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eEdition SUNNY 66 • 54 | THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2020 | theworldlink.com

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Reward offered in graffiti investigation JILLIAN WARD The World

EMPIRE — A $5,000 reward is being offered by the City of Coos Bay to residents who report information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for recent hateful graffiti vandalism.

“Sadly, we are once again compelled to reiterate our conviction that the City of Coos Bay will not tolerate racism in our community, while also reinforcing our commitment to zero tolerance when faced with crimes targeting any individual or group, particularly those based on race, color, national origin,

sex, disability, religion or sexual identity,” read a press release from the city.

This release followed another instance of graffiti on a fence in Coos Bay’s Empire District, this time containing offensive language against an individual.

The words were followed with a drawing of a noose.

In an earlier press release sent out by the Coos Bay Police Department, the graffiti was reported on Wednesday at 8:03 a.m. It was located on a privately owned fence and was reported by a neighbor as well as the property owner.

“A Coos Bay Police Officer arrived on scene at … 8:14

a.m. and made contact with the property owner,” the release said.

“The property owner was already in the process of retrieving material, such as paint and brushes to remove the graffiti.”

While the owners were getting ready to remove the graffiti, several citizens arrived to remove it themselves. The graffiti was covered within two hours of it being reported.

“At this time, no suspect has been identified. However, it has been determined that this crime occurred sometime during the night after 11 p.m. on July 14,” the release said. “The Coos Bay Police Department is taking these crimes seriously.”

“We have to identify who is doing this,” said Deputy Chief Chris Chapanar with the department. “To whoever is doing this, we will find out. … They will be held accountable and responsible. The more times they do such an act, the closer we are to putting the pieces together ….”

Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier echoed the sentiment that the responsible party needs to be identified before actions can be taken. He told The World that accusations are circulating on social media that he has made comments about the incident to a legal team, which he said isn’t true.

“I have not spoken to a legal

team …,” he said, adding that any quotes attributed to him about the issue on circulating Facebook posts are also not true.

“With the recent incidents involving graffiti, it is important that the greater Coos Bay community understand that the swift repair of defaced property and identification of those responsible is of the utmost priority, while simultaneously addressing all protocols involving private ownership and maintaining the integrity of damaged entities,” the city’s release said.

To report a tip or information regarding the graffiti incidents, call 541-269-8911.

Trump rolls back major review law President says the environmental law stifles infrastructure projects nationwide

John Gunther, The World

Workers are making progress on the site for the new Marshfield Junior High and will be able to pour the foundations soon. This picture was taken Wednesday.

BEST Bond projects on schedule Eastside Elementary School nearly ready, site work progressing on junior high JILLIAN WARD The World

COOS BAY — Marshfield Junior High may still be a construction site now, but walls will start being put up as soon as next month.

According to Coos Bay School District Superintendent Bryan Trendell, Knife River Materials is set to pour the foundation in the next week or two while the precast concrete walls are being

finished offsite. “(The walls) will be shipped down when they are done and in August will start tilting those up,” Trendell said. “It’s coming along really well. All of our projects are on schedule.”

Across Coos Bay in the Eastside District, Eastside Elementary is all but finished. Trendell said the new elementary school will have a final walk through next week before teachers start moving in so it can open in the fall.

“Marshfield Junior High will be done this time next year, so it’s a year behind Eastside,” he said.

But the two new schools are just two of the projects included on the $59.9 million Coos Bay

BEST Bond. He added that on Wednesday, design schematics for Madison Elementary’s remodel were put together. The Empire District elementary school’s facelift will be a year behind Marshfield Junior High’s completion.

“The remodel will consist of completely redoing the front of the school, adding a new office area, a new library, doing work on the restrooms and staff work rooms,” Trendell said. “…(It) will also enclose the breezeway that is between the gym and the school, making that a regular hallway with new restrooms and a new elevator.”

Work will also be done to replace the flat roof with a peaked roof, where a new HVAC system

can be installed.

“Some work will be done while school is in session,” he said. “We will mitigate that the best we can….”

A brand new security vestibule is also being added to Madison, similar to what was put in at Eastside. “…We’re making such great progress,” Trendell said. “We sold the last $20 million in bonds and did well with that. We ended up making an extra $5.7 million (because) of the A+ rating the district has right now. … We can apply the extra money to Madison.

“We are very appreciative that we will open a new elementary school in the fall. … We are on schedule and on budget.”

Kroger’s mask protocol will go into effect July 22.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart, Kohl’s and Kroger join a growing but still small list of retailers to require masks at all of its stores, filling the role of states and the federal government that have failed to issue such mandates on an issue that has been highly politicized by President Donald Trump and many of his ardent supporters. Given Walmart’s clout as the largest retailer in the U.S., its decision is expected to push many others to issue similar mandates.

Last week, Starbucks announced that customers who visit its company-owned café locations in the U.S. will be required to wear face coverings. The policies at Starbucks and Best Buy went into effect Wednesday.

Only a handful of major retailers, including teen clothing chain American Eagle Outfitters and Apple, has a mask mandate for customers for all of its stores.

Costco Wholesale Club was one of the first major retailers to require face coverings for custom-

ers at all of its stores. The policy went into effect in early May. The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said in a statement that it hopes Walmart’s move will be a “tipping point in this public health debate.”

Retailers had been hesitant to issue chain-wide mandates for fear of angering some customers.

They also didn’t want to have their workers play the role of enforcers of the protocols. It was already hard enough to get some customers to comply even in the states that had the mandates.

However, the recent surge of new virus cases — particularly in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona — has left them with no choice, retail experts say.

“I think Walmart’s decision will give cover to other retailers to require masks,” said Michael J. Hicks, an economist at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. “I applaud Walmart and others for stepping in.”

Bryan Eshelman, a managing director in the retail practice at consultancy AlixPartners, noted

that retailers needed to step in to reduce their own health risks and that having a virus case is disruptive.

“It is a business risk that they need to manage for the safety of employees and customers,” he said.

Eshelman added that he believes making shoppers comply with the mask protocols will be easier now that wearing masks are becoming more of the norm.

Marc Perrone, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers International union, which counts 1.3 million members who work in grocery stores, food packaging plants and other locations, says he feels “vindicated” after pushing food companies and retailers to require customers to wear masks. But he says that stores need to train employees in how to de-escalate situations with shoppers.

Walmart is taking no chances, making sure to have a new strategy in place to enforce the mask protocols.

Walmart will require face coverings for customers Fred Meyer parent company Kroger also announces masks will be required

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its namesake and Sam’s Club stores, making it the largest retailer to introduce such a policy that has otherwise proven difficult to enforce without state and federal requirements.

The company said Wednesday that the policy will go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform customers. Currently, about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings.

Hours after Walmart’s announcement, supermarket chain Kroger, based in Cincinnati, and department store Kohl’s, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, followed suit. Kohl’s policy will go into effect on Monday, while

Please see Retailers, Page A2

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he is rolling back a foundational Nixon-era environmental law that he says stifles infrastructure projects, but that is credited with keeping big construction projects from fouling up the environment and ensuring there is public input on major projects.

“Together we’re reclaiming America’s proud heritage as a nation of builders and a nation that can get things done,” Trump said.

Trump was in Atlanta to announce changes to National Environmental Policy Act regulations for how and when authorities must conduct environmental reviews, making it easier to build highways, pipelines, chemical and solar plants and other projects.

The 1970 law changed environmental oversight in the United States by requiring federal agencies to consider whether a project would harm the air, land, water or wildlife, and giving the public the right of review and input.

Critics called Trump’s move a cynical attempt to limit the public’s ability to examine and influence proposed projects under one of the country’s bedrock environmental protection laws.

“This may be the single biggest giveaway to polluters in the past 40 years,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that works to save endangered species.

Trump has made slashing government regulation a hallmark of his presidency and held it out as a way to boost jobs. Environmental groups say the regulatory rollbacks threaten public health and make it harder to curb global warming. With Congress and the administration divided over how to increase infrastructure investment, the president is relying on his deregulation push to demonstrate progress.

Among the major changes in the new rule: limiting when federal environmental reviews of projects are mandated, and capping how long federal agencies and the public have to evaluate and comment on any environmental impact of a project.

“We won’t get certain projects through for environmental reasons. They have to be environmentally sound. But you know what? We’re going to know in a year. We’re going to know in a year and a half. We’re not going to know in 20 years,” Trump said.

Please see Law, Page A2

eEdition

Oregon’s death toll nears 250 The World PORTLAND — COVID-19 has claimed four more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 247, the Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday.

OHA also reported 282 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, bringing the state total to 13,081.

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (1), Clackamas (24), Columbia (2), Coos (2), Crook (1), Deschutes (12), Douglas (4), Jackson (9), Jefferson (2), Josephine (1), Klamath (1), Lane (9), Lincoln (2), Linn (2), Malheur (15), Marion (38), Morrow (3), Multnomah (59), Polk (4), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (27), Union (4), Wasco (2), Washington (50), and Yamhill (6).

Oregon’s 244th COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on June 13 and died on June 14, at St. Charles Medical Center.

He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 245th COVID-19 death is a 61-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on April 13 and died on May 6, in his residence. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 246th death is an 85-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on April 11 and died on June 20, at Providence Portland Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 247th death is a 61-year-old woman in Douglas County who tested positive on June 28 and died on July 12, at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock, Texas. She had underlying

conditions.

NOTE: The death of a 71-year-old woman from Multnomah County who died on May 5 was accidentally reported twice — once in the May 7 press release as Oregon’s 120th death, and again in the May 8 press release as Oregon’s 124th death. OHA reported it regrets the error.

The total number of deaths today has been amended to reflect this change.

Weekly Report Released Wednesday, OHA released its Weekly Report which highlights the data trends for the week from July 6 through July 12. The report noted that the recent COVID-19 resurgence accelerated over the reporting week. OHA recorded 2,043 new cases of COVID-19 infection, a 7% increase from the previous week.

In addition, 22 Oregonians were reported to have died, twice the number that died

the preceding week. The percentage of tests positive increased to 6.2 percent from 5.0 percent though the daily number of newly reported infections appears to have plateaued for the first time since late May. Hospitalizations also plateaued after increasing for the five consecutive weeks and remain below earlier peaks in March and April despite reported daily case counts approximately three times as high. These circumstances are probably due principally to 1) detection and reporting of a higher proportion of all infections that occur (more widespread testing; testing of asymptomatic contacts of known cases); and 2) actual increases in underlying rates of infection among younger people who are at lower risk of hospitalization than are those in older age groups. ICU bed usage remains well under capacity statewide.

