THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2026

CASH MICHAELS

                                         THAT CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND!

                                                            by Cash Michaels

Wouldn’t you know it?!!!

In the midst of stifling heat, high energy prices, higher food prices, and more off-the-wall shenanigans from Washington that just made you cringe, came something Americans have long missed and sorely needed.

A genuine feeling of euphoria and triumph!

In fact, the old-fashioned kind of euphoria and triumph that dedicated sports fans know only too well - when your favorite team wins a championship! Without so much as lifting a basketball or shooting a hockey puck, millions of us from here in North Carolina to the Big Apple New York City, experienced and shared something last weekend that only true sports fans could explain better.

That extraordinary cathartic feeling that comes with winning something by extension, and being part of a vast community of like-minded, high-spirited followers who stop whatever they’re doing to celebrate in small ways and large, the value of identity happiness.

What in the hell is “identity happiness” you ask? Obviously, you’ve never been fortunate enough to have had it, if you have to ask. Carolina Hurricanes and New York Knickerbocker fans know what it is instantly, because last weekend, their respective professional sports teams that they identify with, battled other great franchises, and came out on top as undisputed champions - masters of their own universes.

And they did it the only way true champions know how - through solid teamwork and unquestionable skills, ability, grit, dedication and heart. The kind of values Americans deep down still respect, covet and look up to.

That’s the unique value of sports competition in our society - the ability of the average Joe or Jane, no matter what their physical condition, race, gender or political affiliation, to instantly identify with a sports franchise and remain loyal supporters of that team no matter what. Attending the games, watching them on TV or listening on the radio, following their progress and growth on the news, rooting for individual players, and finding happiness through their ongoing success until one day, that team - your team - brings home the ultimate prize, a trophy and a title designating it as the absolute best there is in that sport, bar none.

I tell ya, there’s no feeling like it!

To have such devout fealty to a team, and to have it ultimately rewarded with a hard-fought for championship, is such a special relationship, because like no other synergy, neither can do without the other. Teams need devoted fans to buy the tickets, attend the games, and cheer for them from the streets to the seats.

And those fans need talented teams to compete hard, stay in shape, and always work to win. That’s giving fans their hard-earned money’s worth and rewarding their staunch loyalty. 

        So the relationship is, indeed, a special one.

        For someone like me, born and raised in the Big Apple until I moved to North Carolina in 1981, and being a fan of the Knicks since I was a kid, now experiencing all three of their championships, what happened last weekend was very special.

First of all, New York City is everything Frank sang it was supposed to be (what do you mean “Frank who?” You know. The same “Frank” who married Johnston County native and famous 1940’s movie starlet Ava Gardner, that’s who).

How’d the best part of that song go again, Mr. Sinatra?

I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps, and find I’m A Number One,

        top of the list, king of the hill, A Number One…

It’s a city that has always prided itself as being home to the best! Even legendary basketball great, Michael Jordan, though all we all know he grew up in Wilmington, NC, was actually born in Brooklyn, NY.

The Knicks, who had their New York City ticker tape parade on Thursday, last won a championship 53 years ago in 1973 (their second) with legends like Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Bill Bradley, Willis Reed and Earl “the Pearl” Monroe from Winston-Salem State University, among other outstanding players.

That talented lineup truly represented a big city of style, glamour and stars, making every game they played a special event, inspiring a generation of kids like me to want to emulate them both on and off the court (no, I didn’t have a closet full of fur coats, wide brim hats and tall heel shoes like “Clyde,” but I was close). 

The Knicks player with the most heart then? Center Willis Reed, who during the 1970 NBA Finals 56 years ago, was seriously injured playing against the rival Los Angeles Lakers, but was unexpectedly able to walk out of the locker room to thunderous applause at Madison Square Garden for game seven, score two baskets, memorably leading his Knickerbocker team to its first championship.

In the locker room after the game, ABC sportscaster Howard Cosell told Reed on-air, "You exemplify the very best that the human spirit can offer."

Flash forward 56 years to today, where the captain of the Knicks, clutch player Jalen Brunson, displays not only extraordinary skill and the will to win, but tremendous courage in how he steps up in tight spots when his team is down, and fights not only to survive, but overcome, incredibly leading his team in game four against the San Antonio Spurs from thirty points down to win, making NBA history and ultimately winning the finals, 4 games to 1.

