Post on 10-Apr-2022
Volume 80 Edition 30 ©SS 2021 CONTINGENCY EDITION FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2021 Free to Deployed Areas
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MILITARY
Navy deploys onboardcounseling teams to helpsailors cope with stressPage 3
FACES
The long road to the ‘Friends’reunion showPage 14
OLYMPICS
Big debut on deckfor skateboardingat Tokyo gamesPage 24
Air Force announces new scoring breakdown for fitness test ›› Page 3
WASHINGTON — Amy Logan first
experienced physical abuse three
years into her marriage to a sergeant
major in the Army.
Logan was away from friends and
family once she moved to a new base,
similar to many military spouses who
are isolated and unaware of resources
available to them.
Several months after the move, her
marriage turned violent, Logan told
House lawmakers Tuesday.
One night, Logan’s husband at the
time charged at her, grabbed her
shoulders and his knee struck her in
the leg after Logan attempted to dis-
cuss how her husband spoke down to
their child for crying. A few days after
the assault, Logan went with her child
to a women’s safe shelter and eventu-
ally filed for a divorce, she said.
“He told me, ‘I would rather go to
prison than let you leave with our
child.’ I took this as a verbal threat to
my life,” Logan testified during a hear-
ing on domestic violence in the military
held by the personnel subpanel of the
House Armed Services Committee.
Incidents of spouse abuse in the mil-
itary are at about 1.1%, according to De-
fense Department data from 2019. That
rate is more than twice that of the na-
Ex-spouse reveals cracks in military’s response to domestic abuse incidentsBY SARAH CAMMARATA
Stars and Stripes
Logan SEE SPOUSE ON PAGE 7
KABUL, Afghanistan — Abdullah Mo-
hammadi lost his two legs and an arm below
the elbow in a ferocious battle with the Tali-
ban. As a young Afghan soldier, he had been
eager to fight for his country, but now he’s
furious at a government he says ignores him
and hasn’t paid his veteran’s pension for
nearly a year.
Afghanistan’s National Defense and Se-
curity Forces, meant to be the bulwark
against advancing Taliban insurgents, are
rife with corruption, demoralized and
struggling to keep territory. The govern-
ment says the army can hold its own, but
Toughbattleahead
RAHMAT GUL/AP
Afghan army veteran Abdullah Mohammadi gives an interview to The Associated Press at his home on the outskirts of Kabul,Afghanistan, on May 5. Once eager to fight for his country, Mohammadi is now furious at his government.
Afghan forces hurt bylow morale, corruption
BY KATHY GANNON
Associated Press
RELATED
Taliban warn US againstsetting up bases in regionPage 5
SEE BATTLE ON PAGE 4
PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
BUSINESS/WEATHER
WASHINGTON — U.S. orders
for big-ticket manufactured goods
dropped unexpectedly in April for
the first time in 11 months as a
shortage of computer chips dis-
rupted auto production.
The Commerce Department re-
ported Thursday that orders for
factory goods meant to last at least
three years fell 1.3% in April after
rising 1.3% in March. Transporta-
tion orders skidded 6.7%. Exclud-
ing transportation, which can
swing sharply from month to
month, durable goods orders were
up 1% in April.
Factories have been hamstrung
by a shortage of supplies as the
U.S. economy reopens from the
pandemic and demand for goods
and services rebounds rapidly.
Orders for auto parts, disrupted
by a shortage of computer chips,
dropped 6.2% in April. Orders for
military capital goods dropped
25.8% after falling 11.7% in March.
Economists had expected dura-
ble goods orders to rise about 0.7%
last month. Despite the unexpect-
ed decline, the April report also
contained hopeful signs: A catego-
ry that tracks business investment
— orders for nondefense capital
goods excluding aircraft — in-
creased 2.3% last month on top of a
1.6% gain in March.
“The signal for the manufactur-
ing sector is still positive, although
supply chain constraints continue
to be a headwind, preventing a
complete recovery to pre-pan-
demic levels,” said Rubeela Fa-
rooqi, chief U.S. economist at
High Frequency Economics.
US durable goods orders drop 1.3% in AprilAssociated Press
Bahrain93/88
Baghdad109/73
Doha107/80
Kuwait City107/83
Riyadh107/76
Kandahar100/64
Kabul84/59
Djibouti95/79
FRIDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Mildenhall/Lakenheath
64/48
Ramstein57/46
Stuttgart58/44
Lajes,Azores62/60
Rota75/55
Morón88/60 Sigonella
71/57
Naples75/57
Aviano/Vicenza67/48
Pápa62/50
Souda Bay73/66
Brussels63/42
Zagan53/49
DrawskoPomorskie
56/47
FRIDAY IN EUROPE
Misawa64/54
Guam87/81
Tokyo78/59
Okinawa80/78
Sasebo67/62
Iwakuni67/62
Seoul70/55
Osan66/55
Busan68/59
The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,
2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
SATURDAY IN THE PACIFIC
WEATHER OUTLOOK
TODAYIN STRIPES
American Roundup ...... 13Comics .........................16Crossword ................... 16Faces .......................... 14Opinion ........................ 15Sports .................... 18-24
Military rates
Euro costs (May 28) $1.19Dollar buys (May 28) 0.7985British pound (May 28) $1.38Japanese yen (May 28) 106.00South Korean won (May 28) 1090.00
Commercial rates
Bahrain(Dinar) .3770Britain (Pound) 1.4172Canada (Dollar) 1.2084China(Yuan) 6.3833Denmark (Krone) 6.0972Egypt (Pound) 15.6704Euro .8200Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7623Hungary (Forint) 285.39Israel (Shekel) 3.2457Japan (Yen) 107.50Kuwait(Dinar) .3008
Norway (Krone) 8.3566
Philippines (Peso) 48.03Poland (Zloty) 3.68Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7505Singapore (Dollar) 1.3240
South Korea (Won) 1119.19Switzerland (Franc) .9000Thailand (Baht) 31.29Turkey (NewLira) �8.4532
(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., purchasing British pounds in Germany), check withyour local military banking facility. Commercialrates are interbank rates provided for referencewhen buying currency. All figures are foreigncurrencies to one dollar, except for the Britishpound, which is represented in dollarstopound, and the euro, which is dollarstoeuro.)
INTEREST RATES
Prime rate 3.25Interest Rates Discount �rate 0.75Federal funds market rate �0.093month bill 0.0230year bond 2.27
EXCHANGE RATES
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3
WASHINGTON — The Air
Force will require only pushups,
situps and a 1.5-mile run when
physical fitness testing resumes
July 1 using a new scoring break-
down, the service announced
Wednesday.
Pushups and situps will now
be worth 20 points each, up 10
points, and the 1.5-mile run will
remain worth 60 points. The
boost in points is to make up for
those points that were lost when
the service did away with waist
circumference measurements in
December.
An overall score of at least 75
is required to pass and anyone
taking the test must also achieve
the minimum score in each com-
ponent. Minimum scores for
each component vary based on
age and gender.
The service announced in
early March that it would further
delay testing until July due to
concerns about the coronavirus
pandemic. Testing had been pre-
viously pushed back until April.
The age brackets used for as-
sessment and grading from 10-
year age categories are now
changed to five-year age groups.
For example, the grading cate-
gory for ages 30-39 has been re-
placed with age groups of 30-34
and 35-39, according to an Air
Force news release.
In the coming weeks, the ser-
vice also plans to announce alter-
native strength and cardiovascu-
lar testing exercise options. At
that point, members will have
about six months to practice the
exercises, and they will be avail-
able options by the start of next
year, according to the service.
“We are moving away from a
one-size-fits-all model,” Gen.
Charles “CQ” Brown, the Air
Force chief of staff, said in a pre-
pared statement. “More testing
options will put flexibility in the
hands of our airmen — where it
belongs.”
While the waist measurement
is no longer required as part of
the test, a separate assessment of
body composition will continue
starting in October, according to
the service. Body composition
assessments will not be a part of
the physical fitness test. More
details could be announced later,
but the service did not say when.
The Space Force will follow
the Air Force policies until its
leadership develops a service-
specific plan.
Air Force adopts new fitness test scoringBY SARAH CAMMARATA
Stars and Stripes
cammarata.sarah@stripes.com Twitter: @sarahjcamm
CHRISTOPHER PARR/U.S. Air Force
The Air Force will require only pushups, situps and a 1.5mile runwhen physical fitness testing resumes July 1.
during their initial two to six
weeks of restricted movement and
then at sea. Restriction of move-
ment is the term the Navy gives to
a two-week quarantine required
of a crew before they ship out.
The teams hosted “non-medical
counseling, group workshops,
walk-around engagement, one-
on-one consultations, [and] psy-
cho-education,” the Navy said in
an April news release. The teams
also arranged long-term assist-
ance for anyone requesting it.
Aside from offering formal pre-
sentations, the teams spent much
of their time just mixing with the
crews during walkabouts.
The program’s rollout had been
The Navy is assessing how best
to employ specially trained teams
placed aboard large ships as they
head to sea to help sailors with
shore-to-sea transition, a program
tested earlier this year.
The “proof of concept” for the
Departure and Separation Pro-
gram kicked off in December on
six cruisers and destroyers from
Norfolk, Va., and ended in mid-
February. Their crews were deal-
ing with the usual stressors of
heading to sea for many months
but also with family issues and re-
strictions related to COVID-19,
the coronavirus respiratory dis-
ease.
“I would say some of [the pro-
gram’s launch] was directly attri-
buted to COVID,” Edward Can-
non, director of Fleet and Family
Readiness Programs for Navy In-
stallations Command, told Stars
and Stripes during a recent phone
interview.
“So, I don't see it as something
that we would be rolling out enter-
prise-wide on every ship, every
time that they deploy,” he said.
“But we absolutely know there are
going to be times when there are
additional stressors or changes to
pace or schedule that would lend
itself well to this model, and we
are prepared to support that as it
comes up.
“Basically, we’ve done the proof
of concept, and we know that other
ship commanders need this type
of support. Our team will be ready
to do that no matter what type of
ships they are.”
Beginning Dec. 28, the program
sent two-person teams — a licens-
ed counselor and specially trained
educator, in most cases — to ships
planned for January but was
stepped up after Fleet and Family
Support “received an urgent re-
quest for emotional aid” from
leaders aboard the guided-missile
cruisers USS Monterey and USS
Vella Gulf and the destroyers USS
Mitscher, USS Mahan, USS Jason
Dunham and USS Laboon, the Na-
vy said.
The command triads — com-
manders, executive officers and
command chiefs — aboard the
ships had observed sailors grap-
pling with “elevated stress due to
the pandemic, loss of shipmates,
pressures of pre-deployment
work-ups, operational tempo and
restriction of movement” require-
ments, the Navy said.
Cannon oversees quality-of-life
programs for sailors and their
families, and it is routine for per-
sonnel to gather pier side when
ships return from long deploy-
ments — both to welcome sailors
back and help families transition.
The Departure and Separation
Program essentially took that re-
union effort and “turned it on its
head,” Cannon said. “What about
before they return? How can we
take care of them?
“So, when we got this call to sup-
port Naval Surface Force Atlantic,
it was really a matter of asking our
teams throughout the Mid-Atlan-
tic if they were interested in tak-
ing that skill set and quickly form-
ing part of a team that would then
go out and embark with the ships,”
he said.
It meant cutting short holiday
time normally spent with friends
and family because team mem-
bers had to join the required two-
week restriction of movement that
began only a few days after Christ-
mas.
Laboon Cmdr. Charles Spivey
described the program as “invalu-
able” in the Navy news release,
saying “the curriculum gave our
crew new skills and appropriate
resources to be successful while
we are gone.”
Cannon said the data is not yet
available to see how effective the
teams were in easing problems
due to separation. But he said he
was convinced that the roughly
1,800 sailors on the six ships bene-
fited from the teams’ presence.
Direct feedback from the com-
mand triads and sailors on each
ship was encouraging, Cannon
said.
“What we heard was that there
were demonstrated positive out-
comes to operational readiness,”
he said.
Navy leaders cited decreases in
the numbers of command-direct-
ed mental health evaluations and
fewer requests for fitness-for-du-
ty assessments, Cannon said.
“So, a healthier ship overall and
one that was — by definition of the
commanding officers — better
able to do their jobs,” he said.
“From the triads we heard a defi-
nite interest in repeating this.
We’ll be looking at providing it
again.”
Onboard Navy counselors help sailors cope with stress
CHELSEA PALMER/U.S. Navy
A sailor aboard the guidedmissile cruiser USS Monterey looks out at the Mediterranean Sea in March.
BY WYATT OLSON
Stars and Stripes
olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
MILITARY
PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
military experts warn of a tough
fight ahead for poorly trained, ill-
equipped troops whose loyalties
waver between their country and
local warlords.
By Sept. 11 at the latest, the re-
maining 2,300-3,500 U.S. troops
and roughly 7,000 allied NATO
forces will have left Afghanistan,
ending nearly 20 years of military
engagement. Also leaving is the
American air support that the Af-
ghan military has relied on to
stave off potentially game-chang-
ing Taliban assaults, ever since it
took command of the war from the
U.S. and NATO in 2014.
“Without U.S. military support,
it is a matter of time before the Ta-
liban consolidates its gains, par-
ticularly in the south, east and
west,” said Bill Roggio, senior fel-
low at the American Foundation
for the Defense of Democracies
and editor of its Long War Journal,
which tracks militant movements.
At least half the country is be-
lieved to be contested ground, of-
ten with the government holding
only the main towns and cities in
local districts and the Taliban
dominating the countryside.
In the last two weeks, the Tali-
ban seized control of four district
centers, including a strategic town
southwest of Kabul, on the main
highway linking Afghanistan’s
north and south.
This week, the Taliban briefly
entered Mehtar Lam, the capital
of Laghman province, after the po-
lice and army abandoned several
outposts protecting the city, gov-
ernment officials said. The Tali-
ban were driven out but later
showed off weapons and equip-
ment allegedly left behind at the
outposts. More than 100 military
personnel were brought to Kabul
to be reprimanded for abandoning
their positions.
“Once U.S. military support is
gone, the Taliban should be able to
take and hold several provincial
capitals and hold them indefinite-
ly,” said Roggio.
Within the Afghan army, sol-
diers complain of substandard
equipment, even shoddy basic
items like army boots that fall
apart within weeks because cor-
rupt contractors used inferior ma-
terial. The Associated Press wit-
nessed boots with gaping holes be-
ing worn, insufficient helmets
available and weapons that often
jammed.
At a police outpost seen by the
AP earlier this month, eight men
lived in a partially built bunker
that looked big enough for only
half that number. They had only a
few rifles as they watched sentry
from two turret-style posts on the
outpost’s high brick walls. They
overlook a busy road where the
Taliban frequently attack security
convoys.
The commander, who wore san-
dals, said the outpost is occasion-
ally hit by rocket or gunfire and
would have a hard time fending off
a full-fledged attack.
“There’s no other option but
peace,” he said, asking not to be
identified because he did not have
permission to allow media into his
compound.
The Afghan government long
ago stopped releasing casualty fig-
ures among its forces. But a for-
mer senior security official deeply
familiar with the cost of war over
the past two years told the AP that
about 100-110 security personnel
are killed or wounded every day.
He spoke on condition of anonym-
ity because he was not authorized
to talk about casualties.
Mohammadi, the wounded vet-
eran, said he was injured six years
ago in Zhari district in southern
Kandahar province, once the spir-
itual heartland of the Taliban until
their ouster in 2001 by U.S.-led
coalition forces.
He led a company of 18 men air-
lifted into battle in a grape field,
about 3 miles from their nearest
base. The fight went on all day and
night until eventually the Taliban
surrounded them.
“I was the commander. I had to
do something. I stood up and
aimed my RPG (rocket propelled
grenade launcher).” That was the
last Mohammadi remembered.
He stepped on a land mine. The
Taliban had littered the fields with
mines, and higher-ups had not
warned him or his men.
For a year he recovered in a hos-
pital. He received two wooden
legs and an artificial plastic hand.
The legs are painful to wear and
he can manage them only for 15
minutes at a time. It takes two peo-
ple to help him get them on, and he
sometimes pays a neighbor to
help.
“I am proud of what I have sac-
rificed for this country. What I
gave for my country I gave with
pride,” he said.
But Mohammadi is fuming at
the government. For years, his
veteran’s pension, around 16,000
Afghanis ($200) a month, has been
erratic, and for the past 11 months
he hasn’t received it at all. “They
tell me to wait,” he said.
Mohammadi says has had to
borrow from family and friends. It
wounds his pride, but it’s better
than begging, he said.
“I am angry. I feel like my digni-
ty has been insulted. My life is a
struggle,” he said, wrapping his
lower body in a wool blanket. The
cold and damp cause him pain in
his missing limbs.
The Defense Ministry’s deputy
spokesman, Fawad Aman, prom-
ised to look into the complaint. He
said that corruption, while it ex-
ists, is not widespread and efforts
are being made to tackle it and
that the spirit of the fighting force
was high.
“With the withdrawal of United
States forces there will be no secu-
rity vacuum or gap in Afghanistan
because our forces can defend Af-
ghanistan independently,” he
said.
The U.S is committed to pay $4
billion annually until 2024 to fi-
nance Afghanistan’s security
forces. As of Dec. 31, 2020, Wash-
ington’s chief watchdog oversee-
ing U.S. spending in Afghanistan,
John Sopko, said the U.S. has
spent $88.3 billion to help the Af-
ghan government provide securi-
ty in Afghanistan — roughly 62%
of all U.S. reconstruction funding.
Battle: Afghan forces endure corruption, faulty equipmentFROM PAGE 1
RAHMAT GUL/AP
Afghan soldiers patrol outside their military base on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 9.
WAR ON TERRORISM
The Navy is expected to send its
only Indo-Pacific-based aircraft
carrier to the Middle East this
summer to support the planned
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Af-
ghanistan, multiple media outlets
reported Wednesday.
President Joe Biden earlier this
year set a deadline of Sept. 11 —
the 20th anniversary of the terror-
ist attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon that set in
motion U.S. military action in Af-
ghanistan — for bringing home
the remaining troops from the
war-torn country.
The Japan-based USS Ronald
Reagan will relieve the USS
Dwight D. Eisenhower and its
strike group in the North Arabian
Sea, according to The Wall Street
Journal, which first reported the
planned deployment and cited un-
named defense officials. The Ei-
senhower is slated to return to its
Norfolk, Va., homeport in July.
The carrier has deployed twice in
the past 36 months and can’t safely
extend beyond summer, the offi-
cials told the newspaper.
The Ronald Reagan is expected
to operate in the Middle East for
up to four months, according to
the report. The Navy will go with-
out an aircraft carrier in the Indo-
Pacific for at least part of that
time, the officials said.
