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OBITUARIES ..............................A2OPINION ...................................A4POLICE/FIRE .............................A5
LOOK! .......................................A8SPORTS ................................ B1-2COMICS ....................................B4
DIVERSIONS .............................B5CLASSIFIED ...............................B6BUSINESS ................................B8
HIGH 40°LOW 26°PAGE A8
VOL. 141, ISSUE 293$1.50
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
By Gayla Cawley ITEM STAFF
LYNN — Mayor Thom-as M. McGee largely at-tributes the city’s recent surge in coronavirus cases to small gatherings that people are having with family and friends outside of their households.
While the city has in-creased its contact-tracing efforts and hired commu-
nity care coordinators to monitor how well busi-nesses and restaurants are adhering to COVID-19 re-strictions, McGee said � at-tening the curve will most-ly come down to personal responsibility.
“The community spread is substantially happening within family circles and friend units,” said McGee. “We can only change this
if we do it together. These are hard times, but we re-ally have to take responsi-bility with our family and friends.
“It’s really up to us to take personal responsibility. We can make a difference if we do the right thing and we do it together as a commu-nity.”
McGee and Dr. Mitchell S.
By Guthrie ScrimgeourITEM STAFF
SALEM — Construction began last week on a citywide privately-funded � ber-optic cable net-work, which the city hopes can bring faster inter-net service to Salem residents at lower prices.
This project, a partnership with SiFi Networks and GigabitNow, will offer residents a competitor to Comcast, which currently holds a monopoly on internet service in the city.
“We are excited to begin construction in Salem and look forward to getting to know the community
McGee points COVID � ngerat small social gatherings
Salem goes high speed toward ‘22
Lynn Mayor Thomas M. McGee
Police and � re personnel had to rescue
a car from the deepest part of
a puddle that formed in the 1005 Paradise
Road shopping complex park-
ing lot, near Marshall’s.
By Gayla CawleyITEM STAFF
SWAMPSCOTT — Police and � re� ghters had to assist a woman out of her vehicle after it became stuck in more than six inches of water Monday in a Paradise Road shopping plaza.
“A person drove into six to eight inches of water and she was assisted from the vehicle,”
said Swampscott Fire Capt. Steven Greenbaum. “There was nothing remarkable about the incident. The area � oods on a regular basis with heavy rains.”
Swampscott Police and Fire responded to the 1005 Paradise Road shopping plaza at approx-imately 10:30 a.m. and found a car stuck in the water near Mar-
shalls, of� cials said. “The car died in the water,”
said Greenbaum, noting that the woman could have escaped the car on her own. “She was un-hurt.”
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Fol-low her on Twitter @Gayla-Cawley.
Driver helpedout of deep
trouble in Swampscott
INSIDE
SwampscottSwampscott draws the line on pot shops. A2
OpinionThe SOB hasn’tclaimed you yet.
Keep it that way. A4
LOOK!Corey Jackson is
standing tall to serve. A8
SportsClassical golf looks
back at a seasonthat wasn’t. B1
•Cheers to a successful
fall season. B1
By Steve KrauseITEM STAFF
MARBLEHEAD — High school princi-pal Dan Bauer is happy that despite an increase in COVID-19 numbers elsewhere in the country, and in the state, the town’s schools are open for business.
“We are in full hybrid,” said Bauer, who worked hard over the summer to get the school ready for students to return for the � rst time since March, which they did last month.
“We are working to stay in school and to do it safely,” said Bauer.
“We know things can change very quick-ly, and we have to be ready for that if nec-essary.”
One of those changes happened late in October when, after a group of students held a party, the school went 100 percent virtual for two weeks.
“That was disappointing,” said Bauer. “We’re not the only school that had to go through it. And hopefully, as we move for-ward, we have made it clear that everybody
Marblehead navigates
hybrid waters
By Gayla CawleyITEM STAFF
LYNN — Several local organizations and residents stepped up Monday to provide turkeys for Lynn families this Thanksgiving.
R.F. O’Sullivan’s, Stop & Shop and Lynn resident Mi-chael Quintana all supplied local families with free tur-keys, efforts that were aimed at giving needy families a chance to enjoy a traditional holiday meal with their loved ones.
People started lining up Monday outside R.F. O’Sullivan’s
Boys & Girls Club of Lynn Marketing and Communica-tions Direc-tor Jalexis Alvarado, 23, � lls boxes with turkey materi-als on Monday.
ITEM PHOTO |OLIVIA FALCIGNO
Free turkeys rule the day
By Matthew Daly, Zeke Miller and Mary Clare Jalonick
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The General Services Administration ascertained Monday that President-elect Joe Biden is the “apparent winner” of the Nov. 3 election, clearing the way for the start of the transition from President Donald Trump’s administration and allowing Biden to coordinate with fed-eral agencies on plans for taking over on Jan. 20.
Trump, who had refused to concede the election, said in a tweet that he is direct-ing his team to cooperate on the transition but is vowing to keep up the � ght.
Administrator Emily Murphy made the determination after Trump efforts to sub-vert the vote failed across battleground states, citing, “recent developments in-volving legal challenges and certi� cations of election results.” Michigan certi� ed Biden’s victory Monday, and a federal judge in Pennsylvania tossed a Trump campaign lawsuit on Saturday seeking to prevent
GSA: Let the transition to Biden begin
STOP THE SPREAD. FOLLOW THE RULES.STAY
FEET APART
NO MORE THAN
IN AN INDOOR GATHERING10
WEAR A MASK WASH YOUR HANDS
TRANSITION, A2TURKEY, A3HYBRID, A2
MCGEE, A3FIBER, A3
A2 THE DAILY ITEM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
OBITUARIES
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IN MEMORIAMBARBARA A. GIGUERE
2018 ~ NOVEMBER 24 ~ 2020
Lovingly remembered and missedby her family, Jim. Sr., Jim, Mary,Keith, Stacey, Eric, Allie, Nate,
Molly, and Shilah
LYNN - Charlene N. Andrews age 79 passed away peacefully at the Sawtelle Hospice Family House on November 21, 2020 surrounded by her loving fam-ily. She was born in Swamp-scott, MA on August 17, 1941 and was a lifelong resident of Lynn, MA. Charlene was the daughter of the late Charles and Alma (Goguen) Vose. Fol-lowing graduation from Lynn English High School in 1959, she worked as an operator at the telephone company, and as a waitress at several area restaurants while raising her children. Later, she worked at Analog Devices in Wilmington, MA and as an administrative assistant to the Dean of Enroll-ment at Suffolk University until her retirement in 2013 where she enjoyed interacting with the diverse students.
Charlene valued time with family and friends. She was an avid reader (especially of Amish & history), enjoyed summers at the beach, and traveling.
Charlene will be remem-bered as a supportive, loving, caring mother and grand-mother who created a warm and welcoming home for her children, grandchildren, friends and family. She celebrated ev-ery milestone in our lives with a homemade meal, a beautifully decorated cake and gifts.
Charlene is survived by her children, Michael Andrews & wife Carolyn of Lynn, Linda Andrews of Stoneham, Lisa An-drews of Amesbury, and Shawn Andrews & wife Heather of Prosper, TX and her six grand-children, whom she cherished, Daniel, Kyle, Liam, Keelan, Jo-seph and Keira Andrews. She also leaves her sisters Yvonne Naimo and Janis Vose, her best friend Judy Delisle and numer-ous beloved nieces and neph-ews. She was predeceased by her sisters Alma Love, Irene Maher and her brother Charles (Charlot) Vose.
The family would like to es-pecially thank Dr. William Boyd,
VNA Hospice and Pallative Care, and the nurses at the Sawtelle Family Hospice House in Reading, MA.
In adherence to the guide-lines issued by the Common-wealth of Massachusetts and the CDC, we ask every one to where a mask. Friends and family are welcome to attend visitation at the Cuffe-McGinn Funeral Home, 157 Maple St., Lynn, on Wednesday, No-vember 25th from 9 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Funeral Mass will be held at Holy Family Catholic Church , Lynn, at 11 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, please send a donation in memory of Charlene to any Pancreat-ic Cancer foundation of your choice or any foundation that supports United States Veter-ans.
Service Information: In ad-herence to the guidelines is-sued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the CDC, we ask every one to where a mask. Friends and family are welcome to attend visitation at the Cuffe-Mc-Ginn Funeral Home, 157 Ma-ple St., Lynn, on Wednesday, November 25th from 9 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Funeral Mass will be held at Holy Family Catholic Church , Lynn, at 11 a.m.
Charlene Nancy Andrews, 791941 - 2020
LYNN - Mrs. Margaret Cath-erine (Kerr) Melanson age 98 of Lynn, died peacefully at her home, with her family at her side on Monday November 23, 2020. She was the wife of the late William J. Melanson, with whom she shared 50 years of marriage.
A lifelong resident of Lynn, she was the daughter of the late Robert and Mary (Moore) Kerr. She attended Lynn Schools and was a graduate of Lynn Classical High School, class of 1940. Margaret had also attended the former Felt & Tarrant Business School in Boston. She had worked, until her retirement in 1980, as a cafeteria worker for the Lynn School Department at Clas-sical High School and had previously worked for General Electric for 15 years.
Margaret was a Life Member and a 3 term Past President of AMVETS Auxiliary Post 161, Lynn and a Life Member of Franco American Ladies Aux-iliary Post 12. She was also a member of the Lynn Retirees Association and of AARP. Mar-garet was a Communicant of Sacred Heart Parish in Lynn.
She is survived by her chil-dren Robert J. Downing of Lynn, Richard J. Melanson and his wife Peggy of Lynn, Donald W. Melanson and his wife Rose-marie of Burlington, and Janet M. Melanson of Lynn, a sister Audrey Dancewicz and her late husband Francis “Boley” Dancewicz of Lynn, her grand-children Shawn Melanson, Nicholas Gallo, Anthony Gal-lo, Carolyn Melanson, Donald Melanson Jr., Patrick Hack-ett, James Hackett, Michael Downing, Nancy Craig, Robert Downing, and Kim Gaudet, a
Goddaughter Julie (MacEach-ern) Crampsey, and many great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. She was also the sis-ter of the late Gladys Page and her husband Bob, and Donald Kerr and his wife Ruth.
Service Information: Vis-iting hours will be held on Wednesday from 9:30AM-12:30PM in the Solimine Funeral Home 426 Broadway (RTE129), Lynn. Burial will follow at Pine Grove Ceme-tery. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to at-tend. Adhering to the guide-lines of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the CDC, visitation will be lim-ited to 40 family members and friends at a time. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Care Dimensions 75 Sylvan St. Suite B-102, Dan-vers, MA 01923. Directions and guestbook at www.soli-mine.com
Margaret C. (Kerr) Melanson, 98
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HYBRIDFrom A1
follows the guidelines for holidays so that we can keep going forward with in-person learning.”
Bauer said it’s import-ant to have in-person con-tact with teachers.
“There are things that just can’t be replicated in a remote world,” he said. “We have students, of course, in remote learn-ing because of family sit-uations, or personal sit-uations, and we try very hard to make them a part of the community.
“We’re trying to balance everything, and make ev-erybody safe — both phys-ically and emotionally. But
it’s a strain on the kids, and a strain on the families.”
Bauer said he worries about the upcoming hol-idays and how a laxness in adhering to previous-ly-established guidelines might affect learning.
“Yes, this situation is highlighted even more with holidays coming up,” he said. “People are chang-ing their habits. We hope they follow the safeguards so that we can stay with in-person learning as long as we can.”
Currently, there are two clusters, and they attend school twice a week and revert to virtual the other three. On Wednesdays, ev-eryone is virtual.
Even with the disruption
caused by the party, Bau-er is not sure where the school is in terms of gener-al clusters and numbers.
“I think we’re OK,” he said. “The numbers every-where are going up, but we’ve been able to dodge it as much as we can.”
But, he said, “everybody is suffering from pandem-ic fatigue. We’re lucky as a state with what’s going on here, as opposed to every-where else in the country.”
Superintendent John Buckey said in a letter to the community last week that the town needs to stick together to make this work.
“Collaboration as a com-munity will be required to make this work,” Buckey
wrote. “We are only as good as our weakest point.”
He also said even in Marblehead there was a jump last week to 36 ac-tive cases.
According to the town, four of the 57 cases re-ported in the town over the last two weeks were among those 19 years old or younger.
Buckey said in order to maintain in-person learning, all staff and stu-dents must follow Massa-chusetts Department of Health orders that include avoiding travel, discourag-ing those visiting from out of state, avoiding gather-ings with people outside of the household and follow-ing school safety protocols.
Marblehead navigates hybrid waters
By Guthrie Scrimgeour
ITEM STAFF
SWAMPSCOTT — At the Special Town Meeting last Tuesday, the town vot-ed to limit the number of cannabis dispensaries al-lowed in the town to two.
Since the town has al-ready entered into a host-community agree-ment with one dispensary and is engaged in talks with another, this could ef-fectively close the door to any additional companies seeking to sell marijuana in the town.
“The reason why the Se-lect Board decided to lim-it the number to two is to provide certainty. There have been a lot of inqui-ries about other locations
in town, and I know that a lot of people have had con-cerns about where these establishments would go,” said Select Board Chair-man Peter Spellios at the meeting.
“With knowledge that the town has already iden-tified two locations, the hope is to give Swampscott residents assurance that future marijuana retail establishments will not be occurring in Swampscott.”
The bylaw limits the amount of retail weed li-censes to a maximum of 20 percent of the number of package store licenses distributed by the town.
The town currently has issued three alcohol li-censes and five beer and wine licenses. Twenty per-cent of that number is 1.6,
which, according to the new bylaw, is then round-ed up to the nearest whole number, two.
The Select Board voted unanimously in Septem-ber to enter negotiations with Calyx Peak Compa-nies, a weed distributor seeking a decade-long lease on the town-owned former C & L Package Store at 16 New Ocean Street.
The proposed store sparked some objections from the community, with residents citing concerns about potential negative consequences of having a cannabis shop in the area at a community meeting in August.
“This is an area where there are numerous small children,” said Irene Pep-perberg, who lives near the proposed store. “How do you control people walking into your store and opening up their bags of gummy bears and drop-ping them on the street for a child to eat?”
Earlier this summer, the town entered into a
host-community agree-ment with the local weed distributor Terpene Jour-ney LLC, which intends to open a dispensary at the former eye-care cen-ter at 430 Paradise Road, next to the Vinnin Square Domino’s.
This project was also greeted with some skep-ticism from locals, who voiced concerns about the additional traffic the store would generate at a com-munity-outreach meeting last year.
According to owner and CEO, Swampscott local Tom Bogacz, the store is targeting an opening in the first quarter of 2021.
In general, Swampscott residents have mixed opinions on legal weed. In 2016, a narrow majority of Swampscott residents (53 percent) voted in favor of the state-wide ballot ini-tiative that legalized rec-reational marijuana sales.
The cap on dispensaries passed by a wide margin — 172 in favor to 20 op-posed.
Swampscott draws the line on pot shops
TRANSITIONFrom A1
certification in that state.Yohannes Abraham, the
executive director of the Biden transition, said in a statement that the deci-sion “is a needed step to be-gin tackling the challenges facing our nation, includ-ing getting the pandem-ic under control and our economy back on track.”
He added: “In the days ahead, transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests, and gain com-plete understanding of the Trump administration’s efforts to hollow out gov-ernment agencies.”
Murphy, a Trump ap-pointee, had faced bipar-tisan criticism for failing to begin the transition process sooner, preventing Biden’s team from work-ing with career agency officials on plans for his administration, including in critical national securi-ty and public health areas.
“Please know that I came to my decision in-dependently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or in-directly pressured by any Executive Branch offi-cial—including those who work at the White House or GSA—with regard to the substance or timing of my decision,” Murphy wrote in a letter to Biden.
Trump tweeted shortly
after her letter was made public: “We will keep up the good fight and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommend-ing that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.”
Pressure had been mounting on Murphy as an increasing number of Republicans, national se-curity experts and busi-ness leaders said it was time for that process to move forward.
Retiring Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, who has repeatedly called for the transition to begin, released a new state-ment Monday saying that Trump should “put the country first” and help Biden’s administration succeed.
“When you are in public life, people remember the last thing you do,” Alexan-der said.
Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio on Mon-day called for Murphy to release money and staffing needed for the transition. Portman, a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmen-tal Affairs Committee, also said Biden should re-ceive high-level briefings on national security and the coronavirus vaccine distribution plan.
Alexander and Portman, who have both aligned themselves with Trump,
joined a growing number of Republican officials who in recent days have urged Trump to begin the transition immediately. Sen. Shelley Moore Capi-to, R-W.Va., also urged a smooth transition, saying in a statement Monday that “at some point, the 2020 election must end.”
Meanwhile, more than 160 business leaders asked Murphy to immedi-ately acknowledge Biden as president-elect and be-gin the transition to a new administration. “With-holding resources and vi-tal information from an incoming administration puts the public and eco-nomic health and securi-ty of America at risk,” the business letters said in an open letter to Murphy.
Separately, more than 100 Republican former national security offi-cials — including former Homeland Security Direc-tor Tom Ridge, former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Director of Na-tional Intelligence John Negroponte — said in a statement that Trump’s refusal to concede and allow for an orderly tran-sition “constitutes a seri-ous threat” to America’s democratic process. The officials signing the letter worked under four Repub-lican presidents, including Trump.
The statement called on “Republican leaders — es-pecially those in Congress — to publicly demand that
President Trump cease his anti-democratic assault on the integrity of the presi-dential election.”
Trump had publicly re-fused to accept defeat and launched a series of losing court battles across the country making baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and seeking to over-turn the election results.
Murphy missed a dead-line on Monday set by House Democrats to brief lawmakers about the delay in beginning the transition, which is usually a routine step between the election and the inauguration. A spokeswoman for the GSA said that a deputy admin-istrator would instead hold two separate briefings for House and Senate commit-tees on Nov. 30.
In response, the Dem-ocratic chairs of four committees and subcom-mittees said they could re-schedule the meeting for Tuesday, but no later.
“We cannot wait yet an-other week to obtain basic information about your refusal to make the ascer-tainment determination,” the Democrats said in a letter to Murphy. “Every additional day that is wast-ed is a day that the safety, health, and well-being of the American people is imperiled as the incoming Biden-Harris administra-tion is blocked from fully preparing for the coronavi-rus pandemic, our nation’s dire economic crisis, and our national security.”
GSA: Let the transition to Biden begin
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020 THE DAILY ITEM A3
LAW OFFICES OFJAMES J. CARRIGAN• Social Security Disability • Workers Compensation• Accidents
25 years located across from Lynn District Court15 Johnson St.781-596-0100
LISA A. CARRIGAN, OF COUNSEL
JAMES J. CARRIGANANNE GUGINO CARRIGAN
www.jamescarriganlaw.com
TURKEYFrom A1
as early as 7:30 a.m., though distribution of the birds didn’t begin until 11 that morning, said owner Richard Sullivan.
The downtown restau-rant had promised to hand out 100 free turkeys on a first come, first served ba-sis, but the turnout was so large that Sullivan ended up buying 20 more to give away, he said.
Only 19 minutes had passed by the time all of the turkeys were gone, Sullivan said.
“This is our first year doing it,” said Sullivan. “I didn’t think it would be this fast. It was an unbe-lievable turnout.”
Sullivan said the restau-rant decided to give out turkeys this year as a way to give back to the city of Lynn, particularly those in need.
“We just saw people from all over Lynn and what-ever their circumstances were, it doesn’t really mat-ter to me,” said Sullivan. “It was just good to see people getting something and smiling instead of the COVID. It’s going to be the first of many because we’re happy that people are happy.”
Lynn’s Stop & Shop is donating 200 turkeys and the fixings needed for a traditional Thanksgiving meal to families of stu-dents who attend Wash-ington S.T.E.M. Elemen-tary School, which has a food pantry partnership with the supermarket.
Almost 100 of the 200 families that will receive Thanksgiving meals in ex-change for a voucher they received from the school picked up their turkeys and sides Monday from
the supermarket. The re-maining families are able to come on Tuesday to re-ceive their items, accord-ing to Maria Fruci, com-munity relations manager for Stop & Shop.
