we will be charting a course of our own - Previous Issues

Transcription

SPORTS: Bay Area booming
with Warriors, Sharks
Back page
TRAVEL: Frankfurt
skyscraper tour Page 30
Petty again reunites
his pre-fame band
Page 36
VIDEO GAMES: Ambitious
‘Battleborn’ falls short
Page 26
stripes.com
Volume 75, No. 35
©SS 2016
‘WE WILL BE CHARTING
A COURSE OF OUR OWN’
US to discuss future troop rotations with new Philippines president
BY TARA COPP
Stars and Stripes
SINGAPORE — Rodrigo Duterte’s election as president of
the Philippines could affect U.S. plans for increased troop
rotations to the island nation, U.S. defense officials said
Thursday.
Those rotations are part of a deal providing for
closer U.S.-Philippine military cooperation that was
agreed to under the outgoing administration
of President Benigno
We have this
Aquino.
pact with the
The deal followed
growing concern in
West, but I
the Philippines about
want everybody Chinese moves in the
South China Sea.
to know that
However, in the
weeks since Duterte’s
we will be
victory in early May,
charting a
the
president-elect
has signaled that
course of our
he will try to repair
own. It will be
strained
relations
with China and to rea line that is
duce the Philippines’
not intended to reliance on the U.S.
please anybody to address regional
security issues, inbut Filipino
cluding the militarization of the South
interest.
Rodrigo Duterte China Sea.
At a press conferPhilippines president-elect
ence this week, Duterte,
who takes office June 30,
said he welcomes direct Philippine-Chinese negotiations and that his country would “not be dependent upon
America” in charting its future policy.
‘
’
SEE ROTATIONS ON PAGE 7
Rodrigo Duterte is seen prior to voting in his
hometown of Davao city in southern Philippines
on May 9.
BULLIT M ARQUEZ /AP
$1.00
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2016
Army report:
Reliance on
contractors
erodes skills
BY THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF
The Washington Post
Current restrictions on U.S.
troop levels in Afghanistan and
a heavy reliance on civilian contractors are eroding the skills and
cohesion of units deployed to the
country, according to information from the Army given to the
House Armed Services Committee and provided to The Washington Post.
According to an Army document, the use of civilian labor in
one of the Army’s combat aviation
brigades, or CABs, in Afghanistan has had negative side effects
because the contractors are being
used in lieu of the brigade’s maintenance soldiers.
Those soldiers should be deploying with their units, but are
not because of the “constrained
troop level environment” in Afghanistan, the document says.
“Aviation maintainers not deploying with their [brigades]
results in an erosion of skill and
experience essential to soldier
and leader development,” Army
officials said in the document.
“The atrophy of these critical
skills erodes the brigade’s ability
to deploy in the future and sustain
itself in an expeditionary manner
to locations that may not permit
the deployment of contractors.”
According to the Army document, three CABs have deployed
to Afghanistan since 2013 with
reduced maintenance staffs. A
typical CAB usually deploys with
1,500 soldiers but can swell above
2,500 depending on the mission.
SEE SKILLS ON PAGE 6
‘
Aviation maintainers
not deploying with
their [brigades] results
in an erosion of
skill and experience
essential to soldier and
leader development.
’
Army officials
PAGE 2
F3HIJKLM
QUOTE
OF THE DAY
“He reads the field well
and finishes well; you
give him any space at all
and he finds the back of
the net.”
— Kubasaki coach Tony
Washington, lauding Miles Mahlock,
a striker on his team who has been
named Stars and Stripes’ Pacific
boys soccer Athlete of the Year
See story on Page 55
TOP
CLICKS
ON STRIPES.COM
The most popular stories
on our website:
1. Trump announced his gifts to
veterans. Here’s what we learned.
2. 5th Fleet eases Ramadan clothing
restrictions
3. Undersea warfare center
commander relieved of command
4. Afghanistan plan seen forcing Army
to replace soldiers with contractors
5. Trump beats Clinton among
veterans, new poll says
COMING
SOON
Shifting Gears
Redesigned Chevy Cruze has
upgrades for driver, passengers
TODAY
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
Friday, June 3, 2016
Marines move to simplify ink policy
BY COREY DICKSTEIN
Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — A new tattoo
policy unveiled Thursday allows
Marines to join other servicemembers in showing a bit more
ink but continues to ban arm-covering designs.
Gen. Robert Neller, the Marines commandant, issued the
tattoo policy in a 32-page bulletin
that does not include any of the
drastic changes approved recently by other military services.
Last year, the Army approved
the popular sleeve tattoos. In
March, the Navy also allowed
sailors to sport sleeves and a
small neck tattoo.
Marines are banned from
inking their head, neck, wrists,
knees, elbows and hands, other
than a single band tattoo of less
than 3/8 inch wide on one of their
fingers — such as a wedding ring
tattoo.
Sgt. Maj. Ronald L. Green said
he and Neller spent months developing the new policy, which
intends to simplify the regulation
last updated in 2010.
“We’ve attempted to balance
the individual desires of Marines
with the need to maintain the disciplined appearance expected of
our profession,” Green said in a
prepared statement.
The policy does not regulate
tattoos that are not visible when
wearing the Marine Corps’ physical training uniform, but it limits
the amount of ink Marines can
show in the standard shorts and
T-shirts. Marines sporting tattoos allowed in older regulations
will not be impacted by the new
policy.
Visible band tattoos — that
wrap around an arm or leg — can
be up to three inches wide, an
inch larger than the previous policy allowed.
IN STRIPES
PTSD, TBI to be factors
in benefits decisions
American Roundup ............ 19
Business/Weather ............. 20
Comics .................. 42, 46-47
Crossword ............. 42, 46-47
Faces ............................... 43
Faith ................................ 18
Opinion .......................44-45
Sports .........................53-64
Weekend ..................... 21-42
Sailors and Marines who are
kicked out of the military for misconduct now may be eligible for
disability benefits if they’ve been
diagnosed with post-traumatic
stress disorder, traumatic brain
injury or any other mental health
condition that contributed to their
behavior, under an order signed
Wednesday by Navy Secretary
All visible tattoos must be small
enough to be covered by the Marine’s hand.
Officers cannot have more than
four tattoos visible in physical
training uniforms, and enlisted
soldiers
will not
[Gen.
be
considered
Robert
for a comNeller]
mission if
they have
wanted the
more
policy to
than four
allow Marines visible
freedom and tattoos.
All serflexibility
vices continue to
to express
racist
themselves. ban
or sexist
Sgt. Maj. Ronald tattoos, or
L. Green any others
Sgt. Maj. of Marine deemed
Corps “prejudicial to
good order and discipline.”
Marines have 120 days to have
existing non-compliant tattoos
documented for their personnel
file. Enlisted Marines will have
tattoos reviewed for compliance
when they submit for reenlistment. Officers will have tattoos
examined at promotion boards.
Green said the opinions of Marines on tattoo policy were considered before the new regulation
was established.
Neller “allowed more skin area
for tattoos in an effort to balance the Marine’s desires with
the grooming standards of the
Marine Corps,” Green said. “He
wanted the policy to allow Marines freedom and flexibility to
express themselves, while also
being clearly written and understandable for both Marines and
their leadership.”
‘
’
[email protected]
Twitter: @CDicksteinDC
Ray Mabus.
The order is the first of its
type in the military and serves
as another acknowledgment that
many servicemembers return
home from combat with invisible
psychological wounds that affect
their daily lives.
It wasn’t immediately clear
how many people the order might
affect. About 11 to 20 percent of
veterans who served in Operation
Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan
suffer PTSD in a given year, according to statistics from the National Center for PTSD.
More than 46,000 cases of traumatic brain injury have been diagnosed in the Navy since 2000,
while more than 49,000 cases
have been diagnosed in Marines,
according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.
Previously, misconduct took
precedence over diagnosed mental health conditions during separation, according to the Navy.
Under Mabus’ order, sailors
and Marines who suffer from
PTSD, TBI or any other mental
condition who did not receive an
honorable discharge may have
that decision reviewed.
For current personnel facing
discharges that aren’t honorable,
the case must be referred to the
first general officer in Marines
or flag officer in the the Navy in
the chain of command for a final
determination.
From wire reports
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 3
MILITARY
Germany to contribute troops to Baltic force
BY JOHN VANDIVER
Stars and Stripes
Germany will commit a battalion’s
worth of troops to NATO’s mission in the
Baltics as part of a plan to beef up the allied presence in the region while maintaining a post-Cold War pledge not to position
permanent forces along Russia’s border,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said
Thursday.
“We will contribute also to the rotating
presence there, and we want to do so particularly in regard to Lithuania,” Merkel
said during a news conference in Berlin.
When NATO heads of state meet in July
for a major summit in Warsaw, at the top
of the agenda will be a plan to deploy multiple “reinforced battalions” to Poland
and the three Baltic states, all countries
that have been vocal about the need for a
NATO presence in the face of a more assertive Russia.
For more than a year, allies have been
debating how the increased presence in
the east should be structured. Some members have sought permanent forces along
the Russia’s periphery. But Germany and
several other members have long resisted
permanent bases or troop deployments,
citing concerns about antagonizing Russia and the need to uphold old agreements
with Moscow that place limits on NATO’s
regional force size.
“Germany has always been standing
firmly by the NATO-Russia founding act,”
Merkel said.
NATO’s plan to deploy troops in the Baltics on a “rotational” basis is in response to
a need to deter potential threats from the
east, said Merkel, who also called for more
talks with Russia ahead of NATO’s Warsaw summit.
Moscow has complained that the beefedup NATO presence in the Baltic presents
a threat to its own territory, namely the
enclave of Kaliningrad wedged between
NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who was in Berlin Thursday for
discussions with Merkel, welcomed Germany’s decision to contribute troops to
the Baltics. NATO continues to work out
the details on its plan for a larger forward
presence in the east, which will involve
“several reinforced battalions,” he said.
Since Russia’s 2014 intervention in
Ukraine, relations with Moscow have been
at a post-Cold War low. Still, Stoltenberg
said that NATO is not in a new Cold War
and that no NATO ally faces an “imminent
threat” from Russia. He described NATO’s
efforts as defensive in nature and taken in
light of Russia’s “willingness to use force
to change borders” in Ukraine.
“We do not want a new Cold War. We do
not seek confrontation with Russia,” Stoltenberg said.
[email protected]
K RYSTAL A RDREY/Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
A 510th Fighter Squadron F-16 Fighting Falcon departs Aviano Air Base, Italy, for
Poland on Wednesday to participate in the maritime exercise BALTOPS 2016.
Aviano F-16s join Baltic exercise
Stars and Stripes
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy — Fourteen
F-16s from the 510th Fighter Squadron
have deployed from Aviano Air Base to Poland to participate in exercises and bilateral training with the Polish air force.
BALTOPS 16 begins Friday and involves
about 6,100 personnel from 15 NATO nations and two partner countries. The annual exercise, held for the 44th time, runs
through June 19 and takes place in the Baltic Sea as well as Estonia, Finland, Germa-
ny, Poland and Sweden. It focuses on sea
and air defense of the region.
More than two dozen American aircraft
from five units are participating, according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe. The “Buzzards” are also expected to participate in
exercises Saber Strike 16 and Anakonda.
They’ll also fly in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which demonstrates American commitment to its NATO allies near
their borders with Russia.
[email protected]
Future funding murky for Hawaiian island used as bomb range
BY M ARINA STARLEAF R IKER
Associated Press
HONOLULU — Six miles from the scenic beaches of south Maui sits a small, deserted island with a rich history and a big
problem.
Researchers say Hawaiians traveled to
Kahoolawe Island as early as 400 A.D.,
and it’s home to nearly 3,000 archaeological sites. It’s also littered with unexploded
ordnance.
The U.S. Navy used the barren island as
a bombing range for decades starting in
World War II. It later joined with the state
and spent millions of dollars on cleanup,
but they didn’t finish the job.
Today, live grenades and bombs remain
scattered across about a quarter of the 45square-mile island. But the agency tasked
with restoring Kahoolawe is likely on its
own next year after lawmakers passed
a bill pushing it to become financially
self-sufficient.
Now, the Kahoolawe Island Reserve
Commission and community advocates
are looking for ways to fund the rest of the
cleanup so they can bring back native wildlife and use the island as a Native Hawaiian educational center.
It’s no small effort. Restoring and then
replanting the entire island could take
decades and could cost billions of dollars,
despite about $400 million spent between
the commission and the Navy since 1994,
the agency said. The commission also has
depleted a $44 million federal trust fund
since the state gained control of the island
in 2004.
“It speaks volumes to the amount of
bombing Kahoolawe sustained that so
much work still needs to be done to complete this effort,” said U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii. She added she will work
to help find solutions to finish the cleanup
at the culturally significant site, which is
banned from commercial use.
On a clear day, the islands of Maui, Lanai
MIKE N AHOOPII, K AHOOLAWE ISLAND RESERVE C OMMISSION /AP
Volunteers work the hardpan at the Hakioawa Watershed on Kahoolawe, Hawaii, in
2010. In World War II, the U.S. Navy started using the 45 square miles of Kahoolawe
as a bombing range. After two decades of trying to restore a Hawaiian island ravaged
by nearly 50 years of military bombing, its future funding is now in jeopardy.
and Molokai are visible from the shores of
Kahoolawe, which archaeological evidence
suggests Hawaiians used as a navigational
center for voyaging, a workshop for making stone tools and a site for cultural ceremonies. Fortunately, many of the cultural
sites such as fishing shrines were on the
coast and were spared from the military
bombing, which went on for 50 years, said
Michael Nahoopii, the Kahoolawe Island
Reserve Commission’s executive director.
Still, gold-colored grenades that explode if touched, bombs weighing up to
2,000 pounds and hundreds of projectiles
remain.
“You walk across this line, and it is night
and day. One side of the line is very clean.
There’s no scrap metal. There’s nothing
on the ground,” Nahoopii said. “You walk
across this line, and there’s bombs sticking out of the ground. There are pieces of
razor-sharp metal.”
A 2013 financial audit criticized the Kahoolawe commission for lacking a comprehensive cleanup plan and measures to
gauge if objectives are being met.
Lawmakers recently passed a measure
giving the agency $450,000 for restoration
during the upcoming year, but no money
after 2017. One of the requirements is
that the commission come up with a plan
for being self-sufficient. The proposal has
been sent to Gov. David Ige, who hasn’t
said whether he will sign it into law.
Ideas for future funding include running
the island off renewable energy and charging tuition for educational programs.
Josh Kaakua, a commissioner and member of the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana, said
the state should help fund Kahoolawe’s
restoration because it took responsibility
for the island after the Navy ended the federal cleanup.
The island also was ravaged by years of
cattle and goat ranching before its military
use — the Army first trained there in 1925
— and faces problems with severe erosion
and a lack of sources of fresh water.
“I think people only care about what’s in
their backyard, so often I think Kahoolawe
gets put to the side,” Kaakua said. “Kahoolawe is a treasure. It’s a resource. But
we’re losing it. We’re slipping. Nobody is
paying attention.”
Nahoopii, meanwhile, said the Navy has
a responsibility to finish restoring the island. When the federal government took
over Kahoolawe in the 1950s, it agreed to
return the land in a condition of “suitable
habitation,” he said.
Yet Agnes Tauyan, director of public
affairs for Navy Region Hawaii, said the
Navy completed what was required by the
federal government and isn’t aware of any
requests to return to Kahoolawe.
Kahoolawe is one of about 100 formerly
used defense sites throughout the Pacific,
according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District. Right now, the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District
is working on about 10 cleanup projects, including the Waikoloa Maneuver Area on
the Big Island, which alone is expected to
cost about $723 million to clean up.
“It’s really a microcosm of what’s happening in the whole world, right on Kahoolawe,” Nahoopii said.
PAGE 4
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
PACIFIC
Kadena civilians face drug charges on Okinawa
BY CHIYOMI SUMIDA
Stars and Stripes
NAHA, Okinawa — Two U.S. base workers and two Japanese nationals are facing
drug charges in Okinawa.
Milton Richmond King II, 51, a civilian employee at Kadena Air Base, was arrested April 26 on suspicion of importing
and using an unspecified stimulant drug, a
Japanese police report said.
Police said King made arrangements
with an unknown individual in the United
States to mail 28 grams of the stimulant,
which had a Japanese street value of about
$17,800, to his off-base home in the Goya
section of Okinawa City.
King is suspected of making shipping ar-
rangements with a Japanese friend, Amina
Anthor Miyagi, 31, who was arrested April
28.
Their urine tested positive for the presence of the illegal substance, police said.
Earlier, Brevon Kentrell Key, 23, a coworker of King’s at Kadena, was arrested
April 12 and was charged with marijuana
possession after police found 23 grams at
his home in the Misato section of Okinawa
City, a police report said. Key’s friend, Jeff
Taiyo Robertson, 24, who has Japanese citizenship, was arrested April 10 after police
found 13 grams of marijuana at his home
in the Misato section of Okinawa City, police said.
[email protected]
US calls N. Korea a ‘primary
money-laundering concern’
BY M ATTHEW PENNINGTON
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The United
States on Wednesday proposed
new restrictions to close off North
Korea’s access to the international financial system and to prevent
the reclusive communist country from using banks to launder
money that could be used for its
nuclear weapons program.
The Treasury Department declared North Korea a “primary
money laundering concern,” the
latest step toward severing U.S.
banking relationships with North
Korea and deepening its economic isolation. U.S. banks are generally prohibited now from dealing
with North Korea.
A proposal under Treasury
review would prevent foreign
banks from using their accounts
for dealings with U.S. banks to
process financial transactions on
behalf of North Korean banks.
“Basically, they have put everyone on notice: If you do financial
transactions with North Korea,
you are subject to investigation by
U.S. bank regulators who may exclude you from the U.S. market,”
said Marcus Noland, an expert on
North Korea at the Petersen Institute for International Economics.
The Treasury Department was
required by legislation enacted in
February to consider whether to
make the money-laundering designation. Having made that determination, the government can
impose penalties after a 60-day
comment period.
Adam Szubin, acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial
intelligence, urged other countries to take similar steps to sever
banking ties with North Korea.
After the North conducted atomic
and missile tests early in 2016,
the United Nations in March issued its toughest sanctions yet.
“It is essential that we all take
action to prevent the regime from
abusing financial institutions
around the world — through their
own accounts or other means,”
Szubin said in a statement.
Despite the international censure, North Korea has pressed
ahead with weapons testing. The
U.S. and South Korean militaries reported that North Korea
conducted the latest in a series of
failed ballistic missile launches
on Tuesday.
But in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with a highranking North Korean envoy on
Wednesday, in an apparent move
aimed at easing strains between
the two countries.
China remains North Korea’s
biggest source of diplomatic support and economic help, but Beijing this year agreed to the new
U.N. sanctions, and observers say
trade exchanges between the two
have declined dramatically.
Noland said major Chinese
banks have stopped doing business with North Korea, and in the
past month, Russian banks have
followed suit.
Navy: This year’s CARAT exercise
series to be most complex to date
BY LEON COOK
Stars and Stripes
The United States began its
22nd annual Cooperation Afloat
Readiness and Training on
Wednesday in Malaysia, kicking
off a five-month series of exercises with armed forces from nine
Southeast Asian countries.
CARAT is the premier naval exercise in South and Southeast Asia
and provides a regional venue for
partner nations to address shared
maritime security priorities and
to develop sustained partnerships, a Navy statement said.
“Our persistent engagement
with our allies and partners
through CARAT builds trust
and creates strong relationships
that endure beyond the exercise
series,” said Rear Adm. Charles
Williams, commander of the
Malaysia-based Navy Task Force
73. “This translates to increased
readiness and interoperability that allows us to work closely
with navies across the region and
enhance cooperative maritime
security.”
CARAT’s Malaysian leg is taking place on the ground in Sandakan, a city on the northeastern
corner of Borneo, and in the waters and airspace above the Sulu
Sea, between the Philippines and
Malaysia.
CARAT Malaysia’s harbor
phase will include an amphibious
landing, along with explosiveordnance and noncombat training. At sea, flight operations
training, naval gunnery drills
and surface warfare maneuvers
are scheduled.
The Navy says this year’s
CARAT series will be the most
complex to date.
“We’ve been working very
closely with the Malaysian armed
forces for 22 years as part of
CARAT,” said Capt. H.B. Le,
commodore of Destroyer Squadron 7. “Over that time, we’ve developed a familiarity with each
other’s capabilities that allows
us to push the envelope with the
planning and execution of each
exercise, something that is important in such a diverse maritime environment.”
CARAT is mostly a bilateral
exercise, meaning the U.S. will
work with only one other nation’s
forces at a time. After Malaysia, additional bilateral phases
are scheduled with Bangladesh,
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and East Timor through
November.
Other nations may provide assets or send observers, and some
events will be multilateral, involving forces from three or more
countries.
U.S. ships and units participating in the Malaysia leg include
the guided-missile destroyer
USS Stethem, the amphibious
dock landing ship USS Ashland,
the expeditionary transfer dock
USNS Montford Point, a P-3C
Orion patrol plane, staff from
Task Force 73 and Destroyer
Squadron 7, Explosive Ordnance
Disposal Mobile Unit 5, Seabees
from Naval Mobile Construction
Battalion 4, Coastal Riverine
Group 1 and Marines from 3rd
Marine Division.
[email protected]
JOHN PENNELL /Courtesy of the U.S. Army
Volunteer deckhand Kyle Collins lands a small halibut May 26 for
Air Force Staff Sgt. Parker Dalla in the 10th annual Armed Services
Combat Fishing Tournament in Seward, Alaska.
Alaska town honors troops
with fishing tournament
Stars and Stripes
A small Alaskan fishing town
gave more than 200 servicemembers a free day of halibut fishing — along with cash and door
prizes — during the 10th annual
Armed Services Combat Fishing
Tournament.
The event, held May 26 in
Seward, aims to show the community’s appreciation for the troops,
an Army statement said.
The military anglers were provided free filleting and packaging
services for their catch, followed
by a banquet of free food and
drinks, along with prizes.
This year, 21 fishing boats from
15 charter services donated their
time, equipment and expertise to
the cause.
Buddy Whitt, executive director of the Alaska Armed Service
YMCA, the event’s co-host, estimated that more than 2,000 servicemembers have caught more
than 19,000 pounds of fish during
the event during the past decade.
He said organizers have given
more than $215,000 in cash prizes and $300,000 in door prizes to
the competitors.
[email protected]
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 5
MILITARY
fires captain
Pentagon official arrested over parking flap Navy
because of ‘hostile
BY LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A top Defense
Department official, in a pique over a
neighborhood parking dispute, has been
arrested and will do 32 hours of community service at a local food bank.
Bryan Whitman, a civilian leader in
the Pentagon’s public affairs office, was
charged with three counts of theft for
stealing license plates off a car belonging to a neighbor’s nanny and leaving a
threatening note.
The charges, which came to light
Wednesday, stunned Pentagon officials
and co-workers, and raised questions
about any additional Defense Department investigation.
In an agreement reached with the Superior Court in Washington, D.C., the
charges against him will be dropped if
he pays $1,000 in restitution, does the
community service, stays away from the
neighbors and the nanny and doesn’t get
into trouble for 10 months.
According to U.S. officials, Pentagon
leaders didn’t learn about the problem
until they were contacted Wednesday by
The Washington Post, which was first to
report the arrest.
The dispute began April 4, when Whitman allegedly put a note on a car belonging to the nanny, which was parked in his
neighborhood.
“I know you are misusing this visitor pass to park here daily. If you do not
stop I will report it, have your
car towed and
the resident who
provided this to
you will have his
privileges taken
away,” the note on
her white Lexus
said, according to
the police report.
Two days later,
both of her license
Whitman
plates were taken.
The family she
works for replaced the plates and two
days later the rear license plate was
taken.
The family then mounted a camera outside that covered the street and sidewalk,
and on April 21 the rear plate was taken
again, but this time they had it on video.
The Associated Press is not identifying
the nanny or the family who were the apparent victims of the theft.
Terry Owens, a spokesman for the District Department of Transportation, said
it’s legal for nannies or baby sitters to use
visitor parking passes at any time.
According to the police report, officers
reviewed the video — which showed a
man moving around the nanny’s car and
crouched down at the rear of the vehicle
— and then went to Whitman’s house in
late April with a warrant.
The report said that, when asked about
the license plates, Whitman went to his
car and retrieved them and turned them
over to the police.
Whitman was charged on May 5, and
on Tuesday he reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the court for the
restitution and community service.
Gordon Trowbridge, the Pentagon’s
deputy press secretary, said Whitman
was still in his job.
He did not provide any other details
because it is a personnel matter.
He said he could not confirm whether
there is any other Defense Department
investigation into the matter, but said he
is not aware of any probe by the Inspector General.
Whitman has a security clearance, and
under Defense Department regulations,
he is required to notify officials if he is
arrested.
During much of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, he was one of the Pentagon’s
top spokesmen and a familiar figure to
dozens of Washington reporters, the Post
reported.
From 2002 to 2010, according to his
lengthy work biography, “he was responsible for all aspects of media operations
for the Defense Department,” the Post
report said.
He did not respond to an Associated
Press request for comment.
As part of his agreement with the government, Whitman has also been ordered
to stay away from the family’s entire block,
except when he needs to access the alley
behind his home, the Post reported.
work environment’
Stars and Stripes
The commander of the Naval Undersea
Warfare Center Newport Division has been
fired for leadership problems.
Capt. Howard Goldman was relieved of duty
Wednesday because of a “loss of confidence
in his ability to command based on findings of
an investigation into a hostile work environment and poor command climate,” the Navy
said.
Goldman, who had
served as commanding
officer of the Rhode Island division since November 2014, has been
reassigned to Naval Station Newport, the Navy
said.
“Command in the
Navy is all about responsibility and accountability,” Goldman told the
Goldman
Navy Times Wednesday.
“I was responsible to lead NUWC Division
Newport and that leadership did not meet
standards. I was held accountable. I accept
that decision.”
Goldman took command of the submarine
USS Toledo in 2006 and Naval Submarine
Training Center Pacific at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 2011, according to Navy records.
Capt. Geoffrey G. DeBeauclair, chief of
staff for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, will temporarily replace Goldman until a
permanent officer is assigned.
PAGE 6
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WAR ON TERRORISM
in Somalia
US general sending leaders Airstrike
targets al-Shabab chief
troop plan for Afghanistan
BY COREY DICKSTEIN
Stars and Stripes
BY LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is sending his recommendations to senior
leaders this week on how many American troops
should remain in the country next year to work with
Afghan forces battling a resurgent Taliban, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland said Gen. John
Nicholson is finishing his assessment of the ongoing security threat there and the needs of the Afghan military. Speaking to Pentagon reporters from
Kabul, Cleveland said the plan will be sent to U.S.
Central Command and to the Pentagon, and Nicholson is expected to brief senior military leaders in
the next few days.
There has been increased speculation in recent
months about whether the U.S. will keep more
troops in Afghanistan into next year than originally
planned. There are now about 9,800 troops in the
country, and President Barack Obama has said that
number would drop to 5,500 by the end of this year.
Officials have said Obama will listen to his commanders’ advice. U.S. military leaders have pushed
to keep the higher troop level as long as they can
this year.
Cleveland said he can’t say what will be in
the assessment, but said Nicholson looked at the
overall threat situation, the mission and ongoing
operations.
“He is taking a look at current operations and
really what we project over the coming weeks and
months, and other big events that will happen in Afghanistan, and then finally, he’s looking at the resources available,” Cleveland said.
He acknowledged that while Afghan security
forces have been making slow but steady progress,
they are they are facing stiff Taliban resistance in
the south. He said there was an uptick in fighting in
Helmand Province during the weekend, but so far
the increase in fighting after the end of poppy season has not been as significant as officials thought
it would be.
A LEX BRANDON /AP
Gen. John Nicholson testifies on Capitol Hill in
Washington in January.
The fight in southern Afghanistan has intensified
as the Taliban concentrate their war on Helmand,
Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces. The Taliban
leader in the south is Mullah Yaqoub, the son of the
one-eyed founder and late leader of the Taliban,
Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The U.S. and NATO formally ended their combat
mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, but have
continued to provide support and assistance as the
Afghan forces struggle to grow and to gain greater
capabilities, including in their air operations. The
U.S. also continues to conduct counterterrorism
missions, specifically targeting al-Qaida and Islamic State militants in the country.
Cleveland said U.S. troops have been accompanying Afghan forces in partnered missions only about
10 percent of the time. As many as 80 percent of
the missions are conducted by Afghans alone, and
the rest are missions that require some type of U.S.
planning or logistical assistance.
Skills: Civilian-to-military ratio spiked in past 2 years
FROM FRONT PAGE
In 2013, a brigade deployed
with 1,900 troops, but as U.S.
forces were reduced in Afghanistan, only 800 deployed in 2015.
Despite the reduction in troop
levels, the brigade was still expected to maintain and fly its
roughly 100 aircraft.
Currently, the 4th Infantry
Division’s CAB is deployed to Afghanistan and provides “countrywide aviation support,” according
to a breakdown of U.S. forces in
Afghanistan that was compiled by
the Institute of the Study of War.
It primarily provides rotor-wing
support in the form of helicopter
gunships and transports.
According to the Army document, only 6 percent of the 4th’s
CAB is dedicated to maintaining
aircraft. That small number is
specifically for recovering aircraft that land or crash in a hos-
tile environment. Instead, 427
civilian personnel — at a cost
of $101 million annually — are
maintaining the CAB’s fleet of
helicopters. Through 2014 and
2015, 390 contractors maintained
the aircraft for both the 101st
Airborne Division and the 82nd
Airborne Division for $86 million
when their CABs were deployed
to Afghanistan.
While U.S.-led combat operations in Afghanistan officially
ended in 2014, last fall, as the Taliban gained momentum throughout the country, President Barack
Obama agreed to keep about
9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan
through 2016, and 5,500 into 2017.
Although the troop levels are
low compared with the 45,000
deployed at the start of 2014, the
number of uniformed servicemembers in Afghanistan is only
part of the U.S. war effort there.
As of April, 26,000 Pentagon
contractors are in Afghanistan,
about half of whom are assigned
to logistics and maintenance duties, according to publicly available reports.
Although the number of contractors almost always has exceeded the number of uniformed
troops in Afghanistan, the ratio of
civilian employees to U.S. military personnel has more than
doubled in the past two years,
from 1.34 to 2.92.
“I am not at all convinced that
the only units affected are the
combat aviation brigades,” said
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas,
chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, in a recent
interview. “Aside from financially … is there a potential that it increases the risk that our folks face
just because of these political limits? Those questions are certainly
worthy of a significant deep dive
on the part of the committee.”
WASHINGTON — The U.S.
military targeted a senior alShabab military commander in
an airstrike last week, though
it was not clear whether he was
killed, the Pentagon announced
Wednesday.
The May 27 strike targeted
Abdullahi Haji Da’ud in southcentral Somalia, said Peter
Cook, the Pentagon press secretary. Da’ud had served as the
al-Qaida-linked group’s security
and intelligence chief and was
the “principal coordinator” of the
terrorist group’s attacks in Somalia, Kenyda and Uganda in recent
years, he said.
“Da’ud has been responsible
for the loss of many innocent lives
through attacks he has planned
and carried out,” Cook said in a
statement. “We are confident that
(his) removal … will disrupt nearterm attack planning, potentially
saving many innocent lives.”
The Pentagon declined to provide specifics about the attack,
including what U.S. forces conducted it and what aircraft was
used. Cook said the United States
was still assessing the strike’s
success.
The U.S. military has conducted sporadic drone strikes against
al-Shabab in recent years. The
American strikes have targeted
al-Shabab leadership and training
camps and have been used to protect African troops with AMISOM.
That group, which stands for African Mission in Somalia, is a
team of more than 20,000 troops
from about 12 countries charged
with expelling al-Shabab from
the country. The United States
has provided small teams of special operations forces to assist
AMISOM troops in Somalia.
Al-Shabab, which translates
to “the youth,” was formed in
the early 2000s with the intent
to overthrow Somalia’s Westernbacked government and to implement strict Sharia, or Islamic law.
It has since morphed into a jihadi
organization, carrying out frequent attacks in Somalia, Kenya
and Uganda. In 2012, the militant
organization officially aligned
with al-Qaida.
While al-Shabab has been largely driven out of most of Somalia’s
major cities, including its capital
Mogadishu, it continues to carry
out deadly terrorist attacks there
and in neighboring countries.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing near
a Mogadishu hotel that killed at
least 10 people.
[email protected]
Twitter: @CDicksteinDC
2 Kunduz hostages shot
dead, 8 still held by Taliban
BY CHAD GARLAND
Stars and Stripes
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two
people taken hostage by the Taliban in northern Kunduz province were executed by gunfire
Wednesday, contrary to media
reports that they had been beheaded, an official said.
In eastern Laghman province,
two people were killed and 16
were injured in an explosion at a
market filled with shoppers.
The hostages were found on a
roadside in the Chahar Dara district “inhumanely shot down,”
said Hijratullah Akbari, acting
spokesman for the Kunduz province police.
Late Wednesday, the Interior
Ministry said the government
was investigating media reports
citing unnamed officials who said
the two had been beheaded.
Chahar Dara is northwest of
the Aliabad district, where the
Taliban kidnapped dozens of passengers early Tuesday morning
and killed 10 after initially detaining about 200 at a highway
checkpoint. The majority of the
detained travelers had been released by Tuesday night.
At least eight are still being
held, Akbari said, and operations
to recover them are underway.
The Taliban have claimed the
hostages are military officials, but
Akbari said all but one of those
kidnapped or killed — a slain local
policeman — are civilians.
An official said that on Wednesday, the Taliban also had kidnapped 17 civilian men from a
bus in northern Sar-e Pul province on their way from Balkhaab
district to the provincial capital.
The bus was stopped in the
Sancharak district, said Zabihullah Amani, spokesman for the
provincial governor. None of the
hostages has been harmed and,
rather than launching military
operations to recover them, the
government is seeking an agreement for their release.
“There is a strong presence
of the Taliban in Sancharak,”
Amani said. “We have sent tribal
elders to the Taliban and are trying to solve the issue with tribal
negotiations.”
Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this
report.
[email protected]
Twitter: @chadgarland
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 7
China plans spur concerns ahead of summit
BY ERIK SLAVIN
Stars and Stripes
TOKYO — Concerns linger
over a potential move by China
to declare an Air Defense Identification Zone over the South
China Sea, as world leaders and
defense ministers gather for an
annual summit in Singapore this
weekend.
The United States and Japan
already have refused to abide
by China’s unilaterally declared
ADIZ over the East China Sea,
which was announced in 2013.
The zone includes airspace over
Japan’s Senkaku Islands, which
China claims and where Chinese
and Japanese jets have scrambled
repeatedly in recent years.
A South China Sea ADIZ would
be significantly more provocative, Navy and U.S. officials say.
Depending on the extent of the
zone, it could cover territories
and waters claimed by Vietnam,
the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei and Indonesia. It
also could cover international waters and could apply rules inconsistent with U.S. interpretations
of international law.
“A Chinese ADIZ in the South
China Sea could lead to tense
mid-air encounters between U.S.
and Chinese aircraft, especially
as China has previously demonstrated a willingness to challenge U.S. military aircraft in
contested maritime areas,” said
a March report by the U.S.-China
Economic and Security Review
Commission.
Challenges by Beijing over sovereignty claims and by Washington in demonstrating rights to sail
and fly in international waters
have increased in the past year.
Chinese fighter jets exhibited
“dangerous behavior” when they
intercepted a U.S. patrol plane on
Rotations: Basing talks ongoing
FROM FRONT PAGE
“We have this pact with the
West, but I want everybody to
know that we will be charting a
course of our own,” Duterte said,
according to Reuters. “It will be a
line that is not intended to please
anybody but Filipino interest.”
The Philippines is among many
countries in the region that have
been at odds with China’s actions
in the South China Sea, including the reclamation of land in the
Spratly Islands and the seizure of
Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012.
During his visit to Manila in
April at the end of joint U.S.Philippine military exercises, U.S.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter
announced the U.S. would temporarily leave behind 275 military
personnel, special operations
aircraft and A-10 attack planes
as part of the U.S.-Philippines
Enhanced Defense Cooperation
Agreement.
The resumption of a regular, rotational, U.S. military presence on
the islands would “deter uncalledfor action by the Chinese,” outgoing Philippine Defense Minister
Voltaire Gazmin said at the time.
It remains to be seen, however,
what Duterte’s election means to
U.S. plans in the Philippines.
On Wednesday in a briefing
with reporters, Carter said that
the terms of the defense agreement, which include increased
U.S. rotations, “are on track. We
haven’t changed our plans at all.”
The U.S.-Philippine relationship, Carter said, “is an alliance
relationship, we take that very
seriously. It’s longstanding. It is
ironclad. It is with a democracy.
So they have a new government
there, and we look forward to
working with them.”
The U.S. will discuss the security agreement with Duterte
and his administration after he
is sworn in, said a senior U.S. defense official traveling with Carter, who is traveling to Singapore
for the annual Shangri-La security dialogue.
“I’m sure we’ll have very thorough discussions on all of this
when the time comes,” the official said on background. “Everything we do in the context of our
alliance with the Philippines is
designed to allow the Philippines
to chart its own course.
“We expect to continue a strong
alliance with the Philippines that
is balanced and is in both our
mutual interests and our mutual
benefit,” the official said.
However, the initial rotation of
275 U.S. troops and aircraft has
left the Philippines, the defense
official told reporters.
Talks about follow-on forces
are ongoing, he said.
Whether the new Philippine
government will welcome the
negotiated presence and U.S. patrols of the Scarborough Shoal
remains to be seen, the defense
official said on condition he not
be named.
China has demanded an end to
U.S. air patrols and freedom-ofnavigation sails above and around
the man-made islands. Beijing
has called the patrols a violation
of its sovereign territory and has
accused the U.S. of increasing
tensions in the region, a claim the
U.S. disputes.
China’s military buildup of the
South China Sea islands, North
Korea’s continued ballistic missile tests and counterterrorism
initiatives are expected to be discussed at the three-day ShangriLa security conference, to be
attended by defense officials from
Europe and Asia.
China did not send its defense
minister to the annual meeting,
and the Philippines is sending
its current, outgoing delegation.
Carter said he did not have plans
to hold bilateral meetings with either country.
However, various U.S. officials
here for the conference will be
traveling on to Beijing for the
Strategic and Security Dialogue,
including Deputy Secretary of
State Tony Blinken and Assistant
Secretary of Defense For Asian
and Pacific Security Affairs
David Shear.
[email protected]
Twitter:@TaraCopp
May 17 in international waters,
U.S. officials later said, though
Beijing countered that its aircraft
kept a safe distance.
China’s time frame for declaring a South China Sea ADIZ
— if it happens at all — remains
unclear.
On Wednesday, a report from
the South China Morning Post
cited unidentified sources “close
to the People’s Liberation Army”
as saying that China was preparing a South China Sea ADIZ.
One source was quoted as saying a move was dependent on
whether the U.S. “keeps making provocative moves to challenge China’s sovereignty in the
region.”
The potential ADIZ will be
discussed among analysts and
government officials at the
15th annual Shangri-La Dialogue, which begins Friday in
Singapore.
At last year’s summit, Defense
Secretary Ash Carter criticized
China for topping reefs claimed
by multiple nations with thousands of acres of landfill, then
adding military-capable runways
and weaponry.
Carter is scheduled to appear
again this weekend, as is Adm.
Sun Jianguo, the Chinese military’s deputy chief of staff.
Sun stuck mostly to prepared
talking points last year, despite
lengthy questioning by the summit’s international delegates.
“Whether we will establish the
ADIZ in the South China Sea will
depend on whether security in
the air and maritime zones will
be a threat,” Sun said last year.
During a news conference in
February, Adm. Harry Harris,
head of Pacific Command, said
the U.S. would ignore the ADIZ if
China moves forward.
“I’m concerned about it from
the sense that I would find that
to be destabilizing and provocative,” he said.
The U.S. and Canada have longestablished identification zones
along their continental borders.
However, the U.S. doesn’t recognize the right of nations to
apply ADIZ requirements to aircraft with no intention of entering
a nation’s airspace — nor does it
apply those procedures to, for example, Russian planes flying well
off the California coast.
“Accordingly, U.S. military
aircraft not intending to enter
national airspace should not
identify themselves or otherwise
comply with ADIZ procedures
established by other nations, unless the United States has specifically agreed to do so,” according
to The Commander’s Handbook
on the Law of Naval Operations.
[email protected]
Twitter:@eslavin_stripes
PAGE 8
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
MILITARY
Fired Phoenix
VA director
scores legal win
BY TRAVIS J. TRITTEN
Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — The former
director of Phoenix veterans hospitals who was at the center of a
2014 wait-time scandal scored a
major legal win this week, shooting down sections of a law allowing the Department of Veterans
