BY CRAIG WHITLOCK

The Washington Post

In the beginning, the rationale for in-vading Afghanistan was clear: to de-stroy al-Qaida, topple the Taliban and prevent a repeat of the 9/11 terrorist

attacks.Within six months, the U.S. had largely

accomplished what it set out to do. The lead-ers of al-Qaida and the Taliban were dead, captured or in hiding.

But then the U.S. government committed a fundamental mistake it would repeat again and again over the next 17 years, according to a cache of government documents ob-tained by The Washington Post.

In hundreds of confidential interviews that constitute a secret history of the war,

U.S. and allied officials admitted they veered off in directions that had little to do with al-Qaida or 9/11. By expanding the original

mission, they said they adopted fatally flawed warfight-ing strategies based on misguided as-sumptions about a country they did not understand.

The result: an un-winnable conflict with no easy way out.

“If there was ever a notion of mission creep it is Afghanistan,” said Richard Boucher, who served as the State Department’s top diplomat for South

Asia from 2006 to 2009, according to a tran-script of what he told government inter-viewers in 2015. He added: “We have to say good enough is good enough. That is why we are there 15 years later. We are trying to achieve the unachievable instead of achiev-ing the achievable.”

In unusually candid interviews, officials who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama said both leaders failed in their most important task as com-manders in chief — to devise a clear strat-egy with concise, attainable objectives.

Diplomats and military commanders ac-knowledged they struggled to answer simple questions: Who is the enemy? Whom can we count on as allies? How will we know when we have won?SEE AFGHANISTAN ON PAGE 4

MILITARY Families air grievances over housing; officialstout new oversightPage 6

NFL Jackson, Ravens whip Jets, clinch AFC North titleBack page

Johnson claims Brexit mandate with new conservative majority » Page 10

VIDEO GAMES Sony titles offer unique interactive VR experiencesPage 12

Volume 78, No. 172A ©SS 2019 CONTINGENCY EDITION SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2019 stripes.com Free to Deployed Areas

A U.S. Marine trainer for the Afghan National Army looks back as he finishes a patrol with U.S. and Afghan soldiers, in Kunar province, northeastern Afghanistan, in 2010. AP

Stranded without a planUS lacked a clear war strategy in Afghanistan, officials acknowledge

‘ If there was ever a notion of mission creep it is Afghanistan. ’

Richard Boucherformer diplomat,

U.S. State Department

BY LISA MASCAROAND MARY CLARE JALONICK

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Democrats propelled President Donald Trump’s impeachment toward a vote by the full U.S. House on Friday, as the Judiciary Commit-tee approved charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Con-gress in the constitutional and political storm that has divided Congress and the nation.

The House is expected to ap-prove the two articles of impeach-ment next week, before lawmakers depart for the holidays.

The partisan committee split — 23 Democrats to 17 Republi-cans — reflects the general atmo-sphere in the full Congress. The Democratic-majority House is expected to approve the charges against Trump next week, but the Republican-controlled Senate is likely to acquit him after a Janu-ary trial.

Trump is accused, in the first article, of abusing his presiden-tial power by asking Ukraine to investigate his 2020 rival Joe Biden while holding military aid as leverage, and, in the second, of obstructing Congress by blocking the House’s efforts to probe his actions.

“No one is above the law; the president will be held account-able for his abuse of power and for his obstruction of Congress,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday as the Judiciary panel argued over the charges.

After Friday’s votes, Trump’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, labeled the proceedings a “desperate charade” and said, “The President looks forward to receiving in the Senate the fair treatment and due process which continues to be disgracefully de-nied to him by the House.”

SEE TRUMP ON PAGE 7

Panel vote sends Trump charges to full House

IMPEACHMENT

PAGE 2 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

American Roundup ............ 14Books .............................. 11Comics ............................. 16Crossword ........................ 16Health & Fitness ............... 13Opinion ............................ 15Sports ......................... 17-24Video Games ..................... 12

T O D A YIN STRIPES

Military ratesEuro costs (Dec. 16) .........................$1.1463Dollar buys (Dec. 16) ........................€0.8724British pound (Dec. 16) ........................ $1.37Japanese yen (Dec. 16) ......................106.00South Korean won (Dec. 16) ..........1,143.00

Commercial ratesBahrain (Dinar) ...................................0.3770British pound $ ....................................1.3330Canada (Dollar) .................................. 1.3174China (Yuan) .......................................6.9729Denmark (Krone) ............................... 6.7001Egypt (Pound) ...................................16.1225Euro ....................................... $1.1154/0.8966Hong Kong (Dollar) ............................ 7.7968Hungary (Forint) ................................295.51Israel (Shekel) ....................................3.4822Japan (Yen) ..........................................109.30Kuwait (Dinar) ....................................0.3033Norway (Krone) ..................................9.0464Philippines (Peso) ................................50.65Poland (Zloty) ......................................... 3.83Saudi Arabia (Riyal) ..........................3.7504Singapore (Dollar) .............................1.3532South Korea (Won) ..........................1175.23

Switzerland (Franc) ...........................0.9824Thailand (Baht) ....................................30.22Turkey (New Lira) ..............................5.8087(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.)

EXCHANGE RATES

INTEREST RATESPrime rate ................................................ 4.75Discount rate .......................................... 2.25Federal funds market rate ................... 1.553-month bill ............................................. 1.5330-year bond ........................................... 2.32

BUSINESS/WEATHER

WEATHER OUTLOOK

Bahrain73/69

Baghdad64/51

Doha77/64

KuwaitCity

65/56

Riyadh75/54

Djibouti84/74

Kandahar53/39

Kabul39/26

SATURDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUNDAY IN THE PACIFIC

Misawa35/31

Guam83/77

Tokyo47/37

Okinawa71/67

Sasebo54/46

Iwakuni49/45

Seoul44/27

Osan45/27 Busan

51/34

The weather is provided by the American Forces Network Weather Center,

2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

Mildenhall/Lakenheath

43/37

Ramstein43/33

Stuttgart44/36

Lajes,Azores65/61

Rota59/56

Morón58/53 Sigonella

61/52

Naples54/46

Aviano/Vicenza42/28

Pápa43/36

Souda Bay60/57

SATURDAY IN EUROPE

Brussels44/39

Zagan39/33

Drawsko Pomorskie

39/32

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. has canceled plans to im-pose new tariffs on $160 billion worth of Chinese imports Sun-day as part of a modest interim agreement that de-escalates a 17-month trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

The United States is also re-ducing existing import taxes on about $112 billion in Chinese goods from 15% to 7.5%

In return, Trump said on Twit-ter, the Chinese have agreed to “massive” purchases of Ameri-can farm and manufactured products. He did not specify how big those purchases would be.

Chinese officials said at a brief-ing in Beijing that if Washing-ton reduces the tariffs, China will lower its trade penalties on American goods and also scrap plans for new tariffs Sunday.

“China is ready to work with the U.S. side to do more to pro-mote growth in trade,” said Liao

Min, deputy finance minister.Asked to confirm reports that

Beijing had committed to buy $50 billion of American farm goods, Liao said details would be re-leased later.

The “Phase 1” deal announced Friday leaves unresolved some of the thorniest issues. But Trump said work on a follow-up would begin “immediately, rather than waiting until after the 2020 Elec-tion. This is an amazing deal for all. Thank you!”

US reaches deal with China, suspends tariffs

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 3Saturday, December 14, 2019

BY CAITLIN M. KENNEY

Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — Service members will see an increase to their basic housing allowance and basic pay rates starting Jan. 1, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The basic housing allowance rate will increase by an average of 2.8% and basic pay will in-crease 3.1% for service members, according to a Defense Depart-ment statement.

The basic subsistence allow-ance rate will also increase 0.9%. Enlisted service members will receive $372.71 per month, an increase of $3.32, and officers will receive $256.68 per month, an increase of $2.29. The subsis-tence allowance offsets the cost of a service member’s meals for

the month.The housing allowance is given

to service members who live off base and depends on their loca-tion, pay grade and whether they have dependents. Service mem-bers who live in base housing have the allowance deducted from their paychecks automatically.

The Pentagon estimates $22 billion will be paid to about one million service members. The DOD expects the specific basic pay rates will be released by ex-ecutive order soon.

In 2020, service members will pay out-of-pocket 5% of the na-tional average housing cost by their pay grade. Depending on their pay grade and whether they have dependents, the out-of-pock-et amount for service members will be between $68 and $148

monthly, according to the Penta-gon. The cost-sharing percentage was increased to 5% in 2019 as mandated by the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

For more information on Basic Allowance for Housing, includ-ing the 2020 Basic Allowance for Housing rates and 2020 Basic Allowance for Housing rate com-ponent breakdown, visit www.de-fensetravel.dod.mil/site/bah.cfm.

Service members can calcu-late their BAH payment by using the Basic Allowance for Hous-ing calculator at www.defense-travel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm. (NOTE: You need to select 2020 from the drop-down menu to find the correct rate.)kenney.caitlin@stripes.comTwitter: @caitlinmkenney

BY JENNIFER MCDERMOTT

Associated Press

The U.S. Coast Guard’s leader-ship has failed to conduct prompt, thorough and impartial investiga-tions of harassment and bullying allegations, according to a con-gressional investigation released Wednesday.

The report, called “Righting the Ship,” also found Coast Guard leaders didn’t hold officials ac-countable for deficient and in-complete investigations and didn’t take corrective action to address retaliation against people who report harassment and bul-lying. It concludes that the ser-vice needs to make “significant improvements” in its policies and procedures.

The U.S. House Oversight and Homeland Security Committees launched the 18-month investiga-

tion after questions were raised about how complaints were han-dled at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn . Subcom-mittees for the two committees discussed the findings Wednes-day during a joint hearing.

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Mi-chael McAllister said at the hear-ing the service’s senior leaders are taking “every step to foster and develop a climate that’s free from harassment, bullying and retaliation” and take all com-plaints seriously.

McAllister, the deputy com-mandant for mission support, spoke about changes the Coast Guard has made to the way it handles allegations, including up-dating its civil rights awareness training, creating new positions to improve oversight at the acad-emy and revising procedures to require commanders to notify

their superior of the findings and outcomes of harassment, hate, hazing and bullying inquiries.

McAllister acknowledged there’s room for improvement and said he looked forward to “enhancing our policies” with help from Congress.

The report includes a case involving Lt. Cmdr. Kimberly Young-McLear. She reported in 2015 that her supervisor harassed her and created a hostile work en-vironment, partly because she is a lesbian and a black woman. The report says the academy never investigated her allegations, in-stead using an alternative dispute resolution process.

Young-McLear, who testified Wednesday, said she turned to the Department of Homeland Securi-ty’s Office of Inspector General after she suffered retaliation for making the complaints.

BY ROBERT BURNS

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Pen-tagon on Thursday flight-tested a missile that had been banned under a treaty that the United States and Russia abandoned last summer. Some U.S. arms con-trol advocates said the test risks an unnecessary arms race with Moscow.

The prototype missile was con-figured to be armed with a non-nuclear warhead. The Pentagon declined to disclose specifics beyond saying the missile was launched from a “static launch stand” at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and landed in the open ocean. The Defense De-partment said the ballistic mis-sile flew about 300 miles.

The test comes amid growing uncertainty about the future of arms control. The last remain-ing treaty limitation on U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons — the New START treaty of 2010 — is scheduled to expire in February 2021. That treaty can be extended for as long as five years without requiring a renegotiation of its main terms. The Trump admin-istration has indicated little inter-est in doing so.

The Pentagon declined to re-veal the maximum range of the missile tested. Last spring, when U.S. officials disclosed the testing

plan, they said it would be rough-ly 1,860 miles to 2,480 miles . Thatis sufficient to reach potentialtargets in parts of China from abase on Guam, for example. The Pentagon has made no basing decisions and has suggested thatit will take at least a few yearsbefore such a missile would be ready for deployment.

Under the 1987 Intermedi-ate-range Nuclear Forces treaty,land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range between 310 miles to 3,417 miles were prohib-ited. The Trump administration chose to abandon the INF treaty,saying that while it had adheredto the treaty’s limitations, Russiahad violated it by deploying a non-compliant cruise missile aimed at U.S. allies in Europe. Shortlyafter exiting the treaty in August,the Pentagon flight-tested anINF-range cruise missile.

In a brief appearance beforereporters after the test announce-ment, Defense Secretary MarkEsper was asked whether the Pen-tagon is considering deploying anINF-range missile to Europe.

“Once we develop intermedi-ate-range missiles, and if my commanders require them, thenwe will work closely and consultclosely with our allies in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere with regardsto any possible deployments,” Esper said.

BY LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — No new international military students will come to the United States for training until new screening pro-cedures are in place, the Penta-gon said Thursday in the wake of the deadly shooting last week by a Saudi Arabian aviation trainee at a Florida Navy base.

The Defense Department’s chief spokesman said there is no explicit ban on new students, but none will enter the country the department expands its role in the screening process and begins the additional reviews. Currently, the bulk of the screening is done by the departments of State and Homeland Security, as well as the host nation.

Jonathan Hoffman told report-ers that new screening guidelines should be in place in the coming days. The deputy defense secre-tary ordered a 10-day review of the vetting process earlier this week.

Federal authorities say SaudiAir Force 2nd Lt. MohammedAlshamrani, 21, killed three U.S.sailors and injured eight otherpeople at the Pensacola Naval Air Station last Friday. Investigatorsare digging into whether he actedalone, amid reports he hosteda party earlier last week wherehe and others watched videos ofmass shootings.

About a dozen Saudi studentswho were acquaintances of theshooter are currently confined to the base. The Pentagon hassuspended flight and other op-erational training for all Saudi Arabian students in U.S. military programs.

Asked why the safety restric-tion was applied to all Saudis andwhether there are concerns thatthere is a broader threat from students from the country, Hoff-man said the decision “seemed prudent.”

He said the enhanced screen-ing, when completed, will affect all international students.

Service members will see increase in housing allowance, basic pay in 2020

MILITARY

Congress criticizes Coast Guard’s response to harassment, bullying

Pentagon tests once-banned ballistic missile

US: No new foreign military students until better checks

SEAN D. ELLIOT, THE DAY/AP

Whisky 2 company Cadre Jacob Denns, right, shouts instructions, on July 1, to swab Nicolas Fisher at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. On Wednesday, Congress will release results of an investigation into how the Coast Guard handles complaints of harassment and bullying .

PAGE 4 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

This is an abridged version of the Washington Post report. For a full version of this story and others in the Post’s special package on Afghanistan, visit:stripes.com/news/middle-east

FROM FRONT PAGE

Their strategies differed, but Bush and Obama both commit-ted early blunders that they never recovered from, according to the interviews.

After a succession of quick military victories in 2001 and early 2002, Bush decided to keep a light force of U.S. troops in Af-ghanistan indefinitely to hunt sus-pected terrorists. Soon, however, he made plans to invade another nation — Iraq — and Afghanistan quickly became an afterthought.

James Dobbins, a career diplo-mat who served as a special envoy for Afghanistan under Bush and Obama, told government inter-viewers it was a hubristic mistake that should have been obvious from the start.

“First, you know, sort of just in-vade only one country at a time. I mean that seriously,” Dobbins said, according to a transcript of his remarks. “They take a lot of high-level time and attention and we’ll overload the system if we do more than one of these at a time.”

By the time Obama took office in 2009, al-Qaida had largely van-ished from Afghanistan. But the Taliban had made a comeback.

Obama tore up Bush’s counter-terrorism strategy and approved a polar-opposite plan — a massive counterinsurgency campaign, backed by 150,000 U.S. and NATO troops, as well as tons of aid for a weak Afghan government.

In contrast with Bush, Obama imposed strict deadlines and promised to bring home all U.S. troops by the end of his presidency.

But Obama’s strategy was also destined to fail. U.S., NATO and Afghan officials told government interviewers that it tried to ac-complish too much, too quickly, and depended on an Afghan gov-ernment that was corrupt and dysfunctional.

Worse, they said, Obama tried to set artificial dates for ending the war before it was over. All the Taliban had to do was wait him out.

“There were a number of faulty assumptions in the strategy: Af-ghanistan is ready for democ-racy overnight, the population will support the government in a short time frame, more of every-thing is better,” Bob Crowley, a retired Army colonel who served as a counterinsurgency adviser in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers.

Over the past 18 years, more than 775,000 U.S. troops have deployed to Afghanistan, many repeatedly. Of those, 2,300 died there and 20,589 came home wounded, according to Defense Department figures.

Today, about 13,000 U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan. The U.S. military acknowledges the Tal-iban is stronger now than at any point since 2001. Yet there has been no comprehensive public reckoning for the strategic fail-ures behind the longest war in American history.

In 2014, the Office of the Spe-cial Inspector General for Af-

ghanistan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR, launched an $11 mil-lion project — titled “Lessons Learned” — to study the war’s core mistakes. After interview-ing more than 600 people, agency researchers published seven re-ports that recommended policy changes.

In stark language, the docu-ments reveal that people who were directly involved in the war could not shake their doubts about the strategy and mission, even as Bush, Obama and, later, President Donald Trump told the American people it was neces-sary to keep fighting.

Jeffrey Eggers, a retired Navy SEAL and White House official under Bush and Obama, said few people paused to question the very premise for keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“Why did we make the Taliban the enemy when we were attacked by al-Qaida? Why did we want to defeat the Taliban?” Eggers said in a Lessons Learned interview. “Collectively the system is in-capable of taking a step back to question basic assumptions.”

Boucher, a career diplomat who also served as chief State Depart-ment spokesman under Bush, said U.S. officials did not know what they were doing.

“First, we went in to get al-Qaida, and to get al-Qaida out of Afghanistan, and even without killing bin Laden we did that,” Boucher told government in-terviewers. “The Taliban was shooting back at us so we started shooting at them and they be-came the enemy. Ultimately, we kept expanding the mission.”

Lulled into overconfidence by the apparent ease of conquering Afghanistan, the Bush adminis-tration refused to sit down with defeated Taliban leaders to nego-tiate a lasting peace — a decision U.S. officials would later regret.

The Taliban was excluded from

international conferences and Afghan gatherings from 2001 to 2003 that drew up a new govern-ment, even though some Taliban figures had shown a willingness to join in. Instead, the United States posted bounties for their capture and sent hundreds to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“A major mistake we made was treating the Taliban the same as al-Qaida,” Barnett Rubin, an American academic expert on Afghanistan who served as an ad-viser to the United Nations at the time, told government interview-ers. “Key Taliban leaders were interested in giving the new sys-tem a chance, but we didn’t give them a chance.”

The Taliban was not involved in the 9/11 attacks; none of the hijackers or planners were Af-ghans. But the Bush administra-tion categorized Taliban leaders as terrorists because they had given al-Qaida sanctuary and refused to hand over Osama bin Laden.

Belatedly, U.S. officials came to realize it was impossible to vanquish the group. Today, Pen-tagon officials say the only way to end the war is with a politi-cal settlement in which the Tal-iban reconciles with the Afghan government.

Last year, the U.S. government opened direct, high-level peace talks with the Taliban for the first time. The lead U.S. envoy is Zal-may Khalilzad, an Afghan Amer-ican diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and later as am-bassador to Iraq and the United Nations.

In a Lessons Learned interview in December 2016, Khalilzad acknowledged that by refusing to talk to the Taliban, the Bush administration may have blown a chance to end the war shortly after it started.

“Maybe we were not agile or wise enough to reach out to the Taliban early on, that we thought they were defeated and that they needed to be brought to justice, rather than that they should be accommodated or some recon-ciliation be done,” he said.

In Lessons Learned interviews, other officials said the Bush ad-ministration compounded its early mistake with the Taliban by making another critical error — treating Pakistan as a friend.

Pakistan’s military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had given the Pentagon permission to use Pakistani airspace and let the CIA track al-Qaida leaders in Pakistani territory. As a result, the Bush White House was slow to recognize that Pakistan was si-multaneously giving covert sup-port to the Taliban, according to the interviews.

“Because of people’s personal confidence in Musharraf and be-cause of things he was continu-ing to do in helping police up a bunch of the al-Qaida in Pakistan. There was a failure to perceive the double game that he starts to play by late 2002, early 2003,” Marin Strmecki, a senior adviser to Bush Defense Secretary Don-ald Rumsfeld, told government interviewers.

“I think that the Afghans, and [President Hamid] Karzai him-self, are bringing this up con-stantly even in the earlier parts of 2002,” Strmecki added. “They are meeting unsympathetic ears because of the belief that Paki-stan was helping us so much on al-Qaida. … There is never a full confronting of Pakistan in its role supporting the Taliban.”

By late 2002, Afghanistan had become yesterday’s war in the eyes of the Bush administration. It was already preparing for a much bigger invasion, that of Iraq.

Richard Haass, a senior dip-lomat who served as the Bush

administration’s special coordi-nator for Afghanistan after the9/11 attacks, told government in-terviewers that he floated a pro-posal to deploy 20,000 to 25,000 U.S. troops, alongside an equalnumber of allied forces. But hesaid his plan was shot down.

“I couldn’t sell the idea. Therewas no enthusiasm. There was a profound sense of a lack of possi-bility in Afghanistan,” Haass saidin a Lessons Learned interview. “I was never talking about 100,000-plus people. I was talking about a very narrow mission. A mission not much different than what wehave now. Training and armingin a limited role.”

He added: “It was seen as too much and that is ironic givenwhere we ended up. In retrospect, it looks like a bargain.”

By keeping troops to a mini-mum in Afghanistan, the Bushadministration was looking toclaim swift victories on two frontsat the same time.

On May 1, 2003, while standing under a “Mission Accomplished”banner on an aircraft carrier,Bush declared an end to “major combat operations” in Iraq.

On the very same day, Rums-feld visited Kabul and announced an end to “major combat activity” in Afghanistan.

Both declarations backfired spectacularly. Iraq descendedinto civil war. And as the U.S.government fixated on Iraq, theTaliban steadily regrouped.

