The San Diego Union-Tribune: Feb. 7, 2022 Edition

MEXICAN AUTHORITIES CLEAR MIGRANT CAMP IN TIJUANA

Hundreds had been living at El Chaparral plaza near border

BY ALEXANDRA MENDOZA & KATE MORRISSEY

Mexican authorities on Sunday cleared a migrant camp set up almost a year ago at El Chaparral plaza, near the exit from the PedWest crossing at the San DiegoTijuana border

The operation to relocate about 400 migrants mostly Mexicans and Central Americans —began before 5 a.m. and involved dozens of officers from different law enforcement agencies, including the National Guard.

Buses took some to shelters. Others left the area on their own.

“They surprised us while we were sleeping,” said Graciela a woman from Guerrero, Mexico, who did not give her last name. She had been living in the camp with her 6-year-old son for six months. “It is unfair to be removed like this,” she said.

The decision to clear the make-

SON OF MEXICAN JOURNALIST KILLED IN TIJUANA

Man shot outside home of father, former reporter who runs news page

BY DAVID HERNANDEZ & ALEXANDRA MENDOZA

The son of a Mexican journalist was shot to death early Sunday in Tijuana, the latest high-profile killing in a border city where the dangers of news reporting are in the spotlight after two journalists were fatally shot last month.

In the aftermath of the latest shooting in the Lomas Verdes neighborhood, authorities arrested a 25-year-old suspect, according to the Baja California State Attorney General’s Office. Authorities withheld the suspect’s name, as per protocol in Mexico.

The victim, Marcos Ernesto Islas Flores, was fatally shot outside of the home of his father Marco Antonio Islas Parra, who reported the killing in a chilling Facebook post. “A few minutes ago they executed my son Marcos Ernesto with four bullets, outside my house...,” Islas Parra wrote. Islas Parra manages a Facebook page titled Zona Norte Noticias, which shares news releases and articles. He previously worked as a reporter, beginning in 1990, for El Heraldo, El Sol de Tijuana and El Imparcial, according to Grupo REFORMA.

In an interview with Grupo RE-

SEE SON • A7

something that should be left to uncertainty, she said in a written statement.

City officials had previously said they would not remove the migrant camp by force.

Caballero was on site early Sunday joined by the Secretary of Government of Baja California, Catalino Zavala, and other officials.

Of the 381 migrants living at the site, a third were minors, Zavala said.

Caballero said that they will assist migrants who decide to stay in Tijuana or continue to wait for their “American Dream.” Also, transportation will be paid for those who prefer to return to their countries or cities of origin.

SP OR TS

SDSU ESCAPES LOSS AT HOME TO NEVADA

D1 The Aztecs survive a scare from the Wolf Pack, the eighth-place team in the Mountain West conference, winning 65-63.

shift camp was made jointly by the municipal and state governments and the National Guard, authorities said.

Police officers were not armed, and the operation was planned throughout the week said Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero Some police carried riot shields and batons as families

BIRCH AQUARIUM’S FUNDRAISER WILL GIVE YOU NAMING RIGHTS TO PENGUIN FOR $50K

Money earmarked to help pay for a habitat for smallest of species

BY GARY ROBBINS

UC San Diego’s Birch Aquarium is selling the naming rights to its Little Blue Penguins for $50,000 apiece to help underwrite a habitat for seabirds that tirelessly growl, squawk, screech and peep.

The aquarium says it has already sold the rights to five of the 10 “Little Blues,” which will become the centerpiece of the largest new exhibit that the Birch has created since it opened 30 years ago. It will debut on July 1.

The names will be revealed in April during a campaign to promote the $2.8 million habitat, which will be the only one west of the Rockies to feature the smallest of all penguin species They are generally less than a foot tall and weigh about 3 pounds, roughly as much as a MacBook Pro laptop.

This is the first time animal naming rights have been sold by Birch, whose visitorship fell to 110,460 in fiscal 2021-21, as the pandemic

SEE PENGUIN • A7

boarded buses. Caballero said the relocation was needed to guarantee the safety and health of those who had been living at the site for months.

ground, but they were not armed SEE

“As mayor of Tijuana I must make firm decisions. The welfare of the people, children, pregnant women and elderly adults located (at the camp) is not a game, nor

At least once during the morning, a Mexican official using a loudspeaker from the top of a building was urging migrants to take their belongings and go to the buses.

Authorities used excavators and trucks to quickly remove the remains of tents, tarps and other items left on the ground after migrants were evicted.

MORE ASYLUM SEEKERS TRY TO REACH U.S. SOIL BY CAR

CBP staffs officers in lanes at ‘limit line at ports of entry

BY KATE MORRISSEY

At the San Ysidro Port of Entry, border officials stand along the bustling car lanes, guarding a line of yellow bumps on the

An officer stands at the yellow bumps that mark the “limit line” at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

asylum seekers began using the car lanes to try to reach the United States,

DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS SET TO INTENSIFY OVER THREAT TO UKRAINE

Biden to meet German leader; Macron traveling to Moscow to see Putin

THE WASHINGTON POST

Efforts to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine will intensify this week, as world leaders make a heightened push for a diplomatic solution, even as new U.S. military and intelligence assessments which estimated Russia could seize Kyiv in days and leave up to 50,000 civilians killed or wounded —suggest that the window for negotiations is closing.

President Joe Biden is set to meet today with new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been accused of not doing enough to respond to Russian aggression along with his European allies. French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently re-emphasized France’s commitment to its NATO allies, will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today and then travel to Kyiv on Tuesday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

and Customs and Border Protection added officers at the limit line to check identification before cars cross onto U.S. soil and reach the booths where their documents are more officially in-

SEE ASYLUM • A6

“The priority for me on the Ukrainian question is dialogue with Russia and de-escalation,” Macron said. “I’m very worried by the situation on the ground.”

The White House on Sunday said Biden and Macron had spoken

SEE UKRAINE • A9

“They surprised us while we were sleeping. It is unfair to be removed like this.”

Officers from dozens of Mexican law enforcement agencies, including the National Guard, participate in clearing out a migrant camp that had been in place since February 2021 in the El Chaparral plaza near the U.S. border

ALEJANDRO TAMAYO U-T PHOTOS

Some members of the Mexican National Guard carry riot shields and batons as the cleanup takes place in the back-

SOLDIER WHO WENT MIA IN 1942 IDENTIFIED

GULFPORT, Miss.

Asouth Mississippi family has finally found answers to an eight-decade mystery.

The fate of Private Andrew Ladner a soldier from Harrison County, has been unknown since he disappeared during World War II, during the Battle of BunaGona.

This month, the U.S. government announced that Ladner’s remains had been identified. The notification came from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, The Sun Herald reported.

In November 1942 Ladner was posted in the southeastern mountain jungles of what was then the Australian territory of New Guinea, fighting Japanese troops for control of the port of Buna, The Sun Herald reported. His unit’s mission was to cut off Japanese supply and communications lines from the nearby village of Sanananda Ladner was killed in action. Ladner a native of Lizana, Miss., was 30 at the time of his death, according to newspaper articles from the era. He had graduated from Perkinston Junior College, which is now Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

The American Graves Registration Service spent years combing the battle site for the bodies of American soldiers, but declared Ladner non-recoverable in 1950

It turned out, however, that Ladner’s remains had actually been found in April 1943 and buried at a temporary U.S. cemetery in the nearby village of Soputa The stillunidentified remains were later moved to the Philippines and buried in another cemetery in 1949

About 45 years later, in 1995 organizations dedicated to finding POW/MIA soldiers from World War II launched a new effort to identify men from the battle where Ladner went missing Areview of unknown casualty records prompted the exhumation of Ladner’s body listed only by the number X-1545 in November 2016

Then, new technologies including DNA analysis allowed researchers at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to identify the body Afuneral will be held in Gulfport at an undetermined date, The Sun Herald reported. ASSOCIATED PRESS

PEOPLE

‘Jackass Forever’ laughs its way to No 1

Not even a global pandemic or a 12-year hiatus could stop the Jackass guys at the box office. “Jackass Forever, the fourth movie in the anarchic series earned $23.5 million in ticket

ABUSES ALLEGED AT PRISON FOR WOMEN

WASHINGTON

Inside one of the only federal women’s prisons in the United States, inmates say they have been subjected to rampant sexual abuse by correctional officers and even the warden, and were often threatened or punished when they tried to speak up.

Prisoners and workers at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, Calif., even have a name for it: “The rape club.”

An Associated Press investigation has found a permissive and toxic culture at the Bay Area lockup, enabling years of sexual misconduct by predatory employees and cover-ups that have largely kept the abuse out of the public eye.

The AP obtained internal Bureau of Prisons documents statements and recordings from inmates, interviewed current and former prison employees and reviewed thousands of pages of court records from criminal and civil cases involving Dublin prison staff.

Together, they detail how inmates’ allegations against members of the mostly male staff were ignored or set aside, how prisoners could be sent to solitary confinement for reporting abuse and how officials in charge of preventing and investigating sexual misconduct were themselves accused of abusing inmates or neglecting their concerns

In one instance, a female inmate said a man, who was her prison work supervisor,

taunted her by remarking “let the games begin” when he assigned her to work with a maintenance foreman she accused of rape. Another worker claimed he wanted to get inmates pregnant. The warden kept nude photos on his government-issued cellphone of a woman he is accused of assaulting, prosecutors say One inmate said she was “overwhelmed with fear anxiety, and anger, and cried uncontrollably” after enduring abuse and retaliation. Another said she contemplated suicide when her cries for help went unheeded and now suffers from severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder

All sexual activity between a prison worker and

an inmate is illegal. Correctional employees enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.

