The Iola Register, Dec. 29, 2022

Help pours in for fire victims

By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

HUMBOLDT — Sabrina Butler has been inundated with offers of help.

And she will gladly accept it, as she deals with the aftermath of a Friday fire that gutted her childhood home.

“I’ve had so many people come forward, some have bedding, or this or that,” she said Tuesday. “Right now, I need a place to live.”

Butler and her fiance, Tim White, lost pretty much all of their belongings in Friday’s fire in the 900 block of North Eighth Street.

Aside from assorted odds and ends — tables her father built years ago, and a Bible, for instance — the rest of her possessions were destroyed.

In the meantime, coworkers at Iola’s Casey’s General Store have assisted the company in putting up the couple for the next few days at a hotel in Iola.

“I’m not sure when my ‘get out’ date is,” Butler said. “People keep adding days, and it’s greatly appreciated.”

The American Red Cross also reached out to Butler and White with cash assistance the day of the fire. That money was quickly spent to buy a

Universities seek to fix teacher shortage

By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Education deans at public universities in Kansas working on solutions to a K-12 teacher shortage want to dramatically expand over three years state financial aid for college students in education programs and to implement a partnership to uniformly compensate student teachers.

The task force appointed by the Kansas Board of Regents has also been working to refine an agreement among community colleges and universities allowing education students to automatically transfer 60 credit hours of courses. Another of 15 recommendations in the report draft would strengthen literacy instructional skills of teachers.

“I like that we’re responsive to what’s going on, even when people aren’t banging on our door to come up with solutions,” said Board of Regents chairman Jon Rolph of Wichita.

Rick Ginsburg, dean of education at the Universi-

Lawmakers on quest for mental health care workers

By RACHEL MIPRO Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Lawmakers said coaxing retired mental health care workers back into the field could be one way to mitigate the state’s mental health care worker shortage.

A special committee of the Kansas Legislature recently met with mental health care institutions, including colleges, state agencies and the Kansas Board of Nursing to delve into the subject. They said the state needed to find ways to increase and stabilize the number of mental health care workers.

Lucinda Whitney, clinical assistant professor at the University of Kansas School of

Nursing, said she knew from her personal experience as a psychiatric mental health nurse that the field had many challenges, including long hours, dealing with verbal and physical aggression from patients, and high patient-tostaff ratios.

“These are major stressors that I think contribute to emotional exhaustion, some workplace dissatisfaction and potentially burnout,” she said. “But these conditions that most retired workers did work under can be mitigated. I think there is an opportunity to invite retired clinicians back to work.”

Whitney said some of these issues could be mitigated by offering technical and tele-

to people

health

wanted to reenter the workforce.

Lawmakers have addressed

Snowbound Buffalo braces to find more dead

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo was set to emerge from a deep freeze Wednesday, bringing some relief but also the tragic possibility of finding more victims amid melting snow from the area’s deadliest storm in decades.

Officials said more than 30 people so far have been reported to have died because of the blizzard that raged Friday and Saturday in western New York, an area prone to powerful winter storms. The historic Blizzard of 1977 killed as many as 29.

Antwaine Parker told The Buffalo News that his mother, Carolyn Eubanks, perished at

the home of strangers who took her in after her family tried to get help for the ailing woman.

Eubanks, 63, relied on an oxygen machine. With the power out in her home and emergency responders unable to answer calls amid the blizzard, Parker said, he and his stepbrother drove through the snow Saturday to rescue her themselves. She collapsed as they led her to a car, he said.

“She’s like, ‘I can’t go no further.’ I’m begging her, ‘Mom, just stand up.’ She fell in my arms and never spoke another word,” Parker told

ty of Kansas, said Kansas was experiencing teacher shortage issues present nationally. A federal report said 53% of public schools were understaffed in the current academic year. A National Education Association survey in 2022 found 55% of teachers had given thought to a career change. In 2019, a Phi Delta Kappa poll showed 55% of teachers didn’t want their children to follow them into teaching.

Ginsburg said retirements had been expected to rise, but COVID-19 acceler-

Football playoff matchups

Airline flight cancellations snowball

DALLAS (AP) — Families hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight after days of cancellations, missing luggage and missed family connections suffered through another wave of scrubbed flights, with another 2,500 pulled from arrival and departure boards Wednesday.

Exhausted travelers sought passage by other means using different airlines, rental cars, or trains — or they’ve simply given up.

According to the FlightAware tracking service, more than 91%

Sabrina Butler lost all her belongings, along with those of her fiance, Tim White, in a house fire on Friday. The couple were not home at the time of the fire. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN

training

who

other potential areas for improvement, such as making health care degrees more at-

Kansas legislators say a framework of incentives, new licensing procedures and training programs could help draw more mental health care workers into the field. (GETTY IMAGES)

A snow plow makes its way along a clean Ridge Road in front of Our Lady Of Victory Basilica on Tuesday, in Lackawanna, New York. (JOHN NORMILE/GETTY IMAGES/TNS)

PIXABAY.COM

Area news

Fredonia to install solar farm

FREDONIA — City commissioners decided Dec. 21 to move forward with installing a solar farm to help diversify its energy production.

Commissioners signed a $4.2 million contract with Priority Power Management. Work on the solar farm is expected to begin in April and be completed by July 13, according to the Wilson County Citizen.

The Texas-based PPM has partnered with the city on power issues for more than a decade, the Citizen reported, and has completed solar farms in other cities, including Beloit, which is now fully functional.

The solar farm will be located in the city’s industrial park.

Neosho County sues wind farm company

ERIE — Neosho County commissioners began litigation last week against Apex Clean Energy, a Virginia-based company responsible for development of the county’s Neosho Ridge wind farm.

Commissioners maintain Apex has been negligent in fully repairing county roads used during the wind farm’s construction in 2019, according to The Chanute Tribune. At issue is a 6.5 mile stretch and smaller portions elsewhere.

Commissioners are asking for $2 million in compensation to repair the roads, the Tribune reported.

Bird watchers take part in annual count ST. PAUL — Bird watchers flocked to the Neosho Wildlife Area southeast of St. Paul to participate in the annual Christmas bird count, according to the Parsons Sun.

More than 90 species were identified among an estimated 35,00040,000 birds counted.

The annual bird count began in 1976 and has continued without fail, the Sun reported.

Birds are surveyed across a 15-mile diameter circle that stretches from Erie to northern Parsons and from near Galesburg to the Neosho State Fishing Lake.

Leading the effort was Andrew Burnett, who serves as vice president of the Southeast Kansas Audubon Society.

Burnett said there were fewer birds this year and attributed the decrease to the ongoing drought.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reported on Dec. 15 that Neosho and Labette counties are in the extreme drought category, according to the Sun.

Noted species identified included the red-breasted nuthatch and purple finches.

Kansas publisher, Pulitzer chair Edward Seaton dies

MANHATTAN, Kan.

(AP) — Edward Seaton, a longtime Kansas newspaper publisher who served as the Pulitzer Prize Board’s chair and advocated for international press freedom, has died. He was 79.

He died of natural causes Monday night at his home in Manhattan, his son, Ned, who followed his father as publisher of The Manhattan Mercury, told the newspaper.

Edward Seaton was chairman of Seaton Publications at the time of his death.

He became The Mercury’s publisher and associate editor in 1969 and its editor-in-chief in 1981. His grandfather had bought the paper in 1915, and his father, uncle and brother were publishers.

Ed Seaton spent much of his career working for democracy and press

freedoms, particularly in Latin America. He was president of the Inter American Press Association and of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He served nine years on the Pulitzer Prize Board.

He and his family built a group of affiliated media companies in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. He was inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2013.

He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors at Harvard College in 1965 and was a Fulbright scholar in Ecuador. He also did graduate work in journalism at the University of Missouri.

Born Feb. 5, 1943, in Manhattan, he began his journalism career as a reporter and copy editor at the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier-Journal.

Public notice

(First published in The Iola Register Dec. 15, 2022)

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF ALLEN COUNTY, KANSAS

In the Matter of the Estate Of Gertrude Meiwes, Deceased Case No. AL-2022-PR-80

NOTICE OF HEARING AND NOTICE TO CREDITORS

THE STATE OF KANSAS TO ALL PERSONS CONCERNED:

You are hereby notified that on December 1, 2022, a Petition was filed in this Court by Paul Meiwes and Gene Meiwes, heirs, devisees and legatees, and Co-Executors named in the Last Will and Testament of Gertrude Meiwes, Deceased, dated March 17, 2011, praying that the Will filed with the Petition be admitted to probate and record, for appointment as Executor without bond, and that Letters Testamentary be granted. You are required to file your writ-

ten defenses thereto on or before January 11, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. of such day in this Court, Allen County Courthouse, 1 N Washington Ave., Iola, Allen County, Kansas at which time and place the cause will be heard. Should you fail, judgment and decree will be entered in due course upon the Petition. All creditors are notified to exhibit their demands against the estate within four months from the date of first publication of this Notice, as provided by law, and if their demands are not thus exhibited, they shall be forever barred.

Paul Meiwes and Gene Meiwes, Co-Petitioners

R. KENT PRINGLE, S.C. #10458 221 W. Main, P.O. Box 748 Chanute, KS 66720 Telephone (620) 431-2202

Fax (620) 431-1166

Email: rkpringle@hotmail.com

Attorney for Petitioners

Paul Meiwes and Gene Meiwes (12) 15, 22, 29

Biden builds diversified judicial legacy

By LAURA LITVAN Bloomberg News/TNS

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are transforming the federal courts at a blistering pace and creating an unrivaled legacy of diversity that will redefine the federal bench for a generation.