By the time British Gen. David Richards took charge of NATOforces in Afghanistan in 2006, theTaliban was giving U.S. and al-lied troops all they could handle in the eastern and southern parts of the country.

Richards said the alliancefailed to adapt.

“We were trying to get a singlecoherent long-term approach — a proper strategy — but instead wegot a lot of tactics,” he told govern-ment interviewers. “There was nocoherent long-term strategy.”

By March 2007, the numberof U.S. and NATO troops in Af-ghanistan had climbed to 50,000.Despite the increase, Army Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill said nobodyin charge was able to articulate aclear mission and strategy.

Even before the new command-er in chief moved into the WhiteHouse in 2009, U.S. military lead-ers recognized they needed afresh war plan. Years of huntingsuspected terrorists was getting them nowhere. The Taliban kept gaining ground.

“At the time, I was looking atAfghanistan and I was think-ing that there has to be more tosolving this problem than killingpeople, because that’s what we were doing and every time I went back security was worse,” Army Maj. Gen. Edward Reeder, a Spe-cial Operations commander who CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

Afghanistan: Officials acknowledge strategic failuresWAR ON TERRORISM

MATT MILLHAM/Stars and Stripes

A Marine of Company C, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, shakes hands with an Afghan boy during a patrol in July 2011. One of the Afghan soldiers on patrol with the Marines threw rocks at the boys.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 5Saturday, December 14, 2019

FROM PAGE 4

deployed to the war zone several times before retiring in 2015, told government interviewers.

U.S. military leaders wanted to double down on a counterinsur-gency strategy. The objective was to win the “hearts and minds” of the Afghan people by protecting them from the Taliban, limiting civilian casualties and building popular support for the new Af-ghan government.

The new strategy would require far more troops and far more aid for the Afghan government. A similar approach — dubbed “the surge” — had seemed to work in Iraq.

In August 2009, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then-com-mander of U.S. and NATO forces, wrote a classified 66-page assess-ment of the war that called for a “properly resourced” counterin-surgency campaign and laid out his proposed strategy in meticu-lous detail.

In the Lessons Learned inter-views, however, U.S. and allied officials said McChrystal and the Obama administration glossed over two basic questions: Whom were they fighting? And why?

Obama had repeatedly de-clared the goal of the war was to “disrupt, dismantle and eventu-ally defeat al-Qaida.” But the first draft of McChrystal’s strategic review did not even mention al-Qaida, because the group had all but disappeared from Afghani-stan, according to an unnamed NATO official involved in the review.

“In 2009, the perception was that al-Qaida was no longer a problem,” the NATO official told government interviewers. “But the entire reason for being in Af-ghanistan was al-Qaida. So then the second draft included them.”

After months of debate at the White House, Obama approved the counterinsurgency strategy.

In a December 2009 speech at the U.S. Military Academy, he an-nounced he would deploy 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, on top of the 70,000 that he and Bush had previously authorized. NATO and other U.S. allies would increase their forces to 50,000.

But Obama added a last-minute wrinkle that caught many of his senior advisers by surprise. He imposed a timeline on the mis-sion and said the extra troops would start to come home in 18 months.

“The timeline was just sprung

on us,” Army Gen. David Pe-traeus, head of the U.S. Central Command at the time, said in a Lessons Learned interview. “Two days before the president made the speech, on a Sunday, we all got called and were told to be in the Oval Office that night for the president to lay out what he would announce two evenings later. And he laid it out, there it is.”

“None of us had heard that be-fore,” Petraeus added. “And we were then asked, are you all okay with that? He went around the room and everyone said yes. And it was take it or leave it.”

Barnett Rubin, the Afghan ex-pert, was serving as an adviser to the State Department at the time. He told government interviewers he and other U.S. officials were “stupefied” when they heard Obama reveal the timeline dur-ing the West Point speech. All the Taliban had to do was lay low until U.S. and NATO troops left.

He said it was understandable that Obama wanted to put the Af-ghan government on notice that the Americans wouldn’t fight forever.

“But there was a mismatch between deadline and strategy,” Rubin added. “With that deadline, you can’t use that strategy.”

Like the Bush administration,

Obama lacked an effective dip-lomatic strategy for dealing with the Taliban.

In public, the Obama adminis-tration called for “reconciliation” between the Afghan government and insurgent leaders. But the Lessons Learned interviews show his advisers disagreed strenuous-ly over what that meant.

In particular, Rubin said, Sec-retary of State Hillary Clinton was “very reluctant to move on this,” because of her presidential aspirations.

“Women are [a] very impor-tant constituency for her and she couldn’t sell making a bargain with the Taliban,” Rubin said. “If you want to be the first woman president you cannot leave any hint or doubt that you’re not the toughest person on national security.”

At first, hopes were high that Obama’s strategy would turn the tide. But military and civilian of-ficials interviewed for the SIGAR project said it soon became clear that lessons learned from one war zone did not necessarily apply to the other.

An unidentified Special Forces officer who deployed to Afghani-stan in 2013 said all the con-ventional forces there thought it would be just like Iraq. “They were constantly referring to it,” he said, but “just because [the villagers] are wearing robes and speaking derka derka doesn’t mean it’s the same country.”

The officer told government in-terviewers the new counterinsur-gency strategy was rushed, with the troops receiving scant direc-tion from above: “We were given no documents that instructed us how to do our job. We were given the commander’s vague strate-gic priorities but [that] generally amounted to ‘go do good things.’ Both at the strategic and opera-tional level, doing it right took a back seat to doing it fast.”

Others said the strategy was based on buzzwords and lacked substance. U.S. military leaders adopted an approach they labeled “clear, hold and build,” in which

troops would clear insurgents from a district and remain until local government officials and Afghan security forces could sta-bilize the area with an influx of aid.

Because they were operating on a tight timetable, U.S. com-manders first tried to clear areas where the Taliban was deeply en-trenched, such as Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan. The approach back-fired when U.S. officials lavished aid on districts that remained supportive of the Taliban yet ne-glected peaceful areas that sided with the government in Kabul.

In 2014, as evidence piled up that Obama’s plan was faltering, a senior State Department offi-cial told government interviewers that the mission had been unfo-cused from the start.

“If I were to write a book, its [cover] would be: ‘America goes to war without knowing why it does,’ ” she added. “We went in reflex-ively after 9/11 without knowing what we were trying to achieve. I would like to write a book about having a plan and an endgame before you go in.”

Dozens of U.S. and Afghan of-ficials told interviewers that the problems reflected a much deep-

er flaw. Despite years and yearsof war, the United States still didnot understand what was motivat-ing its enemies to fight.

An Army civil-affairs officersaid: “In order to clear, you needto know your enemy. You don’tknow your enemy — [you’re just] tearing things down and pissingpeople off.”

Shahmahmood Miakhel, a se-nior Afghan official who nowserves as governor of Nangahar province, told interviewers there was a simple way to tell whetherthe U.S. strategy was working.

“I told Petraeus that in thecounterinsurgency in which you don’t know your friend, you don’t know your enemy and environ-ment, you are going to fail,” Mi-akhel said. “I told him to checkyour list of people to be killedand captured, and see has this become longer or shorter. If it hasincreased, that means that yourstrategy [has] failed.”

In March 2011, when he wascommander of U.S. and NATOforces, Petraeus estimated therewere “somewhere around 25,000 Taliban,” according to testimonyhe gave to Congress.

Today, the U.S. military esti-mates the number has more than doubled — to about 60,000.

WAR ON TERRORISM

MELINA MARA/The Washington Post

Gen. David Petraeus, then-commander of coalition forces in Iraq, appears at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in 2008.

JOSEPH SCANLAN/U.S. Marine Corps

Marines with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, patrol across open fields in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2014.

DARIEN J. BJORNDAL/U.S. Marine Corps

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Jonathon Anderson guards a compound west of Gereshk, Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2014.

PAGE 6 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

BY COREY DICKSTEIN

Stars and Stripes

WASHINGTON — A former U.S. Army civilian once responsi-ble for handling government con-tracts at Kuwait’s Camp Arifjan was arrested this week in the Philippines on bribery and other charges stemming from a scheme to steer contracts to a particular company, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

Ephraim Garcia, 62, faces one count of offering a bribe, one count of receiving illegal gratuities and one count of offering kickbacks, according to the indictment filed in December 2018 and unsealed Thursday. Garcia was arrested Tuesday in the Philippines where he had lived since 2016 follow-ing an investigation led by Army Criminal Investigative Command and the U.S. Defense Criminal Investigative Service, according to DOJ.

Federal prosecutors charge that Garcia — while working in the Army Public Works Director-ate in 2015 in a position respon-sible for soliciting, awarding and managing government contracts at Camp Arifjan — devised a scheme to steer contracts to a subcontracting company and split profits.

The indictment claims Garcia

offered to pay an employee of a prime contractor to help steer contracts to Gulf Link Venture Company, a subcontractor owned by Gandhi Raj. Garcia also of-fered the prime contractor em-ployee, who was not identified by the DOJ, a portion of proceeds collected after artificially inflat-ing the price of contracts. Gar-cia and Raj were also to receive money in the scheme, prosecu-tors said.

Garcia and his immediate family members received some $170,000 in wire transfers over five years from Raj, other Gulf Link officials and another sub-contractor bidding to work under the prime contractor, according to the DOJ.

Raj, 39, was also charged in the indictment with paying illegal gratuities to Garcia. He was liv-ing in Kuwait at the time of the scheme, and remains at large, according to DOJ. A website for Gulf Link Venture describes the company as a “prominent name in the construction business in the Middle East” for 21 years. The website lists U.S. Army Ku-wait among its top clients.

Garcia will be extradited to the United States and will face charg-es in federal court. Twitter: @CDicksteinDC

BY J.P. LAWRENCE

Stars and Stripes

A program that provides visas to interpreters who worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan has gone from endangered to potentially expanded following House passage of a $738 billion defense policy bill.

If signed into law, the National Defense Authorization Act will provide 4,000 more special immi-grant visas, raising the total cap to 22,500, a figure arrived at in a Senate conference report preced-ing the House vote Wednesday.

Of those 22,500, more than 12,000 Afghan interpreters have already been granted visas since the program began in 2008. An-other 9,000 are already having their applications considered.

“We’re happy that there are more visas being authorized. It’s important for Congress to keep the promise it made to people who put their lives at risk,” said Adam Bates, policy counsel for the International Refugee Assis-tance Project. “The authorization of 4,000 more visas is a good step to ensure there continue to be visas available.”

Advocacy groups for Afghan interpreters feared the program

would expire. A similar program for Iraqi interpreters expired in 2014, forcing those translators to go through an alternative refugee program that has a backlog of more than 100,000 people.

Former military interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan have repeatedly been targeted by anti-U.S. groups following their service.

The 2020 NDAA also includes a requirement for the State Depart-ment Inspector General to evalu-ate the SIV program, and how to reduce delays in interagency pro-cessing and security checks.

Senate Republicans and Presi-dent Donald Trump have ex-pressed support for the NDAA, which is expected to become law.

“We appreciate Congress for their continued support on our SIV applicants,” said Zia Gha-foori, a former Afghan interpreter for two Medal of Honor recipi-ents, Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer and Master Sgt. Matthew Williams.

Ghafoori now lives in America after going through the SIV pro-cess and assists others arriving through the program.

The visa program “is a life-sav-ing process,” Ghafoori said.lawrence.jp@stripes.comTwitter: @jplawrence3

BY ROSE L. THAYER

Stars and Stripes

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Mili-tary families at a town hall meet-ing Thursday night did not soften their complaints about poor hous-ing conditions at Randolph Air Force Base as base officials as-sured them of new oversight mea-sures to monitor the work of the private company that manages residences there.

“I need y’all’s help,” Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Hiatt told base of-ficials. “I live in a house that is literally killing me. It’s killing my family.”

The meeting attracted about 30 base residences and it was the fourth town hall held at the base since a Reuters news agency in-vestigation last year exposed the potentially dangerous living con-ditions of some military family housing. The report triggered an effort across the military and in Congress to make improvements.

Randolph, which is part of Joint Base San Antonio, has 280 resi-dences and is one of at least four military bases across the Unit-ed States where residents have banded together to sue the pri-vate company managing housing at the base over poor conditions and the lack of response to health and safety issues.

At the meeting Thursday, base officials said they could not speak about the lawsuit, but they did talk about improved oversight of Hunt Military Communities, the private company that manages Randolph’s family housing.

Brig. Gen. Laura Lender-man, commander of the 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base San Antonio, said she and other base officials who oversee hous-ing have outlined a series of oversight systems that they have implemented to gain control over housing problems that they said have been exacerbated by a lack of preventive maintenance and general upkeep.

“I think as we’re getting better at this, [Hunt is] getting better, too. It’s a partnership where we are learning as we go,” she said.

Navy spouse Allison Alexan-der’s family is one of nine families, which includes Hiatt’s, involved in the lawsuit. She asked officials how oversight will keep houses with known problems from being leased to new families.

“My biggest fear with moving off base was that a family would come after us and live the same nightmare,” Alexander said.

Her family lived in a duplex for a year with mold, degraded fiberglass in the ductwork and an insect infestation. Alexander said her fears were realized when she learned that Hunt put her “sick house” through a pilot program to reduce moisture and then con-verted it into a hospitality house for other families to stay in while work is conducted on their home. She said she has spoken to a fami-ly who stayed in her old home and it still has health and safety prob-lems. The moisture reduction ef-forts failed, Alexander said.

Hiatt said his home also went through the moisture reduction

program and it failed for him too.Lenderman pledged to check

on Alexander’s former home. Shesaid base officials began inspect-ing each home last month betweentenants to ensure it is cleared tolease. The inspections have re-sulted in two homes failing to pass, Lenderman said. Hunt was able to fix the concerns and thehomes were cleared to lease.

Air Force spouse MaryBethPisano’s family was the third inthree years to move into a houseonly to be forced out by sewageproblems. Her family’s belong-ings remain trapped in the homefor safety reasons, despite thefamily’s departure in October.During the meeting, she ex-pressed her exasperation with the system.

“I did feel like the military side was trying to be an advocate,” Pisano said. “It felt very evidentyour hands were tied. Nothing’sable to be done.”

Richard Trevino, director ofthe 502nd Civil Engineer Group,which oversees the base hous-ing office, said Hunt didn’t have a work order system until last month when they implemented aprocess that allows residents tosubmit requests online and auto-matically sends surveys to ensurethe resident was satisfied withthe work. The housing office hasaccess to these records and havepledged to contact each residentwith a below-average review ofthe work order or for any emer-gency work orders. Thayer.rose@stripes.comTwitter: @Rose_Lori

A wreath rests on the grave marker of Sen. John McCain on Friday after being placed by Wreaths Across America at the U.S. Naval Academy cemetery in Annapolis, Md. Hundreds of thousands of wreaths will be placed at cemeteries around the U.S. and overseas this weekend as part of the annual event.

MEREDITH TIBBETTS/Stars and Stripes

Wreaths Across America

More interpreters likely to get visas

Army civilian charged in contracting scheme

Families complain about housingas base officials tout new measures

MILITARY

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 7Saturday, December 14, 2019

NATION

Possible spending deal may avert shutdown

Trump: Dems and GOP cast their impeachment votes after 2 exhausting days of hearings

BY ANDREW TAYLOR

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Senior law-makers announced a tentative agreement Thursday on an almost $1.4 trillion government-wide spending bill that would stave off a federal shutdown next week-end and split the differences on a number of contentious issues.

The handshake agreement was announced by the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and other top members of Congress.

“There’s a meeting of the minds,” Lowey said.

Details of the agreement were not announced and processing the sweeping measure is sure to take a few days. But it would award President Donald Trump with $1.4 billion in additional money for the U.S.-Mexico border wall

while giving the Democrats who control the House a number of their priorities such as expanded Head Start and early childhood education.

The measure is likely to pass the House next week just before the House votes on impeaching Trump. A Senate vote is expected before a temporary spending bill expires next Friday at midnight.

A White House official said Trump is likely to sign the bill because it maintains his ability to pay for the wall. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal is not official.

A year ago, a deadlock over the wall led Trump to spark a 35-day partial government shutdown. The eventual agreement that emerged produced a template for the current pact: no “poison pill“ policy provisions on topics such as abortion and the environment that

could not pass muster with both Democrats and Republicans.

“We decided that the decisions would be made today,” said Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas. “We said, ‘It’s time to get this thing done.’ ”

At issue are 12 annual spend-ing bills that fund the day-to-day operations of federal agencies. The appropriations package fills in the long-overdue details of this summer’s budget and debt pact, which offered boosts to both the Pentagon and domestic agencies instead of the sharp across-the-board spending cuts required under a now-defunct 2011 budget agreement.

Trump’s top priority is to guar-antee additional dollars for bor-der fencing and other barriers. The deal bowed to a White House demand that Trump retain au-thority so he can transfer money from Department of Homeland

Security and Pentagon accounts to border barrier construction. That promises to ease the sting of seeing his $8.6 billion border re-quest cut way back.

The emerging measure is also likely to serve as the vehicle to carry into law several provisions unrelated to agency money; the spending bill is the last, best op-tion to accomplish that.

They probably will include: a renewal of the Export-Import Bank’s charter; a reauthorization of government-backed terrorism risk insurance; a short-term ex-tension of the federal flood insur-ance program; and further delays of Obama-era health law taxes such as those on medical devices and high-cost health plans.

A broader set of tax “extend-ers” popular with Washington’s business lobbying community ap-pears stuck.

Liberal Democrats and mem-bers of the Congressional His-panic Caucus probably will be disappointed in the split-the-dif-ferences outcome. House Speak-er Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., metwith the Hispanic lawmakers on Wednesday.

“Our top concern is that thepresident doesn’t misappropriatefunds to fund a wall and continueto fund ICE and CBP,” said Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla.,referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S.Customs and Border Protection.

It was obvious to negotiators, however, that essentially main-taining the status quo on borderissues was the common denomi-nator option, given the currentbalance of power in Washing-ton. The same holds for severalDemocratic-drafted provisionsrelated to abortion that was also dropped.

FROM FRONT PAGE

Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who had said he wanted lawmakers to “search their con-sciences” before casting their votes, gaveled in the landmark but brief session.

Voting was swift and solemn, with none of the fiery speeches and commentary with weighty nods to history that have defined the days of debate, including 14 hours that stretched nearly to midnight Thursday.

Lawmakers responded “aye” or “yes” for the Democrats, and sim-ple: “no’s” from the Republicans.

“The article is agreed to,” Nadler declared after each vote.

The top Republican on the panel Rep. Doug Collins of Geor-gia immediately said he would file dissenting views.

Minutes after the morning ses-sion opened, it was gaveled shut.

Trump is accused, in the first article, of abusing his presiden-tial power by asking Ukraine to investigate his 2020 rival Joe Biden while holding military aid as leverage, and, in the second, of obstructing Congress by block-ing the House’s efforts to probe his actions. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.

Voting came quickly after two days of hearings at the Capitol and a rancorous 14-hour session that was abruptly shut down late Thursday when the Democratic majority refused to be forced, after a long and bitter slog through failed Republican amendments aimed at killing the impeachment charges, into midnight voting. In-stead, the impeachment charges against Trump were aired in full view of Americans.

Trump took to Twitter early

Friday to praise the panel’s Re-publicans, saying “they were fan-tastic yesterday.”

“The Dems have no case at all, but the unity & sheer brilliance of these Republican warriors, all of them, was a beautiful sight to see,” he tweeted. “Dems had no answers and wanted out!”

Nadler said late Thursday night, after presiding over the two-day ses-sion, “I want the mem-bers on both sides of the aisle to think about what

has happened over these past two days and to search their con-sciences before they cast their final votes.”

The Republicans on the panel, blindsided by the move, were livid. When Nadler announced that the committee wouldn’t vote until Friday morning, gasps were heard at the dais, and Republi-cans immediately started yelling “unbelievable” and “they just want to be on TV.” Congress was to be out of session on Friday, and many lawmakers had other plans, some outside Washington.

“This is the kangaroo court that we’re talking about” stormed Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the panel, who said he had not been consulted on the decision. “They do not care about rules, they have one thing, their hatred of Donald Trump. ”

Trump is only the fourth U.S. president to face impeachment proceedings and the first to be running for reelection at the

same time. The outcome of the eventual House votes poses po-tentially serious political conse-quences for both parties ahead of the 2020 elections, with Ameri-cans deeply divided over whether the president indeed conducted impeachable acts and if it should be up to Congress, or the voters, to decide whether he should re-main in office.

The president blasts the Demo-crats’ effort daily as a sham and harmful to America. Republican allies seem unwavering in their opposition to expelling Trump, and he claims to be looking ahead to swift acquittal in a Senate trial.

After slogging through two days of hearings, Democrats on the committee didn’t want to be forced into late-hour voting, a

dark-of-night session that could later be used politically against them. As the majority, they want-ed to allow Republicans to offer as many amendments and not cut off debate, Democratic aides said. But as the process drew out, Democrats decided they would prefer to pass the articles in the light of day, the aides said.

The president has refused to participate in the proceedings, tweeting criticisms as he did Thursday from the sidelines, mocking the charges against him in the House’s nine-page reso-lution as “impeachment light.” But Pelosi said the president was wrong and the case against him is deeply grounded.

Democrats contend that Trump has engaged in a pattern of mis-conduct toward Russia dating

back to the 2016 election cam-paign that special counsel Robert Mueller investigated. And theysay his dealings with Ukrainehave benefited its aggressive neighbor Russia, not the U.S., andhe must be prevented from “cor-rupting” U.S. elections again and cheating his way to a second termnext year.

“It is urgent,” Pelosi said.But Senate Majority Leader

Mitch McConnell said late Thurs-day on Fox News, “There is zerochance the president will be re-moved from office.” He said hewas hoping to have no GOP de-fections in the Senate trial next year.