“This donation is part of our annual Turkey Ex-press initiative,” said Fru-ci. “With our Turkey Ex-press initiative, we donate turkeys to various commu-nity panthers to help our neighbors in need. This year, in total, we donated 22,000 turkeys across our five states.”
Stop & Shop’s Turkey Express program, which started more than a de-cade ago, is aimed at help-ing elementary school families affected by food insecurity across Mas-sachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey.
Washington S.T.E.M. families are receiving $50 worth of food from Stop & Shop, including a turkey, instant mashed potatoes, corn, peas, stuffing, gra-vy and cranberry sauce. While it’s the first year the school is benefitting from the program, the gro-cery store has already do-nated more than $20,000 to Washington S.T.E.M.’s food pantry this year.
“More and more people in our communities are fac-ing food insecurity, espe-cially now with the COVID impact,” said Fruci. “Our Turkey Express is our ini-tiative to provide a turkey so our neighbors in need can enjoy a Thanksgiving with their loved ones.
“Through our partner-ship with Washington S.T.E.M. and our food pan-try partnership, they were sharing with us how their need is so significant this year, (which is) why we ex-panded to including them
with our turkey initiative this year as well,” she said.
Washington S.T.E.M. Principal Anthony Frye said the food-pantry part-nership started at the school last year, but was shut down last March due to the COVID-19 pan-demic. One of the school’s main goals this fall was to restart the food pantry to address food insecurity in the community.
“When I first started four years ago, one of the things I wanted to do was build a community school, which means that kids wouldn’t have the obsta-cles in front of them to get an education,” said Frye. “We want to limit the ob-stacles for kids getting an education and food is a part of that.”
The food pantry was held at the school last Thurs-
day and Friday, where families were also provid-ed with the vouchers they could exchange at Stop & Stop for Thanksgiving groceries, Frye said.
Monday’s distribution at Stop & Shop was a “win-win” for everyone involved, said Frye, citing the foot traffic that was brought into the store while addressing the huge need that the school’s
families have right now around food access.
“They had a turkey drive going and we said ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’” said Frye. “We thought it would be a good time, especially with people staying home to eat.”
Quintana, 32, has spent the past several days dropping off turkeys at local organizations and individual households. It’s his eighth year providing free turkeys to the Lynn community, an effort that grew from donating 12 turkeys the first year to more than 250 this year.
He dropped off 50 tur-keys at the Gregg Neigh-borhood House last Friday, and he donated 85 and 100 to the Boys & Girls Club of Lynn and Lynn YMCA, respectively, Monday. He then proceeded to distrib-ute some to local families, Quintana said.
Quintana largely funds the donation effort him-self. In an average year, he usually spends $4,000 to $5,000, but since he was able to network and se-cure donations from local organizations and people this year, he was able to decrease his spending to $2,000, he said.
“At first, it was just to give back to the less for-tunate families,” said Quintana. “I had a lot of assistance growing up and I had a lot of support from strangers. They were real-ly superheroes in the com-munity. I figured if I was ever in a position to give back, I would. I’m happy I’m able to give back and I’m blessed to be in this position.”
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
Free turkeys rule the day
FIBERFrom A1
while we deliver the great-est network it’s ever had,” said SiFi CEO Ben Baw-tree-Jobson.
Fiber-optic cable in-ternet, which allows for the transmission of data through light rather than electricity, can significant-ly improve the speed of a network. As the cost of installing fiber networks has recently decreased, many major cities have been investing in this new infrastructure.
Last week, workers dug trenches in the Jackson Street area to test equip-ment and street closing methods.
This was only a small segment of the construc-tion required to complete the project, which is set to begin in earnest early next year and will be com-pleted by 2022.
However, GigabitNow, the internet service pro-vider on the project, es-timates that they will be able to begin providing services as early as sum-mer 2021.
The majority of the net-work will be installed using micro-trenching, a technique that minimizes disruption to traffic and neighbors and to the road-way itself. It will not lead to the addition of any new overhead cables or wires, as all fiber cables will be installed underground.
SiFi Networks is fund-ing and constructing the Salem fiber network, it’s first venture in Massa-chusetts. Previously, the company was focused on development projects in Europe and has only re-cently begun looking for opportunities to expand into the American market.
The company has al-ready completed a simi-lar project in Fullerton, Calif., and has addition-al projects underway in
Kenosha, Wis., East Hart-ford, Conn., and Saratoga Springs, NY. Following the construction of the Salem project, SiFi hopes to ex-pand to other Massachu-setts towns and cities.
The company focuses largely on smaller cities like Salem, which compa-nies like Verizon FiOS and Google Fiber don’t have their eyes on and which have shown a desire for competition with only one telecommunications or ca-ble company.
Because the business models for SiFi and Giga-bitNow rely on being competitively priced with Comcast, it is likely that the company will attempt to provide lower prices for their services than those currently available to Sa-lem residents.
In addition to the in-creased network speeds, the new system also al-lows the city to utilize SiFi’s Smart City appli-cations, which can assist in education, health and waste management.
“We are delighted that SiFi Networks has chosen to deliver a fiber network in our city,” said Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll in a SiFi press release.
“A fiber network can really provide the infra-structure to improve eco-nomic development, in-crease quality of life for our residents and allow us to plan for the future.”
Salem resident William Phu, who uses the local internet network to tele-commute to his job in Bos-ton, was excited about the potential of fiber.
“If I want high speed internet, Comcast is cur-rently the only option right now,” said Phu.
“Hopefully (fiber will) make things more compet-itive, or at the very least, could be a draw for busi-ness and new residents to help Salem stand out.”
Salem goes high speed toward ‘22 MCGEE
From A1
Rein, of North Shore Med-ical Center, echoed an in-creasing number of medi-cal professionals, who say the uptick in social gath-erings are partly being driven by a phenomenon that is being referred to as “COVID (or pandemic) fatigue.”
The first virus surge be-gan to wind down at the end of July, Rein said, with a quiet period of decreas-ing case numbers seen throughout August. But since early August, there’s been a gradual uptick in cases, with the slope start-ing to accelerate as of late.
“(There’s) COVID fa-tigue for sure,” said Mc-Gee. “You’re in a small bubble. Everyone was staying strictly to that. People are expanding their bubbles a bit to close family and friends.”
The data that is being collected through con-tact-tracing efforts shows that those types of gather-ings are fueling the recent surge in cases, said Mc-Gee, noting that new in-fections started trending toward a much younger age group in August.
“Complacence began to accumulate as the num-bers came down over the summer,” said Rein. “(We) started to see increased gatherings.”
Contributing to that COVID fatigue is the ma-jor impact that the virus is having on everybody’s mental health, said Rein, referring to the increased anxiety and strain that has resulted from isola-tion stemming from people staying inside their house-hold bubbles. Months of mask wearing and social distancing has also worn on people, he said.
“Part of the problem is people are not willing to isolate or quarantine and these cases get spread within the family,” said McGee, explaining that the spread can be exacerbat-ed by residents who work
in high-risk jobs, such as healthcare providers and supermarket workers, and then return to a home where they live in close proximity to others.
Statewide, Rein said 70 to 80 percent of the new cas-es are residential, and also related to small, medium or large gatherings. While the age group for new cases has been trending downward in the past several months — 85 percent of positives are below the age of 60 and half are below 40 — he said the majority of deaths and hos-pitalizations are still occur-ring in an older population.
In Massachusetts, the average age of COVID deaths is 81 and the aver-age age of hospitalizations is 66, Rein said, noting that although high-risk populations are more im-pacted, the virus doesn’t discriminate. Deaths have been seen among younger people, particularly those who work in the health-care profession, McGee added.
“We’re obviously con-cerned about the spread among younger patients and their spread to older people,” said Rein, noting that there is a risk for death in those scenarios.
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, both McGee and Rein are urging residents to avoid gathering with others out-side of their household for the holiday.
McGee encouraged peo-ple to turn to Zoom and other virtual connections for family and friends who don’t live together, but if residents are gath-ering with people out-side of their households, it should be done outside with masks and social dis-tancing.
People should keep din-ners short and avoid shar-ing utensils, Rein said, saying that, “really the greatest gift you can give someone at-risk is to cele-brate the holiday remote-ly.”
“Don’t go out,” said Mc-
Gee. “Don’t see anybody. You shouldn’t be stepping outside your households and exposing others. One hundred and twenty nine people have died from this virus in Lynn alone. It definitely impacts people within high-risk popula-tions, but it’s not exclusive to that.”
The city’s death toll re-mained at 129 on Monday, but another 49 new cases were reported to bring the city’s caseload to 7,156. Of that total, 1,162 cases are active and 5,865 peo-ple have recovered from the virus, according to city data.
To combat the surge, McGee said Lynn has re-activated Thurgood Mar-shall Middle School as a contact-tracing site and has hired seven communi-ty-care coordinators, who are visiting local business-es to check for compliance for COVID guidelines, such as mask wearing.
But much of the city’s efforts involve adhering to state guidelines, such as the universal mask man-date and overnight curfew that is in place from 10 p.m to 6 a.m., according to McGee.
As a high-risk communi-ty, the city is also working with the state to ensure compliance, part of which involves having the Alco-holic Beverages Control Commission perform spot checks at businesses and restaurants, McGee said.
McGee noted that sur-rounding communities, such as Peabody and Re-vere, are facing similar challenges with rising case numbers and that the city has been working col-laboratively with nearby cities and towns to try to flatten the curve.
On Monday, 16 new cas-es and an additional death were reported in Revere to bring that city’s num-bers to 4,097 cases and 112 deaths. Peabody has reported 92 new cases and three additional deaths since last Friday, bringing
the totals to 2,037 cases and 201 deaths.
Although case numbers are skyrocketing locally, statewide and across the country, Rein said those numbers are not as high as what was seen during the first wave. For exam-ple, the number of hos-pitalizations is nowhere near what was seen back in the spring, he said.
“We’re asking people to hang tough and be risk free as much as possible as we work toward a vac-cine being available,” said McGee, noting that a vac-cine is still months away. “It’s incumbent upon us to take personal respon-sibility and work together to stay safe. We can save lives by doing that.”
“We’re probably looking at roughly four months where we can start to turn the corner and look for much better days ahead of us,” Rein added.
New cases were also re-ported Monday in Lynn-field, Nahant and Swamp-scott. Fifteen new cases and an additional death were reported in Lynnfield (264 cases, 15 deaths), four new cases were re-ported in Nahant (91 cas-es, six deaths) and nine new cases were reported in Swampscott (253 cases, 11 deaths).
Numbers have not been not updated in Marble-head (359 cases, 30 deaths) or Saugus (1,121 cases, 45 deaths) since last Friday.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
McGee points COVID finger at small social gatherings
ITEM PHOTO | OLIVIA FALCIGNO
R.F. O’Sullivan’s manager Richard Sullivan II hands off turkeys to pa-trons who came Monday to pick up free birds that were donated by the Lynn pub and restaurant.
A4 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
OPINIONThe SOB hasn’t claimed you yet. Keep it that way.
EDITORIAL
TO SUBMIT YOUR LETTERS, PLEASE MAIL TO THE DAILY ITEM, P.O. BOX 5, LYNN, MA 01903 OR EMAIL TO [email protected]
I am always drawn to the campus of my alma mater — St. John’s Prep — when I want a peaceful walk without any intrusions; just that beautiful, impec-cably-maintained campus, my thoughts and me.
Saturday was one such day. So off I went. My tour took me around the track that surrounds the football field, through the ceme-tery for Xaverian Brothers who once taught there, and along some other roadways and even parking lots. Any-thing to get 10,000 Fitbit steps in.
The last leg of Saturday’s walk was past the Broth-er Linus Commons, where varsity baseball star Peter Frates is memorialized. You may have heard the name.
Pete Frates was a ter-rific three-sport athlete at The Prep, and he excelled at baseball, both there and at Boston College. A double-eagle, as it were. I thought I’d be watching him someday at Fenway, but it never happened for him. Still, he kept playing in twi-leagues because he loved the game.
One night, he got hit on the wrist with a pitched ball, and he felt the injury took too long to heal. So he got it looked at.
I’m sure there were so many times, over the next seven years of his life, that he wished he hadn’t — even though we know it wouldn’t have made a difference. He had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS. Lou Geh-rig’s Disease. At the risk of sounding too foreboding, it was a death sentence. All before he was 30 years old.
Frates — and all people who receive this diagnosis — are left to face the pros-pect not only of death, but of prolonged suffering. In Frates’ case he fought the disease for seven years, dy-ing on Dec. 9 of last year.
He did not go quietly, and thank God he didn’t. He and a friend, Pat Quinn (who died Sunday at the age of 37), were the driving forces behind the Ice Buck-
et Challenge, which raised so much money for ALS research. He epitomized bravery.
The disease has taken more than a few people who have meant a lot to me, starting with my cous-in-in-law, Jerry Fitzgerald — a terrific man made even more wonderful because he laughed at my jokes (some of them are pretty bad).
There’s Jim Daly, a Prep classmate and teammate on the football field. Dick Kelley was a sports infor-mation director at Boston College and one of the nic-est guys you’d ever want to meet.
Former Lynn School Com-mitteeman George Maza-reas, himself an exception-al basketball player, still fights the good fight, and a few years back, when he was being honored at the Agganis Basketball Tour-nament at St. George’s, I saw a solitary tear fall down Maz’s face. He just drove home the fact that the victims of this disease know what’s going on with them.
I thought of all this as I stopped to look at Pete Frates’ name stenciled on the turf field. It’ll be there for as long as the field stands. But I’ll bet you Frates, and every other vic-tim of every debilitating, terminal disease, would prefer to be here now, alive. And I’ll bet you if they were, and they had the ability to draw from their real-life ex-periences, they’d have a few things to say about the peo-ple who balk at following simple health directives in the fight to lasso this coro-navirus pandemic.
After all, Peter, Jerry, Jim, Dick and George had no say in the matter. Nothing they did, or didn’t do, caused them to get sick. Imagine
what they’d say to peo-ple who do have a choice, but who defy these simple health directives, go out without masks on, insist on traveling for Thanksgiv-ing, or having houses full of company despite warnings from any competent med-ical professional to refrain from doing so.
What do you suppose Pete Frates would say to some-one who considers wearing a mask an infringement on his/her freedom? Care to speculate?
There are still things I’m thankful for this year as Thanksgiving rolls around. Among them: that I had the privilege of watching Pete Frates play; of play-ing alongside Jim Daly on the Prep JV team; of kib-itzing with Dick Kelley in the BC press box on the few occasions my North-eastern Huskies won a hockey game against BC; of being present when the annual “Maz” Award was announced at St. George’s; and of giving a “roast” at my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and hearing Jerry Fitzgerald convulsed with laughter. If everyone were like him, I’d be doing two shows a night in Vegas.
Please, everyone, consid-er the 250,000 people in this country who have lost their lives to this virus. Consider all the victims who have died horribly due to ALS and died horribly of other awful illnesses. Wear your mask when you go outside, and stop whining about it. And while I know this might be an incredibly lonely holiday season for some, those who can, please make the best of the situa-tion with your immediate families, and avoid making this holiday its own su-per-spreader.
Happy Thanksgiving. And think about what you’ve been given this year. You are nine months into the worst health crisis we’ve had in a century, and, so far, the SOB hasn’t come after you!
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Fix America’s broken PPE pipeline
Editorial from the Los Angeles Times editorial board
The COVID-19 pandemic has entered a fright-ening new phase, picking up speed in every state and breaking new records almost daily.
This new wave of coronavirus infections has hospital resources stretched close to the breaking point in several states, as seriously ill COVID-19 patients crowd critical care units. And as bad as it is, the worst is yet to come, experts predict, as people ignore public-health warnings and gather to celebrate the holidays.
At least we have enough medical masks, gloves and gowns to keep healthcare workers safe, right? The supply chains broken by the onset of a global pandemic in spring surely have been repaired by now?
If only that were the case.While the acuity of the protective gear short-
age has lessened over the past few months, the supply chain is still unreliable. Too many health-care workers, particularly those not in hospitals, still lack adequate supplies of masks, gloves and gowns and are being forced to reuse equipment meant to be thrown away after one wearing. Even the Strategic National Stockpile has only about one-third the N95 masks that the federal govern-ment expected to have by now, according to the New York Times.
“People think the problem is solved,” said Dr. Shikha Gupta, executive director of Get Us PPE, a grass-roots volunteer project connecting dona-tions of protective gear to healthcare facilities in desperate need. “We are as bad off now as we were in March,” she added, noting that the need has risen ominously this month and requests have shifted away from hospitals and critical care centers to nursing homes and small medical prac-tices, among others.
The U.S. has had eight months to prepare for the expected autumn surge of coronavirus cases, but somehow these basic infection control tools are still in short supply. Add it to the growing list of ways that the Trump administration has bun-gled the pandemic response and left the U.S. in the unenviable position of having more COVID-19 deaths than any other country.
Admittedly, access to protective gear has im-proved since the dark days of April, when doctors and nurses were forced to wash out disposable N95 masks for days on end and use garbage bags when gowns ran out. Stocks are more reliable, at least for some facilities, and states that had the wherewithal to do so, such as California, have built substantial stockpiles of their own. But the PPE pipeline is far from fixed, and it’s likely to be strained again as infections rise in the coming weeks.
“The supply chain has improved,” Dr. Susan R. Bailey, president of the American Medical Associ-ation, said in a late October interview. “But there are still many smaller doctors’ offices that don’t have the same access to masks and gowns and face masks that a hospital system would.” And hospitals remain concerned about stable supplies too, particularly nitrile gloves, isolation gowns, N95s and testing supplies, according to the Amer-ican Hospital Association.
A study of the PPE supplies of nursing homes by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that as of late August, 20 percent lacked a week’s supply of one or more types of protective equip-ment and about half had come close to running out between May and August.
“We’re talking about surgical masks. We’re talking about gloves,” said U.S. PIRG’s Teresa Murray of the shortages. “We know how to make this stuff. It’s not difficult.”
No, it’s not, and a functional administration would use the Defense Production Act to compel more production and distribution of protective gear, as medical organizations have been urging. But we have little hope that’s likely to happen, at least until Joe Biden takes over the White House in January. (Indeed, it’s part of Biden’s pandemic plan.)
When the history of the U.S.’s tragic first year of the COVID-19 pandemic is written, it may well be illustrated with photographs of patients in the wealthiest nation on Earth being treated by doc-tors dressed in garbage bags. Sad.
Shifting from “me” to “we”Even though the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention issued a rec-ommendation that Amer-icans refrain from travel-ing for Thanksgiving, my family doesn’t think that it applies to them. They still expect me to cook a huge bird, stock my bar, and host everyone for a week in my home.
As Professor Emily Oster pointed out in her recent article in the New York Times, convincing people to change their behavior for their own health is hard enough. We all know scores of people with heart disease or obesity who re-fuse to change their diet and incorporate regular exercise, for example.
If changing behavior for the sake of one’s own health is difficult, then convincing the people to make chang-es for the sake of the public good is near impossible.
A large part of the issue
is that our generation of Americans (Gen X, millen-nials and Gen Z) are whol-ly consumed by self-grati-fication.
Unlike the generations be-fore us, who were required to make wartime sacrifices for the common good, to-day’s Americans are more focused on protecting and exercising their “individual liberty” than on any notion of civic responsibility.
Masks have been proven to greatly reduce the trans-mission of COVID-19, but my individual freedom is more important than safe-guarding the health of an-other.
Take the example of a re-cent super-spreader wed-ding in Maine.
Fifty-five people attend-ed the wedding. One guest had a COVID infection. Over the next 38 days, the virus spread to 176 other people. Seven people died, none of whom attended
the wedding. There is only so much government can publicly mandate to con-trol the spread of the virus.
What we really need right now is not more government mandates, but rather a cul-tural shift from the “me” to the “we.” When Americans start caring about the im-pact of individual decisions on their communities is when we will see a dramatic decrease in infection rates.
