We’re doing it again: Daylight saving time began Saturday night, shifting Albemarle’s sunrise from 6:40 a.m. Saturday to 7:39 a.m. on Sunday. We’ll get that hour of morning daylight back by early April, but sunset moves from 6:22 p.m. to 7:23 p.m. The Sunshine Protection Act, introduced in Congress last year, would make daylight saving time permanent — but it has seen no movement despite having 31 cosponsors, including 7th Congressional District Rep. David Rouzer.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Trump replacing Noem as DHS secretary, taps Oklahoma senator
President Donald Trump says he’s replacing his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and will nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin. Trump made the announcement on social media Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats. Trump says he’ll make Noem a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
North Carolina, 23 other states sue Trump over new global tari s
Two dozen states, including North Carolina, are challenging President Donald Trump’s new global tari s in court.
On Thursday, the states led a lawsuit over import taxes he imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court. Democratic attorneys general leading the suit argue that Trump is overstepping his power with planned 15% tari s on much of the world. Trump has said the tari s are essential to address trade de cits. He imposed duties under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 after the Supreme Court struck down tari s he imposed last year. The new suit argues that law was intended to be used only in speci c, limited circumstances.
November matchups set for Stanly, state, federal elections
County commissioner nominees emerged as voters cast 6,568 ballots
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — Stanly County voters selected nominees in local, state and federal primaries Tuesday, including four county commissioner races. According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, a total of 6,568 ballots were cast in the county, representing 14.10% of its 46,590 registered voters.
All winning candidates will advance to the general election on Nov. 3. In the Board of Commissioners District 1 Republican pri-
Stanly schools, teachers earn state growth honors
Two schools had a perfect graduation rate
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
ALBEMARLE — Eight secondary schools and 35 teachers were recognized Tuesday by the Stanly County Board of Education for meeting or exceeding academic growth expectations during the most recent school year.
The honors were tied to the North Carolina Academic Growth Award, presented by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education. The award recognizes schools whose students reach or surpass the state’s expect-
ed academic growth standard as measured by the Education Value-Added Assessment System.
Albemarle High School, South Stanly High School and West Stanly High School met academic growth expectations, while North Stanly Middle School, South Stanly Middle School, West Stanly Middle School, Stanly Early College High School and Stanly STEM Early College exceeded expected growth.
Two of the eight secondary schools — Stanly Early College High School and Stanly STEM Early College — were speci cally honored with state recognition for achieving a 100% graduation rate.
“It does go to show us that shiny new walls and buildings don’t make good students — it’s our folks in the buildings doing the hard work every day.”
Carla Poplin, board member
mary, Lane Furr defeated incumbent Mike Barbee with 3,157 votes (68.51%) to Barbee’s 1,451 (31.49%). Furr, a former commissioner, will face Democratic nominee Brett Mathew in November.
In the District 2 GOP primary, Shaun Morgan defeated Board of Education member Bill Sorenson. Morgan received 3,028 votes (66.01%), while Sorenson nished with 1,559 (33.99%). Morgan will advance unopposed for the seat currently held by Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Bill Lawhon. In District 4, incumbent commissioner Trent Hatley secured the Republican nomination against challenger James Cagle. Hatley received 3,547
THE STANLY COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL
MY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY FOR STANLY NEWS JOURNAL
TED SHAFFREY / AP PHOTO
North Carolina held its primary election Tuesday ahead of the general election in November.
A man was arrested after disrupting the Senate Armed Services hearing with an anti-war protest
By Mary Clare Jalonick
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A protester and three U.S. Capitol Police o cers were treated for injuries in a Senate o ce building on Wednesday after the protester resisted arrest for disruptive behavior and grabbed onto a doorway as the o cers and a Republican senator tried to drag him out of the room. The protester, Raleigh reghter and Marine vetern Brian C. McGinnis, was arrested and faces three counts of assaulting a police o cer and three counts of resisting arrest and unlawful demonstration, the Capitol Police said in a statement.
“This afternoon, an unruly man who started to illegally protest during a hearing put everyone in a dangerous position by violently resisting and ghting our o cer’s attempts to remove him from the room,” Cap-
itol Police said in a statement.
Multiple videos show that McGinnis stood up and started shouting during the Senate Armed Services hearing and that police o cers immediately grabbed him and tried to remove him from the room. McGinnis was protesting the U.S. military campaign in Iran, shouting, “America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel!”
The o cers pulled McGinnis toward the exit as he violently resisted them and grabbed onto a doorway while they were trying to pull him out. Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Republican member of the Armed Services panel who is a former Navy SEAL, ran over to assist and pull the protester’s arm o the door as other protesters yelled that McGinnis’ hand was stuck.
Capitol Police said in the statement that McGinnis “got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our o cers and force his way back into the hearing room,” and said he was treated for his injuries.
Sheehy said in a statement on social media that he was trying to deescalate the situation.
“This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one.”
Sen. Tim Sheehy, Montana Republican
“This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one,” Sheehy said, “I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence.”
A video posted on an X account under the name Brian McGinnis appears to show the same man standing outside the Capitol on Wednesday morning before the hearing. The account’s description says he is a “Green Party Candidate for US Senate.”
He says in the video that he was “here in D.C. trying to speak out against the Senate” to ask them about sending the country into war.
“Anyone who feels disillusioned and betrayed by our government, you are not alone,” he says in the video.
March 11
March 13 NeedleBugs
March 21 Celebration
and musical performances are also planned. Admission is free. Stanly Agri-Civic Center 26032 Newt Road # B Albemarle
Now through March 31
The Art of Laura King A painting exhibition of original acrylic and watercolor works by this local artist is currently on display at the Stanly County Agri-Civic Center. Admission is free.
Stanly Agri-Civic Center 26032 Newt Road # B Albemarle Albemarle
THE CONVERSATION
Trip Ho end, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor
VISUAL VOICES
Law is only as e ective as its enforcement. Order is not automatic; it is maintained.
A BRUTAL COLD SNAP has gripped New York City and much of the East Coast, freezing streets, sidewalks — and, it seems, any remaining sense of civic restraint.
In Washington Square Park, a group of adults began hurling snowballs and other objects at responding o cers from the New York City Police Department. This was not playful roughhousing in a winter storm. Video shows grown men and women — some masked, some standing brazenly in the open, all apparently con dent that consequences would be minimal — pelting o cers as they arrived on scene.
That con dence is the problem.
Assaulting police o cers is not a prank. It is not political theater. It is a crime. Every individual captured on video throwing objects at o cers should be identi ed, arrested and charged accordingly. “Attack a cop, go to jail” is not a radical slogan. It is the bare minimum required to maintain a functioning city.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch responded swiftly, calling the conduct “disgraceful” and “criminal” while con rming that detectives are investigating. The city’s largest police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, issued a sharper warning: O cers were treated for injuries, but the matter cannot end there. Those responsible must be identi ed and charged, and city leaders must condemn the attack unequivocally.
That last point is key. Public attitudes toward law enforcement
do not form in a vacuum. They are shaped, in no small part, by the rhetoric of elected o cials. When political gures spend years portraying police as inherently suspect or malign, it should surprise no one when segments of the public begin treating o cers as legitimate targets.
Consider New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Long before taking o ce, he built a reputation as a sharp critic of policing practices. Words matter. Tone matters. The cumulative e ect of constant denunciation is cultural erosion — an environment in which hostility toward police feels permissible, even fashionable.
We have seen versions of this before. After the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, national rhetoric around policing shifted dramatically. The 2020 wave of anti-police protests accelerated that shift. In many major cities, calls to “reimagine” or defund police departments moved from activist slogans into policy debates — and, in some cases, into actual governance.
The result in too many places has been confusion about rst principles. Law is only as e ective as its enforcement. Order is not automatic; it is maintained. When elected leaders send mixed signals about whether o cers deserve institutional backing, the public receives the message.
And disorder follows.
The current cold emergency adds another layer to the debate. As temperatures plunged, the administration touted the deployment of
Carville trashes Trump — maybe Carville should sit this one out
Clearly, the man Carville worked for and still worships has lived a life a few notches below sainthood.
JAMES CARVILLE , longtime Democrat strategist, wrote a New York Times opinion piece on Jan. 2, 2025, days before Donald Trump’s triumphant return to the White House. Carville said, “We lost for one very simple reason: It was, it is, and it always will be the economy, stupid. We have to begin 2025 with that truth as our political north star and not get distracted by anything else.”
But the day before Trump’s State of the Union address, Carville sounded distracted. He o ered Trump this “personal message”:
“You sit still, you SOB. ... You are the most unpopular president at this point in your term that we’ve ever had. They don’t like you, they don’t like the way you smell, they don’t like the way you look, they don’t like your fat stomach, they don’t like your stupid comb - over!
“There are no silent people out there for you.
“So, I wish you good health. I hope that you’re cognizant ... because I want you to know that you’re experiencing the misery that you’re going through right now, the public humiliation that is happening to you.” By many measures, the Trump 2.0 economy is doing well. Therefore, as a homicide detective says at a bloody crime scene, “This looks personal.” Does Carville really want to go there?
The crafty Carville served as then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s top strategist in the 1992 election. In his 2001 book about standing by Clinton in the face of scandals, Carville described his former boss:
“He’s a good man and he has a good heart. He’s not a perfect man, but he is a good man and a great president.”
Clearly, the man Carville worked for and still worships has lived a life a few notches below sainthood:
• An alleged ex-lover and a member of Clinton’s security detail, among others, claimed Clinton routinely described blacks like Jesse Jackson as the “N-word”
• During the 1992 campaign, Clinton weathered so-called bimbo eruptions, as several accusations of a airs came to light.
• As president, he denied and later admitted an a air with an intern that led to his impeachment.
• Clinton will soon testify before the House Oversight Committee about his lengthy relationship with convicted child sex tra cker Je rey Epstein.
Vernon Jordan, a civil rights leader-turned-wealthy lawyer and businessman, was a close friend of Clinton. Asked what he and the president discussed while playing golf, Jordan said, “We talk about sex.”
Christopher Hitchens, a liberal British author-turned-Clinton critic, wrote a 1999 book called “No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Je erson Clinton.” In an appearance on Bill Maher’s TV show, Hitchens said, “Mr. Clinton is a rapist. OK. Been plausibly, believably accused three times of rape.”
That same year in the left-wing magazine Nation, Hitchens wrote, “It is one thing to say, with reasonable con dence, that the Oval O ce is currently occupied by a
more than 500 outreach workers across the ve boroughs to connect homeless residents with services. The mayor suggested that several recent deaths appear to be related to overdoses rather than the direct result of exposure.