Confirmed virus cases continue to rise in US MIAMI (AP) — California, Arizona, Texas and Florida together reported about 36,000 new coronavirus cases Wednesday as restrictions aimed at combating the spread of the pandemic took hold in the United States and around the world in an unsettling sign reminiscent of the dark days of April.

The soaring counts of confirmed infections and a mounting death toll led the mayor of Los Angeles to declare that the nation’s second-largest city is on the verge of resorting to a shutdown of all but essential businesses. More school districts made plans to start the fall semester without on-site instruction, and the 2021 Rose Parade in California was canceled.

Other events went ahead undeterred. Thousands of auto-racing fans gathered at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee for a NASCAR event.

Officials allowed 30,000 at the track, and the event marked the largest sporting event since the pandemic began four months ago. Disney World moved forward with the rolling opening of its Florida theme parks.

California, Arizona, Florida and Texas reported a total of more than 450 new deaths. Alabama reported a pandemic-high one-day total of 40 deaths, and officials said the state will begin requiring face masks.

In Texas, which again set a record for confirmed new cases, with nearly 10,800, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has increasingly emphasized face coverings as the way to avoid another lockdown.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock required masks at indoor public spaces and at larger outdoor gatherings in counties where four or more people are known to have COVID-19. The Democrat’s order came as the state reported a record number of new confirmed cases.

In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine, who has faced criticism from fellow Republicans over business closures, gave a televised address with an emotional appeal to residents

to make sacrifices to protect their neighbors. But he stopped short of mandating masks.

Among the sternest measures were in New York, where Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo added to a list totaling 22 states whose visitors will be required to quarantine for two weeks if they visit the tri-state region. Out-of-state travelers arriving in New York airports from those states face a $2,000 fine and a mandatory quarantine order if they fail to fill out a tracing form.

The broad reach of the virus has brought scrutiny to governors’ decisions. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a first-term Republican governor who has backed one of the country’s most aggressive reopening plans, became the first U.S. governor to announce that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He plans to quarantine at home.

Stitt, who has resisted a statewide mandate on masks and rarely wears one himself, attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa last month, which health experts have said likely contributed to a surge in coronavirus cases there. Stitt said he’s confident he didn’t contract the virus at the gathering.

Florida surpassed 300,000 confirmed cases, reporting 10,181 new infections as its daily average death rate keeps rising. Major cities have required masks, but Gov. Ron DeSantis has declined to issue a statewide order, arguing that it’s best decided and enforced locally.

Still, the Republican governor on Tuesday wore a mask while speaking publicly for the first time — at a roundtable news conference with Miami-Dade County mayors.

“We have broken single-day records several times this week, and there’s nothing about it that says we’re turning the corner or seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t see that in the numbers,” said Dr. Nicholas Namias, chief of trauma and surgical critical care at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

He said diminishing bed capacity is creating problems at the Miami medical center.

“We’re getting to the point where it’s going to be full. We have gridlock, and we won’t be able to take patients, and they’ll just be stacked in the ERs,” Namias said.

In Washington, a divided approach to the pandemic spilled into public view in extraordinary fashion, with trade adviser Peter Navarro panning Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. Fauci called the criticism “nonsense” and “a bit bizarre.” Trump stepped in to referee, saying “we’re all on the same team.”

Businesses instituted restrictions, too, with Walmart becoming the largest U.S. retailer to require customers to wear face coverings at all of its Sam’s Club and namesake stores.

In Las Vegas, some casinos began limiting smoking to keep customers from removing the masks they are required to wear.

Organizers canceled the 2021 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, because of the pandemic’s impact on long-range planning for the New Year’s tradition, according to the Tournament of Roses Association.

But Disney World welcomed visitors to Epcot and Hollywood Studios despite the surge of cases in the state.

Other countries, meanwhile, imposed lockdowns and implemented new health checks at their borders.

All travelers arriving in Greece from a land border with Bulgaria were required to carry negative coronavirus test results issued in the previous 72 hours. The new rules, which follow an increase in tourism-related COVID-19 cases, triggered an immediate drop in arrivals compared with recent days.

More than than 13 million coronavirus cases were confirmed worldwide, with over 580,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are thought to be far higher for a number of reasons, including limited testing.

Retailers From A1

It said Wednesday that it will create the role of health ambassador at its Walmart stores and will station them near the entrance to remind customers without masks of its new requirements. These workers, who will be wearing black polo shirts, will receive special training to “help make the process as smooth as possible for customers.”

Walmart said that it’s currently working on different options for customers who don’t show up with a face mask.

As for Sam’s Club, employees at the entrance will follow the same process with its members, politely reminding them of its requirements to wear a face covering when shopping.

Complimentary masks will be provided if the member doesn’t have one or a member can buy one at the club.

Retailers have been challenged with striking a balance between keeping shoppers safe while making them feel comfortable.

Last week, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents Walmart, Best Buy and other major chains, pub-

Law From A1

NEPA requires all federal agencies to evaluate the potential environmental effects of proposed projects, but fewer than 1% percent of those reviews are the kind of complex and detailed review that Trump focused on — environmental impact statements.

Opponents say the changes the Trump administration made will have an inordinate impact on predominantly minority communities. More than 1 million African Americans live within a half-mile of natural gas facilities and face a cancer risk above the Environmental Protection Agency’s level of concern from toxins emitted by those facilities, according to a 2017 study by the Clean Air Task Force and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People “Donald Trump is taking away the last lines of defense for front-line communities, and continues to demonstrate a total disregard for our environment and for those demanding racial and environmental justice,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former associate administrator in the Obama administration’s EPA en-

licized a letter it sent to state governors to mandate store customers to wear face coverings. It said the hodgepodge of rules around the country have created confusion for shoppers and that has led to conflict between customers and workers trying to enforce store rules.

The National Governors Association said last week that its members are discussing the letter and others like it from different retail groups.

Social media is full of videos capturing clashes between those who are asked to wear masks, and employees who are under orders to make sure people wear them.

About half of U.S. states require masks in public places, according to the RILA. In recent days, Kentucky and Michigan have passed statewide mandates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been consistent about recommending people cover their mouth and nose when around others to help reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

But at the beginning of the lockdowns, it had discouraged people who were not sick from buying masks for fear of taking away what was then a limited supply for health care workers. vironmental justice office, said Black and other minority communities “will pay with their health and ultimately with their lives” for the rules changes.

Business groups generally supported the changes.

“Modernizing and clarifying NEPA could not come at a better time for our country, as we are recovering from COVID-19,” said Anne Bradbury, CEO of the American Exploration and Production Council, a trade group for oil and gas explorers.

For his announcement, Trump chose Georgia, a swing state in the general election. Trump won the Republican-leaning state by 5 percentage points in 2016, but some polls show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. This will be Trump’s ninth trip to Georgia and his sixth visit to Atlanta during his presidency.

The president’s trip also comes as the state has seen coronavirus cases surge and now has tallied more than 12,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 deaths.

The White House said the administration’s efforts will expedite the expansion of Interstate 75 near Atlanta, an important freight route where traffic can often slow to a crawl.

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eEdition

Celebrity Twitter accounts hacked in Bitcoin scam Associated Press Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians, celebrities and major companies Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam.

The ruse included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. The fake tweets tweets offered to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.

There is no evidence that the owners of these accounts were targeted themselves. Instead, the hacks appeared designed to lure their Twitter followers into

sending money to an anonymous Bitcoin account. The Biden campaign, for instance, said that Twitter’s integrity team “locked down the account within a few minutes of the breach and removed the related tweet.”

Obama’s office had no immediate comment. The FBI said it was aware of Twitter’s security breach, but declined further comment.

The apparently fake tweets were all quickly deleted, although the Associated Press was able to capture screenshots of several before they disappeared.

In several tweets, Twitter said it believes the incident was a “coordinated social engineering attack” that targeted some of its employees with access to internal systems and tools. They were then used to take control of many high-profile and verified accounts and tweet from them.

The company said it immediately locked down the affected

accounts and removed the tweets posted by the attackers. It also temporarily blocked verified users from tweeting while the company investigated the issue.

Among the political figures targeted, the hack mostly appeared to target Democrats or other figures on the left, drawing comparisons to the 2016 campaign. U.S. intelligence agencies established that Russia engaged in coordinated attempts to interfere in those U.S. elections through social media tampering and various hacks, including targeting the various campaigns and major party organizations.

The hack might also be a simple demonstration of Twitter’s weak security controls as the U.S. heads into the 2020 presidential election, a contest in which the service is likely to play an influential role.

The Bitcoin account mentioned in the fake tweets appears to have been created on Wednes-

day. By the end of the day, it had received almost 12.9 bitcoins, an amount currently valued at slightly more than $114,000.

At some point during the day, roughly half that sum in bitcoin was withdrawn from the account.

Bezos, Gates and Musk are among the 10 richest people in the world, with tens of millions of followers on Twitter. The three men are worth a combined $362 billion, according to the latest calculations by Forbes magazine.

The same bogus offer cropped up a second time on Musk’s account, which has a history of sometimes befuddling tweets from the eccentric billionaire.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gates, who has become one of the world’s leading philanthropists since stepping down as Microsoft CEO, confirmed the tweet wasn’t from him. “This appears to be part of a larger

issue that Twitter is facing,” a spokesperson for the billionaire said in a statement.

This is hardly the first time hackers have created mischief on Twitter. Just last year, the account of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was broken into and used to tweet racist and vulgar comments.

The latest security breach prompted Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, to send a letter to Dorsey urging him to work with the FBI and the Justice Department on ways to improve Twitter’s security.

“A successful attack on your system’s servers represents a threat to all of your users’ privacy and data security,” Hawley wrote.

Investors also appeared to be concerned about potential fallout from the hack affecting Twitter’s usage. Twitter’s shares fell 3% in extended trading after news of the hack broke.

New Postal Service boss pushes cost-cutting measures Some deliveries could be delayed a day under new no-OT guideline

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a “different mindset” to ensure the Postal Service’s survival during the coronavirus pandemic.