The allegations at Dublin, which so far have resulted in four arrests, are endemic of a larger problem within the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons. In 2020, there were 422 complaints of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse across the system of 122 prisons and 153,000 inmates. The agency said it substantiated only four of them and that 290 are still being investigated.

The Associated Press contacted lawyers for every Dublin prison employee

charged with sexual abuse or named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging abuse, and tried reaching the men directly through available phone numbers and email addresses. None responded to interview requests. Thahesha Jusino, taking over as Dublin’s warden later this month, promised to “work tirelessly to reaffirm the Bureau of Prisons zero tolerance for sexual abuse and sexual harassment.”

She said the agency is fully cooperating with the Justice Department’s inspector general on active investigations and noted that a“vast majority” of these cases were referred for investigation by the Bureau of Prisons itself.

PRESS

AG SAYS TOWN NOT EXEMPT FROM STATE AFFORDABLE HOUSING LAW

WOODSIDE

ACalifornia town’s plan to declare itself a mountain lion sanctuary as a way to avoid having to build affordable housing is against the law, the state attorney general said Sunday The wealthy Silicon Valley enclave of Woodside announced in a memorandum last week that it was exempt

sales in its first weekend in theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday It not only exceeded expectations but also easily bested its other main competitors, “Moonfall” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

“Jackass Forever brings back Johnny Knoxville Steve-O, Chris Pontius and Wee Man for another round

from a new state housing law that allows for duplex development on single-family lots because the entire town is habitat for endangered cougars.

Woodside’s declaration is a“deliberate and transparent attempt“ to avoid complying with Senate Bill 9, which was enacted last year Attorney General Rob

of pranks, stunts and injuries and has become the best-reviewed film of the series.

“Moonfall,” meanwhile, which cost around $140 million to produce, is not doing well stateside. Lionsgate estimated the film’s opening weekend grosses to be just over $10 million, which was in line with its projections.

Bonta said in a letter to officials in the town of 5,500 residents. SB 9 seeks to increase housing availability by allowing denser development.

“This memorandum is quite clearly contrary to the law, and ironically, contrary to the best interests of the mountain lions the town claims to want to protect,“ Bonta wrote. “My message

Directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson “Moonfall” was not well-received by critics.

“Moonfall” was made and financed independently through Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment and foreign deals and, like many big budget disaster pics of this ilk, is supposed to earn most of its money interna-

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to Woodside is simple: Act in good faith, follow the law, and do your part to increase the housing supply If you don’t, my office won’t stand idly by.”

Town officials didn’t immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment on Bonta’s letter. Any exemption under SB 9requires the town to exam-

tionally Lionsgate only oversaw distribution in North America and its expected to be profitable for the studio.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” took in an additional $9.6 million in its eighth weekend in North American theaters, bringing its domestic total to $748.9 million. Globally, its earnings total $1.77 billion.

ine the attributes of an individual parcel of land, the attorney general’s office said in anews release.

“An entire town cannot be declared habitat for a protected species, and the exemption of a specific lot would have to be based on substantial evidence,” the statement said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kylie announces birth of 2nd child with Scott

Kylie Jenner announced the birth of her second child with rapper Travis Scott in apost Sunday on social media with a blue heart indicating it’s a boy

The 24-year-old reality star and makeup mogul didn’t disclose the new baby’s name.

The child was born Wednesday as the Instagram post was captioned with the date “2/2/22.” The black-and-white photo shows the newborn’s hand apparently being held by his big sister, Stormi, who turned 4 on Feb. 1.

Jenner also posted flowers sent to her and Scott, 30 from family members.

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Jenner and Scott have been dating since 2017 but the couple split in 2019 and continued to co-parent their daughter They reconciled in 2021. Jenner announced she was pregnant that September and held a baby shower in January

U-T NEWS SERVICES

The Federal Correctional Institution east of Oakland is one of six women-only facilities in the federal prison system. AP FILE

QUEEN MARKS 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF RULE

LONDON Queen Elizabeth II remembered the past and sought to cement the future of the monarchy Sunday as the United Kingdom marked the 70th anniversary of her rule.

In remarks delivered in time for Sunday morning’s front pages, the monarch expressed a “sincere wish” that Prince Charles’ wife Camilla should be known as “Queen Consort” when her son succeeds her as expected. With those words, Elizabeth sought to answer once and for all questions about the status of Camilla, who was initially shunned by fans of the late Princess Di-

TUNISIAN LEADER AIMS TO DISSOLVE JUDICIARY

TUNIS, Tunisia

Tunisia’s president has announced a plan to dissolve the national judiciary body, claiming suspicions of corruption and possible mishandling of politically charged cases, local media reported Sunday Opposition members said the move was just the latest example of the president’s extreme power grab.

The decision by President Kais Saied to disband the Superior Council of the Judiciary comes as Tunisians on Sunday marked the ninth anniversary of the assassination of a prominent left-wing leader and an outspoken critic of the Islamist movement.

During a surprise visit to Tunisia’s Interior Ministry on Saturday night, Saied blasted members of the judiciary, accusing some judges and magistrates of “corruption, nepotism, and stalling proceedings in several cases,

No favorite emerges in Costa Rican election

Costa Ricans voted for a new president Sunday in elections that have yet to see aclear favorite emerge among the 25 candidates and will be held amid fears of alow turnout because of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Costa Ricans will also choose a new National Assembly in the elections, which take place days after the country’s top prosecutor filed papers seeking to lift outgoing President Carlos Alvarado’s immunity so he can face charges related to the collection of personal information on citizens. He is not eligible to run again.

Alarge proportion of the electorate remained undecided heading into the vote in the Central American nation.

If no candidate captures at least 40 percent of the vote a runoff vote will be held April 3 between the top two candidates. No single candidate was even close to that threshold in recent polls.

N. KOREA CONTINUES NUKE WORK

UNITED NATIONS

North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs including its capability to produce nuclear device components in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, U.N. experts said in a new report.

The panel of experts said in the executive summary of the report obtained Saturday night by The Associated Press that there was “a marked acceleration” of Pyongyang’s testing and demonstration of new shortrange and possibly mediumrange missiles through January, “incorporating both ballistic and guidance technologies and using both solid and liquid propellants.”

“New technologies tested included a possible hypersonic guiding warhead and a maneuverable re-entry vehicle,” the panel said. North Korea also demonstrated “increased capabilities for rapid deployment, wide mobility (including at sea) and improved resilience of its missile forces.”

The experts said North Korea “continued to seek material, technology and know-how for these programs overseas, including through cyber means and joint scientific research.”

ana, Charles first wife. Britain’s longest-serving monarch, the only sovereign most Britons have ever known, Queen Elizabeth II has been a constant presence as Britain navigated the end of empire, the swinging ’60s, the labor strife of the 1980s, international terrorism, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her statement Sunday the monarch remembered the death of her father King George VI, which elevated her to the throne, and recalled the seven decades of “extraordinary progress” that her reign has spanned. The queen, now 95, also renewed the pledge she made

on her 21st birthday to devote her entire life to the service of the U.K. and the Commonwealth.

In backing Charles and Camilla, Elizabeth remembered the support she received from her husband, Prince Philip, who died last year after decades at her side, as well as the role her mother played as the wife of a king.

“I am fortunate to have had the steadfast and loving support of my family I was blessed that, in Prince Philip, I had a partner willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it,” she wrote. “It is a role I saw my own mother perform

during my father’s reign.”

“And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me,” she added.

For now, the queen remains on the job. On Sunday Buckingham Palace released a photo of the monarch sitting in front of her official red dispatch box with government papers spread out before her

The monarch spent the day at Sandringham, the country estate in eastern England where her father died on Feb. 6, 1952

While Sunday’s anniversary was low-key public

celebrations of the platinum jubilee are scheduled for June. The festivities will include a military parade, neighborhood parties and a competition to create a new dessert a mini extravaganza over a four-day weekend June 2-5

On Saturday she made an appearance at a tea party in her honor, the largest public gathering since her health scare last year Guests reported her wit to be as sharp as ever, though she carried a cane and seemed a bit thinner than usual. Still, she stabbed a massive knife into an anniversary cake, much to the delight of onlookers. ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S., UAE LEADERS TO TALK SECURITY AFTER ATTACKS

ABU DHABI

The head of U.S. Central Command arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday to build on recent measures announced by the Pentagon to help reinforce the UAE’s defenses after attacks by Iranian-affiliated rebels in Yemen.

including those of political assassinations.”

“The Superior Council of the Judiciary can from now on consider itself a thing of the past,” the president said, adding that a decree to set up a provisional council will be issued soon

Opposition leader Chokri Belaid was gunned down outside his home on Feb. 6, 2013 He was a vocal critic of the Islamist movement, Ennahda, that was in power at the time. Six months later, another leftwing politician, Mohammed Brahimi was assassinated. No one has been convicted in either case.

Israeli leader, Biden talk Islamic State, Iran

Israel’s prime minister on Sunday congratulated President Joe Biden for last week’s deadly raid in Syria that killed the leader of the Islamic State group, the Israeli premier’s office announced.

In a phone call with the president, Naftali Bennett told Biden that “the world is now a safer place thanks to the courageous operation of the U.S. forces,” his office said.

Bennett and Biden also discussed Iranian military activity across the Middle East and efforts to block Iran’s nuclear program it said. The White House said in a statement that the leaders discussed “the threat posed by Iran and its proxies.” Israel and Iran are archenemies and Israel has raised vocal concerns about U.S.-led efforts to revive the 2015 international nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

FETHI BELAID AP

Tunisia devolved into a deep political crisis after the two 2013 killings. Tunisia’s 2011 revolution triggered the pro-democracy uprising known as the Arab Spring and the North African nation was considered the country with the best chance of realizing true democratic change until that political crisis.