But the distinction raises its own question: Why are so many people still sleeping on the streets at all? In extreme weather, cities have both the authority and, many would argue, the obligation to compel vulnerable individuals into shelter. Allowing people to remain outdoors — whether they ultimately succumb to cold or drugs — re ects policy choices.
Governance has consequences. So does rhetoric.
A city that tolerates mobs throwing projectiles at police o cers during a blizzard is a city irting with something darker than rowdy misbehavior. It is a city testing the limits of order itself.
New Yorkers pride themselves on resilience. But resilience requires rules. And rules require enforcement — consistently, unapologetically and from the top down. If leaders will not draw that line clearly, the public will continue to test it.
Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com)
war criminal, a rapist and a pathological liar.
“I don’t have any male friends who have sex with the help and then (with the assistance of paid slanderers) call them liars, golddiggers, sluts and blackmailers. I don’t have any male friends who have been plausibly accused of rape, either, though I do know several women who have been sexually assaulted and decided not to go public. I also know of three other women who could, if they chose, lay a charge of assault against Clinton.”
Is Hitchens’ assessment of Clinton the ravings of a right-wing lunatic? After Hitchens’ death from cancer in 2011 at the age of 62, former Labor Party U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair in a statement said, “Christopher Hitchens was a complete one- o , an amazing mixture of writer, journalist, polemicist and unique character. He was an extraordinary, compelling and colourful human being whom it was a privilege to know.”
Timothy Noah, Hitchens’ fellow columnist and longtime collaborator at the liberal New Republic, wrote, “He was brilliant and often exasperating ... even after he started writing for the Weekly Standard (a conservative publication) he remained in many ways a man of the left.”
As for Noah’s liberal bona des, he quit Twitter, now X, calling the platform “Elon Musk’s propaganda machine.”
So, Mr. Carville, how about we keep this to, “It’s the economy, stupid”?
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. (Copyright 2026 Creators.com).
COLUMN | BEN SHAPIRO
COLUMN | LARRY ELDER
IN MEMORY
LUTHER LEE STARNES
NOV. 29, 1939 – MARCH 3, 2026
Mr. Luther Lee Starnes, 86, of Stan eld, North Carolina, passed away Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at Novant Health Matthews Medical Center.
Barbara Jean (Taylor) Drye
April 17, 1936 ~ January 14, 2023
Barbara Jean Taylor Drye, 86, of Oakboro, passed away Saturday, January 14, 2023 at her home.
A graveside service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, March 6, 2026, at Coyle Baptist Church Cemetery, 12159 Coyle Road, Stan eld, NC 28163, o ciated by Pastors David Sanders and Mike Burnette. Born November 29, 1939, in Cabarrus County, he was the son of the late Paul H. Starnes and Sarah G. Barbee Starnes. Luther was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, and friend who lived a life marked by hard work, humility, and quiet strength. He retired as a maintenance manager from Cooper Tools after 22 years of faithful and dedicated service.
Barbara was born April 17, 1936 in North Carolina to the late Robert Lee Taylor and the late Eva Belle Watts Taylor. She was also preceded in death by husband of 61 years, Keith Furr Drye, and brothers, Robert Lee Taylor, Jr. and George Kenneth Taylor.
Dwight Farmer
January 24, 1939 ~ January 15, 2023
Dwight Britten Farmer Sr., 83, of Norwood died Sunday morning, January 15, 2023 at Forrest Oakes.
Luther found great joy in the simple pleasures of life. He loved the outdoors, especially shing and grabbling for cat sh. He was well known for hosting sh fries where family and friends gathered to share food and good fellowship. He also had a special fondness for his squirrels and enjoyed spending quiet time outdoors watching and caring for them.
Survivors include children, Debbie (Mike) Williams of Albemarle, Teresa (Tom) Curry of Oakboro, Douglas (Tammy) Drye of Oakboro; grandchildren, Melissa (Don) Parrish of Albemarle, Samantha (Destiny) Smith of Oakboro, Bradley Smith of Oakboro, Jonathan Stover of Peachland, and Jessie Stover of Lylesville; sisterin-law, Beatrice Goodman; many nieces and nephews; and her beloved cats, Bo and Gar eld.
Barbara was a member of Oakboro Baptist Church for over 60 years. She worked over 30 years at Stanly Knitting Mills. After just two years of retirement, she began managing the Oakboro Senior Center and did that for 18 years until this past week. Barbara was known for her good cooking and always taking care of others. She also loved going on day long shopping trips - she could out walk and out shop people half her age. She kept her mind and body active through gardening, word searches, and various other hobbies.
He leaves to cherish his memory his loving wife, Mrs. Lillie Mae Pressley Starnes of the home; sons, Mr. Ricky E. Starnes of Stan eld and Dale Starnes (Kathy) of Florida; daughters, Clara Watts (Rick) of Pageland and Jackie Carpenter (Tommy) of Stan eld; brother, Paul Starnes; sister, Brenda Voncannon; grandchildren, Kristie Gainey (Steven), Matthew Starnes (Ashley), Rusty Starnes (Ashley), Brittany Leonard, Carey Starnes, Ti any Arant (Adam), and Johnny Jr. Starnes (Amy). He was also blessed with great-grandchildren: Aiden, Landon, Savannah, Syilar, McCoy, Brayden, Daylon, Kadence, Matilyn, Hanna, Emily, Noah, Matthew, and Michael, each of whom brought special joy to his life. He is also survived by several nieces and nephews, as well as many extended family members who will forever hold him close in their hearts and cherish the memories they shared with him.
Dwight was born January 24, 1939 in Stanly County to the late Walter Virgil and Martha Adkins Farmer. He was a 1957 graduate of Norwood High School and was a United States Army Veteran. He was a member of Cedar Grove United Methodist Church where he had served as church treasurer and choir member. He began his career with the Stanly County Sheri ’s Department moving to the Norwood Police Department and retiring as Chief of Police with the Town of Norwood after many years of service.
Dwight was an avid gardener, bird watcher and Carolina fan.
He is survived by his wife Hilda Whitley Farmer; one son D. Britten Farmer Jr. (Mary) of McLeansville, NC; one daughter Sharon Farmer Lowe (David) of Norwood; one sister Geraldine Dennis of Troy; two grandchildren, Dwight Britten “Dee” Farmer III and Whitley Rose Hui Lowe.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his son, Johnny Starnes; daughter-in-law, Latisha; and his brothers and sisters, Frances, Bud, Dorothy, Shirley, Lewis, Howard, Pat, and Ronnie.
He was preceded in death by his son Alex, brothers, Tommy and Jimmy, sisters, Nancy, Cornelia Annabell, Glennie Mae, and Betty. Memorials may be made to Cedar Grove United Methodist Church, Cemetery or Choir Fund c/o Pam Smith 36071 Rocky River Springs Road, Norwood, NC 28128.
Je Galloway, who inspired people with run-walk-run method, dead at 80
His strategy made marathons accessible to everyday runners
By Ed White The Associated Press
James Roseboro
JEFF GALLOWAY, a mem-
June 23, 1967 ~ January 10, 2023
James Arthur Roseboro, 55, of Albemarle, passed away Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at Anson Health and Rehab.
ber of the 1972 U.S. Olympic team who for decades inspired elite athletes and countless everyday runners by promoting a run-walk-run strategy, whether in a marathon or just a neighborhood jog, died last Wednesday at age 80.
Galloway survived heart failure in 2021 and was still hoping to complete another marathon after logging more than 230 during his lifetime.
John B. Kluttz
1980 Houston marathon and nished with a faster time, 2:16:35, than his previous run-only 26.2mile races, the Times reported.
Doris Jones Coleman
Galloway had a hemorrhagic stroke and died at a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, daughter-in-law Carissa Galloway said.
Mr. Roseboro was born on June 23, 1967 to the late Robert and Delena Shipp Roseboro. He graduated from South Stanly High School and was employed by Triangle Brick. He enjoyed watching football and basketball, especially the Carolina TarHeels and Miami.
In addition to his parents he is preceded in death by his brothers and sisters: Barbara Lee Roseboro, Dorothy Brown, Verna Roseboro, Henrietta Ingram, and Harold Roseboro.
His in uence was evident in the nal days of his life: Throngs of people posted videos online, hoping for Galloway’s recovery from emergency neurosurgery and thanking him for advice that boosted their con dence and took them to race starting lines.
Galloway’s family announced the surgery Feb. 20 and invited the public to express support.
Jim Vance, an elite endurance sports consultant in San Diego, said Galloway was a “pioneer” in getting people to run.
He is survived by his sisters: Helen (James) Roseboro Edwards of Albemarle, Mary Roseboro of Washington DC, and Marion Morrison of Albemarle; brothers: Thomas D. Roseboro of Charlotte, Robert Roseboro (Patricia) of Norwood, and Van Horne; a special friend of over 40 years, Michelle McLendon of the home; special nieces: Nybrea Montague, Knya Little, and Laquanza Crump; special nephews: Robert Jr., Desmond Roseboro, and Marcus Lilly; and God daughter, Daphne Johnson; and special friends, Vetrella Johnson and Ben McLendon.
“He removed the barrier to entry, which was mostly mental,” Vance told The Associated Press. “Running isn’t supposed to be a su er-fest. It should be something peaceful, something enjoyable, so people can enjoy running and not dread it.”
“My mission now, at the age of 80-plus, is to show that people can do things that are normally not done, and can do them safely,” he told The New York Times in December.
March 23, 1935 - January 9, 2023
Galloway’s run-walk-run method began in 1974 when he agreed to teach a running class through Florida State University, two years after competing in the 10,000 meters at the Olympics. He gured it might attract customers to Phidippides, his new store for runners.
“None had done any running for at least ve years. So we started walking with a few one-minute jogs,” Galloway said on his website.
John grew up in the Millingport community where he drove a school bus and worked at the local gas station during his High School years. He graduated from Millingport High in 1954 and entered into service with the US Airforce immediately afterward. Upon return from the service, he and his high school sweetheart Julie were married in 1956. He graduated from Nashville Auto Diesel College later in 1959 and began his career as a diesel mechanic at Mitchell Distributing Company, moving his growing family to Charlotte where they lived until their retirement.
“I spent some time with each group, during the runs, to adjust the frequency of walk breaks so that no one was hu ng and puing — even at the end,” he said. “Walk breaks kept the groups together. Everyone passed the nal exam: nishing either a 5K or a 10K with smiles on their faces.”
