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MILAN — Italy is making life more un-
comfortable for unvaccinated people this
holiday season, excluding them from indoor
restaurants, theaters and museums starting
Monday to reduce the spread of coronavi-
rus and encourage vaccine skeptics to get
their shots.
Italian police have been empowered to
check whether diners in restaurants or bars
have a “super” green health pass certifying
that they are either vaccinated or have re-
cently recovered from the virus. Smart
phone applications that verify people’s
health pass status have been updated to pre-
No pass,no pastaUnvaccinated Italians face morerestrictions as holidays approach
Carabinieri policemen check the greenhealth pass of restaurant diners in Romeon Monday. Italian police can checkwhether diners in restaurants or bars havebeen certified as either vaccinated orhaving recently recovered from the virus.
ANDREW MEDICHINI/AP
BY COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press
VIRUS OUTBREAK
SEE PASS ON PAGE 6
Volume 80 Edition 167 ©SS 2021 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas
stripes.com
MILITARY
Pearl Harborsurvivor returns80 years laterPage 4
MILITARY
Report: China wants navy base in West AfricaPage 3
FACES
Bidens attendKennedy CenterHonors ceremonyPage 14
Deciding when to gamble tough choice for coaches ›› NFL: On football, Page 24
A widely popular proposal to
force sweeping changes in how
the military prosecutes felony
crimes is likely to be left out of this
year’s defense authorization bill,
according to people familiar with
the matter, ending for now what
advocates called watershed legis-
lation for equal justice in favor of a
competing plan that focuses more
narrowly on sexual assault and re-
lated offenses.
The proposal to establish an in-
dependent authority to determine
when charges should be filed for
numerous crimes was spearhead-
ed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-
N.Y. For years, she has promoted
this approach as the best way to
dissociate the military justice sys-
tem from the biases of command-
ers and ensure crime victims —
particularly women and minori-
ties — cannot be silenced or de-
nied justice by their superiors.
Gillibrand’s legislation struck a
rare sweet spot in congressional
politics this year, winning the sup-
port of most Democrats and a
broad coalition of Republicans,
and clear majorities in the Senate
and the House. But last-minute
procedural setbacks, coupled with
resistance from the Pentagon,
have sapped the momentum it
previously enjoyed.
Based on more than a dozen in-
terviews with senior officials and
advocates familiar with private
negotiations on Capitol Hill, it ap-
pears the Gillibrand provision,
Military justice system overhaul sidelinedBY KAROUN DEMIRJIAN
The Washington Post
Proposal with broad bipartisan support to be struck in favor of alternative with narrower focus on sex assault
SEE JUSTICE ON PAGE 5
PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
BUSINESS/WEATHER
BATON ROUGE, La. — Insur-
ance companies operating in
Louisiana will be charged at
least $100 million to pay the
claims of two failed property in-
surers who went belly up in Hur-
ricane Ida’s aftermath. But the
cost of dealing with the insolvent
insurers ultimately will fall on
the state after companies recoup
the dollars through a series of
tax credits.
The Advocate reports that the
board of the Louisiana Insur-
ance Guaranty Association — a
state-sponsored safety net for
policyholders — voted for the
first time since 2004 to charge
insurers 1% of their net written
premiums to help fill its coffers.
The guaranty fund, known as
LIGA, covers claims for policy-
holders whose insurers become
insolvent.
Its work is being triggered af-
ter the state insurance depart-
ment in mid-November took
control of two regional insurers
whose finances tanked following
Hurricane Ida: Access Home In-
surance Co. and State National
Fire Insurance Co.
The two companies provided
coverage for around 28,000
homeowners.
Access Home Insurance re-
ceived claims totaling around
$180 million following Ida and
had just $115 million in reinsu-
rance and cash available. Mean-
while, State National Fire Insur-
ance logged more than $70 mil-
lion in claims with $41 million
on-hand, Wells said.
2 La. insurance firms fail after Hurricane IdaAssociated Press
Bahrain72/69
Baghdad68/48
Doha78/57
Kuwait City70/56
Riyadh71/55
Kandahar
Kabul
Djibouti84/73
TUESDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Mildenhall/Lakenheath
42/32
Ramstein36/33
Stuttgart39/33
Lajes,Azores62/59
Rota59/48
Morón64/39 Sigonella
62/50
Naples49/41
Aviano/Vicenza40/28
Pápa35/27
Souda Bay60/55
Brussels41/35
Zagan29/22
DrawskoPomorskie
25/22
TUESDAY IN EUROPE
Misawa47/44
Guam83/80
Tokyo47/44
Okinawa70/67
Sasebo57/52
Iwakuni56/52
Seoul47/31
Osan49/32
Busan54/47
The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,
2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
WEDNESDAY IN THE PACIFIC
WEATHER OUTLOOK
TODAYIN STRIPES
American Roundup ...... 11Classified .................... 13Comics .........................16Crossword ................... 16Faces .......................... 14Opinion ........................ 15Sports .................... 18-24
Military rates
Euro costs (Dec. 7) $1.10Dollar buys (Dec. 7) 0.8633British pound (Dec. 7) $1.30Japanese yen (Dec. 7) 110.00South Korean won (Dec. 7) 1153.00
Commercial rates
Bahrain(Dinar) 0.3769Britain (Pound) 1.3243Canada (Dollar) 1.2788China(Yuan) 6.3767Denmark (Krone) 6.5871Egypt (Pound) 15.7182Euro 0.8858Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7989Hungary (Forint) 323.21Israel (Shekel) 3.1685Japan (Yen) 112.63Kuwait(Dinar) 0.3027
Norway (Krone) 9.1097
Philippines (Peso) 50.40Poland (Zloty) 4.07Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7510Singapore (Dollar) 1.3690
South Korea (Won) 1182.03Switzerland (Franc) 0.9237Thailand (Baht) 33.82Turkey (NewLira) 13.7625
(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger-many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur-chasing British pounds in Germany), check withyour local military banking facility. Commercialrates are interbank rates provided for referencewhen buying currency. All figures are foreigncurrencies to one dollar, except for the Britishpound, which is represented in dollars-to-pound, and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.)
INTEREST RATES
Prime rate 3.25Interest Rates Discount rate 0.75Federal funds market rate 0.093-month bill 0.0630-year bond 1.67
EXCHANGE RATES
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3
MILITARY
Images of an Air Force mainte-
nance crew sent to repair an F-16
Fighting Falcon in northeastern
Japan appeared on Twitter over
the weekend, days after the jet jet-
tisoned two fuel tanks on a nearby
town.
Photos and video show the 11
crew members lined up on an Ao-
mori Airport ramp beside a snow-
man as the F-16 taxis away past
mounds of snow. Other images
show an airman making the snow-
man on the tarmac.
Still more images show the air-
men bowing and waving at the
camera after the aircraft depart-
ed.
The images were originally
captured by live weather cameras
at the airport or a local TV station,
according to the tweets. Twitter
users identified the F-16 as the
same aircraft that landed at the
airport at about 6 p.m. Nov. 29 af-
ter an in-flight emergency.
Most Twitter users posted the
images in good humor. Some said
the snowman was keeping watch
over the aircraft. Another person
said they couldn’t get the snow-
man off their mind after the air-
men drew their attention to it.
Others simply identified the air-
craft as airmen removed a cover-
ing of snow from it and went to
work.
A spokesman for Misawa Air
Base expressed thanks for the pa-
tience shown to the airmen who
worked on the fighter.
The maintainers who traveled
to Aomori Airport to complete all
the necessary repairs and inspec-
tions on the diverted F-16 worked
tirelessly to get the aircraft back
to the base, Staff Sgt. Matthew Ka-
karis said Monday in an email to
Stars and Stripes.
“We sincerely appreciate the
patience and understanding of the
local officials and Aomori Airport
staff while maintenance was ac-
complished to safely return our
aircraft,” he said.
The pilot jettisoned the fuel
tanks before landing. Both fell on
Fukaura, a coastal town about 100
miles west of Misawa. One tank
fell near the town hall and some
scattered homes, the Ajigasawa
police and Tohoku Defense Bu-
reau said Wednesday. The other
fell in woods in town, according to
the 35th Fighter Wing.
The pilot was not injured, and
the falling tanks caused no inju-
ries. A sidewalk guardrail was
damaged, police said. Japan’s De-
fense Minister, Nobuo Kishi, said
he would ask the Air Force to
ground its F-16s until it would con-
firm their safety, but the Falcons
took to the skies within two days,
according to Japanese media.
Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura, in
an official statement, expressed
“strong regret” that the fighters
were flying again so soon after the
incident.
U.S. airmen wave at Aomori Airport, in northeastern Japan, after repairing an F16 Fighting Falcon thatlanded there because of an inflight emergency that forced the pilot to drop the jet’s external fuel tanks.
Snowman pics of airmen fixingF-16 enthrall, but Japan is frosty
BY HANA KUSUMOTO
AND JOSEPH DITZLER
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @[email protected]: @JosephDitzler
China has its eyes on Equatorial
Guinea for a new military base,
which would give Beijing a new
naval foothold in the Atlantic
Ocean, according to a media re-
port that comes following long-
standing concerns among U.S.
military leaders about China’s
ambitions in West Africa.
The Wall Street Journal, citing
classified U.S. intelligence infor-
mation, reported Sunday that Chi-
na wants to set up a permanent
base in the small coastal nation.
If those plans are realized, Chi-
nese warships would be able to
homeport opposite the U.S.’s east-
ern seaboard, making for “a threat
that is setting off alarm bells at the
White House and Pentagon,” the
newspaper reported.
But while the entire Atlantic
Ocean would serve as a buffer in
such a scenario, China’s expand-
ing economic and military reach
in Africa has been a growing U.S.
focus in recent years.
In April, U.S. Africa Com-
mand’s Gen. Stephen Townsend
raised the issue during congres-
sional testimony, saying that Beij-
ing wants bases in other parts of
Africa to link up commercial sea-
port investments across the conti-
nent with Chinese military forces.
“They are aggressively pursu-
ing a base on Africa’s west coast,”
Townsend told the Senate Armed
Services Committee in April.
He said China was making “a
number of bets” and that the aim
was an Atlantic port where war-
ships “can rearm with munitions
and repair naval vessels.”
“They are working aggressively
to get that, but we have not seen
any of that come to fruition yet,”
Townsend said. “And it is my
number one global power compe-
tition concern.”
In Africa, China has emerged as
the key international player after
decades of heavy economic in-
vestment, which has given Beijing
leverage with many governments.
Western critics have called Chi-
na’s large loans to developing
African nations “debt traps” that
leave vulnerable governments ex-
posed, while Beijing gains access
to valuable infrastructure and re-
sources.
If it succeeds with its plan for a
base in Equatorial Guinea, a coun-
try of just 1.2 million people, China
will have two strategic military
sites in Africa.
In 2017, China inaugurated its
first overseas base in the East
African country of Djibouti, locat-
ed just 7 miles from the U.S. mil-
itary’s Africa hub, Camp Lemmo-
nier.
Over the past four years, China
has continued to develop that out-
post, which is now large enough to
host aircraft carriers. The expan-
sion coincides with the buildup of
China’s navy, which has two air-
craft carriers in service and a
third carrier expected to be oper-
ational by 2024.
Report: China’snavy eyes basein West Africa
BY JOHN VANDIVER
Stars and Stripes
JOHN YOUNTZ/U.S. Army
In April, Gen. StephenTownsend, head of U.S. AfricaCommand, said China was"aggressively pursuing" a base onthe Atlantic Ocean in West Africa.The Chinese have zeroed in onEquatorial Guinea, a Wall StreetJournal report said Sunday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,People's Republic of China
Chinese Foreign Minister WangYi, right, met with EquatorialGuinean Foreign MinisterSimeon Oyono Esono Angue inDakar, Senegal, on Nov. 30.
[email protected]: @john_vandiver
SANTA FE, N.M. — The New
Mexico National Guard’s top uni-
formed general is stepping down.
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Nava an-
nounced Friday his last day as the
state adjutant general before re-
tiring will be Dec. 31.
Nava will have served 33 years
in uniform, beginning as an enlist-
ed man in 1988 as a mechanic in an
air defense artillery unit, the San-
ta Fe New Mexican reported.
Nava was
commissioned a
second lieuten-
ant in 1992 and
served in Iraq
from 2008-10
while command-
ing the 515th
Combat Sustain-
ment Support Battalion.
Then-Gov. Susana Martinez ap-
pointed Nava as adjutant general
in 2017. Current Gov. Michelle Lu-
jan Grisham attended Nava’s re-
tirement ceremony in Santa Fe on
Friday.
“Gen. Nava has been a standout
leader throughout my time in of-
fice and he was integral in mobili-
zing our National Guard to sup-
port and protect New Mexicans
throughout the pandemic,” Lujan
Grisham said in a statement.
Nava said he plans after leaving
the National Guard to work for In-
tel Corp. in Chandler, Ariz.
NM National Guard adjutant general to retireAssociated Press
Nava
PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
MILITARY
Australia and Papua New Gui-
nea have completed the first steps
and begun major refurbishment
of a navy base built by U.S. forces
on Manus Island, Papua New Gui-
nea, during World War II.
The upgrades at Lombrum Na-
val Base are part of a deal the two
countries reached in 2018. It gives
Australian forces access to the
strategically vital deep-water port
while slamming the door on Chi-
nese ambitions to gain a foothold
on the island, The Australian
newspaper reported at the time.
A chapel, medical facility and
security fencing have been built
and a communication center has
been upgraded since work began
in mid-2020, the Australian De-
fence Department said in an email
Nov. 24.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Car-
los Del Toro visited Manus in late
October and met sailors assigned
to Naval Mobile Construction Bat-
talion 5, which deployed to the is-
land to build a dental facility, ac-
cording to posts on the battalion’s
Facebook page in September and
October.
Manus is an 800-square-mile
rock in the Bismarck Sea north of
New Britain. It is just over 1,000
miles south of Guam, where Ma-
rines are scheduled to relocate
from Okinawa, and 1,300 miles
east of Darwin, which hosts a
2,500-strong U.S. Marine Corps
rotational force.
During World War II, the U.S.
constructed wharves, a 9,000-foot
runway and accommodations for
tens of thousands of troops on
Manus.
It was a venue for the trials of
Japanese war criminals and, in re-
cent years, served as an offshore
processing center for immigrants
attempting to illegally enter Aus-
tralia by sea. The center, for years
a point of contention, held 1,400
immigrants in 2014. It was shut
down in October 2019, according
to Australian public broadcaster
SBS.
The initial work to upgrade the
base, completed in September,
employed 121 local workers, ac-
cording to the Australian Defence
Department.
“Over the last six months, logis-
tics, workforce facilities, and
earthworks for environmental
controls have been established for
Main Works,” the department
said.
Next year, workers will build
electrical generation, water and
sewage services, facilities for
community work, training and ac-
commodation and operational fa-
cilities to support the Papua New
Guinea Defence Force’s Guardi-
an-class patrol boats and small
boat operations, the department
said.
The project, expected to be
worth $41.2 million, will create ap-
proximately 350 jobs in Papua
New Guinea per year, the depart-
ment said. Since June, the work-
force has grown to 216, with 96% of
them Papua New Guineans.
Royal Australian Navy vessels
can and have made port visits to
Lombrum, however ,it will remain
a Papua New Guinea base for the
country’s vessels, the department
said.
When construction work is
completed, Lombrum will support
Papua New Guinea’s patrol boats
and Australia’s ANZAC-class fri-
gates, Carlyle Thayer, an emeri-
tus professor at the University of
New South Wales and lecturer at
the Australian Defence Force A-
cademy, said in a Nov. 25 email.
“To accommodate larger ves-
sels the harbor would need to be
dredged at least two meters deep-
er and the current wharves would
have to be widened and extend-
ed,” he said.
A recent study by the Royal
Australian Navy’s Sea Power Cen-
tre proposed options for Lom-
brum ranging from a forward op-
erating base to a geostrategic
strongpoint on par with U.S. facil-
ities on Guam. But building such a
high-end facility couldn’t be done
without U.S. backing, Thayer said.
Papua New Guinea to revive WWII baseBY SETH ROBSON
Stars and Stripes
AMANDA HUNT/U.S. Navy
U.S. Navy Seabees with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 place concrete during construction of adental facility at Lombrum Naval Base, Papua New Guinea, on Nov. 17.
[email protected]: @SethRobson1
HONOLULU — When Japanese bombs
began falling on Pearl Harbor, U.S. Navy
Seaman 1st Class David Russell first sought
refuge below deck on the USS Oklahoma.
But a split-second decision on that De-
cember morning 80 years ago changed his
mind, and likely saved his life.
“They started closing that hatch. And I
decided to get out of there,” Russell, now
101, said in a recent interview.
Within 12 minutes his battleship would
capsize under a barrage of torpedoes. Alto-
gether 429 sailors and Marines from the
Oklahoma would perish — the greatest
death toll from any ship that day other than
the USS Arizona, which lost 1,177.
Russell plans to return to Pearl Harbor
on Tuesday for a ceremony in remem-
brance of the more than 2,300 American
troops killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that
launched the U.S. into World War II.
About 30 survivors and 100 other veter-
ans from the war are expected to observe a
moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the minute
the attack began.
Survivors, now in their late 90s or older,
stayed home last year due to the coronavi-
rus pandemic and watched a livestream of
the event instead.
Russell is traveling to Hawaii with the
Best Defense Foundation, a nonprofit
founded by former NFL Linebacker Donnie
Edwards that helps World War II veterans
revisit their old battlefields.
He recalls heading topside when the at-
tack started because he was trained to load
anti-aircraft guns and figured he could help
if any other loader got hurt.
But Japanese torpedo planes dropped a
series of underwater missiles that pum-
meled the Oklahoma before he could get
there. Within 12 minutes, the hulking bat-
tleship capsized.
“Those darn torpedoes, they just kept hit-
ting us and kept hitting us. I thought they’d
never stop,” Russell said. “That ship was
dancing around.”
Russell clambered over and around top-
pled lockers while the battleship slowly
rolled over.
“You had to walk sort of sideways,” he
said.
Once he got to the main deck, he crawled
over the ship’s side and eyed the USS Mary-
land moored next door. He didn’t want to
swim because leaked oil was burning in the
water below. Jumping, he caught a rope
hanging from the Maryland and escaped to
that battleship without injury.
He then helped pass ammunition to the
Maryland’s anti-aircraft guns.
Russell still thinks about how lucky he
was. He ponders why he decided to go top-
side on the Oklahoma, knowing most of the
men who stayed behind likely were unable
to get out after the hatch closed.
In the first two days after the bombing, a
civilian crew from the Pearl Harbor Naval
Shipyard rescued 32 men trapped inside
the Oklahoma by cutting holes in its hull.
But many others perished. Most of those
who died were buried in anonymous Hono-
lulu graves marked as “unknowns” be-
cause their remains were too degraded to
be identified by the time they were re-
moved from the ship between 1942 and
1944.
In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Account-
ing Agency exhumed 388 sets of these re-
mains in hopes of identifying them with the
help of DNA technology and dental records.
They succeeded with 361.
Russell’s brother-in-law was among
them. Fireman 1st Class Walter “Boone”
Rogers was in the fireroom, which got hit by
torpedoes, Russell said. The military identi-
fied his remains in 2017, and he’s since been
reburied at Arlington National Cemetery.
Russell remained in the Navy until retir-
ing in 1960. He worked at Air Force bases
for the next two decades and retired for
good in 1980.
His wife, Violet, passed away 22 years
ago, and he now lives alone in Albany, Ore.
101-year-old returns to Pearl Harbor to remember those lostBY AUDREY MCAVOY
AND GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
NATHAN HOWARD/AP
Pearl Harbor survivor and World War IINavy veteran David Russell, 101, posesfor a photo at his home on Nov. 22 inAlbany, Ore.
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5
short of a miracle, is out. Those
talks involve the top Democrats
and Republicans on the Senate
and House Armed Services com-
mittees. The senior officials famil-
iar with their discussions spoke on
the condition of anonymity be-
cause the $768 billion defense bill,
which dictates funding for the
Pentagon and other defense oper-
ations, has not been finalized.
In place of Gillibrand’s legisla-
tion, the defense bill is expected to
incorporate an alternative propos-
al that will revolutionize how the
military justice system approach-
es cases of sexual assault and cer-
tain related crimes, and which al-
ready received the backing of
three-fourths of the House as part
of its version of the defense bill, of-
ficials said. Charging decisions in
those cases will become the pur-
view of an independent special
victims prosecutor, reflecting rec-
ommendations the Pentagon en-
dorsed earlier this year. The final
defense bill is also likely to desig-
nate the crimes of murder and kid-
napping as falling under the au-
thority of the special prosecutor,
according to officials involved in
negotiations.
But for many advocates of sex-
ual assault reform in the military,
those changes fall short. And law-
makers who want to address dis-
crimination more broadly in mil-
itary prosecutions point out that
the list of crimes that would fall
under the special prosecutor’s
purview does not include offenses
for which service members who
are racial minorities are dispro-
portionately charged.
