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Volume 80 Edition 134 ©SS 2021 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas
stripes.com
MLB PLAYOFFS
Dodgers bounceback, cut Braves’series lead to 2-1Page 24
MILITARY
Decades-old tapetest in Army maybe replacedPage 4
FACES
Mötley Crüe’s NikkiSixx looks back athis formative yearsPage 18
Russian fighters intercept US military planes over Black Sea ›› Page 5
WASHINGTON — A Navy re-
port has concluded there were
sweeping failures by command-
ers, crew members and others
that fueled the July 2020 arson fire
that destroyed the USS Bon-
homme Richard, calling the mas-
sive five-day blaze in San Diego
preventable and unacceptable.
While one sailor has been
charged with setting the fire, the
more than 400-page report, ob-
tained by The Associated Press,
lists three dozen officers and sail-
ors whose failings either directly
led to the ship’s loss or contributed
to it. The findings detailed wide-
spread lapses in training, coordi-
nation, communication, fire pre-
paredness, equipment mainte-
nance and overall command and
control.
“Although the fire was started
by an act of arson, the ship was lost
due to an inability to extinguish
the fire,” the report said, conclud-
ing that “repeated failures” by an
“inadequately prepared crew” de-
livered “an ineffective fire re-
sponse.”
It slammed commanders of the
amphibious assault ship for poor
oversight, and said the main fire-
fighting foam system wasn’t used
because it hadn’t been maintained
properly and the crew didn’t know
HECTOR CARRERA/U.S. Navy
Sailors combat a fire aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard on July 13, 2020. A new report on the blaze detailswidespread lapses in training, coordination, communication, fire preparedness, equipment maintenance and overall command and control.
‘Inadequately prepared’Navy report finds major failures in fire that destroyed USS Bonhomme Richard
BY LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press
SEE REPORT ON PAGE 6
NATO will adopt its first strat-
egy on artificial intelligence and
launch an innovation fund this
week with the aim of investing
$1 billion to “futureproof” the
30-nation security pact, Secreta-
ry-General Jens Stoltenberg
said Wednesday.
“We see authoritarian re-
gimes racing to develop new
technologies, from artificial in-
telligence to autonomous sys-
tems,” Stoltenberg said at a
news conference at the allianc-
e’s Brussels headquarters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd
Austin will join his NATO mem-
ber counterparts Thursday in
Brussels to formally approve the
plans during two days of talks.
Stoltenberg said he expects
the new NATO fund to invest in
emerging and disruptive tech-
nologies. New headquarters and
test centers will be set up in both
Europe and North America to
support the effort, he said.
“We must keep our technolog-
ical edge,” Stoltenberg said.
NATOplans AIstrategy
BY JOHN VANDIVER
Stars and Stripes
NIDS/NATO Multimedia Library
NATO Secretary-General JensStoltenberg said Wednesday inBrussels that the organizationwill unveil its first strategy for theuse of artificial intelligence.
SEE NATO ON PAGE 5
WASHINGTON — More than
six weeks after promising a new
vaccination-or-testing rule cov-
ering the millions of Americans
at companies with 100 or more
workers, President Joe Biden’s
most aggressive move yet to com-
bat the COVID-19 pandemic is al-
most ready to see the light of day.
An obscure White House office
is expected to give the green light
any day to the rule’s fine print de-
tailing how and when companies
will have to require their employ-
ees to be vaccinated or undergo
weekly testing.
The full enforcement deadline,
which could carry penalties of
about $14,000 per violation, may
not take effect until after the new
year. That’s why Biden and his
aides have for weeks encouraged
businesses to act as though the
rule was already in effect and
start imposing vaccination re-
quirements.
The regulation, to be published
in the Federal Register, was
drafted by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administra-
tion under emergency author-
ities to protect worker safety and
will cover an estimated 80 mil-
lion U.S. workers. The White
House sees it as a potent tool to
winnow down the ranks of rough-
ly 65 million Americans who
have thus far refused to get a
shot.
White House officials declined
to discuss when the rule will be
published or go into details on
when businesses will have to
comply.
Bahrain88/85
Baghdad85/62
Doha96/77
Kuwait City89/73
Riyadh93/69
Kandahar90/51
Kabul75/45
Djibouti92/75
THURSDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Mildenhall/Lakenheath
55/45
Ramstein59/46
Stuttgart55/52
Lajes,Azores68/65
Rota73/64
Morón80/57 Sigonella
70/57
Naples68/58
Aviano/Vicenza84/81
Pápa66/54
Souda Bay69/62
Brussels52/49
Zagan59/56
DrawskoPomorskie
57/54
THURSDAY IN EUROPE
Misawa54/46
Guam83/80
Tokyo49/46
Okinawa76/73
Sasebo66/61
Iwakuni67/59
Seoul59/38
Osan57/37
Busan62/53
The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,
2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
FRIDAY IN THE PACIFIC
WEATHER OUTLOOK
TODAYIN STRIPES
American Roundup ...... 11Classified .................... 13Comics .........................16Crossword ................... 16Faces .......................... 18Opinion ........................ 14Sports .................... 19-24
BUSINESS/WEATHER
Military rates
Euro costs (Oct. 21) $1.14Dollar buys (Oct. 21) 0.8376British pound (Oct. 21) $1.34Japanese yen (Oct. 21) 111.00South Korean won (Oct. 21) 1,148.00
Commercial rates
Bahrain (Dinar) .3770Britain (Pound) 1.3785Canada (Dollar) 1.2347China (Yuan) 6.3927Denmark (Krone) 6.3880Egypt (Pound) 15.7102Euro .8586Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7753Hungary (Forint) 311.09Israel (Shekel) 3.2118Japan (Yen) 114.27Kuwait (Dinar) .3016
Norway (Krone) 8.3819
Philippines (Peso) 50.74Poland (Zloty) 3.95Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7508Singapore (Dollar) 1.3437
South Korea (Won) 1,174.40Switzerland (Franc) .9208Thailand (Baht) 33.37Turkey (New Lira) 9.2503
(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger-many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur-chasing British pounds in Germany), check withyour local military banking facility. Commercialrates are interbank rates provided for referencewhen buying currency. All figures are foreigncurrencies to one dollar, except for the Britishpound, which is represented in dollars-to-pound, and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.)
INTEREST RATES
Prime rate 3.25Interest Rates Discount rate 0.75Federal funds market rate 0.093-month bill 0.0530-year bond 2.08
EXCHANGE RATESBusinesses await fine print of vax-or-test ruleAssociated Press
PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South
Korea — North Korea confirmed
Wednesday it has tested a “new
type” of submarine-launched bal-
listic missile, its fifth weapons test
in recent weeks, as U.S. intelli-
gence leaders began meeting with
their South Korean and Japanese
counterparts.
The missile was successfully
launched from an older subma-
rine Tuesday and included “lots of
advanced control guidance tech-
nologies,” the state-run Korean
Central News Agency said in a
statement.
The missile “will greatly con-
tribute to putting the defense tech-
nology of the country on a high lev-
el and to enhancing the underwa-
ter operational capability of our
navy,” the statement said.
South Korean military officials
on Tuesday said they tracked a
short-range ballistic missile that
flew 279 miles at a maximum alti-
tude of 37 miles. The 10:17 a.m.
launch from North Korea’s east-
ern coast was also confirmed by
the Japan Coast Guard. No inju-
ries or damages were reported.
Initial estimates indicate the
missile flew the same distance but
at a lower altitude than North Ko-
rea’s SLBM launch in 2019, when a
Pukguksong-3 SLBM flew 279
miles at a maximum altitude of
565 miles.
The military officials also noted
that the missile appeared to have
been fired from Sinpo, where a
North Korean shipyard is believed
to be working on a new ballistic
missile submarine.
North Korea launched its 2019
SLBM test from an underwater
platform, rather than a newly de-
veloped, operational submarine.
North Korea claims its weapons
program is purely a defense
against international aggression.
The communist regime cites an-
nual U.S.-South Korean military
drills, which it views as a precur-
sor to a full-scale invasion, and the
numerous sanctions against its
country to justify its program.
The U.N. Security Council sanc-
tioned North Korea because of its
nuclear weapons and ballistic
missile tests.
Experts question North Korea’s
self-defense claims, as an SLBM is
typically viewed as a retaliatory,
second-strike weapon.
“The significance of this capa-
bility is that the North Koreans
continue to invest in their sea-
based missile program,” Ankit
Panda, a North Korea analyst and
Stanton senior fellow at the Carne-
gie Endowment for International
Peace, told Stars and Stripes by
phone Wednesday. “They see that
as necessary, even if North Ko-
rean submarines are going to be
very vulnerable to the U.S. and al-
lies in submarine warfare at-
tacks.”
Panda added that sea-based
missiles are “more survivable and
more difficult to destroy through
pre-emptive attack than land-
based systems.”
North Korea’s latest test comes
one month after Seoul announced
it had successfully test-fired its
own SLBM from a submarine.
South Korea joins only a handful
of nations to successfully develop
an SLBM but is the first without a
nuclear weapon to do so.
Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence of-
ficials, including director of na-
tional intelligence Avril Haines,
are scheduled to meet with their
South Korean and Japanese coun-
terparts in Seoul to discuss North
Korean matters this week.
The U.S. special representative
for North Korea, Sung Kim, will
also be traveling to Seoul and meet
with Ambassador Noh Kyu-duk,
the South Korean special repre-
sentative for Korean Peninsula
Peace and Security Affairs.
N. Korea says ‘new type’ of missile testedBY DAVID CHOI
Stars and Stripes
KCNA
A submarinelaunched ballisticmissile test by North Korea isseen Tuesday.
[email protected] Twitter: @choibboy
pared to meet our nation’s call.”
Great Britain forcibly expelled
the native inhabitants from Diego
Garcia beginning in the late 1960s
to establish a military base on the
island for British and American
forces.
B-1B bombers and about 200 air-
men deployed recently to the is-
land of Diego Garcia in the center
of the Indian Ocean, the first time
Lancers have operated there in
over 15 years, the Air Force said
Tuesday.
The bombers arrived late last
week to support Pacific Air
Forces’ continuing Bomber Task
Force mission, the service said in a
news release Tuesday.
Lancers of the 28th Bomb Wing
flew from Ellsworth Air Force
Base, S.D., to Naval Support Facil-
ity Diego Garcia, the Air Force
said.
Citing operational security, Pa-
cific Air Forces declined to specify
the number of bombers sent to
Diego Garcia, which is a territory
of Great Britain, or how long the
deployment would last.
Airfields in Diego Garcia and
Andersen Air Force Base on Guam
are key hubs in the Air Force’s ef-
fort to maintain a bomber pres-
ence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The bomber missions demon-
strate America’s commitment to
allies and partners through the
employment of military force, the
Air Force said.
Sorties flown during the deploy-
ment support differing objectives
of geographic combatant com-
mand and training requirements.
The task force missions are an
“opportunity to showcase the un-
matched range, speed and lethal-
ity of the B-1,” Lt. Col. Ross Hobbs,
37th Bomb Squadron director of
operations, said in the news re-
lease.
“It’s been over 15 years since
B-1s have operated out of this loca-
tion and the 37th Bomb Squadron
is beyond proud to be back,” he
said. “We are extremely grateful
for the opportunity and well pre-
Former inhabitants have sought
to regain control of their former
home, and in 2019 the Internation-
al Court of Justice in The Hague
ruled that the U.K. had not legally
separated Diego Garcia from
Mauritius in 1965.
The U.N. General Assembly
subsequently ordered the U.K. to
help resettle Mauritian nationals
to the island.
B-1 bombers deploy toisland of Diego Garcia
BY WYATT OLSON
Stars and Stripes
HANNAH MALONE/U.S. Air Force
Air Force Capt. Orr Genish, 37th Bomb Squadron weapons systems officer, watches a B1B Lancerbomber land at Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia on Sunday.
[email protected] Twitter: @WyattWOlson
MILITARY
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Ar-
my has closed an investigation into
the killing of a paratrooper from
California whose head was found
severed from his body, according to
Rep. Norma Torres, who is asking
the Pentagon’s inspector general to
examine whether the military’s
probe was flawed.
Enrique Roman-Martinez, 21, of
Chino, was stationed at Fort Bragg
in North Carolina when he went
missing in May 2020. Roman-Mar-
tinez had gone camping during the
Memorial Day weekend with seven
fellow soldiers on an island off the
North Carolina coast. His partial re-
mains later washed ashore near the
camp.
In a letter Tuesday to Sean
O’Donnell, acting inspector general
of the Defense Department, Torres,
D-Calif., said the Army “regretta-
bly” closed the investigation this
summer “with no justice for Ro-
man-Martinez or his family.” She
requested a “full and independent
examination of the response to and
investigation of Roman-Martinez’s
murder.”
“As we look forward to the holi-
day season, Spc. Roman-Martinez
should be with his family. He should
have been already discharged from
the military and settling into his new
life,” Torres wrote. “Instead, his
family has spent over 16 months
painfully waiting for justice with no
end in sight. During this time, the
family has lost all confidence in the
Army Criminal Investigation Com-
mand.”
An Army spokesperson said “we
welcome an outside view and will
follow-up on any investigative leads
that the IG identifies.”
In a phone interview, Torres
raised questions about the other sol-
diers on the camping trip, who wait-
ed 19 hours to report Roman-Marti-
nez missing.
“When they came across a park
ranger, who approached them be-
cause they were parked illegally on
the campground, that would’ve
been the time for them to say: ‘Hey,
there’s a soldier that’s missing. One
of the campers, one of our friends, is
missing,’ ” Torres said.
“But they didn’t say that,” she
said. “They didn’t say that because
they said they believed that he was
suicidal and they were afraid to
bring attention to that. Well, if he
was suicidal, I think that is the big-
ger reason to ask for help and to say
that your friend and colleague is
missing. But they didn’t do any of
that.”
Torres wants a review of how the
military communicated with the
family and addressed language bar-
riers; the Army’s treatment of any
people of interest; requirements for
soldiers to report a missing member
or co-worker; the timeline of the in-
vestigation; and whether the pace of
the probe was affected by any logis-
tical or jurisdictional hurdles.
Lawmaker urges new probe after Army closes slaying investigationLos Angeles Times
PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
worse than what we’re doing?”
Volunteers participating in the
study each go through all four
body composition assessments.
This includes the traditional tape
test, which uses a regular measur-
ing tape to calculate body fat per-
centages based on Army height
and weight tables. It measures
neck and abdomen circumference
in men and neck, waist and hips
circumference in women.
The other three tests use ma-
chines to gather masses of data
about a person’s body. They are:
Dual-energy x-ray absorp-
tiometry, or DXA, which is consid-
ered the medical industry’s “gold
standard” body composition as-
sessment, using low-energy x-ray
photos to determine the amount of
muscle, fat and bone within a hu-
man, according to the Army.
Bioelectrical impedance
analysis, or BIA, which uses low-
level electrical currents flowing at
different rates through the body to
produce body composition and
body water level data based on a
person’s size in a 60-second scan.
Three-dimensional body
scan, which examines a person’s
entire body surface using infrared
technology to collect some 2 mil-
lion pieces of data, including the
amount of muscle and fat a person
has within their body.
Grinston said Tuesday that it
was much too soon to make any re-
al guess if Army leaders will de-
cide to adopt any of the technolo-
gy-driven techniques or kill the
tape test. He defended the test as
cost-effective and generally accu-
rate for measuring a person’s
body fat percentage.
“Is this going to change any-
thing? I have no idea. Stay tuned,”
he said. “We’re literally on the sec-
ond day … [and] the ultimate goal
is to make us more healthy as indi-
vidual soldiers, so we’ll let the sci-
ence do the talking.
The study is meant to gather da-
ta to be used to determine much
more than whether to keep the
tape test, said Holly L. McClung, a
nutritional physiologist with USA-
RIEM helping lead the study. The
data gathered from soldiers via
the four tests — along with their
scores for Army fitness tests and
other health information — will
help scientists better understand
the relationship between body
makeup, health and performance,
she said. It comes as the Army
works to shift the service toward a
culture focused on holistic health,
which encompasses mental
health, nutrition and other well-
ness factors along with physical
training.
McClung said the study would
sample soldiers of all shapes and
sizes, races and ethnicities and it
would include at least one-third
women among those tested. She
said she hopes it will provide Ar-
my leaders with new insights into
the relationship between body
composition and certain injuries
such as knee and back problems
so pervasive among service mem-
bers. It could also provide new da-
ta about the recovery needed
among postpartum mothers.
“We’re really interested in look-
ing at what the time for recovery
impacts on their body composi-
tion, and does it have any link to
their birthing method,” McClung
said.
The study began at Fort Bragg,
and McClung expects to gather
most of the data needed from sol-
diers at the North Carolina post. It
will include assessment of active-
duty, National Guard and Army
Reserve soldiers, she said. The
study might add additional stops
later to collect further informa-
tion, McClung said.
Officials hope to gather prelimi-
nary data by December, but they
acknowledged it could be six to
nine months before their study is
completed and senior leaders can
decide what, if any, decisions to
make across the force.
Grinston said soldiers partici-
pating in the study told him Tues-
day that they appreciated the Ar-
my looking at body composition,
even if the service does not make
major changes to its policies.
“They said, ‘Even if you don’t
change it, at least you’re looking at
it, you’ve heard us. It’s something
we’re concerned about,’” he said.
“We’re talking about the health of
our soldiers here. And their
height, their weight and how
healthy and physically fit they are
matter for them as individuals and
for their units.”
The Army’s decades-old tape
test used to determine whether
soldiers meet body fat standards
could be on its way out when the
service gets the results of a new
body composition study launched
Monday at Fort Bragg, N.C., Army
officials said.
The study will compare data
gleaned from the roughly 30-year-
old tape test — officially known as
manual circumference measure-
ments — with information provid-
ed by three new technology-dri-
ven measurement techniques in
an effort to understand the rela-
tionship between soldiers’ size
and composition and their health,
service officials said. The Army’s
Center for Initial Military Train-
ing and its Research Institute of
Environmental Medicine, known
as USARIEM, are leading the
study that will gather data from
about 1,500 soldiers at Fort Bragg
through Oct. 29.
“The [study] really came from
an outpouring of soldiers at just
about every stop I’ve had who
want to know about the [Army
Combat Fitness Test], and then
they want to know if we’re going to
do something about height and
weight standards,” said Sgt. Maj.
of the Army Michael Grinston, the
Army’s top enlisted soldier who
visited Fort Bragg on Tuesday to
observe the study. “The rationale
was — it was time to look at it, and
[consider] … what technology do
we have today that didn’t exist 30
years ago? There’s a lot of new
technology … but, is it better or
Army’s tape testmight be replacedby new technology
BY COREY DICKSTEIN
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @CDicksteinDC
LILLIANA FRASER/49th Public Affairs Detachment
A soldier receives a dualenergy xray absorptiometry scan at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Monday.
Space Command, which operat-
ed from 1985 to 2002, was reestab-
lished in 2019 just months before
the newest military service
branch, Space Force, was found-
ed. It is a joint, combatant com-
mand that oversees the military’s
various space-based infrastruc-
ture and operations.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.,
has joined in the effort to review
the decision, which has since been
called politically motivated.
Trump was elected as a Republi-
can, and Alabama is traditionally
a stronghold for the party.
The lawmakers’ requests to re-
view the decision were accepted
by the Government Accountabili-
ty Office and the Defense Depart-
ment inspector general. Both of-
Two reviews into the Air
Force’s decision to move U.S.
Space Command from Colorado to
Alabama should be out by spring
2022, but Colorado lawmakers are
asking for the investigations to be
expedited before taxpayer money
is spent on the relocation.
Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep.
Jason Crow, both D-Colo., told re-
porters Monday that moving
Space Command would jeopar-
dize national security because of
the buildup of resources and per-
sonnel already at bases in their
state.
“It is the nexus of national secu-
rity space operations for the intel-
ligence community and the De-
partment of Defense, and it’s why,
from a national security perspec-
tive, Colorado is the most strategic
choice by far for U.S. Space Com-
mand,” Bennet said after he and
Crow visited several military
bases across Colorado.
Peterson Space Force Base in
Colorado is also home to North
American Aerospace Defense
Command, or NORAD, and U.S.
Northern Command.
Former Air Force Secretary
Barbara Barrett announced in Ja-
nuary — as former President Do-
nald Trump’s time in office waned
— the decision to move Space
Command from its temporary
headquarters at Peterson to a per-
manent home at Redstone Arsenal
in Alabama.
fices said the reviews are ongoing.
