EVERETT, Wash. — As they conduct

bombing and surveillance missions

around the globe, today’s U.S. military pi-

lots rely on aerial refueling aircraft built as

early as 1957, when the Soviet Union dom-

inated American security fears, the aver-

age home cost $12,000 and “I Love Lucy”

was debuting new episodes.

The cost of keeping those aging jets in

the air has grown sharply while the mili-

tary awaits a next-generation refueling

plane whose rollout has been repeatedly

delayed by design and production issues.

The Air Force’s two-decade effort to

field a 21st century tanker, one of several

premier air systems whose development

has been beset with problems, is emble-

matic of the challenges Pentagon leaders

face in seeking to maintain the U.S. mili-

tary’s shrinking edge over its chief com-

petitor, China.

Despite a decade of effort, development of the KC-46 tanker, seen below in 2019, has stumbled, prompting a leading generalto describe the replacement for the 1950s-era KC-135 as a “lemon.”

ALEXI MYRICK/U.S. Air Force

Lemons and ratholes Despite outpacing rivals’ spending for decades, US military struggling to maintain edge

BY MISSY RYAN

The Washington Post

SEE LEMONS ON PAGE 4

“We are sort of a victim ofour own success.”

Ryan Haas

Brookings Institute

Volume 79 Edition 248 ©SS 2021 CONTINGENCY EDITION FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2021 Free to Deployed Areas

stripes.com

MILITARY

Russia concernslead EURCOM toraise threat levelPage 3

VIRUS OUTBREAK

Job cuts continueeven as businessesbegin to reopenPage 9

FACES

‘Knives Out’sequels willair on NetflixPage 13

Despite early upsets, Final Four a high-seeded affair ›› NCAA tourney, Page 24

CAMP KINSER, Okinawa —The buzz

among Malik Pugh’s fellow Marines finally

caught the attention of his platoon com-

mander in the 3rd Marine Logistics Group

during a routine inspection back in August.

Warrant Officer Joseph Kimmel said he

harbored some trepidation about then-

Lance Cpl. Pugh’s living quarters after

hearing whispers about what he would find

there.

“When I make it to his room, all I see is

tech and electronics everywhere,” Kim-

mel said in a March 18 email to Stars and

Stripes.

Kimmel found an array of electronics,

computer monitors, whirring servers, ne-

on lights, 3D printers and a work bench full

of gadgets and tools, including a partially

built humanoid robot.

The Marine Corps also took notice of

Pugh, who was recently promoted merito-

riously to corporal.

Pugh sees numerous opportunities

where his expertise can benefit the Marine

Corps, from 3D-printed covers to protect

gear from the elements to custom tools and

even reconnaissance drones to assist

SEE SKILLS ON PAGE 6

Tech-savvy Marineexcited to use skillsto modernize Corps

BY MATTHEW M. BURKE

Stars and Stripes

MATTHEW M. BURKE/Stars and Stripes

Marine Cpl. Malik Pugh shows off a pair ofgoggles that allow him to see from theperspective of of a homemade drone atCamp Kinser, Okinawa, on Feb. 22.

PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

BUSINESS/WEATHER

A batch of Johnson & Johnson’s

COVID-19 vaccine failed quality

standards and can’t be used, the

drug giant said Wednesday.

The drugmaker didn’t say how

many doses were lost, and it

wasn’t clear how the problem

would impact future deliveries.

A vaccine ingredient made by

Emergent BioSolutions — one of

about 10 companies that Johnson

& Johnson is using to speed up

manufacturing of its recently ap-

proved vaccine — did not meet

quality standards, J&J said.

J&J said the Emergent BioSolu-

tions factory involved had not yet

been approved by the U.S. Food

and Drug Administration to make

part of the vaccine. Emergent de-

clined to comment.

J&J had pledged to provide 20

million doses of its vaccine to the

U.S. government by the end of

March, and 80 million more doses

by the end of May. Its statement on

the manufacturing problem said it

was still planning to deliver 100

million doses by the end of June

and was “aiming to deliver those

doses by the end of May.”

President Joe Biden has

pledged to have enough vaccines

for all U.S. adults by the end of

May. The U.S. government has or-

dered enough two-dose shots from

Pfizer and Moderna to vaccinate

200 million people to be delivered

by late May, plus the 100 million

shots from J&J.

A federal official said Wednes-

day evening the administration’s

goal can be met without additional

J&J doses.

J&J vaccine batch fails quality checkAssociated Press

Bahrain80/73

Baghdad82/58

Doha98/69

Kuwait City85/68

Riyadh99/67

Kandahar79/50

Kabul63/37

Djibouti89/69

FRIDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Mildenhall/Lakenheath

48/39

Ramstein59/35

Stuttgart53/44

Lajes,Azores60/57

Rota62/57

Morón69/53 Sigonella

70/46

Naples61/52

Aviano/Vicenza65/46

Pápa48/41

Souda Bay61/50

Brussels49/38

Zagan48/38

DrawskoPomorskie

46/34

FRIDAY IN EUROPE

Misawa55/40

Guam82/79

Tokyo60/48

Okinawa72/69

Sasebo65/61

Iwakuni58/54

Seoul61/54

Osan62/53

Busan62/56

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

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

SATURDAY IN THE PACIFIC

WEATHER OUTLOOK

TODAYIN STRIPES

Comics .........................14Crossword ................... 14Faces .......................... 13Opinion ........................ 16Sports .................... 18-24

Military rates

Euro costs (April 2) $1.15Dollar buys (April 2) 0.8292British pound (April 2) $1.34Japanese yen (April 2) 108.00South Korean won (April 2) 1100.00

Commercial rates

Bahrain(Dinar) .3770Britain (Pound) 1.3816Canada (Dollar) 1.2573China(Yuan) 6.5689Denmark (Krone) 6.3290Egypt (Pound) 15.7109Euro .8508Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7770Hungary (Forint) 307.74Israel (Shekel) 3.3318Japan (Yen) 110.72Kuwait(Dinar) .3022

Norway (Krone) 8.5325

Philippines (Peso) 48.61Poland (Zloty) 3.92Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7506Singapore (Dollar) 1.3449

South Korea (Won) 1129.94Switzerland (Franc) .9446Thailand (Baht) 31.25Turkey (NewLira)  �8.1462

(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.)

INTEREST RATES

Prime rate 3.25Interest Rates Discount �rate 0.75Federal funds market rate  �0.073­month bill 0.0330­year bond 2.42

EXCHANGE RATES

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3

STUTTGART, Germany — U.S.

European Command has raised its

threat level over worries that Rus-

sia is massing forces around east-

ern Ukraine, where the Pentagon

says tensions have escalated in re-

cent weeks.

“We’re discussing our concerns

about this increase in tensions and

cease-fire violations and regional

tensions with NATO allies,” Pen-

tagon spokesman John Kirby told

reporters Wednesday.

The situation in Ukraine

prompted Joint Chiefs of Staff

Chairman Gen. Mark Milley on

the same day to connect with his

counterparts in both Russia and

Ukraine, in an attempt to de-esca-

late a situation that has prompted

fears within Ukraine of a looming

Russian offensive.

Gen. Tod Wolters in the past

week raised EUCOM’s watch lev-

el for Ukraine from possible crisis

to potential imminent crisis — the

highest level, The New York

Times reported Wednesday. EU-

COM declined to comment on the

threat level change, but said it is

monitoring events in Ukraine

carefully.

Kirby said changes in so-called

“WATCHCON” levels express a

“combatant commander’s con-

cern about a potential threat and

the ability to provide future warn-

ings.”

“So by setting a WATCHCON,

basically the commander is better

able to identify and track the

threat and alert decision makers

to emerging concerns,” Kirby

said, without discussing EU-

COM’s current level.

Since Moscow’s 2014 military

intervention in Ukraine, there

have been steady clashes between

Russian-backed separatists in the

country’s east and government

forces. On social media in recent

weeks, scores of videos have

shown Russian convoys of tanks

and other combat vehicles appar-

ently heading toward Ukraine.

Michael Kofman, a security

analyst with expertise on Russia,

said it isn’t clear what Moscow has

planned.

“Regarding force movements

around Ukraine. No strong evi-

dence that an attack is imminent,

but force movements are indica-

tive that something is up outside of

regular exercises, or normal troop

rotation,” Kofman said in a Twit-

ter post. “Russian intentions (are)

unclear.”

Kirby did not offer an assess-

ment on the apparent military

buildup, but blamed Moscow for

recent violations of a July 2020

cease-fire deal in Ukraine that re-

sulted in the deaths of four Ukrai-

nian soldiers last week.

Russia also has stepped up ma-

neuvers beyond Ukraine in recent

days.

On Monday, NATO fighter jets

conducted 10 intercepts of Rus-

sian warplanes, stretching from

the Arctic to southern Europe as

the alliance countered what it

called “an unusual peak” of

flights. Allied aircraft shadowed

Russian bombers and fighters

over the North Atlantic, North Sea,

Black Sea and Baltic Sea, NATO

said.

EUCOM raises threat level for UkraineBY JOHN VANDIVER

Stars and Stripes

GREGORY GLOSSER/U.S. Army

Ukrainian troops prepare to conduct company­level battle drills at Combat Training Center­Yavoriv,Ukraine, in November.

vandiver.john@stripes.comTwitter: @john_vandiver 

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — An Okina-

wa-based Marine who rescued a local wom-

an from a dark, busy roadway earlier this

year has received a medal for his actions.

Marine Sgt. Jovany Gutierrez, 27, a mil-

itary police officer and the driver for III

Marine Expeditionary Force commander

Lt. Gen. H. Stacy Clardy, was awarded the

Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Med-

al during a ceremony at Camp Courtney on

March 12, according to a Marine statement

shortly after the ceremony. Clardy present-

ed the award.

Gutierrez, of Albuquerque, N.M., was on

his way to work around 5 a.m. Jan. 6 when

he spotted a young Japanese woman in his

headlights, he recalled during an interview

March 24 at Camp Courtney.

The woman stumbled along the sidewalk,

dangerously close to the roadway, on Route

224 near its intersection with Route 8 in

Uruma, Gutierrez said. He drove past care-

fully.

“As I looked in my rearview mirror, I saw

her collapse in the middle of the road be-

hind me,” he said. “In the distance I saw

some vehicles coming up… I knew the dan-

gers that posed to both her and the possible

driver.”

Gutierrez — a dog handler and seven-

year Marine — said he acted fast. He pulled

his car around, placing it between her and

the oncoming traffic on the poorly lit road-

way.

He then tried to flag down the oncoming

vehicles to warn them while at the same

time trying to communicate with the young

woman. She was in and out of consciousness

and did not speak English.

“I asked her and pointed to the sidewalk

to see if I could motivate her to get herself

up and move towards the sidewalk,” he

said. “She wasn’t in a good state. Her legs

were failing her at that moment. She was

out of it, unfortunately.”

Gutierrez picked the woman up and car-

ried her to the sidewalk, he said. She then

went on what he calls “an emotional roller-

coaster,” drifting back and forth between

breathing easy and relaxing to hysterical,

yelling and convulsing.

He waved down another Marine who was

able to help. They placed the woman in the

recovery position and waited for paramed-

ics, who had been called by another driver,

to arrive.

“We were trying to keep her at ease and

tell her, ‘Hey, it’s okay; we’re getting you

help,’” he recalled.

Gutierrez said the paramedics told him

the woman would be fine.

He briefed his command on what had

happened, and they began the paperwork

for the achievement medal without his

knowledge, he said.

“It was pretty heart-warming,” he re-

called.

The Navy and Marine Corps Achieve-

ment Medal is awarded to service members

below the rank of colonel for meritorious

service or achievement in combat or non-

combat. The medal can either be used to

recognize sustained performance or a spe-

cific achievement that does not warrant a

higher award.

Gutierrez is a standout Marine, accord-

ing to III MEF staff secretary Maj. James

Sullivan.

“He regularly demonstrates selflessness

in the workplace, and during his off-duty

time,” Sullivan wrote Thursday in an email

to Stars and Stripes. “He has always gone

above and beyond to assist others in his sec-

tion and around him.”

Gutierrez dedicated his award to all the

Marines on Okinawa performing heroic ac-

tions every day.

“I knew I had to do something,” Gutierrez

said of the rescue. “I’d like to think anyone

would do the same thing. It’s especially our

duty as Marines stationed here on Okina-

wa.”

Marine based on Okinawahonored for rescuing woman

BY MATTHEW M. BURKE

Stars and Stripes

MATTHEW M. BURKE/Stars and Stripes

Marine Sgt. Jovany Gutierrez

burke.matt@stripes.comTwitter: @MatthewMBurke1 

TOKYO — U.S. military bases in the Far

East reported 18 new coronavirus patients

as of 6 p.m. Thursday, some dating to March

21.

Japan reported another 1,937 people with

COVID-19, according to the World Health

Organization.

The Marine Corps reported three people

on Okinawa tested positive for the coronavi-

rus Wednesday: two at Camp Foster and

one at Camp Hansen, according to a Face-

book post. On Thursday, the Marines re-

ported seven more: four at Foster, and one

each at Camps Hansen, Courtney and Kin-

ser.

South Korea reported 551 new COVID-19

patients Wednesday, according to Korea

Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Of

those, 197 were in Seoul and 125 were in

Gyeonggi province, where Osan Air Base

and Camp Humphreys are located.

U.S. Forces Korea reported eight people

tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving

on the peninsula between March 21 and

Monday, according to a news release.

All eight — seven service members and

one dependent — tested positive on the first

test required before they entered the two-

week mandatory quarantine.

US military: 18cases in Japan,South Korea

BY JOSEPH DITZLER

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to thisreport. �

MILITARY

PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

The United States, once the world’s un-

disputed military superpower, has been

struggling for years to efficiently update its

arsenal and field new technology in cutting-

edge areas such as hypersonics and artifi-

cial intelligence, at a time when some senior

officials warn that China could be within

five years of surpassing the U.S. military.

Experts point to myriad problems with

the U.S. system, including a slow, calcified

budgeting process, unwieldy congressional

requirements and the Pentagon’s inability

to effectively piggyback on private-sector

advances in digital know-how.

“It’s like the Pentagon is finding itself

staring in the rearview mirror in the face of

oncoming traffic,” said Mackenzie Eaglen,

a defense analyst at the American Enter-

prise Institute.

As the Biden administration formulates

its defense priorities, it must confront an in-

creasingly urgent question: How will the

U.S. stay ahead of an authoritarian compet-

itor that is able to marshal industry and es-

pionage to leapfrog decades of military

technology?

Since taking office, leaders in the Biden

administration, like their predecessors un-

der President Donald Trump, have identi-

fied China as the top threat to U.S. security.

They have also voiced concerns about

America’s eroding edge as Beijing show-

cases its exponential growth in satellites,

ballistic missiles, bombers, fighter aircraft,

submarines and naval vessels.

In his inaugural overseas trip, Defense

Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed the impor-

tance of Asian alliances to meet China’s mil-

itary rise.

“Our goal is to make sure we have the ca-

pabilities and the operational plans and

concepts to offer credible deterrence to

China or anybody else who would want to

take on the U.S.,” Austin told reporters trav-

eling with him to Japan and South Korea in

March.

Officials acknowledge the challenges are

formidable. Only in February did the mil-

itary begin using Boeing’s KC-46 tanker,

developed to replace the 1950s-era KC-135,

on a limited basis. After a decade of devel-

opment, and 20 years since the Pentagon

first launched efforts to field a new tanker,

the plane has still not been deemed ready

for combat. A leading general recently de-

scribed it as a “lemon.”

Even more well known is Lockheed Mar-

tin’s F-35, the stealth fighter whose two dec-

ades of development have been plagued by

setbacks and mechanical problems. The

plane, which costs between $77 million and

$100 million apiece, has yet to hit full-rate

production. The chairman of the House

Armed Services Committee called it a

“rathole.”

The military is also racing to keep up with

advances by China and Russia in hyperson-

ic weapons, which travel at five times the

speed of sound or faster. Although Beijing

has already fielded a hypersonic glide vehi-

cle, the DF-17, the U.S. is just scaling up its

research funding and prototyping.

A recent report by a government-backed

commission on AI, which the Pentagon

hopes to use to analyze imagery and data

and, potentially, in combat, cited a dearth of

needed skills among government person-

nel.

It warned that the U.S. has a finite win-

dow to up its game against China, which al-

ready uses AI in a vast domestic surveil-

lance network and has staked out a goal of

AI primacy by 2030.

“The scope for action remains, but Amer-

ica’s room for maneuver is shrinking,” said

the commission, which includes former

Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

The challenges are just as urgent in other

digital areas. The Pentagon may be forced

to abandon a yearslong attempt to create a

$10 billion cloud infrastructure because of

legal challenges, a problem that has

plagued other acquisition efforts. Experts

say officials have underestimated the im-

portance of software and underinvested in

digital security.

■ ■ ■

The U.S. was once capable of quickly

fielding cutting-edge military equipment.

Following World War II, it developed the

formidable B-52 bomber in record speed,

building and improving on 13 versions of

the aircraft in just over a decade.

But the pace of military innovation

slowed in the 1960s with the advent of a cen-

tralized procurement system that priori-

tized performance and predictability over

speed. That didn’t matter much back then,

because the Soviet Union was not moving

fast either, as Bill Greenwalt, who worked

on acquisition reform as a staffer to the late

Sen. John McCain, described in a new re-

search paper.