The forces behind Gillibrand’s
legislation are blunt in their as-
sessment of the changes con-
tained in the House’s legislation.
“It’s not good enough,” Sen. Joni
Ernst, the Iowa Republican who
has been Gillibrand’s chief part-
ner in pressing for a more sweep-
ing overhaul, said in an interview.
“Sure, anything is better than
nothing. But it doesn’t solve the
problem. It doesn’t go nearly as
far as we need it to.”
Gillibrand, in a statement, re-
sponded to questions about the po-
tential demise of her legislation by
emphasizing its broad backing in
Congress. To excise it from the
National Defense Authorization
Act, or NDAA, as the larger bill is
known, would be a “disservice” to
military personnel, she said.
“Our reform has the bipartisan
support of 66 senators and 220
House members,” Gillibrand said.
“The only way it does not become
law in the NDAA is if a handful of
powerful men rip it out behind
closed doors.”
many of them political and gener-
ational, about how to level the
playing field for women and mi-
norities, and disagreement over
what lawmakers should — and
should not — demand from the
Pentagon.
People involved in the negotia-
tions said that congressional lead-
ers are homing in on a narrower
roster of crimes. Those who sup-
port the more limited approach
argue that renegotiating the list
could threaten the balance of the
entire defense bill. Those who
support a more aggressive ap-
proach argue that the resistance is
born of cowardice and a reluc-
tance to stand up to pressure from
the Pentagon.
Gillibrand and her partners are
upset negotiators have embraced
the House bill’s approach of let-
ting commanders keep convening
courts-martial, distrusting the
House proposal’s stipulation that
the special prosecutor’s “binding”
charging decisions will be enough
to prevent cases from being drawn
out. Instead,they want to create an
entirely separate courts-martial
convening authority, though it
would be left to the individual ser-
vice chiefs — the generals and ad-
mirals who lead the Army, Navy,
Air Force, Marine Corps and
Coast Guard — to determine what
that should look like.
Much of Gillibrand’s frustration
is and has been directed toward
Senate Armed Services Commit-
tee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I.,
who has expressed skepticism
about her approach, despite al-
lowing it into his panel’s defense
bill draft this year.
A spokeswoman for House
Armed Services Committee
Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash.,
declined to comment. A spokes-
woman for that panel’s top Repub-
lican, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alaba-
ma, did not respond to a request
for comment. The Senate Armed
Services Committee’s top Repub-
lican, Sen. James Inhofe of Okla-
homa, said in an interview that ne-
gotiations on Gillibrand’s bill
were too much of “a moving tar-
get” to discuss publicly.
The campaign to improve crime
victims’ ability to seek remedy
through the military justice sys-
tem dates back more than a dec-
ade. Most of the public debate has
centered around correcting how
the military prosecutes cases of
sexual assault in particular, given
the Pentagon’s own numbers
show it is a rampant problem and
there are anecdotal reports that
thousands of cases go unreported.
But the debate about what re-
forms are necessary has been
complicated by differences in
Congress and within the military,
Justice: Sex assault advocates say proposals are not enoughFROM PAGE 1
MILITARY
CAMP COURTNEY, Okinawa
— A Marine law enforcement offi-
cer was awarded for bravery after
she stopped her roommate from
an apparent suicide attempt in
their Okinawa barracks last year.
Lance Cpl. Noelle Gallegos, 21,
of Shenandoah, Pa., received the
Marine Corps Law Enforcement
Foundation’s Jim Kallstrom
Award for her actions on Aug. 31,
2020. Brig. Gen. William Bowers,
commander of Marine Corps In-
stallations Pacific, handed Galle-
gos the award at a ceremony Nov.
3 at Camp Foster.
“I was very nervous,” Gallegos
said Monday. “The award’s a big
deal.”
The annual awards go to two
Marine law enforcement officers
who exemplify “the ethos of pro-
tect and serve,” and who show a
genuine concern for the well-be-
ing of the Corps, their fellow Ma-
rines and the community they
serve, according to a Marine state-
ment in February.
Gallegos recalled the incident
that brought her the award during
an interview Monday at her office.
“It was a crazy hour,” she said.
Anight-shift patrolman with the
provost marshal’s office at Camp
Courtney, Gallegos said she was
awakened at approximately 1:45
p.m. by screaming and the sound
of things smashing.
Gallegos found her roommate
in the bathroom amid an array of
broken items, she said. The room-
mate was acting erratically and
saying she might harm herself.
Earlier in the day, the room-
mate, who did not drink or use
drugs, had been acting out of char-
acter, Gallegos said.
Gallegos said she called 911 as
she rushed to find the duty officer.
When Gallegos’ co-workers ar-
rived, her naked roommate pulled
a knife. Gallegos said she quickly
disarmed the woman and stopped
her from stabbing herself in the
neck with a pen and jumping from
a window.
The men among the military po-
lice officers who responded were
wary about touching her room-
mate, Gallegos said, so she re-
strained the woman while a first
responder checked her condition.
As time came to take her into cus-
tody, the woman became aggres-
sive. She kicked and screamed be-
fore being handcuffed, Gallegos
said.
Gallegos, who received a certif-
icate of commendation for her ac-
tions, was unaware she had been
nominated by her command for
the Jim Kallstrom Award.
“Gallegos has always been a
hard-working Marine,” provost
marshal noncommissioned offi-
cer-in-charge Staff Sgt. Amanda
Phelps said in a Marine Corps
statement Nov. 14. “She has al-
ways been outgoing and she is
easy to speak with. She has great
people skills and maintains a ma-
ture personality.”
The award was named for Ma-
rine Corps Law Enforcement
Foundation co-founder and for-
mer chairman James Kallstrom, a
decorated Marine and FBI agent
who died earlier this year. The or-
ganization has raised over $80
million in aid for children who
have lost a parent in service, Kall-
strom’s obituary said.
Gallegos plans to pursue a ca-
reer practicing law after her en-
listment in the Marine Corps is up,
she said.
Okinawa-based Marine gets national service awardBY MATTHEW M. BURKE
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @MatthewMBurke1
MATTHEW M. BURKE/STARS AND STRIPES
Lance Cpl. Noelle Gallegos, a patrolman with Marine Corps Installations Pacific’s provost marshal’s office,poses at Camp Courtney, Okinawa, on Saturday, Nov. 6.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. will
stage a diplomatic boycott of the
upcoming Winter Olympics in
Beijing to protest Chinese human
rights abuses, the White House
confirmed Monday — a move that
China has vowed to greet with
“firm countermeasures.”
“U.S. diplomatic or official rep-
resentation would treat these
Games as business as usual in the
face of [China’s] egregious human
rights abuses and atrocities in
Xinjiang, and we simply can’t do
that,” White House press secreta-
ry Jen Psaki told reporters during
Monday’s briefing.
She said that U.S. athletes will
continue to compete and will
“have our full support.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spo-
kesperson Zhao Lijian accused
U.S. politicians of grandstanding
and said such a move would be an
“outright political provocation,”
but gave no details on how China
might retaliate.
Human rights advocates and
lawmakers in the U.S. who sup-
port a boycott say it is a necessary
step.
US announcesdiplomaticboycott ofBeijing Games
Associated Press
PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
VIRUS OUTBREAK
vent entry to concerts, movies or
performances to those who have
merely tested negative in recent
days. The measures run through
Jan. 15.
Authorities also imposed a re-
quirement that at least “basic”
health pass, which can be ob-
tained with a negative test, must
be used to get on local transport
and to check into hotels.
In the capital, Rome, dozens of
police were out at transportation
hubs checking both green passes
and personal identification, find-
ing a cooperative mood among
commuters. Still, a 50-year-old
Roman became the first to receive
a $450 fine after getting off the bus
at the northern Flaminio station
without the “basic” health pass,
said Stefano Napoli, deputy chief
of Rome’s municipal police force.
“It was about time that they
checked it,” said Sara Ben, a
Rome commuter, noting the ab-
sence of controls on the often-
packed local transportation
throughout the pandemic.
Milanese were enjoying the first
long weekend of the season, in-
cluding Tuesday’s celebration for
the patron saint of Saint Ambrose
and Wednesday’s national holi-
day, leaving commuter routes
more empty than usual. But few
checks were evident around the
main Central Station, either for re-
gional trains or local buses and
subways.
Commuter Veronica Bianchi
said her health pass wasn’t
checked on a regional train arriv-
ing in Milan. “But they didn’t
check the ticket either,” she said.
The number of new COVID-19
infections in Italy has been on a
gradual rise for the past six weeks,
even before concerns arose about
the new omicron variant. That’s a
worrying trend as Italians look
forward to holiday parties and ge-
taways to spend time with friends
and family, after being deprived
of such festivities last year.
While both neighboring Germa-
ny and Austria are moving toward
making vaccines obligatory for
certain groups, Italy is instead
tightening free-time restrictions
on the unvaccinated at the most
convivial time of the year — while
allowing those who are vaccinated
go about life more or less as usual.
European nations have found
varying formulas to try to reduce
infections during peak times.
With an eye on the holidays,
Switzerland on Monday began al-
lowing — but not requiring —
event organizers to bar anyone
who hasn’t been vaccinated or
hasn’t recovered from COVID-19.
Sweden introduced a vaccination
requirement for indoor events
with more than 100 people starting
Dec. 1.
On Monday, the Netherlands re-
versed itself on plans to open in-
door venues to vaccinated people
only, sticking instead with a 5 p.m.
closure for restaurants, cinemas
and other public sites.
ANDREW MEDICHINI/AP
Carabinieri policemen check the green health pass of restaurant diners, in Rome, on Monday, on the firstday a “super” green health pass went into effect.
Pass: European countries brace for holidaysFROM PAGE 1
NEW YORK — All private em-
ployers in New York City will have
to require their workers to get vac-
cinated against COVID-19, the
mayor announced Monday, im-
posing one of the most aggressive
vaccine rules in the nation.
The move by Mayor Bill de Bla-
sio comes as cases are climbing
again in the U.S. and the worri-
some omicron variant is gaining a
toehold in New York and else-
where around the country.
“We in New York City have de-
cided to use a preemptive strike to
really do something bold to stop
the further growth of COVID and
the dangers it’s causing to all of
us,” he said.
De Blasio, a Democrat with just
weeks left in office as leader of the
nation’s largest city, said the man-
date will take effect Dec. 27.
Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morn-
ing Joe,” he said the move is aimed
at staving off a spike of infections
amid holiday gatherings and as
cold weather drives more people
indoors, where the virus is more
likely to spread.
Vaccine mandates across states
and cities vary widely, with some
states resisting any mandates and
others requiring the shots for gov-
ernment employees or certain sec-
tors that run a particularly high
risk, such as health care workers.
But most officials have not an-
nounced mandates reaching as far
into the private sector, nor man-
dates covering so many people.
President Joe Biden sought to
impose a similar mandate nation-
ally, applying to businesses with
100 or more workers, but federal
courts have put that on hold ahead
of a Jan. 4 deadline.
De Blasio said he expects his
new mandate to survive any legal
challenges. A spokesperson for the
mayor said it will apply to roughly
184,000 businesses in the city,
which has a population of 8.8 mil-
lion.
Vaccinations are already re-
quired for hospital and nursing
home workers and for city employ-
ees, including teachers, police offi-
cers and firefighters. A vaccina-
tion mandate for employees of pri-
vate and religious schools was an-
nounced last week.
Also, the mayor announced that
anyone 12 or older who wants to
dine indoors at a restaurant, go to a
gym or see a show will have to pro-
duce proof of receiving two shots of
the vaccine, up from the current
requirement of one dose. In addi-
tion, proof of at least one shot will
be required of children ages 5 to 11,
de Blasio said.
De Blasio, who leaves office at
the end of the month and has indi-
cated he may seek the nomination
for governor of New York next
year, has sought to portray himself
as a national leader in the fight
against COVID-19.
NYC to requirevaccination forprivate sector
BY MICHELLE L. PRICE
AND KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press
BRUSSELS — Belgian police
used water cannon and tear gas
Sunday to disperse some rowdy
protesters in Brussels after most
demonstrators marched peaceful-
ly to protest tightened COVID-19
restrictions that aim to counter a
surge of coronavirus infections.
Thousands came to reject the
new measures announced Friday,
the third week in a row that the gov-
ernment has tightened its rules as
an avalanche of new cases strains
the country’s health services, de-
priving people with other life-
threatening diseases of treatment.
Shouting “Freedom! Freedom!”
and carrying banners that said,
“United for our freedom, rights
and our children,” protesters
marched to the European Union
headquarters. Some also carried
signs critical of vaccines and
against making vaccine shots man-
datory.
The main crowd in Sunday's
mostly peaceful march had al-
ready dispersed when about 100
protesters ran into a riot police bar-
ricade cordoning off access to the
European Commission. After a
brief stand-off with police, protes-
ters hurled trash and other objects,
including a bicycle, at police and
set off firecrackers and flares. Po-
lice used water cannons and fired
tear gas to disperse the crowd.
There were no immediate reports
of injuries.
On Friday, Prime Minister Alex-
ander De Croo announced that day
care centers and primary schools
will close for the holiday a week
early, and children must now wear
masks from the age of 6. Indoor
events will only be allowed with a
maximum of 200 people.
Belgian police use water cannon,tear gas on rowdy protesters
Associated Press
U.S. health officials said Sunday
that while the omicron variant of
the coronavirus is rapidly spread-
ing throughout the country, early
indications suggest it may be less
dangerous than delta, which con-
tinues to drive a surge of hospital-
izations.
President Joe Biden’s chief
medical adviser, Dr. Anthony
Fauci, told CNN’s “State of the
Union” that scientists need more
information before drawing con-
clusions about omicron’s severity.
Reports from South Africa,
where it emerged and is becoming
the dominant strain, suggest that
hospitalization rates have not in-
creased alarmingly.
“Thus far, it does not look like
there’s a great degree of severity
to it,” Fauci said. “But we have re-
ally got to be careful before we
make any determinations that it is
less severe or it really doesn’t
cause any severe illness, compa-
rable to delta.”
Fauci said the Biden adminis-
tration is considering lifting travel
restrictions against noncitizens
entering the United States from
several African countries. They
were imposed as the omicron vari-
ant exploded in the region, but
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres has blasted such mea-
sures as “travel apartheid.”
Fauci: Early omicronreports encouraging
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7
VIRUS OUTBREAK
A rush of vaccine-seeking cus-
tomers and staff shortages are
squeezing drugstores around the
U.S., leading to frazzled workers
and temporary pharmacy clo-
sures.
Drugstores are normally busy
this time of year with flu shots
and other vaccines, but now
pharmacists are doling out a
growing number of COVID-19
shots and giving coronavirus
tests.
The push for shots is expected
to grow more intense as Presi-
dent Joe Biden urges vaccinated
Americans to get booster shots to
combat the emerging omicron
variant. The White House said
Thursday that more than two in
three COVID-19 vaccinations are
happening at local pharmacies.
And pharmacists worry anoth-
er job might soon be added to
their to-do list: If regulators ap-
prove antiviral pills from drug-
makers Merck and Pfizer to treat
COVID-19, pharmacists may be
able to diagnose infections and
then prescribe pills to customers.
“There’s crazy increased de-
mand on pharmacies right now,”
said Theresa Tolle, an independ-
ent pharmacist who has seen CO-
VID-19 vaccine demand quadru-
ple since the summer at her Se-
bastian, Fla., store.
Pharmacists say demand for
COVID-19 vaccines started pick-
ing up over the summer as the
delta variant spread rapidly.
Booster shots and the expansion
of vaccine eligibility to include
children have since stoked it.
On top of that workload and
routine prescriptions, many
drugstores also have been asking
pharmacists to counsel patients
more generally on their health or
about chronic conditions like dia-
betes and high blood pressure.
Pharmacies also have been
handling more phone calls from
customers with questions about
vaccines or COVID-19 tests,
noted Justin Wilson, who owns
three independent pharmacies in
Oklahoma.
“We’re all working a lot harder
than we did before, but we’re do-
ing everything we can to take
care of people,” Wilson said, add-
ing that he has not had to tempo-
rarily close any of his pharmacies
or limit hours so far.
Tolle said she was lucky to hire
a pharmacy resident just before
the delta surge arrived. The new
employee was supposed to focus
mostly on diabetes programs but
has largely been relegated to vac-
cine duty.
Tolle said her Bay Street Phar-
macy is now giving about 80 CO-
VID-19 vaccines a day, up from
20 before the delta wave.
“God’s timing worked out well
for me,” she said. “We would not
have gotten through without hav-
ing that additional person here.”
Others haven’t been as fortu-
nate. A CVS Health store on the
northeast side of Indianapolis
shuttered its pharmacy in the
middle of the afternoon Thursday
due to staffing issues. A sign
taped to the metal gate over the
closed pharmacy counter also
told customers that the pharma-
cy will soon start closing for a half
hour each afternoon so the phar-
macist can have a lunch break.
Tolle noted that it is not clear
yet how pharmacists will be re-
imbursed for the time they take to
diagnose and prescribe. That will
have to be clarified, especially if
cases surge again and drugstores
need to add even more workers to
help.
“We want to be able to help our
communities,” she said. “I don’t
know how pharmacies are going
to manage it.”
US pharmaciesstruggle withvaccine demand
BY TOM MURPHY
Associated Press
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP
Pharmacist Todd Gharibian, right, administers a dose of the ModernaCOVID19 vaccine to Toshiko Sugiyama, left, at a CVS Pharmacybranch March 1, in Los Angeles.
NEW ORLEANS — A Norwegian
Cruise Line ship with at least 10 pas-
sengers and crew members infected
with COVID-19 docked Sunday in
New Orleans, where health officials
said they were trying to disembark
people without worsening the
spread.
Local news outlets in New Orleans
confirmed the Norwegian Break-
away had arrived. The ship departed
New Orleans on Nov. 28. The Loui-
siana Department of Health said in a
late Saturday news release that over
the past week, the ship made stops in
Belize, Honduras and Mexico.
Norwegian Cruise Line issued a
statement that confirmed a “handful
of COVID-19 cases among guests
and crew.” The company said all of
the identified cases involved people
without symptoms of the illness.
Norwegian said it requires all pas-
sengers and crew members to have
been vaccinated against the corona-
virus prior to departure.
“We are testing all individuals on
Norwegian Breakaway prior to dis-
embarkation, as well as providing
post-exposure and quarantine pub-
lic health guidance by the (U.S. Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Preven-
tion),” the company’s statement
said. “Any guests who have tested
positive for COVID-19 will travel by
personal vehicle to their personal
residence or self-isolate in accom-
modations provided by the compa-
ny.”
Cruise shipdocks, hasat least 10virus cases
Associated Press
CORTE MADERA, Calif. —
Northern California parents
knowingly sent their COVID-19
positive child and a sibling to
school last month in violation of
isolation and quarantine rules,
causing a coronavirus outbreak in
an elementary school, officials
said Saturday.
The parents could face a fine or
a misdemeanor charge for violat-
ing Marin County’s health order,
under which people who test posi-
tive for the virus must isolate
themselves for at least 10 days.
Dr. Matt Willis, the county’s
public health officer, told The As-
sociated Press that a decision will
be made this week whether the
family will face a penalty.
“It’s a violation of the law that
we’ve put in place,” he said. “More
importantly it’s also a violation of
just basic ethics of community re-
sponsibility.”
The child tested positive for the
virus during the week of Nov. 8,
according to Brett Geithman, su-
perintendent of the Larkspur-
Corte Madera School District.
Both children continued to attend
school the rest of that week and in-
to the following week.
The child and their sibling, who
later tested positive as well, are
students in the district’s Neil
Cummins Elementary School in
Corte Madera, a town in Marin
County that’s 15 miles north of San
Francisco.
The parents did not notify the
school of the positive test or return
multiple calls from public health
contract tracers, Geithman told
AP.
“Our enforcement team is eval-
uating the circumstances and will
respond accordingly,” Marin
County Public Health said in a
statement. “Thankfully, this is the
only known occurrence of a
household knowingly sending a
COVID-19 positive student to
school.”
Willis said when the school’s
principal spoke to the family,
“they had cited that they were not
clear on the protocol” to isolate the
child after the positive test.
Willis said language barriers or
economic factors — meaning the
parents could not take time off
from work when the kids needed
to isolate at home — did not ap-
pear to be a factor for the family.
A total of eight students tested
positive: the original student, their
sibling, three classmates of theirs
who are suspected school-based
transmissions and three students
who are suspected household
transmissions. None of the stu-
dents experienced serious illness
or had to be hospitalized.
California parents knowingly sent sick child to schoolAssociated Press
PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
NATION
MOSCOW — Presidents Joe Bi-
den and Vladimir Putin will speak
in a video call Tuesday, the White
House and Kremlin said, as ten-
sions between the United States
and Russia escalate over a Russian
troop buildup on the Ukrainian
border that’s seen as a sign of a po-
tential invasion.
