest court in the nation. Colin Powell was appointed by George Bush to lead the military establishment ‘policemen of the Wall Street Bankers.’”

Letters to the editor may be sent to letters@nsjonline.com or mailed to 1201 Edwards Mill Rd., Suite 300, Raleigh, NC 27607. Letters must be signed; include the writer’s phone number, city and state; and be no longer than 300 words. Letters may be edited for style, length or clarity when necessary. Ideas for op-eds should be sent to opinion@nsjonline.com.

Contact a writer or columnist: connect@northstatejournal.com

As for Schumer, he called the video “racist. Vile. Abhorrent.” Yet, in 1974, the then-freshman New York assemblyman proposed a blatantly racist scheme to appease whites by ridding blacks from their New York neighborhood. Read the 2006 “American Spectator” article “Race to the Top” by a writer who was present when Schumer outlined his plan.

Democrats and the media, who lick their chops to pounce on “racist” Trump, are silent about Je ries’ record of antisemitism and indi erent about the allegations of Schumer’s anti-black racism.

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)

obituaries

IN MEMORY

KAYDEN KALE MOORE FEBRUARY 14, 2026

On February 14th, a piece of our hearts went to Heaven. Kayden Kale Moore, 19, of Robbins, North Carolina, passed away unexpectedly. Kayden was a deeply loved handsome, athletic young man with a tender heart. As the second of six children, he was very protective of his brothers and little sister. He cherished his family and greatly valued his friends as well.

He was preceded in death by his Maternal Grandparents: Daniel Rodriguez Olivares and Maria Concepcion Merlos, and Paternal Grandparents: James Roger Moore and Velma Ritter Moore.

Left to cherish his memory are his parents: Jodie Kale Moore and Maria Guadalupe Rodriguez Moore; his siblings: Alex, Cruz, Andrew, Ezekiel, and Evelyn Moore, all of the home; as well as many aunts, uncles, cousins, and dear friends.

Kayden found his passion for sports as a young boy. His love for football blossomed when he played for the Mustangs at North Moore High School, where he graduated in 2024.

He formerly worked at Richland Creek Zipline Canopy Tours in Asheboro, NC, and at Coach’s Restaurant in Biscoe, NC. Kayden received his lineman certi cate from Richmond Community College in May 2025. He was employed at Lee Electric as a lineman and had just returned from an assignment.

Kayden, you have made an everlasting impact on our lives and in our hearts. Though we grieve deeply, we hold onto God’s promise that death is not the end. You will always be with us, and your life will live on in the love we carry and in eternity with Christ.

Romans 8:18 states: “For I reckon that the su erings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

James Van Der Beek, ‘Dawson’s Creek’ star, dead at 48

In 2024, he said he was being treated for colorectal cancer

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — James Van Der Beek, a heartthrob who starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in “Dawson’s Creek” and in later years mocking his own hunky persona, has died. He was 48. “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his nal days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come,” the statement read.

“For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”

Van Der Beek revealed in 2024 that he was being treated for colorectal cancer.

Van Der Beek made a surprise video appearance in September at a “Dawson’s Creek” reunion charity event in New York City after previously dropping out due to illness.

He appeared projected onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre during a live reading of the show’s pilot episode to bene t F Cancer and Van Der Beek. Lin-Manuel Miranda subbed for him on stage.

“Thank you to every single person here,” Van Der Beek said.

Forever tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek’

A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie “Varsity Blues” and on TV in “CSI: Cyber” as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to “Dawson’s Creek,” which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.

The series followed a high school group of friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and nding their footing in life.

Van Der Beek, than 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

“Dawson’s Creek,” with the moody theme song Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” helped de ne The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Katie

James Van Der Beek attends the premiere of “The Words” in Los Angeles on Sept. 4, 2012.

Holmes and Michelle Williams.

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy a air with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes’ character climbs through Dawson’s bedroom window and they curl up together. Racier shows like “Euphoria” and “Sex Education” owe a debt to “Dawson’s Creek.”

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha’s “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that ‘Dawson’s Creek’ was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

A popular GIF and ‘Varsity Blues’

More than a decade after the show went o the air, a scene at the end of the show’s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love a air with his best friend and burst into tears.

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” he told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.

Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall, ‘Godfather’ mainstay, dead at 95

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor of matchless versatility and dedication whose classic roles included the intrepid consigliere of the rst two “Godfather” movies and the over-the-hill country music singer in “Tender Mercies,” has died at age 95.

Duvall died “peacefully” at his home Sunday in Middleburg, Virginia, according to an announcement from his publicist and from a statement posted on his Facebook page by his wife, Luciana Duvall.

“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything,” Luciana Duvall wrote. “His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented.”

The bald, wiry Duvall didn’t have leading man looks, but few “character actors” enjoyed such a long, rewarding and unpredictable career, in leading and supporting roles, from an itinerant preacher to Josef Stalin. Beginning with his 1962 lm debut as Boo Radley, the reclusive neighbor in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Duvall created a gallery of unforgettable portrayals. They earned him seven Academy Award nominations and the best actor prize for “Tender Mercies,” which came out in 1983. He also won four Golden Globes, including one for playing the philosophical cattle-drive boss in the 1989 miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” a role he often cited as his favorite.

In 2005, Duvall was awarded a National Medal of Arts.

He had been acting for some 20 years when “The Godfather,” released in 1972, established him as one of the most in-demand performers of Hollywood. He had made a previous lm, “The Rain People,” with Francis Coppola, and the director chose him to play Tom Hagen in the ma a epic that featured Al Pacino and Marlon Brando among others. Duvall was a master of subtlety as an Irishman among Italians, rarely at the center of a scene, but often listening and advising in the background, an irreplaceable thread through the saga of the Corleone crime family.

“Stars and Italians alike depend on his e ciency, his tidying up around their grand gestures, his being the perfect shortstop on a team of personality sluggers,” wrote the critic David Thomson. “Was there ever a role better designed for its actor than that of Tom Hagen in both parts of ‘The Godfather?’”

In another Coppola lm, “Apocalypse Now,” Duvall was wildly out front, the embodiment of deranged masculinity as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, who with equal vigor enjoyed sur ng and bombing raids on the Viet Cong. Duvall required few takes for one of the most famous passages in movie history, barked out on the battle eld by a bare-chested, cavalry-hatted Kilgore: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t nd one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body.

“The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like — victory.”

Coppola once commented about Duvall: “Actors click into character at di erent times — the rst week, third week. Bobby’s hot after one or two takes.” Honored, but still hungry

He was Oscar-nominated as supporting actor for “The God-

father” and “Apocalypse Now,” but a dispute over money led him to turn down the third Godfather epic, a loss deeply felt by critics, fans and “Godfather” colleagues. Duvall would complain publicly about being o ered less than his co-stars.

Fellow actors marveled at Duvall’s studious research and planning, and his coiled energy. Michael Caine, who co-starred with him in the 2003 “Secondhand Lions,” once told The Associated Press: “Before a big scene, Bobby just sits there, absolutely quiet; you know when not to talk to him.” Anyone who disturbed him would suffer the well-known Duvall temper, famously on display during the lming of the John Wayne Western “True Grit,” when Duvall seethed at director Henry Hathaway’s advice to “tense up” before a scene.

Duvall was awarded an Oscar in 1984 for his leading role as the troubled singer and songwriter Mac Sledge in “Tender Mercies,” a prize he accepted while clad in a cowboy tuxedo with Western tie. In 1998, he was nominated for best actor in “The Apostle,” a drama about a wayward Southern evangelist which he wrote, directed, starred in, produced and largely nanced. With customary thoroughness, he visited dozens of country churches and spent 12 years writing the script and trying to get it made.

Among other notable roles: the outlaw gang leader who gets ambushed by John Wayne in “True Grit”; Jesse James in “The Great North eld Minnesota Raid”; the pious and beleaguered Frank Burns in “M-A-S-H”; the TV hatchet man in “Network”; Dr. Watson in “The Seven-Per- Cent Solution”; and the sadistic father in “The Great Santini.”

“When I was doing ‘Colors’ in 1988 with Sean Penn, someone asked me how I do it all these years, keep it fresh. Well, if you don’t overwork, have some hobbies, you can do it and stay hungry even if you’re not really hungry,” Duvall told The Associated Press in 1990.

In his mid-80s, he received a supporting Oscar nomination as the title character of the 2014 release “The Judge,” in which he is accused of causing a death in a hit-and-run accident. More recent lms included “Widows” and “12 Mighty Orphans.”

Ungifted in school, gifted on stage

Robert Selden Duvall grew up in the Navy towns of Annapolis and the San Diego area, where he was born in 1931. He spent time in other cities as his father, who rose to be an admiral, was assigned to various duties. The boy’s experience helped in his adult profession as he learned the nuances of regional speech and observed the psyche of military men, which he would portray in several lms.

Duvall reportedly used his Navy o cer father as the basis for his portrayal of the explosive militarist in “The Great Santini,” based on the Pat Conroy novel. He commented in 2003: “My dad was a gentleman but a seether, a stern, blustery guy, and away a lot of the time.” Bobby took after his mother, an amateur actress, in playing a guitar and performing. He was a wrestler like his father and enjoyed besting kids older than himself. He lacked the concentration for schoolwork and nearly unked out of Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. His despairing parents decided he needed something to keep him in college so he wouldn’t be drafted for the Korean War. “They recommended acting as an expedient thing to get through,” he recalled. “I’m glad they did.” He ourished in drama classes.

“Way back when I was in college,” Duvall told the AP in 1990, “there was a wonderful man named Frank Parker, who had been a dancer in World War I. We did a full-length mime play and I played a Harlequin clown. I really liked that.

“Then, I played an older guy in ‘All My Sons,’ and at one point I had this emotional moment, where this emotion was pouring out. Parker said at that moment he didn’t think acting can be carried any further than that. And this guy was a very critical guy. So I thought, at that moment at least, this is what I wanted to do.”

After two years in the Army, he used the G.I. Bill to nance his studies at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, hanging out with such other young hopefuls as Robert Morse, Gene Hackman and Dustin Homan. After a one-night performance in “A View From the Bridge,” Duvall began getting o ers for work in TV series, among them “The Naked City” and “The Defenders.”

Between his high-paying jobs in major productions, Duvall devoted himself to directing personal projects: a documentary about a prairie family, “We’re Not the Jet Set”; a lm about gypsies, “Angelo, My Love”; and “Assassination Tango,” in which he also starred. Duvall had been a tango dancer since seeing the musical “Tango Argentina” in the 1980s and visited in Argentina dozens of times to study the dance and the culture. The result was the 2003 release about a hit man with a passion for tango.

