By Annick JosephStaff writer

LUMBERTON — The search for a missing 20-year-old Lumberton woman moved to the Alamac Road area of Robeson County earlier this week, according to an FBI spokesperson, but Abby Patterson remains missing.

“The FBI and Lumberton Police Department conducted a search Monday as part of the ongoing investigation to locate Abby Lynn Patterson,” Shelley Lynch said Wednesday. “We continue to assist LPD with this case.”

Patterson was last seen on Sept. 5, 2017, getting into a brown Buick in the area of East Ninth Street in Lumberton, Capt. Terry Parker,

of the Lumberton Police Department, said in the days after Patterson went missing.

“We’ve done a number of searches and continue to follow leads. An agent spoke with Abby’s mother after the search,” Lynch said. “We encourage the public to come forward with information to help locate Abby.”

Bernice Locklear, who’s lived at Alamac Road and Flamingo Drive for nearly 20 years, said he saw a lot of police activity behind his home this past month.

“All I seen were the laws out there two days ago. I didn’t ask them anything,” Locklear said. “There was a mixture of unmarked

cars and marked ones. Fayetteville was out there. They were back in the woods over there.”

Locklear walked with a reporter from The Robesonian about a quarter of a mile past a light gray house with a pond in front

of it and down a curved path to another pond that appeared to have been drained.

“Yep, it’s (the house) been vacant for at least two years. Me and my wife used to take walks back here,” Locklear said. “I would say that pond is about 50 feet long and 30 feet wide. Probably, maybe 10 to 12 foot deep. Looks like they drained it.”

By T.C. HunterManaging editor

ATLANTA — Robeson County has been awarded more than $2 million in federal money to demolish, reconstruct and elevate 15 residences destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Matthew in October 2016.

The money is part of $16.8 million awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to North Carolina to mitigate future flood loss. The agency announced Tuesday that the money is intended to fund seven more projects to elevate, remove or reconstruct 186 residences in the towns of Fair Bluff and Windsor, and in Johnston, Pender and Wayne counties.

The monetary announcement had not reached Robeson County leaders as of late Tuesday afternoon.

This grant announcement is in addition to the $11 million in Hurricane Matthew relief money announced in June for Robeson County, said Hallie Anderson, a FEMA External Affairs specialist. Tuesday’s release concerns sub-grant awards for different properties than the June announcement.

The federal agency will pay 75 percent or $16,869,832 of the $22 million cost of these projects, according to a FEMA news release. The federal share of the funds comes from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

Wayne County will receive more than $7.8 million to acquire and demolish 75 residences located in a special flood hazard area. Once the structures are removed, the sites will be left open as green space in perpetuity.

The town of Windsor will get a total of $5.2 million to remove or minimize future flood loss to

By T.C. HunterManaging editor

LUMBERTON — The Angel Exchange property near Pembroke will be up for sale on Aug. 6 and the building’s owners have been ordered to pay more than $50,000 as the result of legal action taken by the owners of COMtech Business Park.

The public sale is to take place at 10 a.m. on the steps of the Robeson County Courthouse, according to court documents obtained at the Robeson County Clerk

of Court office. For sale will be the 35,000-square-foot building and the accompanying 28.678 acres of land.

The sale is part of a judgment handed down from Superior Court on Feb. 12. The judgment also orders Angel Exchange owners Carolinas Financial Management Inc. to pay Carolina Commerce and Technology Inc., $47,616.35 cents “from and after July 19, 2017, which sum continues to accrue charges on a quarterly basis of One

Thousand One Hundred One and 00/100 Dollars ($1,101.00), including late fees and interest as applicable, through the date of Judgment and until enforced, foreclosed, and/or otherwise collected from Defendant Carolinas Financial Management, Inc.” Carolinas Financial also was ordered to pay COMtech $2,415 for attorneys’ fees, and was “taxed with the costs of this matter” in the amount of $207.50.

Trump-Kim statement overpromisedINSIDE • 5A

Partly sunny.High 86.WEATHER • 6A

Hunt is Red Devils’ ‘heartbeat’SPORTS • 1B

Issue 171, Volume 149 Breaking news at robesonian.com Thursday, July 19, 2018 • $1.00

File photoThe 35,000-square-foot Angel Exchange building and 28 adjoining acres will be up for public sale on Aug. 6.

COMtech gets judgment over failure on feesAngel Exchange up for auction Aug. 6

— NEWS Obituaries: 2AEditorial: 4AWeather: 6A

— SPORTSGolf: 1BScoreboard: 2B

— FEATURESComics: 3BClassified: 4B

— OBITUARIESJames Franklin McPhatter,

67, Red Springs

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Gene Autry Bennett,80, Lumberton

William Jerome Williamson,

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County getting$2M for floodaid from FEMA

Charlotte leads GOP convention raceStaff and wire report

AUSTIN, Texas — Charlotte is poised to host the Republican Party’s 2020 presidential nominating convention.

The national GOP’s site selection committee voted behind closed doors Wednesday to recom-mend Charlotte, accord-ing to Republican officials with direct knowledge of the vote who were not authorized to address the situation publicly.

The chairman of the Robeson County Repub-lican Party confirmed

Charlotte’s tenta-tive selection.

“It’s true. A panel voted today to hold the Con-vention in Char-lotte,” Phillip Ste-phens said. “The larger Republican National Committee meeting will most likely accept the panel’s recom-mendation at their meet-ing in Austin, Texas, on Friday, which will make it official.

“We are appreciative for the support of the Charlotte City Council this week, which was part of that pro-

cess. Their support contributes to the panel’s decision.”

A divided North Carolina city coun-cil voted 6-5 Mon-day to approve a bid to host the 2020 Republican National

Convention. The vote came after a public dis-cussion period with more than 100 speakers and nearly one hour of debate among council members.

Republican National Committee members from across the country, gathering in Austin this week, will decide whether

to finalize the recommen-dation Friday.

The only other conven-tion site finalist was Las Vegas.

Charlotte hosted the Democratic National Con-vention in 2012. North Carolina emerged as a swing state during Presi-dent Barack Obama’s first run thanks to the state’s large African-American population, but Repub-licans narrowly won the state in 2012 and 2016.

President Donald Trump has already launched his 2020 re-election campaign.

Stephens

See FEMA | 3ASee ABBY | 2A

See AUCTION | 2A

Annick Joseph | The RobesonianThis pond off Alamac Road was drained Monday as federal and local lawmen continued their search for Abby Lynn Patterson. The 20-year-old Lumberton woman was last seen Sept. 5, 2017.

Patterson

Pond search fails to find Abby

GREENVILLE (AP) — The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehi-cles approved Wednes-day a woman’s request for a specialty license plate to honor her wife after initially turning her down.

The NCDMV ini-tially told Amy Bright of Greenville it had the right to deny any license plate it deems “offensive to good taste and decen-cy.” DMV Commis-sioner Torre Jessup said Wednesday he approved the plate, saying it was a mistake to reject it in

the first place.Jessup said in a state-

ment that he left a voice message for Bright to apologize and to let her know about her request being approved.

Bright had said she

would sue if an appeal was denied.

“I think that’s ridicu-lous. I’m trying to cel-ebrate the love I have for my wife, so I don’t see how that’s in poor taste,” she said prior to the

NCDMV reversal. “How can a celebration of love be in poor taste?”

The agency’s initial statement to WFMY-TV in Greensboro didn’t address Bright’s request specifically. It also said the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that license plates are “government speech,” giving the state agency “broad discretion in refusing to issue a plate with an indecent word or message.” The DMV says it has rejected more than 7,000 license plate requests over the years.

Debris, including an old car door and a shredded couch cushion, littered the edge of the pond.

About a month ago, lawmen on inflatable boats were seen dragging the pond in front of the abandoned house on Flamingo Drive, he said.

“They were over at that house about four weeks ago, about a dozen cars and double the people,” Locklear said. “They had boats on that pond. They were scraping the bottom. They had two dogs out there sniffing.”

He wasn’t aware of Patterson’s disappearance until Wednesday when he was shown media posts about the recent searches, Locklear

said. A photo posted online had his house in the image.

“I been asking neighbors, you know, about why they (lawmen) keep coming, but don’t nobody tell me nothing. This morning when I was at the bank the tellers asked me about it since, I guess, you know, I live on Alamac.

“I saw my house. I didn’t know anything about it, I didn’t know why. When I see them out there I just watch.”

The mother of Abby Patterson is pleading with the public to stop posting rumors on social media. Reading them is deeply distressing for her family.

“I try not to pay attention

to social media. There are a lot of rumors that just aren’t true,” Samantha Lovette said Wednesday. “I would like for people to be mindful of what they post. Not only about Abby, but about any missing people. Think of the families’ feelings.”

When rumors or unsubstantiated information is posted online it causes trauma, she said.

“It sets me back every time. I couldn’t sleep all night. I have trouble sleeping. I am not eating. She has sisters,

too. They’re on social media and they see that,” Lovette said. “I have to call everyone and tell them it’s not true. It’s seems to be every week now. It’s a big deal. Just think about the families and their loved

ones.”The FBI is continuing to

pursue tips.“I don’t ask a lot of

questions. I don’t want to know a lot of details. They drilled in me that when they find her, I will be the first to know. They haven’t found her,” Lovette said. “They are on Abby’s case, they are not giving up. They have promised me that they will not give up. I trust them.

“All I want is, for anyone who knows anything. Doesn’t

matter if it seems small, it could end up being big, report it. You never know.”

She struggles day-to-day not knowing where her daughter is and when she will be found, Lovette said. Clinging to hope is how she copes with not knowing where Abby is.

“I am thankful to the FBI and Lumberton detectives working on Abby’s case and not giving up,” she said. “We pray for her safe return.”

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Patterson is asked to call the FBI at 704-672-6100 or the Lumberton Police Department at 910-671-3845. There is a $10,000 for information that leads to Patterson being found.

Reach Annick Joseph by calling 910-416-5165 or via email at ajoseph@robesonian.com.

OBITUARIES/NEWS The Robesonian2A Thursday, July 19, 2018

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OBITUARy

DEATH NOTICES

SHANNON — Mr. Wil-liam Jerome Williamson, 34, of Shannon, departed this life on Saturday, July 14, 2018.

The funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Zion Hill Bap-tist Church with Rev. Nick McNeill, Rev. Jerry Oxendine and Rev. Davey

Locklear officiating. The burial will follow in the church cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Zion Hill Baptist Church.

Arrangements are by Revels Funeral Home Lumberton.

