stablished olumbus ississippi d m | J Suspect Fit for ...eEdition+files/... · in the late 1980s, so Justin spent a lot of time as a child in the station with the firefighters. “He

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FIVE QUESTIONS1 What fitness practice uses the Electric Chair, Spine Corrector and Ladder Barrel?2 Designed by General James Oglethor-pe, what was the first planned city in the U.S.?3 Name two of the three original mem-bers of the Josie and the Pussycats band on “Riverdale”?4 What name describes the time of rela-tive peace and development that lasted for more than 200 year in ancient Rome?5 What symbol takes its name from the Greek for “little star”?

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MONDAY PROFILE

LOCAL FOLKS

Mary Boyd, of Starkville, lives on a “mini farm” where she grows vegetables like tomatoes, okras, squashes and potatoes.

BY ISABELLE [email protected]

Justin Martin can remember being 4 or 5 years old and watching Columbus firefighters

slide down the pole at Fire Station 1 on College Street while preparing to answer a call.

“I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to do that when I get older,’” he said. “… I remember them getting in the firetruck. It was loud, the sirens going. … That stuck with me.”

Martin’s mother, Brenda Martin, worked as a dispatcher when 911 was part of the city fire department in the late 1980s, so Justin spent a lot of time as a child in the station with the firefighters.

“He loved it because they would let him sit in the firetruck, show him the pole — he was too little to slide down the pole — (and) pet the dog,” Brenda remembered. “... I loved the fire department, and he did too.”

Martin parlays fitness, weight-lifting prowess into realizing childhood dream of becoming firefighter

Claire Hassler/Dispatch StaffJustin Martin puts on his helmet on Friday during training outside Fire Station 3 in Columbus. Martin has been a firefighter for three years.

Suspect charged with murder in fatal weekend shooting32-year-old Columbus man shot in home on Springdale DriveDISPATCH STAFF REPORT

A suspect has been charged with murder in the late Saturday evening shooting death of a Colum-bus man.

Israel Buckhalter, 39, was arrest-ed for killing Desi Shepherd, 32. Shepherd died at Baptist Memori-al Hospital-Golden Triangle early Sunday morning, Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said.

The shooting occurred in a home on Springdale Drive, accord-ing to a Columbus Police Depart-ment press release. The suspect and victim, who Police Chief Fred Shelton said knew each other, got in an argument which “escalated quickly to violence,” Shelton said in the release.

Buckhalter is being held at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center and will make his initial court appearance later Monday, Co-lumbus Public Information Officer Joe Dillon said.

Antranik Tavitian/Dispatch StaffFrom Left, Nicole Thornton, Rachel Watson, and Kara Roberts, go about their work day on July 9 at the Starkville Public Library. The Starkville-Oktibbeha libraries have about four less full-time equivalent employees than they need to adequately serve a population of about 50,000, director Phillip Carter said, so he is asking both the city and the county for a funding boost.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAMILTON — A sheriff’s dep-uty has died in northeast Mississip-pi and a second one is hospitalized after they were hit by a vehicle Sat-urday night at a safety checkpoint.

Monroe County Deputy Dylan Pickle, 24, died from head trauma during surgery at North Mississip-pi Medical Center in Tupelo just af-ter midnight Sunday, according to county Coroner Alan Gurley.

Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook says Pickle and Deputy Zach Wilbanks were hit by a vehicle at a

1 Monroe Co. deputy dies, 1 injured, after hit by vehicle

BY TESS [email protected]

Loraine Walker has held a livestreamed storytime for children “every day at 10 a.m. without fail” on Facebook since the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic halted most activity in March.

Walker is the children’s librarian in the

Starkville-Oktibbeha Public Library Sys-tem, and she said she “cannot tell you how fired up” she is with ideas for children’s ac-tivities and programming once normal op-erations can resume.

But in order to broaden the library’s programming and collection, the system needs extra funding from both the city of Starkville and Oktibbeha County, director Phillip Carter said. He approached the Ok-tibbeha County Board of Supervisors July 6 with the funding request and plans to ap-proach Starkville aldermen Aug. 4.

He told The Dispatch he has drawn up

Starkville-Oktibbeha libraries request more funding for staffing, programmingLocal leaders say financial strain due to pandemic makes funding increase unlikely

See LIBRARIES, 3A

Fit for service

Claire Hassler/Dispatch StaffFrom left, Capt. Richard McBride and Engineer James Hays train fire-fighter Justin Martin in operating the truck, from turning on the water to raising and lowering the ladder, on Friday outside Fire Station 3. Martin is training to operate the truck on his own.See MARTIN, 6A

See MONROE, 3A

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2A MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020

BY MATTHEW DALY The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and a top Senate Republi-can are pushing Congress to preserve the names of military bases that hon-or Confederate generals, even though the House and Senate have over-whelmingly approved bills that rename them.

Trump said in a tweet Friday that he had spo-ken to Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Commit-tee, “who has informed me that he WILL NOT

be changing the names of our great Military Bas-es and Forts, places from which we won two World Wars (and more!).”

Like him, Inhofe “is not a believer in ‘Cancel Culture,’” Trump said.

Inhofe, a staunch conservative and close Trump ally, also opposes the name change, even though he led Senate ap-proval of the defense bill that would mandate name changes at Fort Bragg, Fort Benning and other Army posts named for Confederate generals.

Inhofe told The Okla-homan newspaper that he spoke with Trump on

Thursday about the base names, adding: “We’re going to see to it that pro-vision doesn’t survive the bill. I’m not going to say how at this point.”

Defense policy bills ap-proved by both the House and Senate would change the names of 10 Army posts that honor Confed-erate leaders. The two versions must be recon-ciled, but both bills were approved by veto-proof margins this week.

White House press sec-retary Kayleigh McEnany said Friday the White House would “leave that to Senator Inhofe as to how that works legisla-tively speaking,’’ but said Trump “was assured by Sen. Inhofe that that (pro-vision) would be chang-ing and that Republicans stood with the president on this.’’

The top Democrat on

the Senate Armed Ser-vices panel said Trump was “on the wrong side of history” in trying to de-fend traitors who “fought to preserve slavery.’’

“Nobody wants to erase history,’’ said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. “We want to be truthful and honest about it and build a brighter, more inclusive future that lives up to our nation’s promise and core values.”

There are 10 Army posts named for Confed-erate military leaders, including Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Benning in Georgia, Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Forts Robert E. Lee and A.P. Hill in Virginia. The House bill would require the base names to be changed within a year, while the Senate would give the military three years to rename them.

Trump, GOP ally vow Confederate base names won’t changeDefense policy bills approved by both the House and Senate would change the names of 10 Army posts that honor Confederate leaders

BY LISA MASCARO AND DARLENE SUPERVILLE The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Suggesting a narrower pandemic relief package may be all that’s pos-sible, the White House still pushed ahead with Monday’s planned rollout of the Senate Republi-cans’ $1 trillion effort as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assailed the GOP “disarray” as time-wast-ing during the crisis.

The administration’s chief negotiators — White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — spent the weekend on Capitol Hill to put what Meadows de-scribed as “final touches” on the relief bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to bring forward Monday afternoon.

“We’re done,” Mnuchin said as he and Mead-ows left Capitol Hill on Sunday after meeting with GOP staff.

But looming deadlines may force them to consider other options. By Friday, millions of out-of-work Americans will lose an $600 federal unemployment benefit that is expiring and feder-al eviction protections for many renters are also coming to an end. President Donald Trump’s standing is at one of the lowest points of his term, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

“They’re in disarray and that delay is causing suffering for America’s families,” Pelosi said.

White House, Senate GOP try again on $1 trillion virus aid

BY BRIAN SLODYSKO AND THOMAS BEAUMONT The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Deep-pocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring over $100 mil-lion into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fight that could determine President Don-ald Trump’s fate in the No-vember election.

In the battleground of Wisconsin, cash-strapped cities have received $6.3 million from an organi-

zation with ties to left-wing philanthropy to help expand vote by mail. Meanwhile, a well-funded conservative group best known for its focus on judicial appointments is spending heavily to fight cases related to mail-in balloting procedures in court.

And that’s just a small slice of the overall spend-ing, which is likely to swell far higher as the election nears.

The massive effort by political parties, super

PACs and other organiza-tions to fight over wheth-er Americans can vote by mail is remarkable con-sidering the practice has long been noncontrover-sial. But the coronavirus is forcing changes to the way states conduct elec-tions and prompting ac-tivists across the political spectrum to seek an ad-vantage, recognizing the contest between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden could hinge on whether voters have an alternative to standing in lines at poll-

ing places during a public health crisis.

Some groups are even raising money to prepare for election-related vio-lence.

“The pandemic has created a state of emer-gency,” said Laleh Ispa-hani, the U.S. managing director for Open Society, a network of nonprofits founded by billionaire progressive donor George Soros. “Donors who ha-ven’t typically taken on these issues now have an interest.”

Wealthy donors pour millions into fight over mail-in voting

BY JULIE PACE AND HANNAH FINGERHUT The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — With the November election 100 days away, more Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction than at any previous point in Don-ald Trump’s presidency, putting the incumbent in a perilous position as his reelection bid against Democrat Joe Biden enters a pivotal stretch.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Af-fairs Research also finds Trump’s approval for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic falling to a new low, with just 32 percent of Americans supportive of his ap-proach. Even Trump’s standing on the economy, long the high water mark for the president, has fall-en over the past few months after seeming ascendant earlier this year.

Those political headwinds have sparked a sudden summer shift in

the White House and the Trump campaign. After spending months playing down the pandemic and largely ignoring the virus’ resur-gence in several states, Trump warned this past week that the sit-uation is likely to get worse before it gets better. After repeatedly min-imizing the importance of wearing masks to limit the spread of the virus, Trump urged Americans to do exactly that. And after insisting he would press forward with a large campaign convention in August, the president announced that he was scrapping those plans.

Trump’s abrupt about-face un-derscores the reality of the situa-tion he faces just over three months from Election Day. Even as he tries to refocus his contest with Biden on divisive cultural issues and an ominous “law and order” message, Trump’s reelection prospects are likely to be inextricably linked to his handling of the pandemic and whether voters believe the country

will head back in the right direction under his leadership.

