,J Trump impeachment heading to Senate...US moves to stop German taxation of troops’ income BY...
Transcript of ,J Trump impeachment heading to Senate...US moves to stop German taxation of troops’ income BY...
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Larry King madelasting impact onAmerican culturePage 17
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WASHINGTON — As the
House prepares to bring the im-
peachment charge against Donald
Trump to the Senate for trial, a
growing number of Republican
senators say they are opposed to
the proceed-
ing, dimming
the chances
that former
president will
be convicted
on the charge
that he incited
a siege of the
U.S. Capitol.
House Democrats planned to
carry the sole impeachment
charge of “incitement of insurrec-
tion” across the Capitol late Mon-
day evening, a rare and ceremo-
nial walk to the Senate by the pros-
ecutors who will argue their case.
They are hoping that strong Re-
publican denunciations of Trump
after the Jan. 6 riot will translate
into a conviction and a separate
vote to bar Trump from holding
office again.
But instead, GOP passions ap-
pear to have cooled since the in-
surrection. Now that Trump’s
presidency is over, Republican
Trump impeachment heading to Senate
JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in front of the White House on Jan. 6 in Washington. The Senate is set to receive the House of Repre-sentatives’ impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” following the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
GOP appears poised tooppose House charge
Associated Press
“I thinkthe trialis stupid.”
Sen. Marco Rubio
R-Fla.
SEE SENATE ON PAGE 8
STUTTGART, Germany — The U.S.
government has intervened to try to stop
German finance offices from imposing in-
come taxes on American forces in the
country, a practice the military says vio-
lates a long-standing international treaty.
The Pentagon, along with State and
Treasury departments, have put the U.S.
Embassy in Berlin in charge of leading ef-
forts to resolve the issue, which has caused
financial devastation for some military
families who have been hit with six-figure
bills by local tax authorities.
“The German ministry of foreign affairs
agreed to take the issue to the federal min-
istry of finance. We’re now waiting to hear
back from them,” said Col. Joe Scrocca,
U.S. Army Europe and Africa spokesman.
The problem came to light last year
when Stars and Stripes investigated ag-
gressive tactics used to force troops and
military civilians to pay German income
tax, despite a clause in the Status of Forces
Agreement stating that they are exempt.
“The aim of this engagement, and any
necessary follow-up engagements, is to se-
cure the appropriate tax exemptions for
U.S. personnel covered under the SOFA
and its supplementary agreements,” for-
mer Acting Defense Secretary Christopher
Miller wrote in a Jan. 7 letter to Rep. Mike
Kelly, R-Pa.
US moves to stop German taxation of troops’ incomeBY JOHN VANDIVER
Stars and Stripes
MICHAEL ABRAMS/Stars and Stripes
The American flag flies over the U.S.Embassy in Berlin, Germany. SEE INCOME ON PAGE 4
PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
BUSINESS/WEATHER
DOVER, Del. — The Dupont Co.
and its spinoff business Chemours
have agreed to resolve legal dis-
putes over environmental liabili-
ties for pollution related to man-
made chemicals associated with
an increased risk of cancer and
other health problems.
The binding memorandum of
understanding comes just over a
month after Delaware’s Supreme
Court upheld the dismissal of a
lawsuit alleging that DuPont mas-
sively downplayed the cost of en-
vironmental liabilities imposed on
Chemours when DuPont spun off
its former performance chemicals
unit in 2015.
The chemicals at issue are
known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances, or PFAS. They in-
clude perfluorooctanoic acid, or
PFOA, which was used in the pro-
duction of Teflon, and have also
been used in firefighting foam.
They sometimes are referred to as
“forever chemicals” because of
their longevity in the environ-
ment.
The memorandum resolves le-
gal disputes originating from the
spinoff and establishes a cost-
sharing arrangement and escrow
account for potential future legacy
PFAS liabilities arising out of pre-
July 1, 2015, conduct.
DuPont, Chemours and Corte-
va, an independent public compa-
ny that was previously the agricul-
ture division of DowDuPont, also
have agreed to resolve about 95
pending cases, as well as other un-
filed matters, in multidistrict
PFOA litigation in Ohio.
DuPont, Chemours reach ‘forever chemicals’ deal Associated Press
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TODAYIN STRIPES
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(Military exchange rates are those availableto customers at military banking facilities in thecountry of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., purchasing British pounds in Germany), check withyour local military banking facility. Commercialrates are interbank rates provided for referencewhen buying currency. All figures are foreigncurrencies to one dollar, except for the Britishpound, which is represented in dollarstopound, and the euro, which is dollarstoeuro.)
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Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3
MILITARY
KABUL, Afghanistan — Hun-
dreds of Taliban prisoners re-
leased under last year’s U.S.-Tali-
ban peace deal have been arrested
after returning to the battlefield, a
top Afghan security official said.
The Afghan military expects the
insurgents to intensify attacks as
the year progresses, national se-
curity adviser Hamdullah Mohib
also told reporters Sunday.
“We have recaptured 600 of the
freed individuals because they
were fighting alongside the Tali-
ban even though they promised
they would not fight again,” Mohib
said.
Other released prisoners were
involved in making car bombs and
planning attacks on security
forces, Mohib said, citing intelli-
gence reports.
Over 5,000 Taliban prisoners
were released last year in ex-
change for 1,000 Afghan security
force personnel captured by the
guerrillas. The prisoner ex-
change, which was a part of the
U.S.-Taliban deal struck last Feb-
ruary, was a precursor for the on-
going peace talks between the in-
surgents and the Afghan govern-
ment.
The Kabul government —
which did not participate in talks
leading up to the agreement — was
initially hesitant to free the prison-
ers, but eventually bowed to pres-
sure from Washington. Many in
Afghanistan criticized the move,
saying it could worsen the security
situation.
Intensified combat in southern
Afghanistan is a direct result of the
prisoners being released, Afghan
army Chief of Staff Gen. Yasin Zia
said Sunday.
Mohib, who attended a security
meeting, did not specify how many
former prisoners besides those
rearrested are believed to have re-
joined the insurgency. All of the
released prisoners signed a pledge
that they would no longer fight.
Taliban officials insist none of
the former detainees have return-
ed to combat and rejected the
claim that 600 had been recap-
tured. Only about 40 of the men are
back in government custody and
most of those were seized during
raids on their homes and are inno-
cent, spokesman Zabiullah Muja-
hid told Stars and Stripes on Mon-
day.
The insurgents have continued
to conduct attacks across Afghan-
istan despite the agreement with
the United States, the start of
peace talks with the government
in September and repeated calls
for a cease-fire from Washington
and Kabul.
The relentless violence has led
to doubts voiced by U.S. and Af-
ghan government officials that the
guerrillas aren’t serious about
peace. All signs suggested the
group is preparing to intensify at-
tacks in the spring, when the tradi-
tional fighting season starts and
just weeks before all international
forces may pull out of the country,
Mohib said.
Under the U.S.-Taliban deal,
foreign forces could withdraw
from Afghanistan by May if the
Taliban live up to vague counter-
terrorism promises.
“The Taliban does not want
peace. Our intelligence … shows
that the Taliban is preparing to
fight. They think that they will win
militarily,” Mohib said. “The obli-
gation is on us to become fully pre-
pared.”
The Biden administration an-
nounced Friday that it planned to
review the deal and determine
whether the Taliban are living up
to their promises.
There are currently 2,500
American troops in the country,
the lowest figure since the first
months of the war nearly two dec-
ades ago, and down from roughly
13,000 this time last year.
Taliban prisonersreleased in peacedeal get arrested
BY PHILLIP WALTER
WELLMAN
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @pwwellman
PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN/Stars and Stripes
Taliban prisoners line up at Bagram prison before being released on May 26, 2020.
Chinese warplanes flew into
Taiwan’s air defense identifica-
tion zone two days in a row over
the weekend, stepping up its
show of force a day after Presi-
dent Joe Biden’s administration
signaled support for the self-gov-
erning island.
Fifteen Chinese aircraft, in-
cluding 12 fighters, two Y-8 anti-
submarine aircraft and a techni-
cal reconnaissance plane, en-
tered Taiwan’s southwest air de-
fense identification zone Sunday,
the island’s Military News Agen-
cy reported that day. They
passed between Taiwan’s south-
ern shores and the Taiwan-con-
trolled Pratas Islands in the
South China Sea, according to the
report.
The aircraft traveled southeast,
away from the Chinese mainland,
before turning around and flying
along virtually the same flight
path, according to maps released
online by Taiwan’s air force.
The incident came one day af-
ter China flew eight H-6K nucle-
ar-capable bombers, a Y-8 anti-
submarine aircraft and four
fighters through the same area,
the news agency said.
In both instances, Taiwan dis-
patched airborne alert aircraft,
issued radio warnings and de-
ployed air defense missile sys-
tems for tracking and surveil-
lance, according to the Taiwan
Ministry of National Defense.
China carries out near daily
flights into Taiwan’s air defense
identification zone, but not usu-
ally of the size and scope seen
over the weekend, the English-
language news website Taiwan
News reported Sunday.
Last year saw the highest num-
ber of Chinese incursions — 380
— since 1996, Voice of America
reported this month, citing Tai-
wan’s defense ministry.
Taiwanese lawmakers believe
China is trying to discourage the
new U.S. president from support-
ing the island, Reuters reported
Saturday.
“It’s sending a message to the
Biden administration,” Lo Chih-
Cheng, a senior lawmaker from
Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Pro-
gressive Party, said Saturday, ac-
cording to Reuters.
China considers Taiwan, which
is less than 100 miles off its east-
ern coast, to be a part of its terri-
tory.
On Saturday, the Biden admin-
istration weighed in with a state-
ment from the U.S. State Depart-
ment.
“Our commitment to Taiwan is
rock-solid and contributes to the
maintenance of peace and stabil-
ity across the Taiwan Strait and
within the region,” State Depart-
ment spokesman Ned Price wrote
on the department’s website. “We
urge Beijing to cease its military,
diplomatic and economic pres-
sure against Taiwan, and instead
engage in meaningful dialogue
with Taiwan’s democratically
elected representatives.”
Price vowed to stand with Tai-
wan and to even deepen ties.
“We will continue to assist Tai-
wan in maintaining a sufficient
self-defense capability,” he said.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Sunday thanked Price for
his statements via Twitter.
“We’re committed to our part-
nership” with the United States,
the ministry account said.
Chinese fighters, bombers test Taiwan’s air defenseBY MATTHEW M. BURKE
Stars and Stripes
[email protected]: @MatthewMBurke1
NORFOLK, Va. — A Navy
SEAL convicted of involuntary
manslaughter in the hazing death
of an Army Green Beret in 2017
was sentenced this weekend to 10
years in prison.
SEAL Team 6 member Tony E.
DeDolph was also demoted from
chief petty officer to seaman and
will be dishonorably discharged.
He must forfeit pay.
DeDolph pleaded guilty to in-
voluntary manslaughter earlier
this month after admitting that he
applied the chokehold that killed
Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar
while trying to haze him in 2017 in
Mali, West Africa.
Two others previously convict-
ed in the case, former Navy Chief
Special Operator Adam Matthews
and former Marine Staff Sgt. Ke-
vin Maxwell Jr., were sentenced
to one year and four years con-
finement, respectively. Both are
also receiving bad conduct dis-
charges.
Marine Gunnery Sgt. Mario
Madera-Rodriguez has also been
charged in Melgar’s death A trial
is set for later this year.
DeDolph intends to appeal the
sentence, according to his attor-
ney, Philip Stackhouse.
DeDolph pleaded guilty as part
of a pretrial agreement in which
the Navy dropped charges of felo-
ny murder and burglary. Under
the agreement, he faced a maxi-
mum of 22 1/2 years in prison.
In addition to the manslaughter
charge, he pleaded guilty to hazi-
ng, conspiracy and obstruction of
justice. Officials said he cut an in-
cision in Melgar’s neck normally
used to open an emergency air-
way in order to hide injuries from
the chokehold.
The chokehold DeDolph ap-
plied involves placing the front of
a victim’s neck in the crook of one
arm, while pressing with the other
on the back of the neck. He told
his court-martial that he had safe-
ly performed the hold many times
in training.
DeDolph said he and the other
three men broke into Melgar’s
room intending to haze him.
Navy SEAL sentenced to 10 years in prison in Green Beret hazing deathThe Virginian-Pilot
PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
“We believe that some German
tax authorities have adopted an
incorrect interpretation of the
NATO Status of Forces Agree-
ment (SOFA), resulting in the im-
proper taxation of some U.S. per-
sonnel,” Miller wrote.
At the center of the problem is
the claim by some German au-
thorities that SOFA tax protec-
tions are void if a person is in
Germany for reasons other than
just their military job.
Being married to a German, ex-
tending tours, owning property or
sending children to German
schools are among the factors
that have been used by German
officials to build tax liability
cases.
To avoid taxes, a person must
prove “a willingness to return” to
the U.S., even though tax author-
ities have continued to pursue
cases against some people after
they returned stateside.
Critics say the policy relies on
guesswork by tax clerks and
lacks any clear legal basis.
Military families who have
been ensnared by German tax
collectors have complained that
they have been left to fend for
themselves in lengthy legal dis-
putes.
Air Force Master Sgt. Matthew
Larsen, who is married to a Ger-
man and has been targeted for
months by the Landstuhl-Kusel
tax office, said the U.S. govern-
ment intervention raised his
hopes that the matter could be re-
solved, but added that he was still
angry that it has dragged on for so
long and affected so many Amer-
icans.
“I’d like to be hopeful,” Larsen
said. “But every time I hear about
another case, I get infuriated be-
cause of the fact that this is still
continuing, and they are getting
more aggressive. When is this go-
ing to end?”
Hundreds of troops, Defense
Department civilians and con-
tractors have been targeted by lo-
cal tax offices over the past few
years. Most of the cases are link-
ed to Americans living in the
Landstuhl-Kusel area, near Ram-
stein Air Base, but cases have al-
so been reported in Kaiserslau-
tern, Stuttgart and Wiesbaden.
The problem has existed for
years, but initially focused mainly
on contractors. Critics say Ger-
man authorities became embold-
ened after their demands that
Americans pay taxes went un-
challenged and expanded their
campaign to target troops and
DOD civilians.
In November, the State Depart-
ment sent a cable to the U.S. Em-
bassy in Berlin, directing it to en-
gage with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs on the matter.
In a meeting the following
month between American and
German officials, the foreign
ministry agreed to involve the
federal finance office, Scrocca
said.
“They agreed to move it for-
ward,” he said. “We don’t want to
say anything that would disre-
spect them in any way, but we
think ... the language of the SOFA
is clear. We just have to agree on
the interpretation.”
Income: DOD employees in Germany targeted by tax collectorsFROM PAGE 1
Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Kloecknercontributed to this report. [email protected]: @john_vandiver
MILITARY
WASHINGTON — President
Joe Biden on Monday ended the
Pentagon’s ban on most transgen-
der men and women joining the
military, fulfilling a campaign
promise to undo one of President
Donald Trump’s signature Penta-
gon policies.
Biden issued an executive order
Monday that allows all qualified
Americans to serve in the mili-
tary, regardless of their gender
identity.
“President Biden believes that
all gender identity should not be a
bar to military service, and that
America’s strength is found in its
diversity,” according to a White
House statement. “Allowing all
qualified Americans to serve their
country in uniform is better for the
military and better for the country
because an inclusive force is a
more effective force. Simply put,
it’s the right thing to do and is in
our national interest.”
The order directs the defense
secretary and the Homeland Se-
curity secretary to implement it
and make certain all regulations
and policies follow the new exec-
utive order.
It also immediately stops invol-
untary separations, discharges,
and denials of reenlistment or
continuation of service due to gen-
der identity, according to the
statement. The order also starts a
process to find and examine re-
cords of personnel who were
kicked out based on their gender
identity and correct their military
records.
An initial report is to be submit-
ted to Biden within 60 days on the
progress for implementing the
new directives and policy, accord-
ing to the statement.
The policy change was expect-
ed to essentially revert the Penta-
gon back to its 2016 policy, which
opened the military to most trans-
gender men and women near the
end of former President Barack
Obama’s administration. Biden,
who backed that policy at that
time, had pledged last year as a
presidential candidate to quickly
kill the policy, labeling it discrimi-
natory.
The order comes as new De-
fense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a
retired four-star Army general,
took the Pentagon’s reins on Fri-
day. The Pentagon will take im-
mediate action to make certain the
policy allows people who identify
as transgender are eligible to
serve in the military, Austin said
in a statement issued Monday fol-
lowing the ban reversal.
“I fully support the President’s
direction that all transgender indi-
viduals who wish to serve in the
United States military and can
meet the appropriate standards
shall be able to do so openly and
free from discrimination,” he said.
Recruits might be able to serve
in their self-identified gender
when they meet the standards to
join the military and all medically
necessary transition related care
allowed by law will be available to
all service members, according to
the statement.
It was not immediately clear
Monday how long the Pentagon
would need before it would start
accepting new transgender ser-
vice members. Experts said last
summer that the Pentagon could
reverse the policy in just 30 days.
The ban’s end could result in a
rush to recruiting offices through-
out the country for transgender
men and women who have long
sought to serve, said Nicolas Tal-
bott, a transgender man who was
among the first military hopefuls
to file a lawsuit against Trump and
the federal government to end the
policy.
“We are all very excited we are
all very eager,” Talbott said last
week.
Talbott plans to re-enter ROTC
training, which he was forced to
leave in 2019 after the ban was im-
plemented and hopes to serve as
an Army or Air Force intelligence
officer.
“I’m thrilled and relieved that I
and other transgender Americans
can now be evaluated solely on our
ability to meet military standards.
I look forward to becoming the
best service member I can be,”
Talbott said in a statement after
the ban was lifted.
The Pentagon’s ban on trans-
gender men and women enlisting
in the military went into effect in
April 2019, nearly two years after
Trump’s surprise July 2017 Twit-
ter announcement that he would
no longer allow transgender per-
sons to serve in the military “in
any capacity.”
That announcement, which
caught the Pentagon, including all
the members of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff off guard, resulted months
later in the Defense Department
policy — known as the “Mattis
plan” for former Defense Secreta-
ry Jim Mattis, who crafted it. The
policy bars almost any transgen-
der men and women from joining
the military.
That plan was long delayed as
transgender service members
and military hopefuls filed a series
of lawsuits that resulted in prelim-
inary injunctions halting the Pen-
tagon from implementing its plan.
In January 2019, a 5-4 Supreme
Court decision removed those
preliminary injunctions, allowing
the Defense Department to imple-
ment its ban.
The Pentagon long insisted its
policy was not a blanket ban be-
cause of its protections for those
transgender service members
who came out after the 2016 policy
and a waiver process that could al-
low some transgender people to
join the military.
But the policy barred nearly all
people diagnosed with gender
dysphoria — described by the
American Psychiatric Association
as “a conflict between a person’s
physical or assigned gender and
the gender with which he/she/
they identify.” It did allow people
to enlist with a diagnosis of gender
dysphoria who had doctor certifi-
cation that they had remained sta-
ble in their biological sex for 36
months. It disqualified all people
who had medically transitioned
their sex.