Of the 97 judges confirmed by the Senate in the last two years, three quarters of them are women, and nearly half of the appointees — including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — are women of color.

And while most presidents pick from a pool of existing judges, government attorneys and lawyers in private practice, Biden has cast a wider net. About one-third of Biden’s confirmed judges have experience as public defenders and a dozen are former civil rights lawyers, according to the liberal group Alliance for Justice.

That means that there are more federal judges who have seen the challenges in the court system for people with low incomes or who have experienced civil-rights or voting-rights violations, said Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

“It’s a perspective that has been sorely lacking and is much needed on the federal judiciary,” Barrett said.

The 97 judges confirmed by the Senate in the last two years surpasses the 83 confirmed by this point in former President Donald Trump’s term. It nearly matches the 100 judges confirmed during President George W. Bush’s first two years in the Oval Office.

So far, the Senate has confirmed Jackson, as well as 28 appellate court justices and 68 district court judges during Biden’s presidency.

Just five of Biden’s appellate and district court judges are White men — 5% of the total so far. By comparison, 147 of Trump’s nominees over his full four years in office were White males, or 64% of those he elevated.

“What’s most striking to me is the paucity of white males,” said Russell Wheeler, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has long tracked federal court confirmations. “The number of White males could be

counted on one hand, which is so different than all the other presidents.”

Aside from Jackson’s historic ascension to the Supreme Court, another 11 Black women have moved onto the appellate courts. Up until the Biden administration, only eight Black women have ever served on the circuit courts.

The drive to reshape the judiciary will take on more urgency in the next session of Congress, when Republicans take power in the House and legislation gets gridlocked.

Senate Democrats now have a 50-50 majority but that shifts to 51-49 in January, giving them an outright majority on committees, enabling Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin to move nominees to the floor with more haste.

Democrats will continue to benefit from a rule change under former Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, who unilaterally reduced the number of votes needed to advance appellate and district court nominees to 51 votes instead of 60. In 2017, then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lowered the threshold for Supreme Court nominees to 51.

Mike Davis, founder and president of the conservative Article III Project, said Democrats and their allies are less interested in bringing more diversity to the courts than they are in selecting jurists who they believe will issue rulings more in line with their values.

“When Democrats crow about diversity, that’s code for liberal judicial activists,” Davis said. He said Democrats have been quick to oppose female and minority judicial nominees of GOP presidents if they think they could

issue conservative opinions.

Biden’s push to remake the federal bench comes without the running start afforded to Trump by Senate Republicans who held up President Barack Obama’s court nominees during his last year in office.

That left a Supreme Court position after Justice Antonin Scalia died, along with 86 district court vacancies and 17 circuit court vacancies for Trump to fill when he took office in January 2017.

Trump later filled two other Supreme Court vacancies after Justice Anthony Kennedy retired and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, a level of high-court turnover Biden may never experience.

After Trump’s picks of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were confirmed, the Supreme Court had a 6-3 conservative majority. That set the stage for more right-leaning rulings like this year’s decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.

Trump also made big inroads with the appellate courts, shifting the

balance of power on the Florida-based 11th Circuit, the New Yorkbased 2nd Circuit and the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit. All three had a GOP majority when he left office.

Circuit courts have significant clout, because while the Supreme Court decides fewer than 70 cases a year, appellate courts resolved just over 47,000 cases for the year ending March 31, 2022, according to the Administrative Office of the US Courts in Washington.

Biden has moved the Second Circuit back to a slight edge of Democratic nominees. Davis predicted that with a 51st Senate seat at their disposal, Biden and Schumer could also turn back the other two appellate courts.

“President Trump’s biggest accomplishment of his first term was the transformation of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts,” Davis said. “And with Democrats now controlling the White House and the Senate, President Biden is going to erase President Trump’s gains in the federal circuit courts over the next two years.”

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson delivers remarks on her nomination by President Joe Biden to serve as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 25, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (KENT NISHIMURA/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS)

Teachers: Universities finalize plan to attract more teachers

erated the trend. The Kansas Department of Education reported 1,620 teacher vacancies in fall 2022, with the greatest gaps in special education, elementary education, English language arts, math and science. There are 44,000 licensed teachers in Kansas’ workforce, but more than 75,000 licensees in the KSDE data base.

“Part of the problem is our salaries in education stink,” Ginsburg said. “Add to that a public that is rather critical, the burning books, the dictating of curriculum. What you end up with is something that is awfully challenging. The question is: Why might young people consider going into our profession?”

Priority ideas

The task force of faculty from Kansas State University, Wichita State University and five other public universities intend to urge the Board of Regents and state Board of Education to lobby the Legislature for financial support necessary to reverse the 7.5% decline since 2015 in Kansas teacher education enrollment. Nationally, enrollment in teacher education fell one-third from 2010 to 2019.

Under the tentative blueprint, state appropriations to the state’s Teacher Education

Competitive Grant program would rise from $2.8 million to $6 million in the first year, $12 million the second year and

$20 million the third year. Until this year, the program received $1.4 million annually from the Legislature.

The proposal would elevate the per-student grant cap to $6,000 annually. Grants would be available to undergraduate students for four years with a maximum subsidy of $24,000. Graduate students could received aid for two years for a maximum payment of $12,000.

Current requirements linking grants to underserved geographic areas and to hard-to-fill teaching disciplines would be lifted.

The task force intends to recommend student teachers, who often work in classrooms for free while paying college tuition, be eligible for up to $5,000 in compensation. Districts would have the option

of participating in a $6.7 million program requiring the state to pay 75% of a student teacher’s salary with the school district paying the remainder.

One calculation of the “teacher wage penalty” indicated a Kansas educator could expect to earn 23% less than a college graduate in another field with comparable job experience. The starting salary for a public school teacher in Kansas is about $40,000, which is below the national average.

“I see these problems, these issues every day,” said Board of Regents member Diana Mendoza, director of English as a second language and diversity programs in Dodge City public schools. “They’ve been there for many years. I’m excited to see what we can accomplish.”

Additional proposals

The task force suggested the Board of Regents and the Department of Education create a universal set of 60 credit hours applicable to an elementary education degree. Making that deal would ease transfer of community college students to fouryear universities. Stumbling blocks include distinctions among universities in terms of what year classes were offered and with alignment of university accreditation mandates.

In addition, the task force was moving toward elevating the profile of basic college instruction and supplemental certificate programs in literacy. The goal would be to amend preparation standards so new educators were ready to teach literacy

their first day on the job.

The limit of 120 college credit hours required of Kansas teachers wouldn’t be changed. If literacy courses were added to the curriculum, something would need to be dropped. Educators earning a literacy credential should receive a bump in salary, the task force said.

“They should get paid more for that,” said Ginsburg, the KU education dean. “We tend not to do that in the education world. It’s dumb. They do it in most other fields.”

Financial support of about $450,000 per year would be available to help Kansas students pay for licensing examinations, the task force said.

A workforce expansion proposal would dedicate $5 million in

annual grants to support innovative approaches to teacher licensure. The strategy for attracting more people to teaching careers could emphasize fast-track degrees and graduate degrees in disciplines with critical shortages.

“With COVID, a lot of kids didn’t get to go to college in 2020. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t taking a (enrollment) hit again,” said Ann Mah, a member of the Kansas Board of Education. “

The Department of Education would be asked to take responsibility for a registered apprenticeship program in which school district employees could be placed on a path to teacher licensure.

In terms of teacher retention, the task force weighed the idea of a $3 million mentoring program. It would be a collaboration of the Board of Regents and Department of Education. The task force suggested adjusting standardized student assessments that cut into instructional time.

The task force said Kansas needed reciprocity agreements with states advancing “equally robust expectations” so licensed educators could take jobs in Kansas without significant additional cost. In addition, the task force said, consideration should be given to modifying rules that deter retirees in the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System from returning to the classroom.

Vatican says health of retired pope Benedict XVI ‘worsening’

VATICAN CITY (AP)

— The health of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has worsened due to his age, and doctors are constantly monitoring the frail 95-year-old’s condition, the Vatican said Wednesday.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said Pope Francis, who asked the faithful earlier Wednesday to pray for Benedict, went to visit his predecessor in the monastery on Vatican grounds where the retired pontiff has lived since retiring in February 2013.

“Regarding the health condition of the emeritus pope, for whom Pope Francis asked for prayers at the end of his general audience this morning, I

can confirm that in the last hours, a worsening due to advanced age has happened,’’ Bruni said in a written statement.

“The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly monitored by doctors,” according to the statement.

At the end of his customary Wednesday audience with the public in a Vatican auditorium, Francis departed from his prepared remarks to say that Benedict is “very sick” and asked the faithful to pray for the retired pontiff.

Francis didn’t elaborate on Benedict’s condition.

“I would like to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who is sus-

taining the church in silence,” Francis said. “Remember him — he is very ill — asking the Lord to console him and to sustain him in this testimony to love for the church, until the end.”

After the hour-long audience, “Pope Francis went to the Mater Ecclesiae monastery to visit Benedict XVI. Let us all unite with him in prayer for the emeritus pope,” Bruni said.

Benedict, who was the first pontiff to resign in 600 years, has become increasingly frail in recent years as he dedicated his post-papacy life to prayer and meditation.

