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Volume 78, No. 260 ©SS 2020 FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020 $1.00

VIRUS OUTBREAK Claims for jobless aid in US reach 22 million

BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Associated Press WASHINGTON — The wave of lay- offs that has engulfed the U.S. economy since the coronavirus struck forced 5.2 million more people to seek unemploy- ment benefits last week, the government reported Thursday. Roughly 22 million have sought job- less benefits in the past month — the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. It means that roughly one in seven work- ers have lost their jobs in that time. The grim figures point to an econo- my that is tumbling into what appears to be a calamitous recession, the worst in decades. The nation’s output could shrink by roughly 10.5% before it starts to rebound, according to Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. Force protection SEE JOBLESS ON PAGE 10

Army parachute riggers, civilians in Kaiserslautern improvise face masks

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN livery Company soldiers have produced about Spc. Robert Walker, a Stars and Stripes 150 a day since Monday, as part of an effort to parachute rigger with the 5th contain the spread of the coronavirus. Quartermaster-Theater Aerial KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Sewing The first batches of masks have been distrib- Delivery Company at Rhine RICK BOWMER/AP machines continue to hum inside the work- uted to cooks, gate guards, postal workers and Ordnance Barracks, Germany, A sign reflecting the bleak state of shop at Rhine Ordnance Barracks, where U.S. finance specialists — essential workers in jobs holds up one of the masks he business hangs in the window of Army parachute riggers who normally mend where social distancing is difficult, soldiers and fellow parachute riggers Locust Tattoo on Tuesday in Salt Lake torn canopies have taken up a new project: face said this week. made this week from bed sheets City. Millions of Americans are newly masks. and parachute rigging. unemployed because of coronavirus- The 5th Quartermaster-Theater Aerial De- SEE PROTECTION ON PAGE 8 JENNIFER H. SVAN/Stars and Stripes related shutdowns. RELATED 6th USS Theodore Roosevelt sailor Base in South Korea Get the latest news Millions of relief checks STORIES with coronavirus taken to hospital aims to ease restrictions on the virus outbreak delayed by glitches Page 6 Page 7 stripes.com/coronavirus Page 10 PAGE 2 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 BUSINESS/WEATHER EUROPE GAS PRICES EXCHANGE RATES

Country Super E10 Super unleaded Super plus Diesel Military rates Switzerland (Franc)...... 0.9666 Germany $2116 $2.579 $2.825 $2.770 Azores -- -- $2.992 -- Euro costs (April 17)...... $1.06 Thailand (Baht) ...... 32.63 Change in price -7.1 cents -7.6 cents -7.3 cents -4.1 cents Change in price -- -- -6.0 cents -- Dollar buys (April 17) ...... €0.895 Turkey (Lira) ...... 6.9402 British pound (April 17) ...... $1.22 (Military exchange rates are those Netherlands -- $3.123 $3.329 $3.494 Belgium -- $2.834 $2.086 $2.252 Japanese yen (April 17) ...... 104.00 Change in price -- +2.3 cents +2.5 cents +2.6 cents Change in price -- No change No change No change available to customers at military banking South Korean won (April 17) ...... 1,196.00 facilities in the country of issuance U.K. -- $2.489 $2.735 $2.680 Turkey -- -- $2.626 $2.571* Commercial rates for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Change in price -- -7.6 cents -7.3 cents -4.1 cents Change in price -- -- -7.3 cents -4.1 cents Bahrain (Dinar) ...... 0.3773 Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For British pound ...... $1.2507 nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., Canada (Dollar) ...... 1.4108 purchasing British pounds in Germany), China (Yuan) ...... 7.0734 check with your local military banking Denmark (Krone) ...... 6.8590 PACIFIC GAS PRICES facility. Commercial rates are interbank Egypt (Pound) ...... 15.7842 rates provided for reference when buying Country Unleaded Super unleaded Super plus Diesel Euro ...... $1.0879/0.9192 Hong Kong (Dollar) ...... 7.7506 currency. All figures are foreign currencies Japan -- $2.619 -- $2.559 South Korea $1.939 -- $2.649 $2.589 to one dollar, except for the British pound, Change in price -- -7.0 cents -- -4.0 cents Change in price -7.0 cents -- -7.0 cents -4.0 cents Hungary (Forint) ...... 322.06 Israel (Shekel) ...... 3.5870 which is represented in dollars-to-pound, Okinawa $1.909 -- -- $2.559 Guam $1.919** $2.379 $2.629 -- Japan (Yen) ...... 107.45 and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.) Change in price -7.0 cents -- -- -4.0 cents Change in price -7.0 cents -8.0 cents -7.0 cents -- Kuwait (Dinar) ...... 0.3114 INTEREST RATES Norway (Krone) ...... 10.4563 Philippines (Peso)...... 51.07 Prime rate ...... 3.25 * Diesel EFD ** Midgrade Poland (Zloty) ...... 4.17 Discount rate ...... 0.25 Saudi Arabia (Riyal) ...... 3.7571 Federal funds market rate ...... 0.05 For the week of April 17-23 Singapore (Dollar) ...... 1.4279 3-month bill ...... 0.15 South Korea (Won) ...... 1,226.38 30-year bond ...... 1.27 WEATHER OUTLOOK FRIDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST FRIDAY IN EUROPE SATURDAY IN THE PACIFIC

Misawa 54/38 Kabul 55/50 Seoul 59/46 Baghdad 85/60 Kandahar 63/57 Osan Tokyo Mildenhall/ Drawsko 57/46 57/49 Lakenheath Pomorskie Busan 53/44 52/37 60/51 Iwakuni 59/56 Kuwait Bahrain Zagan Sasebo City 76/71 Brussels 55/40 Guam 83/64 69/48 Ramstein 58/54 82/79 Lajes, 67/37 Riyadh Doha Azores Stuttgart Pápa 85/63 82/62 61/58 68/48 71/46 Aviano/ Vicenza 62/41

Naples 63/50 Okinawa Morón 71/67 69/54 Sigonella Rota 70/44 The weather is provided by the Djibouti Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 85/80 65/55 59/54 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

T O D A Y IN STRIPES

American Roundup ...... 38 Classified ...... 39 Comics ...... 36, 40-41 Crossword ...... 36, 40-41 Faces ...... 37 Opinion ...... 40-41 Sports ...... 45-52 Weekend ...... 15-36 Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 3 MILITARY Navy: Russian jet maneuver risked collision

BY JOHN VANDIVER “Unsafe actions increase the risk of mis- The latest incident with the Russians if you will, at a time of crisis,” Milley said. Stars and Stripes calculation and potential for midair colli- comes one week after U.S. Air Force F-22 “That would be a terrible and tragic mis- sions,” NAVEUR said. “The U.S. aircraft fighter jets intercepted a pair of Russian take if they thought that.” STUTTGART, Germany — A Russian was operating consistent with interna- maritime patrol planes 50 miles off the Navy crews operating in Europe are fighter jet risked a midair collision when it tional law and did not provoke this Russian western coast of the Aleutian Islands, in taking precautionary measures to guard intercepted a Navy aircraft at close range activity.” what military officials said at the time was against the coronavirus, the service said. over the Mediterranean Sea on Wednes- In Europe, risky encounters with Rus- a test of U.S. capabilities amid the corona- This week, Rota, Spain-based destroyers day, U.S. military officials said. sian military aircraft have occurred on virus pandemic. maneuvered in the Black and Baltic seas, A U.S. P-8A Poseidon aircraft, used for occasion in recent years, most notably in And on Wednesday, 11 Iranian military while the P-8A Poseidon flew its Mediter- tracking submarines, was flying in inter- the Black Sea. But the latest action also vessels moved dangerously close to several ranean mission. national airspace when a Russian SU-35 comes as the U.S. military contends with American ships conducting operations in “U.S. 6th Fleet remains at sea, ensuring performed a high-speed, inverted maneu- the coronavirus. the northern Persian Gulf, the Navy said. maritime security and demonstrating our ver 25 feet in front of the Navy plane, U.S. The U.S. has been forced to cancel nu- Last week, as coronavirus cases surged continued ability to operate in concert with Naval Forces Europe-Africa said in a merous military exercises and training in the ranks, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. allies and partners across the European statement. plans because of the virus, raising con- Mark Milley issued a warning to rivals. theater,” Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti said in The encounter with the Russian fighter, cerns that adversaries could use the crisis “I wouldn’t want any mixed messages a statement Tuesday. which caused turbulence aboard the P-8A, as an opportunity to test American mili- going out there to any adversaries that [email protected] lasted for 42 minutes. tary readiness. they can take advantage of an opportunity, Twitter: @john_vandiver Navy says 11 Iranian ships harass 6 US ships in Persian Gulf

BY CAITLIN M. KENNEY vessels at extremely close range Stars and Stripes and high speeds, including multi- ple crossings of the Puller with a WASHINGTON — Eleven Ira- 50-yard closest point of approach nian military ships on Wednesday and within 10 yards of Maui’s maneuvered dangerously close to bow,” the Navy said. several American ships conduct- The American ships were ing operations in the northern conducting joint-integration op- Persian Gulf, according to the erations in international waters Navy. with Army AH-64E Apache at- The Iranian ships “repeatedly tack helicopters, according to the conducted dangerous and harass- Navy statement. The joint opera- ing approaches” of six U.S. ships: tions have been conducted in the the USS Lewis B. Puller, an ex- northern Persian Gulf since late peditionary mobile base platform March. The Navy also conduct- ship; the USS Paul Hamilton, an ed operations with an Air Force Arleigh Burke-class destroyer; special operations gunship last the USS Firebolt and the USS Si- month as part of stepped up U.S. rocco, cyclone-class coastal patrol and allied efforts to deter what ships, and the USCGC Wrangell American officials have said are U.S. Navy and the USCGC Maui, U.S. Coast mounting Iranian threats in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard ships conducted unsafe and unprofessional actions against U.S. military Guard island-class cutters. region. ships operating in international waters of the North Arabian Gulf on Wednesday. The ships were identified as Images posted by the 5th Fleet Iranian Islamic Revolutionary of the incident show what look radio, five short horn blasts and radio messages and moved away collision,” the Navy said, adding Guard Corps Navy vessels in a like speed boats conducting close “long-range acoustic noise mark- from the American ships. their actions were not in accor- statement Wednesday by U.S. passes and tight turns around the er devices,” the Navy said, receiv- “The [Islamic Revolutionary dance with maritime customs or Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. ships. international law for ship safety. U.S. 5th Fleet. The American sailors gave ing no response for an hour. Guard Corps Navy’s] dangerous Stars and Stripes staff writer Chad “The vessels repeatedly crossed multiple warnings to the Iranian The Iranian ships eventually and provocative actions increased Garland contributed to this story. the bows and sterns of the U.S. ships through bridge-to-bridge responded to the bridge-to-bridge the risk of miscalculation and [email protected] Guard units in Wisconsin, Alabama awarded F-35 fighter jets

Associated Press the state and community over the past three Madison’s City Council passed a reso- called placing them in a Madison an “un- years, with many people who live near the lution opposing the jets, but the Greater fortunate and harmful decision“ that will MADISON, Wis. — Air National Guard airport saying noise and pollution from Madison Chamber of Commerce has been hurt people’s health, quality of life and units based in Wisconsin and Alabama the jets will lessen their quality of life and a vocal supporter. The chamber, which lower property values. have been awarded squadrons of F-35 value of their homes. The Air Force said represents businesses in Madison, said the “Instead of listening to our community, fighter jets, the U.S. Air Force announced in a preliminary report that noise from the Air National Guard wing has a $100 mil- the Air Force is intent on foisting these jets Wednesday, overcoming vocal opposition F-35s could make more than 1,000 homes lion annual economic impact on the com- on a place they are not wanted,” she said. from people who live near the base in Wis- “incompatible for residential use.” munity. There was also bipartisan support Maj. Gen Paul Knapp, leader of the consin’s capital city. But there was a broad base of support that from Wisconsin politicians, including Wisconsin National Guard, praised the The jets will be placed with the Wis- included businesses, communities, eco- both its Democratic and Republican U.S. awarding of the jets to the base in Madison consin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter nomic developers, office holders, veterans senators. and said he looked forward to working in Wing at Truax Field in Madison and with and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat partnership with the city and surrounding the 187th Fighter Wing at Dannelly Field Supporters argued that concerns over who represents Madison, said Wednesday communities. in Montgomery, Ala . The first jets are ex- the noise are overblown and there won’t be that the Air Force never sufficiently ad- “Through collaboration, I’m confident pected to arrive in late 2023. much difference from the current F-16s. dressed his request that the Air Force pay we will continue to be good stewards of the The jets will replace older F-16 aircraft Advocates said having the next generation for soundproofing or any financial losses communities in which we work and live,” and will allow the Air Force to meet other of jets will be an economic development those who live near the base may suffer he said. requirements for readiness and training, boost, ensuring the future of the base due to reduced property values. Three other bases considered for the jets the Air Force said in a statement. in Madison, which employs about 1,200 And Democratic state Rep. Chris Tay- were in Boise, Idaho; Harrison Township, Locating the jets in Madison has divided people. lor, one of the most vocal critics of the jets, Mich.; and Jacksonville, Fla. PAGE 4 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WAR/MILITARY SIGAR: Recommendations going unheeded

BY J.P. LAWRENCE the report said. ment does not concur or only gon implemented more than 75% dress, defense officials said in the Stars and Stripes In one case, after finding that partially concurs in SIGAR’s pre- of SIGAR’s recommendations, an SIGAR report. the Pentagon funded, trained and scribed solutions,” said an April 7 earlier report said. Institutional inertia and an The Pentagon has followed less equipped Afghan military units DOD memo in response to the re- Less than 40% have been adopt- unwillingness to challenge allies than half of recent recommen- linked to human rights violations port. “In other cases, the Depart- ed since 2014, the latest SIGAR and contractors may also be a dations made by the Special In- and child sexual assault, SIGAR ment takes action, but does not report said. factor in how the military reacts spector General for Afghanistan issued seven recommendations always receive a response from The Pentagon recently ad- to some recommendations, said Reconstruction, a report by the for how the military could avoid SIGAR about whether the action dressed 10 of its pending rec- Andrew Watkins, a senior Af- watchdog group released Thurs- running afoul of the “Leahy Law,” taken was sufficient to close the ommendations since SIGAR ghanistan analyst at Internation- day said. which bars assisting groups if recommendation.” highlighted the disconnect, de- al Crisis Group, a nonprofit think SIGAR has issued more than credible evidence exists of gross Congress established SIGAR fense officials said in their re- tank based in Brussels. 200 recommendations since 2014 human rights violations. in 2008 to audit government sponse to the report. “For the Pentagon to follow a on how to improve oversight and The Pentagon did take action projects, such as the Pentagon’s The Pentagon concurred with recommendation that a certain prevent fraud, waste and abuse in but as of January hadn’t fully ad- efforts to develop the Afghan the latest report’s recommenda- Afghanistan, with the Pentagon dressed the recommendations, military. tions calling for a top-level audit contractor be pressured to cor- implementing 84 of them, the re- including one requiring contrac- Federal law gives agencies like official to ensure timely respons- rect a payment scheme or address port said. tors to report human rights viola- DOD one year after an audit to ei- es to recommendations, and a new some oversight would essentially Some have languished for 20 tions, the SIGAR report said. ther submit a plan on how they’re system that documents progress. invite potential scandal, which months or more without being The Defense Department thor- making fixes identified by an IG, Military staff come and go the Pentagon is institutionally addressed and others are so over- oughly reviews SIGAR recom- or state that they don’t plan to do from Afghanistan so frequently averse to,” Watkins said. due that SIGAR has determined mendations, officials said. so. that people might not be familiar [email protected] the Pentagon will never respond, “In some cases, the Depart- From 2009 to 2014, the Penta- with what issues they need to ad- Twitter: @jplawrence3 Medical intelligence sleuths tracked, warned of new virus

BY DEB RIECHMANN “We start wondering. We look at researchers glean information Associated Press things with a jaundice eye.” from the local level, not Beijing. They don’t collect intelligence. “Researchers, in some cases, WASHINGTON — In late Feb- They analyze it and produce have more success in learning in- ruary when President Donald medical intelligence assess- formation from the bottom up — Trump was urging Americans ments, forecasts and databases not from the central communist not to panic over the novel coro- on infectious disease and health government, but from localities,” navirus, alarms were sounding risks from natural disasters, toxic he said. “That’s where some guy at a little-known intelligence materials, bioterrorism as well in Wuhan might be saying ‘I can’t unit situated on a U.S. Army as certain countries’ capacity to report this because I don’t want base an hour’s drive north of handle them. Their reports are to look bad to my boss’ or there’s Washington. written for military command- a guy who says he can’t talk about Intelligence, science and medi- ers, defense health officials and avian flu because his cousin runs cal professionals at the National researchers as well as policymak- the bird market and doesn’t want Center for Medical Intelligence ers at the Defense Department, to hurt his business.” were quietly doing what they White House and federal agen- have done for decades — moni- cies, especially the Department toring and tracking global health of Health and Human Services. threats that could endanger U.S. The center was originally in troops abroad and Americans at ANDREW HARNIK/AP the U.S. Army Surgeon General’s home. office during World War II, but On Feb. 25, the medical intelli- Biosafety protective suits for handling viral diseases are hung up military leaders throughout his- gence unit raised its warning that outside a chemical decontamination room in a biosafety level 4 tory have learned the hard way the coronavirus would become training facility at U.S. Army Medical Research and Development about the danger that disease a pandemic within 30 days from Command at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., in March. poses to troops. WATCHCON 2 — a probable cri- “In the Spanish-American sis — to WATCHCON 1 — an im- in briefing materials since early the other side of the country. A War, there were major epidemics minent one, according to a U.S. January, according to the official, doctor in the Middle East might of typhoid fever and dysentery,” official. That was 15 days before who spoke only on condition of post concerns about a virus on according to a report written in the World Health Organization anonymity because he was not social media. But unlike orga- 1951 at Brooke Army Medical declared the rapidly spreading authorized to confirm details nizations such as the WHO, the Center at Fort Sam Houston in coronavirus outbreak a global about the alert. medical intelligence team, part of Texas. “World War I saw wide- pandemic. At least 100 epidemiologists, vi- the Defense Intelligence Agency, spread outbreaks of influenza At the time of the warning, few rologists, chemical engineers, tox- also has access to classified intel- and malaria. In World War II, coronavirus infections had been icologists, biologists and military ligence collected by the 17 U.S. there was a high incidence of reported in the United States. medical experts — all schooled in spy agencies. malaria and infectious hepatitis. That same day, Trump, who was intelligence trade craft — work The medical unit can dig into … In all wars prior to World War in New Delhi, India, tweeted: at the medical intelligence unit, signals intelligence and intercepts II, losses from disease exceeded “The Coronavirus is very much located at Fort Detrick in Fred- of communications collected by losses from battle injury.” under control in the USA.” Soon, erick, M d. Requests to interview the National Security Agency. It Today, the team’s success however, the coronavirus spread current workers were denied, but can read information that CIA of- comes in providing early warn- across the world, sickening more former employees described how ficers pick up in the field overseas. ings that prevent illness. That can than 2 million people with the dis- they go through massive amounts The National Geospatial-Intel- be difficult if a country doesn’t ease COVID-19 and killing more of information, looking for clues ligence Agency can share satel- report or share information out than 26,000 people in the United about global health events. lite imagery and terrain maps to of fear that the news will affect States. “You feel like you’re looking help assess how a disease, like its economy or tourism. Some The center’s work typically is for needles in a stack of needles,“ Ebola or avian flu, might spread undeveloped countries with poor shared with defense and health said Denis Kaufman, who worked through a population. health systems might not com- officials, including the secretary in the medical intelligence unit “Every day, all of us would pile good data. Information from of health and human services. Its from 1990 to 2005 and again later come into work and read and countries trying to play down the Feb. 25 warning, first reported before retiring. research our area for anything seriousness of an epidemic can’t last month by Newsweek, was Most of the information they that’s different — anything that be trusted. included in an intelligence brief- study is public, called “open doesn’t make sense, whether it’s Kaufman said massive amounts ing provided to the Joint Chiefs of source” material. A local news- about disease, health care, earth- of information come out of China, Staff, but it’s unknown whether paper in Africa might publish a quakes, national disaster — any- where the first reports of the new Trump or other White House of- story about an increasing num- thing that would affect the health coronavirus surfaced in the city ficials saw it. Various intelligence ber of people getting sick, and of a nation,” said Martha “Rain- of Wuhan. But because the coun- agencies had been including in- that raises a flag because there’s ie” Dasche, a specialist on Africa try is run by an authoritarian gov- formation about the coronavirus no mention of any such illness on who retired from the DIA in 2018. ernment, the medical intelligence Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 5 VIRUS OUTBREAK Soldiers deploy to NJ Army offers guidance on housing for aid effort BY COREY DICKSTEIN quite some time. one additional year, canceling given a choice, she said. Stars and Stripes Defense Secretary Mark Esper their planned permanent-change- For soldiers who have already Associated Press said Tuesday that he would ex- of-station orders. signed leases for their next as- WASHINGTON — Soldiers tend the orders halting nearly all Federal law protects active- signments, Halsey said they also FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — stopped by the coronavirus pan- official international and domes- duty service members from fac- should attempt to resolve it with More soldiers from Fort Camp- demic from moving to new loca- tic movements for service mem- ing penalties for breaking their their landlord or property man- bell have deployed to help with tions should attempt to work with bers, their families and Defense leases to move to a new duty sta- agers before seeking Army legal coronavirus relief efforts. their landlords to remain in their Department civilians past May tion or deploy for more than 90 assistance. About 10 soldiers with the 101st housing through the outbreak, 11, when they were initially set to days. But it does not require land- “We are suggesting service Airborne Division’s sustainment Army officials said. expire. lords to extend leases or reinstate members contact their landlords brigade deployed this week to Service officials acknowledged The Pentagon has not an- previous agreements for troops directly and explain their situa- New Jersey to help with coor- Wednesday that, in some cases, dinating and supporting Army nounced a new target date for whose plans change — including tion,” she said. “They should then soldiers might run into problems logistical efforts in the region, the travel restrictions to end, but under unusual circumstances ask the landlord to end their lease with housing and the Army is according to a statement from the some military leaders have ac- such as the stop-movement orders voluntarily.” working to help troops mitigate Army post on the Kentucky-Ten- knowledged they could remain in meant to help thwart the corona- Ultimately, Army lawyers issues that they could face with nessee line. place well into the summer. virus pandemic. could work with Human Resourc- landlords at either the current “I am incredibly proud of our Gabram said Wednesday that The guidance issued April 7 on es Command to issue new orders location or their planned next he expected the opening of travel lease issues caused by the stop- sustainment Soldiers from the with a delayed PCS date, which duty station. Army lawyers have and other activities at American movement orders instructs a sol- Lifeliner brigade, and I know they could allow soldiers to terminate drafted letters that soldiers can military bases worldwide would dier who cannot come to terms are going to have a big impact to those leases through the federal provide to landlords in an effort occur gradually, based on the with a landlord to contact their our nation’s response against Service Member Civil Relief Act, to solve any lease-agreement outbreak’s impacts in their local chain of command and Army at- COVID,” said Maj. Gen. Brian she said. disputes, said Lt. Gen. Doug Ga- areas. torneys at their installation. Winski, commanding general, Gabram said installation com- bram, the chief of Army Installa- “It’s not a cookie cutter [solu- If a soldier cannot reach an 101st Airborne Division and Fort manders across the service tion Management Command. tion],” he said. “I’d like to wave a agreement with a landlord to re- Campbell. “Sustainment is abso- were engaged with soldiers and “We’re kind of in the process to wand and it’s all going to be the main in their current housing, the lutely critical to ensure front line community leaders in the areas work through that, quite frankly,” same on one day. I don’t believe soldier could request the Army medical personnel are well sup- around their posts to work to help the general said during a tele- it’s going to go like that.” pay for them to move to a nearby plied and able to continue their phone news briefing from his The Army had taken some location, said Melissa Halsey, the soldiers dealing with the crisis. vital work.” headquarters at Joint Base San steps to help the thousands of legal assistance policy division “They understand that folks The troops are ready to con- Antonio. “The housing aspect of soldiers stuck in place amid the chief for the Army’s judge advo- may have a problem financially duct operations in more locations this whole crisis is emotional with pandemic. cate general. … or housing-wise,” he said. “We if necessary, he said. the stop-move [orders]. We’ve had Among the new measures, the The Army can authorize such have to work through that. We Fort Campbell also deployed people moving here, now they’re Army is allowing soldiers who short-distance moves when sol- have to do the right thing.” around 300 soldiers last month not moving, they’re staying.” like their current assignment to diers are forced to stay at their [email protected] from the 531st Hospital Center to And they could be staying for request to remain in it for up to current assignment without being Twitter: @CDickstein New York. PAGE 6 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 VIRUS OUTBREAK 6th sailor from carrier moved to hospital on Guam

BY CAITLIN M. KENNEY the nuclear-powered carrier Stars and Stripes diverted it during a scheduled deployment. WASHINGTON— A sixth sail- Capt. Brett Crozier, the former or assigned to the USS Theodore commander of the Roosevelt, was Roosevelt and fighting the coro- fired April 2 after his emailed let- navirus has been hospitalized ter about the ship’s virus outbreak on Guam, the Navy announced was leaked to the media. Then Thursday, as cases of the disease acting Navy Secretary Thomas surpass 650 among the crew. Modly, who resigned amid the The sailor is being treated at Roosevelt controversy, initiated U.S. Naval Hospital Guam, where an investigation into Crozier’s ac- five other sailors were transferred tions and the climate of Pacific MARK J. TERRILL/AP this week. One sailor remains Fleet “to help determine what The USNS Mercy hospital ship enters the Port of Los Angeles, on March 27. Mercy may scale back its in intensive care for observation may have contributed to this mission as the workload stabilizes at area hospitals. due to shortness of breath. breakdown in the chain of com- The cases follow the death mand,” he said at the time. Monday of a Roosevelt sailor who Esper said Wednesday that the had been in intensive care after investigation was completed last being found unresponsive April week and it will be reviewed by Hospital ship might scale back 9 while in quarantine on Guam. new acting Navy Secretary James The sailor has not yet been identi- McPherson this week. Esper said BY LOLITA C. BALDOR ber of available hospital beds on facilities, and some are having fied, pending notification of next he will see the report sometime Associated Press the Navy ship from 1,000 to 250. staffing issues as workers are in- of kin. after that. Documents reviewed by the AP fected or stay home. As of Thursday, there are 655 In a message to sailors Thurs- WASHINGTON — The USNS said the plan could free up medi- Rotruck said there has been no Roosevelt sailors with positive day, Adm. Robert Burke, the vice Mercy hospital ship docked in cal staff that could then go on to final decision, but 250 beds would tests for the virus. Most of the chief of naval operations, said Los Angeles may be able to scale other missions. be a reasonable size to maintain. about 4,800 member crew has the Navy’s goal is to deploy ships back its medical operation a bit Two weeks ago, California of- He said that “probably in the been tested, with 3,919 receiving with no cases of the coronavirus. over the next week as the corona- ficials were planning for a poten- neighborhood of 100 or more peo- a negative test result. About 4,059 However, the nature of the virus virus workload at area hospitals tial crush of coronavirus cases ple” could be made available for sailors have been transferred makes it difficult to achieve that stabilizes, according to the ship’s that by mid-May that could re- other missions, as a result of the from the ship to Guam. The Navy goal. captain and military documents. quire adding up to 66,000 addi- reduction in beds. He said no de- has 983 cases of the virus among Burke cited measures such The Mercy will also send about tional hospital beds. The Mercy cisions have been made on where its military personnel. as social distancing and stay- 40 medical staff to a regional was part of the ramp-up effort, medical staff may go. Defense Secretary Mark Esper ing home that can help stop the skilled nursing facility on Mon- but since then, hospitalizations “I’m not surprised if it hap- said Wednesday during an inter- virus’s spread. day, Navy Capt. John Rotruck, the have leveled off and ample rooms pens,” he said, adding that 51 view with Fox News that once the “We understand these mea- ship’s commander, said Wednes- are available. patients have been treated on the aircraft carrier has been cleaned sures are especially challenging day in an interview with The As- The ship left San Diego on ship since it arrived and 17 were as a result of the virus outbreak, in a shipboard environment, but sociated Press. He said elderly March 23 and arrived in Los An- on board as of Wednesday. The the ship will return to sea in a few they are not impossible. We need patients will not be brought to the geles four days later to provide ship has seen an average of 20 to weeks. your complete cooperation to pull ship, despite earlier suggestions relief by taking patients who were 21 people a day. The Roosevelt has been in port together as we fight this virus,” that could happen. not infected with the virus. Reducing the Mercy’s capacity, in Guam since March 27 after he said in the message. Rotruck said a plan under dis- Many of the worst outbreaks he said, won’t hurt its ability to re- an outbreak of the virus aboard [email protected] cussion would reduce the num- now occurring are in nursing lieve local hospitals. 2 American sailors among 668 in French strike group to test positive

BY CAITLIN DOORNBOS from last week, when France’s Gaulle is the only non-U.S. nucle- Stars and Stripes Armed Forces Ministry in a tweet ar-powered aircraft carrier in the April 10 announced 50 de Gaulle world. Two U.S. sailors are among the sailors had tested positive for the All de Gaulle sailors are un- 668 crewmembers assigned to coronavirus. Three of those sail- dergoing a 14-day quarantine at a French navy strike group who ors were evacuated “as a precau- the French naval bases in Tou- have tested positive for coronavi- tion, by plane, and transferred to lon, according to the French navy rus, the French and U.S. navies a hospital in France,” according statement. announced Wednesday. to a translation of the message. The U.S. Navy in its Wednes- The two were part of a team The outbreak prompted the day coronavirus update said it is of four U.S. sailors embedded on de Gaulle and its strike group “working closely with our NATO the French aircraft carrier FS to return early to their Toulon, Ally to fight against the virus.” Charles de Gaulle as part of the France, homeport April 13, the “We look forward to continued JOSHUA LEONARD/U.S. Navy Navy’s personnel exchange pro- ministry said in a tweet Thurs- operations with the Charles de gram, according to the Navy’s Two U.S. sailors have tested positive for the coronavirus while day. The ship had been deployed Gaulle and the French Navy in most recent daily coronavirus assigned to the French aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle, seen since January and “had already the future,” it said. update. here in 2019. achieved its operation objectives” The de Gaulle outbreak mim- The de Gaulle leads the strike when the decision was made to icked that of the USS Theodore group, which includes multiple medical care, if needed,” accord- great majority” of the 668 positive return to port, according to a Roosevelt, which was sidelined frigates, a command and refuel- ing to the U.S. Navy update. tests for the virus were among translation of the message. at Guam on March 26 after eight ing vessel and a nuclear-powered The ill U.S. sailors are being sailors aboard the de Gaulle, ac- Teams are working to disinfect sailors on the ship tested posi- attack submarine, according to a treated with “excellent host na- cording to a statement Thursday. the ships and aircraft, and the re- tive for the coronavirus. As of Jan. 23 USNI News report. tion medical care at French facil- Of the sailors who tested positive, maining sailors are being tested, Wednesday, that number had “As part of the [personnel ex- ities,” according to the update. 31 are hospitalized. The statement the ministry said in the Thursday grown to 615 positive cases, ac- change program], sailors are in- “We are confident that our Sail- did not specify the other French tweet. cording to the Navy update. tegrated into the French crew in ors are in good hands,” it added. ships affected by the virus. About 2,000 sailors are as- [email protected] all daily operations, which include The French navy said, “the The 668 number is a stark jump signed to the carrier. The de Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 7 VIRUS OUTBREAK Airmen boost academics during pandemic

BY JAMES BOLINGER The group’s decentralized nature makes improving leadership qualities, Kopec said choose their own adventure and focus on Stars and Stripes it one of the best ideas to stem from the there are webinars, training and meetups their development, he said. lockdown, said Tech. Sgt. Cam Kopec, on a variety of topics. It’s fascinating to see “We have Airmen across the base who At an Air Force base in California fa- the noncommissioned officer in charge of how everyone bought in quickly and is fo- are training to augment security forces, mous for pushing the envelope, senior en- cyber systems support for the 18th Intel- cused on helping others, he said. command post, medical and other critical listed leaders have devised a social media ligence Squadron at Wright-Patterson Air Quarantine University has hosted speak- jobs,” he said. “We also have Airmen with method of keeping work-at-home airmen Force Base, Ohio, in an email to Stars and ers from outside of the Air Force, too. varying backgrounds who are learning it- around the world connected and learning Stripes on Monday. For example, on Wednesday, award-win- erative design and fundamentals of proto- during the coronavirus pandemic. “This is not something that was directed ning author Whitney Johnson, a frequent Ian Eishen, the command chief master by the chief of staff of the Air Force or the lecturer at Harvard Business School, spoke typing who are now building robots to help sergeant of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards command chief master sergeant of the Air about her book: “Disrupt Yourself: Put the disinfect rooms and various surfaces.” Air Force Base, Calif., conceived the idea Force,” he said. “This was born out of a Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work.” The group’s success has hinged on the along with, Master Sgt. Chad Hardesty desire to help others and better our force. Several of the live training sessions, dynamic communication of social media and Tech. Sgt. Fabian Guzman. We’re all in unfamiliar situations right such as “Hybrid Airmen” and “The Future platforms like Facebook, Zoom and Meet- “We built this group with the idea of now, and we don’t have all the specifics as of the Enlisted Force,” were attended by up, Eishen said, although the Defense De- crowdsourcing education across the Air to when we may return back to a sense of more than 9,000 people, Eishen said. partment recently directed all personnel Force,” Eishen said in an April 7 email to normalcy. Personal and professional de- Hybrid airmen, a concept unveiled in to stop using Zoom for security reasons. Stars and Stripes. “We have leaders at all velopment is one of the biggest things we 2018 by Chief Master Sergeant of the Air “Social media has been key to this proj- levels with knowledge to give, and Airmen can take from this ‘downtime.’ It’s amaz- Force Kaleth Wright, calls for creating ect, and it would not have grown this fast at all levels with time and a desire to learn ing how the group is doing it.” service members able to take on multiple without it. We launched and had 2,000 users but we needed a place that would allow Kopec said he discovered Quarantine roles during a major conflict. within 24 hours,” he said. “It is easy for these two groups to find each other.” University through others in his unit al- “In the future, especially against a near- anyone to provide content because we are The group has more than 18,000 mem- ready taking advantage of it. peer adversary, we will need hybrid air- able to live-stream from a smartphone.” bers and has hosted multiple video chats “I attended one of the leadership work- men who have more skills than the ones with enlisted leaders from across the Air shops that was put on shortly after the they learned through their career field,” Those interested in checking out Quar- Force. Topics discussed have included quarantine started, promptly joined the Eishen said. “The current COVID-19 situ- antine University can find it at www.face- mental health, bullet writing for evalua- Facebook group, and since then it has been ation is an excellent-use case to test this book.com/groups/574695376589462/. tions and emotional intelligence. All the an absolute trove of information,” he said. hypothesis.” [email protected] videos created are available on the page. Although many of the classes focus on Quarantine University allows airmen to Twitter: @bolingerj2004 Camp Humphreys to slowly reopen gyms, barbershops