Pacific Fleet referred a Stars
and Stripes query on the move to
the Pentagon.
“We don’t talk about potential
ship movements in advance,”
Pentagon press secretary John
Kirby told reporters during a
news conference Wednesday
when asked about the Ronald Re-
agan.
The carrier is permanently de-
ployed at Yokosuka Naval Base
and normally spends about half
the year at sea patrolling the Indo-
Pacific. The ship left Yokosuka on
patrol May 19.
USNI News reported Wednes-
day that it had confirmed the Ro-
nald Reagan’s upcoming deploy-
ment with two unnamed defense
officials.
The last time a Yokosuka-based
carrier deployed to the Middle
East was in 2003 when the USS
Kitty Hawk supported the U.S. in-
vasion of Iraq, according to the re-
port.
Meanwhile, the carrier USS
Theodore Roosevelt returned to
its homeport in San Diego on
Tuesday after completing a five-
month deployment that included
the Gulf of Alaska and the contest-
ed South China Sea.
While the 7th Fleet has roughly
50 to 70 ships and submarines, the
Ronald Reagan and its strike force
are the Navy’s most visible projec-
tion of maritime power in the In-
do-Pacific.
The Navy has used the carrier
and other warships to push back
on China’s aggressive claims of
sovereignty over most of the South
China Sea.
In February, the carriers USS
Nimitz and USS Theodore Roose-
velt moved to the Indo-Pacific to
exercise together in the South Chi-
na Sea while the Ronald Reagan
was in port for regular mainte-
nance.
On Saturday, the Royal Navy
carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth,
with 10 U.S. Marine Corps F-35B
Lightning II stealth fighters
aboard and its strike group along-
side, left the United Kingdom,
bound for an Indo-Pacific patrol
with stops in Japan, India, South
Korea and Singapore, according
to The Associated Press.
Ships of the 7th Fleet routinely
transit the Taiwan Strait, another
hot spot where Chinese military
aircraft have been flying into Tai-
wan’s air defense zone.
Reports: USS Reagan to support troops’ Afghanistan exitBY WYATT OLSON
Stars and Stripes
olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5
MILITARY
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on
Wednesday warned the departing
U.S. military against setting up
bases in the region, and Pakistan
vowed that no American bases will
be allowed on its territory.
Pakistan also said drone strikes
from Pakistani territory were a non-
starter.
The statements come amid spec-
ulation that the United States, as it
withdraws the last of its 2,500-3,500
soldiers from Afghanistan, will
want a nearby locale from which to
launch strikes against militant tar-
gets.
The warning also comes during
stepped-up efforts to jump-start
stalled peace talks between the gov-
ernment and the Taliban, possibly
in Turkey.
Both Pakistan and the Middle
Eastern state of Qatar have been
pressing the Taliban to attend talks
in Turkey. U.N.-sponsored talks
were to have been held last month in
Turkey, but the Taliban refused to
take part.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign
Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi
on Tuesday told Pakistan’s Senate
the country would not allow Amer-
ican bases on its territory.
“Forget the past, but I want to tell
the Pakistanis that no U.S. base will
be allowed by Prime Minister Im-
ran Khan so long as he is in power,”
he said.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, Pakistan opened four air
bases to the U.S.-led coalition to aid
in its efforts in Afghanistan to hunt
down the al-Qaida perpetrators of
the attacks and unseat the Taliban
rulers who had given them safe
haven.
In his April speech announcing
an end to America’s “forever war,”
President Joe Biden said Washing-
ton would hold the Taliban and the
government to its commitments to
ensure Afghanistan could not again
be used as a staging arena to attack
the American homeland or its allies.
“We will not take our eye off the
terrorist threat,” said Biden. “We
will reorganize our counterterror-
ism capabilities and the substantial
assets in the region to prevent re-
emergence of terrorist threat to our
homeland over the horizon.”
The U.S., along with about 7,000
NATO forces, will leave Afghanis-
tan by Sept. 11 at the latest. In a state-
ment earlier this week, U.S. Central
Command said it had completed
about 25% of its withdrawal. The lo-
gistics of withdrawing are tremen-
dous, and according to the CENT-
COM statement, departing troops
have already packed military
equipment onto 160 C-17 cargo air-
craft and shipped them back to
America.
Besides airlifting its supplies, the
U.S.is also moving equipment out of
Afghanistan through Central Asia
and Pakistan.
In its statement, the Taliban
warned against neighboring coun-
tries allowing its territory to be used
as a staging area for America.
“God forbid such a step is taken, it
will be a great historic mistake and
disgrace, its shame will go in histo-
ry,” said the statement. “As we have
repeatedly assured others, our soil
will not be used against anyone’s se-
curity, we urge others not to use its
soil and airspace against our coun-
try.”
Taliban warn departing USagainst new bases in region
BY KATHY GANNON
Associated Press
CHANCEY BUSH/AP
Adeola Daniel Adeboye, right, Squadron 30, celebrates during theUnited States Air Force Academy’s Class of 2021 graduationceremony at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Wednesday.More than 1,000 cadets celebrated becoming officers.
Pomp and circumstance
PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
TAMA HILLS RECREATION
AREA, Japan — Two dozen Japa-
nese visitors hiked across the U.S.
military’s sprawling recreation
area in western Tokyo on Wednes-
day while learning about its histo-
ry and the plants and animals that
live there.
The “eco tour” was the first or-
ganized in more than a year by the
374th Airlift Wing at nearby Yoko-
ta Air Base. Access to U.S. facili-
ties in Japan was limited last
spring as coronavirus cases
spiked among service members;
however, restrictions have eased
in recent months with more peo-
ple in the military community get-
ting vaccinated.
Tour leader Yoshitaka Yamagu-
chi, 69, a former environmental
engineer at Yokota, led visitors on
the trek through some of the rec-
reation area’s 483 acres.
The tours, which began in 2006
and happen periodically, are a
way for locals to see what’s behind
the barbed wire fence surround-
ing Tama Hills, Yamaguchi said.
“Usually, they’re not allowed to
come in, but over the fence they
expect there are nice natural re-
sources,” he said, during a break
in the hike. “They’re also interest-
ed in the history.”
Many locals already know about
the base’s past as a Japanese mu-
nition facility and Cold War-era
bomb storage site.
Today, Tama Hills operates as a
recreation area for U.S. troops and
their families stationed in and
around the Japanese capital. It in-
cludes an 18-hole golf course,
lodging, horseback riding, sports
fields, mountain bike trails and
camping areas.
The Japanese visitors observed
small fish living in a pond near the
base’s front gate and some ancient
stone steps. Yamaguchi held up a
World War II-era photograph of a
Japanese soldier standing at the
top of the steps, which, at the time,
were topped with a traditional Ja-
panese torii gate and led to a Shin-
to shrine.
The visitors saw an old Japa-
nese bathhouse and dining facility
and went inside wartime bunkers.
“People can feel the history,”
Yamaguchi said.
World War II relics are often ne-
glected by local cities in Japan be-
cause they feel uncomfortable
about them, according to 374th
Civil Engineer Squadron environ-
mental engineer Mutsuki Kitaji-
ma, 29, who also spoke to the vis-
itors during the tour.
“We can still maintain these his-
torical resources in good shape,”
he said.
One visitor, Hisao Yokota, 74, of
Inagi City, said he’d played golf at
Tama Hills but that the tour was
his first time to see the recreation
area, which he knew as a muni-
tions site in his youth. He was par-
ticularly interested in the con-
struction of old drains in the area.
The tours are a chance for the
Air Force to show that it is proper-
ly maintaining the ecology and
history of its facilities, Kitajima
said.
“We can make a good under-
standing between the local com-
munity and Yokota Air Base,” he
said.
Yamaguchi pointed out rare
moss growing on a wall and a
place where foxes prowl. He told
the visitors about the tanuki, or
raccoon dogs, that inhabit the for-
est and the rare goshawks that
nest there.
Officially, there are 38 gosh-
awks in the recreation area, in-
cluding two fledglings.
The goshawks didn’t make an
appearance during Wednesday’s
tour, but Yamaguchi showed the
visitors photos of the birds and
pointed out the difference in
plumage between juveniles and
adults.
The preservation of the endan-
gered birds is part of an environ-
mental protection program that
was recently judged the best on
U.S. military bases overseas, Hey-
ward Singleton, 47, Yokota’s In-
stallation Management Flight
chief, said in a May 17 interview.
AKIFUMI ISHIKAWA/Stars and Stripes
Japanese visitors tour a World War IIera munitions storage site at Tama Hills Recreation Area in westernTokyo, on Wednesday.
USAF restarts Tokyo ‘eco tours’BY SETH ROBSON
Stars and Stripes
robson.seth@stripes.comTwitter: @SethRobson1
A coronavirus-induced alco-
hol drought is ending for fully
vaccinated U.S. personnel on
the Korean Peninsula.
Starting Friday, local bars
and nightclubs will no longer be
off-limits to those associated
with U.S. Forces Korea — ser-
vice members, Defense Depart-
ment civilian workers, contrac-
tors and their families — USFK
announced Thursday on Face-
book.
However, “all bars and clubs
remain off-limits to partially
vaccinated and non-vaccinated
individuals,” the post said.
Seoul is another exception.
The pandemic prohibition still
applies to Area II, which in-
cludes the capital city and the
surrounding area.
Many other activities remain
off-limits, including karaoke
rooms, saunas and bathhouses.
Off-post gyms are allowed with
approval from a colonel in com-
mand or the civilian equivalent.
South Korean rules on social
distancing, masks and business
hours still apply, according to
USFK, which removed a mask
mandate for the fully vaccinat-
ed on its installations May 15.
Lifting the ban on bars and
clubs was possible because
USFK had made the COVID-19
vaccine available to all of its eli-
gible population and had
achieved a “greater than 75%
vaccination rate,” spokesman
Col. Lee Peters said in a video
posted to Facebook on Thurs-
day.
By comparison, host-nation
vaccination rates are about 4%
in South Korea and 2.5% in Ja-
pan.
Another 12 people with the
U.S. military in South Korea
and Japan have contracted CO-
VID-19, the coronavirus respi-
ratory disease, according to re-
ports made by 6 p.m. Thursday.
Eight people tested positive
after arriving in South Korea
between May 10 and Tuesday,
USFK announced in a news re-
lease Wednesday.
Four of those patients landed
at Osan Air Base from the U.S.
via a government-chartered
passenger service on May 10,
12, 19 and Monday. The other
four arrived at Incheon Interna-
tional Airport in Seoul on May
11, 12, 21 and Tuesday, the re-
lease said.
Five came up positive on their
first mandatory COVID-19 test,
and three were positive on the
test required to exit quarantine.
All were subsequently quaran-
tined at either Osan or Camp
Humphreys.
In Japan, the Marine Corps
had four new cases on Okinawa,
two each at camps Hansen and
Kinser, according to a Facebook
post Thursday by Marine Corps
Installations Pacific.
Tokyo reported another 684
people tested positive Thurs-
day, according to public broad-
caster NHK. The prefecture al-
so reported 11 deaths.
In South Korea, 629 people
had contracted the virus
Wednesday, including 216 in Se-
oul and 168 in Gyeonggi prov-
ince, where Humphreys and
Osan are located, according to
the Central Disease Control
Headquarters.
Starting in July, anyone in
South Korea who has received
the first dose of a vaccine may
go without masks, a government
incentive to spur more inocula-
tions, according to Japan’s Kyo-
do News on Wednesday.
For fully vaccinated individu-
als, the ban on gatherings of five
or more people will be lifted,
too, according to the report.
USFK lifts ban onbars, clubs forfully vaccinated
BY JOSEPH DITZLER
Stars and Stripes
ditzler.joseph@stripes.comTwitter: @JosephDitzler
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON — The number of Amer-
icans seeking unemployment benefits
dropped last week to 406,000, a new pan-
demic low and more evidence that the job
market is strengthening as the virus wanes
and economy further reopens.
Thursday’s report from the Labor De-
partment showed that applications de-
clined 38,000 from 444,000 a week earlier.
The number of weekly applications for job-
less aid — a rough measure of the pace of
layoffs — has fallen by more than half since
January.
The decline in applications reflects a
swift rebound in economic growth. More
Americans are venturing out to shop, travel,
dine out and congregate at entertainment
venues. All that renewed spending has led
companies to seek new workers, which
helps explain why a record number of jobs
is now being advertised.
Yet many businesses complain that they
can’t find enough applicants for all those
open jobs, even though the unemployment
rate remains 6.1%, well above the 3.5% rate
that prevailed before the pandemic struck
in March of last year. Job growth slowed
sharply last month compared with March, a
surprise pullback that was largely ascribed
to a labor shortage in some industries.
Economists blame a range of factors for
the shortfall of workers, including an extra
$300-a-week payment that people receiving
jobless aid have been able to get, on top of
their state unemployment check, since
March. The federal benefit was included in
President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue
package. With many people able to earn
more from their combined federal and state
jobless aid than from their former jobs, the
extra income has likely discouraged some
of the unemployed from seeking work,
some analysts say.
US jobless claims fall to 406,000, a new pandemic lowAssociated Press
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7
tional population, which is 0.42%,
said Jessica Strong, co-director of
applied research at Blue Star
Families, a nonprofit organization
that advocates for military fam-
ilies.
“Many factors that are endemic
to the military lifestyle placed mil-
itary spouses at greater risk of ex-
periencing [intimate-partner vio-
lence], including economic vul-
nerability, social isolation, men-
tal-health concerns and military
culture itself,” Strong said.
Logan said she called the local
police three times in response to
different incidents related to her
then-husband’s behavior, but the
Army base was never notified. Af-
ter the first incident, Logan’s leg
began to swell from the force of
the impact, and she was not able to
bend her knee.
A military and family life coun-
selor from her husband’s brigade
attended every court hearing dur-
ing their eventual divorce and tes-
tified on behalf of Logan’s ex-hus-
band despite Logan’s testimony
on the physical abuse that she en-
dured, she told lawmakers.
Logan took matters into her
own hands by reporting her for-
mer husband to the military, yet a
case review committee did not
grant her a military protection or-
der. The colonel who led the com-
mittee was her husband’s brigade
commander, who determined the
sergeant major should remain in
his command.
Later, Logan filed a report to
the inspector general’s office on
base over how the colonel handled
her case. The IG took the com-
plaint directly to the colonel, Lo-
gan said, the person who her com-
plaint was filed against.
She was told the colonel would
send her a letter stating that he re-
ceived the report and took action,
but Logan never received that let-
ter.
A congressional inquiry filed by
Logan also resulted in a com-
manding major general opening
an internal Army investigation,
known as a 15-6. But Logan said
she still has not been told what ac-
tion was taken as a result of the in-
vestigation, despite the risk she
took in coming forward.
“Throughout all of these mili-
tary investigations, I felt they
questioned the validity of my com-
plaint, based on what I did not do
instead of what was done to me.
Individuals in the military respon-
sible for decisions regarding do-
mestic abuse need to learn more
about abuse,” Logan said.
The installation, Logan’s ex-
husband and the colonel were not
named in Logan’s written testimo-
ny to House lawmakers.
Logan’s testimony reflects gaps
in the military’s response to survi-
vors of domestic violence, said
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.,
chairwoman of the House sub-
committee.
Logan’s testimony “exposes all
the flaws in the military’s hand-
ling of domestic violence … we
can no longer ignore this,” Speier
said.
Those shortfalls were highlight-
ed in a recent report from the non-
partisan watchdog the Govern-
ment Accountability Office that
concluded the Defense Depart-
ment must enhance its preven-
tion, response and oversight to do-
mestic abuse.
The hearing also comes at a
time when the military’s handling
of sexual assault and sexual ha-
rassment cases has become a
flashpoint in Congress this year,
while the issue of domestic vio-
lence and abuse in the military
and how those cases are handled
has not gotten as much attention.
More than 40,000 incidents met
the Defense Department criteria
for domestic abuse between 2015
and 2019 and 74% of those inci-
dents were physical abuse, Speier
said.
Brenda Farrell, director of de-
fense capabilities and manage-
ment for the GAO, wrote the
watchdog report and testified at
the hearing. She said the top con-
cern is the department is not col-
lecting comprehensive data on the
number of allegations of domestic
violence and related actions taken
by commanders, despite a statuto-
ry requirement since 1999 to do
so.
“As a result, DOD is unable to
assess the scope of alleged abuse,
and the rate of substantiation. To
address these challenges, we rec-
ommended that DOD clarify its
guidance to the services for sub-
mitting data and develop a quality
control process to ensure com-
plete and accurate data on allega-
tions of abuse,” she told House
lawmakers.
Additionally, the report found
gaps exist in creating awareness
of domestic abuse, reporting op-
tions and resources and victim
risk assessment. The military ser-
vices also performed limited over-
sight of commanders’ disposition
of domestic violence incidents, or
oversight of a commander’s deci-
sion whether to pursue a court-
martial and other forms of puni-
shment or to take no action at all.
Speier asked department offi-
cials who appeared at the hearing
about why the picture on the num-
ber of domestic abuse incidents is
incomplete.
Patricia Barron, deputy assist-
ant secretary of defense for mili-
tary community and family poli-
cy, said she is “committed to mak-
ing sure that this solution gets to
fruition.”
“We have started on some of the
procedures that we need in order
to get this done,” she said.
Speier said the subcommittee is
going to require another meeting
with Barron in the next couple of
months “because this is just really
unacceptable.”
Defense Department officials
would also not confirm Tuesday
whether the rate of intimate-part-
ner violence is higher in the mil-
itary than in the civilian popula-
tion in response to a question on
the rates from Rep. Chrissy Hou-
lahan, D-Pa. They said they would
respond to the congresswoman in
writing at a later date.
“I believe that there is data and
I would welcome it when it comes
back… this is something that’s re-
ally concerning when your busi-
ness — and I’m an Air Force vet —
your business is national security
and readiness,” she said.
Houlahan asked what steps the
department has taken to address a
culture of “toxic gender tropes”
that create an unsafe environment
for service members and military
families.
The Defense Department has
directed the RAND Corp. to ex-
amine the factors of military life
that might lend themselves to do-
mestic abuse and intimate-part-
ner violence, Barron said.
Army Col. Steve Lewis, family
advocacy program manager, said
the testimony from Logan, as well
as the recent independent report
on the toxic command climate at
Fort Hood, Texas, “gives us an op-
portunity to really take a deep
look at the climate and culture of
the Army.”
Climate and culture are also
part of the Army’s “People’s First
Task Force,” established in re-
sponse to the Fort Hood report re-
leased in December, Lewis said.
Spouse: Domestic abuse rate is higher in military FROM PAGE 1
cammarata.sarah@stripes.comTwittter: @sarahjcamm
“Many factors that are endemic to themilitary lifestyle placed military spousesat greater risk of experiencing[intimate-partner violence], includingeconomic vulnerability, social isolation,mental-health concerns and militaryculture itself.”
