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Volume 79, No. 113 ©SS 2020 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

FACES With tour grounded, Dylan resurrects his theme radio showPage 15

MILITARY Feds: NYPD officer and reservist worked as a spy for ChinaPage 6

NFL Raiders get off to winning start at new Las Vegas home Back page

‘Unfathomable’: US death toll from coronavirus hits 200,000 » Page 8

BY AARON GREGG AND YEGANEH TORBATI

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A $1 billionfund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the country’ssupplies of medical equipmenthas instead been mostly funneledto defense contractors and usedfor making things such as jet en-gine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.

The change illustrates how onetaxpayer-backed effort to battlethe coronavirus, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans,was instead diverted toward patching up long-standing per-ceived gaps in military supplies.

The Cares Act, which Congress passed earlier this year, gave the Pentagon money to “prevent,prepare for, and respond to coro-navirus.” But a few weeks later, the Defense Department beganreshaping how it would award themoney in a way that represented a major departure from Congress’soriginal intent.

The payments were made even though U.S. health officials be-lieve there are still major fundinggaps in responding to the pan-demic. Robert Redfield, directorof the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention, said in Senate testimony last week that statesdesperately need $6 billion todistribute vaccines to Americansearly next year. There remains asevere shortage of N95 masks atnumerous U.S. hospitals. These are the types of problems that themoney was originally intended toaddress.

“This is part and parcel of whether we have budget priori-ties that actually serve our pub-lic safety or whether we have agovernment that is captured by special interests,” said Mandy Smithberger, a defense analyst atthe Project on Government Over-sight, a watchdog group.

The $1 billion fund is just a frac-tion of the $3 trillion in emergencyspending that Congress approved

SEE PENTAGON ON PAGE 3

Pentagon used money meant for medical gear on military supplies

BY DAN LAMOTHE

The Washington Post

SAN DIEGO — The amphibious warship USS Bonhomme Rich-ard sits charred in a shipyard at a pier in this city’s picturesque bay. Two months after a fire turned the vessel into a towering inferno, Navy officials still say they have no clue when or whether it will sail again.

The ship, stretching 844 feet long, has not budged since the fire broke out July 12, prompting a four-day bat-tle in which hundreds of sailors and civilian firefight-ers doused

flames that melted metal and belched smoke for miles. Sailors have begun repainting the hull to protect it from corrosion, and hoses now stretch upward from the pier into the hull to provide ventilation. But those who have been inside describe a ship in ruin, with gaping holes in the flight deck that allow sunlight to beam through several layers.

“I’m not going to lie — I was scared,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Hayley Craig, recounting her eight trips into the ship to fight the fire. “I think everybody was. You couldn’t really see noth-ing. It was incredibly hot. I didn’t know your body could take that much heat.”

The price to fully renovate the ship is not yet clear, but its replacement will probably cost several billion dollars, based on comparisons with similar-size ships. SEE NAVY ON PAGE 3

Navigating an uncertain future

JEFFREY F. YALE/U.S.Navy

Contractors with Naval Sea Systems Command work to remove the aft mast aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard in August. The structural integrity of the aft mast, located above the ship’s superstructure, was compromised during a fire in July.

In Calif., Esper scrutinizes a Navyin flux and warship gutted by blaze

Esper

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 2 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

American Roundup ..... 14Classified .................. 13Comics ...................... 17Crossword ................. 17Faces ........................ 15Opinion ..................... 16Sports .................. 18-24

T O D A YIN STRIPES

BUSINESS/WEATHER

Military ratesEuro costs (Sept. 23) ............................ $1.15Dollar buys (Sept. 23).......................€0.8292British pound (Sept. 23) ......................$1.25Japanese yen (Sept. 23) ....................102.00South Korean won (Sept. 23) ........1,134.00

Commercial ratesBahrain (Dinar) ....................................0.3771British pound .....................................$1.2765Canada (Dollar) ...................................1.3304China (Yuan) ........................................6.7771Denmark (Krone) ................................6.3442Egypt (Pound) ....................................15.7802Euro ........................................ $1.1729/0.8526Hong Kong (Dollar) ............................. 7.7502Hungary (Forint) .................................308.59Israel (Shekel) .....................................3.4360Japan (Yen) ...........................................104.80Kuwait (Dinar) .....................................0.3060Norway (Krone) ...................................9.3249Philippines (Peso).................................48.48Poland (Zloty) .......................................... 3.83Saudi Arabia (Riyal) ...........................3.7508Singapore (Dollar) ..............................1.3631South Korea (Won) ..........................1,162.47

Switzerland (Franc)............................ 0.9169Thailand (Baht) ..................................... 31.38Turkey (Lira) ......................................... 7.6562(Military exchange rates are those available to customers at military banking facilities in the country of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., purchasing British pounds in Germany), check with your local military banking facility. Commercial rates are interbank rates provided for reference when buying currency. All figures are foreign currencies to one dollar, except for the British pound, which is represented in dollars-to-pound, and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.)

EXCHANGE RATES

INTEREST RATESPrime rate ................................................ 3.25Discount rate .......................................... 0.25Federal funds market rate ................... 0.093-month bill ............................................. 0.1030-year bond ........................................... 1.43

WEATHER OUTLOOK

Bahrain92/88

Baghdad103/78

Doha99/78

KuwaitCity

103/85

Riyadh103/77

Djibouti104/85

Kandahar84/57

Kabul88/48

WEDNESDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST THURSDAY IN THE PACIFIC

Misawa65/62

Guam85/82

Tokyo68/65

Okinawa82/79

Sasebo73/70

Iwakuni73/70

Seoul77/59

Osan78/59 Busan

77/64

The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,

2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

Mildenhall/Lakenheath

63/50

Ramstein69/59

Stuttgart67/59

Lajes,Azores68/65

Rota73/69

Morón81/65 Sigonella

85/66

Naples75/69

Aviano/Vicenza66/60

Pápa74/61

Souda Bay78/70

WEDNESDAY IN EUROPE

Brussels67/57

Zagan70/55

Drawsko Pomorskie

70/55

Bank shares slide on money laundering report Associated Press

The financial sector was hit hard Monday following a report alleging that a number of banks — JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon among them — have continued to profit from illicit dealings with disreputable people and criminal networks despite previous warn-ings from regulators.

According to the Internation-al Consortium of Investigative

Journalists, leaked government documents show that the banks continued moving illicit funds even after being warned of po-tential criminal prosecutions. The documents were obtained by BuzzFeed News and shared with the ICIJ.

The report compounded a mas-sive sell-off across global mar-kets because of gloom and doom over COVID-19 infections and the economic damage from the pandemic.

The consortium reported that

documents indicate JPMorgan moved money for people and companies tied to the massive looting of public funds in Malay-sia, Venezuela and the Ukraine. The bank also processed more than $50 million in payments over the course of a decade for Paul Manafort, the former cam-paign manager for President Donald Trump, according to the documents, which are known as the FinCEN Files.

Shares of JP Morgan closed 3% lower on Monday.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 3Wednesday, September 23, 2020

FROM FRONT PAGE

The Bonhomme Richard’s uncertain future is among the troubles the Navy has faced as the ser-vice attempts to change the way it fights, deploys and organizes.

Recent challenges include two ship collisions in the Pacific that killed 17 sailors in 2017, a corrup-tion scandal in which several Navy officers were convicted of accepting bribes from a Malaysian de-fense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” Francis, and questions about the service’s ability to keep ships ready while meeting demands for deployments.

The service is a key part of the Pentagon’s plan to reorient itself after nearly 20 years of counterinsur-gency wars, with new high-tech aircraft, unmanned vessels and weapons planned as China becomes the primary focus of the military’s agenda.

But the Navy in some ways has lost control of its future.

The Navy has long touted its goal to expand to 355 warships to meet U.S. needs, and President Donald Trump has touted a similar plan for at least 350. But Defense Secretary Mark Esper has scrutinized the Navy’s target, rejecting the service’s shipbuilding plan and launching a review this year by Deputy De-fense Secretary David Norquist to assess options.

Esper, in a three-day trip to California last week, declined several interview requests from reporters traveling with him, including about the naval force study.

But Esper’s public remarks reveal some clues to what could lie ahead.

The defense secretary, speaking Wednesday at the Rand Corp. think tank in Santa Monica, Calif., said that Norquist’s study was recently completed and that it considered a “wider, more ambitious range of future fleet options.”

Officials from the Navy, Marine Corps and Joint Staff and outside advisers examined what ships are available and what vessels are needed to retain domi-nance given China’s modernization plans, Esper said. Then they launched war games to see the strengths and weaknesses of each potential combination of ships.

“The results are a game-changer that reflect a good deal of serious work and effort based on facts and data,” Esper said.

Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said in a statement after Esper’s speech that “355 ships are the minimum to which the Department of the Navy should be aiming” and that he has been working with Esper and Norquist to identify how best to achieve that objective.

But how those ships are defined could change in a

significant way.Esper, speaking to sailors aboard the aircraft car-

rier USS Carl Vinson off the coast of California onThursday, said the deployment of unmanned vesselswill make reaching the 355-ship goal possible. Thatamounts to a shift in what the Pentagon and Congress consider a warship.

“Unmanned will enable us to grow the UnitedStates Navy well beyond 355 ships,” Esper said. “It will add more lethality, survivability, capability, etcetera, to the United States Navy and indeed to the joint force.”

Despite the changes, aircraft carriers will remaina centerpiece of the fleet, Esper said. His visit to theCarl Vinson highlighted some of the plans: The ship recently underwent 17 months of upgrades to allow itto fly F-35Cs, and it will be the first carrier to deployoverseas with the jets next year.

The jets are seen as the centerpiece in many future formations in the China-centric approach. While they do not carry as many weapons as other strikeaircraft, such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet, they are harder to see on radar and collect more intelligencewith their sophisticated sensors.

The ship’s commanding officer, Capt. Matthew Paradise, said in an interview that the changes tothe Carl Vinson include the adoption of reinforcedjet-blast deflectors capable of handling the F-35’s larger engines, new computers to assist in F-35 logis-tics and a renovated area near the hangar bay where lithium ion batteries used on the aircraft are storedand charged.

“We’re going nice and slow and making sure thateveryone is learning the new jet, and getting the band back together for the first time in the work-up cycle,”Paradise said.

Esper flew to the Carl Vinson in the back seat ofan F/A-18 fighter and then met privately with naval officers involved in the F-35’s integration.

On Friday, Esper toured the charred BonhommeRichard in rubber boots, a mask and a hard hat. His spokesman, Jonathan Rath Hoffman, said oneconcept Esper is considering the deployment of the Marine Corps’ F-35s on amphibious ships such asthe Bonhomme Richard, complementing the air-craft deployed aboard carriers in an unconventionalconfiguration.

After touring the ship, Esper thanked sailors on thepier for their efforts to save the ships. “We’re going to have a Bonhomme Richard for sure,” he said.

But Hoffman said afterward that Esper was ex-pressing to the crew his hope that the ship willsurvive. The ship’s future, Hoffman said, is still unclear.

Navy: Esper says, despite changes, aircraft carriers will remain a centerpiece of fleet

FROM FRONT PAGE

earlier this year to deal with the pandemic. But it shows how the blizzard of bailout cash was — in some cases — redirected to firms that weren’t originally targeted for assistance. It also shows how difficult it has been for officials to track how money is spent and — in the case of Congress — intervene when changes are made. The Trump administration has done little to limit the defense firms from accessing multiple bailout funds at once and is not requiring the companies to refrain from lay-offs as a condition of receiving the awards.

Some defense contractors were given the Pentagon money even though they had already dipped into another pot of bailout funds, the Paycheck Protection Program.

Congress, at President Donald Trump’s urging, is now debating whether to pass another massive stimulus package, and the Penta-gon and defense contractors have called for another $11 billion to be directed toward their programs.

The $1 billion fund was allocated under the Defense Production Act, which allows Trump to compel U.S. companies to manufacture products in the nation’s interest.

Trump has described the law as a “tremendous hammer” and boasted in August that he has “used the DPA more comprehen-sively than any president in histo-ry.” His administration was under intense pressure this spring to use the law to address dire shortages in medical-grade masks and other supplies.

But in the months after the stimulus package was passed, the Pentagon changed how the money would be used. It decided to give defense contractors hundreds of millions of dollars from the fund, mostly for projects that have little to do with the coronavirus re-sponse. Defense Department law-yers quickly determined that the funds could be used for defense production, a conclusion that Con-gress later disputed.

Among the awards: $183 million to firms including Rolls-Royce and ArcelorMittal to maintain the shipbuilding industry; tens of mil-lions of dollars for satellite, drone and space surveillance technol-ogy; $80 million to a Kansas air-craft parts business suffering from the Boeing 737 Max ground-ing and the global slowdown in air travel; and $2 million for a domes-tic manufacturer of Army dress uniform fabric.

DOD officials contend that they have sought to strike a bal-ance between boosting American medical production and support-ing the defense industry, whose health they view as critical to na-tional security. The Pentagon has also lent its expertise to the De-partment of Health and Human Services as it seeks to purchase billions of dollars in needed medi-cal equipment.

Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and

sustainment, said her office has worked closely with Congress and federal agencies to meet the needs of both the medical and de-fense industries.

“We are thankful the Con-gress provided authorities and resources that enabled the [ex-ecutive branch] to invest in do-mestic production of critical medical resources and protect key defense capabilities from the consequences of COVID,” Lord said in a statement. “We need to always remember that economic security and national security are very tightly interrelated and our industrial base is really the nexus of the two.”

The Democratic-controlled House Committee on Appro-priations has made clear that the Defense Department’s decision to funnel the DPA funding to de-fense contractors went against its intent in that section of the Cares Act, which was to spur the manu-facturing of personal protective equipment.

“The Committee’s expectation was that the Department would address the need for PPE indus-trial capacity rather than execute the funding for the DIB (defense industrial base),” the committee wrote in its report on the 2021 de-fense bill.

Pentagon officials counter that they have been fully transparent with both Democrats and Repub-licans in Congress on their plans for the funds.

Defense officials say the Pen-tagon’s funding priorities were influenced heavily by an indus-try study drawn up in 2018. The study, prompted by an early ex-ecutive order from Trump and by economic adviser Peter Navarro and carried out in close consulta-tion with defense industry associ-ations, pointed to several hundred supply chain shortfalls that could hamper the U.S. military’s ability to compete with China.

The Pentagon receives funding under the Defense Production Act each year to shore up companies it deems critical, but in much small-er amounts — the 2020 allocation was about $64 million. The money is disbursed by the Pentagon’s in-dustrial policy office under the law’s Title III, which gives the president broad authority to mo-bilize domestic industry.

Critics say it’s unclear why the defense industry should have got-ten what amounts to a dedicated bailout fund when few other sec-tors of the economy got the same treatment.

And government data shows that at least 10 of the approximate-ly 30 companies known to have received the Defense Depart-ment DPA funds also got loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, another relief package created by the Cares Act. That program, overseen by the Small Business Administration, offered millions of firms forgivable loans if they used the lion’s share on payroll.

Pentagon: How money was to be used changed months after aid package passed

MILITARY

JEFFREY F. YALE/U.S. Navy

Contractors with Naval Sea Systems Command work to remove the aft mast aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard in August. The structural integrity of the aft mast was compromised during a fire in July. Defense Secretary Mark Esper toured the ship Friday during a three-day trip to California.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 4 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

MILITARY

BY WYATT OLSON

Stars and Stripes

The U.S. Air Force is testing its lead-ing-edge warfare networking system dur-ing the two-week Valiant Shield exercise underway in Guam, a connect-everything concept that is the service’s top modern-ization priority.

The innovative approach is called the Advanced Battle Management System, and the scenarios taking place during Val-iant Shield are part of the third field test of the concept.

“The Advanced Battle Management Sys-tem, or ABMS, allows a joint force to use cutting-edge methods and technologies to rapidly collect, analyze, and share infor-mation and make decisions in real time,” the Air Force said in a news release this month.

The goal of field testing during an exer-cise such as Valiant Shield is to throw “a dizzying array of information for partici-pants to synthesize, just like they would see in a real operation,” the release said.

The concept received its first field test — dubbed as “onramping” by the Air Force — in December at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

“The Advanced Battle Management System is a key effort for the U.S. Air and Space force moving forward,” Col. Brian Baldwin, the Valiant Shield air expedition-ary wing commander, said during a con-ference call with reporters Friday.

“This is the number-one modernization priority for the U.S. Air and Space force,” Brig. Gen. Jeremy Sloane, commander of the 36th Wing at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, said during the conference call.

The ABMS is focused on moving from a “platform-centric to a network-centric warfare approach” when it comes to joint all-domain command and control, Sloane said. “We’re excited to introduce that into our exercise.”

This year’s Valiant Shield, which con-cludes Friday, involves about 11,000 per-sonnel from the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps. Roughly 100 aircraft are involved in the U.S.-only exercise,

which is intended to hone joint warfighting capabilities.

Due to precautions over the coronavirus pandemic, about 116 personnel are par-ticipating in the exercise remotely from Hawaii.

“The primary purpose of Valiant Shield is to demonstrate the U.S. military’s com-mitment to preserving, securing and maintaining regional global stability while remaining postured to respond, if and

when needed,” Rear Adm. James Aiken,leader of the exercise, said during the con-ference call.

“We will accomplish this through joint all-domain operations which focus on training and improving leadership at all levels, including individual personal profi-ciency, which sharpens command and con-trol skills while challenging participants toadapt to changing conditions as part of thejoint force.”

Baldwin said information shared andprocessed under ABMS during ValiantShield would be accessed and exchangedvia the cloud, online and through apps.

A KC-46 refueling aircraft and F-22sfrom Hawaii will link with command andcontrol in Guam as part of a scenario prac-ticing joint execution across air, land, sea,space and cyberspace domains, Baldwin said.

Sloane said that the ABMS tools beingtested will be applicable across U.S. jointforces.

“So, for instance, I have the multi-do-main task force from the U.S. Army here in Guam,” Sloane said. “They have liaisons at my long-range fires coordination cell thatis living in Hawaii. We are all linked to-gether. We have the applications that theyare sharing. We are using the AdvancedBattle Management System to coordinatewith the Navy as well, out at sea.”

By sharing ABMS with the other servic-es during the initial stages, “we eliminate any sort of seams that may happen betweenservices so that we’re a unified joint force able to integrate with our partners and al-lies,” Sloane said.olson.wyatt@stripes.comTwitter: @WyattWOlson

BY JAMES BOLINGER

Stars and Stripes

The final group of recruits expected to undergo Basic Military Training at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., during the coronavirus pandemic will arrive at the installation the last week of September, Air Force Magazine reported Monday.

The recruit flight, the equivalent of an Army pla-toon, will graduate before Thanksgiving, the 2nd Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Andrea Tullos, told the publication, which is part of the Virginia-based Air Force Association.

“We’ll then take about 90 days to do an after-ac-tion and a reassessment of how that operation went, and we will have plans, if asked and if necessary, to resume BMT probably no earlier than February of next year,” she said, according to the report.

The Air Force sent its first group of recruits to train at Keesler in April to reduce trainee numbers for social distancing purposes at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, the primary Air Force recruit training base.

Keesler was never meant to serve as alternative site for basic training beyond Oct. 1, the end of the fiscal year, Tullos said in May. The last recruit flight arrives prior to that deadline.

Coronavirus precautions meant basic training was shortened to six weeks at Keesler and 7½ weeks at Lackland. The Air Force reduced the overall number of recruits it accepted during the pandemic but plans to increase that number in the next fiscal year.

Training at Lackland was trimmed by one week due to the training area layout, the reduced number

of recruits and the implementation of a surge sched-ule. That schedule extended training from eight to 10 hours per day, six days a week.

At its maximum capacity, Keesler could accom-modate 360 new recruits at one time. That expanded capacity allowed the Air Force to bring as many as 9,400 airmen into the service under pandemic con-ditions before the end of the fiscal year.

According to Tullos, Keesler will not be needed to meet the Air Force enlistment goals for fiscal year 2021, unless the coronavirus further impacts train-ing sites at Lackland.

“If we have challenges, and we see spikes and outbreaks, and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] issues us guidance that causes us to lose our ability to use San Antonio as our full production site, we’ll be prepared to reopen that capability and resume again next year,” she told the magazine.bolinger.james@stripes.comTwitter: @bolingerj2004

BY WYATT OLSON

Stars and Stripes

The commander of Norfolk Naval Shipyard was relieved Monday over loss in confidence in his ability to command, the Navy said.

Capt. Kai Torkelson was re-moved by Vice Adm. Bill Galinis, head of Naval Sea Systems Com-mand, “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” ac-cording to a statement released that day.

Torkelson’s duties at the Vir-ginia shipyard will be assumed by Rear Adm. Howard Markle, director of the Sea System Com-mand’s Industrial Operations Directorate.

The decision to oust Torkelson was based on his oversight of the shipyard’s output, not due to a single specific incident, Naval Sea Systems Command spokes-man Rory O’Connor told USNI News on Monday.

“The issues are related due to a loss of confidence in leadership to correct underlying performance issues that affect Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s ability to meet ship maintenance schedules,” he told the news outlet.

The Navy spent $2.8 billion from 2015 to 2019 to improve the performance of its shipyards,

which have faced persistent andsubstantial delays in ship main-tenance, according to a report bythe Government AccountabilityOffice last month.

The report singled out Norfolk as the onlyone of theNavy’s fourshipyards to have de-creased itsnumber of fully trainedproduction personnel over the pastfive-year period.

Torkelson was commissioned in 1991 andwas first trained in nuclear sub-marines before transitioning toengineering in 2002, with stintsat Puget Sound Naval Shipyardin Washington and Pearl Har-bor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii,according to his official Navybiography.

He took command of the Nor-folk shipyard in June 2018.