The Judiciary Committee ses-sion drew out over two days,much of the time spent in fightsover amendments.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., turns to leave following a short statement to the press after the Democratic-controlled panel approved two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, on Friday, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Collins

PAGE 8 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

NATION

Associated Press

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The couple who burst into a kosher market in Jersey City with assault weapons appear to have acted alone even though they had expressed in-terest in a fringe religious group that often disparages whites and Jews, New Jersey officials said.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said the attack was driven by hatred of Jews and law enforcement and is being investi-gated as an act of domestic terrorism.

The two killers were armed with a va-riety of weapons, including an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun that they were wielding when they stormed into the store in an at-tack that left the scene littered with several hundred shell casings, broken glass and a community in mourning. A pipebomb was

also found in a stolen U-Haul van.“The outcome would have been far, far

worse” if not for the Jersey City Police, Grewal said Thursday. Authorities noted that a Jewish school is next to the market, and a Catholic school is across the street.

The attackers killed three people in the store, in addition to a police officer at a cemetery about a mile away, before dying in an hourslong gunbattle with police Tues-day afternoon, authorities said.

“The evidence points toward acts of hate. I can confirm that we’re investigating this matter as potential acts of domestic ter-rorism fueled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs,” the attorney general said. He said social media posts, witness interviews and other evidence reflected the couple’s hatred of Jews and police.

Grewal noted that after killing three people in the store, the couple concentrat-ed their fire on police and did not shoot at others who happened to be on the streets.

Grewal said the attackers, David An-derson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, had expressed interest in a fringe religious group called the Black Hebrew Israelites, whose members often rail against Jews and whites. But he said there was no evi-dence so far that they were members, and added that the two were believed to have acted alone.

The pair brought their cache of weapons in a U-Haul van they drove from Bay View Cemetery, where they shot and killed Jer-sey City Detective Joseph Seals, according to the attorney general.

Anderson fired away with the AR-15-style rifle as he entered the store, while

Graham brought a 12-gauge shotgun intothe shop. They also had handguns with a homemade silencer and a device to catchshell casings.

In all, they had five guns — four recov-ered in the store, one in the van — in what Grewal called a “tremendous amount offirepower.”

Serial numbers from two of the weaponsshowed that Graham purchased them in Ohio in 2018, the attorney general said.

The victims killed in the store were:Mindel Ferencz, 31, who with her husbandowned the grocery; 24-year-old Moshe Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brook-lyn who was shopping there; and storeemployee Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, 49. A fourth person in the store was shot andwounded but managed to escape, authori-ties said.

NJ attack probed as domestic terrorism

Associated Press

House Democrats clashed with Educa-tion Secretary Betsy DeVos in a Thursday hearing that nearly spun out of control when one lawmaker called DeVos “the most unpopular person in our govern-ment” and said she’s “out to destroy public education.”

DeVos was facing the House’s educa-tion committee to explain her overhaul of a federal program that erases loans for students who are cheated by their colleges. Some Democrats believe DeVos intention-ally stalled the program for more than a year while she rewrote the rules and made it more difficult for students to get loan relief.

Several Democratic lawmakers had taken turns criticizing DeVos’ handling of the program when it turned personal. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., said DeVos is the first political opponent she has en-countered who is “out to destroy public education.”

“When you approach a public school, you are protested. When you enter, you

are booed,” Wilson said. “You are the most unpopular person in our government. Mil-lions will register to vote in 2020. Many will vote to remove you more than to re-move the president.”

DeVos did not immediately respond, but the remark drew quick condemnation from Republicans. Rep. Virginia Foxx, the ranking Republican, interrupted to call the comment “absolutely over the line,” say-ing it would not have been allowed on the House floor. Another Republican tried un-successfully to get the remarks removed from the record.

After the hearing, the Education Depart-ment issued a statement calling the hear-ing “a cheap political show trial designed to personally attack and denigrate the Sec-retary of Education.”

“It was unprofessional, it was outside of the rules of the House, and it set a terrible

example for America’s young students who watched those shameless attacks. Our nation’s elected leaders should do better,” spokeswoman Angela Morabito said.

After the chamber settled, lawmakers returned to the original topic and ques-tioned DeVos for more than an hour more. Republicans applauded her work while Democrats blasted her handling of the pro-gram, which has become a central dispute in her ongoing feud with the party.

The program, known as borrower de-fense to repayment, is meant to forgive federal loans for students whose colleges misrepresent the quality of their education or otherwise commit fraud.

It was expanded under the Obama ad-ministration to help clear loans for thou-sands of students who attended Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit college chain that col-lapsed in 2015 amid allegations that it lied about the success of its graduates in order to get students to enroll.

Soon after, thousands of additional claims were coming from students who at-tended other for-profit colleges, including defunct chains such as ITT Technical Col-

lege. But after the Trump administrationtook office, the process ground to a halt.Loans were no longer being discharged,and a pool of 60,000 pending claims bal-looned to more than 200,000.

Democrats have been seeking answers about the backlog for more than a year butsay the Education Department has refusedto cooperate. DeVos agreed last month toface the House education committee after Democrats threatened to issue a congres-sional subpoena forcing her appearance.

At the hearing, DeVos shifted much ofthe blame to the Obama administration.She said she inherited thousands of pend-ing claims and no clear guidance on how to process them. Her predecessors had sim-ply been approving all claims of fraud, shesaid, leaving it to her to devise a fair way tojudge applications.

“Yes, there is a backlog of borrower de-fense claims,” DeVos said. “To say that Iam frustrated by that is an understate-ment. But rather than focus on why there isa backlog, too many have instead focusedon creating more chaos and a circus-likeatmosphere.”

RICHARD VOGEL/AP

Two women smoke cannabis vape pens at a party in Los Angeles in June.

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The death toll in the vaping illness outbreak has topped 50, U.S. health officials said Thursday.

The 52 deaths in 26 states are among the 2,409 hospitalized cases that have been reported across the nation this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Hospitalized cases have been most common in the Midwest, with some of the highest rates in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

The median age of the people who died is 52, but most people who suffered lung damage have been much younger, with half in their teens or early 20s.

The outbreak appears to have started in March. The bulk of the cases occurred in August and September, but new cases are

still being reported, including 118 in the past week, the CDC said.

Some of the newly reported illnesses happened more than a month ago but were only recently reported. However, 43% of the latest batch of cases were people hospitalized since Nov. 17, the agency said.

Most patients have said they vaped products containing THC, the ingredient that produces a high in marijuana. CDC officials have gradually come to focus their investigation on black-mar-ket THC cartridges.

Last month, CDC officials said they had narrowed in on a culprit — a chemical compound called vitamin E acetate that has been commonly found in the lungs of sick patients and in the prod-ucts they vaped. It’s a thickening agent that’s been added to illicit THC vaping liquids.

Democrats, DeVos clash in fiery hearing that turns personal

Death toll in vaping illnesses surpasses 50

DeVos

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 9Saturday, December 14, 2019

NATION

Calls for change in surveillance after FBI report

Christmas tree supply tight, pricey

Trump says he’ll expand child care and paid leave for federal workers

BY ERIC TUCKER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Revela-tions that the FBI committed serious errors in wiretapping a former Trump campaign aide have spurred bipartisan calls for change to the government’s sur-veillance powers, including from some Republicans who in the past have voted to renew or expand those powers.

Anger over the errors cited in this week’s Justice Department’s inspector general’s report of the Russia investigation has produced rare consensus from Democrats and Republicans who otherwise have had sharply different inter-pretations of the report’s find-ings. The report said the FBI was justified in investigating ties be-tween the campaign and Russia but criticized how the investiga-tion was conducted.

The report cited flaws and omissions in the government’s warrant applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveil-lance Act, documenting problems with a surveillance program that Democrats and civil libertarians have long maintained is opaque, intrusive and operates with mini-mal oversight. They now have been joined by Republicans who are irate that FBI officials with-held key information from judges when they applied to eavesdrop on former Trump aide Carter Page.

“I’m still trying to get my arms around the proposition that a whole bunch of conservative Re-publicans who’ve logged years blocking bipartisan FISA re-forms are now somehow privacy hawks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

It’s unclear what steps, if any, Congress could or will take to

rein in the FBI’s power under the surveillance law, and it remains to be seen whether outrage overthe way a Trump ally was treatedwill extend to less overtly politi-cal investigations.

Inspector General MichaelHorowitz, who has recommend-ed changes, said his office will conduct an audit of how the FBIapplies for warrants from theForeign Intelligence Surveil-lance Court. FBI Director Chris-topher Wray said the bureau is making its own changes to ensuremore accuracy and completenessin warrant applications. That in-cludes tightening up layers of re-view and record-keeping.

“I think we’re entrusted withvery significant power and au-thority. The FISA statute providesthe FBI with absolutely indis-pensable tools that keep 325 mil-lion Americans safe every day,”Wray told The Associated Press on Monday. “But with that signifi-cant power and authority comes aresponsibility to be scrupulously accurate and careful, and I thinkthat’s what the FBI does best.”

The 1978 law authorizes the FBI to seek warrants to monitorthe communications of peoplethey suspect of being agents ofa foreign power, such as poten-tial terrorists or spies. In Page’scase, officials suspected that he was being targeted for Russian government recruitment thoughhe was never accused by the FBIof wrongdoing. Unlike criminalwiretaps, the FBI need not haveprobable cause that a crime wascommitted.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said he had warned for years that theFISA statute was ripe for abuseand that “it was just a question ofwhen government officials wouldget caught doing it.”

BY JOHN RABY

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cus-tomers searching for the perfect Christmas tree typically glance at Sandy Parsons’ limited offer-ings, then keep walking.

Parsons never got her order for 350 trees from a North Carolina farm. Supplies were short, she was told. Instead, she was shipped some smaller ones for her lot at the Capitol Market in Charleston. Those paled in comparison to the much taller beauties at a compet-itor’s lot next door.

“This has been the worst sea-son,” Parsons said. “We lost a lot of money by that. It sets you back two or three years.”

Christmas tree supplies are tight again this year across the United States, depending upon location and seller. The industry is still bouncing back from the Great Recession and trying to win people back from a shift to-ward artificial trees when times were especially tough.

Industry officials say not to worry: Everyone who wants a last-minute tree should be able to find one. It just might take a little more searching, especially if customers want a specific type, and you might have to pay a little

more.The best advice, said Amy

Start, executive director of the Michigan Christmas Tree Asso-ciation, is simple: “Shop early.”

Parsons has been in business for 42 years as a seasonal seller of flowers, produce, pumpkins — and this year, just 32 Christ-mas trees.

In the next lot, Robert Cole was having a jolly ole time preparing an abundance of trees for loading onto customers’ vehicles.

The difference? Cole’s lot, French Creek Farms of Buckhan-non, grows its own trees.

“We’ve been busier than we’ve ever been before,” Cole said.

Gesturing toward the lots of Parsons and another competitor, he explained his brisk business in the simplest economic terms: “Because there’s been no trees here and no trees over there.”

An oversupply of trees about a decade ago caused a domino ef-fect nationwide. Subsequently, fewer trees were cut down, which meant not as many seedlings were planted to replace them. Hot, dry weather also took its toll, forcing many growers to close.

In Missouri, Rood buys precut trees not native to the state to supplement the short supply. This year, his farm couldn’t buy as

many taller trees as it wanted.“The bigger trees in particu-

lar at this stage in the game are going to be harder to find,” Rood said. “So they need to be aware that if they’re really looking for a big tree, they need to go out and find it pretty quickly.”

Missouri Christmas Tree Asso-ciation President Steve Meier said that by late December, “there’s still going to be Christmas trees left that haven’t been chosen.”

The number of Christmas tree farms nationwide fell 3% between 2012 and 2017, the latest year available, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, a real tree last year cost $78 on av-erage, up $3 from 2017.

At the Charleston market, cus-tomer Bob Atkins of Madison noticed not only that prices are higher but “there’s not as many as usual.”

He was near the point of set-tling for an artificial tree when he and his wife, Jane, found the right tree after about 20 minutes on Cole’s lot.

“I do not want an artificial tree,” Jane Atkins said with a smile.

BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump promised Thurs-day to expand child care and time-off options for working moms and dads confronted with high costs and lack of access to quality care, saying in his administration “we get it done.”

Trump spoke at the White House as legislation to grant fed-eral workers, both military and civilian, 12 weeks of paid paren-tal leave edged closer to becom-ing law.

Building on that, Trump said

at a White House summit on the issue that “we now have a historic opportunity to enact long-over-due reforms. It’s time to pass paid family leave and expand access to quality” affordable child care for those not employed by the federal government.

Trump, who has just over a year left in his term, added: “We’re going to get it done.”

Three months of paid leave for federal workers is included in a massive, annual defense policy bill that House lawmakers passed Wednesday and sent to the Sen-ate. Trump has said he will sign it into law.

Service members are already eligible for paid parental leave but how much time off they can take depends on which branch of the military they are in. The bill Trump is expected to sign would provide all service members with three months of paid parental leave.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, pointed to that agreement as a model for corporate America and the rest of private industry.

“As the country’s largest em-ployer, we must lead by example, and after decades, are finally

doing so,” said Ivanka Trump, who has lobbied lawmakers on child care and paid leave issues since joining her father’s White House in 2017.

President Trump said the ad-ministration also wants to make quality, affordable child care more accessible. He noted that he had agreed to spend more on child care block grants that go to states to help low-income families, and he has doubled the federal child tax credit to $2,000.

One in four women go back to work within two weeks of giving birth because they can’t afford to

lose the pay or the job, accordingto the White House.

The White House also outlinedits principles for child care legis-lation. They include reauthoriz-ing the child care block grants,which are set to expire in the 2021 budget year; providing flex-ibility; and increasing options, byeliminating regulations. Other principles include making quality child care more available and ad-dressing a shortage among child-care workers.

Various proposals are circulat-ing in Congress. The White Househas not come out in support of aparticular plan.

JOHN RABY/AP

Sandy Parsons speaks while tending to Christmas trees for sale, on Dec. 7, on her lot at the Capitol Market in Charleston, W.Va.

PAGE 10 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

Associated Press

LONDON — Boris Johnson’s gamble on early elections paid off as voters gave the UK prime minister a commanding majority to take the country out of the Eu-ropean Union by the end of Janu-ary, a decisive result after more than three years of stalemate over Brexit.

Johnson’s promise to “get Brex-it done’’ and widespread unease with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership style and so-cialist policies combined to give the ruling Conservative Party 365 seats in the House of Com-mons, its best performance since party icon Margaret Thatcher’s last victory in 1987. Corbyn’s La-bour Party slumped to 203 seats, 59 fewer than it won two years ago, vote totals showed Friday.

The results offer Johnson a new mandate to push his EU withdrawal agreement through Parliament. Since taking office in July, he had led a minority gov-ernment and, after the House of Commons stalled his Brexit deal at the end of October, he called the election two years ahead of schedule in hopes of winning a clear majority.

“I will put an end to all that non-sense, and we will get Brexit done on time by the January 31 — no ifs, no buts, no maybes,’’ he said as supporters cheered. “Leaving the European Union as one Unit-ed Kingdom, taking back control of our laws, borders, money, our trade, immigration system, deliv-

ering on the democratic mandate of the people.”

Johnson also offered an olive branch to Britons who want to re-main in the EU, saying he will re-spect their “warm feelings” and build a “new partnership” with the bloc as “friends and sovereign equals.”

Speaking Friday outside 10 Downing Street, he pledged to end acrimony over Brexit and

urged the country to “let the healing begin.” He said he would work to repay voters’ trust.

The scale of Johnson’s success also marked a stinging defeat for Corbyn, who had promised to lead Labour to victory with the “big-gest people-powered campaign our country has ever seen.”

Instead, voters rejected his at-tempt to bridge divisions over Brexit by promising a second

referendum on any deal with the EU. The vote also turned away the rest of the party’s agenda, which included promises to raise taxes on the rich, increase social spending and nationalize indus-tries such as water delivery, rail-roads and the Royal Mail.

In an election where differ-ences over Brexit cut across tra-ditional party lines, several big names lost their seats the House

of Commons.Liberal Democrat leader Jo

Swinson pledged to cancel Brexitif she were elected prime minis-ter, but she was defeated by theScottish National Party in herconstituency north of Glasgowand resigned as party leader.Chuka Umunna was a one-timeLabour Party leadership candi-date, who left the party in Febru-ary because of differences withCorbyn. Running as a Liberal Democrat, he lost out to the Con-servatives in the cities of Londonand Westminster. Nigel Dodds ledthe Democratic Unionist Partyin the House of Commons as theparty supported the government in hopes of winning concessionson Brexit for Northern Ireland.He lost his Belfast North seat to Sinn Fein.

But those individual defeats may be a sign of longer-last-ing shifts in the U.K.’s electorallandscape.

Johnson owes his success, inpart, to traditionally Labour-vot-ing working-class constituencies in northern England that backedthe Conservatives because of theparty’s promise to deliver Brexit.

Johnson’s sweeping victory in the UK will give him room to ma-neuver on such issues, particu-larly involving the fraught detailsof Brexit. Jim O’Neill, chairmanof the Chatham House think tank,said the size of the Conservative Party victory gives it a clear man-date to execute the first stage ofdeparting the EU by passing thewithdrawal bill as desired.

Associated Press

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s much-maligned police force has slipped on a banana peel by try-ing to make light of its liberal use of tear gas during the territory’s protest movement.

Mimicking an artist who duct-taped a banana to a wall, the force tweeted a photo of a canister similarly taped, with the words: “Say NO to violence. Let’s leave the tear gas cartridge on the wall forever.”

“For a Police officer, using force, including tear gas, is always the last resort. If rioters don’t use violence, Hong Kong will be safe and there’s no reason for us to use force,” the post on its Twitter ac-count said.

Respondents to the post called it crass. Some, in turn, posted vid-eos of Hong Kong police officers’ use of gas and other riot control measures, which protesters say have been excessively violent.

The police force has fired nearly 16,000 tear gas rounds and made more than 6,000 ar-

rests during the six months of pro-democracy demonstrations that have at times been marked by violent clashes and vandalism of government buildings, transit hubs and commercial spaces.

The protesters’ demands in-clude an independent investiga-tion of police actions, amnesty for protesters who have been ar-rested and retraction of the description of protesters as “riot-ers.” They say the label charac-terizes peaceful demonstrators as criminals who could face long imprisonments.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has refused to meet those demands, saying a police inves-tigation is sufficient and that dropping criminal cases against

the protesters would not follow the rule of law.

The police watchdog agency that is investigating suffered a blow this week when foreign ex-perts it recruited to bolster the credibility of its work quit, saying its probe lacked the powers and tools it needs.

The police force’s make-light tweet about tear gas initially in-cluded a “Bananaart” hashtag, but that was then deleted. The force then reposted its tweet without it.

The hashtag referred to a talked-about artwork from artist Maurizio Cattelan that stole the show at Art Basel Miami. Titled “Comedian,” it was a spotty ba-nana duct-taped to a wall.

Associated Press

WHAKATANE, New Zealand — As grieving families sang tra-ditional Maori songs, New Zea-land military specialists wearing protective gear landed on a small volcanic island on Friday and re-covered six bodies of the 16 peo-ple who died in an eruption four days earlier.

The specialists — six men and two women wearing hooded pro-tective suits and using breathing gear — landed by helicopter on White Island and found six of the eight bodies thought to be there.

“We know that reunification won’t ease that sense of loss or grief because I don’t think any-thing can. But we felt an enormous duty of care as New Zealanders to make sure that we brought their family members back,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a news conference.

The families cheered and ex-pressed joy and relief upon being told of the successful recovery, Police Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha said. “They’ve got their loved ones coming home,” Haumaha said.

The bodies were airlifted to a nearby ship where the risky op-eration was monitored. Toxic vol-canic gases are still venting from

the crater, and scientists say an-other eruption like the fatal one Monday is possible.

The bodies were to be taken to Auckland for identification. They are thought to be Australians, who were most of the visitors tothe island on Monday when thevolcano erupted.

Another recovery operationwas planned for the last twobodies, thought to be New Zea-landers, a tour guide and a boat captain who had taken tourists to the island.

Police said divers searched the sea around the island briefly in the afternoon before weatherconditions forced them to stop for the day. Aerial surveillance wasalso used to try to locate the twobodies.

“We do believe that at least oneof them is in the water and theother one we are unsure,” but the body may be in the sea as well,Police Commissioner Mike Bush said at a news briefing. “We willcontinue to search for these peo-ple,” he added.

Conditions on land were goodfor Friday’s recovery operationand the volcano was “quiet” as the team worked, Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clementsaid.

WORLD

UK voters give firm support to Johnson, Brexit

Hong Kong cops’ tear gas tweet criticized

New Zealand recovers 6 bodies from volcanic island

STEFAN ROUSSEAU, PA/AP

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson is greeted by staff as he returns to 10 Downing Street, London, after meeting Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and accepting her invitation to form a new government, on Friday.

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP

Protesters rally near the Hong Kong Museum of Art on Friday.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 11Saturday, December 14, 2019

BY MARK KENNEDY

Associated Press

If you’re lucky enough to be invited to a dinner party hosted by Questlove, be aware that nothing has been left to chance.

The guest list has been carefully chosen, as have all the dishes. The music starts off with piano-heavy tunes and then builds as the evening goes on. The amount and quality of the booze is also carefully staged.

“I think now I have it down to a science. You have to start off mellow and go to your climax,” said Questlove. “Usually my parties start at 7 o’clock. By 10 o’clock, it’s at its height. And then when it’s fi ltering out around 12:30, then usually the 10 of us left go out to get pizzas and burgers.”

If you’re one of the stragglers, there’s a good chance you’ll be hanging with a celebrity. Questlove attracts an eclec-tic fanbase, from musicians like Q-Tip and David Byrne, to foodies like Padma Lakshmi and Eric Ripert, to actresses like Gabrielle Union and Zooey Deschanel, and artists like Tom Sachs and Dustin Yellin.

Now the drummer of the hip-hop group The Roots, as well as a DJ, a producer, author and radio host is revealing some of his secrets in his new book, “Mixtape Potluck.” It includes crowd-pleasing recipes from more than 50 friends and advice on how to organize the music, food and guests.