When Benedict turned 95 in April, his longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, said

the retired pontiff was in good spirits, adding that “naturally he is physically relatively weak and fragile, but rather lucid.”

Francis also paid a visit to Benedict at the

monastery four months ago. The occasion was Francis’ latest ceremony elevating churchmen to cardinal rank, and the new “princes of the church” accompanied him to the monastery

for the brief greeting. The Vatican released a photo at the time that showed a very thin-looking Benedict clasping Francis’ hand as the current and past pontiff smiled at each other.

At task force created by the Kansas Board of Regents plans to finish a report in January outlining options to confront the K-12 teacher shortage in Kansas, including investing more in a college student grants, teacher compensation and reforming licensure and mentoring programs. (TIM CARPENTER/KANSAS REFLECTOR)

Fire: Couple still processing loss of home

White’s niece set up a GoFundMe account for cash donations, and Butler’s coworkers have set up a collection spot at the Iola store as well.

“Some random gentleman from Yates Center came up to us at Orscheln (Monday) and gave us money,” she recalled. “I don’t even know his name.”

BUTLER and White were en route to Illinois Friday morning for the holidays, when she received a frantic phone call just before noon from Edna Donovan, an old bowling partner.

“I thought it was strange because I really hadn’t talked to her for a while,” Butler said. “But I could hear her beating on my door.”

“Are you OK?” Donovan asked, assuming Butler was still in the house. “Get up!” (That’s because both of Butler’s cars were still parked outside.)

Another neighbor was attempting to get inside to rescue Butler’s dogs. (Those animals were already at Kylee Geffert’s Doggy Daycare, because Butler was going out of town.)

Sadly, Butler did lose at least four cats in the fire, plus another feline, a neighbor’s, that would pay her pets a visit frequently, entering the home through a doggy door.

Two other cats that were outside when Butler and White were leaving are still unaccounted for.

“We’ve searched all over the house and can’t find them,” Butler said. “I’m hoping they’re still around.”

Longtime friend April

Hudson made arrangements to have the lost cats’ remains cremated.

“It meant a lot to me,” Butler said.

Geffert is holding onto Butler’s dogs until she can find new housing for herself, and her dogs.

Humboldt firefighters were on the scene within five minutes of the noontime call, and aggressively attacked the fire from both outside and inside the structure.

But the odds — and bitterly cold temperatures — were stacked against them.

The home, built around 1900, had several layers on the roof, including wood shingles covered by asphalt shingles and then a layer of tin.

The walls also had several layers of materials, McReynolds noted, making it impossible to douse all of the hot spots in time to keep the fire from spreading.

Fire crews eventually had to fight the blaze

Judge orders long prison terms in plot

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Delaware trucker described as a co-leader of the conspiracy to kidnap Michigan’s governor was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison Wednesday, a day after an accomplice received 16 years behind bars.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Barry Croft Jr., 47, who was the fourth and final federal defendant to learn his fate. Judge Robert J. Jonker described him as “the idea guy” behind the plot and called him “a very convincing communicator” for people who were open to his views.

Croft and Adam Fox were convicted in August of conspiracy charges in Grand Rapids. Croft also was found guilty of possessing an unregistered explosive.

They were accused of hatching a stunning plot to abduct Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home just before the 2020 presidential election. The conspirators were furious over tough COVID-19 restrictions that Whitmer and officials in other states had put in place during the early months of the pandemic, as well as perceived threats to gun ownership.

Whitmer was not physically harmed. The FBI was secretly embedded in the group and

made 14 arrests.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler called Croft the “spiritual leader” of the group of conspirators, comparing his role to that of “some sheik in ISIS.”

“He essentially was putting himself as a role of a prophet ... there are people who believe this sort of rhetoric, and he used it,” Kessler told the judge.

Croft regularly wore a tri-cornered hat common during the American Revolution and had tattoos on his arms symbolizing resistance — “Expect Us” — as he traveled to Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan to meet with like-minded extremists.

A different jury in Grand Rapids, Michigan, couldn’t reach a verdict on the pair at the first trial last spring but acquitted two other men.

The abduction was meant to be the beginning of a “reign of terror,” Kessler said in court documents.

Croft’s plan called for riots, “torching” government officials in their sleep and setting off violence across the country.

A key piece of evidence: Croft, Fox and others traveled to see Whitmer’s vacation home in northern Michigan, with undercover agents and informants

defensively, to prevent it from spreading to adjoining structures.

“You can tell by the path the fire took that it apparently started in the rear of the house and followed through the attic,” Butler noted.

THE QUAINT one-story house carries a special place in Butler’s heart.

“It’s where they brought me home,” she notes.

She’d hoped to keep the home in the family after her father, Steven “Cap” Butler, died in 2015.

But with her mother unable to afford mortgage payments, the home went into foreclosure, and was sold.

Undeterred, Butler continued renting there, and had been negotiating with the owners to buy it back. She’d even submitted an offer, and it was accepted.

“We’d done everything but close on it,” Butler said.

Butler has renters insurance.

“The insurance company wants me to sit down and go room through room and list everything that was in them,” she said. “I can’t even really do that right now. I’m still trying to process all of this.”

White returned to work this week. He works for a company out of Holden, Mo., that assembles mobile homes. The job includes frequent travel across Kansas and Missouri at job sites, commuting each day.

Butler’s bosses at Casey’s have given her the week off “so I can get things in order,” she said.

But first, she must find a home.

“I’ve called a couple of landlords, and they don’t have anything,” she said.

Anyone looking to donate to Butler and White can do so by reaching out to them at sabrinarenee77@yahoo.com.

Storm: Warm up

Continued from A1

the newspaper.

The stepbrothers knocked on nearby doors, seeking someone who would help. They found David Purdy, who opened his door to two desperate strangers and helped them carry Eubanks inside and try in vain to revive her.

After they realized she was gone, Purdy and his fiancee sheltered her body until first responders showed up with plows the next day.

“I done it as respectful as I could,” Purdy told The Buffalo News. His own mother is roughly the same age as Eubanks was and also uses an oxygen machine, he said, and “if she needed help, I’d hope there would be people out there to help her, as well.”

Temperatures were expected to rise into the mid-40s on Wednesday and the low 50s by

Friday, the National Weather Service said.

With enough snow still on the ground that driving was still banned in New York’s second-most-populous city, officials worked to clear storm drains and watched a forecast that calls for some rain later in the week. Officials in Erie County, which encompasses Buffalo, said Tuesday they were concerned about the possibility of flooding. The weather service said Wednesday that “any flooding is expected to be of the minor or nuisance variety.”

While suburban roads and most major highways in the area reopened Tuesday, there was still a driving ban in Buffalo, and state and military police were assigned to enforce it. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a Democrat, said “too many people are ignoring the ban.”

US marks anniversary of Paul Whelan’s detention

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is marking the four-year anniversary of the detention in Russia of American businessman Paul Whelan, whose continued imprisonment is one of several major irritants in tattered relations between Washington and Moscow.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that securing Whelan’s release remains a top administration priority.

U.S. officials had hoped to include Whelan in a prisoner swap earlier this month in which they traded detained WNBA star Brittney Griner for a convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout. The administration considers Whelan, like Griner, to have been wrongfully detained.

Blinken said Whelan and his family are “suffering through an unfathomable ordeal” and he again condemned the American’s conviction, which was based on secret evidence, and 16year prison sentence.

“His detention remains unacceptable, and we continue to press for his immediate release at every opportunity,” Blinken said. “Our efforts to secure Paul’s release will not cease until he is back home with his family where he belongs.”

Whelan, a Michigan corporate security

executive, is jailed in Russia on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless. U.S. officials said Russia refused to consider including Whelan in the Griner deal, calling it a “one or none” decision.

“Paul and the Whelan family recently showed the entire country the meaning of generosity of spirit in celebrating a fellow American’s return while Russia continues its deplorable treatment of Paul as a bargaining chip,” said President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

The Whelan family supported the exchange that freed Griner, but expressed fears that Whelan would not be released for years.

His brother, David Whelan, said when the swap was announced, “I think we all realize that the math is not going to work out for Paul to come home anytime soon, unless the U.S. government is able to find concessions.”

Paul Whelan, 52, was sentenced in 2020.

In a statement Wednesday, David Whelan said, “Today is the 1,461st day that Paul has been held hostage by the Russian Federation. Russian authorities entrapped him four years ago today. How do you mark such an awful milestone when there is no resolution in sight?”

Sabrina Butler looks through the door of her house to see the damage left by Friday’s re.

What 2022 has meant for the world

Some years bring disorder, others a resolution. This one asked questions.

It was a year that put the world to the test. From the invasion of Ukraine to COVID-19 in China, from inflation to climate change, from Sino-American tensions to pivotal elections, 2022 asked hard questions. The ordeal has not only sent the world in a new direction, but also shown it in a new light.

The biggest surprise — and the most welcome — has been the resilience of broadly liberal countries in the West. When Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, he expected the government of a corrupt state to buckle. After a humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the decadent, divided West would surely fail to match condemnation of Russia with real backing for Ukraine.

In fact Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people affirmed that self-determination and liberty are worth dying for. They became an inspiration. After an upsurge in popular support, Western governments threw their weight behind democracy’s new champion. Led by the Biden administration, the West is providing arms and aid on a scale even hawks had not imagined.

