taliban announce caretaker cabinet

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FACES

Williams evolvedfrom his iconicrole on ‘The Wire’4

VIRUS OUTBREAK

Air Force setsCOVID vaccinationdeadline for Nov. 2Page 6

NFL

Teams looking to rookie QBs atstart of seasonPage 24

Woman arrested in death of US soldier’s child in South Korea ›› Page 3

DALLAS — Ask anyone old

enough to remember travel before

Sept. 11, 2001, and you’re likely to

get a gauzy recollection of what

flying was like.

There was security screening,

but it wasn’t anywhere near as in-

trusive. There were no long

checkpoint lines. Passengers and

their families could walk right to

the gate together. Overall, an air-

port experience meant far less

stress.

That all ended when four hi-

jacked planes crashed into the

World Trade Center towers, the

Pentagon and a field in Pennsylva-

nia.

The worst terror attack on

American soil led to increased and

sometimes tension-filled security

measures in airports across the

world. The cataclysm has also

contributed to other changes large

and small that have reshaped the

airline industry — and, for con-

sumers, made air travel more

stressful than ever.

Two months after the attacks,

President George W. Bush signed

legislation creating the Transpor-

tation Security Administration,

which required that all checked

bags be screened, cockpit doors be

reinforced, and more federal air

marshals be put on flights.

There has not been another 9/11.

Nothing even close. But after that

CLIFF OWEN/AP

A TSA officer gives an airplane passenger a security pat down at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., in March 2019.

Changes in the airHow the 9/11 terror attack altered the

way we fly: more security, less privacy

BY DAVID KOENIG

Associated Press

SEE CHANGES ON PAGE 10

KABUL, Afghanistan — The

Taliban on Tuesday announced a

caretaker Cabinet that paid hom-

age to the old guard of the group,

giving top posts to Taliban person-

alities who dominated the 20-year

battle against the U.S.-led coali-

tion and its Afghan government al-

lies.

Interim Prime Minister Mullah

Hasan Akhund headed the Tali-

ban government in Kabul during

the last years of its rule. Mullah

Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had

led talks with the United States

and signed the deal that led to

America’s final withdrawal from

Afghanistan, will be one of two

deputies to Akhund.

There was no evidence of non-

Taliban in the lineup, a big de-

mand of the international commu-

nity.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah

Mujahid, when announcing the

Cabinet, said the appointments

were for an interim government.

He did not elaborate on how long

they would serve and what would

be the catalyst for a change.

So far, the Taliban have shown

no indications that they will hold

elections.

The announcement of Cabinet

Taliban

announce

caretaker

CabinetBY KATHY GANNON

Associated Press

RELATED

Ramstein workingto build ties withAfghan refugeesPage 5

SEE TALIBAN ON PAGE 4

AFGHANISTAN

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Wednesday, September 8, 2021

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Military rates

Euro costs (Sept. 8) $1.16Dollar buys (Sept. 8) 0.8216British pound (Sept. 8) $1.35Japanese yen (Sept. 8) 107.00South Korean won (Sept. 8) 1,129.00

Commercial rates

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(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry 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 withyour local military banking facility. Commercialrates are interbank rates provided for referencewhen buying currency. All figures are foreigncurrencies to one dollar, except for the Britishpound, which is represented in dollarstopound, and the euro, which is dollarstoeuro.)

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Environmental activists

protesting car culture disrupt-

ed traffic on several highways

around Munich before the

opening Tuesday of a leading

auto show in the German city.

Demonstrators unfurled

banners with slogans such as

“Block IAA,” in some cases

abseiling from highway

bridges to do so, news agency

dpa reported.

At one location, they pasted

over a highway sign with the

words “Smash Car Lobby &

Industry.”

Police and fire service offi-

cers ended the protests, and

the affected stretches of auto-

bahn were reopened around

lunchtime.

More protests are expected

Friday, although organizers

have not yet specified what

exactly they plan to do.

The IAA Mobility fair,

which takes place every two

years, was opening later

Tuesday. The event is held

every two years and is in

Munich for the first time this

year.

It previously took place in

Frankfurt. The show moved

after the German Association

of the Automotive Industry

changed the concept of the

show to change its focus and

include more discussion of

environmental issues, new

technologies and innovation

and other modes of transpor-

tation, including e-scooters

and bicycles.

Protests block autobahn before car showAssociated Press

Wednesday, September 8, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3

SEOUL — South Korea’s mili-

tary on Tuesday was closely

watching North Korea amid signs

the country was preparing to hold

anew military parade to showcase

its growing nuclear and missile

capabilities.

The South Korean and U.S. mil-

itaries were “thoroughly follow-

ing and monitoring North Korean

preparations for large-scale

events such as a military parade in

connection with the North’s inter-

nal schedule,” said Col. Kim Jun-

rak, a spokesman for South Ko-

rea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. He

didn’t specify in the news confer-

ence what the allied militaries

have seen or when they expect the

parade to take place.

North Korea often celebrates

major state anniversaries by roll-

ing out thousands of goose-step-

ping troops and its most advanced

military hardware at a square in

the capital, Pyongyang.

There’s speculation its next mil-

itary parade could come as early

as Thursday when it celebrates

the 73rd anniversary of the coun-

try’s founding. Another big date is

Oct. 10, the 76th anniversary of the

ruling Workers’ Party.

During a military last parade in

January, North Korea showcased

new missiles being developed to

be fired from submarines as it cel-

ebrated the closure of a rare

Workers’ Party congress. There,

leader Kim Jong Un vowed to ex-

pand his nuclear weapons pro-

gram in the face of what he de-

scribed as U.S. hostility.

Meanwhile, the Workers’ Par-

ty’s Politburo on Tuesday elected

an army general, seen as an influ-

ential figure in shaping the coun-

try’s ballistic missile program, as

the newest member of its power-

ful presidium, which consists of

Kim and four other top officials,

North Korean state media said.

Pak Jong Chon appears to be re-

placing Ri Pyong Chol, another se-

nior military official who experts

believe was sacked from the pre-

sidium after being held responsib-

le for unspecified lapses in the

country’s pandemic response.

Kim in July had accused offi-

cials of causing a “great crisis” in

national anti-virus efforts, but the

North never revealed what those

problems were and has yet to re-

port a single coronavirus infec-

tion.

Last October, the North un-

veiled its biggest-yet interconti-

nental ballistic missile at a parade

marking the party’s 75th anniver-

sary. The North’s previous ICBMs

demonstrated the potential to re-

ach the U.S. mainland during

flight tests in 2017.

Any new North Korean parade

will likely feature its latest weap-

ons systems that threaten U.S. al-

lies in Asia and the American

homeland, and such displays

would be seen as an attempt to

pressure Washington over the

stalled nuclear diplomacy.

Washington and Pyongyang

have yet to recover from the col-

lapse of a summit between Kim

and former President Donald

Trump in 2019, when the Ameri-

cans rejected the North’s demand

for a major easing of economic

sanctions in exchange for a partial

reduction of its nuclear capabili-

ties.

S. Korea monitoring North over signs of military paradeBY KIM TONG-HYUNG

Associated Press

KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY, KOREA NEWS SERVICE/AP

Missiles are driven down a street during a military parade marking the ruling party congress at Kim Il SungSquare in Pyongyang, North Korea, in January.

kyo, on Saturday also described

the strike group’s mission as pri-

marily diplomatic.

“This is about relationship-

building, the friendly sharing of

information and the strengthen-

ing of relationships with our part-

ners,” Staley said.

But China, the rising power in

the region, and even the Japanese

government appear to view the

situation differently.

Japanese Defense Minister No-

buo Kishi told reporters on Mon-

day that the U.K. and other Eu-

ropean countries’ interest in the

Indo-Pacific helped contribute

“peace and stability in this re-

gion,” according to a Monday re-

port from the Associated Press.

Wang Wenbin, spokesman for

China’s Foreign Ministry, during

a news conference Friday, said

the numerous joint exercises be-

tween Japan, the United States

and the U.K. are detrimental to the

region’s stability.

“The practice of saber-rattling

is not constructive,” Wenbin said,

according to a transcript. “We

hope relevant countries will play a

constructive role in promoting

peace and stability in the Asia-Pa-

cific, rather than doing the oppo-

site.”

The visiting aircraft carrier

HMS Queen Elizabeth is building

stronger ties in the Indo-Pacific

for Great Britain rather than pro-

jecting its sea power in a conten-

tious part of the world, the British

ambassador to Japan said Tues-

day.

The Queen Elizabeth, which

docked over the weekend with its

escorts at Yokosuka Naval Base, is

preparing for the second half of its

deployment, which began in May

and will cover approximately

26,000 nautical miles. The U.K.

Carrier Strike Group, led by Com-

modore Steve Moorhouse, is ex-

pected to start traveling back

home soon by heading west from

Japan.

Moorhouse and Ambassador

Julia Longbottom took questions

during a digital press conference

at the Japan National Press Club

in Tokyo. They described the

Queen Elizabeth’s mission as

largely diplomatic. The carrier is

expected to visit 40 countries on

its first patrol.

Longbottom said a “shift in the

balance” of global power and eco-

nomic growth towardthe Indo-Pa-

cific has led the United Kingdom

to reevaluate its lack of presence

in the region.

“Under our Indo-Pacific tilt

framework, the U.K. is deter-

mined to build stronger diplomat-

ic, trading and security ties in the

Indo-Pacific,” she said. “In all

this, Japan is a hugely important

partner.”

Moorhouse said the numerous

joint naval exercises the carrier

strike group took part in the past

few months, and the sheer num-

ber of countries working together,

highlight the growing importance

of the Indo-Pacific region.

The Queen Elizabeth on Satur-

day became the first British air-

craft carrier to visit Japan since

the HMS Illustrious arrived at To-

kyo in 1997. Capt. Simon Staley,

the British defense attaché in To-

UK ambassador, naval chief say Queen Elizabeth patrol is diplomacy afloatBY ALEX WILSON

Stars and Stripes

[email protected]: @AlexMNWilson

Eighth Army and the 2nd Infan-

try Division in an email Tuesday

to Stars and Stripes described the

incident as a “terrible tragedy”

and said they “will do everything

possible to care for the family in

this time of profound grief and

loss.”

The U.S. commands will coop-

erate with the Korean National

Police investigation, according to

the statement.

investigator said. The father,

whose name the police did not re-

lease, was expected to pick them

up Sunday morning.

Government officials in South

Korea customarily speak to the

media on a condition of anonym-

ity.

The woman knew the soldier

from a bar near Camp Hum-

phreys where she worked, accord-

ing to police. The investigator said

the woman arrived in the country

after marrying a South Korean

man in 2019. The couple later di-

vorced.

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South

Korea — A woman from the Phi-

lippines is under arrest on suspi-

cion of beating to death the 3-year-

old son of a U.S. soldier left in her

care, according to South Korean

police.

Police declared the child dead

after finding his bruised body

Sunday morning at a home in Pye-

ongtaek city, near Camp Hum-

phreys, a South Korean criminal

investigator told Stars and Stripes

on Monday.

Arrested the same morning, the

unidentified woman, 30, told po-

lice she had “beaten the child to

death in order to send him to heav-

en because the child was pos-

sessed by an evil spirit,” the inves-

tigator said.

Police responded first to a dis-

turbance call from local residents

who said they found another child,

a 7-year-old boy, crying outside a

home, the officer said. “My young-

er brother appears dead,” the boy

told the residents, according to the

investigator.

Inside, the local residents found

the younger boy unresponsive and

contacted police. After declaring

the boy dead, police found bruises

on his face, back and other parts of

his body, the investigator said. He

said the older boy did not appear

physically injured.

Police responded around 7:30

a.m. to a separate call of a naked,

incoherent woman wandering the

streets for about 40 minutes.

After taking her into custody,

Pyeongtaek police learned the

boys’ father had left them with her

around 10:20 p.m. Saturday, the

Woman arrested in death of US soldier’s childBY DAVID CHOI

AND YOO KYONG CHANG

Stars and Stripes

[email protected]: @[email protected]

MILITARY


appointments by Mujahid came

hours after the Taliban fired into

the air to disperse protesters and

arrested several journalists, the

second time in less than a week the

group used heavy-handed tactics

to break up a demonstration in the

Afghan capital of Kabul.

The demonstrators had gath-

ered outside the Pakistan Embas-

sy to accuse Islamabad of aiding

the Taliban’s assault on northern

Panjshir province. The Taliban

said Monday that they seized the

province — the last not in their

control — after their blitz through

Afghanistan last month.

Afghanistan’s previous govern-

ment routinely accused Pakistan

of aiding the Taliban, a charge that

Islamabad has denied. Former

vice president Amrullah Saleh,

one of the leaders of the anti-Tali-

ban forces, has long been an out-

spoken critic of neighboring Pa-

kistan.

Dozens of women were among

the protesters Tuesday. Some of

them carried signs bemoaning the

killing of their sons by Taliban

fighters they say were aided by

Pakistan. One sign read: “I am a

mother when you kill my son you

kill a part of me.”

On Saturday, Taliban special

forces troops in camouflage fired

their weapons into the air to end a

protest march in the capital by Af-

ghan women demanding equal

rights from the new rulers.

The Taliban again moved

quickly and harshly to end Tues-

day’s protest when it arrived near

the presidential palace. They fired

their weapons into the air and ar-

rested several journalists cover-

ing the demonstration. In one

case, Taliban fighters waving Ka-

lashnikov rifles took a microphone

from a journalist and began beat-

ing him with it, breaking the mi-

crophone. The journalist was later

handcuffed and detained for sev-

eral hours.

“This is the third time i have

been beaten by the Taliban cover-

ing protests,” he told The Associ-

ated Press on condition he not be

identified because he was afraid

of retaliation. “I won’t go again to

cover a demonstration. It’s too dif-

ficult for me.”

A journalist from Afghanistan’s

popular TOLO News was detained

for three hours by the Taliban be-

fore being freed along with his

equipment and the video of the

demonstration still intact.

There was no immediate com-

ment from the Taliban.

Meanwhile, in the northern city

of Mazar-e-Sharif, four aircraft

chartered to evacuate about 2,000

Afghans fleeing Taliban rule were

still at the airport.

Mawlawi Abdullah Mansour,

the Taliban official in charge of

the city’s airport, said any passen-

ger, Afghan or foreigner, with a

passport and valid visa would be

allowed to leave. Most of the pas-

sengers are believed to be Af-

ghans without proper travel docu-

ments.

None of the passengers had ar-

rived at the airport. Instead, orga-

nizers apparently told evacuees to

travel to Mazar-e-Sharif and find

accommodation until they were

called to come to the airport.

The Taliban say they are trying

to find out who among the estimat-

ed 2,000 have valid travel docu-

ments.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony

Blinken said in Qatar on Tuesday

that the Taliban have given assur-

ances of safe passage for all seek-

ing to leave Afghanistan with

proper travel documents. He said

the U.S. would hold the Taliban to

that pledge.

“It’s my understanding that the

Taliban has not denied exit to any-

one holding a valid document, but

they have said those without valid

documents, at this point, can’t

leave,” he said.

“Because all of these people are

grouped together, that’s meant

that flights have not been allowed

to go,” he added.

The State Department is also

working with the Taliban to facil-

itate additional charter flights

from Kabul for people who are

seeking to leave Afghanistan after

the American military and diplo-

matic departure, Blinken told a

joint news conference with Qa-

tar’s top diplomatic and defense

officials.

“In recent hours” the U.S. has

been in contact with Taliban offi-

cials to work out arrangements for

additional charter flights from the

Afghan capital, he said.

Blinken and U.S. Defense Sec-

retary Lloyd Austin were in Qatar

to thank the Gulf state for its help

with the transit of tens of thou-

sands of people evacuated from

Afghanistan after the Taliban took

control of Kabul on Aug. 15.

Taliban: 2nd protest in 1 week broken up, reporters arrestedFROM PAGE 1

AFGHANISTAN

BOSTON — Over two decades,

the United States and its allies

spent hundreds of millions of dol-

lars building databases for the Af-

ghan people. The nobly stated

goal: Promote law and order and

government accountability and

modernize a war-ravaged land.

But in the Taliban’s lightning

seizure of power, most of that dig-

ital apparatus — including bio-

metrics for verifying identities —

apparently fell into Taliban hands.

Built with few data-protection

safeguards, it risks becoming the

high-tech jackboots of a surveil-

lance state. As the Taliban get

their governing feet, there are

worries it will be used for social

control and to punish perceived

foes.

Putting such data to work con-

structively — boosting education,

empowering women, battling cor-

ruption — requires democratic

stability, and these systems were

not architected for the prospect of

defeat.

“It is a terrible irony,” said

Frank Pasquale, Brooklyn Law

School scholar of surveillance

technologies. “It’s a real object

lesson in ‘The road to hell is paved

with good intentions.’”

Since Kabul fell on Aug. 15, in-

dications have emerged that gov-

ernment data may have been used

in Taliban efforts to identify and

intimidate Afghans who worked

with the U.S. forces.

People are getting ominous and

threatening phone calls, texts and

WhatsApp messages, said Neesha

Suarez, constituent services di-

rector for Rep. Seth Moulton of

Massachusetts, an Iraq War veter-

an whose office is trying to help

stranded Afghans who worked

with the U.S. find a way out.

A 27-year-old U.S. contractor in

Kabul told The Associated Press

he and co-workers who developed

a U.S.-funded database used to

manage army and police payrolls

got phone calls summoning them

to the Defense Ministry. He is in

hiding, changing his location dai-

ly, he said, asking not to be identi-

fied for his safety.

In victory, the Taliban’s leaders

have continued to say they are not

interested in retribution. Restor-

ing international aid and getting

foreign-held assets unfrozen are a

priority. There are few signs of the

draconian restrictions — especial-

ly on women — they imposed

when they ruled from 1996 to 2001.

There are also no indications that

Afghans who worked with Amer-

icans have been systematically

persecuted.

Ali Karimi, a University of

Pennsylvania scholar, is among

Afghans unready to trust the Tali-

ban. He worries the databases will

give rigid fundamentalist theo-

crats, known during their insur-

gency for ruthlessly killing enemy

collaborators, “the same capabil-

ity as an average U.S. government

agency when it comes to surveil-

lance and interception.”

The Taliban are on notice that

the world will be watching how

they wield the data.

All Afghans — and their inter-

national partners — have an obli-

gation together to ensure sensitive

government data only be used for

“development purposes” and not

for policing or social control by the

Taliban or to serve other govern-

ments in the region, said Nader

Nadery, a peace negotiator and

head of the civil service commis-

sion in the former government.

Uncertain for the moment is the

fate of one of the most sensitive da-

tabases — the one used to pay sol-

diers and police.

The Afghan Personnel and Pay

System has data on more than

700,000 security forces members

dating back 40 years, said a senior

security official from the fallen

government.

Its more than 40 data fields in-

clude birth dates, phone numbers,

fathers’ and grandfathers’ names

and could query fingerprints and

iris and face scans stored in a dif-

ferent database with which it was

integrated, said two Afghan con-

tractors who worked on it, speak-

ing on condition of anonymity for

fear of retribution.

Only authorized users can ac-

cess that system, so if the Taliban

can’t find one, they can be expect-

ed to try to hack it with aid from

other nations, said the former offi-

cial, who asked not to be identified

for fear of the safety of relatives in

Kabul.

Originally conceived to fight

payroll fraud, that system was

supposed to interface eventually

with a powerful database at the

Defense and Interior ministries

modeled on one the Pentagon cre-

ated in 2004 to achieve “identity

dominance” by collecting finger-

prints and iris and face scans in

combat areas.

But the homegrown Afghanis-

tan Automated Biometric Identifi-

cation Database grew from a tool

to vet army and police recruits for

loyalty to contain 8.5 million re-

cords, including on government

foes and the civilian population.

When Kabul fell it was being up-

graded, along with a similar data-

base in Iraq, under a $75 million

contract signed in 2018.

U.S. officials have said it was se-

cured before the Taliban could ac-

cess it.

Before the U.S. pullout, the en-

tire database was erased with mil-

itary-grade data-wiping software,

said William Graves, chief engi-

neer at the Pentagon’s biometrics

project management office.

Similarly, 20 years of data col-

lected from telecommunications

and internet intercepts since 2001

by Afghanistan’s intelligence

agency were wiped clean, said the

former Afghan security official.

US-built databasesa potential tool ofTaliban repression

BY FRANK BAJAK

Associated Press

RAHMAT GUL/AP

An employee scans a woman’s eyes for biometric data needed to apply for a passport at the passportoffice in Kabul, Afghanistan.


AFGHANISTAN

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Ger-

many — Air Force Col. Amy Glis-

son walked through a fenced-off

area on the flight line ramp where

thousands of Afghan evacuees are

temporarily housed.

Hundreds of children were

queued up for a midday snack of

fruit and juice. Glisson said hello,

smiled and exchanged high-fives

and fist bumps with the less timid

in the crowd.

As the camp commander, Glis-

son has the enormous task of ma-

naging the day-to-day operations

of housing, feeding, protecting

and transporting evacuees at

Ramstein.

“It’s just been an incredibly fast

learning curve for us as we fig-

ured out the human element,”

said Glisson, who’s also the 86th

Mission Support Group com-

mander at the Ramstein base.

At the height of the largest U.S.

airlift in history, Glisson and her

team learned to build tents in-

credibly fast and distribute tens of

thousands of meals per day to sup-

port a peak of 21,000 people be-

tween Ramstein and the Army’s

Rhine Ordnance Barracks.

As of Tuesday morning, a com-

bined nearly 12,000 evacuees

were at the two bases awaiting

further transit. An additional 230

were expected to arrive within 12

hours.

But the biggest success, Glisson

said, was identifying early on that

communication was critical, not

just for the military and civilian

personnel supporting the mission

but also for the Afghans, she said.

While she made the rounds, an

Afghan named Alex, who had

been an interpreter for U.S.

forces, thanked Glisson.

“You guys are working hard” to

make camp comfortable, he told

Glisson last week. But he had a re-

quest: Could the Afghan soldiers

in camp from the same unit, who

fought together for many years

and are like family, move forward

together to the next destination?

