Local Limelight with WUNC's Jeff Tiberi
For NPR fans in the Triangle, journalist Jeff Tiberi's voice may sound familiar. A longtime North Carolina journalist turned host of WUNC's "Due South," Tiberi is a fixture of our region's media landscape. He's also a college basketball fanatic.
Driving the news: Just in time for March Madness, Tiberi and fellow journalist Mark Meher are out with a new book, "The Magnificent Seven: College Basketball's Blue Bloods," on how the teams have established themselves as "American basketball royalty."
Order it here for a signed copy ($26.95), and get the details on an event featuring the authors coming up on April 6.
We talked with Tiberi for our latest Local Limelight conversation. The Q&A has been edited for Smart Brevity.
🍽️ Favorite place to eat in the Triangle? Sassool (Strickland Rd location).
✈️ What do you think the Triangle is missing? A direct flight to Italy.
📱 What's your first read in the morning? Usually tapping on some alert or news update that has broken/developed overnight.
📖 Last great book you read?"The Anxious Generation," by Jonathan Haidt.
🎧 Go-to podcast? "All The Smoke."
🏀 Would you consider yourself a college basketball fanatic? If that's a serious question and I suspect it is marginally so, I would respond by telling you that one of my favorite teams was the 1996 UMass Minutemen.
A team that, of course, has not been assembled for near 30 years. And I'd tell you their starting five consisted of Marcus Camby, Donta Bright, Dana Dingle, Carmelo Travieso, and Edgar Padilla. What's neat about Padilla and Travieso is that they were the starting back court, and happened to be born in Puerto Rico on the same day in the same Hospital. Why do I remember that? Well I guess that's the answer to your question.
⛰️ Favorite place to go for a long weekend? Our cabin in Blowing Rock.
❤️🩹 Do you have any pets? What kind? What are their names? Our cat, Kiki, aka, Professor Kiki Foster died on Valentine's Day. She had been with us for 13 years. We miss her.
🚙 How did you end up in the Triangle? In early 2015 I was reassigned to cover the NCGA. So, after eight-and-a-half years in Winston-Salem I headed east.
📆 If you could pass any law, what would it be? I'd create a state holiday for the opening Thursday and Friday of the NCAA Men's Tournament (Round of 64).
All government buildings and schools would close at noon. (Tobacco Road Days?)
🧳 What's something you're looking forward to, unrelated to politics/your work? We're going to Memphis later this spring. I've never been.
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Indianapolis Star
43 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
5 thoughts on IndyCar's new car, what it could mean for the sport's future, paddock insight
The new specifics are few, but the news was no less exciting as it rang across the IndyCar paddock: After 16 years of use, IndyCar's combination of its DW12 chassis and 2.2-liter twin-turbo engine will be retired after nearly 270 races of use come the 2027 season finale. For reference, the careers of Bobby Rahal (264 starts) and Dario Franchitti (265) rank within the top-15 lengthiest in American open-wheel racing history dating back to 1946. The car was born out of the testing acumen of the late Dan Wheldon, saw the entry (and soon to follow exit) of a third engine manufacturer in Lotus, welcomed first a manufacturer aero-kit and then a universal one and was the proving ground for IndyCar's aeroscreen and bespoke hybrid system. Among its full-time driver contingent, only Scott Dixon, Will Power and Graham Rahal have raced anything else in their top-level American open-wheel racing careers. 'The DW12 served the series so well, as it provided a combination of phenomenal, wheel-to-wheel racing and critical enhancements to safety,' IndyCar president Doug Boles said. 'But recent significant updates to the car … have helped advance the need for a completely new car. 'We are pleased by what our engineers and Dallara have collaboratively designed and believe it will appear to the fans and paddock, while also upholding our standards of safety and enhancing IndyCar's on-track competition well into the future.' Penske Entertainment's rollout plan announced June 22 included a private audience of owners or executives from all its full-time teams minutes after the end of Practice No. 2 on Saturday, during which sources with direct knowledge of aspects of the meeting said meeting attendees were not shown a mock-up of the new car design, which is said to have undergone a notable redesign since owners were gathered for an offseason meeting in October when talk around the new car around the paddock picked up significantly. Multiple sources with knowledge of meeting said Penske Entertainment leaders didn't dive too deep into the cars' specifics beyond what was laid out in the Saturday afternoon release shortly after their meeting together completed. Here are five thoughts I have in the wake of IndyCar's most substantive statement around its future technical regulations since Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles sat down with IndyStar at St. Pete in March and elaborated on the process and did his best to dispel rumors and clarify the work that had taken place in the offseason. Miles said one could come 'as early as 2027,' but after a year, though an initial prototype had been developed and seen wind tunnel time, Miles was still not able to offer a hard-and-fast timeline. In fact, he promised that the series would see some level of change to the cars being raced in 2027, planting the idea that some updates could rollout that year with the rest coming by 2028. IndyCar and Penske Entertainment have given no indication why that phased rollout with new technology on track more quickly has been scrapped, but there was no mention of 2027 in Saturday's release. Another delay as it may, the firm road map — as long as it doesn't see delays the likes of the elongated hybrid system rollout — now begins to give teams the makings of a runway on which they can prepare not only for the cost impacts of a new car but the way in which they wind down use of their parts related to the DW12. 