Late trips will no longer be authorized. If postal distribution centers are running late, “they will keep the mail for the next day,’’ Postal Service leaders say in a document obtained by The Associated Press. “One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that — temporarily — we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks,’’ another

document says.

The changes come a month after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump, took over the sprawling mail service.

In a memo titled “PMG Expectations and Plan,’’ the agency said the changes are aimed at “making the USPS fundamentally solvent which we are not at this time.’’

The memo cites deep revenue losses from a decadelong decline in mail deliveries that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and says an overdue “operational pivot” is needed to ensure the agency’s health and stability.

Postal Service officials, bracing for steep losses from the nationwide shutdown caused by the virus, have warned they will run out of money by the end of September without help from Congress. The service reported a $4.5 billion loss for the quarter ending in March, before the full effects of the shutdown sank in.

Single-piece, first-class

mail volume fell 15 to 20% week to week in April and May, agency leaders told Congress. Losses will increase by more than $22 billion over the next 18 months, they said.

Bills approved by the Democratic-controlled House would set aside $25 billion to keep the mail flowing, but they remain stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Congress has approved a $10 billion line of credit for the Postal Service, but it remains unused amid restrictions imposed by the Trump administration.

A spokesperson said Wednesday that the agency is developing a business plan to ensure it will be financially stable and continue to provide reliable, affordable and secure delivery of mail and packages. While the plan “is not yet finalized, it will certainly include new and creative ways for us to fulfill our mission, and we will focus immediately on efficiency and items that we can control,’’ said spokesperson Dave Parten-

‘Magic School Bus’ author Joanna Cole dies at 75 NEW YORK (AP) — Author Joanna Cole, whose “Magic School Bus” books transported millions of young people on extraordinary and educational adventures, has died at age 75.

Scholastic announced that Cole, a resident of Sioux City, Iowa, died Sunday. The cause was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

“Joanna Cole had the perfect touch for blending science and story,” Scholastic Chairman and CEO Dick Robinson said in a statement Wednesday.

“Joanna’s books, packed with equal parts humor and information, made science both easy to understand and fun for the hundreds of millions of children around the world who read her books and watched the award-winning television series.”

The idea for “The Magic School Bus” came in the mid-1980s. Scholastic senior editorial director Craig Walker was receiving frequent requests from teachers for books about science and thought a combination of storytelling and science would catch on. He brought in Cole, whose humorous work such as the children’s book “Cockroaches” he had admired, and illustrator Bruce Degen. With the ever maddening but inspired Ms. Frizzle leading her students on journeys that explored everything from the solar system to underwater, “Magic School Bus” books have sold tens of millions of copies and were the basis for a popular animated TV series and a Netflix series. Plans for a live-action movie, with Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle, were announced last month. Ms. Frizzle was based in part

on a fifth-grade teacher of Cole’s.

“I think for Joanna the excitement was always in the idea. What? Why? How?” Degen said in a statement. “And with “The Magic School Bus” it was how to explain it so that it is accurate and in a form that a kid can understand and use. And you can actually joke around while you are learning. She had a rare sense of what could be humorous.”

Cole and Degen recently completed “The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution,” scheduled to come out next spring.

A lifelong fan of science, Cole was a native of Newark, New Jersey, and a graduate of the City College of New York who worked as a children’s librarian and magazine editor before “The Magic School Bus.”

Emergency Warm Springs aid approved SALEM (AP) — As the Warm Springs reservation goes without safe drinking water into the fourth week, Oregon state lawmakers have approved millions in emergency funding for repairs.

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs issued a boil water notice June 25 after drinking water system failures left some residents with no running water at all, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

The reservation has issued more than a dozen such notices in the last year alone. Oregon’s emer-

gency board unanimously on Tuesday approved $3.58 million from state reserves to start addressing the issue.

The aid request originated with Rep. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, whose district encompasses the reservation.

“Today’s action by the Legislature’s Emergency Board doesn’t magically fix the water crisis within the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs but that shouldn’t diminish the important work of today,” Bonham said in a statement.

Last year, he success-

fully pushed to earmark $7.8 million in state lottery bonds for reservation water projects. Last week, the promise of that money disappeared, the Bend Bulletin reported.

The next day, Warm Springs’ utility manager Travis Wells sent Bonham a list of critical projects needed to ensure clean water and to bring the reservation into compliance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Orders from the Environmental Protection Agency have threatened the tribes with costly fines since October.

heimer.

The memo cites U.S. Steel as an example that the Postal Service is far from “untouchable.″ In 1975, the steel giant was ”the largest company in the world,” the memo states.

“They are gone.” In fact, U.S. Steel remains a leading steel producer, with more than 27,000 employees as of earlier this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the Postal Service in a double crisis, said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 postal workers and retirees.

As many as 12,000 postal workers have fallen ill, with at least 64 fatalities, and the economic contraction has caused a dramatic drop in letter and other flat mail volumes. A spike in package deliveries that has buoyed the agency during the pandemic is likely to be temporary, Dimondstein said, adding that the outbreak has sharply increased expenses for personal protective equipment,

deep cleaning of facilities and temporary workers to replace postal workers who get sick.

“Postal workers are tremendously dedicated to the mission of getting the mail out,’’ Dimondstein said, but the new policies could cause delays that will further drive down revenues.

“It’s the customer who will suffer if the mail slows down,’’ he said.

Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey denounced the proposal to delay mail delivery, saying it would be a “stunning act of sabotage against our postal service.”

“Trump and his cronies are openly seeking to destroy the post office during the worst public health crisis in a century,’’ Pascrell said. With states increasingly relying on voting by mail to continue elections during the pandemic, destabilizing the Postal Service not only threatens the economy and the jobs of 600,000 workers, but is also “a direct attack on American democracy

itself,’’ Pascrell said.

Trump opposes expanding voting by mail, arguing that it will trigger fraud, even though there’s no evidence that will happen.

Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other top administration officials frequently vote absentee themselves.

Trump also has called the Postal Service “a joke” and said that package shipping rates should be at least four times higher for heavy users like Amazon.

But shipping and packages are actually a top revenue generator for the Postal Service, and critics say Trump is merely looking to punish Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in retaliation for unflattering coverage in The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.

For most Americans, mail deliveries to homes or post boxes are their only routine contact with the federal government. It’s a service they seem to appreciate: The agency consistently earns favorability marks that top 90%.

DEAR ABBYBy Abigail Van Buren Unhappy husband jumps from frying pan into fire DEAR ABBY: I went through an ugly divorce. My second wife, “Marci,” is a liar, a cheat and a thief. She claims she’s religious, but she gambles. She opens bank accounts that I’m not aware of. She tries to justify what she has done, but she calls constantly if I leave the house. She claims she’s jealous. I think it’s more of a control issue, and I leave for peace of mind.

Recently, her relatives asked for a private meeting to discuss her behavior and shared what I feared. Afterward, I called her supposed ex-husband and he told me they are still married. When I asked Marci to show me her divorce papers, she refused. I have talked with my pastor and attorney. They said give her six weeks and then move on. What do you suggest? -TAKEN FOR A FOOL IN ALABAMA DEAR TAKEN: Listen to these two unbiased advisers! Secure any property or information Marci might use to take further advantage of you, and take comfort in the fact that because you are not legally married, you are not responsible for any debts she has or will run up. Understand that Marci is a con artist, and please do exactly what your pastor and your attorney have instructed. If she keeps calling, block her or change your phone number.

And if she stalks you -- and she may -talk to the police.

DEAR ABBY: “Lila,” a friend from my high school days I hadn’t seen for years, called me out of the blue and said her mom wanted to see me again. Her mother and I had been friends for years.

“Mom” was a special lady, and I always admired her, so I agreed.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I greeted them and we engaged in a little conversation. When I went to order, Lila pulled out a sales book she was selling items out of. Because I didn’t want to disappoint her mother, I looked at each item. The only thing I could afford was an umbrella for $29. I already had a $5 one at home (my budget).

Abby, I felt used and insulted. Lila’s only goal was selling me something -- not

reuniting me with her mother. Lila is better off financially than I am. She owns her own home and drives a brand-new SUV. My car was bought used for $2,000.

How do I tolerate a person like her?

She wants all she can get, even if it means using an old friend. By the way, she was decked out in her fashionable finest and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu. -SAD FRIEND ON THE EAST COAST DEAR SAD FRIEND: You do not have to tolerate a person like Lila, and you should not feel pressured to buy something from anyone that you don’t want or need. If Lila calls again, inform her that you are not interested in anything she is selling and end the call.

DEAR ABBY: I’ve gotten into wearing swim trunks in the summer as normal attire. They’re good for the hot streets, and no one has said anything. I pair them with a white T-shirt or no shirt. I plan to do it again this summer. What do you think? -COOL DUDE IN PENNSYLVANIA DEAR DUDE: If you’re in great shape and the neighbors aren’t scandalized, then what I think doesn’t matter.

(Swim) suit yourself.

I will, however, offer this: A wise woman once advised me to always look my best when I went out because invariably, if I didn’t, I’d encounter someone I wished I looked better for and regret that I hadn’t made more effort. And you know what? She was spot on.

------------------------------Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.

DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

For everything you need to know about wedding planning, order “How to Have a Lovely Wedding.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

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Another 1.3 million file unemployment claims WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits remained stuck at 1.3 million last week, an historically high level that indicates many companies are still cutting jobs as the viral outbreak intensifies.

The elevated level of applications for jobless aid is occurring as new confirmed cases of coronavirus are spiking across much of the Sunbelt, threatening to weaken the economic recovery. Case counts are rising in 40 states and 22 states have either paused or reversed their efforts to reopen their economies, according to Bank of America.

Rising infections paralleled rising applications for aid in some states getting hit right now, and fell in states with declining infections. In Florida claims doubled to 129,000, and

in Georgia they rose nearly onethird to 136,000. In California they increased 23,000 to nearly 288,000. Applications also rose in Arizona and South Carolina.

Applications fell in Texas, New Jersey and New York.

The Labor Department’s Thursday report showed that applications for jobless aid fell by about 10,000 from the previous week. The figure has now topped 1 million for 17 straight weeks. Before the pandemic, the record high for weekly unemployment applications was nearly 700,000.

