Thought of the Day
Nothing messes up your Friday like realizing it is only Thursday.
March 20th 2025
McNeese State’s Will Wade confirms he’s been in contact with NC State about its coaching job
By KYLE HIGHTOWER AP Sports Writer
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — McNeese State coach Will Wade knows his name is in the mix during the college basketball coaching carousel.
And unlike some coaches during this time of year, he’s not being coy talking about it.
Asked Wednesday if he or his agent had been in contact with N.C. State about its opening, the second-year McNeese State coach addressed the rumor mill directly.
“Yes,” Wade said during 12th-seeded McNeese State’s news conference in advance of its NCAA Tournament Midwest Region first-round matchup with fifth-seeded Clemson.
N.C. State fired coach Kevin Keatts on March 9, an abrupt end to an eight-year tenure that saw the program’s fall this year prove too much to overcome even when framed against last season’s remarkable finish. The announcement came a day after the Wolfpack closed a 12-19 season and failed to even qualify for the ACC Tournament as the reigning champion.
Though he didn’t elaborate on the extent of his contact with N.C. State, Wade has since been linked to the Wolfpack job and other schools after finishing up his second straight 20-win season at McNeese that ended with an NCAA tourney berth. The Cowboys enter this year’s tournament with 27-6 record and fresh off their second straight Southland Conference championship. He previously spent five seasons at LSU, two seasons at VCU and two at Chattanooga.
Wade, 42, said he’s always tried to be transparent with both his assistants and players during this time of year.
“Just tell it like it is,” Wade said. “You may not always like what I’m going to say, but I’m going to tell you what I think. I’ve always kind of been like that, and there’s no need to hide it. The guys are reading it on social media. It’s no secret. I’m not going to ask them to do something I’m not willing to do. It’s no good if you don’t address it and if you sit there and BS them. They can read right through the BS, so you might as well. Hey, this is what it is. Here we are, and we’ll figure it out.”
North Carolina lawmakers approve additional $528M for Hurricane Helene recovery
By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina lawmakers agreed Wednesday to spend another $528 million on still-pressing needs from Hurricane Helene’s historic flooding nearly six months ago, with an emphasis on home and private road repairs, agriculture and infrastructure to aid businesses.
House and Senate Republicans worked out their differences from competing versions of a bill and voted overwhelmingly this week for the compromise, which includes an additional $327 million to address the recovery from previous storms — some several years ago — and disasters not named Helene.
The measure went to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who signed the bill — his first as governor — in a Wednesday evening ceremony. He told lawmakers last week during his State of the State address he was ready to sign a relief measure into law.
Stein had asked the GOP-controlled legislature for an additional $1.07 billion for Helene relief in the mountains last month. The final measure omits some programs sought by Stein or underfunds his requests, as Republicans took a more cautious approach. Lawmakers and Stein have said they anticipate more Helene aid to be appropriated in the months ahead.
“As we’ve said many times, this is our next step, not our final step,” GOP Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County said Wednesday during debate on the final bill, which passed the Senate unanimously.
Before the latest measure, the General Assembly had already appropriated or made available more than $1.1 billion for Helene recovery activities, according to Stein’s office.
The bill “will enable us to get started on many important aspects of disaster recovery, but we have to be honest that the amount is inadequate and this is just the start,” Stein told reporters earlier Wednesday.
The funds pale in comparison to the record $59.6 billion in Helene damages and recovery needs estimated by state officials, who also reported over 100 deaths from the late September storm. Stein’s administration projects that disaster relief approved by Congress in December and other federal funding sources may ultimately provide more than $15 billion in Helene recovery funds to North Carolina. Stein is now seeking another $13 billion from Washington.
About 4,600 households in western counties were still receiving temporary housing assistance as of last week, and more than 200 public roads in the region remain closed or just partially open, according to state data.
The measure allocates $100 million to help repair or replace roads and bridges on private property that sometimes can be the only link between small communities and the outside world.
There’s $120 million to kick-start a home reconstruction and repair program while the state completes steps to receive nearly $1.4 billion from the federal government for similar construction and mitigation activities.
The measure provides $200 million to address Helene crop losses, debris removal and other agricultural recovery needs. There’s over $110 million more for agriculture losses farmers suffered during 2024 from damage caused by other storms and drought.
The final bill also locates an additional $217 million that would be used to complete close to 1,000 unfinished home construction projects for victims of Hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018 in eastern North Carolina. That program has faced lengthy delays and higher than planned expenses.