His co-star was Luciana Pedraza, 42 years his junior, whom he married in 2005. Duvall’s three previous marriages — to Barbara Benjamin, Gail Youngs and Sharon Brophy — ended in divorce.

Former Associated Press Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas, who died in 2014, was the primary writer of this obituary.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, who carried on Civil Rights Movement for decades after King, dead at 84

The dramatic speaker had an unparallelled impact on generations of Americans

The Associated Press

CHICAGO — The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after the revered leader’s assassination, has died. He was 84.

His daughter, Santita Jackson, con rmed that Jackson died at home, surrounded by family.

As a young organizer in Chicago, Jackson was called to meet with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis shortly before King was killed and he publicly positioned himself thereafter as King’s successor. Jackson led a lifetime of crusades in the United States and abroad, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.

And when he declared, “I am Somebody,” in a poem he often repeated, he sought to reach people of all colors. “I may be poor, but I am Somebody; I may be young; but I am Somebody; I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody,” Jackson intoned.

It was a message he took literally and personally, having risen from obscurity in the segregated South to become America’s best-known civil rights activist since King.

Despite profound health challenges in his nal years including a rare brain disorder that a ected his ability to move and speak, Jackson continued protesting against racial injustice into the era of Black Lives Matter. In 2024, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and at a City Council meeting to show support for a resolution backing a cease re in the Israel-Hamas war.

“Even if we win,” he told marchers in Minneapolis before the o cer whose knee kept George Floyd from breathing was convicted of murder, “it’s relief, not victory. They’re still killing our people. Stop the violence, save the children. Keep hope alive.”

Calls to action, delivered in a memorable voice

Jackson’s voice, infused with the stirring cadences and powerful insistence of the black church, demanded attention. On the campaign trail and elsewhere, he used rhyming and slogans such as: “Hope not dope” and “If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it then I can achieve it,″ to deliver his messages.

Jackson had his share of critics, both within and outside of the black community. Some considered him a grandstander, too eager to seek out the spotlight. Looking back on his life and legacy, Jackson told The Associated Press in 2011 that he felt blessed to be able to continue the service of other leaders before him and to lay a foundation for those to come.

“A part of our life’s work was to tear down walls and build bridges, and in a half century of work, we’ve basically torn down walls,” Jackson said. “Sometimes when you tear down walls, you’re scarred by falling debris, but your mission is to open up holes so others behind you can run through.”

In his nal months, as he received 24-hour care, he lost his ability to speak, communicating with family and visitors by holding their hands and squeezing.

“I get very emotional knowing that these speeches belong to the ages now,” his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., told the AP in October.

A student athlete drawn to the Civil Rights Movement

Jesse Louis Jackson was born on Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of high school student Helen Burns and Noah Louis Robinson, a married man who lived next door. Jackson was later adopted by Charles Henry Jackson, who married his mother.

Jackson was a star quarterback on the football team at Sterling High School in Greenville, and accepted a football scholarship from the University of Illinois. But after he reportedly was told black people couldn’t play quarterback, he transferred to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, where he became the rst-string quarterback, an honor student in sociology and economics, and student body president.

Arriving on the historically black campus in 1960 just months after students there launched sit-ins at a whites-only diner, Jackson immersed himself in the blossoming Civil Rights Movement. By 1965, he joined the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. King dispatched him to Chicago to launch Operation Breadbasket, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference e ort to pressure companies to hire black workers.

Jackson called his time with King “a phenomenal four years of work.”

Jackson was with King on April 4, 1968, when the civil rights leader was slain at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Jackson’s account of the assassination was that King died in his arms.

With his air for the dramatic, Jackson wore a turtleneck he said was soaked with King’s blood for two days, including at a King memorial service held by the Chicago City Council, where he said: “I come here with a heavy heart because on my chest is the stain

“I

may be poor, but I am Somebody; I may be young; but I am Somebody; I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody.”

Rev Jesse L. Jackson

of blood from Dr. King’s head.”

However, several King aides, including speechwriter Alfred Duckett, questioned whether Jackson could have gotten King’s blood on his clothing. There are no images of Jackson in pictures taken shortly after the assassination.

In 1971, Jackson broke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to form Operation PUSH, originally named People United to Save Humanity. The organization based on Chicago’s South Side declared a sweeping mission, from diversifying workforces to registering voters in communities of color nationwide. Using lawsuits and threats of boycotts, Jackson pressured top corporations to spend millions and publicly commit to diversifying their workforces.

The constant campaigns often left his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, the college sweetheart he married in 1963, taking the lead in raising their ve children: Santita Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson Jr., and two future members of Congress, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Luther Jackson and Jesse L. Jackson Jr., who resigned in 2012 but is seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms.

The elder Jackson, who was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1968 and earned his master’s degree in Divinity in 2000, also acknowledged fathering a child, Ashley Jackson, with one of his employees at Rainbow/PUSH, Karen L. Stanford. He said he understood what it means

to be born out of wedlock and supported her emotionally and nancially.

Presidential aspirations fall short but help “keep hope alive’

Despite once telling a black audience he would not run for president “because white people are incapable of appreciating me,” Jackson ran twice and did better than any black politician had before President Barack Obama, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination in 1988, four years after his rst failed attempt. His successes left supporters chanting another Jackson slogan, “Keep Hope Alive.”

“I was able to run for the presidency twice and rede ne what was possible; it raised the lid for women and other people of color,” he told the AP. “Part of my job was to sow seeds of the possibilities.”

U.S. Rep. John Lewis said during a 1988 C-SPAN interview that Jackson’s two runs for the Democratic nomination “opened some doors that some minority person will be able to walk through and become president.” Jackson also pushed for cultural change, joining calls by NAACP members and other movement leaders in the late 1980s to identify black people in the United States as African Americans.

“To be called African Americans has cultural integrity — it puts us in our proper historical context,” Jackson said at the time. “Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some base, some historical cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.”

Jackson’s words sometimes got him in trouble.

In 1984, he apologized for what he thought were private comments to a reporter, calling New York City “Hymietown,”

a derogatory reference to its large Jewish population. And in 2008, he made headlines when he complained that Obama was “talking down to black people” in comments captured by a microphone he didn’t know was on during a break in a television taping.

Still, when Jackson joined the jubilant crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park to greet Obama that election night, he had tears streaming down his face.

“I wish for a moment that Dr. King or (slain civil rights leader) Medgar Evers ... could’ve just been there for 30 seconds to see the fruits of their labor,” he told the AP years later. “I became overwhelmed. It was the joy and the journey.”

Exerting in uence on events at home and abroad

Jackson also had in uence abroad, meeting world leaders and scoring diplomatic victories, including the release of Navy Lt. Robert Goodman from Syria in 1984, as well as the 1990 release of more than 700 foreign women and children held after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. In 1999, he won the freedom of three Americans imprisoned by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

“Citizens have the right to do something or do nothing,” Jackson said, before heading to Syria. “We choose to do something.” In 2021, Jackson joined the parents of Ahmaud Arbery inside the Georgia courtroom where three white men were convicted of killing the young black jogger. In 2022, he hand-delivered a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s O ce in Chicago, calling for federal charges against former Chicago Police O cer Jason Van Dyke in the 2014 killing of black teenager Laquan McDonald.

Jackson, who stepped down as president of Rainbow/PUSH in July 2023, disclosed in 2017 that he had sought treatment for Parkinson’s, but he continued to make public appearances even as the disease made it more di cult for listeners to understand him. Earlier this year, doctors con rmed a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder. He was admitted to a hospital in November.

During the coronavirus pandemic, he and his wife survived being hospitalized with COVID-19. Jackson was vaccinated early, urging black people in particular to get protected, given their higher risks for bad outcomes.

“It’s America’s un nished business — we’re free, but not equal,” Jackson told the AP. “There’s a reality check that has been brought by the

that exposes the

and the opportunity.”

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HELP WANTED

Part time church secretary Must be pro cient in Windows 10, Word, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Excel, MS O ce, Google suites and Mailchimp. Send resume to admin@saint-barts.org 3tc

4, 2026, at 2:00 PM, in person, at the address listed below. Interested parties are encouraged to contact the o ce of Carol Little, Executive Director Federal Programs and School Improvement, at Chatham County Board of Education, P.O. Box 128, 468 Renaissance Dr, Pittsboro, N.C.

Spanish Version below: Aviso público

Los proyectos federales de las Escuelas del Condado Chatham bajo la Ley Cada

Estudiante Triunfa (ESSA) de 2015 están en proceso de plani cación. Los proyectos incluidos son:

Título I (Ayuda a los niños desfavorecidos a alcanzar altos estándares)

Título II (Maestros y directores de alta calidad)

Título III (Adquisición del Lenguaje)

Título IV A (Apoyo al Estudiante y Enriquecimiento Académico)

Programa de Educación para Familias Migrantes (MEP, por sus siglas en Inglés)

Carreras y Educación Técnica (CTE, por sus siglas en Inglés)

Los estudiantes de preparatoria pueden inscribirse, sin costo, en clases de créditos

universitarios a través del programa Career and College Promise. Esto incluye vías de estudio de Educación Técnica y Profesional.

IDEA (Estudiantes con Discapacidades)

Actualmente se encuentra en proceso de modi cación el Proyecto de Ley de Educación para Personas con Discapacidad (IDEA-Parte B, Ley Pública 108.446). El Proyecto describe los programas de educación especial que las Escuelas del Condado Chatham proponen para nanciamiento federal para el año escolar 2026-2027. Se anima a las personas interesadas a revisar las enmiendas al Proyecto y hacer comentarios sobre la implementación de la educación especial bajo este Programa Federal. Todos los comentarios serán considerados antes de la presentación del Proyecto modi cado al Departamento de Instrucción Pública de Carolina del Norte en Raleigh, Carolina del Norte. Estos proyectos describen los programas que las Escuelas del Condado Chatham proponen para nanciamiento federal para el año escolar 2026-2027. Se anima a las escuelas privadas sin nes de lucro y a las personas interesadas a revisar estas pautas federales para los proyectos enumerados anteriormente e indicar su interés en participar en los proyectos si cali can. Estos proyectos se están desarrollando durante abril y mayo y deben entregarse al Departamento de Instrucción Pública de Carolina del Norte el 30 de junio del 2026. La reunión inicial de Servicios Equitativos para Escuelas Privadas se llevará a cabo el 4 de marzo del 2026 a las 2:00 PM, en persona en la dirección listada abajo. Se anima a las partes interesadas a comunicarse con la o cina de Carol Little, Directora Ejecutiva de Programas Federales y Mejoramiento Escolar, en la Junta de Educación del Condado de Chatham, P. O. Box 128, 468 Renaissance Dr, Pittsboro, N.C.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000081-180 The undersigned RHONDA BOONE POE, having quali ed on the 11TH Day of FEBRUARY 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of BARBARA HOLT BOONE, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 19TH Day OF MAY 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 19TH DAY OF FEBRUARY 2026.