Rather than “rules,” these should be viewed as “civ-ic responsibilities,” which engender a sense of pride for following through on. These guidelines should be followed by all Americans, even the governor of Califor-nia, and, yes, even the pres-ident of the United States.
Patricia Pan Connor is a freelance writer, formerly a private equity investor, based in Santa Barbara, California. She wrote this for InsideSource.com.
PATRICIA CONNOR
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020 THE DAILY ITEM A5
All address information, particu-larly arrests, reflect police records. In the event of a perceived inaccuracy, it is the sole responsibility of the con-cerned party to contact the relevant police department and have the de-partment issue a notice of correction to the Daily Item. Corrections or clar-ifications will not be made without express notice of change from the arresting police department.
LYNN
Arrests
Rafael Gascot Estrella, 38, was arrested and charged with shoplifting by asportation and violation of the city knife ordi-nance at 11:15 a.m. Monday.
Accidents
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 2:39 p.m. Sunday at 825 Boston St.
Assaults
A report of an assault at 10:13 a.m. Monday at Shell Gas Station at 122 Boston St.
Breaking and Entering
A report of a motor vehicle breaking and entering at 9:54 a.m. Monday at 3 Murray St.
Overdose
A report of an overdose at 8:58 p.m. Sunday on Western Avenue; at 10:08 a.m. Sunday on Winthrop Street Court.
Theft
A report of a larceny at 12:01 p.m. Sunday at 36 Sag-amore St.; at 11:42 a.m. Mon-day at 53 Elm St.; at 12:03 p.m. Monday at 200 Locust St.; at 12:04 p.m. Monday at 198 Locust St.
LYNNFIELD
Accidents
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 10:28 a.m. Sunday at 635 Lowell St. A car reportedly crashed into a tree.
A motor vehicle crash was reported at 5:23 p.m. Sunday at 3 Harley Lane.
MARBLEHEAD
Accidents
A report of a motor vehicle crash at Evans Road and Elm Street at 5:08 p.m. Sunday involving a black Honda CR-V and a green Honda Civic. Both cars were towed.
FraudA report of unemployment
claim fraud at 11:39 a.m. Sunday; and at 12:39 p.m. Sunday
PEABODY
Arrests
Peter R. Smith, 50, of 21 Grace Road, Woburn, was ar-rested on a courtesy booking at 12:47 p.m. Sunday.
Accidents
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 7:23 a.m. Saturday at 19 Lynn St. A car into a pole was reported.
A motor vehicle crash was reported at 7:53 a.m. Saturday at McDonald’s at 133 Main St.
A caller reported a man struck two trees in the parking lot. James Lawrence Sandel, 74, of 20 Central St., Apt., 303, was summoned for opera-tion of a motor vehicle with a suspended license, attaching plates, and unregistered motor vehicle.
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 11:13 a.m. Saturday at BMW of Peabody at 221 Andover St.; at 4:15 p.m. Sat-urday at Stop & Shop at 19 Howley St.; at 1:39 a.m. Sun-day at 124 Winona St.; at 4:18 p.m. Sunday at Salem Country Club at 133 Forest St.; at 8:58 p.m. Sunday at 2 Violet Road and 82 Andover St.
Assaults
A report of an assault and battery with a dangerous weapon at 9:48 p.m. Friday on Pierpont Street. A caller report-ed his next door neighbor was on his porch and tased him with a flashlight looking stun gun. The caller was able to lock himself in the house away from the man. Police disarmed the man, Shawn D. Teague, 50, of 63 Pierpont St., who was is-sued a summons for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and carrying a dan-gerous weapon.
Breaking and Entering
A report of an attempted burglary at 9:53 p.m. Saturday at Main Street Smoke Shop at 7 Main St. A caller reported the shop was apparently bro-ken into. A window was broken and a man was seen fleeing the area.
A report of a breaking and entering at 2:01 p.m. Sunday at 40 Endicott St. A caller re-ported someone had broken into his building. Items were reported missing.
Complaints
A report of a suspicious mo-tor vehicle at 9:43 p.m. Friday at Lakeshore Park on Lake Shore Road. A caller reported someone threw items out of a car window at her and a friend while they were at the park.
A report of a disturbance at 9:58 p.m. Friday at Extended Stay America at 200 Jubilee Drive. Hotel staff reported an unruly guest was in the lobby attempting to cut the wires on the vending machine. The guest’s dog was also report-edly running loose and terror-izing guests. Police reported the person was relocated to Motel 6. Erin M. Splaine, 32, of 38 Boston St., Apt. 10, Salem, was summoned for vandalizing property.
A report of unemployment fraud at 1:32 p.m. Saturday at 12 Eileen Road; at 11:56 a.m. Sunday at the police station at 6 Allens Lane.
A report of gunshots at 6:54 p.m. Sunday at Bagel World at 246 Newbury St. A caller re-ported hearing a woman yell-ing and the sound of gunshots in the area of Bagel World. Po-lice checked the area and re-ported the call was unfounded.
Gunshots were reported at 8:26 p.m. Sunday at Corbeil Park on Russell Street. A call-er reported loud pops, which were possibly gunshots. Police checked the area and reported the call was unfounded.
A report of gunshots at 10:38 p.m. Sunday at 50 War-
ren St. A caller reported hear-ing possible gunshots on the fourth floor. Police checked the area and reported the call was unfounded.
Theft
A report of a larceny at 1:31 p.m. Saturday at 4 Highland Park
A larceny was reported at 2:42 p.m. Saturday at 3 Gay-wood Circle. A caller reported a pumpkin was stolen from her mother’s front stoop. Officers went to check the area in an attempt to squash the theft of local gourds.
A report of a larceny at 6:41 a.m. Monday at 46 Keys Drive. A caller reported his vehicle was up on blocks and the tires and rims were stolen.
SAUGUS
Arrests
John S. Tapley, 63, of 26 Pleasant St., was arrested on a probation warrant at 10 a.m. Sunday.
Accidents
A report of a motor vehicle crash at 6:17 p.m. Friday at Applebees at 214 Broadway; at 11:54 a.m. Saturday at 357 Broadway; at 4:57 p.m. Satur-day at Main Street and Broad-way; at 12:27 a.m. Sunday at Angelo’s Service Station at 367 Lincoln Ave.; at 1:34 a.m. Sunday at Eustis and Essex streets.
A report of a motor vehicle crash with injuries at 8:19 p.m. Friday at Prince Restaurant at 517 Broadway; at 5:18 p.m. Sunday on Walnut Street.
Breaking and Entering
A report of a motor vehicle breaking and entering at 2:32 p.m. Friday at Target at 400 Lynn Fells Parkway.
Complaints
A report of unemployment fraud at 4:44 p.m. Friday at 24 Dudley St.; at 11:31 a.m. Sun-day at 8 Second St.; at 11:38 a.m. Sunday at 11 Walden Pond Circle; at 11:51 a.m. Sunday at 103 Central St.
A report of gunshots at 4:01 a.m. Saturday at Avalon Bay Communities at 859 Broad-way. Police secured the scene after locating a shell casing.
Vandalism
A report of vandalism at 8:35 a.m. Sunday at 87 Hurd Ave. A caller reported someone threw a ketchup bottle at her window, which caused damage.
SWAMPSCOTT
Animals
A caller reported a dog at-tack at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
Fraud
An individual came into the station to report that they had been the victim of identity theft at 2:46 p.m. Sunday.
Theft
A caller reported his vehicle missing from his house at 5 Pierro Terrace at 12:17 a.m. Sunday. He believes that it was stolen.
POLICE/FIRE
By Tammy WebberASSOCIATED PRESS
State and local officials nationwide are imposing new coronavirus restric-tions and pleading with the public in an increas-ingly desperate attempt to stop the explosive spread of the disease as many Americans resist calls to limit gatherings and trav-el heading into the holi-days.
Nevada Gov. Steve Siso-lak tightened restrictions on casinos, restaurants and private gatherings beginning Tuesday. In California, where most counties are under a cur-few, Los Angeles Coun-ty officials will prohibit in-person dining for at least three weeks, and a judge on Monday denied a request to temporari-ly restore indoor service at restaurants and gyms in San Diego County. Ne-braska Gov. Pete Ricketts warned that he could im-pose tighter social-dis-tancing restrictions before Thanksgiving if hospital-izations continue to rise.
Sisolak, who has avoid-ed tightening mandates throughout the fall be-cause of the potential damage to Nevada’s tour-ism-based economy, said the trends led to an “ines-capable conclusion.”
“We are on a rapid tra-jectory that threatens to overwhelm our health care system, our front-line health workers and your access to care. So it’s time to act,” said Sisolak, who recently contracted COVID-19.
Around 83,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized with COVID-19, accord-ing to the Covid Tracking Project. Infections have led to a shortage of hospi-tal beds and health care workers, and they threat-en non-COVID-19-related surgeries and other care.
Colorado Gov. Jared Po-lis on Monday issued an executive order autho-rizing the state health department to order hos-pitals and emergency departments to transfer non-virus patients and to cease admitting new ones to deal with the influx of coronavirus cases.
In Washington state, elective procedures such as joint and heart valve replacements and some cancer surgeries could be postponed to make room for coronavirus patients, said Washington State Hospital Association CEO Cassie Sauer.
Adding to the stress: Some of the new restric-tions are throwing people out of work again.
Economists worry that companies laying off work-ers will reverse the solid job gains since the spring and even push up the un-employment rate again. In a troublesome sign, the number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose last week for the
first time in five weeks.About 20 million Amer-
icans are now receiving some form of unemploy-ment benefits, but about half will lose those bene-fits when two federal pro-grams expire at the end of the year.
But the message from President-elect Joe Biden to local health officials is that the best way to get the economy back on track is to get the virus under control until a vaccine is widely available.
Despite pleas from the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention to skip Thanksgiving travel and not spend the holiday with people from outside their household, about 1 million people a day packed air-ports and planes over the weekend. The crowds are expected to grow.
Even so, health officials are trying everything they can to slow the spread and address an even worse surge that many say is in-evitable.
In North Dakota — which ranks first in the country in new COVID-19 cases per capita and where the governor only recently began requiring masks in public — health officials are rolling out free rapid COVID-19 test-ing for teachers, staff and school administrators. The pilot project is designed to slow the virus’ spread by identifying and quickly isolating people who may be asymptomatic.
Massachusetts is launching television and digital ads in several languages to encourage residents to wear masks, keep their distance from others and get tested, Gov. Charlie Baker said. The Oklahoma City Council planned to vote Tuesday on whether to extend a mask mandate.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he is re-opening an emergency
COVID-19 field hospital on Staten Island, the first such facility in the state to relaunch since the state partly tamed the pandem-ic over the summer. New York state has averaged nearly 5,500 new cases per day over the past sev-en days.
The temporary hospi-tal cared for 200 patients last spring, when New York City’s hospital wards were overwhelmed with seriously ill and dying pa-tients. Now, Cuomo said, officials are concerned it might be needed again, as the virus has spread in the borough at a fast-er rate than in the rest of the city. Staten Island has averaged 209 new cases of COVID-19 per day over the past seven days — up 86 percent from two weeks ago.
Some governors ap-peared reluctant to get too strict.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued an ex-ecutive order on Monday that mandates increased mask-wearing, but he did not tighten occupan-cy limits on businesses. The Democrat is holding out hope that increased compliance with exist-ing health guidelines will stabilize the worsening trends in his state.
In Utah, Republican Gov. Gary Herbert relaxed restrictions on social gath-erings ahead of Thanks-giving weekend. He said people still must wear masks, but he will not extend his previous two-week order that required people to limit social gath-erings to people in their immediate household.
Still, he recommended smaller gatherings for the holiday.
“You increase the risk when you bring people into your home,” he said during a press briefing. “That’s just the harsh re-ality.”
States impose new rules, plead with public to stop spread
FILE PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a COVID-19 testing facility in Valencia, Calif.
By Jennifer PeltzASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — In sou-venir shops from Times Square to the World Trade Center, shelves full of T-shirts and trinkets still (heart) New York. But the proprietors wonder when their customers will, again.
The coronavirus pan-demic has taken a vora-cious bite out of a slice of New York life as recogniz-able as a piece of pizza: the gifts-slash-luggage-and-sometimes-slash-electronics stores that dot tourist-friendly areas, offering Statue of Liberty figurines, toy taxis, NYPD ballcaps, Big Apple fridge magnets and anything and everything embla-zoned with the famous “I (HEART) NY” logo.
Like the miniature-sky-line snow globes they sell, the shops are a microcosm of a city that has thrived on drawing visitors from
around the world and now is feeling their near-absence.
“It’s a fight for surviv-al,” Ali Zaidi said one re-cent morning at his shop two blocks from the World Trade Center. And with coronavirus cases rising and winter approaching, what would normally be the build-up to a busy holiday season instead is “getting worse and worse, day by day.”
Before the pandemic, his Broadway Gifts store generally got hundreds of customers a day — many tourists, but also local of-fice workers looking for gloves, cell phone chargers or other practical items, he said. Now, with few out-of-town visitors and many locals still working from home, an average day might bring 25 to 50 people and $300 or less in sales, a small fraction of business as usual, says Zaidi, who has another souvenir store in midtown Manhattan.
After being closed for more than three months after the city shut down nonessential retail in March, Zaidi says he’s used all the business’ sav-ings to keep it going, while getting some breaks from his landlords and keeping his staff as small as pos-sible — it’s just him and three relatives. Still, he had to cut back sharply on ordering Christmas mer-chandise, he said.
“I wish I could provide more to my customers, so they could have a nice Christmas with nice orna-ments on their trees,” said Zaidi, who says he’s in the the business not just for a livelihood, but because selling gifts “brings joy to others.”
Nonetheless, he’s says he’s “very optimistic” that the pandemic will eventu-ally be quashed and busi-ness will recover.
“We have to give positive energy in the city to bring
it back to life,” Zaidi said.After setting records year
after year since 2010, travel to the United States’ biggest city has plummeted since the pandemic shuttered Broadway theaters, closed many other attractions for months and ushered in fed-eral bans on some foreign
visitors and New York quar-antine rules affecting many interstate arrivals.
City tourism agency NYC & Co. is now pro-jecting visitors will total about 23 million this year, an “unmatched drop” from over 66 million last year, though the agency fore-casts the numbers will
rebound to reach new re-cords by 2024. Hotel occu-pancy is currently down about 80 percent from normal, and traffic at met-ro area airports about 75 percent, according to the Hotel Association of New York City and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
Tourists few, NY gift shops struggle but don’t lose (heart)
A shop keeper at a gift shop along 34th Street stands on the sidewalk waiting for customers Friday, in New York.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A6 THE DAILY ITEM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
By Collin BinkleyAP EDUCATION WRITER
BOSTON — A friendly feast shared by the plucky Pilgrims and their native neighbors? That’s yester-day’s Thanksgiving story.
Students in many U.S. schools are now learning a more complex lesson that includes conflict, injustice and a new focus on the people who lived on the land for hundreds of years before European settlers arrived and named it New England.
Inspired by the nation’s reckoning with systemic racism, schools are scrap-ping and rewriting les-sons that treated Native Americans as a footnote in a story about white set-tlers. Instead of making Pilgrim hats, students are hearing what scholars call “hard history” — the more shameful aspects of the past.
Students still learn about the 1621 feast, but many are also learn-ing that peace between the Pilgrims and Native Americans was always un-easy and later splintered into years of conflict.
On Cape Cod, language arts teacher Susannah Remillard long found that her sixth grade students had been taught far more about the Pilgrims than the Wampanoag people, the Native Americans who attended the feast. Now she’s trying to balance the narrative.
She asks students to re-write the Thanksgiving story using historical re-cords, and then she asks them to write a poem from the perspective of a per-son from that time, half settlers and half Wampa-noag.
“We carry this Colonial view of how we teach, and now we have a moment to step outside that and think about whether that is harmful for kids, and if there isn’t a better way,” said Remillard, who teach-es at Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in East Harwich, Massachusetts. “I think we are at a point where people are now ready to listen.”
In Arlington Public
Schools near Boston, students until recently dressed annually in Colo-nial attire. Now taboo, the costumes were abolished in 2018, and the district is working to expand and correct classroom teach-ings on Native Ameri-cans, including debunking Thanksgiving myths.
Students as young as kindergarten are now be-ing taught that harvest feasts have been part of Wampanoag life since long before 1621, and that thanksgiving is a daily part of life for many tribes.
They’re also being taught that the Pilgrims and Wampanoag were not friends, and that it’s im-portant to “unlearn” false notions around the feast.
“We don’t want the color-ing books of the Pilgrims and the Native Ameri-cans,” said Crystal Power, a social studies coach. “We want students to engage with what really hap-pened, with who lived here first, and to understand that there was no such thing as the New World. It was only new from one side’s perspective.”
Advocates for Indige-nous education caution there’s still much to im-prove. Change has been slow and spotty, they say,
and many schools cling to insensitive traditions, in-cluding costumed dramas and paper headdresses.
“Progress seems to be gaining momentum, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” said Ed Schupman, manager of Native Knowl-edge 360, the national ed-ucation initiative at the National Museum of the American Indian, and a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklaho-ma. “Change is still need-ed, and it has only been significant in some plac-es.”
Schupman and the mu-seum have worked with states as they create new teaching standards on In-digenous cultures. Mon-tana in 1999 was among the first to require schools to teach tribal histo-ries and is now joined by Washington, Oregon and others.
Although schools say parents have mostly em-braced the changes, they acknowledge it can be polarizing. Prominent lawmakers have resisted efforts to rethink Thanks-giving, including Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Re-publican who last week blasted “revisionist char-latans of the radical left.”
“Too many may have lost
the civilizational self-con-fidence needed to cele-brate the Pilgrims,” Cot-ton said.
School officials say they aren’t changing histo-ry, but adding parts that have been left out. Stan-dard social studies text-books have included little about Native Americans, and alternatives were long elusive. Teachers say that’s changing, thanks to native scholars who have authored children’s books, lesson plans and other materials.
Before the pandem-ic, schools around Bos-ton hosted annual visits from Annawon Weeden, a performing artist and member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
Weeden makes a point of arriving in modern clothes to dispel faulty notions about Indigenous people. Only after taking questions and debunking myths does he change into traditional regalia and demonstrate tribal danc-es.
“A lot of the kids think we’re only in the past. A lot of the kids think we live in a longhouse or a teepee or whatever,” Weeden said. “Stereotypes like those are very hard to defeat.”
Thanksgiving lessons jettison Pilgrim hats, welcome truth
FILE PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Annawon Weeden sits for a portrait outside his home in Oakdale, Conn.
Steve LeBlancASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON — Massachu-setts is well into planning how to distribute corona-virus vaccines when they begin arriving in the state, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday.
The state’s public health system already has an ex-isting infrastructure that allows it to process and distribute million of vac-cines — including annual flu shots — the Republi-can governor said during a Statehouse press confer-ence.
The vaccine will likely be targeted first at high-risk groups, which could include health care work-ers, long-term care work-ers, people with preexist-ing conditions and people in hard-hit communities, Baker said. The details are still being worked out.
“There’s a lot of dis-cussion about where the original focus of vaccine distribution should be,” Baker said. “I would say still hasn’t been fully de-cided yet.”
Baker said the state has been communicating directly with federal offi-cials about what it needs to do to make sure the dis-tribution goes as smoothly as possible. He declined to say exactly how many vaccines the state will be receiving and when.
“I don’t want to put a number out there yet, be-cause those are still being discussed, but I think the idea is to have a fairly significant amount of vac-cines start to be available early in 2021, with that amount growing sort of
over the course of the first five or six months of the calendar year,” Baker said.
In other coronavirus news in Massachusetts:
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Massachusetts is launching a public aware-ness campaign in several languages aimed at en-couraging residents to re-main vigilant against the coronavirus as the state continues to see a surge, Baker announced Monday.
The television and dig-ital ads will reinforce ba-sic virus protections like wearing a mask, practic-
ing good hygiene, main-taining a safe distance and getting tested.