WILLIAM JEROME WILLIAMSON

MCPHATTERRED SPRINGS — James Franklin McPhatter, 67,

Red Springs, died on July 17, 2018, at Cape Fear Val-ley Hospital. Lawrence Jackson Funeral Home, Lau-rinburg.

BENNETTLUMBERTON — Gene Autry Bennett, 80, of

Lumberton, died Tuesday, July 17, 2018. Boles-Biggs Funeral Home.

The total monetary judgment against Carolinas Financial was $50,238.85, “which sum continues to accrue on a quarterly basis,” according to court documents.

When asked for information and comments concerning the legal action and pending sale, COMtech Business Park Executive Director Alan Fowlkes referred all questions to J. Matthew Waters, an attorney with the law offices of Jordan, Price, Wall Gray, Jones & Carlton in Raleigh. When contacted, Waters said he could not comment.

Robeson County Manager Ricky Harris referred all questions to Fowlkes. Harris did say the county was not involved in the legal proceedings despite the fact that former County Manager Patrick Pait was listed at one point as a co-counsel representing COMtech. Pait, who died June 3 in an traffic accident, filed for and was granted on Feb.

12 permission to be withdrawn as co-counsel.

In documents filed in Superior Court, COMtech argued it had the right to seek foreclosure and monetary compensation because Angel Exchange was part of the business park and was obligated to abide by park covenants, which included the “payment of periodic maintenance and security fees” to COMtech. COMtech alleged that failure to pay the fees was a breach of contract.

Angel Exchange’s owners also owe a little more than $50,000 in back taxes to the county, according to the Robeson County Tax Office. It was announced in March that the county had begun forcibly collecting some of the delinquent property taxes by garnishing rent the school system was paying for using the building as a central office.

The legal proceedings and pending sale is the latest chapter in the public saga of Angel Exchange.

The Robeson County Board of Commissioners voted in January to buy the building for use as

a Public Schools of Robeson County central office complex. The asking price for the building and land at the time was $6 million.

The move sparked a public debate, and the county’s offer to let the PSRC staff occupy the building was refused by school district leaders. The school system has since acquired the former BB&T service center on Kahn Drive in Lumberton for use as a central office complex until a permanent facility can be built. District leaders say staff should be completely moved into the building by July 26.

The commissioners just dropped the conversation, never saying publicly that their pursuit had ended. It began with a 4 to 3 vote that was taken when Commissioner David Edge, who was opposed, was absent. Commissioners Raymond Cummings, Roger Oxendine, Berlester Campbell and Jerry Stephens voted in favor.

Reach T.C. Hunter by calling 910-816-1974 or via email at tchunter@robesonian.com.

From page 1A

Auction

I try not to pay attention to social media. There are a lot of rumors that just aren’t true. I would like for people to be mindful of what they post. Not only about Abby, but about any missing people. Think of the families’ feelings.”

— Samantha Lovette, mother of Abby Lynn Patterson.

From page 1A

Abby

CRIME REPORT

LOCAL BRIEFS

The fol-lowing inci-dents of break-ing and entering were reported to the Robeson County Sher-iff ’s Office:

Eva Nieves, Broadwell Road, St. Pauls; Michael Clawson, Union Center Road, St. Pauls; Susan Barnhill, Martin Road, St. Pauls; and Yacoub Massar, Alamac Road, Lumberton.

Brandon Batton reported to the Robeson County Sheriff ’s Office that he was the victim of an aggravated assault with a firearm or a knife on East Great Marsh Church Road in St. Pauls.

The following inci-dents of larceny were

reported to the Robeson County Sheriff ’s

Office:Michelle

Hardie, Trevor Drive, Lumberton; India Lowry, Hazel Road, Lumberton; Sally Oxen-dine, South Robeson Road, Rowland; Alexis McLean, Elliott Drive, Lumberton.

Teresa Brabbs report-ed to the Robeson Coun-ty Sheriff ’s Office that a firearm was stolen on Java Lane in Lumberton.

The following inci-dents of larceny of a motor vehicle were reported to the Robeson County Sheriff ’s Office:

Marquerite Oxendine, Elrod Road, Rowland; and Mary Curry, Wil-liamson Road, Fairmont.

Repair work to close part of U.S. 301Staff report

LUMBERTON — A section of U.S. 301 near Rowland willl be closed for five days next week so a pipeline beneath the roadway can be replaced.

The maintenance project is to begin at 7 a.m. Monday and end at 4 p.m. Friday, according to the N.C. Department of Transporta-tion.

The detour is Adams Road to

Purvis Road to Dew Road and back to U.S. 301.

Magistrate suspendedafter larceny chargeStaff report

ELIZABETHTOWN — A Blad-en County magistrate has been suspended from her duties after she was charged with stealing from a retail store in Lumberton where she worked.

Priscella Dean Dunham, who has worked as a magistrate in Bladen County since 2008, is

suspended until further notice, according to Bladen County Clerk of Court Niki Dennis. She said the chief District Court judge suspended Dunham in accordance with state law.

According to a statement from the Lumberton Police Depart-ment, officers on June 13 inves-tigated a report that Dunham had been “caught placing unpaid items in bags without scanning those items for purchase” at JCPenney. Dunham was charged on July 9 with one count of lar-ceny by an employee.

DMV OKs license plate honoring woman’s wife

CHARLOTTE (AP) — A vacant North Carolina hotel which came to symbolize a city’s shortage of affordable housing will be demolished.

The Charlotte Observer reports the 60-room Airport Parkway Inn and Suites in Char-lotte has been vacant since last September. The newspaper also

reported that people were pay-ing up to $1,000 a month to live in rooms with faulty plumbing, inoperable smoke detectors and roaches.

City council members Julie Eiselt and Vi Lyles, who is now mayor, asked administrators to study options for dealing with the motel. City officials late last year deter-

mined it should be torn down.Advocates for the poor say

that while the buildings are often unsanitary or decrepit, they fill a need since Charlotte lacks enough affordable housing and homeless shelters are typically full.

Information from: The Charlotte Observer, http://www.charlotteobserver.com.

Symbolic vacant hotel in Charlotte torn down

BRUSSELS (AP) — European regula-tors came down hard on another U.S. tech giant Wednesday, fining Google a record $5 billion for forcing cellphone makers that use the company’s Android operating system to install Google search and browser apps.

The European Union said Google’s practices restrict competition and reduce choices for consumers.

While Google can easily afford the fine, the ruling could undermine the company’s business model, which relies on giving away its operating system in return for opportunities to sell ads and other products.

Google immediately said it will appeal, arguing that its free operating system has led to lower-price phones and created competition with its chief rival, Apple.

Android has “created more choice for everyone, not less,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted .

Google has 90 days to put remedies in place regardless of its appeal — which could involve unbundling key apps and allowing Android handset manufacturers to sell devices using altered versions of Android.

Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit group that creates the lightweight ad-blocking browser Firefox Focus, said the ruling gives it the opportunity to displace Chrome as the default browser in some phones. It has been in talks with manufacturers from Huawei to Samsung about that.

The ruling creates “a huge opportu-nity,” Denelle Dixon, Mozilla’s chief oper-ating officer, said Wednesday.

It’s also possible not much will change. Google Search, Chrome and the Play Store are popular with consumers and developers. Handset manufacturers could choose them despite unbundling.

“It’s possible phone manufacturers won’t actually take advantage of the new-found freedom they have,” said Thomas Vinje, lead lawyer for FairSearch, the Brussels-based lobbying group backed by Oracle, TripAdvisor and others that was the main complainant in the case. “It at least opens up the possibility.”

The fine, which caps a three-year investigation, is the biggest ever imposed on a company by the EU for anticompeti-tive behavior.

The ruling could stoke tensions between Europe and the U.S., which regulates the tech industry with a lighter hand. Still, some U.S. politicians wel-comed it.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut tweeted that the fine should “be a wake-up call” to the Federal Trade Commission and should lead U.S. enforcers to protect consumers. Blumen-thal previously called on regulators to investigate how Google tracks users of Android phones.

In its ruling, the EU said Google broke the rules by requiring cellphone makers to take a bundle of Google apps if they wanted any at all.

The bundle contains 11 apps, includ-ing YouTube, Maps and Gmail, but regulators focused on three that had the biggest market share: Google Search, Chrome and the company’s app store, called Play Store.

The EU also took issue with Google’s payments to wireless carriers and phone makers to exclusively pre-install the Google Search app.

It ruled, too, that Google broke the law by forcing manufacturers that took its apps to commit to not selling devices that use altered versions of Android.

Regardless of the pending appeal, fail-ure to come up with remedies to rectify the behavior after 90 days risks a further penalty of up to $15 million a day.

EU Competition Commissioner Mar-grethe Vestager said that given the size of the company, the 4.34 billion euro fine is not disproportionate.

The Google crackdown comes at a sensitive time for trans-Atlantic relations, with President Donald Trump lambasting the EU as a “foe” only last week. The U.S. imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminum this year, and the EU responded with duties on American goods.

“We have to protect consumers and competition to make sure consumers get the best of fair competition,” Vestager said. “We will continue to do it, no mat-ter the political context.”

The penalty is on top of a 2.42 billion euro fine ($2.8 billion) that regulators imposed on Google a year ago for favor-ing its shopping listings in search results.

Neither fine will cripple the company. Google parent Alphabet, made $9.4 bil-lion in profit in the first three months of the year and has over $100 billion in cash reserves.

“What is important is that Google has to change its abusive behavior,” said Rich Stables, CEO of the rival search engine Kelkoo.

Android is technically an open-source operating system that Google lets cell-phone makers use for free. As a result, it is the most widely used system, beating Apple’s iOS by a wide margin.

The EU wants to ensure that phone makers are free to pre-install apps of their choosing. It also wants cellphone makers to be able to more easily use altered versions of Android, like Ama-zon’s Fire OS.

Both Amazon and Samsung, maker of the popular Galaxy line of phones, declined to comment on the ruling.

Google argues that downloads are easy and while the inclusion of its suite of apps help phones run well out of the box, competitors’ apps are a tap away.

It also argues that not supporting so-called “forked” versions of Android ensures a baseline of experience across some 24,000 different models of Android devices. Vestager called the compatibility argument a “smokescreen.”

European regulators have set the pace in shaping rules for the tech industry.

The EU has clashed repeatedly with Microsoft over the years, fining it over its bundling practices and its promotion of its Internet Explorer browser.