BY KIM GAMEL have tested positive for the virus, On-post bus services will re- Food courts will remain take- although with every other lane Stars and Stripes including two soldiers. sume with soldiers as drivers, but out-only, but a new service allow- closed for social distancing. Sev- But the overall pace of infec- taxis will remain halted for the ing food to be ordered in advance eral administrative services will SEOUL, South Korea — As the tions across South Korea has time being. and picked up curbside will be resume activities on Monday. daily count of coronavirus cases slowed, with only 22 new infec- The barbershops and hair and implemented. A similar service Restrictions on access and declines in South Korea, Camp tions logged on Wednesday, the nonessential activities outside all Humphreys will take a step to- nail salons will reopen, and some has been launched by the PX. eighth day that the daily count restaurants will resume sit-down The theater will reopen Sat- bases will remain in place. ward normalcy this weekend was below 50. by reopening service, he said. urday, as will the bowling alley, [email protected] On Thurs- gyms, barber- day, USFK shops and some ‘ We know commander other services, the commander you’re all shaggy Gen. Robert said Thursday. Abrams au- Anticipating out there and thorized Camp crowds, garri- that’s fine. Humphreys son command- ’ and Osan Air Col. Michael Tremblay er Col. Michael Base to return Camp Humphreys garrison Tremblay said to Health Pro- commander military stan- tection Con- dards for hair- dition C from cuts would be C+, meaning phased back in they can lift slowly. some restrictions on a limited “What we don’t want to have basis, beginning Saturday. is a rush on the barbershop,” he Abrams planned to address the said in a community update via community via Facebook live on Facebook live. “We know you’re Friday, USFK officials said. all shaggy out there and that’s Even as some restrictions fine. begin to be lifted, social distanc- “We’re going to do this delib- ing standards and requirements erately. So you’re going to get at to wear face masks, frequently least a week before there’s going wash hands and disinfect gym to be any type of haircut inspec- equipment will continue to be en- tion,” he said. forced, Tremblay said. U.S. service members have The number of people allowed been largely holed up in barracks into the commissary and post ex- or off-base residences for about change also will continue to be three weeks after a soldier and limited, often meaning long lines several American contractors at of people standing several feet Camp Humphreys tested positive apart. for the virus, which can cause se- “We are on to the next evolution vere lung illness. and the establishment of a new The largest overseas Army normal,” Tremblay said. “We’re garrison, which is home to the not going away from all the hard military headquarters on the di- lessons we’ve learned as we re- vided peninsula and a population ally beat this thing down.” of more than 37,000, closed sever- The gyms and the 18-hole golf al services and restricted on-base course will be open for active- movement in response. Nearby Osan Air Base followed suit after duty service members and their it reported three cases. dependents only in the beginning, In all, 24 people linked to USFK he said. PAGE 8 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 VIRUS OUTBREAK Protection: Supply crunch leads to use of bedsheets to make masks

FROM FRONT PAGE German workforce. “Obviously, we don’t want to The unit has had a few con- have those essential operations firmed cases of the virus, includ- shut down,” said Capt. Tom Bar- ing a longtime German employee comb, 5th QM-TADC command- who died after contracting the er. “We want people to be as little virus last month. exposed as possible.” “We thought (to do this for) The Pentagon this month or- preservation of the workforce dered troops to wear masks when and support of the soldiers,” said they’re unable to maintain 6 feet David Little, the operational di- of social distance, following a vision chief of Supply Activity sharp rise in coronavirus infec- Europe. tions among the ranks. On Wednesday, his employees The Centers for Disease Con- turned out 240 face masks cut trol and Prevention, which ini- from green fabric used to make tially didn’t recommend wearing coveralls. masks, changed its guidance this The riggers at Rhine Ordnance month to lower the risk of people Barracks had to be creative in with mild or no symptoms from finding fabric. T-shirts didn’t spreading the virus. work; the thicker cotton bunched At the riggers’ workshop, 14 in the sewing machines. With soldiers work on alternating days: fabric stores closed locally due to five operate sewing machines at the virus, the soldiers purchased a time while two soldiers stencil bedsheets in subdued colors at and cut fabric. One mask takes up the Ramstein and Baumholder to about 10 minutes to produce. exchange stores, Vaquero said. Stitching together face cover- Each sheet set yields 59 dou- ings on commercial sewing ma- ble-layered masks wide enough chines is easier than repairing to cover the mouth and nose, he parachutes and rigging on the said. PHOTOS BY JENNIFER H. SVAN/Stars and Stripes industrial-size machines the sol- The masks tie in the back with diers typically use, they said, and straps the shop uses for rigging. Sgt. Nicholas August, a parachute rigger with the 5th Quartermaster-Theater Aerial Delivery Company at they’re easier to repair when they Velcro was the first choice but Rhine Ordnance Barracks, Germany, sews a face mask together Wednesday. go down. Vaquero bought it all from the BX “There have been some guys last week and the shop quickly who have not sewn in a couple of ran out. years and they’re sitting down They’re issuing two masks to and using the machines,” said each soldier and don’t know how Warrant Officer Alejandro Va- many they’ll end up making. quero, an air drop systems tech- “We’re kind of treating this nician with the 5th Parachute like indefinite demand, indefinite Company. quantity,” Barcomb said. The soldiers use a combination The Army on Wednesday said of straight and locking stitches. units could start ordering more “I’m enjoying it. Every single face coverings through the De- one gets a little better,” said fense Logistics Agency, said Spc. Robert Walker, a parachute Master Sgt. Dan Bailey, 21st rigger. Theater Sustainment Command Across town at the Kaiserslaut- spokesman. ern Army Depot, a similar assem- The locally made masks are bly line is producing masks for “a temporary solution” until the the 1,300 civilians in the Theater DLA-issued masks arrive at an Elastic bands are sewn on Logistics Support Center Europe, undetermined date, Bailey said. face masks at a workshop at Sgt. Jonathan Camacho, left, and Staff Sgt. Kyle Shields, parachute including mechanics, truck driv- [email protected] Kaiserslautern Army Depot in riggers with the 5th Quartermaster-Theater Aerial Delivery Company, ers and craftsmen in the mostly Twitter: @stripesktown Germany. cut out fabric to be sewed into face masks. DODEA College Board cancels SAT exams slated for June

Stars and Stripes The board plans instead to administer May 5. Naval Base; and E.J. King High School at the SAT on one day each month from Au- The announcements that admissions Sasebo Naval Base. Almost as soon as students at Defense exams had been rescheduled for June In the Pacific South district, the ACT Department high schools overseas could gust through December, according to the came with a caveat that continuing con- test is scheduled at Kadena High School at crack a book, the College Board has can- SAT website. However, the ACT admissions tests are cerns over coronavirus could change those Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, and at Guam celed all the SAT tests scheduled for June plans. 6. still scheduled for June 13 at Defense De- High School in Agana Heights. Pacific East schools, all in Japan, that Information on what schools in Europe The June date was set to replace dates partment schools in Japan and Guam, said plan to offer the ACT are Yokota High were still planning to administer the ACT in March canceled due to concerns over Miranda Ferguson, a spokeswoman for School at Yokota Air Base; Zama Ameri- before the end of this school year was not the coronavirus. The SAT is one of the two Department of Defense Education Activ- can Middle/High School at Camp Zama; college admissions exams taken by high ity-Pacific, in an email Thursday. Eligible Edgren Middle/High School at Misawa Air immediately available. school seniors and rising juniors. students may register for that test until Base; Kinnick High School at Yokosuka [email protected] Japanese prime minister broadens stay-at-home order to whole country

Associated Press in order to stem new infections, this year’s Golden Week holidays ters of coronavirus cases instead tion, many people still went to Abe urged, as the number of cases that start in late April, Yasutoshi of testing as many people as work in major cities in the seven TOKYO — Japan’s state of climbed to nearly 10,000, includ- Nishimura, the country’s eco- possible. prefectures. emergency has been expanded ing 712 on a cruise ship quaran- nomic minister, told a govern- The declaration requests — not The government and local lead- to the whole country from seven tined near Tokyo in February. ment meeting. orders — residents to stay at ers urged people to work from prefectures, Prime Minister About 180 people in Japan have Abe’s government has been home, meaning there will be no home, but many Japanese compa- Shinzo Abe said on Thursday, died of COVID-19, the respiratory criticized for hiding the true punishment for those who do not nies still do not allow telework. as the novel coronavirus crisis disease caused by the virus. number of coronavirus cases by comply with the measures aimed On Thursday, Abe also said the deepens. The government “needs to limiting tests. at containing the spread of the government will provide cash Everyone in Japan needs to re- take measures to keep the flow The Ministry of Health, Labor coronavirus. handouts of 925 dollars to all duce their social contacts by 80% of people to minimum” before and Welfare had focused on clus- So, even after the declara- citizens. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 9 VIRUS OUTBREAK Veterans homes in 16 states report positive virus cases

BY NIKKI WENTLING “This thing is going so quick,” care homes nationwide. The New Stars and Stripes Bowman said. “When it strikes York Times reported Tuesday a state veterans home, their sole that about 3,800 residents and WASHINGTON — The corona- purpose is making sure residents employees at U.S. nursing homes virus has taken hold in long-term are safe. Other communication had died — a likely undercount, care facilities across the country doesn’t come as quick.” the report said. VA and caused thousands of deaths At the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home The Centers for Disease Con- — including state-run homes for in Massachusetts, 36 residents trol and Prevention issued spe- The Paramus Veterans Memorial Home in New Jersey has been aging veterans and their family had died of the virus as of Tues- cial guidance for nursing homes. among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than members. day. The state government and It advised restricting all visitors, two dozen deaths. Veterans homes in 16 states had the U.S. Justice Department are canceling group activities and reported at least one case of the investigating whether leadership communal dining, and actively of cloth masks made by local vet- and the federal government for virus as of Tuesday, said Mark failed in its response. screening residents and employ- erans organizations. support. Bowman, president of the Nation- According to local news re- ees for signs of the virus. Bowman, the executive direc- The payment rate from the VA al Association of State Veterans ports Wednesday, there were 45 While state veterans homes are tor of the Kentucky VA, said there increases every October to ac- Homes. The association, with 157 positive cases of the coronavirus always prepared and stocked for were no cases of the virus in the count for inflation. Early in the members, provides support for in two of Alabama’s four veterans an infectious outbreak, such as four veterans homes he oversees. pandemic, the VA moved up the state veterans homes, which re- homes, as well as two deaths. In the flu, they never accounted for His and other veterans homes October increase to April, raising ceive payments from the Depart- New Jersey, the Paramus Veter- a pandemic of this magnitude, across the country — regardless the per diem rate by nearly 3%, ment of Veterans Affairs based ans Memorial Home was over- Bowman said. of whether they have found posi- Bowman said. on the number of residents. whelmed with sick residents, and Some veterans homes have tive cases — have prohibited visi- For fiscal 2020, nursing homes Bowman said it was hard to get more than two dozen had died as reported shortages of personal tors, canceled group activities and received slightly more than $112 a full accounting of the positive of Tuesday. protective equipment, he said. dining, and implemented regular a day per veteran. That increased cases among residents and staff National Guard members and Through “town hall” meetings temperature checks on residents to about $115. of veterans homes, which have medical staff from the Depart- arranged by the National Asso- and employees, he said. While it won’t mitigate the proved to be ideal places for the ment of Veterans Affairs had been ciation of State Veterans Homes, Most facilities have stopped ad- entire cost of the pandemic, virus to spread. While he’s asked sent to help residents of veterans facility leaders have shared mitting new residents. The lack Bowman said, the boost was an members to alert him to cases in homes in multiple states, includ- ideas. One home was using sani- of new residents, combined with “immediate infusion of cash” their facilities, Bowman believes ing Massachusetts and Rhode tizer made by a local distillery the cost of protective gear and that started going to facilities this some have not yet reported be- Island. until they could get more through overtime pay, has come at a tre- month. cause they’re busy responding to That’s just a snapshot of the regular channels, Bowman said. mendous cost, Bowman said. The [email protected] crises. coronavirus clusters in long-term Another was accepting donations association was looking to states Twitter: @nikkiwentling PAGE 10 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 VIRUS OUTBREAK Glitches prevent aid checks from reaching millions

BY HEATHER LONG from getting the payments and AND MICHELLE SINGLETARY what steps the IRS recommends The Washington Post to rectify them.  Millions of H&R Block, Tur- Many Americans woke up boTax and Jackson Hewitt cus- Wednesday expecting to find a tomers didn’t get their payments payment of $1,200 or more from Customers who use popular the U.S. government in their bank tax preparation services such account, but instead they realized as H&R Block, TurboTax and nothing had arrived yet — or the Jackson Hewitt complained on wrong amount was deposited. Twitter and to The Post that they Parents of young children com- didn’t get their stimulus payment NAM Y. HUH/AP plained they did not receive the on Wednesday. A man looks at the closed sign in front of Illinois Department of Employment Security in Chicago, promised $500 check for their de- Up to 21 million tax filers could Wednesday. Illinois’ unemployment safety net has been stretched to the limit because of the pandemic. pendent children. be affected, said consumer law U.S. Treasury Secretary Ste- expert Vijay Raghavan, because ven Mnuchin has instructed the the IRS does not have these Internal Revenue Service to get people’s direct deposit informa- Jobless: payments out as fast as possible to tion on file if they received an Layoffs deepening and broadening help offset the pain of losing jobs advance on their tax refund from and shutting down businesses, these companies or had the fee FROM FRONT PAGE Great Recession officially ended. month. but numerous glitches — affect- for tax preparation taken out of That figure is less than the num- Retailers and other service ing filers who used tax preparers, That would be more than dou- their tax refund. ble the contraction that occurred ber of applicants in part because companies keep cutting jobs. The parents of dependent children and The tax preparation companies it lags behind the number of first- electronics chain Best Buy said people with 2019 tax returns still during the 2008-2009 recession, received these people’s tax re- which was the worst downturn time jobless claims figure by this week that it will furlough to be processed — are delaying fund first, deducted their fees and a week. And many people who 51,000 of its hourly employees, payments and causing confusion. since the Great Depression of the then distributed the remaining 1930s. apply for unemployment aid are including nearly all its part-time Several million people who filed refund to the customers. Because turned down and don’t actually workers. Royal Caribbean Cruis- their taxes via H&R Block, Tur- All businesses deemed nones- of that, the IRS had a “temporary sential have been closed in nearly receive checks. es will cut one-quarter of its 5,000 boTax and other popular services bank account” on file that the tax Many of the jobless whose ap- corporate employees. were unable to get their payments every state. Deep job losses have preparer created for the 2019 tax been inflicted across nearly plications for unemployment aid But now, job losses are not only because the IRS did not have their season, Raghavan said. haven’t been accepted are likely deepening but also broadening, direct deposit information on file, every industry. Some economists  ‘Payment Status Not say the unemployment rate could self-employed and gig workers. a trend that is sure to continue according to the Treasury, com- The government’s $2.2 trillion the longer the economic down- Available’ reach as high as 20% in April, panies and experts. economic relief package provides turn lasts. The software company Frustrated taxpayers also which would be the highest rate The IRS launched a “Get My jobless benefits to those groups Toast, which works with the res- took to Twitter to vent about since the Depression. By compar- Payment” tool Wednesday for for the first time. But most states taurant industry, last week cut their inability to track when and ison, unemployment never topped people to track the status of their have to set up new computer sys- half its workforce — 1,300 people how they would be getting their 10% during the Great Recession. payment and enter direct de- tems to process those claims — a — citing a dizzying drop in res- money. Some posted an image of Layoffs are spreading well be- posit information, but many who process that could take weeks in taurant sales. Yelp, the customer the message they received after yond service industries like ho- used it said they received a mes- some cases. review site, cut 1,000 jobs. Grou- entering their information: “Pay- tels, restaurants, retail stores and sage saying “Payment Status Not The rescue package also es- pon, the online discount company, Available,” a frustration that left ment Status Not Available.” entertainment, which have ab- There are a number of reasons tablished a $350 billion loan pro- shed 2,800. them without answers. sorbed the brunt of the job cuts, gram to small businesses, with Employee discussions of layoffs Some parents told The Wash- the tool can’t check the status of a into white collar professional stimulus payment, the IRS said. the loans forgiven if companies on Zhao’s website have jumped ington Post that they received a occupations, including software retain or rehire their workers. 47% among information technol- You aren’t eligible for a $1,200 payment for a single head programmers, legal assistants But Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. ogy firms and 64% in finance, he payment. of household or a $2,400 check for and sales people. Workers in economist at Bank of America, said. Such discussions have nearly Your payment is based on your a married couple but that the IRS other occupations, like construc- said that so far there’s little doubled among workers in health status as a Social Security, dis- left out the $500-per-child-under- tion, are also suffering. evidence that the program has care. That’s no longer surprising: ability or railroad retirement ben- 17 payments. Up to 50 million jobs are vul- stemmed job losses. Meyer said Many doctors’ offices and other eficiary. In this case, the IRS will IRS and Treasury officials ac- nerable to coronavirus-related she thought some companies may health providers have cut back knowledged they are aware of use your SSA or RRB Form 1099 layoffs, economists say — about feel that laying off workers is a on nonessential procedures, and these issues and are working to payment information. Your pay- one-third of all positions in the better option, given that the gov- some are cutting staff. fix them. A Treasury spokeswom- ment information isn’t available United States. That figure is ernment has added $600 to the The delays in many states in an noted that the IRS processed on the Get My Payment website. based on a calculation of jobs that weekly unemployment aid that processing applications for con- nearly 80 million payments in You have not filed a 2018 or are deemed non-essential by state states provide. The total jobless tractors and gig workers is a prob- less than three weeks. That’s just 2019 federal tax return. and federal governments and that benefit could replace all or even lem for people like Celia Rocha, over half the 150 million pay- You filed your 2019 return, but cannot be done from home. more than a low-income worker’s 44, who lost what she called her ments expected to go out under it hasn’t been fully processed. It’s unlikely that all those work- normal paycheck. “dream job” as a studio assistant the Economic Impact Payment You used the non-filers tool, ers will be laid off or file for unem- On Thursday, the small-busi- to an artist in Los Angeles after program. but the information you entered ployment benefits. But it suggests ness aid program ran out of California ordered all non-essen- Social Security recipients will is still being processed. the extraordinary magnitude of money after more than 1.6 million tial businesses to close last month. automatically receive the pay- There’s a problem verifying unemployment that could result loans were approved, though it Rocha, who had worked as a con- ments later this month. Paper your identity when answering the from the pandemic. isn’t clear that much of the money tractor for three years, said she checks will have President Don- security questions. “This crisis combines the scale has yet been disbursed. Members applied for benefits but was inex- ald Trump’s name on them and Information on the site is up- of a national economic downturn of Congress are seeking a deal for plicably turned down. When she are expected to start going out dated only once a day, so check- with the pace of a natural disas- additional funding. has called the state’s phone line in the coming days. Low-income ing more than once in a 24-hour ter,” said Daniel Zhao, senior In recent days, economic re- to ask questions, she has received Americans who do not normally period won’t yield a different economist at Glassdoor. “And ports have contributed to a bleak only a recording directing her to file a tax return, including the result. that’s really unprecedented in economic picture. Sales at stores the website. homeless, are also eligible to re-  Receiving the wrong pay- American economic history.” and restaurants fell by the most “It’s really frustrating that you ceive the $1,200 check, but only if ment amount or no money for de- All told, nearly 12 million on record in March, the govern- can’t talk to someone and have they enter their information in a pendent children people are now receiving un- ment said Wednesday. U.S. indus- your questions answered,” Rocha new non-filers tool on IRS.gov. A number of people indicated employment checks, essentially trial output fell by the most since said. “There’s no information Below is some of the most com- that they received the incorrect matching the peak reached in 1946. And home building plunged about when we can apply for this” mon issues preventing people payment amount. January 2010, shortly after the 22% in March from the previous on the state’s website. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 11 VIRUS OUTBREAK Economic fallout from pandemic worsens

Associated Press PARIS — Economic pain from the coro- navirus pandemic deepened Thursday, as health authorities warned that returning to normal is a distant goal despite many lead- ers’ hopes of reopening stores, factories, airplanes and schools quickly and safely. Fallout from the virus spread in ways both predictable and devastating, from police torching an illicit food market in Zimbabwe, to emergency flights carry- ing foreign farm workers to Britain and Germany, to protests at U.S. state capitols against millions of job losses. The U.S. government reported Thursday that 5.2 million more people applied for un- employment benefits last week, bringing the running total to about 22 million out of a U.S. work force of roughly 159 million — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. In France, Amazon suspended operations after a court ruled it wasn’t doing enough to protect its workers in the country. The online retailer, which has six warehouses in France, said it would evaluate the court decision. In Britain, a government survey found that a quarter of companies have sus- pended business. Cargo traffic at Europe’s massive port of Rotterdam in the Nether- lands sank 9.3% in the first quarter from the same period a year ago and its CEO warned of worse to come. MARTIN MEISSNER/AP The World Health Organization’s Euro- Fan portraits are set on the supporters tribune of German Bundesliga soccer club Borussia Moenchengladbach at the stadium in pean chief said optimism that the spread of Moenchengladbach, Germany, on Thursday. The Bundesliga suspended all matches until April 30. the virus was declining in Italy, Spain and France was tempered by the knowledge confusion among citizens and businesses,” 27-nation bloc’s next trillion-euro budget Guterres urged stepped-up efforts to pre- that it was rising or sustained at a high Buffagni said. will have to be re-imagined as “the moth- pare Africa for the virus, warning that level in Britain, Russia and Turkey. In China, where the virus first emerged er-ship of our recovery.” the continent “could end up suffering the “The storm clouds of this pandemic still in December, even people who still have Troubling data indicate the worst may greatest impacts.” hang heavily over the European region,” jobs have been wary of spending much or still be to come in many parts of the world. In Zimbabwe, where food was scarce Dr. Hans Kluge said. going out. Some Chinese cities tried reas- Japan’s prime minister announced he even before the pandemic, police raided a The International Monetary Fund says suring consumers by showing officials eat- would expand a state of emergency to the market, torching 3 tons of fresh fruit and fallout from what it calls the “Great Lock- ing in restaurants. entire country, rather than just urban vegetables and scattering farmers who had down” will be the most devastating since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The U.S. began issuing one-time pay- areas, as the virus continued to spread. broken travel restrictions to try to sell their That has made leaders all the more anx- ments this week to tens of millions of peo- Britain, with over 13,700 dead, extended wares. ious to send people back to work and school ple as part of its $2.2 trillion coronavirus its nationwide lockdown on schools, pubs, Singapore scrambled to react after see- and to rebuild economies devastated by relief package. restaurants and most stores for at least ing more than 1,100 cases since Monday. the pandemic that has infected more than The U.S. has seen nearly 640,000 infec- three more weeks as health officials said It had successfully contained a first wave 2 million people and claimed more than tions — more than the next four countries the outbreak was nearing its peak, and the of infections, but new cases are occurring 137,000 lives, according to a tally by Johns put together — and leads the world with move appeared to have wide public sup- among workers from poorer Asian coun- Hopkins University. nearly 31,000 deaths, according to Johns port. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tries who live in crowded dormitories in Italy’s hardest-hit region of Lombardy Hopkins University. Experts say, however, said, “Any change to our social distancing the tiny city-state. is pushing to relaunch manufacturing on the true toll of the pandemic is much high- measures now would risk a significant in- In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro’s May 4, the day that the national lockdown er due to limited testing, uneven counting crease in the spread of the virus.” lackadaisical approach to the virus came is set to lift. Regional officials are consider- of deaths and some governments’ attempts Swiss authorities announced a staggered under increased pressure for the dangers ing ordering companies to stagger opening to downplay their outbreaks. series of reopenings, starting April 27 with it placed Brazilians in. “We’re fighting hours to avoid cramming public transport. In Brussels, the pandemic was making medical and dental offices, hair salons and against the coronavirus and against the But Italy’s deputy economic develop- the European Union redraw all of its bud- other select businesses, followed in May ‘Bolsonaro-virus,’” Sao Paulo state Gov. ment minister, Stefan Buffagni, called the get plans to focus on tackling the corona- and June by other stores, schools, zoos, li- Joao Doria told the AP, adding that he be- plan premature. virus pandemic. European Commission braries and museums. lieves the president has adopted “incorrect, “Going in a random order risks fueling President Ursula von der Leyen said the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio irresponsible positions.” Some smaller stores in Germany to reopen amid ‘fragile’ success

BY MARCUS KLOECKNER A ban on gatherings of more than two Frankfurt, will require anyone in a store said. Stars and Stripes people in public who are not part of the to wear a mask beginning Monday, Ger- The latest measures will take effect same household, and a social distancing many’s Focus Online reported. Monday through May 3, and will be re- KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — policy of at least 1.5 meters, or about 5 feet, The health care system has kept up with viewed April 30. Smaller stores can reopen soon and masks will remain in place, Merkel said. the pace of coronavirus infection, “some- Borders with neighboring countries also are now recommended while shopping as The U.S. military in Germany’s policies thing that was not at all certain from the will remain closed, officials said. Germany tries to maintain its “fragile” are slightly more stringent than the nation- beginning,” said Merkel, who called the Germany had about 130,000 confirmed success in containing the coronavirus, al standard. The military calls for at least country’s containment efforts a “fragile coronavirus cases and 3,569 deaths as of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. 6 feet of social distance, in line with U.S. and intermediate success.” Thursday, the country’s Robert Koch In- Stores up to 800 square meters, or about Centers for Disease Control and Preven- “We do not have much leeway,” she said. stitute reported. The coronavirus-related 8,600 square feet, will be allowed to do tion guidelines. The military also requires Schools, which have been closed for death toll is substantially lower than in business starting Monday if they can personnel to wear masks in public when 6 about a month, will reopen in phases start- neighboring France, which had more than maintain hygiene precautions, Merkel said feet of social distance can’t be maintained. ing May 4, with students about to graduate 1 7,000 deaths, and nearby Italy, which in a televised address Wednesday night. Merkel on Wednesday said masks are high school returning first. Elementary has suffered more than 21,000 deaths, Bookstores, bicycle shops and auto dealers recommended in stores and on public schools, kindergartens and preschools will may also open again, regardless of size. transportation, though cities and states remain closed, Merkel said. the World Health Organization reported Bars, restaurants and cafes may continue can declare additional measures. Barber shops and salons should expect Thursday. to offer takeout or delivery only. Hanau, a city of about 100,000 near to be able to reopen beginning May 4, she [email protected] PAGE 12 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 VIRUS OUTBREAK ROUNDUP Thousands protest restrictions

Associated Press LANSING — Thousands of flag-waving, honking protesters drove past the Michi- gan Capitol on Wednesday to show their displeasure with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s orders to keep people at home and busi- nesses locked during the coronavirus outbreak. As snow fell, others got out of their ve- hicles and raised signs, one of which read, “Gov. Whitmer We Are Not Prison- ers.” Another said, “Michigander Against Gretchens Abuses.” Hours later, Whitmer shot back, telling reporters that the rally put health at risk. Whitmer, a Democrat, extended a stay- home order through April 30 and has shut down schools and businesses deemed non- PAUL SANCYA/AP essential. The governor acknowledged the pain but said that the restrictions were Steve Polet holds a sign during a protest at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., on Wednesday. necessary to stop the spread of the coro- navirus, which has killed more than 1,900 immigrants living in the country illegally, He noted that the state has essentially company make up part of the 50 busi- Michigan residents and overwhelmed hos- the most of any state, according to the Pew shut down the tourism industry to slow the nesses that were fully denied their appeal. pitals in the Detroit area. Research Center. spread of the virus, which has hammered Debi Creech, who owns a fitness company State officials won’t decide who gets two major sources of state income: the called “Zumba with Debi,” has started A rizona the money. Instead, the state will give the hotel tax and the general excise tax. hosting online classes to keep her business money to a network of regional nonprofits He said that tax increases weren’t under afloat under the closure. PHOENIX — Public health officials in to find and vet potential recipients. consideration “at this point in time.” The The state also denied appeal to 533 other Arizona’s largest county said that they’re governor said that he and members of his businesses, including a gun range and a seeing improvements in the number of Hawaii cabinet would take a similar pay cut to any vape shop, unless they put in place more people hospitalized for the coronavirus. taken by employees. social distancing efforts. Some of these The Maricopa County Department of HONOLULU — Hawaii state worker businesses have since partially opened. Public Health said Wednesday that the unions on Wednesday pushed back at what Mississippi rate of growth in hospitalizations is slow- they said was a proposal from Gov. David North Dakota ing. Officials said that’s likely due to the Ige to cut employee pay by 20% to cope JACKSON — Facing two freedom-of-re- social distancing measures which have with a sharp drop in tax revenue brought ligion lawsuits and pushback from the U.S. BISMARCK — Bismarck city commis- closed businesses and left people avoiding on by the coronavirus pandemic. attorney general, a Mississippi mayor said sioners have rejected a request by local large gatherings. Ige said at a news conference that he was Wednesday that people may attend drive- restaurant owners to temporarily allow The county also released data showing in discussions with unions and lawmakers in church services during the coronavirus the businesses to sell alcohol with takeout that people with high blood pressure, dia- about potential cuts, but no decision has pandemic, but they must keep their win- orders. been made. He said that the tax shortfalls betes or heart, kidney, lung or liver disease dows up. Several North Dakota cities have made meant the state needed to cut $1.5 billion are more likely to be hospitalized. People Greenville Mayor Errick D. Simmons such adjustments to help restaurants deal from the state budget over the next 15 with high blood pressure, for example, also said that local churches may allow with a reduction in business because of the months. make up 35% of hospitalizations but only up to 10 people at a time in a building for coronavirus stay-at-home order. 17% of the total group of people with cases worship services that are shown online or Mandan is one city allowing restaurants of COVID-19, the disease caused by the carried on TV or radio, as long as those in- to sell sealed cans or bottles of alcohol with coronavirus. side the church follow public health guide- takeout meals. Meanwhile, state health officials said that lines to maintain a safe distance from one The Bismarck Tribune reported that 11 more people in Arizona have died from another. Mayor Steve Bakken said restaurants have complications of the coronavirus, bring- A conservative legal group called Alli- typically told the city that alcohol is an add- ing the total number of deaths since the ance Defending Freedom filed a federal on and that food is their primary source of start of the outbreak to 142. The 11 deaths lawsuit Friday challenging the Greenville revenue. reported Wednesday were in Maricopa, order as unconstitutional. On Tuesday, U.S. Pima, Coconino and Navajo counties. Attorney General William Barr took the New York rare step of filing papers to side with those California suing the city. Gov. Tate Reeves tweeted New York residents will be required to thanks to Barr “for this strong stand in wear face coverings anytime they come SACRAMENTO — California will be support of religious liberty.” into close contact with other people out- the first state to give cash to immigrants side their homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said living in the country illegally who are hurt North Carolina Wednesday. by the coronavirus, offering $500 apiece The mandate will require a mask or face to 150,000 adults who were left out of the RALEIGH — The North Carolina De- covering, like a bandanna, on busy streets, $2.2 trillion stimulus package approved by partment of Revenue granted permission public transit or any situation where people Congress. to over 3,400 business to be recognized as cannot maintain 6 feet of social distanc- People living in the country illegally essential entities, and denied more than ing, even if it is passing a person briefly are not eligible for any of that money, and 500 other companies who filed a similar on a wooded trail. The order takes effect advocates have been pushing for states to appeal during the coronavirus outbreak. Friday. fill in the gap. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay- The governor, who has himself eschewed Newsom announced that he would spend at-home order on March 27 had set a broad masks during his daily news briefings, $75 million of taxpayer money to create a definition of essential businesses, and the though he comes within six feet of his staff, Disaster Relief Fund for immigrants living ones that were granted appeal Wednesday said that there will initially be no civil pen- in the country illegally. were mostly listed in the original executive alties for noncompliance, but he’s urging Senate Republican Leader Shannon order, WRAL-TV reported. The permission merchants to enforce it among customers. Grove said that Newsom should spend the granted by the state’s revenue department Though hospitalizations from the out- money instead on food banks, equipment was a confirmation for most businesses, in- break have leveled off, New York officials for students to continue their education on- cluding landscapers, dog groomers, carpet are still trying to reduce the rising death line and local governments struggling with cleaners and many more. toll. New York recorded 752 deaths Tues- revenue losses. Others were not so lucky. Barber shops, day for a total of nearly 11,600 since the California has an estimated 2.2 million salons and a bounce house party rental outbreak began. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 13 VIRUS OUTBREAK New pressure on lawmakers as aid for firms hits limit