“Families who have waited far too long will finally get the relief they deserve,” House Majority Leader Brenden Jones said in a news release after Tuesday’s House vote. “With strict oversight to ensure every dollar is used properly — we are finishing the job once and for all.”
The final plan also locates $9 million for a voluntary student summer school program in districts that were closed for many weeks because of Helene. Stein requested the help, although the money provided is lower than what he sought.
The measure omitted Stein’s request for two business grant programs designed to help companies that suffered significant sales and economic losses or physical damages.
Republican lawmakers uncomfortable with direct payments instead agreed to spend $55 million on grants for local governments, which in turn could use the money for infrastructure repairs that could benefit small businesses, like sewer, utility and sidewalk repairs.
New North Carolina governor seeks to freeze tax cuts, phase out school vouchers in budget
By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein on Wednesday urged Republicans in charge of the legislature to roll back upcoming income tax rate cuts and scale back private school vouchers that now can be received by families of all income levels.
Stein, who took office in January after eight years as attorney general, made the comments while releasing his first two-year state government budget proposal. He wants to spend $33.65 billion in the year starting July 1 — about $2 billion more than planned for this fiscal year — then increase it by $700 million the following year.
His plan for the nation’s ninth-largest state also seeks big raises for public schoolteachers, more money toward child care and affordable housing, and tax breaks for lower- and middle-income households.
“My budget ensures that we will be able to continue investing in our people, meeting their needs and keeping North Carolina strong,” Stein told reporters.
Stein warns of ‘fiscal pain’
Stein said his budget is balanced, even as a forecast from his budget office and the General Assembly shows year-over-year operating revenues would drop by $825 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year.
How does he do it? In part by asking lawmakers to halt already enacted laws by Republicans that next January would reduce the current individual income tax rate of 4.25% and the corporate income tax rate of 2.25% even further.
Unless the current-year’s rates are maintained, Stein said, “the truth is that we are in for some self-inflicted fiscal pain.” Otherwise, the individual income rate is also likely to fall even further in 2027 thanks to programmed “triggers” in the law if the state surpasses certain annual tax collection totals.
Stein’s administration has warned that these triggers could mean the state falls billions of dollars short of revenue necessary to provide services in light of population growth and inflation.
Democrats have complained that these rate cuts benefit the highest wage earners and corporations the most. In contrast, Stein does propose some targeted tax breaks for “working families,” including a state version of the federal earned income tax credit.
Republican response
Republicans who will approve their own two-year budget in the coming months, have downplayed past revenue predictions, saying previous tax reductions have boosted the state’s economy and fiscal picture.
With tax reform a major hallmark of the Republican agenda since taking over the General Assembly in 2011, GOP lawmakers are unlikely to back away from a downward arc for rates.
But they may have to pay more attention to Stein given the GOP is currently one seat short of a veto-proof majority in both chambers. That could give Stein more leverage compared to his predecessor Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s last two years in office.
New GOP House Speaker Destin Hall opened the door to considering changes later Wednesday, telling reporters that inflation, which can boost numerical revenues, may have thrown “off our numbers just a little bit.”
But “we’re not going to raise taxes obviously,” Hall said. Republican Senate leader Phil Berger’s office contends that Stein’s proposal raises taxes by preventing a lower tax rate.
Teacher pay vs. vouchers
Stein proposed average teacher pay raises of 10.7% over two years, with an emphasis on helping early-career instructors.
Stein said it’s part of a plan to raise North Carolina starting teacher pay from near the bottom in the Southeast to first in 2027.
Essentially Stein’s budget covers these increases by scaling back and ultimately phasing out taxpayer-funded scholarships for K-12 students to attend private schools. The General Assembly made the Opportunity Scholarship program universal in 2023 — meaning families of all incomes can now qualify.
“We have to meet the needs of our public school students,” Stein said.
Hall said he certainly wants to raise teacher pay robustly, but called Stein’s proposal to end the private school scholarships “a nonstarter with us.” Nearly 80,000 students are benefiting this school year from the aid.
Stein’s budget “rips educational freedom and parental choice from hardworking families,” Berger spokesperson Lauren Horsch said.