Last July, following nationwide anti-government protests, Saied dismissed his prime minister assumed all executive powers and froze parliament. He’s been governing by decree since then ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pope Francis appears as TV talk show guest

Pope Francis has notched a new first in his nearly nine-year-old papacy an appearance as a TV talk show guest.

Francis spoke about personal friendship as well as about issues like migration while interviewed by the host of a popular Italian talk show on Rai state television that airs on Sunday nights. The studio is in Milan; the host interviewed the pontiff, at the Vatican, by remote.

The pontiff has given interviews to Italian and foreign media since being elected pontiff in March 2013 But this was the first time that he answered questions on a talk show regularly followed by millions of viewers.

In the interview, Francis expressed anew his insistence that migrants be welcomed into society.

The program was “Che Tempo Che Fa translated as “what the weather is like.”

Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr is expected to meet with UAE leaders and offer a plan to enhance information-sharing on air defenses and to hear out requests for any additional assistance the Emirates might need.

Last week, the Pentagon said it would send the guided missile destroyer Cole and a squadron of advanced F-22 fighters to the UAE, where recent missile attacks have fueled alarm and triggered a response from U.S. troops who are stationed here.

“The purpose of my visit is assurance,” McKenzie said in an interview, and to “make sure that they know we’re a reliable partner.”

The United Arab Emirates is part of a coalition led

by Saudi Arabia that for years has been conducting airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in a bid to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government. The Houthis control large parts of the country including Sanaa, the capital and are thought to be supported by Iran.

“The equipment they are firing is certainly Iranian,” McKenzie said of the Houthis “If Iran didn’t approve this specific attack they’re certainly morally responsible for it.”

The Houthis and the UAE have long been on opposite sides of the fighting in Yemen, but the strikes on UAE soil mark a dramatic change in tactics.

U.S. troops stationed at al-Dhafra Air Base in the UAE have fired Patriot missiles to intercept Houthilaunched missiles on at least two occasions in recent weeks. The attacks also forced the American forces to scramble for cover in reinforced bunkers.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Ayear ago, the panel said North Korea had modernized its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles by flaunting United Nations sanctions, using cyberattacks to help finance its programs and continuing to seek material and technology overseas for its arsenal including in Iran.

“Cyberattacks, particularly on cryptocurrency assets remain an important revenue source” for Kim Jong Un’s government, the experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions against the North said in the new report.

In recent months, North Korea has launched a variety of weapons systems and threatened to lift the fouryear moratorium on more serious weapons tests such as nuclear explosions and ICBM launches. January saw a record nine missile launches, and other weapons it recently tested include adevelopmental hypersonic missile and a submarinelaunched missile.

The Security Council initially imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and made them tougher in response to further nuclear tests and the country’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The panel of experts said North Korea’s blockade aimed at preventing COVID-19 resulted in “historically low levels” of people and goods entering and leaving the country Legal and illegal trade including in luxury goods “has largely ceased” though cross-border rail traffic resumed in early January it said.

The panel has previously made clear that North Korea remains able to evade sanctions and to illicitly import refined petroleum, access international banking channels and carry out “malicious cyber activities.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tunisian President Kais Saied accused judges and magistrates of corruption and stalling on cases.

In a photo released Sunday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of her rule, Queen Elizabeth II is shown at Sandringham with her red dispatch box containing official correspondence. Behind her is a framed photo of her father King George VI, who died on Feb. 6, 1952.

CHRIS JACKSON BUCKINGHAM PALACE VIA AP

POLITICAL PARTIES KILL COMPETITION

New maps impact voting districts, congressional races

BY REID J. EPSTEIN & NICK CORASANITI

WASHINGTON

The number of competitive congressional districts is on track to dive near and possibly below the lowest level in at least three decades, as Republicans and Democrats draw new political maps designed to ensure that the vast majority of House races are over before the general election starts With two-thirds of the new boundaries set, mapmakers are on pace to draw fewer than 40 seats out of 435 that are considered competitive based on the 2020 presidential election results, according to a New York Times analysis of election data. Ten years ago that number was 73

While the exact size of the battlefield is still emerging, the sharp decline of competition for House seats is the latest worrying sign of dysfunction in the U.S. political system, which is already struggling with a scourge of misinformation and rising distrust in elections. Lack of competition in general elections can widen the ideological gulf between the parties, leading to hardened stalemates on legislation and voters’ alienation from the political process.

“The reduction of competitive seats is a tragedy,” said former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr who is chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee “We end up with gridlock, we end up with no

progress, and we end up with a population looking at our legislatures and having this feeling that nothing gets done.” He added: “This gridlock leads to cynicism about this whole process.”

Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for adding to the tally of safe seats. Over decades, the parties have deftly used the redistricting process to create districts dominated by voters from one party or to bolster incumbents. It’s not yet clear which

party will ultimately benefit more from this year’s bumper crop of safe seats, or whether President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings might endanger Democrats whose districts haven’t been considered competitive. Republicans control the mapmaking for more than twice as many districts as Democrats, leaving many in the GOP to believe that the party can take back the House majority after four years of Democratic control largely by drawing

favorable seats.

But Democrats have used their power to gerrymander more aggressively than expected. In New York for example, the Democratic-controlled Legislature on Wednesday approved a map that gives the party a strong chance of flipping as many as three House seats currently held by Republicans.

That has left Republicans and Democrats essentially at a draw, with two big outstanding unknowns: Florida’s 28 seats, increas-

ingly the subject of Republican infighting, are still unsettled, and several court cases in other states could send lawmakers back to the drawing board.

“Democrats in New York are gerrymandering like the House depends on it,” said Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, the party’s main mapmaking organization. “Republican legislators shouldn’t be afraid to legally press their political advantage where they have

control.”

New York’s new map doesn’t just set Democrats up to win more seats, it also eliminates competitive districts. In 2020, there were four districts where Biden and former President Donald Trump were within 5 percentage points. There are none in the new map. Even the reconfigured district that stretches from Republican-dominated Staten Island to Democratic neighborhoods in Brooklyn is now, at least on paper, friendly territory for Democrats.

Republicans argue that redistricting isn’t destiny: The political climate matters, and more races will become competitive if inflation, the lingering pandemic or other issues continue to sour voters on Democratic leadership

But the far greater number of districts drawn to be overwhelmingly safe for one party is likely to limit how many seats will flip even in a so-called wave election.

“The parties are contributing to more and more single-party districts and taking the voters out of the equation,” said former Rep Tom Davis, who led the House Republicans campaign arm during the 2001 redistricting cycle. “November becomes a constitutional formality.

In the 29 states where maps have been completed and not thrown out by courts, there are just 22 districts that either Biden or Trump won by 5 percentage points or less, according to data from the Brennan Center for Justice, a research institute.

Epstein and Corasanti write for The New York Times.

MANCHIN: ELECTORAL COUNT ACT REWRITE WILL PASS

Overhaul result of Trump’s using law to help spur attack

BY LUKE BROADWATER

WASHINGTON

Key senators working on anoverhaulofthelittle-known law that former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to use to overturn the 2020 election pledged Sunday that their legislation would pass the Senate, saying that recent revelations about the plot made their work even more important.

In a joint interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sens Joe Manchin III DW.Va and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said their efforts to

rewrite the Electoral Count Act of 1887 were gaining broader support in the Senate, with as many as 20 senators taking part in the discussions.

“Absolutely, it will pass,” Manchin said of an overhaul of the law, which dictates how Congress formalizes elections.

He said efforts by Trump and his allies to exploit “ambiguity” in the law were “what caused the insurrection” the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. That misreading of the statute led to a plan by Trump and his allies to amass acrowd outside the Capitol to try to pressure Congress and Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over Congress official count of electoral votes, to overturn the results

of the election.

Murkowski said the rewrite could be expanded to include other protections for democracy such as a crackdown on threats and harassment against election workers

“We want to make sure that if you are going to be an election worker,” Murkowski said, “you don’t feel intimidated or threatened or harassed.

Abipartisan group of at least 15 senators which includes Manchin and Murkowski and is led by Sen Susan Collins, R-Maine recently began discussions with another group that features top Democrats who have studied the issue for months. That group includes Sen. Angus King, I-Maine;

Sen. Amy Klobuchar DMinn.; and Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill.

King’s group last week released draft legislative text for a rewrite of the Electoral Count Act that would addressdeficienciesexposedby Trump’s plan. The bill would clarify that the vice president has no power to reject a state’s electors and ensure that state legislatures cannot appoint electors after Election Day in an effort to overturn their state’s election results. It would also give states additionaltimetocompletelegitimate recounts and litigation; provide limited judicial review to ensure that the electors appointed by a state reflect the popular vote results inthestate;enumeratespecif-

ic and narrow grounds for objectionstoelectorsorelectoral votes; raise the thresholds for Congress to consider objections; and make it harder to sustain objections without broad support by both chambers of Congress.

In an interview with The New York Times, King called his group’s draft “very nonpartisan” and said it included the input of conservative and liberal legal scholars.

“Hopefully we can join forces and get a good bill,” King said of Collins’ group.

The latest push to clarify the law follows a series of revelationsaboutacampaignby Trump and his allies to try to overturn the 2020 election, including the surfacing of memosthatshowtherootsof the attempts to use so-called

STATE AG RACES WILL TEST GOP

Some candidates may face backlash from Republicans

BY GEOFF MULVIHILL

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, a Republican, has won re-election multipletimesinastatewherethe GOP dominates politically and, in his telling, has “a 20year track record of calling balls and strikes fairly and squarely.”