Biden will press U.S. concerns
about Russian military activities
on the border and “reaffirm the
United States’ support for the sov-
ereignty and territorial integrity of
Ukraine,” White House press sec-
retary Jen Psaki said Saturday,
confirming the planned call after
first word came from Moscow.
Putin will come to the call with
concerns of his own and intends to
express Russia’s opposition to any
move to admit Ukraine into the
NATO military alliance. Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov said
“the presidents will decide them-
selves” how long their talk will last.
The last known call between the
leaders was in July, when Biden
pressed Putin to rein in Russia-
based criminal hacking gangs
launching ransomware attacks
against the United States. Biden
said the U.S. would take any neces-
sary steps to protect critical infras-
tructure from such attacks.
Ransomware attacks have con-
tinued since then, though perhaps
none has been as alarming as the
one from May that targeted a ma-
jor fuel pipeline and resulted in
days of gas shortages in parts of the
U.S.
Russia is more adamant than ev-
er that the U.S. guarantees that Uk-
raine will not be admitted to NA-
TO. But NATO’s secretary-gener-
al, Jens Stoltenberg, said this past
week that Russia has no say in ex-
pansion plans by other countries or
the alliance. Numerous former
U.S. and NATO diplomats say any
such Russian demand to Biden
would be a nonstarter.
U.S. intelligence officials, mean-
while, have determined that Rus-
sia has massed about 70,000 troops
near its border with Ukraine and
has begun planning for a possible
invasion as soon as early next year,
according to a Biden administra-
tion official who was not autho-
rized to discuss that finding publi-
cly and spoke on the condition of
anonymity.
The risks for Putin of going
through with such an invasion
would be enormous.
U.S. officials and former Amer-
ican diplomats say while the Rus-
sian president is clearly laying the
groundwork for a possible inva-
sion, Ukraine’s military is better
armed and prepared today than in
the past, and that sanctions threat-
ened by the West would do serious
damage to the Russian economy.
“What I am doing is putting to-
gether what I believe to be, will be,
the most comprehensive and mea-
ningful set of initiatives to make it
very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to
go ahead and do what people are
worried he may do,” Biden said
Friday.
Ukrainian officials have said
Russia could invade next month.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Ole-
ksii Reznikov, said the number of
Russian troops near Ukraine and
in Russia-annexed Crimea is esti-
mated at 94,300, and warned that a
“large-scale escalation” is possible
in January.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, recently charged that a
group of Russians and Ukrainians
planned to attempt a coup in his
country and that the plotters tried
to enlist the help of Ukraine’s rich-
est man, Rinat Akhmetov.
Russia and Akhmetov have de-
nied that any plot is underway, but
the Russians have become more
explicit recently in their warnings
to Ukraine and the United States.
Biden is also expected to speak
with Zelenskyy in the coming
week, according to a person close
to the Ukrainian leader. This per-
son was not authorized to comment
publicly before the announcement
of the call and spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity.
Biden, Putin set video call as tensions growAssociated Press
PAVEL GOLOVKIN/AP
Traditional Russian wooden dollsof Russian President VladimirPutin and President Joe Bidenare for sale at a Moscow souvenirstore. Biden and Putin will speakin a video call Tuesday.
WASHINGTON — The elite Rus-
sian state hackers behind last year’s
massive SolarWinds cyberespion-
age campaign hardly eased up this
year, managing plenty of infiltra-
tions of U.S. and allied government
agencies and foreign policy think
tanks with consummate craft and
stealth, a leading cybersecurity firm
reported Monday.
On the anniversary of the public
disclosure of the SolarWinds intru-
sions, Mandiant said the hackers as-
sociated with Russia’s SVR foreign
intelligence agency continued to
steal data “relevant to Russian inter-
ests” with great effect using novel,
stealthy techniques that it detailed
in a mostly technical report aimed at
helping security professionals stay
alert.
It was Mandiant, not the U.S. gov-
ernment, that disclosed Solar-
Winds.
While the number of government
agencies and companies hacked by
the SVR was smaller this year than
last, when some 100 organizations
were breached, assessing the dam-
age is difficult, said Charles Carma-
kal, Mandiant’s chief technical offi-
cer. Overall, the impact is quite seri-
ous. “The companies that are get-
ting hacked, they are also losing
information.”
“Not everybody is disclosing the
incident(s) because they don’t al-
ways have to disclose it legally,” he
said, complicating damage-assess-
ment.
The Russian cyber spying unfold-
ed, as always, mostly in the shadows
as the U.S. government was con-
sumed in 2021 by a separate, emi-
nently “noisy” and headline-grab-
bling cyber threat — ransomware
attacks launched not by nation-state
hackers but rather criminal gangs.
As it happens, those gangs are large-
ly protected by the Kremlin.
The Mandiant findings follow an
October report from Microsoft that
the hackers, whose umbrella group
it calls Nobelium, continue to infil-
trate the government agencies, for-
eign policy think tanks and other or-
ganizations focused on Russian af-
fairs through the cloud service com-
panies and so-called managed
services providers on which they in-
creasingly rely. Mandiant tips its hat
to Microsoft’s threat researchers in
the report.
Mandiant researchers said the
Russian hackers “continue to inno-
vate and identify new techniques
and tradecraft” that lets them linger
in victim networks, hinder detection
and confuse attempts to attribute
hacks to them. In short, Russia’s
most elite state-backed hackers are
as crafty and adaptable as ever.
Mandiant did not identify individ-
ual victims or describe what specific
information may have been stolen
but did say unspecified “diplomatic
entities” that received malicious
phishing emails were among the
targets.
Report says Russian hackers haven’t eased spying effortsAssociated Press
WASHINGTON — President Joe
Biden has ordered U.S. flags at the
White House, federal buildings and
grounds, military posts, naval sta-
tions, embassies and consulates to
be flown at half-staff until Dec. 9 to
honor former Sen. Robert J. Dole,
who died Sunday at age 98.
Biden said he issued the procla-
mation Sunday evening as a mark of
respect for Dole, “a statesman like
few in our history and a war hero
among the greatest of the Greatest
Generation.” The order followed
one by House Speaker Nancy Pelo-
si, D-Calif., for flags at the U.S. Capi-
tol be flown at half-staff as well.
Dole represented Kansas in the
Senate from 1969 to 1996 and was
the Senate Republican leader for
more than a decade. He also sought
the presidency three times, winning
the Republican nomination in 1996
before ultimately losing to incum-
bent Bill Clinton.
On Sunday, the White House said
Biden and first lady Jill Biden had
spoken on the phone with Dole’s
wife, Elizabeth, with whom they
have been friends for half a century.
In a statement, Biden said one of the
first conversations he had with any-
one outside the White House after
he was sworn in as president had
been with the Doles.
“Like all true friendships, regard-
less of how much time has passed,
we picked up right where we left off,
as though it were only yesterday
that we were sharing a laugh in the
Senate dining room or debating the
great issues of the day, often against
each other, on the Senate floor,” Bi-
den said in a lengthy statement. “I
saw in his eyes the same light, brav-
ery, and determination I’ve seen so
many times before.”
Biden, who represented Dela-
ware in the Senate from 1973 to
2009, recalled that Dole never hesi-
tated to work with Democrats
“when it mattered most,” though
they often disagreed. He praised his
role in bipartisan efforts, such as
providing school meals and food for
nursing mothers and young chil-
dren, saying the work, for Dole, was
“written on his heart.” Biden was
joined by former Presidents George
W. Bush, Barack Obama and Do-
nald Trump in remembering Dole
as a war hero and a patriot. In a state-
ment, Bush said he would always re-
member Dole’s salute to his late fa-
ther, former President George
H.W. Bush, at the Capitol.
“Our entire family benefited
from that friendship including my
father . . . and now we Bushes salute
Bob and give thanks for his life of
principled service,” Bush said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., called Dole “a
bona fide American hero” and said
his lifetime of service was “rooted in
asimple mission: looking out for his
neighbors.”
“At first that meant serving his
customers at a soda fountain in Rus-
sell, Kansas,” McConnell said in a
statement. “Then it meant heroic,
decorated service with the Army’s
10th Mountain Division in World
War II; brutal fighting from which
Bob barely made it home. And then
came a remarkable career in public
service, capped off by nearly 30
years in the U.S. Senate and more
than a decade as Republican Lead-
er.”
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., called
Dole an “exemplary statesman”
who “chose what was right over
what was convenient.”
Flags at half-staff for Dole as Biden remembers ‘statesman’ and friendThe Washington Post
J. DAVID AKE/AP
Lowered to halfstaff in honor of former Senate Majority Leader BobDole, flags fly at sunrise in front of the U.S. Capitol on Monday.
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9
NATION
NEW YORK — A new allegation
of sexual harassment against
Chris Cuomo emerged just days
before CNN announced it was fir-
ing the anchor amid an investiga-
tion into work he did defending his
brother from similar harassment
allegations.
Attorney Debra Katz said Sun-
day that her client was the victim
of “serious sexual misconduct” by
Cuomo and that she had contacted
CNN about the woman’s allega-
tions on Wednesday.
CNN suspended Cuomo last
week after details emerged about
how he assisted his brother, for-
mer New York Gov. Andrew Cuo-
mo, as the politician faced sexual
harassment allegations. Network
officials said “additional informa-
tion has come to light” when an-
nouncing Chris Cuomo’s firing
Saturday, but did not elaborate.
Katz said the accuser decided to
come forward after the New York
attorney general’s office released
evidence showing Cuomo had tak-
en a much more active role than
previously thought in strategizing
and helping to craft a response to
the allegations his brother was fac-
ing. When the initial allegations
surfaced against Andrew Cuomo,
Chris Cuomo had told viewers he
had “always cared very deeply
about these issues,” Katz said.
“Hearing the hypocrisy of Chris
Cuomo’s on-air words and disgust-
ed by his efforts to try to discredit
these women, my client retained
counsel to report his serious sex-
ual misconduct against her to
CNN,” Katz said in the statement.
The new misconduct allegation
comes after a veteran TV execu-
tive, Shelley Ross, wrote a column
for The New York Times in Sep-
tember saying Chris Cuomo had
groped her at a party 16 years ago,
when they both worked for ABC
News. Cuomo told the newspaper
that “I apologized to her then, and I
meant it.”
Chris Cuomo was accused of harassment days before CNN firingAssociated Press
WASHINGTON — House Mi-
nority Leader Kevin McCarthy
appears to have settled on a strate-
gy to deal with a handful of Repub-
lican lawmakers who have stirred
outrage with violent, racist and
sometimes
Islamophob-
ic comments.
If you can’t
police them, promote them.
The path to power for Republi-
cans in Congress is now rooted in
the capacity to generate outrage.
The alarming language, and the
fundraising haul it increasingly
produces, is another example of
how Donald Trump, the former
president, has left his mark on pol-
itics, changing the way Republi-
cans rise to influence and author-
ity.
Success in Congress, once mea-
sured by bills passed and constitu-
ents reached, is now gauged in
many ways by the ability to attract
attention, even if it is negative, as
the GOP looks to reclaim a House
majority next year by firing up
Trump’s most ardent supporters.
That has helped elevate a group
of far-right lawmakers — includ-
ing Reps. Lauren Boebert of Col-
orado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of
Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona
—whose inflammatory comments
once would have made them pa-
riahs.
Rather than face punishment
for personal attacks that violate
long-standing norms of Congress,
they’ve been celebrated by con-
servatives, who have showered
Boebert and Greene with cam-
paign cash.
“We are not the fringe. We are
the base of the party,” Greene,
who has previously endorsed calls
to assassinate prominent Demo-
crats, said last week on a podcast
hosted by former Trump adviser
Steve Bannon.
The hands-off approach by Re-
publican leadership gives them li-
cense to spread hate speech, con-
spiracy theories and misinforma-
tion that can have real world con-
sequences, while testing the
resolve of Democrats, who al-
ready removed Gosar and Greene
from their committees.
It’s also a different tack from the
one McCarthy took in 2019 when
he stripped then-Rep. Steve King
of Iowa of his committee assign-
ments for lamenting that white su-
premacy and white nationalism
had become offensive terms.
Boebert offers the latest exam-
ple.
In two videos that surfaced re-
cently, she likened Rep. Ilhan
Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who
is one of three Muslims in Con-
gress, to a terrorist concealing a
bomb in a backpack. Boebert has
also repeatedly referred to Omar
as belonging to a “jihad squad,” as
well as “black-hearted” and
“evil.”
Her comments drew wide-
spread condemnation and led to
calls for Boebert to become the
third GOP lawmaker this year to
be removed from congressional
committees. But instead of publi-
cly apologizing to Omar, a defiant
Boebert insisted that Omar should
be the one to issue a public apology
“to the American people” for her
“anti-American” rhetoric, as well
as past “anti-Semitic” comments,
which Democrats condemned at
the time.
In the uproar that followed,
Omar received death threats, in-
cluding a voicemail left by a man
who called her a “traitor” and sug-
gested she would be soon be taken
“off the face of the (expletive)
earth.”
“We cannot pretend this hate
speech from leading politicians
doesn’t have real consequences,”
Omar said Tuesday while calling
on the Republican Party to “ac-
tually do something to confront an-
ti-Muslim hatred in its ranks.”
Boebert, meanwhile, burnished
her image through an appearance
on Fox News where she blamed
Democrats who “want to cancel
me” for the controversy. She has
raked in $2.7 million so far this
year, making her one of the top Re-
publican fundraisers, according to
campaign finance disclosures.
McCarthy, who is in line to be-
come speaker if Republicans re-
take the majority in the 2022 mid-
term elections, downplayed the
controversy Friday. He credited
Boebert for attempting to private-
ly apologize in a phone call with
Omar, while breezing past Boe-
bert’s refusal to do so publicly.
“In America, that’s what we do,”
he said. “And then we move on.”
But McCarthy has also indicat-
ed that there will be little conse-
quence for personal attacks. Just
last month, he said those punished
by Democrats could be in line for a
promotion if he becomes speaker,
floating the possibility that Gosar
and Greene “may have better
committee assignments” than be-
fore.
That also poses a vexing issue
for Democrats. During a Wednes-
day caucus meeting, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned
Boebert’s behavior but cautioned
that restraint was needed.
“This is hard because these peo-
ple are doing it for the publicity,”
Pelosi said, according to a person
in the room, who insisted on ano-
nymity to discuss private deliber-
ations. “There’s a judgment that
has to be made about how we con-
tribute to their fundraising and
their publicity on how obnoxious
and disgusting they can be.”
In many cases, the incentive to
outrage can outweigh the conse-
quences.
Greene arrived in Congress this
year with a well documented his-
tory of making inflammatory com-
ments. A former adherent of the
QAnon conspiracy theories, she
once mused that a wealthy Jewish
family may have used space lasers
to spark California wildfires.
She’s also harassed survivors of
school shootings, accused Pelosi of
committing crimes punishable by
death and appeared in a 2019 video
at the Capitol in which she argued
Omar and another Muslim repre-
sentative weren’t “really official”
members of Congress because
they didn’t take the oath of office
on the Bible.
Since her election, she’s used
her nonstop attacks and viral on-
line moments to reap a $6.3 million
fundraising windfall — more than
three times the cost of the average
congressional campaign — while
proving to be a speaking draw at
Republican fundraisers around
the country.
“If you say something bats---
crazy, if you say something ex-
treme, you are going to raise mon-
ey,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.,
who is one of the few Republicans
to publicly criticize the rhetoric of
her colleagues. Mace, who publi-
cly feuded with Greene last week,
said the Georgia lawmaker was a
“grifter of the first order” who
takes advantage of “vulnerable
conservatives.”
Gosar, who was censured last
month after posting an animated
video of himself killing Democrat-
ic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
of New York, is nowhere near as
prolific of a fundraiser. But he has
become a celebrated figure for
white nationalists and has made
appearances at fringe right-wing
events, including a gathering in
Florida last February hosted by
Nick Fuentes, an internet person-
ality who has promoted white su-
premacist beliefs.
Still, some Republicans have
said that just because the three
have achieved a measure of fame
doesn’t mean they have accumu-
lated real influence or staying
power.
“There’s always some gifted
communicator who comes in,”
said Rep. Tom Cole, a 10-term Ok-
lahoma Republican, who used the
GOP class of 1994, when Republi-
cans took over the House for the
first time in decades, as an exam-
ple. “We’re a long way of knowing
how long they’ll stay. A lot of the
brightest stars of the 1994 class
were gone within eight years.”
Besides, he added: “The reality
is the first six years, the only thing
you are going to do is what they let
you.”
How far right is turning anger into power in GOPBY BRIAN SLODYSKO
Associated Press
ANALYSIS
MICHAEL REYNOLDS/AP
From left, Rep. Lauren Boebert, RColo., Rep. Matt Gaetz, RFla., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene,RGa., attend the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the U.S. Department of Justice withtestimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland, on Oct. 21on Capitol Hill in Washington.
PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
NATION
NEW YORK — Allyship, an old
noun made new again, is Dictio-
nary.com’s word of the year.
The look up site with 70 million
monthly users took the unusual
step of anointing a word it added
just last month, though “allyship”
first surfaced in the mid-1800s,
said one of the company’s content
overseers, John Kelly.
“It might be a surprising choice
for some,” he told The Associated
Press ahead of Tuesday’s unveil-
ing. “In the past few decades, the
term has evolved to take on a
more nuanced and specific mean-
ing. It is continuing to evolve and
we saw that in many ways.”
The site offers two definitions
for allyship: The role of a person
who advocates for inclusion of a
“marginalized or politicized
group” in solidarity but not as a
member, and the more traditional
relationship of “persons, groups
or nations associating and coop-
erating with one another for a
common cause or purpose.”
The word is set apart from “al-
liance,” which Dictionary.com
defines in one sense as a “merg-
ing of efforts or interests by per-
sons, families, states or organiza-
tions.”
It’s the first definition that took
off most recently in the mid-2000s
and has continued to churn. Fol-
lowing the summer of 2020 and
the death of George Floyd, white
allies — and the word allyship —
proliferated as racial justice dem-
onstrations spread. Before that,
straight allies joined the causes of
LGBTQ+ oppression, discrimina-
tion and marginalization.
“This year, we saw a lot of busi-
nesses and organizations very
prominently, publicly, beginning
efforts to promote diversity, equi-
ty and inclusion. Allyship is tied
to that. In the classroom, there is
a flashpoint around the term crit-
ical race theory. Allyship con-
nects with this as well,” Kelly
said.
In addition, teachers, frontline
workers and mothers who jug-
gled jobs, home duties and child
care in lockdown gained allies as
the pandemic took hold last year.
Without an entry for “allyship,”
Kelly said the site saw a steep rise
in lookups for “ally” in 2020 and
large spikes in 2021. It was in the
top 850 searches out of thousands
and thousands of words this year.
Dictionary.com broadened the
definition of “ally” to include the
more nuanced meaning. The
terms “DEI” (Diversity, Equity
and Inclusion) and “critical race
theory” made their debuts as en-
tries on the site with “allyship”
this year.
Dictionary.com anoints ‘allyship’ as its word of the year for 2021Associated Press
DENVER — It was lunchtime on
a mild day in the sprawling Denver
suburb of Aurora when a truck full
of teens pulled into a high school
parking lot where students were
gathered, and gunfire rang out.
Three were wounded as others
ran in fear.
One of the boys charged in the
Nov. 19 shooting later told investiga-
tors he brought his armed friends to
an expected gang fight because “it’s
the way it is in this town,” court doc-
uments said.
The shooting was one of several
involving teenagers within a two-
week span that have placed renew-
ed attention on a long-running prob-
lem of gun violence and gangs in the
state’s third-largest city, where the
police department has been under
scrutiny for its treatment of Black
residents. Activists and officials
have said easy access to guns is con-
tributing to the problem, which has
also been exacerbated by the pan-
demic and its effect particularly on
the mental health of minority teens
in the city.
Across the United States, shoot-
ings involving children and teenag-
ers have increased in recent years,
including 2021. A March report
from the Children’s Defense Fund
found child and teen shooting
deaths reached a 19-year high in
2017 and have remained elevated.
Black children and teenagers were
four times more likely than whites
to be fatally shot.
Aurora has seen an increase in
Black and Latino families and im-
migrants from around the world as
Denver has grown more expensive
in recent years. These families of
color have been hit harder health-
wise but also economically by the
COVID-19 pandemic, contributing
to mental health problems, said
Maisha Fields, an activist who
works with youth and families in the
city of about 379,000.
The Nov. 19 shooting started with
an argument in the parking lot at
Hinkley High School after the
truckload of boys arrived. After the
initial shots were fired, the pickup
drove away, with at least two teens
pointing guns from the windows,
sending students running in fear,
according to police.
Three 16-year-olds were later
charged, including the boy who
spoke to investigators about the
gang fight.