Glisson said they’ll look into

that. She thanked Alex and the

other men gathered around for

their support in Afghanistan for

20 years.

Her next stop was a tent shared

by a family of 12. A father, who

spoke little English, introduced

Glisson to his twin teenage daugh-

ters with matching dimples and

different-colored head scarves.

He pointed to the feet of a boy who

was wearing new sandals.

“I think he was trying to say

thank you because we have been

able to provide shoes and scarves

for his family,” Glisson said.

Glisson’s memory of the night

Ramstein welcomed its first

guests on Aug. 20 is vivid. The

moon shone brightly as 45 eva-

cuees walked toward the Red

Cross table to pick up hygiene

care packages.

“All of a sudden, the call to

prayer went out,” Glisson re-

called. “Everyone kind of paused.

We waited, and as soon as the call

to prayer was over, the first Af-

ghans stepped across the line into

our camp. It was a very surreal

moment for all of us that were out

there.”

But what also stands out for

Glisson about that initial welcome

is what wasn’t said. “We didn’t

communicate with them because

we didn’t really know what to say.

We’d never done this before,” she

said.

Tensions soon mounted in

camp.

“In the first 12 to 18 hours, we

started to see a little bit of a strug-

gle inside that camp,” Glisson

said. “We didn’t understand what

it was. Folks were frustrated.”

They “cracked the code,” with

help from elders in the first group,

who approached the Americans

and said, “We need to help you

help us,” Glisson said. “We sat

down and had our very first elders

meeting.”

The Afghans arrive with few

personal belongings and many

questions about their future, their

families and their basic needs:

How long are we going to be here;

is there enough food; can we get

more blankets; is there clothing;

where are our bags; is there Wi-Fi

to reach family back home?

“There are so many un-

knowns,” Glisson said. “We found

that sharing that information with

the elders and asking them to

share that across this community,

that there is enough food, that

there is enough water. Once that

message began to spread, we had

a lot less anxiety at food lines, peo-

ple weren’t grabbing for extra

blankets. There was a sense of

calm.”

They soon made sure to begin

communicating with Afghans as

soon as they arrived.

The message: “We are so glad

that you are here, and we are here

to make sure that you are safe and

that you are secure,” Glisson said.

Also facilitating communica-

tion with evacuees is the cultural

engagement team. The core of the

team consists of two public affairs

officers and two Special Forces

soldiers, the latter chosen for their

understanding of the nuances of

Afghan culture shaped by previ-

ous deployments to Afghanistan.

They remind the many U.S. mil-

itary reinforcements and volun-

teers “of the hell that these people

went through to get here,” said

one of the soldiers, who base offi-

cials said could not be identified

because of the nature of his job.

“They’re amped-up, they’re

stressed, they just lost their

homes. Even when they’re argu-

ing or demanding answers, we

say, ‘Hey, take a step back, be pa-

tient.’ ”

Don’t treat the mission like a

military operation, the Special

Forces soldiers advised, because

it’s not. It’s best to “let them han-

dle their own stuff ... and how they

want to do it.”

Using that approach, the eva-

cuees have been allowed to make

some modifications to camp.

Families bunk together, so women

and children aren't separated

from the men.

Some Afghans opt to sleep on

cardboard and blankets on the

floor rather than on the cots pro-

vided by the military.

They hand-wash their clothes

with soap and water on metal

trash can lids and drape them over

the fence to dry instead of using

washers and dryers.

Ramstein can’t provide Wi-Fi

and cigarettes, two of the most

common requests. The Wi-Fi sig-

nal is already notoriously bad

near Ramstein’s flight line, and

cigarettes and jet fuel don’t mix,

base officials said.

But once evacuees settle in and

their basic needs are met, they

“ask for a little bit more,” such as

hot tea, Glisson said.

Glisson would tell them, “We’re

still trying to feed a lot of people.

And that if you come back next

week, I might have hot tea for you.

And then they’ll laugh.”

Most Afghans are eager to con-

tinue their journey rather than

stick around for hot tea. But just

this week, as more people depart

Ramstein, the base was able to set

up hot tea stations for evacuees, a

base spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Communication key in support of evacuees

[email protected] Twitter: @stripesktown

An Afghan family prepares to board a plane at Ramstein Air Base onSept. 2. More than 22,000 evacuees from Afghanistan have flownthrough Ramstein to the United States or other destinations.

An Afghan boy is warmed by aRed Cross blanket during a chillynight in Germany at Ramstein AirBase’s temporary living facilitiesfor evacuees from Afghanistan.

Ramstein officialslearned to workthrough elders

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN

Stars and Stripes

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER H .SVAN/Stars and Stripes

Air Force Col. Amy Glisson visits with children inside temporary living facilities for evacuees at RamsteinAir Base, Germany on Sept. 2. Glisson, the 86th Mission Support Group commander at Ramstein, is thecamp commander for the daytoday operations of receiving, housing and sending tens of thousands ofevacuees on to the United States.


Active-duty airmen and SpaceForce guardians must be fully vac-cinated against the coronavirus byNov. 2 unless they have a valid ex-emption, Air Force officials havesaid.

That means they must have hada single-dose COVID-19 vaccineor both doses of a two-shot vaccineat least two weeks before that date,a statement released Friday said.

Air Force reservists and Guard-smen have until Dec. 2 to meet theinoculation requirements, whichwere announced two weeks afterDefense Secretary Lloyd Austinordered all troops to get the shotafter the Food and Drug Adminis-

tration approved the two-dosePfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Aug.23.

Military providers will initiallyoffer only the Pfizer-BioNTechvaccine, but airmen and guardi-ans can continue to volunteer toreceive vaccines authorized foremergency use by the FDA, in-cluding the two-shot Modernavaccine and the single-dose Jans-sen vaccines, the statement said.Those can be given by military orcivilian providers.

The obligation to meet the vacci-nation deadline will only bewaived for service members whoare granted medical or adminis-trative exemptions, including forreligious reasons, the statement

said. Having an approved retire-ment or separation date will notlead to exemption if that is the solereason cited by a service member.

Those who don’t have an ex-emption but refuse to have thevaccine could be punished underthe Uniform Code of Military Jus-tice.

“We are taking an aggressiveapproach to protect our servicemembers, their families and theircommunities from COVID-19 andthe highly transmissible Deltavariant,” Undersecretary of theAir Force Gina Ortiz Jones said inthe statement. “As members of thenation’s armed forces, our airmenand guardians must be able to re-spond to situations around the

globe — being fully vaccinatedwill help us safely meet the read-iness requirements that our na-tional security depends on.”

The Air Force deadlines wereannounced a week after the Navysaid that active-duty Marines andsailors must be fully vaccinated byNov. 28 and reservists by Dec. 28.

Vaccination is mandatory evenif a service member has been in-fected with the coronavirus, theNavy said in a statement, notingthat all COVID-19 deaths in theservice have been among “indi-viduals not (fully) immunized.”

The Army has not yet an-nounced a timeline for soldiers tobe fully vaccinated.

Airmen and guardians who

have proof of vaccination in theirmedical records will be consid-ered to have met the Air Force’scoronavirus inoculation require-ments.

The process for airmen andguardians to follow to obtain ex-emptions for medical reasons isexplained in AFI 48-110_IP, Im-munizations and Chemoprophy-laxis for the Prevention of Infec-tious Diseases, and, on religiousgrounds, in DAFI 52-201, Reli-gious Freedom in the Departmentof the Air Force, the statementsaid.

Air Force sets COVID vaccination deadlineBY KARIN ZEITVOGEL

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes reporter David Edge contributedto this [email protected] Twitter: @StripesZeit

on Tuesday. Sasebo Naval Basein a Facebook post said nine peo-ple had tested positive sinceThursday.

Six developed symptoms ofCOVID-19 and three were dis-covered during contact tracing,according to the base. Sasebohas 17 active cases.

At Yokota Air Base in westernTokyo, Dr. David Leary, an AirForce lieutenant colonel and thepublic health emergency offi-cer, said Friday that COVID-19cases surged 10-fold in the areaaround the base in the past 2 ½

TOKYO — The fifth wave ofcoronavirus in Japan’s capitalcity, although showing signs ofweakening, continued Tuesdaywith another 1,629 newly infect-ed people, public broadcasterNHK reported.

Tokyo for 16 consecutive dayshas recorded new case numberslower than a week prior, accord-ing to data from the metropoli-tan government. Tuesday’s newcases were 1,280 fewer thanthose Aug. 31, according to met-

ro government data.The city, like 20 other prefec-

tures in Japan, is under a state ofemergency until Sunday thataims to restrict alcohol sales atbars and restaurants, limit theirbusiness hours and encourageresidents to stay home.

Some U.S. military commandshave placed much of the countryoff-limits to off-duty personneldue to surging cases of CO-VID-19, the coronavirus respira-tory disease.

One U.S. installation in Japanreported new coronavirus cases

months. “That’s a lot,” he said during

an interview with AmericanForces Network Tokyo.

Base commander Col. AndrewCampbell in the same interviewsaid that surge was one reasonhe approved tighter restrictionson travel for most base person-nel. A two-week ban on unvacci-nated personnel leaving the baseexpires Thursday.

Okinawa prefecture, home to alarge population of U.S. forces,including Marines, reported 383new cases Tuesday, according to

the prefectural Department ofPublic Health and Medical Care.Another 558 people tested posi-tive Saturday, followed by 367on Sunday and 167 on Monday.

Japan reported 8,282 newcases and 40 related deathsMonday, according to the JohnsHopkins Coronavirus ResourceCenter. Nearly half, 47%, of Ja-pan’s population, or 59.6 millionpeople, are fully vaccinated.

Nine virus cases at US naval base as Tokyo numbers continue to slideBY JOSEPH DITZLER

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributedto this [email protected] Twitter: @Joseph Ditzler

VIRUS OUTBREAK

March 11, 2021. It was supposedto be a turning point in the coro-navirus pandemic for Erin Tok-ley, a longtime Philadelphia policeofficer, Baptist minister and 47-year-old father of three. It wassupposed to be the day of his vac-cine appointment.

Instead it was the date of his fu-neral.

Tokley — “Toke” to his friendsand family — died on March 3, be-coming the Philadelphia PoliceDepartment’s sixth confirmedCOVID-19 death.

Philadelphia officers first be-came eligible for their shots in lateJanuary and Tokley was eager toget it as soon as he could. But hefell ill in early February, before itwas his turn to roll up his sleeve.

The resurgence of COVID-19this summer and the national de-bate over vaccine requirementshave created a fraught situationfor the nation’s first responders,who are dying in larger numbersbut pushing back against man-dates.

It’s a heartbreaking situationfor Tokley’s widow, Octavia, as the21st anniversary of their first date

approaches on Sept. 10. She saidshe has moved beyond her angerat other police officers who are re-fusing the vaccine, and is now dis-appointed. Her husband’s lifecouldn’t be saved, but theirs stillcan.

“I don’t want to have to be thereto support your family for this,”she said. “Nobody deserves this,especially when it can be prevent-ed.”

Her husband is one of 132 mem-bers of law enforcement agencieswho are known to have died of CO-VID-19 in 2021, as of Monday, ac-cording to the Officer Down Me-morial Page. In Florida alone lastmonth, six people affiliated withlaw enforcement died over a 10-day period.

In the first half of 2021, 71 lawenforcement officials in the U.S.died from the virus — a small de-crease compared to the 76 whodied in the same time period in2020, per data compiled by the Na-tional Law Enforcement OfficersMemorial Fund. Last year, the to-tal figure was 241 — making the vi-rus the the leading cause of lawenforcement line-of-duty deaths.

Despite the deaths, police offi-cers and other first responders are

among those most hesitant to getthe vaccine and their cases contin-ue to grow. No national statisticsshow the vaccination rate forAmerica’s entire population offirst responders but individual po-lice and fire departments acrossthe country report figures far be-low the national rate of 74% ofadults who have had at least onedose.

Frustrated city leaders are en-acting mandates for their munici-pal employees — including policeofficers and firefighters — as thedelta variant surges. The man-dates’ consequences range fromweekly testing to suspension totermination. It’s a stark contrastfrom the beginning of the vaccinerollout when first responderswere prioritized for shots.

“It makes me sad that they don’tsee it as another safety precau-tion,” Octavia Tokley said. “Youwear masks, you wear bulletproofvests. You protect each other.That’s what you do, you protectand you serve.”

Nearly 3,000 miles away, SanFrancisco firefighter ChristopherSalas offers his condolences toTokley’s family. “I feel for her, Ifeel for her husband,” he said.

Salas, 58, has nearly 28 years onthe job — 21 of them in the city’stough Tenderloin district. Hewears a mask and washes hishands and sanitizes himself. Buthe stops short at getting the shot —and plans to retire early instead ofacquiescing to the city’s ultima-tum of get vaccinated or get termi-nated.

“I’m not an anti-vaxxer,” hesaid. “I have all my other vaccines.I’m just not taking this one.”

He considered it, just to be ableto finish out his career with threedecades of service.

But after praying about it withhis wife, he remains concernedabout the efficacy and side effectsof the vaccine.

“I don’t think I’d be comfortablewith myself if I did something thatwent against my belief,” he said ofgetting the vaccine. “It’s about lib-erty and having your own choiceto be your own person.”

First responders resist mandatesBY STEFANIE DAZIO

Associated Press

LAURENCE KESTERSON/AP

Octavia Tokley standing right, along with her motherinlaw, Ikelyn,stepdaughter Tamaira, 21, stepson XavierSunday, 12, and daughterAmethyst, five, pose with a portrait of Erin "Toke" Tokley, a cop whodied from COVID19 in March, on Aug. 29 in Secane, Pa.


Family and friends took to social

media over the weekend to honor

the five Helicopter Sea Combat

Squadron 8 crewmembers who

died last Tuesday when their heli-

copter crashed into the Pacific

Ocean.

The MH-60S

helicopter

crashed during

what the Navy

described only as

routine flight op-

erations 70 miles

off the coast of

San Diego.

The Navy's

identification of the sailors coinci-

ded with a shift of the search to a

recovery operation after more

than 72 hours of coordinated res-

cue efforts to look for the wreck-

age, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a

statement Saturday.

The incident came less than a

week after 13 service members

were killed in a suicide bombing

outside Afghanistan's Hamid Kar-

zai International Airport in Kabul

—the most lethal day for American

forces in Afghanistan since 2011.

Five other sailors aboard the

USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft

carrier, where the aircraft was op-

erating before the crash, were also

injured. Those sailors were in sta-

ble conditions as of Saturday, said

Lt. Samuel R. Boyle, a spokesman

for the Pacific Fleet.

■ Naval Air Crewman (Heli-

copter) 2nd Class James P. Buriak,

31, grew up in Salem, Va., where he

attended Salem High School and

Roanoke College, according to a

GoFundMe fun-

draiser.

He joined the

Navy in 2017 and

served as a res-

cue swimmer as-

signed to Heli-

copter Sea Com-

bat Squadron 8,

the fundraiser

stated.

In Feb. 2020, Buriak was recog-

nized for rescuing a swimmer

caught in a rip current off Guam’s

Gun Beach.

“I just happened to be the person

there,” said Buriak in an interview

published by the Navy. “I would

like to think that regardless of who

it was, they would have done the

same. Someone said they needed

help, and anyone would do the

same in my shoes.”

Buriak is survived by his wife,

Megan, and son, Caulder, accord-

ing to an obituary published on the

Roanoke College website.

■ Hospital Corpsman 2nd

Class Sarah F. Burns, 31, hailed

from Severna Park, Md.

On Sunday, Maryland Gov. Lar-

ry Hogan paid tribute to Burns on

Twitter.

“I ask all Marylanders to join me

in sending our deepest condolenc-

es to the family of U.S. Navy Hospi-

tal Corpsman 2nd Class Sarah F.

Burns of Severna Park, and her

four fellow sail-

ors who were

killed in last

week’s tragic

helicopter

crash,” Hogan

wrote in the

tweet. “Fair

winds and fol-

lowing seas.”

Halye Alexys

Carver, a former shipmate of

Burns, shared memories and pho-

tos of the sailor in a post on Face-

book.

“Sarah you were such a sweet

soul, and will be missed,” the post

read.

Burns is survived by her hus-

band, Lucas, who is also in the Na-

vy, according to a GoFundMe fun-

draiser for Burns’ family.

■ Lt. Bradley A. Foster, 29, of

Oakhurst, Calif., was an Eagle

Scout and a 2015 graduate of the

California State University Mari-

time Academy in Vallejo, Calif.

“Brad Foster represents the ve-

ry best of Cal Maritime, both dur-

ing time his time at our academy

and later in his service to the na-

tion,” Cal Maritime President Tom

Cropper said in a statement posted

to the school’s website. “Enthusias-

tic, optimistic, and mature beyond

his years, Brad took the road less

traveled.”

Foster, a pilot, was a 2009 gradu-

ate of Yosemite

High, where he

was excelled in

swimming and

water polo, ac-

cording to the

Fresno Bee

newspaper on

Sunday. He

earned Eagle

Scout, the Boy

Scouts’ highest rank, that year.

Foster also attended Fresno

State University before joining the

Navy in 2012, according to the Bee,

and worked through high school

and college at his parents’ Sears

Home Store.

He is survived by his wife, Beth,

and their 1-year-old daughter, Au-

drey, according to a GoFundMe

fundraiser for Foster’s family.

■ Lt. Paul R. Fridley, 28, from

Annandale, Va., was remembered

in several tributes posted to social

media.

“Rest In Peace, Paul Fridley. A

great Woodson football player

from the Class of 2011 and an even

better person,” said a tweet posted

on the Twitter account for the W. T.

Woodson High School football

team. “Thank you for your service

to our country.”

“Paul was a man of light,” said

Navid Galt in a comment posted to

the GoFundMe fundraiser for Fri-

dley’s family. “His smile and atti-

tude brought en-

ergy and positiv-

ity to ever en-

counter he was

apart of.”

Fidley is sur-

vived by his wife,

Sarah, according

to the Go-

FundMe.

■ Hospital

Corpsman 3rd Class Bailey J.

Tucker, 21, of St. Louis, graduated

in 2018 from Parkway North High

School, broadcaster KMOV re-

ported Tuesday. Tucker was on the

wrestling team at school.

Friends described him as a hard

worker, a good friend and a jokes-

ter, according to the station.

“Biggest heart once you got to

know him, would do anything for

you,” a friend, Baileigh Sample,

told the station.

“Lit up the room even if things

were sad.”

Tucker is survived by his par-

ents, according to a GoFundMe

fundraising page.

Tributes pour in for 5 sailors killed in crash BY KAT BOUZA

AND JOSEPH DITZLER

Stars and Stripes

Buriak Burns Foster Fridley Tucker

MILITARY


NATION

For millions of Americans, the

Labor Day weekend brought the

end of federally funded emergency

unemployment benefits and a lurch

into the uncertain economic recov-

ery.

Then there are those stranded in a

bureaucratic nightmare, still wait-

ing for benefits they are owed.

Laura Ulrich, 59, was laid off in

January from her job managing the

distribution of coins in the Balti-

more area for an armored car com-

pany. She spent the past week hop-

ing that a summer of contacting offi-

cials in Maryland was going to bear

fruit and more than $14,000 in un-

employment insurance would final-

ly land.

“It’s becoming so frustrating. It’s

wearing on me. It’s wearing on my

blood pressure. I can just feel it,” Ul-

rich said.

On Saturday, after Bloomberg

News raised her case with the office

of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan,

$11,200 finally landed in her bank

account.

Ulrich’s happy moment came af-

ter months of frustrating encoun-

ters with a vital but occasionally cru-

el pillar of the economic safety net,

experiences shared by many of the

8.4 million Americans who re-

mained unemployed in August.

Their ordeal highlights how the de-

bate over whether supplemental

benefits have kept people home and

held back the job-market recovery

often misses just how difficult secu-

ring aid in the first place can be for

applicants.

According to U.S. Treasury data,

the government has spent more

than $830 billion on unemployment

insurance from the onset of the CO-

VID-19 crisis through Sept. 1.

State agencies that handle these

payments have long suffered from

antiquated systems and a chronic

lack of staffing. The pandemic made

it worse with the massive influx of

people who lost their jobs and a wave

of alleged fraud that led states to

freeze numerous claims — includ-

ing Ulrich’s — pending review.

In the year to June 30, according

to Department of Labor data, 58% of

claims nationally resulted in a first

payment within the 21 days re-

quired.

Not much has changed since

June. “I’m not seeing a lot of states

meeting that benchmark yet,” said

Michele Evermore, a senior policy

adviser at the labor department.

In Florida, 58,000 unemployment

accounts were frozen over the sum-

mer after a data breach resulted in

personal details being leaked. State

officials said all “verified” accounts

affected have been unlocked. As of

Sept. 1, 47,288 claims more widely

were still awaiting verification, ac-

cording to Florida’s public data

dashboard.

Maryland has paid out 41% of

claims within 21 days over the past

year, according to federal data.

Frustration over delays led activists

to sue the state.

Aspokesman for Hogan, Michael

Ricci, said 20,795 unemployment

claims were still “pending” as of this

week. He blamed delays on the

state’s strict procedures to verify ap-

plications.

In Georgia, the median age of ap-

peals filed by claimants was 322

days, or more than 11 months, at the

end of June, according to research-

ers at the Southern Poverty Law

Center. The state Department of La-

bor is working seven days a week

processing appeals, but it will likely

take months to clear the backlog,

said spokeswoman Kersha Cart-

wright.

“It really just pushes people into

desperation,” said Wingo Smith, a

regional policy analyst at the SPLC,

which has sued Georgia on behalf of

residents waiting for benefits.

To Evermore, who before joining

the Biden administration worked as

an advocate for reform of the unem-

ployment system, cases like Ul-

rich’s illustrate the need for a long-

delayed makeover of unemploy-

ment insurance, or UI.

One problem hanging over the de-

bate has been what state and federal

officials say has been a huge amount

of fraud in the unemployment sys-

tem. Because of the fraud concerns,

states are now re-examining unem-

ployment claims approved early in

the pandemic and reversing deci-

sions. They are also sending out bills

for “overpayments” to an untold

number of beneficiaries.

