Volume 80 Edition 121 ©SS 2021 MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2021 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas

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PACIFIC

U.S. sailors atYokosuka issuednew M18 pistolsPage 4

MILITARY

Marines: Man atTrump rally notin Kabul photoPage 8

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Alabama, Georgiastand apart fromrest of Top 25 packPage 24

Dre, Eminem, Lamar, Blige, Snoop to share ‘Super’ stage ›› Faces, Page 14

FORT BENNING, Ga. — Dur-

ing 23 years in the Army — much

of it in the elite ranks of the 75th

Ranger Regiment — Jeff Strueck-

er saw combat in Panama, Iraq

and Afghanistan, but nothing

compared to the infamous Octo-

ber 1993 gunfight through the

streets of Mogadishu.

“I’d been to combat a couple of

times before Somalia and a lot of

times after, but I’ve never seen

heroism, I’ve never seen fighting,

like we saw among these guys on

the streets of Mogadishu, Soma-

lia,” said Struecker, one of 18 vet-

erans who fought in the battle offi-

cially known as Operation Gothic

Serpent and awarded the Silver

Star for valor Friday. “Nothing

came close to Somalia. I mean not

even close.”

The Silver Stars presented in a

ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga.,

for those who were serving 28

years ago in the 3rd Battalion,

75th Ranger Regiment were up-

grades of Bronze Star medals

with combat “V” for valor that the

Rangers were presented months

after returning from Somalia. The

Battle of Mogadishu, in which 18

American soldiers were killed,

was later made famous by the

best-selling book “Black Hawk

Down” and the movie of the same

name.

For Struecker, the honor was

“bittersweet” and unexpected.

He said others who fought in that

battle were more deserving of the

Silver Star, the nation’s third

highest honor for battlefield hero-

ics. He said he was particularly

proud to see some of the other

troops from that fight honored.

“It’s truly an honor,” said Sean

U.S. Army photo

Current U.S. Army Rangers look at photos of 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment Rangers in action in Somalia in 1993 before 18 formermembers of the unit were awarded Silver Stars on Friday for their actions in the infamous Battle of Mogadishu that year.

Incomparable heroism‘Black Hawk Down’ Rangers receive Silver Stars 28 years after infamous Mogadishu battle

BY COREY DICKSTEIN

Stars and Stripes

SEE HEROISM ON PAGE 7

“I’d been to combat acouple of times beforeSomalia and a lot oftimes after, but I’venever seen heroism, I’venever seen fighting, likewe saw among theseguys on the streets ofMogadishu, Somalia.”

Jeff Struecker

Army veteran, Silver Star recipient

MILITARY

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least

five civilians were killed in a bomb

blast outside a Kabul mosque Sun-

day, a Taliban official said. It was

the deadliest attack in the Afghan

capital since U.S. forces left at the

end of August.

There was no immediate claim

of responsibility, but suspicion fell

on Islamic State extremists who

have stepped up attacks on the Ta-

liban in recent weeks, particularly

in an ISIS stronghold in eastern

Afghanistan.

An apparent roadside bomb

went off at the gate of the spraw-

ling Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul at a

time when a memorial service was

being held for the mother of chief

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah

Mujahid. Five people were killed,

said Qari Saeed Khosti, the

spokesman of the Interior Minis-

try.

The explosion underscored the

growing challenges the Taliban

face just weeks after they took

control of Afghanistan in a blitz

campaign, culminating in their

takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15.

During their 20-year insurgen-

cy, the Taliban themselves had

frequently carried out bombing

and shooting attacks, but are now

faced with trying to contain rival

militants using the same methods.

The growing security challenges

come at a time of an economic

meltdown, as the Taliban struggle

to run the country without the

massive foreign aid given to U.S.-

backed government they toppled.

Three suspects were arrested in

Sunday’s explosion in Kabul, said

Bilal Karimi, a Taliban spokes-

man. He said Taliban fighters

were not harmed.

Kabul mosquebombed in firstmajor attacksince US pullout

Associated Press

AFGHANISTAN

SEE ATTACK ON PAGE 13

PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

BUSINESS/WEATHER

MILAN — U.S. climate envoy

John Kerry said Saturday he

thinks “enormous progress” can

be made at the upcoming U.N. cli-

mate talks in Scotland but more

governments must come up with

concrete commitments in the next

30 days.

Kerry attended a preparatory

meeting in Milan where delegates

around the world sought to identify

where progress can be made be-

fore the U.N. climate change starts

in Glasgow on Oct. 31.

The 12-day summit aims to se-

cure more ambitious commit-

ments to limit global warming to

well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit

with a goal of keeping it to 2.7 de-

grees compared to pre-industrial

levels. The event also is focused on

mobilizing financing and protect-

ing vulnerable communities and

natural habitats.

“The bottom line is, folks, as we

stand here today, we believe we

can make enormous progress in

Glasgow, moving rapidly towards

the new goals that the science is

telling us we must achieve,” Kerry

said. That means achieving a 45%

reduction in carbon emissions in

the next 10 years.

“This is the decisive decade,’’

Kerry said.

Kerry, a former U.S. senator and

secretary of state, said that coun-

tries representing 55% of the

world’s gross domestic product —

Britain, Canada, Japan, the United

States and the 27 European Union

members — have submitted plans

that hit the 2.7 degreestarget by re-

ducing greenhouse gas emissions.

US climate envoy: Summit can yield huge progress Associated Press

Bahrain89/86

Baghdad91/73

Doha95/80

Kuwait City101/77

Riyadh102/73

Kandahar

Kabul

Djibouti95/81

MONDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Mildenhall/Lakenheath

59/48

Ramstein60/54

Stuttgart53/50

Lajes,Azores72/69

Rota74/59

Morón75/55 Sigonella

76/62

Naples77/65

Aviano/Vicenza67/58

Pápa77/60

Souda Bay69/65

Brussels61/49

Zagan61/50

DrawskoPomorskie

60/54

MONDAY IN EUROPE

Misawa64/61

Guam85/82

Tokyo77/64

Okinawa83/80

Sasebo80/67

Iwakuni76/71

Seoul76/70

Osan78/70

Busan77/71

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

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

TUESDAY IN THE PACIFIC

WEATHER OUTLOOK

TODAYIN STRIPES

American Roundup ...... 11Classified .................... 13Comics .........................16Crossword ................... 16Faces .......................... 14Opinion ........................ 15Sports .................... 18-24

Military rates

Euro costs (Oct. 4) $1.13Dollar buys (Oct. 4) 0.8398 British pound (Oct. 4) $1.32Japanese yen (Oct. 4) 109.00South Korean won (Oct. 4) 1157.00

Commercial rates

Bahrain(Dinar) 0.3770Britain (Pound) 1.3559 Canada (Dollar) 1.2676 China(Yuan) 6.4467 Denmark (Krone) 6.4111 Egypt (Pound) 15.7197 Euro 0.8621Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7856 Hungary (Forint) 308.55 Israel (Shekel) 3.2200 Japan (Yen) 110.98 Kuwait(Dinar) 0.3014

Norway (Krone) 8.6395

Philippines (Peso) 50.63 Poland (Zloty) 3.95Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7507 Singapore (Dollar) 1.3560

South Korea (Won) 1182.73 Switzerland (Franc) 0.9293Thailand (Baht) 33.66 Turkey (NewLira) 8.8468

(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger-many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur-chasing 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 dollars-to-pound, and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.)

INTEREST RATES

Prime rate 3.25Interest Rates Discount rate 0.75Federal funds market rate 0.093-month bill 0.0430-year bond 2.05

EXCHANGE RATES

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3

Enlisted soldiers with 20 years

of service who are under investi-

gation for misconduct can now be

considered for voluntary retire-

ment at a reduced grade instead

of a more punitive administrative

separation, the Army said.

“A retirement at a reduced

rank, rather than an administra-

tive discharge for misconduct,

would allow for the preservation

of a 20-year active federal service

retirement,” it said in a statement

Thursday.

The decision is aimed at giving

Army leaders more options for

handling cases of misconduct in-

volving career soldiers, as op-

posed to “all or nothing determi-

nations,” the statement said.

Previously, the Army could ei-

ther separate soldiers with or

without suspension for up to 12

months, or retire them with their

current ranks.

“A grade-reduced retirement,

rather than an administrative dis-

charge for misconduct, may be

appropriate considering the na-

ture of the misconduct versus the

totality of a Soldier’s service and

may also improve their post-mil-

itary employment opportunities,”

the statement said.

The Army has long allowed of-

ficers to retire at reduced ranks

in instances involving miscon-

duct.

Rank reductions for enlisted

soldiers can be either voluntary

or involuntary. Before any invol-

untary reduction, a soldier must

be given written notice and have

the opportunity to consult with a

lawyer and dispute such a move.

Any reduction is final and may

not be appealed, the service said.

The policy applies to soldiers in

the regular active Army, Reserve

and National Guard.

NOEL GERIG/U.S. Army

Soldiers stand in formation before a training event at Fort Knox, Ky.,on Sept. 9. 

Army: Career enlistedsoldiers with misconductcan retire at lower rank

BY JOHN VANDIVER

Stars and Stripes

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea —

North Korea claimed to have launched a

new anti-aircraft missile Thursday, its

fourth missile test in recent weeks, as its

leaders signaled peaceful overtures amid

frozen relations.

The new surface-to-air missile displayed

“remarkable combat performance”

through “new key technologies,” the state-

run Korean Central News Agency reported

Friday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did

not appear to have inspected the test, ac-

cording to the report.

South Korea’s military, which typically

gives details of significant missile tests

shortly after they are conducted by the

North, said it was aware of the latest launch

but did not provide further insight.

North Korea’s production of surface-to-

air missiles is not a novel development; it

has tested the missiles in the past decade

and claimed they were successful.

At least three other missile variations

were launched by North Korea in recent

weeks. The communist regime in separate

tests last month fired a ballistic missile

from a train, launched long-range cruise

missiles capable of reaching Japan, and

test-fired a hypersonic short-range missile

off its eastern coast.

The latest test comes one day after Kim

said the inter-Korean communication lines

would reopen by early October. The lines

were reinstated in July after an extended

pause but were again severed after two

weeks in an apparent protest to joint U.S.-

South Korean military drills.

In a statement through KCNA on Thurs-

day, Kim said the restoration of the hotline

was an effort “for realizing the expectations

and desire of the entire Korean nation to see

the earlier recovery of the North-South re-

lations.”

His sister, Kim Yo Jong, relayed the same

sentiment in a separate statement last

month but added the U.S. and South Korea

needed to quit their “hostile policies”

against her country.

In her statement, Kim described the no-

tion of formally ending the 1950-53 Korean

War as a “good idea,” but noted that the dec-

laration would be meaningless if the cur-

rent “conflicted relationships and antag-

onistic relations” continued on the peninsu-

la.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in,

who has advocated for formally putting an

end to the Korean War throughout his presi-

dency, urged the two countries to “come to-

gether” in a speech before the United Na-

tions General Assembly in September.

The Koreas remain at war following the

signing of an armistice agreement, rather

than a peace treaty. Roughly 28,500 U.S.

troops are currently stationed in the South.

N. Korea: Anti-aircraft missile testedBY DAVID CHOI

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to thisreport.choi.david@stripes.comTwitter: @choibboy

MILITARY

The Navy College Program,

which enables students to re-

ceive academic credits for regu-

lar work and training, has per-

manently shut down in-person

counseling at overseas offices,

according to a program state-

ment.

The change finalizes a shift to

providing sailor counseling on-

line during the coronavirus pan-

demic through the Navy College

Virtual Education Center, the

statement said.

“Sailors interested in pursuing

off-duty educational opportuni-

ties will continue to have a wide

array of virtual services availa-

ble to them,” Lt. Cmdr. Adam

Walski, Navy Voluntary Educa-

tion director, said in the Sept. 27

statement. “More importantly,

services will not be interrupted

for those in need of education as-

sistance or counseling in any lo-

cation worldwide.”

The Navy had closed its last

four physical offices stateside in

2017, after closing 16 offices the

year before and 20 in 2009.

Navy officials said in 2017 that

the closures would save $2.3 mil-

lion. However, the services had

kept the college offices outside

the continental U.S. open.

Offices now providing virtual

services include Naval Station

Rota in Spain, and Naval Air Sta-

tion Sigonella and Naval Support

Activity Naples, both in Italy.

The change also affects offices in

Bahrain; Misawa, Yokosuka, At-

sugi, Sasebo and Okinawa, all in

Japan; Guam; Guantanamo Bay,

Cuba; and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Academic institutions already

on Navy bases within and outside

the U.S. remain in place, the

statement said.

Virtual services include call-in

and live chat with counselors

from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern

time. There also is an automated

chatbot on the Navy College web-

site, or people may leave a ques-

tion or request a counselor to call

back using Issue Tracker in My-

Navy Education.

All virtual education center

customers will now use the My-

Navy Career Center toll-free

number, 1-833-330-MNCC, the

statement said.

LESLIE DICKEY/U.S. Navy

Roy Suber, an education counselor with the Navy College Virtual Education Center in Virginia Beach, Va.,assists a sailor over the phone last month.

In-person education counselingshut down for sailors overseas

Stars and Stripes

news@stripes.com

PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE,

Japan — U.S. sailors and Japanese

security personnel checked out

new 9 mm handguns at this base

south of Tokyo on Friday morning,

ending nearly four decades of ser-

vice with Beretta M9 pistols.

As part of a servicewide transi-

tion, security officers have been

training with the SIG Sauer M18

pistol, which is replacing the M9.

The Navy adopted the M9 in 1985,

according to Yokosuka’s head of

security, Lt. Cmdr. Roel Rosalez.

At Yokosuka, the transition

meant more than 31,000 rounds

fired by approximately 350 securi-

ty officers as they became certi-

fied to use the new sidearm over

the course of nearly a month.

“For a single person, it’s roughly

about 12 to 16 hours [of training]

from beginning to end,” Petty Offi-

cer 1st Class Gasper Peña told

Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.

“It took us approximately two

weeks to accomplish all of the ac-

tual training and evolutions, and

then an additional two weeks on

the administrative side.”

Peña, an armory supervisor at

Yokosuka, said the Navy has been

transitioning toward the M18 for

nearly a decade, a process that was

delayed because the pistols initial-

ly lacked certain features, such as

an external safety catch.

“We’re talking 10 years ago;

that’s literally when I joined the

Navy,” Peña said. “Ten years lat-

er, we finally got them, and it’s a

really, really good weapon sys-

tem.”

Yokosuka is likely the first Navy

installation outside of the United

States to put the new weapons into

service, according to Rosalez and

Peña.

Other installations in Japan are

in “various stages of the transition

to M18s,” Cmdr. Katie Cerezo, spo-

keswoman for Naval Forces Ja-

pan, said in an email Friday. How-

ever, she could not comment on

specifics “as a matter of policy.”

A spokesperson for the Navy

Chief of Information could not be

immediately reached Friday for

comment regarding the M18’s rol-

lout across the service.

Advantages of the M18 over the

M9 include a lighter weight, easily

replaced components and a larger

magazine capacity.

Yokosuka security officers will

be carrying three, 17-round maga-

zines, meaning an increase of six

rounds per person over the three,

15-round magazines carried with

the M9.

Peña said security personnel at

Yokosuka score about 10% higher

on the range with the M18 than

they did with the M9.

“I think this weapon will be eas-

ier for sailors, as far as drawing

and using the weapon because it’s

lighter, smaller and more com-

pact,” Peña said. “It’s going to be

more comfortable when they’re

doing their daily duties.”

The new pistols are also approx-

imately $6 cheaper than the M9,

coming in at $580 per handgun.

Rosalez declined to reveal how

many pistols the base has ordered

but said there would be enough to

adequately arm security person-

nel.

The M18 and its larger M17 vari-

ant are customized versions of the

civilian-use SIG Sauer P320 pistol,

developed under SIG Sauer’s

Modular Handgun System pro-

gram. Over the past several years,

the Marines, Air Force and Army

have also begun to phase out their

older handguns for the SIG pistols.

In November 2020, the weapons

manufacturer delivered 200,000

M18s and M17s to the U.S. mili-

tary, a milestone that coincided

with the first month it had deliver-

ed handguns to all the armed ser-

vices, according to a news release.

The Army in 2017 was the first

service to begin using the M17 and

M18, after a $580 million contract

was awarded to SIG Sauer that

year. The contract called for a de-

livery of 480,000 pistols over 10

years to the Army, Navy, Air

Force, Marine Corps and Coast

Guard.

The Air Force began fielding the

pistols in 2019, and the Marines

followed suit in 2020.

Yokosuka issues M18,replacing Beretta M9

BY ALEX WILSON

Stars and Stripes

DANIEL BETANCOURT/Stars and Stripes

The Navy began issuing new SIG Sauer M18 pistols to security forcespersonnel at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Friday. 

wilson.alex@stripes.comTwitter: @AlexMNWilson

The secret to being cool … is not trying to

be cool.

This was one of the tips that Hollywood

actor, comedian and musician Jack Black

had for service members gathered at USO

clubs worldwide during a virtual program-

ming event on Thursday.

Black is the star of movies such as

“School of Rock,” “Kung Fu Panda” and the

upcoming animated “Super Mario Bros”

film. He’s also a member of hard-rocking

duo Tenacious D.

He spoke on a video link that streamed

live to USO clubs in Grafenwoehr, Germa-

ny; Abu Dhabi; and Great Lakes, Ill. Mem-

bers of the military community also tuned

in from warships at sea and from home

computers on bases all over the world, ac-

cording to the USO.

Black told backstories to some of his fa-

mous roles, including the military themed

“Tropic Thunder,” in which he portrays a

comedian playing the part of a flatulent sol-

dier making a film within a film about the

Vietnam War alongside costars Ben Stiller

and Robert Downey Jr.

Closest to Black’s heart is “Tenacious D

in the Pick of Destiny,” which tells the story

of his and bandmate Kyle Gass’ battle with

evil, he said.

“Although it wasn’t a big hit at the time, it

got a cult following,” Black said, recalling

his band’s 2019 performance in front of

100,000 people at the Rock Am Ring concert

in Nuremberg, Germany. “I would recom-

mend starting a rock band.”

Black said he considered making a sequel

called “The Bong of Destiny.” He suggested

the film be made with minimal effort and

that the bong could allow people to travel

through time.

“Sometimes laziness leads to gold,” he

told the troops, joking that he looked like a

bearded cult leader. “They call it the path of

least resistance. It’s a spiritual path you can

go on.”

He answered a question from a viewer at

Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, who asked:

“How did you get so cool?”

“I guess from not trying to be cool,” Black

replied. “To answer that question, I have to

admit that you are right, I am cool. That is a

difficult thing to say and not seem uncool.

You have to use verbal aikido or jiujitsu be-

cause there is nothing so uncool as someone

who is always trying to be cool.”

Black thanked the troops for their cour-

age.

“I’m just a cowardly lion, which makes

me appreciate you even more,” he said.

“I’m grateful for your service all around the

world, not only protecting the country …

but also making the world a better place.”

Jack Black jokes around at virtual event hosted by USOBY SETH ROBSON

Stars and Stripes

robson.seth@stripes.comTwitter: @SethRobson1

USO

Actor, comedian and musician Jack Blackanswers service members’ questionsduring a virtual USO event, on Thursday. 

A Navy special warfare officer

and former operations director for

the Joint Special Operations Com-

mand has taken charge of U.S. na-

val assets in the Korean Peninsula.

Rear Adm. Mark Schafer, a Na-

vy SEAL, became the latest com-

mander of U.S. Naval Forces Ko-

rea on Wednesday, relieving Rear

Adm. Buzz Donnelly, a former air-

craft carrier commander who

served in the position for two

years.

“I am excited and honored to be

carrying on the legacy of this com-

mand and its rich history that

dates back to its establishment in

July 1957,” Schafer said during the

ceremony at the headquarters of

South Korea’s navy, according to a

press release. “The superiority of

the combined team is a testament

to Rear Adm. Donnelly’s leader-

ship.”

In departing remarks, Donnelly

said he “could not have asked for a

more professionally or personally

rewarding experience here in Ko-

rea,” according to the release. He

was awarded the Legion of Merit

during the change-of-command

ceremony by U.S. Forces Korea

commander Gen. Paul LaCamera.

“I am confident in the team that

Rear Adm. Schafer is inheriting

and am excited for what the future

holds for the Forces and Region

teams under his leadership,” Don-

nelly said.

Schafer represents all Navy as-

sets on the Korean Peninsula and

acts as a liaison between the two

allies’ navies. The New York na-

tive graduated from the U.S. Naval

Academy in 1994 and has served

with SEAL Team 2, SEAL Team 4

and the Naval Special Warfare De-

velopment Group.

Roughly 28,500 U.S. troops are

stationed in South Korea. The U.S.

Navy has one installation on the

peninsula, Chinhae Naval Base,

near Busan on the southern coast.

About 300 personnel are assigned

there.

Navy SEAL takes command of US naval forces in South KoreaBY DAVID CHOI

Stars and Stripes

choi.david@stripes.comTwitter: @choibboy

PACIFIC

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5

A huge, ancient burial mound

has been uncovered near an air

base in central Norway where

Americans and other NATO forces

regularly train, Norwegian media

reports said.

The mound near Orland Main

Air Station is over 130 feet in diam-

eter and was built some 3,000 years

ago, well before the Vikings

emerged, according to the Norwe-

gian Broadcasting Corp., known as

NRK.

Like the base, historians believe

one of the main functions of the

gravesite was to ward off enemies,

a sort of Bronze Age version of de-

terrence.

“This is a sensationally large

burial mound and it had exactly

the same function as today’s fight-

er base,” historian Daniel Johan-

sen said in an NRK report Wednes-

day.