Fields, who is also vice president
for organizing for the Brady gun
control advocacy group, said the
teen’s attitude about the need to be
armed gave her chills. It reminded
her of the callousness that led to her
brother, Javad Marshall-Fields,
and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe, being
shot and killed in Aurora in 2005 as
he was preparing to testify against a
man charged in the fatal shooting of
his friend at a concert.
Jason McBride, a violence pre-
vention expert who works with
teens for the Struggle of Love Foun-
dation in Denver and Aurora, and
Aurora City Council member Ange-
la Lawson both said teens have
showed them Snapchat posts,
where messages disappear, offer-
ing guns for sale.
McBride thinks gangs are to
blame for much of the problem —
not necessarily the organized Crips
and Bloods as in previous years, but
smaller, loosely affiliated groups of
teens who may not be associated
with a particular neighborhood but
who get into disputes on social
media.
Generational trauma caused by
seeing relatives killed in shootings
has also normalized them, he said.
And being kept away from school,
an escape from problems at home,
has strained the mental health of
some teens.
McBride said a 16-year-old re-
cently told him he would use bullets
if he got into a fight so he would not
have to worry about messing up his
clothes.
“That’s the head space our kids
are in,” he said.
PHILIP B. POSTON, SENTINEL COLORADO/AP
Edgar James, front center, battles with tears as he hugs his daughter, Mia, front right, and his wife, OlgaAguirre, front left, as they are reunited outside Hinkley High School in Aurora, Colo., on Nov. 19.
Multiple teen shootings in Denversuburb renew focus on gun violence
BY COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia
Gov. Ralph Northam announced
Sunday that his administration will
remove an enormous pedestal that
until earlier this year held a statue of
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in
Richmond.
The announcement marks a re-
versal in course from September,
when the statue was removed but
the Democratic governor said the
40-foot-tall pedestal, currently cov-
ered in graffiti, would stay.
His administration also an-
nounced plans to transfer owner-
ship of the grassy island in the mid-
dle of a traffic circle where the stat-
ue was located to the city of Rich-
mond. The move comes about a
month before Northam leaves office
and Republican Gov.-elect Glenn
Youngkin, who has expressed less
enthusiasm about the statue’s re-
moval, is sworn in.
“It was important to us that we do
it now and before we leave office,”
said Alena Yarmosky, Northam’s
spokeswoman.
The deeding of the land, which
was given to the commonwealth in
the 19th century, was a request from
the city so that the parcel could come
under local control, Yarmosky said.
State ownership has created logisti-
cal headaches with maintenance
and security, she said.
Preliminary work on the pedestal
removal was expected to begin
Monday, with the project expected
to be “substantially complete” by
Dec. 31, according to a news release.
The Lee statue, a one-of-a-kind
bronze equestrian piece installed in
1890, was perched in the middle of
the traffic circle, part of a collection
of other Confederate statuary along
Richmond’s historic Monument
Avenue. The statue, which had
drawn criticism as a symbol of racial
injustice, was hauled away in Sep-
tember to cheers from onlookers.
Northam ordered its removal in
the summer of 2020 amid the nation-
wide protest movement that erupt-
ed after the slaying of George Floyd
by a police officer in Minneapolis.
But litigation tied up his plans until
this year.
“In 2020, we can no longer honor a
system that was based on the buying
and selling of enslaved people,” he
said when announcing his decision
to remove the statue.
The day it was hauled away, he
said, marked “a new day, a new era
in Virginia.”
In September, when The Wash-
ington Post pressed a Youngkin
campaign spokesman for the then-
candidate’s position on the removal,
the spokesperson said Youngkin
agreed with the decision. Youngkin
has said the statue belongs in a mu-
seum or on a battlefield, as an oppor-
tunity to teach about history, and he
has criticized the “graffiti and vio-
lence” that went along with many
protests over Confederate monu-
ments.
The Lee statue was one of five
enormous Confederate tributes
along Richmond’s Monument Ave-
nue and the only one that belonged
to the state. The four city-owned
statues were also removed follow-
ing Floyd’s killing after they became
focal points in protests.
In September, Northam said the
pedestal would remain in place so its
future could be determined by a
community-driven effort to reima-
gine Monument Avenue, an initia-
tive being led by an arts museum
and currently in a very early stage.
“This land is in the middle of Rich-
mond, and Richmonders will deter-
mine the future of this space,”
Northam said in a statement Sun-
day. “The Commonwealth will re-
move the pedestal and we anticipate
asafe removal and a successful con-
clusion to this project.”
Virginia to remove base of Lee statue,assign land to city
BY SARAH RANKIN
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11
AMERICAN ROUNDUP
State’s high point will berepository for flag ashes
AL DELTA — The highest
point in Alabama, Chea-
ha Mountain, will soon become a
repository for the ashes of retired
American flags.
A vault called “Old Glory Loo-
kout” has been added to Cheaha
State Park in Delta and will be
dedicated on Tuesday, the 80th
anniversary of the attack on Pearl
Harbor. It will hold the remains of
old U.S. flags, which are supposed
to be destroyed by fire.
A statement from Alabama’s
state park system said the contain-
er consists of a steel vault encased
in quartzite that was cut by mem-
bers of the Civil Conservation
Corps, a New Deal program
formed in the 1930s under then-
President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The vault is on the eastern slope of
a ridge near a public boardwalk.
The project is a joint effort be-
tween an American Legion post in
Atmore and the park, located
about 80 miles east of Birming-
ham. Paul Chason, adjutant for the
American Legion post, said mili-
tary, veteran and civic organiza-
tions will be able to inter flag ashes
at the site.
Graffiti in tunnels nearAnne Frank memorial
ID BOISE — Someone
painted anti-Semitic
graffiti overnight Saturday in
three tunnels near the Anne Frank
Human Rights Memorial in down-
town Boise, police said.
The graffiti, which included
spray-painted swastikas and other
hate speech, was painted over Sat-
urday morning by the city’s parks
department. Three tunnels along
the Boise Greenbelt were defaced,
Chief Ryan Lee told the Idaho
Statesman.
“Absolutely abhorrent conduct,
and we’re not going to sit idly by
and let that be,” he said.
A swastika was painted on the
Idaho Building in downtown Boise
last month and in December 2020,
stickers with Nazi imagery were
left all over the Anne Frank me-
morial. It’s too soon to say whether
those incidents are connected to
Saturday’s graffiti, Lee said.
Kids get new shoes frommedical school students
IL SPRINGFIELD — Doz-
ens of schoolchildren got
new athletic shoes this week from
students at Southern Illinois Uni-
versity School of Medicine in
Springfield.
Through the national “Shoes
that Fit” program, SIU medical
students have provided more than
1,000 pairs of shoes to area stu-
dents since 2007, The (Spring-
field) State Journal-Register re-
ported.
This week, beneficiaries were
at Enos and McClernand elemen-
tary schools.
The medical students organize
the event and purchase the shoes,
according to Hope Cherry, pro-
gram director for SIU Medicine’s
Center for Clinical Research in
the Department of Community
and Family Medicine. There was a
“casual day” to raise money for
the campaign and faculty, staff
and students all donated shoes.
‘Trees for Troops’ getsover 450 from 2 states
NH BETHLEHEM —
Over 450 Christmas
trees from 25 growers in New
Hampshire and Vermont have
been sent to U.S. military families
as part of the national “Trees for
Troops” effort.
The trees were recently collect-
ed at the Society for the Protection
of New Hampshire Forests’ Rocks
Christmas Tree Farm in Bethle-
hem, N.H.
Trees were donated by growers,
regional businesses, schools and
individuals.
The trees were being delivered
to military bases in Georgia.
People can trade toysfor community service
SC GREENWOOD — A
South Carolina prose-
cutor is again giving people a
chance to get out of a little trouble
this Christmas season by donating
a new toy to needy children.
The program by the 8th Circuit
Solicitor’s Office knocks off some
community service time for peo-
ple in programs mostly designed
for first-time offenders, Solicitor
David Stumbo told The Index-
Journal of Greenwood.
Bicycles, action figures, board
games, sports equipment and
stuffed animals are already
crowding offices. The drive runs
through Dec. 10 and then the toys
will be distributed through com-
munity organizations like the Ab-
beville Angel Tree program, the
Salvation Army of Greenwood, the
state Department of Social Servic-
es in Laurens and the sheriff’s of-
fice in Newberry County.
The offer is available for people
in programs such as pretrial inter-
vention, drug court and veterans
court.
Salvation Army bell ringerrobbed, suspect caught
WA VANCOUVER — A
man was chased down
and caught by deputies in Wash-
ington state after allegedly as-
saulting a Salvation Army bell
ringer and fleeing with his dona-
tions kettle.
Clark County deputies respon-
ded just before 8 p.m. Saturday
night to a reported robbery at a
grocery store in Vancouver and
attempted to stop the suspect as he
fled on foot through traffic.
Two deputies chased down the
suspect and detained him after a
brief struggle, the Clark County
Sheriff’s Office said. The cash ket-
tle had been discarded by the sus-
pect but was recovered with help
from a police dog, Apollo.
The bell ringer suffered minor
injury. The suspect was booked in-
to the Clark County jail on charges
of robbery, theft, resisting arrest
and obstructing law enforcement.
Newspaper photographergets robbed at gunpoint
CA SAN FRANCISCO — A
San Francisco Chroni-
cle photographer was robbed at
gunpoint on Friday afternoon in
West Oakland, Calif., during an as-
signment, the newspaper report-
ed.
The robbery came on the heels
of the death of a security guard,
who was shot Nov. 24 in Oakland
while protecting a KRON4 News
reporter from an attempted
armed robbery. Kevin Nishita
died Nov. 27 from his injuries.
Multiple suspects stole two
cameras from The Chronicle pho-
tographer on Friday around 3:30
p.m. and drove away, according to
the newspaper. The photographer
was not injured.
“Any incident in which a person
is robbed of their possessions at
gunpoint is incredibly troubling,”
Chronicle Editor in Chief Emilio
Garcia-Ruiz said. “We are re-
lieved that our colleague was not
physically injured. We are a part
of this community, and we will not
retreat from providing the news
and information it needs.”
High school player attacksother player after game
IA CARLISLE — An Iowa
high school basketball
player has been arrested follow-
ing an apparent assault on an op-
posing player at the end of a game
as the two teams lined up to shake
hands, authorities said.
The attack reportedly followed
a boys’ high school basketball
game last week between Nevada
High School and Carlisle High
School in Carlisle’s gym. A video
that has been viewed millions of
times on Twitter shows a Carlisle
player suddenly punch a Nevada
player who had his hand extended
for a handshake as the teams
passed each other in a traditional
practice of sportsmanship follow-
ing a game.
In the video, the Carlisle player
appears to hit the Nevada player at
least two more times before he’s
pulled away.
The Nevada player suffered a
concussion and required stitches
for a cut to his mouth. The 17-year-
old Carlisle player faces a felony
charge of willful injury.
DON CAMPBELL, THE HERALDPALLADIUM/AP
Lisa Jannings and her Doberman, Tank, gather in St. Joseph, Mich., on Saturday during the annual Fanny Mae Memorial Reindog Parade.
Walking Santa’s reindog
THE CENSUS
52 The number of years the longest-serving township trustee inOhio served for leading up to his pending retirement. William
“Andy” Thompson, 84, was first elected as a trustee in Thompson Township in1970 and has since served 13 consecutive, four-year terms, often running un-opposed in the Delaware County community. He decided not to seek re-elec-tion this year, however, telling The Columbus Dispatch, “I can’t do what I usedto do.” Thompson’s trustee post will be taken over by the oldest of his four sons,William Andrew Thompson III, 63, who was elected in November to fill hisfather’s seat.
From The Associated Press
PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
WORLD
ENIWA, Japan — Dozens of
tanks and soldiers fired explosives
and machine guns in drills Mon-
day on Japan’s northern island of
Hokkaido, a main stronghold for a
nation that is perhaps the world’s
least-known military powerhouse.
Just across the sea from rival
Russia, Japan opened up its
humbly named Self Defense
Force’s firing exercises to the
media in a display of public fire-
power that coincides with a recent
escalation of Chinese and Russian
military moves around Japanese
territory.
The drills, which foreign jour-
nalists rarely have a chance to wit-
ness, will continue for nine days
and include about 1,300 Ground
Self Defense Force troops. On
Monday, as hundreds of soldiers
cheered from the sidelines and
waved unit flags, lines of tanks
shot at targets meant to represent
enemy missiles or armored vehi-
cles.
The exercises illuminate a fas-
cinating, easy-to-miss point. Ja-
pan, despite an officially pacifist
constitution written when memo-
ries of its World War II rampage
were still fresh — and painful —
boasts a military that puts all but a
few nations to shame.
And, with a host of threats lurk-
ing in Northeast Asia, its hawkish
leaders are eager for more.
It’s not an easy sell. In a nation
still reviled by many of its neigh-
bors for its past military actions,
and where domestic pacifism runs
high, any military buildup is con-
troversial.
Japan has focused on its defen-
sive capabilities and carefully
avoids using the word “military”
for its troops. But as it looks to de-
fend its territorial and military in-
terests against an assertive China,
North Korea and Russia, officials
in Tokyo are pushing citizens to
put aside widespread unease over
a more robust role for the military
and support increased defense
spending.
As it is, tens of billions of dollars
each year have built an arsenal of
nearly 1,000 warplanes and doz-
ens of destroyers and submarines.
Japan’s forces rival those of Bri-
tain and France, and show no sign
of slowing down in a pursuit of the
best equipment and weapons
money can buy.
Japan’s military, already among world’s strongest, looks to buildAssociated Press
EUGENE HOSHIKO/AP
Japanese GroundSelf Defense Force Type 90 tank fires its gun at atarget during a livefire annual exercise at the Minami Eniwa Camp onMonday in Eniwa on the northern Japan island of Hokkaido.
BANGKOK — Aung San Suu
Kyi, the civilian leader of Myan-
mar who was ousted in a de facto
coup this year, was convicted of
incitement and another charge
Monday and sentenced to four
years in prison — in a trial widely
criticized as yet a further attempt
by the country’s military rulers to
roll back the democratic gains of
recent years.
It also serves to cement a dra-
matic reversal of fortunes for the
Nobel Peace laureate, who spent
15 years under house arrest for re-
sisting the Southeast Asian na-
tion’s generals but then worked
uncomfortably alongside them
when they promised to usher in
democratic rule.
Monday’s verdict was the first
expected in a series of cases
against 76-year-old Suu Kyi, who
was arrested when the army
seized power on Feb. 1 and pre-
vented her National League for
Democracy party from starting a
second five-year term in office fol-
lowing a landslide electoral victo-
ry.
If found guilty of all the charges
she faces, Suu Kyi could be sen-
tenced to more than 100 years in
prison. She is being held by the
military at an unknown location,
and the court did not make clear
Monday whether she would be
moved to a prison or kept under
some form of house arrest, ac-
cording to a legal official, who re-
layed the verdict to The Associat-
ed Press and who insisted on ano-
nymity for fear of being punished
by the authorities.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi gets 4 years in trial seen as politicalAssociated Press
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13
WORLD
ATHENS, Greece — Pope
Francis ended his visit to Greece
on Monday by encouraging its
young people to follow their
dreams and not be tempted by the
consumerist “sirens” of today that
promise easy pleasures.
Earlier, Francis met with stu-
dents at a Catholic school in Ath-
ens in his final event of a five-day
visit to Cyprus and Greece that
has been dominated by his con-
cern for the plight of migrants
seeking entry to Europe.
He echoed a common theme he
has raised with young people, en-
couraging them to stay fast in
their faith, even amid doubts, and
resist the temptation to pursue
materialist goals. He cited Home-
r’s epic poem “The Odyssey” and
the temptation posed by the si-
rens who “by their songs enchant-
ed sailors and made them crash
against the rocks.”
“Today’s sirens want to charm
you with seductive and insistent
messages that focus on easy
gains, the false needs of consume-
rism, the cult of physical well-
ness, of entertainment at all
costs,” he said. “All these are like
fireworks: they flare up for a mo-
ment, but then turn to smoke in
the air.”
ALESSANDRO DI MEO/AP
Pope Francis greets journalists onboard the papal plane on the occasion of his fiveday pastoral visit toCyprus and Greece on Monday.
Pope ends trip focused on helping migrantsAssociated Press
LONDON — Winners of the 2021
Nobel Prizes started receiving
their awards Monday in scaled-
down local ceremonies adapted for
pandemic times.
For a second year, the coronavi-
rus scuttled the traditional formal
banquet in Stockholm attended by
winners of the prizes in chemistry,
physics, medicine, literature and
economics. The Nobel Peace Prize
is awarded separately in Oslo, Nor-
way.
Literature laureate Abdulrazak
Gurnah wasthe first to get his prize
in a lunchtime ceremony Monday
at the Swedish ambassador’s resi-
dence in London. The U.K.-based
Tanzanian author was awarded the
Nobel Prize in October for novels
that explore the impact of migra-
tion on individuals and societies.
Gurnah, who grew up on the is-
land of Zanzibar and arrived in En-
gland as an 18-year-old refugee in
the 1960s, has drawn on his experi-
ences for 10 novels, including
“Memory of Departure,” “Pil-
grims Way,” “Afterlives” and
“Paradise.” He has said migration
is “not just my story — it’s a phe-
nomenon of our times.”
Later Monday, Italian physics
laureate Giorgio Parisi was due to
receive his prize at a ceremony in
Rome. U.S.-based physics laureate
Syukuro Manabe, chemistry lau-
reate David W.C. MacMillan and
economic sciences laureate Josh-
ua D. Angrist will be given their
medals and diplomas in Washing-
ton.
More ceremonies will be held
throughout the week in Germany
and the United States. On Friday —
the anniversary of the death of
prize founder Albert Nobel — there
will be a celebratory ceremony at
Stockholm City Hall for a local au-
dience, including King Carl XVI
Gustav and senior Swedish royals.
A Nobel Prize comes with a di-
ploma, a gold medal and a $1.15 mil-
lion cash award, which is shared if
there are multiple winners.
Nobel Prizes awarded
in smaller ceremoniesAssociated Press
PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
FACES
The Kennedy Center Honors
returned to tradition this year
with a real-life gala Sunday night
and the presence of the president
for the first time since 2016.
The lifetime achievement
awards for artistic excellence
were presented to Motown Re-
cords creator Berry Gordy, “Sat-
urday Night Live” mastermind
Lorne Michaels, actress-singer
Bette Midler, opera singer Justino
Díaz and folk music legend Joni
Mitchell.
This year’s event at the Kenne-
dy Center’s main opera house rep-
resented a return to political nor-
malcy, with President Joe Biden
and first lady Jill Biden attending.
President Donald Trump and
first lady Melania Trump skipped
the show the first three years he
was in office after several of the
artists honored in 2017, his first
year in office, threatened to boy-
cott a White House reception if he
participated. Last year, the pan-
demic forced a delay and major
changes to the program.
The Bidens drew a sustained
standing ovation when they en-
tered the presidential box at the
opera house. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
performed the national anthem.
The theater was packed to ca-
pacity and there were no social
annual Saturday ceremony,
where honorees receive their
medallions on rainbow-colored
ribbons, to the Library of Con-
gress instead of the State Depart-
ment.
Sunday’s ceremony will be
broadcast Dec. 22 stateside by
CBS.
distancing restrictions, but vacci-
nations and recent negative CO-
VID tests were required.
The tributes featured testimo-
nials and performances that were
kept secret from the honorees.
Mitchell’s tribute featured per-
formances of her songs by Nora
Jones, Brandi Carlile, Ellie Gould-
ing and Brittany Howard. Díaz
was honored with a performance
from the opera “Carmen” and a
song from his two daughters, Ka-
tya and Natascia.
For Michaels, organizers put to-
gether three “Weekend Update”
segments onstage with multiple
generations of mock news anchors
— Kevin Nealon, Seth Myers and
Amy Poehler, and the current duo
of Michel Che and Colin Jost. Che
joked that Biden would be asleep
before the end of the show and
Poehler poked at the Toronto-
born Michaels by proclaiming
that Joni Mitchell had been de-
clared “the best Canadian of all
time.”
Midler received testimonials
from close friends Goldie Hawn
and Barbara Hershey, and a per-
formance by Tony Award winner
Billy Porter of her iconic song,
“The Wind Beneath My Wings.”
Gordy’s career was celebrated
with performances of multiple
Motown hits by Andra Day and
Stevie Wonder and an extended
tribute from close friend Smokey
Robinson. The event ended with
several of the night’s performers
joining for a performance of Won-
der’s hit “Higher Ground.”
Prior to the Kennedy Center
event, Biden revived another tra-
dition that had gone dormant un-
der Trump and held a White
House reception for the honorees.
“We welcome everyone back,”
he told a crowd of about 150 seated
in the East Room. Guests included
Vice President Kamala Harris,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Car-
oline Kennedy, Mikhail Baryshni-
kov, Chita Rivera, Steve Martin
and Herbie Hancock.
“Our nation is stronger, more
dynamic and more vibrant be-
cause of you,” Biden told the hon-
orees.