Affairs to quickly fire misbehaving employees.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta
Lynch said Tuesday that the law
fast-tracking firings is unconstitutional because VA employees
cannot appeal a final decision by
an administrative judge.
Lynch and President Barack
Obama’s administration have
sided with Sharon Helman, who
is suing in federal court over her
2014 termination from the VA for
accepting a trip to Disneyland
and other gifts.
The decision by Lynch is new
evidence of the VA’s faltering
efforts to fire executives and
employees when it deems them
guilty of misconduct. It also undercuts a key reform passed by
Congress in the months following
the nationwide VA scandal, which
erupted after a doctor in Phoenix
said veterans were dying while
waiting for care at the facilities
overseen by Helman.
The Obama administration is
sending the message that “the
sanctity of a federal bureaucrat’s
job is far more important than the
health and well-being of our veterans,” said Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., an architect of the law.
McCain blasted the president
for originally touting and signing
the law. Other Republicans also
voiced outrage over the decision.
“The effect of this reckless action is clear. It undermines very
modest reforms to our broken
civil service system supported in
2014 by the president and an overwhelming majority of Congress,”
said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.,
chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
In the past, employees had the
option of appealing their termination to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a panel appointed by
the president, in a process that
could typically take months. But
a joint VA-White House investigation during the wait-time scandal
found a “corrosive culture” and
widespread poor management
at veterans hospitals and clinics
across the country.
The findings added urgency to
VA efforts to quickly root out bad
employees. A $16-billion reform
law passed by Congress in 2014
dramatically scaled back the appeals process, ordering an administrative judge to make a final
decision within 21 days — with
no appeal options — on whether
to uphold the firing.
But Lynch now contends the
law violates the Constitution because it allows nobody, including
VA Secretary Bob McDonald, to
review the judge’s decision.
The law “vests a federal employee with the final authority
— unreviewable by any politically
accountable officer of the executive branch — to determine
whether to uphold the removal
of a [VA] senior executive, which
includes the power to overrule the
decision of a cabinet-level officer,”
Lynch wrote in a letter to Republican leadership in the House.
Lynch said the Justice Department will no longer defend the
law in court against Helman and
other challengers. But the Justice Department will continue
to defend against the other constitutional violations charged in
Helman’s federal lawsuit.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.,
chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said the
loss of the reform law will allow
“the Merit Systems Protection
Board to continue second-guessing VA’s efforts to discipline senior executives.”
Lawmakers have become increasingly frustrated with what
they see as the VA’s inability to
fire poor managers. New legislation has been working through
the House and Senate, though
there is no agreement yet between
the two chambers on how much
power to give the department in
dealing with such cases.
The VA has suffered a string
of embarrassing reversals after
punishing employees, including a
recent decision by a review board
to reinstate VA executives Diana
Rubens and Kimberly Graves.
Both were implicated in a scheme
to move themselves into higher
pay jobs with less responsibility
and collect hundreds of thousands
of dollars in relocation bonuses.
This is the second legal victory
for Helman. Last year, an administrative law judge ordered the
VA to repay her $5,624 in wages
that were garnished while she
was on administrative leave and
faced termination.
The department decided to fire
Helman early in the 2014 scandal
when federal audits found secret
wait lists were kept in Phoenix and
VA facilities across the country to
hide long delays in veterans health
care. But in December 2014, an
appeals judge found it did not
have grounds to fire Helman for
the wait-time issues. Instead, she
was fired for accepting thousands
of dollars in gifts that included the
Disney theme park trip and Beyonce concert tickets.
[email protected]
Twitter: @Travis_Tritten
PABLO M ARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP
President Barack Obama returns a salute as he arrives to deliver the commencement address to the
2016 class U.S. Air Force Academy on Thursday in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Obama warns against isolation
at AF Academy commencement
BY JOSH LEDERMAN
Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.
— President Barack Obama implored the next generation of U.S.
military leaders Thursday not to
give in to isolationism or pull back
from U.S. leadership in the world,
drawing a contrast with a foreign
policy vision that’s been laid out
by Donald Trump.
Obama used his final commencement address as president
to reassure the military that
it remains the dominant fight-
ing force in the world, implicitly
pushing back on critiques that the
military’s might has ebbed under
his watch. Under searing sun and
sweeping blue skies at the U.S. Air
Force Academy, he told graduates
they’d be called upon to strike a
complicated balance between realism and idealism, withdrawal
and overreach.
“We can’t be isolationists. It’s
not possible in this globalized,
interconnected world,” Obama
said. “In these uncertain times,
it’s tempting sometimes to try
to pull back and wash our hands
from conflicts that seem intractable, let other countries fend of
themselves.”
Calling isolationism a “false
comfort,” he added that history
had shown how “oceans alone
cannot protect us.”
Though Obama didn’t mention
Trump, his intended target was
clear. Trump, the presumptive
Republican nominee, has called
repeatedly for putting “America
first” by rethinking U.S. alliances
and spending less to ensure other
countries’ security.
Berger to lead Marines in Pacific
Stars and Stripes
Defense Secretary Ash Carter has nominated Lt.
Gen. David H. Berger to be the next commander of
U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, the Pentagon announced Thursday.
Berger, who would also lead Fleet Marine Force,
Pacific, is currently the commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Berger was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1981, after graduation from Tulane Univer-
sity, according to his official Marine biography. His
previous assignments include commander of 3rd
Battalion, 8th Marines, where his unit deployed to
Okinawa and later to Haiti. He also commanded a
regimental combat team in Fallujah, Iraq, during
Operation Iraqi Freedom, his biography said.
Other deployments include Kosovo, and Afghanistan, where he commanded the 1st Marine Division.
If approved by the Senate, Berger would take over
for Lt. Gen. John A. Toolan, who assumed leadership of Marine Forces, Pacific in August 2014.
B-52s arrive for series of European exercises
Stars and Stripes
STUTTGART,
Germany
— Two U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers arrived on
Thursday at RAF Fairford, U.K.,
with a third on the way to take
part in a series of military drills
in Europe and Africa, U.S. European Command said.
The deployment marks the
third year in a row that the strategic bombers have been dispatched to Europe, where they
will take part in exercises such
as Saber Strike 16 and BALTOPS
16. In Africa, the bombers will
join AFRICOM’s Just Hammer
exercise.
The B-52s also will participate
in the upcoming Berlin Air Show.
“Bomber operations ... pro-
vide a visible demonstration of
the U.S.’s ability to project power
globally and readiness to respond
to any potential threats or adverserial challenges,” EUCOM said
in a statement.
During the past two years, the
U.S. has stepped up the pace and
size of its exercises in Europe,
moves made in the wake of Russia’s 2014 intervention in Ukraine.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 9
NATION
Clinton to attack Trump on foreign policy
BY CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Hillary
Clinton is set to unleash a major
foreign policy attack on Donald
Trump, using a speech in San
Diego to cast the Republican as
unqualified and dangerous.
The former secretary of state,
who has repeatedly called Trump
a “loose cannon,” planned Thursday to contrast her foreign policy
experience with Trump’s. Foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan
said Clinton would make clear
how high the stakes are in the
race, as well as share her “larger
vision of who we are, what we’re
all about as a country.”
Sullivan said the speech “will
go into specifics in a very direct
and clear way about what makes
Donald Trump unfit, both in
terms of temperament and ideas.
This is as full-throated and fullbodied a case as you will have
seen from anyone on the danger
that Donald Trump poses.”
During an appearance in Newark, N.J,. Wednesday, Clinton
assailed Trump over his past
statements, criticizing him for
proposing to ban Muslims from
entering the country, for advocating the use of torture and for
saying other countries should acquire nuclear weapons.
Clinton and Trump offer starkly different visions of U.S. foreign
policy. Clinton’s detail-oriented
proposals reflect the traditional
approach of both major parties.
Despite differences on some issues, such as the Iraq War and
Iran, Democratic and Republican
presidents have been generally
consistent on policies affecting
China, Russia, North Korea, nuclear proliferation, trade, alliances and many other issues.
Trump says U.S. foreign policy
has failed. His “America first”
approach is short on details, but
appeals to the emotions of angry
voters who believe that successive leaders have made the coun-
try vulnerable to terrorism and
have been duped into bad trade
deals that cost American jobs.
Trump accused Clinton of lying
about his foreign policy plans at a
rally at an airport hangar in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday night.
“She lies. She made a speech,
and she’s making another one tomorrow. And they sent me a copy
of the speech, and it was such lies
about my foreign policy,” Trump
said.
Clinton’s campaign hopes her
foreign policy experience will appeal to voters who may be wary of
Trump’s bombastic style and lack
of international experience. They
hope those points, combined with
Trump’s controversial statements
about women and minorities, will
give Clinton opportunities with
independent and moderate Republican voters.
While Clinton is stressing her
concerns about Trump, she is still
dealing with her primary race.
Clinton needs just 71 more delegates from states voting Tuesday
to win the Democratic primary
but is dealing with an increasingly tough fight with rival Bernie
Sanders in California, where the
Vermont senator is gaining in polling. Clinton plans to be in California though Monday as she seeks to
avoid a primary loss there.
Trump University model: Demand a warrant
BY JEFF HORWITZ AND M ICHAEL BIESECKER
Associated Press
A MY NEWMAN, THE RECORD
OF
BERGEN C OUNTY (N.J.)/AP
New Jersey musician Jon Bon Jovi, left, and Sen. Cory Booker, DN.J., join Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a
campaign event in Newark, N.J., Wednesday.
Clinton staff reviewed
remarks, questions
BY JACK GILLUM, CHAD DAY
AND STEPHEN BRAUN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — For Hillary
Clinton, the presidential campaign has been about building an
approachable image: She’s often
eschewed big arenas in favor of
town halls, peppered her ads with
personal stories and planned lessscripted gatherings with voters.
But emails obtained by The
Associated Press reveal a careful, behind-the-scenes effort to
review introductory remarks for
college presidents and students
presenting the Democratic frontrunner as a speaker, as well as
suggesting questions aligned with
her campaign platform.
While it’s not unusual for campaigns to plan detailed appearances, the exchanges preview the
kind of image-control apparatus
that could be deployed in a Clinton White House. They also run
counter to her campaign’s efforts
to make Clinton look less wooden
and scripted than she did when
running eight years ago.
The former secretary of state’s
preparedness appears in contrast
with the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump,
who rarely pulls punches in his
speeches, speaks more spontaneously and has more apparently unplanned, unscripted interactions.
The newly revealed exchanges,
which surfaced in open-records
requests, show the workings of a
Clinton campaign that touts offthe-cuff moments, like the story
of a little girl who asked Clinton:
“If you’re elected the girl president, will you be paid the same as
the boy president?” That line is a
stump speech favorite.
But the campaign still injects
itself into the minute details of
the candidate’s appearances
down to the stemless glassware in
her green room. That fixation on
planning has sometimes pulled
local officials uncomfortably into
the political arena.
“They offered to write your introduction. I told them no,” Becky
Mann, the head of public relations
for South Carolina’s Greenville
Technical College, wrote in an
email to the college’s president,
Keith Miller.
Clinton campaign spokesman
Nick Merrill said the campaign at
times assists people as part of an
event, “especially those introducing Secretary Clinton, with the
points on our campaign’s message. More often than not, it’s because they’ve asked.”
WASHINGTON — The staff manual for Trump
University events was precise: The room temperature should be 68 degrees. Seats should be arranged
in a theater-style curve. And government prosecutors
had no right to see documents without a warrant.
Trump University guides unsealed this week by
a federal judge in Southern California undercut
Trump’s portrayal of his one-time real estate seminar course as an uncontroversial operation.
One guide encouraged staff to learn prospective
enrollees’ motivations in order to better sell them on
products: “Are they a single parent of three children
that may need money for food?” the guide asked.
Those who bought into Trump University ended
up paying as much as $34,995 for what was purported to be private mentoring with supposed real estate
experts — some of whom Trump himself later ac-
knowledged were unqualified.
Other court records and depositions showed that
Trump and senior members of the Trump Organization were responsible for reviewing and signing
all checks — and that Trump withdrew at least $2
million from the business.
Trump defended Trump University by citing surveys in which 98 percent of students reported being
pleased with the program. But those surveys were
taken before students experienced the full program
and were not anonymous, plaintiffs’ lawyers said.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi briefly considered joining in a multi-state suit against Trump
University. Three days after Bondi’s spokeswoman
was quoted in local media reports as saying the office was reviewing the lawsuit, the Donald J. Trump
Foundation made a $25,000 contribution to a political
committee supporting Bondi’s re-election campaign.
Bondi, a Republican, soon dropped her investigation,
citing insufficient grounds to proceed.
PAGE 10
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
NATION
Woman on UCLA
gunman’s ‘kill list’
found shot dead
BY A MANDA LEE MYERS
AND CHRISTINE A RMARIO
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The man
who carried out a murder-suicide
at UCLA left a “kill list” at his Minnesota home that led authorities
to a woman’s body, Police Chief
Charlie Beck said Thursday.
Mainak Sarkar, 38, drove to
Los Angeles from Minnesota with
two guns and killed Professor Bill
Klug before taking his own life
Wednesday, Beck said during his
monthly appearance on Los Angeles TV station KTLA.
When authorities searched
Sarkar’s Minnesota home, they
found a “kill list” with the names
of Klug, another UCLA professor
and a woman, Beck said.
The woman was found shot
dead in her home in a nearby Minnesota town, he said. Beck said he
could not release that woman’s
name. The other professor on the
list is OK.
Beck said it appeared mental
issues were involved and that
Sarkar’s dispute with Klug was
tied to Sarkar thinking the professor released intellectual property
that harmed Sarkar.
Sarkar is listed on a UCLA
website as a member of a computational biomechanics research
group run by Klug, a professor of
mechanical engineering.
Classes at the University of
California, Los Angeles campus
resumed Thursday for most of the
school, except for the engineering
department, whose students and
faculty will return Monday.
Klug was a devoted family man
and a superb teacher, said a collaborator, UCLA Professor Alan
Garfinkel. The two worked together to build a computer model
of the heart, a “50 million variable
‘virtual heart’ that could be used
to test drugs.”
Initial reports from the scene
set off widespread fears of an
attempted mass shooting on
campus, bringing a response of
hundreds of heavily armed offi-
cers. Groups of them stormed into
buildings that were locked down
and cleared hallways as police helicopters hovered overhead.
Advised by university text alerts
to turn off lights and lock the doors
where they were, many students
let friends and family know they
were safe in social media posts.
Some described frantic evacuation scenes, while others wrote
that their doors weren’t locking
and posted photos of photocopiers
and foosball tables they used as
barricades.
After about two hours, Beck
said it was a murder-suicide and
declared the threat over. Two
men were dead, and authorities
found a gun and what might be a
suicide note, he said.
It was the week before final
exams at UCLA, whose 43,000
students make it the largest campus in the University of California
system.
Those locked down inside classrooms described a nervous calm.
Some said they had to rig the doors
closed with whatever was at hand
because they would not lock.
Umar Rehman, 21, was in a
math sciences classroom next
to Engineering IV, the building
where the shooting took place.
The buildings are connected by
walkway bridges near the center
of the 419-acre campus.
“We kept our eye on the door.
We knew that somebody eventually could come,” he said, acknowledging the terror he felt.
The door would not lock and
those in the room devised a plan
to hold it closed using a belt and
crowbar, and demand ID from
anyone who tried to get in.
Scott Waugh, an executive vice
chancellor and provost, said the
university would look into concerns about doors that would not
lock.
UCLA’s commencement ceremonies and end-of-year events
will now include mourning Klug,
who was a devout Christian and a
regular figure in organizing campus spiritual life.
PHOTOS
BY
PAUL MOSELEY, FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM /AP
Parker County Technical Rescue personnel bring Elizabeth and Tim Jenkins from their flooded home on
the Brazos River on Wednesday. As daily rains continue and the Brazos River swells, some residents of
Horseshoe Bend in Parker County are being forced to evacuate their homes.
Some moving, others staying
after latest Texas flooding
BY JUAN A. LOZANO
AND DAVID WARREN
Associated Press
SIMONTON, Texas — In 18
years, Southeast Texas resident
Art Myrick says he’s been ordered or asked to evacuate his
home near the Brazos River about
20 times, but he didn’t always do
so and the house never flooded
— until now.
Flooding comes with living in
Simonton, a small town west of
Houston. But this latest round has
convinced the 66-year-old Myrick,
who retired four years ago, that he
should move. He has land to build
a new home in San Antonio.
“We’re gone. Getting too old
to live with this,” Myrick said
of him and his wife Wednesday,
while sitting on a cot inside a Red
Cross shelter in Brookshire. “For
us, the Lord is in charge of everything and maybe this is his final
message to us — a sign it’s time to
move on. I hate it because I love
that house.”
Simonton, which has about 800
residents, and other Texas communities continued Wednesday
to deal with flooding from rivers
and waterways swollen by heavy
rain last week, and from a new
round of thunderstorms drench-
A structure is seen partially under water on Lipan Trail on
Wednesday in Horseshoe Bend, Texas.
ing the state.
Hundreds of residents remained evacuated from their
homes as the Brazos River
reached 54.7 feet in Fort Bend
County, which includes Simonton and has had more than 300
water rescues the last four days,
before finally beginning to slowly
fall. But additional rain this week
could mean it might take days or
even weeks before the Brazos and
other waterways drop to normal
levels. The Neches River in East
Texas and the Colorado River extending southeast of Austin also
were overflowing.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster Wednesday in 31 flood-affected counties
including Lubbock County in
West Texas, Hidalgo County in
the Lower Rio Grande Valley of
South Texas, and Jasper County
in East Texas.
At least six people died in
floods last week in Central and
Southeast Texas.
Ohio official: No decision yet on charges in gorilla case
BY DAN SEWELL AND JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press
CINCINNATI — No decision has been
made yet on whether charges will be
brought against the parents of a 3-yearold boy who fell into a gorilla enclosure at
the Cincinnati Zoo, causing an animal response team to shoot and kill the primate,
authorities said.
Cincinnati city spokesman Rocky Merz
said Wednesday no determination has been
made on possible charges nor has anything
related to the case been released by city or
county departments.
Merz said an investigation into the incident Saturday at the zoo is ongoing and
that Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters will review the case.
Meanwhile, 911 tapes released Wednesday by Cincinnati police reveal the confusion and panic in the moments when the
boy plunged into the zoo’s gorilla exhibit.
“He’s dragging my son! I can’t watch
this!” a woman, who isn’t identified, says
in the 911 call on Saturday.
As she pleads for help, she shouts at her
son repeatedly: “Be calm!”
The zoo’s dangerous animal response
team shot and killed the gorilla within 10
minutes to protect the boy after he dropped
some 15 feet into the exhibit.
The boy’s family isn’t commenting on
the police investigation, but they released
a statement saying he continues to do well
and expressed gratitude to the Cincinnati
Zoo for protecting his life.
The child’s mother said in the 911 call
that her son had fallen into the gorilla exhibit and a male gorilla was standing over
him.
The dispatcher told her that responders were on their way, and she yelled four
times: “Be calm!”
Another woman is heard telling by-
standers to keep quiet so they didn’t scare
the gorilla. “You’re going to make him
riled up. You’re riling him up,” the woman
said.
A record of police calls shows nine minutes passed between the first emergency
call about the boy falling into the enclosure
and when the child was safe.
Since then, there have been numerous
questions about the how the child got past
the barriers around the exhibit.
The zoo says it will look at whether it
needs to reinforce the barriers even though
it considers the enclosure more secure
than what’s required.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 11
NATION
Rising insurance rates
spur new concerns for
health care overhaul
BY R ICARDO A LONSO -ZALDIVAR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Fresh problems for “Obamacare:” The largest health insurer in Texas wants
to raise its rates on individual
policies by an average of nearly
60 percent, a new sign that President Barack Obama’s overhaul
hasn’t solved the problem of price
spikes.
Texas isn’t alone. Citing financial losses under the health care
law, many insurers around the
country are requesting bigger premium increases for 2017. That’s
to account for lower-than-hoped
enrollment, sicker-than-expected
customers and problems with the
government’s financial backstop
for insurance markets.
The national picture will take
weeks to fill in. With data available for about half the states,
premium increases appear to be
sharper, but there are also huge
differences between states and
among insurers. Health insurance is priced locally.
Earlier this week, North Carolina’s largest insurer said it will
seek an average increase of 18.8
percent.
A recent analysis of nine states
by the consulting firm Avalere
Health found that average premium increases for the most
popular kind of plan ranged from
5 percent in Washington state to
44 percent in Vermont.
Millions of customers will be
shielded from price hikes by government subsidies, which typical-
ly cover more than 70 percent of
the premiums. People who don’t
have access to workplace plans
can buy policies directly on the
health care law’s marketplaces.
But many consumers aren’t eligible for the income-based subsidies and get no such protection.
That demographic includes small
business owners, self-employed
people and early retirees. Under
the law, most Americans are required to have health insurance
or risk being fined.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas
has about 603,000 individual
policyholders and, unlike other
insurers in the state, offers coverage in every county. In a recent
filing with federal regulators, a
summary of which is available
on HealthCare.gov, the company
said it is seeking increases averaging from 57.3 percent to 59.4
percent across its individual market plans.
In a statement, Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Texas said its request is
based on strong financial principles, sycience and data. “It’s
also important to understand the
magnitude of the losses … experienced in the individual retail
market over the past two years,”
the statement said. The company
says it lost $592 million last year
and $416 million in 2014.
Texas is the health care law’s
third-largest market, after Florida and California. Texas state
regulators said the insurer’s request is confidential and they
can’t comment on it.
NC lawmaker reduces
proposal to cut tuition
BY A NNA GRONEWOLD
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North
Carolina lawmaker who proposed
to slash tuition to just $500 per
semester at five public universities that serve mostly blacks,
American Indians and the poor
announced Wednesday that he
is scaling back on the bill after
running into mistrust so fierce he
was branded a racist.
Republican Sen. Tom Apodaca
said he plans to drop the three
historically black colleges from
the bill. Apodaca is Hispanic.
The move came after North
Carolina’s NAACP called the
proposed tuition cut a back-door
attempt to drive the black schools
into bankruptcy.
For weeks, administrators, faculty members, students and others have warned that the loss in
tuition revenue could cripple the
five institutions. Many said they
didn’t trust assurances from the
conservative,
GOP-controlled
legislature that it would make up
for the lost funding with up to $70
million per year.
Others warned that a rockbottom tuition of $500 would look
bad and would cheapen a degree
from the schools involved.
Apodaca, one of the powerful
members of the Senate, said his
goal was to make college more affordable and to boost enrollment.
He said he was surprised by the
reaction to the bill.
“I’ve also been disappointed in
being called a racist and bigot,”
he said.
He said he is dropping WinstonSalem State, Elizabeth City State
and Fayetteville State from the
bill. It now will apply only to the
University of North Carolina at
Pembroke, a historically Native
American university, and Western Carolina University, which
serves the poverty-stricken Appalachian region.
Undergraduate tuition would
be reduced in the fall of 2018 to
$500 per semester for in-state
students and $2,500 for out-ofstate students. Tuition at the five
schools now runs between $1,400
and $1,900 per semester for residents and between $6,500 and
$7,500 for nonresidents.
C HARLIE NEIBERGALL /AP
Jonathan Lopez holds an envelope containing some of the paperwork for his asylum application in May in
Clive, Iowa. Lopez, now 18, lost his bid and will make a final plea before a judge in February.
Asylum approvals for
children vary by US region
BY A MY TAXIN
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — For unaccompanied immigrant children
seeking asylum in the U.S., where
they apply seems to make a world
of difference.
Youngsters whose applications
are handled by the U.S. government’s regional offices in San
Francisco and Los Angeles are
far more likely to win approval
from asylum officers than those
applying in Chicago or Houston,
according to data obtained by The
Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The figures offer a snapshot of
how the government is handling
the huge surge during the past
two years in the number of Central American children arriving
at the U.S.-Mexico border unaccompanied by adults. Tens of
thousands of youngsters — many
of them fleeing gang violence in
El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — have overflowed U.S.
shelters and have clogged further
the nation’s overwhelmed immigration courts.
Under federal law, these children can apply to remain in the
country in a process that involves
an interview with an asylum officer from one of U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services’ eight
regional offices. To win their
cases, they must show that they
have been persecuted or are in
danger of persecution.
As of January, asylum officers
had rendered decisions in the
cases of nearly 5,800 such children who arrived since May 2014,
according to the figures obtained
by the AP.
Overall, 37 percent were granted asylum, but the rate varied
dramatically from 86 percent at
the San Francisco office, which
handles applications for a swath
of the Pacific Northwest, to 15
percent in Chicago, which covers
15 states from Ohio to Idaho.
Los Angeles, which covers parts
of California and Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, granted asylum
in 53 percent of its cases, while
only 16 percent were approved by
Houston, which handles Texas,
Colorado, New Mexico and other
states. The asylum offices in New
York; Miami; Newark, N.J.; and
Arlington, Va., had approval rates
in the 20s and 30s.
Immigration lawyers said they
expected some differences among
regional offices, given that some
parts of the country are more
sympathetic toward immigrants.
But they said there shouldn’t be
such large disparities.
“The quality of justice should
not be like a crapshoot. It shouldn’t
be a lottery,” said Karen Musalo,
director of the Center for Gender
& Refugee Studies at the University of California, Hastings College
of the Law. “It is not just disappointing — it has life-or-death
consequences for these children.”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had no explanation
for the disparities. Asylum claims
are evaluated on a case-by-case
basis, and each child’s application
get an additional review by a supervisory officer, spokeswoman
Claire Nicholson said.
Several members of the House
Judiciary Committee blasted the
disparities. Rep. Judy Chu, DCalif., called for the committee to
examine reasons behind what she
called the “alarming” differences
and youngsters’ abilities to access
to lawyers in different places.
“If justice is being served, it
should be served evenly across
the country,” said Rep. Luis Guti-
errez, D-Ill. “Our asylum system
is failing under the weight of its
caseload combined with the fact
that Congress robbed it of resources for decades.”
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas,
said he feared the disparities
might enable immigrants to exploit the country’s immigration
system.
Children who are turned down
get a second chance to plead their
cases before an immigration
judge. If they fail at that stage,
they can be deported. Immigration lawyers said most of those
children are still awaiting decisions on their applications because it can take months or years
for their cases to be heard in
court. But previous studies show
the courts also vary widely in
how often they approve asylum.
Immigration lawyers and activists offered a variety of possible reasons for the regional
differences.
Asylum officers are expected to
make their decisions in line with
federal court rulings on immigration, and the appeals courts on the
West Coast are more liberal. Also,
California has funded immigration attorneys for children since
the surge, enabling these youngsters to make stronger cases for
asylum, activists said. Office culture and interviewing techniques
also could play a role.
Immigration lawyers in liberal
San Francisco said asylum officers there take their time and use
child-friendly language during
interviews to draw details out of
traumatized youngsters who often
are reluctant to share their pasts
with strangers. Immigration attorney Pablo Lastra said these
officers seem to ask questions to
get at why kids should be granted
asylum, not why they shouldn’t.
PAGE 12
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
NATION
WWII cadet nurses reminisce about service
The group of women bonded over the ‘trials and tribulations’ they experienced during wartime
BY JESSICA INMAN
Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel
LAKE MARY, Fla. — After the
plates of salmon and asparagus
are carted away, the cheesecake
has been served, and the coffee
sipped, three World War II nurses linger a little longer at the dining table.
The women, in their early 90s,
sit close as they recall the U.S.
Cadet Nurse Corps training that
shaped them and kick-started
their careers, ultimately forging the strong connection they
share.
“Well being a nurse I think is a
strong bond,” said Florence Adler,
91. “I mean we’ve gone through
so many trials and tribulations
taking care of all kinds of people
with so many diagnoses and we
understand each other.”
Adler feels especially close to
Fay Cohn, 91, and Eileen Rodgers, 93, because of their involvement as World War II cadet
nurses. She organized a luncheon
for her friends to reminisce at the
Oakmonte Village senior-living
community, where they live. She
also invited two other residents:
Claire Kohl, 83, a former nurse
for the U.S. Air Force in the mid1950s, and Juanita Mendez, 84, a
onetime office nurse.
“During World War II, the
homefront had a shortage of
nurses,” Adler said. “People on
the homefront didn’t have the
proper care. If they joined the
cadet corps, they would get free
tuition, and free room and board.”
Training lasted three years and
students received a monthly $20
stipend, she said. In exchange,
each woman committed to serve
in a military hospital afterward,
Adler said.
Rodgers started out in two
Pennsylvania hospitals, one of
them military.
“I did see some of the boys who
came back with injuries and so
forth,” she said. “Some of them
were pretty badly injured and it
was tough. Some of them were
coming back with wounds that we
hadn’t seen before.”
But she also recalls how patriotic her peers were. She saw
her service in the cadet nurse
corps as a way to give back to her
country.
“We all were involved in what
was going on,” she said.
Adler still has the yellowed slip
of paper that reveals her high
marks from the New York state
licensing exam in 1948. Each of
the World War II cadet nurses
JESSICA INMAN, O RLANDO (FLA .) SENTINEL /TNS
Claire Kohl, 83; Eileen Rodgers, 93; Fay Cohn, 91; and Florence
Adler, 91, sit together after a luncheon. Kohl was a nurse for the Air
Force in the 1950s. The other three were World War II nurses.
enjoyed a fruitful career after
training. And each had different
reasons for enrolling in the first
place.
Rodgers originally planned to
become an art teacher, but the
nursing program was a better fit
for her family financially.
“In those days, I wasn’t really
sure what I wanted to be,” she
said. “Since I had two younger
sisters, (my) mom and dad said
they couldn’t really afford to send
me back to art school.”
Firsthand experiences with
good nursing care motivated the
other two.
Cohn, who grew up in rural
Missouri, said she made up her
mind to become a nurse as young
as 8 or 9 years old when her brother got pneumonia.
“And when I saw those nurses
in those pretty white uniforms,
that’s when I decided to be a
nurse,” she said. Cohn trained at
a St. Louis hospital.
Adler originally hoped to be a
dancer and had performed at the
Jewish Theater of New York, she
said. But when she was 20, she
fractured her tibia.
“I was in the hospital, and I
said, right there and then, ‘I want
to be a nurse,’ ” she said. “They
were so kind and loving to all the
people there.”
Adler, who grew up with her
parents and seven siblings in a
one-bedroom Manhattan apartment, trained in New York. She
said her parents were reluctant to
see her leave even though tuition
was covered.
“My poor father said to me,
‘Florence, if you give up your
job here, we’re going to have less
money to come into the house,’ ”
she said.
But she told him he’d be more
proud of her if she became a
nurse. She was right.
Adler and the others reminisced about the time in their
lives when everything was possible, when they learned much and
gave to others.
“We’re a special breed aren’t
we?” she asked Cohn and
Rodgers.
Restored
WWII bomber
certified to fly
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. — A World War II aircraft that took nearly 16 years to restore
might be flying over Kansas in the next
few weeks after receiving a certificate of
airworthiness from the Federal Aviation
Administration.
A nonprofit group called Doc’s Friends
on May 20 officially accepted the FAA certificate for a B-29 bomber known as “Doc.”
The group has worked to restore the aircraft since its parts arrived in Wichita in
2000. The certificate is one of the final
hurdles to getting it off the ground, The
Wichita Eagle reported.
Several dozen members of Doc’s Friends
and other supporters attended the ceremony at the World War II aircraft’s hangar at
Air Capital Flight Line, the grounds of the
former Boeing Wichita complex.
“The biggest thing is how important this
airplane is to history,” said Jeff Turner,
board chairman for Doc’s Friends. “The
light of freedom was growing dimmer (during World War II), and the men and women
of our nation rose up and secured our freedom. I don’t want us to ever forget that.”
The group will seek permission from the
Pentagon to operate “Doc” at McConnell
Air Force Base. The plane could be flying
in the next few weeks, said Turner, who estimated 350,000 volunteer hours have gone
into the restoration.
Tony Mazzolini, who discovered the
plane’s parts on a bombing range in California’s Mojave Desert in 1987, traveled
JAIME G REEN, THE WICHITA (K AN.) E AGLE /AP
The Wichita Aero Club shows off the restoration of “Doc,” a B-29 Superfortress, on May 13, 2014, in Wichita, Kan.
from Cleveland for the ceremony. He said
he originally thought it would take only
two or three years to restore the four-engine plane.
“It has been much more difficult than I
originally thought, but it’s all been worth
it,” Mazzolini said. “I wanted to help preserve our aviation history in America, and
I wanted to keep the memories of that time
period alive.”
Some of the volunteers for the restoration
worked on the original B-29 line at Boeing
in Wichita, or had served as crewmembers.
The Wichita plant manufactured 1,644 of
the airplanes, which are best known as the
bomber type used to drop atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, ending
World War II in the Pacific.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 13
WORLD
French workers on
strike over labor bill
cause power outage
BY A NGELA CHARLTON
Associated Press
PARIS — Striking workers created blackouts by cutting power
to a big electricity line in western
France and occupied train tracks
at a Paris railway hub Thursday
as unions at nuclear plants and
the national rail service protested the proposed abolition of some
French labor protections.
Workers have sector-specific
demands, but are also tapping
into months of widespread anger
at a government bill extending the
35-hour work week and making it
easier to hire and fire workers.
Members of the CGT union at
16 of France’s 19 nuclear plants,
which provide the majority of the
country’s electricity, voted for a
one-day strike Thursday.
Nuclear plants are required
to maintain a minimal level of
production even during strikes
for security reasons. But workers in Brittany cut the electricity
supply from a power station in
Saint-Malo-de-Guersac, prompting blackouts in at least 120,000
homes, according to the RTE
electricity network.
Service was restored to most
homes by early afternoon, said
an RTE official who was not authorized to be publicly named
according to company policy. He
said no other incidents were reported linked to the strikes.
Protesters also briefly walked
onto train tracks at the Gare de
Lyon station in eastern Paris, according to LCI television. A union
march through Paris was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Service on high-speed TGV
trains and commuter trains was
disrupted Thursday for a second
day because of strikes by some
union members. Some Paris
public-transportation
workers
also joined the strike, although
disruptions on subways and buses
were minimal.
FRANCOIS MORI /AP
Residents use a boat Thursday to rescue people in downtown Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris.
Western Europe struggles
German officials: Killing as floodwaters still rise
of Armenians genocide
BY GEIR MOULSON
AND SUZAN FRASER
Associated Press
BERLIN — The German
Parliament overwhelmingly approved a motion labeling the killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks a century ago as genocide,
a decision that Turkey’s prime
minister said would “test” relations between the two countries
at a sensitive time.
The resolution, which was put
forward by Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s governing coalition of
right and left and the opposition
Greens, passed Thursday with
support from all the parties in
Parliament. In a show of hands,
there was one abstention and one
vote against.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said this week his
country would not nix a deal with
the European Union on curbing
the flow of migrants to Europe
over the motion, but said in Ankara earlier Thursday that the vote
was a “true test of friendship.”
Armenia’s foreign minister welcomed the vote.
Merkel was not present, with officials citing scheduling reasons,
though spokeswoman Christiane
Wirtz has made clear that the
chancellor supported the motion.
Her foreign minister, who also
backed it, was on a trip to Latin
America.
Historians estimate that up
to 1.5 million Armenians were
killed by Ottoman Turks about
the time of World War I, an event
viewed by many scholars as the
20th century’s first genocide.
Turkey denies that the killings
that started in 1915 were genocide and contends the dead were
victims of civil war and unrest.
Ankara also insists the death toll
has been inflated.
BY A NGELA CHARLTON
AND SYLVIE CORBET
Associated Press
PARIS — Rivers in Europe
have burst their banks from Paris
to the southern German state of
Bavaria, killing six people, trapping thousands more in homes or
cars and forcing everything from
subway lines to castles to shut
down.
In France, authorities say areas
along the Loing River, a tributary
of the Seine River, are facing
water levels unseen since 1910,
when a massive flood swamped
the French capital. About 25,000
homes were without electricity
because of floods in the Paris region and central France.
And it isn’t over — more rain is
forecast for the coming days, and
authorities in Paris predict the
Seine River won’t reach its peak
until Friday.
France’s meteorological service said Thursday that severe
flood watches are in effect in two
Paris-area regions: Loiret and
Seine-et-Marne. Eight more re-
gions, including three on the German border, face flood warnings
as well.
Tourist boat cruises have been
canceled and several roads in
and around the capital are under
water. Days of heavy rains have
caused exceptional delays to the
French Open tennis tournament
and may force it into a third
week.
Authorities on Thursday shut
down a suburban train line that
runs alongside the Seine in central Paris, serving popular tourist sites like the Eiffel Tower, the
Invalides plaza and the Orsay
museum. Other subway lines in
Paris are running normally despite the flooding.
In the Loire valley in central
France, the renowned castles of
Chambord and Azay-le-Rideau
were closed to the public because
of floods in their parks.
The rains that have fallen
across Western Europe this week
have already killed six people,
including an 86-year-old woman
who died in her flooded home in
Souppes-sur-Loing southeast of
Paris, the French government
said.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, meanwhile, is promising
continued help for flooded areas
of southern Germany, where five
people were killed amid floods
that swept Wednesday through
the southern towns of Simbach
am Inn and Triftern near the
Austrian border.
She says disaster relief is on
hand to help control the floods
and to rebuild damaged areas.
The floodwaters in Bavaria receded Thursday and disaster relief crews were helping to clear
the wreckage, but there are warnings of more storms.
For the second day, emergency
workers evacuated residents in
Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris,
the hardest-hit site in France.
Belgium also endured a fourth
day of heavy rain, with flooding
reported in several areas.
A major train line linking eastern Limburg to the capital of
Brussels had to be temporarily
suspended early Thursday.
Migrant groups clash in Greece; trafficking suspects held in Hungary
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — Authorities in
Greece say three migrants have been hospitalized with injuries after violence broke
out overnight at a detention camp on the
island of Lesbos.
The clashes between migrant groups occurred early Thursday and also resulted in
a fire that gutted a converted freight container used as trailer home, police said.
It was the latest violence at the Moria
camp on the Greek island, where more
than 2,500 are held in detention following
a March agreement between the European
Union and Turkey to deport migrants and
refugees.
Deportations have been held up by
delays in the asylum screening process
— triggering frequent unrest at camps on
Lesbos and the nearby island of Chios.
Meanwhile, Hungarian police say they
have detained five Ukrainians suspected
of human trafficking for transporting 25
migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan
toward Austria.
The migrants were in one of two vans
with Lithuanian license plates stopped by
police early Thursday on a road near the
western city of Szombathely, about 9 miles
from the Austrian border.
In another case, police said a 49-yearold Austrian man was taken into custody
near the northern city of Tata after he was
stopped with six Syrians, including two
minors, in his car. The Syrians had registered with Hungarian authorities and had
requested asylum but did not have the documents needed to leave the country.
Also, police in eastern Germany say
they’re looking for three men from a suspected vigilante group after a video surfaced of them pulling an Iraqi migrant out
of a supermarket.
Goerlitz police told the dpa news agency
Thursday the 21-year-old Iraqi was arguing with supermarket employees over a defective phone card on May 21 in Arnsdorf
when three men in black shirts stormed in,
grabbed him, took him outside and zip-tied
him to a tree.
The men fled when police arrived.
The Bild newspaper on Thursday posted a
video of the incident, which it said has been
making the rounds on far-right websites.
Police are looking for witnesses who can
identify the men. They’re also investigating the migrant, who supermarket workers
said threatened them with a bottle.
PAGE 14
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 15
WORLD
China
sees IVF
surge
Change in 1-child
policy leads many
older couples to
fertility centers
BY LOUISE WATT
