Belichick’s Tar Heels get short turnaround for Charlotte after opening-night flop against TCU

Belichick’s Tar Heels get short turnaround for Charlotte after opening-night flop against TCU

By AARON BEARD AP Sports Writer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s opening-night show under Bill Belichick was a flop. The only good news is there’s little time to dwell on it.

Instead, Belichick’s first college team is hurtling straight from a 48-14 loss to TCU on Labor Day to Saturday’s kickoff at Charlotte, a brisk turnaround for a team with a long list of items on the repair list.

“You can’t particpate in a game like that and not feel like there’s some things you could’ve done better or you’d like to do over again,” Belichick said Wednesday. “Learn from those, move on and get ready for Charlotte. That’s all we can control.

“We need to learn some lessons from what happened in the TCU game. But at the same time, there’s nothing we can do about that one, it’s over with, and we need to move on.”

UNC turned to the 73-year-old coach who won six Super Bowls in leading the NFL’s New England Patriots in a bid to elevate a program beyond decades of also-ran status, including paying Belichick a guaranteed $10 million for each of his first three seasons.

Things began with a brief high point of a crisp season-opening touchdown drive and an immediate defensive stand. What followed was a gamelong descent that picked up speed on the way to a third-quarter crash that emptied out a packed Kenan Stadium well before the final period, all coming with the eyes of the college football world locked on Chapel Hill.

Belichick said the goal now was to move past the TCU loss “as fast as we can” and sort out what works, what doesn’t and what can improve quickly.

“I think as a coach you always try to do what’s best for your team, period, whatever that is,” Belichick said. “So you try to put players in the best position you can put them in. That’s your job as a coach.

“That’s what I’ve always tried to do, is give my players an opportunity to go out there and play well and do things they’re confident in doing and capable of doing. I’d say based on Monday night, I need to do a better job of that.”

By the end, UNC had given up the most points in an opener in program history. The Horned Frogs also posted the highest score allowed by a Belichick-coached team at any level going back to his 29-year run as an NFL head coach, the previous high being 47 points against the Buffalo Bills in a 2021 wild-card playoff game.

TCU scored 41 straight points after falling behind 7-0. That also created a rare scenario: there had been only four games in Belichick’s 511 NFL regular-season and playoff games that he had trailed by at least 34 points.

One of those was a 41-14 loss at Kansas City in September 2014, prompting Belichick’s famous “We’re on to Cincinnati” repeated response to reporters’ questions in a year that ended with the Pats winning title No. 4 under Belichick.

Belichick wasn’t nearly as terse Wednesday, giving thorough responses to questions about how the Tar Heels can move forward and what’s next. His players were following his lead, too.

“Man, we just move forward,” linebacker Khmori House said.

“Just turn that next page,” running back Caleb Hood said. “Put TCU to bed, that was last week, and control what we can control.”

Belichick shrugged off the question about whether his players could have wounded morale or confidence based on the jarring result, which stood in stark contrast to the buzz teeming through campus in the days leading up to the opener and that night in Kenan.

He could point to cleaning up problems that led to TCU scoring on a pick-six and a scoop-and-score for a pair of defensive touchdowns as examples of self-inflicted wounds. He could also point to a line of execution failures that compounded as TCU took over, from the Tar Heels managing just 139 yards on 42 plays (3.31 per-play average) after their game-opening TD drive to TCU finishing with 320 more yards (542) overall.

Rather, he pointed to the idea that every game is “an opportunity.” The test is finding out how this team responds to that message.

“We’ve spent a lot of time together and practiced a lot together, met together a lot, going back to February and January, whatever,” said Brian Belichick, Belichick’s son and UNC’s defensive backs/safeties coach.

“We’ve built up a lot of confidence in each other and trust in each other. The game ends up not going the way we want and I said it to some of the guys yesterday: ‘One night doesn’t define any of us.’”

Fayetteville State University sets record enrollment, retention gains

Fayetteville State University sets record enrollment, retention gains

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WPTF) – Fayetteville State University is experiencing another year of record enrollment while also posting some of the strongest academic gains in its history, school leaders announced Tuesday.

