City Councilwoman Shakeyla Ingram, running for her second term in office, held off former Councilman Tyrone Williams in Tuesday’s election for the District 2 seat on the Fayetteville City Council, according to unofficial results.

Ingram received 749 votes and Williams received 653, according to unofficial results from the N.C. State Board of Elections.

There were 144 write-in votes, according to the state tally.
Ingram said Tuesday night that she does not know what the difference in the race was.

“But what I do know is I went in this race saying I would focus on this race and this race only. I stayed true to that,” she said. “I served in the pandemic and social unrest in my term. Maybe that was what it was. I’m grateful through it all. …

“It was in the voters’ hands, and I understood that,” she added. “The voters stated what they wanted.”

Both candidates grew up living in the district.

Ingram, 31, works in marketing and community relations

Williams, 53, was a member of the City Council in 2018 for a partial term. He resigned roughly two months after allegations emerged that he tried to solicit money from a developer. At the time he left office, Williams blamed local media for false accusations. Williams also blamed his former wife for falsely accusing him of molesting a 10-year-old boy.

On Oct. 21, 2019, court records show, Williams entered into a conditional discharge on a charge of assault on a child under 12, a misdemeanor, and received 30 months of unsupervised probation, which came with specific conditions he was ordered to follow if he were to have the charges later dismissed.

Cumberland County Court records show that Williams did not meet those conditions.

On April 4 of this year, a judge revoked the conditional discharge and Williams was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of assault on a child under age 12. He was sentenced to 60 days suspended for 12 months and placed on supervised probation, according to court records.
Williams is a real estate developer and Navy veteran. He could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Kathy Jensen will serve her fifth term on the Fayetteville City Council after defeating Alex Rodriguez on Tuesday in the race for the District 1 seat, according to unofficial returns.

Jensen, 57, received 807 votes to the 561 that Rodriguez received, according to unofficial results from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

“I look forward to serving our city for the next year and a half,’’ Jensen said. “This gives me great opportunity to finish working on the parks and recreation bond and to bring more jobs into our city.”

Moments after hearing the election results, Jensen was humbled, thanking her family, friends and everyone who has supported her over the last eight years.

Born and raised in Fayetteville, Jensen, her husband, Jerry, and their four children live in North Fayetteville, where she owns An Affair to Remember, a small business featuring prom, pageant and formal wear on Ramsey Street.

Rodriguez, 48, is a retired Army officer and former police officer. He said he ran for office because he sees Fayetteville heading in the wrong direction with crime, pollution and economic development.

“I closed the gap on the primary from 29% to 36%, but I am a little disappointed with the results,’’ he said. “Fayetteville isn’t ready for change.’’

He said part of the challenge was along political party lines.

“I’m proud of the effort that I put into this and look forward to seeing what happens next,’’ Rodriguez said. “I wish it had been different, but this is a very blue city and getting bluer by the day.”

Rodriguez said he was undecided if he would run again, but applauded the race as being a good one.

Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin easily won re-election Tuesday, complete but unofficial election returns show.

Colvin, who was first elected mayor in 2017, defeated political newcomer Freddie de la Cruz. Colvin received 9,253 votes – or 62.74% of the total cast – compared with 5,452 votes for de la Cruz – or 36.97%.

Colvin could not immediately be reached for comment. This will be his third term as mayor. He served on the City Council for two terms, including a stint as mayor pro tem, before first being elected mayor in 2017. De la Cruz served 32 years in the Army.

After it became apparent that Colvin had won, de la Cruz expressed disappointment, not so much that he had lost, but that so few voters went to the polls. Figures from the North Carolina State Board of Elections show that only 11.72% (14,833) of the city’s 126,533 registered voters cast ballots in the City Council election.

“The biggest thing is look, I gave the citizens of Fayetteville an opportunity to make a change, and they stayed home. That's the message. That's my message,” de la Cruz said.

Although Fayetteville’s voter turnout was only 11.72%, the turnout for the Charlotte City Council race was almost as low, at 12%. Greensboro saw a 16% turnout.

De la Cruz said he plans to regroup, continue to operate his businesses – Venus Vogue Weddings and Formals and Fayetteville Limousine Service – and take a vacation with his wife before beginning another run as a mayoral candidate. He said he will take a look back at his campaign and see what he can do better next time.

During their election campaigns, Colvin and de la Cruz placed a high emphasis on improving public safety, as well as other quality-of-life issues, such as affordable housing and educational opportunities.

We have taken down the Silent Sam Civil War monument on University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s campus and the statues of Confederate soldiers on many courthouse plazas.
But there are other monuments to the Civil War and slavery that cannot be removed — unfortunately.

In “Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South,” David Silkenat explains how over a 200-year period slavery made possible environmental disasters that cursed and continue to curse our region.

Silkenat says the slave owners in America’s South saw their landscape as disposable.
Using intensive farming methods made possible by slavery, southern plantation owners wore out their farms. Rather than rehabilitating the land as they exploited it, they simply bought new land to replace what had been ruined.

Sometimes, the replacement land could be purchased nearby. Other times, the owners and slaves from worn-out plantations would move from North Carolina to fresh lands in Alabama or Mississippi, with the enslaved people walking all the way.

In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson noted in 1793 that he did not use manure to fertilize or replenish his worn-out tobacco fields “because we can buy an acre of new land cheaper than we can manure an old acre.”
Twenty years later Jefferson acknowledged that the intensive farming by his slaves had left his soils inert.

But the environmental damage associated with slavery was not limited to farmlands.

In North Carolina, for instance, intensive enslaved labor made possible the exploitation and destruction of the magnificent longleaf pine forests that covered our state. To secure the pitch and tar from the pine trees, enslaved labor tapped, and scratched the surface, taking the ‘blood’ the trees needed to sustain themselves, leaving only ghosts of once-magnificent forests.

Silkenat wrote, “Intensive extraction conspired with environmental factors to expedite the forests’ destruction. Scarification caused by repeating chipping made the trees vulnerable to wood-boring insects such as the ips beetle, the turpentine bore and the black turpentine beetle. Stripped of their bark, the pine trees stood defenseless against these insects. A turpentine-borer epidemic in 1848 –1849 along the Cape Fear River devastated the heart of North Carolina's longleaf pine.”

Also, in North Carolina, the use of enslaved labor during the gold rush days before the Civil War made possible the extraction of gold but left a ruined landscape behind.

In South Carolina, the rice plantations that made that state wealthy before the Civil War, required an enormous commitment of enslaved labor to dig and manage the canals and other waterways that provided the right conditions for the crop. Those canals and their upkeep, adjustment and repairs destroyed the natural environment and left the coastal lands permanently affected.

Similarly, along the Mississippi River, the construction of levees to protect farmlands from flooding required enslaved labor. Continuing maintenance and repair demanded a long-term commitment of enslaved labor. The adjustments to the normal ebb and flow of the river still make for the continuing disruption of the great river’s natural flow.

In cotton and tobacco fields, hardwood and pine forests, rice fields, goldmines, rivers and levees, slavery brought about even more damage to the environment. Although the author sets out many more examples of damage, he acknowledges that “the environmental devastation chronicled in this book pales in comparison to the brutality of American slavery on human bodies and souls. Yet looking at slavery through an environmental lens reveals how the chattel principle poisoned everything it touched.”

Dr. Marye J. Jeffries has been named an Honorary Trustee of Fayetteville Technical Community College.
Jeffries, who served on FTCC’s Board of Trustees for 26 years, including four years as Board Chair, was honored June 21 in a ceremony at the monthly meeting of the FTCC Board of Trustees.

The designation of Honorary Trustee recognizes an individual for exceptional service and support of FTCC through the years. Jeffries served on FTCC’s Board of Trustees from 1992 until 2018. She served as Board Secretary from 1993 to 2004 and as Board Chair from 2004 through 2008. Jeffries was instrumental in the installation of the College’s two most recent presidents, Dr. Larry B. Norris in 1997 and Dr. J. Larry Keen in 2007.

Born in Victoria, Texas, Jeffries began her teaching career in Tacoma, Washington, then moved to Fayetteville in 1963 and began teaching elementary school. She was the first African American teacher at Vanstory Hills Elementary School and earned her Master’s degree in Education while working at Vanstory.

In the early 1970s, she joined Fayetteville State University as an associate professor of education. She earned her Doctorate in Education Administration and Supervision from UNC-Chapel Hill and held a series of positions at FSU, culminating in her appointment in 1995 as Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. She was the first African American female to hold that position. Dr. Jeffries retired from FSU in 1998 but remained extremely active in her community.

Her community service has included chairing the Fayetteville/Cumberland County Arts Council and the Cumberland County Auditorium/Arena Commission (now the Civic Center Commission).
She is a longtime member of the Fayetteville Chapter of The Links, Inc., an international women’s service organization, and served on its Executive Council and as its president. Her daughter, Dr. Kimberly Jeffries Leonard, is currently the national president of The Links. Kimberly Jeffries Leonard and several officers and other members of the Fayetteville Chapter of The Links, Inc., attended the ceremony at FTCC. Also in attendance were Glenn Adams, chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, and his wife, Superior Court Judge Gale Adams; and FSU Chancellor Darrell
Allison and his wife, La Nica Allison.

