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140th Year, No. 254

Annabelle OverstreetKindergarten, Annunciation

High 63 Low 41Slight chance of rain

Full forecast on page 3A.

Five Questions1 What is the last name of Dora the Explorer, the animated character on Nick Jr. — Martinez, Munez or Marquez?2 What 1930s outlaw couple were played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in a classic film?3 Which Supreme Court justice relates her journey form poverty to Princeton and Yale in her 2013 memoir, My Beloved Life?4 Which mega-popular smartphone game was pulled from the market by its Vietnamese creator in 2014 because he thought it was too addictive?5 What is the trademarked job title for the per-son who makes your sandwich at Subway?

Answers, 6B

insideClassifieds 6BComics 5BCrossword 4B

Dear Abby 5BObituaries 5AOpinions 4A

DISPATCH CUSTOMER SERVICE 328-2424 | NEWSROOM 328-2471

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Thursday, Jan. 9■ Exhibit reception: The Columbus Arts Council hosts a free reception from 5:30-7 p.m. for “Worlds Collide: Clay to Play,” an exhibit of ceramics by Stephen Phillips and photography by Erik Studdard in the main gallery of the Rosenzweig Arts Center, 501 Main St. Artwork by CAFB youth will be in Artist Alley. For more information, columbus-arts.org or 662-328-2787.■ Regional Business After Hours: The

Columbus-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce presents a members’ Regional Business After Hours from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Paccar Engine Co., 1000 Pac-car Drive, Columbus.

Friday, Jan. 10■ Book launch party: Author Kasey Van Norman attends a book launch for “Nothing Wasted: God Uses the Stuff You Wouldn’t” at 6 p.m., hosted by Fairview Baptist Church, 127 Airline Road, Colum-bus.

PubLic meetingsToday: Lowndes County Board of Supervisors regular meeting, 9 a.m., CourthouseJan. 7: Columbus City Council regular meeting, 5 p.m., Municipal ComplexJan 8: Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees agenda review meeting, 11:30 a.m., Sale Elementary

Columbus police search for Sunday shooting suspectvictim hospitalized outside columbus for trauma careDISPATCH STAFF REPORT

Columbus investigators are searching for the suspect in a Sunday evening shooting that sent one person to the hospital.

The shooting occurred around 5 p.m. near the intersection of Sixth Street and Fifth Avenue South, according to a Columbus Police Department press release. The man who was shot was taken by heli-copter for trauma care in a different city.

Authorities did not release the victim’s condition by press time this morning.

Reports indicate the victim and suspect were in-volved in some type of argument before the shoot-ing. The suspect is described as a “light-skinned black male” driving a dark gray SUV that is possibly a “4x4 heavy-duty type vehicle,” the press release said. There may be another man with the suspect.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Golden Triangle Crime Stoppers at 1-800-530-7151.

Starkville Utilities to operate water and electric divisions under one roof

BY TESS VRBINtvrbin@cdispatch.com

STARKVILLE — Starkville Utilities will consolidate most of its operations into one building, most likely within the next year, general manager Terry Kemp told the board of aldermen at its Friday work session.

The department plans to add about 10,000 square feet to its current electric division building at the intersection of Highways 82 and 182, Kemp said. All person-nel at the current water division building on North Washington Street, which was built in 1973, will move to the expanded facility, meaning that “utilities is now tru-ly utilities in consideration of a lo-cation,” Mayor Lynn Spruill said.

The project will cost about $1.3 million, though the department

budgeted $1.6 million just in case, and customers’ utility rates will not increase, Kemp said.

“If we had to make investments in facilities, this would be the best approach going forward,” he said. “Money spent here would serve us for a long, long time.”

Having the water and electric divisions under one roof should enhance and speed up communi-cation and teamwork throughout the department, he said.

“They work together fine now, but sometimes it’s problematic (if) you don’t see an individual or group, so we may not be quick to respond or take advantage of resources they can bring in case we need help on one side or the other,” Kemp told The Dispatch.

System engineers especially need to be able to communicate quickly and clearly about utili-

ty easements and project planning, he said.

The construction project will recon-figure some of the offices in the exist-ing building and add parking, a meeting and training room, warehouse space for supplies and in-ventory to the north side of the building. The department worked with the JBHM architecture firm, which has of-fices in Tupelo and Jackson, on the preliminary plans for the expansion to ensure all the planned additions would fit on the site, Kemp said.

The site already has an ele-vated water tank, a well and a filtering system. The existing water division building will still be used for sampling and filter-

kemp: estimated $1.3 million building expansion will not affect customers’ rates

MONDAY PROFILE

BY ZACk PlAIRzplair@cdispatch.com

Rob Wolz is in his sec-ond year as a full-time aerospace engineering

instructor at Mississippi State University.

The smattering of classes he teaches range from a senior lab and engineering mechanics to spacecraft propulsion. A curso-ry observation of his office on the third floor of Walker Hall gleans a picture of his more focused passion — Wolz is an airplane guy.

Prominent atop tables and file cabinets are airplane mod-els, mostly Gulfstream. On the walls are framed commemora-tions of different aircraft mod-els’ inaugural flights. Tucked away on a bookshelf behind his desk is a picture of an SR-71 jet signed by none other than Maj. Gen. Eldon Joersz, one of two pilots on a 1976 flight that still holds the world airspeed record of 2,193 mph.

These are some of what Wolz calls the “tokens,” the “bits and pieces” that remind him of his past and how he can maybe shape his students’ futures.

“Part of what I want to do is share my experiences,” Wolz said. “I’m also trying to get them excited about the career opportunities that are out there.”

Wolz has plenty to draw

Zack Plair/Dispatch StaffRob Wolz sits at his desk in Mississippi State University’s Walker Hall showing off a model of a Gulstream G280. Wolz, now an instructor at MSU, worked 35 years as an aerospace engineer with Gulfstream in Savannah, Georgia, helping design more than $70 billion in products.

MSU aerospace engineering instructor reflects on 35 years of designing airplanes

Spruill

Kemp

See Utilities, 6A

See Wolz, 6A

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2A Monday, January 6, 2020

Australia to pay ‘whatever it takes’ to fight wildfires

The AssociATed Press

SYDNEY — Australia’s govern-ment said Monday it was willing to pay “whatever it takes” to help com-munities recover from deadly wild-fires that have ravaged the country.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government was committing an extra 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.4 billion) toward the recovery ef-fort in addition to the tens of millions of dollars that have already been promised.

“The fires are still burning. And they’ll be burning for months to come,” Morrison said. “And so that’s why I outlined today that this is an initial, an additional, investment of $2 billion. If more is needed and the cost is higher, then more will be pro-vided.”

Morrison’s announcement of the funds, which will go toward re-building towns and infrastructure destroyed by the fires, came as the death toll from the disaster rose with the discovery of a body in a remote part of New South Wales. The body is believed to be that of a 71-year-old man who was last seen on New Year’s Eve moving equipment on his property on the state’s south coast, police said in a statement. Police found the body on Monday between the property and a car, both of which had been destroyed by fire.

Another person in southern New South Wales was reported missing, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Nationwide, at least 25 people have been killed and 2,000 homes de-stroyed by the blazes, which have so far scorched an area twice the size of the U.S. state of Maryland.

Rain and cooler temperatures on Monday were bringing some relief to communities battling the fires. But the rain was also making it challeng-ing for fire crews to complete strate-gic burns as they tried to prepare for higher temperatures that have been

forecast for later in the week. “With the more benign weather

conditions, it presents some won-derful relief for everybody, the fire-fighters, the emergency services personnel, but also the communities affected by these fires,” Shane Fitz-simmons, commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, told reporters. “But it also presents some real challenges when it comes to implementing tactical and strategic back-burns and other techniques to try and bring these fires under con-trol.”

More than 135 fires were still burning across New South Wales, including almost 70 that were not contained. Officials have warned that the rain won’t put out the largest and most dangerous blazes before condi-tions deteriorate again.

Victoria state Emergency Ser-vices Minister Lisa Neville said at least 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rain would need to fall over a short period of time in order to snuff out the fires — around 20 times what has fallen across the region in the past day. And officials warned that Aus-tralia’s wildfire season — which gen-erally lasts through March — was nowhere near its end.

“No one can be complacent. We’ve got big fire danger coming our way toward the end of this week,” Vic-toria state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne. “We are by no means out of this. And the next few days, and indeed the next few months, are going to be challenging.”

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian also urged Australians not to let their guards down.

Australia’s capital, Canberra, had the worst air quality of any major city in the world for much of Monday. The Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for coordinating the country’s response to disasters, told all noncritical staff to stay home because of thick smoke choking the

city.The prime minister said the mili-

tary was attempting to get food, fuel and water to burned-out communi-ties, and engineers were working to reopen roads and resupply evacua-tion centers. On Kangaroo Island, a refuge off the coast of South Australia state for some of the country’s most endangered creatures, teams had ar-rived to help euthanize livestock and wild animals injured in the blazes. Hundreds of millions of animals are believed to have died already in the fires across the country.

Heavy smoke, meanwhile, was hampering the navy’s efforts to airlift people out of Mallacoota, a coastal town in Victoria cut off for days by fires that forced as many as 4,000 residents and tourists to shelter on beaches over the weekend. Around 300 people were still waiting to be evacuated on Monday.

The prime minister’s announce-ment of relief funds comes as he finds himself under siege for what many Australians have viewed as his lax response to the crisis. On Sat-urday, he announced he would dis-patch 3,000 army, navy and air force reservists to help battle the fires and committed 20 million Australian dol-lars ($14 million) to lease firefighting aircraft from overseas.

But the moves did little to tamp down the criticism that Morrison had been slow to act, even as he has downplayed the need for his gov-ernment to address climate change, which experts say helps supercharge the blazes.

Wildfires are common during the southern hemisphere summer, and Australians generally take a prag-matic view of them. But this year’s fires arrived unusually early, fed by drought and the country’s hottest and driest year on record.

Scientists say there’s no doubt man-made global warming has played a major role in feeding the fires, along with factors like very dry brush and trees and strong winds.

The environmental group Green-peace said the relief funds an-nounced by Morrison were “a drop in the ocean,” given the widespread devastation from the fires.

Congress demands answers from Trump about Soleimani killingThe AssociATed Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump insists that Iranian cultural sites are fair game for the U.S. military, dis-missing concerns within his own admin-istration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian official.

But Congress is pushing back, in what’s expected to be a pivotal week as lawmak-ers return from a holiday recess. On Mon-day, two top Senate Democrats called on Trump to immediately declassify the ad-ministration’s reasoning for the strike on the Iranian official, Gen. Qassem Soleima-ni, saying there is “no legitimate justifica-tion” for keeping the information from the public.

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said late Sunday the House would introduce and vote this week on a war powers resolu-tion to limit the president’s military actions regarding Iran. In a letter to House Dem-ocrats, Pelosi called the airstrike “provoc-ative and disproportionate” and said it had “endangered our servicemembers, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran.” A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate.

Congress, which has the sole power to declare war, has complained that Trump did not provide advance notice of his air-strike on Soleimani in Baghdad. Trump did meet the 48-hour deadline required by the War Powers Act to notify Congress after the deadly drone strike, though the document was classified and no public ver-sion was released.

The administration is expected to brief lawmakers on its actions this week.

In their letter to Trump, Senate Minori-ty Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and the Senate Foreign Relation Commit-tee’s Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey said the White House’s classified notifica-tion sent to Congress late Saturday under the War Powers Act was insufficient and inappropriate.

“It is critical that national security mat-ters of such import be shared with the American people in a timely manner, they wrote. “An entirely classified notification is simply not appropriate in a democratic so-ciety.” They asked that the notification be declassified “in full.”

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, speaking Monday on “Fox & Friends,” dismissed the letter as a “parti-san action.”

Pelosi said the notification “raises more questions than it answers. This document prompts serious and urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of the Administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran.”

Iran has vowed to retaliate for Trump’s targeted killing of Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force. It has sparked out-rage in the Middle East, including in Iraq, where more than 5,000 American troops are still on the ground 17 years after the U.S. invasion. Iraq’s parliament voted Sun-day in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for the expulsion of the American forces.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison: Government committing an extra 2 billion ($1.4 billion US dollars) Australian dollars toward recovery efforts

Weeping, Iran supreme leader prays over general slain by US

TEHRAN, Iran — Weeping amid wails from a sea of mourners, Iran’s su-preme leader on Monday prayed over the remains of a top Iranian general killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, an attack that’s drastically raised tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The procession for Iranian Revolu-tionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani drew a crowd of mourners and follow-ers, said by police to be in the millions, on Monday in Tehran, where Solei-mani’s replacement vowed to take revenge for his killing. Additionally, Tehran has abandoned the remain-ing limits of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in response to the slay-ing while in Iraq, the parliament has called for the expulsion of all American troops from Iraqi soil.