Today, it typically takes more than a dec-

ade to develop and field new weapons sys-

tems, Greenwalt found, which sometimes

means technology is out of date by the time

it becomes operational.

Part of the problem is a planning and

funding process that typically requires two

years before a new weaponry or technology

program can be included in the budget. This

leads to what insiders call the “Valley of

Death,” the long lag time between when a

company prototypes a new technology and

when the Pentagon fully funds it. That is

particularly hard on smaller companies,

contributing to the dominance of a handful

of large “defense prime” firms.

In addition, navigating the labyrinthine

military procurement system requires spe-

cialized knowledge and resources — which

many smaller firms don’t have.

Will Roper, who sought to accelerate Air

Force innovation as the service’s top acqui-

sition official during the Trump administra-

tion, said that unlike during the Cold War,

the bulk of U.S. research and development

funding now takes place in the private sec-

tor, not in government.

“So by not being able to tap commercial

innovation, the military is losing out on most

of its opportunities,” he said.

In recent years, the military has created a

number of smaller funding initiatives that

aim to sidestep its clunky acquisition sys-

tem and quickly channel government mon-

ey to new technologies.

Another factor slowing down U.S. innova-

tion is the Pentagon’s focus on long-term in-

vestments in a small number of weapons

systems, some of which don’t play out as

planned. China, meanwhile, has tended to

experiment with many versions of similar

technology.

Experts say Congress, while providing

important oversight, has at times hindered

innovation by blocking the Pentagon from

retiring weaponry. In addition, require-

ments designed to reduce waste or acceler-

ate innovation sometimes backfire, as oc-

curred when lawmakers required the Pen-

tagon to simultaneously develop several

variants of the F-35, said J.J. Gertler, a vet-

eran military aviation analyst.

“People say DOD should be run like a

business,” Gertler said. “Well, in business

you fail, you go on. If DOD fails, there are

new laws and procurement rules.”

China’s defense transformation has been

guided by a principle known as “military-

civil fusion,” which aims to allow the state to

seamlessly capitalize on private-sector ad-

vances. Overseen personally by President

Xi Jinping, the strategy can include exploi-

tation of dual-use products or even forced

technology transfers.

Roper said the military, with China’s 1.4-

billion population in mind, should focus on

hardware and other ways to power major

advances in software or AI.

“Scale is going to be against us in almost

every case against China,” he said. “We’re

going to be looking for technologies that are

leaps ahead.”

Some experts caution against overstating

the challenge. Despite Beijing’s economic

heft, the U.S. retains strategic advantages,

including defense alliances and favorable

geography. China borders 14 countries, in-

cluding four nuclear powers.

Although experts disagree on the extent

to which the Chinese state has successfully

commandeered commercial technology,

the situation is far different in the U.S.,

where courts, the media and even corporate

culture sometimes function as a brake on

public-private collaboration.

That was the case in 2017, when Google

pulled out of a Pentagon AI initiative, Pro-

ject Maven, after employees protested the

use of their company algorithms by the mil-

itary.

Even more problematic has been China’s

use of espionage to snap up military innova-

tions that reflect billions of dollars in re-

search funding. Examples of weaponry be-

lieved to have been fueled by U.S. plans in-

clude the Chinese versions of the F-22, F-35

and the C-17 transport plane.

“So long as they continue to do that, the

playing field will always favor the Chinese,”

said a defense official who spoke on the con-

dition of anonymity to speak candidly.

“They’re getting away with as much as they

can, because, frankly, the pushback has

been weak.”

■ ■ ■

Pentagon leaders, stressing the need to

embrace new ways of waging war, have

sought to project confidence in U.S. preem-

inence while also voicing frustration at the

pace of innovation.

When Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff, paid a recent visit to an

aircraft production facility in Everett,

Wash., Boeing executives welcomed him

for what they described as a tour of the

KC-46.

“I think of it as an inspection,” the general

quipped in response.

Milley said delays are common when cre-

ating first-of-its-kind technology.

“They’re not going to be coming off the

factory line perfectly in the first run,” he

said. Still, he added: “It puts us behind.”

After the visit, a Boeing spokeswoman,

Jane McCarthy, said in a statement that the

company “stands ready to support the Air

Force as they begin phasing the KC-46 into

operational missions.”

Experts point to bright spots for the mil-

itary, including Special Operations forces’

ability to partner with the private sector via

a separate procurement system, or the rap-

id development of explosive-resistant vehi-

cles to protect troops at the height of the

wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Those conflicts, which have consumed

military attention for two decades — with

little relevance to today’s competition with

China — represent another aspect of the

challenge.

“We’re sort of a victim of our own success

coming out of the unipolar moment, not

feeling particularly stressed or challenged

for a long period of time,” said Ryan Hass, a

former White House official who is now a

China expert at the Brookings Institution.

“For a lot of senior military leaders, feel-

ing that strategic stress from an adversary

that’s a near-peer competitor is not a place

that they have spent a lot of their career,” he

said. “So there probably hasn’t been the

same sense of urgency and alarm.”

Lemons: US looking for ways to stay ahead of rivals in defense capabilities

LAWRENCE SENA/92d Air Refueling Wing

An F­35 Lightning II en route to Alaska is refueled by a KC­135 Stratotanker in July.

FROM PAGE 1

MILITARY

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5

WASHINGTON — Despite hav-

ing completed three combat tours

in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most

shocking part of retired Col. Mor-

gan Mann’s 30-year Marine Corps

career was the moment it ended —

with a single, unexpected phone

call.

Mann, the former commander

of the 25th Marine Regiment, was

removed from his position Oct. 4,

2017. At the time, the Marine

Corps said only that his removal

was “due to a loss of confidence.”

“I’ve been to combat three

times, including as a rifle compa-

ny commander in a very intense

environment, and this was the

worst thing that ever happened to

me,” Mann said . “There was no

explanation, it was just left out

there: ‘You’re fired. Pack your

stuff today, and you can just go.’”

After more than three years of

fighting the decision, Mann won

his appeal this month. The Board

of Correction of Naval Records,

part of the Department of the Na-

vy, ordered that Mann’s record be

expunged of any wrongdoing.

Though his record is now clean,

Mann is still fighting to clear up

the damage that the public firing

did to his reputation.

“All people have to do is Google

my name,” Mann said. “In those

first articles, there’s no explana-

tion, no nothing — it just lets the

reader fill in the blanks of what

horrible thing I did. I live with that

every single day.”

“I need to set the record straight

publicly,” he said.

Mann enlisted in the Marine

Corps at age 17 in 1987. He worked

as a field artilleryman before be-

ing commissioned through the Na-

val Reserve Officer Training

Course in 1989. He held numerous

command positions and served

two tours in Iraq in 2005 and 2007

and a tour in Afghanistan in 2013.

He assumed command of the

25th Marine Regiment in March

2017, becoming responsible for

about 4,400 Marines and sailors at

23 sites across 11 states. When he

took over, Mann noticed poor mo-

rale at the regiment’s headquar-

ters company. He ordered a pre-

liminary inquiry into the unit that

April.

The inquiry found an unhealthy

company rife with conflict. As a

result, the company went through

equal opportunity training, as well

as counseling about instances of

inappropriate behavior and sex-

ually explicit language.

Another investigation was

opened into the headquarters

company that August after a Ma-

rine was prematurely recalled to

duty after suffering a miscarriage.

According to a

report by the

Board of Correc-

tion of Naval Re-

cords, the inves-

tigation found

that Mann was

not involved or

made aware of

the incident and

that the “extremely poor” climate

at the unit predated his arrival as

commander.

Although the investigators de-

termined that no adverse action

be taken against Mann, he was re-

moved from his position by Lt.

Gen. Rex McMillan, who at the

time commanded the Marine

Forces Reserve. Mann never

learned why that decision was

made.

Mann immediately began to

fight the decision. In 2018, the Per-

formance Evaluation Review

Board decided that the incident

did not warrant Mann’s separa-

tion from the Marine Corps and

that his final, negative fitness re-

port should be removed. Then this

month, the Board of Correction of

Naval Records ordered his record

entirely expunged.

“The Board determined that

[Mann] was held to an unreason-

able level of accountability given

the scope of his duties, limited

time in command, dispersion of

the unit, and other missions that

were assigned,” the board wrote

in its report.

The board also said that Mann

“took actions to correct the prob-

lems with the climate in the com-

mand.”

Mann’s victory before the

Board of Correction of Naval Re-

cords was bittersweet, he said.

The decision to remove him could

not truly be undone, and it ended

what he expected to be a much

longer Marine Corps career.

“It provides some sense of clo-

sure, but it’s something that

should never have happened in

the first place,” Mann said. “I still

feel like I have more to give to the

Marine Corps and this country.”

In a fitness report dated Sept.

24, 2017 — just 10 days before

Mann was fired — McMillan and

Maj. Gen. Burke Whiteman wrote

that Mann was “one of our finest

officers.”

“His performance has been su-

perb,” McMillan wrote. “He is ex-

ceptionally smart, quick and well

spoken. He is dedicated and dri-

ven to ensure the [regiment] Is

ready to fight … he is calm and

cool under pressure. And presents

a rock-solid appearance. Morgan

gets the job done.”

McMillan wrote that Mann had

his “most enthusiastic recommen-

dation” for a promotion to briga-

dier general. In his written com-

ments, Whitman also said that

Mann had his “highest possible

recommendation for promotion at

the earliest opportunity.”

Whitman, the former senior re-

serve office of the Marine Corps,

also wrote that during the brief pe-

riod Mann had led the 25th Re-

giment, he made “immediate, pos-

itive and lasting” changes. Mann

was “never content with the status

quo” and aggressively sought

ways to foster innovation and im-

prove the regiment, Whitman

wrote.

Mann harbors no bad feelings

toward the Marine Corps itself —

it’s still “so much of who I am,” he

said. He wants to find other oppor-

tunities for public service, but his

removal has affected those chanc-

es.

Fired Marine commander fighting to clear his nameBY NIKKI WENTLING

Stars and Stripes

Mann 

MILITARY

PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

ground troops by making them

more aware of their surroundings.

The III Marine Expeditionary

Force on Okinawa has shown a

willingness in recent years to inte-

grate the ideas of tech savvy Ma-

rines, through unit leadership and

by hosting invention competitions.

“He is extremely intelligent and

technically savvy,” Kimmel said.

“He has a very bright future.”

Pugh, a digital wideband tech-

nician in Communications Com-

pany, Combat Logistics Regiment

37, has a lifelong affiliation with

electromechanics.

A self-described military brat

who bounced around a lot as a

child, Pugh finally settled outside

St. Louis in a small town called

Fairview Heights, Ill., he said on a

sunny February afternoon outside

the warehouse where he works.

From “Bob the Builder” toys

and Legos, Pugh graduated to tin-

kering with whatever electronics

he could find around the house.

“It’s been like that since I was a

kid,” he said. “I can’t think of a

time when I didn’t want to build

something.”

Discovering radio-controlled

cars in his formative years, with

their batteries and motors, was a

game-changer, he said. After he

built a car that went 50 mph, he

wanted to see what he could do in

the air. He saved his lunch money

in middle school to buy the parts to

build his first drone.

Pugh said he rigged one to drop

candy before unsuspecting trick-

or-treaters on Halloween.

In middle school, Pugh took ro-

botics’ courses and built robots, he

said. He learned enough about

motors and actuators to attempt

his first humanoid robot. It was a

disaster.

“It was a freak of nature, honest-

ly,” he said with a laugh. “It didn’t

even get off the ground … but it

was a good taste of what I wanted

to do.”

After high school, Pugh found

himself rudderless. He tried col-

lege and worked two jobs, but he

felt redundant and unaccom-

plished, he said. In 2019, he joined

the Marine Corps. Today he’s re-

sponsible for setting up a comple-

ment of ground terminals for sat-

ellite communications.

The humanoid robot he calls

Project Alita, after the 2019 action

film “Alita: Battle Angel,” sits atop

his work bench, minus a head.

“That one’s going to be a fun

one,” he said.

The first step for Alita will be

walking and navigating the room,

Pugh said. Then he hopes it will

identify objects and people it sees

frequently, building a profile for

each person and varying its reac-

tions depending on its familiarity

with them.

Alita will be self-sufficient and

able to charge itself on its own,

Pugh said. Lastly, he hopes to

teach the robot certain protocols,

like chores. But mostly he wants it

to be a funny companion he can in-

teract with.

Pugh has also built a remote-

controlled, motorized long skate-

board with brakes that takes him

to and from work each day, and

several drones that perform vari-

ous functions. He’s also working

on a robot that can vacuum and

mop the floor as it moves around

like a Roomba.

Kimmel said Marines like Pugh

are a sign of the times.

“Growing up with more ad-

vanced technology is an advan-

tage that younger Marines have

over those of us that are a little

more seasoned,” Kimmel said.

“Each new Marine that I have

seen come in after me has been a

little bit smarter than the previ-

ous.”

Skills: Marines embrace innovationsFROM PAGE 1

MATTHEW M. BURKE/Stars and Stripes

Marine Cpl. Malik Pugh explains a robot he hopes will sweep and mopthe floor in his barracks room at Camp Kinser, Okinawa, on Feb. 22.

burke.matt@stripes.comTwitter: @MatthewMBurke1

nerve damage in his arm.

Qubadi was in stable condition

following arm surgery Thursday,

said Abdulhaq Azad, spokesman

for the Afghan Embassy in New

Delhi. He will be transferred soon

to another hospital for eye treat-

ment.

Qubadi “is a good person that I

respect, and I wanted to do every-

thing I could to try to get him the

care he needs,” McCain told Stars

and Stripes in a direct message.

Qubadi intends to return to duty

after he recovers from his injuries,

McCain said.

An Afghan defense official con-

firmed Thursday that Afghan and

Indian authorities decided to help

KABUL, Afghanistan — A viral

tweet by a former U.S. military ad-

viser in Afghanistan helped a pilot

who had been injured in combat

get specialized medical treatment

that wasn’t available in the coun-

try.

Helicopter pilot and military af-

fairs writer Jack McCain tweeted

online Tuesday that one of his for-

mer students, Gulrahman Qubadi,

had suffered serious injuries when

his UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter

was downed by a Taliban rocket in

southern Afghanistan last July.

McCain, a Navy reservist and

son of the late Sen. John McCain,

emphasized that he was acting in a

private capacity as he advocated

for Qubadi.

McCain’s tweets were liked and

shared more than 6,000 times and

the outpouring of support led to

Qubadi being scheduled for emer-

gency surgery in India this week.

Qubadi had been injured in a Ta-

liban-claimed attack. It was one of

two last year in which Afghan air

force helicopters were shot down

by anti-tank guided missiles

thought to be provided by Iran,

The New York Times reported.

He arrived in India last month,

where he awaited medical care for

a damaged cornea and extensive

Qubadi after McCain’s tweets

went viral.

“He got the attention of the right

people who can help him,” the offi-

cial said on condition of anonymity

because he was not authorized to

speak on the matter.

Qubadi is one of the elite pilots of

the Afghan air force, which is seen

as a key element fighting the Tali-

ban, as U.S. and NATO troops de-

cide whether to withdraw from Af-

ghanistan.

Increasing demands on the air

force have strained the service,

which has lost almost a quarter of

the operational aircraft in its in-

ventory over the past year, a recent

report to Congress by the Lead In-

spector General for Operation

Freedom’s Sentinel said.

Pilots have also been increas-

ingly targeted in assassinations by

insurgents.

McCain said he is thankful for

the support online, and for the In-

dian and Afghan help in assisting

Qubadi.

“Taking care of your people is

the primary duty of any military

officer, and regardless of whether

Iam with him or not, if I had the ca-

pability to do something, I was go-

ing to,” he said.

US military adviser’s tweets help Afghan pilot get surgeryBY J.P. LAWRENCE

AND ZUBAIR BABAKARKHAIL

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes reporter Chad Garland contrib-uted to this report.lawrence.jp@stripes.comTwitter: @jplawrence3

that killed his son Beau in 2015.

Beau Biden was a major in the De-

laware Army National Guard and

was exposed to burn pits during a

deployment to Iraq.

The VA estimates about 3.5 mil-

lion veterans have been exposed to

toxic piles of trash in Iraq, Afghan-

istan and other military sites, ac-

cording to a 2015 report. However,

adepartment official said last year

that it denied 78 percent of claims

to gain access to benefits.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Elaine

Luria, a 20-year Navy veteran, in-

troduced legislation Thursday

that would expand care and dis-

ability compensation for veterans

made sick after breathing in toxic

fumes on overseas deployments.

The Conceding Our Veterans’

Exposures Now and Necessitating

Training Act would ease the bur-

den of proof for veterans who got

sick by exposure to burn pits and

other toxic exposures.

“The burden of proof shouldn’t

be on our veterans to get the bene-

fits they deserve, and there’s no

reason that they and their survi-

vors should have to fight VA for the

care and benefits they earned,”

said Luria, D-Va., a member of the

House Armed Services Commit-

tee.

Thousands of veterans have

sought care from the Department

of Veterans Affairs for illnesses

that they believe were caused by

serving overseas near burn pits.

The ailments include cancers, re-

spiratory issues and lung diseases.

However, the VA has said there is

insufficient evidence to back up

the claims.