The AP-NORC poll makes clear the challenge ahead for Trump on that front: 8 in 10 Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction. That’s more than at any point since Trump took office. The poll also finds just 38 percent of Americans say the national econo-my is good, down from 67 percent in January, before the pandemic upended most aspects of everyday life.

Biden’s campaign is eager to keep the final months of the cam-paign focused squarely on Trump, confident that the former vice pres-ident can emerge victorious if the contest is a referendum on whether the current commander in chief has succeeded during his four years in office.

“People are sick and tired of a government that is divided and bro-ken and unable to get things done,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager. “What people feel like they’re getting from Trump right now is a hodgepodge mess of self-interested political talk.”

AP-NORC poll: US course at record low, Trump sinks on virusPoll also finds just 38 percent say the national economy is good, down from 67 percent in January

■ In Sunday’s edition, The Dispatch incorrectly reported the range of funds Zachary’s Restaurant received from the Paycheck Protection Program. The restau-rant received between $150,000 and $350,000.

The Commercial Dispatch strives to report the news accurately. When we print an error, we will correct it. To report an error, call the newsroom at 662-328-2424, or email [email protected].

CORRECTION

SOLUNAR TABLEThe solunar period indicates peak-feeding times for fish and game.

Courtesy of Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks

Mon. Tue.MajorMinorMajorMinor

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The DispaTch

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020 3A


JACKSON — Mississippi’s health department reported 1,207 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, and 15 more deaths related to the dis-ease caused by the new coronavirus.

The Health Department said that brought the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 51,639, with at least 1,458 deaths.

There have been 184 outbreaks at Mississippi’s long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, with at least 3,317 cases of the virus confirmed in those facilities and 682 virus-related deaths, the department’s figures show.

The true number of virus infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick. While most people who contract the coronavirus recover after suf-fering only mild to moderate symptoms, it can be deadly for older patients and those with other health problems.

Mississippi reports 1,207 more confirmed COVID-19 cases

BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS The Associated Press

JACKSON — The chief of the Mississippi Band of Choc-taw Indians will help design a new Mississippi state flag that does not include the Confeder-ate battle emblem.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves announced Friday that he is ap-pointing Chief Cyrus Ben and two other people to a nine-mem-ber flag commission.

Mississippi legislators vot-

ed in late June to retire the last state flag in the U.S. with the rebel emblem that’s widely condemned racist. The change came after national protests over racial injustice sparked new debates about the public display of Confederate sym-bols.

The commission must de-sign a new Mississippi flag that cannot include the Confeder-ate emblem and must have the phrase, “In God We Trust.”

Commissioners were sup-

posed to be appointed by July 15, but Reeves said he missed the deadline because he has been busy with response to the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to Ben, the appointees Reeves announced Friday are Betsey Hamilton of New Alba-ny and Frank Bordeaux of Gulf-port.

Hamilton is a retired public school teacher, real estate bro-ker and appraiser. She is on the Union County Heritage Muse-um board of directors and was a founding board member for the Union County Historical Society.

Bordeaux is an insurance company vice president. On the day Reeves signed the bill to re-

tire the flag, Bordeaux posted a photo of the signing ceremony and wrote: “Proud of Governor Reeves!” In response, some people commented that chang-ing the flag was for “traitors” or “dictatorships.”

Mississippi’s population is about 59 percent white and 38 percent African American. The commission has six members who are white, two who are Black and one who is Native American.

Six commissioners appoint-ed by the House speaker and the lieutenant governor held their first meeting Wednesday. They are collecting flag propos-als from the general public until early August and will set a de-

sign by early September.The lone design will go on

the Nov. 3 ballot. If a majority of voters say yes, that design will become the new flag. If voters reject it, the commission will draw a new design and that will go on the ballot later.

Legislators filed bills for years to change the flag, but those died because leaders said they couldn’t get consensus for change. Momentum changed dramatically in June. Young activists and older leaders from business, religion, education and sports urged legislators to ditch a symbol that many said portrayed Mississippi as back-ward.

Choctaw chief chosen to help design new Mississippi flagCommission is collecting flag proposals from the general public until early August and will set a design by early September

LibrariesContinued from Page 1A

a five-year plan for grad-ual funding increases “so we can start to get our services, programming and staffing up to a more appropriate level for the community we serve.”

The library system also needs more staff, a new air conditioning unit and more technology, Carter said.

City and county lead-ers told The Dispatch they recognize the val-ue of local libraries to a community and want to support them, but the pandemic has made it im-perative for local govern-ments to be careful with their spending.

“Libraries are critical to our city and to our community, but now is not a time when I think we are in a position to be able to in-crease their funding,” Starkville May-or Lynn Spruill said.

Underfunded and understaffed

The library system re-ceived nearly $396,000 in Fiscal Year 2018 from lo-cal government sources, with about $200,000 from the county and $196,000 from the city. That is an investment of $7.94 per capita, according to data Carter provided The Dis-patch.

For comparison, the Columbus-Lowndes li-brary system received nearly $641,000 — $10.83 per capita — with a pop-ulation of about 10,000 more than Oktibbeha County.

The Starkville library is currently open for curb-side from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and open for access to technology Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Carter’s most imme-diate ask is for both the city and county to fund the replacement of the library’s aging air condi-tioning unit, since state law prevents library sys-tems from using their own money for building maintenance.

“We’ve been advertis-ing (for a new AC system) since 2011, and it’s been pushed aside and pushed aside since then, but it’s reaching a critical mass,”

Carter told the board of supervisors July 6.

The libraries are also understaffed at the mo-ment, Carter said. Ac-cording to the Mississip-pi Library Commission, each library system should have half a full-time equivalent employee for every 2,000 people the system serves, and Oktib-beha County has rough-ly 50,000 people. That’s more than 12 full-time equivalent employees, and the library system has eight and a half — one in Maben, two in Sturgis and five full-time and two part-time in Starkville, Carter said.

“In these limited envi-ronments, with the two days a week we’re open to the public right now, it ac-tually requires more staff than we had before in some ways,” he said. “We have to socially distance staff, but we also have to have enough staff to serve anybody coming in.”

Carter also said the library could use extra money to teach both chil-dren and adults how to use all kinds of technol-ogy, like computer cod-ing and 3-D printers, “all those tech fields that are obviously a part of our daily lives, that are part of education now that need to be supported a little more.”

The first thing Walk-er wants to do with extra funding is create mak-erspaces for children, and she said there is a misconception that all makerspaces are full of technology and that chil-dren’s use of them is “just creative play.”

“It’s bridging the gap between what they’re learning in school and

what they’re learning here at the library,” Walk-er said. “The library is such a critical learning re-source. It’s not just some-thing to be used when there’s a class project.”

She also wants to di-versify the collection of children’s books so all children can see both their own cultures and a variety of others in the books they read, and she said she started an early literacy program soon be-fore the pandemic started and hopes to devote more resources to it when the pandemic is over.

“There’s not a kid alive that doesn’t love to read,” Walker said. “They (just) haven’t found the right book, and I always find the right book. I’ll do any-thing to get a kid to read.”

City and county budget concerns

Local officials agree that local libraries are an asset to their communi-ties and deserve support, and Spruill said the city will definitely not reduce its funding allocation to the library.

“I’ll advocate for main-taining their funding, and we’re going to assist them with their air con-ditioning repair, but I am certainly not in favor of increasing their funding beyond its current level,” Spruill said.

Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk, the board’s budget chairper-son, agreed that the city should help the library system with repairs and maintenance but will most likely be unable to fund changes in opera-tions or hiring.

“We’ve started our

b u d g e t me et i n g s , and we’re having to dig our-selves out of a pretty big hole thanks to the pandemic and what we think it’s going to do to our sales tax (reve-nue), so holding steady is a win this year, for the library or anything else,” Sistrunk said.

Oktibbeha County does not reap the benefits of local sales tax revenue like the city does, but Dis-trict 2 Supervisor Orlan-do Trainer said increas-ing the library’s funding would be “a wise invest-ment.”

District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said he is less certain that the county could give the li-brary system the aid it requests.

“It’s a great resource, but at the present mo-ment, given COVID, I don’t know how practi-cal it would be to of-fer more f u n d i n g , not knowing how long we won’t be operating at full capacity,” Howard said. “I’m certainly open to looking to increase the funding when we get back on some sort of level footing.”

Carter and Walker both emphasized the city and county have support-ed the library system and that they will appreciate any additional support.

“Anything anyone’s willing to give me, I’ll make it stretch and I’ll make it work,” Walker said.

Spruill

Sistrunk

Howard

Antranik Tavitian/Dispatch StaffAisles are blocked off to the public on July 9 at the Starkville Public Library. The Starkville-Oktibbeha libraries have been operating with limited hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and director Phillip Carter said he hopes the city and county can provide additional funding for the libraries to expand their collections and programming and hire more staff.

Caledonia man dies after motorcycle collides with carDISPATCH STAFF REPORT

A Caledonia man died after his motorcycle col-lided with a passenger car in front of the Colum-bus Walmart on Highway 45 North on Saturday afternoon.

Michael Williams, 37, was taken to Baptist Me-morial Hospital-Golden Triangle for his injuries, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, Lown-des County Coroner Greg Merchant said.

Columbus Police Department did not release further details of the accident by press time.

Send in your church event!Email [email protected]

Subject: Religious brief

MonroeContinued from Page 1A

checkpoint in Hamilton, apparently un-intentionally. Two other deputies were present, Crook said.

“As far as the accident itself, the high-way patrol is conducting the investiga-tion, and it’s still under investigation,

but it appears to be an accident,” Crook tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

Wilbanks underwent surgery Sunday for a broken leg at the Tupelo hospital and also has head injuries.

4A MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020

OpinionPETER BIRNEY IMES Editor/PublisherBIRNEY IMES III Editor/Publisher 1998-2018BIRNEY IMES JR. Editor/Publisher 1947-2003BIRNEY IMES SR. Editor/Publisher 1922-1947

ZACK PLAIR, Managing EditorBETH PROFFITT Advertising DirectorMICHAEL FLOYD Circulation/Production ManagerMARY ANN HARDY ControllerDispatch

the

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

STATE OF THE WORLD

Stress test of a straining superpowerHow great a

burden can even an unrivaled super-power carry before it buckles and breaks? We may be about to find out.

Rome was the superpower of its time, ruling for centuries almost the entirety of what was then called the civilized world.

Great Britain was a super-power of its day, but she bled, bankrupted and broke herself in the Thirty Years War of the West from 1914-1945.