The uniformed leaders of all the
military services in recent years
told lawmakers that they had seen
no evidence that transgender ser-
vice members disrupted unit co-
hesion, one of the Pentagon’s pri-
mary justifications for imple-
menting its ban. Defense Depart-
ment officials claimed to have
data confirming that assertion,
however, they have never made it
public.
One of the lawyers involved in
the lawsuits seeking to end the
transgender ban said last week
that she too had never seen any
supporting evidence from the
Pentagon that transgender men
and women cause harm to the mil-
itary.
The Mattis plan provides no sta-
tistics to back its position that
transgender persons should not
serve in the military, said Jennifer
Levi, a director for GLBTQ Legal
Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD,
a legal group that represents gay
and transgender individuals.
“There’s nothing in there that
has shown at all that transgender
people who meet military stan-
dards can’t contribute at very high
levels,” she said. “We haven’t seen
anything [from the Defense De-
partment] that supports the ban.”
The policy reversal did not
please everyone. Retired Army Lt.
Gen. Tom Spoehr, who directs the
conservative Heritage Founda-
tion’s National Defense Center,
said Monday that ending the
Trump-era policy would harm the
military’s combat readiness.
Spoehr said Biden’s decision
was based on “political correct-
ness.”
“By overturning the current
policy regarding individuals suf-
fering from gender dysphoria, the
commander in chief is signaling
that he is more interested in social
engineering than safeguarding
the health and well-being of
American service members,” he
said in a statement.
The Pentagon under Trump al-
so labeled needed health care for
transgender men and women too
costly. The Pentagon said last year
that it spent about $8 million on
health care for transgender ser-
vice members between 2016 and
2019 from its about $50 billion an-
nual health care budget.
It remains unclear precisely
how many service members on
active duty identify as transgen-
der. A 2016 Defense Department
survey, which was anonymous,
found about 9,000 service mem-
bers identified themselves as
transgender men or women, but
slightly more than 1,000 between
2016 and 2019 took the steps to
openly serve in the preferred gen-
der, officials said.
Gay and transgender advocates
are hopeful that the policy can be
reverted very quickly. Aaron Bel-
kin, director of the Palm Center, a
research institute that studies
LGBTQ inclusion in the military,
has said the Mattis plan left the
groundwork for the Pentagon to
completely end its ban within one
month.
Biden ends military transgender banBY COREY DICKSTEIN
AND CAITLIN M. KENNEY
Stars and Stripes
[email protected] Twitter: @[email protected] Twitter: @caitlinmkenney
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5
VIRUS OUTBREAK
LONDON — Anti-poverty cam-
paigner Oxfam warned Monday
that the fallout of the coronavirus
pandemic will lead to the biggest
increase in global inequality on re-
cord unless governments radical-
ly rejig their economies.
In a report geared to inform dis-
cussions at the World Economic
Forum’s online panels of political
and business leaders this week,
Oxfam said the richest 1,000 peo-
ple have already managed to re-
coup the losses they recorded in
the early days of the pandemic be-
cause of the bounce back in stock
markets. By contrast, Oxfam said
it could take more than a decade
for the world’s poorest to recover
their losses.
“Rigged economies are funnel-
ing wealth to a rich elite who are
riding out the pandemic in luxury,
while those on the frontline of the
pandemic — shop assistants,
healthcare workers, and market
vendors — are struggling to pay
the bills and put food on the table,”
said Gabriela Bucher, executive
director of Oxfam International.
Using figures from Forbes’ 2020
Billionaire List, Oxfam said the
world’s 10 richest people, includ-
ing the likes of Jeff Bezos, Elon
Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zucker-
berg and Warren Buffett, saw
their fortunes increase by half a
trillion dollars since the crisis be-
gan.
Meanwhile, using data specially
provided by the World Bank, Ox-
fam said that in a worst-case sce-
nario global poverty levels would
be higher in 2030 than they were
before the pandemic struck, with
3.4 billion people still living on less
than $5.50 a day.
Bucher said women and mar-
ginalized racial and ethnic groups
are bearing the brunt of this crisis
and are “more likely to be pushed
into poverty, more likely to go
hungry, and more likely to be ex-
cluded from healthcare.”
While urging governments to
ensure that everyone has access to
a coronavirus vaccine and finan-
cial support if they lose their job,
Bucher said policies in a post-cor-
onavirus world should focus on
ending poverty and protecting the
planet.
“They must invest in public ser-
vices and low carbon sectors to
create millions of new jobs and en-
sure everyone has access to a de-
cent education, health, and social
care, and they must ensure the
richest individuals and corpora-
tions contribute their fair share of
tax to pay for it,” she said.
“These measures must not be
band-aid solutions for desperate
times but a ‘new normal’ in econo-
mies that work for the benefit of all
people, not just the privileged
few,” she added.
Oxfam has traditionally sought
to inspire debate at the World Eco-
nomic Forum’s annual gathering
of business and political elites in
the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
Though the pandemic means
there won’t be any trek up the
mountains this week, organizers
are putting on a virtual gathering.
Leaders including Chinese
President Xi Jinping, Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
German Chancellor Angela Mer-
kel and South African President
Cyril Ramaphosa are all set to
take part in the meetings from
Jan. 25-29. Joining them will be a
host of chief executives and cam-
paigning organizations, including
Oxfam and the likes of Swedish
climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Group warns ofhuge economicgap from virus
BY PAN PYLAS
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President
Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he has
tested positive for COVID-19, an announce-
ment that comes as his country registers the
highest levels of infections and deaths to
date.
López Obrador, who has been criticized
for his handling of Mexico’s pandemic and
for not setting an example of prevention in
public, said Sunday on his official Twitter
account that his symptoms are mild and he
is under medical treatment.
“I regret to inform you that I am infected
with COVID-19,” he tweeted. “The symp-
toms are mild but I am al-
ready under medical
treatment. As always, I
am optimistic. We will all
move forward.”
José Luis Alomía Ze-
garra, Mexico’s director
of epidemiology, said the
67-year-old López Obra-
dor had a “light” case of
COVID-19 and was “isolating at home.”
Mexico’s president wrote that while he
recovered, Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez
Cordero would be taking over for him in his
daily news conferences, at which he usually
speaks for two hours without breaks each
weekday.
Despite his age and high blood pressure,
López Obrador has not received a vaccine
shot even though Mexico has already re-
ceived a batch of Pfizer-BioNTech doses.
He has said that health workers would be
the first ones to get them. Under the govern-
ment plan, people over 60 will start being
vaccinated in February.
López Obrador has rarely been seen
wearing a mask and continued to keep up a
busy travel schedule, taking commercial
flights.
He has also resisted locking down the
economy, noting the devastating effect it
would have on so many Mexicans who live
day to day, despite that the country has reg-
istered nearly 150,000 COVID-19 deaths
and more than 1.7 million infections.
In November, Tedros Adhanom Ghe-
breyesus, head of the World Health Orga-
nization, urged Mexico’s leaders be serious
about the virus and set examples for its citi-
zens, saying that “Mexico is in bad shape.”
Mexican president tests positive, has mild symptomsBY CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press
López Obrador
LOS ANGELES — It’s crowded
in the back of the ambulance.
Two emergency medical tech-
nicians, the patient, the gurney —
and an unseen and unwelcome
passenger lurking in the air.
For EMTs Thomas Hoang and
Joshua Hammond, the coronavi-
rus is constantly close. COVID-19
has become their biggest fear dur-
ing 24-hour shifts in California’s
Orange County, riding with them
from 911 call to 911 call, from pa-
tient to patient.
They and other EMTs, para-
medics and 911 dispatchers in
Southern California have been
thrust into the front lines of the na-
tional epicenter of the pandemic.
They are scrambling to help those
in need as hospitals burst with a
surge of patients after the holi-
days, ambulances are stuck wait-
ing outside hospitals for hours un-
til beds become available, oxygen
tanks are in alarmingly short sup-
ply and the vaccine rollout has
been slow.
EMTs and paramedics have al-
ways dealt with life and death —
they make split-second decisions
about patient care, which hospital
to race to, the best and fastest way
to save someone — and now
they’re just a breath away from
becoming the patient themselves.
They gown up, mask up and
glove up, “but you can only be so
safe,” Hammond said. “We don’t
have the luxury of being 6 feet
apart from the patient.”
Statistics on COVID-19 cases
and deaths among EMTs and pa-
ramedics — especially ones em-
ployed by private companies —
are hard to find. They are consid-
ered essential health care workers
but rarely receive the pay and pro-
tections given to doctors and nurs-
es.
Hammond and Hoang work for
Emergency Ambulance Service
Inc., a private ambulance company
in Southern California. They, like
so many others, have long fostered
goals of becoming first responders
to serve their communities.
Hoang is attending nursing
school. Hammond is one test away
from becoming a paramedic.
Yet as COVID-19 infections
surge and the risks increase, they
wonder: Is it worth risking your
life — and the lives of your loved
ones at home — for a small pay-
check and a dream?
“It’s really hard to justify it be-
yond ‘I really want to help peo-
ple,’” said Hammond, 25. “Is that
worth the risk?”
For now, yes.
“I do want to do my part in help-
ing people get better, in a sense,”
said Hoang, 29.
Ashley Cortez, Adreanna More-
no and Jaime Hopper work 12-
hour shifts as dispatchers for Care
Ambulance Service Inc. If the
EMTs are the front lines, these
women are the scouts.
Their greatest fear is what’s
called a “level zero” — when there
are no ambulances left to send to
an emergency. In Los Angeles
County, one of the nation’s har-
dest-hit counties during the pan-
demic, the fear becomes a regular
reality.
JAE C. HONG/AP
Emergency medical technician Thomas Hoang, left, of Emergency Ambulance Service, and paramedicTrenton Amaro prepare to unload a COVID19 patient from an ambulance in Placentia, Calif., on Jan. 8.
Paramedics, EMTs endure virusfears amid daily responsibilities
BY STEFANIE DAZIO
Associated Press
PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Cali-
fornia lifted regional stay-at-home
orders across the state Monday in
response to improving coronavi-
rus conditions, returning the state
to a system of county-by-county
restrictions, state health officials
announced.
The order had been in place in
the San Francisco Bay Area, San
Joaquin Valley and Southern Cali-
fornia, covering the majority of
the state’s counties. The change
will allow businesses such as res-
taurants to resume outdoor oper-
ations in many areas, though local
officials could choose to continue
stricter rules. The state is also lift-
ing a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
“Together, we changed our ac-
tivities knowing our short-term
sacrifices would lead to longer-
term gains. COVID-19 is still here
and still deadly, so our work is not
over, but it’s important to recog-
nize our collective actions saved
lives and we are turning a critical
corner,” Dr. Tomas Aragon, the
state’s public health director, said
in a statement.
The decision comes with im-
proving trends in the rate of infec-
tions, hospitalizations and inten-
sive care unit capacity as well as
vaccinations.
During the weekend, San Fran-
cisco Bay Area ICU capacity
surged to 23% while the San Joa-
quin Valley increased to 1.3%, its
first time above zero. The huge
Southern California region, the
most populous, remains at zero
ICU capacity.
As of the weekend, California
has had more than 3.1 million con-
firmed COVID-19 cases and
36,790 deaths, according to the
state’s public health website.
AlaskaJUNEAU — Alaska held the en-
viable position of having the high-
est rate of coronavirus vaccina-
tions per capita in the nation as of
last week, the state’s top health of-
ficial said.
Alaska Chief Medical Officer
Anne Zink said Thursday that the
progress was the result of commu-
nity efforts to quickly distribute
vaccinations and additional allot-
ments for federal agencies within
the state, KTOO-FM reported.
Zink told the Greater Juneau
Chamber of Commerce that Alas-
ka receives more doses of vaccine
because of allowances above the
state’s share for the Department
of Defense, the Department of
Veterans Affairs and the Indian
Health Service.
“We have the highest veterans
per capita population. We have a
large military presence. And we
have a large Indigenous popula-
tion with over 229 sovereign
tribes,” Zink said. “And so, be-
cause of those reasons, we did get
some additional vaccine in the
state via those federal partner-
ships.”
ArizonaWINDOW ROCK — Navajo Na-
tion health officials are reporting
133 new COVID-19 cases and sev-
en more deaths as a revised public
health order is set to take effect.
The latest figures released Sun-
day bring the total reported coro-
navirus cases on the reservation to
27,484 with 973 known deaths.
Beginning Monday, the tribe
extended its stay-at-home order
with a revised nightly curfew to
limit the spread of COVID-19. The
Navajo Nation is also lifting week-
end lockdowns to allow more vac-
cination events.
The actions in the latest public
health emergency order will run
through at least Feb. 15.
The curfew will run daily from 9
p.m. to 5 a.m.
ConnecticutHARTFORD — Local health of-
ficials ordered a Connecticut
home for retired nuns closed to
visitors and the public because of
a coronavirus outbreak that has
infected nearly half of the more
than 70 residents there as vacci-
nations were underway.
The restrictions on the School
Sisters of Notre Dame home in
Wilton were ordered by town Di-
rector of Health Barrington Bo-
gle, and state health officials were
expected to visit the property
Monday to help with the outbreak,
First Selectwoman Lynne Van-
derslice said in a statement.
Vanderslice said 30 residents
recently tested positive for CO-
VID-19, as did a number of staff
members. Health officials are do-
ing contact tracing in Wilton as
well as in the communities where
staff members live.
Fifteen retired nuns recently
received COVID-19 vaccinations
under state guidelines, which al-
low vaccinations for people 75
years and older. The remaining
residents and staff were sched-
uled to be vaccinated Monday, af-
ter town officials obtained permis-
sion to administer the vaccine to
non-eligible residents and staff,
Vanderslice said.
HawaiiHONOLULU — About half of
Hawaii’s supply of 186,000 doses
of the coronavirus vaccine had
been distributed through last
week, officials said.
The state has more than 40 dis-
tribution sites for the Pfizer and
Moderna vaccines, KITV-TV re-
ported.
Democratic Lt. Gov. Josh Green
said state leaders have pressed
the federal government to contin-
ue supplying the state with doses.
“We now have another 50 or
60,000 scheduled appointments
for people getting their either first
shot or second shot,” Green said.
“We didn’t want to leave people in
the lurch.”
More than 5,500 people were
scheduled to receive vaccine
shots at Honolulu’s Blaisdell Cen-
ter mass vaccination site Monday.
MassachusettsBOSTON — Massachusetts re-
laxed some coronavirus restric-
tions Monday as several key met-
rics used to measure the spread of
the pandemic trend in the right di-
rection.
Restaurants, movie theaters
and many other businesses will
now be allowed to remain open
past 9:30 p.m. Also, a rule that re-
quired people to stay at home
from 10 p.m. until 5 p.m. except for
work or other essential travel has
been lifted.
The restrictions were adopted
in November as new cases surged.
The latest seven-day average
positivity rate in Massachusetts
has dropped to 4.83% as of Sun-
day, down from 7.2% on Jan. 10.
The seven-day rolling average
of daily new cases in Massachu-
setts is also on the decline, at more
than 4,200 on Sunday, down from
at least 6,400 on Jan. 10, according
to The COVID Tracking Project.
Hospitalizations are also fall-
ing.
South DakotaRAPID CITY — Organizers of
South Dakota’s annual point-in-
time count for the state’s unshel-
tered homeless population have
canceled the effort this year due to
the coronavirus pandemic.
Sara Hornick, Rapid City-area
coordinator of homeless services
for Volunteers of America, said
the count was called off mainly be-
cause of a shortage of volunteers,
lack of personal protective equip-
ment and concerns about the
spread of COVID-19. She said the
vulnerable homeless population is
quite large, but the Department of
Housing and Urban Development
decided against the count, the
Rapid City Journal reported.
Hornick said she’s not sure how
the cancellation will affect federal
funding because of all the allow-
ances in place this year because of
the virus.
The state Department of Health
on Sunday reported 185 new CO-
VID-19 cases in the last day, in-
creasing the total to 107,148 posi-
tive tests. The update listed nine
new deaths, lifting the total num-
ber of fatalities to 217 in January
and 1,705 since the start of the
pandemic.
West VirginiaCHARLESTON — West Virgin-
ia is debuting an online portal for
residents to register for coronavi-
rus vaccine appointments.
Gov. Jim Justice says the new
system that will help streamline
vaccination efforts statewide
launched Monday at www.vacci-
nate.wv.gov. The new website
comes after complaints of long
wait times to book a shot.
According to the Department of
Health and Human Resources,
West Virginia is the first state to
deploy the new system through
Everbridge, a company that helps
states notify residents in emer-
gencies such as a hurricane, flood
or fire.
Residents who don’t want to or
can’t go online to set up appoint-
ments can still call a vaccination
information line.
Currently, all residents 65 and
older and some essential workers,
such as health care personnel and
teachers, are eligible for shots, al-
though the state currently does
not have enough vaccine doses for
all senior citizens.
WisconsinMILWAUKEE — Wisconsin
health officials on Sunday con-
firmed 1,119 positive tests for the
coronavirus in the last 24 hours,
the lowest daily total since Sep-
tember.
The trend of lower cases and
hospitalizations continues to play
out in daily reports. The state De-
partment of Health Services lists
the weekly average at 1,596 cases,
which is similar to numbers in
mid-September. The state was av-
eraging about 6,500 cases a day in
mid-November.
There were about 548 new
cases per 100,000 people in Wis-
consin over the past two weeks,
which ranks 37th in the country
for new cases per capita, The CO-
VID Tracking Project reported.
One in every 423 people in Wis-
consin tested positive in the past
week.
Officials on Sunday confirmed
six new deaths, for a total of 5,691
since the start of the pandemic.
Calif. lifts curfew,stay-at-homeorders statewide
Associated Press
HELEN H. RICHARDSON, THE DENVER POST/ AP
Cars line up individually in front of COVID19 vaccination stations in the parking lots of Coors Field onSunday in Denver, Colo. About 1,000 seniors aged 70 and over received the vaccine at the event.
VIRUS OUTBREAK ROUNDUP
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7
VIRUS OUTBREAK
TOKYO — Japan’s capital city
reported 618 new coronavirus pa-
tients Monday, a decline of more
than 50% in new cases over the pre-
vious four days.
Totals early in the week are typ-
ically low because many testing fa-
cilities are closed over the week-
end, but Monday’s figures repre-
sent the first tally below 700 since
Dec. 28 and below 1,000 since Jan.
12, according to public broadcaster
NHK and the Tokyo Metropolitan
Government.
U.S. military bases across Japan
reported that nine people tested
positive between 6:30 p.m. Friday
and 6 p.m. Monday. Meanwhile,
U.S. Forces Korea announced 17
cases, most them new arrivals to
the peninsula between Jan. 8 and
Wednesday, according to two news
releases.
Marine Corps Air Station Iwaku-
ni over the weekend reported that
seven people tested positive for
COVID-19, the coronavirus respi-
ratory disease, according to Face-
book posts.