More Helene requests will come later
Stein’s budget didn’t include a package to address the historic flooding and damage caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina nearly six months ago. He said Wednesday he would issue another separate request in the coming weeks
The General Assembly has already appropriated or made available over $1.1 billion for Helene recovery activities, according to Stein’s office. And a bill signed by Stein into law Wednesday night appropriates over $500 million more.
Stein said that he’ll also “keep pushing Congress for meaningful help.”
State officials have estimated the storm caused a record $59.6 billion in damages and recovery needs.
Ginger Bug Starter
Ginger Bug Starter
Ginger Bug Starter Recipe from Zero Waste Cheg
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serving size: 4 servings
Ingredients
To Start
- 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
To Feed Daily
- 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
Directions
- In a glass jar, combine about 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger and 1 tbsp sugar.
- Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir vigorously. Cover your jar with a small breathable cloth.
- Feed your bug 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 tbsp sugar daily. Stir vigorously.
- Your bug should be ready to use in about 5 days. It will bubble and smell yeasty, have a cloudy yellow color with sludgy-looking white sediment at the bottom of the jar and some of the ginger will float to the top.
Davis perfect on six 3s as North Carolina routs San Diego State 95-68 in First Four
By JEFF WALLNER Associated Press
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — RJ Davis and his North Carolina teammates certainly looked as though they belonged in the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday night.
Davis scored 26 points and shot 6 of 6 from 3-point range to help the Tar Heels silence some skeptics with a dominant 95-68 victory over San Diego State in their First Four matchup.
UNC was a controversial NCAA selection on Sunday, but the Tar Heels played like a team with something to prove.
“We know we deserved to be here,” junior guard Seth Trimble said.
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said his players were simply focused on the task at hand.
“I don’t think it was a weight on us to try to get into the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “My communication with them is to focus on us. It’s not the noise on the outside in terms of comments and critics. Focusing on our preparation, our practice and our play.”
Some hot shooting from long range didn’t hurt.
RJ Davis’ six 3-pointers tied Caleb Love’s program record for an NCAA Tournament game. Love had six against UCLA in 2022.
Hubert Davis went 5 for 5 from deep against Eastern Michigan in 1991.
“As a head coach, I don’t know what it looks like to exist without him on the sideline and on the floor, and I don’t want to think about it,” Hubert Davis said about RJ Davis.
The 14 made 3-pointers were the most for North Carolina in an NCAA Tournament game. UNC drained 13 against Marquette in 2022.
“I know that we hit a record number of 3s here, but made shots come and go,” Hubert Davis said. “The thing I was most proud of is we were getting steals and deflections, and I thought our defense was real good.”
Trimble had 16 points for the Tar Heels in a matchup of No. 11 seeds. They advanced to play No. 6 seed Mississippi in a South Region game Friday in Milwaukee.
Nick Boyd and Wayne McKinney III each scored 12 for the Aztecs (21-10).
North Carolina shot 61% in the first half and went 7 of 9 from 3-point range. RJ Davis’ long 3 just before the halftime buzzer gave the Tar Heels their largest lead to that point, 47-23.
“I think we did a good job of sticking to our game plan and playing Carolina basketball,” he said. “We got out in transition, we shared the ball.”
North Carolina (23-13) seemed a long shot to make the tournament with a 1-12 record in Quadrant 1 games, but was chosen Sunday thanks to a strong nonconference schedule and other metrics.
The Tar Heels were out to show the world they belonged, and San Diego State took the brunt of it.
“Obviously, we wish we’d have given them more of a game,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. “We hang our hat on our defense, and we couldn’t get stops. We knew we had to play in the 70s to have a chance, and they were up in the 90s.”
Unstoppable
San Diego State led the nation in field goal percentage defense, but had no answer for the Tar Heels. It was the most points the Aztecs allowed all season. The previous high was 80 in a loss to then-No. 3 Gonzaga on Nov. 18.
North Carolina shot 52.6% from the field, and 58.3% from 3-point range.
“We know who we are on the offensive end,” Trimble said. “We know what we’re capable of. This doesn’t surprise me, what we did tonight. It’s what I expect every single night.”
Extra work
Despite not knowing whether they were in or out, the Tar Heels practiced on Sunday, hours before the tournament selection show, and prepared to play.
“Yeah, we practiced on Sunday and then when we got here, and because of flight delays, this was the only practice that we had,” Hubert Davis said. “But it was a really good 40-minute practice. Look, we’ve had 98 practices and 35 games. We knew what we needed to do.”
March 19th 2025
Thought of the Day
The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.