At home voters also made themselves heard, siding against taboo-busting populists. In America, despite the awful approval numbers of Joe Biden, centrists used their ballots to preserve fundamental rights, including in some states the right to an abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. In competitive races hard-core election-deniers endorsed by Donald Trump almost all lost.

In France Marine Le Pen camouflaged her far-right origins, but was still beaten by Emmanuel Macron, a centrist. After Giorgia Meloni

became Italy’s first far-right post-war prime minister, she leaned to the center. Even in stumbling Britain, both Labor and the governing Conservatives are calculating that victory in elections lies away from the populist extremes of right and left.

AS MESSY democracies show unexpected resolve, so seemingly steady autocracies have had feet of clay. Mr. Putin is the prime example, doubling and redoubling his catastrophic gamble. But he is not the only one. After three months of protests following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for failing to follow the rules in wearing her hijab, the security forces in Iran have taken to shooting female protesters in the face, breasts and genitals. Now that the mullahs have forfeited the faith of their people, they have no other lever but violence.

Those who admire strong leaders for getting things done should be careful what they wish for. Xi Jinping has extended the dominance of the Chinese Communist Party, installing himself as its permanent chief and the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. But his steps to cool the property market, rein back consumer tech and block Covid did grave harm to the economy. Today, as the virus spreads, it is clear that his government wasted months when it should have been vaccinating the elderly, stockpiling drugs and creating intensive-care beds.

Even China’s all-encompassing social control showed cracks. Although the Chinese security services swatted down widespread protests last month, these had been triggered partly by the sight of maskless crowds in Qatar enjoying the World Cup.

For all those who embrace

classical liberal values, including this newspaper, Western resilience is heartening — and an important change after a long retreat. But the good news goes only so far. The tests of 2022 have also revealed the depths of the world’s divisions and have set big government on the march.

To gauge the divisions, compare the almost universal support for America after the attacks of September 11, 2001, with the global south’s determination to stay neutral in the fight over Ukraine. In the most recent UN vote to reprimand Russia, 35 countries abstained. Many understandably resent how the West asserts that its worries are issues of global principle, whereas war in Yemen or the Horn of Africa, say, or climate-related droughts and floods, always seem to be regional.

In much of the world liberal values are embattled. Despite the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, democracy is under strain in Latin America. As he presides over ruinous inflation in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is prosecuting potential opponents in the election in 2023.

In Israel Binyamin Netanyahu is trying to avoid jail for corruption by forming a coalition with the Arab-hating, gay-bashing far right. Indonesia adopted an illiberal criminal code in December that threatens to ban sex outside marriage, stifle free speech and impose religious orthodoxy. India’s economy is brimming over with tech-inspired enterprise, but its politics are majoritarian, ugly and cruel.

All around the world, the idea of limited government is taking a beating. Because of the post-invasion energy shock, European governments are pouring money into fixing prices. They are

also powering the transition from fossil fuels, itself a welcome goal, using industrial policy rather than markets. America’s answer to the security threat from China is to deploy trade barriers and subsidies to decouple its own economy and boost home-grown industries. If that harms America’s allies, too bad.

Economic nationalism is popular. The largess during the pandemic changed expectations of the state. Creative destruction, which reallocates capital and labor, may be unpalatable to aging populations that put less store by economic growth and to younger voters who embrace the politics of identity.

But big-government capitalism has a poor record. Given decades-high inflation, caused partly by illjudged fiscal and monetary policy, especially in America, it is odd that voters want to reward politicians and officials by giving them power over bits of the economy they are not suited to run. State-backed champions in energy and tech sometimes succeed, but the more that countries pile in, the more waste and rent-seeking there will be.

The chips were down Judged by the liberal yardstick of limited government, a respect for individual dignity and a faith in human progress, 2022 has been mixed. However, there is hope. The West was arrogant after the collapse of Soviet communism. It paid the price in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global financial crisis of 2007-09.

In 2022, having been rocked by populism at home and China’s extraordinary rise, the West was challenged and it found its footing.

— The Economist, London

President Joe Biden/WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL PHOTO

President Xi Jinping of China/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

French President Emmanuel Macron/ LUDOVIC MARIN/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES/TNS)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak/HOLLIE ADAMS/GETTY IMAGES/TNS)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy/GLOBAL LOOK PRESS

Russia President Vladimir Putin/MIKHAIL METZEL/SPUTNIK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES/TNS

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Brazil’s President-elect Lula de Silva/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Flights: Southwest struggles

Continued from A1

celed flights in the U.S. early Wednesday were from Southwest, which has been unable to recover from ferocious winter storms that raked large swaths of the country over the weekend.

The operational systems of Southwest have been uniquely effected, so much so that the federal government is now investigating what happened at the Dallas carrier, which has frustrated its own flight and ground crews as well.

This week, with cancellations from other major airlines ranging from none to 2%, Southwest has canceled nearly 10,000 flights as of Wednesday and warned of thousands more Thursday and Friday, according to FlightAware.

In a video that Southwest posted late Tuesday, CEO Robert Jordan said Southwest would operate a reduced schedule for several days but hoped to be “back on track before next week.”

Jordan blamed the

Because what we’re seeing right now, from the system and the flights themselves to the inability to reach anybody on a customer service phone line, it is just completely unacceptable.

— Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

winter storm for snarling the airline’s “highly complex” network. He said Southwest’s tools for recovering from disruptions work “99% of the time, but clearly we need to double down” on upgrading systems to avoid a repeat of this week.

“We have some real work to do in making this right,” said Jordan, a 34-year Southwest veteran who became CEO in February. “For now, I want you to know that we are committed to

that.”

The airline is now drawing unwanted attention from Washington.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions, said his agency would examine the causes of Southwest’s widespread cancellations and whether the airline was meeting its legal obligations to stranded customers.

“Because what we’re seeing right now, from the system and the flights themselves to the inability to reach anybody on a customer service phone line, it is just completely unacceptable,” Buttigieg told CBS early Wednesday.

In Congress, the Senate Commerce Committee also promised an investigation. Two Senate Democrats called on Southwest to provide “significant” compensation for stranded travelers, saying that the airline has the money because it plans to pay $428 million in dividends next month.

Program: Mental health workers

Continued from A1

tainable for Kansans, fixing pay disparities in the field and creating incentive programs, such as scholarships and sign-on bonuses.

Rep. Will Carpenter, R-El Dorado, said he wanted to make sure incentive programs were tracked for efficacy.

“If we don’t do that, we’ve just wasted all the time that we’ve done this year on mental health beds,” Carpenter said. “And monitor what’s working and what isn’t, so we can

evaluate the whole mental health system like that for employees.”

Over the past couple of months, legislators on the committee have been urged by local government officials, sheriffs and residents to fund more services.

With little space available in psychiatric facilities across the state, community hospitals and jails have had to provide housing and care for mentally unstable patients without reimbursement.

In Kansas, people

deemed a danger to themselves or others are processed by the district attorney’s office and sent to the county jail until a hospital bed is ready. Some inmates wait for months to be admitted to state psychiatric facilities.

To address the statewide mental health bed shortage, legislative leaders partnered with Gov. Laura Kelly to endorse the allocation of $15 million for planning a 50-bed minimum psychiatric hospital likely to be located in Sedgwick County.

China to resume issuing passports

BEIJING (AP) — China says it will resume issuing passports for tourism in another big step away from anti-virus controls that isolated the country for almost three years, setting up a potential flood of Chinese going abroad for next month’s Lunar New Year holiday. The announcement Tuesday adds to abrupt changes that are rolling back some of the world’s strictest anti-virus controls as President Xi Jinping’s government tries to reverse an economic slump. Rules that confined millions of people to their homes kept China’s infection rate low but fueled public frustration and crushed economic growth.

The latest decision could send free-spending Chinese tourists to revenue-starved destinations in Asia and Europe for Lunar New Year, which begins Jan. 22 and usually is the country’s busiest travel season. But it also presents a danger they might spread COVID-19 as infections surge in China.

Travel services companies Trip.com and Qunar said international ticket bookings and searches for visa information on their websites rose five to eight times after Tuesday’s announcement. Top destinations included Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the United States, Britain and Australia.

Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan have responded to the Chinese wave of infections by requiring virus tests for visitors from China.

China stopped issuing visas to foreigners and passports to its own people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

The National Immigration Administration of China said it will start taking applications Jan. 8 for passports for tourists to go abroad.

The agency said it will take applications to extend, renew or reissue visas but gave no indication when they might be is-

sued to first-time applicants.

China will “gradually resume” admitting foreign visitors, the agency said. It gave no indication when tourist travel from abroad might resume.

The changes will “create better conditions for orderly cross-border travel” and “bring more benefits to global economic development,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin.

China will “work with all countries” to “restore safety and stability to global industrial and supply chains and promote world economic recovery,” Wang said.

Health experts and economists expect the ruling Communist Party to keep limits on travel into China until at least mid-2023 while it carries out a campaign to vaccinate millions of elderly people. Experts say that is necessary to prevent a public health crisis.

During the pandemic, Chinese with family emergencies or work travel deemed important could obtain passports, but some students and businesspeople with visas to go to foreign countries were blocked by border guards from leaving. The handful of foreign businesspeople and others who were allowed into China were quarantined for up to one week.

Before the pandemic, China was the biggest source of foreign tourists for most of its Asian neighbors and an important market for Europe and the United States.

The government has dropped or eased most quarantine, testing and other restrictions within China, joining the United States, Japan and other governments in trying to live with the virus instead of stamping out transmission.

