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  • NASCAR settles federal antitrust case, gives all teams the permanent charters they wanted

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Michael Jordan and NASCAR chairman Jim France stood side-by-side on the steps of a federal courthouse as if they were old friends following a stunning settlement Thursday of a bruising antitrust case in which the Basketball Hall of Famer was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit accusing the top racing series in the United States of being a monopolistic bully.

    The duo was flanked by three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and Curtis Polk, the co-owners of 23XI Racing with Jordan, Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins and over a dozen lawyers as they celebrated the end to an eight-day trial that ultimately led NASCAR to cave and grant all its teams the permanent charters they wanted.

    “Like two competitors, obviously we tried to get as much done in each other’s favor,” Jordan said, towering over the 81-year-old France. “I’ve said this from Day 1: The only way this sport is going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities. I think we’ve gotten to that point, unfortunately it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads have gotten us to this point where we can actually work together and grow this sport. I am very proud about that and I think Jim feels the same.”

    France concurred.

    “I do feel the same and we can get back to focusing on what we really love, and that’s racing, and we spent a lot of time not really focused on that so much as we needed to be,” France said. “I feel like we made a very good decision here together and we have a big opportunity to continue growing the sport.”

    A charter is the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports and in NASCAR it guarantees 36 teams a spot in every top-level Cup Series race and a fixed portion of the revenue stream. The system was implemented in 2016 and teams have argued for over two years that the charters needed to be made permanent — they had been revokable by NASCAR — and the revenue sharing had to change.

    NASCAR, founded and privately owned by the Florida-based France family, never considered making the charters permanent. Instead, after two-plus years of bitter negotiations, NASCAR in September 2024 presented a “take-it-or leave-it” final offer that gave teams until end of that day to sign the 112-page document.

    23XI and Front Row refused and sued, while 13 other organizations signed but testimony in court revealed many did so “with a gun to our head” because the threat of losing the charters would have put them out of business.

    Jordan testified early in the trial that as a new team owner to NASCAR — 23XI launched in 2021 — he felt he had the strength to challenge NASCAR. Eight days of testimony went badly for NASCAR, which when it began to present its case seemed focused more on mitigating damages than it did on proving it did not violate antitrust laws.

    Although terms of the settlement were not released — NASCAR was in the process of scheduling a Thursday afternoon call with all teams to discuss the revenue-sharing model moving forward — both Jordan and NASCAR said that charters will now be permanent for all teams. 23XI and Front Row will receive their combined six charters back for 2026.

    An economist previously testified that NASCAR owes 23XI and Front Row $364.7 million in damages, and that NASCAR shorted 36 chartered teams $1.06 billion from 2021-24.

    “Today’s a good day,” Jordan said from the front-row seat he’s occupied since the trial began Dec. 1 as he waited for the settlement announcement.

    U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell, who had presided over two days of failed settlement talks before the trial began, echoed the sentiment. Bell told the jury that sometimes parties at trial have to see how the evidence unfolds to come to the wisdom of a settlement.

    “I wish we could’ve done this a few months ago,” Bell said in court. “I believe this is great for NASCAR. Great for the future of NASCAR. Great for the entity of NASCAR. Great for the teams and ultimately great for the fans.”

    The settlement came after two days of testimony by France and the Wednesday night public release of a letter from Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris calling for NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps to be removed.

    The discovery process revealed internal NASCAR communications in which Phelps called Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress a “redneck” and other derogatory names; Bass Pro sponsors Childress’ teams, as well as some others, and Morris is an ardent NASCAR supporter.

    Childress gave fiery testimony earlier this week over his reluctance to sign the charter agreement because it was unfair to the teams, which have been bleeding money and begged NASCAR for concessions. Letters from Hall of Fame team owners Joe Gibbs, Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush and Roger Penske were introduced in which they pleaded with France for charters to become permanent; France testified he was not moved by the men he considers good friends.

    Hendrick and Penske, who were both scheduled to testify Friday, expressed gratitude that a settlement had been reached. Penske called it “tremendous news” and said it cleared the way to continue growing the series.

    “Millions of loyal NASCAR fans and thousands of hardworking people rely on our industry, and today’s resolution allows all of us to focus on what truly matters — the future of our sport,” Hendrick said. “This moment presents an important opportunity to strengthen our relationships and recommit ourselves to building a collaborative and prosperous future for all stakeholders. I’m incredibly optimistic about what’s ahead.”

    The settlement came abruptly on the ninth day of the trial. Bell opened expecting to hear motions but both sides asked for a private conference in chambers. When they emerged, Bell ordered an hourlong break for the two sides to confer. That turned into two hours, all parties returned to the courtroom and Kessler announced an agreement had been reached.

    “What all parties have always agreed on is a deep love for the sport and a desire to see it fulfill its full potential,” NASCAR and the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. “This is a landmark moment, one that ensures NASCAR’s foundation is stronger, its future is brighter and its possibilities are greater.”

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    AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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  • NASCAR chairman refuses to budge on team charters in testimony during Michael Jordan’s lawsuit

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR Chairman Jim France testified Tuesday in Michael Jordan’s federal antitrust lawsuit against his family that he still has not changed his mind on granting teams permanent charters, and evidence showed he entered negotiations on a new revenue-sharing agreement determined to thwart teams’ efforts for a better deal from the stock car series.

    France was the final witness called by attorneys for Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports on the seventh day of the trial. Those race teams have accused NASCAR of being a monopolistic bully that engages in anticompetitive business practices.

    Also called Tuesday was Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress, who testified that he only signed the 2025 revenue-sharing agreement because refusing to do so would have put Richard Childress Racing out of business.

    NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps testified to the frustrating two-plus years of negotiations between the top motorsports series in the United States and its race teams. The plaintiffs introduced several documents detailing communication between NASCAR executives that showed France was stubbornly opposed to granting teams permanent charters throughout the process.

    The charter system is equivalent to the franchise model used in other sports. In NASCAR, a charter guarantees cars a spot in the 40-car field each week, as well as specified financial terms.

    Asked by plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler if he has changed his stance on making charters permanent, France said, “No, I have not.”

    Kessler later introduced a summary of notes from the first meeting of NASCAR executives on how they would approach negotiations with the teams over the new agreements. Steve O’Donnell, now the president of NASCAR, wrote in those notes, “Jim’s overarching comments — we are in a competition. We are going to win.”

    France’s position never changed, even though — as evidence showed — he received pleas from Hall of Fame team owners Joe Gibbs, Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush and Roger Penske. All four are close personal friends, France said on the stand Tuesday.

    France became chairman of the series his father founded in 1948 following the 2019 resignation of his nephew, Brian. NASCAR has always been privately owned by the Florida-based family, and Brian France negotiated the initial charter system that began in 2016 as a response to teams complaining they were bleeding money at an unsustainable rate.

    Jim France, who is 81, was soft-spoken on the stand and needed many questions repeated, and he said on numerous topics that he was either unable to recall, did not remember or was not sure — even in response to evidence introduced that the France Family Trust received $400 million in distributions from 2021 through 2024 and that NASCAR is valued at $5 billion.

    He wasn’t sure of the title his niece, Lesa France Kennedy, holds with NASCAR, or the ownership percentages between the two. Evidence showed Jim France owns 54% of NASCAR, while France Kennedy, the vice chair, owns 36%. France also testified he believes he is paid in “the $3.5 million range” as chairman.