That may not be enough for him to survive a GOP primary challenge and keep his seat. Wasden was one of seven Republican attorneys general to opt against joining an illfated challenge of the 2020 presidential election results in other states. And last fall, he declined to join other GOP attorneys general in a letter to President Joe Biden complaining about vaccine mandates, although he ended up joining lawsuits against several of them.

His more moderate positions have put him at odds with a growing share of Republicans who chafe at COVID-19 restrictions and repeat the false claim that widespread fraud cost former President Donald Trump reelection. Wasden is facing two challengers who are to his right in the Republican primary as he seeks a sixth term as the state’s top government lawyer One of the challengers Arthur McComber said a key function of the attorney general’s role is to act as a watchdog against federal power

something he said Wasden hasn’t done enough “It’s basically a misunderstanding of the attorney general position, said McComber, a real estate lawyer

The challenge to Wasden from within his own party is emblematic of the broader far-rightshiftwithintheGOP Similar dynamics are permeating races for attorney general across the country as an office often referred to as “the people’s lawyer responsible in most states for criminal prosecutions and consumer protections has become increasingly consumed by ideological battles.

Seatsforattorneysgeneral are up in 30 states this year Some of the most likely to attractheavyspendingwillbein political battlegrounds such as Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, states that again are expected to play outsized roles in the 2024 presidential contest. Republicans currently

alternate electors to keep Trump in power and the former president’s exploration of proposals to seize voting machines On Friday Pence offered his most forceful rebuke of Trump’s plan, saying the former president was “wrong to insist that Pence had the legal authority to overturn the results of the election. Those comments came on the same day the Republican National Committee voted to censure two members of the party, Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, in a resolution that described the events of Jan. 6 as “legitimate political discourse.”

Broadwater writes for The New York Times.

ELECTION CLAIMS

held “war games” for officials to plan a reaction in case of a Trump loss That group, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, later promoted the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to thwart the certification of electors.

hold 27 attorneys general seats. Paul Nolette, a Marquette University political scientist who studies the office, said Republicans could bump that number to 30 or more in a midterm election year when Republicans are primed to do well in races up and down the ballot.

They’ve already notched an early victory. Last fall, voters ousted the incumbent Democratic attorney general in Virginia, a state that had been leaning increasingly Democratic in recent years. It was part of a GOP wave in the state that also saw the party claim the governor’s office and one house of the legislature Nolette said party affiliation matters for the office more than it used to: “The office has really become like other statewide offices at this point highly polarized.”

Ahead of the 2020 election, an arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association

For Democrats, there is increasing concern that a Republican wave in this year’s elections could sweep Democratic governors, secretaries of state and attorneys general out of power in crucial presidential battleground states. Steve Bullock, a Democrat who has served as attorney general and governor in Montana warned that a rogue attorney general could undermine election results.

“Howcantheymesswithit if they don’t actually believe in theruleoflaw? Both in affirmatively bringing action and defensively failing to defend the states’ interest,” he said.

While secretaries of state oversee elections in most states, attorneys general can play pivotal roles in the aftermath as demonstrated in 2020.

Amonth after that election Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the results in four states that supported Biden over Trump. The court rejected the effort, but only after 18 other Republican attorneys general filed papers in support.

Idaho’s Wasden was not one of them.

Mulvihill writes for The Associated Press.

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden didn’t join the challenge to 2020 presidential election.

OTTO KITSINGER AP

The New York state Senate meets in the Senate Chamber at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. New York’s legislature voted to pass new congressional district maps that will expand Democrats’ influence in New York politics.

HANS PENNINK AP

ASYLUM Processing on hold due to pandemic

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spected by CBP

Though ports of entry are once again allowing “nonessential travelers to cross north, provided they are vaccinated and have permits to enter the United States, border officials have not restarted the processing of asylum seekers since the pandemic began.

That means that the only way for many to request protection is to cross without permission.

Doing so can be quite risky Along the California border it often means scaling a 30-foot border barrier, climbing through treacherous conditions over mountains, hiking through the dangers of the desert or clinging to a rickety panga boat through ocean currents.

Crossing through the car lanes by running on foot or by buying or renting cars if they have the resources presents a seemingly less perilous alternative. After some entered successfully, word spread among asylum seekers and on YouTube about the possibility of refuge after getting past the yellow, bumpy line.

Since CBP began stationing its officers at the limit line in the car lanes, tensions between asylum seekers desperate to reach U.S. soil and the officers told to block them have escalated. In December, an officer even shot at cars driven by asylum seekers as they rolled into San Diego.

Meanwhile, advocates who support asylum seekers in the region have criticized CBP’s choice of resource allocation. They say that CBP could safely process some number of asylum seekers with the officers currently stationed at the limit line, alleviating the need for asylum seekers to drive into the United States in the first place.

“It’s this big show of force,” said Erika Pinheiro, litigation and policy director of Al Otro Lado, a legal services nonprofit that supports asylum seekers in Tijuana. “They always characterize it as an invasion rather than people using the only avenue that they have to seek protection.”

Afederal judge actually ruled last year that CBP’s practice of turning back asylum seekers at the limit line is illegal, though that ruling does not cover the pandemic policy CBP did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Russian YouTube The Union-Tribune is aware of such crossings dating back to at least May 2021, when reporters covering another story in Tijuana were stuck in northbound border traffic early one morning after lanes were temporarily closed as officers responded to a carload of asylum seekers that had reached CBP’s inspection booths One advocate said she started hearing of the car crossings about a year ago. Another had heard of a similar strategy being used along the Arizona border in 2019 The car lanes are particularly popular among Russian-speaking asylum seekers who, according to some accounts, were the first to enter this way.

Russian-language YouTube videos offer guides for those wanting to try. Some suggest flying through Cancún to Tijuana Asylum seekers flying into Mexico often stop in the city on the Caribbean coast to pretend to be tourists to get past Mexican immigration officials, who will stop travelers suspected of trying to reach the United States. In one video of a mother, father and their children, the couple rent a car and film themselves sitting in line at the border Some of the videos show detailed plans of port of entry car lanes, including which ones are general lanes and which ones are SENTRI, or trusted traveler program, lanes.

In comments on another YouTube video of a man on a motorcycle riding up to the border, people ask questions about the yellow bumps on the ground. They know that those bumps are what they have to cross to reach safety

The comments also indicate some of the political hostility that Russians might be fleeing. Some commenters call those who left for the United States traitors to their country.

The most recent U.S. State Department human rights report on Russia lists extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention among the concerns there. The legal team with Jewish Family Service, a San Diego nonprofit that provides some asylum seekers with free attorneys, recently won two Russian cases.

Russians have long come to the San Diego-Tijuana border to request protection, including Tatars, an ethnic minority that faces discrimination and persecution back home. One Tatar man who spoke with the Union-Tribune in 2021 expressed frustration that he didn’t have enough money to find a place to stay or eat, while Russians of the majority ethnic background were able to get cars and enter the United States.

Economic status isn’t the only factor in determining who is able to use the car lanes to seek protection.

Once word began to spread in 2021 that some asylum seekers were making it into San Diego in cars, many nationalities began attempting the method. But some were still not allowed in.

No guarantee

Two Mexican women from the state of Michoacán, where cartel violence mixed with government corruption has forced many to flee, told the Union-Tribune in August 2021 that they had just tried crossing in a car with their children at the San Ysidro Port of Entry

One woman had three children, and the other had two. The Union-Tribune isn’t identifying the women because of their vulnerable situation.

They were held in custody at the port until noon the next day, when U.S. officials sent them back to Tijuana, they said. They ended up at the Templo Embajadores de Jesús migrant shelter, confused and out of options.

“We asked for asylum,” one of the women said in Spanish “They interviewed us and tossed us back here. They didn’t tell us anything.

According to a document they received, they were expelled under the U.S. policy known as Title 42 which under a pandemic order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tells border officials that they can send migrants back to Mexico or their home countries without giving them access to the asylum screening system. This policy was developed by the Trump administration, and President Joe Biden’s team has defended it vigorously, including in federal court.

The interview that the woman referred to, the document said, was a special screening that migrants are supposed to be given if they proactively tell officials that they are afraid of being tortured in Mexico. The screening is difficult to pass.

Whom Title 42 applies to has evolved over the course of the pandemic and depends on which nationalities Mexico is willing to receive back and which countries have agreed to accept expulsion flights. For example, the United States recently began expelling some Venezuelan migrants on flights to Colombia, and U.S. officials have sent thousands of Haitians back to Haiti under the

large numbers. Since it took effect in March 2020 only 100 Russians have been expelled, according to CBP data. That’s 0.3 percent of Russians taken into custody at the border during that time.

As a result, Russians are among the few nationalities fleeing their country to the United States in significant numbers who have actually been able to enter

In June 2021, Russians moved into the top three nationalities hosted by the San Diego Rapid Response Network migrant shelter in San Diego, according to weekly data posted on the shelter’s website. In September Russia became the leading country of origin for asylum seekers hosted at the shelter. It remained in that position until the end of January this year, when it fell back to third.

In the months leading up to the pandemic, 300 to 400 Russians were taken into CBP custody each month at the border almost all at ports of entry, according to data published by the agency going back to October 2019

While most nationalities’ monthly counts in border custody went down early in the pandemic because of lockdowns, the number of Russians actually increased to more than 800 per month that summer

Their crossings continued to fluctuate until April 2021, and they have increased steadily since then, growing to more than 3,000 in December 2021. CBP was unable to provide the Union-Tribune with historical data of Russian border crossings in order to determine whether this is a true increase from pre-pandemic patterns.