The ads stress that the way to get back to ac-tivities that everyone is missing — attending live sporting events, throwing a child’s birthday party, going out dancing with friends — hinges on how well everyone adheres to safety protocols now.
The campaign includes social media messages and digital animated videos in English, Spanish, Por-tuguese, Haitian Creole, simplified and traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese.
Information posters will also be displayed in conve-nience stores.
Television ads in En-glish and Spanish will run on broadcast and digital channels through Febru-ary.
VIRUS BY THE NUMBERS
The number of people hospitalized in Massachu-setts is climbing.
There were more than 920 people reported hos-pitalized Monday be-cause of confirmed cases of COVID-19, and more than 200 in intensive care units.
The number of newly confirmed coronavirus deaths increased by 18 on Monday and more than 1,780 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The new deaths pushed the state’s confirmed COVID-19 death toll to 10,299 and its confirmed caseload since the start of the pandemic to more than 201,800.
The true number of cas-es is likely higher because studies suggest some peo-ple can be infected and not feel sick.
The number of probable or confirmed COVID-19
deaths reported in long-term care facilities rose to 6,685.
NURSING HOMES
Long-term care facili-ties can begin using rapid 15-minute COVID-19 tests to screen people entering the facilities who are not regular staff members, including visitors, state health Secretary Marylou Sudders said Monday.
Those who test nega-tive can enter provided they already meet exist-ing criteria, including not exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 and complying with other requirements, such as wearing a mask.
The expansion of rap-id testing follows an an-nouncement last week about the use of the 15-minute tests to help screen students in K-12 schools who may be expe-riencing symptoms.
COVID-19 GRANTS
The state has awarded $650,000 in grants to com-munity and faith-based groups designed to help spread and reduce the spread of COVID-19 in communities of color in cities and towns hardest hit by the disease.
Twenty organizations that officials say have demonstrated deep en-gagement with their com-munities are receiving funding.
Strategies to reach indi-viduals in those commu-nities include relying on youth peer leaders, trust-ed community leaders, and those with shared lived experience to increase the understanding of the im-pact of COVID-19.
Massachusetts planning how to distribute vaccines
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cars line up for COVID-19 testing at Taconic High School in Pittsfield, Mass., Monday
BOSTON (AP) — Cute plastic animals with tiny accessories that pose a choking hazard, Black Panther-inspired claws with the potential to cause facial or eye injuries, and green slime that could be harmful if swallowed: These are just some of the items on an annual list of potentially dangerous toys released Monday by a consumer advocacy group.
“Although intended for fun and entertainment, many toys contain hidden hazards unnecessarily putting children at risk of injury or death,” Bos-ton-based World Against Toys Causing Harm Inc. said in a statement an-nouncing its “10 Worst Toys” of the year.
With parents looking for ways to keep children oc-cupied during the corona-virus pandemic, and with the 2020 Christmas shop-ping season approaching, toy safety awareness is critical, the group said.
“Shockingly, classic toy dangers, such as small parts, strings, projectiles, toxic substances, rigid materials, and inaccurate warnings and labels, con-tinue to reappear in new generations of toys put-ting children at risk,” the organization said.
There are an estimated 240,000 toy-related inju-ries to children each year and a child is brought to the emergency room every three minutes for a toy-re-lated injury, according to WATCH.
The Toy Association, which represents toy manufacturers, called the WATCH list needlessly alarmist.
“By law, all toys sold in the United States must
meet 100+ rigorous safety tests and standards,” the association said in a state-ment. “However, WATCH does not test the toys in its report to check their safe-ty; their allegations ap-pear to be based on their misrepresentation of the mandatory toy standards — and of the priority the toy industry puts on safe and fun play.”
The Toy Association said parents and others should always choose age-appro-priate toys, encourage safe play, and make sure they purchase toys from repu-table manufacturers and sellers.
___The full “10 Worst Toys
of 2020” list and their potential dangers from World Against Toys Caus-ing Harm Inc.:
1. Calico Critters Nurs-ery Friends. Potential choking hazards.
2. Missile Launcher. Po-tential for eye and facial injuries.
3. Marvel Avengers Vi-branium Power FX Claw. Potential for eye and fa-cial injuries.
4. Gloria Owl. Potential for ingestion.
5. WWE Jumbo Super-star Fists. Potential for blunt force and impact in-juries.
6. Sci-Fi Slime. Potential for chemical-related inju-ries.
7. Boomerang Interac-tive Stunt UFO. Potential for propellor-related injury.
8. Boom City Racers. Po-tential for eye and facial injuries.
9. My Sweet Love Lots of Love Babies Minis. Poten-tial choking hazard.
10. Star Wars Mandalori-an Darksaber. Potential for blunt force and eye injuries.
Toy safety group releases annual
list of top 10 ‘worst’ toys
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Despite Trump prod, Michigan considers certifying Biden win
NBA players hailed by pope at Vatican for
demanding justice
White House still planning holiday parties, despite warnings
By Jill ColvinASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — All those warnings from pub-lic health officials begging Americans to limit gath-erings this holiday season amid a surge in coronavi-rus cases aren’t stopping the White House from planning a host of festivi-ties and holiday parties in the midst of a pandemic.
Monday’s delivery of an 18-and-a-half foot tall Fraser Fir by horse-drawn carriage signaled the kickoff of the usual array of White House holiday events that will include the annual turkey pardon and Christmas and Ha-nukkah events.
“Attending the parties will be a very personal choice,” said Stephanie Grisham, first lady Mela-nia Trump’s spokeswom-an and chief of staff, refer-ring to the plans. “It is a longstanding tradition for people to visit and enjoy the cheer and iconic décor of the annual White House Christmas celebrations.”
The decision to move forward with indoor gath-erings and project a sense of normalcy comes as the
Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention, top White House advisers and public health profes-sionals across the nation have been pleading with Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving or spend the holiday with peo-ple from outside of their households.
As the weather has cooled, the virus has been spreading out of control, with cases and hospital-izations surging across the nation and more than 250,000 people dead.
The White House has already been the site of several suspected “su-per-spreader” events and dozens of staff — along with the president, his wife and two of his sons — have been infected, along with a long list of cam-paign aides, other advis-ers and allies in Congress.
Grisham said the White House would be taking precautions to provide “the safest environment possi-ble” for those who choose to attend events. That in-cludes smaller guest lists, requiring masks, encour-aging social distancing on the White House grounds
and hand sanitizer sta-tions placed throughout the State Floor.
“Guests will enjoy food individually plated by chefs at plexiglass-pro-tected food stations. All passed beverages will be covered. All service staff will wear masks and gloves to comply with food safety guidelines,” she said.
Anthony Fauci, the na-tion’s top infectious dis-ease expert, warned once again on Monday of the potentially dire conse-quences of gathering this holiday season.
“We’re in a very difficult situation where the rate of infection, the slope of infections, are really very, very steep. So you might want to reconsider travel plans,” Fauci said in an in-terview with Washington Post Live. He added that indoor holiday gatherings “as innocent and wonder-ful as they sound” should be kept to a minimal num-ber of people, preferably “just members of a house-hold” and also warned of a potential “surge super-imposed upon a surge” if precautions aren’t taken.
By Tim ReynoldsASSOCIATED PRESS
Pope Francis met with a delegation of NBA players at the Vatican on Monday, lauding them as “champi-ons” and saying he sup-ported their work on so-cial injustice.
Five players — Marco Belinelli, Sterling Brown, Jonathan Isaac, Kyle Kor-ver and Anthony Tolliver — were joined by NBA players’ union executive director Michele Roberts and two other union exec-utives, Sherrie Deans and Matteo Zuretti.
“We’re here because, frankly, we’re inspired by the work that you do globally,” Roberts told the pope during the meeting in the papal library.
The union said the play-ers spoke about their “in-dividual and collective efforts addressing social and economic injustice and inequality occurring in their communities.” Be-linelli addressed the pope in Italian, and the group presented the pope with a commemorative bas-ketball, a union-produced book highlighting efforts players have taken and an Orlando Magic jersey.
“You’re champions,” the pope. “But also giving the example of teammork, you’ve become a model, giving that good example of teamwork but always remaining humble ... and preserving your own hu-manity.”
The audience was held days before a book comes out in which Francis sup-ports demands for racial
justice, specifically the ac-tions taken following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in May. A police officer in Minneapolis pressed a knee against his neck for nearly eight min-utes while Floyd said he couldn’t breathe.
Roberts said Francis sought the meeting with the players, and that it “demonstrates the influ-ence of their platforms.” Demands for social and racial justice have been paramount among play-ers, especially in recent months following the deaths of Floyd and Bre-onna Taylor, among oth-ers.
Brown, in his remarks to the pope, told him about what he and the Milwau-kee Bucks went through in the NBA’s restart bub-ble — particularly when they decided to sit out a playoff game against Or-lando in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“It was raw and emo-tional for our team,” Brown told the pope.
Brown sued officials in Milwaukee after get-ting taken to the ground, shocked with a Taser and arrested during an encounter with police in 2018, contending in that lawsuit that police used excessive force and tar-geted him because he is Black. A settlement where Brown would receive $750,000 plus an admis-sion from the city that his civil rights were violated was agreed to this month.
By David Eggert, Zeke Miller and
Colleen Long ASSOCIATED PRESS
LANSING, Mich. — Mich-igan election officials on Monday edged closer to cer-tifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the battle-ground state, taking hours of public comment against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s unprece-dented campaign to subvert the results of the election.
Trump’s efforts to stave off the inevitable — formal recognition of his defeat — faced increasingly stiff re-sistance from the courts and fellow Republicans with just three weeks to go until the Electoral College meets to certify Biden’s victory. Time and again, Trump’s challenges and baseless al-legations of widespread con-spiracy and fraud have been met with rejection as states move forward with confirm-ing their results.
Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Dem-ocrats, suggested it would
certify the election despite calls by Trump and allies to the GOP members to block the vote to allow for an audit of ballots in heavily Democratic Wayne Coun-ty, home to Detroit, where Trump has claimed without evidence that he was the victim of fraud.
“The board’s duty today is very clear,” said Aaron Van Langevelde, the Republican vice chair. “We have a duty to certify this election based on these returns. That is very clear. We are limited to these returns. I’m not going to argue that we’re not.”
He said he wanted to hear public comment, however, before voting. Three hours into what normally is a rou-tine meeting, hundreds of people were waiting to tes-tify remotely. At times, more than 30,000 were watching the livestream.
Mary Ellen Gurewitz, an attorney for the state Dem-ocratic Party, told the can-vassers that attacks on the election results “are part of a racist campaign, directed by soon-to-be former President Trump, to disparage the
cities in this country with large Black populations, including Detroit, Philadel-phia and Milwaukee.”
“It sometimes feels like officials are attempting to tear up my ballot right in front of me by stalling and recounting until they find a way to change the results,” said Wendy Gronbeck, a res-ident of Douglas. “I’ve been a voter for over 50 years, and I’ve never had to think about whether canvassers will certify an election.”
Biden crushed the presi-dent by more than 330,000 votes in Wayne County, where two local GOP can-vassers who certified the results unsuccessfully tried to reverse course last week after being called by Trump. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, has said an audit must wait until after statewide certi-fication because only then would officials have legal ac-cess to documentation need-ed to conduct such a review.
Michigan’s elections bu-reau has recommended that the Nov. 3 results be certi-fied.
Norm Eisen, a consti-tutional law expert and former counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Commit-tee, said there was no legal basis to do anything other than certify the election.
“That is the clear mandate of state law,” he said. Eisen dismissed various claims for why a delay might be neces-sary, including the need for an audit or time to inves-tigate so-called “out of bal-ance” precincts.
“The reasons that they have advanced for doing anything other than (certi-fy) is totally spurious. They carry no legal or factual weight whatsoever under the law,” Eisen added.
Trump has tried to defy the results of the election through the courts, but having found no luck there, moved on to personally try-ing to influence local law-makers to convince them to ignore the popular vote and appoint Republican electors, a strategy that would send Americans into the streets in protest, election law ex-perts have said.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Joscha Weese, left, stands outside the Capitol building during a rally in Lansing, Mich., Saturday.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
First lady Melania Trump with the 2020 White House Christmas tree, as it arrives Monday at the North Portico of the White House.
MASS. EVENING:Monday................... 0300Sunday ................... 3431Saturday ................. 5736Yesterday’s payoff:
EXACT ORDERAll 4 .....................$5,017First or last 3 .......... $702Any 2 ........................ $60Any 1 .......................... $6
ANY ORDERAll 4 .....................$1,254First 3 ..................... $234Last 3 ..................... $234
MASS. MID-DAY:Monday................... 7008Sunday ................... 2635Saturday ................. 0016Yesterday’s payoff:
EXACT ORDERAll 4 .....................$5,623First or last 3 .......... $787Any 2 ........................ $67Any 1 .......................... $7
ANY ORDERAll 4 ........................ $469First 3 ..................... $262Last 3 ..................... $262
A8 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
WEATHER LOTTERY
TOMORROWCloudy | High 48, Low 41
THURSDAYRainy | High 55, Low 43
TODAYSunny|High 40, Low 26
Sunrise today 6:46 a.m.Sunset today 4:14 p.m.Sunrise tomorrow 6:47 a.m.High tide today 7:02 p.m.Low tide today 12:52 p.m.High tide tomorrow 8:00 p.m.
Fronts
PressureCold
Showers Rain T-storms Flurries Snow IceH
HighL
Low
Warm Stationary
<-10 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110+-0s 0s
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National weatherForecast for Tuesday, November 24, 2020
NATIONAL SUMMARY: With the exception of showers in South Florida, much of the eastern third of the nation will be dry with some sunshine today. A storm will spread rain, snow and severe thunderstorms over a portion of the Central states. Heavy snow is forecast for parts of Colorado. A new storm will send rain and snow to Washington and Oregon later.
©2020 AccuWeather, Inc.
Bands separate high temperature zones for the day.
TODAY’S FORECAST
Sunny skies. High near 40F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy skies early will become overcast later during the night. Low 26F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
MARINE FORECAST
NW winds 20 to 25 kt, dimin-ishing to 15 to 20 kt in the afternoon. Waves around 2 ft.
Tonight: N winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt, be-coming NE 5 to 10 kt after midnight. Waves around 2 ft.
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Standing tall to serve
Bruce, the last ‘Jaws’ shark, docks at the Academy Museum
Ken Jennings will be first interim ‘Jeopardy!’ host
By Anne Marie TobinITEM STAFF
PEABODY — If there is one person who epitomiz-es what it means to truly give back to the communi-ty, nobody is doing it bet-ter than Corey Jackson.
Since the onset of the pandemic in March, Jack-son has been burning the midnight oil at Citizens Inn, where he has served as executive director for the past seven years. Jackson says that regis-trations are at unprece-dented levels, topping out at more than 300 percent compared to pre-pandem-ic figures.
But now, Jackson is reaching out to another group of people especially hard hit by the corona-virus — businesses and their owners who are struggling to stay alive — as the new president of the Peabody Area Cham-ber of Commerce (PACC) board of directors.
“Even with things so tough everywhere, there still are so many good things that are happen-ing,” said Jackson, who made his presidential debut at PACC’s Roaring 20s virtual fundrais-er earlier this month. “Businesses have pivoted really well to adjust to the challenges caused by the pandemic. So there is a lot happening in the business community to celebrate, but many peo-ple are really struggling.”
Jackson says he feels there are several issues facing PACC members that he intends to pri-oritize in order to help strengthen the economy and stimulate business growth in the Peabody area, chief among them being finding alternative ways to help chamber members network.
“You can’t put COVID aside,” Jackson said. “Our top priority is making sure our members feel engaged. It’s hard because
a lot of being a member is you get what you put in and that is difficult today. But we need things like ribbon-cuttings again and business engagement and collaboration. We need to get that kick-started to help (Executive Director Beth Amico) and (Pro-gram Director Maria Terris) continue their success. We have a great leader in Beth Amico. She has great experience in multi-community initia-tives with many directors of boards of health across this region.”
Jackson said there is a silver lining when it comes to the pandemic businesses ramping up the creativity level.
“Those businesses that have pivoted well and have the resources nec-essary to continue have done really well during this time,” he said. “When things slowed down, in many cases it allowed people to be innovative, creative and get some projects done that they haven’t been able to get done. We need to get the ribbon cuttings going again to let people know the success stories as much as we need to let them know about who needs help.”
Other top priorities for Jackson and the chamber are transportation and affordable housing.
“Peabody is so locked when it comes to bus lines,” he said. “The city desperately needs a regular link to places like Salem, to the North Shore Mall, to Centen-nial Park. These are critical issues that have no boundaries. Trans-portation is one of the most important issues facing people in Peabody right now as it is one of the key barriers for our families seeking employ-ment, seeking better incomes so they can stabilize in their new homes as well as get to
everything they need to get to for their kids and for themselves.”
With respect to housing, Jackson said communica-tion is key.
“Developers typical-ly try to reach out to support the community and get the community behind them and try to have a conversation,” Jackson said. “I think it’s about that conversation and educating the public, the government and the business community on how to be a part of that conversation no matter where you stand, pro or against any given hous-ing development.”
In 2017, Jackson suc-cessfully presided over the merger of Citizens Inn and Haven from Hun-ger. The merger resulted in one organization com-mitted to stamping out homelessness and hunger.
Jackson has served nu-merous other non-profit organizations in various capacities, including managing director of Arts After Hours (a non-profit theater company working to beautify and revitalize downtown Lynn) and as vice-president of the Peabody Cultural Collab-orative.
He has also volun-teered with many other non-profits including the Economic Development and Industrial Corpora-tion of Lynn, Northeast Arc, Lynn Housing Au-thority and Neighborhood Development, Center-board (formerly Serving People in Need), Citizens for Adequate Housing, United Way of Massachu-setts Bay and Merrimack Valley, Lynn Museum and LynnArts.
“He is one of those peo-ple in the local communi-ty who is all things when it comes to non-profits, hunger and homeless-ness,” said former Execu-tive Director Julie Daigle.
By Lindsey BahrASSOCIATED PRESS
Bruce, the fiberglass shark made from the “Jaws” mold, is ready for his close-up. The 1,208 pound, 25-foot-long, 45-year-old shark, famous for being difficult to work with on the set of Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller, on Friday was hoisted up in the air above the main escalator of the new Acade-my Museum of Motion Pic-tures in Los Angeles where he will greet guests for the foreseeable future. And this time, he cooperated.
It is the culmination of years of planning, includ-ing a seven-month resto-ration by special effects and makeup artist Greg Nicotero. The shark is expected to be a major draw for the museum, which plans to open its doors to the public on April 30, 2021.
Super fans know that the “Jaws” crew started calling the shark Bruce after Spielberg’s lawyer Bruce Ramer. They’ll also know that the Bruce that will greet guests in the museum wasn’t technically in “Jaws.” He’s a replica and it’s the last of his kind. The three mechanical Great Whites designed by art director Joe Alves were de-stroyed when production
wrapped. But once the film proved to be a box of-fice phenomenon, a fourth shark was made from the original mold. For 15 years he hung at Univer-sal Studios Hollywood as a photo opportunity for visitors until he wound up at the Sun Valley junk-yard he would call home for the next 25. Nathan Adlan, who inherited his father’s junkyard busi-ness, donated him to the museum in 2016.
But Bruce wasn’t quite camera ready. A quarter century in the California sun, plus all the years of being re-painted at Uni-versal had taken its toll on the poor creature, who badly needed care and attention. Nicotero, who has worked on “Day of the Dead” and “The Walking Dead,” said he got into the business because of “Jaws” and volunteered for the task of bringing him back to life.
“One of the great things about being the Academy Museum of Motion Pic-tures is that we have ac-cess to Academy members in all craft areas of the in-dustry,” said Academy Mu-seum Director Bill Kramer. “We can call on our mem-bers and other members of the film industry who have either worked on the film that the artifact is from or know enough
about the provenance and work that had been done to help us restore it. We’re in an incredibly privileged position.”