“For me, the whole goal of ‘Mixtape Potluck’ is to serve as a guide to have better social functions. Oftentimes, I meet artists that are islands on their own and I tell them all the time, ‘Find your fl ock; gather your fl ock,’ ” he said. “We live in such a singular society now that really doesn’t encourage the idea of collaborat-ing or even social gatherings anymore.”

The hope is that the party’s guests will

mingle and learn about each other, spark-ing partnerships and alliances. He likens it to high-level speed dating.

“For me, the result is when people the next day say, ‘I exchanged numbers with this particular artist or this particular singer, this particular writer or this par-ticular architect, and now we’re going to work and collaborate together,’ ” he said.

Included in the book is Marisa Tomei’s grandmother’s recipe for charred red pep-pers, Jessica Biel’s blueberry cake and a mac and cheese from Q-Tip .

Questlove, born Ahmir Thompson, said the seed of the book sprouted more than 20 years ago when The Roots were trying to lure musicians to collaborate in Philadelphia. The best bribe turned out to be food, “the proverbial pie on the windowsill that drew everyone in.” They even convinced their record label to add a chef to the budget.

“For me, music and food and creatives go hand-in-hand. So, some 20-plus years, later, I just now call them food salons. And instead of using food to attract musicians to create music, I’m kind of doing the opposite where music is now in the background.”

To inspire his “Mixtape Potluck” celeb-rities on picking out their recipes, Quest-love sent along a song that he felt best captured their unique creative energy. Martha Stewart got a Snoop Dogg tune, while vegetarian Natalie Portman got “Vegetables” by The Beach Boys.

Jimmy Fallon, who works with The Roots on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” got Bruce Springsteen’s

“Hungry Heart” and, in turn, offered his recipe for air-fried chicken burgers. “Giving him a Bruce Springsteen song is very easy because in his heart, there’s a Jersey boy dying to come out in Jimmy Fallon’s soul.”

Questlove relied on his astounding knowledge of music. He admits to being a little ADD and is obsessed with making lists. He has dozens of Spotify playlists and challenges himself to compile things like 100 songs about the color blue or 100

songs in which the title is never sung. His deep insight has led him to produce the AMC show “Hip Hop: The Songs That Shook America.”

In many ways, although Questlove doesn’t really cook himself, he assembles the ingredients for a good party like any good chef — music, chefs, lighting, drinks and guests. “I’m not into randomness and throw the noodle at the wall and see what sticks, because often that can be a disas-ter,” he said.

BOOKS

BY ELLIOT ACKERMAN

Special to The Washington Post

Over the past decade, Navy SEALs have delivered several fi lms and books into our culture. The latest offering is “Sea Sto-ries: My Life in Special Opera-tions” by retired Adm. William H. McRaven, a series of vignettes spanning the offi cer’s boyhood to his retirement in 2014.

McRaven, most known for his key role in the planning and ex-ecution of the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, has long been a towering fi gure in the Special Operations com-munity. This is his third book; his second, the best-seller “Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life ... and Maybe the World,” was based on a commencement speech he

delivered at the University of Texas. His fi rst , “Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Op-erations War-fare: Theory and Practice,” came out in 1995 and of-fered analyti-

cal lessons from key commando raids throughout history. Among many in the Special Operations community, it’s considered a classic theoretical text.

“Sea Stories” combines certain elements of “Spec Ops” with the wisdom so colloquially articu-lated in “Make Your Bed.” In the second chapter, McRaven shares a story from his youth: He and

a pair of friends attempted to break into an ammunition stor-age depot on the base where he lived with his mother and fi ghter pilot father. His friends were terrifi ed, but McRaven rallied the budding commandos throughout their raid. “As I started to ease my body over the fi nal strand of barbed wire, my Roy Rogers pearl-handled six shooter fell from my holster onto the ground below. I looked at Billy and then down toward the pistol. ‘C’mon! We gotta go!’ Billy screamed.” McRaven then describes his successful navigation over the wire and how he evaded the alerted military police. When his pistol was later discovered, his father asked him, “Do you know anything about this?” McRaven writes: “And then, for the fi rst and last time in my life, I lied to

my father. ‘No sir,’ I said.”The anecdote is Washington-

esque in its I-chopped-down-the-cherry-tree tone of mythmaking. And this is the book’s weakness. You can’t help but wonder how much these vignettes are aiming for truth and how much they are aiming for something else.

McRaven writes with great feeling about his remarkable career and the pivotal role he played in many complex com-mando missions, like the rescue of Martin and Gracia Burnham, a married missionary couple held hostage by Islamic militants in the Philippines. The strongest writing in the book is occasion-ally undermined by that “some-thing else,” which feels like unnecessary SEAL mythmaking. In reference to the Burnhams’ weakened physical condition,

a colleague of McRaven’s said, “They’re missionaries, for God’s sake, not Navy SEALs.” And McRaven replied, “They may not be SEALs, but what I do know is that their faith is strong.”

At times, McRaven alludes to parts of his life and career that contain complexity and, prob-ably, truth, such as his prema-ture relief from command of a SEAL squadron; however, he never discloses the details of that professional low.

McRaven could have written about what isn’t working in the SEAL teams. He could have touched on the emotional costs veterans pay for two decades of unending war. A choice to ad-dress the complexity and human-ity of the community would have been truly powerful for being unique and new.

Musician shares event planning advice, recipes of famous friends in cookbook

Questlove’s ultimate potluck dinner party

ABRAMS/AP

Roots drummer Questlove shares his secrets to hosting a perfect dinner party in his new book “Mixtape Potluck.”

Missions and mythmaking from a former Navy SEAL in ‘Sea Stories’

PAGE 12 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

Paper BeastsThis is an odd game that’s

more like being in the middle of a nature show. Players don’t receive much direction as they’re thrown into a sur-real world inhabited by paper creatures. As an explorer in this bizarre world, players move by pointing to a direction using the Move controllers and teleporting there. They can look around and interact with the paper beasts that wander through the world. They’ll see them drink at water-ing holes or skitter around sand dunes. While wandering, I saw a wolfl ike predator attacking a gazelle-type creature. I stopped it, freed the animal and threw it in another direction, where it scampered off.

I mostly followed a giant deer-type creature as it led me

through more environments. I played around with a strange plant that grew seeds quickly, and those legumes fed animals around the area. Paper Beasts has a sandbox-type quality as players just mess around with the fl ora and fauna. Despite the seemingly open-ended nature, there is a kind of story to the experience. As players wan-der through, a black hole-type phenomenon opens up beneath players’ feet and they have to fl ee with the other animals. Eventu-ally, the giant deer protect the user by blocking the entrance of a cave while the world falls apart around them.

Paper Beasts is a peculiar game that could interest players looking for an unconventional experience. It’s scheduled for release later this year.

BonfireThis VR short puts players in

the role of Space Scout 817. Be-cause humans destroyed earth, players are sent across space looking for inhabitable planets. Because of some shoddy manu-facturing, their pod breaks apart and they crash land on a strange planet with robot sidekick named Debbie (voiced by Ali Wong). Players survive in the alien landscape and have to make an important decision at the end.

The experience is a fun aside that doesn’t last longer than 15 minutes. It has some surprisingly interactive elements as players try to survive with the robot and fend off the alien wildlife. It’s not the most advance piece of AR, but it’s entertaining and has heart.

BY GIESON CACHO

The Mercury News

PlayStation VR is gaining strength as devel-opers get a grasp of the maturing medium and create higher-quality experiences.

For the 2019 holiday season, Sony is pub-lishing a diverse collection of VR titles that’s high-lighted by Stardust Odyssey and Audica. Both are full-fl edged games that are built with the specifi ca-tion of the headset in mind. Along with that, Sony is releasing more experimental projects such as Paper Beasts, which is best described as an interactive nature walk. Meanwhile, Bonfi re is a humorous short that stars Ali Wong.

I had a chance to play each of these titles at a re-cent event at PlayStation headquarters. Here is an overview of each one:

VIDEO GAMES

Keeping it virtually realPlaystation VR

delivers fun in time for the holidays

PHOTOS BY SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT/TNS

Players pilot an ethercraft in Stardust Odyssey, one of the premiere new games for the PlayStation.

Paper Beasts feels like a free-flowing nature game.Audica is similar to Beat Saber, but the game from Harmonix has several differences, including guns instead of laser swords.

Stardust OdysseyAgharta Studio had two goals when creating a

virtual reality project. The most important of all was player comfort. They didn’t want to make any-one sick while playing their game. The second was the format. They imagined their audience playing the game sitting down using two PlayStation Move controllers.

These limitations spurred the team’s creativity, and they came up with Stardust Odyssey, a game that’s inspired by the Silk Road. The project takes place in a fantasy world where fl ying caravans venture through terrain. As a smuggler, players have to steal the cargo and fi nd relics among the voyagers. To do this, they travel aboard a magic-powered ethercraft. Players pilot the smooth- and slow-moving vehicle down linear, tunnel-like levels. Along the way, they steal items from the ships and

search for treasures such as ether cages that hold resources that upgrade the player’s ship.

Stardust Odyssey is easy to play and leverages the feeling of fl ight without bottoming out a player’s stomach. Although it looks simple, the game has plenty of depth as players pilot the ship so that it hides from Guardians protecting caravans. If they’re spotted, players engage in combat by using the spells on board. In the beginning, players have two orbs of magic, and they’ll be limited to a few rune upgrades, but the cargo they collect and treasure they fi nd over the course of the 10-hour campaign opens a progression path to make the ethercraft more powerful. They can purchase power-ups using the cargo they fi nd and that lets them handle the harder challenges ahead.

Stardust Odyssey was released Dec. 3 and sells for $24.99. The game also includes online mode where a second player acts as a copilot.

AudicaWhenever someone brings up

virtual reality, Beat Saber even-tually comes up. The rhythm game has had a tremendous impact in the popularity of the medium and how games are developed. Seeing the success of the game, it’s no surprise that Harmonix introduced its own take on the genre, but instead of having laser swords, players arm themselves with guns. They have to shoot at targets in rhythm with the music while also accurately doing it. That’s the core element of the game.

Harmonix adds other fl our-ishes as well. In some cases, targets will fl y at players and they’ll have to melee them with the controller. In other instances, they’ll have to hold on to the trig-ger for a sustained note in a song.

Another technique has players shooting sideways.

Played well, Audica can make players feel like John Wick as they nail targets with the right timing. Like its Harmonix’s previous titles, Audica features a leaderboard and several dif-fi culty modes. On the hardest mode, players have to get into a subconscious fl ow state as they hit targets and shift their body and line of sight to pick up on shootable objects. In addition to playing a total of 33 songs on the mostly electronic soundtrack, players have the opportunity to create their own levels for each song.

Audica is a blast to play, but whether fans will embrace it like Beat Saber remains to be seen. They can check it out for themselves now. Audica sells for $29.99.

Bonfire is a brief game with voice talent by Ali Wong.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 13Saturday, December 14, 2019

HEALTH & FITNESS

The family that exercises together ... BY MORGAN VOIGT

Special to The Washington Post

Craig and Dawn Reese have made an important modifi cation to the one-car garage of their suburban Washington house: They’ve cov-

ered the fl oor with a layer of plywood and thick black mats. “That’s to cushion the blow when we drop our weights,” Craig, 44, said.

The space is crowded with workout equipment. There’s a rowing machine, a ski machine and a power rack, to name a few pieces, and a tall heater for the colder months. Resistance bands hang on the wall. The couple has 100-pound sandbags and kettlebells up to 70 pounds; Craig estimates that they’ve got 600 pounds in plate weights, too. The elaborate setup is a testament to the priority fi tness takes in their family.

It started a few years ago, when Dawn decided to get into shape while Craig, an offi cer in the Marine Corps, was deployed. “I was always thin, but I couldn’t run up the street,” Dawn, 46, said. “I would go into the gym and be intimidated.” She hired a personal trainer, which ignited a passion for fi tness, and when Craig returned, she began going to CrossFit with him.

Their enthusiasm for CrossFit made an impression on their children: Jylian, now 16, and Weston, now 13, saw the commit-ment and energy their parents were put-ting into working out — and the positive results — and wanted to join. “Jylian was the fi rst one that said, ‘Can I try?’ ” Dawn said. “We started teaching her Olympic lifting and she loved it.”

Dawn and Craig began accumulat-ing gym equipment and exercise certifi cations. Dawn is an ACE-certifi ed personal trainer and youth fi t-ness specialist, and Craig has certifi cations in USA Weightlifting and the Marine Corps’ High-In-tensity Interval Training program, to name a few. The family works out together in their garage, and the kids visit the CrossFit gym with their parents when they aren’t busy with school and sports. The family also does mud runs and obstacle courses together. “It’s im-portant that we’re out there, doing these things together, as a family,” Dawn said.

Experts say it’s important that kids get in the habit of exercising. Research indi-cates that parents’ activity level and encouragement play vital roles in determin-ing how physically active their kids are.

Want to foster your own culture of family fi tness? Here are eight tips to help (having a gym at home isn’t required).

1. Just get moving. “It is so hard to get started — especially when you have kids,” Dawn said. Something as simple as getting off the couch and going outside together as a family is a great way to get the ball rolling, said Andrew Shniderman, personal trainer and owner of Fit First Academy, which offers classes and one-on-one training for D.C.-area youths. “Go for a 10-minute walk together,” he said. “Spend some time doing something where you are moving.”

2. Be enthusiastic — and sincere — about exercise. If you don’t enjoy weightlifting, don’t expect your clan to suddenly be thrilled about pumping iron. “Kids can sense when you’re faking it,” Shniderman warns. “Find something that you yourself want to do.” If you bring true excitement to an activity, the whole family will pick up on that. In the same vein, Shniderman said, try to keep your entire workout engaging and high energy, whether it lasts 15 minutes or an hour.

3. Make a plan and stick with it. Every Sunday, Dawn gathers her fam-ily and maps out their schedule for their week. “We plan when we’re going to work out, who’s picking up kids here, who’s dropping them off there, what time their sports end, who’s starting meals,” Dawn said. “Planning is every-thing.”

Consistency and commit-ment are important,

too. “Don’t use anything that pops up in your day as an excuse to not

work out,” Dawn said. “I’ll hear, ‘Oh, I have a dentist appointment; I can’t go to the gym.’ Well, why can’t you go before the appointment or after it?” Finding a routine that works for your family may not be easy, Dawn said, “but once you fi nd what works, you’ll keep going.”

4. Consider an app or a fi tness tracker. Recent research shows families that use fi tness trackers that incorporate elements such as points or levels — other-wise known as “gamifi cation” — are more likely to achieve their fi tness goals than those who do not.

In a 2017 study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University followed adults from 94 fami-lies who engaged in a game to track their steps for 12 weeks, with a 12-week fol-low-up. The study’s big takeaway: Adding a social game component to their exer-cise technology “signifi cantly increased physical activity among families.” Digital exercise tracking comes with the bonus of being able to easily see the stats on your progress, too, which helps you celebrate the achievements.

5. Find a family-friendly gym. Gyms can provide an array of opportunities for families to work out together, according to Robin Hedrick, director of community health for the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities, which offer an extensive lineup of group exercise classes for families,

including yoga, boot camps and dance classes.

“It doesn’t matter what you choose to do,” Hedrick said in an email. “It is important for children to see their parents

exercising or ‘playing’ with them.”

6. Try an event that isn’t timed. Sign-ing up for an untimed family event such as a Volksmarch or a bike tour can help take the pressure off performance and keep the focus on a shared activity. Or consider Tough Mudder, held across the U.S. and other countries. It’s a muddy obstacle course series that was originally developed in 2010 for adults. The goal was to create an experience that encourages teamwork over competition, Tough Mudder chief executive Kyle McLaughlin said.

The event morphed into a “fi tness festival” atmosphere when participants started bringing their families, he said. So about fi ve years ago, the organization introduced the Mini Mudder, a scaled-down version for kids ages 5 to 12, held on a quarter-mile loop. While parents and kids don’t compete together, siblings can. Tough Mudder’s ethos is a good thing for families to keep in mind: “It’s not about time or places and being fi rst,” McLaugh-lin said. “It’s about doing stuff together.”

7. Don’t push your kids too hard. When your kids give you “the look,” it’s time to switch it up, Shniderman said. “A child is not like an adult. Adults know their limits and they need somebody to break their limits,” he said. “Kids are completely different.” Keep it from be-coming a negative experience.

And remember, you’re parents, not coaches. “Sometimes teenagers get really frustrated when they can’t master a skill, and they want to give up,” Dawn said. “That’s when I turn Mom back on. I tell them, ‘It’s okay it didn’t work out the fi rst time; we have to keep trying.’ Especially with CrossFit, it’s a lifetime of learning the skills.”

8. Get creative with your workouts. A little bit of imagination can go a long way. Shniderman points to a bear crawl

as an example: “It’s not a bear crawl anymore,” he said. “It’s a ‘magic

spider walk.’ I say, ‘You’re not on the fl oor, you’re on a web.

The only thing that can stick to this web are your magic

hands and magic feet.’ Now the kids are more

bought in. They don’t want to get stuck on

the spider web. Same goal, just a

different way to execute it.”

Shniderman said he spends

hours thinking up creative games involving exercise. “I never say, ‘Here’s my book of workouts and games; I’m done!’ ” he said. “The way kids interact with workouts changes from week to week and from year to year.” Just keep-ing exercise fun and fresh, whether it’s new games, different workout moves or changing goals, will go a long way toward establishing a family that works out together — and enjoys it.

iStock

Research shows parents’ encouragement is key to children’s activity level

PAGE 14 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S •

only minor injuries.The California Highway Pa-

trol said 6-week-old Ezra Benitez was in a sport utility vehicle that crashed Sunday on State Route 99 in Turlock.

The car flipped several times before coming to a stop. Investi-gators said Ezra’s car seat was im-properly installed and was flung out a broken window, KXTL-TV reported.

Ezra was found upside down in the seat down the shoulder of the highway. He wasn’t seriously injured.

Woman gets needed walker despite misdial

NM ALBUQUERQUE — A New Mexico wom-

an’s misdial meant for a medical supply store went to an investiga-tor in a district attorney’s office — and led to a new walker.

KOB-TV reported Bernice Weems, 84, mistakenly called Kyle Hartsock with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque, N.M., seeking a new walker. She left a voicemail.

It turns out Hartsock’s number is just one digit off from the medi-cal supply store she was trying to call.

Hartsock said instead of ignor-ing the message, he went out and got Weems a walker.

“I called her and I said, ‘Ber-nice, we have a walker for you.’ She said, ‘Awesome.’ I think she still thought we were like a walk-er store,” Hartsock said.

Police: 4-year-old briefly dragged by bus

MD GLEN ARM — Au-thorities in Maryland

say a 4-year-old girl was briefly dragged by her school bus after her backpack got caught in its door.

The preschooler was getting off the bus in Glen Arm when she got stuck and the vehicle started to move, Baltimore County police spokeswoman Julia Hardgrove told The Baltimore Sun. Police said the driver drove forward a “short distance.” Hardgrove couldn’t say just how far the girl was dragged.

The girl was taken to a hospi-tal to be treated for injuries that weren’t considered to be life threatening, she said.

School’s raccoon hunt generates complaints

MO PATTON — A south-east Missouri school

district was flooded with com-plaints over the latest school-spon-

sored raccoon hunt, a tradition that dates back 37 years.

The Banner Press reports re-ports that more than 2,200 people across the country signed an on-line petition to end this weekend’s hunt in which 94 raccoons were brought in.

FFA adviser Sarah Burgfeld says she and other officials in the Meadow Heights district received so many phone calls and emails that she filed a harassment com-plaint with the Bollinger County Sheriff’s Department. Burgfeld said a number of those who pro-tested the hunt did so with name-calling and vulgarity.

She says the event generally raises between $500 and $600, al-though that’s not the focus.

She says hunting provides “multi-generational, traditional bonding.”

Man with ax, crowbar arrested after threats

NE FAIRBURY — A man armed with an ax and

crowbar was arrested after mak-ing threats at a city office in

southeast Nebraska, authoritiessaid.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’sOffice said in a news releaseWednesday that a city of Fairbury employee reported Tuesday thatthe man had walked into the cityoffices and made threats while looking for city officials.

He left when he determinednone of them was there and saidhe was headed to the Jefferson County Courthouse to find a county official.

Deputies soon spotted him near the courthouse, still carrying theax and crowbar. They used a stun gun on him twice when hewouldn’t follow commands, the sheriff’s office said.

Vandals damage mural at riverfront park

SC COLUMBIA — Police in South Carolina are

searching for who vandalized a mural and a historic structure ata popular riverfront park.

A pump house and a recently-dedicated piece of art were among the features spray painted overat the park along the Columbia Canal over the weekend, Colum-bia police said. The mural called “hydro power” was just about a year old and was commissionedfor $13,000 by a Columbia arts group. Vandals scrawled symbolsand graffiti over the painting de-picting waves, Karen Kustafic, Columbia’s assistant superinten-dent for parks, said. “It was ugly,“ she added.

Saturday, December 14, 2019

From wire reports

AMERICAN ROUNDUP

The dollar amount a Georgia church says its donating to pay off the school lunch debt of students in three counties. 12Stone church in Lawrenceville announced that its giving $45,000 to Gwinnett County, where it’s based, WSB-TV reports. It said it’s also giving $11,000

and $6,000 respectively to Hall and Barrow counties, where it has two other churches. The funds are part of a new church program called Knock Out Hunger. It’s meant to help wipe out the debt racked up since the school year started as it can take a while for families to be approved for free or reduced lunch.

Criminal allegedly hurls pitcher at head of judge

MD BALTIMORE — A twice-convicted sex

criminal now faces even more charges after allegedly hurling a metal pitcher at the head of a Maryland judge.

Authorities said Travis Bur-roughs, 36, grabbed the water pitcher from the defense table on Wednesday and threw it across the courtroom, hitting Balti-more Circuit Judge Wanda Keyes Heard. She quickly called a re-cess to get medical treatment and was left with a bump on her fore-head, sheriff’s spokeswoman Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper said.