Jessica Strong
co-director of applied research at Blue Star Families
MILITARY
A Reconnaissance Marine ac-
cused of stealing ammunition
from an armory on Camp Pendle-
ton, Calif., will go to court-mar-
tial, military officials said on
Tuesday.
Sgt. Gunnar Naughton, 28, has
been referred to a general court-
martial with a trial date set for Ju-
ly 1 at Camp Pendleton, said 2nd
Lt. Kyle McGuire, spokesman for
the 1st Marine Division.
Naughton, with the 1st Recon-
naissance Battalion, was charged
with six counts of larceny and
military property-related offens-
es involving missing ammunition
in early April. In a list of articles
under the Uniformed Code of
Military Justice released by the
1st Marine Division, Naughton is
accused of being found in posses-
sion of thousands of rounds of
military ammunition, two mili-
tary grenades and a smoke gre-
nade, which Naval Criminal In-
vestigative Service investigators
said were found at his home off-
base in Fallbrook. He is also ac-
cused of deleting evidence on Sig-
nal, a secure messaging app, and
WhatsApp and attempting to dis-
card the ammunition in a ravine.
He is charged with dereliction
in performing his duties, ob-
structing justice and violations of
the UCMJ.
Recon Marinecharged intheft of ammo The Orange County (Calif.) Register
PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
Defense Department students
in Bahrain will begin remote
learning starting Monday amid a
sharp rise in new coronavirus
cases in the small island kingdom,
school officials said.
The decision to close the class-
rooms came after the Navy base in
Bahrain announced it would shift
to the second-highest health pro-
tection condition risk level, school
officials said in a letter to parents
and staff members Thursday.
HPCON Charlie indicates “sus-
tained community transmission,”
according to the Pentagon.
Bahrain, home to U.S. Naval
Forces Central Command and 5th
Fleet headquarters, had a seven-
day average incidence rate of 170
new cases per 100,000 people as of
Wednesday, according to figures
from The New York Times. On
Wednesday, 2,791 new cases were
reported, along with an ongoing
average of 15.6 deaths per day.
About 45% of the island’s 1.75
million people are fully vaccinat-
ed, The New York Times data
shows.
Bahrain announced new mea-
sures Wednesday to tackle the re-
cent spike in cases. They include
closures of malls and commercial
shops, restaurants and cafes — ex-
cept for delivery and takeout ser-
vices — as well as barbershops
and hair salons, gyms, pools and
beaches.
The country also barred social
gatherings in homes and suspend-
ed in-person learning at schools.
The measures will remain in ef-
fect until at least June 10.
No decision has been made on
how long Defense Department
classes in Bahrain will remain in
remote learning, said Stephen
Smith, a Department of Defense
Education Activity-Europe
spokesman.
“We will continue to work with
military and public health officials
to monitor the situation and will
provide updates as necessary,”
the letter said.
The last day of school for DO-
DEA students in Bahrain is June
10.
Bahrain schoolshifts to remotelearning Monday
BY JENNIFER H. SVAN
Stars and Stripes
svan.jennifer@stripes.comTwitter: @stripesktown
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany
— The city of Kaiserslautern an-
nounced it will end its curfew Sun-
day, and the surrounding district
will likely allow indoor dining soon
as coronavirus restrictions ease in
an area where tens of thousands of
U.S. military personnel reside.
The city also will allow retail
shops to open to customers without
appointments or proof of a nega-
tive coronavirus test, officials said
in a statement Thursday.
The 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. city curfew
ends Saturday at midnight, the
statement said.
Contact restrictions will also be
eased, with five people from two
households allowed to gather in
public spaces, the city said. Chil-
dren 14 and under and people who
are fully vaccinated or recently re-
covered from the coronavirus do
not count toward the allowable to-
tal for gatherings.
The city on Thursday registered
a seven-day average incidence
rate of 56 new cases per 100,000
people and dropped below 100 for
five consecutive days, which al-
lowed them to lift the federal
“emergency brake” restrictions.
Outdoor dining is authorized un-
til 10 p.m. but guests must either
show proof of vaccination or pre-
sent evidence of a negative corona-
virus test taken within 24 hours.
Reservations must be made in ad-
vance and contact details must be
provided.
The district of Kaiserslautern,
which includes Ramstein Air
Base, had an average incidence
rate of 35.5 new cases per 100,000
people, including U.S. forces, fig-
ures posted by district councillor
Ralf Lessmeister showed Wednes-
day. Without U.S. forces, the num-
ber was still under 50, at 41.5 cases
per 100,000 residents.
Lessmeister said that Rhein-
land-Pfalz Health Minister Clem-
ens Hoch informed him this week
that U.S. forces would be fully in-
cluded in the district’s figures. It
was unclear Thursday how the
federal government would re-
spond to the more complete fig-
ures.
If the district incidence rate re-
mains under 50 per 100,000 people
on Thursday and Friday, Less-
meister said indoor dining and cul-
tural events will be allowed, with
evidence of a negative coronavirus
test, starting Sunday.
From June 2, indoor group
sports with five people maintain-
ing social distancing and outdoor
group sports with a maximum of
20 adults would be allowed again,
Lessmeister said in a Facebook
post.
Kaiserslautern officials had
been seeking a court order that
would allow them to include U.S.
personnel. Since the pandemic be-
gan, only positive tests from U.S.
forces have been included in the
federal government’s calculations
for local incidence rates.
Including U.S. personnel and
NATO members who live in the re-
gion would increase the population
by about 50,000, Lessmeister has
said.
U.S. personnel have very low
positive rates, with all adults and
most dependents aged 12-17 hav-
ing access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Most Germans are still waiting for
vaccine eligibility.
Elsewhere in Germany, Stutt-
gart on Thursday also lifted some
of its coronavirus restrictions after
its incidence rate dropped below
100 new cases per 100,000 people
for five days in a row. About 28,000
people are affiliated with the U.S.
Army garrison in the city and sur-
rounding areas.
KARIN ZEITVOGEL/Stars and Stripes
The exterior of Cafe Susann in Kaiserslautern as shown in April.
Kaiserslautern indoor dining likelyamid other eased restrictions soon
BY MARCUS KLOECKNER
AND JENNIFER H. SVAN
Stars and Stripes
kloeckner.marcus@stripes.comsvan.jennifer@stripes.comTwitter: @stripesktown
VIRUS OUTBREAK
COLUMBUS — The first winner
of Ohio’s first $1 million Vax-a-Mil-
lion vaccination incentive prize was
driving to her family’s home in sub-
urban Cleveland when she received
a call about the good news — from
Gov. Mike DeWine.
A few minutes later Abbigail Bu-
genske was in her parents’ house
screaming so loudly they thought
she was crying.
“A whirlwind,” Bugenske, 22,
said Thursday during a news con-
ference. “It absolutely has not proc-
essed yet. I’m still digesting it — it
feels like it’s happening to a differ-
ent person. I cannot believe it.”
Bugenske is a mechanical engi-
neer working for GE Aviation in
suburban Cincinnati. She’s a 2020
graduate of Michigan State Univer-
sity. She said she plans to donate to
charities and buy a car, but then in-
vest most of it.
The winner of a full college schol-
arship was eighth grader Joseph
Costello of Englewood near Dayton.
“Very excited,” Costello said as he
sat between his parents, Colleen and
Rich, during the virtual news con-
ference.
Colleen Costello said she got the
call from the governor as she left
work Wednesday.
“I was really thankful at that mo-
ment that there was a bench nearby,
so I could sit down,” she said.
DeWine visited with the Costello
family in person along with his wife,
Fran DeWine, on Wednesday after
the announcement. He said he
didn’t know the names of the win-
ners until shortly before he made
the calls.
“Calling someone and telling
them they’ve won a million dollars is
agreat thing, and calling a family to
tell them they’ve won a full scholar-
ship is also fun,” the governor said.
More than 2.7 million adults
signed up for the $1 million prize and
more than 104,000 children ages 12
to 17 entered the drawing for the col-
lege scholarship, which includes
tuition, room and board, and books.
Four more $1 million and college
scholarship winners will be an-
nounced each Wednesday for the
next four weeks.
‘A whirlwind’: Ohio vaccinelottery winners speak out
Associated Press
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9
NATION
WASHINGTON — Republican
senators outlined a $928 billion in-
frastructure proposal Thursday
that would tap unused coronavirus
aid, a counteroffer to President Joe
Biden’s more sweeping plan as the
two sides struggle to negotiate a bi-
partisan compromise and remain
far apart on how to pay for the mas-
sive spending.
The Republican offer would in-
crease spending by $91 billion on
roads and bridges, $48 billion on
water resources and $25 billion on
airports, according to a one-page
summary released by the GOP ne-
gotiators. It also would provide for
one-time increases in broadband
investments, at $65 billion, and $22
billion on rail.
Republicans have rejected Bi-
den’s proposed corporate tax in-
crease to pay for new investments,
and instead want to shift unspent
COVID-19 relief dollars to help
cover the costs.
“It’s a serious effort to try to re-
ach a bipartisan agreement,” said
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, of West
Virginia, the lead GOP negotiator.
The Republican senators said
their offer delivers on “core infras-
tructure investments” that Biden
has focused on as areas of potential
bipartisan agreement. But their
overall approach received a cool
response by Democrats and the
White House.
With about $250 billion in new
spending, their plan falls short of
the more ambitious proposal out-
lined in the president’s American
Jobs Plan. In earlier negotiations.
Biden reduced his $2.3 trillion
opening bid to $1.7 trillion.
Biden, in an economic address
later Thursday in Cleveland,
planned to present “head-on” the
choice before Congress and the
country, according to a White
House official, and will frame the
argument as whether Americans
want to keep giving breaks to cor-
porations or invest in modernizing
infrastructure. The official was not
authorized to publicly discuss Bi-
den’s remarks before the presi-
dent’s speech and spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity.
Investing in infrastructure is a
top legislative priority for Biden.
Talks are at a crossroads before a
Memorial Day deadline to make
progress toward a bipartisan deal.
The White House is assessing
whether the president can strike
the contours of an agreement with
Republicans or whether he will try
to go it alone with Democrats if no
progress is made in the coming
days.
Core differences remain over
the definition of infrastructure:
Republicans stick to traditional in-
vestments in roads, bridges, ports
and water drinking systems, while
Biden takes a more expansive
view.
Under Biden’s initial proposal,
there is more than $300 billion for
substantial upgrades to public
schools, Department of Veterans
Affairs hospitals and affordable
housing.
Biden’s proposal would spend
heavily on efforts to confront cli-
mate change, with $174 billion to
develop electric vehicle charging
stations and $50 billion so commu-
nities can better deal with floods,
hurricanes, wildfires and other
natural disasters.
One area of agreement is on
boosting broadband, but the sides
are apart on details. Republicans
raised their initial offer to $65 bil-
lion in an earlier exchange; Biden
is seeking $100 billion.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.,
said the Republicans’ proposal re-
flects “what people at home in
Wyoming think of is infrastruc-
ture, roads with potholes.”
The White House, still express-
ing public hopes for bipartisan-
ship, welcomed the GOP offer. But
it was greeted with some initial
coolness inside the West Wing.
Aides have for days signaled
that using COVID-19 relief money
was a nonstarter, noting that much
of that money has been allocated
and suggesting that the rest should
be held in reserve for future virus-
related costs.
There was also skepticism about
how the Republicans claimed Bi-
den has signaled agreement to a
$1.2 trillion deal in a recent meet-
ing — a claim the White House dis-
puted.
At $928 billion, the new GOP of-
fer features $257 billion in new
money, more than the $225 billion
the White House had said was in
the initial Republican proposal.
But still far less than the White
House had hoped.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said
there is $700 billion in unspent CO-
VID-19 aid from the American
Rescue Plan, which was the ad-
ministration’s $1.9 trillion re-
sponse to the coronavirus crisis
earlier this year.
Toomey said some of that money
could fill the gap between the
amount of revenue normally col-
lected from transportation taxes
and fees, and the new spending the
GOP senators are proposing.
But he said the Republican ne-
gotiators have made it “very, very
clear on every single time we’ve
had a discussion is that we’re not
raising taxes.”
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, RW.Va., the GOP’s lead negotiator on a counteroffer to President Joe Biden’sinfrastructure plan, confers with Sen. Roger Wicker, RMiss., at a Senate Environment and Public WorksCommittee markup at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.
GOP offers $928B on infrastructurecounter, funded with COVID-19 aid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Senate Re-
publicans are ready to deploy the
filibuster to block a commission
on the Jan. 6 insurrection, shatter-
ing hopes for a bipartisan probe of
the deadly assault on the U.S. Cap-
itol and reviving pressure on
Democrats to do away with the
procedural tactic that critics say
has lost its purpose.
The vote Thursday would be the
first successful use of a filibuster
this year to halt Senate legislative
action. Most Republicans oppose
the bill, which would establish a
commission to investigate the at-
tack by Donald Trump supporters
over the election.
“We have a mob overtake the
Capitol, and we can’t get the Re-
publicans to join us in making his-
toric record of that event? That is
sad,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, of Il-
linois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat.
“That tells you what’s wrong with
the Senate and what’s wrong with
the filibuster.”
The filibuster is a time-honored
Senate tradition that requires a
vote by 60 of the 100 senators to
cut off debate and advance a bill.
With the Senate evenly split 50-50,
Democrats would need support of
10 Republicans to move to the
commission bill.
The House already approved
the measure with some Republi-
can support, but the Senate fil-
ibuster is sparking fresh debate
over whether the time has come
for Democrats to change the rules
and lower the threshold to 51 votes
to take up legislation.
Trump has made it clear he op-
poses the formation of any panel
to investigate the Jan. 6 mob
siege, when his supporters
mounted an assault in a failed ef-
fort to overturn Joe Biden’s elec-
tion.
Democrats are warning that if
Republicans are willing to use the
filibuster to stop an arguably pop-
ular measure, it shows the limits
of trying to broker compromises,
particularly on bills related to
election reforms or other aspects
of the Democrats’ agenda.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, the
mother of the late Capitol Police
Officer Brian Sicknick was meet-
ing with at least six Republican
senators to try to persuade them
to act. Sicknick was among many
officers protecting the building,
some seen in videos in hand-to-
hand combat with the mob. He
collapsed immediately after en-
gaging with the rioters and died
the next day.
Video shows two men spraying
Sicknick and another officer with
a chemical, but the Washington
medical examiner said he suf-
fered a stroke and died from nat-
ural causes.
Outside of a meeting with Utah
Sen. Mitt Romney, one of two sen-
ators who has signaled support for
the House bill, Sicknick’s mother
said that he was “doing his job and
he got caught up in it, and it’s very
sad.”
In a statement Wednesday, she
was more blunt: “I suggest that all
Congressmen and Senators who
are against this bill visit my son’s
grave in Arlington National Cem-
etery and, while there, think about
what their hurtful decisions will
do to those officers who will be
there for them going forward.”
So far, only Romney and Alaska
Sen. Lisa Murkowski have said
they expect to back the House-
passed bill. Others, including
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, have
proposed tweaks to the legislation
to try to attract more votes. But
the effort had so far failed to yield
additional support.
“What we want is closure,”
Murkowski said Wednesday.
Collins has said she is working
with other senators to try to find a
compromise.
“I want to see a commission,”
Collins said Wednesday. “I am
working very hard to secure Re-
publican votes.”
Collins’ amendment seeks to
remedy some of the chief Repub-
lican complaints about the pro-
posed commission. It would re-
quire the Democratic-appointed
chair and the Republican vice
chair of the panel to “jointly ap-
point” staff, changing House lan-
guage that only required the chair
to consult with the vice chair. It
would also terminate the commis-
sion 30 days after a final report is
issued, instead of 60 days, an ef-
fort to avoid their work spilling in-
to the election year.
Both the House version and
Collins’ amendment would re-
quire the final report to be issued
by Dec. 31, 2021.
Still, most Republicans have
held fast to their opposition. North
Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he
was still “unlikely” to support the
the bill. He said he believes the
year-end deadline is unrealistic.
Republicans have also pointed
to a bipartisan Senate report that
is expected to be released next
month, saying it will be sufficient
to fix security problems in the
Capitol.
GOP set to blockJan. 6 commissionin filibuster fight
Associated Press
PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
NATION
SAN JOSE, Calif. — An employee
who gunned down nine people at a
California rail yard and then killed
himself as law enforcement rushed
in had talked about killing people at
work more than a decade ago, his
ex-wife said.
“I never believed him, and it nev-
er happened. Until now,” a tearful
Cecilia Nelms told The Associated
Press on Wednesday following the
6:30 a.m. attack at a light rail facility
for the Valley Transportation Au-
thority.
“When our deputies went
through the door, initially he was
still firing rounds. When our deputy
saw him, he took his life,” Santa Cla-
ra County Sheriff Laurie Smith told
reporters.
The number of people fatally shot
by the gunman rose from eight after
the Santa Clara County’s medical
examiner-coroner Wednesday
night confirmed the death of Alex
Ward Fritch, 49, to multiple Bay Ar-
ea media outlets. He had been
wounded and hospitalized in critical
condition after the attack.
The sheriff’s office is next door to
the rail yard, which serves the coun-
ty of more than 1 million people in
the heart of the Silicon Valley.
The attacker was identified as Sa-
muel Cassidy, 57, according to two
law enforcement officials. Investi-
gators offered no immediate word
on a possible motive but his ex-wife
said he used to come home from
work resentful and angry over what
he perceived as unfair assignments.
“He could dwell on things,” she
said. The two were married for
about 10 years until a 2005 divorce
filing and she hadn’t been in touch
with Cassidy for about 13 years,
Nelms said.
It was the 15th mass killing in the
nation this year, all of them shoot-
ings that have claimed at least four
lives each for a total of 86 deaths, ac-
cording to a database compiled by
The Associated Press, USA Today
and Northeastern University.
At the White House, President
Joe Biden ordered flags to be flown
at half-staff and urged Congress to
act on legislation to curb gun vio-
lence.
“Every life that is taken by a bul-
let pierces the soul of our nation. We
can, and we must, do more,” Biden
said in a statement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the
site and spoke emotionally about the
country’s latest mass killing.
“There’s a numbness some of us
are feeling about this. There’s a
sameness to this,” he said. “It begs
the damn question of what the hell is
going on in the United States of
America?”
The shooting took place in two
buildings and killed employees who
had been bus and light rail oper-
ators, mechanics, linemen and an
assistant superintendent over the
course of their careers. One had
worked for the agency since 1999.
Eight victims identified earlier
were Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Tap-
tejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza,
29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez, 35;
Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Mi-
chael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Ab-
dolvahab Alaghmandan, 63; and
Lars Kepler Lane, 63.