Galloway believed walking during a run reduced the risk of injury, conserved energy and kept con dence a oat.
When John purchased his rst Model A Ford at the age of 17, he said that he took the car to the community mechanic when he had a small problem.The mechanic told him that if he was going to keep the car, he needed to learn to work on it. This is when John’s passion for Model A Fords began and how he spent his happiest days with his best friends from around the globe for the rest of his life!
“I’ve been using them ever since,” he said, “continuing to ne-tune the ratios of running to walking based upon pace per mile and individual needs.”
And Galloway even had his own recipe. He walked through every water station during the
At age 50, after years as a Detroit Diesel Mechanic he and Julie decided to take the plunge and open a full Model A Restoration Shop. They thrived at their shop in Cornelius, NC until their retirement in 1998 when they moved back to Cabarrus County. John once again set up shop in his back yard garage where he attracted a loyal group of friends who visited almost daily.
Neil Sedaka, singer-songwriter behind dozens of hits in 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, dead at age 86
The songwriting legend’s hits spanned decades and de ned an era of rock ’n’ roll
By Leanne Italie The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Neil Sedaka, the hit-making singer-songwriter whose boyish soprano and bright melodies made him a top act in the early years of rock ’n’ roll and led to a second run of success in the 1970s, has died.
Sedaka, whose hits included “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Laughter in the Rain,” died last Friday at age 86.
“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” his family said in a statement. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”
and boyhood neighbor Howard Green eld on songs that reected the teen innocence of the post-Elvis, pre-Beatles era of the late 1950 and early 1960s, including “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Calendar Girl” and “Oh! Carol,” a lament for his high school sweetheart, Carole King.
After a long dry spell, he reemerged with such smashes as “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood.” Captain & Tennille’s cover of his “Love Will Keep Us Together” was a chart-topper in 1975.
Celebrate the life of your loved ones. Submit obituaries and death notices to be published in SCJ at obits@stanlyjournal.com
No other details of his death were immediately available.
A key member of the Brill Building songwriting factory, Sedaka teamed with lyricist
Short and dark-haired with a big smile and high-pitched voice, he was a Juilliard-trained, Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish taxi driver who began performing as a teen and kept at it for decades.
Sedaka still played dozens of concerts a year well into his 80s. He retained the enthusiasm and broad vocal range of his youth and never tired of the standards he had sung hundreds of times.
“Past 70, Pavarotti told me the vocal cords are not what they used to be. I’m very fortunate that my voice has held,” he told The Associated Press in 2012. “It’s nice to be a legend,
a
While on the farm in Gold Hill, John also began a lifelong love with Alis Chalmers tractors after he restored his Dad’s tractor and began amassing his collection of tractors as well.
John restored many cars of his own and had the crowning achievement of winning the most prestigious award from MARC, The Henry for a restoration that garnered top points. He was also presented with the Ken Brady Service Awardthe highest award given to members at the national level.
He shared his running philosophies through books, websites and retreats. Galloway was the o cial training consultant for runDisney, a series of races at Walt Disney Co. resorts, and would be among the runners. Many admirers went online to o er tributes after his recent surgery.
October 11, 1944 - January 10, 2023
“I never thought I would be a runner. I never thought I’d run a half marathon,” Karen BockLosee of Jacksonville, Florida, said in a video. “I’m 70 years old, and I’ve run several since my 60th birthday when I discovered Galloway running. I just want to say thank you.”
Susan Williams recalled seeing Galloway as she struggled toward the end of a half marathon in Murray, Kentucky, in 2011.
“You passed me, and my butt was cramping,” she said. “You turned around and came back. You talked me through it. It was awesome.”
Doris Elaine Jones Coleman, 78, went home into God’s presence on January 10 after a sudden illness and a valiant week-long ght in ICU. Doris was born on October 11, 1944, in the mountains of Marion, NC while her father was away ghting in the US Navy during World War II. Raymond Jones was so proud to return after the war and meet his little girl! Doris grew up in Durham, NC and graduated from Durham High School. She furthered her studies at Watts Hospital School of Nursing in Durham and graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1966.
Bobby McGee, a Colorado-based running coach, said Galloway’s run-walk-run approach made running more accessible to the masses.
“When a group of people in any kind of run — from marathons to fun runs — get together afterwards they talk about their time,” McGee said. “Nobody asks them if they ran the whole thing.”
Galloway is survived by two sons and six grandchildren.
Doris married Rev. Dr. Ted Coleman in 1966 and had two daughters Amy and Laura. Doris raised Amy and Laura in North Augusta, SC. Doris was an incredible neonatal intensive care nurse for most of her career, and this was her passion. The Augusta Chronicle did a feature on her in 1985. She was a clinical nurse manager in Augusta, Georgia at University Hospital NICU and worked there for 20 years. During this time, Doris mentored young nurses and assisted in saving the lives of so many babies. She also worked for Pediatrician Dr. William A. Wilkes in Augusta for several years prior to her NICU career. Doris retired from the mother/baby area at Atrium Stanly in 2007 after over 40 years of nursing.
ka signed with RCA Victor Records, and his rst single, “The Diary,” enjoyed modest success. He began touring and promoting his songs through regular TV appearances on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” and “Shindig!”
At the Brill Building, Sedaka and Green eld were joined by other up-and-coming writers and lyricists including King, Neil Diamond and Paul Simon.
entered eternal rest, Sunday, January 8, 2023, Albemarle, North Carolina. Born January 7, 1973, in Stanly County, North Carolina, Darrick was the son of Eddie James Baldwin Sr. and the late Phyllis Blue Baldwin. Darrick enjoyed life, always kept things lively and enjoyed making others smile. His presence is no longer in our midst, but his memory will forever live in our hearts.
but it’s better to be a working legend.”
He was educated in the Stanly County public schools and attended Albemarle Senior High School, Albemarle.
He was a great conversationalist and loved meeting people. Darrick never met a stranger and always showed love and compassion for his fellowman. He also loved his dog, Rocky.
Sedaka’s songs sold millions worldwide and have been covered by a range of performers, from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to The 5th Dimension and Nickelback. Sedaka helped propel the career of Connie Francis with “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are,” the latter for the soundtrack of the movie with the same name. Captain & Tennille received a best-album Grammy thanks largely to “Love Will Keep Us Together” and included a nod to Sedaka at the end of the song, when Toni Tennille exclaimed “Sedaka’s back!”
He is survived by his father, Eddie J. Baldwin Sr.; sisters: Crystal (Eric) Jackson, LaFondra (Stoney) Medley, and Morgan Baldwin; brothers: Eddie Baldwin Jr., Anton Baldwin, and Lamont Baldwin; a host of other relatives and friends. A limb has fallen from our family tree. We will not grieve Darrick’s death; we will celebrate his life. We give thanksgiving for the many shared memories.
Sedaka grew up in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, pampered by his grandparents, aunts and mother in a two-bedroom apartment he shared with 11 relatives. He has a street there named in his honor, Neil Sedaka Way. But his music compensated for his unpopularity as a kid, he once recalled. His talent was recognized by a second grade teacher who urged his homemaker mother, Eleanor, to buy him a piano. She went to work in a department store to pay for a secondhand upright and managed his career for years, as did his wife, Leba.
Sedaka loved songwriting and never quit, but he craved performing.
“Once a performer, always a performer. It’s that adrenaline rush. It’s like a natural high when you’re in front of an audience, and if you get that standing ovation, it’s infectious,” he told the AP.
After high school, and then Julliard, Sedaka and Green eld were signed to Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music, where they scored their rst hit with Francis, “Stupid Cupid.”
This is what John’s Model A Community had to say upon learning of his death: He was an active member of Wesley Chapel Methodist Church where he loved serving as greeter on Sunday mornings. He also belonged to the United Methodist Men. John is survived by his wife Julie Ussery Kluttz, for 66 years of the home. He is also survived by a son John David Kluttz (Kim) of Oakboro, NC; two daughters, Sally Simerson of Denver, CO and Betsy Tusa (John) of Lafayette, CO; three grandchildren, Bonnie Kluttz Sammons (Ben) of Rich eld, NC John Alexander McKinnon (Sarah) of Asheville, NC and Seth William McKinnon (Amanda) of Germany; ve great-grandchildren, Charlotte, Meredith, Grant, Victoria and Ronan. John is also preceded in death by his parents, J.S. Kluttz and Mary Wyatt Clayton Kluttz; a large and loving group of brothers and sisters, Jack Methias Kluttz, Annie Lou Kluttz Honeycutt, Jake Nelson Kluttz, Julius Kluttz, Mary Patricia Phillips and a grandson, Kevin Fowler Kluttz.
In 1958, at age 19, Seda-
Doris was a gentle and sweet spirit and loved her Lord. She never met a stranger, and she always left you feeling uplifted after talking with her. She would often claim that she had “adopted” friends into her immediate family, and honestly, she never made a distinction between the two. Positivity radiated from her like sunlight. She was sel ess, funny, smart, and sentimental. During her lifetime she was an active member of First Baptist Church of Durham, First Baptist Church of Augusta, Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Augusta, and Palestine United Methodist Church in Albemarle. She especially loved helping at church with older adults, youth, and children.
From 1959 to 1962, Sedaka had 10 records in the Top 10, including “Calendar Girl,” “Oh! Carol,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” and “Next Door to an Angel.”
She was especially talented at sewing from a young age and made gifts for friends, Christmas ornaments, Halloween Costumes, doll clothes, pageant dresses, prom dresses, coats, tote bags, scarves, out ts for Amy and Laura, and Christening gowns for each of her grandchildren.
But in the mid-1960s, the Brill Building sound, in uenced by the doo-wop groups of the New York City streets, was pushed o the charts by the Beatles-led British Invasion and the psychedelic and protest music that followed. Sedaka would endure 13 years “in the wilderness,” as he described it to the AP.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame eluded him despite a fan petition drive.
Sedaka married wife Leba in 1962. They had two children. Daughter Dara recorded a duet with dad in 1980, “Should’ve Never Let You Go.” It was a hit, but she never joined him in the music business. Son Marc is a lm and television writer.
Doris was preceded in death by her father Arthur Raymond Jones, her mother Mary Ellen Cameron Jones, and her sister Maryanne Jones Brantley. Survivors include her two precious daughters: Amy Cameron Coleman (partner Dr. Edward Neal Chernault) of Albemarle, NC, and Laura Lindahl Coleman Oliverio (husband David) of Cincinnati, Ohio; seven grandchildren: Cameron David Oliverio, Stephanie Jae Dejak, Luca Beatty Oliverio, Coleman John Dejak, Carson Joseph Oliverio, Ryan Nicholas Dejak, and Jadon Richard Oliverio; and numerous in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins, and loved ones.