The resulting self-perpetuating

bureaucratic mess will take at least

a year to clear nationally, said An-

drew Stettner, a senior fellow at the

think tank Century Foundation. The

unemployment system remains

akin to an assembly line “that just

can’t handle the volume,” Stettner

said. “If you put too many things on

it, the whole thing breaks.”

Backlog in jobless claims bedevils filersBY SHAWN DONNAN

Bloomberg News

ELIZABETH DJINIS, TAMPA BAY TIMES/TNS

Jeff Clark stares into the abyss of Florida’s unemployment reclaim system from the kitchen counter of hisSafety Harbor, Fla., home. Millions of Americans are still waiting for benefits they are owed.

RICHMOND, Va. — A towering statue of Confeder-

ate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Va., will be taken

down on Wednesday as a symbol of racial injustice,

more than 130 years after it was erected in tribute to the

South’s Civil War leader.

While many other Confederate symbols across the

South have been removed without public announce-

ments beforehand to avoid unruly crowds, Gov. Ralph

Northam’s office is expecting a multitude and plans to

livestream the event on social media.

“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate in-

surrection will come down this week,” Northam said in

news release on Monday. “This is an important step in

showing who we are and what we value as a common-

wealth.”

The imposing, 21-foot tall bronze likeness of Lee on a

horse sits atop a granite pedestal nearly twice that high

in the grassy center of a traffic circle on Richmond’s

famed Monument Avenue.

Gov. Ralph Northam announced plans to take down

the statue in June 2020, 10 days after George Floyd died

under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, sparking

nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.

The plans were stalled for more than a year by two law-

suits filed by residents opposed to its removal, but rul-

ings last week by the Supreme Court of Virginia cleared

the way for the statue to be taken down.

In Monday’s news release, state officials said that

preparations for the statue’s removal will began 6 p.m.

Tuesday when crews will install protective fencing.

Once the statue is hoisted off the pedestal, it’s expected

to be cut into two pieces for transport, although the final

plan is subject to change, said Dena Potter, a spokeswo-

man for the state’s Department of General Services.

After the statue is taken down Wednesday, crews on

Thursday will remove plaques from the base of the mon-

ument and will replace a time capsule that is believed to

be there.

In Richmond, a city that was the capital of the Confed-

eracy for much of the Civil War, the Lee statue became

the epicenter of last summer’s protest movement. The

city has removed more than a dozen other pieces of Con-

federate statuary on city land since Floyd’s death.

The Lee statue was created by the internationally re-

nowned French sculptor Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercie

and is considered a “masterpiece,” according to its nom-

ination to the National Register of Historic Places,

where it has been listed since 2007.

Va. set to remove capital’s Lee statueAssociated Press

STEVE HELBER/AP

The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee onMonument Avenue in Richmond, Va., is scheduledto be removed by the state Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The Justice

Department said Monday that it

will not tolerate violence against

anyone who is trying to obtain an

abortion in Texas as federal offi-

cials explore options to challenge

a new state law that bans most

abortions.

Attorney General Merrick Gar-

land said the Justice Department

would “protect those seeking to

obtain or provide reproductive

health services” under a federal

law known as the Freedom of Ac-

cess to Clinic Entrances Act.

Garland said in a statement that

federal prosecutors are still ur-

gently exploring options to chal-

lenge the Texas law. He said the

Justice Department would en-

force the federal law “in order to

protect the constitutional rights of

women and other persons, includ-

ing access to an abortion.”

The federal law, commonly

known as the FACE Act, prohibits

physically obstructing or using

the threat of force to intimidate or

interfere with a person seeking re-

productive health services. The

law also prohibits damaging prop-

erty at abortion clinics and other

reproductive health centers.

The new Texas law prohibits

abortions once medical profes-

sionals can detect cardiac activity,

usually around six weeks — be-

fore some women know they’re

pregnant. Courts have blocked

other states from imposing similar

restrictions, but Texas’ law differs

significantly because it leaves en-

forcement up to private citizens

through lawsuits instead of crimi-

nal prosecutors.

Justice Department officials

have also been in contact with U.S.

attorneys in Texas and the FBI

field offices in the state to discuss

enforcing the federal provisions.

“The department will provide

support from federal law enforce-

ment when an abortion clinic or

reproductive health center is un-

der attack,” Garland said. “We

will not tolerate violence against

those seeking to obtain or provide

reproductive health services,

physical obstruction or property

damage in violation of the FACE

Act.”

Federal officials to ‘protect’abortion seekers in Texas

Associated Press


SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.

—The lifting of a mandatory evac-

uation order for South Lake Ta-

hoe’s 22,000 residents is a confi-

dent milestone in the fight against

the Caldor Fire, but it remains on-

ly 48% contained and still threat-

ens areas south of the resort town.

Firefighters are confronting ag-

gressive winds and flames in some

southeast sections of the Caldor

Fire, which could still reach

Meyers, a community more than a

mile high known as the gateway to

Lake Tahoe, and other areas in-

cluding the Kirkwood ski resort.

And although the evacuation is

no longer mandatory for the

smoke-cloaked city on the lake’s

south shore, more than 5,000 per-

sonnel are still working to protect

the surrounding resort communi-

ties and the homes of employees

who staff casinos, restaurants and

ski resorts.

“We’re also looking long term —

what’s going to happen, four, five

or six days down the road. We

want to make sure we’re planning

and having stuff ready and com-

pleted” before more people can

return home, Cal Fire official John

Davis said. “And if it comes soon-

er, we are already in the planning

process for the whole area that’s

still under evacuation order.”

When the 338 square-mile wild-

fire gobbled up pine trees and

crossed the Sierra Nevada last

week, South Lake Tahoe trans-

formed into a ghost town. The city

appeared slightly rebounded on

Monday, yet still mostly empty

compared to normal holiday

weekends.

“I was honestly convinced this

place was gonna go down,” Lake

Tahoe Community College stu-

dent Dakota Jones said Monday

upon his return. “It was nice to see

that I was wrong.”

The Caldor Fire erupted Aug. 14

and was burning as many as 1,000

acres an hour at its peak as it

spread across dense forests, tree-

dotted granite cliffs and scattered

cabins and hamlets in the north-

ern Sierra Nevada. Through tac-

tics including bulldozing defense

lines and air-dropping Lake Ta-

hoe water onto the flames, crews

successfully carved a perimeter

around much of the wildfire.

Fire officials still expect hot

spots, but hope to make enough

progress to lift more evacuation

orders in the coming days. Much

depends on the wind, rain and

lightning that coming thunder-

storms may yield.

Winds have been easing, allow-

ing firefighters to make progress

containing the conflagration, but

authorities remain concerned

about southwest winds sparking

spot fires. In Northern California,

the weather is expected to cool

slightly and the humidity to rise

starting on Tuesday.

“We are drier than I have seen

on my 20 days on this fire,” Jim

Dudley, incident meteorologist,

said Monday. “There’s a lot of po-

tential weather-wise for little

things to become maybe not so lit-

tle.”

No deaths have been reported

specifically from the fires, which

have shut down all national forests

in the state.

Evacuation orderslifted despite firethreat to Tahoe

BY SAM METZ

AP/Report for America

JANE TYSKA, BAY AREA NEWS GROUP/AP

South Lake Tahoe Council member John Friedrich waves to passingcars as they honk their horns along Highway 50 near Stateline, Nev.,in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., on Monday.

hit the U.S. mainland, Entergy

Louisiana President and CEO

Phillip May said.

More than 530,000 customers

still don’t have power in Louisia-

na, just under half of the peak

when Ida struck eight days ago. In

five parishes west and south of

New Orleans, at least 98% of

homes and businesses don’t have

power, according to the state Pub-

lic Service Commission.

“It’s going to be a rebuild, not a

repair,” May said.

The struggles in rural Louisiana

shouldn’t keep people from for-

getting the “near miraculous”

speed of the repairs in New Or-

leans, Entergy New Orleans Pres-

ident and CEO Deanna Rodriguez

said.

“I am so proud of the team and I

think it’s a fabulous good news sto-

ry,” she said.

But things aren’t normal in New

Orleans. An 8 p.m. curfew re-

mains in effect and numerous

roads are impassable. Pickup of

large piles of debris residents and

businesses have been leaving on

curbs will begin Tuesday, officials

said.

NEW ORLEANS — Officials in

New Orleans will thoroughly in-

spect senior living apartments in

the city in the aftermath of Hurri-

cane Ida after finding people liv-

ing in buildings without working

generators, which left residents

trapped in wheelchairs on dark,

sweltering upper floors, Mayor

LaToya Cantrell said Monday.

Hundreds were evacuated Sat-

urday and the city later said five

people had died in the privately

run buildings in the days after the

storm. The coroner’s office is in-

vestigating whether the deaths

will be attributed to the hurricane,

which struck land nine days be-

fore.

The managers of some of the

homes for seniors evacuated out of

state without making sure the res-

idents would be safe after the

storm, New Orleans City Council

member Kristin Palmer said at a

news conference.

“They’re hiding under the loop-

hole of ‘independent living,’”

Palmer said. “It’s not independent

living if there’s no power and

you’re in a wheelchair on the

fourth floor.”

The city is creating teams of

workers from the health, safety

and permits, code enforcement

and other departments. Their first

focus is to make sure the senior

homes are safe and evacuate peo-

ple if necessary, Cantrell said.

But after that, management will

be held accountable, and the city

will likely add requirements that

include facilities having emergen-

cy agreements in place with con-

tractors who will make sure gen-

erator power is available at the

sites, the mayor said.

Crews in Louisiana have re-

stored power to nearly 70% of

greater New Orleans and nearly

all of Baton Rouge after Hurri-

cane Ida, but outside those large

cities, getting lights back on is a

complex challenge that will last

almost all of September, utility ex-

ecutives said Monday.

It’s going to involve air boats to

get into the swamps and marshes

to string lines and repair the most

remote of about 22,000 power

poles that Ida blew down when it

came ashore on Aug. 29 as one of

the most powerful hurricanes to

JOHN LOCHER/AP

Philip Adams walks through what remains of his living room and kitchen at his hurricanedestroyed home inthe aftermath of Hurricane Ida on Monday in Lockport, La.

New Orleans: Seniors left indark, hot facilities after Ida

Associated Press

NATION

HILLSBOROUGH TOWN-

SHIP, N.J. — President Joe Bi-

den focused on long-term fixes

as well as short-term relief Tues-

day as he toured parts of the

Northeast that suffered deadly

flash flooding from the remnants

of Hurricane Ida.

The president was expected to

use the muddy backdrops during

his visits to Manville, New Jer-

sey, and the New York City bor-

ough of Queens to call for federal

spending to fortify infrastruc-

ture so it can better withstand

such powerful storms.

Biden’s plan to spend $1 tril-

lion on infrastructure nation-

wide is pending in Congress.

“I’m hoping to be able to see

the things we are going to be able

to fix permanently with the bill

that we have in for infrastruc-

ture,” Biden said as he left the

White House, when asked what

he hoped to see on the tour.

New Jersey was Biden’s first

stop. Gov. Phil Murphy greeted

him as he arrived in Somerset

County for a briefing at the

emergency management train-

ing center before the tour of

Manville.

On the way, Biden’s motorcade

droved through a neighborhood

where piles of damaged furni-

ture, mattresses and other

household items were stacked

outside homes.

The route also was lined with

supporters of Republican former

President Donald Trump with

signs opposing Biden.

At least 50 people were killed

in six Eastern states as record

rainfall last week overwhelmed

rivers and sewer systems.

Biden surveys NJ storm damageAssociated Press


day, flying changed forever.

Security measures evolved with

new threats, and so travelers were

asked to take off belts and remove

some items from bags for scan-

ning. Things that clearly could be

wielded as weapons, like the box-

cutters used by the 9/11 hijackers,

were banned. After “shoe bom-

ber” Richard Reid’s attempt to

take down a flight in late 2001,

footwear started coming off at se-

curity checkpoints.

Each new requirement seemed

to make checkpoint lines longer.

To many travelers, other rules

were more mystifying, such as

limits on liquids because the

wrong ones could possibly be used

to concoct a bomb.

“It’s a much bigger hassle than

it was before 9/11 — much bigger

— but we have gotten used to it,”

Ronald Briggs said as he and his

wife, Jeanne, waited at Dallas/

Fort Worth International Airport

for a flight to London last month.

The long lines created by post-

attack measures gave rise to the

PreCheck and Global Entry

“trusted-traveler programs” in

which people who pay a fee and

provide certain information about

themselves pass through check-

points without removing shoes

and jackets or taking laptops out of

their bag.

But that convenience has come

at a cost: privacy.

On its application and in brief

interviews, PreCheck asks people

about basic information like work

history and where they have lived,

and they give a fingerprint and

agree to a criminal-records check.

Privacy advocates are particular-

ly concerned about ideas that TSA

has floated to also examine social

media postings (the agency’s top

official says that has been drop-

ped), press reports about people,

location data and information

from data brokers including how

applicants spend their money.

“It’s far from clear that that has

any relationship to aviation secu-

rity,” says Jay Stanley, a privacy

expert at the American Civil Lib-

erties Union.

More than 10 million people

have enrolled in PreCheck. TSA

wants to raise that to 25 million,

with the goal of allowing officers

to spend more time on passengers

considered to be a bigger risk.

At the direction of Congress, the

TSA will expand the use of private

vendors to gather information

from PreCheck applicants. It cur-

rently uses a company called Ide-

mia, and aims to add two more —

Telos Identity Management Solu-

tions and Clear Secure Inc.

Clear plans to use PreCheck en-

rollment to boost membership in

its own identity-verification prod-

uct by bundling the two offerings.

That will make Clear’s own prod-

uct more valuable to its custom-

ers, which include sports stadi-

ums and concert promoters.

“They are really trying to in-

crease their market share by col-

lecting quite a lot of very sensitive

data on as many people as they can

get their hands on,” says India

McKinney, director of federal af-

fairs for the Electronic Frontier

Foundation, an advocacy group

for digital rights.

TSA Administrator David Pe-

koske, though, sees Clear’s strate-

gy as helping TSA: “We have al-

lowed the vendors to bundle their

offerings together with the idea

that would be an incentive for peo-

ple to sign up for the trusted-trav-

eler programs.”

The TSA is testing the use of

kiosks equipped with facial-rec-

ognition technology to check pho-

to IDs and boarding passes. The

kiosks will also pull photos taken

when the traveler applied for Pre-

Check, McKinney says. That con-

cerns her because it would mean

connecting the kiosks to the inter-

net — TSA says that much is true

— and potentially exposing the in-

formation to hackers.

Despite the trauma that led to

its creation, and the intense desire

to avoid another 9/11, the TSA it-

self has frequently been the sub-

ject of questions about its meth-

ods, ideas and effectiveness.

Critics, including former TSA

officers, have derided the agency

as “security theater” that gives a

false impression of safeguarding

the traveling public. Pekoske dis-

misses that notion by citing the

number of guns seized at airport

checkpoints — more than 3,200

last year, 83% of them loaded — in-

stead of making it onto planes.

Pekoske also enumerated other

TSA tasks, including vetting pas-

sengers, screening checked bags

with 3-D technology, inspecting

cargo and putting federal air mar-

shals on flights.

“Rest assured: This is not secu-

rity theater,” Pekoske says. “It’s

real security.”

Many independent experts

agree with Pekoske’s assessment,

though they usually see areas

where the TSA must improve.

This summer, an average of

nearly 2 million people per day

have flowed through TSA check-

points. Most travelers accept any

inconvenience as the price of se-

curity in an uncertain world.

“They aren’t there to hassle

me,” said Paula Gathings, who

was waiting for a flight out of DFW

to Qatar and then another to Ke-

nya. “Every time somebody asks

me to do something, I can see the

reason for it.”

Several incidents highlight a

threat that TSA needs to worry

about — people who work for air-

lines or airports and have security

clearance that lets them avoid reg-

ular screening. Some examples:

■ In 2016, a bomb ripped a hole

in a Daallo Airlines plane, killing

the bomber, but 80 other passen-

gers and crew survived. Somali

authorities released video they

said showed the man being hand-

ed a laptop containing the bomb.

■ In 2018, a Delta Air Lines

baggage handler in Atlanta was

convicted of using his security

pass to smuggle more than 100

guns on flights.

■ The following year, an

American Airlines mechanic with

Islamic State videos on his phone

pleaded guilty to sabotaging a

plane full of passengers. Pilots

aborted the flight during takeoff.

“All those folks that have a (se-

curity) badge, you’re right, many

do have unescorted access

throughout an airport, but they al-

so go through a very rigorous vet-

ting process before they are even

hired,” Pekoske says.

With all the different ways that

deadly chaos could happen on air-

planes after 9/11, the fact remains:

Most of the time, it hasn’t. And

while the post-9/11 global airport

security apparatus has grown to

what some consider unreasonable

proportions, it will never neutral-

ize all threats — or even be able to

enforce the rules it has written.

“You can’t catch everything,”

says Nathan Dudney, a sales exec-

utive for a sporting goods manu-

facturer in Nashville, Tenn., who

says he occasionally forgets about

ammunition in his carry-on bag.

“They’re doing things to the best

of their ability.”

Changes: 'This is not security theater,’ TSA head saysFROM PAGE 1

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI/AP

Travelers wait in line at a security checkpoint in Denver International Airport last month. Two months afterthe 9/11 attacks, the Transportation Security Administration was created to improved airport security.

NATION

WASHINGTON — As the 20th

anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001,

terrorist attacks approaches,

Americans increasingly balk at in-

trusive government surveillance

in the name of national security,

and only about a third believe that

the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

were worth fighting, according to

a new poll.

The poll by The Associated

Press-NORC Center for Public Af-

fairs Research shows that support

for surveillance tools aimed at

monitoring conversations taking

place outside the country, once

seen as vital in the fight against at-

tacks, has dipped in the last dec-

ade. That’s even though interna-

tional threats are again generating

headlines following the chaotic

end to the 20-year war in Afghan-

istan. In particular, 46% of Amer-

icans say they oppose the U.S. gov-

ernment responding to threats

against the nation by reading

emails sent between people out-

side of the U.S. without a warrant,

as permitted under law for pur-

poses of foreign intelligence col-

lection. That’s compared to just

27% who are in favor. In an AP-

NORC poll conducted one decade

ago, more favored than opposed

the practice, 47% to 30%.

The new poll was conducted

Aug. 12-16 as the Taliban were

marching toward their rapid take-

over of the country. Since then, Af-

ghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate

launched a suicide bombing that

killed at least 169 Afghans and 13

U.S. service members, and ex-

perts have warned about the pos-

sibility of foreign militant groups

rebuilding in strength with the

U.S. presence gone.

In a marked turnabout from the

first years after 9/11, when Amer-

icans were more likely to tolerate

the government’s monitoring of

communications in the name of

defending the homeland, the poll

found bipartisan concerns about

the scope of surveillance and the

expansive intelligence collection

tools that U.S. authorities have at

their disposal.

The expansion in government

eavesdropping powers over the

last 20 years has coincided with a

similar growth in surveillance

technology across all corners of

American society, including traf-

fic cameras, smart TVs and other

devices that contribute to a near-

universal sense of being watched.

Americans are also more likely

to oppose government eavesdrop-

ping on calls outside the U.S. with-

out a warrant, 44% to 28%. Anoth-

er 27% hold neither opinion.

About two-thirds of Americans

continue to be opposed to the pos-

sibility of warrantless U.S. gov-

ernment monitoring of telephone

calls, emails and text messages

made within the U.S. Though the

National Security Agency is fo-

cused on surveillance abroad, it

does have the ability to collect the

communications of Americans as

they’re in touch with someone out-

side the country who is a target of

government surveillance.

About half are opposed to gov-

ernment monitoring of internet

searches, including those by U.S.

citizens, without a warrant. About

a quarter are in favor and 2 in 10

hold neither opinion. Roughly half

supported the practice a decade

ago.

Despite general surveillance

concerns, six in 10 Americans sup-

port the installation of surveil-

lance cameras in public places to

monitor potentially suspicious ac-

tivity.

Poll: Americans warier of US government surveillanceAssociated Press


AMERICAN ROUNDUP

Ex-Yale official chargedwith theft of computers

CT NEW HAVEN — A for-

mer Yale University

administrator faces federal fraud

and money laundering charges

related to the theft of millions of

dollars in computer equipment

from the university’s medical

school.

The 41-year-old woman served

in various positions at the school,

including director of finance for

the Department of Emergency

Medicine.

Prosecutors alleged that begin-

ning in 2013, the woman ran a

scheme that involved ordering

millions of dollars in computer

hardware from Yale vendors,

then shipping the equipment to an

out-of-state business in exchange

for money.

The former administrator

pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S.

District Court to mail fraud, wire

fraud and money laundering and

was freed after posting a $1 mil-

lion bond.

Man found asleep in ahome faces charges

DE REHOBOTH BEACH

— Police in Delaware

said an intoxicated, partly clothed

Virginia man was arrested after

he was found sleeping in a home

in a popular beach resort town.

Delaware State Police said in a

news release that the 26-year-old

man from Arlington, Va., entered

the victims’ residence in Reho-

both Beach and was found sleep-

ing in a bed. The home is located

just blocks off the beach.

Troopers responded early Sun-

day morning and found the man

in a rear bedroom on the second

floor of the house. Troopers de-

tected a strong smell of alcoholic

beverages and arrested the man

without a problem.

The victims found his wet

clothing in the bedroom and dis-

covered he was wearing one of

their shirts. He was charged with

burglary and theft.

Visitor center open at city’s1st national monument

IL CHICAGO — Years in the

making, the visitor center

and state historic site grounds at

the Pullman National Monument

have officially opened to the pub-

lic.

Chicago’s first national monu-

ment marks the site where Pull-

man passenger railroad cars were

built; employees lived nearby in

the neighborhood on the city’s

South Side. The sprawling Pull-

man company factory closed in

1982. The National Park Service’s

visitor center features exhibits on

worker demonstrations that

helped plant the seeds of the mod-

ern labor movement. For in-

stance, Black railroad workers

won a significant labor agreement

in the 1930s that helped lead to

worker protections.