The shooter had more than one
gun, county District Attorney Jeff
Rosen said.
Killer of 9 in Calif. had talked of attacksAssociated Press
RANDY VAZQUEZ/AP
Two people hug to comfort one another outside the scene of a shooting in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — The federal
government will issue cybersecur-
ity regulations in the coming days
for U.S. pipeline operators follow-
ing a ransomware attack that led to
fuel shortages across much of the
Eastern Seaboard.
The Transportation Security Ad-
ministration, which oversees the
nation’s network of pipelines, is ex-
pected to issue a security directive
this week that will address some of
the issues raised by the Colonial
Pipeline shutdown, a U.S. official
said Tuesday.
The directive will include a re-
quirement that pipeline companies
report cyber incidents to the federal
government, said the official,
speaking on condition of anonymity
because the proposal has not yet
been publicly released.
It addresses, to an extent, the ran-
somware attack that led to the shut-
down of the pipeline this month, but
it also reflects a broader Biden ad-
ministration focus on cybersecurity
after a series of damaging intru-
sions by overseas hackers.
The Department of Homeland
Security declined to confirm any
specifics of the pending directive,
issuing a statement that said TSA
and another component of the agen-
cy, the Cybersecurity and Infras-
tructure Agency, are working with
private companies to address cyber
threats. “The Biden Administration
is taking further action to better se-
cure our nation’s critical infrastruc-
ture,” it said.
The directive, first reported by
The Washington Post, is expected to
prompt concern, if not outright op-
position, from private operators wa-
ry of increased government regula-
tion.
The American Petroleum Insti-
tute, which represents the oil and
gas industry, said in a statement
that its members are working with
the administration to develop re-
porting policies and that any new
regulations should include “reci-
procal information sharing and lia-
bility protections.”
Mark Montgomery, a senior fel-
low at the Foundation for the De-
fense of Democracies and former
executive director of the congres-
sionally mandated Cyberspace So-
larium Commission, said federal of-
ficials have told him the pipeline or-
der will have two stages.
The first will immediately man-
date that any cybersecurity inci-
dents are reported to the federal
government, while the second,
coming later, would require that
pipeline companies complete a self-
assessment of their cybersecurity
systems for known vulnerabilities.
“It’s a good step,” Montgomery
said. “But we need this applied
more broadly so that all our national
critical infrastructure is at a higher
level.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro May-
orkas, speaking earlier at a news
conference about the recovery in
domestic air travel as the pandemic
eases in the U.S., did not mention
the security directive but said his
agency was working with the pri-
vate sector to improve “cyber hy-
giene” to prevent attacks and en-
sure that businesses can more eas-
ily withstand them if their defenses
fail.
Hack prompts new security regulations for US pipelines Associated Press
The U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops plans to devote part of its
national meeting next month to the
sensitive issue of which Catholics
are worthy of receiving Communi-
on, despite calls for a delay.
Dozens of bishops had requested
the USCCB president, Los Angeles
Archbishop José Gomez, postpone
the debate until a later meeting,
when they could meet in person
rather than virtually. But prompt
action is being sought by some con-
servative bishops who want to sig-
nal that President Joe Biden and
other Catholic politicians who sup-
port abortion rights should not re-
ceive Communion.
The conservatives are now heart-
ened, as Gomez confirmed in a me-
mo Saturday that the topic is on the
agenda of the June meeting. A vote
is scheduled on whether the confer-
ence’s Committee on Doctrine
should draft a document address-
ing the Communion issue and pre-
sent it at a later date.
An explanation of the agenda
item makes clear that one of the
subtopics will be the receiving of
Communion by cultural and politi-
cal leaders.
Denver Archbishop Samuel
Aquila, one of the conservatives en-
gaged in the discussions, issued a
statement Tuesday praising Gomez
and saying he “followed the correct
procedures to facilitate this critical
discussion as a body of bishops.”
Aquila referred to a May 7 letter
to Gomez from the head of the Vat-
ican’s doctrine office, Cardinal Luis
Ladaria, urging the U.S. bishops to
deliberate carefully and minimize
divisions before proceeding with
any action on the Communion issue.
“It was clear from it that the
USCCB’s plan to discuss and debate
this important issue is warranted
and encouraged,” Aquila said. “In
contrast, the publication of the let-
ter calling for a halt to discussion at
our June meeting on this vital issue
risks creating an atmosphere of fac-
tionalism, rather than unity
amongst the bishops.”
The bishops who requested a de-
lay did not release their letter publi-
cly or issue statements about it. Ac-
cording to The Pillar, an online
news outlet covering the Catholic
Church, the signatories included
Cardinals Blase Cupich, of Chicago,
and Wilton Gregory, of Washing-
ton, the latter of whom has made
clear that Biden is welcome to re-
ceive Communion at his archdio-
cese’s churches.
But in a recent essay, Bishop
Robert McElroy, of San Diego,
made a case against the campaign
to deny Biden and others Commu-
nion.
“It will bring tremendously de-
structive consequences,” McElroy
wrote. “The Eucharist is being
weaponized and deployed as a tool
in political warfare. This must not
happen.”
Divided US Catholic bishops planning to debate Communion policyAssociated Press
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11
WASHINGTON — The White
House is set to propose on Friday a
$6 trillion budget plan as Presi-
dent Joe Biden seeks major
changes to the U.S. economy and
welfare system, according to two
people briefed on the proposal.
The people spoke on the condition
of anonymity to discuss a matter
not yet made public.
The budget is expected to con-
tain no new major policies from
the White House and instead re-
flects the plans it has already in-
troduced, including a $2.3 trillion
infrastructure proposal, $1.8 tril-
lion education and families plan,
and $1.5 trillion in proposed dis-
cretionary spending. It projects
budget deficits above $1 trillion
for the rest of the decade, the two
people said, as Washington’s
spending imbalance remains at
elevated levels. Even without new
additional spending proposals, the
annual federal budget is projected
to include $5.8 trillion in spending
in fiscal year 2021.
The budget comes amid nego-
tiations between congressional
Republicans and the White House
over an infrastructure bill, as Sen-
ate Republicans on Thursday
morning introduced their latest
counteroffer to the administra-
tion. That effort could come close
to $1 trillion, but the budget under-
scores the scale of the administra-
tion’s spending ambitions relative
to congressional Republicans.
The overall spending and deficit
figures were first reported by The
New York Times. The Washington
Post reported last week that the
budget would mirror what has al-
ready been reported, jettisoning
key campaign promises on health
care such as the public option and
prescription drug reform.
White House is set to propose $6T budget planThe Washington Post
NATION/WORLD
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
— A Saudi-led coalition fighting
in Yemen on Thursday acknowl-
edged having equipment on an
island in the Bab el-Mandeb
Strait where a mysterious air
base is now under construction.
However, the coalition’s state-
ment on the state-run Saudi
Press Agency did not name who
was building the facility across
the volcanic island of Mayun, the
subject of recent reporting by
The Associated Press.
The statement said the equip-
ment, which it did not identify,
helps the coalition back Yemen’s
internationally recognized gov-
ernment against the Iranian-
backed Houthi rebels who now
hold the country’s capital, Sanaa.
The statement said the United
Arab Emirates, which remains a
coalition member after largely
withdrawing from the war in
2019, was “providing air support
in defense” of the Yemeni city of
Marib, the target of an ongoing
Houthi offensive. The statement
called any claim of Emirati
troops on Mayun “baseless and
unfounded.”
The AP reporting, based in
part on satellite photos of the is-
land, showed the construction of
a 6,070-foot runway on the is-
land. Shipping data links the
Emirates to an earlier, aban-
doned effort to build a runway
there.
Military officials with Ye-
men’s internationally recognized
government told the AP that
Emirati ships transported mili-
tary weapons, equipment and
troops to Mayun Island in recent
weeks for this latest construc-
tion. The AP reports did not men-
tion any Emirati troop presence
on the island.
The Saudi statement comes af-
ter rising anger from Yemeni of-
ficials over the air base being
built on Mayun. The UAE has not
responded to repeated requests
for comment.
Saudis say coalition kit is on Yemeni islandAssociated Press
PLANET LABS INC./AP
This satellite image released Tuesday shows a mysterious air basebeing built on Yemen’s volcanic Mayun Island.
PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13
AMERICAN ROUNDUP
Man dies after crashinvolving leaf blower
MO AVALON — A north-
west Missouri man
died after a collision occurred while
a woman was blowing grass off a
highway with a leaf blower, the Mis-
souri State Highway Patrol said.
The patrol said Charles Plum-
mer, 75, of Hale, was on a stopped
utility vehicle Sunday night on
Route JJ about 1.5 miles north of
Avalon. Susan Bachman, 63, of
Chillicothe, was standing in front of
Plummer’s UTV blowing grass off
the highway. A pickup truck driven
by Steven Wilson, 33, of Chillicothe,
hit Plummer from behind, forcing
the UTV into Bachman, the patrol
said.
Plummer was flown to a hospital
in Liberty, where he died of his in-
juries. Bachman was hospitalized
with serious injuries. Wilson was
not injured.
School yearbook invitedstudents to mock peers
MS KILN — Parents in a
Mississippi Gulf Coast
community are outraged after they
say a middle school yearbook was
turned into a “burn book” where
students were invited to mock and
criticize their classmates.
The Sun Herald reportedthat the
yearbook for Hancock Middle
School’s 1,100 students contained
prompts like, “Which friend would
you not invite on spring break?” and
“I would like to spike a volleyball
at...” Middle schoolers answered
with statements like, “(Name) be-
cause he walks weird” and “(Name)
would not be welcome to come with
me on a trip because she isn’t fun to
be around.”
Parents and alumni criticized the
school on Facebook for turning the
yearbook into a “burn book.”
In response, district officials said
in a statement that they’ve taken
measures to ensure “this never hap-
pens again,” but did not provide de-
tails.
Cargo handlers chargedwith stealing gold bars
CA LOS ANGELES — Two
cargo handlers were
charged with stealing gold bars
from a shipment at Los Angeles In-
ternational Airport.
Marlon Moody, 38, and Brian
Benson, 35, both of Los Angeles,
were arrested by FBI agents and
have been charged with conspiracy
and theft of interstate and foreign
shipment, according to a statement
from the U.S. attorney’s office.
A federal grand jury indictment
alleges the men worked for a con-
tractor providing ground handling
services at the airport in April 2020
when they stole four gold bars from
a shipment of 2,000 bars that was
being sent from Australia to New
York by a Canadian bank. Each bar
weighed 2.2 pounds and was worth
about $56,000, prosecutors said.
The bars were offloaded during a
stopover at the airport but an eve-
ning inventory found that one box
containing 25 bars was missing, au-
thorities said. Moody found the mis-
sing box near a cargo warehouse the
next day, drove it to a nearby loca-
tion and removed four bars, prose-
cutors said.
Moody gave Benson one bar, an-
other to a relative and buried the
other two in his backyard, but the
FBI recovered all of them about two
weeks later, prosecutors said.
Man dies making IEDthat he planned to sell
OH JEFFERSON — An
Ohio man died when an
improvised explosive device he was
making in his garage blew up, au-
thorities said
According to the Ashtabula
County Sheriff’s Office, deputies ar-
rived on the scene in Jefferson to
find the detached garage burned to
the ground and debris scattered in a
neighbor’s yard. A neighbor told
deputies the man “was making the
explosives in his garage to sell so he
could pay off a lawnmower he re-
cently purchased,” the sheriff’s of-
fice said.
The 55-year-old was taken to a
hospital, where he later died. His
name has not been released.
College student wins $65K literary prize
MD CHESTERTOWN —
A student from Dela-
ware has won the nation’s largest
undergraduate literary prize.
Washington College announced
that Justin Nash, 22, of Smyrna, won
the Sophie Kerr Prize, which is
worth $65,580 this year. The prize
named for an Eastern Shore writer
is awarded each year to the graduat-
ing senior demonstrating the best
potential for future achievement in
a literary endeavor, school officials
said.
Nash, an English major with
three minors, has served as editor-
in-chief of campus literary maga-
zines and journals. He hopes to be-
come an editor with a nonprofit
publishing press one day.
The Wilmington News Journal
reportedthat Nash, who grew up on
a farm in Smyrna, focuses on sub-
jects like rural life, death and desire.
“I do owe that to how I was raised
and where I was raised,” Nash said.
Wreckage of sunkenfishing vessel found
ME PORTLAND — The
wreckage of a Maine
fishing vessel that sank last year has
been located off Massachusetts.
The sinking of the Emmy Rose
killed four fishermen last Novem-
ber about 22 miles northeast of
Provincetown. Klein Marine Sys-
tems, a New Hampshire company,
announced the discovery of the ves-
sel on Monday, the Portland Press
Herald reported. Klein Marine had
been working with the Coast Guard
and federal authorities to locate the
wreck. An investigation into the
sinking is ongoing.
The sinking led to the deaths of
captain Robert Blethen Jr. of Geor-
getown, Maine, and crew members
Jeffrey Matthews of Portland,
Maine; Ethan Ward of Pownal,
Maine; and Michael Porper of
Gloucester, Mass.
Lawsuit: Pizza chainunderpaid delivery drivers
WA SEATTLE — A pro-
posed class-action law-
suit claims popular Western Wash-
ington chain restaurant Zeeks Pizza
withheld wages, tips and other mon-
ey owed to delivery drivers.
Seattle attorney Toby Marshall
filed the suit on behalf of Zeeks driv-
er Chance White in King County Su-
perior Court, The Seattle Times
reported.
According to the suit, Zeeks and
two franchisees “engaged in a sys-
tematic scheme of wage and hour
abuses against its pizza drivers.”
Among the claims is that Zeeks
failed to pay drivers for all hours
worked; failed to pay drivers an au-
tomatic delivery charge assessed on
customers; and failed to pay drivers
all their tips and gratuities and re-
imburse them for mileage.
Man tries to smuggleammunition, gets prison
AZ TUCSON — A man has
been sentenced to nearly
four years in federal prison for at-
tempting to smuggle ammunition
from the United States into Mexico,
according to federal prosecutors in
Tucson.
They said Jorge Armando Lopez-
Espinoza, 42, a Mexican national,
received a 46-month prison term.
Prosecutors said that in May
2020, Lopez-Espinoza conspired
with others to smuggle 8,000 rounds
of ammunition in his tractor trailer
from Nogales, Ariz., to Mexico. Law
enforcement agents intercepted the
shipments of ammunition before
Lopez-Espinoza acquired them. Lo-
pez-Espinoza picked up the boxes
he believed contained the 8,000
rounds, hid them in his tractor trail-
er and attempted to enter Mexico
through the Nogales Port of Entry.
CHARLIE RIEDEL/AP
A man is silhouetted by the setting sun as he walks in a park on Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo.
Sundown, you better take care
THE CENSUS
82 The number of vehicles vandalized with orange paint thismonth at Maryland’s Kent Island High School. The Queen
Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media postthat the school’s re-source officer was called to the student parking lot on May 20 and saw multiplevandalized vehicles. Officials determined that 82 vehicles were vandalized.The officer found the juvenile suspect, who admitted to the vandalism, and thesuspect’s father came to the school and took custody, the sheriff’s office said.The suspect was charged with malicious destruction of property scheme anddisruption of school activity, the sheriff’s office said. School administrators alsoissued disciplinary measures against the suspect.
From wire reports
PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
FACES
The figure is far from official, but according to Marta
Kauffman, the co-creator of TV’s enduring global blockbus-
ter “Friends,” she’s been approached 147,000 times — give
or take — about a reboot or revival of the NBC sitcom.
“It started before we went off the air!” Kauffman says
with a laugh. She’s heard all the ideas, old and new. Hey,
what about a show centering on Ben Geller — who would
now be roughly the age his father, Ross, was when the show
started — and his circle of friends?
“Oh, 100 people have mentioned that idea,” she says.
“And I shut that down. My question is: Why? We can’t do bet-
ter than what we did in this arena. So if we’re trying to do
some version of it, it’s already watered down.”
With a little bit of patience and a push by WarnerMedia
executives seeking star power to help with the 2020 launch
of HBO Max — the platform where the long-running sitcom
is available to stream after years of being on Netflix — a
breakthrough came when the show’s producers and six cast
members, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow,
Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer,
agreed to participate in a reunion special.
Even after overcoming the participants’ years of tactfully
dodging questions about a return, it’s been a long road to get
the “Friends” reunion to the screen. The pandemic caused a
year of delays between the original planned shoot and when
production ultimately happened. But over two days in April
on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., the cast of
“Friends” was there for us once more.
In a weird way, “Friends: The Reunion” is a jolting re-
minder of the passage of time. With the show still playing on
aloop thanks to its streaming afterlife, it can feel like no time
has passed at all since the series finale, “The Last One,”
aired in 2004. But it’s been 17 years since Rachel got off the
plane bound for Paris to be with Ross — thanks, in large
part, to Phoebe — and Chandler and Monica welcomed
twins and bid adieu to city life, making sure Joey had a room
in their suburban home.
The two-hour special features new footage with the cast,
including a sit-down interview; segments showing them
marveling at the carefully reconstructed sets on Stage 24,
the same studio where the series originated; and vignettes
of them doing table reads of classic moments from the se-
ries. Mixed in are stories about the making of the series
from the cast and producers, as well as testimonials from
fans — both celebrity and everyday admirers — about their
adoration.
The delay in production proved valuable, according to
Ben Winston, the director and producer of the special: With
the extra time to research, he watched all of the show’s 236
episodes, read two books about “Friends,” and spent time
getting to know the cast better over Zoom.
Winston, who also serves as showrunner of “The Late
Late Show with James Corden,” said the concept for the spe-
cial didn’t change much from what was originally planned,
with the exception of the location for the interview portion
moderated by Corden. It was originally going to take place
indoors, with the plan to build out Stage 24 into something
resembling the setup for the “Saturday Night Live 40th An-
niversary Special,” and lean into the glam with audience
members in formal wear. It was Schwimmer who suggested
moving the segment outdoors because of the pandemic.
“I was most worried that somebody would get COVID in
the lead-up to it,” Winston says. “There was no margin for
error; if somehow, at the last minute, somebody tested posi-
tive or whatever, then it’s over. So I was always nervous
about that. And I think just the weight of expectation of this
show. I’d be lying if I didn’t have a bit of butterflies in my
stomach.”
It was crucial, Winston says, that the sets and the stage,
from the dressing room to the audience bleachers, be as
identical to what existed when “Friends” originally filmed
there as possible — a task made somewhat easier with John
Schaffner, the production designer on “Friends,” also work-
ing on the reunion special.