By Winston Churchill’s death in 1965, the empire had vanished, and Britain was being invaded by a stream of migrants from its former colonies.

America was the real su-perpower of the 20th century and became sole claimant to that title with the collapse of the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991, an event Vladimir Putin called “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.”

Has America’s turn come? Is America breaking under the burdens it has lately assumed and is attempting to carry?

Today, at the presidential

library of Richard Nixon, who ushered Mao’s China onto the world stage, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is laying out a strategy of containment and confrontation of a China that is far more the equal of the USA than was the USSR.

Writes Hudson’s Institute’s Arthur Herman:

“In the 1960s, manufactur-ing made up 25% of U.S. gross domestic product. It’s barely 11% today. More than five mil-lion American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000.”

China controls the produc-tion of 97% of the antibiotics upon which the lives of millions of Americans depend. She provides critical components in the production chains of U.S. weapons systems.

Beijing commands more warships than the U.S. Navy and holds a trillion dollars in U.S. debt. Moscow never had this kind of hold on us.

Writes Herman: “Since 2000, America’s defense indus-try has shed more than 20,000 U.S.-based manufacturing com-panies. As the work those com-panies once did domestically

has shifted overseas, much of it has gone to China. From ra-re-earth metals and permanent magnets to high-end electronic components and printed circuit boards, the Pentagon has slowly become dependent on Chinese industrial output. Asia produces 90% of the world’s cir-cuit boards -- more than half of them in China. The U.S. share of global circuit-board produc-tion has fallen to 5%.”

Decoupling from China and re-industrializing America would be an immense under-taking. But unless and until we do it, we remain vulnerable.

Another decades-long strug-gle, this time with China, like the Cold War that consumed so much of our attention and wealth from the 1940s to 1991, is not the only challenge Amer-ica faces.

Through NATO, the U.S. is still the principal protector of almost 30 European nations. And despite Donald Trump’s promise to end our forever wars, 8,500 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, 5,000 in Iraq, hundreds in Syria, thousands more in Kuwait and Bahrain.

There are other huge new claims on America’s time, attention and resources. Some 145,000 Americans have perished in five months of the

coronavirus pandemic, more U.S. dead than all the Amer-icans soldiers lost in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

A thousand Americans are dying every day, a higher daily death toll than in World War II and the Civil War combined.

The U.S. economy has been thrust into something approaching a second Depres-sion. The 2020 deficit runs into the trillions of dollars. Our national debt is now far larger than our GDP and soaring. Tens of millions are unem-ployed. And the shutdowns are beginning anew.

From the protests, riots, rampages and statue-smash-ing of the last two months, it is apparent that millions of Americans detest our history and heroes. Though nowhere in recorded time have 42 mil-lion people of African descent achieved the measures of free-dom and prosperity they have in the USA, we are daily ad-monished that ours is a rotten and sick society whose every institution is shot through with “systemic racism.”

The racial divisions are al-most as ugly as during the riots of the 1960s in Harlem, Watts, Newark and 100 cities that ex-ploded after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

In the numbers of citizens now shot and killed every week, great American cities such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago are look-ing more like Baghdad.

The Democratic Party is promising to take up the issue of racial reparations for our original sin of slavery. The first order of business, we are told, is ending inequality -- of income, wealth, educational attainment and health care. The racial disparity in police arrests, prosecutions, incarcer-ations and school expulsions, must end.

But if the trillions we have spent to address these inequal-ities since the Great Society days have failed to make greater progress, why should we believe that we even know how to succeed, absent the imposition of a rigid socialist egalitarianism of results?

The Old Republic is facing a stress test unlike any it has known since the Union was threatened with dissolution in the Civil War.

Patrick J. Buchanan, a nationally syndicated columnist, was a senior advisor to presi-dents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. His website is http://buchanan.org/blog.

Voice of the peopleEncourages readers to take COVID seriously

Stop ignoring and downplaying COVID-19.Carrying a mask in your pocket is as dan-

gerous as starving and you have a refrigerator, pantry and freezer full of food.

Some of you don’t love God’s creation.Some human beings are still walking in pub-

lic places with their nose and mouth uncovered, sometimes coughing and sneezing and some-times not into your elbow.

Supposedly you are you brother’s/sister’s keeper. Prayerfully, socially, emotionally and physically, we need to obey the law of the land. We are on Earth, not in heaven or in the ground yet.

Let’s respect one another. Blacks and hispan-ics must shop at the same supermarkets, attend the same churches and go the same places as non mask users.

Shame on you. Where is the love of God, family, friends and your pets?

You kiss pets and they kiss you. Some people are infected and unaware. That’s abuse if pets get sick. Veterinarians treat COVID-19 animals. Seek professional help. Pay attention. You claim you love animals more than you love human beings, some of you. Animals can’t talk. Google their symptoms.

Wash your hands, use sanitizers and gloves.Remind grandmas and grandpas to do the

same. Check on loved ones that are mature in age. Throw gloves in trash bins, not on the ground.

It’s our responsibility to not become litter bugs during this season we’re in.

Keep yourself, family and others in your prayers. Obey God! He never sleeps nor slum-bers; He sees us! We have a responsibility and command: Love one another.

Pat Fisher DouglasColumbus

A letter to the editor is an excellent way to participate in your community. We request the tone of your letters be constructive and respectful and the length be limited to 450 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, grammar and length. While commentary on national issues is always welcome, we limit candidate endorsements to one per letter-writer. We welcome all letters emailed to [email protected] or mailed to The Dispatch, Attn: Letters to the Editor, PO Box 511, Columbus, MS 39703-0511.

STATE OF THE NATION

Donald Trump knows how to put on a showWe are watching a

show. It’s important to keep that in mind.

It has its villains — Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland and other supporters of the “liberal, radical left” idea that people have the right peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It has its victims, people in towns where they don’t have or need sym-phony orchestras and art museums and the very idea of street protests fills them with existential horror.

And the show has its hero, too, Donald John Trump, getting tough with those lawless cities, standing between the victims and their fears and not bothering overmuch about constitutional niceties while he does.

That’s how you end up with the recent spectacle of at least one person reportedly snatched off the streets of Portland by federal agents bearing no badges or identifying in-signia and stuffed into an unmarked van on no probable cause, or even an allegation of crime. At this writing, Trump is sending federal agents — using, presumably, the same tactics — to Chicago, which, in his telling, teeters on the edge of criminal anarchy, and he, alone, can save it.

If it smacks of despotism, this idea of government seizing those

who — it bears repeat-ing — are accused of no crime, well, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf tells Fox “News” that sometimes you have to “proactively arrest” people. It’s a nicely dys-topian term that might have come out of “The Minority Report,” the 1956 novella by Philip K. Dick (also a 2002 film

starring Tom Cruise), which posits a world where “precogs” divine the future, enabling police to prevent crime instead of just solving it. Dick provides other terms Wolf might find useful: “precrime,” “potential criminals,” “prophylactic pre-detec-tion.”

If it occurs to you there’s no such thing as “precogs,” if this all seems to you like a civil liberties night-mare, well, you’re missing the point. Again, this is a show.

And give him his due. Trump may have failed as a businessman, an educator, an airline mogul, a ca-sino operator, a steak salesman and a human being, but he knows how to put on a show. He also knows every moment we spend talking about American fascism is a mo-ment not spent talking about Russia putting a price on American heads, which in turn keeps us from talking about the 143,000 who’ve died of a virus Trump said would magically disappear.

Even his distractions have dis-

tractions.In fairness, this march toward

fascist dystopia didn’t begin in Portland. For years, we saw black and Hispanic men stopped and frisked in New York City without probable cause. We’ve seen cops empowered to take your money and border agents empowered to seize and search your laptops and smartphones, also without probable cause. In 2015, we saw a woman named Charnesia Corley subjected to a police search of her vagina on the pavement at a gas station.

What we haven’t seen so much is public outrage.

So Trump’s innovation is not stomping the Constitution, but making the stomping a show. If it doesn’t seem like much of one to you, well, you’re not the intended audience. For them, this is Dirty Harry and Rambo all rolled into one. For the rest of us, this show isn’t about a tough guy. Rather, it’s about a second-rate magician whose act has seen better days, whose top hat is worn, whose cards are frayed, whose every move reeks of flop-sweat desperation, the terror that he might be seen as he really is.

Which makes this magician dan-gerous in the same way a cornered animal is. And if we aren’t careful, he may pull off one last trick.

He may make freedom disappear.Leonard Pitts Jr., winner of the

2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, is a columnist for the Miami Herald. Email him at [email protected].

Patrick J. Buchanan

Leonard Pitts

TODAY IN HISTORYToday is Monday, July 27, the 209th day of

2020. There are 157 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Com-

mittee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Rich-ard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.

On this date:In 1794, French revolutionary leader Max-

imilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the following day.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020 5A

BY ANDREW DEMILLO The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Lang Holland, the chief of police in tiny Marshall, Arkansas, said he thinks the threat of the coronavirus has been overstated and only wears a face mask if he’s inside a business that requires them. He doesn’t make his officers wear them either.

So the day after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an order requiring masks to be worn in pub-lic throughout Arkansas, Holland made it clear his department wasn’t going to enforce the mandate in the Ozarks town of about 1,300, calling it an unconstitutional overreach.

“All I’m saying is if you want to wear a mask, you have the freedom to choose that,” said Holland, who said he supports President Donald Trump. “It should not be dictated by the nanny state.”

Holland is among a number of police chiefs and sheriffs in Ar-kansas and elsewhere who say they won’t enforce statewide mask requirements, even within their departments. Some say they don’t have the manpower to respond to every mask complaint, treating vi-olations of the requirement as they would oft-ignored minor offenses

such as jaywalking. Others, includ-ing Holland, reject the legal validity of mask requirements.

The pushback is concerning to health officials, who say a lack of enforcement could undermine what they say is a much-needed and sim-ple step that can be taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“If people undermine that man-date, they undermine the public health benefits of masking in the setting of this pandemic, and that just doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Dr. Cam Patterson, the chan-cellor of the University of Arkan-sas for Medical Sciences, who had called for a statewide requirement.

More than half the states have is-sued orders to wear masks in most public settings, with virus cases and hospitalizations on the rise. Polling shows overwhelming pub-lic support for such requirements, and even Trump, who had long been dismissive of wearing masks, last week said it was patriotic to wear one.