BY ANDREW TAYLOR McCarthy joined in, tweeting: Associated Press “Tell Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to STOP blocking critical WASHINGTON — With a key funding for small businesses. The coronavirus rescue fund now Paycheck Protection Program is exhausted, negotiations are ac- about to run out of money — mil- celerating in Washington over lions of jobs are hanging in the President Donald Trump’s $250 balance. Congress MUST ACT!” /AP MARK HUMPHREY billion emergency request to help With leaders unable to readily Worker Laura Burbank pushes a cart filled with food for a family through the pantry at GraceWorks smaller employers across the summon lawmakers to Washing- Ministries food pantry in Franklin, Tenn. country keep workers on their ton, the usual power dynamics payroll. are scrambled, especially in the Senate Minority Leader Chuck House. There, Minority Leader Schumer and Treasury Secre- McCarthy, for example, can sty- Pandemic provokes spike in tary Steven Mnuchin are in talks mie legislation more easily than if about legislation to shore up a members are present, and Pelosi, paycheck subsidy program. The D-Calif., cannot rule the House demand for US food pantries Small Business Administration with her typical tight grip. announced Thursday that it has At issue is a $350 billion pay- reached its $349 billion lending check protection program that’s limit and is no longer accepting a centerpiece of last month’s $2.2 BY TERESA M. WALKER to a recent survey. The average the program. applications. trillion rescue bill. The program AND ELANA SCHOR increase for a member was 63%, Wahlstrom, 70, has refused, but House and Senate Democratic gives grants to businesses with Associated Press while 95% of the association’s she said that she is taking precau- aides expect to launch another fewer than 500 workers so that food banks reported an increase tions, allowing only one person round of talks Thursday by phone FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Brook- they can maintain payroll and in operating expenses, the orga- inside at a time to select food off with Treasury officials about pay rent while shutting down lyn Dotson needed food. Her first nization said. the shelves while she wears a Democratic demands for addi- unemployment check had yet their businesses during social Congress included a significant mask and gloves. tional money for hospitals and distancing edicts. to arrive after she was let go by boost for emergency food assis- “I said, ‘If I get it, I get it,’” state and local governments. The program has been getting the warehouse where she used to tance in its coronavirus relief leg- Wahlstrom said. “I don’t have The outlook for the legislation is swamped by businesses applying work. islation, but Fitzgerald warned anybody at home dependent on unclear, and negotiators may not for loans and has reached its ap- So the 25-year-old Nashville that funding may take months to me. I said, ‘I got to keep it open.’ be able to meet a potential dead- propriations limit. Mnuchin said woman scrounged up some gas reach localities while food banks And I gave the volunteers all the line of a vote during Thursday that an additional $250 billion is money and drove 30 miles to contend with a flood of need in the options.” afternoon’s pro forma session. needed immediately. the GraceWorks Ministries food near term. The $100 million that At the Regional Food Bank of The Capitol is largely shut- But Democrats want money pantry in Franklin. There, at the billionaire Jeff Bezos pledged to Oklahoma, spokeswoman Cathy tered, requiring consensus from for hospitals burdened under pantry’s new drive-thru, workers the association on April 2 was al- Nestlen said that nearly 45,000 all sides for any legislation to COVID-19 caseloads and addi- wearing masks and gloves loaded ready being deployed last week, volunteers helped out last year. pass, and top GOP leaders are tional funding for states and local her van with about $350 worth of she said. This year, in order to adopt the vowing to stick closely to Trump’s governments straining as the groceries. “When people say what do you best practices for social distanc- request despite Democrats’ ad- economy slides into recession. “I don’t have any income com- need the most, we need food and ing to combat the virus, staffers ditional demands. Long-standing They also want to make sure ing in, I don’t get any food stamps, money,” said Nancy Kiel, presi- have stepped up to help. feuds and rivalries hang over the that the paycheck protection pro- so it’s just hard to get any help dent and CEO of Second Harvest Nestlen said that the bank, talks, including a toxic relation- gram is opened up more to busi- right now,” Dotson said while Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. which acts as a food distribution ship between House Speaker nesses that don’t have established waiting in line at GraceWorks. In addition to finding ways to center for hundreds of member Nancy Pelosi and Trump. relationships with banks that Food pantries stay busy even meet the spike in demand, food agencies, moved to a six-day But the unprecedented legis- have been accepting applications in the best of economic times; banks have had to devise cre- work week this month and would lative environment gives Demo- for rescue funding. the coronavirus pandemic has ative new ways to distribute ever consider moving to seven days a crats considerable influence, “We cannot allow the billions, prompted a spike in demand as greater amounts of food while week if demand called for it. even if their funding requests for hundreds of billions of dollars millions of people like Dotson keeping both recipients and their Oklahoma had ranked among hospitals and state and local gov- being spent to fight the horror of find themselves furloughed, laid staff safe from exposure to the the hungriest states in the nation ernments may have to be scaled the coronavirus and the impact off or with businesses that have coronavirus. before the coronavirus, Nestlen back significantly or dropped, at on our economy to further harden suffered huge financial blows. The San Francisco-Marin noted. least for now. Democrats blocked the disparity of the lack of access “About 50% of the people com- Food Bank in California has built “This pandemic on top of it a fast-track bid to pass the fund- to credit for so many in the small- ing through our lines have never “pop-up” pantries after some of just shines a light on how so ing last week, and Republicans business community,” Pelosi said been here before,” said Grace- its previous 275 or so sites had many households, not just in in turn stymied their efforts for Wednesday on CNN. She also re- Works president and CEO Valen- to stop operating during the pan- Oklahoma but around the coun- additional funding for other pri- iterated demands for “desperate cia A. Breckenridge. demic, spokeswoman Keely Hop- try, live paycheck to paycheck,” orities in a brief debate that was state and local governments” and Just as demand is skyrocketing, kins said. The new sites, many she said. “When a household be- mostly a messaging exercise. hospitals. however, many of the food banks’ of which are serving hundreds comes economically insecure, Majority Leader Mitch McCon- Pelosi is pressing to add mRe- sources are drying up. Restau- of people per day, stay open for they almost immediately become nell issued a joint statement with publicans are increasingly agitat- rants, hotels and resorts — many longer hours and use open spaces food-insecure.” top House Republican Kevin Mc- ing to help rural hospitals, while of which are shuttered or sharply such as parking lots to facilitate Food banks like Nestlen’s are Carthy of California urging quick Democrats are also keen to boost limiting their operations — are no social distancing, she added. realizing that the sharp increase funding for the payroll protec- aid to cash-strapped states and longer supplying them with food, Paid staffers are diving in at in demand could continue for tion program. The Senate is away local governments whose rev- while other suppliers are busy re- many food banks to stock, sort months, which she said makes from Washington through May enues have cratered. Aiding the stocking grocery shelves. Farm- and bag food for either delivery donations even more crucial. 4, though it convenes twice each states may be a stretch for now, ers have switched from shipping or drive-thru pickups, a measure For now, one thing is certain: week for pro forma sessions that however, as the issue can eas- vegetables and meats in bulk to that they realized was necessary Whatever food they do acquire is could be used to pass more coro- ily provoke fights between large, individual packaging for grocery to protect volunteers, many of flying off the shelves just as fast navirus aid — though only if no high-tax states like California and stores. whom are older and particularly as it arrives. senator objects. New York and smaller states more “It is a perfect storm scenario,” at risk for complications from the “The food’s coming in the Republicans amped up the typically run by Republicans. said Katie Fitzgerald, chief oper- virus. Second Harvest Food Bank back door, and it’s going right pressure for a “clean” extension Senate Democrats are already ating officer for Feeding Amer- of Middle Tennessee limits volun- out the front to the customers,“ of the paycheck program in state- eyeing the next coronavirus bill, ica, a nationwide association of teers to 10 per room to fill boxes. said Courtney Vrablik, executive ments Wednesday night. House proposing that it include $30 bil- 200 food banks and 60,000 food The board of the East Nashville director of The Store, a super- GOP Whip Steve Scalise said that lion for a comprehensive federal pantries. Cooperative Ministry has pro- market founded by singer Brad Democrats “need to stop holding plan to ramp up testing and its Feeding America has seen an posed closing because so many of Paisley and his wife last month in small businesses and workers supply chain for diagnostic mate- increase in demand from 98% its volunteers are elderly, includ- Nashville to provide free food for across America hostage to their rials, as well as the ability to trace of its member banks, according ing Judy Wahlstrom, who runs those in need. endless spending demands.” the spread of COVID-19. PAGE 14 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 NATION Trump threatens to bypass rules to get nominees

BY KEVIN FREKING and Senate. Such a disagreement AND LISA MASCARO does not now exist, nor is it likely Associated Press to arise. Constitutional scholar Jonathan WASHINGTON — Citing the Turley said on Twitter the Consti- coronavirus, Donald Trump is tution gives a president authority threatening unprecedented ac- in “extraordinary occasions” to tion — adjourning both houses of convene or adjourn Congress. Congress — to entice the Senate However, he said, “This power to approve more of his nominees. has never been used and should In recent years, Congress has not be used now.” ROBERT F. B UKATY/AP refused to fully adjourn during It would be an extraordinary most breaks precisely to prevent showdown between the two Wreckage smolders at the Androscoggin Mill after an explosion Wednesday in Jay, Maine. the president from making recess branches of government that appointments. Little or no busi- have engaged in repeated tests ness is conducted in such “pro- of constitutional powers in the forma sessions,” but they give Trump era. No injuries in paper mill blast members of both chambers of “The current practice of leav- Congress the chance to go back ing town while conducting phony Associated Press after the explosion showed exten- impact. home without going into recess. pro-forma sessions is a derelic- sive damage to the mill, which The explosion released a mix- It’s a process lawmakers also tion of duty that the American PORTLAND, Maine — An ex- employs about 500 people and ture of wood fiber, water and employed to thwart President plosion at a paper mill in Maine people cannot afford during this Barack Obama’s nominees. shook the ground Wednesday is a key piece of rural Maine’s chemicals, and the company is crisis,” Trump said Wednesday at Trump says he’s had enough and produced a plume of black economy. taking steps to restore order to the White House. and warns that he will seek to ad- smoke that was visible for miles Emergency responders rushed the mill site, Lassetter said. The Doug Andres, a spokesman for around, but it appeared no one to the mill, and the state fire mar- most important thing is no one journ both chambers of Congress Senate Majority Leader Mitch was injured. shal planned an investigation. was hurt, Lassetter said. if lawmakers don’t formally de- McConnell, said the senator The blast rocked the Andro- The cause wasn’t clear to investi- “It’s nothing short of a miracle, clare a proper recess. That way, talked with Trump and shared scoggin Mill in Jay, in central gators, and the investigation will and we are grateful,” Lassetter he could appoint some nominees his frustration about the pro- Maine, around noon, state police likely begin in earnest on Thurs- said. without the Senate’s approval. cess, but Andres also indicated spokesman Steve McCausland day, as the scene was still being Gov. Janet Mills urged resi- Trump said, “Perhaps it’s never the current rules regarding ad- said. Mill personnel told po- secured, police said. dents to stay far from the Jay been done before, nobody’s even journments will remain. He said lice no one was injured, though The explosion left significant scene. She also said during a sure if it has, but we’re going to McConnell “pledged to find ways some people suffered respiratory damage in the area of the mill’s news conference that the state is do it.” to confirm nominees considered distress. digester, which is used to process “breathing a deep sigh of relief” The Constitution does not spell mission-critical to the COVID-19 A rising cloud of smoke that raw materials. Mill spokesperson that the explosion wasn’t a bigger out a unilateral power for the pandemic. was recorded by a bystander was Roxie Lassetter said the company disaster. president to adjourn Congress. Under Senate rules, Andres followed by raining debris that was in the preliminary stages of “I just want to say, if ever there It states only that he can decide said, that will require consent made bullet-like noise as it struck assessing what happened and was a day when we should believe on adjournment if there is a dis- from Minority Leader Chuck cars in the area. Video recorded evaluating the environmental in miracles, today is it,” she said. pute over it between the House Schumer. Progressives weigh backing Biden to avoid second Trump win

BY SARA BURNETT posals intended to appeal to pro- electorate conducted before Sand- figure increased to 17%. In Mich- my supporters but to do every- AND WILL WEISSERT gressives and won endorsements ers dropped out of the race show igan, which flipped to support thing I can to bring the party to- Associated Press this week from Sanders and Mas- skepticism among his support- Trump in 2016 and is now a key gether to see that (Trump) is not sachusetts Sen. Elizabeth War- ers about Biden. Across 17 states 2020 battleground, 19% of Demo- elected president,” Sanders said. CHICAGO — When Bernie ren, another liberal rival during where the survey was conducted, cratic primary voters said their The future of the progressive Sanders didn’t win the Demo- the Democratic primary. 54% of Sanders backers said they vote in November depended on movement may rest with leaders cratic presidential nomination in But the tensions that have would be dissatisfied if Biden which candidate the party nomi- such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- 2016, Silvia Machado and Patrick weighed on Democrats for years were the nominee. Just 28% of all nated. That figure climbed to 26% Cortez. The New York Democrat Gibbons voted for Green Party aren’t suddenly evaporating. Democratic primary voters said among Sanders voters. has long said she would back the candidate Jill Stein in protest. While some voters are making the same. There are factors working in ultimate Democratic nominee. Four years later, the couple is a practical calculation to beat In the three states that voted on Biden’s favor. For one, he’s con- She told Politico on Wednes- still passionate about the Vermont Trump by supporting Biden, March 17 — Florida, Arizona and solidating support in the party day that she supports Biden “in senator’s progressive agenda. But Illinois — some Sanders support- other leaders of the movement much earlier than nominee Hill- solidarity with the families I they’re open to voting for the rel- are urging caution until Biden ers went further, vowing not to ary Clinton did in 2016. That represent.” atively centrist Joe Biden if that’s embraces priorities such as the support Biden. Thirteen percent year, Sanders waited until just Prospects for reconciliation what it takes to defeat President universal health care plan known said they would definitely not vote Donald Trump. as “Medicare for All.” for Biden, and an additional 10% before the party’s July conven- between Biden and progressives “It’s like hold your nose and “The Biden that exists now said they probably would not. tion to endorse Clinton. Warren may not all be bleak, however, vote,” said Gibbons, 59. will not get a lot of votes from A slim majority, 54%, indicated also waited until the primary was especially with the election still A week after Sanders’ exit left progressives currently inclined that they definitely would support over to back Clinton. more than six months away. Biden as the presumptive Demo- to not vote at all or to vote third the Democrat against Trump, In 2020, they are backing Biden Jorge Trejo-Ibarra, a Las Vegas cratic nominee, the former vice party,” said Norman Solomon, co- while 23% said they probably sooner, and more aggressively. high school senior who will turn president is working to win over founder of the activist organiza- would. Sanders told The Associated 18 in July, said he flirted with the voters such as Machado and Gib- tion Roots Action. “The only tool In Arizona, a state that Demo- Press on Tuesday that it would be idea of not backing Biden. But bons. The party is desperate to now to defeat Trump is Joe Biden, crats are hoping to flip in Novem- “irresponsible” for his support- with the economy largely shut- avoid a repeat of 2016 when ideo- and the only way to sharpen that ber, 8% of Democratic primary ers to sit back and see “the most tered amid the coronavirus out- logical divides helped Trump win tool is to move him in a more pro- voters overall said they would not dangerous president in modern break, he said he doesn’t think the White House. gressive direction.” vote for Biden in November. But American history” reelected. the U.S. can survive another four Biden has made a series of pro- AP VoteCast surveys of the among Sanders supporters, that “My job now is to not only rally years of Trump. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 15 Doom Eternal raises diffi culty level Video games, Page 20

Period of heartbreak, change culminates in bass virtuoso Thundercat’s brilliant fourth studio album, ‘It Is What It Is’

Music, Page 30

Movies — 17-19 Health — 21 Lifestyle — 28-29 Books — 33 Crossword — 36 PAGE 16 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: GADGETS & TECHNOLOGY GADGET WATCH Speaker has vintage look, modern sound and ports

BY GREGG ELLMAN Tribune News Service ith an attractive vin- tage look, Electro- home Birmingham’s Wretro Bluetooth speaker seeks to bring back the Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, shown era of mop tops and mullets from in May 2015 at Google’s offi ces in the golden age of rock ’n’ roll. I Washington, D.C., has been a driving force prefer to say it reminds me of a in developing key internet protocols. hi-fi stereo system my dad had

BILL O’LEARY/Washington Post long ago. While the look takes you back ELECTROHOME/TNS in time, the sound and features Electrohome Birmingham’s retro are up to date and forward Bluetooth speaker is hand- marching. It produces room-fi ll- crafted from engineered MDF ing sound from any play list or wood with a carrying handle built can stream any music service into the top. Built to withstand anything with a Bluetooth connection from your smartphone, tablet or In addition to the fi ngerprints, computer. you can use the Tapplock app The exterior is hand- to open the lock with Blue- The internet is working the way Cold War-era designers intended crafted from engineered tooth or with a combination MDF wood with a carrying used via Morse code. BY CRAIG TIMBERG Some credit goes to Comcast, Google and the handle built into the top. Through the app, you The Washington Post other giant, well-resourced corporations essential Producing the sound inside can remotely manage the to the internet’s operation today. But perhaps even are dual full-range 4-inch oronavirus knocked down — at least for Bluetooth access on any more goes to the seminal engineers and scientists woofers with an integrated a time — internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, other stored fi ngerprints. like Cerf, who for decades worked to create a par- amplifi er. who offers this refl ection on the experi- Specifi c dates and times ticular kind of global network — open, effi cient, To add to the vintage look, ence: “I don’t recommend it ... It’s very can be set, and access can C resilient and highly interoperable so anyone could controls for adjusting the debilitating.” be revoked. join and nobody needed to be in charge. music, power and volume But Cerf, 76 and now recovering in his northern The Tapplock Lite is built “They’re deservedly taking a bit of a moment are all knobs along the top of Virginia home, has better news to report about with a metal chassis and for a high fi ve right now,” said Jason Livingood, the front side of the speaker. the computer network he and others spent much a Comcast vice president who has briefed some an IP67 rating, making it of their lives creating. Despite some problems, the There’s also a 3.5 mm aux perfect for the outdoors since members of the internet’s founding generation input for a direct connection internet overall is handling unprecedented surges about how the company has been handling in- it can withstand being fully of demand as it helps keep a fractured world con- and USB charging port to submerged in water or even creased demands. connect your cable for device nected at a time of global catastrophe. Cerf was a driving force in developing key sweaty/wet fi ngerprints. “This basic architecture is 50 years old, and ev- charging. Inside is a rechargeable internet protocols in the 1970s, while working Working as a Bluetooth eryone is online,” Cerf noted in a video interview for Stanford University and, later, the Pentagon’s battery, good for 8 months over Google Hangouts, with a mix of triumph and speaker is the primary func- or 1,200 unlocks. The app Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, tion of the Birmingham, but wonder in his voice. “And the thing is not collaps- which provided key early research funding but shows the battery level and there’s an appealing feature ing.” ultimately relinquished control of the network it when it needs a charge. A for guitar players who want The internet, born as a Pentagon project during spawned. blinking light goes off on the to jam along. Since I have some of the chillier years of the Cold War, has “You’re seeing a success story right now,” said lock when the level is below zero musical talents, I taken such a central role in 21st century civilian David Clark, a Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 10 percent. One feature couldn’t try it, but if you’re society, culture and business that few pause any nology computer scientist who worked on early allows it to unlock with just a guitar player, you can longer to appreciate its wonders — except per- internet protocols, speaking by the videoconfer- an 8-second charge with plug into the built-in input haps, as in the past few weeks, when it becomes encing service Zoom. “If we didn’t have the inter- a portable battery, in the and customize the live even more central to our lives. net, we’d be in an incredibly different place right event the lock’s battery sound with the volume Many facets of human life — work, school, now. What if this had happened in the 1980s?” goes totally dead. and gain control. banking, shopping, fl irting, live music, govern- Such a system carries a notable cost in terms of Online: tapplock.com; Online: electrohome. ment services, chats with friends, calls to aging security and privacy, a fact the world rediscovers $39 each, 2-pack for $72 com; $149 parents — have moved online in this era of social every time there’s a major data breach, ransom- and a 3-pack is $105 distancing, all without breaking the network. It ware attack or controversy over the amount of Rather than having has groaned here and there, as anyone who has information governments and private companies Twelve South’s lim- to remember a combi- struggled through a glitchy video conference collect about anyone who’s online — a category ited edition AirBag for nation or have a key to knows, but it has not failed. that includes more than half of the world’s almost AirPods and AirPods open it, the Tapplock “Resiliency and redundancy are very much a 8 billion people. Pro will store, carry Lite uses your fi nger- part of the internet design,” explained Cerf. Some of the early internet architects — Cerf and protect the expen- print. Comcast, the nation’s largest source of residen- among them, from his position at the Pentagon sive earbuds in a The smart fi nger- tial internet, serving more than 26 million homes, — were determined to design a system that could unique style. print portable padlock reports that peak traffi c was up by nearly one continue operating through almost anything, The mini satchel opens in less than 1 third in March, with some areas reaching as high including a nuclear attack from the Soviets. bag can be worn second after being as 60% above normal. Demand for online voice, That’s one reason the system doesn’t have any over your shoulder, programmed with your video and VPN connections — all staples of re- preferred path from Point A to Point B. It continu- TWELVE SOUTH/TNS around your neck or fi ngerprint. You can mote work — have surged, and peak usage hours ously calculates and recalculates the best route, just take the leather AirBag for AirPods have shifted from evenings, when people typically and if something in the middle fails, the comput- store up to 100 fi nger- strap off to carry it and AirPods Pro stream video for entertainment, to daytime work ers that calculate transmission paths fi nd new prints for each lock, with the leather top hours. routes — without having to ask anyone’s permis- which are managed in handle or just carry But so far, internet industry offi cials report that sion to do so. the Tapplock app. it in a purse, pocket or backpack. they’ve been able to manage the shifting loads Steve Crocker, a networking pioneer like Cerf, Your AirPods will stay in the and surges. To a substantial extent, the network compared this quality to that of a sponge, an or- AirBag securely when closing has managed them automatically because its ganism whose functions are so widely distributed the front-sided metal snap but- underlying protocols adapt to shifting conditions, that breaking one part does not typically cause ton, which also allows wireless working around trouble spots to fi nd more effi - the entire organism to die. charging for the AirPods Pro. cient routes for data transmissions and managing “You can do damage to a portion of it, and the There’s also an opening for a glitches in a way that doesn’t break connections rest of it just lumbers forward,” Crocker said, also Lightning cable for charging. entirely. speaking by Zoom. The limited edition AirBag is made with full-grain leather and protects all sides of the AirPod TAPPLOCK/TNS case. ON THE COVER: Thundercat recently released his fourth studio album, “It Is What It Is.” The Tapplock Lite uses your Online: twelvesouth.com; Eddie Alcazar fi ngerprint as security. $49.99 Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 17 WEEKEND: MOVIES

NTARY COMME

COVID-19 could take a hammer to highly profi table movie genre

BY ALYSSA ROSENBERG The Washington Post he superhero movie formula is simple. Hero appears to be riding high, hero is temporarily humbled by supervillain, hero regains the advan- tage and saves the day. Now, the real world has delivered a twist: The Tcoronavirus pandemic makes these costumed heroes seem powerless. COVID-19 has forced studios to postpone the release of some of their most lucrative movies and halt production on future installments of these ongoing se- ries. Yet the threat the virus poses to superheroes isn’t limited to the immediate toll on the box offi ce. When theaters reopen, will the fantasy that a few span- dexed do-gooders can save us from disaster seem like a salve, or a sick joke?

This is a key question for Hollywood — or at least for its of Marvel’s anti-heroic trick- current business model — and it explains the industry’s stergod, Loki. Pathogens have reluctance to delay its spate of planned superhero movies slightly more in common with even as China’s movie theaters went dark and it became the cannon fodder in the armies clear the rest of the world would follow. that constantly seem to be invad- Given how profi table the superhero genre has proved to ing Earth in superhero movies, in be, and the extent to which the profi ts from these mov- that they are relentless, numerous ies underwrite the production of other, smaller movies, and basically anonymous. companies such as Disney were understandably reluc- But even then, viruses can’t tant to acknowledge the looming be Hulk-smashed into submission. They’re a different catastrophe. Delaying a movie, or After the kind of enemy, more threatening and frightening than shutting down a production that any of the fi ctional PG-13 threats superhero movies may employ hundreds of people, is recovery, will have offered us in recent years. And the skills and no small fi nancial sacrifi ce. Still, superheroes, values necessary to defeat them, including scientifi c as the realities of the coronavirus’ expertise, widespread community sacrifi ce and pa- spread and lethality became clear, Hollywood’s tience, aren’t the stuff of frenetic CGI spectacles. and as movie theaters shut their most reliable There are pandemic stories in superhero com- doors in the name of public health, breadwinners, ics that could be adapted for the screen, but even the studios retreated. those parallels aren’t exact. These diseases are the One question for Hollywood is still appeal creation of terrorists, or are personifi ed by charac- how soon theaters can reopen; a to the ters like Host, a mutant who can communicate with related issue is whether audiences pathogens, all of whom can be defeated by conven- will have the confi dence to sit in moviegoers tional superheroic methods. Even stories that end close proximity to strangers for an who once with genius superheroes fi nding cures might leave extended period of time. But there audiences feeling bitter: The idea of a scientist like is a deeper question, too: After loved them? the Beast fast-tracking vaccine development is less the recovery, will superheroes, a comforting fantasy than a reminder of a terrifying Hollywood’s most reliable breadwinners, still appeal to reality. the moviegoers who once loved them? Maybe superhero movies will retain a kind of nostal- Superheroes reliably come out on top in the movies in gic pleasure as a reminder of a time when our greatest part because they tend to face off with the same kind of enemies were a small number of imaginary individuals opponents over and over: brilliant individuals with dia- with murderous agendas who could be defeated with a bolical plans who fi nd a way to get a temporary drop on combination of detective work and force. But I suspect our costumed avengers before going down to ignomini- they’ll remind us of an innocence that is simply too ous defeat. Sure, some of those supervillains are big- much to bear. ger or badder than the norm — think Thanos’ desire to In “Watchmen,” Alan Moore’s revisionist superhe- eliminate half of all life in the universe. But at a certain ro comic, the disillusioned crimefi ghter Rorschach point, if the Avengers or the Justice League didn’t fi gure fantasizes about a day when ordinary people out how to beat the Red Skull or Lex Luthor, they’d will ask him for the help they have refused, hardly be worthy of their cowls and titles. and he’ll be able to punish them by rejecting Viruses are very different from supervillains. They them in turn. Faced with a pandemic, it’s not lack the ideological motivations that drive antagonists like so much that superheroes will look down on us General Zod, who squares off with Superman over their and whisper “No.” It’s that, sadly, they never had the iStock differences about how to treat humanity, or the charm power to save us in the fi rst place. PAGE 18 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: MOVIES

Sharing the journey Alan Yang’s ‘Tigertail’ is loosely based on his Taiwanese father’s immigration story

BY LINDSEY BAHR dream of my dad’s stories melded with Associated Press some Wong Kar-Wai and some Hou Hsiao- Hsien.” our years ago, when “Master of Thanks to “Master of None,” Yang had a None” co-creator Alan Yang start- pre-existing relationship with Ted Saran- ed writing a fi lm loosely based on dos, the streaming giant’s chief content Fhis Taiwanese father, Hollywood offi cer. So while it was easy to get the wasn’t exactly clamoring for Asian Ameri- script to him, anything beyond a read was Netflix photos can stories. “Crazy Rich Asians” had hardly a guarantee. not made more than $200 million, “The “It’s an art house-infl ected movie that’s A man (played by Lee Hong-chi, top right, and Tzi Ma, above left) refl ects on the lost Farewell” was only a almost entirely in Mandarin and Taiwan- love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America in “Tigertail,” “This American Life” ese and it features no Marvel stars,” Yang co-starring Kunjue Li, top left, and Fiona Fu, above right, and directed by Alan Yang. episode, and “Para- said with a laugh about its marketability. site” hadn’t yet swept But Sarandos didn’t need convincing: His brother was an architect in Hong Netfl ix had planned on having a the Oscars. It was a He loved the script and that was that. The Kong before their family immigrated to premiere and a simultaneous theatrical long shot that “Tiger- movie was a go. the United States, where his degree wasn’t release for “Tigertail” before theaters tail” would even get “I’m incredibly grateful to Netfl ix for recognized. shuttered due to coronavirus. Yang said he made, let alone with taking a chance and allowing us to make “Basically, in the ’60s there were two was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t a partner like Netfl ix, the movie in the way we saw fi t,” Yang businesses we could get into as Asian be able to celebrate with everyone who where it is currently said. That included shooting the past on Americans, Chinese Americans in par- worked on it, but that there are discussions available to stream. 16mm fi lm to give it a dreamier feel and ticular: Restaurants and laundry,” Ma to hold some select screenings down the “This was a crazy, the present on digital. said. “So we bought a restaurant on Staten line and maybe even a make-up premiere. Yang crazy choice on my Yang cast Chinese-American actor Tzi Island and he became the cook.” It also means he won’t even be able to part to write a movie Ma to play Pin-Jui (also called Grover) in When they moved, Ma remembers a watch it with his family. with no white people in it,” said Yang from the present day. Ma, who recently played distinct change in his brother, who was “I just told my family, this movie is a his home in Los Angeles. “This is the only a version of fi lmmaker Lulu Wang’s father once so vibrant and full of life. love letter to you guys, and please don’t movie I know that starts in Taiwan, seg- in “The Farewell,” knew that his charac- Actress Christine Ko, who plays his take offense at anything,” Yang said. ues into Mandarin and ends in English.” ter was inspired by Yang’s father, but said grown daughter, Angela, in the present- Even though things are strange right But he carried on, winnowing down that’s where the similarities end. day scenes, had a similarly personal con- now, everyone is excited to be working in the 250-page odyssey to something more “The fi rst thing Alan told me was his nection to the material. this moment where Asian American fi lms focused: A story about a Taiwanese man dad was a doctor,” Ma said. “Already I “It felt like therapy for me, two years of are having such mainstream success. named Pin-Jui who leaves his great love know this is a huge departure. (Pin-Jui) is therapy,” Ko said. “I grew up in a home “For the fi rst time it feels like we have for an arranged marriage and a new life [a] common man. This is a common man’s that was a little more strict and wasn’t as solid footing, whereas in the past it always in America. It splits between his life as a journey.” emotionally forthcoming with discussions felt like we’re the fl avor of the month,” Ma young man in the 1960s and the present Regardless, Ma knew just who this of feelings and all that, so I felt like I could said. “The talent has always been there; day with his now-grown daughter. character was. “This character is modeled really relate to the distance that Angela they’ve just not had the opportunity to Yang has described it as his “fever after my brother,” Ma said. has with her father.” show the world how wonderful they are.” Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 19 WEEKEND: MOVIES ‘Tigertail’ an affecting intergenerational story

BY GLENN WHIPP But when we see Pin-Jui as a carefree Los Angeles Times young man (a charming Lee Hong-chi), he’s far from a tortured soul. Yes, he’s n the opening 10 minutes of his af- impoverished, working in a sugar factory fecting new fi lm “Tigertail,” writer- and living with his mother (Kuei-Mei director Alan Yang introduces us to Yang). But he’s also a good dancer, picking Ithe movie’s central character, Pin- up his technique from watching American Jui, in three stages of his life — as a young movies, and he’s enjoying romancing the boy, a fl edgling adult and, fi nally, a retiree beautiful Yuan (Yo-Hsing Fang) with his — asking viewers to reconcile how a once- impetuousness and impeccable apprecia- vital human could have turned so inward tion for music. (Who could resist Yao Su that he now leads a life that amounts to Rong?) solitary confi nement. Because Yang himself possesses dis- It’s a mystery that Yang reveals me- criminating taste (the music choices on thodically, purposefully, building toward “Master of None” were consistently wide- a moving resolution that could prompt a ranging and inspired), the scenes between few parents to share life stories with their Yuan and Pin-Jui owe a certain debt to adult children. I mean, we’ve got the time Wong Kar-wai, boasting a restrained right now, don’t we? And since “Tigertail” sensuality tinged with sadness. And be- is streaming on Netfl ix, you don’t have to cause we’ve already glimpsed the graying be sheltering in the same home to partake. Pin-Jui, fl abby and stoic, we know, like the Set up a Zoom meeting for an after-movie entanglements in Wong’s masterpieces, heart-to-heart. Just remember to keep a this particular story doesn’t have a happy box of tissues within reach. ending. “Tigertail” examines those unspoken But there are a few stories in “Tiger- family stories and, specifi cally, serves as a tail.” I haven’t even mentioned the one nuanced look at the Taiwanese immigrant Netflix that brings Pin-Jui to America, as its experience — the sacrifi ces, the loneliness revelations are best left to be discovered. and the sheer exhaustion that can break A Taiwanese factory worker (Lee Hong-chi, right) leaves his homeland to seek (Another surprise: Joan Chen’s in this people and leave them unrecognizable. opportunity in America, where he struggles to fi nd connection while balancing family movie, appearing memorably toward The heart of Yang’s fi lm — his fea- and newfound responsibilities in “Tigertail,” co-starring Kunjue Li, left. the end.) Most of the fi lm’s episodes and ture debut after co-creating the vibrant characters are fully realized, save for Netfl ix comedy series “Master of None” of conversation, but her father’s willful as Yang takes us on that journey with him, Angela’s, whose personal upheavals are and Amazon’s underrated marriage story impenetrability. “Maybe it’s easier if we he also offers a low-key lesson for redemp- only broadly sketched. Her journey is tied show “Forever” — is the relationship just stopped trying,” she tells him. tion — examine the past to escape regret. to her father’s, separate lives longing for between the adult Pin-Jui (played by the Certainly, the notion of the emotionally Pin-Jui’s history in Taiwan is steeped in a mutual understanding that eventually, great Tzi Ma) and his grown daughter, distant Asian father has been mined in loss, resulting in tears, which bring about fi ttingly, begins and ends in silence. Angela (Christine Ko). Or, to be more spe- movies. What distinguishes “Tigertail” is familial reprimands. “Crying never solves cifi c, the absence of a relationship. Their the way Yang explores Pin-Jui’s earlier anything,” his grandmother (Li-li Pan) “Tigertail” is rated PG for some thematic elements, language, smoking and brief sensu- time together is marked by pained silence. life as a means of showing how duty and tells him. “Be strong. Never let anyone see ality. Running time: 91 minutes. Available for What wounds Angela is not just the lack obligation brought him to that place. And you cry.” streaming on Netflix.

