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Volume 79 Edition 198B ©SS 2021 CONTINGENCY EDITION SUNDAY, JANUARY 24, 2021 Free to Deployed Areas
stripes.com
MILITARY
Top Fort HoodNCO clearedand reinstatedPage 3
MILITARY
US service membersin Afghanistan gettingCOVID-19 vaccinationsPage 3
MUSIC
Spector’s legacyis one of artistry,arrogance, abusePage 12
Packers believe Rodgers more than Brady’s match ›› Page 24
WASHINGTON — Newly confirmed
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will have
to contend not only with a world of security
threats and a massive military bureaucra-
cy, but also with a challenge that hits clos-
er to home: rooting
out racism and extre-
mism in the ranks.
Austin took office
Friday as the first
Black defense chief,
in the wake of the
deadly insurrection at
the U.S. Capitol,
where retired and
current military
members were among
the rioters touting far-
right conspiracies.
The retired four-star Army general told
senators this week that the Pentagon’s job
is to “keep America safe from our enemies.
But we can’t do that if some of those ene-
mies lie within our own ranks.”
Ridding the military of racists isn’t his
Personalchallenge
ALEX BRANDON/AP
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrives at the Pentagon as the first Black defense chief on Friday in Washington.
BY LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press
For 1st Black Pentagon chief,racism hits close to home
“I don’t thinkthat this is athing that youcan put aBand-Aid onand fix andleave alone.”
Lloyd Austin
Defense Secretary
SEE PERSONAL ON PAGE 5
WASHINGTON — Opening ar-
guments in the Senate impeach-
ment trial for Donald Trump over
the Capitol riot will begin the week
of Feb. 8, the first time a former
president will face such charges
after leaving office.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer announced the schedule
Friday evening after reaching an
agreement with Republicans, who
had pushed for a delay to give
Trump a chance to organize his le-
gal team and prepare a defense on
the sole charge of incitement of in-
surrection.
The February start date also al-
lows the Senate more time to con-
firm President Joe Biden’s Cabi-
net nominations and consider his
proposed $1.9 trillion COVID re-
lief package — top priorities of the
new White House agenda that
could become stalled during trial
proceedings.
“We all want to put this awful
chapter in our nation’s history be-
hind us,” Schumer said about the
deadly Jan. 6 Capitol siege by a
mob of pro-Trump supporters.
“But healing and unity will only
come if there is truth and account-
ability. And that is what this trial
will provide.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
will send the article of impeach-
ment late Monday, with senators
sworn in as jurors Tuesday. But
opening arguments will move to
February.
Trump’s impeachment trial
would be the first of a U.S. presi-
Trump impeachment trial to begin week of Feb. 8BY MARY CLARE JALONICK
AND LISA MASCARO
Associated Press
Biden facesstark choice oneconomic aidPage 6
SEE TRIAL ON PAGE 5
PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
BUSINESS/WEATHER
as Wall Street tapped the brakes
on its recent record-setting rally
Friday with a mixed finish for the
major stock indexes, though the
S&P 500 still ended the week with
its third weekly gain in four.
The benchmark index fell 0.3%,
snapping a three-day winning
streak, but notched a 1.9% gain for
the week. The Nasdaq eked out an-
other record high. So did the Rus-
sell 2000 index, which traders
have been favoring amid expecta-
tions of stronger economic growth
later this year.
The uneven finish for U.S. stock
indexes followed a slide in global
markets that began in Asia amid
worries about resurgent coronavi-
rus cases in China and weak eco-
nomic data from Europe. In the
United States, disappointing earn-
ings reports from IBM and some
other companies gave cover for in-
vestors to sell and book profits af-
ter big recent gains.
“The big picture is, it’s still a
pretty friendly environment for
stocks,” said David Lefkowitz,
head of Americas equities at UBS
Global Wealth Management. ”The
pandemic will wind down, you’ll
see a surge in corporate profits
this year and the Fed made very
clear they’re not going to take the
punch bowl away anytime soon."
The S&P 500 slipped 11.60
points to 3,841.47. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average dropped
179.03 points, or 0.6%, to
30,996.98. The Nasdaq inched up
12.15 points, or 0.1%, to 13,543.06.
The Russell 2000 added 27.34
points, or 1.3%, to 2,168.76.
Mixed finish on Wall Street as rally pausesAssociated Press
Bahrain68/58
Baghdad62/35
Doha74/58
Kuwait City65/42
Riyadh69/45
Kandahar53/23
Kabul54/25
Djibouti83/74
SUNDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Mildenhall/Lakenheath
38/27
Ramstein36/28
Stuttgart36/29
Lajes,Azores64/61
Rota62/57
Morón60/52 Sigonella
63/46
Naples56/47
Aviano/Vicenza50/33
Pápa43/30
Souda Bay65/52
Brussels38/30
Zagan37/31
DrawskoPomorskie 33/28
SUNDAY IN EUROPE
Misawa48/21
Guam83/75
Tokyo51/35
Okinawa72/60
Sasebo61/44
Iwakuni57/41
Seoul52/35
Osan55/34
Busan55/46
The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,
2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
MONDAY IN THE PACIFIC
WEATHER OUTLOOK
TODAYIN STRIPES
American Roundup ...... 11Books .......................... 17Comics .........................15Crossword ................... 15Music .......................... 12Opinion ........................ 18Sports .................... 19-24
Military rates
Euro costs (Jan. 25) $1.19Dollar buys (Jan. 25) 0.8013British pound (Jan. 25) $1.33Japanese yen (Jan. 25) 101.00South Korean won (Jan. 25) 1074.00
Commercial rates
Bahrain(Dinar) 0.3770Britain (Pound) 1.3661Canada (Dollar) 1.2692 China(Yuan) 6.4829Denmark (Krone) 6.1110Egypt (Pound) 15.7297 Euro 0.8214Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7522 Hungary (Forint) 293.77 Israel (Shekel) 3.2748Japan (Yen) 103.79Kuwait(Dinar) 0.3029
Norway (Krone) 8.4650
Philippines (Peso) 48.06Poland (Zloty) 3.73Saudi Arab (Riyal) 3.7511Singapore (Dollar) 1.3270
So. Korea (Won) 1106.19Switzerlnd (Franc) 0.8850Thailand (Baht) 30.00Turkey (NewLira) 7.3924
(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., purchasing British pounds in Germany), check withyour local military banking facility. Commercialrates are interbank rates provided for referencewhen buying currency. All figures are foreigncurrencies to one dollar, except for the Britishpound, which is represented in dollarstopound, and the euro, which is dollarstoeuro.)
INTEREST RATES
Prime rate 3.25Interest Rates Discount �rate 0.75Federal funds market rate �0.093month bill 0.0930year bond 1.87
EXCHANGE RATES
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3
AUSTIN, Texas — The senior
enlisted soldier at Fort Hood was
cleared by an investigation into
allegations that he used unprofes-
sional language and he was rein-
stated to his role as the command
sergeant major of III Corps and
Fort Hood, Army officials an-
nounced Friday.
The investigation into the be-
havior of Command Sgt. Maj. Ar-
thur “Cliff” Burgoyne began last
month after he allegedly spoke to
subordinates in a manner that
wasn’t appropriate of a corps-lev-
el noncommissioned officer. Ar-
my Forces Command, known as
FORSCOM, completed its inves-
tigation Friday and determined
“Burgoyne’s language was not
unprofessional, and he did not
exhibit counterproductive lead-
ership.”
“Putting people first includes
holding our leaders to a high
standard,” said Gen. Michael
Garrett, commander of FOR-
SCOM. “Command Sgt. Maj. Bur-
goyne is a tough
leader who
cares about ev-
ery soldier in
his formation. I
have faith in his
leadership, and
I know his sol-
diers are his top
priority.”
The suspension was a tempo-
rary removal and not punitive in
nature, FORSCOM said.
Lt. Gen. Pat White, command-
er of III Corps and Fort Hood,
said Burgoyne “cares deeply
about soldiers” and about up-
holding Army standards.
“He maintains my full trust
and confidence,” White said.
The investigation into Bur-
goyne’s behavior was unrelated
to a number of ongoing investiga-
tions at the base sparked by the
disappearance and death of Spc.
Vanessa Guillen, who was killed
April 22 by a fellow soldier.
Burgoyne arrived at Fort Hood
in July after serving as the senior
NCO of the 82nd Airborne Divi-
sion at Fort Bragg, N.C. He has
deployed three times each to Iraq
and Afghanistan, according to his
official biography.
Burgoyne entered the Army in
September 1986 with the Louisia-
na National Guard and became
active duty at Fort Hood in De-
cember 1992. His awards include
two Legions of Merit, three
Bronze Star medals and a Ranger
tab.
Fort Hood’s top NCO reinstated to positionBY ROSE L. THAYER
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @Rose_Lori
Burgoyne
break of the virus in Operating
Base Fenty, near the city of Jalala-
bad, led to a majority of the rough-
ly 300 Ugandan guards there test-
ing positive for the coronavirus
last summer.
Coronavirus-related travel re-
strictions also left some foreign
contractors stuck on U.S. bases for
months without pay, workers told
Stars and Stripes in July and Au-
gust. The issue of contractors
awaiting repatriation was resolv-
ed in December, the Pentagon
said in a report this week.
The Moderna vaccine provided
KABUL, Afghanistan — The
U.S. military began vaccinating
personnel in Afghanistan against
COVID-19 this week.
Doses of the Moderna vaccine
arrived in theater Jan. 17 and in-
oculation began the next day, U.S.
Forces – Afghanistan said in a
statement Friday.
The vaccine was given to people
who have jobs with increased like-
lihood of contracting COVID-19
and to people with conditions that
place them at high risk should
they contract the virus, the state-
ment said.
U.S. Forces in Afghanistan will
continue to mandate social dis-
tancing and mask wearing for the
roughly 2,500 troops and more
than 18,000 contractors in the
country.
“Our goal, as supplies become
more readily available, is to vacci-
nate all US servicemembers, civil-
ians and contractors in Afghanis-
tan who are willing to receive the
vaccine,” the statement said.
U.S. officials declined to discuss
how many troops in Afghanistan
have tested positive for the coro-
navirus, citing a Pentagon direc-
tive to stop announcing local case
figures.
The military overall has had 17
service members die from coro-
navirus and more than 130,000
contract the virus, according to
the Pentagon. An additional 54
contractors and 145 Department
of Defense civilians also died from
COVID-19, DOD said.
Over the last year, the coronavi-
rus pandemic halted face-to-face
advising between the U.S. and
their Afghan partners. An out-
by Central Command to troops in
Afghanistan is one of two ap-
proved for emergency use by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion in mid-December.
The plan is for overseas installa-
tions to receive the Moderna vac-
cine while troops stationed in
America will get the Pfizer vac-
cine, Chief of Naval Operations
Adm. Mike Gilday said in Decem-
ber before a Senate Armed Servic-
es Committee subpanel.
COVID-19 vaccination underway for US military in AfghanistanBY J.P. LAWRENCE
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @jplawrence3
MILITARY
The Army’s Fort Wainwright in
Alaska will close the base’s shop-
pette two hours earlier each night
starting Monday with an aim to
decrease drunken driving and
other “harmful acts.”
The FWA Shoppette at the Fair-
banks base will close at 10 p.m. in-
stead of midnight, though the gas
pumps will remain open 24 hours
a day, said Lt. Col. Catina Barnes,
a spokeswoman for U.S. Army
Alaska.
The earlier closing time comes
a week after Joint Base Elmen-
dorf-Richardson in Anchorage
banned the sale of alcohol on the
installation between the hours of
10 p.m. to 5 a.m. A spokesman for
the joint base told military.com
last week that banning late-night
sales was an “effective strategy”
at reducing the risk of suicide,
among other possible harms.
During the past four months,
the Wainwright shoppette has av-
eraged about $300 in alcohol sales
each night between 10 p.m. and
midnight, Barnes said.
Studies have shown a link be-
tween late-night alcohol sales and
“a significant increase in drunken
driving, vehicle crashes, vehicle
crash fatalities and other harmful
acts,” she said. Studies have also
found extended hours for alcohol
sales “increased assaults result-
ing in hospitalization,” Barnes
said.
In a study published in the jour-
nal Public Health Research and
Practice in 2016, researchers con-
cluded the “evidence of effective-
ness is strong enough to consider
restrictions on late trading hours
for bars and hotels as a key ap-
proach to reducing late-night vio-
lence.”
The researchers reviewed 21
previous studies undertaken from
2005 to 2015 in Australia, Norway,
Canada, Great Britain and the
United States and most concluded
reduced sales hours at night low-
ered rates of alcohol-related vio-
lence.
The Army in recent years has
been grappling with issues of
quality of life for soldiers in Alas-
ka.
In response to the death of five
soldiers due to suicide in 2018 and
2019, the Army conducted a study
searching for root causes, finding
multiple risk factors that included
issues of pain, sleeplessness and
relationships.
In early 2020, the Army
launched a series of improve-
ments aimed at reducing the risk
of suicide, including improved ac-
cess to mental health counseling,
access to healthier foods and bet-
ter fitness facilities.
Alaska Army basemoves to reducealcohol-related ills
BY WYATT OLSON
Stars and Stripes
JOHN PENNEL/U.S. Army
Soldiers and Marines at Fort Wainwright prepare to load into Chinook helicopters in Februaryfor a missionin support of the Arctic Edge exercise.
[email protected] Twitter: @WyattWOlson
PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
MILITARY
Several thousand National
Guard troops could remain in
Washington, D.C., to bolster secu-
rity through mid-March under a
plan that the National Guard Bu-
reau is developing with federal
law enforcement officials, a
Guard spokeswoman said Friday.
Up to 7,000 National Guard
troops could remain in D.C.
through March 12, said Nahaku
McFadden, a spokeswoman for
the National Guard Bureau. The
troops would come from volun-
teers among the about 25,600
forces rushed into the nation’s
capital in recent weeks to secure
the city for President Joe Biden’s
inauguration on Wednesday, two
weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the
U.S. Capitol.
The plan to extend some troops’
deployments comes at the request
of federal law enforcement offi-
cials, including the Secret Service,
which led to planning for inaugu-
ration-related security, officials
said. The intent to extend deploy-
ments beyond the end of January,
as initially planned, comes as offi-
cials fear the potential for more vi-
olence in the wake of the storming
of the Capitol by a mob of former
President Donald Trump’s sup-
porters. Five people died, includ-
ing one Capitol police officer, in
the melee.
McFadden said troops deployed
to Washington would not be re-
quired to remain in D.C. Those
who volunteer to support the long-
er operation will have their initial
31-day mobilizations orders mod-
ified.
The nearly 26,000 Guard troops
sent into D.C. ahead of Biden’s in-
auguration came from all 50 states
and four U.S. territories, McFad-
den said. Guard troops — some
armed at the Capitol — faced no
security incidents during the in-
auguration nor at any other time
since Jan. 6, she said.
Troops were spread across the
city, with some manning traffic
checkpoints and others standing
watch around the Capitol com-
plex, the National Mall and the
White House. Most remained in
place through Friday, officials
said.
About 15,000 of those troops
were slated to begin returning
home this weekend, Guard offi-
cials said Thursday.
The extensions also come amid
some controversy. Images of
Guard troops sleeping in a park-
ing structure circulated online af-
ter they were removed from areas
that they had been using to take
rest breaks while working 12-hour
shifts. Troops have since been al-
lowed back indoors “within con-
gressional buildings, including
the U.S. Capitol” to take their on-
duty breaks, Air Force Maj. Mat-
thew Murphy, a National Guard
spokesman, said in a statement is-
sued Friday.
The Wall Street Journal also re-
ported Friday that some 200 Na-
tional Guard troops deployed for
inauguration support had tested
positive for the coronavirus in re-
cent days.
McFadden and other National
Guard officials declined to con-
firm the report, citing Pentagon
policy, which restricts officials
from publicly reporting specifics
about coronavirus outbreaks as an
operational security measure.
Guard forces were screened for
symptoms of the coronavirus be-
fore deploying to D.C., but not all
were tested, McFadden said, in
part because of the short time-
frame to send forces into Wash-
ington.
“We are ensuring we are follow-
ing [coronavirus] protocols per
the [national Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention] guide-
lines,” she said.
National Guard may stay in DC into MarchBY COREY DICKSTEIN
Stars and Stripes
[email protected] Twitter: @CDicksteinDC
AUSTIN, Texas — States will
receive full reimbursement from
the federal government for using
National Guard troops in efforts to
combat the coronavirus pandemic
through an executive order signed
by President Joe Biden.
The policy change is just one of
several ways that the Biden ad-
ministration began to pivot from
former President Donald Trump’s
approach to the pandemic. Since
August, states only received 75%
reimbursement for using troops
on federally approved missions to
beat back the virus.
The order also allows reim-
bursement for emergency suppli-
es and the personnel and equip-
ment needed to create vaccination
centers, White House Press Sec-
retary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
The National Governors Associ-
ation, which brings together the
leaders of all 55 states, territories,
and commonwealths, has sought
full reimbursement since August
and applauded the policy change.
“Waiving cost-share require-
ments allows states to be more
nimble in responding to rapidly
changing needs while easing the
fiscal burdens they continue to
face during the pandemic,” said
James Nash, a spokesman for the
association.
As of Friday, more than 22,600
National Guard troops were de-
ployed across the country on coro-
navirus-specific missions, accord-
ing to the National Guard Bureau.
Some of the coronavirus mis-
sions have included working in
food banks, manning testing sites,
helping process unemployment
benefits and distributing personal
protective equipment. Troops also
now help states administer the
coronavirus vaccine through mo-
bile clinics for specific locations
such as nursing homes and mas-
sive drive-thru operations.
To be eligible for reimburse-
ment, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency must ap-
prove the use of National Guard
for missions. Guard members
then serve in a status known as Ti-
tle 32, which allows governors to
remain in control of troops though
funding for them comes from the
federal government. The status
provides Guard troops with addi-
tional federal benefits and pay,
such as education and health care
benefits, a housing allowance, and
benefits associated with retire-
ment.
States to be repaidfor Guard memberuse in virus fight
BY ROSE L. THAYER
Stars and Stripes
JESSICA HILL/AP
National Guard members wait tocheckin vehicles Monday atConnecticut's largest COVID19Vaccination DriveThrough Clinicin East Hartford.
[email protected]: @Rose_Lori
WASHINGTON — New first la-
dy Jill Biden took an unan-
nounced detour to the U.S. Capi-
tol on Friday to deliver baskets of
chocolate chip cookies to National
Guard members, thanking them
“for keeping me and my family
safe” during President Joe Bi-
den’s inauguration.
“I just want to say thank you
from President Biden and the
whole, the entire Biden family,”
she told a group of Guard mem-
bers at the Capitol. “The White
House baked you some chocolate
chip cookies,” she said, before
joking that she couldn’t say she
had baked them herself.
Joe Biden was sworn into office
on Wednesday, exactly two weeks
after Donald Trump supporters
rioted at the Capitol in a futile at-
tempt to keep Congress from cer-
tifying Biden as the winner of No-
vember’s presidential election.
Extensive security measures
were then taken for the inaugu-
ration, which went off without any
major incidents.
Jill Biden told the group that
her late son, Beau, was a Dela-
ware Army National Guard mem-
ber who spent a year deployed in
Iraq in 2008-09. Beau Biden died
of brain cancer in 2015 at the age
of 46.
“So I’m a National Guard
mom,” she said, adding that the
baskets were a “small thank you”
for leaving their home states and
coming to the nation’s capital.
President Biden offered his
thanks to the chief of the National
Guard Bureau in a phone call Fri-
day.
“I truly appreciate all that you
do,” the first lady said. “The Na-
tional Guard will always hold a
special place in the heart of all the
Bidens.”
Jill Biden’s unannounced troop
visit came after her first public
outing as first lady.
She highlighted services for
cancer patients at Whitman-
Walker Health, a Washington in-
stitution with a history of serving
HIV/AIDS patients and the
LGBTQ community. The clinic
receives federal money to help
provide primary care services in
underserved areas.
JACQUELYN MARTIN, POOL/AP
First lady Jill Biden greets members of the National Guard with chocolate chip cookies Friday at the U.S.Capitol in Washington.
First lady thanks National Guardtroops with chocolate chip cookies
Associated Press
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5
only priority. Austin, who was
confirmed in a 93-2 vote, has
made clear that accelerating de-
livery of coronavirus vaccines
will get his early attention.
But the racism issue is person-
al. At Tuesday’s confirmation
hearing, he explained why.
In 1995, when then-Lt. Col.
Austin was serving with the 82nd
Airborne Division at Fort Bragg,
N.C., three white soldiers, de-
scribed as self-styled skinheads,
were arrested in the murder of a
Black couple who was walking
down the street. Investigators
concluded the two were targeted
because of their race.
The killing triggered an inter-
nal investigation, and all told, 22
soldiers were linked to skinhead
and other similar groups or found
to hold extremist views. They in-
cluded 17 who were considered
white supremacists or separa-
tists.
“We woke up one day and dis-
covered that we had extremist
elements in our ranks,” Austin
told the Senate Armed Services
Committee. “And they did bad
things that we certainly held
them accountable for. But we dis-
covered that the signs for that ac-
tivity were there all along. We
just didn’t know what to look for
or what to pay attention to.”
Austin is not the first secretary
to grapple with the problem. Rac-
ism has long been an undercur-
rent in the military. While leaders
insist only a small minority hold
extremist views, there have been
persistent incidents of racial ha-
tred and, more subtly, a history of
implicit bias in what is a predom-
inantly white institution.
A recent Air Force inspector
general report found that Black
service members in the Air Force
are far more likely to be investi-
gated, arrested, face disciplinary
actions and be discharged for
misconduct.
Based on 2018 data, roughly
two-thirds of the military’s enlist-
ed corps is white and about 17% is
Black, but the minority percent-
age declines as rank increases.
The U.S. population overall is
about three-quarters white and
13% Black, according to Census
Bureau statistics.