'I'm pretty happy with where the whole thing is right now,' Meyer Shank Racing co-owner Mike Shank told IndyStar. 'I think the move to 2028 was really crucial for all of our sakes, and now we can plan around it the best we can. 'And because they moved to 2028, we have a proper, doable plan that allows us to fully depreciated (our DW12s) and run all the parts out as much as we can and end up with worn-out racecars by the end of 2027.' It was already well-understood across the paddock that the car would be made by Dallara and would include low-voltage hybrid technology and a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 engine. Maybe the most impactful piece of information IndyCar unveiled was the early makings of a timeline for which the new car would begin on-track testing. That process, according to IndyCar's release, will begin in 'early 2026.' It will allow for a nearly two-year runway of testing and production ahead of the car's on-track debut. By comparison, the DW12 began on-track testing in August 2011, just seven months before it was first used in a race. A test and production window nearly three times the length of that of IndyCar's most recent new chassis should assuage any concerns that Penske Entertainment will be unable to meet its benchmarks along the way, despite the festering wounds of how the hybrid testing and development process went from 2022-24. 'This gives us a lot of time to really develop this, so it's not a cluster-you-know-what, and we'll actually be able to run the car,' Shank said. 'I think Doug Boles has done an awesome job. I was impressed with how he led (the team owners' meeting),' added Prema Racing IndyCar CEO Piers Phillips. 'This is a team sport, and once you get over the pit wall, you want to beat everybody, but I always say, you've got to get to the pit wall together as an organization, and I think the group discussion has been very productive.' It remains a paddock mystery as to who and how many engine manufacturers the sport will have once Honda and Chevy's deal with the sport that runs through 2026 expires. Of the two, Honda Racing Corp. USA is the party those around the paddock are uncertain whether it will re-sign or not in the wake of the company airing its concerns in late 2023 with the state of the sport and the return on investment it offers. 'It's great to see IndyCar moving forward and announcing plans around the new car. That's something fans have been waiting for and teams, drivers and OEMs have been waiting for, so I think that's a really good step forward,' Chuck Schifsky, the national manager of HRC USA's racing endeavors, told IndyStar at Road America, who noted that HRC USA continues to meet 'regularly' with Penske Entertainment executives regarding the future of the sport and the prospect of their involvement in it past 2026 and that those meetings 'have been doing well.' Schifsky offered no specifics as to HRC USA's decision-making timeline, though one has been given to Penske Entertainment. Though it wasn't explicitly stated in the release, one would imagine that new car testing in early 2026 for IndyCar's next technical regulations would involve manufacturer-specific testing — i.e. a 2028 safety cell with updated parts and body kit and manufacturer-specific engines inside. Such a theory would require HRC USA to decide whether or not they plan to stick around long enough ahead to have a 2.4-liter test engine and testing plan prepared, making it reasonable to expect the longtime IndyCar manufacturer's future in the sport (or lack of it) to be solidified in the coming months. Changes coming in IndyCar's new car: Weight reduction, engine formula, more Though specifications around the engine formula are minimal, beyond it being a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 internal combustion engine with a low-voltage hybrid component, if that sounds familiar, you're not going crazy. It's the bones of what the series announced in 2019 would be coming in 2022 — after the internal combustion engine side was announced in 2018 for 2021. To me, that signals two things: One, for Chevy and (potentially) Honda, it's like slipping on an old forgotten pair of pants in the back of your closet. For both of them, the 2.4-liter engine formula is a piece of technology both were a good ways down the road with three years ago. In March 2022, just weeks after the 2.4-liter engine and hybrid combo were punted to 2024, the IMS road course hosted both Honda and Chevy for a multi-day test of both camps' 2.4-liter engine. Results of both sides' testing was kept largely private, but we know that Chevy turned 600 miles, and Honda went so far as to embark on an additional test day a couple months later with both the 2.4-liter and a version of the hybrid system. Though both sides ultimately decided to scrap continued development of their respective 2.4-liter engines to pour time, money