‘Trolls World Tour’ a candy-colored battle of the bands

BY JAKE COYLE Associated Press Music snobbery is making a comeback. On the heels of the excellent serial remake of “High Fidelity,” about a tasteful Brooklyn record store owner, comes “Trolls World Tour,” in which different pixie clans each represent- ing a music genre vie for sonic domination. Both are quaint in their own way, pretending that our musical borders didn’t years ago disintegrate into a digital soup. “Trolls World Tour,” a sequel to the 2016 DreamWorks original, had been planned for the- atrical release before the coronavirus pandemic. On April 10, Universal Pictures instead released it straight into the home, as a $19.99 digital rental — a rare breaking of the theatrical release window by a major studio. Universal Pictures photos That makes “Trolls World Tour” a kind of trial bal- Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick, left), and Queen Barb (voiced loon, albeit a very glittery one. Is it worth it? That may by Rachel Bloom) appear in a scene from “Trolls World Tour.” depend on just how bored your housebound kids are. It is, at least, a shiny new object when there are few about. It’s the Rock Trolls that start the trouble in “World Tour.” Directed by Walt Dohrn and David P. Smith, “Trolls Their leader, Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom), sets out to dominate World Tour” is a sped-up version of the jukebox musi- the other groups. Armed with heavy-metal power chords and cal. It runs through so many songs that it might be better Metallica-esque bombast, Queen Barb plots a rock reign to called a Spotify musical, with infi nite skips. drown out the other styles. Both “Trolls” movies can be hard to look at. They’re so The plot gives “World Tour” an opportunity to cycle through garishly colored that I’d recommend dimming your TV countless hits, and it does this so speedily that the fi lm often set. But when they’re not too loud and you’ve suffi ciently feels less like a story than an impatient, candy-colored battle of shielded your eyes, their sugary highs are pleasant the bands. When it slows down, and allows more than a snippet enough and occasionally tuneful. An animated movie can of a song, “Trolls World Tour” is more enjoyable. There’s a good do worse than indoctrinate another generation to the joys hip-hop interlude and a fi ne Kelly Clarkson country ballad. of Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September.” Both “Trolls” movies exuberantly exalt the glories of diversity, In “World Tour,” our original clan, including Poppy and maybe some young ones will get a decent primer on a musi- (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake), discover cal landscape far more vast than Kidz Bop. But “World Tour” a wider world of trolls. The trolls we know believe in the can also sound like a bad Grammy medley that puts every genre power of pop, but it turns out there are others out there de- into a blender until all the taste is wrung out. voted to techno, classical, country, funk and rock. There are “Trolls World Tour” is rated PG for some mild rude humor. Running time: 94 even other pockets they fi nd along the way, too, including minutes. Available for streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu those for hip-hop, Reggaeton and even dedicated yodelers. and other platforms. PAGE 20 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: VIDEO GAMES New game network Bethesda Softworks to launch during quarantine downtime Launching a television startup at any time is not easy. Launch- ing one during a pandemic? You might as well attempt a crossbow elimination while searching for the hidden gnome in Fortnite. Yet that’s what the founders of VENN, a videogame television network that aspires to be MTV for the gamer generation, are at- tempting. The company’s leaders say they will move up a planned launch of their service from September to July because more Americans are staying home and playing video games while under quarantine. “In terms of timing, we think our audience needs this now more than ever,” said Ben Kusin, one of VENN’s co-founders. VENN raised $17 million last year from videogame power- brokers, including executives at Riot and Blizzard Entertain- ment. Kusin, a former executive PREPARE TO at Vivendi Games and the son of GameStop founder Gary Kusin, teamed up with Ariel Horn, who produces televised esports, to form the company. The network, which stands for Videogame Entertainment RAZE HELL & News Network, aims to fi ll the space between Twitch and other online platforms that largely stream game-play and the mainstream television networks that rarely cover gamer culture Doom Eternal staves off another demonic attack — basically, it’s polished TV con- tent for consumers more likely to fi re up Call of Duty than “Better with more content, crushingly hard diffi culty level Call Saul.” The VENN executives are BY CHRISTOPHER BYRD and, structurally speaking, the priorities hyper-effi cient game than an inspired one terming the launch a “beta.” Special to The Washington Post appear to be different. Whereas the last (apart from its music, composed by Mick The July debut, they say, will game seemed to be in a hurry to show off Gordon, which is as dark and propulsive as be scaled down — some 35 ost of the time when playing how vigorous it could be (who can forget the last game’s soundtrack). Whereas Doom programming hours per week Doom Eternal, I hover be- the moment where the Doom Slayer rips a shook up the series and resuscitated my compared to the 55 that had been tween life and death. During computer terminal off a wall to shut up the fondness for over-the-top, rip-a demon’s- planned for September. And those moments, I am both dude offering a bit of story exposition?), the head-off-with-your-hands FPS violence, this while no shows have been cre- predator and prey. new game is slower to show its hand and the feels like more of the same but with larger ated as a result of the pandemic, MDashing around the map, I do my best narrative jolts take a little longer to arrive. levels and more diffi culty. founders say they have had to to avoid the mancubus, an obese demon Eternal’s opening stages seem much The new frills are nice — such as the lean into the parts of their pro- with cannons for arms that is particularly harder than those I remember from the last Slayer Dungeon where you can go hog wild gramming slate that can be more deadly when encountered in pairs or trios. game. But it’s as though they serve to bring and sharpen your skills by shooting de- easily produced at this time. If I’m low on health, I the player quickly up to speed on the stra- mons without the threat of dying, or Slayer So a docuseries with overseas search frantically for a tegic thinking required to tackle the game’s Gates where you can face off against harder shoots? Shelved. A late-night scrubby zombie, soldier greater challenges. Looking back on them, enemies. But they have not yet convinced show or content featuring gam- or gargoyle that I can it was almost as if they exist as a training me that they make for a qualitative improve- ers and infl uencers? More likely. drop with a few shots “We know it’s not easy to do ground. ment. for health, or broil with everything we want to do,” Horn After a short intro sets the stage for a de- One aspect of Eternal I’ve found baf- an over-the-shoulder said. “But we can be on our monic invasion of Earth, players fi nd them- fl ing are its platforming sections, which are fl ame cannon for armor, heels, or we can be proactive.” selves in a nondescript dungeon that evokes annoying, generic and, frankly, unbefi tting or chainsaw in half for the muddy-colored past of old video games. The partners have long felt of the Doom Slayer, who should be able to some ammo. Because it (The environments become more colorful that gaming, a $150 billion move between areas in greater style. Why it demands concentration later.) From there, Eternal slowly rolls out business, is ripe for a full-time was thought that I might enjoy interludes of this lurid routine has its many systems — introducing such things television network. The most climbing, double jumping and air dashing provided some measure as weapon mods that can be swiped in the prominent effort to date, a mid- of escape for me over the past few days. heat of battle so that, for example, a shotgun to get from place to place when these things 2000’s channel called G4, was Doom (2016) ranks among my top three can be turned into a fully automatic weapon have been done much better in other games, niche and short-lived shooters of this generation. (For me, its or turned into a secondary grenade launch- I’ll never know. But Doom Eternal feels But VENN executives point competition for the top slot is either another er. Pointers are also given on the weak spots like a game that was constructed around to the recent spike in gaming game published by Bethesda, Machine- of the game’s tougher cast of characters pillars rather than guided by vision. If the popularity — many Americans Games’ Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus or — the ones who don’t look as if they can be last game seemed shockingly good, this feels are playing more while under Superhot, for which I’ll cheat and say both easy health sources. like a careful study of what worked before. lockdown because of COVID-19 the regular and VR versions.) Nearly ev- The pacing of the encounters in Eternal This isn’t to say that Eternal’s combat — as a particular reason their erything about the 2016 game felt inspired, reminded me of its predecessor. Both love to isn’t satisfying. Far from it. If you want to service fi lls a need. Activision from its archly told story to its frantic gun- do things such as introduce a new, diffi cult appreciate just how well animated the game Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Warzone play, which encourages on-the-fl y strategiz- enemy-types and then present you with an is, turn down the music and throw on an brought in 30 million players in ing. On the higher diffi culty levels, if you escalating number of them to face. It didn’t album by someone you like. With all respect 10 days, according to the com- couldn’t quickly read the combat fi eld and take long for my muscle memory to get used to Eternal’s wonderful electronic/indus- pany, while Nintendo’s Animal prioritize targets, you likely wouldn’t make to shooting grenades into the toothy maws of trial/metal soundtrack, I fi nd its fantastical Crossing: New Horizons last it very far. I remember the game being more cacodemons or popping the shoulder canons violence a wonderful backdrop to the music month generated sales of nearly cerebral than I had any right to expect from off revenants. But the battles feel more of, say, Billie Eilish. 2 million copies in its fi rst three the poster child for a AAA shooter. If any- grueling. There were times where I found Doom Eternal is a challenging, engag- days in Japan as gamers sought thing, Doom Eternal is even more mentally it useful to pause the game after an intense ing shooter that caters to one’s predatorial to build a perfect oasis — in-uni- taxing. moment, before another intense moment, to impulses. It will keep you on your toes. verse if not in the real world. Eternal opens more with a whisper than settle my composure before diving back in. Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One — Steven Zeitchik a bang in comparison to the last entry Eternal has, so far, struck me more as a Online: bethesda.net/en/game/doom The Washington Post Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 21 WEEKEND: HEALTH & FITNESS

iStock Late-night pandemic illusions You’re not imagining it: We’re all having intense coronavirus dreams

BY RACHEL SCHNALZER Los Angeles Times hat do a tidal wave, a lethal injection and Wmasses of thin white worms have in common? They are all images that have cropped up in dreams people are having about the coronavirus pandemic.

Many people are reporting more vivid sects. And while many are experiencing up inside. pointing out that dreams can indicate dreams while self-quarantining, taking to wilder dreams, doctors and nurses may “Dream recall is very correlated with feelings that are repressed during waking social media to comment on the phenome- be experiencing the phenomenon more how many hours of sleep you get, and life. For someone who is experiencing non. Take a moment to think back on your intensely than others. “It’s my informal most of America runs around pretty more anxious dreams while in quarantine, dreams over the past few weeks. Have impression that health care providers are sleep-deprived,” Barrett explains, adding Barrett posits, “They may be more scared they seemed a little more intense — or having more extreme nightmares,” Bar- that if you’ve been sleep-deprived and are (of the coronavirus pandemic) than they upsetting — than usual? rett explains. only now catching up on sleep, you may think.” “I feel pain in my right shoulder, and But why are people dreaming so vividly be experiencing more intense dreams. Many experts recommend journaling see a huge grasshopper-like insect there. during the pandemic? Dreams occur during our REM cycles, as a helpful way to refl ect on and learn It has already chewed through the fabric First of all, changes in one’s routine can and the more REM sleep we get in a night, from our dreams. Barrett, a proponent of of my sweater and is now gouging my stir up dream recall, explains Barrett. the more dreams we typically experience. dream journaling, explains, “We forget fl esh,” one respondent described in a “When waking life is more vivid, so is As your night of sleep progresses, your dreams so easily that writing them down dream survey currently underway and dream life,” agrees Rubin Naiman, Ph.D., REM cycles get longer. That’s why we do helps us continue to relate to them longer. conducted by Deirdre Leigh Barrett, a psychologist, clinical assistant profes- most of our dreaming in the latter third of You just see another side to yourself.” Ph.D., author of “The Committee of Sleep: sor of medicine and the sleep and dream the night, Naiman says. She recommends looking for patterns in How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use specialist at the University of Arizona. It’s also possible that people may be dreams and keeping tabs on any themes Their Dreams for Creative Problem Solv- “My patients routinely increase dreaming dreaming more about aspects of life they that come up regularly. Barrett isn’t fussy ing — and How You Can Too” and an as- at times like this.” miss while in quarantine. Barrett has no- about how people dream journal, saying sistant professor of psychology at Harvard Naiman draws a parallel between the ticed a parallel between dreams about the that while some people may enjoy keeping Medical School’s psychiatry department. gut, which decides what food we consume coronavirus pandemic and dreams had by Barrett supports the idea that people is useful and what is waste, and the brain, a group of British soldiers imprisoned in a old-fashioned logs of their dreams, others are remembering more vivid dreams which similarly consumes and processes Nazi prisoner-of-war camp during World may fi nd dictating to a smartphone easier while in quarantine and is currently information throughout the day. When War II. The soldiers’ dreams included ele- and less time-intensive. studying dreams that people are having we observe something normal, our brains ments of yearning for things they couldn’t For those who have trouble remember- about the coronavirus pandemic. That’s don’t need to “digest” it, he says. However, have or enjoy while detained. “They had ing their dreams, Naiman suggests, “The where the tidal wave, lethal injection and when something out of the ordinary hap- more food content (in their dreams) than fi rst step to remembering a dream is to worms imagery originated — they all pens — like a pandemic — our brains may any other sample I’ve ever seen,” Barrett linger in grogginess.” Upon waking, keep surfaced in the dreams of people respond- process the experience through dreaming. explains. In her current dream survey, your eyes closed and wait for the memo- ing to her survey. “I’ve seen a lot of bug That’s why “diffi cult-to-digest” experienc- she has noticed some respondents are ries of the dream to resurface. Then write dreams,” Barrett says. es may give us dreams, Naiman explains. dreaming about foods they aren’t able to your recollections of the dream down In Barrett’s survey, respondents have “At a time like this, we’re all directly or have in quarantine. — or draw, if that feels more natural, reported dreams that are clearly related symbolically digesting information about So, can we learn anything from the Naiman says. He encourages dreamers to the coronavirus — contracting the the threat, about contagion,” he says. dreams we experience during the corona- to recognize that the waking world and illness themselves, or having an aging Another major reason why we’re virus crisis? the dream world are connected, saying, parent become sick. Others are more dreaming like crazy? Many of us are get- “Sometimes you can get a practical, “Bridge whatever memory you have of the metaphorical, like dreams about in- ting more sleep than usual while cooped useful idea,” Barrett suggests, while also dream into the waking world.” PAGE 22 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: TRAVEL Europe Travel journaling can help you relive every detail

hen I travel, I make it a habit your immediate surroundings or focusing to collect only one thing: on a specifi c interaction you’ve had with memories. The most trea- a local. Wsured keepsake of any trip Leave out the boring stuff. Ten years I take is the journal I bring home, fi lled from now, you won’t feel the need to recall with descriptions and observations of the the mediocre meal you grabbed at that people I’ve met, the places I’ve seen and cafe or the quality of the hotel’s compli- the experiences I’ve had. mentary breakfast. You want to include Thinking back, it seems I’ve always had details that capture a desire to capture my discoveries and the character of a eureka moments in a journal. On my fi rst place as well as your trip to Europe, as a 14-year-old, I collect- personal response. ed and logged my experiences in a fi le of Throw in sketches, a hundred postcards, each numbered and mementos, little paper packed with my notes. souvenirs like maps Thereafter, every trip I took inspired and old tickets — any- my passion for fi lling up an empty journal, thing that takes you even when I was just a footloose vagabond back to that moment. with no career goals. But with practice, I Rick Steves Some of the fun of became a keen and disciplined journaler. writing is choosing I now have a set routine: On the fl ight a journal. I prefer a minimalist design: over to Europe, I make a personal inven- light, yet with stiff enough covers to give tory of my mindset and my hopes for the me something solid to write on in the trip; on the plane ride home, I write with a absence of a table. I like invitingly empty similarly introspective wrap-up. And each pages — no extra decorative frills or Rick Steves night in between, I don’t drift off to sleep verbose doodads. I write in black ink or before cataloging my day’s experiences, a mechanical pencil, allowing my simple Postcards, such as this card Rick Steves sent from Greece to a friend back home in discoveries and thoughts into that book. words to be the focus. Consider a bound 1973, can be a wonderful record of a memorable trip. Without capturing your thoughts on book; spiral notebooks tend to fall apart. paper (or on your laptop or tablet), the les- After your trip, a bound book can become come. And in stillness, they entertained. ries and revisit a cherished location for sons of travel are like shooting stars you a classic on your bookshelf. After being alone with that private stone the rest of my life. Enjoy the physical act just missed ... and butterfl ies you thought The key to good journaling is being ob- circle, the more famous Stonehenge of putting pen to paper, and gathering you saw. Collecting intimate details on the servant and disciplined ... to take the time — with its barbed wire, tour buses and new experiences, lessons, thoughts and road, and then distilling them into your to notice what you’re noticing. Hiking port-a-loos — won’t quite make it.” feelings while they are fresh and vibrant. journal, sharpens your ability to observe deep into a misty English moor as a teen- It was on the boat to France the next Travel brings new color to your life, and and creates a keepsake you’ll always cher- age traveler, I wrote, “Long-haired goats day that I worked on those rough notes. journaling lets you stand back to under- ish. and sheep seem to gnaw on grass in their And it was then that I realized what I stand and enjoy the art as it unfolds. You don’t have to give a chronologi- sleep. We were lost in a world of green, wanted to do for a living: fi nding hidden cal account of your journey. In fact, you wind, white rocks and birds — birds sing- bits of Europe and bringing them home Rick Steves (ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on pub- probably shouldn’t. Consider just sitting ing, but unseen. Then we found the stones, through my writing. lic television and public radio. Email him at rick@ somewhere interesting and writing about standing in a circle as if waiting for us to With my notes, I can stoke my memo- ricksteves.com and follow his blog on Facebook. TOP TRAVEL PICKS

Marvelous mountain huts the lake to the red-domed St. Bartholoma pilgrimage church When things get back to nor- and then hiking for approxi- mal, what will you do fi rst? Revel mately four hours. The simplest in the midst of thousands at your accommodation, a mattress in a favorite fest, or seek out dis- large common space, goes for 13 tant horizons for more solitary euros for DAV members and 26 pursuits? The latter might be a euros for nonmembers. Guests better way to ease back into the can order from a standard menu workings of society as we once from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., or book a knew it. half-pension package with eve- Those craving exploration of Karen Bradbury ning meal included. Breakfasts heretofore uncharted territories and lunches to go are also avail- could do well to head into the Read more about things to do able. Reservations are essential; hills — or, better yet, mountains. in the Europe Traveler blog: While a fi ve-star resort in the the place is so popular, it’s mostly stripes.com/blogs/europe-traveler booked for the summer of 2020 Swiss Alps could make a wel- MCT come base for exploration, you already. Online: kaerlingerhaus. certainly don’t need all those and serve hot meals made from de Hikers walk in the Dolomite peaks that surround Cortina, Italy. For bells and whistles to enjoy a few regional produce. Most beds The Meilerhuette is a much views like this, consider staying in one of the region’s rifugios. good days of hiking. What you do are located in common rooms, smaller hut in the Wetterstein need is a hearty meal and a place although some do offer space mountain range offering lodg- welcoming mountain huts range with bunk beds. Hot showers are to lay your weary head. Here we for small groups or families. At ing for up to 80 guests at a time from bare-bones accommoda- available at a surcharge. A bed in explore just a few of the accom- the most remote huts, the model from mid-June through early tion to others more akin to hotels. one of the dorms and breakfast modations open to hikers. is self-service, and hikers must October. A popular starting point This being Italy, food plays a the next day will set a guest back The Deutscher Alpenverein make do with the provisions is Garmisch-Partenkirchen, central role, and most places will 48 euros. Online: rifugiolagazuoi. (DAV), or German Alpine Club, they’ve carried in themselves. from which hikers capable of this offer hearty traditional cuisine com bills itself as the world’s largest To illustrate the variety of strenuous workout will traverse refl ecting the tastes of the re- Those after something much climbing association. This one accommodations available, let’s the Partnach Gorge and pass gion, from pumpkin-fi lled ravioli more rustic may wish to make million-plus member organiza- contrast two facilities at either King Ludwig II’s hunting lodge. to canederli dumplings. way to the Rifugio San Marco tion is open to all willing to pay end of the scale: Overnight stays cost 19 euros The Rifugio Lagazuoi in Cor- in San Vito de Cadore. This its modest annual membership The Kaerlingerhaus am for nonmembers and 9 euros for tina d’Ampezzo gets high marks hut with many of the original fees of 45 to 90 euros, depending Funtensee is a hut located at DAV members. Online: alpenv- for the extraordinary 360-degree features dating back from its on the “section” you join; gener- a 5,375-foot elevation in the erein-gapa.de/berghuetten/mei- panoramic views from its terrace construction in 1895 makes a ally the one closest to where you Berchtesgaden National Park. lerhuette.html and simple but clean sleeping great starting point for explora- live. Members enjoy discounts at The large facility is capable of For general info on the Ger- spaces. While die-hard hikers tion of the Antelao, Sorapiss and stays in more than 2,000 moun- sheltering about 200 outdoor man Alpine Club: alpenverein.de might be put off by the fact that it Marmarole mountain groups tain huts in Germany and other enthusiasts per night during its Italy’s Dolomites are regarded can be reached by the masses by or hikes along Dolomite High Alpine nations including Austria, June through October operating as some of the most beautiful means of a cable car, others will Routes 3, 4 and 5 and along the France, Italy, Liechtenstein and season and makes an ideal jump- mountains on earth . appreciate the leg up it gives for famed Via Ferrata. The family- Switzerland. ing-off point for half-day walks To experience the singular the next day’s hiking opportuni- run hut is open from mid-June Nonmembers as well can make or more strenuous tours lasting beauty of this range in north- ties. The summer season gener- through mid-September. Guests use of many of the DAV’s 323 several days. A popular way to ern Italy, consider spending the ally runs from early June to rave about its home-cooked food huts countrywide, many of which reach it is by parking by the Koe- night in one of the region’s many mid-October. Overnight options and outdoor shower with a view. are looked after by on-site hosts nigssee, taking the ferry across rifugios. The amenities at these include private rooms or dorms Online: rifugiosanmarco.com Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 23 WEEKEND: FOOD & DINING Europe KNOW & GO HUNT BROTHERS PIZZA Address: Building 600, 92655 Grafenwoehr Hours: Monday-Sunday, 5 a.m.-10 p.m., subject to change. Takeout available. Prices: Between $2.89 and $9.99 Menu: English Phone: +49 09641 9363400 RESTAURANTE DA PEPPINO Address: Neue Amberger Str. 181, 92655 Grafen- woehr Hours: Closed Monday; Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Take- out available. Prices: Between 7 and 18 euros Menu: German and English Phone: +49 09641 454054 — Immanuel Johnson

Left: Restaurante Da Peppino, located just off-post from the Grafenwoehr, Germany, training area, is open for takeout, offering pizza like spinach and ham, inset, and other dishes. Below: The Hunt Brothers Pizza kiosk is located inside the Grafenwoehr Shoppette Express with choices like the sausage and the loaded slices, inset .

PHOTOS BY IMMANUEL JOHNSON Stars and Stripes Crusty challenge Hunt Brothers Pizza and Da Peppino will both satisfy your hunger, but one is clearly better

BY IMMANUEL JOHNSON pizza, which had pepperoni, Stars and Stripes green peppers, black olives, banana peppers, onions, mush- he takeout choices are rooms, cheese and ham. At limited right now for the Peppino, I went for a ham and thousands of soldiers spinach pizza. Tand others at the Grafen- Was it a fair contest between woehr Training Area in Bavaria, Peppino’s wood-fi red oven pizza even for a pizza. and Hunt Brothers’ pizza that For those restricted to Grafen- had been sitting under a lamp? woehr, the simple choice is Probably not, but hey, I was Hunt Brothers, an addition over hungry. the past year to several bases The Peppino pizza’s fl avors in Germany. Off post, there’s all came through, with a good Restaurante Da Peppino, a local balance between the toppings, mainstay since 2009. cheese, tomato and bread. The Hunt Brothers pizza has loaded Hunt Brothers slice was convenience going for it — it’s in the shoppette, it’s open most just too much grease. The sau- of the day and there’s a respect- sage and bacon pizza didn’t have able variety. If you’re not that its toppings falling off and was hungry, they sell slices, as well the better of the Hunt Brothers as “hunks” that equal 2-3 slices. options. Da Peppino has only 13-inch The winner on taste and pre- and 16-inch offerings, but they’re sentation? Da Peppino. If you’re also a full-service restaurant short on cash or hungry at odd with pasta, salmon, schnitzel and hours, Hunt Brothers satisfi es a most of the regular dishes you’re craving, and they do make made- likely to fi nd at an Italian spot to-order pizzas as well. in Germany. But in this case, Da Peppino also offers either a I stuck to pizza for the sake of free soft drink or bottle of wine comparison. for orders over 35 euros, accord- At Hunt Brothers, I tried a ing to their takeout menu. slice of the sausage and bacon, [email protected] and another of the “loaded” Twitter: Manny_Stripes PAGE 24 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: QUICK TRIPS Europe

ON THE QT

Take a hike

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER H. SVAN/Stars and Stripes A trail traverses the woods behind the Seewoog in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany. The path is an easy loop starting and ending at the Seewoog. In the woods near Ramstein, you can feed the deer and grab a pizza

BY JENNIFER H. SVAN Ramstein-Miesenbach. The interaction was a nice diversion from Stars and Stripes Walking northeast toward Mackenbach, we being cooped up at home. After circling followed a dirt path that crosses a meadow around the deer reserve, we headed back to- ith movie theaters, outdoor cafes, and leads into the woods. Right before the ward the Seewoog and explored another trail, parks, shops and swimming trail makes a long uphill climb, we took a this one in the direction of Kusel. pools closed in Germany during path to the left and found something unex- We covered about fi ve miles but with more Wthe coronavirus pandemic, the pected: Deer that live in an enclosed meadow time, or a bicycle, we could have done a lot great outdoors beckons. in what looks to be a small animal reserve. more. The trail from the Seewoog to Kusel is But coronavirus restrictions on Defense There were more than a half-dozen deer, nearly 17 miles, and to Weilerbach, it’s just Department personnel in Germany limit grazing and sitting in the dirt. Some were over four miles. We saw serious hikers walk- the distance you can go in pursuit of outdoor completely white, and one had antlers. A deer ing briskly with trekking poles, and people adventure to less than a 20-mile radius from harem, perhaps? on bikes, walking their dogs or riding horses. your home. Most of the animals paid us little heed, Social distancing was hard at times, but we If you live in Rheinland-Pfalz, that’s not either napping with half-shut eyes or nipping did our best to give everyone a wide berth. a problem. The Kaiserslautern area has at an itch on their hindquarters. They didn’t In non-pandemic times, the children’s countless trails to explore, from those criss- even fl inch when we called to them — except crossing the low mountains of the Palatinate for the one with the antlers. playground by the lake is open, as is an Im- Forest south of the city to the open farmland He immediately sauntered over to us, get- biss that sells hot food and drinks in winter and meadows to the west, near Ramstein Air ting so close we could reach through the gaps and ice cream in the summer. But in these Base. in the wire fence and gently touch his rack. times of the virus and social distancing, For the past few weeks, my kids and I have My kids found a few tufts of green grass they’re closed. been keeping stir-craziness at bay by ventur- and some pine-needle branches to poke The nearby Seewoog pizzeria is still open ing out on hikes. through the fence. He ate the grass and pine for takeout, though, so we picked up two Recently, we discovered something new needles and brushed his antlers against the brick-oven pizzas and headed home. A deer in a small reserve in the while making our way down a favorite branches. Whichever direction we went along [email protected] woods between the Seewoog in trail near the Seewoog, a small lake near the fence line, the buck followed. Twitter: @stripesktown Ramstein-Miesenbach and the village of Mackenbach nibbles on a snack of pine needles offered through the fence.

A sign in the woods behind the A hike through the woods between the Seewoog in Ramstein- Seewoog lake in Ramstein- The Seewoog is a good starting point for hiking and biking in the Miesenbach and Mackenbach village in Germany leads past a small Miesenbach shows animals that countryside outside of Kaiserslautern. enclosure with deer. can be found in Germany. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 25 Cruises still being booked for next year

BY HUGO MARTÍN Los Angeles Times The coronavirus pandemic left dozens of cruise ships temporar- ily stranded at sea, not allowed to dock because of onboard out- breaks of the deadly virus. It happened with the Norwe- gian Jewel in the South Pacifi c, the Zaandam off the coast of Florida and the Grand Princess in the waters off Northern Cali- fornia, among several others. Despite such harrowing news, Chris Schuck hasn’t canceled three cruises he has booked over the next two years, with the earliest in September. “After this virus, I truly believe the cruise lines will institute even more guidelines to keep guests and crew safe,” said Schuck, who works in the scheduling and labor department at Walt Disney World in Florida. Schuck isn’t the only cruise fan who remains faithful. Travel agents and industry experts say bookings for cruise sailings in 2021 are up considerably com- pared with precoronavirus data. Cruise lines that canceled sail- ings in the past few months have offered refunds or credits toward future trips. Still, travel agents and experts say the booking rates for cruise trips in 2021 rep- resent more than just passengers rebooking their canceled trips. In the past 45 days, Cruise Compete.com, an online cruise marketplace, has seen a 40% increase in bookings for 2021 compared with 2019, said Heidi M. Allison, president of the com- pany. Only 11% of the bookings are from people whose 2020 trips were canceled, she said. “People are still booking cruises and are anxious to sail again when this is all over,” she said. In an analysis of the cruise industry, Swiss banking giant UBS wrote that cruise booking volume for 2021 was up 9% in the past 30 days compared with the same time last year. The UBS report, issued March 31, said the bookings for 2021 cruise trips included people using their credit for canceled sailings but added that volume “still shows a surprising resil- ience in desire to book a cruise.” Booking volume was even higher for trips to Asia and Alaska, UBS said, “so there is pent-up demand for Asia travel next year.” AAA has also noticed an increase in cruise bookings beyond the numbers attributed to people rebooking canceled trips, said Paula Twidale, a senior vice president at AAA Travel. “We are optimistic that once this crisis is behind us, travel will rebound quickly, which bodes well for 2021,” she said. An online poll of more than 4,600 cruise passengers found that about 75% said they plan to either resume taking cruises at the same frequency as before or more often once the corona- virus crisis subsides, according to CruiseCritic.com, a cruise review site. PAGE 26 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: TRAVEL The trail now less traveled

The Appalachian Trail has closed due to the pandemic, forcing hikers to head home

BY SARAH BLAKE MORGAN virus fear was changing the Associated Press vibe of my hike,” said Selvage, who started the hike, in part, to hen Alexandra Eagle experience the culture of trail fi rst mentioned plans towns. “I chose to pause to get to hike the entire the full experience when it was WAppalachian Trail less controversial.” alongside her new husband, her Selvage rented an SUV and sister told her they’d either be drove back home to Las Vegas. divorced in fi ve months or mar- She slept in the back of the car. ried forever. Now, she’s renting out a room in Eagle, 33, and Jonathan Hall, a friend’s house until the all- 36, had just moved out of their clear is given to hike again. Brooklyn apartment when they “I still think I was safer on the married on March 2, the third trail,” Selvage said. anniversary of the blind date that For Eagle and Hall, deciding brought them together. They had to stay or go was brutal. The talked about the Appalachian couple debated day after day Trail in their fi rst conversation as they hiked over rocks and and, when it came time to plan waterfalls. They hadn’t yet come a honeymoon, they decided to to terms with their choice when make the hike. they loaded their backpacks into “This was going to be an epic the trunk of a rental car in Ten- adventure,” Eagle told The As- Above, Alexandra Eagle and Jonathan Hall soak up their last moments hiking the Appalachian Trail in sociated Press. Cosby, Tenn., March 30. The couple is postponing the roughly 2,190-mile hike until the coronavirus nessee. The couple spent a year re- pandemic ends. Below, a notice is nailed to a tree along a portion of the trail in Cosby, Tenn. Hikers have “Even right now, I don’t know searching, training and saving been asked to leave the trail immediately as trailheads continue to close due to the pandemic. if we’re doing the right thing,” before setting off on the roughly Eagle said through tears. 2,190-mile journey seven days were halted. On April 1, the down,’ ” she said. Their decision came down after their wedding. They knew conservancy and 29 other trail- That wasn’t exactly the type to the small chance that they about the new coronavirus maintaining clubs asked federal of solitude Selvage had in mind might catch and spread the spreading across the globe but offi cials to close the trail until when she quit her job, rented virus, something Eagle said considered themselves lucky to the end of the month. out her house in Las Vegas and she couldn’t live with. For now, be trading Brooklyn for a tent on Though more than 3,000 started her hike on Feb. 26. they’ll stay with her parents in the trail, especially as New York “thru-hikers” set out to traverse Selvage, 51, said she thrives Louisiana, which has more than fell under restrictions to prevent the length of the trail each year, by herself and set out to hike the 12,000 confi rmed cases. the virus’ spread. only about 25% successfully trail alone, so when whispers of “Is that better? That’s hard to “We always fi gured that being make the hike from Georgia to closures and restrictions started say,” she said. out on the trail and seeing a Maine, which typically takes to spread, she wasn’t too con- They’ll try to stay in shape dozen people a day was a fi ne about six months. cerned and pressed on. while they wait for the all-clear. position to be in,” Hall said. Eagle and Hall never consid- With her two kids in college Hall joked about looking into As the pandemic grows, hik- ered any scenario but fi nishing. and her parents gone, the Ap- a treadmill sale he saw online. ers face the diffi cult decision to They picked up speed as they ing more lives. Days would palachian Trail was home for the But as the timeline becomes postpone their dreams or ignore moved into the Great Smoky pass before Eagle and Hall had time being, and it’s where she grimmer with each passing day, warnings and forge ahead. Like Mountains along the Tennes- enough cellphone service to believed she was safest. Leaving he thinks they might be saying virtually every other entity in see-North Carolina border. They see just how dire the crisis had it would mean a cross-country goodbye to the trail for good. the U.S., the Appalachian Trail woke to sunrise on Clingmans become. drive exposing her to far more His wife disagrees and sees Conservancy began issuing Dome — the trail’s highest point Fellow thru-hiker Kimberly people than she encounters while them starting again in a few COVID-19 safety guidance in — a view that seemed to sum up Selvage was 30 minutes from Hot hiking, she said. months. Until then, she’s trying March. But social distancing exactly what they’d hoped for Springs, N.C., when she called But as more trails closed and to keep her disappointment in and hand-washing suggestions from their newlywed adventure. a local hostel to confi rm her communities issued shelter-in- perspective. soon shifted to urging all hikers At the same time, families reservation. place orders, Selvage decided to “I’m just trying to focus in on to leave the trail immediately. across the U.S. braced for “He was like, ‘Ma’am, I think throw in the towel for the time the fact that we are in such a Shelters and privies were shut lockdowns as COVID-19 spread you’ve been in the woods too being after hiking 470 miles. better position than most of the down, and volunteer programs through cities and towns , claim- long; the whole world is shutting “The closures and general world,” she said. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 27 WEEKEND: TRAVEL

iStock Let your mind wander when your feet can’t Amid the pandemic, an adventure addict fi nds solace in his imagination

