Trinity’s Casey Hohn, top, works against West Wilkes’ Holt Hanchey during the first round of the Class 2-A dual team state tournament Monday at Trinity.
Wrestling teams from Uwharrie Charter Academy in Class 1-A and Trinity in Class 2-A advanced through the first two rounds of the dual team state tournament.
UCA and Trinity were both home teams for the first and second rounds Monday.
These teams moved on to third- and potentially fourth-round meets Wednesday. The winning teams from that advance to the state finals. The goal is to make it to Saturday’s championship meets at the Fieldhouse at the Greensboro Coliseum complex.
UCA (33-0) notched victories against Neuse Charter and South Davidson, which reached the second round by topping Bradford Prep. For UCA, it was a forfeit against Neuse Charter, which chose not to compete, and then a 45-36 outcome against South Davidson.
UCA will compete Wednesday against Pamlico County at Rosewood in the third round. The winner stays for a fourth-round matchup against the winner of the Rosewood-Thomasville meet.
Trinity (21-1) had its way by stomping West Wilkes 50-18 and then turning away traditional state power Eden Morehead by 54-21.
Trinity next takes on Newton-Conover, while West Region top seed Bandys and West Lincoln collide in the other third-round meet at Bandys.
Three other teams from Randolph County fell in the first round Monday.
In Class 3-A, Asheboro dropped a 34-31 matchup to West Rowan in the North Henderson gym.
Seven wrestlers for Asheboro won matches, with Xavier Santos (113), Yu Chen (138), Christian Diaz (152), Luke Lambeth (160), Logan Lambeth (182), Eduardo Soto-Canas (220) and Arhman Tyson (285) coming out on top.
The Blue Comets (25-5) had won the Mid-Piedmont Conference regular season, but they stalled right away in the postseason team competition.
In Class 2-A, Southwestern Randolph (14-11) tumbled by a 66-21 score against host Rutherford-Spindale Central.
In Class 1-A, Eastern Randolph (1-19) was drubbed 52-6 by host Pamlico County. The lone winner for the Wildcats was 126-pounder Adrian Lopez. Pamlico County then eliminated South Stanly.
PINEHURST — Citizen groups across the globe are protesting vaccine mandates as vaccine effectiveness against new variants of the COVID-19 virus has waned and Americans who are vaccinated are not showing high demand for boosters. On January 23, tens of thousands of people rallied on the National Mall to oppose government vaccine requirements.
Mitch Lancaster, a Moore County resident and former Southern Pines councilman, was one of the attendees from across the country to attend the event.
Rally attendees on the National Mall (L-R) Phil and Linda Vandercook, Lydia Boesch, Mitch Lancaster, John Boesch and Janice Cantelou. (Contributed Photo)
“I was thoroughly impressed with the doctors, their speeches and their commitment to the patient/doctor relationship. These men and women have taken a stand for truth and freedom and it was very inspiring,” said Lancaster.
During one of the speeches, Lancaster said he was heartbroken hearing from those who suffered an injury from the vaccine and how the federal government was “hanging those folks out to dry.”
“They were encouraged to take a shot that has injured them and now they are faced with medical expenses and hardship for who knows how long,” said Lancaster, who added that a group was formed to help those who have suffered from adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines.
“Overall it was great to see so many people, from all walks of life, committed to defeating these harmful mandates and fighting to restore our God-given freedoms,” he added.
Attendees gather in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 23 at a rally opposing government vaccine mandates. (Contributed Photo)
Protests, such as the one in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23, have sprung up around the world in response to government mandates.
In early November, the Biden administration announced a vaccine-or-test mandate for companies with at least 100 employees. The rule — which would have impacted more than 80 million U.S. workers — was originally set to go into effect on Jan. 4.
“The goal is to show a unified front of bringing people together — vaccinated, unvaccinated, Democrats, Republicans, all together in solidarity,” Matt Tune, one of the national protest organizers, told the Washington Post in an interview before the event.
Opposition to required vaccination is rising as the omicron variant of COVID-19 has become the dominant strain of the virus globally. Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a “fireside chat” with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on January 11 that omicron “will ultimately find just about everybody.”
Demonstrations in European cities such as Athens, Helsinki, London, Paris, and Stockholm each drew thousands, according to an Associated Press rundown of the protests.
The protests follow several defeats for the mandates in U.S. courtrooms.
Most notably, President Joe Biden’s mandate for employers with 100 or more employees to require COVID-19 vaccinations was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Following that decision many companies which had announced they were complying with the Biden administration’s order backtracked from their requirements.
The Biden administration has officially withdrawn a rule that would have required workers at big companies to get vaccinated or face regular COVID testing requirements.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed the withdrawal Tuesday. But the agency said it still strongly encourages workers to get vaccinated.