GAO officials confirmed the agen-
cy’s report is scheduled to be com-
pleted by spring, and they said
they continue to keep lawmakers
informed of their progress.
Crow and Lamborn also had an
amendment added to the House
version of the 2022 National De-
fense Authorization Act that
would postpone any efforts to
move Space Command until the
two reviews are complete. The
Senate has yet to pass its draft of
the NDAA, which is annual legis-
lation that creates a budget and
updates policies for the Defense
Department.
Lawmakers push to hold Space Command move until investigations endBY ROSE L. THAYER
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @Rose_Lori
Office of Rep. Jason Crow
From right, Rep. Doug Lamborn,RColo., Rep. Jason Crow andSen. Michael Bennet, bothDColo., speak outside ofPeterson Space Force Base,Colo., on Thursday after touringthe base and meeting withofficials.
MILITARY
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5
MILITARY
A pair of Russian fighter jets intercepted
four U.S. military planes in international
airspace over the Black Sea, the Kremlin
said Wednesday.
Two U.S. B-1 bombers and two KC-135
tanker refueling planes were intercepted
Tuesday, Russian officials said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the
two Su-30 fighters had been scrambled to
“prevent a violation of Russia’s state bor-
der.”
The encounter, which appears to have oc-
curred without incident, happened amid
NATO’s annual deterrence exercise Stead-
fast Noon, taking place this week all across
southern Europe.
Aircraft from 14 NATO countries, includ-
ing the U.S., are taking part in the drill.
The U.S. B-1B Lancers operating in the
Black Sea are from Dyess Air Force Base in
Texas and have been carrying out missions
across Europe as part of a bomber task
force rotation.
The U.S. military regularly flies in inter-
national airspace over the Black Sea, and
encounters with Russian aircraft have be-
come commonplace.
While most intercepts occur without in-
cident, the U.S. has cited instances in recent
years of Russian planes flying too close to
American aircraft or buzzing Navy ships on
patrol.
The Black Sea has been a focal point this
week for the Pentagon.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is tour-
ing the region, making stops in Georgia, Uk-
raine and Romania.
On Thursday, Austin will attend a NATO
defense ministers meeting at alliance head-
quarters in Brussels.
RussiansinterceptUS planes
Russian Defence Ministry
A U.S. Air Force KC135 Stratotanker refuels a B1B Lancer in flight Tuesday over the Black Sea. This still image from video wasrecorded by Russian crew members aboard a Sukhoi Su30 fighter jet, which mobilized in response to the U.S. flights overinternational waters.
Encounter reported inairspace over Black Sea
Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — A Maryland
couple arrested earlier this
month on charges of trying to sell
information about nuclear-pow-
ered warships to a foreign coun-
try have been indicted, the Jus-
tice Department said Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors say Jo-
nathan and Diana Toebbe are
each charged with one count of
conspiracy to communicate re-
stricted data and two counts of
communication of restricted da-
ta.
They were arrested in West
Virginia on Oct. 9 and charged in
a criminal complaint with viola-
tions of the Atomic Energy Act.
The couple was due in federal
court Wednesday for a detention
hearing.
Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nu-
clear engineer, is accused of try-
ing to pass information about the
design of submarines to someone
he thought was a representative
of a foreign government but who
was actually an undercover FBI
agent. Court documents do not
reveal the identity of the foreign
country he is accused of trying to
sell the information to.
Prosecutors say Diana Toebbe
accompanied her husband on
several instances to pre-arranged
“dead-drop” locations at which
he left behind memory cards con-
taining the sensitive information.
West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority
Jonathan and Diana Toebbe were indicted Tuesday.
Md. coupleindicted inattempt tosell data
Associated Press
An Army reservist charged in
the Justice Department’s sweep-
ing investigation of the U.S. Capi-
tol riot was quietly demoted and
discharged earlier this year, be-
coming the first known service
member to be forced out of the
military after officials learned of
an alleged involvement in the Jan.
6 insurrection, according to per-
sonnel records reviewed by The
Washington Post and the former
soldier’s attorney.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 31,
was an Army sergeant working
part-time as a human resources
soldier until May, records show.
In June, he was demoted to pri-
vate and given an other-than-hon-
orable discharge, terminating a
12-year military career, said his
attorney Jonathan Crisp.
Crisp called the punitive dis-
charge, which severely limits ben-
efits and resources otherwise
available to military veterans,
“improper” because, he said, it
was delivered while Hale-Cusa-
nelli was incarcerated and be-
cause any comments made in the
former soldier’s defense could vi-
olate his 5th Amendment rights in
the federal case.
“This was a knee-jerk reaction
to the charges,” the attorney said,
adding that he intends to help
Hale-Cusanelli fight the Army’s
decision and have him reinstated.
Army officials declined to com-
ment on Hale-Cusanelli’s dis-
charge, citing privacy laws.
Hale-Cusanelli, whom federal
authorities have accused of ille-
gally entering the Capitol and ha-
rassing police officers, is one of at
least six service members
charged in connection with the
riot. Another, Marine Corps Maj.
Christopher Warnagiris, also
faced a military administrative
proceeding recently, the outcome
of which is pending, officials said.
Authorities have accused Warna-
giris of assaulting police and lead-
ing rioters into the Capitol build-
ing.
Both men have pleaded not
guilty.
At the time of his arrest, Hale-
Cusanelli, who remains in federal
custody, according to the Justice
Department, was employed as a
civilian security contractor at Na-
val Weapons Station Earle in New
Jersey and held a secret security
clearance, prosecutors said in a
March court filing. Navy investi-
gators interviewed 44 of his col-
leagues, including Navy person-
nel and fellow security contrac-
tors, about his behavior at work.
All but 10 described Hale-Cusa-
nelli as “having extremist or rad-
ical views pertaining to the Jewish
people, minorities and women,”
prosecutors said.
Several colleagues told investi-
gators about his wearing of a “Hit-
ler mustache” while at work, court
papers show.
Soldier with ‘Hitlermustache’ dischargedafter riot charges
BY ALEX HORTON
The Washington Post
“Future conflicts will be fought
not just with bullets and bombs
but also with bytes and big da-
ta.”
The alliance’s artificial intelli-
gence strategy will integrate ar-
eas such as data analysis, imag-
ery and cyberdefense, he said.
During the past couple of
years, NATO has expanded be-
yond its traditional focus of land,
sea and air operations to adapt to
a more complicated security en-
vironment.
Last year, it established a new
center at Ramstein Air Base’s
Allied Air Command to coordi-
nate efforts in space, which was
declared a new domain of mili-
tary operation for the alliance.
And in 2017, allies also added
cyber as a military domain.
In Brussels, ministers also
will discuss military efforts to
deter potential Russian aggres-
sion as well as the overall state
of relations with Moscow, which
Stoltenberg said are at their low-
est point since the Cold War.
Earlier this week, Russia an-
nounced it was closing its diplo-
matic mission to NATO in retal-
iation for the expulsion of eight
members of that entourage who
NATO accused of being intelli-
gence operatives.
Still, Stoltenberg said, NATO
remains open to the possibili-
ty of dialogue with Moscow.
Calling Russia NATO’s big-
gest neighbor, Stoltenberg said
“there is no way you cannot talk
to them.”
NATO: Move integrates several key defense areasFROM PAGE 1
[email protected]: @john_vandiver
PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
how to use it. The report was ex-
pected to be released Wednesday.
U.S. Navy officials on Tuesday
said that while crews at sea consis-
tently meet high firefighting stan-
dards, those skills drop off when
ships move into maintenance peri-
ods. The Bonhomme Richard was
undergoing maintenance at the
time of the fire.
During maintenence there are
more people and organizations in-
volved with the ship, including
contractors. And the repairs often
involve equipment and chemicals
that present different hazards and
challenges.
The report describes a ship in
disarray, with combustible mate-
rials scattered and stored impro-
perly. It said maintenance reports
were falsified, and that 87% of the
fire stations on board had equip-
ment problems or had not been in-
spected.
It also found that crew members
didn’t ring the bells to alert sailors
of a fire until 10 minutes after it
was discovered. Those crucial
minutes, the report said, caused
delays in crews donning fire gear,
assembling hose teams and re-
sponding to the fire.
Sailors also failed to push the
button and activate the firefight-
ing foam system, even though it
was accessible and could have
slowed the fire’s progress. “No
member of the crew interviewed
considered this action or had spe-
cific knowledge as to the location
of the button or its function,” the
report said.
The report spreads blame
across a wide range of ranks and
responsibilities, from the now re-
tired three-star admiral who
headed Naval Surface Force Pa-
cific Fleet — Vice Adm. Richard
Brown — to senior commanders,
lower ranking sailors and civilian
program managers. Seventeen
were cited for failures that “di-
rectly” led to the loss of the ship,
while 17 others “contributed” to
the loss of the ship. Two other sail-
ors were faulted for not effectively
helping the fire response. Of the
36, nine are civilians.
Adm. William Lescher, the vice
chief of naval operations, has des-
ignated the commander of U.S.
Pacific Fleet to handle any disci-
plinary actions for military mem-
bers. The Navy officials said the
disciplinary process is just begin-
ning. One official said the key
challenge in making improve-
ments will be addressing the “hu-
man factor,” including leadership
skills and ensuring that everyone
down to the lowest ranking sailors
understands their responsibili-
ties, and can recognize problems
and correct them.
The officials spoke on condition
of anonymity to discuss the report
ahead of its public release.
Specifically, the report said fail-
ures of Vice Adm. Brown; Rear
Adm. Scott Brown, the fleet main-
tenance officer for the Pacific
Fleet; Rear Adm. William Greene,
the fleet maintenance officer for
U.S. Fleet Forces Command;
Rear. Adm. Eric Ver Hage, com-
mander of the regional mainte-
nance center; Rear Adm. Bette
Bolivar, commander of Navy Re-
gion Southwest; Capt. Mark Nies-
wiadomy, commander of Naval
Base San Diego; and Capt. Tony
Rodriguez, commander of Am-
phibious Squadron 5, all “contrib-
uted to the loss of the ship.”
The report also directly faults
the ship’s three top officers —
Capt. Gregory Thoroman, the
commanding officer; Capt. Mi-
chael Ray, the executive officer;
and Command Master Chief Jose
Hernandez — for not effectively
ensuring the readiness and condi-
tion of the ship.
“The execution of his duties cre-
ated an environment of poor train-
ing, maintenance and operational
standards that directly led to the
loss of the ship,” the report said of
Thoroman. And it said Ray, Her-
nandez and Capt. David Hart,
commander of the Southwest Re-
gional Maintenance Center, also
failed in their responsibilities,
which directly led to the loss of the
ship.
The report only provides names
for senior naval officers. Others
were described solely by their job
or rank.
More broadly, the crew was
slammed for “a pattern of failed
drills, minimal crew participation,
an absence of basic knowledge on
firefighting” and an inability to co-
ordinate with civilian firefighters.
“The loss of the USS Bonhomme
Richard was a completely avoida-
ble catastrophe,” said U.S. Rep.
John Garamendi, D-Calif., chair-
man of the House Armed Services
readiness subcommittee. He said
he read the report “with shock and
anger,” and will look into the mat-
ter carefully to “determine the full
extent of the negligence and com-
placency that occurred.”
The ship was undergoing a two-
year, $250 million upgrade pier-
side in San Diego when the fire
broke out. About 115 sailors were
on board, and nearly 60 were
treated for heat exhaustion,
smoke inhalation and minor inju-
ries. The failure to extinguish or
contain the fire led to temper-
atures exceeding 1,200 degrees
Fahrenheit in some areas, melting
sections of the ship into molten
metal that flowed into other parts
of the ship.
Due to the damage, the Navy de-
commissioned the ship in April. In
August, Seaman Apprentice Ryan
Mays was charged with aggravat-
ed arson and the willful hazarding
of a vessel. He has denied setting
the fire.
The blaze began in the lower
storage area, which Mays’ duty
station had access to, according to
a court document. Investigators
found three of four fire stations on
the ship had evidence of tamper-
ing, including disconnected fire-
hoses, and flammable liquid was
found near the ignition site.
Efforts to put out the fire were
hampered because the ship’s crew
and other outside fire response
departments and organizations
were not coordinated, couldn’t
communicate effectively, hadn’t
exercised together and weren’t
well trained, the report said.
The report, written by Vice
Adm. Scott Conn, included a num-
ber of recommended changes and
improvements that have been en-
dorsed by Lescher. The Navy set
up a new fire safety assessment
program that conducts random in-
spections, and has taken steps to
increase training. Nearly 170 of
those inspections have already
been done, and officials said they
are finding good results.
The Navy also conducted a his-
torical study, looking closely at 15
shipyard fires over the last 12
years. It found recurring trends
including failures to comply with
fire prevention, detection and re-
sponse policies.
As a result, Navy leaders are ex-
panding the staffing and respon-
sibilities of the Naval Safety Cen-
ter to perform audits and unan-
nounced assessments of Navy
units. The final costs are still being
calculated.
Report:Failures byadmiralsoutlined FROM PAGE 1 DENIS POROY/AP
Smoke rises from the USS Bonhomme Richard in July 2020 after anexplosion and fire aboard the ship at Naval Base San Diego.
MILITARY
An Army veteran who was
wounded in Iraq is accused of
fraudulently receiving over $1
million in federal benefits after
claiming for more than a decade
that he was paralyzed.
William Rich, of Windsor Mill,
Md., was injured in a 2005 bomb
blast in Baqouba, Iraq. In 2007, he
convinced a Department of Veter-
ans Affairs doctor that he was a
paraplegic as a result, earning a
100% disability rating, authorities
said last week.
It wasn’t until 2018 that the VA
Inspector General launched an in-
vestigation after learning of un-
specified conduct that conflicted
with his disability rating, court re-
cords show.
Rich appeared in U.S. District
Court in Baltimore on Oct. 13 and
was ordered to be released pend-
ing trial.
If convicted, he faces up to 20
years in prison on a wire fraud
charge and 10 years on a charge of
theft of government property, the
Justice Department said.
Over two years, investigators
recorded him performing a range
of movements without the aid of a
medical device, court documents
state. The only time they saw him
using a wheelchair was when he
was going to or from VA medical
appointments, according to a
search warrant application.
Records were unsealed Oct. 12,
after Rich’s arrest, a Justice De-
partment statement released last
week said. Authorities say he re-
ceived more than $800,000 from
the VA and over $240,000 from the
Social Security Administration.
The VA assistance Rich re-
ceived included money for a vehi-
cle and adaptive equipment,
which prosecutors say he used to
buy a BMW 645ci.
The two-door luxury sports
coupe “is not readily adaptable to
the use of a paraplegic person,”
agent Brian J. Maddox of the IG
office wrote in an affidavit.
Rich totaled that car, but Mad-
dox sought warrants to search his
two other vehicles and his home
on suspicion that investigators
would find that all of them lacked
the modifications a paraplegic
would need.
Rich’s Instagram page indicat-
ed that he owned an extensive
gym, and two videos on his social
media accounts appear to show
him standing and lifting weights,
court documents state.
A photo he took of himself in a
gym mirror was posted on his In-
stagram page in 2016 with the cap-
tion “Lol lift or leave.”
Rich’s discharge paperwork
says he served in the Army from
September 1998 to February 2007,
court records state. He was in-
jured on Aug. 23, 2005, but his
medical records say an MRI the
following day showed no spinal
cord impingement or abnormali-
ties, the document says.
Less than two months later, he’d
begun to recover and his legs were
no longer paralyzed, said docu-
mentation in his medical history,
according to investigators.
In late 2006, a rehab nurse re-
corded his ability to do all essen-
tial daily activities, like going to
the bathroom and moving around
without anyone’s help, investiga-
tors said.
Yet in October 2007, a physician
documented him as being paralyz-
ed in both legs and “confined to a
wheelchair,” having neither the
ability to stand or walk “even with
maximal assistance” nor control
his bowels or bladder, court re-
cords say.
The physician did not order X-
rays to confirm the condition be-
cause he “did not feel that it was
worth the trauma of manipulating
him around,” the affidavit quotes
the records as stating.
The doctor did not have access
to Rich’s full medical history with
the earlier report of his recovery,
it says.
His 100% permanent disability
rating was based on that exam,
and he was given special monthly
compensation for paraplegia and
allowances for a caregiver, the
Justice Department said.
Rich was assigned a federal
public defender, who did not im-
mediately return a request for
comment.
Prosecutors: Vetgot over $1M byfaking paralysis
BY CHAD GARLAND
Stars and Stripes
U.S. District Court Maryland
Federal prosecutors say WilliamRich, shown here in a gym selfie,falsely claimed to be a paraplegic.
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7
VIRUS OUTBREAK
MOSCOW — Russian President
Vladimir Putin on Wednesday
backed the Cabinet’s proposal to
declare a non-working week and
keep Russian workers away from
their offices as coronavirus deaths
surged to another daily record.
The government task force on
Wednesday reported 1,028 coro-
navirus deaths over the past 24
hours, the highest number since
the start of the pandemic. That
brought Russia’s total death toll to
226,353, which is by far the high-
est in Europe.
Putin said Wednesday that he
supports the Cabinet’s proposal to
introduce a nonworking period
starting Oct. 30 and extending
through the following week, when
four of seven days are already
state holidays. He added that in
some regions where the situation
is the most threatening, the non-
working period could start as
early as Saturday.
In some regions, mounting in-
fections forced authorities to sus-
pend medical assistance to the
population as health care facilities
were forced to focus on treating
coronavirus patients.
Russia’s daily coronavirus mor-
tality numbers have been surging
for weeks and topped 1,000 for the
first time over the weekend amid
sluggish vaccination rates, lax
public attitudes toward taking
precautions and the government’s
reluctance to toughen restrictions.
About 45 million Russians, or
32% of the country’s nearly 146
million people, are fully vaccinat-
ed.
Even though Russia in August
2020 became the first country of
the world to authorize a coronavi-
rus vaccine and vaccines are plen-
tiful, Russians have shown hesi-
tancy about getting the shots, a
skepticism blamed on conflicting
signals sent by authorities.
While extolling Sputnik V and
three other domestic vaccines,
state-controlled media were often
critical of Western-made shots, a
controversial message that many
saw as feeding public doubts
about vaccines in general.
Until now, the Kremlin has
ruled out a new nationwide lock-
down like the one early on in the
pandemic that dealt a heavy blow
to the economy and sapped Putin’s
popularity, empowering regional
authorities across the country’s 11
time zones to decide on local re-
strictions, depending on their sit-
uation.
Many of Russia’s 85 regions
have already restricted attend-
ance at large public events and
limited access to theaters, restau-
rants and other venues. Some
have made vaccinations compul-
sory for certain public servants
and people over 60.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov admitted that the situation
is “very sad,” noting that the level
of vaccination in those regions
was particularly low.
ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/AP
Medics wearing special suits to protect against the coronavirus prepare to move a COVID patient at an ICUat the Moscow City Clinical Hospital 52 on Tuesday.
Putin keeps Russian workers homefor a week as deaths keep soaring
BY VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press
tive: 10 service members, three De-
fense Department civilian employ-
ees, one contractor and two family
members at Camp Humphreys;
two service members at Osan Air
Base; and one South Korean civil-
ian employee at Yongsan Garrison
in Seoul.
Contact tracing turned up anoth-
er 10: four service members, two
family members and two South Ko-
rean contractors at Humphreys;
and one DOD employee and a fam-
ily member at Daegu Garrison.
Surveillance testing discovered
U.S. Forces Korea put four dis-
tricts in Seoul and three in adjacent
Gyeonggi province off-limits fol-
lowing a rise in COVID-19 cases
there, according to an announce-
ment Wednesday.
Only mission-essential visits are
permitted to the Jongno, Yeo-
ngdeungpo, Guro and Geumcheon
districts in Seoul and the Gwache-
on, Dongducheon and Ansan dis-
tricts in Gyeonggi, according to
USFK’s weekly travel restrictions
update. The command placed 10
districts off-limits Wednesday.
The Jongno district includes the
U.S. Embassy, Seoul City Hall and
the presidential Blue House. Camp
Humphreys, the headquarters for
USFK and the U.N. Command, and
Osan Air Base are in Gyeonggi
province.
Individuals who live in so-called
red districts may conduct routine
business but should minimize their
activities to avoid contracting or
spreading the virus, according to
USFK.