Over the past year, Pentagon
leaders have struggled to make
changes, hampered by opposition
from then-President Donald
Trump. It took months for the de-
partment to effectively ban the
Confederate flag last year, and
Pentagon officials left to Con-
gress the matter of renaming mil-
itary bases that honor Confeder-
ate leaders. Trump rejected re-
naming the bases and defended
flying the flag.
Senators peppered Austin with
questions about extremism in the
ranks and his plans to deal with it.
The hearing was held two weeks
after lawmakers fled the deadly
insurrection at the Capitol, in
which many of the rioters es-
poused separatist or extremist
views.
“It’s clear that we are at a crisis
point,” said Sen. Tammy Duck-
worth, D-Ill., saying leaders must
root out extremism and reaffirm
core military values.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., pressed
Austin on the actions he will take.
“Disunity is probably the most
destructive force in terms of our
ability to defend ourselves,”
Kaine said. “If we’re divided
against one another, how can we
defend the nation?”
Austin, who broke racial bar-
riers throughout his four decades
in the Army, said military leaders
must set the right example to dis-
courage and eliminate extremist
behavior. They must get to know
their troops, and look for signs of
extremism or other problems, he
said.
But Austin — the first Black
man to serve as head of U.S. Cen-
tral Command and the first to be
the Army’s vice chief of staff —
also knows that much of the solu-
tion must come from within the
military services and lower-rank-
ing commanders. They must en-
sure their troops are trained and
aware of the prohibitions.
“Most of us were embarrassed
that we didn’t know what to look
for and we didn’t really under-
stand that by being engaged more
with your people on these types of
issues can pay big dividends,” he
said, recalling the 82nd Airborne
problems. “I don’t think that you
can ever take your hand off the
steering wheel here.”
But he also cautioned that there
won’t be an easy solution, adding,
“I don’t think that this is a thing
that you can put a Band-Aid on
and fix and leave alone. I think
that training needs to go on, rou-
tinely.”
Austin gained confirmation af-
ter clearing a legal hurdle prohib-
iting anyone from serving as de-
fense chief until they have been
out of the military for seven
years. Austin retired less than
five years ago, but the House and
Senate quickly approved the
needed waiver, and President Joe
Biden signed it Friday.
Soon afterward, Austin strode
into the Pentagon, his afternoon
already filled with calls and brief-
ings, including a meeting with
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chair-
man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He held a broader video confer-
ence on COVID-19 with all top de-
fense and military leaders, and
his first call to an international
leader was with NATO Secretary
General Jens Stoltenberg.
Austin, 67, is a 1975 graduate of
the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point. He helped lead the
invasion into Iraq in 2003, and
eight years later was the top U.S.
commander there, overseeing the
full American troop withdrawal.
After serving as vice chief of the
Army, Austin headed Central
Command, where he oversaw the
reinsertion of U.S. troops to Iraq
to beat back Islamic State mili-
tants.
He describes himself as the son
of a postal worker and a home-
maker from Thomasville, Ga.,
who will speak his mind to Con-
gress and to Biden.
Personal: Austingrapples with racismFROM PAGE 1
ALEX BRANDON/AP
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, greets Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley as hearrives at the Pentagon on Friday in Washington.
dent no longer in office, an under-
taking that his Senate Republican
allies argue is pointless, and po-
tentially even unconstitutional.
Democrats say they have to hold
Trump to account, even as they
pursue Biden’s legislative priori-
ties, because of the gravity of what
took place — a violent attack on
the U.S. Congress aimed at over-
turning an election.
If Trump is convicted, the Sen-
ate could vote to bar him from
holding office ever again, poten-
tially upending his chances for a
political comeback.
The urgency for Democrats to
hold Trump responsible was com-
plicated by the need to put Biden’s
government in place and start
quick work on his coronavirus aid
package. “The more time we have
to get up and running ... the bet-
ter,” Biden said Friday in brief
comments to reporters.
Republicans were eager to de-
lay the trial, putting distance be-
tween the shocking events of the
siege and the votes that will test
their loyalty to the former presi-
dent who still commands voters’
attention.
Negotiations between Schumer
and Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell were complicat-
ed, as the two are also in talks over
a power-sharing agreement for
the Senate, which is split 50-50 but
in Democratic control because
Vice President Kamala Harris
serves as a tie-breaking vote.
McConnell had proposed delay-
ing the start and welcomed the
agreement.
“Republicans set out to ensure
the Senate’s next steps will re-
spect former President Trump’s
rights and due process, the institu-
tion of the Senate, and the office of
the presidency,” said McConnell
spokesman Doug Andres. “That
goal has been achieved.”
Pelosi said Friday the nine
House impeachment managers,
or prosecutors, are “ready to be-
gin to make their case” against
Trump. Trump’s team will have
had the same amount of time since
the House impeachment vote to
prepare, Pelosi said.
Democrats say they can move
quickly through the trial, poten-
tially with no witnesses, because
lawmakers experienced the insur-
rection first-hand.
One of the managers, California
Rep. Ted Lieu, said Friday that
Democrats would rather be work-
ing on policy right now, but “we
can’t just ignore” what happened
on Jan. 6.
“This was an attack on our Capi-
tol by a violent mob,” Lieu said in
an interview with The Associated
Press. “It was an attack on our na-
tion instigated by our commander
in chief. We have to address that
and make sure it never happens
again.”
Trump, who told his supporters
to “fight like hell” just before they
invaded the Capitol two weeks ago
and interrupted the electoral vote
count, is still assembling his legal
team.
White House press secretary
Jen Psaki on Friday deferred to
Congress on timing for the trial
and would not say whether Biden
thinks Trump should be convict-
ed. But she said lawmakers can si-
multaneously discuss and have
hearings on Biden’s coronavirus
relief package.
“We don’t think it can be de-
layed or it can wait, so they’re go-
ing to have to find a path forward,”
Psaki said of the virus aid. “He’s
confident they can do that.”
Democrats would need the sup-
port of at least 17 Republicans to
convict Trump, a high bar. While
most Republican senators con-
demned Trump’s actions that day,
far fewer appear to be ready to
convict. A handful of Senate Re-
publicans have indicated they are
open — but not committed — to
conviction.
Trial: Democrats expect to be able to move quickly through processFROM PAGE 1
NATION
PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
NATION
WASHINGTON — It’s taken
only days for Democrats gauging
how far President Joe Biden’s
bold immigration proposal can go
in Congress to acknowledge that
if anything emerges, it will likely
be significantly more modest.
As they brace to tackle a politi-
cally flammable issue that’s re-
sisted major congressional action
since the 1980s, Democrats are
using words like “aspirational” to
describe Biden’s plan and “hercu-
lean” to express the effort they’ll
need to prevail.
A similar message came from
the White House Friday when
press secretary Jen Psaki said the
new administration hopes Biden’s
plan will be “the base” of immi-
gration discussions in Congress.
Democrats’ cautious tones under-
scored the fragile road they face
on a paramount issue for their mi-
nority voters, progressives and
activists.
Even long-time immigration
proponents advocating an all-out
fight concede they may have to
settle for less than total victory.
Paving a path to citizenship for all
11 million immigrants in the U.S.
illegally — the centerpiece of Bi-
den’s plan — is “the stake at the
summit of the mountain,” Frank
Sharry, executive director of the
pro-immigration group Ameri-
ca’s Voice, said in an interview.
“If there are ways to advance to-
ward that summit by building vic-
tories and momentum, we’re go-
ing to look at them.”
The citizenship process in Bi-
den’s plan would take as little as
three years for some people, eight
years for others. The proposal
would make it easier for certain
workers to stay in the U.S. tempo-
rarily or permanently, provide
development aid to Central
American nations in hopes of re-
ducing immigration and move to-
ward bolstering border screening
technology.
No. 2 Senate Democratic leader
Richard Durbin of Illinois said in
an interview this week that the li-
keliest package to emerge would
create a path to citizenship for so-
called Dreamers. They are immi-
grants who’ve lived in the U.S.
most of their lives after being
brought here illegally as children.
“We understand the political
reality of a 50-50 Senate, that any
changes in immigration will re-
quire cooperation between the
parties,” said Durbin, who is on
track to become Senate Judiciary
Committee chairman. He said
legislation produced by the Sen-
ate likely “will not reach the same
levels” as Biden’s proposal.
The Senate is split evenly be-
tween the two parties, with Vice
President Kamala Harris tipping
the chamber in Democrats’ favor
with her tie-breaking vote. Even
so, major legislation requires 60
votes to overcome filibusters, or
endless procedural delays, in or-
der to pass. That means 10 Re-
publicans would have to join all
50 Democrats to enact an immi-
gration measure, a tall order.
“Passing immigration reform
through the Senate, particularly,
is a herculean task,” said Sen. Bob
Menendez, D-N.J., who will also
play a lead role in the battle.
Many Republicans agree with
Durbin’s assessment.
“I think the space in a 50-50
Senate will be some kind of DA-
CA deal,” said Sen. Lindsey Gra-
ham, R-S.C., who’s worked with
Democrats on past immigration
efforts. “I just think comprehen-
sive immigration is going to be a
tough sale given this environ-
ment.”
Dems reining inexpectations forimmigration bill
BY ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer takes the elevator in the U.S. Capitol, on Friday.
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden’s ambitious
opening bid, his $1.9 trillion American Res-
cue economic package, will test the new
president’s relationship with Congress and
force a crucial choice between his policy vi-
sion and a desire for bipartisan unity.
Biden became president this week with
the pandemic having already forced Con-
gress to approve $4 trillion in aid, including
$900 billion just last month. And those ef-
forts have politically exhausted Republican
lawmakers, particularly conservatives who
are panning the new proposal as an expen-
sive, unworkable liberal wish-list.
Yet, Democrats, now with control of the
House, Senate and White House, want the
new president to deliver ever more sweep-
ing aid and economic change.
On Friday, Biden took a few beginning
steps, signing executive orders at the White
House. But he also declared a need to do
much more and quickly, saying that even
with decisive action the nation is unlikely to
stop the pandemic in the next several
months and well over 600,000 could die.
“The bottom line is this: We are in a na-
tional emergency. We need to act like we’re
in a national emergency,” he said. “So we
got to move with everything we got. We’ve
got to do it together. I don’t believe Demo-
crats or Republicans are going hungry and
losing jobs, I believe, Americans are going
hungry and losing jobs.”
The limits of what Biden can achieve on
his own without Congress was evident in the
pair of executive orders he signed Friday.
The orders would increase food aid, protect
job seekers on unemployment, make it eas-
ier to obtain government aid and clear a
path for federal workers and contractors to
get a $15 hourly minimum wage.
Brian Deese, director of the White House
National Economic Council, called the or-
ders a “critical lifeline,” rather than a sub-
stitute for the larger aid package that he
said must be passed quickly.
All of this leaves Biden with a decision
that his team has avoided publicly address-
ing, which is the trade-off ahead for the new
president. He can try to appease Republi-
cans, particularly those in the Senate whose
votes will be needed for bipartisan passage,
by sacrificing some of his agenda. Or, he
can try to pass as much of his proposal as
possible on a party-line basis.
Well aware of all that, Biden is a seasoned
veteran of Capitol Hill deal-making and has
assembled a White House staff already
working privately with lawmakers and
their aides to test the bounds of bipartisan-
ship.
On Sunday, Deese, will meet privately
with a bipartisan group of 16 senators, most-
ly centrists, who were among those instru-
mental in crafting and delivering the most
recent round of COVID aid.
The ability to win over that coalition, led
by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe
Manchin, D-W.Va., will be central to any
path, a test-run for working with Congress
on a bipartisan basis.
“Any new COVID relief package must be
focused on the public health and economic
crisis at hand,” Collins said in a Friday
statement.
She said she looks forward to hearing
more about “the administration’s specific
proposals to assist with vaccine distribu-
tion, help keep our families and communi-
ties safe, and combat this virus so our coun-
try can return to normal.”
The Biden team’s approach could set the
tenor for the rest of his presidency, showing
whether he can provide the partisan heal-
ing that he called for in Wednesday’s inau-
gural address and whether the narrowly
split Senate will prove a trusted partner or a
roadblock to the White House agenda.
“The ball will be in Biden’s court to de-
cide how much he is going to insist on and at
what cost,” said William Galston, a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution. “As the
old saw goes, you never get a second chance
to make a first impression.”
Biden faced with choice of bipartisanship or full relief billAssociated Press
EVAN VUCCI/AP
President Joe Biden signs executive orders on the economy in the State Dining Room ofthe White House, on Friday.
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7
NATION
LOS ANGLES — The Los An-
geles County Sheriff’s Depart-
ment is under investigation for po-
tential civil rights violations as
state officials determine whether
deputies have engaged in a pat-
tern or practice of unconstitution-
al policing, California Attorney
General Xavier Becerra an-
nounced Friday.
The nation’s largest sheriff’s de-
partment, with nearly 18,000 dep-
uties and civilian staff, has been
roiled by allegations in recent
months regarding fatal shootings,
excessive force, deputy gangs, re-
taliation and other misconduct.
Community activists have orga-
nized protests calling for inde-
pendent investigations as Sheriff
Alex Villanueva has repeatedly
resisted the Board of Supervisors’
attempts at oversight even as a
county-appointed watchdog
group called for his resignation.
While Becerra would not identi-
fy any specific incidents, the attor-
ney general urged Los Angeles
County residents to report poten-
tial abuses to his office. Though
Becerra stressed that the probe is
civil in nature and not a criminal
investigation, he said his investi-
gators had reviewed enough re-
ports and evidence to reach a
point where “we
believed it was
necessary to
move forward”
with a formal re-
view.
“As opposed to
a criminal inves-
tigation into an
individual incident or incidents, a
pattern or practice investigation
typically works to identify and, as
appropriate, ultimately address
potentially systemic violations of
the constitutional rights of the
community at large by a law en-
forcement agency,” the state De-
partment of Justice said in a state-
ment.
Villanueva pledged transparen-
cy with the state and said his de-
partment regularly requests for
the Department of Justice to mon-
itor its investigations.
“Our Department may finally
have an impartial, objective as-
sessment of our operations, and
recommendations on any areas
we can improve our service to the
community,” he said in a state-
ment.
The agency’s controversies are
not limited to Villanueva, who was
elected in 2018 and unseated the
then-incumbent sheriff Jim
McDonnell. In 2017, former sher-
iff Lee Baca was sentenced to
three years in federal prison for a
scheme to hinder an investigation
into the department’s scandal-rid-
den jail system.
Becerra said his investigators
will not be hampered by the sher-
iff’s terms. They will be able to
look into a system of potential
abuses going back years to see if
the practices conformed with law
under previous department lead-
ers, he said. Becerra is President
Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. A new state at-
torney general would not affect
the state’s investigation, he said.
State probes LA County Sheriff’s DepartmentAssociated Press
Villanueva
WASHINGTON — The heads of
three federally funded interna-
tional broadcasters were abruptly
fired late Friday as the Biden ad-
ministration completed a house-
cleaning of Donald Trump-ap-
pointees at the U.S. Agency for
Global Media.
Two officials familiar with the
changes said the acting chief of the
USAGM summarily dismissed the
directors of Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia
and the Middle East Broadcasting
Networks just a month after they
had been named to the posts.
The changes came a day after
the director of the Voice of Amer-
ica and his deputy were removed
and the chief of the Office of Cuba
Broadcasting stepped down. The
firings follow the forced resigna-
tion of former President Donald
Trump’s handpicked choice to
lead USAGM only two hours after
Joe Biden took office on Wednes-
day. Trump’s USAGM chief Mi-
chael Pack had been accused by
Democrats and others of trying to
turn VOA and its sister networks
into pro-Trump propaganda ma-
chines. Pack had appointed all of
those who were fired on Thursday
and Friday to their posts only in
December.
The two officials said the acting
CEO of USAGM, Kelu Chao, had
fired Middle East Broadcasting
Network director Victoria Coates,
Radio Free Asia chief Stephen
Yates and Radio Free Europe
head Ted Lipien in a swift series of
moves late Friday. It was not im-
mediately clear if any of those re-
moved would try to contest their
dismissals.
The White House appointed
Chao, a three-decade VOA veter-
an journalist, to be the agency’s in-
terim chief executive on Wednes-
day shortly after demanding
Pack’s resignation. Chao did not
respond to phone calls seeking
comment about her actions. The
two officials familiar with the dis-
missals were not authorized to
publicly discuss personnel mat-
ters and spoke on condition of ano-
nymity.
Coates, Yates and Lipien, along
with former VOA director Robert
Reilly and former Cuba broad-
casting chief Jeffrey Shapiro were
all prominent conservatives cho-
sen by Pack to shake up what
Trump and other Republicans be-
lieved was biased leadership in
taxpayer-funded media outlets.
Reilly and his deputy Elizabeth
Robbins were removed just a
week after coming under harsh
criticism for demoting a VOA
White House correspondent who
had tried to ask former Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo a question
after a town hall event.
Pack had created a furor when
he took over USAGM last year and
fired the boards of all the outlets
under his control along with the
leadership of the individual
broadcast networks. The actions
were criticized as threatening the
broadcasters’ prized editorial in-
dependence and raised fears that
Pack, a conservative filmmaker
and former associate of Trump’s
onetime political strategist Steve
Bannon, intended to turn venera-
ble U.S. media outlets into pro-
Trump propaganda machines.
Biden had been expected to
make major changes to the agen-
cy’s structure and management,
and Pack’s immediate dismissal
on inauguration day signaled that
those would be coming sooner
rather than later. Pack had not
been required to submit his resig-
nation as his three-year position
was created by Congress and not
limited by the length of a particu-
lar administration.
VOA was founded during World
War II and its congressional char-
ter requires it to present inde-
pendent news and information.
Trump appointees firedfrom US media agency
Associated Press
PHOENIX — A Las Vegas-
based tour bus heading to the
Grand Canyon rolled over in
northwestern Arizona on Friday,
killing one person and critically
injuring two others, authorities
said.
A spokeswoman for the Mohave
County Sheriff's Office said the
cause of the Friday afternoon
wreck was not yet known, but a
fire official who responded said
speed appeared to be a factor. No
other vehicles were involved.
“It was a heavily damaged bus.
He slid down the road quite a
ways, so there was a lot of wreck-
age,” said Lake Mohave Ranchos
Fire District Chief Tim Bonney.
“Just to put it in perspective, on a
scale of zero to 10, an eight.”
None of the passengers was
ejected from the vehicle but they
were all in shock, Bonney said.
“A lot of them were saying the
bus driver was driving at a high
rate of speed,” he said.
A photo from the sheriff's office
showed the bus on its side on a
road that curves through Joshua
trees with no snow or rain in the
remote area.
There were 48 people on the
bus, including the driver, author-
ities said. After the crash, 44 peo-
ple were sent to Kingman Region-
al Medical Center, including two
flown by medical helicopter, spo-
keswoman Teri Williams said. All
the others were treated for minor
injuries, she said.
Two people were critically in-
jured, said Mohave County sher-
iff's spokeswoman Anita Morten-
sen.
The bus was heading to Grand
Canyon West, about 2½ hours
from Las Vegas and outside the
boundaries of Grand Canyon Na-
tional Park. The tourist destina-
tion sits on the Hualapai reserva-
tion and is best known for the Sky-
walk, a glass bridge that juts out 70
feet from the canyon walls and
gives visitors a view of the Colora-
do River 4,000 feet below.
Before the pandemic, about 1
million people a year visited
Grand Canyon West, mostly
through tours booked out of Las
Vegas. The Hualapai reservation
includes 108 miles of the Grand
Canyon’s western rim.
In addition to the Skywalk, the
tribe has helicopter tours on its
land, horseback rides, a historic
guano mine and a one-day white-
water rafting trip on the Colorado
River. Rafters who are on trips
through the Grand Canyon also
can get on and off the river on the
reservation.
AP
A Las Vegasbased tour bus that rolled over is seen in northwestern Arizona on Friday.
Bus heading to Grand Canyonrolls over; 1 dead, 2 critical
Associated Press
PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
NATION
PHOENIX— Legal sales of rec-
reational marijuana in Arizona
started on Friday, a once-unthink-
able step in the former conserva-
tive stronghold that joins 14 other
states that have broadly legalized
pot.
The state Health Services De-
partment on Friday announced it
had approved 86 licenses in nine
of the state's 15 counties under
provisions of the marijuana legal-
ization measure passed by voters
in November. Most of the licenses
went to existing medical marijua-
na dispensaries that can start sell-
ing pot right away.
“It’s an exciting step for those
that want to participate in that
program,” said Dr. Cara Christ,
Arizona’s state health director, on
Friday.
Under the terms of Proposition
207, people 21 and older can grow
their own plants and legally pos-
sess up to an ounce of marijuana
or a smaller quantity of “concen-
trates” such as hashish. Posses-
sion of between 1 ounce and 2.5
ounces is a petty offense carrying
a maximum $300 fine.
The march toward decriminal-
ization in the Sun Belt state was
long. Approval of the legalization
measure came four years after
Arizona voters narrowly defeated
a similar proposal, although med-
ical marijuana has been legal in
the state since 2010.
The initiative faced stiff opposi-
tion from Republican Gov. Doug
Ducey and GOP leaders in the
state Legislature, but 60% of the
state's voters in the November
election approved it.
The vote on marijuana reflected
larger trends at play during the
historic election that saw Demo-
crat Joe Biden flip the longtime
Republican state where political
giants include five-term conser-
vative senator Barry Goldwater
and the late GOP Sen. John
McCain.
Changing demographics, in-
cluding a fast-growing Latino pop-
ulation and a flood of new resi-
dents, have made the state frien-
dlier to Democrats.
The recreational pot measure
was backed by advocates for the
legal marijuana industry and
criminal justice reform advocates
who argued that the state's harsh
marijuana laws were out of step
with the nation. Arizona was the
only state in the country that still
allowed a felony charge for first-
time possession of small amounts
of marijuana, although most cases
were prosecuted as lower-level
misdemeanors.
Arizona prosecutors dropped
thousands of marijuana posses-
sion cases after the measure was
approved. Possession in the state
technically became legal when the
election results were certified on
Nov. 30 but there was no autho-
rized way to purchase it without a
medical marijuana card.