Jeffries’ awards include the Order of the Long Leaf Pine and the Old North State Award. In 2011, she was honored by FSU as an Outstanding Black Woman in American Culture and History.
Jeffries is the 10th person to be named an Honorary Trustee of Fayetteville Technical Community College. Previous honorees include Tony Rand, W. Dallas Herring, Helen E. Batten, Thornton W. Rose, Lura S. Tally, Thomas R. McLean, Jeannette M. Council, Glenn Adams, and Larry L. Lancaster.

FTCC President Dr. Larry Keen praised Jeffries for her dedication and leadership at FTCC and in the community. “She has done such a remarkable job in so many ways,” he said. “We have all benefitted and learned so much because of her.”

A new exhibit dedicated to banking will be opening at the Fayetteville History Museum Aug. 2. The exhibit will focus on the history of banking in the Fayetteville area beginning in the late 1700s.
The exhibit will take the place of the History of Baseball exhibit on the museum’s second floor. Staff are working to create a space reminiscent of the opulence often found within banks. The room has been painted deep green, and white columns decorate the space. All of these finishing touches within the exhibit help to create the atmosphere of a bank, according to Bruce Daws, museum director.

“Architecture in banking was important. The bank had to speak to opulence, it had to speak to being solid, and it was usually classic architecture,” Daws said.

One of the panels in the new space is dedicated to architecture in the banking world, highlighting buildings in downtown Fayetteville such as the building at 100 Hay St. Originally built to be the National Bank, it has now been converted into office spaces. The building was built to replace the original National Bank, a three-story classic brick building.

“When they decided to build the 10-story skyscraper to replace [the old building], they asked the city if they could move into the Market House. The bank conducted business, not in the upstairs, but put windows and infill in the arches and opened that up as the bank while the mammoth structure was being built,” said Daws.

Stories like this fill the new exhibit space, which in addition to information about the architecture of banks, will hold a large collection of banknotes used in the Fayetteville area for 200 years. Most notable will be a 20 shilling note from 1754, the same year Cumberland County was established. The note is British, as, at the time, everyone who lived in the area were subjects of the Crown. In addition to this rare note, foreign coinage that would have been used for transactions will also be on display. Foreign currency was allowed as payment until the 1850s, when an act was passed forbidding it.

These coins and notes, known as “obsolete bank notes,” tell the story of the Fayetteville financial sector during the 1700s and 1800s.

“Banking is an important subject just to who we are as a city,” said Daws. “We were a colonial port city located at the head of navigation on the Cape Fear River. We were an important trade community. Fortunes were being made and lost on the Cape Fear River. Banks were certainly an important ingredient in the big picture of Fayetteville.”

The museum will be displaying obsolete bank notes from the local banks that popped up between 1807 and the Civil War. A rare set of four Bank of Clarendon notes will be shown. The notes are significant in that they are unsigned and uncut, meaning they never saw circulation.

The exhibit continues through the Civil War. The Civil War impacted banks in the South quite significantly, and the exhibit will have several displays detailing the roller coaster of currency during the war.

“Now, that was an interesting time because all of a sudden, overnight, you had to develop a treasury department and start printing money. Money was being printed so quickly at the very beginning that clerks were signing bank notes; they were being cut with scissors often times instead of being professionally cut,” said Daws. “At first that confederate currency held its value, it was kind of a trust that it was what it represented itself to be. As the war drug along and it wasn’t looking as good for the South, it had lesser and lesser value.”

On display will be a pile of confederate money that came down through one of the old families in Fayetteville.

“It was worthless, but it wasn’t thrown away. Often, it was tucked away as a souvenir, and after many years these saw the light of day again. Some of these notes are heavily worn where they were in circulation for a while; some are pristine,” said Daws.

Another significant piece on display is a banknote signed by the mayors and commissioners of Fayetteville on Aug. 1, 1865. Fayetteville fell to General Sherman in March of 1865. This note is important because of how soon after the war it was printed. A display panel also tells the story of William G. Broadfoot, a banker and confederate agent during the war at the Bank of Fayetteville. As Sherman was marching into town, he had an idea to hide the bank assets around Fayetteville. He put notes in a bank stationery envelope with details as to where these were hidden.

Several of the assets have since been located, affirming that Broadfoot’s plan worked.

Daws hopes the exhibit will showcase the importance of banking to the city’s history. From prominent bank presidents, vice presidents and directors such as Dr. Paul Melchor and Dr. E.E. Smith to Jacob Stein and E. A. Poe, the history of banking within Fayetteville is varied and tells a unique Fayetteville story. The banknotes on display all tell a tale of where the city has been.

“The notes themselves to me are like artwork. They are so finely done,” he said.

Daws said a special thanks should be extended to David Boitnott of North Carolina. The majority of the collection that will be on display is from his own private collection, and he generously allowed the museum to feature the history he has collected. Rev. Robert Alves of St. John’s Episcopal Church has also generously loaned out coinage for the exhibit.

The exhibit opens Aug. 2 at the Fayetteville History Museum at 325 Franklin St.

Be inspired by art and music at Kreativity Unlocked on Aug. 4 in the Orangery Ballroom at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. Host Keith Sykes is a local photographer who will have prints on display to view with select items available for sale.

There will be an open bar with wine, spritzers and hors d'oeuvres. Guests can get creative with a 360-photo booth. There will also be musical performances by Testimony and DJ Liek, who both hail from Norfolk, Virgina.

This is not the first photography exhibit Sykes has organized. He held a show in 2018 at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre and one in 2019 at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. He chooses locations that will inspire creativity in his guests so they can fully experience the art and music.

"One of the things that I always say when I'm putting (events) together is that it's all about the experience," said Sykes. "I want the people that come through the door to really experience something different than they've experienced in the first two shows."

Sykes has had a varied career that led to becoming a photographer and owner of an event planning company, IKreate Consulting. The New Orleans native joined the military when he was 20 years old. Sykes traveled the world while he served, which sparked his interest in photography. He settled in Fayetteville after 20 years of service.

"I have had a love for photography for a very long time because one of my older brothers was a photographer at one point, but it was never really serious," said Sykes. "And then, in 2015, I started taking it seriously because a couple of friends suggested it. So, my very first exhibit was in 2018."

Much of Sykes' inspiration comes from travel, and guests will be able to see areas like Edisto Island and Greenville, South Carolina, and some local spots in Fayetteville through his lens.
This event will be the last featuring his work as he plans to organize future events to help local artists.

"I want to give other local artists who are not very well known and who are not very visible in the local community the opportunity to show their work," he said. "So, I think the next thing I do will be something collaborative with a couple of different artists."

The event is limited to 100 guests. The cost is $50 and includes all drinks and appetizers. No tickets will be sold at the door. The event is not formal, but guests are encouraged to dress to impress.

Purchase tickets here www.eventbrite.com/e/kreativity-unlocked-tickets-302584035997.

The Summer Concert Series at Gates Four Golf & Country Club will be "Back in Black" on Aug. 5, with headlining band Shoot To Thrill set to take the stage. Presented by Fayetteville Dinner Theatre, the all-female AC/DC tribute band will grace the stage at 7:30 p.m. prepared to rouse the crowd in grand fashion.

The family-friendly event is intended "For Those About to Rock," and the buzz around one of the hottest bands out of Raleigh couldn't be louder.
The concert series has proven both successful and popular amongst those looking for good music and good vibes on a lazy Friday night.

The show offers concert-goers a little bit of everything up on the stage. Heartbreaker, Tuesday's Gone, and Mostley Crue, cover bands for Heart, Lynard Skynard and Motley Crue, respectively, are just a few of the bands still destined for the Gates Four stage before the concert series is over.

The relaxed, outdoor event will have food for purchase as well as beer with liquor provided by Healy Wholesale Co. Inc. Guests are encouraged to unfold their camping chairs and spread out their blankets to enjoy this awesome show against the backdrop of a fiery North Carolina sunset.

The gates open at 5 p.m. and local musician, Judah Marshall, will open the show shortly thereafter. The "Hometown" crooner's folksy, acoustic-driven offerings will undoubtedly be the perfect counterbalance to Shoot To Thrills' hard rock riffs.

Shoot To Thrill, featuring the talents of Kara (Vocals), Susan (Guitar), Jai (Bass), Wendy (Guitar), and Kate (Drums), are a powerhouse ensemble that brings the Australian rock n' roll band to which they pay tribute boldly to mind during their high voltage sets.

The five Raleigh women often take to the stage in a mix of lingerie and thoughtful nods to AC/DC, like Angus Young's classic school boy uniform and Brian Johnson's iconic newsboy cap. The energy and heart they bring to the stage as the crowd before them whips into a frenzy, stomping along to the first heart-stopping chords of "Dirty Deeds" is quite an experience, and the Gates Four audience should prepare for a wild ride.

"We love to have a lot of audience participation," Wendy, Shoot To Thrill's guitarist, told Up & Coming Weekly. "We really try to put on
a show."