Burroughs had just been sen-tenced to life in prison with all but 70 years suspended after being convicted last month of sodomy and false imprisonment, news outlets report. He had al-ready been serving an 80-year sentence after being convicted in 2018 of rape, assault and false imprisonment.

Police: Worker robbed shop to teach ‘a lesson’

NM LAS CRUCES — An employee of a New

Mexico Subway sandwich shop is facing charges after police say she robbed the place to teach an-other worker “a lesson.”

Lorena Ariana Marin, 22, and her alleged accomplice Angelo Rey Espinosa, 19, were arrested Monday night following reports of a robbery in Las Cruces, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.

Police said Espinosa alleg-edly stood by while Marin ver-bally and physically threatened the employees after hopping be-hind the counter. They ushered the employees to the back of the store, but one employee ran to her car and got away. Marin told of-ficers she committed the robbery “to teach one of the employees a lesson about what could happen late at night in that part of town.” Marin and Espinosa are facing robbery charges.

Police kill pit bull after poodle attacked

PA PITTSBURGH — Po-lice shot and killed a pit

bull after it charged at an officer following a fight with a poodle, authorities said.

Officers found a woman caring for her poodle, which was covered in blood, when they responded to a report of dogs fighting at the intersection of Viola Street and Catoctin Way on Wednesday, ac-cording to a Pittsburgh Public Safety news release.

The pit bull’s owner had told them he had stabbed his pet and used pepper spray to get it to re-lease the poodle.

When the wounded pit bull lunged at police, an officer shot it to death.

Newborn survives being tossed from car crash

CA TURLOCK — A new-born baby who was

flung out of a car in a Northern California crash survived with

THE CENSUS

Ice makerSam Bair sprays water to create an ice rink for students attending Inlet View Elementary School on Wednesday in Anchorage, Alaska. Bair is an employee of Alpine Services, which was hired by the school’s parent-teacher association to make the rink. Unseasonably warm weather this winter has kept Anchorage from enjoying many outdoor winter activities.

DAN JOLING/AP

62K

Saturday, December 14, 2019 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 15

OPINIONMax D. Lederer Jr., Publisher

Lt. Col. Sean Klimek, Europe commanderLt. Col. Richard McClintic, Pacific commander Caroline E. Miller, Europe Business Operations

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BY DIANE BELL

The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Did you hear me screaming? … I’m SO happy.”

That was Coronado, Calif., resident Kathy So-

liozy Prout’s reaction to a congressional action that means military widows may soon get the benefits which she and many others insist they deserve.

For 14 years, Prout — the widow of Navy Rear Adm. James “Jay” Prout, killed when a Navy jet in which he was riding crashed in New Mexico in 1995 — has fought for military widows struggling to make ends meet after the death of their spouse.

In 1972, a measure was taken that penal-ized widows who qualified concurrently for benefits from two different government programs. The change took away as much as $15,000 a year in benefits to survivors in instances of military service-related death, either as a veteran or on active duty, if the spouse was enrolled in the Survivor Benefit Plan entitling them to up to 55% of their deceased partner’s retirement pay.

On Monday, the National Defense Au-thorization Act, the annual defense bill, passed out of a joint congressional confer-ence committee with the proposed “wid-ows tax” repeal intact. It was approved by the full House on Wednesday, and the Sen-ate is expected to pass it next week.

The act calls for a phased-in restoration of the cut benefits over three years begin-ning in 2021. It’s projected to cost about $5.7 billion over the next decade.

Social media was abuzz with news of the impending change following years of protest by veterans groups, widows and others. Heather Prout Patino praised her mother’s tireless work to eliminate the so-called tax on widows.

“Talk about a grassroots leader — she has organized over 2,000 surviving spous-es to work on this cause,” Patino noted on

Facebook. “Daily, she is emailing, writ-ing, calling, tweeting and talking to con-gressmen and women, our senators and their staffers. Every year, she goes to D.C. to walk miles on the halls of Congress to educate them on this injustice. Talk about perseverance.”

Prout would be the first to tell you it was a team effort — an effort that could finally pay off for up to 65,000 affected survivors.

Kimberly Hazelgrove, of Amherst, Ohio, who lost her husband in a helicopter crash in Iraq in 2004, said: “It’s about time. No more savings, no more retirement left, 15 years without the benefit of Brian’s earned income to support us and raise the kids.” Her family’s loss of $1,200 a month over 15 years amounts to about $225,000 in lost benefits.

“People paid premiums out of their re-tirement pay to get those benefits for their surviving spouse. It’s not our benefit. It’s our deceased service member’s ben-efit that they earned that the government stripped away. That would not be allowed in a civil environment,” she said.

As a single parent, Hazelgrove had to quit her own military career to take care of the children. “It was always a struggle to make the money last. It really has hurt my family and many others over the years.”

Like Prout, Hazelgrove visited Capitol Hill to talk to legislators and even met with Vice President Mike Pence in 2017, who, as a congressman, had announced Brian’s death in the House.

“Even though our family will not see the full benefit of this for three more years, I am just happy that maybe I can give a little more to our kids in their adult lives for the loss they suffered for all these years.”

Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who worked diligently in the Senate to get backing for the measure, called Monday’s joint com-mittee action “one big step closer to finally repealing this unjust law and fulfilling our commitment to the military families who

have sacrificed so much.”It also was praised by leaders of the

350,000-member Military Officers Asso-ciation of America and the Tragedy Assis-tance Program for Survivors.

Candace Wheeler, TAPS policy direc-tor, was extremely pleased by the House approval of the NDAA on Wednesday.“We look forward to the Senate passing it as well and to the president signing it intolaw. After four decades of waiting, 65,000 surviving spouses will finally receive theirservice members’ earned benefits.”

Prout bristles at the “widows tax” labelbecause it gives the impression that spous-es are getting away with not paying taxes on benefits.

The Survivors Benefit Plan is an option-al insurance program administered by theDepartment of Defense. Upon retirement,veterans can choose to have 6.5% deducted from retirement paychecks so, upon theirservice-related deaths, their spouses will receive up to 55% of their retirement pay.

To have that insurance benefit taken ei-ther completely or partially away becauseit is offset, dollar for dollar, by the roughly$1,300 monthly payment every spouse isentitled to when their loved one’s death isservice-connected, is not a tax, Prout em-phasizes. “It is thievery. The DOD is mak-ing a windfall profit off these retirees.”

Prout estimates she has lost about$350,000 in benefits since 1995. Her hus-band’s untimely death left her with three children to raise on 80% less income. “Ourbills didn’t go down 80%,” she said.

Prout’s campaign against the offset started 14 years ago when she served on the Gold Star Wives of America govern-ment relations committee. “We stormedThe Hill in 2013 with 100 widows from throughout the country to try to get it (re-moval of the offset) passed. … This wasgrassroots advocacy and democracy atwork.”Diane Bell is a San Diego Union-Tribune columnist.

BY GARY ABERNATHY

Special to The Washington Post

HILLSBORO, Ohio

Whatever level of faith one puts in the investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interfer-

ence in the 2016 election, one unchallenged finding must be remembered: Russia’s main goal was to sow discord and distrust among Americans about our elections.

One wonders, then, did Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin himself write the Democrats’ latest talking points on im-peaching President Donald Trump? It would appear so, especially after listening Tuesday to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the House Intelligence Committee chairman, who said, “The argument, ‘Why don’t you just wait?’ amounts to this: ‘Why don’t you let him cheat one more election. Why not let him cheat just one more time. Why not let him have foreign help just one more time.’ ”

During Wednesday ’s impeachment de-bate, House Judiciary Committee Chair-man Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said, “We cannot rely on an election to solve our prob-lems when the president threatens the very integrity of that election … and while he al-lows his personal interests and the inter-ests of our adversary Russia to advance.” Do Schiff and Nadler not realize that such hyperbole is more dangerous to democracy than anything they are accusing Trump of doing, and, in its own way, is just as com-plicit with foreign interference?

To be sure, Schiff, Nadler and their

Democratic colleagues are not Russian operatives, any more than Trump is. But the Kremlin official currently in charge of the “distrust and discord” campaign could have no greater evidence of success than the impeachment of our president. One can imagine him reporting to Putin this week: “Look, Mr. President! The Democrats are telling the American people that President Trump cheated to win and will cheat again. They are trying to remove him from office. Americans are divided. Our efforts have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams!”

Russia is most certainly not upset that it was caught interfering in our elections. They and other foreign adversaries in-terfere in every U.S. election. Sure, they may have made a weak effort to pin it on Ukraine, but they can’t really care much ei-ther way. Whichever nation gets the blame, it has to count as success when Americans know that foreign interference happened and, in turn, suspect U.S. leaders of collud-ing in the effort.

The plan leads to success in every sce-nario. Russia knows that if Trump is im-peached and removed from office, his supporters will consider it a “deep state” coup engineered for purely partisan rea-sons. If Trump survives impeachment and wins reelection, Russia knows that half of America will once more blame his victory on foreign intrusion. If Trump is defeated by the Democratic nominee, Russia knows the other half of America will blame it on four years of unprecedented investiga-tions, harassment and impeachment that severely crippled the president.

Even if, as Mueller concluded, Russia

ended up gearing its efforts more towardhelping Trump than Hillary Clinton in2016, it surely cares little who occupies the White House. Russia would be happyif Trump prevails, and just as happy if heis removed. What is much more important is the long-term strategy of sowing dis-trust of the democratic process for years tocome, and leading to a constitutional crisisin perpetuity.

Is there any hope of avoiding the roadthat Russia has paved? Probably not. But ifthere is, it rests with House Speaker NancyPelosi, D-Calif. In a more perfect world —one not driven by politicians of both par-ties (including the president) playing solely to their bases — Pelosi could still reversecourse. She could spend the weekend re-minding herself that nothing has changedsince March, when she warned that “im-peachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compel-ling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path because it divides the country.”

But, now, that’s a dream. Caving to abloodthirsty caucus, Pelosi seems no lon-ger concerned about a divided nation, orfinding another, less-strident means of rebuking the president, or encouragingeveryone to dial back their rhetoric about tainted elections. In America today, ex-tremism is in, statesmanship is out, andvoices of reason are overwhelmed by the hyper-partisan din — while Russia raisesa toast to our demise.Gary Abernathy, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, is a freelance writer based in Hillsboro, Ohio.

Military widows praise offset phase-out

Did Putin write Dems’ impeachment talking points?

PAGE 16 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 17Saturday, December 14, 2019

SCOREBOARD

Go to the American Forces Network website for the most up-to-date TV schedules.myafn.net

Sports on AFN

College football

ScheduleSaturday’s games

EASTArmy (5-7) vs. Navy (9-2) at Philadelphia

Bowl scheduleFriday, Dec. 20Bahamas Bowl

NassauBuffalo (7-5) vs. Charlotte (7-5)

Frisco (Texas) BowlUtah State (7-5) vs. Kent State (6-6)

Saturday, Dec. 21Celebration Bowl

At AtlantaNC A&T (8-3) vs. Alcorn State (9-3)

New Mexico BowlAlbuquerque

Central Michigan (8-5) vs. San Diego State (9-3)

Cure BowlOrlando, Fla.

Liberty (7-5) vs. Georgia Southern (7-5)Boca Raton (Fla.) Bowl

SMU (10-2) vs. FAU (10-3)Camellia Bowl

Montgomery, Ala.FIU (6-6) vs. Arkansas State (7-5)

Las Vegas BowlBoise State (12-1) vs. Washington (7-5)

New Orleans BowlUAB (9-4) vs. Appalachian State (12-1)

Monday, Dec. 23Gasparilla BowlAt Tampa, Fla.

UCF (9-3) vs. Marshall (8-4)Tuesday, Dec. 24

Hawaii BowlHonolulu

BYU (7-5) vs. Hawaii (9-5)Thursday, Dec. 26

Independence BowlShreveport, La.

Miami (6-6) vs. Louisiana Tech (9-3)Quick Lane Bowl

DetroitPittsburgh (7-5) vs. Eastern Michigan

(6-6)Friday, Dec. 27Military Bowl

Annapolis, Md.North Carolina (6-6) vs. Temple (8-4)

Pinstripe BowlNew York

Wake Forest (8-4) vs. Michigan State (6-6)

Texas BowlHouston

Oklahoma State (8-4) vs. Texas A&M (7-5)Holiday Bowl

San DiegoIowa (9-3) vs. Southern Cal (8-4)

Cheez-It BowlPhoenix

Air Force (10-2) vs. Washington State (6-6)

Saturday, Dec. 28Camping World Bowl

Orlando, Fla.Notre Dame (10-2) vs. Iowa State (7-5)

Cotton Bowl ClassicArlington, Texas

Penn State (10-2) vs. Memphis (12-1)Peach Bowl

AtlantaCFP Semifinal, LSU (13-0) vs. Oklaho-

ma (12-1)Fiesta Bowl

Glendale, Ariz.CFP Semifinal, Ohio State (13-0) vs.

Clemson (13-0)Monday, Dec. 30

SERVPRO First Responder BowlDallas

Western Kentucky (8-4) vs. Western Michigan (7-5)

Music City BowlNashville, Tenn.

Mississippi State (6-6) vs. Louisville (7-5)Redbox Bowl

Santa Clara, Calif.Illinois (6-6) vs. California (7-5)

Orange BowlMiami Gardens, Fla.

Florida (10-2) vs. Virginia (9-4)Tuesday, Dec. 31

Belk BowlCharlotte, N.C.

Kentucky (7-5) vs. Virginia Tech (8-4)Sun Bowl

El Paso, TexasFlorida State (6-6) vs. Arizona State (7-5)

Liberty BowlMemphis, Tenn.

Kansas State (8-4) vs. Navy (9-2)Arizona BowlTucson, Ariz.

Wyoming (7-5) vs. Georgia State (7-5)Alamo BowlSan Antonio

Texas (7-5) vs. Utah (11-2)Wednesday, Jan. 1

Citrus BowlOrlando, Fla.

Michigan (9-3) vs. Alabama (10-2)Outback Bowl

Tampa, Fla.Minnesota (10-2) vs. Auburn (9-3)

Rose BowlPasadena, Calif.

Oregon (11-2) vs. Wisconsin (10-3)Sugar Bowl

New OrleansGeorgia (11-2) vs. Baylor (11-2)

Thursday, Jan. 2Birmingham (Ala.) Bowl

Cincinnati (10-3) vs. Boston College (6-6)Gator Bowl

Jacksonville, Fla.Indiana (8-4) vs. Tennessee (7-5)

Friday, Jan. 3Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

BoiseOhio (6-6) vs. Nevada (7-5)

Saturday, Jan. 4Armed Forces BowlFort Worth, Texas

Southern Miss (7-5) vs. Tulane (6-6)Monday, Jan. 6

Lendingtree BowlMobile, Ala.

Miami (Ohio) (8-5) vs. Louisiana-La-fayette (10-3)

Monday, Jan. 13College Football Championship

New OrleansPeach Bowl winner vs. Fiesta Bowl

winnerSaturday, Jan. 18

East-West Shrine ClassicAt St. Petersburg, Fla.

East vs. WestNFLPA Collegiate Bowl

At Pasadena, Calif.American vs. National

Saturday, Jan. 25Senior Bowl

At Mobile, Ala.North vs. South

Sunday, Jan. 26Hula Bowl

At HonoluluEast vs. West

NCAA FCS playoffs Second Round

Saturday, Dec. 7James Madison 66, Monmouth (NJ) 21Northern Iowa 13, South Dakota State 10Weber State 26, Kennesaw State 20Montana State 47, Albany (NY) 21Illinois State 24, Central Arkansas 14North Dakota State 37, Nicholls 17Montana 73, Southeastern Louisiana 28Austin Peay 42, Sacramento State 28

QuarterfinalsFriday, Dec. 13

Northern Iowa (10-4) at James Madi-son (12-1)

Austin Peay (11-3) at Montana State (10-3)

Montana (10-3) at Weber State (10-3)Saturday, Dec. 14

Illinois State (10-4) at North Dakota State (13-0)

NCAA Division II playoffs Quarterfinals

Saturday, Dec. 7Slippery Rock 65, Notre Dame (Ohio) 59West Florida 43, Lenoir-Rhyne 38Ferris St. 25, Northwest Missouri State 3Minnesota State 42, Texas A&M-Com-

merce 21Semifinals

Saturday, Dec. 14West Florida (11-2) at Slippery Rock

(13-0)Minnesota State (13-0) at Ferris State

(12-0)Championship

Saturday, Dec. 21At McKinney, Texas

Semifinal winners

NCAA Division III playoffs Quarterfinals

Saturday, Dec. 7Muhlenberg 24, Salisbury 8North Central (Ill.) 31, Delaware Val-

ley 14Wisconsin-Whitewater 26, Mary Har-

din-Baylor 7Saint John’s (Minn.) 34, Wheaton (Ill.) 33

SemifinalsSaturday, Dec. 14

North Central (Ill.) (12-1) at Muhlen-berg (13-0)

Saint John’s (Minn.) (12-1) at Wiscon-sin-Whitewater (12-1)

ChampionshipFriday, Dec. 20

At Shenandoah, TexasSemifinal winners

NAIA playoffs Semifinals

Saturday, Dec. 7Marian (Ind.) 34, Lindsey Wilson 24Morningside 21, Grand View 16

ChampionshipSaturday, Dec. 21

At Ruston, La.Morningside (13-0) vs. Marian (Ind.)

(12-0)

Pro football

NFL injury report NEW YORK — The National Football

League injury report, as provided by the league (OUT - definitely will not play; DNP - did not practice; LIMITED - limited participation in practice; FULL - full par-ticipation in practice):

SundayATLANTA FALCONS at SAN FRANCISCO

49ERS — FALCONS: DNP: DE Allen Bailey (not injury related), LB De’Vondre Camp-bell (calf), G James Carpenter (con-cussion), DE Adrian Clayborn (back), RB Devonta Freeman (knee), CB Isaiah Oliver (shoulder), T Ty Sambrailo (ham-string). LIMITED: WR Julio Jones (shoul-der), S Sharrod Neasman (shoulder), G Wes Schweitzer (shoulder). 49ERS: No Report.

BUFFALO BILLS at PITTSBURGH STEEL-ERS — BILLS: DNP: LB Lorenzo Alexander (not injury related -- resting veteran), DE Jerry Hughes (not injury related -- rest-ing veteran), DT Corey Liuget (knee), T Ty Nsekhe (ankle). STEELERS: DNP: LB Mark Barron (not injury related), G David DeCastro (not injury related), TE Vance McDonald (concussion), C Maurkice Pouncey (not injury related), RB Jaylen Samuels (groin), T Alejandro Villanueva (not injury related). FULL: RB James Con-ner (shoulder), WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (knee).

CHICAGO BEARS at GREEN BAY PACK-ERS — BEARS: DNP: TE Ben Braunecker (concussion), WR Taylor Gabriel (con-cussion), T Bobby Massie (ankle), DT Roy Robertson-Harris (foot), LB Danny Trevathan (elbow), WR Javon Wims (knee). FULL: CB Prince Amukamara (hamstring). Y PACKERS: LIMITED: WR Geronimo Allison (knee), T Bryan Bulaga (not injury related), TE Jimmy Graham (wrist), CB Kevin King (shoulder), TE Marcedes Lewis (not injury related), G Billy Turner (knee), RB Dan Vitale (calf), CB Tramon Williams (not injury related). FULL: WR Davante Adams (toe), CB Tony Brown (heel), LB Blake Martinez (hand).

CLEVELAND BROWNS at ARIZONA CARDINALS — BROWNS: DNP: LB Sione Takitaki (illness), C J.C. Tretter (knee). LIMITED: WR Odell Beckham (groin), WR Khadarel Hodge (achilles), T Christo-pher Hubbard (knee), WR Jarvis Landry (hip), S Eric Murray (knee), TE David Njoku (knee), DE Olivier Vernon (knee). FULL: TE Demetrius Harris (shoulder), RB Dontrell Hilliard (knee), CB Denzel Ward (ankle), CB Greedy Williams (shoulder). CARDINALS: DNP: S Budda Baker (ham-string), C Mason Cole (knee), WR Larry Fitzgerald (not injury related), DT Corey Peters (not injury related), G Justin Pugh (back), LB Terrell Suggs (back, illness), G J.R. Sweezy (illness). LIMITED: WR Andy Isabella (shoulder), WR Christian Kirk (ankle), CB Byron Murphy (calf), CB Kevin Peterson (shoulder), LB Joe Walker (ribs).

NEW ENGLAND at CINCINNATI — PA-TRIOTS: DNP: Julian Edelman (knee/shoulder). LIMITED: LB Ja’Whaun Bentley (knee), DL Byron Cowart (concussion), OL Ted Karras (knee), CB Jason McCour-ty (groin), WR Mohamed Sanu (ankle), DL Danny Shelton (shoulder). FULL: QB Tom Brady (right elbow), WR N’Keal Har-ry (hip). BENGALS: No report.

MIAMI at N.Y. GIANTS — DOLPHINS:DNP: WR Allen Hurns (ankle/knee), DT Gerald Willis (hip). LIMITED: FB Chandler Cox (shoulder), CB Nik Needham (groin), WR DeVante Parker (concussion), WR Albert Wilson (concussion). FULL: LB Jerome Baker (chest/jaw), QB Ryan Fitz-patrick (shoulder), RB Patrick Laird (hip). GIANTS: DNP: CB Janoris Jenkins (ankle), G Kevin Zeitler (ankle/wrist). LIMITED: TE Rhett Ellison (concussion-non contact), TE Evan Engram (foot), QB Daniel Jones (ankle), WR Golden Tate (foot). FULL: CB Corey Ballentine (concussion).

DENVER BRONCOS at KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — BRONCOS: No report. CHIEFS:No Report.