Torkelson was among the firstfive engineering duty officers to volunteer for assignment to Oper-ation Iraqi Freedom, which beganin 2003, the biography said.olson.wyatt@stripes.comTwitter: @WyattWOlson

Torkelson

Commander of Norfolk Naval Shipyard is ousted

Keesler to welcome its final group of Air Force trainees

Air Force tests warfare networking system

JAMES HONG/U.S. Navy

The guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam launches a Harpoon surface-to-surface missile Saturday during a joint force sinking exercise targeting the decommissioned frigate USS Curts as part of the Valiant Shield exercise near Guam.

KEMBERLY GROUE/U.S. Air Force

Air Force trainees stand in formation while graduating from basic military training at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., in August.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 5Wednesday, September 23, 2020

BY SETH ROBSON

Stars and Stripes

The first Stars and Stripes re-porter sent to cover the Vietnam War — Marine Gunnery Sgt. Steve Stibbens — died Saturday in Dallas at age 84.

Stibbens got his start in jour-nalism at age 12 as editor of The Camp Woodland Springs Echo, a mimeographed summer camp newspaper in Texas, according to the United States Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Asso-ciation and Foundation. He later worked as a $10-a-night proof-reader with the Grand Prairie Daily News in Texas before en-listing in the Marines in 1953.

Stibbens, whose real name was Cecil, picked up the nickname “Steve” at boot camp after visit-ing a buddy’s Russian mother who couldn’t pronounce his last name, said his daughter, Suzanne Stib-bens, of Arlington, Texas.

His first assignment in uniform was as a clerk in South Korea but he soon became a correspondent with the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

In 1962, Stibbens joined the Pa-cific Stars and Stripes in Tokyo and was the newspaper’s first re-porter to set foot in Vietnam later that year.

“Steve roamed the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands with Army Special Forces ‘A teams’ and advisers until the Ma-rines arrived in 1965,” his biogra-phy states.

Stibbens’ reports from that time are hardcore combat journalism from the tip of the spear.

For a story headlined, “Special Forces sergeant has nerve-wrack-ing job,” from Jan. 15, 1964, he photographed Koho tribesmen crossing a mountain stream and noted the “blood sucking leeches” on surrounding trails.

The report describes a battle with the Viet Cong near Dam Pao in which a bazooka, wielded by a Montagnard, misfired. The error might have saved the life of an American adviser from the Oki-nawa-based 1st Special Forces Group at whom the bazooka was pointed, Stibbens wrote.

For his work with Stars and Stripes in Vietnam, Stibbens was awarded a Bronze Star with “V” device for valor. He was named 1963 Military Photographer of the Year, and one of his photographs — showing a weary, unshaven Special Forces soldier — was picked by President Lyndon John-son as “The President’s Choice,” according to the biography.

Stibbens loved serving in the Marines, according to his daughter.

“He loved boot camp,” Suzanne Stibbens said. “He loved every-thing about it including the food.”

Many of his contemporaries, such as war correspondents Jo-seph Galloway and Peter Arnett, went on to stellar careers. Stib-bens was less known but it didn’t bother him, his daughter said.

“In Saigon he and Peter Arnett would go get coffee every morn-ing,” Suzanne Stibbens said. “My dad would ask for ‘café au lait with milk.’ They laughed and told him ‘au lait’ means with milk.”

Stars and Stripes sent Stib-bens to the Philippines after he returned from Vietnam. Gallo-way marked his friend’s death on Facebook by reposting photo-graphs, including one of Stibbens, in 1962, with Filipino freedom fighter Emilio Aguinaldo, the country’s first president.

“Steve was fine company in a foxhole or a watering hole and we will miss him greatly,” Galloway wrote.

In 1964, Stibbens joined Leath-erneck Magazine and spent an-other two years covering the Marines in Vietnam. That year,

he again was named Military Photographer of the Year, accord-ing to his biography.

Stibbens left active duty in 1966 to join The Associated Press in Mobile, Ala., but continued service in the Marine Corps Reserve.

In early 1967, he was back in Vietnam for another year cover-ing action on the Demilitarized Zone and at Khe Sanh as an AP war correspondent.

He returned to the United States to become the AP’s photo

editor in Dallas. Other journalism assignments included work as a bureau chief at Gannett’s Florida Today in Vero Beach, Fla., and as a reporter at the San Diego Union, the Dallas Times Herald, News-week magazine and Texas Busi-ness magazine.

Stibbens, whose photographs appear in the Ken Burns’ “The Vietnam War” TV documentary, wrote a book about the first heli-copter unit in Vietnam: “Knights Over the Delta: An Oral History

of the 114th Aviation Company in Vietnam, 1963-72.”

But the veteran newsman, whose wife of 51 years, Lucy, died in 2010, didn’t talk much about the war or its controversies, accord-ing to his daughter.

“He didn’t have political opin-ions,” Suzanne Stibbens said. “He did his job. It was always the re-lationships with people. That was what he was about.”robson.seth@stripes.comTwitter: @SethRobson1

MILITARY

Marine journalist, Stripes reporter dies at age 84

‘ He didn’t have political opinions. … It was always the relationships with people. That was what he was about. ’

Suzanne Stibbensdaughter

Suzanne Stibbens

Former Stars and Stripes combat correspondent Steve Stibbens at work during an ambush in Vietnam in 1963. Stibbens was the newspaper’s first reporter sent to cover the Vietnam War.

Photos from U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association and Foundation

Left: Stibbens serves as a war correspondent for Stars and Stripes in Vietnam during the early 1960s . Right: Stibbens was awarded a Bronze Star medal with a V device for valor for his work during the war.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 6 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

BY ROSE L. THAYER Stars and Stripes

AUSTIN, Texas — A Coast Guard member ac-cused of causing the January 2019 death of his friend and fellow shipmate in Alaska was found not guilty of the charge during a court-martial that ended Thursday.

A military judge in Alameda, Calif., found Seaman Ethan Tucker, 22, not guilty of invol-untary manslaughter and neg-ligent homicide in the death of Seaman Ethan Kelch, 19, as a result of the eight-day trial, ac-cording to a news release from the Coast Guard Pacific Area.

Tucker pleaded guilty to making a false statement, con-suming alcohol underage and a general article that included much of the bad behavior that

occurred on that night, said Navy Cmdr. Justin Hen-derson, Tucker’s defense attorney.

“He was genuinely trying to take responsibility and be accountable for those actions,” Henderson said. “We, the defense, proposed that plea so that he could take that level of responsibility.”

The judge did find Tucker guilty of assault con-summated by battery.

Tucker was sentenced to a bad-conduct dis-charge, reduction to paygrade E-1, and 14 months confinement.

Tucker and Kelch were crew members on the cut-ter Douglas Munro, based out of Kodiak, Alaska. While the ship was in port for repairs at Dutch Har-bor on the night of Jan. 26, 2019, the two men, along with Seaman Trevin Hunter, left the ship and went to a remote area along the water, Henderson said.

“They went on a little hike out to a remote part of the island where these three guys all got drunk,” he said. “They went out there, didn’t tell anybody where [they were] going and had no emergency con-tact capability. They put themselves in this danger-

ous situation.”Through Hunter’s testimony and videos from

his cellphone, Henderson said he was able to prove Tucker and Hunter were actually trying to stop Kelch from drunkenly going into the frigid water.

“In the first four videos, they are goofing around,” he said.

As the videos progress, the joking stops. The men became serious as they shouted and fought to keep Kelch safe.

While Hunter eventually made his way back to the ship, Tucker collapsed about halfway to the ship on the side of a road. The people who found him the next morning testified when Tucker awoke, he im-mediately said they needed to go back for Kelch, Henderson said.

Kelch was found unresponsive following an air and ground search the next day and later pro-nounced dead from bleeding in his skull caused by blunt force trauma to the head, according to Tuck-er’s previously released charge sheet.

During the sentencing phase of the court-martial, Tucker spoke to the Kelch family for the first time since the incident.

“It was extremely emotional. He was a wreck. He’s been in this unfulfilled mourning process for a year and a half,” Henderson said.

Kelch was buried in Arlington National Cemetery last month, according to the cemetery’s website.

Tucker, who is from Ludington, Mich., was ar-rested in August 2019 and he had originally faced a murder charge from the incident. Though he plead-ed guilty to some of the charges against him, part of the agreement was the prosecution would move for-ward with the lesser charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide.

Tucker received three days credit for each of the 85 days of pretrial confinement he’s already spent in the brig, and will be released about January. He will begin his sentence at Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar, where he previously served pretrial confinement. thayer.rose@stripes.comTwitter: @Rose_Lori

BY NORMAN LLAMAS

Stars and Stripes

AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy — An Italian ordinance advising residents to avoid touching the grass and soil remained in place Tuesday pending environmental testing, following a weekend fire at a waste facility about 6 miles from the U.S. air base at Aviano.

The blaze, which began Satur-day evening, filled the sky with dark smoke that could be seen for miles. One worker at the Servizio Nettezza Urbana Ed Affini plant was injured, Italian media re-ports said.

Twelve fire brigade teams from nearby towns had largely extin-guished the fire by late Monday.

After the fire began, the Aviano municipality issued a warning to residents to remain indoors, close their windows, and avoid gar-

dening and other activities that require touching the ground. It also instructed people to avoid eating garden-grown vegetables, or poultry and eggs produced at home.

Air pollution levels four times above normal were reported Sun-day by the local environmental agency. Air quality had returned to normal by Monday, the agency said, adding that regular outdoor activities could resume.

Aviano Air Base carried the city warnings on its website.

“It’s important to note that the city ordinance is still in effect and the mayor is waiting for fur-ther results on soil quality,” wing spokesperson Maj. Sarah Babcock said Tuesday. The Aviano mayor expects to retract the warning in the next day or two pending test results, she said.

A tanker and four airmen from the 31st Civil Engineering Squad-ron fire department supported the Italian response, Babcock said.

“We’re extremely proud of the efforts these airmen played,” she

said. The Carabinieri is leading the

investigation into the cause of the blaze at the site, the second since October last year, media reports said. They sealed off the area

where the fire was centered, butnot the full industrial site, wherenormal business had resumed,they said. llamas.norman@stripes.comTwitter: @normanllamas

The Washington Post

NEW YORK — A New York po-lice officer assigned to a Queens station house has been spying for the Chinese government, track-ing local supporters of the Tibet-an independence movement and giving “intelligence” to Chinese officials, federal prosecutors al-leged Monday.

Baimadajie Angwang, 33, who is also a U.S. Army reservist as a staff sergeant stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey, has been charged with ille-gally acting as a foreign agent, wire fraud and making false statements for lying on offi-cial government forms about his contacts with China.

He’s also accused of obstructing his national security background check, which helped conceal his spying efforts that began in 2014.

He faces a maximum of 55 years if convicted.

Angwang, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has been a member of the New York City police depart-ment since 2016. As an Army re-servist, he had “secret” security clearance.

Federal investigators say sev-eral members of Angwang’s fam-ily have been members of the Chinese Communist Party and

have served in the People’s Lib-eration Army, and that Angwang has maintained relationshipswith two officials at the Chinese Consulate in New York.

He reported to his contacts at the consulate about “the activitiesof ethnic Tibetans” and worked to identify potential sources ofinformation from within the com-munity to assist in the PRC’smonitoring efforts, according to court papers filed in the Eastern District of New York.

Angwang also tried to connect one of his consulate contacts withinfluential members of the NYPDby inviting the official to events,prosecutors said.

At his arraignment in federalcourt in Brooklyn on Monday,Angwang was ordered detained.His attorney can argue for bail ata future proceeding.

Angwang, who is ethnically Ti-betan, had been given asylum inthe United States after overstay-ing a visa and claiming that he’dbeen arrested and tortured by China “due partly to his Tibetanethnicity,” according to the crim-inal complaint.

He “violated every oath he tookin this country” including to his country, the U.S. Army and the NYPD, Police CommissionerDermot Shea said in a statement.

Angwang was assigned to the 111th Precinct located in Bay-side, Queens.

Pollution warning in place after fire near Aviano base

Coast Guard member charged in shipmate’s death found not guilty

Feds: NYPD officer, Army reservist worked as spy

MILITARY

NORMAN LLAMAS/Stars and Stripes

Smoke rises from a waste treatment plant in Aviano, Italy, on Sunday after a fire began the prior evening. Twelve fire departments from local towns and responders from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base had largely extinguished the fire by Monday.

Angwang

Tucker

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 7Wednesday, September 23, 2020

BY DEB RIECHMANN

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday de-manded that the United Na-tions hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic as he defends his own handling of COVID-19 in America where the death toll has reached 200,000.

“We have waged a fierce battle against the invisible enemy — the China virus — which has claimed countless lives in 188 countries,” Trump said in a prerecorded address to the U.N. General As-sembly that lasted less than seven minutes.

“As we pursue this bright fu-ture, we must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world: China.”

While Trump blames China, he has been harshly criticized for his administration’s track record in battling the coronavirus, now a top issue in his bid for reelec-tion. Democratic opponent Joe Biden claims Trump bungled the response to COVID-19 and is responsible for the U.S. hav-ing more deaths than any other

nation. Trump encouraged the reopening of U.S. society even as the virus was spreading rapidly and holds campaign rallies where few wear face masks or practice

social distancing.But Trump points to the virus’

origins in China and says the Chinese government acted irre-sponsibly in allowing the virus to

spread.“The United Nations must hold

China accountable for their ac-tions,” Trump said. The president also took aim at China’s environ-mental record and the United Na-tions itself.

“Those who attack America’s exceptional environmental re-cord while ignoring China’s ram-pant pollution are not interested in the environment. They only want to punish America. And I will not stand for it,” Trump said.

Earlier in his administration, Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida club and spoke warmly of their relation-ship, but the two nations now regularly exchange angry words and take punitive actions against each other.

Trump is not popular at the United Nations and his speech this year comes at a time when U.N. members are pushing back against Washington. On Monday, Trump declared that all U.N. sanctions against Iran have been reimposed, a move that most of the rest of the world rejects as illegal.

Trump’s statement came short-

ly after he signed an executiveorder spelling out how the U.S. will enforce the “snapback” of sanctions. “My actions today send a clear message to the Iranian re-gime and those in the internation-al community who refuse to standup to Iran,“ he said.

The U.S. said it was reimpos-ing sanctions on Iran for beingin noncompliance with the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran andglobal powers. But Trump in 2018pulled out of the deal in whichIran agreed to curb its nuclearprogram in exchange for billionsof dollars in sanctions relief.

Few U.N. member states be-lieve the U.S. has the legal stand-ing to restore the sanctionsbecause Trump withdrew from the agreement. The U.S. argues it retains the right to do so as anoriginal participant in the dealand a member of the council.

Trump also highlighted agree-ments the U.S. brokered betweenIsrael and the United Arab Emir-ates and Bahrain. The historicagreements come as relations be-tween the Jewish state and Arabnations are thawing as a push-back against Iran.

MILITARY

At UN, Trump raps China as virus originator

BY KIM GAMEL

Stars and Stripes

SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. Forces Korea will release as-ymptomatic coronavirus patients after three weeks in isolation even if they continue to test posi-tive, officials said Tuesday, citing research showing people are no longer contagious after 20 days.

The policy change came as the military has seen an influx of ser-vice members and other person-nel who tested positive after flying to South Korea from the United States for new assignments or re-turning from trips abroad.

To prevent further spread of the virus, USFK implemented a strict testing and two-week quar-antine process that begins as soon as travelers arrive. Previously, anybody who tested positive was placed in a specially outfitted on-base isolation facility until they met a series of criteria, including showing no symptoms for at least

a week and receiving negative results on two coronavirus tests within a 24-hour span. Some pa-tients had to remain in isolation for nearly two months without showing symptoms because they continued to test positive.

USFK said Tuesday it has de-cided to release patients after 21 days in isolation regardless of their test results after close coor-dination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

“Recent medical research stud-ies have indicated that individuals are no longer contagious after 20 days even though their COVID-19 test can remain positive beyond this time,” it said, referring to the respiratory disease caused by the virus. The CDC says coronavirus patients may end isolation after 10 to 20 days depending on the se-verity of their symptoms. gamel.kim@stripes.comTwitter: @kimgamel

BY CAITLIN M. KENNEY

Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Military children who are not U.S. citi-zens and live overseas with their American parents are finally able to obtain citizenship automati-cally now that a new law is being implemented by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which had changed the policy last year.

USCIS announced Friday that it had updated its policy to imple-ment the Citizenship for Children of Military Members and Civil Servants Act, almost a year after the agency had changed how it de-termined the residency require-ment for children living overseas. It forced military families to file new paperwork and pay more fees to gain citizenship for their child.

Military children younger than 18 years old who are not citizens are able to acquire automatic citi-zenship under Section 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to the new law, which

was passed in March. The sec-tion states a child who was born outside the United States can automatically become a citizen if they are physically living in the United States with their par-ent who is a citizen. USCIS will again consider military children who are living with an American parent stationed overseas to be considered as residing within the United States.

The new policy also includes children living with a parent who is a U.S. government employee stationed abroad and a spouse of a service member or government employee stationed abroad, ac-cording to the USCIS statement.

These military children “are just as worthy of automatic citi-zenship as any other children,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said in a statement Tuesday about the new policy. She sponsored the Senate’s version of the Citizenship for Children of Military Members and Civil Servants Act.

The reason that the USCIS gave for changing the policy was

the agency was clarifying twoconflicting rules about the defi-nition of “residence,” and issued the new guidance that military children would no longer be con-sidered as residing in the United States, one of the ways for anyoneborn overseas to obtain citizen-ship automatically.

The change caused widespreadconfusion about what it actu-ally meant and who was affected, with some initial reporting inter-preting the policy to mean thatmilitary children were being de-nied citizenship. The law passedin March was aimed at resolvingthe issue and stating military children living overseas shouldbe considered as residing in theU.S. for obtaining citizenship.

With the implementation of the law, USCIS is applying the newpolicy change to eligible childrenwho were younger than 18 years old on March 26, according to thestatement.kenney.caitlin@stripes.comTwitter: @caitlinmkenney

Policies in place for military children seeking citizenship

USFK to release virus patients after 21 days despite test results

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Bahrain said Monday it broke up a plot by militants backed by Iran earlier this year to launch at-tacks on diplomats and foreigners in the island nation home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The announcement came hours after Saudi state television and a Bahraini local newspaper implied the plot was new in their report-ing Sunday night, just days after the island kingdom normalized relations with Israel. Bahraini government officials, who rou-

tinely claim breaking up plots by militants backed by Iran, did not respond to requests for comment over the confusion.

The details of the plot became public as tensions between Iran and the U.S. remain high after the Trump administration claimed

to have reinvoked all United Na-tions sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program — something disputed by other world powers. The militants reportedly sought revenge for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January,

something long threatened by hiscolleagues in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Iran’s mission to the U.N. dis-missed Bahrain’s claim of Tehranbeing involved as just “anotherinstance in a long line of prepos-terous and false allegations .”

RICK BAJORNAS, UNITED NATIONS/AP

President Donald Trump is seen on a video screen as his prerecorded message is played during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in New York. World leaders were kept at home by the coronavirus pandemic .

Bahrain says it broke up militant attack plot against foreigners this year

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 8 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

VIRUS OUTBREAK

BY CARLA K. JOHNSON

Associated Press

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 200,000 Tuesday, a figure nearly unimag-inable eight months ago when the scourge first reached the world’s richest nation with its state-of-the-art laboratories, top-flight scientists and stockpiles of medi-cines and emergency supplies.

“It is completely unfathomable that we’ve reached this point,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins University public health researcher.

The bleak milestone, by far the highest confirmed death toll from the virus in the world, was reported by Johns Hopkins, based on figures supplied by state health authorities. But the real toll is thought to be much higher, in part because many COVID-19 deaths were probably ascribed to other causes, especially early on, before widespread testing.

The number of those dead from the virus is still climbing. Deaths are running at close to 770 a day on average, and a widely cited model from the University of Washington predicts the U.S. toll will double to 400,000 by the end of the year as schools and colleges reopen and cold weather sets in. A vaccine is unlikely to become widely available until 2021.

“The idea of 200,000 deaths is really very sobering, in some

respects stunning,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top in-fectious-disease expert, said on CNN.

The United States hit the threshold six weeks before a pres-idential election that is certain to be in part a referendum on Presi-dent Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis.

In an interview Tuesday with a Detroit TV station, Trump

boasted of doing an “amazing” and “incredible” job against the scourge, adding: “The only thing we’ve done a bad job in is public relations because we haven’t been able to convince people — which is basically the fake news — what a great job we’ve done.”

For five months, America has led the world by far in sheer num-bers of confirmed infections and deaths. The U.S. has less than 5%

of the globe’s population but more than 20% of the reported deaths.

Brazil is second with about 137,000 deaths, followed by India with approximately 89,000 and Mexico with around 74,000. Only five countries — Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Spain and Brazil — rank higher in COVID-19 deaths per capita.

“All the world’s leaders took the same test, and some have suc-

ceeded and some have failed,”said Dr. Cedric Dark, an emer-gency physician at Baylor Col-lege of Medicine in Houston whohas seen death firsthand. “In the case of our country, we failed miserably.”

Worldwide, the virus has in-fected more than 31 millionpeople and is closing in fast on 1million deaths, with over 965,000 lives lost, by Johns Hopkins’count, though the real numbers are believed to be higher because of gaps in testing and reporting.

For the U.S., it wasn’t supposedto go this way.

When the year began, the U.S.had recently garnered recogni-tion for its readiness for a pan-demic. Health officials seemedconfident as they converged on Seattle in January to deal withthe country’s first known case of the coronavirus, in a 35-year-oldWashington state resident whohad returned from visiting his family in Wuhan, China.

But monitoring at airports wasloose. Travel bans came too late. Only later did health officialsrealize the virus could spread before symptoms show up, ren-dering screening imperfect.