Of 1,556 new COVID-19 cases in
South Korea on Tuesday, Seoul ac-
counted for 501, an increase of
about 200 over previous days, ac-
cording to the Korean Center for
Disease Control and Prevention
Agency update Wednesday. Gye-
onggi reported 582.
Also Wednesday, USFK report-
ed 32 locally generated cases of CO-
VID-19 in the week ending Oct. 16,
according to a news release.
Nineteen people developed
symptoms of the coronavirus respi-
ratory disease before testing posi-
two on Oct. 14: a service member at
Humphreys and a contractor at
Yongsan.
Finally, a service member at
Humphreys tested positive Oct. 12
before departing the peninsula on
an international flight.
KDCA reported that 79% of
South Korea’s population has re-
ceived the first of a two-shot dose of
a COVID-19 vaccine; 66.7% are ful-
ly vaccinated.
US military places central Seoul off-limits because of case increaseBY JOSEPH DITZLER
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @JosephDitzler
A senior Senate Republican’s
call for a suspension of mandatory
coronavirus vaccines for U.S.
troops and Pentagon civilians
could fuel partisan divisions over
the pandemic and add a defense
element to the debate.
Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklaho-
ma, the top Republican on the
Armed Services Committee, in a
letter Monday to Defense Secreta-
ry Lloyd J. Austin III called the
Pentagon’s vaccine mandates
“haphazardly implemented and
politically motivated.”
Inhofe said they “risk irrevoca-
ble damage to our national securi-
ty,” which he said would be greater
“than any external threat.” He re-
quested answers from Austin on
the mandates’ costs and impact on
readiness.
Some Democrats on the Armed
Services Committees, however,
are outraged by Inhofe’s letter.
These lawmakers, in statements
to CQ Roll Call, noted that U.S.
troops must be up to date on a varie-
ty of vaccinations, from chicken-
pox to measles, and may have to get
additional jabs depending on
where they are deployed.
“There are already 17 vaccines
that are mandatory for all service-
members,” said Sen. Kirsten Gilli-
brand, D-N.Y., the chair of the
Armed Services Personnel Sub-
committee. “This is a military
readiness issue — the COVID vac-
cine will keep our troops healthier,
safer and ready to fight when
called upon.”
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.,
chair of the Armed Services Mili-
tary Personnel Subcommittee, ex-
pressed a similar view.
“The COVID-19 outbreak
aboard the USS Theodore Roose-
velt last year, which saw over 1,200
sailors infected and one killed,
should serve as a grave reminder
for anyone trying to make vaccine
requirements a political football,”
Speier said. “The cost of doing so
will be paid in wasted dollars and
the lives of our brave servicemem-
bers.”
Under new Defense Department
and federal government direc-
tives, a coronavirus vaccination is
mandatory for not only service-
members but also Defense Depart-
ment civilians and contractors, ex-
cept for those with religious or
medical exemptions. Except for
Army National Guard and Army
Reserve soldiers, all the shots must
occur by the end of this year.
The pending National Defense
Authorization Act bills do not cur-
rently address whether to force the
Pentagon to either drop or main-
tain its mandates. But as the vacci-
nation deadlines near and political
passions rise, lawmakers could still
debate whether to include a direc-
tive in the final law.
The House has passed its NDAA,
but the Senate has yet to debate its
Armed Services Committee mea-
sure. As a result, House and Senate
negotiators are still weeks away
from writing a final version.
The House-passed NDAA does
indirectly address the coronavirus
vaccine mandate. It would forbid
the Pentagon from dishonorably
discharging troops who decline to
be vaccinated. The Navy, for one,
has said it does not plan to make
any separations from service other
than honorable ones if a sailor re-
fuses to be vaccinated.
The House NDAA would also ex-
empt from the vaccine require-
ment those who have been previ-
ously infected with the virus. Such
an allowance does not appear to be
part of any Defense Department
guidance.
GOP senator calls
for halt to DOD’s
vaccine mandateBY JOHN M. DONNELLY
CQ-Roll Call
PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
NATION
WASHINGTON — Children
age 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a
COVID-19 shot at their pediatri-
cian's office, local pharmacy and
potentially even their school, the
White House said Wednesday as it
detailed plans for the expected
authorization of the Pfizer shot for
younger children in a matter of
weeks.
Federal regulators will meet
over the next two weeks to weigh
the benefits of giving shots to kids,
after lengthy studies meant to en-
sure the safety of the vaccines.
Within hours of formal approv-
al, expected after the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
advisory meeting scheduled for
Nov. 2-3, doses will begin shipping
to providers across the country,
along with smaller needles neces-
sary for injecting young kids, and
within days will be ready to go into
the arms of kids on a wide scale.
“We’re completing the oper-
ational planning to ensure vacci-
nations for kids ages 5-11 are
available, easy and convenient,”
said White House COVID-19 coor-
dinator Jeff Zients on Wednesday.
The Biden administration notes
the nationwide campaign to ex-
tend the protection of vaccination
to the school-going cohort will not
look like the start of the country's
vaccine rollout 10 months ago,
when scarcity of doses and capac-
ity issues meant a painstaking
wait for many Americans.
The country now has ample
supplies of the Pfizer shot to vac-
cinate the roughly 28 million kids
who will soon be eligible, White
House officials said, and have
been working for months to en-
sure widespread availability of
shots once approved.
More than 25,000 pediatricians
and primary care providers have
already signed on to administer
COVID-19 vaccine shots to kids,
the White House said, in addition
to the tens of thousands of retail
pharmacies that are already ad-
ministering shots to adults.
Hundreds of school- and com-
munity-based clinics will also be
funded and supported by the Fed-
eral Emergency Management
Agency to help speed putting
shots into arms.
The White House is also pre-
paring to mobilize a stepped-up
campaign to educate parents and
kids about the safety of the shots
and the ease of getting them.
As has been the case for adult
vaccinations, the administration
believes trusted messengers —
educators, doctors and communi-
ty leaders — will be vital to encou-
raging vaccinations.
While children are at lower risk
than older people of having seri-
ous side effects from COVID-19,
those serious consequences do oc-
cur — and officials note that vac-
cination both dramatically reduc-
es those chances and will reduce
the spread of the more transmis-
sible delta variant in communi-
ties, contributing to the nation's
broader recovery from the pan-
demic.
The U.S. has purchased 65 mil-
lion doses of the Pfizer pediatric
shot — expected to be one third
the dosage for adults and adoles-
cents — according to officials,
more than enough for every kid in
the age group.
They will ship in smaller pack-
ages of about 100 doses each, so
that more providers can deliver
them, and they can be stored for
up to 10 weeks at standard refrig-
eration temperatures.
About 219 million Americans
aged 12 and up, or 66% of the total
population, have received a CO-
VID-19 shot and nearly 190 mil-
lion are fully vaccinated.
US lays out plan to vaccinate childrenBY ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
BROOKSHIRE, Texas — A plane
taking passengers from Texas to the
American League Championship Se-
ries game in Boston burst into flames
after it ran off a runway during take-
off Tuesday morning, but no one was
seriously hurt, authorities said.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-87
was carrying 21 people when it rolled
through a fence and caught fire at the
Houston Executive Airport in
Brookshire, the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration said.
Everyone made it off the plane safe-
ly and the only reported injury was a
passenger with back pain, Waller
County Judge Trey Duhon said on
Facebook.
Duhon, who is the highest elected
official in the county, told reporters
that the group was headed to see
Game 4 of the ALCS between the
Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox
on Tuesday night.
Cheryl McCaskill, who lives in the
Houston suburb of Cypress, was
aboard the plane.
She told the Houston Chronicle that
she felt “shaky and shocked” after
running from the burning jet in her
Astros jersey.
“When it finally stopped, everyone
went ‘get out, get out, get out.’ We
jumped out on that inflatable thing
and then everyone went ‘get away,’”
McCaskill said.
The FAA and National Transporta-
tion Safety Board will investigate.
NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway
said a team of agency investigators
would likely examine the aircraft's
flight data recorder.
The aircraft is registered to a Hous-
ton-area investment firm.
KTRK/ AP
Firefighters work to put out a fire after a plane taking passengers from Texas to the American League ChampionshipSeries game in Boston burst into flames after it ran off a runway during takeoff Tuesday in Brookshire, Texas. No one wasseriously hurt, authorities said.
Passengers race to safety afterplane bursts into flames in Texas
Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Nikolas Cruz plead-
ed guilty to murder on Wednesday in the 2018 high
school massacre in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead.
Cruz, 23, entered his pleas in a courtroom hearing
attended by a dozen relatives of victims after answer-
ing a long list of questions from Cir-
cuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer aimed
at confirming his mental competen-
cy. He was charged with 17 counts
of murder and 17 counts of attempt-
ed first-degree murder for those
wounded in the Feb. 14, 2018, attack
at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School in Parkland, located just out-
side Fort Lauderdale.
A penalty trial will determine if Cruz will receive a
sentence of death or life in prison without parole.
Scherer plans to begin screening jurors next month
in hopes testimony can begin in January.
As several parents shook their heads, Cruz apol-
ogized, saying, “I’m very sorry for what I did. ... I
can’t live with myself sometimes.” He also added that
he wished it was up to the survivors to determine
whether he lived or died.
Several parents and other relatives of victims
broke down in tears while listening to the court pro-
ceedings via a Zoom call.
The guilty pleas will set the stage for a penalty trial
in which 12 jurors will determine whether Cruz
should be sentenced to death or life in prison without
parole.
Following the pleas, Broward State Attorney Mike
Satz recounted the details of the murders. Cruz killed
the 14 students and three staff members on Valen-
tine’s Day 2018 during a seven-minute rampage
through a three-story building at Stoneman Douglas,
investigators said.
They said he shot victims in the hallways and in
classrooms with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
Cruz had been expelled from Stoneman Douglas a
year earlier after a history of threatening, frighten-
ing, unusual and sometimes violent behavior that
dated back to preschool.
The shootings caused some Stoneman Douglas stu-
dents to launch the March for Our Lives movement,
which pushes for stronger gun restrictions national-
ly.
Parkland shooterpleads guilty inschool massacre
Associated Press
Cruz
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9
NATION
OMAHA, Neb. — A federal
grand jury on Tuesday indicted
U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Ne-
braska, accusing him of lying to
the FBI and concealing informa-
tion from federal agents who were
investigating campaign contribu-
tions funneled to him from a Ni-
gerian billionaire.
The U.S. attorney’s office an-
nounced that the grand jury in Los
Angeles had indicted the nine-
term Republican on one charge of
scheming to falsify and conceal
material facts and two counts of
making false
statements to
federal investi-
gators. Forten-
berry is expect-
ed to appear for
an arraignment
Wednesday af-
ternoon in feder-
al court in Los Angeles.
The indictment stems from an
FBI investigation into $180,000 in
illegal campaign contributions
from Gilbert Chagoury, a Niger-
ian billionaire of Lebanese de-
scent.
The contributions were fun-
neled through a group of Califor-
nians from 2012 through 2016 and
went to four U.S. politicians, in-
cluding $30,200 to Fortenberry in
2016. Using an analysis of federal
election records, Politico has iden-
tified the other three Republican
recipients as former U.S. Rep. Lee
Terry, of Nebraska, in 2014; Rep.
Darrell Issa, of California, in 2014;
and Mitt Romney during his 2012
presidential campaign.
Federal authorities haven’t al-
leged that any of the other three
campaigns or candidates were
aware that the donations originat-
ed with Chagoury.
Chagoury, who lives in Paris,
admitted to the crime in 2019,
agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine
and is cooperating with federal
authorities. Prosecutors have said
Chagoury made some of the illegal
contributions to politicians from
smaller states because he thought
the amounts would be more no-
ticeable and give him better ac-
cess. He also drew attention years
ago for giving more than $1 million
to the Clinton Foundation.
The indictment alleges that a
co-host of the 2016 fundraiser in
Los Angeles told Fortenberry that
the donations probably did come
from Chagoury, but Fortenberry
never filed an amended campaign
report with the Federal Election
Commission as required. It says
he later “made false and mislead-
ing statements” to federal investi-
gators during a March 23, 2019, in-
terview at his home in Lincoln.
According to the indictment,
Fortenberry falsely told investiga-
tors he wasn’t aware of an associ-
ate of Chagoury being involved in
illegal contributions. He also al-
legedly said that his donors were
publicly disclosed and he wasn’t
aware of any contributions from a
foreign national, which is illegal.
Indictment accuses Nebraska congressman of lying to FBIBY GRANT SCHULTE
Associated Press
Fortenberry
WASHINGTON — Scaling
down his “build back better”
plans, President Joe Biden has
described a more limited vision to
Democratic lawmakers of a $2
trillion government-overhaul
package with at least $500 billion
to tackle climate change and mon-
ey for middle-class priorities —
child tax credits, paid family
leave, health care and free pre-
kindergarten.
He expects negotiations to
wrap up as soon as this week.
The president met privately in-
to the evening Tuesday with near-
ly 20 centrist and progressive
lawmakers in separate groups as
Democrats appeared ready to
abandon what had been a loftier
$3.5 trillion package for a smaller,
more workable proposal that can
unite the party and win passage in
the closely divided Congress.
Likely to be eliminated or seri-
ously shaved back: plans for tui-
tion-free community colleges, a
path to legal status for immi-
grants who are in the United
States without documentation and
a specific clean energy plan that
was the centerpiece of Biden’s
strategy for fighting climate
change.
The details were shared by
those familiar with the conversa-
tion and granted anonymity to
discuss the private meetings.
Biden felt “more confident” af-
ter the day of meetings, said press
secretary Jen Psaki.
“There was broad agreement
that there is urgency in moving
forward over the next several
days and that the window for fina-
lizing a package is closing,” she
said.
After months of fits and starts,
Democrats are growing anxious
they have little to show voters de-
spite their campaign promises.
Biden’s ideas are all to be funded
by tax hikes on corporations and
the wealthiest individuals — those
earning more than $400,000 a
year.
A key holdout on Biden’s pro-
posals, conservative Sen. Joe
Manchin from coal-state West
Virginia, has made clear he op-
poses the president’s initial Clean
Energy Performance Plan. The
plan would have the government
impose penalties on electric util-
ities that fail to meet clean energy
benchmarks and provide finan-
cial rewards to those that do — in
line with Biden’s goal of achieving
80% “clean electricity” by 2030.
Instead, Biden focused in his
Tuesday meetings on providing at
least $500 billion in tax credits,
grants and loans to fight climate
change, much of it likely coming
from a package compiled by Sen.
Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman
of the the Finance Committee.
Those include the tax breaks for
energy producers that reach
emission-reduction goals.
SUSAN WALSH/AP
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, DWash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, center, along withother lawmakers, talks with reporters outside the West Wing of the Washington on Tuesday following theirmeeting with President Joe Biden.
Biden focuses on climate andfamilies in trimmed $2T plan
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A House
committee investigating the Jan. 6
Capitol insurrection voted unani-
mously to hold former White
House aide Steve Bannon in con-
tempt of Congress after the long-
time ally of former President Do-
nald Trump defied a subpoena for
documents and testimony.
Still defending his supporters
who broke into the Capitol that
day, Trump has aggressively tried
to block the committee’s work by
directing Bannon and others not to
answer questions in the probe.
Trump has also filed a lawsuit to
try to prevent Congress from ob-
taining former White House docu-
ments.
But lawmakers have made clear
they will not back down as they
gather facts and testimony about
the attack involving Trump’s sup-
porters that left dozens of police
officers injured, sent lawmakers
running for their lives and inter-
rupted the certification of Joe Bi-
den’s presidential election victo-
ry.
The committee’s chairman,
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.,
said Tuesday that Bannon “stands
alone in his complete defiance of
our subpoena” and the panel will
not take no for an answer.
He said that while Bannon may
be “willing to be a martyr to the
disgraceful cause of whitewash-
ing what happened on January 6th
— of demonstrating his complete
loyalty to the former president,”
the contempt vote is a warning to
other witnesses.
The Tuesday evening vote
sends the contempt resolution to
the full House, which is expected
to vote on the measure Thursday.
House approval would send the
matter to the Justice Department,
which would then decide whether
to pursue criminal charges
against Bannon.
The contempt resolution asserts
that the former Trump aide and
podcast host has no legal standing
to rebuff the committee — even as
Trump’s lawyer has argued that
Bannon should not disclose infor-
mation because it is protected by
the privilege of the former presi-
dent’s office. The committee
noted that Bannon, fired from his
White House job in 2017, was a pri-
vate citizen when he spoke to
Trump ahead of the attack. Trump
has also not asserted any such ex-
ecutive privilege claims to the
panel itself, lawmakers said.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney —
one of just two Republicans on the
committee, and a rare GOP critic
of Trump — said Bannon and
Trump’s privilege arguments sug-
gest the former president was
“personally involved” in the plan-
ning and execution of the day’s
events.
The committee says it is pursu-
ing Bannon’s testimony because
of his reported communications
with Trump ahead of the siege, his
efforts to get the former president
to focus on the congressional cer-
tification of the vote Jan. 6 and his
comments on Jan. 5 that “all hell is
going to break loose” the next day.
Bannon “appears to have had
multiple roles relevant to this in-
vestigation, including his role in
constructing and participating in
the ‘stop the steal’ public relations
effort that motivated the attack”
and “his efforts to plan political
and other activity in advance of
January 6th,” the committee
wrote in the resolution recom-
mending contempt.
Jan. 6 panel votesto hold Bannon incriminal contempt
Associated Press
PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
NATION
Scientists temporarily attached
a pig’s kidney to a human body
and watched it begin to work, a
small step in the decadeslong
quest to one day use animal organs
for life-saving transplants.
Pigs have been the most recent
research focus to address the or-
gan shortage, but among the hur-
dles: A sugar in pig cells, foreign to
the human body, causes immedi-
ate organ rejection. The kidney for
this experiment came from a
gene-edited animal, engineered to
eliminate that sugar and avoid an
immune system attack.
Surgeons attached the pig kid-
ney to a pair of large blood vessels
outside the body of a deceased re-
cipient so they could observe it for
two days. The kidney did what it
was supposed to do — filter waste
and produce urine — and didn’t
trigger rejection.
“It had absolutely normal func-
tion,” said Dr. Robert Montgom-
ery, who led the surgical team last
month at NYU Langone Health.
“It didn’t have this immediate re-
jection that we have worried
about.”
This research is “a significant
step,” said Dr. Andrew Adams of
the University of Minnesota Med-
ical School, who was not part of the
work. It will reassure patients, re-
searchers and regulators “that
we’re moving in the right direc-
tion.”
The dream of animal-to-human
transplants — or xenotransplanta-
tion — goes back to the 17th centu-
ry with stumbling attempts to use
animal blood for transfusions. By
the 20th century, surgeons were
attempting transplants of organs
from baboons into humans, nota-
bly Baby Fae, a dying infant, who
lived 21 days with a baboon heart.
With no lasting success and
much public uproar, scientists
turned from primates to pigs, tin-
kering with their genes to bridge
the species gap.
Pigs have advantages over mon-
keys and apes. They are produced
for food, so using them for organs
raises fewer ethical concerns.
Pigs have large litters, short gesta-
tion periods and organs compara-
ble to humans.
Pig heart valves also have been
used successfully for decades in
humans. The blood thinner hepa-
rin is derived from pig intestines.
Pig skin grafts are used on burns
and Chinese surgeons have used
pig corneas to restore sight.
In the NYU case, researchers
kept a deceased woman’s body go-
ing on a ventilator after her family
agreed to the experiment. The
woman had wished to donate her
organs, but they weren’t suitable
for traditional donation.
Several biotech companies are
in the running to develop suitable
pig organs for transplant to help
ease the human organ shortage.
More than 90,000 people in the
U.S. are in line for a kidney trans-
plant. Every day, 12 die while
waiting.
The advance is a win for Reviv-
icor, a subsidiary of United Ther-
apeutics, the company that engi-
neered the pig and a herd of 100
raised in tightly controlled condi-
tions at a facility in Iowa.
“This is an important step for-
ward in realizing the promise of
xenotransplantation, which will
save thousands of lives each year
in the not-too-distant future,” said
United Therapeutics CEO Mar-
tine Rothblatt in a statement.
Experts say tests on nonhuman
primates and last month’s experi-
ment with a human body pave the
way for the first experimental pig
kidney or heart transplants in liv-
ing people in the next several
years.