RHONDA BOONE POE, EXECUTOR 4577 PINEY GROVE CHURCH RD SILER CITY, NC 27344 Run dates: F19,26,M5,12p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Dorothy Mae Foxx Shamburger aka Dorothy Shamburger Clemmons, deceased of Chatham County, North Carolina, are hereby noti ed to present them to Robert A. Shamburger, Administrator of the Estate of Dorothy Mae Foxx Shamburger aka Dorothy Shamburger Clemmons, Estate File Number

26E000045-180, on or before May 4, 2026, in care of the undersigned attorney at her address, or this notice will be pleaded in a bar of recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to Dorothy Mae Foxx Shamburger aka Dorothy Shamburger Clemmons, please make immediate payment to the Estate of Dorothy Mae Foxx Shamburger aka Dorothy Shamburger Clemmons.

This is the 29th day of January, 2026.

Pamela E. Whitaker Attorney at Law

4145 Randolph Church Road Liberty, NC 27298 (336) 622-3553 telephone (336) 622-3240 facsimile pwhitakerlaw@gmail.com

PUBLICATION DATES: January 29, 2026, February 5, 12, 19, 2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against Christopher J Luscri, deceased, of Chatham County, N.C., are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before (April 30, 2026), or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This January 29, 2026. Donna-Jean Keim 402 Ramsey Hill Dr Cary, North Carolina 27519

NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF ANNETTE ANN MORDUS

All persons, rms, and corporations having claims against Annette Ann Mordus, now deceased, are noti ed to exhibit them to Sandrah Pederson, Executor of the decedent’s estate, on or before the 5th day of May, 2026, at Post O ce Box 2290, Burlington, North Carolina 27216, or be barred from their recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment to the above-named Executor. Sandrah Pederson Executor of the Estate of Annette Ann Mordus

(25E000646-180) Nathan R. Adams Pittman & Steele, PLLC Post O ce Box 2290 Burlington, NC 27216

336-270-4440

The Chatham News & Record

February 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2026

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

26E000060-180 NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

The undersigned, Linda Sue Eubanks, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Susan D. Eubanks, deceased, late of Chatham County, this is to notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned on or before the day of May 6, 2026 or this notice will be plead in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 5th day of February 2026. Linda Sue Eubanks Administrator Marie H. Hopper Attorney for the Estate Hopper Cummings, PLLC Post O ce Box 1455 Pittsboro, NC 27312

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

The undersigned, having quali ed as Executor of the Estate of Sandra G. Funk aka Sandra Gail Funk, Deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate to exhibit them to the undersigned at the o ces of Tillman, Whichard & Cagle, PLLC, 501 Eastowne Drive, Suite 130, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, on or before the 19th day of May, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment. This 19th day of February, 2026. SARAH ELIZABETH TILLMAN, EXECUTOR ESTATE OF SANDRA G. FUNK AKA SANDRA GAIL FUNK

NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF THE ESTATE OF CAROL ELAINE HARTMAN HALL All persons, rms, and corporations having claims against Carol Elaine Hartman Hall, deceased, of Chatham County, N.C., are noti ed to exhibit the same to William Leslie Hall, Executor, at 300 Kildaire Woods Drive, Apt 129, Cary, NC 27511, on or before May 4th, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the deceased are asked to make immediate payment. This the 29th day of January, 2026.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS:

Chatham County, North Carolina

RE: THE ESTATE OF JOHN THOMAS NASH –

25E000476-180

Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of John Thomas Nash, deceased, Chatham County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 20th day of May, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. This the 19th day of February, 2026. Leigh Goodwin, Executrix DSR Legal, PLLC PO Box 51596 Durham, NC 27717

NOTICE TO CREDITORS:

26E000050-180 The undersigned, having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Gilbert Thomas Berg late of CHATHAM County, NC, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at the address below on or before the 30th day of April, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 29th day of January, 2026. Margaret B. Mullinix, Administrator of the Estate of Gilbert Thomas Berg, c/o The Law O ce of Anne Page Watson, PLLC, 3400 Croasdaile Drive, Suite 205, Durham, NC 27705.

Notice to Creditors

ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against Susan Trivitt Dotson, deceased, of Chatham County, NC, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before May 8, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 5th day of February, 2026. William Claude Cornette III, Executor, c/o Bagwell Holt Smith P.A., 111 Cloister Court, STE 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Having quali ed as Executor/Administrator of the Estate of Donald G. Cheek, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms, and corporations having claims against the estate to present them to the undersigned on or before May 19, 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.

All persons indebted to said estate please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This the 19 day of February, 2026.

Danis A. Smith

Executor/Administrator of the Estate of Donald G Cheek Jr 3630 Lyle Creek Ave NE Conover, NC 28613

Dates of Publication: February 19, 2026 February 26, 2026 March 5, 2026 March 12, 2026

Notice to Creditors

Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Antje W. Bruschke aka Ann Bruschke, late of Chatham County, North Carolina (26E000052-180), the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 4th day of May, 2026 or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This is the 29th day of January 2026. Michael A. Bruschke Administrator Estate of Antje W. Bruschke 344 Chestnut Way Chapel Hill, NC 27516 (For publication: on January 29, February 5, February 12, February 19, 2026)

Notice to Creditors

ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against Virginia Dare Taylor, deceased, of Chatham County, NC, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before May 22, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment.

This the 19th day of February, 2026. Sherra Chedaille, Executor, c/o Bagwell Holt Smith P.A., 111 Cloister Court, STE 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Notice to Creditors

ALL PERSONS, rms and corporations having claims against Suzanne Duvall Steward, deceased, of Chatham County, NC, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before May 15, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 12th day of February, 2026. Laura Strickler, Executor, c/o Bagwell Holt Smith P.A., 111 Cloister Court, STE 200, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

26E000026-180

ALL persons having claims against Reggie Kenneth Lane, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before Apr 29 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment.

This the 29th day of January, 2026. Travis Anthony Harris, Administrator C/O Kenneth M. Johnson, P.A. 817 Quailcove Court Greensboro, North Carolina 27406 J29, 5, 12 and 19

NOTICE

ALL PERSONS, rms, and corporations having claims against Frederick R Stagg, Jr., deceased, of Chatham County, N.C., are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before May 19th, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 19th of February, 2026 Ryan Frederick Pamplin Executor of the Estate of Frederick R Stagg, Jr., c/o Jessica Mantekas, Attorney, 1255 Crescent Green, Suite 200, Cary, NC 27518.

PUBLIC NOTICE

NORTH CAROLINA ENVIRONMENTAL

MANAGEMENT COMMISSION INTENT TO ISSUE

NPDES STORMWATER DISCHARGE PERMITS

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission proposes to issue NPDES stormwater discharge permit(s) to the person(s) listed below. Public comment or objection to the draft permits is invited. Written comments regarding the proposed permit will be accepted until 30 days after the publish date of this notice and considered in the nal determination regarding permit issuance and permit provisions. The Director of the NC Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources (DEMLR) may hold a public hearing should there be a signi cant degree of public interest. Please mail comments and/or information requests to DEMLR at 1612 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1612. General Timber, Inc. [625 Farmville Coal Road, Sanford, NC 27330] has requested renewal of permit NCS000122 for the General Timber, Inc. facility [625 Farmville Coal Road, Sanford, NC] in Chatham County. This facility discharges stormwater to an unnamed tributary to Georges Creek in the Cape Fear River Basin. Interested persons may visit DEMLR at 512 N. Salisbury Street, Raleigh, NC 27604 to review information on le. Additional information on NPDES permits and this notice may be found on our website: https://deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/ energy-mineral-and-land-resources/stormwater/ stormwater-program/stormwater-public-notices, or by contacting Brianna Young at brianna.young@deq. nc.gov or 919-707-3647. F19

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

25E000671-180

ALL persons having claims against June A. Keefe, deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before May 05 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This the 5th day of February, 2026.

KEVIN KEEFE, Co-Executor

JOSEPH KEEFE, Co-Executor C/O Howard Stallings Law Firm PO Box 12347 Raleigh, NC 27605 F5, 12, 19 and 26

NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF Mary Jane C. McKenney All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Mary Jane C. McKenney, late of Chatham, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit them to William P. McKenney, Esq. as Executor of the decedent’s estate on or before May 15, 2026, c/o Janet B. Witchger, Attorney at Law, 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, or be barred from their recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment to the above-named Executor. This the 12th day of February 2026. William P. McKenney, Esq., Executor c/o Janet B. Witchger, Atty. TrustCounsel 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203 Chapel Hill, NC 27517

NOTICE

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND DEBTORS OF Frederick Oscar Bowman, Jr.

All persons, rms and corporations having claims against Frederick Oscar Bowman, Jr., late of Chatham, North Carolina, are noti ed to exhibit them to Frederick O. Bowman, III or John S. Bowman as Co-Executors of the decedent’s estate on or before May 23, 2026, c/o Janet B. Witchger, Attorney at Law, 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, or be barred from their recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment to the above-named Executor.