The developments could bring Iran closer to building an atomic bomb, set off a proxy or military attack launched by Tehran against America and en-able the Islamic State group to stage a comeback in Iraq, making the Middle East a far more dangerous and unsta-ble place.

Adding to the tensions, President Donald Trump threatened to demand billions of dollars in compensation from Iraq or impose “sanctions like they’ve never seen before” if it goes through with expelling U.S. troops.

around the state

SOLUNAR TABLEThe solunar period indicates peak-feeding times for fish and game.

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Analysis: 6 women have held statewide office in MississippiTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSON — Republican Lynn Fitch will be sworn in as Mississippi’s new attorney gen-eral Thursday, becoming the first woman in that job.

Fitch is one of only six wom-en ever elected to statewide of-fice in Mississippi. Two of them — Nellah Massey Bailey and Julia Henrich Kendrick — are often overlooked.

Bailey was elected three times as state tax collector, in 1947, 1951 and 1955. She was the widow of Mississippi Gov. Thomas L. Bailey, who served less than three years before he died of a stroke in late 1946.

Nellah Bailey campaigned as “Mrs. Thomas L. Bailey,” following the practice of many married women who used a husband’s name for social or business purposes.

On a 1955 campaign flyer, she used the slogan: “Elect a woman who has made good.”

“Mrs. Thomas L. Bailey has honestly executed the laws governing the State Tax Col-lector’s office, never compro-mising with anyone,” the flyer said. “All taxes collected have been accounted for as required by law.”

Nellah Bailey died in 1956. The job of state tax collector was later abolished.

In 1963, Kendrick was elect-ed statewide as clerk of the Mississippi Supreme Court. She served four terms, retiring when her successor took office in January 1980.

“As Supreme Court clerk, she was concerned that the public had an accurate and wholesome understanding of and appreciation for the court and its function in the promo-tion of the common well being through equal and fair justice for all,” according to her obit-uary published in June 1991 in the Holmes County Herald.

Mississippi Supreme Court

clerks are now appointed.While tax collector and Su-

preme Court clerk were state-wide offices, they were not mentioned in the Mississippi Constitution.

The first woman to win a statewide office established in the constitution was Eve-lyn Gandy, a Hattiesburg at-torney who was elected state treasurer in 1959. She had al-ready served in the Mississip-pi House of Representatives, a district office. Gandy ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1963 and then won a second term as state treasur-er in 1967. She won her second statewide office, insurance commissioner, in 1971. And, Gandy was elected lieutenant governor in 1975.

Gandy, a Democrat, was the first woman to serve in all three of those statewide offices, and she often encouraged other women to pursue their goals. She died in 2007. When Fitch

won the attorney general’s race in November, she credited Gandy as an inspiration.

The only other woman to serve as Mississippi lieutenant governor was Amy Tuck, who won as a Democrat in 1999, be-came a Republican in 2002 and won her second term in 2003. She recently retired as a vice president of Mississippi State University.

In 2011, Mississippi voters elected two women to state-wide office. Fitch won the first of two terms as treasurer. Cin-dy Hyde-Smith won her first term as state agriculture com-missioner. Hyde-Smith had previously served in the state Senate as a Democrat, switch-ing to the Republican Party in 2010 before her run for state-wide office.

Hyde-Smith won a second term as agriculture commis-sioner in 2015. And, in the spring of 2018, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her

to the U.S. Senate when long-time Republican Sen. Thad Co-chran retired. Hyde-Smith won a special election in November 2018 to finish the six-year term Cochran started. She’s seek-ing a full term this year, and the same Democrat she defeat-ed in 2018, former U.S. Agri-culture Secretary Mike Espy, is pushing for a rematch as he seeks his party’s nomination.

Agriculture commissioner and insurance commissioner are major offices, but neither is mentioned in the state con-stitution.

Fitch will be the second woman, after Gandy, to hold two statewide constitutional offices. Tuck holds the distinc-tion of being the first woman elected to more than one term in a constitutional office. Fitch joined Tuck on that short list four years ago.

1 of 2 escapees from troubled prison in custody

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

One of two prisoners believed to have escaped from one of several Mississippi prisons recently rocked by violence is back in custody, authorities said early Sunday.

The Mississippi Department of Cor-rections tweeted just before 3:30 a.m. that David May was in custody. Further details weren’t immediately released.

Gov. Phil Bryant on Saturday said via Twitter that he directed “the use of all necessary assets and personnel” to find the two inmates who escaped Saturday from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Five inmates have died in prison violence since Dec. 29; three of those deaths have occurred at Parch-man.

The corrections department said in a Facebook post that May, 42, and Dillion Williams, 27, were discovered missing from Parchman during an “emergency count” about 1:45 a.m. Saturday. May is serving a life sentence for two aggravat-ed assault convictions in Harrison Coun-ty, and Williams is serving a 40-year sentence for residential burglary and aggravated assault in Marshall County.

The state Department of Public Safe-ty deployed state troopers and the high-way patrol’s special operations group to help the Department of Corrections find the two inmates and to help restore or-der at the troubled facility that they es-caped from, Bryant said.

The department said via Twitter on Saturday afternoon that there were no major disturbances occurring at Parch-man.

“There was a minor fire at Unit 30 earlier this week. That fire, set by an inmate, was immediately extinguished. Like other facilities in the prison system, the prison has limited movement,” the department tweeted.

Parchman is a series of cell blocks scattered across thousands of acres of farmland in Mississippi’s Delta region. Inmates who escape their cells some-times don’t make it off the property.

Mississippi’s outgoing prisons chief said Friday that four of the five killings of inmates since Sunday stem from gang violence, as guards struggle to maintain control of restive inmates.

Corrections Commissioner Pelicia Hall said the department won’t confirm the names of the gangs “for security purposes,” but relatives of inmates who spoke to The Associated Press and oth-

er news outlets said there’s an ongoing confrontation between the Vice Lords and Black Gangster Disciples.

It wouldn’t be the first time the two gangs have warred behind bars in Mis-sissippi, with previous confrontations at Parchman and other prisons over the past 15 years. A 2015 survey found near-ly 3,000 Black Gangster Disciple mem-bers and nearly 2,000 Vice Lords in pris-ons statewide.

“These are trying times for the Mis-sissippi Department of Corrections,” Hall said Friday.

All state prisons statewide remained locked down Saturday, Bryant said, with inmates confined to cells, and no visitors allowed.

T he first of five inmates identified as dying was Terrandance Dobbins, 40, who died Sunday at the South Mississip-pi Correctional Institute in Leakesville. Two days later, Walter Gates, 25, was stabbed and several other inmates were injured at Parchman during a fight that spread to multiple units of the sprawl-ing prison. Then on Thursday, Gregory Emary, 26, was killed at the Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility, a county-run jail that holds state inmates. Also Thursday, 32-year-old Roosevelt Holliman was fatally stabbed at Parch-man in a fracas that led to multiple in-juries. Before dawn Friday, Denorris Howell, 36, was found dead in his cell at Parchman.

Corrections officials have repeated-ly not answered questions about how many people overall have been injured, or whether there have been other violent incidents in prisons.

Mississippi’s prison system has strug-gled to fill guard vacancies, with Hall saying it’s difficult to attract people with salaries that start below $25,000 a year. Some guards end up bringing illegal drugs and cellphones into prisons. Crim-inal charges were filed in 2014 against 26 state correctional officers.

Some prisons, including South Mis-sissippi, have areas where many pris-oners are housed in bunks in one large room, instead of individual cells. This can lead to worsened security problems. South Mississippi, in Greene County, was locked down for almost all of 2019, in part because of guard shortages.

The violence came even as U.S. District Judge William Barbour ruled Tuesday that while conditions may have previously been poor at East Mississip-pi Correctional Facility near Meridian, there’s no longer any evidence that the privately run prison is violating inmates’ rights.

Hall announced Tuesday that she will resign in mid-January to take a private sector job, signaling incoming Gov. Tate Reeves won’t retain her upon taking of-fice Jan. 14.

authorities said early sunday morning they caught david may

Mississippi police investigate death of man found in manhole

GREENVILLE — Authorities in Mississippi are trying to determine what happened to a 60-year-old man found dead in a manhole filled with water.

Greenville police were called to the manhole early Thursday for a report of a possible body, The Del-ta Democrat-Times reported. They found the 60-year-old man, who was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity wasn’t immediately released.

No trauma was immediately spot-ted on the man, whose body has been sent to a state crime lab for autopsy, Assistant Police Chief Michael Mer-chant said.

New veterans’ monument will replace one toppled by tornado

PHILADELPHIA — The site is being cleared for a new military mon-ument in a central Mississippi commu-nity.

The work in Philadelphia is hap-pening eight months after a tornado destroyed a monument to the fallen soldiers of Neshoba County.

Col. Ray Crocker, vice chairman of the Fallen Soldiers Monument Com-mittee, told the Meridian Star that the prep work in Deweese Park included removing the old monument and tree stumps.

Organizers are in the process of raising $100,000 for the new monu-ment.

“Half of that, which buys all the granite, will have to be raised by the end of February, so we can go ahead and place the order in time to dedi-cate the monument in May of 2020 on Memorial Day,” Crocker said. “So, we have to place the order, get the granite, cut it, engrave it and get it ready to go.”

Crocker said the monument’s new design will be low to the ground, mak-ing it sturdier in bad weather. The height is calculated to make the names visible from a wheelchair and for peo-ple who are standing.

It will be constructed from a black and white granite on a cement base. The names on the granite will be divid-ed by the war era in which the veterans served.

McCutchen to take helm of Oxford Police Department on Monday

OXFORD — The Oxford Police Department is getting a new police chief — sort of.

Capt. Jeff McCutchen will be of-ficially sworn in Monday as the de-partment’s top cop, but it won’t be that big of a change. McCutchen has been running the 100-person depart-ment for the last 11 months as inter-im chief when former chief Joey East took leave to run for Lafayette County sheriff.

For most of 2019, the 17-year law enforcement veteran kept the status quo at the department. At the same time, he was looking at ways to bring his vision to the OPD, The Oxford Ea-gle reported.

“We will continue to serve the community with wisdom and com-passion,” McCutchen said. “I want to move law enforcement into a better place in the community. We are ser-vants – public servants. We serve oth-ers first. It’s not about us.”

He plans to slightly alter the com-mand structure at the top of the de-partment. Instead of two majors and four captains under the police chief, he plans to have a deputy chief and five captains.

“We will move some of the respon-sibilities and simplify (the organiza-tional chart),” McCutchen said. “We will take the resources for the second major and redirect those to the front line.”

A couple of programs he plans to keep are the new hire orientation and the front line meetings, where rank-and-file officers get together regu-larly to discuss problems within the department and how those problems can be resolved.

SOURCE: The Associated Press

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the

Possumhaw

Time is not on my side

“Shoes transform your body language and atti-tude. They lift you physically and emotionally.”

— Christian Lauboutin, French fashion shoe designer

Some of the sug-gestions from A. J. Jacobs’ book “Drop

Dead Healthy” bear repeat-ing since it’s January and we’ve all overindulged a bit — and a lot of the gyms were closed for the holidays and, even if they were open, we weren’t able to go because we had all the holiday festivities and guests to attend to. So now the trees and lights are down, a few leftovers sit in the refrigerator, and most of the real goodies have been consumed. So now what? How do we get back on the wagon? Or do we even want to or need to?

I enjoy attending exercise classes from four to six times weekly. For the aforementioned reasons I was unable to do so over the holidays. So, there I was in the kitchen when I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and moving was excruciating.

I called my favorite chiropractor’s office and headed right over. I told him I didn’t do anything ... I mean I really did not do anything at all. X-rays were taken, resulting in four diagnoses. The cause, he said, was “Time.” We know what that means. He laid out a plan to get me well.

The next day I found an open yoga class and signed up. I parked right in front of the studio and dragged myself in. I told Kelly, “I know this doesn’t look good but I can do everything but walk. I’ll be fine.” And I was, nothing hurt but walking. I had never appreciated the ability to simply walk with ease as I did that day. The next day I was back at the chiropractor. He forbade exercise classes for awhile, just the ones he gave me, which my pride said were a little wimpy but I’m doing them any-way. Between the adjustments and the exercises, we’re getting somewhere.