For the fourth straight year, FSU reached an all-time high enrollment with 7,628 students, surpassing last year’s record of 7,100 by more than 500. The freshman class is the largest since 2007 with 820 students, who arrived with an average GPA of 3.32.

The university also reported a 78% student retention rate, a 15-point increase since 2021.

“At Fayetteville State University, it’s more than just numbers, but the quality within our numbers,” Chancellor Darrell T. Allison said. He credited affordable tuition, high-demand programs and a focus on graduating students in four years or less.

Part of the growth has been fueled by FSU’s inclusion in the NC Promise program, which began covering the university in 2022. The initiative, backed by the General Assembly, lowers in-state tuition at participating institutions to $500 per semester and $2,500 for out-of-state students.

Provost Monica T. Leach said undergraduate programs in business administration, nursing and forensic science remain strong, while newer offerings in cybersecurity, sports and fitness management, computer science, construction project management and supply chain management are seeing notable growth.

The school also enrolled more than 2,500 military-affiliated students this year, the highest in its history, and continues to serve more than 1,100 transfer students annually.

Pamela Baldwin, vice chancellor for strategic enrollment and student success, said FSU’s efforts are focused on making education affordable and flexible. “Growth alone is never enough; what matters is what we do with it,” she said.

Podcasters and influencers: The unexpected jobs covered under Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ plan

Podcasters and influencers: The unexpected jobs covered under Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ plan

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Golf caddies, blackjack dealers and house painters are among the jobs covered under the Trump administration’s preliminary list of occupations not required to pay income tax on their tips under Republicans’ new tax cuts and spending bill.

A bit more unexpected? Podcasters and social media influencers will also be excluded from forking over a portion of their tips, according to the list released Tuesday by the Treasury Department.

The provision in the law signed by President Donald Trump in July eliminates federal income taxes on tips for people working in jobs that have traditionally received them. It’s temporary and runs from 2025 until 2028. It applies to people who make less than $160,000 in 2025.

The Yale Budget Lab estimates that there were roughly 4 million workers in tipped occupations in 2023, which amounts to roughly 2.5% of all jobs.

The administration was required to publish a list of qualifying occupations within 90 days of the bill’s signing. The full list of occupations is located on the Treasury Department website.

They are broken down into eight categories, including beverage and food service; entertainment and events; hospitality and guest services; home services; personal services; personal appearance and wellness; recreation and instruction; and transportation and delivery.

Among other jobs exempted from tax on tips are sommeliers, cocktail waiters, pastry chefs, cake bakers, bingo workers, club dancers, DJs, clowns, streamers, online video creators, ushers, maids, gardeners, electricians, house cleaners, tow truck drivers, wedding planners, personal care aides, tutors, au pairs, massage therapists, yoga instructors, cobblers, skydiving pilots, ski instructors, parking garage attendants, delivery drivers and movers.

A report from the Budget Lab shows that the effects of the law would be small, given that tipped workers tend to be lower income. More than 37% of tipped workers, or over one third, earned income low enough that they faced no federal income tax in 2022.

“The larger and far more uncertain effect would stem from behavioral changes incentivized by the bill, such as substitution into tipped employment and tipped income, which would increase the bill’s overall cost,” states the report, which was written by Ernie Tedeschi, the director of economics at the Budget Lab.

Congressional budget analysts project the “No Tax on Tips” provision would increase the deficit by $40 billion through 2028. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in June that the tips deduction will cost $32 billion over 10 years.

Only tips reported to the employer and noted on a worker’s W-2, their end-of-year tax summary, will qualify. Payroll taxes, which pay for Social Security and Medicare, would still be collected along with state and local taxes.

Polling shows Americans have panned the big bill. Half U.S. adults expect the new tax law will help the rich, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Most — about 6 in 10 — think it will do more to hurt than help low-income people.

OpenAI and Meta say they’re fixing AI chatbots to better respond to teens in distress

OpenAI and Meta say they’re fixing AI chatbots to better respond to teens in distress

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer

Artificial intelligence chatbot makers OpenAI and Meta say they are adjusting how their chatbots respond to teenagers asking questions about suicide or showing signs of mental and emotional distress.

OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, said Tuesday it is preparing to roll out new controls enabling parents to link their accounts to their teen’s account.

Parents can choose which features to disable and “receive notifications when the system detects their teen is in a moment of acute distress,” according to a company blog post that says the changes will go into effect this fall.

Regardless of a user’s age, the company says its chatbots will attempt to redirect the most distressing conversations to more capable AI models that can provide a better response.

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

The announcement comes a week after the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life earlier this year.

Jay Edelson, the family’s attorney, on Tuesday described the OpenAI announcement as “vague promises to do better” and “nothing more than OpenAI’s crisis management team trying to change the subject.”

Altman “should either unequivocally say that he believes ChatGPT is safe or immediately pull it from the market,” Edelson said.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, also said it is now blocking its chatbots from talking with teens about self-harm, suicide, disordered eating and inappropriate romantic conversations, and instead directs them to expert resources. Meta already offers parental controls on teen accounts.

A study published last week in the medical journal Psychiatric Services found inconsistencies in how three popular artificial intelligence chatbots responded to queries about suicide.

The study by researchers at the RAND Corporation found a need for “further refinement” in ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. The researchers did not study Meta’s chatbots.

The study’s lead author, Ryan McBain, said Tuesday that “it’s encouraging to see OpenAI and Meta introducing features like parental controls and routing sensitive conversations to more capable models, but these are incremental steps.”

“Without independent safety benchmarks, clinical testing, and enforceable standards, we’re still relying on companies to self-regulate in a space where the risks for teenagers are uniquely high,” said McBain, a senior policy researcher at RAND and assistant professor at Harvard University’s medical school.

OpenAI and Meta say they’re fixing AI chatbots to better respond to teens in distress

OpenAI and Meta say they’re fixing AI chatbots to better respond to teens in distress

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer

Artificial intelligence chatbot makers OpenAI and Meta say they are adjusting how their chatbots respond to teenagers asking questions about suicide or showing signs of mental and emotional distress.

OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, said Tuesday it is preparing to roll out new controls enabling parents to link their accounts to their teen’s account.

Parents can choose which features to disable and “receive notifications when the system detects their teen is in a moment of acute distress,” according to a company blog post that says the changes will go into effect this fall.

Regardless of a user’s age, the company says its chatbots will attempt to redirect the most distressing conversations to more capable AI models that can provide a better response.

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

The announcement comes a week after the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life earlier this year.

Jay Edelson, the family’s attorney, on Tuesday described the OpenAI announcement as “vague promises to do better” and “nothing more than OpenAI’s crisis management team trying to change the subject.”

Altman “should either unequivocally say that he believes ChatGPT is safe or immediately pull it from the market,” Edelson said.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, also said it is now blocking its chatbots from talking with teens about self-harm, suicide, disordered eating and inappropriate romantic conversations, and instead directs them to expert resources. Meta already offers parental controls on teen accounts.

A study published last week in the medical journal Psychiatric Services found inconsistencies in how three popular artificial intelligence chatbots responded to queries about suicide.

The study by researchers at the RAND Corporation found a need for “further refinement” in ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. The researchers did not study Meta’s chatbots.

The study’s lead author, Ryan McBain, said Tuesday that “it’s encouraging to see OpenAI and Meta introducing features like parental controls and routing sensitive conversations to more capable models, but these are incremental steps.”

“Without independent safety benchmarks, clinical testing, and enforceable standards, we’re still relying on companies to self-regulate in a space where the risks for teenagers are uniquely high,” said McBain, a senior policy researcher at RAND and assistant professor at Harvard University’s medical school.

Graham Greene, a trailblazing Indigenous actor best known for ‘Dances with Wolves’, dies at 73

Graham Greene, a trailblazing Indigenous actor best known for ‘Dances with Wolves’, dies at 73

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Graham Greene, a trailblazing Indigenous actor whose long and successful career on the big and small screen included an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Kicking Bird in “Dances with Wolves,” has died. He was 73.