Robert Bushwaller, a Historic

Pullman Foundation board mem-

ber, was encouraged by the

crowd on Saturday. Some drove

vintage cars to mark the opening

day during the Labor Day week-

end.

Then-President Barack Obama

designated the factory and sur-

rounding area a national monu-

ment in 2015. Restoration and re-

vitalization at the site has been

ongoing for years.

Kayak that fell off oftrailer kills motorcyclist

IA GUTTENBERG — A mo-

torcyclist was killed in

the northeastern corner of Iowa

when he was hit by a kayak that

had fallen from a trailer, the Iowa

State Patrol reported.

The crash happened Sunday

morning on a county road in Alla-

makee County, according to the

Telegraph Herald. John Thein,

75, of Guttenberg, was riding a

motorcycle northbound on the

road just before 11 a.m. and was

approaching a southbound pickup

truck pulling a trailer loaded with

kayaks when one of the kayaks

fell from the trailer, investigators

said.

The loose kayak hit Thein’s mo-

torcycle, causing the crash that

killed him. The investigation into

the fatal crash in ongoing.

Homicide suspect foundnaked, officially charged

MD ASPEN HILL — Po-

lice in Maryland say

that a suspect in another man’s

death was found naked and

charged with murder.

The Montgomery County Po-

lice Department said in a news re-

lease that the 58-year-old suspect

was charged with first-degree

murder in the killing on Friday.

Officers responded Friday af-

ternoon to the Aspen Hill area to a

report of shots fired.

The news release says the sus-

pect was “completely unclothed”

when officers arrived. He was ar-

rested without problem. Officers

then found another man with ap-

parent gunshots. He was pro-

nounced dead at the scene.

Suit: Paraplegic man’s foot‘shredded’ in coaster

UT FARMINGTON — A

paraplegic man who

was injured on a roller coaster is

now suing a Utah amusement

park, saying his paralyzed leg

wasn’t properly secured while he

was on the ride and his foot was

shredded.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported

Matthew Christensen filed the

lawsuit against Lagoon Amuse-

ment Park on Thursday in Davis

County’s 3rd District Court.

The lawsuit said Christensen’s

ligament in his big toe was “irrep-

arably shredded,” and that he suf-

fered fractures to his lower leg,

toe and two other foot bones.

A spokesman for the theme

park in Farmington, north of Salt

Lake City, said he couldn’t spec-

ulate on the facts of the incident,

which are under investigation.

4 wounded in shootingat SantaCaliGon Festival

MO INDEPENDENCE

— Four people were

wounded in a shooting at a festiv-

al in Missouri, prompting police

to use Facebook to urge parents to

pick up their children from the

event.

Independence police respon-

ded to the shooting at the Santa-

CaliGon Festival on Sunday night.

Police later said four people

had been shot, and all were ex-

pected to survive their injuries,

television station KCTV reported.

No arrests were announced. It

was not immediately clear what

led up to the shooting.

Sheriff: Counterfeit pillscause 2 fatal overdoses

VA LEESBURG — A

Northern Virginia

sheriff is warning that counterfeit

pills have led to two overdoses.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s

Office sent a warning Sunday that

its detectives have been investi-

gating two deaths that are be-

lieved to involve painkiller pills

that were likely counterfeit. Both

cases are pending toxicology.

The sheriff’s office said that

street-level pills are often laced

with fentanyl and other agents

that can be harmful.

The Virginia sheriff said his

warning follows a similar alert by

Frederick County, Md., health of-

ficials after non-fatal overdoses

there were attributed to counter-

feit pills. It’s not clear if the cases

in the two states are linked.

Animal shelter welcomingover 50 dogs from storm

NY PORT WASHINGTON

— More than 50 dogs

and puppies are scheduled to ar-

rive on Long Island after being

transported from shelters in Loui-

siana.

The North Shore Animal

League America in Port Washing-

ton said Sunday its emergency

rescue team will be arriving with

the dogs Monday. Working with

Shreveport, La.-based Paws4Life,

the animals were removed from

shelters in advance of Hurricane

Ida to make room for animals dis-

placed by the storm.

The animal league said it plans

to return to Shreveport next week

with additional supplies for shel-

ters there, and return with more

dogs. The organization began

working with shelters in Louisia-

na after Hurricane Katrina in

2005.

KRISTOPHER RADDER, THE BRATTLEBORO (VT.) REFORMER/AP

Zoe Luippold, 3, from Greenfield, Mass., gets help from her mother, Kristen, as they try to win a prize during the Guilford, Vt., Fair on Sunday.

Taking aim

THE CENSUS

116 The number of years it has been since the Portsmouth PeaceTreaty ended the Russo-Japanese War, which was celebrated

in New Hampshire on Sunday by ringing bells throughout the city. It was thesame way Portsmouth celebrated on Sept. 5, 1905. In 2010, the New Hamp-shire Legislature passed a bill designating that day as Portsmouth Peace TreatyDay. Each year since then, the governor has issued a proclamation calling onall New Hampshire citizens “to observe the day with appropriate ceremoniesand activities commemorating this important part of New Hampshire history.”

From The Associated Press


TAYLOR, Mich. — Valerie Rup-

ert raised her right arm, slightly

shaking and unsure as she aimed

at the paper target representing a

burglar, a robber or even a rapist.

The 67-year-old Detroit grand-

mother squeezed the trigger, the

echo of her shot blending into the

chorus of other blasts by other

women off the small gun range

walls.

“I was a little nervous, but after I

shot a couple of times, I enjoyed it,”

said Rupert, among 1,000 or so

mostly Black women taking part in

free weekend gun safety and

shooting lessons at two Detroit-ar-

ea ranges.

Black women like Rupert are in-

creasingly considering gun own-

ership for personal protection, ac-

cording to industry experts and

gun rights advocates.

Fear of crime, especially as

shootings and murders have risen

in cities big and small, is one driver

of the trend. But a new motivator is

the display of public anger in the

last 15 months beginning with con-

frontations in the wake of George

Floyd’s death in Minneapolis un-

der the knee of police officer De-

rek Chauvin.

Worries about the anger over

COVID-19-related restrictions

and the outrage over the outcome

of the presidential 2020 election,

driven by lies, are contributors,

too. In Michigan, that anger led to a

plot to kidnap the governor, as well

as instances where armed protes-

ters descended on the state Capi-

tol.

In April 2020, hundreds of con-

servative activists, including some

who were openly carrying assault

rifles, flocked to the Michigan

Capitol in Lansing to denounce

Democratic Gov. Gretchen

Whitmer’s stay-home order. Some

demonstrators — mostly white

and supporters of President Do-

nald Trump — entered the build-

ing carrying guns, which is legal in

the statehouse.

The sight of white men wearing

body armor and holding guns at

the Capitol still sticks with Rupert.

“They went up to the Capitol

with all those guns. You need to be

ready,” she said.

About 8.5 million people in the

United States bought their first

gun in 2020, the National Shooting

Sports Foundation says. The trade

association for the firearms indus-

try added that gun purchases by

Black men and Black women in-

creased by more than 58% over the

first six months of last year.

Gun ownership tends to in-

crease when people lose faith in

government and the police, said

Daniel Webster, professor of

American Health in Violence Pre-

vention at the Bloomberg School of

Public Health and director of the

Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Vi-

olence Prevention and Policy.

“We’ve seen such an increase in

white nationalist violence,” Web-

ster said. “Some combination of

the lack in faith in police protect-

ing you and hate groups has moti-

vated a lot of Black people to arm

up.”

Black firearm owners still rep-

resent a relatively small portion of

the gun-owning population, with

9.3% of gun owners being Black

men and 5.4% Black women. Near-

ly 56% of U.S. gun owners are

white men. Over 16% are white

women, the Newtown, Ct.-based

National Shooting Sports Founda-

tion says.

Black women seeguns as protectionfrom rising crime

BY COREY WILLIAMS

Associated Press

CARLOS OSORIO/AP

Firearms instructor Wayne Thomas teaches women the proper stance in firearms shooting at the RecoilFirearms store in Taylor, Mich., in August.

nance, he said.

Even though it was closed for

two months last year during the

pandemic, the 1,000-mile Hat-

field-McCoy Trails in West Vir-

ginia last year sold its highest

number of annual trail permits at

nearly 65,000, according to the of-

fice of Gov. Jim Justice, and ATV

permits for Maine residents jump-

ed 6%, officials said.

It’s a great economic driver for

those communities, Schloegel said

of the Hatfield-McCoy trail net-

work, “It’s everything from the

mom-and-pop gas stations to the

motels and hotels to the fast food

joints and the power sports dealer-

ships and service locations that

they’ve got across the state.”

Officials with the Open Space &

Trails Department in Summit

County, Colo., have noticed an in-

crease in off-highway vehicle use

of trails in recent years. ATV trails

are also accessible to hikers, bik-

ers and equestrians, the depart-

ment said.

In northern New Hampshire,

Gorham opened some roads to

ATVs about eight years ago, and

on summer weekends, the town of

under 3,000 is bustling with the

machines.

On a Friday in July, riders from

as far away as North Carolina had

rented machines and were touring

the trails. Others from Connecti-

MORRISTOWN, Vt. — Tom

and Cynthia Cloutier treasure

spending time on their porch, eat-

ing dinner on their deck with a

view of the mountains, and gener-

ally just enjoying the quiet of liv-

ing in rural Vermont in the home

they bought in 2018 after retire-

ment.

That all changed the following

year, when a section of road that

abuts their property was opened

to all-terrain vehicles that previ-

ously were not permitted on roads.

Frequently, when they’d go out-

side, noisy ATVs would be coming

down the road, he said.

“Overnight, our Silver Ridge

(Road) became a superhighway of

ATVs,” Tom Cloutier said. “We

could hear these machines inside

our home, but when we went out-

side we could not have a conversa-

tion, sit on our front porch quietly

with our coffee, or eat dinner on

our deck or enjoy watching the

sunset.”

What started as a trial run in

Morristown in 2019 ended last

year after a complaint, a town offi-

cial said. Now, an ATV group is

asking the town to again open up a

section of the road and parts of

other roads so that riders can get

gas, stay or park at a local motel

and eat at local restaurants. The

access would connect them to a

neighboring community where

ATVs are legal on roads.

Their town has joined a small

but growing list of rural communi-

ties across the country that have

opened or are considering wheth-

er to open up their roads to ATVs,

with some taking advantage of the

economic benefits that come with

outdoor tourism.

ATV interest has only intensi-

fied as more people got outdoors

during the pandemic. But their

popularity has sometimes pitted

riders against residents, with

communities struggling to bal-

ance the perks with a loss of tran-

quility.

“Our vision for our town should

be for everybody,” said ATV rider

Lisa Desjardins at a July public

meeting about the Morristown

proposal. “It shouldn’t just be for

people who are riding bikes, who

are runners. It should be for ev-

erybody, whether you like ATVs

or not.”

Last year, sales of ATVs rose

over 33%, according to Scott

Schloegel, senior vice president

for government relations for the

Recreational Off-Highway Vehi-

cle Association, which opposes on-

road use of ATVs unless they are

trail connectors. That jump in

sales creates more interest in ac-

cess to public lands where trails

exist and additional demand for

new trails and for trail mainte-

cut and Rhode Island, their ATVs

in tow, were staying at a local mo-

tel.

John Bates Jr., who doesn’t

have trails near his home in Ep-

som, N.H., visits frequently. He

drove 2 1/2 hours and was staying

at a motel. Friends were renting

machines the following day and

together they planned to hit the

more than 1,000-mile Ride the

Wilds trail network, “which is ab-

solutely fantastic,” he said.

Some residents near roads open

to ATVs are annoyed.

“This little town was the cutest

little town, quiet, everybody was

friendly. Now it’s a nightmare,”

said Sandy Lemire, a longtime

resident of Gorham, which sits on

the edge of the White Mountains.

She complained about the noise

and smell of exhaust.

“Outside is unbelievable,” she

said. “You can’t hear yourself

think; sometimes I can’t even hear

my lawn mower, especially when

there’s a festival going on and

they’re all traveling this way.”

Residents of Morristown, Vt.,

are expected to vote on the ATV

proposal this fall. In July, riders

testified that opening up sections

of certain roads would boost the

economy and give them access to

food and fuel, while other resi-

dents raised concerns about safe-

ty, noise and the environment.

Towns abuzz on perks, drawbacks of allowing ATVs on roadsBY LISA RATHKE

Associated Press

LISA RATHKE/AP

A utility terrain vehicle, or UTV, travels on a road, in Gorham, N.H., inJuly.

NATION


WORLD

BANGKOK — The main under-

ground group coordinating resist-

ance to Myanmar’s military gov-

ernment issued a sweeping call for

anationwide uprising on Tuesday,

raising the prospect of spiraling

unrest.

The National Unity Govern-

ment, which views itself as a shad-

ow government, was established

by elected legislators who were

barred from taking their seats

when the military seized power in

February.

The group’s acting president

Duwa Lashi La declared what he

called a “state of emergency” and

called for revolt “in every village,

town and city in the entire country

at the same time.” A video of his

speech was posted on Facebook.

Some 1,000 civilians have been

killed in the seven months of clash-

es that followed the army takeover.

A spokesman for the ruling mil-

itary downplayed the call for re-

newed protests.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun blamed

exile media for exaggerating the

opposition’s strength, in a state-

ment posted on the Telegram app

by state television MRTV.

Myanmar has been wracked by

unrest since the military ousted

the elected government of Aung

San Suu Kyi, with initially peace-

ful demonstrations against the rul-

ing generals morphing into a low-

level insurrection in many urban

areas after security forces used

deadly force.

There has been more serious

combat in rural areas, especially

in border regions where ethnic mi-

nority militias have been engaging

in heavy clashes with the govern-

ment troops.

Myanmar opposition calls for national uprisingAssociated Press

MANILA, Philippines — A

strong typhoon slammed into the

eastern Philippines on Tuesday,

bringing high winds that caused

power outages in several prov-

inces.

Typhoon Conson carried sus-

tained winds of 74 miles per hour

with gusts of up to 93 mph, first

making landfall at the coastal

town of Hernani in Eastern Sa-

mar province before hitting near-

by Samar province, the state

weather service said.

“We only have minor damage

here, thank God,” Eastern Samar

Gov. Ben Evardone said in a text

message. He said work had been

suspended in government offices.

Power systems operator Na-

tional Grid Corporation of the

Philippines said some transmis-

sion lines were affected. Power

outages were reported in Eastern

Samar, Samar and Leyte prov-

inces.

Local officials reported some

flooding in Tacloban City.

The weather bureau said late

Tuesday afternoon that Coson had

weakened into a severe tropical

storm as it moved west-north-

westward over the Sibuyan Sea.

Its sustained winds declined to 60

miles per hour, it said.

The weather bureau warned of

destructive winds and heavy rain-

fall within 18 hours in portions of

seven provinces including Que-

zon, Masbate, Albay and Samar.

The Manila metro region was

under a level 1 warning, which

means strong winds were expect-

ed within the next 36 hours.

Strong typhoon hits eastern PhilippinesAssociated Press

AARON FAVILA/AP

Volunteers and residents cross aflooded road due to typhoonConson at Usab village, Masbateprovince, central Philippines onTuesday.

Soldiers fight deliberatewildfires set in Spain

MADRID — Wildfires suspect-

ed to be arson have burned nearly

2,500 acres of forest in northwest-

ern Spain over two days, although

rainfall was expected to give a res-

pite to firefighting teams.

Two active blazes continued to

be out of control Tuesday in a rug-

ged mountainous area of Galicia,

the region’s authorities said.

A brigade of 63 soldiers from

the Spanish military’s emergency

unit was dispatched on Monday to

help the efforts to extinguish the

blazes which were being carried

out by firefighters on the ground

and four helicopters and four am-

phibious aircraft.

The soldiers extended hoses

that at times stretched for more

than a half-mile up and down gul-

lies.

José González, the region's min-

ister for rural areas, said that the

fire started late Sunday past sun-

set, when there was no chance for

natural ignition. It was lit with “a

clear intention” in various “simul-

taneous locations” on both sides of

a river, he said.

From The Associated Press

Michael K. Williams was intro-

duced to us as an icon.

The 54-year-old actor, who

was found dead in his native

Brooklyn on Monday, was best known for

his star-making turn on “The Wire” as

Omar Little, the openly gay outlaw among

outlaws and arguably the most beloved

character on the most revered TV series of

the past two decades. Over the course of the

HBO drama’s five seasons, Omar went

from a thorn in the side of the Barksdale

drug operation to a living legend on the

streets of Baltimore, often seen in his do-rag

and calf-grazing trench, a shotgun at his

side.

But it was Omar’s tenderness — the soft-

ness that never felt like a contradiction to

the bandit’s outward hardness — that dis-

tinguished his character on “The Wire” and

Williams’ wildly charismatic work on the

series. As with Omar, every subsequent

role that the actor took — among them natti-

ly dressed bootlegger Chalky White on

“Boardwalk Empire,” manipulative inmate

Freddy Knight on “The Night Of” and, most

recently, damaged patriarch Montrose

Freeman on “Lovecraft Country” — exud-

ed an aura of untold stories, aided by the fa-

cial scar Williams received on the night of

his 25th birthday in a bar fight.

Williams’ premature death left fans and

the entertainment industry mourning this

week, not only because he was a talented

and versatile performer who approached

his roles with a sense of service, but also be-

cause the five-time Emmy nominee never

got to enjoy a central role worthy of his gifts

in a major production.

Stardom found Williams relatively late;

“The Wire” debuted when he was in his

mid-30s. A 2012 NJ.com profile described

his younger self as “a skinny kid who acted

tough but hid behind a mom who protected

him by whupping on the mothers of the bul-

lies who picked on him.” A former backup

dancer who would always give great

thought to the physicality of his characters,

the recently minted actor channeled his

own sense of lostness into Omar to heighten

the multitudes within an antihero like few

others then or since.

On the page, Omar defied both the tradi-

tional gangster archetypes and the narrow

models of queerness available on early- to

mid-2000s television. In addition to the

swagger and the iron will to love that the

role required, Williams smartly ap-

proached Omar with semi-irony, embody-

ing his bruising masculinity so that it felt si-

multaneously authentic and like a neces-

sary performance. The way Williams

played him, as a watchful outsider, Omar

was a seamless part of any scene he was in

and also the star of his own urban Western.

In interviews, Williams was often re-

markably candid about the drug relapse he

suffered midway through “The Wire,” as

well as about the feelings of unworthiness

that consumed him after the show’s suc-

cess. One of the ways he seemed to cope

with such anxieties was to treat his opportu-

nities as a storyteller about the Black com-

munity as a “huge responsibility.” Though

earnest and forthcoming about his past

struggles, he often exuded a lightness in his

public appearances that felt like the result

of having come out of the dark.

The last few years found the graying ac-

tor in a transitional phase of his career,

playing the father of a teenager in the Cen-

tral Park Five drama “When They See Us”

and of a young war veteran in the ’50s-set

sci-fi adaptation “Lovecraft Country.” His

character in the latter — the secretive, alco-

holic Montrose, whose queerness is re-

vealed to be inextricably linked to deep

familial and racial trauma — is, for all the

series’ unevenness, another milestone in

LGBTQ+ representation. Nominated for

his fifth and now final Emmy for his per-

formance, Williams is rumored to have

been on track to get his first win from the TV

Academy at the awards ceremony in two

weeks.

His death was being investigated as a

possible drug overdose, the NYPD said. The

medical examiner was investigating the

cause of death.

Williams will be seen in two posthumous

film roles, and much of the second season of

his Viceland news series, “Black Market,”

has reportedly been shot. But the images of

Montrose on “Lovecraft” — drinking away

the memories of his father’s homophobic

abuse, pointedly ignoring the possibility

that his son might have a different biolog-

ical father, allowing himself to get im-

mersed in a glittery mid-century ball with

his drag-queen lover — intimate a more

world-weary, middle-aged chapter of Wil-

liams’ career that will sadly never be. At

least our first impression of him was the

right one.

APPRECIATION

More than Omar‘The Wire’ made Michael K. Williams an icon, but the rest of his work revealed greater depth

BY INKOO KANG

The Washington Post

CHRIS PIZZELLO, INVISION/AP

Michael K. Williams, pictured in 2016, was found dead at his Brooklyn apartmentMonday. Williams, who played the beloved character Omar Little on “The Wire,” was 54.

PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Wednesday, September 8, 2021

FACES

Here’s a collection curated by The Asso-

ciated Press’ entertainment journalists of

what’s arriving on TV, streaming services

and music platforms this week.

Movies

■ “Come From Away,” a filmed version

of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical,

is connected to two eras of adversity for

New York. Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s

musical is about the 7,000 people who were

stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, when

all U.S. flights were grounded after the 9/11

attacks. A live performance of the produc-

tion was staged and filmed in May at the

Gerald Schoenfeld Theater for an audience

that included 9/11 survivors and front-line

workers. It debuts Friday on Apple TV+.

■ Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars in the

brutal assassin thriller “Kate,” streaming

Friday on Netflix. Winstead has co-starred

in action films like “Gemini Man” and

“Birds of Prey” in recent years, but she

takes the starring role in French director

Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s “Kate.” In it, her

assassin character is poisoned on a mission

in Tokyo, giving her 24 hours for revenge.

Woody Harrelson co-stars.

— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

Television

■ Crime and punishment is different in

small towns vs. the big city. That’s the

premise of “It Couldn’t Happen Here,” a

docuseries that examines how rural com-

munities and legal systems are affected by

violent crimes and burdened by a lack of re-

sources. Actor Hilarie Burton Morgan

(“One Tree Hill,” “The Walking Dead”)

delves into cases in the six-part series de-

buting Thursday on SundanceTV and

AMC+. The first stop is Adel, Ga.: Has a

wrongly convicted man been imprisoned

for more than two decades for a crime he

didn’t commit?

