CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Regulated sports betting and horse racing is expected to begin across North Carolina in the first half of next year, enabled by legislation Gov. Roy Cooper signed Wednesday that greatly expands gambling opportunities in the ninth-largest state.

The Democratic governor held the bill-signing ceremony at Spectrum Center, home to the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. It could house one of several anticipated sportsbooks allowed at or near professional sports venues as part of the law that received final approval in the Republican-controlled General Assembly last week.

The new law says betting could begin as early as Jan. 8 or as late as mid-June 2024. Supporters say the expansion will bring new revenue and jobs, and attract stronger in-state pro sports franchises.

“This is an historic moment for the state of North Carolina and this will benefit our economy for generations to come,” Cooper said.

The law directs the North Carolina Lottery Commission to issue as many as 12 interactive sports wagering licenses to entities that would offer mobile and online sports betting to customers who create accounts.

But anyone 21 or older could also make cash bets on pro, college or Olympic-style sports at the eight potential in-person betting locales associated with stadiums, arenas, golf courses and racetracks.

North Carolina will become the 29th state where mobile sports betting occurs or has been authorized, according to the American Gaming Association. Gambling on horse racing would be permitted through separate licensing and accounts.

Legal sports gambling in North Carolina is only happening right now at the state’s three casinos, which are operated by two American Indian tribes. Essentially, the only other legal gambling in the state is a lottery that began in 2006.

Neighboring Tennessee and Virginia already allow mobile sports betting, attracting North Carolina residents to cross state lines to wager. According to bill supporters, regulating and taxing sports betting is the best way to control gambling that otherwise was happening underground or through offshore accounts.

The bill advanced this year despite opposition from a coalition of social conservatives and liberals who said the additional revenues paled in comparison to the damage more gambling addiction would place upon families and society.

A similar political alliance derailed sports gambling legislation last year by just one vote in the House, but lobbyists for legal sports wagering providers in other states and pro sports franchises kept pressing the idea and won more support in the legislature.

The defeat “gave us the opportunity to work harder” and build support for the measure this year, Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincoln County Republican and the chief bill sponsor, said at the ceremony. “We got this over the hump and we’re so glad to do this.”

The legislation will tax sports wagering at a rate equal to 18% of gross betting revenue minus distributed winnings. Legislative analysts estimate that will generate over $100 million in sports betting taxes annually within five years, resulting in $71 million in net revenues for state coffers.

Much of the sports wagering tax revenues would go to local, regional and state athletics initiatives, athletic programs at most schools in the University of North Carolina system and problem-gambling programs. Cooper said on Wednesday that he hoped more future proceeds would help public education.

The law also authorizes the commission to set rules for live horse racing.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN (AP Business Writer)

After more than two decades as America’s best-selling beer, Bud Light has slipped into second place.

Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager, overtook Bud Light in U.S. retail dollar sales in the month ending June 3, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting. Modelo controlled 8.4% of U.S. grocery, convenience and liquor store sales; Bud Light fell to 7.3%.

It’s a milestone in Bud Light’s months-long sales decline since early April, when critics who were angered by the brewer sending a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney vowed to boycott the brand. Bud Light has also faced backlash from Mulvaney’s fans, who think the brand didn’t do enough to support her.

Dave William, Bump Williams’ vice president of analytics and insights, said Bud Light has been the top-selling U.S. beer since 2001, and it could still retain that crown this year. He noted that Bud Light’s year-to-date market share of 9% is still outpacing Modelo’s, at 8%. And Bud Light’s sales volumes are higher.

But Modelo appears to have the advantage, with its dollar sales increasing by double-digit percentages every week. The launch of a new light beer, Modelo Oro, in May is also boosting awareness of the brand.

Sales in bars and restaurants, which are harder to track, aren’t included in the retail numbers, and Bud Light far outpaced Modelo in those venues prior to April. But David Steinman, the vice president and executive editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, said Modelo’s bar and restaurant sales have been growing quickly, and it’s believed that Bud Light took an even steeper sales hit in bars and restaurants than in groceries.

Bud Light’s U.S. retail sales were down 24% the week ending June 3, while Modelo Especial sales were up 12%, according to Dave Williams.

Scott Scanlon, an executive vice president at the consulting firm Circana who follows the alcohol market, said Mexican imports like Modelo and Corona have been the biggest bright spots in the otherwise stagnant U.S. beer market for years.

When Modelo first went on sale in the U.S. in the 1990s, it was primarily marketed to Hispanic drinkers, Scanlon said. It launched English-language ads in 2015 and has broadened its consumer base significantly since then. It’s especially popular among younger drinkers, who like its fuller flavor, Scanlon said.