Animalorganpassestest
JOE CARROTTA, NYU LANGONE HEALTH / AP
A surgical team at NYU Langone Health in New York examines a pig kidney attached to the body of adeceased recipient for any signs of rejection last month. From left are Drs. Zoe A. StewartLewis, RobertA. Montgomery, Bonnie E. Lonze and Jeffrey Stern.
Gene-edited pigkidney functionsin human subject
BY CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Mana-
tees have starved to death by the
hundreds along Florida’s east
coast because algae blooms and
contaminants are killing the sea-
grass the beloved sea mammals
eat, a wildlife official told a House
committee Tuesday.
Seagrass has been decimated in
the 156-mile-long Indian River
Lagoon and neighboring areas.
The aquatic plant thrives in clear,
sandy water, but murkier water
because of the algae and pollu-
tants has made it harder for sea-
grass to survive, said Melissa
Tucker, director of the Division of
Habitat and Species Conservation
at the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission.
“Our statewide death count
from all sources has been higher
than it’s ever been reported be-
fore,” Tucker told the House State
Affairs Committee. “This is a star-
vation issue. There’s not enough
seagrasses that are available to
the manatees.”
Officials noticed a sharp rise in
manatee deaths from December
through May, when the sea cows
congregate in warm waters. Dur-
ing that period, 677 manatees
died, when typically only 156 die,
Tucker said.
While manatee mortality lev-
eled out after May, when the
mammals extend their range in
summer and fall, the state has re-
corded 968 manatee deaths in
2021, with more than two months
left in the year. The previous an-
nual high was 830 deaths in 2013,
Tucker said.
Big manatee die-offs in past
years have been attributed to
more transitory events like algae
blooms and unusually cold weath-
er, but the seagrass problem could
take longer to reverse, Tucker
said. Efforts are being made to re-
plant seagrass and restore clam
and oyster beds so the mollusks
can help filter the water, she said.
Manateesstarve aspollutantskill seagrass
Associated Press
LYNNE SLADKY / AP
With algae blooms and pollutantsaffecting their food source,manatees are dying off in recordnumbers in Florida this year.
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s
beloved puffins suffered one of
their worst years for reproduction
in decades this summer due to a
lack of the small fish they eat.
Puffins are seabirds with color-
ful beaks that nest on four small is-
lands off the coast of Maine. There
are about 1,500 breeding pairs in
the state and they are dependent
on fish such as herring and sand
lance to feed their young.
Only about a quarter of the birds
were able to raise chicks this sum-
mer, said Don Lyons, director of
conservation science for the Na-
tional Audubon Society’s Seabird
Institute in Bremen, Maine. About
two-thirds of the birds succeed in
a normal year, he said.
The puffin colonies have suf-
fered only one or two less produc-
tive years in the four decades
since their populations were re-
stored in Maine, Lyons said. The
birds had a poor year because of
warm ocean temperatures this
summer that reduced the availa-
bility of the fish the chicks need to
survive, he said.
“There were fewer fish for puf-
fins to catch, and the ones they
were able to were not ideal for
chicks,” Lyons said. “It’s a severe
warning this year.”
The islands where puffins nest
are located in the Gulf of Maine, a
body of water that is warming fas-
ter than the vast majority of the
world’s oceans. Researchers have
not seen much mortality of adult
puffins, but the population will
suffer if the birds continue to have
difficulty raising chicks, Lyons
said.
The discouraging news comes
after positive signs in recent years
despite the challenging environ-
mental conditions. The population
of the birds, which are on Maine’s
state threatened species list, has
been stable in recent years.
The birds had one of their most
productive seasons for mating
pairs in years in 2019. Scientists
including Stephen Kress, who has
studied the birds for decades, said
at the time that birds seemed to be
doing well because the Gulf of
Maine had a cool year that led to
an abundance of food.
The puffins are Atlantic puffins
that also live in Canada and the
other side of the ocean. Interna-
tionally, they’re listed as “vulner-
able” by the International Union
for Conservation of Nature.
Warm waters lead to fewer puffins in Maine
ROBERT F. BUKATY / AP
Research assistant Andreinna Alvarez holds a puffin chick beforeweighing and banding the bird in 2019 off the coast of Maine. Thebirds saw a drastic reduction in reproduction rates this year.
Associated Press
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11
AMERICAN ROUNDUP
Man gets probation forrolling boulders off cliff
ND MANDAN — A North
Dakota man has been
sentenced to probation for rolling a
boulder off a cliff at a state historic
site.
The Bismarck Tribune reported
that Charles Gipp, 36, of Mandan,
pleaded guilty Friday to misde-
meanor reckless endangerment
and criminal mischief. Prosecutors
dismissed a refusal-to-halt charge
and reduced the reckless endanger-
ment count from a felony to a misde-
meanor in exchange for the plea.
According to court documents,
Gipp was arrested in June 2020. He
told authorities he rolled a 700-
pound boulder off a cliff at Double
Ditch Indian Village Historic Site
for spiritual reasons. People were
below but no one was hurt.
Dog helps lead gamewarden to suspect at lake
KS WELLINGTON — Ru-
by the K-9 officer for
Kansas game wardens may be
pushing 10 years old, but her sniffer
works just fine. That was evident
earlier this month when Ruby
played a key role in tracking down a
man wanted by police in the south-
central Kansas town of Wellington.
A Facebook posting by Kansas
Wildlife & Parks-Game Wardens
said Ruby and her handler, Chris
Stout, joined in the search for the
suspect on Oct. 8 at Wellington City
Lake. The Facebook post says Ruby
“immediately picked up the track”
and led Stout through thick vegeta-
tion, eventually finding the suspect
“face down in mud under dense
brush.” She stood on top of the man
and licked him until Stout caught up.
None injured in Walmartparking lot 7-car pileup
ME AUBURN — An SUV
accelerated through a
Walmart parking lot in Maine, hit-
ting multiple vehicles and a shop-
ping cart corral before coming to a
stop with another SUV balanced on
top of it.
The driver was an 83-year-old
woman who Auburn Deputy Police
Chief Timothy A. Cougle said
seemed to have been trying to hit the
brake and instead hit the gas pedal,
the Lewiston Sun-Journal reported
Monday.No one, including the driv-
er, was injured.
“We are still sorting all the details
out, but there is a total of seven vehi-
cles involved — two significantly
damaged or totaled,” Cougle told
the newspaper.
Law enforcement gets cash from firearms sale
WV PINEVILLE — Several
police and sheriff’s de-
partments in West Virginia are
among those benefiting from the
state treasurer’s recent unclaimed
property firearms auction.
Last week, state Treasurer Riley
Moore presented a check for
$19,098 to the Wyoming County
Sheriff’s Department for proceeds
from the auction, his office said in a
news release.
State and local law enforcement
agencies are allowed to turn over
unclaimed, seized or outdated fire-
arms to the treasurer’s office for
auction. The proceeds can be given
back to the agency for its use.
People who want to bid must be a
valid, licensed federal firearms
dealer.
Surfboards burn in blazenext to historic hotel
HI HONOLULU — For the
second time in less than
two years, a fire destroyed surf-
boards stored next to a historic Wai-
kiki hotel.
Firefighters called to the scene
found several storage racks of surf-
boards at a beach alleyway in flames
and evacuated the adjacent build-
ings: the Moana Surfrider Hotel and
the Honolulu Police Department’s
Waikiki substation.
The blaze scorched the exterior of
the hotel, which first opened in 1901,
and spread to the substation’s walls,
roof and eaves, the Honolulu Fire
Department said.
An investigation is underway. Po-
lice arrested a 43-year-old man on
suspicion of arson.
Surfer Theresa Strange told the
Honolulu Star-Advertiser she lost
two boards worth about $2,000 each.
She also lost boards during a similar
fire there in February 2020.
Holocaust survivor givenFrance’s Legion of Honor
TX HOUSTON — An 88-
year-old Holocaust sur-
vivor from Houston who has spent
decades educating people on the
genocide of Jews during World War
II has been honored by France.
The Houston Chronicle reported
that Ruth Steinfeld was awarded the
Legion of Honor, France’s highest
prize, in a ceremony Sunday at Hol-
ocaust Museum Houston. As chil-
dren during the war, Steinfeld and
her sister were saved by a French
humanitarian organization.
French Consul General Valérie
Baraban praised Steinfeld as an “in-
valuable witness” to the horrors of
genocide, saying Steinfeld is “com-
mitted to speaking for the 1.5 million
children who never had a chance to
survive.”
Steinfeld’s family was forced
from their home in Germany to an
internment camp in France. She
and her sister and mother were sent
to the women’s barracks. Their
mother released her daughters —
ages 7 and 8 — to the care of human-
itarian rescuers who got into the
camp by posing as the Red Cross.
Her parents died at Auschwitz.
She and her sister eventually set-
tled in Houston. Her sister died in
2008.
Pier condemned: Formerbridge section unstable
LA DOYLINE — Louisiana
authorities have con-
demned and will remove a section of
a Louisiana bridge used for nearly
two decades as a fishing pier, offi-
cials said Monday.
Work at the Lake Bistineau spill-
way fishing pier will begin Oct. 25
and is expected to take 90 days, the
Louisiana Department of Wildlife
and Fisheries said in a news release.
When the current Louisiana
Highway 154 bridge over Lake Bis-
tineau was built in 2001, the Louisia-
na Department of Transportation
and Development left a section of
the old one for use as a fishing pier
owned and managed by Wildlife
and Fisheries. It’s in Bossier Parish,
about 23 miles southeast of Shreve-
port. The pier has become so unsta-
ble that it’s a safety hazard both for
people who might use it and for the
spillway itself, the news release
said.
2men arrested after blastset off in dispute
GA WINDER — Two men
have been arrested after
police concluded they set off an ex-
plosion in a subdivision in northeast
Georgia in early October, damaging
anumber of houses.
Winder police said Friday that
they have arrested Michael Bonzo
Huff, 31, of Nicholson, and Royce
Van Court, 38, of Winder. The men
are being held on charges including
possessing explosives, terroristic
threats and acts, reckless conduct
and criminal property damage.
Some sort of bomb went off before
dawn on Oct. 2 in a Winder subdivi-
sion, heavily damaging a car and
blowing out windows in multiple
houses. No one was injured. Winder
police say the blast appears to be re-
lated to a “domestic conflict.”
DANIEL SANGJIB MIN, RICHMOND (VA.) TIMESDISPATCH/AP
Blakeley Catlett, 4, of Henrico, Va., manages to push a wheelbarrow after picking up her pumpkin as herfamily visits Gallmeyer Farms' pumpkin patch in Henrico on Monday.
Patchwork
THE CENSUS
38 The amount of time,in minutes, an elec-
tric scooter rider in St. Louis, whohad collided with a minivan, waitedfor an ambulance, according to hisfamily. The St. Louis Post-Dispatchreported that a nearby St. Louis trafficpatrol officer saw the Sept. 27 colli-sion that injured 60-year-old RodneyLaRue. A firetruck arrived within afew minutes, according to a video ofthe crash and police records providedthrough a public records request.About 30 minutes after the crash,when the ambulance was about 3miles from the scene, a man threw arock at the emergency vehicle, delay-ing it further. Police said LaRue ini-tially appeared to be suffering from“noncritical, moderate accident inju-ries" but his “condition worsened,and he became unresponsive” oncethe ambulance arrived. He had inter-nal bleeding and died that night.
From The Associated Press
PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
WORLD
NAIROBI, Kenya — New air-
strikes hit the capital of Ethiopia’s
Tigray region, residents said
Wednesday, as video showed in-
jured people with bloodied faces
being rushed to vehicles and thick
black smoke rising in the sky. Eth-
iopia’s government said it targeted
facilities to make and repair weap-
ons, which a spokesman for the ri-
val Tigray forces denied.
Meanwhile, the United Nations
told The Associated Press it is
slashing by more than half its Ti-
gray presence as an Ethiopian gov-
ernment blockade halts humani-
tarian aid efforts and people die
from lack of food.
The war in Africa’s second-most
populous country has ground on
for nearly a year between Ethio-
pian and allied forces and the Ti-
gray ones who long dominated the
national government before a fall-
ing-out with Prime Minister Abiy
Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace
Prize winner.
There was no immediate word of
deaths from the new airstrikes in
Mekele, reported by Kindeya Ge-
brehiwot of the Tigray external af-
fairs office and confirmed by a res-
ident and a humanitarian worker.
One resident said five people were
injured, speaking on condition of
anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“Indeed there have been air-
strikes in Mekele today,” Ethio-
pian government spokesperson
Legesse Tulu told the AP, saying
they targeted facilities at the Mes-
fin Industrial Engineering site that
Tigray forces use to make and re-
pair heavy weapons. Legesse said
the airstrikes had “no intended
harm to civilians.”
“Not at all,” Kindeya with the Ti-
gray forces told the AP, calling the
site a garage “with many old tires.
That is why it is still blazing.”
The attack came two days after
Ethiopia’s air force confirmed air-
strikes in Mekele that a witness
said killed three children. The air
force said communications towers
and equipment were attacked.
Mekele hadn’t seen fighting since
June, when Tigray forces retook
much of the region in a dramatic
turn in the war.
The airstrikes have caused fresh
panic in a city under siege, where
doctors and others have described
running out of medicines and other
basic needs.
New airstrikes hit Ethiopia’s Tigray regionAssociated Press
AP
People are seen in front of clouds of black smoke from fires in the aftermath at the scene of an airstrike inMekele, the capital of the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia on Wednesday.
LONDON — The world needs to
cut by more than half its produc-
tion of coal, oil and gas in the com-
ing decade to maintain a chance of
keeping global warming from re-
aching dangerous levels, accord-
ing to a U.N.-backed study re-
leased Wednesday.
The report published by the
U.N. Environment Program found
that while governments have
made ambitious pledges to curb
greenhouse gas emissions, they
are still planning to extract double
the amount of fossil fuels in 2030
than what would be consistent
with the 2015 Paris climate ac-
cord’s goal of keeping the global
temperature rise below 2.7 de-
grees Fahrenheit.
Even the less ambitious goal of
capping global warming at 3.6 de-
grees Fahrenheit by the end of the
century compared to pre-industri-
al times would be overshot, it said.
Climate experts say the world
must stop adding to the total
amount of greenhouse gas in the
atmosphere by 2050, and that can
only be done by drastically reduc-
ing the burning of fossil fuels as
soon as possible, among other
measures.
The report, which was released
days before a U.N. climate summit
begins Oct. 31 in Glasgow, found
most major oil and gas producers
— and even some major coal pro-
ducers — are planning on increas-
ing production until 2030 or even
beyond.
It also concluded that the group
of 20 major industrialized and
emerging economies have invest-
ed more into new fossil fuel pro-
jects than into clean energy since
the start of 2020.
The disparity between climate
goals and fossil fuel extraction
plans — termed the “production
gap” — will widen until at least
2040, the report found.
This would require increasingly
steep and extreme measures to
meet the Paris emissions goal,
UNEP said.
“There is still time to limit long
term warming to 1.5°C, but this
window of opportunity is rapidly
closing,” said the agency’s execu-
tive director, Inger Andersen,
adding that governments should
commit to closing the gap at the
Glasgow climate summit.
The report, which had more
than 40 researchers contributing,
examine 15 major fossil fuel-pro-
ducing countries.
For the United States, they
found that government projec-
tions show oil and gas production
increasing to 17% and 12%, respec-
tively, by 2030 compared to 2019
levels. Much of that would be ex-
ported, meaning the emissions
from burning those fossil fuels
would not show up in the U.S. in-
ventory although they would add
to the global total.
Study: Fossil fuel plans wouldfar overshoot climate goals
Associated Press
VENICE, Italy — After Venice
suffered the second-worst flood in
its history in November 2019, it
was inundated with four more ex-
ceptional tides within six weeks,
shocking Venetians and trigger-
ing fears about the worsening im-
pact of climate change.
The repeated invasion of brack-
ish lagoon water into St. Mark’s
Basilica this summer is a quiet re-
minder that the threat hasn’t re-
ceded.
“I can only say that in August, a
month when this never used to
happen, we had tides over a meter
five times. I am talking about the
month of August, when we are
quiet,” St. Mark’s chief caretaker,
Carlo Alberto Tesserin, told The
Associated Press.
Venice’s unique topography,
built on log piles among canals,
has made it particularly vulnera-
ble to climate change. Rising sea
levels are increasing the frequen-
cy of high tides that inundate the
1,600-year-old Italian lagoon city,
which is also gradually sinking.
It is the fate of coastal cities like
Venice that will be on the minds of
climate scientists and global lead-
ers meeting in Glasgow, Scotland,
at a U.N. climate conference that
begins Oct. 31.
Venice’s worse-case scenario
for sea level rise by the end of the
century is a startling 3 feet, 11
inches, according to a new study
published by the European Geos-
ciences Union. That is 50% higher
than the worse-case global sea-
rise average of 2 feet, 7½ inches
forecast by the U.N. science panel.
The city’s interplay of canals
and architecture, of natural hab-
itat and human ingenuity, also has
earned it recognition as a UNES-
CO World Heritage site for its out-
standing universal value, a desig-
nation put at risk of late because of
the impact of over-tourism and
cruise ship traffic. It escaped the
endangered list after Italy banned
cruise ships from passing through
St. Mark’s Basin, but alarm bells
are still ringing.
Sitting at Venice’s lowest spot,
St. Mark’s Basilica offers a unique
position to monitor the impact of
rising seas on the city. The piazza
outside floods at around 30 inches,
and water passes the narthex into
the church at 34.5 inches, which
has been reinforced up from a pre-
vious 25.5 inches.
“Conditions are continuing to
worsen since the flooding of No-
vember 2019. We therefore have
the certainty that in these months,
flooding is no longer an occasional
phenomenon. It is an everyday oc-
currence,” said Tesserin, whose
honorific, First Procurator of St.
Mark’s, dates back to the ninth
century.
Flooding in Venice worseningoff-season amid climate change
Associated Press
ANTEO MARINONI/AP
People wade their way through water in flooded St. Mark’s Squarefollowing a high tide, in Venice, Italy, in December 2020.
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13
WORLD
BRUSSELS — Imprisoned
Russian opposition leader Alex-
ei Navalny, President Vladimir
Putin’s main critic, was awarded
the European Union’s top human
rights prize on Wednesday.
In a sign of open criticism of
the Kremlin, the leaders of the
European Parliament picked the
Russian politician for the Sakha-
rov Prize. Other candidates had
been a group of Afghan women,
and imprisoned Bolivian politic-
ian and former interim Presi-
dent Jeanine Anez.
The parliament’s EPP Chris-
tian Democrat group announced
the decision in a tweet.
“Mr. Putin, free Alexei Naval-
ny. Europe calls for his — and all
other political prisoners’ — free-
dom,” it said.
Navalny survived a Soviet-era
nerve agent poisoning while on a
domestic flight in Russia. After
receiving treatment and reco-
vering in Germany, he returned
to Russia early this year, where
he was promptly arrested and
jailed.
Navalny winstop EU prize
Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria — Two
bombs attached to a bus carrying
Syrian troops exploded in Damas-
cus during the morning rush hour
Wednesday, a military official
said. Fourteen people were killed
in the attack, one of the deadliest
in the capital in years.
While the Syrian government’s
decadelong conflict with insur-
gents continues in parts of the
country including the rebel-held
northwest, bombings in Damas-
cus have become exceedingly
rare since President Bashar As-
sad’s troops pushed opposition
fighters from the capital’s suburbs
in 2018.
The explosions, which also left
several wounded, happened at a
busy intersection near a main bus
transfer point where commuters
and schoolchildren typically con-
verge. After the blasts, Syrian
state TV showed footage of smoke
rising from a charred bus as sol-
diers hosed down the vehicle and
onlookers flocked to a nearby
bridge to watch.
No one immediately claimed re-
sponsibility for the attack, but sev-
eral insurgent and jihadist groups
that seek to overthrow Assad are
active in Syria.
Separately, rescue workers re-
ported 10 people were killed, in-
cluding four children and a wom-
an, in government shelling of a
town in the last rebel enclave in
the country’s northwest. The U.N.
Deputy Regional Humanitarian
Coordinator Mark Cutts de-
scribed the reports of the shelling
that hit a market and roads near
schools as students were heading
to classes as “shocking.”
In addition to the four children
killed, their teacher also died, ac-
cording to UNICEF, the U.N. chil-
dren’s agency.
“Today’s violence is yet another
reminder that the war in Syria has
not come to an end. Civilians,
among them many children, keep
bearing the brunt of a brutal dec-
adelong conflict,” the agency said.