The military used open-air pits

during the 1990s and the post-9/11

wars to dispose of waste such as jet

fuel, paint and plastics in Iraq and

Afghanistan, among other coun-

tries. The smoke and emissions

from the burn pits contained

chemicals that can cause a num-

ber of health problems.

Veterans affected by burn pits

now face hurdles to receiving care.

Sick service members must pro-

vide evidence that their illness is

linked to toxic exposure, as well as

proof that they have been exposed

at a certain location.

Advocates have said this is a

challenge and sometimes impossi-

ble because it’s difficult to pinpoint

the exact location of overseas ser-

vice and the fact that there was a

burn pit at that location. The VA al-

so does not have clear guidance on

who qualifies for compensation

tied to toxic exposure.

Lawmakers have tried to pass

similar legislation but efforts have

stalled up to now. President Joe Bi-

den has said he believes toxic

smoke is the cause of brain cancer

Vet pushes bill to expand care for veterans exposed to toxic fumesBY SARAH CAMMARATA

Stars and Stripes

Cammarata.Sarah@stripes.com @sarahjcamm

MILITARY

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7

President Joe Biden says hisproposal for an aggressive seriesof infrastructure investmentswould require $2.3 trillion inspending over eight years butcould create millions of jobs. Itwould be funded by higher corpo-rate taxes.

A closer look at where the mon-ey is going and where it’s comingfrom:

Infrastructure projects ■ $115 billion to modernize the

bridges, highways and roads thatare in the worst shape. The WhiteHouse outline estimated 20,000miles of roadways would be re-paired, while economically sig-nificant bridges and 10,000 small-er bridges would get fixed.

■ $85 billion for public transit,doubling the federal govern-ment’s commitment in an effortto shorten the repair backlog andexpand service.

■ $80 billion to modernize

Amtrak’s heavily traffickedNortheast Corridor line, addressits repair backlog and improvefreight rail.

■ $174 billion to build 500,000electric vehicle charging stations,electrify 20% of school buses andelectrify the federal fleet, includ-ing U.S. Postal Service vehicles.

■ $25 billion to upgrade airtravel and airports and $17 billionfor waterways and coastal ports.

■ $20 billion to redress com-munities whose neighborhoods— typically nonwhite — were di-vided by highway projects.

■ $50 billion to improve in-frastructure resilience in the af-termath of natural disasters.

■ $111 billion to replace leadwater pipes and upgrade sewersystems.

■ $100 billion to build high-speed broadband that provides100% coverage for the country.

■ $100 billion to upgrade theresilience of the power grid andmove to clean electricity, among

other power projects. ■ $213 billion to produce, pre-

serve and retrofit more than 2million affordable houses andbuildings.

■ $100 billion to upgrade andbuild new schools.

■ $18 billion to modernize Vet-erans Affairs hospitals and clin-ics, and $10 billion for federalbuildings.

■ $400 billion to expand long-term care services under Medi-caid.

■ $180 billion invested in re-search and development pro-jects.

■ $300 billion for manufactur-ing, including funds for the com-puter chip sector, improved ac-cess to capital and investment inclean energy through federal pro-curement.

■ $100 billion for workforcedevelopment.

Tax increases Biden’s plan would finance

projects by: ■ Raising the corporate tax

rate from 21% to 28%, one of themeasures that over 15 yearswould cover the cost of the infras-tructure program and then helpto reduce the budget deficit.

■ Imposing a 21% global mini-mum tax, so that companies can-not avoid taxes by shifting incometo low-tax countries.

■ Making it harder for busi-nesses to merge with foreign

companies to avoid U.S. taxes, aprocess known as inversion.

■ Eliminating tax breaks forcompanies that shift assetsabroad, and denying deductionsfor offshoring jobs.

■ Imposing a 15% minimumtax on the income that corpora-tions report to shareholders.

■ Eliminating tax preferencesfor the fossil fuels sector.

■ Increasing IRS audits oflarge corporations.

A closer look at Biden’s $2.3Tinfrastructure and tax proposals

Associated Press

EVAN VUCCI/AP

President Joe Biden arrives to speak on infrastructure spending atCarpenters Pittsburgh Training Center on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

NATION

MISSION, Texas — Over-

whelmed and underprepared,

U.S. authorities are releasing mi-

grant families on the Mexican bor-

der without notices to appear in

immigration court or sometimes

without any paperwork at all —

time-saving moves that have left

some migrants confused.

The rapid releases ease pres-

sure on the Border Patrol and its

badly overcrowded holding facili-

ties but shifts work to Immigration

and Customs and Enforcement,

the agency that enforces immigra-

tion laws within the United States.

Families are released with book-

ing records; only parents are pho-

tographed and fingerprinted.

The Border Patrol began the un-

usual practice last week in Texas'

Rio Grande Valley, which has seen

the biggest increase in the number

of migrant families and unaccom-

panied minors crossing the bor-

der. Last week, the agency added

instructions to report to an ICE of-

fice within 60 days to adults’ book-

ing documents.

But some got no documents at

all, including dozens at Our Lady

of Guadalupe Catholic Church in

the Texas border city of Mission,

where about 100 migrants re-

leased by U.S. authorities had

been arriving each night to sleep

on mats in classrooms in a shut-

tered elementary school.

Carlos Enrique Linga, 27, wait-

ed at the shelter for a week without

documents along with his 5-year-

old daughter, hoping to join a

friend in Tennessee. His wife is

still in Guatemala with their 2-

year-old twin daughters and a 3-

month-old.

Linga was unwilling to leave the

shelter until he got documents and

was asking Catholic Charities of

Rio Grande Valley for help.

“We hope they can help with our

papers so that we can move on,

work and send (money) to my fam-

ily,” said Linga, whose home in

Guatemala was destroyed by

storms in November. “The church

has told us that there are mistakes

sometimes. Because there are so

many people, they forget.”

Customs and Border Protection,

which oversees the Border Patrol,

said it stopped issuing court no-

tices in some cases because pre-

paring even one of the documents

often takes hours. Migrants under-

go background checks and are

tested for COVID-19.

The agency didn't answer ques-

tions about how many migrants

have been released without court

notices or without documents at

all.

Sister Norma Pimentel, execu-

tive director of Catholic Charities

of Rio Grande Valley, knows of 10

to 15 families released without any

paperwork since last week, an is-

sue that has cropped up before

when there are large increases in

new arrivals.

“It’s a problem, it’s a situation

we need to resolve, to make sure

we follow up,” she said.

Migrants will be issued notices

to appear in court at their 60-day

check-ins with ICE, according to a

U.S. official with direct knowledge

of the plans who spoke on condi-

tion of anonymity because the

plans have not been made public.

It is unclear how widespread the

practice has been, but it is very

common in Rio Grande Valley, the

busiest corridor for illegal cross-

ings.

Preparing a court appearance

notice can take an hour to 90 min-

utes, said Chris Cabrera, spokes-

man for the National Border Pa-

trol Council, a union that repre-

sents agents. He welcomed the

change.

“Honestly, from my end, I think

it's good because it's less paper-

work for our guys,” said Cabrera,

who works in the Rio Grande Val-

ley.

An uptick in the number of peo-

ple crossing the border, especially

children traveling alone and fam-

ilies, has filled up federal holding

facilities. The U.S. has been re-

leasing families with children 6

and under and expelling families

with older children under pan-

demic-related powers that deny

an opportunity to seek asylum.

Immigration attorneys had

mixed reactions to people being

released without court notices or

paperwork, particularly the re-

quirement to check in with ICE.

They advise migrants to apply for

a different route to asylum — one

that's only for people already in the

country. In that option, they meet a

Citizenship and Immigration Ser-

vices asylum officer in a less ad-

versarial environment and if de-

nied, can appeal to an immigration

judge, advocates say.

Migrants being freed without court notice

DARIO LOPEZ­MILLS/AP

Migrants board a van at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas, on March 28.

Some released withno paperwork at all

Associated Press

PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

NATION

MINNEAPOLIS — George

Floyd’s struggle with three police

officers trying to arrest him, seen

on body-camera video, included

Floyd’s panicky cries of “I’m sor-

ry, I’m sorry” and “I’m claustro-

phobic!” as the officers tried to

push Floyd into the back of a po-

lice SUV.

At one point, Floyd bucks for-

ward, throwing his upper body out

of the car. Officers eventually give

up, and Floyd thanks them — and

then is taken to the ground, face-

down and handcuffed. Officer De-

rek Chauvin’s knee pins his neck,

another officer’s knee holds his

back and a third officer holds his

legs, with the officers talking

calmly about whether he might be

on drugs.

“He wouldn’t get out of the car.

He just wasn’t following instruc-

tions,” Officer Thomas Lane was

recorded saying. Lane also asked

twice if the officers should roll

Floyd on his side, and later said he

thinks Floyd is passing out. Anoth-

er officer checked Floyd’s wrist

for a pulse and said he couldn’t

find one.

The officers’ video was part of a

mountain of footage and witness

testimony Wednesday in Chau-

vin’s trial on murder and man-

slaughter charges in Floyd’s

death, showing how his alleged at-

tempt to pass a phony $20 bill at a

neighborhood market last May es-

calated into tragedy one video-

documented step at a time.

Asecurity-camera scene of peo-

ple joking around inside the store

soon gave way to the sight of offi-

cers pulling Floyd, who was Black,

from his SUV at gunpoint. The ex-

tended body-camera footage gave

jurors the fullest view yet of the

roughly 20 minutes between when

police first approached Floyd’s

vehicle to when he was loaded into

an ambulance.

When Floyd was finally taken

away by paramedics, Charles

McMillian, a 61-year-old bystan-

der who recognized Chauvin from

the neighborhood, told the officer

he didn’t respect what Chauvin

had done.

“That’s one person’s opinion,”

Chauvin could be heard respon-

ding. “We gotta control this guy

‘cause he’s a sizable guy... and it

looks like he’s probably on some-

thing.”

Floyd was 6-foot-4 and 223

pounds, according to the autopsy,

which also found fentanyl and

methamphetamine in his system.

Chauvin’s lawyer said the officer

is 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds.

Chauvin, 45, who is white, is

charged with murder and man-

slaughter, accused of killing the

46-year-old Floyd by kneeling on

Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 sec-

onds, as he lay face-down in hand-

cuffs.

Floyd’s death, along with the

harrowing bystander video of him

gasping for breath as onlookers

yelled at Chauvin to get off him,

triggered sometimes violent pro-

tests around the world and a reck-

oning over racism and police bru-

tality across the U.S.

As Floyd was pinned down by

Chauvin and other officers,

McMillian, the bystander, could

be heard on video saying to Floyd,

“You can’t win” and “Get up and

get in the car.”

Floyd replied: “I can’t.”

The defense has argued Chau-

vin did what he was trained to do

and Floyd’s death was not caused

by the officer’s knee, as prosecu-

tors contend, but by Floyd’s illegal

drug use, heart disease, high blood

pressure and the adrenaline flow-

ing through his body.

Body cam showsFloyd’s struggle,then takedown

Associated Press

ATLANTA — Some of Georgia’s

most prominent corporate leaders

on Wednesday began to more

forcefully criticize the state’s

sweeping new election law, ac-

knowledging concerns of civil

rights activists and Black business

executives who say the measure

targets non-white voters and

threatens the democratic process.

The chief executives of Delta

Air Lines and Coca-Cola pivoted

from earlier, more equivocal

statements and called the law “un-

acceptable,” opening an unusual

rift with Republican leaders who

championed the legislation and

typically enjoy a cozy relationship

with the state’s business commu-

nity.

The business lobby in Georgia,

home to 18 Fortune 500 compa-

nies, wields significant clout in

state politics. Civil rights activists

blamed influential executives for

not helping spike the new law

that’s become a focal point in the

nationwide, partisan fight over

voting rights, and there is rising

pressure nationally on corporate

titans to defend voting rights more

explicitly and oppose Republican

efforts in states that could follow

Georgia’s lead. Delta’s and Coca-

Cola’s latest declarations could

push Georgia’s other marquee

brands, including UPS and Home

Depot, to take a stronger stand.

“Delta’s statement finally tells

the truth — even if it’s late,” said

Nsé Ufot of the New Georgia Pro-

ject, which has launched an ad

campaign targeting major corpo-

rations.

After Republican Gov. Brian

Kemp signed the new law last

week, Delta issued a statement

promoting parts of the law such as

expanded weekend voting, but

said “we understand concerns re-

main over other provisions ... and

there continues to be work ahead

in this important effort.”

Speaking later on CNBC, Coca-

Cola chief executive James Quin-

cey called the legislation a “step

backward.”

“It does not promote principles

we have stood for in Georgia

around broad access to voting,

around voter convenience, about

ensuring election integrity,” he

said. “This legislation is wrong

and needs to be remedied.”

2 major Georgia corporate leaders slam voting billAssociated Press

ORANGE, Calif. — Southern

California police said Thursday

the gunman who killed four peo-

ple and wounded a fifth at an of-

fice complex knew all the victims

either through business or person-

ally.

Orange police Lt. Jennifer Amat

also revealed that the gunman had

chained gates to the complex

closed, forcing officers who re-

sponded Wednesday to engage

him from outside. Police withheld

the identities of the dead but said

one was a 9-year-old boy. The oth-

ers were a man and two women.

The gunman was also wounded

and hospitalized. Wednesday’s

shooting happened in the city of

Orange southeast of Los Angeles.

When officers arrived, shots were

ringing out at the building that in-

cludes a mobile home brokerage.

The violence in the city of Or-

ange southeast of Los Angeles was

the third U.S. mass shooting in just

over two weeks.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom

in a tweet called the killings “hor-

rifying and heartbreaking.”

“Our hearts are with the fam-

ilies impacted by this terrible

tragedy tonight,” he said.

Amat had no information about

what may have prompted the at-

tack. She said the shooting hap-

pened on both levels of the build-

ing.

Signs outside indicated a hand-

ful of businesses are located there

— including an insurance office, a

financial consulting firm, a legal

services business and a phone re-

pair store.

People gathered outside the

building after the shooting hoping

to get word about loved ones.

Paul Tovar told KTLA-TV that

his brother owns a business in the

building, Unified Homes, a mobile

home broker.

“He’s not answering his phone,

neither’s my niece,” Tovar said.

“I’m pretty scared and worried ...

right now I’m just praying really

hard.”

Charlie Espinoza also was out-

side the building and told The Or-

ange County Register that he

could not reach his fiancee, who

works for a medical billing com-

pany.

A Facebook livestream posted

by a resident who lives near the of-

fice appeared to show officers car-

rying a motionless person from

the building and officers helping

another person.

Tim Smith’s home is separated

from the office’s parking lot by a

backyard wooden fence. He was

in the back of his house when he

heard a volley of three gunshots,

then a volley of three and a final

volley of four.

“The first words I heard after

the shots were fired were ‘Don’t

move or I will shoot you,’” Smith,

64, recounted Thursday morning.

Smith said he heard that repeat-

ed twice more by a man’s voice

and believes it was a police officer

speaking. He did not hear other

voices or more shots. He later

peeked over the fence and saw

SWAT officers marching in a line

in the building’s courtyard.

“Enough is enough,” U.S. Sen.

Dianne Feinstein, D-California,

tweeted. “We have to do some-

thing about the guns on our

streets.”

JAE C. HONG/AP

People comfort each other near a building where a shooting occurred in Orange, Calif., on Wednesday.

Police: Gunman knew victims inattack on S. California building

Associated Press

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9

VIRUS OUTBREAK

The COVID-19 pandemic

pushed total U.S. deaths last year

beyond 3.3 million, the nation’s

highest annual death toll, the gov-

ernment reported Wednesday.

The coronavirus caused ap-

proximately 375,000 deaths, and

was the third-leading cause of

death in 2020, after heart disease

and cancer. COVID-19 deaths in

the United States now top 550,000

since the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19 displaced suicide as

one of the top 10 causes of death,

according to the report from the

Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention.

“The data should serve again as

acatalyst for each of us to continue

to do our part to drive down cases

and reduce the spread of CO-

VID-19 and get people vaccinated

as quickly as possible,” CDC Di-

rector Dr. Rochelle Walensky said

Wednesday.

The U.S. death toll increases

most years, but last year’s death

rate was up nearly 16% compared

to the previous year. That’s the

largest one-year leap since 1918,

when U.S. soldier deaths in World

War I and the flu pandemic pushed

deaths up 46% compared with

1917.

Death rates last year overall

were highest among Black people

and American Indian and Alaska

Native people. The COVID-19

death rate was highest among His-

panic people.

“Sadly, based on the current

state of the pandemic, these im-

pacts have remained in 2021

where we continue to see that com-

munities of color account for an

outsize portions of these deaths,”

Walensky said.

Preliminary data in December

suggested 2020 would be an espe-

cially deadly year and the CDC’s

new report showed it was even

worse than anticipated. The new

numbers are still considered pre-

liminary and are based on an anal-

ysis of death certificates.

Typically, analyzing death cer-

tificates takes about 11 months. But

the CDC sped up the timeline, the

report said, to address “the press-

ing need for updated, quality data

during the global COVID-19 pan-

demic.”

In a separate report, the CDC re-

sponded to concerns about deaths

being misattributed to COVID-19.

The agency took a close look at

death certificates, finding that

most that listed COVID-19 also

named other contributing prob-

lems. They included conditions

such as diabetes, known to in-

crease the danger of severe dis-

ease, or conditions such as pneu-

monia that occurred in the chain of

events leading to the deaths.