Four tested positive but were not
in quarantine when they were dis-
covered, according to the base on
separate posts Saturday and Sun-
day. They were immediately isolat-
ed, according to the air base, which
provided no further information.
Three others, new arrivals to Ja-
pan, tested positive on the test re-
quired to exit quarantine, accord-
ing to the base on Saturday.
The Marine Corps also reported
one new case Monday at Camp Fos-
ter on Okinawa, but provided no
further information.
Kubasaki High School at Foster
reopened Monday, nearly a week
after it closed Jan. 19 to permit con-
tact tracing and testing. Three peo-
ple at the school had become infect-
ed, but subsequent tests of staff and
students came back negative, ac-
cording to principal James Strait in
a message to families and employ-
ees Monday.
Naval Air Facility Atsugi, about
25 miles southwest of central To-
kyo, had one person test positive
while in quarantine, base spokes-
man Sam Samuelson saidMonday.
In South Korea, a shelter-in-
place, or lockdown, order at Yong-
san Garrison in Seoul and for cer-
tain units at Camp Humphreys 55
miles to the south was extended to
midnight Wednesday, USFK an-
nounced Monday.
On Sunday, Humphreys com-
mander Col. Mike Tremblay
closed the post exchange for a thor-
ough cleaning after someone who
tested positive stopped there, ac-
cording to Tremblay’s remarks on
a Facebook Live broadcast that
morning. The exchange opened
later that afternoon.
USFK reported that five individ-
uals tested positive at Kunsan Air
Base and at Humphreys over the
weekend.
Three service members at Kun-
san who quarantined Wednesday
after contact with another infected
individual tested positive Friday,
according to a news release.
At Humphreys, a Defense De-
partment civilian employee tested
positive Friday after developing
symptoms; the other turned up Sat-
urday during the stepped-up trac-
ing campaign there, according to
the Saturday release.
On Sunday, USFK reported that
12 people tested positive after ar-
riving in South Korea over a two-
week period.
One service member landed at
Osan Air Base on the Patriot Ex-
press, a government-chartered air
passenger service, on Jan. 18. Nine
service members and two depend-
ents arrived on commercial flights
at Incheon International Airport on
Jan. 8-10, Jan. 18 and Wednesday,
according to the Sunday release.
Five people tested positive upon
arrival and seven were positive on
the test required before exiting the
mandatory two-week quarantine.
South Korea reported 437 newly
infected people nationwide Sun-
day, according to the Central Dis-
ease Control Headquarters. Seoul
accounted for 91 of those, and Gye-
onggi province, where Humphreys
is located, reported 72.
Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Changcontributed to this [email protected]: @JosephDitzler
AKIFUMI ISHIKAWA/Stars and Stripes
Travelers wear masks inside a terminal at Narita International Airportoutside Tokyo on Jan. 15.
Tokyo sees drop in cases;US commands in S. Korea,Japan report 26 infections
BY JOSEPH DITZLER
Stars and Stripes
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese
state media have played up ques-
tions about Pfizer’s COVID-19
vaccine and whether it could be
lethal to the very old. A govern-
ment spokesperson suggests the
coronavirus could have emerged
from a U.S. military lab.
As the ruling Communist Party
faces growing questioning about
China’s vaccines and renewed
criticism of its early COVID re-
sponse, it is hitting back by en-
couraging fringe theories that
some experts say could cause
harm.
State media and officials are
sowing doubts about Western
vaccines and the origin of the
coronavirus in an apparent bid to
deflect the attacks. Both issues
are in the spotlight because of the
ongoing rollout of vaccines glob-
ally and the recent arrival of a
WHO team in Wuhan, China, to
investigate the origins of the vi-
rus.
While fringe theories may
raise eyebrows overseas, the ef-
forts also target a more receptive
domestic audience. The social
media hashtag “American’s Ft.
Detrick,” started by the Commu-
nist Youth League, was viewed at
least 1.4 billion times last week
after a Foreign Ministry spokes-
person called for a WHO investi-
gation of the biological weapons
lab in Maryland.
“Its purpose is to shift the
blame from mishandling by (the)
Chinese government in the pan-
demic’s early days to conspiracy
by the U.S.,” said Fang Shimin, a
now-U.S.-based writer known for
exposing faked degrees and other
fraud in Chinese science. “The
tactic is quite successful because
of widespread anti-American
sentiment in China.”
China pushes fringe theorieson pandemic origins, vaccine
Associated Press
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PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
NATION
senators who will serve as jurors
in the trial are rallying to his legal
defense, as they did during his
first impeachment trial last year.
“I think the trial is stupid, I think
it’s counterproductive,” said Sen.
Marco Rubio, R-Fla. He said that
“the first chance I get to vote to
end this trial, I’ll do it” because he
believes it would be bad for the
country and further inflame parti-
san divisions.
Trump is the first former presi-
dent to face impeachment trial,
and it will test his grip on the Re-
publican Party as well as the lega-
cy of his tenure, which came to a
close as a mob of loyal supporters
heeded his rally cry by storming
the Capitol and trying to overturn
Joe Biden’s election. The proceed-
ings will also force Democrats,
who have a full sweep of party
control of the White House and
Congress, to balance their prom-
ise to hold the former president
accountable while also rushing to
deliver on Biden’s priorities.
Arguments in the Senate trial
will begin the week of Feb. 8.
Leaders in both parties agreed to
the short delay to give Trump’s
team and House prosecutors time
to prepare and the Senate the
chance to confirm some of Biden’s
Cabinet nominees. Democrats say
the extra days will allow for more
evidence to come out about the
rioting by Trump supporters,
while Republicans hope to craft a
unified defense for Trump.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in
an interview with The Associated
Press on Sunday that he hopes that
evolving clarity on the details of
what happened Jan. 6 “will make
it clearer to my colleagues and the
American people that we need
some accountability.”
Coons questioned how his col-
leagues who were in the Capitol
that day could see the insurrection
as anything other than a “stunning
violation” of tradition of peaceful
transfers of power.
“It is a critical moment in Amer-
ican history, and we have to look at
it and look at it hard,” Coons said.
An early vote to dismiss the trial
probably would not succeed, giv-
en that Democrats now control the
Senate. Still, the mounting Repub-
lican opposition indicates that
many GOP senators would even-
tually vote to acquit Trump. Dem-
ocrats would need the support of
17 Republicans — a high bar — to
convict him.
When the House impeached
Trump on Jan. 13, exactly one
week after the siege, Sen. Tom
Cotton, R-Ark., said he didn’t be-
lieve the Senate had the constitu-
tional authority to convict Trump
after he had left office. On Sunday,
Cotton said “the more I talk to oth-
er Republican senators, the more
they’re beginning to line up” be-
hind that argument.
“I think a lot of Americans are
going to think it’s strange that the
Senate is spending its time trying
to convict and remove from office
a man who left office a week ago,”
Cotton said.
Democrats reject that argu-
ment, pointing to a 1876 impeach-
ment of a secretary of war who
had already resigned and to opin-
ions by many legal scholars. Dem-
ocrats also say that a reckoning of
the first invasion of the Capitol
since the War of 1812, perpetrated
by rioters egged on by a president
who told them to “fight like hell”
against election results that were
being counted at the time, is nec-
essary so the country can move
forward and ensure such a siege
never happens again.
A few GOP senators have
agreed with Democrats, though
not close to the number that will be
needed to convict Trump.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said
he believes there is a “preponder-
ance of opinion” that an impeach-
ment trial is appropriate after
someone leaves office.
“I believe that what is being al-
leged and what we saw, which is
incitement to insurrection, is an
impeachable offense,” Romney
said. “If not, what is?”
But Romney, the lone Republi-
can to vote to convict Trump when
the Senate acquitted the then-
president in last year’s trial, ap-
pears to be an outlier.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Da-
kota, said he believes a trial is a
“moot point” after a president’s
term is over, “and I think it’s one
that they would have a very diffi-
cult time in trying to get done
within the Senate.”
On Friday, GOP Sen. Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina, a close
Trump ally who has been helping
him build a legal team, urged the
Senate to reject the idea of a post-
presidency trial — potentially
with a vote to dismiss the charge
— and suggested Republicans will
scrutinize whether Trump’s
words on Jan. 6 were legally “in-
citement.”
Senate Republican leader
Mitch McConnell, who said last
week that Trump “provoked” his
supporters before the riot, has not
said how he will vote or argued
any legal strategies. The Ken-
tucky senator has told his GOP
colleagues that it will be a vote of
conscience.
JOHN MINCHILLO/AP
Violent rioters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C.
Senate: More Republican senators speak outagainst conviction ahead of impeachment trialFROM PAGE 1
WASHINGTON — Federal law
enforcement officials are exam-
ining a number of threats aimed
at members of Congress as the
impeachment trial of former
President Donald Trump nears,
including ominous chatter about
killing legislators or attacking
them outside of the U.S. Capitol,
a U.S. official told The Associat-
ed Press.
The threats, and concerns that
armed protesters could return to
sack the Capitol anew, have
prompted the U.S. Capitol Police
and other federal law enforce-
ment to insist thousands of Na-
tional Guard troops remain in
Washington as the Senate moves
forward with plans for Trump’s
trial, the official said Sunday.
The shocking insurrection at
the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob
prompted federal officials to
rethink security in and around its
landmarks, resulting in an un-
precedented lockdown for Bi-
den’s inauguration. Though the
event went off without any prob-
lems and armed protests around
the country did not end up mate-
rializing, the threats to lawmak-
ers ahead of Trump’s trial exem-
plified the continued potential for
danger.
Similar to those that were in-
tercepted by investigators ahead
of Biden’s inauguration, the
threats that law enforcement
agents are tracking vary in speci-
ficity and credibility, said the of-
ficial, who had been briefed on
the matter. Mainly posted online
and in chat groups, the messages
have included plots to attack
members of Congress during
travel to and from the Capitol
complex during the trial, accord-
ing to the official.
The official was not authorized
to discuss an ongoing investiga-
tion publicly and spoke to the AP
on condition of anonymity.
Law enforcement officials are
already starting to plan for the
possibility of armed protesters
returning to the nation’s capital
when Trump’s Senate trial on a
charge of inciting a violent insur-
rection begins the week of Feb. 8.
It would be the first impeach-
ment trial of a former U.S. presi-
dent.
Thousands of Trump’s sup-
porters descended on the Capitol
on Jan. 6 as Congress met to cer-
tify Biden as the winner of the
2020 presidential race. More
than 800 are believed to have
made their way into the Capitol
during the violent siege, pushing
past overwhelmed police offi-
cers. The Capitol police said that
they planned for a free speech
protest, not a riot, and were
caught off guard despite intelli-
gence suggesting the rally would
descend into a riot. Five people
died in the melee, including a
Capitol police officer who was
struck in the head with a fire ex-
tinguisher.
Though much of the security
apparatus around Washington
set up after the riot and ahead of
Biden’s inauguration — it includ-
ed scores of military checkpoints
and hundreds of additional law
enforcement personnel — is no
longer in place, approximately
7,000 members of the National
Guard will remain to assist fed-
eral law enforcement, officials
said.
The Guard Bureau said that
the number of Guard members
in D.C. is less than 20,000 as of
Sunday. All but about 7,000 of
those will go home in the coming
days. The Guard Bureau said
that the number of troops in D.C.
would then continue to decline in
the coming weeks to about 5,000.
They are expected to stay in D.C.
until mid-March.
At least five people facing fed-
eral charges have suggested they
believed they were taking orders
from Trump when they marched
on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 to chal-
lenge the certification of Biden’s
election victory. But now those
comments, captured in inter-
views with reporters and federal
agents, are likely to take center
stage as Democrats lay out their
case.
More than 130 people have
been charged by federal prose-
cutors for their roles in the riot.
In recent weeks, others have
been arrested after posting
threats against members of Con-
gress.
They include a Proud Boys
supporter who authorities said
threatened to deploy “three cars
full of armed patriots” to Wash-
ington, threatened harm against
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.,
and who is accused of stockpiling
military-style combat knives and
more than 1,000 rifle rounds in
his New York home. A Texas
man was arrested this week for
taking part in the riot at the Capi-
tol and for posting violent
threats, including a call to assas-
sinate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez, D-N.Y.
Lawmakers receivethreats ahead ofimpeachment trial
BY MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9
NATION
WASHINGTON — When Presi-
dent Joe Biden took office last
week, he promised sweeping, bi-
partisan legislation to solve the
coronavirus pandemic, fix the
economy and overhaul immigra-
tion.
Just days later, the Senate
ground to a halt, with Democrats
and Republicans unable to agree
on even basic rules for how the
evenly divided body should oper-
ate.
Meanwhile, key Republicans
have quickly signaled discomfort
with — or outright dismissal of —
the cornerstone of Biden’s early
legislative agenda, a $1.9 trillion
pandemic relief plan that includes
measures including $1,400 stimu-
lus checks, vaccine distribution
funding and a $15 minimum wage.
On top of that, senators are pre-
paring for a wrenching second im-
peachment trial for former presi-
dent Donald Trump, set to begin
Feb. 9, which could mire all other
Senate business and further oblit-
erate any hopes of cross-party
cooperation.
Taken togeth-
er, this gridlock
could imperil Bi-
den’s entire
early presiden-
cy, making it im-
possible for him
to deliver on key
promises as he
contends with
dueling crises.
This reality could force Demo-
crats to choose within a matter of
weeks whether they will continue
to pursue the sort of bipartisan
cooperation that Biden — and
many senators of both parties —
have preached, or whether to pur-
sue procedural shortcuts or rule
changes that would sideline the
GOP but also are likely to divide
their caucus.
“Things move faster and faster
nowadays,” said Sen. John Hoe-
ven, R-N.D., commenting on the
rising tensions Friday. “It doesn’t
seem like there’s
a honeymoon pe-
riod.”
Much of the
current conflict
over the Senate
rules comes
courtesy of vet-
eran Republican
Sen. Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, who tran-
sitioned to minority leader
Wednesday after six years as ma-
jority leader.
Just hours after Biden’s inaugu-
ration, moments after a smiling
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was
first recognized as majority lead-
er, McConnell pointedly noted on
the Senate floor that the country
elected a smaller House Demo-
cratic majority, an evenly split
Senate and a “president who
promised unity.”
“The people intentionally en-
trusted both political sides with
significant power to shape our na-
tion’s direction,” he said. “May we
work together to honor that trust.”
Two days earlier, he had noti-
fied his Republican colleagues in
the Senate that he would deliver
Schumer a sharp ultimatum:
agree to preserve the legislative
filibuster, the centerpiece of mi-
nority power in the Senate or for-
get about any semblance of coop-
eration — starting with an agree-
ment on the chamber’s operating
rules.
The calculations for McConnell,
according to Republicans, are
simple. Not only is preserving the
filibuster a matter that Republi-
cans can unify around, it is some-
thing that potentially divides
Democrats, who are under enor-
mous pressure to discard it to ad-
vance their governing agenda.
“Republicans very much appre-
ciate the consistency and the rock-
solid fidelity to the norms and
rules that make the Senate a mod-
erating force in policymaking,”
said Scott Jennings, a former
McConnell aide. “The legislative
filibuster is the last rule driving bi-
partisanship in Washington.”
Schumer told McConnell on
Friday that he considered any
guarantee surrounding the fil-
ibuster to be an “extraneous de-
mand” departing from the ar-
rangement that the two parties
worked out the last time there was
a 50-50 Senate, in 2001.
“What’s fair is fair,” Schumer
said, noting that McConnell
changed Senate rules twice as ma-
jority leader. “Leader McCon-
nell’s proposal is unacceptable,
and it won’t be accepted.”
Fight over rules brings Senate to haltThe Washington Post
Schumer McConnell
WASHINGTON — A Tennessee
man photographed holding white
plastic handcuffs and a stun gun in
the Senate gallery could face
charges of sedition and other felo-
nies in what prosecutors on Sun-
day called the “insurrection” and
“occupation” of the U.S. Capitol on
Jan. 6.
“The evidence amassed so far
subjects the defendant,” Erik
Munchel of Nashville, Tenn., to
additional felonies, “including ob-
structing Congress, interstate
travel in furtherance of rioting ac-
tivity, sedition and other offens-
es,” federal prosecutors wrote in a
court filing.
Within minutes of the govern-
ment filing, Chief U.S. District
Judge Beryl Howell stayed a low-
er court’s conditional release of
Munchel, and ordered his transfer
from Tennessee to Washington for
hearings.
Howell did not elaborate in a
pair of one-page orders. However,
prosecutors argued for Munchel’s
detention, saying that he is
charged with a felony while pos-
sessing a dangerous weapon, and
that he poses a flight risk because
of previous attempts to evade po-
lice and potential prison time.
Munchel has not entered a plea.
His attorney previously told a
judge that he picked up the plastic
zip ties or “flexicuffs” to keep
them from being misused. He was
“trying to keep a rein on” and
“protect” his mother, who is also
facing prosecution, according to
Nashville Assistant Federal De-
fender Caryll Alpert.
On Friday, U.S. Magistrate
Judge Jeffery Frensley of Nash-
ville released Munchel to strict
confinement at home or with a
friend, saying that his motive was
“not clear” and that there was “no
evidence” that Munchel engaged
in violence. Frensley gave the gov-
ernment until Monday to appeal to
the chief federal district judge in
Washington.
Prosecutors on Sunday argued
that Munchel was not inspired to
commit civil disobedience but to
direct a message of “fear, intimi-
dation, and violence . . . at law en-
forcement, elected public offi-
cials, and the entire country.”
They cited a new allegation
from a man who has said he was
harassed by a group of Trump
supporters at the Grand Hyatt ho-
tel in Washington the night of Jan.
6, and who identified Munchel as
one who “put his hands on me.”
The man said the group wrongly
called him “antifa,” referring to a
far-left anti-fascist movement
whose adherents sometimes en-
gage in violent clashes with right-
wing extremists.
Prosecutors said a video Mun-
chel recorded of himself showed
that he entered the Capitol
dressed in combat attire from
head to toe, armed with a stun gun
and apparently a more dangerous
weapon he stashed outside the
building, and searched for law-
makers whom he believed had
committed “treason.”
A search of Munchel’s home
turned up two tactical vests; 15
firearms, including assault rifles,
a sniper rifle and tripod, other ri-
fles, shotguns, and pistols; and a
drum-style magazine, other mag-
azines and ammunition — an “ar-
senal” that prosecutors said “indi-
cates the continued capacity to
carry out the sort or fear and in-
timidation campaign in which he
partook on January 6.”
Tenn. man with zip ties at Capitol could face chargesBY SPENCER S. HSU
The Washington Post
For two Virginia police officers who
posed for a photo during the deadly U.S.
Capitol insurrection, the reckoning has
been swift and public: They were identified,
charged with crimes and arrested.
But for five Seattle officers the outcome is
less clear. Their identities still secret, two
are on leave and three continue to work
while a police watchdog investigates
whether their actions in the nation’s capital
on Jan. 6 crossed the line from protected po-
litical speech to lawbreaking.