Why do I bring up Willis Reed and Jalen Brunson?

Because as far as Knicks fans are concerned, they’re genuine inspirational heroes who put their bodies and hearts on the line when their team needed a committed leader to step into the breach. Another important value we learn from sports, along with good sportsmanship after a hard fought battle.

As for the Carolina Hurricanes, while I admittedly don’t know that much about them because I am not a hockey fan, I do appreciate the extremely tight bond the team has created with its fanbase. 

I remember well over 20 years ago, Harvey Schmitt, then president of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, asked me to come to his office to discuss something. Harvey used to always call me to take the temperature of Raleigh’s Black community when he had questions since I worked at the community’s newspaper, The Carolinian.

I’ll never forget that on this visit, Harvey asked me what I thought about a hockey team moving to Raleigh. I chuckled, and told the man I didn’t think they could survive here because North Carolina was ACC basketball and football country. I just didn’t see this market welcoming and ultimately sustaining what essentially was a northern-based sport in the traditional home of UNC, Duke and NC State.

Well boy, was I wrong!

Over twenty-five years and two NHL Stanley Cup championships later, the Carolina Hurricanes are here to stay, primarily because of an amazing team organization, tremendous marketing, and great buy-in from devoted fans who've decided this was the type of professional sports franchise they could, and would support. And their “Caniac” excitement is contagious!

Even Gov. Josh Stein got in on the excitement after the Canes won the Cup Sunday night, issuing an “official excuse” letter Monday morning for Canes’ fans not at work because of  “reasonable delays caused by celebrating, losing one’s voice, rewatching highlights, or simply recovering from the emotional toll of playoff hockey, should be forgiven.”

Be careful, Governor, or else Republicans in the legislature will try to take this power away from you too!

Now you tell me, when was the last time you saw a politician selflessly share joy with his constituents? Gov. Stein deserves big props for that, and I’m sure he’ll be at the Canes’ celebration parade in Raleigh on Saturday.

That’s yet another beautiful thing about celebrating a winning sports team. Everybody wants to naturally share the joy of victory, of coming out on top, and they don’t mind at all being in the moment with perfect strangers, because they all have a common bond of happiness.

It’s what we vitally need right now, a common bond of happiness that will, even for a little while, salve the everyday gloom all of us experience coming from an out-of-control president who sponsored a sick super-macho White House stunt event that desecrated its sanctity, turning the People’s House” and property into a disgusting grifter’s paradise for profit with a bloody, gaudy, and barbaric U.F.C. cage fighting spectacle where brains were being beaten in, and ugly things were being publicly said about a favorite former First Lady of our nation without reason, or apology.

It felt so good not being forced to pay attention to any of that crap because the Knicks and the Carolina Hurricanes were winning the right way - without controversy, without selfishness, without lies. Only with tremendous heart, hard work, and class.

It was a championship weekend indeed, folks, and it felt so good I pray it happens again and again, real soon. All of us deserve every heartfelt celebration as a nation we can get!

Hey, I have an idea…how about in November, we all come out and vote like never before for America's Team? That's us. 'Cause when we ALL win, THAT will be a REAL championship celebration!!!

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THE CASH STUFF FOR JUNE 18, 2026

                                                               

                                                       SEN. SYDNEY BATCH (D-WAKE)

                                                                

                                                         REP. VERNETTA ALSTON (D-DURHAM)

NC REPUBLICANS WANT

SENATOR SYDNEY BATCH 

PUNISHED FOR HER

“BLEEPIN” LANGUAGE

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Some NC legislative Republicans are not pleased with bleeped over salty language Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch reportedly used in a recent social media post video complaining about the fact that GOP leaders in the NC General Assembly have taken over a year to talk about, but still not pass, a state budget to fund to properly fund government operations and payrolls.

Styled after a popular “Key & Peele” television show sketch, the video shows Sen. Batch acting as an “anger interpreter” for Durham Democratic Rep. Vernetta Alston, is complains about the state budget stalemate in perturbed but socially acceptable language.