Shoot To Thrill's journey started around five years ago with Kate, Susan and Wendy. Originally a southern rock cover band, the response to their hard-rock covers, especially AC/DC, caused the band to shift focus and drill down on their niche. From there, Shoot To Thrill was born.

"People were just going crazy," Wendy joked. "We thought maybe we should just do an AC/DC tribute band, and here we are."

Despite their success, popularity, and undeniable talent, the road isn't always easy. As an all-female band, the women have had to deal with the challenges of sexism throughout their careers.

"People think we have it easier because we're women, but we get rejected a lot," Wendy said candidly. "People are concerned that women won't show up to see us, but our audience is about 60% women. We definitely have our own fight to get in, but we're working hard, and we're really happy, we're having fun, and we're all friends."

Fans of the classic rock band will hear hits from throughout their catalog, and there will be plenty of opportunities to sing or scream along. From Bon Scott era "Highway to Hell" to Brian Johnson's powerful anthem "Back in Black," Shoot To Thrill aims to please and knows how to get a crowd going.

"We watch a lot of live AC/DC, and we try to change it up, even the more obscure stuff. We try to design the sets, so the die-hards are happy, as well as the people who've never heard a single AC/DC song," Wendy said.

Off the stage, the women all lead lives very different than their rock-star stage personas. Wendy has worked at IBM for the past 22 years, Jai is a veterinary surgeon, Kara is a salon owner, Susan is a professor of music at Elon University, and Kate is an architect. To accommodate the demands of their two worlds, the band tries to maintain a three-week on, two-week off schedule to ensure there's room in their lives for all the things that matter.

"We were going non-stop, and then COVID happened, and it helped us realize we need to find a balance, to take our time for our family vacations. We don't want to miss anything."
The Gates Four performance will be the band's second time playing Fayetteville, and they're excited to return. After Shoot To Thrill wraps for the evening, guests are invited to hit the free after party at the Sand Trap Sports Lounge, which promises more fun beginning at 10 p.m. with an opportunity to meet the band.

Though the event is free and open to the public, the Gates Four Summer Series offers an experience for every taste and budget. VIP packages are available for those that crave a more exclusive experience. Four packages range from $38 for single tickets, including table seating and all food, beer and wine, to $500 for a table seating eight inside the pavilion with food and beverage included. Guests can also look forward to door prizes.

As the summer season winds down, there is no shortage of opportunities for people to come together for a good time in all corners of Cumberland County, a primary goal for the Fayetteville Dinner Theatre.
Businessman and Up & Coming Weekly publisher Bill Bowman reconceived the Bordeaux Dinner Theatre intending to bring premium entertainment options to Cumberland County residents living outside of downtown Fayetteville.

With a name change and a move to Gates Four, Bowman and many talented performers have more than made good on that intention.

Additionally, events held under the banner of Fayetteville Dinner Theatre support Cumberland County education by contributing to Kidsville News Literacy and Education Foundation.

"Through Fayetteville Dinner Theatre, we get to create new cultural events and help fund an education initiative," Bowman said.

Gates Four Golf & Country Club is at 6775 Irongate Dr. in Fayetteville. For more information about Gates Four, visit www.gatesfour.com/.
For more information concerning the Fayetteville Dinner Theatre and to purchase VIP tickets, visit www.fayettevilledinnertheatre.com/.
To keep up with Shoot To Thrill, visit www.shoot2thrillband.com/. For those about to rock, we salute you.

Segra Stadium, home of the beloved Fayetteville Woodpeckers, will host its inaugural “Back to School Bash” event on Aug. 5.

As the days melt off the summer calendar, parents throughout Cumberland County know the time when they must trade flip-flops and sunscreen for lunch boxes and three-ring binders grows closer. Soon, the dreaded school supply lists will start circulating around Target, Walmart and grocery stores, sending local parents into a frenzy.

For some, the color-coded folders and index cards bear no additional financial stress; for others, the notoriously picky lists will be placed in the queue next to a growing number of items that have become increasingly expensive.

North Carolina gas prices still hover around $4 per gallon, and the price of groceries continues to increase; many families will struggle to secure the school supplies their students need to start the year.
To remedy this concern and ease some of the hardship associated with this time of the year, Segra Stadium is partnering with over 22 organizations to hand out school supplies to students across Cumberland County from 6-9 p.m. at the event on Aug. 5.

Up & Coming Weekly spoke to Kristen Nett, Community and Media Relations Manager for the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, about the event and its importance within the community.

“I knew a ton of ‘Back to School’ events happening all over the city,” she explained. “So instead of duplicating, I decided to bring all those efforts together. Our big goal is to partner with people who share the same goals — that‘s really important to us.”

The family-friendly event will entertain guests with games, a kid zone, batting cages and face painting — all free to those in attendance. Additionally, the stadium’s concession stands will be open and offer food and beverages available to purchase. “We want families to stay and have fun, enjoy time with each other,” Nett said.

To prepare for August’s event, fans can donate school supplies during games from July 26 — July 31 in exchange for a voucher which can be redeemed for a discounted $7 ticket. The ticket is good for any game left in the 2022 season. Public donations will be accepted until Aug. 5.

Nett expressed her excitement over the forthcoming event and why projects like these are close to the organization’s heart.

“We are a multimillion-dollar business and can use our platform to come into this community and make a serious difference. It’s very important to me that we equal the playing field and provide opportunities to people regardless of socioeconomic status. School is starting soon, and some people simply don’t have the resources — we want to bridge that gap.”

Families must register to participate, and supplies will be given on a first-come, first-served basis.

Segra Stadium is located at 460 Hay St. in downtown Fayetteville.

To register for the event, visit https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=bLr1ayMS-0aHO5q1XAC9JFug2voy1hFAl18UB_YKCyJUQTMzVjJCWkJJREFTNFZOTEtRRkQzQjVCTC4u.

To donate, email Kristen Nett at knett@astros.com.

To learn more about the Woodpeckers, visit www.fayettevillewoodpeckers.com/.

Kia Walker places her blue violin underneath her chin. She smiles, as she so often does, says a sentence or two, partially in song form, as she often does, and then straightens up to begin. Her soft ringlet curls fall just slightly onto her forehead as she looks down at the instrument. She moves her slender fingers over the string at the neck of the violin while the other hand glides the bow across the strings. In a flash, the bow is moving quickly over the strings, stirring up white resin dust on the strings, neck and bridge of her instrument. Her fingers slide from string to string. They glide in unison, almost dance-like. This instrument has become natural to her. It is second nature.

In Walker’s studio, piles of thin books line the walls and shelves. They range from beginning music books to more difficult levels, some are duplicates — meant for students. There are pieces of artwork around, all of which revolve around music. In each window sill, signs with quotes about music or God sit. The studio is quaint and bright with natural light pouring in. Just outside, through the window is the bustle of downtown Fayetteville. Walker continues to play, drowning out the faint noise of the city that can be heard just outside. She is in her own world now.

Walker puts down her instrument and rearranges herself. Her makeup is always done and she can usually be seen wearing long, dangly, bright earrings. She loves her jewelry. She loves people. She loves teaching. And most of all, she loves music.

In various corners of the room, instruments are displayed. At the entrance is a cello, held by its stand, and in the room next to it is a piano and a guitar. These are not for show. Walker plays all of these instruments and uses them at The Blue Violin Music Education Center — her music studio where she gives lessons for piano, violin, viola, cello, guitar and voice. Well, almost all of them are played. In the corner of the entire studio stands bright red conga drums.

“I don’t play the drums. I bought those drums because they are pretty,” Walker laughs. “I just thought it would be a nice little splash of color.”
Walker began her life with music singing as a 7-year-old. Around age 10, she started playing the violin when Cumberland County came to her school to introduce orchestra. She remembers even at those young ages, being in love with music. She tried her hand at writing songs, including one she gave to her orchestra teacher.

“I thought she was going to be all impressed. But she said, ‘Kia, your song doesn’t have any rests in it,’” Walker laughs again and then shakes her head. “She said, ‘your song has to breathe.’”

And so did Walker. For about 18 years, Walker put the violin down. In high school, she took piano lessons that she paid for herself. She remembers driving herself to her piano teacher’s home. Her mom, a single parent, was busy working, taking care of Walker and her younger sister.

“I just wanted music that badly,” she said.

Eventually, Walker went off to UNC-Chapel Hill to study psychology. But music still was her first passion. During college, she got lots of offers for credit cards. They would come in the mail and she would look them over. She decided to get her first credit card and make her first big purchase.

“I bought my first piano. I put my piano on my first credit card,” she said.

The piano that she bought still sits in her studio and she uses it to this day to help teach her students. Occasionally she’ll sit down to play it for herself.
Walker returned to Fayetteville to finish out her last years of college at Fayetteville State University. She eventually met her husband, Skip, at his recording studio in town. She would come into the studio to sing and record songs — both that he wrote and that she did.

“I started noticing that I was falling in love with him. After our recording session, we’d end our sessions at the Waffle House. I would get the scrambled eggs with cheese,” Walker sings the word scrambled eggs with cheese.

Walker continued on to take a job doing special education at an elementary school for Cumberland County Schools. At the end of each day, Walker would return home exhausted.