JEFF CHRISTENSEN / AP PHOTO Recording artist Neil Sedaka poses for
portrait in New York in 2010.
“This distinction re ects a remarkable achievement: every student graduating, every student crossing the nish line and every student prepared for the next chapter of their journey,” said Lynn Plummer, chief academic o cer for Stanly County Schools. “Reaching a 100% graduation rate does not happen by chance. It is the result of dedicated educators who invest deeply in their students, strong leadership that fosters a culture of high expectations and support, and students who demonstrate perseverance and commitment to their goals.”
In addition to schoolwide honors, individual teachers were recognized with “Excellence in Exceeding Expected Growth” certi cates, which are awarded when students’ growth outcomes exceed the state’s growth expectations for a teacher’s instructional responsibility.
Teachers receiving certicates included Antionette Baldwin, Judson Barbee, Danielle Boone, Jenifer Brown, Sarah Callicutt, Sadie Cassells, Su-
COURTESY STANLY COUNTY SCHOOLS
Stanly County Schools teachers pose with their “Excellence in Exceeding Expected Growth” certi cates at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
zanne Clanton, Sarnya Ervin, Michael Furr, Jacqueline Hart, Robin Harward, Abby Hatley, Kristina Hiatt, Meredith Howell, Amanda Hranek, Julie Huneycutt, Jaime Klinger, Tonya Lea, Caselyn Little, Karolyn Love, Casey Maner, Lauren Mauldin, Jennifer Nahrgang, James Patrick, Kathryn Patterson, Stacy Salyers, Marina Shankle, Serenity Smith, Wendy Smith, Taylor Smith, Jessie Thompson, Brandy Troutman, Jennifer Walker, Hannah Washburn and Anita Whitley.
“I want to congratulate all of the teachers that were recognized today for exceeding and meeting growth,” Board Member Carla Poplin said. “It does go to show us that shiny new walls and buildings don’t make good students — it’s our folks in the buildings doing the hard work every day.”
The Stanly County Board of Education’s next regular meeting is scheduled for April 1 at 6:15 p.m. in the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons.
By Mari Yamaguchi
The Associated Press
ICHIKAWA, Japan — Punch the baby orphan macaque is outgrowing the orangutan plushie that comforted him through early rejection from his mother and other monkeys.
Images of Punch dragging around the toy bigger than him drew attention to the residents of a zoo near Tokyo. When other monkeys shooed the baby away, Punch rushed back to the toy orangutan, hugging it for comfort.
But he’s been using the toy less. On a recent day, Punch was seen climbing on the back of another monkey, sitting with adults and sometimes getting groomed or hugged.
“It was good to see him grow, and I’m reassured,” said Sanae Izumi, a 61-year-old Punch fan from Osaka who came to the zoo because she was worried about the baby monkey. “He is adorable!”
Punch was abandoned by his mother after his birth, presumably because of exhaustion. Zookeepers nursed him and gave him the toy to train him to cling, an ability newborn macaques need to survive.
“Helping Punch learn the rules of monkey society and being accepted as a member is our most important task,” said Kosuke Kano, a 24-year-old zookeeper.
Punch was so popular after images of him and his toy showed up online last month, the zoo had to set rules to make visitors be quiet and to limit viewing to 10 minutes to reduce stress for the more than 50 other monkeys.
Punch eschewing the toy most of the time now is a good thing.
“When he grows out of the plush toy that encourages his independence, and that’s what we are hoping for,” zoo director Shigekazu Mizushina said.
Punch still sleeps with his toy every night, but Mizushina said the next thing keepers want to see is Punch bunched up with other monkeys to sleep.
The NASCAR star and Paci c Life reach con dential settlement over misleading insurance policies
The Associated Press CHARLOTTE — Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch and a life insurance company have settled an $8.5 million lawsuit in which the driver said he was misled into purchasing policies marketed as safe retirement plans.
Kyle and Samantha Busch reached an out-of-court settlement with Paci c Life Insurance Company, according to a Feb. 26 court ling. Terms were con dential.
“Both sides worked constructively to achieve a con dential result that is mutually acceptable and avoids further legal proceedings,” Paci c Life said in a statement. The Busches sued Paci c Life
Punch, a Japanese macaque born on July 26, 2025, climbs on the back of another in the monkeys’ playground at the
last October, claiming they lost more than $8.5 million after being misled into purchasing life insurance policies. They claim they paid over $10.4 million in premiums based on misleading illustrations and false promises of guaranteed returns.
The lawsuit accused Pacific Life and one of its agents of marketing indexed universal life policies as “tax-free retirement plans” using speculative projections that failed to disclose true risks and costs. The complaint claimed the company prioritized commissions over policyholder interests and violated North Carolina’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Paci c Life led for dismissal in January, contending the Busches failed to fully fund their policies and signed documents agreeing to the terms. The company also argued the lawsuit exceeds the three-year statute of limitations, noting it was led seven years after the policies were initiated. HONORS from
General Public Service is available to all
Ichikawa city zoo on Tuesday.
HIRO KOMAE / AP PHOTO
Control of Congress’ upper chamber hangs in the balance
By Gary D. Robertson
The Associated Press
RALEIGH — Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and ex-Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley each won their party’s U.S. Senate nominations in North Carolina on Tuesday, setting them up for a fall campaign that could determine control of Congress’ upper chamber.
Whatley and Cooper are seeking the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who chose last June not to seek a third term. The two announced their campaigns weeks later and easily won their respective primary elections over crowded elds.
Cooper’s candidacy brought optimism to Democrats aiming to take back the Senate this year with a net gain of four seats. Whatley, who is also a former state Republican chairman, entered the race when President Donald Trump endorsed him after Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, declined to run.
North Carolina, a traditional battleground where Democrats have been able to hold the governor’s seat even as voters helped send Trump to the White House, was one of three states kicking o this year’s midterm elections, along with Texas and Arkansas. Tuesday’s slate of primaries came against the backdrop of the U.S. and Israel attack on Iran, which began over the weekend.
What’s at stake
North Carolina’s election this year could be crucial for determining which party controls the U.S. Senate, where Republicans currently have the majority. The seat is open because Tillis de-
cided to retire after clashing with Trump and the president threatened to support a primary challenger. Political experts say a typhoon of outside money could make it the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history, perhaps reaching $1 billion.
Many Democrats see Cooper, who served two terms as governor and has been successful in state politics for decades, as the party’s best shot at victory. Democrats think their most likely path to regaining the Senate majority includes winning in North Carolina, Maine, Alaska and Ohio.
Whatley promises to keep pushing Trump’s agenda if elected, one that he says has cut taxes and spending and restored U.S. military might.
“His leadership has changed our country, and I am proud to stand with him in the ght to secure our border, to strengthen our economy and put America rst,” Whatley said while giving his nomination acceptance speech in Charlotte.
Moments later in his own speech in Raleigh, Cooper said in ation, tari s and threats of health care cuts attributed to Republican policies are hurting North Carolina residents.
“These are not ordinary times. Everyday people are being left behind,” Cooper said. “And we see the chaos that’s coming out of Washington only making it worse.”
Voters weigh in
Some primary voters say Congress needs Democratic control as a counterweight to Trump and what they consider disastrous policies.
“I just think we’re not headed in the right direction as a country, so I needed to express that opinion,” said Shailendra Prakash, 65, of Raleigh, an una liated voter who chose to vote in the Democratic primary on Tuesday and picked Cooper. “My hope is that it needs to ip.”
Republican voter Lisa Weav-
“These
Roy Cooper, Democratic Senate Nominee
er, 64, of Apex, said she was picking Whatley because “he’s in tune with the issues that we care most about” and would assist the president.
“It’s not that I love everything that Trump does, but I do believe in the framework that he is o ering for our country,” Weaver said.
Cooper, Whatley already campaigning against each other
A Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in North Carolina since 2008. Meanwhile, Cooper, 68, hasn’t lost a North Carolina election going back to rst running for the state House in the mid-1980s, leading to 16 years as attorney general and eight as governor through 2024.
Whatley, 57, previously worked in President George W. Bush’s administration, for then-North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole and as an energy lobbyist.
Whatley, Trump and other Republicans have blistered Cooper on criminal justice matters, accusing him of promoting soft-on-crime policies while governor. They’ve repeatedly highlighted last August’s fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train. Trump identied Zarutska’s mother in atten-
dance at last week’s State of the Union address.
The fall election will be “a choice between a conservative champion for North Carolina, who will be an ally for President Trump in the Senate, or a champion for the failed policies of the left,” Whatley said Tuesday night.
Cooper told reporters recently that his career has been about “prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars.”
In turn, Cooper and his allies have centered campaign attacks on Whatley’s allegiance to the president, with Cooper calling Whatley an “out-of-touch D.C. insider.”
Repeating recent comments, Cooper said Tuesday night that if elected he would be a “strong, independent senator who will work with this president when I can and stand up to him when the people need me to.”
Buckhout heads to U.S. House rematch with Davis
Primary elections were also held Tuesday in all but one of North Carolina’s U.S. House districts.
In the northeastern 1st Congressional District, Laurie Buckhout defeated four other candidates competing for the GOP nomination and will face Democratic Rep. Don Davis in a rematch of their 2024 general election that Davis won by less than 2 percentage points.
Since then, the Republican-controlled General Assembly altered the district as part of Trump’s multistate redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections to retain the House. A now more right-leaning 1st District covers all or parts of 25 counties.
Republicans currently hold 10 of the state’s 14 U.S. House districts.
Left, North Carolina Democratic Senate
Right, North
operation epic fury
The United States military initiated Operation Epic Fury last Saturday at 1:15 a.m. EST, an enormous operation “across every domain — land, air, sea, cyber,” said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Sta . U.S. forces “delivered synchronized and layered e ects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran’s ability to conduct and sustain combat operations on the U.S. side.”
The operation, conducted in tandem with the Israel Defense Forces, killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and at least 40 senior Iranian o cials in the rst minutes, and has continued since.
Six American soldiers were killed in an Iranian drone strike on Kuwait last Sunday, while three American ghter jets were shot down over Kuwait in a friendly re incident. All six aviators ejected safely.
Estimates on the length of the operation have ranged from a few weeks to several months — or longer — but Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the U.S. “will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.”
