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MOSTLY SUNNY 67 • 52 | THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2020 | theworldlink.com

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School districts adjust to new metrics Governor’s new guidelines mean some districts may not be able to return students to schools JILLIAN WARD The World

COOS COUNTY — Schools in Coos County are adjusting to the new COVID-19 metrics announced by Gov. Kate Brown this week.

These metrics mean most Oregon students will not be returning to the classroom in the

fall, barring a sharp decrease in new COVID-19 cases in the state in the coming weeks.

“Right now we’re digesting the message and determining how it applies to our county and individual school districts,” said Tenneal Wetherell, superintendent at South Coast Education Service District. “We’re trying to clarify the wording and reasoning and how it applies to us.”

These metrics include not being able to open if the state’s positivity rate is 5% over the span of a week — Oregon’s rate last week was 5.1%, down from 6.6% the previous week.

For schools to fully reopen in a county, the county’s rate also

must be under 5% and the county must have 10 or fewer cases per 100,000 residents over a oneweek span.

But Wetherell pointed out an exception. If a county meets the following four requirements, then kindergarten through third grade can return to school: if COVID-19 is not actively spreading in the school community, if the case rate in the county is less than 30 cases per 100,000 in the population for seven days, if test positivity in the county is less than 5% for seven days, and if schools comply with the Ready School Safe Learner Guidance.

But for grades 4 through 12, Wetherell said they will have to

start the new school year with distance learning or the online education models schools developed when the pandemic hit in the spring. “… (There would be) limited instruction availability on-site for specific classes and courses,” Wetherell said. “At this point, the guidance is saying the majority of Oregon students will not go back on site even in a hybrid methodology.”

Wetherell said in the next few days, school districts will assess what these metrics mean and the impacts they have to students and families.

“Obviously it is shocking and upsetting in some ways because we were working hard to get

Finding the perfect blueberries

Amy Moss Strong, The World

Blueberry pickers at Valentine Blueberries on Sydnam Lane, 12 miles south of Bandon off U.S. Highway 101.

Valentine Blueberries nears end of the season The World The bushes at Valentine Blueberries are still loaded with berries, as are the other blueber-

ry farms are in the South Coast area.

However, this is the last weekend to get the berries at Valentine’s. The U-pick farm will

be open through Sunday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., located at 86997 Sydnam Lane, 12 miles south of Bandon off U.S. Highway 101, 541-253-1104.

Look for a story on local U-pick farms where berries are available on the South Coast in Saturday’s edition of The World.

History museum reopens to visitors Saturday The World COOS BAY — The Coos History Museum will reopen to the public beginning Saturday, Aug. 2, with restrictions in place.

All guests will be required to pre-register for their appointment and wear face coverings upon entry into the museum.

The decision to reopen the museum was made after weeks of planning by Coos History Museum Executive Director Marcia Hart and staff to assure the safety and health of the employees, volunteers and visitors.

Following Saturday’s reopening, Hart said the museum’s exhibits will be open for tour appointments Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Due to the limited number of tours each day and social distancing requirements, the public is encouraged to schedule their visit online at https://cooshistory. org/visitor-appointments or by calling the museum at 541-7566320. The museum store also will reopen, with no appointment necessary.

Each self-guided appointment allows one hour for visitors to view the museum’s exhibit hall, mezzanine level and a temporary

John Gunther, The World

Coos History Museum will reopen to visitors Saturday, though visitors must pre-register for a time to come see the exhibits. exhibit in the Sprague Gallery, “Expanding Perspective on the Universe: 30 years of the Hubble Space Telescope.”

The Hubble Telescope exhibit is curated by Krystal Hopper and Dr. Aaron Coyner of the Physics and Engineering Department at Southwestern Oregon Community College. Student pieces are

wide-ranging from traditional paintings and posters to digital media, augmented reality, and interactive pieces.

The museum reopening is made possible by funding from Oregon Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and as part of the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and

Economic Security Act) of 2020.

The Coos Historical Society was established in 1981 and is the second-oldest historical society in the state. It is an Oregon 501c3 not for profit organization.

For more information about the society and Coos History Museum, visit cooshistory.org or email info@cooshistory.org.

students back on-site because students need to be with their teachers,” Wetherell said. “On the other side, the safety is so important and we have to have really good reasoning as to why we bring students back and when it’s safe to bring students back.

Switching gears is going to be emotional, but understand that we’re looking toward ensuring staff and students are as safe as possible.

“There are still a lot of questions that haven’t been answered, so we will work through the metrics and how they apply,” she concluded.

Read Saturday’s follow-up for how local districts are reacting to the announcement.

Portland: Agents leave, tensions remain

PORTLAND (AP) — The Trump administration and Oregon leaders declared victory after it was announced that U.S. agents guarding a federal courthouse during violent demonstrations in Portland will pull back, but it wasn’t clear the agreement will reduce tensions that have led to more than two months of protests.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday that agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin leaving the city’s downtown area on Thursday.

But Acting Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf wouldn’t specify where they would go.

He insisted a federal presence would remain in Portland until the Trump administration is convinced the agreement is working and Oregon State Police troopers are effectively protecting federal property.

Hours after the deal was announced, protesters and federal agents faced off again Wednesday night on downtown streets near the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, the Oregonian newspaper reported.

Thousands of demonstrators turned out, drawing dozens of agents in Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection uniforms from the courthouse. Clashes that dragged into Thursday morning brought tear gas, impact munitions and more arrests.

Many of the demonstrators are peaceful, but smaller numbers of hardcore activists hurl fireworks, flares, rocks and ball bearings at federal agents, use green lasers to blind them and spread graffiti on the federal courthouse.

President Donald Trump earlier this month sent the agents to Portland as protests against racial injustice increasingly targeted U.S. government property, including the stately Portland courthouse. But the deployment appeared to have the opposite effect, reinvigorating demonstrators who crafted a new goal of getting rid of the federal presence.

The deescalation plan calls for the U.S. Marshals Service and Federal Protective Service agents to remain inside a fence set up around the federal courthouse, along with some state police, to keep protesters out.

State police will also be outside the fence to keep protesters back.

Please see Portland, Page A2

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Another eight die in Oregon from COVID-19 The World

Contributed Photo from ODOT

Traffic was halted for more than two hours in both directions on Highway 38 earlier Wednesday after a tree fell onto the road and a powerline, igniting a grass fire nearby. Note the helicopter with a bucket fighting the fire.

Grass fire closes Highway 38 Wednesday The World DRAIN — Oregon Highway 38 (Umpqua Highway) was closed for more than two hours Wednesday after a tree fell

Portland From A1

After the deal was reached, Wolf told reporters the federal “law enforcement presence in Portland will remain in Portland, whether they’re staying inside the courthouse, next door or a different location.”

Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton said his agency would deploy a special operations team and some uniformed troopers to the courthouse for a two-week rotation.

The agency hopes its efforts will allow a tall protective metal courthouse fence that was recently propped up with concrete highway barriers to be removed and “restore a semblance of normalcy, while meeting community expectations and our obligations to protect the federal property,” Hampton said. He added that the troopers dispatched to the site are Oregon residents.

At a stand providing free food for protesters in a park across the street from the courthouse, Tyler Smith flipped burgers Wednesday afternoon and said he thought the deal to pull back the U.S. agents was a “great idea.”