    Richard Childress details his dissatisfaction

    Childress spoke to the pressure he felt to sign the charter agreement.

    “I would not have signed those charters if I was financially able to do what I do,” the six-time championship winning owner testified. “We are a blue-collar operation.”

    Childress has participated in NASCAR for 60 years and has a longtime personal relationship with the Frances. He testified that he pleaded with Jim France for the charters to be made permanent instead of renewable, and France refused.

    Childress testified he supports the charter system because before its implementation race teams “were worth 10 cents on the dollar at most. We didn’t have nothing.”

    He admitted that the charters added value to his team, but said the equity falls short of its financial potential if the charters were permanent. An economist testified that NASCAR owes 23XI and Front Row $364.7 million in damages, and that NASCAR shorted 36 chartered teams $1.06 billion from 2021-24.

    When Childress’ October declaration of his support for charters was introduced, Childress insisted NASCAR attorney Christopher Yates also show the jury language added to the statement in which Childress pushes for the charters to be permanent.

    Childress said he added those sentences to the declaration, which had been pre-written for him to sign.

    Phelps details negotiations with teams

    NASCAR commissioner Phelps noted that Jordan’s financial advisor would not compromise on key issues in the negotiations.

    Phelps, who was president of NASCAR during the negotiations, said Jordan right-hand man Curtis Polk was the lead representative for the teams and held firm in their demand for increased revenue, permanent charters, a voice in governance and one-third of any new revenue streams.

    The deal finally presented to the teams in September 2024 did not include permanent charters or a voice in governance, but NASCAR gave the teams a firm deadline to accept its final offer or forfeit their charters. 23XI Racing, owned by Jordan, Polk and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by Bob Jenkins, were the only two teams out of 15 organizations that refused to sign. They sued instead.

    Phelps, promoted to become NASCAR’s first commissioner earlier this year, testified that he worked hard to get the teams the best deal possible. But he said the teams’ initial request for $720 million in guaranteed revenue would have put NASCAR out of business.

    At the same time, Polk would not budge, either.

    “It was one of the most challenging and longest negotiations I’ve ever been part of,” said Phelps, who admitted he didn’t particularly enjoy negotiating with Polk, who was at the time the representative for the “Team Negotiating Council.”

    “The TNC never wavered off their four pillars. It was just the same thing, the same thing, and that was very frustrating,” Phelps said.

    Phelps testified at one point that NASCAR believed it had landed on a new charter agreement that satisfied the teams but it was contingent on NASCAR finalizing its new media rights deal.

    “I thought we’d just plug in the numbers,” said Phelps, who testified NASCAR was hoping to land a media deal worth $1.2 billion. When it became clear the media rights deal wouldn’t net that much money, Phelps said the teams asked to set a floor in negotiations.

    NASCAR ultimately got a media deal worth $1.05 billion — still an increase of $33 million a year from the previous deal — and Phelps said “every dollar” went to the race teams when it began this year.

    However, the ultimate revenue payout to teams is $431 million annually, the charters are not permanent and the teams did not get a voice in rules and regulations.

    Even so, Phelps testified he believed the charter agreement was “a fair deal.”

    Faster pace

    U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell has repeatedly admonished both sides to pick up the pace of the trial, and once France’s testimony concludes Wednesday, NASCAR will begin to present its defense.

    NASCAR has said it has a witness list of 16 people, but Yates informed Bell he can trim “four or five” names from it and is hopeful to wrap his defense by Friday.

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    AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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  • Economist says NASCAR owes $364.7M to teams in antitrust case

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — An economist testified in Michael Jordan’s federal antitrust trial against NASCAR that the racing series owes a combined $364.7 million in damages to the two teams suing it over a revenue-sharing dispute.

    Edward Snyder, a professor of economics who worked in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice and has testified in more than 30 cases, including “Deflategate” involving the NFL’s New England Patriots, testified on Monday. He gave three specific reasons NASCAR is a monopoly participating in anticompetitive business practices.

    Using a complex formula applied to profits, a reduction in market revenue, and lost revenue to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports from 2021-24, Snyder came up with his amount of damages owed. Snyder applied a 45% of revenue sharing he alleged Formula 1 gives to its teams in his calculations; Snyder found that NASCAR’s revenue-sharing model when its charter system began in 2016 gave only 25% to the teams.

    The suit is about the 2025 charter agreement, which was presented to teams on a Friday in September 2024 with a same-day deadline to sign the 112-page document. The charter offer came after more than two years of bitter negotiations between NASCAR and its teams, who have called the agreement “a take-it-or-leave-it” ultimatum that they signed with “a gun to their head.”

    A charter is similar to the franchise model in other sports, but in NASCAR it guarantees 36 teams spots in the 40-car field, as well as specific revenue.

    Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin for 23XI, along with Front Row Motorsports and owner Bob Jenkins, were the only two teams out of 15 to refuse the new charter agreement.

    Snyder’s evaluations found NASCAR was in fact violating antitrust laws in that the privately owned racing series controls all bargaining because “teams don’t have anywhere else to sell their services.” Snyder said NASCAR controls “the tracks, the teams and the cars.”

    Snyder repeatedly cited exclusivity agreements NASCAR entered into with racetracks after the charter system began. The agreements prevent tracks that host NASCAR from holding events with rival racing series. Prior to the long-term agreements, NASCAR operated on one-year contracts with its host racetracks.

    The Florida-based France family founded NASCAR in 1948 and, along with Speedway Motorsports, owns almost all the tracks on the top Cup Series schedule. Snyder’s belief is that NASCAR entered into exclusivity agreements with tracks to stave off any threats of a breakaway startup series. In doing so, he said it eliminated teams’ ability to race stock cars anywhere else, forced them to accept revenue-sharing agreements that are below market value, and damaged their overall evaluations.

    Snyder did his calculations for both teams based on each having two charters — each purchased a third charter in late 2024 — and found 23XI is owed $215.8 million while Front Row is owed $148.9 million. Based on his calculations, Snyder determined NASCAR shorted 36 chartered teams $1.06 billion from 2021-24.

    Snyder noted NASCAR had $2.2 billion in assets, an equity value of $5 billion and an investment-grade credit rating — which Snyder believes positions the France family to be able to pivot and adjust to any threats of a rival series the way the PGA did in response to the LIV Golf league. The PGA, Snyder testified, “got creative” in bringing in new revenue to pay to its golfers to prevent their defections.

    Snyder also testified NASCAR had $250 million in annual earnings from 2021-24 and the France family took $400 million in distributions during that period.

    NASCAR contends Snyder’s estimations are wrong, that the 45% F1 model he used is not correct, and its own two experts “take serious issue” with Snyder’s findings. Defense attorney Lawrence Buterman asked Snyder his opinion on NASCAR’s upcoming expert witnesses and Snyder said they were two of the best economists in the world.

    Slow pace of trial

    Snyder testified for almost the entirety of Monday’s session — the sixth day of the trial — and will continue on Tuesday. The snail’s pace has agitated U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell, who heard arguments 30 minutes early Monday morning because he was annoyed that objections had been submitted at 2:55 a.m. and then 6:50 a.m.

    He needed an hour to get through the rulings, and testimony resumed 30 minutes behind schedule. When the day concluded, he asked the nine-person jury if they were willing to serve an hour longer each day the rest of the week in an effort to avoid a third full week of trial. He all said all motions must be filed by 10 p.m. each evening moving forward.