Legal sales ofrecreational potstart in Arizona
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa — One win-
ning ticket was sold in Michigan
for the $1 billion Mega Millions
jackpot, making it the third-large-
st lottery prize in U.S. history.
The winning numbers drawn
Friday are: 4, 26, 42, 50, 60 and a
Mega Ball of 24. The winning tick-
et was purchased at a Kroger store
in Novi, Mich. — a city about 8
miles northwest of Detroit — ac-
cording to the Michigan Lottery
website.
The Mega Millions top prize had
been growing since Sept. 15, when
a winning ticket was sold in Wis-
consin. The lottery's next estimat-
ed jackpot is $20 million.
Friday night's drawing comes
two days after a ticket sold in Ma-
ryland matched all six numbers
drawn and won a $731.1 million
Powerball jackpot.
Only two lottery prizes in the
U.S. have been larger than Fri-
day's jackpot. Three tickets for a
$1.586 billion Powerball jackpot
were sold in January 2016, and one
winning ticket sold for a $1.537 bil-
lion Mega Millions jackpot in Octo-
ber 2018.
The jackpot figures refer to
amounts if a winner opts for an an-
nuity, paid in 30 annual install-
ments. Most winners choose a
cash prize, which for the Mega
Millions jackpot is $739.6 million.
The odds of winning a Mega Mil-
lions jackpot are incredibly steep
at one in 302.5 million.
The game is played in 45 states
as well as Washington, D.C., and
the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Winning ticket of 3rd largestlottery prize ever sold in Mich.
Associated Press
When COVID-19 first swarmed
the United States, one health in-
surer called some customers with
a question: Do you have enough to
eat?
Oscar Health wanted to know if
people had adequate food for the
next couple weeks and how they
planned to stay stocked up while
hunkering down at home.
“We’ve seen time and again, the
lack of good and nutritional food
causes members to get readmit-
ted” to hospitals, Oscar executive
Ananth Lalithakumar said.
Food has become a bigger focus
for health insurers as they look to
expand their coverage beyond
just the care that happens in a doc-
tor’s office. More plans are paying
for temporary meal deliveries and
some are teaching people how to
cook and eat healthier foods.
Benefits experts say insurers
and policymakers are growing
used to treating food as a form of
medicine that can help patients
reduce blood sugar or blood pres-
sure levels and stay out of expen-
sive hospitals.
“People are finally getting com-
fortable with the idea that every-
body saves money when you pre-
vent certain things from happen-
ing or somebody’s condition from
worsening,” said Andrew Shea, a
senior vice president with the on-
line insurance broker eHealth.
This push is still relatively small
and happening mostly with gov-
ernment-funded programs like
Medicaid or Medicare Advantage,
the privately run versions of the
government’s health program for
people who are 65 or older or have
disabilities. But some employers
that offer coverage to their work-
ers also are growing interested.
Medicaid programs in several
states are testing or developing
food coverage. Next year, Medi-
care will start testing meal pro-
gram vouchers for patients with
malnutrition as part of a broader
look at improving care and reduc-
ing costs.
Nearly 7 million people were
enrolled last year in a Medicare
Advantage plan that offered some
sort of meal benefit, according to
research from the consulting firm
Avalere Health. That’s more than
double the total from 2018.
Insurers commonly cover tem-
porary meal deliveries so patients
have something to eat when they
return from the hospital. And for
several years now, many also have
paid for meals tailored to patients
with conditions such as diabetes.
But now insurers and other bill
payers are taking a more nuanced
approach. This comes as the coro-
navirus pandemic sends millions
of Americans to seek help from
food banks or neighborhood food
pantries.
Oscar Health, for instance,
found that nearly 3 out of 10 of its
Medicare Advantage customers
had food supply problems at the
start of the pandemic, so it ar-
ranged temporary grocery deliv-
eries from a local store at no cost to
the recipient.
The Medicare Advantage spe-
cialist Humana started giving
some customers with low incomes
debit cards with either $25 or $50
on them to help buy healthy food.
The insurer also is testing meal
deliveries in the second half of the
month.
That’s when money from gov-
ernment food programs can run
low. Research shows that diabetes
patients wind up making more
emergency room visits then, said
Humana executive Dr. Andrew
Renda.
“It may be because they’re still
taking their medications, but they
don’t have enough food. And so
their blood sugar goes crazy and
then they end up in the hospital,”
he said.
David Berwick of Somerville,
Mass. credits a meal delivery pro-
gram with improving his blood
sugar, and he wishes he could stay
on it. The 64-year-old has diabetes
and started the program last year
at the suggestion of his doctor. The
Medicaid program MassHealth
covered it.
Berwick said the nonprofit
Community Servings gave him
weekly deliveries of dry cereal
and premade meals for him to re-
heat.
These programs typically last a
few weeks or months and often fo-
cus on customers with a medical
condition or low incomes who
have a hard time getting nutritious
food. But they aren’t limited to
those groups.
Researchers expect coverage of
food as a form of medicine to grow
as insurers and employers learn
more about which programs work
best. Patients with low incomes
may need help first with getting
access to nutritional food. People
with employer-sponsored cover-
age might need to focus more on
how to use their diet to manage
diabetes or improve their overall
health.
CHARLES KRUPA/AP
Chef Jermaine Wall stacks containers of soups at Community Servings, which prepares and deliversscratchmade, medically tailored meals to people with critical or chronic illnesses on Jan. 12, in theJamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.
Insurers add food to coveragemenu as way to improve health
BY TOM MURPHY
Associated Press
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9
VIRUS OUTBREAK ROUNDUP
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Cali-
fornia Gov. Gavin Newsom has
from the start said his coronavirus
policy decisions would be driven
by data shared with the public to
provide maximum transparency.
But with the state starting to
emerge from its worst surge, his
administration won’t disclose key
information that will help deter-
mine when his latest stay-at-home
order is lifted.
State health officials said they
rely on a very complex set of mea-
surements that would confuse and
potentially mislead the public if
they were made public.
Dr. Lee Riley, chairman of the
University of California, Berkeley
School of Public Health infectious
disease division, disagreed.
“There is more uncertainty cre-
ated by NOT releasing the data
that only the state has access to,”
he said in an email. Its release
would allow outside experts to as-
sess its value for projecting trends
and the resulting decisions on lift-
ing restrictions, he wrote.
Newsom, a Democrat, imposed
the nation’s first statewide shut-
down in March. His administra-
tion developed reopening plans
that included benchmarks for vi-
rus data such as per capita infec-
tion rates that counties needed to
meet to relax restrictions.
It released data models state of-
ficials use to project whether in-
fections, hospitalizations and
deaths are likely to rise or fall.
As cases surged after Thanks-
giving, Newsom tore up his play-
book. Rather than a county-by-
county approach, he created five
regions and established a single
measurement — ICU capacity —
as the determination for whether a
region was placed under a stay-at-
home order.
In short order, four regions —
about 98% of the state’s population
— were under the restrictions af-
ter their capacity fell below the
15% threshold. A map updated
daily tracks each region’s capaci-
ty.
At the start of last week, no re-
gions appeared likely to have the
stay-at-home order lifted soon be-
cause their capacity was well be-
low 15%. But within a day, the state
announced it was lifting the order
for the 13-county Greater Sacra-
mento area.
Suddenly, outdoor dining and
worship services were OK again,
hair and nail salons and other
businesses could reopen, and re-
tailers were allowed more shop-
pers inside.
Local officials and businesses
were caught off guard. State offi-
cials did not describe their reason-
ing other than to say it was based
on a projection for ICU capacity.
State health officials relied on a
complex formula to project that
while the Sacramento region’s in-
tensive care capacity was below
10%, it would climb above 15%
within four weeks. On Friday, it
was 9%, roughly the same as when
the order was lifted.
“What happened to the 15%?
What was that all about?” asked
Dr. George Rutherford, an epide-
miologist and infectious-diseases
control expert at University of
California, San Francisco. “I was
surprised. I assume they know
something I don’t know.”
State officials projected future
capacity using a combination of
models. “At the moment the pro-
jections are not being shared pub-
licly,” Department of Public
Health spokeswoman Ali Bay said
in an email to The Associated
Press.
ConnecticutHARTFORD — COVID-19-re-
lated hospitalizations in Connecti-
cut continued to decrease Friday
as a growing number of people
have received their first dose of
the vaccine.
There were 1,058 people hospi-
talized, a decrease of 11 since
Thursday. Hartford County has
the largest number of patients,
with 325. It was followed by 308 in
New Haven County and 250 in
Fairfield County.
Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont
called the state’s recent trend of
declining hospitalizations “ex-
traordinarily good news” during a
media briefing on Thursday.
“We’re watching the metrics
carefully,” he said, “but we are
continuing to make progress, I
think, every day.”
According to data through Jan.
21 from Johns Hopkins Universi-
ty, the rolling average number of
daily new cases has decreased by
399.7, a decrease of 16.4% over the
past two weeks.
IllinoisSPRINGFIELD — Illinois Gov.
J.B. Pritzker announced Friday
that the state’s COVID-19 vaccina-
tion program would expand next
week to include the second tier of
priority recipients.
More than 616,000 first doses of
the two-round vaccine have been
administered, although inocula-
tions for a priority population —
residents of long-term care facil-
ities — lag behind, Pritzker said
during a briefing in Chicago on the
coronavirus pandemic. Pritzker
said while shots for the first phase
continue, officials will sign up for
the next lot, referred to as Phase 1b.
The state is closely following
vaccine-priority recommenda-
tions of a committee of the federal
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Vaccinations in Illinois have
been slowly rolling out for three
weeks while the pandemic contin-
ues. Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the state
public health director, reported
7,042 fresh cases of coronavirus
illness Friday, the highest single-
day number in two weeks.
NevadaRENO — A rural Nevada
church wants the U.S. Supreme
Court to weigh in on a legal battle
over the government’s authority
to limit the size of religious gather-
ings amid the COVID-19 pandem-
ic even after the church won an
appeals court ruling that found
Nevada’s restrictions unconstitu-
tional.
Attorneys general from 19 other
states recently joined the Calvary
Chapel Dayton Valley near Reno
in urging the Supreme Court to
rule on the merits of the Nevada
case to help bring uniformity to
various standards courts across
the country have used to balance
the interests of public safety and
freedom of religion.
“This petition is the court’s last
opportunity to issue a merits opin-
ion this term settling how lower
courts analyze the interplay be-
tween COVID-19 emergency or-
ders and free-exercise rights,”
lawyers for the church wrote in
their latest court filings on Thurs-
day.
They want the Supreme Court
to “clarify for all that the First
Amendment does not allow gov-
ernment officials to use COVID-19
as an excuse to treat churches and
their worshippers worse than sec-
ular establishments and their pa-
trons.”
In a 5-4 decision in June, the Su-
preme Court refused Calvary
Chapel’s request for an emergen-
cy injunction blocking enforce-
ment of Nevada’s attendance limit
at houses of worship.
But the 9th Circuit Court of Ap-
peals in San Francisco ruled in fa-
vor of the church last month, find-
ing it was unconstitutional for Ne-
vada to treat casinos and other
businesses more favorably than
churches.
OklahomaOKLAHOMA CITY — Oklaho-
ma is seeing promising declines in
the number of people testing posi-
tive and being hospitalized with
the coronavirus, but the state’s
death count continues to climb,
state health officials said Friday.
Because it can take several
weeks to confirm a death was
caused by COVID-19, the disease
caused by the virus, many of the
deaths reported this week are the
result of a spike in cases that were
reported after Thanksgiving and
into the Christmas holidays, State
Epidemiologist Dr. Jared Taylor
said.
“Given that lag in reporting, I
anticipate we will continue to see
these higher death tolls for prob-
ably a week or longer,” Taylor
said.
The Oklahoma State Depart-
ment of Health reported 47 addi-
tional COVID-related deaths on
Friday and nearly 3,000 new
cases, bringing the statewide
death toll to 3,187 and the total
number of confirmed cases in the
state to nearly 366,000.
TexasAUSTIN — A raging coronavi-
rus outbreak in Laredo, now one of
the biggest hotspots in the U.S., is
leading to hundreds of new cases a
day around the border city as Tex-
as again reported more than 400
new COVID-19 deaths Friday.
The more than 8,900 new cases
reported in Webb County, which
includes Laredo, over the past two
weeks is one of the highest per-
capita outbreaks in the country,
according to data from John Hop-
kins University. Gov. Greg Abbott
announced Friday that more med-
ical personnel and equipment
would be sent to Laredo, where
roughly half of all hospital beds
are occupied by patients with CO-
VID-19 — the highest rate of any-
where in the state.
Overall hospitalizations in Tex-
as continued showing potential
signs of stabilizing, but the rising
toll of new deaths continued to be
the worst since the pandemic be-
gan. More than 1,200 new deaths
have been reported in the past
three days alone as January is al-
ready set to go down as the dead-
liest month of the pandemic in
Texas.
WashingtonSEATTLE — A suburban Seat-
tle man who advertised a sup-
posed COVID-19 “vaccine” he
said he created in his personal lab,
was arrested Thursday by federal
authorities.
Johnny T. Stine, 56, faces a mis-
demeanor charge of introducing
misbranded drugs into interstate
commerce in that case and could
face up to one year in prison if con-
victed, KUOW reported. It wasn’t
immediately known if he has a
lawyer to comment on his case.
In March 2020, Stine advertised
injections of the supposed vaccine
for $400 on his personal Facebook
page, according to Brian T. Mo-
ran, the U.S. Attorney for the
Western District of Washington.
Stine wrote on Facebook that it
wasn’t the first time he had “cross-
ed some major lines,” adding that
he had also created “personalized
tumor vaccines for people who
wish to actually fight for their life
with legitimate tools, knowledge,
and skills that I’ve acquired over
the years.”
He also faces charges related to
peddling those untested drugs,
Moran said.
California keepskey virus data outof public sight
JAE C. HONG / AP
A medical staff members walk among traffic cones at a mass COVID19 vaccination site set up in theparking lot of Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif., on Friday.
Associated Press
PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
WORLD
MOSCOW — Protests erupted in cities
across Russia on Saturday to demand the
release of opposition leader Alexei Naval-
ny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe.
Police arrested more than 2,100 people,
some of whom took to the streets in temper-
atures as frigid -58 Fahrenheit.
In Moscow, thousands of demonstrators
filled Pushkin Square in the city center,
where clashes with police broke out and
demonstrators were roughly dragged off
by helmeted riot officers to police buses
and detention trucks, some beaten with ba-
tons.
Navalny’s wife Yulia was among those
arrested.
Police eventually pushed demonstrators
out of the square. Thousands then re-
grouped along a wide boulevard about a
half-mile away, many of them throwing
snowballs at the police.
The protests stretched across Russia’s
vast territory, from the island city of Yuzh-
no-Sakhalinsk north of Japan and the east-
ern Siberian city of Yakutsk, where tem-
peratures plunged far below zero, to Rus-
sia’s more populous European cities.
The range demonstrated how Navalny
and his anti-corruption campaign have
built an extensive network of support de-
spite official government repression and
being routinely ignored by state media.
“The situation is getting worse and
worse, it’s total lawlessness," said Andrei
Gorkyov, a protester in Moscow. "And if we
stay silent, it will go on forever.”
The OVD-Info group that monitors politi-
cal arrests said at least 795 people were de-
tained in Moscow and more than 300 at an-
other large demonstration in St. Peters-
burg. Overall, it said 2,131 people had been
arrested in some 90 cities.
Undeterred, Navalny's supporters called
for protests again next weekend.
Navalny was arrested on Jan. 17 when he
returned to Moscow from Germany, where
he had spent five months recovering from a
severe nerve-agent poisoning that he
blames on the Kremlin and which Russian
authorities deny. Authorities say his stay in
Germany violated terms of a suspended
sentence in a 2014 criminal conviction,
while Navalny says the conviction was for
made-up charges.
The 44-year-old activist is well known
nationally for his reports on the corruption
that has flourished under President Vladi-
mir Putin’s government.
His wide support puts the Kremlin in a
strategic bind — risking more protests and
criticism from the West if it keeps him in
custody but apparently unwilling to back
down by letting him go free.
Navalny faces a court hearing in early
February to determine whether his sen-
tence in the criminal case for fraud and
money-laundering — which Navalny says
was politically motivated — is converted to
3½ years behind bars.
Moscow police arrested three top Naval-
ny associates Thursday, two of whom were
later jailed for periods of nine and 10 days.
Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a
domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on
Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospi-
tal in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days
later. Labs in Germany, France and Swe-
den, and tests by the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, estab-
lished that he was exposed to the Soviet-era
Novichok nerve agent.
Russian authorities insisted that the doc-
tors who treated Navalny in Siberia before
he was airlifted to Germany found no trac-
es of poison and have challenged German
officials to provide proof of his poisoning.
Russia refused to open a full-fledged crimi-
nal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that
Navalny was poisoned.
Protests erupt across Russia over NavalnyAssociated Press
PAVEL GOLOVKIN/AP
Police detain a man during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader AlexeiNavalny in Moscow on Saturday.
HONG KONG — Thousands of
Hong Kong residents were locked
down in their homes Saturday in
an unprecedented move to contain
aworsening coronavirus outbreak
in the city.
Authorities said in a statement
that an area comprising 16 build-
ings in the city's Yau Tsim Mong
district would be locked down un-
til all residents were tested. Resi-
dents would not be allowed to
leave their homes until they re-
ceived their test results to prevent
cross-infection.
“Persons subject to compulsory
testing are required to stay in their
premises until all such persons
identified in the area have under-
gone testing and the test results
are mostly ascertained,” the gov-
ernment statement said.
The restrictions, which were
announced at 4 a.m. in Hong
Kong, were expected to end with-
in 48 hours, the government said.
Hong Kong has been grappling
to contain a fresh wave of the coro-
navirus since November. Over
4,300 cases have been recorded in
the last two months, making up
nearly 40% of the city’s total.
Coronavirus cases in Yau Tsim
Mong district represent about half
of infections in the past week.
Approximately 3,000 people in
Yau Tsim Mong had taken tests
for the coronavirus thus far, ac-
cording to the Hong Kong govern-
ment, joining the thousands of oth-
ers around the crowded city of 7.5
million who have been tested in
recent days.
Police guarded access points to
the working-class neighborhood
of old buildings and subdivided
flats and arrested a 47-year-old
man after he allegedly attacked an
officer. The man had reportedly
been told he would have to be test-
ed after coming into the restricted
area and would not be allowed to
leave until he could show a nega-
tive test result.
Sewage testing in the area
picked up more concentrated
traces of the virus, prompting con-
cerns that poorly built plumbing
systems and a lack of ventilation in
subdivided units may present a
possible path for the virus to
spread.
Hong Kong has previously
avoided lockdowns in the city dur-
ing the pandemic, with leader
Carrie Lam stating in July last
year that authorities will avoid
taking such “extreme measures”
unless it had no other choice.
Hong Kong has seen a total of
9,929 infections in the city, with
168 deaths recorded as of Friday.
Thousands in Hong Kong districtlocked down for COVID-19 testing
Associated Press
VINCENT YU/AP
A police officer stands guard at the Yau Ma Tei area, in Hong Kong,Saturday. Thousands of Hong Kong residents were locked downSaturday in an unprecedented move to contain a worsening outbreakin the city, authorities said.
LONDON— Four people-smug-
glers convicted of killing 39 people
from Vietnam who died in the back
of a container truck as it was ship-
ped to England were sentenced
Friday to between 13 and 27 years
in prison.
The victims, between the ages of
15 and 44, were found in October
2019 inside a refrigerated contain-
er that had traveled by ferry from
Belgium to the eastern England
port of Purfleet. The migrants had
paid people-smugglers thousands
of dollars to take them on risky
journeys to what they hoped would
be better lives abroad.
Instead, judge Nigel Sweeney
said, “all died in what must have
been an excruciatingly painful
death” by suffocation in the air-
tight container.
The judge sentenced Romanian
mechanic Gheorghe Nica, 43, de-
scribed by prosecutors as the
smuggling ringleader, to 27 years.
Northern Irish truck driver Ea-
monn Harrison, 24, who drove the
container to the Belgian port of
Zeebrugge, received an 18-year
sentence.
Trucker Maurice Robinson, 26,
who picked the container up in En-
gland, was sentenced to 13 years
and 4 months in prison, while haul-
age company boss Ronan Hughes,
41, was jailed for 20 years.
Nica and Harrison were con-
victed last month after a 10-week
trial. Hughes and Robinson had
pleaded guilty to people-smug-
gling and manslaughter.
Three other members of the
gang received shorter sentences.
Prosecutors said all the suspects
were part of a gang that charged
about $17,000 per person to trans-
port migrants in trailers through
the Channel Tunnel or by boat.
Sweeney said it was “a sophisti-
cated, long running, and profit-
able” criminal conspiracy.
Jurors heard harrowing evi-
dence about the final hours of the
victims, who tried to call Viet-
nam’s emergency number to sum-
mon help as air in the container
ran out. When they couldn't get a
mobile phone signal, some record-
ed goodbye messages to their fam-
ilies.
The trapped migrants — who in-
cluded a bricklayer, a restaurant
worker, a nail bar technician, a
budding beautician and a univer-
sity graduate — used a metal pole
to try to punch through the roof of
the refrigerated container, but on-
ly managed to dent it.
Detective Chief Inspector Da-
niel Stoten, the senior investigat-
ing officer on the case, said the vic-
tims “left behind families, memo-
ries, and homes, in the pursuit of a
false promise of something bet-
ter.” “Instead they died, in an un-
imaginable way, because of the ut-
ter greed of these criminals,” he
said.
People-smugglers sentencedfor deaths of 39 in container
Associated Press
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11
AMERICAN ROUNDUP
City council OKs law forhome delivery of alcohol
NV LAS VEGAS— Las Ve-
gas city residents will
be able to dial for drink deliveries
at home under a new law ap-
proved by the City Council.