Most of the artifacts were in the archive, with a few excep-
tions. One was the neon light that hung over the audience:
“We found it on all archive photos, but no one could find that
neon light,” Winston says, “so we had to get it remade.” An-
other was the rug in Monica’s apartment, which they also
had to have remade.
“I really was obsessive that when [the cast] walked in on
that set, I wanted them to feel like they’ve literally just got
back in time and have a very weird, emotional out-of-body
experience,” he explains. “And I think that as soon as you
see something in the wrong place, or something’s in the
wrong order, or that was never the right color, that immedi-
ately takes you out.”
Ultimately, what matters most to fans is that this is the one
where the group gets back together. And as a semblance of
normalcy creeps back into our daily lives, there’s something
to the special arriving when it does, according to Kauffman.
“As the world is opening up again, I think it’s a really posi-
tive, celebratory [thing]. People have been waiting for this
for a long time, like they have been waiting for other things
during this year. I’m hoping that what it does is provide
some real joy and laughter, and maybe a tear or two.”
HBO MAX/AP
The cast of “Friends” — Jennifer Aniston, from left, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmerand Matt LeBlanc — return to where it started in a reunion special streaming now on HBO Max.
There for usonce againTeam behind ‘Friends’ sharesreason for long-awaited reunion
BY YVONNE VILLARREAL
Los Angeles Times
Online shopping giant Amazon
is buying MGM, the movie and TV
studio behind James Bond, “Le-
gally Blonde” and “Shark Tank,”
with the hopes of filling its video
streaming service with more stuff
to watch.
Amazon is paying $8.45 billion
for MGM, making it the compa-
ny’s second-largest acquisition af-
ter it bought grocer Whole Foods
for nearly $14 billion in 2017.
The deal is the latest in the
media industry that’s aimed at
boosting streaming services to
compete against Netflix and Dis-
ney+. AT&T and Discovery an-
nounced last week they would
combine media companies, creat-
ing a powerhouse that includes
HGTV, CNN, Food Network and
HBO.
Amazon doesn’t say how many
people watch its Prime Video
streaming service, but more than
200 million people have access to
it because they pay for Prime
membership, which gives them
faster shipping and other perks.
Amazon said it would use
MGM’s vast library, which in-
cludes famous characters such as
Rocky, RoboCop and Pink Pan-
ther, to create new movies and
shows.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun
work,” said Amazon founder Jeff
Bezos, during the company’s sha-
reholder meeting on Wednesday.
Amazon to buy MGMAssociated Press
Isbell, Kiah lead
Americana music awardsSinger-songwriters Jason Isbell
and Amythyst Kiah are both up for
three nominations at this year’s
Americana Honors and Awards
show, which will resume in-per-
son after the pandemic forced the
cancellation of last year’s awards
ceremony.
Nominees were announced on
Wednesday for the Sept. 22 show
in Nashville. Isbell is nominated
for artist of the year, and he and
his band are nominated for album
of the year for his record “Re-
unions” and song of the year for
“Dreamsicle.”
Kiah is nominated for song of
the year for “Black Myself,”
emerging act of the year and for
duo/group of the year for her work
in the group Our Native Daugh-
ters.
Clarkson to take over
DeGeneres’ daytime slot Two weeks after Ellen DeGe-
neres said her talk show would be
ending with its upcoming season,
NBCUniversal announced that
the daytime slot would eventually
be taken over by “The Kelly Clar-
kson Show.”
Clarkson launched her talk
show in September 2019 to suc-
cessful ratings. The show earned
three Daytime Emmys in its first
season, including a hosting award
for Clarkson. Her celebrity inter-
views and heartwarming seg-
ments featuring everyday Ameri-
cans undoubtedly appeal to an au-
dience overlapping with DeGene-
res’s, and will replace “Ellen”
beginning fall 2022.
Other news■ Kevin Clark, who played
drummer Freddy “Spazzy
McGee” Jones in the 2003 movie
“School of Rock” with Jack Black,
was killed when he was struck by a
car while riding his bicycle along a
Chicago street early Wednesday.
Police said Clark, 32, was struck
after running a red light in the
city’s Avondale neighborhood.
Clark was riding east on Logan
Boulevard when he was struck by
a vehicle heading south on West-
ern Avenue, a witness and the
driver both told responding offi-
cers, according to a Chicago Po-
lice Department crash report.
From wire reports
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15
Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher
Lt. Col. Marci Hoffman, Europe commander
Lt. Col. Richard McClintic, Pacific commander
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stripes.com
OPINION
For what seems like forever, Ameri-
ca’s presidents have been ordering
up new U.S. policies designed to fi-
nally fix, or at least make the best of,
the old and perpetual crises in Afghanistan.
And sooner or later, each optimistic U.S.
president has discovered that even the best-
intentioned Afghan fixer-upper ended up
looking like it had been cobbled together by
his departments of Unforeseen Develop-
ments & Unintended Consequences.
Today we’ll start by trying to finally learn
from the entire history of flailed and failed
U.S. initiatives in Afghanistan. In the process,
you will read about one U.S. initiative that may
surprise not just you, but also those who con-
sider themselves experts because they know
about every miscalculation that has been on
the whole sad list, ever since 9/11.
This week, President Joe Biden, who prob-
ably spent more eras grappling with Afghan-
istan than all other modern presidents com-
bined, has been seeing military and diplomat-
ic info that seems to be warning him that, de-
spite all his experience and optimism, he may
be joining that exclusive club of commanders
in chief who produced woebegone Afghanis-
tan outcomes.
On Wednesday, Washington’s policymak-
ers awoke to a warning-siren blaring from the
upper-right corner of The New York Times’
front page. A news article reported that Bi-
den’s administration and NATO intend to
have their troops withdrawn from Afghanis-
tan by early to mid-July; that’s later than for-
mer President Donald Trump’s pledge to
withdraw totally by May 1, but well ahead of
Biden’s pledge to be gone by Sept. 11.
“The Pentagon still has not determined how
it will combat terrorist threats like Al Qaeda
from afar after American troops leave,” The
Times reported. “Nor have top Defense De-
partment officials secured agreement from
allies about repositioning American troops in
other nearby countries. … The rapid with-
drawal has exposed a variety of complex prob-
lems that have yet to be resolved and are pro-
voking intense concern.”
No wonder, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of
Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently issued this chill-
ing non-assurance: “It’s not a foregone conclu-
sion, in my professional military estimate, that
the Taliban automatically win and Kabul
falls.”
We know well what to expect (see also: what
to fear) if the Taliban re-conquer Afghanistan.
When The Washington Post’s Lally Wey-
mouth asked Afghanistan President Ashraf
Ghani about the Taliban’s subjugation of
women, including assassination attempts on
female journalists in Kabul, the Afghan presi-
dent explained how and why the Taliban’s fol-
lowers accept such horrific acts against wom-
en:
“They’ve grown up outside normal families
in madrassas in the absence of women, so
women have been construed as a threat to
them.”
Ghani may not realize it — and indeed Bi-
den and his best and brightest may not either
— but there’s an unbelievably wacky, yet en-
tirely true, backstory behind just how the
United States played a once-secret role in the
molding of the young men in Afghanistan’s
madrassas, those rigidly Islamic schools. It
happened two decades before America pow-
erfully invaded the Taliban-run Afghanistan
from which al-Qaida planned its terror attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001.
President Ronald Reagan’s administration
developed a plan to stealthily promote free-
dom-fighter militarism among Afghanistan’s
Islamic youths, hoping they would someday
rise up and run the godless Soviet communist
troops out of their country. So the Reagan ad-
ministration planned to flood rural Afghanis-
tan’s madrassas with millions of schoolbooks
preaching and teaching Islamic militancy.
The U.S. Agency for International Develop-
ment gave $51 million in grants to the Univer-
sity of Nebraska Omaha’s Center for Afghan
Studies. Soon young Islamic boys were learn-
ing math by counting pictures of soldiers,
tanks, guns and land mines.
And lo, the Soviets wound up wasting a vast
fortune in a failed war to control Afghanistan.
President Bill Clinton’s administration can-
celed the program in 1994. And we didn’t even
find out about it until The Washington Post
wrote about it in 2002. (Even then, the free-
dom-fighter image molding master plan
wasn’t really made clear until it was detailed
in a book on terrorism and weapons of mass
destruction — “Avoiding Armageddon: Our
Future. Our Choice” — that I wrote in 2003.)
Those militant young Afghan boys in the
mid-1980s were men in their 20s and 30s when
the Taliban were ruling Afghanistan and giv-
ing Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida the sanctuary
from which they attacked America’s home-
land, half a world away.
Time out! Biden would be wise to slow his
rushed withdrawal, which is now just a slight-
ly recalibrated version of Trump’s withdraw-
al from this 20-year war, America’s longest-
ever conflict. Biden will regret it forever if the
Taliban take control and subjugate women
once again — and if the Taliban give terrorists
sanctuary once again. If both of those foreseen
but unintended outcomes happen, history will
judge him harshly. And accurately.
The odd evolution of US policy on AfghanistanBY MARTIN SCHRAM
Tribune News Service
Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, isa veteran journalist, author and TV documentary executive.
With a government report due in
June on unidentified aerial
phenomena (UAP) and a re-
cent “60 Minutes” story on U.S.
Navy pilots’ sightings and videos of myste-
rious images, prominent people in politics, the
military and national intelligence are finally
asking: What are we looking at?
It’s the wrong question — or, at least, it’s pre-
mature.
Before we get to what these mysterious phe-
nomena are, we need to be asking how we can
figure out what they are. This is where scien-
tists, notably absent from the current UAP
conversation, come in.
For too long, the scientific study of unidenti-
fied flying objects and aerial phenomena —
UFOs and UAPs, in the shorthand — has been
taboo. A big driver of that taboo is the vacuum
of knowledge that is being filled by unscientif-
ic claims thanks to a lack of scientific investi-
gation.
In recent decades, science has focused on
aspects of extraterrestrial inquiry, including
the search for signs of life on other planets —
think the Mars rover — and techno-signatures
— radio signals that appear to emanate from
outside Earth. The research has been com-
plex, evidence-based and demanding, pulling
in scientists from across disciplines and all
around the globe. The same should be true for
the exploration of UAP sightings. If we want to
understand what UAP are, then we need to en-
gage the mainstream scientific community in
aconcerted effort to study them.
Decades ago, the notion of serious research
on UFOs wasn’t out of the question.
In the late 1960s, a U.S. Air Force-led effort
called Project Blue Book examined thousands
of UFO reports from the 1950s and 1960s. In
1968, however, another report, commissioned
by the Air Force and conducted at the Univer-
sity of Colorado to examine UFO research to
that point, stated that “nothing has come from
the study of UFOs … that has added to scien-
tific knowledge.” Soon after, the Air Force
shuttered Project Blue Book. About 700 of the
more than 12,000 cases remained “unidenti-
fied” at the close of the project.
Despite this, distinguished scientists in-
cluding astronomer Carl Sagan, physicist
James E. McDonald and astronomer J. Allen
Hynek thought UAP should be investigated
scientifically. McDonald, a professor of mete-
orology and member of the National Academy
of Sciences, conducted a rigorous analysis of a
few UAP cases that Project Blue Book high-
lighted as unexplainable.
McDonald documented his methods — ex-
tensive interviews with witnesses, detailed ac-
counting of their observations, examination of
radar and other technology possibly implicat-
ed in the sightings — in “Science in Default,”
which he presented in a 1969 American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science sym-
posium. He relied on evidence-based investi-
gation and consideration of all the available
data (rather than cherry-picking one instance
of an event). He argued that much of the 1968
report was biased and shallow.
“Doesn’t a UFO case … warrant more than a
mere shrug of the shoulders from science?” he
wrote.
We need to frame the current UAP/UFO
question with the same level of active inquiry,
one involving experts from academia in disci-
plines including astronomy, meteorology and
physics, as well as industry and government
professionals with knowledge of military air-
craft, remote sensing from the ground and sat-
ellite observations. Participants would need to
be agnostic toward any specific explanations
with a primary goal of collecting enough data
— including visual, infrared, radar and other
possible observations — to eventually allow us
to deduce the identity of such UAP. Following
this agnostic approach, and relying upon
sound scientific and peer-reviewed methods,
would go a long way toward lifting the taboo in
mainstream science.
Without robust, credible data mined by
mainstream scientists, UAP studies will al-
ways be viewed as fringe science. With a sys-
tematic collection of new data, and access to all
existing data, we can apply scientific rigor to
what has been observed and documented.
Ultimately, understanding UAP is a science
problem. We should treat it that way.
Must put science at the center of the UFO questionBY RAVI KOPPARAPU
AND JACOB HAQQ-MISRA
Special to The Washington Post
Ravi Kopparapu is a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center. Jacob Haqq-Misra is a research scientist at theBlue Marble Space Institute of Science.
PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
ACROSS 1 Protrude
4 Pop
7 Wizardry
12 Granada gold
13 Sch. URL ender
14 “If — Would
Leave You”
15 White wine
cocktail
16 Beverage with
tapioca pearls
18 Consume
19 Closes noisily
20 Molt
22 Uncle (Sp.)
23 Envelope part
27 Drs. that deliver
29 Percentage
posted by
a bank
31 College study
34 Octet count
35 Parka
37 “— who?”
38 Feedbag fill
39 Hooting bird
41 Gusto
45 Lieu
47 Tic-tac-toe loser
48 Ephemeral
jacuzzi sight
52 7, on old phones
53 Senior member
54 A billion years
55 Summer in Paris
56 Sly one
57 Apt. divisions
58 Vegas lead-in
DOWN 1 Comic’s
repertoire
2 Dickens’ Heep
3 Rich cake
4 Society newbies
5 Chaperones,
usually
6 Persian Gulf
emirate
7 “Alice” diner
8 “Hail, Caesar!”
9 Retrieve
10 Hot temper
11 Espionage org.
17 College VIP
21 Entrances
23 Hair conditioner
target
24 Trail the pack
25 Sports fig.
26 Favorite
28 Bikini top
30 Scottish river
31 Chairman
of China
32 Political
strategist
Navarro
33 Scribble (down)
36 “Today” anchor
Hoda
37 Zigzag in snow
40 “NCIS: New
Orleans” actor
Steven
42 Kick out
43 Heart line
44 Comes in last
45 Gone to the
bottom
46 Cozy rooms
48 Billboards
49 Bit of physics
50 Reuben
bread
51 “Don’t —
stranger!”
Answer to Previous Puzzle
Eugene Sheffer CrosswordFra
zz
Dilbert
Pearls B
efo
re S
win
eN
on S
equitur
Candorv
ille
Beetle B
ailey
Biz
arr
oCarp
e D
iem
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17
PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
SCOREBOARD/SPORTS BRIEFS
PGA Tour statistics
Through May 23
FedExCup Season Points
1, Bryson DeChambeau, 1,677. 2, JustinThomas, 1,634. 3, Viktor Hovland, 1,619. 4,Xander Schauffele, 1,423. 5, Sam Burns,1,397. 6, Stewart Cink, 1,390. 7, CameronSmith, 1,386. 8, Patrick Cantlay, 1,352. 9,Jordan Spieth, 1,349. 10, Hideki Matsuya-ma, 1,296.
Scoring Average
1, Viktor Hovland, 69.783. 2, Joaquin Nie-mann, 69.822. 3, Justin Thomas, 69.824. 4,Xander Schauffele, 69.861. 5, Webb Simp-son, 69.897. 6, Bryson DeChambeau, 69.957.7 (tie), Tony Finau and Louis Oosthuizen,69.971. 9, Dustin Johnson, 69.983. 10, CoreyConners, 70.005.
Driving Distance
1, Bryson DeChambeau, 322.5. 2, RoryMcIlroy, 319.0. 3, Cameron Champ, 317.9. 4,Wyndham Clark, 315.8. 5, Will Gordon,314.4. 6, Matthew Wolff, 314.2. 7 (tie), LukeList and Joaquin Niemann, 312.9. 9, DustinJohnson, 312.3. 10, Gary Woodland, 311.0.
Driving Accuracy Percentage
1, Brendon Todd, 73.69%. 2, Abraham An-cer, 72.89%. 3, Brian Stuard, 72.65%. 4,Ryan Moore, 71.19%. 5, Ryan Armour,70.90%. 6, Collin Morikawa, 70.83%. 7, BriceGarnett, 70.63%. 8, Webb Simpson, 70.29%.9, Chez Reavie, 69.97%. 10, Corey Conners,69.92%.
Greens in Regulation Percentage
1, Collin Morikawa, 72.45%. 2, MatthewNeSmith, 72.31%. 3, Emiliano Grillo,71.92%. 4, Cameron Percy, 71.89%. 5, Stew-art Cink, 71.65%. 6, Jon Rahm, 71.40%. 7,Russell Knox, 71.04%. 8, Corey Conners,70.80%. 9, Martin Laird, 70.50%. 10, AaronWise, 70.14%.
Total Driving
1, Scottie Scheffler, 64. 2, Jon Rahm, 85. 3,Keegan Bradley, 94. 4, Sungjae Im, 103. 5,Paul Casey, 105. 6, Jason Kokrak, 113. 7,James Hahn, 114. 8, Collin Morikawa, 122. 9,2 tied with 123.
SGPutting
1, Louis Oosthuizen, .996. 2, Patrick Reed,.993. 3, Brendon Todd, .921. 4, ChristiaanBezuidenhout, .866. 5, J.T. Poston, .842. 6,Zach Johnson, .793. 7, Jason Kokrak, .792. 8,Xander Schauffele, .737. 9, Ian Poulter,.722. 10, Kris Ventura, .663.
Birdie Average
1, Justin Thomas, 4.71. 2, Viktor Hovland,4.59. 3, Sam Burns, 4.57. 4, Collin Morikawa,4.56. 5, Xander Schauffele, 4.52. 6, DanielBerger, 4.50. 7 (tie), Bryson DeChambeauand Rory McIlroy, 4.39. 9, 3 tied with 4.38.
Eagles (Holes per)
1, Sergio Garcia, 72.0. 2, Matthew Wolff,74.3. 3, Bryson DeChambeau, 75.3. 4, CarlosOrtiz, 82.3. 5, Justin Thomas, 85.1. 6, XanderSchauffele, 86.4. 7, Will Zalatoris, 87.4. 8(tie), Tony Finau and Kris Ventura, 88.4. 10,Dustin Johnson, 90.0.
Sand Save Percentage
1, Xander Schauffele, 69.35%. 2, BrooksKoepka, 66.67%. 3, K.J. Choi, 66.20%. 4,Cameron Smith, 64.95%. 5, Ben Taylor,64.71%. 6, Webb Simpson, 64.38%. 7, Chris-tiaan Bezuidenhout, 63.64%. 8, PatrickReed, 62.50%. 9, Byeong Hun An, 62.22%.10, Tyrrell Hatton, 61.70%.