and energy into helping IndyCar get the hybrid to the finish line, it's not as if those development plans just disappeared into thin air. There's reason to think both could get those engines back up and running with relative ease and that producing a dependable, competitive, track-tested engine with which to compete in IndyCar a couple years down the road isn't a project that requires starting from scratch. In fact, though it's slightly different, the bones of Honda's 2.4-liter engine is currently racing in its Acura GTP cars in IMSA, giving the manufacturer most known to be on the fence something concrete to work off of. The downside to this: Rebooting an engine formula that was in the works for four years previously and one that isn't all too different than what IndyCar is running now doesn't give me great hope that a new manufacturer outside the two competing is coming into the fold any time soon. Though the sport has made some notable gains in its popularity and what it can offer for those who play a major role in the sport, but there's neither been enough of a technological leap nor has the sport gained enough traction for me to think a major racing manufacturer that once turned the sport down is going to circle back around and have a change of heart. The manufacturer arms race in the major racing series around the world is becoming an increasingly crowded and competitive space, with sports like NASCAR offering a massive platform, ones like IMSA and WEC offering a lot of technological freedom and the ability to compete against a bunch of other high-level manufacturers from around the world and ones like Formula 1 that offer maybe the best of both worlds. It's a tough landscape for IndyCar to compete in at the moment, and racing an engine package that has been on the table for years in some form with no new takers doesn't have me thinking one is going to magically pop up any time soon. Setting the record straight: IndyCar CEO Mark Miles details new car development process The word 'horsepower' appeared just once in IndyCar's release about its new car, in noting that the hybrid would offer a gain in that department. In short, the amount of power Indy cars could sport come 2028 is yet to be confirmed, though it's notable that all the descriptions of the 2.4-liter engine and hybrid package that was pursued years ago was said to allow for as much as 900 horsepower when including the internal combustion engine, the hybrid and the push-to-pass boost system. Presently, the cars run around 800 hp at their maximum capacity, according to numbers provided around the time of the hybrid's debut a year ago, meaning a 100 hp gain from various components of the new engine package would mark a notable boost to the power drivers currently have at their fingertips. The downside of that additional power at the time of the addition of the hybrid last summer was that it took the addition of just over 100 pounds of new technology added to the back of the car to produce it, therefore negating that added horsepower boost. The next generation car will come with a drop in weight compared to the car in use between 85 and 100 pounds, making said new car's weight right around the pre-hybrid weight, but one that could be equipped with a significant boost in horsepower. The specifics of all of those will matter a great deal — the weight distribution, after all, matters as much if not more than the car's overall weight — but if a well-balanced car can be had, then a lighter, more powerful one certainly should be something drivers will enjoy competing with far more than the overweight, under-powered one they have now.
Miami Herald
5 hours ago
- Miami Herald
With Gibson Off The Board, Oilers' Goalie Hunt Gets Harder
The Detroit Red Wings made a big dent in the goaltender market Saturday with the announcement they'd acquired veteran netminder John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks. Gibson was probably on the radar of at least a few teams, including the Edmonton Oilers. And now that Gibson is off the market, what will the Oilers do if they decide, as many think they have to, that their goalie tandem of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard needs to change? To be sure, the goaltender market in this off-season is about as thin as it gets. As we covered in this article about available UFA goalies, only veterans Jake Allen of the New Jersey Devils, Ilya Samsonov of the Vegas Golden Knights and Alex Lyon of the Red Wings stand out as goaltenders who can provide at least an average performance. And even then, you can poke holes in the games of all three of those goalies. So, does Edmonton want to probably overpay in a seller's free-agent market for a goalie? Clearly, they're not going to get a Vezina Trophy candidate via free agency. And other teams will be bidding on Allen, Samsonov and Lyon, so the cost could put all of them out of the Oilers' reach. And that brings us to the next possibility for Edmonton: a trade for a goalie of consequence. That said, no team will be charitable in providing Edmonton with help in net. Oilers GM Stan Bowman would easily be able to take a chance on a reclamation project like Pittsburgh Penguins veteran Tristan Jarry, but Oilers fans would probably run Bowman out of town – firstly, for making a trade for a player any team in the league could've had when the Penguins waived Jarry last season before sending him to the American league, and secondly, for acquiring a goalie whose save percentage has dropped every year from 2021-22 