BY JOHN BRILEY almost taste those too. For some, that might mean throw- directives and other harsh realities, the Special to The Washington Post One reason this exercise worked, says ing caution to the wind and traveling in entire world isn’t shut down, so get out Tom Gilovich, a psychology professor at search of adventure — and by now you locally if you can do so safely and legally. K, I get it: I’m not going any- Cornell University who has studied the don’t need me to tell you how socially For me, that has meant mountain biking, where anytime soon. So as an happiness people derive from experi- irresponsible that would be. Instead, kayaking, trail running and kitesurf- inveterate adventure traveler ences, is that “experiential consumption Farley recommends shifting from what ing — all of which have been somewhat Ofacing a monthslong adventure resists adaptation.” That’s a fancy way he calls “T-physical” to “T-mental.” My pinched by weather, work, parenting du- defi cit, I decided in mid-March that I had of saying that the gratifi cation we derive consciousness journeys are one way to do ties and governors’ orders. to get resourceful. So in the past three from a great trip far outlasts the positive that because they allow me to kinda-sorta So when I’m really starting to go nuts, I weeks, I’ve been kite surfi ng in Hawaii, emotions of buying, say, a new rug. believe I’m engaged in a sport, which in recall a quote from the late novelist Philip heli-skiing in British Columbia, kayaking “We quickly lose interest in a new mate- turn triggers at least a minor surge of Roth’s book “The Dying Animal”: in Baja California and mountain biking rial possession, but, as Humphrey Bogart the pleasure-yielding neurotransmitter “You tasted it. Isn’t that enough? Of in the Arizona desert. And I’ve done it all said, ‘We’ll always have Paris,’ ” he ex- dopamine in my brain. Other T-mental what do you ever get more than a taste? without leaving my neighborhood. plains. “I often recall some of my favorite activities include reading adventure That’s all we’re given in life, that’s all I’m not talking about virtual travel vid- hikes in New Zealand and think, ‘Wow, I literature — among my favorites are ac- we’re given of life. A taste. There is no eos or Oculus Rift or recreational drugs, can’t believe I got to do that.’ ” counts of early polar explorations and the more.” each of which I’m sure has its virtues. This is a good place to acknowledge fi rst forays by foreigners into the Sahara Instinctively I want to shout, “No, Philip Instead, I’m traveling using only the the obvious: Any annoyance that I or any — and journaling on past trips. Roth, a taste isn’t nearly enough, and who power of my consciousness, a technique other healthy individual is experiencing “People love stories, and adventurers in their right mind would accept that?” I learned four years ago when a sports because we can’t take a leisure trip pales are usually very interesting in the sense On the other hand, I think about all those injury forced me to cancel a long-awaited in comparison to the problems many adventure trip and my physical therapist, people face every day, especially those that they’ve let go of the handrails,” he people who’ve never had the resources Annie Johnstone, offered this wisdom: who are sick, grieving, jobless or other- says. “If you’ve done interesting ad- to leave their city, village or slum, people “You can still go. Just go there in your wise unmoored because of COVID-19. ventures, share them. Your friends and who can’t even imagine buckling up $600 mind. Immerse in it. Feel it and be grate- Still, traveler frustrations are valid and family would love to have that. You’re not boots, stepping into $900 skis and paying ful for it.” may be most acute in hardcore adventur- going to be out there for a while, so sit $150 for a seven-hour lift ticket so they I did as she said, and although I wasn’t ers, says Frank Farley, a Temple Uni- down and write.” can ski the day away, pausing only for a delighted about staying home, I found versity psychology professor and former But what Farley said next really $30 lunch. calming sanctuary in the chambers of president of the American Psychological grabbed me. In his extensive study of From that vantage, a taste seems far my brain where travel memories reside. Association who coined the term “Type T adventurers, he found one prevailing trait: more than I deserve, no matter how hard I sat on my couch, took a few meditative personality” to describe thrill seekers and their focus on the future. I’ve toiled in my fi rst-world job. As I type breaths, cast out the demons of FOMO risk takers. “Sure, they shared their stories of all this, my wife is reading a news story about and came pretty close to re-experiencing “People who are governed by T behav- they’d done, but mostly it was all about Indian workers walking, in some cases the feeling of carving down a wave face ior are probably among the least likely the next gig, the next huge challenge,” he hundreds of miles and with small children while steering an airborne kite, a tropi- to enjoy” the physical limitations of a says. “So use this time to plan your big in tow, to their native villages because the cal sun baking sea salt into my back. And quarantine, Farley says. “It’s the exact op- post-pandemic adventure,” with friends or COVID-19 shutdown ended any hope they while I couldn’t share the celebratory posite of what they want, and they’ll prob- other like-minded travelers through, for had of making money in the cities. So, beers I knew my friends were enjoying, ably start looking for a ‘Type T breakout’ example, online clubs and forums. yeah, pausing to feel ridiculously lucky in I could, with some neurological effort, — a way to escape incarceration.” Of course, even with stay-at-home life can help, too. PAGE 28 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: LIFESTYLE A complicated ‘new normal’ Amid coronavirus-induced chaos and madness, making plans can create a bit of normalcy

BY JOCELYN NOVECK Associated Press s owners of a wedding and event-planning business, Kar- ina Lopez and Curtis Rogers Ahave always known how the best-laid plans can go awry. But there’s no way they could have imagined just a few weeks ago what would happen to their very own wedding plans.

First, the joyous bash they’d been meticulously plan- ning for many months — a three-day celebration for 200 guests — was thrown into indefi nite limbo. Then they both tested positive for the coronavirus. Yet now, as they recover in quarantine and try to keep their distance from each other in a one-bedroom New York City apartment, Lopez and Rogers are still making wedding plans — methodically and, indeed, defi antly. After all, they’re planners. It’s what keeps them going. “I defi nitely had one or two meltdowns,” says Lopez, 32, who is still experiencing symptoms but feels she’s on the mend. “Which I look back and realize is so silly, considering what people are going through.” But now, she says, wedding planning has become therapy: “It went from making me insane, to keeping me sane.” Making plans. In normal times, it’s a process we don’t really think about. But during this pandemic, the process of planning — be it a short-term grocery list or organizing an entire summer wedding — has taken on KARINA L. LOPEZ/AP an entirely different meaning, serving for some as a life Karina Lopez, left, poses with her fi ance Curtis Rogers and their dog Fifi on April 4 at their home in the Long Island preserver amid all the fear and uncertainty. City section of the Queens borough of New York. It depends on the personality. Some people thrive by living in the moment. But others really need their plans. “For many, having schedules and structure and — not little black books, but those big spiral volumes with timelines and things they can count on is important. expansive pages that she normally fi lls up with meetings, Knowing they can count on something happening gives house showings, closings and volunteer activities. them security, some stability, some purpose,“ says Helen “My weeks used to look really scary,” she says, mean- Park, a family therapist, social worker and specialist in ing scary busy. Now her planner instills a different kind mindfulness. of fear: The entire month of April is empty — big white In current conditions, Park notes, even non-planner pages of miserable nothingness. “Now THIS,” she says, types are seeking ways to organize their lives. If you’re “scares me.” hunkered down at home, suddenly Friday doesn’t seem A couple of weeks ago, Bushee had what she admits like Friday because the weekend hardly feels differ- was “a really bad mental health week, I’ll be honest. I ent. Monday morning carries little of that back-to-the think it was the shock and the anger of the situation. I trenches feeling, even if a Zoom call is waiting at the kind of got off track.” kitchen table. She decided to double down on her morning routine. On social media, jokes abound about this unsettling For years, this has included rituals like journaling, writ- sense of timelessness. ing down three things she’s grateful for and deciding “What year is it this week?” asks one meme. “It’s the what will be the “win” of the day. 87th of March,” goes another. Or: “Today is Blursday the “Just something so that at the end of the day, regard- fortyteenth of Maprilay.” less of how crappy it was, there’s something that was a As Park conducts therapy sessions to help families win — even taking the dog for a walk,” she says. Most eke out a quasi-normal existence, she fi nds them un- helpful, though, is when she’s able to do something for moored “because it’s not just day-to-day life that has been others — for example, a recent initiative to deliver 500 upended,” she says. “The nature of what we’re dealing catered meals to a hospital emergency room for health with is so new and unknown. Is it two weeks like this, two care workers. months, until the summer, or after? If we knew, we could “I fi nd that my purpose is somewhat displaced right start to internally organize our lives. But the sands are now, and I’m trying to fi nd another purpose,” she says. shifting constantly.” “So part of my planning has become, ‘Who can I help Lopez and Rogers refuse to accept they won’t be get- today?’ ” ting married on Aug. 1. A few days ago, they agreed their A big music fan, she’s also holding onto the list of wedding would proceed, whether as the extravaganza concerts she bought tickets for this spring and summer: they’d planned or, if necessary, a marriage via Zoom, the Rolling Stones, the Doobie Brothers, Dave Matthews. Lopez says, “with our immediate families and our offi ci- Some have been canceled; others surely will be. But she keeps the list. ant in our living room.” TREYLIN LEWIS/AP “As silly as it sounds, this gave me hope,” she says of Park, the family therapist, appreciates that people need the decision. The couple recently wrote a blog post prom- Kasey Woods works from her home in Mount Vernon, their plans. She worries, though, that trying to hold onto a ising friends their invitations soon — and untouched. N.Y. Woods, a mother of three who works in public rigid structure that no longer makes sense may produce Kasey Woods cannot give her son his senior prom via relations, alternates her anxiety about the pandemic anxiety in itself. “You can be putting in a lot of energy to Zoom, much as she’d like to. Woods, a New York mother with feelings of pride for her oldest son, who’s been fi ght to keep that structure in place,” she says. of three who works in public relations, alternates her accepted for the fall to Howard University. If a day is particularly bad — and Bushee says she’s anxiety about the pandemic with feelings of pride for her had plenty — she fi nds she can at least draw comfort oldest son, who’s been accepted for the fall to his mother’s And yet Woods keeps planning, too, whatever she can. from a very simple bit of prescribed structure that’s own alma mater, Howard University. “One of my ways of regulating my life and my mental really a built-in piece of planning in miniature: a recipe. She was hoping that attending admitted students day health is that I have to write everything down,” she says. Cooking at home has become not only a necessity, but a would seal the deal for him, since he’s choosing between “My notebook and my calendars are my lifeline.“ release. several schools. That, of course, was canceled, along with Michelle Bushee, a real estate broker in Pittsburgh, “I made chicken pot pie for my family the other day,” prom and a surprise 18th birthday party she’d been plan- has always been an avid planner. And she’s old-school: she says, “including homemade crust, which I never do. ning. Bushee eschews digital planners for the paper kind You know what? It was pretty awesome.” Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 29 WEEKEND: LIFESTYLE LIFE SKILLS 101 The pandemic provides the perfect time to learn how to be self-suffi cient

BY JULIA RUBIN Handy Things Your Grandfather Associated Press Knew.” In this dark and diffi cult time, ending clothes. it can be an emotional lift to fi nd Cutting hair. Fixing that you’re more capable around a squeaky door or the house than you thought. Ma dripping faucet. “I accomplished something Baking bread. real today!” Maria Kernahan, a A generation or two ago, real estate agent and children’s household skills like these were book author, said after installing common, learned at home and a new thermostat herself in her at school. Then it became easier Castle Park, Mich., house. She to toss things out rather than to followed online advice to fi gure fi x them, quicker to call the out the wiring in the old professionals. house. Her husband, mean- Now, in an unset- while, has begun chopping tling era of staying at wood. home and not knowing “We’re making this up what will be available as we go along,” she said. tomorrow, the old ways Bill Hughes, a business HOLLY BEMISS/AP are being dusted off and consultant in University relearned. Place, Wash., had to wash some Erin Bried sews face masks April 3 with her daughters Ellie, 9, left, and Bea, 4. Bried is the author of Since the coronavirus has shirts and didn’t want to put “How to Sew a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew,” and “How to Build a Fire: And shuttered many small businesses them away wrinkled. Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew.” that do our work and supply our “When I was a graduate things, millions of people try- student, I would iron my own “I haven’t pulled my sewing make do and get by. mented with backyard chickens, ing to stay home are driven by shirts to save some money. It was machine out for many years. I “I feel a new, closer connection homemade dyes, wooden toys necessity — or boredom — to do tedious , and I looked forward never really had the time,” she to all of their stories now,” she and organic food. Concerns more cooking, cleaning, fi xing, to the day when I could afford says. “Those junior high sewing says. “It was a diffi cult time, and over climate change have grooming and other practical to drop off my shirts to be classes kicked back in.” it left its mark on all of them. kick-started a movement skills themselves. cleaned,” says Hughes, She plans to keep the I think this pandemic, too, toward buying fewer “It’s during uncertain times 59. “Since my dry clean- machine out and try some will leave its mark on us things and leaving a like these when we take stock ers is closed, I dusted projects, like pillow much in the same way. lighter footprint on the of all the basic life skills we’ve off the iron and ironing covers, that she’s put off It’s caused us all to halt environment: “Reduce, forgotten, or never learned in board, turned on some for years. “It felt good to our lives and reevaluate, reuse, recycle.” the fi rst place, because they Huey Lewis and the create something useful maybe for the fi rst time, Now, in a time of feared sure could come in handy right News, and went at it.” again,” Simonsen says. what is truly important and shortages and limited mo- about now,” says Erin Bried, a Janice Simonsen, who Yes, you can still order what we’re equipped to handle.” bility, this emphasis on self-suf- magazine editor in Brooklyn works in corporate communica- takeout in most places and call Jeanne Huntley, who taught fi ciency is going wider. and author of “How to Sew a tions in Philadelphia, helped sew the plumber or electrician. But high school home economics Sharon Bowers, co-author Button: And Other Nifty Things masks for medical personnel, more people are trying to do that for 35 years in Sault Ste. Marie, with her husband, David, of a Your Grandmother Knew” and following instructions on a You- only when absolutely needed. Ontario, thinks society lost some- book about life skills called “The “How to Build a Fire: And Other Tube video. Hardware stores have seen high thing important when schools Useful Book,” embraces the demand for home repair and phased out home economics and trend. But she cautions people to lawn tools. Social media feeds ev- shop classes in favor of computer be smart — and check out books erywhere are full of posts from science, robotics and STEM. and YouTube videos fi rst. newbies planting vegetable gar- “A lot of younger people have “I’m urging you to boldly go dens, giving themselves haircuts been brought up in a consumer and try something new, but not and baking bread — especially society — ‘You don’t fi x things, something that you know is way sourdough. Lots of sourdough. you replace things,’ ” she says. outside your ability. ... You could YouTube has seen a spike of “Parents are busy too, and probably wire a lamp, but don’t more than 100% in average there’s not a lot of time to mess around with the circuit daily views of videos with pass on those skills. But board in your house, ” she says. “Cook with Me” in the knowing you can make “If you make a mess — assuming title since March 15 com- things and fi x things you don’t break something you pared to the rest of the gives us a sense of confi - really need — you can always year, said spokeswoman dence in ourselves.” call the professionals when we’re Veronica Navarrete. This is not new for out the other side.” “We’re seeing this trend everyone. There’s always Even the Bowerses, fi x-it pros across several verticals,” includ- been a countercurrent of people who live outside Dublin, Ireland, ing cleaning, she said. yearning to get back to basics. with their two teenage sons, BILL HUGHES/AP For her book, Bried inter- The DIY movement has “have a plumbing problem that’s The ironing board of Bill Hughes, a business consultant who lives viewed women who had lived blossomed in recent years, and complicated” to deal with. “And,” in University Place, Wash., is getting use for the fi rst time since through the Great Depression long before the coronavirus, she says, “we’re just going to Hughes was a graduate student now that his dry cleaners is closed. and imparted lessons on how to “urban homesteaders” experi- have to wait.” PAGE 30 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: MUSIC

After a ‘really, really hard year’ that included the death of his best friend and collaborator, jazz-funk bass virtuoso Thundercat beat his demons and made peace with himself

BY JEFF WEISS Special to The Washington Post

hey all know Thundercat here: the enough to remember when bowl- print. He looks like the star of an weathered, seen-it-all counter- ing was televised every Saturday Afro-futurist manga about George man who reserves the lanes, the afternoon on ABC. And one regu- Clinton’s P-Funk Mothership: The acne-ridden teenager handing out lar is Thundercat, nee Stephen Next Generation. But this isn’t a floppy and slick leather shoes, the Bruner, who never fails to abide. pose. Thundercat used to amble waiter bringing heaping platters of To be fair, it is impossible to through his native South Central fruit and bowls of matzo ball soup. forget Thundercat. On this Tues- in the warzone late ’90s wearing a To them, the interstellar jazz bass- day night in early February, he’s tuxedo T-shirt. ist is practically family. But don’t wearing oversized cat-eye pink “Haven’t seen you here in a After coming to terms mistake this for “Cheers.” sunglasses and red silk shorts minute,” the gravelly-voiced clerk with the 2018 death of The Pinz Bowling Center in seemingly designed for a boxer ob- says, swiping Thundercat’s credit Mac Miller, Thundercat Studio City is no insular neighbor- sessed with Edo-period Japanese card and letting us know the lane got sober, lost 100 hood tavern, but rather one of the woodblock prints. His magenta will be available in 15 minutes or pounds and fi nished his most popular social nexuses in dreadlocks are partially covered so. “Everything OK?” fourth studio album, Los Angeles (at least in pre-pan- by Gucci headphones. There’s a “It was a really, really hard “It Is What It Is.” demic days). It attracts everyone fanny pack slung around his black year,” Thundercat says, nodding from stoned Valley high schoolers Pokemon sweatshirt, a nest of his head in appreciation. “Glad to to the Los Angeles Lakers, young gold chains dangling around his be back, though.” Motormouth Media working-class families to those old neck, and his shoes are leopard CONTINUED ON PAGE 31 Top photo: The1point8 Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 31 WEEKEND: MUSIC

FROM PAGE 30 It’s fitting that he feels perfectly at ease in Pinz, throws, but he has precision aim and cruises through The September 2018 death of rapper Mac Miller enjoying a sport whose peak popularity came during the first half of the game with a series of nines, a spare — Thundercat’s best friend and close collaborator the Watergate era. “People automatically associate and a strike. — has colored almost every day since then. Miller’s bowling with fun, but there’s something relaxing about Bowling’s appeal is obvious for someone like Thun- death at age 26, by accidental overdose, occurred it to me. Some people love to get competitive, but there’s dercat, who alternates between whimsical joy and roughly one month before the pair were set to embark no pressure to win. I’m only competing with myself,” profound grief. It’s a sport that oscillates between the on a national tour, which would have featured Thunder- he says, breaking down his love affair with the lanes. euphoria and cruelties of life, a sure-thing strike that cat as both opening act and the bassist in Miller’s band. “There’s a real Zen quality to it; it’s similar to music in turns into a 7-10 split. Beneath the sartorial flamboy- The tragedy forced Thundercat to grapple with his own the sense that you have to be okay with your style and ance and eccentricity, Thundercat retains the unaffect- demons involving alcohol abuse, triggering a newfound learn to be in tune with yourself.” ed quality of someone who grew up in South Central, but hard-fought and shaky sobriety. He removes his sweater, revealing a Mac Miller who would never go Hollywood — even if Brad Pitt Around this same time, he decided to go vegan and T-shirt underneath. Knuckles are cracked. It’s time to recently came to his show at the Wiltern. lost 100 pounds. (“I didn’t notice until I saw a picture of bowl. As a musician, Thundercat is always dazzling, “That was trippy as hell,” he says later. “I guess he reached out to my management, but I had no idea and myself, and it freaked me out. It’s still kind of hard to unleashing perfect-pitch wails that sound like tears while I was playing, I look over and he’s sitting next to process.”) Shortly thereafter, he experienced the emo- from heaven splashing on an open-collared white Ariana Grande. So I waved.” tional ransacking of a breakup. Somewhere in the fog, leisure suit; his bass riffs are as chunky and rumbling For now, it’s serious business at the bowling alley. he found the clarity to finish his fourth studio album, as King Hippo. But as a bowler, he is solid, workman- Kind of. Thundercat takes a laissez-faire approach to the typically brilliant “It Is What It Is,” which cements like, straightforward. There is no chimerical spin to his his unlikely but deserved ascent to the ranks of jazz- the sport, drifting off and wandering about, break- funk fusion superstar — roughly 35 years after critics ing to FaceTime his 13-year old daughter. Pinz is his read the genre’s last rites. happy place, a cocoon of sentimentality and nostalgia “When Mac died, I realized I couldn’t drink my way that reminds him of when he used to come here with through it,” Thundercat explains. “I sat with it, let the ‘ When Mac died, his friend, Austin Peralta, the jazz piano prodigy. They pain in, and accepted that this would be a roller coaster. used to watch “The Big Lebowski” on loop and always I needed to feel every part of it, and I still don’t know I realized I couldn’t dreamed of starting a bowling team, until Peralta’s how to feel. There are moments when I break down 2012 death from viral pneumonia aggravated by a com- about it.” drink my way through it. bination of alcohol and drugs. He was just 22. Peralta To understand Thundercat, you need to accept his played on Thundercat’s 2011 debut, and the duo had natural duality. In one moment, the 35-year-old bassist/ I sat with it, let the pain been virtually inseparable right up until his last night producer/general musical virtuoso can be unflinching- on earth. ly open, vulnerable, generous and sincere. In the next, in, and accepted that this If Thundercat has a superpower, it’s in his ability to he will comically hump one of those machines where transmute his intense grief into art. It’s a quality he you put in a dollar and try to grab stuffed animals with would be a roller coaster. shares with his label boss, close friend and producer, a giant claw. This is what he briefly does while we wait Flying Lotus — who walks into the bowling alley about to bowl, squandering a couple bucks in a vain effort to I needed to feel every halfway through our game. win an oversized plush Sonic the Hedgehog. “He’s slowly been able to introduce people to who he “It took me a while to deal with my struggles with al- really is: a maniac who can be very silly but also some- cohol and the friends I’ve lost,” he continues, as we play part of it, and I still don’t one who is super emotional and wears his heart on his air hockey amid the chirping whirs and epileptic lights sleeve,” Flying Lotus says. of the arcade adjacent to the alley’s 32 lanes. know how to feel. There “We’re both super grateful to have the art to turn to,” “Some days I feel good about it, some days I feel hor- Lotus continues. “The closing track on (“It Is What It rible. I spent a lot of time self-medicating, and it served are moments when Is”) was the first thing we did after we heard the news its purpose until it couldn’t anymore,” he says wist- about Mac. It was painful for us to write the music. It fully. “Sometimes, when I look behind, I see smoke and I break down about it.’ was like, ‘Are we really going to try to do this — feeling ashes. I feel like I survived, but in a different form.” Thundercat this way?’ But he was like, ‘Let’s go!’ We listened back He sighs and adds for emphasis. “Sometimes I have a to it for hours, just crying, but how else could that have hard time.” On the death of his friend and collaborator Mac Miller manifested into something beautiful?” The Dionysian equation of “sorrow + excess = great Not long after Peralta’s death, Thundercat and art,” has gone out of vogue in the past decade. It’s a Miller became close friends based on a shared musi- slightly antiquated notion that usually leads to preten- cal bond and countless other similarities. They’d go on sion and maudlin indulgence. Thundercat’s genius double dates to Pinz and endlessly re-watch “The Big lies in his ability to both reinvent that frayed calculus Lebowski.” and combine it with a hilarious streak of absurdist “We used to argue about who was Walter, who was postmodern irony and fluorescent intergalactic the Dude, and who was Donny,” Thundercat recalls. symphonies. The result is something like a one-man “But Mac and I eventually realized we were both two synthesis of Frank Zappa and George Duke scoring the Lebowskis.” soundtrack to a live-action reimagination of “Dragon It’s now the 10th frame, and by some cosmic syn- Ball Z,” set in the contemporary San Fernando Valley. chronicity, the video screen above is playing the Doobie His catalogue includes multiple paeans to his nat- Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.” Thundercat busts tily attired cat, Tron, and guest raps from everyone out a smooth two-step to Michael McDonald’s 10,000- from Kendrick Lamar to Pharrell Williams to Lil B. thread-count croon. He nails the spare to finish with a Thundercat’s bass lines formed the sonic bedrock of respectable 118 score. “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Lamar’s Grammy-winning gen- This is where the story was supposed to end. A few erational triumph of an album; he will appear on the days later, Thundercat embarked on what was supposed next Herbie Hancock album; he reintroduced Michael to be a two-month-long national tour — his first since McDonald and Kenny Loggins to millennials on his the death of Miller. The tour was, of course, eventually last album’s underground smash, “Show You the Way.” canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak. In line with the ever-evolving Thundercat Cinematic About a week after he returned home, we spoke Universe, the first single off “It Is What It Is” is a about the surreal nature of the present moment: gossamer falsetto funk levitation about moving out of “I’ve never dealt with anything like this, and I know the hood and making ill-advised posts on Instagram, it’s not easy for anyone. I’m just trying to be emotion- pairing Steve Lacy with Childish Gambino with Steve ally supportive to my homies and homegirls,” he says Arrington — the sequin boogie sorcerer behind Slave, wearily via phone. a band whose biggest hits all came before Bruner was In a perverse way, Thundercat’s new album feels born in 1985. particularly suited for this moment — filled with both “These older artists are beacons of sound and light, celestial, futuristic escapism and plaintive grief, the and it’s important for me to remind people of the con- strength of human resilience and an unstinting sense of text and understanding that ground the music I’m mak- frustration. After all, its title is a Zen koan unto itself: ing,” Thundercat says. “In this weird algorithm era, it’s “It Is What It Is.” important to remind people about jazz and the funk and “The name hits a little different now,” Thundercat all the stuff that came before us and remains timeless.” says, laughing. His obligation to tradition can only come from some- We talk a little more about his last year and the emo- one acutely aware of their place in a deeper slipstream tions stirred by yet another false start. The tour was a of funk, jazz, yacht rock and soul. His father crafted chance to forget it all and focus on the music, but now gorgeous strobe-light grooves in a late-’70s disco en- he’s back home. Even worse, Pinz is closed indefinitely. semble named Chameleon. Thundercat’s older brother, I ask if there’s been anything — any piece of art or Ronald, is one of the best drummers in the world; his Parker Day record or minor consolation of philosophy — that has younger brother, Jameel, is a gifted beatmaker who gotten him through the deaths, the breakup, the battle until recently played keys in The Internet. Thunder- for sobriety, the disappointments. cat’s original guru was Reggie Andrews, the Mr. Hol- “The Big Lebowski,” Thundercat reflexively land of South Central music education. And Thundercat answers. refined his trademark Richter-wobble backing up “What about it?” Erykah Badu and Snoop Dogg, and as a member of “Strikes and gutters, man. It’s all just strikes and venerable L.A. punk thrashers, Suicidal Tendencies. gutters.” PAGE 32 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: MUSIC REVIEWS

Tony Allen Clem Snide and Hugh Masekela Forever Just Beyond Rejoice (World Circuit Records) (Ramseur/Thirty Tigers) “Rejoice,” a long-dormant There have been many it- collaboration between legendary erations of Clem Snide over the Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen years, but by now it’s turned into and South African horn player a personal alias for Eef Barzelay. Hugh Masekela, is a swirling, “Forever Just Beyond” shows restless album that wisely puts him and his current ensemble at their instruments at the center of their most quietly devastating. the action. Produced by Scott Avett, Recorded mostly a decade ago who also performs and helped in London, it was completed last write some of the material, the year at the same studio where it predominantly acoustic album was started under the guidance contains soothing melodies and of producer Nick Gold. gentle interpretations tackling Allen is a Paris-based Nige- weighty subjects like life, death rian native whose reputation was and transcendence. cemented during his long asso- Barzelay and Avett are a great ciation with the late Fela Kuti but creative match with the help of whose long résumé also includes an ace backing group, and the supergroup The Good, the Bad & songs’ philosophical musings the Queen with Damon Albarn, make for keenly melodic obser- Paul Simonon and Simon Tong. vations on the circumstances of He says “Rejoice” is a “kind of Joey Martinez South African-Nigerian swing- our fl eeting lives. jazz stew,” a description that is Like Steely Dan, the Clem Snide moniker also is taken as inviting as it is accurate. The year. There’s also another Lukas Nelson from the William S. Burroughs album cover, which emulates full-band version of the song oeuvre and refers to a recurring the classic style of the Blue Note & Promise of the Real on “Naked Garden,” for those character who also stars as a pri- label, seems to underline the jazz Naked Garden (Fantasy Records) who just can’t get enough. elements. One highlight, the previ- vate eye. It’s an apt analogy for The 2010 sessions at Livings- Lukas Nelson & Promise ously unreleased “The Way Barzelay’s own inquisitiveness. ton Studios took place with Allen of the Real offer 10 outtakes You Say Goodbye,” features Album opener “Roger Ebert” laying down his drum patterns and fi ve alternative versions Nelson sounding more like centers on some of the movie and Masekela working out the of songs that appeared on last Roy Orbison than his dad, critic’s fi nal words — “It’s all an melodic structure and playing year’s “Turn Off the News Willie Nelson. Hearing his elaborate hoax” — and the pas- his flugelhorn parts separately. (Build a Garden)” with their take on the country waltz song sage from this life into whatever The rest of the instruments, in- latest album, “Naked Gar- is worth the price of admis- comes next. The title track, one cluding bass, keyboards, percus- den.” sion alone. of the album’s most meticulous, sion and vibraphone, comprise It’s not just a record for There’s also some fun attempts to defi ne the divine as a subtle and empathetic support completists. The alternate banter included in between something outside the confi nes of group. Notable among them are versions and outtakes offered here stand on tracks, making it feel like the listener is there faith and reason: “God is simply tenor sax player Steve William- their own merits. But for fans of Nelson, it offers with the band in the studio. Not everything’s that which lies forever just be- son on three of the eight tracks a glimpse into his artistic process. perfectly presented here, but that’s by design. yond the limit of what we already and Tom Herbert’s acoustic bass. An acoustic version “Civilized Hell,” slowed seem to know.” The sound of Allen’s drum set down here, packs a different kind of punch than — Scott Bauer is wonderfully clear and detailed the rocked-up version did that was released last Associated Press “The True Shape Your Heart” and his playing superb, while is beautifully but heartbrokenly Masekela, who died in 2018 and romantic, and here Barzelay was also known for his anti- Dave Simonett poorwill, awake but I’m just sounds halfway between Ron apartheid advocacy, performs standing still, and morning Sexsmith and Nick Cave. “Bal- with his usual high-flying lyri- Red Tail (Thirty Tigers) came with shaky nerves, lad of Eef Barzelay” reinforces cism and technical excellence. the wastefulness and futility of Dave Simonett does wistful where can we go, when will I Masekela adds vocals to a few suicide, while “Emily” provides well. learn?” tracks, which include a homage a tough recipe for changing the On his first solo project None of that is meant to to Fela Kuti titled “Never (Lagos world — start with yourself and bearing his real name, the cast this album as a road map Never Gonna Be the Same)”; a Trampled by Turtles front- to depression, and despite its “be more kind and brave in the vignette inspired by Masekela’s emotional heft it doesn’t come man delivers eight gently achy face of it all.” youth in a Johannesburg suburb, off as self-absorbed. There’s songs that sound like their Closer “Some Ghost,” one of “Robbers, Thugs and Muggers more going on here than that. names: “In the Western Wind the Avett co-writes, is another (O’Galajani)”; and the scrump- All the songs have a poi- atmospheric musical gem with tious “Slow Bones,” which and the Sunrise,” “There’s gnancy that reflect Simonett’s a Lifeline Deep in the Night lyrics trying to make sense of the exudes creative and spiritual craftsmanship and his voices trapped in our head and freedom. Sky” and — well, you get the penchant for achy lyrics. In a point to a way out. One of the last tunes, “Obama idea. song called “Pisces, Queen of Hearts,” he builds The Israeli-born, Nashville- Shuffle Strut Blues,” is a percus- Simonett’s new album, “Red Tail,” is the to a gentle crescendo and then sings, “I remem- sive tour de force and tips its cap logical successor to “Furnace,” a wonderful but ber thinking we would meet again, in the space based Barzelay describes his to the former U.S. president, who underrated album he put out under the name between the starlight and the tree line.” past decade as a “rollercoaster hadn’t been in office too long Dead Man Winter in 2017 while sorting through So no, it’s probably not dinner music, and of deep despair and amazing op- when the album was being made. the storm damage of a divorce. it’s definitely not party music, but it has more portunities,” including divorce, The release of “Rejoice” is “Red Tail” finds him further along the cathar- depth than his work with the band for which he’s bankruptcy and a fan’s generous a welcome blessing for listen- tic path, and yet it still has the pacing of a deep known. And if you’re in a certain mood, maybe donation. With “Forever Just ers and an exquisite example of sigh. one that has you gazing out a window on a quiet Beyond,” Barzelay shows that Allen and Masekela’s magnifi- On the opener “Revoked,” Simonett allows rainy evening, this might be the vibe you’re he’s made the most of this chance cent talents. from the start that he’s “feeling fine now.” But looking for. he got. — Pablo Gorondi the setting is a folk minuet with lyrics that — Scott Stroud — Pablo Gorondi Associated Press match the somber tone: “A bracing pond a whip- Associated Press Associated Press Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 33 WEEKEND: BOOKS

horrors, whether the 2018 shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue or the tragedies along the U.S.-Mexican border: “I found it easy to ‘be’ Micah, so to speak, throughout the book, but especially in that passage. We all have lone- some moments, after all; it’s no stretch to imagine those. But also the events that he’s refl ecting upon here — the synagogue shooting, the plight of immigrant children — weigh so heavily on my mind these days, as I imagine they do on everyone’s, that I felt even Micah would have to be affected by them.” On the book’s title, based on a recurring hallucina- tion of Micah’s: “Several times I mistook the same object for another on my morning walk, although you’d think I would have learned after the fi rst time. The experience started me thinking: How many other mistakes, more serious mistakes, do we repeat in the course of our lives? How often do we fail to realize that they were mistakes, even? I thought it would be fun to explore the issue.” Familiar, On life in Baltimore: “I guess it’s no secret that Baltimore is going through a hard spell. And yet it’s such a kindhearted city, paradoxi- cal though that sounds. Just about everyone here, across all classes and cultures, behaves with grace and patience. Watch some trying episode in, say, a supermarket check- but also out line — a customer taking too long counting coins or a cashier who doesn’t know his produce codes. Balti- moreans stand by quietly, or they try to help out if they can. Not even an eye-roll! I think this has an infl uence on my writing. In such surroundings, how could I possibly different invent a mean-spirited character? On how Micah would handle social distancing: “I think he would have handled it the way I have. First I thought, ‘Oh, well, never mind; I basically shelter in Anne Tyler discusses place anyhow, and I already know about working from home — how you have to be sure and change out of your new book, Baltimore pajamas.’ But then after a few days I thought, ‘Oh. Wait a minute. I’m surprised at how often now I feel the need to and social distance step out on my front stoop and start a conversation with a passing neighbor.’ On how the book, completed well before the pan- Diana Walker demic, might read now: “I haven’t read the book since the virus began. A friend head: ‘You have to wonder what goes through the mind of asked recently, though, how I’d known to write pages a man like ______.’ (I didn’t have a name for him yet.) 94-95, so I checked to see what she meant. Lo and behold, I was baffl ed. Why should I have to wonder? I thought, there was Micah on his early-morning run fantasizing, BY HILLEL ITALIE and then up popped the next sentence: ‘He lives alone; he briefl y, that the empty streets were due to some global keeps to himself ...’ ” Associated Press disaster and he was the last person left alive. Then he “The rest of the book was up to me, but at least I was on comes upon two women talking up a storm together, and fter more than 20 books, Anne Tyler still fi nds my way.” he’s extremely pleased to see them. I relate to that scene ways to challenge herself. The computer man’s name is Micah Mortimer. He now much more than when I wrote it.” Her new novel, “Redhead by the Side of the lives alone and wonders if he’s meant to be that way as he On writing while sheltering in place: ARoad,” is, of course, set in her longtime home of alienates his current girlfriend and unexpectedly recon- “For the fi rst few days, I seemed to keep writing the Baltimore and features the family and romantic en- nects with the woman he loved — and drove away — back same three pages over and over again. I just had a gen- tanglements and other narrative touches Tyler fans know in college. Tyler tries to minimize politics and topical ref- eral feeling of distractedness. Eventually, though, I did well. But the story’s main character, a self-employed tech erences in her books, but is quite specifi c about locations, sink back into my work. I happened to be writing about consultant/repairman confronting the fallout of decisions placing Micah in north Baltimore, in a three-story home an Easter dinner with a lot of people attending, some of made years before, pretty much came out of nowhere. near York Road, with an “incongruous front porch” and a them behaving a bit snarkily with each other. I thought, “This is the fi rst book I’ve written where I began with “splintery front porch swing that nobody ever sits in.” Oh, now I remember why I write. I write because it no idea,” Tyler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist During her recent AP interview, the 78-year-old Tyler makes me happy.” known for “The Accidental Tourist,” “Morgan’s Passing” discussed the mind of Micah, the book’s tricky title, Bal- “As for whether the virus will turn up in my next book: and “Breathing Lessons,” told The Associated Press in a timore and her life during the coronavirus outbreak. Well, generally I don’t think current events make for very recent email. “I was wracking my brains for something On Micah, whom she describes in one passage as good literature. They have to mellow for a while. We need to write about, and a single sentence popped into my “narrow and limited” but still aware of the world’s a little distance to see them for what they are.”