Unredacted JFK assassination files released, sending history buffs hunting for new clues
By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) — Unredacted documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released Tuesday following an order by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office.
More than 1,100 files consisting of over 31,000 pages were posted on the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration’s website in the evening. The vast majority of the National Archives’ collection of over 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artifacts related to the assassination have previously been released.
Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century,” said he had a team that started going through the documents but it may be some time before their full significance becomes clear.
“We have a lot of work to do for a long time to come, and people just have to accept that,” he said.
Trump announced the release Monday while visiting the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, saying his administration would be releasing about 80,000 pages.
“We have a tremendous amount of paper. You’ve got a lot of reading,” Trump said.
Researchers had estimated that the number of files still released either in whole or in part was around 3,000 to 3,500. And last month the FBI said it had discovered about 2,400 new records related to the assassination.
Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for files related to the assassination, said in a statement posted on the social platform X that the release is “an encouraging start.” Complete versions of about a third of the redacted documents held by the National Archives have now been made public, he said, an estimate of over 1,100 of about 3,500 documents.
“Rampant overclassification of trivial information has been eliminated and there appear to be no redactions, though we have not viewed every document,” Morely said.
The National Archives said on its website that in accordance with the president’s directive, the release would encompass “all records previously withheld for classification.” But Morley said what was released Tuesday did not include two-thirds of the promised files or any of the recently discovered FBI files.
Interest in details related to Kennedy’s assassination has been intense over the decades, with countless conspiracy theories spawned.
He was killed Nov. 22, 1963, on a visit to Dallas, when his motorcade was finishing its parade route downtown and shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, who had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days later nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.
A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, which President Lyndon B. Johnson established to investigate, concluded that Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that didn’t quell a web of alternative theories over the decades.
Oswald was a former Marine who defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.
Files in the new release included a memo from the CIA’s St. Petersburg station from November 1991 saying that earlier that month, a CIA official befriended a U.S. professor there who told the official about a friend who worked for the KGB. The memo said the KGB official had reviewed “five thick volumes” of files on Oswald and was “confident that Oswald was at no time an agent controlled by the KGB.”
The memo added that as Oswald was described in the files, the KGB official doubted “that anyone could control Oswald, but noted that the KGB watched him closely and constantly while he was in the USSR.” It also noted that the file reflected that Oswald was a poor shot when he tried target firing in the Soviet Union.
In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president.
Around 500 documents, including tax returns, were not subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement.
Trump, who took office for his first term in 2017, had said that he would allow the release of all of the remaining records but ended up holding some back because of what he called the potential harm to national security. And while files continued to be released during President Joe Biden’s administration, some remained unseen.
Sabato said that his team has a “long, long list” of sensitive documents it is looking for that previously had large redactions.
“There must be something really, really sensitive for them to redact a paragraph or a page or multiple pages in a document like that,” he said. “Some of it’s about Cuba, some of it’s about what the CIA did or didn’t do relevant to Lee Harvey Oswald.”
Some of the previously released documents have offered details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, including CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination.
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Associated Press writer John Hanna contributed from Topeka, Kansas.
Social Security Administration to require in-person identity checks for new and existing recipients
By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone.
Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s “my Social Security” online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.
The change will apply to new Social Security applicants and existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information.
Retiree advocates warn that the change will negatively impact older Americans in rural areas, including those with disabilities, mobility limitations, those who live far from SSA offices and have limited internet access.
The plan also comes as the agency plans to shutter dozens of Social Security offices throughout the country and has already laid out plans to lay off thousands of workers.
In addition to the identity verification change, the agency announced that it plans to expedite processing of recipients’ direct deposit change requests – both in person and online – to one business day. Previously, online direct deposit changes were held for 30 days.
“The Social Security Administration is losing over $100 million a year in direct deposit fraud,” Leland Dudek, the agency’s acting commissioner, said on a Tuesday evening call with reporters — his first call with the media. “Social Security can better protect Americans while expediting service.”
He said a problem with eliminating fraudulent claims is that “the information that we use through knowledge-based authentication is already in the public domain.”
“This is a common sense measure,” Dudek added.
More than 72.5 million people, including retirees and children, receive retirement and disability benefits through the Social Security Administration.
Connecticut Rep. John Larson, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, said in a statement that “by requiring seniors and disabled Americans to enroll online or in person at the same field offices they are trying to close, rather than over the phone, Trump and Musk are trying to create chaos and inefficiencies at SSA so they can privatize the system.”