Those figures are adjusted for seasonal variations, a practice that is intended to filter out trends that don’t reflect on the economy, such as the firing of seasonal workers after the winter holidays. Yet the impact of the coronavirus has made such ad-

justments less relevant, economists say, because claims are so far above normal levels.

Before seasonal adjustment, applications actually rose 100,000 to 1.5 million, a sign that layoffs are actually worsening.

The total number of people who are receiving jobless benefits dropped 400,000 to 17.3 million, the government said. That suggests that some companies are continuing to rehire workers, which could offset some of the job losses reflected in the stillhigh level of claims.

An additional 928,000 people sought benefits last week under a separate program for self-employed and gig workers that has made them eligible for aid for the first time. These figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, so the government

doesn’t include them in the official count.

The resurgence of the virus and new business shutdowns in states such as Florida and California, along with signs that consumers are pulling back from eating out and other activities, has intensified fears that the economic recovery is losing steam.

The government’s employment report for June showed a solid gain of 4.8 million jobs and an unemployment rate that fell to 11.1% from 13.3%.

But economists increasingly doubt that such a pace can be sustained. The number of employees working at small businesses declined last week, particularly in states with worsening viral outbreaks, according to data from Homebase, a company that makes scheduling and work-tracking software.

Trump replaces campaign manager WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump shook up his campaign staff Wednesday amid sinking poll numbers less than four months before the election, replacing campaign manager Brad Parscale with veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien.

“I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager,” Trump said on Facebook.

“Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign.”

Trump and Parscale’s relationship had been increasingly strained, with the president annoyed by the publicity Parscale had garnered in the role. But the final straw appeared to be a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew an unexpectedly low crowd of about 6,200 people after Parscale had bragged that more than a million people had requested tickets. The president was furious.

The shakeup injected familiar turmoil to Trump’s 2020 campaign, which had so far largely avoided the regular staff churn that dominated the president’s 2016 campaign and his White House. It comes as Trump has been struggling in his reelection campaign against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, with the nation facing health and economic crises during a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.

The staff change was not expected to alter the day-to-day running

of the campaign. News of the shuffle was delivered to Parscale on Wednesday afternoon by White House adviser and Trump son-inlaw Jared Kushner.

Parscale, a political novice, ran Trump’s digital advertising in 2016 and was credited with helping bring about his surprise victory that year. Stepien has been in politics for years, working for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and serving as Trump’s national field director in 2016.

Parscale had been increasingly sidelined in the weeks since the Tulsa rally and as the president’s public and private poll numbers have taken a hit amid the pandemic. Speculation had been rampant about who might be promoted to lead the operation, with names like former Trump strategist Steve Bannon floated.

Parscale is a close ally of Kushner, who wields ultimate control over the campaign. A Florida resident, he had not been a regular presence of late in the campaign’s Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, sparking some resentments among staffers.

Rather than parting ways completely, Parscale was retained in part because of the difficulty the campaign would have faced in rebuilding its digital advertising operation so close to the Nov. 3 general election. While the Republican National Committee owned most of the campaign’s data, voter modeling and outreach tools, Parscale ran most of the microtargeted online advertising that Trump aides believed were key in 2016.

Parscale’s digital advertising

firm was among the campaign’s most significant vendors, and some in Trump’s orbit have alleged that the former campaign manager was profiting off the president’s reelection. Parscale has repeatedly denied the claims.

Trump has been pressed by allies in recent months to expand his political circle and more forcefully define his run against Biden.

Last month, Trump announced a promotion for Stepien and returned former communications chief Jason Miller to his campaign, taking away some of Parscale’s clout and influence.

Biden also shuffled his campaign team, albeit much earlier in the cycle, amid a disastrous stretch in his primary run. For Biden, the moves marked genuine shakeups that expanded and changed how his campaign operated.

Biden elevated Anita Dunn, effectively displacing his first campaign manager, Greg Schultz, after a fourth-place Iowa finish and as he was already headed for a second embarrassing finish in New Hampshire. Dunn had joined Biden at the outset of his campaign after having served President Barack Obama as a top communications adviser.

With Dunn’s urging, Biden hired his current campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, in March after Dunn and others helped resurrect Biden in Nevada and South Carolina and put him on the path to the nomination. Schultz is now at the Democratic National Committee, helping lead the joint battleground strategy among the national party, the Biden campaign and state parties.

US executes man following Supreme Court OK TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.

Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Purkey was convicted of kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in a state court in Kansas after using a claw hammer to kill an 80-yearold woman who had polio.

Purkey was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber. A prison official removed a mask from Purkey’s face and asked him if he wanted to make a final statement.

He leaned his head up slightly from the gurney and said: “I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family.

I am deeply sorry.”

He also expressed remorse for his own adult daughter’s suffering his actions caused. “I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much,” he said.

His last words were: “This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you.”

As the lethal chemical was injected, Purkey took

several deep breaths and blinked repeatedly, laying his head back down on the gurney. His time of death was 8:19 a.m. EDT. His spiritual adviser was in the room, wearing a face mask and a surgical mask and appeared to be praying, his gloved hands held together at the palms.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to take place just hours before, ruling in a 5-4 decision. The four liberal justices dissented, like they did for the first case earlier this week.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that “proceeding with Purkey’s execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries.” She was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

It was the federal government’s second execution after a 17-year hiatus.

Another man, Daniel Lewis Lee, was put to death Tuesday after his eleventh hour legal bids failed.

Both executions were delayed into the day after they were scheduled as legal wrangling continued late into the night and into the next morning.

Jennifer’s father, William Long, attended Purkey’s execution.

“I hope he rots in hell,”

Long,said.

The Justice Department has been questioned for holding the executions in the middle of the worsening coronavirus pandemic, prompting lawsuits over fears those who would travel to the prison could become infected. The decision to resume executions after nearly two decades was criticized as a dangerously political move in an election year, forcing an issue that is not high on the list of American priorities considering the 11% unemployment rate and the pandemic.

Purkey’s lawyers had argued his condition had deteriorated so severely that he didn’t understand why he was being executed.

They said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions.

The issue of Purkey’s mental health arose in the run-up to his 2003 trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of Jennifer in Kansas City, Missouri.

Prosecutors said he raped and stabbed her, dismembered her with a chainsaw, burned her and dumped her ashes 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in a septic pond in Kansas. Purkey was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-yearold Mary Ruth Bales, of

Kansas City, Kansas.

Purkey had a long history of childhood trauma, was sexually abused by family members and a Catholic priest and was beaten by other family members, said Liz Vartkessian, a mitigation specialist who worked with Purkey’s legal team and visited him dozens of times in the last five years.

“His case is replete with instances where he has expressed a deep remorse,” she said in an interview earlier this month.

But recently, Purkey’s mental health had seriously deteriorated to the point he didn’t have the stamina for long visits with his legal team and often forgot key facts and dates, she said.

Correction officers had to help him write down a schedule to remember his visits with his lawyers, she said.

He also had a long history of paranoia and delusions and believed the Justice Department was moving forward with his execution because of many complaints and lawsuits he brought in prison, even though most had failed, Vartkessian said.

The Supreme Court also lifted a hold placed on other executions set for Friday and next month.

Dustin Honken, a drug kingpin from Iowa convicted of killing five people in a scheme to silence former dealers, was scheduled for execution Friday.

“The risk of a dip lower in the economy has increased as more states adopt policies to combat the virus spread,” economists at Bank of America said in research note. “Until the country manages to get the virus under control, the recovery is likely to be one of fits and starts.”

Companies continue to lay off people. American Airlines warned its workers Wednesday that it may have to cut up to 25,000 jobs in October because of sharply reduced air travel.

Airlines are barred from layoffs until then as a condition of federal aid they have received. United Airlines has already told 36,000 workers they may lose their jobs.

Air traffic began to slowly rebound in mid-April, but like other parts of the economy, the improvement plateaued in July as the viral outbreak worsens.

Coronavirus data is funneled away from CDC, raising concerns NEW YORK (AP) — Hospital data related to the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. will now be collected by a private technology firm, rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a move the Trump administration says will speed up reporting but one that concerns some public health leaders.

The CDC director said Wednesday that he’s fine with the change — even though some experts fear it will further sideline the agency.

The CDC has agreed to step out of the government’s traditional data collection process “in order to streamline reporting,” Dr. Robert Redfield said during a call with reporters set up by the agency’s parent, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS officials recently posted a document on the agency’s website that redirected hospitals’ daily reporting of a range of data meant to assess the impact of the coronavirus on them. TeleTracking Technologies, based in Pittsburgh, will now collect that information.

However, if hospitals are already directly reporting to state health departments, they can get a written release from the state to keep doing that.

The information includes bed occupancy, staffing levels, the severity level of coronavirus patients, ventilators on hand, and supplies of masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment. The CDC will continue to collect other data, like information about cases and deaths, from state health departments.

Michael Caputo, an HHS spokesman, said the CDC has been seeing a lag of a week or more in data coming from hospitals and that only 85% of hospitals have been participating. The change is meant to result in faster and more complete reporting, he said.

It’s not clear how that will happen. HHS officials on Wednesday did not answer questions about whether there would be added government incentives or mandates to get more reporting from busy hospitals.

A CDC official, who is familiar with the agency’s system, disputed Caputo’s figures, saying only about 60% of the nation’s hospitals have been reporting to the CDC system, but most data is collected and reported out within two days. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.

The CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network system was launched 15 years ago and is perhaps best known for its work gathering, and publicly

reporting, data on hospital infections. It has helped drive a successful push to reduce certain kinds of hospital infections.

The system started doing COVID-19 data collection in March. Two other systems have been put in place since, one involving hospitals reporting directly to states and the other the TeleTracking system.

Administration officials put incentives in place to encourage hospitals to report through the other systems, the official said.

For instance, the coronavirus treatment remdesivir was sometimes allocated to hospitals based on whether they used TeleTracking.

Some outside experts expressed suspicion and concern about the decision to drop CDC from the data -collection mix.

The data “are the foundation that guide our response to the pandemic,” Dr. Thomas File, Jr., president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement.

Collecting and reporting public health data has always been a core function of the CDC, he added.

“The administration should provide funding to support data collection and should strengthen the role of CDC to collect and report COVID-19 data,” he said.