Biden praised the work of the
artists, their “sixth sense” that
helps them create and move so
many people, saying: “I don’t
think you fully appreciate what
you do for so many people.”
He spoke of Díaz’s “sound of
soul,” Gordy’s creation of “one of
the most iconic businesses” in
American history with Motown
Records. With Michaels, he joked:
“Finally, it’s my turn to say some-
thing about him,” poking fun at
Michaels’ SNL show, which rou-
tinely mocks presidents.
“You make me laugh at myself a
lot,” Biden said, then went on to
say Michaels was auditioning ac-
tors right now to play him next on
SNL. Biden asked Steve Martin to
stand as an example of the type of
talent Michaels has cultivated
over the past decades.
Martin paused and asked the
president, “Do you want me to
play you?” The crowd erupted in
laughter.
Biden then professed his admi-
ration for Mitchell and Midler,
telling Midler that “people will
never forget how you make them
feel. That’s your gift; it’s incredi-
ble.” Lastly: “Joni. Your words
and melodies touch the deepest
parts of our soul,” Biden said.
Last year, the pandemic forced
organizers to bump the annual De-
cember ceremony to May 2021.
Performance tributes to the art-
ists were filmed over several
nights and at multiple locations.
This year’s main COVID-relat-
ed modification was shifting the
Kennedy Center Honorsreturn to traditional waysBidens in attendance as ceremony honors Lorne Michaels,Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, Berry Gordy and Justino Díaz
BY ASHRAF KHALIL
AND COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press
KEVIN WOLF/AP
2021 Kennedy Center honorees, top row from left: Lorne Michaelsand Bette Midler; bottom row from left: Justino Díaz, Joni Mitchell andBerry Gordy pose Saturday at the Library of Congress in Washington.
CAROLYN KASTER/AP
President Joe Biden and first ladyJill Biden wave as they arriveSunday at the John F. KennedyCenter for the Performing Arts inWashington for the ceremony.
Tom Holland is trading in his Spidey suit for some tap
shoes. The “Spider-Man” star told The Associated Press on
Sunday that he plans to play Fred Astaire
in an upcoming biopic.
“Oh, I am playing Fred Astaire,” Hol-
land said at an event in London. “Yeah, I
am.”
Producer Amy Pascal recently said she
wanted Holland to play Astaire, but Hol-
land had yet to comment on the possibility
until now.
While Holland’s dance background
hasn’t necessarily been highlighted in his superhero films,
the 25-year-old did play the title role in “Billy Elliott: The
Musical” from 2008 to 2010.
Holland said he still needs to read the Astaire script,
which just came in a week ago.
“I haven’t read it yet. They haven’t given it to me,” Hol-
land added. “Amy Pascal has the script. She FaceTimed me
earlier. I was in the bath and we had a lovely FaceTime.”
But before he steps into Astaire’s shoes, Holland has an-
other Spider-Man movie to unspool on the world: “No Way
Home,” which hits theaters on Dec. 17. Whether or not
there’s more Peter Parker in his future remains to be seen.
“I love this character more than anything. This character
has changed my life. I have a relationship with my fans that
is so wonderful. I couldn’t ask for it to be any better,” Hol-
land said.
“But I want to do what’s best for the character. If it’s time
for me to step down and the next person to step up, I’ll do so
proudly. You know, I’d love to see a more diverse Spider-
Man universe, which would be really exciting. If I could be
a part of that — if I could be the Iron Man to the next young
Spider-Man or Spider-Woman, that would be great. But at
the moment, all I have to think about is the character and
what’s best for Peter Parker,” he said.
Jon Stewart returns to on-camera actingJon Stewart is returning to television for his first on-cam-
era acting role in almost 20 years.
The former host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”
has been tapped to join Jennifer Aniston, Gabrielle Union,
Kathryn Hahn and Allison Tolman in the cast for the “Facts
of Life” revival for ABC’s third “Live in Front of a Studio
Audience” special.
According to the network, the comedian and activist will
play a “surprise role” in the show, executive produced by
Norman Lear, Jimmy Kimmell, Kerry Washington and
Justin Theroux.
“The Facts of Life” reenactment will be paired with a
staging of its parent show, “Diff’rent Strokes,” starring Ke-
vin Hart, John Lithgow and Damon Wayans.
Ann Dowd will appear in both episodes as Mrs. Garrett,
the role played by Charlotte Rae on both shows.
Audiences go for second helping of ‘Encanto’Leftovers were on the menu for moviegoers in North Amer-
ica over the weekend. “Encanto,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”
and “House of Gucci” repeated in the top three spots, ac-
cording to studio estimates on Sunday. All three films are
playing exclusively in theaters.
The weekend after Thanksgiving is usually pretty quiet
at the box office, and this year was no exception. Disney’s
“Encanto,” an animated tale with original music from Lin-
Manuel Miranda, earned $12.7 million to take the top spot,
down 53% from its opening last weekend. Globally, it’s
earned $116.1 million to date.
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” took second place in its third
weekend with $10.4 million, pushing it just past the $100
million threshold. And Ridley Scott’s ripped from the head-
lines “House of Gucci,” starring Lady Gaga and Adam
Driver, came in third place in its second weekend with $6.8
million from 3,477 locations, bringing its domestic total to
$33.6 million.
Tom Holland’s next dance: Playing Fred AstaireFrom wire reports
Holland
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15
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stripes.com
OPINION
WASHINGTON
His voice, flat as the prairie from
which he rose to prominence,
proclaimed what Bob Dole was:
a Midwesterner, a man of the
middle of the country and of the political spec-
trum. Like another Midwesterner — a con-
temporary — Hubert Humphrey, Dole was a
senator who came agonizingly close to seizing
the presidential brass ring of politics.
Dole, who could have become the United
States’ 41st chief executive, was born in Rus-
sell, Kan., 270 miles west of the Missouri birth-
place of the 33rd, Harry S. Truman, another
plain-spoken son of the Middle Border. Elect-
ed to Congress in 1960, when Dwight D. Eisen-
hower was president, Dole served during
eight other presidencies.
If he had won the Republicans’ 1988 nomi-
nation, he almost certainly would have won
the White House because Americans then
wanted something more like a third Ronald
Reagan term than a first Michael Dukakis
term. Dole probably would have won that
nomination if he had won New Hampshire’s
primary. And he could have, if he had cam-
paigned as what he really wasn’t — a fervent
conservative. He might have won anti-tax
New Hampshire if he had made a “no new tax-
es” pledge, the making of which later helped
his opponent, George H.W. Bush, win the
presidency, and the breaking of which helped
Bush lose it.
Dole finally won a Republican nomination
too late, in 1996. He then would have been the
oldest person, 73, ever elected to a first term.
Dole was never one of those puffed-up poli-
ticians who constantly act as though they are
unveiling statues of themselves. He had a
Midwestern cheerfulness — see Ronald Re-
agan, of Dixon, Ill. — about the United States’
possibilities, but his mordant, sometimes
acidic wit fit a man with some grievances
against life’s close calls.
If he had been a few yards away from where
he was on that Italian hill on April 14, 1945, or if
the war in Europe had ended 25 days earlier,
he would have escaped the severe wound that
left him in pain the rest of his years. A few
thousand more Ohio and Mississippi votes in
1976 would have made Dole vice president.
But his aptitudes were not those of an exec-
utive. The presidency is a fundamentally rhet-
orical office; rhetoric can make mighty its
rather meager de jure powers. Dole was un-
rhetorical — almost anti-rhetorical.
In one of his three campaigns for the Repub-
lican presidential nomination, an earnest
grade school pupil asked him a question about
acid rain. Dole’s full answer was: “That bill’s
in markup.” The child must have looked
dazed, but Dole could not help himself. Long
acculturation in the legislative branch ren-
dered him fluent in, but only in, Senate-speak,
a dialect unintelligible to normal Americans.
Uncomfortable with a text, he spoke easily on-
ly in the conversational, sometimes cryptic
discourse by which colleagues in a small, face-
to-face legislative setting communicate with
each other.
List the most important American public
servants who never became president. Two,
perhaps the top two, were named Marshall:
John, chief justice for 34 years, and George,
soldier and diplomat. Others were jurists —
Roger Taney and Earl Warren, were, Lord
knows, consequential — as were some legisla-
tors, such as the Great Triumvirate: Henry
Clay, Daniel Webster and John Calhoun.
But few congressional careers loom large.
This is because legislative accomplishments
are collaborative, the result of blurry compro-
mises presented in pastels rather than sharp
pictures painted in bold strokes of primary
colors. Dole’s legislative life was the political
life as Plutarch described it:
“They are wrong who think that politics is
like an ocean voyage or a military campaign,
something to be done with some particular
end in view, something which leaves off as
soon as that end is reached. It is not a public
chore, to be got over with. It is a way of life. It is
the life of a domesticated political and social
creature who is born with a love for public life,
with a desire for honor, with a feeling for his
fellows.”
The melancholy dimension of Dole’s life
was not that he failed to attain the presidency,
for which he was not well-suited, but that in
1996 in quest of it, he left the Senate he loved
and where he excelled. When Democrats con-
sidered offering their 1948 presidential nomi-
nation to Eisenhower, taciturn Sam Rayburn,
House speaker, said of him: “Good man, but
wrong business.” Rayburn’s words were
wrong about Ike but would have been right
about Dole the presidential aspirant. Two of
those words are especially apposite: good
man.
Remembering the goodness of Bob DoleBY GEORGE F. WILL
Washington Post Writers Group
Friday’s labor market report shows
the economy continues to recover
slowly from the pandemic. That
sluggish pace is likely to continue
— and it seems older workers are the pri-
mary culprit.
It’s clear there are millions of jobs for the
taking if only people would take them. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last
month a total of 10.4 million job openings on
the last business day of September. This is
dramatically higher than the total number
of unemployed people; there were only 0.7
unemployed people for every job opening in
September, the last month for which we
have data. This is a record-low ratio and
consistent with a full-employment economy
in which everyone who wants a job has one.
Yet employment has yet to recover to pre-
pandemic levels. As of November, there
were still 3.9 million fewer jobs filled than
there were in February 2020. This is the la-
bor market conundrum: Why do millions of
people who had jobs almost two years ago
not want them today?
The data on labor force participation —
the number of people eligible to work who
are looking for a job — provide some tanta-
lizing clues. It dropped from a pre-pandem-
ic level of 63.3% in February of 2020 to a low
of 60.2% in April 2020, and then quickly rose
to 61.4% in June 2020 as initial lockdowns
ended. Since then, it has risen only by a
scant 0.4 points, hitting a post-pandemic
high of 61.8% in November. In other words,
the general economic reopening has yet to
attract millions of people back to work.
The stagnant overall rate, however,
masks significant improvement in seg-
ments of the workforce. The labor force par-
ticipation rate among so-called prime-aged
workers, those between the ages of 25 and
54, has risen more quickly than the overall
rate, from 81.2% in June 2020 to 82.1% in No-
vember 2021. That’s more than double the
increase in the total rate. Moreover, prime-
aged workers are reentering the labor force
in recent months at an even faster rate. The
participation rate skyrocketed from 81.3%
in May 2021 to its current level. People in the
prime of their life are coming back to work,
and relatively quickly.
But older workers, those 55 and up, are
still holding back. A little more than 40% of
this demographic were in the labor force in
February 2020, but only 38.4% are today.
That figure is identical to the level last May,
when the economy was largely shut down.
Almost two years into the pandemic, they
are still not coming back to work.
Some have speculated that these workers
are retiring early, but data from the Social
Security Administration do not support this
view. People taking early retirement would
be expected to apply for Social Security re-
tirement benefits, which they can do as
early as age 62. But the number of people re-
ceiving old-age pensions from Social Secu-
rity has increased at a slower rate since the
pandemic began than it did before. Roughly
50 million people received retirement bene-
fits from Social Security in October, an in-
crease of only 650,000 people since Decem-
ber 2020. That’s substantially less than the
increase of 1.4 million people seeking bene-
fits between December 2018 and 2019 and
1.1 million between December 2019 and
2020.
This figure is surely affected by the large
number of seniors who have died from CO-
VID-19. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reports that the disease
killed about 584,000 people aged 65 or older,
with another 112,000 55-to-64-year-olds
succumbing to the virus. Many of these peo-
ple would have lived but for the pandemic,
increasing the number of people receiving
retirement benefits. But even if one as-
sumes all of them would be alive today,
there still would not be an abnormally large
increase in Social Security beneficiaries.
Older people are dropping out of the work-
force, but they aren’t retiring in the classic
sense of the term.
Labor force participation is also increas-
ing slowly among older workers who are no-
where near retirement age. BLS data show
that participation is increasing most rapidly
among workers between 20 and 34 years of
age. The participation rate for workers aged
35 to 44 increased by a paltry 0.2% since last
November, and the rate for people between
45 and 54 rose by only 0.4%. Anyone middle-
aged and up is much likelier to be leery of
reentering the workforce than younger
Americans.
Clearly, many older workers have
changed their minds about the relative val-
ue of working. Simple quick fixes, such as
this summer’s GOP-led early termination of
supplemental unemployment benefits, are
not likely to alter this fundamental shift in
outlook. The consequence of these choices
means that our economic recovery is likely
to remain sluggish for quite some time.
Why are labor markets sluggish? Look to older workers.BY HENRY OLSEN
Special to The Washington Post
Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist and a senior fellowat the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
ACROSS 1 Chimed
5 Misfortunes
9 Binge
12 Initial chip
13 Oxidation
result
14 Hot temper
15 “Home Alone”
actor
17 “Ben-Hur” studio
18 Social standing
19 Office notes
21 — d’art
24 Neat
25 Debtors’ notes
26 Spandex-like
30 JFK’s veep
31 Tennis star
Becker
32 “Yoo- —!”
33 Made more
powerful
35 TV alien
36 Cartoon frames
37 Famed
frontiersman
38 Taj —
40 Greek letters
42 Docs’ bloc
43 “You Are So
Beautiful” singer
48 Thither
49 Hammett pooch
50 Mighty trees
51 Assoc.
52 Regretted
53 Perukes
DOWN 1 “The Big Bang
Theory” role
2 Year in Madrid
3 To the — degree
4 Literary
categories
5 Tehran’s country
6 Galoot
7 Leary’s drug
8 Thwarts
9 High-fashion
shoe designer
10 Jason’s ship
11 Jewels
16 Garfield, for one
20 D.C. summer hrs.
21 Fixes a squeak
22 Newsom of
baseball lore
23 “Nightline”
anchor
24 Stumble
26 Freshens the
lawn, say
27 Capote
nickname
28 Trumpet
29 Oxen’s burden
31 Vacuum
container
34 Pod veggie
35 Kremlin setting
37 Life story
38 BLT spread
39 Roman god
of love
40 “Pistol” of
basketball
41 Large amount
44 Buckeyes’ sch.
45 Chiang — -shek
46 Heart chart
(Abbr.)
47 Blog feed abbr.
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
Tuesday, December 7, 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 • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
SCOREBOARD
2021-22 Bowl Glance
Friday, Dec. 17Bahamas Bowl
Nassau, BahamasToledo (7-5) vs. Middle Tennessee (6-6)
Cure BowlOrlando, Fla.
N. Illinois (9-4) vs. Coastal Carolina(10-2)
Saturday, Dec. 18Boca Raton BowlBoca Raton, Fla.
W. Kentucky (8-5) vs. Appalachian St.(10-3), 11 a.m.
Celebration BowlAtlanta
SC State (6-5) vs. Jackson St. (11-1)New Mexico Bowl
AlbuquerqueFresno St. (9-3) vs. UTEP (7-5)
Independence BowlShreveport, La.
No. 12 BYU (10-2) vs. UAB (8-4)LendingTree Bowl
Mobile, Ala.E. Michigan (7-5) vs. Liberty (7-5)
LA BowlInglewood, Calif.
Oregon St. (7-5) vs. Utah St. (10-3)New Orleans Bowl
New OrleansNo. 16 Louisiana-Lafayette (12-2) vs.
Marshall (7-5)Monday, Dec. 20
Myrtle Beach BowlConway, S.C.
Old Dominion (6-6) vs. Tulsa (6-6)Tuesday, Dec. 21
Famous Idaho Potato BowlBoise, Idaho
Kent State (7-6) vs. Wyoming (6-6)Frisco Bowl
Frisco, TexasNo. 24 UTSA (12-1) vs. San Diego St. (11-2)
Wednesday, Dec. 22Armed Forces BowlFort Worth, Texas
Missouri (6-6) vs. Army (8-3)
Thursday, Dec. 23
Frisco Football ClassicFrisco, Texas
Miami (7-5) vs. North Texas (6-6)Gasparilla Bowl
Tampa, Fla.UCF (8-4) vs. Florida (6-6)
Friday, Dec. 24Hawaii Bowl
HonoluluMemphis (6-6) vs. Hawaii (6-7)
Saturday, Dec. 25Camellia Bowl
Montgomery, Ala.Ball St. (6-6) vs. Georgia St. (7-5)
Monday, Dec. 27Quick Lane Bowl
Nevada (8-4) vs. W. Michigan (7-5)Military Bowl
Annapolis, Md.Boston College (6-6) vs. East Carolina
(7-5)Tuesday, Dec. 28
Birmingham BowlBirmingham, Ala.
No. 21 Houston (11-2) vs. Auburn (6-6)SERVPRO First Responder Bowl
DallasAir Force (9-3) vs. Louisville (6-6)
Liberty BowlMemphis, Tenn.
Mississippi St. (7-5) vs. Texas Tech (6-6)Holiday Bowl
San DiegoUCLA (8-4) vs. NC State (9-3)
Guaranteed Rate BowlPhoenix
Minnesota (8-4) vs. West Virginia (6-6)Wednesday, Dec. 29
Fenway BowlBoston
Virginia (6-6) vs. SMU (8-4)Pinstripe Bowl
New YorkVirginia Tech (6-6) vs. Maryland (6-6)
Cheez-It BowlOrlando, Fla.
No. 19 Clemson (9-3) vs. Iowa St. (7-5)Alamo BowlSan Antonio
No. 14 Oklahoma (10-2) vs. No. 15 Oregon(10-3)
Thursday, Dec. 30Duke’s Mayo Bowl
Charlotte, N.C.South Carolina (6-6) vs. North Carolina
(6-6) Music City Bowl
NashvillePurdue (8-4) vs. Tennessee (7-5)
Peach BowlAtlanta
No. 11 Michigan St. (10-2) vs. No. 13 Pitts-burgh (11-2)
Las Vegas BowlLas Vegas
Wisconsin (8-4) vs. Arizona St. (8-4)Friday, Dec. 31
College Football Playoff Semifinal(Orange Bowl)
Miami Gardens, Fla.No. 2 Michigan (12-1) vs. No. 3 Georgia
(12-1)College Football Playoff Semifinal
(Cotton Bowl Classic)Arlington, Texas
No. 1 Alabama (12-1) vs. No. 4 Cincinnati(13-0)
Gator BowlJacksonville, Fla.
No. 20 Wake Forest (10-3) vs. No. 23 Tex-as A&M (8-4)
Sun BowlEl Paso, Texas
Washington St. (7-5) vs. Miami (7-5)Arizona BowlTucson, Ariz.
Cent. Michigan (8-4) vs. Boise St. (7-5)Saturday, Jan. 1Outback Bowl
Tampa, Fla.No. 22 Arkansas (8-4) vs. Penn St. (7-5)
Citrus BowlOrlando, Fla.
No. 17 Iowa (10-3) vs. No. 25 Kentucky(9-3)
Fiesta BowlGlendale, Ariz.
No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1) vs. No. 9 Oklaho-ma St. (11-2)
Rose BowlPasadena, Calif.
No. 7 Ohio St. (10-2) vs. No. 10 Utah (10-3)Sugar Bowl
New OrleansNo. 6 Baylor (11-2) vs. No. 8 Mississippi
(10-2)Tuesday, Jan. 4
Texas BowlHouston
LSU (6-6) vs. Kansas St. (7-5) Monday, Jan. 8
College Football ChampionshipIndianapolis
Semifinal winners
College Football Playoff rankings
Team Record
1. Alabama 12-1
2. Michigan 12-1
3. Georgia 12-1
4. Cincinnati 13-0
5. Notre Dame 11-1
6. Ohio St. 10-2
7. Baylor 11-2
8. Mississippi 10-2
9. Oklahoma St. 11-2
10. Michigan St. 10-2
11. Utah 10-3
12. Pittsburgh 11-2
13. BYU 10-2
14. Oregon 10-3
15. Iowa 10-3
16. Oklahoma 10-2
17. Wake Forest 10-3
18. NC State 9-3
19. Clemson 9-3
20. Houston 11-2
21. Arkansas 8-4
22. Kentucky 9-3
23. Louisiana-Lafayette 12-1
24. San Diego St. 11-2
25. Texas A&M 8-4
The playoff semifinals match No. 1 Ala-bama vs. No. 4 Cincinnati, and No. 2 Michi-gan vs. No. 3 Georgia. The semifinals willbe hosted at the Cotton Bowl and OrangeBowl on Dec. 31 2021. The championshipgame will be played on Jan. 10, 2022 at Lu-cas Oil Stadium, Ind.