Jacobs’ book says 65 million Americans suffer from back pain, and back pain is the single most common reason people visit the doctor. Jacobs hired a walking instructor.

“Thanks to our sedentary lifestyle, Americans don’t know how to walk and stand correctly,” he writes. The book said there are not a lot of evi-dence-based studies on posture, but reason says stand up straight and lengthen the back. Don’t thrust your shoulders back no matter what your mother said.

Melissa, one of my exercise teachers, is big on walking and posture and teaches techniques in her classes. Melissa says lifting the sternum corrects posture and helps deep breathing from the stom-ach. The book recommends taking shorter steps; it’s a mind-body thing. I noticed it was true with my hurting back. The shorter the steps and the slower I moved, the better I felt. So, sternum up, back straight, shorter steps, take it slow, and do stretch-ing exercises. Not a bad or expensive program.

Note: An inequality in leg length even as much as 3 millimeters can cause back pain over time. The inequality can be corrected with a “lift.” Per-sonally, I’ve found a new tennis shoe wardrobe to be extremely uplifting.

Email reaches Shannon Bardwell of Columbus at msdeltachild@msn.com.

Letters to the editor

Voice of the peopleGetting outside our comfort zones

I appreciated Leonard Pitts’ col-umn on reading women authors. I can quickly name my three favorite women authors (Lois Mc-Master Bujold, Anne McCaffery, and Mercedes Lacky) even though I am an acknowledged expert on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Times series.

It is this willingness to move outside of our comfort zones that I would like to address. When we lock ourselves in a box that allows only our own viewpoint, we don’t learn and grow. It is usually painful to examine our viewpoints, especially viewpoints deeply held, which are the ones we least examine.

Watching Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow with an open mind is bound to be very hard for some, much as is considering the needs of business interests or the needs of welfare families. Trying to accept people alien to ourselves is a challenge. But if we do not try, we are dooming ourselves to narrower and more circumscribed lives than this century’s problems require. We are left with the tired solutions that have so polarized us. It is said that trying the same thing and hoping for a different outcome is a sign of insanity.

So, this New Year, let us hope for sanity.

Bonnie OppenheimerColumbus

Personalities during conflictI was taken by the printing

of Mr. Lollar’s letter beside Mr. Koehler’s column. They wrote such opposite views of military vi-olence. They put me in mind of the different responses to threats or problems in general from Repub-licans and Democrats. It seems to me that Democrats tend to attempt to resolve the issues that provoked the threats with diploma-cy, sometimes well, often badly; and Republicans tend to attempt to crush the source of the threat, sometimes well, often badly.

It would be easy to be cynical and say that military response enriches the defense industry, and diplomacy enriches nobody, claiming that the GOP is the party of industry, and thus has a vested interest in defense spending, but I think it is a personality thing. Military response, killing people, such as Qassem Suleimani — a long-time thorn in our side — is a manly response. Diplomacy is

wimpy.President Eisenhower built the

interstate highway system to move tanks. President Reagan invaded Grenada. President Bush invaded Panama. The second President Bush invaded Iraq. President Trump has arranged to occupy Space. Manly men all; not to be confused with Democratic wimps.

This may offer a clue as to why President Trump’s bullying behav-ior toward women has caused him no harm (or his bullying behaviors in general). He is merely demon-strating dominance. Top dog. Alpha male. The kind of man who should run this country.

That his policies are completely ad hoc is beside the point. That he responds only to the most simplified forms of issues before him shows his action-over-con-templation attitude. That he treats his Office as just another family business asset is trivial. That he lies (we will not know for certain about cheats and steals until his massively defended tax records are made public) about, it seems, everything is ignored. He is a man; not a girly-boy like Obama.

A country that keeps more air-craft carriers in the water than the rest of the world combined needs a man in the White House who will use them. And all the rest of our arsenal, like hellfire-equipped drones.

Bill GillmoreColumbus

Feels sports headline was misleading

I was, as I am want to do, reading the Sunday Starkville Dispatch when I came upon the article, “MSU tells Joe Moorhead to Pound Sand and Kick Rocks”. While I understand the futile attempt at humor, I found the title offensive and misleading. It implies a lot of vitriolic animosity between MSU and (now former) Coach Moorhead. This is not the truth. In fact, let’s call it what it is, an out-and-out lie!

I concede that the powers-that-be at MSU concluded that it was in the best interest of the University and the football program to part ways and seek new direction. That is their right, but from all accounts, it was a mutual parting.

I was, am, and will continue to be a MSU fan for life. Whereas my continued readership of the Dispatch, will require careful consideration.

If this is the best we can expect, we can expect from the Sports Ed-

itor, perhaps the Dispatch would be best served to have Hodge take his headline’s advice.

Jerry W. WolfStarkville

Questions Trump’s actionsTrump: Aim of killing Iranian

general was to stop a war, not start one. We believe almost nothing that Trump or his aides say. Flash-back: In 2010, Trump warned that a weak and ineffective President Obama would start a war with Iran to get reelected. He’s doing it to save face and to look tough in a transparent way to get reelected. And you think Obama would do that? Really?

FOX’s Stuart Varney: Why would you impeach a president who just killed one of the world’s leading terrorist? He has already been impeached. George Conway has given Trump a nickname for that, Impotus!

He was impeached because he is ignoring his oath to the Consti-tution, but Republicans seem to be with him, showing more loyalty to the party than the Constitution.

With Trump deploying troops all over the Middle East, it looks like another one of his campaign promises won’t be kept. Just a month ago, he pulled our troops out of Syria to bring them home because that was one of his promises he made during his campaign. Then, he sends some our troops back to Syria to protect their oil. Shortly afterwards, he sends troops to Saudi Arabia to protect the King and his oil. He did say that the King would pay us for the cost of our troops being there. But, he also said Mexico would pay for the wall. We’ll see what happens. This brings back memories of Newt Gingrich, who said if you believe on Monday what I said on Sunday, it’s a lie.

Trump seems to be very unsta-ble. It seems it would be a good idea to protect that bigger button than Kim Jong Un has, to keep Trump at least farther than arms-length from it.

James HodgesSteens

A letter to the editor is an excellent way to participate in your community. We request the tone of your letters be constructive and respectful and the length be limited to 450 words. We welcome all letters emailed to voice@cdispatch.com or mailed to The Dispatch, Attn: Letters to the Editor, PO Box 511, Columbus, MS 39703-0511.

Our View: Local EditorialsLocal editorials appearing in this space represent the opinion of the newspaper’s editorial board: Peter Imes, editor and publisher; Zack Plair, managing editor; Slim Smith and senior newsroom staff. To inquire about a meeting with the board, please contact Peter Imes at 662-328-2424, or e-mail voice@cdispatch.com.

Voice of the PeopleWe encourage you to share your opinion with readers of The Dispatch.Submit your letter to The Dispatch by:E-mail: voice@cdispatch.comMail: P.O. Box 511, Columbus, MS 39703In person: 516 Main St., Columbus, or 101 S. Lafay-ette St., No. 16, Starkville.All letters must be signed by the author and must include town of residence and a telephone number for verification purposes. Letters should be no more than 500 words, and guest columns should be 500-700 words. We reserve the right to edit submitted informa-tion.

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The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com Monday, January 6, 2020 5A

Ann I. PalmerMrs. Ann Charlotte Irby Palmer,

101, died at home November 25, 2019. She was born in Lucy, Ten-nessee, at the family home, on November 12, 1918.

After beginning her college years at what is now the Univer-sity of Memphis, she married and later moved with her family to Columbus, where her husband began his lengthy career with American Bosch Arma Corporation (AMBAC), where he retired as Group Vice President of United Technologies Cor-poration’s Electrical and Fluid Power Products Divi-sion. She graduated from Mississippi State College for Women (the “W”) with a bachelor of science (BS) degree, followed by a scholarship for graduate study and a master’s in speech pathology from the “W”. She actively supported others who wanted to further their higher education there.

Ann I. Palmer was a Paul Harris Fellow of Rota-ry International. She was a member of the Histori-cal Society and Association of Preservation of An-tiquities, a Lifetime Friend of the Library, a charter member of the Blewett-Harrison Lee Home Do-cents, and one of the original drivers of Meals for the Homebound. She was an active member of St. Paul’s Church in Columbus, serving as president of its Altar Guild and an officer of the Episcopal Church Women. She was an early member of the St. Paul’s chapter of Daughters of the King.

Mrs. Palmer was a member of the Town and Country Garden and Luncheon Club when it was organized in 1955. She enjoyed her memberships in social, breakfast, walking and supper clubs. She supported the YMCA, the Riverine Society of Unit-ed Way, Tennessee Williams Tributes, and Columbus Arts Council, Community Theatre, St. Paul’s School and MUW Foundation.

She enjoyed traveling worldwide and through-out the United States with her husband of over for-ty years, friends from Memphis and Columbus, her children and grandchildren, during which time she made new friends continuing to correspond with them until very recently.

Mrs. Palmer was preceeded in death by her hus-band, Edward Jackson Palmer; her parents, Jesse Roy and Virginia Williams Irby; and sister, Ruth Irby Cox.

Survivors include daughters, Charlotte Seeley, Susan Mullins (Dave), and Blair Simpson; grandchil-dren and their spouses; and great-grandchildren.

A memorial service for Mrs. Palmer will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church January 11, 2020, at 11:00 AM. The family will receive friends in the Ear-lene Robertson Room of St. Paul’s at 10:00 AM, prior to the service. Memorial Gunter Peel Funeral Home & Crematory, College Street location, has been en-trusted with the arrangements.

Memorials may be made to the charity of the do-nor’s choice.

Sign the online guest book at www.memorialgunterpeel.com

903 College Street • Columbus, MS

Roland PerkinsVisitation:

Monday, Jan. 6 • 10-11 AMFirst Baptist Church

Services:Monday, Jan. 6 • 11 AM

First Baptist ChurchGraveside Committal

Monday, Jan. 6 • 3 PMCollege Hill Presbyterian

Church CemeteryOxford, MS

2nd Ave. North Location

Martha ToupousVisitation:

Monday, Jan 6 • 4-6 PMCollege St. Location

Services:Tuesday, Jan. 7 • 10 AM

College St. LocationBurial

Friendship Cemeterygunterandpeel.com

Doris DaileyVisitation:

Tuesday, Jan. 7 • 9-11 AM2nd Ave. North Location

Memorial ServiceTuesday, Jan. 7 • 11 AM2nd Ave. North Chapel

Ann I. PalmerVisitation:

Saturday, Jan. 11 • 10-11 AMThe Earlene Robertson Room of

St. Paul’s Episcopal ChurchMemorial Service:

Saturday, Jan. 11 •11 AMSt. Paul’s Episcopal Church

College St. Location

Theo BurnsIncomplete

2nd Ave. North Location

memorialgunterpeel.com

AreA obituAriesCOMMERCIAL DISPATCH OBITUARY POLICYObituaries with basic informa-tion including visitation and service times, are provided free of charge. Extended obit-uaries with a photograph, de-tailed biographical information and other details families may wish to include, are available for a fee. Obituaries must be submitted through funeral homes unless the deceased’s body has been donated to science. If the deceased’s body was donated to science, the family must provide official proof of death. Please submit all obituaries on the form provided by The Commercial Dispatch. Free notices must be submitted to the newspa-per no later than 3 p.m. the day prior for publication Tues-day through Friday; no later than 4 p.m. Saturday for the Sunday edition; and no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday edition. Incomplete notices must be received no later than 7:30 a.m. for the Monday through Friday editions. Paid notices must be finalized by 3 p.m. for inclusion the next day Monday through Thursday; and on Friday by 3 p.m. for Sunday

and Monday publication. For more information, call 662-328-2471.

Gloria ButlerCOLUMBUS — Glo-

ria Butler, 62, died Jan. 6, 2020, at Baptist Me-morial Hospital-Golden Triangle.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lown-des Funeral Home of Columbus.

Mary NevinCOLUMBUS —

Mary E. Nevin, 85, died Jan. 5, 2020, at Baptist Memorial Hospi-tal-Golden Triangle.

Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Lown-des Funeral Home of Columbus.

Robert RogersSTARKVILLE —

Dr. Robert W. “Bob”

Rogers, 81, died Jan. 3, 2020, at North Missis-sippi Medical Center in Tupelo.