At the same time, gaps in lead-ership led to shortages of test-ing supplies. Internal warningsto ramp up production of masks were ignored, leaving states tocompete for protective gear.

BY EMILY RAUHALA

The Washington Post

The World Health Organization on Monday will announce which countries have signed on to its vaccine plan — and provide more details about how a vaccine, when it is developed, will be doled out.

More than 170 countries are in talks to join the COVID-19 Vac-cines Global Access Facility, or Covax, which aims to develop and distribute $2 billion in doses of a vaccine by the end of 2021.

Under the plan, rich and poor countries will pool money to pro-vide manufacturers with volume

guarantees for a slate of vaccine candidates. The idea is to discour-age hoarding and focus on vacci-nating high-risk people in every participating country first.

“If and when we have an ef-fective vaccine, we must use it effectively,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, tweeted Sunday. “And the best way to do that is to start by vaccinating some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries.”

But Covax, which launched in June, is not getting the support it hoped for as vaccine national-ism takes hold and big econo-

mies buy up stocks for their own populations.

The White House said this month that the United States would not be joining, in part be-cause the administration doesn’t want to work with the WHO, and will instead take a go-it-alone approach.

To succeed, the facility must attract wealthy nations. The proposed allocation framework, which was reviewed by The Washington Post ahead of its pub-lication, is part of that push.

The framework seeks to an-swer a question critical to every country: Once there’s a safe and

effective vaccine, how do you divvy it up?

The WHO’s answer is a two-phase plan that will be closely studied and assessed.

In the first phase, doses will be distributed proportionally, mean-ing each participating country will get doses for a share of its population: 3% to start, then up to 20%.

If supply is still limited after the 20% threshold is met, the al-location method will switch. In Phase 2, Covax will consider each country’s COVID-19 risk level, sending more doses to countries at highest risk.

The framework makes clearthat each participating countrycan decide whom to vaccinatefirst, but is based on the idea that doses for 3% of a country’s popu-lation could be used to vaccinate medical workers first, and thenother high-risk groups.

“Providing each country withenough doses to start protectingthe health system and those athigher risk of dying is the best ap-proach to maximize the impact ofthe small quantities of vaccines,”said Mariangela Batista Galvao Simao, the WHO’s assistant di-rector general for access to medi-cines and health products.

BY JOSEPH DITZLER

Stars and Stripes

TOKYO — The U.S. military in Japan had recorded seven new coronavirus infections as of 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Five of those patients are at Yokosuka Naval Base, south of Tokyo, while the other two are at Marine Corps installations on Okinawa.

On Monday, the Marines also started randomly testing 1% of its personnel on the island twice weekly to detect any potential viral spread among people who

exhibit no symptoms, according to an email Tuesday from Maj. Ken Kunze, spokesman for Ma-rine Corps Installations Pacific.

The “sentinel” tests will include civilian personnel along with Ma-rines and sailors, Kunze wrote.

At Yokosuka, home of the U.S. 7th Fleet, one person tested posi-tive who previously had contact with an infected person, accord-ing to a news release from the base. The other four were in the mandatory, two-week quarantine required of new arrivals. All five are now in isolation, the release said. Yokosuka has eight corona-

virus patients.U.S. Forces Japan requires all

new arrivals and travelers re-turning to Japan to test free of the coronavirus before exiting quarantine.

The two new patients the Ma-rines reported are new arrivals to Okinawa and tested positive in quarantine, according to a Face-book post by the Marines. One person is assigned to Camp Foster and the other to Camp Kinser.

Close contacts of both were also quarantined, although the Marines provided no further in-formation on them.

The Marines started sentinel testing after a conducting a high number of tests, and because test teams were “maintaining a high operational tempo,” according to Kunze’s email. The Marines ex-perienced two large viral clusters in July that continued to generate new cases into August.

Additionally, the number of new arrivals began to dip as the season for changing duty stations and deploying units waned, he wrote.

The random tests will be done among individual commands rather than by base, Kunze wrote.

For example, members of one or two units at Camp Foster might be selected for testing rather thanindividuals from several unitsacross multiple bases.

“People will know a few daysprior,” Kunze wrote. “A medi-cal provider must input the testrequest similar to another lab test so it will not be a surprise toanyone. This will be handled atthe unit level where a provider or‘surgeon’ is on staff.”Stars and Stripes reporter Matthew M. Burke contributed to this report.ditzler.joseph@stripes.comTwitter: @JosephDitzler

‘Unfathomable’: US death toll hits 200K

Navy and Marine Corps announce several new patients at Japan bases

WHO unveils its plan for distributing vaccine

JAE C. HONG/AP

Romelia Navarro, right, is comforted by nurse Michele Younkin as she weeps in July at the bedside of her dying husband, Antonio, in St. Jude Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit in Fullerton, Calif.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 9Wednesday, September 23, 2020

VIRUS OUTBREAK ROUNDUP

From wire reports

SAN DIEGO — The start of the semester at San Diego State University was, as always, a time for students to make and renew friendships on and off its urban campus and enjoy the beach and the city’s unmatched August weather.

The coronavirus meant far fewer people returned to campus this year but the parties, cookouts and other festivities that mark the start of the fall semester went on as usual for a week or two, then abruptly stopped as infections quickly mounted.

There have been larger out-breaks at U.S. colleges but none may be more impactful than the one at San Diego State.

California has seen remarkable recent success with the virus — the infection rate of 2.8% for the last week is the lowest since the pandemic began, and hospitaliza-tions dropped to a level not seen since the first week of April. But the campus outbreak may put San Diego County over a state threshold for cases that mandates many businesses close or restrict indoor operations.

WisconsinMADISON — State health of-

ficials are recommending against trick-or-treating as usual this Halloween because of the coro-navirus pandemic.

Going house-to-house and hav-ing in-person contact is not a good idea, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

If individual communities de-cide to go ahead with traditional trick-or-treating, health officials recommend leaving individual treat bags on the porch for chil-dren to pick up.

Some Wisconsin communities have scheduled trick-or-treat times as usual, with suggestions for taking precautions. Other communities are conferring with their local health departments before making a decision.

Tennessee NASHVILLE — Fox News

Channel’s Steve Doocy apologized on Monday “for any confusion” in

reporting a now-debunked story about the mayor of Nashville, Tenn. , supposedly concealing the number of coronavirus cases linked to bars and restaurants in the city since they were so low.

But on Monday night, Fox’s Tucker Carlson said that “we don’t know the truth” about the Nashville case.

The story came from a Thurs-day report by Nashville’s Fox af-filiate WZTV on “leaked emails” that the station retracted late Fri-day upon learning that they didn’t mean what its reporter thought they did.

A fact-check done Friday by The Nashville Tennessean de-bunked the WZTV reporting, which was retweeted by Donald Trump Jr. and led to Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Repub-lican, to publicly call for an inves-tigation into Mayor John Cooper, a Democrat.

New Mexico SANTA FE — The U.S. Jus-

tice Department sided Monday with the father of a seventh grade prep school student in a lawsuit that challenges pandemic-related limits on classroom capacity at private schools in New Mexico as more restrictive than public school guidelines.

Albuquerque-based U.S. Attor-ney John Anderson filed a state-ment of interest that argues the state is violating the equal protec-tion clause of the U.S. Constitution by limiting attendance at private schools to 25% of building capac-ity under a public health order.

The limit is set at 50% for pub-lic schools under guidance from the Public Education Depart-ment, though only select groups of elementary school and dis-abled students have returned to classrooms.

The initial lawsuit was filed earlier this month by Douglas Pe-terson, the father of a student at Albuquerque Academy, after the school opted for online instruc-tion in response to the state’s public health order. The lawsuit asserts that the school could have moved forward with classroom instruction if it had the same 50% capacity limit as public schools.

Peterson is seeking a restraining order and preliminary injunction to lift the 25% capacity limit.

IowaDES MOINES — The Des

Moines School board on Monday night set a date for returning to school, but put off establishing a coronavirus infection rate that would force the district to revert to online-only instruction.

Des Moines , Iowa’s largest dis-trict with more than 33,000 stu-dents, has been the state’s only school system that has refused Gov. Kim Reynolds’ order that they hold at least half their class-es in-person unless they have re-ceived a waiver because of high infection rates.

The Department of Education has threatened to deem the dis-trict not in compliance, potential-ly forcing it to extend its school year at a cost of about $1.5 million a day. The board has argued that a high prevalence of the coronavi-rus statewide and in Polk County makes it unsafe to hold in-person classes.

The board agreed on a 6 to 1 vote to gradually start a hybrid plan of in-person and online courses, starting with pre-kin-dergarten on Oct. 12 and ending with high school on Nov. 10.

Michigan Two U.S. lawmakers from Mich-

igan questioned the safety protec-tions for Amazon employees after touring a company warehouse in their state, raising new criticisms about working conditions at the e-commerce giant during the coro-navirus pandemic.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Deb-bie Dingell, both Michigan Dem-ocrats, made a surprise visit this month to an Amazon warehouse in Romulus. The lawmakers said they were asked to wait outside for about 90 minutes before being invited in for a tour. While they waited, someone inside the build-ing called the police on them.

Tlaib on Monday tweeted video of part of the visit, showing Ama-zon workers cleaning the facility while she and Dingell waited. The video includes police responding to the site after being called by Amazon in response to the law-makers’ surprise appearance. The two were let in and were told that they could not take video in-side the warehouse.

“Employee screening is poorly executed, cleaning is insufficient, social distancing is often diffi-cult or impossible and Amazon’s relentless quota system does not allow for breaks for adequate per-sonal hygiene,” Tlaib said.

An Amazon spokeswoman called the police appearance “an unfortunate misunderstanding when one of our night shift secu-rity guards was not expecting ex-ternal visitors to be filming on site and was not aware of the identity of those filming at the entryway of the facility — the situation was resolved and we toured the con-gresswomen through the site.”

Massachusetts BOSTON — A resident of a vet-

erans care center in Massachu-setts has tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time, state health officials announced Monday.

The positive test came back

Saturday. The resident had previ-ously recovered from COVID-19in May.

The long-term care facility for veterans has since taken ad-ditional precautions to controlfurther spread of the virus, in-cluding testing all residents who live on the same floor as the posi-tive veteran and all staff mem-bers the resident had contactwith. No additional cases have been identified.

More than 30 residents of thestate-run facility with more than 200 beds have already died from the disease.

Nebraska OMAHA — Nebraska prison

officials announced that fivemore staffers in the Nebraska De-partment of Corrections recentlytested positive for the coronavi-rus, as numbers from state health officials show 442 people havedied and more than 41,000 havetested positive for the virus.

Four of the prison staffers test-ing positive work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, theNebraska Department of Correc-tional Services said in a news re-lease Sunday. The fifth works atthe Diagnostic Evaluation Centerin Lincoln.

All five are self-isolating at home, the release said. The lat-est release brings the number ofprison staffers across the stateinfected to 132, the department said.

The state’s online virus trackeron Monday showed that 41,083in Nebraska have tested positivesince the outbreak began, includ-ing 1,162 from Friday throughSunday.

Campus outbreak could delay plan to reopen San Diego

GREGORY BULL/AP

As coronavirus cases grew at San Diego State University, San Diego county tried to argue that those cases — which have topped 800 among students — should be excluded from state tallies, like case numbers at prisons. Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the proposal before it was even formally delivered.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 10 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Senate Re-publicans have swiftly fallen in line behind President Donald Trump’s push to fill the late Jus-tice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Su-preme Court seat as one of the last holdouts, Sen. Mitt Romney, said Tuesday he supports a vote despite Democrats’ objections it’s too close to the Nov. 3 election.

Trump, who will announce his nominee Saturday, is all but cer-tain to have the votes to confirm his choice.

“I guess we have all the votes we’re going to need,” Trump told WJBX FOX 2 in Detroit on Tuesday, “I think it’s going to happen.”

Conservatives are pushing for a vote before Election Day. Repub-licans hold a slim 53-47 majority in the Senate, and a simple ma-jority is needed for confirmation. But with early voting for presi-dent already underway in several states, all sides are girding for a wrenching Senate battle.

Romney, R-Utah, backed up his decision by saying it’s not “written in the stars” that the court should have a liberal bent, and Trump’s pick will tip the na-tion’s high court to become more conservative.

It’s “appropriate,” he told re-porters at the Capitol, “for a nation which is, if you will, center right, to have a court which reflects a set of right points of view.”

Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have launched one of the quickest con-firmation processes in modern times. No court nominee in U.S. history has been considered so close to a presidential election.

McConnell was holding private meetings at the Capitol and later at GOP campaign headquarters to assess next steps.

Democrats, led by presidential

nominee Joe Biden, vow a toughfight but need four GOP defec-tions to block consideration. Sofar, two Republicans have said they oppose taking up a nomina-tion at this time, but no others are in sight. Under Senate rules, VicePresident Mike Pence can break a tie vote.

Senate Judiciary ChairmanLindsey Graham, who will shep-herd the nomination through thechamber, said Republicans have the support they need. Hearingscould start in early October, aidessaid.

“The nominee is going to be supported by every Republicanin the Judiciary Committee,”Graham, who faces his own toughreelection in South Carolina, toldFox News. “We’ve got the votes to confirm the justice on the floor ofthe Senate before the election andthat’s what’s coming.”

Trump met with conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett at theWhite House on Monday and told reporters he would interviewother candidates and might meetwith Judge Barbara Lagoa whenhe travels to Florida later thisweek. Conversations in the WhiteHouse and McConnell’s officehave been increasingly focusedon Barrett and Lagoa, accordingto a person granted anonymity todiscuss the private deliberations.

Barrett has long been favored by conservatives, and those famil-iar with the process said interestinside the White House seemed to be waning for Lagoa amid con-cerns she did not have a provenrecord as a conservative jurist .

Democrats point to hypocrisyin Republicans trying to rushthrough a pick so close to the elec-tion after McConnell led the GOP in refusing to vote on a nominee of President Barack Obama inFebruary 2016, long before thatyear’s election.

BY JUAN A. LOZANO

Associated Press

HOUSTON — Beta weakened to a tropical depression Tuesday as it parked itself over the Texas coast, raising concerns of ex-tensive flooding in Houston and areas further inland.

Beta made landfall late Mon-day as a tropical storm just north of Port O’Connor, Texas, and has the distinction of being the first time a storm named for a Greek letter made landfall in the conti-nental United States. Forecast-ers ran out of traditional storm names last week, forcing the use of the Greek alphabet for only the second time since the 1950s.

By mid-morning Tuesday, Beta was 15 miles east-northeast of Victoria, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving to-ward the northeast at 2 mph and is expected to stall inland over Texas through Wednesday.

The National Weather Service said areas south and east of Hous-ton had already seen 10 inches or more of rain by midday Tuesday because of Beta.

Street flooding was reported in parts of Houston, but there were no reports of buildings being flooded, Mayor Sylvester Turner said late Tuesday morning. Turn-er urged residents to stay home and, if they couldn’t, to not drive around the 70-some barricades that have placed throughout the city.

The slow-moving storm was ex-pected to bring multiple rounds of rain to Houston.

“It’s going to be moving very slowly heading east and until it clears and gets on the east side of Houston, we’re going to have to deal with these rain bands,” Turner said.

Beta was expected to eventu-ally move over Louisiana, Arkan-sas and Mississippi later in the week, bringing the risk of flash flooding.

Forecasters warned of heavy rainfall Tuesday on the middle and upper Texas coast, which will cause significant flash flood-ing. Six to 12 inches of rain was expected, with some isolated areas of up to 20 inches, forecast-ers said.

However, forecasters and of-ficials reassured residents Beta

was not expected to be another Hurricane Harvey or Tropical Storm Imelda. Harvey in 2017 dumped more than 50 inches of rain on Houston, causing $125 bil-lion in damage in Texas. Imelda, which hit Southeast Texas last year, was one of the wettest cy-clones on record.

Turner, the Houston mayor, said the city would pre-emptively close roads if needed, citing les-sons learned from Imelda when hundreds of drivers were strand-ed on flooded freeways.

On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 29 Texas counties ahead of Beta’s arrival.

Beta is forecast to dump heavy rain on the southwestern corner of Louisiana three weeks after the same area got pounded by Hurricane Laura .

In Lake Charles, Mayor Nic Hunter worried Beta’s rainfall could set back efforts in his Loui-siana community to recover after Laura, which damaged about 95% of the city’s 30,000 struc-tures. Hunter said the worry of another storm was “an emotional and mental toll for a lot of our citizens.”

BY CHRISTOPHER WEBER

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A wildfire scorching its way through brush and timber from the mountains to the desert northeast of Los Angeles threatened more than 1,000 homes on Tuesday as crews across the West battled dozens of other major blazes.

The Bobcat Fire in Southern California was advancing at 1 to 2 mph at times and threatened the Mojave Desert town of Pearblos-som after burning into the Ante-

lope Valley foothill area, across the San Gabriel Mountains from Los Angeles.

The blaze that began Sept. 6 has destroyed or damaged at least 29 homes and other buildings, with the toll rising to perhaps 85 when damage assessment teams can complete their work this week, authorities said.

Cheryl Poindexter lost her des-ert home.

“That fire came over the hill so hard and fast that I turned around and I barely got my eight dogs and my two parrots out,”

Poindexter told ABC7. “You can see everything is ash.”

Firefighters also battled fla-reups near Mount Wilson, which overlooks greater Los Angeles and has a historic observatory founded more than a century ago and numerous broadcast antennas that serve Southern California.

The fire was fueled by vegeta-tion that hadn’t burned in decades and pushed by erratic winds over the weekend, although they had died down by Monday, and were expected to remain light through Tuesday.

Numerous studies in recent years have linked bigger U.S. wildfires to global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, es-pecially because climate change has made California much drier. A drier California means plants are more flammable.

Near Mount Wilson, firefight-ers set more than a mile of fires designed to burn out the blaze’s fuel and act as a brake on its advance.

“We’ve got a fire here that is bigger than the city of Denver, and it did it in two weeks,” said

Sky Cornell with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

About 1,100 homes and some 4,000 residents remained underevacuation orders and the fire was only 17% contained, fire of-ficials said.

Evacuation warnings — mean-ing residents should be preparedto flee if ordered — remained ineffect for the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, home of the RoseBowl and the annual Rose Pa-rade, and Wrightwood, a moun-tain community near several SanBernardino County ski resorts.

NATION

Senate GOP in line to quickly fill court seat

Beta stalls over Texas coast as it weakens to a tropical depression

Huge wildfire threatening more than 1,000 homes in Calif. desert

BRETT COOMER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE/AP

A man walks through a street flooded by Tropical Storm Beta on Monday in Galveston, Texas. Beta was downgraded to a tropical depression Tuesday, but forecasters warned of heavy rainfall Tuesday on the middle and upper Texas coast, which will cause significant flash flooding.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 11Wednesday, September 23, 2020

NATION

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The House was on track Tuesday to pass a government-wide temporary funding bill to keep federal agen-cies fully up and running into December and prevent a partial shutdown of the government after the current budget year expires at the end of the month.

The Democratic-controlled chamber planned to vote despite a mini-furor ignited when Demo-cratic leaders left out a provision requested by President Donald Trump and backed strongly by Capitol Hill Republicans that would give the administration continued immediate authority to dole out Agriculture Department farm bailout funds.

House passage would send the measure to the GOP-controlled Senate and a potential floor fight, but there’s no appetite on either side for a government shutdown.

Democrats complain that the Trump administration has fa-vored Southern states such as Georgia — a key swing state and home of Agriculture Secre-tary Sonny Perdue — and larger producers in distributing bail-

out funds. Farmers are suffer-ing from low commodity prices and the effects of higher tariffs imposed by Trump. Trump an-nounced a new $13 billion al-lotment of bailout funding at a political rally in Wisconsin last week; the provision would keep the door open for additional elec-tion-eve pronouncements.

“The Trump administration has proven they cannot be trust-ed to distribute payments fairly,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan, top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee .

The chairman of the Agricul-ture panel, Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is angry about the omission but said Republicans are not going to spark a potential shutdown con-frontation over it.

“I understand there are people upset with the Secretary and what he has done or will do or whatever with regards to (farm) funding,“ Roberts said. “But this is desperately needed and there’s 45 to 50 programs that would be in danger, right in the middle of the COVID thing, the farm crisis, and the whole business.“

BY MATT ZAPOTOSKYAND SPENCER S. HSU

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A former prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team writes in a new book that the group failed to fully investigate President Don-ald Trump’s financial ties and should have stated explicitly that it believed he obstructed justice; he says the team’s efforts were limited by the ever-present threat of Trump disbanding its office and by its own reluctance to be aggressive.

In a book that offers the most detailed account yet of what hap-pened behind the scenes during Mueller’s two-year investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Andrew Weiss-mann writes of his frustration that the special counsel did not subpoena the president and oth-erwise pulled punches for fear of incurring Trump’s wrath.

He lays particular blame on Mueller’s top deputy, Aaron Zebley, for stopping investiga-tors from taking a broad look at Trump’s finances, and writes that he now wonders whether in-vestigators had “given it our all,” knowing they left many impor-tant questions unanswered.

“As proud as I am of the work our team did — the unprecedent-ed number of people we indicted and convicted and in record speed for any similar investigation — I know the hard answer to that sim-ple question: We could have done more,” Weissmann writes.

Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor and Justice Depart-ment supervisor who now teach-es at New York University’s law school and comments as a legal analyst for MSNBC, is the first prosecutor on Mueller’s team to

break his silence about the in-vestigation that dogged Trump’s presidency. Throughout the probe, Mueller and the others were famously tight-lipped about what they were finding, and while some prosecutors have given in-terviews to reporters upon join-ing private law firms, they have revealed little about the special counsel’s work.

The book, titled “Where Law Ends,” holds little back, offer-ing colorful observations about other members of the team, their targets and the White House — writing that all Trump White House counsel members referred to the Oval Office as the reality-free “Magic Kingdom.” He puts in more plain language many of the Mueller report’s conclusions and points to what he saw as the team’s failures and the questions it left unanswered.