Redhead by the sometimes by turning them I have switched dry cleaners with college years, Brink is convinced that off and turning them back on. more drama. Micah must be his real father. Alas, the Side of the Road “His routine is etched in Of course, there’s also a sweet and calendar won’t support that conclusion. Anne Tyler stone,” Tyler writes. “He somewhat amusing family in this novel, Tyler spins a small story about a man rises, runs, eats breakfast and of course, they have sweet and perplexed by the tepid state of his life. Anne Tyler’s new novel, and answers a few calls. somewhat amusing rituals involving “He had no one,” he realizes. “His entire “Redhead by the Side of the Monday is trash night. Micah food. “The table itself was bare,” Tyler life ran in a rut.” But maybe, he thinks, Road,” is either wholly irrel- prided himself on his house- writes, “except for a portable Ping Pong he just doesn’t want all the “fuss and evant or just what we need keeping.” net that had been stretched across the bother” of being close to someone. — or possibly both. Slight He may not have a pulse, center.” If you’ve read and adored as There is nothing necessarily objec- and slightly charming, it’s but he does have a girlfriend. many of Tyler’s novels as I have, such tionable about a novel focused on “such a like the cherry Jell-O that “She was matronly,” Tyler idiosyncrasies convey all the reassuring narrow and limited man,” as Tyler calls Mom serves when you’re writes, “which Micah found warmth of an old hymn. Micah. Writers as diverse as Sinclair feeling under the weather. kind of a turn-on.” That Micah’s four sisters — all lifelong Lewis and Anita Brookner have found Not much of a meal, perhaps, but who marks the erotic peak of this novel. “He waitresses — pester him to get Cass profound comedy and pathos in the lives could handle more now? and Cass had been together for three of apparently dull people. But in this years or so, and they had reached the back, lest he “end up a crusty old bache- The milquetoast protagonist is Micah case, the mold growing on Micah’s air- Mortimer, “a tall, bony man in his early stage where things had more or less lor,” but he resists their efforts. Still, the less character seems to have spread to 40s with not-so-good posture.” He lives solidifi ed: compromises arrived at, minor disruptions to Micah’s orderly life the narration itself. in a basement apartment in Baltimore, incompatibilities adjusted to, minor are just beginning. A preppy young man which over the course of more than 20 quirks overlooked. They had it down to named Brink shows up at the door. He’s Tyler’s best novels are so wonderful novels has become Tyler’s Yoknapataw- a system.” Or so Micah assumes. In the run away from college and his parents. that they’ve tended to eclipse her short pha. Gilded with a patina of quirkiness, fi rst chapter, Cass fears she’s about to “I don’t belong in that family,” Brink stories, but that would have been a more Micah is a self-employed computer fi x-it be evicted from her apartment. When tells Micah. “I’m a, like, misfi t. They’re effective form for “Redhead by the Side guy. Tellingly, he calls himself the Tech Micah reacts with insuffi cient sympathy, all so ... I’m more like you.” Having of the Road.” Hermit. He repairs elderly folks’ PCs, she breaks up with him. found some old photos from his mother’s — Ron Charles/The Washington Post PAGE 34 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: TELEVISION & DVD

NEW ON DVD Q&A

“Bad Boys for Life”: It’s been a minute since we last heard from Martin Lawrence and Will Smith’s wisecracking Miami de- tectives Marcus and Mike. (Want to feel old? “Bad Boys II” came out 17 years ago.) But, thanks to directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the ’90s nostalgia keeps on coming. In the fi lm, Mike (Smith) is injured by a family seeking revenge for the detective’s role in a drug lord’s prison sentence. He seeks help from his partner, Marcus (Lawrence), and an elite team called AMMO to track down and stop the cartel. This third installment of the franchise has plenty of love for the genre and even more love for its characters. “El Arbi and Fallah have done seemingly the impossible. They’ve taken over an action franchise 17 years after the last installment and made a fi lm that’s a delightfully dizzying love letter to action fi lmmak- ing of yore, while respectfully preserving the franchise’s best elements,” wrote Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh in her review. Also available on DVD: HBO/AP “The Turning”: Eerie events haunt a nanny (Mackenzie Issa Rae, left, and Yvonne Orji appear in a scene from the fourth season premiere episode of “Insecure.” Davis) who’s taking care of two orphans in an East Coast Gothic mansion. “Fatal Attraction”: The 1987 hit thriller starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close is Hey, Issa Rae being rereleased on Blu-ray with a remastering under the supervi- sion of director Adrian Lyne. “The Gentlemen”: An expat in London (Matthew McCo- The creator of HBO’s ‘Insecure’ discusses naughey) faces layers of schemes while attempting to sell off his weed business. fourth season details, reasons for delays “Ip Man 4: The Finale”: The Kung Fu master Ip Man (Donnie AP: What can we expect from Yen) heads to the United States BY MESFIN FEKADU Associated Press season four? as his student opens up a martial Rae: This season is really about arts school and faces discrimi- he HBO hit “Insecure” typically airs dur- whether the people in your life Even the storyline is interesting. nation from the community. In are there for a reason, or a season. It It’s so ridiculous. That even came Cantonese, English and Manda- ing the summer, but series creator Issa really is about that transitional period about from our random obsession rin. Rae has been moving like the Energizer when you go from your 20s and you’re with true crime podcasts and true “King Creole”: The 1958 fi lm Bunny , with a schedule so booked and T kind of fi guring out who you are, to crime docuseries and being like, starring Elvis Presley as a young busy that the show’s return had to be delayed. your 30s when you really know who “There’s never black people.” Nobody man supporting his family as a But for good reason. you are. You know what you’re going would dedicate a whole podcast or club singer after joining a gang is She fi lmed two movies (“The Photograph,” “The docuseries to missing black people. being released on Blu-ray. to tolerate and what you’re not going Lovebirds”). She executive produced and appeared to tolerate and who you want around Nobody does a “To Live and Die in “The Last Full Measure”: L.A.” if the girl is black. We were just Airman William H. Pitsenbarger in HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” The ac- you to continue that journey. trying to document that. (Jeremy Irvine) is awarded the This season specifi cally, there’s a tress who breaks out in raps to cope with life on How have you been able to bal- country’s highest military honor lot of relationships mirrored to my “Insecure” launched her own record label. And ance all of your projects? posthumously. own personal friendships and my own Rae is writing, producing and starring in a new I’m not going to lie — I’m toppling “Looking for Alaska”: Based relationships dealing with the same plates over here. I have not been great on the John Green novel of the movie called “Perfect Strangers ” and also produc- kind of transitions and the questions. same name, the Hulu miniseries ing another HBO series, “Rap (expletive), ” about a It was funny seeing Porsha Wil- at balancing, but the people that I follows boarding school student female rap group trying to fi nd a breakthrough. liams from “Real Housewives of work with have been amazing. This Miles (Charlie Plummer), whose “I was just relieved to not be doing the show and Atlanta” and Masika Kalysha from quarantine, I would have been on a love story with Alaska (Kristine “Love and Hip-Hop” on the show. three-week press tour for “Insecure” to be working on other things so much so that I was Did they have to audition? and “Lovebirds” while having to Froseth) results in tragedy. fi nally grateful to come back when I was done with “Party Hard, Die Young”: Masika auditioned. That was just a meet a deadline to rewrite a movie A trip to a techno party in those projects,’ ” Rae, 35, said of “Insecure,” which surprise of going through the audition and write a pilot. I don’t know how I Croatia turns deadly for a group returned to HBO on April 12. “I love this show. I tape and being like, “Oh good, she’s was going to do that. I wasn’t going of friends celebrating their love the people on it. I love creating it and making good. It’s great.” And just being like, to do that. I was going to kill myself. graduation. Stars Marlon Boess, it. It just made me more appreciative of what we “OK, cast her.” Now to be able to have this forced For a show within a show, those are time to be able to dedicate to creat- Markus Freistatter and Michael were doing.” Glantschnig. In German. always very specifi c and you have ing and writing has been so fulfi lling. “Sea Fever”: A trapped-at- “Insecure” fi nds Rae’s character, Issa Dee, on a a cast in mind , and then we just ap- Obviously these circumstances are sea crew attempts to ward off search to fi nd herself — professionally and per- proach them and they’re down. terrible, but it’s really just allowed a deadly parasite. Stars Connie sonally. The show also stars Yvonne Orji (Molly), It’s nice seeing veteran black me to put a pause on so much and Nielsen, Hermione Corfi eld and Jay Ellis (Lawrence), Amanda Seales (Tiffany) actors in that show within a show. to focus on what I love to do: — the Dougray Scott. and Natasha Rothwell (Kelli), who also writes and (It also includes Terri J. Vaughn and parts that I like to do. I actually don’t Carl Anthony Payne .) like traveling for the press, really. I “To Catch a Thief”: The produces the show. Alfred Hitchcock classic is being It’s a way to honor our legends. It’s don’t like the promotional stuff for the rereleased on Blu-ray for its 65th Rae spoke recently about her Emmy-nominated so fulfi lling to be able to work with most part. It’s stressful. It takes a lot anniversary. series and the show within the show, which this them — to have them be a part of our of time. You forget, “Oh this is what I — Katie Foran-McHale/ TNS season is a docuseries on a missing black woman. cultural moment. love to do. I’m a writer.” Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 35 WEEKEND: FAMILY

THE MEAT AND COVID camp conundrum POTATOES OF LIFE Lisa Smith Molinari Uncertain summer plans leave parents, kids dangling

BY LEANNE ITALIE Tiptoeing around the Associated Press or 17-year-old Morgan Car- ney, missing her seventh Class of COVID-19 summer at overnight camp om! We’re out of avocados!” my 22- Fin the Ozarks would be year-old daughter, Anna, bellowed. worse than what she’s feeling now in “And where are the goat cheese isolation without her school friends crumbles?!” and usual slate of activities. “M People all over the globe are covering their faces and “She says she can’t even think hands before entering grocery stores to buy life-sustain- about not going to camp this sum- ing food staples for their families sheltering at home, only mer or she’ll be depressed,” said to fi nd them sparsely stocked. But in Anna’s world, being her mother, Amy Carney. “Her out of avocados is an emergency. best friends in life are her camp A month ago, I picked Anna up from Syracuse Univer- friends.” sity, where she is a senior fashion design major, because So far, so good for the Phoenix the school had shut down due to the coronavirus crisis. I teen. Her camp in Branson, Mo., was looking forward to the fi ve-hour drive home with her, has made no plans to cancel. But catching up and joking around. other kids looking forward to new or But she was in a mood. I listened to my audiobook. She beloved summer programs haven’t texted friends, ate trail mix and slept. been so lucky. At home, the rest of the family and I tiptoed around Some camps have already notifi ed Anna and her mood. Previous history had taught us that families they won’t open due to the normally playful, entertaining, vivacious and talented coronavirus crisis. Most, however, Anna could turn into a selfi sh, entitled, narcissistic prima are in wait-and-see mode. donna at a moment’s notice. As a kid, she had milked her “Right now it’s such a dynamic victimhood as the middle child, so we knew the global situation,” said Tom Rosenberg, pandemic had given her a new excuse for self-pity. JCC ASSOCIATION/AP president and CEO of the American Admittedly, she was getting daily emails from her Camp Association. “The camps A camper tries a wooden climbing wall at JCC Abrams Camps in East school containing very bad news, so we kept our distance. themselves are trying to be adapt- Windsor Township, N.J. This year’s summer camps face uncertainty. “My Senior Fashion Show was canceled! I’ve been able and fl exible as more informa- working on my collection for two years! I won’t have photos for my portfolio!” she wailed. “My friends had so tion becomes available.” Young people, along with others, running a smaller program? many fun things planned for our senior spring! Now we’ll With the start of the season ap- can be silent carriers. Todd Rothman, who owns never see each other again!” she moaned. “Graduation is proaching, many camps are moni- More than 22 camps have plans to Deerkill Day Camp in New York’s postponed! It won’t be the same! I wanted a party!” she pivot to “online camp” this sum- Rockland County, is also plan- toring the pandemic’s progress, and barked. “Fashion industry sales are predicted to drop mer, including some for kids with ning as if he’ll open, possibly with crunching the numbers on potential 30%! Internships and jobs openings are being canceled! special health needs. Other camps a delayed start. He usually opens mass refunds. Some parents have What am I gonna do?!” she bellyached. “Who ate my held off putting money down, with are looking at limiting fi eld trips June 29, serving about 800 campers and visitors’ days, or pushing back turmeric quinoa bowl! You know gluten gives me infl am- camps extending deadlines for through the summer. mation! And how many times do I have to ask — can start dates. enrollment. If he can’t run buses, he may someone please buy oat milk?! Ugh!” she blared. Day camps reliant on mass bus- Virginia is the only state with a ask families to drive their children When we weren’t hiding, we cautiously teased Anna, ing have the added worry of bans on stay-at-home edict that stretches to and from camp. Some campers nicknaming her “Pandanna” to signal that our other- crowded buses. into June. But regardless of whether travel up to 45 minutes each way. wise lovable family member was temporarily under the The thought of no camp is a dark such orders continue, are imposed “We’d probably lose half to three- infl uence of an infl ated sense of importance during the one for parents already frazzled by anew or lifted, will parents feel quarters of our families if they have pandemic. taking on home school and keeping comfortable that the coronavirus to drive,” Rothman said. Our tiptoeing continued for three weeks while we shel- kids entertained during lockdown. threat has lessened enough to make Rothman has had only two fami- tered at home, until the tension reached its peak. While The prospect is just as bleak for camp safe? lies cancel. They were refunded carrying laundry upstairs, I found Anna and her sister, camp directors. Thomas Bradbury in Augusta, their balances, and their $500 Lilly, locked in a circular argument. Something about Maine, has two girls, ages 8 and 12. “It’s an existential threat to not deposits per child were rolled over “never want to hang out” and “always on your phone” and He has already paid for camp but be able to operate,” Rosenberg said. to next year. “literally a thousand times” and “so selfi sh” and a lot of “What we do know is, kids need has no idea how summer will play Doron Krakow, president and that adjective that rhymes with “itchy.” camp more than ever.” out. CEO of the JCC Association of “Lilly, Anna is under a lot of pressure and needs her According to industry estimates, “I feel a mix of unease and ir- North America, said about 150 day space. Anna, even though you are stressed about gradu- the U.S. has more than 14,000 year- responsibility sending them to any camps and 25 overnight camps in ation and your future, it doesn’t give you the right to be round and summer camps serving summer camps,” he said. “Preven- the U.S. and Canada are operated [ rhymes with “itchy”] to your family,” I said. 20 million campers annually. by Jewish community centers that The next day, Anna was in the kitchen making a salad tion is better than cure, and I want Geoff Blanck owns and operates to do my bit to help prevent this fall under his nonprofi t’s umbrella. for our family dinner. This rare act — preparing food for the Forest Lake Camps in New more than just herself — showed that she was making an virus spreading any more than it York’s Adirondacks region, serving Between them, the camps serve needs to.” about 100,000 young people every effort to be nice. As the rest of the family sidled past each 150 to 175 campers at a time. He’s other between the sink, refrigerator and cabinets to set Most camps have long dealt with proceeding with preparations for summer and are a big part of the disease outbreaks and critters like community centers’ annual income. the table, Anna sliced radishes and cucumbers in silence. this season, scheduled to start June Then I realized that she was crying. lice. Screening and health protocols 28. In the South, summer camp exist. But Tracey Gaslin’s phone usually starts at the end of May. “What is it, honey?” I asked, reaching for her arms. His staff of 70 is hired, the water Fat, glossy tears tumbled down Anna’s cheeks. “It hasn’t stopped ringing in recent will be turned on soon and cleanup That means staff would be headed days. She’s the executive director to camp in a few short weeks for all happened so fast. If I had known what I was going has begun. Seven weeks costs to miss, I would have made the best of my senior year of the Association of Camp Nurs- orientation. $8,300. before the virus outbreak. But it’s too late; we’re never ing, which advises nurses and camp “There’s genuine concern about “We’re telling families, if we’re going back to school. I might not fi nd a job. It’s all so hard directors. how safe and responsible” that not able to run camp because of to accept.” “We’re encouraging camps to would be, Krakow said. COVID-19, you’ll get a 100% refund. I hugged my daughter, said it would be OK, and told her work on Plan A, with the hope of We know it will be devastating for Gaslin, meanwhile, is putting her she would have to use her unique imagination to create having camp, but you also need us fi nancially if we’re not able to trust in public health offi cials and alternative experiences. to be working on Plan B and Plan run, but morally it’s simply the right beefed-up attention to hand-wash- “Pandanna” wasn’t throwing another selfi sh tantrum. C,” she said. “It could be virtual thing to do,” Blanck said. “This is ing and other preventive measures. This was Anna, overwhelmed with the genuine sense of camping. It could be camping with our extended family.” She’s been running webinars on loss that has been earned by every 2020 graduate — the limited numbers. Who knows?” So far, just one family has can- screening protocols for when kids Class of COVID-19. Certainly, these young men and A new Centers for Disease Con- celed, with a promise to return next hop on buses and when they check women are talented enough, resourceful enough and trol and Prevention report shows year. in at camp. That includes tempera- strong enough to overcome this challenge. But there’s no that fever, cough and shortness One of the most diffi cult things ture checks and questions about tiptoeing around it — they’ve earned the right to cry. of breath were the most common has been families delaying enroll- exposure. Read more of Lisa Smith Molinari’s columns at: symptoms of the virus in kids, but ment, Blanck said. Will there be a “All we can do is mitigate risk,” themeatandpotatoesoflife.com occur less often than in adults. rush come June, or will he wind up she said. Email: [email protected] PAGE 36 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 WEEKEND: CROSSWORD AND COMICS NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

GUNSTON STREET RESULTS FOR ABOVE PUZZLE

“Gunston Street” is drawn by Basil Zaviski. Email him at [email protected], and visit gunstonstreet.com. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 37 FACES Celebs ‘All In’ Athletes, entertainers donating prizes for raffle to help needy

BY TOM CANAVAN This list is growing, said Rubin, Associated Press who came up with the idea two weeks ago. With factories closed, tens of “I had two goals from the sec- millions out of work and a re- ond this popped in my mind,” cession looming because of the Rubin told The Associated Press coronavirus pandemic, athletes, on Wednesday. “The first was to teams, entertainers and business feed as many people as possible. leaders are donating prized pos- It was such an important cause sessions in response to a chal- and need. The second thing was, lenge to feed families suddenly in I love a good come together ... to need. have every athlete and actor come The “All In Challenge” was together, the sports and entertain- started by Philadelphia 76ers ment worlds coming together. To partner Michael Rubin on Tues- me, that is incredibly special.” TONY AVELAR/AP day, and some of the biggest Rubin said all the money raised Peyton Manning, left, tees off Feb. 7 as his brother Eli Manning, right, stands nearby during a golf names in sports and entertain- will go directly to one of four or- tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif. Peyton Manning plans to play a round of golf and have dinner with an ment have answered the call. ganizations that feed the hun- All In Challenge raffle winner . His recently retired brother, Eli, offered a Corvette to the raffle. After 24 hours, there was al- gry: Feeding America, Meals On ready an impressive roster of A- Wheels, World Central Kitchen by computer. game jersey and shoes, and din- his idea past and his response listers offering prizes. and No Kid Hungry. Other prizes are being ner with him. That package is in was, “I’m in.” They include quarterbacks Tom A billionaire who made his auctioned. the auction with the opening bid Rubin asked him if he was Brady and Peyton and Eli Man- money with an e-commerce com- Those who answered the chal- at $50,000. serious. ning; musicians Justin Bieber, pany he started in 2011, Rubin has lenge were required to post a Peyton Manning plans to play a “He said: ‘I don’t need the car. Meek Mill and Robin Thicke; ac- donated what might be the big- video about their donation and ex- round of golf with the winner and I need to do what helps people tors Robert De Niro, Leonardo gest prize. The winner of a digital plain why they chose their prize. two guests, and then go to a res- eat,’ ” said Rubin, whose job DiCaprio, Kevin Hart and Mat- raffle will receive a Super Bowl Rubin said donations topped $4 taurant for dinner with the win- brings him in contact with people thew McConaughey; director experience with 20 friends, along million by midday Wednesday. ner and 10 guests. His recently in the sports and entertainment Martin Scorsese; TV hosts Ellen with tickets to the NBA Finals, His goal is to collect donations retired brother, Eli, offered the industries on a daily basis. DeGeneres and Ryan Seacrest; Stanley Cup Final, World Series, in the tens of millions of dollars, Corvette he received as the MVP Hart is offering a speaking role TikTok stars Charli and Dixie Masters, Final Four, tennis’ U.S. and his dream objective is $100 of the New York Giants’ Super in his next movie. DeGeneres and D’Amelio; basketball Hall of Open, the Daytona 500 and the million. Bowl win over the Patriots in Seacrest plan to have their win- Famer Magic Johnson; Chicago Olympic opening ceremonies. Brady, who left New England to February 2012. ners as co-hosts on their shows. Cubs infielder Anthony Rizzo and Entries for Rubin’s prize can sign with Tampa Bay after win- Meek Mill is auctioning his Longhorns superfan McCo- retired baseball star Alex Rodri- be purchased in amounts of $10, ning six Super Bowls with the 2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom. Bid- naughey is offering a sideline ex- guez; and several NFL, NHL and $25, $50 and $100. The winning Patriots, offered tickets to the ding starts at $200,000. perience at a University of Texas NBA teams. ticket will be selected randomly Buccaneers’ home opener, his Mill was the person Rubin ran football game.

Tower of Power’s Castillo Rachael Ray still cooking up suggests 6 hidden gems Since cutting its first record 50 years contributions from her home ago, Tower of Power has released such clas- BY KELLI KENNEDY funds for laid off restaurant workers, say- sic cuts as “You’re Still a Young Man,” “So Associated Press ing she wanted to “help people more than Very Hard to Go,” “Don’t Change Horses just, ‘hey, here’s three things you can do (in the Middle of a Stream)” and “What Is Rachael Ray had big plans for the quar- with canned tuna’.” Hip?” Yet the famed Oakland, Calif., soul- antine break at her home in upstate New Half the money will go to animal res- funk act also has many hidden gems. York. She envisioned “a Renaissance cue. The animal lover says “a lot of the We asked Tower of Power bandleader time,” rereading the classics, resuming shelters can’t afford to keep going; there’s Emilio Castillo to name some of his favorite her Danish lessons and studying Italian. no workers. Animals are in crisis too.” lesser-known tunes from the band’s song- “I was going to get more serious about “The more you earn in life, the more book. Here are his picks and comments: my painting. I had all these lofty goals ... you owe in service and the more you owe “Of the Earth” (from “Bump City,” and none of that’s happening,” the popu- to your community,” said Ray. “It is our 1972) lar daytime talk show host told The Asso- absolute responsibility to take care of “I just love the vibe, the vocals, and the ciated Press in a phone interview. each other.” message of this tune!” “We have never worked this hard in That’s the answer she gives when asked “Both Sorry Over Nothin’ ” (from our entire lives,” said Ray, who is taping why she’s donating so much — and also “Tower of Power,” 1973) “#STAYHOME With Rachael” two days that she’s afraid of her mother. “To me, this song has the Memphis a week from her home. No, she’s not afraid that she might con- sound that we always loved with an Oak- Her husband, John Cusimano, is now tract the virus, she’s “absolutely scared to land bump to it on the ride out.” the cameraman, producer, cocktail maker death” of the 85-year-old tough Sicilian “Just When We Start Makin’ It” (from and musical guest. Their beloved pit bull who lives across the street. “Back to Oakland,” 1974) Isaboo accounts for the entire studio audi- “I’m scared because she’s tough,” Ray “To this day, still one of my most favorite ence, she jokes. said. “She wants a daily update of what ballads Tower ever did.” She wears sweats and no makeup, cook- you’re doing to help the world. In detail.” “I Believe In Myself” (from “Urban Re- RACHAEL RAY SHOW/AP ing low-budget meals based around pantry Ray grew up cleaning shrimp and help- newal,” 1975) staples like chickpeas and pasta, offering ing out in her mother’s restaurant kitch- Rachael Ray cooks in her home kitchen “A great positive message, groovin’ a refreshing peek into her kitchen — she en. They spent holidays alongside police in upstate New York. Ray is taping rhythm track and soulful vocals.” misplaces the garlic sometimes — and a and firefighters feeding hungry families. “#STAYHOME With Rachael” two days a “It’s So Nice” (from “Ain’t Nothin’ Stop- comforting smile. Their family celebrated the following week from her home. pin’ Us Now,” 1976) “This is a weird time. I can’t say there’s day. “Vocally one of my faves. Good song to a silver lining ... but there are found mo- “Every holiday was like that. You had to parsley. Her husband plays a mini banjo cruise in your car to on summer night.” ments every day,” she said at the start of be of service.” concert for Isaboo a few times a day. “You Can’t Fall Up (You Just Fall Down)” the first at home show. In rare down moments, Ray catches up “It feels so good to get on the phone and (from “Monster on a Leash,” 1991) She recently announced that her orga- with friends by phone and cooks Moroc- kibitz and share,” she said. “I just like “I just love the crafty lyrics ... and the nizations will donate $4 million to several can couscous in bone stock for her dog, how much we’re using the old-fashioned horn arrangement is world-class.” charities including food banks and relief garnishing it with carrot tops, mint and telephone.” — The Mercury News PAGE 38 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 AMERICAN ROUNDUP A rrest made in theft of Arboretum bronze gates

SEATTLE — Seattle WA police on Monday ar- rested a 47-year-old man who is allegedly behind the theft of two ornamental bronze gates that stood since the 1970s at the en- trance to the Washington State Arboretum . The gates, which were com- missioned in 1971 and designed by renowned sculptor George Tsutakawa, were reported stolen March 19 after gardeners dis- covered the gates missing and bolt cutters on the ground . Two people tried to sell the gates to a recycling center on March 20, but the business refused to buy them, according to police. Police questioned a man who said he drove the suspect to the recycling center and later dropped him off at a homeless encampment, according to the probable cause statement. Detec- tives found remnants of one gate under a box truck in the encamp- ment, the statement says. Police have also located the second gate, which was largely intact. W oman gives stimulus check to food pantry