Celebration of Life services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Osborn Community Church, with Dr. Bernice S. Rogers officiating. A graveside service and burial will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Rogers family plot of Pleasant Run Cemetery in Russellville, Ken-tucky. Visitation is from 5-8 p.m. today at Welch Funeral Home. Welch Funeral Home is in charge of local arrange-ments. Young Funeral Home of Russellville is in charge of out-of-town arrangements.

Dr. Rogers was a graduate of the Univer-sity of Kentucky. He was formerly employed as Professor Emeritus of Animal and Dairy Sciences and Food Sci-

ence and Technology and Director Emeritus of the Food Science Institute at Mississippi State University. He served as a meat pro-cessing and food safety consultant for numer-ous meant and food processing companies, Director of the USDA Meat Grading and Certification School at MSU, and Critical Control Point Process-ing Professor at North Texas State University. He was also an author and served as bailiff in the Oktibbeha Coun-ty Circuit Court and Chancery Court. He was a member of Os-born Presbyterian and Community Church.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Enlow and Maggie Rogers; first wie, Mary Demas; second wife, Lucretia “Lou” Jones; daughter, Lydia Rogers

Miller; sisters, Lillian Loraine Rogers, Mary Louise Milliken and Bess Porter Summers; and brothers, George Earl Rogers, Roy Enlow Rogers, James Phillip Rogers, David Taylor Rogers and Paul T. Rogers.

He is survived by his wife, Dr. Bernice S. Rogers; son, Ronald W. Rogers of Jackson; daughter, Linda Rogers Fowler of Katy, Texas; stepchildren, Mack Adams of Terre Haute, Indiana, Keith Elder of Hattiesburg, Amanda Vaughan and Tonia Botts, both of Indian Trail, North Carolina, and Sonia Lovelace of

Guntown; two grand-children; and eight step grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Tim Armstrong, Mike Martin, Byron Wil-liams, Don Janes, Jack Jones, Ross Reed, John Hamilton Vaughan and Heath Lovelace.

Memorials may be made to the Osborn Community Church, 40 San Marcos Dr., Starkville, MS 39759, the Palmer Home for Children, P.O. Box 746, Columbus, MS 39703, or to the Dr. Robert W. Rogers Endowed Schol-arship, MSU Develop-ment Foundation, P.O. Box 6149, Mississippi State, MS 39762.

todAy in HistoryToday is Monday, Jan.

6, the sixth day of 2020. There are 360 days left in the year.Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of “Four Freedoms”: Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear.

On this date:In 1412, tradition

holds that Joan of Arc was born this day in Domremy.

In 1759, George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married in New Kent County, Virginia.

In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state.

In 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roos-evelt, died in Oyster Bay,

New York, at age 60.In 1945, George

Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce at the First Presbyteri-an Church in Rye, New York.

In 1968, a surgical team at Stanford Univer-sity School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, led by Dr. Norman Shumway, performed the first U.S. adult heart transplant, placing the heart of a 43-year-old man in a 54-year-old patient (the recipient died 15 days later).

In 1975, the original version of “Wheel of For-tune,” hosted by Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford, premiered on NBC-TV.

In 1994, figure

skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding plead-ed guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution, but denied any advance

knowledge about the assault.)

In 1998, In a new bid to expand health insur-ance, President Clinton unveiled a proposal to offer Medicare coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Americans from ages 55 to 64.

SOURCE: AP

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com6A MOnDAy, JAnUARy 6, 2020

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — The global benchmark for crude oil rose above $70 a barrel on Monday for the first time in over three months, with jitters rising over the escalating military ten-sions between Iran and the United States.

The Brent contract for oil touched a high of $70.74 a barrel, the high-est since mid-September, when it briefly spiked over an attack on Saudi crude processing facili-ties. Stock markets were down as well amid fears of how Iran would fulfill a vow of “harsh retaliation.”

“The market is con-cerned about the potential for retaliation, and specif-ically on energy and oil infrastructure in the re-gion,” said Antoine Halff, a Columbia University re-searcher and former chief oil analyst for the Interna-tional Energy Agency. “If Iran chose to incapacitate

a major facility in the re-gion, it has the technical capacity to do so.”

The U.S. killed Irani-an Gen. Qassem Solei-mani in Iraq on Friday. Early Sunday, as Iran threatened to retaliate, President Donald Trump tweeted the U.S. was pre-pared to strike 52 sites in the Islamic Republic if any Americans are harmed.

Fears that Iran could strike back at oil and gas facilities important to the U.S. and its Persian Gulf allies stem from earlier attacks widely attributed to Iran.

The U.S. has blamed Iran for a wave of provoca-tive attacks in the region, including the sabotage of oil tankers and an attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infra-structure in September that temporarily halved its production. Iran has denied involvement in those attacks.

“Targeting oil infra-structure could raise pric-es and bring worldwide

economic pain and put Iran on the front burner,” which might be exactly the kind of message its leaders are looking to send, said Jim Krane, an energy and geopolitics researcher at Rice Uni-versity.

Compared to other methods of attack, tar-geting energy sites also “doesn’t kill a lot of peo-ple,” Krane said. “It’s cap-ital-intensive, it’s not peo-ple-intensive. It’s a safer option in terms of the vir-ulence of reprisal.”

It would still wreak havoc on the global econ-omy, he said, because of the way that oil markets affect other energy-inten-sive industries such as airlines, shipping and pet-ro-chemicals.

Global stock markets have been sliding since Friday. European index-es were down over 1% on Monday after Asia closed lower. Wall Street was expected to slide again on the open, with futures

down 0.6%.Brent crude was up

$1.07 at $69.67 a barrel, putting it up almost 6% since before the Iranian general’s killing.

At the same time, some experts say the effect of a Middle Eastern geopo-litical crisis on oil prices may not be as great as it once was. The U.S. ener-gy industry, for instance, can ramp up shale oil pro-duction in places such as Texas.

“We’re in this new ter-ritory where the world oil markets are more dy-namic and can tolerate this disruption more than they used to,” said Mi-chael Webber, a mechani-cal engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have steadily intensified since Trump’s decision to with-draw from a 2015 nuclear deal and restore crippling sanctions.

in the nation

Wolzcontinued from Page 1a

from. In a 35-year career as an aerospace engineer for Savannah, Georgia-based Gulfst-ream, he helped design more than $70 billion in products. Planes that began as ideas in the capable minds of Wolz and his fellow designers have flown VIPs for every branch of the military, diplomats and other dignitaries, Congressio-nal contingents and even U.S. presidents.

“That’s pretty cool,” Wolz admits when consid-ering it. “That’s fun.”

If not for the waiting list to the Air Force Acad-emy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Wolz would have taken a different path entirely.

Raised in Chester, Illinois, a town of about 5,000 residents just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Wolz said he picked up a love for art and working with his hands from his father — a dentist by trade who also dabbled in carpentry. His father, an Air Force veteran, was also a pilot with a private plane in which the younger Wolz often flew as a passenger.

By the time Wolz grad-uated high school, he had all the prerequisite approvals needed to enter the Air Force Academy, but being 50th on the waiting list, he decided to attend Mississippi State rather than waiting an-other year to start cadet training. In Starkville, he met his eventual wife, Melinda. After Wolz earned his degree in aerospace engineering in 1982, the two moved to Savannah where Wolz began working for Gulfstream — starting as a team member in development and design and working his way up to project management roles.

Most of his project designs — often for

business clientele — helped produce planes that held fewer than 30 passengers, weighed less than 100,000 pounds, flew ranges of up to 7,000 miles at speeds between 80 and 90 percent the speed of sound (613 to 690 mph).

This required working closely with the produc-tion team to turn theoret-ical ideas into planes that would actually fly, a task Wolz said was sometimes easier said than done. It also took working with client needs and keeping an eye on the competi-tion.

“When it came to the competition it was a big chess game,” Wolz said. “We’d take information from brochures, news-paper articles, anything we could get our hands on. Then we talked about things like, ‘Can they do it?’ and ‘If they do it, how are we going to respond?’”

With each new design or modification, Wolz said, came higher perfor-mance standards, more safety features and more

advanced technology. What once was a ma-chine with independently operating mechanical parts evolved into a more integrated, computerized vehicle.

“In the later years, since electronics were changing so much, we began thinking more like computer companies,” Wolz said. “… Bringing in technologies that were much more dependent on software was a chal-lenge.”

Twice Wolz worked on unsuccessful collabo-rative projects to design a supersonic civilian jet (one that would travel faster than the 767 mph speed of sound). Once he worked with a team that included Joersz. The other equally memorable time involved Gulfstream and Rolls Royce part-nering with two Russian fighter jet manufacturers in 1990 — the waning stages of the Cold War with the crumbling Sovi-et Union.

Wolz never traveled to Russia, but he said he enjoyed the cultural

exchange with Russian engineers that worked with him in Savannah.

“They loved going to Walmart,” Wolz recalled. “They went home with blue jeans like you wouldn’t believe.”

By 2017, Wolz retired to return to the Gold-en Triangle, where he worked for a year as a project manager for com-posite structures at Stark Aerospace — designing parts to be incorporated in Boeing and Gulfstream aircraft — before taking a faculty position at MSU.

But when one of the last projects he helped design at Gulfstream, the G500, completed a Transatlantic flight in July 2016, it helped Wolz better realize what his three-plus decades of work had really meant.

“I’ve seen, from a piece of paper to hard-ware, something that someone flew across the Atlantic,” he said. “Now, airplanes have been go-ing across the Atlantic for a long time. But to be a part of that, it struck me.”

Zack Plair/Dispatch StaffRob Wolz shows off a framed commemoration of the first flight of the Gulfstream G650 that hangs in his office at Mississippi State University. Planes Wolz helped de-sign have flown military VIPs, Congressional contingents and even U.S. presidents.

Utlitiescontinued from Page 1a

ing, but employees will no longer be stationed there, Kemp said. The Starkville Wastewater Plant on Sand Road will remain where it is, and none of its staff will be transferred to the main building.

The department plans to put out bids for con-struction soon, begin work on the building in late spring and have the site fully staffed and op-erational within a year,

Kemp said.“For the

next sev-eral years, (the) pro-cess of continuing to reinvest and put capital in-vestment back into the infrastructure on elec-tric, water and sewer is critical, and I think this kind of lays out a plan to make sure that the city

can grow and provide the services that our custom-ers expect,” Kemp said.

One specific area of capital investment is the replacement of electric poles, and Ward 4 Alder-man Jason Walker asked Kemp if the department was considering install-ing more utilities under-ground instead of replac-ing poles. Kemp said this could happen in new de-velopments but is unlike-ly in existing neighbor-

hoods, and Walker said underground installa-tions could increase the resilience of the system.

“Where the opportu-nities are, especially in some of the major corri-dors where we’re expect-ing long-term, high-den-sity growth, it seems that would be an area where we at least need to start thinking about what a plan might look like,” Walker said.

Oil price keeps rising as industry eyes Iran-US conflict

Walker

SECTION

BSPORTS LINE662-241-5000Sports

THE DISPATCH n CDISPATCH.COM n MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2020

MISSISSIPPI STATE 73, GEORGIA 66

MSU wOMEN dOwN GEORGIA IN AThENS

Jim Lytle/Dispatch file photo Mississippi State’s Jessika Carter (4) shoots over Florida’s Emanuely de Oliveira (11) and Paige Robinson (44) during the second quarter of their NCAA college basketball game Thursday in Starkville.

By Ben Portnoybportnoy@cdispatch.com

The Bulldogs contin-ue to roll.

After a home loss to West Virginia Dec. 8, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team earned its sixth-straight victory with a 73-66 win over Georgia Sunday in Athens.

“Not our best day but give Georgia a ton of credit,” MSU coach

Vic Schaefer said in a news release. “My young team, we grew up a little bit today, I hope. I don’t know how many games I have ever won in my ca-reer where in the second half my opponent shot 54 percent in the third quarter and 60 in the fourth, 51 for the game and 75 from the line.”

Just days after open-ing Southeastern Con-ference play with a 93-47 demolition of Flor-

ida, freshman forward Rickea Jackson and se-nior guard Jordan Dan-berry each notched 17 points a piece to lead all scorers.

For Jackson, Sunday’s outing marked the fifth-straight game in which she’s notched 14 or more points — including four outings of 17 or more.

In Danberry’s case, she’s now recorded dou-ble-digit scoring fig-ures in 11 of her past 12

games — bumping her season average from 11.7 points per game to 13.8.