This the 19th day of February 2026. Frederick O. Bowman, III, Co-Executor John S. Bowman, Co-Executor c/o Janet B. Witchger, Atty. TrustCounsel 1414 Raleigh Rd., Ste. 203 Chapel Hill, NC 27517

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA

CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#26E000007-180

The undersigned EILEEN S. COWEL, having quali ed on the 7TH Day of JANUARY, 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of ALLAN S. COWEL, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 29TH Day OF APRIL 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 29TH DAY OF JANUARY 2026. EILEEN S. COWEL, ADMINISTRATOR 4108 WALLINGFORD PLACE DURHAM, NC 27707 Run dates: J29,F5,12,19p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA

CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#25E000655-180

The undersigned JAMES B. LEACH, having quali ed on the 23RD Day of DECEMBER 2025 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of BARBARA JEAN PERRY, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 29TH Day OF APRIL 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 29TH DAY OF JANUARY 2026. JAMES B. LEACH, EXECUTOR 123 PAINTED TURTLE LANE CARY, NC 27519 Run dates: J29,F5,12,19p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#26E000027-180

The undersigned STACIA DARK, having quali ed on the 12TH Day of JANUARY, 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of GEORGE DARK, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 29TH Day OF APRIL 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 29TH DAY OF JANUARY 2026. STACIA DARK, ADMINISTRATOR 621 WOMBLE STREET SILER CITY, NC 27344 Run dates: J29,F5,12,19p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY

FILE#26E000051-180 The undersigned DANNY M. WATSON, having quali ed on the 22ND Day of JANUARY 2026 as ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of JEFFREY FLOYD HAWK, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 29TH Day OF APRIL 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 29TH DAY OF JANUARY 2026. DANNY M. WATSON, ADMINISTRATOR 436 GLENDALE AVE. THOMASVILLE, NC 27360 Run dates: J29,F5,12,19p

to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before the 20th day of May, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the estate should make immediate payment. This is the 10th day of February 2026. W.

& 12th 2026.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#26E000033-180 The undersigned KENNETH WARREN STURDIVANT, having quali ed on the 10TH Day of FEBRUARY 2026 as EXECUTOR

their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 19TH DAY OF FEBRUARY 2026. KENNETH WARREN STURDIVANT, EXECUTOR 714 MT. PISGAH CHURCH RD. APEX, NC 27523 Run dates: F19,26,M5,12p

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NORTH CAROLINA CHATHAM COUNTY FILE#25E000660-180 The undersigned ANN PATRICIA RILEY, having quali ed on the 14TH Day of JANUARY 2026 as EXECUTOR of the Estate of MARY RILEY SEGAL, deceased, of Chatham County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against said Estate to exhibit them on or before the 12TH Day OF MAY 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This, the 12TH DAY OF FEBRUARY 2026. ANN PATRICIA RILEY, EXECUTOR 19 CHEMIN LEFEBVRE LA MINERVE QC J0T 150 CANADA MAIL TO: MICHAEL RILEY 154 HICKORY HILL RD. MOORESVILLE, NC 28117 EMAIL TO: annpriley@hotmail.com Run dates: F12,19,26,M5p

CREDITOR’S NOTICE Having quali ed on the 3rd day of February 2026, as Administrator of the Estate of Mary Frances Sutton , deceased, late of Chatham County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the decedent to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before the 19th day of May, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, rms and corporations indebted to the estate should make immediate payment. This is the 16th day of February 2026. W. Woods Doster,

The ‘6-7’ craze is going strong at both NBA, college basketball games

LaMelo Ball’s stature sparks the viral phenomenon as fans track speci c scores

By Cli Brunt

The Associated Press

NORMAN, Okla. — LaMelo Ball has never been more popular, and it’s not because Charlotte’s 6-foot-7 star has the Hornets ghting for a playo spot.

They hype is largely about his height. And Charlotte is trying to take advantage.

Dictionary.com named the term “6-7” its word of the year for 2025, and the global “6-7” craze is still going strong at pro and college basketball games. Young fans, players and coaches eagerly track when teams near 67 points, and pandemonium ensues when their team hits the mark.

The Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans are among NBA teams that feature “6-7” cams during timeouts at some games. Seth Bennett, the Hornets’ chief marketing o cer, said Charlotte’s marketing and game presentation teams started discussing a possible “6-7” cam to capitalize on the trend and Ball’s involvement in it.

“For us as a franchise, we always want to listen to our fans, and sometimes you listen to observing what they’re into, their trends and likes, and it’s a way for us to connect to that and hopefully have them connect to us in a fun way when they’re experiencing it here,” Bennett said.

The Hornets’ cam is mostly limited to kids days and weekend games so it doesn’t get old. Michael Robinson, who attended a game between the Hornets and 76ers with his 6-year- old son, Abel, said it’s nonstop at home. Abel said he learned about it from his friends and on YouTube.

“It’s just cool,” Abel said. “It’s fun.”

The “6-7” originator can’t believe reach

The origins of the “6-7” boom are Skrilla’s 2024 song “Doot Doot (6-7).” Skrilla leaked the song without much expectation, but it exploded on TikTok last year with basketball players, including Ball and prep standout Taylen Kinney, driving its popularity.

No one is quite sure what 6-7 means, and Skrilla kept it that way when asked for a de nition.

“Everybody created their own meaning,” he told The Associated Press. “The teachers created their own meaning. The football teams created their own, the basketball (players). ‘6-7’ is global. It’s bigger

TRUMP from page A1

endorsement as he now runs for Senate in North Carolina.

Whatley thanked Trump and suggested that the president “is giving me an opportunity to represent you” — even though the election isn’t until November.

Later, Trump said of the raid on Jan. 3 that whisked away Maduro to face U.S. drug smuggling charges, “It was a matter of minutes before he was on a helicopter being taken out.” He called the forces involved “some of our greatest soldiers to ever live, frankly” while dismissing Maduro as an “outlaw dictator.”

“That night, the entire world saw what the full military might (of) the U.S. military is capable” of, the president said. “It was so precise, so incredible.”

Trump also vowed, “As long as I’m president, we will be the best led, the best trained, the best equipped, the most disciplined and the most elite ghting force the world has ever seen” and noted of would-be U.S. adversaries, “Everybody knows it.”

“They know exactly what they would be up against. Hopefully, we’ll never have to test them

than me now. So ‘6-7.’ Shout out to ‘6-7.’”

The nonsensical meme has its own hand gesture, too — ip your palms up, and alternate lifting your arms. Charlotte forward Miles Bridges made the gesture several weeks ago after hitting a 3-pointer against the Indiana Pacers.

Bridges also is 6-foot-7.

“I think that’s the team’s way of having a little fun with LaMelo anytime that they can kind of incorporate that in just to tease him a little bit, and he’s a great sport about it as well,” Bennett said.

“6-7” big on basketball courts everywhere

Fans have been on 67-point watch at games across the country. It seemed to bubble up rst

“The teachers created their own meaning. The football teams created their own, the basketball (players).

‘6-7’ is global. It’s bigger than me now. So ‘6-7.’ Shout out to ‘6-7.’”

at women’s college games, including at Oklahoma. Now fans there hold up signs handed out by the school.

On Dec. 22, the Sooners led North Carolina Central 64-29 in the closing seconds of the rst half. When Aaliyah Chavez drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer, fans went wild.

Oklahoma center Raegan Beers said the team enjoyed giving the fans that moment.

“That’s why I love this game (with the kids),” she said. “I know a lot of us love this game here, just to have that energy in the building, and obviously lean into what’s trending at the moment, which is 6-7, whatever that means. And so it was so much fun to have that moment and just let the kids enjoy it.”

Daniel Durbin, director of Southern California’s Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society, attended USC’s women’s basketball game against Rutgers on Feb. 1 and witnessed the phenomenon rst hand. He noted that the DJ even announced the possibility. The Trojans missed two free throws at 66, building the anticipation. When Yakiya Milton made a free throw that pushed the score to 67, the crowd erupted into what Durbin called the loudest cheer of the game. Durbin said it falls under the long history of arbitrary sports

traditions fans have created to feel more connected to the action.

“Think of all the superstitions fans have during games, rituals that they enact to ‘help’ the team win,” he said. “As fans walk across the street to USC football games, most of them kick the base of a certain lamppost. Why? It makes them part of the game. They are enacting a meaningless ritual many USC fans perform for ‘luck.’”

Adults doing it too

Even the coaches are in on it. On Maryland’s annual Field Trip Day game, Terrapins coach Brenda Frese wore a jersey with the number 67 on it before tipo . LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey did the hand gesture while on the big screen during a win over Morgan State, drawing an eruption from the home crowd and laughter from her players.

Mulkey said her grandson got upset with her after a game because LSU skipped 67 points and went straight to 68.

TCU’s women beat Baylor 83-67 on Feb. 12, and Olivia Miles scored 40 points and Marta Suarez scored 27 — a combined 67. With the two at his side in the postgame media session, Horned Frogs coach Mark Campbell got sucked in.

“For a duo, I’ve never been a part of a duo that scored 67 points in one game,” he said.

As Miles did the hand gesture and Suarez laughed, Campbell pointed at Miles and said, “That’s crazy. ‘6-7,’” as he added the hand gesture.

The trend has impacted the game on the court at times too. After Maryland took a 64-18 lead against Central Connecticut State in December, the Terps attempted ve straight 3-pointers before Yarden Garzon nally made one to give Maryland exactly 67 points. The craze is perplexing to parents, but Bennett said the Hornets have embraced it to bring joy to young people.

“Overall, it’s been positive,” he said. “No way to make a negative out of something that’s just really nothing attached to it, just fun.”

and, because of our strength, and because of what we do, we probably won’t have to be tested,” Trump said. Even still, the president mentioned sending a second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran and said, “America’s respected again. And, perhaps most importantly, we are feared by the enemies all over the globe.”

“I don’t like to say fear,” he said. “But, sometimes, you have to have fear because that’s the only thing that really will

get the situation taken care of.”

Trump lately has traveled more frequently to states that could play key roles in November’s midterm congressional elections, including a stop before Christmas in Rocky Mount. The White House has been trying to promote Trump’s economic policies, including attempts to bring down the cost of living at a time when many people are growing frustrated with his e orts to improve a ordability. The president didn’t

spend a lot of time on his economic policies last Friday, though he did mention how a White House -backed tax and spending package is increasing funding for military housing.

As he left the White House to make the trip, meanwhile, Trump cheered data released last Friday showing that in ation fell to nearly a ve-year low last month.

“The numbers were surprising, except to me they weren’t surprising,” Trump said. “We have very modest in ation,

which is what you want to have.”

The president also spoke at Fort Bragg in June at an event meant to recognize the 250th anniversary of the Army. But that celebration was overshadowed by his partisan remarks describing protesters in Los Angeles as “animals” and his defense of deploying the military there.

This time, Trump evoked the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte commuter train and called the man accused of committing it a “monster.”

Trump also praised Maduro’s replacement, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez. Rather than push for elections in Venezuela, Trump says his administration is inviting top oil companies there to rebuild its energy industry. U.S. ocials also have seized tankers as part of their broad oversight of the country’s oil industry.

“The relationship is strong, the oil is coming out,” Trump told reporters before ying to North Carolina. He added: “We have our big oil companies going in, they’re going to be pumping out the oil and selling the oil for a lot of money.”