AP Top 25The Top 25 teams in The Associated Presscollege football poll, with first-place votesin parentheses, final records, total pointsbased on 25 points for a first-place votethrough one point for a 25th-place vote,and previous ranking:
Record Pts Pvs
1. Alabama (50) 12-1 1535 4
2. Michigan (9) 12-1 1480 2
3. Georgia 12-1 1408 1
4. Cincinnatti (3) 13-0 1404 3
5. Notre Dame 11-1 1280 6
6. Baylor 11-2 1228 9
7. Onio St. 10-2 1177 7
8. Mississippi 10-2 1101 8
9. Oklahoma St. 11-2 1060 5
10. Utah 10-3 929 14
11. Michigan State 10-2 895 11
12. Brigham Young 10-2 866 12
13. Pittsburgh 11-2 638 17
14. Oklahoma 10-2 807 13
15. Oregon 10-3 594 10
16. La.-Lafayette 12-1 490 20
17. Iowa 10-3 446 15
18. N.C. State 9-3 404 21
19. Clemson 9-3 395 22
20. Wake Forest 9-3 393 18
21. Houston 11-2 358 16
22. Arkansas 8-4 279 23
23. Texas A&M 8-4 171 24
24. UTSA 12-1 146 NR
25. Kentucky 9-3 129 25
Others receiving votes: Utah St. 109,Wisconsin 66, San Diego St. 63, Minnesota38, Purdue 36, Appalachian St. 9, Army 7,Mississippi St. 4, Penn St. 4, Northern Illi-nois 1.
Coaches Top 25The USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches PollTop 25 with team’s records FROMTHROUGH SATURDAY in parentheses, to-tal points based on 25 for first placethrough one point for 25th, ranking in lastweek’s poll and first-place votes received.
Record Pts Pvs
1. Alabama (54) 12-1 1540 2
2. Michigan (5) 12-1 1474 3
3. Georgia 12-1 1420 1
4. Cincinnatti (3) 13-0 1392 4
5. Notre Dame 11-1 1266 6
6. Baylor 11-2 1204 9
7. Ohio St. 10-2 1170 7
8. Mississippi 10-2 1134 8
9. Oklahoma St. 11-2 1036 5
10. Michigan State 10-2 903 13
11. Utah 10-3 893 17
12. Pittsburgh 12-2 886 15
13. Oklahoma 10-2 1036 11
14. Brigham Young 10-2 792 14
15. Oregon 10-3 589 10
16. Iowa 10-3 561 12
17. La.-Layayette 12-1 444 21
18. N.C. State 9-3 436 20
19. Wake Forest 10-3 389 18
20. Kentucky 9-3 327 22
21. Houston 11-2 315 16
22. Clemson 9-3 252 24
23. Texas A&M 8-4 239 23
24. Arkansas 8-4 185 25
25. Texas-San Antonio 12-1 146 NR
Dropped out: No. 19 San Diego State(11-2).
Others receiving votes: Wisconsin (8-4)105; Utah State (10-3) 85; San Diego State(11-2) 62; Minnesota (8-4) 17; Air Force(9-3) 15; Fresno State (9-3) 5; Penn State(7-5) 5; UCLA (8-4) 3; Mississippi State (7-5)2; Appalachian State (10-3) 2; Coastal Car-olina (10-2) 2; Purdue (8-4) 1.
FCS playoffs
First RoundSaturday, Nov. 27
Incarnate Word 35, Stephen F. Austin 28,OT
Kennesaw St. 48, Davidson 21 Holy Cross 13, Sacred Heart 10 South Dakota St. 56, UC Davis 24 E. Washington 19, N. Iowa 9 UT-Martin 32, Missouri St. 31 S. Illinois 22, South Dakota 10 SE Louisiana 38, Florida A&M 14
Second RoundFriday, Dec. 3
Villanova 21, Holy Cross 16 Montana 57, E. Washington 41
Saturday's gamesETSU 32, Kennesaw St. 31 James Madison 59, SE Louisiana 20 Sam Houston 49, Incarnate Word 42 North Dakota St. 38, S. Illinois 7 Montana St. 26, UT-Martin 7 South Dakota St. 24, Sacramento St. 19
QuarterfinalsFriday, Dec. 10
Montana at James Madison Saturday, Dec. 11
ETSU at North Dakota St.South Dakota St at Villanova Montana St. at Sam Houston
SemifinalsFriday, Dec. 17
TBD Saturday, Dec. 18
TBD Championship
Saturday, Jan. 8At Toyota Stadium
Frisco, TexasSemifinal winners
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
DEALS
Sunday’s Transactions
HOCKEYNational Hockey League
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS — Sent D WyattKalynuk to Rockford (AHL).
LOS ANGELES KINGS — Sent C QuintonBayfield to Ontario (AHL).
OTTAWA SENATORS — Waived RW Pon-tus Aberg.
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS — Sent C MaxWillman to Lehigh Valley (AHL).
COLLEGELOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE — Promoted Mi-
chael Desormeaux to head football coach.
PRO SOCCER
MLS playoffs
Conference FinalsWestern Conference
Saturday’s gameAt Providence Park, Portland, Ore.
Portland 2 Real Salt Lake 0Eastern Conference
At Subaru Park, Chester, Pa.Sunday’s game
New York City FC 2, Philadelphia 1MLS Cup
Saturday, Dec. 11New York City FC at Portland
NCAA Men’s Div. I TournamentQuarterfnals
Saturday’s gamesGeorgetown 1, West Virginia 1, OT, Geor-
getown advances on PK’s 4-1 Pittsburgh 1, Notre Dame 1, OT, Notre
Dame advances on PK’s 4-2 Washington 2, Saint Louis 0 Oregon State 1, Clemson 1, OT, Clemson
advances on PK’s 4-3 Semifinals
Friday, Dec. 10
At WakeMed Soccer ParkCary, N.C.
Washington vs. Georgetown Clemson vs. Notre Dame
ChampionshipSunday, Dec. 12
At WakeMed Soccer ParkCary, N.C.
Semifinal winners
NCAA Women’s Div. I TournamentSemifinals
Friday’s gamesAt Stevens StadiumSanta Clara, Calif.
Florida St. 1, Rutgers 0 BYU 0, Santa Clara 0, 2OT, BYU advanced
3-2 on penalty kicks Championship
Monday’s gameAt Stevens StadiumSanta Clara, Calif.
Florida St. vs. BYU
COLLEGE SOCCER
Sunday’s men’s scores
EAST
Bowdoin 74, Colby 61 Brown 79, Sacred Heart 66 Cornell 122, KEUK 64 Delaware 70, UMBC 60 Fairfield 81, Niagara 71 Hartford 68, St. Francis (NY) 55 Marist 79, Rider 67 Monmouth (NJ) 79, Canisius 65 NJIT 90, Lafayette 86 Northwestern 67, Maryland 61 Ohio St. 76, Penn St. 64 Quinnipiac 90, Manhattan 73 Siena 60, St. Peter’s 58 St. John’s 83, Fordham 69
SOUTH
Austin Peay 98, Milligan 55 Belmont 85, Samford 73 Chattanooga 85, Lipscomb 64 FAU 76, North Florida 41 Minnesota 81, Mississippi St. 76 Morehouse 53, Fisk 51 North Alabama 103, Carver 40 North Carolina 79, Georgia Tech 62 SE Louisiana 72, Troy 68 South Carolina 80, Georgetown 67 UCF 81, Bethune-Cookman 45 Wingate 79, Catawba 77 Wofford 88, Kennesaw St. 62
MIDWEST
Bellarmine 92, Defiance 43 Cincinnati 73, Bryant 58 Detroit 64, Ill.-Chicago 56 Drake 74, St. Thomas (Minn.) 64 E. Michigan 79, Northwood (Mich.) 57 Kansas St. 65, Wichita St. 59 Richmond 60, N. Iowa 52 Valparaiso 71, W. Michigan 60 W. Illinois 97, Cent. Michigan 70
SOUTHWEST
Charleston Southern 59, Tarleton St. 57 Lamar 67, Our Lady of the Lake 64 Texas St. 71, Denver 58 Xavier 77, Oklahoma St. 71
FAR WEST
Arizona 90, Oregon St. 65 Arizona St. 69, Oregon 67 San Diego 52, Cal Poly 51 UC Santa Barbara 87, Cal Lutheran 66 Utah 66, California 58 VMI 89, Seattle 82
Sunday’s women’s scores
EAST
Albany (NY) 60, Colgate 39 American U. 68, Radford 58 Brown 57, Holy Cross 55 Buffalo 69, Rhode Island 55 Columbia 78, Marist 49 Duke 77, Penn 55 Fordham 76, Princeton 67 Georgetown 55, Providence 47 Maryland 73, Rutgers 59 Md.-Eastern Shore 66, Navy 61 Monmouth (NJ) 55, Dartmouth 37
Northeastern 73, Hartford 53 St. Francis Brooklyn 63, UMBC 51 St. John’s 88, Seton Hall 75 Syracuse 116, CCSU 65 Temple 67, Duquesne 55 UConn 73, Notre Dame 54 UMass 58, Mass.-Lowell 53 Vermont 72, Loyola Chicago 62 Virginia 62, George Washington 53
SOUTH
Alabama 80, Chattanooga 64 Appalachian St. 73, Gardner-Webb 63 Auburn 77, Oklahoma St. 66 Clemson 48, Presbyterian 42 Florida St. 83, Charleston Southern 32 Georgia Tech 55, Georgia 54 Jacksonville St. 78, Alabama St. 46 Kentucky 90, Merrimack 56 Louisiana Tech 69, MVSU 56 Louisville 80, Belmont 66 Mercer 71, Tennessee St. 70, OT Miami 70, Tulane 63 Middle Tennessee 84, Lipscomb 59 N. Kentucky 69, Fort Wayne 60 NC State 78, Elon 46 North Carolina 93, James Madison 47 Old Dominion 68, William & Mary 55 Saint Louis 59, UT Martin 54 Southern Miss. 71, South Alabama 51 Tennessee 64, Virginia Tech 58 Tennessee Tech 76, W. Kentucky 72 UAB 72, Miles 52 VCU 69, Boston College 65
MIDWEST
Bowling Green 69, Valparaiso 53 Cleveland St. 2, Wright St. 0 Creighton 72, Villanova 58 Dayton 78, Illinois St. 67 DePaul 103, Xavier 85 Illinois 71, E. Kentucky 57 Iowa 88, Michigan St. 61 Iowa St. 94, Longwood 56 Kansas 74, Vanderbilt 67 Marquette 59, Butler 45 Michigan 93, Akron 54 Mississippi 75, Cincinnati 63 Nebraska-Omaha 87, College of Saint
Mary (NE) 57 Northwestern 61, Wisconsin 49 Ohio St. 70, Purdue 53 SE Missouri 95, Harris-Stowe State 57
SOUTHWEST
Arkansas 84, California 67 Colorado St. 52, UTSA 48 Florida 63, TCU 54 Oral Roberts 73, University of Science
and Arts of Oklahoma 26 Texas 76, Texas A&M 60 Texas A&M-CC 92, St. Edwards 40 Texas State 105, Texas College 37
FAR WEST
Arizona St. 91, Harvard 54 Boise St. 76, FAU 64 Hawaii 76, Loyola Marymount 63 Long Beach St. 50, Air Force 49 New Mexico 73, New Mexico St. 66 San Diego 83, CS Northridge 70, OT San Francisco 78, Southern Cal 63 UCLA 112, San Jose St. 33 UNLV 71, CS Bakersfield 56
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Hinako Shibuno 73-72-66-69—280 -6Sarah Jane Smith 70-73-67-70—280 -6Emily Kristine Pedersen 65-70-73-72—280 -6Haylee Rae Harford 68-69-70-73—280 -6Yu-Sang Hou (a) 71-72-72-66—281 -5Ching Huang 70-71-73-67—281 -5
LPGA Q-SeriesSunday
At Magnolia Grove-Falls and CrossingCourses
Mobile, Ala.Purse: $152,000
Yardage: 6,664; Par: 72a-amateur
Final RoundP. Roussin-Bouchard 69-67-66-65—267 -19Hye-Jin Choi 69-66-68-66—269 -17Na Rin An 67-67-72-66—272 -14Stephanie Kyriacou 69-72-69-63—273 -13Atthaya Thitikul 73-65-66-69—273 -13Peiyun Chien 66-72-66-70—274 -12Ayaka Furue 69-67-69-70—275 -11Allisen Corpuz 72-67-72-65—276 -10Maddie McCrary 67-72-69-68—276 -10Selena Costabile 67-69-69-71—276 -10Gemma Dryburgh 72-68-72-65—277 -9Kelly Tan 71-66-73-67—277 -9Karis Anne Davidson 68-71-69-69—277 -9Kaitlyn Papp 70-67-70-70—277 -9Yaeeun Hong 68-71-67-71—277 -9Dewi Weber 71-68-70-69—278 -8Isi Gabsa 69-71-68-70—278 -8Katie Yoo 69-70-68-71—278 -8Bianca Pagdanganan 75-69-66-69—279 -7Jennifer Chang 70-70-70-69—279 -7Janie Jackson 68-68-74-69—279 -7Weiwei Zhang 69-70-70-70—279 -7Linnea Johansson 67-67-75-70—279 -7Katelyn Dambaugh 70-69-73-68—280 -6
GOLF
Hero World ChallengeSundayAt Albany
Nassau, BahamasPurse: $3.5 million
Yardage: 7,414; Par: 72Final Round
Viktor Hovland 68-69-67-66—270 -18Scottie Scheffler 71-68-66-66—271 -17Sam Burns 71-65-68-69—273 -15Patrick Reed 68-69-67-69—273 -15Collin Morikawa 68-66-64-76—274 -14Justin Thomas 67-72-71-64—274 -14Daniel Berger 66-69-69-71—275 -13Tony Finau 68-66-70-71—275 -13Tyrrell Hatton 69-67-71-70—277 -11Brooks Koepka 67-67-69-74—277 -11Justin Rose 71-70-70-66—277 -11Matt Fitzpatrick 71-70-68-69—278 -10Xander Schauffele 70-70-70-68—278 -10Abraham Ancer 66-73-72-69—280 -8Bryson DeChambeau 69-64-73-74—280 -8Harris English 75-70-63-72—280 -8Webb Simpson 67-72-71-71—281 -7Rory McIlroy 66-71-75-70—282 -6Henrik Stenson 72-75-70-72—289 +1Jordan Spieth 71-72-75-76—294 +6
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19
COLLEGE BASKETBALL/NBA
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
W L Pct GB
Brooklyn 16 7 .696 —
Boston 13 11 .542 3½
Philadelphia 12 11 .522 4
New York 11 12 .478 5
Toronto 11 13 .458 5½
Southeast Division
W L Pct GB
Miami 14 10 .583 —
Washington 14 10 .583 —
Charlotte 14 11 .560 ½
Atlanta 12 12 .500 2
Orlando 5 19 .208 9
Central Division
W L Pct GB
Chicago 16 8 .667 —
Milwaukee 15 9 .625 1
Cleveland 13 11 .542 3
Indiana 9 16 .360 7½
Detroit 4 18 .182 11
Western Conference
Southwest Division
W L Pct GB
Memphis 13 10 .565 —
Dallas 11 11 .500 1½
San Antonio 8 13 .381 4
Houston 7 16 .304 6
New Orleans 7 19 .269 7½
Northwest Division
W L Pct GB
Utah 16 7 .696 —
Denver 11 11 .500 4½
Minnesota 11 12 .478 5
Portland 11 13 .458 5½
Oklahoma City 6 16 .273 9½
Pacific Division
W L Pct GB
Golden State 19 4 .826 —
Phoenix 19 4 .826 —
L.A. Clippers 12 12 .500 7½
L.A. Lakers 12 12 .500 7½
Sacramento 10 14 .417 9½
Sunday’s games
Utah 109, Cleveland 108 Charlotte 130, Atlanta 127 Toronto 102, Washington 90 Houston 118, New Orleans 108
Monday’s games
Oklahoma City at Detroit Philadelphia at Charlotte Washington at Indiana Memphis at Miami Atlanta at Minnesota Cleveland at Milwaukee Denver at Chicago San Antonio at Phoenix L.A. Clippers at Portland Orlando at Golden State
Tuesday’s games
Brooklyn at Dallas New York at San Antonio Boston at L.A. Lakers
Wednesday’s games
Chicago at Cleveland New York at Indiana Philadelphia at Charlotte Washington at Detroit Milwaukee at Miami Oklahoma City at Toronto Brooklyn at Houston Dallas at Memphis Denver at New Orleans Utah at Minnesota Orlando at Sacramento Portland at Golden State Boston at L.A. Clippers
Thursday’s games
Utah at Philadelphia L.A. Lakers at Memphis Denver at San Antonio
Leaders
Through Sunday
SCORING
G FG FT PTS AVG
Durant, BKN 22 228 134 629 28.6
Antetokounmpo, MIL 21 206 144 580 27.6
Curry, GS 22 198 91 606 27.5
REBOUNDS
G OFF DEFTOT AVG
Gobert, UTA 23 69 268 337 14.6
Jokic, DEN 17 45 186 231 13.5
Capela, ATL 24 96 205 301 12.5
ASSISTS
G AST AVG
Paul, PHO 23 233 10.1
Harden, BKN 23 219 9.5
Young, ATL 24 225 9.4
NBA scoreboard
CLEVELAND — Once the
shot left Darius Garland’s
hands, the Utah Jazz couldn’t do
anything but hope it didn’t drop.
Sometimes, defense comes
down to a simple wish.
Garland missed a potential
game-winner with 2.9 seconds
left as the Jazz, who got 35
points from Donovan Mitchell,
survived Cleveland’s late surge
for their fourth straight win,
109-108 over the Cavaliers on
Sunday.
Rudy Gobert had 20 rebounds
and five blocks, Bojan Bogda-
novic added 16 points and Rudy
Gay had 15 for Utah, which
made 20 three-pointers and
gave away a 15-point lead in the
fourth.
Cleveland had a chance to
win, and coach J.B. Bickerstaff
put the ball in Garland’s hands.
But his 28-footer was long, and
Jarrett Allen couldn’t get his tip
to drop as the Cavs had their
winning streak stopped at four.
“That last possession, I knew
it was going to go to him be-
cause I’ve known J.B. as a head
coach for quite a while,” Jazz
guard Mike Conley said. “I just
tried to stay up as high as I
could and make sure it was con-
tested. I told him (Garland), it
was like playing against my-
self.”
Bickerstaff didn’t second-
guess his decision.
“If I could do it over again, I
would do the same thing and let
him make a play,” he said.
Garland scored 31 points, Al-
len added 17 points and 11 re-
bounds and rookie Evan Mobley
had 14 points and 12 rebounds
for the Cleveland, which was
back at home after beating Dal-
las, Miami and Washington.
Hornets 130, Hawks 127:
Miles Bridges scored 32 points
for a short-handed Charlotte
team that leaned on its best
three-point shooting game of
the season to beat host Atlanta.
Kelly Oubre Jr. made six
threes and scored 28 points for
the Hornets, who made a sea-
son-high 17 threes.
John Collins led the Hawks
with a season-best 31 points and
12 rebounds.
The four Charlotte players
held out after being placed in
the NBA’s health and safety CO-
VID-19 protocols were leading
scorer LaMelo Ball, starting
guard Terry Rozier, center Ma-
son Plumlee and forward Jalen
McDaniels. They’ll be sidelined
for at least 10 days.
Raptors 102, Wizards 90:
Pascal Siakam scored 31 points,
Precious Achiuwa had 10 points
and 14 rebounds, and Toronto
beat visiting Washington.
Chris Boucher scored 14
points, Scottie Barnes had 11,
and Fred VanVleet 10 to help
the Raptors win back-to-back
games for the first time since a
five-game winning streak from
Oct. 27 to Nov. 3.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
scored a season-high 26 points
and Bradley Beal had 14 for the
Wizards, who couldn’t dig out of
a hole after shooting poorly in
the first quarter.
Rockets 118, Pelicans 108:
Eric Gordon and Christian
Wood both scored 23 points, and
host Houston beat New Orleans
for its sixth straight win.
Brandon Ingram scored a
season-high 40 points for the
Pelicans, which was his most
since dropping 40 against
Brooklyn on Nov. 4, 2019. Jonas
Valanciunas finished with 17
points and 10 rebounds for New
Orleans.
The Rockets’ Daniel Theis
netted 12 points on 4 of 6 shoot-
ing from the field, and Alperen
Sengun finished with 10 points.
TONY DEJAK/AP
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell shoots over Cavaliers center JarrettAllen a 109108 win for the Jazz on Sunday in Cleveland.