Google settles with Epic Games, will lower commissions, allow alternative app payments
The Supreme Court denied a Google appeal, leading to the settlement
By Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Google will lower the lucrative fees imposed on its Android app store and o er a way for rival options to gain its stamp of approval, ending a bruising legal battle that led to one of several rulings condemning its tactics as an illegal monopoly.
The proposed changes led Wednesday with a federal court in San Francisco mark the latest twist in a case that began in August 2020 when video Cary-based game maker Epic Games led an antitrust case seeking to make it easier for alternative payment options to compete against Google’s Play Store system, which charges 15% to 30% commissions on a wide variety of in-app transactions.
Google’s concessions come ve months after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the company’s attempt to overturn a federal judge’s order requiring a far more extensive overhaul of the Play Store following a 2023 trial that culminated in a jury declaring the setup an illegal monopoly.
Backed into a legal corner, Google is now prepared to decrease its baseline commissions for subscriptions and e-commerce transactions into the 10% to 20% range. It’s also offering an optional 5% payment processing charge that would be applied in addition to the other service fees for apps that prefer to keep everything within the Play Store.
App developers could still choose to rely on another pay-
from page A1
votes (77.18%) compared to Cagle’s 1,049 (22.82%), also advancing unopposed.
“Now it’s time to look forward,” Hatley said in a statement after results were announced Tuesday night. “We are ready to get to work working hard for all Stanly County residents, listening to our communities and focusing on the future.”
Local Democratic voters selected their nominee for the Board of Commissioners at-large seat, where Gwendolyn Harris defeated Kristin Beck. Harris received 1,098 votes (62.42%) to Beck’s 661 (37.58%), going forward to face GOP nominee Lawhon and Libertarian nominee Melvin B. Poole.
Outside of county races, Stanly voters also participated
“Epic
has been advocating for open platforms for a long time and this really brings Android up to the status of a truly open platform.”
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO
ment processing system besides Google’s and consumers will be able to download apps from alternative stores that go through a certi cation process. Although not required, alternative app stores that go through the Google’s registration process are less likely to provoke warnings about security risks.
U.S. James Donato still must approve the proposed registration process as an alternative to a more dramatic shakeup that he ordered in October 2024, but Google already is moving ahead with it plan to lower its fees worldwide. The Mountain View, California, company intends to begin the rollout in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Google is seeking an April 9 hearing before the judge to answer any questions about the revisions, which are being backed by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose North Carolina company is best known for making the Fortnite video game.
“Epic has been advocating for open platforms for a long time and this really brings Android up to the status of a truly open platform,” Sweeney told The Associated Press during an interview that also included Sameer Samat, the Google executive in charge of Android.
“We think it’s really great
in state and federal primaries. In each race, the candidate who led among county voters also prevailed districtwide or statewide.
In the Democratic primary for N.C. House District 67, Jocelyn Torres defeated Roddrick Howell districtwide to advance to the general election against GOP incumbent Rep. Cody Huneycutt. Torres received 1,164 votes (65.73%) in Stanly County, while Howell received 607 (34.27%).
Local Democratic voters cast ballots in the primary for the U.S. House in North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District. In the county, Colby Watson received 748 votes (42.28%), besting Kevin Clark’s 736 (41.61%) and Jesse Oppenheim’s 285 (16.11%). Watson will face Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Harris in the general election.
to focus more energy and time on building than on quarreling,” Samat said about Google’s decision to nally strike a truce with Epic after years of acrimony.
The lower fees are likely to dent the pro ts of Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., which is in a better position to weather the blow now that its market value stands at $3.7 trillion — four times more than when Epic led its lawsuit.
Alphabet also faces other possible setbacks with Google’s search engine being ordered to share more of its collected data after being being declared an illegal monopoly in a di erent case brought by the U.S. Justice Department. Parts of the technology powering Google’s digital ad network also were deemed an abusive monopoly last year in yet another federal lawsuit. A federal judge in Virginia is weighing whether to order a breakup in order to restore competition in that case.
Epic’s 2020 attack against Google’s Play Store coincided with a similar crusade against Apple’s iPhone app store that still remains entangled in some legal disputes about how alternative payment systems can be managed.
Sweeney isn’t optimistic about reaching a deal with Apple that mirrors the Google concessions because the cases played out di erently. In the Apple lawsuit, a federal judge concluded that the iPhone app store isn’t a monopoly but still ordered changes designed to make it easier for consumers to navigate to alternative payment options — a shift that Epic argues still hasn’t occurred.
“As the song says, ‘You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, you can often get what you need,’ ” Sweeney said. “And what we need is competition.”
In the U.S. Senate primaries, Stanly GOP voters strongly backed Michael Whatley, who received 3,675 votes (80.08%). On the Democratic side, county voters overwhelmingly favored former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who received 1,649 votes (89.23%).
In the GOP primary for N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Seat 1, Stanly voters chose Matt Smith, who received 3,317 votes (74.66%) compared to Michael C. Byrne’s 1,126 (25.34%). Smith will now face Democratic incumbent Judge John S. Arrowood.
On the Democratic side of the Court of Appeals ballot, county voters nominated Christine Marie Walczyk for Judge Seat 3. Walczyk received 1,135 votes (64.86%) to James Weldon Whalen’s 615 (35.14%), setting up a race against Republican Craig Collins.
PRIMARY
STANLY SPORTS
North Stanly girls’ playo run comes to end
Three other local teams lost in the second round
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
NEW LONDON — While eight Stanly County high school basketball teams reached the NCHSAA state playo s, only four advanced to the second round and just one moved on to the third.
That lone team, the North Stanly girls, saw its postseason run end on Feb. 28 as the No. 3 Comets (22-4) fell 70-36 in New London to the No. 6 North Wilkes Vikings (19-6) in the 3A bracket.
North Stanly entered the game riding a 14-game winning streak and had captured both the Yadkin Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships. The Comets received a rst-round bye before defeating No. 19 Pine Lake Prep 59-37 at home in the second round on Feb. 26.
Despite the Comets’ momentum heading into the game, North Wilkes seized control early and never let go. The Vikings jumped to an early 11-5 lead and blew the game open in the second quarter, outscoring the Comets by 18 points during the period.
Trailing 37-13 at halftime, North Stanly played the Vikings even in the third quarter but was held scoreless in the fourth as North Wilkes pulled away to secure the 34-point victory.
The Comets’ 36 points marked their third-lowest scoring output of the season, while the 70 points allowed were the most North Stanly had surrendered in any of its 26 games.
The loss also snapped a stretch in which the Comets had won seven of their previous eight games by double digits. North Stanly was led this season by Yadkin Valley Conference Coach of the Year Brooke Whitley. Five Comets earned all-con-
Three other Stanly County teams reached the second round of the state playo s but were eliminated.
In the 3A boys’ bracket, No. 3 North Stanly (24 -3) su ered a 49-48 upset at home against No. 14 Bessemer City (17-11). In the 2A boys’ bracket, No. 18 Albemarle (11-15) fell 71-50 on the road to No. 2 Murphy (22-4). In the
Falcons stumble in USA South title game
Pfei er entered on a 13-game winning streak
By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal
MISENHEIMER — The
Pfei er men’s basketball team came up just short in its bid for a second straight USA South Tournament championship, falling 84-79 to N.C. Wesleyan in Merner Gym last weekend. It was a rematch of last year’s tournament nal, which Pfei er won by 28 points.
The ve-point loss on Feb. 28
ended a 13-game winning streak for the Falcons (17-9), who entered the title game as the tournament’s No. 1 seed after securing their second consecutive regular-season conference title.
With the victory, second-seeded N.C. Wesleyan (21- 6) claimed its seventh USA South Tournament championship and the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
After receiving a rst-round bye, Pfei er advanced to the title game with a 93-72 semi nal victory over No. 5 Methodist in
Misenheimer on Feb. 26, carrying that momentum into a contested championship game that featured eight ties and ve lead changes.
Pfei er held a 34-31 advantage at halftime but struggled to slow N.C. Wesleyan’s o ense in the second half. The Battling Bishops shot 66.7% after the break and outscored the Falcons 53-45 to pull away.
N.C. Wesleyan took the lead for good at 58-57 with 9:13 remaining, and Pfei er trimmed the de cit to ve points several times down the stretch but could not get closer. A late
3-pointer from Sean Sucarichi with nine seconds remaining cut the margin to six before the Battling Bishops sealed the victory at the foul line.
Senior forward Doug Smith led the Falcons with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Smith shot 12 for 18 from the eld and added two blocks in 33 minutes.
Pfei er also received strong perimeter production from senior guard Sean Sucarichi, who nished with 15 points and ve assists while knocking down four 3-pointers. Senior forward Justin Gaten added 17 points, and senior guard Clayton Rob -
4A girls’ bracket, No. 16 West Stanly (14-13) lost 79-26 at No. 1 Maiden (27-0). Four other county teams — the Albemarle girls, West Stanly boys and both South Stanly teams — were eliminated in the rst round on Feb. 24.
inson scored 13 points with three 3-pointers before fouling out late.
While the Falcons outrebounded the Battling Bishops 42-27, N.C. Wesleyan proved e cient o ensively and at the free-throw line, going 16 for 19 from the stripe in the second half.
Rashod Smith paced N.C. Wesleyan with 24 points, including a perfect 12 for 12 performance from the free-throw line; Justin Burden added 17 points.
The title game served as the rubber match between the conference’s top two teams. N.C. Wesleyan won the rst meeting 90-78 on Jan. 3, while Pfei er responded with a 98-79 victory on Jan. 30.
COURTESY NFHS NETWORK
North Stanly’s Lainey Bowers takes a shot during the third quarter of the Comets’ home loss to North Wilkes on Feb. 28.
No end in sight for NIL legal battles in college
Courts and Congress are both being called on to resolve issues
By Eric Olson The Associated Press
WITHOUT FEDERAL leg-
islation codifying rules on athlete compensation and eligibility or an entirely new structure, there is likely no end in sight for the stream of lawsuits being led by schools and athletes looking out for their interests in college athletics.
A parade of athletes, starting with Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia in 2024 and continuing with Virginia’s Chandler Morris this week, have led lawsuits challenging eligibility rules and seeking to extend the number of years they can compete — and earn money — in college.
University of Illinois labor and sports law professor Michael LeRoy recalled this week that the House vs. NCAA settlement, which allowed schools to directly pay athletes, was hailed by college sports leaders as the beginning of an era of stability.