The measure lets restaurants
and convenience stores deliver al-
cohol through third-party servic-
es. It was cast as a boost for busi-
nesses struggling with coronavi-
rus pandemic restrictions.
The bill requires stores and res-
taurants to have licenses to sell al-
coholic beverages for off-premise
consumption and an ancillary li-
cense, and for third-party services
to obtain a new $4,000 delivery li-
cense.
Officials uncover plot tosmuggle tobacco into jail
WA BELLINGHAM — A
man was arrested af-
ter corrections deputies reported-
ly uncovered a plot to smuggle to-
bacco to inmates inside the What-
com County Jail.
Steven Lee Dodson, 42, was
booked into the jail on suspicion of
third-degree introducing contra-
band and driving with a suspend-
ed license.
Deputies first learned about the
contraband smuggling plot Jan.
14, according to a news release
from the Whatcom County Sher-
iff's Office. They monitored nine
phone calls made from inmate Co-
dy Lee Wilson, 32, to an unknown
person outside the jail.
During the calls, details about
when and where the accomplice
would meet Wilson’s connection
and details about how it would be
smuggled into the jail were dis-
cussed, officials said.
Confederate statuedamaged, nose missing
LA LAFAYETTE— A mon-
ument of Confederate
Gen. Alfred Mouton in Louisiana
was damaged, with several holes
punctured from its head to jaw
and half of its nose taken off and
missing.
The monument is owned by the
city and there have been efforts to
get it moved. But The United
Daughters of the Confederacy,
which erected the monument in
1922, opposes that and is claiming
in court the city does not have the
rights to move the statue.
Gen. Mouton, who was born in
1829 in Opelousas, was the son of
former Louisiana Gov. Alexandre
Mouton. He, along with his father,
helped train a “Vigilante Commit-
tee” who whipped and lynched
Black people in Lafayette Parish,
the Daily Advertiser newspaper
said.
Teen accused of stealingnearly $1M from Kroger
GA DULUTH — A subur-
ban Atlanta teenager
was arrested on charges that he
defrauded a supermarket where
he worked of nearly $1 million
over a two-week period.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitu-
tion reported that Tre Brown, 19,
was arrested by Gwinnett County
police on charges of felony theft.
Gwinnett County police spokes-
man Cpl. Collin Flynn said Brown
stole more than $980,000 over two
weeks in December and January
by fabricating more than 40 re-
turns for non-existent items.
Police said Brown used the sto-
len money to buy two cars, clothes,
guns and shoes.
Fisherman rescued fromsunken vessel off coast
NC ELIZABETH CITY—
Coast Guard officials
said a man was rescued from his
sunken fishing vessel of the North
Carolina coast.
Officials said the man was res-
cued with the help of a good Sa-
maritan about 20 miles southwest
of Kitty Hawk.
Officials said watch standers at
Coast Guard Sector North Caroli-
na received the initial report from
the father-in-law of a man whose
18-foot boat sunk at the mouth of
Alligator River. At the time of the
call, the man was on the bow of his
sunken vessel.
Coast Guard crews from Eliza-
beth City responded to the inci-
dent, including an aircrew that di-
rected a nearby vessel to the loca-
tion of the sunken boat. The other
vessel’s crew were able to bring
the man aboard and transfer him
to emergency medical personnel.
High-speed interstatepursuit leads to arrest
SD CHANCELLOR — An
Iowa man was behind
bars in South Dakota after a pur-
suit that crossed state lines and re-
ached speeds of more than 100
mph.
The incident started when dep-
uties with the Lyon County Sher-
iff’s Office in Iowa started pursu-
ing a stolen vehicle . The pursuit
entered Lincoln County when the
South Dakota deputies there were
asked to take over.
It lasted for several miles in Lin-
coln County with speeds reaching
110 mph, authorities said. The pur-
suit ended when a Highway Patrol
trooper stopped the vehicle west
of Chancellor.
The man, 25, from Spencer was
arrested on tentative charges in-
cluding possession of stolen prop-
erty and drunken driving.
1st female mayor to servein city's 160-year history
UT ST. GEORGE— For the
first time since the city
of St. George was founded in 1861,
a woman will serve as mayor.
City councilwoman Michele
Randall was appointed mayor of
St. George in a four-to-one vote ,
the Spectrum newspaper report-
ed.
She will serve the 11 months re-
maining in the term of mayor Jon
Pike, who stepped down Jan. 4 to
run the Utah Insurance Depart-
ment under newly-elected Gov.
Spencer Cox.
Randall intends to run for a full
four-year term in the upcoming
municipal election in November.
6 Canada geese shot,dumped along river
ID BOISE — Idaho Fish and
Game said officers found
six Canada geese dumped along
the Snake River on Jan. 16. These
birds were dumped in the same
spot that nine other geese were
found in late December, CBS2
News reported.
Both times officers found the
birds completely intact with no
meat taken off.
“This is a blatant case of wasting
game, which is very disturbing,
especially if this is the same indi-
vidual or individuals who are re-
sponsible,” said Senior Conserva-
tion Officer Aaron Andruska
Man accused of threatsto police arrested
MN ST. PAUL — A Min-
nesota man who al-
legedly bragged about planning to
kill a police officer at a pro-Trump
rally in St. Paul was accused in
federal court of trying to sell an
undercover agent a sawed-off
shotgun.
A federal complaint stated that
Dayton Sauke, 22, of Owatonna,
had been offering to sell illegal
firearms on Snapchat for months
and he posted about plans to kill a
law enforcement officer at a
Trump event. Sauke told agents he
sold 120 firearms last year, the
complaint said.
Sauke is charged with one count
of possession of an unregistered
short-barreled shotgun.
DARYN SLOVER, (LEWISTON, MAINE) SUN JOURNAL/ AP
Todd Gustaitis of Otisfield, Maine, looks for traffic as his dog sled team crosses Station Road in Hebron, Maine. Gustaitis, a musher forUltimate Dog Sledding out of Oxford, Maine, had just finished a 12mile run for three passengers from Connecticut. Sled dog musher MatthewBlack said the dogs pulled the madeinMaine sled along the Interconnected Trail System 89.
Mush through the slush
THE CENSUS
70K The approximate number of chickens that recently died as afire swept through several buildings at A&L Farms in Berks
County, Pa. A fire official told WFMZ-TV two buildings were burned to theground and an egg house sustained partial damage. This was the third fire atthe farm in recent years. A fire in 2019 claimed the lives of more than 37,000chickens and a fire in 2015 destroyed an empty barn. A fire marshal is expectedto investigate the cause of the latest blaze.
From the Associated Press
PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
MUSIC
Pick a classic Phil Spec-
tor production. It ac-
tually doesn’t matter
which. The opening
eight bars of the Ronettes’ 1963
smash “Be My Baby” are among
the catchiest in American song, a
thump, thump-thump, splash
rhythm that rockets into outer
space with sizzling shakers and
snares that boom like shotguns.
When Ronnie Spector’s soaring
voice swoops in to steal the thun-
der, the combined eruption is
undeniably thrilling.
Or take “Strange Love,” the
Darlene Love-propelled gem that
opens with a frolicking school-
yard melody before turning into
a galloping riot of string- and
percussion-driven weirdness as
Love sings of a creeper whose
brand of affection is so concern-
ing that she “can’t take it, can’t
take it no more.” The entirety of
“A Christmas Gift to You,” Spec-
tor’s canonic holiday album, is a
rush of joyous girl-group energy.
“River Deep, Mountain High” —
my, oh my.
Record producer, songwriter
and studio auteur, Spector —
who died Jan. 16 at age 81 in a
Northern California hospital of
complications from COVID-19 —
was one of the most influential
musical creators of the 20th
century. It’s right there in the
groves, every clack of clave,
doo-wop wail, stealthy saxophone
run, chorale explosion, jangle of
bells and rat-a-tat percussion
breakdown. Among the first
American hitmaker-producers of
the record era to combine his
sonic ideas and single-minded
drive to become a chart-busting
one-stop shop, Spector laid the
foundation for auteur-producers
such as Rick Rubin, Dr. Dre,
Timbaland and Mike Will Made
It.
Equal parts composer, maes-
tro, producer, director and im-
presario, Spector helmed his
sessions at Gold Star Studios in
Hollywood with vocalists the
Ronettes, Crystals, Gene Pitney,
the Righteous Bros. and others
on songs including “To Know
Him Is to Love Him,” “He’s a
Rebel,” “Unchained Melody,”
“Walking in the Rain” and “And
Then He Kissed Me” as if each
record were preordained.
The result was a string of
breathtakingly deep hits that
helped guide the trajectory of the
1960s and beyond. Although his
reign on the charts only lasted
half a decade, echoes of Spector’s
famed “wall of sound” produc-
tion technique can be heard in
the work of Bruce Springsteen,
the Beach Boys, Katy Perry,
Beck and Best Coast.
And, and, and: Spector was a
murderer. A pistol-wielding
kidnapper and career violent
abuser who was convicted of the
2003 killing of Lana Clarkson.
These truths exist side by side,
which is why I hesitantly raised
my hand to write about Spector’s
work as a producer and the pow-
er he unleashed on the world
from a storefront recording stu-
dio on Santa Monica Boulevard
in Hollywood. To write about his
creations is not to eclipse his
killing of Clarkson, the details of
which are easily accessible. Ter-
rible people have made great art,
a notion that writer Fran Lebo-
witz discusses in her new Netflix
series, “Pretend It’s a City.”
Asked whether there were any
writers she won’t read, Lebowitz
replied by citing novelist Henry
Roth, who she explained “was
discovered to have had sex with
his sister. And it was horrible,
but no, it wouldn’t keep me from
reading him.”
She added, “Of course, you
can’t read someone in the same
way.”
Like most, I stopped being able
to listen to Spector’s music the
same way the moment he was
arrested for Clarkson’s murder.
But that doesn’t diminish the
glory of the Crystals’ “Da Doo
Ron Ron,” the Paris Sisters’ “I
Love How You Love Me,” the
Treasures’ “Hold Me Tight” or
Spector’s harrowing production
on the Righteous Brothers’ mas-
sive “You’ve Lost That Lovin’
Feeling.”
“Working with Phil Spector
was working with the best,” Ron-
nie Spector, Spector’s ex-wife
and most enduring collaborator,
wrote in a statement after his
death. “So much to love about
those days. Falling in love was
like a fairytale. The magical
music we made was inspired by
our love.” The namesake of the
Ronettes tempered her statement
by calling him “a brilliant pro-
ducer, but a lousy husband.”
At peak success in the early
1960s, Spector described his
three-minute pop gems as “little
symphonies for the kids,” and the
moment was right for them. A
generation of teenagers was
transforming boom-time Amer-
ica — and the Billboard charts —
and the scrawny Spector mani-
fested their desires. The best of
his singles were so propellant
that they upended pop music in
the pre-Beatles 1960s by deliver-
ing action, swing and excitement
to stagnant pop charts then
weighted down by Pat Boone-
style pablum.
Growing up just south of Mel-
rose and Fairfax, the son of a
single mom and a father who
died by suicide when Spector
was a boy, the prime orchestrator
of teenage love and angst lived
just a 10-minute cruise to down-
town Hollywood, where dozens of
recording studios and labels
operated. He got his first profes-
sional music lessons around the
corner from Wallich’s Music City
at Sunset and Vine. Some days
after school he would race home
to turn on the radio and practice
guitar along with KGFJ disc
jockey Hunter Hancock.
A shy kid, he landed his 1958
debut single, “To Know Him Is to
Love Him” by the Teddy Bears,
at No. 1 when he was 18 and just
out of Fairfax High School.
As he matured, Spector’s aural
signature — huge, echoed per-
cussion, prominent string ar-
rangements and charismatic,
pitch-perfect Black belters —
became immediately identifiable.
Some of the earliest singles by
the Beatles and Rolling Stones
reek of Spector’s influence, and
his production style remains an
archetype. It didn’t always over-
whelm; Pitney’s “Every Little
Breath I Take” and the Righ-
teous Brothers’ “Unchained
Melody” were more contained,
but still bursting at the seams.
He knew talent when he heard it:
Session players on Spector’s
classic hits included Sonny Bono,
Leon Russell, Glen Campbell,
bassist Carol Kaye and drummer
Earl Palmer.
As the puppet master, Spector
was a hands-on operator. A mil-
lionaire by the time he hit 23, he
booked studio time, conferred
with writers and directed studio
engineers. He accomplished a lot
in pre-production, spending
entire days, for example, getting
the percussion properly ampli-
fied in one of the studio’s four
echo chambers, working with
pounders including Bono and
Palmer on woodblocks, casta-
nets, bells, tom-toms, timpani
and congas.
If you want to get technical, the
so-called Wall of Sound was
actually angled back, like a rising
wave just before a surfer catches
it. With dozens of musicians
arranged by timbre and tone and
surrounded by strategically
placed microphones, Spector and
engineer and unsung hero Larry
Levine captured the sound of the
room, the instrumental reso-
nance and, somehow, the emo-
tional heart of the record. An
engineering classicist, Spector
famously rejected the burgeon-
ing hi-fidelity stereophonic ad-
vances in sound reproduction.
His motto: “Back to mono.”
Before takes, Spector was
known to roam the room coach-
ANDRES VICTORERO/TNS
Phil Spector was a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, but his murder conviction in the 2003 killing of actressLana Clarkson changed the groundbreaking producer’s already complicated legacy.
COMMENTARYBY RANDALL ROBERTS
Los Angeles Times
Listening to Phil Spector: A three-minute thrill ride, then a reckoning with evil
SEE SPECTOR ON PAGE 13
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13
Aaron FrazerIntroducing...
(Dead Oceans/Easy Eye Sound)
This year is going to be fine.
How can we be so sure? It’s start-
ing with the release of Aaron
Frazer’s debut solo album. One
spin and you’ll be spellbound,
swaying — and smiling.
Frazer, the drummer and co-lead singer for Durand
Jones & The Indications, has teamed up with Dan Auerbach
of The Black Keys for the electric, falsetto-fueled and soulful
12-track “Introducing...”
Auerbach has empowered Frazer to more deeply explore
funk, soul, doo-wop, fuzzy guitars and blues, creating an old-
new and deeply satisfying sound, from the horn- and Wur-
litzer-led “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It)” to the torch
song “Leanin’ On Your Everlasting Love.”
With vibes of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye and
an irresistible bass line — and wait, a flute? — “Bad
News” is tremendous, satisfying both your finger-
snapping and soul needs. There’s even a moment in it
when Frazier simply abandons his falsetto for a split
second, thrillingly.
Auerbach’s clout is evident, as when legendary song-
writer L. Russell Brown, who wrote hits for falsetto
star Frankie Valli, helped write “You Don’t Wanna Be
My Baby,” the album’s glorious opening track. Another
standout is “Over You,” a pulsating jewel built on an
addictive drum beat and chunky bass.
“Ride With Me” — co-written and featuring Mem-
phis Boys keyboardist Bobby Wood — uses a train
metaphor (”Children can you hear it/Can you hear
that whistle blowing?”) to signal change is coming,
recalling The O’Jays’ “Love Train.”
Frazer drums and sings throughout and his more
famous co-writer plays guitar and sings backup as
they make revival soul worthy of Motown and Stax.
It is music to dance to, drive to, cook to, celebrate
friendships to — 2021 starting with the coolest of
highs.
— Mark Kennedy
Associated Press
Alysse Gafkjen
ing musicians as if he were Quentin Ta-
rantino prepping actors before an action
sequence. As the late producer and musi-
cian Jack Nitzsche recalled to writer Har-
vey Kubernik when directing guitarists,
Spector “would whisper in their ears,
‘Dumb — don’t do anything. Just play
eighth notes.’ It was hard for any of the
guitarists to breathe or stretch out on the
records.”
Critics bemoaned so much sound, which
stretched the capacities of AM radio at the
time and prompted some to complain of
his productions’ expressionistic chaos.
Spector acknowledged the so-called “muz-
ziness,” but his ears registered it other-
wise, saying that the onslaught “adds up to
musical guts. There’s gotta be guts in
music. Make it too sharp and you lose out.
You can call it cloudy if you like, but I just
call it the guts of the music.”
The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson was
mesmerized by Spector’s onslaught. In the
years before Wilson produced “Pet
Sounds” using Spector’s techniques, Wil-
son would drop by Gold Star to observe
sessions. Wilson has said that the Crystals’
1962 smash “He’s Sure the Boy I Love”
“opened up a door of creativity for me like
you wouldn’t believe. Some people say
drugs can open that door. But Phil Spector
opened it for me.” Wilson later added that
Spector’s work led him “to design the
experience to be a record rather than just
a song.”
“He’s a Rebel,” written by Spector col-
laborator Pitney, tapped generational
angst, hormonal hunger and a baritone-
blaring brass run to advance a song about
a Romeo-and-Juliet-style romance. “Da
Doo Ron Ron” starts on a Monday when
our heroine meets Bill, continues when he
walks her home and ends later that night
after a little da-doo-ron-ron. “You never
close your eyes anymore when I kiss your
lips, and there’s no tenderness like before
in your fingertips” sings the Righteous
Brothers’ Bill Medley to open “You’ve
Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Measure by
measure the tension builds as the singer
lays out his heartbreaking evidence. When
the chorus arrives, Spector scores it as if
the world’s imploding.
“In those songs, the storyline was as
clear as clear could ever be,” recalled the
late Leonard Cohen, upon whom Spector
famously pulled a gun during one noto-
rious session. “The images were very
expressive — they spoke to us all. Spec-
tor’s real greatness is his ability to induce
those incredible little moments of poi-
gnant longing in us.”
The bridge on “Then He Kissed Me” —
the moment of lip-locking impact, which
singer Dolores “LaLa” Brooks belts with
exuberance — swirls with strings that
somehow capture the hormone-in-a-bottle
rush of falling in love. Spector’s produc-
tion of the King-Goffin song “He Hit Me
(It Felt Like a Kiss)” powers the upsetting
song with a sorrowful menace.
For Spector, the hits didn’t keep coming.
By the time the Beatles invited him to
work on “Let It Be” with them, the pro-
ducer hadn’t had a major hit in years, and
was stinging from the failure of Ike and
Tina Turner’s roaring take in “River
Deep, Mountain High” to make a sales
dent. The Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston
compared Spector in those periods to “a
little boy who does something really cute
and gets applauded for that, and so he
starts figuring out how to get the applause
back, but then it’s not quite as cute again. I
think Phil started believing his own legend
and press.”
The Ramones hired him to produce
their fourth album, “End of the Century.”
It didn’t go well, according to Dee Dee
Ramone. “I like beauty to be instant. Not
to be labored over, I don’t like music to be
a hustle. I think we can just go into a stu-
dio and do it and not be frustrated. Phil
seemed to be frustrated with us.”
Ramone added that Spector “wasn’t the
most friendly guy I’ve ever met. He tried
to be friendly but then he had his guns on
him and he wouldn’t let me out of his
house for a couple of days.”
Spector’s arrogance hobbled many an
artist, not least of which was his ex-wife
Ronnie, who once told British music mag-
azine NME that he “was always telling me
that I was nothing, that it was his produc-
tion and his writing that made me and
that, without him, I wouldn’t make it
again.”
He also proved unwilling to change with
the times. A rigid aesthete who demanded
subservience in the studio, he bemoaned
the rise of the Laurel Canyon folk scene,
and steadfastly refused to let his Southern
California upbringing seep into his sound.
“They thought Gold Star was in New
York,” Spector told Kubernik, adding that
his techniques were “hardly typical Cali-
fornia stuff. There are no four-part harmo-
nies on my records. Maybe 32-part harmo-
nies.”
He concluded his point with a dig at
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: “Anybody
laid-back in this room, get the f— out of
here!”
Spector: Producer’s legacy included artistry, arrogance and abuseFROM PAGE 12
MUSIC REVIEWS
Moon TaxiSilver Dream (BMG)
Moon Taxi have a
new album with a
dozen songs, but you
may be forgiven for
losing track of them.
One unmemorable,
formulaic tune bleeding into another leaves
the listener underwhelmed by the effect. Has
it been 20 minutes, really? How many bland
songs have been offered?
But perhaps “Silver Dream” — the Nash-
ville alt-rockers’ sixth full-length album — is
not intended for music lovers. The band has
already sold the single “One Step Away” to
ESPN’s SEC Network for coverage of college
football.
That deal is just the latest in which deep-
pocketed brands have snapped up Moon Taxi
music — Maker’s Mark, Jeep, Microsoft
Surface Pro, BMW and McDonald’s. Is this
the real silver dream of the title?
We are witnessing the natural effect when
a band loses the last of its edge, lured into
writing mainstream fluff. They even have a
song on the new album called “Take the Edge
Off.” It’s all the musical equivalent of the
gradual bleaching of coral.
After the sadly underwhelming — sonical-
ly, we mean, clearly not monetarily — album
“Let the Record Play” in 2018, there was a
glimmer of hope in 2019 that the band had
righted its course with the terrific song
“Restless.” But that was a false dawn.
Moon Taxi just doubled down on mediocre,
dad jeans alt-rock and are now so distant
from their brilliant 2012 album “Cabaret”
that it’s too far for a taxi to drive. “It’s a long
walk back from yesterday,” lead singer and
guitarist Trevor Terndrup seems to acknowl-
edge on the new album.
So let’s just call them what they really are
right now: jingle writers.
— Mark Kennedy
Associated Press
PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
Thanks to a proliferating
number of streaming
networks, TV shows
aren’t exactly in short
supply these days. But amid the
flashy new thrillers and slow-
burn sagas, it can be comforting
to return to the old stalwarts:
network sitcoms and dramas.
In fact, a new Nielsen analysis
suggests many viewers did just
that last year, as broadcast hits
including “The Office,” “Crimi-
nal Minds” and the still-airing
“Grey’s Anatomy” topped the
research company’s ranking of
2020’s most-streamed shows.
Nielsen cites those shows as
garnering more viewership than
any other title (including original
series and movies), based on its
content ratings for Netflix, Hulu,
Disney Plus and Amazon Prime.
Below, we’ve compiled a wide-
ranging list of our favorite broad-
cast gems available to stream on,
and beyond, those platforms.