“We still do not know if there are other financial ties between the president and either the Rus-sian government or Russian oli-garchs,” Weissmann writes. “We do not know whether he paid bribes to foreign officials to se-cure favorable treatment for his business interests, a potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that would provide leverage against the president. We do not know if he had other Rus-sian business deals in the works at the time he was running for president, how they might have aided or constrained his cam-paign, or even if they are continu-ing to influence his presidency.”

Mueller ultimately concluded that he could not prove a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian gov-ernment to influence the 2016 presidential election. He drew no conclusion on whether Trump ob-

structed justice — in part becauseof a Justice Department legalopinion that a sitting presidentcannot be indicted, combinedwith concerns over fairness, be-cause if he faced no indictment,Trump could not defend himself in court. Attorney General Wil-liam Barr and then-Deputy At-torney General Rod Rosensteinsaid before the report’s public re-lease that they evaluated the casethemselves and determined that Trump could not be charged withobstruction.

Weissmann condemns Barr,White House attorneys and oth-ers for enabling a “lawless” presi-dent. He confesses that the officenever overcame a key challenge:“the president’s power to fire us and to pardon wrongdoers whomight otherwise cooperate.”

Weissmann is critical of Muel-ler for not stating plainly thathe had concluded that Trump obstructed justice, which Weiss-mann believed the evidenceshowed. Weissmann said in aninterview with The WashingtonPost that he told Mueller that hewould have stated such a conclu-sion in the team’s final report.

“Director Mueller’s decisionwas to not make that conclusion,and by the way, I would have doneit,” Weissmann said. “I told him why I would have done that.”

Weissmann said that while hebelieved it remained possible for Trump to be charged after heleaves office, he was noncommit-tal on whether he should be.

Barr has tasked U.S. AttorneyJohn Durham in Connecticut withreviewing the Russia probe thatthe special counsel’s office tookover with Mueller’s appointment. Weissmann said in an interviewthat he has not been approachedby Durham.

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Just days after Florida Gov. Ron De-Santis won a court victory to keep felons from voting until they’ve paid off fines, restitution and court fees, Democratic billion-aire and former presidential can-didate Michael Bloomberg has stepped in to help them pay off the debts.

Bloomberg is part of an effort that raised more than $20 million to help felons who have complet-ed their prison sentences vote in the presidential election. That’s in addition to the $100 million he has pledged to help Joe Biden win Florida, a crucial state with 29 Electoral College votes that Pres-ident Donald Trump hopes will keep him in the White House.

A federal appellate court ruled

on Sept. 11 that in addition to serv-ing their sentences, Florida felons must pay all fines, restitution and legal fees before they can regain their right to vote . With Bloom-berg’s help, the Florida Rights Restitution Council had raised about $5 million before Bloom-berg made calls to raise almost $17 million more, according to Bloomberg advisers who weren’t authorized to speak on the re-cord because the announcement hadn’t been made yet.

The money is targeted for fel-ons who registered to vote while the law was in question and who owe $1,500 or less. That accounts for about 31,100 people, Bloom-berg advisers say, which could be critical in a year when polls show Trump and Biden in a dead heat.

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — The deci-sion to shorten by a month the 2020 head count of every U.S. resident was not made by the U.S. Census Bureau, and some agency officials suspect it was made by the White House or the Depart-ment of Commerce, according to a report from the bureau’s watch-dog agency.

The report by the Office of In-spector General did not identify who made the decision to shorten the 2020 census from the end of October to the end of September, but it said bureau officials con-firm it was not made by them.

The accelerated schedule “in-creases the risks to the accuracy of the 2020 Census,“ the Inspector

General report said. “This was the consensus view of the senior Bureau officials we interviewed.“

Because of the pandemic, the Census Bureau got support last spring from the Department of Commerce, which oversees the agency, to push back its dead-line from winding down the head count from the end of July to the end of October.

The extra time was contingent on Congress extending the dead-line for the Census Bureau turn-ing in figures used to determine how many congressional seats each state gets from Dec. 31 to the end of next April, according to the report.

At some point in July, though, support for the extensions from

the Trump administration andCongress were called into doubt. There was pressure from the Commerce Department to speedup operations, legislation in Con-gress to extend the deadlines stalled and President DonaldTrump issued a directive trying to exclude people in the countryillegally from the numbers usedin redrawing congressional dis-tricts, according to the InspectorGeneral.

At least two Census Bureau of-ficials interviewed by the Office of Inspector General believe thepresident’s order changed theadministration’s support for ex-tending the deadlines, the report said.

Team member: Mueller ‘could have done more’

House to vote on bill to avert shutdown

Bloomberg raises millions to help felons vote in Fla.

IG: Census Bureau didn’t seek to shorten count

AP

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is part of an effort that raised more than $20 million to help Florida felons who have completed their prison sentences vote in the 2020 election.

In book, prosecutor critical of limits of Russia probe

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 12 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

WORLD

Associated Press

MOSCOW — Russian opposi-tion leader Alexei Navalny de-manded Monday that Russia return the clothes he was wearing on the day he fell into a coma in Siberia, calling it “a crucial piece of evidence” in the nerve agent poisoning he is being treated for at a German hospital.

In a blog post Monday, Navalny said the Novichok nerve agent was found “in and on” his body,

and said the clothes taken off him when he was hospitalized in Sibe-ria a month ago after collapsing on a Russian flight are “very im-portant material evidence.

“I demand that my clothes be carefully packed in a plastic bag and returned to me,” the 44-year-old politician and corruption in-vestigator wrote.

Last week, the Berlin hospital reported taking him off a venti-lator as his condition improved.

Navalny has since posted several photos of himself in the hospital, saying he is recovering his ver-bal, mental and physical abilities.

In a statement Monday, Naval-ny blasted Russian authorities for not launching a criminal probe into what happened to him.

“There is no criminal case in Russia, there is a ‘preliminary in-quiry regarding the fact of hospi-talization.’ It looks as if I didn’t fall into a coma on a plane, but rather

tripped in a supermarket and broke my leg,” Navalny wrote.

Russian police said they start-ed a preliminary probe — an inquiry to determine whether a criminal investigation should be launched — after Navalny was hospitalized.

Navalny and his allies on Mon-day argued that, according to existing regulations, the inquiry should have been completed in 30 days; those 30 days ran out on

Saturday, and now the politicianwants his clothes back.

Since the inquiry hasn’t result-ed in a criminal case, “it can nowbe argued that the Russian state has officially decided to ignorethe poisoning of Navalny,” the politician’s spokeswoman KiraYarmysh said in a video state-ment on Monday.

Police said Monday the inquiry was still ongoing.

Navalny says nerve agent was found ‘in and on’ his body

Associated Press

ROME — Italy’s center-right parties made inroads in bas-tions of the left, but final results from regional elections Tuesday showed that the left-of-center Democratic Party held on, giving stability for now to its partner-ship with the 5-Star Movement in the ruling national coalition.

The right-wing Brothers of Italy party did take the governorship of Le Marche, a longtime center-left stronghold on Italy’s Adriatic

coast, giving the party known for its conservative, anti-migration stance a key regional win. The party’s candidate, Francesco Ac-quaroli, ran with the backing of other center-right parties.

The biggest center-right party, the League, also made a strong showing in traditionally left-lean-ing Tuscany with 40% of the vote. But Democratic candidate Eu-genio Giani held off what would have been a devastating defeat by winning 48.6%. The center-left

also kept southern Puglia from flipping to the right.

The League confirmed its ex-pected victory in Veneto, where the governor, Luca Zaia, secured another mandate with a whopping 76% of the vote. Zaia was largely credited with having helped spare Veneto the worst of the coronavi-rus pandemic through aggressive testing and other public health measures, while neighboring Lombardy suffered more than any Italian region.

Associated Press

BRUSSELS — The European Union is pleading with Britain to stop playing “games” as time is running out to clinch a free trade deal over the next month.

The sides committed to a new meeting to discuss Britain’s plans to disregard part of the withdraw-al agreement it had signed with the 27-nation EU amid acrimony that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson would even contemplate to break an agreement he himself signed.

EU countries’ ministers for Eu-ropean affairs met in Brussels on Tuesday, and German chairman Michael Roth said the British plan was “extremely” worrisome since it “violates the guiding prin-ciple of the withdrawal agree-ment,” which officially allowed the United Kingdom to leave the bloc on Jan. 31.

A transition period now runs until Dec. 31, during which time both sides are negotiating a trade

agreement to replace the open and unfettered economic rela-tions that are currently in place.The EU has repeatedly expressedits exasperation at what it seesas British stubbornness and re-fusal to compromise on some keypoints.

Without a deal on future traderelations, chaos is expected at theborders on Jan. 1. Companies onboth sides are set to lose massiveamounts of money as new red tape and tariffs will fundamen-tally change business practices.

Johnson’s proposed bill earlier this month that would disregardpart of the withdrawal treatydealing with trade between Ire-land and the U.K. only added tothe frustration.

“Dear friends in London: Stopthe games. Time is running out,” Roth said ahead of the meeting.“What we really need is a fair basis for negotiations.”

Italy’s right makes inroads on Democrats in elections

EU tells UK to stopplaying ‘games’ in Brexit trade talks

ANDREW MEDICHINI/AP

Democratic Party leader Nicola Zingaretti waves after leaving a press conference in Rome on Monday .

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 13Wednesday, September 23, 2020

WORLDGerman cyberattack trail leads to Russia

BERLIN — IT experts in-vestigating a cyberattack that paralyzed computer systems at amajor hospital in western Germa-ny say one of the trails they are following leads to Russia, Ger-man media reported Tuesday.

The attack caused the failure ofIT systems at Duesseldorf’s Uni-versity Hospital two weeks ago. A woman who needed urgent admis-sion died after she had to be takento another city for treatment.

Authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia told state lawmakersthat the software used to encrypt computer systems in an apparentransom attempt originates with a Russian hacker group, public broadcaster WDR reported.

WDR quoted investigators assaying that the attack “may havebeen part of a worldwide, com-mercial malware campaign.”

The attackers appeared to haveintended to target the HeinrichHeine University, to which the Duesseldorf hospital is affiliated, and not the hospital itself. When Duesseldorf police establishedcontact and said the hospital, and not the university, had beenaffected, endangering patients,the perpetrators withdrew theirextortion attempt and provided adigital key to decrypt the data.From The Associated Press

Associated Press

PENGHU, Taiwan — Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen visited a military base on one of Taiwan’s outlying islands Tuesday in a dis-play of resolve following a recent show of force by rival China.

Tsai spoke to roughly a hundred air force pilots and crew mem-bers at the Penghu Magong Air Force base, where two pilots took off in Taiwan-produced Ching-kuo Indigenous Defense Fighters to greet her arrival.

Taiwan has the “ability” and “resolve” to safeguard its terri-tory, she said, while praising the soldiers as being able to get up in the air within five minutes.

“I know that having to face the provocations of the People’s Liberation Army surrounding Taiwan, and their actions in dis-turbing the area’s peace, in the situation, everyone’s duty at the frontline air defense at Penghu has become heavier,” Tsai said.

“But I have faith in every indi-vidual, that every one of our well-trained air force brothers and sisters is able to lift this heavy responsibility,” she said.

The Chinese air force flew 37 planes, including fighter jets

and long-distance bombers, over the Taiwan Strait on Friday and Saturday in what Beijing called a deliberate warning during a visit by a high level U.S. State Depart-ment envoy to the island.

It was an unusually large dis-play of force in response to the second such visit by a high-level

U.S. official in two months. The American health secretary vis-ited Taiwan in August.

China considers Taiwan part of its national territory and objects to all official contact between other countries and Taipei.

At a news conference Mon-day, China’s Foreign Ministry

spokesman Wang Wenbin again condemned the visit, calling it a “political provocation that em-boldens Taiwan independence separatists and undermines China-U.S. relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

China has increased its dip-lomatic and military pressure on Tsai’s government over her refusal to agree to China’s insis-tence that the island be consid-ered a part of Chinese territory. The vast majority of Taiwanese reject the prospect of political union with China under the “one country, two systems” framework in place in Hong Kong.

Tsai has remained defiant in face of China’s anger.

“I am confident in each one of you, because as soldiers the Re-public of China’s air force, how can we let others throw their weight around in our own air-space?” she said on Tuesday, using Taiwan’s formal name.

While China’s armed forces have an overwhelming numeri-cal advantage over Taiwan, the island’s small but well-trained high-tech force enjoys strong support from the U.S., the island’s chief ally.

Taiwan’s president visits military base

JOHNSON LAI/AP

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, center, speaks Tuesday near Taiwan’s Indigenous Defense Fighter jets displayed during a visit to the Penghu Magong military air base in Penghu Island, Taiwan .

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 14 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

The sculpture was burned in Bowdoinham, on the property of former select board member Theresa Turgeon, who said she’s running for the town’s select board again.

The large donkey sculpture was built by Doug Chess, a local art-ist and bus driver, as a symbol of the Democratic Party. It’s made out of wood, wire, cardboard, Fiberglas and other materials. It had been circulating to different lawns around Bowdoinham and Richmond, and had been at Tur-geon’s since Friday.

New kind of license plate making debut

KY FRANKFORT — A new kind of Kentucky

license plate has started appear-ing on vehicles across the state.

The biggest difference is in the way the new plates are manufac-tured. They’re digitally printed on flat aluminum instead of tra-ditional, embossed metal with raised letters and numbers, state transportation officials said.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will save money on stor-age space, bulk manufacturing and unused inventory, the offi-cials said.

With digital technology, stan-dard and specialty license plates can be produced as need-ed rather than having to be mass-produced.

Kentucky Correctional In-dustries will continue making the plates at the Kentucky State Reformatory.

Police arrest man who stole moored houseboat

MN MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities said

a hooded man stole a houseboat moored off an island along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis before he was arrested at shore.

The boat was tied up off Nicol-let Island along the river across from downtown, where it was sto-len , the Star Tribune reported.

Police officers grabbed the boat a little more than an hour later and brought the man to shore to the north at Boom Island, witness Chris Stellar said. Stellar pro-vided a photo to the newspaper showing a police officer standing in the water and aiming a Taser at the suspect.

3 injured after subway hits debris and derails

NY NEW YORK — Three passengers suffered

minor injuries when a New York City subway train derailed after hitting construction debris that had been thrown onto the tracks, authorities said.

The derailment happened at the 14th Street and Eighth Av-enue station in Manhattan. In-terim New York City Transit president Sarah Feinberg said a northbound A train hit debris as it was pulling into the station.

Feinberg said the 134 passen-gers on board the train were safe-ly evacuated. A fire department spokesperson said three of the riders suffered minor injuries. One person was taken to a hos-pital for evaluation and the other two declined treatment.

Police said the train derailed after someone threw debris from a construction project onto the tracks. A 30-year-old man was arrested and charges against him are pending.

State taking in more of a rare squirrel species

DE DAGSBORO — A rare squirrel species is

being released into a wildlife area in Delaware.

The Wilmington News Journal reported that some Delmarva fox squirrels are being placed in the Assawoman Wildlife Area in Dagsboro this month.

The species was removed from the federal endangered spe-cies list in 2015. They are fairlyabundant on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, but the species has beenslow to expand its range.

The Delaware Department ofNatural Resources and Environ-mental Control and its partnershope to increase the species’numbers and secure its perma-nence. Squirrels captured from Dorchester County, M d., will be released into the wildlife area insoutheastern Sussex County in Delaware.

3 accused in prison drug smuggling plot

MI COLDWATER — Two adults and a teenager

were arrested for allegedly try-ing to smuggle drugs into a south-ern Michigan prison, according to Michigan State Police.

The alleged plot at LakelandCorrectional Facility in Cold-water was discovered over the weekend, authorities said. Pris-on officials asked state police toinvestigate.

A 33-year-old Adrian woman, her 15-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old man, also from Adri-an, were arrested and hit with multiple felony charges. Their names have not been releasedpending court appearances.

Authorities said an investiga-tion showed several prisonerswere also allegedly involved, and they’ll seek additional charges.

AMERICAN ROUNDUP Small plane crash lands on street, 2 injured

PA MOOSIC — A small plane on a flight from

Vermont crash-landed on a resi-dential street in Pennsylvania, in-juring the pilot and a passenger.

The single-engine aircraft was trying to land at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport when the pilot apparently ha d en-gine trouble and brought the plane down on Stone Street, officials said. The plane took down power lines and left more than 500 cus-tomers without electricity.

Witnesses described hearing a loud noise before the lights went out.

The plane had damage to the nose, wings and landing gear.

The pilot and the passenger sustained injuries that were not considered life-threatening, po-lice said. Their names were not released. Nobody was injured on the ground. The National Trans-portation Safety Board and the FAA were investigating.

Man faces over 300 sex-related charges

NC RAEFORD — A North Carolina man is facing

more than 300 separate counts for sex-related crimes involving a juvenile, authorities said.

Joshuah Taylor Bradshaw, 30, was apprehended by the FBI in Etta, Miss. , Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said in a news release.

Peterkin said that detectives went to a Raeford home Aug. 7 for a reported juvenile sexual as-sault. Arrest warrants were ob-tained, but Bradshaw left North Carolina, according to the news release.

He was extradited from Missis-sippi and received 332 charges. The counts include statutory sex-ual offense, taking indecent liber-ties with children, crimes against nature and sexual exploitation of a minor, the release said. The alleged offenses occurred from February through August.

Snorkeler attacked, injured by bull shark

FL KEY WEST — A 30-year-old snorkeler from

Atlanta, G a., was attacked by a shark in the Florida Keys .

Andrew Eddy was in a private boat with his family exploring the reefs at Sombrero Key Light when he was bitten on the shoulder by a bull shark, Monroe County Sher-iff’s officials said. Family mem-bers immediately began first aid.

Authorities said boaters in the area had spotted the bull shark earlier. Witnesses described the shark as eight to 10 feet in length.

Eddy was air lifted to a Miami hospital with a severe shoulder injury.

Donkey sculpture on front lawn burned

ME BOWDOINHAM — A donkey sculpture

on a front lawn in a Maine town was set on fire in what one law-maker called an act of “political terrorism.”

A night at the symphony

The number of free loads of laundry community groups in Chicago of-fered if customers at a coin laundry filled out census forms. “If we don’t fill it out, we lose the millions (of dollars) of funding that is necessary for our communities,” said Frances Velez, a volunteer at Mujeres Latinas en Accion — Latina Women in Action — who held a sign with the offer. Il-

linois has a 70% census response rate , but Chicago is only at 60%. The deadline to fill out forms is at the end of September.

THE CENSUS

2

People are socially distanced as they listen to the music of the Kansas City Symphony on the lawn at the Liberty Memorial on Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.

From wire reports

CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 15Wednesday, September 23, 2020

FACES

Associated Press

Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertain-ment journalists of what’s arriv-ing on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.

Movies“Enola Holmes”: “Stranger

Things” breakout Millie Bobby Brown gets her first starring role in a Netflix film, “Enola Holmes,” coming to the streamer Wednes-day. Brown plays Sherlock’s ( Henry Cavill) little sister in this adaptation of the Nancy Springer mystery series.

“Judy”: Miss out on Renee Zellweger’s Oscar-winning turn as Judy Garland? Time to get happy, because “Judy” is coming to Hulu on Friday. Inspired by Peter Quilter’s play “End of the Rainbow,” “Judy” looks at some of Garland’s last years of life, in late 1968 and early 1969 during a series of shows in London when her star has faded in the U.S. and she’s seen as a tragic liability. Zellweger makes the late icon come alive again with profound vulnerability, sadness and a wick-edly dark sense of humor.

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

MusicPublic Enemy returns to leg-

endary record label Def Jam in more than two decades to release “What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?” The 17-track album, out Friday, features a number of hot acts, including Nas, Run-DMC, Mike D and Ad-Rock of Beastie Boys, George Clinton, Rapsody, DJ Premier, Black Thought and Questlove of The Roots, Cypress Hill, Ice-T, PMD, YG and Daddy-O.

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, canceled in June, is launching Virtual ROO-ALITY, a three-night live broadcast fea-turing new performances as well as content from the Bonnaroo archive. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. EDT from Thursday through Saturday on YouTube .

With the blink-182’s Travis Barker in the executive producerchair, rapper and rocker Machine Gun Kelly is releasing his fifth album on Friday. “Tickets to My Downfall” features 15 tracks,including collaborations with Halsey, Trippie Redd, blackbearand Iann Dior.

— AP Music EditorMesfin Fekadu

Television “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” re-

turned for its third season Tues-day on Fox. Astrophysicist Neil

deGrasse Tysonhosts the seriesproduced, writ-ten and directedby Ann Druyan,who workedwith her CarlSagan, her late husband, on the groundbreak-ing 1980 “Cos-

mos” documentary. The newestinstallment, created in partner-ship with the National Geograph-ic Channel, promises to reveal“previously uncharted realms,” including worlds that humansmay one day inhabit.

PBS’ “Frontline” series contin-ues its three-decade tradition of examining the presidential can-didates with “The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden.” The docu-mentary offers what’s describedas “interwoven investigative bi-ographies” of President Donald Trump and former Vice Presi-dent Joe Biden, looking at whatshaped the candidates’ lives, how each approaches power and theirview of America’s future. Thetwo-hour film is available at pbs.org/frontline and on YouTube .

Amber Ruffin, a writer-per-former for “Late Night with SethMeyers,” is taking center stagewith “The Amber Ruffin Show,” debuting Friday on the Peacock streaming service. Ruffin ’s new show, she said, is a chance to dosketches, songs and jokes about“this terrible time we call now!”

— AP Television WriterLynn Elber

Bob Dylan is resurrecting his “Theme Time Radio Hour” on SiriusXM. Each program features a theme. The latest episode packed in songs, poems, recipes and chatter about whiskey.