The most vocal police pushback to mask requirements is coming from Republican-led states that aggressively reopened businesses or previously opposed stricter mea-sures such as mask requirements.

Hutchinson, who was among a handful of governors who didn’t issue a stay-at-home order, long resisted issuing a mask mandate in Arkansas, but he relented in the face of the state’s worsening num-bers.

Arkansas’ active virus cases, meaning those excluding people who have died or recovered from COVID-19, have nearly quadrupled since Memorial Day. The number of people hospitalized with the dis-ease in the state is almost five times higher than it was that day.

“This is a way to enlist the sup-port of everyone in this fight,” Hutchinson said before signing the order, which took effect Monday.

Several police chiefs and sher-iffs immediately said they wouldn’t enforce Hutchinson’s order, which prohibits people from being jailed for violations and only imposes fines for repeat offenders. The Texarkana Police Department said it wouldn’t enforce the order, say-ing its primary responsibility was “fighting crime and providing po-lice services.”

John Staley, the sheriff of Lo-noke County in central Arkansas, said he agrees with the need for masks and his deputies wear them when in contact with the public. But he said his department doesn’t have the manpower to respond to com-plaints about them.

“I support the governor’s posi-tion and his decision, but we’re not going to be out writing tickets for masks,” Staley said.

Some US police resist enforcing coronavirus mask mandates‘All I’m saying is if you want to wear a mask, you have the freedom to choose that. It should not be dictated by the nanny state.’

Marshall, Arkansas, Police Chief Lang Holland


BEIJING — The price of gold surged to a record above $1,934 per ounce on Monday as investors moved money into an asset seen as a safe ha-ven amid jitters about U.S.-Chinese tension and the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

It added 2 percent af-ter breaking its 2011 re-cord high price on Friday, when it closed at $1,897.50 on the New York Mercan-tile Exchange.

As of 8:35 GMT on Monday, it was at $1,934.60 per ounce and had traded as high as $1,938 per ounce.

Prices of gold and sil-ver have jumped as rising infection numbers and job losses in the United States and some other economies fuel concern the recovery from the vi-rus and the worst global downturn since the 1930s might be faltering.

Precious metals, along with bonds, often are seen as stores of value when fi-nancial markets decline.

Forecasters watch their prices as an indicator of how investors see the eco-nomic future.

Uncertainty pushes gold price to record, over $1,930 per oz

BY JEFF MARTIN The Associated Press

ATLANTA — Protests took a violent turn in sev-eral U.S. cities over the weekend with demonstra-tors squaring off against federal agents outside a courthouse in Portland, Oregon, forcing police in Seattle to retreat into a station house and setting fire to vehicles in Califor-nia and Virginia.

A protest against police violence in Austin, Texas, turned deadly when po-lice said a protester was shot and killed by a per-son who drove through a crowd of marchers. And someone was shot and wounded in Aurora, Col-orado, after a car drove through a protest there, authorities said.

The unrest Satur-day and early Sunday stemmed from the weeks of protests over racial

injustice and the police treatment of people of col-or that flared up after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, who was Black and handcuffed, died af-ter a white police officer used his knee to pin down Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes while Floyd begged for air.

In Seattle, police of-ficers retreated into a precinct station early Sunday, hours after large demonstrations in the city’s Capitol Hill neigh-borhood. Some demon-strators lingered after officers filed into the de-partment’s East Precinct around 1 a.m., but most cleared out a short time later, according to video posted online.

At a late-night news conference, Seattle police Chief Carmen Best called for peace. Rocks, bot-

tles, fireworks and mor-tars were fired at police during the weekend un-rest, and police said they arrested at least 45 people for assaults on officers, obstruction and failure to disperse. Twenty-one offi-cers were hurt, with most of their injuries consid-ered minor, police said.

In Portland, thousands of people gathered Sat-urday evening for anoth-er night of protests over George Floyd’s killing and the presence of fed-eral agents recently sent to the city by President Donald Trump. Protest-ers breached a fence sur-rounding the city’s fed-eral courthouse building where the agents have been stationed.

Police declared the situation to be a riot and at around 1:20 a.m., they began ordering people to leave the area surround-ing the courthouse or risk arrest, saying on Twitter that the violence had cre-ated “a grave risk” to the public. About 20 minutes later, federal officers and

local police could be seen attempting to clear the area and deploying tear gas, however protesters remained past 2:30 a.m., forming lines across in-tersections and holding makeshift shields as po-lice patrolled and closed blocks abutting the area.

Police and protesters clash in violent weekend across the USUnrest stemmed from the weeks of protests over racial injustice and the police treatment of people of color

cdispatch.com

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com6A MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020

MartinContinued from Page 1A

In fact, when dispatchers became part of Lowndes County E911, the firefighters — who Brenda said were “like family” — told her she should become a firefighter.

Instead, roughly 30 years later, Justin has taken on that mantle.

“I just had it in my heart to ... figure out a career where I could help people and just be part of my community,” said Justin, who has been with Columbus Fire and Rescue for three years. “I wanted to have purpose in the career I chose.”

From fitness to firefightingFirefighting is an extremely

physical job, Justin said. Not only does spending hours at a scene putting out a fire require physical endurance, but most of the calls they respond to are medical. That can involve lift-ing patients and occasionally carrying them, sometimes in small, tight spaces where it’s hard to move.

“(Fitness is) a huge com-ponent of firefighting because firefighting is very physically demanding on your body and very stressful,” Justin said. “Fitness helps kind of balance that … and it definitely helps you to be more helpful on any kind of scene.”

Before joining CFR, Justin was no stranger to physical fitness. After graduating from Mississippi State, he worked at Core Fitness where he was a personal trainer.

“My favorite thing there is meeting people and watching them meet their goals,” he said.

He remembers one client who lost 50 or 60 pounds, got off her blood pressure and diabetes medications and now runs races.

“It was a year process,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t over-night, no magic pill thing. But she stayed consistent, that was the key thing.

“In fitness, you’re going to have ups and downs,” he added. “It’s not straight to the top.”

Justin also competed in powerlifting competitions around the state. Powerlifting involves squats, bench-press-ing and deadlifts. Like wres-tling, competitors are orga-

nized by weight class. The couple of times he made it to the national competition — when he was in his 20s, before joining CFR — he competed against 40 or 50 other people

in his weight class, he said.“At the state level I won, but

the national level, I think I was top 15,” he remembered. “… That was in 2016, so I was like 29 (or) 30.”

It wasn’t long after that when Martin decided to pur-sue that old childhood dream of becoming a firefighter.

Despite Justin’s experience with physically demanding jobs, he found firefighting completely different from the jobs and competitions he’d done when immersed com-pletely in the fitness industry.

“I wasn’t used to dealing with emergency situations,” he said. “That was definitely different, dealing with the adrenaline rush of … going to fire calls, having medical emergencies, having to do life-saving CPR. That was definite-ly something to get used to.”

In one call during “those early months” after he joined the force, he and the other firefighters spent a long time

battling a house fire in South Columbus.

“I just remember how hot it was, and the heat,” he said. “And just remember thinking, ‘Man, I’ve got to get more phys-ically in shape for it.’”

‘Men of honor’Brenda said it sometimes

scares her to think of him going into dangerous situations on the job.

“I was dispatching people out to the fires and everything, but it’s kind of scary when it’s your son,” she said.

Still, she’s proud of him.“Them guys are just some

of the best guys, the firefight-ers,” she said. “They’re funny too. ... But they’re men of honor. They love their families. They love God. ... They don’t make a lot of money, but they risk their lives every day going in burn-ing buildings. So to me they’re heroes. I’m always praying that God will watch out for him when he’s going to a fire.”

Justin’s favorite part about the job is the camaraderie between firefighters, who spend long hours together on shifts, often on holidays and weekends. He said he’s learned a lot from his fellow firefight-ers, from cooking to how to use tools.

“You become lifelong friends,” he said.

When he’s not working — either at the fire station or at Core Fitness, where he still works part-time — he’s spend-ing time with his wife, Kasen-da, and his three kids, a 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old twin boys. Having a supportive family — he particularly credited Kasenda with keeping en eye on their kids while he’s away at work — is critical for firefighters, he said.

“Now my kids get to come up here and be around firemen and play on the firetruck,” he said. “It’s a nice full circle.”

B. Martin

Claire Hassler/Dispatch StaffJustin Martin guides his kids, from left, Samauria, 6, Bryson and Landon, both 3, as they ride their bikes on Saturday at the Soccer Complex in Columbus. The family often rides bikes together at the soccer complex or in the parking lot of Core Fitness, where Martin works.

Claire Hassler/Dispatch StaffJustin Martin climbs the ladder on Friday during training outside Fire Station 3 in Columbus. Martin will go to the Mississippi Fire Academy in Jackson to take a test to become a truck operator, but he isn’t sure when due to COVID-19.

BY BEN [email protected]

STARKVILLE — And so another week of post-ponements, new schedul-ing models and, ultimate-ly, few decisions actually being made has come to pass.

Given the times we’re living in coupled with a 24-hour news cycle, there’s seemingly a new subplot or storyline being added by the hour. De-spite that, Mississip -pi State’s 2020 foot-ball sched-ule has rema i ned largely in-tact, save for its Nov. 21 game against Alabama A&M (I’ll get to this in a minute).

And while no sweep-ing decisions have been made publicly on fall sports, general start dates and potential bowl ramifications, expect the wheels to start turning dramatically this week. LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward noted last week that Southeast-ern Conference presi-dents and chancellors will be meeting this com-ing week to discuss foot-ball season in depth.

As MSU Athletic Di-rector John Cohen told The Dispatch last week, we’re reaching crunch time.

With the SWAC now officially moving it’s season to the fall, what happens to MSU’s scheduled game against Alabama A&M?

The first domino to fall on MSU’s schedule came last Monday as the South-western Athletic Confer-ence — home to Nov. 21 opponent Alabama A&M — officially announced it would be moving football to the spring.

New Mexico Gov. Mi-chelle Lujan Grisham also sent a letter to lead-ership at UNM and New Mexico State asking the schools to suspend con-tact sports, including football, this fall accord-ing to a report from Geoff Grammer of the Albu-querque Journal. MSU is slated to play New Mexi-co in its season opener on Sept. 5.