Illegal turnbacks

Advocates first noticed CBP officials turning back asylum seekers in pedestrian lines at the San Diego border in 2016, during the Obama administration. Officers standing at the limit

line would tell asylum seekers that the port was at capacity or simply that they weren’t processing people for asylum.

Under former President Donald Trump, that CBP tactic was formalized into a policy called “metering, which limited the number of asylum seekers taken in by ports of entry each day Backlogs of thousands of migrants formed in Mexico’s northern border cities, and asylum seekers from around the world ended up on wait lists often run by Mexican immigration officials.

U.S. officers would notify the managers of those lists how many people to send each day for processing.

U.S. officials argued that the policy was necessary to prevent holding cells at the ports of entry from being over capacity and to free up CBP resources to process documented travelers and to search for drug smuggling.

Meanwhile, advocates including Al Otro Lado filed a class action lawsuit, arguing that turning back asylum seekers who were in the process of reaching U.S. soil to request protection was illegal. During the case, a CBP whistleblower came forward saying that the agency was lying about its capacity, and court documents filed by the plaintiffs note that government files obtained through discovery indicated that ports were operating below capacity when officials made claims that they couldn’t fit anyone else.

In September 2021, Judge Cynthia Bashant sided with the asylum seekers, ruling that it was illegal to turn asylum seekers around when they were in the process of crossing to the United States for protection.

“Turnbacks are unlawful regardless of their purported justification,” Bashant wrote in her order She has not yet ruled on what the remedy should be. In the meantime, the United States government

Diego police for an update on the investigation into the incident but did not receive aresponse in time for publication. Both drivers who are themselves asylum seekers, have been charged in federal court with smuggling the passengers into the United States. The Union-Tribune conducted an extensive review of court records from 2021 and did not find any other case in which asylum seeker drivers were charged with smuggling passengers. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego declined to be interviewed for this article. Jorge Jaramillo, a criminal defense attorney representing one of the drivers, said his client was shaken by what happened. In representing the young man, who was a student back in Russia, Jaramillo will have to try to keep the case from affecting his ability to win protection. A smuggling conviction would be an automatic bar to asylum, according to immigration attorney Ginger Jacobs.

Asylum is discretionary, meaning that even if migrants can demonstrate they fled conditions that merit the protection, judges are supposed to determine whether candidates have “good moral character” before granting it. That means immigration judges will weigh the seriousness of convictions that do not automatically block someone from asylum.

has continued to station officers at the limit line and send away asylum seekers. If they are able to stop a car from crossing onto U.S. soil, they call Mexican officials to help navigate the car back south, out of the way of border traffic.

“Legally an asylum seeker should just be able to drive into the United States and seek asylum. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s aperfectly legal way to do it,” said Pinheiro of Al Otro Lado. “I would argue that posting officers at the limit line is illegal, and the court agreed with us, but they haven’t shown any signs of stopping.”

At a news conference last year, Thomas Reott, the U.S. Consul General in Tijuana, floated the idea of positioning officials further south to check documents. He said the idea came from a brainstorming meeting with Mexican officials. If put into practice, that would mean Mexican officials would make sure northbound travelers have documents allowing them to enter the U.S. well before they reach the limit line.

Prosecuted

Some asylum seekers have faced federal criminal prosecution after crossing onto U.S. soil in the car lanes, which could affect their ability to receive asylum in the future.

In December, as two cars filled with Russians were crossing onto U.S. soil, a CBP officer fired a gun, striking one of the cars, according to a statement from the agency The first car stopped, and the second car which was hit by the bullets, ran into it. There were 12 people in the first car including five children ages 5 and under The second car had six people, including two children ages 10 and 14

The CBP Use of Force Policy Handbook says that guns should not be used to stop moving cars. The Union-Tribune asked San

The Union-Tribune also reviewed cases from 2021 involving charges of assaulting afederal officer and found six, the oldest in August, in which the description in the complaint matches the profile of a migrant trying to reach U.S. soil. The drivers were charged because, in the process of crossing, their cars made contact with officers standing at the limit line. In some cases, the description of the incident indicated that the car struck an officer’s hip or torso In others the car hit the officer’s hand.

Two of the six cases identified by the Union-Tribune specify that the people charged were intending to seek asylum. The UnionTribune reached out to attorneys in the cases and though not all responded, those who did confirmed that their clients were asylum seekers as well.

In three of the cases, the drivers and passengers were Russian. In two of the cases, they were from eastern Europe. In one case, the driver’s country of origin was not clear

That driver, according to the complaint, told officials that he had learned of the technique for reaching U.S. soil to request protection from a family of Russians that he met in Mexico.

Alex Mensing of Innovation Law Lab, which supports asylum seekers in the region and has participated in several lawsuits over border policies meant to deter them, called charging asylum seekers in criminal court in connection to their entering through the car lanes ridiculous.

“That’s a really concerning sign of the criminalization of seeking asylum,” Mensing said.

He anticipated that the situation will only continue to worsen unless the United States begins processing asylum cases at ports of entry again.

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com

A border officer stands at the “limit line” at the San Ysidro Port of Entry to check identification of people before their cars cross onto U.S. soil. Vehicles then go to a booth where their entry documents are inspected more thoroughly

ALEJANDRO TAMAYO U-T PHOTOS

A handcuffed man is taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Friday at the border

A border officer checks identification of all incoming people at the pedestrian entry at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

Officials told migrants at the camp to gather all their belongings and get on buses that would take them to a shelter Crews cleared out what remained

CAMP

Some sent to shelters on buses

FROM A1

Some migrants searched for the rest of their belongings things they did not manage to remove in time. They said they were both surprised and confused Esther a migrant from Oaxaca, who had been living in the camp for seven months with her mother and siblings, said she was only able to take some clothes and blankets.

The Baja California State Human Rights Commission supervised the operation In apress release the commission stated that it was carried out “in an orderly manner and without incidents The U.S. side of the border crossing, known as PedWest, has been closed to the public since April 2020 because of the pandemic. The camp was set up in mid-February 2021, around the time the Biden administration announced that the “Remain in Mexico” program would wind down and

FORMA, Islas Parra said his son worked as a “communicator” until a year and a half ago, when he stopped for personal reasons According to a Facebook page titled Notiredesmx, Islas Flores managed the page, which reported news until late 2019 Islas Flores was linked to journalism through an uncle: Mexicali columnist Victor Islas Parra, who worked for the newspaper El Mexicano for more than 30 years. It was unclear Sunday if the killing was linked to Islas Flores’ ties to journalism.

TheStateAttorneyGeneral’s Office said staff interviewed family members, who stated Islas Flores had not been working in the field of journalism and communications.

“The State Attorney General’s Office reiterates its commitment to work for the welfare and safety of all Baja Californians regardless of their profession, as well as to provide the necessary protection and facilities for representatives of the media to carry out their work in a free and safe manner,” the statement said.

PENGUIN

FROM A1

forced the aquarium to close for months Two years earlier, it had visitorship of 496,651, a record

“Little Blue Penguins are charismatic and, by naming them, we hope to allow our guests and, in fact, our entire community to connect more deeply and in different ways with the exhibit’s content,” said Jennifer Moffatt, the aquarium’s senior director of animal care, science and conservation

“We hope these deeper connections will inspire environmental awareness stewardship and even action.”

It’s not unusual for aquariums, zoos and wildlife parks to solicit the public for modest contributions to preserve and study animals. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance allows supporters to symbolically adopteverything from African penguins to Sumatran tigers for as little as $25. The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium has a similar program. But it’s less common for an institution to sell the naming rights for specific animals for a large sum. The Los Angeles Zoo is among those that do it, charging from $1,000 to $25,000 for

those enrolled in it would be processed into the United States. Misinformation and rumors circulated among asylum seekers in Tijuana, many of whom had already been waiting for months or years for the U.S. to process them. Some decided their best chance of being included in changes coming from the Biden administration was to stay by the San Ysidro Port of Entry. But the Biden administration never reopened asylum processing more generally and instead has relied on Trump-era policies to keep the border closed to people requesting protection.

Islas Flores’ death is the latest tragedy in the journalism community in the border region and beyond. In late January, two journalists were killed in Tijuana. On Jan. 17, photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel was fatally shot outside his home while he left for work

Less than a week later, and two days after a vigil organized by local journalists to honor Martínez, journalist Lourdes Maldonado was shot to death outside her home on Jan. 23 In the Martínez case, a man was detained and later released as part of the investigation In Maldonado’s case, no arrests have been announced

The State Attorney General’s Office appointed a special prosecutor to investigate both cases, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a special team to support the investigations.

Mexican authorities have alluded to what they described as significant progress in the investigations of both cases, although they have not released further information. The deaths of Martínez

naming rights. The fee is based on the type of animal involved. Recently, a gorilla was given the name Angela, ameerkat was dubbed Grubby and two flamingos are now known as Alex and Emmy Chicago’s SheddAquarium recently allowed donors to help name three penguins. The size of their contributions was not disclosed.