FRAZER HARRISON, GETTY IMAGES / TNS

BY JON BREAM

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

With his Never Ending Tour tem-porarily grounded and his compelling new album “Rough and Rowdy Ways” in stores, Bob Dylan is resurrecting has “Theme Time Radio Hour” on SiriusXM.

On Monday, he premiered a new epi-sode in the series in which he delivers 100 shows from 2006-09. Each fea-tures a theme — baseball, weather, presidents, etc. — with songs and com-mentary about the particular topic.

The new episode is about whiskey, inspired by the bard’s own brand, Heaven’s Door, which he introduced in 2018.

Instead of the usual hourlong pro-gram, Dylan delivered a double shot — two hours — of songs, poems, reci-pes and chatter about whiskey.

There were boozy tunes sung by Van Morrison, George Jones, Thin Lizzy, Tom Waits, the Stanley Brothers and Julie London, by old blues figures in-cluding Byllye Williams and Wynon-

ie Harris, and, of course, by Frank Sinatra.

Allison Janney calls into Dylan’s pro-gram. And Sarah Silverman and Penn Jillette offer station IDs.

Like a veteran DJ, Dylan riffs exten-sively, offering history of songs, corny jokes and tidbits about whiskey and hangovers. He even introduces an un-familiar word — sprechstimme, which means half-sung, half-spoken. “I use that (approach) sometimes myself,” he said.

Much credit goes to Emmy-winning Eddie Gorodetsky, the producer, writer and force behind this radio series as well as Dylan’s top-notch research team.

The whiskey episode premiered Monday on SiriusXM channel 27 (“Deep Tracks”). Various old shows of “Theme Time Radio Hour” will be broadcast on that channel until 2 a.m. Sept. 28. The whiskey episode is also available on bobdylan.com and streaming services starting on Friday.

New this week: Public Enemy, Bonnaroo and ‘Enola Holmes’

Dylan revives radio show with episode about whiskey

Booze musings Tyson

Associated Press

Post Malone scored 16 2020 Billboard Music Awards nomina-tions, dick clark productions and NBC announced Tuesday. Malo-ne’s nominations include top art-ist, top male artist, top rap artist and top streaming songs artist.

The multi-platinum 25-year-old star’s 2019 album “Hollywood’s Bleeding” — which featured the hits “Circles,” “Wow” and “Good-byes” — is up for top Billboard 200 album while “Sunflower,” his collaboration with Swae Lee from the animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” is nominated for top rap song, top collaboration and top streaming song.

Lil Nas X follows Malone with 13 nominations, while Billie Eil-ish and Khalid each scored 12

nods. Malone, Eilish and Khalidwill compete for the show’s big-gest award, top artist, along withTaylor Swift and Jonas Brothers.

The 2020 Billboard Music Awards will broadcast live fromThe Dolby Theatre in Los Angeleson Oct. 14 . The 2020 awards show was originally supposed to takeplace in April but was postponedbecause of the coronavirus.

These Billboard Awards reflectthe chart period of March 23,2019, through March 14 . Eilish’s “When We All Fall Asleep, WhereDo We Go?” — which won the Grammy for album of the year —is up against Malone’s record for top Billboard 200 album. Othernominees include Ariana Grande “Thank U, Next,” released in Oct. 2018, and Swift’s “Lover,” not herrecent release “Folklore.”

Post Malone leads Billboard noms

Wednesday, September 23, 2020PAGE 16 F3HIJKLM • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •

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BY CHARLES LANE The Washington Post

Crucial information about the causes of the looming political battle over the Supreme Court, can be found — of all places — in

the May-June 2017 issue of Contingencies, the official publication of the American Academy of Actuaries.

In an article provocatively titled “The Supreme Court has a Longevity Problem,” David Fishbaum of the management con-sulting firm Oliver Wyman explained how a social achievement that the Founders never imagined is destabilizing their con-stitutional design: Average life expectancy has increased from roughly 40 years in the late 18th century to almost 79 years today.

Gone are the days when anyone consid-ers the federal judiciary the “least dan-gerous” branch, in Alexander Hamilton’s famous phrase.

The Supreme Court may have “no influ-ence over either the sword or the purse,” as Hamilton wrote, but by aggressively reviewing the constitutionality of state and federal statutes and executive actions, the court has evolved into a kind of super-legis-lature whose rulings determine the rights and livelihoods of millions.

And when some of that power may be transferred to a 49-year-old man with, on average, 33 years ahead of him — as oc-curred with President Donald Trump’s ap-pointment of Neil Gorsuch in 2017 — the constitutional guarantee of judicial life tenure begins to look less like insulation against political pressure and more like a way to enshrine the preferences of a tran-sitory presidential administration and Sen-ate majority for decades.

“The trend of living longer can be ex-pected to significantly reduce the number of appointments over the next 100 years, extend the average tenure, and potential-

ly upset the balance of power among the three branches,” Fishbaum wrote.

Using standard statistical methods and assumptions, he estimated that there will be 25 new Supreme Court appointments over the next century, compared with 47 in the previous 100 years and 60 between 1869 and 1969. Meanwhile, average time on the bench could rise to 35 years, nearly double what it was (18.1 years) in the cen-tury between World War I and the Trump administration. Only one president in the past century — one-termer Jimmy Carter — made no Supreme Court appointments. Over the next century there is a 1 in 10 chance that a two-term president will make none, according to Fishbaum.

“The lack of movement on the court will amplify the significance of every appoint-ment moving forward and is likely to make the appointment process even more vitri-olic, given what is at stake,” Fishbaum pre-dicted, accurately.

Because of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., manipulation of the confirmation process to shut out President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court choice in 2016 and Trump’s improbable victory that year, Democrats find them-selves on the wrong side of the actuarial charts. In the wake of 87-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, they could face near-permanent minority status at the Supreme Court.

The response some Democrats advocate — increasing the nine-member court’s le-gally authorized size and packing it with liberals — might avenge 2016 and resolve their short-term policy concerns while plunging the court, and the country, into even deeper division and crisis.

What the country needs — badly — is to lower the stakes attached to personnel changes at the Supreme Court and the lower courts. Since limiting or abolishing judicial review might not be desirable even

if it were possible, the best alternative is toend life tenure for federal judges in favor ofa specific term limit or a mandatory retire-ment age.

Whether this must be done by amend-ing the Constitution or whether a changein federal law could suffice is just one ofmany challenging questions such a pro-posal would face.

And that’s before you get into the re-ally fine points. Fishbaum modeled a plan whereby eight current justices, plus a newappointee, received fresh terms, limited to 18 years each. This nearly doubled pre-dicted turnover for the next century from25 to 49. But it accomplished that at the cost of creating a 41% chance that a singletwo-term president could appoint a courtmajority.

A different plan, in which seats wouldcome open on a staggered basis every fouryears, and incumbent justices could be eli-gible for reappointment, eliminated most of that risk. That design, however, allowedsomewhat fewer new appointments over 100 years.

Whatever its precise features, the cru-cial advantage of term limits or manda-tory retirement is to reduce the discretionmembers of the court have over how long they serve, and the accompanying incen-tive to “time” retirement for ideologicalor partisan advantage, which is unseemly— and, often, futile.

An impartial rule that applied equally toall would lower political tensions and cross a major item off each individual jurist’sworry list.

The Founders did not design the U.S. po-litical system for a world in which vigorousold age is the norm. We should update it,urgently.Charles Lane is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a frequent panelist on Fox News’s “Special Report” and “Fox News Sunday.”

BY ARTHUR I. CYR

Special to Stars and Stripes

Representatives of the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement have begun formal di-rect peace negotiations. The two

sides held their first meeting in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on Sept. 12.

The timing has symbolic importance, in particular for Americans. The horrific, bloody al-Qaida terrorist attacks in New York City; Washington, D.C.; and the Penn-sylvania countryside took place just under two decades ago, on Sept. 11, 2001. An al-Qaida group based in Afghanistan planned and carried out the attacks.

In response, the military forces of an international coalition of nations led by the United States occupied Afghanistan, and overthrew the ruling fundamentalist Taliban regime. Both the United Nations and the NATO alliance support and have helped to implement this long-term effort, which has economic development and po-litical along with military dimensions.

Last February, after nearly two decades of occupation, the U.S. government and the fundamentalist Taliban movement signed a formal agreement for the phased with-drawal of international troops. The accord includes detailed stipulations to help pro-tect the population and discourage the re-turn of terrorists.

This struggle to find a reasonably re-sponsible, acceptable diplomatic route for departure reflects subtle but sustained sentiment among Americans that the in-volvement has surely gone on long enough. That sentiment emphatically includes the White House.

Afghanistan’s disputed presidential election of September 2019 complicated matters. In February incumbent Presi-dent Ashraf Ghani was formally, finally declared the winner, with just over 50% of the vote. However, challenger Abdullah Abdullah refused to accept this and vowed to establish a separate government. On May 17, both leaders agreed to a power-sharing agreement for joint government — a major breakthrough.

Context is important. Afghanistan has no established history of formal represen-tative elections, Western-style rule of law, or reliable national government. Local tribal leaders remain influential, power-ful, lethal in armed conflict.

The 2014 election is a much more reas-suring benchmark of progress in Afghani-stan. Turnout of approximately 60% of eligible voters was high, despite Taliban intimidation and violence. The national election commission testified corruption was much reduced from the 2009 presi-dential election.

Then-President Hamid Karzai could not run for reelection. World Bank veteran Ghani was victorious among a field of eight candidates. With the election, Afghanistan completed a peaceful democratic transi-tion in leadership. This is a historic first.

Despite policy disagreements and in-surgent attacks, institutional ties between Afghanistan and the U.S. are strong. In July 2012, the two nations became formal allies.

As a result, Afghanistan joined 14 other nations in the distinctive, special catego-ry of Strategic Partner of the U.S. These include Argentina, Australia, Israel and Japan. Other partners are notably stronger

economically, and more stable politically,than Afghanistan.

The bilateral partnership brings closer cooperation encompassing regular deliv-ery of military equipment, supplies and weapons. This in turn becomes more im-portant with U.S. withdrawal. After the signing of the agreement, a multinational conference convened in Tokyo, wheredonor nations pledged $16 billion in devel-opment assistance.

The frustrating nature of the South Asiastruggle can mask such positive changes as reasonably honest elections, and grow-ing participation of women. Despite lack ofinfrastructure, technology spreads steadi-ly. Cellphones and the internet, as well as traditional television, are now features ofisolated communities.

Afghanistan remains important for theU.S. in a manner broadly similar to the pri-ority Great Britain attached to South Asiatraditionally. Major East-West trade routestraverse the region today, as in ancienttimes.

Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, leasedfrom Britain in 1966, contains a majorAmerican military base. B-52 bombersbased there supported the allied militaryinvasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.

The U.S. and allies were right to over-throw the Taliban in Afghanistan, andare now right to withdraw. In the future,disciplined regional strategy should guide Washington policy.

The Afghan people are responsible fortheir nation. That also is right.Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War.”

Lifetime high court seats no longer make sense

Peace negotiations a good sign for Afghanistan, US

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 17Wednesday, September 23, 2020

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 18 F3HIJKLM Wednesday, September 23, 2020

SCOREBOARD/SPORTS BRIEFS

Go to the American Forces Network website for the most up-to-date TV schedules.myafn.net

Sports on AFN

Pro soccer

MLSEASTERN CONFERENCE

W L T Pts GF GAColumbus 8 1 3 27 20 4Philadelphia 7 2 3 24 21 11Orlando City 6 2 4 22 23 14Toronto FC 6 2 4 22 20 14New York City FC 5 5 2 17 10 9Montreal 5 6 1 16 18 20New England 3 3 6 15 10 11New York 4 6 2 14 9 14Nashville SC 3 5 3 12 9 13Cincinnati 3 6 3 12 8 17Inter Miami CF 3 7 2 11 11 15D.C. United 2 5 5 11 11 17Atlanta 3 7 2 11 12 17Chicago 2 7 3 9 12 22

WESTERN CONFERENCE W L T Pts GF GASeattle 6 2 3 21 26 10Sporting KC 6 4 2 20 23 18FC Dallas 5 2 4 19 19 12Minnesota United 5 4 3 18 23 19Portland 5 4 3 18 25 24Colorado 4 4 4 16 20 20Vancouver 5 7 0 15 17 24LA Galaxy 4 4 3 15 16 17Los Angeles FC 4 5 3 15 25 27Houston 3 3 6 15 20 19Real Salt Lake 3 4 5 14 17 21San Jose 2 5 5 11 17 33

Note: Three points for victory, one point for tie.

Wednesday, Sept. 16FC Dallas 4, Colorado 1Vancouver 3, Montreal 1Portland 1, San Jose 1, tie

Friday, Sept. 18Seattle 3, Los Angeles FC 0

Saturday, Sept. 19FC Dallas 3, Sporting Kansas City 2New York City FC 0, New England 0, tieMiami 2, Atlanta 1Cincinnati 1, New York 0Columbus 2, Nashville 0Toronto FC 2, D.C. United 2, tieOrlando City 4, Chicago 1Minnesota 2, Houston 2, tieVancouver 2, Real Salt Lake 1Portland 6, San Jose 1Colorado 2, LA Galaxy 0

Sunday, Sept. 20Philadelphia 4, Montreal 1

Wednesday’s gamesMontreal at New EnglandFC Dallas at AtlantaToronto FC at New York City FCOrlando City at Sporting Kansas CityMinnesota at ColumbusPhiladelphia at CincinnatiHouston at ChicagoNew York at MiamiD.C. United at NashvilleSan Jose at ColoradoLA Galaxy at Real Salt LakeSeattle at PortlandVancouver at Los Angeles FC

Saturday’s gamesHouston at NashvilleCincinnati at New York City FC

Sunday’s gamesMontreal at New YorkNew England at D.C. UnitedMiami at PhiladelphiaAtlanta at ChicagoColumbus at Toronto FCReal Salt Lake at MinnesotaOrlando City at FC DallasSporting Kansas City at ColoradoPortland at VancouverSan Jose at Los Angeles FCSeattle at LA Galaxy

NWSL W L T Pts GF GANorth Carolina 1 0 1 4 4 3Portland 1 0 0 3 3 0Chicago 1 1 0 3 5 3Washington 1 1 0 3 3 3Sky Blue FC 1 1 0 3 3 5Orlando 0 0 1 1 0 0Reign FC 0 0 0 0 0 0Houston 0 1 0 0 3 4Utah 0 1 0 0 0 3

Note: Three points for victory, one point for tie.

Saturday, Sept. 19Orlando 0, North Carolina 0, tie

Sunday, Sept. 20Chicago 4, Sky Blue FC 1Portland 3, Utah 0

Saturday’s gamesWashington at ChicagoReign FC at UtahOrlando at Houston

Wednesday, Sept. 30Reign FC at Portland

Saturday, Oct. 3Washington at Sky Blue FCPortland at Utah

Deals

Monday’s transactionsBASEBALL

Major League BaseballAmerican League

BALTIMORE ORIOLES — Announced RHP Cody Carroll has cleared outright waivers and will remain assigned to al-ternate training site.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS — Optioned 3B Kelvin Gutierrez to alternate training site. Activated RF Jorge Soler from the 10-day IL.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS — Activated RHP Matt Shoemaker from the IL. Placed RHP Julian Merryweather on the 10-day IL ret-roactive to Sept. 18.

National LeagueATLANTA BRAVES — Placed LHP Cole

Hamels on the 10-day IL retroactive to Sept. 18. Recalled RHP Bryse Wilson from alternate training site.

CHICAGO CUBS — Placed 2B Ildemaro Vargas on the 10-day IL retroactive to Sept. 20.

COLORADO ROCKIES — Recalled OF Sam Hilliard from alternate training site. Placed 3B Nolan Arenado on the 10-day IL retroactive to Sept. 20. Released RHP Wade Davis.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS — Activated OF Joc Pederson from the family medical emergency list. Optioned INF/OF Zach McKinstry to alternate training site.

MIAMI MARLINS — Optioned LHP Braxton Garrett and RHP Robert Dugger to alternate training site. Selected the contract of RHP Brett Eibner from alter-nate training site.

NEW YORK METS — Recalled CF Guill-ermo Heredia from alternate training site. Placed CF Jake Marisnick on the 10-day IL.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES — Placed RHP Heath Hembree on the 10-day IL. Re-called OF Mickey Moniak from alternate training site. Recalled RHP Ramon Rosso from alternate training site. Optioned RHP Adonis Medina to alternate training site.

PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Claimed RHP Carson Fulmer outright on waivers from Baltimore. Recalled OF Jared Oliva from alternate training site. Placed OF Jason Martin on the 10-day IL. Transferred RHP Yacksel Rios to the 45-day IL.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS — Activated RF Dexter Fowler and RHP Giovanny Gal-legos from the 10-day IL. Designated RHP Roel Ramirez for assignment. Optioned LF Justin Williams and RHP Nabil Cris-matt to alternate training site.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — Desig-nated INF Justin Smoak for assignment. Activated OF Alex Dickerson from the paternity list.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS — Activated OF Dexter Fowler and RHP Giovanny Gal-legos from the IL. Optioned OF Justin Williams and RHP Nabil Crismatt to the alternate training site. Designated RHP Roel Ramirez for assignment.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS — Recalled OF Yadiel Hernandez from alternate training site. Selected the contract of RHP Paolo Espino from alternate train-ing site. Placed RHPs Aaron Barrett and James Bourque on the 10-day IL. Trans-ferred LHP Seth Romero from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL.

FOOTBALLNational Football League

ARIZONA CARDINALS — Activated WR KeeSean Johnson from the reserve/CO-VID-19 list. Placed TE Maxx Williams on the IR.

DENVER BRONCOS — Placed DT Dre’Mont Jones and WR Courtland Sut-ton on the IR.

CHICAGO BEARS — Released DB Mar-qui Christian after he was reinstated from suspension by the NFL. Signed DB Marqui Christian to the practice squad.

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Re-signed G Alex Redmond to the practice squad.

CLEVELAND BROWNS — Signed TE Kyle Markway to the practice squad.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — Signed DB Josh Nurse to the practice squad. Re-leased RB Craig Reynolds.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Placed LB An-thony Barr on the IR. Waived DB Nathan Meadors. Signed DT Abdullah Anderson to the practice squad.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — Waived CB Mazzi Wilkins.

TENNESSEE TITANS — Signed WR Chester Rogers, DB Breon Borders and DB Greg Mabin to the practice squad. Re-leased DL Kobe Smith, DB Picasso Nelson and DB Maurice Smith from the practice squad.

College football

ScheduleThursday’s game

SOUTHUAB (1-1) at South Alabama (1-1)

Friday’s gameSOUTHWEST

Middle Tennessee (0-2) at UTSA (2-0)Saturday’s games

EASTLouisville (1-1) at Pittsburgh (2-0)Georgia Tech (1-1) at Syracuse (0-2)Temple at Navy (1-1), ppd.Texas St. (1-2) at Boston College (1-0)

SOUTHFlorida at MississippiCampbell (0-2) at Appalachian St. (1-1)Kentucky at AuburnUCF (1-0) at East CarolinaGeorgia St. (0-1) at Charlotte (0-1)Notre Dame (2-0) at Wake Forest (0-2)Georgia Southern (1-0) at Louisiana-

Lafayette (2-0)E. Kentucky (0-2) at The Citadel (0-2)FIU at Liberty (1-0)Tulane (1-1) at Southern Miss. (0-2)Mississippi St. at LSUUTEP (2-1) at Louisiana-Monroe (0-2)Duke (0-2) at VirginiaSouth Florida (1-1) at FAUHouston Baptist (0-2) at Louisiana

Tech (1-0)Florida St. (0-1) at Miami (2-0)Tennessee at South CarolinaNC State (1-0) at Virginia Tech

MIDWESTArmy (2-0) at Cincinnati (1-0)Alabama at Missouri

SOUTHWESTKansas St. (0-1) at Oklahoma (1-0)Iowa St. (0-1) at TCUTulsa (0-1) at Arkansas St. (1-1)Texas (1-0) at Texas Tech (1-0)West Virginia (1-0) at Oklahoma St. (1-0)Georgia at ArkansasStephen F. Austin (0-2) at SMU (2-0)North Texas (1-1) at HoustonVanderbilt at Texas A&MKansas (0-1) at BaylorMissouri St. (0-1) at Cent. Arkansas (1-1)

FAR WESTTroy (1-0) at BYU (1-0)

Pro basketball

WNBA playoffsSeeding in parentheses

All games played at Bradenton, Fla. Semifinals

(Best-of-five; x-if necessary)(7) Connecticut 1, (1) Las Vegas 0

Connecticut 87, Las Vegas 62Tuesday: Game 2Thursday: Game 3x-Sunday: Game 4x-Tuesday, Sept. 29: Game 5

(2) Seattle vs. (4) MinnesotaSunday: Game 1, ppd.Tuesday: Game 1Thursday: Game 2Sunday: Game 3x-Tuesday, Sept. 29: Game 4

Finals(Best-of-five; x-if necessary)

TBD vs. TBDFriday, Oct. 2: Game 1Sunday, Oct. 4: Game 2Tuesday, Oct. 6: Game 3x-Thursday, Oct 8: Game 4x-Sunday, Oct. 11: Game 5

Tennis

Italian OpenMonday

At Foro ItalicoRome

Purse: $3,465,045Surface: Red clay

Men’s SinglesChampionship

Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, def. Diego Schwartzman (8), Argentina, 7-5, 6-3.

Women’s SinglesChampionship

Simona Halep (1), Romania, def. Karo-lina Pliskova (2), Czech Republic, 6-0, 2-1, ret.