In 2016, the EU ruled that Apple was getting preferential treatment from the Irish government and demanded it pay $15 billion in back taxes. The EU has also tangled with Amazon and Intel.

European regulators have likewise taken a harder line on data privacy. After the scandal this spring involving the misuse of Facebook users’ personal data during the U.S. presidential election and other campaigns, the EU began enforcing tougher new rules.

Thursday, July 19, 2018 3AThe Robesonian NEWS

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

40 residences located in a special flood hazard area. Thirty residences will be acquired and demolished, and 10 residences will be elevated, in accordance with Bertie County’s floodplain damage prevention ordinance.

The town of Fair Bluff will use a total of $3.6 million to acquire and demolish 34 residences located in a special flood hazard area. Once the structures are removed, the sites will be left open as green space in perpetuity.

Pender County will receive more than $2 million to elevate 14 residences located in a special flood hazard area above the base flood elevation. These structures experienced damage because of

flooding from the Cape Fear River and Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Matthew.

Johnston County will use $1.5 million to acquire and demolish eight residences located in a special flood hazard area. The homes were damaged due to flooding caused by Matthew. Once the structures are removed, the sites will be left open as green space in perpetuity.

More than $11 million in Hurricane Matthew relief money for Robeson County was announced recently by U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger, a Republican from Charlotte. The money is to be used to buy out, elevate or replace 119 flood-ravaged homes.

A $4,507,487 grant will be used to purchase and demolish 47 residential structures in Lumberton that were flooded during Hurricane Matthew. The

deeds will be transferred to the city of Lumberton to be used as open space.

A $1,831,867 grant will be used to elevate 20 residential structures in Lumberton to prevent damage from future floods. A $3,307,963 grant will be used to replace and elevate 34 residential structures in Lumberton that were destroyed when the hurricane roared through the county in October 2016.

And a grant of $1,800,821 grant will be used to buy and demolish 18 residential structures in Robeson County that were damaged by floodwaters generated by Hurricane Matthew, according to Pittenger. The deeds will be transferred to Robeson County to be used as open space.

Reach T.C. Hunter by calling 910-816-1974 or via email at tchunter@robesonian.com.

From page 1A

FEMA

EU fines Google $5 billion over cellphone practices

RALEIGH — Right after the 2016 elections, I observed that the combina-tion of Donald Trump’s rise and continuing GOP strength across the land-scape of American politics had yielded three distinct Republican parties: a popu-list and personality-driven White House party, a more traditionally conservative but often ineffective Capitol Hill party, and a grassroots party of results-oriented governors, leg-islators, and other politicians and policymakers who have amassed an impressive record of conservative reform at the state and local levels, including right here in North Caro-lina.

I think this remains a useful model for interpreting the politi-cal and policy developments of the past two years.

When the White House and Capitol Hill parties have been in alignment, on such issues as tax reform and judicial appointments, the result has been conservative victories. And to the extent Wash-ington Republicans have either stayed out of the way or actively cooperated with the grassroots, states have moved forward — on welfare reform for example. On the other hand, when the various fac-tions have been out of alignment, on such issues as trade and foreign policy, the results have alternated between calamity and chaos.

There is one big exception to my model: federal spending. Unfortu-nately, all three Republican factions appear to agree that the issue isn’t particularly important.

Tax reform was enacted without

significant budget savings to offset the fiscal impact. Neither Congress nor the administration has proposed a serious budget to bring expenditures in line with projected revenues. Irre-sponsibly, President Trump has said that reforming entitlements, which consti-tute most of federal spend-ing, is off the table. Also irresponsibly, Congressional

Republicans haven’t really argued the point. For their part, Republi-can governors and legislators have irresponsibly chosen not to push Washington on fiscal restraint but instead to seek and spend more borrowed federal money — on Medicaid, education, roads, and other programs.

This is all foolishness. It is bad governance and even worse poli-tics. Remember the Tea Party ral-lies of 2009 and 2010? Protesters were outraged about annual federal deficits approaching and then exceeding $1 trillion a year. They properly blamed presidents and lawmakers of both parties.

Just a few days ago, the Trump administration released its mid-year budget adjustments. The federal deficit is now expected to reach $890 billion, or 4.4 percent of gross domestic product, by the end of the 2018 fiscal year. Next year, the deficit will rise to $1.085 trillion, or 5.1 percent of GDP, and then stay above the trillion-dollar mark for at least two more years.

Recent spending increases and tax cuts help to explain the short-term trend, but the truth is that Washing-ton’s finances would be in shambles without them. Social Security, Medi-

care, Medicaid, and other entitle-ments were growing faster than the revenue needed to finance them even before the 2017 tax cuts.

Long-term forecasts of rapidly declining deficits as a share of GDP are unrealistic. They assume no significant economic down-turn, and that vague promises of future (but not current) spending restraint will actually be kept. Congress and the Trump adminis-tration need to take concrete steps now to bring the federal budget into balance within years, not decades.

You’ve heard that before, I’ll wager, but given my usual focus on state rather than federal affairs, I’ll add this less-familiar observation: State politicians have a critical role to play in addressing the issue. Did you know that federal funds make up nearly a third of North Carolina’s total state budget? In other states, the proportion is larger than that.

State policymakers should resist the urge to treat “Washington” as a cash machine. It has no money to spit out unless it first taxes us or borrows against future tax hikes. Rather than playing along with fis-cal delusions, state leaders should pledge to support some kind of structural constraint on federal deficits, such as a balanced-budget amendment, and in the meantime learn to say no to offers of “free” federal money — which includes, yes, the idea of expanding Medic-aid in its current form.

It’s time the grassroots party picked a fight.

John Hood (@JohnHoodNC) is chairman of the John Locke Foundation and appears on “NC SPIN,” broadcast statewide Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 12:30 p.m. on UNC-TV.

Last week in a crime story that would make a good storyline for “NCIS,” a California cold case of 31 years was solved — we are confident — 2,500 miles way and in St. Pauls.

The big difference is, unlike the popular CBS televi-sion show, what unfolded was not fiction, but real life.

If you read these pages you are familiar with the case, but even if you don’t, it is likely that you have heard about the arrest of a 62-year-old man who now stands charged with the murder of a 79-year-old woman in San Diego in 1987 in her single-bedroom cottage apartment. Grace Hayden was also raped before she was strangled to death.

If the story is retold in a television documentary, and our bet is that happens, it will be easy to identify the hero — John Blount, a 14-year deputy for the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office.

It is a myth that most crimes are solved in a lab, although it makes for some intriguing TV. But that is exactly what appears to have happened in this case.

In May 1987, when Hayden, a widow who had bur-ied her two children and appears to be only survived by a grandson, was murdered, a national data base of fingerprints was not available, and scientists had yet to contemplate how DNA would revolutionize crime investigations.

Both those tools are the reason that Hayden is likely to find justice from her grave.

Blount, in 2015, during a routine investigation of an allegation that Kevin Thomas Ford had threatened someone at a local pharmacy, made the fateful decision to take fingerprints from him, even though he had led a mostly crime-free life and lived it quietly on N.C. 20 with his second wife.

Blount told this newspaper the decision was because the FBI had asked local law enforcement to be more aggressive in collecting fingerprints in crimes that often escalate later, such as communicat-ing threats, domestic violence, and simple assault. So Blount did so.

Over on the West Coast earlier this year, Tony Johnson, an investigator with the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, was looking at cold cases when he discovered there was preserved DNA, a fingerprint and a palm print that remained as evidence in the Hayden case. Johnson entered the fingerprint into the national data base, got a hit, and that set into motion a series of events that led to Ford’s arrest.

Circumstantial evidence followed, including that Ford did not deny being in San Diego at the time, describing himself as a strung-out cocaine addict who was homeless after a divorce. The science says the likelihood of the DNA from the crime scene not belonging to Ford is an unimaginable 240 trillion to one against.

The take-home to us is pretty clear: A decision by a deputy to check all the boxes provided the impetus for an arrest in a 31-year-old murder across the country.

One of the common complaints we get concern-ing the Sheriff’s Office is that routine crimes, such as break-and-enterings, rarely inspire much more than a report for insurance purposes, and a determined inves-tigation, including the taking of fingerprints, is the exception not the rule. We understand that our Sher-iff’s Office is outmanned and has limited resources.

But we can’t help but wonder if fingerprints were gathered in a more aggressive manner if more arrests would follow. We are curious as well what kind of hits might occur if the fingerprints that are on file at the Sheriff’s Office were systematically run through the national data base.

It would take a lot of time and effort, but the payoff could be huge.

Charlotte Observer

Donald Trump’s meeting Monday with Russian president Vladimir Putin was historic in all the wrong ways. It featured an American president siding with an enemy of the U.S. over his administration and intel-ligence officials. It was the first time in memory a president was this deferential, this weak, in the presence of an adversary.

If there was a bright side, it’s this: It might be the only way for some Americans to under-stand just how alarmed they should be about their presi-dent’s perspective on Russia.

What did America see in one incredible news conference Monday?

We saw Trump place blame

on the U.S. for its relationship with Russia — without men-tioning Putin and his country’s years of global aggression.

We saw our president once again malign the FBI and Justice Department for investigating Russian interference in our 2016 election, then decline to object when Putin denied his country’s involvement. This just days after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian agents for hacking the Democratic National Com-mittee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in an attempt to help Trump.

We saw Trump — one day after National Security Adviser John Bolton said “we’re quite concerned” Russia would inter-fere in a future U.S. election —

say that he didn’t see “any reason why” Russia meddled in 2016.

We saw our president taking the side of Putin over the con-sensus of our country’s intel-ligence agencies. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people,“ Trump said when asked who he believed, “but President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

Finally we saw Trump, who attacked our North American and European allies during and after the G7 and NATO sum-mits, eager to shake hands and pat the back of our adversary.

It was disgraceful. It was a betrayal, not only of our intelli-gence agencies but of everyone who has fought against the

threat that Russia poses to the United States and its allies.

We agree with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennes-see, who said of Trump’s news conference: “I did not think this was a good moment for our country.” Said Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona: “I never thought I would see the day when our American presi-dent would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.”

Corker and Flake have some-thing in common: They’re not running for re-election and therefore are less inhibited in criticizing Trump. Some Republicans in Congress were

more tepid — Thom Tillis and Richard Burr focused their crit-icism on Russia and not Trump in statements late Monday. Most Republicans said nothing.

That’s almost as uncon-scionable. We don’t know if Trump’s performance at Mon-day’s news conference was a weak attempt at diplomacy or perhaps vanity about his 2016 election victory. We do think it’s reckless to suggest at this point, as Democratic leaders did later Monday, that Russia must have compromising info on our president.