“I’ve been thinking this needs to be handled by the state or by the city for some time,” Smith said. State troopers might take a softer approach with the protesters because the troopers are from Oregon, Smith said.

into power lines sparking a grass fire.

The road was back open to one lane of traffic with flaggers by late Wednesday afternoon.

In addition to hitting the

power lines, the tree fell onto the road near milepost 44, about seven miles west of Drain.

Emergency crews responding to fight the blaze included the Douglas

Forest Protective Association, Elkton and North Douglas Fire District.

Douglas Electric Cooperative also responded to the scene. There was no detour available.

The agreement also calls for the U.S. government to clean the graffiti off of the courthouse, which is federal property. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has said federal officials previously refused to clean the courthouse, contributing to the impression that the entire city was under siege.

Trump declared victory shortly after the announcement, tweeting that federal agents prevented Portland from being “burned and beaten to the ground.”

The conflicts between protesters and the federal agents have been limited to roughly two square blocks around the courthouse and have not affected the rest of the city, which has been much more subdued amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Wheeler, meanwhile, also claimed a win in a Twitter post.

“The federal occupation of our community has brought a new kind of fear to our streets.

Federal agents nearly killed a demonstrator, and their presence has led to increased violence and vandalism in our downtown core,” he said.

Like many other protests nationwide touched off by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Portland demonstrations sought to highlight and call for an end to racial injustice. But they had increasingly focused on federal property even before the U.S. agents arrived.

Brown cautioned Wednesday that the lower

visibility of the federal agents — and their ultimate departure — won’t immediately resolve the conflict at the courthouse.

“The violence, the property destruction, which includes burning of trash cans and throwing of rocks, that must stop,” the governor told The Associated Press.

Many protesters want reduced funding for the Portland Police Bureau and are angry that city officers used tear gas on protesters multiple times before federal agents arrived. Brown said the departure of the federal agents was a chance to address that anger and to begin to make improvements in community policing.

“This was a political theater for the Trump administration to bring federal troops into Portland streets. It was about winning political points with their base,” she said.

Crist said he couldn’t comment on individual cases, but he noted the court looks at each defendant individually and doesn’t have “blanket conditions” that are placed on everyone.

The protest bans, first reported by ProPublica, were imposed in at least a dozen cases — most of them involving misdemeanor charges of failing to obey a lawful order.

Defendants had to agree to the prohibitions in order to be released from jail while they await trial.

Some of the protest bans were hand-written in the court documents, others were typed out: “Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gatherings in the state of Oregon,” many of the release documents read.

Several experts have raised concerns that the bans violate the U.S. Constitution’s protections of free speech.

“I can’t believe that they think this is constitutional,” said Aaron Caplan, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

“It’s really broad and it’s hitting at something that is constitutionally protected.”

In at least some of the cases, the protest bans were added by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Acosta. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kevin Sonoff, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams, said his office didn’t ask for the bans.

Federal court will review ‘protest bans’ U.S. court officials in Oregon are reviewing bans on future protesting that were placed on some people arrested during protests in Portland after some raised concerns that the prohibitions violated the First Amendment.

“We’re reviewing every case again right now and looking at the wording of some of the conditions,” Brian Crist, chief pretrial services officer for the U.S. District Court in Portland, said Wednesday. “A lot of this I think will be resolved.”

PORTLAND — COVID-19 has claimed eight more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 311, the Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday.

Oregon Health Authority also reported 304 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, bringing the state total to 17,721. Nationally, the total went over 150,000 deaths Thursday.

The new confirmed cases are in the following counties: Benton (3), Clackamas (28), Clatsop (1), Crook (3), Deschutes (16), Douglas (2), Hood River (7), Jackson (13), Jefferson (5), Josephine (4), Klamath (2), Lane (13), Lincoln (2), Linn (1), Malheur (20), Marion (20), Morrow (5), Multnomah (82), Polk (4), Umatilla (4), Union (1), Wallowa (1), Wasco (3), Washington (51) and Yamhill (13).

Oregon’s 304th COVID-19 death is a 72-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on July 10 and died on July 23, in his residence. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 305th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on July 23 and died on July 27, in her residence. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 306th COVID-19 death is a 94-year-old woman in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 22 and died on July 28, in her residence. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 307th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 16 and died on July 27, in her residence. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 308th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Morrow County who tested positive on July 10 and died on July 21. Location of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

Oregon’s 309th COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on June 29 and died on July 25, at Providence Portland Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 310th COVID-19 death is a

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Expanded county-level data dashboard released OHA published a new, expanded version of Oregon’s “COVID-19 Testing and Outcomes by County” dashboard today.

The dashboard now includes additional information on weekly trends in the percent of COVID-19 tests that have been positive by county and weekly trends in the total number of persons tested for COVID-19 by county.

These trends help us understand changes in the burden of COVID-19 in communities across Oregon.

Weekly report shows daily increase and lower positivity for COVID-19 Today, OHA released its Weekly Report, which showed that during the week of July 20–26, 42,452 people were tested for COVID-19 in Oregon, and 5.1 percent of them had a positive result, down from 6.6 percent last week.

During that week, OHA recorded 2,241 new cases of COVID-19 infection, an increase from the previous week. In addition, 27 Oregonians were reported to have died, which is a slight increase from the previous week.

Large outbreaks have contributed a diminishing proportion of recent cases, and sporadic cases (those not linked to another case) have increased, consistent with community spread.

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Bleak economic data points to struggles for economy Second quarter economy shrank by staggering 32.9% WASHINGTON (AP) — A grim picture emerged Thursday of a U.S. economy that endured a record-shattering plunge last quarter and is now struggling to rebound as the coronavirus keeps forcing more layoffs.

The economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter, when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to nearly 15%.

The government’s estimate of the second-quarter fall in the gross domestic product was the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947. The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10% drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration.

Soon after the government issued the bleak economic data, President Donald Trump diverted attention by suggesting a “delay” in the Nov. 3 presidential election, based on his unsubstantiated allegations that widespread mail-in voting will result in fraud. The dates of presidential elections are enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change.

So steep was the economic fall last quarter that most analysts expect the economy to produce a sharp bounce-back in the current July-September period. Yet with

the rate of confirmed coronavirus cases having surged in a majority of states, more businesses being forced to pull back on re-openings and the Republican Senate proposing to scale back government aid to the unemployed, the economy could worsen in the months ahead.

In a sign of how weakened the job market remains, more than 1.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week. It was the 19th straight week that more than 1 million people have applied for jobless aid. Before the coronavirus erupted in March, the number of Americans seeking unemployment checks had never exceeded 700,000 in any one week, even during the Great Recession.

An additional 830,000 million people applied for unemployment benefits under a new program that extends eligibility for the first time to self-employed and gig workers. All told, the government says roughly 30 million people are receiving some form of jobless aid, though that figure might be inflated by double-counting by some states.

The pain could soon intensify: A supplemental $600 in weekly federal unemployment benefits is expiring, and Congress is squabbling about extending the aid, which will probably be done at some reduced level of payment.

Last quarter’s economic drop followed a 5% fall in the January-March quarter, during which the economy officially entered a recession triggered by the virus,

ending an 11-year economic expansion, the longest on record in the United States.