“I noticed I was too tired after teaching all day … I was too tired to practice. I thought maybe if I began doing music as my job I could practice too. I wanted to be fresh enough to practice. I wanted to play the piano or the violin.”

Walker looked outside the window for a moment and smiled. This portion of her life is where she picked the violin back up. She picked up other instruments too. She began to combine her first passion with one of her other passions.

She transferred into teaching music. This is where her life made sense to her. On the side she learned to play the organ and played for a church in Massey Hill. This is a job she still holds to this day. This position taught her some great life lessons that she carried into her later projects.

“I was not that good at it. I was learning that you don’t start being good at it until you practice it for a while and give yourself the time to get good at it. To this day, I have that job. Some songs I smoke them. Some songs I don't,” Walker laughs a loud, infectious laugh and shakes her head.

Walker went on to get a Master's in Divinity Church Music from Campbell University Divinity School. For Walker, faith is very important. She said she has been a Christian for a very “long, long time.”

“As I have become older, seen life and experienced things, my faith has become much stronger. Sometimes I’ll just sing to the Lord.” Walker sings a little bit in a normal sentence. Her life is part musical.

This year Walker began an online TV show for her music that she named “Music Life.” She says she wants to show the parallels between music and life and life and music. For her, there’s no separation of the two.

“There are life lessons that come from playing an instrument. I was really slow at playing the cello because it’s a big instrument. There’s a parallel there. Sometimes in life we don’t want to face the big problems that we have in our life, we want to play the small instruments. We want to play things that are more familiar to us. We don’t want to try new things.”
Walker stops for a moment. She looks around her room, the place where she learned so many lessons in life.

“Music Life is highlighting those areas in life where we learn to … there’s a saying, be patient everything is difficult before it is easy. Playing cello is difficult for me. Playing the violin was difficult for me at one time. It’s easy for me now.”

Walker continues to the piano and plays a song, on the same piano she bought with her first credit card in college. Her head bobs as she moves through the music. Rain began to patter outside but nothing distracts her from the song at hand. She trips over a part and starts over. This correlates perfectly to the first episode in her show. Walker is having each interviewee pick a focus word for the session. The first one is practice.

“If you mess up, you go back to the beginning and start again. Same thing with life. You aren’t going to get it all right the first time but if you keep perfecting what you do, and perfecting who you are, and excellence is your goal … you will get there.” Walker smiles and then packs up her violin.

Fort Bragg is one of the world’s largest military bases. Housing over 50,000 active duty troops and over 100,000 retirees and family members, Cumberland County is home to a brave population of men and women who have dedicated their lives to keeping America safe.

The price of service

But service, no matter how noble, can sometimes come at a high price. According to national research, incidents of major depression in the military are five times higher than in civilian populations, and PTSD is almost 15 times higher.
A 2021 study found that while over 7,000 soldiers have died in combat in the 20 years since 9/11, over 30,000 active duty and veteran soldiers have died by suicide.
Mental health has become one of the largest threats to modern military service, and resources to help struggling soldiers and their families are in high demand. One valuable resource available to the abundant military population in Cumberland County is the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Centerstone.

Founded in 2016 by philanthropist Steven A. Cohen, the father of a United States Marine, the Cohen Veterans Network is a national not-for-profit network of mental health clinics for post-9/11 veterans, active duty service members and their families. Cohen Veterans Network has helped over 30,000 former and current service members and their families through 21 nationwide clinics.

The local clinic treats several mental health challenges for all post-9/11 veterans regardless of rank, discharge status or role while in uniform; all active duty service members with a Tricare referral; and the entire military family from spouses to in-laws. Clients can seek care for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, adjustment issues, anger, grief and loss, family issues, transition challenges, relationship problems and children’s behavioral problems. Care can be managed in person or through face-to-face video therapy.
Up & Coming Weekly spoke to Retired Army Major Sharjuan Burgos, Outreach Director for the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Centerstone, about Cohen Veterans Network’s work within the local military community.

“Nearly everyone who works for our organization is military affiliated,” she explained. “In this clinic, we understand the lingo — we have a very high military, cultural competency here. We believe that military families deserve a healthy life, and that’s our goal: ‘getting families back to better.’”
Burgos served in the military from her high school graduation to her retirement in 2020. With 27 years of service under her belt, she has been a compassionate witness to the sometimes heavy burden such an honor can bestow and feels right at home in this new position.

“It’s such an honor,” she said, beaming. “I thought I knew everything about the military, but it’s a huge transition working this side of it, but it’s wonderful to serve the people I know best. I knew I wanted to live a life of purpose and give something back. Taking off that uniform can be hard — I know I felt lost when mine came off.”

Stigma of seeking treatment

The stigma surrounding mental health and health care is still quite prevalent in the civilian world, but even more so in the military. Fear of career derailment or possible discharge keeps many soldiers from seeking the help they need. Burgos understands the pressure many in the military face to slap a “Hooah!” on their pain and keep it moving.

“There are so many reasons service members don’t seek treatment,” she said. “Many military service members struggle to be two people; they hide a lot, put on their cape, shield and boots, and then go home and have to be themselves — it’s hard. They put on their super capes, and then they must try to be the things they fear they aren’t.”

Underserved populations

One underserved population supported by Cohen Veterans Network is female veterans. The unique challenges of female military service pertaining to family, sexual safety and pressure not to appear weak in a male-dominated career field make it even more difficult for these soldiers to seek help. Among veteran clients, women comprise 30% of the group — more than two times the female veteran population in the United States. These numbers are especially important to Burgos. “One of my jobs is to make sure everyone is included, especially female veterans, because they’re so often overlooked,” she explained.
Military children are also a very high priority to the clinic and its larger organization. “We see kids as young as five years old,” Burgos said. “Kids don’t know how to express themselves the way we do. We give them the atmosphere and space to help them work through the challenges of having parents in the service. These kids are so resilient — unexpected PCS [permanent change of station,] constantly leaving friends — they’re strong but need support too.”

Understanding the personal and environmental challenges associated with seeking help, one of Cohen Veterans Network’s foundational principles is removing barriers to care. The clinic provides transportation to appointments, on-site childcare and Telehealth appointments for those who’d prefer to get help from the comfort of their own home. Additionally, the clinic works with clients individually to ensure that neither finance nor circumstance supersedes treatment.

Additional resources

Equally important to the clinic is linking clients to resources that will help them and their families with various needs.
Clinic case managers connect clients with additional support such as housing, employment, healthcare, legal support, educational opportunities and other necessary support based on the client’s needs. With such a high military population to serve, the clinic endeavors to meet all needs, one case at a time.
“There are just so many resources in the community, and that’s one of our goals here,” Burgos said. “Our case manager works to get people what they need outside mental health services. We’re gap fillers.”

Continuity of care

Because the Cohen Veterans Network builds its service around military bases, service members are never far from the care they need. Also, the continuity of care is especially important. The services a person receives at one Cohen Military Family Center will be available at another.
Burgos is proud to continue her service to such a deserving community and is honored to be a part of a growing legacy here in Fayetteville.

“It’s an amazing community, an amazing place to work, and the same work is needed everywhere you go.”

The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Centerstone is located at 3505 Village Dr. in Fayetteville. For more information about The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Centerstone's services, visit https://centerstone.org/cohen-military-family-clinic/fayetteville/.

A global food crisis is hitting the pocketbooks of those in the United States, including U.S. service members.
Jeremy Hester, the Executive Director for the Fort Bragg Armed Services YMCA Food Pantry, says they have seen an increase of 15% of service members coming to the pantry.

“Right now we're seeing an uptick in usage,” Hester told Up & Coming Weekly. “We're also seeing kind of a downturn in donations.”

The pantry typically receives calls from companies like Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods on random days when their meat is about to expire. The pantry will accept this frozen meat and then do a massive giveaway to families on post. However, the last time they received these donations was over two months ago.

“We're not getting those phone calls anymore,” Hester said. “So there's this little bit of fear of just the food insecurity stuff, the scarcity that everyone's talking about and supply chains and things like that. So it makes us worry a little bit as to what six months will bring, a year will bring as far as us being able to supply [assistance to those in need].”

Individual donations have also gone down in the last three months.

“I would say in 2021, like clockwork, every couple of hours people would come in. Whether it's a small bag of food or they're bringing in boxes of stuff that they bought for us, or they're bringing in a couple of items that they just have extra. That has slowed down quite a bit as well,” Hester said.

This comes as inflation reached 9.1 percent in June, the largest 12-month increase in more than forty years. Food prices increased by 1%, with certain products seeing sharper increases, like margarine (6.8%), flour and prepared flour mixes (5.3%), butter (4.8%), ice cream (4%), breakfast cereals (2.5%), canned vegetables (2.1%), salad dressing (3.3%), and chicken (1.7%).

The food pantry is working to continue to keep the pantry stocked. One way is taking donations from the Commissary's Feds Feed Families program. Last week, the Commissary donated 70 bags of food.
Another way of creating more food is using the Victory Garden, just a few blocks north of the pantry. The Fort Bragg Victory Garden provides on-post residents a way to plant and grow nutritious produce in a social atmosphere. Two of the plots are reserved for the pantry.