But Donald Trump again gave Vladimir Putin a pass Monday for what amounts to an act of war. It’s time more Republicans started saying so.

4A Thursday, July 19, 2018 The Robesonian

EditorialOur view

their view

their view

Fingering thebad guy mightaid crime fight

Trump shamefully stands beside Putin, and with Russia

Push back on budget deficits

JohnhoodContributing columnist

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a month after North Korea pledged to immediately return some American war dead, the promise is unfulfilled.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled to Pyongyang this month to press the North Koreans further, said Wednesday the return could begin “in the next couple of weeks.” But it could take months or years to positively identify the bones as those of specific American servicemen.

In a joint statement at their Singapore summit, President Donald Trump and North Kore-an leader Kim Jong Un commit-ted to recovering the remains of prisoners of war and those missing in action decades after the Korean War — “including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.”

That was more than a month ago, on June 12. Although Trump said eight days later that the repatriation had hap-pened, it had not. It still has not. So, it was not “immedi-ate,” though the Stars and Stripes newspaper reported from South Korea on Tuesday that the North has agreed to transfer as many as 55 sets of remains next week. The Pentagon and the State Depart-ment declined to comment on any specifics promised by the North.

“We’re making progress along the border to get the return of remains, a very important issue for those fami-lies,” Pompeo said Wednesday at the White House. “I think in the next couple of weeks we’ll have the first remains returned, that’s the commitment, so progress certainly being made there.”

Likely also to prove untrue is the part of the Trump-Kim statement that said the North had war remains “already identified.” It apparently has bones and perhaps associated

personal effects, but history shows that any remains handed over by the North are likely to be difficult to identify. In recent days the State Department has changed that phrase to “already collected,” suggesting it real-ized the remains have not been identified.

“There are no missing Amer-icans who have been ‘already identified’ by the DPRK (North Korea) to be repatriated,” says Paul Cole, who has researched POW-MIA issues from the Korean War for decades and served for four years as a sci-entific fellow at the Pentagon’s Central Identification Labora-tory in Hawaii. He said this element of the Singapore state-ment “reflects a near total igno-rance of the role of science” in accounting for war dead.

There is even some doubt that any remains turned over

would be of Americans. Trump admitted as much in a CBS News interview July 14.

“You know, remains are com-plicated,” he said. “Some of the remains, they don’t even know if they are remains.”

That’s a big step back from his false assertion June 20 in Duluth, Minnesota: “We got back our great fallen heroes, the remains sent back today, already 200 got sent back.”

Richard Downes, whose father, Air Force Lt. Hal Downes, is among the Korean War missing, says hopes may have been raised too quickly.

“Yes, the Singapore state-ment overpromised,” he said, “exacerbated by our hope that it was accurate.”

Hope has long sustained Downes and thousands of other Americans who seek closure after decades of uncertainty

about a relative missing from the war. The Pentagon says 7,699 U.S. servicemen are missing from Korea, including about 5,300 believed to be in the North. Downes, 70, was 3½ when his father’s B-26 Invader went down on Jan. 13, 1952, northeast of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. His fam-ily was left to wonder about his fate. Downes is now executive director of the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, which advo-cates for remains recovery.

The Singapore statement may yet prove to be an impor-tant breakthrough. Bringing its promise to fruition, however, is proving harder than Trump made it seem.

As Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Stra-tegic Studies put it in a web essay last week, “What was

supposed to be the easiest item on the United States-North Korea negotiations agenda — the return of Korean War sol-diers’ remains — is proving to be yet another sticking point.”

Beyond the promised initial return of remains that the North may have been hold-ing in storage for years, the State Department said Sunday the two sides have agreed to restart searches for burial loca-tions of U.S. war remains in North Korea. That effort was suspended by the U.S. in 2005. This raises another delicate issue to be negotiated: how much the U.S. would pay the North for this access. In the past it has paid millions, saying the money was “fair and rea-sonable compensation” for the North’s help, not payment for bones or information.

In Fitzpatrick’s view, the North has dangled the promise of war remains as bait to attain political objectives such as progress toward a peace treaty to replace the armistice agree-ment that ended the fighting on the Korean Peninsula in July 1953. The North sees this polit-ical objective as an essential element of ending what it calls Washington’s hostile policy toward the North, which in turn is linked to its willingness to give up its nuclear weapons.

The Singapore summit was mainly about Trump’s push to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons. He said afterward there was no longer a nuclear threat from the North, though Kim agreed only to “work toward complete denucleariza-tion of the Korean Peninsula,” and no detailed plan has been worked out. On Tuesday, Trump seemed to reveal his own doubts about timing. He told reporters, “We have no rush for speed,” adding, “We’re just going through the pro-cess.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair-man Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the cen-tral bank has tools it can use to cushion the poten-tial economic fallout from a trade war. But he told Congress the effort could be challenging if higher tariffs push inflation up too sharply.

If the retaliatory tariffs imposed by other coun-tries slowed U.S. econo-my, Powell said the Fed could employ its normal tools, such as lowering interest rates.

But he said that could become complicated if higher U.S. tariffs on foreign products caused inflation to accelerate. That’s because the Fed’s normal response to higher inflation is to raise interest rates, not lower them.

“If we do have higher inflation, that could be very challenging for poli-cy,” Powell told members of the House Financial Services Committee.

Testifying before Con-gress for a second day, Powell said that Fed officials were hearing a “rising chorus of concern” from business contacts around the country about potential harm from Pres-ident Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The sentiment was echoed in the Fed’s latest “beige book” report, which noted that manufacturers in all of the Fed’s districts were expressing concerns about the tariffs. The report released Wednes-day is based on anec-dotes compiled from the Fed’s 12 regional banks. It found that in many districts, manufacturers were seeing in many dis-tricts “higher prices and supply disruptions that they attributed to the new trade policies.”

Asked about the find-ings in the Fed report, White House press secre-tary Sarah Sanders said that the overall economy was doing well and the

tariffs were part of the president’s hopes “to open up a number of mar-kets and create a more level playing field across the globe.”

The Fed’s economic survey will inform discus-sions at the central bank’s next rate-setting meeting on July 31-Aug. 1. The Fed has raised rates twice this year in response to strong growth, low unem-ployment and a slight rise in inflation.

The last rate hike occurred in June and at that time, the Fed moved its projection for future rate hikes this year from three up to four.

Many analysts believe the Fed will leave its benchmark rate unchanged in a range of 1.75 percent to 2 percent at the upcom-ing meeting but will hike rates again in September and December.

Powell’s comments during his two days of testimony supported that view. He gave an upbeat assessment of the econ-

omy’s prospects while citing rising trade ten-sions as a risk to the Fed’s optimistic outlook.

During more than three hours of testimony before the House panel on Wednesday, Powell heard widespread criticism from both Democrats and Republicans about the adverse effects Trump’s punitive tariffs were hav-ing on businesses and farmers in their districts.

Powell tried to avoid denouncing Trump’s get-tough approach while still endorsing the benefits of free trade.

In response to one question, Powell said, “The bottom line is that a more protectionist econo-my is an economy that is less competitive, less pro-ductive. We know that. It is not a good thing if this is where it goes.”

But Powell said that the administration believes that its imposition of pen-alty tariffs against China and other countries will eventually end up forcing

those countries to negoti-ate for lower tariffs.

“If this results in a more protectionist world, that would be bad for our economy and the world economy,” Powell said. “That is not what the administration says it is trying to achieve.”

A number of lawmak-ers praised Powell for his efforts to avoid economic jargon in explaining Fed policy and for his willing-ness to meet with indi-vidual lawmakers.

Powell, the first non-economist to head the Fed in nearly four decades, said his goal is

to speak so that he can be understood not just by economists and Wall Street investors but also by the typical household.

He noted that he has already announced he will double the number of press conference he holds each year from four to eight — one after every Fed meet-ing starting next year

“We owe you, and the public in general, clear explanations of what we are doing and why we are doing it,” Powell said in his testimony. “Monetary policy affects everyone and should be a mystery to no one.”

By Marcy GordonAP Business Writer

WASHINGTON — A panel of federal regula-tors is proposing lifting the strict government oversight imposed on Zions Bancorp, a big regional bank that received a taxpayer-funded bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.

The unanimous deci-sion by the Financial Sta-bility Oversight Council announced Wednesday is the latest example of a push, under the Trump

administration, to relieve regulatory restrictions that were put into place after the financial melt-down in hopes of avert-ing another crisis.

A final action on the Salt Lake City bank is likely within 60 days.

“The council con-ducted a careful analysis of Zions’ business and found that there is not a significant risk that Zions could pose a threat to U.S. financial stabil-ity,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who chairs the group, said in

a statement.In September, the

council voted to remove insurance giant Ameri-can International Group from the stricter over-sight. The regulators said that AIG — whose near-collapse prompted the biggest taxpayer bailout of the crisis at $182 billion — doesn’t pose a threat to financial stability.

The council was cre-ated and empowered by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to collar some large financial companies with

stricter supervision as a way to avert a “too-big-to-fail” situation — when the government is forced to rescue them to head off a broader economic collapse. It tagged Zions as a “systemically impor-tant” institution, one so big and crucial that it would threaten the finan-cial system’s stability if it veered toward collapse, because it’s a bank hold-ing company whose $65 billion in assets exceed the $50 billion level that automatically triggered the designation.

Zions was among hundreds of banks that received federal bailouts during the crisis. It repaid the $1.4 billion it received by 2012.

Zions has recently received approval from two federal agencies to simplify its structure by merging its holding company with its bank-ing business. That means the holding company will no longer be regulated by the Federal Reserve. If the oversight council makes a final decision to remove the designa-

tion and shareholders approve, Zions said it expects to complete the merger in late Septem-ber.

The bank’s stock rose 2 percent.

The council is led by Mnuchin and includes Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Jay Clayton, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those officials and nearly all the other seven members were appointed by Presi-dent Donald Trump.

Thursday, July 19, 2018 5AThe Robesonian NEWS

NoticeNotice is hereby given that the City of Lumberton has completed the Fiscal Year 2017 Annual Report for the Wastewater Collection System. A copy of the Annual Report will be on file at the City Clerk’s Office, 500 North Cedar Street, Lumberton, North Carolina 28358. A copy of the Annual Report may

be obtained by contacting the City Clerk at (910) 671-3807.