Hamburg European OpenMonday

At Am RothenbaumHamburg, Germany

Purse: $1,062,520Surface: Red clay

Men’s SinglesRound of 32

Pablo Cuevas, Uruguay, def. Taylor Fritz, United States, 6-4, 6-2.

Jiri Vesely, Czech Republic, def. Gilles Simon, France, 7-5, 6-2.

Tommy Paul, United States, def. Kevin Anderson, South Africa, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4.

Andrey Rublev (5), Russia, def. Tennys Sandgren, United States, 6-3, 6-3.

Men’s DoublesRound of 16

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, Pakistan, and Radu Albot, Moldova, def. Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski, Britain, 0-6, 7-5, 10-8.

Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies, Germany, vs. Oliver Marach, Austria, and Raven Klaasen, South Africa, 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Golf

World rankingsThrough Sept. 20

1. Dustin Johnson USA 10.24 2. Jon Rahm ESP 9.83 3. Justin Thomas USA 8.84 4. Rory McIlroy NIR 7.89 5. Bryson DeChambeau USA 7.70 6. Collin Morikawa USA 7.63 7. Webb Simpson USA 7.16 8. Xander Schauffele USA 6.66 9. Brooks Koepka USA 5.9510. Patrick Reed USA 5.8811. Adam Scott AUS 5.2112. Patrick Cantlay USA 5.1113. Daniel Berger USA 5.0114. Tony Finau USA 4.7715. Tyrrell Hatton ENG 4.7216. Louis Oosthuizen SAF 4.5117. Tommy Fleetwood ENG 4.5018. Matthew Wolff USA 4.3919. Hideki Matsuyama JPN 4.2220. Matthew Fitzpatrick ENG 4.18

AP sportlightSept. 23

1952 — Rocky Marciano knocks out Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round to retain the world heavyweight title.

1979 — The Houston Oilers overcome a 24-0 deficit to beat the Cincinnati Ben-gals 30-27 in overtime.

1983 — Gerry Coetzee knocks out Michael Dokes in the 10th round to win the WBA heavyweight title in Richfield, Ohio.

2007 — Green Bay’s Brett Favre wins his NFL-record 150th game as a start-er, beating San Diego 31-24. His 240th straight start ties him for second on the all-time list.

Associated Press

The San Francisco 49ers con-tacted the NFL on Monday about the conditions of the playing sur-face at MetLife Stadium after several players went down with injuries in a victory over the New York Jets.

The new artificial surface was used in a game for the second time on Sunday. The 49ers play-ers complained before the game that the turf was “sticky.” Those complaints only grew louder after defensive linemen Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas, and running backs Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman all had knee injuries, and quarterback Jimmy Garop-polo sprained his ankle.

The Jets lost receiver Breshad Perriman to a sprained left ankle in the game.

San Francisco general man-ager John Lynch contacted NFL executive vice president of foot-ball operations Troy Vincent on Monday about the condition of the field. The Niners will play again at MetLife Stadium on Sun-day when they visit the New York Giants.

“They’re definitely looking into it,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “So hopefully at some time we get some answers back that can make our players feel a little bit more at ease playing there next week.”

The NFL says the field was in-spected two days before the Gi-ants-Steelers game on Sept. 14 and certified to be in compliance with all league policies. Also, home teams must certify that their fields are in compliance with NFL rules 72 hours before each game and the Jets did that before this game.

No one complained about the field after the first game there.

Giants coach Joe Judge says his team held several walk-throughs and two scrimmages on the field before the opener, with no one complaining about the surface.

Receiver Golden Tate, who missed the Giants’ first home game with a hamstring injury, said he believes the lack of an off-season program might have had a bigger impact than the turf.

“I can’t help but think that has something to do with it,” he said. “But as far as MetLife field, I think it is fine .”

Jets coach Adam Gase said Sunday was the second time his team played on the turf and they haven’t had any knee injuries.

Moving on after default, Djokovic wins in Rome

ROME — Fifteen days after he was defaulted from the U.S. Open, Novak Djokovic had plenty to celebrate on Monday.

Djokovic beat Diego Schwartz-man 7-5, 6-3 to win his fifth Italian Open title; he passed childhood idol Pete Sampras for the sec-ond-most weeks at No. 1 with 287 — trailing only Roger Federer’s

310 weeks in the top spot — andhe re asserted his dominance be-fore the French Open starts in sixdays.

Djokovic improved to 31-1 this year — with his only loss againstPablo Carreno Busta in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. That, ofcourse, was when Djokovic unin-tentionally hit a line judge in thethroat with a ball in a fit of anger— resulting in him being thrownout.

Aranda optimisticBaylor will play opener

WACO, Texas — Baylor coachDave Aranda expressed optimism Monday that his team will be able to play its Big 12 opener against Kansas on Saturday after havingto call off a game last weekend be-cause of positive COVID-19 teststhat affected a position group.

Declining to discuss specifics,Aranda said the Bears expected about five players back throughthe week at “the position that wasaffected,” as well as five or six players back at other positions.

“We’re feeling pretty strongabout our team being fortified and being strengthened,” Aran-da said. “The wild card in all it is going to be these tests that wetake (this week). I feel confidentabout (playing). But after you’ve been hit with one of these, you’revery aware.”

Aranda, the former LSU defen-sive coordinator still waiting onhis Baylor debut, said some of theexpected returning players were coming back from injury, concus-sion protocol and “various otherthings” and that they weren’t all related to COVID.

Baylor released weekly testing results later Monday that include student-athletes and staff frommultiple sports, not only football.There were four active cases, two of them asymptomatic, and the18 cases overall being monitored, included primary contacts. The school reported three new casessince last week.

In other college football news:� The Southeastern Confer-

ence says it is providing its 14schools wearable technology forfootball players intended to aidwith COVID-19 contact tracing.

The SafeTags made by Kinex-on can be worn like a wristbandat team facilities or attached to equipment when used in gamesor practice. The conference saysthe devices already are beingused by the NFL.

The SafeTags allow medicaland athletic training staff to track how close those wearing the de-vices have been to each other andfor how long. Current CDC guide-lines, which are being used by the NCAA and Power Five con-ference schools, say a person who was within 6 feet for at least 15minutes of a person who has test-ed positive for the coronavirus isconsidered to be at risk and must quarantine for 14 days.

49ers say Met Life turf led to injuries

Briefl y

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 19Wednesday, September 23, 2020

BY JENNA FRYER

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Denny Hamlin has joined Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan to form a NASCAR team with Bubba Wallace as the driver, a high-pro-file pairing of a Black majority team owner and the only Black driver at NASCAR’s top level.

The partnership was an-nounced Monday night in coor-dinated social media posts by Jordan and Hamlin, with Wallace adding his own comment. The posts showed a picture of Jordan alongside a firesuit-clad Hamlin in a motorhome at a race track.

“Historically, NASCAR has struggled with diversity and there have been few Black own-ers,” Jordan said . “The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more.”

Jordan becomes the first Black principal owner of a full-time Cup team since Hall of Famer Wen-dell Scott drove his own race car in 495 races from 1961 to 1973. Scott’s 1964 victory at the Jack-sonville 200 is the only win by a Black driver in Cup history.

The NBA great, who earlier this year pledged $100 million over 10 years for initiatives com-bating systemic racism, said the move into NASCAR is another step toward racial equality.

“I see this as a chance to edu-cate a new audience and open more opportunities for Black peo-ple in racing,” Jordan said.

Jordan joins former NBA play-er Brad Daugherty, a partner at JTG Daugherty Racing, as the only Black owners at NASCAR’s elite Cup level.

“Michael and Bubba can be a powerful voice together, not only in our sport, but also well beyond

it,” Hamlin said.Hamlin, a three-time Daytona

500 winner and a top contender for this year’s Cup title, will bepart of a single-car Toyota entryaligned with Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin has raced his entire ca-reer for Gibbs .

“Eleven years ago I met Mi-chael Jordan at a then-CharlotteBobcats game and we becamefast friends,” Hamlin wrote. “Not long after, I joined Jordan Brand

as their firstNASCAR athlete. Our friendship has grown over theyears and now we areready to takeit to the nextlevel.

“Deciding on the driverwas easy —it had to be

Bubba Wallace.”Wallace is the only Black driv-

er in the Cup Series and this sea-son used his platform to push for racial equality. The 27-year-oldsuccessfully urged NASCAR toban the display of the Confeder-ate flag at its events.

Wallace is winless in 105 Cupstarts over four seasons, but hehas six career victories in theTruck Series. He’s been ham-pered by mid-level equipmentdriving the No. 43 for Hall of Famer Richard Petty .

“Bubba has shown tremen-dous improvement since joining the Cup Series and we believehe’s ready to take his career to ahigher level,” Hamlin said. “Hedeserves the opportunity to com-pete for race wins and our teamwill make sure he has the re-sources to do just that.”

BY TIM REYNOLDS

Associated Press

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Getting angry worked wonders for the Boston Celtics.

Their first win in these Eastern Conference finals just happened to come two nights after Marcus Smart sparked a loud and emo-tional series of shouting matches inside the Celtics’ locker room, all of that starting only a few seconds after the Miami Heat won to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

That lead is down to 2-1 now, Boston playing brilliantly in Game 3 and leading wire-to-wire to take a bunch of newfound mo-mentum into Game 4 of the series on Wednesday night.

“I’ve always been saying that before you see the rainbow, it has to storm,” Smart said Monday, speaking about the post-Game 2 dustup for the first time publicly. “For us, that was a storm that we had to go through. We found our happy place.”

It’s now Miami’s turn to find a happy place — though an un-happy place would seem more appropriate. The Heat never led in Game 3, got themselves into a double-digit hole for the third consecutive game in this series and fourth straight overall, and because of a scheduling quirk, now get to sit around and stew for three full off days before getting a chance to atone for what went wrong Saturday.

“Look, there’s two teams com-peting against each other,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So as much as you want to say, ‘Hey, it’s just about us and we just have to do X, Y and Z,’ the Boston Celtics have something to say about that.

Likewise, when they’re doing whatever they’re trying to do, we have something to say about that.”

The Celtics’ anger was no se-cret and was displayed at least somewhat publicly; reporters near their locker room heard the commotion after Game 2, with Smart being the one who lit the fuse.

“He’s the guy that keeps us going and keeps us inspired, keeps us being competitive,” Bos-ton’s Grant Williams said. “... You just have to follow his lead and trust that we have a lot of guys on this team that can do a lot of great things. He’s just going to compete his butt off and we follow that standard.”

The Heat didn’t have a vis-ible — or audible — blowup after Game 3, took Sunday off to rest physically and mentally, then got back to work Monday with a

film session, on-court work and then more meetings set for the evening.

“Our spirit is right, our head is right, our energy is there, so I think we’re responding the right way,” Miami wing Jae Crowder said. “We’re just trying to get better and trying to see how we can play a complete game, play a complete 48-minute game and be as sharp as we can be on both ends of the court. With that being said, I think we took the loss, we took the adversity in a good way. And we’re still taking it in.”

Some of the numbers posted so far in the East finals are more than a little overwhelming.

They’re also simultaneously puzzling, at least from the Celtics’ perspective.

There have been 17 instances of someone scoring to give his team a double-digit lead at some point in the first three games of the series; all 17 of those have been done by Boston. The Celt-ics have yet to trail by more than eight, have led by as much as 20 and have been in front for 75% of the first 149 minutes played in this matchup.

But it’s the Heat still leading the series, which is why Boston is seeking to show up for Game 4 with the same aggression that carried them in Game 3.

“I think each game is its own entity, so it is what it is. We’re all on the same schedule,” Celt-ics coach Brad Stevens said. “We know we’re going to have to play the best game that we’ve played in Game 4 of this series to have a chance to win. That’s just the way series work. That’s the way the playoffs work. You have to get better every game.”

Air Bubba: Jordan,Hamlin partner onteam for Wallace

Celtics looking to use anger to even the series with Heat

NBA PLAYOFFS/AUTO RACING

MARK J. TERRILL/AP

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, center left, draws up a play during a time out. The Heat hold a 2-1 series lead going into Wednesday’s conference finals game with the Boston Celtics.

CHUCK BURTON/AP

Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan practices waving the green flag before a NASCAR All-Star race in 2010 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Denny Hamlin is starting his own race car team in partnership Jordan and Bubba Wallace as the driver.

Wallace

Scoreboard

PlayoffsCONFERENCE FINALS

(Best-of-seven; x-if necessary)Eastern ConferenceMiami 2, Boston 1

Miami 117, Boston 114, OTMiami 106 Boston 101Boston 117, Miami 106Wednesday: Game 4 (AFN-Sports, 2:30

a.m. Thursday CET; 9:30 a.m. Thursday JKT)

Friday: Game 5x-Sunday, Sept. 27: Game 6x-Tuesday, Sept. 29: Games 7

Western ConferenceL.A. Lakers 2, Denver 0

L.A. Lakers 126, Denver 114Sunday: L.A. Lakers 105, Denver 103Tuesday: Game 3Thursday: Game 4 (AFN-Sports, 3 a.m.

Friday CET; 10 a.m. Friday JKT)x-Saturday, Sept. 26: Game 5x-Monday, Sept. 28: Game 6x-Wednesday, Sept. 30: Game 7

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 20 F3HIJKLM

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Marco Gonzales threw eight shutout innings, Evan White broke the game open with a three-run homer in the seventh and the Seattle Mariners beat the Houston Astros 6-1 on Monday night.

Seattle’s victory clinched the AL West title for Oakland, end-ing Houston’s three-year run atop the division. The win also improved the Mariners’ slim hopes of catching the Astros for second place in the division and a guaranteed playoff spot. Seattle is three games behind Houston with six remaining.

It was just the third win for the Mariners in their past 27 meet-ings with the Astros over the last two seasons.

Houston starter Lance McCull-ers Jr. (3-3) didn’t allow a hit until Tim Lopes’ one-out double in the sixth — but things quickly unrav-eled. Ty France had an RBI dou-ble and McCullers’ night ended when White turned on a hanging 2-2 curveball and lined it over the left-field wall for his seventh home run and a 4-0 lead.

Seattle added two more off reliever Brandon Bielak in the eighth on Kyle Seager’s deep fly into the left-field corner that Michael Brantley couldn’t track down.

Gonzales (7-2) pitched out of trouble. He stranded runners at second in the second, fourth and sixth innings. He allowed seven hits and struck out six. He’s won five straight decisions.

Indians 7, White Sox 4: Carlos Santana’s two-run homer snapped a tie and Jose Ramirez homered again as host Cleveland moved closer to clinching a playoff berth — and delayed Chicago’s likely AL Central title.

The Indians cut their magic number to one.

After the White Sox scored four times in the fifth inning against Aaron Civale (4-5), Santana came to the plate in the bottom half. With Ramirez on first after a one-out walk, Santana pulled a 2-1 sinker from Jace Fry (0-1) over the left-field wall and into the empty bleachers to make it 6-4.

Nick Wittgren struck out the side in the seventh and James Ka-rinchak worked the eighth before

Brad Hand pitched the ninth for his 14th save in 14 tries.

Angels 8, Rangers 5: Jared Walsh hit his first career grand slam during host Los Angeles’ seven-run fourth inning in a win over Texas.

Max Stassi had a two-run single in the final home game of the fifth consecutive losing season for the Angels (24-31), who have won 12 of 18 overall after taking three of four from the Rangers.

Walsh extended his hitting streak to 13 games when he mashed a sinker from Kyle Gib-son (2-6) 450 feet over the ficus trees behind the center-field fence at the Big A.

Reds 6, Brewers 3: Eugenio Suarez hit a two-run homer, Luis Castillo won his fourth straight start, and host Cincinnati moved above .500 for the first time since opening day.

The Reds (28-27) won for the eighth time in nine games. Mil-waukee (26-27) had its season-high four-game winning streak snapped.

Suarez connected in the sixth

inning off Brandon Woodruff (2-5), who had repeatedly es-caped threats. T he Reds pulled away in the eighth against Drew Rasmussen .

Cubs 5, Pirates 0: Jon Lester scattered four hits over six in-nings and Chicago inched closer to its first NL Central title since 2017 with a win at Pittsburgh.

Lester (3-2) struck out one and walked one in his first victory since Aug. 11. He retired the first nine batters he faced and kept the lowest-scoring team in the majors in check. Only two of the Pirates’ four hits left the infield.

Kyle Schwarber doubled twice and drove in a pair of insurance runs in the eighth. Javy Baez drove in a run with a surprise bunt and Victor Caratini added an RBI double.

Rays 2, Mets 1: Nate Lowe homered and scored both runs against NL Cy Young Award contender Jacob deGrom, and visiting Tampa Bay overcame 16 strikeouts to move closer to an AL East title.

The Rays trimmed their magic

number to one for their first divi-sion title since 2010.

DeGrom (4-2) pitched seven in-nings of two-run ball, striking out 14 to match his career high for the second time this season. He allowed four hits and walked two.

Peter Fairbanks began with 1 2⁄3 scoreless innings, Josh Flem-ing (4-0) allowed a run in three innings as the bulk man and Nick Anderson closed for his sixth save.

Nationals 5, Phillies 1: Bryce Harper was hitless in his return from back stiffness and Phila-delpia manager Joe Girardi was ejected in the third inning of a loss at Washington.

Harper went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts as the designated hit-ter, dropping his average to .254.

The third-place Phillies fell to 27-27 and with six games left. Gi-rardi and center fielder Roman Quinn were ejected in the third inning for arguing a call by plate umpire Junior Valentine.

Braves 5, Marlins 4: Austin Riley’s two-run double capped a wild first inning and the deep At-

lanta bullpen took it from there,allowing just one run over the final six innings to push the hosta step closer to a third straight NLEast title.

Tyler Matzek (4-3) pitched two hitless innings for the win, and Darren O’Day and Chris Martineach worked a scoreless frame.Will Smith escaped a bases-load-ed jam in the eighth, and Mark Melancon claimed his 11th save.

Atlanta could clinch the divi-sion title as soon as Tuesday.

Blue Jays 11, Yankees 5:Rookie Alejandro Kirk becamethe first catcher 21 or youngersince Johnny Bench with at least four hits that included two forextra bases, and Toronto beat vis-iting New York.

Kirk, who played at Class A last season and made his debut Sept.12, singled in the third off Mi-chael King, doubled in the fourth against Jonathan Loaisiga, sin-gled in the fifth off Nick Nelson and hit an opposite-field homer toright in seventh off Chad Greenfor his first four-hit game.

Bench accomplished the feat as part of a five-hit game at Phila-delphia on Aug. 3, 1969, accord-ing to STATS.

Royals 4, Cardinals 1: Maikel Franco hit the go-ahead single with two outs in the sixth inning and the Kansas City bullpen shutdown visiting St. Louis from thefourth inning on.

Alex Gordon and Jorge Soler also drove in runs for the Roy-als, who returned for their final homestand after getting swept inMilwaukee.

Carlos Hernandez allowed onerun over 3 2⁄3 innings before giv-ing way to Jake Newberry, Scott Barlow, Josh Staumont (2-1) andJesse Hahn, who combined to allow one hit — a two-out singleby Paul Goldschmidt — without awalk over the next 4 1⁄3 innings .

Rockies 7, Giants 2: KevinPillar homered against his for-mer team and German Marquez pitched six strong innings to snapa five-game losing streak as Colo-rado won at San Francisco.