    Bell wants plaintiff attorney Jeffrey Kessler to conclude his case by the end of Tuesday, but Kessler told him he still plans to call NASCAR chairman Jim France, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps and Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress, who was the subject of derogatory text messages amongst NASCAR leadership and has said he’s considering legal action.

    NASCAR has a list of 16 potential witnesses and Bell said he wanted the first one on the stand before Tuesday’s session concludes.

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    AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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  • Texas state trooper who had run-in with South Carolina’s Nyck Harbor was sent home from game

    COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — A Texas trooper who had an altercation with South Carolina’s Nyck Harbor after his touchdown on Saturday was sent home from the game, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

    Harbor scored on an 80-yard reception in the second quarter and ran into the tunnel limping following the score. As he and three other players were walking back to the field, the trooper walked in between Harbor and another player and bumped into them as they passed each other.

    The trooper and Harbor turned around and the trooper pointed at Harbor with both hands and said something to him. Harbor was quickly pushed away by his teammate and they continued to the field.

    The public safety department issued a statement saying the trooper was sent home.

    “Our Office of Inspector General (OIG) is also aware of the incident and will be further looking into the matter. No additional information will be released at this time,” the statement reads.

    The video was widely shared on social media with many commenting on it, including Lakers star LeBron James.

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  • Trump makes false claims about federal response as he campaigns in area ravaged by Hurricane Helene

    VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.

    The former president and Republican nominee claimed upon landing in Valdosta that President Joe Biden was “sleeping” and not responding to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who he said was “calling the president and hasn’t been able to get him.” He repeated the claim at an event with reporters after being told Kemp said he had spoken to Biden.

    “He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said Monday.

    The White House previously announced that Biden spoke by phone Sunday night with Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, as well as Scott Matheson, mayor of Valdosta, Georgia, and Florida Emergency Management Director John Louk. Kemp confirmed Monday morning that he spoke to Biden the night before.

    “The president just called me yesterday afternoon and I missed him and called him right back and he just said ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, we’ve got what we need, we’ll work through the federal process,” Kemp said. “He offered if there are other things we need just to call him directly, which I appreciate that.”

    In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign in which among the hardest-hit states were North Carolina and Georgia, two battlegrounds. Trump over the last several days has used the damage wrought by Helene to attack Harris, the Democratic nominee, and suggest she and Biden are playing politics with the storm — something he was accused of doing when president.

    Biden is defiant about spending time at his beach house

    While the White House highlighted Biden’s call to Kemp and others, the president faced questions about his decision to spend the weekend at his beach house in Delaware, rather than the White House, to monitor the storm.

    “I was commanding it,” Biden told reporters after delivering remarks at the White House on the federal government’s response. “I was on the phone for at least two hours yesterday and the day before as well. I commanded it. It’s called a telephone.”

    AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports Donald Trump is touring Hurricane Helene’s damage in Georgia, while blasting the Biden administration’s response to the deadly storm.

    Biden received frequent updates on the storm, the White House said, as did Harris aboard Air Force Two as she made a West Coast campaign swing. The vice president cut short her campaign trip Monday to return to Washington for a briefing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    Trump, writing on his social media platform Monday, also claimed without evidence that the federal government and North Carolina’s Democratic governor were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.” Asheville, which was devastated by the storm, is solidly Democratic, as is much of Buncombe County, which surrounds it.

    The death toll from Helene has surpassed 100 people, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in North Carolina.

    Biden said he will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to get a first-hand look at the devastation, but will limit his footprint so as not to distract from the ongoing recovery efforts.

    During remarks Monday at FEMA headquarters, Harris said she has received regular briefings on the disaster response, including from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, and has spoken with Kemp and Cooper in the last 24 hours.

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    “I have shared with them that we will do everything in our power to help communities respond and recover,” she said. “And I’ve shared with them that I plan to be on the ground as soon as possible without disrupting any emergency response operations.”

    When asked if her visit was politicizing the storm, she frowned and shook her head but did not reply.

    Trump partnered with a Christian charity to bring supplies

    The Trump campaign partnered with the Christian humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse to bring trucks of fuel, food, water and other critical supplies to Georgia, said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary.

    Leavitt did not immediately respond to questions about how much had been donated and from which entity. Samaritan’s Purse also declined to address the matter in a statement.

    Trump also launched a GoFundMe campaign for supporters to send financial aid to people impacted by the storm. It quickly passed its $1 million goal Monday night.

    “Our hearts are with you and we are going to be with you as long as you need it,” Trump said, flanked by a group of elected officials and Republican supporters.

    “We’re not talking about politics now,” Trump added.

    Trump said he wanted to stop in North Carolina but was holding off because access and communication is limited in hard-hit communities.

    When asked by The Associated Press on Monday if he was concerned that his visit to Georgia was taking away law enforcement resources that could be used for disaster response, Trump said, “No.” He said his campaign instead “brought many wagons of resources.”

    Katie Watson, who owns with her husband the home design store Trump visited, said she was told the former president picked that location because he saw shots of the business destroyed with the rubble and said, “Find that place and find those people.”

    “He didn’t come here for me. He came here to recognize that this town has been destroyed. It’s a big setback,” she said.

    “He recognizes that we are hurting and he wants us to know that,” she added. “It was a lifetime opportunity to meet the president. This is not exactly the way I wanted to do it.”

    Trump campaign officials have long pointed to his visit to East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic trail derailment, as a turning point in the early days of the presidential race when he was struggling to establish his footing as a candidate. They believed his warm welcome by residents frustrated by the federal government’s response helped remind voters why they had been drawn to him years earlier.

    Trump fought with Puerto Rico and meteorologists while president

    During Trump’s term as president, he visited numerous disaster zones, including the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornadoes and shootings. But the trips sometimes elicited controversy such as when he tossed paper towels to cheering residents in Puerto Rico in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

    It also took until weeks before the presidential election in 2020 for Trump’s administration to release $13 billion in assistance for the territory. A federal government watchdog found that officials hampered an investigation into delays in aid delivery.

    In another 2019 incident, Trump administration officials admonished some meteorologists for tweeting that Alabama was not threatened by Hurricane Dorian, contradicting the then-president. Trump would famously display a map altered with a black Sharpie pen to indicate Alabama could be in the path of the storm.

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    Fernando reported from Chicago, and Amy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Chris Megerian and Aamer Madhani in Washington, and Will Weissert in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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  • No. 11 Clemson tries to stay perfect in ACC play and against Louisville on Saturday night

    No. 11 Clemson tries to stay perfect in ACC play and against Louisville on Saturday night

    Louisville (5-3, 3-2 ACC) at No. 11 Clemson (6-1, 5-0), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

    BetMGM College Football Odds: Clemson by 10 by 2 1/2.

    Series record: Clemson leads 8-0.

    What’s at stake?

    Clemson has been on a tear since losing its opener to then-No. 1 Georgia, winning six in a row by lopsided margins. The Tigers must keep winning as one of four ACC teams still undefeated in league play to stay on track for a return to the championship game. Louisville had hoped to be in the mix, too, but has lost to ranked opponents in Miami and SMU to fall off the pace.

    Key matchup

    Louisville QB Tyler Shough vs. Clemson’s defensive line. The Tigers have taken advantage of opponents not nearly as offensively skilled as them to open big leads. That’s unlikely to happen with the Cardinals, who are averaging 460 yards and 36 points a game. Clemson needs to get pressure on Shough, the Texas Tech transfer who’s has four 300-yard passing games this season.