The sheer size of the structure

would have made it clearly visible

from the sea, and it would have sig-

naled to foreigners that if the in-

habitants had enough manpower

to build such an impressive grave

for their dead, they’d also have the

same manpower to fight off ene-

mies, Johansen explained.

The burial mound is strategical-

ly located near the entrance of the

Trondheim Fjord, near what

would become Norway’s first cap-

ital city. The site and the nearby

Orland Main Air Station are about

330 miles north of the capital, Oslo,

on the Norwegian Sea.

Orland, home to Norway’s fleet

of F-35A Lightning II fighter air-

craft, is also where the first U.S. Air

Force bombers ever deployed to

Norway arrived earlier this year.

An expeditionary B-1 Lancer

bomb squadron and more than 200

personnel arrived from Dyess Air

Force Base, Texas, underscoring

the growing importance of the Arc-

tic region to U.S. defense strategy.

Excavators are still working to

uncover the full extent of the near-

by burial mound, whose builders

remain a mystery, as there are no

writings from the period it was

constructed, NRK said.

A cultural trail is being built in

the area that will allow visitors to

walk past the site.

“It is very nice to show off the ve-

ry large, beautiful cultural monu-

ments we have in the area, espe-

cially one that has not been availa-

ble before,” said local archaeolo-

gist Knut Stomsvik, who was

quoted by NRK. “We want people

to know a little about history and

get to know it.”

Burial moundunearthed nearNorway base

BY PHILLIP WALTER

WELLMAN

Stars and Stripes

MICHAEL ABRAMS/Stars and Stripes

A Norwegian F­35 and a U.S. Air Force F­22 Raptor stand on thetarmac after landing at Orland Main Air Station, Norway, in 2018.

wellman.phillip@stripes.comTwitter: @pwwnews

With Spain’s COVID-19 infection rate

falling significantly, U.S. Naval Station Rota

is easing restrictions and no longer requir-

ing vaccinated travelers to quarantine, the

base announced.

Quarantine now will be required only for

unvaccinated travelers of any age who

came from or through a country with a 14-

day incidence rate higher than 480 cases

per 100,000 residents, the base said on its

Facebook page. Those countries currently

include Great Britain, Serbia, Slovenia and

the United States.

As of Thursday, people at NS Rota’s fit-

ness center no longer had to wear a face

mask except when walking through the

center or spotting a workout partner using

free weights.

Mask wearing previously was required in

all cases other than while using cardio

equipment, according to an online post

Wednesday.

“High immunization rates, low test posi-

tivity rates, fewer hospitalizations and few-

er daily new cases all indicate that we are at

less risk now from COVID,” said Capt. Da-

vid Baird, NS Rota’s commanding officer.

The Spanish Health Ministry’s latest data

show just over 77% of Spain’s population is

fully vaccinated, and 90% of the population

12 and over has taken at least one dose.

The country’s current seven-day infec-

tion rate is 33 per 100,000 residents, accord-

ing to Reuters. There have been nearly 5

million infections and 86,397 deaths report-

ed in Spain since the pandemic began, the

health ministry said.

Nationwide, open-air stadiums can be at

100% capacity and indoor facilities at 80%

starting Thursday, Reuters reported. Peo-

ple will have to keep a minimum distance of

1.5 meters and wear a face mask.

Pandemic restrictions relaxed at US Naval Station Rota in SpainBY ALISON BATH

Stars and Stripes

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Ger-

many — Three graffiti-marked

concrete slabs that once symbol-

ized a divided world have been re-

located to a prominent place on

the largest U.S. Air Force base in

Europe, days before Germany

celebrates 31 years of reunifica-

tion on Sunday.

A small section of the Berlin

Wall now sits atop a grassy area

inside a busy traffic circle by the

Kaiserslautern Military Commu-

nity Center.

“Before, it was just kind of

tucked away in a small park” next

to the officers’ club, where “no

one really knew about it,” said

Staff Sgt. Allen Brewer, a vehicle

control officer at the 786th Civil

Engineering Squadron’s heavy

equipment shop.

The base commander, Brig.

Gen. Josh Olson, wanted to “move

the Berlin Wall more out in the

open so everyone can see it,”

Brewer said. The segment was

moved one piece at a time over

two days last month, he said.

Each slab weighs about 20,000

pounds and is about 12 feet tall.

Graffiti is displayed across one

side of the slabs, some with En-

glish messages such as “tear

down the wall” and “peace forev-

er.”

Brewer didn’t know Ramstein

had pieces of the wall until his

shop was tasked with moving it,

he said.

The Berlin Wall was construct-

ed in 1961 to separate communist

East Berlin from Western influ-

ences. It would stand for nearly

30 years, tearing apart the city,

the country, families and friends.

After the wall fell on Nov. 9,

1989, segments of it were donated

to individuals and institutions for

memorials or sold to collectors.

Brewer didn’t know how long

the three slabs have stood at Ram-

stein or how the base acquired

them. But the display had stood

next to the officers’ club since at

least 2004, according to a story in

the Kaiserslautern American, the

base newspaper.

“It’s kind of cool to see we ac-

tually have a piece of it,” Brewer

said. “Actually, three pieces of it.”

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER H. SVAN/Stars and Stripes

Chris Lembach, a civil engineer squadron worker at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, reinforces theconnecting pieces between three slabs of the Berlin Wall, on Friday.

Pieces of iconic Berlin Wall findnew home on Ramstein Air Base

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN

Stars and Stripes

Concrete slabs from the Berlin Wall were recently moved to a morevisible location at Ramstein.

svan.jennifer@stripes.comTwitter: @stripesktown

EUROPE

PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

Marine Corps aviators are pre-

paring to fly two of their F-35B

Lightning II fighters from the Ja-

panese flattop JS Izumo, a test of

the warship’s newly acquired abil-

ity to carry the stealthy aircraft.

Plans to land and launch the

short-takeoff, vertical-landing

F-35s from the Izumo were an-

nounced Thursday by the Defense

Ministry, although they’d been

signaled by Marine Corps Com-

mandant Gen. David Berger dur-

ing a security dialogue last month.

The drills are scheduled to hap-

pen between Sunday and Thurs-

day in the Pacific Ocean and in-

volve jets from Marine Corps Air

Station Iwakuni, the ministry said

in its announcement. The Izumo

arrived at the coastal air station on

Thursday.

MCAS Iwakuni, about 50 miles

south of Hiroshima, is home to two

F-35B squadrons, Marine Fighter

Attack Squadron 121 and Marine

Fighter Attack Squadron 242.

The aircraft landing on the Izu-

mo will be from VMFA-242,

known as the “Bats,” according to

1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokes-

man Maj. Ken Kunze.

Marine aircraft controllers and

public affairs staff are already on

the Izumo ahead of the operation,

he said in a telephone interview

Friday.

“It’s a demonstration for the Ja-

panese as they begin to accept

F-35Bs and they begin carrier op-

erations,” he said. “This is … land-

ing on the Izumo and showing that

it is capable of handling them.”

The ship, commissioned in 2015

as a helicopter carrier, had heat-

resistant coating added to its deck

this year, enabling it to support

F-35B vertical landings.

Its sister ship, the JS Kaga, is

scheduled for a similar makeover

ahead of Japan’s acquisition of 42

F-35Bs, which are slated to arrive

sometime in the next five years.

U.S. CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor air-

craft made their first-ever landing

on the Kaga during the Keen

Sword drills off Japan’s coast in

October 2020.

Japan already operates the

F-35A, a conventional takeoff-

and-landing version of aircraft,

from Misawa Air Base in the coun-

try’s northeast.

Japan’s return to carrier oper-

ations for the first time since

World War II comes as China

builds its own fleet of flattops.

Beijing launched its first carrier,

the Liaoning, in 2012 and a second,

the Shandong, in 2017.

A third carrier, similar in size to

the Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford, is

under construction in Shanghai,

Naval News reported April. 15.

Marine pilots test Japan’s warship abilityBY SETH ROBSON

Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributedto this report.robson.seth@stripes.comTwitter: @SethRobson1

CENTRAL TRAINING AREA, Okinawa

— The Marine Corps has taken a big step in

developing the commandant’s island-fight-

ing doctrine by coordinating simulated air

and surface strikes with sailors aboard an

aircraft carrier.

Exercise Noble Jaguar began Sept. 28 and

involved approximately 60 Marines from

the 3rd Marine Division, 12th Marine Re-

giment, rocket crews from 3rd Battalion,

12th Marines, and the 1st Marine Aircraft

Wing, regiment operations officer Lt. Col.

Joshua Montero told Stars and Stripes at

Camp Hansen, Okinawa, on Thursday.

For the first time, Navy planners and in-

telligence officers from the USS Carl Vinson

joined the staff at 3rd Marine Division head-

quarters for the exercise. Meanwhile, the

nearby carrier’s crew took part in the com-

munications exercise alongside other units

of the 7th Fleet.

“We’ll have a Navy or Marine aircraft up

in the air, find a target, communicate that,

sometimes through the Navy, sometimes

through the Air Force,” Montero said. “And

then eventually at our level, we’ll have all of

the missiles come on to the same [target], so

we’re combining those strikes together.”

“In my opinion, that’s varsity level stuff.

It’s not easy to do and the only way you can

get after it is to practice, and that’s what

we’re doing right now.”

Certain Marine and Navy communication

systems are compatible, while others are

not, Montero said. Developing the “patch-

es,” or establishing connections prior to any

engagement, is key to readiness.

“The main focus of this is communication;

how are we talking to each other and how

can we do workarounds when we run into

some issues,” he said.

The exercise, which was slated to end Fri-

day, began with the loading and offloading of

two M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket

Systems, or HIMARS, from the expedition-

ary fast transport ship USNS Brunswick,

Capt. Nathanael Wasik, the HIMARS pla-

toon commander, said Thursday.

The platoon headed into the Central

Training Area and set up a concealed fire di-

rection center under camouflage netting to

coordinate strikes against air, land and sea

targets.

Marines dispersed to make themselves

difficult to target. They had to sustain them-

selves for several days with a limited

amount of food, water and fuel.

All of this was part of the Corps’ new is-

land-fighting doctrine, known as expedition-

ary advanced base operations, Wasik said.

Commandant Gen. David Berger intro-

duced the doctrine in July 2019. It calls for

Marines to move inside the range of an ad-

versary’s “long-range precision fires” and

establish difficult-to-target forward bases.

This doctrine translates to seizing and

holding territory, supporting naval units at

sea, refueling, rearming and relaunching

aircraft and denying sea lanes to the adver-

sary.

The III Marine Expeditionary Force on

Okinawa has been developing each phase of

expeditionary advanced base operations,

month by month, with each exercise, Ma-

rine officials told Stars and Stripes previous-

ly.

Typically, a fire mission comes into the di-

rection center from higher headquarters,

Wasik said. His operations chief and fire di-

rection officer process the information and

then task out the launchers.

The radio crackled Thursday morning

with a fire mission.

Minutes later, a HIMARS barreled down

one of the training area’s paved roads. It

came to a sudden stop next to a concealed

joint light tactical vehicle. A motor hummed

as the rocket tubes rose off the bed.

Moments later, the tubes came back

down, and the truck barreled back down the

street to hide again. No rockets were fired in

this simulation.

“There’s always going to be some troubles

that we have to work through with commu-

nications,” Wasik said. “However, our guys

have done a really good job troubleshoot-

ing.”

Operations chief Sgt. William Botelho

said the platoon encountered no insur-

mountable problems during the exercise.

“We shoot; we move; we can’t be detected

and just use the terrain and our surrounding

area to hide us to the best of our ability,” he

said. “There’s always a way to work around

whatever challenge you’re presented with

and to accomplish the mission.”

Marines holdexercise withNavy carrieron Okinawa

BY MATTHEW M. BURKE

Stars and Stripes

FRANK ANDREWS/Stars and Stripes

A member of 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment readies an M142 High MobilityArtillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, during the Noble Jaguar exercise at CentralTraining Area, Okinawa, on Thursday. 

burke.matt@stripes.comTwitter: @MatthewMBurke1

A judge on Thursday sentenced the for-mer head of prosthetics and orthotics atWalter Reed National Military MedicalCenter, Md., to eight months in prison andordered him to pay nearly $8,000 in restitu-tion for accepting cash and gifts from a mancourting government business.

David Laufer, 64, pleaded guilty last yearto accepting gratuities as a public official.As part of his sentence, Laufer is required toserve four months of home confinement af-ter he completes his prison term. Two othermen have been charged in the corruptionscheme.

For nearly a decade, Laufer worked asthe chief of the prosthetics and orthotics de-partment at Walter Reed, the most hal-lowed wing of the world’s preeminent mil-itary hospital, visited by presidents, digni-taries and celebrities alike. The Bethesdahospital serves U.S. service members, in-cluding some of the most grievously wound-ed troops, and was embroiled in scandal af-ter The Washington Post reported filthy liv-ing conditions and neglect among patientsin 2007.

As part of his job, federal prosecutorssaid, Laufer was involved with dictatingwhich businesses the department pur-chased its medical materials from, includ-ing Pinnacle Orthopedic Services in Ger-mantown, Md.

But from 2012 to 2016, prosecutors said,Laufer personally benefited from the mili-tary hospital’s official transactions withPinnacle — receiving cash, airline travel,lodging and entertainment tickets from thecompany in exchange for his business.

In total, Pinnacle received more than $25million in purchases from Walter Reed.

According to prosecutors, Laufer’s de-partment used Blanket Purchase Agree-ments to coordinate sales with Pinnacle – aprocess that allowed employees to buy ma-terials without charging a credit card orcreating a contract over each purchase.

Laufer said in his plea agreement that healso refused business from prosthetics andorthotics manufacturers and distributors,directing them to sell their products to Pin-nacle instead. The middleman company,which did not produce any components ofits own, would then sell those products at asignificant markup to Walter Reed.

Ex-Walter Reedprosthetics chiefgiven 8 months

The Washington Post

MILITARY

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

John M. Collett is presented the SilverStar on Friday at Fort Benning, Ga., byArmy Gen. Richard Clarke for actions inthe October 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. 

Watson, a sergeant first class at the time

who would go on to retire as a command

sergeant major in 2015. “I believe that being

an awardee is actually a representation of

everybody in the position I was in. They

earned it — they’re the ones who really

earned this.”

The Army announced in July that 60 vet-

erans of the battle — mostly Army special

operators, many of whom have not been

named publicly — would receive award up-

grades for their actions in the fight. That in-

cludes 58 Silver Stars and two Distin-

guished Flying Crosses. Award ceremonies

are planned for other units in the future, Ar-

my officials said Friday.

The fightThe battle broke out as American special

operators — primarily Rangers, and other

elite soldiers from the 160th Special Oper-

ations Aviation Regiment and 1st Special

Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, or

Delta Force — set out to capture two top

lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farrah

Aidid, who was responsible for attacks on

U.N. peacekeeping troops working to end

civil war in Somalia.

The assault force was inserted into the

city by helicopter, and another element was

to follow that group into the city in Hum-

vees, according to the Army, which said

many elements of the battle remain classi-

fied despite the enormous attention it has

received publicly.

Struecker, then a staff sergeant with the

Rangers’ 3rd Battalion, was leading a squad

assigned as the ground reaction force to

support the helicopter-borne troops enter-

ing Aidid’s stronghold in the Bakara Mar-

ket. The helicopter assault force went in

first to search for the warlord’s henchmen

and the ground force came into the market

later, according to the Army’s description

of the battle.

It was the Rangers’ seventh mission in

Somalia, but this one, Struecker said, was in

broad daylight in a well-defended part of

Mogadishu with an unknown number of

enemy fighters.

“This is the middle of bad-guy territory,

and we’re kicking down the door and walk-

ing into the heart of it,” he said. “You know

as soon as you get in it’s going to be a fight,

and it’s going to be a fight the whole time

that you’re in there, and it’s going to be a

fight until you get out. All of us knew that.

What I don’t think anyone anticipated was

the sheer numbers.”

That U.S. force of less than 200 operators

would find itself in a fight with some 10,000

to 12,000 well-armed Somali fighters. After

the assault force nabbed Aidid’s aides, mil-

itants attacked the troops and shot down

two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters with

rocket-propelled grenades — something

the Army had never seen before, officials

said.

It set off a frantic mission to secure the

locations of the downed Black Hawks and

recover wounded and fallen Americans.

U.S. special operators would spend 18 hours

running and fighting their way through the

city’s streets, according to the Army.

Struecker, 52, led his ground unit through

the city three times as the battle raged.

Their Humvees were “like bullet magnets,”

he recalled. His Silver Star citation credits

him with repeatedly sacrificing “his own

personal safety” to help other soldiers.

“We go back and forth, in and out of the

city all night long,” Struecker said. “The

Humvees are the biggest, easiest target to

hit out there, and so we’re losing guys right

around me.”

Dominick Pilla, a sergeant and machine

gunner, was just behind Struecker when he

was shot and killed — the first American

death in the battle. His Silver Star citation

credits Pilla with “suppressing numerous

enemy positions while under fire himself.”

His heroics, it added, saved “the lives of all

the other Rangers” with him at the time. He

was 21.

Meanwhile, Watson — a platoon sergeant

at the time who had entered the fight by hel-

icopter — moved his force toward one of the

downed Black Hawks, fighting their way

through the city. His Silver Star citation

credited him with securing the crash site

from enemy forces “until reinforcements

came the next morning.”

It was brutal work, Watson said. But he

was awed by the actions of the Rangers and

others around him.

“It was something to behold ... to watch

what was going on — the way they perform-

ed,” he said. “It was beyond compare.”

The falloutThree of the four pilots in the downed

Black Hawks would die, and the fourth was

captured and later released.

Two Delta Force operators — Master Sgt.

Gary Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randy

Shughart — were posthumously awarded

Medals of Honor for their actions to secure

the site of one of the Black Hawk crashes to

recover survivors. Both of those operators

were among the U.S. dead in the fight.

In all, 73 U.S. troops were injured in the

battle, according to the Army. The botched

mission left a long-lasting mark on Amer-

ican foreign policy after television news

broadcast images of a U.S. soldier’s body

dragged through Mogadishu’s streets as lo-

cals cheered.

The defense secretary at the time, Les

Aspin, would resign his post in wake of the

battle. Ultimately, then-President Bill Clin-

ton elected to end the mission to capture Ai-

did and he removed all U.S. forces from So-

malia by March 1994. U.S. troops would not

return to the country until 2007.

The book “Black Hawk Down” was pub-

lished in 1999, receiving high praise for its

detailed retelling of the battle. In 2002, the

movie brought the Battle of Mogadishu onto

American screens in the months after the

first U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in re-

sponse to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Struecker, who would commission as an

officer after 10 years of enlisted service and

serve as a chaplain until retiring as a major

in 2011, described the book as an “extraor-

dinarily accurate” accounting of the battle.

The movie, he said, followed the book close-

ly, though it took some liberties — blending

several events into a single incident or mul-

tiple characters into a single individual.

“What you see in the movie ‘Black Hawk

Down’ basically happened,” Struecker

said. “The difference, for those of us who

were there, right, is the violence. It isn’t

even close to the real thing — the level of

violence, of course.”

Watson said he rarely talks about his time

in Mogadishu, and he does not think about it

very often, either. Later, he deployed to Af-

ghanistan three times and saw combat

there. But, like Struecker, he said the fight-

ing there was incomparable to Mogadishu.

“I felt very fortunate that I never was in

the extreme position that I was in Somalia

ever again,” he said. “Was I prepared for it?

Yes, I was. I was very prepared. And it was a

lot. And, thankfully, [fighting] never, ever

occurred at that level again for me.”

Heroism: 18 US soldiers died in ‘Black Hawk Down’ battleFROM PAGE 1

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7

MILITARY

The Army on Friday presented 18 Silver Starmedals to former members of the Fort Ben-ning, Ga.-based 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Re-giment for their actions in Mogadishu, Soma-lia, on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, 1993. The awards wereupgrades of the Bronze Star medals with com-bat “V” device for valor that the Rangers re-ceived shortly after the battle — among themost infamous fights in recent decades inwhich U.S. troops fought.

Those receiving the Silver Star on Fridaywere (ranks at the time of the battle):

Sgt. Alan BartonSgt. John C. BelmanStaff Sgt. Kenneth P. BoornSpc. James M. Cavaco*Spc. John M. CollettStaff Sgt. Michael CollinsSgt. James C. Joyce*Pfc. Brad M. Paulsen2nd Lt. Larry D. PerinoSpc. Robert R. Phipps IISgt. Dominick M. Pilla*Sgt. Randall J. Ramaglia Jr. Pfc. John D. StanfieldCpt. Michael SteeleSpc. Richard StrousStaff Sgt. Jeffrey D. StrueckerSpc. Joseph F. ThomasSgt. 1st Class Sean T. Watson

*Denotes posthumous award to Rangerswho died of wounds suffered in Somalia

PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

MACON, Ga. — A Marine who took the

stage at a Georgia rally for former Presi-

dent Donald Trump was not among the ser-

vice members shown lifting children over

an airport wall in Afghanistan in a photo

that began circulating in August, a spokes-

person tells The Telegraph of Macon.

The newspaper reports that Kelton Co-

chran, a spokesperson for the 24th Marine

Expeditionary Unit, said Lance Cpl. Hun-

ter Clark was not in the picture showing

multiple Marines lifting children over an

airport wall in Kabul during an airlift after

the U.S.-backed government fell to the Tali-

ban. Cochran didn’t say whether Clark

could have been in a different photo or vid-

eo.

The Telegraph reports the Defense De-

partment is investigating Clark’s attend-

ance at the Trump rally to determine if any

policies were violated. Active duty service

members aren’t usually allowed to speak at

partisan political events.