Associated Press
BEIJING — China’s decision to
allow all married couples to have
two children is driving a surge
in demand for fertility treatment
among older women, putting
heavy pressure on clinics and
breaking down past sensitivities,
and even shame, about the issue.
The rise in in vitro fertilization
points to the deferred dreams of
many parents who long wanted
second children, but were prevented by a strict population-control policy in place for more than
30 years.
That, in turn, is shifting prevailing attitudes in China regarding
fertility treatments — formerly
a matter of such sensitivity that
couples were reluctant to tell
even their parents or other family
members that they were having
trouble conceiving.
“More and more women are
coming to ask to have their second child,” said Dr. Liu Jiaen, who
runs a private hospital in Beijing
treating infertility through IVF,
in which an egg and sperm are
combined in a laboratory dish
and the resulting embryo is transferred to a woman’s uterus.
Liu estimated that the number
of women coming to him for IVF
had risen by 20 percent since the
relaxation of the policy, which
came into effect at the start of
the year. Before, the average age
of his patients was about 35. Now
most of them are older than 40
and some of the women are fast
approaching 50, he said.
“They have a very low chance
to get pregnant, so they are in a
hurry. They really want to have
a child as soon as possible,” he
said.
Chen Yun is 39 and was in
the hospital, waiting to have the
procedure for the first time. She
and her husband already have a
7-year-old son and their families
are encouraging them to have a
second child.
“We are coming to the end of
our childbearing years. It may be
difficult for me to get pregnant
naturally because my husband’s
sperm may have a problem, so
we want to resolve this problem
through IVF,” she said.
Chen said she hoped having a
brother or a sister would make
their son happier, more responsible and less self-absorbed.
PHOTOS
BY
A NDY WONG /AP
Dr. Liu Jiaen, center, watches a staff member work on a laboratory dish during a fertility treatment through in vitro fertilization for a patient
at a hospital in Beijing in April.
Children play on bars before attending a class May 11 at the I
Love Gym center in Beijing. China’s decision to allow all married
couples to have two children is driving a surge in demand for fertility
treatment among older women, putting heavy pressure on clinics
and breaking down past sensitivities, and even shame, about the
issue.
“We had siblings when we were
children. I had a younger sister and we felt very happy when
playing together,” she said. “Now
that every couple has one child,
two generations — parents and
grandparents — take care of the
child. They give the only child too
much attention.” If her son has a
younger brother or sister to look
out for, he may not “think too
much about himself, like a little
emperor,” Chen said.
During the past two decades,
IVF technology has developed
rapidly in China, where about 10
percent of couples are estimated
to need the procedure to conceive. In 2014, 700,000 women
had IVF treatments, according
to the health commission’s Women’s and Children’s Department,
which said in a statement that
demand for all types of fertility treatment had risen following
the policy relaxation, including
the use of traditional Chinese
medicine.
“Currently, fertility centers at
renowned medical organizations
in Beijing and Shanghai and others are under increased pressure
for treatments,” the department
said.
Previously, China limited most
urban couples to one child and
rural couples to two if their first
was a girl. There were exceptions
for ethnic minorities, and city
dwellers could break the policy if
they were willing to pay a fee calculated at several times a household’s annual income.
While authorities credit the pol-
icy introduced in 1979 with preventing 400 million extra births,
many demographers argue the
fertility rate would have fallen
anyway as China’s economy developed and education levels
rose.
Intended to curb a surging
population, the policy has been
blamed for skewing China’s demographics by reducing the size
of the future workforce at a time
when children and society face
increasing demands from the
growing ranks of the elderly. It
also inflated the ratio of boys to
girls as female fetuses were selectively aborted, while compelling many women to have forced
abortions or to give up their second children for adoption, leaving
many families devastated.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission said in
November that 90 million women
would become eligible to have
second children following the
policy change. Authorities expect
that will add 30 million people to
the country’s labor force by 2050.
Those projections could be
overly optimistic because many
younger Chinese see small families as ideal and would be reluctant to take on the cost of raising
second children. When the policy
was changed in 2013 to allow two
children for families in which
at least one parent was an only
child, it spurred fewer births than
authorities expected.
Also under pressure are China’s sperm banks, which already
suffer shortages owing to a reluctance to donate among young
Chinese men unwilling to father
children they won’t know, or fearing their offspring may turn up at
their doors one day despite donor
confidentiality.
“The relaxing of the one-child
policy certainly gave an impetus
to the demand for sperm as more
women, usually aged around or
above 35, came for assistance,”
said Zhang Xinzong, director of
the Guangdong Sperm Bank in
southern China.
PAGE 16
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
PACIFIC
S. Korea uses tech to help
pregnant women on subways
BY YOUKYUNG LEE
AND YONG JUN CHANG
Associated Press
BUSAN, South Korea — Before they show a baby bump, what
some pregnant women in South
Korea can expect when expecting
is accusing glares when they take
subway seats meant for pregnant,
disabled or elderly passengers.
One South Korean city is testing a wireless technology it hopes
can alleviate such problems and
perhaps can help address one of
the biggest challenges facing the
Asian country: a stubbornly low
birth rate.
In April, the southeastern port
of Busan, South Korea’s secondlargest city, began testing a small,
round device called a beacon.
Equipped with a wireless sensor,
it activates a pink light attached
to another sensor installed on a
metal bar next to special priority seats, usually at the ends of
subway cars. The idea is to alert
all nearby that the person carrying the beacon has a baby on the
way.
The “Pink Light Campaign”
can help non-pregnant passengers who might be occupying a
seats designated for riders who
are expecting to yield the spots
without having to guess, is she
or isn’t she? In theory, pregnant
women also can claim seats without having to ask.
“It is hard to tell if a woman
is pregnant, and give up a seat,
when she doesn’t have a baby
bump,” said Lee Gyeong-eon, 23,
a college student who frequently
travels by subway.
Other South Korean cities
also are trying to make travel by
public transportation friendlier
to pregnant women. Seoul, the
capital, has installed bright, pink
seats designated for women who
are expecting.
With one of the lowest birth
rates in the world, South Korea is
eager to encourage larger families. South Korean women had
KWON SUNG - HOON, BUSAN METROPOLITAN CITY/AP
A woman sits on special priority seats next to a metal bar with a
“pink light” sensor in a subway train in April in Busan, South Korea.
1.21 children on average in 2014.
The average for the wealthy nations belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation
and Development was 1.68.
For now, Busan’s trial of the
technology is limited to a few sections of the city’s transit system.
But the city plans to expand it to
more subway lines and to buses.
After 5 days, no clues found for missing boy in Japan
BY M ARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press
TOKYO — The search for a boy
who disappeared after his parents reportedly left him behind in
a Japanese forest as punishment
pushed into a fifth day on Thursday, with no clues to his fate.
Yamato Tanooka, 7, has been
missing since Saturday, when his
parents said they made him get
out of their car as punishment for
misbehaving, leaving him behind
in a wooded area on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island.
Police said more than 180 rescuers, including defense troops,
were searching Thursday, focus-
ing on the area where the boy was
believed to have been dropped
off.
There have been no signs of the
boy nor any eyewitness reports of
him, according to police. Bears
are sometimes seen in the mountains of Hokkaido, but an attack
by one of the animals is unlikely
because none has been spotted in
the area, police said.
The boy’s mysterious disappearance has captured national
attention, with many praying for
his safe return, while others have
bitterly criticized the parents,
triggering a debate over whether
their treatment of the boy was
discipline or child abuse.
Japanese firm , Chinese
workers reach deal over
World War II slavery
Associated Press
TOKYO — Mitsubishi Materials Corp., one of dozens of Japanese companies that used Chinese
forced laborers during World War
II, reached a settlement covering
thousands of victims Wednesday
that includes compensation and
an apology.
The deal was signed in Beijing
with three former workers representing the company’s more than
3,000 Chinese victims of forced
labor, Mitsubishi Materials said
in a statement.
The victims were among about
40,000 Chinese brought to Japan
in the early 1940s as forced laborers to make up for a domestic
labor shortage. Many died due to
violence and malnutrition amid
harsh treatment by the Japanese.
Under the settlement, Mitsubishi Materials will pay 100,000
yuan ($15,000) to each of the
Chinese victims and their families. The victims were forced to
work at 10 coal mines operated
by Mitsubishi Mining Corp., as
Mitsubishi Materials was known
at the time.
Mitsubishi Materials said it
would try to locate all of the victims. The company’s payments
would total 370 million yuan
($56 million) if all of them come
forward.
Most hailed the settlement as a
victory for their cause.
“World War II ended 70 years
ago. Our forced-labor case today
has finally come to a resolution.
We have won this case. This is a
big victory that merits a celebration,” One of the victims, Yan
Yucheng, 87, told reporters.
Representatives of other exlaborers, however, said they
weren’t convinced Mitsubishi
Materials’ apology was sincere,
citing a desire by Japanese firms
to ease widespread anti-Japan
sentiment among Chinese, many
of whom feel the country has yet
to show true contrition for its invasion and wartime atrocities.
Police said the parents said they
made the boy get out of the car as
“discipline,” after changing their
earlier story that he disappeared
while picking wild vegetables.
The father said the boy was gone
when he returned to the site sev-
eral minutes later, police said.
The parents reportedly told
police that they had punished the
boy for throwing rocks at people
and cars while playing at a river
earlier in the day.
Police said they are consider-
ing whether the parents should be
charged with child abandonment.
“Making children obey by giving them fear or pain is bad parenting,” Naoki Ogi, a professor
of education at Hosei University,
said in his blog. “It’s abuse.”
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 17
EUROPE
3 Syrians accused of planning attacks in Germany
BY GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press
BERLIN — German authorities on
Thursday arrested three Syrian men
suspected of planning an attack in Duesseldorf for the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.
They said the plot was thwarted by a
fourth suspect, who went to French authorities with details earlier this year.
The three men were arrested in three
different German states, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The plan called for two suicide attackers
to blow themselves up in central Duesseldorf and then for further assailants to kill
as many people as possible using firearms
and explosives, prosecutors said.
They said there were no indications the
men started with concrete preparations.
The three men arrested in Germany
were identified as Hamza C., 27; Mahood
B., 25; and Abd Arahman A. K., 31. The
suspect in custody in France was identified as Saleh A., 25, also from Syria. Their
full names weren’t released in keeping
with German privacy rules.
Prosecutors said Saleh A. and Hamza C.
joined the Islamic State group in Syria in
2014 and got instructions from the group to
carry out an attack in Duesseldorf.
The two traveled to Turkey in May 2014
with Islamic State approval, they added. In
March and July 2015, they traveled separately via Greece to Germany.
The pair convinced Mahood B. to join
the plot at some point before January this
year, prosecutors said.
Also in January, Saleh A. contacted Abd
Arahman A. K., who had traveled to Germany in October 2014 with instructions
from the Islamic State group to take part in
the attack. According to prosecutors, Abd
Arahman A. K., who previously made sui-
Panda born at Belgium’s Pairi Daiza zoo
BY R AF CASERT
Associated Press
BRUSSELS — A baby panda
was born in Belgium’s Pairi Daiza
zoo on Thursday just three months
after Chinese experts artificially
inseminated its mother Hao Hao.
Screaming seemingly well beyond the power of his 171 gram
frame, the tiny pink male cub
was tenderly cared for, washed
and cradled by his mother in her
black-and-white fur and carried
around in her mouth.
Since panda births are such
a rarity, some guardians were
overcome by emotion and cried at
the zoo, which is around 30 miles
south of Brussels.
Still, zoo director Eric Domb
had mixed feelings.
“It was very intense for us all.
The utmost joy to see the birth,”
Domb told RTL network. “It is
also a big worry since the chances of survival of a panda are only
one out of two in the first three
months.”
With the help of the Chinese
government, Hao Hao and her
mate Xing Hui arrived in Belgium two years ago. Pairi Daiza
adapted its zoo to build a bamboo
forest and a cave.
The zoo said that “less than
2,000 pandas can be found in
the wild, making every birth a
true miracle.” Austria and Spain
are the only other two European
countries where pandas have been
born. Ever since their arrival, the
pandas have been a huge hit at
the zoo, and the newcomer will no
doubt add to its popularity.
Yet even now, no one was ready
for a name for the little cub. And
it had to do with Chinese superstition, said Domb.
“So in no case whatsoever
would we have considered a name
before several of the first weeks
have passed. We will think about
it,” he said.
cide vests and grenades for the extremist
Nusra Front group in Syria, was supposed
to make the suicide vests.
The plot was thwarted when Saleh A.
went to prosecutors in Paris Feb. 1 with
details of the plan. He has been in custody
in France since. Prosecutors said that they
will seek his extradition.
Prosecutors stressed that the arrests are
not related to soccer’s European Championship, which kicks off in France next week.
Germany so far has been spared masscasualty attacks by Islamic extremists of
the type seen in France and Belgium over
recent months.
European court rules
against noble title
Associated Press
BERLIN — A German man
who added nobility titles to his
name after obtaining dual citizenship in Britain will have to settle
with being plain-old Nabiel Peter
Bogendorff von Wolffersdorff in
his native land following a ruling from the European Court of
Justice.
The Luxembourg-based court
said Thursday that European
Union member states aren’t al-
ways obliged to recognize name
changes of a citizen who has dual
citizenship with another nation in
the bloc that contain “tokens of nobility” not accepted by that state.
Germany abolished titles of nobility in 1919, but the man added
both “Graf” and “Freiherr”
— Count and Baron — to his
last name while he was living in
Britain more than a decade ago,
becoming Peter Mark Emanuel
Graf von Wolffersdorff Freiherr
von Bogendorff.
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 18
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
FAITH
In good
taste
Catholic grocer in Mexico
helps Jews keep kosher
BY TAYLOR GOLDENSTEIN
Los Angeles Times
N
oe Trinidad Chavez sat at a
small card table gutting zucchinis with a metal corer
knife, preparing them to be
stuffed with meat and cooked into platillo a la jardinera, a traditional meal
eaten by Sephardic Jews.
The 56-year-old, a native of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, was born
and raised Catholic. He had never met a
Jewish person in his life until he was 10,
when he ventured off to Mexico City for
work. There he got a job helping Jewish
families with day-to-day needs, such as
cleaning and cooking.
Now he’s the owner of two Jewish food
shops, including this one that’s no more
than 6 feet by 14 feet with a lime-green
awning adorned with a Star of David.
The store’s unlikely name: El Tope, or
speed bump, a tribute to his humble beginnings and where he set up a food cart
as a street vendor. His shop is stocked
with produce and packaged products
common to Mediterranean diets — eggplant, grape leaves and tamarind syrup
he prepares himself.
“It’s hard to find such unique things
like these,” Chavez said. “It’s a very
small but very important store in the life
of the Arab and Jewish community.”
Although Mexico may be known for
being the second-largest Roman Catho-
lic country in the world, it’s also home to
a small but thriving Jewish population
of about 40,000, concentrated mainly in
Mexico City. El Tope is among dozens of
shops in the town of San Miguel Tecamachalco, catering to a Jewish clientele.
Chavez can thoroughly explain what
keeping kosher entails — what his customers can and can’t eat and when,
under Jewish law. He can’t read the Hebrew on the labels of the products that
fill his store, but he knows which ones
signify they are certified kosher.
Some store owners might have been
put off by having to learn the complicated kosher rituals of an unfamiliar
culture as part of their business.
For him, Chavez said, it’s the most
beautiful part.
Decades ago, San Miguel Tecamachalco was more than just a “little village”
and consisted of acres of farmland. Now,
it’s hugged on all sides by seemingly
endless rows of houses protected by tall,
contiguous gates, which line the streets
in Lomas de Tecamachalco and other
surrounding suburbs.
Sirilina Avelino, who grew up here
and runs a small restaurant, watched
as the cattle and cornfields disappeared
and the small commercial district took
their place.
As the demographics shifted, Jewish
people made their mark on the community, she said.
PHOTOS B Y TAYLOR G OLDENSTEIN /TNS
Above: Noe Trinidad Chavez is the owner of El Tope, a small shop that
caters to the Jewish community found in wealthy suburbs surrounding the
town of El Pueblo San Miguel Tecamachalco, Mexico.
“When they have their holidays, the
town feels it because the majority of
their businesses are closed, and the
people that work in these businesses, it’s
clear they don’t come, they don’t work,”
Avelino said as she sipped jamaica, or
hibiscus tea, with her family during a
lunch break.
Next door to her restaurant, Orthodox
Jewish families eat lunch in a quesadilla
restaurant with a sign bearing a kosher
symbol and “B”H” (for Baruch Hashem, meaning bless God in Hebrew).
Nearby is a sign of the dual cultures
here: a small Catholic shrine with a
vase of yellow flowers and a statue of St.
Jude.
The closest thing to a full-fledged grocery store in the town is Kurson Kosher,
with a bakery, upstairs kitchen, meat
counter and shelves stocked with pita
bread and tortillas. Falafel balls and as-
sorted kosher tamales share space in the
freezers that line the back of the store.
“We don’t abstain from or deprive ourselves of anything that’s Mexican,” said
store manager Morris Rudy. “Anything
that’s Mexican, we can make kosher.”
A few blocks over, Eli Mordo, 50,
an Israeli pizza shop owner, is used
to people walking into his store and
asking why his pizza is so expensive.
Mordo explains that kosher food costs
more because it has to be prepared in a
special way.
Some of his poorer customers can’t
afford it.
“I give them another price,” Mordo
said, pronouncing his Spanish with the
guttural, French-sounding Rs of his native Hebrew. “We all have to be happy,
no matter whether you’re Jewish or
not.”
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 19
AMERICAN ROUNDUP
Nails spill on highway
during rush hour
PERRYSBURG — AuOH
thorities in Ohio said a
load of nails spilled on a roadway
THE CENSUS
$2.1M
The sale price of the replica of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. The home in Connecticut was sold at auction Tuesday. The 10,000-square-foot home was built by S.
Prestley Blake, the co-founder of the Friendly’s restaurant chain, for $7.7 million two
years ago. A local doctor is said to have bought the home and plans to live in it.
during rush hour Wednesday,
leaving about a dozen commuters
with flat tires.
State troopers said one lane of
traffic on Interstate 475 just south
of Toledo was closed for over an
hour Wednesday morning to
clean up the spill.
Troopers estimate that there
were about 200 nails scattered
across the roadway.
The spill happened at around
7 a.m. between Perrysburg and
Maumee. No one was hurt.
been on loan to the Drumthwacket Foundation since 1991, when
the ship was decommissioned for
the last time before it became a
floating museum on Camden’s
waterfront.
Navy and museum officials
signed an agreement earlier this
month for a 10-year loan of the 45
pieces.
The state paid $10,000 to Tiffany & Co. in 1906 to have 55 pieces
crafted as a gift for the first Navy
Battleship New Jersey, BB-16.
After its silver was transferred
to a second battleship, the state
commissioned more silver to be
added to the collection, bringing
it to at least 105 pieces.
Authorities seek
ex-border officer’s wife
EL PASO — Federal
authorities are seeking
a border officer’s wife who failed
to show up at her husband’s trial
in El Paso where she also faced
charges related to a human smuggling scheme.
Odet Corchado was arrested
last July with her husband, Lawrence, 54, a former U.S. Customs
and Border Protection officer,
and was scheduled to go on trial
last week with him.
A jury convicted him of smuggling and bribery charges. The
El Paso Times reported a federal
judge revoked her $10,000 bond
and a warrant has been issued for
her arrest for failing to appear in
court.
She’s accused of directing
people who paid about $2,000 to
get into a line at border bridges
where her husband worked so
they could get into the U.S. without immigration paperwork.
TX
Lawmaker’s daughter
used congressional tag
WASHINGTON — No,
DC
Maryland Rep. Elijah
Cummings isn’t moonlighting as
a ride-sharing driver.
The congressman said Tuesday that a daughter who recently
graduated from college has been
using his Honda with a congressional plate while working part
time for a ride-sharing company
to make extra money for school
expenses.
The company, Lyft, gave her a
sticker to put on the windshield.
A photo of the car was submitted
to the local blog Popville showing
the sticker and the license plate,
which carries parking privileges.
Cummings says he contacted
his daughter, Adia, and she removed the tags. The congressman says he’s told her she can
continue to use his car without
the tag while she pursues fulltime employment.
Cummings apologized in a
statement for not removing the
license plate before loaning the
vehicle.
Turtle lays eggs in
golf club’s sand trap
ALLISON PARK —
PA
Talk about an unplayable lie: A snapping turtle has
nested in the sand trap at a Pittsburgh-area golf club, forcing officials to rope off the hazard.
Officials at Wildwood Golf Club
in McCandless Township told
KDKA-TV that a golf pro saw the
turtle laying the eggs in the sand
bunker Monday morning.
Officials don’t want to disturb
the buried eggs which, coincidentally, are white, round and about
the size of golf balls. That’s why
they’ve roped off the area and
are telling players to drop their
ball elsewhere before continuing
play.
Experts at the Pittsburgh Zoo
& PPG Aquarium say the sand
trap is a logical spot for the eggs
to be laid, sunny, warm and easy
for the mother to dig in and bury
the eggs.
Children with water
pistols help put out fire
WEST FARGO —
Children playing with
water pistols are being credited
with extinguishing a fire on the
deck of a West Fargo apartment
in which a person was sleeping
inside.
The children noticed the fire
Tuesday afternoon and attacked
ND
DEA workers accused
of owning strip club
NEW YORK — A New
NY
York prosecutor has
told jurors at a criminal trial that
J. SCOTT A PPLEWHITE /AP
Get the blues at Capt. White’s
Paul White separates live blue crabs Wednesday at Capt. White’s in the Maine Avenue Fish Market in
Washington. Blue crabs, which thrive in the nearby Chesapeake Bay, are a summertime seafood favorite
in the mid-Atlantic region.
it with their water pistols before
it could get out of hand.
They also banged on the door to
wake up the man inside, and one
child ran to report the fire to an
adult.
Fire Chief Dan Fuller told
WDAY-TV that “we were probably minutes away from having a
real, real serious fire.”
The Fire Department has invited the children to the station for a
pizza party as a reward.
Investigators believe the fire
was caused by discarded smoking materials.
Tiffany set returned
to battleship
CAMDEN — Some of
the silverware once used
for special occasions aboard the
NJ
historic Battleship New Jersey
has been returned to the ship.
Nearly half of the 105-piece
Tiffany & Co. set was returned
to the ship docked in Camden
last week after a 15-year effort
to have the set moved from the
New Jersey governor’s mansion
at Drumthwacket.
The Courier-Post reported
that some of the set owned by the
U.S. Navy dates to 1906 and has
a Drug Enforcement Administration supervisory agent and another employee lied by not disclosing
their ownership in a New Jersey
strip club.
Prosecutor Paul Monteleoni
said the men did so because the
ownership could prevent them
from maintaining DEA top-secret security clearance.
The prosecutor made the accusation Tuesday during opening statements in the trial of Glen
Glover, of Lyndhurst, N.J., and
David Polos, of West Nyack, N.Y.
Glover is a suspended DEA
telecommunications specialist.
Polos is a retired former assistant special agent in charge of the
New York office.
Defense attorney Marc Mukasey says prosecutors wrongly
took an investment and hobby
and insisted it should have been
described as a job on a government document.
From wire reports
PAGE 20
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
BUSINESS/WEATHER
Feds propose limits on payday lenders
BY K EN SWEET
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Federal regulators are proposing a significant
clampdown on payday lenders
and other providers of high-interest loans, saying borrowers need
to be protected from practices
that wind up turning into “debt
traps” for many.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing that
lenders must conduct what’s
known as a “full-payment test.”
Because most payday loans are
required to be paid in full when
they come due, usually two weeks
after the money is borrowed, the
CFPB wants lenders to prove
borrowers are able to repay that
money without having to renew
the loan repeatedly.
The CFPB would also require
that lenders give additional warnings before they attempt to debit a
borrower’s bank account, and also
restrict the number of times they
can attempt to debit the account.
EUROPE GAS PRICES
Country
Germany
Change in price
Super E10 Super unleaded Super plus
$2.698
$2.933
$3.147
+3.9 cents
+3.3 cents
+3.2 cents
Lenders would have to give borrowers at least three days’ notice
before debiting their account.
Also, if the payday lender attempts
to collect the money for the loan
twice unsuccessfully, the lender
will have to get written authorization from the borrower to attempt
to debit their account again.
The CFPB is also proposing
that auto titles no longer be used
as collateral, which would effectively end the auto-title lending
industry.
A separate study found that
one out of every five borrowers of
auto title loans were having their
cars seized after failing to repay
the loan.
The CFPB found that annual
percentage rates on payday loans
can typically be 390 percent or
even higher, while rates on auto
title loans are about 300 percent.
The proposed regulations are
likely to face stiff opposition from
lobbyists, as well as opposition
from members of Congress.
PACIFIC GAS PRICES
Diesel
$2.741
+2.5 cents
Country
Japan
Change in price
Unleaded
---
MARKET WATCH
Super unleaded Super plus
$2.879
-+3.0 cents
--
Diesel
$2.469
+2.0 cents
Netherlands
Change in price
---
$2.957
+4.3 cents
$3.036
+3.2 cents
$2.959
+4.7 cents
Okinawa
Change in price
$2.429
+4.0 cents
---
---
$2.469
+2.0 cents
U.K.
Change in price
---
$2.872
+3.3 cents
$3.086
+3.2 cents
$2.680
+2.5 cents
South Korea
Change in price
$2.469
+4.0 cents
2.709
+3.0 cents
$2.919
+3.0 cents
$2.519
+3.0 cents
Azores
Change in price
---
---
$3.193
No change
---
Guam
Change in price
$2.459**
+4.0 cents
$2.689
+3.0 cents
$2.909
+3.0 cents
---
Belgium
--
$2.447
$2.661
$2.318
Change in price
--
+12.9 cents
+6.5 cents
+21.0 cents
Turkey
Change in price
---
---
$2.965
+3.2 cents
$2.587*
No change
Italy
Change in price
$2.876
+11.3 cents
---
---
$2.612
+7.5 cents
EXCHANGE RATES
Military rates
Euro costs (June 3) ...........................$1.1507
Dollar buys (June 3)..........................€0.8690
British pound (June 3) ......................... $1.49
Japanese yen (June 3) ....................... 107.00
South Korean won (June 3) ...........1,160.00
Commercial rates
Bahrain (Dinar) ....................................0.3770
British pound .....................................$1.4440
Canada (Dollar) ................................... 1.3112
China (Yuan) ........................................6.5857
Denmark (Krone) ................................6.6630
Egypt (Pound) ......................................8.8799
Euro ........................................ $1.1163/0.8958
Hong Kong (Dollar) ............................. 7.7708
Hungary (Forint) .................................280.37
Israel (Shekel) ..................................... 3.8611
Japan (Yen)...........................................108.57
Kuwait (Dinar) .....................................0.3021
Norway (Krone) ...................................8.3599
Philippines (Peso).................................46.62
Poland (Zloty) .......................................... 3.93
Saudi Arabia (Riyal) ........................... 3.7502
Singapore (Dollar) ..............................1.3758
South Korea (Won) ..........................1,189.95
Switzerland (Franc)............................0.9895
Thailand (Baht) ..................................... 35.61
Turkey (Lira) .........................................2.9464
(Military exchange rates are those
available to customers at military banking
facilities in the country of issuance
for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For
nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e.,
purchasing British pounds in Germany),
check with your local military banking
facility. Commercial rates are interbank
rates provided for reference when buying
currency. All figures are foreign currencies
to one dollar, except for the British pound,
which is represented in dollars-to-pound,
and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.)
INTEREST RATES
Prime rate ................................................ 3.50
Discount rate .......................................... 1.00
Federal funds market rate ................... 0.36
3-month bill ............................................. 0.30
30-year bond ........................................... 2.62
* Diesel EFD ** Midgrade
For the week of June 4 - 10
WEATHER OUTLOOK
FRIDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
SATURDAY IN THE PACIFIC
FRIDAY IN EUROPE
Misawa
70/52
Kabul
86/62
Baghdad
105/79
Kuwait
City
109/83
Riyadh
100/86
Seoul
84/60
Kandahar
102/74
Osan
82/59
Mildenhall/
Lakenheath
60/52
Bahrain
101/84
Brussels
67/54
Lajes,
Azores
68/59
Doha
104/84
Ramstein
71/53
Stuttgart
73/55
Iwakuni
74/65
Sasebo
72/65
Guam
92/81
Pápa
79/60
Aviano/
Vicenza
72/59
Naples
74/61
Morón
85/59
Sigonella
80/58
Rota
71/61
Djibouti
100/86
Tokyo
76/65
Busan
78/61
Okinawa
87/76
The weather is provided by the
American Forces Network Weather Center,
2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
Souda Bay
87/66
Friday’s US temperatures
City
Abilene, Texas
Akron, Ohio
Albany, N.Y.
Albuquerque
Allentown, Pa.
Amarillo
Anchorage
Asheville
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Austin
Baltimore
Baton Rouge
Billings
Birmingham
Bismarck
Boise
Boston
Bridgeport
Brownsville
Buffalo
Burlington, Vt.
Caribou, Maine
Casper
Charleston, S.C.
Charleston, W.Va.
Charlotte, N.C.
Hi
77
77
78
89
79
81
62
81
89
78
81
82
85
79
90
77
89
75
72
85
76
81
67
79
90
82
88
Lo
62
59
62
59
61
55
50
62
71
61
66
67
71
54
71
56
57
55
60
73
58
61
49
49
73
65
70
Wthr
Cldy
PCldy
Cldy
PCldy
Rain
Clr
Cldy
Rain
PCldy
Cldy
Rain
Cldy
Rain
Cldy
Cldy
PCldy
Clr
Cldy
Cldy
Rain
PCldy
PCldy
Cldy
Clr
PCldy
Cldy
Cldy
Chattanooga
Cheyenne
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Colorado Springs
Columbia, S.C.
Columbus, Ga.
Columbus, Ohio
Concord, N.H.
Corpus Christi
Dallas-Ft Worth
Dayton
Daytona Beach
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
Duluth
El Paso
Elkins
Erie
Eugene
Evansville
Fairbanks
Fargo
Flagstaff
Flint
Fort Smith
88
77
81
80
75
83
93
93
81
77
87
78
79
89
83
83
82
64
93
77
70
84
83
63
73
86
80
77
68
51
59
62
59
51
72
71
63
54
72
67
61
72
54
60
58
46
67
61
59
52
63
43
56
39
53
65
Cldy
PCldy
PCldy
Cldy
PCldy
PCldy
Cldy
PCldy
PCldy
Cldy
Rain
Rain
PCldy
PCldy
PCldy
Clr
PCldy
Rain
PCldy
Cldy
PCldy
Clr
Cldy
Cldy
Rain
Clr
PCldy
Rain
Fort Wayne
82
Fresno
104
Goodland
87
Grand Junction
91
Grand Rapids
79
Great Falls
75
Green Bay
77
Greensboro, N.C. 86
Harrisburg
79
Hartford Spgfld
81
Helena
80
Honolulu
86
Houston
83
Huntsville
89
Indianapolis
81
Jackson, Miss.
87
Jacksonville
92
Juneau
56
Kansas City
82
Key West
87
Knoxville
85
Lake Charles
81
Lansing
78
Las Vegas
108
Lexington
81
Lincoln
85
Little Rock
80
Los Angeles
87
56
68
57
56
54
49
52
67
63
58
50
72
69
68
61
69
72
47
60
80
67
72
55
80
64
58
68
64
PCldy
Clr
Clr
Clr
PCldy
PCldy
PCldy
Cldy
Cldy
Cldy
Cldy
Clr
Rain
Cldy
PCldy
Rain
PCldy
Rain
Clr
Cldy
Cldy
Rain
PCldy
Clr
Cldy
Clr
Rain
PCldy
Louisville
83
Lubbock
80
Macon
93
Madison
82
Medford
96
Memphis
84
Miami Beach
87
Midland-Odessa 86
Milwaukee
77
Mpls-St Paul
77
Missoula
79
Mobile
88
Montgomery
93
Nashville
87
New Orleans
84
New York City
75
Newark
75
Norfolk, Va.
83
North Platte
84
Oklahoma City
78
Omaha
86
Orlando
93
Paducah
83
Pendleton
84
Peoria
83
Philadelphia
81
Phoenix
113
Pittsburgh
79
64
57
69
54
58
70
79
60
56
58
47
70
70
69
74
61
62
68
58
63
61
73
65
55
58
64
80
62
Cldy
PCldy
PCldy
Cldy
Clr
Rain
PCldy
PCldy
PCldy
Rain
Cldy
PCldy
PCldy
Cldy
Rain
Cldy
Cldy
Cldy
Clr
Cldy
Clr
PCldy
Cldy
Clr
PCldy
Cldy
Clr
Cldy
Pocatello
Portland, Maine
Portland, Ore.
Providence
Pueblo
Raleigh-Durham
Rapid City
Reno
Richmond
Roanoke
Rochester
Rockford
Sacramento
St Louis
St Petersburg
St Thomas
Salem, Ore.
Salt Lake City
San Angelo
San Antonio
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Santa Fe
St Ste Marie
Savannah
Seattle
Shreveport
86
66
86
75
89
87
76
94
85
84
77
81
102
84
90
89
85
91
80
82
75
78
94
85
66
92
80
82
52
53
57
57
52
68
57
59
67
67
59
56
63
63
78
76
55
61
62
67
61
54
58
50
46
73
54
69
Clr
Cldy
PCldy
Cldy
Clr
Cldy
Clr
Clr
Rain
Rain
PCldy
PCldy
Clr
PCldy
PCldy
PCldy
Clr
Clr
Cldy
Rain
Cldy
Clr
Clr
PCldy
PCldy
PCldy
Clr
Rain
Sioux City
83
Sioux Falls
81
South Bend
81
Spokane
78
Springfield, Ill.
83
Springfield, Mo.
79
Syracuse
77
Tallahassee
94
Tampa
92
Toledo
77
Topeka
82
Tucson
108
Tulsa
80
Tupelo
87
Waco
78
Washington
83
W. Palm Beach
87
Wichita
84
Wichita Falls
78
Wilkes-Barre
80
Wilmington, Del. 81
Yakima
85
Youngstown
77
60
62
54
50
59
61
61
71
77
54
58
70
63
69
67
69
77
60
63
62
64
56
56
Rain
Rain
PCldy
PCldy
Clr
Cldy
Cldy
PCldy
PCldy
Clr
Clr
Clr
Cldy
Rain
Rain
Rain
PCldy
Clr
Rain
Cldy
Cldy
PCldy
PCldy
National temperature extremes
Hi: Wed., 116, Death Valley, Calif.
Lo: Wed., 25, Yellowstone, Wyo.
•STA
Video games – 26
Travel – 27-35
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
Music – 36-37
F3HIJKLM
Health – 40
PAGE 21
Crossword – 42
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 22
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WEEKEND: GADGETS & CHARTS
GADGET WATCH
Alexa starts coffee, checks scores, schedules
BY GREGG ELLMAN
Tribune News Service
T
Google
Google’s Gboard is an app that has embedded Web, image and GIF
search functionality. It also offers swipe typing.
Gboard vs: Word Flow:
Which keyboard is best?
BY AMINA ELAHI
Chicago Tribune
W
hich new third-party
iPhone keyboard
should I download?
Two of Apple’s biggest competitors, Google and Microsoft, are using fancy keyboards
to get closer to iOS users. One is
better for wordsmiths, while the
other can help you find just the
right GIF, and faster.
Google’s Gboard and Microsoft’s
Word Flow replace the iPhone’s
standard keyboard and offer new
features. Since launching recently,
the free apps have been among the
most popular utilities for iOS.
“We’re definitely seeing more
custom keyboards that are offering more than just look-and-feel
customization, like colors and
fonts,” said Mark Baldino, cofounder of Chicago user experience design firm Fuzzy Math.
“What you see in the Word Flow
tool and in Gboard are actual
functional enhancements to the
phone itself.”
He said the two keyboards likely
appeal to different kinds of people.
Word Flow, with its ability to
swipe-type and a curved keyboard
designed for one-handed typing, is
best for those who prioritize ergonomics. It also lets users customize the look of the keyboard with
color and pattern themes.
Gboard similarly offers swipetyping, but its real value is in the
embedded Web, image and GIF
search functionality, Baldino said.
It even includes an emoji search
field.
“It’s important that (Microsoft
is) offering an ergonomic enhancement to the keyboard, but I
think the Gboard is more powerful
in general, because you’re hooking into a really impressive search
ecosystem,” he said.
The new keyboards are fun and
mostly easy to use, but not without
faults. Baldino noted that there’s a
learning curve for people adjusting to swipe-typing and said he
racked up many typos when first
using Gboard.
Then there’s the question of
privacy.
“Now my data’s going to Google.
Everything I type in is going to
Google,” Baldino said. “That’s
scary for a lot of people who are
worried about how much data big
companies have.”
Google says it only collects
search information and nothing
else that users type with Gboard,
even though it asks for full permission during installation to transmit
any and all information. Microsoft
also asks for that level of permission.
ON THE COVER: Tom Petty, shown Jan. 9 in Los Angeles, has
re-formed his old band, Mudcrutch, for a new album and tour.
TNS
he Amazon Echo hands-free voice activated speaker works off the Alexa Voice
Service to control smart home features,
give weather updates and, much to my
delight, deliver updated sports scores upon command.
When you first plug Echo into a power source,
a voice directs you to the app (Fire OS, Android,
iOS and desktop browsers) and an easy setup.
This includes discovering any smart home
devices currently being used, which Echo can
also control.
According to Amazon, Echo works with smart
home devices (sold separately) from WeMo,
Philips Hue, SmartThings, Insteon, Nest, ecobee and Wink.
You log into the app with your existing
Amazon account, connect it to Wi-Fi and you’re
ready for Alexa to control your life.
I used the Echo for a few days and had it turning on and off lights, starting my coffee maker,
reading my calendar features to me for the day,
adjusting my thermostat and updating me on the
news of the day.
Echo comes preloaded as Alexa meaning
all commands are started with “Alexa,” but if
someone in your household is named Alexa, you
can change the command name in the app settings. Whenever you want a command to stop,
simply say “Alexa, stop.”
It measures 9.25-by-3.27-by-3.27 inches, and
a top light indicates when you’ve sent Alexa a
command. Other features include Bluetooth,
seven noise-cancelling microphones to hear
commands from any direction and great 360degree sound.
The microphones work so well, Echo even
heard my commands while music was playing in
the background from a different source.
Alexa got stumped by my commands now and
then, but as it got used to me, the device learned
voice, speech patterns and what I asked for.
Online: Amazon.com; $179.99
I used the Belkin home automation WeMo
Insight Switch with the Amazon Echo to control
my coffee maker. On its own, it works like many
other smart home plugs
with a three-prong
pass-through
outlet.
It can be used
to control lights,
electronics and
small appliances manually
from an app
or with a set
schedule from
anywhere via
Wi-Fi.
BELKIN /TNS
But what got my
A MAZON.COM /TNS
The Amazon Echo hands-free voice-activated
speaker works off the Alexa Voice Service to
control smart home features, give weather
updates and more.
attention was a feature on the WeMo app that
lets you know how much power is being consumed by the connected device along with how
much the energy being used will cost.
You can also set it to alert you how long
something has been on by sending a message
to your Android or iOS smartphone. The WeMo
app allows you to work with multiple devices
simultaneously.
Belkin’s website suggests you can even use it
to find out if the kids are playing video games
instead of doing homework. I’m grateful my
parents didn’t have a device like this when I was
a kid.
Online: belkin.com; $49.99
The ilumi app-controlled smart home LED
lightbulbs light up a room, change colors and
have built-in Bluetooth.
They can be controlled to go on or off from
an everyday wall switch or remotely through
the ileum app. This allows them to be controlled
from anywhere Bluetooth will reach.
The app lets you choose any color to illuminate a room with the touch of a color palette.
Lighting can be dimmed for moods, or while
waking up or going to sleep. The smart bulbs
are available in standard size ($59.99), and indoor ($59.99) or outdoor ($69.99) flood versions
and do not require Wi-Fi or a hub.
A feature called Vacation Security allows the
light to turn on or off randomly while you’re
away to give the appearance that you’re home.
According to ilumi, their bulbs last up to 20
years and are five times more energy efficient
than a regular bulb.
Online: ilumi.co
ITUNES MUSIC
SPOTIFY MUSIC ITUNES MOVIES VIDEO GAMES
The top 10 songs on iTunes
for the week ending May 26:
The most-streamed tracks on Spotify
from May 20-26:
The top 10 movies on iTunes
for the week ending May 29:
Game Informer ranks the Top 10
games for June:
The top iPhone apps for the week
ending May 29:
1. “CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!” (original song from DreamWorks Animation’s
“Trolls”), Justin Timberlake
2. “One Dance” (feat. Wizkid & Kyla),
Drake
3. “Panda,” Desiigner
4. “Just Like Fire” (From Alice Through
the Looking Glass), P!nk
5. “Don’t Let Me Down” (feat. Daya),
The Chainsmokers
6. “Close” (feat. Tove Lo), Nick Jonas
7. Dangerous Woman, Ariana Grande
8. “Work from Home” (feat. Ty Dolla
$ign), Fifth Harmony
9. “H.O.L.Y.,” Florida Georgia Line
10. “7 Years,” Lukas Graham
1. “One Dance” (feat. Wizkid & Kyla),
Drake
2. “Panda,” Desiigner
3. “Pop Style,” Drake
4. “Needed Me,” Rihanna
5. “Controlla,” Drake
6. “Don’t Let Me Down” (feat. Daya),
The Chainsmokers
7. “This Is What You Came For,” Calvin
Harris
8. “Work from Home” (feat. Ty Dolla
$ign), Fifth Harmony
9. “CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!” (original song from DreamWorks Animation’s
“Trolls”), Justin Timberlake
10. “Too Good,” Drake
1. “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of
Benghazi”
2. “Deadpool”
3. “How to Be Single”
4. “Sleeping with
Other People”
5. “The Finest Hours”
6. “Zoolander No.
2 (The Magnum Edition)”
7. “Gods of Egypt”
8. “Dirty Grandpa” (Unrated)
9. “The Revenant”
10. “Hail, Caesar!”
1. “Overwatch,” PS4, Xbox One, PC
2. “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End,” PS4
3. “Doom,” PS4, Xbox One, PC
4. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt _ Blood
and Wine,” PS4, Xbox One PC
5. “Total War: Warhammer,” PC
6. “Hearthstone: Whispers of the Old
Gods,” PC, iOS, Android
7. “Dark Souls III,” PS4, Xbox One, PC
8. “Severed,” Vita
9. “Stellaris,” PC
10. “Kirby: Planet Robobot,” 3DS
1. Minecraft: Pocket Edition
2. Heads Up!
3. Facetune
4. Bloons TD 5
5. 7 Minute Workout Challenge
6. Angry Birds
7. Plague Inc.
8. Halo: Spartan Strike
9. Geometry Dash
10. THE GAME OF LIFE Classic Edition
— Compiled by AP
— Compiled by AP
— Compiled by AP
— Compiled by TNS
APPS
— Compiled by AP
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 23
WEEKEND
CHECK IT OUT
Events, entertainment and other ways to fill your free time
1
Paranormal TV shows
The summer television season generally provides a bumper crop of strange new shows.
This week, you can sink your teeth into two
titles with a supernatural bent. “Outcast” is a
Gothic tale of people mysteriously possessed in
a small town. “Wynonna Earp” is a Canadian
Western horror based on a comic-book series.
“Wynonna Earp” premieres Saturday on
AFN-Spectrum; “Outcast” premieres Sunday
on AFN-Spectrum.
Melanie
Scrofano
plays the title
character
in “Wynonna
Earp.”
Syfy
4
Movies sweet or silly
Two new movies debut this weekend. “Me
Before You” is an unusual animal, a storybook
romance in superhero season. The movie
stars Emilia Clarke, better known for “Game
of Thrones” and “Terminator Genisys,” and
Sam Claflin, who played heartthrob Finnick Odair in the Hunger
Games series.
On the unconventional superhero
side, the Teenage
Mutant Ninja
Turtles are back
with “Out of
the Shadows.”
We bet there
will be kung
fu. And pizza.
Movie
reviews on
Page 25.
2
‘Cop Rock’ now on DVD
A failed experiment in 1990, this police procedural dealt with relevant issues of the day,
interspersed with song-and-dance numbers.
The musical approach
was later handled much
more successfully by
“Glee” and “Empire.”
Was “Cop Rock”
ahead of its time (as
co-creator Steven Bochco says), or terrible?
You can now rent or
buy it and find out
what you think.
Read more about
‘Cop Rock,’ and find
out what else is now available on DVD,
on Page 39.
5
Get jazzy with Jeff
Jeff Goldblum is one of those actors who
seems to get even cooler as he ages. Goldblum, who formerly lent his quirky quotability
to “The Fly” and several
trips to “Jurassic Park,” returns to the big screen June
24 in “Independence Day:
Resurgence.” That’s right
— almost exactly 20 years
later, the aliens we cleverly
destroyed with a computer
virus in 1996 are back.
Goldblum, who’s also a
jazz pianist, took to the stage this week with
his band, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, to
perform an entire jazz musical based on the
first “Independence Day” movie. Even better,
he did it to raise funds for a charity, Oceana
and Conservation International. And he
streamed the whole thing live on Facebook.
Watch it at facebook.com/golblumofficial.
3
Smiley-face scriptures
We didn’t see this one coming, but we probably should have — someone has produced an
emoji Bible. Subtitled “Scripture for Millenials”
(sic), it’s available at Apple’s app store.
The anonymous author says via Twitter account that he
wanted to make
the King James
Bible “more approachable,” and
that an Android
version is in
development.
But beware: Only
about 15 percent of
the words have been
replaced by symbols.
Read more on Twitter: @Bibleemoji
6
‘Battleborn’ also an app
“Battleborn” is 2K Games’ answer to “Blizzard’s Overwatch,” and the latest of several
arena shooters released over the past few
months. But did you know there’s also a mobile app that ties into it? It’s “Battleborn Tap,”
and it’s a clicker you can carry with you and
play via mobile device. The free app is available
for iPhone or Android users. Unfortunately, the
video game will still cost you.