“That,” LeRoy said, “has been a spectacular miscalculation.” How we got here
In 2021, when college athletes began getting paid by third parties for use of their name, image and likeness, the thought was that most deals would give athletes a little pocket money. No one could foresee the life-changing money available to top athletes in 2026 through revenue sharing and NIL deals.
The rationale for athletes wanting to stay in school is to extend their window for making money, and the opportunity to make more money is the reason athletes walk away from rev-share contracts with their schools.
What’s a signature worth?
It would seem straightforward that if an athlete signed a rev-share contract requiring them to pay liquidated damages if they leave the school before the end of the contract, that provision would be enforceable.
It’s not that simple.
“As a general matter of contract law, liquidated damages are typically enforced to the
extent they are considered a good-faith e ort to estimate a loss to one of the parties in case of a breach. They are not supposed to be punitive in nature,” said Andrew Hope, a Philadelphia attorney who specializes in contract law and works with schools on NIL matters.
Revenue-sharing contracts pay athletes for their NIL rights, not athletic performance. Hope said athletes argue liquidated damages provisions don’t accurately re ect a loss in the value of their NIL to the school simply because they transferred or are seeking a transfer. The schools, of course, argue otherwise.
Negotiated settlements
Duke led a lawsuit seeking to block quarterback Darian Mensah from transferring and reaching a contract with another school, and a negotiated settlement was announced a week later.
Sports attorney Mit Winter,
Riley revives NBA coach suit debate
Erik Spoelstra wants to keep sideline wear casual
By Rich Rovito The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra don’t disagree on much. Except sideline apparel.
And that’s nothing new — they’ve had di ering opinions for years on the subject of what coaches should wear on the sideline. Riley, the always-dapper Miami Heat president, wants NBA coaches to wear suits again. Spoelstra, the Heat coach, prefers the more-casual look used in recent years.
It has been a debate around the league at times in recent years, and it seems to be a talking point once again.
“He gave me a few suits back when I was an assistant coach, but I looked like the lead singer from the Talking Heads,” Spoelstra said Tuesday before Miami’s game in Milwaukee, referencing David Byrne, who famously wore an oversized suit as one of his calling cards. “I didn’t realize I had to tailor the suit, too.”
The suit talk got resurrected when the Los Angeles Lakers unveiled a statue in Riley’s honor outside their arena. It’s an image of Riley, on the sideline, wearing an Armani suit. That was the style he preferred when he coached the Lakers, New York and Miami — and still wears today.
“I wish it went back to coats and ties,” Riley, speaking about coaches’ apparel, said. “I think an audience wants to see somebody on the sidelines who looks like a leader, dresses like a leader, acts like a leader.”
NBA coaches have enjoyed a relaxed policy since the bubble restart of the 2019-20 season, when quarter-zips, casual pants and sneakers became regular sideline apparel. Suits, ties and dress shoes have been out ever since.
“I don’t know why we still wear suits,” then-San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said in the summer of 2019, when he was coaching USA Basketball’s team at the World Cup in China — and his gameday attire was polos, sweatpants and sneakers. “Somebody, please, tell me why we do that.”
He celebrated when the NBA ditched suits, and he wasn’t alone. Spoelstra and the Heat sta have worn black polos, sweaters or quarter-zips with black pants ever since the bubble. If nothing else, it makes packing an easier process.
Spoelstra noted that Riley’s look was, and remains, iconic.
“It’s becoming a little bit different anyways in corporate America,” Spoelstra said, noting the NBA isn’t the only place where dressing-down has been the go-to look in recent years.
“But then I also see Pat’s point of view. When I see the footage of him from the Lakers to the Knicks to the Heat, he did look sharp. But he wore suits
based in Kansas City, Missouri, predicted most of the contract disputes will end up with negotiated settlements. He said neither the school nor athlete will want to go through the time and expense of a court battle.
Hope noted that in a traditional employee contract, a noncompete clause would force the athlete to pay damages.
“But you can’t have that,” he said, “because these students aren’t employees.”
How to resolve eligibility cases
The way Winter sees it, one of three things must happen to stop the lawsuits seeking eligibility beyond the traditional four-seasons-over- ve years window.
One would be a federal law giving the NCAA an antitrust exemption. The eligibility lawsuits argue the NCAA is limiting economic opportunities by placing a limit on how long some-
“The NCAA’s business model would be atly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
one can make money as a college athlete.
Winter said the U.S. Supreme Court could uphold the NCAA’s eligibility rules. It should be noted, though, that the high court ruled 9-0 against the NCAA in 2021 in the NCAA vs. Alston case. Justice Brett Kavanaugh famously wrote the NCAA’s rules probably would no longer hold up well in future antitrust challenges.
“The NCAA’s business model would be atly illegal in almost any other industry in America,” he wrote LeRoy said the NCAA’s case
for an antitrust exemption is further weakened by the emergence of private equity rms’ interest in college athletics. Winter said the third solution would be for eligibility rules to be collectively bargained, which would require athletes to be considered employees and unionized.
What about employee status?
Winter predicted football and men’s and women’s basketball players in the Power Four conferences eventually will be considered employees. If the Power Four, or just the powerful Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, broke away from the NCAA in football and basketball, collective bargaining would settle issues about length of eligibility, whether athletes with professional experience can return to play in college and a host of others that have become gray areas for the NCAA.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, dressed casually, calls to his players during a February game against the Boston Celtics.
“I think an audience wants to see somebody on the sidelines who looks like a leader, dresses like a leader, acts like a leader.
Pat Riley
di erently than us mortals.” In the NBA, the dress code got ramped up considerably thanks to Riley and the late Chuck Daly. Riley went with Armani; Daly’s suits were Hugo Boss, and his shoes were so fancy that his friends covet-
ed them. After Daly died, Rollie Massimino made no secret about raiding his friend’s shoe collection — and wore what he took for the remainder of his own coaching career.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers wore the suits for years. He gets Riley’s point — but acknowledged that going back to the old ways might not be easy.
“It’s a tough one because quarter-zips are so comfortable,” Rivers said. “They are so easy to wear.”
A potential compromise idea: Rivers said he’d push to have to coaches don suits for the playo s.
“I brought this up to someone, and it’s going to go through the chain,” Rivers said. “I do
think it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the playo s because wearing suits shows the signicance of the playo s. ... I’d have to start working out again because none of my suits would t anymore.”
The last time Spoelstra wore a suit was September, when he attended Heat managing general partner Micky Arison’s enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. There were two nights where Spoelstra had to dress up, and Riley took great delight in seeing it happen.
“I swear that’s all Pat was talking about,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t plan on wearing them again until the next Hall of Fame event that we get to go to.”
BEN MCKEOWN / AP PHOTO
Duke quarterback Darian Mensah (10) scores a touchdown against Wake Forest last season.
CHARLES KRUPA / AP PHOTO
Teenage girls most likely to su er sports ACL injuries
Parents say more must be done to protect them
By Marc Levy
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — So a Tepichin was about 30 minutes into her club soccer team practice in October when she spotted a fast-approaching defender. She tapped the ball away and hopped over the defender’s outstretched foot, came down awkwardly and heard a “pop.”
Tepichin joined the growing ranks of female high school athletes tearing their anterior cruciate ligament, a devastating knee injury that researchers are pressing the sports world to take more seriously.
Decades of research on prevention methods is available, but parents, researchers and trainers say that teams, coaches and leagues aren’t doing enough to protect the girls and educate parents.
High school female athletes most vulnerable
Sports fans hear often about high-pro le athletes like U.S. Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn tearing their ACLs, and many ACL injuries are chalked up to bad luck or a part of sports that will continue to happen at all competitive levels.
Still, high school-age female athletes su er these injuries at much higher rates than their male counterparts — up to eight times more likely, one study says — and adults, most often in noncontact situations in sports that require fast changes in direction, researchers say.
Biomechanics researchers, trainers and physical therapists say there are preworkout warmups and strengthening routines — such as FIFA 11+ or PEP — that can at least reduce the risk of an injury that takes such a high physical and mental toll on young athletes.
But, they say, most coaches lack training or expert help, and high school girls compete in settings with far fewer resources than the professional and collegiate levels. As a result, risk-reduction routines are rarely in-
cluded in day-to - day coaching curricula and practices.
“The real crime in this is that the data has been out there for 25 years,” said Holly Silvers-Granelli, a physical therapist and biomechanics researcher who advises athletes, professional teams and major sports leagues on injury prevention. “People are clamoring for answers, and the answers are largely there.”
The trendline of ACL injuries isn’t entirely clear, but the National ACL Injury Coalition — formed by the Aspen Institute and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York — said its analysis of data from high school athletic trainers showed that the average annual ACL injury rate for high school athletes grew almost 26% from 2007 to 2022.
The rate for girls grew more than 32%, compared to 14.5% for boys, it said.
“What is the solution”
This spring, the American Youth Soccer Organization — one of major national organizations in U.S. youth soccer — will roll out new ageand stage-based neuromuscular training programs aimed at preventing ACL injuries through warmups.
Coaches will get a regimen of exercises in bite-sized chunks, with video instructions. The goal is to build good habits before preteens age into more physical
“Something’s got to change. Coaches, clubs, something. They have to do something to prevent this because it’s just such a horrible injury.”
Ti any Jacob, parent of an injured high school athlete
and demanding competition.
“My biggest shock was that this didn’t already exist,” said Scott Snyder, AYSO’s senior director of programs and education. “Everyone I talk to says, ‘Yeah, that makes perfect sense,’ but nobody’s done it yet.”
“Something’s got to change”
Like other parents, Ti any Jacob said she learned a lot about preventing ACL injuries that she wished she had known before her daughter — East Plano sophomore Aliya Jacob — tore her ACL last February. For instance, the surgeon told them three days a week of strength training is an absolute must for soccer players.
“Something’s got to change,” Ti any Jacob said. “Coaches, clubs, something. They have to do something to prevent this because it’s just such a horrible injury.”
North Stanly, girls’ basketball
Lexie Brown is a senior on the North Stanly girls’ basketball team. The Comets just completed a 22-4 season, including a perfect 10-0 conference record. Brown was the team’s leading scorer as North had its best season in 14 years.
Brown was named to the Yadkin Valley All-Conference team, joining teammates Shy’Mani Baskins, Reese Coble, Lainey Bowers and Sammie Lowder, who were also honored. Brown also recorded her 1,000th career point last week.