‘Law and Order: SVU’
(1999)Few shows reflect our social
and cultural evolution the way
SVU does — after all, it’s the
longest-running (non-animated)
show on prime time. It’s also
iconic: Taylor Swift literally has
a cat named after its main char-
acter Olivia Benson (Mariska
Hargitay) of the New York Police
Department’s Special Victims
Unit. If you’re up for a serious
USA Network-style marathon,
start at the beginning with Detec-
tives Benson and Stabler (that’s
Elliot Stabler, played by Chris-
topher Meloni) and work your
way through to Season 22, which
now follows Captain Olivia Ben-
son and will soon feature Sta-
bler’s return.
You can also choose episodes
by guest star, of which there are
a seemingly infinite amount,
including memorable turns by
Martin Short, Cynthia Nixon,
Robin Williams and Ann-Mar-
gret, to name a few. (Streaming
on Hulu)
‘The Office’ (2005) The beloved and oft-quoted
workplace comedy was already a
perennial hit on Netflix before
moving over to NBC’s Peacock
earlier this year. But the series
became especially popular —
and resonant — amid a global
pandemic that unexpectedly took
many people away from their
offices and colleagues.
The show’s real-time appeal
goes beyond its meme-worthy
humor, as Washington Post Asso-
ciate Opinions Editor Autumn
Brewington recently mused:
“Losing oneself in Dunder Mif-
flin is a way of coping with pan-
demic isolation.” (Streaming on
Peacock)
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (2005) Before “Scandal” and “Bridge-
rton,” Shonda Rhimes gave us
this drama about the heavily
intersected lives and careers of
the beautiful, brooding and occa-
sionally insufferable doctors at a
Seattle teaching hospital. We
haven’t quite been the same
since. The series is currently in
its 17th season, so settle in,
McStreamy. (Seasons 1-16
streaming on Netflix; Season 17
streaming on Hulu)
If you’re in the mood for a
snarkier medical drama, try
“House” on Peacock or Amazon
Prime.
‘Cheers’ (1982) The TV equivalent of going
where everybody knows your
name. The classic NBC sitcom
features a memorable ensemble
cast: Ted Danson, Woody Har-
relson (whose character replaced
the late Nicholas Colasanto’s
beloved Coach), Bebe Neuwirth,
George Wendt and, uh, Kirstie
Alley — long before she had a
Twitter account. (Streaming on
Hulu, CBS All Access and Pea-
cock)
You likewise can’t go wrong
with the spinoff “Frasier,” avail-
able on CBS All Access, which
follows Dr. Frasier Crane (Kel-
sey Grammer) and features some
of the best TV banter we’ve ever
heard.
‘New Girl’ (2011) This roommate comedy, which
aired for seven seasons on Fox, is
funny, sweet and once featured a
cameo by Prince. And while it
wasn’t known for its social com-
mentary during its time on air,
fans have pointed out a few plot-
lines that evoke current events.
(Streaming on Netflix)
‘Lucifer’ (2016) Though this devilishly funny
comedy landed on Nielsen’s list
of most-streamed original series,
we’re including it here because it
began on Fox. The show’s trajec-
tory alone — from being can-
celed by Fox after 3 seasons to
enjoying a lively and well-re-
viewed revival on Netflix —
highlights its passionate fan base.
(Streaming on Netflix)
‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’
(2013) Like “Lucifer,” “Brooklyn
Nine-Nine” was canceled by Fox
— following its fifth season —
due to lackluster ratings. Dis-
appointed fans lobbied for its
resurrection, prompting NBC to
bring the goofy Jake Peralta
(Andy Samberg), stalwart Cap-
tain Raymond Holt (Andre
Braugher) and their colleagues
back to our TV screens. The
eighth season of the series will
premiere on NBC later this
month. (Streaming on Hulu)
‘Girlfriends’ (2000) Fans rejoiced when Netflix
announced a slate of classic
Black sitcoms — including Mara
Brock Akil’s treasured series
about four Black women naviga-
ting their late 20s and early 30s
while living in Los Angeles —
were coming to the platform last
year. (Streaming on Netflix)
‘This Is Us’ (2016)Dan Fogelman’s tender family
drama, now in its fifth season on
NBC, follows the triumphs and
struggles of the Pearson family
across generations, while poi-
gnantly exploring issues that
affect all of us — most recently
the pandemic and protests
against racial injustice. (Stream-
ing on Hulu)
‘Black-ish’ (2014)Over the course of seven sea-
sons, Kenya Barris’ ABC sitcom
— about a multigenerational and
wealthy Black family — has
masterfully balanced its humor
with moving and nuanced explo-
rations of issues ranging from
police brutality to colorism.
(Streaming on Hulu)
‘The O.C.’ (2003)
Josh Schwartz’s teen drama is
iconic for many reasons: Seth
(Adam Brody), Summer (Rachel
Bilson), Peter Gallagher’s eye-
brows (which apparently could
have been Jon Hamm’s?!) and,
yes, Ryan (Ben McKenzie) and
Marissa (Mischa Barton).
(Streaming on HBO Max)
‘Jane the Virgin’ (2014) This dramedy was inspired by
a telenovela — roots the CW
series playfully wove into its
DNA with standard evil twin
appearances, love triangles and
that-character’s-not-dead-after-
all reveals. But it was always
more than its twists and turns.
The true heart of the story is
the bond Jane (Gina Rodriguez)
shares with her mother Xiomara
(Andrea Navedo) and grand-
mother Alba (Ivonne Coll), three
generations of Latinas who al-
ways had each other’s backs.
(Streaming on Netflix)
‘The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air’ (1990) Will Smith’s breakout, which
aired for six seasons on NBC,
was one of the most exciting
additions to streaming last year.
For all of its hilarious moments,
the sitcom was just as skilled at
delivering poignant scenes that
we still remember by heart.
(Streaming on HBO Max)
‘Parks and Recreation’
(2009) Amid questionable pandemic-
focused entertainment efforts
from celebrities last year, this
delightful Amy Poehler-led com-
edy resurfaced with a pitch-
perfect reunion special that
made us remember why we love
Pawnee, Ind., so much. (Stream-
ing on Peacock)
‘The Good Place’ (2016) Eleanor (Kristen Bell), a self-
proclaimed Arizona dirtbag, dies
and unexpectedly ends up a
place that looks a lot like heaven
in this comedy from “Parks and
Rec” co-creator Michael Schur.
Danson, of “Cheers” fame, plays
the afterlife architect who helps
Eleanor (and several other arriv-
als) navigate her new surreality.
The thoughtful comedy ended
last year after four seasons, so
you can binge and get the an-
swers to the universe in one fell
swoop. (Streaming on Netflix)
NBC/TNS
Kristen Bell and William Jackson Harper are two of the stars of “The Good Place,” streaming on Netflix.
Nostalgic forold-fashionednetwork TV?
Here are 15 great broadcast shows, ready to streamBY BETHONIE BUTLER
The Washington Post
NBC
Mariska Hargitay has starred for 22 years on “Law and Order: SVU.”
NBC/TNS
Phillis Smith and Steve Carell are among the cast of “The Office.”
TELEVISION
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15
CROSSWORD AND COMICS
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
OH, FOURPEAT’S SAKE!BY ALEX BAJCZ / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ
52 Actor/TV host Joel55 To take this,
paradoxically, might signify taking a stand
56 Wedding exchange57 The D-backs, on
scoreboards58 Quack doctor’s
offering59 London neighborhood
west of Covent Garden
62 Most expensive block64 Kirghizia or
Byelorussia: Abbr.67 Quick hit69 Word in the
Declaration of Independence but not the Constitution
70 ____ Rachel Wood of ‘‘Westworld’’
71 ‘‘Can’t you ____?’’72 Post-interruption
question75 Plant used in making
biofuel77 ____ Schomburg,
Harlem Renaissance figure
78 Haiti’s ____ de la Tortue
79 Like some coffee and sprains
82 Heedless86 ‘‘Fantabulous!’’87 First ruler of a united
Hawaii91 Boot attachment92 ____ Pre√ 94 Loan option, briefly95 Like a narrow
baseball win
96 Fixture whose name translates to ‘‘small horse’’
99 Result of the ’64 Clay/Liston fight
101 Hitting the ground heavily
103 Relatively light foundry product
108 Wash. neighbor109 Lavishes affection
(on)110 Super-quality111 ‘‘This one’s all
mine!’’113 Like about 97 percent
of U.S. land117 Óscar ____, 1987
Peace Nobelist from Costa Rica
118 Potful in some Italian kitchens
121 Given (to)122 Stock-exchange
worker123 Makes Don nod?124 Things that can be
closed with a zip 125 Brains126 Least spicy
DOWN
1 Trashes2 ____ shield3 Bombeck who wrote
‘‘At Wit’s End’’4 Participates in a mosh
pit5 Los Angeles port
district6 Sea urchin, at a sushi
bar7 Took another take8 Isaac’s firstborn
9 Meditation sounds10 Click the circular
arrow button, say11 Aids for sleepyheads12 Top part of an I.R.S.
form13 Red morning sky, to
sailors14 Part of an Italian sub15 Some pricey
handbags16 Things Wyoming and
Nevada lack17 Guy who hosts
‘‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’’
18 Overnighting option20 It’s been performed
more than 1,000 times at the Met
23 Kan. neighbor30 Title for a lady32 Be outta sight?33 Alice in Chains genre34 Atlanta hoopster35 Repeated word in
Hozier’s 2014 hit ‘‘Take Me to Church’’
36 Base of an arch37 Video call annoyance42 Falling-out43 Mammal’s head and
heart?44 ‘‘Pokémon’’ cartoon
genre46 High-ranking47 Chutzpah49 Call to mind50 Like Parmesan and
pecorino51 ‘‘You do it ____ will’’53 Stick (to)54 That guy60 Cheri of old ‘‘S.N.L.’’
61 ‘‘With what frequency?’’
62 ‘‘The Masque of the Red Death’’ writer
63 Duck
64 Tries for a fly
65 Film character who says ‘‘That’ll do, Donkey. That’ll do’’
66 Payback
68 Christensen of ‘‘Parenthood’’
69 Grammy winner Stefani
73 Classic work by Karel Capek
74 Whitney for whom a Connecticut museum is named
76 Certain security officer
79 Prez No. 3480 Quick pick-me-up?81 Send forth83 Atmospheric prefix84 Ostracize85 Be left undecided88 Watered-down rum
89 Common lecture length
90 Giant in fairy tales?
93 Queen Anne’s royal family
97 ‘‘Let me clarify . . . ’’
98 Trashes
99 Yellow-brick-road traveler
100 Folds and stretches
102 Backpacker’s lodging
103 Make lemonade from lemons, so to speak
104 Peter of ‘‘Casablanca’’
105 ‘‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’’ co-star
106 Wood stain has a strong one
107 Tiny ____112 Hurtful remark114 Ploy115 Pocket rockets, in
poker116 In the event that119 Symbol on a Junction
Ahead sign120 Future zygotes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
120291
423222
82726252
3323130392
938373635343
7464544434241404
45352515059484
85756555
3626160695
1707968676665646
6757473727
584838281808978777
0998887868
5949392919
20110100199897969
801701601501401301
611511411311211111011901
021911811711
321221121
621521421
Alex Bajcz, of Morris Plains, N.J., is an assistant professor of biology and environmental science at Drew University. He studies how and why plants produce fruits — he says he’s one of the few biologists who get to eat his research. The name Bajcz is Hungarian. Since that’s difficult for American tongues, his family pronounces it ‘‘badges.’’ This is Alex’s sixth Times crossword and second Sunday. — W.S.
ACROSS
1 What a deadline increases
9 Dental brand
14 Neaten (up)
19 Jet routes
20 First name in flying history
21 ‘‘____ the Doughnut,’’ children’s book series
22 Classic saying originated by John Donne
24 Like oxfords, but not slippers
25 Really put one’s foot down
26 Shaded
27 ____ O’s (breakfast cereal)
28 Love, love, love
29 Population grouping, informally
31 Aid for making a tiki-bar cocktail
34 Isn’t attending solo, say
38 Bouncer’s requests, for short
39 Beethoven title woman (whose identity is unknown)
40 Supreme Egyptian deity
41 Standing on the street
44 Carpenter ____
45 Pin number?
48 ‘‘Glad to have you back, dear!’’
GUNSTON STREET
“Gunston Street” is drawn by Basil Zaviski. Email him at [email protected], and online at gunstonstreet.com.
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PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
GADGETS & TECHNOLOGY
In a cavernous warehouse near the Oakland
Coliseum, a 3D printer extrudes a secret
blend of minerals and plastic polymer that’s
hardened into a heavy stone-like form under
ultraviolet light.
The end result of that alchemy? A move-in-ready,
robot-made modular home from technology startup
Mighty Buildings.
Backed by $30 million in venture capital, Mighty
Buildings is following a classic Bay Area startup
recipe: use technology to address a big problem and
— it hopes — disrupt an existing industry. The
company claims it will be able to make homes fas-
ter, cheaper and greener than traditional builders
and help solve a persistent housing crisis in the Bay
Area and beyond.
“We are revolutionizing an industry by introduc-
ing more efficient materials and more efficient
technology that isn’t tailored to certain designs,”
said chief operating officer Alexey Dubov, an engi-
neer who co-founded the company in 2017 with
physicists Slava Solonitsyn, the CEO, and chief
technical officer Dmitry Starodubtsev.
But while housing experts see promise in the
technology and the product, they say serious hur-
dles must be overcome if Mighty Buildings is to
gain traction in the market and make a dent in the
housing crisis. Beyond the sheer scale of the prob-
lem — state officials estimate that California needs
nearly 2 million more homes by 2025 — Mighty
Buildings is seeking to disrupt a development proc-
ess notorious for slow-moving bureaucracy and
resistance to change.
For now, the outer shells of Mighty Buildings’
studios and small one- to two-bedroom homes are
30 percent 3D printed — and can be milled by the
firm’s giant robots to resemble bricks or stonework
— but the company expects that the larger homes
that it plans to start installing this year will be 60
percent to 80 percent 3D printed.
While the startup’s goal is to print any kind of
building to an architect or designer’s specifications,
including multi-family structures and office build-
ings, Mighty Buildings is presently focused on
small “accessory dwelling units” that can be in-
stalled as second houses and used by homeowners
who may rent them out.
In the Bay Area, accessory dwelling units or
ADUs, also known as tiny houses or in-law units,
have been hailed as a partial solution to the housing
crisis. Issi Romem, an economist and fellow at the
Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Ber-
keley, estimated in late 2019 that if 1 in 10 Bay Area
lots with a single-family residence had an ADU, the
region’s housing stock could grow by nearly 20
percent over the next two decades. The Bay Area
Council is pushing to ease regulations and lower
fees for development and installation of tiny homes.
Mighty Buildings focuses its marketing on a
“turn-key” package that includes permits, founda-
tion and a building, along with on-site installation or
assembly. A 350-square-foot one-bathroom Mighty
Mod unit dropped by crane onto a property costs
$183,750 while a two- to three-bedroom and one- to
two-bathroom Mighty House ranging from 864 to
1,440 square feet starts at $287,500 and is assem-
bled on site.
Mighty Buildings wants to address the housing
crisis by adding its ADUs to a region’s housing
stock, but also, by 2022, through multiple-residence
buildings up to five stories tall.
Stanford University professor of engineering and
design Barry Katz believes that in the push to bring
3D printing into mainstream home construction,
“Lots of people will try, most of them will fail, and
some of them may engineer the real breakthrough.”
The Bay Area’s pressing housing shortage, coupled
with the popularity of ADUs, may boost Mighty
Buildings’ fortunes, Katz said. But housing, he said,
“has been one of the most resistant areas to experi-
mental technologies.”
Terner Center researcher Tyler Puller also tem-
pers the potential promise he sees in the company’s
plans with some skepticism. He believes ADUs can
make “a dent” in the housing shortage and that
multi-story housing could do even more. But he’s
not sure 3D construction is the answer. “I just don’t
fully understand the appeal, other than it’s flashy
and exciting,” he said.
Plus, Mighty Buildings’ relatively high prices for
ADUs don’t appear to reflect reduced labor costs,
and the plastic in the firm’s printing mixture may
put it out of step with the market’s movement away
from petroleum products, Puller said. The cost of a
traditionally built small ADU, Puller said, averages
about $150,000, which is in line with a $400-per-
square-foot cost formula used by The Bay Area
Council.
ANDA CHU, BAY AREA NEWS GROUP/TNS
Mighty Buildings Chief Operating Officer Alexey Dubov poses for a photograph at their facility on Dec. 22in Oakland, Calif. The venture capitalfunded startup hopes to address the housing crisis by making 3Dprinted home components from plastic polymer and minerals.
Meeting a basic needBay Area company thinks 3D printing can ease housing woes
BY ETHAN BARON
The Mercury News
Monos’ new powered Kiyo
UVC Water Bottle ensures that
people on the go have clean,
purified drinking water. Accord-
ing to Monos, the UVC kills up to
99.9 percent of bacteria and
other pathogens lurking inside
the water. They also hope each
Kiyo bottle can eliminate more
than 100 plastic bottles per year
for each user.
The travel-ready bottle is
USB-C charged and holds 17
ounces of liquid. Inside is a
400mAh battery, which takes
about three hours to charge for
30 days of normal use.
Once it’s charged (an indicator
light will turn off) and clean, fill
it with water up to the indicator
line on the inside of the bottle,
put the cap on and press the
power button.
Swipe across the lid of the
bottle once for a 60-second quick
clean (blue light) or twice for a
deeper 3-minute cleaning (green
light). When the light goes out,
shake the bottle a few times and
start drinking.
Online: monos.com; $85, avail-
able in color choices of Blue
Hour, Castle Rock, Graphite,
Meadow, Salt Spring, and Tuscan
Sun
The AirPop was announced
recently as the world’s first
smart Air Wearable — the Ac-
tive+ Smart Mask with Halo
sensor. It’s built to help wearers
get a deeper understanding of
their respiratory health with a
sensor bridging the gap between
outside air and internal respira-
tion.
With the Halo sensor, the mask
captures breathing-related data,
and with real-time data about air
quality and location, the sensor
can accurately tell wearers when
to replace the mask’s snap-in
filter.
The Halo sensor is powered by
a coin-cell battery, which should
last up to six months. Once pow-
ered, it works in tandem with the
AirPop app (Android or iOS)
through Bluetooth to collect the
breathing data, which supports
sharing data via Apple Health-
Kit. The captured data includes
breathing behavior, breathing
cycles, and even the pollutants
that the mask has blocked during
use.
The AirPop Active+ is wash-
able and built with a 360-degree
sealing, medical-grade soft-touch
membrane. It’s built with a 3D
dome structure to keep the filter
core off the wearer’s face for
improved breathability and com-
fort.
When the Halo sensor is used
in Active Mode, it tracks metrics
including breaths per minute and
breaths per pace. All this can be
tracked from the Activity tab in
the app.
Online: airpophealth.com/us;
$149.99
Kiyo UVC Water Bottlepurifies water on the go
BY GREGG ELLMAN
Tribune News Service
AIRPOP/TNS
AirPop’s Active+ Smart Mask with Halo sensor is the world’s firstsmart Air Wearable that tracks breathing patterns.
MONOS/TNS
The Kiyo UVC Water Bottle killsup to 99.9 percent of bacteria.
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17
BOOKS
In “Kamala’s Way,” Dan
Morain takes readers back
to an arresting moment
from June 2019. At a Mo-
veOn forum, as California’s
junior U.S. senator and presi-
dential hopeful Kamala Harris
settled in for an interview, a
man barreled onto the stage,
yanking the microphone from
her hands. The moderator, Ka-
rine Jean Pierre, rushed to place
herself between Harris and the
assailant, who towered over
them, his intentions unknown.
Moments after the intruder was
led away with the help of Har-
ris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, the
candidate called for a new mic
and went back to fielding ques-
tions.
The election season was full of
jaw-dropping moments that
eclipsed this confrontation. But
Morain returns
to it and offers
a telling snap-
shot of Harris.
He portrays her
as a confident,
seasoned public
figure, whose
success rests
upon the intim-
ate loyalties of
others and whose candidacy
could not avoid being symbolic.
Witnessing those harrowing
seconds, some flashed back to
the 1968 assassination of Martin
Luther King Jr., while others
saw the ubiquitous threat of
21st-century gun violence.
Americans had no precedent for
a scene in which harm might
come to a woman of color — the
daughter of Jamaican and Indi-
an immigrants — while she
campaigned for the highest
office in the land.
For readers eager to under-
stand how Harris became some-
one who could hold her own on
a national stage, Morain charts
her route. His premise is that
there was nothing predictable
about the journey of a daughter
of immigrants, a Howard Uni-
versity alum and a Hastings
College of Law graduate from
local prosecutor to vice presi-
dent-elect. He stresses that it
does no justice to Harris’ story
to label her a “female Obama.”
Morain gives readers the public
Harris on her own terms: a
leader who rose to power in the
crowded terrain of California
politics. Though Berkeley was
her girlhood home, Harris was
not a politician who came up
from the grassroots. Instead,
beginning with her career as a
prosecutor in Alameda County,
home to Oakland, Harris com-
mitted herself to public service,
working in the trenches of the
justice system for those she
termed the “voiceless and vul-
nerable.” It is a perspective that
continues to frame her work to
this day.
But principles alone did not
take Harris beyond the seedy
courthouses of the East Bay.
Her rise from local prosecutor
to district attorney of San Fran-
cisco, attorney general of Cali-
fornia, U.S. senator and finally
vice president took three dec-
ades. Building relationships,
Morain explains, was key. Early
on, Harris was an intimate of
her state’s unrivaled Black pow-
er broker, lawmaker Willie
Brown, who showed her Cali-
fornia’s political underbelly and
its ropes. Along the way he
boosted Harris’ statewide visibil-
ity. Harris’ sister, Maya, who
headed the American Civil Lib-
erties Union of Northern Cali-
fornia, and her husband, Tony
West, associate attorney general
under President Barack Obama,
have served as her steadfast
confidants and strategists.