Trump called Clark to the stage during a

speech on Sept. 26 in Perry, Ga.

“We’re also honored to be joined by one

of the Marines who bravely served in Kabul

during the withdrawal and helped evacuate

children over the airport and over the air-

port wall,” the former president said.

Clark thanked the crowd.

“I am the guy that pulled the baby over

the wall, and it’s definitely probably one of

the greatest things I’ve ever done in my en-

tire life,” Clark said at the rally.

Attendees cheered and chanted “U-S-A.”

“Perry, Georgia, did a good job … You

grow them well in Perry, Georgia,” Trump

said.

USMC: Man at Trump rally not in Kabul photoAssociated Press

DETROIT — The destroyer

named for the late Sen. Carl Le-

vin was christened at a port in

Maine on Saturday morning by

the ship’s sponsors, Levin’s

three daughters.

The ceremony came two

months after Levin’s death at

age 87 in late July. Levin, a De-

troit Democrat, was Michigan’s

longest-serving senator, spend-

ing 36 years in office and 10

years as chairman of the Senate

Armed Services Committee.

“For the United States of

America, I christen thee Carl

Levin. May God bless this ship

and all who sail in her,” said Le-

vin’s daughters, Kate Levin

Markel, Laura Levin and Erica

Levin, moments before each

shattered a champagne bottle

over the ship as part of the tra-

ditional launching ceremony.

More than 100 guests and the

crew of the ship attended the

90-minute ceremony, including

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine,

who called Levin a dedicated

public servant whom she cher-

ished for 36 years in Senate.

“We are here to celebrate the

christening of a great ship and a

great namesake,” Collins said.

“It is fitting that the ships of the

U.S. Navy bear the names of

those who display uncommon

dedication to our nation. Today

that name Carl Levin joins that

illustrious roster.”

Retired Rep. Sander Levin,

Carl’s brother, spoke at the

event, saying it was an emotion-

al moment for the family.

“Our hope is in the years and

years to come, that this ship

will help us to remember him

and also as it sails the seas, hon-

or all that made Carl a remark-

able public servant and a glori-

ous human being,” Levin said.

The USS Carl M. Levin

launched over three days in

May, built by General Dynam-

ics at Bath Iron Works in

Maine. An Arleigh Burke-class

guided missile destroyer, the

ship is about 510 feet long,

weighs 7,500 tons and can trav-

el at a speed of over 30 knots.

The boat had been scheduled

to be christened July 24, but the

ceremony was postponed dur-

ing the final weeks of Levin’s

life.

“Being the namesake of this

great ship really was the high-

light of our dad’s career,” Mar-

kel said. “Dad’s connection to

this ship, its leaders and its

growing crew kept his spirits

high through his last days.”

In 2016, Levin told reporters

at the ship’s naming ceremony

in Detroit that the announce-

ment caught him off guard and

brought him to tears.

“I did not expect it. I didn’t

seek it,” Levin said at the time.

“It’s such an honor for me to be

connected with the men and

women who put on our uniform.

It’s too difficult to describe any

other way than overwhelming.”

Then-Secretary of the Navy

Ray Mabus, who knew Levin

from his years heading the

Armed Services panel, be-

stowed the honor in 2016, say-

ing he considered Levin to be

one of the “most influential”

members of the Senate.

“Destroyers are named for

heroes,” Mabus said in 2016.

“Carl Levin is an American he-

ro.”

Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Is-

land Democrat who was close to

Levin, spoke at Saturday’s cer-

emony, calling Levin a fearless

leader and devoted husband

and father.

“One of the greatest privileg-

es of my life was to serve with

and be mentored by Carl Le-

vin,” said Reed, who is chair-

man of the Armed Services

Committee. “He did it all with-

out fanfare, letting others pos-

ture and pontificate. He just

wanted to make a positive dif-

ference to the American peo-

ple.

“Carl always lead with de-

cency and integrity and he lead

from the front.”

Secretary of the Navy Carlos

Del Toro spoke at the event,

saying he did not know Levin

but pointed out that the ship

crest and its motto, “Tenacious

in the Fight” embodied Levin’s

life and career.

“He was fighting for all of us

all Americans, for liberty,” Del

Toro said.

The ship will carry a crew of

279, including 24 officers. Sea

trials are scheduled for early

next year, followed by the com-

missioning of the ship’s officers

in late 2022 or 2023 in Balti-

more. The home port for the

USS Carl M. Levin will be Pearl

Harbor, Hawaii.

Destroyer namedfor Sen. Carl Levinchristened in Maine

The Detroit News

ROBERT F. BUKATY/AP

Erica Levin, left, Kate Levin Markel, center, and Laura Levin, the daughters of late Sen. Carl M. Levin,D­Michigan, smash champagne bottles to christen a warship named for the senator, Saturday, at Bath IronWorks in Bath, Maine.

TAIPEI, Taiwan —The Chinese

military flew 16 warplanes over

waters south of Taiwan on Sunday

as the United States expressed

concern about what it called Chi-

na’s “provocative military action”

near the self-governing island

that China claims.

China sent 38 warplanes into

the area on Friday and 39 aircraft

on Saturday, the most in a single

day since Taiwan began releasing

reports on the flights in Septem-

ber 2020. The flights came in day-

time and nighttime sorties, and it

wasn’t clear if China was planning

more flights on Sunday night.

A statement from U.S. State De-

partment spokesperson Ned Price

warned that China’s military ac-

tivity near Taiwan risks miscalcu-

lation and undermines regional

peace and stability.

“We urge Beijing to cease its

military, diplomatic, and econom-

ic pressure and coercion against

Taiwan,” the statement said.

It added that the United States,

Taiwan’s biggest supplier of

arms, would continue to help the

government maintain a sufficient

self-defense capability.

China and Taiwan split in 1949

during a civil war in which the

Communists took control of main-

land China and the rival National-

ists set up a government on Tai-

wan, an island of 24 million peo-

ple about 100 miles off the east

coast.

China has been sending mili-

tary planes into the area south of

Taiwan on a frequent basis for

more than a year.

US concerned after ‘provocative military action’ by ChineseAssociated Press

MILITARY

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9

NATION

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Alaska on Satur-

day activated emergency crisis protocols

that allow 20 medical facilities to ration care

if needed as the state recorded the nation’s

worst COVID-19 diagnosis rates in recent

days, straining the state’s limited health care

system.

The declaration covers three facilities that

had already announced emergency proto-

cols, including the state’s largest hospital,

Providence Alaska Medical Center in An-

chorage. The state’s declaration also in-

cludes the other two hospitals in Anchorage

and facilities across the nation’s largest but

sparsely populated state.

“Today’s action recognizes that Alaska has

an interconnected and interdependent

health care system, requiring the need for ac-

tivation of the state’s decision-making frame-

work. That framework includes a progres-

sion of conventional, contingency and crisis

standards,” the state health department said

in a statement announcing the activation.

“I want to stress that our health care facil-

ities in Alaska remain open and able to care

for patients. Alaskans who need medical care

should not delay seeking it, even during these

difficult times,” said Adam Crum, the state’s

health commissioner.

Factors that led the state to activate the cri-

sis of care standards include scarce medical

resources at some facilities, limited staff and

difficulty transferring patients because of

limited bed availability. Other factors in-

clude limited renal replacement therapy and

oxygen supplies.

According to data collected by Johns Hop-

kins University Center for Systems Science

and Engineering, one in every 84 people in

Alaska was diagnosed with COVID-19 from

Sept. 22 to Sept. 29. The next highest rate was

one in every 164 people in West Virginia.

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, which was

covered by the state’s announcement, on Fri-

day activated its own policy because of a

shortage of beds, staff and monoclonal anti-

body treatments, along with the inability to

transfer patients.

“The move to Crisis Standards of Care is

not something we take lightly,” Fairbanks

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Angelique Rami-

rez said in a statement. “This is in response to

a very serious surge of COVID in our com-

munity.”

The move came the same day the state re-

ported 1,044 new cases, 108 of them in the

Fairbanks area. The hospital says 35% of its

patients on Saturday were being treated for

COVID-19.

“This impacts all patient care, those with

broken bones, traumas, heart attacks,

strokes, COVID, anyone needing medical

care,” Ramirez said. “The care we are able to

provide is highly fluid and can change day by

day and even hour by hour depending on the

availability of resources within our system

and stateside.”

Alaska allows hospitals to ration careAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — The first

Women’s March of the Biden ad-

ministration headed straight for

the steps of the Supreme Court on

Saturday, part of nationwide pro-

tests that drew thousands to Wash-

ington to demand continued ac-

cess to abortion in a year when con-

servative lawmakers and judges

have put it in jeopardy.

Demonstrators filled the streets

surrounding the court, shouting

“My body, my choice” and cheer-

ing loudly to the beat of drums.

Before heading out on the

march, they rallied in a square

near the White House, waving

signs that said “Mind your own

uterus,” “I love someone who had

an abortion” and “Abortion is a

personal choice, not a legal de-

bate,” among other messages.

Some wore T-shirts reading sim-

ply “1973,” a reference to the land-

mark Roe v. Wade decision, which

made abortion legal for genera-

tions of American women.

Organizers say the Washington

march was among hundreds of

abortion-themed protests held

across the country Saturday. The

demonstrations took place two

days before the start of a new term

for the Supreme Court that will de-

cide the future of abortion rights in

the United States, after appoint-

ments of justices by President Do-

nald Trump strengthened conser-

vative control of the high court.

The day before the march, the

Biden administration urged a fed-

eral judge to block the nation’s

most restrictive abortion law,

which has banned most abortions

in Texas since early September.

It’s one of a series of cases that will

give the nation’s divided high

court occasion to uphold or over-

rule Roe v. Wade.

The Texas law motivated many

of the demonstrators and speak-

ers.

“We’re going to keep giving it to

Texas,” Marsha Jones of the Afiya

Center for Black women’s health

care in Dallas, pledged to the

Washington crowd. “You can no

longer tell us what to do with our

bodies!”

Alexis McGill Johnson, the

president of Planned Parenthood

nationally, told of women forced to

drive many hours across state

lines — sometimes multiple state

lines — to end pregnancies in the

weeks since the Texas law went in-

to effect.

“The moment is dark ... but that

is why we are here,” Johnson told

the crowd packed into Freedom

Plaza and surrounding streets.

With the upcoming Supreme

Court term, “No matter where you

are, this fight is at your doorstep

right now.”

In New York, Gov. Kathy Ho-

chul spoke at rallies in Seneca

Falls and then Albany. “I’m sick

and tired of having to fight over

abortion rights,” she said. “It’s set-

tled law in the nation and you are

not taking that right away from us,

not now not ever.”

MARY ALTAFFER/AP

Demonstrators rally to demand continued access to abortion during the March for Reproductive Justice,on Saturday, in New York. The first Women’s March of the Biden administration set its sights on theSupreme Court, part of nationwide protests demanding continued access to abortion.

Abortion is focus during Women’s MarchAssociated Press

MIAMI — Authorities say they

have found the body of a missing

Florida college student who disap-

peared a week ago. A mainte-

nance worker who entered her

apartment unauthorized the day

she disappeared and later killed

himself is the prime suspect.

Orange County Sheriff John Mi-

na said Saturday that authorities

found Miya Marcano’s body in a

wooded area near an apartment

building. Authorities said the 19-

year-old vanished on the same day

a maintenance man improperly

used a master key to enter her

apartment. Her family reported

her missing after she missed a

flight home to South Florida on

Sept. 24.

The sheriff previously said Ar-

mando Caballero, a maintenance

worker at the apartment complex

where Marcano lived and worked,

is considered the “prime suspect.”

Caballero, 27, apparently killed

himself; his body was found three

days after Marcano was last seen.

Marcano had repeatedly “re-

buffed” romantic advances by Ca-

ballero. Detectives spoke to Ca-

ballero after the Valencia College

student was reported missing, but

had no evidence to detain him at

that time. They obtained a war-

rant for his arrest after learning he

had entered her apartment before

she disappeared. His body was

then found inside a garage.

Cellphone records from Caball-

ero led them to the apartment

complex near where Marcano was

found and showed he was there for

about 20 minutes the night she

was reported missing, Mina said.

At one point, Caballero also previ-

ously lived at that apartment com-

plex.

“Nothing in the records indicate

that he ever returned there before

he killed himself,” he said, adding

deputies are not looking for any

other suspects.

The FBI and the Florida De-

partment of Law Enforcement

were among the hundreds of au-

thorities searching for Marcano.

Meanwhile, friends and family

held a prayer vigil and passed out

flyers desperate to find the mis-

sing teen.

“At this time, we cannot identify

a cause of death, so I don’t want to

speculate on that,” Mina said of

Marcano’s death during a news

conference Saturday.

Mina says they notified her par-

ents just hours ago, adding “our

hearts are broken.”

“Everyone wanted this outcome

to be different,” he said. “As a

sheriff, as a father, obviously we

are grieving at the loss of Miya.”

Body of missing Floridacollege student found

Associated Press

CHASITY MAYNARD/AP

Miya Marcano’s family — her father Marlon Marcano is center left —hosts a candlelight vigil at Arden Villas, on Friday, in Orlando, Fla. 

PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

NATION

NEW YORK — Former Presi-

dent Donald Trump has asked a

federal judge in Florida to force

Twitter to restore his account,

which the company suspended in

January following the deadly

storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s attorneys on Friday

filed a motion in U.S. District

Court in Miami seeking a prelimi-

nary injunction against Twitter

and its CEO, Jack Dorsey. They

argue that Twitter is censoring

Trump in violation of his First

Amendment rights, according to

the motion.

Twitter declined to comment

Saturday on Trump’s filing.

The company permanently

banned Trump from its platform

days after his followers violently

stormed the Capitol building to

try to block Congress from certi-

fying Joe Biden’s presidential

win. Twitter cited concerns that

Trump would incite further vio-

lence. Prior to the ban, Trump

had roughly 89 million followers

on Twitter.

Trump was also suspended

from Facebook and Google’s You-

Tube over similar concerns that

he would provoke violence. Face-

book’s ban will last two years, un-

til Jan. 7, 2023, after which the

company will review his suspen-

sion. YouTube’s ban is indefinite.

In July, Trump filed lawsuits in

the U.S. District Court for the

Southern District of Florida

against all three tech companies

and their CEOs, claiming that he

and other conservatives have

been wrongfully censored. The

motion for a preliminary injunc-

tion was filed as part of Trump’s

case against Twitter.

Trump asks judge for his Twitter restoredAssociated Press

LM OTERO/AP

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas on July11. He has asked a federal judge to force Twitter to restore his account, which had 89 million followers.

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from

centrist lawmakers, White House officials

are debating whether to drop many cher-

ished priorities from President Joe Biden’s

sprawling economic package or keep a

fuller range of initiatives in dramatically

reduced form, according to five people

with knowledge of internal discussions.

Even as Democratic leaders on Capitol

Hill haggle over the overall size of the mas-

sive budget package, White House officials

on the National Economic Council, the Do-

mestic Policy Council and the Council of

Economic Advisers have begun discussing

what policies could be reshaped or jetti-

soned should Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,

and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., insist on

trimming as much as $2 trillion from the

administration’s initial spending propos-

als, said the people familiar, who spoke on

the condition of anonymity to discuss pri-

vate deliberations.

Desperate to find a compromise that can

win favor in a narrowly-divided Congress,

White House officials have begun contem-

plating painful trade-offs that could in-

volve shrinking key parts of their agenda.

Biden has pitched lawmakers on a compro-

mise that would include as much as $2.3

trillion in new spending, but Manchin has

said the package should top out at $1.5 tril-

lion — a position that would slash the ad-

ministration’s original agenda by more

than half.

The choices are stark: Should tackling

rising rates of homelessness be dropped in

favor of confronting climate change?

Should Democrats prioritize seniors over

the poor? Is it more important to reduce the

cost of child care or the cost of a school

lunch?

While many senior Democrats are urg-

ing Biden to choose a handful of programs

and execute them well, this option is com-

plicated by a lack of consensus about which

priorities should prevail. Meanwhile, no

lawmaker wants to see his or her favored

program cut entirely from the legislation.

But keeping a larger number of policy

initiatives also would entail difficult trade-

offs to bring down the overall price of the

package. Programs would have to be made

temporary or sharp limits would have to be

placed on who qualifies. Even Biden’s $2.3

trillion offer would require more than $1

trillion in cuts from his initial plan.

“The president and his team have to

make some very tough decisions here.

There will have to be some real serious

cuts to key priorities,” said Jim Manley,

who served as an aide to former Senate Ma-

jority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “The

cuts required are going to be really ugly

and really painful.”

Either path has major drawbacks. By

picking only a few programs to implement,

the White House likely would improve its

odds of ensuring lasting change through

achievements noticed by the public. In pri-

vate conversations, people close to the

White House have argued that choosing a

handful of key programs — and making

sure they reach tens of millions of people —

would help fortify their ability to withstand

attack under future GOP administrations.

The Affordable Care Act, which Repub-

licans failed to repeal after it extended

health insurance to millions, is an instruc-

tive example, key Democrats say. Social

Security and Medicare benefits — which

similarly reach a majority of Americans —

have also proved next to impossible for

conservatives to trim or dislodge. Several

officials in both the NEC and the CEA

share this view, according to four of the

people familiar with internal talks, but it is

not clear how widespread that view is held

within the administration — or if the presi-

dent himself agrees.

On Friday, the president said “even a

smaller bill can make historic invest-

ments” — though he did not indicate

whether he prefers a broader array of tem-

porary programs or a smaller number of

programs with permanent funding.

In an interview, former Obama adminis-

tration economist Jason Furman argued

that “if Congress needs to shrink the legis-

lation, it is much better to drop the lowest

priority programs than to try to do every-

thing.”

“As tempting as it may be to sunset pro-

grams in the hopes they are extended in the

future,” Furman said, “most of these pro-

grams are not popular enough to make ex-

tension inevitable or even likely.”

Another economist, speaking on condi-

tion of anonymity to reflect private conver-

sations, said she had relayed similar ad-

vice to the White House. Centrist House

Democrats in the New Democrat Coalition

have similarly urged the White House to

focus on executing a few programs, listing

the child tax benefit and expansion of Oba-

macare as among their priorities, accord-

ing to a spokesman for the group.

“What we’re telling them is: You start to

whittle down the top-line number, and sud-

denly you’re not doing any one particular

thing well,” this economist said. “You real-

ly don’t want to roll out a huge number of

programs all poorly.”

The challenge with pursuing this route,

however, is that it would require Demo-

crats to entirely ditch other programs that

key parts of the party believe require ur-

gent government investment.

If constrained to $1.5 trillion, Democrats

could only fully fund a handful of their

most important policy priorities. For in-

stance, Democrats would already come

close to reaching that number in spending

if, hypothetically, their plans consisted of

just three top priorities — tackling climate

change, creating a national paid leave pro-

gram, and extending a tax benefit that alle-

viates child poverty.

Economist Larry Summers, who served

under presidents Bill Clinton and Barack

Obama, pointed to Franklin Delano Roose-

velt’s New Deal as an example of “getting a

lot of things started” and hoping the effec-

tive ones persist. Summers also acknowl-

edged the potential drawbacks of such an

approach.

“The lesson of successful democracy is

you plant a lot of seeds, and some of them

grow really well and some of them don’t,”

Summers said. “The New Deal was a lot of

different programs, too.”

White House struggles with choices in economic plan cutsBY JEFF STEIN

The Washington Post

MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP

President Joe Biden arrives at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church inWilmington, Del., to attend a Mass, on Sunday.

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11

AMERICAN ROUNDUP

Ex-officer accused ofstealing guns from work

NC NORTH TOPSAIL

BEACH — A former

North Carolina police officer has

been accused of stealing guns

from the police department where

he worked, authorities said.

In a news release, the North

Carolina State Bureau of Investi-

gation said former North Topsail

Beach police officer Mark Wil-

liam Ray Jr., 41, is charged with 15

counts of obtaining property by

false pretense, embezzlement,

and felony conversion, according

to an agency news release.

The SBI said the North Topsail

police chief asked the agency to

investigate suspected thefts of

several firearms being held as

evidence at the police depart-

ment. Agents determined that the

guns were sold or pawned at local

pawn shops.

Man sentenced for theftof lawmakers’ IDs

FL ORLANDO — A Florida

man has been sentenced

to six years and five months in

prison for stealing the identities of

local, state and federal officials in

a case involving more than

$50,000 in fraudulent payments,

authorities said.

Michael T. Watters, 51, of

Ocoee, was sentenced in Orlando

federal court, according to court

records.

According to court documents,

Watters created approximately 35

counterfeit driver licenses using

the stolen identities of current and

former lawmakers. Between De-

cember 2018 and May 2019, Watt-

ers used those counterfeit licenses

to pass about 265 counterfeit

checks as payment at various

stores in the Orlando area.

Prosecutors said Watters

caused total losses of $53,156.43 to

the affected businesses.

Council member pleadsguilty to accepting bribes

MI DETROIT — A mem-

ber of the Detroit City

Council pleaded guilty to conspir-

acy, admitting that he and an aide

accepted nearly $36,000 in bribes

related to oversight of towing.

Andre Spivey, 47, took the mon-

ey from an undercover agent or an

informant. He’s expected to re-

sign from office.

“Over the course of four years, I

received payments in hopes to

help an individual retain a city

contract,” Spivey told U.S. Dis-

trict Judge Victoria Roberts.

The city council is considering

changes to how the city hires tow-

ing companies by turning to com-

petitive bids.

Neighborhood troubled bye-scooters everywhere

IN EVANSVILLE — Mem-

bers of an Evansville

neighborhood group are getting

fed up with electric scooter “lit-

ter” and are asking city officials to

help with answers.