Only about 5% of the death cer-

tificates listed only COVID-19, and

that was more frequently the case

when the person died at home.

The CDC said its review con-

firms the accuracy of the death

count for COVID-19.

CARLOS OSORIO/AP

Some of the nearly 900 large poster­sized photos of Detroit victims of COVID­19 are displayed on BelleIsle in Detroit.

COVID-19 pushed total USdeaths beyond 3.3M in 2020

BY CARLA K. JOHNSON

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Seeking to

overcome vaccine hesitancy, the

Biden administration is unveiling

acoalition of community, religious

and celebrity partners to promote

COVID-19 shots.

The Department of Health and

Human Services’ “We Can Do

This” campaign features televi-

sion and social media ads, but it al-

so relies on a community corps of

public health, athletic, faith and

other groups to spread the word

about the safety and efficacy of the

three approved vaccines. The

campaign comes amid worries

that reluctance to get vaccinated

will delay the nation’s recovery

from the coronavirus pandemic.

Vice President Kamala Harris

and Surgeon General Vivek Mur-

thy will meet with the more than

275 inaugural members of the

community corps on Thursday to

kick off the effort.

The focus on trusted validators

stems from both internal and pub-

lic surveys showing those skepti-

cal of the vaccines are most likely

to be swayed by local, community

and medical encouragement to get

vaccinated, rather than messages

from politicians.

Courtney Rowe, the White

House’s COVID-19 director of

strategic communications and en-

gagement, briefed governors on

the new initiative Tuesday, telling

them that people “want to hear

from those they know and trust.”

She added that the initiative would

be “empowering the leaders peo-

ple want to hear from.”

The coalition includes health

groups like the American Medical

Association and the National

Council of Urban Indian Health,

sports leagues like the NFL and

MLB, rural groups, unions and La-

tino, Black, Asian American, Pa-

cific Islander and Native Ameri-

can organizations, as well as coali-

tions of faith, business and veter-

ans leaders.

The Department of Health and

Human Services was also launch-

ing its first national ad campaign

promoting vaccinations, aimed at

senior, Latino and Black Ameri-

cans. And in partnership with

Facebook, it was deploying social

media profile frames so that ordi-

nary Americans could share their

intent to get vaccinations and their

experience with the shots to their

peers.

By the end of May, the U.S. will

have enough supply of COVID-19

vaccine to cover all adults in the

country, with President Joe Bi-

den’s administration now shifting

its efforts to ensuring nearly all

Americans choose to get vaccinat-

ed. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s

top infectious disease expert, has

estimated that 70% to 85% of the

population needs to be immune to

the virus to reach herd immunity.

Biden launches community corps to boost COVID vaccinationsBY ZEKE MILLER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The num-

ber of Americans applying for

unemployment benefits rose by

61,000 last week to 719,000, sig-

naling that many employers are

still cutting jobs even as more

businesses reopen, vaccines are

increasingly administered and

federal aid spreads through the

economy.

The Labor Department said

Thursday that the number of

claims increased from 684,000

the week before. Though the pace

of applications has dropped

sharply since early this year, they

remain high by historical stan-

dards: Before the pandemic flat-

tened the economy a year ago,

jobless claims typically ran below

220,000 a week.

All told, 3.8 million people were

collecting traditional state bene-

fits during the week ending

March 20. If you include federal

programs that are meant to help

the unemployed through the

health crisis, 18.2 million people

were receiving some type of job-

less aid in the week that ended

March 13. That’s down from 19.7

million in the previous week.

Economists monitor weekly ap-

plications for unemployment aid

for early signs of where the job

market is headed. Applications

generally reflect the rate of lay-

offs, which normally fall steadily

as a job market strengthens. Dur-

ing the pandemic, though, the

numbers have become less relia-

ble as states have struggled with

application backlogs and allega-

tions of fraud have clouded the

actual volume of job cuts.

Still, measures of the overall

economy show clear improve-

ment from the collapse last

spring, with the rising number of

vaccinations encouraging people

to return to airports, shopping

centers, restaurants and bars.

The number of new confirmed

COVID-19 cases has dropped

from an average of about 250,000

a day in early January to below

70,000, though it has begun to rise

again in recent days.

Last month, consumer confi-

dence reached a post-pandemic

peak. And the $1,400 checks in

President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion

economic relief plan have sharp-

ly lifted consumer spending, ac-

cording to Bank of America’s

tracking of its debit and credit

cards. Spending jumped 23% in

the third week of March com-

pared with pre-pandemic levels,

the bank said.

And even with the pace of lay-

offs still relatively high, hiring

has begun to accelerate. In Feb-

ruary, employers added a robust

379,000 jobs across the country.

Last month, they are believed to

have added even more: Accord-

ing to the data firm FactSet, econ-

omists expect the March jobs re-

port being released Friday to

show that the economy added a

sizable 614,000 jobs and that the

unemployment rate fell from

6.2% to 6%. Less than a year ago,

the jobless rate had hit 14.8%.

Some economists are even

more optimistic: Joe Brusuelas,

chief economist at the tax adviso-

ry firm RSM, is predicting 1 mil-

lion added jobs for March.

The Federal Reserve’s policy-

makers have substantially boost-

ed their forecast for the economy

this year, anticipating growth of

6.5% for 2021, up from an esti-

mate in December of just 4.2%.

That would be the fastest rate of

expansion in any year since 1984.

Jobless claims at719K as pandemicstill forces layoffs

BY PAUL WISEMAN

Associated Press

PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11

Capping off a momentous week

for legal cannabis, state legisla-

tors in New Mexico on Wednes-

day voted to allow recreational

use of the drug — a vote that

came hours after New York’s

governor signed a bill legalizing

marijuana.

New Mexico’s Cannabis Regu-

lation Act will eliminate criminal

penalties for possession and use

of marijuana for adults over 21

years old beginning in 2022 and

create a framework for licensing

sellers and taxing drug sales at

up to 20%.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lu-

jan Grisham, D, who called the

special session 10 days after the

state legislature failed to pass the

bill during its regular session, is

expected to swiftly sign it.

“This is a significant victory for

New Mexico and my signing pen

is ready,” she said in a tweet late

Wednesday.

The move sets up New Mexico

to join 15 other states that have

fully decriminalized the drug and

came on the same day that Vir-

ginia Gov. Ralph Northam, D,

asked state legislators to speed

up his state’s legalization to allow

adults to start using the drug as

early as July.

State-level support for decrimi-

nalizing the drug has been grow-

ing since California became the

first to legalize medical marijua-

na in 1996. In 2012, Colorado and

Washington state pioneered laws

to legalize recreational use of the

drug.

Many states have also been

motivated by calls for social jus-

tice measures to undo some of the

damage done by harsh criminal-

ization laws that disproportion-

ately sent minorities to prison for

nonviolent drug crimes. The New

Mexico bill included a measure

allowing people with a criminal

record for possessing the drug for

personal use to expunge past con-

victions.

Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, D,

called it a “historic special ses-

sion meeting” that would “end

the harmful, long-term impacts of

cannabis conviction records.”

NM moves to legalizeweed as NY inks law

BY KATIE SHEPHERD

The Washington Post

NATION

PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

WORLD

HONG KONG — Seven of Hong

Kong’s leading pro-democracy ad-

vocates, including a media tycoon

and an 82-year-old veteran of the

movement, were convicted Thurs-

day for organizing and participating

in a march during massive anti-gov-

ernment protests in 2019 that trig-

gered a crackdown on dissent.

Jimmy Lai, the owner of the out-

spoken Apple Daily tabloid, Martin

Lee, the octogenarian founder of the

city’s Democratic Party, and five

former pro-democracy lawmakers

were found guilty in a ruling handed

down by a district judge. They face

up to five years in prison.

According to the ruling, six of the

seven defendants, including Lee

and Lai, carried a banner that criti-

cized police and called for reforms

as they left Victoria Park on Aug. 18,

2019, and led a procession through

the center of the city. The other de-

fendant, Margaret Yee, joined them

on the way and helped carry the ban-

ner.

China convicts7 Hong Kongpro-democracyadvocates

Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar — Protes-

ters in Myanmar on Thursday

marked two months since the mil-

itary seized power by once more

defying the threat of lethal vio-

lence and publicly demonstrating

against the toppling of the demo-

cratically elected government.

The Feb. 1 coup has been met

with massive public resistance

that security forces have been un-

able to crush through escalating

levels of violence, including now

routinely shooting protesters. Out-

side efforts including sanctions

imposed by Western nations on

the military regime have failed to

help restore peace.

In Yangon, the country’s biggest

city, a group of young people

shortly after sunrise Thursday

sang solemn songs honoring the

more than 500 protesters killed so

far. They then marched through

the streets chanting slogans call-

ing for the fall of the junta, the re-

lease of deposed leader Aung San

Suu Kyi and the return of democ-

racy.

Protests were also held in Man-

dalay and elsewhere.

The demonstrations followed a

night of violence including police

raids and several fires. In Yangon,

several retail shops owned in

whole or part by Myanma Eco-

nomic Holdings Limited, which is

an investment arm of the military,

went up in flames. The shops are

the targets of boycotts by the pro-

test movement.

The crisis in the Southeast Asian

nation has expanded sharply in

the past week, both in the number

of protesters killed and with the

military launching airstrikes

against the guerrilla forces of the

Karen ethnic minority in their

homeland on the border with Thai-

land. The U.N. special envoy for

Myanmar warned that the country

faces the possibility of civil war.

In areas controlled by the Ka-

ren, more than a dozen civilians

have been killed since Saturday

and more than 20,000 have been

displaced, according to the Free

Burma Rangers, a relief agency

operating in the area.

In addition to those deaths, an

airstrike Tuesday on a gold mine

in Karen guerrilla territory on

Tuesday left as many as 11 more

people dead, said a local news out-

let and an NGO worker in touch

with residents near the site.

Saw Kholo Htoo, the deputy di-

rector for Karen Teacher Working

Group, said residents told him five

people were killed at the mine and

another six at a nearby village.

The Bago Weekly Journal also re-

ported the attack.

David Eubank of the Free Bur-

ma Rangers confirmed that a vid-

eo of the attack’s aftermath

showed the gold mine and that

there had been airstrikes in the ar-

ea.

Myanmar remainsmired in violence 2months after coup

Associated Press

MG NY@N/AP

Anti­coup demonstrators prepare to confront police during a protestin Tarmwe township, Yangon, Myanmar, on Thursday.

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13

FACES

The salvation seems to have

ended for “American Gods.”

Starz’s critically acclaimed ad-

aptation of the Neil Gaiman-

penned international bestselling

book has been canceled just a

week after its third season ended.

“American Gods will not return

for a fourth season,” the premium

cable company said in a state-

ment Monday. “Everyone at

STARZ is grateful to the dedicat-

ed cast and crew, and our part-

ners at Fremantle who brought

author and executive producer

Neil Gaiman’s ever-relevant story

to life that speaks to the cultural

climate of our country.”

The decision was made to not

continue with a fourth season due

to low viewership, which declined

65% from the series’ first season.

After a shakeup among top pro-

ducers and creators, the second

season of “American Gods” strug-

gled to build an audience with a

new person at the helm. To give

the show the full opportunity to

try and gain and grow an audi-

ence, Starz made the decision to

go ahead with the third season

with another producer.

Major cast changes, budget

cuts, a lengthy hiatus between

seasons and the pandemic shut-

down didn’t help matters for the

mythological fantasy drama,

which originally starred Ricky

Whittle, Ian McShane, Orlando

Jones, Emily Browning, Yetide

Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin

Glover, Kahyun Kim, Omid Abta-

hi, Mousa Kraish and the sensa-

tional Pablo Schreiber.

Whittle, who portrayed protag-

onist Shadow Moon, took to social

media and reflected on his turn on

the series.

“This has been an amazing

journey thus far and I am so

grateful to my fellow cast and

crew who have worked so hard on

this award-winning show,” the

British heartthrob wrote in a

Twitter post. “We have the best

fans around the world and thank

each of you for your passion and

support, so know that Neil Gai-

man, Fremantle myself and the

cast are still committed to com-

pleting Neil Gaiman’s critically

acclaimed story.”

STARZ

Ian McShane plays Mr. Wednesday in a scene from “American Gods.”Starz announced Monday that the show had been plagued by lowviewership and it was being canceled after three seasons.

Starz says farewellto ‘American Gods’

BY KARU F. DANIELS

New York Daily News

Detective Benoit Blanc’s next cases will be for Netflix.

The streaming company said Wednesday it has reached a

deal for two sequels to Rian Johnson’s acclaimed 2019 who-

dunit, “Knives Out.”

Netflix declined to say how much it was paying for the

films, which Johnson will direct with Daniel Craig return-

ing as inspector Benoit Blanc. But Deadline, which first re-

ported the deal, said the price would approach $450 million

— making it one of Netflix’s largest, and most sweater-clad,

acquisitions.

It also lands Netflix something it has dearly sought: the

kind of major film franchises that traditional studios have

long depended on. Production on the second “Knives Out,”

written by Johnson and produced by him and Ram Berg-

man, is to begin this summer.

Netflix outbid several other streaming services to land

“Knives Out,” something that was possible because the

2019 film was produced by Media Rights Cable and distrib-

uted by Lionsgate on a single-picture deal.

Bindi Irwin, husband welcome baby girlBindi Irwin has a new cub of her own.

The “Crikey! It’s the Irwins” star and husband Chandler

Powell welcomed a daughter named Grace Warrior Irwin

Powell on Thursday.

Irwin, 22, said her “beautiful daughter” was born on the

same day as her first wedding anniversary, so it was a day

for “celebrating the two loves of my life.”

The daughter of late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin said

the baby’s middle name is “Warrior Irwin,” a “tribute to my

dad and his legacy as the most incredible Wildlife Warrior.”

“There are no words to describe the infinite amount of

love in our hearts for our sweet baby girl,” she wrote. “She

chose the perfect day to be born, and we feel tremendously

blessed.”

2022 Grammys scheduled to be liveThe Grammys are ready to get back on track.

The annual music awards show has been scheduled for a

live event at the Staples Center on Jan. 31, 2022, CBS and the

Recording Academy announced Wednesday.

Few details were provided, but the Academy appears to

be proceeding as normal after months of COVID-delayed

and -affected shows and awards ceremonies, including the

2021 Grammys.

The 2022 show will air live on CBS and Paramount+.

Netflix wins bidding war, scores high-dollar ‘Knives Out’ sequelsFrom wire reports

Chrissy Teigen will grace

the front of People mag-

azine’s “The Beautiful

Issue” in a cover story

that delves into her evolved defini-

tion of beauty, facing racism

growing up and her heartbreaking

miscarriage last year.

The magazine revealed the cov-

er Wednesday of the annual issue,

which hit newsstands Friday.

On this year’s cover, Teigen ap-

pears smiling along with her chil-

dren Luna, 4, and Miles, 2, with

the quote “I’ve learned how strong

I am.” The 35-year-old model and

cookbook author is

married to R&B crooner John

Legend, who was named Sexiest

Man Alive by the magazine in

2019.

Teigen, who is of Thai-Norwe-

gian descent, said she wants to fol-

low her Thai tradition in remem-

bering her son, Jack, who died at

20 weeks of her pregnancy. She

was hospitalized with excessive

bleeding before the miscarriage.

She said it’s important for Luna

and Milles to stay connected with

their late brother and always “em-

brace the ones that we’ve lost”

based on her tradition.

“We have this new home that

we’re building, and this tree being

planted inside,” she told the maga-

zine. “The whole reason why

I wanted it was so Jack’s

ashes could be in that

soil, and he could be

with us all the time

and grow

through the

beautiful leav-

es.”

Over the

years,

Teigen

said her

definition

of beauty

has evolved

after giving

birth to her

children.

She has tak-

en a proud

stance of embrac-

ing her healed

scars as a moth-

er.

“Beauty is being able to see how

powerful your body is,” she said.

“It’s really, really nice to be able to

come to an age where I can appre-

ciate every little scar and see my

body as something that’s done in-

credible, miraculous things. The

difference is these two beautiful,

wonderful babies, and these scars

are the things I’ve been through

and the journeys I’ve healed

from.”

Motherhood has also changed

Teigen’s views on her wellness.

She used to enforce a strict eating

regimen during her modeling

days, dealing with the ups and

downs of the diet culture.

But now, Teigen is focused on

what makes her feel good and does

her best to “indulge in it.”

“I’ve spent way too many years

counting calories and scheduling

way too many workouts and trying

to figure out what ‘wellness’

meant to me,” she said. “Now I

know that it’s on the ground play-

ing with my kids or going to an

aquarium or a park.”

Teigen touched on enduring

racism while growing up. She of-

ten had friends — Black or white

— who protected her after racist

comments. She said some of her

friends got suspended from school

for defending her.

As Teigen grew older, she saw

more racism occur during her

modeling career.

“I experienced more everyday

casual racism once I entered the

modeling world,” she said. “When

they needed someone racially am-

biguous — that’s what they called

it — that was always going to be

me.”

People’s announcement comes

a week after Teigen quit Twitter,

citing it as a negative influence on

her life. She wrote in a final se-

ries of posts that criti-

cism she’d endured

on the site had

left her “deep-

ly bruised.”

Celebration of beautyChrissy Teigen graces cover of People’s ‘Beautiful Issue’BY JONATHAN LANDRUM JR.