In 2007, Harris was a surro-
gate for Obama during his presi-
dential run, and her star was
rising. She jockeyed with Gavin
Newsom as the two ascended in
California politics; Newsom won
the governorship, and Harris
moved from attorney general to
the Senate. She parlayed her
roots in the Democratic strong-
hold of the Bay Area into alli-
ances with East Coast figures
such as Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.)
and the late Delaware attorney
general Beau Biden.
While some observers, in-
cluding those on San Francisco’s
society pages, have focused on
Harris’ style, Morain, a former
longtime reporter and editor for
the Los Angeles Times and the
Sacramento Bee, keeps the spot-
light on her achievements. After
becoming California’s attorney
general in 2011, Harris earned a
voice on issues that had national
resonance: the death penalty,
marriage equality, gun control,
the mortgage crisis, for-profit
colleges, reproductive rights and
human trafficking.
Here, Morain is admiring of
Harris and forgives her for the
policy compromises that still
attract criticism. In 2008, as San
Francisco’s district attorney,
Harris aimed to curb truancy
with a stick: prosecuting parents
whose children failed to attend
school. Though she had built her
public career as a death penalty
opponent, in 2014 Attorney Gen-
eral Harris fended off a consti-
tutional challenge to California’s
death penalty. Morain explains
that Kamala’s way meant she
balanced her principles against
her political ambitions. She
assessed matters through the
lens of the larger public issue.
In the case of prosecuting par-
ents for their children’s truancy,
she sought to enforce a child’s
right to an education. On the
death penalty, she sided with the
need for a balance of powers
that ensures that courts settle
constitutional questions. But her
approach still riles detractors
who brand Harris a public offi-
cial too steeped in a law-and-
order model of justice.
Morain relies on insights he
gathered in his time covering
California politics, bolstered by
interviews with Harris’ col-
leagues through the years, giv-
ing the book the feel of an in-
sider’s tale. But without access
to the vice president-elect or her
family, Morain cannot get to the
inner Kamala Harris.
Curiously, “Kamala’s Way”
provides little on how racism
and sexism shaped Harris’ path.
In his effort to explain her char-
acter, Morain comes very close
to trading in old, pernicious
stereotypes about Black women,
though perhaps unwittingly so.
In his telling, Harris sometimes
comes across as a Jezebel who
callously exploited intimacies,
even one with a married public
figure; a Mammy who, though
she had no children, readily
mothered others; an angry Black
woman wielding a sharp tongue
and sharper wit; or an ambi-
tiously talented professional who
knew that to get ahead she had
“to be twice as good as them to
get half of what they have,” as
Olivia Pope’s father told her in
the television show “Scandal.”
While chronicling Harris’
climb, “Kamala’s Way” also has
one eye trained on the present.
It is, after all, a book that seeks
to explain how Harris and
America both got to this historic
moment: the election of the first
woman, first African American
and first Asian American as vice
president.
It is likely that Harris’ most
intimate revelations will remain
with her, at least until she pens
her own memoir after leaving
office. In the meantime, this
story about how she ran the
gantlet of American politics will
leave readers admiring Harris
for how she has not only sur-
vived but thrived.
Path to thevice presidency
Author says ‘Kamala’s Way’ refers to how shebalanced principles against political ambitions
BY MARTHA S. JONES
Special to The Washington Post
SUSAN WALSH/AP
Harris, shown Jan. 7, made history Wednesday when she became thenation’s first Black, South Asian and female vice president.
Los Angeles poet Amanda
Gorman delivered a stirring
poem at the inauguration
Wednesday titled “The Hill We
Climb,” a piece she said she
wrote with the intention of repre-
senting as many Americans as
possible.
In doing so, Gorman, 22, be-
came the youngest inaugural
poet and nearly stole the show,
drawing immediate praise on
social media for her poise and
lyricism.
An excerpt of Gorman’s poem,
courtesy of NPR:
“We’ve seen a force that would
shatter our nation rather than
share it,
would destroy our country if it
meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly
succeeded.
But while democracy can be
periodically delayed,
it can never be permanently
defeated.
In this truth, in this faith, we
trust.
For while we have our eyes on
the future,
history has its eyes on us.”
“My hope is that my poem will
represent a moment of unity for
our country,” she told Washing-
ton Post book critic Ron Charles
last week, “that with my words
I’ll be able to speak to a new
chapter and era for our nation.”
That she did, with a beautifully
delivered poem full of alliteration
and internal rhyme. One would
never guess that a few years ago,
Gorman was struggling with a
speech impediment. As she told
The Lily last year, writing was a
means of self-expression when
she found herself unable to ver-
balize her thoughts. Music
helped her overcome her impedi-
ment, which included difficulty
pronouncing the letter R.
“My favorite thing to practice
was the song ‘Aaron Burr, Sir,’
from ‘Hamilton’ because it is
jam-packed with R’s. And I said,
‘if I can keep up with Leslie in
this track, then I am on my way
to being able to say this R in a
poem,’” she told CBS News.
Gorman tweeted that she in-
cluded two references to “Hamil-
ton” in “The Hill We Climb.” She
also paid homage to a previous
inaugural poet. When Oprah
tweeted her congratulations,
Gorman replied: “I would be
nowhere without the women
whose footsteps I dance in. While
reciting my poem, I wore a ring
with a caged bird — a gift from
@Oprah ... to symbolize Maya
Angelou, a previous inaugural
poet. Here’s to the women who
have climbed my hills before.”
Inaugurationpoet hopes toinspire unity
BY AMY B. WANG
The Washington Post
PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
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stripes.com
OPINION
WASHINGTON
Immigration, a wit has said, is the sin-
cerest form of flattery. This dispirited
nation needs some of that, so Presi-
dent Joe Biden has wisely made immi-
gration reform his initial legislative propos-
al.
The nation also needs a healthy opposition
party, and the impending immigration de-
bate will give the Republican Party an early
opportunity to rehabilitate its reputation by
adopting policies unlike those of Biden’s
predecessor, who propelled his ascent to the
presidency by stoking anxieties about immi-
gration. Congressional Republicans will
have to choose between aligning with the
animosity of constituents who misunder-
stand how this nation has prospered by assi-
milating 100 million immigrants, or with the
generosity of the United States’ majority.
David J. Bier and Alex Nowrasteh of the
Cato Institute report that, for the first time in
Gallup’s 55 years of polling on the subject,
“more Americans support increasing immi-
gration than decreasing it.” Support for de-
creasing it has plummeted from 50% in 2009
to 28% today. Last year, 77% called immigra-
tion “a good thing,” and a similar majority to-
day favor a path to citizenship for “dream-
ers,” those who were under 16 when brought
here before 2007 by parents who were not
lawful residents.
About 40% of unauthorized immigrants
came not through porous borders but on vi-
sas they overstayed. Of the approximately 11
million (down from 12.3 million in 2007),
62% have lived here at least 10 years, 21% at
least 20 years. Of the more than 5 million
children under age 18 living with at least one
unauthorized immigrant parent, more than
4 million, having been born here, are citi-
zens. The 11 million are not going home.
They are home. And Americans’ decency
would prevent the police measures neces-
sary to extract them from their communi-
ties.
Biden’s predecessor said “our country is
full,” although there are 145 countries and
territories with greater population densi-
ties. Two-thirds of Americans live in cities
that occupy 3.5% of the land. In 80% of Amer-
ica’s counties, the number of prime-age
workers (25-54) declined between 2007 and
2017. As a candidate, Biden proposed “a new
visa category to allow cities and counties to
petition for higher levels of immigrants” for
economic reasons.
Bier and Nowrasteh report that America’s
per capita immigration rate today is “as
close to zero as it has ever been.” The nation
now has a declining birth rate and an aging
population that is retiring, at a rate of 10,000 a
day, into Social Security and Medicare sys-
tems that are unsustainable without a work-
force replenished by immigrants. Further-
more, a steady influx of them will enable the
U.S. economy to regain, late in this century,
its place as the world’s largest economy as
China’s workforce shrinks, a debilitating
echo of the 1980-2016 one-child policy.
The debate about immigration that Biden
is reigniting, and especially his proposed
path to citizenship for the 11 million, impli-
cates the nation’s understanding of itself.
And it will roil a dark current of 21st-century
politics, concerning which some 19th-centu-
ry history is germane.
The years 1845-1855 produced the largest
single-decade increase in the foreign-born
percentage of the U.S. population. Three
million immigrants arrived in a nation
whose population was 23 million — the
equivalent of 42 million arriving between
2000 and 2010, when 14 million actually did.
In 1858, when Abraham Lincoln said that
half the Americans then living were born
elsewhere, immigrants were one-third of
the approximately 9,400 residents of Spring-
field, Ill.
Seven years later, Lincoln was buried
there after a nation-saving Civil War victory
that had been substantially aided by immi-
grant soldiers. “There are those damned
green flags again,” said Confederate Gen.
George Pickett as he watched an Irish unit
prepare to attack. Ireland’s potato famine
helped to doom the Confederacy. Recruiting
posters were printed in foreign languages,
and the 1862 Homestead Act was publicized
around the world to attract immigrants,
800,000 of whom came during the war. His-
torian Jay Sexton in “A Nation Forged by
Crisis” says about 25% of Union soldiers and
40% of seamen were foreign-born. Union of-
ficials cast the war as an episode in a larger
struggle for republican government, here
and elsewhere, thereby, Sexton says, “de-
coupling the idea of the nation from Anglo-
Saxon Protestantism.”
Today, anti-immigration sentiment is dis-
proportionately concentrated among recent
Republican voters who are timid national-
ists dismayed by the decoupling of the nation
from their conceptions of it. Strangely, they
fear that the United States cannot be itself if
it is as welcoming to immigrants as it was
when they were making the United States
the success that it is.
Immigrants helped preserve the UnionBY GEORGE F. WILL
Washington Post Writers Group
“We must end this uncivil
war,” declared Presi-
dent Joe Biden in the
best moment of a fine
inaugural address. May it be true not just
inside the Capitol and the White House, but
across every table in every home and res-
taurant, in every city council chamber, and
on every floor of every state legislature.
May it especially be true across social
media, on Twitter and Facebook, and —
dare we hope? — in the reader comments.
(OK, maybe not, but we press on.)
A test of the new president’s core appeal
for civility is upon us: the debate about
comprehensive immigration reform.
We have twice been around this course
before. Efforts were made to produce such
a measure in both 2006 and 2013. It is easy
to confuse the various “gangs” and coali-
tions that swirled around proposals in the
House and Senate both times. Both Presi-
dent George W. Bush and President Barack
Obama supported an effort, and even the
early months of the President Donald
Trump era saw some negotiations on the
subject. All failed.
All were marked by drawn, and very
sharp, rhetorical swords. That’s because
each side has a “nonnegotiable” that the
other side refused to recognize.
For a critical mass of Republicans, the
issue is simply put: No wall, no deal.
For a critical mass of Democrats, the is-
sue is simply put: No path to citizenship, no
deal.
Those are the two requirements for any
reform package. That’s the reality. The
length of the wall is up for negotiation —
some of the southern border is impassable
by any means — but not its size and shape.
Speed bumps won’t cut it.
A path to citizenship is the must-have for
Democrats. There are between 11 million
and 20 million people in the country with-
out legal status. Democrats (and many Re-
publicans) want a process by which these
immigrants can first become eligible for le-
gal status and then seek citizenship unless
they have been convicted of a violent of-
fense. Details abound here, but the must-
have is the clear path.
The new president has sketched out a
proposal. It rejects any additional wall. It
demands an eight-year path to citizenship.
I asked The New York Times’ chief White
House correspondent, Peter Baker, if the
president’s framework was an opening bid
or a bottom line. “If it’s a bottom line,” Bak-
er replied, “then it will not go through.”
Can each side compromise and concede
on the must-have of the other and get to
work? It would make sense. It would make
a wonderful bipartisan effort. And it would
demonstrate that compromise on thorny is-
sues is indeed possible.
It would benefit the tens of millions of
American citizens who are connected by
family, friendship and work to undocu-
mented immigrants and would benefit the
immigrants as well. It would be good poli-
tics because it is good policy. But only if the
border is secured in a way that projects cer-
tainty that entry to the United States is dri-
ven by law, not coyotes and cartels.
Republican opponents will rightly point
to the inevitable “magnet effect” of any
path to citizenship, arguing that it will only
encourage people to come to the United
States without permission or overstay their
visas in hope of obtaining legal status. But
this can be worked out in a comprehensive
bargain that addresses both sides’ con-
cerns. A completed wall, continued re-
sourcing of the Border Patrol, and in-
creased security at ports and tracking of vi-
sa-holders would send a different message.
Technology has improved. The sieve can be
closed.
Eight years will seem radically short to
people who have come in via legal process-
es that can last twice as long. Theirs is a
complaint based on the injustice of their
circumstance and can only be met by an
argument about the common good.
If each must-have is conceded by the oth-
er side, this third time could be indeed be
the charm. Perhaps the conversation could
be conducted in a fact-based, rhetorically
subdued tone marked by deliberation and
give and take, not performance-art politics.
If the new president were to signal his
was an opening bid and not a take-it-or-
leave-it offer, that would be an action fitted
to his fine words.
Respect each side’s must-have: Citizenship path, wallBY HUGH HEWITT
Special to The Washington Post
Hugh Hewitt hosts a nationally syndicated radio show on theSalem Network and is a political analyst for NBC, president ofthe Nixon Foundation and a professor of law at ChapmanUniversity.
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19
SCOREBOARD/SPORTS BRIEFS
PRO FOOTBALL
NFL playoffsWild-card Playoffs
Saturday, Jan. 9Buffalo 27, Indianapolis 24 Los Angeles Rams 30, Seattle 20 Tampa Bay 31, Washington 23
Sunday, Jan. 10Baltimore 20, Tennessee 13 New Orleans 21, Chicago 9 Cleveland 48 Pittsburgh 37
Divisional PlayoffsSaturday, Jan. 16
Green Bay 32, Los Angeles Rams 18 Buffalo 17, Baltimore 3
Sunday, Jan. 17Kansas City 22, Cleveland 17 Tampa Bay 30, New Orleans 20
Conference ChampionshipsSunday, Jan. 24
AFCBuffalo at Kansas City
NFCTampa Bay at Green Bay
Super BowlSunday, Feb. 7At Tampa, Fla.
AFC champion vs. NFC champion �
NFL injury reportNEW YORK — The National Football
League injury report, as provided by theleague (DNP: did not practice; LIMITED:limited participation; FULL: Full participation):
SUNDAYBUFFALO BILLS at KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
— BILLS: QUESTIONABLE: DT Vernon Butler(quadricep), WR Gabriel Davis (ankle).LIMITED: QB Jake Fromm (not injury related). FULL: K Tyler Bass (hand), WR ColeBeasley (knee), WR Stefon Diggs(oblique), LB Tremaine Edmunds (hamstring), DT Quinton Jefferson (ankle), DE Darryl Johnson (knee). CHIEFS: OUT: LB WillieGay (ankle). QUESTIONABLE: RB Le'VeonBell (knee), CB Bashaud Breeland (concussion, shoulder), RB Clyde EdwardsHelaire(ankle, hip), CB Rashad Fenton (foot), WRSammy Watkins (calf). LIMITED: CB Bashaud Breeland (concussion, shoulder), RBClyde EdwardsHelaire (ankle, hip), CBRashad Fenton (foot), QB Patrick Mahomes (concussion, toe), WR Sammy Watkins (calf).
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS at GREEN BAYPACKERS — BUCCANEERS: OUT: WR Antonio Brown (knee) QUESTIONABLE: S Antoine Winfield (ankle). DNP: LB JasonPierrePaul (knee, not injury related), DTNdamukong Suh (not injury related). LIMITED: WR Mike Evans (knee), WR ChrisGodwin (quadricep). FULL: RB RonaldJones (quadricep, finger), DT JeremiahLedbetter (calf), G Ali Marpet (pectoral),CB Sean MurphyBunting (quadricep, ankle), S Jordan Whitehead (knee). PACK-ERS: OUT: DE Kingsley Keke (concussion).QUESTIONABLE: CB Kevin King (back).LIMITED: LB Krys Barnes (thumb), K MasonCrosby (shoulder), RB A.J. Dillon (quadricep), WR Allen Lazard (wrist, back), S WillRedmond (knee), LB Za'Darius Smith(thumb), WR Equanimeous St. Brown(knee, ankle), G Rick Wagner (knee), RB Jamaal Williams (ankle). FULL: TE MarcedesLewis (knee).
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Friday’s men’s scores
EAST
CCSU 65, Mount St. Mary’s 64 Merrimack 76, Fairleigh Dickinson 71 N. Kentucky 81, Robert Morris 76 Niagara 59, Quinnipiac 56 Rider 76, Marist 64 Sacred Heart 82, St. Francis (Pa.) 70 St. Peter’s 68, Siena 62
SOUTH
Appalachian St. 80, Georgia St. 71 Coastal Carolina 90, Troy 81 FAU 66, Charlotte 53, OT Florida Gulf Coast 79, Lipscomb 69 Georgia Southern 84, South Alabama 75,
OT LouisianaLafayette 81, Arkansas St. 68 Marshall 79, FIU 66 North Alabama 82, Jacksonville 81, OT North Florida 69, Kennesaw St. 54 Texas St. 57, LouisianaMonroe 47 UAB 78, Rice 68
MIDWEST
Bellarmine 67, Stetson 62 Cleveland St. 64, Milwaukee 53 Green Bay 77, Fort Wayne 59 Ill.Chicago 67, Youngstown St. 66 Michigan 70, Purdue 53 N. Dakota St. 70, Denver 58 Oakland 86, Detroit 81 S. Dakota St. 92, North Dakota 73 South Dakota 65, W. Illinois 60 Wright St. 95, IUPUI 65
SOUTHWEST
UALR 66, TexasArlington 59 UTEP 82, Louisiana Tech 74 UTSA 70, Southern Miss. 64
FAR WEST
CS Bakersfield 47, UC Riverside 45 Cal St.Fullerton 83, Hawaii 67 Grand Canyon 77, Dixie St. 74 San Diego St. 98, Air Force 61 UC Irvine 68, Cal Poly 49 UC San Diego 89, UC Davis 69 UC Santa Barbara 105, CS Northridge 58 Wyoming 71, Nevada 64 Friday’s women’s scores �
EAST
FIU 75, Marshall 60 Fordham 68, St. Bonaventure 49 La Salle 60, George Washington 45 Marist 66, Niagara 60, OT Quinnipiac 72, Rider 50 Robert Morris 50, Wright St. 43
SOUTH
Appalachian St. 71, Georgia St. 68 Campbell 57, Charleston Southern 35 GardnerWebb 62, SCUpstate 52 Hampton 51, Winthrop 42 High Point 75, Presbyterian 52 Middle Tennessee 75, W. Kentucky 65 South Alabama 59, Georgia Southern 58 Southern Miss. 88, UTSA 64 Troy 104, Coastal Carolina 59 UNCAsheville 84, Radford 80 UNCGreensboro 56, ETSU 53 UTEP 61, Louisiana Tech 58
MIDWEST
Denver 62, N. Dakota St. 60 Green Bay 71, Cleveland St. 62 Illinois St. 2, Evansville 0 Loyola of Chicago 71, Bradley 66 Milwaukee 74, IUPUI 66 Missouri St. 73, Drake 72 N. Iowa 95, Indiana St. 69 Oakland 58, Fort Wayne 49 S. Dakota St. 81, North Dakota 52 South Dakota 73, W. Illinois 56 UMass 78, Saint Louis 62 Youngstown St. 88, Ill.Chicago 78
SOUTHWEST
LouisianaLafayette 67, Arkansas St. 65,OT
Texas State 74, LouisianaMonroe 52 TexasArlington 55, UALR 50
FAR WEST
Arizona 66, Utah 54 Arizona St. 51, Colorado 47 California Baptist 93, Chicago St. 52 Colorado St. 88, Utah St. 73 Nevada 60, Wyoming 52Oregon 58, Washington St. 50 San Diego St. 59, Air Force 54 Seattle 86, Tarleton State 54 UC Davis 80, UC San Diego 62 UC Irvine 63, Cal Poly 52UC Riverside 64, CS Bakersfield 56 UCLA 70, Stanford 66
COLLEGE HOCKEY
Friday’s scores
EAST
Army 4, Holy Cross 1Boston U. 3, Maine 2, OTMerrimack 5, New Hampshire 2Providence 0, UMass 0, OT (Providence
wins shootout 10)Quinnipiac 1, Clarkson 1, OT (Quinnipiac
wins shootout 21)UConn 3, Boston College 3, OT (UConn
wins shootout 20)
MIDWEST
Bemidji St. 3, Bowling Green 1Michigan 3, Notre Dame 1Minnesota 10, Arizona St. 2Penn St. 5, Wisconsin 4St. Cloud St. 3, Miami 2
AP SPORTLIGHT
Jan. 24
1939 — Eddie Collins, Wee Willie Keelerand George Sisler are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1981 — Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders scores his 50th goal in the 50th gameof the season in a 73 victory over the Quebec Nordiques.
1982 — Ray Wersching kicks a SuperBowl recordtying four field goals to helpthe San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 2621.
1986 — Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders scores his 1,000th career point withan assist in a 75 victory over the TorontoMaple Leafs.
1990 — WinstonSalem State basketballcoach Clarence “Big House” Gaines winshis 800th career game, 7970 over Livingstone.
1999 — David Duval shoots a magic number — a round of 59 that matches the bestscore in PGA Tour history. Duval surgesfrom seven strokes off the pace for a onestroke victory over Steve Pate in the BobHope Chrysler Classic.
DEALS
Friday's transactionsBASEBALL
Major League BaseballAmerican League
KANSAS CITY ROYALS — Named TonyPena Jr. assistant coach, Terry Bradshawhitting coach, Carl Eldred pitching coach,Rusty Kumntz first base coach, Pedro Grifol bench coach, John Mabry major leaguecoach, Vance Wilson third base coach, Rafael Belliard special assistant to the general manager and Dannon Hollins minorleague coach.
