Scooter Accident Injury Attorneys in Raleigh, NC

Will Wade has a solid recruiting philosophy in place, and he’s already gotten started recruiting players for upcoming N.C. State rosters.

Wade said during his introductory news conference that the team’s composition will rely heavily on the transfer portal in the first one or two seasons, but he doesn’t want that to be the case every season.

The new head coach said the ideal situation includes recruiting two or three freshmen per class; one “impact player” and one or two developmental players. Then they would pursue three or four athletes in the transfer portal to replace any outgoing players. The rest of the roster would be players the staff has retained through recruiting and previous portal pickups. Wade hopes that by year three this is the method his staff can use.

“That’s the formula to building a good program and good team, but (for) the first two years, that’s not how this is going to be,” Wade said.

This is far different than how recruiting and roster management was done in previous years; programs are re-recruiting their own players each season. Wade said coaches are no longer building programs but simply building a team each year and trying to keep as many players as they can.

Wade said N.C. State has the tools it needs to be successful. It has a strong formula for recruiting, good facilities and infrastructure, it’s located in a “fertile” recruiting area, and it has engaged fans and financial backers.

The program expects to have $6 million to $8 million in NIL funding — Kevin Keatts only had $2 million to work with — and expects to have additional money through revenue sharing.

Wade knows N.C. State still won’t have the biggest coffers, but it’ll still have plenty.

“We’re going to be competitive at the upper end of this league, and we’re going to be competitive nationally with our NIL and with revenue sharing,” Wade said. “This is about being able to efficiently use the resources that we have, and we’re going to have enough resources to officially build a very, very good basketball team.”

Trey Parker and Paul McNeil are the only scholarship players remaining for the 2025-26 roster. Dennis Parker Jr., Bryce Heard, Ismael Diouf, Marcus Hill, Mike James and Ben Middlebrooks all entered the transfer portal.

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Michael O’Connell, Dontrez Styles and Jayden Taylor exhausted their eligibility. Middlebrooks, who started his career in 2021, is seeking a waiver for an additional season.

Wade called himself an advocate of players utilizing the transfer portal and seeking different opportunities. He also supports players entering the portal and returning to their current institution, if that still ends up being the right place.

“I told someone, ‘Hey, you put your name in the portal, we’ll still meet,’” Wade said. “I’m not one of those [coaches], once your name’s in the portal, you could never come back.”

It’s unclear whether any players from the Keatts era will return. Heard and Hill still have N.C. State basketball listed in their social media profiles.

RJ Greer decommitted from the Wolfpack after Keatts’ termination. Four-star recruit Zymicah Wilson signed in the fall and remains committed to the program.

Alyn Breed, formerly at Providence and McNeese State, committed to the Wolfpack this week. The staff is expected to spend four to six weeks evaluating and recruiting players.

Regardless of who returns, who the staff adds out of the portal or which freshmen the staff recruits, Wade is also clear in the type of players he wants.

Wade said he likes to recruit players who have experienced adversity in their personal lives. Every player and position is different, but that is often an indicator of someone who can overcome sport-related challenges.

“We want guys that are gritty, grimy; guys that are tough,” Wade said. “I always say you don’t put championship rings on smooth fingers. You’ve gotta get your hands in the mud. You gotta dig in there. We want guys that are gonna do that and represent who we are.”

More than anything, he wants good players who believe N.C. State is the best program in the country and commit to the vision of winning “extremely big and fast.” The staff can develop guys, Wade said, if they’re fully invested in the vision of where he wants the program to be.

“Whoever that is, we’ll coach them and love them up, and get them ready to compete at the top of the ACC,” Wade said.

The transfer portal opened March 24 and closes April 22.

Jadyn Watson-Fisher

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The Michelin Guide is a review of the best restaurants in the world.

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It’s officially official, Michelin is coming to town.

North Carolina restaurants could soon see coveted stars as Michelin announced its latest guide this week, The American South.

Joining North Carolina in the new guide are Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and the current Atlanta guide. Michelin “restaurant inspectors” are already in dining rooms across the South.

In its Wednesday, April 2, announcement, Michelin said it would award stars later in 2025. The food writers of CharlotteFive and The News Observer have peered into our crystal balls yet again and predicted which North Carolina restaurants might be getting some some Michelin love.