AllAround Ranking
1, Xander Schauffele, 218. 2, Daniel Berg-er, 268. 3, Justin Thomas, 291. 4, BrooksKoepka, 304. 5, Dustin Johnson, 337. 6,Webb Simpson, 339. 7, Joaquin Niemann,356. 8, Viktor Hovland, 367. 9, CameronSmith, 377. 10, Jon Rahm, 380.
Bank of Hope Match PlayLPGA Tour
At Shadow Creek Golf CourseLas Vegas
Prize Money: $1.5 millionYardage: 6,804; Par: 72
Group Stage(Seedings in parentheses)
GROUP 1Wednesday
Jin Young Ko (1), South Korea def. Nata-lie Gulbis (64), United States, 4 and 2
Caroline Masson (32), Germany def. An-na Nordqvist (32), Sweden, 3 and 2
ThursdayJin Young Ko (1), South Korea vs. Car-
oline Masson (32), Germany Anna Nordqvist (32), Sweden vs. Natalie
Gulbis (64), United States GROUP 2
WednesdayInbee Park (2), South Korea vs. Jennifer
Chang (63), United States, tied Celine Boutier (34), France def. Gaby Lo-
pez (31), Mexico, 4 and 2 Thursday
Inbee Park (2), South Korea vs. CelineBoutier (34), France
Gaby Lopez (31), Mexico vs. JenniferChang (63), United States
GROUP 3Wednesday
Sei Young Kim (3), South Korea, vs. Aya-ko Uehara (62), Japan, tied
Brittany Altomare (30), United States,def. Yu Liu (35), China, 1-up
ThursdaySei Young Kim (3), South Korea, vs. Yu
Liu (35), China Brittany Altomare (30), United States,
vs. Ayako Uehara (62), Japan GROUP 4
WednesdayJenny Coleman (61), United States def.
Brooke M. Henderson (4), Canada, 1-up
Angela Stanford (29), United States, def.Ashleigh Buhai (36), Russia, 1-up
ThursdayBrooke M. Henderson (4), Canada, vs.
Ashleigh Buhai (36), Russia Angela Stanford (29), United States, vs.
Jenny Coleman (61), United StatesGROUP 5
WednesdayDanielle Kang (5), United States, def. Al-
bane Valenzuela (60), Switzerland, 7 and 6 Lizette Salas (28), United States, def.
Madelene Sagstrom (37), Sweden, 5 and 4 Thursday
Danielle Kang (5), United States, vs. Ma-delene Sagstrom (37), Sweden
Lizette Salas (28), United States, vs. Al-bane Valenzuela (60), Switzerland
GROUP 6Wednesday
Alison Lee (59), United States def. HyoJoo Kim (6), South Korea, 5 and 4
Megan Khang (27), United States, def.Jenny Shin (38), South Korea, 5 and 4
ThursdayHyo Joo Kim (6), South Korea, vs. Jenny
Shin (38), South Korea Megan Khang (27), United States, vs. Ali-
son Lee (59), United States GROUP 7
WednesdayPatty Tavatanakit (7), Thailand, vs. Sa-
rah Kemp (58), Australia, tied Stacy Lewis (26), United States, def. Mi
Hyang Lee (39), South Korea, 5 and 4Thursday
Patty Tavatanakit (7), Thailand, vs. MiHyang Lee (39), South Korea
Stacy Lewis (26), United States, vs. Sa-rah Kemp (58), Australia
GROUP 8Wednesday
Minjee Lee (8), Australia, vs. Jaye MarieGreen (57), United States, tied
Moriya Jutanugarn (25), Thailand, def.Cheyenne Knight (40), United States, 5 and3
ThursdayMinjee Lee (8), Australia, vs. Cheyenne
Knight (40), United States Moriya Jutanugarn (25), Thailand, vs.
Jaye Marie Green (57), United StatesGROUP 9
WednesdayGerina Piller (56), def. Hannah Green (9),
Australia, 3 and 2 Azahara Munoz (41), Spain def. Mel Reid
(24), England, 2-up Thursday
Hannah Green (9), Australia, vs. AzaharaMunoz (41), Spain
Mel Reid (24), England, vs. Gerina Piller(56), United States
GROUP 10Wednesday
Nasa Hataoka (10), Japan, def. Jing Yan(55), China, 3 and 1
Jasmine Suwannapura (42), Thailanddef. Mi Jung Hur (23), South Korea, 2-up
ThursdayNasa Hataoka (10), Japan, vs. Jasmine
Suwannapura (42), Thailand Mi Jung Hur (23), South Korea, vs. Jing
Yan (55), China GROUP 11
WednesdaySo Yeon Ryu (11), South Korea, def.
Ryann O'Toole (54), United States, 3 and 1 Eun-Hee Ji (43), South Korea def. Mirim
Lee (22), South Korea, 4 and 3 Thursday
So Yeon Ryu (11), South Korea, vs. Eun-Hee Ji (43), South Korea
Mirim Lee (22), South Korea, vs. RyannO'Toole (54), United States
GROUP 12Wednesday
Annie Park (53) Russia, def. Austin Ernst(12), United States, 1-up
Amy Olson (5), United States, vs. BronteLaw (44), England, tied
ThursdayAustin Ernst (12), United States, vs.
Bronte Law (44), England Amy Olson (5), United States, vs. Annie
Park (53), Russia GROUP 13
WednesdayJennifer Kupcho (13), United States, def.
Christina Kim (52), United States, 6 and 4 Leona Maguire (45), Ireland def. Ally Ew-
ing (20), United States, 2 and 1 Thursday
Jennifer Kupcho (13), United States, vs.Leona Maguire (45), Ireland
Ally Ewing (20), United States, vs. Chris-tina Kim (52), United States
GROUP 14Wednesday
Jeongeun Lee6 (14), South Korea, vs. Pa-jaree Anannarukarn (51), Thailand, tied
Brittany Lincicome (46), United StatesdefShanshan Feng (19), China, 2 and 1
ThursdayJeongeun Lee6 (14), South Korea, vs.
Brittany Lincicome (46) United StatesShanshan Feng (19), China, vs. Pajaree
Anannarukarn (51), Thailand GROUP 15
WednesdaySophia Popov (15), Germany, vs. Hee
Young Park (50), South Korea, tied Sung Hyun Park (18), South Korea, def.
Su Oh (47), Australia, 3 and 1 Thursday
Sophia Popov (15), Germany, vs. Su Oh(47), Australia
Sung Hyun Park (18), South Korea, vs.Hee Young Park (50), South Korea
GROUP 16Wednesday
Ariya Jutanugarn (16), Thailand, vs. Lau-ren Stephenson (49), United States, tied
Sarah Schmelzel (48), United States, def.Carlota Ciganda (17), Spain, 1-up
ThursdayAriya Jutanugarn (16), Thailand, vs. Sa-
rah Schmelzel (48), United States Carlota Ciganda (17), Spain, vs. Lauren
Stephenson (49), United States
GOLF TENNIS
Strasbourg Open
ThursdayAt Strasbourg Tennis Club
Strasbourg, FrancePurse: Euro189,708Surface: Red clayWomen’s Singles
Round of 16Sorana Cirstea, Romania, def. Zhang
Shuai (6), China, 6-2, 6-1.
PRO BASKETBALL
WNBA
Eastern Conference
W L Pct GB
New York 5 1 .833 —
Connecticut 5 1 .833 —
Chicago 2 2 .500 2
Atlanta 2 2 .500 2
Washington 2 3 .400 2½
Indiana 1 5 .167 4
Western Conference
W L Pct GB
Seattle 4 1 .800 —
Las Vegas 3 2 .600 1
Phoenix 2 3 .400 2
Dallas 1 2 .333 2
Minnesota 0 3 .000 3
Los Angeles 0 2 .000 2½
Tuesday’s games
Washington 85, Indiana 69Atlanta 90, Chicago 83Seattle 90, Connecticut 87, OT
Wednesday’s games
Las Vegas 85, Phoenix 79
Thursday’s games
Dallas at Atlanta
Friday’s games
Washington at ConnecticutLos Angeles at ChicagoMinnesota at SeattleIndiana at Las Vegas
Saturday’s games
Atlanta at New YorkPhoenix at Dallas
SOCCER
MLS
Eastern Conference
W L T Pts GF GA
New England 4 1 2 14 10 7
Orlando City 3 0 3 12 7 2
Philadelphia 3 2 2 11 6 5
Nashville 2 0 4 10 7 4
Atlanta 2 1 3 9 7 5
NYC FC 2 2 2 8 11 6
CF Montréal 2 3 2 8 9 9
Columbus 2 2 2 8 5 5
Inter Miami CF 2 3 2 8 8 10
New York 2 4 0 6 8 9
D.C. United 2 5 0 6 5 11
Toronto FC 1 3 2 5 7 10
Chicago 1 4 1 4 4 10
Cincinnati 1 3 1 4 6 14
Western Conference
W L T Pts GF GA
Seattle 5 0 2 17 14 3
Sporting KC 4 2 1 13 12 8
LA Galaxy 4 2 0 12 10 11
Houston 3 2 2 11 9 9
Colorado 3 2 1 10 9 8
Portland 3 3 0 9 9 8
San Jose 3 4 0 9 11 11
Real Salt Lake 2 1 2 8 8 6
Los Angeles 2 2 2 8 7 7
Vancouver 2 4 1 7 6 9
Austin FC 2 4 0 6 5 8
Minnesota 2 4 0 6 5 10
FC Dallas 1 2 3 6 8 8
Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie.
Saturday, May 22
Cincinnati 2, CF Montréal 1Portland 3, LA Galaxy 0Chicago 1, Miami 0Orlando City 1, Toronto FC 0Columbus 2, New York City FC 1New England 3, New York 1Real Salt Lake 2, FC Dallas 2, tieHouston 2, Vancouver 1Sporting Kansas City 3, San Jose 1Los Angeles FC 2, Colorado 1
Sunday, May 23
Atlanta 1, Seattle 1, tiePhiladelphia 1, D.C. United 0Nashville 1, Austin FC 0
Saturday’s games
CF Montréal at ChicagoOrlando City at New YorkNew England at CincinnatiToronto FC at ColumbusNashville at AtlantaNew York City FC at Los Angeles FCSan Jose at LA GalaxyD.C. United at MiamiHouston at Sporting Kansas CityFC Dallas at ColoradoMinnesota at Real Salt Lake
Sunday’s games
Portland at PhiladelphiaAustin FC at Seattle
DEALS
Wednesday’s Transactions
BASEBALL �Major League Baseball
MLB — Placed Los Angeles Angels pitch-ing coach Mickey Callaway on the ineligi-ble list through the 2022 season, followingMLB’s investigation.
American LeagueBALTIMORE ORIOLES — Placed OF Aus-
tin Hays on the 10-day IL, retroactive toMay 24. Recalled OF Ryan McKenna fromNorfolk (Triple-A East). Optioned RHPDean Kremer to Norfolk.
HOUSTON ASTROS — Sent RHP Jose Ur-quidy to Corpus Christi (Double-A Central)for a rehab assignment. Selected the con-tract of RHO Ralph Garza Jr. and added toactive roster. Placed RHP Lance McCullerson the 10-day IL, retroactive to May 23.Transferred RHP Josh James from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL.
LOS ANGELES ANGELS — Sent C MaxStassi and RHP Chris Rodriguez on rehabassignments to Salt Lake (Triple-A West).
MINNESOTA TWINS — Activated RHP Mi-chael Pineda from the 10-day IL. PlacedINF/OF Luis Arraez on the 10-day IL, retro-active to May 24.
NEW YORK YANKEES — Activated 2B D.J.Le Mahieu from the paternity list.
TEXAS RANGERS — Placed OF David Dahlon the 10-day IL. Selected the contract ofOF Jason Martin from Round Rock (Tri-ple-A West). Transferred RHP Kohei Arih-ara from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL.
National LeagueCHICAGO CUBS — Sent RHP Trevor Me-
gill to Iowa (Triple-A East) for a rehab as-signment. Placed INF Nico Hoerner on 10-day IL. Selected the contract of OF RafaelOrtega from Iowa (Triple-A East). Activa-ted RHP Shelby Miller from the 10-day ILand designated for assignment. ReleasedRHP Jason Adam.
MIAMI MARLINS — Recalled RHP NickNeidert from Jacksonville (Triple-A East).Optioned LHP Shawn Morimando for as-signment.
NEW YORK METS — Traded LHP PedroQuintana to Milwaukee in exchange for LFBilly McKinney. Transferred RHP JordanYamamoto from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Placed OF Johneshwy Fargas on the10-day IL, retroactive to May 25.
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES — Placed OFScott Kingery on the 10-day IL.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Recalled RHPNick Mears from Indianapolis (Triple-AEast). Optioned RHP Cody Ponce to Indi-anapolis.
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — OutrightedOF Braden Bishop and RHP Trevor Hilden-berger to Sacramento (Triple-A West) af-ter clearing waivers. Recalled 3B JasonVosler from Sacramento. Placed 1B Bran-don Belt on the 10-day IL.
BASKETBALL �Womens National Basketball Association
ATLANTA DREAM — Waive C KalaniBrown.
PHOENIX MERCURY — Activated C KiaVaughn.
FOOTBALLNational Football League
BUFFALO BILLS — Signed WR Lance Le-noir and released WR Tre Walker.
CAROLINA PANTHERS — Re-signed DEFrank Herron. Placed DE Kendall Donner-son on waivers.
CINCINNATI BENGALS — Claimed LB JoeBachie off waivers from Philadelphia.
CLEVELAND BROWNS — Re-signed WRKhadarel Hodge to a one-year contract.
GREEN BAY PACKERS — Signed WRDeAndre Thompkins.
HOUSTON TEXANS — Signed QB DavidMills to a four-year contract.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — PromotedKelly Flanagan and Megha Parekh to exec-utive vice presidents.
LAS VEGAS RAIDERS — Reverted OT Ka-maal Seymour to non-football injury list.
LOS ANGELES RAMS — Signed DB Ka-reem Orr.
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS — Waived DE Mar-cus Webb. Signed TE Cam Sutton.
TENNESSEE TITANS — Signed QB DavisMills to a rookie contract.Agreed to termswith T Christian DiLauro.
SOCCERMajor League Soccer
D.C. UNITED — Named Sean Howe direc-tor of scouting.
USL ChampionshipUSL — Suspended Atlanta United 2’s D
Jack Gurr one game for his violent conductduring a May 23 game against Memphis901 FC. Suspended San Diego Loyal headcoach Landon Donovan one game for leav-ing the technical area and dissent to an of-ficial during a May 22 game against Louis-ville City FC. Suspended FC Tulsa’s D JorgeCorrales one game for his two cautionablered card offenses during a May 19 gameagainst Sporting Kansas City II. Suspend-ed New Mexico United’s F Andrew Tinarione game for his two cautionable red cardoffenses during a May 21 game againstColorado Springs. Suspended CharlotteIndependence’s D Christian Dean onegame for his two cautionable red card of-fenses during a May 22 game againstPittsburgh SC.
Mets’ Snydergaardsidelined for 6 weeks
Mets manager Luis Rojas said
Thursday that right-hander Noah
Syndergaard will not throw for six
weeks after an MRI revealed right
elbow inflammation.
Syndergaard, who underwent
Tommy John surgery last year,
appeared to be a few weeks away
from rejoining the Mets before he
left his second rehab start with
Class A St. Lucie on Tuesday after
just one inning.
His velocity, normally in the
mid-to-high 90s, was clocked in
the mid-80s by the end of his stint
Tuesday.
Bill would allow collegeathletes to organize
College athletes would have the
right to organize and collectively
bargain with schools and confer-
ences under a bill introduced
Thursday by Democrats in the
House and Senate.
Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) and
Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) an-
nounced the College Athletes
Right to Organize Act.
“Big-time college sports haven’t
been ‘amateur’ for a long time, and
the NCAA has long denied its play-
ers economic and bargaining
rights while treating them like
commodities,” Murphy said in a
statement.
This NCAA said the bill would
“directly undercut the purpose of
college: earning a degree.” It add-
ed that “turning student-athletes
into union employees is not the an-
swer.”
EU expresses support for Tokyo Olympics
The European Union’s two top
officials expressed support
Thursday for holding the Tokyo
Olympics despite growing opposi-
tion to the event in Japan because
of the coronavirus pandemic.
European Commission Presi-
dent Ursula von der Leyen and
European Council President
Charles Michel discussed the
games with Prime Minister Yoshi-
hide Suga during a virtual EU-Ja-
pan summit.
Swiss bank must pay $80million for role in scandal
The Swiss bank Julius Baer
agreed to pay nearly $80 million in
fines and penalties for its role in il-
legal payments involving FIFA
and the South American govern-
ing body CONMEBOL.
The bank will pay a $43.32 mil-
lion fine plus $36,368,400 in resti-
tution — matching the total of the
illegal payments — for a total of
$79,688,400, according to a plea
agreement read into the record
Thursday by U.S. District Judge
Pamela K. Chen.
BRIEFLY
Associated Press
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19
TENNIS/OLYMPICS
Roger Federer himself put it
quite simply recently: “How can I
think of winning the French Open?”
After all, the 20-time major
champion will be entered in his first
Grand Slam tournament in more
than 15 months when play begins on
the red clay of Roland Garros in the
leafy southwestern outskirts of Pa-
ris on Sunday.
Consider this summary of his cir-
cumstances: Federer has accumu-
lated more operations on his right
knee (two) than victories (one, in
three matches) since February
2020.
“The moment you know you’re
not going to win the French Open, it
can’t be your goal. At least at my
level. So I’m just realistic and I
know I will not win the French —
and whoever thought I would, or
could, win it is wrong,” Federer
said.
“Of course, crazier things might
have happened. But I’m not so sure
in the last 50 years at the French
Open, somebody just walked up at
40 years old, being out for a year
and a half, and just (went) on to win
everything. ... I know my limitations
at the moment.”
For the record, he hasn’t quite hit
the “Big 4-0” just yet. Still, this will
be the last French Open of his 30s —
and the last one for Serena Williams
in her 30s, too.
He turns 40 in August; she reac-
hes that milestone in September.
The chances for fans to watch
them compete, and for other play-
ers to try to measure up, are getting
rarer (Williams has appeared in
just three matches, going 1-2, since
a semifinal loss to Naomi Osaka at
the Australian Open).
While Federer made clear he
sees this trip to France mainly as a
way to help him get ready for Wim-
bledon, Williams acknowledged
her lack of play on clay makes
things less comfortable as she re-
sumes her bid for a 24th major
championship.
“This year has been a little more
difficult than normal,” said Wil-
liams, who pulled out of last year’s
French Open before the second
round because of an injured left
Achilles.