MINNESOTA TWINS — Agreed to termswith LHP J.A. Happ on a oneyear contract.
SEATTLE MARINERS — Agreed to termswith INF Starlin Aguilar, OFs Juan Cruz andVictor Labrada to oneyear contracts.
TORONTO BLUE JAYS �— Traded RHP Hector Perez to Cincinnati in exchange for aplayer to be named or cash considerations.
National LeaguePITTSBURGH PIRATES — Named ChristianMarrero assistant hitting coach and MikeRabelo field coordinator.
FOOTBALLNational Football League
ATLANTA FALCONS — Announced offensive coach Dirk Koetter to retire.
BALTIMORE RAVENS — Signed WR DeonCain to a reserve/futures contract. NamedRob Ryan inside linebacker coach and Anthony Weaver run game coordinator/defensive line coach.
BUFFALO BILLS — Signed K Tristan Vizcaino to the practice squad.
CLEVELAND BROWNS — Signed WR RyanSwitzer to a oneyear contract.
DETROIT LIONS — Signed K MatthewWright to a reserve/futures contract.
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — Signed DBKeith Washington Jr. to a reserve/futurescontract.
PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Announced TEVance McDonald to retire.
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — Activated TVita Vea from injured reserve. Waived OLEarl Watford.
WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM —Named Martin Mayhew general manager.
HOCKEYNational Hockey League
ARIZONA COYOTES — Named Steve Potvin head coach of the Tucson Roadrunners, John Slaney continues as assistantcoach and Jay Varady will join Coyotescoaching staff. Recalled D Victor Soderstrom from the minor league taxi squad.Designate D Jordan for assignment to taxisquad.
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS — Recalled LWBrandon Hagel from minor league taxisquad. Designate LW Brandon Pirri for assignment to taxi squad.
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS — DesignatedRW Emil Bemstrom for assignment to taxisquad. Recalled LW Nathan Gerbe fromthe minor league taxi squad.
DETROIT RED WINGS — Recalled LW Givani Smith from the minor league taxisquad.
EDMONTON OILERS — Assigned G OlivierRodrigue to Bakersfield (AHL). DesignatedLW Joakim Nygard for assignment to taxisquad.
FLORIDA PANTHERS — Waived C Jonathan Ang.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS — Recalled DPierreOlivier Joseph from the minorleague taxi squad.
WASHINGTON CAPITALS — Recalled CBrian Pinho from the minor league taxisquad.
WINNIPEG JETS — Placed Fs Patrik Laineand Nate Thompson on injured reserve.Promoted D Dylan DeMelo to the activeroster.
SOCCERMajor League Soccer
AUSTIN FC — Signed F Kekua Manneh.LA GALAXY — Signed D Marcus Ferkra
nus.LOS ANGELES FC — Acquired D Jesus Da
vid Murillo on a permanent transfer forColombian, Deportivo Independiente Medellin.
NASHVILLE SC — Announced D MiguelNazarit was loaned to Colombian, Independiente Santa Fe.
ORLANDO CITY SC — Acquired G Brandon Austin on a sixmonth loan with an option for another sixmonths from Tottenham Hotspur (EPL) pending receipt of hisITC.
SEATTLE SOUNDERS — Announced F Jordan Morris was loaned to Swansea City(ECL) through 202021 season.
National Women's Soccer LeagueORLANDO PRIDE — Signed D Phoebe
McClemon to a twoyear contract.COLLEGE
SOUTH CAROLINA — Named Greg Adkinsoffensive line coach and Jimmy Lindsey asdefensive line coach.
The American ExpressPGA Tour
FridayAt PGA WestLa Quia, Calif.
Purse: $6.7 millionStadium Course
Yardage:; 7,147; Par:; 72Nicklaus Tournament Course
Yardage:; 7,181; Par:; 72Second Round
Sungjae Im 68-65—133 -11 Nick Taylor 68-66—134 -10 Tony Finau 68-66—134 -10 Abraham Ancer 69-65—134 -10 Si Woo Kim 66-68—134 -10 Brandon Hagy 64-70—134 -10 Emiliano Grillo 69-66—135 -9Francesco Molinari 69-66—135 -9Doug Ghim 67-68—135 -9 John Huh 68-68—136 -8 Brendan Steele 68-68—136 -8Max Homa 66-70—136 -8 Andrew Putnam 67-69—136 -8
Diamond Resorts
Tournament of ChampionsLPGA Tour
FridayAt Four Season Golf and Sports Club
Lake Buena Vista, Fla.Purse: $1.2 million
Yardage:; 6,645; Par:; 71Second Round
Danielle Kang 64-65—129 -13 Nelly Korda 65-66—131 -11 In Gee Chun 68-65—133 -9
Mitsubishi Electric Championship
at HualalaiChampions Tour
FridayKa’upulehu-Kona, Hawaii
Purse: $1.8 millionHualalai Golf Course
Yardage:; 7,107; Par:; 72Second Round
Jerry Kelly 64-67—131 -13 Darren Clarke 63-68—131 -13
GOLF
COLUMBUS, Ohio — After
Pierre-Luc Dubois was benched
for lack of effort two days ago, the
Columbus Blue Jackets on Satur-
day traded the unhappy star cen-
ter to the Winnipeg Jets for Patrik
Laine and Jack Roslovic.
Dubois, Columbus’ top-line cen-
ter, made it clear when he signed a
two-year contract before the sea-
son that he wanted a change of
scenery. Laine, an All-Star winger
also had been asking for a trade.
Columbus general manager
Jarmo Kekalainen said the deal
had been in the works and wasn’t
hastened by the rift between Du-
bois and Blue Jackets coach John
Tortorella, who benched the 22-
year-old star for loafing in Thurs-
day’s loss to Tampa Bay.
Dubois is a dynamic center
whom the Blue Jackets hoped
would be one of their building
blocks. But he declined to sign a
long-term deal and let it be known
he wanted to play elsewhere.
After leading the team in scor-
ing with 49 points last season, Du-
bois had one goal and no assists in
the first five games of 2021.
Laine, a 22-year-old Finnish
winger, has scored 36, 44, 30 and
28 goals in each of his four NHL
seasons but has grown into a bet-
ter all-around player in the proc-
ess. Roslovic, a 23-year-old center
who grew up in Columbus, has 26
goals and 41 assists in 180 career
games.
The trade included signing Ros-
lovic, a unsigned restricted free
agent, to a two-year, $3.8 million
contract through the 2021-22 sea-
son.
The Jets will also get a third-
round pick in the 2022 draft.
Laine has 140 goals, 110 assists
and 250 points in 306 games with
the Jets, who failed to sign him to a
long-term contract and settled on
a one-year deal worth $6.75 mil-
lion.
Im shoots 65 to lead
American Express LA QUINTA, Calif. — Although
Sungjae Im hasn't been on the
PGA Tour for very long, the 22-
year-old South Korean already
feels awfully comfortable on the
generous desert courses at The
American Express.
So do plenty of other pros, and
that's why the leaderboard is so
crowded heading to the weekend.
Im shot a 7-under 65 on Friday
at The American Express to take a
one-stroke lead over first-round
leader Brandon Hagy and four
others.
Hagy was in position to join Im
at 11 under, but he bogeyed his fi-
nal hole with a tee shot into the
fairway bunker to finish his 70.
Canada's Nick Taylor (66),
South Korea's Si Woo Kim (68),
Tony Finau (66) and Mexico's
Abraham Ancer (65) also were 10
under. Emiliano Grillo (66), Fran-
cesco Molinari (66) and Doug
Ghim (68) were two shots off the
lead, and eight more were at 8 un-
der.
In other golf news:
Danielle Kang managed to
steal some of the spotlight from
the Korda sisters on Thursday as
the LPGA Tour opened its 71st
season with a winners-only field at
the Diamond Resorts Tournament
of Champions.
Kang opened the year with a bo-
gey-free, 7-under 64 for a one-shot
lead over Jessica Korda and Nelly
Korda, along with defending
champion Gaby Lopez, at Four
Seasons Golf and Sports Club Or-
lando in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Kang is coming off a two-win
season last year that was short-
ened by the COVID-19 pandemic,
winning back-to-back in Ohio
when the LPGA resumed after a
five-month shutdown.
Kang, No. 5 in the women’s
world ranking, had to quarantine
twice in recent weeks after being
exposed to COVID-19 and did not
arrive into Orlando until late Mon-
day night. She tested negative six
times before getting the go-ahead
to play.
Goggia wins another
downhill, Johnson thirdCRANS-MONTANA, Switzer-
land — Olympic champion Sofia
Goggia won the World Cup down-
hill race and emerging American
star Breezy Johnson was third —
yet again — on Friday.
The two downhill standouts of
this season have now shared a po-
dium in all four of the marquee
speed races so far.
Goggia raced through swirling
winds at Crans-Montana to seal
her third straight downhill win
0.20 seconds ahead of Ester Le-
decka, who is an Olympic cham-
pion in Alpine skiing and snow-
boarding.
American rival Johnson ex-
tended her streak of placing third
in each downhill after entering the
season without a podium finish in
her World Cup career.
Johnson, who turned 25 this
week, laughed and held up three
fingers after seeing she was in
third place yet again, 0.57 behind
the winner.
BRIEFLY
Jackets, Jets swapdisgruntled players
Associated Press
PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
NHL
East Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Washington 5 3 0 2 8 19 17
Philadelphia 5 3 1 1 7 19 16
N.Y. Islan-ders
4 3 1 0 6 9 6
Pittsburgh 5 3 2 0 6 18 21
New Jersey 4 2 1 1 5 9 11
Boston 4 2 1 1 5 9 9
N.Y. Rangers 4 1 2 1 3 11 12
Buffalo 5 1 3 1 3 14 16
Central Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Tampa Bay 3 3 0 0 6 13 5
Florida 2 2 0 0 4 10 6
Carolina 3 2 1 0 4 9 6
Nashville 4 2 2 0 4 10 14
Detroit 5 2 3 0 4 10 14
Columbus 5 1 2 2 4 10 16
Chicago 5 1 3 1 3 13 21
Dallas 1 1 0 0 2 7 0
West Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Vegas 5 4 1 0 8 18 12
Minnesota 5 4 1 0 8 15 10
Colorado 5 3 2 0 6 17 12
St. Louis 4 2 1 1 5 10 15
Arizona 5 2 2 1 5 17 18
Los Angeles 4 1 1 2 4 12 13
Anaheim 5 1 2 2 4 8 13
San Jose 5 2 3 0 4 14 18
North Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Montreal 5 3 0 2 8 24 16
Toronto 6 4 2 0 8 19 17
Winnipeg 4 3 1 0 6 13 10
Calgary 3 2 0 1 5 11 6
Edmonton 6 2 4 0 4 15 20
Vancouver 6 2 4 0 4 18 28
Ottawa 4 1 2 1 3 11 14
Thursday’s games
Winnipeg 4, Ottawa 1Tampa Bay 3, Columbus 2, OTN.Y. Islanders 4, New Jersey 1Boston 5, Philadelphia 4, SOMontreal 7, Vancouver 3Los Angeles 4, Colorado 2Florida at Carolina, ppd.
Friday’s games
Toronto 4, Edmonton 2Pittsburgh 4, N.Y. Rangers 3, SOWashington 4, Buffalo 3, SOChicago 4, Detroit 1Minnesota 4, San Jose 1Dallas 7, Nashville 0Arizona 5, Vegas 2Colorado 3, Anaheim 2, OT
Saturday’s games
Florida at Carolina, ppd.Tampa Bay at ColumbusMontreal at VancouverPhiladelphia at BostonLos Angeles at St. LouisOttawa at Winnipeg
Sunday’s games
Detroit at ChicagoBuffalo at WashingtonToronto at CalgaryVegas at ArizonaN.Y. Islanders at New JerseyN.Y. Rangers at PittsburghColorado at AnaheimLos Angeles at St. LouisNashville at DallasSan Jose at MinnesotaEdmonton at Winnipeg
Monday’s game
Ottawa at Vancouver
Scoreboard
JIM MONE/AP
Minnesota’s Kevin Fiala scoredand emptynet goal in Friday’s41 victory over San Jose.
DALLAS — Anton Khudobin
stared upward before Dallas' de-
layed season opener, watching as
the Stars' Western Conference
championship banner was un-
veiled high above the ice.
The goalie then stopped 34 shots
in his first season-opening start,
and Dallas scored five power-play
goals in a 7-0 win over the Nash-
ville Predators on Friday night.
“First game, it was emotional at
the start,” said Khudobin, who lat-
er heard his name chanted by the
4,214 fans in attendance for what
was his 100th career regular-sea-
son win and ninth shutout. “Unbe-
lievable. ... That was a special mo-
ment.”
Joe Pavelski had two goals and
two assists and Alexander Radu-
lov also scored twice for the Stars,
who had a scoreless first period.
Joel Kiviranta had a goal and an as-
sist.
Five of Dallas’ goals came in the
second, including three on the
power play and an unassisted
short-handed wrist shot by Esa
Lindell.
“Too many easy shots got
through and they made some nice
tip plays, credit to them in that sit-
uation when they made them,”
Nashville coach John Hynes said.
“We were a little out of sorts in
that first period, which was to be
expected, but we played through
it, and Doby made the big saves,”
Stars coach Rick Bowness said. “It
was the power play that got us go-
ing in the second ... 5-on-3, and
then get another quick one. That
gave everyone a huge boost.”
The Stars were the last NHL
team to open the season after their
first four games, all scheduled on
the road, were postponed because
17 players tested positive for CO-
VID-19 during the abbreviated
training camp. Only veteran for-
ward Blake Comeau was unavaila-
ble for the first game because of
COVID protocols, though the
league doesn't specify the exact
reason.
Nashville (2-2) played for the
first time since Monday, a day be-
fore its second of back-to-back
games against Carolina was post-
poned because of virus issues for
the Hurricanes.
“The scoreboard looks bad. At
the end of the day, we got zero
points, that's all that matters,”
Predators forward Filip Forsberg
said.
Dallas was at home for the first
time in 318 days, since a 4-2 loss to
the New York Rangers on March
10 that was its sixth loss in a row.
When the season resumed months
later with the playoffs in the NHL
bubble in Edmonton, the Stars re-
ached their first Stanley Cup Final
since 2000 before losing in Game 6
against Tampa Bay.
The fans in attendance were
spread out in an arena where the
normal hockey capacity is 18,532.
The NBA's Dallas Mavericks are
playing their home games at
American Airlines Center without
fans.
Khudobin had never started a
playoff game before going 14-10
last summer when Ben Bishop was
unavailable because of a torn me-
niscus in his knee. Bishop is still re-
habbing from offseason surgery.
Stars open season with routBY STEPHEN HAWKINS
Associated Press
TONY GUTIERREZ/AP
Stars right wing Denis Gurianov scores against Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros during thesecond period of Friday's game in Dallas. The Stars won 70 in their delayed season opener.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Conor Garland had a
goal and an assist, Darcy Kuemper stopped 29
shots and Arizona handed Vegas its first loss of
the season, 5-2 on Friday night.
The Coyotes bounced back from a drubbing
two nights earlier in Vegas with one of their
best games of the early season.
Arizona's Nick Schmaltz scored for the third
straight game and had an assist. Christian Dvo-
rak also had a goal and an assist. Derick Bras-
sard scored his first of the season and Jordan
Oesterle closed it out with an empty-net goal.
Penguins 4, Rangers 3 (SO): Kris Letang
scored in the final round of a shootout to lift
host Pittsburgh to the victory.
Letang ripped a backhand over Igor Shester-
kin to put the Penguins in front. Tristan Jarry
collected his first win of the season when he
stuffed New York’s Tony DeAngelo moments
later.
Bryan Rust and Jared McCann collected
their first goals of the season for Pittsburgh,
which has won three straight following an 0-2
start. Teddy Blueger also scored, and Jarry fin-
ished with 31 saves.
Capitals 4, Sabres 3 (SO): Jakub Vrana had
a goal and an assist, Vitek Vanecek made 24
saves through overtime and short-handed
Washington beat visiting Buffalo.
Nicklas Backstrom and Nic Dowd also
scored for the Capitals, who won the first of
four games they must play without captain
Alex Ovechkin, center Evgeny Kuznetsov, de-
fenseman Dmitry Orlov and goaltender Ilya
Samsonov because of pandemic protocols.
Avalanche 3, Ducks 2 (OT):Gabriel Landes-
kog scored 1:38 into overtime, Mikko Rantanen
extended his goal-scoring streak to four
games, and visiting Colorado topped Anaheim.
Landeskog was initially stopped by Anaheim
goalie John Gibson on a breakaway, but he got
his own rebound and converted a wraparound
for his third goal of the season.
Blackhawks 4, Red Wings 1: Patrick Kane
had a goal and an assist, and host Chicago
earned its first win of the season.
Andrew Shaw, Calvin de Haan and Mattias
Janmark also scored for Chicago in its home
opener after beginning the season with a four-
game trip. Dylan Strome and Alex DeBrincat
each had two assists.
Wild 4, Sharks 1: Zach Parise scored his
first goal of the season to break a second-period
tie, sending host Minnesota to the victory.
Joel Eriksson Ek had an early goal for the
Wild against former teammate Devan Dub-
nyk, who made 25 saves for the Sharks on the
Minnesota ice he called home for the previous
six years. Kevin Fiala and Jordan Greenway
added empty-netters for the Wild (4-1-0) in
their home opener.
Maple Leafs 4, Oilers 2: John Tavares
broke a tie on a power play midway through the
third period, helping host Toronto to the win.
Toronto played without Auston Matthews
and Joe Thornton. Coach Sheldon Keefe said
before the game Matthews is day to day with
“upper-body soreness” following a 3-1 loss to
the Oilers on Wednesday night, while Thorn-
ton will miss at least four weeks after fractur-
ing a rib in that game.
ROUNDUP
Coyotes hand Knights their first lossAssociated Press
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21
NBA/COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
W L Pct GB
Philadelphia 11 5 .688 —
Boston 8 6 .571 2
Brooklyn 9 8 .529 2½
New York 8 9 .471 3½
Toronto 6 9 .400 4½
Southeast Division
W L Pct GB
Atlanta 8 7 .533 —
Orlando 7 9 .438 1½
Miami 6 8 .429 1½
Charlotte 6 9 .400 2
Washington 3 8 .273 3
Central Division
W L Pct GB
Indiana 9 6 .600 —
Milwaukee 9 6 .600 —
Cleveland 8 7 .533 1
Chicago 7 8 .467 2
Detroit 3 12 .200 6
Western Conference
Southwest Division
W L Pct GB
Memphis 7 6 .538 —
Dallas 8 7 .533 —
San Antonio 8 8 .500 ½
New Orleans 5 9 .357 2½
Houston 5 9 .357 2½
Northwest Division
W L Pct GB
Utah 11 4 .733 —
Portland 8 6 .571 2½
Denver 8 7 .533 3
Oklahoma City 6 8 .429 4½
Minnesota 3 11 .214 7½
Pacific Division
W L Pct GB
L.A. Clippers 12 4 .750 —
L.A. Lakers 12 4 .750 —
Phoenix 8 6 .571 3
Golden State 8 7 .533 3½
Sacramento 6 10 .375 6
Thursday’s games
L.A. Lakers 113, Milwaukee 106 New York 119, Golden State 104 Utah 129, New Orleans 118
Friday’s games
Chicago 123, Charlotte 110 Houston 103, Detroit 102 Indiana 120, Orlando 118, OT Toronto 101, Miami 81 Cleveland 125, Brooklyn 113 Philadelphia 122, Boston 110 Atlanta 116, Minnesota 98 Dallas 122, San Antonio 117 L.A. Clippers 120, Oklahoma City 106 Denver 130, Phoenix 126, OT Sacramento 103, New York 94 Washington at Milwaukee, ppd Memphis at Portland, ppd
Saturday’s games
Miami at Brooklyn New Orleans at Minnesota Philadelphia at Detroit Denver at Phoenix Golden State at Utah Houston at Dallas L.A. Lakers at Chicago
Sunday’s games
Toronto at Indiana Oklahoma City at L.A. Clippers Charlotte at Orlando Cleveland at Boston Atlanta at Milwaukee Sacramento at Memphis, ppd Washington at San Antonio New York at Portland
Monday’s games
Charlotte at Orlando Philadelphia at Detroit Toronto at Indiana Miami at Brooklyn L.A. Lakers at Cleveland Sacramento at Memphis, ppd Denver at Dallas Boston at Chicago San Antonio at New Orleans Minnesota at Golden State Oklahoma City at Portland
Leaders
Scoring
G FG FT PTS AVG
Beal, WAS 10 121 83 349 34.9
Durant, BKN 12 125 91 375 31.3
Rebounds
G OFF DEF TOT AVG
Drummond, CLE 13 54 142 196 15.1
Capela, ATL 12 52 118 170 14.2
NBA scoreboard
PHILADELPHIA — Joel Em-
biid had 38 points and 11 rebounds,
Tobias Harris scored 23 points
and the Philadelphia 76ers beat
the Boston Celtics 122-110 on Fri-
day night.
Seth Curry returned to the Six-
ers’ starting lineup following a
seven-game absence because of a
positive COVID-19 test and scored
15 points.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics
with 42 points and nine rebounds,
and Marcus Smart had 20 points.
Embiid followed a 42-point out-
ing in a win over Boston on
Wednesday night with another
fantastic effort. He made 14 of 15
from the free-throw line — a near-
flawless retort after some mild
criticism from Smart.
Smart said Embiid “flails and
gets the calls” after the All-Star
center went to the line 21 times in
his 42-point game. The Celtics
shot just 20 free throws in that loss
and none in the fourth quarter.
Cavaliers 125, Nets 113:Collin
Sexton had 25 points and nine as-
sists, Andre Drummond added 19
points and 16 rebounds and Cleve-
land beat visiting Brooklyn for the
second time in three days.
Nets superstar forward Kevin
Durant was held out as a precau-
tionary measure as he continues
his comeback from right Achilles
tendon surgery.