Associated Press

Chrissy Teigenarrives at theVanity Fair OscarParty in 2020, inBeverly Hills,Calif. Teigengraces the frontof Peoplemagazine’s “TheBeautiful Issue.”

AP

PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

ACROSS

1 Do sum work?

4 Unpaid TV ad

7 Layers of paints

12 Marseilles

monarch

13 100%

14 Sound

15 Ger. neighbor

16 Shower units?

18 Telly network

19 Santa’s helpers

20 Pack cargo

22 “— the

ramparts ...”

23 Not so hot?

27 Co. that created

Watson

29 Motorist

31 “Twilight” heroine

— Swan

34 Streetcars

35 Large gong

37 Teeny

38 Grecian vessels

39 Employ

41 Stand-up comic

Chappelle

45 Egyptian

peninsula

47 Big D.C. lobby

48 Salable farm

products

52 “— so fast!”

53 44th president

54 Automaton,

for short

55 Chit

56 City boss

57 — -Cat

58 Napoleon’s

title (Abbr.)

DOWN

1 Riyadh residents

2 Uncertainty

3 ’70s club

4 Whittle (down)

5 Zigzag in snow

6 Breathing

7 Scoundrels

8 Wilder’s

“— Town”

9 Commotion

10 Bit of advice

11 “Mayday!”

17 Dweeb

21 Goes limp

23 Overcaffeinated

24 Actress Gardner

25 “The One I

Love” band

26 Doubtfire or

Dalloway

28 Sheepish remark

30 Numbered rd.

31 A/C measure

32 Listener

33 Run after K

36 Naturalist John

37 Sword or dagger

40 Elitists

42 Sandy’s owner

43 Engine sound

44 Devour

45 Bar fight souvenir

46 Analogy words

48 URL suffix

49 Lawyers’ gp.

50 Utter

51 Med. plan option

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

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15

PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher

Lt. Col. Marci Hoffman, Europe commander

Lt. Col. Richard McClintic, Pacific commander

EDITORIAL

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stripes.com

OPINION

No one likes the blame game — ex-

cept the blamer. Now that CO-

VID-19 is spiking again in the

midst of massive vaccination ef-

forts, the blame machine is running at full

throttle.

During CNN’s documentary interviews

with Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx this

past weekend, the two scientists pointed a

finger or two at former President Donald

Trump for missteps that led, in Birx’s esti-

mation, to thousands, if not hundreds of

thousands, of unnecessary American

deaths. Trump responded in kind, blaming

Birx and Fauci for terrible ideas that, he

said, he prudently ignored.

But facts are facts, and there’s no disput-

ing that Trump’s actions and attitudes dur-

ing the first and second waves of the pan-

demic were often driven by politics instead

of medicine. Birx pointed to the time last

April when Trump tweeted, “Liberate Min-

nesota,” “Liberate Virginia” and “Liberate

Michigan,” encouraging protesters to fight

state orders in direct contradiction to what

the federal government, via the coronavirus

task force (namely Birx and Fauci), was

recommending.

Birx was careful to avoid saying that

Trump threatened her when she spoke up

last fall urging rural residents to take the vi-

rus seriously. The president called her af-

terward to reprimand her in a conversation

Birx described as “uncomfortable” and

“hard to hear.”

“Uncomfortable” is an apt way to de-

scribe how Birx routinely looked during

those regular White House news conferenc-

es with Trump during the pandemic’s peak.

Her colorful trademark scarves were inad-

equate to distract from body language that

conveyed disbelief if not alarm at what the

president was saying. Memorably, last

April, Trump suggested that injecting disin-

fectants into human beings might kill the vi-

rus and turned toward Birx for affirmation.

“You’re going to look into that, aren’t you?”

he said.

If she wasn’t suppressing a scream, I was.

Why doesn’t she say something?, I heard

myself shouting at the screen. Why, during

all those months, as thousands were dying,

didn’t she say, “Enough! This is ridicu-

lous!”? Fauci, too, conveyed a stoic’s resolve

to reveal nothing of his professional or per-

sonal thoughts as Trump often rambled

through the daily data. Fauci told reporters

in late January that he felt liberated by

Trump’s departure from the White House.

That’s nice, but shouldn’t Fauci have

been more outspoken in disrupting

Trump’s stream-of-consciousness mental

meandering? Quitting a job to speak freely

seems nobler than being trapped in the

frame with a president so plainly out of his

depth. Trump had special words for Fauci,

too, after the CNN interview. In the docu-

mentary, Fauci described his decision to go

“all out” for the vaccines as “the best deci-

sion that I’ve ever made.” Trump insisted

that he was responsible for expediting de-

velopment of the vaccines.

From Trump’s perspective, he saved the

economy from collapse by minimizing the

urgency of shutdowns; his science advisers’

view is that the shutdowns prevented out-

of-control contagion and massive death.

Both views have merit, but economies are

more easily revived than lives lost.

Among other facts we know, thanks to

Trump’s interviews with The Washington

Post’s Bob Woodward, Trump knew in

early February how deadly the virus was

and that it was transmitted through the air.

Fauci also must have known since he joined

Trump’s coronavirus task force on Jan. 29,

2020. Yet, for weeks thereafter, the govern-

ment’s best advice was “wash your hands”

and “don’t touch your face.” Given the

threat of a deadly airborne virus, the task

force’s prescription was akin to telling chil-

dren in the 1950s and 1960s to get under

their desks in case of a nuclear attack.

Birx told CNN that the first 100,000

deaths were nobody’s fault because no one

understood what was happening initially.

After that, however, a lack of federal policy

caused subsequent deaths that could have

been “mitigated or substantially reduced.”

Those are strong words aimed directly at

Trump. But shouldn’t Birx also accept some

responsibility for minding her tongue and

allowing the president’s pandemic to flour-

ish? When does knowing better but doing

nothing become tantamount to complicity?

Interviews are interesting, but carefully

crafted guilt notes aren’t helpful to the chal-

lenges ahead. Blame reaps no harvest.

What Americans need now is clarity and

fealty to facts.

The recently proposed National Corona-

virus Commission Act is an important step

in that direction. Bipartisan and bicameral,

the legislation would create an independent

body to investigate the nation’s prepared-

ness and response to the pandemic in the

fashion of the 9/11 Commission. What I fear

they’ll find is that American lives were sac-

rificed to feed the appetite of an insatiable

narcissist who, like the virus he minimized,

cares only about self-propagation.

Fauci, Birx waited too long to speak freelyBY KATHLEEN PARKER

Washington Post Writers Group

Following pandemic news too

closely can be an emotional roller

coaster, with dire public health

warnings immediately followed

by hopeful new studies. The latest soaring

discovery: a new CDC study showing vac-

cines sharply cut all COVID-19 infections

—not just symptoms. That news puts to rest

one worst-case-scenario: that vaccines

might protect the vaccinated against hospi-

talization, but allow millions of silent infec-

tions to continue circulating.

The new data were collected from 4,000

health care workers, first responders, de-

livery workers and teachers who were vac-

cinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vac-

cines between December 2020 and March

2021. The participants were asked not only

to monitor symptoms but also to test them-

selves weekly. The study authors conclud-

ed the vaccines caused a 90% reduction in

all infections. If people aren’t getting in-

fected, they can’t transmit the virus to oth-

ers.

The next drop on the roller coaster could

come from new virus variants, some of

which have shown ability to evade antibod-

ies generated by the original strain. But ex-

perts such as Paul Offit of the Children’s

Hospital of Philadelphia are more optimis-

tic. The vaccines show some efficacy

against all the currently known variants,

and good efficacy against one — the B.1.1.7

strain identified in the U.K. last year.

Even before the new study came out, Of-

fit saw enough other evidence of decreased

transmission from vaccines that he said he

liked the idea of issuing vaccine passports

for travel, restaurants or other venues. Da-

ta from Israel, where most of the population

is already vaccinated, show rapidly drop-

ping deaths and hospitalizations. “Nothing

is foolproof,” he says, but people will be

much safer mixing with others who are

vaccinated than those who are not.

The new study results should also allay

fears that the vaccines’ astounding clinical

trial results wouldn’t hold up in the real

world. One concern was a small sample

size. While there were thousands of people

enrolled in those trials, infections were rel-

atively uncommon so only a small number

of people became infected in either the vac-

cine arm or the placebo group.

In this new study, there were 161 infec-

tions in the control group of 994 unvacci-

nated people. By contrast, among the 2,479

vaccinated participants, only eight became

infected between their first and second

doses, which are given three or four weeks

apart. Only three people were infected af-

ter they were fully vaccinated (two weeks

after receiving the second shot).

One reason Offit said he was so optimistic

was that the vaccines induce not just anti-

bodies, but so-called cellular immunity.

That is, they stimulate production of spe-

cialized virus-fighting cells called T-cells,

which can work against a broader range of

variants than antibodies. The T-cells also

last longer than antibodies and are what

give vaccines the power to “remember”

and fight a pathogen weeks or even months

later.

He was also enthusiastic about the John-

son & Johnson vaccine, though it was only

used in five people in the CDC study. That

vaccine induces cellular immunity after

just one shot, he says, while the Pfizer and

Moderna vaccines induce T-cells only after

two shots. (For that reason, he does not ad-

vise skipping the second shot of the two-

shot vaccines in order to conserve supply.)

Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease

doctor at the University of California, San

Francisco, said that she thinks the shots

will effectively end the pandemic because

the T-cells can fight different variants. “I

do understand it almost seems too good to

be true that the vaccines will get us out of

this,” she says. “But they will.”

One thing we’ve learned is that it’s hard

to predict the course of this pandemic —

given how hard it is to predict human be-

havior and the fast evolutionary path of the

virus. Even the vaccine optimists such as

Gandhi and Offit don’t see eradication of

the virus in sight. But they do see the possi-

bility the virus could become less of a threat

to life and health than seasonal flu, after

which it will be hard to hold back a return to

normal life — one with restaurants, inter-

national travel, and yes, roller coasters.

More proof vaccines will end the pandemicBY FAYE FLAM

Bloomberg Opinion

Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and host of thepodcast “Follow the Science.”

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17

PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

SCOREBOARD/NFL

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Thursday’s games

SOUTH

Sam Houston St. (3-0) at NorthwesternSt. (0-4)

SOUTHWEST

East Central Oklahoma University atTarleton St. (5-2)

Friday’s games

MIDWEST

N. Iowa (3-3) at South Dakota (1-3)

Saturday’s games

EAST

Villanova (1-1) at Maine (2-1)Albany (NY) (1-3) at Delaware (3-0)Lehigh (0-1) at Lafayette (1-1), ppd.Bucknell (1-0) at Holy Cross (2-0)New Hampshire (0-1) at Rhode Island

(2-1)Colgate (0-1) at Fordham (0-1)

SOUTH

Gardner-Webb (2-0) at CharlestonSouthern (0-2), ppd.

James Madison (4-0) at Richmond (3-0)Presbyterian (1-3) at Stetson (0-2)Robert Morris (0-1) at Kennesaw St. (3-0)The Citadel (0-9) at Wofford (1-3)Nicholls (4-1) at McNeese St. (2-3)Monmouth (NJ) (1-0) at Gardner-Webb

(2-0)ETSU (3-1) at VMI (5-0)SE Missouri (2-4) at UT Martin (2-3)Tennessee St. (2-3) at Tennessee Tech

(1-4)SC State (1-1) at Alabama St. (1-1)Murray St. (5-0) at Austin Peay (3-5)Furman (3-2) at Mercer (3-5)William & Mary (1-2) at Elon (1-5), ppd.Ark.-Pine Bluff (2-0) at MVSU (0-1)Southern U. (2-1) at Jackson St. (3-1)Lamar (2-3) at SE Louisiana (2-2)

MIDWEST

Jacksonville St. (7-2) at E. Illinois (1-4)Valparaiso (2-1) at Drake (1-1)Morehead St. (1-3) at Butler (0-3)S. Dakota St. (4-1) at N. Dakota St. (5-1),

ppd.Youngstown St. (1-4) at W. Illinois (0-5)

SOUTHWEST

Alabama A&M (1-0) at Prairie View (2-0),ppd.

FAR WEST

Davidson (3-1) at San Diego (3-0)Weber St. (3-0) at S. Utah (1-3)E. Washington (3-1) at UC Davis (3-1)Idaho (2-1) at Idaho St. (1-3)

COLLEGE HOCKEY

NCAA Division I TournamentBRIDGEPORT REGIONAL

At Bridgeport, Conn.First Round

Friday, March 26Bemidji St. 6, Wisconsin 3UMass 5, Lake Superior St. 1

ChampionshipSaturday, March 27

UMass, 4 Bemidji St. 0FARGO REGIONAL

At Fargo, N.D.First Round

Friday, March 26Minn. Duluth vs. Michigan, no contestNorth Dakota 5, American International

1Championship

Saturday, March 27Minn. Duluth 3, North Dakota 2, 5OT

ALBANY REGIONALAt Albany, N.Y.

First RoundSaturday, March 27

Boston College vs. Notre Dame, no con-test

St. Cloud St. 6, vs. Boston U. 2Championship

Sunday, March 28St. Cloud St. 4, Boston College 1

LOVELAND REGIONALAt Loveland, Colo.

First RoundSaturday, March 27

Minnesota St. 4, Quinnipiac 3, OTMinnesota 7, Omaha 2

ChampionshipSunday, March 28

Minnesota St. 4, Minnesota 0FROZEN FOURAt Pittsburgh

National SemifinalsThursday, April 8

Minn. Duluth vs. UMassSt. Cloud St. vs. Minnesota St.

National ChampionshipSaturday, April 10

Semifinal winners

TENNIS

Miami OpenWednesday

At Tennis Center at Crandon ParkMiami

Purse: $3,343,785Surface: Hardcourt outdoor

Men’s SinglesQuarterfinals

Jannik Sinner (21), Italy, def. AlexanderBublik (32), Kazakhstan, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Roberto Bautista Agut (7), Spain, def.Daniil Medvedev (1), Russia, 6-4, 6-2.

Women’s SinglesQuarterfinals

Maria Sakkari (23), Greece, def. NaomiOsaka (2), Japan, 6-0, 6-4.

Bianca Andreescu (8), Canada, def. SaraSorribes Tormo, Spain, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Men’s DoublesQuarterfinals

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic (2), Croa-tia, def. Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, Pakistan,and Miomir Kecmanovic, Serbia, 6-2, 6-2.

Rajeev Ram, United States, and Joe Sa-lisbury (7), Britain, def. Michael Mmoh andSebastian Korda, United States, 7-5, 6-2.

Daniel Evans and Neal Skupski, Britain,def. Horia Tecau, Romania, and MarceloArevalo-Gonzalez, El Salvador, 6-7 (6), 6-3,11-9.

Women’s DoublesQuarterfinals

Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara (5),Japan, def. Caroline Garcia, France, andNadia Podoroska, Argentina, 6-3, 6-2.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands, United States,and Iga Swiatek, Poland, def. Lyudmyla Ki-chenok, Ukraine, and Jelena Ostapenko,Latvia, 6-1, 6-4.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

USA Today Coaches PollThe USA TODAY Sports Top 25 baseballpoll, with team’s records through Sundayin parentheses, total points based on 25for first place through one point for 25th,ranking in last week’s poll and first-placevotes received.:

Record Pts Pvs

1. Vanderbilt (23) 19-3 789 1

2. Arkansas (9) 19-3 773 2

3. Mississippi 20-4 729 3

4. Texas Tech 19-4 701 6

5. Louisville 16-6 616 7

6. Tennessee 21-4 595 9

7. Mississippi State 17-7 576 4

8. Texas 17-7 550 10

9. UCLA 15-7 487 11

10. Georgia Tech 13-7 469 13

11. Texas Christian 16-7 461 12

12. East Carolina 17-5 441 8

13. Florida 16-8 402 5

14. Notre Dame 11-4 380 14

15. South Carolina 16-6 365 23

16. Oklahoma State 15-6 338 17

17. Oregon State 16-5 244 20

18. Miami 12-8 204 22

19. Louisiana Tech 17-6 200 —

20. Oregon 12-6 182 15

21. Arizona 16-7 156 —

22. Florida State 12-8 135 21

23. Michigan 11-4 92 19

24. Stanford 14-3 67 —

25. Louisiana State 16-8 66 16

Dropped Out: No. 18 Pittsburgh; No. 24Alabama; No. 25 North Carolina.

Others Receiving Votes: Arizona State59; Virginia Tech 57; Pittsburgh 43; NorthCarolina 38; UC Santa Barbara 31; South-ern Illinois 29; Georgia 26; San Diego 20;Old Dominion 17; Indiana 13; Virginia 10;Kentucky 8; Alabama 8; UC Irvine 7; Liberty5; Indiana State 4; Western Carolina 3; Tex-as A&M 2; San Diego State 1; Baylor 1.

DEALS

Wednesday’s transactionsBASEBALL

Major League BaseballAmerican League

KANSAS CITY ROYALS — Placed INFAdalberto Mondesi on the 10-day injuredlist. Recalled INF Nicky Lopez from the al-ternate training site.

MINNESOTA TWINS — Named KevinMorgan major league field coordinator.

NEW YORK YANKEES — Signed LHP Lu-cas Luetge to a one-year contract. PlacedINF/OF Miguel Andujar, INF Luke Voit andLHP Justin Wilson on the 10-day injured listand LHP Zack Britton on the 60-day injuredlist.