Review of ‘Battleborn’ on Page 26.
PAGE 24
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WEEKEND: MOVIES
Emilia Clarke, left,
and Sam Claflin star
in the romantic drama
“Me Before You.”
C HARLES SYKES, INVISION /AP
A few classic
romantic tearjerkers
THE RIGHT FIT
Clarke, Claflin bring characters to life in ‘Me Before You’
BY LINDSEY BAHR
Associated Press
A
s Emilia Clarke remembers it, she had a grenade
launcher in her hand when
her agent called about “Me
Before You.”
To be fair, she was on the set of
“Terminator: Genisys” — not the
most likely of places to curl up with
a good tearjerker, but the timing was
actually perfect. Clarke had gone
from obscurity to starring as the conqueror Daenerys Targaryen (aka the
“Mother of Dragons”) in “Game of
Thrones” before being cast as Sarah
Connor in the failed “Terminator”
reboot, so she was in the mood for
something different.
“I read it in between takes in, like,
two days,” Clarke said of Jojo Moyes’
bestselling novel before a recent Los
Angeles fan screening of the film. “I
was like, ‘Hush now, Arnold (Schwarzenegger). I’m just going to go over
here and cry like a little girl into my
grenade launcher.’ I just felt so connected with Lou, it was ridiculous. I
understood who she was. It just felt
like someone had got me down. And
she’s got my surname!”
Moyes, who adapted her novel for
the screen, raised an eyebrow when
director Thea Sharrock mentioned
that she was interested in the actress
for the role of Lou Clark, knowing
her only from “Game of Thrones.” In
the book, Lou is an ordinary, happygo-lucky, small-town girl whose life
gets upended when she takes a sorely
needed job working for a handsome,
deeply depressed man, Will, who was
recently paralyzed. In other words,
Lou is “a million miles away from
Khaleesi,” Sharrock said.
But Sharrock, a noted English
theater director making her feature
debut with “Me Before You,” had
spotted something in Clarke — one of
some 300 actresses she’d seen for the
role — and her sparkling chemistry
test with Sam Claflin solidified it.
Claflin and Clarke had a little bit of
an advantage on this front. The two
actors had met years before on a photo
shoot when both were recent drama
school grads who’d just scored their
first big roles. They’d since been called
in for a number of chemistry reads
over the years, usually making sure
to catch up over a beer after, but for
various reasons, it hadn’t yet worked
out. Perhaps it was worth the false
starts, though — one of those would-be
projects was “Jack the Giant Killer.”
“It was absolutely clear the second
they were together that there was an
instant respect and trust between
them that was palpable. They just
liked each other,” Sharrock said.
“When I showed (Jojo) the tape of her
and Sam, she was in absolute floods
of tears. That was the moment when
she knew it was going to be OK.”
And then they were off in bringing
this devastating and uplifting love
story to the big screen.
Sharrock wanted the film to feel
like one huge breath.
“There’s a modern-day Merchant
Ivory quality to this. I wanted for it to
look very smooth and accessible, but
also to have almost a fairy-tale quality.
I mean, there’s a castle in the heart
of this!” she said, referring to Will’s
family’s expansive English estate.
She and her two leads made time
for a few months of rehearsals prior
to shooting to get the story and characters just right.
“I wanted to start out somewhere
almost where you could feel the
claustrophobia of her life or him in
his annex to the journey of getting
him outside and beyond that,” Sharrock said.
For Claflin, there was also the
added challenge of having to play
believable quadriplegic.
“I was constantly reminding myself not to move, not to comfort her
with my body,” Claflin said. “This job
had no end to its challenges for me.
It was very physically demanding. I
was always manipulating my body
and contracting my neck muscles and
shoulder muscles to try to make him
look slimmer and a little more ill, and
then at the same time holding my
fingers in a specific way that I hope
was doing the disability justice.”
Clarke had the opposite problem,
and actually found herself starting
to dress and act like Lou in real life.
Sharrock even included a few takes
in the final cut where Clarke says she
was actually talking as herself and
not as Lou.
Crying was another thing, though.
While Clarke loves a good tearjerker
(“Stepmom” and “My Best Friend’s
Wedding” are some favorites), she
was a little less than thrilled with her
own on-screen waterworks.
“I look horrific when I cry! No one
told me I do this weird chin thing!”
Clarke said. “We can’t all be Julia
Roberts.”
Call it emotional blackmail or just good
storytelling, but there’s nothing quite
like a romantic tearjerker, whether it’s
a forbidden love, a terminal illness or
just bad timing that conspires to keep
our on-screen lovers apart, and us
sobbing. Here are some examples.
“An Affair to
Remember” 1957
A rendezvous on a crossAtlantic cruiser, the promise
of a reunion atop the Empire
State Building, and a series
of infuriating missed
connections.
“The Umbrellas of
Cherbourg” 1964
A beautiful shopgirl and a
handsome mechanic torn
apart by timing and circumstance, the tragedy is in the
banality of the aftermath of
moving on and growing up.
“Love Story” 1970
A preppy Harvard guy finds
out the feisty, not-so-wealthy
Radcliffe girl of his dreams is
dying. For better or worse, it
taught us the advice that love
means never having to say
you’re sorry.
“The Way We Were”
1973
Maybe an apathetic prettyboy and an impassioned
activist weren’t meant to be
after all, but it doesn’t make
saying goodbye any less
heart-wrenching.
“The Notebook”
2004
This adaptation of Nicholas
Sparks’ novel, about a rich
girl who falls for a poor boy,
somehow transcended his
own worst tendencies of
schlocky sentimentality.
“Brokeback
Mountain” 2005
This tale of the forbidden
love between two cowboys
and the public lies and lives
they continue to lead while
yearning for one another is
heartbreaking from the start.
SOURCE: The Associated Press
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 25
WEEKEND: MOVIES
‘Me Before You’ is good for a good cry
BY CONNIE OGLE
New on base
Miami Herald
S
ome people just like to cry
at the movies. If you are
one of those people — if
you have, for example,
actually committed to watching “The Fault in Our Stars” or
“The Notebook” more than once,
either endeavor an act of incomprehensible madness — then
chances are you will enjoy “Me
Before You.” And you will undoubtedly get a bit teary.
“Me Before You” has been
adapted for the screen by Jojo
Moyes (“One Plus One,” “The
Girl You Left Behind” and “Me
Before You’s” sequel, “After
You”) from her best-selling
novel, and so the screenplay is
faithful to the source material,
with necessary omissions. Love
stories are Moyes’ milieu, but
this one comes with a bite. Despite the amusing bits (and there
are many), despite the budding
ardor (predictable and crowdpleasing), despite the rarely seen
and irresistible smile of Emilia
Clarke (who is not allowed
moments of levity as the formidable Daenerys Targaryen, the
Mother of Dragons, on “Game of
Thrones”), “Me Before You” is a
juicy, ripe red apple of a romance
with a razor blade embedded
under its skin.
Clarke plays the good-hearted
but unambitious Louisa Clark,
who lives at home in an English
village with her family and helps
her working-class parents with
the rent. When Lou loses her job
at a bakery that’s closing, she
applies for a well-paying post as
a companion to wealthy, handsome and bitter quadriplegic
Will Traynor (Sam Claflin, the
“Me Before You” is playing
at the following military
facilities:
Europe
Lakenheath, Mildenhall,
Ansbach, Baumholder, Hohenfels, Ramstein, Spangdahlem, Stuttgart, Vilseck,
Aviano, Vicenza, Brunssum
and Schinnen.
Pacific
Yokota, Zama, Yongsan
South Post No. 2, Casey,
Henry, Humphreys, Kunsan, Osan, Carroll, Foster,
Futenma, Hansen, Kadena,
Kinser, Schwab and
Courtney.
Online: mebeforeyoumovie.
com
METRO -G OLDWYN -M AYER /TNS
A working-class English girl (Emilia Clarke, left) becomes caretaker for a wealthy, young, wheelchairusing banker (Sam Claflin) in “Me Before You.”
charismatic Finnick Odair of
“The Hunger Games”). Lou does
not know how to take care of a
quadriplegic but learns quickly
she’s not expected to: There’s a
nurse for that. Will’s tense mother
(Janet McTeer) stresses two
things: That Lou is there to keep
the once-active Will company and
to never, ever leave him alone for
more than a few minutes.
First, naturally, there’s distrust on his part and frustration
on hers. The movie places less
emphasis on the daunting class
barrier separating them, though
it underscores their differences
(when Will tells Lou, “You need
to broaden your horizons,” he
doesn’t seem to realize that traveling the world or even to London
takes money, and Lou doesn’t
have it). Gradually, though, they
do what people tend to do when
they’re thrown together for
long periods of time: they soften
toward each other. Then Lou
discovers Will’s real plan — he
is determined to commit legal
suicide in Sweden. What else can
she do but vow to show him a life
with her is worth living no matter the constraints?
Clarke, who’s almost unrecognizable here, is a large part of
what makes the film as engaging
as it is; seeing her as the sartorially adventurous Lou, wearing
spotted pumps, a fuzzy orange
sweater and a wide grin, is startling and weirdly mesmerizing.
Claflin is an appealing leading
man, and the rest of the cast is
a Who’s Who of Popular British
Actors, including Brendon Coyle
(Mr. Bates of “Downton Abbey”)
as Lou’s out-of-work but genial
dad; Charles Dance (“Game of
Thrones”) as Will’s father, whose
caddish instincts have been
excised; and Matthew Lewis
(“Harry Potter’s” heroic Neville
Longbottom) as Lou’s boyfriend
Patrick, who prefers prepping for
a triathlon to date night.
“Me Before You” has already
incited a few complaints about its
portrayal of quadriplegics and its
glossing over of the acrimonious
subject of state-assisted suicide.
The film never examines that
debate fully and in the interest of
time has cut Moyes’ side plot in
which Lou investigates and gets
to know the active, supportive
disabled community. But “Me
Before You” is a sugar-coated
romantic bauble, not a gritty
documentary. Giving into its
pleasures is not for everyone,
but its message — live boldly, as
the movie’s hashtag encourages
— is an admonition that’s awfully
hard to argue.
“Me Before You” is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and some suggestive
material. Running time: 110 minutes.
‘Out of the Shadows’ lacks quirky charm of the cartoon
BY KATIE WALSH
New on base
I
f you’re of a certain age (born in the
early ’80s), the best part of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of
the Shadows” comes after the movie
is over, when the credits morph into the
bright, cartoon style of the TV show we
knew and loved, soundtracked to that indelible theme song. Sing it with me: “Heroes in a half shell, turtle power!” That’s
the point when you finally recognize the
beloved and bizarre turtles that somehow
signify childhood. The preceding hour
and 50 minutes, directed by Dave Green,
written by Josh Appelbaum and Andre
Nemec, are just a befuddling and loud
jumble of computer graphics and familiar
character names crammed into a story
that’s overly busy but also too simple.
One can question who this movie is for
— the nostalgic 30-year-olds who loved the
cartoon, or younger kids. It’s aiming for
both; the 2014 reboot connected with audiences to the tune of nearly $500 million, so
it’s clear that there’s an enduring affection
for the ragtag bunch.
This time around, the brothers TMNT,
Leonardo (Pete Ploszek), Donatello
(Jeremy Howard), Raphael (Alan Ritchson) and Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), are
struggling with the lack of recognition
they get for keeping the streets of the Big
Apple safe from supervillains like Shred-
PARAMOUNT PICTURES/AP
The pizza-eating, martial-arts-infused, adolescent reptiles return in “Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.”
der (Brian Tee). They’d like to come out of
the shadows, if you will, though they know
their mutant reptilian visages are unappealing to most humans, a heartbreaker
for the teen turtles who are just like other
kids, personality-wise.
When Shredder breaks out of prison
and starts conspiring with the evil Krang
(Brad Garrett), an aggressive and nasty
brain alien housed inside a robot body, to
open up a space portal for world domination, the turtles go to work. They’re aided
by journalist April O’Neil (Megan Fox)
and Casey Jones (Stephen Amell), a corrections officer gone rogue.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward
but is filled with the chasing down of
little doodads and other unnecessarily
complicated tangents. There’s a whole
section where the turtles follow oafish
thugs Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams)
and Rocksteady (Sheamus) to Brazil to
chase down a thingamabob that is entirely
unnecessary and just extends the movie’s
already overly long running time.
The dynamic between the brothers and
their struggle over their desire to be “normal” are the most heartfelt and resonant
elements of the film.
Ultimately, any sass, sentiment and per-
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out
of the Shadows” is playing at the
following military facilities:
Europe
Lakenheath, Mildenhall, Ansbach,
Baumholder, Grafenwoehr, Hohenfels, Ramstein, Spangdahlem, Stuttgart, Vilseck, Wiesbaden, Aviano,
Vicenza, Brunssum and Schinnen.
Pacific
Atsugi, Showboat, Village, Benny
Decker, Fleet, Yokota, Zama, Yongsan
South Post No. 1, Casey, Henry, Humphreys, Kunsan, Osan, Carroll, Foster,
Futenma, Hansen, Kadena, Kinser,
Schwab and Courtney.
Online: teenagemutantninjaturtlesmovie.com
sonality are obliterated in the noisy chaos
of the climax, which is a grayish brown blur
of flying spaceship parts, whirling turtle
shells and shouts of “the beacon!”
It’s more cacophonous than cinematic,
and loses the quirky charm of the cartoon
in the avalanche of computer-generated
violence.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the
Shadows” is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence.
Running time: 112 minutes.
PAGE 26
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WEEKEND: VIDEO GAMES
2K Games
MASHUP OF GENRES FALLS SHORT
Despite ambitious fusion of MOBA and FPS, gameplay ends up flat in ‘Battleborn’
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRD
Special to The Washington Post
U
nder the shadow of
terms like mashup lies
the understanding that
spirited things can
happen when once-separated
elements are knotted together.
When the union is a happy one,
new genres can spring forth.
(Funk is a good example.)
But when a matchup is less
than ideal, the results can be
akin to a dry elevator pitch:
“Well, market research shows
that a lot of people like X and a
lot of people like Y, so imagine
the loot we’ll generate if we
fuse the two together!” Alas,
“Battleborn,” the new game from
Gearbox Software, slots into this
category.
“Battleborn” is, in the words
of Gearbox Software’s creative
director, Randy Varnell, a “hero
shooter.” The game weaves
together first-person combat,
RPG-like character upgrades,
and the kind of wide cast of
playable characters and overall
pacing of a MOBA (multiplayer
online battle arena.) Although
MOBA might not be a household word, the genre’s standard
bearer, “League of Legends,”
has claimed one of the largest and most loyal fan bases
throughout gaming over the past
several years. (MOBAs do well
in China.) As would be expected,
other parts of the industry seek
to replicate their success.
“League of Legends,” similar
to its popular competitor “Dota
2,” operates on a free-to-play
(F2P) model. After an account is
set up, a player has access to an
array of avatars, each with their
own specialties. One competes
in matches against others to accomplish a series of smaller and
greater goals, such as the capturing and retaining of territory.
The action on the screen is
seen from an isometric, or notquite-top-down, perspective.
(Think “Diablo.”) Players have
the option to pay for cosmetic upgrades to their characters, which
many do. And MOBAs have been
embraced by the eSports community, which provides its own
lucrative opportunities.
It’s been reported that in
2015, Riot Games, the maker of
“League of Legends,” netted well
over a billion dollars in revenue.
As Harold Goldberg points out
in his monograph “The League
of Legends Experience,” the
game’s structure was ripe for the
financial era in which it was introduced. “In 2009 at the height
of the recession, a constantly
morphing, ever-challenging,
free-to-play game was what players needed and wanted.”
“Battleborn” is not free to play,
so it struck me as slightly gauche
that after firing the game up for
the first time, I immediately saw
an advertisement for a season
pass. (The game also has a marketplace where one can spend
real-world dollars on loot packs.)
A slick animation prologue sets
up the wink, wink, knowingly
half-baked narrative about the
disintegration of the universe
and the convergence of multiple
alien races on a star where all
they do is fight.
“Battleborn” is divided between three different multiplayer
sections and an eight-chapter
story mode. It features a roster
of 25 playable characters, which
includes gunslingers, fantasy
characters, many-limbed mutants,
and robots that look like refugees
from an anime cartoon series — a
hodgepodge of archetypes plucked
from all corners of geekdom.
The only aesthetic principle
that unites the characters and
binds them to the environments in which they compete
are saturated colors. Seriously,
aside from the characters’ fluid
animations, the most striking
visual components of the game
are not architectural or background flourishes but the game’s
riotous color palette, which will
be familiar to anyone who has
played Gearbox Software’s “Borderlands” series.
At the start of the game, one
has access to only a handful of
avatars. Additional heroes can be
unlocked by completing chal-
Many more staff-written game reviews at stripes.com/games
lenges, like killing a number
of a certain kind of enemy and
ranking up one’s overall career
statistics or Command Rank, as
well as running through story
missions.
Over three long evenings I
went through the story mode
with my cousin. I can’t imagine
how tedious it would have been
to go it alone or with random
strangers. In spite of the game’s
scattershot humor, which trades
on a wide range of references
but has little bite, I found the
moment-to-moment gameplay
rather flat. I attribute this to
the campaign’s overreliance on
wave-based enemy confrontations where the game routinely
places you in a bottleneck area
in which you must withstand
the barrage of three waves of
enemies.
Such tasks are eased by using
collectible resources to set up
defensive measures like repair
drones and environmental traps
such as flame-shooting fountains.
Aside from difficulty spikes in
the third chapter and at the end,
I found the combat to be a homogenous experience that never
got my adrenaline going.
Similar to other MOBAs, in
“Battleborn,” you begin each
multiplayer match or story
episode as a level-one character
who has the opportunity to rack
up an additional nine levels,
each of which provides access
to different perks. Leveling up
a character from scratch didn’t
bother me in the multiplayer portion of the game because one is
normally squaring off against a
new set of opponents. However, I
found this mechanic unwieldy in
story mode since it undermines
any sense of continuity between
chapters.
Speaking of multiplayer,
“Battleborn” offers the usual territory-control feature as well as
two other modes that emphasize
the shepherding of minions, or
non-playable characters, to specific points on the map. In Meltdown, the goal is to guide your
minions to an incinerator, where
they sacrifice themselves for
your greater glory, while trying
to prevent the competition from
following suit. In Incursion, you
try to lead an army of minions to
destroy an enemy sentry.
In the matches I played, I
saw very little tactical thinking
on the part of my teammates
— people seemed preoccupied
with shooting the nearest threat.
I couldn’t blame them since the
game’s first-person perspective
isn’t as conducive to surveying
the playing field as the isometric perspective of a traditional
MOBA.
Honestly, I don’t know what
else to say about this game. Its
humor goes nowhere — it has
none of the cultural sting of
something like “Grand Theft
Auto V” or “The Magic Circle”
— and while the game does offer
players a slew of fighting styles
to choose from, the thought of
tackling similar objectives over
and over to unlock new avatars
leaves me numb. “Battleborn” is
an OK shooter, but it’s certainly
not a memorable one.
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4,
Xbox One
Online: battleborn.com
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 27
Europe
WEEKEND
THE EUROPE EXPERIENCE
Courtesy of ‘CATS’
’80s FELINE FUN: ‘Cats’ in Paris
Courtesy of Fetes Johanniques
CELEBRATING GIRL POWER: Joan of Arc Festival in Reims, France
Reims, France, travels back to medieval times for the Joan
of Arc Festival (Fetes Johanniques) June 4-5. The event,
which organizers say has been held for more than 600 years,
commemorates the coronation of Charles VII of France,
which, thanks to military victories led by the “Maid of Orleans” during the Hundred Years’ War, took place in Reims
Cathedral on July 17, 1429. Highlights of the weekend include
the Grand Coronation Parade, in which more than 2,000
participants in medieval dress accompany actors representing Joan and Charles to Notre Dame Cathedral. Also expect
street performances, brass bands, a medieval market, historical reconstructions and a medieval encampment with knights,
artisans and minstrels strolling the streets. More details
online at tinyurl.com/jeykl5j.
Think fuzzy leg warmers and big hair are
a thing of the past? The French apparently
don’t. Audiences have welcomed the revival
of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” to Paris
with such enthusiasm that the musical’s run
at the Mogador Theater has been extended to
July 3. Though the show has been calibrated
slightly to the 21st century (bad-boy rocker
Rum Tum Tugger is now a rapper), fans of
old-school Broadway flair will revel in its
heaps of nostalgia. Rather than shy away
from the 1980s kitsch that made it a hit, the
Mogador production embraces it in all its
Jellicle glory. Tickets are available at
stage-entertainment.fr.
— The Associated Press
TOP TRAVEL PICKS
Eurasian culture fair
No time for a flight and not
up to the jet lag? Experience the
exotic ambiance of Eurasia at
The Hague’s gigantic Tong Tong
Fair, an event that’s a cultural
fest, exhibition and food festival.
The fair was first held in 1959 by
a migrant population with ties
to Indonesia. Today’s exhibitors
and performers also come from
Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia,
Sri Lanka and other countries in
Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Staple features of the event
include the food and merchandise stands of the Grand Pasar
and a food court filled with
stalls. Goods on offer range from
fabrics to flowers to spices and
tropical fruits. The Tong Tong
Festival also features dance and
musical performances on four
stages, as well as hands-on workshops and cooking demos.
The fair takes place on the Malieveld, a five-minute walk from
The Hague’s central train station. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
daily. Tickets cost 16.50 euros
($18.40) for adults; 11 euros for
students and 4.50 euros for ages
4-11. The festival runs through
June 5. Learn more at tongtongfair.nl/english.
Queens birthday parties
Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 90th
birthday on April 26, but the celebration is by no means over. It’s
typical for a reigning monarch
Karen Bradbury
Read more about things to do
in the Europe Traveler blog:
stripes.com/travel/europe-travel
to have two celebrations, one
private and the other public. The
latter is a ceremonial extravaganza known as Trooping the
Colour/Queen’s Birthday Parade,
set for June 11 this year. While
tickets already have been allocated on the basis of applications
submitted in February, those in
search of spectacle aren’t out of
luck completely.
Two evenings of spectacular
pageantry known as Beating
Retreat are made up of marching
displays, military and contemporary music, prancing horses,
cannon fire and fireworks. The
performance is delivered by the
musicians, drummers and pipers
of the Household Division and
other military groups. The salute
is taken by the queen or another
member of the royal family. This
year’s edition commemorates the
bonds of friendship among the 53
Commonwealth countries.
Beating Retreat, always held
on the Wednesday and Thursday
evenings preceding the Queen’s
Birthday Parade, will take place
at 8 p.m. June 8 and 9 on the
Horse Guards Parade. Tickets,
available at the time of this writing, begin at 10 pounds, or about
$14.70, plus delivery fees.
Those without tickets who
are set on seeing the Queen’s
Parade can take in the procession for free from either side of
The Mall or from the edge of St.
James’s Park facing the Horse
Guards Parade. Troops begin
forming at 9:15 a.m.; the queen
departs Buckingham Palace in a
grand procession escorted by the
Household Cavalry at 10:45 a.m.
and takes the salute at precisely
11 a.m. The day’s formalities end
with the Royal Air Force’s Fly
Past over Buckingham Palace at
1 p.m.
For more information, see
householddivision.org.uk.
Stuttgart women’s run
CRAFT Women’s Runs are
a series of running events held
annually in half a dozen cities
throughout Germany. Stuttgart
joins the list of cities hosting the
event this year.
The CRAFT Women’s Run
offers the chance to walk or run
either a 5- or 8-kilometer stretch.
The race is open to all women
and girls ages 10 and above.
Although plenty of participants
will be racing in earnest, others
will be out strictly for the experi-
ence. (For those who do want
their times officially measured, a
3-euro chip rental fee applies.)
More than a race, a full
program of side activities in
the Women’s Village awaits,
including music and entertainment; stands selling
sport, health and nutrition merchandise; and a
spa area offering some
free pampering.
You can sign up on
race day as long as
spaces remain available. The 32-euro
fee ($35.70) includes
participation in a
warm-up session and
the race, plus other
niceties, such as a free
after-race massage. A
free baby-sitting service
also will be available, but
arrive in good time if you
plan to use it, as space is
limited. Although the run is
for women and girls only, men
and boys are welcome in the
Women’s Village and start and
finish areas.
Stuttgart’s race takes place
June 4 at the GAZi-Stadion auf
der Waldau on Jahnstrasse 120,
next to the TV tower.
The Women’s Village is open
from noon to 8 p.m., the 5-kilometer walk/run starts at 3 p.m.
and the 8-kilometer event begins
at 5:30 p.m. Other cities holding
CRAFT Women’s Runs include
Hamburg on July 2, Berlin on
July 23, Cologne on Aug. 13,
Experience the exotic ambiance
of Eurasia at The Hague’s
gigantic Tong Tong Fair, an event
that’s a cultural fest, exhibition
and food festival.
SERGE LIGTENBERG /Tong Tong Fair
Frankfurt on Aug. 20 and Munich on Sept. 3.
Learn more at womensrun.de
(German only).
Looking for even more to do? For additional events, concerts and activities, go to stripes.com/military-life
PAGE 28
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
Europe
WEEKEND: TRAVEL
Mountain
magic
Authentic Andalusia
awaits in Spain’s
Jimena de la Frontera
PHOTOS
BY
M YSCHA THERIAULT/TNS
A beach visitor makes her way past a grazing cow to the sand near the Roman ruins of Baelo Claudia, Spain.
BY MYSCHA THERIAULT
W
Above: Sheep assist with grounds maintenance amid the ruins at the
Baelo Claudia archaeological complex. Below: The area is home to
Roman columns and an ancient amphitheater that’s still in use.
hen my husband and I were deciding which of southern Spain’s
white pueblos to visit, we knew it
was important to choose one that
was conveniently located to as many other
sightseeing options as possible. We also knew
we wanted to be fairly close to the ocean, and
at a departure point for either Morocco or a
yet-to-be-determined country elsewhere in
Europe.
After a bit of deliberation, we decided to
make our way to the magical mountain village
of Jimena de la Frontera to experience a truly
agricultural part of the Andalusian region.
Roughly 30 minutes from the coast, it offers
easy access to a wide array of authentic travel
experiences for those seeking soft adventure in
a romantic setting.
The atmosphere of Jimena is classic Andalusia, with abundant farm animals, white
stone houses that shine against green pastures
and the adjacent natural park, and plenty of
Spanish grandpas out for their daily stroll on
any given morning. The locals are friendly, and
the location provides a postcard-perfect drive
to any nearby sightseeing you might want to
experience for the day.
While private holiday rentals are abundant
for those who want to stay for longer periods,
an option exists for shorter visits at Hostal
Anon. With 12 rooms, a rooftop pool and a
grown-up Bohemian atmosphere, the Anon’s
prices start at 60 euros (about $67) for a spacious double room with a private bath. The
price includes breakfast, and it’s walking distance to the bars and historic tower in the main
village plaza.
If you have several months in your schedule,
however, the prices for private vacation rentals
reduce drastically. Laslimasandalucia.com, for
example, has multiple cottages available for
long-term occupancy. We scored a converted
horse stable with granite kitchen counters,
splash pool, wireless Internet and sitting porch
for 550 euros per month starting in the fall.
Shorter-term and weekly rates are also available.
You might think there would be only so much
to do in such a small rural town, but the truth
is that there are plenty of options for keeping
yourself entertained. The castle and Roman
ruins at the top of the village are free to visit
and can easily provide an afternoon of entertainment. The cost-free natural park adjacent
to Jimena is popular with biking enthusiasts,
wild mushroom hunters and hikers alike.
When you find yourself itching for a day trip,
head to the nearby pueblo of Gaucin to experience an antique river mill turned wool factory.
Free to tour by appointment, Lanas del Rio
sells artisanal blankets, capes, scarves and
more.
This town also has a free castle to visit,
which is a hangout for eagles and other birds of
prey. This makes it a nifty archaeological site
for birders to explore.
Additionally, Gibraltar is within visual range
of the town square. This makes for a fun excursion that will technically let you visit another
country (Spain ceded the territory to Britain in
1713). You can see the changing of the guard
and the lighthouse at Europa Point for free,
and the Gibraltar Museum provides a peek into
the peninsula’s noteworthy history.
Perhaps the most unique place to eat in
Jimena de la Frontera is a tea shop and
restaurant called Esenia. Across the bridge
next to the train station, it’s a two-part vegan
establishment run by twin sisters. One half is
a tea and coffee room with inexpensive snacks
and boutique gifts. The other is an eatery with
an affordable 12-euro menu of the day. Typical
course options include gourmet juice blends,
healthy soups and carob-flavored sweet treats.
They also sell organic local wine.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 29
Europe
WEEKEND: TRAVEL
Passengers from the AmaPrima ride the ship’s
blue bicycles along a country road in Vidin,
Bulgaria. Below, a cruise client gets ready for
the bike tour through Novi Sad, Serbia.
PHOTOS
BY
TERRI C OLBY/Chicago Tribune
Danube cruise lets cyclists explore along the way
BY TERRI COLBY
Chicago Tribune
O
ur cruise ship docked
on the banks of the
Danube in late afternoon, at the historic
city of Novi Sad, Serbia. We were
three days into a Danube cruise,
and a city tour was next on the
itinerary. But for my husband
and me and perhaps 15 other
hardy passengers, there was no
coach bus waiting on shore.
Instead, we climbed the gangplank and found two enthusiastic
guides and a row of blue bicycles.
We had chosen this cruise
on AmaWaterways (amawaterways.com) specifically because
it offered bicycle excursions
on an itinerary that started in
Vienna, stopped in Hungary,
Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria,
and finished a few miles south
of Bucharest, Romania. Cycling
seemed like a change from the
usual cruise-excursion transport
— more intimate than a bus but
covering more ground than a
walking tour.
I was concerned about my
stamina — I’m an occasional
cyclist, at best — Ama told us
the rides would be of reasonable
length and leisurely in pace.
Our ship, the AmaPrima, carried its own fleet of easy-to-ride
bicycles with upright handlebars,
reasonably comfy seats and both
coaster and hand brakes.
We probably wouldn’t have
chosen this day for cycling;
surprisingly in the upper 90s
in September. But there was
a breeze off the Danube, and
the shadows of afternoon were
growing longer. With one guide
in front and the other in the rear,
we set off, a ragged file of blue
bicycles steered by people who
clearly were not locals.
A church sits on the Danube near the Iron Gates gorge.
Our route took us along the
Danube’s banks to the campus of
the University of Novi Sad, then
to a riverside beach crowded
with bathers, all along flat,
vehicle-free bicycle paths and
campus lanes. A 10-minute ride,
a stop for some commentary
from our guides, then back on
the bikes. From the campus, we
headed toward the historic center down one of the city’s main
boulevards, which, thankfully,
had a wide pedestrian-and-cycle
lane running alongside.
At the beach, we learned that
the former communist regime
frowned on skimpy bathing suits.
Next to a row of dreary-looking communist-era apartment
towers, we learned that the flats
are now prized for their spacious
rooms and thick walls. Outside
the Serbian National Theatre, we
got a quick lesson in the Cyrillic alphabet. On a picturesque
square, we learned that some of
the upper-floor apartment windows were designed so old folks
could easily snoop on the young
people socializing below.
Navigating the twisting pedestrian lanes of the old city was the
most challenging part of the ride,
but after another 20 minutes, we
were back at the ship in plenty
of time for a drink before dinner. The ride was perhaps 5 or 6
miles in all.
The 164-passenger AmaPrima
was a fine place to relax. Our
cabin was spacious for river
cruising, with a queen-size bed,
two chairs, a fairly roomy bathroom and a small veranda.
The meals, featuring wines
from the countries we passed
through, were excellent, and
casual dress was the rule.
Some of the bike tours emphasized easy riding over sightseeing. In Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia, the cycle group avoided
the busy central city and rode
along the Danube, with a beer
stop en route. For the majority of passengers who weren’t
interested in cycling in the heat,
other excursion options were offered. In Novi Sad, we could have
taken a walking tour of the city;
elsewhere, a winery visit and a
cooking lesson in a local home
were options.
Our last bicycle jaunt, in the
small city of Vidin, Bulgaria,
was about 12 miles along city
streets and country roads that
were mostly empty on a Saturday — and more taxing, because
of the distance and the heat.
I needed a break before the
halfway point, and one of our
guides kindly stayed with me
when I pulled off at a shady spot
along the road. The rest of the
group turned around a mile or
so later, and the guides quickly
agreed that we needed a stop for
cold drinks before riding back to
the ship.
This brings up a tip for happy
cycling: Tell your guide what
you want or need — if you need
to slow down or take a break,
if you need a drink, if you see
something interesting and want
to stop and investigate further.
They likely have a prescribed
route and schedule but usually
can make changes if you ask.
An example: On our way back
to the ship at Vidin, we rode into
a shady park toward an ancient
fortress, Baba Vida, on the
riverbank, and we asked for time
to explore. Some of the group inspected the souvenir stands outside, while others spent half an
hour photographing and climbing ramparts and towers that had
been built, besieged and rebuilt
over a span of 1,000 years.
A little over two hours after
leaving, we were again within
sight of the ship. We rode down
the riverside park’s walkways
under an archway of tall trees,
past cafes and strolling families.
We hurried down the gangplank
into the ship for a welcome blast
of air conditioning. Crew members greeted us with cold hand
towels and cold drinks.
We both needed showers, but
we had earned our dessert.
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 30
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
Europe
WEEKEND: QUICK TRIPS
A view of the Frankfurt skyline
from one of the bridges
spanning the Main River. At the
center is the Commerzbank
Tower. At about 850 feet, it’s
the second-tallest building
in Europe after The Shard in
London. At right is the Dom,
Frankfurt’s cathedral.
PHOTOS
BY
MICHAEL A BRAMS/Stars and Stripes
Frankfurt
by bus
Tour lets riders enjoy highlights of the city of skyscrapers
BY MICHAEL ABRAMS
For more photos of Frankfurt,
go to stripes.com/ go/frankfurt
Stars and Stripes
I
know my way around
Frankfurt pretty well. I
went to Frankfurt American High School, I’ve had
friends who work or live in the
city, and I’ve spent weekends
visiting its museums, shops and
markets.
Still, I thought it would be fun
to take a bus tour of Germany’s
financial capital and fifth-largest city to see what I had missed
over the years.
There are a couple of companies offering tours, so I chose
one that had excursions on
double-decker buses with open
top decks.
It offered a hop-on, hop-off
daily pass that included both
a City Tour of the city’s main
sights and the Skyline Tour,
featuring Frankfurt’s high-rise
architecture. Both included
audio guides in 10 languages.
First up was the Skyline Tour.
For years, Frankfurt was
the only city in Europe with
high-rise buildings defining its
downtown. Recently, London has
almost caught up with Frankfurt,
and with The Shard, the English
capital now has Europe’s tallest
skyscraper.
But Frankfurt’s skyline gave
the city on the Main River one
of its nicknames, “Mainhattan,”
with a nod to the crowded skyline
of New York City.
The tour led through the
high-rise canyons of businesses
and banks. The city is one of the
financial capitals of Europe, and
A view of part of the Hauptwache square in Frankfurt, with the
Galeria Kaufhof department store and its rooftop restaurant in
the foreground and the modern Nextower, left, and the adjoining
Jumeirah hotel, right, behind it.
the number of banks gave Frankfurt another of its nicknames
— “Bankfurt.”
The tour passed interesting
architecture, including the Japan
Center and the Main Tower, the
first skyscraper in Europe to
have a facade made completely
of glass. The tour also provided
interesting facts, such as that the
soil here is mostly sand, requiring the buildings to have very
deep foundations.
We passed through one of
Frankfurt’s newest districts, the
Europaviertel, with its high-tech
high-rise office and apartment
buildings, and near the Westend Tower, with its crown-like
profusion at the top. The crown
is heated in winter to prevent
ice from forming, and with its
warmth is popular with the city’s
birds.
The tour led along the Main
and made a stop in the middle
of a bridge to offer an imposing
view of the skyline and two of the
city’s distinct high-rises, the new
European Central Bank and the
Main Plaza, built in the architectural style of early 20th-century
New York high-rises.
Traveling along the outline of
the city’s former medieval fortifications, the tour offered a view
of old and new with the Eschenheimer Tor, an ancient city gate
tower, juxtaposed with the modern 443-foot-tall Nextower.
The City Tour offered a little
more about the history of the
city. It passed by the Alte Oper,
which opened in 1880, was nearly completely destroyed in World
War II and was rebuilt in 1981,
and the Senckenberg Museum of
natural history.
The tour drove along the south
bank of the Main, the Museumsufer, with its long row of popular museums, then continued
farther into Sachsenhausen, the
district popular for its apple wine
taverns.
Both tours start and finish
at Paulsplatz, site of the Paulskirche, where the first German
National Assembly met.
There are many stops on both
tours where riders can get off
and explore, including one near
the zoo, and at the Hauptbahnhof.
Not all sites are visible from
the bus, including the Roemer,
Frankfurt’s city hall, and the
Zeil, one of Germany’s longest
— and busiest — pedestrian
shopping streets. Neither tour
passed close to the I.G. Farben
building — later known as the
Abrams Building — once the
U.S. Army’s V Corps headquarters, or Frankfurt American
High School, nearby.
Although the bus tours are
interesting and worth the time,
some things must be discovered
on foot.
[email protected]
ON THE QT
DIRECTIONS
Frankfurt is about 25 miles from
Wiesbaden and 60 miles from
Kaiserslautern. The best places
to catch the bus are at Paulsplatz
in the city center or at the Hauptbahnhof, the main train station.
TIMES
Depends on the tour, but generally buses run every 30 minutes
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
COSTS
Prices vary by vendor and
tour. We bought a day ticket on
CitySightseeing that included
its regular City Tour and the
Skyline Tour for 20 euros (about
$23) for adults and 9 euros for
children. Prices are cheaper if
you order on the web.
FOOD
None served on the tours, but
there are plenty of places to eat
in all price classes in downtown
Frankfurt.
INFORMATION
Go to citysightseeing-frankfurt.
com for the tour we took. Check
tinyurl.com/j3pudpg for various
tours of the city. Go to frankfurt.
de and click on the British flag
for the English-language version
of the city’s website.
— Michael Abrams
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 31
Europe
WEEKEND: TRAVEL
Cheese, please
Europe offers many places
to savor this creamy delight
W
hen I’m traveling, I
become a cultural
chameleon. I love
a cup of Earl Grey
tea when I’m in England, and I
love a cheese course when I’m
in France. For a cheese-lover,
savoring Europe means savoring
its cheeses — they’re not only
part of the cuisine, they’re part
of the culture. Here are just a
few tips for how to be cheesy in
Europe.
In France, a love for beauty
and tradition includes a fondness
for artisan cheese that comes
in wedges, cylinders, balls and
mini-hockey pucks.
Here, the cheese course is
served just before (or instead of)
dessert. It not only helps with
digestion, it gives you a great
opportunity to sample the tasty
regional cheeses — and time to
finish up your wine. Between
cow, goat and sheep cheeses,
there are more than 400 varieties. Many restaurants offer
a cheese platter. Whether at a
restaurant or cheese shop, try at
least four types: a hard cheese
(such as Cantal), a flowery
cheese (such as Brie or Camembert), a blue or Roquefort cheese
and a goat cheese.
Be sure to go local. On your
way to the chateau in the Loire
Valley, look for signs that say
fromage de chevres fermier
(farmer’s goat cheese). Or head
to the Alps with a cheese map
looking for les alpages, where
you can taste hard, strong Beaufort or Gruyere-like Comte.
The Dutch are probably better
known for
their cheese
than for
any other
food and
are among
the world’s
top cheese
exporters.
To sample
their cheese
Rick Steves
culture, visit
Alkmaar (and its Friday morning market from April to August)
or Edam (Wednesday morning
market in July and August). Both
cities are a short train ride away
from Amsterdam.
Alkmaar is Holland’s cheese
capital. This delightful city has
zesty cheese-loving spirit and
is home to what is probably
the Netherlands’ best cheese
museum … and in this country,
that’s saying something. The
museum is in Alkmaar’s biggest
building, the richly decorated
Courtesy of ricksteves.com
At the Friday market in Alkmaar, Netherlands, carriers use a “cheese-barrow” to bring wheels to and
from the Weigh House just as they have for centuries.
Weigh House, used since the 16th
century for weighing cheese.
There’s no better time to
sample a sliver of this proud
wedge of Dutch culture than
during market time. Early in the
morning, cheesemakers line up
their giant orange wheels in neat
rows on the square. Prospective buyers (mostly wholesalers)
examine and sample the cheeses
and make their selections. Then
the cheese is sold with much fanfare, as an emcee narrates the
action in Dutch and English.
During the Wednesday market
in the village of Edam, farmers bring their cheese by boat
and horse to the center of town,
where it’s weighed and traded
by residents in traditional garb.
Edam cheese comes in softballsize rounds covered with red
wax, so it travels well without
refrigeration. Young Edam
cheese is extremely mild, but it
gets more flavorful with age.
Some studies show that Greece
has the highest per-capita
cheese consumption in the world
— more than 60 pounds a year.
That’s mostly feta, which serves
as one of the four “food groups”
here, along with olives, tomatoes
and crispy phyllo dough.
Protected by EU regulations,
Greek feta is made with sheep’s
milk, although a small percentage of goat’s milk can be added
(but never cow’s milk). As you
travel around Greece, you’ll notice that feta in the Peloponnese
is dryer and crumbly, while feta
made in Macedonia is mild, soft
and creamy.
Greeks don’t live by feta alone.
Graviera, a hard cheese made in
Crete from sheep’s milk, tastes
sweet and nutty, almost like a
fine Swiss cheese. And kasseri is
the most popular Greek cheese
after feta, a mild yellow cheese
made from either sheep or goat’s
milk.
No matter where you travel,
get out of your Cheez Whiz
comfort zone. Instead of pointing
to a recognizable cheese that you
eat in the U.S., be armed with a
little vocabulary (such as words
for mild and sharp) in the local
language. Ask your waiter or
shopkeeper for help. You’ll find
being a cheesehead in Europe is
a way to dive into the culture.
Rick Steves (ricksteves.com) writes
European travel guidebooks and hosts
travel shows on public radio and television. Email him at [email protected]
and follow his blog on Facebook.
PAGE 32
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
Pacific
WEEKEND
Chinese theme parks
aim to take on Disney
First Wanda City opens; dozens more planned
BY PAUL TRAYNOR
Associated Press
C
hina’s largest private property developer, the Wanda Group, opened
an entertainment complex May 28
that it’s positioning as a distinctly
homegrown rival to Disney and its $5.5
billion Shanghai theme park opening next
month.
Wanda executives unveiled their $3 billion Wanda City in the southeastern provincial capital of Nanchang to thundering
music reminiscent of the “Pirates of the
Caribbean” theme and hailed the center as
a representative of Chinese entertainment
culture in the face of encroaching foreign
influences.
Wanda’s massive site includes an $800
million China-themed park filled with
twirling “porcelain teacup” rides and
bamboo forests, an indoor shopping mall
with cinemas, restaurants, hotels and the
world’s largest ocean park. Disney is set to
open its own resort in Shanghai — the largest Disneyland in the world — in June.
As a leading player in Chinese firms’
globalization push, the property group has
invested heavily in the film and cinema
business and has spoken openly about its
nationalistic mission to fend off Disney in
the Chinese market and become an entertainment brand recognized around the
world.
In remarks at the opening, Wang Jianlin,
Wanda chairman and China’s richest man,
did not mention Disney but said Chinese
people “fawned” over Western imports.
“Chinese culture led in the world’s for
2,000 years, but since the last 300 years,
because of our lagging development and
the invasion of foreign cultures, we have
more or less lacked confidence in our own
culture,” Wang said. “We want to be a
model for Chinese private enterprise, and