through 2024-25, from .919 in 2021-22 to .909 in 2022-23 to .903 in 2023-24 to .893 in 2024-25. Jarry has a salary cap hit of $5.375 million for the next three years, but even if the Oilers are patient and Pittsburgh buys out Jarry's contract this summer, Edmonton would still be looking at signing a goalie who couldn't stop enough pucks to keep himself at the NHL level last season. Elsewhere, the Columbus Blue Jackets also have a reclamation project in veteran Elvis Merzlikins, but like Jarry, Merzlikins' performance has been well below average, as he put up a SP of .892 last season, and he hasn't had a SP above .897 in the past three years. Merzlikins has a cap hit of $5.4 million for the next two years, and while Columbus might be amenable to retaining some of Merzlikins' cap hit, he's still a goalie who could continue to be a major disappointment. Otherwise, teams are almost assuredly going to be hanging on to the goalies they have, and that will leave Edmonton in a sticky situation. Is running it back with Skinner and Pickard truly an option for this organization? The Oilers fell to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final for the second-straight year, not primarily because of their goaltending, but the undeniable fact is that Skinner had a .889 SP in the playoffs, and in the Cup final, Skinner had an SP better than .881 just once in five appearances. Meanwhile, Pickard wasn't better, with a .886 SP in the post-season, and a SP of .875 or worse in two of three appearances he made in the Cup final. Thus, you can see why Bowman will have his work cut out for him when trying to find a different look between the pipes. And remember, when Bowman won three straight Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks, his primary goalies were Corey Crawford, Antti Niemi and Scott Darling – hardly a row of future Hockey Hall of Famers. That experience might mean Bowman settles on a less-proven netminder while he tries to improve Edmonton's defense in front of a B-grade goalie. And that philosophy could sink the Oilers' Cup aspirations yet again. In any case, Edmonton almost assuredly will be making a change in net. Going with the status quo could prove to be disastrous, and if the Oilers once again fail to win a Cup next season in part due to their choice to keep the same netminding, Edmonton fans will be rightfully livid. The Oilers have tried repeatedly to win it all with, at best, average goaltending, and it hasn't worked. Bowman has to do his utmost to come up with a solution for his goalie tandem, and he needs to do it before other teams step in and scoop up any and every goalie who might be available via trade. The Panthers have won back-to-back Cups partly because they had a Grade-A goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky. Edmonton has no comparable netminder. And Bowman's most important job this summer will be to shake the trees of the rest of the NHL and try to come away with a goalie who can keep the Oilers in crucial games long enough for their high-octane offense to carry the load and deliver them to championship glory. Because if he fails to do so, Edmonton could yet again be on the losing side of the ledger in the next post-season. And no one should feign surprise if that's how things unfold. Get thelatest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and bysubscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting belowthe article on Copyright 2025 The Hockey News, Roustan Media Ltd.
Business Upturn
6 hours ago
- Business Upturn
FIFA Club World Cup: PSG kick Inter Miami out with a massive 4-0 victory
PSG have knocked out Inter Miami from the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 after defeating them 4-0 last night. By Ravi Kumar Jha Published on June 30, 2025, 08:20 IST PSG have knocked out Inter Miami from the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 after defeating them 4-0 last night. It was a game where it was all PSG over the field. Inter Miami couldn't match up the speed of PSG, and thus, had to taste this defeat. Lionel Messi of Inter Miami couldn't show his magic in the game against his former side. The European Champions PSG are now into the quarter-finals of the competition. Paris Saint-Germain delivered a commanding performance to knock Inter Miami out of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 with a resounding 4-0 victory last night. The European champions completely dominated the match, outclassing their American opponents in every department. From the first whistle, it was all PSG on the pitch. Their pace, precision, and pressing left Inter Miami chasing shadows throughout the 90 minutes. Goals came at regular intervals as the French side made light work of the MLS outfit, who struggled to keep up with the tempo. All the goals scored in this game, came in the first half only. Lionel Messi, facing his former club, failed to make an impact in what was expected to be a high-profile showdown. The Argentine icon was tightly marked and rarely found space to weave his trademark magic. With this emphatic win, PSG march into the quarter-finals of the competition, looking every bit like the contenders for the Club World Cup crown. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Ravi kumar jha is an undergraduate student in Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia and Mass Communication. A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication and he also has a genuine interest in sports. Ravi is currently working as a journalist at