Scanlon said Modelo is already the top seller in markets like Los Angeles and Chicago, but it could still see a lot of growth ahead on the East Coast.

“Modelo was going to become the No. 1 beer brand. It was destiny because the growth numbers we are seeing and have been seeing are astonishing,” Scanlon said. “The only question was time.”

Scanlon said the pandemic accelerated Modelo’s U.S. sales, since it sees more of its sales from retail stores than from bars and restaurants. And Bud Light’s missteps further accelerated its rise.

Grupo Modelo, the Mexican brewer, is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the same parent company of Bud Light. Constellation Brands, a Rochester, New York-based company, has been licensed to sell Modelo in the U.S. since 2013 as part of an agreement with antitrust regulators after InBev bought Grupo Modelo.

Constellation said Wednesday it has nearly doubled its marketing spending on Modelo over the past five years and continues to see a “runway for growth” in the U.S. But Bud Light will try to counter that.

Last month, InBev said it will triple its marketing spending in the U.S. this summer, with a focus on sports and music festivals. Bud Light also continues to be a high-profile sponsor of LGBTQ+ Pride events.

“For the year, Bud Light remains the number one brand in the U.S. nationally in volume and dollar sales,” an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said Wednesday.

ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — Damaging winds and possible tornadoes toppled trees, damaged buildings and blew cars off a highway Wednesday as powerful storms crossed the South from Texas to Georgia.

The National Weather Service issued numerous tornado warnings, mainly in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, and cautioned that gusts of hurricane-force winds exceeding 90 mph (145 kph) were possible in parts of northeast Louisiana and central Mississippi. Some areas also were pelted with large hail.

Witnesses posted video of tornadoes hitting Abbeville and Eufala in Alabama.

In Georgia, authorities in Troup County told WSB-TV that a person was struck by lightning Wednesday afternoon. There was no immediate word on that person’s condition.

Tens of thousands of people across both Alabama and Georgia were without power Wednesday night amid the storms, according to each of the state’s power providers. At one point, the outages were affecting close to 50,000 people in Alabama alone.

Forecasters said severe storm threats could persist into Thursday, with the greatest risk across southern Alabama and Georgia into the Florida Panhandle as well as Oklahoma and parts of northern Texas and southern Kansas.

Felecia Bowser, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Florida, called the far-reaching inland storm system unprecedented for this time of year.

“In June, we’re usually gearing up more for tropical weather,” Bowser said. “This type of widespread, aggressive precipitation that we’re seeing today usually occurs more so in the spring.”

Two people escaped unharmed from a home that was destroyed Wednesday as storms raked rural southwest Georgia, Calhoun County Sheriff Josh Hilton said. He told WALB-TV the home in Quail County Plantation, near the county line with neighboring Early County, was demolished.

Video posted on social media showed a large funnel cloud churning on the horizon near the rural city of Blakely, and officials in nearby communities reported downed trees and snapped power lines. Connie Hobbs, the elected commission chairman for neighboring Baker County, said hail stones up to golf-ball size rained down in her yard.

Tornado warnings were issued for southwest Georgia’s largest city, Albany, and surrounding Dougherty County on Wednesday afternoon. County government spokeswoman Wendy Howell said there had been no reports of significant damage or injuries.

“The big concern is flooding,” Howell said as rain hammered at windows Wednesday evening. “We’re such a flat area, and there’s already water standing” on and alongside the roads.

In Alabama, the Eufaula Police Department said confirmed tornado damage was reported in the city near the Georgia state line. Eufaula Mayor Jack Tibbs told WSFA-TV that no injuries were immediately reported, but the storm collapsed a wall of a building and downed 30 or 40 trees.

Local news outlets showed viewer-submitted video of a tornado rumbling through nearby Henry County, Alabama, and of roof damage in the area.

Sheriff Larry Rowe of Cass County in eastern Texas told KYTX-TV that some vehicles were blown off a highway Wednesday afternoon as the county was under a tornado warning. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER (AP Economics Writer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation may be cooling — just not yet fast enough for the Federal Reserve.

Chair Jerome Powell offered a nuanced view Wednesday of how the Fed intends to address its core challenge at a time when inflation is both way below its peak but still well above the central bank’s 2% target: Give it more time, and maybe some help from additional interest rate hikes.

Yet on a hopeful note, Powell also suggested that the trends that are needed to further slow inflation, from lower apartment rents to slower-growing wages, are starting to click into place.