CHATHAM SPORTS

Northwood retires Powell’s number

UNC’s coaching sta joined the NBA star in attending the ceremony

Chatham News & Record sta

HUBERT DAVIS had to gure out how to get his team to bounce back from a loss to Miami two days earlier, as well as replace a star player who was injured in the game. That didn’t stop the UNC coach from making a trip to Pittsboro on Thursday night, and bringing much of his Tar Heels sta with him. Sean May, Brad Frederick and Eric Hoots joined Davis in attending Northwood’s 69-49 win over Uwharrie Charter.

Injuries to UNC stars put the former Seaforth standout into the spotlight

By Shawn Krest Chatham News & Record

WHEN JARIN STEVENSON decided to return to the area in the o season, UNC coach Hubert Davis was happy to add him to the Tar Heels roster.

Davis recruited the Chapel Hill native and Seaforth star, but Stevenson opted to head to Alabama, where he played two years. Then he decided to transfer and join Davis in his back yard. Prior to the season, Davis discussed all the di erent things the 6 -foot-11 wing could do on o ense and defense. Then he laughed and concluded it is “very hard to nd that in your town.”

This week, Davis found it all again, in his huddle, as Stevenson stepped up when the team needed him most. Not much went well for the Heels in the rst six days after the dramatic win over Duke. UNC traveled to Miami on last Tuesday and never led, getting rolled by the Hurricanes. Making matters worse, 6 -foot-10 freshman Caleb Wilson, who leads UNC in scoring, rebounding, steals and blocks, su ered a

hand injury in the game and is out inde nitely.

While the Heels scrambled to make up for the loss of Wilson, 7-footer Henri Veesaar — second on the team in scoring, rebounding and blocks, as well as the Tar Heels’ most accurate 3-point scorer — went down with an injury later in the week.

UNC hosted Pitt looking to make up for 36.2 points and 18.4 rebounds worth of production that were on the bench in street clothes. They needed someone to step up, and Stevenson was ready for the spotlight.

It’s not like the junior had been ignored all season. He’s started 17 of UNC’s 25 games, and his minutes, scoring and rebounding are all up over last season’s career bests at Alabama. He’s also shooting nearly 50 points higher from the eld. However, he was the third option in the post and the fth-leading scorer on the team overall.

It’s not the rst time Stevenson has needed to step up. As a freshman at Alabama, he scored a then- career-best 19 points against Clemson to send the Crimson Tide to the Final Four.

“I don’t think he’s afraid of the moment at all,” coach Nate Oats said.

He also showed no fear as one of UNC’s top scoring options

Normally, it would take a top recruit playing to attract that many members of the UNC sta to a high school game. However, this recruit had already committed, signed and played for the Tar Heels.

The group was in attendance, along with plenty of Northwood fans, to watch former Charger and Tar Heel Drake Powell be -

come the rst boys’ basketball player in school history to have his number retired.

“I just wanted to thank you all for coming out,” Drake said to his former UNC coaches and the rest of the Northwood crowd. “You make Pittsboro what it is. My journey wasn’t easy, but to play in front of you guys meant a lot to me.”

Powell tallied more than 1,700 points, 700 rebounds and 400 assists in his four years at Northwood, winning a pair of Mid- Carolina Conference Player of the Year awards, two All- State honors and getting named to the McDonald’s High School All-American, Jordan Brand Classic and Iverson Classic all- star games in his senior year. He led the Chargers to the state championship game twice

against Pitt. He hit a 3-pointer in the rst two minutes of the game, then added a jump shot to give Carolina an early 12-5 lead. His next shot was a 3 that pushed the lead to 10 points. When the dust cleared, he’d matched the second-best scoring output of his career with 19 points. He hit six of the seven shots he took, including three from 3-point range, just o a career high.

“Those are big shoes to ll, Caleb and Henri,” he said. “But again, just goes back to my work, I feel like it creates a sense of pride just putting work in late

at night. Just having the opportunity to play and make di erent plays like that.”

The extra practice time has been polishing his fundamentals, so that he’d be ready when the time came.

“Just working on di erent footwork and stu like that,” he said. “I feel like just emphasizing running the oor, creating opportunities that way, whether it’s posting up or just drawing two defenders against somebody else to open up. Working on my post game too, post hooks, post jump shots and stu like that, just doing di erent

things that I do in the game and just trying to help the team.”

It was just the way Davis had wanted it.

“A clear example of what Carolina is about,” Davis said. “Where we had two teammates out, for them to react and respond this way.”

“Coach always talks about, you may not know when your number will be called, but it’s going to be called at this point of the season,” Seth Trimble said. “I mean, Jarin was incredible. … Everybody was really, really good. It was very much well-rounded basketball.”

Torris Price

Chatham Charter, boys’ track

Torris Price is a senior on the Chatham Charter boys’ track team. He also plays baseball and runs cross-country for the Knights.

Price is also the rst state champion in school history after bringing home two titles from the NCHSAA Class 1A/2A indoor championships in Winston-Salem. Price won the 1.000-meter dash and the 1,600. He had just missed getting the milestone with a state runner-up at the cross-country championships.

Price also was a member of the fourth-place 4x800 relay team.

Northwood nishes runner-up at state indoor track championships

Chatham Charter earned a sixth-place nish

Chatham News & Record sta NORTHWOOD’S boys’ track team nished runner-up in the NCHSAA Class 3A indoor state championships, scoring 57 points to nish seven behind rst-place Union Academy.

Senior Ezra Roebuck won the 300 with a time of 34.42, getting a 1.12-second margin of victory. Roebuck was also a member of the state champion 4x400 relay team. Additionally, he won the class 3A championship meet sportsmanship award.

Junior Ben Altenburg won the 55 hurdles in 7.77, a .10 -second margin of victory. He also won the state pole vault title with a 16 -foot jump, topping the next-best competitor by 5 feet.

Junior Juan Sanchez Sandoval was a member of the state champion 4x400 relay team and placed fth in the 500.

Junior Sammy Bache was a member of the state champion 4x400 relay team and placed seventh in the 1,600.

Junior Tequone Moore was a member of the state champion 4x400 relay team.

Freshman Drew Yell nished eighth in the 1,600 and also took seventh in the 3,200.

Junior Kaleb Powell placed 12th in the long jump.

Northwood’s relay teams also took fourth in the 4x200 and sixth in the 4x800.

The girls’ team placed 16th overall, with 11.5 points.

Freshman Ruby Parks placed fourth in the 55 hurdles and seventh in the 300.

Senior Chloe Waldstein tied for fourth in the pole vault.

Chatham Charter placed sixth in the NCHSAA Class 1A/2A boys’ indoor championships, scoring 29 points.

Junior Torris Price won the state title in the 1,000 with a time of 2:39.77, getting a 0.62-second margin of victory. He also won the 1,600 with a time of 4:26.62, beating the next closest competitor by 1.53 seconds.

Junior Eli Coleman placed fth in the 1000. Chatham Charter’s relay team of Price, Coleman, junior Andrew Bednar and senior Adam Reese also placed fourth in the 4x800 relay. The team of Coleman, Reese, junior Tyler Lazarek and freshman Josh Hayes placed 10th in the 4x400. In class 4A, Jordan-Matthews’ boys’ team nished tied for 30th with four points. Senior Kamarie Hadley supplied them with a fth-place nish in long jump. He also competed in triple jump.

Send your birth, death, marriage, graduation and other announcements to community@chathamnewsrecord.com. Weekly deadline is Monday at noon.

Seaforth has third-, fourth-place nishes at state swimming championships

Woods Charter, Chatham Central and Northwood also earned points at the championship meet

Chatham News & Record sta

SEAFORTH PLACED third in the NCHSAA Class 5A girls’ swimming championship with 155 points.

Sydney Burleigh took a state title in the 200 IM with a time of 2:05.74, a 1.98-second margin of victory. She also was crowned state champion in the 200 butter y in 56.15, beating the competition by 3.58 seconds.

Freshman Olivia Hewes took third in one-meter diving.

The team of senior Sydney Haire, sophomore Gillian Eriksen, Burleigh and freshman Natalie Hinde took fourth in the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay.

Haire also took third in the 100 backstroke, ninth in the 500 free and 14th in the 200 free. Ericksen took 14th in the 100 free.

Freshman Sophie Jacobs took 15th in the 200 butter y and the 100 backstroke.

Jacobs, junior Eva Wahieb, sophomore Juliette Haire and junior Piper Bailey took 15th in the 200 free relay.

The Seaforth boys took fourth with 154 points.

Senior Colton Roberts won the state title in the 500 free with a time of 4:44.27, giving him a 6.60 -second margin of victory. Roberts also took second in the 200 free.

Junior Stuart Vaughn took 11th in the 500 free and 15th in the 200 free.

Freshman Charles Mitler took second in the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke.

The team of Mitler, sophomore Isaac Lindren, Roberts and freshman Quinn Hepburn took fourth in the 200 medley relay.

Mitler, Roberts, Hepburn and senior Aden George took

POWELL from page B1

and the nal eight of the state tournament in his other two seasons. Northwood did not lose a conference game thenal three years of his high school career.

“Drake walked into this gym

fourth in the 200 free relay. Lindgren took 11th in the 100 breast.

Hepburn took 14th in the 100 breast and 15th in the 100 free.

Woods Charter placed 13th in the Class 1A/2A/3A boys’ championships with 63 points.

Senior Derek White was second in the 50 free. He also took second in the 100 free.

Junior Drew White took fth in the 200 free. He also took fourth in the 500 free.

as a young man with talent, yes,” Northwood coach Matt Brown told the crowd before Powell’s No. 32 was hoisted to the rafters. “But more importantly with humility, work ethic and a hunger to get better every single day.” A ve - star recruit, Pow-

Individual state titles won by swimmers from Chatham County schools

Lindgren, Vaughn, George and freshman Gri n Galloway took 15th in the 400 free relay.

ell chose UNC, where his father, Dedric, played baseball. He spent one year playing for Davis, averaging 7.4 points for the 2024 -25 Tar Heels. He then left for the NBA, where he was drafted in the rst round. Powell is averaging 6.2 points as a rookie for the

The Woods girls nished 16th with 54 points. Junior Daisy Collins took rst in the 200 free. Her time of 1:50.42 was 91⁄2 seconds faster than the second-place swimmer. She also won the 500 free in 4:51.10, more than a 14 -second margin of victory.

Freshman Ella Delgross was sixth in the 200 IM.