    Players to watch

    Louisville: RB Isaac Brown is a freshman who’s run for 649 yards, second only to Heisman Trophy winner and NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, who ran for 960 yards as a freshman in 2015. Brown’s yards are the most nationally among freshmen and his six TDs on the ground are tied for second.

    Clemson: LB Wade Woodaz leads the Tigers with 53 tackles and eight quarterback pressures. He’s also forced three fumbles and is tied for the top with freshman Sammy Brown with 6.5 tackles for loss this season.

    Facts & figures

    Clemson is looking to go 9-0 all-time against the Cardinals. … Louisville has about as balanced an offense as possible this season, running 244 times with 14 TDs and throwing it 246 times for 18 scores. … The Tigers have rushed for at least one touchdown in 57 straight home games, the longest such current streak in the country. … Shough, who is in his seventh year after stops at Oregon and the Red Raiders, has so far thrown for a career-high 2,348 yards and 20 touchdowns. … Clemson passer Cade Klubnik has also had a stellar year this season with a career-high 20 TD throws. … The Tigers have won their past 22 home games played at night. Their last loss was a 51-14 defeat at Death Valley to Florida State in 2013.

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  • Family looks for missing Broadway dancer Zelig Williams in South Carolina

    Family looks for missing Broadway dancer Zelig Williams in South Carolina

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A family in South Carolina pleaded for help Wednesday in finding Broadway dancer Zelig Williams, whose disappearance nearly two weeks ago has also drawn the concern of the broader theater community, including Hugh Jackman.

    Williams, who danced in New York productions of “Hamilton” and “MJ The Musical,” was last seen Oct. 3 in Columbia, when he left his home. Friends said they got an automatic emergency notification from his iPhone minutes later, Williams’ family said.

    They reached out but did not hear back. Williams’ empty car was found undamaged in an isolated parking lot for the Palmetto Trail a day after deputies determined he was driving at the nearby Congaree National Park about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from downtown Columbia, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

    Williams’ family said at a news conference that they think he stopped taking his medication just before he disappeared and are worried he might be behaving erratically or even could appear in a trance-like state to people looking to help him.

    Tips from the community are likely going to be critical to finding Williams, Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference at the department’s headquarters, joined by family members of the dancer.

    Deputies said nothing, including foul play, has been ruled out in the case.

    “We have used every means of manpower and technology that is available,” Lott said.

    They also are asking churches to pay special attention to anyone new, because Williams was visiting in an effort to find a place to worship. Williams, 28, had moved back to his hometown of Columbia a few months earlier.

    Williams is the light for his family, cousin Mieoki Corbett-Jacobs said Wednesday. His two sisters died in a car crash 20 years ago and inspired him to start dancing, she said.

    Williams’ mother “is having some serious pain in her heart missing her son in this moment,” Corbett-Jacobs said. “That’s why it is so special when you see him perform. He is dancing with his sisters in his heart.”

    The family’s remarks ended with Williams’ mother, Kathy, who started sobbing as she spoke.

    “I just want Zelig to come home. He’s all I got. He’s all I got. He’s all I got,” she said. The sheriff and Corbett-Jacobs helped her out of the room.

    Williams’ colleagues on Broadway are also asking for help. Jackman, who worked with Williams in “The Greatest Showman” tour, posted Williams’ picture on his Instagram feed this month.

    “Zelig we love you and are praying for your safe return,” Jackman wrote.

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  • Andrew Frazier, TJ Magee lead Davidson over Presbyterian 48-37 in delayed conference opener

    Andrew Frazier, TJ Magee lead Davidson over Presbyterian 48-37 in delayed conference opener

    DAVIDSON, N.C. (AP) — Andrew Frazier threw a touchdown pass and had two of Davidson’s five touchdown runs, TJ Magee returned an interception 98 yards for a score and the Wildcats defeated Presbyterian 48-37 on Sunday night after the two teams were forced to wait an extra day because of severe weather from Tropical Storm Helene.

    The site of the Pioneer Football League opener was also moved from Clinton, S.C., to Davidson College Stadium.

    Frazier completed all three of his passes for 50 yards and carried five times for 33 yards, scoring on a 16-yard run to give Davidson (3-1) a 7-0 lead after one quarter.

    Mason Sheron had a 1-yard touchdown run three minutes into the second quarter and the Wildcats led 14-0. Magee’s interception came on second-and-goal at the 1-yard line for the Blue Hose for a 21-0 advantage. Sheron had another short touchdown run and Frazier fired a 60-yard scoring strike to Aaron Malone for a 35-13 lead at halftime.

    Collin Hurst threw touchdown passes covering 23 yards to Dominic Kibby and 15 to Nathan Levicki to pull Presbyterian (2-3) within 35-25. but it would get no closer after Mari Adams followed with a 63-yard touchdown run for the Wildcats.

    Frazier completed 8 of 10 passes for 159 yards and rushed eight times for 51. Adams carried 16 times for 128 yards, while Sheron added 93 on 11 carries. The Wildcats rushed for 355 yards.

    Hurst finished with 358 yards on 23-for-37 passing. Worth Warner had eight catches for 132 yards. Zach Switzer had two short scoring runs and a touchdown catch. Quante Jennings had a 33-yard touchdown run.

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  • OceanGate employee pushes back against idea of ‘desperation’ to complete missions

    OceanGate employee pushes back against idea of ‘desperation’ to complete missions

    A key employee with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic pushed back at a question from a Coast Guard investigator about whether OceanGate felt a sense of “desperation” to complete the dives because of the high price tag.

    Amber Bay, director of administration for the company that owned the doomed Titan submersible, insisted Tuesday that the company would not “conduct dives that would be risky just to meet a need.”

    But she agreed that the company wanted to deliver for those who paid $250,000 and were encouraged to participate as “mission specialists.”

    “There definitely was an urgency to deliver on what we had offered and a dedication and perseverance towards that goal,” she told a Coast Guard panel.

    OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.

    The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.

    On Tuesday, Bay pushed back at earlier testimony from Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate contractor who said Bay told her “you don’t seem to have an explorer mindset” after she raised safety concerns. Bay said Wilby’s concerns were noted at the time and treated with respect. Bay added that her own duties did not include engineering or operations.

    She later broke down in tears when discussing the tragedy, which was personal, because she knew the victims.

    “I had the privilege of knowing the explorers lives who were lost,” Bay said through tears. “And there’s not a day that passes that I don’t think of them, their families and the loss.”

    Earlier in the hearings, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

    Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

    On Tuesday, submersible pilot and designer Karl Stanley of the Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration testified to provide perspective about deep-sea submersible operations and safety. He said the phenomenon of “billionaires courting scientists” has upset the economics of the industry.

    Stanley also said he viewed OceanGate’s characterization of paid passengers as “mission specialists” to be an attempt to avoid accountability.

    “It’s clearly a dodge with trying to get around U.S. regulations with passengers,” Stanley said.

    Additionally, the company’s “entire business plan made zero sense,” Stanley said. He also said he felt the implosion ultimately stemmed from Rush’s desire to leave his mark on history.

    “There was nothing unexpected about this. This was expected by everyone who had access to a little bit of information,” Stanley said.

    The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.

    Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, said during testimony Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans.

    “This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” he said.

    Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

    OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

    During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

    When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

    OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

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  • NTSB engineer says carbon fiber hull from submersible showed signs of flaws

    NTSB engineer says carbon fiber hull from submersible showed signs of flaws

    The carbon fiber hull of the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic had imperfections dating to the manufacturing process and behaved differently after a loud bang was heard on one of the dives the year before the tragedy, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.