The contrasting cases highlight the di-
lemma faced by police departments nation-
wide as they review the behavior of dozens
of officers who were in Washington the day
of the riot by supporters of President Do-
nald Trump. Officials and experts agree
that officers who were involved in the melee
should be fired and charged for their role.
But what about those officers who attend-
ed only the Trump rally before the riot?
How does a department balance an officer’s
free speech rights with the blow to public
trust that comes from the attendance of law
enforcement at an event with far-right mil-
itants and white nationalists who went on to
assault the seat of American democracy?
An Associated Press survey of law en-
forcement agencies nationwide found that
at least 31 officers in 12 states are being
scrutinized by their supervisors for their
behavior in the District of Columbia or face
criminal charges for participating in the
riot. Officials are looking into whether the
officers violated any laws or policies or par-
ticipated in the violence while in Washing-
ton. A Capitol Police officer died after he
was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher
as rioters descended on the building and
many other officers were injured. A woman
was shot to death by Capitol Police and
three other people died after medical emer-
gencies during the chaos.
Most of the officers have not been publi-
cly identified; only a few have been
charged. Some were identified by online
sleuths. Others were reported by their col-
leagues or turned themselves in.
“If they were off-duty, it’s totally free
speech,” said Will Aitchison, a lawyer in
Portland, Ore., who represents law enforce-
ment officers. “People have the right to ex-
press their political views regardless of
who’s standing next to them. You just don’t
get guilt by association.”
But Ayesha Bell Hardaway, a professor
at Case Western Reserve University law
school, said an officer’s presence at the rally
creates a credibility issue as law enforce-
ment agencies work to repair community
trust, especially after last summer’s pro-
tests against police brutality sparked by the
police killings of George Floyd and Breonna
Taylor.
Police weigh discipline in rally, Capitol riotAssociated Press
KAREN WARREN, HOUSTON CHRONICLE/AP
Former Houston Police Officer Tam Phamwalks out of the Houston FederalCourthouse on Thursday, after heappeared in court on federal charges tiedto violence at the U.S. Capitol.
PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
NATION
INDIANAPOLIS — Five peo-
ple, including a pregnant woman,
were shot to death early Sunday
inside an Indianapolis home in an
apparent targeted attack, the
city’s police chief said, decrying
the “mass murder” killings as a
“different kind of evil.”
The fatal shootings were dis-
covered by police who had been
called at about 4 a.m. to investi-
gate reports of a person shot on
the city’s near northeast side but
first discovered a juvenile male
with gunshot wounds, said Sgt.
Shane Foley with the Indianapolis
Metropolitan Police Department.
No suspects were in custody as
of Sunday evening.
As officers were investigating
that juvenile’s shooting, Foley
said police received information
at about 4:40 a.m., that led them
to a nearby home, where they
found multiple adults dead inside
from apparent gunshot wounds.
Kezzie Childs, 42; Raymond
Childs, 42; Elijah Childs, 18; Rita
Childs, 13; and Kiara Hawkins,
19, and the unborn child of Haw-
kins were pronounced dead after
being found in the home, Foley
said.
Hawkins was first taken to an
area hospital, but both she and
the unborn child died despite life-
saving efforts, Foley said.
He said the juvenile initially
found with gunshot wounds is ex-
pected to survive and police be-
lieve he was wounded in the
shootings that left the five others
dead, along with the unborn child.
IMPD Chief Randal Taylor
said police believe the deadly
shootings were not random, but
were a targeted attack carried out
by an assailant or assailants.
He said the shooting came days
after police department officials
had announced their latest efforts
to combat violent, drug-related
crimes and “violence driven by
poverty or desperation.”
“But what we saw this morning
was a different kind of evil. What
happened this morning, based on
the evidence that’s been gathered
so far, was mass murder,” Taylor
said at a news conference. “More
than that, we believe it was not
random.”
Taylor said it was largest mass
casualty shooting in the city in
more than a decade, and urged
the public to contact police and
pass along any information they
might have on the killings.
Mayor Joe Hogsett called the
shootings “mass murder,” and
said that an individual or individ-
uals had brought “terror to our
community.” He said he had con-
tacted officials with the FBI’s In-
dianapolis field office, the local
U.S. Attorney's office and other
law enforcement agencies for as-
sistance in the shooting investiga-
tion.
“I want those responsible to
know that the full might of local,
state and federal law enforce-
ment are coming for them as I
speak,” he said.
5, including pregnant woman, fatally shot in Indianapolis homeAssociated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Republi-
can lawmakers in several more
states want to loosen gun restric-
tions by allowing people to carry
concealed firearms without hav-
ing to get a permit, continuing a
trend that gun control advocates
call dangerous.
Fifteen states already allow
concealed carry without a permit,
and lawmakers in nine others
have proposed allowing or ex-
panding the practice. GOP gover-
nors are backing the changes in
Utah and Tennessee. Another bill
expanding permitless carry in
Montana has passed the state
House.
Most states require people to do
things like get weapons training
and undergo a background check
to get a permit to carry a gun hid-
den by a jacket or inside a purse.
Groups like the National Rifle As-
sociation and state lawmakers
who support gun rights argue
those requirements are ineffec-
tive and undermine Second
Amendment protections.
The proposed changes come af-
ter gun sales hit historic levels last
summer — reflected in FBI back-
ground checks — amid uncertain-
ty and safety concerns about the
coronavirus pandemic, the strug-
gling economy and protests over
racial injustice. Since then, a vio-
lent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Against that backdrop, the ef-
forts to loosen concealed carry re-
quirements are a frightening
trend for Shannon Watts, founder
of the gun control group Moms
Demand Action.
“It is dangerous to allow people
to carry hidden, loaded handguns
possibly without a background
check or any training,” she said,
adding that the annual rate of ag-
gravated assaults with a firearm
has increased 71% in Alaska since
the state became the first to allow
concealed carry without a permit
in 2003.
The proposal in Utah would al-
low any U.S. citizen 21 and older to
carry a concealed weapon without
the now-required background
check or weapons course. The bill
does allow gun owners who want
to carry a concealed weapon out of
state to get a permit to do so after a
background check and safety
course.
Newly elected GOP Gov. Spen-
cer Cox has said he supports the
idea, in contrast to his predecessor
and fellow Republican Gary
Herbert, who vetoed a similar bill
in 2013.
Supporters of the change argue
that other state laws against such
things as felons having guns and
anyone carrying a firearm while
intoxicated are enough to ensure
guns are used safely.
“I have that right to protect my-
self, the Constitution says we have
the right. Why are we putting a
barrier for law-abiding citizens?”
said Rep. Walt Brooks, the Repub-
lican lawmaker sponsoring the
bill that got an early nod of approv-
al from a House committee Fri-
day.
RICK BOWMER/AP
A man carries his weapon during a Second Amendment gun rally at the Utah State Capitol on Feb. 8,2020, in Salt Lake City.
States eye allowing concealedcarry of guns without a permitBY LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The elite
Russian hackers who gained ac-
cess to computer systems of fed-
eral agencies last year didn’t
bother trying to break one by one
into the networks of each depart-
ment.
Instead, they got inside by
sneaking malicious code into a
software update pushed out to
thousands of government agen-
cies and private companies.
It wasn’t surprising that hack-
ers were able to exploit vulner-
abilities in what’s known as the
supply chain to launch a massive
intelligence gathering operation.
U.S. officials and cybersecurity
experts have sounded the alarm
for years about a problem that
has caused havoc, including bil-
lions of dollars in financial losses,
but has defied easy solutions
from the government and private
sector.
“We’re going to have to wrap
our arms around the supply-
chain threat and find the solution,
not only for us here in America as
the leading economy in the world,
but for the planet,” William Eva-
nina, who resigned last week as
the U.S. government’s chief coun-
terintelligence official, said in an
interview. “We’re going to have to
find a way to make sure that we in
the future can have a zero-risk
posture, and trust our suppliers.”
In general terms, a supply
chain refers to the network of
people and companies involved in
the development of a particular
product, not dissimilar to a home
construction project that relies on
a contractor and a web of subcon-
tractors. The sheer number of
steps in that process, from design
to manufacture to distribution,
and the different entities involved
give a hacker looking to infiltrate
businesses, agencies and infras-
tructure numerous points of en-
try.
This can mean no single com-
pany or executive bears sole re-
sponsibility for protecting an en-
tire industry supply chain. And
even if most vendors in the chain
are secure, a single point of vul-
nerability can be all that foreign
government hackers need. In
practical terms, homeowners
who construct a fortress-like
mansion can nonetheless find
themselves victimized by an
alarm system that was compro-
mised before it was installed.
The most recent case targeting
federal agencies involved Rus-
sian government hackers who are
believed to have sneaked mali-
cious code into popular software
that monitors computer networks
of businesses and governments.
That product is made by a Texas-
based company called Solar-
Winds that has thousands of cus-
tomers in the federal government
and private sector.
That malware gave hackers re-
mote access to the networks of
multiple agencies. Among those
known to have been affected are
the departments of Commerce,
Treasury and Justice.
For hackers, the business mod-
el of directly targeting a supply
chain is sensible.
“If you want to breach 30 com-
panies on Wall Street, why
breach 30 companies on Wall
Street (individually) when you
can go to the server — the ware-
house, the cloud — where all
those companies hold their data?
It’s just smarter, more effective,
more efficient to do that,” Evani-
na said.
Russian hack of USagencies revealedsupply chain flaws
BY ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11
AMERICAN ROUNDUP
Hiker rescued afterfalling down cliff
OR CASCADE LOCKS —
A hiker was rescued in
Oregon, apparently three days af-
ter he fell down a 50-foot cliff in
the Columbia River Gorge.
The Coast Guard and the Hood
River County Sheriff’s Office said
they got the 43-year-old to safety
after he was discovered by two
other hikers at the base of the cliff,
about a mile from the start of the
Gorton Creek Trail.
He was conscious but injured,
disoriented and possibly hypoth-
ermic, and authorities said he like-
ly would not have survived the
night.
The first responders who ar-
rived were unable to transport the
man to safety due to the difficult
terrain, but a Coast Guard heli-
copter crew extracted him and
brought him to a Portland hospital
in stable condition.
Teen charged with gunpossession for 2nd time
MA SPRINGFIELD — A
15-year-old Massa-
chusetts boy already wearing a
court-ordered monitoring device
on his ankle after a previous arrest
was arrested again for allegedly
being in possessions of a gun, po-
lice said.
The Springfield youth was tak-
en into custody after police ob-
tained a search warrant for his
home, Springfield police spokes-
man Ryan Walsh told Masslive-
.com.
Detectives had developed infor-
mation that the suspect had an il-
legal firearm. Upon arrival at the
home, police knocked and an-
nounced themselves but saw
someone inside running “franti-
cally” around the house apparent-
ly trying to hide evidence, police
said.
After several minutes, the sus-
pect tried to flee out a side door but
officers were waiting. During the
subsequent search, officers found
a loaded handgun, Walsh said.
Woman sentenced to 18months in medical hoax
IL EAST ST. LOUIS — A 36-
year-old southern Illinois
woman was sentenced to 18
months in federal prison in a med-
ical hoax that tricked people who
gave her money and other bene-
fits.
Sarah Delashmit of Highland
pleaded guilty in October to mul-
tiple fraud charges after author-
ities claimed she defrauded non-
profit organizations by pretending
to have muscular dystrophy and
breast cancer.
She must pay a $1,250 fine, for-
feit items she received and pay
about $7,600 in restitution. After
her release, she must serve three
years of court supervision.
Authorities said the offenses
took place between 2015 and 2019,
but evidence at the hearing
showed she’d participated in simi-
lar hoaxes back to 2006.
Massive fire at potatoplant forces evacuations
WA WARDEN — A mas-
sive fire at a potato
plant in Warden brought fears of
an exploding ammonia tank, forc-
ing the evacuation of nearly a
third of the town for several hours.
The fire broke out at the Wash-
ington Potato Plant in eastern
Washington in one of the dehydra-
tors, according to Kyle Foreman
with the Grant County Sheriff’s
Office, KOMO-TV reported. Em-
ployees in the building made it out
safely as the flames spread, even-
tually engulfing much of the plant.
Among the items in the burning
building was a large ammonia
tank that firefighters worried
could explode and send a toxic
cloud over the region, and officials
issued an urgent immediate evac-
uation notice for the surrounding
area.
The fears of explosion subsided
the next morning and residents
were allowed back into their
homes, Foreman said.
Man wins lifetime licensefor hunting and fishing
VT MONTPELIER — A
Massachusetts man
won a lottery to hunt and fish in
Vermont for free for the rest of his
life.
Robert Hubbard, 57, of War-
wick, Mass., was drawn as the
winner from more than 19,400
tickets bought in 2020, the Ver-
mont Fish and Wildlife Depart-
ment said.
Sales of the $2 tickets brought
net sales of almost $39,000 to the
department, which can be lever-
aged with federal funds to pro-
duce more than $155,000 to sup-
port fish and wildlife conservation
in Vermont, officials said. The lot-
tery was open to residents and out-
of-staters.
“These funds help us to manage
the state’s sportfish and game ani-
mals, protect threatened and en-
dangered species and conserve
important habitat for wildlife,”
Fish and Wildlife Commissioner
Louis Porter said.
Auto shop pays $2,033for school lunch debts
MI SUTTONS BAY — An
auto repair shop tuned
up the lunch accounts at a north-
ern Michigan school district.
To celebrate five years in busi-
ness, the owners of Mr. Hoxie’s
Garage wrote a check for
$2,033.99 to cover unpaid student
lunch debts in Suttons Bay, near
Traverse City, the Record-Eagle
reported.
Kris Hoxie said the couple usu-
ally supports school arts and
sports, but COVID-19 disrupted
those programs.
Kris Hoxie said she has talked
to other business owners in the
Leelanau County community
about making a five-year pledge to
the school lunch program.
4 people stole unmarkedpolice car and stripped it
NY NEW YORK — Police
are seeking four people
who stole an unmarked police car
in the Bronx, drove it to a nearby
parking lot and stripped it for
parts, authorities said.
It’s not clear how the bandits
stole the parked police car, police
said.
The thieves drove the car to a
parking lot near Crotona Park,
where they stripped it down,.
Surveillance images show three
of the four people who are being
sought in the heist. One, a woman,
is carrying a bag and a drill.
Pair attacked man overout-of-state license plate
ME PORTLAND — Por-
tland police arrested
two people they say attacked a
man because his car had Vermont
license plates.
The suspects yelled at the vic-
tim and told him that he shouldn’t
be in Maine, then assaulted him,
police said
They damaged his car and tried
to pull him out, police said. The
victim, whose name was not made
public, was not seriously hurt.
Police responding to calls from
witnesses found that the suspects
had fled by the time they arrived,
but both were arrested a short
time later.
Nathaniel Glavin, 41, and Va-
nessa Lazaro, 22, both face assault
and drug charges.
Man fled police, founddead in flooded quarry
PA READING — A man
fleeing police in east-
ern Pennsylvania after a shoplift-
ing report went into the water of a
nearby flooded quarry, disap-
peared and was found dead a day
later, authorities said.
Police in Muhlenberg Town-
ship said the suspect ran from offi-
cers who were investigating a
shoplifting report at a Target
store. He got into the fenced-off
former Berks Products Quarry in
the township and went missing in
the frigid water, police said. A
search was called off due to dark-
ness.
The Berks County coroner’s of-
fice said the body of Joshua Fonta-
nez-Rodriguez, 23, of Minersville
was recovered by divers the next
day.
CHRIS DILLMANN, VAIL (COLO.) DAILY/AP
Arabella Bothwell and her best friend, Anna Miller, of Avon, Colo., check out the village's art installations in Beaver Creek, Colo. The village hasinstalled art pieces throughout the season.
Walking in a winter wonderland
THE CENSUS
22 The number of years the peregrine falcon has been on Mis-souri's endangered species list after being removed from the
federal list, but that may change soon. State officials are moving to remove thebirds from the list, as the Missouri Conservation Commission gave initial ap-proval to the removal. The plan, however, calls for keeping the falcon as aspecies of conservation concern. Peregrine falcon populations plummeted na-tionwide during the 1940s through the 1960s due to the widespread use ofpesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane in their food chain, theMissouri Department of Conservation said in a news release.
From the Associated Press
PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
WORLD
BRUSSELS — European Union foreign min-
isters Monday debated the 27-nation bloc’s re-
sponse to the arrest of Russian opposition lead-
er Alexei Navalny and a weekend police crack-
down that saw thousands taken into custody
during protests in support of President Vladi-
mir Putin’s most well-known critic.
“This wave of detention is something that
worries us a lot, as well as the detention of Mr.
Navalny,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Bor-
rell said as he arrived to chair the ministerial
meeting in Brussels. More than 3,500 people
were reportedly taken into custody during the
nationwide protests.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said
that “under the Russian constitution, everyone
in Russia has the right to express their opinion
and to demonstrate. That must be possible. The
principles of the rule of law must apply there,
too — Russia has always committed itself to
that.”
He and other ministers called for the imme-
diate release of the protesters.
The U.S. embassy spokeswoman in Moscow,
Rebecca Ross, said on Twitter that the United
States “supports the right of all people to
peaceful protest, freedom of expression. Steps
being taken by Russian authorities are sup-
pressing those rights.”
The embassy also tweeted a State Depart-
ment statement calling for Navalny’s release.
Putin’s spokesman said the statements inter-
fered in the country’s domestic affairs and en-
couraged Russians to break the law.
EU considers response toNavalny arrest, crackdown
Associated Press
JOHN THYS, POOL/AP
European Union foreign policy chief JosepBorrell speaks to journalists prior to a EUForeign Affairs Ministers meeting at theEuropean Council building in Brussels, onMonday.
Judge orders freedom for Uganda’s Bobi Wine
KAMPALA, Uganda — A judge
ruled Monday that Ugandan secu-
rity forces cannot detain presiden-
tial challenger Bobi Wine in his
home, rebuking authorities for
holding him under house arrest
following a disputed election.
Wine, 38, whose real name is
Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has been
unable to leave his home since
Jan. 14, when Ugandans voted in
an election in which the singer-
turned-politician was the main
challenger to President Yoweri
Museveni, 76. But the judge ruled
Wine’s home is not a proper deten-
tion facility and noted that author-
ities should criminally charge him
if he threatens public order.
From The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13
WORLD
MOGADISHU, Somalia —
Heavy fighting has broken out in
a Somali town near the Kenyan
border between Somali forces
and those from the state of Jub-
baland, as Somalia’s election
troubles spill over into violence.
Somalia’s information ministry
in a statement early Monday ac-
cused Kenya-funded rebels of
crossing into the town of Bulo
Hawo and attacking Somali
forces. But the Jubbaland vice
president, Mohamud Sayid Adan,
told reporters that Jubbaland
forces stationed outside the town
were attacked by what he called
forces recently deployed to the
region by the government in the
capital, Mogadishu.
Both sides have claimed victo-
ry, but people in the town said
that fighting continued and some
people have begun to flee. The
information ministry asserted
that Somali forces were in con-
trol of the town. There were no
immediate details available on
casualties.