The grim economic news deepened losses on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 400 points in late-morning trading.

The economic harm from the virus is extending well beyond the United States. On Thursday, Germany reported that its GDP tumbled 10.1% last quarter. It was the biggest such drop on records dating to 1970. And Mexico’s GDP sank 17.3% last quarter, also a record.

The U.S. contraction was driven by a deep pullback in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of economic activity.

Spending by consumers collapsed at a 34.6% annual rate as travel all but froze and shutdown orders forced many restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and other retail establishments to close.

The plunge in GDP “underscores the unprecedented hit to the economy from the pandemic,” said Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. “We expect it will take years for that damage to be fully recovered.”

A resurgence of viral cases in the South and the West has forced many bars, restaurants, beauty salons and other businesses to close again or reduce occupancy. Between June 21 and July 19, for example, the proportion of Texas bars that were closed shot up from 25% to 73%. Likewise, 75% of Califor-

nia beauty shops were shuttered July 19, up from 40% just a week earlier, according to the data firm Womply.

And many states have imposed restrictions on visitors from states that have reported high level of virus cases, thereby hurting hotels, airlines and other industries that depend on travel.

Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said the job numbers were disheartening.

“A resurgence in virus cases has resulted in a pause or rollback of re-openings across states, and the pace of layoffs is likely to pick up just as expanded unemployment benefits are expiring,” Farooqi said. “The risk of temporary job losses becoming permanent is high from repeated closures of businesses. That could result in an even slower pace of recovery.”

The picture looks dim for many of the jobless. Since she was laid off by a tech industry nonprofit in mid-May, Miranda Meyerson has been trying to find another job and to sign up for unemployment benefits.

“It’s just incredibly frustrating and demoralizing,’’ she said.

Potential employers seem to be delaying hiring decisions.

“Nobody gets back to you,’’ said Meyerson, 38. “You feel like there’s only so long you can submit (applications) into a void.’’

Meyerson and her partner had moved from New York to Oakland, California, in March, just as the virus began to spread rapidly

across the United States. The move complicated her efforts, so far futile, to collect benefits from a swamped California unemployment benefits system.

“They’re obviously totally overwhelmed,” she said. “You can’t even get on the phone to talk to anybody.’’

Many economists note that the economy can’t fully recover until the pandemic is defeated — a point stressed Wednesday at a news conference by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed chairman warned that the viral epidemic has been endangering a modest economic recovery and that as a result, the Fed plans to keep interest rates pinned near zero well into the future.

“A poorly managed health situation and depressed incomes means the economy risks a double-dip recession without urgent fiscal aid,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

“Fiscal aid is a must pass,” Daco said. “Without further fiscal assistance, many households across the country are going to be left without much of an income stream and will react by severely cutting back on spending.”

Daco said the expiration of the $600 in federal unemployment aid means that many households could suffer a loss of income in the range of 50% to 75%.

“The economy,” Daco said, “is going to be running on very little fuel at a point when the recovery has really stalled.”

Another $1.4 million people seek jobless benefits WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, further evidence of the devastation the coronavirus outbreak has unleashed on the U.S. economy.

The continuing wave of job cuts is occurring against the backdrop of a spike in virus cases that has led many states to halt plans to reopen businesses and has caused millions of consumers to delay any return to traveling, shopping and other normal economic activity. Those trends have forced many businesses to cut jobs or at least delay hiring.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday marked the 19th straight week that more than 1 million people have applied for unemployment benefits.

Before the coronavirus hit hard in March, the number of Americans seeking unemployment checks had never exceeded 700,000 in any one week, even during the Great Recession.

The number of new applicants was up by 12,000 from the week before, the second straight increase.

New claims had dropped for 15 straight weeks, from mid-April through early July, as states began to reopen their economies, a move that is now stalling.

All told, 17 million people are collecting traditional jobless benefits, a sign that unemployment checks are keeping many American families afloat financially at a time of big job losses and agonizing economic uncertainty.

The pain could soon intensify: An supplemental

$600 in weekly federal unemployment benefits is expiring, and Congress is squabbling about extending the aid, which would probably be done at a reduced level.

A resurgence of cases in the South and the West has forced many many bars, restaurants, beauty salons and other businesses to close again or reduce occupancy. Between June 21 and July 19, for example, the percentage of Texas bars that were closed shot up from 25% to 73%; likewise, 75% of California beauty shops were shuttered July 19, up from 40% just a week earlier; according to the data firm Womply.

And many states have imposed restrictions on visitors from states that have reported high level of virus cases, thereby hurting

Senator, union leader say Postal Service considers downsizing Some offices across country may close CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing post offices across the country, sparking concerns ahead of an anticipated surge of mail-in ballots in the 2020 elections, U.S. Sen Joe Manchin and a union leader said Wednesday.

Manchin said he has received numerous reports from post offices and colleagues about service cuts or looming closures in West Virginia and elsewhere, prompting him to send a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy asking for an explanation.

The possible cutbacks come as DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump who took control of the agency last month, moves to eliminate overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers, potentially causing a delay in mail deliveries. A recent document from the Postal Service, obtained

by The Associated Press, described the need for an “operational pivot” to make the cash-strapped agency financially stable.

“It’s just asinine to think that you can shut

something down or throttle it back in terms of the pandemic when basically the lifeline for voting and democracy is going to be in the hands of the Postal Service,” Manchin, a Democrat, told reporters Wednesday.

He said at least two post offices in West Virginia had been scheduled to close next month but that the agency had “slowed” its plans.

A spokesman for the Postal Service referred questions to a prior statement from DeJoy, which said the agency “has experienced over a decade of financial losses, with no end in sight, and we face an impending liquidity crisis.” The statement goes on to say that “it is critical that the Postal Service take a fresh look at our operations and make necessary adjustments.”

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 postal workers and retirees, said there’s “definitely buzz” about closures although he said he was not aware of specific details. A spokesman for the union said rankand-file postal employees have been told by managers that their offices are being targeted for potential

cutbacks.

“The logical conclusion is that he’s going to try to close some post offices,” Dimondstein said of the postmaster general’s belt-tightening strategies.

The coronavirus pandemic has created further strain on Postal Service finances. The service reported a $4.5 billion loss for the quarter ending in March, before the full effects of the shutdown sank in.

Manchin’s letter noted that the coronavirus relief package passed

by Congress in March included authorization for the agency to borrow up to $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury. The money was intended to help the Postal Service maintain essential services during the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, not only has little to none of that funding been utilized, you are now proposing the very cuts that we sought to avoid with that emergency line of credit,” Manchin said in his letter.

Later Wednesday, Treasury announced it had reached agreement with the Postal Service on the terms of any future borrowing but also said the service was able to fund its operations at this time without using a loan.

hotels, airlines and other industries that depend on travel.

Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said the jobs numbers were disheartening.

“A resurgence in virus cases has resulted in a pause or rollback of reopenings across states and the pace of layoffs is likely to pick up just as expanded unemployment benefits are expiring,” Farooqi said.

“The risk of temporary job

losses becoming permanent is high from repeated closures of businesses.

That could result in an even slower pace of recovery.’’