BAY ST. LOUIS — A MS woman donated the $1,200 relief check she received from the federal government to a Mississippi food pantry amid the coronavirus pandemic. LYNNE SLADKY/AP Sheron Lambert gave the one- time stimulus payment to the Hancock County Food Pantry, Home workout not a stretch WLOX-TV reported Tuesday. People work out on their balcony in a high-rise during the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday in Miami. People who have been cooped up inside The checks are part of the $2.2 as their companies mandate work-at-home policies and have seen their fitness centers shut down are getting creative with their workouts. trillion economic recovery bill that will give $1,200 to individu- los Campos said Steed was try- als and $2,400 to married couples. Ice on expressway leads THE CENSUS ing to go to the bank when she Parents are also set to receive an to 50-vehicle pileup ignored orders from Officer Joel additional $500 per child. The amount Colorado regulators on Monday Paul Curtis Richardson, who was Lambert said she doesn’t need fined an Occidental Petroleum Corp. subsid- CHICAGO — Portions of working an off-duty job assisting the money and gifted it to the iary for a fatal 2017 house explosion linked to IL a Chicago expressway left with traffic. pantry to help feed hungry people $18M a severed oil and gas well flowline. The fine for icy by a wintry blast that brought Kerr-McGee Corp. was the largest ever levied by Richardson tried to remove in the county. “That’s what we all overnight snowfall led to a pileup the state against an energy company, The Denver Post reported. Federal investiga- Steed from the car after she hit need to do,” she said. “Open our involving dozens of vehicles early tors said the explosion in Firestone happened after lines then owned by Anadarko him, but she bit him on the hand, hearts first.” Wednesday, sending 14 people to Petroleum likely were severed during the home’s construction. Kerr-McGee was a Campos said . hospitals, officials said. Suit: Overturned bounce subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum, which was later purchased by Occidental. The About 50 vehicles were in- blast killed Mark Martinez and Joey Irwin. Erin Martinez, Mark Martinez’ wife and Authorities help replace house trapped kids volved in the 5 a.m. pileup along Irwin’s sister, was badly burned. the Kennedy Expressway, the girl’s alpaca on Easter SANTA FE — A Chicago Fire Department said. PATRIOT — A young Santa Fe woman is The crash prompted Illinois State NM from an unknown passing truck, hicle back to Flagstaff and was girl who lost her pet al- suing Meow Wolf after she says Police to temporarily close all OH investigators said . Officials didn’t seen driving erratically and caus- paca after the animal was killed her children were injured when of the expressway’s southbound immediately say what would hap- ing damage to property, authori- during a drive-by shooting in wind overturned the arts and lanes near Chicago’s North Av- pen to the injured cows. ties said. Ohio was gifted another one from entertainment company’s rented enue, and multiple northbound Sheriff’s deputies were called local authorities. bounce house. lanes were also closed . when the dump truck got stuck Josie Blazer, 5, of Patriot, was The Santa Fe New Mexican Man charged in theft of in the mud. Littlefield barricaded surprised to find a 6-month-old reported that attorneys for Anita Police: Highway closed dump truck, standoff inside for about an hour and then alpaca Easter morning, the Gal- Vargas didn’t say in court docu- after cows fell off truck was taken into custody . lipolis Daily Tribune reported ments how the children were hurt FLAGSTAFF — A Monday. The alpaca that died had at the 2018 block party but alleged Flagstaff man is facing DADE CITY — Inter- AZ been given to Josie as a present that the children were trapped multiple charges after stealing a Supervisor accused of FL state 75 in Florida was following her battle with cancer. underneath the bounce house. dump truck and then barricad- hitting officer with car shut down for about two hours Four Season Veterinary Clin- The case was filed in state dis- ing himself inside the vehicle, au- after six cows, three dead and ic found a replacement alpaca trict court this week. thorities said. ATLANTA — An At- three injured, were found along for Josie, and the Gallia County After the episode, Vargas the highway, authorities said. Coconino County Sheriff’s of- lanta police supervisor GA Sheriff’s Office delivered the pet. posted a picture on Facebook of Troopers responded just be- ficials said Tyler Littlefield, 27, hit a fellow officer with her car The sheriff’s office had re- her son, showing his bruised and fore 11 a.m. Tuesday to a call of has been booked into jail on sus- while he was directing traffic and sponded to a call on April 7. A bloody face. several cows near the north and picion of theft, criminal damage then bit him, authorities said. pickup truck had reportedly Amazing Jumps LLC, the Al- southbound lanes of I-75, just and resisting arrest. Littlefield Lt. Sharonne Annette Steed stopped along a road , and some- buquerque business that owned north of Tampa, according to a is accused of stealing the dump was charged last Friday with one fatally shot one of the two the bounce house, also is named Florida Highway Patrol news re- truck from a Flagstaff landscape obstruction, aggravated assault, alpacas belonging to the Blazer as a defendant in the lawsuit. The lease. The Pasco County Sheriff’s company last Saturday. battery and violation of oath by a family. The sheriff’s office said company declined to comment on Office and the Florida Fish and Authorities say he then drove it public officer, The Atlanta Jour- the shooter or shooters have been the pending litigation Monday. Wildlife Conservation Commis- to Grey Mountain, where he stole nal-Constitution reported. Steed identified and will be charged. A spokesperson for Meow Wolf sion also responded. items from a convenience store. turned herself in Tuesday. also didn’t respond to emails. The cows appear to have fallen Littlefield then drove the ve- Atlanta police spokesman Car- From wire reports Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 39 PAGE 40 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 41 PAGE 42 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 OPINION Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher Lt. Col. Sean Klimek, Europe commander Lt. Col. Richard McClintic, Pacific commander Put Americans back to work fighting the virus Caroline E. Miller, Europe Business Operations BY TRACY WALSH contact tracers to contain the coronavirus. Eradicating the coronavirus would require Joshua M. Lashbrook, Pacific Chief of Staff Bloomberg Opinion That’s a lot of manpower. fewer workers, but the employment situa- Digital tools, such as apps used in Singa- tion is, for now, no less dire. And impor- EDITORIAL illions of Americans have lost pore and South Korea to automatically alert tantly, containing the virus would allow their jobs since mid-March, people who have been exposed to the coro- the U.S. economy to return to normal as Terry Leonard, Editor when the coronavirus started navirus, can augment human labor — but scientists work on a vaccine. [email protected] Mspreading around the country. they can’t replace it. This is especially true Many temporary contact tracers could Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing Editor Many won’t be able to return to work until in the U.S., where stronger privacy pro- return to their jobs once the crisis abates. [email protected] the outbreak is contained. Meanwhile, tections and weaker quarantine authority For others, it could be a stepping stone to a there’s a proven strategy for contain- limit technology’s reach. The high-profile career in public health, where workers are Managing Editor for Content Tina Croley, ing infectious diseases, which is notori- contact-tracing program under develop- desperately needed, because more than [email protected] ously difficult to carry out because it’s so ment by Apple and Google will operate on 50,000 public-health jobs evaporated dur- Sean Moores, Managing Editor for Presentation labor-intensive. an opt-in basis — which could limit its use ing the Great Recession. By one estimate [email protected] Why don’t we solve both problems at substantially. As Dr. Farzad Mostashari the U.S. is short a quarter-million such once? put it , “How do you get virtually everyone workers — who will need to be hired if we Joe Gromelski, Managing Editor for Digital With “contact tracing,” a mainstay of want to avoid future pandemics. [email protected] to put an always-on app on their phones infectious disease control, health workers that tracks their contacts, eats battery, and Expanding contact tracing is one of many identify people who have been infected, doesn’t do anything to delight them?” ways to shore up the public-health work- BUREAU STAFF contact them, learn who they may have ex- So state and local health departments force. Lawmakers from both parties have posed, and reach out to those people to limit should start thinking about how they can called for a Public Health Infrastructure Europe/Mideast the spread. Right now, the coronavirus is scale up their work forces. A pilot pro- Fund, which would raise $13 per person to Erik Slavin, Europe & Mideast Bureau Chief ensure that the public-health system can [email protected] too widespread and testing too limited for gram in Massachusetts could serve as +49(0)631.3615.9350; DSN (314)583.9350 such a targeted approach to work. But once a model for others. The state is working meet its “foundational capacities.” That case numbers become more manageable, with Partners in Health — the Boston- would amount to $4.5 billion, a tiny frac- Pacific the U.S. will move away from what epi- based nonprofit best known for its work in tion of the money allocated for coronavirus Aaron Kidd, Pacific Bureau Chief relief so far. Partnerships with universi- [email protected] demiologists call the “population-based” Haiti — to some hire some 1,000 contact +81.42.552.2511 ext. 88380; DSN (315)227.7380 approach, which requires everybody to tracers. Since training will be provided, ties, nonprofits and businesses — such as self-isolate, and toward one focused on these entry-level jobs are open to anyone Massachusetts’s — might offer another Washington containing individual cases. This will be with a high school education. The workers way for cash-strapped public-health agen- Joseph Cacchioli, Washington Bureau Chief the only way most of us can get back to will track the ill and exposed using a web- cies to scale up. [email protected] normal life without risking devastating based contact-management system, and Until there’s a vaccine for COVID-19 (+1)(202)886-0033 — with luck, sometime next year — coro- Brian Bowers, Assistant Managing Editor, News new outbreaks. ultimately connect them with testing and [email protected] It’s a strategy that’s been shown to work other services needed for quarantine, such navirus is going to be a problem. We have, against COVID-19 in New Zealand and as food delivery and even housing. broadly speaking, three choices. We could CIRCULATION Iceland. In the U.S., health officials use it In return, entry-level contact tracers maintain shelter-in-place indefinitely, dev- to contain mumps and other diseases. But will earn $27 per hour. That’s considerably astating the economy. We could end it for Mideast in the current crisis, the U.S. doesn’t have more than the state minimum wage, but everyone, leading to more outbreaks and Robert Reismann, Mideast Circulation Manager enough public-health workers to do the job. given the importance of fighting the virus needless deaths. Or we could be strategic [email protected] — identifying the sick and at-risk through [email protected] Contact tracing helped snuff out Liberia’s — and relieving workers’ distress during DSN (314)583-9111 Ebola outbreak in 2014, but it took 4,000 this crisis — it will be money well spent. testing and tracing, suppressing outbreaks, building up our public health capacity, and Europe workers to protect the country’s 5 million Epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves recently citizens. Wuhan, China, a city of 11 mil- called for “a WPA for public health,” refer- keeping laid-off workers employed until Karen Lewis, Community Engagement Manager the economy has recovered enough to re- [email protected] lion, reportedly needed 9,000 contact trac- ring to the Depression-era program that [email protected] ers to suppress COVID-19. Estimates vary, employed millions to build roads, parks absorb them. The choice is easy. +49(0)631.3615.9090; DSN (314)583.9090 but the U.S. will need 100,000 to 300,000 and other projects that endure to this day. Tracy Walsh is an editor for Bloomberg Opinion. Pacific Mari Mori, [email protected] +81-3 6385.3171; DSN (315)227.7333 CONTACT US What a post-pandemic commission should look like

Washington BY KAREN TUMULTY But it is not too early to think about how health and human services secretary. Or tel: (+1)202.886.0003 The Washington Post one should work. Already, there are at Democrats Janet Napolitano, who after 633 3rd St. NW, Suite 116, Washington, DC 20001-3050 least four different proposals circulating governing Arizona was Obama’s homeland hat went wrong? Could the on Capitol Hill, and the concept is picking security secretary, and Kansas’s Kathleen Reader letters disaster that the coronavirus [email protected] up bipartisan support. Sebelius, who was at the helm of the Health pandemic has caused have Former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, the and Human Services Department during Additional contacts Wbeen prevented? And how can Republican who headed the 9/11 Commis- the Obama administration. stripes.com/contactus we make sure that nothing like it ever crip- sion, told me that the first and most impor- Kean said that it would also be impor- ples this country again? tant challenge for any commission would tant for a commission to demonstrate at OMBUDSMAN Those are the questions to which Ameri- be making sure the right people are on it. every step that it is conducting itself in a Ernie Gates cans will eventually deserve a straight an- Ideally, he said, they should be figures who truly bipartisan fashion. While he was swer — the kind that can come only from are respected across party lines and who running the 9/11 commission, Kean said, a credible, independent commission whose are not likely to seek political office in the The Stars and Stripes ombudsman protects the free flow he never made a decision without making of news and information, reporting any attempts by the mandate is finding out why the govern- future. sure his Democratic vice chairman, for- military or other authorities to undermine the newspaper’s ment was caught so unprepared. “Ultimately, it’s going to be important mer Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton, independence. The ombudsman also responds to concerns No doubt President Donald Trump, who that people appointed to the commission and questions from readers, and monitors coverage for fair- was on board. The commission also oper- ness, accuracy, timeliness and balance. The ombudsman is incapable of admitting a mistake and have a goal of doing service to their coun- ated under informal rules in which every welcomes comments from readers, and can be contacted recoils at oversight, will fight the idea. He try, not service to their political party,” by email at [email protected], or by phone at member was seated with someone of the will howl about hoaxes and witch hunts. agreed House Intelligence Committee other party on either side, and none agreed 202.886.0003. But such fact-finding inquiries have Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is to make television appearances unless they taken place after other national traumas sponsoring legislation that would set up a would be accompanied by a colleague from — Pearl Harbor, the John F. Kennedy as- Stars and Stripes (USPS 0417900) is published week- 10-member commission that would begin the other party. sassination and, most recently, the terror- days (except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1) for 50 cents Monday work next February. In addition to finding the truth, an in- through Thursday and for $1 on Friday by Pacific Stars and ist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And we owe There are two people ideally situated to quiry would also have to grapple with the Stripes, Unit 45002, APO AP 96301-5002. Periodicals no less to the tens of thousands who have lead the inquiry as its co-chairs: former postage paid at San Francisco, CA, Postmaster: Send crazy untruths that are being spread on address changes to Pacific Stars and Stripes, Unit 45002, lost a loved one, as well as the countless presidents George W. Bush and Barack social media and elsewhere. But that, too, APO AP 96301-5002. health care providers and other essential Obama. An inspiring precedent for this This newspaper is authorized by the Department of is hardly unprecedented. In the aftermath workers who were called upon to battle a was set in Bush’s own decision to recruit Defense for members of the military services overseas. of 9/11, as now, conspiracy theories were However, the contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, lethal enemy without proper protective his father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clin- and are not to be considered as the official views of, or equipment. ton — bitter rivals in the 1992 presidential rampant. Kean said that rather than ignor- endorsed by, the U.S. government. As a DOD newspaper, Whether our broken political system is election — to spearhead what became a ing them, he had his staff track down the Stars and Stripes may be distributed through official chan- source of each and every one — once send- nels and use appropriated funds for distribution to remote capable of finding — much less handling spectacularly successful international di- locations where overseas DOD personnel are located. — the truth is another question. Partisan- saster-relief effort. ing investigators as far as Saudi Arabia to The appearance of advertising in this publication does do it. not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense ship infects every conversation about the There are others who would help bring or Stars and Stripes of the products or services advertised. virus. Trump has also fostered a climate in a sense of high purpose to an independent With each day comes new and often con- Products or services advertised shall be made available for which expertise and even simple facts are inquiry. tradictory information about how the coun- purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color, try got to the dark and terrifying place that religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical regarded with suspicion by his defenders. Start with some who have served both as handicap, political affiliation or any other nonmerit factor Realistically, a commission cannot get governors and in high-ranking executive- it is in. Not until we are able to sort out why of the purchaser, user or patron. underway until we have turned the corner branch jobs in Washington. Among them will we have confidence that we’ll never © Stars and Stripes 2020 on this epidemic. Nor does it seem feasible are Republicans Mitch Daniels of Indiana, find ourselves here again. for one to start until after the November who was George W. Bush’s budget director, Karen Tumulty is a Washington Post columnist stripes.com election is behind us. and Utah’s Mike Leavitt, who was Bush’s covering national politics. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 43 OPINION

seniors generally go in the opposite direc- What newspapers tion, slowly raising the retirement age to, say, 67. Sixty-five isn’t what it used to be. In 1970, life expectancy in the U.S. was are saying at home 70.8. Now it’s about eight years longer. By lowering the age of eligibility instead, The following editorial excerpts are se- Biden would begin shifting Medicare’s lected from a cross section of newspapers focus from seniors to everybody else. Don’t throughout the United States. The editori- worry about the funding, he insists, since als are provided by The Associated Press the extra costs would be “financed out of and other stateside syndicates. general revenues.” Biden’s new left turn on student loans is Postal Service is showing its equally sharp. His old agenda had three big line items. Amid the coronavirus pan- worth. Show it some support. demic, he would cancel $10,000 for each The Boston Globe debtor. Up to $50,000 more could be for- Last month, U.S. Postal Service workers given over five years for people “working delivered “President Trump’s Coronavi- in schools, government, and other non- rus Guidelines for America” to households profit settings.” Income-based repayment across the country. But Donald Trump, plans would get more generous: Instead of of course, has no interest in helping the taking 10% of the borrower’s discretionary agency he relied on to get out his message earnings, it would be 5%, with the balance and feels no patriotic duty to support postal written off after 20 years. workers who are on the front lines of es- Last week Biden added another bullet: sential service delivery during the corona- Cancel all federal undergraduate tuition virus pandemic, putting their own health debt for many borrowers who went to pub- at risk to supply all Americans with medi- lic schools, including four-year universi- cine, supplies and information. sis should not be used to achieve political the restrictions have slowed the disease’s ties. This forgiveness would be given to Instead, the Trump administration has aims.” march. Meanwhile, Trump has his own anyone who earns $125,000 a year or less. a long-range plan to privatize the Postal He’s right . Trump has now threatened political motives for wanting to get the It is not quite Sanders’ plan to zero out Service. In the meantime, the president to veto any stimulus package that includes country’s commercial engine up and run- every last penny of student debt, but it is wrongly blames longstanding financial funding to shore up the agency. Congress ning again: It’s tough for a president to win a huge move in that direction. How much problems on a package delivery deal the should call his bluff, and do what it takes reelection in the midst of a recession. would it cost? There’s no explanation. U.S. Postal Service has with Amazon. That to save the U.S. Postal Service or make the Yet the hard medical reality is that we Biden is trying to make his candidacy leaves any rescue plan up to Congress. president pay the political consequences of can’t keep the virus from exploding again alluring to fans of Sanders, the socialist Unless lawmakers step in, the Trump ad- signing its death warrant. until we know who has it, where they have who called for a “political revolution.” The ministration and a drop in mail volume been, whom they come into contact with trouble for Biden in November will be sell- connected to COVID-19 just might accom- Trump wants to reopen the and who has become immune — and only ing suburbanites on his new proposal for plish what the Internet threatened to do: then if we have an adequate supply of an ef- Medicare for All on the installment plan. kill a universal delivery service that traces states, but we’re not there yet fective treatment for the disease it causes. its roots back to the birth of this nation. Los Angeles Times That means being able to test for COVID- Prep for US mail-in voting now The U.S. Postal Service lost business Columnist Holman Jenkins offered an 19 at a scale we’re not even approaching over the years, as personal letter-writing analogy in The Wall Street Journal last today. That means having a widespread to make it an effective option was overtaken by electronic communica- weekend that captures the conundrum ability to screen people regularly for the The Washington Post tion — which has also put dents in com- created by the U.S. response to COVID-19. antibodies that demonstrate immunity. “Republicans should fight very hard mon business communications like billing “Imagine a problem that can be solved That means having technologies and pro- when it comes to state wide mail-in vot- and payments. The agency also bears the by holding your head underwater,” Jen- tocols to identify, notify, quarantine and ing,” President Donald Trump tweeted burden of a huge pension liability, due to kins wrote, “but stops being solved when test all the people who’ve recently come last week. Mail-in voting, he explained, a congressional mandate that it pre-fund you lift your head out.” In other words, the into contact with each person newly diag- “doesn’t work out well for Republicans.” its benefit obligations. But the concept of stay-at-home measures adopted to protect nosed with COVID-19. The relevant question, though, is not universal delivery is still important in this against the outbreak are damaging in their A much more realistic announcement whether mail-in voting would “work out” country, especially in rural areas. Postal own right, and not a cure for the disease. about the path back to normalcy was the for Republicans, but whether it would work workers deliver medicines, packages or- In fact, there is no known cure, just a one Monday by the governors of Califor- out for American democracy during the dered online, and communications from number of drug therapies being tested nia, Oregon and Washington, three early coronavirus crisis. If Trump has a better the government — including Trump’s coro- and vaccines in development. That’s why adopters of tough social distancing rules alternative, he should present it. navirus guidelines. Voting by mail could it’s so disturbing to hear President Donald that have dramatically slowed the spread of Public health experts continue to warn also play a role in November’s presidential Trump assert, as he did again Monday, that COVID-19. The governors said they would Americans not to leave the house unnec- election, as the contagion forces states to he has the power to “open up the states,” work together to develop “a shared ap- essarily, and certainly not to pack into a explore alternatives to in-person balloting. presumably by lifting the restrictions on proach for reopening our economies — one polling place with many other people. Last Today, the rapid drop in mail volume movement and commerce. that identifies clear indicators for commu- week’s disastrous election in Wisconsin connected to the coronavirus could be “When somebody’s the president of the nities to restart public life and business.” provides a peek at what happens when Re- “catastrophic” to that agency, Rep. Ger- United States, the authority is total,” Trump It’s more a statement of principles than a publicans “fight very hard” against mail- ald Connolly, D-Va., who chairs the House said at Monday’s coronavirus briefing. “It’s blueprint for action at the moment, but the in balloting, the way Trump suggested. Subcommittee on Government Operations, total. And the governors know that.” priorities laid out are the right ones. Given the potential dangers of in-person told New Hampshire Public Radio. With Oh please. Trump has a lot of influence Inevitably, moving back toward life be- voting, and the problems with online vot- business advertising halted, mail volume over the country’s response to COVID-19, fore the coronavirus will require decisions ing, a mass shift to mail-in voting is the could drop as much as 60% by the end of for better and worse. But thankfully, one about how much risk to take and who will most credible option during a time of social the year, he said. thing he cannot do is order states to change be most exposed to it. That’s a political de- distancing. States such as Colorado, Or- Last year, the U.S. Postal Service re- the restrictions they’ve put on the public to cision, not a medical one, even if it is in- egon, Washington, Hawaii and (deep-red) ported an $8.8 billion loss. According to safeguard health and safety — a core func- formed by medical experts (as it should Utah conduct all of their elections by mail. The New York Times, the Postal Service tion of state and local governments. be). And it’s a decision best made by offi- Though no system is immune from fraud, is projecting a $13 billion revenue short- As University of California, Berkeley cials closest to the people whose lives and they have not experienced major problems fall this fiscal year and predicts $54 bil- School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky livelihoods are at risk, not one man in the with illegal voting. Electoral fraud of all lion in losses over 10 years. To offset those explained in The Times last month, “no Oval Office. types is extremely rare across the nation. grim numbers, the Postal Service is asking federal law gives the president power to About 30 additional states allow people lawmakers to support an $89 billion relief order businesses to close or, for that mat- Biden’s promises to Sanders to vote absentee for any reason. Trump ad- package. However, the Trump administra- ter, to open.” Nor is this Congress going to mitted that he voted in last month’s Florida tion is fighting that request, and some Re- give this president that power. voters not well thought out primary by mail. No doubt many more publican lawmakers are resisting it, too. There’s no question that the coronavi- The Wall Street Journal voters will request absentee ballots in the At a recent press conference, Trump rus-fighting measures have flattened the So much for triangulating. After Bernie coming months, a move that states should said the Postal Service “is losing billions economy as they’ve flattened the curve Sanders suspended his presidential run last encourage by sending out mail-in ballot of dollars, and the taxpayers are paying of COVID-19. The restrictions have taken week, Joe Biden waited barely 24 hours be- applications to all registered voters. States for that money because it delivers pack- a huge toll on businesses and their work- fore racing to bolster his progressive bona will have to work out some kinks, ensur- ages for Amazon at a very below cost.” He ers, especially at retailers, services and fides. Biden said Thursday he plans to ing they have enough ballots to dispatch wants the agency to raise prices on Amazon manufacturers whose employees can’t make 60-year-olds eligible for Medicare, and machines to process them . Some poll- package delivery — a push that some see do their jobs from home. Unemployment while erasing undergraduate student debt ing locations must be kept open for people as punishment aimed at Amazon founder has climbed at unimaginable speed, and for middle-class borrowers. without fixed mailing addresses or with Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington as workers have lost income, the pain has For months, Biden has opposed Medi- vision problems. Simple measures such as Post, which often publishes articles that spread across the economy in the form of care for All, saying a better path would be ballot tracking can combat absentee ballot are critical of Trump. shrinking sales, unpaid bills and canceled to “build on” “Obamacare” with a “pub- fraud. Yet the president insists that only “At the end of the day, they have an outings. lic option.” If he really believed this, he groups that happen to be Republican-lean- agenda,” Mark Dimondstein, president of Some critics of the social distancing wouldn’t deprive his public option of 20 ing, such as seniors and military voters, the American Postal Workers Union, told measures are pushing Trump to act be- million potential customers. That’s rough- should be allowed to vote by mail. the Times. “Raise prices, reduce worker cause they believe the damage being in- ly the number of Americans ages 60 to 64 The only alternative appears to be the benefits and reduce service, make it ap- flicted to the economy is greater than the whom Biden now wants to let hop on Medi- Wisconsin model — that is, chaos — or pear more profitable and set it up for sale.” potential harm from the coronavirus — an care. Already Medicare is scheduled to be postponing elections. Neither is a legiti- Added Dimondstein: “The COVID cri- argument that has only gained steam as insolvent by 2026. Plans to shore it up for mate option, particularly come November. PAGE 44 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 45 SCOREBOARD/COLLEGE FOOTBALL/CYCLING

Sports on AFN Football dependent on campuses

Go to the American Forces Network website for the most up-to-date TV schedules. Commissioners: myafn.net No games until Deals students return Wednesday’s transactions FOOTBALL BY RALPH D. RUSSO National Football League Associated Press ATLANTA FALCONS — Agreed to terms with CB Josh Hawkins. CHICAGO BEARS — Signed DE Roy Rob- The commissioners of the ertson-Harris to a restricted free agent tender. nation’s major college football DETROIT LIONS — Released TE Paul conferences held a 30-minute Butler, WR Jonathan Duhart and LB Steve Longa. conference call Wednesday with KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — Signed RB Vice President Mike Pence and DeAndre Washington to a one-year con- tract. stressed that college sports can- BASKETBALL not return from the coronavirus Women’s National Basketball Association WASHINGTON MYSTICS — Acquired C shutdown until campuses have Tina Charles from New York in exchange reopened. for a first-round pick, 2021 first, second and third-round picks and G Shatori The 10 Walker-Kimbrough. HOCKEY commission- National Hockey League ers, along NASHVILLE PREDATORS — Signed D Alexandre Carrier to a three-year con- with the ath- tract. letic direc- tor of Notre Pro basketball Dame, com- prise the Col- NBA lege Football Playoff man- ALEX BRANDON/AP EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division Aresco agement The commissioners of the major college football conferences held a 30-minute conference call W L Pct GB committee. Toronto 46 18 .719 — Wednesday with Vice President Mike Pence, above, and stressed to him that college sports could not Boston 43 21 .672 3 “We were return from the coronavirus shutdown until college campuses have reopened. Philadelphia 39 26 .600 7½ Brooklyn 30 34 .469 16 able to talk about the differenc- New York 21 45 .318 26 es between us and professional The White House has said it that is the lifeblood for many ath- “We talked a little about Southeast Division Miami 41 24 .631 — sports,” American Athletic Con- is important to reopen the U.S. letic departments. whether there would be a na- Orlando 30 35 .462 11 ference Commissioner Mike Washington 24 40 .375 16½ economy, though the details on “(We) made the point we were tional policy because, obviously, Charlotte 23 42 .354 18 Aresco said. “We talked about how that will happen will be com- concerned and wanted to get back if governors have different poli- Atlanta 20 47 .299 22 Central Division how academics and college ath- plicated and likely involve local, to having kids attending college cies you’re going to have some is- Milwaukee 53 12 .815 — letics were inseparable.” state and federal guidelines on and opening up our colleges and sues,” Aresco said. “If California Indiana 39 26 .600 14 Chicago 22 43 .338 31 Big 12 Commissioner Bob safety. President Donald Trump universities,” Bowlsby said. “That isn’t allowing football and Ohio is Detroit 20 46 .303 33½ Bowlsby said Pence asked good has also been engaged with pro- until that happened, we weren’t that’s going to be issue for what is Cleveland 19 46 .292 34 WESTERN CONFERENCE questions and was “hopeful and fessional sports leagues with the going to be having any sports.” obviously a national enterprise.” Southwest Division W L Pct GB optimistic” about the fight against multibillion-dollar sports indus- The commissioners would like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United Houston 40 24 .625 — the coronavirus. The pandemic try on hold. major college football to start at State’s top infectious disease ex- Dallas 40 27 .597 1½ Memphis 32 33 .492 8½ has shut down all major sport- The college football season is the same time all over the coun- pert, said in a Snapchat interview New Orleans 28 36 .438 12 ing events since mid-March and scheduled to begin Labor Day try, which could be difficult de- it is unlikely sporting events can San Antonio 27 36 .429 12½ Northwest Division forced colleges to close campuses weekend, but many questions re- pending on how the pandemic happen this summer with large Denver 43 22 .662 — and move classes online. Utah 41 23 .641 1½ main to be answered for a sport fades. crowds in attendance. Oklahoma City 40 24 .625 2½ Portland 29 37 .439 14½ Minnesota 19 45 .297 23½ Pacific Division L.A. Lakers 49 14 .778 — L.A. Clippers 44 20 .688 5½ Sacramento 28 36 .438 21½ Tour de France hopes to make nation smile Phoenix 26 39 .400 24 Golden State 15 50 .231 35 All games postponed at least until mid-May. BY JEROME PUGMIRE ropean Athletics Champion- Associated Press ships, which are still set to be Pro hockey held in Paris from Aug. 25-30. PARIS — With the Tour de The Tour then ends on Paris’ NHL France pushed back to a late Au- famed Champs-Elysees avenue gust start, race director Christian on the same day the rescheduled EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division Prudhomme is hoping cycling’s French Open tennis tournament GP W L OT Pts GF GA showcase event can help bring Boston 70 44 14 12 100 227 174 starts a few miles away at Roland Tampa Bay 70 43 21 6 92 245 195 back a sense of normalcy to a na- Garros. Toronto 70 36 25 9 81 238 227 Florida 69 35 26 8 78 231 228 tion reeling from the coronavirus “A magnificent Indian Sum- Montreal 71 31 31 9 71 212 221 pandemic. Buffalo 69 30 31 8 68 195 217 mer,” Prudhomme said. Ottawa 71 25 34 12 62 191 243 Organizers on Wednesday an- A cooler one than Tour riders Detroit 71 17 49 5 39 145 267 Metropolitan Division nounced new dates of Aug. 29- are used to, as well. The tempera- Washington 69 41 20 8 90 240 215 Sept. 20 for the race, a day after it Philadelphia 69 41 21 7 89 232 196 tures in September aren’t likely to Pittsburgh 69 40 23 6 86 224 196 was postponed. And Prudhomme be as hot as in July, meaning rid- Carolina 68 38 25 5 81 222 193 Columbus 70 33 22 15 81 180 187 is still optimistic that the three- ers may have a bit more energy N.Y. Islanders 68 35 23 10 80 192 193 week event will be able to feature on those tough mountain climbs. N.Y. Rangers 70 37 28 5 79 234 222 New Jersey 69 28 29 12 68 189 230 its usual scenes of thousands of “Of course that’s totally pos- WESTERN CONFERENCE fans packed along the route each sible, because in mid-September Central Division /AP GP W L OT Pts GF GA day. CHRISTOPHE ENA there won’t be a heat wave up in St. Louis 71 42 19 10 94 225 193 Colorado 70 42 20 8 92 237 191 “Lots of people smiling, getting A spectator sits next to a banner reading “Thank you to the Tour de the Alps,” Prudhomme said. Dallas 69 37 24 8 82 180 177 back to the lives we love,” Prud- Winnipeg 71 37 28 6 80 216 203 France” during the 18th stage of the cycling race last July 25. The The Tour was set to start on Nashville 69 35 26 8 78 215 217 homme told The Associated Press start of this year’s Tour has been pushed back to Aug. 29. June 27, but those plans were Minnesota 69 35 27 7 77 220 220 Chicago 70 32 30 8 72 212 218 in a phone interview. “Usually we scrapped on Tuesday because Pacific Division like to complain and moan about Prudhomme said organizers While there is a big gaping hole Vegas 71 39 24 8 86 227 211 of coronavirus restrictions. The Edmonton 71 37 25 9 83 225 217 things. Then, when they’re gone opted against having the start in in the global sporting calendar International Cycling Union an- Calgary 70 36 27 7 79 210 215 Vancouver 69 36 27 6 78 228 217 we realize what we’re missing. early August, saying it was wiser for the coming months, the sched- nounced the Tour’s new dates on Arizona 70 33 29 8 74 195 187 The Tour de France will likely to push back “as far away as pos- ule in France is suddenly looking Wednesday. Anaheim 71 29 33 9 67 187 226 Los Angeles 70 29 35 6 64 178 212 be the first big sporting event of sible from the pandemic” in the very busy. AP sports writers Samuel Petrequin in San Jose 70 29 36 5 63 182 226 2020. So there will be fervor and hope that social distancing re- The start of the Tour in Nice All games postponed at least until Brussels and Graham Dunbar in Geneva early May. enthusiasm.” strictions will have eased. overlaps with the end of the Eu- contributed. PAGE 46 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 COLLEGE FOOTBALL/AUTO RACING NCAA trying to plan for upcoming season

BY MITCH STACY Associated Press DID YOU KNOW ?