Sophomore guard Xaria Wiggins also turned in one of her more prolific efforts of the season. Normally a reserve option off the bench, Wiggins notched 13 points on 4 of 6 shoot-ing — including a 3 of 4 performance from 3-point range.

Sophomore forward Jessika Carter — a Wa-

verly Hall, Georgia na-tive — was similarly productive — finishing with 13 points on 6 of 13 shooting.

Defensively, MSU turned 23 Georgia turn-overs into 19 points and notched eight steals on the afternoon.

With the win, Schae-fer’s bunch now sit at 2-0 in SEC play heading into Thursday’s game at Missouri. Last season, the Tigers were the only

team to defeat the Bull-dogs in conference play — downing MSU 75-67 at Humphrey Coliseum Feb. 14.

“A win on the road in this league is so diffi-cult,” he said in a news release. “If you get one on the road it is worth a win and a half. Proud of our perseverance today. We fought through some foul trouble. Maybe our young kids grew up a lit-tle bit.”

Cousins, Vikings upend Saints 26-20the AssociAted Press

NEW ORLEANS — Af-ter tight end Kyle Rudolph emerged from a purple swarm of celebrating Vi-kings near the corner of the end zone, he took an opportunity to mock those who doubted quarter-back Kirk Cousins’ abili-ty to come through in the clutch.

“I’m just glad Kirk can’t win big games, apparent-ly,” Rudolph said. “We proved that one wrong to-day.”

Cousins hit Rudolph with a 4-yard fade on third-and-goal in over-time, and the Minnesota Vikings pulled out a 26-20 victory over the fa-vored Saints in the wild-

John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) fumbles the ball as he is hit by Minnesota Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter (99) during the fourth quarter of a NFC Wild Card playoff football game Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Wilson leads Seahawks past Eagles, 17-9the AssociAted Press

PHILADELPHIA — After Jadeveon Clowney knocked out Carson Wentz, Russell Wilson and the Seattle Sea-hawks knocked off the Philadelphia Eagles.

Wilson threw a 53-yard touchdown pass to DK Metcalf, Marshawn Lynch had a rushing score and the Seahawks beat the Eagles 17-9 in the wild-card round of the NFC playoffs on Sunday night.

“To come back here, back East, it’s a long ways, we were able to do it, pull through,” Wilson said. “We’ve been road warriors and it’s excit-ing. We’ve got a great

defense, too.”Making his first ca-

reer playoff start, Wentz lasted two series before exiting with a head injury following a hel-met-to-helmet hit from Clowney.

Nick Foles wasn’t around to rescue Phila-delphia this time.

Forty-year-old Josh McCown stepped in, becoming the oldest quarterback to make his playoff debut. But he couldn’t lead the Eagles (9-8) into the end zone.

The Seahawks (12-5) lost three of their final four games, including a 26-21 defeat at home against San Francisco in Week 17 that cost

See saints, 4B See seahawks, 4B

Monday Prep Girls Basketball

Caledonia at Lamar County, 5 p.m.Prep Boys Basketball

Caledonia at Lamar County, 6:30 p.m.Women’s College Basketball

MUW at Southern, 5:30 p.m.Ole Miss at Texas A&M, 6 p.m.Meridian Community College at East Mississippi Community College, 7:30 p.m.

Men’s College BasketballMeridian Community College at East Mississippi Community College, 7:30 p.m.

TuesdayPrep Girls Soccer

Oxford at Starkville, 5:30 p.m.West Point at Caledonia, 5:30 p.m.

Prep Boys SoccerOxford at Starkville, 7 p.m.West Point at Caledonia, 7:15 p.m.

Prep Girls BasketballMooreville at Caledonia, 6 p.m.Columbus at West Point, 6 p.m.New Hope at Houston, 6 p.m.South Panola at Starkville, 6 p.m.McAdams at West Lowndes, 6 p.m.Starkville Academy at Heritage Acade-my, 6:30 p.m.Carroll Academy at Oak Hill Academy, 6:30 p.m.Newton Academy at Columbus Christian Academy, 6:30 p.m.Kemper Academy at Hebron Christian, 6:30 p.m.

Prep Boys BasketballMooreville at Caledonia, 7:30 p.m.Columbus at West Point, 7:30 p.m.New Hope at Houston, 7:30 p.m.South Panola at Starkville, 7:30 p.m.McAdams at West Lowndes, 7:30 p.m.Starkville Academy at Heritage Acade-my, 8 p.m.Carroll Academy at Oak Hill Academy, 8 p.m.Newton Academy at Columbus Christian Academy, 8 p.m.Kemper Academy at Hebron Christian, 8 p.m.

Men’s College BasketballRhodes College at MUW, TBA

WednesdayMen’s College Basketball

Mississippi State at Alabama, 6 p.m.Ole Miss at Texas A&M, 8 p.m.

ThursdayPrep Girls Soccer

Mississippi School for Math and Sci-ence at Philadelphia, 5:30 p.m.

Prep Boys SoccerColumbus at Grenada, 7 p.m.Mississippi School for Math and Sci-ence at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.

Prep Girls BasketballChoctaw County at Starkville Academy, 6:30 p.m.

TodayCOLLEGE BASKETBALL (MEN’S)

6 p.m. — Colgate at Army, CBSSN8 p.m. — West Virginia at Oklahoma State, ESPN28 p.m. — Southern at Prairie View A&M, ESPNU

COLLEGE BASKETBALL (WOMEN’S)6 p.m. — Illinois at Indiana, BTN6 p.m. — Ohio State at Maryland, ESPN26 p.m. — Mississippi at Texas A&M, SECN8 p.m. — Texas at Iowa State, FS1

COLLEGE FOOTBALL6:30 p.m. — The LendingTree Bowl: Louisiana (Lafayette) vs. Miami (Ohio), Mobile, Ala., ESPN

COLLEGE WRESTLING6 p.m. — Arizona State at Ohio State, FS1

NBA BASKETBALL6 p.m. — Oklahoma City at Philadel-phia, NBATV9 p.m. — Golden State at Sacramento, NBATV

NHL HOCKEY6 p.m. — Edmonton at Toronto, NBCSN

TENNIS2 a.m. — ATP/WTA: The ATP Cup, Day 4 Group Stage, AND The Brisbane Inter-national, Early Rounds, TENNIS5 a.m. — ATP: The ATP Cup, Day 4 Group Stage, Brisbane, Perth, and Sydney, Australia, TENNIS5 p.m. — ATP/WTA: The ATP Cup, Day 5 Group Stage, AND The Shenzhen Open, The Auckland Open, and The Brisbane International, Early Rounds, TENNIS2 a.m. (Tuesday) — ATP/WTA: The ATP Cup, Day 5 Group Stage, AND The Brisbane International, Early Rounds, TENNIS5 a.m. (Tuesday) — ATP: The ATP Cup, Day 5 Group Stage, Brisbane, Perth, and Sydney, Australia, TENNIS

BRIEFLY

on ThE aIR

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2B Monday, January 6, 2020

Pro FootballNFL Playoff Glance

Wild-card PlayoffsSaturday, Jan. 4

Houston 22, Buffalo 19, OTTennessee 20, New England 13

Sunday, Jan. 5Minnesota 26, New Orleans 20, OTSeattle 17, Philadelphia 9

Divisional PlayoffsSaturday, Jan. 11

Minnesota at San Francisco, 3:35 p.m. (NBC)Tennessee at Baltimore, 7:15 p.m (CBS)

Sunday, Jan. 12Houston at Kansas City, 2:05 p.m. (CBS)Seattle at Green Bay, 5:40 p.m. (FOX)

Conference ChampionshipsSunday, Jan. 19

AFC, 2:05 p.m. (CBS)NFC, 5:40 p.m. (FOX)

Pro BowlSunday, Jan. 26

At Orlando, Fla.AFC vs. NFC, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

Super Bowl

Sunday, Feb. 2At Miami Gardens, Fla.NFC champion vs. AFC champion, 5:30 p.m. (FOX)

Seahawks 17, Eagles 9Seattle 3 7 7 0 — 17Philadelphia 0 3 6 0 — 9

First QuarterSea_FG Myers 49, 1:29.

Second QuarterPhi_FG Elliott 46, 2:53.Sea_Lynch 5 run (Myers kick), 1:06.

Third QuarterPhi_FG Elliott 26, 10:36.Sea_Metcalf 53 pass from Wilson (Myers kick), 8:46.Phi_FG Elliott 38, 2:49.A_69,796.

Sea PhiFirst downs 16 20Total Net Yards 382 282Rushes-yards 26-64 26-120Passing 318 162Punt Returns 1-5 0-0Kickoff Returns 3-60 1-24

Interceptions Ret. 0-0 0-0Comp-Att-Int 18-30-0 19-28-0Sacked-Yards Lost 1-7 7-15Punts 4-41.0 3-45.3Fumbles-Lost 2-0 3-0Penalties-Yards 11-114 7-45Time of Possession 26:45 33:15

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING_Seattle, Wilson 9-45, Homer 11-12, Lynch 6-7. Philadelphia, Sanders 14-69, Scott 6-25, McCown 5-23, Ward 1-3.PASSING_Seattle, Wilson 18-30-0-325. Philadel-phia, McCown 18-24-0-174, Wentz 1-4-0-3.RECEIVING_Seattle, Metcalf 7-160, Lockett 4-62, Moore 2-57, Lynch 2-25, Hollister 2-16, Homer 1-5. Philadelphia, Goedert 7-73, Ward 3-24, Scott 3-23, Sanders 3-8, Ertz 2-44, Burnett 1-5.MISSED FIELD GOALS_Seattle, Myers 35.

Vikings 26, Saints 20 (2OT)Minnesota 3 10 7 0 6 — 26New Orleans 3 7 0 10 0 — 20

First QuarterNO_FG Lutz 29, 9:52.Min_FG Bailey 43, 4:05.

Second QuarterNO_Kamara 4 run (Lutz kick), 9:18.

Min_FG Bailey 21, 2:54.Min_D.Cook 5 run (Bailey kick), :23.

Third QuarterMin_D.Cook 1 run (Bailey kick), 3:23.

Fourth QuarterNO_T.Hill 20 pass from Brees (Lutz kick), 10:31.NO_FG Lutz 49, :02.

First OvertimeMin_Rudolph 4 pass from Cousins, 10:40.A_73,038. Min NOFirst downs 22 19Total Net Yards 362 324Rushes-yards 40-136 17-97Passing 226 227Punt Returns 2-17 4-44Kickoff Returns 1-3 5-148Interceptions Ret. 1-30 0-0Comp-Att-Int 19-31-0 27-34-1Sacked-Yards Lost 3-16 3-31Punts 6-49.7 5-45.8Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-1Penalties-Yards 4-26 6-52Time of Possession 36:56 27:24

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRUSHING_Minnesota, Cook 28-94, Mattison 5-20, Abdullah 1-9, Diggs 2-8, Ham 1-3, Thielen

1-3, Cousins 2-(minus 1). New Orleans, T.Hill 4-50, Murray 5-21, Kamara 7-21, Brees 1-5.PASSING_Minnesota, Cousins 19-31-0-242. New Orleans, Brees 26-33-1-208, T.Hill 1-1-0-50.RECEIVING_Minnesota, Thielen 7-129, Rudolph 4-31, Cook 3-36, Diggs 2-19, O.Johnson 2-17, Mattison 1-10. New Orleans, Kamara 8-34, Thom-as 7-70, Cook 5-54, T.Hill 2-25, J.Hill 2-3, Harris 1-50, Ginn 1-18, Murray 1-4.MISSED FIELD GOALS_New Orleans, Lutz 43.

TransactionsSunday’s moves

BASEBALLAmerican LeagueDETROIT TIGERS — Signed RHP Alex Wilson to a minor league contract.

BASKETBALLNational Basketball AssociationATLANTA HAWKS — Transferred F Charlie Brown Jr. to College Park (NBAGL).WASHINGTON WIZARDS — Waived G Justin Robinson.

HOCKEYNational Hockey LeagueARIZONA COYOTES — Recalled G Ivan Prosve-tov from Tucson (AHL).

Local SoccerCSO adult soccer opens 2020 registration

Registration is currently open for the Columbus Soccer Organization’s 2020 adult soccer league season on the CSO website, https://columbusmssoccer.org/adult-league-soccer/

Any player over 19 years old at the time of registra-tion is eligible, and registration closes Jan. 24. Matches, which feature seven players per side, will begin at the Columbus Soccer Complex downtown in February, typically on Sundays.