“Attacks on civilians including
children are a violation of interna-
tional humanitarian law.”
The attack was one of the most
violent in the area since a March
2020 truce in the northwest nego-
tiated by Turkey and Russia — al-
lies of the opposition and Syrian
government, respectively. The
truce has been repeatedly violat-
ed, and government forces often
vow to take territories still out of
their control.
In the central city of Hama,
meanwhile, an explosion at an
arms depot left six pro-govern-
ment fighters dead, according to
the Syrian Observatory for Hu-
man Rights, an opposition war
monitor. The pro-government
Sham FM radio station also re-
ported that six fighters were killed
in a depot explosion, but did not
give a location.
While fighting still rages in the
northwest, Assad’s forces now
control much of Syria after mili-
tary support from his allies, Rus-
sia and Iran, helped tip the bal-
ance of power in his favor. U.S.
and Turkish troops, meanwhile,
are deployed in parts of the coun-
try’s north.
Bus bombs kill overdozen in Syria capital
Associated Press
SANA/AP
A Syrian firefighter extinguishes a burned bus at the site of a deadlyexplosion in Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday.
PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher
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OPINION
For more than a century, business
experts have been trying to dial up
the United States’ efficiency. Ever
since Frederick Taylor published
“The Principles of Scientific Management”
in 1911, companies have focused on doing
things more quickly, and raising consumers’
expectations as a result.
But Taylor’s ideas didn’t take into account
the havoc a pandemic might do to supply
chains — and how that would blunt what a
few months ago seemed like a looming re-
sumption of modern daily life’s zippy pace.
Across the country, Americans’ expecta-
tions of speedy service and easy access to
consumer products have been crushed like a
Styrofoam container in a trash compactor.
Time for some new, more realistic expecta-
tions.
Fast food is less fast. A huge flotilla of con-
tainer ships is stuck offshore in California,
waiting to unload. Shelves normally stocked
with Halloween candy this time of year are
empty, as I saw the other day at a Target here
in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The issue has become so troublesome —
with alarming economic and political ramifi-
cations — that the White House is stepping in,
urging unions, port operators and big con-
sumer-goods companies to work around the
clock (if they aren’t already) to unclog supply
pipelines.
American consumers, their expectations
pampered and catered to for decades, are not
accustomed to inconvenience.
“For generations, American shoppers
have been trained to be nightmares,” Aman-
da Mull wrote in August in the Atlantic, be-
fore the supply chain problem turned truly
ugly. “The pandemic has shown just how des-
perately the consumer class clings to the feel-
ing of being served.”
Customers’ persistent whine, “Why don’t
they just hire more people?,” sounds feeble in
this era of the Great Resignation, especially
in industries, such as food service, with repu-
tations for being tough places to work.
Rather than living constantly on the verge
of throwing a fit, and risking taking it out on
overwhelmed servers, struggling shop own-
ers or late-arriving delivery people, we’d do
ourselves a favor by consciously lowering ex-
pectations.
I don’t know about where you live, but in
Ann Arbor the luxury of blithely tapping on a
phone and summoning a restaurant delivery
that arrives in 45 minutes is over. There’s a
shortage of food-delivery drivers nationwide.
The sanity-preserving move is to assume an
hour and half for delivery, and then a mere
hour and 10 minutes is a pleasant surprise.
“I understand people are getting frustrat-
ed, but it’s time for people to take a chill pill,”
says Lisa McDonald, owner of TeaHaus, an
Ann Arbor shop selling tea and gifts. “I’m just
not going to have the things that I usually
have. Maybe they aren’t going to get the pur-
ple mug, but the blue one is pretty, too.”
The other day I found myself carrying
home a loaf of bread in my bare hands be-
cause the bakery had run out of bags. Back
when we didn’t know how good we had it —
circa 2019 — I might have been annoyed by
the inconvenience. Now I was just glad the
bakery was still in business.
Other Ann Arbor merchants have given
me a glimpse of what it’s like on their side of
the supply chain misery. Leyla Conlan, own-
er of the stationery shop The Write Touch by
Leyla, says she recently returned from a gift
trade show, where vendors were happy to
take her orders but warned that they couldn’t
promise the same delivery time as they had in
the past. The reasons included factory slow-
downs, shortages of packing materials and
fewer truck drivers.
Steve Mangigian, managing partner at Zin-
german’s coffee and candy companies, tells
me he used to order paper cups and lids for
his baristas about six to eight weeks in ad-
vance. Now, the wait is 16 to 18 weeks — pos-
sibly longer. “If I can’t get cups to sell my
product, what am I supposed to do? The sup-
ply chain could literally shut down my busi-
ness.”
I know Mangigian because I’ve been writ-
ing a book about Zingerman’s. It’s scheduled
to be published in February. Everything
seems on track, but the publishing industry
hasn’t been immune to the supply chain
snarls. Paper shortages, worker shortages
and the traffic jams at shipping ports are en-
dangering holiday books sales, according to
CNN.
All I can do is hope for the best. Like every-
body else. And keep those expectations rea-
sonable. Eventually the supply chain will get
straightened out.
American consumers might have been
spoiled, but generations of them have also
dealt with shortages of some kind — gasoline
in the 1970s, food rationing in the 1940s, hous-
ing in the 1920s when cities such as Detroit
were booming. Now it’s our turn to make ad-
justments.
Lower your expectations amid supply chain woesBY MICHELINE MAYNARD
Special to The Washington Post
Micheline Maynard is a contributing columnist for The Washing-ton Post, concentrating on Detroit, Michigan and the Midwest.
It’s time to set firm dates for ending
masking in schools.
The risk of COVID-19 to kids is al-
ready very low. And with the expected
arrival of vaccines for 5-to-11-year-olds in
early November, schools should be able to lift
their mask mandates by the end of the year at
the latest.
This is true even in areas where schools do
not require vaccines for kids. To be clear, I ful-
ly support such mandates. My 15-year-old and
12-year-old are already vaccinated, and my 9-
year-old will get the shot on the first day it’s ap-
proved for his age. But vaccine mandates do
not have to be a precondition to end masking.
Right now, schools have to craft policies
based on acceptable risks. Now that children
will soon have access to vaccines, all parents
will have the tools to send their kids to school
with the assurance that they will be safe, even
without masks.
Data from all over the world affirms that the
risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 is ex-
tremely low for kids. In highly vaccinated
New England, the hospitalization rate right
now for kids under 17 is about 7 per 10 million.
That is not a typo.
At the worst of the delta surge in Florida, the
hospitalization rate for this age group was
about 1 per 100,000. It has since dropped
sharply in that region, and is now approaching
1 per million again. And these are overesti-
mates of hospitalization risk for 5-to-11-year-
olds, since the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention’s data lumps them together with
the slightly higher-risk 12-to-17-year-olds.
The same low risk for kids holds true for
mortality, where the risk for 5-to-11-year-olds
has consistently been about 1 per 1 million. Se-
rious COVID-related conditions, such as mul-
tisystem inflammatory syndrome and long
COVID, are rare, too.
The CDC is meeting on Nov. 2 and 3 to make
the final recommendation on vaccines for 5-
to-11-year-olds. Health officials should be pre-
paring now to administer these vaccines on
the first day they’re allowed. With full protec-
tion of the two-dose regimen kicking in one
month after the second shot and strong protec-
tion one month after that, that would mean
children who receive their shot immediately
would be fully vaccinated around the third
week of December. In other words, there
should be no mask mandates for kids in
schools in the new year — or even earlier.
Why do we need a quick timeline? Because
if we don’t set deadlines, it’s easy to see how
schools could sleepwalk into indefinite mask-
ing for kids for at least this entire school year.
Last year, a major concern was that kids
might infect their high-risk teachers or par-
ents. But those groups have now had access to
vaccines for at least six months. Many of them
have access to booster shots, as well, and can
continue to wear a high-grade mask to protect
themselves if they remain concerned.
As for adults who remain unvaccinated, the
delta variant will find them eventually, and,
when it does, their risk of severe outcomes re-
mains high. But kids should not have to bear
the burden of reckless adults any longer than
they already have.
Here are four things we should do to prior-
itize the health of children:
Mandate vaccines for all adults in
schools, as Los Angeles and New York City
have done. We know this causes vaccination
rates to rise sharply. New York City’s Depart-
ment of Education saw its rate spike from
around 50% in early August to 95%.
Host at-school vaccination clinics for 5-
to-11-year-olds in every U.S. school. Any fam-
ily that wants their child vaccinated should
have that opportunity as soon as vaccines are
available. The time to prepare for this is now.
Expand use of rapid antigen tests so we
can end the unnecessary quarantining of kids.
Quarantines are a blunt instrument to control
spread by assuming every close contact might
be infectious. Rapid tests solve that problem
by revealing who is actively infectious.
Improve ventilation and filtration. This
helps reduce the amount of virus anyone in a
classroom will inhale, which lowers the likeli-
hood of infection and likely lowers severity if
infected.
This also isn’t about whether masks work.
They do. But as with all control measures,
there is a time and place for them. The best
thing about masks is that if things change for
the worse — and they might — then we just
pull the masks back out of the drawer. But we
must be just as willing to put them away when
things look better.
Schools should end their mask mandates before 2022BY JOSEPH G. ALLEN
Special to The Washington Post
Joseph G. Allen is an assistant professor of exposure andassessment science, director of the healthy buildings programat Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health andco-author of “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces DrivePerformance and Productivity.”
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15
PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
ACROSS
1 “Phooey!”
5 Swab the decks
8 From the top
12 Apiece
13 Rock’s Brian
14 “Holy cow!”
15 “Alfred” com-
poser
16 Seminary subj.
17 Jocular Johnson
18 Antenna
20 Tenant
22 Hosp. scan
23 Enzyme suffix
24 Bright star
27 Small hourglass
32 Verb for you
33 — Canals
34 Pub order
35 Flemish car-
tographer
38 L-Q bridge
39 Periodical,
for short
40 “Levitating”
singer Lipa
42 Loves to pieces
45 Released
49 Oz creator L.
Frank —
50 Deli choice
52 Tea carrier
53 Diminutive suffix
54 Poem of praise
55 Being, to Brutus
56 Wonka’s creator
57 Roofing goo
58 Beams
DOWN
1 Like Beethoven
2 Scarce
3 Teen’s woe
4 Louise’s pal
5 Most mirthful
6 Small bill
7 Survey
8 Tennis great
Andre
9 Viking, e.g.
10 Noble Italian
family
11 Sledder’s cry
19 Hectic hosp.
area
21 Dig in
24 “Platoon” locale
25 Miner’s find
26 Martini ingredient
28 Stickum
29 “July’s People”
author Nadine
30 “Xanadu” band
31 Gym unit
36 Mount —
37 Candle count
38 Chess expert
41 NBC’s “This
Is —”
42 Sleeping
43 Info
44 Attempt
46 Celestial bear
47 Relaxed
48 Salon jobs
51 Nabokov novel
Answer to Previous Puzzle
Eugene Sheffer CrosswordFra
zz
Dilbert
Pearls B
efo
re S
win
eN
on S
equitur
Candorv
ille
Beetle B
ailey
Biz
arr
oCarp
e D
iem
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17
PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
FACES
Before he was a heavy metal icon, he sold
light bulbs. Before he shouted at the devil,
he shouted at his mom. Before he was Nikki
Sixx, he was Franklin Feranna.
The Mötley Crüe co-founder and bassist
looks back at his formative years in his new
autobiography “The First 21: How I Be-
came Nikki Sixx,” revealing family secrets
and the origins of his drive to succeed.
“If some young musician picks up my
book, they’re going to go, ‘Oh, wow.’ Yes, it’s
entertaining. And, yes, there’s revelations.
But there’s sort of a road map in here to suc-
cess,” Sixx says, before adding: “Don’t use
my exact road map.”
Few heavy metal acts were as notorious
in the 1980s onstage as well as off as Mötley
Crüe, whose songs include “Looks That
Kill,” “Shout at the Devil” and “Girls, Girls,
Girls.” Fueled by drugs and booze, their
stage show included excessive amounts of
pyro and chain-sawing the head off a man-
nequin filled with blood.
“The First 21,” written with Alex Abra-
movich, charts Feranna’s birth in 1958 to
the date in 1980 — before Mötley Crüe
founded — when he finally let go of his fa-
ther and legally rechristened himself Sixx,
a name he admits he stole from another art-
ist. The book release coincides with his oth-
er band, Sixx:A.M., releasing a retrospec-
tive album with their biggest hits.
Elements of his childhood seemed idyllic
as he bounced from farm to farm and state
to state, including Idaho and Washington.
He put playing cards in the spokes of his
bike to mimic the sound of a motorcycle and
went to Dairy Queen. He sold worms for
pocket money and played defensive end on
the high school football team. (Later, in
Mötley Crüe, he would paint dark stripes
under his eyes as a tribute to those days).
But there was also
neglect and a compli-
cated family life. His
father abandoned him
early on and his mother
was a wild child who
once dated Richard
Pryor. He reveals he
had a sister, Lisa, who
was born blind and
with Down syndrome.
He was never allowed
to know her.
“I was angry for a long time and I think a
lot of that anger fueled a lot of music. Drive
and anger probably helped catapult myself
and my band,” says Sixx. “By writing the
book, I discovered a lot about my dad, dis-
covered a lot about myself.”
Sixx was mostly raised by his grandpar-
ents, and they instilled in him a fierce work
ethic. He worked hard — on potato farms, in
steel manufacturing, rug cleaning, being a
janitor, selling light bulbs. To be fair, there
also was some shoplifting and light break-
ing and entering.
His car was so busted up he had to drive it
backward if he wanted to go up hills. He
even sold his own blood.
“I learned a very, very valuable lesson ve-
ry early in my life: You work hard and you
don’t complain,” he says. “I work extra hard
because I don’t think I’m naturally as gifted
as some of my peers.”
There are fascinating life-changing pivot
points — Sixx calls them “moments of im-
pact” — like the decision to take a Grey-
hound bus down to Los Angeles with just his
guitar, some cassettes and a bagful of
clothes.
Another was when he was offered the
bassist spot in what would become another
influential metal band, Quiet Riot. For some
reason, he declined, even though his band at
the time, London, wasn’t taking off. “The
rock god up there said, ‘No, not for you.
You’re just going to stay over here and
starve a little bit longer,’” Sixx says.
He has included plenty of photos to docu-
ment the transformation from all-American
small-town boy to skinny rock god with long
hair. He purposely included ones capturing
him in an awkward stage. “I put those pho-
tos in the book on purpose because I wanted
people to be like, ‘Yeah, I had that, too.’”
Sixx barely mentions his Mötley Crüe
bandmates, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil and
Mick Mars, who have been covered in his
“The Heroin Diaries,” “This Is Gonna
Hurt” and Neil Strauss’ “The Dirt.”
This is very much Sixx’s story, a father
now himself settled in Wyoming with his
family — not far from Idaho, where much of
his story started — who is feeling around in
his past.
“I really wanted to come at this with em-
pathy on some of the characters that were in
my life because it’d be really easy to bring
out the guillotine, start taking people’s
heads off,” he says.
“Families are hard. It’s not easy being a
parent. It’s not easy being a friend. It’s not
easy being in a band. Life’s not always easy.
So how can you look at it? Learn a lesson
from it and pass it on to the next person
that’s in line behind you.”
Forces thatshaped a starMötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx’s book recalls formative years
BY MARK KENNEDY
Associated Press
ARTHUR MOLA/AP
Nikki Sixx attends the premiere for “Long Time Running” at the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival in 2017 in Toronto, Canada. The Mötley Crüe cofounder and bassist, bornFranklin Feranna, has a new autobiography, “The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx.”
The ’90s are making a comeback — with a little
help from music idols Brandy and Eve.
ABC’s “Queens,” which premiered Tuesday
stateside, finds the two real-life ’90s performers play-
ing former members of fictional all-girl hip-hop
group Nasty B—es, who get back together years after
their heyday.
The other members of the glitzy group, all mature
adults now, are played by Naturi Naughton and Na-
dine Velazquez.
“I’ve never seen four women in a group that rap,”
Brandy, 42, said. “There’s been hip-hop guy groups,
but I’ve never seen hip-hop girl groups.”
The “The Boy Is Mine” singer added: “Usually
there’s been times where one female is celebrated as
the rapper, with all of these guys. Even Eve was part
of the Ruff Ryders. It was just one girl for each crew.
But I’ve never seen four women together doing it, and
so I just think that’s a beautiful way to kind of rewrite
history with this show by putting us all together.”
Estranged for the better part of two decades, Chris-
tian housewife Jill (Naughton), mother of five Brian-
na (Eve), acoustic singer Naomi (Brandy) and TV
host Valeria (Velazquez) are drawn back to the stage
by the promise of a revival.
The show switches between the 1990s, when they
were huge stars — and often at odds — and the pre-
sent day, as they try to regain the spotlight despite old
wounds and new challenges.
“This show gives us a way to show sisterhood,”
Naughton said. “You often see women at each other’s
throats and fighting and catty. I’m just so refreshed
by the ways the writers are giving these women dra-
ma, but because they really love each other. At the
core of it, they really care about what they’re doing.”
In “Queens,” the drama stems from more than just
catty backstabbing.
“It felt like a grown-a— woman show, not a little
girl show,” Velazquez, 42, said.
’90s female hip-hopsees revival in newABC series ‘Queens’
New York Daily News
ABC/TNS
Eve, Brandy, Naturi Naughton and NadineVelazquez star as ’90s hiphop icons in “Queens.”
The next act for Ryan Reynolds
will see him take a break.
Reynolds, 44, announced he will
hit pause on acting for a little while
after wrapping up production for
his latest film, “Spirited,” which
also stars Will Ferrell and Octavia
Spencer.
“Perfect time for a little sabbat-
ical from movie making,” Rey-
nolds wrote Oct. 16 in an Insta-
gram post. “I’m gonna miss every
second working with this obscene-
ly gifted group of creators and art-
ists.”
The upcoming movie, which
will be released by Apple TV+, is
billed as an updated, musical ver-
sion of “A Christmas Carol.”
“Not sure I’d have been ready to
say yes to a film this challenging
even three years ago,” Reynolds
wrote in his Instagram post.
“Singing, dancing and playing in
the sandbox with Will Ferrell
made a whole lotta dreams come
true. And this is my second film
with the great @octaviaspencer.”
Soul Train Awards at
Apollo for the first timeThe annual Soul Train Awards
will be presented for the first time
at New York City’s Apollo Thea-
ter, the legendary Harlem per-
formance venue, as two icons of
Black culture team up.
The 2021 awards show, which
honors the year’s best in soul, hip-
hop and R&B, will be taped and
debut on BET and BET Her
stateside on Nov. 28. BET has
aired the show since 2009, taping
in Las Vegas in recent years.
It is also celebrating the 50th an-
niversary of the debut of “Soul
Train,” the television show that
beamed the best of Black music
and popular dance into American
homes each week.
Ryan Reynolds taking breakafter wrapping new movie
From wire reports
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19
SCOREBOARD/COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Schedule
Wednesday’s game
SOUTH
Coastal Carolina (6-0) at Appalachian St.(4-2)
Thursday’s games
SOUTH
FAU (3-3) at Charlotte (4-2)
SOUTHWEST
Tulane (1-5) at SMU (6-0)Louisiana-Lafayette (5-1) at Arkansas
St. (1-5)
FAR WEST
San Jose St. (3-4) at UNLV (0-6)
Friday’s games
EAST
Columbia (4-1) at Dartmouth (5-0)Middle Tennessee (2-4) at Uconn (1-7)
SOUTH
Memphis (4-3) at UCF (3-3)
FAR WEST
Colorado St. (3-3) at Utah St. (4-2)Washington (2-4) at Arizona (0-6)
Saturday’s games
EAST
Wake Forest (6-0) at Army (4-2)Cincinnati (6-0) at Navy (1-5)Illinois (2-5) at Penn St. (5-1)Bryant (4-3) at Wagner (0-6)Morehead St. (4-2) at Marist (3-2)Duquesne (4-1) at Sacred Heart (4-3)LIU Brooklyn (0-5) at CCSU (1-5)Penn (2-3) at Yale (2-3)Harvard (5-0) at Princeton (5-0)Maine (2-4) at Albany (NY) (0-6)Georgetown (1-4) at Bucknell (1-5)Brown (1-4) at Cornell (1-4)Norfolk St. (4-2) at Howard (2-4)Lehigh (0-6) at Fordham (4-3)NC Central (2-4) at Morgan St. (0-6)SC State (2-4) at Delaware St. (3-3)James Madison (5-1) at Delaware (3-3)Richmond (2-4) at Stony Brook (2-5)Rhode Island (5-1) at Villanova (5-1)Clemson (4-2) at Pittsburgh (5-1)Colgate (2-5) vs. Holy Cross (4-2) at Wor-
cester, Mass.