OTERO / AP PHOTO
Plano East High School soccer player So a Tepichin, left, rehabs from a knee injury in Frisco, Texas. LM OTERO / AP PHOTO
A skeletal representation of high school soccer player So a Tepichin is seen at the Movement Science Laboratory at Scottish Rite for Children in Frisco, Texas earlier this year.
NOTICE NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE STANLY COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK 26SP000037-830 MARK T. LOWDER, Public Administrator for the Estate of LUCY ADALENE MAULDIN FAULKNER, Deceased, Petitioner, vs. CAROL ANN RUSSELL, BARBARA JANE FAULKER; and PATRICIA GALE HORTEN, Respondents. NOTICE OF SERVICE PROCESS BY PUBLICATION TO: CAROL ANN RUSSELL, BARBARA JANE FAULKER, and PATRICIA GALE HORTEN. TAKE NOTICE that a pleading seeking relief against you has been led in the aboveentitled Special Proceeding. The nature of the relief being sought is as follows: Petition to Sell Real Estate To Create Assets including a Mobile Home and 1.400 acres (Tract 1) located at 18896 Clyde Road, and a 0.500 acre vacant lot located at Vacant Clyde Road (Tract 2), Albemarle, North Carolina to make assets. You are required to make defense to such pleading not later than April 16th, 2026 and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought. A hearing shall be held at 11:00 A.M., June 3rd, 2026, before the Clerk of Superior Court, on the third oor in Courtroom #301, of the Stanly County Courthouse, 201 S. Second St., Albemarle, NC 28001. All interested parties should appear. This the 26th day of February, 2026.
MARK T. LOWDER M.T. Lowder & Associates P.O. Box 1284 Albemarle, NC 28002 704-982-8558 Publish: March 8, 15, and 22, 2026
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY In the General Court of Justice Superior Court Clerk Before the Clerk 22E000377-830
Having quali ed as Public Administrator of the Estate of James Lloyd Little, deceased, late of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the Estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned or his attorney on or before May 15th, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment. This the 5th day of February, 2026.
MARK T. LOWDER PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR FOR THE ESTATE OF JAMES LLOYD LITTLE
MARK T. LOWDER ATTORNEY AT LAW PO Box 1284 Albemarle, NC 28002 Telephone (704) 982-8558 Publish: February 15, 22, and March 1, and 8, 2026
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY In the General Court of Justice Superior Court Clerk Before the Clerk 22E000713-830
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Having quali ed as Public Administrator of the Estate of Lucy Adalene Mauldin Faulkner, deceased, late of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the Estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned or his attorney on or before May 22nd, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment. This the 12th day of February, 2026.
MARK T. LOWDER PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR FOR THE ESTATE OF LUCY ADALENE MAULDIN FAULKNER
MARK T. LOWDER ATTORNEY AT LAW PO Box 1284 Albemarle, NC 28002 Telephone (704) 982-8558
Publish: February 22, and March 1, 8, and 15, 2026
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY In the General Court of Justice Superior Court Clerk Before the Clerk 26E000046-830 Having quali ed as Administrator of the Estate of Octavis Patricia Colson, deceased, late of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, rms and corporations having claims against the Estate of said deceased to exhibit them to the undersigned or his attorney on or before June 8th, 2026, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment.
This the 26th day of February, 2026.
MARK T. LOWDER ADMINISTRATOR FOR THE ESTATE OF OCTAVIS PATRICIA COLSON MARK T. LOWDER ATTORNEY AT LAW PO Box 1284 Albemarle, NC 28002 Telephone (704) 982-8558 Publish: March 8, 15, 22, and 29, 2026
NOTICE
NORTH CAROLINA STANLY COUNTY IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO. 26E000067-830 NOTICE TO CREDITORS
Having quali ed as Executor of the estate of Betty S. Huneycutt deceased, of Stanly County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate of said Betty S. Huneycutt to present them to the undersigned on or before June 9, 2026 or the same will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate please make immediate payment. This the 8th day of March 2026. Graham Huneycutt 36478 Azalea Circle New London, NC 28127 Executor
NOTICE
Long-shot American dream hits Formula 1 grid as Cadillac debuts at Australian GP
The American team is nally on the grid, but not the way Michael Andretti envisioned
By Jenna Fryer The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE — The Andretti family dream to enter an American team in Formula 1 will nally reach the starting grid when the season begins this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Everything about the team will look di erent than what Michael Andretti had envisioned. In fact, he’s not even part of the project that after nearly ve years has at last come to life.
Instead, Cadillac F1 is now the property of TWG Motorsports — led by Mark Walter and Dan Towriss — and General Motors. Walter’s group is all-in on sports properties; he is the controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a major stakeholder in the Los Angeles Lakers, and owns the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, a stake in Chelsea F.C., the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the Billie Jean King Cup.
Towriss has Andretti Global in IndyCar, Spire Motorsports in NASCAR, Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, as well as his day job as founder and CEO ofnancial services company Group 1001.
Along with General Motors, this group has taken a long-winding project to get to the starting grid Sunday in Australia extremely serious.
When F1 initially denied the application, they pressed on and continued working on a car and engine even without approval to join the globetrotting series considered the most popular form of motorsports in the world. “Work continues at pace,” they all said as they worked behind the scenes to gain approval.
It was stamped o cial exactly one year from Sunday’s season-opening race.
The team has hired Sergio “Checo” Perez of Mexico and Valtteri Bottas as the veteran drivers to build the program. It doesn’t hurt that both are extremely popular — Perez is a national hero in Mexico — and General Motors happens to sell many, many cars in that country.
“We ran into a lot of obstacles, a lot of voices telling us not just ‘no,’ but ‘never,’” said Towriss about the team’s ght to the grid. “Formula 1 is innovation on the biggest stage possible, and the U.S. didn’t really have a seat at that table. To now come in with General Motors and the Cadillac brand, that’s something we’re tremendously proud of.”
What to expect?
As the rst new team on the grid in a decade — Haas, also an American team, entered F1 in 2016 — many expect Cadillac to be the worst in the series for now. Its engine isn’t ready and Cadillac will lease from Ferrari for the rst two seasons.
Its rst car will be called MAC-26, short for Mario Andretti Cadillac, in honor of 1978 champion Mario Andretti. He was the most recent American F1 champion and his son
NOTICES
championed the initial bid. But when Michael Andretti couldn’t crack into the F1 club, he turned the project over to Walter and Towriss in order to see it succeed.
It cost them a $200 million anti-dilution fee to compensate existing competitors for the impact on prize money to even join the club.
The team had its initial shakedown at Silverstone in January, then participated in F1’s o cial preseason testing in Barcelona and Bahrain. The General Motors power unit facility is located near the technical center on Hendrick Motorsports’ campus outside Charlotte, while primary headquarters are in a facility near Silverstone and many operations run from Fishers, Indiana.
And if former IndyCar driver Colton Herta has a successul season racing in F2, he could soon be the rst American driver in F1 since Logan Sargeant amed out in 2023.
Cadillac is already billing itself as America’s team despite the decade-long existence of Haas, which has never tapped into seizing the North American market.
“The historic debut of the Cadillac Formula 1 team in Australia is the realization of a vi-
“Formula 1 is innovation on the biggest stage possible, and the U.S. didn’t really have a seat at that table. To now come in with General Motors and the Cadillac brand, that’s something we’re tremendously proud of.”
Dan Towriss, TWG Motorsports
sion that has driven so many of us at General Motors, and a moment of tremendous pride for everyone who has worked tirelessly to make it happen,’’ said General Motors President Mark Reuss. “To bring Cadillac back to the tier one set of global luxury brands, F1 is a vital part of the equation. Helping bring this program to life has been incredibly rewarding for me and for the whole team.”
Cadillac is erce in its desire to be the American representation — the team debuted its 2026 livery during the Super Bowl — and getting Herta into a seat would complete the claim as the team racing under the red, white and blue banner.
“There’s de nitely a national pride element to Cadillac,” said Towriss. “It feels like the right place at the right time, where Formula 1 is globally, where Cadillac is as a brand, and where the U.S. is on the world sporting stage.”
Cadillac is cool
Branding is a massive part of Cadillac’s identity and many of its ideas come from Towriss’ wife, Cassidy. She has clear ideas on how the team should look, from its suites, to its merchandise, livery, marketing and branding.
Her work with the team is real, her input valued, and she’s expected to be a part of the next season of the Net ix docudrama “Drive to Survive.”
“She’s a very studied motorsports fan. We can have marketing people come up with an idea and she’ll say, ‘Don’t do that. Benetton did that and you’ll look like idiots,’” Towriss said. “She’s also the demographic — 31-year-old female. She brings a perspective that is super valuable.”
Asked what the personality of the Cadillac is while seated in a carefully designed and decorated suite, Towriss described the American dream with a touch of edginess.
“It’s gritty and it’s bold. We didn’t come into Formula 1 to look like every other team, to copy what McLaren is doing or what Mercedes is doing,” Towriss said. “It’s a group of people, and this is going to sound cliche, but we started with big dreams, we ran into a lot of obstacles, and it was just a cacophony of no’s.
“Our ambitions are so high and we’re not even focused on other people. It wasn’t just to get there, that wasn’t the desitnation. It’s really just the beginning. We’ve come at this incredibly complex, competitive time, and we’re jumping in from a standing start. We started from nothing. We didn’t buy from an existing team. So it’s a pretty daunting challenge.”
What if Cadillac is intitially terrible?
Most new teams take a decade or more to nd success, some never do and others don’t even make it 10 years.
Cadillac, Towriss said, wants to win.
“If I am leading a team, that’s the tone I want to set,” he said. “If you just want to have a job with a race team, go do that someplace else. Come here because you want to build something special. Be part of it because you want to win.”
Towriss is careful not to sound arrogant or delusional but he really does not want anyone within the Cadillac program to settle for being a struggling upstart.
“In private, we’re gonna push. We’ve been very careful to not put things out that set unreasonable expectations,” Towriss said. “There’s risk in everything. You have to be willing to say, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and then go try to achieve it. We’ll be very cautious and careful what we say, but at the same time, it doesn’t mean that there’s not this insane drive, this insane push how to be fast, to go fast, how quickly can we start competing with people? Right now we are ready to go nd out.”
PHOTOS BY ALTAF QADRI / AP PHOTO
Mechanics of Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas of Finland prepare his car during a Formula One preseason testing at the Bahrain
International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, on Feb. 11.
Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas of Finland steers his car during the second day of Formula One preseason testing at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, last month.
famous birthdays this week
Chuck Norris turns 86, Liza Minnelli hits 80, James Taylor turns 78, Billy Crystal celebrates 78
The Associated Press
THESE CELEBRITIES have birthdays this week.