HOUSTON TEXANS at TENNESSEE TI-

TANS — TEXANS: No report. TITANS:DNP: LB Daren Bates (shoulder), RBDerrick Henry (hamstring), WR AdamHumphries (ankle), CB Adoree’ Jackson (foot). LIMITED: DT Jurrell Casey (knee),C Ben Jones (thumb), CB LeShaun Sims (ankle), S Kenny Vaccaro (concussion).

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS at OAKLANDRAIDERS — JAGUARS: DNP: DE Calais Campbell (back), WR D.J. Chark (ankle), C Brandon Linder (knee). LIMITED: CB TreHerndon (shoulder), WR Dede Westbrook(neck, shoulder), LB Quincy Williams (hand). FULL: CB A.J. Bouye (calf), TE Seth DeValve (oblique), S Ronnie Harrison (concussion). RAIDERS: DNP: T Trenton Brown (pectoral), LB Marquel Lee (toe),WR Hunter Renfrow (rib), LB Kyle Wilber (ankle), CB Daryl Worley (neck). LIMITED: C Rodney Hudson (ankle), G Gabe Jack-son (knee), RB Josh Jacobs (shoulder), SLamarcus Joyner (hamstring).

LOS ANGELES RAMS at DALLAS COW-BOYS — RAMS: DNP: TE Gerald Everett (knee). LIMITED: WR Nsimba Webster(hip). FULL: T Rob Havenstein (knee).COWBOYS: DNP: LB Sean Lee (pectoral, thigh), LB Leighton Vander Esch (neck).LIMITED: DE Michael Bennett (foot), T La’el Collins (knee), S Jeff Heath (shoul-der, shoulder), CB Byron Jones (hip), P Chris Jones (abdomen), G Zack Martin(elbow, ankle), RB Tony Pollard (ankle), DT Antwaun Woods (knee). FULL: WR Amari Cooper (knee), QB Dak Prescott(right hand, left hand), T Tyron Smith(achilles), S Darian Thompson (biceps).

MINNESOTA VIKINGS at LOS ANGELES CHARGERS — VIKINGS: DNP: RB Alexan-der Mattison (ankle). LIMITED: CB MikeHughes (hip), DT Linval Joseph (knee),CB Xavier Rhodes (ankle), WR AdamThielen (hamstring). FULL: RB Dalvin Cook (chest), CB Holton Hill (shoul-der), DT Jaleel Johnson (ankle), TE KyleRudolph (groin), DT Shamar Stephen (knee). CHARGERS: No Report.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES at WASH-INGTON REDSKINS — EAGLES: DNP: WR Nelson Agholor (knee), DE Derek Bar-nett (ankle), WR Alshon Jeffery (foot), T Lane Johnson (ankle). LIMITED: RB Jordan Howard (shoulder), CB Jalen Mills (elbow). FULL: LB Kamu Grugier-Hill (concussion). REDSKINS: DNP: CB Quinton Dunbar (hamstring), LB RyanKerrigan (calf). LIMITED: LB Ryan Ander-son (shoulder), CB Fabian Moreau (ham-string), T Morgan Moses (toe), T Donald Penn (knee, back), WR Trey Quinn (con-cussion), WR Paul Richardson (ham-string), G Brandon Scherff (elbow, shoul-der). FULL: QB Dwayne Haskins (ankle),LB Cole Holcomb (thumb), RB AdrianPeterson (toe).

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS at CAROLINAPANTHERS — SEAHAWKS: No Report. PANTHERS: DNP: LB Mario Addison(chest), LB Marquis Haynes (knee), T Greg Little (ankle), RB Christian Mc-Caffrey (not injury related), DT GeraldMcCoy (knee), G Trai Turner (not injury related). LIMITED: TE Greg Olsen (con-cussion). FULL: S Eric Reid (shoulder), LB Shaq Thompson (ankle).

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS at DETROIT LIONS — BUCCANEERS: DNP: T Demar Dotson (not injury related), WR MikeEvans (hamstring), LB Jason Pierre-Paul(knee), T Donovan Smith (ankle, knee). LIMITED: G Alex Cappa (elbow), WR Scott Miller (hamstring), LB Anthony Nelson (hamstring), QB Jameis Winston (rightthumb, knee). LIONS: No Report.

MondayINDIANAPOLIS COLTS at NEW ORLEANS

SAINTS — COLTS: No Report. SAINTS: NoReport.

NFL calendarJan. 4-5 — Wild-card playoffs.Jan. 11—12 — Divisional playoffs.Jan. 19 — AFC, NFC championship

games.Jan. 26 — Pro Bowl.Feb. 2 — Super Bowl, Miami Gardens,

Fla.

College basketball

Thursday’s men’s scoresEAST

West Virginia 84, Austin Peay 53SOUTH

Belmont 105, Carson-Newman 56Furman 90, North Greenville 65NC Central 109, Christendom 28SC State 90, UNC Asheville 85, OTTroy 60, Jacksonville St. 55VMI 78, Ferrum 60Virginia Tech 63, Chattanooga 58

MIDWESTIowa 84, Iowa St. 68Wright St. 85, Southern U. 62

SOUTHWESTAbilene Christian 105, Howard Payne 36

FAR WESTN. Iowa 82, Grand Canyon 58Portland St. 101, Portland Bible 48

AP Men’s Top 25 scheduleSaturday’s games

No. 1 Louisville vs. Eastern KentuckyNo. 2 Kansas vs. UMKC at the Sprint

Center, Kansas City, Mo.No. 5 Michigan vs. No. 10 OregonNo. 6 Gonzaga at No. 15 ArizonaNo. 8 Kentucky vs. Georgia TechNo. 12 Auburn vs. Saint Louis at Lega-

cy Arena at the BJCC, Birmingham, Ala.No. 13 Memphis at No. 19 TennesseeNo. 14 Dayton vs. DrakeNo. 16 Michigan State vs. Oakland at

Little Caesars Arena, DetroitNo. 18 Butler vs. Southern

No. 20 Villanova vs. Delaware at the Prudential Center, Newark, N.J.

No. 22 Seton Hall at RutgersNo. 23 Xavier at Wake Forest

Thursday’s women’s scoresEAST

Cobleskill 59, York (NY) 50Farmingdale 92, Yeshiva 82Rutgers 78, Southern U. 58

SOUTHCampbell 65, Bluefield 41NC A&T 57, UNC-Greensboro 48

MIDWESTTexas A&M-CC 59, Texas Rio Grande

Valley 54Wisconsin 85, Alabama St. 67

SOUTHWESTArkansas 91, Tulsa 41Texas A&M 70, TCU 68

FAR WESTArizona 77, Tennessee St. 42Colorado 96, Denver 70Fresno St. 111, LaVerne 56Wyoming 95, MVSU 22

AP Women’s Top 25 scheduleSaturday’s games

No. 3 Oregon at Long Beach StateNo. 4 Oregon State vs. Utah StateNo. 16 DePaul vs. Alabama State at

Wintrust Arena, ChicagoNo. 17 Gonzaga vs. Texas SouthernNo. 24 Michigan vs. Appalachian

State

Deals

Thursday’s transactionsBASEBALL

American LeagueOAKLAND ATHELTICS — Acquired OF

Buddy Reed from San Diego as the player to be named in a previous trade.

National LeagueATLANTA BRAVES — Named Ben Ses-

tanovich assistant general manager, player development.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS — Named Josh Bard bullpen coach; Connor McGuinness assistant pitching coach; and Danny Lehmann game planning and communi-cations coach.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS — Agreed to terms with RHP Corey Knebel on a one-year contract.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — Traded LHP Garrett Williams to the Los Angeles An-gels to complete an earlier trade.

FOOTBALLNational Football League

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Activated OT Jonah Williams from the PUP list. Signed WR DaMarkus Lodge to the practice squad.

DETROIT LIONS — Signed WR Travis Fulgham from the practice squad. Placed DL Da’Shawn Hand on IR. Signed WR Jon-athan Duhart to the practice squad.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Promoted TE Daniel Helm from the practice squad. Placed TE Garrett Celek on the IR. Signed S Jacob Thieneman to the practice squad.

HOCKEYNational Hockey League

CAROLINA HURRICANES — Acquired D Oliwer Kaski from the Detroit Red Wings for D Kyle Wood.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS — Placed D Calvin de Haan on IR.

DETROIT RED WINGS — Recalled RW Filip Zadina and D Dylan McIlrath from Grand Rapids (AHL).

NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Recalled D Con-nor Carrick from Binghamton (AHL).

ST. LOUIS BLUES — Assigned F Nathan Walker to San Antonio (AHL).

SOCCERMajor League Soccer

FC CINCINNATI — Acquired D Zico Bai-ley from the LA Galaxy for Cincinnati’s natural 2020 fourth-round MLS super-draft selection.

COLUMBUS CREW SC — Re-signed F Jordan Hamilton. Agreed to terms with G Matt Lampson.

LA GALAXY — Re-signed D Daniel Steres.

NEW YORK RED BULLS — Named Paul Fernie head of scouting.

ORLANDO CITY SC — Signed M Jordan Bender.

COLLEGEMISSOURI — Named Charlie Harbison

associate head coach/defense and Erik

College hockey

Thursday’s scoresEAST

Bentley 2, Dartmouth 2, OT

Pro baseball

MLB calendarJan. 10 — Salary arbitration figures

exchanged.Jan. 21 — Baseball Writers’ Associa-

tion of America Hall of Fame voting re-sults announced.

Feb. 3-21 — Salary arbitration hear-ings, Phoenix.

Feb. 4-6 — Owners meetings, Orlando, Florida.

Feb. 11 — Voluntary reporting date for pitchers, catchers and injured players.

Feb. 16 — Voluntary reporting date for other players.

Feb. 21 — Mandatory reporting date.March 26 — Opening day, active ros-

ters reduced to 26 players.April 28-30 — New York Mets vs. Miami

at San Juan, Puerto Rico.June 10-12 — Amateur draft, Omaha,

Neb.June 15 — International amateur sign-

ing period closes.July 2 — International amateur sign-

ing period opens.July 10 — Deadline for drafted players

to sign, except for players who have ex-hausted college eligibility.

July 14 — All-Star Game at Los Angeles.

Boxing

Fight scheduleDec. 14

At Madison Square Garden, New York, Terence Crawford vs. Egis Kavaliauskas, 12, for Crawford’s WBO welterweight title; Richard Commey vs. Teofim Lopez, 12, for Commey’s IBF lightweight title; Michael Conlan vs. Valdimir Nikitin, 10, featherweights.

Dec. 20At Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoe-

nix, Daniel Jacobs vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., 12, super middleweights; Julio Cesar Martinez vs. Cristofer Rosales, 12, for vacant WBC World flyweight title; Mau-rice Hooker vs. Pedro Campa, 10, welter-weights; Daniyar Yeleussinov vs. Alan Sanchez, 10, welterweights.

Dec. 21At Toyota Arena, Ontario, Calif., Tony

Harrison vs. Jermell Charlo, 12, for Har-rison’s WBC World super welterweight title; Jhack Tepora vs. Oscar Escandon, 10, featherweights; Hugo Centeno Jr. vs. Juan Macias Montiel, 10, middleweights; Efe Ajagba vs. Iago Kiladze, 10, heavy-weights; Andre Dirrell vs. Juan Ubaldo Cabrera, 10, super middleweights.

Dec. 23At Yokohoma, Japan, Ryota Murata

vs Steve Butler, 12, for Murata’s WBA World middleweight title; Ken Shiro vs. Randy Petalcorin, 12, for Shiro’s WBC and Alvarado’s IBF junior flyweight titles; Moruti Mhtalane vs. Akira Yaegashi, 12, for Mhtalane’s IBF flyweight title.

PAGE 18 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

BY DOUG FERGUSON

Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia — Justin Thomas delivered the biggest moment for an American team desperate for one Friday in the Presidents Cup.

He holed an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole, dropped his put-ter and looked over at his part-ner — U.S. captain Tiger Woods — and then borrowed a line from ex-NFL receiver Terrell Owens.

“I love me some ME!” Thomas screamed at Woods, who also dropped his putter and moved in for a hard hug.

All the Americans gained was momentum.

The International players are going so well at this Presidents Cup that they took the largest lead after any session in 16 years, and felt like that was the worst they could do.

Building on a 4-1 lead after the opening session at Royal Mel-bourne, they quickly won two more matches in foursomes.

Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott rallied from 2 down by win-ning five of the next seven holes and closed out Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar in the opening foursomes match Friday.

Patrick Reed heard it from the crowd again, including shouts of “Patrick Cheat” for his rules vio-lation last week in the Bahamas. Far tougher on Reed and Webb Simpson was the International team of Marc Leishman and Abraham Ancer, who took control on the back nine to win, 3 and 2.

At one point, the board was filled with black-and-gold, the new colors of this inspired Inter-national team led by Ernie Els.

It had to settle for a 6 ½-3 ½ lead.

Patrick Cantlay and Thomas each birdied the 18th hole to win matches. Gary Woodland and Rickie Fowler rallied from 2 down with three holes to play to earn a halve.

“It’s perspective, isn’t it?” Els said. “I’ve got to look at where we are. It’s easy to just look at where we could have been, because it was looking really unbelievable. We tie this afternoon.”

Els then considered the Ameri-cans have a 50 ½-22 ½ advantage in foursomes in winning the last seven times, and maybe it wasn’t all that bad.

“We’re in a very good position,” Els said.

The International team had its largest lead through two sessions since it won at Royal Melbourne in 1998, the only time it has won the Presidents Cup. It also had a three-point lead going into Sun-day singles in South Africa in 2003, the year of the tie.

Even so, the Americans felt momentum shifting.

“We dug ourselves out of what could have been a big hole,” Thomas said.

The match tied going to the 18th, Thomas drove into light rough on the right, and Woods followed with a great shot that landed near the hole and rolled out 18 feet. Hideki Matsuyama missed his 25-foot speedy birdie chance, and Thomas had the last putt for the win.

“We were both screaming,” Woods said. “It was a phenome-nal moment, and it was priceless. So I’m glad we were able to expe-rience it together.”

Just as important was Cantlay, whose second shot into the par-5 15th set up birdie to square the match. Xander Schauffele gave him a chance at the winner with an approach into 15 feet on the final hole, and Cantlay delivered.

That was the first point.The biggest moment belonged

to Thomas because it was one more point that got the U.S. team a little bit closer.

“I’ve been fortunate to make a lot of putts,” Thomas said. “But to do it with my captain and team-mate was awesome.”

Woods tied Phil Mickelson for

the record by winning his 26th match in nine Presidents Cup ap-pearances. Mickelson played in 12.

Woodland and Fowler cappedoff the late comeback. They were2 down with three holes to go when they birdied the 16th and 17th holes to square the matchagainst Sungjae Im and Camer-on Smith. It ended with the first draw of these matches.

“Momentum is huge,” Wood-land said. “ Any time you canscrape out something ... we didit. Now we have to regroup. We have 36 ahead of us tomorrowand hopefully go out and flip thisa little bit.”

The International team was buy-ing the momentum. It paid more attention to the leaderboard.

What are we, 6 ½-3 ½ up? It’svery early,” Leishman said. “They made a couple good puttson 18, definitely give them that, but I don’t think you get momen-tum with two putts. We played pretty well the first two sessions. Yes, today probably didn’t finish off the way we wanted to but westill halved the session. ”

Reed, meanwhile, is neverbashful about egging on thecrowd when playing away from home. He made a birdie on the 11th hole, and as he heard it fromthe crowd, Reed cupped his handto his ear, then pretended to use his putter as shovel. Walking up the 16th fairway, two specta-tors yelled at him to look at theirshirts that read, “We love a Tiger,but not a Cheetah.”

Reed declined interview re-quests after the round. He getsanother dose of it Saturday, as Woods sent out Reed and Simp-son for the third straight session.

Woods will be nothing but a cap-tain Saturday morning. He tookhimself out of the lineup, send-ing Thomas in the first match out with Fowler for fourballs. Eightpoints are available Saturday, fol-lowed by 12 singles on Sunday.

International team lead cut to only 3at President’s Cup

Americans stage late rally

Presidents CupAt Royal Melbourne Golf Club

Melbourne, AustraliaFriday

Yardage: 7,047; Par: 71INTERNATIONAL 6 ½, U.S. 3½

FoursomesUnited States 2 ½, International 2 ½Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen, In-

ternational, def. Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson, United States, 3 and 2.

Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, United States, def. Joaquin Niemann and Adam Hadwin, International, 1 up.

Abraham Ancer and Marc Leishman, International, def. Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson, United States, 3 and 2.

Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas, Unit-ed States, def. Hideki Matsuyama and Byeong Hun An, International, 1 up.

Rickie Fowler and Gary Woodland, United States, halved with Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im, International.

Scoreboard

ANDY BROWNBILL/AP

The United States’ Justin Thomas, left, celebrates with playing partner and team captain Tiger Woods on the 18th green during their Presidents Cup foursomes match in Melbourne on Friday.

SPORTS BRIEFS/GOLF

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The NBA said former Commissioner David Stern suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage Thursday and had emergency surgery.

The league said in a statement its thoughts and prayers are with the 77-year-old Stern’s family.

Stern served exactly 30 years as the NBA’s longest-tenured com-missioner before Adam Silver re-placed him on Feb. 1, 2014. Stern has remained affiliated with the league with the title of commis-sioner emeritus and has remained active in his other interests, such as sports technology.

Stern oversaw the growth of the NBA into a league whose games were televised in more than 200 countries and territories and in more than 40 languages. The league was playing a regular-sea-son game in Mexico City between Dallas and Detroit on Thursday night when it announced the news about Stern.

Giants waive DB Jenkins after his Twitter rant

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J — The New York Giants waived-in-jured cornerback Janoris Jenkins on Friday, days after he engaged in a Twitter conversation in which he used offensive language.

Jenkins defended his use of the word “retard” in an exchange with a fan, saying it was accept-able language where he grew up.

“This was an organizational decision,” Giants coach Pat Shur-mur said. “From ownership to management to our football op-erations, we felt it was in the best interests of the franchise and the player. Obviously, what happened this week, and the refusal to ac-knowledge the inappropriate and offensive language, was the de-termining factor.”

Moments after being released, Jenkins, a former Pro Bowl cor-nerback, tweeted: “Best news ever.. Thank you.”

10 former NFL playerscharged in fraud scheme

WASHINGTON — Ten former NFL players were charged in a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud the league’s health care benefit program by submitting false claims for medical equip-ment, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The players were charged in two separate indictments filed in federal court in Kentucky, ac-cusing them of conspiracy, wire fraud and healthcare fraud.

Those charged include five for-mer players on the Washington Redskins, including Clinton Por-tis and Carlos Rogers.

Ertz named US Soccer women’s player of year

Julie Ertz was named the U.S. Soccer women’s Player of the Year on Friday for the second time.

Ertz, a versatile midfielder who also won the award in 2017, was on the U.S. teams that won World Cup championships in 2015 and again last summer in France.

Ertz, 27 , was named Young Player of the Year in 2012, has 95 career appearances with the senior U.S. team and started 22 matches this year, most on the team.

Source: Gardner, Yanks ink $12.5M, 1-year deal

SAN DIEGO — Outfielder Brett Gardner is staying with the New York Yankees after the best offensive season of his career, agreeing to a one-year contract that guarantees $12.5 million, a person familiar with the negotia-tions told The Associated Press.

Gardner , a rare left-handed bat in a Yankees lineup dominated by right-handed hitters , turned 36 in August and is the senior member of the Yankees, having spent his entire 12-year big league career in the Bronx. He has a .260 aver-age, 124 homers and 524 RBIs.

Ex-NBA Commissioner Stern has emergency brain surgery

Briefl y

TONY GUTIERREZ/AP

77-year-old former NBA Commissioner David Stern suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage on Thursday and underwent emergency surgery, according to a statement released by the NBA.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 19Saturday, December 14, 2019

NHL

Scoreboard

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GABoston 33 20 7 6 46 111 84Buffalo 33 16 11 6 38 105 100Montreal 32 15 11 6 36 104 105Tampa Bay 30 16 11 3 35 108 95Florida 31 15 11 5 35 107 104Toronto 33 15 14 4 34 106 108Ottawa 32 13 17 2 28 86 100Detroit 33 8 22 3 19 72 131

Metropolitan DivisionWashington 33 23 5 5 51 120 95N.Y. Islanders 30 21 7 2 44 89 70Carolina 32 19 11 2 40 103 86Pittsburgh 32 18 10 4 40 105 85Philadelphia 31 17 9 5 39 97 88N.Y. Rangers 31 16 12 3 35 100 97Columbus 31 12 14 5 29 76 94New Jersey 30 9 16 5 23 74 111

Western ConferenceCentral Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GASt. Louis 33 19 8 6 44 98 90Colorado 31 20 8 3 43 114 85Winnipeg 32 19 11 2 40 94 88Dallas 32 18 11 3 39 84 76Minnesota 32 15 12 5 35 98 106Nashville 30 14 11 5 33 101 97Chicago 32 12 14 6 30 86 103

Pacific DivisionArizona 34 19 11 4 42 96 82Edmonton 34 18 12 4 40 105 105Calgary 34 18 12 4 40 95 100Vegas 34 16 13 5 37 100 98Vancouver 32 16 12 4 36 105 95San Jose 34 15 17 2 32 92 120Anaheim 32 13 15 4 30 83 94Los Angeles 33 13 18 2 28 82 104

Note: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

Wednesday’s gamesWashington 3, Boston 2Montreal 3, Ottawa 2, OTColorado 3, Philadelphia 1

Thursday’s gamesTampa Bay 3, Boston 2Buffalo 4, Nashville 3N.Y. Islanders 3, Florida 1Pittsburgh 1, Columbus 0, OTDetroit 5, Winnipeg 2St. Louis 4, Vegas 2Minnesota 6, Edmonton 5Calgary 4, Toronto 2Arizona 5, Chicago 2Los Angeles 2, Anaheim 1Vancouver 1, Carolina 0, OTN.Y. Rangers 6, San Jose 3

Friday’s gamesVegas at DallasNew Jersey at Colorado

Saturday’s gamesBuffalo at N.Y. IslandersColumbus at OttawaN.Y. Rangers at AnaheimCarolina at CalgaryDallas at NashvilleToronto at EdmontonPhiladelphia at MinnesotaLos Angeles at PittsburghDetroit at MontrealWashington at Tampa BayBoston at FloridaChicago at St. LouisNew Jersey at ArizonaVancouver at San Jose

Sunday’s gamesPhiladelphia at WinnipegMinnesota at ChicagoLos Angeles at DetroitVancouver at Vegas

Lightning outlastslumping Bruins

BY MARK DIDTLER

Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — The Boston Bruins came up just short on back-to-back nights.