Japan and India have begun requiring virus tests for travelers from China. South Korea tests all visitors with elevated temperatures. South Korea says anyone who tests positive will be quarantined at home or in a hotel for a week.

South Korean officials said possible additional measures for arrivals from China will be announced Friday.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to relate internal discussions, said Washington is considering taking similar steps.

Taiwan on Wednesday announced visitors from China will be tested starting Jan. 1. Hong Kong authorities said Wednesday they would scrap some of the city’s COVID-19 restrictions, including PCR tests for all inbound travelers and vaccination requirements to enter certain venues.

Bats plunge to ground in cold; saved by rescuers

HOUSTON (AP) —

Hundreds of bats lost their grip and plunged to the pavement underneath a bridge in Houston after going into hypothermic shock during the city’s recent cold snap, according to wildlife rescuers who saved them by administering fluids and keeping them warm in incubators.

The Mexican freetailed bats that roost at Houston’s Waugh Bridge went into shock when temperatures plunged below freezing last week, the Houston Humane Society said in a Facebook video.

The society’s Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Center rescued hundreds of bats from beneath the bridge, along with another group of

bats elsewhere in the Houston area that also went into hypothermic shock, said center director Mary Warwick. She said some were recuperating in dog kennels in the attic of her home. Nearly 700 of the estimated 1,500 rescued bats are set to be released back into the wild on Wednesday, she said.

The humane society is now working to raise money for facility upgrades that would include a bat room, Warwick added.

“That would really help in these situations where we continue to see these strange weather patterns come through,” she said. “We could really use more space to rehabilitate the bats.”

A HIDDEN NOTICE IS NO NOTICE AT ALL.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

A woman walks past a flight status board at Dallas Love Field airport in Dallas on Dec. 22. (ELÍAS VALVERDE II/THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS/TNS)

No. 3 TCU (12-1) vs. No. 2 Michigan (13-0) — 3 p.m. Saturday — ESPN

No. 4 Ohio State (11-1) vs. No. 1 Georgia (13-0) — 7 p.m. Saturday — ESPN

Georgia defense braces for OSU

By CHARLES ODUM The Associated Press

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — On paper, the Peach Bowl matchup between No. 1 Georgia’s defense and No. 4 Ohio State’s offense is a test of strengths in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

Georgia (13-0) ranks second in the nation with its average of 12.8 points allowed. Ohio State (11-1) ranks second in scoring 44.5 points per game.

The Georgia defense has extra motivation for the Dec. 31 Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

The Bulldogs will be tested by quarterback C.J. Stroud and the Buckeyes’ high-scoring offense, especially after LSU passed for 502 yards in Georgia’s 50-30 victory in the Southeastern Conference championship game.

Even though LSU was playing from behind after Georgia led 35-10 at halftime, the Tigers’ big plays in their passing game may have revealed some vulnerabilities in the

Bulldogs’ secondary.

Stroud says Ohio State won’t try to copy LSU’s plan.

“I mean, that’s LSU,”

ball, then that is what it is. If that means we got to throw,

Power vs. speed: Michigan, TCU present unique challenges

By RALPH D. RUSSO The Associated Press

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP)

— Asked to consider what previous opponents were similar to Michigan, TCU’s defensive players and coordinator mention Kansas State a lot.

A bigger Kansas State.

“We see that they have a pretty huge O-line,” Horned Frogs linebacker Dee Winters said Tuesday.

As for the Wolverines, they don’t have much experience to draw upon when it comes to facing a defense like TCU’s

that uses three down linemen and three safeties.

“This is all new to us,”

Michigan offensive tackle Ryan Hayes said. No. 2 Michigan brings

its smash-mouth ways into the College Football Playoff semifinal on Saturday to face No. 3 TCU. It’s tempting to boil the Fiesta Bowl matchup down to Big Ten power vs. Big 12 speed, especially when the Wolverines have the ball.

Tempting, but not entirely accurate.

“I think maybe it’s an oversimplification,” Michigan co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss said.

For the second straight season, Michigan won the Joe

Ledecky earns AP honor

By PAUL NEWBERRY The Associated Press

A change of scenery worked out just fine for Katie Ledecky.

Shifting coasts and coaches after last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, the American swimmer turned in another stellar performance at the world championships, set a pair of world records and capped 2022 as The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, selected by a panel of 40 sports writers and editors from news outlets across the country.

Ledecky, who previously won the award in 2017, edged out American track star Sydney McLaughlin in balloting announced Wednesday.

The two tied in total points, but Ledecky got the nod based on 10 first-place votes to McLaughlin’s nine. Basketball standout A’ja Wilson finished third.

“I know so many great athletes have won this honor,” Ledecky said. “I’m really happy — happy with how my year went, and also excited about the future.”

Ledecky, who won her

By SCHUYLER DIXON The Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic thought his improbable tying basket in the final second of regulation actually won the game.

No biggie. The Dallas superstar just set the table for a triple-double unlike the NBA has ever seen.

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic has arrived in Australia almost a year after he was deported over his stance against COVID-19 vaccination, Tennis Australia confirmed Wednesday.

Djokovic will open his 2023 campaign in Adelaide as he prepares for a shot at a 10th Australian Open

title.

The 21-time major winner has been granted a visa by the Australian government and is listed to play at the Adelaide International, which starts Sunday.

The 35-year-old Serb arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday night, the governing

Doncic had a franchise-record 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists, including the tying basket off his intentionally missed free throw to force overtime, as the Mavericks rallied for a wild 126-121 victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night.

After grabbing the loose ball on a rebound and shooting the 11-foot jumper in one motion, the 23-year-old danced around while waving his arms as the thinned-out crowd expecting a loss celebrated wildly.

It was 115-115 with 1.0 seconds remaining.

“A lot of people asked me about this back in the locker room, and I said I thought we won it,” Doncic said. “That’s why I went to the crowd like this. I thought we won the game, and then I see it’s tied. I was like, ‘Oof.’”

Dallas was down nine with 33 seconds left in regulation before getting even in a backand-forth sequence capped by

Doncic grazing the rim and hitting the backboard with the intentional miss.

The first 60-point game in Dallas history also included Doncic’s career high in rebounds and was the first 6020-10 game in NBA history. The young Slovenian had his seventh triple-double and the

Stroud said earlier this month. “We’ve got to play Buckeye football. And if that means we have to run the

Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Stetson Bennett (13) runs against the LSU Tigers during the second half of the the SEC Championship game in Atlanta Dec. 3. JASON GETZ/TNS

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh TNS

Novak Djokovic TNS

Luka Doncic, shown here after winning a Christmas Day game against Los Angeles, racked up 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists in a win against New York Tuesday. TNS

Katie Ledecky has been voted as the Associated Press 2022 Female Athlete of the Year. TNS

FLINT HILLS

AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY INSTRUCTOR

Flint Hills Technical College is seeking a highly

and innovative instructor for their expanding Automotive Technology program in LaHarpe, KS. This is an additional full-time position starting August 3, 2023. The program offers technical skills training for

and maintenance careers, while giving the instructor the opportunity to work in an ever-changing and exciting field. This full-time, 9-month position offers a competitive salary, commensurate with experience and education level, KPERS retirement plan, paid health insurance, as well as options for dental, vision, life, accident, cancer, and disability insurance. Enjoy holidays and summers off with a flexible workweek schedule.

The ideal candidate will have, or be willing to obtain, ASE certifications including A1-A8, G1, and L1, as well as experience working in an automotive service and repair shop. A minimum of an Associate Degree (or willing to obtain) in Automotive Technology, or a related field, plus either 2 years of related work experience or teaching in the automotive field, is required. The successful candidate needs to have excellent verbal and written communication skills, as well as be able to successfully complete a criminal background check. Bilingual applicants encouraged to apply.

Applications will be taken until the position is filled.

To apply, please go to my.fhtc.edu and click on the Careers tab, or feel free to provide a cover letter and resume via email to Sandy Weeks, Director of Human Resources at saweeks@fhtc.edu . Call 620.341.1384 for job details.

Applications

be accepted until the position is filled. Flint Hills Technical College is an EEO employer.

ANDERSON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE HAS TWO FULL-TIME DETENTION OFFICER OPENINGS AND ONE FULL-TIME DEPUTY SHERIFF POSITION.

Must be 18 years old, a high school diploma or its equivalent. No experience is needed, starting pay as a detention o cer is $17.09 with an increase for the experience. Must have a valid Driver's License, pass criminal background, a general knowledge test, and a fit for duty physical. Shifts are 12 hours with paid lunch.

To be a Deputy Sheri , you must be 21 or older, starting pay is $18.41, and if you are certified, $19.41 and up depending on experience. Because of many questions know that a tra c citation/ticket and simple misdemeanor convictions may not disqualify you from working for a government, or law enforcement entity, so call as we believe people just make bad choices sometimes and you should not hold it against them forever.

Call 785-448-5678 for an application or stop by 135 E. 5th Ave., Garnett, KS 66032. ANCOSO is an equal-opportunity employer and follows veterans' preference laws.

Director of Talent Search Project Salary: $35,000 - $40,000

Director of Development Salary: $50,000 - $60,000

Assistant Director of Residence & Student Life Salary: $23,000 - $28,000

STARS Math Specialist Salary: $30,160 - $34,600

Safety Officer Part-time Minimum starting wage: $15.50

Assistant Spirit Coach Salary: $21,000

BOARD VACANCY

Braves sign new catcher to 6-year deal

ATLANTA (AP) —

The Atlanta Braves signed newly acquired catcher Sean Murphy to a $73 million, six-year contract Tuesday, locking up another key player with a long-term deal.