The money the Birch is soliciting is meant to pay for animal care, conservation and science at a small seaside aquarium that serves as the public display space for UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

There have been discussions over the years about doing a major overhaul of the La Jolla facility. But the recent focus has been on creating a habitat for Little Blue Penguins nocturnal creatures that scientists say evolved in New Zealand and spread to South Australia and Tasmania. They are stubby waddlers that don’t fly, even though they’re seabirds. The upper parts of their body especially their head and backs, feature eyecatching colorsthat vary from indigo blue to near black. The penguins also are known for their loud vocalizations which range from

At the end of 2021, under afederal court order the Biden administration brought back the Remain in Mexico program, known officially as Migrant Protection Protocols, and expanded the program to include additional nationalities. At some point, more than 1,500 people lived in the camp. Late last year, city officials fenced in the camp and wouldn’t let new arrivals join it. Over time, the population shrank.

alexandra.mendoza @sduniontribune.com

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com

and Maldonado were the latest of the 148 killings of journalists in Mexico since 2000, according to a tally recorded by the human rights group Article 19 Mexico has long been considered the most dangerous country in the world for journalists outside active war zones

The recent killings of Martínez and Maldonado prompted widespread outrage and journalist-led protests against the impotency of the country’s justice system and its long-standing cycle of impunity.

In late January, Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila presented a proposal to state legislators that would impose more severe sanctions for crimes against journalists.

On Sunday night, Ávila offered her condolences to Islas Flores’ family on Twitter, calling his death an “unfortunate loss.”

“I send my sincere condolences to his loved ones and express my support during this difficult moment, she said. david.hernandez @sduniontribune.com alexandra.mendoza @sduniontribune.com

peeps and gurgles to menacing growls and long, spooky cries worthy of a horror movie.

They spend part of their time burrowing into soft coastal grasslands, creating arefuge from the wind and predators But they spend most of their time at sea, foraging for food. On average, they dive about 800 times a day, going as deep as 230 feet, which pales in comparison to Emperor penguins, which can descend 1,500 feet

“The blue have a fun personality, said Kayla Strate, lead penguin aquarist at Birch “One day, you’ll see a couple of them preening with affection. The next day they’re chasing each other into burrows. It’s like watching a drama unfold. I am beyond grateful that donors are helping us with this.”

The aquarium’s new habitat will include a large, windowed pool where visitors can watch the animals swim.

The aquarium is selfsustaining, covering its budget with admission and book store revenue, donations and occasional grants. Its donors include the Beyster Family,a La Jollaarea family that has long supported Scripps Oceanography gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com

ALEJANDRO TAMAYO U-T PHOTOS

Children left behind toys and other items after the migrant camp was swept.

OTTAWA MAYOR DECLARES EMERGENCY

After crowdfunding site

OMICRON HELPED CLARIFY VACCINE EFFICACY FOR KIDS

BY MATT RICHTEL

By now, the Omicron wave of the coronavirus has crested in much of the United States. But the size of the wave which broke records for national cases and hospitalizations, has given regulators and scientists an opportunity to better assess vaccine efficacy in children ages 6 months to 4 years old, Dr Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday. Gottlieb, who sits on the board of the vaccine-maker Pfizer, said he hopes key data expected on Friday will shed additional light on whether the federal government should grant emergency authorization for two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for children in this age group.

dren 6 months to 2 years old showed a comparable response to that of older teenagers and young adults.

The disappointing finding has led the companies to test a third shot in young children, but those results will not available for a few weeks. Still, in hopes of getting a jump start on the vaccination effort, the FDA urged the companies to apply for authorization of two doses while everyone awaits data on the third dose.

The thinking is that if two doses are authorized and given, then children would be prepared for a third dose if and when research demonstrates that three shots prove fully effective.

BY AMANDA COLETTA

TORONTO

The mayor of Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday and a former U.S. ambassador to Canada said groups in the U.S. must stop interfering in the domestic affairs of America’s neighbor as protesters opposed to COVID-19 restrictions continued to paralyze Ottawa’s downtown.

Mayor Jim Watson said the declaration highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government. It gives the city some additional powers around procurement and how it delivers services, which could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders.

Thousands of protesters descended in Ottawa again on the weekend, joining a hundred who remained

since last weekend. Residents of Ottawa are furious at the nonstop blaring of horns, traffic disruption and harassment and fear no end is in sight after the police chief called it a “siege that he could not manage.

The “freedom truck convoy” has attracted support from many U.S. Republicans including former President Donald Trump, who called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “far left lunatic who has “destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates.”

“Canada US relations used to be mainly about solving technical issues. Today Canada is unfortunately experiencing radical US politicians involving themselves in Canadian domestic issues. Trump and his followers are a threat not just to the US but to all democracies,” Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador under President Barack Obama, tweeted.

Heyman said “under no circumstances should any group in the USA fund disruptive activities in Canada. Period Full stop.”

GoFundMe said it would refund or redirect to charities the vast majority of the millions raised by demonstrators protesting in the Canadian capital prominent U.S. Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis complained. But GoFundMe had already changed its mind and said it would be issuing refunds to all. The site said it cut off funding for the organizers because it had determined the effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called it an occupation.

Texas Attorney General

Ken Paxon tweeted: “Patriotic Texans donated to Canadian truckers’ worthy cause” and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Fox News “government doesn’t have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates.”

“For some senior American politicians, patriotism means renting a mob to put aG-7 capital under siege,” tweeted Gerald Butts, a for-

mer senior adviser to Trudeau.

In Canada’s largest city, Toronto, police controlled and later ended a much smaller protest by setting up road blocks and preventing any trucks or cars from getting near the provincial legislature. Police also moved in to clear a key intersection in the city.

Many Canadians have been outraged over the crude behavior of the demonstrators. Some protesters set fireworks off on the grounds of the National War Memorial late Friday A number have carried signs and flags with swastikas last weekend and compared vaccine mandates to fascism.

Protesters have said they won’t leave until all mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are gone. They are also calling for the removal of Trudeau’s government, though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.

Colletta writes for The Associated Press.

“We now have an opportunity to look at a much richer data set,” Gottlieb said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” He did not specify what that data would reveal. Still, he emphasized that the toll Omicron took on children in particular gave Pfizer a stronger basis for comparison of those given vaccines and those not.

“Some got infected, hopefully some didn’t,” he said of the test group “I think that’s what the data package is going to show, and I think it’s going to give a much clearer picture of” the vaccine’s efficacy against Omicron.

He said the newer data will help illuminate results that had been less rich before the full Omicron wave had crested.

At the urging of the federal government, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech applied last week for authorization for two doses of its vaccine to children ages 4 and younger

But results released in December did not show the hoped-for immune response in children ages 2-4. Chil-

That three doses will work is the working presumption of Pfizer and some experts. Critics have argued that this strategy is shortcircuiting the research process and that there is not yet clear evidence that a third dose will make up for the inadequacies of two doses.

The full data on the trials have not been made public.

But one person familiar with Pfizer’s research, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The New York Times recently that children ages 6 months to 2 years old who got two doses got the infection at a 50 percent lower rate than a placebo group, while children 2 to 4 years old got it at a 57 percent lower rate.

Dr Vivek Murthy the surgeon general, said last week that no corners would be cut with Pfizer’s application for emergency authorization of the vaccine in young children. The application, he said, would “undergo the same independent, rigorous and transparent review process” that was used to clear the vaccine for adults. He also cited the role of the Omicron surge and its impact on children.

Richtel writes for The New York Times.

Supporters wave flags as a convoy of truckers drives through an intersection in Torontoon Saturday Protests against COVID-19 restrictions in Ottawa have carried over to this and other major cities.

COLE BURSTON GETTY IMAGES

‘STAND WITH UKRAINE’ RALLY

U.S. AIRBORNE INFANTRY TROOPS ARRIVE IN POLAND

Hundreds more are on their way amid tensions with Russia

BY MONIKA SCISLOWSKA & CZAREK SOKOLOWSKI

RZESZOW-JASIONKA, Poland

Afew dozen elite U.S. troops and equipment were seen landing Sunday in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, following President Joe Biden’s orders to deploy 1,700 soldiers there amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Hundreds more infantry troops of the 82nd Airborne Division are still expected to arrive at the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, about 55 miles from Poland’s border with Ukraine. A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster plane brought a few dozen troops and vehicles.

Their commander is Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who on Aug. 30 was the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan.

icy, to the aggressive attempt at reconstructing the Russian empire.”

Russia has amassed some 100,000 troops on the borders of Ukraine, some for joint military exercises in Belarus, but insists it has no intentions of invading Ukraine.

Acollective response by NATO members is “the best response to a threat the only method of assuring security to Poland and to other NATO countries on the alliance’s eastern flank,” Blaszczak said.

He stressed he has held a number of talks on the subject with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Biden ordered additional U.S. troops deployed to Poland, Romania and Germany to demonstrate to both allies and foes America’s commitment to NATO’s eastern flank amid rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine. NATO’s eastern member Poland borders both Russia and Ukraine. Romania borders Ukraine.

WHAT HAPPENS TO

EUROPE’S ENERGY SUPPLY IF RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE?

Fears are rising about what would happen to Europe’s energy supply if Russia were to invade Ukraine and then shut off natural gas exports in retaliation for U.S. and European sanctions.

Here’s what to know about Europe’s energy supply if tensions boil over into war and Russia is hit with sanctions:

Will Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe?

No one knows for sure, but a complete shutoff is seen as unlikely because it would be mutually destructive.

Russian officials have not signaled they would consider cutting supplies in the case of new sanctions. Moscow relies on energy exports, and though it just signed a gas deal with China Europe is a key source of revenue.

Europe is likewise dependent on Russia, so any Western sanctions would likely avoid directly targeting Russian energy supplies.

More likely, experts say, would be Russia withholding gas sent through pipelines crossing Ukraine. Russia pumped 175 billion cubic meters of gas into Europe last year nearly a quarter of it through those pipelines, according to S&P Global Platts. That would leave pipelines under the Baltic Sea and through Poland still operating.

“I think in the event of

by phone to discuss “ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russia’s military build-up on Ukraine’s borders.” Over the weekend, senior Russian officialsdismissednewU.S.intelligence reports that Russia could take over Kyiv in days as alarmist and as unlikely as an attack by Washington on London. “Madness and scaremongering continues.