The virus and the lockdowns meant to contain it have hammered the American economy: Employers slashed a record 20.8 million jobs in April, restoring about 7.5 million of them in May and June as many states began to reopen their economies.

Last week, an additional

830,000 million people applied for jobless aid under a new program that extends eligibility for the first time to self-employed and gig workers. That figure isn’t adjusted for seasonal trends, so it’s reported separately.

Altogether, the Labor Department said that 30.2 million people are receiving some form of unemployment benefits, though the figure may be inflated by double-counting by states.

DEAR ABBYBy Abigail Van Buren Presence of new girlfriend causes added pain for ex DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend of two years, “Kevin,” recently broke up with me. We’ve had problems in the past about me lying to him or withholding information. I didn’t lie because I’m an awful person. I lied because he had high expectations of me, and I didn’t want to be a disappointment. He is truly the first person I have loved unconditionally since the breakup with my child’s father five years ago.

Kevin and I are still friends -- sometimes with benefits -- but he has moved on to another woman. I’m heartbroken, and it has taken a toll on me. When I visited him the other day, I realized that she has practically moved in! She has her toiletries over there just like I did at one point.

I really want my boyfriend back! Kevin and I had talked about a life together, buying a house, taking trips, even getting married, the whole nine yards. But I’m worried this new woman will get the life with the man I love that I had been longing for for so long. What advice, if any, can you offer me? -- LEFT BEHIND IN ALABAMA DEAR LEFT BEHIND: I’m sorry to be the carrier of bad news, but it appears your ex-boyfriend is enjoying the benefits of being with two women, and you are getting your heart broken. It is time for you to move on because a new “chick” has all but moved into the nest you shared with Kevin.

One has to wonder if she is aware that he has a FWB in addition to her. (I am betting the answer is no.) And by the way, I have to wonder what kind of a man behaves the way you have described because he is not treating you or this new woman honestly.

In your next relationship, I hope you will realize that you are good enough just as you ARE, and there is no reason you must live up to anyone else’s expectations. That was your mistake this time around.

DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend of 10 years (we own a house together) has just

announced he feels he should move closer to his ailing mother. She lives about 250 miles away, a four-hour drive. Is this a thing? Do people do this? He did not ask me to move with him.

We live less than a mile from my own elderly mother, and I do dote on her. He knows I wouldn’t leave her. If he goes through with this, I’ll be heartbroken.

We have no mortgage. I can afford to stay in our house and -- then what?

Wait for him? Wait for his mother to die?

I could visit him once in a while, but my job, my mom and our cats are here.

There’s also my yard work. Do you think this could be his oddball way of breaking things off? -- MISERABLE OVER THIS IN MICHIGAN DEAR MISERABLE: This could be your boyfriend’s attempt to end your relationship -- or not. He may not have invited you to move with him because he understands how many obligations you have between your mother, your job, your pets and the upkeep of your home.

It’s time to ask him -- calmly -- how he views the implications of this move.

Does he see it the same way you do? If his mom’s health improves, it could be years before he returns, if ever. Because you have invested a decade of your life with him, you deserve some straight answers, and the best way to get them is to remain calm and be direct.

------------------------------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.

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Trump suggests election should be delayed President again cites concerns over fraud in mail-in voting WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is for the first time publicly floating a “delay” to the Nov. 3 presidential election, as he makes unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.

The date of the presidential election — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year — is enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change, including agreement from the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay in the end of Trump’s term — noon on Jan. 20, 2021.

Still, the mere suggestion of the delay was extraordinary in a nation that has held itself up as a beacon to the world for its history of peaceful transfer of power, including during the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II. Trump tweeted Thursday: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embar-

rassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

Trump’s tweet came on a day of bad economic news and amid a dark political patch for his reelection effort, both driven in part by a nationwide resurgence in coronavirus cases.

The government reported Thursday just minutes before Trump’s tweet that U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter, by far the worst quarterly plunge ever, as the coronavirus outbreak shut down businesses, threw tens of millions out of work and sent unemployment surging to 14.7%.

And Trump trails in the polls, nationally and across battleground states, and some surveys even suggest traditionally Republican-leaning states could be in play. While Trump has come back before after trailing consistently in the polls throughout 2016, it’s raised the possibility that he could face a landslide loss if he doesn’t turn things around.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting, even in states with all-mail votes. Five states already rely exclusively on mailin ballots, and they say they have necessary safeguards in place to ensure that a hostile foreign actor doesn’t disrupt the vote.

Election security experts say that all forms of voter fraud are rare, including absentee balloting.

One Republican governor, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, quickly shot down Trump’s idea: “Make no mistake: the election will happen in New Hampshire on November 3rd.

End of story. Our voting system in NH is secure, safe, and reliable. We have done it right 100% of the time for 100 years – this year will be no different.”

Hogan Gidley, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, pointed to the delays in counting votes in New York’s primary.

“The President is just raising a question about the chaos Democrats have created with their insistence on all mail-in voting.

They are using coronavirus as their means to try to institute universal mail-in voting, which means sending every registered voter a ballot whether they asked for one or not. “ Trump has increasingly sought to cast doubt on November’s election and the expected surge in mail-in and absentee voting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. And Trump has called remote voting options the “biggest risk” to his reelection. His campaign and the Republican Party have sued to combat the practice, which was once a sig-

nificant advantage for the GOP. Trump refused in an interview just weeks ago with Fox News to commit to accept the results of the upcoming White House election, recalling a similar threat he made weeks before the 2016 vote.

“I have to see. Look ... I have to see,” Trump told moderator Chris Wallace during a wide-ranging interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “No, I’m not going to just say ‘yes.’ I’m not going to say ‘no,’ and I didn’t last time, either.”

Trump and many members of his administration have previously availed themselves of absentee voting, but Trump has sought to differentiate that from a growing push by states to mail all registered voters either ballots or absentee request forms.

Voters and public health officials have expressed concerns about the potential dangers for spreading the virus during in-person voting, and states have reported difficulty filling poll worker positions given the pandemic.

Trump’s stated concern for poll safety defies his otherwise aggressive push to “reopen” the nation from partial shutdowns meant to slow the spread of the virus, even as rising confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths

House orders broad mask mandates after Texas Rep. Gohmert gets virus WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Capitol officials issued broad new mask requirements Wednesday after a Republican member of Congress tested positive for the coronavirus. The member, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, often shunned wearing masks and was known to vote without one.

Pelosi announced Wednesday evening that all members will be required to wear a mask when voting on the House floor and that one will be provided if anyone forgets. Several hours later, the House sergeant-atarms and the Capitol’s top physician issued an order requiring masks inside House office buildings, with few exceptions. That mandate goes into effect at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Pelosi said failure to wear a mask on the House floor is a “serious breach of decorum” for which members could be removed from the chamber.

Members will be able to temporarily remove them while speaking, however.

In the House office buildings, people can remove

them to eat, drink and give interviews, among a few other specific situations.

“It’s a sign of respect for the health, safety and well-being of others present in the chamber and in surrounding areas,” Pelosi said.

Gohmert tested positive just before he was scheduled to travel to his home state with President Donald Trump. He was forced to cancel his plans and was immediately criticized by colleagues for not always wearing a mask. “A selfish act,” one lawmaker said.