Heavy fighting erupts in Somali town near KenyaAssociated Press
BEIJING — Chinese rescuers
found the bodies of nine workers
in a mine explosion, raising the
death toll to 10, officials said Mon-
day.
Eleven others were rescued a
day earlier after being trapped un-
derground for two weeks at the
gold mine in Shandong province.
One person was still missing.
The cause of the accident at the
mine, which was under construc-
tion, is under investigation. The
explosion on Jan. 10 released 70
tons of debris that blocked a shaft,
disabling elevators and trapping
workers underground.
Rescuers drilled parallel shafts
to send down food and nutrients
and eventually bring up the survi-
vors Sunday.
Search efforts will continue for
the remaining miner until he is
found, said Chen Fei, the mayor of
Yantai city, where the mine is lo-
cated.
“Until this worker is found, we
will not give up,” he said at a news
conference.
9 workers found dead in China mine explosion; toll now at 10Associated Press
PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
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stripes.com
OPINION
Long before the television impresa-
rio Ted Turner marketed the At-
lanta Braves as “America’s
Team,” Atlanta had no big league
team at all. There was no Major League
ballclub anywhere in the Deep South as of
1964, the year three disappeared civil rights
workers were found buried in an earthen
dam in Mississippi. The city dangled a new
stadium, lavish TV rights, parking receipts
and the generous patronage of Coca-Cola to
attract a franchise.
The Braves of Milwaukee took the bait,
which meant that Henry Aaron of Mobile,
Ala., was headed back to the South. I’m go-
ing to call him Henry in this column be-
cause that was the name he preferred, as
opposed to “Hank,” a nickname attached to
him by a PR man who thought white fans
might find it friendlier. A giant on and off
the field, Aaron died Friday, a few weeks
shy of his 87th birthday.
How did he feel about the move? As you
might expect: “I have lived in the South, and
I don’t want to live there again,” Aaron said
in anticipation of the Braves’ 1966 debut in
Atlanta.
But Henry Aaron won over Atlanta and
retired as the greatest player in franchise
history — the franchise marketed as a team
for the whole nation. His hero, Jackie Rob-
inson, broke through baseball’s wall of seg-
regation, but even he didn’t do it in Dixie.
Aaron finished the job in large part because
he was both supremely talented and incred-
ibly steady.
There is a very exclusive club whose
members hit a baseball well enough to com-
pile a career batting average above .300,
who hit hard enough to accumulate 300 or
more home runs and who played long
enough to hit safely at least 3,000 times.
Club roster: Henry Aaron, Willie Mays,
Stan Musial and George Brett. The club
gets smaller when you double the number
of homers to 600: Aaron and Mays. Add 155
home runs (more on this number later) and
you have Aaron, all alone.
He was ridiculously consistent. Elected
to the All-Star team in 21 consecutive sea-
sons, a record. Top 20 in the balloting for
most valuable player 19 seasons in a row.
The all-time leader in runs batted in and to-
tal bases. Eight seasons of 40 or more home
runs. Seven additional seasons with more
than 30. He was the league leader in slug-
ging percentage four times over three dif-
ferent decades.
That steadiness carried him through one
of the longest and loneliest of all civil rights
marches, as year after year Aaron faced the
National League’s best pitchers in pursuit
of the most hallowed record of the most cel-
ebrated player in the history of the national
pastime. A person is rarely more alone than
in the batter’s box; a home run is an epitome
of individual achievement. Aaron needed
715 of them to unseat Babe Ruth as the all-
time home run king.
(About that number: Major League Base-
ball recently took the long-overdue step of
acknowledging that the organized Negro
Leagues are properly part of “major
league” history. Statistics racked up before
Robinson’s trailblazing 1947 season will be
added to career totals of players such as
Mays, Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, Roy Cam-
panella and others who played on both sides
of the egregious color line. Aaron’s five doc-
umented home runs for the all-Black Indi-
anapolis Clowns came in 1952, too late to be
added to his totals.)
A lifetime record creeps up gradually.
Through the strife of the late 1960s and
early 1970s — when the avowed white su-
premacist George Wallace was winning
electoral votes for president and white citi-
zens from Boston to Denver were protest-
ing violently against school desegregation
measures — Aaron closed relentlessly on
Ruth’s record.
“My kids had to live like they were in pris-
on because of kidnap threats,” he later re-
called. “I had to go out the back door of the
ballparks. I had to have a police escort with
me all the time. I was getting threatening
letters every single day.”
One lonely trip to the plate after another.
I turned 13 in the winter of 1974, when
Henry Aaron spent the offseason parked at
713. He needed one more to tie and another
to break the record. Everyone knew that
baseball’s steadiest superstar would finish
the job promptly once the new season start-
ed. And he did, with a homer on Opening
Day, April 4, and another on April 8. Still,
then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn made no
effort to be present.
When “The Hammer,” as he was known,
died, he died in Atlanta. The place he didn’t
want to go had become the place he didn’t
want to leave. A prosperous businessman
and recipient of the prestigious title of Ge-
orgia Trustee, Henry Aaron had done as
much as anyone to redeem the South from
the clutches of its history and to open a way
forward. Not with one swing of the bat, but
with tens of thousands; his motto, he said,
was “just keep swinging.”
On homers and fans, Aaron’s touched ‘em allBY DAVID VON DREHLE
The Washington Post
Washington Post columnist David Von Drehle is the author offour books, including “Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln andAmerica’s Most Perilous Year” and “Triangle: The Fire ThatChanged America.”
In the wake of the Donald Trump-incit-
ed riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, sup-
porters of the former president de-
ployed the usual two-step playbook
when Trump makes an indefensible blun-
der. First, they hid. CNN’s Jake Tapper told
viewers last week, “We invited every single
Republican senator to join us this morning.
Every one of them declined or failed to re-
spond.” This week, they emerged for the sec-
ond step: deflect, and protect Trump from
having to suffer any consequences.
“It’s a moot point” whether Trump com-
mitted an impeachable offense, argued Sen.
Mike Rounds, R-S.D., on NBC’s “Meet the
Press” on Sunday. “For right now, I think
there are other things that we’d rather be
working on instead.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-
Fla., sounded a similar note on “Fox News
Sunday,” even as he acknowledged that
Trump bears “responsibility for some of
what happened” at the Capitol. “I think the
trial is stupid. I think it’s counterproduc-
tive,” Rubio said. “We already have a flam-
ing fire in this country, and it’s like taking a
bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the
fire.”
To extend Rubio’s analogy, though, dis-
carding the House’s impeachment article
now is like saying the person who helped set
the fire shouldn’t face consequences be-
cause his friends might be upset. And after
several days of Republicans dismissing
President Joe Biden’s first actions as being
of the “radical left,” as Rubio did Friday, it’s
unconvincing to turn around and feign inter-
est in working with the new White House.
But as weak as Rubio and Rounds’ argu-
ments were, no one deflected more flagrant-
ly than Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on ABC’s
“This Week.” Host George Stephanopoulos
began by asking, “This election was not sto-
len, do you accept that fact?” Paul refused.
“We never had any presentation in court
where we actually looked at the evidence,”
he said. “Most of the cases were thrown out
for lack of standing, which is a procedural
way of not actually hearing the question.”
At this point, Stephanopoulos could have
pointed that even Paul said “most,” not all —
that time and again Trump’s team was un-
able to prove his case on the merits. He could
have observed that as a states’ rights sup-
porter, Paul should have agreed with several
of the dismissals, as when the Supreme
Court rejected Texas’ bizarre bid to chal-
lenge other states’ election results. Or he
could have asked Paul how he expects a con-
gressional investigation to assuage GOP vot-
ers who still believe in massive “Obama-
gate” and Benghazi scandals despite years of
Republican-led investigations to the con-
trary. Instead, Stephanopoulos mostly just
re-asked the question incredulously for sev-
eral minutes; he and Paul all but shouted
over each other continuously before the in-
terview ended.
It’s unclear what value ABC viewers got
out of Paul’s distortions. But Paul achieved
what he wanted: clips to show Trump sup-
porters that he’s fighting the liberal media on
behalf of the man he once called a “fake con-
servative.” Rubio got to demonstrate his loy-
alty to Trump as well — particularly impor-
tant for the senator from Florida given ru-
mors that he may face Ivanka Trump in a
2022 primary. (“You sound like you’re in
campaign form,” said Fox News host Chris
Wallace.) With the former president making
noises about going after his GOP critics or
even starting a third party, Rubio, Paul and
Rounds once again put loyalty to Trump over
helping the country move forward.
The irony is that it’s not impeachment that
keeps the country from moving on after Jan.
6; it’s Trump himself, and the unavoidable
hangover from his egregious behavior.
We’re just days removed from an attempted
coup that struck at the country’s very foun-
dations. Yet while law enforcement officials
have arrested dozens of the perpetrators, the
ground remains fertile for another attempt
because one of our two parties remains cap-
tured by the man who incited the attack. So
long as Trump maintains his dangerous grip,
this country will struggle to move forward.
Republicans are doing a two-step with TrumpismBY JAMES DOWNIE
The Washington Post
James Downie is The Washington Post’s Digital Opinions Editor.He previously wrote for The New Republic and Foreign Policymagazine.
Tuesday, January 26, 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 • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
ACROSS 1 Ancient Brit 5 Six-pack
muscles 8 Pepper
dispenser 12 Hideaway 13 Used a chair 14 Exotic berry 15 Region 16 Clog-busting
tools 18 Advertised
insistently 20 Available 21 Charged bit 22 “Aladdin”
monkey 23 Put in office 26 Bird’s feathers 30 Caesar or
Vicious 31 Microwave 32 Sass 33 Used tweezers 36 Musical set in
Argentina 38 Tramcar
contents 39 Motorist’s org. 40 Doofus 43 Guest of
a guest 47 Fruity dessert 49 Lovers’
quarrel 50 Mystique 51 Possess 52 Guthrie of folk 53 Tennis barriers 54 Caustic cleaner 55 Pitcher Nolan
DOWN 1 Applaud 2 — of Sandwich 3 Stead 4 Dire 5 Colorado
ski resort 6 Hairy no more 7 Disco guy on
“The Simpsons” 8 Large
champagne bottle
9 “Law & Order: SVU” actor
10 Yuri Zhivago’s love
11 Speak like Sylvester
17 Celebrity chef Matsuhisa
19 Understood 22 Swiss peak 23 Sixth sense 24 Like Abner
25 Sch. URL ender 26 Knee protector 27 “The Greatest” 28 “Shoo!” 29 Clean air org. 31 Wye follower 34 They give
one pause 35 Ray of
McDonald’s 36 Water (Fr.) 37 Poughkeepsie
college 39 Coeur d’—,
Idaho 40 Bridge 41 Crossword hint 42 In pain 43 Tree-lined rte. 44 Grand Ole — 45 “The Lion
King” lion 46 Harrow rival 48 “You’ve got
mail” co.
Answer to Previous Puzzle
Eugene Sheffer CrosswordFra
zz
Dilbert
Pearls B
efo
re S
win
eN
on S
equitur
Candorv
ille
Beetle B
ailey
Biz
arr
oCarp
e D
iem
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17
FACES
Larry King’s vintage microphone,
the RCA Type 77-D that refer-
enced his rise as a radio man, was
a prop that worked as a powerful
symbol of both past and present in a relent-
lessly evolving media age. The microphone
was a security blanket for everyone in-
volved: for King, for his 60,000 interview
subjects, and for the viewers of his nightly
CNN talk show, once touted by the network
to number a billion or so worldwide.
The microphone indicated that King —
who died Jan. 23 at age 87, having lived
most of his life as a persona more than a per-
son — wanted the whole world to hear what
his guests had to say. The microphone
didn’t stand for posterity or nostalgia so
much as a visual representation of the ma-
jor media moment, the heat of notoriety in
its full and often fleeting flash. The micro-
phone acknowledged the need to ask and
answer the great mysteries of life — the
scandals, the personal struggles, the rises
and the falls, the regrets in real time.
Mostly, the microphone stood for an in-
creasingly rare virtue: listening. (Listening,
and its nearly extinct counterpart: a genu-
ine, unflagging curiosity about someone
other than yourself.)
Some of King’s guests were better than
others, of course. Not every night could
have Marlon Brando; not every night could
feature Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Ra-
bin, Palestine Liberation Organization
leader Yasser Arafat and Jordan’s King
Hussein historically united on the same
show in 1995. Not every night could be Vla-
dimir Putin or Ronald Reagan, Lady Gaga
or Muhammad Ali, Miss Piggy and Kermit,
Paul and Ringo. But his show was invaria-
bly, relentlessly topical. It was broad in a
time of wondrous broadness, before the dis-
rupting rise of the niche market.
To be sitting at the table on CNN’s “Larry
King Live” — just you, him and the big old
mic — was proof that one had truly arrived.
The suspenders. The odd questions. Why,
King wanted to know. His favorite question,
because that’s all any of us ever really want
to know: Why?
During his 25-year reign on CNN, “Larry
King Live” was a necessary and vital stop
on the way to one’s public judgment. More
than one celebrity used his show as a form
of recompense, coming to him dirty and
damaged with the hope of leaving clean.
Others used it as an opportunity to appear
vulnerable. Most used him as a means to
promote a project, to gin up some buzz.
No matter what brought them to “Larry
King Live,” it was understood that the ques-
tions would be coming from a place of genu-
ine wonder, rather than showy intellect.
King was a singular personality, a mutation
of the common man, a New Yorker unafraid
to just ask the question. The effect was a
successful mixing of the daft with the deft.
When news of his death spread over the
weekend, much of the immediate tribute
came in the form of defense of King’s mas-
tery of the “dumb question,” and rightly so.
Most reporters eventually figure out that
the dumb question is a powerful tool of in-
quiry. Kind people know it, too, and still
practice the art. In its disarming way, the
dumb question produces answers that the
subject isn’t tired of answering. It turns the
interview into a conversation. It invites
rather than antagonizes.
King would often boast about not boning
up on the details of a subject’s life and work
before an interview. He trudged confident-
ly into the emotional and factual blind. It
could seem rude and even socially inept,
but the viewer identified with it.
His dumb questions, of course, produced
a legendary archive of laughable moments.
In one often-shared clip from 2007, he
asked Jerry Seinfeld about the end of “Sein-
feld” — was it canceled? (“You think I was
canceled?” Seinfeld replied. “Do you know
who I am? ... Seventy-five million viewers
on the last episode.”)
It’s telling that CNN was never quite able
to find the world’s next Larry King after he
left the network in 2010. There’s no room
anymore for a seasoned personality who
blunders his or her way around and through
the zeitgeist, on behalf of an audience that
blunders a bit, too.
King was afraid of dying. Or at least des-
perately curious. Being interviewed by
Mike Wallace in 1992, King seemed fixated
on the idea that we are but mere “blips” in
the universe. Where do we go when we die?
King was never sure, often telling people
he relied on the maybe/maybe-not eschat-
ological stance of his Jewish background.
Still, it’s fitting to imagine him loosed in that
great cocktail party in the sky, reacquainted
with so many of the boldface names he’d in-
terviewed in this realm. Asking dumb ques-
tion after dumb question, with all eternity to
get the answers.
AP
Larry King, shown on the “Larry King Live” set on CNN in Washington, D.C., in 1994,put guests at ease with his suspenders, Cokebottle glasses, vintage microphone andcasual demeanor. King died Jan. 23 at age 87.
Beloved talk show host Larry King’sstyle helped rewrite cultural history
BY HANK STUEVER
The Washington Post
In defense of thedumb questions
APPRECIATION
One-time NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, a presence in
America’s living rooms for more than two decades and the
longtime face of the network, retired Jan. 22 after an award-
winning 55-year career.
Brokaw, who turns 81 next month,
came to the network’s 30 Rockefeller Pla-
za headquarters in 1976 as host of the “To-
day” show before moving to the anchor
chair in 1982. He shared the job with co-
anchor Roger Mudd before taking over by
himself a year later, spending 21 of his 55
years with NBC in the anchor’s chair.
Brokaw, his down-to-earth delivery
leavened by a quiet sense of humor, soon
attracted a national following. He worked as a news editor
for an Omaha, Neb., station before joining the network in
1966.
“Brokaw will continue to be active in print journalism,
authoring books and articles, and spend time with his wife,
Meredith, three daughters and grandchildren,” according
to an NBC statement.
The son of South Dakota became one of television news’
most trusted sources, and he collected many awards for his
work: The Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement
Award, a dozen Emmys, two Peabody Awards. In each of
his last four years at the anchor desk, the “NBC Nightly
News” was honored with the Murrow Award for Best
Newscast.
The globe-trotting journalist reported from Normandy
Beach on the 60th anniversary of D-Day, traveled to Af-
ghanistan for a piece on al-Qaida, and was the only network
anchor on the scene when the Berlin Wall fell.
Screenwriter Walter Bernstein dies at 101
Screenwriter Walter Bernstein, among the last survivors
of Hollywood’s anti-Communist blacklist whose Oscar-
nominated script for “The Front” drew upon his years of
being unable to work under his own name, died Jan. 23. He
was 101. The cause was pneumonia, according to his wife,
the literary agent Gloria Loomis.
A World War II correspondent for the military who also
had been published in The New Yorker, Bernstein was at
the start of what seemed a promising film career when the
Cold War and anti-Communist paranoia led to his being
blacklisted in 1950.
Bernstein found employment through the use of “fronts,”
people willing to lend their names (and receive part of the
proceeds) for scripts he had written.
While many were blacklisted just for supporting left-
wing causes, Bernstein actually was a member of the Amer-
ican Communist Party and remained so until 1956, when
the Soviet Union invaded Hungary and Soviet Premier Nik-
ita Khrushchev revealed the many brutalities of Joseph
Stalin, who had died three years earlier.
The blacklist ended for Bernstein in 1959 with “That
Kind of Woman,” starring Sophia Loren. He was soon work-
ing on “The Magnificent Seven,” the Hollywood adaptation
of Akira Kurosawa’s classic “Seven Samurai,” and on the
A-list film “Something’s Gotta Give.”
In the 1970s, Bernstein was able to use his story for his
most acclaimed project, “The Front,” starring Woody Allen
as a stand-in for blacklisted writers. Bernstein received an
Academy Award nomination in 1977 and a Writers Guild of
America prize for best screen drama. Allen gave him an
acting cameo in 1977’s Oscar-winning “Annie Hall.”
Venerable NBC anchor Tom Brokaw retiring from 55-year careerFrom wire reports
Brokaw, in 2012
PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
SCOREBOARD/SPORTS BRIEFS
DEALS
Sunday’s transactionsBASEBALL
Major League BaseballNational League
PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Acquired RHPsRoansy Contreras and Miguel Yajure, INFMaikol Escotto and OF Canaan Smith fromthe New York Yankees in exchange forRHP Jameson Taillon. Designated OF TroyStokes for assignment.
FOOTBALLNational Football League
BALTIMORE RAVENS — Announced thehiring of D’Anton Lynn as defensive backscoach.