As a result, the Fed decided Wednesday to forgo another increase in its benchmark interest rate, leaving it at about 5.1%. The pause followed 10 straight hikes in 15 months — the fastest series of increases in four decades.

By leaving rates alone, at least for now, Powell and other top Fed officials hope to use the extra time to more fully assess how higher borrowing rates have affected inflation and the economy. They also want to see whether the collapse of three large banks this spring will weigh on lending and growth.

In a surprisingly hawkish signal, the Fed’s policymakers issued projections Wednesday showing they envision as many as two additional quarter-point rate hikes before the year ends. (In Fed parlance, “hawks” generally favor higher rates to quell inflation, while “doves” typically advocate lower rates to aid a healthy job market.) Before this week’s policy meeting, Fed watchers had expected the policymakers to signal just one more rate increase this year.

In their new projections, the members of the Fed’s interest-rate committee were less divided than many economists had expected, with 12 of the 18 policymakers foreseeing at least two more quarter-point rate increases. Four favored one quarter-point hike. Only two envisioned keeping rates unchanged. The policymakers also predicted that their benchmark rate will stay higher for longer than they envisioned three months ago.

Powell noted that wage growth has slowed and cited some signs that the job market is cooling. Those factors, he added, should reduce inflationary pressures.

“I would almost say that the conditions that we need to see in place to get inflation down are coming into place,” Powell said. “But the process of that actually working on inflation is going to take some time.”

Inflation dropped to 4% in May compared with a year earlier, down sharply from a 9.1% peak last June. And many economists expect it to decline further. Rental costs are falling, and used car prices, which spiked in April and May, are also likely to drop.

Yet Powell underscored that the Fed will need to feel confident that inflation is moving steadily closer to its 2% target.

“We’re two and a quarter years into this, and forecasters, including Fed forecasters, have consistently thought that inflation was about to turn down … and been wrong,” he said. “We want to get inflation down to 2%, and we just don’t see that yet.”

At the same time, Powell stopped short of saying the Fed’s policymakers have committed to resuming their hikes when they next meet in late July. At one point in the news conference, he referred to Wednesday’s decision as a “skip,” which would imply that the Fed planned to raise rates at the July meeting.

He then corrected himself: “I shouldn’t call it a skip,” he said.

But Powell emphasized that the Fed wants to move more slowly after its breakneck pace last year, when it carried out four straight three-quarter-point hikes, followed by a half-point increase and then three quarter-point hikes this year.

The Fed’s aggressive streak of rate hikes, which have made mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and business borrowing costlier, have been intended to slow spending and defeat the worst bout of inflation in four decades. Average credit card rates have surpassed 20% to a record high.

“Given how far we have come, it may make sense for rates to move higher but at a more moderate pace,” he said. “It’s just the idea that we’re trying to get this right.”

Should inflation come down further, some economists think the Fed may not actually have to raise rates again.

“With inflation set to moderate noticeably, we are skeptical that the Fed will resume hiking interest rates,” Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist of Oxford Economics, wrote in a note. “Our baseline forecast is for the Fed to remain on hold through the remainder of this year before gradually easing in early 2024.”

One reason why Fed officials may be predicting additional rate hikes is that the economy has remained surprisingly resilient this year, with more persistent inflation that might require higher rates to cool. Their updated forecasts show them predicting economic growth of 1% for 2023, an upgrade from a meager 0.4% forecast in March. And they expect “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, of 3.9% by year’s end, higher than they expected three months ago.

Powell and other top policymakers have also indicated that they want to assess how much a pullback in bank lending might be weakening the economy. Banks have been slowing their lending — and demand for loans has fallen — as interest rates have risen. Some analysts have expressed concern that the collapse of three large banks last spring could cause nervous lenders to sharply tighten their loan qualifications.

The economy has so far fared better than the central bank and most economists had expected at the beginning of the year. Companies are still hiring at a robust pace, which has helped encourage many people to keep spending, particularly on travel, dining out and entertainment.

The Norfolk Tides’ magic number to clinch the International League’s first-half title remained at five games after a 13-5 loss to the Worcester Red Sox before 4,704 fans Wednesday night at Harbor Park.

St. Paul (38-26), the IL West Division leader which boasts the second-best record in the league, routed Louisville 11-3 on Wednesday night.

Worcester (32-33) evened the series at a game apiece. It was the second-most runs the Tides (44-20) have given up all season.

Bobby Dalbec and Ryan Fitzgerald each hit two home runs and the Red Sox finished with six homers for the game. Ronaldo Hernández added five RBIs.