“We're really recruiting volunteers to help us with the gardening because we want to prove that we can keep those gardens going,” Hester said. “We're getting some of those vegetables and things and bringing them to the pantry. And we're taking our group out there a couple of times. If we can keep that going and not lose a beat and not let it grow out, then I think there's an opportunity for us. Do more plots and just get more people involved. Right now we're getting a good amount of stuff out of there. But if we had 100 plots, it can really help.”

Plans to increase the food pantry are underway with a mobile food van that delivers food to Linden Oaks, a Corvias community located away from the military installation. There are also plans to move the pantry itself away from the small building it's currently in and somewhere more centrally located and filled with more freezers and fridges.

“We're the only food pantry on Fort Bragg and we have the potential to expand,” Hester said. A new, more central location that would be more conducive for a food pantry could potentially help more families, he said.

“I'm pushing now for people to think they have the capacity to reach out through donations or monetary donations to make sure that we can continue this on for the next couple of years at least.”

Currently, the most requested items for the food pantry are canned fruit, healthy cereal and bagged/canned beans. Donations of food, personal hygiene items and baby items such as formula or diapers can also be donated. The pantry is located on the north end of Fort Bragg at 2411 Rodney Trail #2 from Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for donations.

The U.S. Army Public Health Center and U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service released a survey last year that found that nearly 33% of more than 5,600 respondents at an unidentified Army installation were considered marginally food insecure, meaning they faced food hardship or had difficulties ensuring their food budget stretched through the end of the month.

Blue Star Families’ annual national member survey found that 14% of almost 4,500 enlisted active-duty family respondents reported low or very low food security in 2020. This can be compared to 10.5% of all U.S. households.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies and advocacy group Military Family Advisory Network both released studies this year that found structural parts of military life, such as high rates of spouse unemployment and moving and child care shortages, are driving the growing rate of food insecurity among active duty military families.

A new report from the Defense Department reviewing food insecurity in the U.S. military is due by Oct. 1.
In the meantime, University of North Carolina graduate students are doing a study on food insecurity at the Fort Bragg food pantry.

“They've done voluntary interviews with some of our families and they're really doing a good job there. They're going out talking to food banks. They're going out talking to lots of different organizations on post and off. And they're putting together a kind of an action plan,” Hester said. “How can we connect more? How can we help this organization that can help our food pantry?”

The Fort Bragg Armed Services YMCA offers other services outside the food pantry to help military families. Those services include financial planning classes and family support services that include child care,
mentoring and infant support.

For more information about the Fort Bragg Armed Services YMCA, go to their website, www.asymca.org/what-we-do-fort-bragg, or their Facebook page to learn more about special food giveaways.
The food pantry is open every Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and every second Saturday, excluding holidays.

Service members and their families do need to register and can only do one pick-up a month. Registrants can choose their preferred date for pick-up on the monthly online registration form, which can be found on their website.

The N.C. Green Party has filed an emergency motion in federal court in its bid to gain access to the state’s election ballot this year.

The motion filed Thursday, July 21 contends that the N.C. State Board of Elections has failed to provide a legal reason for excluding Greens from the ballot. The group seeks a preliminary injunction. It would force the elections board to recognize the Green Party and place its candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

“It has been 51 days, and counting, since NCGP timely filed its petitions with NCSBE, and NCSBE still has not certified NCGP as a new party, which it is required to do ‘forthwith,’” according to the Green Party motion.

“NCSBE has cited no legal authority for its failure to certify NCGP as a new political party,” the motion added. “NCSBE has cited no applicable statutory provision, regulation, or other legal requirement with which NCGP failed to comply. On the contrary, NCSBE concedes that when it voted not to certify NCGP, county boards of elections had validated 15,953 signatures on NCGP’s petitions – 2,088 more than the 13,865 valid signatures required under state law.”

“Thus far, the only explanation NCSBE has given for its failure to certify NCGP comes from its Chair, Defendant [Damon] Circosta, who stated that he had too many ‘questions’ to vote in favor of certification, because NCSBE staff claim to be investigating ‘irregularities’ in the NCGP petitions,” the motion continued.

“NCSBE has never produced evidence of any ‘irregularities’ in NCGP’s petitions to NCGP, nor has it provided NCGP with any opportunity to defend the validity of the signatures on its petitions or the integrity of its petitioning process,” according to the motion.

“Yet NCSBE appears to have undertaken a wide-ranging investigation into NCGP’s petitions, pursuant to which a team of NCSBE investigators has contacted NCGP’s petition circulators by telephone and email to request information about virtually every aspect of their petitioning efforts,” the Green Party asserted.

“NCGP has fully and voluntarily cooperated with NCSBE, promptly providing all information and every record requested by NCSBE’s investigators. Further, NCGP has repeatedly requested the opportunity to meet with

NCSBE to review its petitions and resolve any questions regarding particular signatures, but NCSBE has rebuffed NCGP each time.”

The Green Party argued that the state elections board “continues to invalidate NCGP petition signatures that county boards of elections validated.” That process has removed 127 signatures to date, and “That number continues to drop each day.”

The motion noted the involvement of Michael Vincent Abucewicz, “who appears to be a field operative of the North Carolina Democratic Party,” in the campaign to keep the Green Party off the ballot. The Greens allege a “concerted campaign by Democratic Party operatives to contact NCGP petition signers and convince them to request that their names be removed from NCGP’s petitions.”

“Thus, there is documented evidence of fraud in this case – Plaintiffs have audio and video recordings proving it, which they are prepared to submit – but it was perpetrated by Democratic Party operatives seeking to gain political advantage in the 2022 general election, not by NCGP,” according to the motion.

The Green Party initially filed suit on July 14. The party’s U.S. Senate candidate, Matthew Hoh, discussed his concerns about the state elections board’s actions in a one-on-one interview with Carolina Journal.
A hearing on the Green Party complaint is scheduled Aug. 8 in Raleigh before U.S. District Judge James Dever.

On the recommendation of Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Marvin Connelly Jr., the Board of Education approved five district-level appointments and one principal appointment at a meeting Wednesday, July 20. The special meeting was held largely in closed session and focused on the personnel changes.

Lawrence Smalls was approved as principal of Ramsey Street High School. After joining the system as an administrative intern in 2011, Smalls was an assistant principal and athletic director at both E.E. Smith High School and, most recently, Pine Forest High School.

In 2007, Smalls earned his master’s degree in teaching and a special education general curriculum license from Fayetteville State. Smalls earned a principal certification from Sandhills Regional Education Consortium in 2012 and completed the local school district’s Aspiring Principals Program in 2016.

The new district-level appointments follow the naming of four new associate superintendents and two other district administrators in June. Five former associate superintendents retired over the summer.

The appointments approved Wednesday include:
Christine Catalano, assistant superintendent for K-12 curriculum and instruction. Catalano is new to the district and most recently worked for Durham Public Schools as executive director of K-12 curriculum and instruction, CCS said in a news release. She began her career as an exceptional children and regular education teacher in Halifax County. She held multiple jobs as she advanced to leadership roles with Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools. After obtaining her master’s degree in education administration from East Carolina University, Catalano earned a doctorate in education leadership in 2018 from ECU.
Donell Underdue, assistant superintendent for district transformation and strategic initiatives. He joined CCS in 2018 and most recently was principal of E.E. Smith High School. Underdue began his career in education as a teacher in 1993 after serving in the Marine Corps Reserve. He has certifications and licenses in Florida, Illinois, Georgia and North Carolina. Underdue obtained his master’s degree in school administration from ECU in 1998.

Christopher Young, executive director of technology. Young's career with the school system started in 2002. While working as a network systems administrator, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in business education with a focus on information technology from ECU in 2012. The release said Young is a member of several professional organizations and technology committees, including the N.C. K-12 Cybersecurity Advisory Council.
John A. McMillan, director of exceptional children's services. McMillan joined the district in 1998 as a teacher's assistant and bus driver at Howard Hall Elementary School. He has been in numerous jobs, including special education teacher, assistant principal, athletic director and principal. Most recently, McMillan was the district’s exceptional children's programs coordinator. After earning a master's degree in school administration from Fayetteville State University in 2009, he earned his education specialist degree from Wingate University in 2015.

Ann-Marie Palmer, Title I coordinator. Palmer joined the school district in 1995 and most recently was principal of Massey Hill Classical High School. She obtained her master’s degree in school administration from Fayetteville State in 2004.
In addition to arts education, Palmer has served the district as an exceptional children’s resource teacher and case manager. She has been a school administrator in multiple CCS elementary and high schools since 2002.

People who stand up to violent criminals resonate with Americans of all walks of life. The courage to fight back against crime is heroic. Everybody believes this today except the woke prosecutors in our midst.
One of the most notorious woke prosecutors is New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He brought charges against Jose Alba, 61, who stabbed an ex-con and assailant to death at a bodega shop he owned. After an earlier argument with the attacker’s girlfriend about not paying for an item, Alba defended himself when the perpetrator went behind the counter to assault him.