The contract includes a $15 million club option for 2029 with no buyout that could raise the total value to $88 million.

Murphy will make $4 million in 2023, $9 million in 2024 and $15 million

each season from 2025 through 2028. He agreed to donate 1% of his annual salary to the Atlanta Braves Foundation.

The deal follows a familiar pattern of the Braves agreeing to new contracts with players who are still under club control for an extended period. Over the past year, they reached longterm deals with sluggers Austin Riley and Matt Olson, as well as rookie

stars Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider.

Atlanta has previously signed outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and second baseman Ozzie Albies to similar pacts, ensuring that seven core players are under contract for at least three more seasons — and often much longer — with club options that could extend the deals even more.

The 28-year-old Murphy was acquired from

the Oakland Athletics shortly after the winter meetings in a three-team deal that also included the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Braves sent AllStar catcher William Contreras and minor league pitcher Justin Yeager to the Brewers, while backup catcher Manny Piña and pitching prospects Kyle Muller, Freddy Tarnok and Royber Salinas went to Oakland.

Doncic: Superb

league’s highest-scoring performance of the season.

The Mavericks moved three games over .500 with a fourth consecutive victory, both marks matching their season bests.

Quentin Grimes scored a career-high 33 points and Dallas native Julius Randle had 29 points and 18 rebounds for the Knicks, who lost a fourth consecutive game coming off an eight-game winning streak, their longest in almost nine years.

Jalen Brunson missed the game with a hip injury, unable to play in what would have been his return to Dallas.

New York was essentially without two starters after RJ Barrett exited with a cut on a finger 96 seconds into the game, but trailed for less than a minute in regulation.

“I thought we were playing well,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Didn’t close out the last 30 seconds of the game.”

After Miles McBride missed one of two free throws with 11.5 seconds left, Spencer Dinwiddie, who scored 25 points, hit a 3-pointer to get Dallas within 113112.

McBride made both free throws the next time for a 115-112 lead with 7.7 seconds to go, then Grimes fouled Doncic before the Dallas superstar could attempt a potential tying 3-pointer.

Doncic made the first free throw before the miss with 4.2 seconds to go, then ended up with the ball after it bounced off several sets of hands.

“I know it was two seconds or something,” Doncic said. “I just threw it up, hopefully it went in.”

The teams combined to miss the first nine shots of overtime, all the points coming on free throws before Doncic hit a jumper for a 122-117 lead with 1:08

remaining.

Doncic was 21 of 31 from the field and 16 of 22 from the line while topping Dirk Nowitzki’s previous club record of 53 from Dec. 2, 2004.

The 23-year-old’s record night came two days after the Mavericks unveiled a statue of Nowitzki outside the arena.

“I’m tired as hell,” Doncic said after playing all but 12 seconds of the second half and overtime, and 49 minutes overall. “I need a recovery beer.”

Dallas led for less than a minute of regulation but never trailed in overtime. Doncic put the Mavs ahead for good at 118-116 with two free throws midway through the extra period.

Brunson missed his first game of the season in his first visit to Dallas, where the point guard spent his first four seasons before signing with the Knicks in free agency last summer.

The two-time NCAA champion from Villanova got to play against his former team in early December in New York, when the Mavericks rolled to a 121-100 victory.

TIP-INS

Knicks: Starting for Brunson, Immanuel Quickley had a career-high 15 assists and scored 13 points. ... Mitchell Robinson had a season-high 20 points and 16 rebounds.

Mavericks: F Dorian Finney-Smith will miss at least two more weeks with a right adductor strain that has sidelined him the past four games. ... Christian Wood had 19 points and nine rebounds.

UP NEXT Knicks: At San Antonio on Thursday as New York hits all three Texas cities. The Houston visit finishes the threegame trip Saturday.

Mavericks: The Rockets at home Thursday in the first of two meetings in five days. The rematch in Houston is Monday.

Djokovic: Australia

body confirmed.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley indicated at a news conference Tuesday that Djokovic had arrived.

“Novak is welcome in Australia,” Tiley said. “I think as we speak he has landed in Adelaide and he’s going to be the player to beat (at the Australian Open) again.”

The Australian Open runs from Jan. 16-29 in Melbourne.

Djokovic missed the Grand Slam last year because of his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Australia has since lifted strict rules for unvaccinated travelers.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles last month confirmed that Djokovic, who had been facing a possible threeyear ban after being deported, was granted a visa.

Djokovic has won the Australian Open a record nine times, including the last three times he played. Rafael Nad-

al won the 2022 title in Djokovic’s absence.

“Over the years I’ve been really fortunate to start very strong in Australia and I love playing there,” Djokovic said in Dubai last week at an exhibition tournament.

“After obviously what happened earlier this year, hopefully I can have a decent reception there and hopefully that can help me play some good tennis.”

But questions remain around how Djokovic will be received by Australian fans. Tiley told reporters Tuesday he believed Djokovic will be well-received.

“I have a great deal of confidence in the Australian public,” Tiley said. “We’re a very well-educated sporting public, particularly those who come to the tennis. They love their tennis, they love seeing greatness, they love seeing great athleticism, great matches.

“And I have a lot of confidence that the fans will react like we hope they would react and have respect for that.”

Impatient Penner leads Broncos’ coaching search

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — His family bought the Denver Broncos last summer but it was on Tuesday that CEO Greg Penner really took ownership of the franchise.

Penner made it clear that not only will he lead the search for a new head coach but that Nathaniel Hackett’s replacement will report directly to him and not to general manager George Paton.

“Yes, the new head coach will report to me, which is the more typical structure in the NFL,” Penner said.

“Obviously, the relationship between the general manager and the head coach is a critical one and George is going to be intimately involved with this process of looking for a new head coach and we’ll make sure that there’s a good fit there.”

Penner, his wife, Carrie Walton-Penner, and her father, Rob Walton, purchased the team for $4.65 billion, a global record for a professional sports franchise. Limited partners include former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The team has proven to be more of a fixer-upper than the new owners expected.

The Broncos have tumbled through a 4-11 season and quarterback Russell Wilson has stumbled through the worst season of his career after signing a $245 million extension before the opener.

“When we purchased this great franchise in August this is not the season we were expecting,” Penner said, adding, “I want to personally apologize to our fans and all of Broncos country. We know that we need to be better and we will.”

The Broncos have extended their playoff drought to seven years, mostly because of a sputtering offense that averages fewer than 16 points per game.

Hackett became just the fifth coach in NFL history not to make it through his first season. He’s being replaced

by interim coach Jerry Rosburg after Ejiro Evero, a candidate for the full-time job, declined the temporary offer, suggesting he’d be more of a help these last two weeks just sticking to his role as defensive coordinator.

The new head coach will have to find a way to fix Wilson and establish an offensive identity to match the team’s stingy defense.

Penner said he wanted to wait until after the season to decide on Hackett’s fate, but that all changed when the Broncos were blown out 51-14 by the Los Angeles Rams on Christmas Day.

Exacerbating the Broncos’ embarrassment, guard Dalton Risner, the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year honoree, shoved backup

QB Brett Rypien on the sideline and linebacker Randy Gregory threw a punch at Rams O-lineman Oday Aboushi during postgame handshakes, resulting in a one-game suspension. That debacle alone isn’t what got Hackett fired with three years and more than $12 million left on his contract, but it did accelerate the conversations that led to his dismissal.

Penner said he “didn’t go into this week thinking this was a time we were going to make a change. But after we saw the effort we put forward on Sunday, some of the things that were going on off the field, we just felt like it was time to make a decision.”

Paton said he still thinks Hackett is “a great football coach”

but that “it just didn’t work out here.”

“And that’s on me,” added Paton. “I take full responsibility for where we are as a football team. I brought in the head coach; I brought in most of the players. Those are my decisions, and there’s no one to blame but me.”

So, why, Penner was asked, does he maintain such faith in both his GM and his QB given their dreadful 2022 performances?

“So, the decision to have Russ here was a long-term one,” Penner said. “This season has not been up to his standards or expectations. We saw some glimpses of (vintage Wilson) in the last few weeks. He knows he can play better. We know he can play better. And we know he’ll do the right work in the offseason to be ready for next year.”

Penner said he and his GM have daily conversations “and he acknowledged right up front there are a couple of decisions that haven’t worked out as he had expected. But I understand his thought process. He understands the work that needs to be done this offseason. And I’m going to rely on him heavily as we go through and make these changes.”

The Broncos aren’t limiting their search to experienced NFL coaches even though their past three hires have been first-time head coaches who were fired before their contracts were up.

“It certainly helps, but it’s not necessary,” Paton said of previous NFL head coaching experience. “We’re going to keep an open mind through this search.”

Paton said he’s not necessarily looking for a quarterback whisperer, either.

“That’s not why we’re getting a new coach, to turn around Russ,” Paton said. “It’s about the entire organization, it’s about the entire football team. It’s not one player. It’s not whether Russ is fixable or not. We do believe he is, we do.”

Denver Broncos co-owner Greg Penner is seen on the field prior to a game against the San Francisco 49ers Sept. 25 in Denver. GETTY IMAGES/MATTHEWE STOCKMAN/TNS

Bills-Bengals highlights NFL’s Week 17 action

By JOSH DUBOW The Associated Press

This is not exactly a winning weekend upcoming of NFL football.