I wrote about this a couple weeks back as a hypothetical, but admin-istrators in Starkville will now have to deal with the ramifications of other conference’s canceled or delayed seasons.

The simplest solution is to lose the game, or games should New Mex-ico delay its season, and go on with the other 10-11 games currently still on the schedule. How-ever, as Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated reported on July 15, the SEC is hell-bent on maintaining its nonconference games — particularly the 13 con-tests against Power Five competition.

With that in mind, the most likely scenario of all of this is MSU and the rest of the conference drop to an eight-plus-one format in which teams would play their confer-ence schedules and one

BY GARRICK [email protected]

After taking months off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Major League Baseball saw its highly-anticipated opening weekend come and go last week. Sev-eral Mississippi State baseball alumni played prominent roles for var-ious teams throughout the sport over the week-end.

Milwaukee Brewers ace Brandon Woodruff earned an o p e n i n g day start and held the Chica-go Cubs to two runs over five i n n i n g s of work while al-lowing four hits. Wood-ruff also struck out five batters. The Brewers

couldn’t provide Wood-ruff with any run sup-port, though, falling 3-0 to Chicago on Friday.

Mitch Moreland only had one hit this week-end for the Boston Red Sox, but it was a big one. The powerful first baseman cranked a solo home run against the Baltimore Orioles Sat-urday, albeit in a 7-2 los-ing effort.

Tampa Bay Rays sec-ond baseman Nathaniel

Lowe collected five hits over the weekend, in-cluding a 3-for-5 effort Sunday. Lowe drove in three runs while help-ing the Rays win two of three games against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Adam Frazier went 2-for-11 and drew a walk in a three-game set with the Cardinals.

On Saturday, Jona-than Holder pitched 1 and 1/3 innings of relief

for the New York Yan-kees while striking out a batter.

Sunday, St. Louis Cardinals starter Dako-ta Hudson pitched 4 1/3 innings and allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out four batters in a losing effort against the Pirates. Pirates re-lief pitcher and Bulldog alumnus Chris Strat-ton threw 1 1/3 innings for Pittsburgh in relief, striking out a batter.

SECTION

BSPORTS LINE662-241-5000Sports

THE DISPATCH n CDISPATCH.COM n MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020

Woodruff

Portnoy

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

SWANSON TIES CAREER HIGH WITH 5 RBIS, BRAVES ROUT METS

Former MSU standouts big factor in MLB’s opening weekend

BEN’S BURNING QUESTIONS

Making sense of the CFB scheduling

mess


NEW YORK — Dans-by Swanson tied his ca-reer high with five RBIs and the Atlanta Braves chased an erratic Rick Porcello during the third inning of his New York Mets debut in a 14-1 blow-out Sunday night.

Atlanta had 17 hits, 11 for extra bases, and took two of three in the sea-son-opening series after losing 1-0 on Friday and coming within a strike of defeat Saturday before rallying.

Porcello allowed seven runs and got just six outs.

Swanson, Marcell Ozuna and Austin Riley all went deep against Corey Oswalt, who has allowed 18 home runs in 20 big league appearanc-es. Riley’s drive went off the facade of the left-field upper deck and would have traveled 458 feet unimpeded, according to Statcast.

Ozzie Albies had three hits and three RBIs, in-cluding a two-run homer off Paul Sewald.

Swanson blooped an RBI single to center for the second run of the first inning, hit a two-run dou-ble that chased Porcello in a five-run third and had a two-run, opposite-field

homer to right-center in the fourth for a 9-1 lead. The shortstop also had five RBIs on July 4 last year against Philadel-phia, which had been the last time he homered.

Porcello lasted 15 bat-ters, allowing seven runs — six earned — seven hits and three walks in two-plus innings. His fastball was around 92 mph but he was repeat-edly up in the strike zone and over the center of the plate.

Winner of the 2016 AL Cy Young Award, Porcel-lo joined the Mets with a $10 million, one-year contract after going 14-12 last year for Boston with a 5.52 ERA, highest among 61 qualified starters.

He was hurt by Jeff McNeil, who shifted from third base to the grass in short right field and allowed Albies’ lead-off grounder in the third to bounce out of his glove for an error.

Given an eight-run lead, Sean Newcomb was removed after 3 1/3 in-nings and failed to get the win. He struggled with command, starting seven of his first nine batters with balls, throwing 42 of 82 pitches for strikes, hitting two batters and throwing a wild pitch.

He was replaced by Jhouyls Chacín (1-0) af-ter allowing a double to the No. 8 hitter, backup catcher Tomás Nido, for New York’s third hit. Re-leased by Minnesota in mid-July, Chacín allowed one hit over 3 2/3 score-less innings in his first Braves appearance since 2016.

Matt Adams, who opt-ed out of a minor league deal with the Mets to sign with the Braves, put Atlanta ahead in the two-run first when he lined an RBI single through the shortstop hole vacated by the defensive shift.

DROPPED DOWNNew York 2B Robin-

son Canó was dropped to seventh in the batting order in a regular-season game for the first time since the last day of the 2009 season. He went 0 for 3, dropping to 1 for 9 with no RBIs in the se-ries.

FOOT WORKMets first baseman

Pete Alonso, the NL Rookie of the Year, de-buted rakish bright blue spikes with a white pat-tern that resembled an ice sheet. His nickname is Polar Bear.

ROAD WARRIORSNew York headed af-

ter the game to Boston for its first trip, on six charter buses rather than a private plane.

Reliever Justin Wilson will miss team dinners on the road, among the casu-alties of the protocols.

“That stuff’s fun, but we understand the ben-efits of still practicing social distancing and not losing guys,” he said.

Michael Conforto an-ticipated Call of Duty competition and lauded Brandon Nimmo.

“A lot of guys are bringing their Xbox, PlayStation,” he said. “Nimmo didn’t really play a whole lot of video games, but he’s strategic, calling out the plan. He’s just super smart.”

INNOVATIONBraves manager Brian

Snitker thinks some of the temporary rules for this year “might hold on. We may see that it’s not as drastic or not what we thought going into it.”

Even starting each ex-tra inning with a runner on second base.

“If it decreases wear and tear on your bullpens and things like that, it may be something that we

stay with,” he said. “The DH, I can definitely see that hanging around.”

TRAINER’S ROOMBraves: LHP Will

Smith, recovered from COVID-19, played catch at Truist Park and will pitch off a mound in the next few days. ... Snitker on Cs Tyler Flowers and Travis d’Arnaud, who went on the injured list Friday with symptoms of possible coronarvius. “They’re still not feeling great. They’re still kind of under the weather, so to speak. The tests are coming back negative so far. ... They haven’t turned the corner yet in just how they feel.”

Mets: Eduardo Núñez injured a leg when he fell while crossing first base in the eighth after beating out an infield hit.

UP NEXTBraves: RHP Mike

Foltynewicz (8-6 last year) starts Monday at Tampa Bay against RHP Tyler Glasnow (6-1)

Mets: RHP Michael Wacha (6-7 for St. Louis last year) makes his New York debut in Monday’s opener of a two-game se-ries at Boston.

Brad Penner/USA TODAY SportsAtlanta Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson (7) hits an RBI double against the New York Mets during the third inning Sunday at Citi Field.

See PORTNOY, 2B

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2B MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020

nonconference game. Other options could in-clude adding another two conference games and cutting nonconference competition entirely. Ev-erything is on the table at the moment.

Granted this is all con-tingent on players actu-ally being safe in their participation under the current COVID-19 pan-demic, but with one game already canceled and an-other potentially ready to fall in the coming days and weeks, don’t expect MSU to be filling it’s sud-denly narrowing slate.

If the SEC goes confer-ence only in 2020, what are MSU’s prospects?

Now that we’ve ad-dressed doomsday, let’s say football is actual-ly played this fall and MSU goes into an eight-plus-one format. In this situation, the Bulldogs maintain their eight con-ference games and keep the contest now sched-uled for Sept. 12 against North Carolina State on the docket.

Granted it’s still late July and first-year coach Mike Leach has hardly had a chance to get a cup of coffee with his new roster in person, let alone make any major person-nel decisions, but if MSU does lose games against Alabama A&M, New Mexico and possibly Tu-lane (though there’s no indication this is happen-

ing at the moment) the Bulldogs’ ceiling quickly drops from eight or nine wins to around five or six.

N.C. State was a dis-mal 4-8 a season ago as injuries decimated this roster. But according to The Athletic, the Wolf-pack return at least 52 percent production in pass yards, rush yards, receiving yards, offensive line starts, tackles, tack-les for a loss, sacks and interceptions — offering optimism in Raleigh that this year’s squad should be improved.

Games against Arkan-sas, Missouri and Ken-tucky ultimately become must-wins in this new for-mat. So too does the Egg Bowl — though given the 2019 edition, nothing short of divine interven-tion would be surprising when Ole Miss and MSU meet this fall.

It’s fair to assume MSU drops games to Al-abama, LSU, Auburn and — stop me if you’ve heard this before — trendy- con-ference champion pick Texas A&M. Think this is the year the Bulldogs take down the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa or the Tigers in Baton Rouge? May I alert you to Leach’s 1-7 record against Wash-ington in the Apple Cup coupled with the stark transition from Joe Moor-head’s RPO-based at-tack to the air raid that it would be nothing short of stunning if MSU pulls off any major upsets this fall.

If the Bulldogs win the games they should, their staring at an impressive 5-4 season under less than ideal conditions. That said, given the aforementioned offensive transition that would all but assure growing pains in a non-pandemic affect-ed year, games against Kentucky, Missouri and Ole Miss are far from as-sured victories.

Should the Bulldogs stumble out of the gate against N.C. State, it’s likely they head into their final three games against Ole Miss, Missouri and Kentucky with just a sin-gle win and it could get worse from there.

MSU was probably slated for a 6-6 or 7-5 season under normal cir-cumstances. Now, they could fall anywhere from 1-8 to 6-3. Buckle up, this year’s going to get wild.

Ben’s best:Like most of you, I’ve

spent the majority of my down time during this pandemic binge watch-ing movies and vary-ing streaming entities. Here’s a list of my favor-ite flicks I’ve watched since quarantine began that I hadn’t previously seen:

1. Casino Royale2. Groundhog Day3. Good Morning Viet-

nam4. Me Before You5. Swingers

Forget the asterisk, NHL playoffs present grueling testBY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sorry, Drew Dough-ty.