Old Evansville Historic Associ-

ation co-president Chuck Hudson

said each morning he has to re-

move e-scooters from the side-

walk outside his home, the Evans-

ville Courier & Press reported.

“I feel like it’s my responsibility

to make sure it’s safe, and of

course there are liability issues if I

know they’re there and I don’t do

anything about it,” Hudson said.

Resident Jeff Hayden said:

“Right now, we consider them

mechanical litter.”

Riders are not required to leave

scooters in any specific location in

Evansville, but a 2019 city council

ordinance does prohibit them

from being placed in curb ramps,

driveways, near fire hydrants or

emergency boxes and crosswalk

entries, according to the newspa-

per.

Some in the neighborhood

group suggest geofencing just out-

side the historic district to stop the

scooters once they zip inside the

restricted area and revoking li-

censes of scooter companies.

Report: Jet was slowerthan usual before crash

CT FARMINGTON — A

small jet that crashed

into a building in Connecticut,

killing four people, was going

slower than usual as it took off

from an airport runway, while

witnesses saw a puff of smoke and

noticed the aircraft was having

trouble gaining altitude, accord-

ing to a preliminary investigation

report.

The report by the National

Transportation Safety Board also

said the plane’s parking brake was

found to be on, although it was not

clear when it was activated.

The report did not say what may

have caused the Sept. 2 crash in

Farmington, which remains un-

der investigation.

The twin-engine Cessna 560XL

was to have flown from Robertson

Airport in Plainville to Dare

County Regional Airport in Man-

teo, N.C. But it crashed into a man-

ufacturing building shortly after

takeoff and burst into flames, au-

thorities said.

County chooses new sitefor Confederate tribute

MS GREENWOOD —

Supervisors in one

Mississippi county have chosen a

new site for a Confederate monu-

ment after more than a year of dis-

cussion, but the site will need state

approval and it’s unclear how

much the move will cost.

The stone monument with mul-

tiple Confederate soldiers has

stood since 1913 outside the Le-

flore County Courthouse in

Greenwood, and it’s one of about

50 Confederate monuments on

public property in Mississippi.

The majority-Black Leflore Coun-

ty supervisors voted in June 2020

to move it to a less prominent spot

— a decision made amid interna-

tional protests over racial injus-

tice after police in Minneapolis

killed a Black man, George Floyd.

Supervisors voted to move the

monument to Fort Pemberton

Memorial Park, the Greenwood

Commonwealth reported.

Sheriff’s deputy chargedover gun threats

CA SAN FRANCISCO —

An off-duty San Fran-

cisco sheriff’s deputy is facing

criminal prosecution after author-

ities said he threatened to shoot

partygoers at a potluck, damaged

furnishings and grabbed a teen in

an inappropriate manner.

San Francisco’s district attor-

ney, Chesa Boudin, announced

that his office charged Dominic

Barsetti, 32, with four counts of fe-

lony criminal threats, one count of

misdemeanor vandalism and one

count of misdemeanor sexual bat-

tery.

Witnesses said Barsetti inap-

propriately grabbed an 18-year-

old and pulled her hair. When con-

fronted by fellow party attendees,

authorities said the deputy picked

up a guitar and swung it around,

ripped down a curtain, damaged a

bookcase, and broke a tank con-

taining a large lizard. He then

threatened to get his gun and

shoot people there.

Senate to vote on stifferanimal abuse penalties

WI MADISON — The state

Senate is scheduled to

vote on a bill that would increase

animal abuse penalties.

Right now the penalty for ani-

mal abuse is a $500 forfeiture. For

abuse resulting in mutilation, dis-

figurement or death the maxi-

mum penalty is three-and-a-half

years in prison.

Under the Republican-author-

ed bill, animal abuse that results

in death or grievous bodily harm,

defined as fractured bones, deep

cuts, burns, starvation or being

left out in the cold, would be guilty

of a felony punishable by up to six

years in prison. Someone who

knows his or her actions may re-

sult in such injuries would be

guilty of a felony punishable by up

to three-and-a-half years.

MIKE SIMONS, TULSA (OKLA.) WORLD/AP

Randy Willsey with the City of Catoosa, paints the Blue Whale, a waterfront structure on old Route 66, in Catoosa, Okla.

I’ve got my eye on you

THE CENSUS

18M The approximate amount in dollars to be given to 27 WestVirginia health centers to strengthen health care infrastruc-

ture and assist health care in medically underserved communities, U.S. Sen.Joe Manchin said. The funding is distributed through the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services under the American Rescue plan, Manchin said. Itwill be used to support expansion and renovation projects and support CO-VID-19 testing, treatment and vaccinations, Manchin said in a news release.

From The Associated Press

PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

WASHINGTON — The future

of abortion rights is in the hands

of a conservative Supreme Court

that is beginning a new term Mon-

day that also includes major cases

on gun rights and religion.

The court’s credibility with the

public also could be on the line,

especially if a divided court were

to overrule the landmark Roe v.

Wade decision from 1973 that es-

tablished a woman’s right to an

abortion nationwide.

The justices are returning to

the courtroom after an 18-month

absence caused by the coronavi-

rus pandemic, and the possible

retirement of 83-year-old liberal

Justice Stephen Breyer also

looms.

It’s the first full term with the

court in its current alignment.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the

last of former President Donald

Trump’s three high-court appoin-

tees, is part of a six-justice conser-

vative majority. Barrett was nom-

inated and confirmed last year

amid the pandemic, little more

than a month after the death of

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Trump and Republicans who

controlled the Senate moved

quickly to fill the seat shortly be-

fore the 2020 presidential elec-

tion, bringing about a dramatic

change in the court’s lineup that

has set the stage for a potentially

law-changing term on several

high-profile issues.

With abortion, guns and reli-

gion already on the agenda, and a

challenge to affirmative action

waiting in the wings, the court will

answer a key question over the

next year, said University of Chi-

cago law professor David Strauss.

“Is this the term in which the cul-

ture wars return to the Supreme

Court in a big way?” Strauss said.

No issue is bigger than abor-

tion.

The justices will hear argu-

ments Dec. 1 in Mississippi’s bid

to enforce a ban on most abortions

after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Low-

er courts blocked the law because

it is inconsistent with high court

rulings that allow states to regu-

late but not prohibit abortion be-

fore viability, the point around 24

weeks of pregnancy when a fetus

can survive outside the womb.

Mississippi is taking what con-

servative commentator Carrie Se-

verino called a “rip-the-Band-

Aid-off” approach to the case by

asking the court to abandon its

support of abortion rights that

was laid out in Roe and the 1992

case of Planned Parenthood v.

Casey.

Mississippi is among 12 states

with so-called trigger laws that

would take effect if Roe is over-

turned and ban abortion entirely.

By a 5-4 vote in early Septem-

ber, the court already has allowed

a ban on most abortions to take ef-

fect in Texas, though no court has

yet ruled on the substance of the

law.

But that vote and the Mississip-

pi case highlight the potential risk

to the court’s reputation, said Da-

vid Cole, the American Civil Lib-

erties Union’s legal director. The

arguments advanced by Missis-

sippi were considered and reject-

ed by the Supreme Court in 1992,

Cole said.

“The only difference between

then and now is the identity of the

justices,” he said.

Jeff Wall, a top Justice Depart-

ment lawyer under Trump, said

the court could sharply expand

gun rights and end the use of race

in college admissions, but only

abortion is likely to move public

perception of the court.

“I still don’t think that’s going to

create some groundswell in the

public, unless it’s accompanied by

some kind of watershed ruling on

abortion,” Wall said.

In early November, the court

will take up a challenge to New

York restrictions on carrying a

gun in public, a case that offers

the court the chance to expand

gun rights under the Second

Amendment. Before Barrett

joined the court, the justices turn-

ed away similar cases, over the

dissents of some conservative

members of the court.

More than 40 states already

make it easy to be armed in pub-

lic, but New York and California,

two of the nation’s most populous

states, are among the few with

tighter regulations.

A case from Maine gives the

court another opportunity to

weigh religious rights in the area

of education. The state excludes

religious schools from a tuition

program for families who live in

towns that don’t have public

schools.

Since even before Ginsburg’s

death, the court has favored reli-

gion-based discrimination claims

and the expectation among legal

experts is that parents in Maine

who sued to be able to use tax-

payer money at religious schools

will prevail, though it’s not clear

how broadly the court might rule.

Abortion, religion,guns top big termfor Supreme Court

BY MARK SHERMAN

Associated Press

MIAMI — Miami Beach wants

to turn down the volume in the

city’s South Beach party neigh-

borhood, citing increasingly rau-

cous crowds, public drinking and

growing violence, but efforts to

curb the carousing have raised

complaints about racism, clas-

sism and business practices along

one of the nation’s most glamorous

waterfronts.

The 10-block stretch of Ocean

Drive known for art deco hotels,

restaurants and bars is sand-

wiched between two areas that

cater to more affluent tourists.

The tension has been bubbling for

years as party crowds grew from a

few weekends a year into a year-

round presence. The situation

worsened during the pandemic

when city officials closed the main

drag to vehicles and allowed res-

taurants to offer more outdoor

seating, which invited a carnival

atmosphere on the street.

More than 1,000 people were ar-

rested during this year’s spring

break, when the city imposed a

rare 8 p.m. curfew. Authorities

sent military style vehicles to dis-

perse predominantly Black

crowds with rubber bullets,

prompting criticism from Black

activists and spawning a parody

on “Saturday Night Live.”

“We cannot accept this as our

normal,” Mayor Dan Gelber said.

“What we have called an enter-

tainment district has become an

incredible magnet for crime and

disorder, and whatever it provides

in revenue is just not worth the

heartache.”

Last month, the city increased

the number of police and code-en-

forcement officials covering the

neighborhood to their largest

number in history. The mayor

called it a stop-gap measure, say-

ing the city cannot afford to in-

crease the number of police per-

manently.

His long-term proposal would

rebrand the blocks known as the

entertainment district by hosting

higher-end concerts and fairs, fo-

cusing on family-friendly events

and marketing the city’s often-

overlooked but impressive mu-

seums and symphony. He also

wants to limit loud music and halt

alcohol sales at 2 a.m.

The area has waxed and waned

over many decades. It fell into de-

cline after a midcentury heyday,

but TV shows like “Miami Vice”

made it cool again in the 1980s,

and supermodels gathered at

fashion designer Gianni Versace’s

oceanfront estate in the 1990s.

More recently, rap lyrics have im-

mortalized South Beach.

The Ocean Drive closure, which

remains in effect as the city maps

out its future, has wrought finan-

cial havoc on hotels and restau-

rants.

Tom Glassie, longtime owner of

the Avalon Hotel, has been meet-

ing with city officials and resi-

dents for the past two years, wres-

tling with “what do we want to be

when we grow up.”

“The nightlife took over. We

were the best nightlife,” he said.

“There was nothing wrong with

that, but it just got overbranded”

and eclipsed arts and culture.

The mayor’s proposal also seeks

to increase office and residential

space, as well as cut the number of

bars and clubs.

Zoning regulations allow both

residential and commercial

spaces, but no buildings can be

taller than five levels, which de-

ters investors who would rather

build luxury high-rises. In addi-

tion, the art deco facades that pro-

vide glamorous backdrops have

historic building protections,

making the cost of renovations

prohibitive for some developers.

Instead, low-end bars and hook-

ah lounges flourish while blocks

away, several high-end New York

restaurateurs have opened new

businesses.

Other businesses like the leg-

endary Clevelander hotel and bar

and the Mango’s nightclub com-

plain that they have been caught

in the crosshairs and unfairly

lumped in with bars and night-

clubs that cause trouble.

“We’re tired of being made into

the bad guy, to continue to blame a

30-year-old business that is one of

the largest taxpayers in the city

and one of the largest employers,”

said Joshua Wallack, chief operat-

ing officer of Mango’s Tropical

Cafe.

“People come off these cruise

ships dreaming of dancing salsa at

Mango’s.”

Alexander Tachmes, attorney

for the Clevelander, accused the

mayor of “really turning up the

heat on the Ocean Drive anti-busi-

ness rhetoric” last summer and

essentially trying to siphon off es-

tablished businesses while the

city attempts to rebrand and court

more cultural businesses.

The Clevelander sued the city

over the 2 a.m. alcohol ban in May

and won a temporary injunction

until a trial starts this fall. The

owners also sought in court to

have Ocean Drive reopened, argu-

ing that pandemic restrictions

were no longer necessary, but

they were unsuccessful.

LYNNE SLADKY/AP

City of Miami Beach code enforcement and police officers patrol along Ocean Drive on Sept. 24, in MiamiBeach, Fla.

Party crowds spark effort tolower volume in South Beach

BY KELLI KENNEDY

Associated Press

NATION

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13

AFGHANISTAN/WORLD

SEOUL, South Korea — North

Korea has warned the U.N. Secu-

rity Council against criticizing

the isolated country’s missile

program, in a statement Sunday

that included unspecified threats

against the in-

ternational

body.

During an

emergency

closed-door

meeting of the

top U.N. body

Friday, France

circulated a pro-

posed statement that expresses

concern over North Korea’s mis-

sile launches and calls on it to ful-

ly implement council resolutions

that ban its ballistic missile fir-

ings.

On Sunday, Jo Chol Su, a senior

North Korean Foreign Ministry

official, warned the U.N. council

it “had better think what conse-

quences it will bring in the future

in case it tries to encroach upon

the sovereignty” of North Korea.

Jo also accused the U.N. body

of a “double-dealing standard”

because it doesn’t equally take is-

sue with similar weapons tests by

the United States and its allies,

according to the statement circu-

lated by state media.

After a six-month hiatus, North

Korea resumed missile tests in

September, launching newly de-

veloped missiles including nu-

clear-capable weapons that

place South Korea and Japan,

both key U.S. allies, within their

striking distances. The country

still offered conditional talks

with South Korea, in what some

experts call an attempt to pres-

sure Seoul to persuade Washing-

ton to relax crippling economic

sanctions on it.

Under multiple U.N. Security

Council resolutions, North Korea

is banned from engaging in any

ballistic missile activities as the

country aims to mount nuclear

weapons on its ballistic missiles.

North Korea has argued its nu-

clear program is meant to cope

with U.S. military threats, though

Washington has said it has no

hostile intent toward Pyongyang.

Despite its recent launches,

North Korea maintains a 2018

self-imposed moratorium on a

long-range missile directly

threatening the American home-

land, a sign that it still wants to

keep alive chances for future di-

plomacy with the U.S.

U.S. officials have urged North

Korea to return to talks without

preconditions, but the North has

argued it won’t do so unless the

Americans drop their “hostile

policy,” in an apparent reference

to the sanctions and regular mil-

itary drills between Washington

and Seoul.

N. Korea threatens leading UNbody after emergency meeting

BY HYUNG-JIN KIM

Associated Press

Jo Chol Su

The area around the mosque

was cordoned off by the Taliban,

who maintained a heavy security

presence. Later in the afternoon

the site was cleaned. The only sign

of the blast was slight damage to

the ornamental arch by the en-

trance gate.

While attacks in Kabul have so

far been rare, ISIS militants have

stepped up attacks against the Ta-

liban since their mid-August take-

over, and in recent weeks have

shown signs of expanding beyond

the east and closer toward the cap-

ital.

ISIS maintains a strong pres-

ence in the eastern province of

Nangarhar, where it has claimed

responsibility for several killings

in the provincial capital of Jalala-

bad.

In late August, an ISIS suicide

bomber targeted American evac-

uation efforts at Kabul’s interna-

tional airport. The blast killed 169

Afghans and 13 U.S. service mem-

bers and was one of the deadliest

attacks in the country in years.

FELIPE DANA/AP

Taliban fighters walk at the entrance of the Eid Gah Mosque after anexplosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday.

Attack: Kabul attack 1st since AugustFROM PAGE 1

PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

FACES

Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem,

Mary J. Blige and Kendrick La-

mar will perform for the first time

on stage together at the Pepsi Su-

per Bowl Halftime Show.

The NFL, Pepsi and Roc Nation

announced Sept. 30 that the five

music icons will perform on Feb.

13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood,

Calif. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Lamar

are Southern California natives.

Dre emerged from the West

Coast gangster rap scene along-

side Eazy-E and Ice Cube to help

form the group N.W.A, which

made a major mark in the hip-hop

culture and music industry with

controversial lyrics in the late

1980s. Dre is responsible for

bringing forth rap stars such as

Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and

Lamar. Dre also produced Blige’s

No. 1 hit song “Family Affair.”

“The opportunity to perform at

the Super Bowl Halftime show,

and to do it in my own backyard,

will be one of the biggest thrills of

my career,” Dre said in a state-

ment. He added that their half-

time performance will be an “un-

forgettable cultural moment.”

The Super Bowl returns to the

Los Angeles area for the first time

since 1993. It’s the third year of

collaboration between the NFL,

Pepsi and Roc Nation.

Roc Nation and Emmy-nomi-

nated producer Jesse Collins will

serve as co-producers of the half-

time show. The game and halftime

show will air live on NBC.

The five music artists have a

combined 44 Grammys.

Roc Nation founder Jay-Z said

in a statement that their show will

be “history in the making.”

The artists join a list of celebrat-

ed musicians who have played

during Super Bowl halftime

shows, including Beyoncé, Ma-

donna, Coldplay, Katy Perry, U2,

Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Jen-

nifer Lopez, Shakira and most re-

cently The Weeknd.

Super Bowl Halftime Show goes supernovaDre, Snoop, Eminem, Blige, Lamar to perform

AP

This combination of photos shows, from left, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Dr.Dre, who will perform for the first time together on stage at the 2022 Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show.

BY JONATHAN LANDRUM, JR. Associated Press

Scarlett Johansson and the Walt Disney

Co. settled her lawsuit Sept. 30 over the

streaming release of “Black Widow,” bring-

ing a swift end to the first major fight be-

tween a studio and star over recent changes

in rollout plans for films.

Johansson filed the lawsuit in Los An-

geles Superior Court two months ago, say-

ing the streaming release of the Marvel mo-

vie breached her contract and deprived her

of potential earnings.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but

the two sides released a joint statement in

which they pledged to continue working to-

gether.

“I am happy to have resolved our differ-

ences with Disney,” said Johansson, who

has played Natasha Romanoff, aka Black

Widow, in nine movies going back to 2010’s

“Iron Man 2.” “I’m incredibly proud of the

work we’ve done together over the years

and have greatly enjoyed my creative rela-

tionship with the team. I look forward to

continuing our collaboration.”

Alan Bergman, chairman of Disney Stu-

dios Content, said he is “pleased that we

have been able to come to a mutual agree-

ment.”

“We appreciate her contributions to the

Marvel Cinematic Universe and look for-

ward to working together on a number of

upcoming projects,” Bergman said.

The lawsuit said Johansson’s contract

guaranteed an exclusive theatrical release,

with her potential earnings tied to the box

office performance of the film.

But as it has with other recent releases

since the coronavirus pandemic began, Dis-

ney released the film simultaneously in the-

aters and through its streaming service Dis-

ney+ for a $30 rental.

Delayed more than a year because of CO-

VID-19, “Black Widow” debuted to a what

was then a pandemic-best of $80 million in

North America and $78 million from inter-

national theaters on July 9. But theatrical

grosses declined sharply after that. In its

second weekend in release, the National As-

sociation of Theater Owners issued a rare

statement criticizing the strategy.

Johansson, Disneysettle lawsuit over‘Black Widow’ film

Associated Press

While the pandemic put most singers’ ca-

reers on hold, it may have led to Arlo Parks

being embraced even more passionately.

The 20-year-old West Londoner touched

many people in the right way at exactly the

right time. With her naturally soothing, ear-

thy voice and refreshingly uncynical, poetic

writing style, her mid-pandemic singles

“Hope” and the depression-leashing “Black

Dog” comforted listeners with messages of

self-love and in-this-togetherness.

The success of those songs has made

Parks’ first U.S. itinerary one of the hottest

tours by a pop music newcomer this fall. It

also may be the warmest.

“People are telling me now how much the

music has impacted their lives, and it’s so

beautiful to hear,” Parks said. “Moments

where my music offers someone a crutch

like that very much makes me feel like what

I’m doing is useful and purposeful.”

Her favorite example may have been

from a fan who told her about their serious-

ly ill mother also becoming a fan: “She

didn’t actually speak English, but somehow

my music soothed her and put her at ease,”

marveled the singer, speaking by phone

from a festival last month.

That story undersells the value of Parks’

lyrics, though. She isn’t just a poetic song-

writer; she’s a genuine poet. Several of her

songs are instilled with moments of spoken-

word prose.

“Poetry and songwriting are completely

intermingled in my mind,” she said. “I start-

ed out writing poetry and short stories, so

I’ll probably always be doing that. I usually

write just to write and without any sort of

melody in my head.”

Her writing prowess shines when paired

with melodies. In the somber electro-jazz-

pop groover “Black Dog” — named for a

Winston Churchill-coined term for depres-

sion — she sings, “I’d lick the grief right off

your lips / You do your eyes like Robert

Smith / Sometimes it seems like you won’t

survive this.”

Or in “Hope,” the refrain goes, “You’re

not alone like / You think you are / We all

have scars / I know it’s hard.”

While both songs were released during

the pandemic, Parks believes she could

have created them anytime.

“A song like ‘Hope,’ for example, was

written while we were all stuck inside, but I

wasn’t writing so much about that or the life

I was living,” she said. “I was thinking more

about moments before that when I felt alone

or my friends felt alone. I wanted it to be a

mantra for someone struggling in any kind

of struggle, to let them know we all go

through it.”

Parks grew up in the Hammersmith area

of London with a Nigerian dad and a Cha-

dian-French mother.

“My parents weren’t musicians but were

lovers of music, so there was a lot of funk,

soul and French music in the house,” she

said, “and a lot of freedom for me to be cre-

ative.”