■ “Lucifer” is coming to an end? The

devil you say! But Netflix, which rescued

the show after it was canceled by Fox, has

cautioned that it’s “real this time.” The six-

season journey of Lucifer Morningstar

(Tom Ellis), who traded his digs in hell for

Los Angeles, will wrap with 10 episodes out

Friday. Issues to be settled: Why is Lucifer

balking at taking over for now-retired God,

and how will he respond as a godless world

frays at the edges? Ex-LAPD detective

Chloe Decker (Lauren German), now Lu-

cifer’s consultant, is along for the final ride.

— AP Television Writer Lynn Elber

Music

■ The MTV Video Music Awards will get

a dose of “Bieber fever” for the first time in

six years. Justin Bieber returns to the VMA

stage for an all-star caliber event held Sun-

day at the Barclays Center in New York.

The pop star leads this year’s show with sev-

en nominations, including video of the year

and artist of the year. Megan Thee Stallion,

Billie Eilish, BTS and Drake are other top

nominees. Bieber last took the VMAs stage

when he performed “What Do You Mean”

in 2015. Other performers include Lil Nas X,

Camila Cabello, Chloe, Kacey Musgraves,

Shawn Mendes, Olivia Rodrigo, Machine

Gun Kelly and Doja Cat — who will also

serve as the show’s host. Foo Fighters will

receive the first-ever MTV VMAs’ Global

Icon Award.

■ K-pop sensation BTS is set to appear

on a special episode of YouTube Originals’

“Released.” The band will be joined by

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin on the

weekly music series that will premiere on

Friday at midnight. An intimate conversa-

tion will be held about their shared experi-

ences as musicians and BTS’ inspiration for

the #PermissiontoDance challenge. The

three-week challenge, which began July 23,

had BTS encouraging people to make 15-

second YouTube short videos incorporating

the international sign gestures for joy,

dance and peace. The episode will also fea-

ture a “Permission to Dance” music video,

which will be remixed by BTS.

— AP Entertainment Writer

Jonathan Landrum Jr.

New this week: ‘Kate,’ ‘Come From Away’ and MTV’s VMAsAssociated Press

NETFLIX, APPLE, NETFLIX/AP

From left: Promotional art for the Netflixseries “Lucifer” and the films “ComeFrom Away” (Apple TV+) and “Kate”(Netflix). All three premiere Friday.


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stripes.com

OPINION

On Sunday, the Biden administra-

tion separately dispatched Secre-

tary of State Antony Blinken and

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to

the Persian Gulf region. The goal, according to

media reports, was to reassure allies there that

even though President Joe Biden withdrew

U.S. forces from Afghanistan and said he

wants to focus on security threats from China

and Russia, the United States remains com-

mitted to fighting terrorist extremism.

It seems to be dawning on the administra-

tion that the chaotic evacuation from Afghan-

istan ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 sent

the opposite message: that the “war on terror”

was a closed chapter in U.S. history. Much

more than Blinken-Austin glad-handing will

be needed, because the terrorism era is not

over. A more dangerous phase has begun.

Despite the Taliban’s protestations to the

contrary, al-Qaida remains fused to the mili-

tants running Afghanistan, by an oath made

by Osama bin Laden, and twice renewed by

his successor, Ayman al-Zawahri. In May, a

U.N. monitoring group said of al-Qaida that “it

would be difficult, if not impossible, to sepa-

rate it from its Taliban allies.”

Al-Qaida is hardly the only terrorist group

with a presence in Afghanistan. Most promi-

nently, the local Islamic State affiliate, ISIS-

Khorasan, or ISIS-K, is a deadly threat, as

shown by the horrific bombings at the Kabul

airport last month.

Afghanistan is on the verge of again becom-

ing a hub for terrorism. Even before the Tali-

ban fully took over, various extremist groups

were running training camps there, the way

they did before 9/11. The U.N. report in May

estimated the total number of foreign fighters

in the country at 8,000 to 10,000, including

groups from the Arab world, Central Asia and

the Uyghur areas of China.

Following the U.S. withdrawal, my organi-

zation’s monitoring of Islamist communica-

tions on social media and in chat rooms indi-

cated that groups as far afield as Syria and

Southeast Asia began redirecting potential

recruits to Afghanistan.

Biden touts an “over the horizon” use of

drones and cruise missiles to combat terrorist

outposts in Afghanistan. But in 2015, disman-

tling one large al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan,

near the Pakistan border, required 63 coali-

tion airstrikes and a ground force of 200 U.S.

troops. The Afghan skies would need to be fil-

led with U.S. military hardware to destroy the

terrorist bases that are likely on the way.

Yet the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

hasn’t simply reset the clock to Sept. 10, 2001,

with the Taliban again ruling Afghanistan. To-

day is different in one critical respect: Afghan-

istan is now far from the only country in the re-

gion where extremist groups hold sway.

Large swaths of Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Sy-

ria, Lebanon and Iraq are all, to a greater or

lesser extent, ruled by non-state militias, cre-

ating an arc of instability from North Africa to

South Asia. These groups work with different

agendas (many, though not all, take direction

from Iran’s Quds Force), but they share one

thing in common: virulent anti-Americanism.

Moreover, as things stand, there is little the

United States can do about it, because as these

groups expand their power, America appears

to be in retreat.

Over the past decade or so, the United States

has systematically dismantled its influence

across most of the region’s flash points. U.S.

embassies in several countries, including Li-

bya, Yemen, Syria and now Afghanistan, have

been closed. The United States demonstrably,

humiliatingly, cannot control its nominal al-

lies in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

And in Iraq, despite a vast sacrifice of blood

and treasure, we are forced to tolerate political

leaders who flaunt their membership in Ira-

nian-controlled militias.

Despite the Biden administration’s pro-

fessed desire to refocus on countering securi-

ty threats from Russia and China, the pullout

from Afghanistan seems only to have bol-

stered these authoritarians. British Foreign

Secretary Dominic Raab recently said that to

rein in the Taliban, “we’re going to have to

bring in countries with a potentially moderat-

ing influence, like Russia and China, however

uncomfortable that is.” For the United States,

after 20 years and trillions of dollars, that is

more than uncomfortable, it is a tragedy.

The only remedy is to urgently reengage

with the region. Not just, or even mainly, mili-

tarily. Special Forces raids and drone strikes

will continue to be essential in fighting terror-

ism. But the U.S. failure in Afghanistan made

clear that there is no exclusively military solu-

tion to this problem.

The anti-terror toolbox has some under-

used options to go along with the hammer: di-

plomacy, development assistance, intelli-

gence, law enforcement, trade. We should de-

ploy them, wherever possible, not only to as-

sist U.S. allies, but also as part of

comprehensive initiatives that promote sta-

bility and advance political solutions to the

various conflicts destabilizing the region.

In 1989, as a very different superpower

withdrew from Afghanistan in defeat, the U.S.

shut down its embassy in Kabul. For 12 years,

we tried our best to ignore Afghanistan — until

the horror of 9/11 finally forced us awake.

Now, Western governments are being

tempted to turn the page on Afghanistan

again. That would be a colossal mistake.

A more dangerous phase of terrorism era has begunBY ALI SOUFAN

Special to The Washington Post

Ali Soufan, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, is a privatesecurity consultant and the author of “Anatomy of Terror: Fromthe Death of Bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State.”

FORT WORTH, Texas

Last Wednesday, Lila Rose, the foun-

der of anti-abortion group Live Ac-

tion, euphorically tweeted, “It’s a

beautiful day in Texas, which is on

its way to being abortion-free.”

Her statement was hyperbolic, but only

slightly. On Sept. 1, Texas’ fetal heartbeat law

took effect, exposing anyone who assists in the

procurement of an abortion after the unborn

child’s heartbeat is detected (with the excep-

tion of the pregnant woman, who is explicitly

protected) to civil liability. Effectively, this

prohibits abortions at or beyond six weeks of

pregnancy (when the majority of abortions oc-

cur), except in cases of medical emergency.

Texas’ law has not been blocked by the

courts, in no small part due to its unusual con-

struction. It relies on private citizens instead of

state actors to enforce abortion restrictions.

The legal concept is not new — it’s used in in-

stances of Medicaid fraud, for example — but

unique in this area of the law.

Chelsey Youman, Texas state director of

the anti-abortion group the Human Coalition,

says this approach offers a meaningful way for

society to engage in the cause of protecting in-

nocent life. But the mechanism has a practical

application, too. For years, abortion providers

have been successful at blocking conventional

attempts to regulate doctors and clinics — like

establishing certain standards of care — by

cherry-picking courts willing to find that al-

most any regulation on abortion constitutes an

undue burden. This usually happens well be-

fore the law is even enforced.

But because the Texas law empowers pri-

vate individuals to sue those who “aid and

abet” in an abortion only after one has oc-

curred, it cleverly denies the law’s opponents

any chance of legal success on a pre-enforce-

ment challenge. It exposes anyone providing

an abortion after the law’s enactment to finan-

cial penalties and potentially even loss of li-

censes. It’s why the law’s challengers have

had such difficulty getting a court to stop it. It’s

also why the law actually works.

Abortion clinics have already seen “dra-

matic drops in patients on their schedules,”

according to The New York Times, while

“pregnancy crisis centers, where anti-abor-

tion groups offer pregnancy services, report-

ed surges in phone calls and walk-ins.”

For opponents of abortion, especially those

who have devoted themselves for decades to

protecting the unborn, seeing the fruits of their

labors is a tremendous and joyous relief. But

great victory requires great responsibility.

And as the influx in calls to organizations that

seek to help women through — and not out of

— crisis pregnancies suggests, the work is

now really beginning.

There is good news there, too.

In states like Texas, a vast and often under-

appreciated network of nonprofits, clinics,

church groups and medical professionals

have already been serving women for years.

Youman said the state now spends $100 mil-

lion on abortion-alternative services includ-

ing medical care, counseling and other forms

of assistance. The Human Coalition has a net-

work of 2,700 clinics around the country, out-

numbering abortion clinics 20:1.

And while a loud but vanishingly small

group of abortion-supporting activists insist

that few if any women suffer regret or feelings

of loss after aborting a child, Youman says that

three-quarters of the women walking into her

group’s clinics admit that if they had other op-

tions or assistance, they would much prefer to

parent their unplanned children.

For these organizations, whose work it is to

come alongside women in crisis and to help

stabilize their circumstances, the mission (at

least in Texas) has become that much bigger.

If and, hopefully, when Roe v. Wade is over-

turned and regulation of abortion is returned

to the states, anti-abortion groups will again

need to redouble their efforts. They will also

need to recalibrate their legal strategy. As

even staunch conservatives have pointed out,

Texas’ heartbeat law is far from ideal, espe-

cially in a post-Roe context. It should not nec-

essarily become the model for other states.

But today, it will save the lives of an estimat-

ed 150 children. That is reason enough for cel-

ebration and a reminder that this is where the

pro-life cause begins in earnest.

Texas abortion law is saving lives. There’s more to do.BY CYNTHIA M. ALLEN

Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram

Cynthia M. Allen is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist.


ACROSS

1 Swiss peak

4 “Spring

ahead” hrs.

7 Nile queen,

familiarly

8 Red-hot

10 Parlor pieces

11 Concurred

13 Changing one’s

approach

16 Sturgeon product

17 Parson’s home

18 Novelist Grafton

19 “Ratatouille” rat

20 Webmaster’s

code

21 Sacred songs

23 Hee-haws

25 Cote calls

26 Sulk

27 Shade provider

28 “Hammerin’

Hank”

30 Drs. who deliver

33 “Shout” band

36 Snapshots

37 Hotel posting

38 Love, Italian-style

39 Always

40 Mine yield

41 Poetic dusk

DOWN

1 Michael Caine

title role

2 Piece of lettuce

3 Some mail

carriers

4 “Rent” actor

Taye

5 Suit fabric

6 Nest setting

7 Silver salmon

8 Brice of

“Funny Girl”

9 Like bread

dough

10 Old map letters

12 Ringo’s set

14 Pet food brand

15 French salt

19 Apt. divisions

20 Stetson, e.g.

21 2019 Wimbledon

winner Simona

22 Motorcycle

maker

23 Rude dude

24 Roam without

restraint

25 Wager

26 Plain writing

28 John Jacob —

29 Earlier, in verse

30 Like Cheerios

31 Rabbit’s title

32 Snake’s

warning

34 Former QB Tony

35 Roof edge

Answer to Previous Puzzle

Eugene Sheffer CrosswordFra

zz

Dilbert

Pearls B

efo

re S

win

eN

on S

equitur

Candorv

ille

Beetle B

ailey

Biz

arr

oCarp

e D

iem


SCOREBOARD/COLLEGE FOOTBALL

PRO SOCCER

MLS

EASTERN CONFERENCE

W L T Pts GF GA

New England 16 4 4 52 45 28

Orlando City 10 4 8 38 33 26

Nashville 9 2 11 38 37 21

NYCFC 10 7 4 34 37 22

Philadelphia 8 7 8 32 28 24

CF Montréal 8 7 7 31 30 27

D.C. United 9 10 3 30 35 32

Columbus 7 10 6 27 27 32

Atlanta 6 7 9 27 25 28

Inter Miami CF 7 9 5 26 22 31

Chicago 6 11 5 23 24 33

New York 6 10 4 22 23 25

Cincinnati 3 10 8 17 21 38

Toronto FC 3 13 6 15 26 47

WESTERN CONFERENCE

W L T Pts GF GA

Seattle 12 4 6 42 35 19

Colorado 12 4 5 41 31 20

Sporting KC 11 5 7 40 37 26

LA Galaxy 11 8 3 36 35 35

Minnesota 8 6 7 31 24 24

Portland 9 10 3 30 31 39

Real Salt Lake 8 8 6 30 34 29

Vancouver 7 7 8 29 29 32

LAFC 7 9 6 27 32 31

San Jose 6 8 8 26 24 30

FC Dallas 6 10 7 25 32 36

Austin FC 5 13 4 19 21 31

Houston 3 10 10 19 24 36

Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie.

Friday’s games

Orlando City at Atlanta Portland at Vancouver

Saturday’s games

LA Galaxy at Colorado Minnesota at Seattle D.C. United at New York New York City FC at New England Toronto FC at Cincinnati Columbus at Miami Nashville at CF Montréal Austin FC at Houston Chicago at Sporting Kansas City San Jose at FC Dallas

Sunday’s game

Real Salt Lake at Los Angeles FC

Tuesday, Sept. 14

FC Dallas at New York City FC Miami at Toronto FC New York at Columbus

NWSL

W L T Pts GF GA

Portland 10 4 2 32 24 11

North Carolina 8 4 5 29 22 9

Reign FC 9 7 2 29 24 19

Orlando 6 5 7 25 21 20

Chicago 7 7 4 25 19 22

Washington 6 5 5 23 19 18

Gotham FC 5 5 7 22 17 15

Houston 6 7 4 22 19 22

Louisville 4 8 5 17 14 24

Kansas City 2 11 5 11 9 28

Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie.

Friday’s games

Gotham FC at Kansas CityChicago at Houston

Saturday’s game

Louisville at Orlando

Sunday’s games

Reign FC at WashingtonPortland at North Carolina

PRO FOOTBALL

NFL schedule

Thursday’s game

Dallas at Tampa Bay

Sunday’s games

Arizona at TennesseeJacksonville at HoustonL.A. Chargers at WashingtonMinnesota at CincinnatiN.Y. Jets at CarolinaPhiladelphia at AtlantaPittsburgh at BuffaloSan Francisco at DetroitSeattle at IndianapolisCleveland at Kansas CityDenver at N.Y. GiantsGreen Bay at New OrleansMiami at New EnglandChicago at L.A. Rams

Monday’s games

Baltimore at Las Vegas

Thursday, Sept. 16

N.Y. Giants at Washington

Sunday, Sept. 19

Buffalo at MiamiCincinnati at ChicagoDenver at JacksonvilleHouston at ClevelandL.A. Rams at IndianapolisLas Vegas at PittsburghNew England at N.Y. JetsNew Orleans at CarolinaSan Francisco at PhiladelphiaAtlanta at Tampa BayMinnesota at ArizonaDallas at L.A. ChargersTennessee at SeattleKansas City at Baltimore

Monday, Sept. 20

Detroit at Green Bay

TENNIS

U.S. OpenMonday

At USTA Billie Jean King National TennisCenter

New YorkSurface: Hardcourt outdoor

Men’s SinglesFourth Round

Alexander Zverev (4), Germany, def.Jannik Sinner (13), Italy, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7).

Lloyd Harris, South Africa, def. ReillyOpelka (22), United States, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1,6-3.

Matteo Berrettini (6), Italy, def. OscarOtte, Germany, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, def. JensonBrooksby, United States, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

Women’s SinglesFourth Round

Belinda Bencic (11), Switzerland, def. IgaSwiatek (7), Poland, 7-6 (12), 6-3.

Emma Raducanu, Britain, def. ShelbyRogers, United States, 6-2, 6-1.

Karolina Pliskova (4), Czech Republic,def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (14), Rus-sia, 7-5, 6-4.

Maria Sakkari (17), Greece, def. BiancaAndreescu (6), Canada, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-3.

Men’s DoublesThird Round

Bruno Soares, Brazil, and Jamie Murray(7), Britain, def. Dominik Koepfer, Germa-ny, and Emil Ruusuvuori, Finland, 7-6 (6),6-7 (4), 6-1.

Rajeev Ram, United States, and Joe Sa-lisbury (4), Britain, def. Rohan Bopanna, In-dia, and Ivan Dodig (13), Croatia, 6-7 (3),6-4, 7-6 (3).

Marcel Granollers, Spain, and HoracioZeballos (2), Argentina, def. Aisam-ul-HaqQureshi, Pakistan, and Jonny O’Mara, Bri-tain, 7-5, 7-5.

Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herb-ert (3), France, def. Andrey Golubev, Ka-zakhstan, and Andreas Mies (15), Germa-ny, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Filip Polasek, Slovakia, and John Peers(8), Australia, def. Jean-Julien Rojer andWesley Koolhof (10), Netherlands, 4-6, 6-3,6-4.

Women’s DoublesThird Round

Sam Stosur, Australia, and Zhang Shuai(14), China, def. Shuko Aoyama and EnaShibahara (3), Japan, 7-5, 7-5.

Monica Niculescu and Elena-GabrielaRuse, Romania, def. Erin Routliffe, NewZealand, and Leylah Annie Fernandez,Canada, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Hsieh Su-wei, Taiwan, and Elise Mertens(1), Belgium, def. Alison van Uytvanck andGreet Minnen, Belgium, 6-0, 6-2.

Caty McNally and Coco Gauff (11), Unit-ed States, def. Andreja Klepac, Slovenia,and Darija Jurak (8), Croatia, 6-4, 6-4.

Gabriela Dabrowski, Canada, and LuisaStefani (5), Brazil, def. Dayana Yastremskaand Marta Kostyuk, Ukraine, 6-7 (5), 6-4,6-2.

Alexa Guarachi Mathison, Chile, and De-sirae Krawczyk (7), United States, def. Ra-luca-Ioana Olaru, Romania, and Nadiia Ki-chenok (12), Ukraine, 6-3, 6-2.

Lucie Hradecka and Marie Bouzkova(15), Czech Republic, def. Anastassia Ro-dionova and Arina Rodionova, Australia,6-2, 7-5.

Mixed DoublesQuarterfinals

Max Purcell, Australia, and Dayana Yas-tremska, Ukraine, def. Fabrice Martin,France, and Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakh-stan, 6-2, 6-3.

PRO BASKETBALL

WNBA

EASTERN CONFERENCE

W L Pct GB

x-Connecticut 21 6 .778 —

x-Chicago 15 14 .517 7

New York 11 18 .379 11

Washington 10 17 .370 11

Atlanta 7 20 .259 14

Indiana 6 21 .222 15

WESTERN CONFERENCE

W L Pct GB

x-Las Vegas 20 8 .714 —

x-Minnesota 18 9 .667 1½

x-Seattle 19 10 .655 1½

x-Phoenix 18 10 .643 2

Dallas 12 16 .429 8

Los Angeles 10 18 .357 10

Sunday’s games

Chicago 92, Las Vegas 84Atlanta 69, Dallas 64

Monday’s game

Phoenix 86, Indiana 81

Tuesday’s games

Connecticut at DallasWashington at Seattle

Wednesday’s games

Phoenix at AtlantaMinnesota at Las Vegas

Thursday’s game

Connecticut at Los Angeles

Friday’s games

Atlanta at WashingtonIndiana at Minnesota

Saturday’s games

New York at DallasConnecticut at Phoenix

Bynes to the practice squad. Signed TEMark Andrews to a four-year contract ex-tension.

CAROLINA PANTHERS — Placed G JohnMiller on the reserve/COVID-19 list. SignedK Dominik Eberle and G Mike Horton to thepractice squad.

CHICAGO BEARS — Signed WR BreshadPerriman. Waived with an injury settle-ment DB Tre Roberson. Waived LB JoshWoods.

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Signed DT MikeDaniels to the practice squad. Released CBWinston Rose from the practice squad.

CLEVELAND BROWNS — Signed DE IfeadiOdenigbo to the practice squad.

DALLAS COWBOYS — Signed P Bryan An-ger. Singed T Aviante Collins to the prac-tice squad.

DENVER BRONCOS — Signed WR De’Mor-nay Piersay-El to the practice squad.

DETROIT LIONS — Waived with an injurysettlement T Dan Skipper.

HOUSTON TEXANS — Placed OL CharlieHeck on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Activated LT Er-ic Fisher from the reserve/COVID-91 list.Released DT Antwaun Woods. Waivedwith an injury settlement TE JOrdan Tho-mas.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — Activated GA.J. Cann from the reserve/COVID-19 list.Waived DE/OLB Aaron Patrick.

LAS VEGAS RAIDERS — Signed LB K.J.Wright and RB Peyton Barber. Waived LBTanner Muse. LOS ANGELES CHARGERS —Signed CB Kiondre Thomas to the practicesquad. Placed CB Ryan Smith on injuredreserve. Promoted DB Kemon Hall to theactive roster.