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS — Announced theretirement of TE Greg Olsen.
HOCKEYNational Hockey League
BUFFALO SABRES — Recalled F CaseyMittelstadt from the minor league taxisquad. Loaned F Dylan Cozens to the taxisquad. Activated F Kyle Okposo from in-jured reserve.
CALGARY FLAMES — Recalled C DerekRyan and D Oliver Kylington from the mi-nor league taxi squad.
COLORADO AVALANCHE — Recalled DConor Timmins from taxi squad.
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS — RecalledRW Emil Bemstrom and LW Stefan Mat-teau from the minor league taxi squad.Designated Cs Alexandre Texier and Liamfoudy for assignment.
DALLAS STARS — Recalled F Tanner Kerofrom the minor league taxi squad. Placed FJoel Kiviranta on injured reserve retroac-tive to Jan. 22.
DETROIT RED WINGS — Designated RWRiley Barber for assignment. Recalled LWsTaro Hirose and Givani Smith from the mi-nor league taxi squad.
MINNESOTA WILD — Recalled G AndrewHammond from taxi squad.
NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Recalled F NickMerkley from the minor league taxi squad.Loaned F Jesper Boqvist to the taxi squad.
NEW YORK RANGERS — Recalled F ColinBlackwell from the minor league taxisquad.
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS — Sent D DerrickPouliot to Lehigh Valley (AHL).
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS — DesignatedRW Travis Boyd for assignment. RecalledC Jason Spezza and LW Pierre Engvall fromthe minor league taxi squad.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS — Recalled DNicolas Hague from the minor league taxisquad. Designated RW Cody Glass for as-signment on the taxi squad.
WASHINGTON CAPITALS — Recalled CConnor McMichael from the minor leaguetaxi squad.
Tournament of ChampionsLPGA Diamond Resorts
SundayAt Four Season Golf and Sports Club
Lake Buena Vista, Fla.Purse: $1.2 million
Yardage: 6,645; Par: 71Final Round
Jessica Korda wins playoff on first holeJessica Korda, $180,000 65696066—260 24Danielle Kang, $150,326 64656368—260 24Nelly Korda, $109,051 65666764—262 22In Gee Chun, $84,359 68656767—267 17A.a Stanford, $61,727 67696765—268 16C. Knight, $61,727 69666766—268 16Lexi Thompson, $43,621 67696965—270 14B. Lincicome, $43,621 66746466—270 14B. Henderson, $36,625 67696570—271 13Sophia Popov, $33,333 68696768—272 12Georgia Hall, $28,887 70706766—273 11Celine Boutier, $28,887 69706569—273 11Gaby Lopez, $28,887 65687169—204 11Bronte Law, $25,349 73707063—276 8Ally Ewing, $23,209 70726867—277 7Mel Reid, $23,209 70706770—277 7C. Clanton, $20,466 75696866—278 6Austin Ernst, $20,466 69707168—278 6J. Suwannapura, $20,466 72686969—278 6Stacy Lewis, $18,929 66717468—279 5P. Lindberg, $18,272 70726672—280 4Mi Jung Hur, $16,954 71717168—281 3H. Young Park, $16,954 71697269—281 3M. Sagstrom, $16,954 73696970—281 3Annie Park, $15,720 69717370—283 1
COLLEGE HOCKEY
Sunday’s scoresSunday
EASTClarkson 4, Quinnipiac 2Colgate 4, St. Lawrence 3
MIDWESTMichigan St. 2, Ohio St. 0Minnesota St. 4, Ferris St. 1Minnesota-Duluth 4, W. Michigan 1North Dakota 5, Colorado College 0Omaha 5, Denver 2
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Men’s Top 25 faredNo. 1 Gonzaga (15-0) beat Pacific 95-49. No. 2 Baylor (14-0) beat No. 9 Kansas 77-
69; beat Oklahoma St. 81-66. No. 3 Villanova (10-1) beat Seton Hall 76-
74; beat Providence 71-56. No. 4 Iowa (12-3) lost to Indiana 81-69. No. 5 Texas (11-2) did not play. No. 6 Tennessee (10-3) lost to Florida 75-
49; lost to No. 19 Missouri 73-64.No. 7 Michigan (13-1) beat Maryland 87-
63; beat Purdue 70-53. No. 8 Houston (13-1) beat Tulsa 86-59;
beat Temple 68-51. No. 9 Kansas (10-5) lost to No. 2 Baylor
77-69; lost to Oklahoma 75-68. No. 10 Wisconsin (12-4) beat Northwest-
ern 68-52; lost to No. 15 Ohio St. 74-62. No. 11 Creighton (11-4) lost to Providen-
ce 74-70; beat No. 23 UConn 74-66.No. 12 Texas Tech (11-4) did not play. No. 13 Virginia (10-2) beat Georgia Tech
64-62. No. 14 West Virginia (10-4) beat Kansas
St. 69-47. No. 15 Ohio State (12-4) lost to Purdue 67-
65; beat No. 10 Wisconsin 74-62.No. 16 Virginia Tech (11-3) lost to Syra-
cuse 78-60. No. 17 Minnesota (11-5) lost to Maryland
63-49. No. 18 Alabama (13-3) beat LSU 105-75;
beat Mississippi St. 81-73. No. 19 Missouri (10-2) beat South Caroli-
na 81-70; beat No. 6 Tennessee 73-64.No. 20 Clemson (9-4) lost to Georgia Tech
83-65; lost to Florida St 80-61.No. 21 Oregon (9-3) lost to Oregon St. 75-
64. No. 22 Illinois (10-5) beat Penn St 79-65. No. 23 UConn (7-3) lost to St. John’s 74-70;
lost to No. 11 Creighton 74-66.No. 24 UCLA (12-3) beat California 61-57;
lost to Stanford 73-72, OT. No. 25 Saint Louis (7-1) did not play.
Sunday’s men’s scores
EAST
Albany (NY) 83, New Hampshire 64 American 81, Loyola (Md.) 79, 3OT Army 87, Navy 78, OT Boston U. 64, Lafayette 61 Coppin St. 81, Norfolk St. 77 Davidson 69, UMass 60 Hofstra 74, Towson 69 James Madison 79, Northeastern 72 Lehigh 82, Holy Cross 74 Morgan St. 99, Delaware St. 83 Rhode Island 52, Fordham 42 Stony Brook 56, NJIT 44
SOUTH
Delaware 67, UNC-Wilmington 62 Gardner-Webb 74, Charleston Southern
62 High Point 81, Presbyterian 57 Memphis 80, East Carolina 53 Notre Dame 73, Miami 59 UNC-Asheville 76, Radford 68, OT W. Kentucky 68, Middle Tennessee 52
MIDWEST
Chicago 69, Bradley 56 Rutgers 74, Indiana 70 UMKC 81, Oral Roberts 76 Valparaiso 70, Illinois St. 66
FAR WEST
San Diego St. 91, Air Force 59 Washington 83, Utah 79 Wyoming 93, Nevada 88
Sunday’s women’s scores
EAST
Albany (NY) 63, New Hampshire 50American U. 67, Loyola (Md.) 58Army 63, Navy 58Delaware 79, UNC-Wilmington 67Drexel 55, Elon 44Fairleigh Dickinson 73, Merrimack 64La Salle 56, George Mason 49Lehigh 83, Holy Cross 62Maine 70, Binghamton 53Manhattan 58, Monmouth (NJ) 45Mount St. Mary’s 95, CCSU 61NC A&T 86, Delaware St. 59Saint Joseph’s 63, George Washington
61Stony Brook 73, NJIT 41Towson 92, Hofstra 64
SOUTH
Alabama 67, Auburn 55Bellarmine 71, Stetson 64Clemson 86, Syracuse 77, OTColl. of Charleston 69, William & Mary 66ETSU 58, UNC-Greensboro 48Florida 78, Mississippi 68Florida Gulf Coast 92, Lipscomb 48Georgia Tech 66, Florida St. 58Kennesaw St. 81, North Florida 73Louisville 65, Wake Forest 63NC Central 57, Norfolk St. 44NC State 89, Virginia Tech 87North Alabama 57, Jacksonville 47North Carolina 78, Notre Dame 73Richmond 69, VCU 65South Carolina 69, LSU 65Tennessee 70, Kentucky 53
MIDWEST
Indiana 74, Northwestern 61Marquette 95, Butler 57Michigan St. 94, Wisconsin 62Saint Louis 63, UMass 52Texas A&M 70, Missouri 66
SOUTHWEST
Oral Roberts 71, UMKC 67, OT
FAR WEST
Air Force 58, San Diego St. 55Gonzaga 79, Portland 61Hawaii 57, Cal St.-Fullerton 43Nevada 57, Wyoming 50Oregon 69, Washington 52Stanford 86, Southern Cal 59Utah 65, Arizona St. 51Washington St. 77, Oregon St. 75, 2OT
GOLF
PGA Tour American Express Sunday
�At PGA West
La Quia, Calif.Purse: $6.7 million
Stadium CourseYardage:7,147; Par:72
Final Round
Si Woo Kim $1,206,000 66686764—265Patrick Cantlay $730,300 69716561—266Cameron Davis $462,300 68706664—268Tony Finau $328,300 68666768—269Abraham Ancer $247,900 69657366—273Doug Ghim $247,900 67686969—273Michael Thompson $247,900 67726866—273Byeong Hun An $189,275 65736769—274Paul Casey $189,275 72656869—274Brian Harman $189,275 68686771—274Francesco Molinari $189,275 69666970—274Sungjae Im $137,350 68657369—275Henrik Norlander $137,350 71687066—275Rory Sabbatini $137,350 68696771—275Chase Seiffert $137,350 72676571—275Ryan Armour $102,175 70677366—276Bo Hoag $102,175 71696868—276Chris Kirk $102,175 68707068—276Russell Knox $102,175 69706473—276Gary Woodland $102,175 70686870—276Rickie Fowler $58,625 73667068—277Talor Gooch $58,625 74666572—277Brandon Hagy $58,625 64707271—277Kramer Hickok $58,625 70696969—277Max Homa $58,625 66706576—277John Huh $58,625 68687071—277Matt Jones $58,625 70686772—277Luke List $58,625 69686872—277Andrew Putnam $58,625 67697071—277Brendan Steele $58,625 68687269—277Richy Werenski $58,625 69686575—277Austin Cook $38,257 68707466—278Adam Hadwin $38,257 72667466—278James Hahn $38,257 68697071—278KyoungHoon Lee $38,257 68717168—278Kyle Stanley $38,257 70687070—278Bronson Burgoon $31,825 71687070—279Emiliano Grillo $31,825 69666876—279Adam Schenk $31,825 68687172—279Rhein Gibson $25,125 70706971—280Jamie Lovemark $25,125 68717071—280Tyler McCumber $25,125 69707368—280Alex Noren $25,125 67717072—280Roger Sloan $25,125 69676975—280Josh Teater $25,125 68697172—280Matthew Wolff $25,125 72677170—280Rob Oppenheim $17,777 69716774—281Nick Taylor $17,777 68667473—281Harry Hall, $17,777 70707269—281Martin Laird $17,777 66746972—281Sam Ryder $17,777 67707272—281Brian Stuard $17,777 74657270—281Patton Kizzire $16,147 69707073—282Wyndham Clark $15,812 70707370—283Charl Schwartzel $15,812 67727272—283Tyler Duncan $15,410 67727372—284Ben Martin $15,410 67716977—284Cameron Tringale $15,410 68727272—284Erik van Rooyen $15,410 70697669—284Vaughn Taylor $15,008 73677471—285Jimmy Walker $15,008 69707076—285Zach Johnson $14,740 72687175—286Hank Lebioda $14,740 69717076—286Sebastian Cappelen $14,338 70707869—287Will Gordon $14,338 72687572—287David Hearn $14,338 68717573—287Andrew Landry $14,338 70697474—287Nelson Ledesma $14,003 70707969—288Adam Long $13,869 68707675—289Doc Redman $13,735 70707674—290M. McNealy $13,601 67737972—291
AP SPORTLIGHT
Jan. 26 1913 — Jim Thorpe gives up his track
medals from the 1912 Olympic games as aresult of his having been a professional.He had been paid $25 for playing in a semi-pro baseball game.
1951 — Jimmie Foxx and Mel Ott areelected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1955 — Joe DiMaggio is elected to theBaseball Hall of Fame.
1960 — Pete Rozelle is chosen the newcommissioner of the National FootballLeague.
1985 — Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzkyscores his 50th goal in the 49th game of theseason, a 6-3 victory over the PittsburghPenguins.
1986 — The Chicago Bears win their firstNFL championship since 1963 by setting aSuper Bowl-record for points scored in de-feating the New England Patriots 46-10.
1991 — Houston guard Vernon Maxwelljoins Wilt Chamberlain, David Thompsonand George Gervin as the only players inNBA history to score 30 points or more in aquarter. Maxwell scores 30 of his career-high 51 points in the fourth period to helpHouston beat Cleveland 103-97.
1992 — The Washington Redskins wintheir third Super Bowl in 10 years, beatingthe Buffalo Bills 37-24, putting the gameaway with 24 straight points after a score-less first quarter.
1997 — The Green Bay Packers, behindbig plays, beat the New England Patriots35-21 in the Super Bowl. Brett Favre findsAndre Rison for a 54-yard touchdown onthe Packers’ second offensive play, thenthrows an 81-yard TD pass to AntonioFreeman in the second quarter. DesmondHoward, the first special teams MVP,scores on a 99-yard kickoff return.
2002 — Jennifer Capriati produces thegreatest comeback in a Grand Slam finalto overcome Martina Hingis and defendher Australian Open title. Capriati savedfour match points before clinching a 4-6,7-6 (7), 6-2 victory over Hingis.
2007 — Mark Recchi scores two goals, in-cluding the 500th of his career, in Pitts-burgh’s 4-3 shootout win over Dallas.
Gonzaga, Baylor and Villanova
remained atop The Associated
Press men’s college basketball
poll Monday, while ninth-ranked
Alabama climbed to its highest
ranking in 14 years.
Mark Few’s Bulldogs earned 61
of 64 first-place votes in the latest
Top 25, while Scott Drew’s Bears
claimed the other three. Those
two teams have been 1-2 in all 10
polls this season.
In other college basketball
news:
Lonnie Grayson had 19
points and made 5 of 6 free throws
in the final minute of overtime and
Army ended Navy’s nine-game
winning streak 87-78 on Sunday in
Annapolis, Md. Jalen Rucker add-
ed a career-high 18 points for the
Black Knights, although he mis-
sed the potential game-winning
jumper at the end of regulation.
Russia says it won’t
appeal restrictionsThe Russian anti-doping agen-
cy confirmed Monday that it will
not file an appeal to further loosen
restrictions on its teams at the
Olympics and other major sport-
ing events.
The Court of Arbitration for
Sport last month ruled that Rus-
sia’s name, flag and anthem would
be barred from the next two Olym-
pics after backing the World Anti-
Doping Agency’s finding that dop-
ing data was manipulated.
However, CAS halved the dura-
tion of the sanctions from four
years to two, removed vetting re-
quirements for Russian athletes
and allowed them to keep wearing
national colors.
The Russian agency, known as
RUSADA, had the option to file an
appeal with the Swiss supreme
court on procedural grounds. It
said Monday that it still regards
the ruling that doping data in Mos-
cow was modified as “flawed and
one-sided” but was satisfied that
CAS rejected tougher sanctions
proposed by WADA.
In other Olympic news:
Olympic champion Ryan
Crouser broke the world indoor
shot put record at an American
Track League meet in Faytette-
ville, Ark., on Sunday.
Crouser tossed the shot put
22.82 meters (74 feet, 10½ inches)
on his first attempt to break the
mark of 22.66 (74-4¼) set by Ran-
dy Barnes on Jan. 20, 1989. Crous-
er’s record is pending ratification.
Austria’s Kriechmayr wins
Super G at KitzbühelAustrian skier Vincent Kriech-
mayr bounced back from two dis-
appointing results in downhill
over the weekend to win a men’s
World Cup super-G on Monday in
Kitzbühel, Austria.
Kriechmayr didn’t have a clean
run but he charged all the way
down the Streifalm course to edge
Marco Odermatt of Switzerland
by 0.12 seconds.
Kim wins by one shot at
The American ExpressSi Woo Kim birdied two of the fi-
nal three holes to finish an 8-under
64, rallying past late-charging Pa-
trick Cantlay by one shot to win
The American Express on Sunday
in La Quinta, Calif., for his third
PGA Tour victory.
The 25-year-old South Korean
wrapped up his third bogey-free
round of the tournament — all on
the Pete Dye-designed Stadium
Course — with a two-putt par on
the 18th to finish at 23-under 265.
In other golf news:
Jessica Korda closed with a
5-under 66 and holed a 30-foot
birdie putt on the first playoff hole
to beat Danielle Kang in the Dia-
mond Resorts Tournament of
Champions, the LPGA Tour sea-
son opener at Lake Buena Vista,
Fla.
VASHA HUNT / AP
Alabama head coach Nate Oats, center, works with his team during agame Saturday against Mississippi State in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
BRIEFLY
Alabama men riseto No. 9 in AP poll
Associated Press
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19
NHL
East Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Washington 6 3 0 3 9 22 21
Pittsburgh 6 4 2 0 8 21 23
New Jersey 5 3 1 1 7 11 11
Boston 5 3 1 1 7 15 10
Philadelphia 6 3 2 1 7 20 22
N.Y. Islanders 5 3 2 0 6 9 8
Buffalo 6 2 3 1 5 18 19
N.Y. Rangers 5 1 3 1 3 13 15
Central Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Tampa Bay 4 3 1 0 6 15 10
Columbus 6 2 2 2 6 15 18
Chicago 6 2 3 1 5 19 23
Dallas 2 2 0 0 4 10 2
Florida 2 2 0 0 4 10 6
Carolina 3 2 1 0 4 9 6
Nashville 5 2 3 0 4 12 17
Detroit 6 2 4 0 4 12 20
West Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Vegas 6 5 1 0 10 19 12
Minnesota 6 4 2 0 8 18 15
St. Louis 6 3 2 1 7 17 23
Colorado 6 3 3 0 6 18 15
Los Angeles 6 2 2 2 6 20 20
Anaheim 6 2 2 2 6 11 14
San Jose 6 3 3 0 6 19 21
Arizona 6 2 3 1 5 17 19
North Division
GP W L OT Pts GF GA
Montreal 6 4 0 2 10 29 18
Toronto 7 5 2 0 10 22 19
Winnipeg 6 4 2 0 8 22 17
Edmonton 7 3 4 0 6 19 23
Calgary 4 2 1 1 5 13 9
Vancouver 7 2 5 0 4 20 33
Ottawa 5 1 3 1 3 14 20
Saturday's games
Columbus 5, Tampa Bay 2Montreal 5, Vancouver 2Boston 6, Philadelphia 1St. Louis 4, Los Angeles 2Winnipeg 6, Ottawa 3Florida at Carolina, ppd
Sunday's games
Chicago 6, Detroit 2Buffalo 4, Washington 3, SOVegas 1, Arizona 0Toronto 3, Calgary 2New Jersey 2, N.Y. Islanders 0Pittsburgh 3, N.Y. Rangers 2Anaheim 3, Colorado 1Dallas 3, Nashville 2Los Angeles 6, St. Louis 3San Jose 5, Minnesota 3Edmonton 4, Winnipeg 3
Monday's game
Ottawa at Vancouver
Tuesday's games
Florida at ColumbusN.Y. Islanders at WashingtonN.Y. Rangers at BuffaloPhiladelphia at New JerseyPittsburgh at BostonTampa Bay at CarolinaChicago at NashvilleEdmonton at WinnipegLos Angeles at MinnesotaDetroit at DallasAnaheim at ArizonaSan Jose at ColoradoSt. Louis at VegasToronto at Calgary
Wednesday's games
Chicago at NashvilleOttawa at Vancouver
Scoreboard
WASHINGTON — Linus Ull-
mark stopped 28 shots in regula-
tion and overtime and three more
in the shootout to help the Buffalo
Sabres beat the Washington Cap-
itals 4-3 on Sunday for just their
second victory in six games this
season.