Norfolk starter DL Hall lasted only three innings, giving up two runs on three hits with four strikeouts and three walks. Worcester hammered four Tides relievers for 11 runs on 13 hits in six innings, including all six homers.

Worcester starter Matt Dermody (3-2) picked up the victory, giving up three runs on six hits in five innings. He struck out five and walked two.

Heston Kjerstad paced the Tides’ offense by going 3 for 5 with two runs. It was his first three-hit game in Triple-A. Daz Cameron added his 10th home run of the season, a two-run shot, and Colton Cowser and Terrin Vavra had two hits each.

GONE! @daz_cameron16 breaks the scoring open with a two-run shot! It’s his 10th homer of the season!#RisingTide pic.twitter.com/lWzxEomT38

— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) June 14, 2023

The teams will play a 12:05 p.m. game Thursday. Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (2-0, 2.81) is expected to take the mound for the Tides, while the Red Sox will counter with left-hander Shane Drohan (2-1, 5.55).

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former manager at the Harvard Medical School morgue, his wife and three other people have been indicted in the theft and sale of human body parts, federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced Wednesday.

Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, stole dissected portions of cadavers that were donated to the school in the scheme that stretched from 2018 to early 2023, according to court documents. The body parts were taken without the school’s knowledge or permission, authorities said, adding that the school has cooperated with the investigation.

Lodge sometimes took the body parts — which included heads, brains, skin and bones — back to his home where he lived with his wife, Denise, 63, and some remains were sent to buyers through the mail, authorities said. Lodge also allegedly allowed buyers to come to the morgue to pick what remains they wanted to buy.

Bodies donated to Harvard Medical School are used for education, teaching or research purposes. Once they are no longer needed, the cadavers are usually cremated and the ashes are returned to the donor’s family or buried in a cemetery.

In a message posted on the school’s website entitled “An abhorrent betrayal,” deans George Daley and Edward Hundert called the matter “morally reprehensible.” They said Lodge was fired May 6.

“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others,” the deans wrote. “The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research.”

The indictment charges the Lodges and three others — Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts; Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania; and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota — with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods. It was not known Wednesday if any of the defendants had a lawyer who could comment on their behalf.

According to prosecutors, the defendants were part of a nationwide network of people who bought and sold remains stolen from the school and an Arkansas mortuary. The Lodges allegedly sold remains to Maclean, Taylor, and others in arrangements made through telephone calls and social media websites.

Taylor sometimes transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania, authorities said, while other times the Lodges would mail remains to him and others. Maclean and Taylor resold the stolen remains for profit, authorities said.

Denise and Cedric Lodge both made their initial court appearances Wednesday in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, and were each released on personal recognizance bail. They declined comment as they left the courthouse.

Two other people have been charged in the case.

Jeremy Pauley, age 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, allegedly bought some remains from Candace Chapman Scott, of Little Rock, Arkansas, who allegedly stole them from a mortuary where she worked. Authorities have said Scott stole body parts from cadavers she was supposed to have cremated, noting many of the bodies had been donated to and used for research and educational purposes by a medical school in Arkansas.

Pauley allegedly sold many of the stolen remains to other people, including individuals, including Lampi. Pauley and Lampi bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged more than $100,000 in online payments, authorities said.

Scott and Pauley have both pleaded not guilty.

Roger Payne, the scientist who spurred a worldwide environmental conservation movement with his discovery that whales could sing, has died. He was 88.

Payne made the discovery in 1967 during a research trip to Bermuda in which a Navy engineer provided him with a recording of curious underwater sounds documented while listening for Russian submarines. Payne identified the haunting tones as songs whales sing to one another.

He saw the discovery of whale song as a chance to spur interest in saving the giant animals, who were disappearing from the planet. Payne would produce the album “Songs of the Humpback Whale” in 1970. A surprise hit, the record galvanized a global movement to end the practice of commercial whale hunting and save the whales from extinction.

Payne was cognizant from the start that whale song represented a chance to get the public interested in protecting an animal previously considered little more than a resource, curiosity or nuisance. He told Nautilus Quarterly in a 2021 interview that he first heard the recording in the loud engine room of a research vessel and knew almost instantly that the sounds were indeed whales.

“In spite of the racket, what I heard blew my mind. It seemed obvious that here, finally, was a chance to get the world interested in preventing the extinction of whales,” he told the magazine.

Payne died Saturday of pelvic cancer. He lived in South Woodstock, Vermont, with his wife, the actress Lisa Harrow. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, Harrow said.

Payne had four children from a previous marriage to zoologist Katy Payne, with whom he collaborated. The two used primitive equipment in the late 1960s to record the sounds of humpback whales, which sometimes sing their eerie, complex songs for longer than a half-hour at a stretch.