The Chatham Central boys nished 18th in Class 1A/2A/3A with 40 points.

Brooklyn Nets. The ceremony was held during the NBA’s All-Star Break, allowing Powell to attend.

“He raised the standard of what it means to be a Northwood basketball player,” Brown said. “Not just in points or wins, but in how you treat people.”

Jesse Eskelund supplied all the points by winning state titles in the 50 free and 100 free. His time of 47.40 in the 100 was 0.38 seconds faster than Woods Charter’s White. His 50 time of 21.69 beat White by 0.17. Northwood nished 25th in boys’ Class 1A/2A/3A with 27 points. Freshman Elijah Su took fth in the 500 free. He also took ninth in the 100 breast.

“He raised the standard of what it means to be a Northwood basketball player.”

Matt Brown, Northwood coach

SIDELINE REPORT

NCAA BASKETBALL

Fight breaks out

between St. John’s, Providence; 7 players ejected

Providence, R.I. Seven players were ejected from Saturday’s game between No. 17 St. John’s and Providence after a fracas resulting from a hard foul by Friars forward Duncan Powell on Bryce Hopkins sent the Red Storm star crashing to the ground. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino was in the middle of it, trying to hold back his players, but several entered the fray as it drifted toward the Red Storm bench. The game was delayed by nearly 20 minutes. Four St. John’s players were booted and two from Providence.

MLB

Bad Bunny o ered to pay for Puerto Rican star Correa’s WBC insurance

West Palm Beach, Fla. Bad Bunny really wanted to see Carlos Correa play for Puerto Rico at home in the World Baseball Classic. Correa, the in elder for the Houston Astros, was left o the WBC roster over insurance coverage. He told reporters that the music superstar and fellow native of Puerto Rico o ered to pay for a policy. Correa has a $200 million contract through 2028. Correa says the insurer provider proposed by Bad Bunny wasn’t approved by Major League Baseball, the Astros or Correa’s agent, Scott Boras. Puerto Rico is hosting pool play games in the WBC next month.

OLYMPICS

Norwegian biathlete wins another bronze 3 days after confessing in delity Anterselva, Italy

Norwegian biathlete Strula Holm Laegreid won his second bronze medal of the Milan Cortina Olympics — three days after making an unexpected personal confession during a postrace interview. Laegreid was third in the sprint. He also won bronze in the 20 -kilometer individual race but tearfully revealed during a live broadcast that he had been unfaithful to his girlfriend. Quentin Fillon Maillet of France won the sprint race for his second gold medal of the Games.

MLB All-Star reliever Face, who saved 3 games for Pirates in 1960 World Series, dead at 97 Pittsburgh Elroy Face, an All- Star reliever for the Pittsburgh Pirates who saved three games in the 1960 World Series to help them upset the New York Yankees, died at 97. The former pitcher died Thursday at an independent senior living facility in North Versailles, Pennsylvania. No cause of death was provided. Selected to six All- Star teams, Face went 104 -95 with a 3.48 ERA in 16 major league seasons with Pittsburgh, Detroit and Montreal. He compiled 191 career saves — although saves didn’t become an o cial statistic until 1969.

Could addition of trade deadline enliven Cup Series season?

Plenty of moving parts work against driver swaps

By Dan Gelston The Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —

Imagine a scenario in the NASCAR world — say, around the Brickyard 400 in July — when the hot topic isn’t just which driver might kiss the bricks.

Try, which driver could kiss his current ride goodbye.

What if NASCAR took a cue from stick-and-ball sports and had a trade deadline?

Forget trading paint. How about trading a star driver for a pair of minor-league prospects? Maybe a couple of veterans who wore out their welcome on one team get a fresh start with another?

Baseball players are traded. NFL and NHL stars get swapped, and the NBA has cornered the market on building in-season buzz with a trade deadline where the action among front o ces sparks more headlines than any action on the court.

Go ahead, NASCAR. Set a date and let fans turn on those NASCAR social media post noti cations to stay abreast of all the latest rumors and deals. Sounds fun, right?

Sure. Only it’s about as doable as successfully driving a stock car with three at tires.

“You can’t pull that o with the current league structure because we’re all independent contractors,” 2012 NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski said.

“But,” Keselowski added, “that would be something compelling.”

Trades came around in NASCAR about as frequently as a race without a caution ag.

There are only 15 teams with at least one car in Cup, and only Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing eld the maximum four cars. Organizations that didn’t already have four cars before the 2025 season are capped at three full-time teams. That automatically shrinks the trading pool.

Trades are not unprecedented; notably Spire Motorsports sent Corey LaJoie to Rick Ware Racing for Justin Haley in September 2024. There was a catch with that deal: Haley had already agreed to join Spire for the 2025 season and simply got a headstart with his new crew. LaJoie raced just four times for RWR in 2025.

So why can’t teams trade drivers?

There are no rules that prevent teams from swapping drivers.

In some cases, trades seem easier on the drivers than in the NFL or NBA where players are often forced to uproot their families on short notice. Most drivers live near their race shops in the North Carolina area and wouldn’t have to pack up the U-Haul and start over halfway across the country. The schedule is the same for every team, every driver, every week.

NASCAR can get tangled up in wheels and deals because of contracts with sponsors that prop up teams with needed cash that are not necessarily easily moveable. Big Cereal Brand A may only want to sign with an elite team where more

eyeballs — and open wallets — are on the product and not have to deal with the e ects of getting dumped to a noncontender. There can be con icts with the manufacturers as well. Teams have deals with one brand — Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports or Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, for example — and squeezing in another manufacturer could spark all sorts of headaches.

There are essentially way more parties involved to make a trade feasible in NASCAR than just the negotiations between a pair of general managers. Why not try a trade deadline?

But it can be idealistic to imagine a NASCAR world where fans can re up the trade machine and propose swaps of drivers and players to be named and cash considerations and all the mechanisms that make up blockbuster trades in sports such as baseball.

Most drivers don’t see a path where trades become as ingrained as silly season.

“I think it’s probably a stretch,” seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson said. “There’s a lot of layers to go. We have a soft cap now in

my opinion, with a standardized car. There have been discussions around a cost cap. If more of those things happen over time, I guess we get closer to do it.”

Three-time Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin has another possible idea to warm up the hot stove season.

“If you want content, driver free agency would de nitely cause it,” Hamlin said.

His idea, a portal much like in college athletics where drivers could declare they’re out with their old teams and sign with the highest bidder each o season.

“It’d be quite interesting if everyone just went into free agency every single year,” Hamlin said. “My guess is, I don’t know that anyone would compete with Hendrick or Penske on what they could pay.”

For now, it’s just fun to dream of trading Bubba Wallace for Ross Chastain. Or proven champion Chase Elliott for the rights down the road to future developmental drivers. Trades are out. True free agency seems a long shot.

What’s left?

“I do like the draft,” Keselowski said with a laugh.

Philly special: Edgecombe leads Team Vince to victory at NBA All-Star weekend’s Rising Stars

Cooper Flagg missed the rookie showcase due to injury

By Greg Beacham The Associated Press

INGLEWOOD, Calif. —

V.J. Edgecombe seems quietly con dent he’ll be at an NBA All- Star weekend quite soon to play in the main event.

Until that day arrives, the Philadelphia rookie celebrated his rst trip to this midseason showcase with two game- ending scores and an MVP trophy in the Rising Stars event.

Edgecombe led Team Vince to victory in the kicko event for the NBA All- Star weekend Friday night, scoring 17 points in the semi nal before hitting two free throws to ice the nal.

“We all wanted to compete, and I wanted to win,” Edgecombe said. “I really hate losing, and we had a chance to win it all, so why not go out there and win?”

The NBA’s rookies, sophomores and G League prospects opened the All- Star weekend at the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome with this four-team tournament of three games played to a set point total.

While Edgecombe was the most impactful player, he didn’t have the most memorable bucket: San Antonio guard Dylan Harper ended the rst semi nal by scoring the game-winner over Ron Harper Jr., his older brother.

Dylan Harper then scored eight more points in the nal

for Team Melo while teaming up with his Spurs teammate, Stephon Castle, last season’s Rookie of the Year and Rising Stars MVP.

Castle made a putback dunk o Jeremiah Fears’ miss to pull Team Melo within one point of victory, but Edgecombe drew a foul from Donovan Clingan and coolly hit both free throws to end it at 25-24.

Edgecombe was motivated by the presence of his 76ers backcourt mate, All- Star Tyrese Maxey, who watched from courtside.

“He (said) he ain’t coming to watch if I ain’t going to play hard,” Edgecombe said. “I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to play hard so at least it’s not a waste of his time.’”

Indeed, the lackadaisical efforts that have plagued the

All-Star Game in recent years wasn’t nearly as prevalent in this Rising Stars showcase, and Edgecombe said that’s largely because of the motivational e orts of the four NBA veterans who led the teams: Vince Carter, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady and Austin Rivers. When the vets were picking their teams two weeks ago, Edgecombe told Carter to choose him if he wanted to win.

“(Carter) was telling us, ‘Just go! Just go! Keep playing hard!’” Edgecombe said. “And we feed o of that. We just started rolling.”

Edgecombe scored nearly half of his team’s 41 points — including the last 10 in a row — while winning the second semi nal. Edgecombe didn’t have to carry his team in the -

nal, but the No. 3 overall pick in last year’s draft still scored its nal four points.

Family feud

Dylan Harper called game in the rst semi nal with a succession of moves that could have been learned on the driveway at home, bullying Ron Jr. into the paint before hitting a step -back jumper.

Dylan stuck out his tongue in gleeful celebration of only his second basket in the seminal, and their famous father laughed heartily at courtside. Ron Jr., a Celtics prospect with 21 games of NBA experience, is six years older than Dylan, the No. 2 pick in last summer’s draft — but the kid brother knew he could do it.

“You think I’ve never beat him one- on- one (before)?” Dylan asked with mock exasperation.

Flagg down

The Rising Stars game wasn’t a full showcase of the NBA’s top young talent because No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg dropped out of the game due to injury, as did Washington’s Alex Sarr and Memphis’ Cedric Coward.

Edgecombe hit three 3-pointers during his scoring barrage in the rst semi nal to win his duel with Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel, who scored just four points. The two rookies are the only serious contenders with Flagg for the Rookie of the Year award.

Pots, mop buckets, even babies: Anything can be a curling stone if you get creative

One of the cult favorite Olympic sports is back

By Julia Frankel and Steve Douglas

The Associated Press

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Dig out your squidgy mop, a few pots and pans — or a robotic vacuum if you have one — and a pair of slippers.