Greene died Monday in Stratford, Ontario, after a long battle with “a lengthy illness,” Greene’s agent Michael Greene wrote in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

“He was a great man of morals ethics, character and will be eternally missed,” he wrote. “God bless you. You are finally free.”

Born in June 1952 in Ohsweken, Ontario, on Canada’s Six Nations Reserve, Greene worked as a draftsman, high steelworker, welder and carpenter before becoming an actor in the 1970s, beginning with the 1979 Canadian drama series “The Great Detective” and 1983 film “Running Brave.”

He is best known for his landmark role as Kicking Bird in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves.” Greene’s 1991 Oscar nomination was one of 12 the movie earned. It won seven, including the top prize of best picture and best director for Kevin Costner. Greene also starred as Arlen Bitterbuck in the 1999 Tom Hanks project, “The Green Mile.”

Greene had a storied career, also appearing in 1994’s “Maverick,” 1995’s “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” 2012’s “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” and 2017’s “Wind River.” He also acted in many critically acclaimed television programs, including “Reservation Dogs,”“1883,”“The Last of Us” and “Tulsa King.”

In 2000, Greene’s “Listen to the Storyteller” won a Grammy for best spoken word album for children. He also starred as elder Chief Rains Fall in the massively popular 2018 video game “Red Dead Redemption 2.”

He was also nominated for an Independent Spirit award for the 2002 film “Skins,” which documented life on the Lakota Sioux reservation.

Greene broke barriers for Native actors, demonstrating through his singular talent that Indigenous stories should and must be told by them.

Tributes poured in. “Graham Greene was one of the best to ever do it. He lived on the screen in an absolutely unparalleled way. He made everything he was in better. Funnier. Deeper. Memorable,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Lily Gladstone wrote on Instagram. “It’s hard to find any suitable words to express what his work meant, but his impact is unparalleled and expansive. I wish I could have met him. I probably would have thanked him.”

Costner posted on Instagram a scene from “Dances with Wolves” in which his and Greene’s characters are learning to communicate with one another. “He was a master at work and a wonderful human being,” Costner said of Greene’s work on the film. “I’m grateful to have been witness to this part of his lasting legacy.”

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, who played Indigenous teenager Bear Smallhill on “Reservation Dogs,” also expressed his appreciation. The FX comedy-drama smashed caricatures and stereotypes of Native Americans, who since the earliest days of film and TV have often played supporting roles or been portrayed as bloodthirsty killers standing in the way of white, westward expansion.

“You showed us it can be done and how to leave your mark. Trail blazing for every young native actor just dreaming,” Woon-A-Tai posted on Instagram. “Thank you for seeing something in me and sharing your knowledge throughout our friendship. Teaching me everything I know about this industry and more. I could never repay you. I’m grateful to have worked with you, gotten to know you, and call you Uncle.”

Greene is survived by his wife, Hilary Blackmore, and his daughter Lilly Lazare-Greene and son Talo.

___

This story first moved Sept. 2, 2025. It was updated Sept. 3, 2025, to update with a statement from his agent and update Greene’s survivors.

Rory McIlroy plans to follow Novak Djokovic’s lead in dealing with Ryder Cup hostility

Rory McIlroy plans to follow Novak Djokovic’s lead in dealing with Ryder Cup hostility

STRAFFAN, Ireland (AP) — Rory McIlroy watched Novak Djokovic handle boisterous spectators during a win at the U.S. Open and is ready to follow the tennis star’s lead at the Ryder Cup held in the United States this month.

A hostile and partisan crowd is set to greet McIlroy and the European team at Bethpage Black for the Sept. 26-28 matches as the Americans look to regain the cup two years after losing in Rome.

Djokovic had to deal with a similar environment during his U.S. Open quarterfinal match against home favorite Taylor Fritz and handled it well, even blowing kisses at one point to the fans rooting against him.

McIlroy liked what he saw from Djokovic, who gave Europe’s golfers a motivational speech in their team room before the victory at the 2023 Ryder Cup about dealing with high-pressure moments.