SEATTLE MARINERS — Selected the con-tract of RHP Drew Steckenrider from Taco-ma (Triple-A West).Placed OF Kyle Lewisand INF Shed Long on 10-day injured list.Optioned RHP Domingo Tapia to alternatetraining site.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS — Acquired C JuanGraterol from the Angels for cash consid-erations and will report to the alternatetraining site.

National LeagueATLANTA BRAVES — Placed RHP Mike

Soraka on the 10-day injured list.CHICAGO CUBS — Signed C Tony Wolters

to a one-year contract. Designated RHPJames Norwood for assignment. Outright-ed INF Ildemaro Vargas to alternate train-ing Site.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES — Selected thecontract of 2B Ronald Torreyes from Le-high Valley (Triple-A East).

BASKETBALLWomen’s National Basketball

AssociationWASHINGTON MYSTICS — Signed G Sha-

vonte Zellous.FOOTBALL

National Football LeagueARIZONA CARDINALS — Signed QB Colt

McCoy, SS Shawn Williams and DB ChrisBanjo..

BUFFALO BILLS — Signed LB TyrellAdams and LB Marquel Lee to a one-yearcontracts.

CAROLINA PANTHERS — Signed OG JohnMiller.

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Re-signed DTMike Daniels and DL Amani Bledsoe to aone-year contracts.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Signed WR T.Y.Hilton. Re-signed DE Al-Quadin Muham-mad to a one-year contract.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — Signed RB ElijahMcGuire and DT Jarran Reed.

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS — Signed QBChas Daniel and CB Ryan Smith.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Signed OG Dako-ta Dozier.

NEW YORK GIANTS — Signed CB ChrisMilton, DB Joshua Kalu and TE Cole Hikuti-ni.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Signed LB Jar-vis Miller and WR Matthew Sexton to aone-year contracts.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS — Signed WR TylerLockett to a four-year contract extension.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — Re-signedRB Leonard Fournette.

HOCKEYNational Hockey League

NHL — Fined Edmonton F Connor McDa-vid for elbowing Montreal F Jesperi Kotka-niemi during a March 30 game.

BOSTON BRUINS — Assigned C GregMcKegg and G Jeremy Swayman to Provi-dence (AHL).

CAROLINA HURRICANES — Assigned FJason Cotton to Chicago (AHL).

COLORADO AVALANCHE — Assigned DGreg Pateryn and C Alex Newhook to Col-orado (AHL). Recalled LW Liam O’BrienColorado (AHL) loan.

DALLAS STARS — Signed F Jordan Kawa-guchi to a one-year entry level contractand sent to Texas (AHL).

FLORIDA PANTHERS — Agreed to termswith G Spencer Knight on a three-year en-try-level contract. Recalled D Brady Keep-er from San Jose (AHL) loan.

LOS ANGELES KINGS — Assigned D Da-niel Brickley to Ontario (AHL).

NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Assigned RWMarian Studenic to Binghamton (AHL).

NEW YORK ISLANDERS — Assigned DGrant Hutton and G Cory Schneider toBridgeport (AHL). Recalled G Jakub Skarekfrom Bridgeport (AHL).

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS — Assigned LWDrew O’Connor to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton(AHL).

SAN JOSE SHARKS — Recalled Cs NoahGregor and Fredrik Handemark from theminor league taxi squad and D ChristianJaros from San Jose (AHL) loan.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING — Signed FOdeen Turto to a one-year entry-level con-tract and sent to Syracuse (AHL).

VANCOUVER CANUCKS — Signed GThatcher Demko to a five-year contractextension.

OLYMPICSOLYMPIC MEN’S HOCKEY — Named Stan

Bowman general manager of 2022 Olym-pic Men’s hockey team.

SOCCERMajor League Soccer

DC UNITED — Announced the return ofMF Paul Arriola from loan to Swansea CityA.F.C. (EFL).

FC CINCINNATI — Signed W Isaac Atangavia transfer to a three-year contract.

LOS ANGELES FC — Named Larry Freed-man and John Thorrington co-presidents.

MINNESOTA UNITED — Named DamianRoden senior director of sports science.

PHILADELPHIA UNION — Signed MF LeonFlach from FC St. Pauli to a two-year con-tract.

COLLEGECAMPBELL UNIVERSITY — Named West-

on Glaser assistant head football coach.NEW JERSEY CITY UNIVERSITY — Named

Jack Smithlin assistant softball coach andhitting instructor.

April 2

1983 — New York Islander Mike Bossybecomes the first player to score 60 ormore goals in three consecutive seasons.

1984 — Georgetown, led by junior centerPatrick Ewing and freshman forward Reg-gie Williams, beats Houston 84-75 to winthe NCAA championship in Seattle.

1986 — The three-point field goal, at 19feet, 9 inches, is adopted by the NCAA.

1990 — UNLV pounds Duke 103-73 to winits first NCAA championship and extendthe Blue Devils’ streak to eight Final Fourappearances without a title. The Runnin’Rebels become the first team to scoremore than 100 points in a championshipgame and the 30-point margin is the large-st ever.

1995 — Connecticut caps an unbeatenseason by defeating Tennessee 70-64 forthe NCAA women’s championship. TheHuskies, 35-0, become the winningest bas-ketball team for one season in Division I.

2000 — Connecticut wins its secondwomen’s national championship with a71-52 victory over Tennessee. The top-ranked Huskies beat No. 2 Tennessee forthe second time in three meetings this

season. 2005 — Roger Powell Jr. and Luther Head

score 20 points apiece, leading Illinois to a72-57 win over Louisville in the semifinalsof the Final Four. With the win, the Illini(37-1) tie the single-season NCAA recordfor victories.

2007 — The Florida Gators keep theirstranglehold on the college basketballworld with an 84-75 victory over Ohio Statefor their second straight national cham-pionship.

2012 — Doron Lamb scores 22 points asKentucky wins its eighth men’s nationalchampionship, holding off Kansas for a 67-59 victory.

2014 — The Sacramento Kings beat theLos Angeles Lakers 107-102 to give theLakers their 50th loss of the season. Thelast time the Lakers had 50 or more losseswas 1974-75 (30-52).

2016 — Villanova advances to the na-tional championship game with the big-gest margin of victory in Final Four history,overwhelming Oklahoma 95-51. The mar-gin topped 34-point Final Four wins by Cin-cinnati over Oregon State in 1962 and Mi-chigan State over Penn in 1979.

AP SPORTLIGHT

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — There

was no shortage of Kyle Pitts high-

lights at Florida’s pro day Wednes-

day, from his measurables to his

moves to even his mindset.

It was a refresher course for

anyone who watched the versatile

tight end play last season.

Whether he was outjumping,

outrunning and outmuscling de-

fensive backs, making linebackers

and safeties look silly, or handling

his own at the line of scrimmage,

Pitts was undoubtedly one of the

most dynamic pass catchers in the

country in 2020 and possibly the

best college player at his position

in years, maybe even decades.

No one would be surprised to see

him be an instant star at the next

level.

Pitts and several teammates —

most notably quarterback Kyle

Trask, cornerback Marco Wilson

and receivers Kadarius Toney and

Trevon Grimes — worked out for

talent evaluators from 31 of 32

NFL teams. Four head coaches

were in attendance: Urban Meyer

(Jacksonville), Matt Rhule (Car-

olina), Brian Flores (Miami) and

Zac Taylor (Cincinnati).

It was a chance for scouts to get

the kind of up-close look they

couldn’t over the past year be-

cause of COVID-19 travel restric-

tions and because the NFL com-

bine was canceled.

Pitts put on a show, even before

he stepped on the field to catch

passes from Trask for maybe the

last time. His 83-inch wingspan

was more than impressive, even

by NFL standards. The 6-foot-6,

245-pound Philadelphia native al-

so had a 33 ½-inch vertical, re-

corded 10 feet, 9 inches in the

broad jump and managed 22 repe-

titions of 225 pounds on the bench

press.

Pitts later covered the 40-yard

dash in 4.45 seconds, not far off

tight end Vernon Davis’ combine

watershed mark (4.38) set in 2006.

He ended the day running routes

for Trask and then raised some

eyebrows while sharing his No. 1

goal.

“Start at a high level and keep

increasing every year and being

able to do other things that other

tight ends aren’t doing, which

would make me special,” he said.

“At the end of the day, with all the

preparation and through the

years, I feel like I’ll be the best to

ever do it.”

Pitts is widely considered a lock

to be a top-10 pick in the draft, and

at least one recent mock had him

going second overall behind Clem-

son quarterback Trevor Law-

rence. ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.

called Pitts “my highest-graded

tight end EVER” on Twitter.

How high could Pitts go? If not

for so many teams being desperate

for quarterbacks, he probably

would be one of the first few guys

off the board.

Pitts caught 43 passes for 770

yards and 12 touchdowns in 7 ½

games last season. He missed 10

quarters following a vicious hit

against Georgia in early Novem-

ber that knocked his helmet so

sideways that his facemask frac-

tured his septum. He had surgery

and sat out two full games.

He returned, scored three times

against Kentucky and then opted

out of the Cotton Bowl after anoth-

er unstoppable performance

against Alabama in the Southeast-

ern Conference championship

game. NFL executives have been

drooling ever since.

It’s still entirely possible for

Pitts to be the highest-drafted tight

end in the modern era (since 1970).

Denver drafted Riley Odoms fifth

overall in 1972. Davis and Kellen

Winslow Jr. (2004) both went

sixth.

JOHN RAOUX / AP

Florida tight end Kyle Pitts, left, is arguably the most dynamicplaymaker in the NFL Draft, a versatile tight end who attracted a lot ofattention during Florida’s pro day Wednesday. 

Pitts puts on showfor NFL evaluators

BY MARK LONG

Associated Press

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19

NHL/AUTO RACING

East Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

Washington 35 23 8 4 50 121 104

N.Y. Islanders 36 22 10 4 48 106 84

Pittsburgh 36 23 11 2 48 117 94

Boston 32 18 9 5 41 88 77

Philadelphia 35 17 14 4 38 107 129

N.Y. Rangers 35 16 15 4 36 112 94

New Jersey 34 13 16 5 31 83 106

Buffalo 35 7 23 5 19 77 123

Central Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

Tampa Bay 35 24 9 2 50 124 85

Florida 36 23 9 4 50 119 99

Carolina 34 23 8 3 49 113 86

Nashville 37 19 17 1 39 95 109

Chicago 37 17 15 5 39 106 115

Columbus 37 14 15 8 36 94 118

Dallas 33 11 12 10 32 91 91

Detroit 37 12 21 4 28 80 119

West Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

Colorado 35 23 8 4 50 127 80

Vegas 34 24 9 1 49 110 79

Minnesota 34 21 11 2 44 99 86

St. Louis 35 16 13 6 38 100 113

Arizona 36 16 15 5 37 95 112

Los Angeles 34 14 14 6 34 96 96

San Jose 35 15 16 4 34 99 120

Anaheim 37 11 20 6 28 83 123

North Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA

Toronto 36 23 10 3 49 119 92

Winnipeg 37 22 13 2 46 120 102

Edmonton 37 22 14 1 45 122 107

Montreal 32 15 8 9 39 104 87

Calgary 37 16 18 3 35 96 112

Vancouver 37 16 18 3 35 100 120

Ottawa 36 12 20 4 28 94 135

Wednesday’s games

Buffalo 6, Philadelphia 1Toronto 3, Winnipeg 1Colorado 9, Arizona 3Los Angeles 4, Vegas 2San Jose 4, Minnesota 2Calgary at Vancouver, ppd.

Thursday’s games

Columbus at Tampa BayDetroit at FloridaMontreal at OttawaN.Y. Rangers at BuffaloPittsburgh at BostonWashington at N.Y. IslandersCarolina at ChicagoDallas at NashvilleMinnesota at Vegas

Friday’s games

Washington at New JerseyToronto at WinnipegCalgary at EdmontonSt. Louis at ColoradoArizona at AnaheimSan Jose at Los Angeles

NHL scoreboard

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Linus Ull-

mark stopped 31 shots and the

Buffalo Sabres snapped an 18-

game skid — the NHL’s longest

in 17 years — with a 6-1 win over

the Philadelphia Flyers on

Wednesday night.

Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin

was the first off the bench as the

final horn sounded and led a line

of Sabres players high-fiving

Ullmark in an arena without

fans.

It was the first win for Buffalo

since a 4-1 victory at New Jersey

on Feb. 23, and ended an 0-15-3

streak. The slump was tied for

the league’s 14th longest, and

worst since the Pittsburgh Pen-

guins had a 0-17-1 stretch during

the 2003-04 season.

Steven Fogarty scored his first

career goal and added an assist,

and defenseman Brandon Mon-

tour sealed the win by scoring

short-handed goals 37 seconds

apart, the first into an empty net.

Ivan Provorov scored for Phi-

ladelphia in the second period.

Brian Elliott allowed four goals

on 16 shots before he was re-

placed by Alex Lyon.

Avalanche 9, Coyotes 3: Joo-

nas Donskoi scored three times

during Colorado’s five-goal first

period in a win over visiting Ari-

zona.

The team invited frontline and

health-care workers, first re-

sponders, players’ families and

employees into Ball Arena. The

last time the Avs played in front

of a home crowd was on March

11, 2020 — just before the league

halted the season due to the CO-

VID-19 pandemic.

Andre Burakovsky and

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also

scored in a wild first period that

included Coyotes goals by Mi-

chael Bunting and Oliver Ek-

man-Larsson.

Kings  4,  Golden  Knights  2:

Lias Andersson scored in his

first game back after missing

more than a month, helping Los

Angeles win on the road to stop a

three-game skid.

Andreas Athanasiou, Jaret

Anderson-Dolan and Alex Iafal-

lo also scored for the Kings, and

Cal Petersen improved to 4-1-0

against Vegas after stopping 40

shots. Peterson has both of Los

Angeles’ wins over the Golden

Knights this season.

William Karlsson and Shea

Theodore scored for Vegas.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 26

saves.

Sharks 4, Wild 2: Rudolfs Bal-

cers and Ryan Donato scored in

the second period, and host San

Jose completed a two-game

sweep of Minnesota.

The Sharks followed a shoo-

tout win on Monday with another

strong performance against a

team they are chasing in the

standings.

Maple Leafs 3, Jets 1: Auston

Matthews scored his NHL-lead-

ing 24th goal for Toronto, and

goaltender Jack Campbell

stayed unbeaten this season with

a win at Winnipeg.

Zach Hyman and Alex Kerfoot

also scored for the Maple Leafs.

Mitch Marner had two assists for

his 13th multipoint game of the

season.

Sabres beat Flyers, stop slide at 18Buffalo’s Ullmark stops31 shots, ending longestNHL slump in 17 years

Associated Press

ADRIAN KRAUS / AP

Buffalo Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark, right, reacts to defenseman Brandon Montour scoring a short­hand­ed, empty­net goal in a 6­1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday in Buffalo.

NHL ROUNDUP

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The pan-

demic gave NASCAR an overdue

opportunity to break from the way

things had always been done in the

sport.

The traditional three-day race

weekend was scrapped as NAS-

CAR scrambled to complete a sea-

son while following COVID-19 pro-

tocols. Practice was scrapped and

few complained, the same for qual-

ifying.

When the compacted one-day

show helped NASCAR cruise

through its schedule, a hotline

opened and all ideas were wel-

come. A dirt race on the Cup

schedule? At Bristol Motor Speed-

way?

Sure! Let’s give it a whirl!

It sure sounded fun to put the

Cup Series on a dirt track for the

first time since 1970, but success-

fully executing such a wild idea

seemed fraught with uncertain-

ties. The risk was worth it to Mar-

cus Smith, the CEO of Bristol Mo-

tor Speedway parent company

Speedway Motorsports. He told

The Associated Press he spent

nearly $2 million to transform

Bristol’s concrete bullring into a

dirt track, and even as the track be-

gan to crack, the tires struggled to

hold together and the drivers com-

plained of a blinding dust, Smith

insisted everything was great.

And when the race finally fin-

ished Monday night — a day late

because after all the concerns

about Cup cars’ suitability for dirt

at Bristol, torrential rains caused a

postponement for flooding — ev-

erything indeed was just fine.

Sure, the red Tennessee clay

turned Bristol into a dustbowl, de-

scribed best when driver Corey

LaJoie declared “visibility was ze-

ro out of 2 with the glare.” But

nothing bad happened.

NASCAR staved off a rash of

blown tires by adding mandatory

cautions that also created extra

track prep time. Bristol pulled an

all-nighter after the Sunday rains

to work the dirt so that it wasn’t en-

gine-overheating-inducing mud.

And when the dust got really out of

control, NASCAR simply changed

the rules in the middle of the race

and switched to single-file restarts

for the first time in probably a dec-

ade.

“I know some of our fans and the

NASCAR industry (aren’t) used to

seeing what happened during the

race with the dust buildup,” said

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief

racing development officer.

“If you experience that situation,

to try and go single file to alleviate

some of the dust and some of the

visibility issues, that’s why we

made that move.”

Bristol avoided mess most feared for a dirt raceBY JENNA FRYER

Associated Press

WADE PAYNE / AP

Driver Aric Almirola (10) collides with Anthony Alfredo duringMonday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Bristol, Tenn.