The 66-year-old Gohmert, one of the House’s most conservative and outspoken members, told a Texas news station that he tested positive before boarding Air Force One and planned to self-quarantine. He is at least the 10th member of Congress known to have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Gohmert’s positive test raised further questions about the lack of mask and testing requirements in the Capitol as members frequently fly back-and-forth from their hometowns and gather for votes, hearings

and news conferences.

Several GOP senators said they were pushing for more regular testing in the Capitol, as there is currently no testing program or requirements.

“I think particularly for members of Congress who are going back-and-forth, they represent sort of the perfect petri dish for how you spread a disease,” said GOP Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, chair of the Senate Rules Committee. “You send 535 people out to 535 different locations, on about 1,000 different airplanes, and bring them back and see what happens.”

An eight-term lawmaker, Gohmert participated in the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday where Attorney General William Barr testified. Before the hearing, Gohmert was seen approaching the meeting room behind Barr, and neither man was wearing a mask.

Gohmert also voted on the House floor Tuesday and attended a House Natural Resources Committee hearing, where a staff member sat close

behind him on the dais as he talked without a mask.

The chair of that committee, Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, said he would self-quarantine.

“In the meantime, my work schedule and the lives of my employees are disrupted,” Grijalva said. “This stems from a selfish act by Mr. Gohmert, who is just one member of Congress.”

When Gohmert flew to Washington on Sunday, he sat next to Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, who also went into quarantine after learning of her colleague’s test results. A third lawmaker, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, said he was advised to quarantine after having dinner with Gohmert on Monday.

Mask wearing had been strongly encouraged but not enforced for lawmakers in the Capitol, while other workers and law enforcement officers were required to wear masks. Committees had rules requiring face coverings in hearing rooms, but until now, they hadn’t been required in hallways or personal offices.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional lawmakers finally got a chance to grill the CEOs of Big Tech over their dominance and allegations of monopolistic practices that stifle competition.

But it’s unclear how much they advanced their goal of bringing some of the world’s largest companies to heel.

Invective flew Wednesday as legislators questioned Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook at a hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. For the last year, that panel has probed the business practices of the Silicon Valley giants with an eye to determining if they need to be regulated more heavily or even broken up.

In nearly five hours of testimony and questioning, however, there were few startling revelations or striking confrontations.

While the executives faced hostile questioning and frequent interruptions from lawmakers of both parties, little seemed to land more than glancing blows.

The CEOs testified via video to lawmakers, at times appearing together on the committee room display

as tiny individual figures in a mostly empty array of squares. Most committee members were seated, masks on, in the hearing room in Washington.

The execs provided lots of data purporting to show how much competition they face and how valuable their innovation and essential services are to consumers. But they sometimes struggled to answer pointed questions about their business practices. They also confronted a range of other concerns about alleged political bias, their effect on U.S. democracy and their role in China.

The panel’s chairman, Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, said each platform controlled by Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple “is a bottleneck for a key channel of distribution.”

“Whether they control access to information or to a marketplace, these platforms have the incentive and ability to exploit this power,” he said. “They can charge exorbitant fees, impose oppressive contracts, and extract valuable data from the people and businesses that rely on them.”

“Simply put: They have too much power.”

The four CEOs command corporations whose products are woven into the fabric of everyday life, with millions or even billions of customers, and a combined market value greater than the entire German economy. One of them, Bezos, is the world’s richest individual; Zuckerberg is the fourth-ranked billionaire.

And they had a few rough moments. Pichai and Zuckerberg appeared discomfited when pressed about unsavory aspects of their companies’ businesses but got respites when their inquisitors ran out of time. Bezos also acknowledged that alleged misdeeds at Amazon — such as reports that the company has used data generated by independent sellers on its platform to compete against them — would be “unacceptable” if proved to be true.

Outside observers were able to draw radically different conclusions from the event. Richard Hamilton Jr., a former Justice Department antitrust lawyer, said that everyone on the committee seemed to be in agreement on the need for tougher regulation of all four companies — an “ominous” sign, he said. But Stephen Beck, CEO of the management consulting firm cg42,

said the tech companies and their brands emerged relatively unscathed.

In particular, he said, Cook was particularly polished and well prepared, enabling the Apple CEO to put on what Beck called “a master class in terms of how to handle these situations.”

Cook drew less attention from lawmakers than did the other CEOs after arguing that Apple isn’t dominant in any of its markets.

Among the toughest questions for Google and Amazon involved accusations that they used their dominant platforms to scoop up data about competitors in a way that gave them an unfair advantage.

Bezos, who was appearing before Congress for the first time, said he couldn’t guarantee that the company had not accessed seller data to make competing products, an allegation that the company and its executives have previously denied.

“We have a policy against using seller specific data to aid our private label business,” Bezos said in a response to a question from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat.

“But I can’t guarantee to you that that policy hasn’t been violated.”

Lawmakers grill CEOs of big tech companies

have pushed the U.S. to the top of the list for the world outbreak.

“He has absolutely no power to do this,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU’s Law School. “And Congress is not going to vote to change the statute that has governed for decades and decades when and how we hold elections.

This is just sowing chaos.”

Last month, Trump told supporters in Arizona that “This will be, in my opinion, the most corrupt election in the history of our country.”

There appears to be next-tono appetite in the Capitol for a change to the Nov. 3 election.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi replied to Trump’s tweet by tweeting a quote from the Constitution assigning Congress the power to set the timing of elections.

Democrats have pushed to include billions of dollars in the next coronavirus relief bill to fund election security and accessibility improvements for this year’s vote, but Trump and Republicans have so far resisted those efforts.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not respond to questions about Trump’s tweet on the way to the Senate floor Thursday morning.

NASA launches Mars rover to look for signs of ancient life CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built — a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers — blasted off for the red planet Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life.

NASA’s Perseverance rode a mighty Atlas V rocket into a clear morning sky in the world’s third and final Mars launch of the summer.

China and the United Arab Emirates got a head start last week, but all three missions should reach their destination in February after a journey of seven months and 300 million miles (480 million kilometers).

The plutonium-powered, six-wheeled rover will drill down and collect tiny geological specimens that will be brought home in about 2031 in a sort of interplanetary relay race involving multiple spacecraft and countries.

The overall cost: more than $8 billion.

NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, pronounced the launch the start of “humanity’s first round trip to another planet.”

“Oh, I loved it, punching a hole in the sky, right? Getting off the cosmic shore of our Earth, wading out there in the cosmic ocean,” he said.

“Every time, it gets me.”

In addition to addressing the life-on-Mars question, the mission will yield lessons that could pave the way for the arrival of astronauts as early as the 2030s.

“There’s a reason we call the robot Perseverance. Because going to Mars is hard,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said just before liftoff. “In this case, it’s harder than ever before because we’re doing it in the midst of a pandemic.”

The U.S., the only country to safely put a spacecraft on Mars, is seeking its ninth successful landing on the planet, which has proved to be the Bermuda Tri-

angle of space exploration, with more than half of the world’s missions there burning up, crashing or otherwise ending in failure.

China is sending both a rover an orbiter. The UAE, a newcomer to outer space, has an orbiter en route.

It’s the biggest stampede to Mars in spacefaring history. The opportunity to fly between Earth and Mars comes around only once every 26 months when the planets are on the same side of the sun and about as close as they can get.