"Instead of doing their jobs, Republicans are acting like a bunch of little ******* because they can't deliver a budget," Batch says after Rep. Alston in the video, with a bleep over the derogatory term.

During a subsequent news conference at the Legislature last week, Sen. Batch defended the social media video, saying, "They want to distract from words I choose to use in satire,” she said. “It’s really disappointing given the fact that they literally bend over and shake hands with and applaud a president who has, not in satire, said some of the most offensive things in this country.”

House Republican Majority Leader Brendan Jones (R- Columbus) brushed Sen. Batch’s criticism aside, demanding instead that Batch and Rep. Alston be disciplined by legislative Democratic leadership for their video.

"I am deeply disappointed to see members of Democratic leadership conduct themselves so unprofessionally in a public video," Jones said in a statement, apparently not realizing that Sen. Batch is a Democratic leader in the state Senate, and can only be punished by Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger.

When asked, Berger told reporters he had not seen the video, didn’t care to watch it, and dismissed what Sen. Batch had to say, or how she said it.

But the Democratic-led NC Legislative Black Caucus was very interested. In fact, the caucus issued a statement calling legislative Republicans “racist” for wanting to punish Sen. Batch.

“We have watched them display their blatant racism through shameful policies like their anti-DEI agenda — and no one tells them to pipe down,” Black Caucus chairwoman Sen. Kandie Smith, D-Pitt, stated. “But the moment a Black woman speaks plainly about the catastrophic failures of their one-party rule, then suddenly, they're clutching pearls. This is not a question about language. This is about who is allowed to be angry, who is allowed to speak the truth, and who is expected to stay quiet.”

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NC PRISON GUARD JOBS

ARE OPEN, FOR THE

LOWEST PAY IN THE 

NATION

By Cash Michaels

Interested in applying for a job which can be very dangerous and stressful, have long hours, and is in a state that pays the lowest salary in the nation?

Then according to published reports, the position of prison guard here in North Carolina is just for you. Currently, the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction is sponsoring events statewide  at churches, community colleges, and other local places where conditional employment offers are being on the same day. The goal is to plug an 30% or more average job vacancy rate.

Starting salary for NC correctional officers is approximately $37,621, which is ranked “dead last” (the average starting salaries in neighboring Southeastern states is $45,594). NC prison guards can make as much as $54,000.

Until Republican legislative leaders finally pass a state budget that’s over a year overdue to pay for North Carolina government’s operations and salaries, prison guards across the state are likely to remain the lowest paid in the nation, despite the fact that published reports state that a 15% salary increase was possibly on the table for them once a budget is ratified.

“We also need raises for all of our staff working behind prison walls, to recruit new people and retain the experienced staff we have," Keith Acree, spokesman for the prison system told The News and Observer. "A raise of [15%] would still leave us behind many local jails, and only bring us up slightly in the rankings compared to other state corrections systems."

In the midst of the state budget uncertainty, prisons across the state are trying to fill vacancies not just in the prison guard position, but other staff positions like nurses, totaling an overall 18% average vacancy rate. For example, at least 229 nurses are needed to fill job openings.

Right now, current NC prison guards are working 12-hour shifts under tremendous stress in high security environment environments where they are expected to be alert and proficient at all times to prevent what happened in 2017 at Pasquotank Correctional Institution . For employees there were killed during an attempted inmate escape attempt.

Prison guards are law enforcement officers, which means the job isn’t for everyone, correctional officials say. Not surprisingly, the position sees a high turnover rate. During the hiring process, applicants are required to have good character, and be able to handle pressure and adjust quickly to emergency conditions.

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THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR JUNE 11, 2026

                                                              CASH MICHAELS

                                              AN OPEN LETTER TO 

                                        JOURNALIST SCOTT PELLEY

              by Cash Michaels

Dear Mr. Pelley, I hope this missive finds you and your family in good health and GOD’s good graces.

First of all, it’s an honor to write to you, sir, because the integrity of your work over the years has been simply outstanding, and as many have already established in their tributes, you have set a high standard for journalism for others to follow and emulate. There can be no question that we need as many Scott Pelleys, Peter Jennings and Ed Bradleys that we can get in our profession, so that they may continue to serve the American public with what has been nothing short of absolute excellence in informing us about the stories and critical issues we all need to know more about.