Gregory Koblentz, a biodefense expert at George Mason University, said the change appears to be consistent with administration moves in recent months that have sidelined the CDC from the role it has played in other epidemics, as the public’s primary source of information.

“We know the administration has been trying to silence the CDC,” he said. “Now it looks like the administration might be trying to blind the CDC as well.”

The White House directed a request for comment to HHS. Redfield, the CDC director, said the agency will retain access to all the data.

He also said the change will enable it to focus on collecting other data, like information from nursing homes.

Still, his predecessor, Dr. Tom Frieden, expressed dismay at the decision.

“Rather than strengthening the CDC public health data system to improve hospital reporting, the administration has handed data to an unproven, commercial entity,” said Frieden, who was the agency’s director during the Obama administration.

In April, the government awarded a $10.2 million contract to a TeleTracking Technologies, based in Pittsburgh. At the time, the company was hired to gather data on things that were already being reported to the CDC, such as available hospital beds.

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US, others accuse Russia of hacking vaccine trials LONDON (AP) — Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russia on Thursday of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a COVID-19 vaccine.

The three nations alleged that hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and said to be part of the Russian intelligence service, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in coronavirus vaccine development.

Britain’s National Cybersecurity Centre made the announcement, which was coordinated with authorities in the U.S. and Canada.

“It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic,’’ British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement. “While others pursue their selfish interests with reck-

less behaviour, the U.K. and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.’’

The persistent and ongoing attacks are seen by intelligence officials as an effort to steal intellectual property, rather than to disrupt research. The campaign of “malicious activity’’ is ongoing and includes attacks “predominantly against government, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets,’’ the National Cybersecurity Centre said in a statement.

It was unclear whether any information actually was stolen but the center says individuals’ confidential information is not believed to have been compromised. The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cozy Bear, also known as the “dukes,″ has been identified by Washington as one of two Rus-

sian government-linked hacking groups that broke into the Democratic National Committee computer network and stole emails ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The other group is usually called Fancy Bear.

The director of operations for the British cybersecurity center, Paul Chichester, urged “organizations to familiarize themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks.”

The statement did not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the vaccine research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

A 16-page advisory prepared by the U.S. National Security Agency and made public by Britain, the U.S. and Canada on Thursday accuses Cozy Bear of using custom malicious software to target a number of organizations globally. The malware,

called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the hacking group, the advisory said.

“In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group conducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organizations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified,” the advisory said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency warned in April that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

Vulnerable targets include health care agencies, pharmaceutical companies, academia, medical research organizations,

and local governments, security officials have said.

The global reach and international supply chains of these organizations also make them vulnerable, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in an alert published in conjunction with its counterparts in Britain.

CISA said it and the British cyberseucity agency have detected the threat groups scanning the external websites of targeted companies and looking for vulnerabilities in unpatched software. It did not name any of the targeted companies.

U.S. authorities have for months leveled similar accusations against China. FBI Director Chris Wray said last week, “At this very moment, China is working to compromise American health care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions conducting essential COVID-19 research.”

Berkeley plans to remove Police cam video shows Floyd police from traffic stops pleaded with officers SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After hours of emotional public testimony and a middle-of-the-night vote by Berkeley leaders, the progressive California city is moving forward with a novel proposal to replace police with unarmed civilians during traffic stops in a bid to curtail racial profiling.

The City Council early Wednesday approved a police reform proposal that calls for a public committee to hash out details of a new Berkeley Police Department that would not respond to calls involving people experiencing homelessness or mental illness.

The committee also would pursue creating a separate department to handle transportation planning and enforcing parking and traffic laws.

The council voted for the committee to find ways to eventually cut the Police Department’s budget by half and approved an analysis of police calls and spending.

A tired but excited Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said he doesn’t expect a new transportation department overnight because conversations will be hard and detailed with complicated logistics to figure out. But he said communities of color in his city feel targeted by police and that needs to change.

“There may be situations where police do need to intervene, and so we need to look at all that,” he said. “We need to look at if we do move traffic enforcement out of the Police Department, what does that relationship look like and how will police officers work in coordination with unarmed traffic enforcement personnel?”

It’s believed the plan to separate traffic enforcement from police is the first of its kind in the U.S. and comes as many cities seek broad public safety reforms, including reduc-

ing law enforcement budgets, following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Fans of the proposal cheered its passage even as some called for greater cuts to police.

It could take months, even years, to create a new department, but police and other law enforcement experts rebuked the idea as dangerous, not only for traffic safety but for the people tasked with pulling over drivers, who they say can be dangerous.

“I think what Berkeley is doing is nuts,” said Mark Cronin, a director with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union for officers. “I think it’s a big social experiment. I think it’s going to fail and it’s not going to take long for, unfortunately, traffic collisions, fatalities to increase exponentially.”

Cronin, a former traffic officer, said cities can’t rely on unattended traffic signals or camera lights to catch bad drivers and that people are needed to educate motorists on safe driving. But those people also need backup and the authority to arrest should they encounter a driver who is intoxicated, armed and fleeing a crime, or wanted on other charges.

“Traffic stops are one of the most unpredictable and therefore dangerous duties of law enforcement.

There is no such thing as a routine traffic stop and to perform them effectively and safely takes months of police training in and outside of an academy,” said Frank Merenda, a former New York City Police Department captain who is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Marist College.

Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University, called the idea an “overly simplistic plan that could have deadly consequences for unarmed traffic

enforcement officers.”

Nine U.S. police officers were killed during traffic stops so far this year, according to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund.

Six were shot, and three were struck by vehicles.

Numerous studies have shown Black drivers are much more likely to be stopped by police than whites for minor traffic infractions, and the results sometimes can be deadly for the driver.

Philando Castile, for example, was fatally shot after the 32-year-old was stopped for a broken tail light in 2016 in Minnesota.

Sandra Bland, 28, died in a jail cell three days after being stopped for failing to signal when changing lanes in Texas in 2015.

The largely affluent and progressive San Francisco suburb of 120,000 has led the country on environmental, cultural and equity issues but still has lopsided traffic stop figures.

A 2018 report by the Center for Policing Equity, a research and advocacy group based in Los Angeles, found that Black and Latino drivers were stopped by Berkeley police at higher rates than whites.

Data analyses by the Stanford Open Policing Project at Stanford University also found that Black and Latino drivers were searched far more often than whites, but the searches turned up fewer drugs, guns and other contraband.

Berkeley police issued a statement Wednesday saying the department would work with the community “to determine how we can best evolve to accomplish our mission of safeguarding our community.”

Police unions for Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose issued a statement opposing the proposal. The Berkeley police union did not respond to requests for comment this week.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Body-camera footage made public Wednesday from two Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest captured a panicked and fearful Floyd pleading with the officers in the minutes before his death, saying “I’m not a bad guy!” as they tried to wrestle him into a squad car.

“I’m not that kind of guy,” Floyd says as he struggles against the officers. “I just had COVID, man, I don’t want to go back to that.”

An onlooker pleads with Floyd to stop struggling, saying, “You can’t win!”

Floyd replies, “I don’t want to win!”

A few minutes later, with Floyd now facedown on the street, the cameras record his fading voice, still occasionally saying, “I can’t breathe” before he goes still.

Though transcripts of the footage were released earlier, the video itself is the fullest public view yet of Floyd’s interaction with the officers who were later charged in his death. It also captures an apparent lack of urgency to render aid to Floyd for long minutes after he stopped moving.

The recordings from Officers Thomas Lane and J. Kueng are part of the criminal case against them and two other officers in Floyd’s May 25 death. Derek Chauvin, who held his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes, is charged with second-degree murder. Lane, Kueng and another officer, Tou Thao, are charged with aiding and abetting.

All four officers were fired the day after Floyd died. Journalists and members of the public were allowed to view the footage Wednesday by

appointment. Judge Peter Cahill, without explanation, has declined to allow publication of the video.

The footage shows the officers’ view of a death already widely seen on a bystander’s cellphone video, which set off tumultuous protests in Minneapolis that quickly spread around the world and sparked a national reckoning on race and policing.

Floyd appears distraught from the moment officers ask him to step out of his vehicle near a south Minneapolis corner grocery, where he was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. When Floyd did not immediately display his hands, Lane pulled his gun, leading Floyd to say he had been shot before.

Floyd’s hands are soon handcuffed behind his back, and he grows more anxious, telling the officers that he’s claustrophobic and pleading with them not to put him in the back of a squad car.

In the struggle, Floyd loses a shoe. What appears to be Chauvin’s chest-mounted body camera winds up underneath the squad car, and Floyd eventually winds up on the pavement with the officers holding him down.

Chauvin and Kueng each grip one of Floyd’s handcuffed hands to hold them in position behind his back, with Kueng’s knee appearing to press on Floyd’s bottom or just below. Lane is at Floyd’s feet.

The officers sound clinical as the minutes tick by. “I think he’s passing out,” one officer says. “You guys all right, though?” someone asks.

“Yeah — good so far,” says one. Another — apparently Lane — says: “My knee might be a

little scratched, but I’ll survive.” Kueng reaches out with a free hand to pull a pebble from the police SUV’s tire tread and toss it to the street.

Lane did not sound particularly worried the first time he asked Chauvin whether they should roll Floyd on his side and suggested that Floyd might be in delirium.

People in the crowd can be heard expressing fear for Floyd’s condition, asking whether he had a pulse and was breathing.

A couple of minutes later, Lane sounds a bit more concerned when he asks again about rolling Floyd onto his side. The officers go quiet but show no apparent urgency as Kueng checks for a pulse and says he cannot find one.

Lane’s camera shows him following an unresponsive Floyd on a stretcher into an ambulance, where EMTs instructed him to perform CPR. The video shows Lane performing constant chest compressions by hand with no visible results.

The ambulance parks a few blocks away from the store for several minutes while Lane and the EMTs work on Floyd, rather than heading straight to the hospital, even though they all know that Floyd is in full cardiac arrest, as indicated by dispatcher audio.

Christine Hill, a spokeswoman for Hennepin County Medical Center, the hospital that provided the ambulance, said she could not talk specifically about Floyd’s treatment because of medical privacy restrictions. But she said it is not unusual for paramedics to load a patient into an ambulance and move to a more secure location as they provide life-saving care.