Asked how much she considered
skipping the red stuff entirely this
season, Williams quickly replied:
“Not one second.”
Both Williams and Federer carry
expectations of excellence every
time they step on a court.
Some comes internally, of course,
which is why Williams holds the
professional era record of 23 Slam
singles titles and Federer shares the
men’s mark of 20 with Rafael Na-
dal.
And some comes externally.
That all can be daunting when
there is more than the usual amount
of uncertainty about the status of
one’s game.
“You need to, sometimes, just put
yourself out there. Sometimes it’s
not fun when you know where your
limitations are and, obviously for
me, it’s always difficult, because
people expect a lot from me and I
have high expectations for myself,”
Federer said.
“So when ... I feel like, ‘My God, I
can play so much better,’ it feels
strange and it’s disappointing. But
at the same time, this is the process
Ineed to go through and that’s why I
can’t get too down on myself.”
Not quite on time: The start of
last year’s tournament moved from
May to September because of the
coronavirus pandemic. This year’s
shift, for the same reason, is far less
dramatic: Play was delayed one
week.
“What does it change if we do it a
week later? We’re talking about CO-
VID here. I’m not sure it will change
anything,” said Daniil Medvedev, a
two-time Grand Slam finalist.
One effect, though, is there will
be only two weeks, instead of three,
between the end of the French
Open and start of Wimbledon.
JEANFRANCOIS BADIAS/AP
Roger Federer, 39, will play in his first Grand Slam tournament in more than 15 months when the FrenchOpen opens on the red clay of Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Sunday.
Federer, Serena approach yetanother mark — turning 40All-time greats at last French Open of their 30s
ALESSANDRA TARANTINO/AP
Serena Williams, who turns 40 inSeptember, has appeared in justthree matches, going 12, since asemifinal loss to Naomi Osaka atthe Australian Open.
BY HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
boarding, reluctantly took to the
biggest stage in sports, skate-
boarding is grinding its way into
the much more crowded summer
program. It’s one of a number of
attempts by the International
Olympic Committee — surfing,
rock climbing and 3-on-3 basket-
ball are also debuting in Tokyo —
to appeal to a younger, trendier,
more easily distracted audience.
Whether any of this is truly
“saving” the Olympics for the next
generation is a matter of opinion.
Viewership numbers — many
proprietary, most skewed by the
online fragmentation of the audi-
ence and all of them open to ma-
nipulation to tell whatever story
might fit the narrative — indicate
the games still have issues with
the in-demand 18-to-34 market.
(That puts them in good company:
The NFL and MLB and pretty
much anything aired on TV are al-
so doing worse in that demograph-
ic over the past decade.)
Regardless of whether either
side enjoys a boost from this new
partnership, suffice it to say that
none of it would’ve happened
without the 1998 introduction of
snowboarding to the Olympics.
Despite its now-veteran status in
the games, the so-called shred-
ders still get treated like the shiny
new thing on the shelf every four
years. And while the entire sport
has prospered over the two dec-
ades, snowboarding has delivered
only two athletes the average per-
son might recognize on the street:
Shaun White and Chloe Kim.
But lots of folks just beneath
that level — Jamie Anderson, Red
Gerard, Danny Davis and others
— have made very good livings, as
well. All of which has been enough
to woo a big chunk of skateboard-
ing’s elite into the Olympics with-
out much hand-wringing.
“You look at snowboarding and
the way it is now, and I know they
love to compete,” said 20-year-old
Jagger Eaton, who is trying to
qualify in both the park and street
events being showcased at the
games. “But they’ve also always
loved being out on the (backcoun-
try), and going out and filming
projects. And they’ve shown they
can do both.”
Said Dashawn Jordan, a football
player-turned-skateboarder who
is also aiming for Tokyo: “I was in-
troduced to skateboarding
through the competitive side. And
then I found out a lot about what
the other side of the sport looks
like. I look at all the amazing peo-
ple who try really hard to keep
both factors in play.”
The most successful athlete in
the current-day group is Ameri-
can Nyjah Huston, a 12-time X
Games and five-time world cham-
pion who, in a sign of where the
soul of this sport has already
moved, includes a shoe deal with
Nike among his cache of endorse-
ments.
“I never put much thought into
it being in the Olympics,” Huston
said. “I was always confused
about why it wasn’t in there, but at
least it’s in there now, and I’m
hyped for it.”
There’s also, Sky Brown, the 12-
year-old competing for her fa-
ther’s home country of Britain
who spent about half her time
growing up in Japan, her mother’s
native country and the place
where all the action is happening
this summer. She also surfs and
recently took time off to star in,
and win, “Dancing With The
Stars: Juniors.”
As mass marketable as it might
be, skateboarding still has some
hurdles to climb. In Japan, skate-
boarding in broad daylight on a
busy street is still frowned upon.
It’s not all that much different in
some places in America.
If the Olympics might be
viewed as offering some sort of
mainstream seal of approval to a
once-rebellious sport, what’s left
to be seen is how their show plays
in Tokyo.
Debut: Skateboarding leapsto 2020 Olympic competitionFROM PAGE 24
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP
The United States’ Dashawn Jordan skates during an Olympic qualifying event at Lauridsen Skatepark last week in Des Moines, Iowa.
PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
NFL
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says
the league expects full stadiums this season
and players and staff are being encouraged
to receive the COVID-19
vaccine.
“One of the things we’ve
obviously learned over the
last year is not to make
projections too far out,”
Goodell said Wednesday
following virtual meetings
with team owners.
“Thirty-two teams are
going to have to be in compliance with
health officials on a local basis, do whatever
is necessary to keep all personnel safe. But
we do think it will be a much more normal
experience. We do expect full stadiums. It is
very possible that some nonvaccinated per-
sonnel may have masks on.
“But those are things that I think we’ll
continue to follow closely, make sure that
we’re doing in accordance with all laws and
regulations and make sure that we provide
our fans the best possible experience.”
So far, 30 of 32 teams have approval to
safely open at 100% capacity before the pre-
season schedule begins. The Colts and
Broncos do not but are on a path to get ap-
proval before August.
Goodell said social justice was a topic ad-
dressed during meetings with owners.
“We reflected on the murder of George
Floyd a year ago yesterday,” he said. “Our
focus at the league and the clubs remains
squarely, as it did in the years prior, on
working with our players and our partners
to help build a more just society. And, we
talked about our continuing commitment in
that area. We are also focused on our contin-
ued expansion of our diversity, equity and
inclusion efforts, which will continue to be
four pillars of our continued growth and
success. We had a lengthy discussion on
that.”
NFL executive vice president of football
operations Troy Vincent said he spoke with
former player and assistant coach Eugene
Chung, who recently revealed that a team
official told him he was “not the right mi-
nority” during a job interview. Chung, who
is Korean American, didn’t identify the
team. Dasha Smith, the NFL’s executive
vice president and chief administrative offi-
cer, said the league is investigating.
Also:
■ The league expanded the prohibition
for blocks below the waist.
■ Rosters for training camp were set for
amaximum of 90 players. A cutdown to 85 is
due by Aug. 17 and a cut to 80 a week later.
Teams have to set their 53-man rosters by
Aug. 31 after the third preseason game.
■ The league and NFLPA agreed to set a
salary cap ceiling of $208.2 million for 2022.
OWNERS’ MEETINGS
Stadiumsexpectedto be full
BY ROB MAADDI
Associated Press
Goodell
Adam Vinatieri used his strong leg to be-
come the NFL’s career scoring leader.
A surgically repaired left knee apparent-
ly will force him out.
The former Indianapolis Colts and New
England Patriots star told former team-
mate and SiriusXM radio host Pat McAfee
that he plans to retire.
“By Friday, if (the) paperwork goes in,
you heard it here first,” Vinatieri said.
Vinatieri, 48, hasn’t played since missing
three of four field goals in a 31-17 loss to the
Tennessee Titans on Dec. 1, 2019.
Vinatieri’s final kick was blocked and re-
turned 63 yards to break a 17-17 tie. He went
on injured reserve the next week and had
surgery on the knee, and his rehabilitation
process was complicated by the COVID-19
pandemic. Vinatieri didn’t play last season.
This is not how anyone expected Auto-
matic Adam to go out.
After he missed six extra points and eight
field goals in the worst season of his 24-year
career, the Colts opted not re-sign Vinatieri,
who still wanted to play.
His decision this week ends one of the
longest and most distinguished careers in
NFL history.
Vinatieri scored 2,673 points and made
599 field goals, breaking both records pre-
viously held by Morten Andersen.
Vinatieri played in 365 regular-season
games, second behind Andersen (382), and
is the only player in league history to top the
1,000-point mark with two franchises.
He entered the league as undrafted free
agent and became known as the best clutch
kicker in NFL history. Vinatieri made 29
game-winning kicks during his career.
Vinatieri started the 1996 season by mis-
sing four of his first six field-goal attempts,
and then-coach Bill Parcells considered
cutting him. But the rookie saved his job
with a 31-yarder into the into the wind and
rain with 36 seconds left in a 31-0 victory
over Arizona.
Vinatieri spent 10 seasons with the Patri-
ots, delivering one memorable moment af-
ter another.
He forced overtime in a 2001 divisional
round playoff game with a 45-yard field
goal in blizzard conditions.
“I would say it was by far the greatest
kick I have ever seen,” New England coach
Bill Belichick said more than a decade later.
“There were probably 3 to 4 inches of snow
on the ground. It was a soft snow that kind of
didn’t go away. I mean, there was no way to
get around it. The magnitude of the kick was
significant. It’s got to be the greatest kick of
all time, certainly that I’ve seen.”
Vinatieri later won that game with a 23-
yarder.
Two weeks later, his 48-yard kick as time
expired gave the Patriots their first Super
Bowl.
A fluke? Hardly.
Two years later, Vinatieri’s tiebreaking
46-yard field goal proved the difference in
another playoff win and his 41-yard kick
with 4 seconds left broke a 29-29 tie with
Carolina, giving New England its second
Super Bowl title.
After he scored 1,158 points withthe Pa-
triots, the team let Vinatieri become a free
agent and he landed in Indianapolis, where
he spent the next 14 seasons writing the sec-
ond chapter of his career. He scored a fran-
chise-record 1,515 points with Indy.
The scoring numbers are only part of Vi-
natieri’s remarkable résumé.
The four-time Super Bowl winner and
three-time All-Pro was part of 242 regular-
season wins, and broke career records for
field-goal attempts (715) while becoming
the third-oldest player to appear in an NFL
game. He scored points in 47 stadiums, too.
Vinatieri played in six AFC champion-
ships, five Super Bowls and a record 397
games including the playoffs. He was se-
lected to the NFL’s 100th anniversary team.
Former teammate Reggie Wayne posted
on Twitter that Vinatieri was the greatest
kicker of all time. “Congrats on your retire-
ment bro. It was a pleasure to sit back and
watch #greatness for many years,” Wayne
tweeted.
AP
New England Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri celebrates after kicking the 48yard, gamewinning field goalin the final seconds of Super Bowl XXXVI against the St. Louis Rams in New Orleans on Feb. 3, 2002.
Record-breaking kicker Vinatieri to retireBY MICHAEL MAROT
Associated Press
2Number of Super-Bowlwinning kicks made byVinatieri for the New England Patriots
10Game-winning kicks inovertime, an NFL record.
211,000-point seasons. Theprevious record was 16.
44Consecutive field goalsmade, an NFL record.
238Points in the playoffs, another NFL best.
599Vinatieri's league-recordnumber of field goals.
2,673Career points, also a leaguerecord (with FGs) previouslyheld by Morten Andersen.
From The Associated Press
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21
MLB
American League
East Division
W L Pct GB
Tampa Bay 31 20 .608 _
Boston 30 20 .600 ½
New York 28 20 .583 1½
Toronto 24 23 .511 5
Baltimore 17 32 .347 13
Central Division
W L Pct GB
Chicago 28 20 .583 _
Cleveland 26 21 .553 1½
Kansas City 23 24 .489 4½
Minnesota 20 29 .408 8½
Detroit 19 30 .388 9½
West Division
W L Pct GB
Oakland 29 22 .569 _
Houston 27 22 .551 1
Seattle 23 27 .460 5½
Los Angeles 22 27 .449 6
Texas 22 29 .431 7
National LeagueEast Division
W L Pct GB
New York 22 20 .524 _
Atlanta 24 25 .490 1½
Miami 24 25 .490 1½
Philadelphia 24 26 .480 2
Washington 20 24 .455 3
Central Division
W L Pct GB
St. Louis 27 22 .551 _
Chicago 26 22 .542 ½
Milwaukee 24 25 .490 3
Cincinnati 21 25 .457 4½
Pittsburgh 18 30 .375 8½
West Division
W L Pct GB
San Diego 32 18 .640 _
Los Angeles 30 19 .612 1½
San Francisco 30 19 .612 1½
Colorado 19 30 .388 12½
Arizona 18 32 .360 14
Wednesday’s games
Minnesota 3, Baltimore 2St. Louis 4, Chicago White Sox 0Oakland 6, Seattle 3L.A. Angels 9, Texas 8Detroit 1, Cleveland 0Tampa Bay 2, Kansas City 1, 10 inningsBoston 9, Atlanta 5Houston 5, L.A. Dodgers 2Toronto at N.Y. Yankees, ppd.Chicago Cubs 4, Pittsburgh 1Miami 4, Philadelphia 2San Diego 2, Milwaukee 1, 10 inningsSan Francisco 5, Arizona 4Cincinnati at Washington, sus.Colorado at N.Y. Mets, ppd.
Thursday’s games
Cleveland at DetroitKansas City at Tampa BayToronto at N.Y. Yankees, 2Baltimore at Chicago White SoxL.A. Angels at OaklandTexas at SeattleColorado at N.Y. Mets, 2Philadelphia at MiamiChicago Cubs at PittsburghSan Diego at MilwaukeeCincinnati at Washington, 2St. Louis at ArizonaSan Francisco at L.A. Dodgers
Friday’s games
Miami (Poteet 2-0) at Boston (Pérez 2-2)N.Y. Yankees (Cole 6-2) at Detroit (Mize 3-3)Toronto (Ryu 4-2) at Cleveland (TBD)Baltimore (Harvey 3-5) at Chicago White
Sox (Keuchel 3-1)Kansas City (Bubic 0-0) at Minnesota
(Dobnak 1-3)San Diego (Lamet 1-0) at Houston (Val-
dez 0-0)L.A. Angels (Cobb 2-2) at Oakland (Ma-
naea 3-2)Texas (Lyles 2-3) at Seattle (Sheffield 3-4)Cincinnati (Gutierrez 0-0) at Chicago
Cubs (Alzolay 2-4)Colorado (Gray 4-4) at Pittsburgh (Keller 2-6)Milwaukee (Anderson 2-3) at Washing-
ton (Lester 0-2)Atlanta (Anderson 4-1) at N.Y. Mets (TBD)San Francisco (DeSclafani 4-2) at L.A.
Dodgers (Buehler 3-0)Saturday’s games
Philadelphia at Tampa BayBaltimore at Chicago White SoxKansas City at MinnesotaL.A. Angels at OaklandMiami at BostonN.Y. Yankees at DetroitSan Diego at HoustonToronto at ClevelandTexas at SeattleCincinnati at Chicago CubsColorado at PittsburghAtlanta at N.Y. MetsMilwaukee at WashingtonSan Francisco at L.A. DodgersSt. Louis at Arizona
Scoreboard
CHICAGO — Giovanny Gallegos came in to a
sticky situation, with the St. Louis Cardinals
clinging to a onerun lead and two on in the sev
enth inning. It quickly became a heated one.
Umpire Joe West ordered him to switch caps
because there apparently was sunscreen on the
bill. Manager Mike Shildt, thinking his player
was unfairly singled out, got ejected during an
animated argument.
That overshadowed everything else in the
Cardinals’ 40 victory over the Chicago White
Sox on Wednesday.
“This is baseball’s dirty little secret, and it’s
the wrong time and the wrong arena to expose
it,” Shildt said. “Here’s the deal. First of all, Gio
wears the same hat all year. Hats accrue dirt.
Hats accrue substances. ... Did Gio have some
sunscreen at some point in his career to make
sure he doesn’t get some kind of melanoma?
Possibly. Does he use rosin to help out? Possi
bly. Are these things that baseball really wants
to crack down on? No.”
Tommy Edman homered twice, and the Car
dinals avoided a threegame sweep.
Shildt was ejected with one out in the sev
enth, after Génesis Cabrera hit Yoán Moncada,
putting runners on first and second.
The Cardinals brought in Giovanny Gallegos.
West, who on Tuesday set Major League Base
ball’s record for most games umpired, said sec
ondbase ump Dan Bellino noticed a substance
on the brim of the pitcher’s cap.
West said Gallegos told him it was sunscreen.
Even so, he made the pitcher switch caps be
fore throwing a pitch because “we don’t want
anybody to be accused of cheating or any of that
stuff.” The cap was sent to the commissioner’s
office.
“The whole point of this is we’re trying to pro
tect his pitcher, and he got ejected,” West said.
Twins 3, Orioles 2: Miguel Sanó hit a three
run homer off Jorge López (16), and host Min
nesota completed a threegame sweep of Balti
more, which have lost nine straight.
Michael Pineda (32) allowed one run and
three hits over six innings in his first start since
May 13 following a trip to the injured list caused
by a thigh abscess. He fell behind in the first on
Trey Mancini’s 11th home run.
The Twins have won six of seven overall and
15 in a row over the Orioles. Hansel Robles
earned his third save.
Athletics 6, Mariners 3: James Kaprielian
(20) allowed two hits in seven scoreless in
nings, and host Oakland avoided a threegame
sweep.
Matt Olson hit his 13th homer, Seth Brown
had two hits and two RBIs, and Jake Diekman
got four outs for his sixth save.
Robert Dugger (01) gave up five runs, five
hits and three walks in 31⁄�3 innings.
Angels 9, Rangers 8: Taylor Ward hit a
threerun homer off Dane Dunning (24) in the
first and had a careerhigh five RBIs.
Los Angeles led 91 but Nate Lowe had a two
run homer in sixth, and visiting Texas scored
five times in the eighth on Joey Gallo’s tworun
homer, Brock Holt’s RBI double and Willie Cal
houn’s tworun double.
With a runner on, Raisel Iglesias struck out
Adolis García, Joey Gallo and Khris Davis for
his eighth save.
Cubs 4, Pirates 1: Trevor Williams pitched
six innings and singled twice against his former
team, helping streaking Chicago win at stum
bling Pittsburgh.
The Cubs won for the fifth time in six games.
David Bote hit a tworun homer for Chicago,
and Kris Bryant had three hits and two RBIs.