    Engineer Don Kramer told a Coast Guard panel there were wrinkles, porosity and voids in the carbon fiber used for the pressure hull of OceanGate’s Titan submersible. Two different types of sensors on Titan recorded the “loud acoustic event” that earlier witnesses testified about hearing on a dive on July 15, 2022, he said.

    Hull pieces recovered after the tragedy showed substantial delamination of the layers of carbon fiber, which were bonded to create the hull of the experimental submersible, he said.

    OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded in June 2023.

    Kramer’s statements were followed by testimony from William Kohnen, a longtime submersibles expert and key member of the Marine Technology Society. Kohnen emerged as a critic of OceanGate in the aftermath of the implosion and has described the disaster as preventable.

    On Wednesday, Kohnen pushed back at the idea the Titan could not have been thoroughly tested before use because of its experimental nature. He also said OceanGate’s operations raised concerns among many people in the industry.

    Kohnen said “I don’t think many people ever told Stockton no.” He described Rush as not receptive to outside scrutiny.

    “This is not something where we don’t want you to do it. We want you to do it right,” Kohnen said.

    The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the submersible’s carbon fiber construction, which was unusual. Other testimony focused on the troubled nature of the company.

    Another Wednesday witness, Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering Services of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, testified about his review of the OceanGate submersible’s development. He expressed particular concern about the sub’s window.

    “This is consistent with something on the path of failure,” Kemper said.

    Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

    Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.

    Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

    The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.

    The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard panel Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans. Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.

    OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

    During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

    One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

    When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

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  • No. 6 Ole Miss opens against Furman with highest preseason ranking since 1970

    No. 6 Ole Miss opens against Furman with highest preseason ranking since 1970

    Furman at No. 6 Mississippi, Saturday, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN+/SEC+)

    BetMGM College Football Odds: Ole Miss by 42 1/2.

    Series record: Furman leads 1-0.

    WHAT’S AT STAKE?

    The Rebels are coming off their first 11-win season and aiming high again, this time for the newly expanded College Football Playoff. They’re enjoying the program’s highest preseason ranking since 1970. Furman is coming off back-to-back 10-win seasons and won the 2023 Southern Conference championship. The Paladins return only seven starters, though.

    KEY MATCHUP

    An Ole Miss defense that stocked up in the transfer portal against an offense that lost its starting quarterback, top running back and the four offensive linemen who played the most snaps. The Ole Miss transfer group includes former Texas A&M defensive lineman Walter Nolan, ex-Florida defensive end Princely Umanmielen, former Alabama cornerback Trey Amos and Arkansas transfer linebacker Chris Paul Jr.

    PLAYERS TO WATCH

    Furman: All-SoCon bandit Luke Clark had 53 tackles last season and led the team with six sacks. He’s picked to repeat for all-conference honors.

    Ole Miss: RBs Ulysses Bentley IV and Henry Parrish Jr. will get their chances to shine with star Quinshon Judkins now at Ohio State. Bentley ran for 540 yards last season while Parrish returns for his second stint at Ole Miss after leading the Miami Hurricanes in rushing each of the past two seasons. Miami of Ohio transfer Rashad Amos was a 1,000-yard rusher last season.

    FACTS & FIGURES

    An Ole Miss win would mark No. 300 on the field at Vaught-Hemingway, not counting victories that were later vacated by the NCAA. … The Rebels are 21-2 at home since 2021, with two 7-0 seasons. … Furman finished last season ranked in the top seven in the FCS polls, its highest final ranking since 2005. … A Furman defense that ranked 11th in the FCS allowing just 18.2 points per game returns only four of its top 15 tacklers. … Furman won the only previous meeting 7-2 on Nov. 14, 1924, in Greenville, South Carolina.

    ___

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  • Clemson looks to regain championship form after last season’s struggles, early schedule is stacked

    Clemson looks to regain championship form after last season’s struggles, early schedule is stacked

    CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson coach Dabo Swinney told anybody who’d listen to buy stock in his team last fall after the Tigers won five straight games after early struggles.

    It won’t take long to see if Swinney’s latest bit of braggadocio has legs. For now, Swinney likes how his team has handled business heading into a season where they hope to once more contend for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and the College Football Playoff.

    Swinney said his guys have shown chemistry, leadership and accountability to understand and not repeat the mistakes that got them off to a 4-4 start and eliminated their title hopes.

    “All those things, they all check the boxes,” Swinney said. “Now, we got to get out on the field, got to put the work in, get better and find a way to win some games on the field.”

    Clemson’s season will likely again be defined its first few weeks. The 14th-ranked Tigers open in Atlanta against No. 1 Georgia, the national champions in 2021 and 2022. Three weeks later, Clemson hosts No. 24 North Carolina State and two weeks after that the Tigers go to No. 10 Florida State.

    Win them all and Swinney looks like a genius chasing another national title. Lose them all and questions about Swinney’s stewardship will continue to grow, like a year ago when a call from “Tyler from Spartanburg” on Swinney’s radio show touched off a loud defense of his program and perhaps sparked the team’s closing rally.

    Swinney boiled it all down to poor decisions and turnovers that Clemson reduced during its last five wins. The Tigers were causing the mistakes down the stretch instead of making them and Swinney hopes that’s the way it will go early.

    Klubnik’s growth

    Quarterback Cade Klubnik was a focal point of miscues and poor choices in his first full season as a starter. Along with 12 interceptions, he had a costly fumble in an overtime loss to Florida State and failed on fourth down — trying to make something happen on his own — in an overtime loss at Miami.

    Klubnik thinks his second season as a starter and in offensive coordinator Garrett Riley’s system will play dividends.

    “Less interceptions, less sacks, being able to make big-time plays with either my legs or throwing the ball downfield,” he said.

    Deep core of receivers

    The buzz of the offseason has been about the influx of young receivers or injured players at that position coming back healthy. The result could be the deepest group of wideouts at Clemson since the days of Mike Williams, Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross had the school referred to as “Wide Receiver U.”

    Bryant Wesco and T.J. Moore are the newcomers, fast, strong and able to stretch the field. Adam Randall appears healed from a broken hand.

    Tyler Brown, a freshman who led the team in catches and receiving yards last year, had nagging injuries of his own through the season. And Antonio Williams, a freshman breakout player two years ago, played only five games due to ankle and foot injuries.

    All look healthy and productive.

    Defensive stand

    The Tigers had one of the country’s top defenses, allowing 288.2 yards a game, ranking eighth in the nation. Expect that to continue this season with Barrett Carter back at linebacker and a stacked line led by ends Peter Woods and T.J. Parker.

    Clemson will miss first-round NFL cornerback Nate Wiggins, but have sophomore safety Khalil Barnes leading the secondary.

    Kicking game

    Last year, Swinney called Jonathan Weitz at the beach to return to school when kicker Robert Gunn struggled. He is hopeful Gunn, who continued kicking off after Weitz returned, has put his field-goal struggles aside. The Tigers have added Nolan Hauser, a freshman considered the nation’s No. 1 kicking prospect.

    The schedule

    Besides facing three ranked teams in the first six weeks, the Tigers have a home game in October against Virginia and coach Tony Elliott, who was co-offensive coordinator on both of Swinney’s national title teams, a Nov. 2 game against Louisville and the regular-season closer against rival South Carolina at home Nov. 30.