EU court cancels US datasharing pact over snooping concerns Associated Press The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies — from tech giants to small financial firms — to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people’s data.

The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will likely complicate business for around 5,000 companies, and it could require regulators to vet any new data transfers to make sure Europeans’ personal information remains protected according to the EU’s stringent standards.

It will no longer simply

be assumed that tech companies like Facebook will adequately protect the privacy of its European users’ data when it sends it to the U.S. Rather, the EU and U.S. will likely have to find a new agreement that guarantees that Europeans’ data is afforded the same privacy protection in the U.S. as it is in the EU. Privacy activists hailed the court ruling as a major victory, while business groups worried about the potential to disrupt commerce, depending on how the ruling is implemented.

Companies like Facebook routinely move such data among their servers around the world and the practice underpins billions of dol-

lars in business.

“It is clear that the U.S. will have to seriously change their surveillance laws, if U.S. companies want to continue to play a major role on the EU market,” said Max Schrems, an Austrian activist whose complaints about the handling of his Facebook data triggered the ruling after years of legal procedures.

He first filed a complaint in 2013, after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the American government was snooping on people’s online data and communications. The revelations included detail on how Facebook gave U.S. secu-

rity agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.

Though the legal case was triggered by concerns over Facebook in particular, it could have far-reaching implications not only for tech companies but also businesses in sectors like finance and the auto industry.

Things like emails or hotel reservations between the U.S. and Europe would not be affected because there is no way to conduct that business without data crossing the border. But in other cases, such as with Facebook, for example, messages between Europeans would have to stay in Europe, which can be

complicated and require their platform to be split up, Schrems said.

Companies use legal mechanisms called standard contractual clauses that force businesses to abide by EU privacy standards when transferring messages, photos and other information. The clauses — which are stock terms and conditions — are used to ensure the EU rules are maintained when data leaves the bloc.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled Thursday that those clauses are still valid in principle. However, it declared invalid the Privacy Shield agreement between the U.S. and EU on data transfers over

concerns that the U.S. can demand access to consumer data for national security reasons.

It said that in cases where there are concerns about data privacy, EU regulators should vet, and if needed block, the transfer of data. That raises the prospect that EU regulators will block Facebook, for example, from transferring any more European data to the U.S. The European Commission said it was studying the ruling and stressed that a system is needed to allow data transfers while also protecting privacy. It said it was in touch with its counterparts in the U.S. on how to proceed.

Player diary: Happy to get going in the WNBA Sabrina Ionescu

For The Associated Press

BRADETON, Fla. — I’m so glad the wait is finally over.

I hadn’t been able to play basketball since March when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and now being in Florida with the New York Liberty at my first training camp has been great.

You never know how much you miss something until you can’t do it anymore, and to be back on the court playing 5-on-5 with my teammates has been wonderful.

I felt at home when I walked into the hotel in Florida and saw the WNBA posters and signs. It

was at that moment when I was like: ‘Wow. I’m actually in the best professional league in the world.’

It was great to finally meet my teammates and coaches after seeing them on Zoom the last few months. We all had to wait four days because of quarantining when we got here, but being around each other has been so much fun.

Layshia (Clarendon) and I bike to practice from the hotel each day.

Bubble life hasn’t been too bad. It helps that Ruthy (Hebard) is in the hotel with me, so I see her around the pool or we have dinner together. We also practice

at the same time so we put our waters so we can see each other.

I saw Satou (Sabally) for the first time the other day at the gym. She ran on the court and gave me a hug and then ran back out. It’s great that so many of my former teammates are playing in the pros.

I spent the last three months training and grinding away at home in the Bay Area or in Oregon before I got to Florida to get ready for this. I also had the incredible honor of being the commencement speaker at the Oregon graduation — a once-ina-lifetime opportunity.

It was so special when students messaged me or came up

to me after saying how touched they were by what I said.

Even while I was working and training hard, there was still a little time for fun at home and I’ve become obsessed with TikTok. I definitely watch more of the videos than I do them.

Before heading to Florida I had to say goodbye to my family. It was sort of like the start of my freshman year when I came to college when I knew I wouldn’t see my family for awhile. The only difference then was that they could drive down any weekend they wanted to, but now I won’t be able to see them for a few months.

We have long distance talks now and I know they are count-

ing down the days till I get back home when they can be around me again.

I know games start next weekend and I’m really excited to go out and play and see what we have. I miss having those pregame jitters and getting nervous and excited when we play against another team.

I know they’ll be down days and games we’re not going to win, but there’s going to be a lot of room for growth and I’m excited to be part of that.

New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu is checking in periodically from the WNBA bubble at IMG Academy.

Elliott joins father as winner of All-Star race BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Chase Elliott collected the checkered flag and soaked in the sounds of fans in the grandstands. The spectators at Bristol Motor Speedway surged to the fence, chanted “USA! USA!” and celebrated NASCAR’s most popular driver.

Cue the siren at the Dawsonville Pool Room — another Elliott is an All-Star winner.

Chase Elliott joined his father, Hall of Famer “Awesome” Bill Elliott, as winner of NASCAR’s annual All-Star race, earning the $1 million prize Wednesday in front of limited spectators at the Tennessee track.

“Tonight felt like an event again and I felt like we’ve been missing that piece for a couple months,” said Elliott, who won races at Charlotte in the Cup Series and Truck Series with no fans. “It felt good to have NASCAR back. NASCAR is about the fans. I felt like the vibe was back.”

Back in his Georgia hometown, the pool room marks every win by the father or son by blaring its horn no matter the time of day or night.

“I hope someone got a good video of it for me,” Elliott said.

“That’s such a special tradition.”

Over in victory lane, the normally reserved Elliott celebrated like never before. He accepted the track’s gladiator sword trophy and waved it in the air, stabbed it toward his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet — he drives No. 9, just like his father did — and pretended to vanquish his foes with it in his celebration.

“What a special race to win.

It’s extremely special to join Dad in winning this race,” Elliott said. “To me this is one of the prestigious events on the schedule. There’s a lot of hype around it. It means a lot to me .... you are racing against the very best. To beat the best is always special.”

Elliott won the second and third stages of the event and earned the right to choose which lane he wanted to restart for the final 15-lap sprint to the finish.

He picked the outside lane and

NASCAR hosts largest crowd in pandemic era BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Clint Bowyer hopped off his pit stand at Bristol Motor Speedway to learn he’d won the fan vote to advance into NASCAR’s All-Star race — an announcement met by a roar from the grandstands.

It wasn’t the raucous ovation typically heard in Thunder Valley, but after four months of near silence, it was better than nothing.

Up to 30,000 fans were allowed to attend Wednesday night’s race, NASCAR’s largest with spectators since the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports in March. Attendance figures were not released, but it appeared at least 20,000 spectators were socially distanced throughout the grandstands — making it the largest sporting event in the United States since winter.

“It damn sure feels good to have the fans back at the track,” Bowyer said.

Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s most popular driver, won the race and celebrated to chants of “USA! USA!” from the crowd.

IndyCar raced last weekend at Road America in Wisconsin and there was no limit on tickets sold to the event held on a 4-mile road course.

Crowd estimates for that event have been around 10,000 spectators.

Driver introductions were held for the first time since racing resumed May 17, although the usual over-the-top festivities were toned down.

Drivers for the All-Star event typically walked out on a stage with their team but on Wednesday night they stood next to their cars and waved to the crowd as they were introduced.

The All-Star Race was moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway for just the second time since its 1985 inception because Tennessee officials allowed Speedway Motorsports to sell a percentage of its seats. North Carolina, where the race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway its pulled buddy Ryan Blaney with him on the restart but was never challenged and beat Kyle Busch to the finish line.

Bill Elliott won the race in 1986, the only year it was held at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race began in 1985 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and was held at that North Carolina track every year but one until it was moved during this pandemic-altered year.

Tennessee officials allowed NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports to sell 30,000 tickets to the All-Star race, so it was moved

first year and every year since 1987, would not authorize spectators.

Bristol, dubbed “The Last Great Colosseum,” can hold about 140,000 people, meaning it would be 79% empty even with a sellout crowd of 30,000. Masks were only required upon entrance. Fans were told they could remove them once in their seats.

Tickets were on sale through Tuesday evening and still available on Bristol’s website until the deadline. The speedway is privately owned and attendance figures are not required to be released.

Concession stands were open, but typical shopping opportunities were limited and independent street-side souvenir stands along Speedway Boulevard hawked driver items and even a few Confederate flags.

As fans arrived, they were greeted by a plane flying over the Tennessee track that was pulling a banner of the Confederate flag.

NASCAR in June banned the flag at its events, but protesters at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama paraded past the main entrance waving them from their vehicles. A plane also flew over the speedway that day with a flag that read “Defund NASCAR,” a play on the “defund the police” slogan of some protesting racial injustice.

President Donald Trump has criticized NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag, blaming the decision for the sport’s “low ratings,” although TV ratings for NASCAR have been up since racing resumed.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans of Columbia, Tennessee, claimed it had paid for the banner over Talladega. The one flying over Bristol Motor Speedway listed only the group’s website.

from Charlotte because North Carolina would not authorize spectators for the race.

“There’s nothing like Bristol,” Chase Elliott said. “There’s no feeling like it. This speaks for itself, Bristol is an electric atmosphere. We’ll take that million dollars back to Georgia.”

It was the most spectators at a sporting event in the United States since March. Because the speedway is privately owned, attendance numbers will not be released, but there appeared to be about 20,000 people in the grandstands. Tickets were on

sale through Tuesday evening and still available on Bristol’s website until the deadline.

Bristol, dubbed “The Last Great Colosseum,” can hold about 140,000 spectators. Speedway Motorsports had those in attendance socially distanced through the grandstands and masks were only required upon entrance. Fans were told they could remove them once in their seats.

Following the post-race fireworks, an announcement was made to the crowd telling fans they’d be dismissed by row.

Elliott won in his fifth All-

Star appearance and is the 25th different driver to win the made-for-TV race. He and his father join Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as winning father-son duos of the event.

“Anytime you can join the Earnhardts in anything in racing, and to join Dad in winning this event, that’s not just special.

That’s a lot of years and a lot of history. For everything to come full circle like that is pretty dang cool,” Elliott said.