U.S. corporations have been split over whether to mandate employee vaccinations. United Airlines began requiring vaccines in August; the company says 99% of its workers have been vaccinated or have requested medical or religious exemptions. Tyson Foods, which also announced a mandate in August, says 96% of its workers were vaccinated by a Nov. 1 deadline.
But other big businesses, including Starbucks and General Electric, scrapped previously announced vaccine mandates for their employees after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
OSHA indicated that the rule could return in some form. While it is no longer an enforceable standard, it remains a proposed rule, OSHA said. For now, the agency said it will prioritize the health care mandate.
David Michaels, an epidemiologist and former OSHA administrator who now teaches at The George Washington University, said the agency could consider a new rule that would include other measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in workplaces, such as requiring face masks, distancing, and better ventilation systems.
Across the border in Canada, truckers have recently protested a Canadian government rule that imposes a vaccine requirement for cross-border drivers. Truckers, with horns blaring, blocked the downtown of the Canadian capital Ottawa over the weekend and protestors blocked a border crossing in southern Alberta.
Brooks racked up 25 points as the Wildcats ended a four-game losing streak with Friday’s 68-64 victory at Wheatmore.
Brooks, a junior who was coming off a strong football season, has boosted the Wildcats on the basketball court.
Eastern Randolph nearly ended its skid earlier last week, but it dropped a 50-46 overtime decision at home to Randleman.
Eastern Randolph began the season with five straight wins before some rough patches. The Wildcats entered this week with an 8-9 overall record and 2-6 mark in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
RALEIGH — Residents and officials across North Carolina are bracing for a powerful winter storm expected to produce snow and high winds Friday and Saturday.
Heavy snow and strong winds were predicted to begin in parts of N.C. on Friday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
The system will then intensify as a nor’easter and bring snowy conditions up the East Coast to New England, where forecasters warned of localized snowfall totals of up to 20 inches and wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph.
On Friday, the National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the southern and western Piedmont and western Sandhills of central N.C. The NWS advisory predicted hazardous travel conditions from slippery or snow-covered roads and said scattered power outages can be expected. Snow accumulations of one to two inches, with localized higher amounts around 3 inches, were predicted Friday.
To the North, states declared snow emergencies and imposed parking bans, warning that wind-blown snow could make travel nearly impossible and colder temperatures could mean dangerous wind chills after the storm passes Saturday night.
In Virginia, where a blizzard earlier this month stranded hundreds of motorists along a major interstate highway for hours, Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency and said officials have already begun to position its resources in anticipation of downed trees, electrical outages and major impacts to travel.
The state’s Eastern Shore faces possible blizzard conditions that could bring winds as high as 50 mph, up to a foot of heavy and wet snow and possibly tidal flooding.
“The key message for all Virginians is to stay aware of the weather conditions and to stay off the roads if possible,” the governor said.
In North Carolina, the state Department of Transportation is mobilizing in anticipation of icy road conditions from Murphy to Manteo.
“We pre-treated roads and are ready to respond to this next round of winter weather,” said State Transportation Secretary J. Eric Boyette. “Please take this storm seriously and get any supplies you may need because snow and bitter cold temperatures will make travel dangerous this weekend.”
More than 1,100 NCDOT employees and contractors started earlier this week pre-treating roads with brine. Many crews were out again Friday morning finishing up their work to pre-treat roads, bridges and other trouble spots, according to a DOT press release. As of Friday morning, NCDOT had used nearly 500 trucks to apply 1.5 million gallons of brine.
Transportation crews are switching out brining equipment with salting and plowing equipment Friday afternoon and will start work overnight Friday with de-icing and plowing operations.
“Staying off the roads will make it easier for our crews and emergency responders to do their jobs,” said N.C. Department of Transportation’s Chief Operating Officer Beau Memory. “The best thing you can do is stay home once the winter weather starts.”A
According to a Friday afternoon statement, the NCDOT has been impacted by COVID-19 and staffing shortages. Transportation officials asked for motorists to be patient as crews may not be able to respond as quickly as in the past. Transportation officials said the department’s crews will work through the weekend to get roads cleared as quickly as possible.
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge resentenced “Tiger King” Joe Exotic to 21 years in prison on Friday, reducing his punishment by just a year after an appeals court ordered a new sentence.
Joe Exotic — whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage — was convicted in a murder-for-hire case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. Both were featured in Netflix’s “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”
Maldonado-Passage was resentenced after a federal appeals court ruled last year than improper sentencing guidelines were used.