Players can register individually or with a team — all teams are co-ed. The cost of registration is $60, which includes league fees and entry to the Friendly City Shootout in April. This year, the league will be divided into junior and senior divisions based on the average roster age.

Zachary’s restaurant is sponsoring the league, and all registered players will receive a discount card for Zachary’s and 15 percent off food purchases at the restaurant.

For more information and to register, see the CSO website. For questions, contact CSO President Tom Velek at tvelek@yahoo.com or send a message through the CSO website.

SOURCE: From Special Reports

CaLEnDaR

Parity party has college basketball’s best on constant edgeThe AssociATed Press

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The season was barely a week old when Michigan State lost to Kentucky in the Champions Clas-sic, a defeat of the nation’s No. 1 team that could be written off easily as a high-pro-file battle of heavyweights on a neutral court early in the season that didn’t go the Spartans’ way.

Then the Wildcats rose to No. 1 and lost to Evansville. Duke took over and lost to Stephen F. Austin. Louisville climbed to No. 1 and fell to Texas Tech. Kansas ascended to the top spot and lost at Vil-lanova.

Good luck finding excuses for all those losses, other than perhaps this one: There is a parity party in college basketball this season unlike any in recent memory, and not even the bluest of the blue bloods is safe.

“Yeah, I hesitate to talk about ‘best team’ right now,” said Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann, whose own team climbed to No. 3 before losing three of its last five, including back-to-back games last week. “Who really knows?”

Indeed, who knows?The Buckeyes’ loss to unranked Wis-

consin on Friday night was merely one eyebrow raiser in a week that showed that those early losses by No. 1 teams were merely the start of season-long upheaval. Fourth-ranked Oregon lost to Colorado, while Saturday brought losses by No. 9 Memphis and No. 10 Villanova — all to unranked opponents.

Asked whether the Buffaloes’ win in their Pac-12 opener meant more because of the Ducks’ lofty perch in the Top 25, coach Tad Boyle eschewed coach talk for a more candid response: “I think it does to our team.”

“But again, we’re 1-0 in league play. We’re not 2-0. We’re not 1-and-a-half-and-0. We’re 1-0. It’s one game,” Boyle added. “I know the national ranking and the Ducks have a lot of respect nationally, so I knew our players would be ready for that. These are the games you don’t have

to get your guys up for and ready.”That might offer a starting point in ex-

plaining an avalanche of upsets this sea-son. But the quaint notion of the plucky underdog rising to the challenge has ex-isted since the earliest of time — think David striking down Goliath, or the fall of the Roman Empire. And such upsets always left a mark on college basketball, whether it was North Carolina State win-ning the 1983 national title or UMBC pull-ing off the first 16-1 upset in the NCAA Tournament by beating Virginia.

So what else could be behind the rise of the unranked? The stumbles of the su-perpowers?

For one thing, talent is spread more evenly across college basketball. The top three prospects in last year’s recruiting class committed not to Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina but to Memphis (James Wiseman), Washington (Isaiah Stewart) and Georgia (Anthony Ed-wards). Other off-the-radar programs that landed top-100 recruits included LSU (Trendon Watford), DePaul (Romeo Weems), Massachusetts (Tre Mitchell) and even Harvard (Chris Ledlum).

There are reasons for that, too. But the biggest may be that while playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Rupp Arena or Allen Fieldhouse will always have cachet, and big-name programs typically have better facilities, larger fan bases and far more resources, many prospects would rather play major minutes right away than enjoy other baubles.

The depth of talent also is greater than ever before.

Even if the best of the best — the top guns, if you will — still gravitate toward big-name programs, their ceiling isn’t a whole lot higher than prospects ranked well outside the top 100. Luke Garza picked Iowa over dozens of mid-major offers and has turned into arguably the Big Ten’s best center, and Dayton’s Obi Toppin has gone from a three-star pros-pect known only by a select few hardcore recruiting insiders to an All-America can-didate and likely NBA lottery pick.

Rule changes also have impacted both the way teams play, and the biggest this season may be the extension of the 3-point line to the FIBA distance of 22.15 feet. The shot has been a game-changer ever since it was introduced in 1987, al-lowing smaller and often less-talented teams an opportunity to hang with the heavyweights simply by making shots. And while moving the line back was sup-posed to make it a more difficult shot and open up the clogged lane for big bodies, it also has created a bigger risk-reward sit-uation where hot-shooting teams can soar and cold-shooting teams will sink.

When then-No. 1 Kentucky lost to Evansville, the Wildcats were 4 of 17 from beyond the arc. Villanova was 9 of 38 from the 3-point line when it lost to Marquette. Gonzaga was just 5 of 18 against lowly Pepperdine on Saturday, a big reason why the nation’s current No. 1 barely eked out a 75-70 victory over a 7-9 team.

All those factors have resulted in a season in which nobody is safe. This sea-son was the first in which there were five different No. 1 teams before New Year’s Day, and only eight times have six teams reached the top spot. If a seventh makes it at some point, it would match 1983 for the most No. 1 teams since the AP poll began with the 1948-49 season.

“I just think it’s one of those years. Sometimes there isn’t a dominant team,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “I think a lot of it depends on who decides to come back. Remember that year Florida won it and they all came back? Everyone knew it right from the beginning, ‘All right, this is it.’ If someone does that, you’ll have a dominant team. If someone doesn’t — even Duke last year, they had all those great players but you just knew they’re freshman. They had never gone a full sea-son.

“I just think this year there may not be a team that has everybody back who has been through all those situations,” Wright concluded. “It’s going to be tough to hold the No. 1 ranking for anybody this season.”

Patriots in unfamiliar spot entering offseason of unknownsThe AssociATed Press

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — For the first time in three years, the Patriots won’t enter the offseason following a Su-per Bowl appearance.

Now the franchise that has hoisted six Lombardi trophies faces questions it has rarely had to address during its run of success over the past two decades.

Tom Brady’s future in New England is the biggest un-known. The 42-year-old quar-terback says it’s unlikely he will retire, but also acknowl-edged following Saturday’s 20-13 wild-card loss to Ten-nessee that nothing is certain regarding where he could suit up next season.

“I love the Patriots. I mean, they obviously — this is the greatest organization. Playing for Mr. (Robert) Kraft all these years and for coach (Bill) Be-lichick, there’s nobody that’s had a better career, I would say, than me,” Brady said. “I don’t know what the future looks like and I’m not going to predict it.”

Belichick said there was no timeline on making a decision on Brady, but conceded the six-time Super Bowl champi-ons’ situation is unique.

“Everybody’s situation is different,” Belichick said. “Certainly, Tom is an iconic figure in this organization. And nobody respects Tom more than I do.”

Meanwhile, the futures of several players that made up the core of the Patriots’ most recent run of Super Bowl also are up in the air.

The list includes safe-ty Devin McCourty special teams captain Matt Slater, linebacker Kyle Van Noy and

offensive lineman Joe Thuney. Multiple teams are also ex-pected to take another run at luring away offensive coordi-nator Josh McDaniels.

Van Noy said Sunday that where he plays football 2020 has crossed his mind.

“Of course. If I told you I didn’t, I’d be lying,” he said. “But right now, this is sit back and wait, get better in the offseason — which I’ve done each and every year. This time is gonna be nothing different.”

Following an 8-0 start, the Patriots lost four of their final five games to end the season. It’s an uncharacteristic finish for a team that had reached at least the AFC championship in each of the previous eight seasons.

“Certainly, when the sea-son doesn’t end the way that you want it to, it is like a crash landing. It is very emotional,” Slater said. “But the reality is that it is going to end like this for all but one team and, un-fortunately, this year we aren’t that team.”

What’s workingThe Patriots’ biggest

strength in 2019 was clearly a defense that allowed a league-low 14.1 points per game during the regular season and had an NFL-best plus-21 turnover differential. Assum-ing changes are on the way on the offensive side of the ball with or without Brady, New England must do what it can to ensure it retains enough of its defensive core.

What needs helpOffensively, if Brady does

stay he’ll need more playmak-ers around him than he had this season. That will probably

mean spending some money on revamping the receiving group yet again. The offen-sive line had injury issues, but building more depth there also should be a priority.

Stock upVan Noy followed up a

strong 2018 season with a productive 2019. He finished second on the team with 6 1/2 sacks and was fifth with 56 to-tal tackles, including a fumble return for a TD. He figures to garner a lot of attention on the open market and it will be in-teresting to see how much the Patriots are willing to keep such an integral part of this defense on the roster.

Stock downReceiver Julian Edelman

has experienced some of the highest points of his career over the past four years. He made huge plays during the Patriots’ historic Super Bowl comeback against Atlanta in the Super Bowl following the 2016 season and won Super Bowl MVP honors in New England’s victory last season against the Rams.

He led the Patriots during the 2019 regular season with 100 receptions, 1,117 yards and six touchdowns. But nag-ging injuries took a toll on him late in the season. He was mostly a non-factor in Saturday’s loss to Tennessee, catching just three passes for 30 yards on five targets.

Key number1-3 — That was Belichick’s

record this season against his former assistants. Beli-chick entered 2019 with a 14-10 record against Al Groh, Eric Mangini, Jim Schwartz,

Romeo Crennel, Nick Saban, McDaniels, Bill O’Brien, Matt Patricia, Brian Flores and Vrabel. In addition to Saturday’s loss to Tennessee, he split during the regular season with Flores, including the regular-season finale loss that dropped the Patriots to the wild-card round. He also lost to O’Brien’s Texans. Be-lichick went 0-2 during last season’s Super Bowl run, los-ing regular-season matchups with Patricia and Vrabel.

How to get it rightTough decisions await Be-

lichick and not much will be known about what direction he plans to take until Brady’s future in New England is re-solved.

Jimmy Garoppolo seemed to be the franchise’s heir ap-parent at quarterback before he was traded to San Francis-co in 2017. The coaching staff likes Jarrett Stidham, who was drafted in 2019 and beat out Brian Hoyer to be Brady’s backup in the preseason. But Stidham threw just four pass-es during his first NFL reg-ular season, so putting the offense in his hands next sea-son would signal a complete rebuild on offense.

Throughout his time in New England, Belichick hasn’t been shy about moving on from players he felt were past their prime or seeking contracts that exceeded value in relation to their age.

While it seemed before this season there was no chance Brady would join that list, the offense’s shortcom-ings this season could cause Belichick to reassess his thoughts about a quarterback that will be 43 years old at the start of next season.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com Monday, January 6, 2020 3B

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

No. 4 South Carolina defeats Alabama 93-78The AssociATed Press

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 4 South Carolina used a strong fourth quar-ter to stifled any Alabama comeback bid late on Sun-day.

Aliyah Boston had 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Gamecocks to a 93-78 win over Alabama on Sunday night.

Freshman Zia Cooke scored a team high 20 points, 11 in the second half, for the Gamecocks (14-1, 2-0 Southeastern Conference).

South Carolina’s size down low was too much for Alabama, out rebound-ing the Crimson Tide (10-5, 0-2) by 42-33 and block-ing six shots to Alabama’s

zero.“I thought Alabama

dictated the speed of the game, took the air out of the ball and prevented us from scoring the way we like to,” South Caro-lina coach Dawn Staley said. “In the fourth, we stretched it out.”

Alabama’s Jordan Lew-is scored a game-high 21 points and added six as-sists and seven rebounds.

Destanni Henderson scored 17 points for South Carolina, which had five double-digit scorers.

Senior duo Tyasha Har-ris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan scored 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Alabama’s Jasmine Walker knocked down a three-pointer to cut the

Gamecocks lead to eight points on the first posses-sion of the fourth quar-ter. Harris responded in 28 seconds with a deep three-pointer of her own. Alabama would not get the deficit back to eight again in the game.

“My teammates were in my ear the entire time my shot wasn’t falling,” Harris said. “We knew this would be a game of runs so we tried to get in transition as much as pos-sible.”

The win extended South Carolina’s winning streak to eight games. Al-abama had its five-game home winning streak snapped.

“We don’t look at it as a losing streak, we’ve

played tough teams but we’re fine,” Alabama coach Kristy Curry said. “The worst thing we can do is be negative.”

Big picturesouth carolina: The

Gamecocks still stand as the second-highest one-loss team in country be-hind No. 2 Oregon and have established them-selves as the favorites to win the SEC early in the season. Alabama: Three of the Crimson Tide’s next four games are against current Top 25 teams.

Star watchsouth carolina: 2018-

19 All-SEC Second Team selection Tyasha Harris

missed all six of her shots in the first half but dished out six assists. All 14 of her points came in the second half.