In the opener of an eight-game road trip to end the season, theRockies knocked around JohnnyCueto for seven earned runs in 4 1⁄3 innings.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Mariners win to help A’s claim AL WestMLB ROUNDUP

ELAINE THOMPSON/AP

Seattle Mariners right fielder Tim Lopes dives to catch a fly ball from the Houston Astros’ Alex Bregman during the Mariners’ 6-1 win Monday in Seattle.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 21Wednesday, September 23, 2020

MLB

American LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBz-Tampa Bay 36 19 .655 —z-New York 31 23 .574 4AToronto 28 26 .519 7ABaltimore 23 31 .426 12ABoston 20 34 .370 15A

Central Divisionz-Chicago 34 20 .630 —z-Minnesota 33 22 .600 1ACleveland 30 24 .556 4Detroit 22 30 .423 11Kansas City 22 32 .407 12

West Divisionx-Oakland 33 20 .623 —Houston 27 27 .500 6ASeattle 24 30 .444 9ALos Angeles 24 31 .436 10Texas 19 35 .352 14A

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBAtlanta 32 22 .593 —Miami 28 26 .519 4Philadelphia 27 27 .500 5New York 24 30 .444 8Washington 21 32 .396 10A

Central DivisionChicago 32 22 .593 —St. Louis 26 25 .510 4ACincinnati 28 27 .509 4AMilwaukee 26 27 .491 5APittsburgh 15 39 .278 17

West Divisionz-Los Angeles 38 16 .704 —z-San Diego 34 20 .630 4San Francisco 26 27 .491 11AColorado 24 29 .453 13AArizona 20 34 .370 18

x-clinched divisionz-clinched playoff berth

Sunday’s gamesBaltimore 2, Tampa Bay 1Cleveland 7, Detroit 4Boston 10, N.Y. Yankees 2Cincinnati 7, Chicago White Sox 3Milwaukee 5, Kansas City 3Houston 3, Arizona 2Toronto 6, Philadelphia 3Texas 7, L.A. Angels 2San Francisco 14, Oakland 2San Diego 7, Seattle 4, 11 inningsMinnesota 4, Chicago Cubs 0Miami 2, Washington 1, 1st gameWashington 15, Miami 0, 2nd gameAtlanta 7, N.Y. Mets 0Colorado 6, L.A. Dodgers 3St. Louis 2, Pittsburgh 1

Monday’s gamesL.A. Angels 8, Texas 5Cleveland 7, Chicago White Sox 4Tampa Bay 2, N.Y. Mets 1Toronto 11, N.Y. Yankees 5Kansas City 4, St. Louis 1Seattle 6, Houston 1Cincinnati 6, Milwaukee 3Washington 5, Philadelphia 1Chicago Cubs 5, Pittsburgh 0Atlanta 5, Miami 4Colorado 7, San Francisco 2

Tuesday’s gamesChicago White Sox at ClevelandN.Y. Yankees at TorontoTampa Bay at N.Y. MetsBaltimore at BostonDetroit at MinnesotaSt. Louis at Kansas CityHouston at SeattleL.A. Angels at San DiegoTexas at ArizonaOakland at L.A. DodgersPhiladelphia at Washington, 2Milwaukee at CincinnatiChicago Cubs at PittsburghMiami at AtlantaColorado at San Francisco

Wednesday’s gamesL.A. Angels (Barria 1-0) at San Diego

(Paddack 4-4)Chicago White Sox (Giolito 4-3) at

Cleveland (Plesac 4-2)Texas (Benjamin 1-1) at Arizona

(Young 2-4)N.Y. Yankees (Tanaka 3-2) at Toronto

(Ray 2-5)Houston (Greinke 3-2) at Seattle (Mar-

gevicius 1-3)Tampa Bay (Glasnow 4-1) at N.Y. Mets

(Matz 0-5)Baltimore (Kremer 1-0) at Boston (Eo-

valdi 3-2)Detroit (Mize 0-2) at Minnesota (Mae-

da 5-1)St. Louis (Martinez 0-2) at Kansas City

(Duffy 3-4)Oakland (Manaea 4-3) at L.A. Dodgers

(Urias 3-0)Philadelphia (Eflin 3-2) at Washington

(Fedde 2-3)Milwaukee (Houser 1-5) at Cincinnati

(Bauer 4-4)Chicago Cubs (Hendricks 6-4) at Pitts-

burgh (Williams 1-8)Miami (Sanchez 3-2) at Atlanta (Fried

7-0)Colorado (Castellani 1-3) at San Fran-

cisco (Webb 2-4)Thursday’s games

Chicago White Sox at ClevelandN.Y. Yankees at TorontoBaltimore at BostonDetroit at Kansas CityHouston at TexasOakland at L.A. DodgersChicago Cubs at PittsburghColorado at San FranciscoN.Y. Mets at WashingtonMiami at AtlantaMilwaukee at St. Louis

MondayMariners 6, Astros 1

Houston Seattle ab r h bi ab r h biStraw cf 4 0 0 0 Crawford ss 4 1 1 0Altuve 2b 3 0 2 0 Moore 2b 3 1 0 0Bregman 3b 4 0 0 0 Lewis cf 1 1 0 0Brantley lf 4 0 3 0 Seager 3b 4 1 1 2Gurriel 1b 4 0 0 0 France dh 4 1 2 1Tucker dh 4 0 2 0 Marmlejs lf 4 0 0 0Correa ss 4 1 1 0 Torrens c 4 0 0 0Reddick rf 4 0 1 1 White 1b 3 1 1 3Maldonado c 4 0 0 0 Lopes rf 3 0 1 0 Ervin rf 0 0 0 0Totals 35 1 9 1 Totals 30 6 6 6Houston 000 000 001—1Seattle 000 000 42x—6

E—Altuve (4). DP—Houston 1, Seattle 1. LOB—Houston 8, Seattle 4. 2B—Tucker (11), Altuve (8), Correa (9), Lopes (12), France (3). HR—White (7). IP H R ER BB SOHoustonMcCullers Jr. L,3-3 6C 3 4 0 2 7Paredes B 0 0 0 0 0Bielak 1 3 2 2 1 1SeattleGonzales W,7-2 8 7 0 0 1 6Gerber 1 2 1 1 0 1

HBP—Bielak (Moore). T—2:34.

Royals 4, Cardinals 1St. Louis Kansas City ab r h bi ab r h biWong 2b 3 0 0 0 Merrifield rf 4 1 2 0Edman 3b 3 0 1 0 Mondesi ss 4 1 1 0Gldshmdt 1b 4 0 1 0 Perez c 4 1 1 0DeJong ss 4 0 0 0 Soler dh 3 0 1 1Molina c 4 0 2 0 Heath pr-dh 0 0 0 0Carpenter dh 4 1 1 1 Franco 3b 3 1 2 2O’Neill lf 2 0 0 0 Dozier 1b 3 0 1 0B.Miller ph 1 0 0 0 Gordon lf 4 0 0 1Fowler rf 4 0 1 0 Starling cf 3 0 0 0Carlson cf 3 0 0 0 Lopez 2b 3 0 0 0Totals 32 1 6 1 Totals 31 4 8 4St. Louis 010 000 000—1Kansas City 000 012 01x—4

DP—St. Louis 1, Kansas City 1. LOB—St. Louis 7, Kansas City 6. 2B—Dozier (4), Soler (7). HR—Carpenter (4). SB—Mondesi (20). IP H R ER BB SOSt. LouisWainwright L,5-2 5C 6 3 3 2 7Webb 1B 0 0 0 0 2Gallegos C 2 1 1 1 2Elledge B 0 0 0 0 0Kansas CityHernandez 3C 4 1 1 3 4Newberry B 0 0 0 0 0Barlow 1 1 0 0 0 1Staumont W,2-1 2 0 0 0 0 2Hahn H,5 1 0 0 0 0 1Holland S,6-6 1 1 0 0 0 1

WP—Gallegos, Newberry. T—2:55.

Nationals 5, Phillies 1Philadelphia Washington ab r h bi ab r h biHaseley lf-cf 4 0 1 0 Stvenson rf 5 1 1 0B.Harper dh 4 0 0 0 Turner ss 4 1 1 0Bohm 1b 2 0 1 0 Soto lf 2 1 0 0Gregorius ss 4 0 1 0 Cabrera 1b 3 2 2 1Segura 3b 3 0 0 0 Holt dh 4 0 2 1Bruce rf 4 0 1 0 Suzuki c 3 0 0 0Knapp c 2 0 0 0 Garcia 2b 4 0 0 1Kingery 2b 3 0 1 0 Kieboom 3b 2 0 0 0Quinn cf 1 0 0 0 Hrrisn pr-3b 1 0 0 0Moniak lf 2 1 1 0 Robles cf 3 0 1 0Totals 29 1 6 0 Totals 31 5 7 3Philadelphia 000 010 000—1Washington 200 001 20x—5

E—Knapp (1), Wheeler (1), Moniak (1). DP—Philadelphia 0, Washington 2. LOB—Philadelphia 8, Washington 8. 2B—Kingery (4), Stevenson (2). SB—Turner (10). IP H R ER BB SOPhiladelphiaWheeler L,4-1 5C 5 3 2 3 7Parker C 2 2 1 2 1Rosso 1C 0 0 0 0 2WashingtonSanchez W,3-5 5 4 1 1 4 6Suero H,5 1 0 0 0 0 2Finnegan H,4 1 1 0 0 1 1Harris 1 0 0 0 0 2Hudson 1 1 0 0 1 2

HBP—Suero (Bohm), Wheeler (Kie-boom). T—3:48.

Indians 7, White Sox 4Chicago Cleveland ab r h bi ab r h biAnderson ss 5 1 1 0 Lindor ss 5 1 2 0Moncada 3b 4 0 0 0 Hrnandz 2b 3 2 2 1Grandal c 4 1 1 0 Ramirez 3b 3 2 2 3McCann c 1 0 0 0 Santana 1b 3 1 1 2Abreu 1b 4 1 1 2 Reyes dh 3 0 0 1Jimenez lf 4 1 3 2 Naquin rf 4 0 0 0Enaracion dh 4 0 0 0 R.Perez c 4 0 0 0Robert cf 2 0 0 0 Naylor lf 4 1 3 0Mazara rf 4 0 1 0 Mrcdo pr-lf 0 0 0 0Madrigal 2b 4 0 2 0 DeShlds cf 3 0 0 0Totals 36 4 9 4 Totals 32 7 10 7Chicago 000 040 000—4Cleveland 310 020 10x—7

E—Ramirez 2 (5). DP—Chicago 0, Cleveland 1. LOB—Chicago 9, Cleveland 6. 2B—Grandal (7), Naylor 2 (3), Ramirez (11). HR—Jimenez (14), Ramirez (16), Santana (6). SF—Reyes (3). IP H R ER BB SOChicagoDunning 4 6 4 4 1 5Fry L,0-1 1 1 2 2 1 3Cordero 2 2 1 1 2 0Foster 1 1 0 0 0 1ClevelandCivale W,4-5 6 8 4 4 3 6Wittgren H,10 1 0 0 0 0 3Karinchak H,8 1 0 0 0 1 2Hand S,14-14 1 1 0 0 0 2

T—3:14.

Rays 2, Mets 1Tampa Bay New York ab r h bi ab r h biTsutsugo dh 4 0 1 0 Nimmo rf 2 0 0 0Arzrea pr-dh 0 0 0 0 McNeil lf 4 0 2 1B.Lowe 2b 4 0 1 0 Davis 3b 3 0 0 0Adames ss 3 0 0 0 D.Smith 1b 4 0 0 0N.Lowe 1b 3 2 1 1 Cano 2b 4 0 0 0Wendle 3b 4 0 2 0 Alonso dh 4 0 0 0Margot lf 3 0 0 1 Rosario ss 3 0 0 0Kiermaier cf 3 0 0 0 Gimenez ph 1 0 0 0Phillips rf 3 0 0 0 Heredia cf 2 1 0 0Zunino c 3 0 0 0 Ramos c 3 0 2 0Totals 30 2 5 2 Totals 30 1 4 1Tampa Bay 010 100 000—2New York 000 010 000—1

LOB—Tampa Bay 6, New York 6. 2B—Wendle (8), B.Lowe (8). HR—N.Lowe (3). SB—Wendle (6), Phillips (2), Arozarena (2), Kiermaier (7). SF—Margot (1). IP H R ER BB SOTampa BayFairbanks 1C 0 0 0 1 2Thompson 1 1 0 0 0 1Fleming W,3-0 3 3 1 1 1 2Castillo H,3 1B 0 0 0 0 1Sherriff H,0 1 0 0 0 1 1Anderson S,5-5 1 0 0 0 0 1New YorkdeGrom L,4-2 7 4 2 2 2 14Castro 1 1 0 0 1 2Diaz 1 0 0 0 1 0

Thompson pitched to 3 batters in the 3rd, Fleming pitched to 2 batters in the 6th. HBP—Fleming (Nimmo). T—3:00.

Cubs 5, Pirates 0Chicago Pittsburgh ab r h bi ab r h biHapp cf-lf 5 0 1 0 Reynolds cf 4 0 1 0Rizzo 1b 4 1 1 0 Hayes 3b 4 0 2 0Contreras c 3 1 0 0 Gonzalez ss 4 0 0 0Schwarber lf 4 1 2 2 Moran 1b 3 0 0 0Hamltn pr-cf 0 1 0 0 Oliva ph 1 0 0 0Bryant 3b 1 0 0 0 Bell dh 3 0 0 0Bote 3b 3 0 1 1 Polanco rf 1 0 0 0Heyward rf 3 0 1 0 Stallings c 3 0 0 0Baez ss 4 0 1 1 Frazier 2b 3 0 0 0Kipnis 2b 2 1 0 0 Osuna lf 3 0 1 0Hoerner 2b 1 0 0 0 Caratini dh 2 0 1 1 Mrtinz ph-dh 2 0 0 0 Totals 34 5 8 5 Totals 29 0 4 0Chicago 010 010 030—5Pittsburgh 000 000 000—0

DP—Chicago 2, Pittsburgh 1. LOB—Chicago 5, Pittsburgh 4. 2B—Schwarber 2 (6), Caratini (7). IP H R ER BB SOChicagoLester W,3-2 6 4 0 0 1 1Ryan H,4 1 0 0 0 1 0Jeffress 1 0 0 0 0 1Winkler 1 0 0 0 0 3PittsburghBrubaker L,1-3 6C 4 2 2 1 9Davis 1 1 1 1 0 1Cederlind 0 3 2 2 1 0Tropeano 1B 0 0 0 0 1

Davis pitched to 3 batters in the 8th, Cederlind pitched to 4 batters in the 8th. HBP—Brubaker (Kipnis). WP—Cederlind. T—2:58.

Angels 8, Rangers 5Texas Los Angeles ab r h bi ab r h biTaveras cf 3 1 0 0 Fltchr 2b-3b 5 1 2 0Calhoun dh 4 0 0 0 Walsh 1b 4 1 1 4Knr-Falfa 3b 4 1 2 1 Trout cf 4 0 1 0Gallo rf 3 0 0 0 Rendon 3b 4 0 1 0Solak lf 4 2 3 1 Rengifo 2b 0 0 0 0Odor 2b 4 0 0 0 Ohtani dh 2 2 0 0Tejeda ss 4 0 1 1 Upton lf 1 1 0 0Dietrich 1b 4 1 1 2 Adell rf 0 0 0 0Mathis c 4 0 0 0 Ward rf-lf 3 1 0 0 Stassi c 4 1 2 2 Simmons ss 4 1 1 1Totals 34 5 7 5 Totals 31 8 8 7Texas 111 002 000—5Los Angeles 010 700 00x—8

E—Tejeda (3). DP—Texas 2, Los An-geles 0. LOB—Texas 4, Los Angeles 5. 2B—Tejeda (4), Solak (10). 3B—Trout (2). HR—Kiner-Falefa (3), Dietrich (5), Walsh (8). SB—Solak (6), Taveras (6). IP H R ER BB SOTexasGibson L,2-6 4 5 8 7 4 4Herget 1 0 0 0 0 1Evans 1 2 0 0 0 1Goody 1 1 0 0 1 2Chavez 1 0 0 0 0 1Los AngelesBundy W,6-3 5 5 3 3 2 3Milner C 2 2 2 0 0Andriese H,2 1B 0 0 0 0 0Mayers S,1-3 2 0 0 0 0 3

HBP—Gibson (Upton). T—3:00.

Rockies 7, Giants 2Colorado San Francisco ab r h bi ab r h biTapia lf 5 0 0 0 Dickerson lf 4 1 3 1Pillar cf 5 2 2 1 Belt 1b 4 0 1 0Blackmon dh 3 1 1 0 Solano 2b 4 0 2 1Story ss 4 1 0 0 Ruf dh 5 0 0 0Fuentes 1b 5 1 2 1 Crawford ss 3 0 0 0McMahon 3b 2 1 1 1 Longoria 3b 4 0 0 0E.Diaz c 4 0 1 2 Dubon cf 3 0 0 0Hilliard rf 4 1 1 0 Bart c 3 0 0 0Hampson 2b 4 0 1 1 Flores ph 1 0 0 0 Tromp c 0 0 0 0 Basabe rf 3 1 0 0Totals 36 7 9 6 Totals 34 2 6 2Colorado 201 130 000—7San Francisco 000 010 100—2

E—Story (8), Solano (11). DP—Colo-rado 0, San Francisco 1. LOB—Colorado 7, San Francisco 11. 2B—Hilliard (2), Dicker-son (7). HR—Pillar (2), Dickerson (9).

IP H R ER BB SOColoradoMarquez W,3-6 6 5 1 1 1 3Estevez C 1 1 1 1 1Almonte B 0 0 0 0 0Givens 1 0 0 0 2 0Kinley 1 0 0 0 0 1San FranciscoCueto L,2-2 4B 8 7 7 3 4Peralta 1C 1 0 0 1 1S.Anderson 1 0 0 0 0 2Coonrod 1 0 0 0 0 3Cahill 1 0 0 0 0 1

HBP—Cueto (Blackmon), Estevez (So-lano), Kinley (Dickerson). WP—Givens. T—3:33.

Blue Jays 11, Yankees 5New York Toronto ab r h bi ab r h biLeMahieu 2b 4 0 2 0 Biggio 3b 3 2 0 0Wade 2b 0 1 0 0 Bichette ss 5 2 2 2Judge rf 4 0 1 0 Hrnandez rf 5 1 2 2Tauchman rf 1 0 1 3 Gurriel dh 5 0 0 0Stanton dh 5 0 1 0 Grichuk cf 4 2 2 2Voit 1b 4 0 0 0 Guerrero 1b 3 0 3 3Kratz 1b 0 0 0 0 Villar 2b 4 0 0 0Torres ss 2 2 0 0 Kirk c 4 3 4 1Hicks cf 3 0 1 0 Davis lf 3 1 0 0Urshela 3b 4 1 2 2 Sanchez c 4 0 0 0 Gardner lf 3 1 0 0 Totals 34 5 8 5 Totals 36 11 13 10New York 010 000 103— 5Toronto 005 401 10x—11

E—Sanchez (3), LeMahieu (5), Biggio (5). DP—New York 1, Toronto 2. LOB—New York 7, Toronto 6. 2B—Hicks (9), Stanton (6), Tauchman (6), Guerrero Jr. 2 (12), Kirk (1). 3B—Guerrero Jr. (2). HR—Grichuk (10), Kirk (1). SB—LeMahieu (3). IP H R ER BB SONew YorkKing L,1-2 2C 5 5 5 1 6Loaisiga 1 5 4 3 2 0Nelson 2 2 1 1 1 2Green 1B 1 1 1 0 2Ottavino 1 0 0 0 0 2TorontoShoemaker 3 3 1 1 2 1Zeuch W,1-0 3B 1 1 1 1 0Murphy 1C 2 0 0 0 1Font C 2 3 3 2 0Yamaguchi B 0 0 0 0 1

Loaisiga pitched to 8 batters in the 4th, Nelson pitched to 4 batters in the 6th. T—3:56.

Braves 5, Marlins 4Miami Atlanta ab r h bi ab r h biDickerson lf 4 0 1 0 Acuna cf-rf 3 1 1 1Brnson ph-rf 0 0 0 0 Freeman 1b 3 0 0 0Marte cf 5 1 1 0 Ozuna lf 4 1 1 0Aguilar 1b 5 1 2 1 Inciarte cf 0 0 0 0Harrison pr 0 0 0 0 d’Arnaud dh 4 0 1 1Joyce rf-lf 4 1 0 0 Duvall rf-lf 4 1 1 0B.Andrsn 3b 5 0 1 1 Albies 2b 4 1 2 1Cooper dh 4 0 1 1 Riley 3b 4 0 1 2Rojas ss 2 1 1 0 Flowers c 2 0 0 0Berti 2b 1 0 0 0 Swanson ss 3 1 1 0Alfaro c 4 0 2 1 Totals 34 4 9 4 Totals 31 5 8 5Miami 300 000 010—4Atlanta 410 000 00x—5

DP—Miami 1, Atlanta 1. LOB—Miami 10, Atlanta 5. 2B—Dickerson (5), Riley (7), Swanson (14), Acuna Jr. (10). SB—Marte (5), Rojas 2 (5). IP H R ER BB SOMiamiRogers L,1-2 4 8 5 5 2 6Stanek 2 0 0 0 1 3Vincent 1 0 0 0 0 1Hoyt 1 0 0 0 0 1AtlantaYnoa 3 5 3 3 1 1Matzek W,4-3 2 0 0 0 2 3O’Day H,2 1 0 0 0 1 1Martin H,6 1 1 0 0 0 2Greene H,9 C 2 1 1 1 1W.Smith H,6 B 0 0 0 1 0Melancon S,11-12 1 1 0 0 0 0

HBP—O’Day (Berti). WP—Ynoa. T—3:30.

Reds 6, Brewers 3Milwaukee Cincinnati ab r h bi ab r h biGarcia cf 4 0 0 0 Akiyama lf 4 1 1 0Yelich lf 2 0 1 0 Cstellnos rf 4 1 1 0Braun dh 4 0 0 0 Votto 1b 3 0 0 0Vogelbach 1b 3 1 1 0 Farmr pr-ss 0 1 0 0Hiura 2b 4 0 0 0 Suarez 3b 3 1 2 2Gyorko 3b 3 1 1 1 Mstks 2b-1b 3 1 2 3Peterson rf 4 1 2 2 Winker dh 2 0 0 0Arcia ss 3 0 1 0 Aqno ph-dh 2 0 1 0Sogard ph 1 0 0 0 Goodwin cf 2 0 0 0Narvaez c 2 0 0 0 Senzel ph-cf 2 0 0 0Taylor ph 1 0 0 0 Galvis ss-2b 3 0 0 0Nottinghm c 0 0 0 0 Casali c 3 1 1 1Totals 31 3 6 3 Totals 31 6 8 6Milwaukee 000 010 002—3Cincinnati 000 002 04x—6

DP—Milwaukee 1, Cincinnati 2. LOB—Milwaukee 5, Cincinnati 4. 2B—Peterson (1), Moustakas (6), Castellanos (11). HR—Gyorko (9), Peterson (2), Suarez (14), Casali (6), Moustakas (6). IP H R ER BB SOMilwaukeeWoodruff L,2-5 5C 4 2 2 2 9Claudio 1B 0 0 0 0 1Rasmussen C 3 4 4 1 2Topa B 1 0 0 0 0CincinnatiCastillo W,4-5 6C 4 1 1 3 9Garrett H,5 C 0 0 0 1 1Iglesias H,1 C 0 0 0 0 0Jones 1 2 2 2 0 2

WP—Woodruff. T—2:56.

BY RONALD BLUM

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The higher seeded team reaching the World Series will have last at-bats in Games 1 and 2 and if needed Games 6 and 7, not necessarily the team with the best record.

The specification was con-tained in the July 23 agreementbetween Major League Baseball and the players’ association to expand the playoffs following aregular season shortened due tothe new coronavirus. A copy of the deal was obtained by The As-sociated Press.

This year’s change means a No.1 seed from one league with fewerregular-season wins than a lowerseed from the other league wouldhave the “home-field advantage”for the World Series should theyboth win pennants. In the eventboth pennant winners have the same seed, regular-season win-ning percentage would decidewhich team is “home” for the first two games.

Under an agreement reached last week between MLB and theunion, all World Series gameswill be played at Globe Life Fieldin Arlington, Texas, the newballpark of the out-of-contention Texas Rangers.