Bubba Wallace was wrecked out of the qualifying race, ruining his shot of racing for the $1 million prize.

One driver advanced into the All-Star race through a fan vote and Wallace had been leading when results were last updated

by NASCAR a week ago. After he crashed 17 laps into the qualifying race — which awarded three additional slots to stage winners into the 20-driver AllStar field — he was no longer eligible to win the fan vote.

It didn’t matter, anyway. Clint Bowyer was named winner of the fan vote and NASCAR said he received the most votes even with Wallace eliminated. Aric Almirola advanced by winning the first stage, William Byron for winning the second stage and Matt DiBenedetto for winning the third stage.

Wallace had race-ending contact with the wall when his No. 43 Chevrolet appeared to be turned from behind by Michael McDowell 17 laps into the first stage. He said he didn’t need to see a replay because he knew McDowell’s contact was egregious.

“Just disrespect. When you get hooked into the wall, I don’t even need to see a replay,” Wallace said. “People say he’s one of the nicest guys in the garage.

I can’t wait for the God-fearing text that he is going to send me about preaching and praise and respect. What a joke he is.”

A piece of Wallace’s crumpled sheet metal was placed on the back of McDowell’s team truck and Wallace was seen walking away.

St. Thomas can make jump directly to NCAA Divison 1 Associated Press

The NCAA gave the University of St. Thomas permission Wednesday to jump directly from Division III to Division I, the final clearance for a bold move born out of the Minnesota private school’s ejection from its conference for being too dominant.

The Tommies, who had secured a spot in the Summit League for all but three of their 22 varsity teams pending NCAA approval, announced they’ll join the Pioneer League for football and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association for women’s hockey. The men’s hockey program is still in the process of finding a conference.

“We are looking more like our national Catholic peers in being a comprehensive university that competes at a level that broad-

ens our platform,” St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan said. “So I think it’s really quite consistent with the trajectory of the university.”

When a majority of school presidents in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference decided 14 months ago they wanted the Tommies out, St. Thomas leaders were first focused on Division III alternatives and the potential of moving to Division II. Summit League Commissioner Tom Douple, eager to add the Twin Cities market, targeted St. Thomas for the conference and played a vital role in encouraging the NCAA to allow it. Big Ten member Minnesota is the state’s only other full-fledged Division I program.

“When you think about the future and what could be, certainly there’s a lot to be excited about

there, whether it’s advancing to postseason in certain sports or competing against certain teams or whatever it might be, but for now just knowing that we’ve accomplished something that nobody has ever done before is really a testament to the perseverance and fortitude of the institution,” athletic director Phil Esten said.

The NCAA’s Division I council ruled in June that St. Thomas could make a formal request to waive reclassification rules for Division III schools seeking Division I membership that currently mandate a 12-year process with a stop in Division II. The council planned to vote

by April on a proposal to reduce the reclassification process to five years, but the waiver was granted for St. Thomas in this unique, urgent scenario.

UST is the first school to make

the two-level jump since the current rules were put in place in 2010 by the national governing body for college sports. Buffalo made the two-level jump in 1993. Dayton did the same that year, but the Flyers were already in Division I in basketball.

The 2020-21 school year will be the final season for the Tommies in the 100-year-old MIAC they helped found. The Catholic institution of about 6,000 undergraduate students located in the state’s capital, St. Paul, is more than double the size of the other schools in the MIAC and has long produced the most powerful programs in that league in many sports. The Tommies have won the all-sports trophy in the MIAC for 13 consecutive school years on both the men’s and women’s side, and they have won 15 national titles in NCAA team sports since 1982.

“D-I is not a homogeneous division, just like D-II and D-III is not,” Sullivan said. “When you say D-I, it doesn’t mean that we’re becoming Ohio State. So we are thrilled for this, because we believe this really broadens the platform by which we have impact. We broaden the geographic reach of our student recruiting, of our visibility through our competition.”

Like any school that transitions up, St. Thomas will have provisional Division I status for four years until first being eligible for postseason competition in the 2025-26 seasons.

The Summit League currently covers seven states with the following schools: Denver, Kansas City, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Omaha, Oral Roberts, South Dakota, South Dakota State and Western Illinois.

FOUR-DAY FORECAST FOR NORTH BEND TONIGHT FRIDAY SATURDAY

Low clouds

Partly sunny and windy

LOW: 54° 66° LOCAL ALMANAC

51°

Mostly sunny; becoming windier

More sun than clouds

67°

67°

54°

Halsey

Yachats

56/81

Yesterday Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date

Florence Reedsport

Sunset tonight Sunrise tomorrow Moonrise tomorrow Moonset tomorrow

Full

57/66

56/69

0.00" 27.93" 41.33" 36.70"

SUN AND MOON

Jul 27

Aug 3

Elkton

Yesterday

City

8:54 p.m.

5:52 a.m.

3:03 a.m.

6:34 p.m.

Last

South Coast Tonight Fri.

54°

70°

66/52/pc 92/49/s 70/53/s 80/51/pc 83/50/pc 91/50/s 84/51/s 93/59/s 61/46/pc 88/56/s 77/56/pc 88/45/s 84/56/s 79/52/pc 83/58/s

Curry Co. Coast Tonight Fri.

55°

Location

69°

High

Bandon

11:25 a.m.

10:19 p.m.

Charleston 11:30 a.m.

10:24 p.m.

Coos Bay 12:56 p.m.

11:50 p.m.

Florence 12:14 p.m.

11:08 p.m.

Port Orford 11:22 a.m.

9:57 p.m.

Reedsport 12:17 p.m.

11:28 p.m.

Half Moon Bay 11:40 a.m.

10:33 p.m.

Rogue Valley Tonight Fri.

60°

93°

55/82

83°

-10s

Klamath Falls

50/91

60/93

Friday

ft.

Low

4.8 6.8 5.2 7.4 5.0 7.2 4.5 6.4 4.9 7.2 5.1 7.5 4.8 6.9

4:51 a.m.

4:20 p.m.

4:49 a.m.

4:18 p.m.

6:17 a.m.

5:46 p.m.

5:47 a.m.

5:16 p.m.

4:38 a.m.

3:51 p.m.

5:51 a.m.

5:23 p.m.

5:04 a.m.

4:28 p.m.

ft.

-0.1 3.0 -0.1 3.2 -0.1 2.8 -0.1 2.5 -0.1 3.3 0.3 3.1 0.0 3.0

63°

77°

High

12:11 p.m.

11:03 p.m.

12:16 p.m.

11:08 p.m.

1:42 p.m.

--1:00 p.m.

11:52 p.m.

12:06 p.m.

10:40 p.m.

1:06 p.m.

--12:25 p.m.

11:17 p.m.

North Coast Tonight Fri.

56°

65°

0s

Snow

10s

NATIONAL CITIES

56/87

Medford 59/91

-0s

Showers

Flurries

20s

30s

Ice

Cold Front

40s

National high: 116° at Death Valley, CA

51/88

Ashland

Rain

50s

60s

Warm Front 70s

80s

Stationary Front

90s

100s

110s

NATIONAL EXTREMES YESTERDAY (for the 48 contiguous states)

Chiloquin

Willamette Valley Portland Area Tonight Fri. Tonight Fri.

55°

T-storms

Beaver Marsh

Butte Falls

58/91

59/91

Shown are tomorrow’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

47/83

46/85

Gold Hill Grants Pass

47/84

Crescent

60/86

Powers

TIDES

Fri.

La Pine

Canyonville

Port Orford

55/69

49/85

Toketee Falls

59/84

56/76

Aug 11

51/86

Sunriver

Oakridge

Roseburg

Coquille

57/66

Bend

56/82

57/84

55/69

50/85

56/83

54/81

54/66 55/65

REGIONAL FORECASTS

56°

Sisters

Oakland

Bandon

Hi/Lo Prec. Hi/Lo/W

Astoria 68/53 0.00 Burns 90/46 0.00 Brookings 74/54 0.00 Corvallis 91/56 0.00 Eugene 91/56 Trace Klamath Falls 91/48 0.00 La Grande 87/49 0.00 Medford 100/59 0.00 Newport 59/43 0.00 Pendleton 92/56 0.00 Portland 87/61 0.00 Redmond 93/48 0.00 Roseburg 93/58 0.00 Salem 90/55 0.00 The Dalles 96/60 0.00

68°

Cottage Grove

57/81

56/79

Coos Bay / North Bend

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020

OREGON CITIES

55/83

Drain

Gold Beach Jul 20

55°

Springfield

Eugene

65°/50° 65°/53° 74° in 1932 44° in 1999

PRECIPITATION

First

Mostly sunny and windy

54/63

High/low Normal high/low Record high Record low

New

MONDAY

Shown is tomorrow’s ow’s weather. Temperatures are tonight’s lows and tomorrow’s highs.

North Bend yesterday

TEMPERATURE

NATIONAL FORECAST SUNDAY

Saturday ft.

Low

5.1 7.1 5.6 7.7 5.3 --4.8 6.7 5.2 7.4 5.4 --5.1 7.2

5:33 a.m.

5:09 p.m.

5:31 a.m.

5:07 p.m.

6:59 a.m.

6:35 p.m.

6:29 a.m.

6:05 p.m.

5:19 a.m.

4:41 p.m.

6:37 a.m.

6:13 p.m.

5:47 a.m.

5:18 p.m.

ft.

-0.6 2.9 -0.7 3.1 -0.6 2.7 -0.5 2.5 -0.7 3.3 -0.1 3.1 -0.5 2.9

Central Oregon Tonight Fri.

50°

88°

Fri.

City

Hi/Lo/W

Albuquerque Anchorage Atlanta Atlantic City Austin Baltimore Billings Birmingham Boise Boston Buffalo Burlington, VT Caribou, ME Casper Charleston, SC Charleston, WV Charlotte, NC Cheyenne Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Colorado Spgs Columbus, OH Concord, NH Dallas Dayton Daytona Beach Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Fairbanks

91/67/t 68/57/sh 94/76/pc 83/74/pc 97/75/s 90/74/pc 94/63/c 95/76/pc 96/62/pc 74/69/c 84/69/c 83/68/t 66/59/t 96/58/pc 91/72/pc 91/70/t 92/75/t 92/61/c 89/75/pc 91/71/c 87/67/pc 91/64/c 91/70/pc 75/62/c 98/76/s 90/68/c 88/74/pc 95/67/pc 91/77/pc 88/69/pc 102/75/pc 66/54/pc

Sat.