The New York City bodega owner was stabbed multiple times by the attacker's girlfriend. Despite the incident being caught on security footage, the district attorney’s quest for a scalp of somebody who dared to defend himself overrode common sense. The girlfriend who stabbed Alba was not charged, according to news reports. Bragg’s office not only charged Alba with murder but even tried to throw excessive bail at him, sending Alba to the notorious Rikers Island jail.

Fortunately for Alba, a judge lowered the bail, allowing a bond to be secured for his release. And eventually, weeks later, given clear evidence in favor of Alba’s actions and public pressure, charges against him were dropped. Still, Bragg’s office sent out the message that they aren’t afraid to criminalize those who act in self-defense.

The right to self-defense is inherent and something John Locke called a “fundamental right of nature.” Yet, woke prosecutors are increasingly concerned about social engineering over rights or justice.

“Jose Alba should never have been charged with a crime, but New York city’s anti-self-defense authoritarians are determined to protect criminals over citizens,” says Jordan Stein, Southeast region director for Gun Owners of America. “NYC should take heed of the Supreme Court's recent decision, which not only affirmed the God-given right of self-defense but also affirmed the right of the people to bear arms in public.”

Thankfully, North Carolina has better laws than New York City, including stand-your-ground protections that extend to one’s workplace or vehicle. Self-defense protections are generally strong if one has a legal right to be present at a property or place of business. New York has a duty-to-retreat law, meaning somebody is required to try and flee a violent aggressor outside of one's home. Still, if one legitimately fears for their life and can’t escape — as in the case of Alba — they do have legal protections. Alba’s encounter shows that New York’s law empowers agenda-driven prosecutors, not citizens. If there was no security footage or public outcry over

Alba’s charges, one can only wonder how much ruin he would have faced.

Residents in North Carolina and across the country see what woke prosecutors in increasingly left-wing urban environments want to accomplish. Woke prosecutors, who are attracted to the profession because they decide what and whom to prosecute, often make excuses for criminals. Furthermore, as revealed again in the Alba or Kyle Rittenhouse cases, they criminalize those who try to push back against rising crime if they choose to defend themselves.

Fortunately, soft prosecutors are paying the price for their pro-crime social engineering. Chesa Boudin, the former district attorney of San Francisco, was recalled and removed from office by voters on July 8. “There are no victimless crimes, and we have to send a strong message that repeat offenders will face the consequences for their actions if they continue to choose a life of crime,” declared Brooke Jenkins. After Boudin’s removal, the San Francisco mayor appointed Jenkins as district attorney.

Rising crime and lawlessness are bad enough that we shouldn’t have to worry about prosecutors taking the side of criminals. Soft-on-crime policies only lead to death and destruction. The only humor in the rise of a woke criminal justice system is many of the same government officials talking about taking away firearms from law-abiding citizens.

Ever hear the old saying “Heck hath no fury like a woman scorned”? There may be grain of truth the size of Mount Everest hidden in that proverb. If you have ever said to an angry woman, “Just calm down,” you are yet another clueless man. That helpful advice didn’t work, did it? Gentlemen, consider this column a learning experience to help you deal with women of the female persuasion.

Today we return to the land of Greek Mythology to visit our old friend Medea. She was not a woman to be trifled with. Actually, trifling with any woman is a good way to regret your birth. Medea was a mortal woman, but her granddaddy was Helios the Sun God. She had some pretty impressive magic powers, the most impressive of which was her skill at revenge. Think of Glenn Close on mega steroids in the movie "Fatal Attraction" and you begin to approach Medea.

History has given Medea a pretty bad rap. But she didn’t mean nothing by it. Medea fell in love with Jason who was the leader of the Argonauts. Jason had family troubles. His Uncle Pelias had killed Jason’s daddy who had been the King. Pelias sent Jason on a suicide mission to bring back the Golden Fleece in return for restoring Jason as King.

Jason knew he was going to need help on his quest. He also knew Medea had magic powers which could come in handy. Like Meat Loaf’s famous song “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” Medea and Jason were smitten by each other. Whoopie was about to be made. But as Jason neared home plate, Medea said: “Stop right there! / I gotta know right now! / Before we go any further/ Do you love me? / Will you love me forever? /

Do you need me? / Will you never leave me? / Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life? / Will you take me away and will you make me your wife?” Like many men before and since, Jason promised to marry her and love her forever until the end of time. Spoiler Alert: This will not work out well.

Jason had three tasks to get to the Fleece. First, he had to plow a field with a team of ornery fire-breathing oxen. Medea made him a magic skin cream poultice of Sunblock 9000 which kept him from getting burned by ox breath.

Next he had to sew the plowed field with Dragon Teeth. The problem with Dragon Teeth is they immediately sprout into armed psychotic soldiers who want to kill Jason. Medea saved Jason’s bacon by telling him to throw a rock into the soldiers. The soldiers then started killing each other instead of Jason.

The last task was to grab the Golden Fleece which was guarded by a dragon who never slept. Medea whipped up an ancient version of Ambien. Her Sleep Potion Number 9 put the dragon right into dream land, thus allowing Jason to flee with the Fleece.

Uh oh. Wouldn’t you know it? When Jason got the Fleece back to Uncle Pelias, the deal was off. Medea came up with a plot to have Pelias’ daughters kill him. Media got his daughters together and chopped up an old ram. She dropped the ram parts into a magic stew pot. Immediately, a young ram jumped out of the pot dazzling the daughters and going on to become UNC’s mascot Ramses. Thinking that their Daddy Pelias could use a return to his youth, they chopped up Pelias and put him in a pot. Unfortunately for Pelias, nothing happened but Dead King Stew.

Jason and Medea high-tailed it to Crete. They married, had kids, and lived happily for ten years until their love sell by date expired. Jason imitated "Mad Men’s" Don Draper. He fell in love and married Princess Glauce. Abandonment by Jason after she gave him the best years of her life did not sit well with Medea. Seemingly forgiving, she sent the newly wed Glauce a beautiful poisoned dress as a wedding present. Although the dress killed Glauce, it did give Putin his idea for poisoned Polonium tea.

Boiling the family bunny was not enough for Medea. Not content to be left alone in the castle with their kids, she was still mad at Jason. Medea murdered two of Jason’s sons as an act of revenge. She refused to let Jason bury the boys. She left town on a chariot pulled by flying dragons sent by her Granddaddy Helios taking the corpses of the boys with her. This is one angry lady.

So, what have we learned today? Jason would have done better to have taken Meat Loaf’s advice by staying with Medea and praying. Mr. Loaf advised: “So now I’m praying for the end of time/ To hurry up and arrive/ Cause if I got to spend another minute with you/ I don’t think that I can really survive/ Praying for the end of time/ So I can end my time with you.”

If you make a commitment, stick to it. You don’t want any chariots pulled by dragons showing up at your front door.

I have strong opinions — but not about how to perform brain surgery, write an app, design a golf course, or produce a hip-hop album. Perhaps you do have a strong view about one of these, but almost certainly not about all four.

Why? Because none of us can simultaneously be a surgeon, a software engineer, a golfing expert and a music producer. When it comes to our work, we specialize in a few things and then trade what we produce for the goods and services other specialists produce. The exchange makes us all better off.
We live most of our lives engaged in such exchanges. There is a great deal of specialized knowledge, with more produced every day. But individually, we possess or are even aware of only a tiny fraction of that knowledge. It would be too difficult or costly to acquire. We don’t need it. We just need to trade for its fruits.

Among specialists or other discrete communities of interest, however, there is often robust debate. Surgeons learn, practice, and disagree about the merits of new ways to attack brain cancers. The rest of us don’t typically know which side to root for in these contests. We just root for them to keep at it, so we as potential cancer patients can benefit, and otherwise leave them alone as we go about our own business.

Now consider what happens when goods and services are provided by government agencies and public employees rather than private companies and independent professionals. Suddenly, we all feel the need to express our expert opinions about the best ways to rehabilitate a prisoner, treat a mental illness, or teach a child to read — even though we can’t possibly possess expertise about so many different and challenging fields, and even those possessing such expertise may lack consensus.

The problem is that, unlike in the earlier cases, we can’t simply sit back and let the professionals fight it out. If we don’t like a new smart-phone app or hip hop album, we don’t have to buy it. If a particular brain surgeon or hospital seems to have poor results, we can go elsewhere.

But what if we don’t like the outcomes produced by our prisons, public health agencies, or public schools? It’s either impossible or highly expensive to “take our business elsewhere,” as it were, by relocating ourselves and our tax dollars to another state. Instead, we seek to change the mix of professionals providing those services by casting ballots in the next election.

This is not nearly as effective an accountability mechanism. For one thing, we may be outvoted. Even if our preferred candidates win, they may not be in a position to swap out the personnel in question or overrule their professional judgments. And through it all, we end up doing the very thing I’m suggesting we lack the capacity to do well — engaging in debate about matters we don’t and can’t fully understand.
There is no magic wand one can wave here. Ensure more competitive elections? Great. Collect more data and encourage more experimentation and research? Sure. But the problem will remain in some form. It is endemic.