Prosecutors say Maldonado-Passage tried to hire two people — including an undercover FBI agent — to kill Baskin, who’d criticized his treatment of animals. But Maldonado-Passage’s attorneys said he wasn’t being serious.
Several supporters of Maldonado-Passage packed into the courtroom, some wearing animal-print masks and T-shirts that read: “Free Joe Exotic.”
The court also heard Baskin, who testified that she was fearful that Maldonado-Passage could threaten her.
“He continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will toward me,” she said.
Last month, attorneys said Maldonado-Passage was delaying prostate cancer treatment until after his resentencing.
The former zookeeper was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill animal welfare activist Carole Baskin. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court should have treated them as one conviction at sentencing because they both involved the same goal of killing Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida and had criticized Maldonado-Passage’s treatment of animals.
Both were featured in Netflix’s “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.” The show was a breakout hit as people were forced to stay home in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.
Prosecutors said Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin during a recorded December 2017 meeting. In the recording, he told the agent, “Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off.” Maldonado-Passage’s attorneys have said their client — who once operated a zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City — wasn’t being serious.
Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, also was convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records. His attorneys are asking for a lesser sentence than what the guidelines call for, alleging “imperfect entrapment, sentencing manipulation, and outrageous government conduct.”
“From decisions made in the initial stages of the investigation to charging decisions to overzealous sentencing recommendations, one thing remains clear: this case was about doing whatever it took to put Mr. Maldonado-Passage behind bars for as long as possible,” his attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Federal prosecutors said in court records that they would defer recommending a new sentence for Maldonado-Passage because of the allegations he raised.
“In the unlikely event that any of these claims withstand scrutiny and ultimately are determined to be credible, those developments could impact the United States’ ultimate sentencing recommendation” because the prosecutors are obligated to investigate them, U.S. Attorney Robert Troester wrote.
RALEIGH — An Asheboro student has been named a finalist for N.C. State’s top merit scholarship. Kaitlyn Ann Gainey, a senior at SouthwesternRandolph High School, has been named a finalist for the Park Scholarship. The Park Scholarships program announced that 112 finalists were named from 2,260 applicants from across the United States.
Gainey is her school’s Beta Club chapter president and a member of the SkillsUSA four–man building team. She also is the Randolph County School System’s CTE Presidential Scholar, a Randolph County Sports Council “UnsungHero” Award recipient, and a former member of the Student LIFT (Leadership Information For Tomorrow) program where she completed a self–organized community service project called “Books for Ramseur.” Gainey plans to major in civil engineering.
Started in 1996, the Park Scholarship selects students based on outstanding accomplishments and potential in scholarship, leadership, service, and character. The scholarship is named for the late Roy H. Park, a 1931 NC State alumnus who created the charitable Park Foundation, dedicated to education, media, and the environment. Approximately 40 scholarships will be awarded this year to outstanding high school seniors for undergraduate study in any discipline at NC State.
ASHEBORO – The Uwharrie Charter Academy wrestling team produced another stellar regular season, but the Eagles will have to wait in their pursuit of a Class 1-A dual team state title.
Under coach Chris Waddell, UCA has run up a 31-0 record in duals. That includes a 6-0 mark in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association postponed the first and second rounds of the dual team tournament until Monday. That decision came after multiple weather-related postponements hit pockets of the state, so this will allow teams to complete more of their regular-season schedules and league tournament action this week.
Teams will be placed on the brackets Friday, pushing the first and second rounds to Monday. The third and fourth rounds will remain on the schedule for Feb. 2. Dual team state championships are set for Feb. 5 at the Fieldhouse at the Greensboro Coliseum complex.
This season’s UCA roster includes 2021 individual state place finishers Byan Lackey, Grayson Roberts and Doug Bowles.
UCA won the dual-team state title in 2019 and was the runner-up in 2020. The Eagles won the team championships in conjunction with the individual state tournaments in 2018 and 2019.
The things you used to buy, you can’t find; and if you can find it, you can’t afford it.
Inflation is when your hard-earned dollars buy less than what they did in the past.
If you had $100 in your pocket on Jan. 1 of 2020, it will only purchase $94 worth of goods on Jan. 1 of 2022. In March of 2021, I called a friend who sells used cars in the Triangle about vehicle prices spiking. He replied, “Don’t worry. The federal government says it is transitory.”
I told him it wasn’t. Now the government is telling us that the supply chain will be fixed soon, and things will return to normal in 2022.
I’ve worked in the supply-chain industry. I am a minority owner in multiple businesses, across multiple industries, and I know that wholesale prices have increased higher than consumer inflation. We’ve spent nearly two years under an economy managed by the government with things getting progressively worse.
It’s time for the government to step aside so the American people can begin moving beyond this mess.