There are three levels of stars in the Michelin guide. One star means “high quality cooking,” two means “excellent cooking” and three designates “exceptional cooking,” the guide’s highest honor.

More recently Michelin created the “Bib Gourmand” award, honoring more affordable, casual restaurants that historically were left out of its fine dining spotlight. There will likely be some stars in North Carolina, but this is where we think our restaurants will shine.

Here are our picks:

Charlotte

▪ Counter-: 2001 W Morehead St D, Charlotte, NC 28208

▪ L’Ostrica: 4701 Park Rd D, Charlotte, NC 28209

▪ Restaurant Constance: 2200 Thrift Rd, Charlotte, NC 28208

▪ Yunta: 2201 South Blvd Ste 130, Charlotte, NC 28203

North Carolina Triangle

▪ Ajja: 209 Bickett Blvd. Raleigh, NC 27608

▪ Crawford & Son: 618 N. Person St., Raleigh 27604

▪ Fearrington House Restaurant: 2000 Fearrington Village Pittsboro, NC 27312

▪ Hawthorne & Wood: 3140 Environ Way, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

▪ Herons: 100 Woodland Pond Dr., Cary, NC 27513

▪ M Sushi: 311 Holland St., Durham, NC 27701

▪ Nanas: 2514 University Dr., Durham, NC 27707

▪ Poole’s Diner: 428 S. McDowell St., Raleigh, NC 27601

▪ Prime BBQ: 403 Knightdale Station Run, Knightdale, NC 27545

Western North Carolina

▪ Chai Panni: 32 Banks Ave, Asheville, NC 28801

▪ Good Hot Fish: 10 Buxton Ave, Asheville, NC 28801

▪ Neng Jr’s: 701 Haywood Rd Ste 102, Asheville, NC 28806

▪ Table Asheville: 18 N Lexington Ave, Asheville, NC 28801

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Food and Drink

April 2, 2025 9:53 AM

This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

Update: NC State University Chancellor Randy Woodson says the students whose visas were canceled were in good standing at the school, and that university officials have yet to receive an explanation from the federal government. Read the full story here.

Two international students at NC State University have left the country after their visas were terminated by the administration of President Donald Trump, the university announced Tuesday.

The university learned that the visas — which international students are required to obtain in order to study and enroll at U.S. colleges — had been terminated on March 25, according to an unsigned statement from the university’s Office of International Services.

The university “did not initiate these terminations and was not directly notified of these changes,” the statement read, adding that staff at the Office of International Services confirmed the terminations with federal government officials. The office “contacted the students to advise them about the potential consequences of these changes and provide resources for them,” per the statement.

“In consultation with their home country embassies and private immigration attorneys, both students made the decision to depart the United States,” according to the university.

The university did not name the students. But in a letter to the editor published in the Technician, NC State’s student newspaper, fourth-year student Philip Vasto wrote that both students are from Saudi Arabia, and that one of them was “Sal,” his roommate. A separate Technician news article about the terminations further identified that student as Saleh Al Gurad, who is studying engineering management.

The termination of the NC State students’ visas comes as the Trump administration in recent weeks has increasingly targeted international university students, especially those who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio also ordering federal officials to scrutinize the social media accounts of those applying for student visas.

On Friday, days after NC State learned that the two students’ visas had been terminated, Rubio said he had signed more than 300 letters revoking the visas of students and other visitors to the country since Trump took office in January, The New York Times reported.

The N&O contacted Al Gurad by email Wednesday, but has not yet heard back.

The reasoning for Al Gurad and the other, unidentified student having their visas revoked remains unclear.

In an interview with The News & Observer, Vasto said Al Gurad had begun studying at NC State this semester. Al Gurad received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Central Michigan University in 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile and an online copy of the CMU commencement program.

Since moving into an apartment with Vasto in December, Al Gurad had been a “a very low-key guy,” Vasto said. He was “gainfully employed” with a job on campus, Vasto said.

The roommates were at their apartment when Al Gurad came out of his room with “a very blank and grave look on his face” and told Vasto that university officials had just informed him of the revocation.

“There was no reason issued to him, none whatsoever,” Vasto said.

Vasto, in his letter to the editor and in speaking to The N&O, said he did not know Al Gurad to attend protests or post his opinions to social media.

“He was never somebody to cause any problems,” Vasto said. “He was just a very nice guy who kept to himself, and it’s quite surprising this happened.”