The Monday night matchup between Buffalo (12-3) and Cincinnati (11-4) is the only one in Week 17 that features two teams with winning records.

That marks just the seventh time since the merger that one of the final two weeks of the season featured one or fewer matchup with winning teams, according to Sportradar.

The last time it happened was in Week 16 of the 2011 season when Atlanta (9-5) faced New Orleans (11-3). There was also only one matchup of winning teams in Week 16 of the 2009 season, Week 17 of 2003, Week 16 of 2001

and Week 16 of 1990.

There was also one week this late in the season that had no matchups of winning teams, coming in Week 16 of the 2007 season.

In all, only 11 teams have winning records with two weeks to go.

This is the fewest winning teams after 16 weeks since 1985, when 11 of the 28 teams finished with winning records.

COMEBACKS

The 2022 season has already been a record-setting one for big

comebacks.

The Saints, Cowboys, Packers and Buccaneers all rallied from at least 10 points down to win this week, giving the NFL a record-setting 46 double-digit comebacks this season.

The previous mark for most wins in a season after trailing by at least 10 points was 43, done in 2013, 2014 and 2020.

The Vikings and Chargers lead the way with four double-digit comebacks apiece, while the Raiders have blown the most with four.

JUST FOR KICKS

Minnesota only needed a smaller comeback this week, overcoming a three-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Giants 27-24 for its record-tying eighth fourth-quarter comeback of the season.

The game ended on Greg Joseph’s 61-yard field goal, giving Minnesota its record-setting 11th win this season by eight points or fewer.

That was the fifth lead-changing field goal of at least 60 yards in the final two minutes of a game since 2016, with three of those coming against the Giants. Jake Elliott did it for Philadelphia in 2017 and Graham Gano for Carolina in 2018.

The only others were by New Orleans’ Wil Lutz against Minnesota earlier this season and Justin Tucker last year for Baltimore against Detroit.

Kickers trying lead-changing field goals of at least 60 yards are 3 for 3 against the Giants and 2 for 15 against all other teams since 2016.

In all, there have been

16 field goals made from at least 60 yards since the start of the 2017 season — matching the total in NFL history before that.

WEARING DOWN

Watch out, Washington. Playing the 49ers seems to have a lasting negative impact.

Teams that played the 49ers this season are 0-13 when they play a game the following week, as it appears their physical style might wear down opponents. The only team to win its next game after playing San Francisco was the Chiefs, who had a bye in between.

According to Sportradar, the last team whose opponents lost the following week every time was the 1934 St. Louis Gunners, who played only three games that season.

TCU: Michigan matchup offers enticing contrast in styles

Continued from A1

Moore Award given to the best offensive line in the country.

This season’s group might be even better than last year’s, which added center Olusegun Oluwatimi to a veteran group. The Virginia transfer won the Outland Trophy (best interior lineman) and Rimington Trophy (top center) this season.

Oluwatimi, tackles Hayes and Karsen Barnhart, and guards Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan average 308 pounds, but what makes them different from even the best Big 12 lines is they also are long and rangy.

The 6-foot-3 Oluwatimi is the only one of five starters under 6-5.

Offensive line coach

Sherrone Moore is also Michigan’s co-offensive coordinator now, handling play-calling duties with Weiss. The two were promoted after Josh Gattis left for Miami following last season’s playoff appearance by the Wolverines that ended in an Orange Bowl semifinal loss to Georgia.

“I think (Moore) does a really good job of knowing what our strengths are,” Hayes said. “It’s great having him in our room. We get extra intricate detail of why are we doing this as a whole offense. He kind of lets us know what the whole offense is doing and that helps us.”

Adding to all that beef up front, Michigan loves its big personnel

packages. The Wolverines will regularly use two, three, even the occasional four-tight end formation.

It is an offense Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s mentor, Bo Schembechler, would be proud of.

“It’s going to be quite a bit different from what we’ve gotten to see week in and week out,” TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie said. “But I also feel like there’s some differences that we’ll bring to the table as well.”

The 3-3-5 defense TCU plays was born as a counter-measure to spread offenses that proliferated college football — especially the Big 12 — in the 2000s and 2010s.

Those offenses often

abandon the tight end position altogether, instead going with four or five wide receivers.

Ohio State dabbles in the 3-3-5, but for the most part Michigan didn’t see much of it this season.

“So, it’s really hard to watch the tape and say, ‘OK, this will definitely work, but this won’t,’” Weiss said about game planning for TCU.

The Horned Frogs are not exactly undersized up front on defense. Nose guards Damonic Williams and Tymon Mitchell both weigh in north of 315 pounds. But usually only one of them is on the field at a time. All three of TCU’s starting linebackers are listed at 230 pounds or more.

But if TCU wants to

stick with its usual five defensive backs against Michigan, those players are going to be forced to get physical in ways they typically haven’t faced this season.

Advantage, Michigan? Neither side is about to concede that.

“They look like NFL safeties and DBs,” Weiss said of the TCU secondary. “They fly up there, they tackle, they’re physical, they’re really good tacklers and they’re fast. That erases a lot of those problems.”

The Horned Frogs ranked fourth in the Big 12 — but 65th in the country — in yards per carry allowed at 4.10. By far their best defensive game came against Texas and All-American Bijan Robinson, who had

29 yards on 12 carries.

In two games against Kansas State, though, the Frogs allowed 363 yards and 4.9 yards per carry.

Meanwhile, Michigan’s offense ranked fourth in the country in yards per carry at 5.64, ninth in rushing attempts (571) and hardly dropped off when All-America running back Blake Corum went out with a knee injury in Game 11.

Donovan Edwards moved into starting role for the final two games and ran for 401 yards on 47 carries against Ohio State and Purdue.

“If they establish the run,” TCU linebacker Johnny Hodges said, “it’s going to be a long game for us.”

Georgia: Bulldogs brace for potent Ohio State Buckeye team

Continued from A1

that is what it is.”

At the very least, the proud Georgia defense has had reason to take advantage of the extra time to prepare for the playoff game.

“It just showed some of the things we’ve got to work on, so we have been attacking that in practice and working to get better,” Georgia inside linebacker Smael Mondon said Tuesday, adding that defensive backs and other defensive players have been

“staying after practice trying to get more work. Just trying to get better and fix whatever issues we’ve got.”

Mondon had six tackles and his first career interception in the SEC championship game. He knows the bowl game will present a more difficult challenge. Stroud was a Heisman Trophy finalist and the Buckeyes boast perhaps the nation’s top group of wide receivers.

Marvin Harrison Jr. was a first-team AP

All-America pick. Another top wide receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, will miss the game as he continues to rehabilitate a leg injury and prepare for the NFL draft. The Buckeyes still have Emeka Egbuka, who had 66 catches for 1,039 yards and nine touchdowns, as the second-leading receiver behind Harrison, who had 72 catches for 1,157 and 12 TDs.

Harrison said the Ohio State offense must “stay on the field.”

“We can’t go threeand-outs,” Harrison said. “Then we get into red zone, guys score touchdowns and not field goals. That’s probably the biggest thing. ... We’re gonna need to score a lot of points against Georgia. The defense is probably the best in the country, along with our defense as well, too. But it can be a challenge for us.”

Ohio State’s wide receivers are the challenge for the Bulldogs’

secondary. Georgia defensive tackle Zion Logue’s focus is on the quarterback.

“Number one, how fast C.J. Stroud gets the ball out of his hands and where he’s looking, who he’s looking to get the ball to,” Logue said. “That’s just been my biggest thing.”

Georgia is the defending national champion and will be playing in a familiar setting. The Bulldogs opened the season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, about 75 miles

from the Georgia campus, by beating Oregon 49-3 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game and then returned to the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons for the SEC championship game.

The Ohio State-Georgia winner will play either Michigan or TCU in the Jan. 9 national championship game in Los Angeles. Georgia is trying to become the first team since Alabama in 2011-12 to win back-to-back national titles.

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Gabe Davis (13) catches a pass against Miami Dec. 17. DAVID SANTIAGO/TNS

Ex’s big-spending girlfriend leaves mom in a lurch

Hello, Ms. Hax: I am divorced, and my ex and I have a strained relationship.

Each year for their birthdays and Christ-

Hax

mas, I distribute our sons’ wish lists to family and friends. We each buy a little from the lists, and the kids, whom I’ve raised not to be terribly materialistic, get everything on their lists.

My ex has had a girlfriend for about a year. She is nice to our kids, and my ex is always less antagonistic when he has a girlfriend, so naturally I’m supportive.

I shared our youngest son’s birthday wish list, and my ex’s girlfriend bought everything on it.

I have a lot of emotions about this, not all of which I’m proud of. I’m flabbergasted at the display of wealth and stressed that I have no idea what to tell relatives to get our son for Christmas. I’m jealous that she can spend 10 times what I spent on my son (I’m a teacher), and I’m worried that she’s luring him to visit them more often, because he will be spoiled there. I’m angry that my ex would allow this and bitter that my mom seems to have been right: that my ex wanted a sugar mama.

If I say anything, my ex will call me a control freak. I haven’t said a word to my son beyond being excited with him about his gifts. Do I say anything? How? Or do I

CRYPTOQUOTES

just not share the whole list next time?