Steven Stamkos had two goals to extend his recent tear and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the suddenly slumping Bruins 3-2 on Thursday.

Patrice Bergeron and John Moore scored for the Bruins, who have lost four straight in regu-lation and five in a row overall (0-4-1). Tuukka Rask stopped 28 shots.

The Bruins, coming off an in-tense 3-2 loss Wednesday night at Washington in a matchup of the NHL’s top two teams, hadn’t dropped four consecutive games in regulation since March 2017. The five-game losing streak is their longest since an 0-5-0 stretch in March 2016.

“The most part, we were play-ing the right way and you just lose these tight games,” Rask said. “You don’t want to let it snowball. If you start getting down on your-self and doubting yourself, then you’re going to lose more games in a row and I don’t think we have that in this room.”

Stamkos has scored six times during a four-game goal streak.

“They played a big, physical, heavy game in Washington last night,” Stamkos said. “If any-thing, we had the fresh legs and we took advantage. It doesn’t always work out that way, but tonight we were able to play our game and it worked.”

Tampa Bay, which had dropped four of five at home, also got a goal from Brayden Point. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for the win.

Not long after Stamkos gave

the Lightning a 3-1 lead at 15:13 of the third period, Moore got his first goal since returning from shoulder surgery with 3:15 left.

Point put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1 on a power play 4:07 into the third from the slot.

Stamkos also scored from the slot during a power play, tying it 1-all at 12:35 of the second. The Lightning star tied Bernie Nich-olls and Yvan Cournoyer for 46th place on the NHL list with 152 ca-reer power-play goals.

Boston went up 1-0 at 4:26 of the first when Brad Marchand skated along the left wing boards and went around the net before making a nice pass to Bergeron in the low slot.

“I think we know the kind of team we are,” Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “We know we’re a special group. Right now it’s sour. We don’t want to lose, but the sun comes up tomorrow.”

Marchand become the fourth NHL player to reach 30 assists this season. He has four assists in the last three games.

Both goalies made several strong saves in the second.

Vasilevskiy stopped two shots from the left circle by NHL goals leader David Pastrnak, and a chance in close for Jake DeBrusk.

Rask turned aside a good op-portunity for Stamkos after his power-play goal.

Notes: Boston’s Zdeno Chara and Tampa Bay’s Pat Maroon fought 27 seconds into the game. ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson (lower body) missed his third straight game but could return next week. ... Moore played for the fourth time in five games after missing the first 28 this season. He sat out Wednesday.

Roundup

Red Wings end12-game slide

Associated Press

DETROIT — Robby Fabbri backhanded a pass toward the slot, and it bounced into the net off the leg of an opposing defenseman.

The following period, Fabbri took a shot from the right circle that was saved by the goalie — be-fore bouncing in, pinball style, off the same unlucky defenseman.

After 12 games without a win, everything was finally breaking right for the Detroit Red Wings.

Fabbri scored twice on those fortuitous caroms, and the Red Wings snapped a 12-game win-less streak with a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night. Both of Fabbri’s goals went in off the body of Jets defenseman Neal Pionk.

“Those are some early Christ-mas gifts there,” Fabbri said. “That’s what it takes to win. It’s not always going to be pretty.”

The Red Wings will take a vic-tory in any fashion after they’d gone 0-10-2 in their previous 12 games and had dropped 10 in a row in regulation. Darren Helm, Filip Zadina and Filip Hronek also scored for Detroit.

Kyle Connor scored twice for the Jets.

Helm opened the scoring on a breakaway after a messy se-quence of blunders by Winnipeg defenseman Nathan Beaulieu. First, Beaulieu let the puck get past him at the Detroit blue line. Then, after chasing it down in the neutral zone, he let the puck slip away from his control — right into the path of Helm.

While trying to recover, Beau-lieu skated right into linesman Greg Devorski, and at that point, Helm was gone. He beat goalie Connor Hellebuyck with a wrist shot to make it 1-0.

“It bounced over my stick, and I fumbled it again, and then I ran into the linesman,” Beaulieu said. “It’s probably my fault. I’ll take that — I’ll take ownership for that.”

Detroit scored on the power play later in the first period when Fabbri’s backhanded pass at-tempt bounced off Pionk’s right leg and past Hellebuyck.

The goals were fluky, but the Red Wings fully deserved the lead after outshooting Winnipeg 14-5 in the first. The bounces kept going Detroit’s way in the second.

Fabbri took a shot from the right circle that Hellebuyck saved, only to have the rebound carom in again off Pionk, who was set up in front of the net. That made it 3-0.

“We had puck luck tonight, for sure,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “We haven’t had much of that. We’ve probably had some of

it go against us. It’s got a way ofevening out.”

Islanders 3, Panthers 1: Devon Toews and Mathew Bar-zal had power-play goals in a3:51 span early in the second pe-riod and Thomas Greiss made 32 saves to help visiting New Yorkbeat Florida.

Penguins 1, Blue Jackets 0 (OT): Bryan Rust scored a power-play goal at 3:02 of overtime and host Pittsburgh beat Columbus.

Rust controlled a bouncingpuck at the top of the crease and fired it past Joonas Korpisalo forthe winner and his 10th goal ofthe year.

Sabres 4, Predators 3: JackEichel had two goals and extended his NHL-leading point streak to15 games, Victor Oloffson scoredin the third period, and host Buf-falo beat Nashville.

Blues 4, Golden Knights 2: Oskar Sundqvist had a goal andan assist as host St. Louis beatVegas.

Mackenzie MacEachern, Jaden Schwartz and Robert Thomasalso scored for the Blues, who snapped a three-game skid.

Wild 6, Oilers 5: Eric Staalscored the go-ahead goal with4:47 remaining in the third pe-riod, Ryan Donato scored for thethird straight game and host Min-nesota topped Edmonton.

Flames 4, Maple Leafs 2: Johnny Gaudreau had his first two-goal game of the season andhost Calgary scored three goalsin the first three minutes of the third period, rallying to beat Toronto.

Coyotes 5, Blackhawks 2: Clayton Keller scored twice andPacific Division-leading Arizonabeat visiting Chicago.

Vinnie Hinostroza, playingagainst his former team, assisted on all three of Arizona’s first-period goals to match his careerhigh for points in a game.

Kings 2, Ducks 1: Jeff Carterand Matt Luff scored, JonathanQuick made 36 saves and visit-ing Los Angeles snapped its 11-game road winless skid, beatingAnaheim in the second Freeway Faceoff of the season.

Canucks 1, Hurricanes 0 (OT): Elias Pettersson scored 40 sec-onds into overtime for his 100thNHL point and host Vancouveredged Carolina.

Carolina outshot Vancouver42-24, yet the teams were stilllocked in a scoreless tie through regulation.

Rangers 6, Sharks 3: MikaZibanejad scored the tying and go-ahead goals in less than fiveminutes during the third period and visiting New York spoiledinterim coach Bob Boughner’sdebut with San Jose.

CHRIS O’MEARA/AP

Boston Bruins left wing Jake DeBrusk, bottom left, gets hit by Lightning defenseman Jan Rutta, bottom right, as they crash into goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy during Thursday’s game in Tampa, Fla.

PAGE 20 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

BY BILL RABINOWITZ

Akron Beacon Journal

COLUMBUS, Ohio — There was no breathless celebratory phone call. In fact, no phone call at all. Just one simple emoji.

When Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields was announced as a Heisman Trophy finalist on Mon-day, his response to his father’s congratulatory text message was in character.

“He sent me a fist bump back,” Pablo Fields said Tuesday.

That’s all. And then they moved on to more pressing things.

“We talked about what he’s get-ting his sisters for Christmas,” Pablo said. “That’s it. That’s how he is. It would sound like we’re not close, but that’s how Justin is, especially with awards. Justin is a different animal.”

Last week when they talked, Pablo said, Fields neglected to tell him that he’d been named Big Ten offensive player of the year. Pablo was stunned to learn the news on the Big Ten Network.

After the Big Ten championship game victory Dec. 7 over Wiscon-sin, Fields was asked about the Heisman.

“I’m not really worried about the Heisman right now,” he said. “I’m just worried about a win in these next two (College Football Playoff) games.”

It would be a shocking upset if Fields, Ohio State teammate Chase Young or Oklahoma quar-terback Jalen Hurts were to win the Heisman instead of LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, the for-mer Buckeye.

Heisman or not, Fields’ season has been brilliant. He has helped lead Ohio State to the playoff by throwing for 40 touchdowns and running for 10. Fields has com-pleted 67.5% of his 308 passes.

Only one has been intercepted.Consider that a year ago Fields

was a freshman backup at Geor-gia, and his story is even more remarkable. He entered the transfer portal late last Decem-ber and enrolled at Ohio State in early January.

He knew first-year coach Ryan Day a little from a last-ditch re-cruiting effort when Fields was the No. 2 overall prospect in the 2018 class. But Fields didn’t know the other coaches, his new team-mates, the playbook, the univer-sity or Columbus.

Yet he was immediately thrust into the spotlight as the successor to Dwayne Haskins Jr., a Heis-man finalist last year. It was a lot for a shy, homesick 19-year-old to handle .

At first, Fields wanted to return to Georgia. He agreed to give it more time after a phone call with his dad. But it was a rough first few months. He returned home to the Atlanta suburb of Ken-nesaw often, or his father came to Columbus.

Gradually, Fields felt at ease. But he remained a bit of a mys-tery. The talent was obvious. But he was careful not to step on toes, wanting to earn respect with work, not words.

The Buckeyes routed every op-ponent through 10 games, and it wasn’t until a tough season-end-ing stretch in which Fields played

through a knee sprain that evenDay got the true sense of his play-er’s mettle.

“I think his family has done a tremendous job of groundinghim,” Day said. “He has a tre-mendous approach. He’s humble.But deep inside there’s a fiery,competitive dude in there whojust tries to take your heart out when he’s in the game.

“He’s got an interesting de-meanor about him — very smooth. You don’t see much on the surface. But he’s very, very com-petitive. That’s something I didn’tknow about him until he startedplaying in these big games.”

Fields’ father has long knownabout Justin’s competitiveness .

When Justin was little, they’dcompete to see who could fastenhis seat belt faster. If Justin lost,he’d cry. Father and son used torace each other. Their last racewas when Justin was about 10.Pablo won, but it was close enough that he knew Justin would prob-ably beat him the next time.

“I was smart enough never torace him again,” Pablo said.

Now Pablo watches Justin playbasketball against his 13-year-oldsister with the same fierceness.

“I don’t want my 6-3, 235-poundboy posting up my baby girl andknocking her on the ground,” hesaid with a laugh. “But that’s justthe cloth we’re cut from.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Ohio State quarterback’s quiet demeanor belies an innate drive

Fields’ competitive advantage‘ He’s humble. But deep inside there’s a fiery, competitive dude in there who just tries to take your heart out when he’s in the game. ’

Ohio State coach Ryan DayOn quarterback Justin Fields

A.J. MAST/AP

Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, right, looks for a receiver during the second half of the team’s Big Ten championship defeat of Wisconsin on Dec. 7 in Indianapolis.

Burrow selectedAP Player of Year

BY RALPH D. RUSSO

Associated Press

What figures to be an award-winning week for LSU quarter-back Joe Burrow is underway.

Burrow was named The As-sociated Press college football player of the year presented by Regions Bank on Thursday in a landslide vote, making him the first LSU player to win the 21-year-old award.

Burrow, who has led the top-ranked Tigers to an unbeaten season and their first College Football Playoff appearance, re-ceived 51 of 54 first-place votes from AP Top 25 poll voters and a total of 159 points.

Ohio State defensive end Chase Young was second with three first-place votes and 69 points, and Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields was third with 43 points. Burrow, Young, Fields and Okla-homa quarterback Jalen Hurts, who finished fourth with 33 points, are the finalists for the Heisman Trophy to be handed out Saturday in New York.

Burrow is the overwhelming Heisman favorite after passing for 4,715 yards and a Southeast-ern Conference record 48 touch-downs. The senior transfer from Ohio State is on pace to set a major college record, completing 77.9% of his passes.

Burrow also won the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award and was up for two more awards Thursday night at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. He won the Davey O’Brien Na-tional Quarterback of the Year Award, beating out Fields and Hurts, and the Maxwell Award that goes to the nation’s best play-er over Young and Hurts.

The AP player of the year award began in 1998 and only five times has the winner not been the

same as the Heisman winner; the last time that happened was in 2015, when Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey won the AP award and Alabama run-ning back Derrick Henry was the Heisman winner.

LSU faces Hurts and No. 4 Oklahoma in the playoff semifi-nals Dec. 28 at the Peach Bowl. Later that night, Fields, Young and the rest of the second-ranked Buckeyes will play No. 3 Clemson in the other semifinal at the Fi-esta Bowl.

Award winnersWinners of the 2019 college foot-ball awards, presented Thursday:

Walter Camp National Player of the Year — Joe Burrow, LSU

Maxwell Award (best all-around player) — Joe Burrow, LSU

Davey O’Brien National Quar-terback Award — Joe Burrow, LSU

Doak Walker Award (out-standing running back) — Jona-than Taylor, Wisconsin

Fred Biletnikoff Award (out-standing receiver) — Ja’Marr Chase, LSU

Chuck Bedarnik Trophy (best defensive player) — Chase Young, Ohio State

Outland Trophy (outstand-ing collegiate interior lineman) — Penei Sewell, Oregon

Dick Butkus Award (best linebacker) — Isaiah Simmons, Clemson

Jim Thorpe Award (best de-fensive back) — Grant Delpit, LSU

Bronko Nagurski (outstand-ing defensive player) — Chase Young, Ohio State

Lou Groza Award (outstanding place-kicker) — Rodrigo Blanken-ship, Georgia

John Mackey (best tight end) — Harrison Bryant, Florida Atlantic

Ray Guy Award (best punter) — Max Duffy, Kentucky

Sports Spirit Award — Casey O’Brien, Minnesota

Coach of the Year Award — Ed Orgeron, LSU

NCFAA Contribution to Col-lege Football Award — Herschel Walker

— Associated Press

JOHN BAZEMORE/AP

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, left, picked up several awards Thursday night at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, while head coach Ed Orgeron, right, was named coach of the year.

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 21Saturday, December 14, 2019

JOE BURROWSenior, QB, LSU

BIO: His feel-good story is well-known by now. He grew up hoping to play for Nebraska, like his father and two brothers, but the Cornhuskers never showed interest. So he started his career at Ohio State, which offered a scholarship because then-offensive coordinator Tom Herman prodded Urban Meyer. He appeared in nine games for the Buckeyes, always in the shadows of J.T. Barrett and Dwayne Haskins Jr. When he didn’t win the starting job in the spring of 2018, and with his business degree in hand, he transferred to LSU with two years of eligibility. Now, having led LSU to the SEC championship and No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, he is poised to become the school’s second Heisman winner, and first since Billy Cannon in 1959.

KEY STATS: His 4,715 passing yards and nation-leading 48 touchdown passes are South-eastern Conference records. He has had five TD passes in a game three times and has thrown for 300 yards or more in a school-record seven straight games. He is the most accurate passer in the country, at 77.9%, and has thrown just six interceptions.

BEST GAME: He stamped himself the Heis-man front-runner with his performance against Alabama in November. On the biggest possible regular-season stage — LSU was No. 1, Alabama No. 2 — he completed 31 of 39 passes for 393 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions in the 46-41 win that snapped the Tigers’ eight-game skid in the series.

BEFORE COLLEGE: A four-star recruit by 247Sports, Burrow led Athens (Ohio) High School to three straight state playoff appearances and to each of the school’s seven all-time playoff wins. Burrow was Ohio Mr. Football in 2014 after throwing for nearly 4,500 yards with 63 touch-downs and two interceptions.

DRAFT STOCK: He has gone from being re-garded as a middle-rounder at the start of the season to a possible No. 1 overall pick. His ex-tremely high football IQ, toughness and underdog mentality make up for arm strength that, by NFL standards, is not considered elite.

THE SKINNY: No one could have predicted his incredible rise. He was good enough, not great, in his first year as the Tigers’ starter. Enter Joe Brady, hired as passing game coordinator in Janu-ary after two years with the New Orleans Saints. Brady, who this week won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant, and offensive coordina-tor Steve Ensminger added run-pass options to the spread offense. Surrounded by high-grade tal-ent, Burrow has done nothing but flourish.

JUSTIN FIELDSSophomore, QB, Ohio State

BIO: Fields was one of the most highly recruited players in the nation two years ago, so high expec-tations always follow him. He has exceeded them at Ohio State after spending his freshman year at Georgia. Not excited about the prospect of sitting behind Jake Fromm for another season, he knew he would have a chance to play at Ohio State with Dwayne Haskins Jr. heading to the NFL after last season. He was named the Associated Press Big Ten offensive player of the year and led the 13-0 Buckeyes to a conference championship and No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff.

KEY STATS: Nothing stands out more than his 40 touchdown passes against just one intercep-tion, by far the best ratio in the nation. He has accounted for 50 touchdowns, four shy of the Big Ten record Haskins set last year. His total-offense average of 263.4 yards per game ranks first in the conference.

BEST GAME: Fields passed for 300 yards for the second time and threw a career high-tying four touchdowns as the Buckeyes hammered then-No. 10 Michigan 56-27 on the road. His sig-nature play of the season came in the third quarter after he gingerly walked off the field to get his left knee evaluated in the medical tent. He returned to the game, and on the first snap he scrambled and threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson.

BEFORE COLLEGE: A consensus five-star re-cruit in 2018, he was ranked as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback prospect and No. 2 player overall. He was the MVP of the 2017 Elite 11 quarterback competition. He accounted for 69 touchdowns and 6,283 yards of total offense at Harrison High in Kennesaw, Ga., and he was named the 2018 Mr. Georgia Football. He also played shortstop and second base for his high school baseball team and was considered a pro prospect in that sport.

DRAFT STOCK: Fields isn’t eligible to be drafted until 2021, and the argument already has started over whether he or Clemson’s Trevor Law-rence will be the first quarterback taken.

THE SKINNY: Fields’ success is no surprise given his pedigree coming out of high school. He landed in a perfect spot. It was apparent last spring Fields would win the starting job, and he has shown remarkable consistency for a relatively young player. He has completed better than 70% of his passes in six games, improved throwing the deep ball as the season progressed and proved dangerous as a runner when plays break down. If he doesn’t win the Heisman on Saturday, look for him to be back in New York this time next year.

CHASE YOUNGJunior, DE, Ohio State

BIO: Young is arguably the best defensive lineman in college football since Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh, a Heisman finalist in 2009. The Buckeyes have been blessed with star linemen in recent years — Joey and Nick Bosa were top-three NFL picks — but none have produced at the level of Young. He had an 11-game sack streak dating to last season, highlighted by a four-sack game against Wisconsin in October that thrust him into the top tier of Heisman candidates. He has 30.5 sacks in three years, and his average of 1.5 per game this season is the highest since Elvis Dumervil of Louisville averaged 1.7 in 2005. He was suspended two games this season for an NCAA rules violation connected to a loan from a family friend in 2017.

KEY STATS: Young’s school-record 16.5 sacks, in 11 games, lead the nation and are the most by a Big Ten player in 21 years. He is first in the na-tion in tackles for loss per game (1.91) and tied for fourth with 21 tackles for loss, including 16 solo, for minus-129 yards (second-best in the country).

BEST GAME: Young was a force like never before in the Buckeyes’ 38-7 regular-season win over Wisconsin. He tied a school record with four sacks and forced two fumbles that led to Ohio State touchdowns. He finished with six tackles, all solos, and five of them were behind the line of scrimmage.

BEFORE COLLEGE: The Cheltenham, Md., na-tive was a consensus five-star recruit and ranked among the top 10 players in the nation after help-ing DeMatha High to a conference championship in 2016. He made 118 tackles and 37 tackles for loss, including 19 sacks, as a senior. He chose Ohio State over Alabama and Maryland.

DRAFT STOCK: He is in line to be the first player taken if the team drafting first — right now it’s the Cincinnati Bengals — doesn’t take a quarterback. NFL teams covet his combination of speed and power. He is also an effective run stopper. For all he has done as a pass-rusher in college, he still has a high ceiling.

THE SKINNY: Of the 159 Heisman finalists since 1982, Young is the ninth defensive player and first since Michigan’s Jabril Peppers in 2016. The only defensive player to win college football’s top award was Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson in 1997. Even if Young doesn’t win the Heisman, he already has taken home some im-pressive hardware. Namely, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Chuck Bednarik Award, both pre-sented to the nation’s top defensive player.

JALEN HURTSSenior, QB, Oklahoma

BIO: Hurts led Alabama to national champion-ship games as a freshman and sophomore. He was ineffective against Clemson in the second of those games. He was benched after halftime and watched Tua Tagovailoa lead the CrimsonTide to the title. Hurts was relegated to backup in2018 but helped the Tide make it back to the title game when he replaced an injured Tagovailoa in the fourth quarter of the SEC championship gameand rallied the Tide to victory. Then it was off toOklahoma, where he has become the latest in a line of Heisman finalists.