Restoration was one thing, but loading Bruce into the museum proved to be another ordeal. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano made sure to account for large-scale objects in his restoration of the Saban Building, which was orig-inally the May Company department store. But Bruce is their biggest piece to date and every-one soon realized that he wouldn’t be able to get into the building with his fins attached.
Last week Bruce was transported from a stor-age facility on a 70-foot flatbed to the museum at Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard where engineers, construction workers and art handlers removed two panels of glass three stories up to get him into the building. Once inside with fins reattached and a final touching up, Bruce was hooked onto five cables, each of which could hold his weight if any were to fail, and hoisted up on a truss by remote control to get into position in the building’s “spine” where he faces East and is visi-ble from Fairfax.
NEW YORK (AP) — “Jeopardy!” record-hold-er Ken Jennings will be the first in a series of interim hosts replacing Alex Trebek when the show resumes produc-tion next Monday.
Producers announced Monday that Jennings, who won 74 games in a row and claimed the show’s “Greatest of All Time” title in a competi-tion last year, will host ep-
isodes that air in January.A long-term host for
Alex Trebek, who died of cancer on Nov. 8, will be named later.
“By bringing in famil-iar guest hosts for the foreseeable future, our goal is to create a sense of community and con-tinuity for our viewers,” the show’s executive pro-ducer, Mike Richards, said.
The show is in its 37th
year of syndication, and Trebek was its only host. It is still airing shows that Trebek filmed be-fore his death.
Richards said that “Jeopardy!” will air repeat episodes for the holiday weeks beginning Dec. 21 and 28, meaning Trebek’s final week of shows will air starting Monday, Jan. 4.
Jennings’ episodes begin on Jan. 11.
COURTSEY PHOTO
Corey Jackson, shown here at the Peabody Area Chamber of Commerce Roar-ing 20s night, is the new president of the chamber’s board of directors.
PHOTO | 2020 INVISION VIA AP
A fiberglass replica of Bruce, the shark featured in Steven Spielberg’s classic 1975 film “Jaws,” is raised to a suspended position for display at the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
NOV. 30 DEC. 8
Webster First Federal Credit Union recently made a $1,000 donation to the World Series Park Lighting Fund. World Series Park in Saugus plans to have lights installed in the spring of 2021. This will complete the park by being able to offer night games, never having to stop games because of darkness and the flexibility of rescheduling rainouts, all of which will increase the amount of playing time and use of the field.
Webster First was vot-ed the 2019 and 2020 Best Credit Union in central Massachusetts. It currently has 15 branches, as well as co-op branches and ATMs. Webster First has been providing banking services since 1928. Their donations and involvement in the Saugus community are nu-merous and include Special Olympics Day, Target Can-cer Walk-a-thon, Saugus Food Pantry, Saugus Senior Center, Saugus Lions Club, Saugus YMCA, Saugus Soft-ball, Saugus Town Team Basketball and World Series Park.
Most of the funds needed for this project will be avail-able next year. A fundrais-
ing effort will be conducted over the next six months to raise additional, needed funds. To assist in making this happen, World Series Park has set up a GoFund-Me Charity account. People can donate by going to the World Series Park website — worldseriespark.net — and click on GoFundMe. Do-nations can still be made by mail and are tax deductible. Those who donate $100 or more will have their name included on the permanent World Series Park Lighting Fund plaque that will be installed on the third base dugout. Donations can be made in memory or in honor of others,
“This being our sixteenth season, we have been able to save our pennies over the past fifteen years, as well as pledges for more funds, to now be able financially to afford lights,” said World Series Park superintendent Bob Davis. “Through the generosity of a lot of people and businesses like Webster First, World Series Park has financed everything we have in creating this first-class baseball facility for the youth of Saugus. We want to complete the picture with
lights, still being financed by the World Series Park Committee. As a result of the increased cost of the lighting equipment, we need to raise additional funds. We hope that the new technol-ogy of GoFundMe Charity will allow people to make donations easier. We thank everyone for their past and
hopefully future generous donations.”
To donate to the World Series Park Lighting Fund by mail, checks should be made payable to World Se-ries Park and sent to World Series Park, 8 Holden Ave., Saugus, MA 01906. Please indicate that the donation is for the Lighting Fund.
SPORTS BTUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
MikeAlongi
Cheers to a successful fall season
The Massachusetts high school fall sports season wrapped up over the weekend, with teams from across the Commonwealth fin-ishing up their local conference tourna-ments and giving thanks for the ability to play this fall. And as I sit here following a nearly two-month marathon of covering game after game, I must say that I’m im-pressed.
I’m impressed with how things were han-dled by every school and program that was allowed to play this year. I’m impressed with how the coaches rolled with the punches as games were moved and prac-tices were limited. I’m impressed with the athletic directors, who worked day and night to schedule games and organize bus-es and keep track of safety protocols for a number of different sports. I’m impressed with the student-athletes, who battled through uncertainty and remote/hybrid learning and a limited schedule to make the most of their seasons, some of which were the final seasons of their high school athletic careers.
Despite everything that we missed out on, from high school football to seeing great battles at the Lynn City Tournament in a number of sports, we still saw a lot of great things. We saw the St. John’s Prep soccer team allow four goals throughout an entire season. We saw the Bishop Fenwick field hockey team win the CCL Cup — which was created in lieu of a state tournament this year. We saw a number of student-ath-letes — Bishop Fenwick’s Steven Woods, Jacob Vargus, Colby Browne, Troy Irizarry and Jason Romans, St. Mary’s Jackson Field and Lynnfield’s Ava Buonfiglio — become four-sport athletes. And we saw the St. Mary’s field hockey team complete its first ever varsity season, in which the Spartans made it all the way to the CCL Cup semifinal.
Sure, things weren’t perfect. There were many schools and programs that didn’t get to take the field this fall, and even some of the ones who did get to play had games canceled and finished with shortened sea-sons. But we always knew that would be the case. Based on the circumstances ev-eryone was given this season, there’s no way you can look at the totality of the fall and say that this was a failure.
And now, this gives us an opportunity to look ahead. Winter sports have been ap-proved by the MIAA Board of Directors, and practices will begin on Dec. 14 for bas-ketball, ice hockey, gymnastics, swim and dive, alpine skiing and nordic skiing. Yes, safety modifications have been put in place much like the fall. But also much like the fall, the essence of each sport will not be diminished by the adjustments. The sports are not going to look exactly the same as they have in years past, and there won’t be any state championship banners raised for the 2020-2021 season.
But the kids will be out there playing, the coaches will be out there coaching and the fans will be watching — whether in person or via livestream (which has been another “plus” that’s come from this fall).
And that’s all anyone should be worried about.
ITEM FILE PHOTO | OLIVIA FALCIGNO
Matt Devin was one of two returning seniors set to lead the Rams on the course this season.
Webster First donates to World Series Park Lighting Fund
COURTESY PHOTO | KEN HOWSE
Bruce Torrey (left), manager of the Saugus branch of Webster First Federal Credit Union, presents a check for $1,000 to World Series Park superinten-dent Bob Davis (right) for the World Series Park Lighting Fund, which will provide lights for the � eld to increase the use of the park and provide more opportunity to play baseball in Saugus.
Classical golf looks back on a promising season that wasn’t
Bruins sign DeBrusk to 2-year deal, annual cap hit $3.675M
By Mike AlongiITEM SPORTS EDITOR
LYNN — The Lynn Clas-sical golf team was riding high following the 2019 season. The team sport-ed three all-stars, won its division and had a young crop of talented players ready to continue the for-ward momentum.
Then the COVID-19 pan-demic hit.
With Lynn classified as a “red” district and unable to participate in the fall
sports season, the Rams were stuck in a strange position. Their sport was one of the few that could be played without any game-changing safety modifications, but they were unable to compete.
“With the COVID disas-ter turning things upside down and not being able to play, our guys, along with countless other Lynn student-athletes, were crushed,” said Classical golf coach Jack Morrison. “It’s tough to pick up the
paper, check the sports section and not see the Lynn kids in action, but what I was impressed with was how our guys, al-though disappointed, were not bitter.”
Classical had some rea-sons to be upset about missing out on the sea-son, for sure. Coming off a season in which the Rams went 15-5 (10-4 in North-eastern Conference play) and earned an NEC South title, Classical had high hopes and expectations.
Despite losing its three all-stars — Luke Rao, Kyle McCarthy and Tim Nerich — to graduation, Classi-cal was looking forward to another run at the NEC South title. With return-ing seniors Matt Devin and Daniel Finnigan set to lead the way along with players like Brady Warren, TJ Walsh, Adam Mariano, PJ Tucker and Matt Patrie, things were looking up.
FILE PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Boston Bruins have signed forward Jake De-Brusk to a two-year deal with an annual cap hit of $3.675 million.
The 2015 � rst-round draft choice had 19 goals and 16 assists last season. Since joining the Bruins in 2017, the 24-year-old DeBrusk is fourth on the team with 62 goals and sixth with 120 points.
He was a restricted free agent.
CLASSICAL, B2
B2 SPORTS THE DAILY ITEM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
TV/RADIOMen’s soccer
6 p.m. ..............................MLS: Nashville SC at Toronto FC ..................... FS18 p.m. ..............................MLS: New England at Philadelphia ................ESPN10:30 p.m. .......................MLS: Los Angeles FC at Seattle ....................ESPN
NFL
AMERICAN CONFERENCEEast W L T Pct PF PABuffalo 7 3 0 .700 272 265Miami 6 4 0 .600 264 202NE 4 6 0 .400 209 238N.Y. Jets 0 10 0 .000 149 302South W L T Pct PF PAIndianapolis 7 3 0 .700 276 208Tennessee 7 3 0 .700 279 259Houston 3 7 0 .300 227 272Jacksonville 1 9 0 .100 202 298North W L T Pct PF PAPittsburgh 10 0 0 1.000 298 174Cleveland 7 3 0 .700 238 261Baltimore 6 4 0 .600 268 195Cincinnati 2 7 1 .250 213 270West W L T Pct PF PAKansas City 9 1 0 .900 321 214Las Vegas 6 4 0 .600 286 276Denver 4 6 0 .400 206 267LAC 3 7 0 .300 260 273
NATIONAL CONFERENCEEast W L T Pct PF PAPhiladelphia 3 6 1 .350 220 254Dallas 3 7 0 .300 235 318N.Y. Giants 3 7 0 .300 195 236Washington 3 7 0 .300 200 227South W L T Pct PF PANO 8 2 0 .800 295 222Tampa Bay 7 3 0 .700 296 226Carolina 4 7 0 .364 253 272Atlanta 3 7 0 .300 252 275North W L T Pct PF PAGreen Bay 7 3 0 .700 308 258Chicago 5 5 0 .500 191 209Detroit 4 6 0 .400 227 287Minnesota 4 6 0 .400 264 278West W L T Pct PF PASeattle 7 3 0 .700 318 287L.A. Rams 6 3 0 .667 216 168Arizona 6 4 0 .600 287 238San Fran 4 6 0 .400 238 234
Sunday’s GamesCarolina 20, Detroit 0Cleveland 22, Philadelphia 17Houston 27, New England 20New Orleans 24, Atlanta 9Pittsburgh 27, Jacksonville 3Tennessee 30, Baltimore 24, OTWashington 20, Cincinnati 9Denver 20, Miami 13L.A. Chargers 34, N.Y. Jets 28Dallas 31, Minnesota 28
Indianapolis 34, Green Bay 31, OTKansas City 35, Las Vegas 31Byes: Buffalo, Chicago, N.Y. Giants, San FranciscoMonday’s GameL.A. Rams at Tampa Bay, 8:15 p.m.Thursday, Nov. 26Houston at Detroit, 12:30 p.m.Washington at Dallas, 4:30 p.m.Baltimore at Pittsburgh, 8:20 p.m.
TODAY IN SPORTS
Nov. 241904 — Fullback Sam McAllester is thrown for a touchdown to give Ten-nessee a 7-0 victory over Alabama. McAllester, wearing a wide leather belt with handles sewn on the side, is repeatedly thrown by two team-mates over the line of scrimmage, including the only touchdown of the game.1927 — The “Golden Egg Trophy,” is presented for the first time at the Egg Bowl played on Thanksgiving Day. Mississippi beats Mississippi State (then Mississippi A&M) 20-12.1949 — The Syracuse Nationals edge the Anderson Packers 125-123 in five overtimes in the National Bas-ketball league.1949 — Led by quarterback Joe Paterno, Brown overcomes a 26-7 third-quarter deficit by scoring 34 points in the final 17 minutes to beat Colgate 41-26.1957 — Cleveland Brown rookie Jim Brown rushes for 232 yards and scores four touchdowns in a 45-31 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.1960 — Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors sets an NBA record with 55 rebounds in a 132-129 loss to the Boston Celtics.1977 — Miami’s Bob Griese throws for six touchdowns in a 55-14 Thanksgiving Day victory over the Detroit Lions.1985 — Ron Brown of the Los Ange-les Rams returns two kickoffs for touchdowns in a 34-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers.1996 — Karrie Webb, capping a sen-sational rookie year, wins the sea-son-ending LPGA Tour Championship to become the first player in tour his-tory to earn more than $1 million in a season.2000 — LaDainian Tomlinson caps the fourth-best rushing season with 174 yards and a touchdown in TCU’s 62-7 victory over SMU. Tomlinson, who also won his second straight NCAA rushing title, finishes the sea-son with 2,158 yards.2002 — Annika Sorenstam com-pletes the best LPGA Tour season in 38 years with a 4-under 68 to win
the season-ending ADT Champion-ship, her 11th victory of the year.2007 — Kevin Smith rushes for 219 yards and a touchdown to surpass 2,000 yards for the season in Cen-tral Florida’s 36-20 win over UTEP. Smith is the nation’s leading rushing with 2,164 yards, the fourth highest in Division I-A (Bowl Subdivision) his-tory.2010 — Boston’s Mark Recchi scores two third-period goals to become the 13th NHL player to reach 1,500 career points and helps the Bruins defeat Florida 3-1.2011 — In the first NFL game featur-ing brothers as opposing head coaches, John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens top Jim Harbaugh’s San Fran-cisco 49ers 16-6.2013 — Sebastian Vettel wins For-mula One’s season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, matching Michael Schum-acher’s record of 13 victories in a year and equaling the nine consecu-tive wins of Alberto Ascari.2015 — The defending champion Golden State Warriors set the record for best start in NBA history at 16-0. Stephen Curry has 24 points and nine assists in a 111-77 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers.2018 — Dwayne Haskins throws five touchdown passes, freshman Chris Olave scores twice and blocks a punt that is returned for a TD and No. 10 Ohio State continues its mastery over No. 4 Michigan with a 62-39 vic-tory.2018 — Kellen Mond’s 2-point con-version to Kendrick Rogers in the seventh overtime gives Texas A&M 74-72 victory over No. 8 LSU, tying the NCAA record for most overtimes in an FBS game.2018 — Florida uses a punishing ground attack to end a five-game los-ing streak to Florida State, defeating the Seminoles 41-14. The Gators send the Seminoles (5-7) their first losing season since 1976, Bobby Bowden’s first season as head coach.
ITEM FILE PHOTO | OLIVIA FALCIGNO
Brady Warren and the rest of his Rams teammates didn’t get the chance to follow up a fantastic 2019 season on the golf course.
CLASSICALFrom B1
Finnigan, who works at Gannon Golf Course, saw his teammates a lot over the summer.
“The guys were up at the course playing a lot, and that was good to see,” said Finnigan, a co-cap-tain. “And from what I could tell, they were all playing pretty well.
No one plays more than Brady Warren, and right there with him most days is TJ Walsh.”
“The guys were real-ly putting in the work this summer, I was im-pressed,” said Devin, also a co-captain.
“The guys played more than ever over the sum-mer, and they played with purpose,” said Morrison,
who was named NEC Coach of the Year in 2019. “Our motto is ,‘Let’s get better,’ and they did that through hours of playing and practice time.”
With the fall sports sea-son in the rearview mir-ror, Classical is looking forward to hopefully get-ting a chance to get out on the course for the “Fall Sports II” season that is
set to run from late Feb-ruary to late April. The Rams will be competing against some new oppo-nents in the teams of the Greater Boston League, a conference that Classical will be joining come Fall 2021.
“We’ll be ready,” said Devin.
Classical golf looks back on a promising season that wasn’t
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Houston Texans strong safety Justin Reid (20) breaks up a pass intended for New England Patri-ots wide receiver Jakobi Meyers (16) during the second half of the Patriots 27-20 loss at Houston.
It’s looking like a different kind of December for PatriotsBy Jimmy GolenASSOCIATED PRESS
Well, at least the New En-gland Patriots have plen-ty of experience playing in meaningless December games.
The 11-time defending AFC East champions may still have a mathematical chance of making the play-offs this season. But for all practical purposes, they are playing out the string after losing on Sunday to the then-two-win Houston Texans (both against Jack-sonville).
The Patriots (4-6) are three games out of first place in the division, and two games behind in the race for the ex-tra, seventh playoff berth in the AFC. After coasting into the postseason during much of their two-decade dynasty, New England is about to see things from the other side.
“It’s been must-win for us for the past three to four weeks,” safety Adrian Phil-lips said. “You can’t lose an-other one.”
The Patriots won six Su-per Bowls, nine AFC titles and 17 division champi-onships after Tom Brady
took over at quarterback in 2001. In many of those years, they coasted into the playoffs: Since they last missed the playoffs in 2008, their average margin in the division has been more than three games, and in none of those seasons has the division title been up for grabs in the final week.
Some of those years, coach Bill Belichick seemed ambivalent about winning down the stretch, treat-ing those Christmastime games like the fourth week of the preseason.
With Brady gone for Tam-pa Bay, we could be seeing that again this year.
WHAT’S WORKINGQuarterback Cam New-
ton may have found a sec-ondary receiver option in Damiere Byrd.
Two weeks after Jakobi Meyers caught 12 passes for 169 yards — his first career 100-yard game — Byrd caught six passes for 132 yards and a 42-yard touchdown. It was the first career 100-yard game for Byrd, and every single one of his catches resulted in a first down or a touchdown.
Byrd is in his first season with the Patriots, though he did play with Newton for three years in Carolina from 2016-18.
“You never know what game you’ll get called upon to get to do that, to be factor on the offense,” Byrd said. “Today was my lucky day and Cam trusted in me and we were able to make a few plays.”
Newton threw for 365 yards and a touchdown, completing 26 of 40 passes. (Fifty of those yards came on the final-play Hail Mary that only made it to the 12-yard line.)
WHAT NEEDS HELPNewton had four of his
passes batted down by J.J. Watt on Sunday. Accord-ing to SportRadar, Newton entered the week with the second-most passes batted down in the league — 10. That was tied with Kyler Murray, who is 5-foot-10; Newton is 6-foot-5.
He gave all the credit to Watt, a three-time Defen-sive Player of the Year.
“He’s J.J. Watt. What do you expect?” Newton said. “He’s an All-Pro, perennial All-Pro. He’s a Defensive
Player of the Year, one of the best players in this gen-eration.”
STOCK UPThe Patriots’ kicking
game continues to be strong.
Placekicker Nick Folk was a perfect 4-for-4 — two field goals (45, 36 yards) and two extra points. He has not missed a field goal since a 51-yard attempt against Seattle in Week 2, a streak of 17 in a row. He missed a PAT last week in heavy rain and wind but has made 18 of 20 for the season.
Punter Jake Bailey aver-aged 50.3 yards per punt, a 10-yard advantage over Texans counterpart Bryan Anger.
STOCK DOWNReceiver and kick re-
turner Gunner Olszews-ki fumbled one kickoff, which forced the Patriots to start one drive at their 17, and on another kickoff he stepped out of the back of the end zone before field-ing the ball. That resulted in a touchback, which was actually a better outcome than the return because he didn’t make it to the 25.
Burrow injury ‘kind of tore
everybody apart’By Mitch Stacy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio — If it wasn’t bad enough al-ready, 2020 took a terrible turn for the Cincinnati Bengals and their prized rookie quarterback Joe Burrow.