“He’s been the best at handling that,” McIlroy said Wednesday at the Irish Open, being staged at The K Club — the venue of the 2006 Ryder Cup — this week. “He’s had to deal with it his whole life, whether it’s playing against an American in New York or playing against Roger (Federer) or Rafa (Nadal).

“He came and spoke to us a little bit about that stuff last time in Rome. So maybe taking a leaf out of his book and channeling that energy the right way. But again, all we can do is control our reaction and our emotions to it. I think the less we play into it, the better it is for us.”

‘Wonderful opportunity’ for Europe

The experience of Rome should come in handy at Bethpage for a European team — finalized Monday — showing just one change two years on, with Rasmus Hojgaard qualifying automatically to be the only rookie in the 12-man roster.

McIlroy, who will be competing in his eighth Ryder Cup, used Robert MacIntrye — a rookie in Rome and now a regular contender for events on the PGA Tour — as an example to back up his belief that “pretty much every player on the team is more accomplished than what they were two years ago.” The Northern Irishman believes Europe has a “wonderful opportunity” to win a Ryder Cup on the road for the first time since 2012.

“They have a very strong team,” McIlroy said of the Americans. “They’re going to have a pretty raucous crowd on their side and on a golf course that a lot of them know pretty well from previous tournaments there.

“So make no mistake, we know we’re up against it and we know we’ve got a tall task on our hands, but I love the team that Luke has assembled.”

Stick to golf, Rory

McIlroy branched out into acting this year, securing a small role in golf-related movie “Happy Gilmore 2.”

One reviewer feels he needs to work on those skills.

Shane Lowry, another member of Europe’s Ryder Cup team and also teeing it up at The K Club, was asked what he thought about his close friend’s performance.

“My daughter watched that the other day,” Lowry said with a smile, “and said Rory’s such a bad actor.”

A $1.4B Powerball jackpot is up for grabs after 40 drawings without a winner

A $1.4B Powerball jackpot is up for grabs after 40 drawings without a winner

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An estimated $1.4 billion lottery jackpot will be up for grabs Wednesday night thanks to dozens of drawings without a big winner.

The massive Powerball prize is the sixth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot. It’s a result of 40 consecutive drawings stretching over the summer without anyone matching all of the game’s six numbers.

No one has won the grand prize since May 31, and the 41st drawing on Wednesday will be just one fewer than the record set last year.

All of that losing stems from Powerball’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million, though lottery officials note that the odds are far better for the game’s many smaller prizes. There are three drawings each week.

The $1.4 billion jackpot is for a winner who opts to receive 30 payments over 29 years through an annuity. Winners almost always choose the game’s cash option, which for this drawing would be an estimated $634.3 million.

Powerball tickets cost $2, and the game is offered in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

This recipe is such an easy way to get cozy and an even easier way to have great leftovers.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3-4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt
  • 1 tsp. black pepper

Instructions

1. Prep the squash
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and then line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the butternut squash on the baking sheet face up and lightly coat each half with olive oil on the inside. Then, sprinkle each half with salt and pepper.

2. Roast the squash
Turn the squash face down on the baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven until it is tender and cooked through, about 40 to 50 minutes. Set the squash aside and let it cool for about 10 minutes.

3. Build the soup base
Meanwhile, in a large soup pot, warm 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat until simmering. Add the onion to the pot and cook until translucent. Then, add the garlic to the pot and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, stirring frequently. Then, place the cooked garlic in a blender and use a large spoon to scoop the butternut squash flesh into the blender. Add the nutmeg, salt and black pepper to the blender. Carefully pour in 3 cups vegetable broth, and do not fill the container past the maximum fill line. Blend on high until the soup is creamy and warmed through.

4. Season it up
Pour the soup back into the pot and make sure it is warmed to your liking. Then, add the smoked paprika and top with some more pepper.

5. Serve it hot
Spoon into bowls and enjoy right away!

September 3rd 2025

September 3rd 2025

Thought of the Day

September 3rd 2024
Photo by Getty Images

Sometimes, when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.

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