Arlo (real name: Anaïs Marinho) was

crafting music in her bedroom by her mid-

teens. Her 2019 EP “Sophie” generated vi-

ral traction, leading to her being named best

breakthrough artist at last year’s Brit

Awards. And she just won the Mercury

Prize for best British album for her full-

length debut, “Collapsed in Sunbeams.”

Much like her American peer Billie Eil-

ish, Parks said she continues to do a lot of

her writing and demoing in her bedroom,

even though she now has access to studios.

“I feel completely comfortable there, and

there’s a natural intimacy to the space that

makes you feel like you can be, say, do what-

ever you want,” she explained.

“You’re free to trust your space and ex-

periment, and you often challenge yourself

more there. People relate to that environ-

ment, I think; it’s universal and it makes you

sound more human and relatable.”

Arlo said she is excited to see “the rest of

America” this fall after previous trips to

Miami and Los Angeles.

While she remains concerned about CO-

VID-19 safety on tour, she feels committed

to performing on stage.

“I think my music is meant to be heard in

a communal space,” she said.

JUSTIN TALLIS, AFP/TNS

British singer­songwriter and poet Arlo Parks poses for a portrait at The Church of TheHoly Innocents in West London, England, on Feb. 25. Parks is touring the U.S. this fall.

BringingcomfortBritain’s Arlo Parks feels‘useful and purposeful’on first US music tour

BY CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Star Tribune

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15

Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher

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stripes.com

OPINION

WASHINGTON

Often the spy business is about be-

trayal. But for the CIA in Afghan-

istan, even amid the catastrophic

U.S. withdrawal in August, the

story in recent months has largely been

about keeping faith with its local partners.

Nearly every one of the agency’s secret allies

got out safely, knowledgeable sources said.

The Afghanistan War was a painful failure

for the United States, as our military com-

manders told Congress last week. The CIA’s

role bookended that drama, at the dawn and

sunset: The agency was first into Afghanis-

tan after 9/11, working with tribal allies to

topple the Taliban. And its officers and Af-

ghan agents were among the last out, work-

ing undercover to evacuate as many Amer-

icans and Afghans as possible.

The CIA made its own terrible mistakes in

the war on terror. The worst was torturing al-

Qaida prisoners, but two decades of drone at-

tacks and other counterterrorism operations

were corrosive and shocked consciences, at

home and abroad. But among former offi-

cers, the rescue of so many Afghan allies has

generated a quiet buzz of satisfaction. Two

former officers who served in Afghanistan

told me the agency had rescued more than

20,000 Afghan partners and their families.

The agency refused to comment on num-

bers.

The CIA’s allies remained a cohesive force

even as the Afghan military collapsed, the

sources said. They provided security at Ka-

bul airport during the evacuation. And they

conducted covert missions “outside the

wire,” sometimes posing as taxi drivers, to

rescue Americans who were stranded or too

frightened to make their way to the airport.

The knowledgeable source said that through

such operations, the CIA team managed to

rescue 2,000 U.S. citizens, 4,000 local staff

from the U.S. Embassy, and 1,500 NGO

workers and foreign journalists.

George Tenet, who was CIA director when

the war began, described the covert Afghan-

American bond in an interview Thursday:

“Agency officers who served in Afghanistan

knew they had an immense debt to the Af-

ghans who helped us stop al-Qaida. The Unit-

ed States has not been attacked in 20 years.

That’s no accident. When our Afghan part-

ners needed us most, we had a sacred obliga-

tion to them and their families. The message

is that the agency honors its commitments.”

The CIA’s Afghan partner force was

recruited during the earliest days of the war.

Initially, the operatives were known as the

“Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams,” or

CTPT. Hundreds of these recruits would op-

erate from bases in southern and eastern Af-

ghanistan under the command of a handful

of CIA officers. They were sometimes known

as the “tiger stripes,” because of their uni-

forms. Eventually, many of the Afghans be-

came part of Afghanistan’s intelligence ser-

vice, known as the National Directorate of

Security. Critics have charged that the NDS

engaged in extrajudicial killings and other

abuses.

Extricating the CIA’s allies after 20 years

of war was a tricky business. Because they

had worked so closely with the United States,

they were especially vulnerable to retalia-

tion. Some received threatening phone calls

and email messages.

When President Joe Biden decided in

April that he would withdraw from Afghan-

istan, CIA Director William J. Burns made a

secret trip to Kabul where he began laying

the foundations to evacuate the covert part-

ners. Afghan operatives in remote locations

gradually moved toward the capital. By

June, volunteers at CIA headquarters in

Langley, Va., were preparing the paperwork

for Special Immigrant Visas and plans for re-

location.

As the Taliban advanced this summer, the

danger increased. A team in Kandahar was

rescued by plane just as the Taliban

breached the airport perimeter. Other

groups came by road, sneaking with their

families toward Kabul.

A gathering point was the CIA’s secret

“Eagle Base,” about three miles from the Ka-

bul airport. This had been the agency’s hub

during the war; now it was a transit point in

the evacuation. Afghans and their families

reached the base and then were transported,

often by helicopter, to the airport. But their

work wasn’t done.

With the fall of Kabul and the Afghan mil-

itary’s collapse on Aug. 15, the U.S. military

needed help securing the airport and con-

ducting rescue operations. They turned in

part to the CIA force. After the chaotic disas-

ter on Aug. 16, when desperate Afghans

clung to a departing C-17 and fell to their

deaths, the CIA partner force helped U.S.

troops clear panicked Afghans from the run-

ways and restore order. They also helped se-

cure several secret gates at the airport for

covert entry.

Spy stories don’t usually have happy end-

ings, and this one doesn’t really, either. The

heroism of the evacuation is a source of

pride. But Kabul is controlled today by the

Taliban, and many decent Afghans feel like

prisoners in their homes.

For former CIA officers who served in Af-

ghanistan alongside brave partners, though,

this is about closing a circle — one that began

and ended with trust.

Inside the CIA’s effort to rescue its Afghan alliesBY DAVID IGNATIUS

Washington Post Writers Group

Twenty-five years of hospice volun-

teering has taught me that the

most important thing we can af-

ford people is their dignity.

That lesson formed the backbone of “In

America: Remember,” my art installation

that for the past three weeks blanketed

Washington’s National Mall with 700,000

fluttering white flags, each one representing

an American lost to the coronavirus pan-

demic. The art is an effort to reclaim the dig-

nity of 700,000 people who have become re-

duced to a single number, a number too large

to fathom.

My project began with outrage. I was out-

raged we had elected officials who would de-

value the lives of the elderly, the poor and

people of color in their approach to manag-

ing the pandemic. I was outraged we had al-

lowed the death toll here in the United States

to become so large as to be incomprehensi-

ble.

But the deeper meaning came when I

heard the stories. In person, they poured out.

Many visitors used the Sharpies we offered

them to write their own dedications directly

onto the flags. With each of their stories, my

anger gave way to their outcries of grief.

Jennie and Thomas from northern Missis-

sippi came to commemorate a flag for the

person who had given them COVID-19. They

survived. He died.

“I wasn’t allowed in, but my heart never

left your side,” one mourner wrote on a flag.

“My husband passed on our 23rd anniver-

sary,” wrote another. “He’s more than a sta-

tistic. He’s my best friend.”

A loved one begged Kitty to get the vac-

cine, but Kitty dismissed her: “God will pro-

tect me.” The flag dedicator noted, “The vac-

cine is from God, you passed the end of July.”

Ralph was a World War II veteran, a musi-

cian and 99 years old. “He refused a ventila-

tor asking that it be saved for a younger per-

son.”

“Calloused hands, soft heart, keeper of the

dad jokes,” they wrote of Paul K.

Apryl was, by all accounts, a badass.

And Mikey, Mikey liked turtles.

I knew people would bring their grief,

their own outrage, their anger. I did not real-

ize what the art would give back, in its own

way, providing loved ones solace or cathar-

sis as it provided dignity to the virus’ victims.

As one woman described it upon seeing the

flag dedicated to her mother, “After months

of mourning, I finally, finally feel the weight

beginning to lift from my shoulders.”

Not only has this art helped individual

people in their grief; it has also created com-

munity. So many of these deaths happened

in isolation, and families mourned in isola-

tion. But in the midst of 20 acres of flags,

loved ones know they are no longer mourn-

ing on their own. One woman who lost her fa-

ther said to me, “All this time, I thought I was

grieving alone, but now I see that I was in the

company of many.” Another said, “Knowing

where his flag is is almost like having him

back on earth.”

Now, just as these flags are about to disap-

pear from the Mall, I want to thank the many

families who brought this installation to life,

with their stories and their emotions and

their humanity. The power of art is not in my

hands as an artist. It is in the souls of those

who experience it.

Art is not an elective; it is an imperative.

When words fall on un-listening ears, it is

time for art to fill the void. The last time a

project of this scale cloaked the Mall was the

exhibition of the AIDS Quilt, which made

America look at last at the disease’s victims,

and at how cruelly it had shunned them. That

act of public, participatory art rocked the

status quo. Will this one do the same?

Will it push us to ask what we have learned

from this national tragedy? Experts beyond

my field — doctors, public health research-

ers, politicians — will have to provide the an-

swers to that question. For all its power, pub-

lic art cannot on its own erase health inequi-

ties, or vaccinate the world, or heal the dy-

ing.

But what I have learned is that art can in

equal measure tend to intimate, personal

grief and send a message to our society as a

whole. That message is this: Give people the

dignity they deserve. Please don’t make me,

or the next artist, do this again. I don’t want to

plant any more flags.

What the 700,000 flags I put on the Mall really meanBY SUZANNE BRENNAN FIRSTENBERG

Special to The Washington Post

Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg is a social practice artist.

PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

ACROSS

1 Bummer

5 Purse

8 Slightly open

12 July’s stone

13 Lawyers’ org.

14 Judicial garb

15 Reunion

attendee

16 U.S. region with

abandoned

factories

18 Damp cleaner

20 Exhausted

21 Jai —

23 Season opener?

24 Trash cans

28 Taxpayer IDs

31 Singer DiFranco

32 Actress

MacDowell

34 Snip

35 At hand

37 Keeps up

39 — Majesty

41 Undo a dele

42 Amount con-

sumed

45 Honor

49 Patron

51 Pond growth

52 “Zip- — -Doo-

Dah”

53 Director Brooks

54 Applaud

55 Must have

56 Whatever

57 Sneakers brand

DOWN

1 Sketch

2 Hold sway

3 Border on

4 Avid exerciser

5 Haggles

6 Dhabi preceder

7 React in horror

8 Garden shelters

9 “Home Alone”

actor

10 Competent

11 On pension

(Abbr.)

17 Pinnacle

19 Jessica of

“Dark Angel”

22 River of Pakistan

24 Author Brown

25 Half of bi-

26 Be a tourist

27 Sororal

29 Cloister

resident

30 Map lines (Abbr.)

33 Summers in Paris

36 Passionate

38 Assault

40 “King Kong”

studio

42 Optimist’s credo

43 Undraped

44 Austen heroine

46 “Legally

Blonde” role

47 “Zounds!”

48 Atlas pages

50 Still, in verse

Answer to Previous Puzzle

Eugene Sheffer CrosswordFra

zz

Dilbert

Pearls B

efo

re S

win

eN

on S

equitur

Candorv

ille

Carp

e D

iem

Beetle B

ailey

Biz

arr

o

Monday, October 4, 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 • Monday, October 4, 2021

SCOREBOARD

PRO FOOTBALL

NFL

AMERICAN CONFERENCE

East

W L T Pct PF PA

Buffalo 2 1 0 .667 94 44

Miami 1 2 0 .333 45 82

New England 1 2 0 .333 54 51

N.Y. Jets 0 3 0 .000 20 70

South

W L T Pct PF PA

Tennessee 2 1 0 .667 71 84

Houston 1 2 0 .333 67 76

Indianapolis 0 3 0 .000 56 80

Jacksonville 0 4 0 .000 74 115

North

W L T Pct PF PA

Cincinnati 3 1 0 .750 92 75

Baltimore 2 1 0 .667 82 85

Cleveland 2 1 0 .667 86 60

Pittsburgh 1 2 0 .333 50 66

West

W L T Pct PF PA

Denver 3 0 0 1.000 76 26

Las Vegas 3 0 0 1.000 90 72

L.A. Chargers 2 1 0 .667 67 60

Kansas City 1 2 0 .333 92 95

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

East

W L T Pct PF PA

Dallas 2 1 0 .667 90 69

Philadelphia 1 2 0 .333 64 64

Washington 1 2 0 .333 67 92

N.Y. Giants 0 3 0 .000 56 74

South

W L T Pct PF PA

Carolina 3 0 0 1.000 69 30

New Orleans 2 1 0 .667 73 42

Tampa Bay 2 1 0 .667 103 88

Atlanta 1 2 0 .333 48 94

North

W L T Pct PF PA

Green Bay 2 1 0 .667 68 83

Chicago 1 2 0 .333 40 77

Minnesota 1 2 0 .333 87 78

Detroit 0 3 0 .000 67 95

West

W L T Pct PF PA

Arizona 3 0 0 1.000 103 65

L.A. Rams 3 0 0 1.000 95 62

San Francisco 2 1 0 .667 86 74

Seattle 1 2 0 .333 75 79

Sunday’s games

Carolina at Dallas Cleveland at Minnesota Detroit at Chicago Houston at Buffalo Indianapolis at Miami Kansas City at Philadelphia N.Y. Giants at New Orleans Tennessee at N.Y. Jets Washington at Atlanta Arizona at L.A. Rams Seattle at San Francisco Baltimore at Denver Pittsburgh at Green Bay Tampa Bay at New England

Monday’s game

Las Vegas at L.A. Chargers Thursday, Oct. 7

L.A. Rams at Seattle Sunday, Oct. 10

N.Y. Jets vs Atlanta at London, UK Denver at Pittsburgh Detroit at Minnesota Green Bay at Cincinnati Miami at Tampa Bay New England at Houston New Orleans at Washington Philadelphia at Carolina Tennessee at Jacksonville Chicago at Las Vegas Cleveland at L.A. Chargers N.Y. Giants at Dallas San Francisco at Arizona Buffalo at Kansas City

NFL Injury ReportNEW YORK — The National FootballLeague injury report, as provided by theleague (DNP: did not practice; LIMITED:limited participation; FULL: Full participa-tion):

MONDAYLAS VEGAS RAIDERS at LOS ANGELES

CHARGERS — LAS VEGAS: QUESTIONABLE:RB Josh Jacobs (ankle). FULL: CB NateHobbs (shoulder), S Dallin Leavitt (con-cussion), CB Trayvon Mullen (shoulder),DE Carl Nassib (toe), LB Denzel Perryman(achilles, quadricep), S Roderic Teamer(ankle), DT Solomon Thomas (knee). LOSANGELES CHARGERS: OUT: Dt Justin Jones(calf). QUESTIONABLE: CB Chris Harris(shoulder), LB Kenneth Murray (ankle).FULL: WR Keenan Allen (ankle), LB Joey Bo-sa (foot, ankle), S Alohi Gilman (hip), S Der-win James (toe, shoulder), LS Matt Over-ton (calf).

SOCCER

MLS

Eastern Conference

W L T Pts GF GA

New England 20 4 5 65 57 34

Nashville 11 3 13 46 46 26

Orlando City 11 8 9 42 41 41

D.C. United 12 12 4 40 49 41

CF Montréal 11 10 7 40 40 37

NYCFC 11 10 6 39 44 32

Philadelphia 10 7 9 39 33 26

Atlanta 10 9 9 39 37 33

New York 9 11 7 34 33 30

Columbus 9 11 7 34 32 36

Inter Miami CF 9 12 5 32 25 41

Chicago 7 15 6 27 28 43

Toronto FC 5 15 7 22 31 53

Cincinnati 4 15 8 20 28 52

Western Conference

W L T Pts GF GA

Seattle 15 5 6 51 41 22

Sporting KC 14 6 7 49 47 29

Colorado 13 4 9 48 38 24

Portland 13 10 4 43 44 44

Real Salt Lake 11 11 6 39 45 44

LA Galaxy 11 11 5 38 38 44

Minnesota 10 9 8 38 30 32

Vancouver 9 8 10 37 34 34

LAFC 9 12 6 33 39 40

San Jose 8 11 9 33 35 44

FC Dallas 6 13 10 28 39 47

Houston 5 11 12 27 31 41

Austin FC 7 17 4 25 29 44

Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie.

Saturday’s games

Austin FC 2, Real Salt Lake 1CF Montréal 2, Atlanta 1Orlando City 2, D.C. United 1New York 1, Cincinnati 0Minnesota 0, FC Dallas 0, tieVancouver 3, San Jose 0

Sunday’s games

Nashville at New York City FCColumbus at PhiladelphiaChicago at Toronto FCHouston at Sporting Kansas CityMiami at PortlandLos Angeles FC at LA GalaxyColorado at Seattle

NWSL Glance

W L T Pts GF GA

Portland 12 5 2 38 29 13

Reign FC 11 7 2 35 30 19

North Carolina 8 6 5 29 23 13

Chicago 8 7 5 29 22 24

Orlando 7 6 7 28 24 24

Washington 7 7 5 26 21 25

Houston 7 7 5 26 24 23

Gotham FC 6 5 7 25 20 16

Louisville 4 10 5 17 15 31

Kansas City 2 12 5 11 10 30

Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie.

Saturday’s games

Orlando at Chicago ppd.Houston at Kansas City ppd.Reign FC at Portland ppd.

Wednesday’s games

Louisville at North CarolinaWashington at Gotham FCHouston at Portland

Saturday, Oct. 9

Gotham FC at OrlandoLouisville at WashingtonNorth Carolina at Houston

PRO BASKETBALL

WNBA playoffs

(x-if necessary)Semifinals(Best-of-5)

No. 6 Chicago 1, No. 1 Connecticut 1Tuesday, Sept. 28: Chicago 101, Connec-

ticut 95, 2OTThursday, Sept. 30: Connecticut 79, Chi-

cago 68Sunday’s game: Connecticut at Chicago,

1 p.m.Wednesday’s game: Connecticut at Chi-

cago, TBAx-Friday’s game: Chicago at Connecti-

cut, TBANo. 2 Las Vegas 1, No. 5 Phoenix 1

Tuesday, Sept. 28: Las Vegas 96, Phoenix90

Thursday, Sept. 30: Phoenix 117, Las Ve-gas 91

Sunday’s game: Las Vegas at Phoenix, 3p.m.

Wednesday’s game: Las Vegas at Phoe-nix, TBA

x-Friday’s game: Phoenix at Las Vegas,TBA

Finals(Best-of-5)

Sunday, Oct. 10 Wednesday, Oct. 13 Friday, Oct. 15 x-Sunday, Oct 17 x-Tuesday, Oct. 19

Saturday’s TransactionsBASEBALL

Major League BaseballAmerican League

MINNESOTA TWINS — Placed RHP JohnGant on the 10-day IL. Recalled LHP CharlieBarnes from St. Paul (Triple-A East).

NEW YORK YANKEES — Optioned RHP Al-bert Abreu to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Tri-ple-A East). Recalled SS Andrew Velaz-quez from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

SEATTLE MARINERS — Recalled 2B Dono-van Walton from Tacoma (Triple-A West).Optioned RHP Wyatt Mills to Tacoma. Re-instated RHP Andres Munoz from the 60-day IL. Placed RHP Joe Smith on the 10-dayIL.

TAMPA BAY RAYS — Recalled RHP ChrisMazza from Durham (Triple-A East). Op-tioned RHP Louis Head to Durham.

National LeagueCHICAGO CUBS — Placed RHP Tommy

Nance on the 10-day IL. Selected the con-tract of RHP Joe Biagini from Iowa (Tri-ple-A East) and signed him to a majorleague contract.

COLORADO ROCKIES — Named BillSchmidt general manager. Promoted Dan-ny Montgomery to vice president and as-sistant general manager of scouting andZack Rosenthal to vice president and as-sistant general manager of baseball oper-ations and assistant general counsel. Re-instated RHP Chi Chi González from the 10-day IL. Optioned RHP Peter Lambert to Al-buquerque (Triple-A West).

LOS ANGELES DODGERS — Recalled RHPMitch White from Oklahoma City (Triple-AWest). Placed LHP Clayton Kershaw on the10-day IL.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS — Sent 2B TimLopes outright to Nashville (Triple-A East).Reinstated 1B Rowdy Tellez from the 10-day IL. Optioned 1B Keston Hiura to Nash-ville.

NEW YORK METS — Signed RHP ClaudioScotti to a minor league contract. Rein-stated RHP Robert Gsellman from the 60-Day Injured List. Optioned RHP Tylor Me-gill to Syracuse (Triple-A East). Recalled3B Brandon Drury from Syracuse and des-ignated for assignment.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES — Recalled RHPSeranthony Dominguez from Lehigh Val-ley (Triple-A East). Placed RHP ConnorBrogdon on the 10-day IL.

PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Recalled SSOneil Cruz from Indianapolis (Triple-AEast). Placed RHP Tanner Anderson on the10-day IL, retroactive to Oct. 1.

SAN DIEGO PADRES — Recalled RHPJames Norwood from El Paso (Triple-AWest). Optioned RHP Pedro Avila to El Pa-so.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — ReinstatedLHP Jake McGee from the 10-day IL. Op-tioned SS Thairo Estrada to Sacramento(Triple-A West).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS — Placed LHPJosh Rogers on the 10-day IL. ReinstatedRF Gerardo Parra from the 10-day IL.

FOOTBALLNational Football League

ARIZONA CARDINALS — Activated LBDennis Gardeck from the injured reserve/designated for return list. Promoted SChris Banjo and OL Eric Smith to the activeroster from the practice squad.