The Heisman Trophy winner and top draft pick brought excitement and hope to the franchise and its long-suffering fans that was drained in an instant when Burrow’s left leg was bent in an unnatural angle in the second half of Sunday’s game against Washington.
Cincinnati lost Burrow for the season, then lost the game.
“It just kind of tore ev-erybody apart,” receiver Tyler Boyd said.
Shortly after the game, Burrow tweeted: “Thanks for all the love. Can’t get rid of me that easy. See ya next year.”
Coach Zac Taylor would say only that Burrow will have surgery and should be ready for 2021 season. Burrow was placed on in-jured reserve on Monday.
“He was a tremendous leader for us, and he gave us a lot of energy the way he led the unit,” Taylor said. “I can’t be robot coach and say that we’re not going to be missing that, because we will.”
Boyd said he saw Bur-row on Monday and re-ported the quarterback’s mood to be “positive.”
“His spirits are up,” Boyd said. “He’s not walking around with his head down. He’s a true believer, and he knows he’ll be back ready and better than ever.”
The esteem felt for Bur-row in his southeastern Ohio hometown, and in Louisiana where he won a national championship at LSU, and in Cincinnati was displayed in an uptick of donations to an Athens, Ohio, hunger relief fund that was inspired by his Heisman Trophy speech and now bears his name.
It started shortly after he was taken off the field. Many people were donat-ing $9 to match his uni-form number, and dozens left messages on the web-site wishing him well.
“We are proud of you Joe,” an anonymous donor wrote Monday. “We know you are a Super Bowl champion in the making. Every great story has ad-versity... this is just anoth-er chapter for you!”
Taylor, whose first sea-son in 2019 ended at 2-14, could see the progress and potential with Burrow, who was on track to break several rookie passing records and already had thrown for 300 yards five times.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020 THE DAILY ITEM B3
NATIONBiden signals
shift from Trump with choices for national security
GM flips to California’s side in
pollution fight with Trump
Gun-toting congresswoman-elect may carry Glock at Capitol
Millions stick to Thanksgiving travel plans despite warnings
By Matthew LeeASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Pres-ident-elect Joe Biden on Monday tapped Obama ad-ministration veterans for top national security posi-tions, signaling a stark shift from the Trump adminis-tration’s “America First” policies that disparaged in-ternational alliances, career diplomats and other veter-an government officials.
The six picks, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, mark a return to a more traditional ap-proach to America’s rela-tions with the rest of the world and reflect Biden’s campaign promises to have his Cabinet reflect the di-versity of America.
In choosing foreign policy veterans, Biden appears to be seeking to upend Trump’s war on the so-called “deep state” that saw an exodus of senior and mid-level career officials from government, notably from the ranks of the State Department and national security council, in-cluding some who were fired for voicing opposition to the president’s moves.
Biden will nominate his longtime adviser Antony Blinken to be secretary of state, lawyer Alejandro Mayorkas to be homeland security secretary, Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be ambassador to the United Nations. Avril Haines, a for-mer deputy director of the CIA, will be nominated as
director of national intelli-gence, the first woman to hold that post.
The incoming president will also appoint Jake Sul-livan to be his national se-curity adviser and Kerry to be his climate change envoy. Those posts do not require Senate confirmation.
The choices reflect Biden’s emphasis on developing a diverse team with Thom-as-Greenfield, a Black wom-an, at the helm of the U.S. Mission to the United Na-tions, and Mayorkas, a Cu-ban-American lawyer who will be the first Latino to lead Homeland Security.
Thomas-Greenfield pre-viously served in high-level State Department positions and Mayorkas was a deputy Homeland Security secre-tary under Obama.
They “are experienced, crisis-tested leaders who are ready to hit the ground running on day one,” the transition said in a state-ment. “These officials will start working immediately to rebuild our institutions, renew and reimagine Amer-ican leadership to keep Americans safe at home and abroad, and address the de-fining challenges of our time — from infectious disease, to terrorism, nuclear prolif-eration, cyber threats, and climate change.”
In making the announce-ments, Biden moved for-ward with plans to fill out his administration even as Trump refuses to concede defeat in the Nov. 3 election,
has pursued baseless legal challenges in several key states and has worked to stymie the transition pro-cess.
The stakes of a smooth transition are especial-ly high this year because Biden will take office amid the worst pandemic in more than a century, which will likely require a full govern-ment response to contain.
Blinken, who if confirmed by the Senate will take over the nation’s oldest Cabinet agency and be fourth in line for the presidency, had no immediate comment.
Thomas-Greenfield — a career diplomat for more than 30 years serving as ambassador to Liberia, di-rector general of the foreign service and assistant sec-retary of state for African affairs before being pushed out early in Trump’s pres-idency — paid tribute to
her mother in accepting the nomination.
“My mother taught me to lead with the power of kindness and compassion to make the world a better place,” she said in a tweet. “I’ve carried that lesson with me throughout my ca-reer in Foreign Service — and, if confirmed, will do the same as Ambassador to the United Nations.”
Perhaps the best known of the bunch is Kerry, who made climate change one of his top priorities while serving as Obama’s secre-tary of state during which he also negotiated the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord. Trump with-drew from both agreements, which he said represented a failure of American diplo-macy in a direct shot at Ker-ry who he called the worst secretary of state in U.S. history.
By Tom KrisherASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — Gener-al Motors says it will no longer support the Trump administration in legal efforts to end California’s right to set its own clean-air standards.
CEO Mary Barra said in a letter Monday to envi-ronmental groups that GM will pull out of the lawsuit, and it urges other auto-makers to do so.
She said the compa-ny agrees with Presi-dent-elect Joe Biden’s plan to expand electric vehicle use. Last week, GM said it is testing a new battery chemistry that will bring electric-vehicle costs down to those of gas-powered ve-hicles within five years.
Barra sent the letter af-ter a call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the company said.
“We believe the ambi-tious electrification goals of the President-elect, Cal-ifornia, and General Mo-tors are aligned, to address climate change by drasti-cally reducing automobile emissions,” Barra said in the letter.
Mary Nichols, the head of California’s Air Resourc-es Board, called GM’s an-nouncement “good news,” saying Barra told her about it in a telephone call Monday morning. The board is the state’s air pol-lution regulator.
“I was pleased to be in
communication with Mary Barra again,” she said. “It’s been a while since we had talked.”
Dan Becker of the Cen-ter for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups Barra wrote to, said GM was wrong in try-ing to stop California from protecting its people from auto pollution.
“Now the other auto-makers must follow GM and withdraw support for (President Donald) Trump’s attack on clean cars,” he said in an email.
The White House had no immediate comment Mon-day.
Last year General Mo-tors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and 10 smaller automak-ers sided with the Trump administration in a law-suit over whether Califor-nia has the right to set its own standards for green-house gas emissions and fuel economy.
The companies said they would intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Envi-ronmental Defense Fund against the Trump admin-istration, which has rolled back national pollution and gas mileage standards enacted while Barack Obama was president.
The group called itself the “Coalition or Sustain-able Automotive Regu-lation” and also included Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, Isuzu, Suzuki, Maserati, McLaren, As-ton-Martin and Ferrari.
By Alan FramASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — A firearms-toting congress-woman-elect who owns a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colorado, has al-ready asked Capitol Police about carrying her weapon on Capitol grounds, her of-fice has acknowledged. If she does so, she apparently won’t be alone.
The practice is allowed for lawmakers, with some lim-itations, under decades-old congressional regulations. The public is barred from
carrying weapons in the Capitol, its grounds and of-fice buildings.
Republican Lauren Boe-bert, 33, was elected this month from a conservative western Colorado district after gaining notice as a brash pro-gun activist who straps a Glock pistol to her hip. In an upset last June, she defeated five-term Rep. Scott Tipton for the GOP nomination, in part by claiming he wasn’t an ardent enough backer of President Donald Trump.
Boebert asked Capitol Police officials about car-
rying her weapon when she and other House fresh-men taking office in Janu-ary were in town recently for orientation programs, according to two congres-sional officials. Both peo-ple — a Democrat and a Republican — spoke on condition of anonymity to describe her request.
Aides to Boebert, who Trump endorsed as “a fighter” who will “never bow down to the establish-ment in Congress,” did not make her available for an interview.
“This was a private dis-
cussion and inquiry about what the rules are, and as a result the Congresswom-an-Elect won’t be going on the record,” Boebert aide Laura Carno said in an email last week.
The inquiries by Boebert, who runs Shooters Grill, come as guns remain a passionate issue for both parties, fueled by images of demonstrations by armed Trump supporters, conser-vative pushes to ease state gun restrictions and recent years’ mass shootings.
FILE PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
President-elect Joe Biden arrives with Avril Haines, former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, left, at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del.
FILE PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lauren Boebert, the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Col-orado’s vast 3rd Congressional District, during a freedom cruise staged by her supporters in Pueblo West, Colo.
By Dee-Ann Durbin and David Koenig
ASSOCIATED PRESS
About 1 million Ameri-cans a day packed airports and planes over the week-end even as coronavirus deaths surged across the U.S. and public health experts begged people to stay home and avoid big Thanksgiving gatherings.
And the crowds are only expected to grow. Next Sunday is likely to be the busiest day of the holiday period.
To be sure, the num-ber of people flying for Thanksgiving is down by more than half from last year because of the rapidly worsening outbreak. How-ever, the 3 million who went through U.S. airport checkpoints from Friday through Sunday marked the biggest crowds since mid-March, when the COVID-19 crisis took hold in the United States.
Many travelers are un-willing to miss out on seeing family and are convinced they can do it safely. Also, many colleges have ended their in-per-son classes, propelling stu-dents to return home.
Laurie Pearcy, direc-tor of administration for a Minneapolis law firm, is flying to New Orleans to attend her daughter’s bridal shower and have a small Thanksgiving din-ner with her son.
“I don’t want to unknow-ingly make anyone sick. But I also don’t want to miss this special event for my only daughter,” she said.
Stephen Browning, a re-tired executive from Tuc-son, Arizona, will be flying to Seattle for Thanksgiv-ing with his sister. The celebration usually has up to 30 people; this year only 10 are coming, and everyone was asked to get a coronavirus test. He doesn’t plan on removing his mask to eat or drink on the flight.
“This is my first flight since December 2019, so yes, I have concerns,” he said. “But I think most airlines are acting respon-sibly now and enforcing masks on all flights.”
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Ameri-cans not to travel or spend the holiday with people outside their household.
New cases of the virus in the U.S. have rocketed to all-time highs, averaging more than 170,000 per day, and deaths have soared to over 1,500 a day, the high-est level since the spring. The virus is blamed for more than a quarter-mil-lion deaths in the U.S. and over 12 million confirmed infections.
“There is so much com-munity transmission all over the United States that the chances of you en-countering somebody that has COVID-19 is actually very, very high, whether it’s on an airplane, at the
airport or at a rest area,” said Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious-disease epide-miologist for New York City hospitals.
The nation’s top infec-tious-diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that people at airports “are going to get us into even more trouble than we’re in right now.”
The message may be sinking in for some.
Bookings in 2020 are down about 60 percent from where they were this time last year. Thanksgiv-ing reservations were tick-
ing upward in early Octo-ber but fell back again as case numbers surged. Since airlines have made it easier to cancel tickets, there could be a rash of cancellations closer to the holiday, said John Elder, an adviser to airlines from Boston Consulting Group.
In 2019, a record 26 million passengers and crew passed through U.S. airport screening in the 11-day period around Thanksgiving. This year, the industry trade group Airlines for America isn’t even providing a forecast because things are so un-certain.
Because of tighter re-strictions by many gov-ernments, air travel in other parts of the world has, in contrast, come to a near standstill. In Europe, traffic between countries was down by 83 percent in September from a year earlier, and that has only worsened since then be-cause many countries im-posed new limits.
Josh Holman and his family were planning to fly to Lake Tahoe and spend Thanksgiving with his brother, who lives in San Francisco, and his
parents, who live in North Dakota. But they scrapped those plans.
“I see it as my civic duty not to spread this virus further,” said Holman, an assistant county prosecu-tor who lives outside De-troit.
Alejandro Zuniga and his fiancee, Megan Muhs, who live in Costa Rica, thought briefly about flying to Wis-consin for Thanksgiving to see Muhs’ family but de-cided against it. They also nixed a trip to the U.S. in December.
“No part of a major inter-national trip seems safe at this point,” Zuniga said. The pair plans to make video calls to family and stream the Detroit Lions football game on Thanks-giving Day.
More people tend to drive than fly over Thanksgiv-ing, but even car travel is expected to see a drop-off, according to AAA. Based on surveys in mid-Octo-ber, the association was expecting 47.8 million people to drive to Thanks-giving gatherings, down 4 percent from last year. But AAA said the drop could prove to be even bigger, given the worsening crisis.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Travelers leave the AirTrain at JKF Interna-tional Airport Friday, in New York.
B4 THE DAILY ITEM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
COMICS
CROSSWORD
MODERATELY CONFUSED / JEFF STAHLEROFF THE MARK / MARK PARISI
ARLO AND JANIS / JIMMY JOHNSON
GARFIELD / JIM DAVIS
THE BORN LOSER / ART AND CHIP SANSOM
BIG NATE / LINCOLN PEIRCE
ROSE IS ROSE / PAT BRADY
DILBERT / SCOTT ADAMS
HERMAN / JIM UNGER ZIGGY / TOM WILSON
In 1994, David Bird published a book entitled “Bachelor Bridge” (Master Point Press). Now, with the assistance of Simon Cocheme, the bidding has been brought up to date, the text honed and extra deals added.
The book’s hero is Jack, who is looking for a bridge-playing girlfriend. In the 26 chapters, Jack has no trou-ble meeting women, but he is much less successful at finding a girlfriend. It takes the whole alphabet!
In this deal from Chapter 20, Jack was East, casting an admiring eye over declarer Sharon.
North’s raise to two hearts was debatable, but she had not heard of the Support Double. If she had passed, East would have raised to two spades, South would have made a card-showing double, and then North could have supported hearts.
Against four hearts, West led the spade ace, and Jack played the queen, promising his namesake. After a spade to the jack, East switched to the club jack. Sharon won with dummy’s ace and played a heart to her jack. When that held, what did declarer do next?
While you are deciding, note that five diamonds by North can be made with a heart-club squeeze against East.
To keep the contract under control if trumps were 4-2, Sharon led her heart two at trick five. East took his trump trick, but a third spade would have been ruffed on the board. When he continued with a second club, de-clarer won with her king, drew trumps and ran the diamonds.
If you would like to know why Sha-ron didn’t become Jack’s girlfriend, you will have to read the book.
BRIDGE
Still a bachelor after all these deals
DEAR ABBY
Cranky friend at work may be threat to advancementDEAR ABBY: I moved
to town not long before the pandemic and don’t have many close friends here. One of my best friends is a co-worker, “Ronna,” whom I love dearly.
Ronna has had an ex-tremely rough past, in-cluding an extensive his-tory of parental abuse that has left her thin-skinned and suspicious of authority figures. Be-cause of this, she’s con-stantly butting heads with our management team and confronting them about perceived slights.
While some of the points she makes are rea-sonable, many are taken too personally or blown way out of proportion, and she tends to act very dramatic/livid about it. I’m looking to move up in the company, and I’m torn between loyalty to my friend and the need to remain on good terms with our higher-ups. I’m also worried that my friendliness with man-agement will lead to Ron-na resenting or distrust-ing me. How can I safely
navigate?
IN THE MIDDLE IN COLORADO
DEAR IN THE MID-DLE: Do not involve yourself in Ronna’s prob-lems on the job. If you do, they will spill over onto you. Maintain your per-sonal relationship with her away from the office, while networking and trying to widen your cir-cle of friends.
From what you have written, I doubt that Ron-na will be working for your employer much lon-ger. Workers who react in a “very dramatic/livid” manner are usually laid off because their behavior is unprofessional and disruptive.
DEAR ABBY: I am
having problems with my baby dad helping me with our 2-year-old daughter. I don’t like the idea of putting him on child support. I have tried counseling with him. In addition to ask-ing him to step up, I have tried giving him lists of what our daughter needs, and he still isn’t helping. Instead he’s asking me to help with his bills.
I don’t know what to do. I really don’t want to go after child support since he now has two jobs. I need his help, but I don’t know how to get him to contribute. Any ideas?
STRUGGLING MOM IN OHIO
DEAR MOM: You have tried asking, you have tried counseling. The only
option left to convince him to step up to the plate and fulfill his obligations as a father is to contact Child Support Services and ask for help.
P.S. You absolutely should NOT pay his bills!
DEAR ABBY: I have been asked by a close friend to officiate at his wedding. I’m honored to have been asked, and it would be easy for me to get the credentials, but I am not comfortable doing it for personal reasons. I know it’s his special day, and he really wants me to do it. How can I politely decline without hurting our friendship? I don’t know how to word my refusal.
NOT FOR ME
DEAR NOT: Be honest to the degree that you can be without causing hurt feelings. Explain that you are honored to have been asked to officiate (which is true), but would not be comfortable in that role (also true). Then deflect by offering to support your friend in some other way on his special day.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020 THE DAILY ITEM B5
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
Keeping busy will boost your morale and help clear your head. Be diplomatic, but don’t let anyone talk you into doing or believing something unwise.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
You’ll get an added push that will help you take care of business. Time spent with a loved one will improve your relationship. Make adjustments to your domestic and professional spaces.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Use your charm, experience and energy to get where you want to go. A chance to get ahead financially is within reach, so capitalize on it.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20)
Compliments will come your way, but before you fall prey to someone’s charm, consider if there are ulterior motives at play. Verify facts and stick to tried-and-true methods.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Pick up the pace, follow through with your plans and refuse to let anyone or any-thing upset you. Stay focused on what’s important and put your energy into pre-paring for the future.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Embrace new beginnings and exciting challenges. Push yourself to the limit and make improvements that build confidence and encourage you to go after what you want. Romance is favored.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Helping others will benefit you as well. Get involved in something you care about. Don’t shy away from adversity; stand up and be counted. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Look for a creative outlet or do something you’ve always wanted to do but never had the time or the confidence to pursue. Pour your energy into something that will help you grow.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Soul-searching will lead to an effective plan. Refuse to let anyone else make up your mind for you. A change may not be welcome, but it will be to your advantage.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Take action and get involved, and positive change will result. Make slight adjust-ments to ensure that you continue to excel. A change to how you do things will pay off.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23)
Don’t let anyone take advantage of you or put you in an awkward position. Diplo-macy will help you outmaneuver anyone who gets in your way. Set a goal and finish what you start.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22)
Uncertainty will prevail if you aren’t vocal about your feelings and wants. Positive change will be the direct result of how you handle others. An adjustment to a rela-tionship will benefit both parties.
HOROSCOPE EVENING TV LISTINGS TUESDAY’S TV NOVEMBER 24, 20207:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00
BROADCAST STATIONS WGBH^ PBS
Greater Boston
Steves’ Europe
Finding Your Roots With Henry
Rise of the Nazis (N) Frontline The U.S. Supreme Court. (N)
Amanpour and Company (N)
Greater Boston
Steves’ Europe
Trouble-Maggie
WBZ$ CBS
Wheel of Fortune
Jeopardy! (N)
NCIS “Everything Starts Somewhere”
FBI A serial killer must be stopped.
FBI: Most Wanted “Execute” (N)
News Late Show-Colbert Late Late Show With James Corden
WCVB% ABC
News-Center 5
Chronicle The Bachelorette Competing for the only one-on-one date. (N)
Big Sky “Nowhere to Run” (N)
News-Center 5
Jimmy Kimmel Live! Nightline (N)
Tamron Hall
WBTS* NBC
Boston News
Ac. Hol-lywood
The Voice “The Knockouts, Part 3”
Weakest Link Transplant “Col-lapse” (N)
Boston News
Tonight Show-J. Fallon
Late Night With Seth Meyers (N)
WFXT9 FOX
Ent. Tonight
TMZ (N) Cosmos: Possible Worlds
NEXT LeBlanc gets honest with Abby.