What if we would say that US could seize London in a week and cause 300K civilian deaths?” Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy tweeted Sunday And parliamentary deputy Artem Turov, a member of Putin’s United Russia party accused the United States of disseminating fake information and of “doing everything possible to fan a new conflict.”

On Sunday Zelenskyy’s office maintained that a diplomatic solution was more likely than war.

“An honest assessment of the situation suggests that the chance of finding a diplomatic solution for de-escalation is still substantially higher than the threat of further escalation,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

However, Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday defended the updated U.S. military and intelligence assessments that lawmakers and European partners were briefed on over the past several days, which were U.S. officials

even a less severe Russian attack against Ukraine, the Russians are almost certain to cut off gas transiting Ukraine on the way to Germany,” said former U.S. diplomat Dan Fried, who as State Department coordinator for sanctions policy helped craft 2014 measures against Russia when it invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

Russia could then offer to make up the lost gas if Germany approves the contentious new Nord Stream 2 pipeline, whose operators could face potential U.S. sanctions even though a recent vote to that effect failed

What can the U.S. do?

It’s a major gas producer and already is sending record levels of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, by ship worldwide. It could only help Europe a little

“We’re talking about small increases to the size of U.S. exports, whereas the hole that Europe would need to fill

bleakest appraisal yet of the deteriorating security situation in Ukraine. “We’re in the window where something could happen. That is, a military escalation and invasion of Ukraine could happen at any time,” Sullivan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding: “We believe that the Russians have put in place the capabilities to mount a significant military operation into Ukraine, and we have been working hard to prepare a response.”

Still, as Biden administration officials have done for weeks, Sullivan stressed there remained a “diplomatic path” forward if Putin chose, even as the U.S. prepared for other scenarios.

“President Biden has rallied our allies. He has reinforced and reassured our partners on the eastern flank, Sullivan said. “He has provided material support to the Ukrainians, and he has offered the Russians a diplomatic path if that’s what they choose instead but either way, we are ready, our allies are ready, and we’re trying to help the Ukrainian people get ready as well.”

Seven people familiar with the new U.S. intelligence assessments said Putin has 70 percent of the combat power he needs for an assault that under the most extreme scenario could quickly take out the capital, Kyiv and remove Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s democratically elected president. Such an invasion, they said, could trigger a refugee crisis in Europe as up to

million

if Russia backed away or if Europe cut Russia off would be much larger than that,” said Ross Wyeno, lead analyst for Americas LNG at S&P

The Biden administration has been talking with gas producers worldwide about whether they can boost output and ship to Europe, and it has been working to identify supplies of natural gas from North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S.

Over the past month, two-thirds of American LNG exports went to Europe. Some ships filled with LNG were heading to Asia but turned around to go to Europe because buyers there offered to pay higher prices, S&P said. Is there enough LNG worldwide to solve the problem?

Not in the event of a full cutoff, and it can’t be increased overnight. Export terminals cost billions of dol-

battalion tactical groups, with about 750 troops each, were arrayed for a possible assault. That is up from 60 two weeks ago.

The White House has said the United States does not have information that Putin has made a decision to invade. But satellite imagery and other intelligence indicate he has amassed more than 100,000 troops and equipment on the border with Ukraine one Western security official put the number at 130,000 potentially positioning for what could become the largest military land offensive in Europe since World War II

The Biden administration in recent days has also warned that Moscow was considering filming a fake attack against Russian territory or Russian-speaking people by Ukrainian forces as a pretext to invade its neighbor a claim the Kremlin has denied.

The Conflict Intelligence Team, a Russian analytical group that uses open-source data to track Russian military movements, reported Sunday that some Russian forces had moved from a base in Yelnya, in Russia’s Smolensk region, closer to the Ukrainian border

According to the CIT a “massive” Russian base at Yelnya was nearly empty, in what it described as a “dangerous” development. The CIT said this suggested that “one scenario of a Russian attack is a deep thrust south towards Chernihiv and possibly Kyiv.”

Chernihiv is a city in northern Ukraine close to the Belarusian border, less than 90 miles north of Kyiv

lars to build and are working at capacity in the U.S.

Even if all Europe’s LNG import facilities were operating at capacity, the amount of gas would only be about two-thirds of what Russia sends via pipelines.

And there could be challenges distributing the LNG to parts of Europe that have fewer pipeline connections.

If Russia stopped sending just the gas that goes through Ukraine it would take the equivalent of about 1.27 shiploads of additional LNG per day to replace that supply said Luke Cottell, senior LNG analyst at S&P Russia also could reroute some of that gas through other pipelines.

“Our national contribution here in Poland shows our solidarity with all of our allies here in Europe and, obviously during this period of uncertainty, we know that we are stronger together,” Donahue said at the airport

In Warsaw, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak hailed the deployment, saying that “deterrence and solidarity are the best response to Moscow’s aggressive pol-

The division can rapidly deploy within 18 hours and conduct parachute assaults to secure key objectives. Based in Fort Bragg N.C., the division’s history goes back to 1917

Earlier, U.S. planes brought equipment and logistics troops in preparation for the arrival of part of the division to the airport. Scislowska and Sokolowski write for The Associated Press.

A U.S. Air Force plane arrives at Rzeszow-Jasionka airport in Poland on Sunday carrying troops and equipment of the 82nd Airborne Division.

CZAREK SOKOLOWSKI AP

Veronica Gnip, 9, waves Ukraine’s flag at a rally Sunday at Balboa Park raise awareness of Russia’s threats of an invasion of Ukraine. Similar demonstrations took place in other American cities on Sunday

KRISTIAN CARREON

A Russian worker attends a ceremony marking the start of Nord Stream pipeline construction in 2010

DMITRY LOVETSKY AP FILE

POLICE COMMISSION NEEDS MEMBERS

It also created a precarious situation for the commission during the transition process

To complete the switch from the old board to the new, the City Council is required to adopt an ordinance spelling out the new commission’s rules and operational procedures. That process is ongoing after 15 months and could last another year or more, according to the commission’s projected timeline. At the start of the transi-

OFFICIALS IDENTIFY NAVY SEAL TRAINEE WHO DIED

Seaman Kyle Mullen, 24, died Friday after finishing “Hell Week”

BY ANDREW DYER

CORONADO

The name of the sailor who died just after completing Navy SEAL training’s notorious “Hell Week was released by the military Sunday Seaman Kyle Mullen, 24, died at Sharp Coronado Hospital Friday afternoon after he and another SEAL trainee reported experiencing symptoms of an unknown illness, the Navy said.

The other sailor whose name has not been released, was taken to Naval Medical Center San Diego and is in stable condition, a Naval Special Warfare spokesperson said Sunday.

Neither sailor was actively training when they reported their symptoms, the Navy said.

Rear Adm. H.W. Howard III, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, offered his sympathies to Mullen’s family in a statement.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to Seaman Mullen’s family for their loss,” Howard III said. “We are extending every form of support we can to the Mullen family and Kyle’s BUD/S classmates.”

The cause of death is currently unknown and remains under investigation.

Mullen joined the Navy in March 2021, according to his Navy biography He reported to SEAL training in Coronado in July

Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training commonly called “BUD/S,” —is a six-month course held at Naval Base Coronado and, according to the Navy, is among the “most mentally and physically demanding training in the world.”

Hell Week comes at the end of the initial three weeks of training more than half of candidates don’t make it through. It typically begins on a Sunday night and concludes the following Friday morning.

Candidates can run more than 200 miles during the event, often while carrying equipment They’ll also have to swim in the cold surf of the Pacific and perform hours of physical training with little to no sleep.

The two sailors successfully completed the training but began showing symptoms of an illness a few hours later the Navy said

SEE SEAL B4

tion period, the former review board members became the first members of the new Commission on Police Practices, carrying on the work in the interim while City Council drafts and revises the new commission’s governing ordinance

But until the council formally adopts that ordinance, it cannot appoint new commissioners, according to language included in Measure B. That, combined with the natural

turnover of volunteers and a recent spike in complaints against police has created what the remaining commissioners described last month as an unsustainable workload.

“The Commission may soon be unable to provide the civilian oversight the community expects and demands,” commission Chair Brandon Hilpert wrote in a Jan. 26 letter to City Council. According to the letter approved unanimously by

the commission during a Jan. 25 meeting, the commission should have 23 members when full, but currently has 14 active members and will be down to 13 by the end of March

Hilpert said commissioners are volunteering 20 to 80 hours per month, and sometimes even more as they try to keep on top of their duties, which for now include reviewing police shootings, in-custody deaths other use-of-force incidents and complaints of

police misconduct

“It’s an unrealistic expectation,” Hilpert said in a phone interview last month.

“Commissioners are getting burnt out to be honest

The remaining 13 just realistically can’t continue like this for another year.”

Hilpert said the old board then called the Community Review Board —would close 55 to 65 cases on average per year In 2021, while the number of active commissioners dwindled,

SEE COMMISSION B4

DANCING INTO NEW YEAR

SOME ONE SAN DIE GO SHO ULD KNO W

VOLUNTEER HELPING OTHERS SEE CLEARLY Nonprofit provides underserved with exams,

glasses

and the Encinitas Union School District.

STUDENTS BACK AT FARM LAB READY TO LEARN AFTER PANDEMIC PAUSE

BY KAREN BILLING

ENCINITAS

After a year-and-a-half hiatus

sign spaces (currently the home of the district’s COVID-19 testing sites) and the first certified organic school farm in the country. The produce feeds directly into the Farm to School program and the fresh veggies and fruits are featured on salad bars at all nine schools and used in scratch-made lunch items. The Ecology Center located on the site is the district’s farming partner. All kindergartners, first-graders and fifth-graders have visited the farm, and sixth-graders have started their weeklong entrepreneurial experience where they work in teams to develop their own

SEE FARM B4

BY MICHAEL KURIMA Bethany Mullert works with OneSight.