Launch controllers wore masks and sat spaced apart at the Cape Canaveral control center because of the coronavirus outbreak, which kept hundreds of scientists and other team members away from Perseverance’s liftoff.

About an hour into the flight, controllers applauded, pumped their fists and exchanged air hugs and pantomimed high-fives when the rocket flawlessly broke out of orbit around the Earth and began hurtling toward Mars.

“We have left the building. We are on our way to Mars,” Perseverance’s chief engineer, Adam Steltzner, said from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“That was overwhelming. Overall, just ‘Wow!’” said Alex Mather, the 13-yearold Virginia schoolboy who proposed the name Perseverance in a NASA competition and watched the launch in person with his parents.

The launch went off on time at 7:50 a.m. despite a 4.2-magnitude earthquake 20 minutes before liftoff that shook the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

If all goes well, the rover will descend to the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021, in what NASA calls seven minutes of terror, in which the craft goes from 12,000 mph to a complete stop, with no human intervention whatsoever. It is carrying 25 cameras and a pair of microphones that will enable Earthlings to vicariously tag along.

Notre Dame joins ACC for football season Associated Press The Atlantic Coast Conference reworked its football schedule Wednesday to allow each team to play 11 games and to incorporate Notre Dame, which is giving up its cherished independence in a year turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic.

The ACC’s university presidents approved plans for a schedule with 10 conference games and one nonconference, and for pushing back both the first week of the season (from Labor Day weekend to the weekend of Sept.

12) and the league championship game (from Dec. 5 to either Dec. 12 or 19).

Miami athletic director Blake

James called the schedule “aspirational” as concerns about COVID-19 have put major college football in the fall in peril.

For now, though, conferences are working on plans to play what would be a most unusual season.

The ACC will eliminate its traditional divisional format this season and the two teams with the best winning percentages in conference play will meet in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the league championship game.

Maybe a Clemson-Notre Dame rematch? The league will release specific dates and broadcast plans later.

Notre Dame, which competes in the ACC in all sports except football and hockey, will play in

a football conference for the first time in the 133-year history of the proudly independent program — if the season is played. The biggest conferences are taking steps to try to mitigate potential disruptions and salvage a sport worth billions in broadcast rights deals.

“We recognize that we may need to be nimble and make adjustments in the future,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement.

Notre Dame already had a scheduling agreement with the ACC that puts five or six games with the league on the Fighting Irish schedule every year. They had six this season: Clemson, Duke, Wake Forest,

Georgia Tech, Louisville and Pitt. Added to that will be home games against Florida State and Syracuse and road games against North Carolina and Boston College. There will be no renewal of the Notre Dame-Miami rivalry.

The ACC and Notre Dame also agreed to equally share TV revenue — including the Fighting Irish’s deal with NBC — among the 15 schools.

It is a one-year deal for the Fighting Irish and James said he didn’t expect it to go beyond that.

“I don’t know (if) this could lead to Notre Dame being a full member in football,” James said on a conference call with reporters. “Would I like to see Notre

Sunset Bay Golf Course marks 50 years with three new holes

Dame as a member of the ACC on a full-time basis? Yeah, I think that’d be great. They’re a great football program. A great institution that fits well with the ACC, but recognize they need to do what’s best for Notre Dame. This year what was best is for them to join the ACC and we’re glad to have them as part of the league.”

Notre Dame had already lost three games against Big Ten and Pac-12 opponents when those conferences decided to play only league games. The Big 12 and Southeastern Conference have not announced any changes to their football schedules, but are expected to in the coming days.

Please see ACC, Page B2

U.S. Open at Winged Foot won’t have fans DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

John Gunther, The World

The new 10th hole at Sunset Bay Golf Course is a par-3 that plays back toward the forest, here pictured on a sunny Thursday afternoon. The course near Sunset Bay State Park opened 50 years ago Saturday and has three new holes that all follow the same themes of the original nine-hole layout set in a peaceful valley. Read more about the course and the family that runs it in Saturday’s edition of The World.

Hitters are off to slow start in new season

NEW YORK (AP) — Twotime defending NL batting champion Christian Yelich has a long way to go if he wants a three-peat. The Milwaukee Brewers star is 1 for 28 to start the season, an .037 average that’s worst among qualified hitters.

Not by much. Houston’s George Springer is batting .048, and teammates Jose Altuve — another two-time batting champ — and Alex Bregman aren’t much better at .174.

It’s not just those big names.

Coming off a condensed preseason camp for a 60-game season truncated by the coronavirus pandemic, hitters are stumbling out of the batter’s box.

“At this point, just like you see in spring training, the pitchers are a little bit more ahead of the hitters,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said Wednesday.

The league-wide batting average after Wednesday’s games is .229, down from .252 last season even though the National League adopted the designated hitter for this season. The all-time low for batting average is .237, set in 1968, “the year of the pitcher.”

Strikeouts are up for the 15th straight season — 24% compared to 22.4% in 2019, if you exclude pitchers from last year’s tally.

Meanwhile, the home run rate is down a year after extra-slick baseballs helped produce a record 6,776 big flies.

It’s no sample size fluke, either. Batters have taken over

Doubleheaders might be cut to seven innings this season NEW YORK (AP) — Ernie Banks famously said: “Let’s play two.”

Baseball players just might not want to play nine innings twice in one day during this pandemic-delayed season.

While Cleveland swept the Chicago White Sox in the first doubleheader of the season on Tuesday, union head Tony Clark called Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem and said players might want to consider shortened twinbills this year.

The players’ association is surveying members and may propose either two seven-inning games for a twinbill or nine innings for the opener and seven for the nightcap.

Major League Baseball is checking opinions at the owner and general manager levels, and staff hopes for a decision by Saturday to make a change or leave the rules the way the are.

Philadelphia and Toronto are 6,000 plate appearances.

And although hitters often start slowly in March and April, this collective slump is far worse than anything seen in recent years.

The reigning World Series champion Nationals have been

scheduled for a doubleheader on Saturday as the Phillies resume play following a five-day layoff. The time off was caused by waiting to make no players or staff were infected during games against the Miami Marlins last weekend.

Phillies general Matt Klentak said seven-inning games are possible for the twinbill.

“I like nine and nine, personally,” Yankees reliever Adam Ottavino said Wednesday. “I don’t want to be marginalized out of the game, Once we go seven-inning games, slippery slope there.”

Official Baseball Rules allow minor leagues to adopt a rule providing one or both games of a doubleheader be seven innings. NCAA rules allow the options of two nine-inning games, a seven and a nine or two sevens.

The union’s survey was first reported by The Athletic. among the clubs struggling most.

The team has scored two or fewer runs in four of six games to start the season, and the Nationals were shut out through nine innings in one of the others before breaking out in extra innings.

The absence of Juan Soto, a

star slugger sidelined since opening day by COVID-19, is part of the problem. But Martinez thinks the three-week summer camp is a bigger one. Not only was the preseason schedule half the length of a usual spring training, but clubs could only set up a few exhibition games to get ready for opening day.

“You can simulate all the games you want, but when the season starts, everything amps up,” Martinez said. “Guys are throwing a little harder. So these guys have just got to catch up and their timing’s got to catch up.”