Especially now, during these tenuous times when our democracy is at absolute risk and under attack. Beyond the slow process of the courts, nothing else but sharp, unafraid, unfiltered, diligent journalism will help people claw their democracy back from those who seek to destroy it in favor of a corrupt monarchy - the one thing our country was designed never to tolerate.

I write you, sir, because as a kindred spirit, I share your deep  concerns about the future, and the integrity of your former employer, the CBS News television magazine 60 Minutes, which has dutifully served us over the last 58 years. The pioneering names associated with that hallowed institution are legendary - Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Lesley Stahl, Steve Kroft, and of course, you sir, Scott Pelley, among others.

With a distinguished pantheon like that, where will the next proven leaders of our profession come from, and who will they be?

I remember as a teenager, Mr. Pelley, growing up in Brooklyn, NY, and rushing home from playing basketball all Sunday afternoon just in time for 60 Minutes to see what ripoff used car dealership Mike Wallace was going to expose with a hidden camera that week, or what slimy politician’s door Mike was going to knock on next and scare the holy life out of when he introduced himself. 60 Minutes has indeed changed over the years, but it remains appointment television for millions of viewers like myself every week. You sir, were a big reason for that.

One Sunday evening back in the 1970’s when I was a kid, I rushed home in time to see a fascinating story by correspondent Morley Safer about the framing of some Black activists and a white woman in a small southern town way down in North Carolina, and how they had been falsely convicted of firebombing a white-owned grocery store there, and sent to prison. I never forgot that story.

Little did I know about 40 years later, I would be living and working in North Carolina as a reporter, would meet many of those same activists, then write stories and produce an award-winning documentary about their over four decade-long post-conviction quest for justice. I’m extremely proud to say my investigative work into the case of the Wilmington Ten revealed evidence of atrocious and racist prosecutorial corruption, and helped to secure pardons of innocence from the NC governor for the Ten in 2013.

Today the names of those activists remain cleared because of the long-lasting inspiration of Mr. Safer’s excellent 60 Minutes segment had on me when I was a teen.

Now has 60 Minutes had a few hiccups along the way? Certainly, most notably its controversial cigarette industry investigation, and the critical importance then of having an informed whistleblower tell the American public what he knew about the dangers of smoking and cigarette marketing.

That story almost tore 60 Minutes apart because of the powerful influence of the tobacco industry CBS faced before finally airing a complete and honest version of the story, and giving the American people the unadulterated truth about Big Tobacco.

And now, here we are, just over thirty years later, and again 60 Minutes is forced to face corporate pressure, allegedly at the behest of a despicable runaway president of the United States who has made his contempt for honest journalism, and hatred for 60 Minutes specifically and unquestionably, clear.

In the span of just a few months, a new, totally inexperienced “editor-in-chief” was brought in to “murder” CBS News and, as you put it, “put a thumb on the scale on behalf of the administration” when it came to the respected news organization’s operations.

  So how does one “murder” 60 Minutes, many might ask? Simple, by undermining that institution’s high standards for telling truth to power and journalistic independence. By sacrificing its honor and courage for an opportunist and proven contrarian to the rule of law.

But, as you alleged in your powerful NY Times interview after your dismissal, allowing the administration to inject undue influence into the fact-based journalism process was a level of political interference you’d never seen at CBS News or 60 Minutes during your almost 40 years there.

Mr. Pelley, the reason why your fiery resistance to the bastardization of 60 Minutes is so important and noteworthy is because you are speaking for the rest of us who have no intention of looking the other way while the very integrity of our nation’s existence is being burned to the ground by a proven grifter-in-chief and his minions.

Especially one who believes he is entitled to screw this nation any which way he can get away with, and be celebrated for it.

If all that you allege is true (and I don’t doubt it) about a serious compromise of journalistic values, CBS News is indeed “on fire” as you read this.

I became a journalist, Mr. Pelley, because, simply put, I hate bullies. I also decided to  practice our profession because I loved good, honest, effective storytelling, storytelling that helped people who needed it, storytelling that shined the critical light of understanding on a subject or condition, and felt I was capable of it.