First let’s review the outcomes of a centrally managed economy. You may have seen the news in November, that inflation has spiked to 6.8%, energy prices are up 33.3% and food prices are up 6.1%, according to the consumer price index (CPI).
Over the years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had changed the way they measure and report inflation. Older CPI models, like those used in the Jimmy Carter days, today would show an overall calculation of approximately 15% inflation, which would be around a 50-year high. This increase is not taking into consideration the Dollar Store and General Mills announcement of consumer price increases of 25% and 20% starting in January. These increases disproportionately impact the poor and middle class.
I’ve noticed it around town lately as well. Local restaurants can’t get staff. The quantity of food on the plates has noticeably decreased, the available menu items have shrunk and prices are starting to rise.
The businesses in which I am involved have seen wholesale prices spike. So far, we have been able to absorb those increases. While business owners do not like increasing prices to consumers, rising costs cannot be absorbed indefinitely.
Our food vendor says the trucks are starting to move, but they can’t find people to unload them. Meanwhile, the current administration is creating additional risk to business owners through mandates and regulatory burdens on top of risks that are already facing in the economy. If you ever talked to a financial adviser, they tell you that if you take on more risk in your portfolio you need to have opportunity for more reward. Meanwhile Washington prints trillions of dollars that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off.
The most troubling policies driving inflation are those on American energy. Efficiently using energy is the greatest way to build wealth and protect yourself. From war, where those with the most powerful weapons win, to economies where the switch from candles and fireplaces to electricity and A/C units brought in an economic boom for the U.S. Policies currently coming out of D.C. aim to increase the cost of energy. That cost will be absorbed by the end user, you. When the cost of oil leases goes up, that is a permanent increase in the cost of gas, paving roads and providing goods and services — and those prices are paid by you. Businesses are unwilling to invest in products actively attacked by big government bureaucrats, and since those industries are closely tied to the supply chain, you will see inflation and the lack of available goods to continue well into 2023.
Prior to a government-managed economy spurned on by the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw income inequality narrowing in the first three years of the Trump presidency, according to Federal Reserve data released on Monday Sept. 28, 2020. We experienced the economic empowerment of policies that trust Americans.
Now we’ve seen the pain a government-managed economy puts on its people. Inflation is at a 50-year high, the supply chain is a mess and our debt levels have risen to near-catastrophic levels. Income inequality continues to increase. The things you used to buy, you can’t find; and if you can find it, you can’t afford it.
2022 is an election year. We need to elect leaders, from local to national offices, who believe in the free market and will let people make decisions that are best for themselves and their families. Make Americans free again, and we will bounce back.
But until that time arises, be prepared for the pain of inflation.
The 1,000-point milestone is in the works for a couple of area girls’ basketball players.
Gracyn Hall of Randleman reached that mark with a couple of strong games last week.
Autumn Gentry of Trinity entered this week within range of 1,000. The Bulldogs are slated for a game Friday at Uwharrie Charter Academy and a make-up game Saturday at Southwestern Randolph.
Hall and Gentry are juniors, so there could be plenty of time for their point totals to swell.
Hall racked up 21 points and 13 rebounds in last week’s 51-34 victory at Trinity.
The next night she eclipsed 1,000 career points with a 26-point, 14-rebound effort in a 64-54 victory against visiting Wheatmore.
That result pushed the Tigers’ record to 15-0. They moved to 7-0 in Piedmont Athletic Conference play, more than halfway through their 12-game league schedule.
Gentry had 15 points in the game against Randleman.
Trinity and Randleman are slated for a rematch Feb. 8 at Randleman.
Sorting out the boys
As the midway mark approached in the PAC, Providence Grove and Uwharrie Charter Academy have begun to separate themselves.
Providence Grove entered this week with a 6-1 mark in league play, with the lone blemish coming Thursday night in a 52-43 home loss to UCA.
That pushed the Eagles’ league record to 5-1.
In the Mid-Piedmont Conference, there haven’t been as many league games.
Asheboro and Ledford both got off to 2-0 starts in conference play. Central Davidson started this week at 2-2.
Asheboro will have almost two weeks in between games, so the Blue Comets should have some busy stretches the next couple of weeks.
Wheatley made five 3-point shots in two different games in a pair of victories for the Tigers last week. The senior averaged 20.5 points in those games.
In a 67-64 road victory against Trinity, he shot 7-for-10 from the field on the way to 20 points.
Two nights later at home, he racked up 21 points in a 57-53 victory against Wheatmore. He was 6-for-10 from the field in that game.
The outcomes brought an end to a four-game losing streak and improved Randleman’s record to 5-10. The Tigers won back-to-back games for the first time this season.