Ullmark picked up his first win
of the season six days after learn-
ing of the death of his father at age
63. It was Ullmark’s second con-
secutive start after taking some
time away from playing hockey,
and the Sabres needed him with
goaltender Carter Hutton injured.
“It’s been rough, definitely,”
Ullmark said. “There’s a lot of
emotions and thoughts that had to
be processed. I’m trying to take it
day by day. Try to be happy when
I’m happy, try to be sad when I’m
sad and right now I’m utterly
grateful for getting a win.”
Captain Jack Eichel scored in
the shootout and Colin Miller, Vic-
tor Olfosson and Eric Staal each
scored on the power play for Buf-
falo, which snapped a two-game
skid. The Sabres outshot the Cap-
itals 48-31 and beat them for the
first time in four meetings.
Justin Schultz scored his first
goal with Washington and main-
stays T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Back-
strom each had a power-play goal.
The Capitals were playing with-
out five prominent players: cap-
tain Alex Ovechkin, center Evge-
ny Kuznetsov, defenseman Dmi-
try Orlov and goalie Ilya Samso-
nov because of COVID-19
protocols and right winger Tom
Wilson because of a lower-body
injury.
Stars 3, Predators 2: Joe Pa-
velski helped Dallas tie the NHL
record for power-play goals in the
first two games, scoring one of
three with the man advantage in
another victory over visiting
Nashville.
Denis Gurianov and Roope
Hintz also scored on the power
play after the Stars went 5-for-8
with the man advantage in a 7-0
victory over the Predators in their
delayed opener. Dallas was 3-
for-4 on the power play this time.
The Stars tied the 1995-96 Pitts-
burgh Penguins and 1942-43 De-
troit Red Wings with eight power-
play goals in the first two games.
Blackhawks 6, Red Wings 2:
Pius Suter scored his first three
NHL goals, Kevin Lankinen made
25 saves and host Chicago swept
its two-game set with Detroit after
beginning the season with four
straight losses in Florida.
Penguins 3, Rangers 2: Jake
Guentzel scored the 100th goal of
his NHL career with less than two
minutes remaining, rallying host
Pittsburgh over New York,
extending the Penguins’ win
streak to four games after two
opening losses. It was Pitts-
burgh’s fourth straight comeback
win, tying the longest such streak
in franchise history.
Sharks 5, Wild 3: Brent Burns
scored with 1:48 remaining to
snap a tie and lead visiting San
Jose over Minnesota.
Burns corralled a loose puck in
the right circle, cut to the middle
between three Wild defenders,
shifted from his forehand to back-
hand and beat Kaapo Kahkonen
on the far side for the winner.
Maple Leafs 3, Flames 2: Mor-
gan Reilly had three assists and
Wayne Simmonds scored his first
goal with visiting Toronto.
Devils 2, Islanders 0: Ty Smith
set up two first-period goals to be-
come the sixth NHL rookie defen-
seman to get points in his first five
games for host New Jersey.
Scott Wedgewood, who spent
last season in the AHL, made 28
saves for his first NHL shutout
since blanking the Devils in De-
cember 2017 for Arizona. The win
was his first in an NHL game
since February 2018.
Kings 6, Blues 3: Anze Kopitar
had a goal and two assists, Jonath-
an Quick made 28 saves and Los
Angeles earned a split of its two-
game set in St. Louis.
Ducks 3, Avalanche 1: Jakob
Silfverberg and Rickard Rakell
scored, and host Anaheim held on
to beat Colorado. The Ducks had
not scored more than two goals in
their first five games.
Oilers 4, Jets 3: Leon Draisaitl
scored with less than a second left
to lift visiting Edmonton over
Winnipeg.
Golden Knights 1, Coyotes 0:
William Karlsson scored with 42
seconds left in regulation, Marc-
Andre Fleury stopped 16 shots for
his 62nd career shutout and vis-
iting Vegas beat Arizona. Karls-
son beat Darcy Kuemper with a
one-timer on a feed from Jonath-
an Marchessault behind the goal.
ROUNDUP
Ullmark lifts Sabres over CapitalsAssociated Press
NICK WASS / AP
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark reaches for the puck during his team’s 43 shootout win Sundayagainst the Capitals in Washington. Ullmark stopped three shots in the shootout.
PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
NBA
we get to play again and that’s the bottom line.
It’s been a long time. We missed it. It’s good to
be back.”
Patty Mills led San Antonio with 21 points.
The Wizards still had six players ineligible,
and Washington faded down the stretch as
coach Scott Brooks primarily used an eight-
man rotation. Bradley Beal scored 31 points to
lead the Wizards.
The earliest Memphis will play again is Sat-
urday, also in San Antonio. Having six games
called off in the season’s first half means, if the
Grizzlies and Washington are to play the full
72-game schedule, they would have 41 games
in a 67-day span in the second half.
“I just hope that we never have to deal with
this again,” Brooks said.
Later this week, the NBA and National Bas-
ketball Players Association are expected to
consider whether the stiffer protocols put in
place Jan. 12 can be loosened in some way.
They were originally put in place in an effort to
curb travel to anywhere except games, prac-
tices and workouts as the league’s number of
virus-related issues started climbing.
NBA.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” Washington
coach Scott Brooks said Sunday night in San
Antonio. “It’s not where we want to be — but
The Washington Wizards are finally back.
The Memphis Grizzlies aren’t ready yet.
Washington lost 121-101 at San Antonio on
Sunday night, the Wizards’ first game in 13
days after having six players test positive for
COVID-19 and three others having to miss sev-
eral days following contact tracing.
The Grizzlies won’t play until at least Satur-
day, after the NBA called off yet another game
— the 20th since Jan. 10 and the 21st postpone-
ment this season.
Memphis was scheduled to play Sunday and
Monday at home against Sacramento. Those
were called off late last week and now, the
Grizzlies’ home game against Chicago that was
scheduled for Wednesday is off as well.
The NBA said the Wednesday game was
called off “due to contact tracing within the
Grizzlies and the length of time preceding the
game during which Memphis will be unable to
practice.”
It was the sixth postponement for the Griz-
zlies, matching Washington for the most in the
Wizards lose in return, Grizzlies postponed again
DARREN ABATE / AP
Wizards guard Russell Westbrook, left,drives against the Spurs’ Dejounte Murray.San Antonio won 121101 as Washingtonplayed for the first time in 13 days.
BY TIM REYNOLDS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leo-
nard scored 34 points and the Los
Angeles Clippers beat Oklahoma
City 108-101 on Sunday for their
seventh consecutive victory and
second straight over the Thunder.
Serge Ibaka added 17 points. At
13-4, the Clippers are tied with the
Lakers for the best record in the
NBA. Leonard also had nine re-
bounds and eight assists. He had
31 points in a 14-point victory over
the Thunder on Friday night.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led
the Thunder with 23 points
against his former team, and Ge-
orge Hill added 22 points. Oklaho-
ma City has lost three in a row and
five of six.
Bucks 129, Hawks 115: Gian-
nis Antetokounmpo had 27 points
and 14 rebounds and host Milwau-
kee beat Atlanta to snap a two-
game losing streak.
Antetokounmpo had eight as-
sists, finishing two shy of a triple-
double. Bobby Portis added 21
points, and Khris Middleton had
19 for the Bucks.
De’Andre Hunter led the
Hawks with a career-high 33
points. John Collins had 30 points,
but short-handed Atlanta saw its
three-game winning streak end. It
was without scoring leader Trae
Young (back spasms) and center
Clint Capela (sore right hand).
Celtics 141, Cavaliers 103:
Jaylen Brown scored 20 of his 33
points in the third quarter and host
Boston cruised past Cleveland to
snap a three-game losing streak.
Kemba Walker added 21 points,
Daniel Theis had 17, Carsen Ed-
wards 15 and Marcus Smart 12 for
the Celtics. Brown played just 19
minutes.
Collin Sexton led the Cavs with
13 points, far below his team-lead-
ing average of 26.8, The team had
won three in a row.
Raptors 107, Pacers 102: OG
Anunoby scored a season-high 30
points and made three free throws
in the final minute to break a tie
and help surging Toronto win at
Indiana.
The Raptors have won two
straight and five of their last six,
including this one without injured
All-Stars Kyle Lowry and Pascal
Siakam.
Myles Turner had 25 points and
six blocks for Pacers, who have
lost three of four.
Hornets 107, Magic 104: Gor-
don Hayward broke a tie with a
layup with 0.7 seconds left and
scored 39 points in Charlotte’s
comeback victory at Orlando.
Hayward beat Evan Fournier
off the dribble and made the left-
handed layup after the Magic's
Terrence Ross tied it with a three-
pointer with 8.7 seconds to play.
The teams were to meet again
Monday night in Orlando.
Nikola Vucevic topped 10,000
career points and finished with 22
points and 13 rebounds for the
Magic.
Trail Blazers 116, Knicks 113:
Damian Lillard had 39 points, in-
cluding six three-pointers, and
rested Portland jumped out early
in a win against visiting New York.
Anfernee Simons added 16
points off the bench for the Blaz-
ers, who led by as many as 25
points before seeing their advan-
tage slip away in the final quarter.
Leonard, Clippers win 7th straightAssociated Press
ASHLEY LANDIS / AP
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard had 34 points and nine rebounds in a 108101 win Sundayover the Oklahoma City Thunder in Los Angeles.
ROUNDUP
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
W L Pct GB
Philadelphia 12 5 .706 —
Boston 9 6 .600 2
Brooklyn 10 8 .556 2½
New York 8 10 .444 4½
Toronto 7 9 .438 4½
Southeast Division
W L Pct GB
Atlanta 8 8 .500 —
Charlotte 7 9 .438 1
Orlando 7 10 .412 1½
Miami 6 9 .400 1½
Washington 3 9 .250 3
Central Division
W L Pct GB
Milwaukee 10 6 .625 —
Indiana 9 7 .563 1
Cleveland 8 8 .500 2
Chicago 7 9 .438 3
Detroit 3 13 .188 7
Western Conference
Southwest Division
W L Pct GB
Memphis 7 6 .538 —
San Antonio 9 8 .529 —
Dallas 8 8 .500 ½
Houston 6 9 .400 2
New Orleans 5 10 .333 3
Northwest Division
W L Pct GB
Utah 12 4 .750 —
Portland 9 6 .600 2½
Denver 9 7 .563 3
Oklahoma City 6 9 .400 5½
Minnesota 4 11 .267 7½
Pacific Division
W L Pct GB
L.A. Clippers 13 4 .765 —
L.A. Lakers 13 4 .765 —
Phoenix 8 7 .533 4
Golden State 8 8 .500 4½
Sacramento 6 10 .375 6½
Saturday’s games
Philadelphia 114, Detroit 110 Minnesota 120, New Orleans 110 Brooklyn 128, Miami 124 Utah 127, Golden State 108 Houston 133, Dallas 108 L.A. Lakers 101, Chicago 90 Denver 120, Phoenix 112, 2OT
Sunday’s games
Toronto 107, Indiana 102 L.A. Clippers 108, Oklahoma City 100 Boston 141, Cleveland 103 Charlotte 107, Orlando 104 San Antonio 121, Washington 101 Milwaukee 129, Atlanta 115 Portland 116, New York 113 Sacramento at Memphis, ppd
Monday’s games
Charlotte at Orlando Philadelphia at Detroit Toronto at Indiana Miami at Brooklyn L.A. Lakers at Cleveland Sacramento at Memphis, ppd Denver at Dallas Boston at Chicago San Antonio at New Orleans Minnesota at Golden State Oklahoma City at Portland
Tuesday’s games
L.A. Clippers at Atlanta Washington at HoustonNew York at Utah
Scoreboard
NBA leaders
Through Jan. 24
Scoring
G FG FT PTS AVG
Beal, WAS 11 134 85 380 34.5
Durant, BKN 13 136 96 406 31.2
Lillard, POR 15 130 115 433 28.9
Curry, GS 16 146 88 447 27.9
Embiid, PHI 14 123 125 388 27.7
Brown, BOS 15 157 56 410 27.3
Rebounds
G OFF DEF TOT AVG
Capela, ATL 13 59 130 189 14.5
Drummond, CLE 15 62 155 217 14.5
Gobert, UTA 16 55 161 216 13.5
Sabonis, IND 16 52 155 207 12.9
Ayton, PHO 15 50 133 183 12.2
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21
Chiefs 38, Bills 24
Buffalo 9 3 3 9 — 24
Kansas City 0 21 10 7 — 38
First Quarter
Buf—FG Bass 51, 11:27.Buf—Knox 3 pass from Allen (kick
failed), 6:14.
Second Quarter
KC—Hardman 3 pass from Mahomes(Butker kick), 14:16.
KC—Darr.Williams 6 run (Butker kick),9:35.
KC—Edwards-Helaire 1 run (Butkerkick), 4:12.
Buf—FG Bass 20, :11.
Third Quarter
KC—FG Butker 45, 10:48.Buf—FG Bass 27, 5:49.KC—Kelce 1 pass from Mahomes (Butk-
er kick), 3:29.
Fourth Quarter
KC—Kelce 5 pass from Mahomes (Butk-er kick), 7:36.
Buf—McKenzie 6 pass from Allen (returnfailed), 4:08.
Buf—FG Bass 51, 3:14.
Buf KC
First downs 24 29
Total Net Yards 363 439
Rushes-yards 18-129 25-114
Passing 234 325
Punt Returns 1-0 1-0
Kickoff Returns 0-0 3-68
Interceptions Ret. 0-0 1-30
Comp-Att-Int 28-48-1 29-38-0
Sacked-Yards Lost 4-53 1-0
Punts 3-49.3 1-44.0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1
Penalties-Yards 4-38 3-32
Time of Possession 28:51 31:09
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Buffalo, Allen 7-88, Singletary6-17, Yeldon 3-15, McKenzie 2-9. KansasCity, Williams 13-52, Hardman 1-50, Ed-wards-Helaire 6-7, Mahomes 5-5.
PASSING—Buffalo, Allen 28-48-1-287.Kansas City, Mahomes 29-38-0-325.
RECEIVING—Buffalo, Beasley 7-88, Diggs6-77, Knox 6-42, Yeldon 4-41, Brown 2-24,Singletary 2-9, McKenzie 1-6. Kansas City,Kelce 13-118, Hill 9-172, Pringle 3-22, Hard-man 2-4, Williams 1-9, Edwards-Helaire1-0.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.
NFL PLAYOFFS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It took the
Kansas City Chiefs five frustrating
decades to make their third Super
Bowl appearance.
Now, the defending champs are
headed there for the second con-
secutive year.
Showing no lingering effects
from his concussion, Patrick Ma-
homes sliced up Buffalo’s second-
ary with ruthless efficiency Sun-
day night, helping the Chiefs roll to
a38-24 victory over Josh Allen and
the Bills in the AFC championship
game.
The reigning Super Bowl MVP
finished with 325 yards passing
and three touchdowns, most of it to
favorite targets Travis Kelce and
Tyreek Hill, who complemented
their star quarterback with a re-
cord-setting night.
The Chiefs will face a familiar
foe — Tom Brady — and the NFC
champ Buccaneers in two weeks in
Tampa, Fla.
“It was just trusting each other.
The best thing about this team is we
believe in each other,” said Ma-
homes, who was also dealing with a
toe injury. “But the job’s not fin-
ished. We’re going to Tampa; we’re
trying to run it back.”
Kelce finished with 13 catches
for 118 yards and two touchdowns,
and Hill added nine catches for 172
yards, becoming the first duo in
NFL history with consecutive
games of at least 100 yards receiv-
ing each in a single postseason.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire and
Darrel Williams added short TD
runs for the Chiefs, who will try to
become the eighth franchise and
first since the Brady-led New En-
gland Patriots in 2003 and ’04 to de-
fend the Lombardi Trophy.
“So glad to get to do it again,” said
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt,
whose father, Lamar, founded the
franchise. “Thought a lot about my
dad tonight, thought about my fam-
ily and how excited my father
would have been that we got to do it
again in Arrowhead Stadium.
That’s what he would have liked the
most about it.”
Allen, who had his worst game of
the season in a Week 6 loss to the
Chiefs, again struggled against the
blitzing Kansas City defense. He
finished with 287 yards passing
with two touchdowns and an inter-
ception, but a big chunk of his num-
bers came as the Bills tried to rally
from a 38-15 deficit in the final min-
utes.
Their frustration boiled over
with 3:19 to go, when Allen was get-
ting sacked by Tanoh Kpassagnon.
Alex Okafor finished off the tackle,
and Allen pitched the ball in his
face in resentment. Offensive line-
men Jon Feliciano and Dion Daw-
kins rushed in and leveled Okafor,
resulting in a flood of offsetting per-
sonal foul penalties.
“Obviously a lot of emotion,” Al-
len said. “Any time you don’t finish
the season with a win, that’s the
type of emotion you’re going to
have. The way it ended doesn’t sit
right with me with how chippy and
ticky-tack it got. I’m disappointed
in myself. I let my emotions get to
me there. That’s not how you’re
supposed to play football.”
It capped a bitter night for the
Bills, who had reached their first
AFC title game since beating Kan-
sas City at home on Jan. 1, 1994.
They had won 11 of 12 since their
loss to the Chiefs earlier this season
and were riding a wave of confi-
dence that this might finally be
their championship year.
Instead, after finally conquering
the Patriots in the AFC East, the
Bills have a new roadblock to the
Super Bowl.
“It stings to get this far,” said
Bills coach Sean McDermott, who
once worked under Chiefs counter-
part Andy Reid in Philadelphia.
“Sometimes the further you go, the
harder it is to lose. It’s a learning ex-
perience for us as an organization.”
The Chiefs actually spotted the
Bills a 9-0 lead, thanks in large part
to Mecole Hardman’s muffed punt
inside their 5 that gifted Buffalo a
touchdown. The reigning champs
were hardly rattled; the Chiefs, af-
ter all, rallied from double-digits in
each of their postseason wins last
season, including their Super Bowl
triumph over San Francisco.