It’s curling time!

Social media has been ablaze with people deploying common household wares to mimic what the world’s top curlers are doing at the Winter Olympics.

“Every four years, it blows up,” American curler Tara Peterson said. “Everyone’s like, ‘We want to do it,’ and then, yes, they get creative with things, so it’s awesome.”

Creative is perhaps an understatement. In one video, two jacketed adults push a baby in a car seat across the ice, chest-bumping in glee. In another, popular Swedish comedian Mans Moller dons a wig

a la Isabella Wrana, the Swedish mixed doubles champion, and slides pans into other pans, screaming “CUUUURL!” (Bonus points: He’s outside, like the olden days of curling.)

Then there are the Italian nonnas in the country’s southern Puglia region pushing a silver pot along a stony courtyard, sweeping with broomsticks. Or the hair salon in the Swedish city of Sundsvall, where a stylist hurls hair products toward her colleague. She screams “Curl!” and looks frustrated when the colleague approaches with a — wait for it — curling iron.

Despite such valiant attempts by the public, curlers say you really do need some specialized equipment to do the sport properly (along with a sheet of pebbled ice).

Put on your curling shoes

You can’t use your normal sneakers to go curling. You’ll just slip a lot on the ice. Instead, you’ll need specialist

curling shoes that have grips either built into the soles or those that can be strapped on. Costs vary, but Swedish curler Johanna Heldin said you can pay up to around $700 for them. Styles vary, too. While most curlers at the Olympics are wearing plain black curling shoes, some have a more casual look — like Taylor Anderson-Heide of the United States, who has donned white, sneaker-style shoes in Cortina. Sweeping left, sweeping right

Despite sharing the same name, curling brooms and cleaning brooms are very di erent. Curling brooms swap carbon ber for the wooden or plastic rods typical of household brooms. Nylon pads replace straw bristles. Olympic-level models will set you back around $200 -$250, Peterson said.

Broom lightness directly correlates to a curler’s control over a

“Every four years, it blows up.” American curler Tara Peterson

stone’s speed and trajectory. The lighter the broom, the quicker the sweep and the faster the melting of ice pebbles that make up a curling sheet.

In fact, sweeping technology has actually grown so advanced that certain models have been banned from competition. That’s what led to the “Broomgate” scandal, which rocked the curling world beginning in 2015. Curlers began debuting high-tech brooms that gave sweepers so much control over the stone that the skill of the thrower failed to matter. Those kinds of brooms were then barred from competition by World Curling, which now maintains strict parameters on what kinds of brooms are allowed.

Robots coming to assist major league umpires; even so, human touch still matters

An automated ball-strike system will be used in the big leagues this year

By David Brandt The Associated Press

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For those worried robots are about to take over Major League Baseball, Colorado Rockies manager Warren Schae er has some experience with the Automated Ball/Strike system that’s coming to stadiums this summer.

Yes, the machines have a lot of power. But the human touch still matters.

“I’ve seen challenges lost in the rst inning,” Schae er said. “That’s not good. Emotion is a big key to this.”

The ABS system made a cameo last year in big league spring training and was greeted with a mix of curiousity, excitement, disdain and uncertainty. Now that it’s here for regular-season games in 2026, the novelty is quickly giving way to strategy.

MLB gave a presentation on the ABS process last Thursday at Cactus League Media Day in Arizona. Joe Martinez, the sport’s vice president of on- eld strategy, said a survey taken by the league found 52% of fans said ABS had a “very posi-

tive” impact on last year’s spring training games, 20% called it “slightly positive,” and 18% said it was no factor. Only 10% of fans rated ABS as having a “slightly negative” or “very negative” e ect on the game. As a refresher, here’s how the system works. Stadiums are out tted with cameras that track each pitch and judge whether it crossed home plate within the strike zone.

Human umpires call every pitch, but each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game. Teams that burn their

challenges get one additional challenge in each extra inning.

A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for video reviews, which were rst used for home run calls in August 2008 and then widely expanded to many calls for the 2014 season. Only a batter, pitcher or catcher may challenge a call, signaling by tapping one hand on a helmet or cap, and assistance from the dugout is not allowed. A challenge must be made within two seconds, and the graphic of the pitch and strike zone is shown on the scoreboard and broadcast feed.

The umpire then announces the updated count.

Schae er, who was managing at Albuquerque when ABS debuted in Triple-A in 2022, said it’s important that teams develop a coherent strategy on how to deploy challenges. He added that “15 guys will have 15 di erent opinions” on how to use it, but the most important aspect is everyone is on the same page.

“We still have to have a lot of conversations behind closed doors so that we’re putting our players in the best position to succeed,” the manager added.

Multiple MLB managers and GMs said that catchers will probably have the most leeway to challenge because they’ve got the best view of the baseball.

“You want to have one late in the game, just in case,” Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “The top of the rst inning on a 0 - 0 fastball ... I don’t want to challenge and lose. We’ll most likely rely on catchers rst — pitchers at times get a little emotional. Hitters can be that way sometimes, too. I think we’re going to rely on the catchers and start there.

“But I want to have one in pocket, when I can, when it’s in a critical part of the game.”

The ABS system could be particularly bene cial to players like New York Yankees slugger Aar-

Rock ’n’ roll

The homegrown curling seen on social media makes one thing clear: To the public, anything can be a curling stone.

Even if pots, pans, hair products — and even babies — can do the trick in a pinch, they’re nothing like the curling stones on the ice in Cortina.

If you want Olympic-level material, you’ll have to look to the uninhabited isle of Ailsa Cragi, located 10 miles o the coast of Scotland.

All the stones at these Games are made of the super-dense granite from that isle, manufactured by Kays Curling.

The company has a history with the Olympics dating back to the rst winter edition in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The curling competition then was long thought to have been an exhibition event but eventually was con rmed as o cial. The company has continued to make stones for the Games since curling returned as a medal sport in Nagano 1998.

on Judge, who have a good eye for the strike zone. Judge walked an American League-high 124 times last season.

“Our guys who are really good at controlling the zone should bene t, and Aaron is certainly one of those guys who controls it real well, knows it real well,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

ABS was tested in 13 spring training ballparks last year, and teams won 52.2% of 1,182 challenges, which averaged 13.8 seconds. Strike zones vary depending on a player’s height — starting at 53.5% of a batter’s height for the top and 27% of a batter’s height for the bottom.

Each player will be measured for his strike zone starting at 10 a.m. to noon on a rolling basis during spring training — the time of day to maintain uniformity — and the data will be veri ed by the Southwest Research Institute.

There appears to be widespread agreement across MLB that the ABS system is a positive.

Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young used to work closely with MLB’s umpires when he was employed by the commissioner’s o ce and said they were long overdue for some help.

“They do a phenomenal job, but the stu in today’s game is better than ever,” Young said. “Umpiring is harder than ever. If there’s the ability to use technology to add a level of consistency, that’s great for everybody.”

this week in history

John Glenn rst to orbit Earth, Iwo Jima captured, Alamo under siege

FEB. 19

1473: Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland.

1878: Inventor Thomas Edison received a patent for the phonograph.

1942: During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the internment of about 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.born citizens.

1945: Operation Detachment began as U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima, launching a monthlong battle to wrest control of the island from Japanese forces.

FEB. 20

1792: President George Washington signed legislation establishing the United States Post O ce Department, predecessor to today’s U.S. Postal Service.

1907: President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration law barring the entry of individuals deemed mentally unt, including those labeled at the time as “idiots,” “imbeciles,” “feeble-minded persons,” “epileptics” and “insane persons.”

1962: Astronaut John Glenn became the rst American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe three times aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft in a ight lasting 4 hours and 55 minutes before splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

FEB. 21

1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto” in London.

1885: President Chester A.

gan the siege of the Alamo in San Antonio. Nearly all of the roughly 200 Texas defenders, including Davy Crockett, were killed in the 13-day battle.

1903: President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement leasing land at Guantanamo Bay to the United States. The naval base remains in operation, along with a high-security detention facility.

1945: During World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi and raised two American ags.

FEB. 24

Arthur dedicated the Washington Monument.

1916: The Battle of Verdun, the longest engagement of World War I, began in northeastern France.

1965: Civil rights leader Malcolm X, 39, was assassinated at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in New York. Three Nation of Islam members were convicted; two were exonerated in 2021 after new evidence emerged.

FEB. 22

1732: George Washington, the rst president of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County in the Virginia Colony.

1784: The merchant ship Empress of China departed New York on the rst American trade voyage to China.

1980: The “Miracle on Ice” unfolded at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, as the U.S. hockey team stunned the Soviet Union 4-3. The Americans went on to win the gold medal two days later with a 4-2 victory over Finland.

FEB. 23

1836: Mexican troops be-

1803: In Marbury v. Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court established the principle of judicial review, a rming its authority to determine the constitutionality of laws.

1942: The SS Struma, carrying nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania to British-mandated Palestine, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea; all but one aboard were killed.

1988: The Supreme Court unanimously overturned a $200,000 award won by the Rev. Jerry Falwell against Hustler magazine and publisher Larry Flynt, expanding First Amendment protections for parody and satire.

FEB. 25

1913: The 16th Amendment, authorizing Congress to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in e ect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.

1956: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a lengthy speech denouncing the brutality and “cult of personality” of his predecessor, Josef Stalin at a Communist Party congress.

1964: Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, won his rst world heavyweight title, defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.

‘Adolescence,’ ‘Train Dreams’ win top prizes at Film Independent Spirit Awards

“The Perfect Neighbor” won best documentary

By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press

CLINT BENTLEY’S lyr-

ical Denis Johnson adapta-

tion “Train Dreams “ won the top lm award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles, while “Adolescence” dominated the television categories. Both were released on Net ix.

Bentley also won best director for the lm starring Joel Edgerton, whom he thanked profusely for “being the heartbeat of our lm.”

“We’re so grateful to Netix,” Bentley said. “It’s very, very hard these days to lm in the United States, but it’s worth it and we’re proud to be able to pull it o .”

Edgerton missed out on the top acting prize, however, which went to Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

The organization switched to gender-neutral acting categories in 2022. Byrne was one of the few ac-

CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP

Erin Doherty accepts the award for best supporting performance in a new scripted series for “Adolescence” during the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles.

tors nominated for both a Spirit Award and an Oscar, for her performance as a mother on the edge.

“I share this with Mary Bronstein, my writer-director who fought for eight years to get this movie made,” Byrne said.