Alabama: The Crim-son Tide’s second leading scorer Jasmine Walker scored 13 points, 11 in the second half, and knocked down three shots behind-the-arc.

Tip-insAlabama: The Crim-

son Tide bench outscored their opponents in all 14 games this season but were outscored 30-26 on Sunday.

Alabama are in the top-five in the SEC in both free throws attempted and made and shot 69 per-cent (20-29) from the line

in the game.south carolina: The

Gamecocks’ Herbert Har-rigan posted a game-high 19 plus-minus in 30 min-utes of action.

South Carolina enjoyed a 22-point advantage, 28-6, in fast break points over Alabama.

Up nextSouth Carolina will

host No. 20 Arkansas on Thursday in a Top 25 matchup to try and ex-tend that eight-game win-ning streak.

Alabama will host No. 13 Kentucky, coming off an 80-76 win over No. 22 Tennessee, on the same day to try and earn the team’s first top 25 win of the season.

Dallas Cowboys finally move on from Jason Garrett as coachThe AssociATed Press

FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys made of-ficial Sunday night what they had already sig-naled: Jason Garrett is out as coach.

Garrett was informed he wouldn’t be back for a 10th full season on the same day the Cowboys finished an interview with former Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy, who won a Super Bowl with the Packers on Dallas’ home field nine years ago.

Owner/general man-ager Jerry Jones decided not to renew Garrett’s expiring contract be-cause Super Bowl-win-ning quarterback Troy Aikman’s former backup couldn’t get the Cowboys back to football’s biggest stage, an absence that’s approaching a quar-ter-century.

At 9½ seasons, the 53-year-old Garrett had the club’s second-longest tenure behind Pro Foot-

ball Hall of Famer Tom Landry, who coached the Cowboys for the fran-chise’s first 29 years be-fore Jones fired him when he bought the team in 1989.

Dallas finished 8-8 for the fourth time under Garrett. The Cowboys fueled high preseason ex-pectations with a 3-0 start before dropping eight of 12 and losing control of their playoff fate. Dallas missed the playoffs six times in Garrett’s nine full seasons.

The inevitable conclu-sion was a difficult one for Jones, who hired Garrett as offensive coordina-tor in 2007 even before choosing Wade Phillips as coach. Garrett got the interim job when Phillips was fired halfway through the 2010 season.

Garrett’s record is 87-70, playoffs included.

“We are extremely grateful to Jason Garrett for his more than 20 years of service to the Dallas

Cowboys as a player, as-sistant coach and head coach,” Jones said in a statement released by the team that ended a week of speculation on the future of Garrett, who continued showing up at team head-quarters after the season ended.

“His level of commit-ment, character and dedi-cation to this organization has been outstanding at every stage of his career.”

With Garrett’s status unresolved publicly, the Cowboys interviewed McCarthy and former Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis over the weekend.

McCarthy reached the playoffs nine times in 13 seasons with the Packers, reaching the NFC cham-pionship game four times. Green Bay won at least 10 games eight times in his first 11 seasons before go-ing 7-9 in 2017. McCarthy was fired with the Pack-ers at 4-7-1 last season.

The biggest knock on Lewis was his 0-7 playoff

record with the Bengals. He had a 131-122-3 record in the regular season and was fired after a third straight losing season in 2018.

Dallas hasn’t been past the divisional round of the playoffs in 24 straight sea-sons since the club’s fifth Super Bowl title to finish the 1995 season. Garrett got them within a victory of the NFC championship game three times in five years, losing to Green Bay twice and then the Los Angeles Rams last season.

When training camp opened, Jones didn’t want to talk about what it would take for Garrett to get another contract. It had been five years since Garrett was coaching for his job and the Cowboys went 12-4 and won a wild-card game before a loss at the Packers that included the infamous catch that wasn’t by Dez Bryant.

Jones had high hopes with quarterback Dak

Prescott going into his fourth season along with star running back Ezekiel Elliott, who got a $90 mil-lion extension the morn-ing of the first practice of the regular season after holding out the entire pre-season.

With Dallas at 3-0, video emerged of Jones mingling with fans in the French Quarter the night before a game in New Or-leans. Dallas lost 12-10 to start the first of two three-game losing streaks.

The Cowboys have never made the playoffs when losing at least three straight games twice in a season, although they had a chance to qualify with a win at Philadelphia in Week 16. Dallas lost 17-9, then was eliminated in Week 17 despite a blowout victory over Washington when the Eagles won the NFC East by beating the New York Giants.

Garrett spent seven seasons as a player with the Cowboys, starting

nine games in place of Aikman. His most mem-orable start was a 42-31 victory over Green Bay on Thanksgiving in 1994 when he threw for 311 yards and two touch-downs. Dallas lost to San Francisco in the NFC championship game that season.

After playing spar-ingly for the Giants from 2000-03 and not at all with Tampa Bay and Miami in 2004, Garrett retired and joined Nick Saban’s staff as quarterbacks coach. He went to the Cowboys after Saban decided to re-turn to college coaching at Alabama.

“Jason Garrett’s lega-cy with the Dallas Cow-boys will always be that of someone who strived for greatness every day that he walked through the door,” Jones said. “He is, and always will remain, a cherished member of the Dallas Cowboys family.”

Winston-led No. 14 Michigan State tops No. 12 Michigan 87-69The AssociATed Press

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Cassius Winston made his last home game against Michigan mem-orable with a sensational performance his in-state rivals would rather forget.

Winston had a ca-reer-high 32 points and nine assists, leading No. 14 Michigan State to a 87-69 victory over the 12th-ranked Wolverines on Sunday.

“It was one of the great-er performances that this

building has seen,” said coach Tom Izzo, who has witnessed a slew of games at Breslin Center as a head coach and assistant over the last three decades. “I don’t think any of us will ever be able to appreciate what that kid has gone through and how he has handled it.”

Winston has had a heavy heart for nearly two months because his young-er brother, Zachary, died after being hit by a train.

The senior star has played while grieving and

that seemed to adversely affect some of his perfor-mances earlier in the sea-son, but he was at his best in the first of two sched-uled games against Mich-igan.

“Cassius is a superb, phenomenal player,” Wolverines coach Juwan Howard said. “He does an excellent job of read-ing whatever defense you throw at him. Give him credit. He’s crafty. There’s a reason why he was the player of the year in the Big Ten.”

Winston was 11 of 19 overall and 8 of 11 at the line. He had just two turn-overs despite having the ball in his hands during much of his 38-minute out-ing.

“I made a lot of things happen,” Winston said. “Everything was clicking. I felt that I was in rhythm the whole game. I was in con-trol the whole game.”

Michigan State’s Xavi-er Tillman fell one point short of his career high with 20 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had a ca-

reer-high six blocks.“Cassius is special, but

don’t sleep on Xavier,” Izzo said.

The Spartans (12-3, 4-0 Big Ten) were ahead the entire game, leading by as many as 13 points in the first half and earning a bigger cushion in the sec-ond, to beat their rivals for a fourth consecutive time.

Michigan State has won seven straight and is the only Big Ten team without a conference loss.

The Wolverines (10-4, 1-2) have lost four of

their last seven games af-ter starting 7-0 and going from unranked to No. 4 under Howard in his first year.

The former Fab Five star faced Michigan State for the first time as a coach after going 5-1 in the se-ries as a player.

Howard became un-hinged after not getting a call he wanted. He was called for a technical ear-ly in the second half after leaving the sideline and going onto the court in protest.

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com4B Monday, January 6, 2020

SudokuSudoku is a num-ber-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty spaces so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday.

Sunday’s answer

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40 Stares in shock41 Longings

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deavor9 Go off course12 Oozed16 Authentic21 Personal celebration22 Plot23 Making rapturous24 Kneecap25 Hunger pain27 Score count29 Selected30 Tolerate31 Leslie of “Gigi”32 Lock of hair36 Pointer

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Sudoku YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty spaces so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday.

Log cabinWHATZIT ANSWER

them the NFC West title.But they traveled to

Philadelphia for the sec-ond time in six weeks and became the third team to win on the road this week-end, improving to 8-1 away from home this season.

Wilson threw for 325 yards and led the team with 45 yards rushing. Metcalf had seven catches for 160 yards.

The Seahawks had a season-high seven sacks from six players.

“You’ve got to step it up in the playoffs,” Clowney said. “We knew it was go-ing to be an upfront game, the whole game. They’ve got a great offensive line, great veteran players.”

Wilson drove Seattle 82 yards late in the second quarter and Lynch pow-ered in from the 5 for a 10-0 lead.

Wilson connected with Metcalf for 26 yards and David Moore for 38 on third-down, catch-and-run passes to keep that drive going.

McCown finally got the offense going on the open-ing drive of the third quar-

ter. He connected with Zach Ertz for 32 yards and Boston Scott ran 15 yards to the 5. But a false start, fumbled snap and sack followed. Jake Elliott’s 26-yard field goal cut the defi-cit to 10-6.

The Seahawks an-swered quickly. Metcalf stretched to catch Wil-son’s deep pass, got up and tumbled into the end zone for a 17-6 lead.

“I caught the ball, I didn’t feel anybody touch me,” Metcalf said. “I got back up and I wanted a touchdown. I wanted a touchdown, real bad.”

Down 17-9, Eagles coach Doug Pederson passed up a 42-yard field goal attempt with 6:24 left and went for fourth-and-4 from the Seahawks 24. Miles Sanders couldn’t catch McCown’s pass.

Philadelphia had an-other chance after Shel-ton Gibson, just signed earlier in the week, drew a 39-yard pass interference penalty to the Seahawks 13.

On fourth-and-7 from the 10 with two minutes

left, Clowney sacked Mc-Cown.

Wentz was forced to watch from the sideline following knee surgery when Foles led the Eagles to the franchise’s first Su-per Bowl title two years ago. He was out with a back injury last year when Foles led Philadelphia to a wild-card win in Chicago.

The Eagles were deci-mated by injuries through-out the season and had to rely on five offensive play-ers off the practice squad during a four-game win-ning streak that sealed the NFC East title.

Wentz started all 16 games for the second time in his four seasons and played his best down the stretch with backups sur-rounding him. But he fin-ished the season injured the same as the previous two.

Seattle had plenty of in-juries, too. The Seahawks lost running backs Chris Carson, Rashaad Penny and C.J. Prosise, forcing them to sign Lynch.

But Seattle has Wilson — and he has the Sea-

hawks heading to Green Bay to face Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in the di-visional round.

“We’re anticipating some snow,” Wilson said with a smile. “They ob-viously have Aaron, they have a lot of great players, they have a great defen-sive line.”

deja VuThe Seahawks also

beat the Eagles 17-9 on Nov. 24.

Injuriesseahawks: Defensive

tackle Ziggy Ansah left with a neck injury.

Eagles: Wentz stayed in the game after the shot from Clowney, threw two passes and left for the locker room late in the first quarter. ... Defensive end Brandon Graham left with a knee injury.

Next upseahawks: Will go

to Green Bay to face the Packers (13-3) in the divi-sional round next Sunday.

Eagles: Start the offsea-son.

SeahawksContinued from Page 1B

SaintsContinued from Page 1B

card round of the NFC playoffs on Sunday.

Cousins lost his only previous playoff start in 2015 with Washington, came up short of a play-off berth on the final regular-season game a year ago and struggled in a handful of other high-profile regular-sea-son night games.

Yet Cousins eschewed an opportunity to gloat after his pass to Ru-dolph — and a 43-yarder to Adam Thielen at the Saints 2-yard line three plays earlier — helped the Vikings (11-6) ad-vance to play top seed San Francisco in the divisional round of the playoffs on Saturday. It was Minnesota’s first road playoff win since Jan. 9, 2005, when the Vikings beat the rival Packers at Lambeau Field in the wild-card

round.“I’m just happy we

won,” Cousins said. “It was a great, great game, two good football teams.”

Saints fans begged to differ after seeing New Orleans’ season end in overtime in the Superdome for a second straight year.

The latest disappoint-ing end for the Saints (13-4) came nearly a year after New Orleans lost in the NFC champi-onship game to the Los Angeles Rams in a game marred by missed Rams penalties late in regula-tion. This time, replays on video boards showed a possible push-off by Rudolph against defen-sive back P.J. Williams moments before he jumped to snag the win-ning catch.

NFL president of of-

ficiating Al Riveron said the league reviewed nu-merous replay angles, and while they saw con-tact by both players, “none of that contact ris-es to the level of a foul.”