BALTIMORE RAVENS — Placed DE DerekWolfe on injured reserve.

BUFFALO BILLS — Promoted CB Cam Le-wis to the active roster from the practicesquad.

CAROLINA PANTHERS — Promoted SKenny Robinson and RB Rodney Smith tothe active roster from the practice squad.

DALLAS COWBOYS — Promoted RB NickRalston, TE Jeremy Sprinkle, DT AustinFaoliu and DT Justin Hamilton to the activeroster from the practice squad. Rein-stated WR Malik Turner from injured re-serve.

DENVER BRONCOS — Promoted LB Cur-tis Robinson and OL Austin Schlottmannto the active roster from the practicesquad.

GREEN BAY PACKERS — Placed WR Mar-quez Valdes-Scantling on injured reserve.Promoted WR Equanimeous St. Brown tothe active roster from the practice squadas a COVID-19 replacement.

HOUSTON TEXANS — Activated K Ka’imiFairbairn and DB A.J. Moore from injuredreserve. Promoted LB Hardy Nickerson

and QB Jeff Driskel to the active rosterfrom the practice squad.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Placed G Quen-ton Nelson on injured reserve. Promoted SIbraheim Campbell and QB Brett Hundleyto the active roster from the practicesquad.

LOS ANGELES RAMS — Activated LB Og-bonnia Okoronkwo from injured reserve.Promoted RB Buddy Howell and LB JustinLawler to active roster from the practicesquad. Waived DB J.R. Reed.

MIAMI DOLPHINS — Placed C/G MichaelDeiter on injured reserve. Promoted CCameron Tom to the active roster from thepractice squad.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Promoted G Da-kota Dozier and CB Parry Nickerson to theactive roster from the practice squad.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — ActivatedWR N’Keal Harry from injured reserve. Pro-moted DB Myles Bryant and LB Jahlani Ta-vai to the active roster from the practicesquad.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — Promoted WRKenny Stills and OT Jordan Mills to the ac-tive roster from the practice squad. Acti-vated OL Will Clapp from injured reserve.

NEW YORK GIANTS — Activated WR JohnRoss from injured reserve.

NEW YORK JETS — Waived RB JoshAdams. Activated S Ashtyn Davis and SSharrod Neasman from the injured resevelist. Promoted OL Isaiah Williams to theactive roster from the practice squad.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES — Activated CBJosiah Scott and OL Jack Driscoll from in-jured reserve.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Promoted WRCody White and OT Chaz Green to the ac-tive roster from the practice squad.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Activated DLMaurice Hurst form injured reserve.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS — Activated TE Col-by Parkinson and OT Cedric Ogbuehi frominjured reserve. Placed RB Rashaad Pennyon injured reserve. Promoted WR CodyThompson to the active roster from thepractice squad.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — Signed CBPierre Desir. Waived DB Khalil Davis.

TENNESSEE TITANS — Promoted DLAmani Bledsoe and FB Tory Carter to theactive roster from the practice squad.

HOCKEYNational Hockey League

BUFFALO SABRES — Released Fs Domin-ic Franco, Mason Jobst, Michael Mersch,Brendan Warren and Ryan Scarfo, Ds NickBoka, Matthew Cairns, Mitch Eliot, JoshTeves and Peter Tischke, and Gs MichaelHouser and Mat Robson from tryouts.

CAROLINA HURRICANES — Sent Gs BeckWarm, Eetu Makiniemi, Cs Blake Murray,David Cotton, Fs Stelio Mattheos, DominikBokk and D Jesper Sellgren to Chicago(AHL).

EDMONTON OILERS — Sent Ds MarkusNiemelainen, Michael Kesselring, PhilKemp and G Olivier Rodrigue to Bakers-field (AHL). Released Fs Brad Malone,James Hamblin, Luke Esposito, AdamCracknell and D Vincent Desharnais.

FLORIDA PANTHERS — Sent Fs KarchBachman, Henry Bowlby, Grigori Denisen-ko, Aleksi Heponiemi, Logan Hutsko, Jus-tin Nachbaur, Serron Noel, Cole Schwindt,D Max Gildon and G Evan Fitzpatrick toCharlotte (AHL). Waived F Zac Dalpe, DNoah Juulsen and G Sam Montembeaultfor the purpose of assignment to Char-lotte.

MONTREAL CANADIENS — Released GKevin Poulin and LW Danick Martel.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Assigned F RyanSchmelzer, Ds Jeremy Groleau and Mi-chael Vukojevic and G Mareks Mitens toUtica (AHL).

ST. LOUIS BLUES — Assigned G Will Cran-ley to Ottawa (OHL). Assigned D TysonGalloway to Calgary (WHL). Assigned CZachary Bolduc to Quebec (QMJHL). Re-leased Ds Josh Wesley and Griffin Luce.Sent Cs Keean Washkurak, Nathan Todd,Nolan Stevens, Tanner Kaspick, Fs AlexeiToropchenko, Matthew Peca, HughMcGing and Mathias Laferriere to Spring-field (AHL).

SEATTLE KRACKEN — Released F ScottWilson. Waived Ds Cale Fleury, GustavOlofsson, Connor Carrick and G AntoineBibeau. Sent C Luke Henman to Charlotte(AHL).

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS — Sent Cs PaulCotter, Ben Jones, and Lucas Elvenes and FPavel Dorofeyev to Henderson (AHL).

DEALS AUTO RACING

Sparks 300 at TalladegaNASCAR-Xfinity Series

SaturdayAt Talladega Superspeedway

Talladega, Ala.Lap length: 2.66 miles

(Start position in parentheses)1. (19) Brandon Brown, Chevrolet, 107

laps, 40 points.2. (7) Brandon Jones, Toyota, 107, 38.3. (1) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 107, 44.4. (6) Daniel Hemric, Toyota, 107, 34.5. (29) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 107,

0.6. (8) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 107, 34.7. (14) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 107, 44.8. (2) Austin Cindric, Ford, 107, 38.9. (3) Josh Berry, Chevrolet, 107, 28.10. (40) Joe Graf Jr, Chevrolet, 107, 27.11. (17) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 107, 26.12. (26) Jade Buford, Chevrolet, 107, 25.13. (23) Blaine Perkins, Chevrolet, 107, 36.14. (24) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 107, 23.15. (39) Joey Gase, Toyota, 107, 22.16. (38) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 107, 21.17. (33) Santino Ferrucci, Toyota, 107, 20.18. (18) Tommy Joe Martins, Chevrolet,

107, 19.19. (35) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 107,

18.20. (25) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet,

107, 17.21. (32) Alex Labbe, Chevrolet, 107, 16.22. (11) John H. Nemechek, Toyota, 107, 0.23. (30) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 106, 14.24. (15) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 104,

13.25. (9) Harrison Burton, Toyota, acci-

dent, 101, 22.26. (16) Brett Moffitt, Chevrolet, acci-

dent, 101, 20.27. (13) Riley Herbst, Ford, accident, 101,

25.28. (34) Jason White, Toyota, accident,

101, 9.29. (31) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, ac-

cident, 93, 8.30. (4) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet, acci-

dent, 88, 8.31. (10) Myatt Snider, Chevrolet, acci-

dent, 88, 11.32. (37) Caesar Bacarella, Chevrolet, ac-

cident, 88, 5.33. (22) Ryan Vargas, Chevrolet, acci-

dent, 88, 4.34. (36) Cj McLaughlin, Chevrolet, acci-

dent, 88, 3.35. (27) Mason Massey, Toyota, acci-

dent, 88, 2.36. (20) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, ga-

rage, 73, 0.37. (21) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, en-

gine, 50, 1.38. (12) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, accident,

24, 1.39. (5) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, acci-

dent, 24, 1.40. (28) David Starr, Toyota, engine, 20, 1.Race Statistics were not immediately

available.

Chicago Fall Tennis Classic

SaturdayAt XS Tennis Village

ChicagoPurse: $565,530

Surface: Hardcourt outdoorWomen’s Singles

SemifinalsGarbine Muguruza (2), Spain, def. Mar-

keta Vondrousova, Czech Republic, walk-over.

Ons Jabeur (6), Tunisia, def. Elena Ryba-kina (5), Kazakhstan, 6-4, 3-2, ret.

Women’s DoublesQuarterfinals

Nicole Melichar, United States, andDemi Schuurs (5), Netherlands, def. HsiehSu-wei, Taiwan, and Elise Mertens (1), Bel-gium, walkover.

Women’s DoublesSemifinals

CoCo Vandeweghe and Caroline Dole-hide, United States, def. Andreja Klepac,Slovenia, and Darija Jurak (6), Croatia, 6-3,6-4.

Kveta Peschke, Czech Republic, and An-drea Petkovic, Germany, def. Nicole Meli-char, United States, and Demi Schuurs (5),Netherlands, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Sofia Open

SaturdayAt Arena Armeec Sofia

Sofia, BulgariaSurface: Hardcourt indoor

Men’s SinglesSemifinals

Gael Monfils (2), France, def. Marcos Gi-ron, United States, 7-5, 6-0.

Jannik Sinner (1), Italy, def. Filip Kraji-novic (5), Serbia, 6-3, 7-5.

Men’s DoublesSemifinals

Ken Skupski and Jonny O’Mara, Britain,def. Matwe Middelkoop, Netherlands, andRoman Jebavy, Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-1.

Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald (3),Austria, def. Santiago Gonzalez, Mexico,and Andres Molteni, Argentina, 2-6, 7-5,10-6.

TENNIS

GOLF

Sanderson Farms Championship

PGA Tour

SaturdayAt Country Club of Jackson

Jackson, Miss.Purse $7 million

Yardage: 7,461; Par: 72Third Round

Sahith Theegala 64-67-67—198 -18 Cameron Tringale 71-66-62—199 -17 Denny McCarthy 69-65-65—199 -17 Sam Burns 68-66-65—199 -17 Cameron Young 67-65-67—199 -17 Seth Reeves 71-66-63—200 -16 Trey Mullinax 70-66-64—200 -16 Aaron Wise 68-66-67—201 -15 Roger Sloan 66-67-68—201 -15 Corey Conners 67-69-66—202 -14 Andrew Landry 68-68-66—202 -14 Nick Hardy 70-66-66—202 -14 C.T. Pan 68-67-67—202 -14Hayden Buckley 67-65-70—202 -14 Nick Watney 65-66-71—202 -14 Grant Hirschman 70-67-66—203 -13 Russell Knox 71-66-66—203 -13 Si Woo Kim 66-71-66—203 -13 Harold Varner III 65-71-67—203 -13 Stephan Jaeger 68-66-69—203 -13 Will Zalatoris 70-61-72—203 -13 Matthew Wolff 68-71-65—204 -12 Taylor Moore 67-71-66—204 -12 Kevin Streelman 68-68-68—204 -12 Nate Lashley 70-66-68—204 -12 Henrik Norlander 68-66-70—204 -12

ShopRite ClassicLPGA TourSaturday

At Seaview, Bay CourseGalloway, N.J.

Purse: $1.75 millionYardage: 6,190; Par: 71

Second RoundInbee Park 66-65—131 -11Jin Young Ko 66-65—131 -11Patty Tavatanakit 68-65—133 -9 Brittany Lincicome 67-67—134 -8 Nanna Koerstz Madsen 66-68—134 -8 Su Oh 70-65—135 -7 Perrine Delacour 67-68—135 -7 So Yeon Ryu 65-70—135 -7Jodi Ewart Shadoff 65-70—135 -7 Stacy Lewis 70-66—136 -6Marissa Steen 68-68—136 -6 Andrea Lee 68-68—136 -6Cheyenne Knight 67-69—136 -6

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19

MLB

LOS ANGELES — One last game, one last

chance for the streaking Los Angeles Dodg­

ers to grab a share of their ninth consecutive

NL West title.

The  playoff­bound  Dodgers  (105­56)

must beat Milwaukee again on Sunday and

hope  the  rival  first­place  Giants  (106­55)

lose again to San Diego to tie for the title.

That would send them and the Giants to a

deciding  Game  163  in  San  Francisco  on

Monday.

“If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter what

anyone  else  does,”  third  baseman  Justin

Turner said.

Julio Urías became the Dodgers’ first 20­

game  winner  since  Clayton  Kershaw  in

2014, pitching one­run ball into the seventh

inning as Los Angeles beat the Brewers 8­3

on Saturday night to extend the NL West

race to the final day of the regular season.

“The only focus for us is to win tomor­

row,” manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s

all we can control.”

The Giants lost 3­2 to San Diego earlier

Saturday, reducing their lead to one game.

The Dodgers were watching before  their

game began.

“There was a good buzz going around the

clubhouse heading into the game knowing

the opportunity for us,” Turner said.

In  San  Francisco,  a  sellout  crowd  of

40,760 was ready to celebrate the Giants’

first division crown since 2012, but the Pa­

dres spoiled the party, sending the raucous

group to the exits in a state of disbelief.

“Obviously, we wanted to win the game

and not have to rely on somebody else,” Gi­

ants third baseman Evan Longoria said. “I

think right now, the focus turns to tomorrow

and just doing what we’ve done the whole

year, trying to erase the day before and go

out there and win the next game.”

San  Fracisco’s  seven­game  winning

streak ended, and the Giants’ magic number

remained at one. 

The Dodgers or the Giants are guaran­

teed to have the most wins of a team that

fails to finish first, bettering the 1909 Chica­

go Cubs and 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers, who

had 104 wins each.

Los  Angeles  won  its  14th  consecutive

home game, tying a 100­year­old franchise

record.

Urías (20­3) gave up one hit, struck out

seven and walked two over 61⁄�3 innings in his

32nd start of the regular season, becoming

the  majors’  only  20­game  winner  this

year. The 25­year­old left­hander retired 16

in a row after allowing a double to Eduardo

Escobar in the first.

“The focus, adrenaline and energy level

was all at peak position knowing what was at

stake,” Urías said through a translator.

Urías left in the seventh as part of a dou­

ble switch, handing the ball to Roberts, who

grabbed his arm to chat before the pitcher

walked off to a standing ovation from the

crowd of 49,705.

“He just said, ‘Great job, great season,’ ”

Urías said. “I was very pleased and very

happy with the ovation of the crowd.”

He finished his first full season in the rota­

tion with a 2.98 ERA and 195 strikeouts.

“It’s a dream season. Very blessed and ve­

ry thankful,” Urías said. “I was very blessed

all year to stay healthy.”

Kershaw won 21 games in 2014, when he

earned  the  last  of  his  three  Cy  Young

Awards. He watched from the dugout. Urías

became the fourth Mexican­born pitcher to

win 20 games in the majors, joining former

Dodger Fernando Valenzuela and Milwau­

kee’s Teddy Higuera (both 1986) and Este­

ban Loiaza of the Chicago White Sox (2003).

Urías hasn’t lost since June 21 at San Die­

go. He’s 11­0 with a 2.03 ERA since then.

“It’s  a  feather  in  his  cap  winning  20

games. Those are hard  to come by  these

days,” Roberts said. “It’ll be something he’ll

always remember and be proud of.”

The Dodgers got a three­run homer from

Turner in the first, a two­run blast by AJ

Pollock in the fourth, and a solo shot by Co­

rey Seager in the fifth, giving them 17 home­

rs in their last four games. Max Muncy’s

RBI double in the eighth made it 8­1.

Trea Turner went 2­for­4 to extend his ca­

reer­high 18­game hitting streak and all but

lock up the NL batting title with a .328 aver­

age. His closest competition, former Wash­

ington  teammate Juan Soto, went 0  for 3

against Boston, dropping his average to .315.

Trea Turner will become the first Dodger

to win a batting crown since Tommy Davis

claimed back­to­back titles in 1962 and ’63.

Christian Yelich’s fielder’s choice groun­

dout scored Willy Adames, who walked, to

give the NL Central­champion Brewers an

early lead. Urías walked Adames again with

two outs in the sixth before Escobar struck

out swinging to end the inning.

Adames homered off David Price in the

ninth for the Brewers’ first hit and first run

since the first inning. Tyrone Taylor added

an  RBI  single.  Escobar  doubled  for  his

1,000th career hit in the inning.

Dodgers extend NL West race to final dayUrías becomes first 20-gamewinner for LA since Kershaw in2014 in 8-3 defeat of Brewers

BY BETH HARRIS

Associated Press

ASHLEY LANDIS/AP

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias (7) pitched one­run ball into the seventh inningto lead his team in an 8­3 defeat of the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday in Los Angeles.

TORONTO — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 47th

home run and the Toronto Blue Jays pressed their AL

wild­card chase to the final day of the regular season

by thumping the Baltimore Orioles 10­1 Saturday.

The Blue Jays launched five homers while Alek Ma­

noah allowed one hit over seven innings to help Toron­

to close within one game of wild card co­leaders Boston

and the New York Yankees.

“It’s October baseball and we’re trying to make a

push,” Manoah said. “We’re just focused on controll­

ing what we can control.”

Toronto remained tied with Seattle after the Mari­

ners rallied to beat the Angels 6­4 later Saturday. Both

teams need a win and a loss by either the Red Sox or

Yankees on Sunday to force one of several tiebreaker

scenarios Monday.

The Blue Jays are 2­0 to start October after going

20­9 in September.

“The level of confidence that we’re playing with

right now is amazing,” Manoah said. “Everything is

kind of clicking, our bullpen, our starters, our offense.”

George Springer, Teoscar Hernández, Bo Bichette

and Danny Jansen all went deep for Toronto. The Blue

Jays lead the majors with a franchise­record 258 home

runs, topping the 257 they hit in 2010.

Mitch Haniger drove in five runs and his two­out,

two­run single in the eighth inning gave the Mariners

the lead as they took their playoff hopes to the final day.

Haniger  had  an  RBI  single  in  the  third  inning,

clubbed his 39th homer in the fifth and came through

with the bases loaded in the eighth after Seattle blew a

3­1 lead. 

“Putting the team up by two there was was fun. It

was good,” Haniger said. “Trying to win every single

game, win every single pitch. Every pitch is so mea­

ningful, so every run that we can bring across the plate

is huge, especially in these last couple games, this last

series with so much on the line. That was a good feel­

ing.”

Jays, Mariners win to stay in WC raceAssociated Press

JON BLACKER, THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP

Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hits a two­run homerun, one of five for the Blue Jays, in a 10­1 defeat ofthe Baltimore Orioles on Saturday in Toronto. 

PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

MLB

American League

East Division

W L Pct GB

x-Tampa Bay 100 61 .621 _

Boston 91 70 .565 9

New York 91 70 .565 9

Toronto 90 71 .559 10

Baltimore 52 109 .323 48

Central Division

W L Pct GB

x-Chicago 93 68 .578 _

Cleveland 79 82 .491 14

Detroit 76 85 .472 17

Kansas City 74 87 .460 19

Minnesota 72 89 .447 21

West Division

W L Pct GB

x-Houston 94 67 .584 _

Seattle 90 71 .559 4

Oakland 86 75 .534 8

Los Angeles 76 85 .472 18

Texas 60 101 .373 34

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GB

x-Atlanta 87 73 .544 _

Philadelphia 82 79 .509 5½

New York 77 84 .478 10½

Miami 66 95 .410 21½

Washington 65 96 .404 22½

Central Division

W L Pct GB

x-Milwaukee 95 66 .590 _

y-St. Louis 90 71 .559 5

Cincinnati 82 79 .509 13

Chicago 70 91 .435 25

Pittsburgh 61 100 .379 34

West Division

W L Pct GB

z-San Francisco 106 55 .658 _

z-Los Angeles 105 56 .652 1

San Diego 79 82 .491 27

Colorado 74 86 .463 31½

Arizona 51 110 .317 55

x-clinched divisiony-clinched wild cardz-clinched playoff berth

Saturday’s games

Tampa Bay 12, N.Y. Yankees 2Toronto 10, Baltimore 1Boston 5, Washington 3Texas 7, Cleveland 2Minnesota 4, Kansas City 0Chicago White Sox 5, Detroit 4Houston 10, Oakland 4Seattle 6, L.A. Angels 4San Diego 3, San Francisco 2, 10 inningsMiami 3, Philadelphia 1Pittsburgh 8, Cincinnati 6Atlanta 6, N.Y. Mets 5Chicago Cubs 6, St. Louis 5Arizona 11, Colorado 2L.A. Dodgers 8, Milwaukee 3

Sunday’s games

Boston at WashingtonCleveland at TexasTampa Bay at N.Y. YankeesBaltimore at TorontoDetroit at Chicago White SoxL.A. Angels at SeattleMinnesota at Kansas CityOakland at HoustonCincinnati at PittsburghSan Diego at San FranciscoColorado at ArizonaMilwaukee at L.A. DodgersPhiladelphia at MiamiChicago Cubs at St. LouisN.Y. Mets at Atlanta

Monday’s games

No games scheduled

Tuesday’s games

AL Wild Card #2 at AL Wild Card #1

Scoreboard

HOUSTON —  Yordan Alvarez

and  Kyle  Tucker  hit  two  of  the

Houston Astros’ four homers in a

10­4 win over the Oakland Athlet­

ics to lock up home­field advantage

in the AL Division Series.

With the win, the AL West cham­

pion Astros will have host the first

two  games  in  their  best­of­five

match­up against the AL Central

champion  White  Sox  next  week.

Houston owns the tiebreaker be­

tween the teams, winning five out

of seven against Chicago this sea­

son.

Phil  Maton  (6­0)  loaded  the

bases with two outs in the fifth but

induced  a  groundout  by  Seth

Brown to earn the win.

Paul Blackburn (1­4) was tagged

for a season­high six runs on seven

hits in two innings. 

White Sox 5, Tigers 4: Lucas

Giolito  tuned up  for  the playoffs

with a solid start, Yoán Moncada

hit a go­ahead, two­run homer in

the eighth inning and host Chicago

beat Detroit for  its sixth straight

win.