She added that this was a lm that could have only been made independently. Her character, she said, is “ erce and ferocious and a middle-aged woman.”

“Adolescence” won new scripted series, best actor for Stephen Graham, best supporting actor for Erin Doherty, and the breakthrough prize for Owen Cooper.

The show, which serves as a fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round programs, was held at the Hollywood Palladium for the rst time since 1994 as its longtime beachside perch in Santa Monica undergoes renovations. Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” veteran Ego Nwodim hostedthe celebration of independent lm and television, which was livestreamed on YouTube.

“In the spirit of independent lmmaking, we don’t have a permit,” Nwodim said in her opening. “If I shout, ‘cameras down,’ you know what to do.”

“The Secret Agent” won the international feature prize. The lm is also nominated for best picture and best international lm at the Oscars.

“I really believe that programming lms in the cinemas is more and more a political act,” said director Kleber Mendonça Filho.

Christian Siriano invites New York Fashion Week guests into surrealist dream

2026

The

By Beatrice Dupuy The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Christian Siriano barely had 48 hours to design his nale gown for his New York Fashion Week show. The iridescent green liquid fabric Siriano had ordered from Italy was stuck in customs for weeks before it nally arrived shortly before Thursday’s runway show.

The designer of “Project Runway” fame may have been accustomed to executing his designs on a tight deadline, but with months to design his other looks, he told The Associated Press, that the last-minute design brought a fresh wave of excitement ahead of his show.

“The best dresses come at the end because I’m really, really in it,” he said.

Unlike his previous shows, where Siriano decorated his venues in sync with this theme, this time around the designer pared down the atmospheric drama allowing his clothes to speak for themselves. For his latest collection, the designer

experimented with texture and a variety of colors to create his surrealist dream.

“It was more of an idea of this fantasy dream, maybe like

a Dali painting that can never be explained,” he said. “It really is this dreamlike world that hopefully everybody feels really beautiful in.”

Siriano’s fashionable crew of celebrity friends and loyal customers sat front row, including actors Leslie Jones, Uzo Adu-

He dedicated the award to the late actor Udo Kier, who was part of the ensemble of “The Secret Agent.” “The Perfect Neighbor,” about a deadly shooting incident in Florida constructed primarily from police bodycam footage, won best documentary. Filmmaker and producer Geeta Gandbhir thanked Netix for “giving us a global platform.” It’s also up for the best documentary Oscar.

Eva Victor won the screenplay prize for “Sorry, Baby.” Naomi Ackie also won the supporting award for Victor’s lm over fellow nominees like Zoey Deutch (“Nouvelle Vague”), Kirsten Dunst (“Roofman”), Nina Hoss (“Hedda”) and Archie Madekwe (“Lurker”).

The awards sometimes overlap signi cantly with major Oscar contenders and winners, as it did with “Anora,” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and sometimes not. Organizers limit eligibility to productions with budgets less than $30 million, meaning more expensive lms like “One Battle After Another” are not in the running.

Whoopi Goldberg and rock singer Taylor Momsen.

The show opened with black and white structured looks before models emerged dipped in a sea of colors. They stopped along the runway to pose with their hair transformed into a surrealist swoop style, crisscrossed around their necks.

Siriano’s collection reimagined red-carpet silhouettes, including eye-catching gowns with dramatic asymmetric necklines and exaggerated tulle sleeves or peplums. Even his black and white designs featured shimmering fringe, alluring cut outs, feathers or delicate beading.

Siriano’s looks are not for the wall ower. The designer fashioned several revealing sheer looks.

In typical Siriano fashion, the runway was lled with models of all sizes and genders.

“We need to escape and be somewhere else … in a dream world,” he said.

Siriano’s standout looks of the night featured pops of color including a chartreuse lace cropped jacket and maxi skirt, and the bright green ombre bubble gown that arrived shortly before his show.

Siriano’s supermodel muse Coco Rocha closed the show in the ombre bubble gown. As Rocha theatrically posed down the runway, she locked eyes with guests. Celebrity guest Jones cheered on the model, yelling “drama” as she passed by.

famous birthdays this week

Smokey Robinson is 86, Cindy Crawford turns 60, David Ge en hits 83, Drew Barrymore is 51

The Associated Press

THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.

FEB. 19

Singer Smokey Robinson is 86. Rock musician Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) is 78. Author Amy Tan is 74. Actor Je Daniels is 71. Actor Ray Winstone is 69. Singer Seal is 63. Actor Benicio Del Toro is 59.

FEB. 20

Racing Hall of Famer Roger Penske is 89. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito is 84. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is 84. Film director Mike Leigh is 83. Actor Sandy Duncan is 80. Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is 63. Model Cindy Crawford is 60.

FEB. 21

Film and music executive David Ge en is 83. Actor Tyne Daly is 80. Actor Anthony Daniels is 80. Actor William Petersen is 73. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 71. Country musician Mary Chapin Carpenter is 68.

FEB. 22

Actor Paul Dooley is 98. Actor James Hong is 97. Actor Julie Walters is 76. Basketball Hall of Famer Julius Erving is 76. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 67. Golf Hall of Famer Vijay Singh is 63. Actor Drew Barrymore is 51.

FEB. 23

Football Hall of Famer Fred Biletniko is 83. Actor Patricia Richardson is 75. Singer Howard Jones is 71. Japanese Emperor Naruhito is 66. Actor Kristin Davis is 61. Business executive Michael Dell is 61.

FEB. 24

FEB. 25

Former talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael is 91. Actor Tom Courtenay is 89. Film director Neil Jordan is 76. Rock musician-actor John Doe (punk band X) is 73. Comedian Carrot Top is 61. Actor Tea Leoni is 60. Actor Sean Astin is 55. Actor Rashida Jones is 50.

Actor Dominic Chianese is 95. Nike co-founder Phil Knight is 88. Actor Barry Bostwick is 81. Actor Edward James Olmos is 79. Musician George Thorogood is 76. Boxing Hall of Famer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is 49.

Emma Thompson, Jennifer Garner,

‘The

Night Agent,’

Hilary Du drops “luck… or something”

The Associated Press

THE EMMA Thompson-led thriller “Dead of Winter” and Hilary Du ’s rst full-length album in 11 years are some of the new television, lms, music and games headed to a device near you. Also, among the streaming o erings worth your time this week: A new season of “The Night Agent” lands on Net ix, Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia star in the new series “56 Days” for Prime Video, and Harris Dickinson’s brilliant directorial debut, “Urchin,” lands on Hulu.

MOVIES TO STREAM

Dickinson might be best known for his acting in lms like “Babygirl,” but last year he proved himself to be a lmmaker to watch as well. His brilliant directorial debut, “Urchin,” streaming now on Hulu, follows in the social realist tradition of Ken Loach in chronicling the ups and downs of an unhoused addict (Frank Dillane) in London.

HBO Max has the Thompson-led thriller “Dead of Winter” arriving on Friday. Thompson plays a grieving loner who gets lost near a Minnesota lake during a blizzard and stumbles on a cabin where a young woman is being held by an armed couple. And if Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” leaves you wanting more (or moor) Cathy and Heathcli , there are plenty of other versions streaming on various platforms. There is of course William Wyler’s lush but much condensed 1939 lm, with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon (on HBO Max and Criterion Channel). The 1992 version (free on Kanopy) starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche is one of the most faithful to Brontë’s text for actually including the second generation of Lintons and Earnshaws. Andrea Arnold’s underseen lm, released in 2011, (free on Tubi) notably features a multiracial actor, James Howson,

Dove Cameron

since

“It’s a long, long way, way down, down to Cloud 9.”

as Heathcli , opposite Kaya Scodelario’s Catherine. There’s also the British television miniseries from 2009 with Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy that’s available on BritBox.

MUSIC TO STREAM

The millennial queen hath returned. Du will release her rst full-length since 2015’s “Breathe In. Breathe Out.” on Friday. Titled “luck… or something,” the album is a 11-track collection of nostalgic pop, the ideal listening experience for those still devastated by the tabled, adult “Lizzie McGuire” reboot. Of course, this time around, Du has won out, and the themes are, as one song title puts it, “Mature.” It is not too late to hop aboard

the Megan Moroney train, but the rest of us are pulling out of the station — and following her to greener pastures. The country singer-songwriter emerged as a fully realized talent with the release of her platinum-selling single “Tennessee Orange” a few years back; her 2024 sophomore album “Am I Okay?” only strengthened her charms. Now she’s preparing to release “Cloud 9,” out Friday to win over even more hearts. There’s a reason “6 Months Later” has been inescapable on country music. Isn’t it time you found out why?

SERIES TO STREAM

Cameron and Jogia star in a new series “56 Days” for Prime Video as Ciara and Oliver, who meet by chance at a grocery store, embark on a whirlwind, passionate romance. Fifty-six days later, homicide detectives nd a decomposed body in a bathtub which could be Ciara or Oliver, leaving the question, who killed who? It’s based on a best-seller by Catherine Ryan

Howard. Cameron and Jogia, who started out on Disney and Nickelodeon, respectively, show they’re not kids anymore in this sexy thriller. A new season of Net ix’s “The Night Agent” arrives Thursday. It stars Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, a secret operative working in counterintelligence for the FBI. In Season 3, he’s on a mission to nd a treasury secretary who has ed to Istanbul after committing murder, that leads to the discovery of a dark money network. Information may be power, but it can also be deadly and Peter’s in trouble.

Jennifer Garner’s “The Last Thing He Told Me” returns Friday on Apple TV. It’s based on novels by Laura Dave. Garner plays Hannah Hall, a new wife and stepmom whose world is rocked in Season 1 when her new husband, Owen, (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) disappears, leaving a note to protect his teen daughter, Bailee (played by Angourie Rice). Season 2 picks up ve years later when (spoiler alert, but

it’s in the trailer) Owen shows back up. Now the three are in danger. Garner, who mastered ght scenes for her breakout role in the TV show “Alias” and as Marvel assassin Elektra, gets to show her kicks and punches.

VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

Stealth games like Thief, Dishonored and Splinter Cell have seen better days, but at least one developer — France’s Cyanide — is trying to carry the genre forward. In Styx: Blades of Greed, you are a goblin who isn’t particularly well-equipped to ght toe-to-toe against orcs and other bullies. But if you take the sneaky approach, you can ll your pockets with quartz, the most valuable and volatile substance in this fantasy world. Magic powers like invisibility and mind control make it a little easier to avoid brawling, but if things get out of hand, you can whip out a glider and y away. The heist begins Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.