Chiefs dump Bills in AFC championshipMahomes returns to KC lineup, leads defending champs back to Super Bowl
JEFF ROBERSON/AP
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates afterthrowing a touchdown pass to Travis Kelce during the second half ofthe AFC title game Sunday in Kansas City, Mo. Mahomes, whosuffered a concussion last week, had 325 yards passing and 3 TDs.
BY DAVE SKRETTA
Associated Press
Josh Allen played a huge role in getting the
Buffalo Bills to their first AFC championship
game in 27 years.
The third-year starter was the first to ac-
knowledge he needs to be much better for the
Bills to take the next step.
“It’s going to fuel us. I have no doubt in my
mind that we will be back,” Allen said after the
Bills were outclassed in a 38-24 loss to the Kan-
sas City Chiefs.
“We’re still young, and we’re only going to
get better,” he added. “That’s the one thing I
take from this. We’re close.”
Hardly close enough.
In a season the Bills (15-4) busted numerous
slumps by sweeping the New England Patriots
for the first time since 1999, and claimed their
first division title in 25 years, Allen and Co.
were reminded of how far they still have to go
in losing to the defending Super Bowl champs.
Buffalo’s bend-but-don’t-break defense wilt-
ed, squandering a 9-0 lead by giving up three
touchdowns in the span of 10:04 in the second
quarter. Allen simply couldn’t keep up.
After scoring their first touchdown set up by
Taiwan Jones recovering Mecole Hardman’s
muffed punt at the Kansas City 3, the Bills set-
tled for field goals on three drives inside the
Chiefs 35. The game was essentially over when
Allen, facing second-and-10 at the Kansas City
20, was picked off by Rashad Fenton two min-
utes into the fourth quarter.
Allen finished 28-for-48 for 287 yards with
two touchdowns and essentially was intercept-
ed twice, one coming on a desperation 2-point
attempt with 4:08 remaining.
The Bills also could be second guessed for
settling for field goals in a game they needed
touchdowns.
It happened at the end of the first half, when
Tyler Bass hit a 20-yard field goal to cut the
Chiefs' lead to 21-12 rather than go on fourth-
and-goal from the 2 with 14 seconds left. It hap-
pened again on Buffalo’s opening drive of the
third quarter, which ended with Bass hitting a
27-yarder on fourth-and-3 from the Chiefs 8.
“That’s coach’s decision,” Allen said. “We
had three downs to get in there prior and didn’t
do our job. Lack of communication, lack of exe-
cution down there falls on my shoulders.”
Coach Sean McDermott acknowledged he
considered going for it on fourth down.
“Maybe if I had to do it over again I would’ve
gone for one of them,” he said. “We were hav-
ing trouble coming up with points. I wanted to
at least have something to show for it going into
the half.”
Buffalo’s defense didn’t help, unable to solve
the Chiefs for a second time this season. In
Week 6, the Bills were trampled in a 26-17 loss
in Week 6.
Buffalo comes up short in breakout seasonBY JOHN WAWROW
Associated Press
JEFF ROBERSON/AP
Buffalo Bills quarterback JoshAllen, right, hugs teammateStefon Diggs during the secondhalf Sunday.
PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
NFL PLAYOFFS
Buccaneers 31, Packers 26
Tampa Bay 7 14 7 3 — 31
Green Bay 0 10 13 3 — 26
First Quarter
TB—Evans 15 pass from Brady (Succopkick), 10:59.
Second Quarter
GB—Valdes-Scantling 50 pass fromRodgers (Crosby kick), 14:07.
TB—Fournette 20 run (Succop kick),12:24.
GB—FG Crosby 24, 4:59.TB—Miller 39 pass from Brady (Succop
kick), :01.
Third Quarter
TB—Brate 8 pass from Brady (Succopkick), 13:54.
GB—Tonyan 8 pass from Rodgers (Cros-by kick), 9:28.
GB—D.Adams 2 pass from Rodgers(pass failed), :24.
Fourth Quarter
TB—FG Succop 46, 4:42.GB—FG Crosby 26, 2:05.
TB GB
First downs 19 23
Total Net Yards 351 381
Rushes-yards 24-76 16-67
Passing 275 314
Punt Returns 2-10 0-0
Kickoff Returns 5-121 2-30
Interceptions Ret. 1-0 3-16
Comp-Att-Int 20-36-3 33-48-1
Sacked-Yards Lost 1-5 5-32
Punts 2-40.0 3-48.0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-Yards 2-8 4-30
Time of Possession 25:23 34:37
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Tampa Bay, Fournette 12-55,Jones 10-16, Godwin 1-6, Brady 1-(minus1). Green Bay, Jones 6-27, J.Williams 7-23,Dillon 3-17.
PASSING—Tampa Bay, Brady 20-36-3-280. Green Bay, Rodgers 33-48-1-346.
RECEIVING—Tampa Bay, Godwin 5-110,Fournette 5-19, Evans 3-51, Brate 3-19, Mill-er 2-36, Gronkowski 1-29, Johnson 1-16.Green Bay, Adams 9-67, Valdes-Scantling4-115, Tonyan 4-22, J.Williams 4-22, Jones4-7, Lazard 3-62, Lewis 3-28, Dillon 1-13, St.Brown 1-10.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Tom Bra-
dy has a new team, in a new town.
The destination is the same: anoth-
er Super Bowl.
At home, too.
The man with six NFL titles will
become the first quarterback to
play a Super Bowl on his team’s
home field. He owes the Tampa
Bay defense that sacked Aaron
Rodgers five times, and a curious
late call on fourth-and-goal by the
Packers as Brady and the Bucs
beat top-seeded Green Bay 31-26
for the NFC title Sunday.
“It’s great to get another road
win and now we got a home game,
and who would have ever thought a
home Super Bowl for us,” Brady
said. “But we did it. I thought the
defense was spectacular. They’ve
done that all year.”
The Bucs (14-5) will face the
Kansas City Chiefs (16-2) at Tam-
pa’s Raymond James Stadium on
Feb. 7. No, a host team in the Super
Bowl has never happened in 54
previous games.
“We’re coming home,” said
Bucs coach Bruce Arians, whose
first NFL coaching job was as an
assistant in 1989 with Kansas City,
and won two league Coach of the
Year awards, with Indianapolis in
2012, Arizona in 2014. He will make
his first trip to the Super Bowl as a
head coach. “We’re coming home
to win.”
Brady is back in his first year at
Tampa Bay after reaching this
stage nine times with the New En-
gland Patriots. He went 20-for-36
for 286 yards and three touch-
downs, but also threw three inter-
ceptions as Tampa Bay squan-
dered most of an 18-point lead. Sha-
quil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul
combined for five sacks to help the
Bucs hang on for their franchise-
record eighth consecutive road
victory.
It’s quite a step up for a team that
had one winning record in the past
nine seasons.
“Tom is the GOAT (greatest of
all time),” said Bucs receiver Scot-
ty Miller, who caught a 39-yard
touchdown pass with 1 second left
until halftime. “Last year, we end-
ed 7-9. This year, we’re going to the
Super Bowl. He’s the biggest rea-
son.”
The Bucs snapped Green Bay’s
seven-game winning streak. They
were aided by a strange decision
from Packers coach Matt LaFleur
to kick a field goal with just over
two minutes remaining while trail-
ing 31-23.
Green Bay lost in the NFC cham-
pionship game for the fourth time
in the past seven seasons. The team
hasn’t reached the Super Bowl
since its 2010 championship sea-
son.
Rodgers went 33-for-48 for 346
yards with three touchdowns and
one interception, but fell to 1-4 in
conference championship games
as a starting quarterback. The
Packers had the NFL’s best red-
zone offense this season, but they
twice settled for field goals after
having a first-and-goal Sunday.
“I’m just pretty gutted,” Rodg-
ers said. “It’s a long season. You put
so much into it to get to this point.
We had our chances.”
Twice in the fourth quarter, the
Packers got the ball with a chance
to take the lead after Jaire Alexan-
der picked off Brady passes deep
in Green Bay territory. Both times,
the Packers went three-and-out.
“I felt like we had plenty of op-
portunities tonight to take advan-
tage of and get the job done,” La-
Fleur said.
MORRY GASH / AP
Tampa Bay’s Scotty Miller catches a 39yard touchdown pass against Green Bay’s Kevin King.
Brady’s bunch: Bucs win atGreen Bay, reach Super Bowl
BY STEVE MEGARGEE
Associated Press
Matt LaFleur put the game in the
hands of his defense instead of All-
Pro quarterback Aaron Rodgers in
a decision that will be questioned
in Green Bay for years.
With a spot in the Super Bowl on
the line, LaFleur opted for a field
goal on fourth-and-goal from the 8
when trailing by eight points with
just over two minutes remaining in
the NFC championship game.
Rodgers never got the ball back
in his fourth straight title game loss
as Tom Brady and Tampa Bay ran
out the clock in a 31-26 win Sunday.
“The way our defense was play-
ing, it felt like the right decision to
do,” LaFleur said. “It just didn’t
work out.”
The key moment came after
Green Bay rallied from 18 points
down in the second half to get into
position to send the game into over-
time late in regulation.
The Packers drove down to the
8-yard line with 2:22 to play before
Rodgers threw an incomplete pass
to Allen Lazard followed by two
more to Davante Adams.
That left LaFleur with a decision
to make with 2:09 to play and he
went with the field goal instead of
another shot into the end zone for a
possible TD and 2-point conver-
sion to tie the game.
“Any time it doesn’t work out,
you always regret it,” LaFleur said.
“It was the circumstances of hav-
ing three shots and coming away
with no yards and knowing that not
only you need the touchdown, but
you need the 2-point (conversion).
We essentially had four timeouts
with the two-minute warning. We
knew we needed to get a stop.”
Rodgers never had a chance to
lobby his coach to go for it as soon
as he saw the field-goal team run on
the field.
“I didn’t have a decision on that
one,” Rodgers said before pausing.
“That wasn’t my decision, but I un-
derstand the thinking, above two
minutes with all of our timeouts,
but it wasn’t my decision.”
The analytics were against the
move with EdjSports win probabil-
ity model saying LaFleur’s deci-
sion reduced Green Bay’s chances
of winning the game from 10.8% to
7.8%. LaFleur had been one of the
best coaches when it comes to deci-
sion-making by EdjSports model,
ranking third best this season.
The decision was extremely
rare as no team had attempted a
field goal in the final three minutes
of a game when trailing by between
four and eight points since the Fal-
cons in 2015. LaFleur was an assist-
ant on Dan Quinn’s staff in Atlanta
for that game.
“I couldn’t believe it, honestly,
because there’s no guarantee
they’re going to make it back down
there again,” Buccaneers edge
rusher Shaquil Barrett said.
Mason Crosby made the field
goal, but the Packers couldn’t get
the defensive stop they needed.
MATT LUDTKE / AP
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur reacts after a pass interference callwas made against his team in the fourth quarter of its 3126 loss toTampa Bay in the NFC championship game Sunday in Green Bay, Wis.
Packers’ LaFleurkicking himselfover FG decision
BY JOSH DUBOW
Associated Press “The way ourdefense wasplaying, it feltlike the rightdecision to do.Itjust didn’t workout.”
Matt LaFleur
Green Bay coach
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23
Playoff schedule
Wild-card PlayoffsSaturday, Jan. 9
Buffalo 27, Indianapolis 24Los Angeles Rams 30, Seattle 20Tampa Bay 31, Washington 23
Sunday, Jan. 10Baltimore 20, Tennessee 13New Orleans 21, Chicago 9Cleveland 48 Pittsburgh 37
Divisional PlayoffsSaturday, Jan. 16
Green Bay 32, Los Angeles Rams 18Buffalo 17, Baltimore 3
Sunday, Jan. 17Kansas City 22, Cleveland 17Tampa Bay 30, New Orleans 20
Conference ChampionshipsSunday’s games
AFCKansas City 38, Buffalo 24
NFCTampa Bay 31, Green Bay 26
Super BowlSunday, Feb. 7At Tampa, Fla.
Tampa Bay vs. Kansas City
phy for the 2003 and 2004 seasons,
Brady owns a nonpareil six rings
altogether. He’s headed to his 10th
Super Bowl, and the big game will
be played at Raymond James Sta-
dium, which happens to be the
Buccaneers’ home field. Add an-
other record to Brady’s ledger.
“The belief he gave everybody
in this organization, that this could
be done,” says Bucs coach Bruce
Arians of Brady. “It only took one
man.”
When Brady signed as a free
agent with one of the historically
worst franchises in the sport — the
Bucs won their only visit to the Su-
per Bowl 18 years ago, hadn’t been
to the playoffs since the 2007 sea-
son, and have a 278-429-1 overall
record — faith was reborn in Tam-
pa.
A leap of faith, it seemed. Like
needing a Hail Mary for the Bucs
to rise to the championship level.
Then they went 11-5 to become a
wild-card team spending all of Ja-
nuary on the road.
Big deal. After victories at
Washington, New Orleans (which
beat the Bucs twice in the regulars
season) and Green Bay, they head
back home. To host a Super Bowl
they are playing in.
“We were at 7-5 seven games
ago, not feeling great,” Brady ex-
plains. “We felt like we needed to
find our rhythm. We played four
games down the stretch the last
quarter of the season, and then af-
ter that, it was just all bonus. The
guys came through. Everyone
stepped up to the challenge.
“It takes everybody, and every-
body plays a role. I’m just so proud
of this whole team and blessed to
be a part of it.”
The Chiefs are well aware of
what Brady means in a champion-
ship chase. For those two decades
when New England was dominat-
ing the AFC, Kansas City envious-
ly watched. What the Chiefs wit-
nessed then is what is playing out
now: Brady as the centerpiece —
and by far the most important
piece — of a franchise.
When Brady won those succes-
sive Super Bowls, he was only be-
ginning to establish his champion-
ship pedigree. He hadn’t won an
MVP award; he now has three.
Nor had he won Offensive Player
of the Year; he now has two.
He hadn’t set many league re-
cords of note, either.
Today, he is the most successful
player in the NFL’s modern era.
Even when he throws intercep-
tions on three consecutive series,
which he did Sunday at Lambeau
Field, he and his team still find
ways to win.
That’s what Mahomes and his
magic must overcome, and the
Chiefs are early three-point favor-
ites to do so. They come from the
stronger conference. They win
even when they aren’t at their
best, as happened last week
against Cleveland. They shrug off
deficits the way Travis Kelce
shrugs off defenders. They boast a
confidence reminiscent of, well,
the QB in Tampa.
And that guy is the most chal-
lenging obstacle to get past.
Familiar: Brady to playin record 10th Super BowlFROM PAGE 24
NFL PLAYOFFS
Aaron Rodgers was lamenting the sudden end of a
remarkable season he’ll treasure long after he’s re-
tired, running through a list of Green Bay Packers
teammates he’s grown the closest to.
“There’s a lot of guys’ futures that are uncertain,
myself included,” Rodgers said, managing a slight
laugh as if to momentarily soften this harsh reality in
the immediate aftermath of the loss to the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers in the NFC championship game. “That’s
what sad about it most.”
The 37-year-old produced by most measures in
2020 the finest performance of his brilliant career,
making him a leading contender for a third NFL MVP
award.
The Packers went 13-3 for the top seed in the NFC,
cruising past the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional
round and finally giving Rodgers a home game to
play for a spot in the Super Bowl. His other four shots
at it as the starter, including the win at Chicago (2010
season) that preceded his only championship, were
on the road. They lost in the semifinals at San Fran-
cisco (2019), Atlanta (2016) and Seattle (2014).
Ten years and counting since the Packers won it all
with Rodgers, this 31-26 loss to Brady and the Bucs
will sting for awhile. Especially considering what
happened last spring, when Green Bay drafted quar-
terback Jordan Love in the first round. Rodgers is
signed through 2023, but that sure doesn’t guarantee
in this league that he’ll stay that long — or that he’d
want to.
“I’m going to have to take some time away for sure
and clear my head and just kind of see what’s going on
with everything, but it’s pretty tough right now,”
Rodgers said. He later added: “It’s a grind to get to
this point, and that makes the finality of it all kind of
hit you like a ton of bricks.”
Rodgers went 33-for-48 for 346 yards and three
touchdowns, but this wasn’t exactly his best. He had
one interception that Tampa Bay used to set up a last-
second touchdown before halftime and completed
only two of nine attempts on goal-to-go situations. He
also took five sacks.
Both of his goal-to-go completions went for scores,
though, and coach Matt LaFleur twice took away a
fourth-down chance to finish a drive in the end zone
by settling for short field goals.
Rodgers laments his andPack’s uncertain future
MIKE ROEMER / AP
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers(12) evades a tackle as he looks to pass against theTampa Bay Buccaneers in Sunday's 3126 loss.
BY DAVE CAMPBELL
Associated Press
STEVEN SENNE / AP
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, left, and thenNewEngland Patriots quarterback Tom Brady speak at midfield after aDec. 8, 2019 game. Brady leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers whenthey face Mahomes and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
“The belief he gave everybody in this organization,that this could be done... It only took one man.”
Bruce Arians
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach, on quarterback Tom Brady
PAGE 24 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Tuesday, January 26, 2021
SPORTSSeven straight
Leonard, Clippers beat Thunderto extend streak ›› NBA, Page 20
Emotional Ullmark helps Sabres top Caps ›› NHL, Page 19
Considering that there has
been no repeat NFL cham-
pion since the 2004 season,
clearly some major obstruc-
tions have gotten in the way.
For the Chiefs, that hur-
dle wears a No. 12 jersey and is the last guy
to pull off the feat.
After demolishing Buffalo for the AFC ti-
tle, the Chiefs head to Tampa looking to
complete the double. It’s been done eight
times, twice by the Steelers. But there’s
never been such a gap for a repeat winner,
and after winning its first Super Bowl in a
half-century last year, Kansas City seems
primed to end that string of failures.
Except for that massive roadblock named
Tom Brady.
“The job’s not finished,” Chiefs quarter-
back Patrick Mahomes acknowledges.
“We’re going to Tampa, we’re trying to run
it back.”
To do so, young Mr. Mahomes, you’ll
need to beat that old man and his penchant
for collecting trophies and rings.
“We’ve just got to be ourselves,” added
Mahomes, at 25 a mere 18 years young-
er than Brady. (Heck, Mahomes’ fa-
ther is only 50 years old.) “I trust my
guys over anybody.”
The rest of the world has learned
to trust Brady over most anybody.
The quarterback of the Patriots
when they took the Lombardi Tro-
Top: Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady reacts after winning the NFC championship 3126 over the Green BayPackers on Sunday. After leading the Chiefs to 3824 AFC championship game win over the Buffalo Bills, reigning SuperBowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, right, will have to go through 4time Super Bowl MVP Brady to capture his second title.
AP PHOTOS
6-time Super Bowl champion Brady stands in way of Chiefs’ 2nd straight title BY BARRY WILNER
Associated Press
NFL PLAYOFFS
SEE FAMILIAR ON PAGE 23