    —-

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  • Energy Department awards $2.2B to strengthen the electrical grid and add clean power

    Energy Department awards $2.2B to strengthen the electrical grid and add clean power

    The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced $2.2 billion in funding for eight projects across 18 states to strengthen the electrical grid against increasing extreme weather, advance the transition to cleaner electricity and meet a growing demand for power.

    The money will help build more than 600 miles of new transmission lines and upgrade about 400 miles of existing lines so that they can carry more current.

    Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the funding is important because extreme weather events fueled by climate change are increasing, damaging towers and bringing down wires, causing power outages.

    Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas on July 8 and knocked out power to nearly 3 million people, for example. Officials have said at least a dozen Houston area residents died from complications related to the heat and losing power.

    The investments will provide more reliable, affordable electricity for 56 million homes and businesses, according to the DOE. Granholm said the funds are the single largest direct investment ever in the nation’s grid.

    “They’ll help us to meet the needs of electrified homes and businesses and new manufacturing facilities and all of these growing data centers that are placing demands on the grid,” Granholm said in a press call to announce the funding.

    It’s the second round of awards through a $10.5 billion DOE program called Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships. It was funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021. More projects will be announced this fall.

    Among the ones in this round, more than 100 miles of transmission line in California will be upgraded so that new renewable energy can be added quickly and as a response to a growing demand for electricity. A project in New England will upgrade onshore connection points for electricity generated by wind turbines offshore, allowing 4,800 megawatts of wind energy to be added, enough to power about 2 million homes.

    The Montana Department of Commerce will get $700 million. Most of that will go toward building a 415-mile, high-voltage, direct current transmission line across Montana and North Dakota. The North Plains Connector will increase the ability to move electricity from east to west and vice versa, and help protect against extreme weather and power disruptions.

    The Virginia Department of Energy will get $85 million to employ clean electricity and clean backup power at two data centers, one instate and one in South Carolina. The DOE chose this project because the data centers will be responsive to the grid in a new way: They could provide needed electricity to the local grid on a hot day, from batteries, or reduce their energy use in times of high demand. This could serve as a model for other data centers to reduce their impact on a local area, since they place such high demand on the grid, according to the department.

    “These investments are certainly a step in the right direction and they are the right types of investments,” said Max Luke, director of business development and regulatory affairs at VEIR, an early-stage Massachusetts company developing transmission lines capable of carrying five times the power of conventional ones. “If you look at the scale of the challenge and the quantity of grid capacity needed for deep decarbonization and net zero, it’s a drop in the bucket.”

    According to Princeton University’s “Net-Zero America” research, the United States will need to expand electricity transmission by roughly 60% by 2030 and may need to triple it by 2050.

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  • Clemson gives men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell new contract after run to Elite Eight

    Clemson gives men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell new contract after run to Elite Eight

    CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell received a new, five-year contract worth $20 million after leading the Tigers to the Elite Eight this past season.

    A panel of the Clemson board of trustees approved Brownell’s enhanced contract, along with new deals for men’s soccer coach Mike Noonan and baseball coach Erik Bakich among several coaches and assistants on Thursday.

    Athletic director Graham Neff said Clemson’s coaches have been key in helping the department compete in a wide range of sports.

    “In addition to countless accolades on the field, each of these leaders run programs built upon integrity and academic excellence,” Neff said in a statement. “In an evolving environment, stability is critical and provides Clemson the opportunity to compete nationally.”

    Brownell, who’ll enter his 15th season this fall, is the program leader with 265 victories. His latest deal would tie him to the school through the 2028-29 season.

    He’ll make $3.5 million next season, a $500,000 increase what he was scheduled to make under his old agreement.

    Brownell will receive a raise of $250,000 for the final four years of the contract, giving him $4.5 million in the last year of the deal for the 2028-29 season.

    Brownell thanked Clemson administrators for their continued support and was proud of his team’s recent success, especially in winning 47 games the past two seasons — a program record for that span.

    “There is not a better time than now to be part of the Clemson family,” he said.

    The school would owe Brownell 50% of his total compensation if he’s dismissed in the first two years of the deal. After that, Brownell would receive 37.5% of what remains on the agreement.

    Brownell has made four NCAA tournaments during his tenure, with this past spring being his most successful run. The sixth-seeded Tigers defeated 11th-seeded New Mexico in the NCAA opener before ousting third-seeded Baylor and second-seeded Arizona to advance to the Elite Eight.

    It ended a step shy of the Final Four with an 89-82 loss to Alabama.

    Brownell made $2.75 million last season, which ranked him fifth among ACC coaches’ salaries. This year’s leader, Virginia coach Tony Bennett, received a contract extension, but did not include a raise in his salary of just over $4 million a year.

    Pitt coach Jeff Capel, who earned $3.5 million this year, got a contract extension Wednesday. Financial details were not released.

    Noonan, who won two of the last three NCAA College Cup championships, had two years added to his contract through the 2029 season, along with a raise for next season from $440,000 to $600,000. Noonan would receive a increase of $17,500 to his salary each year going forward.

    Bakich had the baseball team hosting a home NCAA super regional for the first time since 2010. He had two years added to his deal through the 2030 season. He’ll receive a raise of $325,000 next season for a salary of $1.275 million.

    Bakich would receive raises of $50,000 each season going forward. He will also get retention bonuses of $200,000 should he remain with the Tigers this Sept. 1 and in September 2027 and September 2029.

    Women’s soccer coach Eddie Radwanski and women’s golf coach Kelley Hester each received contract extensions. Radwanski got three more years through the 2028 season while Hester was given two more years through 2029 season.

    —-

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  • ACC to use Apple’s iPads on football sidelines and in coaching booths for video playback this fall

    ACC to use Apple’s iPads on football sidelines and in coaching booths for video playback this fall

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Atlantic Coast Conference will collaborate with Apple to bring iPad technology to the sidelines and coaching booths for the upcoming season.

    In an announcement Monday, the ACC said all 17 football members — a group that includes new arrivals California, SMU and Stanford — will have access to league-provided iPad Pro and iPad Air models allowing them to view video playback. That comes after the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel in April approved the use of in-game video.

    In a statement, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips made an “unparalleled prioritization of technology” going back to its design of a new gameday operations center. It will assist in football replays as part of the headquarters move to Charlotte last year.

    The ACC’s first game this season is Aug. 24 in Dublin, Ireland, featuring Florida State and Georgia Tech.

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  • Scott rolls out dozens of South Carolina lawmakers and local leaders endorsing his presidential bid

    Scott rolls out dozens of South Carolina lawmakers and local leaders endorsing his presidential bid

    SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — Sen. Tim Scott is rolling out endorsements from more than 140 current and former elected officials from his home state of South Carolina, aiming to make a show of force in the first-in-the-South presidential primary state.

    The backing comes as Scott and other presidential contenders aim to carry on with their campaigns as much of the political world parses the indictment of GOP front-runner Donald Trump on dozens of federal charges.

    The list of supporters, shared with The Associated Press ahead of an official announcement on Monday, includes state Sen. Shane Massey, the current Republican leader of South Carolina’s Senate, who called Scott “the authentic conservative leader we need in the White House right now.”

    Daniel Rickenmann, elected in 2021 as the first Republican-aligned mayor of South Carolina’s capital city of Columbia in decades, lauded Scott’s career, which he said had been spent “focusing on people back home and supporting local government to solve real problems.”