Saints coach Sean Payton said the Vikings “deserved to win.”

Dalvin Cook gained 130 yards from scrim-mage and scored two touchdowns after miss-ing the last two regu-lar-season games with a shoulder injury. Cousins finished with 242 yards and one TD passing.

“Being a fourth-round pick and kind of working your way up in the league – now you win a playoff game. Guess what? You look around and you re-alize there’s more moun-tains to climb,” Cousins said. “You just keep chas-ing the next mountain and there will always be

people who are going to criticize you — and that ’s OK.”

New Orleans trailed by 10 at the start of the fourth quarter but forced overtime with Drew Brees’ 20 -yard touch-down pass to Taysom Hill and Wil Lutz’s 49-yard field goal with 2 seconds left.

“They made more plays than we did,” Pay-ton said. “They ran the ball better than we did.”

Hill was the Saints’ leading rusher with 50 yards and Alvin Kamara was held to 21 yards rushing on seven car-ries.

“Both defenses played well,” Payton added. “Shoot, here you are in overtime and they made a few plays right there at the end that obviously were significant.”

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com Monday, January 6, 2020 5B

Comics & PuzzlesDear AbbyDILBERT

ZITS

GARFIELD

CANDORVILLE

BABY BLUES

BEETLE BAILEY

MALLARD FILLMORE

HoroscopesTODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Jan.

6). Start thinking of the emo-tions and reactions you want to come away with when looking back at your year and reverse engineer this solar journey. Your new plan kicks in this month, and by May you’ll have created a better and different flow for your finances. Family grows in numbers and in closeness. Aries and Gemini adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 3, 22, 17, 4 and 26.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). In preparation for the upcom-ing event, give yourself twice the time you think you’ll need. Success will be determined by the setup. Think ahead -- about not only the logistical aspects to a project but the emotional

ones as well.TAURUS (April 20-May 20).

Some people don’t recognize beauty outside of its frame. Some don’t even see it when it’s inside the frame. They let the frame itself dictate the val-ue. It’s sad, but it’s happening often enough that you need to be aware of it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Don’t give all of your attention to the ache and the ardor that will greedily submerge you. Head for shallow water, and plant your feet where the cur-rents can rock but not drag you.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). There is a generation that listened to the bow drag the string, and one that touched needle to vinyl, and one that

scrolled and tapped. They all sought the music. Whatever it is, find the commonality and dance to that.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You’re a good friend, practically an entire support system in and of yourself. You’ll somehow give double what you actually have. You’ll explain it by saying more than you believe, with hope and love that didn’t exist before you made them.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’re not holding back out of trepidation, uncertainty or indecision. Quiet can be the most eloquent way to contrib-ute. There’s wonder in your understatement, profundity in your silence.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Breakthroughs are emotional. The path to get there is paved with a mix of poetry and math, but the actual bridge between the old you and the new you is made of braided feelings.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). People cope, but then af-terward they can’t tell you how. Some things you just have to go through to get through. You’re as ready as you’ll ever be to make a change. One small but brave step kicks it off.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Maybe you can change more than you think you can. What’s holding you back is just a thought — a self-imposed limit. Ideas are plentiful and today’s special is to try before you buy.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). This is one of those days when the world just needs you more. It’s good that you’re ready to pitch in from exactly where you are. This couldn’t happen without you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). This day is a visitor, and soon a ghost. In this light, do you want to do it differently? Probably not. All the same things you were going to do still apply; all that’s changed is the feeling. Still, that could be everything.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Pain is confusing. Some-times we try to avoid it, other times we seek it. So much can override the signal, change its meaning or even its nature. Seek a cordial relationship with pain, as it is merely a messen-ger.

SOLUTION:Spread-eagled

FAMILY CIRCUS

DEAR ABBY: I’m responding

to the Oct. 25 letter from “Maria in California” regarding the left-over money in her late husband’s GoFundMe ac-count.

If more than enough is con-tributed to help someone in need pay their medical expenses, that money is not intended to be “income” for the recipient’s family. You rightly suggested considering her husband’s wishes, but the contributors’ intent was to help a needy per-son pay MEDICAL expenses. Any leftover funds should be donated to a nonprofit orga-nization with similar goals, perhaps a free medical clinic for low-income patients or an organization that provides free or reduced-cost housing for families who travel to medical centers for a loved one’s treatment. Family members should not profit from gener-ous donors who intended to help pay a needy individual’s medical bills. — GLEN IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR GLEN: Thank you for your comment. Other readers disagreed with my answer and said that Maria and her family should “pay it forward.” Read on:

DEAR ABBY: Regarding which family member is “entitled” to the leftover funds from Maria’s terminally ill hus-band’s GoFund-

Me account: I say NONE OF THEM. People donated money to help defray the costs of treating the husband’s illness. Now those have been paid, it is unseemly (a money grab) and unethical (fraud) to assume remaining funds can be used by either the widow or the daughter. The money wasn’t given to them!

The solution is to donate the remaining funds to the disease research, hospice, medical facility, or any other cause near and dear to the DECEASED’S heart. That way, there is no conflict of interest, no impropriety, and it’s the right thing to do. — MO IN SAN DIEGO

DEAR ABBY: “Maria in California” asked what to do with leftover money raised on GoFundMe for her husband who has passed away. I would have suggested she go back to the GoFundMe site and find some other families in need and donate the money to them. — MARION IN UTAH

DEAR ABBY: My fiancé and I have been together for four years. I love him very much, but there are times when he lectures me, and I get tired of it. Then about an hour later — maybe sooner — he will come and say, “I’m sorry.” I’m getting frustrated because he’s always “sorry.” There are times I just roll my eyes and wait. What can I do or say when he comes back to apolo-gize when he always makes it my fault? — FRUSTRATED IN SOUTH CAROLINA

DEAR FRUSTRATED: What is going on is a red flag, and you should recognize it as such. That your fiancé talks down to you, and then says he’s sorry but it was your fault, isn’t an apology. It’s a lame excuse for his bad (ver-bally abusive) behavior. Please carefully examine what is really going on in your relation-ship before it begins to affect your self-esteem, and possibly rethink this engagement.

Dear Abby

Saints rue uncharacteristic play after early playoff exitThe AssociATed Press

NEW ORLEANS — Narrowly missing out on an NFC playoff bye came back to haunt the Saints right away.

A series of missed op-portunities led to yet anoth-er excruciating exit from the postseason — this time in a 26-20 overtime loss at home to sixth-seeded Min-nesota. The Vikings won three fewer games than the Saints in the regular season but outplayed them most of the way Sunday before winning on tight end Kyle Rudolph’s 4-yard touchdown reception on the first series of the extra session.

The silence in the

Saints locker room reflect-ed the reality of a third consecutive playoff loss on the last play. In 2017, the Vikings scored on Stefon Diggs’ 61-yard touchdown as time ran out in Minne-apolis. Last year, the Los Angeles Rams won the NFC championship game on a field goal in overtime in the Superdome.

“You invest so much into it and have invested so much into it so you un-derstand that these oppor-tunities are few,” quarter-back Drew Brees said. “So, yeah, it’s disappointing. If you’re not holding up the trophy at the end of the year, it’s disappointing.”

The Saints sent the game to overtime on Wil

Lutz’s 49-yard kick with 2 seconds left in regu-lation, but were kicking themselves for all of their uncharacteristic failures before and after the field goal.

Brees, who helped the Saints set an NFL record for fewest turnovers with eight in the regular sea-son, had two costly ones. Safety Anthony Harris intercepted his deep pass for Ted Ginn Jr. into double coverage late in the second quarter, setting up Dalvin Cook’s 5-yard touchdown run as the Vikings went ahead for the first time, 13-10.

“We were trying to catch them off guard,” Brees said. “We felt like

Teddy was making his way over the top and could make a nice play.”

With the Saints trailing 20-17, defensive end Dan-ielle Hunter stripped Brees on a sack with 4:18 left af-ter Taysom Hill’s 28-yard run to the Vikings 20.

“The fumble’s really frustrating because there was miscommunication as to what we were do-ing,” Brees said. “The ball should have been out of my hands and all of a sudden that wasn’t the route that was run, so now I’m just trying to throw the ball into the dirt to avoid a sack, right? And right as my hand’s going back he just kind of gets a piece of my arm and that ball comes

out. ... That never should have happened.”

The Vikings convert-ed 10 of 18 third downs, a higher percentage than anyone the Saints played in the regular season, when they limited opponents to a 34.8 percent success rate.

Cook rushed for 84 yards in the first half, more than the Saints had allowed for a full game to any other running back. Although he finished with 94, his early success helped keep Brees and the Saints offense off the field as Minnesota controlled the ball for nearly 19 of the first 30 minutes.

“We knew they were going to try to run the stretch and test the perim-

eter,” Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said. “We didn’t do enough to stop that.”

Lutz missed a field goal at the end of the first half — just his fifth miss in 39 kicks this season.

New Orleans also had two crucial penalties. A false start nullified Hill’s conversion of a fake punt after the Saints fell behind 20-10 in the third quarter. An illegal shift on a Brees intentional spike cost the Saints 5 yards and a 10-sec-ond runoff in the final min-ute, turning what would have been a second down at the Minnesota 26 with 21 seconds left into a sec-ond down at the 31 with 11 seconds remaining.

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IN THE CHANCERY COURT OFLOWNDES COUNTY, MISSIS-SIPPI

IN THE MATTER OF THE ES-TATE OF EDNA B. BOONE, DE-CEASED

CAUSE NO. 2019-0250

CECELIA A. JONES PATE ANDPERRY DONALD JONES, JR.,CO-EXECUTORS

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Letters Testamentary havebeen granted and issued to CE-CELIA A. JONES PATE andPERRY DONALD JONES, JR.,Co-Executors of the Estate ofEDNA B. BOONE, deceased, bythe Chancery Court of LowndesCounty, Mississippi, on the23rd day of December, 2019.This is to give notice to all per-sons having claims againstsaid estate to Probate and Re-gister same with the ChanceryClerk of Lowndes County, Mis-sissippi, within ninety (90) daysfrom this date. A failure to soProbate and Register saidclaim will forever bar the same.

THIS the 2nd day of January,2020.

/s/ Cecelia A. Jones PateCECELIA A. JONES PATE, Ex-ecutor

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FSBO: 3BR/2BA ON 2.5

ACRES. 1600 sqft.Completely remodeled.$178,000. 662−386−7113.

Lots & Acreage

WINTER SPECIAL. 1.75acre lots. Good/bad credit.10% down, as low as$299/mo. Eaton Land.662−361−7711.

garage SaleS two free SignS

Estate Sales

Estate Sale January 3 & 4.134 Adams Road (Highway69 South) Friday 8:00 until4:00 Saturday 8:00 until1:00 Antique Furniture,Dishes, TV, chest freezer,washer & dryer, quilts andmore. 205−394−4941

merchanDiSeaDS Starting at $12

Bargain Column

FREE Dell Photo All−in−One 926 Printer Used, butworks ok. Located inColumbus, MS. Pls leave amsg if no ans. when youcall. 662−327−7448

Firewood / Fuel

FIREWOOD FOR SALE.

Various lengths.662−295−2274.

General Merchandise

WANTED FREON R12.

We pay CA$H.R12 R500 R11.Convenient.

Certified professionals.refrigerantfinders.com/ad

312−291−9169

Sporting Goods

ED SANDERS GUNSMITH

OPEN FOR SEASON!

9−5: Tues−Fri &9−12: Sat.

Over 50 years experience!Repairs, cleaning,refinishing, scopesmounted & zeroed,handmade knives.

Located: Hwy 45 Alt, Northof West Point, turn right onYokahama Blvd, 8mi & turnleft on Darracott Rd, see

sign, 2.5mi ahead, shop onleft. 662−494−6218.

communityaDS Starting at $12

Good Things To Eat

THE TOMATO HOUSE

Vine−ripened hydroponictomatoes & more! Availablenow! 16132 Hwy 45 N,Macon, next to Noxubee CoHigh School. 662−352−1270 or 662−425−9116.

Personals

LOOKING FOR FAMILY

MEMBERS of JamesThomas, born 1/29/1914.Deceased 10/29/1980.Moved from Columbus, MSto Bessemer, AL. Call BellJones, 205−643−1366.

Pets

LINEBACK DUN MARE

HORSE. 6 yrs. old. $200.Call 662−242−0703.

The CommerCialDispaTCh516 Main St.

Columbus, MS 39701

662-328-2424www.cdispatch.com

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