It ’s difficult to find anyone — from Hock-ey Hall of Fame goalie Ken Dryden to French-born Avalanche forward Pierre Edouard Bel-lemare— supporting Doughty’s assertion that these expanded NHL playoffs won’t pro-duce, as the Los Ange-les Kings defenseman put it in April, “a real” Stanley Cup winner.

“I could not agree less,” Bellemare said. “The level of play might take a day or two to get to the competitiveness, but this Stanley Cup playoff is going to be the toughest ever.”

Not only are teams, such as the previous-ly injury-depleted Av-alanche, far healthier than they were when the season was paused in March, everyone is faced with the same challenge of restarting from a standstill.

“You don’t have any team that played 82 games and feels unbe-lievable because they had a great season. That was 12 weeks ago, 14 weeks ago. I mean, this is gone,” Bellemare said. “So, every team’s going to have to from Day 1 create its own mo-mentum.”

Three months ago, Doughty questioned what the format would resemble and how the regular season ended with 189 games remain-ing.

“I’m just not a huge fan of it, as much as I want to play,” said Doughty, whose Kings didn’t qualify for the ex-panded 24-team playoff.

In light of the con-cerns, players earned

praise for demanding the four traditional play-off rounds be best-of-seven series to preserve the integrity of postsea-son.

“It was already the hardest trophy to win. I think it just got a lit-tle harder,” New York Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck said.

More than four months since a puck was dropped in a com-petitive setting, and following two weeks of training camp, the NHL took its next step toward resuming play: All 24 remaining teams were entering the “bub-ble” in their respective hub cities of Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta. Each will play one exhi-bition game before the playoffs open Aug. 1.

It will be a postsea-son like no other since the Stanley Cup was first awarded to the Montreal Hockey Club in 1893. The field of 24 is the NHL’s largest ever, while the crowds will be the smallest — with no fans allowed to attend.

There will be a pre-liminary round split in two parts. The top four teams in each confer-ence will compete in a round-robin series to determine first-round seeding, while the re-maining 16 compete in best-of-five elimination series. What previous-ly took 16 victories to hoist the Cup, this year’s champion could become the NHL’s first 19-game winner.

And should all go as planned, the Cup will be awarded for the first time in either late Sep-tember or early October.

Given the challenges, including players being

separated from their loved ones for an extend-ed stretch, Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis favors placing an aster-isk next to this year’s winner because of the heightened degree of difficulty.

“We’re all dealing with something that’s a lot different,” Ellis said. “If there’s an asterisk, it’s because it was a harder, harder process to win.”

Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said this playoff will compare nothing to what it was like in 2006, when he was captain of the Cup champion Hurricanes.

“Whoever wins this is going to earn it. There’s just no way around it,” Brind’Amour said. “You’ve got to grind it out. And then on top of it, to me, is the sacrifice and just those added el-ements here about be-ing stuck in a hotel. ... There’s just a lot going on to pull this off.”

The 2006 Hurricanes competed in 25 play-off games, one short of the record held by five teams, including last year’s champion St. Lou-is Blues.

Dryden won six cham-pionships in eight sea-sons with Montreal in the 1970s, and the most games the Canadiens played in one postseason during that span was 20, in 1971, his rookie sea-son. By comparison, the ’76 Canadiens needed only 13 games to win the title, with Dryden fin-ishing 12-1 and allowing just 25 goals.

For Dryden, each postseason presents unique sets of challeng-es, ranging from injuries to team chemistry to on- and off-ice distractions.

And this upcoming post-season is no different.

“Those who don’t win may say, ̀ We were on our way. We did everything right during the regular season. We were poised for the playoffs and we didn’t have a chance to be that team that we cre-ated,’” Dryden said.

“That isn’t the point. The point is the Stanley Cup playoffs are a test. And they’re a test of each player and of each team finding an answer for the circumstances pre-sented,” he said. “That’s what competition is. That’s what competitors are asked to respond to. And those who do it best win.”

Given the uncertain-ties that come with the coronavirus pandemic, Dryden stressed the im-portance of the league and players being able to halt play at any point for health and safety rea-sons.

“We’ve created these expectations and hopes, and maybe these kinds of commitments so there’s no turning back. That’s wrong. There is always turning back,” Dryden said. “But if this does start and if the compe-tition runs its course to the end, then who wins is a worthy Stanley Cup winner.”

PortnoyContinued from Page 1B

Baseball fans in South Korea back in stands amid COVID-19

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Masked fans hopped, sang and shout-ed cheers in baseball sta-diums in South Korea on Sunday as authorities be-gan allowing spectators to return to professional sports amid the coronavi-rus pandemic.

After a weeks-long de-lay, South Korea’s 2020 baseball season began in early May without fans in the stands amid a then-slowing virus out-break in the country. Seats in baseball stadi-ums had since been filled with cheering banners, dolls or pictures of fans.

On Sunday, the Korean Baseball Organization al-lowed a limited number of

fans - 10% of the stadium capacity - to watch games live. They entered stadi-ums after their tempera-tures and smartphone QR codes were checked. During the games, they were required to wear masks and sit at least a seat apart while being banned from eating food and drinking any alcohol-ic beverages in line with the KBO guidelines.

During a game be-tween Doosan Bears and LG Twins at Seoul’s Jamsil baseball stadium, fans wearing the teams’ jerseys still shouted their favorite players’ names, raised banners and sang fight songs. Some Bears fans jumped from their seats when Choi Joo-hwan hit a two-run home run at the bottom the sec-ond inning.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020 3B

Comics & PuzzlesDear AbbyDILBERT

ZITS

GARFIELD

CANDORVILLE

BABY BLUES

BEETLE BAILEY

MALLARD FILLMORE

HoroscopesTODAY’S BIRTHDAY (July

27). You set out to hone your skills, amplify your assets, pick up new experiences -- and then you learn an entire volume that you did not seek and were not expecting. You’ll be embraced in a different type of family. People will lean on you and need you, pay you and pedestal you. Your big investment pays in March. Scorpio and Capricorn adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 8, 40, 2, 25 and 10.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). When you stand where you can see, you stand where you can be seen. What should you expose, and what should you protect? This is the big decision

of the day. TAURUS (April 20-May 20).

You may be detached from the place and time when a feeling was born, but there are portals that bring you back — symbols, images, smells — and you can feel it as sure as the first time.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Hardships strengthen people. Of course, it’s a concept that’s much more palatable in hind-sight. While in the thick of it, a person may not feel strong at all, but getting to the other side is its own badge of endurance.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). You will fill in for something or someone who is absent. You do not have to be as the other

would be. Do you in the space and everyone, including you, will learn something new.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Resistance may or may not be futile, but it’s certainly not the best way to get leverage. Turn into the force that comes at you. Give way, or join it. Then wait. You will sense your mo-ment of power.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). If you know exactly how much you’re going to win or lose, it’s not a risk; it’s a transaction. Doing a thing so many times that your prediction about the result is almost always right takes the risk factor plum out of the equation.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Tackle the most difficult issues first and the other ones will either suddenly seem like nonis-sues or actually be nonissues, swept into the current of bigger solutions.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You’re in the process of a rebuild. This is not going to be what it was, but it’s also not an entirely new creation. You’ll take the best of what worked before and bring it into the future.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). It’s silly to waste time on the question of who deserves what. Credit and blame are seldom distributed according to what people deserve. Focus on doing the most with what you have.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). There may be dozens before you, but your eyes keep returning to only one. It’s be-cause what you exchanged has become a tether secured firmly to the core of your attention.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). What affects one person makes others feel vulnerable, as they realize the tenuous fragility that is life. This is why you like to spread good news wherever you find it. Today, you’ll find it in plenty.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). There are things that belong inside of you and things that would be better placed outside of you. You’re the one who gets to decide, though note that, as a rule, burdens get lighter when you share them.

SOLUTION:Sleeping pill

FAMILY CIRCUS

DEAR ABBY: I became pregnant

with my second child in 2013. When my extend-ed family heard the news, it was not well-received, particularly by my grandmother and aunt-in-law. They said things like, “We love you, but we’re embarrassed and ashamed.” My once loving grandmother said some particularly cruel things.

I have to be honest — I was angry. I swore at her after she accused me of “using” my partner of 10 YEARS to get pregnant. The gossip and hateful comments from my family shocked me to my core. I wasn’t asking for a blessing, but unconditional love from this God-fearing woman was definitely expected.

Fast-forward to now: My grandmother continues to hold anger and resentment toward me. She says it’s because I’ve “sullied our family name.” I apologized for my outburst, but she won’t forgive me. Now my uncle is blaming me for her poor health! I have forgiven her, but when I took my kids to her house, she slammed the door in our faces. I’m at a loss about how to fix this. Should

I say, “So long, farewell”? What can I do? — GIANT MESS IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR MESS: The person responsible for your grand-mother’s poor health isn’t you — it’s her. It’s not unheard of for people who hang onto anger and resentment the way she does to make themselves sick.

That she would slam the door in the faces of her great-grand-children is reprehensible.

You haven’t sullied the fam-ily name, and you cannot fix this by yourself. The healthiest thing you can do, for yourself AND your children, is move forward and don’t look back.

DEAR ABBY: My family and I are planning a get-together. It has been several months since we have been together because of the pandemic. Our younger brother has a new girlfriend who was introduced to everyone at the last get-to-gether.

That day, one sister men-tioned a political proposition that was up for a vote in her state. The new girlfriend kept repeating “No politics!” every time my sister started talking about it. My sisters and I think

it was very rude.Now the new girlfriend

will be in my home, and I am sure politics will be a topic of conversation, considering the current economic, political and health crises going on. My family likes discussing current events, and I don’t feel we should be silenced because of a guest. How should this be handled so as to not offend and distance our brother’s new girlfriend, but allow us to continue having conversations that are meaningful to us as a family? — OUTSPOKEN IN FLORIDA

DEAR OUTSPOKEN: Some-one, preferably your brother, should have a chat with this woman before the next family gathering and make clear that your family enjoys talking about current events — poli-tics included — and she does not have the right to dictate to the rest of you what you can or cannot talk about. If the subject makes her uncomfort-able, she should either move to another room or skip the event. This does not have to be said unkindly, but the rest of you should not be expected to kowtow to her.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Dear Abby

Michael Thompson wins 3M Open by 2 strokes in MinnesotaTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BLAINE, Minn. — Without a gallery around him on the 18th green, Michael Thompson settled for a subdued victory cel-ebration at the 3M Open with a FaceTime call home to his wife and children in Georgia.