    Scott also lists the official endorsement of former U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, whose 1st District congressional seat Scott won twice before he was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2011 by then-Gov. Nikki Haley — now among Scott’s rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

    The list also includes 28 other current state lawmakers, including Rep. Bruce Bannister, chairman of the powerful state House Ways and Means Committee, as well as former lawmakers including longtime House Speaker Bobby Harrell, 16 mayors of cities and towns across the state and dozens of county-level officials.

    On Monday, Bannister called Scott “a guy who shares our traditional, conservative values” and called Scott’s emphasis on faith “why South Carolina needs Tim Scott in Washington, D.C., and that’s why America needs Tim Scott to be the next president of the United States.”

    Scott said he was “honored to receive the endorsements of former colleagues and friends.” He previously was endorsed by several Senate colleagues, including John Thune and Mike Rounds, both of South Dakota. Thune spoke at Scott’s launch event last month in North Charleston.

    The South Carolina endorsements of Scott come as Republicans aim to navigate the campaign amid Trump’s unprecedented indictment on dozens of federal charges related to his handling of classified documents. Slated to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, Trump spent the weekend blasting the case against him as “ridiculous” and “baseless” during appearances at GOP conventions in Georgia and North Carolina.

    Scott, who campaigns later this week in Iowa, is among the 2024 Republican hopefuls who have joined Trump in criticizing the case against him. Along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Scott has decried the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice in making its allegations against the former president.

    Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has pledged to pardon Trump if he’s elected. Ramaswamy said the federal case was part of “an affront to every citizen” and called it “hypocritical for the DOJ to selectively prosecute Trump but not” President Joe Biden over his own classified documents case.

    Haley — who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations and is now vying against him for the GOP nomination — said on Fox News Channel on Monday that “two things can be be true a the same time.” She echoed many Republicans’ arguments that “the DOJ and FBI have lost all credibility with the American people,” but added that “if this indictment is true, if what it says is actually the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.”

    Before the federal allegations against Trump were detailed, Haley decried the situation as a case of “vendetta politics.”

    Asked on Monday if he would pardon Trump if elected, Scott said he was “not going to get into hypotheticals” but said the notion was “a very important concept.” Scott also said Biden was operating on a “double standard” that he said was “both un-American and unacceptable” and pledged to “restore confidence and integrity in the Department of Justice.”

    But Scott called the case against Trump “a serious case, with serious allegations,” adding that, “in America, you’re still innocent until proven guilty.”

    Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the federal indictment marked “a sad day for our country” and “reaffirms the need for Donald Trump to respect the office and end his campaign.”

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  • DeSantis wraps up 1st early states tour as candidate with more personal touch in South Carolina

    DeSantis wraps up 1st early states tour as candidate with more personal touch in South Carolina

    GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was wrapping up his first tour of early voting states as a presidential candidate on Friday, showcasing his personal side in South Carolina with a lighthearted sit-down with his wife and an emotional moment with a military spouse.

    DeSantis, whose whirlwind tour this week included stops in Iowa and New Hampshire, used his first stop Friday morning in Bluffton, South Carolina, to respond to knocks from former President Donald Trump, who boasted at his campaign events a day earlier that he could accomplish in six months what would take the Republican governor eight years.

    DeSantis, speaking to hundreds of people packed into a patio at a restaurant, did not mention Trump by name, but defended his stance that it would take eight years in the Oval Office to dismantle President Joe Biden’s policies and what he described as the decades-long “accumulation of power in a bureaucracy that is detached from the interests of the American people.”

    “Don’t let anyone tell you they can do this in 24 hours or six months or anything like that,” he said. “This is going to be trench warfare. You’ve got to understand how to use the levers of power. We pledge to do that.”

    DeSantis, seen as Trump’s chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination next year, has started responding to Trump’s attacks more directly than he did for months previously, but still largely avoids mentioning him by name.

    On Friday, the crowd in South Carolina greeted DeSantis with chants of “Ron!” at his first campaign event. DeSantis pointed out his wife Casey’s ties to the state, noting she was as a graduate of the College of Charleston and her parents used to live in Mount Pleasant.

    “We had some great times coming up here. We spent a lot of time in the Lowcountry over the years,” he said.

    After he spoke, he made his way through voters eager to meet him, including a mother of five whose husband serves in the U.S. Marines as an infantryman and is stationed on nearby Parris Island.

    “People don’t appreciate that it’s a family effort,” DeSantis told Lupi Tupou, as she stood by with her young son, Israel. “Particularly for wives with kids, it’s really, really tough.”

    DeSantis served as a Navy Judge Advocate General officer in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

    Later, after getting an emotional hug and taking a photo with DeSantis, Tupou said in an interview that her husband, Aloha, had been in the military for nearly 19 years and she was supportive of DeSantis in part because she felt he understood her family’s commitment to the country.

    “To hear a candidate running, that has served, I’m like, OK,” she said of DeSantis. “At least someone to have a decent understanding of what it is that we’re about. I’m like, you need to fight for the families.”

    Later, when he stopped in Lexington and was describing legislation he signed in Florida making it easier for parents to challenge books in school libraries they deem to be pornographic, deal improperly with racial issues or in other ways be inappropriate for students, DeSantis was interrupted briefly by a protester, which drew boos from the crowd.

    DeSantis raised his voice and pointed at the protester, saying: “We’re not going to let you impose an agenda on our kids. We’re going to stand up for our kids!” The crowd applauded and cheered.

    After his remarks, his wife joined him for a more lighthearted chat. Seated near each other with a large U.S. flag as a backdrop, they discussed the challenges of raising three young children in the Florida governor’s mansion. Casey DeSantis said she has become expert in getting slime out of carpets and marker ink off expensive furniture, and they talked about the governor taking his jetlagged son to get something to eat in the middle of the night after returning from an overseas trade mission.

    “These are just the things that we do as parents,” DeSantis said.

    For the first time during the three-day tour, the couple welcomed questions from the audience while they were onstage.

    The only question they got was about how they met, prompting Ron DeSantis to recall meeting his future wife while hitting golf balls at a driving range when he was in the U.S. Navy.

    DeSantis capped his South Carolina visit with a rally Friday night in Greenville. He was introduced by former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has been a vocal critic of the NCAA over its decision to allow a transgender swimmer to compete against her in a women’s championship race. Gaines endorsed DeSantis for president this week, and she praised him for standing up against “woke” ideology and the political establishment.

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    Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Sara Burnett in Chicago contributed to this report.

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  • Surf’s up! Florida’s St. George Island beach named nation’s best in annual ranking

    Surf’s up! Florida’s St. George Island beach named nation’s best in annual ranking

    ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A 9-mile (14-kilometer) stretch of Florida sugar-white sand in an unspoiled natural setting alongside the Gulf of Mexico is the nation’s best beach for 2023, according to the annual ranking released Thursday by the university professor known as “Dr. Beach.”

    The state park on St. George Island just off the Florida Panhandle drew the top honor from Stephen Leatherman, professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at Florida International University. This year’s top 10 list marks the 33rd year Leatherman has rated the best of America’s 650 public beaches around Memorial Day, the traditional start of summer.

    St. George Island is frequently on the list. But this year what set it apart from others is its natural beauty, lack of development, abundant activities including fishing, swimming, kayaking, cycling, camping and an unparalleled view of the night sky for stargazers, Leatherman said.

    “There’s just so many things that capture my imagination there,” Leatherman said in an interview. “It’s an idyllic place.”