Laney Mitchell-McIntosh, City ClerkCN# 3333

Regulators seek end to stricter oversight of Zions Bancorp

Fed says trade war downturn could pose challenges

Trump-Kim statement overpromised on return of war remains

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, FileU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, and Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, arrive for a lunch at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea. More than a month after North Korea pledged to immediately return some American war dead, the promise is unfulfilled. Pompeo, who traveled to Pyongyang earlier this month to press the North Koreans further, said on Wednesday, the return could begin “in the next couple of weeks.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Organization of American States adopted a resolution Wednesday condemning human rights abuses committed by Nicaraguan police and armed pro-government civilians since protests against President Daniel Ortega began in mid-April.

The resolution, which was adopted 21-3 with seven abstentions, also criticized the harassment of Roman Catholic bish-ops.

Catholic officials who have been mediating stalled talks on finding a peaceful solution to the standoff and have criti-cized Ortega’s govern-ment over killings have suffered at least three recent attacks.

The OAS resolution by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colom-bia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and the U.S. called on Ortega to support an electoral calendar agreed upon during the dialogue process.

Ortega has rejected demands for early elec-tions and calls those seeking his exit “coup mongers.”

In the past week, Ortega’s government and

supporters have moved aggressively against the remaining resistance, including dislodging stu-dents from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and pushing into a rebel neighborhood in the city of Masaya.

On Wednesday, Nica-

raguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada blasted the OAS for adopting the resolution, calling it “illegal, illegitimate and unfair.”

“We have working institutions, a rule of law, a Constitution,” he said minutes before the vote. “That’s why it is not right that this permanent council becomes a sort of court that no one has

authorized nor given power to pass judgment on Nicaragua.”

Moncada said the government is subject “to attacks from terrorist groups to overthrow a legitimate government.”

Managua’s auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop, Silvio Jose Baez, cheered the resolution via Twitter.

“Thanks brother countries of the Ameri-can continent that have joined in solidarity with the pain and fight of the Nicaraguan people!” he wrote.

On Tuesday, Nicara-guan government forces retook the symbolically important neighborhood of Monimbo in Masaya southeast of the capital. It had recently become a center of resistance to Ortega’s government.

On Wednesday, Azu-cena Lopez Garcia buried her son Erick Antonio Lopez, a college stu-dent shot defending a barricade when police

and armed civilians sur-rounded and shot their way into Monimbo. Police commissioner Ramon Avellan has said he received orders to take control of the city by any means necessary.

“Monimbo is devas-tated,” Lopez Garcia said tearfully at her son’s graveside. “The youth are fleeing their homes.”

She said she was bury-ing her family member, but other mothers do not know where their sons were taken.

Pickup truck loads of pro-government civilians masked and armed with rifles and shotguns drove through the streets of Monimbo honking their horns and waving the red and black flag of the rul-ing Sandinista National Liberation Front in cel-ebration. Others lounged at intersections while police snipers were vis-ible on rooftops.

One man wearing a black ski mask and blue

T-shirt denied that he and others were government backed paramilitaries, though the heavily armed men moved freely in front of national police patrols.

“I’m a normal resi-dent,” he said, declining to give his name. “The very same residents had to free ourselves.”

While the OAS held its session, a bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators introduced legislation that seeks to impose sanctions on Nicaraguan government officials responsible for protester deaths, human rights violations and acts of cor-ruption. It also calls for a negotiated political solu-tion to the crisis.

“We can’t stay silent as Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo target their own people, as evi-denced by the images of students being shot while seeking refuge inside of a church,” said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations com-mittee and one of the bill’s sponsors.

In Mexico City, Pilar Sanmartin, a crisis researcher with Amnesty International, called on Ortega’s government to seek a peaceful resolution through dialogue. “But in a sincere way, an honest way.”

She said nearly 300 people had been killed and some 2,000 wounded in fighting during the past three months since pension cuts were announced and then quickly withdrawn in mid-April. The govern-ment says more than 200 people have been killed since the unrest began.

Last week, the Inter-American Commis-sion on Human Rights denounced “the worsen-ing, deepening and diver-sifying of” repression in the Central American nation.

NEWS The Robesonian6A Thursday, July 19, 2018

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AP Photo/Alfredo ZunigaArmed pro-government militia members flash victory signs as they occupy the Monimbo neighborhood of Masaya, Nicaragua, on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Nicaraguan government forces retook the symbolically important neighborhood that had become a center of resistance to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government.

OAS condemns human rights abuses in Nicaragua

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and

tonight’s lows.

LUMBERTON 5-DAY FORECAST

IceFlurriesSnowShowersRainT-storms Cold Warm Stationary

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Almanac

Temperature

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The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection. 0-2 Low; 3-5 Moderate; 6-7 High;8-10 Very High; 11+ Extreme.

Air Quality Index

Source: Airnow.gov

Sun and Moon

Weather Trivia™

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Beach ForecastRiver Levels

Lumber River

Flood 7 a.m. 24-hr Stage yest. chg.

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, r-rain, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice

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Charlotte

RockinghamFayetteville

Raeford

Bennettsville

Dillon

Marion

Conway

Whiteville

Boone

AshevilleMurphy

The Nation Today

Shown are noon positions of weather and precipitation.Temperature bands are highs for the day.

9 a.m.

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Good Moderate UnhealthyUnhealthy(sensitive)

VeryUnhealthy Hazardous

Washington88/70

New York82/67

Miami93/79

Atlanta88/73

Detroit84/67

Houston98/78

Chicago84/69

Minneapolis72/66

Kansas City91/70

El Paso102/76

Denver97/61

Billings90/58

Los Angeles86/70

San Francisco77/60

Seattle74/56

Morning Evening SundayAfternoon SaturdayFriday Monday

71 85 897386 90

748471

8874

Times of sun and clouds Partly cloudy Some sun with a

t-stormTimes of sun and

cloudsShowers and

thunderstormsMostly cloudy and

humidShowers and

thunderstorms

Lumberton through 4 p.m. yesterday

High/low ................................... 87/74Normal high/low ..................... 91/71Record high .......................98 in 1983Record low ........................56 in 1946

24 hours through 4 p.m. yest. ...0.56”Month to date ...........................0.87”Normal month to date ..............3.06”Year to date .............................19.42”Normal year to date ................25.15”

Sunrise today ..................... 6:17 a.m.Sunset tonight ................... 8:27 p.m.Moonrise today ................. 1:24 p.m.Moonset today ................ 12:37 a.m.

First

Jul 19

Full

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What ocean water temperature is required for a hurricane to form?

79(F) degrees or higher

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018

Carolina Beach: Clouds and sun today. Wind east 6-12 knots. Seas 3-5 feet. Visibility clear. Water temp 83 degrees.Myrtle Beach: A thunderstorm today. Wind east 7-14 knots. Seas 2-4 feet. Visibility under 2 miles at times. Wa-ter temp 83 degrees.

at Lumberton 13 6.74 +0.09at 5th Street 13 7.39 +0.12near Pembroke 10 3.55 -0.08near Maxton -- 6.84 -0.06at Boardman -- 2.54 +0.03

Atlanta 88 73 pc 88 73 cAtlantic City 81 67 s 80 69 sBaltimore 86 64 s 86 67 pcBoise 96 62 s 96 63 sBoston 78 64 s 81 63 sBuffalo 81 64 s 89 68 pcCharleston, WV 87 68 s 85 69 pcChicago 84 69 pc 80 68 tCincinnati 87 69 pc 83 68 tCleveland 84 69 s 83 71 tDallas 107 82 s 108 82 sDenver 97 61 pc 96 65 sDetroit 84 67 pc 82 68 tHartford 84 57 s 86 59 sHonolulu 87 74 pc 88 76 pcHouston 98 78 pc 100 78 sIndianapolis 86 69 pc 80 68 tJackson, MS 95 75 pc 98 76 tKansas City 91 70 pc 89 68 tLas Vegas 103 86 pc 106 88 tLos Angeles 86 70 pc 85 69 sLouisville 88 73 pc 88 71 t

Memphis 93 76 pc 96 74 tMiami 93 79 t 91 78 tMilwaukee 80 69 pc 77 67 shMinneapolis 72 66 r 78 66 shNashville 92 73 pc 91 73 tNew Orleans 93 76 t 95 77 tNew York 82 67 s 83 65 sOmaha 89 66 pc 87 68 sPhiladelphia 86 67 s 86 67 pcPhoenix 106 87 pc 107 87 pcPittsburgh 84 66 s 83 66 tPortland, ME 79 56 s 81 57 sPortland, OR 77 55 pc 80 54 sProvidence 83 61 s 84 60 sSacramento 97 64 pc 94 66 sSt. Louis 88 76 t 93 71 pcSalt Lake City 98 74 pc 96 74 pcSan Diego 78 72 pc 79 71 pcSan Francisco 77 60 pc 79 61 pcSeattle 74 56 pc 76 55 sTampa 88 79 t 87 80 tWashington, DC 88 70 s 87 71 pc

Today Fri. Today Fri.

Asheboro 86 67 pc 83 68 pcBeaufort 85 74 pc 82 76 tCamp Lejeune 87 72 pc 81 73 tCarolina Beach 86 71 pc 81 71 tChapel Hill 89 67 pc 85 68 pcCheraw, SC 91 70 pc 85 70 pcDarlington, SC 91 72 pc 84 71 tDurham 88 66 pc 85 68 pcFairmont 89 70 pc 84 70 tFlorence 92 72 pc 86 72 t

Today Fri.

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Goldsboro 90 66 pc 86 68 cHenderson 85 63 pc 82 65 pcHigh Point 86 67 pc 84 68 pcJacksonville 89 71 pc 83 70 tLake City, SC 91 72 t 85 72 tLaurinburg 90 69 pc 86 70 pcLori, SC 88 71 pc 81 71 tMaxton 91 69 pc 85 70 cMonroe 89 69 pc 88 69 pcMooresville 86 66 pc 86 68 pcMyrtle Beach 86 74 t 82 73 tParkton 91 70 pc 85 71 cPembroke 90 70 pc 85 70 cRed Springs 91 69 pc 86 70 cRockingham 90 68 pc 86 69 pcSt. Pauls 91 70 pc 85 71 cSanford 88 66 pc 84 67 pcHalifax 87 65 pc 82 67 pcTabor City 88 71 pc 81 71 tWallace 88 69 pc 82 70 tWhiteville 88 71 pc 81 70 t

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By Brandon TesterStaff writer

ST. PAULS — Former Lum-berton High football coach Mike Setzer was named the interim head coach of the St. Pauls football team on Wednesday, making it a sec-ond time as the coach of the Bulldogs.