The impact of the whale song discovery on the nascent environmental movement was immense. Many anti-war protesters of the day took on saving animals and the environment as a new cause, and the words “save the whales” became ubiquitous on tote bags and bumper stickers.

Whale songs would enter the popular imagination via everything from a 1971 episode of “The Partridge Family” to a 1979 issue of National Geographic that included a flexi disc with excerpts from “Songs of the Humpback Whale.” It remains the best-selling environmental album in history.

Payne founded Ocean Alliance in 1971 to advocate for the protection of whales and dolphins. The organization operates to this day in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It has played a role in watershed moments in the history of whale protection, such as the 1972 passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act by the U.S. Congress and the 1982 commercial whaling moratorium passed by the International Whaling Commission.

The world has lost a giant of environmental conservation with Payne’s death, said Iain Kerr, the chief executive officer of Ocean Alliance and a longtime collaborator with Payne. Payne retired two years ago.

“He had a presence and a way of connecting to people that led them to dedicating their lives to protecting whales and our planet Earth,” Kerr said.

Payne was born in New York City and educated at Harvard University and Cornell University, where he received his doctorate. Early in his career as a biologist, he studied bats and birds.

He met Harrow, his widow, in 1991 at a rally for whale protection at Trafalgar Square in London. They married within 10 weeks of meeting.

“The way his mind worked was a constant joy,” Harrow said. “He was constantly seeking answers, to seemingly constant questions.”

NORFOLK — More than a dozen faith leaders gathered Wednesday to support the LGBTQ+ community against this year’s rise in violence and anti-LGBTQ legislation.

After Human Rights Watch last week declared a national “State of Emergency” for LGBTQ+ Americans, the Hampton Roads LGBTQAI Interfaith Group decided to hold a news conference at MJ’s Tavern to show its solidarity, according to one of the group’s founders, Rev. Mark Byrd, senior pastor at New Life Metropolitan Community Church in Norfolk.

The group gathers annually ahead of PrideFest in addition to other meetings. But this year, it felt it needed to do more.

“No matter the differences in our faith — and we have differences in our faith, just a little,” Byrd said to chuckles from the group behind him, which included Jewish and Druid leaders and representatives of various Protestant denominations.

“We hold a common belief that violence in any form, be it physical, be it rhetorical, be it legislative, goes against and is contrary to the call to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”

There have been over 520 anti-LGBT bills introduced around the country this year, Byrd said, with 220 specifically targeting transgender and nonbinary people. So far, 74 have passed.

According to a 2023 survey by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization, 41% of young people who identify as LGBTQ have considered suicide in the past year.

The survey also indicated two-thirds of LGBTQ youth said hearing about potential state or local laws banning people from discussing LGBTQ people at school substantially worsened their mental health. One such policy, commonly referred to as “Don’t Say Gay” rules, passed last week in western Virginia, where the Bedford County School Board voted 5-1 in favor.

Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill of Tidewater Chavurah spoke about intersectionality between the Jewish and LGBTQ communities, remarking on how frequently the same organizations that target LGBTQ individuals also express antisemitic views.

“We have a common — I won’t say enemy — but people who have in common the fear of Jews and the fear of LGBTQ people, the same people: white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons we choose to stand with the LGBTQ community. We stand together in opposition to those who out of fear and hate threaten us, but they will not win.”

Rev. Mario Melendez, with the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, speaks about his, and other faith leaders in the Hampton Roads interfaith community, support for the LGBTQI+ community during Wednesday, June 14, 2023, afternoon’s press conference in Norfolk.Another speaker, Rev. Mario Melendez of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, spoke passionately about the importance of compassion and respect for human dignity.

“We have to ask ourselves, how many more children are going to be sacrificed at the altar of power, political fundraising and cynicism?” he said. “How many more families are going to suffer at the hands of demonic forces of xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia? I say no more.”

Continuing the plea to support LGBTQ youth and families, Rev. Noah Van Niel, the rector at Christ & St. Luke’s Episcopal in Norfolk, said he wanted young people to know there are faith communities where they will be accepted.

“This is a matter of life and death,” he said,” The stakes are that high.”

Susan Pederson, the cofounder of the Interfaith group, said that she hadn’t planned to speak, but added her voice to plead for support from LGBTQ+ allies.

“We need the straight community as much as the LGBTQ community,” she said.

Asked what changed her mind about speaking, she paused and shrugged.

“The Holy Spirit.”

Katrina Dix, 757-222-5155, [email protected]