Giolito  finished  his  dominant

second  half  by  pitching  five  in­

nings,  allowing  one  run  and  two

hits.

Cubs 6, Cardinals 5: Ian Happ

drove a two­out, two­run homer in

the ninth inning to sour what could

be Jon Lester’s final career start,

lifting Chicago to a win at St. Louis.

Braves 6, Mets 5:Joc Pederson

hit a solo homer off Carlos Carras­

co (1­5) in the third inning, William

Contreras went deep with a two­

run shot off Carrasco in the fourth

and host Atlanta beat New York.

Rangers 7, Indians 2: Jordan

Lyles closed his season by allowing

only two hits in seven innings and

rookie Jonah Heim broke a fourth­

inning tie with a three­run home

run to help host Texas beat Cleve­

land.

Pirates 8, Reds 6: Bryan Rey­

nolds had four hits, raising his bat­

ting  average  above  .300,  to  help

Pittsburgh  rally  from  a  five­run

deficit and beat visiting Cincinnati.

Twins 4, Royals 0: Griffin Jax

and a trio of relievers combined on

a three­hitter and visiting Minne­

sota blanked Salvador Perez and

Kansas City.

Marlins 3, Phillies 1: Jesús Lu­

zardo struck out a career­high 11

and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a three­

run homer to help host Miami beat

Philadelphia.

Diamondbacks 11, Rockies 2:

Pavin  Smith  reached  base  five

times and host Arizona chased An­

tonio Senzatela (4­10) with a six­

run first inning.

Astros clinchhome-fieldedge againstWhite Sox

Associated Press

ROUNDUP

WASHINGTON  —  Christian

Vázquez tripled home the tiebreak­

ing run in the ninth inning and the

Boston Red Sox moved to the brink

of a postseason berth with a 5­3 win

over the Washington Nationals on

Saturday.

Boston is tied with the new York

Yankees for the top AL wild card

entering the final day of the regular

season. The Red Sox were sending

ace Chris Sale to the mound Sunday

against the Nationals needing a vic­

tory to punch a playoff ticket. If they

win,  they’ll  host  Tuesday’s  wild­

card  game  regardless  of  New

York’s  outcome  because  Boston

won the season series 10­9.

“We know what that means if we

win,” Boston manager Alex Cora

said.

Brandon  Lowe  hit  three  home

runs  and  the  Toronto  Blue  Rays

rolled to a 12­2 blowout that pre­

vented the Yankees from clinching

a playoff  spot  Saturday.  Instead,

they fell into a tie with Boston atop

the AL wild­card standings.

If the Red Sox lose Sunday, they

will still be assured entry into a tie­

breaker game Monday. Boston is a

game ahead of Toronto and Seattle.

“Total team effort,” Cora said. “It

wasn’t easy. ... It hasn’t been easy all

season.”

Tanner Houck pitched five per­

fect innings, striking out eight, but

Washington tied it at 1 in the eighth

inning on Juan Soto’s long, bases­

loaded  sacrifice  fly  to  center  off

Austin Davis (1­2).

J.D. Martinez  led off  the ninth

with a walk for Boston, and Váz­

quez drilled a ball to right off closer

Tanner  Rainey  (1­3)  that  easily

scored pinch­runner José Iglesias

for a 2­1 lead with two outs. Travis

Shaw singled to drive in Vázquez,

then Kiké Hernández homered into

the Red Sox bullpen against Mason

Thompson to push the lead to 5­1.

The Nationals’ Andrew Steven­

son hit a two­run homer in the ninth

before Hansel Robles finished the

game for his 14th save.

Washington  loaded  the  bases

with one out in the eighth after cen­

ter fielder Hunter Renfroe lost a fly

ball in the twilight, leading to a dou­

ble,  and  Adam  Ottavino  walked

two. Soto hit a soaring ball to deep

center to tie it, but Josh Bell fol­

lowed with a soft lineout to end the

threat.

Soto said he thought Davis was

“lucky” the ball was an out instead

of a grand slam. Soto also said Davis

was “talking trash” during the at­

bat.

Rafael Devers’ 36th homer of the

season put Boston in front 1­0 in the

fourth. Devers struck out against

Rainey with the bases loaded and

two out in the eighth.

Houck  zipped  through  the  Na­

tionals’  lineup,  needing  just  53

pitches to strike out eight among

the 15 consecutive outs he record­

ed. Washington hit one ball out of

the infield before Houck was lifted

for pinch­hitter Christian Arroyo in

the sixth.

Houck,  a  25­year­old  rookie,

twice threw 90 pitches among his 13

starts this season. Both came in late

August. He had not thrown more

than 42 pitches in his last three ap­

pearances, all of which were in re­

lief.

Before the game, Cora said there

were no limitations on Houck, who

pitched  five  innings  three  times

earlier this season. He pitched into

the sixth once, on Aug. 29.

With a chance to pitch his team

into  the  postseason,  New  York

starter  Jordan  Montgomery  in­

stead was rocked for a career­worst

seven earned runs in 22⁄�3 innings.

He  gave  up  a  pair  of  three­run

homers  to  Lowe,  who  also  went

deep in the seventh against Michael

King.

Even with the embarrassing de­

feat before a booing home crowd of

41,648, the streaky Yankees (91­70)

can still punch their AL wild­card

ticket Sunday with a victory over

Tampa Bay in the scheduled regu­

lar­season finale.

Another loss, and it gets dicey.

“We've got to win. It's as simple as

that,”  veteran  outfielder  Brett

Gardner said. “Here we are going

into Game 162 not knowing what

the future is.

“It's not ideal. But it's nice know­

ing that we still have a chance,” he

added.  “The  way  the  season  has

gone, it kind of makes sense that it

would come down to the very last

day. Seems about right.”

New York is assured at least a tie­

breaker game next week that could

put the team in the playoffs for the

fifth straight season. But after drop­

ping the first two games of this se­

ries, the Yankees no longer control

their own destiny to host the wild­

card game. Now they need a Boston

loss to do so.

“Just a bad day for us and we've

got to get over it quickly,” Yankees

manager Aaron Boone said.

Lowe batted in the eighth with an

opportunity  to  match  the  major

league record of four home runs in

a game. He evaded a 93 mph fast­

ball from Joely Rodríguez that was

way inside, then grounded out to

first base.

NICK WASS/AP

Boston’s Enrique Hernandez (5) celebrates his two­run home run with Bobby Dalbec, second from right,and Travis Shaw during the ninth inning of the Red Sox’s a 5­3 win Saturday at Washington.

Red Sox rally in 9th, moveto the brink of postseasonVázquez triples in go-ahead run in the 9th against Nationals; Yanks lose to Rays

Associated Press

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Saturday's scores

EAST

Amherst 24, Tufts 21Anna Maria 55, Keystone 35Assumption 35, Franklin Pierce 28Bentley 34, St. Anselm 21Bowie St. 44, Johnson C. Smith 7Bridgewater (Mass.) 42, Fitchburg St. 0Brockport 34, St. John Fisher 7Bryant 36, Brown 29Bucknell 21, Cornell 10California (Pa.) 37, Mercyhurst 0Carnegie Mellon 47, Bethany (WV) 7Catholic 23, MIT 13Charleston (WV) 38, Notre Dame (Ohio)

28Colgate 28, Georgetown 21College of NJ 15, William Paterson 14Cortland 58, Morrisville St. 7Delaware 20, Albany (NY) 15Delaware St. 33, Wagner 27, 2OTDelaware Valley 32, Lycoming 7Dickinson 24, McDaniel 6Duquesne 37, Merrimack 14Edinboro 17, Seton Hill 7Endicott 34, Curry 27FDU-Florham 27, Widener 3Fairmont St. 31, Concord 27Fordham 42, Lafayette 41Framingham St. 33, Plymouth St. 0Frostburg St. 51, UNC-Pembroke 21Gallaudet 42, Dean 35Grove City 38, Waynesburg 0Hamilton 27, Colby 14Harvard 38, Holy Cross 13Howard 22, Sacred Heart 17Indiana (Pa.) 28, Gannon 23Ithaca 28, Hobart 21James Madison 23, New Hampshire 21Johns Hopkins 66, Franklin & Marshall 10Juniata 24, Moravian 17Kean 27, Christopher Newport 20Kenyon 27, Allegheny 13Kings (Pa.) 10, Alvernia 7Kutztown 21, East Stroudsburg 14Mass. Maritime 16, Westfield St. 8Merchant Marine 31, WPI 28Millersville 31, Lock Haven 29Misericordia 31, Albright 20Monmouth (NJ) 54, Gardner-Webb 17Muhlenberg 54, Gettysburg 19Navy 34, UCF 30New England 28, Nichols 19New Haven 28, Pace 14Norwich 24, Coast Guard 21Ohio St. 52, Rutgers 13Penn St. 24, Indiana 0Princeton 24, Columbia 7RPI 38, Rochester 22Rhode Island 27, Stony Brook 20SUNY Maritime 19, Castleton 16Salisbury 27, Montclair St. 7Shepherd 59, Shippensburg 27Slippery Rock 75, Clarion 0St. Francis (Pa.) 27, Morgan St. 14St. Vincent 42, Case Western 40Susquehanna 62, Ursinus 23Temple 34, Memphis 31Texas Tech 23, West Virginia 20Toledo 45, Umass 7Trinity (Conn.) 28, Middlebury 0Union (NY) 30, Buffalo St. 17Utica 16, Hartwick 10W. Connecticut 34, Mass.-Dartmouth 19W. Michigan 24, Buffalo 17W. New England 41, Salve Regina 3W. Virginia St. 45, Alderson-Broaddus 13Washington & Jefferson 24, Geneva 20Wesleyan (Conn.) 27, Bates 24West Chester 21, Bloomsburg 20West Liberty 20, Glenville St. 19Westminster (Pa.) 49, Thiel 14Wheeling Jesuit 38, WV Wesleyan 0Wilkes 21, Stevenson 14Williams 28, Bowdoin 3Yale 34, Lehigh 0

SOUTH

Alabama 42, Mississippi 21Albany St. (Ga.) 31, Miles 3Appalachian St. 45, Georgia St. 16Auburn 24, LSU 19Barton 31, Carson-Newman 17Birmingham Southern 49, Sewanee 0Brevard 27, Greensboro 7Campbell 48, North Alabama 31Centre 42, Hendrix 21Chattanooga 45, W. Carolina 17Chowan 73, Winston-Salem 7Clemson 19, Boston College 13Coastal Carolina 59, Louisiana-Monroe 6Davidson 35, Stetson 28E. Kentucky 20, Tarleton St. 3ETSU 27, Wofford 21East Carolina 52, Tulane 29Edward Waters 37, Morehouse 13Elizabeth City St. 19, Livingstone 13Elon 20, Richmond 7Erskine 59, Va. Lynchburg 13FAU 58, FIU 21Fayetteville St. 46, Lincoln (Pa.) 9Florida A&M 28, Alabama St. 0Florida St. 33, Syracuse 30Fort Valley St. 24, Benedict 14Georgia 37, Arkansas 0Georgia Southern 59, Arkansas St. 33Grambling St. 37, Alabama A&M 28Huntingdon 48, Methodist 21Incarnate Word 38, Northwestern St. 27Kennesaw St. 31, Jacksonville St. 6Kentucky 20, Florida 13Lane 71, Texas College 0Liberty 36, UAB 12Louisiana-Lafayette 20, South Alabama

18MVSU 17, NC Central 16Mars Hill 28, Newberry 22Maryville (Tenn.) 38, S. Virginia 17Mercer 45, Samford 42Middle Tennessee 34, Marshall 28Millsaps 42, Rhodes 21Mississippi College 42, North Greenville

21Morehead St. 45, Dayton 38, OTMurray St. 22, E. Illinois 6NC A&T 41, Robert Morris 14NC State 34, Louisiana Tech 27NC Wesleyan 17, Averett 9

Nicholls 48, Houston Baptist 17Norfolk St. 47, Hampton 44, OTNorth Carolina 38, Duke 7Ohio Dominican 32, Kentucky Wesleyan

30Pittsburgh 52, Georgia Tech 21Randolph Macon 44, Ferrum 21SC State 42, Bethune-Cookman 35SE Louisiana 38, McNeese St. 35Savannah St. 21, Kentucky St. 17Shaw 27, Virginia Union 7Shenandoah 34, Bridgewater (Va.) 27South Carolina 23, Troy 14Tennessee St. 24, Austin Peay 22Tennessee Tech 28, SE Missouri 17The Citadel 35, VMI 24Trinity (Texas) 27, Berry 6Tuskegee 21, Clark Atlanta 0Valdosta St. 49, Shorter 13Vanderbilt 30, Uconn 28Virginia St. 33, St. Augustines 9Virginia-Wise 35, Lenoir-Rhyne 28Wake Forest 37, Louisville 34Washington & Lee 32, Hampden-Sydney

30West Alabama 38, West Georgia 20West Florida 39, Delta St. 33Wingate 43, Tusculum 35

MIDWEST

Allen 46, Central St. (Ohio) 34Augsburg 56, St. Olaf 28Augustana (Ill.) 17, North Park 14Aurora 70, Wis. Lutheran 29Ball St. 28, Army 16Bemidji St. 49, Minot St. 35Benedictine (Ill.) 41, St. Norbert 34Bethel (Minn. ) 34, Gustavus Adolphus 9Carleton 24, Macalester 10Carthage 63, Millikin 42Cent. Oklahoma 69, Lincoln (Mo.) 28Central 49, Wartburg 24Chicago 45, Knox 10Cincinnati 24, Notre Dame 13Concordia (Wis.) 41, Rockford 7DePauw 57, Hiram 7Drake 6, Butler 3Dubuque 31, Buena Vista 16Emporia St. 35, Washburn 30Eureka 38, Concordia (Ill.) 13Ferris St. 67, Northwood (Mich.) 25Findlay 37, Lake Erie 10Fort Hays St. 42, Neb.-Kearney 35Grand Valley St. 49, Saginaw Valley St. 17Greenville 21, Martin Luther 14Grinnell 40, Beloit 13Hamline 34, St. Scholastica 18Hanover 49, Anderson (Ind.) 0Hillsdale 24, Tiffin 21Hope 67, Kalamazoo 0Illinois 24, Charlotte 14Illinois Wesleyan 52, Elmhurst 3Indianapolis 77, SW Baptist 10Iowa St. 59, Kansas 7Iowa Wesleyan 69, Crown (Minn.) 28John Carroll 29, Muskingum 7Kent St. 27, Bowling Green 20Lindenwood (Mo.) 31, Truman St. 21Loras 21, Simpson 13Manchester 27, Franklin 24Marist 27, Valparaiso 24, OTMary 49, Northern St. 42McKendree 52, William Jewell 10Miami (Ohio) 28, Cent. Michigan 17Michigan 38, Wisconsin 17Michigan St. 48, W. Kentucky 31Michigan Tech 31, Davenport 7Minn. Duluth 26, Minn. St. (Moorhead) 21Minn.-Morris 38, Westminster (Mo.) 35Minnesota 20, Purdue 13Minnesota St. 58, Concordia (St.P.) 10Missouri St. 41, Illinois St. 20Monmouth (Ill.) 42, Lawrence 0Mount St. Joseph 45, Bluffton 27Mount Union 55, Otterbein 0N. Dakota St. 16, North Dakota 10N. Illinois 27, E. Michigan 20N. Iowa 34, Youngstown St. 7N. Michigan 26, Wayne St. (Mich.) 19NW Missouri St. 30, Missouri Western 7Nebraska 56, Northwestern 7Nebraska Wesleyan 28, Luther 21

North Central 62, Carroll (Wis.) 7Northwestern (Minn.) 16, Finlandia 13Ohio 34, Akron 17Ohio Northern 34, Marietta 33Oklahoma 37, Kansas St. 31Olivet 33, Alma 10Pittsburg St. 20, Missouri Southern 16Quincy 31, Missouri S&T 28Ripon 24, Illinois College 13Rose Hulman 63, Defiance 14S. Dakota St. 55, Dixie St. 7S. Illinois 31, W. Illinois 30, OTSW Minnesota 20, Upper Iowa 14Sioux Falls 28, Augustana (SD) 26South Dakota 38, Indiana St. 10St. John's (Minn.) 49, Concordia (Moor.)

0Tennessee 62, Missouri 24Trine 36, Adrian 20Wayne St. (Neb.) 38, Winona St. 21Wheaton (Ill.) 40, Washington (Mo.) 10Wis.-Eau Claire 25, Wis.-Stevens Pt 15Wis.-La Crosse 45, Wis.-River Falls 23Wis.-Oshkosh 35, Wis.-Platteville 32Wis.-Whitewater 37, Wis.-Stout 6Wittenberg 24, Ohio Wesleyan 23Wooster 28, Oberlin 24

SOUTHWEST

Angelo St. 62, W. New Mexico 3Ark.-Monticello 18, SW Oklahoma 16Arkansas Tech 51, S. Nazarene 41Belhaven 42, Texas Lutheran 35Cent. Arkansas 42, Abilene Christian 21Cent. Missouri 41, Northeastern St. 10E. Texas Baptist 27, Southwestern (Tex-

as) 17East Central 38, S. Arkansas 17Hardin Simmons 24, McMurry 21Harding 31, Oklahoma Baptist 7Henderson St. 27, SE Oklahoma 24Howard Payne 73, Sul Ross St. 30Mary Hardin-Baylor 56, Austin 0Mississippi St. 26, Texas A&M 22Oklahoma St. 24, Baylor 14Ouachita Baptist 64, NW Oklahoma 17Rice 24, Southern Miss. 19SMU 41, South Florida 17Sam Houston St. 21, Stephen F. Austin 20Texas 32, TCU 27Texas A&M Commerce 72, Fort Lauder-

dale Soaring Eagles 6Texas Southern 69, North American Stal-

lions 0UTEP 28, Old Dominion 21UTSA 24, UNLV 17

FAR WEST

Air Force 38, New Mexico 10Arizona St. 42, UCLA 23Baldwin Wallace 51, Capital 0Black Hills St. 45, Fort Lewis 17CSU-Pueblo 19, Colorado Mesa 13California Lutheran 35, La Verne 14Cent. Washington 30, Midwestern St. 20Chadron St. 46, N.M. Highlands 16Colorado Mines 20, Western St. (Col.) 14E. New Mexico 52, Lincoln Oaklanders 6E. Washington 34, Montana 28George Fox 27, Pacific Lutheran 14Hawaii 27, Fresno St. 24Linfield 56, Puget Sound 7Montana St. 40, N. Colorado 7N. Arizona 48, Idaho St. 17Nevada 41, Boise St. 31Oregon St. 27, Washington 24Pacific (Ore.) 49, Willamette 19Pomona Pitzer 56, Whittier 3Portland St. 20, S. Utah 13Redlands 22, Claremont Mudd 19S.D. Mines 45, Adams St. 42San Diego 27, St. Thomas (Minn.) 24San Jose St. 37, New Mexico St. 31Southern Cal 37, Colorado 14Stanford 31, Oregon 24, OTUC Davis 27, Idaho 20W. Oregon 41, West Texas A&M 38Washington St. 21, California 6Weber St. 38, Cal Poly 7Whitworth 35, Lewis & Clark 17

OTHER

Monroe Mustangs 56, Post UniversityEagles 15

Scoreboard

BARRY REEGER/AP

Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr., center, celebrates a fourthdown stop on Indiana in the first half Saturday in State College, Pa.The fourth­ranked Nittany Lions won 24­0.

Bennett threw 11 passes. Geor-

gia hammered away with its run-

ning game (273 yards on 56 car-

ries) and let its ridiculous defense

do the rest.

Arkansas managed 162 yards

and nine first downs.

Georgia has shut out consecu-

tive Southeastern Conference op-

ponents for the first time since

1980, the last time the Bulldogs

won a national championship.

Alabama turned Lane Kiffin’s

return to Tuscaloosa into a laugh-

er with a similar approach to Ge-

orgia. Instead of getting into a race

with Matt Corral and Ole Miss'

high-scoring offense, the Tide

went old school.

“It started to feel like the classic

Alabama pound the football,” run-

ning back Brian Robinson told re-

porters.

Robinson carried 36 times for

210 yards and four touchdowns. It

was 42-7 Crimson Tide early in the

fourth quarter before Ole Miss

tacked on a couple of touchdowns.

There were drama filled upsets

elsewhere.

Stanford knocked off No. 3 Ore-

gon in overtime. Kentucky beat

No. 10 Florida with a late goal-line

stand. Mississippi State handed

No. 15 Texas A&M its second

straight loss, a week before Alaba-

ma comes to College Station.

If ever there was a season for a

Group of Five team to make a case

to be in the College Football Play-

off, it might be this year.

And No. 7 Cincinnati might be

that team. Desmond Ridder and

the Bearcats made themselves

right at home at Notre Dame.

Through the first four weeks of

the season, 25 ranked teams lost,

the most in poll history. By the end

of Saturday, nine more had gone

down.

There are 128 major college

football teams that appear to be

ready to provide fans a season of

twists and turns and unpredict-

ability.

Not Alabama and Georgia.

They are here to crush every-

thing in their paths on the way to

Dec. 4 and the SEC championship

game.

Harbaugh watchUnder coach Jim Harbaugh No.

14 Michigan had not won a game in

which it was not

favored.

The strange

streak ended as

the Wolverines

pulled way from

struggling Wis-

consin in the sec-

ond half.

The story here

might be more about how the

Badgers, one of the most consis-

tent programs in the country in re-

cent years, could be heading for

one of their worst seasons in years.

Wisconsin is 1-3 for the first

time since 1990, when it finished 1-

10.