I submit that the best response is to minimize the extent to which people are compelled to receive services from professionals they don’t select. That argues for more choice and competition in education, health care and transportation, even when those services are substantially funded by governments. The next best thing is for governments to pay for measurable performance, by public or private providers, rather than focusing on inputs or dictating procedures.

More fundamentally, this argues for limiting the scope of the public sector. In fact, I think it’s one of the best arguments for limited government. Although you may care and worry about me as a person, it does you no harm if I have a wrong idea, do a foolish thing, or hire an incompetent doctor. You can even learn from my mistakes.

City Manager Doug Hewett said he plans to work with a recruiting firm as he looks to find a replacement for Police Chief Gina Hawkins, who announced last week that she intends to retire early next year.

Hewett said he also plans to get input from the community.

As the city manager, Hewett is responsible for hiring and firing the police chief.

“This doesn’t happen often, thankfully, that you’re having to replace a police chief or a position of this magnitude,” he said Friday. “I want to make sure that we do this right and that it’s not something that’s rushed. I appreciate people’s input, whether it’s good or bad. This is a professional process, and it takes time.”

Hawkins announced on July 15 that she plans to retire effective Jan. 17.

“I want to thank her, of course, for her time here in service to the city and for giving me, hopefully, enough time to do a thorough search,’’ Hewett said. A “comprehensive and nationwide search to find our next police chief.’’

He said the process starts with finding a recruiting firm that will help identify candidates and that will set out the process for selecting the next chief.

He said the city will have a structured process “to make sure that we notify as broadly as possible any candidates who are interested.’’

Councilman Johnny Dawkins said he expects Hewett to hire a consulting firm that will gather resumes and probably pick the top eight or 10 candidates for the post.

"And my hope is that we get someone who is a lawman or lawwoman very focused, very experienced, in dealing with gangs and drugs," he said. "Those are the two areas in our society that create a lot of crime."

Dawkins said he also hopes that Hewett will hire someone experienced in solving drug crimes and someone who has dealt with aggravated assault. Both, he added, are prevalent in Fayetteville, along with gang activity.

"Now it's much more violent," he said of the city. "Now there are so many guns."

Mayor Mitch Colvin said the council needs to be clear as to what the expectations are and that will help Hewett make a better decision.

"I have confidence that he understands that the City Council sets the policy for this hire,’’ Colvin said. “We'll have that conversation when we come back."

The City Council has primarily taken off the month of July and will begin meeting again in August.

Colvin said the next police chief needs to be someone who connects with the community.

"Basically, they need to be someone that is willing to connect with the community and not over police,’’ he said. “But they also have to understand the law enforcement side — the necessity to enforce the law and be a pragmatic person and understand the diversity of the community."

"Be community police orientated and the law enforcement component, as well, to enforce the law in our community to keep us safe," he continued. "Sometimes that's a difficult balance, but I know there are people capable of doing it. At the end of the day, what I'm looking for are the results of their efforts. I want to have some clear matrix to show there's progress being made."

He said he supports a national search but is not opposed to an in-house hire.

"You don't know what's out there if you don't look," he added.

The search process

Hewett said he is still trying to put his thoughts together as to what would be the best approach to take. A significant part of the recruitment will be identifying the skills and traits of the candidates. To do that, he said, he plans to have discussions with members of the Police Department, the City Council and the community.

He said that will help him prepare a recruitment profile.

Hewett said he also wants to spend time with Hawkins, the Police Department and the community describing where the city is when it comes to public safety.

“That way, anyone who is interested in applying, not only are they trying to sell themselves to us, but we’re also trying to sell our community to them,” Hewett said.

“There are several ongoing issues that we have as a community which aren’t really different from what is going on (at) a national level,’’ he said. “But really, (we) owe it to any candidate seeking the position to make sure they understand where we are as it relates to our crime reduction strategies, where we are as it relates to our recruitment issues and challenges, where we are trying to work with our state and federal partners.”

He said the city “will be looking for a leader who can take the recent success of our department and build upon it for the future while fostering a strong working relationship between the department, the city and the residents we serve.”

A decision to retire

In North Carolina, a police chief is eligible to retire after a half-decade, and Hawkins is already surpassing the five-year mark.

“The chief is not resigning; the chief is retiring,” Hewett said. “And when she was hired – she came to us from another state. How the retirement process works in the state of North Carolina is that you’re eligible to retire after you have served for five years.”

“I was not surprised that the chief chose to retire now,” Hewett said. “She has served our community for five years.”

When asked if Hawkins was retiring on her own or would otherwise be forced to step down, Hewett said: “That’s not any consideration that I had. That’s not even an adequate question.”

“This was her decision alone to retire, and I had no conversations with her about anything other than that,” he said.

Hawkins has come under fire by members of the community in recent years. She has been criticized for telling officers to stand down when protesters became violent and tried to burn down the Market House on May 30, 2020, following the death of George Floyd. An independent review of Hawkins’ handling of that situation by an organization called the Performance Evaluation Review Forum – or PERF — also found issues with morale in the Police Department and officers leaving in numbers higher than national averages.

The city has increased salaries for new officers and offered other incentives as it works to recruit officers.

Hewett said looking back at the tenure of chiefs since Tom McCarthy – who was chief when Hewett first came to Fayetteville in 2004 – they have almost all served five to six years before retirement.

The late McCarthy headed up the Fayetteville Police Department for six years. Former chief Tom Bergamine served for five years. Harold Medlock, Hawkins’ predecessor, held the position for about 3 ½ years.

“By the time Chief (Hawkins) retires in early 2023,” Hewett said, “she will have been with us for 5 ½ years. Just in Fayetteville, that seems to be the tenure.’’

Hewett said he “would love to keep folks as long as we can, but I definitely respect her decision to retire.“

“This last five years,” he said, “has been a challenge for the country, it’s been a challenge for the city, and it’s been a challenge for the Police Department, including Chief Hawkins, as well.”

A Sanford man was arrested Thursday and charged with statutory rape and 23 other counts in a sexual assault case, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said.

William Darryl Wright, 56, was arrested by detectives with the Special Victims Unit. He also was charged with six counts of indecent liberties with a child, six counts of felony child abuse, six counts of crimes against nature and five counts of second-degree sexual offense, the Sheriff’s Office said in a release.

He was being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center under a $1.2 million bond, the release said. His first appearance was scheduled for Friday afternoon at the detention center.

Anyone with information about this investigation is asked to contact detective S. Odenwelder at 910-677-5477 or Fayetteville / Cumberland County CrimeStoppers at 910-483-TIPS (8477).

A Fayetteville man has been charged with robbing a business on Ramsey Street on Saturday afternoon.

Officers with the Fayetteville Police Department were dispatched to a business on the 5300 block of Ramsey Street at 3:48 p.m.

The Police Department said in a release that a clerk was helping a customer when a man got in line behind the customer. Once the customer left, the man placed a bag on the counter and demanded money from the clerk. The man left with money from the register, the release said.

Officers were given a description of the robber and the vehicle he left in, a red Chevrolet Cruze, the release said. Officers located the vehicle, and the suspect fled on foot, the release said. He was detained by officers and taken into custody.

Josiah Jennings, 22, of the 7000 block of Bucktail Road, was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, common law robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and possession of stolen goods, the release said.

Police said the vehicle that Jennings was driving had been reported stolen from Walmart on Skibo Road the day before.


Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact detective S. Berrios-Rivera at 910-703-6243 or Crimestoppers at 910-483-TIPS (8477).

In response to dangerously high temperatures this week, Cumberland County Government has opened several County facilities as cooling stations for residents who do not have access to air conditioning.

The National Weather Service predicts high heat and humidity for the entire week of July 25-30. Beginning Monday, July 25, the heat index may be over 100 degrees daily. The heat index will peak with 106-degree temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday. Cumberland County Emergency Services urges residents to take precautions as this is the second consecutive week of high heat and humidity.

The Department of Social Services, located at 1225 Ramsey St., has opened the auxiliary lobby as a cooling station. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The lobby is on the first floor waiting area by the reception desk. Masks or face coverings are optional. However, masks and and social distancing are encouraged.

The first-floor lobby of the Cumberland County Department of Public Health, located at 1235 Ramsey St., is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Anyone entering the Health Department is required to wear a mask and pass a temperature scan. Masks will be provided to anyone who does not have one.

All eight Cumberland County Public Library locations are open as cooling stations. Libraries are open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Headquarters Library at 300 Maiden Lane, Fayetteville, along with Cliffdale, North Regional, and Hope Mills branches are also open Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m. To find your local library, go to cumberlandcountync.gov/departments/library-group/library.

The 18 Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation Centers are open to the public year-round, during normal operating hours and can be used by residents as respite from the heat. Recreation center locations, hours, contact information and programming schedules are posted at fcpr.us/facilities/recreation-centers/.

Extreme heat and humidity will significantly increase the potential for heat-related illnesses, particularly for those working outdoors. Cumberland County Emergency Services reminds residents to take precautions during the hot weather. Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned rooms, stay out of the sun, avoid strenuous work, check on relatives and neighbors, and never leave children or pets unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.