Setzer had been an assis-tant coach for the Bulldogs since the begin-ning of the year. He was head coach at Lum-berton for four seasons before that.

He takes over for Ernest King, who was named Westover’s head coach in June after spending two seasons with the Bulldogs, with his team going 11-13 in those two years.

“I’m very excited,” Setzer said. “St. Pauls is the school that gave me my first coach-ing opportunity.”

Setzer previously coached at St. Pauls from 2004 to 2007. He was named Robeson

By Brandon TesterStaff writer

RED SPRINGS — Leading into high school football practice starting on July 30, The Robesonian’s sports staff is publishing a countdown of the top 15 players in Robeson County, and Red Springs’ Aaron Hunt comes in at No. 10 on the list.

The linebacker made the second-most tackles on the team with 62 last season, trailing Robeson County Heisman winner Jerome Bass by 78.

Hunt said losing Bass to graduation hasn’t changed his team’s mindset over the offseason.

“We just keep rolling,” Hunt said. “Just because we lose one person doesn’t mean we can’t replace him.”

The rising senior was able to be disruptive in the backfield as a junior, tallying six tackles for loss. Hunt forced two fumbles and recovered one.

He wrapped up the season with a selection to the all-county team, and

Hunt is already focused on making the all-Three Rivers Conference team this season.

“Aaron Hunt is the heartbeat. He’s the motor that drives the bus,” head coach Lawrence Ches said. “Never missed a practice, never missed a workout, never missed a lift. 100 percent buy-in. He’s obviously stepping in for a huge player from last year.”

In addition to his efforts on defense, Hunt

also caught five passes for a total of 67 yards and a touchdown last season.

Hunt said he thinks the Red Devils’ offensive line and defense

are currently among the strongest units on the team.

“I think we’re pretty good. We lost a couple seniors this year, but we got some good people to replace them,” Hunt said.

Hunt helped guide the Red Devils to a 9-4

record and an appearance in the second round of the NCHSAA football championships last year. He posted eight or more tackles four times and logged a season-high three tackles for loss against West Bladen.

“I think we can make a repeat run in the playoffs this year,” Hunt said.

Red Springs opens its season on Aug. 17 at South Brunswick.

Reach Brandon Tester at 910-816-1989 or btester@robesonian.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonTester.

By Brandon TesterStaff writer

LUMBERTON — Two weeks ago, Brad Locklear didn’t feel ready to defend his Championship Division title at the Robeson County Golf Championships taking place this weekend at Pinecrest Country Club.

The two-time champion said his game was “really rusty” at that point and he wasn’t as confident as he was when he finished 10-under to win the title by nine strokes in 2017.

It didn’t take long for him to replenish some positivity.

“Right now I feel pretty good,” said Locklear, who also won the title in 2012.

Locklear, 31, finished ahead of runner-up Scott Benton, who finished at 1-under, as well as five-time champion Dyrck Fanning and 2016 champion, Steve Pippin, who finished tied for third at 1-over last year.

By Doug FergusonAP Golf Writer

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — The eve of the British Open felt like cramming for a final exam, a multiple choice one with no obvious answers.

The wind that blows off the North Sea across the exposed

links of Carnoustie has not been the primary concern dur-ing practice rounds. Players have a reasonable idea how far the ball travels in the air. They just don’t know how far it goes on the ground.

“If you get it downwind and you hit that little flat draw

and it gets running, it will go pretty much until it runs into something,” Justin Thomas said.

That’s not entirely true.Thomas hit a tee shot on

the third hole Wednesday afternoon that rolled across the humps in the fairway

and kept right on rolling. It looked as though it would run into a bunker, or maybe even the handle of a rake leaning on the left edge of the bunker. It missed both and eventually came to a stop 232 yards away.

By Aaron BeardAP Sports Writer

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said Wednesday he doesn’t believe it’s been proven that football causes the degenerative brain disease CTE and offered a passionate defense of a sport he believes is “under attack.”

Fedora, during interviews at Atlantic Coast Conference preseason media days, described the sport as an integral part of American culture and said it is “safer right now than it’s ever been,” though he acknowledged the risk of

concussions in a sport featuring con-stant collisions.

It wasn’t clear who Fedora was refer-ring to in saying the game was under attack, with the seventh-year Tar Heels coach noting, for example, “it’s more about people twisting data” to argue foot-ball is unsafe. He also said players should be educated on the risks of the game.

“I don’t think that the game of football, that it’s been proven that the game of football causes CTE,” Fedora said. “But that’s been put out there. We don’t really know yet.

“Are there the chances for concus-sions in the game of football? Yeah, we

all have common sense, right? Yeah, there are. When you have two people running into each other or multiple people running into each other, there is a chance of a concussion. But again, I’m going to say, the game is safer than it’s ever been in the history of the game.”

Known to cause violent moods, depression, dementia and other cogni-tive difficulties, CTE has been linked to the repeated hits to the head endured by football and hockey players, boxers and members of the military. The NFL’s billion-dollar concussion settlement included payouts for a qualifying diag-nosis of CTE.

North Carolina is home to a noted center researching sports-related brain injuries and Fedora’s comments caused a stir at the ACC event, which opened two days of sessions with the league’s seven Coastal Division teams. He returned nearly two hours later to speak with a handful of reporters.

“I’m not sure that anything is proven that football itself causes it,” he said. “Now we do know from what my understanding is that repeated blows to the head cause it. So I’m assuming that every sport that you have, football

The Robesonian Thursday, July 19, 2018 • Section B

Sports

AP Photo/Jon Super Sergio Garcia plays from the 2nd tee during a practice round on Wednesday ahead of the British Open Golf Championship in Carnoustie, Scotland.

British Open presents challenges

UNC football coach Fedora causes stir with comment

Locklear ready to defend his championship

Locklear

Top 15: Hunt is Red Devils’ ‘heartbeat’

Hunt

Setzer namedinterim coachat St. Pauls

Setzer

See FEDORA | 4B

See SETZER | 4B

See OPEN | 2B

See LOCKLEAR | 2B

By Tim ReynoldsAP Basketball Writer

The Kawhi Leonard saga in San Antonio is over. So is DeMar DeRozan’s time in Toronto.

An NBA summer blockbuster got pulled off Wednes-day, with the Spurs sending Leonard to the Raptors as part of a four-player deal that has DeRozan heading to San Antonio. The Spurs also got center Jakob Poeltl and a 2019 protected first-round draft pick, while the Raptors acquired sharpshooter Danny Green.

For Leonard and the Spurs, there’s finally closure to a relationship that seemed fractured beyond repair and played out like a soap opera as the season went along. But in the end, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich — insisting that looking back at what happened would not be worth his time, and that Leonard was a good teammate throughout his tenure in San Antonio — simply said he hopes the move works out for everyone involved.

“Kawhi, obviously, worked very hard to become the player he is,” Popovich said in San Antonio, a couple of hours after the trade became official when the teams got approval on the terms from the NBA. “Our staff worked very hard to help him get there. We wish him all the best as he moves on to Toronto. I think he’s going to be great.”

Leonard was the 2014 NBA Finals MVP and had been with the Spurs for seven seasons, averaging 16.3 points, though was limited to just nine games last sea-son because of a leg injury. DeRozan has been in the league for nine years, all of them with Toronto, and is a career 19.7 point-per-game scorer.

DeRozan has led the Raptors in scoring in each of the last five seasons. He was key to Toronto winning 59 games and securing the No. 1 seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs last season. But after getting swept in the second round by Cleveland, the Raptors decided massive changes were necessary — first the firing of coach of the year Dwane Casey, and now the trading of a perennial All-Star who once famously declared “I am Toronto.”

DeRozan’s initial reaction seemed to be one of anger and frustration.

“Ain’t no loyalty in this game,” DeRozan wrote in an Instagram story that appeared in the wee hours of Wednesday, around the time that ESPN and Yahoo Sports reported that the trade was approaching the imminent stage, several hours before it was finalized. “Sell you out quick for a little bit of nothing … .”

DeRozan did not specifically reference the trade in that post, but his message didn’t exactly need transla-tion. Raptors president Masai Ujiri has been traveling in Africa and was not immediately available for comment.

Not only is the trade huge, it’s potentially risky for both teams.

Leonard hasn’t played since January because of the somewhat mysterious right quadriceps injury — and the level of severity was something that even some of his now-former teammates reportedly questioned last season while San Antonio was trying to qualify for the Western Conference playoffs. The Raptors clearly aren’t worried about Leonard’s status, and Popovich indicated Wednesday that Leonard has recovered suf-ficiently enough to play.

SPORTS The Robesonian2B Thursday, July 19, 2018

His club off the tee was an 8-iron.

Tiger Woods doesn’t see many occasions to hit driver because of how far the ball is rolling across tight links grass that looks dead. It hasn’t been this dry since Hoylake in 2006, when Woods hit only one driver all week and cap-tured the Open for the third time. This might not be much different.

“It’s just hard to keep the ball in play,” he said. “It’s going to be an interesting test to see which clubs we’re going to be using off the tees, and a lot of it is dependent on which way the wind blows. So the whole idea of these practice rounds is just to get a good feel for what I’m going to do, and then adjust accord-ingly.”

Others are coming to a dif-ferent conclusion. Because while the links are as fast as ever, the rough is too thin, too wispy to wreak havoc. Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, figures he’ll hit driver about half the time on the 15 holes that are not par 3s. Two-time U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka also is bullish on the big stick, saying the driver will come out on about eight or nine holes.

Defending champion Jor-dan Spieth was considering his options on the final day of practice. On the 415-yard fourth hole, with a bunker on the right side of a dogleg left

and another bunker farther out on the left side, he hit a fade over the right bunker. The other option is a long iron that splits the bunker.

And then Spieth had anoth-er idea.

“Aim for the 4?” he asked his caddie, Michael Greller. He then motioned to the gal-lery about 60 yards off the tee to scoot back a bit, and Spi-eth blasted a shot over their heads toward a yellow patch of rough that separates the right side of the fourth green from the 15th tee. There’s not enough deep grass to get into trouble.

The answers will start arriving on Thursday when the 147th edition of the Brit-ish Open — and the eighth edition at Carnoustie — gets started.

“I think there’s not going to be one player in this field that has a game plan on Wednesday night and is going to stick to that game plan the whole way around for 72 holes,” Rory McIlroy said. “It’s just not going to happen with wind conditions, with pins. You start to feel a little bit more comfortable with a few shots, and you might start to take some on.