Kyrie Irving scored 38 points,
and James Harden had 19 points
and 11 assists for Brooklyn, which
lost 147-135 in double-overtime to
the Cavaliers in the debut of its
high-scoring trio on Wednesday.
Nuggets 130, Suns 126 (OT):
Nikola Jokic scored 31 points, Ga-
ry Harris added 19 and Denver
rallied to force overtime before
beating host Phoenix.
Denver won for the third time in
four games to improve to 8-7 this
season.
Devin Booker led the Suns with
31 points but took a hard fall late in
overtime and didn’t play the final
few possessions. Phoenix’s of-
fense looked out of synch without
its leading scorer on the floor and
didn’t score a field goal after he
left.
Rockets 103, Pistons 102: Je-
rami Grant’s driving layup on the
final play came too late, and visit-
ing Houston held on to beat De-
troit.
Down one with 3.4 seconds re-
maining, the Pistons inbounded to
Grant, who faked a handoff to
Blake Griffin and then drove
down the right side of the lane.
Time clearly ran out before he laid
the ball in, but he was also bumped
by Houston’s P.J. Tucker. Replays
showed that contact also came af-
ter time expired, and after a re-
view, the game ended.
Pacers 120, Magic 118 (OT):Malcolm Brogdon hit a three-pointer with 2.8 seconds left inovertime, lifting host Indiana pastOrlando.
Evan Fournier’s three-point at-tempt bounced off the rim at thebuzzer for Orlando.
Brogdon led the Pacers with 23points. Jeremy Lamb and MylesTurner each scored 22 points, andDomantas Sabonis had 18.
Clippers 120, Thunder 106:Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points,Paul George added 29 and Los An-geles beat visiting Oklahoma Cityfor its sixth straight victory.
Serge Ibaka had 17 points and 11rebounds to help the Clippers im-prove to 12-4, tying the Lakers forthe NBA’s best record.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ledthe Thunder with 30 points.
Hawks 116, Timberwolves 98:Trae Young scored a season-high43 points, Clint Capela had 13points, 19 rebounds and 10 blocksand Atlanta beat host Minnesota.
Minnesota has lost four straightand 11 of its last 12 after startingthe season 2-0.
Mavericks 122, Spurs 117:Luka Doncic had 36 points, 11 as-sists and nine rebounds and visit-
ing Dallas withstood a late rally tobeat San Antonio.
Dallas won its second straightafter a three-game losing streak.San Antonio is 2-5 at home.
Raptors 101, Heat 81: At Tam-pa, Fla., Norman Powell scored 23points, OG Anunoby added 21 andToronto recovered to beat Miamiafter blowing a 21-point lead.
Pascal Siakam had 15 points and14 rebounds for the Raptors. Theynever trailed on their way toavenging a loss to the Heat onWednesday night.
Bulls 123, Hornets 110: ZachLaVine continued his strong playwith 25 points and nine assists,leading Chicago past host Char-lotte for its third straight victory.
Lauri Markkanen added 23points, and Coby White had 18points and eight assists.
Kings 103, Knicks 94: Harri-son Barnes had 21 points, eight re-bounds and seven assists, and Sac-ramento overcame a cold shootingspell late in the fourth quarter tohold off visiting New York and enda four-game losing streak.
De’Aaron Fox added 22 pointsand seven assists for Sacramento,which had lost nine of its previous11.
CHRIS SZAGOLA/AP
76ers center Joel Embiid dunks in front of the Boston Celtics’ DanielTheis (27) during the first half of Friday’s game in Philadelphia.Embiid finished with 38 points in the 76ers’ 122110 win.
Embiid leads 76ers past CelticsAssociated Press
ROUNDUP
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —
Michigan coach Juwan Howard
put the emphasis on defense from
the first time his entire team prac-
ticed this season.
It paid big dividends Friday
night.
On a night Isaiah Livers
matched his season high with 22
points and Eli Brooks added 11, the
seventh-ranked Wolverines used
a staunch defense to pull away
from Purdue 70-53.
“They all did a great job. It was
not easy because Trevion (Wil-
liams) is one of the best bigs in this
conference and also one of the best
in the country,” Howard said
when asked specifically about Mi-
chigan’s post play. “I know tomor-
row they’re going to wake up sore
because they earned it. This was
an old-school, Big Ten type of
game. The Big Ten has always
been a physical conference and to-
night’s game was really about
physicality.”
By winning their fifth straight in
the series, the Wolverines (13-1,
8-1 Big Ten) maintained their
stranglehold on the conference
lead.
But this one came with some
trepidation after Purdue’s top
three-point shooter, Sasha Stefa-
novic, tested positive for CO-
VID-19. A second test Wednesday
confirmed the initial result.
Boilermakers coach Matt Pain-
ter explained that the team’s pro-
tocols required Stefanovic to wear
a mask on their bus trip and plane
ride back from Ohio State earlier
this week and that the senior
guard was not around anyone else
after he returned to campus. No
other players tested positive and
after Howard said he spoke with
his players individually, the game
was played.
MICHAEL CONROY/AP
Michigan guard Eli Brooksshoots in front of Purdue guardBrandon Newman on Friday inWest Lafayette, Ind. TheWolverines won 7053.
Wolverines
shut down
Boilermakers
BY MICHAEL MAROT
Associated Press
PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
Two years ago, the Kansas
City Chiefs were coming
off an AFC champion-
ship heartbreak against
the New England Patriots that
rested largely on the shoulders of
their defense, which couldn’t stop
Tom Brady and Co. in overtime.
Not enough talent? Maybe. Not
enough playmakers? Absolutely.
Chiefs general manager Brett
Veach and coach Andy Reid knew
they needed to rectify the problem
or risk squandering the best years
of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
So they hired Steve Spagnuolo to
coordinate the defense, traded for
elite pass rusher Frank Clark,
drafted wisely and — perhaps
most importantly — outbid the
Texans for safety Tyrann Math-
ieu.
The Honey Badger has made
that $42 million, three-year deal
look like a bargain.
After helping the Chiefs win
their first Super Bowl in five dec-
ades last season, Mathieu has fol-
lowed up with what can only be de-
scribed as the best season of his ca-
reer. He has seven interceptions,
including one in last week’s divi-
sional-round win over Cleveland,
and has become the biggest play-
maker on a defense that suddenly
seems underappreciated.
“He’s a great player,” said Bills
coach Sean McDermott, whose of-
fense gets the next crack at the
Honey Badger in the AFC cham-
pionship game Sunday. “Watched
his career unfold at LSU and the
different places he’s been — he
brings a lot of energy and juice to
their team, and their defense in
this case.”
The numbers alone are impres-
sive. Mathieu has picked off five
passes in the past seven games,
and he returned one for a touch-
down against New England earlier
this season. Quarterback ratings
plummet when they throw in his
direction, and his versatility is evi-
dent in the fact that he has tackles-
for-loss in three of his past five
games.
No wonder he was voted an All-
Pro for the second straight year
and the third time in his career.
“Just the energy he brings, what
he’s saying to guys on the sideline
or in the huddle — they trust him,”
Spagnuolo said. “They believe in
him. The guy is a winner. He’s
made plays for us, and when you
get enough guys like that you have
a unit.”
It’s hard to find another guy like
Mathieu, though, with his unique
ability to wreak havoc from his
“robber” position. He bounces
around the field like a pinball, both
before the snap and after, putting
constant pressure on opposing
quarterbacks to make sure they
know where he is on any given
play.
On a quarter of snaps this sea-
son, he’s lined up in the deep safety
spot. In about a third, he’s lined up
in the box to provide run support.
On almost 40% of snaps, he has
lined up in the slot, essentially be-
coming an extra cornerback.
In other words, Spagnuolo is us-
ing Mathieu in ways he’s never
used another player in 40 years in
coaching.
“I hadn’t thought about it until
you just said that,” Spagnuolo said,
“but I’d probably say yes, that we
have gone a little more beyond, be-
cause there are some things that
we do with him now that I don’t re-
call us doing in prior places.
“First and foremost, him from
the chin to the hairline, you’re talk-
ing about an intelligent football
player that loves it. You know that
if you feed something to Tyrann,
he’s going to get it and he’s going to
know why,” Spagnuolo said. “We
lay out all of these plans and you go
from Monday to Saturday and into
Sunday, but things change so
quick on game day. The one thing
about Tyrann is you can go over to
him and say, ‘Let’s tweak this or do
that.’ He knows exactly why and
he does it.”
He gets everybody else to do it,
too. The middle linebacker may
call the defensive plays — for the
Chiefs, that’s Anthony Hitchens —
but Mathieu is often the one mak-
ing sure everybody knows what is
going on.
Then he takes care of his own
business.
“I think any position on the field
allows you the chance to make
plays,” Mathieu said. “It’s all
about staying committed.
“Early in the season I wasn’t
making those plays,” he contin-
ued, “and as a high competitor
you can get out of it thinking none
of those plays is ever going to
come to you. For me, it’s just
about staying involved, staying
committed to what my coaches
want me doing.”
BRETT DUKE/AP
Kansas City Chiefs strong safety Tyrann Mathieu is in the midst of thebest season of his career. He has seven interceptions, including onein last week’s divisionalround win over Cleveland, and is the biggestplaymaker on a defense that suddenly seems underappreciated.
BargainBadger
BY DAVE SKRETTA
Associated Press
Mathieu signingkeeps paying offfor Kansas City
NFL PLAYOFFS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ten
years after firing Sean McDer-
mott as his defensive coordinator,
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy
Reid will stare across the field in-
side Arrowhead Stadium on Sun-
day and see his protégé trying to
spoil his hopes of a Super Bowl re-
peat.
Funny thing: Even after firing
him, Reid suspected deep down
that McDermott was destined for
big things.
“Very organized, very smart
and very tough,” he explained this
week. “He came from a coaching
family — his dad was a heck of a
coach. Sean just kind of picked up
right from there. Very solid, very
good.”
In fact, downright exceptional.
McDermott has the long-suffer-
ing Buffalo Bills playing in their
first AFC championship game
since beating Kansas City on Jan.
23, 1994, when they advanced to
their fourth straight Super Bowl.
They have won 11 of their past 12
games since losing to the Chiefs in
Week 6, beating the Colts in the
wild-card round and the Ravens in
last week’s divisional round.
“He deserves coach of the year,
man. He’s taken a franchise there,
both he and his general manager,
have put this thing together with
some bold moves and production
now,” Reid said.
“I think he’s done a tremendous
job. What a great thing for the NFL
and for Buffalo. They love football
in Buffalo and he’s really done a
nice job with that whole pro-
gram.”
Not surprisingly, the job
McDermott has done with the
Bills neatly parallels the job Reid
has done in Kansas City.
Both took over downtrodden or-
ganizations and quickly built them
into juggernauts. Both have bright
young quarterbacks in the Bills’
Josh Allen and the Chiefs’ Patrick
Mahomes. Both have surrounded
them with playmakers, such as the
Bills’ Stefon Diggs and the Chiefs’
Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. And
both have built defenses to not on-
ly complement two of the best of-
fenses in the NFL, but capable of
clinching wins under pressure, as
each did last weekend.
Mahomes, who was knocked out
of last week’s game against Cleve-
land with a concussion, took first-
team reps all week. He was finally
cleared to play by team doctors
and an independent neurologist
on Friday.
“You have to take it day by day. I
think that’s the biggest thing,” Ma-
homes said. “You can only control
what you can control.”
Chiefs cornerback Bashaud
Breeland, who also sustained a
concussion last Sunday, practiced
this week while awaiting clearance
from doctors. Running back Le’V-
eon Bell was held out Thursday
and Friday with a swollen knee.
On the flip side, Clyde Edwards-
Helaire is expected to play for the
first time since a high-ankle
sprain in Week 15 and Sammy
Watkins could be back from a calf
injury that he sustained the fol-
lowing week.
Star struck: Though the Bills
would love to have Star Lotulelei
enjoy this playoff run with them,
cornerback Tre’Davious White
and several teammates continued
backing the starting defensive
tackle’s decision to opt out be-
cause of COVID-19 concerns.
“You can’t make a wrong deci-
sion in this thing,” said White, who
contemplated opting out before
signing a $70 million, four-year
extension in September and earn-
ing second-team All-Pro honors.
“Obviously he chose his family
over a game and the things that he
had going on. I don’t think that he’s
necessarily missing out on any-
thing.”
Bills’ rise under McDermottno surprise to Chiefs’ Reid
BY DAVE SKRETTA
Associated Press
CHARLES KRUPA/AP
Bills head coach Sean McDermott has Buffalo playing in its first AFCchampionship game since beating Kansas City on Jan. 23, 1994,when they advanced to their fourth straight Super Bowl.
AFC CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
Sunday, January 24, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23
NFL PLAYOFFS
For as much as Tom Bra-
dy and Aaron Rodgers
have accomplished in
their Hall of Fame-cali-
ber careers, they’ve rarely faced
off on the field.
Never have they met with so
much at stake.
When Rodgers’ Green Bay
Packers (14-3) host Brady’s Tam-
pa Bay Buccaneers (13-5) in the
NFC championship game Sunday,
it will be just the fourth time
they’ve squared off as starting
quarterbacks, and first in the play-
offs.
“I remember when I heard the
news about him coming to the
NFC, I thought this was a real pos-
sibility,” Rodgers said. “I’m excit-
ed about the opportunity to play
against him one more time.”
The Bucs trounced the Packers
38-10 in Tampa on Oct. 18. They
met two other times during Bra-
dy’s tenure in New England, with
the Packers winning 26-21 at
Green Bay in 2014 and the Patriots
winning 31-17 in Foxborough four
years later.
Both understand all eyes will be
on them Sunday.
Kurt Warner, the Hall of Fame
quarterback and NFL Network
analyst, said that’s just human na-
ture.
“When I played, I always knew
who was on the other sideline,”
Warner said. “I always said when
I went into these matchups, at the
end of the day, I know if we’re go-
ing to win this game, I’ve got to
outperform that guy. I’ve got to be
better than the quarterback on the
other side.”
Brady, 43, has helped the Bucs
earn a franchise-record seven
straight road wins. A win at Lam-
beau Field clinches their first Su-
per Bowl berth since their 2002
championship season.
“This is one of the coolest stadi-
ums in the league to play in,” Bra-
dy said. “I know they’re excited,
we’ll be excited, and it will make
for a great football game.”
Brady is trying to join Warner,
Peyton Manning and Craig Mor-
ton as the only quarterbacks to
lead two separate franchises to a
Super Bowl. He already won six
Super Bowls and played in nine to-
tal with the Patriots.
Green Bay is making its fourth
NFC championship game appear-
ance in the past seven seasons, but
Rodgers hasn’t reached a Super
Bowl since leading the Packers to
a title in the 2010 season.
Warner said the postseason
weighs heavily on where players
stack up in history.
“That’s why Tom is the GOAT
(greatest of all time),” Warner
said. “It’s why Joe Montana is up
there and guys who’ve been there
numerous times — the John El-
ways — and everyone else kind of
gets knocked down a notch. Even
though they’ve been great in the
regular season, there’s a combina-
tion of the two that I think weighs
heavily.”
Simply put, Rodgers needs this
victory more than Brady.
“He plays in one Super Bowl, I
think there will be something
about that that just doesn’t sit right
with anybody,” Warner said. “It
doesn’t sit right with any of us who
love this game and know how
great he’s been. It just doesn’t
seem to fit.”
This may be the best remaining
chance for the 37-year-old Rodg-
ers at that elusive second Super
Bowl berth.
“It’s been a while since he was
last a world champion,” CBS
Sports analyst and 2002 NFL MVP
Rich Gannon said. “I think that
would certainly cement his legacy
as one of the greatest to ever play
the game in my opinion. Not that
he needs it, but I’m just telling you
that’s probably how he’s wired.”
JEFF HAYNES/AP
Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady get his face mask grabbed by Green Bay Packers linebacker RashanGary during their on Oct. 18 in Tampa, Fla. The Buccaneers won 3810.
NFC CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
Game’s QBs have nevermet with stakes so high
BY STEVE MEGARGEE
Associated Press DID YOU KNOW?
When Aaron Rodgers’ Green Bay
Packers (14-3) host Tom Brady’s
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (13-5) in
the NFC championship game Sun-
day, it will be just the fourth time
they’ve squared off as starting
quarterbacks, and first in the play-
offs. The Bucs trounced the Packers
38-10 in Tampa on Oct. 18. They
met two other times during Brady’s
tenure in New England, with the
Packers winning 26-21 at Green
Bay in 2014 and the Patriots win-
ning 31-17 in Foxborough four years
later.
SOURCE: Associated Press
many Super Bowls are won.”
Rodgers’ brilliant season has in-
cluded just one outright dud. It oc-
curred the previous time these
two teams met.
Green Bay led Tampa Bay 10-0
early in the second quarter back
on Oct. 18 until Jamel Dean scored
on a 32-yard interception return.
Rodgers’ next pass was picked off
by Mike Edwards and returned 38
yards to the Green Bay 2-yard
line, setting up another touch-
down.
After the Packers lost 38-10,
Rodgers called the performance a
wakeup call and kick in the rear
for an offense that had moved the
ball virtually at will up to that
point.
The Packers haven’t been held
below 22 points since. They’ll be
chasing their eighth consecutive
victory when the Packers (14-3)
host the Bucs (13-5) on Sunday.
“We’ve been playing the right
way, and I feel like the way we’ve
been winning has been better than
early in the season,” Rodgers said.
“We’ve been playing a lot better
on both sides of the ball.”
The performance at Tampa Bay
was out of character for someone
who protects the ball so well.
Rodgers completed 45.7% of his
passes for 160 yards with two in-
terceptions and no touchdowns
that day. In the Packers’ other 16
games, he has completed 71.9% of
his passes for 4,435 yards with 50
touchdowns and three intercep-
tions.
He has been picked off just five
times in 562 pass attempts this
season (526 in the regular season,
36 in a playoff victory over the Los
Angeles Rams). His only other
multi-interception game over the
past three seasons came when he
was picked off twice in last year’s
NFC championship game loss at
San Francisco.
“When you throw five intercep-
tions and throw the ball 526 times,
that’s amazing,” said Rich Gan-
non, a former NFL quarterback
who now works for CBS Sports.
“You’re going to get the ball
tipped, deflected. Balls are going
to go through the hands of a re-
ceiver. Something bad going’s to
happen. Yet he’s thrown five
picks. I think in the last three
years, he’s thrown 11 picks. Think
about that. You throw 38 touch-
down passes and 11 picks in a sea-
son, you’d think that’s pretty good.
Eleven picks in three years.
“He’s been the best in the last
decade at ball security. There’s no
one who’s been better.”
This marks Rodgers’ fourth
NFC championship game appear-
ance over the past seven years. All
of Rodgers’ previous starts in the
NFC championship games came
on the road.
Green Bay has finished the reg-
ular season 13-3 each of the past
two years, but looks far more im-
posing this time around.
“A lot of people didn’t think
we’d be back here after last sea-
son,” Rodgers said. “We got a lot of
interesting comments last year
about us being the worst 13-3 team
that people had seen. Not the same
type of comments this year. Obvi-
ously we’re clicking a lot better on
offense.”
This may represent the 37-year-
old Rodgers’ best chance to get
back to another Super Bowl,
though he says he isn’t dwelling on
his future with so much at stake
right now.
“I hope there’s more opportuni-
ties, but I don’t know,” Rodgers
said. “I mean, I really don’t. That
stuff is out of my control. My fu-
ture is a beautiful mystery, I think.
The present is such a gift to be able
to stay in the moment and to have
gratitude for being in this situa-
tion again, and being with the guys
and having fans in our stadium
and maybe snow in an NFC cham-
pionship game. I’m going to enjoy
these moments for sure, and just
not worry about what happens
down the line.”
Greats: Rodgers’ onlydud was against TampaFROM PAGE 24
MATT LUDTKE/AP
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws the ball to fans afterscoring on a 1yard run against the Los Angeles Rams last weekend ina divisional playoff last weekend in Green Bay, Wis.
PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Sunday, January 24, 2021
SPORTSCrucial piece of the puzzle
Chiefs' acquisition of Mathieu payinghuge dividends ›› NFL playoffs, Page 22
Stars hammer Predators in delayed season opener ›› NHL, Page 20
Aaron Rodgers’ Green
Bay Packers team-
mates understand
what this NFC
championship game
means to the All-Pro quarter-
back’s legacy.
Rodgers has delivered the kind
of season that puts him in conten-
tion for a third MVP honor, which
would match the total won by
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarter-
back Tom Brady.
The Super Bowl count between
the two NFC championship game
quarterbacks is more one-sided.
Brady won six Super Bowl titles
and appeared in nine overall while
starring for the New England Pa-
triots. Rodgers led the Packers to a
Super Bowl crown in the 2010 sea-
son, but hasn’t brought them back
since.
“You look at Brady and every-
body wants to make that compari-
son forever, but it’s basically turn-
ed into a quarterback stat: Super
Bowls,” Packers All-Pro wide re-
ceiver Davante Adams said.
“If that’s what it’s going to be,
then obviously we’re going to put
as much as we can on ourselves to
try to help him get there and, ulti-
mately, relieve him of the Super
Bowls being a thing that hinder
him from being the GOAT (great-
est of all time). In my mind, he’s
the GOAT, regardless of how
JEFFREY PHELPS, ABOVE, AND JEFF HAYNES, RIGHT/AP
Above: Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers looks to throw on the run during last weekend's divisionalplayoff against the Los Angeles Rams a in Green Bay, Wis. Right: Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive endNdamukong Suh talks to Rodgers (during the second half of their game on Oct. 18, 2020, in Tampa, Fla.
NFL PLAYOFFS
Comparingtwo greatsPackers believe Rodgersstacks up against Brady
BY STEVE MEGARGEE
Associated Press “In my mind,he’s the GOAT(greatest of alltime), regardlessof how manySuper Bowls arewon.”
Packers WR Davante Adams
on quarterback Aaron Rodgers
SEE GREATS ON PAGE 23