Boston 25 News at 10PM (N)
Boston Tonight
TMZ Live (N) National News
Boston Tonight
WUTF= UMA
¿Qué culpa tiene Fatmagül? (N)
Guerreros 2020 (N) Noticiero Univisión
Vas con todo Vecinos Nosotros los.
WSBKF MNT
Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
Chicago P.D. Chicago P.D. WBZ News 10p (N) Seinfeld Big Bang Theory
Seinfeld Imp. Jok-ers
Mike & Molly
WGBX L PBS
The Great British Baking Show
The Trouble With Maggie Cole (N)
Roadkill on Master-piece (N)
Secrets of Royal Travel (N)
PBS NewsHour (N) Finding Your Roots With Henry
Rise of th
WWJER JN
Cold Case Files Cold Case Files The Last 24 “Secrets in Suburbia”
Cold Blood Amy St. Laurent disappears.
Inside the Mind FBI: Criminal Pursuit
Killer Kids
WLVIX CW
Gold-bergs
Gold-bergs
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life Rory has an affair; a therapy session. (N)
7 News at 10PM on CW56 (N)
Schitt’s Creek
Schitt’s Creek
Modern Family
Modern Family
Family Guy
WNUE¨TELE
El domo del dinero (N) Todo por mi hija (N) Falsa identidad (N) Noticiero Noticias Titulares y más
Sobreviviendo a Escobar, alias JJ
WABU¥ ION
Criminal Minds “Beyond Borders”
Criminal Minds “A Place at the Table”
Criminal Minds “Mr. Scratch”
Criminal Minds “Protection”
Criminal Minds “The Hunt”
Criminal Minds “Wheels Up”
Law & Order
CABLE STATIONS
A&E Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
Storage Wars
AMC ›››National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, Comedy) Chevy Chase.
›››National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, Comedy) Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo.
Fear the Walking Dead
The Walking Dead: World Beyond
BRAVO Chrisley Knows
Chrisley Knows
Chrisley Knows
Chrisley Knows
Chrisley Knows
Don’t Be Tardy ...
Don’t Be Tardy ... (N)
››Fast & Furious (2009, Action) Vin Diesel, Paul Walker. ‘PG-13’
Fast & Furious
DISC Moonshiners: Tales from the Still (N)
Moonshiners “Hard Times Make the Best Shine” Unearthing free ingredients.
Moonshiners “Mas-ter Distiller”
Moonshiners: Mas-ter Distiller
Moonshiners Unearthing free ingredients.
DISN “Zom-bies”
Zombies 2 (2020, Romance-Comedy) Meg Donnelly, Milo Manheim. ‘NR’
Raven’s Home
Raven’s Home
Raven’s Home
Sydney-Max
Sydney-Max
Jessie Jessie Bunk’d
ESPN College Football Playoff: Top 25 (N)
MLS Soccer TBA at Philadelphia Union. (N) MLS Soccer Los Angeles FC at Seattle Sounders FC. (N)
SportsCenter (N)
ESPN2 Peyton’s Places
UEFA 2020 Disc Golf Pro Tour Championship (N)
NFL Live SportsCenter (N) SportsCen-ter
DC & Helwani
UFC
FREE ›››‡Monsters, Inc. (2001) Voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal.
›››‡The Lion King (1994) Voices of Mat-thew Broderick, Jeremy Irons.
The 700 Club ››‡Prancer Returns (2001) John Corbett.
FX (6:30) ›››“Girls Trip” (2017, Comedy) Regina Hall, Queen Latifah.
››‡Bad Moms (2016, Comedy) Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn.
Black Narcissus Black Narcissus Sister Clodagh is losing control.
HBO Real, Bill Maher
Axios ››Underwater (2020) Kristen Stewart. ‘PG-13’
REAL Sports With Bryant Gumbel (N)
The Undoing “Trial by Fury”
Axios Industry Pierpoint loses a major client.
HIST (6:00) The Curse of Oak Island
Oak Island: Digging Deeper
The Curse of Oak Island (N)
Beyond Oak Island “Wild West Gold”
The Curse of Oak Island
Oak Island: Digging Deeper
Curse-Island
LIFE “A Crafty Christmas Romance”
A Twist of Christmas (2018, Romance) Vanessa Lachey, Brendon Zub.
A Welcome Home Christmas (2020, Drama) Jana Kramer, Brandon Quinn.
A Twist of Christmas (2018, Romance) Vanessa Lachey.
MTV (5:30) ››‡“The Proposal” (2009)
Teen Mom 2 “Re-mote Control” (N)
Teen Mom 2 “Not So Normal Times”
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
Ridicu-lousness
Ridicu-lousness
Ridicu-lousness
Ridicu-lousness
Ridicu-lousness
NBCSB Early Edition
Early Edition Monday Patriot
Quick Slants
Monday Patriot
Boston Sports Tonight (N)
Boston Sports Tonight
Boston Sports Tonight
World Poker
NESN Hockey Journal
BC Foot-ball
Bruins: On This Day (N) NESN After Hours (N)
NESN After Hours Red Sox Classics
NICK Loud House
Loud House
Top Elf Life-sized advent calendars.
Friends “Pilot”
Friends Friends Friends Friends Friends Friends Friends
SHOW (6:30) ›››“Our Idiot Brother” ‘R’
Ray Donovan Romero challenges Ray.
Inside the NFL (N) The Best of All the Smoke
Inside the NFL Moon-base 8
›››Our Idiot Brother (2011) ‘R’
STARZ ››‡Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? (2007) Tyler Perry. ‘PG-13’
The Spanish Prin-cess “Faith”
››‡Bad Boys for Life (2020, Action) Will Smith, Martin Lawrence. ‘R’
››‡Men in Black 3 (2012, Ac-tion) Will Smith. ‘PG-13’
SYFY (4:55) ›››“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
›››Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010, Fan-tasy) Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson.
›››‡Harry Potter and the Deathly Hal-lows: Part 2 (2011) Daniel Radcliffe.
TBS Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
The Mis-ery Index
Conan “Conan in Korea”
The Mis-ery Index
The Mis-ery Index
Conan
TNT (5:00) ›››‡“Jerry Maguire”
›››Beauty and the Beast (2017, Children’s) Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans.
›››Beauty and the Beast (2017, Children’s) Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans.
Hot Pursuit
USA Law & Order: Spe-cial Victims Unit
Law & Order: Spe-cial Victims Unit
Law & Order: Spe-cial Victims Unit
Law & Order: Spe-cial Victims Unit
Modern Family
Modern Family
Modern Family
Modern Family
Modern Family
VH1 Hollywood Exes Hollywood Exes: Reunited (N) ›››Purple Rain (1984, Musical) Prince. A musician overcomes stiff opposition to become famous.
›››What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993, Biography)
Dragons: Rescue Riders: Huttsgalor HolidayNetflixHuttsgalor’s favorite winter festival is finally here, but will some ice-breathing dragons put a frost on ev-eryone’s fun?Hillbilly ElegyNetflixOriginal Film!Amy Adams and Glenn Close headline Ron How-ard’s drama based on the bestselling memoir.TCM Afternoon Movie: Outsiders on CampusTCM, beginning at 12:30 p.m.Catch a Classic!This afternoon’s lineup of films on Turner Classic Movies is set at school, but with characters who are not there as students, or at least not in a tradi-tional way. First up is 1951’s Goodbye, My Fancy, a romantic comedy starring Joan Crawford as a pol-itician who returns to her former college to receive an honorary degree, only to find that her old flame — a former professor (Robert Young) — is now the university president. Next, Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh star in the drama A Yank at Oxford(1938), with Taylor playing a cocky American athlete who receives a scholarship to attend England’s staid Oxford Uni-versity and almost immediately encounters friction. A similar situation befalls Mickey Rooney’s American character in the next film, the more comedic A Yank at Eton(1942). Finally, in the comedyMr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), the titular genius portrayed by Clifton Webb enrolls in a university with plans to obtain a four-year degree in only one year.General HospitalABC, 2 p.m.Sam (Kelly Monaco) senses she’s not being told something. Julian (William deVry) asks Ava (Maura West) for a favor. Maxie (Kirsten Storms) looks for Mac (John J. York). Carly (Laura Wright) helps Bran-do (Johnny Wactor). Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) finds Brad (Parry Shen) having a nightmare.MoonshinersDiscovery Channel, 8 p.m.Season Premiere!Times are tough around the world in 2020, and life in the backwoods of Appalachia is no exception. But for America’s favorite moonshiners, there’s a silver lining in these trying times. Just as their forefathers discovered during the Great Depression, outlaw shiners thrive in the face of adversity. While the glob-al economy has shuttered the doors of business-es around the country, the moonshine business is booming. As the new season of Moonshinerskicks off with a two-hour premiere, outlaw distillers will be tested like never before as they take bigger risks and ramp up their backwoods operations to meet un-precedented demand while taking advantage of an oversupply of raw ingredients unlike anything they’ve seen before. Cosmos: Possible Worlds: “The Sacrifice of Cassini”FOX, 8 p.m. Witness the 20-year-long odyssey of a robotic ex-plorer ordered to self-destruct on another world in “The Sacrifice of Cassini.”
TV BEST BETS
Cheers to Finola HughesFor surviving 35 years of soap op-era spydom. We’ve been head over heels for Hughes’ mix of Brit wit and badassery since she arrived on ABC’s General Hospital as WSB se-cret agent Anna Devane. Clearly the GH team is too, since they recently revived Anna’s evil twin, Alex, for a double dose of awesomeness.
Cheers to Whoopi Goldbergfor using her voice to crack us up. The View’s ringleader made a wel-come return to her comedic roots with both a sassy voiceover cameo in Sarah Cooper’s Netflix special Ev-erything’s Fine and as the howlingly frank narrator of ABC’s docuseries The Con. After all the screaming at her day job, it’s nice to see—or at least hear— her having some fun!
Jeers to The Good Doctorfor its sickly season premiere. The November 2 episode of the ABC drama was set at the dawn of the pandemic, and that opening scene of a COVID-positive woman cough-ing all over a crowded coffee shop left us feeling icky. And let’s not for-get this too-simple-in-retrospect ad-vice from Shaun (Freddie Highmore, pictured) as he sent a patient home: “Stay away from people.” Paging Dr. Fauci, stat!
Jeers to Hulufor axing Castle Rock. After a killer second season starring Lizzy Caplan as young Annie Wilkes, you can’t cancel the creepy series inspired by Stephen King’s characters and expect folks to be OK with it! There are so many more backstories to be explored, like why Carrie’s mom was so opposed to proms or what Cujo was like as a puppy. This is causing us such misery.
B6 THE DAILY ITEM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
CLASSIFIED
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHU-SETTS
THE TRIAL COURTPROBATE AND FAMILY COURT
CITATION ON PETITION FOR FORMALADJUDICATION
Docket No. ES20P2920EA
Essex Probate and Family Court36 Federal StreetSalem, MA 01970(978)744-1020
Estate of: Ellen Mary Donahue
Also known as: Ellen M. Donahue
Date of Death: 08/04/2020
To all interested persons:
A Petition for Formal Probate of Willwith Appointment of Personal Repre-sentative has been filed by:
Daniel P. Donahue of Boston MA
requesting that the Court enter aformal Decree and Order and for suchother relief as requested in thePetition.
The Petitioner requests that:Daniel P. Donahue of BostonMA
be appointed as Personal Representa-tive(s) of said estate to serve on thebond in an unsupervised administra-tion.
IMPORTANT NOTICEYou have the right to obtain a copy ofthe Petition from the Petitioner or atthe Court. You have a right to object tothis proceeding. To do so, you or yourattorney must file a written appearanceand objection at this Court before:10:00 a.m. on the return day of12/22/2020.This is NOT a hearing date, but adeadline by which you must file awritten appearance and objection ifyou object to this proceeding. If youfail to file a timely written appearanceand objection followed by an Affidavitof Objections within thirty (30) days ofthe return date, action may be takenwithout further notice to you.
UNSUPERVISED ADMINISTRATIONUNDER THE MASSACHUSETTS UNI-
FORM PROBATE CODE (MUPC)A Personal Representative appointedunder the MUPC in an unsupervisedadministration is not required to file aninventory or annual accounts with theCourt. Persons interested in the estateare entitled to notice regarding theadministration directly from the Per-sonal Representative and may petitionthe Court in any manner relating to theestate, including the distribution ofassets and expenses of administration.
WITNESS, Jennifer M R Ulwick, FirstJustice of this Court.Date: November 17, 2020
Pamela Casey O'BrienRegister of Probate
Item: November 24, 2020
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CITY OF LYNNNotice: The City Council will hold Public Hearings in the City Council Chambers onTuesday, December 8, 2020 at 5:15 pm on the following Petitions:1. Audet's Wine & Spirits at 90 Boston Street to expand premises into adjoiningspace consisting of approximately 1818 square feet.2. Petition of Apothea Inc., for a Sign Permit at 487-491 Lynnway.3. Petition of Albert DiVirgilio for office use and real estate broker at 471 LynnfieldStreet (former George's Greenhouse), 7 days a week.This meeting will be televised live on the Lynn Community Television (LCTV) andalso streamed on LCTV Facebook page. The public is welcome to call in "live" anyquestions or concerns at 781- 586-6783 or 781- 586- 6773.Per Order: Janet L. Rowe, City ClerkItem: November 20 & 24, 2020
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTSTHE TRIAL COURT
PROBATE AND FAMILY COURTDocket No. ES20P2977EA
INFORMAL PROBATE PUBLICATION NOTICE
Estate of: Dean Edward Cook, Sr.
Also Known As: Dean Edward Cook, Dean E. Cook, Dean Cook
Date of Death: October 13, 2019
Essex Division
To all persons interested in the above captioned estate, by Petition of
Petitioner: Dean E Cook, Jr. of Southbridge MA
a Will has been admitted to informal probate
Dean E Cook, Jr. of Southbridge MA
has been informally appointed as the Personal Representative of the estate toserve without surety on the bond.
The estate is being administered under informal procedure by the PersonalRepresentative under the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code withoutsupervision by the Court. Inventory and accounts are not required to be filed withthe Court, but interested parties are entitled to notice regarding the administrationfrom the Personal Representative and can petition the Court in any matter relatingto the estate, including distribution of assets and expenses of administration.Interested parties are entitled to petition the Court to institute formal proceedingsand to obtain orders terminating or restricting the powers of PersonalRepresentatives appointed under informal procedure. A copy of the Petition andWill, if any, can be obtained from the Petitioner.
Weekly: November 24, 2020
(SEAL)THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS LAND COURT
DEPARTMENT OF THE TRIAL COURTDocket 20 SM 001750
ORDER OF NOTICE
TO:Lynne A. Ford AKA Lynne Ford
and to all persons entitled to the benefit of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50U.S.C. c. 50 §3901 (et seq)
U.S. Bank National Association, not in its individual capacity but solely asowner trustee forLegacy Mortgage Asset Trust 2018-GS1,
claiming to have an interest in a Mortgage covering real property in Lynn,numbered 124 Harris Avenue, given by Lynne A. Ford a/k/a Lynne Ford toMortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., as nominee for GatewayFunding Diversified Mortgage Services, L.P., its successors and assigns, datedMarch 26, 2008, and recorded in Essex County (Southern District) Registry ofDeeds in Book 27655, Page 607, and now held by plaintiff by assignment,has/have filed with this court a complaint for determination ofDefendant's/Defendants' Servicemembers status.
If you now are, or recently have been, in the active military service of the UnitedStates of America, then you may be entitled to the benefits of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. If you object to a foreclosure of the above-mentionedproperty on that basis, then you or your attorney must file a written appearanceand answer in this court at Three Pemberton Square, Boston, MA 02108 on orbefore December 21, 2020 or you may lose the opportunity to challenge theforeclosure on the ground of noncompliance with the Act.
Witness, Gordon H. Piper, Chief Justice of this Court on 11/5/2020
Attest:
Deborah J. PattersonRecorder
Item: November 24, 2020
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTSTHE TRIAL COURT
PROBATE AND FAMILY COURTDIVORCE SUMMONS BY
PUBLICATION AND MAILINGEssex Probate and Family Court
36 Federal StreetSalem, MA 01970
Docket No. ES20D1679DR
Damaris I Heredia vs. Alejandro Heredia
To the Defendant:
The Plaintiff has filed a Complaint for Divorce requesting that the Court
grant a divorce for Irretrievable Breakdown
The Complaint is on file at the Court.
An Automatic Restraining Order has been entered in this matter preventing youfrom taking any action which would negatively impact the current financial statusof either party. SEE Supplemental Probate Court Rule 411.You are hereby summoned and required to serve upon:Damaris I Heredia50 Trinity Ave #2Lynn, MA 01902your answer, if any, on or before 12/28/2020. If you fail to do so, the court willproceed to the hearing and adjudication of this action. You are also required to filea copy of your answer, if any, in the office of the Register of this Court.WITNESS, Jennifer M R Ulwick, First Justice of this Court.Date: November 6, 2020
Pamela Casey O'BrienRegister of Probate
Item: November 24, 2020
LEGALSLEGALS
NOTICEFor more information and assistanceregarding the reliability of businessopportunities, work-at-home opportuni-ties, employment services and financ-ing, the Daily Item urges its readers tocontact the Better Business BureauInc., 290 Donald Lynch Blvd., Suite102, Marlborough, MA 07152-4705 orcall 508-652-4800 in
classifi eds.
RELOCATING?
“Helpful tips”for a S-M-O-O-T-H
trouble-free move!Designate a drawer for essentials such as sheets and towels for quick access the first night you move into your new home.
Plan a garage/yard sale before you move.
Fresh coffee, baking soda, or charcoal in a sock, placed inside your refrigerator will keep the inside smell-ing fresh and clean.
Pack your current phone book — it’s a quick easy reference to the folks back home.
Place pictures in boxes between sheets or blankets to give them extra protection.
Pack plates vertically — on edge — rather than stacked.
Pack heavy items in small boxes and lighter items in larger boxes.
Tag each box with destination room and contents.
Hook up the TV first in your new home to keep the kids occupied during the move.
Pay Call Numbers(900, 976 and 550)
Advertiser telephone numbers with900, 976 and 550 prefixes MUSTdisclose the price of the telephonecall. When a number is publishedwithin the advertisement the perminute and/or flat charge must beincluded. If you dial a pay per callnumber from an advertisement appear-ing in the classified section and itDOES NOT disclose this information,please notify the Item classifieddepartment immediately. Response toany pay per call numbers will becharged to your telephone bill andanyone under 18 years of age musthave parent's consent.Please call immediately for furtherdetails or information.
CLASSIFIED(781)593-7700
NOTICEDon't pay to find work before you getthe job. Legitimate job placement firmsthat work to fill specific positionscannot charge an upfront fee. For freeinformation about avoiding employ-ment service scams, write the FederalTrade Commission at Washington,D.C., 20580 or call the National FraudInformation Center,
1-800-876-7060
FLAX PONDLake Front 1 Bedroom Apt. 1st. Flr.Include Heat Hot Water and ParkingONLY $1295 a month
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CALL CENTURY REALTY781-593-0004
PAY CALLSPLUMBING
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HELPFUL BUT NOTNECESSARY.
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PICKUPS AND DELIVERIES
WINSUPPLY WAKFIELD(formerly avon supply co.)
WAKEFIELD, MA781-245-8715
APARTMENTSJOB INFORMATIONSERVICES
A DATA ENTRY/BOOKKEEPER NEEDED
We are looking to add a DataEntry/bookkeeper to our ever growingteam! We are a small businesslicensed classical artisan and manu-facturing business for over years.
Working hours: 5 Hours per day,Monday-Friday (could be flexible).Hourly Pay: $20/hr for this position.We need: Data entry services, filetyping, transcriptions. Reliable, respon-sible and reserved person with theirdocuments.Experienced: Ability to learn as quickas possible.
Kindly email: [email protected] more details.