Juliette Majid, a doctoral student in chemistry and a member of the NC State chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, told The News & Observer she was not aware of either student being involved with the organization, which has been active in organizing pro-Palestinian protests. Still, the group is concerned about two fellow university students having their visas revoked.

“While there are no known ties between these two visa revocations to freedom of speech or pro-Palestine speech for either student, this aligns with the trends that we’ve been seeing about visas being revoked, citing pro-Palestine social media content and targeting Palestinian and pro-Palestinian solidarity organizers across the nation,” Majid said.

Majid also expressed concerns about how the visas were revoked, which apparently occurred with little notice or communication between the federal government and university officials. In the statement from the Office of International Services, NC State officials said they “are deeply concerned about the lack of communication from federal agencies and the impact of these actions on our international students.”

Historically, student visas may have been revoked because a student is charged with an offense like driving under the influence of alcohol or other substances, according to Richard Herman, an Ohio-based attorney who has run a firm specializing in immigration law for 30 years.

But the Trump administration is revoking visas in “unprecedented” ways, both in terms of the scale and tactics of the effort, Herman said. For instance, Herman said, the administration appears to be justifying many of the revocations by using a provision of the Immigration Act that is “rarely ever used” and allows the secretary of State to deny visas to anyone believed to have done something that could “have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Still, when a student’s visa is terminated, they are not required to leave the country or their university, Herman said.

In addition to a visa, though, international students are assigned a record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a federal database maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. If those records are terminated — as the NC State students’ records were, according to the university — they are deemed “out of status,” Herman said, and “subject to being placed in deportation” or other removal proceedings.

Herman said students who have their visas or SEVIS records revoked have the option to fight the orders, but doing so can come with hefty expenses and the outcomes of those efforts may vary depending on where the student is located or where they are detained. Herman noted that Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student who was recently detained by federal agents near Tufts University in Massachusetts, is now being held in Louisiana — where court decisions could be more conservative and “less friendly” than those near the university.

Given the resources needed to fight a visa revocation and that the federal government has nearly “unlimited resources to prosecute” the cases, Herman said, it’s “not unreasonable” for students who are impacted to flee the country.

Vasto said Al Gurad decided to leave the country in part because he was concerned that he might be detained or targeted by immigration officials if he decided to stay and fight for his visa.

“We were thinking that literally, at any minute, these people could be knocking on our door trying to get him,” Vasto said.

Al Gurad told Vasto in a text message Monday that he had arrived back in his home country on Sunday.

NC State said both students who left the country will be permitted to continue their coursework online, away from campus.

“We are committed to assisting these two students in any way we can, including completing the semester from abroad,” the university’s statement read.

According to a 2024 report by the U.S. Department of State, NC State enrolled more than 3,700 international students during the 2023-24 academic year, most of whom were graduate students. NC State enrolls the most international students of any school in the public UNC System and hosts the second-most international students of any university in the state, according to federal data.

NC State enrolls students from more than 100 countries, with Saudi Arabia ranking seventh in the number of students originating from that country.

“Our NC State international students, faculty and staff remain critically important members of our community and we deeply value the talent, ideas and insight that they bring to our campus,” the university’s statement read.

Reporter Lexi Solomon contributed.

In the Spotlight designates ongoing topics of high interest that are driven by The News & Observer’s focus on accountability reporting.

This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 11:06 AM.

919-335-8507

Korie Dean covers higher education in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer, where she is also part of the state government and politics team. She is a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-Chapel Hill and a lifelong North Carolinian.

Competing weather systems will bring unseasonably warm temperatures to North Carolina this week followed by a welcome soaking of rain.

Here’s what the forecast holds.

Beginning Thursday afternoon, April 3, the National Weather Service says, a sub-tropical high-pressure system will move into the South Atlantic states where it will stay through Sunday.

By Friday, April 4, the system will bring temperatures across North Carolina that are 10 to 20 degrees above average for this time of year, forecasters say.

NWS records show:

▪ The highest temperature at RDU on April 4 was 88 degrees in 1934.

▪ The record for April 5 is 90 degrees, from 1942.

▪ The record for April 6 is 93 degrees, set in 1967.

In the forecast:

▪ Friday and Saturday, the highs in Raleigh are expected to be 89 degrees.

▪ On Saturday, the forecast calls for a high of 88 degrees.