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Spring Losing football would be a football was shelved because of devastating finaincial blow to the coronavirus. There is still the NCAA and college athletics plenty of work going on in college football. programs. Top football programs With the pandemic casting like those at Ohio State and uncertainty on the 2020 season, Alabama pump millions into their programs are starting to wrestle athletic department budgets, with two weighty issues: Getting funding less lucrative sports. The ready to play some kind of season NCAA has already announced a if it is safe to do so and trying to cut of $375 million in funding that manage what for many would be would normally be distributed to a substantial financial blow if the various programs from the NCAA season is shortened or canceled. tournaments that were canceled. The NCAA two weeks ago formed a working group to look SOURCE: Associated Press at issues such as how much pre- WILL LESTER/AP season practice and conditioning spend more time on the field. So would be required once play is I don’t know that increasing that Jimmie Johnson carries his youngest daughter Lydia while trailed by his oldest daughter Genevieve and green-lighted again. The NCAA is going to be beneficial in getting wife Chandra befpre a NASCAR Cup Series race on March 1 in Fontana, Calif. Johnson wanted to retire said “it is premature to establish people ready to play.” from full-time racing after this season, but the coronavirus pandemic has brought his final season to an a timeline for when these scenar- On the financial side, losing unexpected pause, and now the seven-time champion isn’t sure what his future holds. ios may be put into place.” football would be a devastating Ohio State athletic director blow. Ohio State and other top Gene Smith said the discussion is football programs pump millions just beginning on prepare-to-play into their athletic department issues after most programs had budgets, funding less lucrative Johnson finds farewell spring football practice shortened sports. The NCAA is also slash- or wiped out and had to deal with ing $375 million that would nor- their spring sports being called to mally be distributed to various a halt. programs from the NCAA tour- “Do we feel we need a longer naments that were canceled. period of time to help them physi- Georgia Tech has made no cuts cally get back into the grind?” to staffers’ salaries, but said an season stuck in limbo Smith said last week. “Maybe you early estimate of losses blamed need two weeks straight without on the pandemic will exceed $3 pads. I don’t know that. That’s million. Wisconsin deputy ath- BY JENNA FRYER By the numbers Johnson, now 44 and father of two where the collaborative of the letic director Chris McIntosh es- Associated Press active young girls, doesn’t want medical people and the strength timated the Badgers lost some $4 to live in a motorhome at tracks CHARLOTTE, N.C. coaches and everybody across the million in revenue due to the loss across the country 38 weekends country has to occur. A hard date of the NCAA Tournament and immie Johnson, seven- a year. Johnson wanted to shift will come in relation to what we Big Ten Tournament. time NASCAR champion his racing to focus on a bucket figure out there, and we haven’t “So far, the biggest lesson in and all-around Everyman, 19 list — the kind of schedule for- figured it out yet.” terms of planning that we’ve ex- Jhas added home-school- mer Formula One champion Fer- Buckeyes coach Ryan Day, in perienced as it relates to COVID- ing elementary teacher to his nando Alonso, a new friend, has an interview on ESPN, said six 19 is it’s incredibly humbling and résumé. Number of seasons, created. weeks would be a reasonable it’s unpredictable,” McIntosh The sports stoppage from including this season, This unconventional route the coronavirus pandemic has “starting point” for getting ready said. “We’re in the mode of pre- Jimmie Johnson has works for drivers who still have to play. Two weeks ago, Alabama paring for anything, really, and thrown a red flag on Johnson’s the skills and ability to compete coach Nick Saban suggested predicting nothing.” farewell tour. He had planned a competed in the but are exhausted from their “teaching sessions on the field” Louisville last week announced final season of racing a full NAS- NASCAR Cup Series. full-time jobs. NASCAR has the over the summer. 10% salary cuts for coaches and CAR schedule, but so far that has longest season in sports and par- “If you look at statistics histori- athletic staff, including football lasted just four races. ticipants average three nights cally on concussions, injuries, the and men’s basketball. At Stan- Amid all the uncertainty, a week — the weekend — away most concentrated time that you ford, football coach David Shaw, Johnson doesn’t know when he’ll from home. be back in his beloved No. 48 7 Johnson figured he’d transi- practice and not play is in fall women’s basketball coach Tara camp,” Saban said on a confer- VanDerveer and men’s basket- Chevrolet. tion to the kind of competitions ence call with reporters. “You ball coach Jerod Haase all volun- NASCAR is publicly targeting Number of NASCAR Cup he could never do as a NASCAR have more practices, you have to teered to take less pay. a May 9 return at Martinsville, racer: Besides triathlons, Iron privately holding its breath for a championships won by Man competitions and cycling May 24 reopening at the Coca- Johnson, who is tied with pursuits, Johnson was locked Cola 600 at Charlotte but vowing Richard Petty and in on trying IndyCar and had to complete the entire 36-race a test scheduled for early April points schedule. Dale Earnhardt. that was canceled because of the In the meantime, Johnson pandemic. teaches his two daughters’ daily Now he’s adapting to what he school lessons, continues his fa- described as the most free time natical fitness routine, spends 5th he’s ever had as an adult and is hours upon hours on his racing eager to get back to work. John- simulator and waits to see how his son was off to a decent start be- pending retirement plan goes. Where Johnson was fore the season was suspended; “I don’t know what’s going to sitting in the NASCAR Cup through four races he had a pair happen in the coming months standings when the current of top-10 finishes and was fifth in and if we’ll be able to run the points. full season or not,” Johnson said season was suspended. Impressive for Johnson, who last week. “I feel like I set out to has slogged through a winless make 2020 my last full-time year, streak dating to June 4, 2017. He’d SOURCE: Associated Press but I’ve always left the door open unburdened himself this year for other racing in NASCAR and to its entirety. I really don’t have of the internal pressure to win a abroad for the future. record eighth championship that JAY LAPRETE/AP an answer — it’s up in the air just “I feel like I am still pretty would separate him from Rich- Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said discussions are just much on that path. I am hopeful as so much is in the world.” ard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. beginning on prepare-to-play issues after most programs had spring that we get our full year in and we This 19th season was supposed And he is far more comfortable football practice shortened or wiped out and had to deal with all of can get back going in a month or to be his last as a full-time driver in the new Camaro that General their spring sports being called to a halt. so ... and that I can run the season at Hendrick Motorsports because Motors is racing this year. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 47 AUTO RACING/MLB/GOLF Report: Halladay was on drugs, doing stunts before crash BY TERRY SPENCER ing a fighter jet!” Associated Press Halladay, an eight-time All- Star, pitched a perfect game and FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. a playoff no-hitter in 2010. He — Baseball Hall of Famer Roy played for the Blue Jays from Halladay had high levels of am- 1998 to 2009 and for the Phillies phetamines in his system and from 2009-13, going 203-105 with was doing extreme acrobatics a 3.38 ERA. He was inducted into when he lost control of his small the Hall of Fame posthumously plane and nosedived into the Gulf last year. ANDRE TEAGUE, BRISTOL HERALD COURIER/AP of Mexico in 2017, killing him, a Halladay had taken off from a National Transportation Safety lake near his home about 15 min- Speedway Motorsports, LLC announced Wednesday that it has laid off 180 employees across its Board report issued Wednesday utes before the crash and a previ- facilities and furloughed another 100 employees due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its tracks include said. ous report says he was flying at Bristol Motor Speedway, in Bristol, Tenn., shown above, and seven other speedways. Halladay had amphetamine about 105 mph just 11 feet above levels about 10 times therapeu- the water before he started doing tic levels in his blood along with his maneuvers. He had about 700 No races have led to job cuts a high level of morphine and an hours of flight time after getting anti-depressant that can impair his pilot’s license in 2013, the pre- judgement as he performed high- vious report said, including 51 pitch climbs and steep turns, hours in Icon A5s with 14 in the of 15% at 8 NASCAR tracks sometimes within 5 feet of the plane that crashed. The report water, the report says about the says Halladay was treated for Nov. 7, 2017, crash off the coast of substance abuse twice between BY ALEX ANDREJEV By the numbers Florida. 2013 and 2015. The Charlotte Observer The maneuvers put loads of Rolled out in 2014, the A5 is an nearly two-times gravity on the CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Layoffs amphibious aircraft meant to be plane, an Icon A5 Halladay had are in effect at Charlotte Motor treated like an ATV, a piece of purchased a month earlier. On Speedway and seven other NAS- weekend recreational gear with the last maneuver, Halladay CAR tracks after parent compa- folding wings that can easily be 180 100 20% entered a steep climb and his towed on a trailer to a lake where ny Speedway Motorsports, LLC speed fell to about 85 mph . The announced Wednesday that it has it can take off from the water. propeller-driven plane went into laid off 180 employees across its The man who led the plane’s Employees Employees Pay cuts a nosedive and smashed into the facilities and furloughed another design, 55-year-old John Murray 100 employees due to the corona- laid off across furloughed announced water. The report says Halladay, Karkow, died while flying an A5 virus pandemic. Approximately eight NASCAR by Speedway in March for 40, died of blunt force trauma and over California’s Lake Berryessa 15% of Speedway Motorsports’ drowning. on May 8, 2017, a crash the NTSB tracks owned Motorsports NASCAR The report does not give a final attributed to pilot error. overall staff was affected by the by Speedway LLC because of employees, job cuts that took place Tuesday reason for the crash. That is ex- Because of that crash, Icon is- and Wednesday. Motorsports, the coronavirus not including pected to be issued soon. sued guidance to its owners two In addition to Charlotte Motor LLC. pandemic 25% cuts for About a week before the crash, weeks before Halladay’s accident the former Toronto Blue Jays and saying that while low-altitude Speedway, the motorsports enter- shutdown. executives. tainment company owns and op- Philadelphia Phillies star had flying “can be one of the most erates Atlanta Motor Speedway, flown the plane under Tampa rewarding and exciting types of Bristol Motor Speedway, Ken- SOURCE: Charlotte Observer Bay’s iconic Skyway Bridge, post- flying,” it “comes with an inher- tucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor ing on social media, “flying the ent set of additional risks that re- Speedway, New Hampshire Motor race car manufacturer U.S. Leg- operates tracks such as Daytona Icon A5 over the water is like fly- quire additional considerations.” Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and end Cars International, radio International Speedway, Talla- Texas Motor Speedway. network Performance Racing dega Superspeedway and Rich- About one third of the staff at Network and zMAX Micro Lubri- mond Raceway, among others, in Texas Motor Speedway was let cant, which all maintain opera- addition to radio network Motor PGA hopes to resume events go, according to the Fort Worth- tions in the Charlotte region. Racing Network. Star Telegram. SMI does not qualify for the Those layoffs primarily im- in June, play into December Speedway Motorsports, LLC forgivable loans through the Pay- pacted staffing at Iowa Speedway, said the company is providing a check Protection Program, de- which dismissed a majority of its severance package to each per- signed by the government to help staff, according to NBCSports. BY DOUG FERGUSON on several occasions, we will re- son affected by job eliminations. small businesses get through this com, but NASCAR has not con- Associated Press sume competition only when ... it Some of the impacted staff may crisis. The restructuring at the firmed the total number of layoffs is considered safe to do so under The PGA Tour laid out an ambi- also be re hired as event day staff speedways follows pay and job across the company. the guidance of the leading public tious plan Thursday to resume its once racing resumes. cuts at NASCAR, as well as in- As NASCAR, its speedways health authorities.” “The extraordinary circum- dividual teams. In late March, and teams juggle staff reduc- season the second week of June Golf is the first sport to an- stances presented by this pandem- NASCAR announced 25% pay tions, the organizations and its and keep fans away for at least a nounce plans for a restart, al- ic and the subsequent shutdown cuts for executives and 20% pay fans are looking ahead to when month, conceding that any return though its arenas are far different of the economy have had a signif- cuts for other employees. the season will likely be able to to golf depends on whether it can from other sports because it is icant impact on our business,” a “We understand this is a diffi- resume. NASCAR’s next event is be played safely amid the corona- played over some 400 acres. company statement read. “Since cult time for all of you and your scheduled for May 9 at Martins- virus outbreak. Even as it announced a trun- the beginning of the shutdown families, but these steps are nec- ville, but the timing of that race is The Charles Schwab Challenge cated schedule, several key details four weeks ago, we have kept our essary measures for our com- unlikely given Virginia’s stay-at- at Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, were still being contemplated, entire team on full pay while our pany without races on track each home order that extends through was pushed back to June 11-14. such as testing for COVID-19 at properties remained dormant. In week,” NASCAR President Steve June 10. Assuming golf gets the green light tournaments. that time, it has become clear that Phelps said in a letter to employ- When the order went into ef- from government and health of- “We have a level of confidence we must be a more nimble, more ees. “A lot of time and thought was fect March 30, NASCAR said in ficials, the tour then would have that is based upon ... changes and efficient organization.” put into how to approach this in a a statement that it was “aware of an official tournament every developments being made in the The layoffs and furloughs im- manner that results in the least the stay-at-home order issued for week through Dec. 6 except for a world of testing, available tests,” pacted all departments across impact to our employees.” Virginia” and that it “will contin- Thanksgiving break. said Andy Pazder, the tour’s all Speedway Motorsports On April 3, NASCAR further ue discussions with public health “Our hope is to play a role — re- chief officer of tournaments and subsidiaries . announced company-wide layoffs officials and medical experts as sponsibly — in the world’s return competition. Speedway Motorsports, LLC that were the result of October’s we assess rescheduling options.” to enjoying the things we love,” The RBC Heritage at Hilton also owns souvenir merchandis- merger with International Speed- An updated schedule has not PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Mo- Head will be played after Colo- ing company SMI Properties, way Corporation, which owns and yet been released by NASCAR. nahan said. “But as we’ve stressed nial on June 18-21. PAGE 48 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 NHL

GRAHAM HUGHES, THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Then-Montreal Canadiens players Nicolas Deslauriers, left, and Jonathan Drouin work out on bikes during medical examinations before training camp on Sept. 13, 2018. Hockey players trying to stay in shape with the NHL season on hold have been using various ways to stay in shape, from stationary bikes to rollerblading. With no ice, players get creative Simulating skating an impossible task

BY STEPHEN WHYNO have access to rinks or any- And when you’re not skating, Associated Press thing like that, and that’s a huge there’s nothing you can do that’s hurdle for a player,” Washington going to mimic skating.” aking ice away from defenseman John Carlson said. Little things have to fill the NHL players has caused “It doesn’t matter how hard you void for now. Team trainers are some to resort to desper- train, the on-ice stuff is different sending out customized plans to Tate measures. and we’re going to have to pick it players with home gym setups. New York Islanders captain up pretty quick when things turn Running has replaced practicing. Anders Lee bought a Peloton. around here.” Biking might be the only way to Anaheim defenseman Josh Man- While there remains plenty simulate the high intensity of a son wants a pair of roller blades. of uncertainty over whether the shift — sort of. League leading scorer Leon Dra- NHL will play again this season, “That all helps and it’s great, isaitl of Edmonton stickhandles players are proceeding as though but there’s absolutely nothing you JACK HARRIS, LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS around his dog. they will. Aside from a few excep- can do to prepare for the ins and Whatever works. tions, most haven’t skated since outs of a shift and the physicality NHL players, clockwise from top left, Logan Couture, Ryan Getzlaf, “You’re kind of going back to before play stopped March 12, of it,” Boston defenseman Torey Anze Kopitar, and Marc-Andre Fleury stay in touch via video chat. that ‘Rocky’ mentality where and self-quarantine guidelines Krug said. “Not only are you try- you’re doing push ups and sit ups will keep them off the ice for at ing to mimic the skating motion, mind and body sharp. and trying to stop and start, and and punching the cow,” Colum- least another week and likely but there’s no way you can train Manson said he doesn’t want to that’s a big part of it,” Krug said. bus forward Nick Foligno said. longer. for going into the corner with a risk going to a store to get roller Minnesota’s Zach Parise tries NHL players are running, bik- This is nowhere near normal guy who’s 6-foot-2, 210 pounds blades. Anaheim teammate Ham- to stay sharp playing 1-on-1 in the ing and trying to stay in shape for athletes used to spending the and trying to out-battle him and pus Lindholm has taken his blades basement with his 6-year-old son, in case the season resumes after spring gearing up for the inten- get the puck and skate away from for a spin or two during quaran- Jax. He also bought a bike be- being put on pause because of sity and brutal grind of the NHL him.” tine, but he and others around the cause he is not much of a runner. the coronavirus pandemic. While playoffs. Draisaitl’s Edmonton team- league are quick to point out it “You just try to do what you can, many athletes can replicate the “I can just do my workouts and mate, Connor McDavid, is staying doesn’t require the same balance make it fun,” Foligno said. “It’s workouts and movement of their just try to stick as close to a rou- strong by lifting his dog, Lenny, or train the same muscles as ice our job. We’re pros and athletes sports — NBA players are miss- tine as you can,” New Jersey de- and Lee takes his dogs for a run skating. for a reason, so it’s something we ing the gym — hockey players fenseman P.K. Subban said. “It’s to keep his heart rate up. Phil- “You don’t get the buildup of have to make sure we continue to have no way to truly replace skat- hard because you’re anticipating adelphia’s Scott Laughton does lactic acid and having to deal with do and be ready if called upon.” ing while rinks are closed. the season coming back, but at yoga with his girlfriend on occa- your groins and your hip motion AP hockey writer John Wawrow and AP “I don’t think too many people the same token it’s so much time. sion, which is one way to keep his when you’re digging into the ice sports writer Dan Gelston contributed. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 49 NBA/NFL NFL briefs Tough Rams’ Allen is first times Jordan says Bulls’ player to reveal a final championship season was ‘trying’ positive virus test

BY STEVE REED Associated Press Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C — Michael LOS ANGELES — Los Ange- Jordan described his final NBA les Rams center Brian Allen says championship season with the he tested positive for COVID-19 Chicago Bulls as a “trying year.” three weeks ago. “We were all trying to enjoy that Allen is the first active NFL year knowing it was coming to an player to acknowledge testing end,” Jordan told Good Morning positive during the coronavirus America on Thursday. Jordan ap- pandemic. peared on the show via video con- The third-year pro is not hos- ference from his home in Florida pitalized and is “feeling good,” to promote the “The Last Dance,” according to a statement issued a 10-part documentary series fo- by the Rams on Wednesday night cused on the final year of the ’90’s only after Allen spoke to Fox Bulls dynasty that won six NBA Sports about his positive test. titles in eight years. Allen became the team’s start- “The be- ing center last season. He played ginning of in nine games before missing the season, it DAVID DERMER/AP ‘ Phil the rest of the year with a knee started when JACK SMITH/AP injury. (Jackson) Los Angeles Rams center Brian (general Allen is expected to start at Michael Jordan holds the MVP trophy after Chicago defeated the Allen said Wednesday that he started off manager) center again this season. He was Utah Jazz 87-86 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Salt Lake City on tested positive for COVID-19 Jerry Krause a fourth-round draft pick out of the season told (coach) Sunday, June 14, 1998. It proved to be the final hurrah for Jordan’s three weeks ago. ’90’s Bulls dynasty, winners of six NBA titles in eight years. Michigan State in 2018, play- saying this Phil Jackson ing largely on special teams as a shut down on March 12. Every- that he could rookie. was the Jordan sat out 64 games that one who had been exposed to the go 82-0 and The 24-year-old Allen was last dance season before returning for the infected employee was notified he would training and rehabilitating at the playoffs. and all self-quarantined. — and we never get a Rams’ training complex when chance to Jordan also talks about his played it time at the University of North he began to feel symptoms last come back,” month. He told Fox Sports that he Packers Hall of Famer that way. Jordan said. Carolina where he would write ’ his mother asking for money for lost his sense of smell and taste, Willie Davis dies at 85 Michael Jordan “Knowing and they haven’t returned even that I had postage stamps so he could send Willie Davis, a Pro Football on the Bulls’ her letters and to pay his phone after his other symptoms abated. 1997-98 season married my- New Orleans Saints coach Sean Hall of Fame defensive lineman self to him, bill. who helped the Green Bay Pack- “It’s a little different today,” Payton revealed last month that and if he ers win each of the first two Super Jordan said. “I had a phone bill in he tested positive for the virus. wasn’t going to be the coach, then Bowls, has died. He was 85. college that was $60 or less, but I The Los Angeles Chargers last obviously I wasn’t going to play. The Packers confirmed Davis’ only had $20 in my account. The week revealed a positive test and So Phil started off the season say- death to the Pro Football Hall of thing that people will learn, and symptoms for unidentified mem- ing this was the last dance — and Fame on Wednesday, as did his my kids will laugh about when bers of their organization, but we played it that way.” former teammate and fellow hall they see it, is we used postage the Rams hadn’t acknowledged The series will debut Sunday Allen’s positive test. member, Dave Robinson. NAM Y. HUH/AP stamps back in those days. Look- night on ESPN in the United Rams general manager Les Davis died in a Santa Monica, States and on Netflix internation- ing at the video you will see things A fan wears a Michael Jordan that people have forgot, that life Snead and coach Sean McVay Calif. hospital. His wife, Carol, ally over five consecutive Sun- jersey before the NBA All-Star both dodged the question last told the Packers her husband days through May 17. There will was this way. Rising Stars game in Chicago on “We didn’t have Instagram or week when asked if any members had been hospitalized for about be two hour-long episodes each of Feb. 14, 2020. Twitter, so you had to live life as of the organization had fallen ill. a month with kidney failure and those nights. it came. ... Spending time with “Everybody is doing really passed away peacefully. Jordan said Thursday that after more than just the final season. friends and family, it wasn’t the well,” McVay said at the time. “The Green Bay Packers family Jackson told the team it was to The documentary shows Bulls phone. It was in presence — and “There’s been a couple guys that was saddened today to learn about be the final season together, the owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Jor- you wrote letters.” we’ve had some conversations the passing of Willie Davis,” said Bulls focused on completing the dan arguing about a foot injury he Jordan discussed his parents with, but they’re in a good place Packers President/CEO Mark task of a second three-peat. suffered during his second NBA during the interview with Good right now.” Murphy. “One of the great defen- “Mentally it tugged at you that season. Morning America, saying they sive players of his era, Willie was this had to come to an end, but it Jordan wanted to play through were the biggest influence in his Chargers employee a significant contributor to the also centered our focus to making the injury after doctors told the life. He said he learned many tests positive for virus Packers’ five NFL championship sure we ended it right,” Jordan team there was a 90% chance he valuable lessons from them, in- teams during the 1960s. said. “As sad as it sounded at the would recover. cluding the ability to learn from COSTA MESA, Calif. — At “I enjoyed getting to know Wil- beginning of the year, we tried Reinsdorf, however, did not the negatives in life and turn least one member of the Los An- lie and his wife, Carol, especially to rejoice and enjoy the year and want the star guard to play for them into positives. geles Chargers organization has when he served as our honorary finish it off the right way.” fear it might ruin his career. He also praised his older broth- tested positive for the coronavi- captain for the 2010 NFC cham- The documentary was origi- “I said to Michael, ‘you’re not er, Larry. rus and two others have reported pionship game and Super Bowl nally scheduled to be released thinking about the risk-reward “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t symptoms. 45, and again for the 2014 NFC in June during the NBA Finals, ratio,’ ” Reinsforf said in the clip for my brother Larry,” Jordan Team spokesman Josh Ruppre- championship game. He also was but ESPN made the decision to aired by GMA. “ ‘If you had a ter- said. “Larry pushed me. We used cht said in a statement that “ev- a great role model for our play- accelerate its release due to the rible headache and I gave you a to fight every day. But through eryone is doing well and is on the ers, having gone on to a very suc- lack of live sports programming bottle of pills and nine of the pills that fight emerged someone like road to recovery.” cessful career after football and because of the coronavirus pan- would cure you and one of the me. He’s right next to me and sup- Rupprecht added that owner serving on the Packers Board of demic. The series has been billed pills would kill you, would you ports me.” Dean Spanos, general manager Directors.” to include never-before-seen take a pill?’ ” The series will also include ex- Tom Telesco and coach Anthony A 15th-round draft pick from footage from that season, during Jordan replied that “it depends tensive profiles of Jackson, and Lynn are fine. Grambling, Davis began his NFL which the team chased its sixth on how (expletive) bad the head- some of Jordan’s key teammates, ESPN reported that the first career by playing both offense championship. ache is.” including Scottie Pippen, Dennis positive diagnosis happened two and defense for the Cleveland But the documentary covers Reinsdorf ultimately won out; Rodman and Steve Kerr. weeks after the team facility was Browns in 1958 and ’59. PAGE 50 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Friday, April 17, 2020 NFL Virtual pro day helps overlooked prospects Football academy hosted event in N.J. for 30 NFL hopefuls as lockdown loomed

BY ROB MAADDI Associated Press Hours before New Jersey closed all gyms indefinitely last month because of the COVID-19 global pandemic, 30 NFL Draft hopefuls had a chance to show- case their talents in a “virtual” pro day at TEST Football Acad- emy in Martinsville. It was the culmination of count- less hours the players had spent training and preparing, both physically and mentally, for their actual pro days that ended up being canceled. None of the play- ers at TEST’s virtual pro day at- tended the NFL combine, so this was their best shot to show what they can do. “I spent 12 weeks at TEST with 5-6 hours of work a day,” said Griffin Clancy, an offensive line- man from the University at Alba- ny. “We were very close to getting our opportunity eliminated be- cause of COVID-19.” PHOTOS BY TEAM TEST/AP But Kevin Dunn, founder and CEO of TEST Sports Clubs, and Above: From left, TEAM TEST Football Academy director of operations Geir Gudmundsen, performance coach Skip Fuller and CEO Kevin Geir Gudmundsen, the director of Dunn prepare to watch Pace University offensive lineman Matt Snow run the 40-yard dash on March 16 while performance coach Vance football operations, weren’t going Matthews and NFL Draft Bible creator Ric Serritella look on at the school campus in Martinsville, N.J. Below: There were 30 NFL Draft to let that happen. They quickly hopefuls who participated in the virtual pro day hours before New Jersey closed all gyms indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. organized the event in anticipa- tion of a nationwide lockdown Scoreboard that forced sports to shut down. “We just huddled up on Friday the 13th to figure it out,” Dunn Draft Order said. “We had to do something for April 23-25 these guys.” Record Opponents’ record Dunn and Gudmundsen decid- W L T Pct W L T Pct 1. Cincinnati 2 14 0 .125 141 114 1 .553 ed to turn their typical, mock pro 2. Washington 3 13 0 .188 128 127 1 .502 days into a live event streamed 3. Detroit 3 12 1 .219 129 126 1 .506 4. NY Giants 4 12 0 .250 120 134 2 .473 online on Facebook. Players gath- 5. Miami 5 11 0 .313 124 132 0 .484 ered at the facility on March 16 6. LA Chargers 5 11 0 .313 131 124 1 .514 and performed various drills — 7. Carolina 5 11 0 .313 140 115 1 .549 8. Arizona 5 10 1 .344 135 120 1 .529 40-yard dash, shuttle, three-cone 9. Jacksonville 6 10 0 .375 124 132 0 .484 — for four hours. The video has 10. Cleveland 6 10 0 .375 136 119 1 .533 11. NY Jets 7 9 0 .438 121 135 0 .473 more than 8,500 views. 12. Raiders 7 9 0 .438 123 132 1 .482 “We just tried to make it as 13. San Francisco (from Indianapolis) 13 3 0 .813 128 126 2 .504 14. Tampa Bay 7 9 0 .438 127 127 2 .500 authentic and as real as possible 15. Denver 7 9 0 .438 130 125 1 .510 and give scouts the opportunity to 16. Atlanta 7 9 0 .438 139 116 1 .545 17. Dallas 8 8 0 .500 122 133 1 .479 view the whole thing from where 18. Miami (from Pittsburgh) 8 8 0 .500 128 127 1 .502 their perspective would be and 19. Las Vegas (from Chicago) 8 8 0 .500 129 125 2 .508 20. Jacksonville (from LA Rams) 9 7 0 .563 136 118 2 .535 bring a virtual experience right 21. Philadelphia 9 7 0 .563 116 139 1 .455 to their living room,” Dunn said. 22. Minnesota (from Buffalo) 10 6 0 .625 121 133 2 .477 “That was the only way that these Football League. “The kids need- virtual pro day and make the con- 23. New England 12 4 0 .750 120 136 0 .469 24. New Orleans 13 3 0 .813 124 131 1 .486 kids would have the opportunity. ed another opportunity to be able tent available was a huge help to 25. Minnesota 10 6 0 .625 121 133 2 .477 We’ve sent multiple scouts to to be seen. It’s huge for kids that us. Many scouts have commented 26. Miami (from Houston) 10 6 0 .625 133 123 0 .520 27. Seattle 11 5 0 .688 135 119 2 .531 our Facebook page because we might not be drafted or are on the to me that they were able to get a 28. Baltimore 14 2 0 .875 126 129 1 .494 saved the feed. They’ve watched cusp of that.” sense of how well Griffin moves 29. Tennessee 9 7 0 .563 125 131 0 .488 30. Green Bay 13 3 0 .813 115 139 2 .453 it and reached out to us about the Clancy, listed at 6-foot-5, 305 based on the film.” 31. San Francisco 13 3 0 .813 128 126 2 .504 times.” pounds, said the numbers he Greg Liggs, a defensive back 32. Kansas City 12 4 0 .750 130 125 1 .510 TEST uses a laser timing sys- posted were personal bests. from Elon University, flew in the tem and Ric Serritella, creator “I just need one shot,” he said. day before TEST’s virtual pro of NFL Draft Bible, registered “I’ve always been the underdog day and ran the 40-yard dash in come true.” able hands. hand-held times. Serritella post- in life so I’m not afraid of a chal- 4.47 seconds. NFL agent Cary Fabrikant had “The virtual pro day was vital ed the results on his website. lenge. Looking forward to next “With everything going on, this five players participate in TEST’s for us athletes,” Haines said. Serritella says he expects 15-20 week and this process.” pro day allowed us to display all pro day. Since TEST opened in 1999, “non-combine” players to be se- His agent, JR Rickert, said he’s the hard work we put in since the “It was an awesome opportu- Dunn said 253 out of 397 athletes lected next week, down from the heard from scouts who watched end of the football season,” Liggs nity for them to get this time to they’ve trained made it onto a average of about 30 players per Clancy’s performance. said. “Being able to put numbers showcase their talent,” Fabrikant professional football team’s ros- draft in previous years. “For a guy like Griffin from a on tape is a huge win for guys said. “NFL scouts have seen the ter. Among those were 2013 Super “Under the circumstances, it smaller school, you want to get as during this time because it gives video and are able to take this Bowl MVP Joe Flacco, eight-time went very smooth,” said Gud- many opportunities for scouts to each player one last fighting shot information and share it with the Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Pe- mundsen, a former offensive see him as possible,” Rickert said. at making their dreams come decision-makers.” terson, and four-time Pro Bowl lineman who signed with the Buf- “Losing the pro day workout can true, especially small-school guys Shippensburg University wide fullback Kyle Juszczyk. falo Bills as an undrafted rookie be a big challenge. For a credible like myself. This was a giant win receiver Kyle Haines ran a 4.48 Thirty more players are hoping in 2005 and played in the Arena facility like TEST to organize the toward making my NFL dreams 40-yard dash and showed off reli- to make that list. Friday, April 17, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 51 NFL DRAFT Former GMs: Focus on getting little things right

BY BARRY WILNER person visits and workouts at One topic Polian and Kirwan Associated Press team headquarters, and in-depth disagree on is actually staging medical exams by team doctors the draft next week. Several gen- Bill Polian ran many an NFL adversely affect preparation for eral managers had sought a delay Draft, making him the main man each franchise. into May at least, something the in the room for several successful That said, Polian and former owners shot down quickly. Could franchises. NFL executive Pat Kirwan point there be competitive advantages Next week, the Pro Football directly to for some teams by maintaining Hall of Famer knows who the team scouts the status quo? guys in demand will be for all 32 who, like “It’s largely moot because it teams: the techs. every other isn’t being pushed back,” Polian “I would say simply, I-T I-T I-T,” year, were says. “In a certain sort of offbeat Polian explains. “Make sure from on the road sense, it is probably a good thing the outset your communication gathering to have now. While it is trivial in is seamless and flawless. If you data since the extreme compared to what can get the name of the pick in on last summer. is going on everywhere, it takes time and can effectuate trades, So clubs with people’s minds off the news they the rest of it is relatively easy. “If I were running a club,” the stron- are hearing. ” adds the man who built the Bills, gest person- From a football sense, though, Colts and Panthers through the Polian nel staffs, Kirwan wonders why wasn’t a draft, “I’d take a little more time who usually potential delay in the NFL’s game to make sure I rehearsed every- have an edge plan? thing for the actual draft. We heading into the draft, could have “Doing a first-time draft with would always make sure all the an even bigger advantage now. a coach and GM together, and communications work and ev- But as Kirwan points out, the they don’t know each other that erything lines up, but do it all in logistical limitations caused by well, and now adding all of these spades now. Don’t take for grant- the coronavirus pandemic could technical elements will add more ed they will work.” outweigh some of that diligence . pressure,” he says. “I thought we The league and teams say they “Trading, which has become a could have moved the draft back are ensuring that everything will bigger part of the draft than ever, until the middle of May and not run smoothly, and a mock draft becomes problematic,” says Kir- affected it (adversely). will be held soon as a test. But re- wan, who like Polian is an analyst “I think it reeks too much of ally, this is uncharted territory. for SiriusXM . “Say we are all in people who never ran a draft. I TED S. WARREN/AP NFL teams are in a sea of uncer- a room and three guys are work- respect that we are in an enter- According to Hall of Fame NFL GM Bill Polian and former NFL tainty as they prepare for a draft ing phones, trying to get the best tainment business. But the GMs executive Pat Kirwan, teams like the Seattle Seahawks — where like no other. deal. The decision maker, he is were told to shut up, basically. I head coach Pete Caroll, pictured, heads an exceptionally strong, The collection of information not going to have the visual con- want to know where the impetus veteran personnel staff — could have an even greater advantage than has been strong, but hardly as tact with them that he usually was, who thinks the show must go usual as the coronavirus pandemic adversely limits each franchises’ thorough as in normal times. has. How fast can they respond to on? It shows a lack of real under- preparation ahead of next week’s NFL Draft. Cancellations of pro days, in- make the move?” standing of the moment. ” Perfect: Simmons has ability to line up all over the field on defense

FROM BACK PAGE He doesn’t have a position preference in derisively — were typically downgraded the NFL. for their lack of specialization. “I like an interception just as much as I Now, adaptability and ambidexterity are like getting a sack,” Simmons said. “I don’t attributes. think I have a favorite.” “I think it’s really beneficial for me,” Although he worked out with the line- Simmons said. “I know years ago it wasn’t backers at the NFL scouting combine, Sim- good to be a position-less guy. But now it’s mons had a quick retort for anyone asking become a benefit for me just because of all what position was in his blood. the versatility I’ll be able to (provide).” “Defense,” he’d say with a million-dollar Although he’s had some multi-talented smile. predecessors in recent years such as Char- It’s not as if he’ll have to choose one posi- gers strong safety Derwin James, there’s tion or another in the pros, either. not been anyone quite like Simmons, who “He can do anything,” Jeremiah said. “... can’t even count himself a genuine acolyte So with a guy like Isaiah Simmons, wheth- of any specific NFL player. er you want to list him as a linebacker or “I don’t know if I truly have one person safety, I know you plug him into that de- you could compare me to just for all the fensive scheme and week by week you can different things I do,” Simmons explained. deploy him in different ways depending on That said, he does have a trio of super- what the strength of your opponent is. stars he models. “That’s why he has so much value.” “If I have to go look at film of somebody Simmons believes NFL coaches will to get something, it would be Von Miller prove just as creative as Venables and just for pass rush, Jalen Ramsey for man Dabo Swinney in capitalizing on his many techniques and Tyrann Mathieu just be- skills. cause he plays around everywhere, as “Mentally I feel like there isn’t anything MICHAEL CONROY/AP well,” Simmons said. I can’t do,” Simmons said, suggesting he’s While Mathieu can play anywhere in Clemson standout Isaiah Simmons worked out with the linebackers at February’s NFL the remedy for all those terrific tight ends the back seven, Simmons produced at all scouting combine, but ask the 6-foot-4, 238-pounder his natural position and you’ll winning so many mismatches on Sunday three levels on defense at Clemson. He get a quick retort — “defense.” afternoons. seamlessly transitioned from defending “The game is evolving,” Simmons said, the deep pass to covering tight ends over demanding for Simmons. deal with. But I learn everything very fast. “Something has to be done to stop these the middle, thwarting running backs in the “The hardest part about it is just the ... At Clemson our back seven, we all meet Travis Kelces and George Kittles out box and rushing the passer off the edge. mental aspect, having to know what every- in the same room, so I’m able to hear ev- there.” Playing up to five positions on an after- body else has to do,” Simmons said. “That erything all at one time as opposed to hav- And he’s just the man for the job. noon wasn’t uncommon nor physically too was the most complicated thing I had to ing to go from room to room.” Or jobs. S TARS AND STRIPES Friday, April 17, 2020 F3HIJKLM Report: Halladay used drugs, doing ‘extreme acrobatics’ before crash SPORTS MLB, Page 47

NFL DRAFT

Versatile Clemson LB Simmons is pefect fit for modern NFL

BY ARNIE STAPLETON Associated Press everal years before building a Super Bowl roster in San Francisco, John Lynch the broadcaster was pining for a new kind of defensive playmaker. What the NFL needed to counter all the offen- sive innovations driving up scores, he said back in 2013, was a hybrid linebacker/safety who could stayS on the field no matter the down and distance, regardless of the pace or the play. Some players have started to fit that bill, none the likes of Isaiah Simmons. The 6-foot-4, 238-pound Clemson captain lined up at linebacker, over the slot and in the deep middle for ‘ Simmons is built the Tigers. He projects as an even more all-purpose pro. for today’s NFL, “Simmons is built for to- and his role could day’s NFL,” said NFL Media change week to analyst Daniel Jeremiah, “and his role could change week, depending week to week, depending on on the opponent. ’ the opponent.” Daniel Jeremiah Simmons’ specialty is his NFL Media analyst versatility. “I can fit in anywhere,” Simmons said. Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables lined him up all over the field except nose tackle and defensive tackle. Back in Lynch’s playing days and even during most of his time in the broadcast booth, NFL teams leaned toward prototypical prospects who fit the mold as much as the scheme. “Tweeners,” as they were referred to — sometimes

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Inside: Former league exec Polian: Doing little things more important than ever ahead Isaiah of unconventional NFL Draft, Page 51 Simmons AP

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