we want to establish a global brand for Chinese firms.”
Earlier in May he told Chinese state television in an interview that Disney’s foray
into China would crumble under more
competitive pricing from his group, and
warned that “the frenzy of Mickey Mouse
M ARK SCHIEFELBEIN /AP
People walk outside the Wanda Mall at the Wanda Cultural Tourism City in Nanchang
in southeastern China on May 28. The Wanda Group, China’s largest private property
developer, hopes to become an entertainment brand recognized worldwide.
and Donald Duck and the era of blindly following them has passed.”
Seeking to capitalize on China’s rising
middle class, developers are planning dozens of Chinese theme parks, along with
projects from U.S. firms like Universal
Studios, DreamWorks and Six Flags. But
instead of seeking to capture China’s top
tier cities like Beijing or Shanghai, Wanda
has built parks in smaller but still massive
cities.
Even so, there were signs of Disney’s
presence in Wanda City. Tourists who opted
against paying 198 yuan (about $30) for the
theme park and headed for the shopping
mall were greeted by what looked like a
woman in a Snow White costume as well as
storm troopers, the armored soldiers from
the Star Wars franchise owned by Disney.
A Uniqlo store was fully stocked with
Disney merchandise and sold stacks of
Mickey Mouse T-shirts for about $12 each.
In response to a question about the presence of Disney characters, Wanda said that
the company “does not control the promotional activities of retailers.”
+81 (3) 5441-9800
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 33
THE PACIFIC EXPERIENCE
Events are as accurate as possible at press time. Since times or event schedules can change, please verify events
before attending.
ON BASE
Okinawa: Go snorkeling with Outdoor
Recreation at Kadena (kadenaevents.com)
9 a.m.-2 p.m. June 10.
Japan: Rusted Root will be live in concert
at Benny Decker Theater at Yokosuka at 7
p.m. June 17 and at Taylor Field at Atsugi
at 7 p.m. June 18. The shows are free.
Guam: Charles
King Fitness
Center at
Naval Base
Guam is
having a
Father’s
Day 5K at
6:30 p.m.
June 17. It’s $10
and includes a
commemorative
T-shirt. 333-2049
Japan: Camp Zama’s Outdoor Recreation
Center and Leisure Travel Service
(armymwrjapan.com/calendar) has a
deep-sea fishing excursion on July 4. Sign
up by June 9.
SHUJI K AJIYAMA /AP
Offerings in Tokyo
Visitors walk past stacked sake barrels at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo,
Japan, on May 24. A local sake brewers association offered the
straw-wrapped barrels to the deities enshrined there. It’s open daily,
sunrise to sunset (5 a.m.-6:30 p.m. in June). For more on the Shinto
shrine: meijijingu.or.jp/english.
NORIO MUROI /Stars and Stripes
Spend time with Joe Cool in Tokyo
Snoopy Museum Tokyo is open through Sept. 25. It features more
than 500 items including unique original cartoons, comics drawn
before “Peanuts,” unpublished sketches, art works and more from
the collection of the Charles M. Schulz Museum. Make reservations
at snoopymuseum.tokyo/en.
For more: stripes.com/military-life
PAGE 34
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
Pacific
WEEKEND: QUICK TRIPS
ON THE QT
DIRECTIONS
PHOTOS
BY
W YATT O LSON /Stars and Stripes
Oahu cruise brings you face to fin with the sea creatures
BY WYATT OLSON
Stars and Stripes
Z
oos, aquariums and waterparks are great places
to view nature up close,
but there’s nothing like
seeing the wild kingdom in the
wild.
That’s a challenge if you want
to get close to creatures that
inhabit the big blue sea. Dolphins
make that undertaking a bit easier, however, because they have a
natural affinity for humans and
the boats we sail.
There are a number of cruises
on Oahu that will take you face to
fin with dolphins in the wild, but
among the best is the half-day
cruise on the Dolphin Star, a
double-deck boat custom built for
dolphin watching and snorkeling.
The cruise departs from a
pier an hour’s drive north of
downtown Honolulu. I went on a
weekday morning cruise, which
luckily had far fewer people than
the boat’s 149-passenger capacity
would allow. The crew members
seemed to be genuinely having a
good time, with a goal of helping
everyone see as many dolphins
as they could.
The boat pulled out of
Wai’anae Boat Harbor and then
zipped north along the Oahu
coastline for about a half-hour.
The sea was quite calm that day;
nevertheless, a few guests succumbed to seasickness.
When we reached our destination of the waters just off Makua
Beach, Capt. David Irick pulled
back the throttle so we were
pretty much drifting for the
next hour. From the helm, Irick
scanned for pods of dolphins,
which were slowly meandering
near the surface. He’d rev the
engine briefly to set us drifting
toward them.
These were spinner dolphins,
a relatively small kind — an
adult is about the size an average
person. They’re known for their
acrobatic antics, such as spinning as they leap from the water,
their white bellies flashing as
they rotate.
Dolphins are a nocturnal sea
mammal, so what you’ll see
during a day cruise like this are
sleeping dolphins, said Kelsey
Dixon, a Dolphin Star crewmember who at one point in the trip
showed visitors a model dolphin
skull.
The weird thing is, they don’t
look like they’re asleep. They
wriggle and flap along, rise to the
surface for air, and then plunge
under again. Occasionally, one
will leap out of the water in the
fashion you’d see at a sea park
show.
Dolphins have developed a
type of functioning sleep called
“unihemispheric slow-wave
sleep,” during which half the
brain shuts down. Scientists have
analyzed the phenomenon using
brain scans. The eye closes on
the opposite side of that sleeping
hemisphere, so the dolphin gets
shut-eye — literally.
The awake half of the brain
monitors the environment and,
most importantly, keeps the
dolphin rising to the surface for
oxygen. Dixon said this is why
you’ll often see the dolphins
swimming in pairs during the
daytime. Each keeps its “awake”
eye facing out to search for pos-
sible predators.
As we made our way through
various pods of dolphins, they
would arch out of the water for
air, looking every bit graceful,
tranquil and, yes, drowsy.
The Dolphin Star was built to
provide 360-degree views, and
I found myself circling around
the boat as I’d hear oohs and
ahs when a new pod had been
sighted.
I’m not sure what the dolphins
were seeing with their one-waking eyes, but it must surely have
been a spectacle with dozens of
people leaning over a gunwale
and shrieking with excitement.
They didn’t seem to perceive it as
a danger. Perhaps they woke in a
few hours and thought it was all
a dream.
For most of us who’ve seen
dolphins, it’s likely been at a sea
park, where they go through the
stunts they’ve been trained to
perform. The nice thing about
seeing them from the Dolphin
Star is that we finally get a
glimpse of their world without
the manmade bag of tricks.
olson.wyatt@stripes.
Twitter: @WyattWOlson
Star of Honolulu Wild
Dolphin Watch cruises
depart from Wai’anae Boat
Harbor, about an hour
drive northwest of downtown Honolulu, at 85-491
Farrington Highway,
Wai’anae, Hawaii. From
downtown, take Interstate
H-1 west to the Interstate
H-201 bypass, then return
to H-1. The interstate ends
and becomes Highway
93, also called Farrington
Highway. Drive along the
coast until you see the sign
for the boat harbor on your
left. Drive toward the pier
and park to the right of the
restrooms as you’re facing
the harbor. Look for the
double-deck Dolphin Star,
which is likely to be the
largest boat there.
TIMES
Daily, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30
a.m. and noon to 3 p.m.,
except New Year’s Day,
Thanksgiving Day, the
Honolulu Marathon, which
in 2016 is on Nov. 16, and
Christmas Day.
COSTS
Dolphin-watch cruise with
barbeque: $83 per adult,
$50 per child; same cruise
excluding meal: $66 per
adult, $40 per child.
FOOD
The cruise I chose provided a barbecued hamburger
lunch, with ample toppings plus potato chips and
brownies. The beef patties
were top notch and hot off
the grill. If I went again,
however, I’d probably skip
the meal, as the additional
$17 cost was a bit much.
INFORMATION
800-334-6191 or 808-9837827; dolphin-star.com
— Wyatt Olson
Above: Kelsey Dixon, a Dolphin
Star crewmember, shows guests
a model skull of a bottlenose
dolphin.
Top photo: Spinner dolphins
come up for air off the
northwest coast of Oahu, Hawaii.
Right: The Dolphin Star
was designed and built for
the pleasure of viewing dolphins
in the wild.
Guests gather on the lower bow of the Dolphin Star to get an upclose look at a pair of dolphins rising to the surface during a cruise.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 35
Pacific
WEEKEND: TRAVEL
Exhibit showcases Afghan treasures
BY SETH ROBSON
ON THE QT
Stars and Stripes
I
slamic extremists are
notorious for destroying and
looting ancient treasures.
The Islamic State’s
reign of terror has included the
destruction of artifacts in the
ancient Syrian city of Palmyra.
Before that, Islamists tore down
the ancient “End of the World
Gate” in Timbuktu and blew
up the Bamiyan Buddhas in
Afghanistan.
Fortunately, the extremists’
views are not shared by all
Muslims.
In Kabul, brave Afghan officials safeguarded thousands
of historic artifacts during the
Taliban’s bloody rule. It was only
after the militants were ousted
after the 2001 U.S. invasion that
items were brought out of hiding.
Some of the surviving Afghan
treasures are on display at the
Tokyo National Museum as part
of the exhibition “Hidden Treasures from the National Museum
of Afghanistan.”
The collection, comprising
231 ancient artworks, illustrates
some of the cultures that flourished in the country from about
2100 BC to the second century
AD by presenting works excavated at four ancient sites.
It includes plenty of items
the Taliban disapproves of, and
which pre-date the arrival of
Islam in Afghanistan, including
Buddhist coins from India, statues of Greek gods and images of
Chinese dragons once common
in a land that was a trading hub
on the Silk Road linking Europe
with the Far East.
DIRECTIONS
Hyokeikan, Tokyo National
Museum (Ueno Park) is a
10-minute walk from Ueno
Station (Park exit) and
Uguisudani Station (South
exit). It’s a 15-minute walk
from Keisei Ueno Station,
Tokyo Metro Ueno Station
and Tokyo Metro Nezu Station.
TIMES
Through June 19, open
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday
through Thursday, 9:30 a.m.
to 8 p.m. Friday; 9:30 a.m.
to 6 p.m. weekends and holidays. Closed Monday. Last
entry 30 minutes before
closing.
COSTS
PHOTOS
BY
SETH ROBSON /Stars and Stripes
“Pendants With Dragon Master” from the first century A.D. is among the gold items on display as part
of “Hidden Treasures From the National Museum of Afghanistan.” The exhibit at the Tokyo National
Museum runs through June 19.
The most stunning treasures
in the collection are objects
recovered from Tillya Tepe, the
Hill of Gold, in northern Afghanistan. The gold items are among
more than 20,000 recovered
from six first-century graves
excavated by an Afghan/Russian
team in the north of the country
in 1978.
It’s unclear exactly who the
nomadic people entombed in the
graves were. One grave contained the body of a man who
wore an elaborate gold belt and
several ceremonial knives, while
the others entombed females
clad in impressive jewelry.
The Tokyo exhibit includes 15
of more than 100 Afghan treasures that have been collected by
individuals in Japan. The items,
including an elaborate carving
of Buddha and a fragment of a
statue dubbed “the left foot of
Zeus,” are due to be returned
to Afghanistan now that the
country has been deemed stable
enough to secure them.
U.S. military personnel who
have deployed to Afghanistan
might be interested to see a side
of the country that’s very differ-
1,400 yen, adults; 1,000 yen,
college students; 600 yen,
high school students; free
for junior high students and
younger.
INFORMATION
03-5777-8600; gold-afghan.
jp
— Seth Robson
ent from walled military bases,
dusty city streets, rugged mountains and fields of opium poppies
that they might have patrolled
through in recent years.
[email protected]
Twitter: @SethRobson1
Slurp and learn: Ramen museums offer tasty facts
BY LINDA LOMBARDI
Associated Press
I
n Japan, ramen is not the
packaged staple of dormroom cuisine, but rather an
artisanal, handmade soup
that fans line up for hours to try.
There are entire museums
devoted to it. Yokohama, about a
45-minute train ride from Tokyo,
has a museum for instant ramen
and another for handmade
ramen. Both offer samples to
taste or take home.
At Tokyo’s Shin-Yokohama
Raumen Museum (raumen.co.jp),
you’ll find nine shops showcasing
ramen styles. The English brochure describes the soup at each,
noting the shape and size of the
noodles and the richness of the
broth. At each shop, you order
and pay for your ramen via a
ticket vending machine with photos on the buttons. Some varieties are offered in small portions
so you can try more than one.
I chose a replica of a shop in
Kyushu, in the south of Japan,
founded in 1954. The broth was
delicious as were the crumbles
of roasted garlic sprinkled on
top. Other choices include what’s
claimed to be the most famous
miso ramen in the country, from
Hokkaido, and a replication of
soup from a shop in Tohoku
that was swept away in the 2011
earthquake and tsunami.
The ramen shops are located
in a two-story re-creation of a
romantically shabby 1958 city
shopping district, eternally
bathed in twilight. (The year
was chosen for the birth date of
instant ramen.) There are also
movie posters and shop facades
for a post office and pawn shop,
along with a real store selling
old-fashioned candy and toys. It’s
a period that evokes nostalgia for
the Japanese. Some things may
also be familiar to Americans,
like a vintage Coke machine.
In the gift shop, you can assemble a customized package of
ramen to take home, choosing
from various kinds of vacuumpacked fresh noodles, soup flavor
and flavored oil. The shop also
sells packaged ramen, bowls,
spoons and other souvenirs.
Nearby are exhibits about ramen
in Europe, regional ramen in
Japan and historic ramen-making implements.
Then, if you’re weary of foodie
seriousness about what is, after
all, simple noodle soup, the
The Japan News
An American visitor eats her third bowl of ramen while visiting the
Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum in Yokohama.
antidote is just a short train or
subway ride away: Yokohama
also has a branch of the Cup
Noodle Museum (cupnoodlesmuseum.jp).
Where Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum is for adults, Cup
Noodle Museum is designed
for kids. The small print on its
brochure notes that it’s formally
named the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum after the
inventor of instant ramen. Run
by an educational foundation
started by Ando, the museum is
designed to support some highminded goals with exhibits about
creativity and invention.
Non-Japanese speakers get to
skip the lessons except for what’s
printed in the English brochure.
Exhibits include a reproduction
of the modest shack where Ando
invented chicken ramen, a display of the astonishing number
of varieties of instant ramen that
the Nissin Food company has
produced since then, and a food
court called Noodles Bazaar,
said to reproduce an “Asian night
market” and “eight varieties of
noodles that Ando encountered
during his travels in search of
ramen’s origins.”
The food stands include Italian pasta, Vietnamese pho and
dishes from Kazakhstan, China,
Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and
Indonesia. And there’s a play
area (fee: about $3) where kids
can experience the soup manufacturing process from the point
of view of a noodle.
The main attraction, though, is
the make-your-own section. For
a separate fee for a timed ticket,
visitors can make their own
personal Cup Noodle, decorating the cup, then putting in the
noodles and choosing the soup
and toppings. Watch the lid get
sealed and the whole cup shrinkwrapped, then your creation
is enclosed in a cool protective
package that you pump air into
to cushion it on the trip home.
There’s also the much more
involved Chicken Ramen Factory, a 90-minute session where
participants make the noodles
from scratch.
PAGE 36
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WEEKEND: MUSIC
BY RANDY LEWIS
Los Angeles Times
I
f a filmmaker were to
tell the story of Florida
rock group Mudcrutch,
it would go something
like this: Rock ’n’ roll-loving
teenagers form a band and
head for Hollywood in search
of fame, only to fall short and
disband.
Flash ahead three decades.
The members reunite, record
the album they never got to
make, play a series of sold-out
shows and, having savored
their victory lap, return to
their lives.
That unlikely story is what
happened with Tom Petty’s
band before the Heartbreakers put him, and them, on the
musical map in the mid-1970s.
The key difference between real-life and the silver
screen scenario is that instead
of quitting for good after a
successful reunion in 2008,
Mudcrutch is back for a third
time at bat.
“We had so much fun we
just wanted to do it again,”
Petty, 65, said recently during
a group interview at offices
of Warner Bros. Records in
Burbank, Calif., the label that
released “Mudcrutch 2” on
May 20.
“It was a little bit intimidating to do another one,” he
continued. “To top that one,
it was going to be hard. But
we just decided not to worry
about topping it; let’s just
make a good record, and this
is what happened.”
“Mudcrutch 2” again teams
the original lineup of Petty
(singing and playing bass)
with the Heartbreakers’ Mike
Campbell and Benmont Tench
along with their northeast
Gainesville bandmates from
long ago: guitarist Tom
Leadon and drummer Randall
Marsh.
Because Mudcrutch
includes 60 percent of the
members of the Heartbreakers, it’s easy to find similarities in sound. In addition to
the different singers and
songwriters, the key differences include Petty’s return to
the bass, his first instrument
before shifting to guitar in the
Heartbreakers.
“I love playing bass. The
bass really helps drive the
band, so I’ve got a lot more
power than I’m used to having,” he said with a laugh.
All five of the band members get a turn on lead vocals
and have written at least
one song for “Mudcrutch 2,”
an album with lyrics that
often reflect the group’s long
journey.
The first release is “Trailer,” a country-rock song
written by Petty that’s about
looking back to hardscrabble
younger days and a relationship that fell by the wayside.
“Welcome to Hell” is a pianodriven rocker from Tench
that evokes some of Jerry Lee
Lewis’ and Chuck Berry’s
most insistent grooves.
Campbell takes a rare turn at
the microphone for his song
“Victim of Circumstance,” relating a coast-to-coast journey
Following an 8-year hiatus, Tom Petty and his old
rock group Mudcrutch reunite for new album, tour
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Records
by a man looking for answers
to tough questions.
Campbell, who has long
handled most of the lead
guitar work in the Heartbreakers, shares those duties
with Leadon, the older brother
of guitarist Bernie Leadon,
who followed his big brother’s
advice to take his own shot in
Southern California and soon
after arriving in the early
1970s found his way into the
Eagles.
Leadon’s “The Other Side
of the Mountain” ponders the
gulf between people who have
drifted apart and the yearning to find a way to recapture
their former closeness. Musically, Leadon adapts a minorkey bluegrass-rooted shuffle
into a country-rock workout
in which banjo co-exists with
broadly strummed electric
guitars.
“It’s a very different band
(from the Heartbreakers),
though superficially it sounds
similar,” said Tench, the
youngest member of Mudcrutch when Petty and the
others drafted him at age 17.
He required his father’s signature to tour with the group
while he was a minor.
“(Petty’s) on bass, and that
changes the whole feel of it.
Having Randall and Tom
Leadon also really changes
things up,” Tench said. “The
two Toms have known each
other since they were tiny. I’m
the latecomer to this whole
gang. The rest of them have
played together since 1970 or
before, and I came in late ’71
or early ’72.
“There’s also the advantage
of playing alongside people
who grew up in the same area,
absorbing the same music and
cultural influences.
“You’ve got people who go
back that far, who grew up in
the same area, with the same
regional radio,” Tench said.
“There had been local bands
that would play whatever the
current hit is, but they’d play
it wrong, but everybody kind
of learned the version that the
local band did — wrong. Since
everybody comes from the
same literal swamp, there’s a
lot of instinctive stuff in this
band that’s really terrific.”
Also, he said, “Mudcrutch
leans a little more toward the
country side of life at times,
although it was always quirky
enough it could do a 180 at
any point. Live, it’s a lot more
jammy, with a lot more improvisation” than the Heartbreakers typically engage in.
“We tried to throw more of
that into the record, too,” said
Petty, who wrote seven of the
album’s 11 tracks. “So when
I’m writing, I really try to
write a skeleton, not really nail
it down too much. I’ll write a
pattern and some lyrics, then
we really just take it from
there and make it into something. There’s no elaborate
demos or extreme instructions. You just see what it turns
into and then follow that.”
“What I like,” said Tench,
“is that the first record was
just like, ‘Here we are, it’s a
bunch of us just jamming.’
CONTINUED ON PAGE 37
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 37
WEEKEND: MUSIC
NEW ALBUMS
FROM PAGE 36
“This is more like a record, so
we didn’t try to repeat what we
did on the first record, we just
kind of let it be what it is.”
Mudcrutch is also undertaking a more extensive tour than
in 2008, when the members
were greeted with lines wrapped
around the building for several
shows at the Troubadour in West
Hollywood, one of the clubs they
first visited when they reached
Los Angeles in the mid-’70s.
Leadon had previously made a
trip across the country to scope
out whether he thought they’d
stand a chance in an L.A. music
scene that just a few years earlier
had given birth to the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors, Arthur
Lee & Love, the Flying Burrito
Brothers and many others.
The conclusion was that “We
were as good as many of the other
bands I heard,” Leadon said. “So
I said I thought we ought to come
out and give it a shot.”
Not long after they arrived,
Mudcrutch was signed to Leon
Russell’s Shelter Records label.
But its only release, the single
“Depot Street,” died on the vine.
As they’ve recounted often, Tench
set up a recording session after
the breakup of Mudcrutch where
he invited Petty and Campbell to
contribute. With the addition of
drummer Stan Lynch and bassist
Ron Blair for that session, the
Heartbreakers were born.
Mudcrutch’s new tour opened
May 26 in Denver and is slated
to conclude with homecoming
shows June 25 and 26 at the Fonda
Theatre in Hollywood and the
Observatory in Santa Ana, Calif.
“It’s tremendous fun,” Petty said
of reconvening Mudcrutch. “I’m
pretty happy with the way (the
album) came out.”
Said Leadon, “We spent more
time getting sounds this time, and
I think you’ll hear that. The first
time, whatever we had plugged
in, that’s pretty much what you
got. There was a beauty to that.
Yet this time we took a little more
time with ‘What amp are we
going to use? Which guitar?’ What
effects might we use, and how to
arrange the parts the right way.
“It was nice to take a little more
time and get the best possible arrangements,” Leadon said.
Ryan Ulyate, who co-produced
the new album with Petty and
Campbell, “was pushing everybody to go beyond their little box,”
Marsh said.
“The thing is,” Tench said, “we
made the other record, so we don’t
have to make it again. And the
other record, it just wasn’t where
we are now.”
Said Petty, glancing toward
longtime sidekick Tench: “I
think people will be happy with
this one. I mean, look at Ben
— he’s smiling.”
Chance the Rapper
Blake Shelton
Dierks Bentley
Ariana Grande
Coloring Book (Apple Music)
If I’m Honest
(Warner Music Nashville)
Black (Capitol Records Nashville)
Dangerous Woman (Republic)
One of the best things that
happened to 22-year-old Ariana
Grande — inheritor of Mariah
Carey’s crown as soul-pop’s
youngest multi-octave vocalist
— was “Saturday Night Live.”
As it did with Taylor Swift, the
comedy show allowed the usually
stiff live performer to loosen up
and demonstrate another side of
herself. Grande has opened her
jazzier vocal sound and found
more minimalist production
values that make her lyrical
emotionalism shine on “Dangerous Woman,” her third album.
Grande maintains cool but
mighty distance on the slick
faux-blues of the title song, on
which her multitracked runs
are a highlight. On “Leave Me
Lonely,” the gruff-voiced Macy
Gray and the usually smooth
Grande create sleek soul that’s
scuffed like pricey patent leather
after a mud storm. Brava, girl.
— A.D. Amorosi
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Mixtapes used to be casual,
tossed-off affairs giving rappers a chance to stretch out and
experiment between official
albums. The “official” mixtape
— this is the Chicago rapper
born Chancelor Bennett’s third
— blurs those lines. It’s silly to
call “Coloring Book,” with its
seriousness of purpose and guest
appearances by Kanye West, Future and Kirk Franklin, anything
other than an album.
And it is a mighty impressive
album — available only on Apple
Music, as the streaming music
exclusivity wars continue.
With boisterous horns, uplifting spirit, and Chance’s varied
vocal attack (he’s a singer who
doesn’t need to be Auto-Tuned),
as well as a guest list that includes Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber,
and T-Pain — “Coloring Book”
brings the gospel-rap-pop fusion
to consistent fruition.
— Dan DeLuca
If his time on “The Voice” has
done anything for Blake Shelton,
it has sent him further down the
road toward crowd-pleasing,
show-stopping songs that build
toward a moment when the audience can no longer contain itself.
There’s plenty of that on “If
I’m Honest,” his latest album.
And make no mistake, it’s a
country road he’s traveling on
— with hard-to-miss overtones
from his high-profile personal
life. The least subtle of these is a
duet, “Go Ahead and Break My
Heart,” which he co-wrote with
Gwen Stefani, his current love
interest.
Shelton, at his best, is a country boy who tells you just what
he’s thinking and has a knack for
bringing the house down. And
if he’s honest, some of what he’s
thinking just might have staying
power.
— Scott Stroud
Associated Press
Although he’s been racking up
country hits for years, Dierks
Bentley’s last album, “Riser,” introduced him to a wider country
and pop audience. He picks up
where he left off on “Black” and
the hit single “Somewhere on a
Beach,” which combines catchy
lyrics with a laid-back delivery
and a dramatic groove.
It’s a trick Bentley manages
again and again on “Black,”
expertly weaving styles and
storytelling tricks into memorable singalongs. His duet with
Elle King, “Different for Girls,”
smartly laments how the sexes
deal with a breakup, while
“Mardi Gras,” featuring Trombone Shorty, shows how easily Bentley can move from one
genre to the next without losing
his country viewpoint.
If “Riser” was Bentley’s breakthrough, “Black” should bring a
well-deserved victory lap.
— Glenn Gamboa
Newsday
Darrell Scott
Corinne Bailey Rae
Gregory Porter
Meghan Trainor
Couchville Sessions
(Full Light/Thirty Tigers)
The Heart Speaks in Whispers
(Capitol)
Take Me to the Alley (Blue Note)
Thank You (Epic)
An award-winning songwriter
who has scored hits for stars
such as the Dixie Chicks and
Travis Tritt; a cowriter with numerous artists big and small; and
an in-demand accompanist (he
was a member of Robert Plant’s
Band of Joy), Darrell Scott obviously has the deep respect of his
peers. The veteran singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist,
however, is also a formidable recording artist in his own right, as
“Couchville Sessions” reaffirms.
The songs were recorded
in 2001 and 2002 with a bassdrums-steel-guitar trio but
never released. Last year, Scott
overdubbed keyboards by Little
Feat’s Bill Payne, along with
other sounds, such as fiddle and
accordion. These touches add
color without diminishing the
power and uncluttered immediacy of the tracks.
— Nick Cristiano
“The Heart Speaks in Whispers,” the third album from Britain’s Corinne Bailey Rae, doesn’t
boast a single as instantly catchy
as “Put Your Records On” from
her 2006 debut, but it’s a richer,
more sophisticated album. It’s
more optimistic than 2010’s “The
Sea,” which followed the sudden
death of her first husband, and it
continues that album’s blend of
acoustic soul ballads and more
extroverted R&B tracks.
Rae’s warm voice doesn’t
speak in whispers, but it’s especially inviting when restrained.
“Do You Ever Think of Me?” and
“Hey, I Won’t Break Your Heart”
luxuriate in the spaces between
the notes. “Green Aphrodisiac” begins by echoing Aretha
Franklin’s “Daydreaming” (a
song Rae has covered) before
kicking it up a notch with cooing
backing vocals.
— Steve Klinge
You’ve likely heard Gregory
Porter’s voice and not known it
— he sings the hook on Disclosure’s lead single, “Holding On,”
from the Brit duo’s sophomore
smash, “Caracal.” The co-written hit has been remixed and
spun everywhere from Voyeur
to the beaches of Ibiza, which
makes his jazzier, slower version
here all the more delicious.
“Take Me to the Alley” is a
beautiful, soulful and sophisticated pop-jazz record that culls the
44-year-old baritone’s homey influences into one hell of a sunny
Sunday listen. He’s not breaking
the mold, but he’s also not doing
standards and covers, like many
other modern jazz vocalists are
wont to do. This batch reflects
his gospel and soul roots.
Channeling greats such as Bill
Withers, Donny Hathaway, and
Ray Charles, Porter has collected a timeless bunch of tunes.
— Bill Chenevert
Meghan Trainor excels at singing about herself. Her esteemraising, body-accepting anthem
“All About That Bass” was a success on every level — topping the
charts, earning critical acclaim
and a best new artist Grammy
— because she spoke up for herself in her distinctive voice.
On her follow-up album,
“Thank You,” Trainor again succeeds when she’s discussing life
in her own style. The first single,
“No,” includes her twists on the
usual club tale, using turn-ofthe-century Destiny’s Child
styling to build a clever tale of
empowerment so catchy that it’s
tough to shake.
However, Trainor comes up
short when her bubbly approach
feels like a put-on. “Thank You”
shows how Trainor has become
one of pop’s most skilled young
stars at crafting songs for her
image, but there is room to grow.
— Glenn Gamboa
Newsday
PAGE 38
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WEEKEND: BOOKS
Mystery surrounds best-selling unnamed writer
BY HILLEL ITALIE
Associated Press
T
he fair-skinned man with the
hoodie and ski cap sits on a bench
outside McNally Jackson Books
in downtown Manhattan, where
neither patrons nor employees seem aware
that he’s the author of a work so in demand
at the store that it’s often out of stock.
Known to his fan
base as “Anonymous,”
he has given us one of
the more unusual selfpublished successes:
“Diary of an Oxygen
Thief,” a fictionalized
memoir, or autobiographical novel,
depending on how
much of this story of
a recovering alcoholic and the damage
he has inflicted and
absorbed you care to believe.
“It has an unusual negative space,” says
the author, who prefers to be identified as
O2Thief. “It couldn’t be more naked, but at
the same time ... ‘Who the hell is it?’ I think
it’s a very powerful place to write.”
First published by the author in 2006,
“Oxygen Thief” has slipped on and off the
charts ever since, apparently dependent
on the occasional tweet or other online
comment. “Oxygen Thief” has been such
a homegrown operation that the author not
only served as his own editor and cover
designer, but has also sold the book in the
streets and would personally ship it to
retailers, sometimes taking on orders for
thousands of copies.
His workload is about to lighten. This
year, “Oxygen Thief” cracked the top 20
on both Amazon.com and iTunes, enough
to interest literary agent Byrd Leavell and
eventually a publisher, Gallery Books, a pop
culture imprint of Simon & Schuster that
plans to release an e-edition this week and
a paper version in mid-June. (Film rights
have been acquired by Gotham Group.)
“I monitor the Amazon top 100 regularly, and while many self-published titles
make a brief appearance there, a persistent
best-seller commands special attention,”
said Gallery executive editor Jeremie
Ruby-Strauss, whose authors have included
Tucker Max, Ace Frehley and Grace Jones.
Douglas Singleton, a buyer and manager
at McNally Jackson, said the store has sold
more than 200 copies of “Oxygen Thief,”
the in-house record for a “consignment
order.” Asked if he has met the author,
Singleton said he wasn’t sure. He thinks
the man who delivers copies of “Oxygen
Thief” is the book’s writer, but it’s been a
couple of years since he’s seen him.
“We’ve often talked about the mysterious nature of the person who drops off the
book,” Singleton said. “I have an email
address for him and sometimes I’ll contact
him and say we’re sold out and we need
another 20 copies. And I get no answer
back. Then I’ll be walking behind the register one day and there’ll be 20 copies. And
one of my co-workers will say, ‘Someone
dropped off a bag and said it was for you.’ ”
Mainstream recognition does not mean
you will learn more about him, beyond
what he includes in the book. Anonymous
authors, even ones who meet with reporters, don’t do book tours. Ruby-Strauss is
counting on social media (the author himself has a website, www.02thief.com, and
Twitter feed, @02thief) and expects that
he will give telephone interviews.
“The book has such an underground feel
to it, a nontraditional promotional campaign focusing on these elements makes
perfect sense,” the editor said.
The author says he is a native of Ireland
who has lived everywhere from London to
Minneapolis, but has spent the past decade
in New York. Like the narrator of his book,
he has spent much of his professional life
in advertising.
The author had never attempted a book
before “Oxygen Thief,” but wanted to give
it a try, unsure if or why anyone would care
about a man who begins his tale by confiding, “I liked hurting girls.” The first half
reads like a variation of J.P. Donleavy’s
“The Ginger Man,” the comic saga of a
ne’er-do-well and the affairs ruined by his
own design. The gods strike back in the
second half as the O2Thief falls for a photographer identified as Aisling and eventually learns — or thinks he learns — she is
using him for a book about relationships.
“We can’t be sure this really happened,”
the author explained. “It’s like a Hitchcockian story — his view of the world.”
“When I started the book, I understood
immediately why it had captured the spirit of the times,” Ruby-Strauss said. “I continued reading, and I discovered it was not
the book I thought it was; then I finished
reading, only to find my latter revelation
was also incorrect. I felt unsettled about
the whole thing for several days, which
struck me as very promising.”
Sweetbitter
Blood Flag
Mercy
Beyond the Ice Limit
Girls on Fire
Stephanie Danler
Steve Martini
Daniel Palmer and Michael Palmer
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Robin Wasserman
Tess comes to New York in the
summer of 2006, 22 and aching
for adventure. Things seem to
fall into place when she aces an
interview at a famous restaurant
in Union Square and enters the
world of fine dining that’s equal
parts glamour and drudgery.
There she meets the worldly
Simone, who teaches her about
wine and food, and bad-boy
bartender Jake, on whom she
develops an insatiable crush.
She gets swept up in the hedonistic lifestyle of servers, with
plenty of late-night partying,
awash in alcohol and drugs. Her
world opens up as she develops a
palate for the finer food and wine
found at the restaurant and nearby farmer’s market. The world
seems to be at her fingertips, but
that turns out to be an illusion, as
she eventually realizes how constricting the service industry can
be and how Simone and Jake’s
lives aren’t quite as charmed as
they first appeared.
Danler’s novel paints a visceral, evocative portrait of what
it’s like to move to New York in
your early 20s.
“Sweetbitter” is an irresistible
coming-of-age tale that can truly
be savored.
Emma Brauer’s father, Robert
Bauer, was 89 and in ill health.
The police believe she killed him
to ease his suffering — and also
ensure she wasn’t removed from
his will. Emma denies all the
accusations, and hopes attorney
Paul Madriani can prove her
innocence.
Madriani asks Sofia, his new
assistant, to look into a mysterious
package that was left at Robert’s
house shortly before he died. He
later gets the call that her body has
been found near Robert’s house.
The package has ties to the
time when Robert was in the
military. At the end of World War
II, Robert and his team were
stationed in Munich. Madriani
figures out members of the unit
have all died under odd circumstances, and it might be due to
the search for a “Blood Flag,” a
Nazi flag used by Hitler.
Martini knows how to craft
suspenseful and twist-filled legal
thrillers, and Paul Madriani is a
modern-day Perry Mason.
However, it’s baffling why Martini feels that escalating the stakes
to almost absurd levels with
world-shattering consequences
is necessary since the tight and
personal stories are so juicy.
Michael Palmer’s son, Daniel,
continues his father’s tradition of
telling a compelling medical tale
while also forcing the reader to
question a difficult ethical issue
with “Mercy.”
Dr. Julie Devereux has been
advocating changing the laws to
give patients the right to die with
dignity, but finds someone close
to her suddenly facing that very
decision. Her fiance is paralyzed
in an accident and begins to
contemplate whether he truly has
a life anymore. He makes a decision, but appears to die shortly
afterward from an undetected
heart defect. The circumstances
are suspicious enough that Julie
becomes a suspect in his death.
Julie continues to dig to prove
that he didn’t want to die, and it
wasn’t at her hand. As she begins
to investigate, she learns of other
cases where the victim with a possible right-to-life issue died under
mysterious circumstances. Were
the deaths natural, or is there
something more sinister at work?
Julie begins to question
everything, including her own
beliefs, as she battles to stay
alive against a ruthless enemy
who murders not for gain, but to
relieve suffering.
Preston and Child’s latest
Gideon Crew thriller is a sequel
to “The Ice Limit.” At the end of
that novel, a ship was torn apart,
a meteorite was submerged in
the ocean and hints of doom
were raised. Now it’s up to a new
vessel to visit the wreckage and
assess the damage.
Gideon Crew has little time left
to live, and when he learns the
truth behind his recruitment by
Eli Glinn, he’s a bit surprised and
terrified. Glinn was one of the
original members of the meteorite retrieval team, and he feels
responsible for the sheer number
of deaths since he let things go
beyond the point of no return. He
tells Crew the meteorite that was
recovered was an organism, and
when it sank, it planted itself like
a seed at the bottom of the ocean
floor. It continues to grow, and if
it’s not destroyed soon, the entire
planet could rupture.
Glinn wants Crew to utilize
his expertise with engineering
and nuclear weapons to visit the
site and kill the organism. When
the new team members arrive,
they’re both shocked and horrified by what they discover.
“Beyond the Ice Limit” is a lot
of scary good fun.
It’s 1991 and Hannah Dexter
is making her way through high
school in Battle Creek, Pa., trying to fit in without attracting too
much of the ire of queen bee and
mean girl Nikki Drummond.
Then two things happen: The
school is shaken when Nikki’s
boyfriend Craig, a popular high
school athlete, is found shot dead
in the woods, an apparent suicide, and Hannah meets Lacey
Champlain, the school renegade.
Hannah and Lacey bond over
their mutual outsider status,
and Hannah quickly becomes
malleable clay in Lacey’s hands.
Lacey pushes her into wild-child
terrain: drinking, sneaking out
and dabbling in quasi-Satanism.
Wasserman depicts the allconsuming, borderline obsessive
nature of teenage friendships in
her novel. She turns the usual
high school stereotypes — the
good girl, the popular girl, the
outcast — by revealing unexpected relationships between the
characters.
“Girls on Fire” depicts the
dark side of teen years in a vein
that echoes movies like “Heathers” and the high-school noir
novels of Megan Abbott.
— Associated Press reviews
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 39
WEEKEND: TELEVISION & DVD
NEW ON DVD
“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”: Father
trains his daughters to be able to fight the
undead. It sounds as potentially appealing
as caramel-covered sauerkraut or a bikini
made of sandpaper. “Pride and Prejudice
and Zombies” is both a sweet and endearing
romance while also being a thoroughly
entertaining action movie. The director was
smart enough to stage the action scenes in
such a way that the movie got a PG-13 rating.
This will make it easier to persuade someone
who generally doesn’t like zombie movies to
take a chance on the film. And there’s enough
action to lure in those who normally wouldn’t
see a Jane Austen-inspired movie.
Crimes & rhymes
‘Cop Rock’ — ABC’s heavily panned 1990 series of
song, dance and police calls — gets new life on DVD
BY GREG BRAXTON
Los Angeles Times
B
Sony Pictures
Bella Heathcote, left, and Lily James star in
“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
“Race”: “Race” examines the athletic
accomplishments of Jesse Owens and the
turbulent social and political times in which
the events occurred, as suggested in the
double meaning of the movie’s title. Director
Stephen Hopkins shows more skill with the
sports elements than the behind-the-scenes
parts of the story. The battles within the U.S.
Olympic Committee are a little dry. They also
waste the talents of William Hurt, who as the
head of the committee has little to do other
than frown and wring his hands.
“Gods of Egypt”: Looks at the battle
between Set (Gerard Butler) and Horus
(Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) to be the king of
Egypt. Their battle is staged with such
clunky special effects, hackneyed dialogue
and amateurish acting that instead of being a
battle royal, it’s purely “Ra”-tten.
Also available on DVD:
“Triple 9”: Russian mob blackmails dirty
cops to execute a nearly impossible heist.
“12 Sci-Fi Cult Classics Collection”:
Includes “Metropolis,” “The Phantom Planet”
and “The Atomic Brain.”
“City of Women”: Marcello Mastroianni
stars in this film from Federico Fellini.
“Bob Hope: Entertaining the Troops”:
Features three Christmas specials hosted by
Bob Hope.
“The Last Panthers”: Diamond heist in the
south of France has the look of the supposedly
retired “Pink Panthers” gang.
“Ode to Joy: Beethoven’s Symphony No.
9”: Classic work is performed by the Vienna
Chamber Orchestra with the Westminster
Symphonic Choir.
“Imba Means Sing”: Documentary on the
African Children’s Choir world tour.
“The Terror”: Roger Corman 1963 thriller
that features one of Jack Nicholson’s earliest
film roles.
“Life of Verdi”: Look at the life of the Italian
composer.
“Suits: Season 5”: Gabriel Macht and
Patrick J. Adams star in the cable legal series.
— Rick Bentley/The Fresno Bee
efore the rise of Lucious and
Cookie’s “Empire,” the giddiness of “Glee” and the wackiness of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,”
there was “Cop Rock.”
The 1990 drama co-created by
veteran producer Steven Bochco (“Hill
Street Blues,” “NYPD Blue”), which
mashed gritty police drama with original musical numbers showcasing cops
and criminals singing and dancing,
was a precursor to several dramas and
comedies that have incorporated music
into their storylines.
But while critics and viewers have
mostly sung the praises of “Empire”
and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Cop Rock”
struck a sour note and is remembered
primarily as one of the most notorious
misfires of the past three decades.
The series was unceremoniously
yanked off the air by ABC after 11
episodes. TV Guide named it one of the
50 worst TV shows of all time. While
“Cop Rock,” which was produced by
20th Century Fox, did have its admirers, Bochco said several years ago that
he doubted it would ever be released
on home video: “Fox never shows much
interest in releasing it.”
However, “Cop Rock” is back on the
beat. The complete series has been
released in a DVD box set by Shout!
Factory, which specializes in quirky
fare and cult favorites.
“I’m delighted,” Bochco said in a recent phone interview. “It’s enormously
gratifying. I always felt it was one of the
highlights of my career, and I still do. It
was an enormously challenging project,
and everyone involved was committed
to it.”
Added Anne Bobby, who played Officer Vicky Quinn: “My initial feeling is
that this is really redemption for everyone involved. The show was very much
ahead of its time. With ‘Empire’ and
‘Glee,’ the medium has finally caught
up to the vision we had.”
Jordan Fields, vice president of
acquisitions for Shout! Factory, feels
that today’s viewers will be much more
receptive to “Cop Rock.” He compared
it to other offbeat titles in their catalog
such as “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” and
“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”
“Where those series are now cultural
treasures, ‘Cop Rock,’ which risked
just as much for its creative vision, was
almost universally derided,” Fields said
in a statement. “Still, anytime you do
something that outside the box, there
will always be fans who appreciate its
sheer audacity and feel almost protective of it. Naturally, we’re targeting
those people. But we believe that a new
generation much less unnerved by bold
TV will embrace it. Twenty-five years
later, people may finally be ready for
‘Cop Rock.’ ”
The show was set at an LAPD station, with plot lines revolving around
crime-fighting, corruption and the
personal lives of officers and suspects.
“Cop Rock” established its mission in
its premiere when officers bust into a
drug house and arrest several gang
members. In the middle of the scene, a
heavy beat is heard and the gang starts
into a rap, chanting, “In these streets,
we got the power!”
Four other musical numbers are
staged during the hour, including a gospel-flavored scene in a courtroom where
the jury proclaims, “He’s guilty!”
The premiere ended with a female
drug addict sitting on a bus bench singing a sweet lullaby to her sleeping baby
just before she sells the infant to get
money for drugs.
Randy Newman performed the title
song “Under the Gun,” joined in the
studio by the cast. Newman wrote all
of the songs for the premiere. For other
episodes, a staff of songwriters, including Amanda McBroom, who wrote the
hit Bette Midler movie ballad “The
Rose,” worked alongside the writing
staff, turning out five original songs
each week.
The concept for the show was
launched during the early ’80s when
Bochco was approached by a Broadway producer about adapting his hit
“Hill Street Blues” for a musical on the
Great White Way. Although he rejected
that approach, Bochco and co-creator
William M. Finkelstein started toying
with the idea of putting music into a cop
show. When Bochco got a deal at ABC
that allowed him to develop different
projects, “Cop Rock” moved to the top
of the list.
Unlike “Glee” or “Empire,” the
numbers on “Cop Rock” were not
pre-recorded — the cast performed
live, which made the production even
more difficult. Bobby recalled that
the cast, mostly made up of unknowns
and Broadway veterans, warmed to
the challenge. “It was a pretty magical experience,” Bobby said. “It was
beautifully cast with this mix of L.A.
and New York actors. And it was more
than the music. The show dealt with
homelessness, systemic racism, corruption. Steven and Bill were ahead of their
time not just with the music but with
the subject matter. It was an approach
that had never been done before.”
But what might have worked on the