IN THE PITS

PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

NBA

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division

W L Pct GB

Brooklyn 33 15 .688 —

Philadelphia 32 15 .681 ½

New York 24 24 .500 9

Boston 23 25 .479 10

Toronto 18 30 .375 15

Southeast Division

W L Pct GB

Charlotte 24 22 .522 —

Miami 24 24 .500 1

Atlanta 23 24 .489 1½

Washington 17 29 .370 7

Orlando 16 31 .340 8½

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Milwaukee 30 17 .638 —

Indiana 21 25 .457 8

Chicago 19 27 .413 10

Cleveland 17 30 .362 12½

Detroit 13 34 .277 16½

Western Conference

Southwest Division

W L Pct GB

Dallas 25 21 .543 —

San Antonio 24 21 .533 ½

Memphis 22 23 .489 2½

New Orleans 21 25 .457 4

Houston 13 34 .277 12½

Northwest Division

W L Pct GB

Utah 36 11 .766 —

Denver 29 18 .617 7

Portland 29 18 .617 7

Oklahoma City 20 27 .426 16

Minnesota 12 36 .250 24½

Pacific Division

W L Pct GB

Phoenix 33 14 .702 —

L.A. Clippers 32 17 .653 2

L.A. Lakers 30 18 .635 3½

Golden State 23 24 .489 10

Sacramento 22 26 .458 11½

Wednesday’s games

Portland 124, Detroit 101 Miami 92, Indiana 87 Brooklyn 120, Houston 108 Dallas 113, Boston 108 Minnesota 102, New York 101 Oklahoma City 113, Toronto 103 Utah 111, Memphis 107 San Antonio 120, Sacramento 106 Phoenix 121, Chicago 116 Milwaukee 112, L.A. Lakers 97

Thursday’s games

Philadelphia at Cleveland Washington at Detroit Charlotte at Brooklyn Golden State at Miami Orlando at New Orleans Atlanta at San Antonio Denver at L.A. Clippers

Friday’s games

Golden State at Toronto Dallas at New York Houston at Boston Charlotte at Indiana Minnesota at Memphis Atlanta at New Orleans Chicago at Utah L.A. Lakers at Sacramento Milwaukee at Portland Oklahoma City at Phoenix

Saturday’s games

Dallas at Washington Cleveland at Miami Minnesota at Philadelphia New York at Detroit Indiana at San Antonio Orlando at Utah Milwaukee at Sacramento Oklahoma City at Portland

Leaders

Through Tuesday

Scoring

G FG FT PTS AVG

Beal, WAS 41 449 296 1284 31.3

Lillard, POR 44 404 319 1310 29.8

Rebounds

G OFF DEF TOT AVG

Capela, ATL 41 198 382 580 14.1

Gobert, UTA 46 159 456 615 13.4

Assists

G AST AVG

Harden, BKN 40 448 11.2

Westbrook, WAS 39 414 10.6

Scoreboard

NEW YORK — Admittedly

down in the doldrums, the Brook-

lyn Nets were behind by 18 points

in less than five minutes.

By the end of the night, they

were on top of the Eastern Confer-

ence.

Kyrie Irving had 31 points and a

season-high 12 assists, and the

Nets overcame the loss of James

Harden to beat the Houston Rock-

ets 120-108 on Wednesday night

and move into first place in the

East.

Harden sat out the fourth quar-

ter against his former team with

right hamstring tightness, finish-

ing with 17 points, eight rebounds

and six assists.

Brooklyn put together the piv-

otal run without him, scoring 12

straight midway through the final

period to turn a six-point deficit

into a 107-101 lead.

Coach Steve Nash said the Nets

will see how Harden feels Thurs-

day before their game against

Charlotte, but was confident the

All-Star guard didn’t have a long-

term injury. Brooklyn has been

without Kevin Durant since mid-

February because of his own

hamstring strain.

“Any time someone goes down,

it’s very concerning,” Irving said.

“Any time someone doesn’t play

we definitely have to have that

mentality that we’re still going to

play at a very high level.”

Joe Harris added 28 points for

the Nets, who didn’t even lead un-

til the last half-minute of the third

quarter, but emerged with their

19th win in 22 games, improving to

26-9 since acquiring Harden from

Houston on Jan. 14.

At 33-15, they are a half-game

ahead of Philadelphia atop the

East. Kevin Porter Jr. scored 20

points for the Rockets, who got

Christian Wood back after mis-

sing the previous two games be-

cause of injury and illness but

were without John Wall because

of a knee injury.

Nets take first place in EastBrooklyn tops Houston,loses Harden to injury

BY BRIAN MAHONEY

Associated Press

FRANK FRANKLIN II / AP

The Houston Rockets’ Kevin Porter Jr., left, and Jae’Sean Tate, right, defend against Brooklyn Nets guardKyrie Irving during the Nets’ 120­108 win Wednesday in New York.

LOS ANGELES — Andre Drummond left

his Lakers debut with a bruised right toe, and

Jrue Holiday scored 28 points in the Milwau-

kee Bucks’ 112-97 victory over Los Angeles on

Wednesday night.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 25 points and

10 rebounds, and Khris Middleton added 17

points and eight assists as the Bucks snapped

their three-game losing streak with a work-

manlike victory over the depleted defending

NBA champions, who are still without LeBron

James and Anthony Davis.

Drummond scored four points in 14 minutes

before limping off the court early in the third

quarter after trying to play without the toenail

on his big right toe. The nail was completely

ripped off in the first quarter when Bucks cen-

ter Brook Lopez stepped on Drummond’s foot,

but Drummond said he didn’t notice the extent

of the injury until halftime, even though it was

“very, very painful.”

“To have this happen to me in the first game

is kind of deflating for me, but my head is

high,” said Drummond, who hadn’t played in a

game for Cleveland since Feb. 12. “I’m going to

take it game by game and come back better

than ever.”

X-rays were negative on the Lakers’ new

center, but the bruise adds another injury

problem to the Lakers’ list ahead of a tough

schedule in April. James missed his sixth

straight game for Los Angeles with a sprained

right ankle, and Davis missed his 20th consec-

utive game with a right calf injury.

Jazz  111,  Grizzlies  107:  Mike Conley

scored 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter,

Jordan Clarkson added 24 points and Utah won

at Memphis for its seventh straight victory.

Bojan Bogdanovic added 23 points for the

Jazz, who defeated the Grizzlies for the third

time in a week, this time overcoming 36 points

from guard Ja Morant.

Mavericks 113, Celtics 108: Luka Doncic

had 36 points and eight rebounds and Dallas

held on to win at Boston.

Jalen Brunson added 21 points, including

two late free throws, and Kristaps Porzingis

finished with 19 points to help the Mavericks

win their second straight.

Trail Blazers 124, Pistons 10: Damian Lil-

lard had 33 points and nine assists and Por-

tland won at Detroit.

CJ McCollum added 24 points and Carmelo

Anthony and Robert Covington each scored 16

in the Trail Blazers’ fourth straight win.

Heat 92, Pacers 87: Duncan Robinson and

Jimmy Butler helped Miami rally from a 13-

point first-half deficit by spurring a decisive

eight-point fourth-quarter run for a win at In-

diana.

Robinson finished with 20 points and Butler

added 18 as the Heat avoided getting swept in

the three-game season series with the Pacers.

Miami has won two straight since ending a

four-game losing streak.

Thunder 113, Raptors 103: Svi Mykhailiuk

scored 10 of his season-high 22 points in the

fourth quarter, and Oklahoma City rallied to

beat visiting Toronto.

Mykhailiuk made 9 of 14 shots and had a ca-

reer-high nine rebounds.

Timberwolves 102, Knicks 101: Anthony

Edwards scored 11 of his 24 points over the fi-

nal eight minutes, leading a fierce rally by host

Minnesota for a victory over former coach

Tom Thibodeau and New York.

Spurs 120, Kings 106: DeMar DeRozan

scored 26 points and host San Antonio snapped

Sacramento’s five-game winning streak.

Suns 121, Bulls 116:Devin Booker scored a

season-high 45 points, Chris Paul added 19

points and 14 assists, and host Phoenix held on

to beat Chicago.

Bucks top Lakers, Drummond hurts toe in debut

ASHLEY LANDIS / AP

Milwaukee Bucks forward GiannisAntetokounmpo, center, dunks against LosAngeles Lakers center Andre Drummondduring the Bucks’ 112­97 win Wednesday.

Associated Press

ROUNDUP

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21

MLB

American League

East Division

W L Pct GB

Baltimore 0 0 .000 _

Boston 0 0 .000 _

New York 0 0 .000 _

Tampa Bay 0 0 .000 _

Toronto 0 0 .000 _

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Chicago 0 0 .000 _

Cleveland 0 0 .000 _

Detroit 0 0 .000 _

Kansas City 0 0 .000 _

Minnesota 0 0 .000 _

West Division

W L Pct GB

Houston 0 0 .000 _

Los Angeles 0 0 .000 _

Oakland 0 0 .000 _

Seattle 0 0 .000 _

Texas 0 0 .000 _

National League

East Division

W L Pct GB

Atlanta 0 0 .000 _

Miami 0 0 .000 _

New York 0 0 .000 _

Philadelphia 0 0 .000 _

Washington 0 0 .000 _

Central Division

W L Pct GB

Chicago 0 0 .000 _

Cincinnati 0 0 .000 _

Milwaukee 0 0 .000 _

Pittsburgh 0 0 .000 _

St. Louis 0 0 .000 _

West Division

W L Pct GB

Arizona 0 0 .000 _

Colorado 0 0 .000 _

Los Angeles 0 0 .000 _

San Diego 0 0 .000 _

San Francisco 0 0 .000 _

Wednesday’s games

No games scheduled

Thursday’s games

Toronto at N.Y. Yankees Cleveland at Detroit Baltimore at Boston Texas at Kansas City Chicago White Sox at L.A. Angels Houston at OaklandMinnesota at Milwaukee Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs Atlanta at Philadelphia Arizona at San Diego L.A. Dodgers at Colorado St. Louis at Cincinnati Tampa Bay at Miami N.Y. Mets at Washington San Francisco at Seattle

Friday’s games

Chicago White Sox (Keuchel 0-0) at L.A.Angels (Heaney 0-0)

Houston (Javier 0-0) at Oakland (Luzar-do 0-0)

Tampa Bay (Yarbrough 0-0) at Miami(López 0-0)

L.A. Dodgers (Bauer 0-0) at Colorado(Senzatela 0-0)

Arizona (Kelly 0-0) at San Diego (Snell0-0)

San Francisco (Cueto 0-0) at Seattle(Paxton 0-0)

Saturday’s games

Toronto at N.Y. Yankees Baltimore at Boston Cleveland at Detroit Texas at Kansas City Houston at Oakland Chicago White Sox at L.A. Angels Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs Atlanta at Philadelphia N.Y. Mets at Washington St. Louis at CincinnatiTampa Bay at MiamiMinnesota at MilwaukeeL.A. Dodgers at ColoradoArizona at San DiegoSan Francisco at Seattle

MLB calendarJuly 11-13 — Amateur draft.July 13 — All-Star Game, Atlanta.July 25 — Hall of Fame induction, Coo-

perstown, N.Y.Aug. 12 — New York Yankees vs. Chicago

White Sox at Dyersville, Iowa.Aug. 22 — Los Angeles Angels vs. Cleve-

land at Williamsport, Pa.Dec. 1 — Collective bargaining agree-

ment expires, 11:59 p.m. EST.Dec. 15 — International amateur signing

period closes.

Scoreboard

NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor and the

New York Mets have agreed to a $341 mil-

lion, 10-year deal, keeping the All-Star short-

stop in Queens for the long haul after acquir-

ing him from Cleveland in the offseason, ac-

cording to a person familiar with the agree-

ment.

The person spoke to The Associated Press

on Wednesday night on condition of anonym-

ity because the deal hadn’t been announced.

Lindor was eligible for free agency after

this season and said this spring he wouldn’t

negotiate with the Mets on a long-term con-

tract after opening day. Less than 24 hours

before New York started its season Thursday

night in Washington, an agreement was reac-

hed.

The 27-year-old Lindor

has two Gold Gloves and

made four All-Star teams in

six seasons with the Indians,

hitting .285 with an average

of 29 homers, 86 RBIs and 21

stolen bases per 162 games.

He was the prized pickup

in new owner Steve Cohen’s

first offseason, acquired from Cleveland

along with right-hander Carlos Carrasco for

infielders Amed Rosario, Andrés Giménez

and two minor leaguers. New York added

Lindor knowing he could walk after the 2021

season, but the team said it would try to nego-

tiate a long-term pact.

MLB Network was first to report on the

agreement.

Lindor will retain his $22.3 million salary

for 2021 before the contract kicks in for 2022.

The deal will be the largest ever for a

shortstop, passing Fernando Tatis Jr.’s $340

million, 14-year contract with San Diego

signed in February. Only Mike Trout’s

$426.5 million, 12-year deal with the Los An-

geles Angels and Mookie Betts’ $365 million,

12-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodg-

ers are worth more. Betts’ deal includes $115

million in deferred payments through 2044.

Lindor’s deal is also by far the largest

payout ever from the Mets, surpassing con-

tracts for third baseman David Wright ($138

million), pitchers Jacob deGrom ($137.5 mil-

lion) and Johan Santana ($137.5 million).

Cohen tweeted Tuesday that Lindor was a

“heckuva player and a great guy” and said he

hoped to strike a deal. He confirmed the pair

had dinner together over the weekend.

Source: Lindor, Mets agree to 10-year dealBY JAKE SEINER

Associated Press

Lindor 

CHICAGO

Acouple of postseason

stars. The son of a

former big leaguer.

A versatile infielder

from South Korea.

Here is a closer look at a hand-

ful of rookies who could play a

starring role this year:

■ OF Randy Arozarena and SS

Wander  Franco,  Tampa  Bay

Rays: Arozarena helped power TampaBay to the World Series last year, bat­ting .377 with 10 homers, 14 RBIs anda 1.273 OPS in 20 postseason games.The  switch­hitting  Franco,  who  justturned 20 on March 1, is widely regard­ed as baseball’s top prospect.

■ RHP Ian Anderson, Atlanta

Braves: The  22­year­old  Andersonwas called up in August and went 3­2with a 1.95 ERA in six starts, helpingAtlanta win the NL East. He also shinedin  the  postseason,  allowing  just  twoearned runs in 18 2⁄�3 innings.

■ INF Ke’Bryan Hayes, Pitts­

burgh Pirates: Hayes, 24, providedsome hope for lowly Pittsburgh in Sep­tember, batting .376 with five homersin 24 games. The slick­fielding son offormer  big  league  infielder  CharlieHayes was selected by the Pirates in thefirst round of the 2015 amateur draft.

■ OF Dylan Carlson, St. Louis

Cardinals: The athletic Carlson waspromoted  in  August  and  helped  St.Louis reach the playoffs for the secondstraight year. He batted .200 with 35strikeouts in 35 games, but the switch­hitter just turned 22 in October, and theCardinals think he could be a big part oftheir lineup for years to come.

■ RHP Nate Pearson, Toronto

Blue Jays: Armed with a fastball thatgets into the upper 90s and a nasty slid­er, Pearson worked  five  scoreless  in­nings  in  his  first  big  league  start  atWashington  on  July  29.  He  wentthrough some growing pains down thestretch last year, but that learning expe­rience could pay off for Toronto in 2021.

■ OF  Jarred Kelenic, Seattle

Mariners: Kelenic’s future was in fo­cus this spring after former team presi­

dent Kevin Mather said the outfielderlikely would begin the year in the minorsin order to preserve another year of clubcontrol. The No. 6 pick  in  the 2018amateur  draft  batted  .291  with  23homers over three minor league stops in2019. A knee problem slowed him inspring training.

■ LHP Garrett Crochet, Chica­

go White Sox: Crochet became thefirst player from the 2020 amateur draftto make it to the majors when he tosseda perfect inning at Cincinnati on Sept.18. He reached 100 mph on 45 of his85 pitches while working six scorelessinnings over his first five appearanceswith Chicago.

■ C Tyler Stephenson, Cincin­

nati Reds: The 24­year­old Stephen­

son broke into the majors in July, home­ring in his first plate appearance. The2015  first­round  pick  is  expected  totake on a more prominent role this yearafter the Reds let Curt Casali go in De­cember.

■ RHP Sixto Sánchez, Miami

Marlins: Sánchez is a key part of oneof baseball’s most promising rotations,going 3­2 with a 3.46 ERA in sevenstarts in his first stint in the big leagues.The right­hander was acquired in theFebruary 2019 trade that moved catch­er J.T. Realmuto to Philadelphia.

■ OF Ryan Mountcastle, Balti­

more Orioles: Mountcastle made hismajor league debut on Aug. 21 and bat­ted .333 with five homers and 23 RBIsin  35  games.  Selected  by  Baltimore

with the No. 36 pick in the 2015 ama­teur draft, Mountcastle hit 25 homersfor Triple­A Norfolk in 2019.

■ OF Alex Kirilloff, Minnesota

Twins: The  sweet­swinging  Kirilloffgets his first chance at a regular job inMinnesota after Eddie Rosario was non­tendered in December. The 23­year­oldKirilloff went 1­for­4 in Game 2 of theAL wild­card series against Houston inhis first major league game.