Tigers 1, Indians 0: Niko Goodrum doubled,
advanced on Jake Rogers’ bunt and scored on
Robbie Grossman’s sacrifice fly in the eighth
inning, and host Detroit snapped a fourgame
losing streak overall and a sixgame skid
against Cleveland.
The Tigers’ Jose Urena gave up three hits
and three walks over 52⁄�3 innings before exiting
with a forearm injury in the middle of an atbat
after a trainer made a brief visit to the mound.
Jose Cisnero, Michael Fulmer (43) and Grego
ry Soto completed the fourhitter, with Soto
earning his fifth save.
Rays 1, Royals 0 (10): Manuel Margot hit a
runscoring single in the 10th inning and host
Tampa Bay beat Kansas City.
Kevin Kiermaier advanced from second to
third when Taylor Walls flied out to deep center
field against Tyler Zuber (02). After Austin
Meadows was intentionally walked, Margot
won it on just the Rays’ third hit of the game.
Marlins 4, Phillies 2: Jon Berti hit a go
ahead. tworun single in a threerun eighth in
ning, and host Miami beat Philadelphia.
The Phillies built a 21 lead on Brad Miller’s
basesloaded walk in the third off Nick Neidert
and Rhy Hoskins’ fifthinning sacrifice fly
against Anthony Bender.
Padres 2, Brewers 1 (10): Victor Caratini
singled home the goahead run in the top of the
10th inning, and San Diego won at Milwaukee
for its 11th victory in 12 games.
Caratini’s leadoff single to right off Brent Su
ter (33) scored automatic runner Wil Myers
from second base.
Astros 5, Dodgers 2: Jose Altuve, Carlos
Correa and Aledmys Díaz homered, and host
Houston stopped a fourgame slide by topping
Trevor Bauer and Los Angeles.
Altuve hit a leadoff drive in the first inning,
and Correa put the Astros ahead to stay with a
tiebreaking solo shot off Bauer with two outs in
the sixth. Díaz tacked on a tworun shot during
Houston’s threerun seventh.
Red Sox 9, Braves 5: Rafael Devers home
red and drove in three runs, helping host Bos
ton beat Atlanta in a game that was delayed
nearly three hours by rain after the sixth in
ning.
Hunter Renfroe also connected for the Red
Sox, and Christian Vázquez had three RBIs.
Xander Bogaerts walked twice and scored
three times.
Giants 5, Diamondbacks 4: Jason Vosler
snapped an eighthinning tie with his first ma
jor league home run and visiting San Francisco
rallied to hand Arizona its 10th straight defeat.
Pinchhitter Austin Slater connected for a
tworun shot that tied it 4all earlier in the
eighth. Tyler Rogers pitched out of a huge jam
in the ninth, sending the Diamondbacks to an
other agonizing loss and their longest skid since
2010.
Nationals 3, Reds 0 (4 innings, suspended):
The game at Washington suspended in the mid
dle of the fourth inning following a rain delay
that lasted for more than three hours.
Play will resume Thursday afternoon with
the Nationals holding a 30 lead. The resump
tion will be a standardlength game, while the
regularly scheduled series finale will be seven
innings..
Edman’s 2 HRs help Cards nix sweepSt. Louis manager Shildt is ejectedafter Cardinals pitcher Gallegos isforced by umpires to switch caps
Associated Press
CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP
The St. Louis Cardinals’ Tommy Edman celebrates his home run off Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Carlos Rodon during the third inning. Edman homered a second time in a 40 win.
ROUNDUP
PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
NHL PLAYOFFS
First round
(Best-of-seven; x-if necessary)
Carolina 3, Nashville 2
Carolina 5, Nashville 2Carolina 3, Nashville 0Nashville 5, Carolina 4, 2OTNashville 4, Carolina 3, 2OTCarolina 3, Nashville 2, OTThursday: Carolina at Nashvillex-Saturday: Nashville at Carolina
Tampa Bay 4, Florida 2
Tampa Bay 5, Florida 4Tampa Bay 3, Florida 1Florida 6, Tampa Bay 5, OTTampa Bay 6, Florida 2Florida 4, Tampa Bay 1Wednesday: Tampa Bay 4, Florida 0
Boston 4, Washington 1
Washington 3, Boston 2, OTBoston 4, Washington 3, OTBoston 3, Washington 2, 2OTBoston 4, Washington 1Boston 3, Washington 1
N.Y. Islanders 4, Pittsburgh 2
Islanders 4, Pittsburgh 3, OTPittsburgh 2, islanders 1Pittsburgh 5, islanders 4
Islanders 4, Pittsburgh 1Islanders 3, Pittsburgh 2, 2OTWednesday: Islanders 5, Pittsburgh 3
Toronto 3, Montreal 1
Montreal 2, Toronto 1Toronto 5, Montreal 1Toronto 2, Montreal 1Toronto 4, Montreal 0Thursday: Montreal at Torontox-Saturday: Toronto at Montrealx-Monday: Montreal at Toronto
Winnipeg 4, Edmonton 0
Winnipeg 4, Edmonton 1Winnipeg 1, Edmonton 0, OTWinnipeg 5, Edmonton 4, OTWinnipeg 4, Edmonton 3, 3OT
Vegas 3, Minnesota 3
Minnesota 1, Vegas 0, OTVegas 3, Minnesota 1Vegas 5, Minnesota 2Vegas 4, Minnesota 0Minnesota 4, Vegas 2Wednesday: Minnesota 3, Vegas 0Friday: Minnesota at Vegas
Colorado 4, St. Louis 0
Colorado 4, St. Louis 1Colorado 6, St. Louis 3Colorado 5, St. Louis 1Colorado 5, St. Louis 2
Scoreboard
TAMPA, Fla. — Andrei Vasilev-
skiy wrapped up a series with a
Game 6 shutout for the second
straight time, stopping 29 shots in
the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 4-0
victory over the Florida Panthers
on Wednesday night.
Vasilevskiy also shut out the
Dallas Stars last year to win the
Stanley Cup.
The Lightning advanced to face
the Carolina-Nashville winner in
the second round. Tampa Bay ad-
vanced to the second round for the
fifth time in the past seven years.
The Panthers have not won a
playoff series since the 1996 East-
ern Conference Finals.
Steven Stamkos scored his third
goal of the series and Pat Maroon
added his first. Brayden Point
added his fourth of the series in
the third period and Alex Killorn
had an empty-net goal with 1:42
left.
Rookie Spencer Knight, back in
net for Florida after his strong
playoff debut in Game 5, finished
with 20 saves.
Islanders 5, Penguins 3: Brock
Nelson scored twice in New York’s
three-goal second period and the
Islanders beat visiting Pittsburgh
in Game 6 to advance to the sec-
ond round.
The Islanders will face Boston
in the next round, and fans chant-
ed “We want Bos-ton! We want
Bos-ton!” in the closing minutes.
Anthony Beauvillier had a goal
and two assists, and Kyle Palmieri
and Ryan Pulock also scored to
help New York beat the top-seed-
ed Penguins in the first round for
the second time in three years.
Josh Bailey and Jean-Gabriel Pa-
geau each had two assists.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 34 shots to
move to 4-0 with a 1.95 goals-
against average in the series. He
had seven saves in the first period,
15 in the second and 12 in the third
to finish with 150 in his four starts.
Wild 3, Vegas 0: Kevin Fiala
had a goal and an assist in the third
period to break open a scoreless
game, Cam Talbot had his second
shutout of the series and host Min-
nesota beat Vegas to again stave
off elimination.
Ryan Hartman scored first and
Nick Bjugstad tacked on the last
goal in support of Talbot, who
made 23 stops.
CHRIS O'MEARA/AP
Florida Panthers wing Jonathan Huberdeau shoots Wednesday in frontof Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.
Lightning, Islanders advanceAssociated Press
ROUNDUP
Friday, May 28, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23
NBA PLAYOFFS
Playoffs
PlayinPlayin First RoundEastern Conference
Tuesday, May 18Indiana 144, Charlotte 117Boston 118, Washington 100
Western ConferenceWednesday, May 19
Memphis 100, San Antonio 96L.A. Lakers 103, Golden State 100
Playin Second RoundEastern Conference
Thursday, May 20Washington 142, Indiana 115
Western ConferenceFriday, May 21
Memphis 117, Golden State 112 (OT)First Round
(Bestofseven)xif necessary
Eastern ConferencePhiladelphia 2,Washington 0
Philadelphia 125, Washington 118Wednesday: �Philadelphia 120, Washing
ton 95Saturday: at Washington Monday: at Washington xWednesday, June 2: at Philadelphia xFriday, June 4: at Washington xSunday, June 6: at Philadelphia
Brooklyn 2, Boston 0Brooklyn 104, Boston 93Brooklyn 130, Boston 108Friday: �at BostonSunday: �at BostonxTuesday, June 1: at BrooklynxThursday, June 3: at BostonxSaturday, June 5: �at Brooklyn
Milwaukee 2, Miami 0Milwaukee 109, Miami 107 (OT)Milwaukee 132, Miami 98Thursday: �at MiamiSaturday: �at MiamixTuesday, June 1: �at Milwaukee xThursday, June 3: �at Miami xSaturday, June 5: �at Milwaukee
Atlanta 1, New York 1Atlanta 107, �New York 105Wednesday: �New York 101, Atlanta 92Friday: at AtlantaSunday: at AtlantaWednesday, June 2: at New York xFriday, June 4: at AtlantaxSunday, June 6: at New York
Western ConferenceMemphis 1, Utah 1
Memphis 112, �Utah 109Wednesday: �Utah 141, Memphis 129Saturday: at MemphisMonday: at MemphisxWednesday, June 2: at UtahxFriday, June 4: at MemphisxSunday, June 6: at Utah
Phoenix 1, �L.A. Lakers 1Phoenix 99, L.A. Lakers 90L.A. Lakers 109, Phoenix 102Thursday: at L.A. LakersSunday: at L.A. LakersTuesday, June 1: at Phoenix xThursday, June 3: at L.A. Lakers xSaturday, June 5: �at Phoenix
Portland 1, Denver 1Portland 123, Denver 109Denver 128, Portland 109Thursday: at PortlandSaturday: at PortlandTuesday, June 1: at Denver xThursday, June 3: at Portland xSaturday, June 5: at Denver
Dallas 2, L.A. Clippers �0Dallas 113, �L.A. Clippers 103Dallas 127, L.A. Clippers 121Friday: �at DallasSunday: �at DallasxWednesday, June 2: �at L.A. Clippers xFriday, June 4: �at Dallas xSunday, June 6: �at L.A. Clippers
Scoreboard
PHILADELPHIA — Ben Sim-
mons put a spin move on Russell
Westbrook that sent him spraw-
ling to the floor several minutes
before an ankle injury sent the
NBA’s triple-double king to the
locker room and
nearly into the
stands to con-
front a misbe-
having fan.
With Sim-
mons soaring
and Westbrook
ailing, the Phila-
delphia 76ers
beat the Wash-
ington Wizards 120-95 on
Wednesday night to take a 2-0
lead in the first-round playoff se-
ries.
Game 3 is Saturday night at
Washington.
Westbrook went down after
colliding with Furkan Korkmaz
early in the fourth quarter. He
limped off the floor and then was
restrained by security after a fan
threw popcorn at him as he was
headed under the tunnel.
“We’ll see,” Westbrook said
about his availability for the next
game. “Hurt it twice in a short
amount of time. We’ll see what
happens.”
As for the incident with the fan,
Westbrook said: “I wouldn’t
come up to me on the street and
throw popcorn on my head, be-
cause you know what happens. ...
In these arenas, you gotta start
protecting the players. We’ll see
what the NBA does.”
Simmons and Joel Embiid each
scored 22 points and Tobias Har-
ris added 19 for the top-seeded
Sixers. Simmons added nine re-
bounds and eight assists.
Bradley Beal had 33 points and
Westbrook finished with 10
points and 11 assists for the sub-
.500 Wizards.
Simmonsleads 76erspast Wizards
Associated Press
Simmons
NEW YORK — Down 13 points,
the New York Knicks needed a
change in the second half beyond
starting Derrick Rose.
They needed the Julius Randle
they saw in the regular season.
Rose scored 26 points, Randle
shook off a miserable first half to
lead a third-quarter turnaround
and the Knicks beat the Atlanta
Hawks 101-92 on Wednesday
night in Game 2 to tie the series.
Randle was 0-for-6 with just two
points at halftime. But with Rose
moving into the starting lineup to
open the third quarter, Randle
made a three-pointer to start the
period and scored 11 points on 4-
for-5 shooting as New York surged
into the lead.
“Obviously we were disappoint-
ed with the way we played in the
first half, but I knew in the second
half there’d be great fight and
there was,” Knicks coach Tom
Thibodeau said.
“And I think Julius hitting that
shot, Julius is not going to go away.
He’s going to keep coming. He’s
got a great will, great determina-
tion and he’s a fighter.”
The winner of the NBA's Most
Improved Player award finished
with 15 points and 12 rebounds de-
spite another poor shooting night.
He was 5-for-16 after going 6-
for-23 in the opener.
But he came through with it
counted along with Reggie Bull-
ock, who made four three-pointers
in the second half and also had 15
points as New York guaranteed
there will be at least one more
home game in this surprising sea-
son.
“Obviously, throughout the
game there's going to be frustra-
tions, but we know who we are as a
team,” Randle said. “We’re never
going to doubt whether we can win
a game or not.”
Trae Young scored 30 points for
the Hawks after having 32 and hit-
ting the tiebreaking shot with 0.9
seconds left in Game 1. Bogdan
Bogdanovic and De'Andre Hunter
added 18 apiece.
Game 3 is Friday night in Atlan-
ta, where the Hawks will be al-
lowed to welcome a full capacity
crowd for the first time this sea-
son.
“I hope Atlanta’s ready to bring
that energy and I hope it’s loud
and I hope everybody’s excited to
have playoffs back in the A,”
Young said, “and I’m ready to play
back inside that arena in front of
those fans. So it’s going to be fun.”
Rose made the basket the gave
the Knicks the lead for good at 93-
91 with 4:45 to play and kick off a
decisive 9-0 run. He played 39
minutes as Thibodeau stuck with
one of his most trusted players to
keep the series — and maybe sea-
son — from slipping away.
AP photo
Atlanta Hawks forward Danilo Gallinari, left, tries to keep the ball from Knicks forward Julius Randle duringthe third quarter in Game 2 of their firstround playoff series Wednesday, in New York.
Knicks rally past HawksAssociated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Donovan
Mitchell wanted to make up for lost
time.
Mitchell scored 25 points in his
much-anticipated return from a
sprained ankle and the Utah Jazz
overcame Ja Morant’s franchise-
record 47 points in a 141-129 victo-
ry over the Memphis Grizzlies on
Wednesday night, tying the first-
round playoff series at a game
apiece.
“I have never been in this posi-
tion before, so this is uncharted
territory. I had to find a way to just
relax myself. It’s easy to go out
there and try and hit a home run to
start the game, but the game’s not
won in the first five minutes,”
Mitchell said.
Mitchell, who was limited to 26
minutes, made five three-pointers.
Rudy Gobert had 21 points, 13 re-
bounds and four blocks for the
Jazz.
Mike Conley had 20 points and a
career-best 15 assists, and Bojan
Bogdanovic added 18 points to help
Utah knot the series.
Buoyed by Mitchell, the Jazz led
by as many as 22 points in the first
half, but Morant and the Grizzlies
roared back in the third quarter.
Utah didn’t ask Mitchell to win the
game himself, but the Jazz needed
his presence to withstand the
Memphis runs.
“Mike had 20 and 15 Rudy at 21
and 13 -- we did a lot of really good
things so it made my job easier. I
didn’t have to come in and just do
everything. I was able to just find
my spots and attack and just kind
of just do what I do,” Mitchell said.
Morant broke Conley’s Grizzlies
playoff scoring record, and be-
came the first player to score as
many as 71 points in his first two
career playoff games since the
NBL merged with the BAA to cre-
ate the NBA before the 1949-50
season.
“I just got to be aggressive at all
times. I put that pressure on myself
to get us back in the game. I was
able to get to my spots on the floor
and make shots,” Morant said.
Two Gobert dunks off pick-and-
rolls powered a 10-0 run that
bridged the third and fourth quar-
ters and gave the Jazz a 110-97 lead
following a three-point play by
Mitchell.
Dillon Brooks, who scored 23
points, had a dunk that got Mem-
phis within 121-112 with 7:06 to
play, but it couldn’t stop Utah’s
multifaceted attack, which scored
at least 36 points in three of the four
periods.
Mitchell was ready to play on
Sunday, but the Jazz medical staff
scratched him from the lineup
hours before the game, frustrating
the Utah star who missed 17 games
with a sprained ankle.
On Monday, Mitchell pro-
claimed he was playing in Game 2
no matter what, and the team
agreed. He tried to make up for lost
time, scoring 12 points — including
three from long range — in his first
eight minutes.
Mitchell, Jazz overcome Morant, GrizzliesAssociated Press
RICK BOWMER/AP
Jazz guard Donovan Mitchellscored 25 points in hismuchanticipated return from asprained ankle.
PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Friday, May 28, 2021
SPORTS
Federer, Serena playing final French Open of their 30s ›› Tennis, Page 19
DES MOINES, Iowa
The hotel door opens and, fast as that, the sound of
polyurethane clicking across concrete begins.
The rhythmic grrrr-chk-chk-grrrr-chk-chk-
grrrr-chk-chk sound of wheels scooting over
cracks in the sidewalk is a telltale sign that something is
different in Des Moines.
Skateboarders took over Middle America last week in a
final dress rehearsal for this summer, when they’ll bring
their show to the rest of the world at the Olympics.
The questions under the magnifying glass at this
week’s Dew Tour — one of the last major qualifying
events for the Tokyo Games in July — are whether the
Olympics is ready for skateboarding and, more tellingly,
whether skateboarding is ready for the Olympics.
“That’s the beautiful thing about skateboarding,” said
Mariah Duran, a 24-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M.,
who is one of a handful of U.S. medal hopefuls. “It takes
you places you’ve never been.”
More than 20 years after its wintertime cousin, snow-
Takingflight
As qualifying events wrap up, skateboardingprepares to make Olympic debut in Tokyo
BY EDDIE PELLS
Associated Press
SEE DEBUT ON PAGE 19
OLYMPICS
Top: Hampus Winberg of Sweden practices during an Olympic qualifying skateboarding event at Lauridsen Skatepark, May 19, in Des Moines, Iowa. Right: The United States’ Nyjah Huston practices at Lauridsen Skatepark,Saturday, May 22. With last week’s Dew Tour representing one of the last major qualifying events for the games inTokyo in July, the world is about to find out whether the Olympics is ready for skateboarding.
PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP
On to round 2
Lightning, Islanders advance withGame 6 wins ›› NHL playoffs, Page 22