The DOGE website says that leases for 47 Social Security field offices across the country, including in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky and North Carolina, have been or will be ended. However, Dudek downplayed the impact of its offices shuttering, saying many were small remote hearing sites that served few members of the public.
Many Americans have been concerned that SSA office closures and massive layoffs of federal workers — part of an effort by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the size of the federal government — will make getting benefits even more difficult.
Musk has pushed debunked theories about Social Security and described the federal benefit programs as rife with fraud, and called it a “Ponzi scheme” suggesting the program will be a primary target in his crusade to reduce government spending.
Voters have flooded town halls across the country to question Republican lawmakers about the Trump administration’s cuts, including its plans for the old-age benefits program.
In addition a group of labor unions last week sued and asked a federal court for an emergency order to stop DOGE from accessing the sensitive Social Security data of millions of Americans.
What to know about the bird flu outbreak in wild birds and what it means for backyard bird feeders
By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bird flu has devastated poultry and dairy farms, and sent the price of eggs soaring in the United States since it was first detected in North America in late 2021.
But what has been the toll on wild birds? More than 170 species of North American wild birds – including ducks, geese, gulls, owls, eagles and others – have been infected with bird flu.
Take precautions around sick or dead wild birds, experts recommend. But you can keep your bird feeder up. Despite the spread in birds and other wild animals, scientists say the threat to the general population is currently low.
Which wild birds can get bird flu?
More than 12,000 individual birds have tested positive since the virus began spreading, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.
The count is a “gross underestimate” because most dead birds are never taken to a lab for testing, said Bryan Richards at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dabbling ducks, such as mallards and blue-winged teal, can carry the virus with few symptoms because “these viruses co-evolved in waterfowl,” said Richards. But ducks can also shed the virus in their feces or saliva, sometimes infecting other birds or mammals like foxes.
Birds without natural immunity that migrate or roost together in large flocks, such as geese, are most likely to die in large numbers. A recent bird flu outbreak among migratory eared grebes in Utah killed between 15,000 and 25,000 birds near Great Salt Lake, state wildlife officials said in early February.
Seabirds, which tend to roost in large numbers, are also highly impacted.
Songbirds such as Northern cardinals, blue jays or chickadees — the kind of birds that might visit bird feeders — can also become infected and die, but their populations appear to fare better since they don’t gather closely in large groups where the virus could spread, said Michael J. Parr, president of the American Bird Conservancy.
What are bird flu symptoms in wild birds?
Symptoms vary, but may include lack of coordination, inability to fly and respiratory distress.
“If people see a wild bird acting weird, the best thing they can do is call their local wildlife rehabilitator” and avoid handling it directly, said Dr. Dana Franzen-Klein, a veterinarian and medical director at the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center.
If you must handle an infected bird, it’s best to wear gloves and a mask as a precaution.
Is it safe to have a backyard bird feeder?
Experts say bird feeders are generally safe and aren’t a notable source of spreading bird flu.
But if you also keep backyard chickens, Parr of the American Bird Conservancy recommends taking the bird feeder down to prevent possible transmission to poultry. Birdfeeders and nesting boxes should also be cleaned regularly.
The risk of spread to people from bird feeders “is very, very low,” he said.
How is the bird flu outbreak affecting endangered bird species?
In the case of critically endangered California condors, scientists organized a vaccination program after some birds became infected. But that’s not a realistic option for most wild bird species.
Instead, experts recommend giving wild birds the best chance by taking other steps to protect habitats and reduce various risks that species face, such as exposure to pesticides or lead ammo.
Bald eagles, which are federally protected but no longer endangered, are scavengers that will eat dead animals. “That first year, we lost a lot of eagles” likely from bald eagles eating infected ducks or bringing them to their nests, said Richards.
Scientists also documented an unusually high number of eagle chicks that didn’t survive into adulthood during the first breeding season after the virus appeared in North America, likely because the chicks got the virus or sick parents weren’t able to adequately feed and care for them.
But over time, the number of confirmed infections in eagles nationwide has declined from 427 in 2022 to 48 last year.
That may mean that eagles that survived the first year now have some acquired immunity, said Franzen-Klein. This past migration season, researchers counted a record number of bald eagles migrating through northern Minnesota.
“There are good signs of hope” that eagles in the region are rebounding, she said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.