MIAMI DOLPHINS — Placed T AustinJackson and TE Adam Shaheen on the re-serve/COVID-19 list. Activated CB JamalPerry as a COVID-19 replacement. SignedWR Isaiah Ford, FB Carl Tucker and DT Be-nito Jones to the practice squad. ReleasedCB Tino Ellis from the practice squad.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Waived with aninjury settlement DB Luther Kirk.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — Signed DL Mon-travius Adams, WR Chris Hogan and QBTrevor Siemian. Placed OL Will Clapp, K WilLutz and TE Nick Vannett on injured re-serve. Signed DBs Ka’dar Hollman, DylanMabin, Jordan Miller, DE Jalyn Holmes, DTJaleel Johnson, G Derrick Kelly and K Al-drick Rosas to the practice squad. Re-leased LB Wynton Mcmanus from thepractice squad.

NEW YORK JETS — Signed S SheldrickRedwine and RB Josh Adams. Signed SsJarrod Wilson and Adrian Colbert to thepractice squad.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Signed G Mal-colm Pridgeon and Daniel Archibong tothe practice squad.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Signed CB JoshNorman. Released CB Dontae Johnson.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS — Promoted TE Tyl-er Mabry to active roster from the practicesquad. Signed G Jordan Simmons to thepractice squad.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — ActivatedDL Ndamukong Suh from the reserve/CO-VID-19 list. Waived K Jose Borregales.Placed G Earl Watford on injured reserve.

TENNESSEE TITANS — Activated TE GeoffSwaim and LB Justin March-Lillard fromthe reserve/COVID-19 list. Waived LB Jus-tin March-Lillard, DB Chris Jones and OLCorey Levin.

WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM —Signed RB Jonathan Williams to the prac-tice squad. Waived DB Jimmy Morelandfrom injured reserve with an injury settle-ment.

Monday’s transactionsBASEBALL

Major League BaseballAmerican League

BALTIMORE ORIOLES — Recalled LHPZac Lowther from Norfolk (Triple-A East).Optioned RHP Dusten Knight to Norfolk.

BOSTON RED SOX — Agreed to termswith INF Jose Iglesias to a major leaguecontract and added him to active roster.Reinstated LHP Josh Taylor from the CO-VID-19 IL. Selected the contract of RHP Mi-chael Feliz from Worcester (Triple-A East)and agreed to terms on a major leaguecontract. Returned RHP Kutter Crawfordand INF Jack Lopez to Worcester. Op-tioned RHP John Schreiber to Worcester.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX — Recalled RHPJimmy Lambert from Charlotte (Triple-AEast). Optioned RHP Matt Foster to Char-lotte.

MINNESOTA TWINS — Reinstated RHPMichael Pineda from the 10-day IL. Op-tioned RHP Ian Gibaut to St. Paul (Triple-AEast). Sent RHP Derek Law outright to St.Paul.

OAKLAND ATHLETICS — Optioned LHPSam Moll to Las Vegas (Triple-A West). Re-instated RHP Frankie Montas from the re-stricted list.

TAMPA BAY RAYS — Selected the con-tract of RHP David Hess from Durham (Tri-ple-A East) and agreed to terms on a majorleague contract. Optioned LHP DietrichEnns to Durham.

TEXAS RANGERS — Sent OF Willie Cal-houn to ACL Rangers (Arizona ComplexLeague) on a rehab assignment. Sent RHPDrew Anderson to Round Rock (Triple-AWest) on a rehab assignment.

National LeagueARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS — Optioned

RHP Taylor Clarke to Reno (Triple-A West).Recalled LHP Miguel Aguilar from Reno.

ATLANTA BRAVES — Agreed to a one-year contract with RHP Charlie Morton for2022.

CHICAGO CUBS — Reinstated INF DavidBote from the 10-day IL. Designated INFAndrew Romaine for assignment.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS — Selected thecontract of RHP Neftali Feliz from Oklaho-ma City (Triple-A West) and agreed toterms on a major league contract. Op-tioned LHP Andrew Vasquez to OklahomaCity.

MIAMI MARLINS — Claimed RHP TaylorWilliams off waivers from San Diego.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS — Reinstated 2BKolten Wong from the paternity list.

NEW YORK METS — Reinstated INF/OFDominic Smith from the bereavement list.Optioned C Chance Sisco to Syracuse (Tri-ple-A East). Reinstated RHP Stephen No-gosek from the 10-day IL and optioned toSyracuse.

PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Recalled RHPCody Ponce from Indianapolis (Triple-AEast). Optioned INF/OF Phillip Evans to In-dianapolis. Claimed RHP Connor Overtonoff waivers from Toronto and optionedhim to Indianapolis. Transferred RHPDuane Underwood Jr. from the 10-day IL tothe 60-day IL.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS — Reinstated LHPAndrew Miller from the 10-day IL. Desig-nated RHP Brandon Dickson for assign-ment.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — Recalled RHPKevin Castro from Sacramento (Triple-AWest). Optioned RHP Jay Jackson to Sac-ramento.

FOOTBALLNational Football League

BALTIMORE RAVENS — Signed LB Josh

DEALS

GOLF

Solheim CupAt Inverness Club

Toledo, OhioYardage: 6,903; Par: 72

MondayEUROPE 15, UNITED STATES 13

SinglesEurope 6, United States 6

Anna Nordqvist, Europe, halved withLexi Thompson, United States.

Madelene Sagstrom, Europe, def. AllyEwing, United States, 3 and 2.

Leona Maguire, Europe, def. JenniferKupcho, United States, 5 and 4.

Nelly Korda, United States, def. GeorgiaHall, Europe, 1 up.

Celine Boutier, Europe, def. Mina Hari-gae, United States, 5 and 4.

Nanna Koertz Madsen, Europe, halvedwith Austin Ernst, United States.

Matilda Castren, Europe, def. Lizette Sa-las, United States, 1 up.

Brittany Altomare, United States, def.Carlota Ciganda, Europe, 2 and 1.

Megan Khang, United States, def. SophiaPopov, Europe, 3 and 2.

Yealimi Noh, United States, def. MelReid, Europe, 1 up.

Jessica Korda, United States, def. Char-ley Hull, Europe, 3 and 1.

Emily Pedersen, Europe, def. DanielleKang, United States, 1 up.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Monday’s scoreMississippi 43, Louisville 24

AP SPORTLIGHT

Sept. 8

1946 — Jack Kramer wins his first U.S.men’s singles titles with a 9-7, 6-3, 6-0 winover Tom Brown.

1957 — Althea Gibson becomes the firstblack to win the U.S. Open, beating LouiseBrough, 6-3, 6-2. Australia’s Malcolm An-derson defeats countryman Ashley Coop-er in three sets to become the first unseed-ed player to win the U.S. Open.

1968 — Virginia Wade wins the first offi-cial U.S. Open (formerly known as U.S Na-tional Championships). Wade upsets BillieJean King, 6-4, 6-2 and Arthur Ashe beatsTom Okker, 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 for themen’s title.

1969 — Australia’s Rod Laver wins theU.S. Open and the grand slam of tennis forthe second time in his career with a four-set victory over Tony Roche. Laver wins7-9, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.

1973 — Australia’s Margaret Court Smithwins the U.S. Open for the fifth time with a7-6, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Evonne Goola-gong.

1974 — Billie Jean King wins her fourthU.S. Open with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 triumph overEvonne Goolagong.

1985 — Ivan Lendl wins his first U.S. Opentitle defeating John McEnroe 7-6, 6-3, 6-4.

1990 — Gabriela Sabatini prevents SteffiGraf from winning her third consecutiveGrand Slam title with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) victoryin the U.S. Open.

1991 — Stefan Edberg wins his first U.S.Open men’s singles title with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0win over Jim Courier.

1998 — Mark McGwire breaks Roger Ma-ris’ 37-year-old home run record, lininghistoric No. 62 just over the wall in left fieldwith two outs in the fourth inning.McGwire’s shot off the Chicago Cubs’Steve Trachsel sets off a wild celebrationin Busch Stadium.

2001 — Venus Williams wins her secondconsecutive U.S. Open title by beating hersister, Serena, 6-2, 6-4 in the first prime-time women’s Grand Slam final. Thematch is the 10th between sisters in aGrand Slam match during the Open era,with the older sister winnng every time.

STORRS, Conn. — Connecticut

football coach Randy Edsall has left

the program a day after announcing

he would retire at the end of the sea-

son.

Edsall, whose teams have gone

just 6-32 since he returned to the

Huskies for a second stint as coach

in 2017, will be re-

placed on an in-

terim basis by de-

fensive coordina-

tor Lou Spanos,

the school an-

nounced Mon-

day.

“Upon further

reflection by both

Randy and I, and

after having the opportunity to visit

with Randy today, we are both in

agreement that it is in the best inter-

est of our student-athletes to have a

new voice leading UConn football,”

Connecticut athletic director David

Benedict said

Edsall, 63, was originally the

Huskies coach from 1999 through

the 2010 season, leading UConn into

what is now the bowl subdivision,

taking the Huskies to five bowl

games and winning Big East titles in

2007 and 2010.

He was rehired by UConn in 2017,

despite going 22-34 at Maryland,

where he was fired six games into

his fifth season.

His rehiring puzzled many Husk-

ies faithful, who were still upset that

he had left the team after its 2011

Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma, with-

out notifying his players or flying

home with the team.

UConn went 3-9 during Edsall’s

first season back, then went 1-11 and

2-10 before sitting out last season

amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Huskies, in their first season

as an independent after leaving the

American Athletic Conference, are

0-2 this season, losing their opener

45-0 at Fresno State before falling

last Saturday at home, 38-28, to Holy

Cross from the FCS.

Spanos, a 26-year coaching veter-

an in both college and the NFL, has

served as the Huskies’ defensive co-

ordinator since the 2019 season.

“I have gotten to know Lou over

the last two years and have great re-

spect for him as a person and for his

football acumen,” Benedict said.

“There is no doubt that Lou has the

respect of the players and I look for-

ward to supporting him and the

team for the remainder of the 2021

season.”

Edsall

out at

UConnBY PAT EATON-ROBB

Associated Press

Edsall


US OPEN/BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

NEW YORK — For 1½ sets, including one

particularly compelling and competitive

24-point game, Novak Djokovic’s fourth-

round opponent at the U.S. Open — Jenson

Brooksby, the last American left in singles

— gave him fits amid a raucous atmosphere

at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

That let Djokovic, above all, and everyone

else, know that Brooksby — a 20-year-old

wild-card entry from California who is

ranked 99th and never before had been on

this sort of stage — belonged. And then, not

surprisingly, Djokovic showed why he is

who he is and how he’s managed to move

within three victories of the first calendar-

year Grand Slam in men’s tennis in 52 years.

Settling in and sending messages, to the

fans with roars and to Brooksby with some

staredowns, the No. 1-ranked Djokovic im-

proved to 25-0 in majors this year by win-

ning 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 on Monday night. He

extended his pursuit of a true Grand Slam

and a record-breaking 21st major cham-

pionship, while also making this the first

time in the history of the U.S. Open, an event

that dates to the 1880s, with zero men or

women from the host country in the quarter-

finals.

“Was a good finish. It wasn’t a good tart,”

said Djokovic, who hopes to add a fourth

U.S. Open title to a collection that’s been

boosted by his ninth at the Australian Open

in February, second at the French Open in

June and sixth at Wimbledon in July.

He next meets No. 6 Matteo Berrettini of

Italy in a rematch of the final at the All En-

gland Club.

One key to Monday’s turnaround: Djo-

kovic broke in Brooksby’s initial service

game in each of the last three sets.

“I wanted to wear him down,” Djokovic

said, “and it worked.”

Affected by a left hip that bothered him

earlier in the tournament, Brooksby was

visited by a trainer after the second set and

again after the third. Still, for someone who

never had set foot on Ashe’s blue court until

about two hours before the match, when he

got a chance to practice there, Brooksby

never seemed overwhelmed by the setting

or the circumstances.

“We’re going to see a lot of him in the fu-

ture,” said Djokovic, who would be the first

man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four

Slam trophies in one year. “I mean, he has

the means. Now, obviously a lot of things

have to come together. But he has a bit of an

unorthodox game. Does a lot with the feel.

He’s smart. He knows how to win points.”

Brooksby’s 6-foot-4 strides and reach, his

anticipation, his variety that includes a well-

disguised two-handed backhand slice, his

think-steps-ahead point construction, his

commitment to patterns drawn up by his

coach at home in Sacramento since age 7,

Joe Gilbert — all left Djokovic a tad discom-

bobulated early.

“I knew it would be important to start

strong, to impose my mindset and my strate-

gy, my game out there,” Brooksby said. “I

could see it working. I really did have a lot of

confidence in myself out there that I can

beat him, I can beat anybody.”

In the first set, Brooksby made one un-

forced error, Djokovic 11. And Brooksby

won 14 of the points that lasted five strokes

or more, Djokovic four.

When Djokovic netted an overhead to

move Brooksby two points from the set,

most of the spectators in the 23,000-plus-ca-

pacity arena — excited to be back after last

year’s ban on audiences amid the pandemic

— rose, clapping and screaming.

When Djokovic missed a return to cede

that set to his foe, Brooksby waved both

arms and heard more loud support.

“Electric. Awesome. I enjoyed it. I truly

did,” said Djokovic, who soon would be

hearing his own cheers. “You guys gave

both of the players a lot of energy.”

He broke to go up 2-0 in the second set and

punched the air and shouted. At 3-1 arrived

an epic game: six break chances, nice deuc-

es, 24 points in all, spread out over nearly 20

minutes. Djokovic pushed the ball into the

net to end that game and make it 3-2,

prompting Brooksby to hop and jump and

windmill his arm and cry, “Let’s go!”

And then, quick as can be, Djokovic re-

grouped. With Brooksby gasping for air,

Djokovic broke right back and, soon

enough, the outcome was clear.

“The momentum,” declared Djokovic, a

34-year-old from Serbia, “was changed.”

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP

Jenson Brooksby reacts during his match against Novak Djokovic during the fourthround of the U.S. Open on Monday. Djokovic lost the first set but won the next three.

Djokovic overcomesAmerican Brooksby

BY HOWARD FENDRICH

Associated Press

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Derek Jeter

visited Cooperstown when he was a kid

nearly four decades ago and says he doesn’t

remember much about the trip. He’s re-

turning this week and likely won’t ever for-

get even one moment.

After a delay of well over a year, the for-

mer New York Yankees shortstop and cap-

tain will be inducted into the Baseball Hall

of Fame on Wednesday along with fellow

class of 2020 members Ted Simmons, Larry

Walker, and the late Marvin Miller, whose

efforts on the labor front changed the game.

Last year’s ceremony was canceled be-

cause of the coronavirus pandemic. Nobody

was selected from this year’s writers’ ballot

and the Hall of Fame’s Era committees

postponed their scheduled elections until

the upcoming offseason because of the pan-

demic.

“As strange as this sounds or may sound,

I’m trying not to think about it,” the 47-year-

old Jeter, now an owner and CEO of the Mia-

mi Marlins, said last week. “I just want to go

there and experience it. I’m trying to keep it

out of my mind because I do want to go in

there with no preconceived notions of what

may happen. I want to experience it and try

to enjoy it. It’s been a long time coming.”

In 2007, the inductions of Cal Ripken Jr.

and Tony Gwynn drew an estimated record

crowd of 82,000 to the expansive grass field

at the Clark Sports Center on the outskirts of

this one-stoplight village in upstate New

York. When the wildly popular Jeter was

elected in January 2020 that record figured

to be in jeopardy because fans had been

booking reservations well in advance. With

a midweek ceremony instead of the tradi-

tional Sunday afternoon, school back in ses-

sion and the threat of inclement weather the

Hall of Fame wasn’t offering an attendance

prediction.

The 72-year-old Simmons, a star catcher

and first baseman in the 1970s and 1980s for

the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee

Brewers, found a silver lining in the long

wait.

“The wait has been good and bad — bad in

that you’ve had to wait an extra year for this

thing to kind of come to a head, but good in

that it’s extended an additional year,” said

Simmons, who grew up just outside Detroit.

“It’s been such a difficult time for everybo-

dy here in the last two years, all over the

country, in the workforce, in society in gen-

eral with this pandemic. The fact that it’s

now going to happen just brings us closer to

some normalcy, which we’re all hoping for.”

The self-effacing Walker, now 54, said the

delay sort of made his election seem a bit

surreal.

“I’ve been caught on many occasions

when somebody wants me to sign some-

thing and ... I give it back to them and then

they give it back to me because I forget to

put HOF2020 on there,” said Walker, who

will join Ferguson Jenkins as the only Cana-

dian-born players in the Hall of Fame. “So I

guess that reality of it hasn’t sunk in. I don’t

necessarily consider myself a Hall of Famer

at anything.”

Jeter was the 57th player elected by the

Baseball Writers’ Association of America

on the first try. He was one vote shy of be-

coming the second unanimous pick, named

on 396 of the 397 votes cast. His former Yan-

kees teammate, ace reliever Mariano Riv-

era, remains the only one.

Akey member of five World Series cham-

pions, Jeter stayed right where he always

wanted to be from 1995-2014 — two decades

in the Big Apple playing for a storied fran-

chise.

“The most important thing during my ca-

reer, what I wanted to be remembered as, I

wanted to be remembered as a Yankee.

That was it,” he said. “That was the only

team I ever wanted to play for since as far

back as I could remember. As you start

playing your career you start thinking about

legacy. It’s much more than what you do on

the field. It’s the legacy you leave off the

field.

“I never wanted my career to be over and

then for me to say, ‘Well, I wish I would have

done a little bit more.’ Ultimately, you’re

judged, especially in New York, by winning.

They remember you if you win.”

Finally, Jeter, Simmons,Walker to be inducted

BY JOHN KEKIS

Associated Press

JULIE JACOBSON/AP

Derek Jeter celebrates after hitting thegamewinning single against Baltimore inthe ninth inning of his final game at YankeeStadium on Sept. 25, 2014.

“As you start playingyour career you startthinking aboutlegacy. It’s muchmore than what youdo on the field. It’sthe legacy you leaveoff the field.”

Derek Jeter


MLB/NFL

American League

East Division

W L Pct GB

Tampa Bay 87 51 .630 _

New York 78 59 .569 8½

Boston 79 61 .564 9

Toronto 74 62 .544 12

Baltimore 43 93 .316 43

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Chicago 79 58 .577 _

Cleveland 68 67 .504 10

Detroit 65 74 .468 15

Kansas City 62 75 .453 17

Minnesota 60 77 .438 19

West Division

W L Pct GB

Houston 80 57 .584 _

Seattle 75 63 .543 5½

Oakland 74 63 .540 6

Los Angeles 68 70 .493 12½

Texas 49 88 .358 31

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GB

Atlanta 72 64 .529 _

Philadelphia 71 66 .518 1½

New York 69 69 .500 4

Miami 57 80 .416 15½

Washington 57 80 .416 15½

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Milwaukee 84 55 .604 _

Cincinnati 73 66 .525 11

St. Louis 69 67 .507 13½

Chicago 64 75 .460 20

Pittsburgh 49 89 .355 34½

West Division

W L Pct GB

San Francisco 88 50 .638 _

Los Angeles 87 51 .630 1

San Diego 73 64 .533 14½

Colorado 63 75 .457 25

Arizona 45 93 .326 43

Monday’s games

Toronto 8, N.Y. Yankees 0Kansas City 3, Baltimore 2Pittsburgh 6, Detroit 3Tampa Bay 11, Boston 10, 10 inningsMinnesota 5, Cleveland 2Houston 11, Seattle 2Texas 4, L.A. Angels 0Washington 4, N.Y. Mets 3Chicago Cubs 4, Cincinnati 3Philadelphia 12, Milwaukee 0L.A. Dodgers 5, St. Louis 1San Francisco 10, Colorado 5

Tuesday’s games

Minnesota at ClevelandDetroit at PittsburghKansas City at BaltimoreToronto at N.Y. YankeesTampa Bay at BostonSeattle at HoustonChicago White Sox at OaklandTexas at ArizonaL.A. Angels at San DiegoN.Y. Mets at MiamiWashington at AtlantaCincinnati at Chicago CubsPhiladelphia at MilwaukeeL.A. Dodgers at St. LouisSan Francisco at Colorado

Wednesday’s games

Seattle (Anderson 6-9) at Houston (Ur-quidy 6-3)

Texas (Arihara 2-3) at Arizona (Weaver3-3)

Minnesota (Ryan 0-1) at Cleveland(McKenzie 4-5)

Detroit (Manning 3-6) at Pittsburgh(Keller 4-10)

Kansas City (Minor 8-12) at Baltimore(Means 5-6)

Toronto (Manoah 5-2) at N.Y. Yankees(Gil 1-0)

Tampa Bay (McClanahan 9-5) at Boston(Eovaldi 10-8)

L.A. Angels (TBD) at San Diego (Darvish7-9)

Chicago White Sox (Keuchel 8-8) at Oak-land (Montas 11-9)

San Francisco (DeSclafani 11-6) at Col-orado (Gray 7-10)

N.Y. Mets (TBD) at Miami (Alcantara 8-13)

Washington (Nolin 0-2) at Atlanta (TBD)Cincinnati (Gutierrez 9-6) at Chicago

Cubs (Mills 6-6)Philadelphia (Gibson 10-6) at Milwaukee

(Peralta 9-4)L.A. Dodgers (TBD) at St. Louis (Wainw-

right 14-7)Thursday’s games

Chicago White Sox at OaklandMinnesota at ClevelandKansas City at BaltimoreToronto at N.Y. YankeesL.A. Dodgers at St. LouisN.Y. Mets at MiamiColorado at PhiladelphiaWashington at Atlanta

Scoreboard

BOSTON — Austin Meadows hit a tying, inside-the-

park homer in the ninth inning, Nelson Cruz had a go-

ahead single in the 10th and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied

from a six-run deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox 11-10 on

Monday.

The AL East-leading Rays took advantage of four er-

rors, the biggest when center fielder Alex Verdugo ap-

peared to lose Cruz’s high fly in the sun with bases load-

ed and two outs in the fourth.

The ball glanced off Verdugo’s glove and Cruz wound

up circling the bases on the play, scoring on second base-

man Taylor Motter’s wild throw that let Tampa Bay

close to 7-5 against ace Chris Sale.