KEY STATS: Hurts became the third FBS play-er to record 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rush-ing yards by the 11th game of a season, and hejoined 2007 Heisman winner Tim Tebow as theonly players since 1996 with at least 32 passing TDs and 18 rushing TDs. Hurts leads the nation in points responsible for per game (23.7) and touch-downs accounted for (51). He has 4,889 yards oftotal offense (3,634 passing, 1,255 rushing).

BEST GAME: The regular-season game at Baylor, which could also have been Hurts’ worst. He fumbled and threw an interception in the firsthalf, setting up Baylor touchdowns, and in thethird quarter he fumbled at the Bears’ 3. He thenthrew three of his four touchdown passes during a school-record 25-point comeback in the secondhalf and also rushed 27 times for 114 yards in the34-31 win that kept alive OU’s playoff hopes.

BEFORE COLLEGE: The Houston native wasa consensus four-star recruit and the nation’stop-ranked dual-threat quarterback in 2016. Heplayed at Channelview High, where his father, Averion, was his head coach. He drew offersfrom Alabama and three other SEC schools afterpassing for 2,384 yards and 26 touchdowns asa senior.

DRAFT STOCK: NFL analysts don’t agree on where Hurts fits in. He is projected anywhere from the second to fifth rounds. Lincoln Riley has coached the last two No. 1 overall picks, so it is a plus that Hurts has played a year in the OU system. Hurts’ playmaking ability makes him an intriguing prospect, but he is still developing as a passer and he sometimes gets careless with the ball.

THE SKINNY: Hurts’ comeback story is right upthere with the Burrow saga. At Alabama he was the celebrated starter for two years and then thegood-soldier backup for Tagovailoa. After a changeof scenery, he is back on top. His eye-popping OUdebut against Houston created the momentum that has made him a Heisman finalist. He givesthe Sooners a chance for a third straight Heisman winner, but it’s an outside chance.

— Eric Olson, Associated Press

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Four who are playing for keepsBreaking down the finalists for the Heisman Trophy, to be awarded Saturday

PAGE 22 • S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • Saturday, December 14, 2019

Scoreboard

NBA

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBPhiladelphia 19 7 .731 —Boston 17 7 .708 1Toronto 16 8 .667 2Brooklyn 13 11 .542 5New York 5 20 .200 13½

Southeast DivisionMiami 18 6 .750 —Orlando 11 13 .458 7Charlotte 11 16 .407 8½Washington 7 16 .304 10½Atlanta 6 19 .240 12½

Central DivisionMilwaukee 22 3 .880 —Indiana 16 9 .640 6Detroit 10 15 .400 12Chicago 9 17 .346 13½Cleveland 6 19 .240 16

Western ConferenceSouthwest Division

W L Pct GBDallas 17 7 .708 —Houston 16 8 .667 1San Antonio 9 15 .375 8Memphis 8 16 .333 9New Orleans 6 19 .240 11½

Northwest DivisionDenver 15 8 .652 —Utah 14 11 .560 2Oklahoma City 11 13 .458 4½Minnesota 10 14 .417 5½Portland 10 16 .385 6½

Pacific DivisionL.A. Lakers 22 3 .880 —L.A. Clippers 19 7 .731 3½Phoenix 11 13 .458 10½Sacramento 11 13 .458 10½Golden State 5 21 .192 17½

Wednesday’s gamesHouston 116, Cleveland 110Indiana 122, Boston 117L.A. Clippers 112, Toronto 92L.A. Lakers 96, Orlando 87Charlotte 113, Brooklyn 108Chicago 136, Atlanta 102Utah 127, Minnesota 116Memphis 115, Phoenix 108Milwaukee 127, New Orleans 112Sacramento 94, Oklahoma City 93New York 124, Golden State 122, OT

Thursday’s gamesPhiladelphia 115, Boston 109Cleveland 117, San Antonio 109, OTDallas 122, Detroit 111Denver 114, Portland 99

Friday’s gamesHouston at OrlandoL.A. Lakers at MiamiNew Orleans at PhiladelphiaIndiana at AtlantaCharlotte at ChicagoMilwaukee at MemphisGolden State at UtahL.A. Clippers at MinnesotaNew York at Sacramento

Saturday’s gamesSan Antonio vs. Phoenix at Mexico CityBrooklyn at TorontoL.A. Clippers at ChicagoWashington at MemphisCleveland at MilwaukeeMiami at DallasDetroit at HoustonOklahoma City at Denver

Sunday’s gamesOrlando at New OrleansCharlotte at IndianaL.A. Lakers at AtlantaPhiladelphia at BrooklynNew York at DenverSacramento at Golden State

Roundup

Embiid helps lead Sixers past CelticsAssociated Press

BOSTON — Joel Embiid answered the crit-icism from a couple of Hall of Famers in the most productive way possible.

After Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Bark-ley said Embiid wasn’t playing up to his po-tential, the 76ers center conceded that they were probably right. Then he produced one of his best games of the year: a season-high 38 points along with 13 rebounds in a 115-109 victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.

“All of the stuff he has been dealing with he handled like an adult, with humility. And he responded in a dramatic way,” Philadelphia coach Brett Brown said. “He was dominant, was a leader and one of his best games as a Sixer.”

Embiid scored 16 points in the fourth quar-ter, hitting five of six free throws in the final 26 seconds after Boston scored seven straight points to erase most of a nine-point deficit. With Philadelphia leading by four in the final 15 seconds, he blocked Daniel Theis’ shot to help clinch it.

Earlier in the week, Barkley said Embiid is the toughest matchup in the league, but he doesn’t take advantage of it. O’Neal said on the TNT broadcast that Embiid shouldn’t set-tle for 22 points a game, his current average, but should aim for more like 28 or 30.

“I like when I get criticized,” Embiid said after the game. “For them to say I have the potential to be the best player in the world, and I haven’t shown that yet, I need to play harder.”

Celtics center Enes Kanter said he ap-proached Embiid during the game and told him not to worry about the criticism.

“He’s one of the best big men in the league,” said Kanter, who scored a season-high 20 points with nine rebounds. “I told him, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it.’ I told him to just go out and play your game.”

Tobias Harris had 23 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Sixers, who won their fourth straight game and their eighth in nine tries.

Kemba Walker scored 29 points for Boston, which lost at home for the first time all sea-son. Gordon Hayward scored 19.

Cavaliers 117, Spurs 109 (OT): Kevin Love hit a tying three-pointer in the final sec-onds of regulation and finished with 30 points and 17 rebounds as visiting Cleveland rallied past San Antonio in overtime to stop an eight-game losing streak.

Love had 10 points in the fourth quarter and OT to help Cleveland win for the first time since Nov. 23 against Portland.

It was San Antonio’s third straight over-time game. The Spurs won the previous two but failed to maintain a five-point lead with 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter this time.

DeMar DeRozan had 21 points but missed a pair of free throws with 14 seconds remaining in regulation and the Spurs leading 103-100. Love tied the game at 103 on a three with 7.5 seconds to go.

DeRozan missed a 20-foot fadeaway jumper at the close of regulation.

Nuggets 114, Trail Blazers 99: Nikola Jokic

and Jerami Grant scored 20 points apiece and host Denver overcame a career-high 33 by Hassan Whiteside to beat Portland.

Gary Harris and Will Barton each added 15 points for the Nuggets, who ended a three-game slide.

Carmelo Anthony, who spent the first 7 ½ years of his career in Denver, received a warm reception from the crowd during pregame in-troductions. He had 20 points for Portland, and CJ McCollum added 15.

Trailing by seven at halftime, Portland cut the deficit to one on Damian Lillard’s three-pointer late in the third quarter. But the Nug-gets scored 10 straight points in the last 2:33 of the period, including two threes by Grant, to rebuild their lead to 89-78 .

Barton’s three-pointer with 9:43 remaining put the Nuggets up 96-80, their biggest lead to that point, and Denver maintained a double-digit advantage the rest of the way.

ELISE AMENDOLA/AP

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, right, looks for room to shoot against Celtics forward Daniel Theis during the first quarter of Thursday’s game in Boston.

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Luka Doncic’s Span-ish was flawless. His game was pretty good, too.

Doncic scored 41 points and posted his eighth triple-double of the season, Seth Curry added a season-high 30 points off the bench and the Dallas Mavericks topped the Detroit Pistons 122-111 on Thursday night in the opener of the NBA Mexico Games.

Doncic finished with 12 rebounds and 11 assists for the Mavericks, who at 17-7 are off to their best 24-game start since post-ing the same mark at this point of the 2014-15 season.

“He picked us apart,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said.

Curry scored 18 points in the second quarter alone for Dallas. The Mavericks trailed by seven late in the first half, then went on a 14-0 run before intermission and eventually led by as many as 24.

Curry became the first Dallas reserve to

score 30 off the bench since Jason Terry had 34 against San Antonio on Jan. 29, 2012.

“Even when Detroit was playing zone, our guys were making an effort to drive-and-kick, drive-and-kick and find Seth ultimately for the shot,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “Real happy for him. He did everything. He drove it. He shot it. He made a couple good plays on the breaks. He made a couple good passes. He was a huge contributor tonight.”

Doncic’s eight triple-doubles already match his total from last season. Kristaps Porzingis added 20 points for the Maver-icks, who outrebounded Detroit 52-34.

“I think we’re getting better and better every day,” Doncic said. “He’s going to get better. I’m going to get better. And with us two, the team is going to get way better.”

Andre Drummond led the Pistons with 23 points and 15 rebounds. Derrick Rose scored 19 points and Markieff Morris added 16 for Detroit, which got 12 from

Tony Snell and 10 apiece from Christian Wood and Blake Griffin.

“Back to the drawing board,” Caseysaid. “Dallas is a great team. Rick’s done a heck of a job with that team. But we misseda lot of shots that we normally make. Andthen defensively, I thought we missed a lotof rotations.”

It was the 29th game in Mexico since 1992, the most of any country other thanthe U.S. or Canada in that span and came on a night where the NBA announced that Capitanes — a Mexico City-based teamin that country’s top pro league — will be joining the G League starting next season.

“Playing out here was incredible,”Drummond said. “The atmosphere wasoutstanding.”

Doncic addressed the Mexico City crowd pregame — to their delight — in flawlessSpanish, before turning the microphoneover to Griffin. “Hola, Mexico,” was theextent of Griffin’s Spanish offering, as hegrinned and an amused Doncic looked on .

REBECCA BLACKWELL/AP

The Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic shoots over the Detroit Pistons’ Tony Snell during the second half of Thursday’s game in Mexico City.

Doncic’s triple-double lifts MavsDallas downs Detroit in Mexico City, improves best start since 2014-15

• S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S • PAGE 23

BY DAVID GINSBURG

Associated Press

BALTIMORE — There haven’t been a whole lot of positives for the New York Jets this season, with the possible exception of their success against the run.

New York entered Thursday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens with the sec-ond-ranked rush defense in the NFL, and no team allowed fewer yards per carry than the Jets.

Problem is, none of those sparkling num-bers meant a thing to quarterback Lamar Jackson and the running Ravens.

Jackson ran for 86 yards, the Ravens totaled 218 on the ground and averaged a whopping 6.4 yards per attempt in a 42-21 rout.

Baltimore scored touchdowns on each of its first three possessions and cruised to the fin-ish against the Jets (5-9), who are now guar-anteed a fourth straight losing season.

“We knew we had to play a tough offense tonight and that we had to commit to (stop-ping) the run,” coach Adam Gase said. “We struggled early, and this is a really tough of-fense to play.”

Not only did the Jets failed to stop the run, but they couldn’t contain Baltimore’s passing game, either. Jackson threw five touchdown passes without an interception.

Bottom line: New York had no idea what was coming next from the highest-scoring team in the league.

“We were just trying to figure out what was

going on,” Gase said. “Sometimes against this group, you do not want to commit because you are unsure. They run their offense well but you have to pull the trigger and make a deci-sion in real time. And it is not easy.”

The Jets found out what many of the better teams in the NFL already knew: This is one tough offense to stop, especially when Jackson is able to dart downfield and elude would-be tacklers.

“He got outside of the pocket. He extended plays,” groaned safety Marcus Maye. “I don’t think we did a good enough job of keeping him in the pocket.”

New York put up 21 points on a very goodBaltimore defense, but that included a touch-down on a blocked punt. Though Sam Darnoldthrew two TD passes, he was also picked off and lost a fumble.

“I felt like we made our plays in the pass-ing game when they were there,” Darnold said. “We ran the ball well. There were just acouple throws I’d like to get back.”

Le’Veon Bell ran for 87 yards, one weekafter sitting out Sunday’s win over Miami and bowling a career-high 251 the night before.

“I was glad to come out of the game healthy,and I feel good right now,” he said.

Saturday, December 14, 2019

NFLScoreboard

American ConferenceEast

W L T Pct PF PANew England 10 3 0 .769 338 168Buffalo 9 4 0 .692 274 212N.Y. Jets 5 9 0 .357 247 343Miami 3 10 0 .231 221 399

SouthHouston 8 5 0 .615 317 309Tennessee 8 5 0 .615 318 255Indianapolis 6 7 0 .462 296 295Jacksonville 4 9 0 .308 230 337

Northy-Baltimore 12 2 0 .857 472 257Pittsburgh 8 5 0 .615 259 242Cleveland 6 7 0 .462 273 291Cincinnati 1 12 0 .077 198 325

Westy-Kansas City 9 4 0 .692 371 281Oakland 6 7 0 .462 258 366Denver 5 8 0 .385 236 261L.A. Chargers 5 8 0 .385 289 251

National ConferenceEast

W L T Pct PF PADallas 6 7 0 .462 334 267Philadelphia 6 7 0 .462 297 301Washington 3 10 0 .231 188 310N.Y. Giants 2 11 0 .154 247 362

Southy-New Orleans 10 3 0 .769 344 296Tampa Bay 6 7 0 .462 378 381Carolina 5 8 0 .385 300 360Atlanta 4 9 0 .308 300 343

NorthGreen Bay 10 3 0 .769 309 270Minnesota 9 4 0 .692 339 249Chicago 7 6 0 .538 243 232Detroit 3 9 1 .269 287 335

WestSan Francisco 11 2 0 .846 397 229Seattle 10 3 0 .769 341 321L.A. Rams 8 5 0 .615 311 262Arizona 3 9 1 .269 272 374

x-clinched playoff spoty-clinched division

Thursday’s gameBaltimore 42, N.Y. Jets 21

Sunday’s gamesDenver at Kansas CityTampa Bay at DetroitHouston at TennesseeMiami at N.Y. GiantsSeattle at CarolinaChicago at Green BayNew England at CincinnatiPhiladelphia at WashingtonCleveland at ArizonaJacksonville at OaklandMinnesota at L.A. ChargersAtlanta at San FranciscoL.A. Rams at DallasBuffalo at Pittsburgh

Monday’s gameIndianapolis at New Orleans

Saturday, Dec. 21Houston at Tampa BayBuffalo at New EnglandL.A. Rams at San Francisco

Sunday, Dec. 22N.Y. Giants at WashingtonCincinnati at MiamiNew Orleans at TennesseePittsburgh at N.Y. JetsBaltimore at ClevelandCarolina at IndianapolisJacksonville at AtlantaOakland at L.A. ChargersDetroit at DenverArizona at SeattleDallas at PhiladelphiaKansas City at Chicago

Monday, Dec. 23Green Bay at Minnesota

ThursdayRavens 42, Jets 21

N.Y. Jets 0 7 0 14—21Baltimore 13 8 14 7—42

First quarterBal—Ingram 6 run (Tucker kick), 7:49.Bal—Boykin 5 pass from L.Jackson

(kick failed), 2:50.Second quarter

NYJ—Crowder 4 pass from Darnold (Ficken kick), 13:27.

Bal—Andrews 1 pass from L.Jackson (Ingram run), 9:43.

Third quarterBal—M.Brown 24 pass from L.Jackson

(Tucker kick), 5:09.Bal—S.Roberts 33 pass from L.Jackson

(Tucker kick), :58.Fourth quarter

NYJ—Bello 14 blocked punt return (kick failed), 12:07.

Bal—Ingram 10 pass from L.Jackson (Tucker kick), 9:58.

NYJ—Crowder 18 pass from Darnold (R.Anderson pass from Darnold), 7:35.

A—70,545. NYJ BalFirst downs 13 23Total Net Yards 310 430Rushes-yards 24-103 34-218Passing 207 212Punt Returns 3-48 1-8Kickoff Returns 7-179 1-5Interceptions Ret. 0-0 1-12Comp-Att-Int 18-32-1 15-24-0Sacked-Yards Lost 1-11 1-0Punts 4-51.0 5-36.2Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-0Penalties-Yards 8-94 6-35Time of Possession 28:22 31:38

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING—N.Y. Jets, Bell 21-87, Dar-

nold 1-11, Montgomery 2-5. Baltimore, Jackson 8-86, Ingram 13-76, Edwards 5-35, Hill 4-15, Griffin 4-6.

PASSING—N.Y. Jets, Darnold 18-32-1-218. Baltimore, Jackson 15-23-0-212, Grif-fin 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING—N.Y. Jets, Crowder 6-90, R.Anderson 4-66, V.Smith 3-40, Bell 2-1, J.Smith 1-12, Montgomery 1-5, Brown 1-4. Baltimore, Andrews 4-52, M.Brown 4-45, Roberts 3-66, H.Hurst 1-19, Snead 1-15, Ingram 1-10, Boykin 1-5.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—N.Y. Jets, Fick-en 49.

FROM BACK PAGE

division title after they clinched a playoff berth four days earlier in Buffalo. With a victory next week in Cleveland, the Ravens will be assured the top seed in the AFC, a distinction that comes with home-field advantage leading up to the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl. That’s the target. Victories in December are mere-ly steps in that direction.

“We just have to keep it going,” Jackson said.

“The job is not over,” safety Earl Thomas said. “We got a cou-ple more goals in front of us.”

Jackson threw five touchdown passes and scurried into the NFL record book. He’s only started 21 games as a professional, yet Jack-son looks like he’s been doing it forever.

“I’m thinking in the back of my mind sooner or later he’s going to have a young, second-year grow-ing pains game,” veteran guard Marshal Yanda said. “And the kid keeps playing winning football.”

Baltimore (12-2) took control with touchdowns on its first three possessions and Jackson made it 28-7 in the third quarter with a 24-yard scoring pass to rookie

Marquise Brown following a turnover by New York (5-9).

Jackson ran for 86 yards (on eight carries) to break Michael Vick’s single-season record for a

quarterback (1,039 for Atlanta in 2006). Jackson has 1,108 yards rushing.

On this night, however, Jack-son did most of the damage with his right arm. He completed 15 of 23 passes for 212 yards and in-creased his NFL-leading total of touchdown passes to 33, tying the franchise season record set by Vinny Testaverde in 1996.

After Jackson’s pass to Brown, many in the crowd of 70,545 chanted “MVP! MVP!” There was a reprise of the mantra late in the third quarter when Jack-son hit Seth Roberts for a 33-yard touchdown. The score came after Jackson connected with tight end Mark Andrews for a 36-yard com-pletion on a fourth-and-1 from the Baltimore 29.

Jackson celebrated the first down by dancing downfield with his arm pointing toward the New York goal line. Not once through-out his exceptional performance

did Jackson show any sign ofbeing slowed by a quadriceps in-jury that made headlines in thedays leading up to the game.

The Jets, meanwhile, hardly looked like a team that had wonfour of their previous five games.Sam Darnold threw two touch-down passes to Jamison Crowder but the second-year quarterbackalso tossed an interception andlost a fumble.

The first turnover ruined a potential scoring drive near theend of the first half and the lat-ter miscue immediately precededJackson’s TD pass to Brown.

“When we got our opportuni-ties, we had to score touchdowns. We just didn’t do it,” coach Adam Gase said. “We didn’t finish thejob.”

Darnold went 18-for-32 for 218 yards.

“Experience. It’s coming,”Gase said. “It’s coming. He’s im-proving every week.”

NICK WASS/AP

Ravens running back Mark Ingram, top, dives over New York Jets free safety Marcus Maye and cornerback Darryl Roberts, bottom right, for a touchdown on Thursday in Baltimore. The Ravens totaled 218 on the ground and averaged a whopping 6.4 yards per attempt.

GAIL BURTON/AP

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson broke Michael Vick’s 2006 single-season record of 1,039 rushing yards for a quarterback on Thursday. Jackson ran for 86 yards against the Jets, bringing his total this season to 1,108.

‘ The job is not over. We got a couple more goals in front of us. ’

Earl ThomasBaltimore Ravens safety

More: Baltimore wraps up second consecutive AFC North title

New York’s second-ranked rush defense routed by Jackson & Co.

Jets overrun by Ravens’ ground game

S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S Saturday, December 14, 2019

SPORTS

A message is seen on the shirt of Ravens QB Lamar Jackson as he talks to reporters after throwing five touchdown passes in a 42-21 AFC North-clinching victory over the New York Jets on Friday in Baltimore.

GAIL BURTON/AP

NFL

Ravens win AFC North, keep focuson ‘top goal’

Hungry for more

BY DAVID GINSBURG

Associated Press

BALTIMORE

Only minutes re-moved from watch-ing his team roll to its 10th consecutivevictory, coach John

Harbaugh showed up to the post-game news conference wearing a white hat proclaiming Baltimoreto be AFC North champion.

No small accomplishment, win-ning that tough division two yearsin a row.

“We’re very proud of that,” Harbaugh said. “It’s our first goal. Not our top goal.”

Indeed. After Lamar Jack-son ran and passed the Ravenspast the New York Jets 42-21 onThursday night, the shirt he wore reflected the feeling of just about everyone associated with the team that owns the best record in the NFL.

“THE NORTH IS NOTENOUGH,” yelled the sentimentin capital letters.

Yes, the Ravens have another

SEE MORE ON PAGE 23

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Heisman hopefulLSU quarterback Burrow named AP Player of the Year » Page 20

Ex-NBA Commissioner Stern has emergency brain surgery » Page 18

Red Wings get breaks against Jets, snap 12-game skid » Page 19

Following criticism, 76ers’ Embiid scores season-high 38 » Page 22