The tears came from him and his wife as soon as they saw each other on the screen.

Thompson birdied two of the last three holes Sun-day for a 4-under 67 and a two-stroke victory, fin-ishing off his second PGA Tour win seven years after his first.

“It is a little sad that there wasn’t anybody out there to cheer on some of the great shots that I hit toward the

end, but I know everybody who’s rooting for me at least was watching and scream-ing at their TV,” Thompson said. “This is definitely a win for everybody who sup-ported me throughout the years. It doesn’t diminish the excitement.”

Adam Long took was second after a 64. Richy Werenski, who had the 18-hole lead and shared it with Thompson after both Friday and Saturday, shot a 70 for his worst round of the tournament and settled for a nine-way tie for third —- three strokes back.

Tony Finau finished in the third-place group, too, after a 68. Finau was the only one among the five world top-30 players in the field to reach the weekend, far outperforming fellow

high-profile peers Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey.

Thompson finished at 19-under 265 at the TPC Twin Cities. He was more nervous than he anticipat-ed, even without specta-tors.

“It means so much to get a win, and it gets you into so many different tournaments and solidi-fies your job for two more years. That’s enough pres-sure for anybody, let alone having fans out there,” said Thompson, who has a 3-year-old son and an infant daughter he and his wife adopted in March.

Nobody throughout the windy and muggy week in Minnesota was steadier than Thompson, who en-

tered the week 151st in the FedEx Cup standings and rocketed up to 39th on the way to Tennessee for the World Golf Championships event. He had three bogeys in 72 holes.

He hit solidly out of the sand to set up a birdie on the 16th and take sole possession of the lead. He deftly steered around the water danger on the 18th, landing his approach on the back of the green within 15 feet. With Long in the club-house, having played five groups ahead, Thompson had two putts to win. He needed only one, bending backward and thrusting his arms straight up in the air after the ball dropped in the cup.

Thompson’s best previous finish in this

stopped-and-restarted 2020 season was a tie for eighth at the Travelers Champi-onship in Connecticut, and he missed the cut in his last start at the Workday Charity Open in Ohio two weeks ago. For this win, he not only secured a spot in the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and next year’s Masters, but a prize of $1,188,000. That’s nearly 12% of his career earnings on the tour. The U.S. Open, rescheduled for Sept. 17-20, is at Winged Foot in New York, which Thompson called his favorite course “in the entire world.”

In stroke play over the last four seasons, Finau has finished 35 rounds inside the top three, by far the most without a win on tour over that stretch.

Tommy Fleetwood (20) has the second most.

“They don’t give out second-place trophies, third-place trophies,” said Finau, who shot a 78 on the final round of the Memorial last week to finish eighth in Ohio after sharing the 36-hole lead there. “I’ve learned that the hard way with lot of them coming early in my career, but I con-tinue to just believe and hope for the best for my future.”

Finau and Werenski were joined in third by Robby Shelton, who shot a 64 on Sunday, as well as Charles Howell III, Emiliano Grillo, Alex Noren, Max Homa, Cam-eron Tringale and Charl Schwartzel.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com4B MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020

Nellie CaldwellVisitation:

Tuesday, July 28 • 1-3 PMMt. Vernon Baptist Church

Services:Tuesday, July 28 • 3 PM

Mt. Vernon Baptist ChurchBurial

Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Cemetery

2nd Ave. North Location

Mary GardnerIncomplete

College St. Location

Alan SmithIncomplete

College St. Location

memorialgunterpeel.com

BY KIM CHANDLER The Associated Press

SELMA, Ala. — The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pet-tus Bridge in Selma, Al-abama, for the final time Sunday as remembranc-es continue for the civil rights icon.

The bridge became a landmark in the fight for racial justice when Lew-

is and other civil rights marchers were beaten there 55 years ago on “Bloody Sunday,” a key event that helped galva-nize support for the pas-sage of the Voting Rights Act. Lewis returned to Selma each March in commemoration.

Sunday found him crossing alone — instead of arm-in-arm with civil rights and political lead-

ers — after his coffin was loaded atop a horse-drawn wagon that retraced the route through Selma from Brown Chapel Afri-can Methodist Episcopal Church, where the 1965 march began.

As the black wag-on pulled by a team of dark-colored horses ap-proached the bridge, members of the crowd shouted “Thank you, John

Lewis!” and “Good trou-ble!” the phrase Lewis used to describe his tan-gles with white authori-ties during the civil rights movement.

Some crowd members sang the gospel song “Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Jesus.” Later, some onlookers sang the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” and other gos-

pel tunes.Lewis died July 17 at

80, months after he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. Lewis served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Georgia’s 5th congressio-nal district from 1987 un-til his death.

The wagon rolled over a carpet of rose petals, pausing atop the bridge over the Alabama River

in the summer heat so family members could walk behind it. On the south side of the bridge, where Lewis was beaten by Alabama state troop-ers in 1965, family mem-bers placed red roses that the carriage rolled over, marking the spot where Lewis spilled his blood and suffered a head inju-ry.

Body of civil rights icon John Lewis crosses Selma bridge

BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST The Associated Press

The Americans With Disabilities Act was a major turning point in opening large parts of U.S. society to disabled people, but three decades after its passage disabled workers still face higher unemployment than oth-er adults — a problem compounded by the coro-

navirus pandemic.Sunday marked 30

years since the ADA was signed into law by Presi-dent George H.W. Bush with wide bipartisan sup-port. It prohibits discrim-ination against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, transportation and public accommodations.

In practice, that’s meant everything from usable public bathrooms

to seats in movie the-aters and access to public schools.

“The historically dom-inant view was that it was an individual problem that each person or fam-ily had to cope with on their own,” said Douglas Kruse, an economist at Rutgers University who began using a wheel-chair after a drunk driver crashed into him in 1990. “The ADA represented a

shift in perspective that a lot of the problems with disability are more socie-tal and environmental.”

That’s led to some-thing simple but crucial: visibility.

“It’s not uncommon to see people with wheel-chairs or blind people out doing what they need to do, or want to do, in cities or in restaurants,” said his wife Lisa Schur, a po-litical scientist at Rutgers who studies disability and employment. “Before the ADA, it was unusual. People would be stared at. Now it’s more accept-ed.”

The law was a hard-fought milestone that came after years of work from disabled people and their supporters, said Pe-ter Berns, CEO of The Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental dis-abilities.

Nevertheless, “the re-ality still is, people with disabilities are subject to pervasive discrimina-tion in employment and many aspects of life, so the work of the ADA is not done.”

When it comes to em-ployment, things were looking up in the boom-

ing June 2019 economy before the coronavirus hit. Still, the unemploy-ment rate was nearly 8 percent — double that of other workers — even though a large majority said in surveys they can and want to work, Kruse said. Those who are em-ployed often hold low-lev-el jobs in industries like food service, home health care and janitorial work.

“It really seems to be last hired, first fired,” Schur said. “Even 30 years after the ADA, there’s still a lot of em-ployer reluctance.”

Disabled Americans mark milestone as crisis deepens job woesAmericans With Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas such as employment, transportation and public accommodations

AREA OBITUARIES

BY MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK — If Black, His-panic and Native Americans are hospitalized and killed by the coronavirus at far higher rates than others, shouldn’t the gov-ernment count them as high risk for serious illness?

That seemingly simple ques-

tion has been mulled by federal health officials for months. And so far the answer is no.

But federal public health officials have released a new strategy that vows to improve data collection and take steps to address stark inequalities in how the disease is affecting Americans.

Officials at the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention stress that the disproportion-ately high impact on certain minority groups is not driven by genetics. Rather, it’s social conditions that make people of color more likely to be exposed to the virus and — if they catch it — more likely to get seriously ill.

“To just name racial and eth-nic groups without contextu-alizing what contributes to the risk has the potential to be stig-matizing and victimizing,” said the CDC’s Leandris Liburd, who two months ago was named chief health equity officer in the

agency’s coronavirus response.Outside experts agreed that

there’s a lot of potential down-side to labeling certain racial and ethnic groups as high risk.

“You have to be very careful that you don’t do it in such a way that you’re defining a whole class of people as ‘COVID car-riers.’” said Dr. Georges Benja-min, executive director of the American Public Health Asso-ciation.

COVID-19’s unequal impact has been striking:

■ American Indians and Na-tive Alaskans are hospitalized at rates more than five times

that of white people. The hos-pitalization rate for Black and Hispanic Americans is more than four times higher than for whites, according to CDC data through mid-July.

■ Detailed tracking through mid-May suggested Black peo-ple accounted for 25 percent of U.S. deaths as of that time, even though they are about 13 percent of the U.S. population. About 24 percent of deaths were Hispanics, who account for about 18.5 percent of the pop-ulation. And 35 percent were white people, who are 60 per-cent of the population.

US agency vows steps to address COVID-19 inequalitiesCDC officials: Social conditions, not genetics, make people of color more likely to be exposed to the virus and — if they catch it — more likely to get seriously ill

COMMERCIAL DISPATCH OBITUARY POLICYObituaries with basic informa-tion including visitation and service times, are provided free of charge. Extended obituaries with a photograph, detailed biographical informa-tion and other details families may wish to include, are avail-able for a fee. Obituaries must be submitted through funeral homes unless the deceased’s body has been donated to science. If the deceased’s body was donated to science, the family must provide official proof of death. Please submit all obituaries on the form pro-vided by The Commercial Dis-patch. Free notices must be submitted to the newspaper no later than 3 p.m. the day prior for publication Tuesday through Friday; no later than 4 p.m. Saturday for the Sunday edition; and no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday edition. Incomplete notices must be re-ceived no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday through Friday editions. Paid notices must be finalized by 3 p.m. for inclusion the next day Monday through Thursday; and on Friday by 3 p.m. for Sunday and Monday publication. For more informa-tion, call 662-328-2471.

Larry DeloachCOLUMBUS — Lar-

ry C. Deloach, 60, died July 25, 2020, at Bap-tist Memorial Hospi-tal-Golden Triangle.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Carter’s Funeral Services of Columbus.

Nellie CaldwellCOLUMBUS — Nel-

lie Jewell Caldwell, 89, died July 26, 2020, at her residence.