Cruz also homered and had a pair of RBI singles as the

Rays increased their AL East lead to 8½ games over

New York. The Red Sox missed a chance to move ahead

of the Yankees for the top AL wild-card spot.

Wander Franco had four hits for Tampa Bay. Collin

McHugh (6-1) got the win.

Blue Jays 8, Yankees 0:Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his

40th homer, Marcus Semien went deep twice and To-

ronto won at New York for their fifth straight win.

Hyun Jin Ryu (13-8) pitched six effective innings as

the Blue Jays won for the eighth time in nine games.

Dodgers 5, Cardinals 1: Max Scherzer struck out 13

in his hometown and Chris Taylor hit a two-run homer,

leading Los Angeles to the win at St. Louis.

Scherzer (13-4) permitted one unearned run and six

hits in eight innings. The three-time Cy Young Award

winner is six strikeouts away from becoming the 19th

player in big league history to reach 3,000.

Giants 10, Rockies 5: Thairo Estrada hit two of San

Francisco’s four home runs, and Kevin Gausman

pitched seven solid innings in a win at Colorado.

The major league-best Giants (88-50) remained one

game ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West.

Rangers 4, Angels 0:A.J. Alexy allowed one hit over

six innings in his second straight phenomenal start to

begin his major league career, and Jose Trevino drove

in two runs as visiting Texas blanked Los Angeles.

Alexy (2-0) retired his final 13 batters and didn’t allow

a baserunner after the second inning. He became the

first pitcher in modern major league history to go at least

five scoreless innings while allowing fewer than two hits

as a starter in each of his first two career appearances.

Phillies 12, Brewers 0: Bryce Harper hit an early

home run, Brad Miller connected twice and Jean Segu-

ra added a grand slam, leading Zack Wheeler and Phila-

delphia to the win at Milwaukee.

Andrew McCutchen and Freddy Galvis also homered

as the Phillies won for the eighth time in the last 10

games to stay in the playoff chase.

Cubs 4, Reds 3: Frank Schwindel hit a tiebreaking

RBI single in the eighth inning, and host Chicago earned

its season-high seventh straight win.

Schwindel’s single through the right side scored Al-

fonso Rivas, who started the rally with a pinch-hit single

off Michael Lorenzen (0-2) and advanced to second on a

wild pitch.

Nationals 4, Mets 3: Carter Kieboom and Andrew

Stevenson hit RBI singles in the ninth inning off Edwin

Díaz, and host Washington rallied in the finale of a five-

game series.

Twins 5, Indians 2: Jorge Polanco hit a solo homer

and doubled three times, leading Minnesota to the victo-

ry at Cleveland.

Royals 3, Orioles 2: Andrew Benintendi hit a go-

ahead single for Kansas City in the eighth inning, then

reached above the left-field wall to take away a potential

tying home run in the ninth in a win at Baltimore.

Pirates 6, Tigers 3:Ke’Bryan Hayes and Yoshi Tsut-

sugo each hit a two-run single during host Pittsburgh’s

four-run seventh inning as it defeated Detroit to stop a

six-game losing streak.

Astros 11, Mariners 2:Rookie Jake Meyers homered

and drove in four runs as Houston jumped on Yusei Ki-

kuchi early and sailed to a win over visiting Seattle.

WINSLOW TOWNSON/AP

Tampa Bay Rays’ Austin Meadows, right, slides safely home with an insidethepark home run as BostonRed Sox catcher Christian Vazquez, left, waits for the throw during Rays’ 1110 win Monday in Boston.

Rays come from 6 runsback to beat Red SoxMeadows ties it with inside-the-park HR in 9th, Cruz hits go-ahead single in 10th

Associated Press

ROUNDUP

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The

Tennessee Titans’ COVID-19 out-

break is nearing an end even with

two starting offensive linemen

still on the reserve list.

Not everyone around the NFL

may be as healthy to kick off this

season with COVID-19 proving to

be an issue hovering over another

season.

“Everybody, whether it’s the

league, whether it’s your family,

my family, we all have to just un-

derstand that we’re going to deal

with some things,” Titans coach

Mike Vrabel said Monday. “We’re

going to deal with positive test re-

sults from vaccinated people.

We’ll follow the protocols how we

have to and try to be as safe as we

possibly can.”

Vrabel, who said last spring he

was vaccinated, was the first to

test positive Aug. 22 in an out-

break that reached at least 14, in-

cluding 10 players.

Other NFL teams may be with-

out starters for their openers.

Miami put its presumed start-

ing left tackle Austin Jackson and

backup tight end Adam Shaheen

on the COVID-19 reserve list Mon-

day ahead of Sunday’s opener at

New England. Carolina starting

right guard John Miller also went

on the reserve list Monday and

will miss the Panthers’ home

opener against the Jets.

The Jets are waiting to see if

wide receiver Jamison Crowder

will be available after going on the

reserve list last Friday after test-

ing positive. Vaccinated, Crowder

needs to test negative 24 hours

apart twice under NFL protocols.

Dallas likely will be without

four-time Pro Bowl right guard

Zack Martin for its opener Thurs-

day night at Tampa Bay.

Kansas City All-Pro safety Ty-

rann Mathieu, who is vaccinated,

remained out Monday after his

positive test for COVID-19.

Virus ebbsfor Titans,but rises forother teams

BY TERESA M. WALKER

Associated Press

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP

The Cowboys are expected toopen without right guard ZackMartin after the fourtime AllProtested positive for COVID19.


NFL

Kansas City Chiefs (16-3)

New faces: LT Orlando Brown Jr., LG Joe Thuney, CAustin Blythe, DT Jarran Reed, RB Elijah McGuire, CBMike Hughes, RB Jerrick McKinnon, TE Blake Bell, LBNick Bolton, C Creed Humphrey, DE Joshua Kaindoh.

Key losses: LT Eric Fisher, RT Mitchell Schwartz, WRSammy Watkins, CB Bashaud Breeland, TE Deon Yel-der, DE Tanoh Kpassagnon, CB Antonio Hamilton, RBDamien Williams, DT Mike Pennel.

Strengths: The offense remains the biggest strengthof the Chiefs, and arguably the most dynamic unit oneither side of the ball in the NFL. QB Patrick Mahomesthrew for 4,740 yards with 38 touchdowns and just sixinterceptions last season, and his three biggest weap-ons are back: TE Travis Kelce, RB Clyde Edwards-He-laire and WR Tyreek Hill. But the offense should beeven better thanks to a completely reworked linet.

Weaknesses: The Chiefs are relying on young CBsL’Jarius Sneed and Charvarius Ward to continue theirdevelopment, though it helps their cause to have vet-eran safeties Tyrann Mathieu and Juan Thornhill on thefield with them. The Chiefs also need to pressure thequarterback better. They have moved DT Chris Jonesto defensive end opposite Frank Clark, and he lookedgood coming off the edge during the Chiefs’ three pre-season wins.

Camp Development: The biggest surprise of campwas that Mathieu did not sign an extension, eventhough both sides wanted to get it done. That meansthe three-time All-Pro is entering the final year of a $42million, three-year deal. Mathieu recently tested posi-tive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated against thevirus. He remains in the league’s protocol, whichmeans he had yet to return two negative tests taken 24hours apart.

Denver Broncos (5-11)New faces: GM George Paton, QB Teddy Bridgewater,

CB Patrick Surtain II, RB Javonte Williams, ILB JonathonCooper, CB Ronald Darby, CB Kyle Fuller, TE Eric Saub-ert, OL Quinn Meinerz, OLB Baron Browning, S CadenSterns, LB Jonas Griffith.

Key losses: RT Ja’Wuan James, RB Phillip Lindsay, OTElijah Wilkinson, TE Nick Vannett, DL Jurrell Casey, CBA.J. Bouye, DE DeMarcus Walker, S Will Parks, LB JoeJones, OLB Jeremiah Attaochu, WR Trinity Benson.

Strengths: Paton rebuilt Denver’s secondary but alsoaugmented the front seven. For the first time since theBroncs won Super Bowl 50 five years ago, they have alegitimate two-deep roster at every spot. Their offensealso could be set for a breakout season with Jerry Jeu-dy, Courtland Sutton, K.J. Hamler, Noah Fant and AlbertOkwuegbunam providing Bridgewater with plenty oftantalizing targets.

Weaknesses: Special teams blunders were plentifulthroughout the preseason, although K Brandon McMa-nus and P Sam Martin were solid. Paton traded for49ers special teams stud Jonas Griffith, a second-yearLB from Indiana State, to help the coverage units thatwere awful in the preseason.

Camp Development: Health. For a change, the Bron-cos didn’t suffer any big losses this summer. Von Mill-er, whose dislodged ankle tendon cost him all of 2020,slow-rolled his return to form. So did WR Sutton, whoplayed just one game last year (shoulder, ACL) aftermaking his first Pro Bowl. Like Sutton, Okwuegbunamalso is coming back from a torn ACL.

Los Angeles Chargers (7-9)New faces: Coach Brandon Staley, C Corey Linsley,

Gs Matt Feiler and Oday Aboushi, TE Jared Cook, QBChase Daniel, OT Rashawn Slater, CB Asante Samuel Jr.

Key losses: TE Hunter Henry, DE Melvin Ingram, C DanFeeney, OT Sam Tevi, G Forrest Lamp, S Rayshawn Jen-kins, LB Denzel Perryman, CB Casey Hayward, G TraiTurner.

Strengths: Justin Herbert quickly became the fran-chise quarterback last season after setting rookie re-cords with 31 touchdown passes and eight 300-yardgames. The defense is switching to a 4-3 scheme andshould be bolstered by the return of safety DerwinJames, who was an All-Pro selection as a rookie in 2018but has played in only five games the past two years.

Weaknesses: The offensive line has four new start-ers, but lacks depth. Right tackle Bryan Bulaga contin-ues to be plagued by injuries and the two swing tacklesslated to back him up struggled throughout the pre-season. New coach Brandon Staley has brought plentyof energy to the team, but it remains an inexperiencedcoaching staff.

Camp Development: Staley sat most of his startersduring the three preseason games, with only rookie of-fensive tackle Slater and cornerback Samuel Jr. seeingsignificant playing time. The Chargers have had one ofthe league’s worst special teams units the past twoyears, which is why Staley and new coordinator DeriusSwinton spent at least 30 minutes of each practice onspecial teams.

Las Vegas Raiders (8-8)New faces: DE Yannick Ngakoue, CB Casey Hayward,

S Trevon Moehrig, RT Alex Leatherwood, defensive co-ordinator Gus Bradley, RB Kenyan Drake, DT QuintonJefferson, CB Nate Hobbs, DT Solomon Thomas, LBDenzel Perryman.

Key losses: WR Nelson Agholor, C Rodney Hudson,RG Gabe Jackson, RT Trent Brown, DT Maliek Collins, SJeff Heath, S Erik Harris, RB Devontae Booker.

Strengths: With QB Derek Carr coming off his mostproductive season in three years under coach Jon Gru-den, the passing game should once again be thestrength for the Raiders. Star tight end Darren Wallerremains the top target but the Raiders are counting onsecond-year receivers Henry Ruggs III and Bryan Ed-wards to take a big step this year to help make up forthe loss of Agholor.

Weaknesses: The Raiders have had one of of theNFL’s worst defenses since Gruden returned in 2018.They tried to address the pass rush by signing Nga-koue to team with Maxx Crosby on the edge. The sec-ondary still has plenty of questions. Last year’s first-round pick Damon Arnette has struggled and will likelyplay off the bench behind soon-to-be 32-year-old Hay-ward coming off his worst season as a pro. Moehrig isbeing counted on to step in immediately at free safety,but third-year players Trayvon Mullen and JohnathanAbram will need to improve if the Raiders are to have acapable defense.

Camp Development: One of the bright spots thissummer has been the play of fifth-round CB Hobbs,who has shown some playmaking ability at both slotand outside cornerback.

— Associated Press

Capsules

Overhauls are usually reserved for bad

teams that miss the playoffs, not ones that

play in consecutive Super Bowls.

Chiefs general manager Brett Veach,

however, was prompted to dismantle his of-

fensive line after watching Patrick Ma-

homes run for his life in Kansas City’s 31-9

shellacking at the hands of the Tampa Bay

Buccaneers in the Super Bowl.

The Chiefs were three-point betting fa-

vorites to defend their title but injuries and

opt-outs forced them to use a makeshift

group, which was promptly steamrolled.

By one calculation, Mahomes ran around

for nearly 500 yards while trying to escape

the Bucs’ relentless pass rush and find an

open receiver.

So, Veach brought in five new starters to

help protect the team’s half-billion dollar

investment at quarterback.

He traded for Baltimore Ravens left tack-

le Orlando Brown Jr. and signed former

New England Patriots left guard Joe Thu-

ney, the first player in NFL history to start

in the Super Bowl in each of his first three

seasons.

The rest of the line hasn’t ever played in

the NFL. Center Creed Humphrey and

right guard Trey Smith are rookies and

right tackle Lucas Niang opted out as a roo-

kie in 2020 because of COVID-19 concerns.

“We’ve come together fast,” Niang said.

“We’ve got a ways to go, but we’re doing a

good job. Everybody’s communicating, get-

ting on the same page.”

Mahomes figures this work-in-progress

line will coalesce quickly.

“I mean obviously they’re all really tal-

ented,” Mahomes said. “ ... When everybo-

dy is on the same exact page is when you

have those truly great offensive lines and

great offenses.

“I think you see us as games are going on,

we’re communicating better and better and

I think we’ll continue to improve through-

out the season.”

All the other familiar names are back —

Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Clyde Edwards-

Helaire — along with an improved defense,

making K.C. the favorite for a sixth straight

AFC West title and maybe a third consec-

utive trip to the Super Bowl.

No team has ever won six straight AFC

West titles, and the division is tougher than

it’s been in a half decade. Both the Chargers

and Raiders split with the Chiefs last season

and the Broncos sport their deepest roster

since winning it all in 2015.

Broncos bounceback Von Miller says Denver finally has the

roster like the one he led to a championship

parade five years ago.

“We have some of the same players we

had last year, but our team looks totally dif-

ferent,” Miller said. “The energy is totally

different. I know I get carried away with

some of the comments about my team-

mates, and I have high expectations for my

teammates. This year is going to be a great

year for our guys.”

That will require big bouncebacks by

Miller (ankle), WR Courtland Sutton (knee)

and new QB Teddy Bridgewater, who went

4-11 in Carolina last year and beat out Drew

Lock this summer.

New look, new luck By all indications, Brandon Staley had a

successful first training camp as Los An-

geles Chargers coach. The Bolts didn’t sus-

tain any major injuries during training

camp — something they could not say the

past two seasons. Staley also stole a page

from former boss Sean McVay and didn’t

play most of his starters, including quarter-

back Justin Herbert, during the preseason.

Herbert, the reigning AP Offensive Roo-

kie of the Year, quickly became one of the

top young quarterbacks in the league last

season, setting a rookie record with 36 TDs.

New offensive coordinator Joe Lombar-

di’s system, which is more up-tempo,

should take advantage of Herbert’s

strengths behind an O-line featuring four

new starters, including left tackle and first-

round pick Rashawn Slater.

On defense, all-purpose safety Derwin

James’ return after missing last season

(knee) gives the unit a big lift. James will

call the plays and line up all over the field.

Black eye The Raiders are hoping offseason chang-

es can boost a defense that allowed the most

points per game and second-most yards per

play in three seasons since coach Jon Gru-

den returned.

Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther

was fired late last season and Gus Bradley

was brought over from the Chargers with a

simpler system that should allow the Raid-

ers to be more aggressive.

The defensive line should be better with

Yannick Ngakoue teaming with Maxx

Crosby on the edge but questions still re-

main in the secondary.

TurnaboutLast year, the Raiders flaunted the NFL’s

COVID-19 protocols more than any team,

getting fined $575,000 over the first month

of the season for breaking the rules, from

Gruden wearing his face mask like a chin

strap to players appearing at a function

where face coverings weren’t used nor so-

cial distancing observed.

This year, the Raiders became the first

NFL team to require fans to provide proof

of COVID-19 vaccination to attend home

games without a mask at their gleaming

new Allegiant Stadium, where fans weren’t

allowed last year.

“Health and safety has always been our

No. 1 priority,” Raiders owner Mark Davis

said in a statement.

Players are not required to be vaccinated

against COVID-19, but the NFL has report-

ed that more than 90% of them are.

Predicted order of finishChiefs, Broncos, Chargers, Raiders.

CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was forced to scramble because ofoffensive line woes during the Super Bowl, so the Chiefs rebuilt their line.

Chiefs rebuild offensive line toprotect Mahomes, fend off rivals

BY ARNIE STAPLETON

Associated Press

JACK DEMPSEY/AP

Denver Broncos outside linebacker VonMiller says the Broncos’ defense lookslike the one he led to a Super Bowlvictory five seasons ago.

With contributions from AP pro football writer Josh Dubow andAP sports writers Dave Skretta and Joe Reedy.


NFL

Seattle Seahawks (12-5)New faces: G Gabe Jackson, DE Kerry Hyder Jr., WR

D’Wayne Eskridge, DT Al Woods, CB Tre Brown, TE Ger-ald Everett, CB Ahkello Witherspoon, CB Sidney JonesIV, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

Key losses: CB Shaquill Griffin, WR David Moore, RBCarlos Hyde, TE Greg Olsen, LB K.J. Wright, DT JarranReed, CB Quinton Dunbar, offensive coordinator BrianSchottenheimer.

Strengths: Led by Russell Wilson, Chris Carson andDK Metcalf, the offense under new coordinator ShaneWaldron has the potential to build on the explosiveflashes it showed a year ago. Defensively, the Sea-hawks still have one of the top linebackers in the gamewith Bobby Wagner, along with second-year LB JordynBrooks and a deep line rotation. Topping it off, safetiesJamal Adams and Quandre Diggs may be the best tan-dem at the position in the NFL.

Weaknesses: Aside from the defensive line, depthappears a major concern. Cornerback is unsettled,with a combination of injuries and inconsistent playleaving the starters uncertain. The wide receiver groupis unproven beyond Metcalf and Lockett, and there isthe unknown of whether left tackle Duane Brown willcontinue his “hold-in” seeking a new contract into theregular season.

Camp Development: Rookie Dee Eskridge missedtime early in camp due to a toe injury but flashed thepotential in the final preseason game that made him asecond-round pick. His development into a true No. 3option will be important for the success of Seattle’spassing game.

Los Angeles Rams (11-7)New faces: QB Matthew Stafford, defensive coordi-

nator Raheem Morris, WR DeSean Jackson, RB Sony Mi-chel, WR Tutu Atwell.

Key losses: Defensive coordinator Brandon Staley,QB Jared Goff, pass game coordinator Shane Waldron,run game coordinator Aaron Kromer, DL MichaelBrockers, S John Johnson, CB Troy Hill, C Austin Blythe,LB Samson Ebukam, C Austin Blythe, WR Josh Rey-nolds, RB Malcolm Brown, DL Morgan Fox, LS JakeMcQuaide.

Strengths: The NFL’s No. 1 defense in 2020 lost fourstarters and Staley, but All-Pros Aaron Donald and Ja-len Ramsey return with a revamped supporting castunder the respected Morris. Stafford’s arrival is ex-pected to be the boost needed by the offense, whichhad been fairly stagnant for a consistently winningteam for the past 2½ years, starting even before theirSuper Bowl appearance. Stafford has an enviablegroup of receivers with the additions of Jackson andAtwell, and the veteran passer has the motivation ofknowing the next two seasons could define his career.

Weaknesses: The offensive line remains suspect af-ter two up-and-down years and no external improve-ments in the offseason. Stafford’s talent won’t shine asbrightly if he must fear for his safety on every snap, aswas frequently obvious during his time in Detroit. LosAngeles restocked its defense, but the losses of Staley,Johnson and Brockers all seem perilous to both chem-istry and playmaking ability.

Camp Development: Starting RB Cam Akers’ season-ending Achilles tendon injury prompted the Rams totrade for Michel, who starred against them in the SuperBowl for New England three seasons ago. Michel andDarrell Henderson are likely to share the workload.

San Francisco 49ers (6-10)New faces: QB Trey Lance, C Alex Mack, DE Samson

Ebukam, DE Arden Key, DT Maurice Hurst, WR TrentSherfield, DL Zach Kerr, RB Trey Sermon, G AaronBanks, WR Mohamed Sanu, CB Deommodore Lenoir, CBAmbry Thomas.

Key losses: DC Robert Saleh, CB Richard Sherman, DEKerry Hyder, CB Ahkello Witherspoon, WR KendrickBourne, TE Jordan Reed, QB Nick Mullens.

Strengths: The front seven of the defense is one ofthe stoutest in the league with the return of 2019 Defen-sive Rookie of the Year Nick Bosa at edge rusher aftermissing most of last season with a knee injury, and All-Pro middle linebacker Fred Warner. There is plenty ofdepth up front with Dee Ford looking healthy after mis-sing last season with a back injury, Arik Armstead, D.J.Jones, Ebukam and Dre Greenlaw.

Weaknesses: The Niners don’t have much provendepth at cornerback, which could be a big concern ifJason Verrett can’t stay healthy. Verrett has playedmore than six games just twice in seven NFL seasonsbut was in top form last season. Emmanuel Moseleywill start on the other side with K’Waun Williams backin the slot. There isn’t much behind those three withjourneyman Dontae Johnson and rookies Lenoir andThomas next in line.

Camp Development: The main question at camp washow long Lance will take to supplant Garoppolo asstarter. All signs point to Garoppolo remaining in thatrole to start the season, but the Niners have been mix-ing in Lance in certain situations.

Arizona Cardinals (8-8)New Faces: DE J.J. Watt, WR A.J. Green, C Rodney Hud-

son, OL Brian Winters, QB Colt McCoy, LB Zaven Collins(first-round pick), WR Rondale Moore (second-roundpick), RB James Conner, K Matt Prater, S Shawn Wil-liams.

Key Losses: WR Larry Fitzgerald, RB Kenyan Drake,CB Patrick Peterson, TE Dan Arnold, K Zane Gonzalez,LB De’Vondre Campbell, LB Haason Reddick, CB DreKirkpatrick.