“Because the golf course is playing so firm and fast … there’s some guys that will see it completely different than the way I see it, and vice versa,” he said. “It’s going to be really interesting to see how it all plays out.”

Sandy Lyle of Scotland, who won the Open in 1985, gets it start with the opening tee shot Thursday morn-

ing. Spieth, who will try to become the fifth player in the last 50 years to win back-to-back in the British Open, plays in the morning side of the draw.

Among those playing in the afternoon are Woods, back at the Open for the first time since 2015, and Koepka, who will try to become the first player since Woods in that momentous summer of 2000 to win golf’s two oldest cham-pionships.

Carnoustie is regarded as the toughest of the links in any conditions, though it rarely sees this kind of yellow-and-brown conditions. The ball still rolls on brittle ground into the wind. Put the breeze at their backs, and some holes will have no more than a wedge into the greens.

Johnson hit a 3-iron and a wedge into the par-5 14th hole, which measures 513 yards, during one practice round. He hit driver into the burn — the one by the green — on the 499-yard closing hole when he arrived Satur-day. The next day, he scaled back and hit 3-wood and sand wedge.

Even so, there is respect for these links.

“If it blows, it’s going to be tough,” Johnson said. “And with the ball running, it runs right into the bunkers. So you’re still going to have to hit good shots, and you’re still going to have to play well. The golf course is tough. The par 3s are tough. Even with the ball running so far, the golf course is not playing easy.”

Benton will not be in the field this weekend as he recovers from neck surgery.

Locklear says that he will be the man to beat this year.

“I feel like I got a lot of guys are coming for me,” Locklear said.

More than 100 golfers are registered to compete in several divisions. The Super Seniors and Championship division tee off Friday and the tee times are in today’s paper. Everyone else tees off Saturday and those tee times will be in Friday’s newspaper.

Dwight Gane, the head professional at Pinecrest, said the conditions at the golf course will be favorable for Locklear and the rest of the field.

“Our golf course is really good,” Gane said. “I think we will have low scores this week.”

Gane said the greens and fairways at the course are in ideal shape, and the rough isn’t as thick as it has been in the past because of dry weather.

“We have been trying to get our golf course right where it is, to be honest,” Gane said.

Locklear said he is prepared to compete for another trophy regardless of the circumstances.

“I’ve gradually gotten more comfortable with my game and where it’s at,” Locklear said.

He said he isn’t making any major changes to his approach this year in what he estimates to be around his ninth appearance at the championships.

He will play against several past contenders and champions, including nine-time champion Kyle Covington, Fanning, Pippin,

Ryan Bass and Ian Locklear. Others expected to contend

include Jeff Wishart, who ran the tournament in the past but turned over those duties to Chris Jackson, the golf course superintendent at Pinecrest.

“I don’t think I’m accustomed to it yet,” Wishart said of his role change.

Greg Powell, a Columbus County resident who is a member at the Fairmont Golf Club, will be in the mix as well. Gane said Powell has recently been posting some of the best scores at the club.

John Haskins, who finished in fifth place after shooting 7-over last year and fell three strokes short of Bass in fourth place, will also be in the field.

Six divisions will be contested at the championship. The super senior and junior divisions will play on Friday and Saturday followed by the regular, ladies and senior divisions on Saturday and Sunday.

The championship division will play Friday through Sunday.

Top finishers will advance to take on Cumberland County golfers in the Highlander Cup.

Nick Lowery defeated LeMark Harris by four strokes in the Regular Division last year. Eddie Williams became a two-time Seniors Division champion after defeating runner-up Larry Lynn Locklear by five strokes, while Knocky Thorndyke finished 2-over to win the Super Seniors Division. Bobbie Ghaffar finished with a two-day combined score of 181 as the sole competitor in the Ladies Division.

Reach Brandon Tester at 910-816-1989 or btester@robesonian.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonTester.

From page 1B

LocklearFrom page 1B

Open

ScOReBOaRd

tv

MLBGoLf

RoBeson County GoLf ChaMpionship

Baseball expanded Standingsall Times edT

By The associated PressaMeRIcaN LeaGUe

east division W L Pct GB WcGB L10 Str Home awayBoston 68 30 .694 — — 9-1 W-2 34-13 34-17New York 62 33 .653 4½ — 6-4 L-1 33-13 29-20Tampa Bay 49 47 .510 18 8½ 6-4 L-1 26-17 23-30Toronto 43 52 .453 23½ 14 3-7 L-2 24-25 19-27Baltimore 28 69 .289 39½ 30 4-6 W-2 16-33 12-36

central division W L Pct GB WcGB L10 Str Home awayCleveland 52 43 .547 — — 4-6 W-1 31-19 21-24Minnesota 44 50 .468 7½ 12½ 8-2 W-1 29-22 15-28Detroit 41 57 .418 12½ 17½ 3-7 W-1 25-23 16-34Chicago 33 62 .347 19 24 3-7 W-1 19-29 14-33Kansas City 27 68 .284 25 30 2-8 L-1 11-35 16-33

West division W L Pct GB WcGB L10 Str Home awayHouston 64 35 .646 — — 6-4 L-1 32-21 32-14Seattle 58 39 .598 5 — 3-7 L-4 31-17 27-22Oakland 55 42 .567 8 3 7-3 W-2 24-21 31-21Los Angeles 49 48 .505 14 9 5-5 L-1 24-23 25-25Texas 41 56 .423 22 17 3-7 L-2 19-28 22-28

NaTIONaL LeaGUeeast division

W L Pct GB WcGB L10 Str Home awayPhiladelphia 53 42 .558 — — 5-5 L-2 30-16 23-26Atlanta 52 42 .553 ½ — 3-7 W-1 25-20 27-22Washington 48 48 .500 5½ 5 5-5 W-1 22-24 26-24Miami 41 57 .418 13½ 13 5-5 W-2 23-28 18-29New York 39 55 .415 13½ 13 4-6 L-1 19-32 20-23

central division W L Pct GB WcGB L10 Str Home awayChicago 55 38 .591 — — 7-3 W-3 28-15 27-23Milwaukee 55 43 .561 2½ — 2-8 L-6 30-18 25-25St. Louis 48 46 .511 7½ 4 5-5 W-1 24-24 24-22Pittsburgh 48 49 .495 9 5½ 8-2 W-6 29-24 19-25Cincinnati 43 53 .448 13½ 10 6-4 L-1 21-26 22-27

West division W L Pct GB WcGB L10 Str Home awayLos Angeles 53 43 .552 — — 6-4 W-1 28-24 25-19Arizona 53 44 .546 ½ ½ 5-5 L-1 26-23 27-21Colorado 51 45 .531 2 2 8-2 W-5 23-23 28-22San Francisco 50 48 .510 4 4 5-5 L-2 31-19 19-29San Diego 40 59 .404 14½ 14½ 2-8 L-5 20-31 20-28

tRansaCtions

Friday Tee TimesThe following are the Friday tee times for the 37th annual Robeson County Golf

Championship sponsored by by Dial Insurance at Pinecrest Country Club. Play Friday is in the Super Seniors and the Championship Divisions. The other tee times will be in Friday’s newspaper

SUPeR SeNIORS8:24 — Lee Hunt, David Locklear, Jerry Long8:32 — Gerald Strickland, David J. Locklear, David Bruce Oxendine8:40 — Bob McQueen, Ronald Locklear, Knocky Thorndyke8:56 — Cliff Nance, Willie Jacobs, Willie Oxendine9:04 — Kajun Hunt, Delance Locklear, Christopher Blue9:36 — Gurney Hunt, Dean Hunt, Ronnie Chavis10:00 — Larry McNeill, Ronnie Hunt, Donnie Beck10:08 — Danny Lassiter, Atlas Warwick, J.D. Revels

cHaMPIONSHIP dIVISION10:32 — Dyrck Fanning, Joseph Martin, Hunter McDuffie12:24 p.m. — Ryan Bass, David Locklear Jr., Ashton Woods12:32 — Keith McGirt, John Haskins, Chad Martin12:40 — Kyle Covington, Jeff Wishart, Mark Lassiter12:48 — Brad Locklear, Steve Pippin, Greg Powell12:56 — Jeff Broadwell, Landon Lowry, Timmie Stultz, Russ Seasock1:04 — James H. Oxendine, Sam Oxendine, Tom Sampson

2018 Open championship tee times for Thursday (Round 1)

3:03 a.m. -- Phil Mickelson, Satoshi Kodaira, Rafa Cabrera Bello

4:58 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Kiradech Aphibarnrat

5:09 a.m. -- Jon Rahm, Rickie Fowler, Chris Wood

5:20 a.m. -- Louis Oosthuizen, Paul Casey, Patrick Reed

7:31 a.m. -- Henrik Stenson, Tommy Fleetwood, Jimmy Walker

7:53 a.m. -- Rory McIlroy, Marc Leish-man, Thorbjorn Olesen

8:04 a.m. -- Dustin Johnson, Alex Noren, Charley Hoffman

10:10 a.m. -- Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau, Shubhankar Sharma

10:21 a.m. -- Tiger Woods, Hideki Mat-suyama, Russell Knox

1:35 a.m. -- Sandy Lyle, Martin Kaymer, Andy Sullivan

1:46 a.m. -- Erik Van Rooyen, Brady Schnell, Matthew Southgate

1:57 a.m. -- Danny Willett, Emiliano Grillo, Luke List

2:08 a.m. -- Mark Calcavecchia, Dan-thai Boonma, Shaun Norris

2:19 a.m. -- Kevin Chappell, Oliver Wilson, Eddie Pepperell

2:30 a.m. -- Ross Fisher, Paul Dunne, Austin Cook

2:41 a.m. -- Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Cantlay, Shane Lowry

2:52 a.m. -- Thomas Pieters, Kevin Kisner, Marcus Kinhult

3:03 a.m. -- Phil Mickelson, Satoshi Kodaira, Rafa Cabrera Bello

3:14 a.m. -- Brian Harman, Yuta Ikeda, Andrew Landry

3:25 a.m. -- Si Woo Kim, Webb Simp-son, Nicolai Hojgaard

3:36 a.m. -- Stewart Cink, Brandon Stone, Hideto Tanihara

3:47 a.m. -- Gary Woodland, Yusaku Miyazato, Sung Kang

4:03 a.m. -- Ernie Els, Adam Hadwin, Chesson Hadley

4:14 a.m. -- Pat Perez, Julian Suri, George Coetzee

4:25 a.m. -- David Duval, Scott Jamie-son, Kevin Na

4:36 a.m. -- Darren Clarke, Bernhard Langer, Retief Goosen

4:47 a.m. -- Matt Kuchar, Anirban Lahiri, Peter Uihlein

4:58 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Kiradech Aphibarnrat

5:09 a.m. -- Jon Rahm, Rickie Fowler, Chris Wood

5:20 a.m. -- Louis Oosthuizen, Paul Casey, Patrick Reed

5:31 a.m. -- Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, Jhonattan Vegas