SOUTH
Umass (1-5) at Florida St. (2-4)Syracuse (3-4) at Virginia Tech (3-3)New Hampshire (3-3) at Elon (3-3)Incarnate Word (5-1) at McNeese St.
(2-4)San Diego (3-4) at Presbyterian (2-4)Chattanooga (3-3) at Samford (3-3)Robert Morris (2-3) at Gardner-Webb
(2-4)NC A&T (3-3) at Hampton (2-4)Bethune-Cookman (0-7) at Jackson St.
(5-1)ETSU (6-1) at Furman (4-2)W. Carolina (0-6) at The Citadel (2-4)Texas State (2-4) at Georgia St. (2-4)Va. Lynchburg (0-3) at Tennessee Tech
(2-5)Charleston Southern (2-3) at North Ala-
bama (1-6)
SE Missouri (2-5) at UT Martin (5-1)Austin Peay (2-4) at Murray St. (3-3)LSU (4-3) at Mississippi (5-1)Towson (3-3) at William & Mary (4-2)Rice (2-4) at UAB (5-2)SE Louisiana (5-1) at Northwestern St.
(1-5)Kennesaw St. (5-1) at Campbell (3-3)Florida A&M (4-2) at MVSU (2-4)Mississippi St. (3-3) at Vanderbilt (2-5)Boston College (4-2) at Louisville (3-3)Wofford (1-5) at Mercer (4-2)UTSA (7-0) at Louisiana Tech (2-4)Prairie View (5-1) at Southern U. (3-3)Temple (3-3) at South Florida (1-5)W. Kentucky (2-4) at FIU (1-5)Tennessee (4-3) at Alabama (6-1)South Alabama (4-2) at Louisiana-Mon-
roe (3-3)Georgia Tech (3-3) at Virginia (5-2)NC State (5-1) at Miami (2-4)
MIDWEST
E. Michigan (4-3) at Bowling Green (2-5)N. Illinois (5-2) at Cent. Michigan (4-3)Northwestern (3-3) at Michigan (6-0)Oklahoma (7-0) at Kansas (1-5)Youngstown St. (2-3) at Indiana St. (3-4)Stetson (2-4) at Drake (2-5)Kent St. (3-4) at Ohio (1-6)Dayton (3-3) at Valparaiso (1-5)Davidson (4-1) at Butler (2-5)Illinois St. (2-4) at South Dakota (5-2)Wisconsin (3-3) at Purdue (4-2)Tennessee St. (3-3) at E. Illinois (1-6)W. Illinois (1-6) at North Dakota (2-4)N. Iowa (3-3) at S. Dakota St. (5-1)Oklahoma St. (6-0) at Iowa St. (4-2)Missouri St. (4-2) at N. Dakota St. (6-0)Miami (Ohio) (3-4) at Ball St. (4-3)Buffalo (3-4) at Akron (2-5)W. Michigan (5-2) at Toledo (3-4)Maryland (4-2) at Minnesota (4-2)Southern Cal (3-3) at Notre Dame (5-1)Ohio St. (5-1) at Indiana (2-4)
SOUTHWEST
Ark.-Pine Bluff (1-5) vs. Arkansas (4-3) atLittle Rock, Ark.
Kansas St. (3-3) at Texas Tech (5-2)Jacksonville St. (3-3) at Sam Houston St.
(5-0)Liberty (5-2) at North Texas (1-5)East Carolina (3-3) at Houston (5-1)Midwestern St. (0-0) at Tarleton St. (3-3)Nicholls (2-4) at Houston Baptist (0-6)Cent. Arkansas (2-4) at Lamar (2-4)West Virginia (2-4) at TCU (3-3)South Carolina (4-3) at Texas A&M (5-2)Alcorn St. (4-2) at Texas Southern (2-4)
FAR WEST
Idaho St. (1-5) at Montana St. (6-1)BYU (5-2) at Washington St. (4-3)Oregon (5-1) at UCLA (5-2)New Mexico (2-5) at Wyoming (4-2)Colorado (2-4) at California (1-5)Weber St. (2-4) at E. Washington (7-0)Nevada (5-1) at Fresno St. (5-2)San Diego St. (6-0) at Air Force (6-1)Utah (4-2) at Oregon St. (4-2)Montana (4-2) at Idaho (2-4)N. Colorado (2-5) at S. Utah (1-6)UC Davis (6-1) at Cal Poly (1-5)N. Arizona (3-3) at Sacramento St. (4-2)Stephen F. Austin (3-3) at Dixie St. (0-6)
Sunday’s game
FAR WEST
New Mexico St. (1-6) at Hawaii (3-4)
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
MLS
Eastern Conference
W L T Pts GF GA
New England 20 4 6 66 59 36
Nashville 11 3 15 48 46 26
Philadelphia 12 7 10 46 40 29
Orlando City 12 8 9 45 42 41
Atlanta 11 9 9 42 39 33
D.C. United 12 12 5 41 49 41
CF Montréal 11 10 8 41 42 39
New York City FC 11 11 7 40 44 33
New York 11 11 7 40 35 30
Columbus 10 12 7 37 36 39
Inter Miami CF 9 15 5 32 25 47
Chicago 7 16 7 28 31 48
Toronto FC 6 16 7 25 34 56
Cincinnati 4 17 8 20 29 55
Western Conference
W L T Pts GF GA
Seattle 17 6 6 57 49 25
Sporting Kansas City 15 7 7 52 52 33
Colorado 14 6 9 51 42 31
Portland 14 11 4 46 46 46
Real Salt Lake 12 11 6 42 48 45
LA Galaxy 12 11 6 42 41 46
Minnesota United 11 10 8 41 32 35
Vancouver 10 9 10 40 37 39
Los Angeles FC 10 12 7 37 43 42
San Jose 8 12 9 33 36 47
Houston 6 12 12 30 35 46
FC Dallas 6 13 10 28 39 47
Austin FC 7 18 4 25 29 45
Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie.
Wednesday’s games
Chicago at Cincinnati CF Montréal at Orlando City New York City FC at Atlanta New England at D.C. United
Toronto FC at Miami Los Angeles FC at FC Dallas Philadelphia at Minnesota Columbus at Nashville LA Galaxy at Houston Seattle at Colorado Vancouver at Portland Austin FC at San Jose
Saturday’s games
Sporting Kansas City at Seattle New York at Columbus D.C. United at New York City FC Nashville at Philadelphia CF Montréal at Toronto FC Los Angeles FC at Minnesota Real Salt Lake at Chicago Cincinnati at Miami Portland at Colorado FC Dallas at LA Galaxy Vancouver at San Jose
Sunday, Oct. 24
Houston at Austin FC New England at Orlando City
NWSL
W L T Pts GF GA
Portland 13 6 4 43 33 17
Reign FC 12 8 3 39 34 24
Washington 10 7 6 36 28 26
Chicago 10 8 5 35 27 28
Gotham FC 8 5 8 32 26 18
Houston 9 9 5 32 31 30
North Carolina 9 9 5 32 28 23
Orlando 7 9 7 28 27 31
Louisville 5 12 5 20 19 38
Kansas City 3 13 6 15 14 32
Note: Three points for victory, one pointfor tie.
Friday’s game
Gotham FC at Kansas City
Thursday, Oct. 28
Gotham FC at Louisville
Friday, Oct. 29
Chicago at OrlandoReign FC at Kansas City
SOCCER
DEALS
Tuesday’s Transactions
BASEBALLMajor League Baseball
American LeagueNEW YORK YANKEES — Fired third-base
coach Phil Nevin, hitting coach MarcusThames and assistant hitting coach P.J. Pi-littere. Signed manager Aaron Boone to athree-year contract.
BASKETBALLNational Basketball Association
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS — Signed GGary Payton II.
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES — Exer-cised third-year options on G Anthony Ed-wards and F Jaden McDaniels.
FOOTBALLNational Football League
ARIZONA CARDINALS — Signed DL JoshMauro to the practice squad.
BALTIMORE RAVENS — Placed LT RonnieStanley on injured reserve. Signed RBLe’Veon Bell. Signed G James Carpenterand OLB Joe Thomas to the practicesquad. Released OLB Chris Smith from thepractice squad.
CAROLINA PANTHERS — Signed P RyanWinslow. Placed WR Brandon Zylstra oninjured reserve. Signed RB Reggie Bonna-fon to the practice squad.
CHICAGO BEARS — Placed DB Deon Bushon injured reserve. Placed LB Robert Quinnon the reserve/COVID-19 list. PromotedDB Teez Tabor from the practice squad tothe active roster. Signed RB Chris Thomp-son to the practice squad.
CLEVELAND BROWNS — Promoted RBJohn Kelly from the practice squad to theactive roster. Placed RB Kareem Hunt andLB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah on injuredreserve. Activated WR Ja’Marcus Bradleyfrom injured reserve to the practicesquad.
DALLAS COWBOYS — Waived RB NickRalston. Released DB Isaiah Johnson fromthe practice squad.
DENVER BRONCOS — Placed LB Alexan-der Johnson and OLB Andre Mintze on in-jured reserve. Released WR David Moore.Signed ILBs Curtis Robinson and Barring-ton Wade. Signed LB Pita Taumoepenu tothe practice squad.
GREEN BAY PACKERS — Signed LB AaronAdeoye to the practice squad. ReleasedCB Quinton Dunbar from the practicesquad.
HOUSTON TEXANS — Released DE Whit-ney Mercilus and WR/KR Andre Roberts.Signed LB Connor Strachan to the practicesquad.
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Signed DT Ant-waun Woods. Promoted K Michael Bad-gley from the practice squad to the activeroster. Activated QB Sam Ehlinger from in-jured reserve. Placed WR Parris Campbellon injured reserve. Waived QB Jacob Ea-son and DT Chris Williams. Placed S JordanLucas and CB Marvell Tell III on the prac-tice squad injured reserve.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — Released KJosh Lambo and OL Rashaad Coward.
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — Signed LB Shi-lique Calhoun to the practice squad. Re-leased C Darryl Williams from the practicesquad.
LAS VEGAS RAIDERS — Signed CB Des-mond Turfant.
LOS ANGELES RAMS — Promoted RBBuddy Howell and CB Donte Deayon fromtheir practice squad to the active roster.Placed RB Jake Funk and TE Johnny Mundton injured reserve.
MIAMI DOLPHINS — Signed LB Vince Bie-gel to the practice squad. Released LBShaquem Griffin from the practice squad.
MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Released RBAmeer Abdullah. Designated RB KeneNwangwu return from injured reserve topractice.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — Signed DBMyles Bryant. Placed DL Chase Winovichon injured reserve. Signed K Riley Patter-son to the practice squad.
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — Signed RB La-mar Miller, LB Lakiem Williams and G For-rest Lamp to the practice squad. Designat-ed LB Kwon Alexander, DE Marcus Daven-port and WR Tre’Quan Smith return frominjured reserve to practice.
NEW YORK GIANTS — Placed LT AndrewThomas and WR C.J. Board on injured re-serve. Promoted T Korey Cunningham andWR Dante Pettis from the practice squadto the active roster.
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — PromotedCB Rashard Robinson from the practicesquad to the active roster. Waived OL JohnMolchon. Re-signed WR Jayden Mickensto the practice squad.
TENNESSEE TITANS — Activated S BradyBreeze from injured reserve. Waived PJohnny Townsend. Placed CB Caleb Farleyand WR Cameron Batson on injured re-serve.
WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM — Re-signed K Chris Blewitt to the practicesquad. Signed LB De’Jon Harris to the prac-tice squad.
HOCKEYNational Hockey League
ANAHEIM DUCKS — Recalled C Sam Car-rick and LW Sonny Milano from San Diego(AHL).
EDMONTON OILERS — Assigned C RyanMcLeod to Bakersfield (AHL). ReleasedRW Kirill Madsimov.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS — Recalled LWDmytro Timashov from Bridgeport (AHL)loan.
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS — Assigned DEgor Zamula and C Max Willman to LehighValley (AHL).
SEATTLE KRAKEN — Recalled G JoeyDaccord from Charlotte (AHL). ReturnedRW Kole Lind to Charlotte (AHL). Placed GChris Driedger on injure reserve.
VANCOUVER CANUCKS — Waived LWNic Petan.
WASHINGTON CAPITALS — Assigned GHunter Shepard to South Carolina (ECHL)from Hershey (AHL).
PRO FOOTBALL
NFL
AMERICAN CONFERENCE
East
W L T Pct PF PA
Buffalo 4 2 0 .667 203 98
New England 2 4 0 .333 125 127
N.Y. Jets 1 4 0 .200 67 121
Miami 1 5 0 .167 99 177
South
W L T Pct PF PA
Tennessee 4 2 0 .667 166 161
Indianapolis 2 4 0 .333 139 131
Houston 1 5 0 .167 92 172
Jacksonville 1 5 0 .167 116 172
North
W L T Pct PF PA
Baltimore 5 1 0 .833 170 123
Cincinnati 4 2 0 .667 148 111
Cleveland 3 3 0 .500 156 151
Pittsburgh 3 3 0 .500 117 132
West
W L T Pct PF PA
L.A. Chargers 4 2 0 .667 148 150
Las Vegas 4 2 0 .667 147 144
Denver 3 3 0 .500 126 110
Kansas City 3 3 0 .500 185 176
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
East
W L T Pct PF PA
Dallas 5 1 0 .833 205 146
Philadelphia 2 4 0 .333 137 152
Washington 2 4 0 .333 136 186
N.Y. Giants 1 5 0 .167 114 177
South
W L T Pct PF PA
Tampa Bay 5 1 0 .833 195 144
New Orleans 3 2 0 .600 127 91
Carolina 3 3 0 .500 143 121
Atlanta 2 3 0 .400 105 148
North
W L T Pct PF PA
Green Bay 5 1 0 .833 144 136
Chicago 3 3 0 .500 98 124
Minnesota 3 3 0 .500 147 137
Detroit 0 6 0 .000 109 172
West
W L T Pct PF PA
Arizona 6 0 0 1.000 194 109
L.A. Rams 5 1 0 .833 179 127
San Francisco 2 3 0 .400 117 119
Seattle 2 4 0 .333 140 149
Sunday, Oct. 17
Jacksonville 23, Miami 20, London, UKBaltimore 34, L.A. Chargers 6Cincinnati 34, Detroit 11Green Bay 24, Chicago 14Indianapolis 31, Houston 3Kansas City 31, Washington 13L.A. Rams 38, N.Y. Giants 11Minnesota 34, Carolina 28, OTArizona 37, Cleveland 14Dallas 35, New England 29, OTLas Vegas 34, Denver 24Pittsburgh 23, Seattle 20, OT
Monday’s game
Tennessee 34, Buffalo 31
Thursday’s game
Denver at Cleveland
Sunday’s games
Atlanta at MiamiCarolina at N.Y. GiantsCincinnati at BaltimoreKansas City at TennesseeN.Y. Jets at New EnglandWashington at Green BayDetroit at L.A. RamsPhiladelphia at Las VegasChicago at Tampa BayHouston at ArizonaIndianapolis at San FranciscoOpen: Buffalo, Jacksonville, L.A. Char-
gers, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Minnesota
Monday’s game
New Orleans at Seattle
TENNIS
Kremlin Cup
WednesdayAt Olympic Stadium
MoscowPurse: $697,125
Surface: Hardcourt indoorMen’s SinglesRound of 32
Federico Coria, Argentina, def. AlibekKachmazov, Russia, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
Men’s DoublesRound of 16
Santiago Gonzalez, Mexico, and AndresMolteni, Argentina, def. Andrey Golubev,Kazakhstan, and Hugo Nys (2), Monaco,7-5, 6-7 (6), 10-7.
Six schools from Conference
USA, including UAB, Texas-San
Antonio and Florida Atlantic, have
applied for membership to the
American Athletic Conference
and are expected to be accepted by
the end of the week, according to
two people with knowledge of the
process.
Rice, North Texas and Charlotte
also have applied for membership,
said the people who spoke to The
Associated Press on condition of
anonymity Wednesday because
the league was not yet prepared to
make its expansion plans public.
The American was in the market
for new members after three of its
most successful schools, Cincinna-
ti, Houston and Central Florida,
announced in September they
would be joining the Big 12.
Those moves are expected to
happen by the 2023 football sea-
son, and the American hopes to
have its six new members in place
when the departing schools leave.
The end result would be a 14-
team conference, with four
schools in Texas — the three new
members and SMU.
The American targeted schools
based in large media markets and
fertile recruiting territory for foot-
ball.
UAB has been C-USA’s most
consistent winner in recent sea-
sons, playing in three straight
league title games and winning
two. It has been a remarkable
bounce back for a program that
was terminated after the 2014 sea-
son but returned to competition in
2017.
FAU, located in Boca Raton,
Fla., won Conference USA titles in
2017 and ’19 under then-coach
Lane Kiffin.
North Texas, based in Denton,
played for a C-USA title in 2017.
UTSA is a relatively new major
college football program. The Roa-
drunners’ first season was 2011,
but they already have played in
two bowl games and are currently
undefeated and ranked No. 24 in
the AP poll.
Charlotte is also a newcomer to
the highest tier of Division I foot-
ball, having joined in 2013.
Rice, a Houston-based private
school, has the longest history of
major college football competition
among the six schools heading to
the American. The Owls were once
a member of the Southwest Con-
ference with schools such as Texas
and Arkansas.
C-USA has been a frequent tar-
get when the American, formerly
the Big East, has needed to recon-
stitute.
Sources: 6from C-USAexpectedto join AAC
BY RALPH D. RUSSO
Associated Press
PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
NHL
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Florida 3 3 0 0 6 14 11
Buffalo 3 3 0 0 6 12 9
Detroit 3 2 0 1 5 13 10
Toronto 4 2 1 1 5 8 6
Ottawa 3 2 1 0 4 7 6
Tampa Bay 4 2 2 0 4 12 6
Boston 1 1 0 0 2 3 3
Montreal 4 0 4 0 0 3 6
Metropolitan Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Pittsburgh 4 2 0 2 6 16 7
Washington 3 2 0 1 5 12 9
N.Y. Rangers 4 2 1 1 5 8 2
Carolina 2 2 0 0 4 9 6
New Jersey 2 2 0 0 4 8 6
Columbus 3 2 1 0 4 11 14
Philadelphia 2 1 0 1 3 10 10
N.Y. Islanders 3 1 2 0 2 8 1
Western Conference
Central Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Minnesota 3 3 0 0 6 11 5
St. Louis 2 2 0 0 4 12 0
Dallas 4 2 2 0 4 8 1
Nashville 3 1 2 0 2 7 6
Colorado 3 1 2 0 2 10 13
Winnipeg 3 0 2 1 1 9 6
Arizona 3 0 2 1 1 7 4
Chicago 4 0 3 1 1 8 4
Pacific Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Edmonton 3 3 0 0 6 14 13
San Jose 2 2 0 0 4 9 4
Anaheim 4 2 2 0 4 13 11
Vancouver 4 1 2 1 3 10 5
Seattle 5 1 3 1 3 11 4
Vegas 2 1 1 0 2 6 4
Los Angeles 3 1 2 0 2 9 10
Calgary 2 0 1 1 1 4 2
Tuesday’s games
Buffalo 5, Vancouver 2San Jose 5, Montreal 0Dallas 2, Pittsburgh 1, SOFlorida 4, Tampa Bay 1Washington 6, Colorado 3New Jersey 4, Seattle 2Detroit 4, Columbus 1Nashville 2, Los Angeles 1N.Y. Islanders 4, Chicago 1Minnesota 6, Winnipeg 5, OTEdmonton 6, Anaheim 5
Wednesday’s games
Boston at PhiladelphiaSt. Louis at Vegas
Thursday’s games
Carolina at MontrealColorado at FloridaN.Y. Islanders at ColumbusSan Jose at OttawaWashington at New JerseyCalgary at DetroitAnaheim at WinnipegN.Y. Rangers at NashvilleVancouver at ChicagoEdmonton at Arizona
Friday’s games
San Jose at TorontoBoston at BuffaloLos Angeles at DallasEdmonton at Vegas
Scoreboard
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jeff Skinner
and Tage Thompson scored 23 sec-
onds apart in the third period and
the Buffalo Sabres rallied to beat
the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on
Tuesday night.