The St. Louis Cardinals entered Thursday with only one hitter batting better than .250 — slugger Paul Goldschmidt, at .316.

Manager Mike Schildt also believes abbreviated preseason camps are a culprit, but not the only ones. Many indicators of the offensive struggles, including a rise in strikeouts and drop in batting average, are continuations of trends already underway.

“There’s multiple factors why pitching has been able to stay ahead of the curve, so to speak, over the last several years, with a lot of different reasons,” the reigning NL manager of the year said. “Clearly the shifts.

A lot better clarity on how to pitch guys, the matchups, and, of course now, we have deeper bullpens that create more opportunities for different looks for hitters.”

Now it comes down to the Masters to determine if any of golf’s majors will have fans this year.

A week before the PGA Championship begins without spectators, the U.S. Open announced Wednesday it would not have fans Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot in New York because of health and safety concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will miss the excitement of the fans and what their presence brings to the championship,” said Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA. This already was shaping up to be a different U.S. Open.

It has been scheduled to end on Father’s Day every year since 1975, and that was disrupted by the pandemic. The U.S. Open moved from June 18-21 to the third week in September as the golf schedule was entirely reconfigured to account for a threemonth shutdown.

Then, the U.S. Open had to ditch its identity as the most “open” major championship because it was neither safe nor practical to hold 18-hole and 36-hole qualifiers. Instead, the USGA crafted an all-exempt list that tried to reflect the field it normally gets.

And now the course will be missing the noise, just like the rest of golf.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said even a U.S. Open without fans would be “a welcome sight for sports fans across the country and will help restore a sense of normalcy as we build back better than before.”

Fans will be watching on NBC, which assumed the TV rights from Fox in an agreement earlier this summer.

“This will not be a typical U.S. Open in several respects,” said John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director of championships. “Would it have been easier to simply cancel or even move the 2020 championship rather than play it in what has been the epicenter of the virus in our country? Possibly. But all of us at the USGA know how much the U.S. Open matters, and we weren’t willing to give up on playing it at Winged Foot Golf Club so easily.”

The British Open was canceled in April.

The Masters moved to Nov. 12-15, and Augusta National is still contemplating what it can accommodate at its private club.

With the event still more than three months away, no decisions have been reached as the club weighs various options.

Please see Golf, Page B2

FOUR-DAY FORECAST FOR NORTH BEND TONIGHT FRIDAY SATURDAY

Partly cloudy

Sun and areas of low clouds

LOW: 52° 67° LOCAL ALMANAC

55°

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

Sunset tonight Sunrise tomorrow Moonrise tomorrow Moonset tomorrow

New

Florence Reedsport

51/62

52/68

8:41 p.m.

6:06 a.m.

6:50 p.m.

2:56 a.m.

First

76/50 0.00 97/50 0.02 63/51 Trace 94/59 0.00 96/56 0.00 93/52 0.00 95/65 0.00 102/70 0.00 63/53 0.00 104/66 0.00 93/60 0.00 102/60 0.00 99/66 0.00 94/62 0.00 101/64 0.00

66/55/c 100/52/s 64/50/pc 83/54/s 86/53/pc 92/49/pc 101/58/s 98/62/pc 58/46/c 103/66/s 88/60/c 97/51/pc 88/59/pc 87/54/pc 96/67/pc

50°

64°

Curry Co. Coast Tonight Fri.

51°

62°

Bandon

11:15 a.m.

10:15 p.m.

Charleston 11:20 a.m.

10:20 p.m.

Coos Bay 12:46 p.m.

11:46 p.m.

Florence 12:04 p.m.

11:04 p.m.

Port Orford 11:09 a.m.

9:54 p.m.

Reedsport 12:12 p.m.

11:20 p.m.

Half Moon Bay 11:32 a.m.

10:25 p.m.

65°

98°

62/86

86°

-10s

Klamath Falls

49/92

65/98

Friday

ft.

Low

5.2 7.3 5.6 8.0 5.4 7.7 4.8 6.9 5.3 7.7 5.3 7.9 5.2 7.5

4:36 a.m.

4:15 p.m.

4:34 a.m.

4:13 p.m.

6:02 a.m.

5:41 p.m.

5:32 a.m.

5:11 p.m.

4:22 a.m.

3:50 p.m.

5:36 a.m.

5:11 p.m.

4:47 a.m.

4:21 p.m.

ft.

-0.8 2.8 -0.9 3.0 -0.7 2.6 -0.7 2.4 -0.9 3.2 -0.2 2.9 -0.8 2.9

64°

88°

High

12:07 p.m.

11:07 p.m.

12:12 p.m.

11:12 p.m.

1:38 p.m.

--12:56 p.m.

11:56 p.m.

11:59 a.m.

10:45 p.m.

1:05 p.m.

--12:24 p.m.

11:17 p.m.

North Coast Tonight Fri.

53°

67°

-0s

0s

Snow

10s

NATIONAL CITIES

62/92

Medford 63/95

Showers

Flurries

20s

30s

Ice

Cold Front

40s

50s

National high: 121° at Death Valley, CA

53/89

Ashland

Rain

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.

54°

T-storms

Beaver Marsh

Butte Falls

63/96

High

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

54/89

52/89

Gold Hill Grants Pass

55/91

Crescent

62/90

63/95

Rogue Valley Tonight Fri.

La Pine

Canyonville

Powers

Location

57/92

Toketee Falls

61/88

Port Orford

51/62

59/95

Sunriver

63/87

Coquille

52/63

Bend

Oakridge

Roseburg

50/70

59/94

54/87

56/86

TIDES

Fri.

South Coast Tonight Fri.

53°

Sisters

Springfield

Oakland

52/67

56/80

Yesterday

REGIONAL FORECASTS

67°

54/86

54/83

54/80

Coos Bay / North Bend

51/64

Hi/Lo Prec. Hi/Lo/W

Astoria Burns Brookings Corvallis Eugene Klamath Falls La Grande Medford Newport Pendleton Portland Redmond Roseburg Salem The Dalles

55°

Cottage Grove

Drain

Elkton

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020

City

54/86

Bandon

Aug 11 Aug 18 Aug 25

OREGON CITIES

68° 54/86

Gold Beach Aug 3

Low clouds may break

Eugene

0.00" 27.95" 41.56" 36.87"

SUN AND MOON

Mostly cloudy

Halsey

Yachats

68°/51° 65°/53° 75° in 2015 45° in 1963

PRECIPITATION

Last

68°

MONDAY

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

48/61

High/low Normal high/low Record high Record low

Full

Considerable cloudiness

55°

North Bend Wednesday

TEMPERATURE

NATIONAL FORECAST SUNDAY

Saturday ft.

Low

5.5 7.4 6.0 8.0 5.7 --5.1 6.9 5.6 7.8 5.6 --5.5 7.5

5:27 a.m.

5:12 p.m.

5:25 a.m.

5:10 p.m.

6:53 a.m.

6:38 p.m.

6:23 a.m.

6:08 p.m.

5:12 a.m.

4:48 p.m.

6:28 a.m.

6:08 p.m.

5:39 a.m.

5:20 p.m.