Storytelling that brought about positive change, especially for my community.

That’s why, as a reporter for several small radio stations, and then small Black newspapers here in North Carolina, I felt the undeniable urge to always look for the truth, and accurately and honestly report that truth as I found it. I was working primarily for a community that not only deserved, but demanded that kind of adherence to duty, because I instinctively knew that few outside of our community, who did not share in our history or values, would dedicate themselves as fully as I could to the task.

So I know how devoted you felt about working at 60 Minutes, about journalism and about working to serve the country you deeply love.

During the course of my long career, have I made mistakes? Certainly I have, and many of those mistakes still sting to this day. But those mistakes also helped me become better at my work, and for whom I did that work for. Those mistakes forced me to be honest about just how powerful my work can be, and the positive change that it can, and has brought about. From helping free young people falsely accused of crimes they did not commit, to inspiring legislation to ensure that underserved communities receive their fair measure of justice, equality and resources.

I very much understand your outrage about what inexperienced interlopers are doing to your former shop at 60 Minutes, Mr. Pelley. For the years that you were there, you and your colleagues built a coveted sanctuary of truth and did your very best. Your collective work was heralded. You made tons of money for your corporate owners. All of you as a "family" became an industry trademark for excellence.

Anyone who walked through the doors of your offices to work came with the understanding that they were joining a ready-made family - no pretenders allowed. Either you have the credentials, the skills, the commitment, the discipline and the understanding, and fit in, or you just worked somewhere else. 

That’s not being cliquish. That’s being professional to the highest level imaginable, incredibly, for almost six decades and running.

And that deep, deep devotion to reporting the truth as a unique collective, and doing so with such high proficiency, is what scares the powerful, especially people who live by lies and distractions. What did Donald Trump tell Lesley Stahl back in 2016 about why he attacks the news media as “fake”? 

“In order to “discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”

The moment Trump was sworn into office way back in January 2017, Mr. Pelly, castrating 60 Minutes was on his bucket list, and now he’s done it, with a phony lawsuit, and influencing CBS’ new owners.

But you warned us, sir. And now all of us devoted to the same principles that you coveted during your long career at CBS must stand in the breach of your departure, and continue the struggle to seek out the truth, and hopefully, encourage our readers and audiences, the citizens of this great nation, to standup, and save our country, by voting like our lives depended on it this November, to defang this demon to democracy we all face.

It did my heart good to watch NBC Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker stand firm recently in the face of Donald Trump, demanding he back up his false contentions about election fraud in California and the 2020 election. She was determined to hold him accountable for his lies before he stormed off set, and she made us proud.

Ms. Welker, along with ABC’s Rachel Scott and CNN’s Abby Phillip (both of whom have also held their ground when confronting this president), represent the future of journalism in my book, young women of color today who are near the top of their profession, willing to work hard, and challenge power with the truth.

To be fair, CBS Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has defended terminating you, 60 Minutes colleagues Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, and your executive producer, Tanya Simon, along with several key senior staff members, saying that CBS News and 60 Minutes are going in a different direction, with a new vision. Based on her actions thus far, there are considerable questions about what that “new vision” will be. Reports are she isn’t doing all that well.

Your critics have gleefully joined the fray, of course. As you know, President Trump, for example, has called you a “stiff.” Someone needs to inform our 1940’s mob-minded MAGA leader that no one says things like that anymore, unless they work part-time at the Al Capone Museum of Outdated Cliches.

Of course it should be noted that your longtime colleagues, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim have said that they’re staying at 60 Minutes for now because they don’t want to “see it die,” but the moment they see anything else that threatens the integrity of the shop they, and you, deeply love and know so well, they say they’re out!

It must have been a blessing working with these consummate professionals.

Mr. Pelley, what you told The NY Times last week is truer now than ever before - “There is no democracy without journalism!”

Journalists across the world need to embrace what you’ve said like an anthem without question, because it is the absolute truth.

GOD-speed, Mr. Pelley. Whatever you plan to do with your many days ahead, GOD-speed, sir! You, and what you’ve done in confronting the enemies of truth and the enemies of democracy, will never be forgotten, and always appreciated!

        -30-