Strengths: The Cardinals have one of the league’sup-and-coming quarterbacks in Kyler Murray. Thethird-year starter has mostly delivered since being theNo. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft. Murray’s partner-ship with receiver DeAndre Hopkins was one of theNFL’s most productive last season. The offensive linehas several quality veterans, including LT D.J. Hum-phries, LG Justin Pugh, Hudson and RT Kelvin Beachum.Arizona could have one of the league’s best pass rushduos with newly acquired J.J. Watt and veteran hold-over Chandler Jones.

Weaknesses: The running game needs to evolve af-ter losing Drake in free agency. Chase Edmonds andConner are the two main options in the backfield, whileMurray’s ability to run is also a big part of the offense.When Murray is limited to being a pocket passer, Arizo-na’s offense can struggle. The Cardinals acquired sev-eral big names in the offseason, including Green, Wattand Hudson. They’ve all been good players, but they’vealso got a lot of mileage. Staying healthy will be a key.

Camp Development: Rookie Collins will be expectedto start at middle linebacker from Day 1. He’ll pair withsecond-year linebacker Isaiah Simmons in the middleof the field to form an exciting but inexperienced duo.

— Associated Press

Capsules

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With trips to the

Super Bowl still in their recent memories,

the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco

49ers made the decision this offseason that

they needed more dynamic quarterback

play to remain contenders in the long run.

That led both NFC West rivals to make

aggressive moves, trading multiple first-

round picks to bring Matthew Stafford to

Los Angeles and rookie Trey Lance to San

Francisco.

It remains to be seen whether those bold

risks will pay off, but it’s the decision at

quarterback another NFC West team made

that may end up determining which team

wins what looks like the NFL’s most com-

petitive division.

Despite reports that Russell Wilson

wanted out of Seattle after nine seasons, the

Seahawks opted mostly to stand pat and

hope that a couple of tweaks would be

enough for a repeat division title under

coach Pete Carroll followed by some play-

off success after too many early endings the

past few years.

“We’re on the same page. We’re here to

do what we’re meant to do and that’s to win

it at all,” Wilson said. “I’m excited. I’m ex-

cited about who we have, the guys we have,

excited where we are. Coach Carroll and I’s

relationship couldn’t be stronger on it. Like

I said earlier, my focus is to win. Winning

means everything to me.”

Winning the NFC West doesn’t figure to

be easy as it is the only division where the

projected win totals for all four teams equa-

te to a .500-or-better season.

The Rams made it to the Super Bowl in

the 2018 season with Jared Goff at quarter-

back, but stagnated a bit the past few years,

leading to the decision to acquire Stafford

from Detroit.

The Niners made it there the following

season only to be undone last year by a spate

of injuries, including sprained ankles that

limited quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to

six starts.

The Cardinals made their own splashy

moves in the offseason to build a better ros-

ter around playmaking quarterback Kyler

Murray, highlighted by the signing of for-

mer three-time AP Defensive Player of the

Year J.J. Watt.

Protecting WilsonWilson’s frustration stemmed in part

from the hits he has endured since entering

the NFL with his 394 sacks the most of any

player in his first nine seasons since the

merger.

While some of that can be blamed on poor

offensive line play, Wilson deserves his

own share of the responsibility for his tend-

ency to hold onto the ball longer than most

quarterbacks out of a desire to make a big

play.

The Seahawks got Wilson some help by

trading for guard Gabe Jackson and hiring

Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator to

bring more quick passing and play action to

the offense.

But unless left tackle Duane Brown ends

his “hold in” after not practicing for all of

camp, there still could be issues.

Big play MattRams coach Sean McVay made the deci-

sion to move on from Goff despite handing

him a big contract after he helped Los An-

geles reach the Super Bowl in the 2018 sea-

son. The Rams dealt Goff, two first-round

picks and a third-rounder to Detroit for

Stafford, who has loads of talent but little

team success in his first 12 seasons.

“Not many people in my position get the

chance to move to teams that have had a

bunch of recent success, and I’m just excit-

ed to be a part of it,” Stafford said.

The Rams are hoping that joining a more

stable franchise will unleash Stafford and

that Stafford’s big arm will help unlock a

more dynamic offense. Stafford threw the

ball the third deepest in 2020, according to

SportsInfo Solutions, while Goff had the

third-shortest average depth of pass among

qualifiers.

The other questions for the Rams come on

defense where Raheem Morris replaces co-

ordinator Brandon Staley and Aaron Donald

and Jalen Ramsey will need to make up for

losses in the secondary.

Two QBs better than oneThe Niners are going to begin the season

with plans to play both their quarterbacks

with Lance having a package of plays to take

advantage of his running ability and Garop-

polo starting.

“It’s tough for defenses to handle that,” Ga-

roppolo said. “I’ve never been in that situa-

tion, but just seeing it firsthand, it’s hard on

them. So, whatever’s best for the team, I’m

here for it.”

Shanahan believes the two-QB system

gives his team the best chance to compete

early, but at some point the Niners will likely

shift to Lance as the starter considering they

traded three first-round picks for him.

If Garoppolo can stay healthy and regain

the efficiency that helped San Francisco re-

ach the Super Bowl two years ago, that might

not be until 2022.

Kliff’s offenseKliff Kingsbury was supposed to bring an

innovative offense to Arizona when he was

hired as coach in 2020. While there have been

some flashes with Kyler Murray at quarter-

back, the Cardinals stagnated offensively

last season.

This could be a make-or-break season for

Kingsbury, who has the pieces on offense to

contend, led by Murray and DeAndre Hop-

kins.

But Arizona will need improved play at

cornerback to contend in the NFL’s toughest

division.

Predicted order of finishSeahawks, Rams, 49ers, Cardinals.

Rams, 49ers seek QBs to matchSeahawks’ Wilson in NFC West

JOHN FROSCHAUER/AP

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson returns to give the team a shot atrepeating as the NFC West champion.

BY JOSH DUBOW

Associated Press

TONY AVELAR/AP

San Francisco 49ers quarterback TreyLance, above, will split time to start theseason with veteran Jimmy Garoppolo.


NFL

out of 32) got their chance in the

first four games of the season.

The 2021 class is set to become

the second one to have at least

three rookie QB starters in Week 1

with Jones ready to start the open-

er against Miami following an im-

pressive preseason.

The 2012 class had five with An-

drew Luck, Robert Griffin III,

Ryan Tannehill, Brandon Weeden

and Russell Wilson all getting the

nod. Only Wilson and Tannehill

are starters less than a decade lat-

er with Seattle’s Wilson the only

one with the team that drafted

him.

The Patriots released Newton

on Tuesday to clear the way for

Jones to start. While Jones was the

last of the first-round quarter-

backs drafted at No. 15, he might

be the most polished and proved to

be ready to step in early after a

stellar final season at Alabama.

“I’m going to be ready whenev-

er my time comes up,” Jones said

after last week’s 22-20 win over

New York. “We got work to do and

we’ll get the things fixed and then

we’ll just keep rolling.”

There is no clear pattern of suc-

cess when it comes to when to start

a rookie quarterback. Luck

stepped in right away to turn Indi-

anapolis into a playoff team. Josh

Allen and Justin Herbert got off to

good career trajectories after

making their first starts in Week 2.

But other early starters such as EJ

Manuel and Sam Darnold didn’t

have the same sort of success.

While Mahomes and Lamar

Jackson won MVPs in their sec-

ond years after waiting until the

second half of their rookie seasons

to start, others like Johnny Man-

ziel and Locker didn’t appear to

benefit from the time on the side-

line.

“Each situation has its own sit-

uation,” 49ers coach Kyle Shana-

han said. “I look at ours, I learn

from everything through my own

experience and just reading about

football and watching it over the

years. That’s why we all develop

our opinions. But just like the per-

fect play call or the perfect throw,

you don’t know until the end of it.

Stuff is adjusting at all times and

you’ve got to always be ready to

adjust and do the best with oppor-

tunities you have.”

Shanahan went into training

camp with Jimmy Garoppolo as

his starter and Lance getting up to

speed after San Francisco traded

three first-round picks to take him

at No. 3 overall in the April draft.

Lance has shown some spectacu-

lar plays in the preseason like an

80-yard touchdown to Trent Sher-

field, but also some growing pains

as he struggles with accuracy af-

ter starting just one season at FCS-

level North Dakota State — and

only one game in 2020 because of

the pandemic.

Garoppolo helped San Francis-

co reach the Super Bowl in the

2019 season before his fourth-

quarter struggles contributed to

that loss to Mahomes and the

Chiefs. Garoppolo lacks the mobil-

ity and big-play skills of some of

the top young quarterbacks in the

league and has struggled to stay

healthy, leading to the Niners’ de-

cision to make a big play for

Lance.

That’s why Shanahan isn’t in a

rush to make a change and will

likely opt to use Lance in a part-

time role early in the season to get

him experience.

“Jimmy’s a very good player,”

Shanahan said. “And when Jim-

my’s at the top of his game, I told

him this back when we made the

trade: ‘There’s no rookie that’s go-

ing to just come in here right away

and take your job if you’re at the

top of your game.’”

Garoppolo hasn’t been at the top

of his game in the preseason but is

still slated to start Week 1 against

Detroit.

It’s a similar situation in Chica-

go, where the Bears traded up to

draft Fields after already signing

Andy Dalton earlier in the offsea-

son.

Relying: 2012 class hadfive rookie starters at QBFROM PAGE 24

ADAM HUNGER / AP

Rookie Mac Jones will start at quarterback for the New EnglandPatriots, who released Cam Newton.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — One

thing that was apparent watching

the Patriots offense last season

was the lack of dependable pass-

catching options quarterback

Cam Newton had at his disposal.

It was a point of emphasis in the

offseason, one that coach Bill Bel-

ichick sought to improve with the

addition of tight ends Jonnu Smith

and Hunter Henry.

Soon after signing free-agent

deals, both tried to acquaint them-

selves with Newton, making trips

to meet up with the quarterback

for informal throwing sessions.

Those workouts proved to be

moot when the Patriots surprised

many around the NFL by releas-

ing Newton at the end of training

camp and elevating rookie Mac

Jones to the starting job.

It’s put the spotlight on Jones,

whose first game out of the gate

will be against a Dolphins defense

that features 2020 interceptions

leader Xavien Howard.

It’s also underscored the impor-

tance of Smith and Henry, who

will be counted on even more to

help take pressure off their young

quarterback. Smith said he is ex-

cited for Jones, adding that he’s

ready to give him all the support

he can to make it a successful first

outing Sunday.

“He’s taken that role and he’s

done a great job at it. That’s why

he is where he is,” Smith said. “He

does everything he’s supposed to

do. ... We’re just ready to ride for

him.”

Smith and Henry were slowed

by injuries at different times this

summer: Henry was dealing with

a shoulder issue and Smith a leg

injury.

But they entered the first game

week Monday without restrictions

in practice, a good sign for them

and Jones as the Patriots prepare

to open the season with back-to-

back division games.

“We missed that for a little bit in

camp with both of us not being out

there, but it’s fun once we’re out

there and rolling,” Henry said of

building chemistry with Smith.

“It’s a good competition. Just be-

ing able to build that chemistry

with him while we’re on the field.

Talk through things, see how I see

things, how he sees things. Bounce

things off each other.

Over the past two seasons a

group of Patriots tight ends that

has included Devin Asiasi, Ben

Watson, Ryan Izzo, Matt LaCosse

and Dalton Keene combined for

just 54 catches for 672 yards and

three touchdowns.

Asiasi is the only one of that

group currently on the roster,

leaving plenty of room for Henry

and Smith to make their marks in

2021.

Smith and Henry combined for

101 catches and 12 TDs last season.

Henry’s recent injury kept him

sidelined for more than two weeks

during training camp, which may

have put him too far behind phys-

ically to be ready for Sunday’s

opener.

Asked if he has any doubt he’ll

be ready to go, he said he’s only fo-

cused on following the program

the training staff has laid out for

him.

“I’m just trying to get better ev-

ery single day and you know, ap-

ply myself every day and be ready

to go when it comes,” he said.

How well Smith and Henry per-

form when they do get on the field

together this season will hinge on

how well the duo shares the work-

load in run blocking and in the

passing game.

WINSLOW TOWNSON/AP

New England Patriots tight end Jonnu Smith picks up yards after catching a pass against the WashingtonFootball Team during a preseason game on Aug. 12 in Foxborough, Mass.

Tight ends Smith, Henrytargets for Pats’ JonesFree-agent signings help rookie QB

Associated Press

STEVEN SENNE/AP

Hunter Henry gives the Patriotsrookie quarterback Mac Jonesanother passcatching threat.


NFL

NEW YORK — Wait a second.

He’s playing where now?

With the NFL season about to

kick off, it’s time for a quick re-

fresher on some familiar faces in

new places. Otherwise, you might

be scratching your head while

drafting your fantasy football

team or doing double takes when

you flip on the games in Week 1.

So, if you missed some free-

agent signings or trades in the off-

season — or forgot — and spent

your summer days and nights sip-

ping cocktails by the pool rather

than watching preseason games,

we’re here to help.

Quarterbacks■ Matthew Stafford (Lions to

Rams)

■ Jared Goff (Rams to Lions)

■ Carson Wentz (Eagles to

Colts)

■ Sam Darnold (Jets to Pan-

thers)

■ Teddy Bridgewater (Pan-

thers to Broncos)

■ Ryan Fitzpatrick (Dolphins

to Washington)

■ Andy Dalton (Cowboys to

Bears)

Goff, two first-round picks and a

third-rounder were dealt by Los

Angeles to Detroit for Stafford in

an offseason blockbuster. Both

will start for their new teams. ...

Wentz was traded to Indianapolis,

where he was reunited with cur-

rent Colts coach and former Ea-

gles offensive coordinator Frank

Reich, for a third-rounder and a

2022 conditional second-rounder.

Wentz had surgery to repair a bro-

ken bone in his foot earlier this

month, but could be ready for the

opener. ... The Jets moved on from

Darnold and dealt him to Carolina

for a sixth-rounder this year and

second- and fourth-rounders in

2022. New York drafted Zach Wil-

son with the No. 2 overall pick. ...

After getting Darnold, the Pan-

thers traded Bridgewater to Den-

ver for a sixth-rounder and he has

taken the Broncos’ starting job. ...

FitzMagic is still going strong and

the 38-year-old well-traveled vet

will be under center for Washing-

ton in Week 1 — the ninth NFL

team for which he’ll start. ... Dal-

ton, in Dallas last year after nine

seasons in Cincinnati, is Chicago’s

expected starter. But the calls

from Bears fans for Justin Fields,

the No. 3 overall pick, have al-

ready begun.

Running backs■ Tevin Coleman (49ers to

Jets)

■ James Conner (Steelers to

Cardinals)

■ Kenyan Drake (Cardinals to

Raiders)

■ Sony Michel (Patriots to

Rams)

Coleman, who spent two injury-

plagued seasons in San Francisco,

joins a backfield in New York

where he’s likely to complement

Ty Johnson, La’Mical Perine and

rookie Michael Carter. ... Conner

was Pittsburgh’s backfield work-

horse most of the last three sea-

sons, but will be part of a 1-2 punch

in Arizona with Chase Edmonds.

... Drake broke out during his two

seasons with the Cardinals, scor-

ing 18 touchdowns in 23 games.

Las Vegas is doubling down with

Drake and Josh Jacobs. ... Michel

will supplement Darrell Hender-

son, whose iffy injury history sug-

gests Michel could get plenty of

playing time if he can stay healthy

himself.

Wide receivers■ Julio Jones (Falcons to Ti-

tans)

■ A.J. Green (Bengals to Cardi-

nals)

■ Kenny Golladay (Lions to Gi-

ants)

■ Corey Davis (Titans to Jets)

Jones, the Falcons’ career lead-

er in catches and yards receiving,

was traded along with a 2023

sixth-round pick to Tennessee for

the Titans’ second-rounder in

2022 and a fourth-rounder in 2023.

He didn’t practiced much in train-

ing camp because of a leg ailment,

but will form a formidable 1-2 re-

ceiving duo with A.J. Brown when

healthy. ... Green signed with Ari-

zona after 10 years in Cincinnati,

where he’s second to Chad John-

son in various team career receiv-

ing marks. ... Looking to give Da-

niel Jones more weapons, the Gi-

ants signed Golladay to a four-

year, $72 million contract. ... Davis

is expected to be a major part of

the Jets’ revamped receiving

corps.

Tight ends■ Hunter Henry (Chargers to

Patriots)

■ Jonnu Smith (Titans to Patri-

ots)

Life at tight end without Rob

Gronkowski hasn’t been great for

New England, which brought in

two of the more productive play-

ers at that position over the last

few years.

Offensive line■ Trent Brown (Raiders to Pa-

triots)

■ Joe Thuney (Patriots to

Chiefs)

■ Corey Linsley (Packers to

Chargers)

■ Morgan Moses (Washington

to Jets)

The 6-foot-8, 380-pound Brown

returns to New England, where he

played left tackle in 2018, after two

years with the Raiders. ... Thuney

bolsters the line in front of Patrick

Mahomes after five years with the

Patriots. ... All-Pro Linsley, a fix-

ture on Green Bay’s line the past

seven years, signed a five-year,

$62.5 million contract with the

Chargers, making him the NFL’s

highest-paid center. ... Moses

signed a one-year, $3.6 million

deal with the Jets to play right

tackle and form bookends with left

tackle Mekhi Becton in front of

Wilson.

Defensive linemen■ J.J. Watt (Texans to Cardi-

nals)

■ Jadeveon Clowney (Titans to

Browns)

■ Yannick Ngakoue (Ravens to

Raiders)

Watt became one of the faces of

the league during 10 years with

the Texans, so it’ll surely be

strange seeing him rush the pas-

ser in another uniform after sign-

ing a two-year, $28 million deal

with Arizona. ... Browns fans are

drooling over Clowney teaming

with Myles Garrett to wreck op-

posing backfields. ... Ngakoue split

last season between Minnesota

and Baltimore and finished with

eight sacks, a total he has reached

or surpassed in all five of his NFL

seasons.

Linebackers■ Melvin Ingram (Chargers to

Steelers)

■ Bud Dupree (Steelers to Ti-

tans)

■ Matt Judon (Ravens to Patri-

ots)

Ingram was a consistent pass-

rushing threat during nine sea-

sons with the Chargers except for

last year, when knee injuries lim-

ited him to seven games and no

sacks. ... Dupree was a key per-

former on Pittsburgh’s defense

the last six seasons, getting 39½

sacks. He signed a five-year, $82.5

million contract with Tennessee

in the offseason and appears

healthy after a torn ACL ended

last season prematurely. ... Judon

was one of New England’s big

free-agent signings, getting a four-

year, $56 million deal after being

selected for the Pro Bowl the last

two seasons.

Defensive backs■ Patrick Peterson (Cardinals

to Vikings)

■ Malcolm Butler (Titans to

Cardinals)

Peterson was a three-time All-

Pro and established himself as one

of the game’s top cornerbacks in

10 years in Arizona. ... Butler,

whose goal-line interception

sealed New England’s Super Bowl

win in 2014, spent the last three

seasons in Tennessee.

Kickers■ Matt Prater (Lions to Cardi-

nals)

Prater, who still holds the NFL

record with his 64-yard field goal

while with Denver in 2013, kicked

for seven years in Detroit before

signing a two-year deal with Ari-

zona in the offseason.

Familiar faces playing in new places

JOHM MCCOY/AP

Quarterback Matthew Stafford, left, was traded by Detroit to Los Angeles this offseason for former Ramsstarter Jared Goff and two firstround draft picks. Both will be starters for their new teams on Sunday.

BY DENNIS WASZAK JR.

Associated Press

MARK HUMPHREY/AP

Wide receiver Julio Jones was traded to the Titans by Atlanta, wherehe is the career leader in catches and receiving yards.


SPORTSStill rolling

Djokovic three victories away fromcalendar-year Slam ›› US Open, Page 18

Rays rally from six down to beat Red Sox ›› MLB, Page 19

SANTA CLARA, Calif.

Top two overall draft

picks Trevor Lawrence

and Zach Wilson are set

to step right in and be-

come starting NFL quarterbacks

in Week 1 of their rookie season.

Mac Jones will join them after

beating out Cam Newton for the

job in New England, which should

make this year’s draft class just

the second since the merger with

at least three Week 1 rookie start-

ers at quarterback.

The timeline for the two other

first-round quarterbacks in this

year’s draft is a bit murkier. But if

recent history is any guide, Trey

Lance and Justin Fields don’t fig-

ure to wait too long to get their

chance as starters.

The days of Aaron Rodgers

spending three years on the bench

as Brett Favre’s apprentice or

Carson Palmer sitting out his en-

tire rookie season behind Jon Kit-

na in Cincinnati are mostly in the

past.

While some point to the success

Patrick Mahomes has had in Kan-

sas City since spending almost his

entire rookie season on the bench

behind Alex Smith, rookies are be-

ing thrown into the fire quicker

than ever. The differences be-

tween the pro and college offenses

have narrowed and teams try to

take advantage of having a start-

ing quarterback on a cheaper roo-

kie contract.

Since the rookie wage scale was

put in place before the 2011 sea-

son, 30 of the 32 quarterbacks

drafted in the first round — all but

Jake Locker and Jordan Love —

started at least one game as a roo-

kie. Twelve of those started the

opener and nearly two-thirds (21

Relying on the rookiesFirst-year QBs steppingin as starters in Week 1

BY JOSH DUBOW

Associated Press

BRANDON WADE, ABOVE, AND NOAH K. MURRAY, RIGHT/AP

Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, above, looks for an open receiver during a preseason game againstthe Cowboys on Aug. 29 in Arlington, Texas. Lawrence and Jets quarterback Zach Wilson, right, along withPatriots quarterback Mac Jones, are firstround draft picks who will start as rookies in Week 1.

“We got work to do and we’ll getthe things fixed and then we’ll just

keep rolling.”Mac Jones

Patriots rookie on being handed the reins as the starting quarterback

SEE RELYING ON PAGE 22

NFL

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