Hi/Lo/W

94/71/pc 65/56/c 93/74/pc 84/76/pc 96/74/pc 94/76/t 85/60/s 94/74/pc 94/62/s 86/71/pc 88/72/pc 89/71/s 81/60/c 94/54/s 92/75/s 92/71/pc 92/73/t 93/59/pc 94/77/t 92/74/pc 92/73/c 94/66/c 93/74/pc 91/63/s 96/76/s 94/75/pc 87/76/t 97/65/pc 94/76/s 92/73/pc 102/76/pc 68/54/c

National low: 28° at West Yellowstone, MT

Fri.

Sat.

Fri.

Sat.

City

Hi/Lo/W

Hi/Lo/W

City

Hi/Lo/W

Hi/Lo/W

Fargo Flagstaff Fresno Green Bay Hartford, CT Helena Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Kansas City Key West Las Vegas Lexington Little Rock Los Angeles Louisville Madison Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Missoula Nashville New Orleans New York City Norfolk, VA Oklahoma City Olympia, WA Omaha Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix

91/69/pc 80/49/t 101/71/s 87/69/s 78/67/c 87/58/pc 88/75/sh 95/77/pc 89/71/pc 94/75/pc 91/82/t 108/85/s 90/68/c 92/75/t 82/63/pc 93/76/pc 86/72/c 92/78/t 91/82/t 88/72/pc 87/75/t 84/52/pc 91/76/t 94/79/pc 80/72/c 93/76/s 98/76/s 74/48/pc 93/77/pc 90/77/pc 89/74/c 109/89/pc

85/62/pc 81/53/t 103/73/s 91/72/t 97/68/pc 85/53/s 89/77/pc 94/76/s 92/76/pc 95/74/s 90/82/t 109/85/s 91/73/pc 94/75/s 85/63/pc 94/78/pc 92/73/c 95/78/s 91/80/t 91/77/t 93/70/pc 86/50/pc 94/75/pc 94/78/s 90/75/pc 93/77/t 94/73/s 79/53/c 97/75/s 89/76/c 92/75/pc 110/86/s

Pittsburgh Pocatello Portland, ME Providence Raleigh Rapid City Redding Reno Richmond, VA Sacramento St. Louis Salt Lake City San Angelo San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santa Fe Seattle Sioux Falls Spokane Springfield, IL Springfield, MA Syracuse Tampa Toledo Trenton Tucson Tulsa Washington, DC W. Palm Beach Wichita Wilmington, DE

88/65/t 96/60/pc 70/64/c 76/68/c 92/73/pc 97/64/pc 101/69/s 97/64/s 91/75/t 90/59/s 94/79/c 100/75/s 103/75/s 77/68/pc 73/56/pc 84/60/pc 89/59/c 72/56/pc 89/74/t 82/57/pc 90/75/pc 77/65/c 87/67/c 95/78/pc 91/66/pc 87/70/c 103/79/pc 96/77/s 93/77/pc 90/80/t 100/78/pc 88/71/c

94/69/pc 93/59/s 83/65/pc 90/70/pc 92/73/t 88/60/pc 104/70/s 97/64/s 93/74/t 97/61/s 98/81/pc 99/72/s 98/71/s 78/67/pc 75/57/pc 85/59/pc 90/62/pc 78/58/pc 93/68/pc 85/58/pc 94/77/pc 95/65/pc 92/70/s 93/78/t 94/73/pc 91/72/pc 104/81/c 97/77/s 96/77/t 89/80/t 103/76/s 90/73/t

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice, Prec.-precipitation.

Titans, star running back Henry agree to new contract NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have made sure that the NFL rushing leader is sticking around for a few more years.

The Titans announced Wednesday they had agreed on a “multiyear extension” with Derrick Henry just before the NFL deadline for a long-term deal to avoid the running back having to play this season under the franchise tag.

Henry reportedly received a four-year deal for $50 million with $25.5 million guaranteed, according to ESPN.com.

The Titans faced a deadline of

4 p.m. EDT Wednesday to sign Henry to an extension or let him play this season for the $10.2 million due under the franchise tag he signed April 2. They could have tagged him again for 2021 for 120 percent of his pay this season.

General manager Jon Robinson has said for months that he wanted to keep Henry on the roster past this season with a longer contract.

Tennessee already signed quarterback Ryan Tannehill to a four-year deal worth $118 million in March before free agency started.

Safety Kevin Byard had a

simple tweet of a crown emoji in celebration for his teammate called “King Henry”.

The Titans know all too well Henry’s value.

He led the NFL with 1,540 yards rushing last season with 303 carries — both career highs.

He ran 83 more times in the postseason. He also became the first player in NFL history to run for at least 180 yards in three consecutive games, a streak started in the regular-season finale, running the Titans to their first AFC championship game in 17 years.

Henry brings size and power at 6-foot-3 and 247 pounds. He’s

also fast once he finds room to run, clocked hitting 20.7 mph on his 66-yard run against Baltimore in the divisional round.

He also has an NFL-best seven touchdowns, five rushing and two receiving, of 65 yards or longer over the past three seasons.

That’s two more than Kansas City’s Tyreek Hill in that span.

Henry is second only to Todd Gurley (29) with 28 rushing TDs over the past two seasons.

The 2015 Heisman Trophy winner benefited from backing up DeMarco Murray his first two seasons, and he only had 215 carries in 2018. He was cheap

Trainer Bob Baffert is suspended in Arkansas

Love, Westrbook highlight UCLA Hall of Fame class Impressive group also includes world record holder in long jump LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Dave Roberts highlight the latest class for UCLA’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

The nine-member class was announced by the university Wednesday.

Love was in Westwood for only one season but led the Bruins to the Final Four in 2008. He aver-

aged 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds along with posting 23 double-doubles as he was named a first-team All-America.

Westbrook was part of two Final Four squads (2007, ‘08) while leading the Bruins in assists (167) and steals (63) in ’08.

Love and Westbrook are two of six Olympic medalists in this year’s class. They led Team USA to gold in 2012.

Lauren (Cheney) Holiday was a two-time gold medalist in women’s soccer (2008, ‘12).

Mike Powell, who remains the world record-holder in the long

jump, is a two-time silver medalist (1992, ‘96) and Adam Wright won silver in water polo in 2008. Gymnast Tasha Schwikert was a bronze medalist in 2000.

Roberts, who is entering his fifth season managing the Los Angeles Dodgers, remains UCLA’s career leader in stolen bases (109), and set a single-season record with 45 in 1994.

Other members of the class are Keira Goerl (softball) and Noelle Quinn (women’s basketball).

The induction date has not been announced due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dad of former player sues ASU, NCAA over death Jason Franklin, who was walk-on for the Sun Devils, died in 2018 PHOENIX (AP) — The father of a former Arizona State University linebacker has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the university and NCAA, alleging his son’s suicide came during a mental breakdown caused by four concussions he suffered a few years earlier while playing college football.

Jason Franklin’s father,

Gregg Franklin, alleged flawed concussion management protocols contributed to his son developing the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which was discovered after his 2018 death, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status to cover all now-deceased ASU football players from 1952 to 2015 who were diagnosed in life or death with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other neurodegenerative

disorders.

“Unfortunately, while defendants (ASU and NCAA) knew about the harmful and devastating effects of these sub-concussive and concussive injuries, they recklessly ignored these facts and failed to implement reasonable concussion management protocols to protect its athletes, including Jason Franklin,” the lawsuit said.

ASU declined to comment on the lawsuit’s allegations, while the NCAA didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

While playing at ASU,

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too through the first four seasons as the Titans’ third pick in the second round of the 2016 draft.

He has 3,833 yards rushing and 38 TDs in 62 games played in his four NFL seasons.

But Henry also has not caught more than 18 passes in a single season, which has limited him on third down. That also had him well below the receptions by running backs such as Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara or Le’Veon Bell last season.

The Titans are scheduled to report for training camp July 26, and they are scheduled to open the season Sept. 14 at Denver.

Franklin suffered one concussion in 2012 and three in the summer of 2014, according to the lawsuit.

Franklin, a native of Simi Valley, California, joined ASU’s team as a walk-on and played in a small number of games. He died in July 2018 at age 26.

After his college football career was over, the lawsuit said he spiraled out of control, became fixated at one time on conspiracy theories and experienced a psychotic episode in which he claimed he was Jesus.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert was suspended for 15 days on Wednesday

by Oaklawn Park stewards and two of his horses were disqualified in Arkansas after testing positive for a banned substance.

The stewards said in a ruling that the suspension will run from Aug. 1 -15.

They found Baffert violated Rule 1233, which states that a trainer shall ultimately be responsible for the condition of any horse that is entered regardless of the acts of any third parties.

His horses Charlatan and Gamine each tested positive for lidocaine in two rounds of testing after winning races at the Hot Springs, Arkansas, track on May 2. The stewards disqualified both horses and stripped them of their purse earnings. Charlatan’s owners lost $300,000 in purse money; Gamine’s owners forfeited $36,000.

“We’re just very disappointed because we thought we put on a very compelling defense that it was innocent contamination,” Baffert told The Associated Press. “We’re definitely going to appeal it.”

In a hearing before

the stewards on Monday, Baffert and his representatives argued that the horses were accidentally exposed to lidocaine by assistant trainer Jim Barnes, who had applied a medicinal pain patch to his own back.

Barnes had previously broken his pelvis and the patch he used contained trace amounts of lidocaine.

The drug was transferred from his hands through the application of tongue ties on both horses, Baffert’s representatives said.

“People in the industry are aware that we haven’t done anything wrong,” Baffert told the AP. Lidocaine, a widely used anesthetic in racing, is considered a Class 2 drug by the Association of Racing Commissioners International and use of it carries a penalty of a 15to 60-day suspension and a fine of $500 to $1,000 for a first offense. The drug’s use is regulated because it can act as a masking agent.

The stewards did not announce the levels of lidocaine found in either horse. However, Baffert said in a statement earlier this month that the level in Gamine was 185 picograms, while Charlatan had 46 picograms. A picogram is a trillionth of a gram.

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