Buffalo’s alternate captains,
Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgen-
sons, each added a goal and an as-
sist, and Craig Anderson made 32
saves. After finishing in last place
for the fourth time in eight seasons,
the Sabres are 3-0 for the first time
since 2008 and the fifth time in fran-
chise history.
“You go through ups and downs
and you got to keep this momentum
when you have it,” said Okposo,
who scored his 200th NHL goal and
has recorded a point in eight
straight games against the Ca-
nucks. “So we’re just hoping to con-
tinue to keep that confidence for the
season. We know it’s going to dip at
some points.
“We have a young group. But if
we continue to practice well and
have games like that, it’s going to be
fun.”
Bo Horvat and Justin Dowling
scored for Vancouver in the team’s
second straight loss.
Skinner scored on a rebound 3:33
into the third, lifting a backhand
shot from his knees over his shoul-
der — and Demko’s glove — to give
Buffalo its first lead of the game.
“Great goal,” Okposo said. “Not
many guys in the world that can
spin it around and tuck it top shelf.”
While Skinner’s goal was being
announced during the next shift,
Thompson knocked in a rebound
from the the left side of the crease to
make it 4-2. Rasmus Asplund add-
ed a goal into the empty net with
2:55 remaining.
Stars 2, Penguins 1 (SO): Joe
Pavelski and Alexander Radulov
scored in a shootout, lifting visiting
Dallas past Pittsburgh in the start of
the Stars’ season-opening four-
game trip.
Michael Raffl scored his second
goal of the season for Dallas. Goal-
tender Braden Holtby turned aside
27 shots in regulation and overtime,
and stopped Jake Guentzel and
Kris Letang in the shootout as the
Stars ended a five-game losing
streak in Pittsburgh.
Devils 4, Kraken 2:Rookie Daw-
son Mercer and Damon Severson
scored first-period goals and Jo-
nathan Bernier made 27 saves,
leading host New Jersey to a win
over Seattle.
The Kraken slipped to 1-3-1 on
their five-game road trip ahead of
the much-anticipated home opener
against Vancouver on Saturday.
Jimmy Vesey added a goal and
Pavel Zacha scored into an empty
net with 20 second left.
Sharks 5, Canadiens 0: Rookie
Jonathan Dahlen scored his first
two goals in his second career
game, and visiting San Jose
blanked Montreal.
Erik Karlsson and Timo Meir
each had a goal and two assists for
the Sharks.
The Canadiens lost their fourth
straight to start a season for the first
time since 1995.
Panthers 4, Lightning 1: Alek-
sander Barkov scored the go-ahead
goal 3:40 into the third period and
visiting Florida won its third
straight game.
Barkov slammed a loose puck in
the crease past Andrei Vasilevskiy
for his second of the season. It came
1:04 after Tampa Bay tied it 1-all on
Brayden Point’s goal.
The Panthers also got goals from
defenseman Brandon Montour,
Anton Lundell and Anthony Du-
clair.
Red Wings 4, Blue Jackets 1:
Lucas Raymond made his first
NHL goal a big one for host Detroit,
breaking a scoreless tie at 6:38 of
the third period on the way to a vic-
tory over Columbus.
The 19-year-old Raymond, the
fourth overall pick in the 2020 draft
from Gothenburg, Sweden, assist-
ed on Tyler Bertuzzi’s fifth goal of
the season.
Predators 2, Kings 1: Matt Du-
chene and Tanner Jeannot scored
in the third period in host Nash-
ville’s win over Los Angeles.
Predators goalie Juuse Saros
made 25 saves.
Anze Kopitar had the lone goal
and Calvin Petersen made 29 saves
for the Kings.
Islanders 4, Blackhawks 1: Ilya
Sorokin made 39 saves and Oliver
Wahlstrom scored twice in the
third period, helping visiting New
York beat Chicago for its first victo-
ry of the season.
Anthony Beauvillier and Cal
Clutterbuck also scored as New
York improved to 1-2-0 on its open-
ing 13-game road trip. The Islan-
ders don’t play their first home
game at the new UBS Arena until
Nov. 20.
The Blackhawks have been out-
scored 17-8 this season. They
haven’t led in any of their four
games.
Oilers 6, Ducks 5: Leon Drai-
saitl had two goals and two assists
and host Edmonton extended its
season-opening winning streak to
three games with a win over Ana-
heim.
The Oilers’ Mike Smith stopped
11 of 15 shots before leaving mid-
way through the second period with
an apparent injury. He was re-
placed by Mikko Koskinen, who
had 20 saves in the win.
Wild 6, Jets 5 (OT): Joel Eriksson
Ek had a hat trick, tying the game
with 59 seconds remaining in regu-
lation and winning it on a power
play in overtime as host Minnesota
stunned Winnipeg.
Eriksson Ek scored the equalizer
just 15 seconds after an empty-net-
ter by Jets center Mark Scheifele
was wiped out by an offside call that
came from a replay challenge by
the Wild.
Mats Zuccarello had two goals
and two assists, Marcus Foligno
scored on a power play with 4:58
left in regulation and Kirill Kapri-
zov had three assists for Minnesota.
Kyle Connor had two goals and
an assist to fuel an eight-point night
for Winnipeg’s new first line with-
out captain Blake Wheeler, who
tested positive for COVID-19 and
will miss at least three more games.
ROUNDUP
Unbeaten Sabres rally past Canucks
JEFFREY T. BARNES/AP
Buffalo’s Tage Thompson, right, carries the puck past Vancouver’s BoHorvat. Thompson’s thirdperiod goal helped the Sabres rally Tuesday.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Evgeny Kuznetsov
skated to the bench after a turnover cost the
Washington Capitals a goal against and
wanted to slink into the ground.
None of his coaches or teammates said a
thing, but it took until he scored his second
goal of the game on the way to the Capitals
beating the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 Tues-
day night that Kuznetsov finally felt better.
He was the most noticeable player on the ice,
finishing with three points after an assist on
Alex Ovechkin’s empty-netter for career
goal No. 734 and looking like the player
Washington needs him to be.
“The confidence always goes from the
coaches and teammates,” said Kuznetsov,
who is tied with Ovechkin for the team lead
in scoring with six points through three
games. “I feel like I have a great relationship
with the coaches and teammates, and that
always gives you a lot of confidence when
you can be creative.”
Kuznetsov dazzled from his first shift on,
skating around defenders with ease and
showing off the talent that made him the
Capitals’ leading scorer on their 2018 Stan-
ley Cup run. It was only fitting he brought
back his flapping wings bird celebration on a
night that he showed the best he could offer.
Especially without top center Nicklas
Backstrom for at least their first 10 games-
,Washington will take every bit of the good
and bad of Kuznetsov if he produces like
this. And it could have been even more be-
cause teammates kept trying to set Kuznet-
sov up for the hat trick in the third period, but
that’s the last thing he wanted.
“I’m not a shooter,” he said. “I always say
one goal for four games and I’m all set: get 20
in a year, so now I’m all set for 10 games
probably.”
Fourth-liner Nic Dowd shook his head and
told Kuznetsov the Capitals don’t want him
settling.
“We need more,” Dowd said. “A goal ev-
ery game would be perfect.”
Nick Jensen, Anthony Mantha and Dowd
also scored for Washington before Ovechkin
sent the puck into an empty net from 143 feet
to continue his quest for the career goals re-
cord. Mantha’s goal was the 100th of his ca-
reer and ended a 17-game drought counting
the playoffs and the end of last season.
“It’s been a long time,” Mantha said after
his first goal since April 18. “From 99 to 100,
it was hard.”
The Capitals spoiled Avalanche star
Nathan MacKinnon’s first game of the sea-
son after he missed the past week in NHL
COVID protocol. MacKinnon, fellow top-
line forward Mikko Rantanen and Norris
Trophy finalist Cale Makar were each on the
ice for four goals against.
Colorado coach Jared Bednar called it a
“bad night” for some of his top players.
“I thought we got outcompeted in a lot of
areas, so we gave up way too much,” Bednar
said. “I just thought they were the faster, big-
ger, stronger and hungrier team tonight,
start to finish.”
Kuznetsov scores twice as Caps beat AvsBY STEPHEN WHYNO
Associated Press
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21
NFL
NFC Individual Leaders
Quarterbacks
Att Com Yds TD Int
Brady, TB 267 183 2064 17 3
Stafford, LAR 200 139 1838 16 4
Prescott, Dal 216 158 1813 16 4
Cousins, Min 239 166 1769 13 2
K.Murray, Ari 195 144 1741 14 4
Darnold, Car 224 137 1573 7 7
Jones, NYG 208 130 1524 4 4
Goff, Det 238 159 1505 7 4
Hurts, Phi 208 130 1480 8 4
Aa.Rodgers, GB 186 124 1436 12 3
Rushers
Att Yds Avg LG TD
Elliott, Dal 102 521 5.1 47 5
Jones, GB 83 385 4.6 57 2
Henderson, LAR 81 372 4.6 29 4
Kamara, NO 94 368 3.9 23t 1
Cook, Min 80 366 4.6 23 2
Pollard, Dal 61 366 6.0 28 1
Gibson, Was 89 357 4.0 27 3
Fournette, TB 78 332 4.3 21 3
Edmonds, Ari 53 316 6.0 54 0
Montgomery, Chi 69 309 4.5 41 3
Receivers
No Yds Avg LG TD
Adams, GB 46 668 14.5 59 2
Kupp, LAR 46 653 14.2 56t 7
Samuel, SF 31 548 17.7 79t 3
Jefferson, Min 41 542 13.2 37 3
Moore, Car 40 513 12.8 39 3
Lamb, Dal 33 497 15.1 49t 4
Metcalf, Sea 31 441 14.2 30 5
McLaurin, Was 33 428 13.0 37 3
Lockett, Sea 27 425 15.7 69t 3
Evans, TB 31 420 13.5 34t 4
Punters
No Yds Lg Avg
Fox, Det 24 1235 67 51.5
Lee, Ari 20 1012 60 50.6
Scoring
Touchdowns
TD Rush Rec Ret Pts
Kupp, LAR 7 0 7 0 42
Elliott, Dal 6 5 1 0 36
Kicking
PAT FG LG Pts
Prater, Ari 23/23 11/14 62 56
Zuerlein, Dal 19/21 12/15 56 55
Weekly statistics
AFC Individual Leaders
Quarterbacks
Att Com Yds TD Int
Carr, Las 232 149 1946 10 4
Mahomes, KC 242 167 1887 18 8
Herbert, LAC 246 161 1771 14 4
Allen, Buf 230 149 1723 15 3
Jackson, Bal 194 131 1686 9 5
Wentz, Ind 193 124 1545 9 1
Burrow, Cin 174 123 1540 14 7
Roethlisberger, Pit 235 153 1515 7 4
Bridgewater, Den 198 139 1514 10 4
Mayfield, Cle 173 116 1474 6 3
Rushers
Att Yds Avg LG TD
Henry, Ten 162 783 4.8 76t 10
Chubb, Cle 90 523 5.8 52t 4
Mixon, Cin 111 480 4.3 27 3
Taylor, Ind 87 472 5.4 83 4
J.Robinson, Jac 84 460 5.5 58 5
Jackson, Bal 64 392 6.1 31 2
Harris, Pit 102 388 3.8 20 2
Hunt, Cle 69 361 5.2 33 5
Ekeler, LAC 73 356 4.9 20 4
Gordon, Den 70 332 4.7 70t 2
Receivers
No Yds Avg LG TD
Hill, KC 46 592 12.9 75t 5
Chase, Cin 27 553 20.5 70t 5
Williams, LAC 33 498 15.1 72t 6
Brown, Bal 32 486 15.2 49t 5
Cooks, Hou 40 481 12.0 52 1
Sutton, Den 33 471 14.3 55 2
Andrews, Bal 34 468 13.8 41 3
Kelce, KC 38 468 12.3 46t 4
Diggs, Buf 37 463 12.5 61 2
Ruggs, Las 20 445 22.3 61t 2
Punters
No Yds Lg Avg
Cole, Las 27 1430 71 53.0
Bailey, NE 21 1008 68 48.0
Scoring
Touchdowns
TD Rush Rec Ret Pts
Henry, Ten 10 10 0 0 60
Ekeler, LAC 7 4 3 0 42
Kicking
PAT FG LG Pts
Bass, Buf 21/21 14/15 52 63
Tucker, Bal 13/13 13/14 66 52
AFC team statistics
AVERAGE PER GAMEOFFENSE
Yards Rush Pass
Kansas City 433.5 125.0 308.5
Baltimore 421.7 155.2 266.5
Buffalo 411.5 130.7 280.8
Cleveland 396.3 168.5 227.8
Las Vegas 385.2 79.8 305.3
Tennessee 384.7 164.2 220.5
L.A. Chargers 377.5 94.7 282.8
Denver 368.3 117.5 250.8
Indianapolis 367.5 124.2 243.3
Jacksonville 356.0 121.8 234.2
Cincinnati 344.5 106.2 238.3
Pittsburgh 323.8 81.2 242.7
New England 322.3 86.7 235.7
Houston 294.3 87.2 207.2
Miami 290.0 71.5 218.5
N.Y. Jets 267.0 74.0 193.0
DEFENSE
Yards Rush Pass
Buffalo 270.2 89.7 180.5
Cleveland 307.7 87.0 220.7
Denver 314.7 85.5 229.2
Cincinnati 331.0 90.5 240.5
Pittsburgh 352.3 107.7 244.7
Las Vegas 353.3 130.7 222.7
New England 359.2 112.8 246.3
Baltimore 359.3 82.0 277.3
L.A. Chargers 364.3 162.5 201.8
Indianapolis 366.5 111.0 255.5
N.Y. Jets 372.8 123.4 249.4
Tennessee 384.0 107.7 276.3
Houston 391.3 141.3 250.0
Kansas City 410.5 133.2 277.3
Jacksonville 412.2 114.3 297.8
Miami 417.8 125.3 292.5
NFC team statisticsAVERAGE PER GAME
OFFENSE
Yards Rush Pass
Dallas 460.8 164.3 296.5
Tampa Bay 426.0 85.3 340.7
Minnesota 414.2 127.8 286.3
Arizona 403.0 130.7 272.3
L.A. Rams 401.0 103.5 297.5
San Francisco 368.2 122.0 246.2
N.Y. Giants 360.7 89.8 270.8
Carolina 354.0 109.5 244.5
Philadelphia 346.0 113.7 232.3
Atlanta 345.6 91.0 254.6
Seattle 344.0 110.7 233.3
Green Bay 343.5 109.5 234.0
Washington 336.2 106.3 229.8
Detroit 321.0 91.8 229.2
New Orleans 295.2 125.8 169.4
Chicago 246.2 129.0 117.2
DEFENSE
Yards Rush Pass
Carolina 308.3 111.5 196.8
Green Bay 315.0 108.5 206.5
San Francisco 329.8 113.2 216.6
Chicago 330.8 112.2 218.7
Tampa Bay 335.7 54.8 280.8
Arizona 342.8 128.0 214.8
Philadelphia 347.2 135.3 211.8
Atlanta 352.6 108.2 244.4
New Orleans 354.0 79.0 275.0
Minnesota 358.3 128.0 230.3
L.A. Rams 367.0 107.7 259.3
Dallas 381.2 86.2 295.0
Detroit 384.5 132.2 252.3
N.Y. Giants 401.3 137.2 264.2
Washington 423.0 113.5 309.5
Seattle 433.2 140.8 292.3
CLEVELAND — Baker May-
field had to surrender to the pain.
Cleveland’s starting quarter-
back, who has played the past four
weeks with a torn labrum in his
left shoulder, will sit out Thurs-
day’s game against the Denver
Broncos and backup Case Kee-
num will start.
The Browns (3-3) announced
the switch on Wednesday, ending
speculation about whether May-
field would try to push through an
injury to his non-throwing shoul-
der that he suffered last month
and has worsened in recent
weeks.
“Case Keenum will be our start-
er tomorrow night and we have
full confidence in him to lead us
and do the things necessary to put
us in position to win,” Browns
coach Kevin Stefanski said. “Bak-
er fought really hard to play, he’s a
competitor and obviously wants to
be out there but just couldn’t make
it on a short week.
“We know he will continue to do
everything in his power to return
as quickly as possible.”
Mayfield was limited in prac-
tice on Tuesday, when he said he
still expected to play. However, it
was decided it would be best for
him to rest, ending Mayfield’s
streak of 53 consecutive starts for
Cleveland.
The loss of Mayfield means the
Browns’ entire starting backfield
has been wiped out by injuries.
Not only will they be missing
Mayfield against the Broncos
(3-3) in an important game for
both teams, but running backs
Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt,
the NFL’s top running back tan-
dem, also will sit out with calf in-
juries.
Cleveland could be missing star
receiver Odell Beckham Jr. as
well due to a shoulder injury, and
starting offensive tackles Jack
Conklin (knee) and Jedrick Wills
Jr. (ankle) haven’t practiced this
week and could be game-time de-
cisions.
On Tuesday, Mayfield was still
planning to play despite a shoul-
der tear that was affecting his play
and sleep. The 26-year-old under-
went an MRI on Monday and the
results were examined by a shoul-
der specialist.
Mayfield is dealing with swell-
ing that needs to go down before
he can strengthen the injured ar-
ea.
The 2017 Heisman Trophy win-
ner hasn’t missed a game due to
injury since 2013 when he was a
walk-on at Texas Tech.
Mayfield was adamant that the
decision on whether he would play
would be his alone, but also under-
stood he needed to do what was
best for the Browns.
“I have to make that decision.
Only I know how my body feels,”
he said. “And if anyone questions
whether I’m hindering the team in
going out there injured, that’s just
not right. So it’s my decision, I get
to say whether I’m able to play or
not, and that’s just how it is.”
By sitting out against the Bron-
cos, Mayfield will have some extra
time to rest and heal because the
Browns don’t play again until Oct.
31 against Pittsburgh.
Mayfield has been wearing a
harness to stabilize his shoulder
since getting hurt on Sept. 19. He
said Tuesday that the pain in his
shoulder had increased after he
twice had it pop out in Sunday’s
loss to Houston.
Mayfield had several uneven
performances since getting hurt
while trying to make a tackle after
an interception. His completion
percentage has plummeted in re-
cent weeks and he had three turn-
overs — two fumbles and a pick —
against the Texans.
Keenum has made 62 career
NFL starts, most recently for
Washington in 2019. The 33-year-
old was signed as a free agent be-
fore last season by the Browns to
back up and serve as a mentor for
Mayfield.
He also had a strong knowledge
of Cleveland’s offense after work-
ing with Stefanski in Minnesota.
Keenum had his best season in
2017 with the Vikings, passing for
3,547 yards with 22 touchdowns
and seven interceptions. He has
thrown just 13 passes in four
games in two years with the
Browns.
Nick Mullens is expected to be
elevated from the practice squad
to serve as Keenum’s backup.
Broncos expect
Bridgewater to startTeddy Bridgewater gingerly
limped out to practice Tuesday
and then stumbled onto the podi-
um afterward, still feeling the ef-
fects of the battering he endured
48 hours earlier.
“Oh! Short week. Almost fell,”
said Bridgewater, who was hit 17
times Sunday by the Las Vegas
Raiders.
What really left Bridgewater
hurting, however, was right guard
Graham Glasgow, who stepped on
his left foot just as he delivered a
late touchdown pass to Noah Fant
that made Denver's deflating 34-
24 loss look a little less one-sided.
The Broncos (3-3) are expecting
Bridgewater to start Thursday
night at Cleveland, where the
Browns (3-3) are dealing with a
similar rash of injuries and suspi-
cions about their season being on
the brink.
Broncos coach Vic Fangio said
Tuesday's indoor walkthrough
wasn't strenuous, so Wednesday's
workout would be a better indica-
tor of Bridgewater's mobility.
“My understanding is he’ll be
ready to go,” Broncos offensive
coordinator Pat Shurmur said.
When asked if there were any
questions in his mind about start-
ing, Bridgewater didn't give a di-
rect answer: “Honestly, we're just
hitting it aggressively in the train-
ing room right now and I'm locked
in on this game plan with the
mindset of going out there and
competing and trying to win a
football game.”