MARCH 8
Author John McPhee is 95. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 82. Actor-musician Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) is 81. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 73. Singer Gary Numan is 68. TV journalist Lester Holt is 67.
MARCH 9
Singer Je rey Osborne is 78.
Actor Juliette Binoche is 62. Actor Emmanuel Lewis is 55. Actor Oscar Isaac is 47. Comedian Jordan Klepper (“The Daily Show”) is 47.
MARCH 10
Actor Chuck Norris is 86. Singer Dean Torrence (Jan and Dean) is 86. Actor Sharon Stone is 68. Music producer Rick Rubin is 63. Singer-songwriter Edie Brickell is 60. Actor Jon Hamm is 55. Country singer-songwriter Carrie Underwood is 43. Actor Olivia Wilde is 42. Actor Emily Osment is 34. Rapper-singer Bad Bunny is 32.
MARCH 11
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is 95. Former ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson is 92. Singer Bobby McFerrin is 76. Actor Elias Koteas is 65. Actor Alex Kingston is 63. Actor John Barrowman is 59. Singer Lisa Loeb is 58. Actor Terrence Howard is 57. Actor Johnny Knoxville is 55.
MARCH 12
Politician and civil rights activist Andrew Young is 94. Actor Barbara Feldon (“Get Smart”) is 93. Actor-singer Liza Minnelli is 80. Politician Mitt Romney is 79. Singer-songwriter James Taylor is 78. Singer Marlon Jackson (The Jackson Five) is 69.
MARCH 13
Songwriter Mike Stoller is 93. Actor William H. Macy is 76. Actor Dana Delany is 70. Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota is 69. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is
AP
Singer Bobby McFerrin turns 76 on Wednesday.
CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP PHOTO
Actor Olivia Wilde turns 42 on Tuesday.
ALTAF QADRI / AP PHOTO
Tennis player Coco Gau turns 22 on Friday.
64. Tennis star Coco Gau is 22. MARCH 14
Actor Michael Caine is 93. Country musician Michael Martin Murphey is 81. Actor-comedian Billy Crystal is 78. Country singer Kristian Bush is 56. Actor Corey Stoll is 50. Actor Chris Klein is 47. Actor Jamie Bell is 40. NBA star Stephen Curry is 38. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Simone Biles is 29.
Eddie Vedder and his wife, EB Research Partnership chairwoman Jill Vedder, attend the “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert” in New York on Feb. 14, 2025.
Pearl Jam’s Vedder turns solo vulnerability into powerful plea in Net ix’s ‘Matter of Time’
The
performances
center around a cure for epidermolysis bullosa
By John Carucci The Associated Press
THE FIRST TIME Eddie
Vedder toured without Pearl Jam, he made some glaring mistakes onstage and felt discouraged. A few shows later, he ran into Bruce Springsteen, who told him that performing solo is terrifying, but that vulnerability can be a force to harness.
Vedder described Springsteen’s advice as a North Star that stuck with him. Nearly two decades later, he leaned into it when he took the stage for two sold-out solo shows in October 2023 at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.
“I remember kind of swimming through it and almost having a psychedelic experience,” he said. “I was so emotional, but I had to keep it together just to play properly.”
The emotional performances were part of a fundraiser to nd a cure for epidermolysis bullosa, a rare and debilitating genetic skin disorder. A new Net ix documentary “ Matter of Time “ weaves the performances with personal stories of those on the front lines with EB.
Recently, Vedder and his wife, Jill, spoke to The Associated Press about the docu-
“It’s
more than passion; it’s a commitment to care and persevere.”
Eddie Vedder
mentary and the EB Research Partnership that they started in 2010 to bring awareness and nancial support to nding a cure.
The rare genetic disorder makes the skin so fragile that even minor friction can cause painful blisters and open wounds. In severe cases, ongoing damage can lead to serious complications, including skin cancer. There is no cure, but groups such as the EB Research Partnership fund research and work to develop e ective treatments and awareness.
“The kids are feeling seen and understood,” Vedder said. “They realize they’re not something to fear, and that they’re not contagious. The only thing contagious about these kids is their hope.”
During the shows, Vedder primarily accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, but he also shifted at times to electric guitar and piano, adding texture and range to the set.
While he performed many Pearl Jam favorites, including “Better Man,” “Porch” and “Wishlist,” it was “Just Breathe” that seemed to ex-
Madonna steals spotlight at Dolce & Gabbana’s Milan Fashion Week runway show
The pop star has worked with the iconic designers since the 1990s
By Colleen Barry The Associated Press
MILAN — Madonna made a star appearance in Dolce & Gabbana’s front row during Milan Fashion Week on Saturday for a collection that felt like a conversation with the Material Girl herself.
To the backdrop of her hit
“You’ll See,” Madonna and her boyfriend Akeem Morris were ushered to their seats next to Vogue’s Anna Wintour just as the Fall-Winter 2026-27 show was about to begin. Other front row guests couldn’t resist recording the moment as she hugged actor Alberto Guerra, with whom she recently shot a Dolce & Gabbana campaign. Madonna, 67, has been a Dolce & Gabbana icon since the 1990s, with key moments including wearing a bodice by the duo studded with colored stones and crystals for the 1991 New York preview of the lm “Truth or Dare.”
The designers also created costumes for the Erotica tour in 1992 and the Drowned World Tour in 2001.
pose his vulnerability as it carried the deepest emotional resonance of the set.
For Jill Vedder, chairwoman of the EB Research Partnership, the mission is not just professional but deeply personal.
“Every time I spend time with these families, I end up in tears because it’s hard to keep it together,” she said. Jill Vedder became the driving force behind the foundation after learning that her childhood friend and co-founder, Ryan Fullmer, had a son born with EB. What started as a deeply personal e ort soon evolved into a mission with global impact. Eddie joined to help elevate the cause. That lesson carries into their work with EB Research Partnership.
“Now we’re using that patience once again. ... You learn about the science, but also about the scientists, their drive, devotion, and the toll it takes. It’s more than passion; it’s a commitment to care and persevere,” Vedder said.
According to the foundation’s CEO, Michael Hund, who joined in 2017, their progress re ects the butter y effect: “One small but powerful action, like a butter y apping its wings, can build enough force to create a monsoon halfway around the world. That’s the journey of this organization.”
“I have truth on my side / You only have deceit / You’ll see, somehow, someday.”
Madonna
Designer Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s collection for next fall and winter featured transparent lace dresses and skirts reminiscent of Madonna’s early aesthetic and big-shouldered pinstriped suits that recalled her Vogue music video. The collection also featured big faux furs and animal prints.
Models gave a little twirl in front of Madonna and Wintour, making sure they caught the mirrored double-breasted suits with lapels on both the front and the back. Both style-makers wore dark sunglasses as they squatted in the low front-row seats, Madonna wrapping her arms around her legs. Attentive during the show, they privately exchanged impressions at the end.
After the show, the designers walked down the runway to embrace the Queen of Pop and then whisked her backstage.
Outside, hundreds of fans gathered to catch Madonna and other stars who packed the front row. They included singers Hikaru Iwamoto of Japan, Choi San of South Korea and Achille Lauro of Italy.
CHRIS PIZZELLO /
PHOTO
Madonna last appeared at the Dolce & Gabbana showroom for the Spring-Summer 2025
collection, wearing a lace veil. This time, her infamous blonde locks were loose. She wore a
black blazer over a dark minidress,
ANTONIO CALANNI / AP PHOTO
Madonna, standing left, congratulates Domenico Dolce, right, and Stefano Gabbana at the end of the Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2026-2027 women’s collection, presented in Milan, Italy, on Saturday.
EVAN AGOSTINI / INVISION / AP PHOTO
this week in history
Frazier beats Ali in “ ght of the century,” Pancho Villa attacks, Einstein born
The Associated Press
MARCH 8
1917: Protests against food rationing broke out in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), triggering eight days of rioting that led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the end of the Russian monarchy in 1917.
1948: The Supreme Court, in McCollum v. Board of Education, struck down religious education classes held during school hours in Champaign, Illinois, public schools, ruling the program violated the separation of church and state.
1971: In the rst of three bouts between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Frazier defeated Ali by unanimous decision in the “Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden in New York.
MARCH 9
1796: The future emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Joséphine de Beauharnais.
1841: The Supreme Court, in United States v. The Amistad ruled 7-1 that Africans who had seized control of the schooner La Amistad were illegally enslaved and must be freed.
1916: More than 400 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico, killing 18 Americans.
MARCH 10
1496: Christopher Columbus concluded his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, departing Hispaniola for Spain.
1876: Thomas Watson heard Alexander Graham Bell say, “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you,” the rst words transmitted by telephone, in Bell’s Boston laboratory.
1959: Thousands of Tibetans revolted against Chinese forces in Lhasa, surrounding the Dalai Lama’s palace. He later ed to India, where he remains in exile.
MARCH 11
1918: The rst con rmed U.S. cases of the in uenza pan-
Joe Frazier stands over Muhammad Ali in the 15th round of their bout at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 8, 1971. The 15-round ght became known as the “Fight of the Century.”
“Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.”
Alexander Graham Bell
demic were reported at Fort Riley, Kansas; the outbreak later killed an estimated 20 million to 40 million people worldwide.
1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act, providing war supplies to Allied nations during World War II.
1985: Mikhail Gorbachev was selected to succeed Konstantin Chernenko as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
MARCH 12
1912: Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Georgia, founded the rst American troop of the Girl Guides, the beginning of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
1928: The St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles failed, sending more than 12 billion gallons of water into San Francisquito Canyon and killing more than 400 people.
1930: Mohandas Gandhi began his 24-day, 240-mile Salt March to the Indian village of Dandi, launching a campaign
of nonviolent civil disobedience against Britain’s salt tax.
MARCH 13
1781: The seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus, was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel.
1925: The Tennessee General Assembly approved the Butler Act, banning the teaching of evolution in public schools. The law was challenged later that year in the Scopes “Monkey Trial” and repealed in 1967.
1954: The pivotal Battle of Dien Bien Phu began during the First Indochina War as Viet Minh forces attacked French troops.
MARCH 14
1794: Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that transformed the American cotton industry.
1879: Albert Einstein, who would revolutionize physics and the human understanding of the universe, was born in 1879 in Ulm, Germany.
1964: A Dallas jury found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and sentenced him to death. The conviction and sentence were later overturned.