5:42 a.m. -- Yuxin Lin, Alexander Bjork, Sang Hyun Park

5:53 a.m. -- James Robinson, Haral-dur Magnus, Zander Lombard

6:04 a.m. -- Kodai Ichihara, Rhys Enoch, Marcus Armitage

6:15 a.m. -- Sean Crocker, Gavin Green, Ash Turner

6:36 a.m. -- Brandt Snedeker, Sam Locke, Cameron Davis

6:47 a.m. -- Patton Kizzire, Jonas Blixt, Charles Howell III

6:58 a.m. -- Charl Schwartzel, Daniel Berger, Tom Lewis

7:09 a.m. -- Alex Levy, Ryan Moore, Ben An

7:20 a.m. -- Michael Hendry, Kelly Kraft, Lee Westwood

7:31 a.m. -- Henrik Stenson, Tommy Fleetwood, Jimmy Walker

7:42 a.m. -- Mathew Fitzpatrick, Rus-sell Henley, Jovan Rebula

7:53 a.m. -- Rory McIlroy, Marc Leish-man, Thorbjorn Olesen

8:04 a.m. -- Dustin Johnson, Alex Noren, Charley Hoffman

8:15 a.m. -- Zach Johnson, Adam Scott, Brendan Steele

8:26 a.m. -- Francesco Molinari, Bran-den Grace, Justin Thomas

8:37 a.m. -- Jason Day, Shota Akiyo-shi, Haotong Li

8:48 a.m. -- Todd Hamilton, Beau Hossler, Jorge Campillo

9:04 a.m. -- Ryuko Tokimatsu, Chez Reavie, Michael Kim

9:15 a.m. -- Kyle Stanley, Nicolas Col-saerts, Jens Dantorp

9:26 a.m. -- Tom Lehman, Dylan Frit-telli, Grant Forrest

9:37 a.m. -- Lucas Herbert, Min Chel Choi, Jason Kokrak

9:48 a.m. -- Padraig Harrington, Bubba Watson, Matt Wallace

9:59 a.m. -- Ian Poulter, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka

10:10 a.m. -- Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau, Shubhankar Sharma

10:21 a.m. -- Tiger Woods, Hideki Mat-suyama, Russell Knox

10:32 a.m. -- Jason Dufner, Ryan Fox, Keegan Bradley

10:43 a.m. -- Ryan Armour, Abraham Ancer, Masahiro Kawamura

10:54 a.m. -- Jazz Janewattananond, Fabrizio Zanotti, Jordan Smith

11:05 a.m. -- Brett Rumford, Masanori Kobayashi, Jack Senior

11:16 a.m. -- Matt Jones, Thomas Curtis, Bronson Burgoon

Sports on TVThe associated Press

(all times eastern)Schedule subject to

change and/or blackoutsThursday, July 19

aUTO RacING4:55 a.m. (Friday)ESPN2 — Formula One, Emirates

German Grand Prix, practice, at Hocken-heim, Germany

cYcLING6:30 a.m.NBCSN — Tour de France, Stage 12,

from Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs to Alpe d'Huez, France

eXTReMe SPORTS10 p.m.ESPN — X Games Minneapolis 2018

GOLF9:30 a.m.GOLF — British Open, first round, at

Carnoustie, Scotland5 p.m.GOLF — PGA Tour, Barbasol Champi-

onship, first round, at Auburn, Ala.1:30 a.m. (Friday)GOLF — British Open, second round,

at Carnoustie, ScotlandMLB BaSeBaLL

7 p.m.ESPN — St. Louis at Chicago Cubs

MIXed MaRTIaL aRTS9 p.m.NBCSN — Professional Fighters

League, at Uniondale, N.Y.WNBa BaSKeTBaLL

8 p.m.ESPN2 — Washington at Dallas

aMeRIcaN LeaGUeFriday's Games

N.Y. Mets at N.Y. Yankees, 7:05 p.m.Baltimore at Toronto, 7:07 p.m.Boston at Detroit, 7:10 p.m.Miami at Tampa Bay, 7:10 p.m.Cleveland at Texas, 8:05 p.m.Minnesota at Kansas City, 8:15 p.m.San Francisco at Oakland, 9:35 p.m.Houston at L.A. Angels, 10:07 p.m.Chicago White Sox at Seattle, 10:10

p.m.

NaTIONaL LeaGUeThursday's Games

St. Louis (TBD) at Chicago Cubs (Hendricks 6-8), 7:05 p.m.

Friday's GamesSt. Louis at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 p.m.Atlanta at Washington, 7:05 p.m.N.Y. Mets at N.Y. Yankees, 7:05 p.m.San Diego at Philadelphia, 7:05 p.m.Miami at Tampa Bay, 7:10 p.m.Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, 7:10 p.m.L.A. Dodgers at Milwaukee, 8:10 p.m.San Francisco at Oakland, 9:35 p.m.Colorado at Arizona, 9:40 p.m.

Wednesday's Sports TransactionsBy The associated Press

BaSeBaLLamerican League

CHICAGO WHITE SOX — Optioned OF Charlie Tilson to Charlotte (IL).

National LeagueCINCINNATI REDS — Placed OF Scott Schebler on

the 10-day DL, retroactive to July 15.american association

CLEBURNE RAILROADERS — Traded C Quinn Irey to Fargo-Moorhead for a player to be named. Signed C James Simpson.

GARY SOUTHSHORE RAILCATS — Released RHP Christian.

LINCOLN SALTDOGS — Signed C Daniel Herrera.ST. PAUL SAINTS — Signed LHP Ryan Boelter.WINNIPEG GOLDEYES — Signed OF McClain

Bradley.atlantic League

LONG ISLAND DUCKS — Signed RHP Chris Pike. Placed RHP Lee Sosa on the inactive list.

can-am LeagueOTTAWA CHAMPIONS — Released RHP Alex Vargas.TROIS-RIVIERES AIGLES — Signed LHP Fernando

Fernandez Beltran.BaSKeTBaLL

National Basketball associationSAN ANTONIO SPURS — Traded F Kawhi Leonard

and G-F Danny Green to Toronto for G DeMar DeRozan,

C Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round draft pick.

FOOTBaLLNational Football League

BALTIMORE RAVENS — Promoted Ron Medlin to head certified athletic trainer and Joey Cleary to college and pro scout. Named Bobby Vega East area scout.

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Placed DE Gaelin Elmore on the reserve/retired list.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — CB Darrelle Revis announced his retirement.

canadian Football LeagueCFL — Fined Winnipeg OL Pat Neufeld an undis-

closed amount for a late hit on BC LB Solomon Elimim-ian.

Leonard goes to Raptors, DeRozan goes to Spurs

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included, could be a prob-lem with that, right? As long as you’ve got any kind of contact, you could have that. That does not diminish the fact that the game is still safer than it’s ever been in the history of the game because we continue to tweak the game to try to make it safer for our players.”

Fedora also clarified his earlier comments to say the game wasn’t under attack from rule tweaks to improve or promote safety.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” Fedora said. “How’s the game under attack? To me, it’s more about people twisting the data and the informa-tion out there to use for whatever their agenda is. Tweaking the game doesn’t mean that the game is under attack. Any

time you’re changing the game for the betterment for the health and safety of the players, you’re doing a great thing.”

Asked if he believes the findings of some research studies on the topic, Fedora responded: “Depends on the study. I believe some of the studies and there’s some of them that I don’t. But that’s why you do studies, I think.”

Earlier in the afternoon, Fedora had touted the life

lessons learned from the game have “a major impact on who we are as a coun-try,” even connecting that to the strength of the U.S. military.

“Oh yes, I fear that the game will get pushed so far to one extreme that you won’t recognize the game 10 years from now,” Fedora said. “That’s what I worry about. And I do believe if it gets to that point, that our country goes down, too.”

The ACC opened the day with state-of-the-league comments from Commissioner John Swof-ford, including his expec-tation of a national stan-dardized policy for report-ing injuries and ineligible players following a recent Supreme Court ruling striking down a federal law barring gambling on college sports.

The two-day session concludes Thursday with the Atlantic Division teams.

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From page 1B

Fedora

County Coach of the Year twice in that span. He went on to coach at his alma-mater West Caldwell for two years, where his teams went 1-21.

Setzer then moved on to Lumberton, where he compiled a 17-28 record and guided the Pirates to a first-round playoff appearance in 2015.

“The funny thing now is some of the kids I’m coaching, I coached their dads,” Setzer said.

The interim tag means Setzer is not guaranteed to keep the position after the 2018 season. St. Pauls administrators will decide what the next step in the hiring process is after the season is over, according to Athletic Director Matthew Hunt.

Setzer doesn’t have much time to get settled in with his new position. The Bulldogs play their first game of the season on Aug. 17 at E.E. Smith.

“We hit the ground running,” Setzer said of his team’s preparations for the season.

Setzer said assistant coaches Eric Murphy, Chansey Canady and Calvin Randle, among others, have been helpful in guiding the players through their summer workouts.

The Bulldogs finished 2017 with a record of 5-7. Quarterback Noah Wheeler, who led the team in passing and rushing yards, has graduated and rising sophomore Hunter Bryant is currently the frontrunner to replace him.

“We’re going to put him in big situations to make him as successful as possible,” Setzer said.

Setzer said he was impressed with the rigorous weightlifting regime King created for the team, and he plans on continuing to focus on those exer-cises.

He also said he appreciated St. Pauls Principal Jason Suggs giving him an opportunity after his stint at Lumberton.

From page 1B

Setzer

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Pirates on the big stage

Courtesy photosAT LEFT, Lumberton graduate London Thompson competed with the East Team in the East/West All-Star Competition at the Greensboro Coliseum on Monday. Thompson, who is continuing her career at North Carolina Central University next year, tallied four rebounds and a pair of steals as the West Team defeated the East Team 95-81. AT RIGHT, Lumberton graduate Cameron Williamson cheered at the East/West All-Star games as a member of the All-State cheer team . She was the first Lumberton cheerleader to be named to the All-State team.