Services will be at 3 p.m. Tuesday, at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, with the Rev. Jeff James

and Rev. Todd Stevens officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Visitation will be two hours prior to services Tuesday, at the church. Memorial Gunter Peel Funeral Home and Crematory Second Avenue North is in charge of arrange-ments.

Michael RayWEST POINT — Mi-

chael “Mike” Ray, 58, died July 25, 2020, at North Mississippi Med-ical Center of Tupelo.

A private graveside funeral service will be held Wednesday, in Me-morial Gardens West Point, with Terry Butler officiating. Calvert Funeral Home of West Point is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Ray was born July 6, 2020, in West Point, to Betty Files Ray and the late Vernon Ray.

In addition to his mother, he is survived by his wife, Evelyn Ray; children, Danielle Whitaker and John Tubbs; siblings, San-dra White, Wayne Ray and Tim Ray; and one grandchild.

Jo Ann PeerySTARKVILLE — Jo

Ann Peery, 83, died July 23, 2020, in Sturgis.

Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Tues-day, in Boyd Chapel Cemetery of Sturgis, with the Rev. Roos-evelt Gage officiating. Visitation is from 1-5 p.m. today, at Centu-

ry Hairston Funeral Home. Century Hair-ston Funeral Home of Starkville is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Peery was born March 5, 1937, in Sturgis, to the late Lewis Hickman and Sarah Hickman. She was formerly employed as a nurse and was a member of Boyd Chap-el United Methodist Church.

She is survived by her children, Cassandra Frazier, Teresa McRae, Karen Henderson, Chris Peery; sister, Nettie Mathis; and nine grandchildren.

Flora BrewerCOLUMBUS — Flo-

ra May Blair Brewer, 63, died July 22, 2020, at her res-idence. Gravesides services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, in Woodlawn Cemetery of Caledonia, with David Williams officiating. Visitation is from 2-5 p.m. today, at Carter’s Funeral Services. Carter’s Funeral Services of Columbus is in charge of arrange-ments.

Mrs. Brewer was born March 8, 1957, in Caledonia, to the late Sam Blair and Mattie Henry Blair. She was formerly employed as a bus driver and was a member of Anderson Grove M.B. Church.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her siblings, Bessie Pearl Sims, Augusta Williams, Arthur Blair Sr., Charles Blair, John Blair and Elange Pope.

She is survived by her children, Zimilish Blair, Kenny Blair, Eurie Bordenave, and Niesha Blair Edinburg; siblings, Eurie Henry and Mattie Blair Walk-er; 17 grandchildren; and two great-grand-children.

Samuel SmithCOLUMBUS —

Samuel Alan Smith, 68, died July 26, 2020, at his residence.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Memori-al Gunter Peel Funeral Home and Crematory College Street location.

Dorothy LeeCOLUMBUS — Dor-

othy Taylor Lee, 89, died July 26, 2020, at Windsor Place.

Graveside services are at 10 a.m. today, in Forest Cemetery of Eth-elsville, Alabama, with Tommy Taylor officiat-ing. Lowndes Funeral Home of Columbus is in charge of arrange-ments.

Mrs. Lee was born Dec. 30, 1930, in Caledonia, to the late Claude L. and Dovie Lee Pearson Hankins. She was formerly employed with United Technologies and was a member of Antioch Baptist Church.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husbands, W.B. Taylor and Irv Lee; and siblings, C.L. Hankins, Cecil Hankins, Her-schel Hankins, Loyce Hankins, A.J. Hankins, James Earl Hankins, Linnie Ray Hankins, Nell Thompson and Betty Pounders.

She is survived by her children, Rodney Taylor and Tommy Taylor; eight grandchil-dren; 14 great-grand-children; and two great-great-grandchil-dren.

Mary GardnerCOLUMBUS —

Mary Gardner, 88, died July 26, 2020, at Trinity Healthcare.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Memori-al Gunter Peel Funeral Home and Crematory College Street location.

Marilyn CoonABERDEEN — Mar-

ilyn Coon died July 25, 2020.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, at Krabel Funeral Home Chapel in Oakland, Illinois, with Lamar Pruitt officiating. Burial will follow in Oakland Cemetery in Oakland, Illinois. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, at Krabel Funeral Home. Calvert Funeral Home of West Point is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Coon was born in Oakland, Illinois to

the late Eldon and Ha-zel Innes Childress.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Fred; and daughter, Amelia.

She is survived by her daughter, Lynn Fisher; and one grand-child.

Memorials may be made to Strong United Methodist Church, 10337 Strong Road, Aberdeen, Mississippi 39730.

Brewer

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com MONDAY, JULY 27, 2020 5B

ads.cdispatch.com 662-328-2424

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BY ANA MARTINEZThe Oxford Eagle

OXFORD — The Quinn Colson series by Oxford author Ace Atkins is being de-veloped into a TV show on HBO.

The books are about Colson, who is a former Army Ranger who has returned to his home in Tibbehah County, located in rural northeast Mississippi, has been overrun with corruption, drugs, and violence. With his uncle, the longtime sheriff dead by suicide, it’s up to Quinn to discover the truth and to bring justice to his home.

Atkins has written 10 books in the fic-tional series starting with The Ranger, which is where the first season will take place.

“The current first season will stay true to the events in the first Quinn Colson novel, The Ranger,” Atkins said. “The writer of the first season has done an amazing job with adapting the book. All your favorite characters are there.”

In addition to writing the Quinn Col-son series, Atkins also took over Robert B. Parker’s Spenser character following Parker’s death in 2010. He has since writ-ten eight novels in the Spenser series including Wonderland, which was adapt-ed into the recent Mark Wahlberg film Spenser Confidential.

While Atkins wasn’t involved in the production of Spenser Confidential, he revealed that he would be for the Quinn Colson series.

“Unlike the recent Mark Wahlberg film Spenser Confidential based on my book Wonderland, I’ll be a consulting producer on the project,” Atkins said. “I’m thrilled and honored to be part of the team.”

Atkins stated that he is excited not only to be apart of the production of the series but also to be partnering with HBO.

“I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather be associated with than HBO,” Atkins said. “They’re the absolute best in the busi-ness, with some of my all-time favorite shows like Deadwood and The Wire. In fact, Quinn Colson all began with the idea of writing a series like Deadwood only set in north Mississippi and in mod-ern times. It’s amazing to see the inspira-tion come back home.”

While Atkins has an idea of who would be an ideal candidate to play Colson in the HBO series, he reveals that casting of the main character might be a little hard.

“That’s a tough one,” Atkins said. “Re-ally the hardest question because cast-ing is often the last piece of the puzzle. Many of the actors I’d first considered now might be too old to play Quinn, who starts out in his last 20s and early 30s. I would hope we could find a young Burt Reynolds or Robert Mitchum.”

Before he was a writer, Atkins was a reporter on the crime beat for The Tam-pa Tribune. He believes his career as a re-porter is what helped him in his writing.

“Working on the crime beat was cru-cial to being able to do what I do now,” Atkins said.

Mississippi author’s book gets turned into an HBO series

UNDER THE CAPITOL DOME

BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS The Associated Press

J A C K -SON — Re-p u b l i c a n Tate Reeves has made clear that his first six months as Mississippi governor didn’t shape up the way he expected.

Reeves took office in January after eight years as lieutenant governor and eight before that as state treasurer.

A pandemic wasn’t expected when Reeves campaigned last year, and responding to the new coronavirus has occupied most of his time as gover-nor.

“In 2020, things aren’t like they were in 2019,” Reeves said Friday. “2019, I was running a political

campaign, working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and I never thought I would long for those days. But I can assure you that I long for those days rather than dealing with this virus.”

The new coronavirus was first detected in Mis-sissippi in early March, weeks after the first U.S. cases were reported. Reeves closed schools that month and set a state-wide stay-at-home order that remained in place a few weeks. He gradually eased restrictions on hair salons, restaurants and other types of businesses. He has set some new re-strictions lately, including a mask mandate in some counties.

Several weeks ago, Reeves lost a power strug-gle with the Legislature over who controls $1.25 billion in pandemic relief

money that Mississippi is receiving from the federal government.

The Mississippi Con-stitution created a strong legislative branch and a weak executive. When Reeves presided over the Senate as lieutenant gov-ernor, he wielded power over many decisions, in-cluding budget writing.

As governor, Reeves argued that because he is the state’s chief executive, he should make decisions about the federal money. The House and Senate asserted control, making the long-established case that setting budgets is a legislative responsibility.

The on-again, off-again legislative session still isn’t over because bud-gets for education and the Department of Marine Resources remain unre-solved. It’s unclear when legislators will return to Jackson because at least 31 of them — and possibly more — are still recover-ing from a coronavirus outbreak that occurred after people in the Capitol widely disregarded safety

precautions during June.The session included

landmark votes by the House and Senate to re-tire the 126-year-old Mis-sissippi flag that was the last state banner in the U.S. to include the Con-federate battle emblem.

Critics have long con-demned the rebel flag as racist. People who voted in a 2001 statewide elec-tion chose to keep the design. Legislative lead-ers — including Reeves, as lieutenant governor — said for years that there was no consensus in the House and Senate to change the flag.

As a candidate and

during his first months as governor, Reeves had a consistent answer to flag questions: If the design were to be reconsidered, it should be done in anoth-er statewide vote.

Momentum for change grew quickly during June, as widespread protests fo-cused attention on racial injustice. When it became clear that legislators had a two-thirds majority need-ed to suspend normal deadlines and file a bill to change the flag, Reeves conceded that he would sign a bill if they passed one. Not coincidentally, two-thirds is the same margin needed to over-

ride a governor’s veto.During a small cere-

mony at the Governor’s Mansion on June 30, Reeves did something he probably did not envision at the beginning of 2020: He signed the bill retiring the old flag. A commis-sion will design a new one without the rebel symbol and with the phrase, “In God We Trust.”

The lone design will be on the Nov. 3 ballot. If vot-ers accept it, that will be-come the new flag. If they reject it, the commission will draw a new design and that will be on the ballot later — still without the old flag as an option.

Analysis: First months not what Reeves expected as governorReeves took office in January after eight years as lieutenant governor and eight before that as state treasurer

Reeves

‘The writer of the first season has done an amazing job with adapting the book. All your favorite characters are there.’

Oxford author Ace Atkins

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