theatrical stage landed with a thud on
the small screen.
Bochco said that although he is excited about the release, he’s not necessarily eager to walk down memory lane
and watch his former series.
“It’s done,” he said. “I don’t go back
to watch any of my shows. I’ve moved
on.”
Amazon
PAGE 40
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WEEKEND: HEALTH & FITNESS
How exercise and athletics can
create conflict in a relationship
BY WINA STURGEON
I
t’s not a common problem. It’s rarely
serious enough to break up a relationship, though it can add unwanted
tension. But it is serious enough to be
discussed if one partner is a radical sports
fan — or an excellent athlete — and the
other is not.
Take Denise and David, a couple who
knew each other for more than a year before
deciding to get married. David was passionate about golf, and a good golfer. Every
Saturday, he would meet up with three of his
friends and they would play a full 18 holes
and then socialize back at the clubhouse. He
also enjoyed watching the game played on
television. Many hours of his life were spent
playing, watching or getting coaching from
the club pro.
Denise was not at all enthusiastic about
golf. She had rarely been involved in the
game and was a poor player. She thought
David’s dedication to golf would change
after they got married. But the couple never
discussed this, and of course, issues can be
hard-pressed to change after commitment
unless they are negotiated before things start
getting serious. After some time had passed,
Denise began to burn with hidden resentment. If she tried to talk with David about
her feelings, he would respond by saying,
“You knew how much I loved golf before we
got engaged. Why does this bother you now?”
Denise began hiring a handyman to do a
householder’s normal Saturday chores. The
tension made their marriage less intimate,
their relationship less communicative.
That’s just one example of problems that
exist when a sport is an obsession with one
person but not with their committed other. It
can even happen with two platonic friends,
when one is good at a sport and the other is
always trailing in their wake. Talking about
how to accept the difference in their athletic
ability without rancor will help prevent the
breakup of the friendship over jealousy or
resentment.
There are no real rules about having these
kinds of discussions, because no two relationships are alike. But it helps to remember that
it’s extremely hard to describe the passion
that draws one person to a sport and to the
training required to be good at it.
ILLUSTRATION
BY
NOGA A MI - RAV/Stars and Stripes
In another instance, Julie was trying
to become a pro snowboarder, and her
live-in, Zac, didn’t understand how much
time and money that goal would take.
From training at the gym (where a membership had to be purchased) to traveling
to competitions, paying for transportation, lodging and meals, Julie’s goal was
expensive. She had never discussed this
with Zac before their relationship began,
thinking that he already knew. But
though he came to several of her contests
and also joined the gym, he soon grew
tired of a relationship that seemed to be
more about her sport than about him.
The two parted thereafter.
Again, this is not a common problem
or a common situation. But if you’re an
athlete or fan and your significant other is
not, a discussion about it is in order before
a serious commitment is made. Honestly
discuss the time and money that will be
needed for the sports-minded one to be
happy. If it’s not acceptable to one or the
other, discuss compromises that can be
made. But the most important thing is to
discuss the issue before any life changes
are made.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 41
WEEKEND: FAMILY
Words of, er, wisdom
for the class of 2016
I
JEAN L ACHAT, C HICAGO TRIBUNE /TNS
According to a recently published study, children’s peer relationships can influence their physical health.
The trouble with friends
Lack of social relationships might be harmful to kids’ health
BY VIKKI ORTIZ HEALY
Chicago Tribune
A
s the parent of a preschooler, I often see my daughter
facing social situations she
doesn’t know how to handle.
Whether it’s knowing who to play
with at school when her best friend is
absent, figuring out what to say when
a classmate mocks her letter-tracing
or confronting the kid on the playground who pushed her, my parenting approach has been to listen, offer
suggestions — but ultimately let her
handle her own interactions.
I figure that’s a whole lot more acknowledgment than what was offered
by my parents, who were great, but
hardworking immigrants who didn’t
trouble themselves with preschool
drama. It also seems like the right
way to balance my Mama Bear
instinct to protect with the importance of allowing my child to develop
important social skills for herself.
But recent research on the stress
caused by social relationships in children is causing me to re-evaluate.
According to a study recently
published in Social Neuroscience,
researchers at the University of
Missouri have found that children
and adolescents have physical reactions to the social networks they
perceive. And the quality and size
of the social relationships nurtured
in childhood may have an impact on
the physical and mental health of
children, the study says.
“Those children that are in a difficult social environment and are not
figuring out ways to navigate those
problems, that can be tough on them
and it certainly can have health
consequences,” said Mark Flinn,
director of the department of anthropology at the University of Missouri
and one of the study’s authors.
For the study, Flinn and his team
interviewed 40 children, ages 5 to
12 and living on a small island in
the Caribbean, about their social
networks. The children represented
80 percent of the children on the
‘Those children that
are in a difficult social
environment and are
not figuring out ways to
navigate those problems,
that can be tough on them
and it certainly can have
health consequences.
’
Mark Flinn
study co-author
island and were asked to talk about
their understanding of their friendships, as well as their friends’ networks, while researchers measured
the amount of cortisol and salivary
alpha-amylase — a hormone and
enzyme in the body secreted in response to outside pressure or tension.
Researchers found that children
who had bigger groups of friends
and more awareness of whom other
children considered friends showed
lower stress levels at the time
of the interview. Those who had
smaller groups of friends and less
awareness about peers’ friendships
measured higher amounts of stress,
either because their relationships
caused them stress, or the interview
itself was a stressor, Flinn said.
Stress leads to other problems,
Flinn added. After studying the
Caribbean village for almost three
decades, he said his team has
found evidence that people who go
through a heightened stressful event
are more than 2½ times more likely
to get a cold in the week following
that incident. They’re also susceptible to mental health issues such as
anxiety and depression, he said.
“You’re taking resources away
from your immune system, and
other means that your body has, to
focus on these stressful social situations,” he said.
Thankfully, just as I was starting
to feel like a completely insensitive
mom for not taking my daughter’s
preschool woes more seriously,
Flinn added that stress isn’t always
a bad thing. Just as your body
increases stress hormones to give
you the surge of energy needed to
run away from a tiger, stress can be
what is needed to get through life’s
complications.
“Physiological stress response is
an evolved system, and it’s designed
to help us cope with these everyday
ups and downs, focusing our attention on things that are important,”
Flinn said.
So how much should a parent intervene to ensure her child’s social
well-being?
Leandra Parris, assistant professor
of school psychology at Illinois State
University, who is both a researcher
and a school psychologist, said the
answer varies depending on a child’s
temperament, but she offered a few
universal guidelines to help.
Young children need concrete examples of what to do. In her work in
bullying prevention, Parris spends
a lot of time with preschool-aged
children practicing phrases that
help children express how they feel
from unpleasant social interactions.
Parents might try role-playing with
a child to walk him or her through
how to respond in uncomfortable
social settings, she said.
By the time a child gets to fourth
or fifth grade, stressful friendships
can be managed by helping young
people understand different levels
of friendship. At this stage, parents
and teachers can explain that quality is more important than quantity
in social networks, and that if a
couple of people are close friends
that can be trusted, the rest — who
might be causing stress — can remain on the periphery, Parris said.
And by high school, children
need the most support in understanding cyberbullying and social
media friendships. Parents must
work hard to be sure their children
understand online identities, friendships and safety, Parris said.
’m not so good with words.
I realize this as I sit here trying to write something inspiring in graduation cards. I have a nephew
and three nieces finishing college back in the Midwest. Around the family, they are often referred to as the
Quadruplets. Or the Quads, as if a singing group.
The Quads are the offspring of my baby sister, who had
her children in litters rather than one at a time like most
of us.
Like a puppy mill, my sister’s house. When the Quads
were young, you should’ve seen the Sierra of shoes at the
front door and socks just everywhere.
Now they’re about to graduate college. I thought I’d
send them each $100. Too generous? Too cheap? I don’t
even know anymore. More and more, their Uncle Chris
is just an old man with musty ideas. I
haven’t bought an album in 20 years. I
miss liner notes. I miss Paul Simon.
But a crisp $100 bill seems about
right. A hundred seems memorable. A
buck for each year of what I hope is a
good, long life.
I’ll add a heartfelt note insisting
they spend it on cold beer with friends
they may never see again. Their lives
will fill with obligation soon enough.
Before they know it, they will be old
Chris Erskine
people with musty ideas, stuffing
graduation money into cards for far-off places.
To make sure they receive them, I’ll probably mail the
cards to their mother, who is, of course, insane. You don’t
raise, all told, six children and come out unscathed. She
should be the main exhibit in the Motherhood Hall of
Fame.
On the card, I’ll urge the graduates to enjoy their
special time. As I said, I’m not much with words. Real
wisdom eludes me. I mean, what do you tell people about
to begin the rest of their lives?
So I’ll just tell them to have a little fun, wish them well,
urge them to Uber down the road less traveled.
I’ll give them a few tips I’ve picked up along the way.
Like, when there’s dog hair in the coffee filter, it’s probably time to clean the house.
Learn to surf, I’ll tell them: Fight your fears; do the
scary things that drag you underwater, then come up
gasping for air and better than before.
Do them ’til you laugh.
In general, laughter can cure a lot of stuff. It’s better
than booze or pills, and it won’t cost you your career or
turn your smile black.
I’ll urge the four grads — Johnny, Christa, Melissa
and KD — to never rent when they can buy, to never
ride when they can walk. And to never, ever be anyone’s
second choice.
On the job, don’t shun the struggle, I’ll say. The
struggle is good. The saddest people in the world seem to
have been born with everything. Embrace the struggle
and all it brings. If you strike it big, please don’t become
just another rich goober with a Tesla and a spray tan.
I’ll urge them to try to fill their lives with books, ideas,
music, friends — a mix is usually good.
But don’t live only in your heads. Run a 10K, work with
your hands, rake the leaves on a rainy day.
And be sure to grow a little something — legal, illegal,
I don’t care — just grow something good. God is in the
details and every little living thing. In this blingy world,
they might be surprised at the payoffs of the small, noble
life.
“Kids?” you ask. Yeah, you can grow them too.
Results vary. Side effects are common. Kids come in
many varieties: loud, pensive, robust, bony. In any case,
they will be the neediest and most ungrateful creatures
you’ll ever find, which is the reason many people now
swear by dogs.
But kids? If you have children, you’ll have everything.
To see them grow, to flourish, to graduate college, is
among the sweetest joys. The feeling you get from raising
children is something money could never buy. Which is
good, because you will no longer have any.
Yes, against the odds, I’d recommend having kids.
Maybe not four at once, like their mother did, but a
bunch. Children teach us humility, servitude and to give
our lives to something greater than ourselves.
Email Chris Erskine at [email protected], or follow him on
Twitter at @erskinetimes.
PAGE 42
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
WEEKEND: CROSSWORD AND COMICS
NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD
GUNSTON STREET
“Gunston Street” is drawn by Basil Zaviski. Email him at [email protected], or visit www.gunstonstreet.com.
RESULTS FOR ABOVE PUZZLE
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 43
FACES
A ‘Feeling’ summer
Spotify: Timberlake tune will be one of the season’s top songs
Associated Press
f Spotify’s predictions are
correct, Justin Timberlake’s
“Can’t Stop the Feeling” will
be a summer song you can’t
stop singing.
The streaming music service revealed its picks Thursday for the
songs likely to be unavoidable this
season, including Ariana Grande’s
“Into You” and “One Dance” by
Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla.
I
Spotify used analysis from staff
members and experts, along with
streaming data, performance on its
viral chart and social media buzz.
The list of 10 tracks likely to become hits over the next few months
includes top artists like Fifth Harmony, Jason Derulo and Calvin
Harris and upcoming acts like
Desiigner.
Country artist Keith Urban made
the list with his track “Wasted
Time.”
If Spotify’s predictions are correct, Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t
will be a summer song music listeners can’t avoid.
Stop the Feeling”
AP
Official says Prince died of opioid overdose
From wire reports
A law-enforcement official tells The Associated Press that tests show Prince died
of an opioid overdose.
The 57-year-old singer was found dead
April 21 at his Minneapolis-area estate.
The official, who is close to the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak to
the media.
The findings confirm suspicions that opioids played a role in the musician’s death.
After he died, a law enforcement official
told the AP that investigators were examining whether an overdose was to blame
and whether a doctor had prescribed him
drugs in the preceding weeks.
Prince’s death came less than a week
after his plane made an emergency stop
in Moline, Ill., for medical treatment as
he was returning from an Atlanta concert.
The official said Prince was found unconscious on the plane and that first responders gave him a shot of Narcan, an antidote
used in suspected opioid overdoses.
The superstar had a reputation for clean
living, and some friends said they never
saw any sign of drug use. But longtime
friend and collaborator Sheila E. has told
the AP that Prince had physical issues from
performing, citing hip and knee problems
that she said came from years of jumping
off risers and stage speakers in heels.
Craig coming to Showtime
with adaptation of ‘Purity’
Daniel Craig will be switching from the
world of Ian Fleming to Jonathan Franzen
with “Purity,” an adaptation of the bestselling novel that was picked up by Showtime on Wednesday.
Centered on the story of a smart but
aimless college graduate named Pip, the
novel “Purity” spans multiple decades and
locations in a work that takes on internet
culture and modern life. Craig, who will
also executive produce the series, will portray Andreas Wolf, a mysterious German
expat living in Bolivia who crosses paths
with Pip.
No other casting announcement has yet
been revealed. “Purity” will span 20 episodes over two years.
The “Purity” announcement will fuel
further speculation that Craig is ready to
move on from James Bond. Craig has yet to
say whether he will return for a fifth film,
but in an interview with TimeOut last year,
Craig said, “If I did another Bond movie,
it would only be for the money.” Director
Sam Mendes, who joined the Bond franchise in 2012 with “Skyfall,” announced in
May he was moving on to other projects.
“Purity” is to begin production in 2017.
A premiere date has not been set.
Reports: It’s over for
Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris
The pop-meets-electro-house mashup
that was the romance between Taylor
Swift and Calvin Harris is no more. Or so
it is reported. Plenty of fans don’t want to
believe it, though, and are praying for a denial from the couple.
Amidst the tears shed in Twitter posts,
however, there was hope that the split
would produce another album from Swift.
“At least,” tweeted one, “Taylor has some
new material now.”
Swift had recently given a gushing interview to Vogue about her relationship with
the DJ and Armani underwear model,
whose non-stage name is Adam Wiles.
“I’m in a magical relationship right
now,” she said to the magazine in April.
The couple began dating after an introduction by mutual friend and fellow musician
Ellie Goulding. Both Harris, 32, and Swift,
26, are “really tall” and “really awesome,”
Goulding told the Daily Mail. Goulding’s
prophecy that the pair would be “brilliant”
together, however, rang true for a mere 15
months.
Harris put the kibosh on the romance,
reported Us Weekly, though an unnamed
source said that Swift was “doing OK now.”
The breakup was described as “without
drama” by People and was not precipitated
by cheating.
Christian rock star
comes out as gay
Christian rock star Trey Pearson has
come out as gay in a magazine interview.
Pearson is the lead singer of Everyday Sunday. In a letter published online
by Ohio-based (614) Magazine, Pearson
writes that he has come to be able to admit
to himself and his family that he’s gay even
though he “never wanted to be.”
Commenting on the letter to the magazine, Pearson calls his announcement
“freeing,” but adds that he has lost some of
the closest people in his life. He says some
“church people” act like the worst people
he has ever experienced. He says he’s
starting over in many ways, “but it’s also
starting out lonely.”
Pearson also praises his wife for her
support. The couple has two children
together.
Other news
Presentations and performances from
the B-52s, Jennifer Hudson, Marcus Mumford and Sister Sledge will be featured at
the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction
and awards dinner in New York City on
June 9. This year’s inductees are Elvis
Costello, Marvin Gaye, Tom Petty, Nile
Rodgers, Bernard Edwards and Chip Taylor. Special award recipients include Lionel
Richie, Nick Jonas and Seymour Stein.
AP
A law-enforcement official says that tests
show music superstar Prince died in April
of an opioid overdose.
“Begin Again” director John Carney
has apologized for slamming actress Keira
Knightley in a recent interview in which he
negatively compared her to “a supermodel.”
Carney is the Irish filmmaker of the Oscarwinning “Once.” He posted a statement
Wednesday on Twitter from “a director
who feels like a complete idiot.” He calls his
comments on Knightley “mean and hurtful.” He says in trying to pick holes in his
work he “ended up blaming someone else.”
He says that’s “shoddy behavior.”
A year after he swore there’d be no
sequel to “The Cartel,” his acclaimed follow-up to “The Power of the Dog,” crime
writer Don Winslow tweeted Wednesday
he’s begun a third volume. His literary
agent, Shane Salerno, confirmed the news
to The Associated Press and said the book
currently has no title or release date.
A principal at the New Jersey high
school where rapper Fetty Wap recorded
a music video has been placed on leave,
NorthJersey.com reported.
The “Glee” actor charged with receiving and possessing child pornography has
been dropped from his latest project. The
writer-director of “Adi Shankar’s Gods and
Secrets” says actor Mark Salling is being
removed from the miniseries. Adi Shankar
decried the victimization of women and
children in a statement Tuesday announcing Salling’s dismissal.
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 44
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
OPINION
Max D. Lederer Jr., Publisher
Lt. Col. Michael C. Bailey, Europe commander
Lt. Col. Brian Choate, Pacific commander
Harry Eley, Europe Business Operations
Terry M. Wegner, Pacific Business Operations
The battle for Fallujah matters, yet again
BY TOBIN H ARSHAW
Bloomberg View
EDITORIAL
Terry Leonard, Editor
[email protected]
Robert H. Reid, Senior Managing Editor
[email protected]
Sam Amrhein, Managing Editor International
[email protected]
Tina Croley, Managing Editor for Content
[email protected]
Sean Moores, Managing Editor for Presentation
[email protected]
Joe Gromelski, Managing Editor for Digital
[email protected]
BUREAU STAFF
Europe/Mideast
Teddie Weyr, Europe & Mideast Bureau Chief
[email protected]
+49(0)631.3615.9310; cell +49(0)173.315.1881;
DSN (314)583.9310
Pacific
Paul Alexander, Pacific Bureau Chief
[email protected]
+81-3 6385.5377; cell (080)5883.1673
DSN (315)225.5377
Washington
Joseph Cacchioli, Washington Bureau Chief
[email protected]
(+1)(202)761.0908; DSN (312)763.0908
Brian Bowers, Assistant Managing Editor, News
[email protected]
Amanda Trypanis, Design Desk Supervisor
[email protected]
CIRCULATION
Mideast
Robert Reismann, [email protected]
+49(0)631.3615.9150; DSN (314)583.9150
Europe
Van Rowell, [email protected]
+49(0)631.3615.9111; DSN (314)583.9111
T
he bombers came in over the Iraqi
desert just before dawn, attacking
the road to Baghdad so as to avoid
civilian carnage in the city center
or damage to the vital bridge spanning the
Euphrates River. Later, the British crews
switched from munitions to leaflets in
Arabic, urging the small band of Iraqi rebels holding Fallujah to abandon their hopeless position. But no surrender came.
In all, the Royal Air Force dropped more
than 10 tons of munitions to support the
invasion by ground troops. A last ditch to
turn the fight by the German Luftwaffe
was brushed aside, and the garrison of 300
or so Iraqis surrendered. Not a single British life was lost.
Today, as Iraqi troops and their Iranian
and U.S. advisers gear up to take Fallujah
back from insurgents for the third time in
a dozen years, nobody expects things to go
as smoothly as they did on May 18-19, 1941.
While the Islamic State forces there today
are hardly more numerous than the Nazi
sympathizers of the Iraqi military were
75 years ago, they are far more devoted to
their cause. As at Ramadi and Tikrit over
the last 14 months, they can be expected
to rig deadly booby traps, take sniper positions on rooftops and give their lives in
suicide car attacks.
More than any other city or town, Fallujah has come to represent both the shortsightedness of the American invasion of
Iraq and the courage of U.S. troops in trying to salvage some kind of victory.
American forces first took the city
without incident in April 2003, which
was somewhat surprising considering its
residents were mostly Sunni Arabs like
the ousted dictator, Saddam Hussein. But
tensions rose over the next 11 months,
culminating in the fatal ambush by Iraqi
insurgents of four U.S. military contractors, whose burned bodies were paraded
around town before being hung on the Euphrates bridge.
It was that searing image of charred
corpses that, for many Americans, was
the tipoff that things were not going to get
better in Iraq for a very, very long time. It
was also the moment it became very clear
that we were no longer fighting old-regime
loyalists but an altogether new insurgency
among Iraqis opposed to the U.S. occupation of their country.
While U.S. reinforcements quelled the
uprising by the end of April, the Baghdad
government failed to restore order. Within
months, the insurgents regained the upper
hand in Fallujah, led in part by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, founder of the radical group
that would eventually become the Islamic
State.
So in late 2004, for a second time, U.S.
troops spearheaded an efficient effort to
cleanse the city of rebels. It was marked
by widespread destruction of homes, the
deaths of more than 50 Americans and
1,200 rebel fighters, and some of the best
journalism of the Iraq War — by Dexter
Filkins of The New York Times, Anthony
Shadid of The Washington Post, and Bing
West, a former assistant secretary of defense, among others.
And now we’ll watch history repeat itself. Again. In January 2014, the city fell
to Islamic State forces, who now hold about
50,000 civilians hostage. Last week, the
Iraqi military began pounding suspected
jihadi strongholds with artillery, urging
residents to flee or raise white flags over
their shelters. While the city is just 35 miles
from Baghdad, it is an isolated pocket of
Islamic State resistance and its strategic
importance in the current war is relatively
minor. This has led to some idiocy among
historically challenged commentators who
would have you believe that Fallujah is
simply “a symbol of the utter pointlessness
of U.S. efforts in Iraq.”
The upcoming battle is in fact hugely
meaningful — as a precursor to the looming effort to retake Mosul, the nation’s second-largest city and a hodgepodge of ethnic
and religious groups. So here are three
things to watch for: whether the performance and coordination of the Iraqi military has improved since the uneven effort
to retake Ramadi last December; whether
the Iranian-backed Shiite militias are allowed (or force their way) into the fighting
in the middle of the heavily Sunni city; and
whether the shaky Baghdad government
can establish a new civic administration
that can restore basic services and keep
sectarian tensions in check.
If we see the sorts of abuses of Sunni
civilians by Shiite militias that occurred
after the retaking of Tikrit last year, it will
be that much harder to persuade Mosul’s
residents that government forces are approaching in a spirit of liberation rather
than vengeance. And a botched Fallujah
operation could even be the end of Prime
Minister Haider al-Abadi, who remains the
best hope for a unified, multiethnic Iraq. In
this sense, it may be nearly as important as
the brief battle of 1941, which the military
historian Robert Lyman notes could have
cost the British their foothold in the Middle
East and the eastern Mediterranean.
The coming fight will also echo 2004.
Shadid, who died reporting from wartorn Syria in 2012, and Karl Vick wrote 12
years ago that the battle for Fallujah had
“less to do with battlefield success than
with a cause infused with righteousness
and sacrifice.” For the Islamic State zealots now rigging homemade bombs in the
city’s basements, that motivation remains
murderously powerful.
Tobin Harshaw writes editorials on national
security, military affairs and education.
Pacific
Mari Matsumoto, [email protected]
+81-3 6385.3171; DSN (315)229.3171
CONTACT US
Warren’s not running, but she could lead Dems
BY THOMAS STREETER
Washington
tel: (+1)202.761.0900; DSN (312)763.0900;
529 14th Street NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC
20045-1301
Reader letters
[email protected]
Additional contacts
stripes.com/contactus
OMBUDSMAN
Tobias Naegele
The Stars and Stripes ombudsman protects the free flow
of news and information, reporting any attempts by the
military or other authorities to undermine the newspaper’s
independence. The ombudsman also responds to concerns
and questions from readers, and monitors coverage
for fairness, accuracy, timeliness and balance. The
ombudsman welcomes comments from readers, and can
be contacted by email at [email protected], or
by phone at 202.761.0900.
Stars and Stripes (USPS 0417900) is published weekdays (except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1) for 50 cents Monday
through Thursday and for $1 on Friday by Pacific Stars and
Stripes, Unit 45002, APO AP 96338-5002. Periodicals
postage paid at San Francisco, CA, Postmaster: Send
address changes to Pacific Stars and Stripes, Unit 45002,
APO AP 96338-5002.
This newspaper is authorized by the Department of
Defense for members of the military services overseas.
However, the contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial,
and are not to be considered as the official views of, or
endorsed by, the U.S. government. As a DOD newspaper,
Stars and Stripes may be distributed through official channels and use appropriated funds for distribution to remote
locations where overseas DOD personnel are located.
The appearance of advertising in this publication does
not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense
or Stars and Stripes of the products or services advertised.
Products or services advertised shall be made available for
purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color,
religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, physical
handicap, political affiliation or any other nonmerit factor
of the purchaser, user or patron.
© Stars and Stripes 2016
stripes.com
Special to Tribune News Service
E
lizabeth Warren is, or at least
should be, the most important
person in the Democratic Party
right now. She is in a position to
forge a new identity for the party. She can
do this partly by example; her forceful,
plain speaking about banking regulation
and her Twitter skirmishes with Donald
Trump are models of how to effectively
address the topsy-turvy political environment. But more importantly, there will be
some major struggles for the heart and
soul of the Democratic Party this summer
in the lead-up to its convention. Warren
needs to be at the center of that definitional effort. Some of the struggles will be
friendly, some of them not. But in any case,
they will define how the Democrats present themselves to the country in contests
up and down the ballot this fall.
What the past year of wildly inaccurate
political predictions tells us is only that no
amount of insider wisdom, poll aggregation or savvy retelling of tales from past
elections will deliver us from uncertainty.
There are no safe bets. The most realistic,
fact-based position is the one that says we
have to move toward the general election
in a context of uncertainty where no clever
sound bites, triangulation or judicious targeting of narrow constituencies will save
us. Democrats have no choice but to unite
behind a bold political vision that gives voters a clear choice.
One thing we do know is that the most
left-wing member of the Senate in U.S. history has posed a very serious challenge to
Hillary Clinton, someone most Democrats
thought would be an easy shoo-in against
any candidate, much less against someone as improbable as Bernie Sanders.
And Sanders is not just a blip; he has accumulated more delegates and money than
a very long list of “serious” Democratic
primary candidates from the past, and he
does consistently well with independents
— those voters who centrist Democrats
have long assumed wanted more conservative policies, not less. On economic issues,
mainstream Dems have been operating far
to the right of most Democratic voters (and
given the rise of Trump, on issues like free
trade, taxation and financial industry regulation, perhaps to the right of most voters
overall). We’ll never know, but it’s hard not
to think that if Warren had run, the primary would be over by now and she’d be well
on her way to being our next president.
Why can’t Clinton and Sanders just sit
down and work out a Democratic Party
platform adjusted for these new realities?
We can hope, but Sanders has spent decades winning election after election by
ignoring condescending derision from the
press and the Democratic Beltway establishment, and in the process has developed a skin as thick as a rhino’s; he’s not
going to be quick to warm to Democratic
Party operatives telling him he needs to
change his tone. And Clinton, for her part,
is surrounded by advisers who have based
their careers on forms of strategic thinking — pivoting toward an imagined center,
meager incrementalism, cautious social
liberalism combined with economic conservatism — that are politically enervat-
ing, if not broken.
To take on Trump and to gain seats down
ballot, a newly energized Democratic
Party needs to embrace a series of political
commitments that draw a sharp line distinguishing the current party from its past.
To connect with voters, the policies need
to be bold. They should also be practical,
but based on a greatly enlarged sense of
what constitutes the practical: If Denmark
can do it, why can’t we? One of the lessons
of Sanders’ campaign (not to mention the
campaigns of some Republican stalwarts
like Ronald Reagan) is that you get respect and votes for taking clear principled
stands, whether or not they are popular.
Joe Biden embraced the new reality when
he said, “I don’t think any Democrat’s ever
won saying, ‘We can’t think that big — we
ought to really downsize here because it’s
not realistic.’ ”
Warren is ideally positioned as a bridge
builder. She has already been out ahead of
Sanders in fundraising for other progressive candidates, her populist economic policies track closely with his, and yet she has
always been committed to the Democratic
Party. She has endorsed neither candidate,
which puts her in a position to address both
sides as an honest broker. She is fantastically skilled at addressing policy complexities with incisively plain language.
Tactically and politically, Warren represents the new epicenter of the Democratic
electorate, and her clear-eyed economic
populism reaches across party lines. Listen to her. Let her lead.
Thomas Streeter is a professor of sociology at the
University of Vermont.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 45
OPINION
What newspapers
are saying at home
The following editorial excerpts are selected from a cross section of newspapers
throughout the United States. The editorials are provided by The Associated Press
and other stateside syndicates.
Shrugs for campus shooting?
Los Angeles Times
The call came from the UCLA campus
just before 10 a.m. — someone had opened
fire with a gun. “Active shooter,” and the
warning went out for those on campus to
shelter in place. Where was it? The Engineering 4 building.
Police arrived in waves, along with firefighters and other emergency responders.
The Los Angeles Police Department went
on citywide tactical alert, the better to
marshal resources, as television showed
students being escorted to safety, hands on
their heads, by officers in tactical gear.
And then the wait. What had happened?
Was there still someone with a gun? Was
it still dangerous? Was this going to be another horrific scene of violence, like that at
Umpqua Community College in Oregon in
October?
But there were no more bullets. No confirmed sightings of a man with a gun still
at his deadly work. Something less dramatic, apparently, had occurred, something
smaller in scope than the mass shootings
we’ve become accustomed to.
The massive police and emergency response proved unnecessary, but there was
no way the LAPD could have known that
when the panicked call came in. And this
is where we are — the anticipation that a
shooting on a college campus was going to
turn out to be a mass tragedy, and that a
major city’s law enforcement response is
geared up for that eventuality.
In this case, it was only two dead.
Murder-suicide in a small office. And so
America shrugs. Just another incident in
the daily parade of gun violence. … And
so two families, and two circles of friends,
and a community of students and faculty
are left to their grief, and their confusion,
and maybe a touch more fear than usual at
the recognition that violence can and will
strike so close to home.
Ultimately, we should be glad this was
a tragedy for fewer people than feared
when the phrase “campus shooting” first
popped up on screens. But that society
will just shrug this off is tragic in its own
way. That the nation accepts gun violence
as commonplace, as a reasonable trade-off
for some romanticized view of every gun
owner as a soldier against tyranny, is the
continuing tragedy.
And so the deaths will mount.
Trump lacks style, substance
The New York Times
Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy
presents decent people everywhere with a
dilemma: Sprayed with an open fire hose
of schoolyard insults, locker-room vulgarities and bizarre policy pitches by the presumptive Republican nominee, they must
make hard choices. Is this latest comment
so outrageous, so much worse than all the
others, as to require its own response?
Speak up too often and you risk sounding like a car alarm, so urgent and yet so
familiar that residents no longer hear it.
But don’t speak up often enough and you
risk turning the unacceptable into the
unremarkable.
At a rally in San Diego, Trump again
steered his pirate ship into uncharted waters, firing off personal and racially tinged
attacks against a federal judge hearing a
case in which Trump is the defendant.
The judge, Gonzalo Curiel of the Federal
District Court in San Diego, is presiding
over a class-action lawsuit that accuses
Trump University of defrauding and mis-
leading customers who spent $1,500 for
three-day seminars that promised to teach
Trump’s secrets of success in real estate.
Shortly after Trump’s rally, Curiel ordered
the unsealing of about 1,000 pages of the
company’s internal documents. The release, which came in response to a request
by The Washington Post, was standard
procedure for a civil suit.
But Trump doesn’t do standard procedure. In a rambling, 11-minute stream of
vitriol, Trump, who has attacked Curiel before, called him “very hostile” and a “hater
of Donald Trump,” and said he “should be
ashamed of himself. I think it’s a disgrace
that he’s doing this.”
One would think Trump, whose sister
is a federal appellate judge, would know
how self-destructive it is for any litigant
anywhere to attack the judge hearing his
or her case. But Trump is not any litigant;
he is running to be president of the United States — a job that requires at least a
glancing understanding of the American
system of government, in particular a respect for the separation of powers. When
Trump complains that he is “getting railroaded” by a “rigged” legal system, he is
saying in effect that an entire branch of
government is corrupt. The special danger
of comments like these — however off the
cuff they may sound — is that they embolden Trump’s many followers to feel, and act,
the same way. …
Trump has said so many irresponsible or dangerous things so often and in
so many settings that there is a real risk
that many voters will simply tune out and
his campaign will somehow be normalized. So it is particularly important to note
when Trump’s statements go beyond the
merely provocative or absurd and instead
represent a threat to America’s carefully
balanced political system. This is such a
moment. It is not too late for Republicans
who revere that system to question how
they can embrace a nominee who has so
little regard for it.
Dedicate funds to fight Zika
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Congressional dithering on combating
the Zika virus not only leaves Americans at
risk, it’s also undermining emergency preparedness across the nation. Lawmakers
shouldn’t need another reason to adequately fund the fight against this mosquitoborne disease, but it certainly heightens
the urgency for them to act swiftly.
The federal government provides much
of the funding relied on by state and local
public health agencies to prepare for
epidemics and other disasters. But the
monthslong fight in Congress over the
amount of Zika funding has left federal
health officials scrambling to come up with
the dollars needed to understand Zika’s
unnerving spread and why it can cause a
potentially devastating birth defect.
With funding still not forthcoming from
Congress, money intended for efforts such
as state and local emergency preparedness are now being redirected to the Zika
response, according to Minnesota Health
Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger. So far,
roughly $744,000 intended for emergency
preparedness in Minnesota has gone to
the Zika fight. That has affected the state’s
ability to replenish an expiring stockpile of
medications, update equipment and hold
training exercises.
Reprioritizing these funds is certainly
understandable, especially when infants
are at risk and warmer weather’s arrival
elevates the risk of mosquito transmission
in the U.S., generally in southern areas.
Nevertheless, it is ridiculous that funds
for one important public health mission
are being siphoned off for another. This is
a wealthy nation fully capable of funding
both needs.
‘Over the line’ on IRS chief
The Des Moines (Iowa) Register
The aphorism known as Hanlon’s razor
dictates that one should never attribute to
malice that which is adequately explained
by stupidity.
Where some people see evil intent and
conspiracies behind every misdeed, the
more likely explanation is good old-fashioned incompetence. That’s particularly
true in Washington, where, despite the
political machinations that seem to drive
every decision, bureaucratic bungling is
responsible for most of the federal government’s sins.
Even so, some Republican leaders in the
House believe IRS Commissioner John
Koskinen has engaged in a long-running
effort to deceive Congress and the public.
As they see it, Koskinen should be impeached for his response to claims that the
agency targeted conservative organizations that sought tax-exempt status. Rep.
Jason Chaffetz of Utah, chairman of the
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is leading the charge for
impeachment, but he has had only limited
success so far. Democrats are universally
opposed to impeachment, which is no surprise, but so, too, are many Republicans.
It’s easy to see why. Chaffetz has accused Koskinen of failing to provide congressional investigators with subpoenaed
evidence; not testifying truthfully about
the destruction of IRS emails; and failing
to promptly inform Congress that emails
considered important to its investigation
were missing.
Koskinen’s response to these allegations
are reasonable and supported by the evidence. For example, he attributes the 90day delay in telling Congress about the
destroyed emails to the delay in determining just how much data had actually been
lost. He also says he assured Congress that
IRS emails had been preserved — a claim
that turned out to be untrue only because
he wasn’t aware at the time they had been
destroyed. Koskinen’s explanation is supported by the findings of the IRS inspector
general. …
It’s also important to remember that
Koskinen didn’t begin running the agency
until December 2013, which was more
than three years after it was disclosed that
the IRS had been scrutinizing the rapidly growing number of organizations that
were purely political in nature but were
seeking tax-exempt status as “social welfare” groups.
As it turned out, the IRS was, indeed,
subjecting conservative and tea party organizations to closer scrutiny, but only
as part of the larger effort to examine all
partisan political campaign organizations
that were seeking tax-exempt status. To
quickly identify potential violators, the
agency had singled out nonprofits that had
the words “tea party” or “patriots” in their
names. Only a quarter of the organizations
flagged for closer scrutiny were tea partyrelated, but even so, the practice was seriously flawed and resulted in an apology
from the IRS.
The Justice Department investigated the
matter for two years and ultimately concluded that there was no evidence that IRS
officials had acted out of political bias. …
Given all of that, the effort to impeach
Koskinen appears to be a face-saving move
by Chaffetz to justify his fruitless, six-year
campaign to demonize the IRS for political
bias. Even Fred Goldberg, who served as
IRS commissioner under President George
H.W. Bush, says Chaffetz’s allegations are
“preposterous” and calls the impeachment
effort “way over the line.”
When it comes to abuse of power, Chaffetz
has more to answer for than Koskinen.
Pressing on in Azerbaijan
The Washington Post
After spending 537 days in jail, persecuted unjustly in Azerbaijan for exposing
corruption in the family of its president,
journalist Khadija Ismayilova stepped into
the sunshine and made an astonishing declaration. “I’m going to continue my investigations,” she said. “I’m so eager to start
working on the Panama Papers. It’s the job
I like.”
In so doing, Ismayilova reaffirms the resilience and power of liberty. Authoritarian
rulers can deny their people freedom, but
they never really take it away. Television
and radio stations can go silent, newspapers
can be shuttered, the internet switched off,
journalists imprisoned and fear loosed on
the streets, but what can’t be extinguished
is the courage and determination of one individual. Ismayilova is a beacon of hope to
all who share this conviction.
After her release, Ismayilova said that
the Azerbaijani government had clearly
hoped to frighten reporters and others
from investigating high-level corruption
and cronyism, but “this didn’t happen.”
Instead of fewer reports, there were more.
The Panama Papers, a trove of thousands
of documents on hidden financial dealings
revealed by a coalition of journalists and
activists, confirmed the truth of her earlier
published account of offshore companies
used by the family of President Ilham Aliyev to hold their interest in a gold mine.
From the start, Ismayilova understood
the stakes and never wavered. “I am a
journalist and my only ‘crime’ was to investigate high-level corruption within the
government and family of Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev,” she wrote to us in March,
after Aliyev released some other political
prisoners but not her. “I am free even now,
in jail, and my freedom is not for sale.” …
Why Aliyev is releasing some prisoners
now is not clear, but international pressure
may have played a role. Ismayilova observed correctly that such pressure is most
effective when brought to bear in the light
of day. Tyrants don’t like sunshine. “The
fight for human rights must be open and
transparent,” she said. “We should not talk
about it behind closed doors.”
PAGE 46
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 47
PAGE 48
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
•STA
Attorneys
178
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
Transportation
Dental
Dental
R S
PAGE 49
944
902
Financial Services
904
Transportation
944
902
PAGE 50
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
•STA
Announcements
040
Automotive
140
Automotive
140
Autos for Sale
- Germany
R S
A N D
142
Auto - Quality Pre-owned
US SPEC Vehicles
www.vilseckautosales.com
Free Europe-wide delivery
Chevy, Aveo 1.4LT, 2008
$1500.00 German Specs, 4door, Manual Transmission,
Gasoline Super , AC, Electric
Windows, CD Radio with aux. A
set of Summer and Winter tires
with rims, Car Alarm, Serviced
regularly. USAREUR registration good until August 2016.
Must go quickly and price is
negotiable. Selling only to US ID
Card holder! Call or leave a
message at 015751706923,
[email protected]
Announcements
040
Let's Celebrate
Announce the birth of a child,
marriage, or perhaps an
anniversary in Stars and Stripes!
Porshe, 911 Turbo, 2002
$50000.00 Condition is everything, Navi, bilstein, Garret
turbos, very very fast, only US
Spec Turbo in USAEUR system
−0170 3307344 −
[email protected]
Call us: +49 (0)631 351 3612
no voice mail
Autos for Sale
- Japan
146
Toyota, Vitz, 1999 $700.00
4DR Hatchback Auto-trans Color: Pink AM/FM radio w/ CD-MD
player JCI ~ 6 AUG 2017 Car is
clean inside and out. Very
dependable and great on gas!
Avail on MAY 24th. Please call
0 8 0 - 5 5 3 2 - 8 4 3 6
+81-80855328436
Autos for Sale
- Korea
148
Cadillac, Escalade Hybrid,
2009 $29500.00 In Excellent
Condition, No accidents or repair of any kind. All service is
done at Cadillac dealership.
email:
[email protected]
cell:
010-9522-0211