Browns’ Mayfield pulled withtorn labrum, Keenum to start
PHELAN M. EBENHACK/AP
Case Keenum will be the Browns’ starter in Thursday’s game againstthe Denver Broncos. Cleveland starter Baker Mayfield is out with ashoulder injury, ending speculation about whether Mayfield would tryto push through an injury to his nonthrowing shoulder that hesuffered last month and has worsened in recent weeks.
BY TOM WITHERS
Associated Press
PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
NBA
Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division
W L Pct GB
Boston 0 0 .000 —
New York 0 0 .000 —
Philadelphia 0 0 .000 —
Toronto 0 0 .000 —
Brooklyn 0 1 .000 ½
Southeast Division
W L Pct GB
Atlanta 0 0 .000 —
Charlotte 0 0 .000 —
Miami 0 0 .000 —
Orlando 0 0 .000 —
Washington 0 0 .000 —
Central Division
W L Pct GB
Milwaukee 1 01.000 —
Chicago 0 0 .000 ½
Cleveland 0 0 .000 ½
Detroit 0 0 .000 ½
Indiana 0 0 .000 ½
Western ConferenceSouthwest Division
W L Pct GB
Dallas 0 0 .000 —
Houston 0 0 .000 —
Memphis 0 0 .000 —
New Orleans 0 0 .000 —
San Antonio 0 0 .000 —
Northwest Division
W L Pct GB
Denver 0 0 .000 —
Minnesota 0 0 .000 —
Oklahoma City 0 0 .000 —
Portland 0 0 .000 —
Utah 0 0 .000 —
Pacific Division
W L Pct GB
Golden State 1 01.000 —
L.A. Clippers 0 0 .000 ½
Phoenix 0 0 .000 ½
Sacramento 0 0 .000 ½
L.A. Lakers 0 1 .000 1
Tuesday’s games
Milwaukee 127, Brooklyn 104Golden State 121, L.A. Lakers 114
Wednesday’s games
Chicago at DetroitIndiana at CharlotteBoston at New YorkWashington at TorontoCleveland at MemphisHouston at MinnesotaPhiladelphia at New OrleansOrlando at San AntonioOklahoma City at UtahDenver at PhoenixSacramento at Portland
Thursday’s games
Dallas at AtlantaMilwaukee at MiamiL.A. Clippers at Golden State
Friday’s games
Charlotte at ClevelandIndiana at WashingtonNew York at OrlandoBrooklyn at PhiladelphiaToronto at BostonNew Orleans at ChicagoOklahoma City at HoustonSan Antonio at DenverPhoenix at L.A. LakersUtah at Sacramento
Scoreboard
LOS ANGELES — Opening night
in Hollywood went well for three
quarters for Los Angeles Lakers su-
perstars LeBron James and Antho-
ny Davis against Stephen Curry
and the Golden State Warriors.
But it was a flop for their new sup-
porting cast, including L.A. native
and former league MVP Russell
Westbrook.
Curry, a two-time MVP, had 21
points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists
for the Warriors, who rallied from
10 points down to stun the Lakers
121-114 in a season opener Tuesday
night.
The Lakers went cold in the
fourth quarter, and surrendered
the lead halfway through the peri-
od.
James had 34 points and 11 re-
bounds, while Davis had 33 points
and 11 rebounds. No other Lakers
scored in double figures.
“Those two guys were spectacu-
lar," coach Frank Vogel said. “We're
going to be pretty good if we get
those type of performances. We just
have to be better defensively. This
is a team that is all new to each oth-
er, so everybody's finding their way
a little bit.”
Wesbrook shot just 4-for-13 for
eight points in his Lakers debut.
“Him more than anybody, it's go-
ing to be an adjustment period," Vo-
gel said. “He's coming into our cul-
ture, our system, he's the new guy,
he's got to find his way. It's difficult,
when you're used to being the guy
that has the ball most nights, to be
able to play off others like LeBron
and A.D. It's just a little bit different
for him. He's going to be great for us
but it's going to be an adjustment pe-
riod."
James and Davis said they
helped console Westbrook after-
ward.
“I told Russ to go home and watch
acomedy,” James said. “Put a smile
on his face. Don’t be so hard on him-
self.”
The Lakers had an 84-74 lead late
in the third quarter after a jumper
by Kent Bazemore, but the War-
riors slowly closed the gap.
“We didn't finish quarters well
the whole night," Vogel said. “We
gave up a 38-point fourth quarter. If
you do that you're going to lose most
nights. Our defense is just not on a
string yet. I thought we did a good
job being up on Steph, but the back
side was much better in the first
half than the second half.”
Curry made three free throws in
the closing seconds of the third
quarter after he was fouled taking a
3-pointer, and Jordan Poole and
Damion Lee hit three-pointers
early in the fourth.
Poole’s layup with 9:17 left put the
Warriors ahead for good at 91-90,
and he finished with 20 points. The
Warriors expanded the lead to 98-
90 before the Lakers twice closed
within two points.
But Curry and Nemanja Bjelica
each hit 3-pointers to give the War-
riors some breathing room. Bjelica
had 15 points and 11 rebounds, while
Lee also scored 15 points.
“We kept our composure and
didn't turn the ball over in the sec-
ond half, which was a huge benefit
to just maintaining the pace and giv-
ing ourselves some looks,” Curry
said. “But the fact that everybody
who was on the floor contributed in
a meaningful way kind of speaks to
our depth and how we want to play
going forward. We're excited about
that and it's good to be 1-0.”
RINGO H.W. CHIU/AP
Warriors guard Stephen Curry shoots over Lakers forward CarmeloAnthony on Tuesday. The Warriors won 121114.
Curry, Warriorsrally to stun LA
BY BERNIE WILSON
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — Giannis An-
tetokounmpo and the Milwaukee
Bucks didn’t let the celebration of
the franchise’s first NBA cham-
pionship in half a century distract
them as they opened their title de-
fense.
In his first game since scoring
50 points in a title-clinching Game
6 NBA Finals victory over the
Phoenix Suns, Antetokounmpo
had 32 points, 14 rebounds and
seven assists to lead the Bucks to a
127-104 victory over the Brooklyn
Nets on Tuesday night.
“We’re part of history,” Anteto-
kounmpo said. “I’m excited. But
now it’s over with. We’ve got to fo-
cus on building good habits, keep
moving forward and keep playing
good basketball and hopefully we
can repeat this again this year,
next year and all the years that
we’re going to be here down the
road.”
Khris Middleton and Pat Con-
naughton each added 20 points to
help the Bucks withstand the loss
of Jrue Holiday, who sat out the
second half with a bruised right
heel after scoring 12 points. Bucks
coach Mike Budenholzer said
MRI results on Holiday were en-
couraging.
Kevin Durant led the Nets with
32 points and 11 rebounds. Patty
Mills scored 21 points and shot 7-
for-7 from three-point range.
James Harden added 20 points.
“We weren’t very good,” Brook-
lyn coach Steve Nash said. “If
you’re not playing at a high level
against the champs, you’re not go-
ing to win.”
The Nets were missing star
guard Kyrie Irving, who isn’t with
the team due to his refusal to get a
COVID-19 vaccine.
A New York mandate requires
professional athletes on local
teams to be vaccinated to practice
or play in public venues. Rather
than using Irving exclusively in
road games, the Nets decided he
wouldn’t play or practice with
them at all until he could be a full
participant.
After receiving their rings, rais-
ing a banner and watching a high-
light video of their first NBA
championship since 1971, the
Bucks defeated the team that
nearly eliminated them in the sec-
ond round of the playoffs. Anteto-
kounmpo acknowledged that he
teared up a little bit during the
pregame ceremony.
“When they were playing those
videos, you cannot help yourself
but get emotional,” Anteto-
kounmpo said. “Looking back to
the journey, where we started
from and where we are right
now.”
Milwaukee rallied from a 2-0
deficit and won Game 7 at Brook-
lyn in overtime after Durant’s foot
barely crept across the 3-point arc
in the final seconds of regulation,
turning a potential series-winning
three-pointer into a game-tying 2-
point basket.
The Bucks went on a 21-4 run in
the first quarter to extend a 10-8
advantage to 31-12. They got the
lead back up to 19 again in the sec-
ond quarter and were ahead 66-59
at halftime. The lead never drop-
ped below seven the rest of the
way.
Fancy ringsMilwaukee’s championship
rings include the messages “Fear
The Deer” and “Bucks In 6.” The
latter slogan has served as a rally-
ing cry among fans ever since for-
mer Bucks guard Brandon Jen-
nings used those words while in-
correctly predicting the outcome
of Milwaukee’s 2013 first-round
series with the eventual NBA
champion Miami Heat.
Jennings and former Bucks
guard Michael Redd were both in
the crowd.
The rings, designed by Jason of
Beverly Hills, have 360 diamonds
on the top to represent the Bucks’
total wins under current owner-
ship. There are 16 emerald-shape
diamonds on each side, symboliz-
ing their 16 playoff wins last sea-
son and their 16 division titles in
franchise history.
MORRY GASH/AP
The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, left, looks for a shot as the Nets’Blake Griffin defends during the first half on Tuesday.
Bucks celebrate,roll past Nets
BY STEVE MEGAERGEE
Associated Press
Thursday, October 21, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23
MLB PLAYOFFS
Playoffsx-if necessary
WILD CARDAmerican League
Boston 6, New York 2National League
Los Angeles 3, St. Louis 1DIVISION SERIES
(Best-of-five)American League
Boston 3, Tampa Bay 1Tampa Bay 5, Boston 0Boston 14, Tampa Bay 6Boston 6, Tampa Bay 4, 13 inningsBoston 6, Tampa Bay 5
Houston 3, Chicago 1Houston 6, Chicago 1Houston 9, Chicago 4Chicago 12, Houston 6Houston 10, Chicago 1
National LeagueLos Angeles 3, San Francisco 2
San Francisco 4, Los Angeles 0Los Angeles 9, San Francisco 2San Francisco 1, Los Angeles 0Los Angeles 7, San Francisco 2Los Angeles 2, San Francisco 1
Atlanta 3, Milwaukee 1Milwaukee 2, Atlanta 1Atlanta 3, Milwaukee 0Atlanta 3, Milwaukee 0Atlanta 5, Milwaukee 4
LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES(Best-of-seven)
American LeagueBoston 2, Houston 2
Houston 5, Boston 4Boston 9, Houston 5Boston 12, Houston 3Tuesday: Houston 9, Boston 2 Wednesday: at Boston Friday: at HoustonAFN-Sports, 2 a.m.
Saturday CET; 9 a.m. Saturday JKTx-Saturday: at Houston
National LeagueAtlanta 2, Los Angeles 1
Atlanta 3, Los Angeles 2Atlanta 5, Los Angeles 4Tuesday: Los Angeles 6, Atlanta 5Wednesday: at Los Angeles Thursday: at Los Angeles AFN-Sports, 2
a.m. Friday CET; 9 a.m. Friday JKTx-Saturday: at Atlantax-Sunday: at Atlanta
ScoreboardBOSTON — Six outs from falling
behind 3-1 in the AL Championship
Series and facing elimination in
Game 5 in Boston — where the Red
Sox had yet to lose this postseason
— the Houston Astros offense
awakened.
After tying it in the eighth inning
on Jose Altuve’s solo homer, the As-
tros bullied the Red Sox bullpen for
seven runs in the ninth to win 9-2 on
Tuesday night and even the best-of-
seven playoff at two games apiece.
“This is one of the great things
about baseball,” said Houston’s 72-
year-old manager, Dusty Baker.
"When you’re dead in the water and
things aren’t going good, and then
all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom,
and you got seven runs.
“That’s what they’ve been doing
to us this whole series,” he said.
“And we’re capable of doing that as
well.”
Jason Castro looked off a poten-
tial third strike from Nathan Eoval-
di before driving in watch-tapping
Carlos Correa with the go-ahead
run in the ninth, then the AL West
champions kept on scoring to guar-
antee themselves at least one more
game back home.
Game 5 is Wednesday in Boston,
with Games 6 and 7 back in Hous-
ton on Friday and, if necessary, Sat-
urday.
The Red Sox are 5-0 after playoff
losses under manager Alex Cora.
“We’re feeling pretty confident,”
said Eovaldi, the Game 2 winner
who made his first relief appear-
ance since 2019. “That’s been one of
our strengths is being able to turn
the page and come in tomorrow.”
In a series that had been dom-
inated by offense — especially Bos-
ton’s, which has hit 10 homers in the
series, including a record-setting
three grand slams to turn Games 2
and 3 into routs — the teams traded
first-inning home runs.
Alex Bregman hit a solo shot into
the Green Monster seats, then Xan-
der Bogaerts topped it with a tower-
ing, two-run drive onto Lansdowne
Street in the bottom half to give the
Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
Then, the pitchers took over.
It was still 2-1 when Altuve home-
red against Garrett Whitlock to tie it
in the eighth. It was his 21st career
postseason home run, breaking a tie
with Derek Jeter for third-most in
baseball history and trailing only
Manny Ramirez (29) and Bernie
Williams (22).
Eovaldi, making his first relief
appearance since he was coming
back from an injury two years ago,
came on for the ninth and gave up
Correa’s leadoff double.
Boston thought it was out of the
inning when Eovaldi’s 1-2 breaking
ball appeared to catch the plate for
strike three on Castro. Still alive,
Castro singled in Correa to give the
Astros the lead.
“Yeah, a lot of people thought it
was a strike,” Cora said. “It was a
good game until the end, right? We
were one pitch away from ending
that inning, and it didn’t happen,
and then they scored seven.”
Michael Brantley hit a three-run
double off Martín Pérez. Yordan
Alvarez added an RBI single. Pé-
rez's throwing error on Correa's in-
field single allowed a run to score,
and Kyle Tucker singled in another
run.
Houston has scored 36 runs with
two outs in the postseason, includ-
ing 18 of its 22 in this series.
WINSLOW TOWNSON/AP
Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve scores against the Boston Red Sox during the ninth inning of a 92 win overthe Boston Red Sox on Tuesday in Game 4 of the ALCS in Boston.
Astros awaken, evenseries with Red SoxHouston scores 7 runs in the 9th for 9-2 victory
DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP
Houston Astros’ Carlos Correahits a double against the BostonRed Sox during the ninth inning.
BY JIMMY GOLEN
Associated Press
But that’s history now. And so
are Bellinger’s recent struggles.
The 2019 NL MVP, Bellinger
batted a miserable .165 this year
with a paltry .240 on-base percent-
age and 94 strikeouts in 315 at-
bats. He helped redeem himself
last week with a tiebreaking single
in the ninth inning of the decisive
Game 5 of the NL Division Series
against the rival Giants at San
Francisco.
“Fresh start,” Bellinger said of
the postseason. “At least for me
this year it’s a fresh start. You
know, a tough regular season but
you know, I felt good towards the
end of the season, and just try to
continue that feel all the way
through.”
“Just you know, staying sim-
ple,” he said. “Crazy things are
happening.”
Bellinger’s done this before, too.
After the Dodgers overcame a 3-1
deficit against Atlanta in the NLCS
last year, his tiebreaking home
run in the seventh inning won
Game 7.
With the cheering, chanting
crowd on its feet in the ninth, Ken-
ley Jansen struck out the side to
earn the save, the ninth pitcher
used by the Dodgers. They ran
through a combined 15 in the first
two games.
Staggered with back-to-back
walk-off losses in Atlanta, the
Dodgers returned home, where
they’ve dominated the Braves in
recent years and were an MLB-
best 58-23 during the regular sea-
son.
The Braves haven’t won at
Dodger Stadium since June 8,
2018. Going back to the 2013
NLDS, the Braves have dropped
20 of their last 23 in LA — they’ve
lost 10 straight in Los Angeles
overall.
It sure looked like they’d end
that skid after leading 5-2 in the
fifth.
After Corey Seager’s two-run
shot gave them an early lead, the
Dodgers’ offense stalled out from
the second to eighth innings, with
only five hits.
“It’s never going to just be easy
and handed to us,” Bellinger said.
“We got to fight for it.”
But the wild-card winner staged
another improbable comeback
late, just like the Dodgers have
done so often this postseason.
They beat St. Louis in the NL
wild-card game, then edged 107-
win San Francisco in the NLDS.
Despite trailing the best-of-sev-
en series, the Dodgers have
grabbed the momentum. They’re
at home for the next two games,
knowing they overcame that 3-1
deficit against the Braves in last
year’s NLCS at a neutral site in Ar-
lington, Texas.
The Braves built their lead with
abunch of singles, pounding out 12
hits, and a dropped flyball by nov-
ice center fielder Gavin Lux.
Freddie Freeman broke out of
his slump, going 3 for 4 with a walk
and a run scored after he struck
out seven times in eight at-bats in
the first two games.
Every Atlanta batter got on base
at least once.
Tony Gonsolin got the victory,
recording one out in relief.
Jackson took the loss after get-
ting hammered in the eighth.
Eddie Rosario and Freeman
jump-started the Braves with
back-to-back singles off Walker
Buehler to open the game.
The Braves quieted the crowd
of 51,307 while knocking around
Buehler and taking a 4-2 lead in
the fourth.
Atlanta got RBI singles from
Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall and
Dansby Swanson, and Buehler
walked Rosario with the bases
loaded to force in another run.
Swanson’s hit off his former
Vanderbilt teammate went off the
glove of shortstop Seager and
rolled into left, allowing Pederson
to score the go-ahead run as the
Braves batted around.
Seager’s wasn’t the only miscue
in the fourth. Lux chased Austin
Riley’s double to the warning
track in right-center only to have
the ball go off his glove to keep the
inning going.
Back: Bellinger HR isreminiscent of last yearFROM PAGE 24
PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Thursday, October 21, 2021
SPORTSA nice start, for openers
Bucks begin defense of NBA title witha defeat of the Nets ›› NBA, Page 22
Astros’ offense stirs with late rally ›› Page 23
LOS ANGELES — Cody Bellinger keeps erasing a forget-
table regular season, with his latest big swing putting the
Los Angeles Dodgers right back in the NL Championship
Series.
Bellinger hit a tying, three-run homer and Mookie Betts
then lined an RBI double in the Dodgers’ eighth-inning ral-
ly, storming back to beat the Atlanta Braves 6-5 Tuesday
and cutting the Braves’ lead in the series to 2-1.
“It’s hard to remember a bigger hit, with what was at
stake,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “I’m kind
of exhausted now.”
Some of the 51,307 fans had already left when the Dodg-
ers were down to their final five outs and facing the daunt-
ing prospect of a 3-0 deficit in the series. Bellinger swung
and missed two pitches down the middle for strikes, going
to his knees in the dirt.
“Ball’s coming in hard, some shadows you’re dealing
with, so I saw it well and I just tried to barrel it up,” Bell-
inger said. “Just continue to barrel up the ball and pass the
baton.”
Bellinger drove a shoulder-high, 95.6-mph fastball from
Luke Jackson into the right-field pavilion, igniting the blue
towel-waving crowd and reviving the hopes of the defend-
ing World Series champions.
“Sad thing is I would do the same thing again,” Jackson
said. “I was trying to throw a fastball up and away. I actually
threw it better than I thought I threw it. Out of my hand, I
was like, ‘Oh, that’s a ball. It’s too high.’ And no, it wasn’t too
high. Good player, put a good swing on it and pretty remark-
able.”
Chris Taylor singled, stole second and moved to third on
pinch-hitter Matt Beaty’s groundout. Betts followed with
the double off Jesse Chavez to right-center.
“One of our strong suits is not worrying about what hap-
pened yesterday, focusing on right now,” Betts said.
Game 4 is Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
“We can do it, we’re confident,” Atlanta manager Brian
Snitker said. “There is going to be no residual effects after
this game.”
The Dodgers had lost all 83 previous postseason games —
in both Los Angeles and Brooklyn — in which they trailed
by three or more runs in the eighth inning or later.
ASHLEY LANDIS/AP
Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger reacts after hitting a threerun home run during the eighth inning in Game 3 of the NLCS series, won 65 by Los Angeles.
Backin it
Bellinger, Betts rally Dodgers, cut Braves’ NLCS lead to 2-1BY BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
MLB PLAYOFFS
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts rounds first baseafter hitting an RBI double in the eighth inning againstthe Atlanta Braves on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
“It’s hard to remember abigger hit, with what was atstake.”
Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts
On Cody Bellinger’s game-tying three-run homer
SEE BACK ON PAGE 23