Home-field advantage in the World Series generally rotated between the leagues through 2002. At the behest of then-Com-missioner Bud Selig and Fox,home-field advantage went to the All-Star Game winner from2003-16. Home field for Games 1,2, 6 and 7 was based on winningpercentage from 2017-19.

The League ChampionshipSeries and Division Series alsowill be played at neutral sitesthis year. The AL Championship Series will be in San Diego andthe NL Championship Series inArlington, while the AL DivisionSeries will be in Los Angeles andSan Diego and the NL DivisionSeries in Houston and Arlington.

Under the agreement, the divi-sion champions in a league willbe ranked as the first, second andthird seeds in order of winningpercentage, and the second-placeteams will be ranked fourth, fifthand sixth seeds in the same man-ner, followed by the wild-card teams as seventh and eighth seeds in order of winning percentage.

Higher seeds will host all games in a best-of-three round,with No. 1 playing No. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5.

Under the July 23 deal, DivisionSeries matchups would have had the highest advancing seed playthe lowest advancing seed, but as MLB and the union negotiatedthe neutral site “bubble” agree-ment, they agreed to replace that with a fixed bracket.

The sides decided they did not want a team whose series hadfinished having to wait to find outwhich city it would travel to.

Scoreboard Home teamin Seriesto be basedon seeding

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •PAGE 22 F3HIJKLM

BY STEPHEN WHYNO

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta — The Stanley Cup Final is in Edmon-ton, and Oilers star Leon Drai-saitl made history Monday night.

Only it had more to do with his home country than his home arena.

Draisaitl became the first Ger-man player to win the Hart Tro-phy as MVP after leading the league in scoring with 110 points in 71 games. He also won the Ted Lindsay Award for most outstand-ing player as voted by peers.

Draisaitl joins former NBA star Dirk Nowitzki as the only Ger-man players to earn MVP honors in one of the four major North American professional sports leagues.

“Dirk was obviously someone that I look up to, someone that I admire: the way he presents him-self and the way he really has achieved everything that there is to achieve for a professional ath-lete in North America,” Draisaitl said.

Draisaitl finished ahead of Col-orado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon and New York Rang-ers winger Artemi Panarin in vot-ing by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. He scored 43 goals, and his 67 assists were a career high despite the regular season being cut short.

Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck won the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender, Nashville’s Roman Josi got the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman, and Colorado’s Cale Makar won the Calder Tro-phy as rookie of the year.

Draisaitl is the second Oilers player to win the Hart in the past four years following Connor Mc-David, who is widely considered the best hockey player in the world. Draisaitl played with and without McDavid this season and produced even more.

“I think Connor and I have a very healthy, great, competitive relationship and we just try and make each other better every day,” Draisaitl said.

Hellebuyck is the first player from the Jets/Atlanta Thrash-ers franchise to win the Vezina.

After backstopping a Winnipegteam with an injury-ravaged blueline, he finished ahead of Boston’sTuukka Rask and Tampa Bay’sAndrei Vasilevskiy in voting bygeneral managers.

The 27-year-old American,who had said one of his goals was to win the Vezina, said, “It almostfeels like getting a little bit of amonkey off my back.”

Josi won his first Norris at age 30 after setting career highs with16 goals, 49 assists and 65 points.He finished ahead of Washing-ton’s John Carlson and TampaBay’s Victor Hedman .

Makar edged out Vancouverdefenseman Quinn Hughes ina tight race for the Calder. The21-year-old played 21 minutes agame and was the Avalanche’ssecond-leading scorer behindMacKinnon.

Like Draisaitl, Makar was (virtually) presented the awardby Wayne Gretkzy on an awardsshow with an Oilers flare. Thatmade it even more special.

“To have Wayne Gretzky give it to me, that was pretty cool,” Makar said.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

BY KENT HARRIS

Stars and Stripes

Whomever stands atop of the virtual po-diums after the European Athletics Fitness Games season concludes in October might end up in very select company.

Not only is it the first time that DODEA Europe will have such a competition, it might be the last if there’s a vaccine for COVID-19.

“It came about in response to the ques-tion: What are we going to do if we can’t play volleyball and football?,” DODEA Europe athletic director Kathy Clemmons said.

Football and volleyball are out this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic. Enter an eight-event team competition that bears at least some resemblance to a heptathlon or decathlon. Schools have an opportunity to field as many five-boy, five-girl or three-boy/three-girl teams as they can support.

Everyone on those teams will compete in the 200 meters, a 3,200-meter relay (with-out batons), pushups for 1 minute, standing broad jump, kneeling basketball throw, wall sitting, sit-ups for 2 minutes and a pro-agility test. Times and scores will be added up, posted online and compared against all

other teams. Some of the events are fairly standard to

most sports fans. But others — throwing a basketball from one’s knees or sitting with legs bent at a 90-degree angle against a wall for as long as possible — are not typi-cal events. Competitions will take place within 4-hour time blocks on Fridays or Saturdays beginning this week, with each school limited to one team in each category reaching the finals on Oct. 24. Athletes will compete only at their schools for the entire season.

Clemmons said only a handful of schools around Europe are not participating. She

admits she’s not sure what to expect. Butthe goal is to keep students active whilemaintaining social distancing.

“It’s an opportunity for kids to enjoy the camaraderie of a team, have the opportu-nity to play some sports and bring some spirit to the schools,” Clemmons said.

She didn’t rule out the possibility of hav-ing similar events in the winter or springsports seasons depending on the situation.

“Let’s take it one step at a time like we’redoing with everything else,” she said.“We’ll see.”Harris.kent@stripes.comTwitter: @kharris4stripes

DODEA Europe offers idle athletes new 8-event sport

Oilers’ Draisaitl wins Hart Trophy as first German named MVP

NHL/NFL/HIGH SCHOOL

Associated Press

EDMONTON, Alberta — Niki-ta Kucherov and the Tampa Bay Lightning got themselves up off the ice to get even in the Stanley Cup Final.

After the Lightning got knocked around in Game 1, and Kucherov took some more hard hits early in Game 2, he had the primary assists on power-play goals by Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat in the first period. Kevin Shat-tenkirk then scored for an early three-goal lead and Tampa Bay held on for a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday night.

“It was a tough start I guess,” Kucherov said. “It’s the playoffs, you have to play, it doesn’t matter what happened.”

All of the Lightning’s goals came in a span of four shots in less than four minutes against Anton Khudobin, who made a Stanley Cup Final-record 22 saves in the third period for the Stars in their 4-1 win in Game 1. It was the first time in seven games that Tampa

Bay scored the opening goal.Game 3 is Wednesday night.Joe Pavelski and Mattias Jan-

mark scored for Dallas on passes from John Klingberg, with Alex-ander Radulov also assisting on both.

“After that, we really got back to what makes us successful as a team, we got pucks deep, we were good on the forecheck, we got some good opportunities,” said Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, who had two assists. “I liked the way we responded ... to close them out.”

Kucherov left the bench mo-mentarily early in the game after slamming into the boards dur-ing a collision with defenseman Jamie Oleksiak after trying to block a shot. Kucherov had al-ready ended up on the ice twice before, when he was popped by Stars captain Jamie Benn and when he drew a high-sticking penalty against Janmark. He was back quickly.

“I left because my visor was

broken or something,” Kuch-erov insisted. “I went back in the room and changed it, nothing bad happened.”

On its second power play in Game 2, Tampa Bay cycled the puck to set up Kucherov’s pass to Point to open the scoring 11:23 into the game. Three minutes later with a a man advantage again, Palat finished a nice pass-ing sequence, taking advantage of a half-open net and another setup by Kucherov.

“It’s easy to explain: we lost faceoffs and we were turning the puck over and we were taking penalties,” Dallas interim head coach Rick Bowness said. “It was an even game until we started taking penalties. It’s faceoffs, turnovers and penalties — things you can’t afford to do against an elite team like that.”

Shattenkirk scored less than a minute after Palat to make it 3-0. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots for the Lightning. Khudobin had 28 saves.

JASON FRANSON, THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP

Dallas Stars forward Blake Comeau, left, is checked by Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov during the second-period of the Lightning’s 3-2 win Monday in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final in Edmonton, Alberta. Kucherov had two first-period assists in the game.

Tampa Bay takes advantage of power plays to top Dallas, tie series

Bolts, Kucherov get even

Stanley Cup Final(Best-of-seven; x-if necessary)

At Edmonton, AlbertaDallas 1, Tampa Bay 1

Dallas 4, Tampa Bay 1Monday: Tampa Bay 3, Dallas 2Wednesday: Game 3 (AFN-Sports2, 2

a.m. Thursday CET; 9 a.m. Thursday JKT)Friday: Game 4Saturday: Game 5x-Monday, Sept. 28: Game 6x-Wednesday, Sept. 30: Game 7

MondayLightning 3, Stars 2

Dallas 0 1 1—2Tampa Bay 3 0 0—3

First Period—1, Tampa Bay, Point10 (Hedman, Kucherov), 11:23 (pp). 2, Tampa Bay, Palat 9 (Hedman, Kucherov),14:22 (pp). 3, Tampa Bay, Shattenkirk 2 (Coleman, Cirelli), 15:16.

Second Period—4, Dallas, Pavelski 10 (Radulov, Klingberg), 14:43 (pp).

Third Period—5, Dallas, Janmark 1 (Klingberg, Radulov), 5:27.

Shots on Goal—Dallas 6-18-5—29.Tampa Bay 14-5-12—31.

Power-play opportunities—Dallas 1 of 5; Tampa Bay 2 of 4.

Goalies—Dallas, Khudobin 13-7-0 (31 shots-28 saves). Tampa Bay, Vasilevskiy15-5-1 (29-27).

T—2:40.

Scoreboard

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • F3HIJKLM PAGE 23Wednesday, September 23, 2020

NFLScoreboard

American ConferenceEast

W L T Pct PF PABuffalo 2 0 0 1.000 58 45New England 1 1 0 .500 51 46Miami 0 2 0 .000 39 52N.Y. Jets 0 2 0 .000 30 58

SouthTennessee 2 0 0 1.000 49 44Indianapolis 1 1 0 .500 48 38Jacksonville 1 1 0 .500 57 53Houston 0 2 0 .000 36 67

NorthBaltimore 2 0 0 1.000 71 22Pittsburgh 2 0 0 1.000 52 37Cleveland 1 1 0 .500 41 68Cincinnati 0 2 0 .000 43 51

WestKansas City 2 0 0 1.000 57 40Las Vegas 2 0 0 1.000 68 54L.A. Chargers 1 1 0 .500 36 36Denver 0 2 0 .000 35 42

National ConferenceEast

W L T Pct PF PADallas 1 1 0 .500 57 59Washington 1 1 0 .500 42 47N.Y. Giants 0 2 0 .000 29 43Philadelphia 0 2 0 .000 36 64

SouthNew Orleans 1 1 0 .500 58 57Tampa Bay 1 1 0 .500 54 51Atlanta 0 2 0 .000 64 78Carolina 0 2 0 .000 47 65

NorthChicago 2 0 0 1.000 44 36Green Bay 2 0 0 1.000 85 55Detroit 0 2 0 .000 44 69Minnesota 0 2 0 .000 45 71

WestArizona 2 0 0 1.000 54 35L.A. Rams 2 0 0 1.000 57 36Seattle 2 0 0 1.000 73 55San Francisco 1 1 0 .500 51 37

Thursday, Sept. 17Cleveland 35, Cincinnati 30

Sunday, Sept. 20Tennessee 33, Jacksonville 30Chicago 17, N.Y. Giants 13Green Bay 42, Detroit 21Tampa Bay 31, Carolina 17Buffalo 31, Miami 28San Francisco 31, N.Y. Jets 13L.A. Rams 37, Philadelphia 19Dallas 40, Atlanta 39Pittsburgh 26, Denver 21Indianapolis 28, Minnesota 11Arizona 30, Washington 15Baltimore 33, Houston 16Kansas City 23, L.A. Chargers 20, OTSeattle 35, New England 30

Monday’s gameLas Vegas 34, New Orleans 24

Thursday’s gameMiami at Jacksonville

Sunday’s gamesHouston at PittsburghTennessee at MinnesotaCincinnati at PhiladelphiaChicago at AtlantaWashington at ClevelandLas Vegas at New EnglandL.A. Rams at BuffaloSan Francisco at N.Y. GiantsN.Y. Jets at IndianapolisCarolina at L.A. ChargersTampa Bay at DenverDetroit at ArizonaDallas at SeattleGreen Bay at New Orleans

Monday, Sept. 28Kansas City at Baltimore

MondayRaiders 34, Saints 24

New Orleans 10 7 0 7—24Las Vegas 0 17 7 10—34

First quarterNO—FG Lutz 31, 11:01.NO—Kamara 1 run (Lutz kick), 3:51.

Second quarterLas—Ingold 3 pass from Carr (Carlson

kick), 8:55.NO—Cook 6 pass from Brees (Lutz

kick), 5:22.Las—Jones 15 pass from Carr (Carlson

kick), 1:44.Las—FG Carlson 28, :00.

Third quarterLas—Waller 1 pass from Carr (Carlson

kick), 9:58.Fourth quarter

Las—Richard 20 run (Carlson kick), 7:43.

NO—Kamara 3 run (Lutz kick), 4:33.Las—FG Carlson 54, 1:05.

NO LasFirst downs 26 28Total Net Yards 424 375Rushes-yards 19-112 35-116Passing 312 259Punt Returns 0-0 1-5Kickoff Returns 2-64 2-46Interceptions Ret. 0-0 1-6Comp-Att-Int 26-38-1 28-38-0Sacked-Yards Lost 0-0 3-23Punts 3-36.3 2-40.0Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1Penalties-Yards 10-129 3-13Time of Possession 23:42 36:18

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING—New Orleans, Kamara 13-

79, Murray 3-14, Harris 1-11, T.Hill 2-8. Las Vegas, Jacobs 27-88, Richard 2-26, Carr 3-3, Booker 3-(minus 1).

PASSING—New Orleans, Brees 26-38-1-312. Las Vegas, Carr 28-38-0-282.

RECEIVING—New Orleans, Kamara 9-95, Smith 5-86, Harris 3-23, Montgomery 2-25, Murray 2-19, Cook 2-13, Sanders 1-18, Trautman 1-17, J.Hill 1-16. Las Ve-gas, Waller 12-103, Renfrow 3-37, Jacobs 3-17, Edwards 2-42, Ingold 2-5, Moreau 1-31, Agholor 1-19, Jones 1-15, Booker 1-6, Ruggs 1-4, Witten 1-3.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.

Coaches, teams hit with fines

BY ARNIE STAPLETON

Associated Press

NFL coaches thumbed their collective — and exposed — noses at the NFL’s mask man-date in Week 2.

The league responded with hefty fines of $100,000 per coach and $250,000 per club. The first three to get fined were Denver’s Vic Fangio, San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and Seattle’s Pete Carroll, according to a per-son with knowledge of the punishment who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the coaches were not identified.

The punishment was meted out a week after the NFL reminded team personnel on the sidelines about the rules for wearing face coverings during the coronavirus pandemic, lest they put the fledgling season at risk.

More coaches and clubs can expect simi-lar punishments as the memo last week from Troy Vincent, who oversees the league’s foot-ball operations, was largely ignored through-out the weekend.

Among other offenders: Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, Colts coach Frank Reich and Rams coach Sean McVay.

The scenes were similar Sunday with head coaches and assistants apparently finding it too hard to keep their faces covered as re-quired under the league’s COVID-19 proto-cols with either a mask, gaiter or face shield. Players, who, like the coaches, are subject to

daily COVID-19 tests, are exempt from the face covering requirements.

Some coaches such as Belichick, McDaniels and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin wore their masks or gaiters over their mouths but not noses. Others such as Carroll, Spagnuolo and Fangio wore their face coverings around their chins or necks, exposing both their mouths and noses.

In his strongly worded memo, Vincent said teams “must remain vigilant and disciplined in following the processes and protocols put in place by not only the league, union and clubs, but also by state and local governments.”

Vincent added: “Becoming careless or ig-

noring face covering and physical distanc-ing requirements will put the 2020 season atrisk.”

The rules don’t apply to players, but all otherindividuals with bench area access, including coaches and members of the club medical staff, are required to wear face coverings atall times.

Failure to do so, Vincent warned in his memo, “will result in accountability measuresbeing imposed against offending individualsand/or clubs. The face covering must be wornas designed so that it securely fits across thewearer’s nose and mouth to prevent the trans-mission of the virus.”

Hefty punishmentsissued for violation ofleague mask mandate

DON WRIGHT/AP

Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio walks the sideline without a mask during the first half of Sunday’s game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Fangio received a $100,000 fine.

FROM BACK PAGE

“Hopefully our fans, even though they couldn’t be here to-night, hopefully see something they like,” coach Jon Gruden said. “We can’t wait to get them back in this place. It’s such a great place to see a game.”

That was one of the few things that didn’t go right for the Raid-ers (2-0), who overcame an early 10-point deficit to the Saints (1-1) and opened the season with two straight wins for the fourth time in the past 25 seasons.

“This organization means everything to me,” Carr said. “They’ve stuck behind me through some hard times. Through some times our team, we struggled, there’s no doubt about it. But when you can get on the other side of things, be 2-0, as the Las Vegas Raiders, that’s a pretty cool thing.”

Carr was in control for most of the night, completing 28 of 38 passes for 282 yards. Dar-ren Waller had 12 receptions for 103 yards as Carr’s most trusted option.

Carr engineered four straight scoring drives in the second and third quarters to turn a 10-0 defi-cit into a 24-17 lead.

“Derek Carr was awesome to-

night,” Gruden said. “He made some some plays today that very few guys that I’ve coached could make. I tip my hat to him.”

Picking apart the New Orleans defense with short passes, the Raiders controlled the clock and kept Drew Brees and the Saints off the field. Las Vegas convert-ed 10 of 17 third downs and also went for it successfully twice on fourth down.

The Raiders even survived a fumbled pitch by Jalen Richard by stopping the Saints and then scoring on the ensuing drive on a 20-yard run by Richard.

After being gashed on the ground early, the Raiders did a good job against Brees, who struggled without his injured No. 1 receiver, Michael Thomas.

Brees went 26-for-38 for 312 yards with one touchdown and a key interception at the end of the first half that set up a field goal for the Raiders.

“If there’s one thing I wish I could take back from the game it would be that,” Brees said. “Otherwise, we had a lot of men-tal errors. I felt like we were not playing as fast and just as sure and confident.”

After the Saints cut the deficit to 31-24 on Alvin Kamara’s sec-

ond TD run, the Raiders took advantage of a pass interference call against Janoris Jenkins and iced the game with a 54-yard field goal by Daniel Carlson.

“We got to do a better job coach-ing,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a real pleasant film to watch — for some of our star players as well.”

Averting disaster

The Raiders almost had a big blunder on the opening drive of the third quarter when Carr fum-bled a snap on third down from the 1. Alec Ingold recovered for Las Vegas and Carr threw a 1-yard TD to Waller on fourth down to give the Raiders their first lead of the game at 24-17.

Tale of two quarters

The Raiders’ first game in Las Vegas didn’t get off to a great start with the Saints driving for scores on their first two drives to take a 10-0 lead on Kamara’s first TD run. The Raiders punted on their first two drives before Carr and the offense got going in the sec-ond quarter.

Carr went 14-for-18 for 139 yards in the quarter, throwing a

3-yard TD pass to Ingold and aperfectly placed 15-yarder to Zay Jones. The TD was capped by Jones gathering his teammatesand pretending to give them allhand sanitizer.

Nicholas Morrow then inter-cepted Brees late in the half, set-ting up Daniel Carlson’s 28-yardfield goal that made it 17-17.

Unmasked men

Both head coaches often did not properly wear masks on the sideline despite an edict earlier in the week to do so. A person withknowledge of the punishment told The Associated Press thatat least three coaches have beenfined $100,000 for violating the league’s rules that they wear facecoverings on the sideline.

Gruden wore his mask like a chin strap, and Payton sported his gaiter like a turtleneck.

Gruden apologized while re-vealing for the first time that hehad contracted the coronavirus.

“I’ve had the virus. I’m doing my best,” Gruden said. “I’m verysensitive about it. I’m calling theplays. I just want to communicatein these situations. I apologize. If I get fined, I will have to pay thefine.”

Home: Raiders come back from early 10-point deficit

S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S Wednesday, September 23, 2020 F3HIJKLM

SPORTS Now it’s a best-of-fi veLightning even Stanley Cup Final

with Stars at 1 game apiece » Page 22

Mariners help Athletics clinch AL West titleMLB, Page 20

Hamlin, Jordan form team for WallaceAuto racing, Page 19

BY JOSH DUBOW

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Derek Carr and the Las Vegas Raiders de-livered a performance worthy of their fancy new home.

Too bad none of their fans were able to see it in person.

Carr threw three touchdown passes and the Raiders gave their new fans in Las Vegas plenty to celebrate even if they weren’t al-lowed in the stadium by beating

the New Orleans Saints 34-24 on Monday night.

The new $2 billion stadium in the desert held its first event fol-

lowing the Raiders’ move from Oakland without any fans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SEE HOME ON PAGE 23

DAVID BECKER, ABOVE, AND ISAAC BREKKEN, BELOW/AP

Above: Raiders quarterback Derek Carr throws against the New Orleans Saints during the second half of Monday’s game at the Raiders’ new stadium in Las Vegas.Below: Raiders coach Jon Gruden celebrates his team’s 34-24 victory. Gruden didn’t wear his mask over his nose and mouth despite an edict from the league to do so.

Housewarming‘ Hopefully our fans, even though they couldn’t be here tonight, hopefully see something they like. ’

Jon GrudenRaiders coach, on the fi rst game in their new stadium in Las Vegas

NFL

Raiders win first game in new home