All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Massachu-setts Anti Discrimination Act and the Boston and Cambridge Fair Housing Ordinances, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, ancestry, age, children, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran's status, or source of income or any intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. To complain of discrimination, please call HUD toll-free at 1-800-669-9777. For the N.E. area, call HUD at 617-595-5308. The toll-free number for the hearing-impaired is 1-800-927-9275.
GENERALHELP WANTED RENTALS
GENERALHELP WANTEDNOTICES HELP WANTED
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020 THE DAILY ITEM B7
INTERNATIONAL
China launches mission to bring back material
from moon
Asia Today: S. Korea sees biggest jump in cases since August
Reports: Israeli PM flew to Saudi Arabia, met crown prince
National Zoo panda cub named Xiao Qi Ji or ‘Little Miracle’
By Sam McNeilASSOCIATED PRESS
WENCHANG, China — China launched an ambi-tious mission on Tuesday to bring back rocks and debris from the moon’s surface for the first time in more than 40 years — an undertaking that could boost human understand-ing of the moon and of the solar system more gener-ally.
Chang’e 5 — named for the Chinese moon god-dess — is the country’s boldest lunar mission yet. If successful, it would be a major advance for Chi-na’s space program, and some experts say it could pave the way for bringing
samples back from Mars or even a crewed lunar mission.
The four modules of the Chang’e 5 spacecraft blasted off at just after 4:30 a.m. Tuesday (2030 GMT Monday, 3:30 p.m. EST Monday) atop a mas-sive Long March-5Y rock-et from the Wenchang launch center along the coast of the southern is-land province of Hainan.
Minutes after liftoff, the spacecraft separated from the rocket’s first and sec-ond stages and slipped into Earth-moon transfer orbit. About an hour later, Chang’e 5 opened its solar panels to provide its inde-pendent power source.
Spacecraft typically take
three days to reach the moon.
The launch was carried live by national broad-caster CCTV which then switched to computer an-imation to show its prog-ress into outer space.
The mission’s key task is to drill 2 meters (al-most 7 feet) beneath the moon’s surface and scoop up about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks and oth-er debris to be brought back to Earth, according to NASA. That would offer the first opportunity for scientists to study newly obtained lunar material since the American and Russian missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has record-ed its largest daily increase in coronavirus infections in nearly three months as it gets set to tighten social dis-tancing rules in the greater Seoul area.
The Korea Disease Con-trol and Prevention Agen-cy reported 313 new cases on Wednesday, raising the country’s total to 29,311, in-cluding 496 deaths.
It’s the first time the coun-try’s daily caseload exceed-ed 300 since late August.
South Korea is struggling to contain a spike in new infections since it eased its stringent social distancing rules last month. The new cases are tied to hospitals, nursing homes, churches, schools, offices and family gatherings.
Local health authorities said Tuesday that they would tighten distancing restrictions in the densely
populated Seoul area and some parts of eastern Gang-won province. Those areas are at the center of the re-cent spikes.
Under the new rules, which come into effect Thursday for two weeks in those areas, gatherings of more than 100 people during rallies, festivals and concerts will be prohibited. They will also require peo-ple to sit at least one seat apart from each other in theaters, concert halls and libraries while limiting au-diences at sporting events to 30 percent of the stadi-um’s capacity.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
— Authorities in Tokyo have announced nearly 500 new cases of the coronavirus, the biggest daily increase in the Japanese capital since the pandemic began, amid a nationwide spike in in-fections and as the country
discusses with Olympic offi-cials how to safely host next summer’s games. The Tokyo metropolitan government reported 493 new cases on Wednesday, surpassing the city’s previous high of 472 recorded on Aug. 1, during the peak of Japan’s earli-er wave of infections. The record number of new cas-es came as International Olympic Committee Pres-ident Thomas Bach ended his visit to Japan to discuss with Japanese Olympic offi-cials how to safely host the games, which were post-poned until next July due to the pandemic. Japan has seen a steady climb in new cases nationwide in recent weeks, and experts have urged officials to step up preventive measures. Japan has confirmed 120,815 cas-es overall, including 1,913 deaths, according to the health ministry.
By Ashraf KhalilASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — More than three months after his birth, the National Zoo’s new panda cub finally has a name.
Officials at the Smithso-nian, which runs the zoo, announced Monday morn-ing that the cub born on August 21 would be named Xiao Qi Ji (shee-OW-chee-jee), which is Mandarin Chinese for “little miracle.”
The choice was the result of a five-day online poll that drew nearly 135,000 voters
to choose between different Mandarin Chinese names. In a nod to Chinese tradi-tion, the name was not cho-sen until 100 days after the birth.
Monday’s announcement comes on the day the zoo shut its doors to the public for the second time this year due to the the COVID-19 pandemic. Smithsonian of-ficials announced last week that the zoo and the seven museums that had been operating at limited capac-ity would all shut down in-definitely as the virus con-tinues to spike locally and
around the country. The Smithsonian first
shut down all its facilities in mid-March. But the zoo reopened on July 24 and other museums gradually reopened with timed entry passes to keep the crowds low.
Even if the zoo were open, the indoor panda house would have re-mained closed to the pub-lic, making the zoo’s pop-ular panda-cam, the only way to view the baby bear, who doctors say is up to 10.4 pounds and starting to crawl.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
This handout photo released by the Smithsonian’s National Zoo shows a panda cub named Xiao Qi Ji in Washington.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Flags with the logo of the Communist Party of China fly in the breeze near a launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Wenchang in southern China’s Hainan province.
PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the corona-virus holds an umbrella as she walks out of an underpass tunnel on a rainy morning rush hour in Beijing.
By Ilan Ben ZionASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Israeli media reported Monday that Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia for a clan-destine meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which would mark the first known en-counter between senior Israeli and Saudi officials.
The reported meeting was the latest move by the Trump Administration to promote normalized ties between Israel and the broader Arab world and reflected the shared con-cern of all three nations about Iran.
The Israeli news site Walla, followed quickly by other Hebrew-language media, cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that Netanyahu and Yos-si Cohen, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, flew Sunday night to the Sau-di city of Neom, where they met with the crown prince. The prince was there for talks with visit-ing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
People traveling with Pompeo declined com-ment. Netanyahu, in a meeting with his Likud
Party, also declined to ex-plicitly confirm the visit.
“I have not addressed such things for years and I will not start with that now. For years I have spared no effort to strengthen Israel and ex-pand the circle of peace,” he said.
The Saudi foreign min-ister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, denied on Twit-ter that the meeting took place.
“No such meeting oc-curred. The only officials present were American and Saudi,” he wrote. He did not elaborate.
The flight-tracking web-site FlightRadar24.com showed a Gulfstream IV private jet took off from Tel Aviv on Sunday night and flew south along the edge of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsu-la before turning toward Neom and landing. The flight took off from Neom over three hours later and followed the same route back to Tel Aviv.
Pompeo, who was in Is-rael last week, traveled with a small group of American reporters on his trip throughout the Mideast, but left them at the Neom airport when he went into his visit with the crown prince.
While Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emir-ates have reached deals under the Trump admin-istration to normalize ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia so far has remained out of reach.
The Trump administra-tion, as well as Netanya-hu, would love to add the Saudis to that list before it leaves office in Janu-ary. Israel’s Channel 12 TV, citing an anonymous diplomatic official, said the Saudis told Netanya-hu and Pompeo that they are not ready to normalize ties with Israel.
In Sudan, a military of-ficial said an Israeli dele-gation was in the country on Monday to discuss the normalization efforts. He spoke on condition of an-onymity because he was not authorized to discuss the visit with the media.
King Salman long has supported the Palestin-ians in their effort to se-cure an independent state as a condition for recog-nizing Israel. However, analysts and insiders sug-gest his 35-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, likely is more open to the idea of nor-
malizing relations with-out major progress in the moribund peace process.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have a shared interest in countering archrival Iran, and they have welcomed the Trump administra-tion’s pressure campaign on the Iranians, which in-cluded withdrawing from the international nuclear deal with Iran and impos-ing tough economic sanc-tions on the Tehran gov-ernment.
The reported meeting puts even more pressure on Iran ahead of an incom-ing Biden administration that has signaled a poten-tial willingness to return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
“I think there’s a mes-sage to Iran. Look, there’s a front against you. There’s two months to go to the new administration. Beware. We are on the same page,” said Yoel Gu-zansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a presti-gious Israeli think tank.
In an apparent message to President-elect Joe Biden, Netanyahu said in a speech Sunday evening, shortly before the report-ed trip to Saudi Arabia: “We must not return to the previous nuclear deal.”
In the same speech, Net-anyahu also praised “trail-blazing Arab leaders who understand the benefits of peace” and predicted “we will see other states that widen the circle of peace.”
In another possible refer-ence to the Saudi meeting, a Netanyahu aide, Topaz Luk, accused Netanyahu’s rival and coalition partner, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, of “playing politics at the same time that the prime minister is making peace.” Gantz on Sunday launched an investigation into Israel’s purchase of German submarines — a scandal that has turned several close Netanyahu confidants into criminal suspects. Netanyahu him-self is not a suspect.
Gantz, who also holds the title of alternate prime minister, said he had not been notified of the meet-ing and angrily said Net-anyahu behaved irrespon-sibly by allowing such a sensitive trip to be leaked to the media.
The reported visit Sun-day night to Neom, still a largely undeveloped des-ert region alongside the north end of the Red Sea, also reflected Prince Mo-hammed’s ambitions.
FILE PHOTO | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a new coronavirus lab at Ben-Gurion In-ternational Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel.
B8 THE DAILY ITEM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
BUSINESS
Biden taps ex-Fed chair
Yellen to lead treasury
By Christopher Rugaber and
Michael BalsamoASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Pres-ident-elect Joe Biden has chosen former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yel-len to serve as treasury secretary, a pivotal role in which she would help shape and direct his eco-nomic policies at a peril-ous time, according to a person familiar with the transition plans.
Yellen, who is widely admired in the financial world, would be the first woman to lead the Trea-sury Department in a line stretching back to Alexan-der Hamilton in 1789. Her nomination was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Biden’s plans.
If confirmed as treasury secretary, Yellen would in-herit a shaky U.S. econo-my, weakened by the pan-demic recession and now in the grip of a surging vi-ral epidemic that is inten-sifying pressure on busi-nesses and individuals. Concern is rising that the economy could slide into a “double-dip” recession this winter as states and cities reimpose restrictions on businesses and consumers stay home to avoid con-tracting the disease.
A path-breaking figure in the male-dominated economics field, Yellen, 74, was also the first woman to serve as Fed chair, from 2014 to 2018. She later be-came an adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign in an unusual departure for a former Fed leader.
The treasury post would add another new chapter to Yellen’s varied career in financial policymaking. She would represent the administration in global financial affairs and lead a sprawling department whose responsibilities range from the govern-ment’s finances and tax collections to global cur-rency markets, bank regu-lation and the printing of money.
Yellen would also take on the formidable task of helping negotiate econom-ic policy with Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who will re-main Senate majority leader if his party wins at least one of two Sen-ate runoff elections in Georgia in early January. Those talks would likely focus most urgently on a new stimulus package that most economists say is vital to sustaining an economic recovery.
Jaret Seiberg, a banking industry analyst at Cow-en, described Yellen as a “pragmatist” who would likely pursue a relatively moderate path on banking regulation. Stock markets, which had already risen Monday, rose further after news leaked of her selec-tion.
Yellen enjoys a close working relationship with Jerome Powell, who succeeded her as Fed chair, something that would likely improve co-ordination between the Fed and Treasury and perhaps result in addi-tional support for the economy. Powell and the current treasury secre-tary, Steven Mnuchin, last week publicly dis-agreed over Mnuchin’s decision to cancel several Fed emergency lending programs at the end of this month.
Yellen has consistently favored further stimulus spending for the economy, including for state and local governments, which she has said need “sub-stantial support” to avoid further job cuts. Such rescue aid has been a key sticking point in con-gressional negotiations on stimulus, with McCo-nnell resisting the larger amounts sought by Dem-ocrats.
Before leading the Fed, Yellen was its vice chair for four years and pre-viously was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for six years. Earlier, under Pres-ident Bill Clinton, she led the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, af-ter serving a stint on the Fed’s board.
Yellen is well-known on Capitol Hill after years of testifying as Fed chair to Senate committees about the economy and interest rate policy. During those years, she frequently clashed with Republican lawmakers who accused her of keeping rates too low for too long after the 2008 financial crisis. Some of them charged that Yellen and her pre-decessor, Ben Bernanke, had elevated the risk of runaway inflation and asset bubbles that could destabilize financial mar-kets.
None of those fears came to pass. On the contrary, under Bernanke and Yel-len — and later, under Powell — the Fed’s more difficult challenge became raising inflation merely to the Fed’s annual 2 percent target level. It has yet to do so consistently.
Yellen, a Democrat, had served only one four-year term as Fed chair when President Donald Trump decided to replace her with Powell, a Republi-can. That move broke a four-decade tradition of presidents allowing Fed chairs to serve at least two terms even if they had first been nominated by a president of the opposing party.
Biden had said last week that his choice for treasury secretary would be “someone who I think will be accepted by all elements of the Demo-cratic Party, progressives through the moderate co-alition.”
AP FILE PHOTO
Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaks with FOX Business Network guest anchor Jon Hilsenrath at the Fox Washington bureau.
GM to recall 7M vehicles globally to replace Takata air bags
By Tom KrisherASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — General Motors will recall about 7 million big pickup trucks and SUVs worldwide to replace potentially dan-gerous Takata air bag in-flators.
The announcement came Monday after the U.S. government told the automaker it had to recall 6 million of the vehicles in the U.S.
GM says it will not fight the decision, even though it believes the vehicles are safe. It will cost the com-pany an estimated $1.2 billion, about one third of its net income so far this year.
The automaker had pe-titioned the agency four times since 2016 to avoid recalls, contending the air bag inflator canisters have been safe on the road and in testing. But the Nation-
al Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Mon-day denied the petitions, saying the inflators still run the risk of exploding.
Owners complained to the NHTSA that the com-pany was placing profits over safety.
Exploding Takata infla-tors caused the largest se-ries of auto recalls in U.S. history, with at least 63 million inflators recalled. The U.S. government says that as of September, more than 11.1 million had not been fixed. About 100 mil-lion inflators have been recalled worldwide.
Takata used volatile am-monium nitrate to create a small explosion to fill air bags in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate when exposed to heat and humidity, and they can ex-plode with too much pres-sure, blowing apart a met-al canister and spewing shrapnel.
Twenty-seven people have been killed world-wide by the exploding in-flators, including 18 in the U.S.
Monday’s decision by NHTSA is a major step in drawing the Takata saga to a close. It means that all Takata ammoni-um nitrate inflators in the U.S. will be recalled, NHTSA said. Earlier this year the agency decided against a recall of infla-tors with a moisture-ab-sorbing chemical called a dessicant. NHTSA said it would monitor those in-flators and take action if problems arise.
GM will recall full-size pickup trucks and SUVs from the 2007 through 2014 model years, includ-ing the Chevrolet Silver-ado 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups. The Silverado is GM’s top-selling vehicle and the second-best sell-ing vehicle in the U.S. Also
covered are the Chevrolet Suburban, Tahoe and Av-alanche, the Cadillac Es-calade, GMC Sierra 1500, 2500 and 3500, and the GMC Yukon.
It took the agency more than four years to ar-rive at its decision, which comes toward the end of President Donald Trump’s four-year term.
NHTSA said in a pre-pared statement that it analyzed all available data on the air bags, in-cluding engineering and statistical analyses, aging tests and field data.
“Based on this infor-mation and information provided to the petition’s public docket, NHTSA concluded that the GM inflators in question are at risk of the same type of explosion after long-term exposure to high heat and humidity as other recalled Takata inflators,” the agency said.
Stocks rise on Wall Street in hopes of COVID vaccines
By Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga
ASSOCIATED PRESS
More encouraging news on the development of coronavirus vaccines and treatments helped pow-er stocks higher on Wall Street Monday, as the market clawed back most of its losses from last week.
The S&P 500 index rose 0.6 percent, led by banks, energy and industrial companies, sectors that have been beaten down during the pandemic. Health care and technol-ogy stocks, which traders have bid up sharply this year, closed lower. Trea-sury yields mostly rose, another sign of optimism among investors.
The latest vaccine de-velopments are helping to raise hopes that some normalcy will eventually be restored to everyday life and the economy. It is also tempering lingering concerns over rising virus cases in the U.S. and new government restrictions on businesses aimed at limiting the spread.
“Investors continue to embrace and see the opti-
mism in the development of vaccines, providing light at the end of the tun-nel and multiple choices on how to get there,” said Adam Taback, chief in-vestment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank.
The S&P 500 rose 20.05 points to 3,577.59. The benchmark index, which climbed to an all-time high a week ago, recouped nearly three-fourths of its decline from last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 327.79 points, or 1.1 percent, to 29,591.27. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite added 25.66 points, or 0.2 per-cent, to 11,880.63.
Roughly 73 percent of the stocks in the S&P 500 rose. In another signal that investors were feel-ing confident, the Rus-sell 2000 index of small-er stocks outpaced the broader market, picking up 32.96 points, or 1.8 per-cent, to 1,818.30. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.86 percent from 0.81 percent late Friday.
Many of the compa-nies making gains would greatly benefit from a vaccine allowing people to
travel, shop and dine out. Cruise line operator Car-nival rose 4.7 percent and hotel company Marriott International gained 3.2 percent. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.9 percent.
“You continue to see some rotation into sectors and securities that have been undervalued and still have some upside po-tential,” Taback said.
AstraZeneca is the latest
drug developer to report surprisingly good results from ongoing vaccine studies. It said the poten-tial vaccine, which is being developed with partner Oxford University, was up to 90 percent effective. Unlike rival candidates, however, AstraZeneca’s doesn’t have to be stored at ultra-cold tempera-tures, making it easier to distribute.
PHOTO | NICOLE PEREIRA/NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE VIA AP
Specialist Michael Pistillo works at the New York Stock Exchange.
Pandemic has taken a bite out of seafood trade and consumption
By Patrick WhittleASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND, Maine — The coronavirus pan-demic has hurt the U.S. seafood industry due to a precipitous fall in imports and exports and a drop in catch of some species.
Those are the findings of a group of scientists who sought to quantify the damage of the pandem-ic on America’s seafood business, which has also suffered in part because of
its reliance on restaurant sales. Consumer demand for seafood at restaurants dropped by more than 70 percent during the early months of the pandemic, according to the scien-tists, who published their findings recently in the scientific journal Fish and Fisheries.
Imports fell about 37 percent and exports about 43 percent over the first nine months of the year compared to 2019, the
study said. The economic impact has been felt most severely in states that rely heavily on the seafood sec-tor, such as Maine, Alas-ka and Louisiana, said Easton White, a Univer-sity of Vermont biologist and the study’s lead au-thor.
It hasn’t all been doom and gloom for the indus-try, as seafood delivery and home cooking have helped businesses weath-er the pandemic, White said. The industry will be in a better position to re-bound after the pandem-ic if domestic consumers take more of an interest in fresh seafood, he said.
“Shifting to these local markets is something that could be really helpful for recovery purposes,” White said. “The way forward is to focus on shortening the supply chain a little bit.”
The study found that Alaska’s catch of halibut, a high-value fish, declined by 40 percent compared to the previous year through June. Statistics for many U.S. fisheries won’t be available until next year, but those findings dove-
tail with what many fish-ermen are seeing on the water.
Maine’s catch of monk-fish has dried up because of the lack of access to foreign markets such as Korea, said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.
“The prices just went so low, they couldn’t build a business doing that this year,” Martens said.
The study confirms what members of the sea-food industry have been hearing for months, said Kyle Foley, senior pro-gram manager for the seafood program at Gulf of Maine Research Insti-tute. Foley, who was not involved in the study, said the findings make clear that the seafood in-dustry needs more help from the federal govern-ment.
The federal government allocated $300 million in CARES Act dollars to the seafood industry in May. The government an-nounced $16 billion for farmers and ranchers that same month.
AP FILE PHOTO
A worker weighs and sorts pollack at the Port-land Fish Exchange in Portland, Maine.