0 1 0 - 9 5 2 2 - 0 2 1 1
[email protected]
Honda,
Element,
2011
$17000.00 $5,000 below BB.
EX-L model (4wd), never
wrecked,
garage
kept.
01051522578
john.p.smith.civ
@mail.mil
Autos for Sale
- Korea
148
HONDA CIVIC LX COUPE 2006
(SOFA) $5800.00 Re-posting to
sell Honda Civic 06 LX Coupe.
From the first post many potential buyers preferred require
maintenance to be completed
prior to buying the vehicle. I
decided to complete all require
maintenance's assessed from
the Auto Shop prior to selling
the vehicle. Some maintenance's are already completed and
others are waiting on parts to be
delivered. I am the first and only
owner and it is SOFA registered
and U.S. SPEC vehicle. Like
mentioned, all require maintenance's will be completed prior
to selling and adjusted the price
of the vehicle to a fair amount of
$5800 USD. Require Maintenance assessed by Auto Shop:
Wheels and Tires ( Done: brand
new 17inch alloy rims with
Hangook Tires replaced on
14.MAY.2016)
Alternator
(
Done: replaced by SAMs Garage) Drive Belt (Pending: part
ordered and will be completed
by SAMs) Front L/R Brake
Caliper & Brake Pad ( Pending:
part ordered and will be completed by SAMs) Rear L/R Brake
Drum & Brake Shoe ( Pending:
part ordered and will be completed by SAMs) Rear L/R Wheel
Cylinder (Pending: part ordered
and will be completed by SAMs)
The vehicle has been well taken
care of and have no issues, all
maintenance\'s are routine replacements that are required as
vehicle ages. If you have any
questions and/or interested in
the vehicle, please text or call
anytime!
010-5780-0887
010-5780-0887
Furniture
510
Coffee Table $600.00 Finely
crafted just a touch elegant,
made
by
Bob
timberlake
60x60x35 has three drawers.
Excellent
condition.
010-4772-3484 kimchi_vicki@h
otmail.com 010-4772-3483/722
-0556 [email protected]
m
sofa $850.00 Living room sofa
made out of leather in vintage
style.
Excellent
condition.
010-4772-3483 kimchi_vicki@h
otmail.com 010-4772-3483/722
-0556 [email protected]
m
Homes/Apts
for Rent - US
Homes/Apts
for Rent - US
Jobs Offered
630
GOOVER ENGLISH SCHOOL
3500YEN/HOUR LOOK FOR
TEACHERS We look for experienced Native English teachers
without strong accent. Who lives
in US Military bases in
Japan/Kanto. Web site provides
more information. APPLY NOW!
http://www.goover.co.jp/english/
042-727-8508
866
Beachfront 2Bed/2Bath Townhouse for Rent $2450.00 Centrally located in Tamuning, this
beautiful 2 Bedroom/2 Bathroom
townhome is located at Alupang
Cove Condominiums. Walk from
your patio right to the beach!
$2450/mo. Includes security,
swimming pool, gym, washer/dryer, central A/C, and lawn
maintenance. No real estate
agents involved please. For rent
by owner. Please call Rachel at
687-3808
or
Joseph
at
489-1951. (671) 489-1951
866
2 Bedroom/ 2 Bathroom Apartment for Rent 2 Bedroom/ 2
Bathroom Apartment for Rent in
Apusento Gardens. Conveniently located in Chalon-Pago. Unit
is located on the first floor with
private entrace to your unit.
Security, swimming pool, laudrymat and convenience store
located on site. Unit has stacked
washer/dryer, central A/C and
open floor plan. Rent based off
of OHA. Please contact Joseph
at 489-1951. (671) 489-1951
ST
R I P E S
Autos for Sale
- Germany
•
F3HIJKLM
142
Honda Accord (Executive)
2009
German spec.
4 door sedan
Automatic
201 PS
114,000 Kms (all Autobahn)
Black with black leather interior
Fully Loaded ( no GPS )
Summer & winter tires with rims
All services done, 1st hand
Asking $12,200
[email protected]
Toyota, RAV 4 Limited, 2006
$7500.00 passed inspection last
week, price negotiable, Automatic, great, dependable SUV!
Well maintained, regular oil
changes, etc.2.4L 4-cyl. 4-speed
Automatic,
cruise
control.
driver-side power seat, all-wheel
drive, 147k miles 011-49-711-1
7699339341
Volkswagen,
GTI,
2013
$20000.00, 2 door, fully loaded,
sunroof, heated seats, leather
interior, Clarion Navigation &
sound system, shift panels, 6
speed tiptronic xmsn, summer &
winter tires & rims. US specs.
Steel
grey,
beautiful
car.
015202668023
[email protected]
Autos for Sale
- Italy
144
Jeep, Grand Cherokee, 2010,
67,000 miles, 2WD, 5 speed
auto, V6, 3.7 Ltr, stability
control, ABS, front and side
airbags, keyless entry, AC,
Cruise control, power windows,
power lock doors, power driver
seat, power steering and tilt
wheel, privacy glass, AM FM,
CD single, Sirius. Price:$ 12,000
If you're interested, please call
00 39 335 121 4322 634-8786
[email protected]
Insurance
590
Did you receive an ordinary
termination of your auto
insurance? Then contact:
[email protected]
Tel 06371/2816
Or Eddy Vereecke at Belgium
Support Unit Building 308 (next
to NATO-HQ) Every Wednesday
from 10:00 – 13:00 hrs.
Obituaries
750
Passing of a loved one?
You can place an Obituary in
Stars and Stripes. Call us at:
+49 (0)631 3615 9012
no voice mail
PAGE 51
House Unfurnished 878
House in Hohenecken
151 m2 Lot size 500 m2,
Bathroom, good neighborhood 3
Garages, chimney, wooden
flour. Rent 1450 euros with
option to buy 347 000 Euro
[email protected]
PAGE 52
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 53
SCOREBOARD
College baseball
Sports
on AFN
Go to the American Forces
Network website for the most
up-to-date TV schedules.
myafn.net
Pro soccer
MLS
EASTERN CONFERENCE
W L T Pts GF GA
Philadelphia
6 3 5 23 21 16
New York
6 7 1 19 24 20
Montreal
5 4 4 19 22 20
New York City FC 4 4 6 18 20 26
Toronto FC
4 5 4 16 14 15
D.C. United
4 6 4 16 14 16
Orlando City
3 3 7 16 23 21
New England
3 4 7 16 19 25
Columbus
3 5 5 14 18 21
Chicago
2 5 5 11 10 14
WESTERN CONFERENCE
W L T Pts GF GA
Colorado
8 2 4 28 17 10
FC Dallas
8 4 3 27 23 21
Vancouver
6 6 3 21 23 25
Real Salt Lake
6 4 2 20 20 19
Los Angeles
5 2 5 20 27 16
San Jose
5 4 5 20 16 16
Portland
5 6 4 19 23 25
Sporting KC
5 8 2 17 14 18
Seattle
5 7 1 16 13 15
Houston
3 7 3 12 19 21
Note: Three points for victory, one
point for tie.
Wednesday’s games
Philadelphia 3, Columbus 2
Seattle 2, D.C. United 0
Portland 1, San Jose 0
Thursday’s games
Real Salt Lake at New York City FC
Houston at FC Dallas
Sporting Kansas City at Los Angeles
Wednesday
Union 3, Crew 2
Columbus
1 1—2
Philadelphia
1 2—3
First half—1, Columbus, Ola Kamara
4 (Ethan Finlay), 14th minute; 2, Philadelphia, Chris Pontius 5 (Sebastian Le
Toux), 21st.
Second half—3, Philadelphia, Vincent
Nogueira 8 (Chris Pontius,), 4, Philadelphia, Fabian Herbers 1 (Ilsinho), 5,
Philadelphia, Cristian Martinez 1 (Ethan
Finlay).
Goalies—Columbus Crew, Steve Clark;
Philadelphia Union, Matthew Jones.
Yellow Cards—Ken Tribbett, Philadelphia, 32nd; Ethan Finlay, Columbus, 43rd;
Sebastien Le Toux, Philadelphia, 64th;
Vincent Nogueira, Columbus, 57th.
Red Cards—Conor Casey, Columbus,
77th.
A—15,543 (18,500)
Sounders 2, United 0
Seattle
0 2—2
D.C. United
0 0—0
Second half—1, Seattle, Jordan Morris
5, 79th minute; 2, Seattle, Joevin Jones 1
(Osvaldo Alonso), 83rd.
Goalies—Seattle, Stefan Frei; DC United, Bill Hamid.
Yellow Cards—Adreas Ivanschitz, Seattle, 38th; Aaron Kovar, Seattle, 64th;
Fabian Espindola, 73rd.
A—15,174 (20,000)
Timbers 1, Earthquakes 0
San Jose
0 0—0
Portland
1 0—1
First half—1, Portland, Liam Ridgewell
1 (Diego Valeri), 11th minute.
Goalies—San Jose, David Bingham;
Portland, Jake Gleeson.
Yellow Cards—Matheus Silva, San
Jose, 17th; Jordan Stewart, San Jose,
61st; Chad Barrett, San Jose, 78th; Matias Perez Garcia, 93rd.
Red Cards—Dairon Asprilla, Portland,
45+2.
Double Elimination
At Davenport Field
Charlottesville, Va.
Friday
Game 1 — William & Mary (29-29) at
Virginia (37-20)
Game 2 — East Carolina (34-21) vs.
Bryant (47-10)
Saturday
Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2
loser
Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2
winner
At Doak Field at Dail Park
Raleigh, N.C.
Friday
Game 1 — Saint Mary’s (33-23) vs.
Coastal Carolina (44-15)
Game 2 — Navy (42-14) at N.C. State
(35-20)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Carolina Stadium
Columbia, S.C.
Friday
Game 1 — Duke (33-22) vs. UNC Wilmington (39-17)
Game 2 — Rhode Island (30-25) at
South Carolina (42-15)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Doug Kingsmore Stadium
Clemson, S.C.
Friday
Game 1 — Nebraska (37-20) vs. Oklahoma State (36-20)
Game 2 — Western Carolina (30-29) at
Clemson (42-18)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Dick Howser Stadium
Tallahassee, Fla.
Friday
Game 1 — South Alabama (40-20) vs.
Southern Miss. (40-18)
Game 2 — Alabama State (38-15) at
Florida State (37-20)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Alfred A. McKethan Stadium
Gainesville, Fla.
Friday
Game 1 — UConn (37-23) vs. Georgia
Tech (36-23)
Game 2 — Bethune-Cookman (29-25)
at Florida (47-13)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light
Field
Coral Gables, Fla.
Friday
Game 1 — Long Beach State (36-20) vs.
FAU (38-17)
Game 2 — Stetson (29-29) at Miami
(45-11)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Jim Patterson Stadium
Louisville, Ky.
Friday
Game 1 — Wright State (44-15) vs.
Ohio State (43-18)
Game 2 — Western Michigan (22-32) at
Louisville (47-12)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Hawkins Field
Nashville, Tenn.
Friday
Game 1 — Washington (32-21) vs. UC
Santa Barbara (37-18)
GA
5
5
4
6
8
7
11
7
6
11
one
Game 2 — Xavier (30-28) at Vanderbilt
(43-17)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Dudy Noble Field
Starkville, Miss.
Friday
Game 1 — Louisiana Tech (40-18) vs.
Cal State Fullerton (35-16)
Game 2 — Southeast Missouri State
(39-19) at Mississippi State (41-16)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Swayze Field
Oxford, Miss.
Friday
Game 1 — Boston College (31-20) vs.
Tulane (39-19)
Game 2 — Utah (25-27) at Mississippi
(43-17)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Alex Box Stadium
Baton Rouge, La.
Friday
Game 1 — Utah Valley (37-21) at LSU
(42-18)
Game 2 — Southeastern Louisiana (3919) vs. Rice (35-22)
Saturday
loser
winner
At M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field
Lafayette, La.
Friday
Game 1 — Arizona (38-20) vs. Sam
Houston State (41-20)
Game 2 — Princeton (24-19) at Louisiana-Lafayette (41-19)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Charlie and Marie Lupton Baseball
Stadium
Fort Worth, Texas
Friday
Game 1 — Gonzaga (35-19) vs. Arizona
State (34-21)
Game 2 — Oral Roberts (38-19) at TCU
(42-15)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Blue Bell Park
College Station, Texas
Friday
Game 1 — Minnesota (34-20) vs. Wake
Forest (34-25)
Game 2 — Binghamton (30-23) at Texas A&M (45-14)
Saturday
loser
winner
At Don Law Field at Rip Griffin Park
Lubbock, Texas
Friday
Game 1 — Fairfield (32-24) at Texas
Tech (41-16)
Game 2 — New Mexico (38-21) vs. Dallas Baptist (41-17)
Saturday
loser
winner
Wednesday’s scores
TOURNAMENTS
NAIA
Faulkner 4, Tenn. Wesleyan 3, 11 innings, Tenn. Wesleyan eliminated
Bellevue 8, Lewis-Clark St. 5
NCAA Division II
Cal Poly Pomona 3, Cent. Missouri 0,
UCMO eliminated
Lander 4, S. Indiana 2, USI eliminated
Golf
NCAA men’s championship
NWSL
W L T Pts GF
Chicago
4 1 2 14
7
Washington
4 1 1 13
8
Portland
3 0 4 13
9
Orlando
4 3 0 12
8
Western New York 4 3 0 12 12
Seattle
2 3 2
8
7
Sky Blue FC
2 3 2
8
8
Houston
2 3 1
7
6
FC Kansas City
1 4 2
5
4
Boston
1 6 0
3
1
Note: Three points for victory,
point for tie.
Friday, May 27
Western New York 4, Boston 0
Washington at Houston, ppd.
Saturday, May 28
FC Kansas City 2, Orlando 0
Sunday, May 29
Seattle 0, Portland 0, tie
Sky Blue FC 1, Chicago 1, tie
Friday, June 10
Washington at Boston
Saturday, June 11
Orlando at Western New York
FC Kansas City at Sky Blue FC
Sunday, June 12
Portland at Chicago
Houston at Seattle
College softball
NCAA Division I Tournament
Wednesday
At Eugene Country Club
Eugene, Ore.
Yardage: 7,014; Par: 72
Championship
Oregon 3, Texas 2
Edwin Yi, Oregon, def. Gavin Hall, Texas, 4 and 3.
Scottie Scheffler, Texas, def. Aaron
Wise, Oregon, 4 and 3.
Zach Foushee, Oregon, def. Beau
Hossler, Texas, injury default.
Sulman Raza, Oregon, def. Taylor
Funk, Texas, 21 holes.
Doug Ghim, Texas, def. Thomas Lim,
Oregon, 2 and 1.
World rankings
Through May 29
1. Jason Day
2. Jordan Spieth
3. Rory McIlroy
4. Bubba Watson
5. Rickie Fowler
6. Henrik Stenson
7. Adam Scott
8. Dustin Johnson
9. Danny Willett
AUS
USA
NIR
USA
USA
SWE
AUS
USA
ENG
13.40
11.60
9.66
7.77
7.42
7.10
6.85
6.61
6.55
10. Justin Rose
11. Branden Grace
12. Patrick Reed
13. Sergio Garcia
14. Louis Oosthuizen
15. Hideki Matsuyama
16. Brooks Koepka
17. Brandt Snedeker
18. Matt Kuchar
19. Phil Mickelson
20. Zach Johnson
21. J.B. Holmes
22. Chris Wood
23. Charl Schwartzel
24. Kevin Kisner
25. Russell Knox
26. Paul Casey
27. Byeong-Hun An
28. Rafa Cabrera Bello
29. Jim Furyk
30. Justin Thomas
31. Bill Haas
32. Kevin Na
33. Jimmy Walker
34. Charley Hoffman
35. Lee Westwood
36. Kevin Chappell
37. K.T. Kim
38. Andy Sullivan
39. Marc Leishman
40. Shane Lowry
ENG
SAF
USA
ESP
SAF
JPN
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
ENG
SAF
USA
SCO
ENG
KOR
ESP
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
ENG
USA
KOR
ENG
AUS
IRL
5.91
5.19
5.07
5.00
4.76
4.60
4.18
3.99
3.91
3.88
3.83
3.65
3.61
3.59
3.50
3.48
3.47
3.32
3.19
3.12
3.07
3.05
3.05
3.00
3.00
2.94
2.93
2.93
2.87
2.84
2.83
Deals
World Series
Wednesday’s transactions
At ASA Hall of Fame Stadium
Oklahoma City
Double Elimination; x-if necessary
Thursday, June 2
Game 1 — Florida State (53-8) vs.
Georgia (45-18)
Game 2 — Auburn (54-10) vs. UCLA
(40-14-1)
Game 3 — Alabama (51-12) vs. Oklahoma (52-7)
Game 4 — Michigan (51-5) vs. LSU (5016)
Friday, June 3
winner
winner
Saturday, June 4
loser
loser
winner
winner
Sunday, June 5
Game 11 — Game 5 winner vs. Game
9 winner
Game 12 — Game 6 winner vs. Game
10 winner
x-Game 13 — Game 5 winner vs. Game
9 loser
x-Game 14 — Game 6 winner vs. Game
10 loser
Championship Series
(Best-of-three)
Monday, June 6: Teams TBD
Tuesday, June 7: Teams TBD
x-Wednesday, June 8: Teams TBD
BASEBALL
COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE — Suspended Cleveland OF Marlon Byrd 162 games
after a positive test for a performanceenhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
American League
BALTIMORE ORIOLES — Optioned LHP
Ashur Tolliver to Norfolk (IL). Recalled
LHP T.J. McFarland from Norfolk.
CLEVELAND INDIANS — Placed OF Marlon Byrd on the restricted list. Optioned
RHP Shawn Armstrong to Columbus (IL).
Recalled OF Tyler Naquin from Columbu8s. Selected the contract of LHP Tom
Gorzelanny from Columbus.
DETROIT TIGERS — Placed RHP Warwick Saupold on the 15-day DL. Selected
the contract of RHP Bobby Parnell from
Toledo (IL). Designated RHP Jose Valdez
for assignment.
KANSAS CITY ROYALS — Placed OF
Brett Eibner on the 15-day DL. Optioned
RHP Dillon Gee to Omaha (PCL). Recalled
OF Reymond Fuentes and RHP Peter
Moylan from Omaha.
LOS ANGELES ANGELS — Placed INF
Cliff Pennington on the 15-day DL. Optioned LHP Chris Jones to Salt Lake
(PCL). Selected the contracts of INF
Brendan Ryan and RHP Javy Guerra from
Salt Lake.
MINNESOTA TWINS — Placed OF
Miguel Sano on the 15-day DL. Recalled
OF Max Kepler from Rochester (IL).
SEATTLE MARINERS — Placed RHP
Felix Hernandez on the 15-day DL, retroactive to Saturday. Optioned 3B Patrick
Kivlehan to Tacoma (PCL). Recalled LHP
James Paxton from Tacoma. Sent SS Ketel Marte to Tacoma for a rehab assignment.
TAMPA BAY RAYS — Placed RHP Brad
Boxberger on the 15-day DL.
TORONTO BLUE JAYS — Traded 3B Jimmy Paredes to Philadelphia for cash.
National League
CINCINNATI REDS — Sent C Kyle Skipworth to Louisville (IL) for a rehab assignment.
COLORADO ROCKIES — Sent C Nick
Hundley to Albuquerque (PCL) for a rehab assignment.
MIAMI MARLINS — Designated RHP
Edwin Jackson for assignment. Optioned
RHP Jose Urena to New Orleans (PCL).
Recalled RHP Cody Hall from New Orleans. Reinstated LHP Mike Dunn from
the 15-day DL.
MILWAUKEE BREWERS — Optioned
RHP David Goforth to Colorado Springs
(PCL). Reinstated LHP Will Smith from
the 15-day DL. Sent OF Domingo Santana
to Biloxi (SL) and RHP Corey Knebel to
Brevard County (FSL) for rehab assignments.
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES — Transferred
RHP Charlie Morton to the 60-day DL.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS — Sent RHP
Matt Belisle to Harrisburg (EL) for a rehab assignment.
BASKETBALL
National Basketball Association
BOSTON CELTICS — Signed president
of basketball operations Danny Ainge
and coach Brad Stevens to contract extensions.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER — Announced assistant coach Monty Williams
will not return.
FOOTBALL
National Football League
ARIZONA CARDINALS — Waived G
Edawn Coughman, WR Chris King and S
Brandon Person.
CHICAGO BEARS — Waived OL Tayo
Fabuluje.
CLEVELAND BROWNS — Signed WR Ricardo Louis and TE Seth DeValve.
DETROIT LIONS — Signed OL Dominick
Jackson.
GREEN BAY PACKERS — Signed G Lucas Patrick.
NEW YORK JETS — Signed DE Shelby
Harris. Waived DE Lawrence Okoye.
WASHINGTON REDSKINS — Waived LB
James Gayle.
HOCKEY
National Hockey League
CAROLINA HURRICANES — Agreed to
terms with D Josh Wesley on a threeyear, entry-level contract.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS — Signed F
Cody Bass to a two-year contract and G
Jonas Gunnarsson to a one-year, entrylevel contract.
NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Signed F Brandon Baddock to a three-year, two-way,
entry-level contract.
FOOTBALL
National Football League
NFL — DE Stephen Bowen announced
his retirement.
OLYMPIC SPORTS
USA VOLLEYBALL — Agreed to terms
with men’s Olympic volleyball coach
John Speraw on a contract extension
through 2020.
USA WRESTLING — Named Bill Zadick
national freestyle coach.
SOCCER
Major League Soccer
ATLANTA UNITED — Signed F Jeffrey
Otoo.
COLLEGE
CLEMSON — Named Camilo Rodriguez
men’s assistant soccer coach.
GEORGETOWN — Named Anthony Solomon men’s assistant basketball coach.
KENTUCKY — Announced the resignation of baseball coach Gary Henderson.
LOUISVILLE — Agreed to terms with
baseball coach Dan McDonnell on a 10year contract.
OKLAHOMA STATE — Named Patrick
Schulte men’s basketball video coordinator.
Pro basketball
WNBA
EASTERN CONFERENCE
W
L Pct
Atlanta
5
1 .833
Indiana
3
3 .500
Chicago
3
4 .429
New York
2
3 .400
Washington
2
5 .286
Connecticut
1
5 .167
WESTERN CONFERENCE
W
L Pct
Minnesota
6
0 1.000
Los Angeles
5
0 1.000
Dallas
3
3 .500
Phoenix
2
4 .333
San Antonio
1
3 .250
Seattle
2
4 .333
Tuesday’s games
Minnesota 79, New York 69
Phoenix 99, Connecticut 90
Wednesday’s games
Indiana 85, Seattle 75
Chicago 86, Washington 78
Thursday’s games
San Antonio at Los Angeles
Friday’s games
Atlanta at Connecticut
Indiana at New York
Washington at Chicago
Phoenix at Seattle
GB
—
2
2½
2½
3½
4
GB
—
½
3
4
4
4
AP sportlight
June 3
1932 — Lou Gehrig becomes the first
major league player to hit four consecutive home runs in a game, giving the
New York Yankees a 20-13 win over the
Philadelphia A’s. Gehrig’s feat, however,
is overshadowed by the resignation of
John McGraw, manager of the New York
Giants for 30 years.
1961 — Sherluck, ridden by Braulio
Baeza, wins the Belmont Stakes. Carry
Beck, the winner of the Kentucky Derby
and the Preakness, finishes seventh.
1991 — Thomas Hearns becomes a
world champion for the sixth time, capturing the World Boxing Association’s
light-heavyweight title with a 12-round
unanimous decision over Virgil Hill.
1992 — Chicago’s Michael Jordan
scores a record 35 points, including a record six three-pointers, in the first half
as the Bulls beat Portland 122-89 in the
opening game of the NBA Finals. Jordan
finishes with 39 points and Chicago is
only two points shy of the largest victory
margin in the finals.
1995 — Pedro Martinez of Montreal
pitches nine perfect innings against San
Diego before giving up a leadoff double
to Bip Roberts in the 10th inning of the
Expos’ 1-0 win.
1999 — Four days after her first LPGA
Tour victory, Kelli Kuehne ties the Women’s U.S. Open record with an 8-under 64
in the first round to take a one-stroke
lead over Juli Inkster.
2001 — Karrie Webb wins the U.S.
Women’s Open in a runaway for the second year in a row. Webb shoots a 1-under
69 for an eight-stroke victory, the largest
margin at a Women’s Open in 21 years.
2004 — Calgary ties an NHL record
with its 10th road win of the playoffs
with a 3-2 overtime victory over Tampa
Bay in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The New Jersey Devils also won 10 road
playoff games during their championship seasons of 1995 and 2000.
2006 — Jeff Burton has the biggest
come-from-behind win ever in a Busch
race, overcoming a 36th-place starting
position in the Dover 200 for his second
victory of the season.
2006 — Russia’s Nikolai Valuev retains
his WBA heavyweight title in Hanover,
Germany, stopping Jamaican challenger
Owen Beck with a right uppercut in the
third round.
PAGE 54
•STA
F3HIJKLM
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
HIGH SCHOOL: DODEA PACIFIC
TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
Jabari Johnson, Kinnick
BY DAVE ORNAUER
Stars and Stripes
Setting personal records and
northwest Pacific marks became
routine this season for Jabari
Johnson.
Almost too routine, Johnson
said.
“I’ve been breaking records”
since a year after moving to Japan
from West Florida High School in
Pensacola in summer 2013, “so it
got old to me,” the Kinnick senior
sprinter said.
Three times during his justcompleted senior season alone,
Johnson beat his own northwest
Pacific records in the 100- , 200and 400-meter dashes, records he
had set during his junior year and
continually lowered as his final
season progressed.
“Break several records, do it
again next week,” his coach, Luke
Voth, said.
What he really wanted, Johnson said, was for his Red Devils to
win the Kanto Plain league season title and finals meet championship, then capture a clean
sweep of all three Far East meet
Division I banners, boys, girls
and combined school titles.
Kinnick did just that, becoming
the first school in the seven-season Far East meet era to sweep
the Division I banners, as well as
capture their league titles.
Johnson ended his senior season
as the region and Kanto record
holder in the 100 (10.78 seconds),
200 (21.23) and 400 (48.25), as
well as leading Kinnick to the
region record in the 400-meter
relay (42.88). His marks as a junior were 10.92, 21.87 and 48.99.
On top of that, he holds the Far
Best of the year
East meet marks in the 100 and
200, 10.79 and 21.23, set on May
19 in the preliminaries in each
event.
For all those accolades, Johnson has been named Stars and
Stripes Pacific high school boys
track and field Athlete of the
Year.
“I feel great with all that I accomplished over these three
years. I’m proud of myself for
going as far as I could,” Johnson
said.
But after a while, even repeatedly beating his own region
marks wasn’t enough, Johnson
said. “It started off with me running for myself, but over time, I
started running for my team.”
Going into Far East, he wasn’t
sure, Johnson said, if Kinnick or
any other school had ever swept
the Far East banners. Kadena
came close in 2011, winning the
combined and the boys but tying
with Seoul American for the girls
team title.
“That makes it even more special for me,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s influence each day
in practice helped lead his sprint
teammates, juniors Rashad Samuels and Chauncey Jamerson, to
a Kinnick sweep of the top three
places in the 100 in the Far East
finals, 10.83, 11.18 and 10.29.
“Sweeping the boys 100 was
something Jabari was pretty
proud of his teammates,” Voth
said.
Johnson described his three
years of running for Kinnick as
“amazing. I’m glad I spent my
seasons here,” he said.
Top boys marks
Includes
athletes
competing
in
leagues with DODEA Pacific teams:
100—Jabari Johnson, Nile C. Kinnick,
10.78 seconds (northwest Pacific record)
200—Johnson, 21.23 (northwest Pacific record)
400—Johnson, 48.25 (northwest Pacific record)
800—Britt Sease, American School In
Japan, 1 minute, 54.63 seconds (northwest Pacific record)
1,500—Evan Yukevich, ASIJ, 4:14.39
1,600—Daniel Galvin, Yokota, 4:18.23
(northwest Pacific record)
3,000—Jordan Van Druff, Christian
Academy Japan, 9:45.67
3,200—Galvin, 9:38.13 (Kanto Plain
league record)
110 hurdles—Johnny Quitugua, John F.
Kennedy, Guam, 15.39
300 hurdles—DeAndre Rosalie, Daegu,
South Korea, 41.26
400 relay—Kinnick, 42.88 (northwest
Pacific record)
1,600 relay—ASIJ, 3:23.24 (northwest
Pacific record)
3,200 relay—Okinawa Christian International, 8:19.12
Shot put—Christian Sonnenberg, Yokota, 14.92 meters
Discus—Sonnenberg, 56.40 (northwest
Pacific record)
Javelin—Donovan
Johnson,
Guam
High, 44.16
High jump—Donte Savoy, Kadena, 1.91
Long jump—Jarvis Stokes, Daegu, 6.50
Triple jump—Quitugua, 12.68
Top girls marks
Includes
athletes
competing
in
leagues with DODEA Pacific teams:
100—Regine Tugade, John F. Kennedy,
Guam, 12.32 seconds
200—Tugade, 25.83
400—Tugade, 57.89
800—Erin Stonebarger, Nile C. Kinnick,
2 minutes, 25.15 seconds
1,500—Emma Sheedy, Guam High,
5:07.29
1,600—Arlene Avalos, Kinnick, 5:30.02
3,000—Lisa
Watanuki,
American
School In Japan, 10:51.88
3,200—Watanuki, 11:27.56
110 hurdles—Tiarrah Edwards, Kadena, 15.76 (Far East meet record)
300 hurdles—Kaliah Henderson, Yokota, 47.60
400 relay—Kubasaki, 50.22 (Okinawa
district record)
1,600 relay—ASIJ, 4:17.22
3,200 relay—ASIJ, 10:04.01
Shot put—Edwards, 10.39 meters
Discus—Victoria
Taylor,
Christian
Academy Japan, 32.86
Javelin—Maygann DelaPaz, Academy
of Our Lady of Guam, 25.04
High jump—Exotica Hall, Kinnick, 1.64
Long jump—Tugade, 5.21
Triple jump—Tugade, 10.75
[email protected]
Twitter @ornauer_stripes
Aya Stewart, Kinnick
BY DAVE ORNAUER
Stars and Stripes
Aya Stewart said she felt like anything but
a future northwest Pacific and Far East meet
record holder on her first day of Kinnick track
practice three years ago.
She felt scared out of her mind, a timid freshman coming face-to-face for the first time with
a girl who eventually became her role model,
Kinnick’s signature sprinter Val James.
“That had been the first sport I joined in high
school, so I didn’t really know what to expect,”
Stewart recalled, adding that she thought “she
wasn’t good enough” to run with James and
sprint teammates Shakita Samuels and Rhyssa
Hizon, so she kept saying no.
But her teammates persisted. Stewart and
those teammates went on to set the northwest
Pacific and Far East meet record in the 1,600
relay, while James set meet marks in the 100
and 400.
“She taught me to be strong with myself and
never doubt my abilities,” Stewart recalled.
Long after James left for San Diego, where
she attends school and is hoping to join the medical profession, Stewart remembered James’
encouragement, and said she’d hoped someday
to beat James’ records, any of her records.
That dream came true last month, when Stewart ran the 400 in the Far East meet in 57.98
seconds, beating James’ old mark of 58.63. On
top of that, the Red Devils captured the Kanto
Plain league season and finals titles and all
three Far East Division I team banners.
“It feels absolutely amazing to have finished
my last year … beating Val’s record and winning all three banners,” Stewart said. “That
was my ultimate goal for myself and my team
for the longest time and having to share that
wonderful experience with everyone.”
For those accomplishments, Stewart has
been named Stars and Stripes Pacific girls
track and field Athlete of the Year. She beat
out a bunched field featuring sprinters Kaelyn
Francis of Kubasaki, Tasia Nelson of Zama and
Regine Tugade of John F. Kennedy of Guam,
and distance specialist Lisa Watanuki of American School In Japan.
“Being as fast or faster than Val has been
Aya’s goal for four years,” coach Luke Voth
said. James showed her three sprint teammates
the ropes, and “ever since then, Aya has basically followed in the footsteps of Val to the best
of her abilities.”
The 400 is a demanding race, mentally and
physically, James said.
“I always knew she had it in her to be as fast
as me; I saw myself in her,” James said via
Facebook. “She is such an amazing and very
talented girl.”
Stewart said she tried to carry James’ example to her younger teammates during the
season.
“I try to encourage everyone on my team, because that helped me get close to the new kids
that join track every year,” she said. “I didn’t
want any of them downplaying themselves,
thinking they aren’t good enough.”
[email protected]
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 55
HIGH SCHOOL: DODEA PACIFIC
SOCCER ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
Miles Mahlock
Kubasaki
BY DAVE ORNAUER
Alexis Townsend
Kubasaki
BY DAVE ORNAUER
Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A soccer
team’s best striker can usually count on
being defended more tightly than other
players on his team. But for two seasons,
Miles Mahlock was subject to the sort of
blanket coverage that scorers in the Pacific rarely see.
Despite having a man on him throughout every match during the just-completed
2016 campaign, the Kubasaki senior scored
32 goals, tops in the Pacific, and assisted
on 11 others.
Two came in the championship match as
the Dragons capped a 20-0-2 campaign by
blanking Christian Academy Japan 2-0 for
the Far East Division I Tournament title. It
was Kubasaki’s fourth title since 2001 and
first since the 2008 season.
For those accomplishments, Mahlock
earned D-I tournament Most Valuable
Player honors. He has also been named
Stars and Stripes’ Pacific boys soccer Athlete of the Year, edging out a field that included Kai Lange of Perry, the Division II
tournamnent MVP.
“When they man-mark you, all game
long, game after game, all season, and you
still score that many goals, that speaks volumes about his talent and ability,” Kubasaki coach Tony Washington said.
For his part, Mahlock said that not only
did he not mind being defended so tightly,
he welcomed it.
“I liked being man-marked. No extra
pressure. It was kind of an honor,” he said.
Being marked in that manner “gave
me an extra edge,” he said, allowing him
to pull opposing players out of position to
compensate for one player defending him.
“He’s a strong player, with or without the
ball,” Washington said. “His speed. His assists; that’s something nobody talks about.
He reads the field well and finishes well;
you give him any space at all and he finds
the back of the net.”
Mahlock credited his teammates for his
and the team’s success, specifically fellow
senior Imani Washington — the coach’s
son — who had 19 goals and 13 assists, and
the Dragons’ defense.
“Without our defense, we wouldn’t have
made it as far as we did,” Mahlock said, citing senior Preston Snyder, named the D-I
tournament’s top defender for the second
straight year. “He was a rock back there.”
The toughest hurdle he and the Dragons faced this season, Mahlock said, came
in an April 23 match at Maehara, a Japanese school that won the Okinawa title two
years before. The Dragons fell behind 2-0,
but Mahlock scored twice and Kubasaki
played to a 2-2 draw.
“After we did that, I figured (winning)
Far East was something we could achieve,”
Mahlock said.
After two years of finishing second in
D-I, that championship finally came, with
Mahlock being the signature player, the
elder Washington said. “You dream of
coaching somebody like that during your
career,” he said.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Sometimes, a player’s value can’t be measured
on a stat sheet.
Her Kubasaki girls soccer team won
three Far East Division I titles on her
watch. But Alexis Townsend, a junior midfielder, didn’t lead the team in goals and
only topped the assists ledger once in her
three seasons.
It was other things she brought to the
table, teammates and coach said — a fierce
competitive spirit, fighting through adversity and injury and pushing the team
to be the best it could be, never mind the
circumstances.
“She would keep on fighting, no matter
what,” senior midfielder Kennady White
said. “Nothing could stop her.”
“Every day in practice, she would push
the team to be the best we could be, to perform our best at upcoming games,” senior
forward Talea Wilcox said. “She would find
ways to make us hit the level we needed to
achieve, so we could win.”
Win the Dragons did, going 44-4-5 in
Townsend’s seasons. Kubasaki now has
a Far East tournament-record seven D-I
championships.
Her third and final season saw Kubasaki go 16-2-2, including a 2-0-1 record
against arch-rival Kadena, and a second
successive 4-0 D-I finals win over Kinnick.
Townsend also won her second D-I Most
Valuable Player award, something she also
did in 2014.
For her achievements, Townsend has
been named Stars and Stripes’ Pacific high
school girls soccer Athlete of the Year.
Despite the winning mark, Townsend
said the title was anything but easy to
achieve. “We had a lot of things we needed
to work on” at season’s beginning, she said.
Kubasaki in many respects was rebuilding, and coach Saleem Malik was trying
different players in different spots.
That included Townsend, who played
some defense, mostly midfield and some
forward, and never once voiced disagreement, Malik said.
“She was a selfless player; she could do it
all,” Malik said, adding that she would solidify the defense as well as she could control the middle and be just as apt to score
as distribute the ball up front.
Townsend was emblematic, Malik said,
of a team that from the jump got along well,
even when things weren’t going so good,
such as the Dragons’ 2-1 loss in the last
match of the American School In Japan
soccer festival in late April.
“The girls gelled together, they had
a good group dynamic,” Malik said. “It
wasn’t just about the hard work that they
put in, but they were not selfish.”
“I tried to be a hard worker, to push myself along with my teammates to be the
best they could be,” Townsend said.
Townsend left Okinawa last Saturday
and will attend high school in Rochester,
N.Y., for her senior year.
[email protected]
Stripes All-Far East boys soccer team
Miles Mahlock, Imani Washington, Kubasaki;
Kai Lange, Tyson Moore, M.C. Perry; Lawrence
Yamaguchi, Christian Academy Japan; Dylan
Grimes, Yokota; Francesco Luraschi, Seoul Foreign; Roman Duarte, Zama; Chaz Perryman,
Seoul American; Gage Zach, Daegu; Diego Rodriguez, Kadena.
[email protected]
Stripes All-Far East girls soccer team
Alexis Townsend, Myca Ingram, Kubasaki; Regina Dukat, Jamia Bailey, Yokota; Andrea Carandang, Osan; Kiralyn Kawachi, Kinnick; Bobbi Hill,
M.C. Perry; Callie Chang, Seoul Foreign; Natalie
Cargill, Seoul American; Adri Gomez, Kadena;
Rachel Norton, Zama American.
PAGE 56
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
SOCCER
World Cup:
Russia says
everything
on schedule
BY JAMES ELLINGWORTH
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Stadium construction for
the 2018 World Cup is on schedule, Russian
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday,
contradicting recent reports of delays and
cost increases.
Russia has been working to avoid a repeat of the problems that complicated preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Of the 12 stadiums for the tournament in
Russia, nine have significant construction
work remaining.
“Preparation for the World Cup is in full
swing,” Putin said. “All of the developers
promise — and are confident — that they
will comply with the commitments to finish facilities on time.”
Earlier Wednesday, St. Petersburg lawmakers increased the budget for the World
Cup stadium in that city by 4.3 billion rubles ($64 million), a 12 percent increase.
The stadium was originally supposed
to open in 2008 but saw repeated delays,
design changes and cost increases. World
Cup organizing committee head Alexei
Sorokin refused to comment on the latest
cost hike.
“For FIFA, the main thing is the readiness of the stadium,” he told reporters
Wednesday. “It will be ready at the end of
the year.”
Last month, Sports Minister Vitaly
Mutko said work on the stadium in Samara had stopped because of a dispute with
a construction firm. The Samara region’s
sports minister denied any stoppage in an
interview last week with The Associated
Press.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said
Wednesday that Russia was on track for
the tournament despite its economic difficulties. The Russian economy shrank
3.7 percent last year under pressure from
sanctions and low oil prices and is projected by the IMF to contract 1.5 percent this
year.
“We’ve received all the guarantees that
the work will be delivered as promised,”
Infantino said, adding that the World Cup
will “boost the economy.”
G EERT VANDEN WIJNGAERT/AP
Belgium’s Yannick Carrasco, left, competes for possession of the ball with Italy’s Mattia De Sciglio during a friendly on Nov. 13 at
the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels. The two sides will meet on June 13 at the European Championship in Lyon, France.
Don’t miss these matches
Here are five to watch from Euro 2016’s expanded field
BY GRAHAM DUNBAR
Associated Press
GENEVA — Every fourth summer, soccer lovers tune in to what many see as the
tournament for the purists on the global
calendar.
The European Championship is often
more fun than the World Cup, where the
first-round group stage has more mismatches and can be too cautiously played.
The UEFA-organized tournament enjoys
a reputation for hitting higher standards
from first kick-off with no weak spots in
the lineup.
Now UEFA has added to the perfect 16team format, and a 24-nation Euro 2016
will stretch to 51 matches over 31 midsummer days in France.
Could 20 more matches mean less mustsee action as top teams are kept apart for
longer? Maybe.
Still, there is appointment viewing from
the first whistle on June 10, even without
including World Cup winner Germany facing Poland and Robert Lewandowski.
Here are five matches and story lines
that stand out:
France vs. Romania (June 10,
Paris): The host nation kicks off a major
tournament that’s only played every four
years. What more do you need?
This opening match is heavy with emotion at
a national stadium which was a target for suicide
bombers who failed to get access to France’s
friendly against Germany last Nov. 13.
All of Paris will be on high security alert, and
France will be determined to show it is a nation
and national team united.
1
IVAN SEKRETAREV/AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin
addresses volunteers for the 2018 World
Cup on Wednesday in Moscow.
France stars like Paul Pogba, a flamboyant midfielder, and speedy forward Antoine Griezmann
can help ensure the post-match focus is about
events on the field.
Albania vs. Switzerland (June 11,
Lens): There has quite simply never been
an international match like this.
Brothers in opposition, players with
close club ties, and possible futures together with
a different national team immediately after the
tournament.
Both squads have several players who were
eligible to represent either country, because their
ethnic Albanian families have moved from the former Yugoslavia to Switzerland since the 1980s.
Each has a Xhaka brother — Taulant for Albania and his younger brother Granit, a Switzerland
star — who would be the first brothers in opposition at a Euro tournament.
Opponents on June 11 could be Kosovo teammates in September. The Balkan republic got FIFA
membership weeks ago and will join a World Cup
qualifying group. The issue of transferring allegiance is on hold until after the competition.
England vs. Russia (June 11, Marseille): A prime-time fixture on the first
Saturday could launch a young England
team as Europe’s most watchable.
If few would bet on England to win Euro 2016,
more would wager on it playing in the most exciting match.
Coach Roy Hodgson has a core of talent from
a thrilling Tottenham team, plus late-blooming
Jamie Vardy whose goals lifted Leicester to a Premier League title that renewed neutrals’ enthusiasm for soccer.
Russia helped light up Euro 2008, and needs
to put a dull Fabio Capello-coached era behind it.
Get used to seeing Russia at this time of year: It
2
3
hosts the Confederations Cup next June and then
the 2018 World Cup.
Spain vs. Czech Republic (June
13, Toulouse): Does two-time defending champion Spain still have it?
Yes, at club level, having swept up
every European trophy since before the 2014
World Cup.
But Spain’s aura of invincibility vanished two
years ago, when an aging team was the first eliminated after being outplayed by the Netherlands
and Chile.
Coach Vicente del Bosque remains but the loyalty — arguably, too much — he showed some
players in Brazil is over, judging by this squad selection. Tournament newcomers include 35-yearold Athletic Bilbao forward Aritz Aduriz.
The Czechs missed the World Cup but offer a
tough start. They topped a tricky qualifying group,
despite conceding goals in every game, and with
better results away than at home.
Belgium vs. Italy (June 13, Lyon):
Europe’s top team in the FIFA world rankings against tournament veterans any title
hopeful should measure up to fans’ high
standards.
No. 2-ranked Belgium has been a fashionable
choice since before the 2014 World Cup with a
golden generation of players to call on.
Still, its underwhelming World Cup ended with
a tame quarterfinal loss to Argentina.
Star players also have much to prove. Eden
Hazard will certainly be fresh after a low-key season at Chelsea, where Italy coach Antonio Conte
is headed next.
Italy was beaten 3-1 by Belgium in Brussels
last November, and is without injured playmaker
Claudio Marchisio, but the Azzurri are always an
essential chapter of every tournament’s story.
4
5
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 57
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Navy faces tough
task at NC State
DAVID BROUGHTON
The Capital
K AITLIN MCK EOWN, THE HERALD -SUN /AP
Clemson players celebrate after defeating Florida State 18-13 to win the Atlantic Coast Conference
championship last month. The ACC tied its own record by placing 10 teams in the NCAA Tournament.
ACC coaches view 10 NCAA
bids as league validation
BY JOEDY MCCREARY
Associated Press
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke’s first
postseason berth in more than
half a century helped the Atlantic
Coast Conference make some history, too.
The league placed 10 baseball
teams in the NCAA Tournament,
tying the record set two years ago
by the Southeastern Conference.
ACC coaches say those bids
validate what they’ve long said
about the league’s depth.
“We’ve talked openly as a group
of coaches in the ACC, coming
out of this league you’ve seen as
good as you’re going to see arguably in any regional or super
regional,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said Wednesday. “That’s not
to say there aren’t great teams
out there. There are. But you like
the fact that you’ve had to face top
arms and top bats all year.”
The ACC can make a convincing
case that it was the nation’s best
conference this season, after finishing atop the final RPI ratings.
While all seven SEC teams in
the field earned No. 1 seeds and
will host four-team NCAA regionals, the ACC isn’t too far behind with six of them — the most
in league history.
The ACC has had at least seven
tournament teams every year
since 2009 but never more than
eight, in both 2010 and ’13.
Plus, the ACC no longer is carrying around the weight of that
pesky national championship
drought — Virginia took care
of that last year by winning the
league’s first title since 1955.
All 10 teams that played in last
week’s league tournament made
the NCAA field, with Boston College, Duke and Georgia Tech all
‘ I can’t imagine that anybody coming out
of any other league is as prepared as the
teams coming out of the ACC.
’
making it despite finishing under
.500 in league play.
“I can’t imagine that anybody
coming out of any other league is
as prepared as the teams coming
out of the ACC,” Pollard said. “The
ACC is so good and so deep, and I
think you make a compelling case
the deepest it’s ever been.”
Florida State, Virginia, Louisville, Miami, Clemson and North
Carolina State all earned No. 1
seeds, with the Cardinals, Hurricanes and Tigers earning topeight national seeds, meaning
they are assured of hosting bestof-three super regionals next
week if they advance.
Georgia Tech is a No. 2 seed
while Wake Forest, Duke and
Boston College all are No. 3 seeds
in their four-team regionals.
North Carolina State coach Elliot Avent said, in some ways, the
ACC Tournament is a more difficult test than the NCAA Tournament because the strength is more
concentrated. Georgia Tech was
the No. 9 seed in the ACC Tournament, and both Boston College
and Duke were eliminated in the
ACC’s play-in round.
“Probably [the ACC] Tournament is tougher, even though
the regional obviously has more
meaning because it’s a finality thing, and obviously there are
tough teams in there as well,”
Avent said.
Chris Pollard
Duke baseball coach
Veteran Florida State coach
Mike Martin disagreed slightly,
saying the NCAA Tournament is
more difficult before adding that
“I can tell you one thing — it ain’t
a whole lot tougher.”
Among the key players to watch,
the ACC’s past two players of the
year — Clemson’s Seth Beer and
Wake Forest’s Will Craig — shared
the league lead with 16 home runs.
Tigers reliever Pat Krall and Boston College’s Justin Dunn both
have ERAs under 1.40. Louisville’s
Corey Ray ranks fourth nationally
with 39 stolen bases.
And there are plenty of familiar
names sprinkled throughout the
rosters, from N.C. State’s Preston Palmeiro — the son of former
MLB slugger Rafael Palmeiro —
to Duke freshman Griffin Conine
— the son of former big leaguer
Jeff Conine.
The ACC’s big haul was helped
by the resurgence of three teams
that had lengthy postseason
droughts.
Boston College hadn’t made
the tournament since 2009. Wake
Forest hadn’t gone since 2007.
And then there’s Duke (33-22),
which made the postseason for
the first time since 1961.
“Things have moved quick”
since the selection, Pollard said.
“Now’s the fun part. Get on the
bus and go down there and enjoy
it.”
The way Navy coach Paul
Kostacopoulos sees it, who better
to pull off an upset in enemy territory than a team full of current
and future military officers?
And while Kostacopoulos acknowledges the challenge his
team faces on Friday against
13th-ranked North Carolina State
in the NCAA Tournament, he
knows poise won’t be an issue for
the Mids despite the game being
played before the Wolfpack’s
home fans at Doak Field at Dail
Park, where the home team is 237 this season.
“We talk about this all the time,
we talk about using the aspects of
learned behavior, if you will, of
the Naval Academy,’’ Kostacopoulos said on Wednesday. “They’re
under a lot of pressure to perform
and that can be in various ways,
not just athletically. They’re used
to adversity and used to different
environments.
“We feel like we’re gaining
something from Bancroft Hall
when we go on the field, and this
is the time when you’ve got to use
it,’’ said Kostacopoulos, in his
11th season at Navy. “It’s going
to be a tough place to play, and
we’re going to have to tap into all
that stuff that goes into being a
midshipman’’
Navy, the region’s No. 4 seed,
will be playing in its first NCAA
Tournament since 2011. The
Midshipmen (42-14-1) earned an
automatic berth by winning the
Patriot League title in a threegame series over Holy Cross, two
games to one.
In 2011, Navy was sent to the
Charlottesville Regional and
paired with host Virginia, the No.
1 team in the nation. The Mids
were blanked by the Cavs, 6-0,
before being eliminated the next
day by East Carolina, 6-1. Navy’s
last NCAA victory was in 2005, a
6-4 win over George Washington.
North Carolina State, members
of the Atlantic Coast Conference,
are hosting the Raleigh Regional
thanks to a 35-20 record compiled
against the second most difficult
schedule in the nation, according
to D1Baseball.com’s RPI ratings.
N.C. State, ranked No. 10 in the
RPI, also went 12-11 against the
top 25 teams and 19-17 against
the top 50.
The Wolfpack boast a team batting average of .300, and four position players were named to ACC
all-conference teams.
“You can’t be one of the top 10
or so teams in the country and not
have a lot in a lot of areas,’’ Kostacopoulos said. “They have quality starting pitching, they have
relievers they go to with comfort
and ease, and their offense is very
balanced. They’re the kind of
team that does all facets well, and
it’s reflective of where they stand
in the country.’’
Navy’s strength is pitching, as
the Mids rank fourth in the coun-
try in team ERA at 2.78. The Mids
will send ace left-hander Luke
Gillingham to the mound against
the Wolfpack. A second team AllAmerican last season, Gillingham
was the Patriot League Pitcher of
the Year in 2016. The Coronado,