■ INF Kim Ha­seong, San Die­

go  Padres: The  25­year­old  Kimsigned a $28 million, four­year deal inDecember, adding even more versatilityto San Diego’s deep roster. Kim batted.306 with 30 homers, 109 RBIs and23 steals for the KBO League’s KiwoomHeroes last season.

Keep an eye on these rookiesBY JAY COHEN

Associated Press

ASHLEY LANDIS, LEFT, AND ERIC RISBERG, RIGHT / AP

The Tampa Bay Rays Randy Arozarena, left, and the Chicago White Sox’s Garrett Crochet, right, are ex­pected to contribute this year after making impressive debuts when they were called up late last season.

PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT

ERIC GAY / AP

Arizona head coach Adia Barnes hugs guard Aari McDonald as theycelebrate their Elite Eight win over Indiana on Monday.

Arizona has been having fun

and playing good basketball, all

the way to its first women’s NCAA

Final Four. The Wildcats will now

play the team that has been there

more than any other.

The Wildcats (20-5), in their

fifth season with Adia Barnes

coaching her alma mater, play

their first national semifinal game

Friday night against UConn

(28-1). The 11-time national cham-

pions are making their 13th con-

secutive Final Four appearance

and 21st overall for coach Geno

Auriemma.

“They’re a confident team be-

cause it’s charted territory. It’s

uncharted for us. This is some-

thing they’re used to,” Barnes

said. “I think for us there’s no

pressure. No one expects Arizona

to win a championship. No one ex-

pected Arizona to be in the Elite 8,

Sweet 16, Final Four. We don’t

have anything to lose. We can play

loose, free, because we don’t have

the pressure.”

Barnes will also be part of an-

other first, along with South Car-

olina coach Dawn Staley. It will be

the first Final Four with two teams

coached by Black women.

“So many black coaches out

there don’t get the opportunity.

When (athletic directors) don’t

see it, they don’t see it,” Staley

said. “And they’re going to see it

on (the) biggest stage Friday

night.”

The Gamecocks (26-4), the 2017

national champions, play No. 1

overall seed Stanford (29-2) in the

first game Friday night in the Ala-

modome, where UConn beat the

Cardinal for the 2010 title the only

other time the Final Four was

played in San Antonio.

Stanford’s first Final Four since

2017 is its 14th overall, trailing on-

ly UConn and Tennessee’s 18.

Barnes was a player on the

Wildcats’ only other Sweet 16

team, her senior season in 1998

when she was the Pac-12 player of

the year. Now she becomes the

sixth coach to take her alma mater

to the Final Four. Arizona hadn’t

even been in the women’s NCAA

Tournament since 2005, though it

would have made it last year with

a 24-7 record before the tourney

was canceled because of the pan-

demic.

While the Huskies have been

regulars in the Final Four, this

group doesn’t have too much ex-

perience — and UConn hasn’t won

a national title since four in a row

from 2013-16. The Huskies ad-

vanced this time with a 69-67 win

in the River Walk Region final

over Baylor, which won the na-

tional title in the last NCAA tour-

ney two years ago.

“It’s a lot to digest, but right now

you can only think about this par-

ticular one. You don’t necessarily

are thinking the other 12. We have

10 kids on our team that have not

been to one Final Four,” Auriem-

ma said. “And so that to me is what

the excitement is all about. Those

10 kids have never been to one and

they’re getting an opportunity to

go to their very first.”

There will be a matchup of

standout guards with UConn

freshman phenom and first-team

All-American Paige Bueckers

(22.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game)

and Wildcats second-team All-

American Aari McDonald (25.3

ppg, 6.8 rpg), who is coming off

consecutive 30-point games.

McDonald was looking at Face-

book on Sunday, the day before

No. 3 seed Arizona’s win over Indi-

ana in the Mercardo Region final,

when the 5-foot-6 guard saw her

post from exactly a year earlier.

McDonald said then that she was

coming back for her senior season

for just such an opportunity.

“It’s just crazy how things come

full circle,” McDonald said. “You

make goals, to see yourself and

your team achieve them like this,

it’s crazy. I’m just so excited.”

With Cardinal third-team All-

American guard Kiana Williams

getting to play the NCAA tourney

in her hometown, Stanford over-

came a 12-point halftime deficit to

beat 2018 Final Four team Louis-

ville 78-63 for the final spot. The

Cardinal are in their 34th consec-

utive women’s NCAA Tourna-

ment, with Tara VanDerveer in

her record 35th overall as a coach.

South Carolina, which has now

made it to three of six Final Fours

and won the last title decided in

Texas four years ago in Dallas,

likely would have been the No. 1

overall seed last year had been

there been an NCAA tourney. The

Gamecocks went 32-1 last season,

spent the final 10 weeks at No. 1

and Staley was the AP coach of the

year, but they didn’t get a chance

to win another title because of the

pandemic.

South Carolina is back after a

dominating 62-34 win over Texas

and first-year coach Vic Schaefer.

Top-seeded South Carolina

blocked 14 shots in the Hemisfair

Region final.

In a Final Four of mainstays,Arizona is lone gate-crasherWildcats face 11-time national champion Huskies in 1st semifinal

BY STEPHEN HAWKINS

Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO — NCAA President Mark

Emmert promised the Women’s Basketball

Coaches Association he will work with

coaches to fix the “stark difference” be-

tween the Division I men’s and women’s

tournaments.

While Emmert noted that a major hurdle

was trying to hold both basketball tourna-

ments in a kind of identical format required

by the coronavirus pandemic, he added no-

body liked the results and nobody wants to

see similar issues crop up in other sports in

coming months.

“I, too, believe that it’s exactly the right

moment to do it,” Emmert said. “You got my

commitment, my personal commitment to

spend an enormous amount of time and en-

ergy on on this problem and and making

sure that we don’t lose the chance.”

Emmert and the NCAA’s heads of basket-

ball Dan Gavitt and Lynn Holzman dis-

cussed the conditions in San Antonio on

Wednesday with mem-

bers of the WBCA, includ-

ing two of the Final Four

coaches — UConn’s Geno

Auriemma and Dawn Sta-

ley of South Carolina.

Several differences sur-

faced over the past two

weeks, starting with fe-

male players, coaches and

staff in San Antonio criti-

cizing the NCAA for not initially providing a

full weight-training area to the women’s

teams, noting the men’s teams in Indianapo-

lis did not have the same problem.

Questions during the coaches’ meeting

with Emmert ranged from the use of “March

Madness” for branding, the number of

NCAA staffers for both basketball tourna-

ments (12 for the men, six for the women),

the budget for both tournaments and why

the NCAA doesn’t own the WNIT as it does

the NIT.

The WBCA sent a letter to Emmert last

week saying the external review he pro-

posed to look into potential gender equity is-

sues wasn’t good enough. In the letter, ob-

tained by The Associated Press, the WBCA

asked for a “Commission on Gender Inequi-

ty in College Sports” led by people chosen by

both the WBCA and NCAA.

Staley asked for assurances that the law

firm hired by the NCAA to review potential

gender equity issues is truly independent.

“Whoever is paying the piper, more than

likely they’re going to give you what you

want to hear,” Staley said.

Emmert said the Kaplan, Hecker & Fink

law firm specializes in Title IX issues nation-

ally and has no prior relationship with the

NCAA. Emmert told the AP last Friday the

firm would review potential gender equity

issues in all men’s and women’s champion-

ship events.

Muffett McGraw, who retired as Notre

Dame head coach last year, said the WBCA

has total confidence in Holzman. The former

Irish coach noted the NCAA added a rule a

few years ago holding head coaches account-

able for anything that goes wrong and asked

why Holzman doesn’t report directly to Em-

mert.

Auriemma said the bigger issue isn’t an

NCAA problem but exists on individual

campuses with presidents and athletic di-

rectors. He asked Emmert what he could do

to make sure those people give women’s bas-

ketball the same advantages and opportuni-

ties.

The UConn coach also mentioned how

football coaches broke away from NCAA

control.

“Maybe that’s what has to happen in wom-

en’s basketball?” Auriemma said. “Maybe

women’s basketball has got to separate itself

from the other women’s sports? But then that

would be unfair because we would be leav-

ing a lot of people behind that need our help.”

Emmert says he will work to fix ‘stark’ inequitiesNCAA has faced criticism fromwomen’s coaches for contrasts

BY DOUG FEINBERG

Associated Press

Emmert 

Final Four

At San AntonioNational Semifinals

Friday, April 2South Carolina vs. Stanford AFN­

Sports2, 12:10 a.m. Saturday CET; 7:10 a.m.Saturday JKT

UConn vs. Arizona AFN­Sports2,  3:40a.m. Saturday CET; 10:40 a.m. Saturday JKT

National ChampionshipSunday, April 4

Semifinal winners AFN­Sports, MidnightSunday CET; �7 a.m. Monday JKT

Scoreboard

Friday, April 2, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

heck of an accomplishment. We’re

going to take it and savor it for

what it is. That doesn’t lessen our

desire to win this game, the next

game or win two more games.”

The next one won’t be easy.

Mick Cronin will make sure of

that.

The former Cincinnati coach

has returned UCLA to relevance

after a couple of mediocre sea-

sons. In two years at Westwood,

he’s added a level of toughness

that’s helped them go from the

First Four to the Final Four after

losing their last four games enter-

ing the NCAA Tournament.

UCLA (22-9) has grinded out

five wins in the NCAA tourney, in-

cluding No. 2 seed Alabama and a

51-49 takedown of top-seeded Mi-

chigan in the Elite Eight. The

Bruins are in the Final Four for

the first time since 2008 and play

the kind of game that might be

able to slow the Gonzaga machine.

“Obviously, I knew the expecta-

tions. It’s pretty clear at UCLA,”

Cronin said. “I understood it and I

wanted it.”

The Texas half of the draw will

have a Southwest feel.

Baylor and Houston were both

members of the Southwest Con-

ference, which splintered in 1996.

The Bears were there when the

league started, circa 1914. The

Cougars made the move from in-

dependent to SWC status in 1975.

The latest versions of the two

programs are nearly identical:

long, athletic, quick, breath-

squeezing defense.

Baylor went on a long rebuild to

finally get here.

The Bears were embroiled in

one of the darkest scandals in col-

lege basketball history, when Pa-

trick Dennehy was murdered by

teammate Carlton Dotson in 2003.

Coach Dave Bliss then resigned

after it was revealed he encour-

aged players to lie about Dennehy

to cover up NCAA violations.

In stepped coach Scott Drew.

Drew took the Baylor job after

serving a one-year stint succeed-

ing his father, Homer, at Valparai-

so, and he went through some ex-

tra-lean years early on in Waco.

He’s since molded the program

into a national powerhouse.

The Bears (26-2) were unstop-

pable this season before a CO-

VID-19 pause slowed their roll,

but they’ve been back to their

dominating ways in March.

After twice failing at the region-

al final under Drew, Baylor beat

Arkansas in the Elite Eight to re-

ach the Final Four for the first

time since 1950 — when the brack-

et was eight teams and the City

College of New York Beavers won

the national championship.

“Once we got into the (first) sea-

son and you found out that most of

your team were walk-ons and

most of them weren’t over 6-

foot-2, then you realized it might

be tougher than you originally

thought,” Drew said. “But obvi-

ously the goal was always to build

a program that could consistently

compete and have an opportunity

to play in March.”

Kelvin Sampson has made a

similar imprint on Houston.

The Cougars had lost the luster

from the Phi Slama Jama days, re-

aching the NCAA Tournament

once in 22 years before Sampson

was hired in 2014.

Sampson gradually built Hous-

ton back up, taking it to the NCAA

Tournament’s second round in

2018, the Sweet 16 the next year.

The fleet-footed Cougars (28-3)

were dominating this season and

grinded down their first four

NCAA Tournament opponents to

reach their first Final Four since

losing in the 1984 national cham-

pionship game.

The run has come in Indiana,

home of the NCAA and where

Sampson’s career nearly ended.

He was forced out at Indiana in

2008 due to NCAA sanctions.

Contenders: No. 11 UCLA lowest seed among finalistsFROM PAGE 24

MICHAEL CONROY/AP

Baylor guard Davion Mitchell celebrates beating Arkansas 81­72 inthe Elite 8 round in the NCAA tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium,Tuesday, in Indianapolis. 

North Carolina announced

Thursday that Hall of Fame bas-

ketball coach Roy Williams is re-

tiring after a 33-year career that

includes three national champion-

ships.

The decision comes two weeks

after the 70-year-old Williams

closed his 18th season with the Tar

Heels after a highly successful

run at Kansas. In all, Williams

won 903 games in a career that in-

cluded those three titles, all with

the Tar Heels, in 2005, 2009 and

2017.

North Carolina scheduled a

campus news conference for

Thursday afternoon on the Smith

Center court bearing his name.

The Tar Heels lost to Wisconsin

in the first round of the NCAA

Tournament in his final game,

which was Williams’ only first-

round loss in 30 tournaments.

“It’s been a difficult year, but

everybody’s had the problems

with COVID that we’ve had,” an

emotional Williams said after the

played in the Spartans’ home

state.

The third title was delivered by

a team that included players who

had lost the 2016 championship

game to Villanova on a buzzer-

beating three-pointer. This time,

North Carolina beat a one-loss

Gonzaga team for the title.

Williams immediately stabiliz-

ed the program and broke through

for his first national championship

in his second season with a win

against Illinois, marking the first

of five Final Four trips with the

Tar Heels. His second title came

in 2009 with a team that rolled

through the NCAA Tournament,

winning every game by at least a

dozen points, including the final

game against Michigan State

proud of the way he carried on the

tradition of Coach Smith’s pro-

gram, always putting his players

first.”

Williams passed on taking over

at UNC in 2000 after the retire-

ment of Bill Guthridge, but ulti-

mately couldn’t say no a second

time and returned as coach in

2003 after the tumultuous Matt

Doherty era that included an 8-20

season.

game. “It’s been a hard year to

push and pull, push and pull every

other day to try to get something

done. But how can you be any

luckier than Roy Williams is

coaching basketball?”

Williams spent 10 seasons at his

alma mater as an assistant coach

to late mentor Dean Smith before

leaving to take over the Jayhawks

program in 1988. He spent 15 sea-

sons there, taking Kansas to four

Final Fours and two national title

games.

Williams’ time as an assistant

included the North Carolina’s run

to the 1982 NCAA championship

for Smith’s first title, a game that

memorably featured a freshman

named Michael Jordan making

the go-ahead jumper late to beat

Georgetown.

“Roy Williams is and always

will be a Carolina basketball leg-

end,” Jordan said in a statement

through his business manager.

“His great success on the court is

truly matched by the impact he

had on the lives of the players he

coached — including me. I’m

PAUL SANCYA / AP

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams celebrates after his team’s 89­72 victory over Michigan State inthe 2009 national championship game in Detroit. Williams is retiring after a 33­year career. 

Carolina blue

AP sports writer Steve Reed contributed to thisreport.

Tar Heels’ Williams retiring after33-year career, 3 national titles

BY AARON BEARD

Associated Press

Final Four

At IndianapolisNational Semifinals

Saturday, April 3Baylor vs. Houston AFN-Sports, 11 p.m.

Saturday CET; 6 a.m. Sunday JKTGonzaga vs. UCLA AFN-Sports, 2 a.m.

Sunday CET; 9 a.m. Sunday JKTNational Championship

Monday, April 5Semifinal winners AFN-Sports, 3 a.m.

Tuesday CET; 10 a.m. Tuesday JKT

Scoreboard

PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, April 2, 2021

SPORTSStriking a deal

Mets, All-Star SS Lindor agree on10-year, $341 million contract ›› Page 21

Hall of Fame coach Williams retiring after 33-year run ›› Page 23

INDIANAPOLIS

Gonzaga’s countdown to perfection has ticked to

two.

The Bulldogs are back in the Final Four, two

wins from becoming the first undefeated team

since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.

And, after all those upsets, the March Madness apex in

the Hoosier State will be a high-seeded affair.

Gonzaga is a No. 1 seed. So is Baylor. Houston, a 2. UCLA

is an 11, but it’s also the all-time leader in national cham-

pionships.

There also will be a trip down Southwest Conference

memory lane.

But the Zags will be the team to beat.

Gonzaga (30-0) has been an offensive juggernaut rarely

seen in college basketball. Fast-moving and free-flowing,

the ultraefficient Zags have steamrolled everyone in their

way, winning a Division I-record 27 straight games by dou-

ble digits.

An 85-56 dismantling of Southern California in the Elite

Eight stretched their winning streak to 34 games over two

seasons and put them back in the Final Four for the second

time in the past four NCAA Tournaments. Gonzaga came

up short in a loss to North Carolina in the 2017 national title

game, but has its sights set on finishing it off this time — and

grabbing a piece of history.

“Everyone wants us to keep moving forward, but that’s

not how we roll,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “This is a

/

Final Four a high-seeded affairUndefeated No. 1 Gonzaga leads well-regarded pack of championship contenders

BY JOHN MARSHALL

Associated Press

SEE CONTENDERS ON PAGE 23

Top: Houston guardDeJon Jarreau, left,UCLA guard JaimeJaquez Jr., center,and Baylor guard

MaCio Teague.Left: Gonzagaforward Corey

Kispert.

AP photos

“This is a heck of an accomplishment. We’regoing to take it and savor it for what it is. Thatdoesn’t lessen our desire to win this game, thenext game or win two more games.”

Mark Few

Gonzaga coach

NCAA TOURNAMENT