But that’s not fair to Michigan

and Harbaugh. The Wolverines

were embarrassed in their last

two trips to Madison, a place they

hadn’t won since 2001.

Even more than the losses to

Ohio State, getting manhandled

by Wisconsin appeared to be a

turning point in the wrong direc-

tion in Harbaugh's seven-year ten-

ure.

“Against a tough, physical team,

I thought our team played really

physical,” Harbaugh said. “We

matched it every bit.”

Harbaugh took a pay cut after

last season, helping to put himself

firmly on the hot seat coming into

2021.

Michigan still seems limited of-

fensively and somewhat untested

on defense. Tougher opponents lie

ahead in the Big Ten. Maybe start-

ing next week at Nebraska with

the Cornhuskers showing signs of

improvement.

Harbaugh has become a coach

defined by his failures, despite

quite a bit of success. It is unlikely

he will deliver on the hype he ar-

rived with in Ann Arbor this sea-

son, but Michigan is better and

Harbaugh deserves credit for

that.

Around the countryAfter losing to Bo Nix and No. 22

Auburn, LSU is 8-7 since winning

the 2019 national championship

game. The Tigers’ remaining SEC

schedule includes five teams that

were ranked coming into the

weekend and unbeaten Kentucky.

Things are about to get tense for

coach Ed Orgeron. ... All alone in

first-place in the Pac-12 North sits

Oregon State after a walk-off field

goal against Washington. ... No. 6

Oklahoma showed some signs of

finding itself offensively against

Kansas State ahead of the Red

River game against Texas. The

Sooners got a few more explosive

plays against Kansas State, They'll

need them next week against Bi-

jan Robinson and Texas. ... A top-

five matchup in Iowa City is likely

next week after No. 5 Iowa and No.

4Penn State had impressive victo-

ries. ... It was great victory for Cin-

cinnati, but the Bearcats’ oppo-

nents are not doing them any fa-

vors. Penn State shut out Indiana,

Cincinnati’s other Power Five vic-

tory. Within the American Athlet-

ic Conference, winless Navy upset

UCF. The Bearcats are going to

need SMU to separate itself from

the rest of the American or they

will be at risk of not facing another

Top 25 team during the regular

season.

Chaos: Tide, Bulldogssteady amid upsetsFROM PAGE 24

Harbaugh 

PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Top 25 FaredNo. 1 Alabama (5-0) beat No. 12 Missis-

sippi 42-21. Next: at No. 15 Texas A&M, Sat-urday.

No. 2 Georgia (5-0) beat No. 8 Arkansas37-0. Next: at No. 22 Auburn, Saturday.

No. 3 Oregon (4-1) lost to Stanford 31-24,OT. Next: vs. California, Friday, Oct. 15.

No. 4 Penn St. (5-0) beat Indiana 24-0.Next: at No. 5 Iowa, Saturday.

No. 5 Iowa (5-0) beat Maryland 51-14, Fri-day. Next: vs. No. 4 Penn St., Saturday.

No. 6 Oklahoma (5-0) beat Kansas St. 37-31. Next: at Texas, Saturday.

No. 7 Cincinnati (4-0) beat No. 9 NotreDame 24-13. Next: vs. Temple, Friday.

No. 8 Arkansas (4-1) lost to No. 2 Georgia37-0. Next: at No. 12 Mississippi, Saturday.

No. 9 Notre Dame (4-1) lost to No. 7 Cin-cinnati 24-13. Next: at Virginia Tech, Satur-day.

No. 10 Florida (3-2) lost to Kentucky 20-13. Next: vs. Vanderbilt, Saturday.

No. 11 Ohio St. (4-1) beat Rutgers 52-13.Next: vs. Maryland, Saturday.

No. 12 Mississippi (3-1) lost to No. 1 Ala-bama 42-21. Next: vs. No. 8 Arkansas, Sat-urday.

No. 13 BYU (5-0) beat Utah st. 34-20, Fri-day. Next: vs. Boise St., Saturday.

No. 14 Michigan (5-0) beat Wisconsin 38-17. Next: at Nebraska, Saturday.

No. 15 Texas A&M (3-2) lost to Mississip-pi St. 26-22. Next: vs. No. 1 Alabama, Sat-urday.

No. 16 Coastal Carolina (5-0) beat Loui-siana-Monroe 59-6. Next: at Arkansas St.,Thursday.

No. 17 Michigan St. (5-0) beat W. Ken-tucky 48-31. Next: at Rutgers, Saturday.

No. 18 Fresno St. (4-2) lost to Hawaii 27-24. Next: at Wyoming, Saturday, Oct. 16.

No. 19 Oklahoma St. (5-0) beat No. 21Baylor 24-14. Next: at Texas, Saturday, Oct.16.

No. 20 UCLA (3-2) lost to Arizona St. 42-23. Next: at Arizona, Saturday.

No. 21 Baylor (4-1) lost to No. 19 Oklaho-ma St. 24-14. Next: vs. West Virginia, Sat-urday.

No. 22 Auburn (4-1) beat LSU 24-19. Next:vs. No. 2 Georgia, Saturday.

No. 23 NC State (4-1) beat Louisiana Tech34-27. Next: at Boston College, Saturday,Oct. 16.

No. 24 Wake Forest (5-0) beat Louisville37-34. Next: at Syracuse, Saturday.

No. 25 Clemson (3-2) beat Boston Col-lege 19-13. Next: at Syracuse, Friday, Oct.15.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Tai Lava-

tai returned from a two-game inju-

ry absence to lead Navy back from

a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit

and a 34-30 win over Central Flor-

ida on Saturday for the Midship-

men’s first victory this season.

With Navy trailing 30-27, Diego

Fabot knocked the ball out of Bran-

don Johnson’s hands after a 20-

yard reception and Taylor Robin-

son recovered at the Midshipmen

47. Eleven plays and over five min-

utes later, Isaac Ruoss ran in from

the 4-yard line to give Navy the

lead with 3:09 left.

UCF quickly went down the

field down to the Midshipmen 12,

but Robinson, who dropped a

would-be interception two plays

earlier, came up with a pick in the

end zone on fourth down with 24

seconds remaining.

The victory was the first for Na-

vy (1-3, 1-1) in three meetings with

the Knights (2-2, 0-1) since joining

the American Athletic Conference

in 2015, the final league team the

Midshipmen were winless

against.

Bijan Nichols kicked his second

field goal and Lavatai, who missed

the previous two games, ran for his

second touchdown of the game af-

ter Navy entered the fourth quar-

ter trailing 30-17.

Lavatai and Ruoss had 21 car-

ries each as the Midshipmen ran

for 348 yards led by 85 from Carli-

nos Acie.

Daniel Taylor recovered a

blocked punt in the end zone for a

Navy TD in the first half.

UCF freshman Mikey Keene,

making his first start in place of the

injured Dillon Gabriel, was 16-

for-26 passing for 178 yards and

two TDs to Johnson.

Air Force 38, New Mexico 10:

Brad Roberts ran for 142 yards and

scored twice as the Falcons scored

on their first four drives to build a

big early lead then coasted to a win

at New Mexico.

Air Force’s defense contributed

four takeaways and four sacks —

3½ by Vince Sanford.

The Falcons (4-1, 1-1 Mountain

West) limited the Lobos (2-3, 0-1)

to 189 total yards, 143 in the second

half after Air Force had already

pushed its lead to 31-0 early in the

third quarter.

DeAndre Hughes ran for 89 and

a touchdown for the Falcons.

New Mexico quarterback Terry

Wilson Jr. was 13-for-21 for 142

yards and a touchdown pass.

In two games against the Lobos,

Roberts has 319 yards on 57 car-

ries and five touchdowns.

“I don’t know if it’s anything in

particular,” he said. “The offen-

sive line just does its job and opens

up a crease for me and I just try and

run as fast as I can. You can see the

defense and you can see them huff-

ing and puffing and you know you

kind of got ’em where you want

’em. It’s my favorite thing to look at

them and to know they’re tired and

that we can keep pounding the

rock.”

Air Force showed its ground-

and-pound offense can control the

ball against lesser opponents, but

it put the ball on the ground twice

and was fortunate to recover both.

Bigger and tougher tests await the

Falcons

“We just have to keep getting

better,” Calhoun said. “We have

some really great challenges up in

front of us.”

Ball State 28, Army 16: Justin

Hall returned the opening kickoff

99 yards for a touchdown, Drew

Plitt threw two TD passes and the

host Cardinals beat the Black

Knights to snap a three-game los-

ing streak.

Plitt was 17-for-28 passing for

233 yards with no interceptions

and Hall finished with seven re-

ceptions for 78 yards.

After Hall’s kickoff return, Ar-

my was stopped on short on a

fourth-and-2 and on the next play,

Plitt hit Jayshon Jackson down the

right sideline for a 44-yard touch-

down and Carson Steele added a 2-

yard TD run to give Ball State (2-3)

a 21-0 lead with 4:48 left in the first

quarter.

Tyhier Tyler scored on a 4-yard

run early in the second quarter and

added a 2-yard touchdown run just

before halftime to trim the deficit

to 21-14 but the Black Knights (4-1)

would get no closer.

Plitt connected with Yo’Heinz

Tyler on an 18-yard pass that gave

the Cardinals a two-touchdown

lead midway through the third

quarter.

Tyler had 24 carries for 63 yards

as Army finished with 36 yards

rushing on 26 attempts.

JULIO CORTEZ/AP

Navy fullback Isaac Ruoss runs against UCF during the first half of the Midshipmen’s 34­30 win Saturdayin Annapolis, Md. Ruoss scored the go­ahead touchdown and Navy rushed for 348 yeards.

Navy scores 17 points infourth quarter to top UCF

Associated Press

ACADEMIES

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The de-

fense kept giving Alabama back the

ball, and the offense repeatedly de-

livered it into Brian Robinson Jr.’s

hands. It was a simple but oh so ef-

fective formula.

Robinson rushed for career highs

of 171 yards and four touchdowns,

and No. 1 Alabama mostly throttled

the nation’s top offense in a 42-21

victory Saturday over No. 12 Missis-

sippi.

Bryce Young passed for a couple

of touchdowns for the Crimson Tide

(5-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference)

but the ’Bama defense and ground

game stole some of the thunder

from a matchup of the two leading

Heisman Trophy contenders com-

ing into the game.

“It was a great opportunity for us

today to show how physical we can

play for 60 minutes,” said Robinson,

a fifth-year senior who carried 36

times in his first 100-yard game.

The Crimson tide turned to Rob-

inson to play keep away from Matt

Corral and the offense of the Rebels

(3-1, 0-1), who had breezed through

three nonconference games before

an open date but had some gambles

that backfired.

Nick Saban improved to 24-0

against his former assistants, but

ex-offensive coordinator Lane Kif-

fin didn’t help his own cause with

three failed fourth-down calls in the

first half. Saban turned the tables

with two touchdowns on fourth-

down plays.

“I’m sure I got killed by going for

it on fourth down, but that’s analyt-

ics,” Kiffin said. “We believe in our

players, and it doesn’t work all the

time. When it doesn’t work and you

follow the book, it doesn’t look

good.”

Young completed 21 of 27 passes

for 241 yards and was intercepted

once for Alabama, which led 28-0 at

halftime. Oddsmakers had him as

the second-leading Heisman candi-

date, behind only Corral. The Re-

bels star ran for a touchdown but

was mostly held in check by a team

he torched last season. Corral also

passed for a touchdown, completing

22 of 32 passes for 213 yards while

losing a fumble.

Robinson’s 4 TDs

lift No. 1 AlabamaCrimson Tide’s defense dominates No. 12 Mississippi

Associated Press

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s deter-

mination to win its top-10 matchup

against Arkansas on the ground had

nothing to do with which quarter-

back started for the Bulldogs.

Instead, it was all about taking

what the Razorbacks defense gave

and the Bulldogs just kept taking

and taking. And that made it even

easier for the Georgia defense to

dominate.

Zamir White rushed for two

touchdowns and recovered a

blocked punt for another score, and

the No. 2 Bulldogs pounded No. 8

Arkansas 37-0 on Saturday in the

Georgia’s second consecutive shut-

out.

The Bulldogs (5-0, 3-0 Southeast-

ern Conference) raced to a 21-0 lead

in the first quarter despite playing

without quarterback JT Daniels,

who was held out with a right lat in-

jury.

Stetson Bennett filled in for Da-

niels and passed for only 72 yards as

Georgia relied on its running game

and top-rated defense to beat the

Razorbacks (4-1, 1-1).

“They were basically challenging

us, could we run the ball,” Bennett

said. “They said we couldn’t but we

said we could today.”

The Bulldogs rushed for 273

yards.

No. 2 Georgia, Whitethwart No. 7 Arkansas

BY CHARLES ODOM

Associated Press

Monday, October 4, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The last

pass of the day by Desmond Ridder

was a celebratory heave way up in-

to stands toward the Cincinnati

fans who came to Notre Dame to

see their Bearcats make a state-

ment.

Cincinnati wanted to use the first

top-10, regular-season matchup in

program history as a chance to

show it belongs among the nation’s

best before heading into its Amer-

ican Athletic Conference schedule.

Mission accomplished.

Ridder threw two touchdown

passes and ran for score late in the

fourth quarter as No. 7 Cincinnati

capitalized on its big opportunity

and beat the No. 9 Fighting Irish 24-

13 on Saturday in a game the Bear-

cats hope can be the centerpiece of

a College Football Playoff resume.

“We didn’t just beat a top-10

team, we beat a top-five program,”

Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell said.

No team from outside the Power

Five conferences has reached the

playoff in its seven seasons. Never

even came close.

To break that barrier, the Bear-

cats almost certainly need to go un-

defeated and this trip to Notre

Dame (4-1) looked like the toughest

test on their schedule. Not to men-

tion the grandest stage they’ll ap-

pear on this season.

“It’s still midseason, so we got a

lot of games left to play, but it obvi-

ously is a big win against a top-10

team,” Ridder said. “Hopefully, we

keep this going.”

Cincinnati was not quite dom-

inant, but it was plenty good

enough in its first trip to South

Bend since 1900 to snap the Fight-

ing Irish’s 26-game home winning

streak.

“I don’t think we let the stage get

too big for us,” Ridder said.

When told by coaches how loud

the crowd can be at Notre Dame

Stadium this week, Ridder quipped

that it wouldn’t be for long.

The senior delivered, going 19-

for-32 for 297 yards. He hooked up

with Alec Pierce six times for 144

yards, and was at his best after the

Irish cut the lead to 17-13 with 8:20

left in the fourth quarter.

Ridder went 3-for-3, with a bullet

down the middle for 36 yards to Le-

onard Taylor, on the ensuing drive.

He capped it off with a 6-yard TD

run around left end that made it 24-

13 with 5:08 left.

“That’s the Desmond Ridder fac-

tor,” Fickell said.

Cincinnati took advantage of

three turnovers by the Irish in the

first half to jump out to 17-0 lead.

The miscues by Notre Dame were

killers.

Ahmad Gardner picked off an ill-

advised throw under pressure by

Jack Coan that ended the Fighting

Irish’s first and best drive of the

half.

DeShawn Pace’s interception of

Notre Dame freshman Tyler

Buchner set up Cincinnati in the

red zone and Ridder flipped a 1-

yard pass to Taylor to make it 7-0

early in the second quarter.

Chris Tyree fumbled the ensuing

kickoff back to the Bearcats and the

Bearcats turned that into a 23-yard

field goal by Cole Smith.

Ridder and Cincinnati put to-

gether its best first-half drive late

in the second quarter, going 80

yards for a touchdown. Ridder

found Tre Tucker for a 27-yard

score that beat Irish All-America

safety Kyle Hamilton.

The Bearcats were up 17-0 with

40 seconds left in the first half and

for the third time Cincinnati fans,

decked in red in the upper reaches

of the south end zone, were chant-

ing “Let’s Go Bearcats!”

After the postgame celebration

died down, Ridder belted out a

“How ’bout them Bearcats!” when

he entered the interview room and

talked about how it “sounded like a

home game.”

It looked like one at the end, too.

Cincinnati waved its giant black

and red flags and Lambeau-leaped

over the wall behind the corner of

the end zone to take selfies with

their fans.

Notre Dame’s Drew Pyne, who

took over last week in the second

half against Wisconsin when Jack

Coan went out with an ankle injury,

came off the bench in the third

quarter again for the Irish — this

time just to provide a spark.

Pyne was OK, showing some Ian

Book-ish mobility and getting rid of

the ball a little more quickly than

Coan. The sophomore was 9-for-22

for 143 yards and his 32-yard touch-

down pass to Braden Lenzy with

8:20 left in the fourth quarter cut

the lead to 17-13.

DARRON CUMMINGS/AP

Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder runs for a 6­yard touchdown past Notre Dame’s JD Bertrandduring the second half of Saturday’s game in South Bend, Ind. Cincinnati won 24­13.

Ridder, Cincinnati makestatement at Notre Dame

BY RALPH D. RUSSO

Associated Press

STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford’s

comeback victory that stunned Ore-

gon was enough of a roller-coaster

that coach David Shaw felt the need

to apologize to his parents and any

other fans older than 70 for the emo-

tional toll.

The Cardinal overcame a blown

lead and had their banged-up quar-

terback stage an improbable rally

before finally prevailing over the

third-ranked Ducks.

Tanner McKee threw a TD pass

on an untimed down at the end of

regulation to tie the game and anoth-

er on the opening possession of over-

time to lead Stanford to a 31-24 victo-

ry Saturday.

“The key word is resilience,”

Shaw said. “It’s the mark of a suc-

cessful team, it’s the mark of a suc-

cessful person. How can you with-

stand the storms that life gives you?

... Our guys took it on the chin quite a

bit but we fought back and made

some big plays.”

McKee came back after leaving

for a play on the final drive of regu-

lation with injured ribs to tie it on a

2-yard pass to Elijah Higgins after a

holding penalty by Oregon (4-1, 1-1

Pac-12) in the end zone extended the

game one play.

McKee then gave the Cardinal

(3-2, 2-1) the lead with a 14-yarder to

John Humphreys in overtime. Stan-

ford then forced Anthony Brown to

throw an incomplete pass on fourth-

and-8 to seal its fourth win against

an Ducks team ranked in the top 10

since 2009 and set off a wild on-field

celebration with the students and

players.

“We were all on cloud nine. Just

pure joy,” linebacker Gabe Reid

said. “There were a lot of ups and

downs. We tried to say consistent

with our energy and our passion. We

like to think we deal with adversity

well.”

Oregon appeared poised for its

first 5-0 start in eight years when it

rallied from 10 points down at half-

time to take a 24-17 lead early in the

fourth quarter on Brown’s second

TD run of the game.

But then McKee delivered the big

plays late and Stanford capitalized

on three Ducks penalties on the

game-tying 87-yard drive in the fi-

nal 1:59 of regulation.

“We had some bright moments,

but certainly not enough to over-

come some of our own mistakes,”

coach Mario Cristobal said. “We

didn’t play with enough discipline

today and we didn’t coach with

enough discipline today. It ends up

costing us the game.”

McKee left the game for one play

on the drive after being hit in the ribs

by Kayvon Thibodeaux on a play

ruled targeting. Oregon was then

called for another roughing the pas-

ser penalty and the holding penalty

in the end zone on what appeared to

be the final play.

The Cardinal got the untimed

down and McKee delivered with the

pass to Higgins. Shaw opted for the

extra point and the game went to OT.

“He’s a gritty dude,” Higgins said

about McKee. “That’s what we ex-

pect out of him and he expects out of

himself.”

The Ducks struggled to move the

ball early with only one first down on

the opening three drives and one

score in the first half. Brown threw

the first INT of the season for Ore-

gon on the second drive before get-

ting going a bit in the second half.

“It’s not good enough,” Brown

said. “A team as good as ours can’t

make mistakes like this. Can’t shoot

ourselves in the foot.”

JED JACOBSOHN/AP

Stanford’s Elijah Higgins catches a touchdown against Oregon’s DJJames on the final play of regulation on Saturday. Stanford won in OT.

Stanford rallies tostun No. 3 Oregon

BY JOSH DUBOW

Associated Press

PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Monday, October 4, 2021

SPORTSSprint to the finish

Race for final playoff spots comingdown to the wire ›› MLB, Pages 19­20

Stanford stuns, Cincy makes statement ›› College football, Page 23

No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Georgia are not here for

the chaos.

On another college football Saturday sprin-

kled with surprises, including three top-15 teams

losing to unranked opponents, the Crimson Tide and Bull-

dogs left no doubt about who are the two best teams in the

country.

The Crimson Tide buried No. 12 Mississippi by halftime

and the Bulldogs were up three touchdowns on No. 8 Arkan-

sas before the first quarter was over.

“I don’t want to simplify this, but they just whipped us

physically,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said.

That has been a theme for Georgia.

The Bulldogs have not been threatened since their open-

er against Clemson. Arkansas was hoping to make a state-

ment after it bullied both Texas and Texas A&M, but Ge-

orgia outclassed the Hogs in just about every way.

And the Bulldogs did it with their backup quarterback.

Stetson Bennett started for JT Daniels, but it hardly mat-

tered.

Top: Alabama RB Brian Robinson Jr. (4) runs for a touchdown against Mississippi during the second half of the Crimson Tide’s 42­21 win on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Right: Georgia running back Zamir White (3) breaks throughthe Arkansas line as he runs for a touchdown during the second half Saturday in Athens, Ga. The Bulldogs won 37­0.

PHOTOS BY VASHA HUNT, TOP, AND JOHN BAZEMORE, RIGHT/AP

Rising to the topAmid chaos, Alabama, Georgia are drama free

BY RALPH D. RUSSO

Associated Press

SEE CHAOS ON PAGE 21

TOP 25 TAKEAWAYS