Calif., native enters Friday with
an 8-3 record and 1.96 ERA in
87 1/3 innings.
After a rough outing against
Bucknell in the Patriot League
semifinals in which he allowed
seven runs in 3 1/3 innings, Gillingham bounced back in the finals
against Holy Cross, going nine
innings and allowing one run in
a 2-1, 10-inning victory over the
Crusaders on May 22.
Navy will need a big effort from
its senior ace on Friday.
“Absolutely,’’
Kostacopoulos
said when asked if had confidence
in his starter. “Over the last two
years he’s been in so many close
games and so many big games for
us. He’s been in that role for two
solid years for us. Mentally and
emotionally, he’s the right guy to
go out there.’’
North Carolina State coach Elliott Avent, in his 20th season,
said Navy is not a team to be
overlooked.
“They’re No. 4 in the country
in ERA so obviously they can
pitch, and good pitching is what
you need this time of year in tournaments,’’ said Avent, who has
led the Wolfpack to the NCAA
Tournamrnt in 15 of his 20 seasons. “But we’ll be playing here
at Doak Park in front of our home
crowd and we like that.’’
N.C. State is expected to start
either left-hander Brian Brown
(7-3, 3.74) or right-hander Cory
Wilder (3-3, 4.78).
The Wolfpack last played on
May 27, defeating Georgia Tech,
7-5, in a loser’s bracket game of
the ACC Tournament. They had
opened tournament play with
losses to Florida State (7-3) and
Miami (8-7).
Also competing in the fourteam Raleigh Regional are
Coastal Carolina (44-15), the No.
2 seed, and Saint Mary’s (33-23),
the region’s No. 3 seed.
Navy’s best chance figures to
be Gillingham holding the Wolfpack in check, with some Bancroft Hall magic mixed in.
“Whenever you play against
extremely talented teams, you
have to do what you do very well,
and you have to be opportunistic,’’ said Kostacopoulos, who
previously took Providence and
Maine to the NCAA Tournament
twice each. “And if you get away
from what you do and don’t take
advantage of opportunities, it can
be a tough day for you. But if you
can take advantage of opportunities and maybe shorten the game,
who knows what can happen in
those games? That’s pretty much
the way we have to go into this
thing.’’
PAGE 58
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
AUTO RACING/OLYMPICS
Commentary
Pros boxing in Rio
is not a great idea
BY TIM DAHLBERG
Associated Press
SCOTT K. BROWN /AP
Fans pack the stands during the Chevy American Revolution 400 at Richmond International Raceway
in Richmond, Va., on May 14, 2005. At the height of its popularity, many tracks could count on sellout
crowds, but that has changed dramatically during an extended economic downturn.
NASCAR fighting for fans
Economic decline has race-goers looking for more value for tickets
B H
K
J .
‘I think it’s hard to pinpoint one
Y
ANK
URZ
R
Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. — At the zenith of its popularity a decade or so ago, many NASCAR tracks could
count on sellout crowds for every Sprint Cup Series
race. It seemed like the only real effort they had to
make was simply to open the gates.
That has changed dramatically during the economic downturn, and put track presidents and other
administrators back in the position of promoters
trying to fill seats that once sold themselves.
Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell
equated the present challenge of attracting fans to
NASCAR’s formative years.
“You promoted your event and did things to attract crowds and then it got to the point where I
think a lot of us were guilty of slacking off because
things were going really well,” he said. “Now we’re
back in that day where we do things to entice people
to come to our events.”
The results have been great for fans who show up
to find free concerts and other amenities. But the enthusiasm hasn’t led to packed houses. Many tracks
have removed sections of grandstands, and they
still don’t look full on race day, and there has been a
drop in television ratings, too. Overnight ratings are
down by double digits for seven of the 13 Sprint Cup
races this year, and six hit a multi-year low. Still, the
Coca-Cola 600 was the third-most watched sporting
event last weekend behind the Indianapolis 500 and
Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference finals despite an 11 percent decline in viewership.
Some wonder if NASCAR’s day in the sun has
passed. Track officials instead see a changing,
younger fan base that needs to be enticed to watch
live racing — and spend money.
Dover International Speedway President Mike
Tatoian said the trend is not as alarming as one
might think.
“I think it’s hard to pinpoint one thing that’s
caused this attendance decline,” Tatoian said. “I
don’t think it was realistic for everyone to think it
was going to continue on that meteoric rise or stay at
that level. I always say our level of wellness has just
been adjusting.”
At Richmond International Raceway, ticket requests numbered upward of 160,000 in the late
1990s and 33 races in a row in the top series sold
out over more than 16 years. Since then, the track
has reduced the capacity of its grandstand from
more than 112,000 seats to about 60,000 — and still
can’t sell out. That despite free parking, the ability
for fans to bring their own food and drinks, and initiatives that allow them to walk on the track until
nearly race time.
“We have to get back to putting fans into those
thing that’s caused this attendance
decline. I don’t think it was realistic
for everyone to think it was going
to continue on that meteoric rise or
stay at that level.
’
Mike Tatoian
Dover International Speedway president
unique experiences,” track President Dennis Bickmeier said.
Despite the economy, the Virginia track says, fan
surveys don’t suggest an issue with the tickets.
“One of the things that really jumped out to us in
the data was that people weren’t complaining about
the price of their ticket, but what they asked for was
more value for their ticket,” Bickmeier said. The
track’s first race of the season on April 24 drew far
less than a capacity crowd despite ideal weather, an
afternoon start time and expectations of great racing. “So then we were able to go back and ask, what’s
more value? They wanted more to see and do.”
As for the main attraction, rules changes have
helped produce some of the best racing the Sprint
Cup series has seen, including the closest finish in
Daytona 500 history. There was a last-lap nudge and
pass for the win for Carl Edwards at Richmond, too.
Bickmeier hopes the excitement of that finish will
be the start of something bigger. The track’s next
race comes on Saturday night, Sept. 10, and is the
last chance for drivers to make it into the Chase for
the championship.
General manager Jerry Caldwell of Bristol Motor
Speedway said NASCAR crowds may be down but
are still huge.
The Tennessee track, which once drew about
150,000 fans to races in the premier series, once had
a sellout streak of 55 races. It does not release attendance figures, but was about half full for its event on
April 17, despite sunny, 72-degree weather.
Caldwell suggested it might be time to stop looking at attendance figures from the pre-recession
heyday and remember that other sporting events
also struggle with empty seats.
Like Caldwell, Martinsville’s Campbell said it’s
important to put things in perspective.
“There for a while, crowds were much larger than
they are now, but now we can focus on providing the
people here a great experience,” he said. “I think in
the long run, it’s working out. It’s not what we were
used to in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but we’re still
drawing pretty big crowds for a sporting event,
much larger than other sports.”
Manny Pacquiao won’t be
there, passing up a chance to win
the first Olympic gold medal for
the Philippines.
You won’t see Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez fighting three-rounders in Rio, either.
Thankfully, the people who run
Olympic boxing are still so inept
that they waited too long to roll
out the welcome mat for professional boxers in the Olympics.
That likely means no pros of note
in Rio, despite the vote Wednesday in Switzerland to let them
compete.
It’s a lousy idea on a number of
levels, though that should come as
no surprise. Boxing in the Olympics has been pretty much a farce
since Roy Jones Jr. was robbed of
a gold medal by a hometown decision in Seoul in 1988.
Mixing seasoned pros with
teenage amateurs goes beyond
merely tilting the playing field
in Rio. It’s potentially dangerous,
especially when boxers will not
be wearing protective headgear
for the first time since the Moscow Games in 1980.
That didn’t stop the head of the
sport’s governing body, known as
AIBA, from crowing about the
vote to allow pros to fight for gold
medals.
“This is part of the vision,” CK
Wu said. “I would say it is in my
master plan.”
Suspicious boxing types believe
part of that master plan is to turn
AIBA into a force in professional
boxing, a fractured world where
promoters, television networks
and sanctioning organizations
battle for power and riches. The
World Boxing Council has gone as
far as threatening to suspend any
of its champions or ranked fighters if they fight in the Olympics.
“Boxing is not a game and cannot be compared with the popularity of having the basketball
‘Dream Team’ playing in the
Olympics putting on a show for
the world to see,” WBC President
Mauricio Sulaiman wrote in re-
cent letter to Wu. “The defeated
teams went home humiliated but
healthy. Boxing is a contact sport
and can be extremely dangerous if the level of competition is
inadequate.”
It’s hard to side with any of boxing’s myriad sanctioning organizations on any issue, given their
miserable track record over the
years in doling out favors and titles. Boxing has survived in spite
of them, not because of them.
Throwing another organization
into the mix, though, is hardly
the answer. That’s especially true
when adding pros to the Olympics could decimate the amateur
programs that over the years produced such stars as Muhammad
Ali, George Foreman and Sugar
Ray Leonard.
Foreman, who won a gold medal
in the 1968 Olympics, has come
out against pros in the Olympics,
saying amateurs are the lifeline
of the games.
Meanwhile, USA Boxing abstained on the vote in Switzerland
and said all of its boxers in Rio will
be amateurs. But the organization
said it realizes the inevitability
of pros fighting in the Olympics,
likely in 2020 in Tokyo.
The argument could be made
that boxing is simply catching up
to other sports, which long ago
discarded the old notion of amateurism that used to be so important to the Olympics.
The only good news is that Wu
waited too long to allow many
pros in Rio. Pacquiao has already
said he won’t go, and Golovkin has
expressed no interest in lacing up
the gloves for Kazakhstan in Rio
instead of chasing a megafight
with Alvarez.
Russia’s boxing coach suggested Wednesday that two current
world champions, Sergei Kovalev
and Denis Lebedev, could fight
for gold in Rio. That was news to
Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva,
who said the knockout artist is
fighting in July and has a tentative date to meet 2004 gold medalist Andre Ward in November.
“He has a few other things to do
this year,” Duva said.
RON KUTZ /AP
South Korea’s Park Si-hun, left, delivers a left jab to America’s Roy
Jones and goes on to win the gold medal in the light middleweight
division at the summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 59
MLB/GOLF
Cubs
dominate
All-Star
balloting
BY JAY COHEN
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Addison Russell
got an update on the All-Star voting from his wife, Melisa. “She
was making me blush a little bit,”
a grinning Russell said.
The young shortstop had plenty
of company.
The Chicago Cubs dominated
the first update for the NL AllStar balloting on Wednesday, with
first baseman Anthony Rizzo receiving the most votes and four of
his teammates in position to start
the July 12 game in San Diego.
“I mean
it’s awesome
to see,” Rizzo
said before
Chicago’s 2-1
victory over
the Los Angeles Dodgers. “It’s an
honor with
what we’ve
been doing
on the field
Rizzo
as a group, all
of us. For the fans to recognize
that is awesome. It’s an exciting
time for the Cubs.”
Russell, third baseman Kris
Bryant and second baseman Ben
Zobrist also had the most votes
at their respective positions, and
Dexter Fowler had the secondmost votes to Washington star
Bryce Harper in the outfield.
Ace right-hander Jake Arrieta
also should be in the mix when
NL manager Terry Collins of the
Mets names his starting pitcher.
“I think our guys are likable. They’re approachable,”
Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
“They’re blue collar, man. There’s
not a white-collar guy among
them. They come out there, they
get their fingernails dirty and I
think people appreciate that. I
think they’re very Chicago.”
They’re also very successful
so far. The Cubs have baseball’s
best record at 36-15 and also lead
the majors in run differential and
ERA by starting rotation.
Rizzo made the All-Star team
in each of the past two years, but
the slugger has never been elected
to the starting lineup by the fans.
He was acquired by the Cubs in
a January 2012 trade with San
Diego.
“It’s nice to be rewarded. I
know it’s early, but still,” Rizzo
said.
Rizzo had 874,471 votes, compared to 271,670 for San Francisco’s Brandon Belt in second place
at first. Cardinals catcher Yadier
Molina and New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes also were
in position for a starting spot.
Fan balloting ends on June 30.
MLB scoreboard
American League
East Division
W
L
32
21
29
22
29
26
24
28
22
29
Central Division
Kansas City
30
22
Chicago
29
25
Cleveland
27
24
Detroit
25
27
Minnesota
15
37
West Division
Texas
31
22
Seattle
30
22
Oakland
25
29
Houston
25
29
Los Angeles
24
29
Boston
Baltimore
Toronto
New York
Tampa Bay
Pct
.604
.569
.527
.462
.431
GB
—
2
4
7A
9
.577
.537
.529
.481
.288
—
2
2A
5
15
.585
.577
.463
.463
.453
—
A
6A
6A
7
National League
East Division
W
L
Pct GB
Washington
33
21
.611 —
New York
29
23
.558
3
Miami
28
25
.528
4A
Philadelphia
26
27
.491
6A
Atlanta
16
36
.308 16
Central Division
Chicago
36
15
.706 —
Pittsburgh
29
23
.558
7A
St. Louis
28
26
.519
9A
Milwaukee
24
29
.453 13
Cincinnati
18
35
.340 19
West Division
San Francisco
33
22
.600 —
Los Angeles
28
26
.519
4A
Colorado
24
28
.462
7A
Arizona
23
32
.418 10
San Diego
21
33
.389 11A
Wednesday’s games
Chicago White Sox 2, N.Y. Mets 1, 13
innings
Oakland 5, Minnesota 1
Cleveland 5, Texas 4, 11 innings
Baltimore 13, Boston 9
Detroit 3, L.A. Angels 0
Toronto 7, N.Y. Yankees 0
Houston 5, Arizona 4, 11 innings
Kansas City 6, Tampa Bay 3
San Diego 14, Seattle 6
Milwaukee 3, St. Louis 1
Washington 7, Philadelphia 2
Atlanta 5, San Francisco 4, 11 innings
Miami 3, Pittsburgh 2
Chicago Cubs 2, L.A. Dodgers 1
Cincinnati 7, Colorado 2
Thursday’s games
Arizona at Houston
Boston at Baltimore
Kansas City at Cleveland
N.Y. Yankees at Detroit
Tampa Bay at Minnesota
Seattle at San Diego
San Francisco at Atlanta
L.A. Dodgers at Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee at Philadelphia
Pittsburgh at Miami
Cincinnati at Colorado
Friday’s games
L.A. Angels (Weaver 4-4) at Pittsburgh
(Liriano 4-4)
N.Y. Yankees (Eovaldi 6-2) at Baltimore
(Tillman 7-1)
Chicago White Sox (Rodon 2-4) at Detroit (Zimmermann 7-2)
Kansas City (Volquez 5-4) at Cleveland
(Salazar 5-3)
Toronto (Stroman 5-1) at Boston (Price
7-1)
Seattle (Walker 2-5) at Texas (Darvish
1-0)
Oakland (Hahn 2-2) at Houston (Fister
4-3)
Tampa Bay (Odorizzi 2-3) at Minnesota (Nolasco 2-3)
Arizona (Bradley 2-0) at Chicago Cubs
(Lackey 5-2)
Milwaukee (Nelson 5-3) at Philadelphia (Velasquez 5-2)
N.Y. Mets (Syndergaard 5-2) at Miami
(Koehler 3-5)
Washington (Gonzalez 3-3) at Cincinnati (Finnegan 1-4)
San Francisco (Cueto 8-1) at St. Louis
(Wainwright 5-3)
Atlanta (Teheran 1-5) at L.A. Dodgers
(Maeda 4-3)
Colorado (Rusin 1-3) at San Diego
(Pomeranz 4-5)
Saturday’s games
Arizona at Chicago Cubs
L.A. Angels at Pittsburgh
Toronto at Boston
Chicago White Sox at Detroit
N.Y Mets at Miami
Oakland at Houston
Washington at Cincinnati
N.Y. Yankees at Baltimore
San Francisco at St. Louis
Seattle at Texas
Atlanta at L.A. Dodgers
Colorado at San Diego
Sunday’s games
Chicago White Sox at Detroit
N.Y. Mets at Miami
Washington at Cincinnati
L.A. Angels at Pittsburgh
N.Y. Yankees at Baltimore
Toronto at Boston
Oakland at Houston
Arizona at Chicago Cubs
Seattle at Texas
Atlanta at L.A. Dodgers
San Francisco at St. Louis
Colorado at San Diego
DARRON CUMMINGS/AP
Jordan Spieth talks with Rory McIlroy as they walk down the 13th fairway during the first round of the
Memorial on Thursday in Dublin, Ohio.
New ‘Big Three’ on big roll
Day, Spieth, McIlroy on top of their games ahead of Open
BY DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ohio — Jason Day
tightened his grip on No. 1 in the
world the last time he played, a
wire-to-wire victory in The Players Championship against the best
field in golf to claim his seventh
big title in the last 10 months.
That was three weeks ago. And
in some respects, it seems like a
long time.
The following week, Rory McIlroy headed home to Ireland and
delivered two perfect shots with
fairway metals over the last three
holes at The K Club to win the
Irish Open for his first victory of
the year.
Not to be forgotten, Jordan Spieth won the following week at Colonial with a birdie-birdie-birdie
finish — none of them easy — for
a victory he badly needed to help
erase any lingering disappointment from the Masters.
“I extended my lead for a while,”
Day said. “And now Jordan and
Rory are both closing in on it.”
Not quite.
The top three remain Day, Spieth and McIlroy, the same order
it has been since Day first went
back to No. 1 on March 27 when
he won the Dell Match Play in
Texas. And the Australian who
now lives in Ohio is assured staying at the top regardless of what
happens this week.
Spieth offered a different
perspective.
“Jason may say we closed the
gap. Well, he didn’t play,” Spieth
said with a grin. “The last time
he played, he beat the best field
in golf.”
One thing is certain: The top
three in the world are on top of
their game going into the Memorial, with the U.S. Open looming
two weeks away.
The hype is building for another showdown at a major, just
as it was at the Masters. But that
never really materialized. Spieth was the only player of the
top three who challenged for the
green jacket until he blew up on
the back nine and Danny Willett
closed with a 67 to win by three.
Neither Day nor McIlroy broke
70 all week and tied for 10th.
The debate is whether they really deserve to be called the “Big
Three,” a moniker first used for
tournament host Jack Nicklaus,
Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.
That title was more about marketing through Mark McCormack
and IMG, and besides, they already had collected a large share
of the majors.
But the youngsters — Spieth at
22, McIlroy just turned 27, Day
at 28 — have made their case.
They have rotated at No. 1 since
Aug. 10. At one point, the top spot
changed hands six times in six
weeks. Plus, they have won five of
the last seven majors.
Right now, everyone is chasing
Day.
“I heard a couple of weeks ago
that it bothered Jordan that I was
winning tournaments and have
the No. 1 spot in the world, and
it should,” Day said. “It should
bother guys who are competitive and want to stay on top as
well. There’s nothing wrong with
being bothered by that. I hope it
motivates them just as much as
it motivates me to see other guys
on top of the world and winning
tournaments.”
“It’s great to see how they’ve
responded so quickly.”
Nicklaus was asked about the
big three and he quickly mentioned another era — Sam Snead,
Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan. He
could have gone back to the Great
Triumvirate of Harry Vardon,
J.H. Taylor and James Braid from
the turn of the century — the 19th
century — when they combined
to win the British Open 16 times
over a span of 21 years.
Nicklaus believes a “Big Three”
is not far away from being a big
number of great players because
of the depth in golf, which the 18time major champion and tournament host says is the strongest he
has ever seen.
McIlroy feels the same way.
“The three of us are at the top
of the world rankings, but I think
it really does the other players an
injustice because the fields are
so deep out here and there’s so
many other great young players,”
McIlroy said. “So just to focus on
us three ... OK, we’re at the top of
the rankings and we’ve won a few
majors between us, but I think it’s
just unfair to focus on us.”
He mentioned Rickie Fowler
and Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama.
All of them are at Muirfield Village, which features the top five
in the world. It’s enough to keep
their attention, even with Oakmont only two weeks away.
For Day, just playing better at
the course where he is a member
would help. He has never finished
better than a tie for 27th. Day
said part of the problem is that
he takes aggressive lines when
he is playing casual rounds with
friends, and that gets him in trouble during a tournament.
“I’m looking to change that this
week,” he said.
PAGE 60
F3HIJKLM
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
NBA/FRENCH OPEN
Thunder’s Durant
will take his time
to decide future
BY CLIFF BRUNT
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — Kevin
Durant has a lot to consider in the
next month.
The face of the Thunder franchise since its move from Seattle in 2008 is heading into free
agency, and what he chooses to
do after July 1 could shake up the
NBA landscape.
Durant was the 2014 MVP and
is a four-time scoring champion.
He led the Thunder to the NBA
Finals in 2012, and to the Western
Conference finals in four of the
past six years. He recovered from
a broken bone in his right foot
that cost him much of last season
to post one of the best years of
his career. At just 27, he is in his
prime and capable of being the
centerpiece of a championship
squad here — or elsewhere.
Durant would stand to make
significantly more money if he
signs for a year with Oklahoma
City, then signs a longer deal with
the Thunder the following year.
Two days after the Thunder lost
to the Golden State Warriors in
Game 7 of the conference finals,
Durant ruled nothing out.
“I really haven’t wrapped my
mind around it since it’s so fresh
coming out the playoffs,” he said
Wednesday. “I really haven’t
thought about next week, moreso
than next month or what’s going
to happen.”
With the salary cap going up,
many teams will have the money
to make a run at him. Washington,
Durant’s hometown team, recently hired former Thunder coach
Scott Brooks, whom Durant has
great respect for. Philadelphia’s
Joel Embiid and Boston’s Isaiah
Thomas have taken to Twitter in
hopes of luring Durant east.
Durant said there will be very
little outside influence on his
decision.
“I’ve got to just hear from me
and hear what I want, and talk to
myself on what I need and how
I can make this thing work for
myself, and just try to be a little
selfish,” he said. “Obviously, I’m
going to have some advice, but
also, I want to make the decision
that’s best for me.”
He said he loves his teammates,
and at times, he spoke as though
he planned to be back.
“Are we going to work on our
game and come back even better, or are we going to be excited
about what we did?” Durant said.
“Be complacent, or are we going
to want more? I think that’s the
next step for us all — thinking of
how we can all be better.”
Durant said he doesn’t plan
on bouncing from city to city as
teams try to woo him, stating,
“That’s not who I am.”
“It may seem like I’m not talking and I’m not giving information, but I’m just really trying
to make sure I tie everything
up properly and make this thing
right,” he said.
Durant has elevated Oklahoma’s profile so much that he was
inducted into the state’s Hall of
Fame late last year. And Durant
has made a point to have a local
presence. He donated $1 million
in disaster relief to the Red Cross
in 2013 after a tornado ravaged
south Oklahoma City and Moore.
He also owns a popular restaurant
in downtown Oklahoma City.
“He’s obviously had a great impact on this community and this
organization,” Thunder coach
Billy Donovan said. “... But this
is about what Kevin wants to do,
and it’s his decision.”
N ATE BILLINGS, THE O KLAHOMAN /AP
The Thunder’s Kevin Durant speaks during a news conference at the
team’s practice facility in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. Durant, the
face of the Oklahoma City franchise since its move from Seattle in
2008 is heading into free agency, and what he chooses to do could
shake up the NBA landscape.
MICHEL EULER /AP
Serena Williams returns to Yulia Putintseva in the quarterfinals of the French Open on Thursday in Paris.
Williams won 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the semifinals.
Serena rallies into semifinal
BY HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press
PARIS — Defending champion
Serena Williams pulled out quite
a comeback in the French Open
quarterfinals, coming back from
a set and a break down to beat
Yulia Putintseva 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
How close was Williams to her
earliest exit at a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon in 2014?
Putintseva, who is from Kazakhstan and ranked only 60th, twice
was a point from serving for the
biggest victory of her career.
“She played unbelievable. And
I honestly didn’t think I was going
to win that in the second set,” said
Williams, who will face another
unseeded opponent, 58th-ranked
Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands,
in the semifinals. “Somehow I
did.”
Yes, Williams came through,
as she so often does, overcoming
not only a relentless competitor in
Putintseva but also her own shakiness on a cloudy, chilly day that
included a brief rain delay in the
third game. The No. 1-seeded Williams’ strokes were off, her range
was wrong, to the tune of mistake
after mistake after mistake.
She made 11 unforced errors
before Putintseva committed a
single one, and at the end of the
first set, the count was 24-2, which
seems like it might be a typo but
is not. Williams got so desperate
at one point that she shifted her
racket to her left hand to try a
shot that way — and whiffed.
By the end, the unforced error
statistics read this way: Williams
43, Putintseva 16.
But by the end, too, Williams
was asserting herself as no one
else currently on tour can, winding up with twice as many winners as Putintseva, 36-18.
Still on target to win a fourth
straight major title and complete
a career Grand Slam, Novak
Djokovic advanced to the semifinals for a record sixth straight
time.
Scoreboard
Thursday
At Stade Roland Garros
Paris
Purse: $35.9 million (Grand Slam)
Surface: Clay-Outdoor
Singles
Men
Quarterfinals
Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, def. Tomas
Berdych (7), Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.
Dominic Thiem (13), Austria, def. David Goffin (12), Belgium, 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4,
6-1.
Women
Quarterfinals
Serena Williams (1), United States,
def. Yulia Putintseva, Kazakhstan, 5-7,
6-4, 6-1.
Kiki Bertens, Netherlands, def. Timea
Bacsinszky (8), Switzerland, 7-5, 6-2.
Doubles
Men
Quarterfinals
Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez (15),
Spain, def. Julien Benneteau and Edouard
Roger-Vasselin, France, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7).
Mixed
Quarterfinals
Martina Hingis, Switzerland, and Leander Paes, India, def. Elena Vesnina,
Russia, and Bruno Soares (5), Brazil, 6-4,
6-3.
Sania Mirza, India, and Ivan Dodig (2),
Croatia, def. Chan Yung-jan, Taiwan, and
Max Mirnyi (7), Belarus, 6-1, 3-6, 10-6.
Legends Doubles
Round Robin
Men Under 45
Michael Chang, United States, and
Alex Corretja, Spain, def. Arnaud Clement and Nicolas Escude, France, 6-1, 6-4.
Sebastien Grosjean and Fabrice Santoro, France, def. Thomas Enqvist and
Magnus Norman, Sweden, 6-4, 6-4.
Men Over 45
Sergi Bruguera, Spain, and Goran
Ivanisevic, Croatia, def. Arnaud Boetsch
and Henri Leconte, France, 6-3, 6-3.
Yannick Noah and Cedric Pioline,
France, def. Mikael Pernfors and Mats
Wilander, Sweden, 6-4, 6-4.
Women
Lindsay Davenport and Martina Navratilova, United States, def. Marion Bartoli
and Sandrine Testud, France, 6-4, 6-4.
Conchita Martinez, Spain, and Nathalie Tauziat, France, def. Tracy AustinHolt, United States, and Kim Clijsters,
Belgium, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-8.
The top-seeded Serb beat
Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-3
Thursday, a day after completing
a four-set win over Roberto Bautista Agut.
“I’m very pleased to be in semifinals of another Grand Slam,”
Djokovic said after reaching his
30th major semifinal. “But because of the fact that I have to
play every day, my focus right
away goes for recovery and the
next match. I don’t have much
time.”
Only Roger Federer, with 39
major semifinals, and Jimmy
Connors, with 31, have participated in more major semifinals in
the Open era.
Djokovic will next face No. 13
Dominic Thiem. The Austrian
beat No. 12 David Goffin of Belgium 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1.
Williams now can continue her
quest for a 22nd Grand Slam title,
which would equal Steffi Graf’s
Open-era record.
Since getting No. 21 at Wimbledon a year ago for her fourth
consecutive major championship,
Williams has bowed out in the
semifinals of the U.S. Open last
September against Roberta Vinci
of Italy — ending the American’s
bid for a calendar-year Grand
Slam — and in the final of the Australian Open this January against
Angelique Kerber of Germany.
This setback would have come
in the quarterfinals, though, and
against a more unheralded opponent. Putintseva is only 21, 13
years younger than Williams,
and had never been past the third
round of any major tournament
until this one.
Yet Putintseva — who used to
train with Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou — threw her
5-foot-4 (1.63-meter) frame into
groundstrokes to send balls deep
into the court and make things
rather interesting for two sets.
At 5-all in the first, Williams
went ahead 40-love on her serve,
only to get broken. Putintseva
then served out that set at love
when Williams — what else? —
flubbed a backhand. Putintseva
yelled with joy and waved her
arms, telling the spectators to rejoice with her.
Williams hadn’t lost a set in the
tournament until this match, and
this was more like a year ago at
Roland Garros, where she was
forced to win five three-setters on
the way to the championship.
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 61
NBA
Unsung
hero
Iguodala’s stingy defense
keys Warriors return to Finals
BY JANIE MCCAULEY
Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — All season long, MVP Stephen Curry,
Klay Thompson and Draymond
Green drew the attention and
accolades.
When it comes to the biggest
moments of the playoffs, that’s
when the Golden State Warriors
turn to Andre Iguodala.
Last year’s NBA Finals MVP is
a major reason why the defending
champions are back in this spot
with a chance to repeat.
“He’s always kind of our unsung hero. He never has the numbers that jump out at you in the
box score, so people don’t write
about him or show him much on
the highlights,” coach Steve Kerr
said. “But he’s a phenomenal defensive player and he’s an incredibly intelligent player. He settles
us down on offense and takes the
toughest
assignment
on
He’s such a defense.”
Not
Swiss Army
being
knife kind of bad
compared
guy where
to Scottie
he can do so Pippen,
either.
much on the
Iguodala’s stingy,
floor ...
Stephen Curry reliable deWarriors point guard fense while
regularly
drawing
the opponent’s best player has
earned him that very compliment
from Kerr, a former teammate of
Pippen’s on the Chicago Bulls.
Last June, the play of Iguodala
against LeBron James helped
swing the NBA Finals for the
Warriors, and he was called upon
again to handle the daunting load
that is Kevin Durant in the deciding Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
He shined, as usual. The unflappable Iguodala appeared
loose while joking around with
teammates on the Oracle Arena
court after Wednesday’s practice
ahead of Game 1 against the Cavaliers on Thursday. He played 43
minutes in just his second start of
the season and first of these playoffs for the 73-win Warriors in a
96-88 win Monday night.
In the last two games when the
Warriors depended on his defense against Durant, he played
more than 81 minutes combined
for his highest two outputs of any
regulation game all season.
“He’s going to need some good
‘
’
Game 2
Cleveland at Golden State
AFN-Sports
2 a.m. Monday CET
9 a.m. Monday JKT
treatment tomorrow, for sure,”
Curry said only half-jokingly
afterward. “He’s such a Swiss
Army knife kind of guy where he
can do so much on the floor ... just
his presence as a playmaker and
a seasoned vet. You kind of never
know what’s on his mind by looking at his face. He always kind of
has the same mannerisms and
whatnot, and it keeps us just composed and at peace with whatever
the situation is.”
Inserting Iguodala back into
the starting lineup Monday
proved a spot-on move by Kerr,
who made a similar switch during
last year’s Finals as Golden State
beat James and Cleveland in six
games for the franchise’s first
championship in 40 years. Kerr
used Iguodala to start the second
of a thrilling Game 6 comeback at
Oklahoma City, too.
He’s rarely rattled. Now, he will
get up close and personal with
James again.
“Dre’s a great defender, I think
one of the greatest we have in this
league,” Green said. “LeBron’s
one of the greatest players we
have in this league.”
The Warriors greatly missed
Iguodala’s presence and energy
off the bench in March as he
nursed a left ankle injury.
After Golden State lost Game
1 to the Thunder at home, Iguodala missed his first five shots in
a Game 2 win before a beautiful
double-clutch, no-look layup in
the final minute of the first half
and then an alley-oop dunk the
next time down that put the Warriors up 57-49 at halftime. He finished with 14 points.
“I was just trying to flip it up
there, I was trying not to kill myself on the way down. I was trying to land,” Iguodala said of his
highlight-reel play.
The 32-year-old Iguodala, acquired in a trade from Denver
on July 10, 2013, averaged 16.3
points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists
and 1.3 steals in 37 minutes on
the way to Finals MVP honors
BEN M ARGOT/AP
Thunder forward Kevin Durant, left, shoots as Warriors forward Andre Iguodala defends during Monday’s
Game 7 of the Western Conference finals in Oakland, Calif. Iguodala, last year’s NBA Finals MVP, is a
major reason why the defending champions are back in the Finals.
Scoreboard
NBA Finals
(Best-of-seven; x-if necessary)
Thursday: at Golden State
Sunday: at Golden State
Wednesday: at Cleveland
TV: AFN-Sports, 3 a.m. Thursday CET;
10 a.m. Thursday JKT
Friday, June 10: at Cleveland
TV: AFN-Sports, 3 a.m. Saturday CET;
10 a.m. Saturday JKT
x-Monday, June 13: at Golden State
TV: AFN-Sports, 3 a.m. Tuesday CET;
10 a.m. Tuesday JKT
x-Thursday, June 16: at Cleveland
TV: AFN-Sports, 3 a.m. Friday CET; 10
a.m. Friday JKT
x-Sunday, June 19: at Golden State
TV: AFN-Sports, 2 a.m. Monday CET; 9
a.m. Monday JKT
M ARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ /AP
Golden State’s Andre Iguodala, right, is defended by Oklahoma
City’s Randy Foye during the Western Conference finals May 26.
last June. That included a 25point performance in the Game 6
clincher.
Iguodala took a trip to Germany last offseason to receive special injections in his troublesome
knees. Lately, he has stayed ready
for increased minutes through
regular work in the weight room.
Whatever his assignment, Kerr
appreciates Iguodala as one of the
smartest players he knows.
“The job is difficult, but he’s
made for it. He really is. He reminds me so much of Scottie Pippen,” Kerr said. “His body type,
his intelligence, his ability to read
what’s happening at both ends.
But particularly on defense, the
instinct is there. Andre knows
that’s going to be his job, and he’s
always up to the task.”
F3HIJKLM
PAGE 62
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
•
NBA/NHL
Golden: California’s Bay Area enjoying sports renaissance
FROM BACK PAGE
A group of Athletics went over
to watch a Warriors shootaround
before one of their own games
earlier this postseason. Raiders
coach and Bay Area native Jack
Del Rio has attended both Sharks
and Warriors playoff games this
spring.
“I think it’s inspiring for sure,”
Del Rio said. “I take great pride in
having been from this area. Even
when it wasn’t good, Warriors
had some lean years, whatever.
Different sports teams have lean
years, if you’re a true fan, you’re
still there. But there’s nothing like it when you get it going
and we’re all enjoying it. That’s
what’s happening right now with
the Warriors and the Sharks, and
we’d love to join that.”
The drama started Monday
when the Warriors won Game 7
of the Western Conference finals
at home, while the Sharks were
losing Game 1 of the Cup Final in
Pittsburgh.
That was the last overlap game
of the season for the two teams,
meaning fans can put their remotes aside
and
focus
on only one
Just to
game
each
night.
see the
The
Warcity on fire riors will host
for both
Cleveland
in Games 1
teams
and 2 of the
is pretty
NBA Finals
on Thursday
sweet.
Derek Carr and Sunday
nights. The
Raiders QB
Sharks will
host
Pittsburgh in Games 3 and 4 of the
Stanley Cup Final on Saturday
and Monday.
“It’s something that you strive
toward,” Raiders quarterback
Derek Carr said. “Just to see the
city on fire for both teams is pretty sweet.”
For those with more national
than local pride, there’s even
some big-time soccer in the
area as well. The U.S. men’s soccer team opens play in the Copa
America tournament in Santa
Clara on Friday night against
Colombia, while Lionel Messi
and Argentina take on Chile on
Monday.
This marks the ninth time that
one market will host the championships for the NBA and the
NHL in the same year, with the
Bay Area joining East Rutherford, New Jersey (2003), New
York City (1972 and ‘94), Chicago
(1992), Philadelphia (1980) and
Boston (1974, ‘58 and ‘57).
None of those markets won
both titles in the same year, with
New York coming closest in 1994
when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup against Vancouver and
the Knicks lost the NBA Finals to
Houston in seven games.
This is the best run for Bay
Area teams since the A’s won
three World Series titles from
1972-74, the Warriors won the
NBA championship in 1975 and
the Raiders won the Super Bowl
following the 1976 season.
This current run started in
2010 when the Giants won their
‘
’
M ARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ /AP
Golden State’s Stephen Curry answers questions after practice on Wednesday. The Warriors welcomed the Cleveland Cavaliers to Oakland,
Calif., Thursday night for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
first World Series since moving
to San Francisco. They followed
that up with titles in 2012 and ‘14
and are currently in first place
in the NL West as they hope to
extend their streak of even-year
championships.
After years of struggles, the
Warriors have turned it around
under owners Joe Lacob and
Peter Guber. They won their
first championship in 40 years
last season and followed that up
by winning a record 73 games in
the regular season and making it
back to the Finals.
The Sharks shed 25 years of
playoff disappointment this year
when they made it to the Stanley
Cup Final for the first time ever.
The 49ers are just over three
years removed from a Super
Bowl trip and even hosted the big
game earlier this year, meaning
that three of North America’s
Big Four team sports will contest
their championships in the Bay
Area in a span of less than four
months.
Even the Raiders appear to be
on the rise after 13 straight seasons without a playoff berth.
“We’ve been blessed with some
great sports organizations and
success from when I was here,
the Niners were so good,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said.
“They were going to the championship game every year. They
were playing in the Super Bowl.
The Giants obviously won in the
World Series, and the Raiders
make another resurgence, and
obviously with the Sharks and
the Stanley Cup, it’s really cool.”
Did you know
G ENE J. PUSKAR /AP
San Jose goalie Martin Jones stops a shot by the Penguins during
the first period in Wednesday’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final in
Pittsburgh. Trailing 2-0, the Sharks host the Penguins on Sunday as
the series shifts to San Jose.
In the
eight previous
instances of
one market
hosting the
championships for the
NBA and the NHL in
the same year, both
local teams have never
won:
2003: New Jersey
Devils won Cup/Nets
lost in the NBA Finals.
1994: New York
Rangers won Cup/
Knicks lost.
1993: Chicago
Bulls won Finals/
Blackhawks lost.
1980: The 76ers and
the Flyers lost.
1974: Boston Celtics
won Finals/Bruins lost.
1972: The New York
Knicks and Rangers
lost.
1958: The Celtics won,
but the Bruins lost.
1957: The Celtics
won, but the Bruins
lost.
SOURCE: Associated Press
•STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
F3HIJKLM
•
PAGE 63
STANLEY CUP FINAL
Scoreboard
Stanley Cup Final
(Best-of-seven; x-if necessary)
Pittsburgh 2, San Jose 0
Pittsburgh 3, San Jose 2
Wednesday: Pittsburgh 2, San Jose 1,
OT
Saturday: at San Jose
Monday: at San Jose
x-Thursday, June 9: at Pittsburgh
x-Sunday, June 12: at San Jose
x-Wednesday, June 15: at Pittsburgh
Wednesday
Penguins 2, Sharks 1 (OT)
San Jose
0 0 1 0—1
Pittsburgh
0 1 0 1—2
Second Period—1, Pittsburgh, Kessel
10 (Bonino, Hagelin), 8:20.
Third Period—2, San Jose, Braun 1
(Couture, Ward), 15:55.
Overtime—3, Pittsburgh, Sheary (Letang, Crosby), 2:35.
Shots on Goal—San Jose 6-5-9-2—21.
Pittsburgh 11-12-6-1—30.
Power-play opportunities—San Jose 0
of 1; Pittsburgh 0 of 2.
Goalies—San Jose, Jones 12-8 (30
shots-28 saves). Pittsburgh, Murray 13-4
(21-20).
A—18,387 (18,387). T—2:50.
2016 playoff overtime goals
First round
April 13 — St. Louis 1, Chicago 0, OT,
David Backes, 9:04.
April 17 — N.Y. Islanders 4, Florida 3,
OT, Thomas Hickey, 12:31.
April 18 — Los Angeles 2, San Jose 1,
OT, Tanner Pearson, 3:47.
April 21 — Chicago 4, St. Louis 3, 2OT,
Patrick Kane, 3:07.
2OT, Alan Quine, 16:00.
April 22 — Minnesota 5, Dallas 4, OT,
Mikko Koivu, 4:55.
2OT, John Tavares, 10:41.
Second round
April 28 — Washington 4, Pittsburgh 3,
OT, T.J. Oshie, 9:33.
May 1 — St. Louis 4, Dallas 3, OT, David
Bakes, 10:58.
May 3 — Tampa Bay 5, N.Y. Islanders 4,
OT, Brian Boyle, 2:48.
May 4 — Pittsburgh 3, Washington 2,
OT, Patric Hornqvist, 2:34.
May 5 — Dallas 3, St. Louis 2, OT, Cody
Eakin, 2:58.
May 5 — Nashville 4, San Jose 3, 3OT,
Mike Fisher, 11:12.
May 6 — Tampa Bay 2, N.Y. Islanders 1,
OT, Jason Garrison, 1:34.
May 9 — Nashville 4, San Jose 3, OT,
Viktor Arvidsson, 2:03.
May 10 — Pittsburgh 3, Washington 3,
OT, Nick Bonino, 6:32.
Conference finals
May 16 — Pittsburgh 3, Tampa Bay 2,
OT, Sidney Crosby, :40.
May 22 — Tampa Bay 4, Pittsburgh 3,
OT, Tyler Johnson, :53.
Stanley Cup Final
June 1 — Pittsburgh 2, San Jose 1, OT,
Conor Sheary, 2:35.
G ENE J. PUSKAR /AP
The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, left, and Patric Hornqvist, right, celebrate a goal by Conor Sheary against goalie Martin Jones during overtime
of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday in Pittsburgh. The Penguins won 2-1 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Penguins win in OT
Sheary’s goal gives Pittsburgh 2-0 series lead
BY WILL GRAVES
Associated Press
G ENE J. PUSKAR /AP
The Penguins’ Patric Hornqvist, center, takes position between the
Sharks’ Roman Polak, front, and Sharks goalie Martin Jones.
PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby enters the faceoff circle with a
plan every time, well aware it will
almost certainly evaporate once
the puck smacks the ice.
That doesn’t stop the Pittsburgh superstar from doing it,
because every once in a while the
idea in his head morphs into reality. Times like Wednesday night,
when Crosby’s improvisation
helped move the Penguins within
two victories of the Stanley Cup.
Crosby’s faceoff win helped
set up Conor Sheary’s perfectly
placed wrist shot 2:35 into overtime, one that lifted the Penguins
to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose
Sharks and a 2-0 lead in the bestof-seven series.
“I call 25 faceoffs a night,”
Crosby said with a laugh. “I got
24 wrong tonight.”
It’s the one Crosby got right
Game 3
Pittsburgh at San Jose
AFN-Sports
2 a.m. Sunday CET
9 a.m. Sunday JKT
that will live on if the Penguins
find a way to close out their fourth
championship. Just before heading to the dot to the right of San
Jose goalie Martin Jones, Crosby
told Sheary to line up on the wall
and then look for a soft spot in the
San Jose defense.
Crosby won the draw and
dropped it to defenseman Kris
Letang, who feigned a shot then
slipped it to Sheary. The 23-yearold rookie zipped it over Jones’
outstretched glove for his fourth
goal of the playoffs and second of
the series.
“It’s pretty surreal,” said
Sheary, who began the season in
the minor leagues.
Game 3 is Saturday night in
San Jose.
Sharks defenseman Justin
Braun tied it with 4:05 left in
regulation, but San Jose fell to
0-4 when pushed to overtime in
the playoffs after getting largely
outplayed for much of the night
by the quicker Penguins.
Phil Kessel scored his 10th
goal of the postseason for Pittsburgh, and Matt Murray made
21 stops. The Penguins have not
trailed at any point while reeling
off four straight playoff victories
after falling behind in the Eastern Conference finals against
Tampa Bay.
STA
R S
A N D
ST
R I P E S
Friday, June 3, 2016 F3HIJKLM
SPORTS
Late lift
Sheary’s overtime goal gives Penguins
2-0 series lead » Stanley Cup, Page 63
Golden Age
AP photos
Above: Golden State’s Stephen Curry gestures during practice on Wednesday in Oakland, Calif. Left: San Jose fan Mike Nelson smiles
before Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Sharks and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday.
Bay Area playing host to NBA Finals, Stanley Cup
BY JOSH DUBOW
Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif.
tephen Curry and LeBron
James dueling on the court in
the NBA Finals as the Golden
State Warriors look to cap a record-breaking season with a second
straight title. Joe Thornton and Sidney
Crosby matching up on the ice as
the San Jose Sharks look to win
the Stanley Cup for the first
time ever.
The Bay Area that is
usually known
for high-tech
innovations,
wine
country and spectacular views
will be the center of the sports
S
world this weekend when it plays host to
both the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup
Final, as well as the Copa America soccer
tournament.
“This is great for sports fans, regardless of if you follow each respective sport
all year-round or whatnot, this is a great
time to kind of tune in and be a sports fan
in the Bay Area,” Curry said. “Obviously,
the world’s eyes are going to be here in
Oakland, San Jose, Levi’s Stadium. So it’s
fun.”
Everyone is getting on board, with
several players from the area’s other
teams frequently attending Warriors and
Sharks playoff games. When the Sharks
clinched a Stanley Cup berth, 49ers general manager Trent Baalke was right
next to Sharks counterpart Doug Wilson
offering congratulations.
‘ I think it’s inspiring, for
sure. I take great pride in
having been from this area.
... Different sports teams
have lean years, if you’re a
true fan, you’re still there.
But there’s nothing like it
when you get it going and
we’re all enjoying it. That’s
what’s happening right now
with the Warriors and the
Sharks, and we’d love to
join that.
SEE GOLDEN ON PAGE 62
Serena rallies to quarterfinal victory » French Open, Page 60
’
Jack Del Rio
Oakland Raiders coach

we will be charting a course of our own - Previous Issues

Transcription

Similar documents

I`m helping to end MS by participating in the 2016 Jayman BUILT MS

The Board of Directors of Qatar Fuel (WOQOD) is pleased to invite

Annonce S1

Parish Office: 408 293 3503 MASS SCHEDULE – HORARIO de

Rush Hour Rewards can save you money Join us for

waiver guidelines jakarta incident

2016 Winter Newsletter

Please join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/einsteinaward

Flyer! - Cruzzin` Dreams

GRACE Business Directory v2016-08-05