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Top-ranked Barty will skip U.S. Open McNamara, three other Australian deems tourney at New York too risky BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — No. 1-ranked Ash Barty is skipping the first tennis major since January after deciding it’s too risky to travel for the U.S. Open during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 24-year-old Australian is the highest-profile player so far to opt out of the Aug. 31-Sept. 13 Grand Slam tournament in New York because of the global health crisis.

“My team and I have decided that we won’t be travelling to the ... Western & Southern Open and the U.S. Open this year,” Barty said in a statement

ACC From B1

The ACC said nonconference games must be played in the ACC school’s home state — a move intended to save traditional rivalries such as Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida State-Florida, Clemson-South Carolina and Kentucky-Louisville.

“That’s something that was discussed throughout our process,” James said.

“And I’ll say it was something that was given very strong consideration in our move to go to 11 games with one being a nonconference game.”

Whether the SEC’s plans include nonconference

Golf From B1

Meanwhile, the PGA Championship starts Aug. 9 at Harding Park in San Francisco, the first major without fans. The PGA Tour returned June

emailed to The Associated Press on Thursday. “I love both events so this was a difficult decision, but there are still significant risks involved due to COVID-19 and I don’t feel comfortable putting my team and I in that position.

“I wish the USTA all the best for the tournaments and I look forward to being back in the U.S. next year.”

Barty is yet to decide if she’ll defend the French Open title she won last year for her breakthrough singles major. The claycourt Grand Slam event was postponed earlier in the year and rescheduled to start Sept. 27, after the U.S. Open.

Barty reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, the only major tennis tournament

completed this year.

Australia’s closed international borders would make it difficult for Barty to travel overseas during the pandemic. Technically, Barty would have to receive permission from the government to travel abroad, and flight options are limited. Upon returning to Australia, travelers face a mandatory two weeks in quarantine.

Other players have expressed concern about traveling to the U.S., where more than 150,000 people have died from COVID-19.

Barty had to make a decision because entries were open for the Western & Southern Open, which is scheduled for Aug. 2028 and was moved from Cincinnati to the same

hard courts at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center that are slated to host the U.S. Open.

Serena Williams, Coco Gauff, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were on Wednesday’s initial Cincinnati entry lists — but Barty, two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka and 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu were not.

Being on Wednesday’s lists doesn’t necessarily mean a player will compete at the tournament.

No sanctioned professional tennis events have been played since March because of the coronavirus. Both the women’s and men’s tours plan to return in August. The women’s tour still aims to return next week at Palermo, Italy.

games remains to be seen.

The ACC’s decision appears to rule out three early-season games in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium: North Carolina against Auburn; Virginia against Georgia; and Florida State against West Virginia.

“We certainly understand the ACC is doing what they feel is in the best interest of the conference and the health of their teams, staff and student-athletes, and as our partners, we support them in that decision,” said Gary Stokan, chief executive officer and president of Peach Bowl, Inc. “However, we are disappointed we will lose the opportunity to host Florida State, Virginia and North Carolina and

their fans in our scheduled Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games this season.”

Also in danger is Notre Dame’s game against Navy.

The Fighting Irish and Midshipmen were originally scheduled to play the 94th consecutive meeting of their rivalry in Dublin, Ireland. The pandemic forced a relocation to Navy’s home stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. It is scheduled to be the first game in the history of the series played at Navy’s home field.

Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk declined comment when contacted by the AP because he had not yet spoken to Notre Dame officials.

In total, the ACC’s new schedule will wipe

38 previously scheduled nonconference games off the books. Many of those games would have involved Group of Five conference and FCS schools that receive big payouts from Power Five schools for playing on the road with no return date.

Middle Tennessee from Conference USA was scheduled to play at Duke and at Virginia Tech in September. MTSU athletic director Chris Massaro said in a statement he hoped to have clarity about those games soon.

“Unfortunately, this is not very surprising but is disappointing as our players and fans look forward to games like these,” he said.

11 without fans and has played every week. Commissioner Jay Monahan said there would not be fans the rest of the season.

When asked when he expected them to return, he pointed to the U.S. Open as the next possibility. Now that’s gone, meaning the next domes-

tic tournament that could have spectators is Oct. 1-4 in Mississippi for the Sanderson Farms Championship.

“We’re starting to get used to it,” former U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson said. “But I think next week will feel unusual again, being a major, when

there’s tens of thousands lining the fairways 10 rows deep. We’re used to that, every major being sold out long in advance.”

U.S. Open tickets purchased directly through the USGA will be automatically refunded to the method of payment used to buy them.

NW Natural 55.53 53.77 Skywest 28.83 28.00 Starbucks 77.50 75.71 Umpqua Hldgs 11.09 10.77 Weyerhaeuser 28.36 28.20 Xerox 15.85 14.87

BOSTON — John McNamara, who managed the Boston Red Sox to within one strike of a World Series victory in 1986 before an unprecedented collapse on the field extended the team’s championship drought into the new millennium, has died. He was 88.

McNamara died Tuesday at his home in Tennessee, his wife, Ellen, told The Associated Press.

The death was unexpected and the cause was not yet known, she said.

A weak-hitting catcher who first signed with the St. Louis Cardinals but never made it past Triple-A, McNamara went on to win — and lose — more than 1,000 games while managing six major league teams.

He took over in Boston, his fifth, in 1985 and guided the Red Sox to the AL pennant the next year.

Mike Gillespie, who played on and coached College World Series title teams with Southern California, died Wednesday.

He was 80.

He died in Irvine following complications from recent lung issues and a stroke, according to USC, which spoke to his son Mitch.

Gillespie was an infielder/outfielder on USC’s 1961 CWS championship team and the 1960 runner-up squad.

He was USC’s coach from 1987-2006, leading the Trojans to five Pac-10 titles, 14 NCAA Regional appearances, four CWS berths and the 1998 CWS crown. He won 763 games at USC and coached 30 future major leaguers, including Aaron and Bret Boone, Geoff Jenkins, Morgan Ensberg, Mark Prior and Barry Zito.

He coached the U.S. national team in 2000.

Lou Henson

Irene Pollin

Associated Press

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Lou Henson, the plain-spoken coach who took New Mexico State and Illinois to the Final Four during a 21-year career that included nearly 800 victories and a feud with fellow Big Ten coach Bob Knight, has died. He was 88.

Henson died Saturday at his home in Champaign and he was buried in a private service Wednesday, the Illinois athletic department said.

Henson left the game as the winningest coach at both Illinois and New Mexico State, and still ranks fifth all-time among Big Ten coaches in total wins (423) and conference wins (214). In 2015, he was named to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, an honor his fans thought might never come.

Mike Gillespie LOS ANGELES —

WASHINGTON — Irene Pollin, who coowned the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Capitals along with late husband Abe, has died.

She was 96.

Monumental Sports and Entertainment said Pollin died Tuesday at her home in Amherst, Massachusetts.

“Much like her husband, Abe Pollin, she was an icon in the sports world and beloved throughout the Greater Washington communities who have benefited from her generosity over the course of her lifetime,” Monumental chairman and CEO Ted Leonsis said. “Irene will always be remembered and truly missed.”

The Pollins owned the Wizards, who were known as the Bullets until the mid-1990s, for 46 years.

They were the NBA’s longest-tenured owners when they sold the franchise to Leonsis in 2010.

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