Stay informed by visiting the County’s website at cumberlandcountync.gov or County social media pages at facebook.com/CumberlandNC, facebook.com/CumberlandCountyNC911 and
twitter.com/CumberlandNC.

On a podcast in May, City Council candidate Tyrone Williams denied that the FBI investigated a secretly taped conversation in which Williams tells the project manager of the Prince Charles Hotel properties that he can make “a cloud” on a lien disappear for $15,000.

On the same podcast, Williams blamed his former wife for creating a false accusation about him molesting a 10-year-old boy and threatening to tell the media unless he paid more in child support.

But Billy West, the district attorney for Cumberland County, and Jordan Jones, the Prince Charles project manager, said the FBI did investigate Williams.

And Cumberland County court records show that an arrest warrant was taken out against Williams on Aug. 30, 2018, charging him initially with the felony offense of taking indecent liberties with a child. The alleged incident happened between Dec. 21 and Dec. 22, 2017, according to the court records. Williams was served the warrant on Sept. 11, 2018.

On Oct. 21, 2019, the records show, Williams entered into a conditional discharge on a charge of assault on a child under 12, a misdemeanor, and received 30 months of unsupervised probation, which came with specific conditions he was ordered to follow if he were to have the charges later dismissed. The records show that Williams did not meet those conditions.

On April 4 of this year, a judge revoked the conditional discharge and Williams was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of assault on a child under age 12. He was sentenced to 60 days suspended for 12 months and placed on supervised probation.

Williams, who reluctantly resigned from his City Council seat shortly after the audio recording of him surfaced, is again running for election in District 2. He faces incumbent Councilwoman Shakeyla Ingram in the July 26 general election. Ingram received 26.29% of the vote in the May primary. Williams was the second-highest vote-getter with 24.48% of the ballots cast, which qualified him to compete against Ingram in the general election.

Williams was reached by phone Tuesday but declined to comment about his past before politely hanging up. He was sent a text message asking him to call back. He responded, “Out at the poll helping my people.”

He was reached again Wednesday and said he would provide court records showing he was not convicted of sexually abusing the boy and then hung up again.

He is correct in that respect: The felony charge was lowered, and he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse.

Williams interviewed on a podcast

About 10 days before the primary, Williams appeared on a podcast – "UP Zone" – hosted by former Fayetteville Councilwoman Tisha Waddell; former state Rep. Elmer Floyd, who is again running for election to the state House; and former Councilman Wade Fowler.

During the podcast, Williams alleged that the audio recording of him offering to remedy a lien on the Prince Charles properties for $15,000 had been doctored.

“There was a lot of those cut-and-paste, and I didn't realize at the time, but that's something that can be done with audio. He can change places, names and words and put it together and paste it all together,” Williams said.

The “he” Williams is referring to is Jones, the project manager in the Prince Charles properties. Jones made the recording on his laptop in December 2017 during a meeting with Williams and a man identified as Fayetteville businessman T.J. Jenkins. Jones later shared the recording with The Fayetteville Observer and the FBI. He said the recording had never been doctored.

Jones said he met multiple times with the FBI to discuss his dealings with Williams. West, the district attorney, also said the FBI investigated Williams. Jones and West said they do not know the outcome of the investigation. An FBI spokeswoman said she could neither confirm nor deny that Williams was investigated.

Williams: ‘There was no FBI investigation’

“There was no FBI investigation,” Williams said during the podcast. “This was City Council. I was never charged with anything, never was any bribing. I didn't get a call from the FBI. This was all council.”

At another point in the podcast, Williams emphatically said, “There was no FBI investigation. Never. I never went and talked to any FBI. There was no contact from the FBI. There wasn't nothing to investigate. It was all city individuals.”

Williams also denied during the podcast that he abused a boy, but he didn’t say that he was convicted of misdemeanor assault on a child a month earlier. He also didn’t mention that he had been given the opportunity to have the charges dismissed if he abided by the conditions of his probation.

One of those conditions was that he complete 24 hours of community service within 120 days. Williams said in the telephone interview Wednesday night that he mistakenly did his community service work through an organization that had not been approved by the court.

The District Attorney’s Office has a different account.

“He never provided any proof to the court that he completed community service,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Alicia Marks said in a message to West. “He was supposed to submit it to the court within 120 days of the plea, and he did not. He was supposed to immediately obtain a mental health assessment, complete treatment and provide regular reports to the court of his treatment every six months, and he did not.”

Williams said he did nothing inappropriate with the boy. He said his former wife threatened to tell the media he had abused a child unless he paid her $2,800 in monthly child support. If he agreed to her demands, Williams said, his ex-wife told him she would “squash the story.” He said he didn’t agree, and the story went public. Williams’ former wife could not be reached for comment.

According to a grand jury indictment, Williams “did unlawfully, willfully and feloniously take and attempt to take immoral, improper and indecent liberties … for the purpose of arousing and gratifying sexual desire” with a child under the age of 16.

Despite his conviction, Williams denies that ever happened.

“It was actually nothing more than grabbing him and sitting him down and disciplining him,” Williams said. “But she (the ex-wife) took it to another level and had no evidence of anything.”

Williams insists that he was convicted only of hitting a boy — not sexually abusing him — and emphazied that the original felony charge of taking indecent liberties with a child was lowered to the misdemeanor charge of assault on a child under age 12.

The matter of a lien

In the matter of the lien, Williams said he loaned former Prince Charles owner John Chen $100,000 for work that needed to be done on the then-ailing hotel. He has said publicly that he both didn’t get repaid and that he did get his money back. Records show that he was paid and that any liens on the property had been satisfied before Prince Charles Holdings bought the properties.

Williams also has said that another $15,000 worth of work he did for Chen was canceled when the hotel was sold to Jones’ company.

Then why did he tell Jones he could clear up the lien for $15,000, according to the audio recording?

“So looking forward, you'll see that the property transferred without having the lien released,” Williams said during the podcast. “So what happened was an individual tried to get a loan on the property and the lien came up. I got a phone call (that) the lien needs to be satisfied before we can fund it.”

Jones said there were no outstanding liens on the properties when his company — Prince Charles Holdings Inc. — bought them. Those properties are now the sites of Segra Stadium, the renovated hotel and a parking garage.

Williams gives reasons for running again

Williams said on the podcast that he wants to return to the City Council because he believes District 2 has fallen deeper into social ills and he believes he can help fix the problems. The district includes the B Street, Old Wilmington Road and Massey Hill communities, some of the city’s poorest areas. Williams said he moved back to the district from Norfolk, Virginia, some years ago to be closer to his family.

“I rode through my district and it looked worse than ever,” he said. “The people I know, the people I talked to, was doing far worse. Homelessness everywhere, poverty everywhere. It's like it's been totally let go. … Mental health is everywhere on the streets. It’s like we forgot about District 2.”

Jones said he was surprised when he heard that Williams is running again.

“We do live in a democracy, so it is up to the voters to decide what to
do,” he said. “If I was a resident of District 2, I would not be voting for Mr. Williams.”

Students will not have to wear uniforms in Cumberland County public schools in the coming school year.

School uniform requirements will be waived for the 2022-23 term, according to a news release from Cumberland County Schools.

The pause is the result of supply-chain problems that the district has verified with major retailers in the area.

“Some stores said that it would likely be late September or October before they received sufficient inventory,” according to the news release.

Parents of children who attend schools that usually require uniforms may choose to dress their children in uniforms, but there will be no penalties for students who don’t wear a uniform.

The student dress code will remain in effect for all students, meaning their attire must be school-appropriate, the release said.
The Board of Education waived the dress code and uniform policy in the 2020-21 school year because of the financial impact of COVID-19 on families.

The Fayetteville Technical Community College board of trustees met Thursday in a special called meeting to receive recommendations from the Presidential Search Committee on the potential successor to President Larry Keen.

In January — after nearly 15 years of service at the school off Hull Road — Keen announced his plan to retire on Jan. 1, 2023.

“The full board met today almost entirely in closed session to discuss recommendations of the candidates that were recommended by the search committee,” said Catherine Pritchard, a spokeswoman for FTCC.

She said some candidates were interviewed last week before the Presidential Search Committee determined its recommendations for the job. Those applicants were then presented to the full board at the special called meeting.
After emerging from the approximately 30-minute closed session, Pritchard said, the full board accepted the recommendations from the search committee.

“They will invite those recommended candidates to campus for interviews the first week of August,” she said. “These are the finalists for the job.”

The names of the finalists were not released.
Pritchard said she didn’t know how many applicants remain in the running for the job and, if she did, she would be unable to release that information at this time. Likewise, she didn’t know the overall number of applications the school received for the position.

Keen’s successor will be the fifth president in the history of FTCC. Keen joined FTCC as the college’s president on Aug. 1, 2007.

The board of trustees is scheduled to meet again on Aug. 15, when its members are expected to discuss the finalists and may come to an agreement on its top candidate.

Once the board comes to a consensus, its recommendation will go before the State Board of Community Colleges.

“It would be anticipated that the state board would consider and, hopefully, approve the candidate in September – Sept. 23,” Pritchard said.

Fayetteville Tech serves roughly 28,000 students annually.