— Not the Sugar Mama

Not the Sugar Mama: Well, yes, don’t share the whole list next time. Or put some things for yourself on it.

As for the stuff — the emotional stuff, not material — it can help to untangle and file it in categories.

I’ll start with logistical, because the more we can justify putting there, the better:

• The girlfriend might have seen it as a shopping list vs. a pick-justone list. Don’t panic about ulterior motives until you have to.

• What to tell relatives to buy your son? By now you’ll have thought of something. We always do.

Next, post-marital:

• Maybe your ex didn’t know she did this; maybe he allowed it just to stick it to you. Either way, you’re on to it now and have easy recourse, so cross it off the fret list.

• Maybe your mom was right about him! So, points to her; we can’t all be right about everybody. (Not even Mom.) Fortunately, it’s academ-

ic, because any parasitic tendencies he may have are largely no longer your problem.

• She makes him nicer. You’re right to prioritize that.

• You’re jealous. Okay. We won’t tell, especially because most of us covet sometimes (the girlfriend included, I’d guess), because someone always has something cooler. But not everyone chooses a noble vocation, as you did, knowing it would limit your cooltoy access. So have your wallow, then get your noble back on.

Next, parental:

• You needn’t say anything to your son. This is between you and the couple, to whom you also needn’t say anything, and between you and yourself. (Always feel free to talk to yourself.)

• You say you raised your kids “not to be terribly materialistic,” which is really all you could do, so trust that.

To the extent you can, at least, because you could have taught them frugality and produced backlash materialists, or spoiled them to the bejeezus and launched a generation of backlash eco-ascetic evangelists.

All we can do is try. And trust yourself, too. You’ve given your sons your presence, your time, your values, your example, your consistency and a circle of family and friends. If merch beats that, then I’ll rage with you this time next … decade. We’re all playing the long game here.

Yesterday’s Cryptoquote:

Last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. — T.S. Eliot

ZITS by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman BEETLE BAILEY by Mort Walker HAGAR THE HORRIBLE by Chris Browne FUNKY WINKERBEAN by Tom Batiuk

BLONDIE by Young and Drake MARVIN by Tom Armstrong HI AND LOIS by Chance Browne

PIXABAY.COM

Carolyn

Ledecky: Voted Associated Press top female athlete for 2022

first Olympic gold medal in 2012 at age 15, has managed to stay on top in female freestyle swimming’s longest pool events for the better part of a decade.

She has held the longcourse world record in both the 800- and 1,500-meter free since 2013, rarely facing a serious challenge in either of those grueling races.

At this year’s world aquatics championships in Budapest, Hungary, Ledecky touched first in the 800 by more than 10 seconds and won the 1,500 by nearly 15 seconds. She also claimed gold in the 400 free and was part of the winning U.S. team in the 4x200 free relay.

Before 2022 was done, Ledecky added two more world records to her ledger. She set shortcourse marks in both the 800 and 1,500 a week apart — even though she rarely competes in the 25-meter pool.

But the real enjoyment for Ledecky comes when no one is cheering her on, when it’s just her and her coaches and teammates, putting in the long, lonely hours of training.

“I might be one of the few swimmers who loves the training even more than the racing,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong: I love the racing, too. But I truly enjoy going to practice every day. I’m excited when I go to bed for practice in

the morning.”

Last year, after an Olympic performance that was a slight disappointment by her lofty standings, Ledecky left coach Greg Meehan and the Stanford University team where she had competed and trained while earning a psychology degree.

Her top priority was getting closer to her family in the Washington, D.C., area. She was intrigued by the program that Anthony Nesty, a rising star in the coaching ranks, had built at the University of Florida.

One of Nesty’s freestylers, Bobby Finke, surprisingly swept gold in the men’s 800 and 1,500 free at Tokyo. Another, Kieran Smith, captured an unexpected bronze.

NFL standings

AMERICAN CONFERENCE

East W L T Pct PF PA y-Bu alo 12 3 0 .800 420 263 Miami 8 7 0 .533 365 370 N.Y. Jets 7 8 0 .467 284 282 New England 7 8 0 .467 318 291 South Jacksonville 7 8 0 .467 353 331 Tennessee 7 8 0 .467 269 312

e-Indianapolis 4 10 1 .300 248 357 e-Houston 2 12 1 .167 254 358 North x-Cincinnati 11 4 0 .733 391 306 x-Baltimore 10 5 0 .667 321 272 Pittsburgh 7 8 0 .467 264 319 e-Cleveland 6 9 0 .400 323 343 West y-Kansas City 12 3 0 .800 438 332 x-L.A. Chargers9 6 0 .600 332 343 Las Vegas 6 9 0 .400 348 350 e-Denver 4 11 0 .267 232 304

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

East

x-Philadelphia13 2 0 .867 445 308 x-Dallas 11 4 0 .733 434 303 N.Y. Giants 8 6 1 .567 311 339 Washington 7 7 1 .500 285 313 South Tampa Bay 7 8 0 .467 266 304 Carolina 6 9 0 .400 313 337 New Orleans 6 9 0 .400 303 325 e-Atlanta 5 10 0 .333 315 350

North y-Minnesota 12 3 0 .800 378 373 Detroit 7 8 0 .467 392 401 Green Bay 7 8 0 .467 313 334 e-Chicago 3 12 0 .200 303 393 West y-San Fran. 11 4 0 .733 375 230 Seattle 7 8 0 .467 365 379 e-L.A. Rams 5 10 0 .333 281 334 e-Arizona 4 11 0 .267 308 391

e-Eliminated from playo s x-clinched playo spot y-clinched division

Thursday’s Games Dallas at Tennessee, 7:15 p.m.

Sunday’s Games Arizona at Atlanta, noon Carolina at Tampa Bay, noon Chicago at Detroit, noon Cleveland at Washington, noon Denver at Kansas City, noon Indianapolis at N.Y. Giants, noon Jacksonville at Houston, noon Miami at New England, noon New Orleans at Philadelphia, noon N.Y. Jets at Seattle, 3:05 p.m. San Francisco at Las Vegas, 3:05 p.m. L.A. Rams at L.A. Chargers, 3:25 p.m. Minnesota at Green Bay, 3:25 p.m. Pittsburgh at Baltimore, 7:20 p.m.

Monday’s Games Bu alo at Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m.

NBA standings

So, Ledecky moved nearly 2,800 miles from Palo Alto, California, to Gainesville, Florida.

“It’s been a lot of fun every day,” she said. “This is the right place for me to be at this point in my career. I’m training really well and learning a lot along the way.”

The shift to Nesty and a program where she usually trains with the men seems to have

pushed the 25-year-old Ledecky to even greater heights.

Nesty said one of his main challenges is making sure Ledecky doesn’t train too hard.

“She needs to understand that once you get older, the body is different,” the coach said. “I have to tell her, ‘Katie, you’ve got understand you’re not 18 anymore.’ The body will get tired. When it gets tired, it’s OK to throttle back a little bit.”

Moving to Florida has led to other changes.

Always a bit reserved, Ledecky now seems far more willing to speak up — even holding her own in good-natured trash talk with her male teammates, according to Nesty.

“This group is a very competitive group, a fun group and, at times, pretty chatty,” he said. “It seems to have made her pretty chatty. You’ve gotta be with our group. I think our group has kind of made her come out of her shell a little bit.”

Ledecky agreed.

“Guys are guys. They love to trash-talk with

each other,” she said with a smile. “I’ll poke a little fun at the some of the guys, give them a little push here and there. I’m definitely pretty comfortable in this environment now.”

Ledecky tackled a brutal program at the Tokyo Games, where women competed in the 1,500 free for the first time. As expected, she swept the 800-1,500 double but came up short to Australian rival Ariarne Titmus in two shorter freestyle events.

Ledecky settled for silver behind Titmus in the 400 and didn’t even win a medal in the 200, finishing 1 1/2 seconds behind the Aussie in fifth place.

It was the first time Ledecky failed to win a medal in an Olympic race.

“There were some things I would’ve liked to be better in Tokyo,” she conceded. “But also, I was really stretching myself, I was swimming 1,500 at the Olympics for the first time, while also swimming the 200 free. The events were even on the same day, which is something I don’t think

anyone else was doing. It was a challenge I had set my mind to for many years, something I wanted to take on. I don’t regret taking that on.”

The fifth-place finish was certainly an anomaly in Ledecky’s stellar career.

Over three Olympic appearances, she has claimed seven gold medals and three silvers. At the biennial world championships, Ledecky has piled up a staggering 19 gold medals along with three silvers.

She has every intention of going faster.

Ledecky is focused squarely on the 2024 Paris Games, where she’ll likely compete in at least four events. She even is glimpsing ahead to her home-country Olympics at Los Angeles in 2028.

She’ll be 31 by then but sees no reason why she can’t stay on top.

“I’m always setting new goals for myself,” Ledecky said. “I enjoy the process more and more every year. What it takes to stay at this level. What it takes to continue to have your eyes set on something that’s a couple of years away.”

p.m.

L.A. Clippers at Boston, 6:30 p.m. Memphis at Toronto, 6:30 p.m. New York at San Antonio, 7 p.m. Houston at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.

Sydney McLaughlin poses for a photo after winning gold and setting a world record in the women’s 400 meter hurdles at the World Championships July 22 in Eugene, Ore. McLaughlin was edged by Katie Ledecky in voting for the AP Female Athlete of the Year.

THE OREGONIAN/VICKIE CONNOR/TNS