Jazz hold off Cavaliers,extend win streak to 4
Associated Press
ROUNDUP
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Benned-
ict Mathurin scored a season-
high 29 points, including four
three-pointers, and No. 11 Ari-
zona beat Oregon State 90-65 on
Sunday.
Christian Koloko added 12
points for the Wildcats (7-0, 1-0
Pac-12), who won their fourth
straight against the Beavers.
Mathurin finished with six re-
bounds.
“The first thing that really got
Benn going was the offensive
rebounding. That’s something
he and I have been talking
about,” Arizona coach Tommy
Lloyd said. “Making plays in the
effort areas and not just hunting
jump shots. Then he hunted
some good threes and our guys
found him in that zone.”
Jerod Lucas scored 17 points
to lead the Beavers (1-8, 0-2),
who haven’t won since their
opener against Portland State.
The Wildcats fell behind 13-7
early, responded with a 16-0 run
capped by Mathurin’s three-
point play and steadily pulled
away, never relinquishing the
lead.
Oregon State got within six
points early in the second half,
but a layup by Azuolas Tubelis
made it 52-41 with 17:13 left and
the Beavers didn’t get within 10
points the rest of the way.
“I was really excited the way
our guys came out ready for
fight. And then just seems like
what’s cost us against all teams
is little spurts in each half,”
Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle
said. “We got down in the first
half and then battled back. Sec-
ond half, same thing. We just we
couldn’t keep the ball in front.
We couldn’t grab a rebound. We
turned it over way too much.”
Kerr Kriisa finished with 11
points for Arizona and Tubelis
scored 10.
Oregon State were thwarted
by turnovers, with 22 that the
Wildcats turned into 27 points.
“I don’t know if I envision
stats going into the game, but I
definitely knew we wanted to
pressure them and force them
to make tough plays in tight
windows. Our guys did a good
job of that,” Lloyd said.
Arizona was supposed to open
Pac-12 play at home on Thurs-
day against Washington, but the
game was postponed because of
COVID-19 issues with the Husk-
ies. That game has been resche-
duled for Jan. 25.
“We played one game basical-
ly in the last two weeks. So may-
be it took us a little bit to get our
feet underneath us, but I’m re-
ally proud of how our bench
came in and changed the game,
pressuring defensively and
making some things happen,”
Lloyd said.
The Wildcats are averaging
more than 90 points per game
under Lloyd, who’s in his first
season as their coach after 20
years as an assistant at Gonza-
ga.
Tip-insArizona: The Wildcats’ No. 11
ranking is their highest since
they were No. 9 in January of
2018. ... Arizona has three wins
this season by 45 or more
points.
Oregon State: The Beavers
have not led a game at halftime
this season. ... Oregon State has
defeated Arizona nine times at
Gill Coliseum when the Wild-
cats have been ranked, most re-
cently on Jan. 12, 2020, when
the Beavers beat then-No. 24
Arizona 82-65.
Corvallis CoolMathurin, a sophomore, had a
career-high 31 points against
the Beavers at Gill Coliseum
last season.
“To be honest, I’m from Cana-
da and Corvallis is pretty much
the same as Canada so I’ll just
say it’s the weather,” he joked
after the game.
Mathurin leadsNo. 11 Arizonapast Oregon St.
AMANDA LOMAN/AP
Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurindunks against Oregon State onSunday, in Corvallis, Ore. Mathurin scored 29 in the Wildcats’ 9065 victory.
Associated Press
PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
NHL/SPORTS BRIEFS
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Florida 24 17 4 3 37 93 67
Toronto 26 17 7 2 36 80 62
Tampa Bay 24 15 5 4 34 81 65
Detroit 25 13 9 3 29 71 78
Boston 21 12 8 1 25 61 56
Buffalo 24 8 13 3 19 70 90
Montreal 26 6 17 3 15 59 93
Ottawa 22 6 15 1 13 57 86
Metropolitan Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Washington 25 15 4 6 36 88 62
N.Y. Rangers 23 16 4 3 35 68 57
Carolina 23 16 6 1 33 75 52
Pittsburgh 24 11 8 5 27 69 67
Columbus 23 13 10 0 26 76 75
New Jersey 22 9 9 4 22 65 76
Philadelphia 22 8 10 4 20 51 72
N.Y. Islanders 20 5 10 5 15 38 61
Western Conference
Central Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Minnesota 24 17 6 1 35 92 71
Winnipeg 24 12 8 4 28 74 68
St. Louis 24 12 8 4 28 80 70
Nashville 24 13 10 1 27 68 68
Colorado 21 12 7 2 26 85 71
Dallas 21 12 7 2 26 60 58
Chicago 24 9 13 2 20 54 75
Arizona 24 5 17 2 12 43 89
Pacific Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Calgary 25 15 5 5 35 81 51
Edmonton 23 16 7 0 32 86 70
Anaheim 25 13 8 4 30 84 74
Vegas 24 14 10 0 28 81 73
San Jose 25 13 11 1 27 66 68
Los Angeles 23 10 9 4 24 64 63
Seattle 24 9 13 2 20 72 84
Vancouver 25 8 15 2 18 60 80
Sunday’s games
Columbus 6, San Jose 4 Tampa Bay 7, Philadelphia 1 Chicago 3, N.Y. Islanders 2, SO Los Angeles 5, Edmonton 1 Winnipeg 6, Toronto 3 Vegas 3, Calgary 2
Monday’s games
Anaheim at Washington Colorado at Philadelphia Ottawa at New Jersey Arizona at Dallas Los Angeles at Vancouver Pittsburgh at Seattle
Tuesday’s games
Columbus at Toronto N.Y. Islanders at Ottawa Nashville at Detroit Tampa Bay at Montreal Anaheim at Buffalo Carolina at Winnipeg Florida at St. Louis N.Y. Rangers at Chicago Minnesota at Edmonton Calgary at San Jose
Wednesday’s games
Colorado at N.Y. Rangers Philadelphia at New Jersey Boston at Vancouver Dallas at Vegas
Thursday’s games
Anaheim at Columbus Chicago at Montreal Tampa Bay at Toronto Nashville at N.Y. Islanders Detroit at St. Louis Boston at Edmonton Carolina at Calgary Winnipeg at Seattle Dallas at Los Angeles Minnesota at San Jose
Scoring leadersThrough Monday
GP G A PTS
Leon Draisaitl, EDM 23 21 22 43
Connor McDavid, EDM 23 16 26 42
Alex Ovechkin, WSH 25 20 19 39
Nazem Kadri, COL 20 9 21 30
Jonathan Huberdeau, FLA 24 8 21 29
Kirill Kaprizov, MIN 24 9 20 29
Evgeny Kuznetsov, WSH 25 8 20 28
Johnny Gaudreau, CGY 25 9 19 28
Steven Stamkos, TB 23 12 15 27
Kyle Connor, WPG 24 15 12 27
Victor Hedman, TB 24 5 21 26
Mikael Granlund, NSH 24 5 21 26
Artemi Panarin, NYR 23 7 19 26
John Tavares, TOR 25 11 15 26
Timo Meier, SJ 20 11 15 26
NHL scoreboard
NEW YORK — Patrick Kane
scored the only goal in the shoo-
tout and the Chicago Blackhawks
beat the Islanders 3-2 Sunday
night, sending New York to its
11th straight loss overall and its
sixth straight setback in its new
arena.
Kane beat Semyon Varlamov
with Chicago’s second shootout
attempt, and Marc-Andre Fleury
denied all three chances by the Is-
landers to secure the win.
The Islanders tied the game at
2-all with four seconds left in the
third period on a goal by defense-
man Noah Dobson.
Brandon Hagel and Dylan
Strome scored in regulation for
the Blackhawks. Fleury finished
with 22 saves.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau also
scored for New York, which
earned a point for the third
straight game but fell to 0-8-3 in
its losing streak. Its last three loss-
es have been in overtime or shoo-
touts after eight-straight regula-
tion losses. Varlamov finished
with 24 saves.
The last-place Islanders, mis-
sing leading scorer Brock Nelson
and defenseman Ryan Pulock due
to injuries, fell to 0-4-2 at UBS
Arena as their winless streak re-
ached 11 (0-8-3). The skid dropped
their season record to 5-10-5.
The team’s longest winless run
came during its expansion season,
from Nov. 21-Dec. 20, 1972, when
it went 15 games (12 losses, three
ties) without a victory. New York
lost 12 straight games twice in
franchise history, from Nov. 22-
Dec. 15, 1988, and Dec. 27, 1972 to
Jan. 16, 1973.
Lightning 7, Flyers 1: Corey
Perry had two goals and an assist
and Ryan McDonagh scored and
had two assists to lead Tampa Bay
to a win at slumping Philadelphia.
Mathieu Joseph, Taylor Rad-
dysh, Boris Katchouk and Pat Ma-
roon also scored for the Lightning,
who won their third in a row and
ninth of their last 12. Victor Hed-
man had three assists to boost his
team-leading total to 21. Brian El-
liott, Tampa Bay’s backup goalie
who played the previous four sea-
sons with the Flyers, made 38
saves.
Cam Atkinson scored for Phila-
delphia, which has lost eight in a
row. The team is two losses away
from tying the club record of 10
consecutive defeats. Carter Hart
made 10 saves before being re-
placed by Martin Jones, who also
had 10 saves.
The Flyers’ skid started when
the Lightning visited Philadelphia
on Nov. 18 and beat them in a 4-3
shootout. Then, Tampa Bay beat
the Flyers at home 4-0 on Nov. 23.
Jets 6, Maple Leafs 3: Blake
Wheeler had two assists in his
1,000th NHL game and Connor
Hellebuyck made 32 saves, lead-
ing host Winnipeg past Toronto.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew
Copp, Evgeny Svechnikov, Kyle
Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark
Scheifele scored, and Hellebuyck
earned his ninth win of the season
for the Jets.
Michael Bunting, Auston Mat-
thews and Ondrej Kase scored for
the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll
stopped 35 shots.
Golden Knights 3, Flames 2:
Evgenii Dadonov scored his sev-
enth goal of the season and host
Vegas beat Calgary.
Less than two minutes after the
Flames’ Elias Lindholm cut the
Golden Knights’ 2-0 lead in half,
Dadonov responded by smacking
a rebound past Calgary goalie Ja-
cob Markstrom to give Vegas a 3-1
lead.
Max Pacioretty and Nicolas
Roy also scored for the Golden
Knights. Robin Lehner made 23
saves.
Andrew Mangiapane added a
goal for the Flames. Markstrom,
who was on a 5-1-0 run since Nov.
18, made 25 saves.
Kings 5, Oilers 1: Adrian
Kempe scored a pair of goals and
Los Angeles snapped a two-game
skid with a win at Edmonton.
Rasmus Kupari, Drew Doughty
and Trevor Moore also scored for
the Kings. Doughty added two as-
sists, and Jonathan Quick made 21
saves.
Blue Jackets 6, Sharks 4:
Adam Boqvist scored twice, An-
drew Peeke had two assists and
host Columbus snapped a four-
game losing streak with a come-
from-behind win over San Jose.
Sean Kuraly, Cole Sillinger,
Jack Roslevic and Alexandre
Texier scored and Elvis Merzli-
kins stopped 30 shots as the Blue
Jackets won their fourth straight
home game.
COREY SIPKIN/AP
Chicago Blackhawks goaltender MarcAndre Fleury, right, blocks New York Islanders left wing AnthonyBeauvillier (18) during a shootout in the Blackhawks’ 32 win Sunday in Elmont, N.Y.
Blackhawks win in SO, handIslanders 11th straight loss
Associated Press
NHL ROUNDUP
Medina Spirit, Derbywinner, collapses, dies
Kentucky Derby winner Medi-
na Spirit collapsed and died after a
workout Monday at Santa Anita.
The 3-year-old colt trained by
Bob Baffert had just completed
five furlongs in his second work-
out since finishing second in the
Breeders’ Cup Classic a month
ago at Del Mar, according to Craig
Robertson, Baffert’s attorney.
Santa Anita spokesman Mike
Willman also confirmed the colt’s
death.
The colt will undergo a full ne-
cropsy, which is required by the
California Horse Racing Board.
Medina Spirit tested positive af-
ter the May 1 Derby for betameth-
asone, a legal medication that is
not allowed on race day. It was
Baffert’s record seventh win in the
Derby.
Source: Cristobal headed
to Miami to replace DiazCORAL GABLES, Fla. — For
Mario Cristobal, the road has al-
ways led back to Miami.
Once again, he’s coming home.
A person with direct knowledge
of the decision said Cristobal is
leaving Oregon and returning to
Miami, accepting an offer to be-
come the head football coach at his
alma mater, where he won two na-
tional championships as a player.
He let the Ducks know of the deci-
sion Monday, according to the
person who spoke to The Associ-
ated Press on condition of ano-
nymity because it had not been
publicly announced.
Flyers fire Vigneault amid
skid, name interim coachPHILADELPHIA — The Phila-
delphia Flyers fired coach Alain
Vigneault on Monday following
eight straight losses, two shy of
matching a team record of 10 in a
row, and with the franchise far
from ending a 47-year Stanley
Cup drought.
The Flyers have been one of
NHL’s biggest flops of the season.
Their latest loss was a 7-1 defeat
by Tampa Bay on Sunday night
that sealed Vigneault’s fate. As-
sistant coach Michel Therrien al-
so was fired.
Struggling Canucks name
Boudreau coachVANCOUVER, British Colum-
bia — The Vancouver Canucks
named veteran Bruce Boudreau
coach following a leadership
purge late Sunday night in which
three executives and head coach
Travis Green were let go.
The Canucks, in a statement,
said general manager Jim Ben-
ning was fired and assistant man-
ager Jim Weisbrod, Green and as-
sistant coach Nolan Baumgartner
were also relieved of their duties.
The Associated Press
YBRIEFLY
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
IRVING, Texas — A fun thing to
do this season has to been ponder
how the College Football Playoff
race would have played out if ex-
pansion to 12 teams had already
happened.
The CFP selection committee set
the four-team field on Sunday,
matching top-seeded Alabama
against No. 4 Cincinnati in one
semifinal and second-seeded Mi-
chigan against No. 3 Georgia in the
other.
The committee ranks 25 teams to
help fill out the lineup for the some
of the other marquee bowl games,
too.
In the 12-team playoff model pro-
posed earlier this year — and still
being debated by the conference
commissioners who manage the
CFP —- a selection committee
would still have a role, but it would
be less impactful because it would
place more emphasis on winning a
conference.
Which conferences are empha-
sized — if any — is one of biggest un-
resolved issues.
The original 12-team proposal in-
cluded spots for the six highest-
ranked conference champions and
the next six highest-ranked teams,
regardless of conference.
In the the last few weeks, the Big
Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference
commissioners have pushed for a
tweak that would guarantee auto-
matic bids only to the Power Five
conference champions and the
highest-ranked champion from the
other five conferences in the Bowl
Subdivision.
That suggestion has not been well
received by most of the other com-
missioners, especially those outside
the Power Five who have been try-
ing to get rid of that distinction.
“I think, to have credibility, I
think there has to be a foundation of
fairness meaning you don’t give se-
lected groups, divisions, conferenc-
es, in this case, preferred status.
There isn’t any playoff that you can
point to does that,” American Ath-
letic Conference Commissioner
Mike Aresco said Sunday.
American Athletic champion
Cincinnati made history Sunday,
becoming the first team from out-
side the Power Five to reach the
four-team playoff in its eight-year
history.
But it should be noted, that if a 12-
team playoff format was used this
season, the teams and seeds would
have been no different if the so-
called six-and-six model was used
or the five-plus-one model.
The strange part about how this
has become a sticking point in ex-
pansion talks is that using past final
CFP rankings as an example, only
last season would the best six con-
ference champions not have includ-
ed each Power Five winner.
Last season, both Cincinnati from
the AAC and Coastal Carolina from
the Sun Belt finished ahead of
Pac-12 champion Oregon. But the
Ducks played an abbreviated
Pac-12 schedule because of the pan-
demic. There is little reason to be-
lieve that wasn’t an anomaly.
In the committee’s final rankings
released Sunday, the second-high-
est ranked Group of Five confer-
ence champion was Louisiana-La-
fayette of the Sun Belt at No. 23. The
lowest-ranked Power five cham-
pion was Pittsburgh of the Atlantic
Coast Conference at No. 12.
In fact, the losers of each Power
Five conference championship
game were all ranked ahead of
Louisiana-Lafayette.
There could be a compromise be-
tween six-and-six and five-plus-one
where if a second Group of Five
conference champion finishes head
of a Power Five champ, the G5 team
is guaranteed a spot and one of the
at-large spots is taken away. But
that might not go over well with ev-
erybody, either.
What if the 12-team playoff was here?Which conferences areemphasized still a bigsticking point for plan
BY RALPH D. RUSSO
Associated Press
JEFF DEAN/AP
Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder (9) is tackled by Houston’s Gervarrius Owens during the AmericanAthletic Conference championship. A 12team format, if it had been drawn out this year, would mean Cincinnati would have played in the second round against a Michigan StateNotre Dame winner.
ON FOOTBALL
Potential playoff
What a 12-team CFP could look like ifit was held this year:First round
No. 12 Pittsburgh at No. 5 Georgia.No. 11 Michigan State at No. 6 NotreDameNo. 10 Utah at No. 7 Ohio StateNo. 9 Oklahoma State at No. 8 Mis-sissippiSecond round
Pitt-Georgia winner vs. Baylor in theFiesta BowlMichigan State-Notre Dame winner vs.Cincinnati in the Peach BowlUtah-Ohio State winner vs. Michiganin the Rose BowlOklahoma State-Ole Miss winner vs.Alabama in the Sugar Bowl
From the Associated Press
Oklahoma hired Clemson defensive coor-
dinator Brent Venables as its head coach to
replace Lincoln Riley on Sunday night,
bringing back a former Sooners assistant
with a long track record of success.
Venables was introduced Monday morn-
ing on the campus in Norman.
The 50-year-old Venables was on Oklaho-
ma’s staff under Bob Stoops as co-defensive
coordinator from 1999 to 2003 and defensive
coordinator from 2004 to 2011. He was co-de-
fensive coordinator when the Sooners won
the 2000 national title. He left Oklahoma for
Clemson in 2012 and won the Broyles Award
in 2016 as the nation’s top assistant. He’s been
on the staff of teams that have won three na-
tional titles and appeared in eight national
championship games.
“He knows the formula to win national
championships and has the toughness, the at-
titude and the fight that I think will elevate
our program in a lot of positive ways,” said
Stoops, who has been serving as interim
coach since Riley’s surprising departure last
week for Southern California. “I’ve always
loved his energy, excitement and passion for
the game — it clearly spills over to his play-
ers.”
Venables, who will be a head coach for the
first time, said in a statement he’s excited to
add to the history of a program that’s won
seven national titles and had seven Heisman
Trophy winners. He also said he’s embracing
the Sooners’ eventual move to the Southeast-
ern Conference, which is set for 2025.
“There’s no question we are equipped to
compete at the very highest level and attract
the best players from across the country,” he
said. “The OU logo has never been stronger.”
Under Venables, the Tigers led the nation
in scoring defense in 2018, and his 2020 unit
tied for the lead in sacks. This season, Clem-
son ranks second nationally in scoring de-
fense, ninth in total defense, eighth in rushing
defense and sixth in pass efficiency defense.
Oklahoma was caught off guard when Ri-
ley took the job at USC. Stoops took over on an
interim basis to calm things down during
recruiting.
Venables quickly emerged as a fan favor-
ite for the job. Many had hoped the Sooners
could lure him back from Clemson as defen-
sive coordinator after Oklahoma fired coor-
dinator Mike Stoops in 2018. The Sooners
chose Alex Grinch, who left to join Riley at
USC.
Venables’ first concerns will be to prevent
players from transferring and salvage as
much of the recruiting class as possible. Sev-
eral players announced their intentions to
enter the transfer portal after Riley’s deci-
sion, including quarterback Spencer Rattler.
Numerous recruits decommitted, including
Malachi Nelson — a five-star quarterback
who now says he is heading to USC.
Riley set the bar high. He went 55-10 in five
seasons with the Sooners and led them to
three College Football Playoff appearances.
Quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Kyler
Murray both won Heisman trophies and
were No. 1 overall picks in the NFL draft.
Oklahoma hires Clemson’s Venables to replace RileyBY CLIFF BRUNT
Associated Press
KEN RUINARD/AP
Clemson defensive coordinator BrentVenables, a former Oklahoma assistant,was announced Monday as the Sooners’next coach.
AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo contributed to thisreport.
PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
NFL
er, I’m sure they love that belief in
them.”
Fair enough, and who is to say
Baltimore would have won a coin
toss to start overtime, marched
downfield and scored a touch-
down to end it without putting
their secondary on the field?
But the decision brings into fo-
cus just how difficult crunch time
can be for coaches. There is no ac-
cepted manual on how to manage
such situations. Many times, the
gut feeling is the best approach.