    The park covers about 2,000 acres (810 hectares) on the east end of the island, which is connected by a bridge to the mainland across Apalachicola Bay, famed for its oysters. The other sections of the island contain a small village, restaurants, rental homes and motels, but not a whole lot else.

    And that’s the way Leatherman likes it.

    “People can have the best of both worlds there, just miles and miles of unspoiled beaches,” he said.

    The island has been battered over the decades by tropical storms, most recently by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. That deadly Category 5 storm made landfall about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest in Mexico Beach, but packed enough punch to level many St. George Island sand dunes and damage park facilities such as picnic pavilions and restrooms.

    “Since that time, staff and volunteers have made great strides toward getting the park back to normal,” park officials said on its website.

    In 2005, a 153-year-old lighthouse on nearby, uninhabited Little St. George Island collapsed into the Gulf due to storms and erosion. It was rebuilt on the main island after volunteers salvaged 22,000 of the original bricks and found the 19th-century plans at the National Archives. The new location means people can more easily trek to the top for a panoramic view.

    Leatherman uses 50 criteria to evaluate beaches including sand type, wave action, whether lifeguards are present, presence of wildlife, the level of development and crowding, and many other factors. Extra credit is given to beaches that forbid cigarette smoking, mainly because of the need to prevent discarded butts. None were seen during a recent visit to St. George Island, he said.

    “I had to give them more credit for that,” Leatherman said. “I think people are coming around to the point of view that our beaches are some of our greatest recreational areas. You can go to the beach and you can do so many things.”

    A second Florida Gulf coast beach, Caladesi Island State Park near Clearwater and Dunedin, ranks fourth on the list this year. It’s reachable mainly by ferry and private boat, or a person could walk a fairly good distance there from Clearwater Beach depending on the tides. Despite the name, Caladesi isn’t a true island any longer because an inlet closed off, Leatherman said.

    “The white beach is composed of crystalline quartz sand, which is soft and cushy at the water’s edge, inviting one to take a dip in the sparkling clear waters,” he said.

    Caladesi has boardwalk nature trails and kayaking through mangroves that are home to numerous species of fish, birds and other animals.

    Hawaii placed three beaches on the list, more than any other state. Florida was next with two.

    Here is Dr. Beach’s complete 2023 top 10:

    1. St. George Island State Park, Florida Panhandle

    2. Duke Kahanamoku Beach, Oahu, Hawaii

    3. Coopers Beach, Southampton, New York

    4. Caladesi Island State Park, Dunedin/Clearwater, Florida

    5. Lighthouse Beach, Buxton, Outer Banks of North Carolina

    6. Coronado Beach, San Diego

    7. Wailea Beach, Maui, Hawaii

    8. Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, South Carolina

    9. Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii

    10. Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

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  • Who is Tim Scott? Here’s what to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate

    Who is Tim Scott? Here’s what to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate

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    South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott launches his presidential bid, offering an optimistic message he hopes can contrast with the two figures who have used political combativeness to dominate the early GOP primary field: Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. (May 22)

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    South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott launches his presidential bid, offering an optimistic message he hopes can contrast with the two figures who have used political combativeness to dominate the early GOP primary field: Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. (May 22)

    NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — As Sen. Tim Scott enters the 2024 GOP presidential field, he will be eager to introduce himself to voters who might not know much about him.

    Here is what you should know about the South Carolina Republican:

    FOREMOST: FAITH

    Raised by a single mother, Scott, 57, talks often of how Frances Scott worked long hours as a nurse’s assistant to provide for her two sons. It was a meager existence, the senator said, but it was centered around their strong Christian faith.

    At age 18, Scott became what he terms a “born-again believer.”

    His faith is an integral part of his political and personal narrative, as well as his belief in being a positive catalyst for change. He often quotes Scripture at campaign events, weaving his reliance on spiritual guidance into his stump speech and using “Faith in America” to describe his series of appearances before joining the race.

    Last year in a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library, Scott said he saw America “at a crossroads — with the potential for a great resetting, a renewal, even a rebirth.” His autobiography, released last year, is titled “America: A Redemption Story.”

    When his now-rival Nikki Haley appointed him to the U.S. Senate in 2012, Scott became the first Black senator from the South since just after the Civil War. In a 2014 special election to serve out the remainder of his term, Scott became the first Black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina since the Reconstruction era.

    Before that, Scott had just been elected to his second term representing South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. He served a single term in the state House, as well as, beginning in 1995, nearly 14 years on the Charleston County Council, while also operating an insurance business. He also briefly ran for lieutenant governor, ultimately abandoning that pursuit to seek the congressional seat vacated by retiring Rep. Henry Brown.

    At that time, South Carolina’s governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately; had Scott stayed in that race and won it, he and Haley would have served together as South Carolina’s top officeholders.

    ‘I DISRUPT THEIR NARRATIVE’

    The Senate’s sole Black Republican, Scott doesn’t shy away from pointing out that his is often the only face of color in many rooms of conservatives.

    “When I fought back against their liberal agenda, they called me a prop. A token. Because I disrupt their narrative,” he said in an April video announcing his presidential exploratory committee, shot on the site of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, where the Civil War’s first shots were fired.

    In his Reagan Library speech last year, Scott said that belief in conservative values had changed his life, arguing that his ability to succeed in politics had disproven critiques from liberals he said “you can call me a prop, you can call me a token. … Just understand what you call me is no match for the proof of my life.”

    Rejecting the notion that the country is inherently racist, Scott has repudiated the teaching of critical race theory, an academic framework that presents the idea that the nation’s institutions maintain the dominance of white people.

    He has also spoken on the Senate floor about his personal experiences as a Black man in America.

    “I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness and the humiliation that comes with feeling like you’re being targeted for nothing more than just being yourself,” Scott said in 2016, recounting how he was pulled over seven times in a year.

    But Scott argues that liberals have tried to weaponize race by portraying nonwhite citizens as politically oppressed.

    “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” he said in a nationally televised response to President Joe Biden’s 2021 address to Congress. “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”

    MONEY TALKS

    Scott is coming into the campaign with more cash on hand than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history. At the end of his 2022 campaign, he had $22 million left over, which he plans to immediately transfer to his presidential coffers.

    There are millions more in other organizations created to support Scott and his efforts. Opportunity Matters Fund, a pro-Scott super political action committee, spent more than $20 million to help Republicans in 2022, reporting $13 million-plus on hand to start 2023. Tech billionaire Larry Ellison has donated at least $30 million to the organization since 2021, according to federal filings.

    Another super PAC, Opportunity Matters Fund Action, had around $3 million at the end of last year.

    HISTORY WITH TRUMP

    Scott has maintained a generally cordial relationship with Trump, despite initially endorsing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the 2016 GOP presidential primary.

    But he also spoke out against Trump after the then-president said there were “very fine people on both sides” of a deadly clash between white supremacists and anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Scott said that Trump’s principles had been compromised and that without some introspection, “it will be hard for him to regain … moral authority.”

    Scott also called it “indefensible” after Trump retweeted a post in June 2020 containing a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. Trump later deleted it.

    In his 2022 book, Scott said that Trump “listened intently” to his viewpoints on race-related issues. And on the campaign trail, Scott has railed against political correctness in much the same fashion as Trump.

    “If you wanted a blueprint to ruin America, you’d keep doing exactly what Joe Biden has let the far left do to our country for the past two years,” Scott said this year in Iowa. “Tell every white kid they’re oppressors. Tell Black and brown kids their destiny is grievance, not greatness.”

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    Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

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