Expected highs in the mid–80s to 90 degrees in Asheville, Charlotte and Fayetteville those three days also will flirt with records.

A system moving through the Ohio and Mississippi valleys over the next several days, bringing the potential for tornadoes and major flooding in that part of the country, isn’t expected to be able to push into North Carolina, the National Weather Service said Wednesday, April 2.

However, forecasters say, another cold front will come through North Carolina starting Sunday, bringing rain to much of the state Sunday evening through Monday afternoon. Up to an inch of rain total is possible in Raleigh, the Weather Service says.

A few storms can’t be ruled out but severe weather doesn’t appear likely..

Wind gusts up to 35 mph are possible on Sunday, however, the forecast says.

Drier air is expected by Tuesday.

Most of the state has been abnormally dry or in drought since last fall. Storms that moved through North Carolina last weekend brought some rain; Raleigh got about a third of an inch.

The rain provided some relief to firefighters battling blazes in the mountains and was enough to prompt the N.C. Forest Service to drop the statewide outdoor-burning ban that went into effect March 21.

Across the state, March 2025 was North Carolina’s 23rd-warmest since record-keeping began in 1895, according to Corey Davis, assistant state climatologist. For Raleigh, Davis says, it was the 5th-warmest March on record.

And while Davis said some areas of the state got above-average rainfall in March, most of North Carolina still could use some extra precipitation.

This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 4:06 PM.

919-829-8989

Martha Quillin is a general assignment reporter at The News & Observer who writes about North Carolina culture, religion and social issues. She has held jobs throughout the newsroom since 1987.

Raleigh, NC - April 2, 2025 - JNGL [https://jngl.world/], the high-octane DJ battle series founded by Deante Chisley, is making its North Carolina debut as an official partner of Dreamville Festival Weekend. The event will take place on Thursday, April 3, 2025, from 8:00 PM to 11:59 PM EST at the Alchemy in Raleigh, NC. The event promises a night of intense DJ battles, cultural celebration, and live entertainment-marking a bold kickoff to one of hip-hop's most anticipated weekends.

Designed to elevate and celebrate the art of DJing, JNGL (pronounced jungle) offers a tournament-style competition where six selected DJs go head-to-head across three rounds for a $5,000 cash prize, a custom varsity champion jacket, and the coveted title of King or Queen of the JNGL.

Event Details:

Time: 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM EST

Location: Alchemy, 606 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27603

Tickets: Available now on Eventbrite - Get Yours Here [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dreamville-x-jngl-the-ultimate-dj-battle-experience-tickets-1290170618049?aff=S22]

Each DJ receives a curated playlist just 24 hours prior to the event, leveling the playing field and testing real-time creativity under pressure. Performances are judged by both audience response and a panel of esteemed industry veterans (to be announced), who also offer live commentary to help the crowd better understand the craft and complexity of modern DJing.

In addition to the battle, JNGL Dreamville Edition will feature a special guest performance by Grammy-winning rapper Rapsody, whose Raleigh roots and lyrical legacy align with JNGL's mission to uplift authentic voices in hip-hop culture. The event will be hosted by RoyalTea, a beloved radio personality on K97.5 Real Hip-Hop and R&B in Raleigh, NC, with electrifying sets by DJ Nitrane and DJ Moma.

"JNGL was created to put real DJs back at the forefront of the music experience," said Deante Chisley, founder and CEO of JNGL. "We're proud to partner with Dreamville Fest to bring this platform to North Carolina and spotlight the talent, culture, and creativity that defines our community."

Past JNGL battles have been hosted at major cultural events, including Howard University Homecoming, Art Basel Miami, and Super Bowl LIX weekend in New Orleans, drawing sold-out crowds and catapulting competing DJs into new levels of visibility and success.

About JNGL

Inspired by the legendary "Rumble in the Jungle," JNGL is a competitive DJ battle series and cultural movement aimed at restoring the DJ's central role in hip-hop and nightlife. Founded by creative entrepreneur Deante Chisley, JNGL blends entertainment, education, and community to showcase emerging talent while celebrating the legacy of DJing.

Media Contact Company Name: Society22 PR Contact Person: Hazy Shea Email:Send Email [https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=jngl-to-kick-off-dreamville-fest-weekend-in-raleigh-nc] Country: United States Website: http://www.society22pr.com

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