Unfortunately, very few head
coaches have the, well, guts to go
with their gut. Far too many of
them coach not to lose rather to
win. Is there anything more frus-
trating than watching your team
go into the prevent defense?
Cliche warning: All the prevent
defense does is prevent you from
winning.
See what happened in Detroit,
which is pretty emblematic of
what the Vikings have gone
through in 2021. A team talented
enough to be high in the mix for
the NFC wild-card spots, it fell to
5-7 in great part because it shut
down the throttle. Minnesota add-
ed a two-point defeat to losses by
eight, seven and four points; by
three points in a pair of overtime
games; and 34-33 at Arizona.
In pretty much handing the Li-
ons (1-10-1) their initial victory of
the season, the Vikings went into
such a defensive shell, and of-
fense-challenged Detroit went 75
yards in 1:50. Without a timeout.
Jared Goff threw an 11-yard
touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St.
Brown just beyond the goal line as
time expired — with Minnesota’s
defensive backs far too deep in the
end zone.
The Vikings’ three-man rush
backfired big time.
“In hindsight, we would have
loved to have gotten more pres-
sure on him,” coach Mike Zimmer
said of Goff, “but I didn’t think we
were covering very well. I thought
we needed more people in cover-
age than we did up front. Obvious-
ly, that didn’t work.”
It very often doesn’t.
The lesson? It hurts more to be
passive and lose than to be super
aggressive and lose.
“Honestly if we would’ve con-
verted the two-point conversion
we would’ve been having a differ-
ent conversation right now,” said
Ravens linebacker Josh Bynes.
“Let’s be real. We’d be talking
about how we found a way to win.
“At the end of the day they
found a way to make one play and
we didn’t. That’s what it came
down to. That’s what these games
are about, especially this late in
the season. They made one extra
play.”
FROM PAGE 24
JUSTIN BERL/AP
Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva lays on thefield following a failed twopoint conversion attempt in the fourthquarter against the Steelers on Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Gamble: Often best to go with your gut
SEATTLE — For all the late-
game mistakes and missed opportu-
nities throughout their disappoint-
ing season, the Seattle Seahawks
continue to believe there is some-
thing worth playing for.
They showed the San Francisco
49ers exactly that Sunday.
“No matter how people bash us
and say we’re done and all this we al-
ways believe,” Seattle safety
Quandre Diggs said.
Russell Wilson played his best
game since returning from finger
surgery, throwing for 231 yards and
two touchdowns, and the Seahawks
made a late goal-line stand to beat
the 49ers 30-23 on Sunday.
Seattle (4-8) snapped a three-
game losing streak but it wasn’t easy
as a number of mistakes gave San
Francisco a chance for a tying
touchdown in the final moments.
With the playoffs still a mathe-
matical possibility, the Seahawks
are refusing to fall into the mode of
playing out the final weeks. This
week, it came at the expense of the
Niners’ playoff chase.
“I have some amazing team-
mates, guys who were super sup-
portive this week, just giving me
some good energy, too, and vice ver-
sa,” Wilson said. “And let’s just go
for it. Let’s just have fun while we do
it. And we were able to do that.”
It was far from a clean game for
Seattle, though. Gerald Everett was
responsible for three turnovers,
capped by fumbling at the San Fran-
cisco 2 with 4:03 remaining and the
Seahawks on the cusp of a clinching
score. Jimmy Garoppolo led the
49ers 95 yards to the Seattle 3. But
his third-down pass for Trent Sher-
field was broken up by Sidney
Jones, and his fourth- down pass
was deflected at the line of scrim-
mage by Carlos Dunlap.
It was the second big play by Dun-
lap, who sacked Garoppolo for a
safety early in the third quarter.
“When given the opportunity to
go straight and impact the game in
those situations, I like my odds and
I’m betting with me every time,”
Dunlap said.
Newly signed running back
Adrian Peterson moved into a tie
with Jim Brown for 10th all-time
with 126 career touchdowns, scor-
ing on a 1-yard run in the second
quarter for Seattle.
Wilson threw a 7-yard touchdown
to Dee Eskridge in the second quar-
ter and his 12-yard touchdown to
Tyler Lockett late in the third quar-
ter provided the winning points.
Seahawks hold off 49ers
ELAINE THOMPSON/AP
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw for 231 yards and twotouchdowns in a 3023 win Sunday over the 49ers in Seattle.
BY TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
STARS
Passing
Tom Brady, Buccaneers, com-
pleted 38 of 51 passes for 368 yards
and four touchdowns during Tampa
Bay’s 30-17 win at Atlanta.
Kirk Cousins, Vikings, went 30
for 40 for 340 yards and two touch-
downs in Minnesota’s 29-27 loss at
Detroit. Jared Goff, Lions, passed for
296 yards and three touchdowns, in-
cluding an 11-yarder to Amon-Ra St.
Brown on the final play.
Justin Herbert, Chargers, com-
pleted 26 of 35 passes for 317 yards
and three touchdowns during Los An-
geles’ 41-22 win at Cincinnati.
Matthew Stafford, Rams, went
26 for 38 for 295 yards and three TDs
during Los Angeles’ 37-7 victory over
Jacksonville.
Kyler Murray, Cardinals, threw
for two touchdowns and ran for two
more in his return from an ankle inju-
ry, leading Arizona to a 33-22 win at
Chicago.
Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins, com-
pleted 30 of 41 passes for 244 yards
and two touchdowns, helping Miami
to a 20-9 victory over the New York
Giants.
Rushing
Jonathan Taylor, Colts, had 32
carries for 143 yards and two touch-
downs during Indianapolis’ 31-0 win
at Houston. Taylor leads the NFL in
rushing.
Miles Sanders, Eagles, rushed
for 120 yards on 24 carries in Phila-
delphia’s 33-18 victory over the New
York Jets.
Sony Michel, Rams, rushed for
121 yards and a touchdown during
Los Angeles’ 37-7 win against Jack-
sonville.
Javonte Williams, Broncos, had
23 carries for 102 yards in Denver’s
22-9 loss to Kansas City.
Receiving
Chris Godwin had a franchise-re-
cord 15 receptions for 143 yards in
Tampa Bay’s 30-17 win at Atlanta.
George Kittle, 49ers, had nine
receptions for 181 yards and two
touchdowns in San Francisco’s 30-
23 loss at Seattle.
Justin Jefferson, Vikings, had 11
catches for 182 yards and a touch-
down in Minnesota’s 29-27 loss at
Detroit.
Mike Williams and Keenan Allen,
Chargers. Williams had five recep-
tions for 110 yards in Los Angeles’
41-22 victory at Cincinnati. Allen had
two touchdown catches in the first
quarter. Tee Higgins, Bengals, caught
nine balls for 138 yards and a touch-
down.
Russell Gage, Falcons, had 11
catches for 130 yards in Atlanta’s 30-
17 loss to Tampa Bay.
Dallas Goedert, Eagles, caught
six balls for 105 yards and two touch-
downs in Philadelphia’s 33-18 win at
the New York Jets.
Diontae Johnson, Steelers, had
eight receptions for 105 yards and
two touchdowns during Pittsburgh’s
20-19 win against Baltimore.
Special Teams
Jake Elliott, Eagles, kicked four
field goals in Philadelphia’s 33-18
win over the New York Jets.
Brian Johnson, Washington,
kicked a 48-yard field goal with 37
seconds remaining to lead his team to
its fourth straight win, 17-15 over Las
Vegas. Daniel Carlson, Raiders,
kicked three field goals.
Matt Gay, Rams, kicked three
field goals in Los Angeles’ 37-7 win
against Jacksonville.
Defense
T.J. Watt, Steelers, had a career-
high 3½ sacks in Pittsburgh’s 20-19
win against Baltimore.
Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea,
Buccaneers, had two sacks apiece in
Tampa Bay’s 30-17 victory at Atlan-
ta.
Daniel Sorensen, Chiefs, return-
ed an interception 75 yards for a
touchdown in Kansas City’s 22-9 win
over Denver.
Al-Quadin Muhammad and Ke-
moko Turay, Colts, each had two
sacks during Indianapolis’ 31-0 win
at Houston.
Marlon Davidson, Falcons, had a
3-yard interception return for a touch-
down in Atlanta’s 30-17 loss to Tom
Brady and Tampa Bay.
Tevaughn Campbell, Chargers,
returned a Joe Mixon fumble 61 yards
for a key fourth-quarter touchdown
during Los Angeles’ 41-22 win at Cin-
cinnati.
Carlos Dunlap, Seahawks,
sacked Jimmy Garoppolo for a safety
during Seattle’s 30-23 victory over
San Francisco. Dunlap also had a key
pass deflection.
Jaelan Phillips, Dolphins, had
two sacks during Miami’s 20-9 win
against the New York Giants.
Charles Harris, Lions, had two
sacks in Detroit’s 29-27 win against
Minnesota.
MILESTONES
Adrian Peterson scored his 126th
career touchdown on a 1-yard carry
for the Seahawks, moving into a tie
with Hall of Famer Jim Brown for 10th
in NFL history. ... Tampa Bay QB Tom
Brady threw two touchdown passes to
Rob Gronkowski. The duo has com-
bined for 90 regular-season TDs,
passing Phillip Rivers and Antonio
Gates for No. 2 in NFL history. Only
Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison
have more, hooking up for 112 scor-
ing passes.
STREAKS AND STATS
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor
became the first player in NFL history
to have a TD in 10 straight games be-
fore his 23rd birthday. Taylor, 22, is
up to 30 career scrimmage TDs, tied
with Hall of Famer Barry Sanders for
the third-most career scrimmage TDs
by a player before turning 23. ... The
Dolphins became the second team in
NFL history to win five consecutive
games following a seven-game losing
streak, joining the 1994 Giants. ...
Pittsburgh linebacker T.J. Watt joined
Hall of Famer Reggie White as the on-
ly players with at least 13 sacks in four
consecutive seasons since 1982,
when the individual sack became an
official statistic. ... With their 16th
consecutive loss to NFC teams since
September 2018, 37-7 at the Rams,
the Jaguars have lost 10 games for the
10th time in the last 11 years.
NFL Today
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23
NFL
American Conference
East
W L T Pct PF PA
New England 8 4 0 .667 336 190
Buffalo 7 4 0 .636 326 182
Miami 6 7 0 .462 254 288
N.Y. Jets 3 9 0 .250 217 367
South
W L T Pct PF PA
Tennessee 8 4 0 .667 304 290
Indianapolis 7 6 0 .538 371 283
Houston 2 10 0 .167 164 323
Jacksonville 2 10 0 .167 180 320
North
W L T Pct PF PA
Baltimore 8 4 0 .667 282 260
Cincinnati 7 5 0 .583 331 267
Pittsburgh 6 5 1 .542 244 286
Cleveland 6 6 0 .500 254 267
West
W L T Pct PF PA
Kansas City 8 4 0 .667 303 259
L.A. Chargers 7 5 0 .583 314 315
Denver 6 6 0 .500 237 218
Las Vegas 6 6 0 .500 274 312
National Conference
East
W L T Pct PF PA
Dallas 8 4 0 .667 353 267
Washington 6 6 0 .500 246 297
Philadelphia 6 7 0 .462 337 291
N.Y. Giants 4 8 0 .333 211 273
South
W L T Pct PF PA
Tampa Bay 9 3 0 .750 377 270
Atlanta 5 7 0 .417 216 332
Carolina 5 7 0 .417 236 253
New Orleans 5 7 0 .417 274 276
North
W L T Pct PF PA
Green Bay 9 3 0 .750 283 242
Minnesota 5 7 0 .417 308 305
Chicago 4 8 0 .333 201 287
Detroit 1 10 1 .125 203 316
West
W L T Pct PF PA
Arizona 10 2 0 .833 343 224
L.A. Rams 8 4 0 .667 336 270
San Francisco 6 6 0 .500 303 278
Seattle 4 8 0 .333 239 249
Thursday, Dec. 2
Dallas 27, New Orleans 17Sunday’s games
Arizona 33, Chicago 22Detroit 29, Minnesota 27Indianapolis 31, Houston 0L.A. Chargers 41, Cincinnati 22Miami 20, N.Y. Giants 9Philadelphia 33, N.Y. Jets 18Tampa Bay 30, Atlanta 17L.A. Rams 37, Jacksonville 7Washington 17, Las Vegas 15Pittsburgh 20, Baltimore 19Seattle 30, San Francisco 23Kansas City 22, Denver 9Open: Cleveland, Tennessee, Carolina,
Green BayMonday’s game
New England at BuffaloThursday’s game
Pittsburgh at MinnesotaSunday, Dec. 12
Atlanta at CarolinaBaltimore at ClevelandDallas at WashingtonJacksonville at TennesseeLas Vegas at Kansas CityNew Orleans at N.Y. JetsSeattle at HoustonDetroit at DenverN.Y. Giants at L.A. ChargersBuffalo at Tampa BaySan Francisco at CincinnatiChicago at Green BayOpen: Indianapolis, Miami, New En-
gland, PhiladelphiaMonday, Dec. 13
L.A. Rams at Arizona
Scoreboard
90Regular-season TD passes betweenTom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. OnlyPeyton Manning and Marvin Harrisonhave more with 112.
Source: Associated Press
DETROIT — Jared Goff dropped
back, looked left and let the football
loose that Amon-Ra St. Brown
squeezed tight as he sat in the end
zone.
That set off a roar in Ford Field
loud enough it might’ve been heard
on Motor City streets.
Detroit finally found a way when
Goff threw an 11-yard touchdown
pass to St. Brown as time expired,
lifting the previously winless Lions
to a 29-27 victory over the Minneso-
ta Vikings on Sunday.
“It feels good to stand in front of
you now,” Goff said to reporters be-
fore answering a question.
Not only was the finish dramatic,
it was stunning.
Goff led Detroit on a 75-yard deci-
sive possession without a timeout
after Kirk Cousins threw a go-ahead
3-yard touchdown pass to Justin
Jefferson with 1:50 left. The Vikings
failed on a 2-point conversion for the
third time, and those missed oppor-
tunities proved costly.
Goff threw two touchdown passes
in the first half to put his team ahead
by 14 points, its biggest lead this sea-
son. Then he turned over the ball
twice in the second half to help Min-
nesota rally.
He came through in the end, lead-
ing the long drive and delivering a
sharp pass without pressure against
athree-man rush to a rookie receiv-
er, who took advantage of the Vik-
ings secondary playing too deep in
the end zone.
“It was actually crazy,” St. Brown
said. “They were 3 or 4 yards in the
end zone.”
The Lions (1-10-1) ended a 15-
game winless streak that lasted 364
days since winning at Chicago last
season, giving first-year coach Dan
Campbell his first victory with the
franchise.
“You want this so bad for the play-
ers because they’re the ones who
put in all the hard work, the sweat,
the tears,” Campbell said. “When
you lose, it hurts, but it’s also why
winning is so great, because it isn’t
easy to do.”
The Vikings (5-7) hurt their
chances of earning a wild-card spot
in the playoffs by losing a game they
were favored to win by a touch-
down.
Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer
defended the decision to drop eight
defenders on the final snap, but la-
mented that the secondary didn’t
follow the plan on the play.
“We weren’t covering very well,
so we felt we needed to get more
guys into coverage,” he said.
Winless no more: Lions top Vikes13 weeks into season,Detroit gets first victorywith last-second TD pass
BY LARRY LAGE
Associated Press
PAUL SANCYA/AP
The Detroit Lions celebrate their lastsecond, comefrombehind 2927 win over the Minnesota Vikings onSunday in Detroit. It was the team’s first win after 10 losses to start the season.
ATLANTA — Tom Brady and
Rob Gronkowski teamed up for
more history Sunday.
Rarely have two guys had such
a connection.
Brady threw for 368 yards and
four touchdowns — two of them to
his longtime favorite target — and
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
moved to the brink of clinching the
NFC South title with a 30-17 victo-
ry over the Atlanta Falcons.
The 44-year-old Brady complet-
ed 38 of 51 passes, including
touchdowns of 27 and 11 yards to
Gronkowski — their first scoring
passes since Week 2 against the
Falcons.
The prolific duo has combined
for 90 regular-season TDs, pass-
ing Phillip Rivers and Antonio
Gates for No. 2 in NFL history. On-
ly Peyton Manning and Marvin
Harrison have more, hooking up
for 112 scoring passes.
Counting the playoffs, Brady
has thrown 104 TD passes to
Gronk.
“Tom knows what he’s thinking
before he does,” coach Bruce Ar-
ians said. “Tom threw a couple of
balls before Gronk was ready, be-
cause he knew where he was go-
ing. There’s great chemistry out
there.”
Gronkowski missed four games
this season after a devastating hit
against the Rams left him with
fractured ribs and a punctured
lung.
But he’s going to keep catching
passes from Brady as long as he
can.
“We keep each other going,”
Gronkowski said.
Added Brady, “He makes it
easy for the quarterback.”
Brady shook off a huge blunder
in the final minute of the first half,
when 278-pound defensive line-
man Marlon Davidson picked off a
screen pass and glided 3 yards in-
to the end zone for a touchdown
that cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 20-17
at the break.
The Bucs (9-3) won their third
straight game and pushed their di-
vision lead to four games over At-
lanta, Carolina and New Orleans
(all 5-7) with five games remain-
ing.
Brady improved to 10-0 in his
career against the Falcons, includ-
ing four straight wins over the last
two seasons since moving from
New England to Tampa Bay.
“He’s just been on a better team
for a long time,” Arians said blunt-
ly.
The Bucs came out throwing.
For the first time since 2004, they
passed the ball on their first 13
plays of a game — accounting for
the entire 75-yard touchdown
drive on their opening possession.
Chris Godwin had five catches
on the opening drive and finishing
with a franchise-record 15 recep-
tions for 143 yards.
Leonard Fournette capped the
first drive with a 3-yard touch-
down catch, making a slick, one-
handed grab. Tampa Bay’s second
possession also ended with a 3-
yard TD pass, this one hauled in
by Cameron Brate.
Atlanta scored what would be
its only offensive touchdown on
their opening possession, doing
most of their damage on the
ground.
Cordarrelle Patterson broke off
a 39-yard scamper before Mike
Davis ran for a 17-yard score.
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan
was sacked five times and called
for intentional grounding.
Brady, Gronk lead Bucs past Falcons
JOHN BAZEMORE/AP
Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight endRob Gronkowski (87) pulls in atouchdown catch against Falconssafety Erik Harris. Gronkowskihad two touchdown catches in a3017 win Sunday in Atlanta.
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
Associated Press
PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, December 7, 2021
SPORTSLast-place luck
Islanders fall to Blackhawks in SOfor 11th straight loss ›› NHL, Page 20
Sooners hire Venables as head coach ›› College football, Page 21
John Harbaugh has the best kicker in the NFL, current-
ly and possibly ever. Yet, trailing by one point, he left
Justin Tucker on the sideline Sunday night and went
for a two-point conversion in the dying seconds at
Pittsburgh.
Lamar Jackson didn’t quite have enough touch on his
pass to an open Mark Andrews, and the Ravens (8-4) fell
20-19 to the Steelers. The defeat dropped Baltimore from
the overall lead in the AFC.
It seemed one of the stranger decisions of a strange NFL
season. But Harbaugh, one of the league’s best coaches,
quickly explained his reasoning.
“We tried to win the game right
there. We were pretty much out of
corners at that point in time,” Har-
baugh said without noting that Rav-
ens’ secondary has been leaky all sea-
son no matter who is playing. “It was
an opportunity for us to win the game
right there.”
Considering the versatility of Jack-
son, it probably was a strong opportu-
nity. But the one item not a major part
of Jackson’s bag of tricks is the finesse
pass, which is what this play called
for.
“You saw the play. It’s that close,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a
game of inches. You saw the speech in, ‘Any Given Sunday,’
right? That’s football. It’s just that close.”
As is the entire AFC race.
Baltimore’s decision surprised its archrivals. And didn’t.
“I was a little surprised because I ran off the field,” said
DE Cam Heyward, who is not on special teams. “But we
called the timeout, bought me an extra couple of seconds. At
first, I thought (Andrews) scored, because he had it in his
hand and then he dropped it. But I mean, it’s just one or two
plays that go your way.”
Harbaugh’s gamble was in character, according to Steel-
ers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has gone up
against the Ravens coach for nearly 14 seasons.
“You know what, coach Harbaugh, Miami (Ohio) guy,
nothing surprises me,” Big Ben said. “And that’s why he’s,
you know, I consider him a great football coach because he
takes those chances and believes in his team, and as a play-
MATT DURISKO/AP
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt celebrates after a sack during Sunday’s 2019 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Tough callDeciding when to gamble adifficult choice for coaches
BY BARRY WILNER
Associated Press
SEE GAMBLE ON PAGE 22
NFL: ON FOOTBALL
“You saw theplay. It’s thatclose. It’s agame of inches.”
John Harbaugh
Baltimore Ravens coach
INSIDE
Lions beatVikings onfinal playfor 1st winof seasonPage 23