Clear vision it is a gift most Americans take for granted. But around the world, there are more than a billion people who do not have access to vision care. These people cannot get an eye examination, much less aworking pair of glasses. Through her volunteer efforts with the nonprofit organization OneSight, Bethany Mullert is working to change this, not just in underserved communities around the world, but closer to home.

Mullert shares the story of why she spends her hours outside of optometry work helping others with their eyesight. On a volunteer trip to Zambia she met a quiet girl, no more than 3 or 4 years old. She was swaddled against her mother as her eye exam was completed and her glasses were being

COURTESY PHOTO

manufactured on-site.

“I could tell the prescription was strong,” Mullert recalled, “and as we placed the glasses on this young girl’s face, she looked up at her mom and just smiled the biggest smile. I imagine it was the first time for her to see her mother’s face clearly That smile, it makes the 15hour days so worth it.” Mullert was born and raised in La Mesa. While

VOLUNTEER B4

Motorcyclist killed in collision with car

CHULA VISTA

Amotorcyclist died Sunday after crashing into a car in an intersection in Chula Vista, police said.

The crash happened about 7:20 a.m. at the intersection of Telegraph Canyon Road and Medical Center Drive.

The motorcyclist was headed east on Telegraph Canyon Road when he struck a four-door sedan as the driver of the car made a turn from northbound Medical Center Driver onto westbound Telegraph Canyon Road, police said.

The motorcyclist was taken to a trauma center where he died. His name was withheld, pending notification of family members.

Traffic investigators ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash but had not determined the cause. david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Motorist crashes into parked truck; dies

EL CAJON

Aman driving a 2010 BMW was killed early Sunday when his car crashed into a parked box truck in El Cajon, authorities said.

The driver a man believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s, was traveling west on Vernon Way near Pioneer Way, when the vehicle crossed over the eastbound lane of traffic and struck the parked box truck, said El Cajon police Lt. Darrin Foster His name was not released. The truck he crashed into was unoccupied.

Officers and paramedics were sent to the crash scene about 3 a.m., where the motorist was pronounced dead at the scene, Foster said. It was not known if drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.

City News Service

Police investigate stabbing at nightclub

CHULA VISTA

Astabbing at a Chula Vista nightclub left a 38-year-old man wounded early Sunday police said.

The stabbing was reported about 1:40 a.m at Over the Border nightclub near Main Street and Fourth Avenue.

The victim was taken to a hospital and was reportedly in stable condition, police said. Police had not made any arrests. No further information was immediately available. david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

3.5 magnitude quake felt in region

RIVERSIDE COUNTY

For the third time in three weeks, parts of San Diego County have been lightly shaken by an earthquake.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the latest event occurred at 3:22 p.m. Sunday when a 3.5 temblor broke 9 miles west-northwest of Lake Elsinore in Riverside County.

Geologists say the quake originated on the Elsinore fault system, part of which extends through northeast San Diego County. Sunday’s quake was felt in Fallbrook, Bonsall, Vista, San Marcos, Oceanside, Escondido, Valley Center, Carlsbad and San Diego, the USGS reported.

A4.0 quake occurred on the same fault system on Jan. 30 The epicenter was located a few miles from the Palomar Observatory in North County. And a 3.5 quake occurred near Idyllwild on Jan. 18 along the nearby San Jacinto fault system.

“The Elsinore system has been more actively lately but this isn’t anything unusual,” said Tom Rockwell, a San Diego State University geologist who has spent decades studying the fault. gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com

TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, Feb. 7, the 38th day of 2022 There are 327 days left in the year

Today’s highlight in history

On Feb. 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to begin their first American tour

New ocean normal

A study of the past 150 years of ocean observations reveals that the rising temperatures of the world’s seas, including extreme oceanic heat waves, “passed the point of no return” in 2014 The Monterey Bay Aquarium-sponsored study was published in the Journal PLOS Climate and warns that the increasing warmth is devastating the ecosystem. It documents how extreme sea-surface temperatures occurred just 2 percent of the time a century ago, but have been happening at least 50 percent of the time since 2014 Some hot spots experienced extreme temperatures 90 percent of the time

Earthquakes

People from Dallas to Kansas City were rocked by a moderate tremor in north-central Oklahoma.

• Earth movements were also felt across Indonesia’s Banda Sea to far northern Australia, and in South Asia’s Hindu Kush region, northeastern Egypt, Cyprus, Trinidad and

CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEW

‘COUNTERPOINT’

BY CHRISTIAN HERTZOG

For over a century, choreographers have taken concert music and added dance, in ballets such as “The Spirit of the Rose” or “Les Sylphides.”Visual movement complemented pre-existing music Genres where dancers make music with their feet are more intrusive propositions, imposing an extra musical layer over the composer’s original intent.

Nevertheless, it has been successfully done with flamenco. In 1983, María Pagés added it to Bizet in Carlos Saura’s film “Carmen,” and three years later the two reconceived Falla’s “El Amor Brujo” as a flamenco ballet Tap dance and classical music collaborations have not enjoyed such high visibility, but that may very well change with pianist Conrad Taoand tap dancer Caleb Teicher.In the duo’s sold-out Friday performance in Baker-Baum Concert Hall in La Jolla, Bach, Brahms and Mozart were embellished with time steps shuffles and turns.

The show, titled “Counterpoint,” began with Tao softly and soulfully sounding the aria from Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.” Teicher sat beside an 8-by-8foot wood platform. I wondered how tap dance could possibly be added to Bach’s sublime melody without ruining it.

About halfway through the first part of the aria, Teicher stepped onto the platform and silently spun. He turned on one shoe like an ice skater, dragged his feet to create soft unbroken sounds, and as Tao ended the first section, Teicher quietly tapped out the closing notes of

A HIT WITH AUDIENCE

Could tap have complemented Tao’s exquisite, detailed renditions of Schoenberg’s Waltz from his Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23 or the Minuet from Ravel’s “Sonatine”? Perhaps, but those moments were given entirely to Tao.

Teicher had solo spots He performed Brenda Bufalino’sversion of Cole and Atkin’s Soft Shoe without the original music, a slowly swinging rendition of “Taking a Chance on Love.” He demonstrated that there was ample music in the stylish choreography alone

the phrase with Tao. Teicher gently accompanied the rest of the aria with spins drags and carefully chosen tapping that respected Bach. Asimilar approach was later taken with Brahms’ Intermezzo in E major, Op. 116, No 4. Amore conventional pairing of jazz and tap occurred in a finger-busting performance of Art Tatum’s conception of “Cherokee,” enhanced by Teicher’s time step combinations Elsewhere Tao improvised a jazz-like tonal piece with free-style footwork from Teicher An excerpt from Tao and Teicher’s extended dance work “More Forever allowed us to see Teicher’s choreography, ably executed by him.

COLD WAR-ERA SOVIET SUB TOWED FROM S.D., BOUND FOR MEXICO

BY ANDREW DYER

SAN DIEGO

Arusty retired Soviet attacksubmarinethathadbeen ondisplayatSanDiego’sMaritime Museum since 2005 was towed out of San Diego on Sunday, presumably on its way to be scrapped in Ensenada.

Ten years ago: A federal appeals court ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, but gave gay marriage opponents time to appeal the decision before ordering the state to allow such weddings to resume

Today’s birthdays

Author Gay Talese is 90 Actor James Spader is 62 Singer Garth Brooks is 60 is 60 Actorcomedian Chris Rock is 57 ASSOCIATED PRESS

Video shared on social media showed the sub being towed from San Diego. The tug towing the 300foot-long sub, which was launched in 1967, was off the coast of Mexico near Rosarito by Sunday afternoon, according to the website MarineTraffic.com. Its destination was shown as Ensenada.

During its active duty years, the Foxtrot-class diesel-electric sub carried 78 crew members and served in the Soviet Pacific Fleet for 20 years After being sold to a Canadianconsortiumfollowingthe collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the sub eventually made its way to San Diego.

It went on display in 2005. The vessel, which included an exhibit on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, was popular with museum visitors. The museum’s website described this class of subs as larger and more powerful versions of World War II-era German Uboats: “Low-tech, but lethal.”

Although museum officials said the ship’s pressure hull remained stable last year, its outer skin was deteriorating.Itcorrodedovertheyears, withrustandgapingholesappearing near the waterline of the sub.

Cosmetically, the sub didn’t quite fit with the other vessels in the museum’s collection on the San Diego waterfront, Raymond Ashley the museum’s CEO, told the Union-Tribune in October He said the sub would be taken to Ensenada to be scrapped and recycled. The vessel closed to the publicin2020withtheonsetof the coronavirus pandemic. andrew.dyer@sduniontribune.com

In a program highlight, Teicher tapped out Mozart’s “Turkish Rondo” with no more accompaniment than his occasional good-natured scat singing For the ending he danced out the rhythms of this well-known work, allowing the audience to supply the music in their own heads. The audience favorite was Tao’s virtuosic arrangement and performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” enhanced by Teicher’s happy merger of jazz and Broadway tap styles Throughout, Tao was a musical master of many different styles. His cool confidence was a good foil to Teicher, whose demure stage persona erupted into exuberant dancing.

In recent years, La Jolla Music Society has broadened the variety of music it presents. This concert, the first in its ProtoStar Innovative Series, was a hit with the audience, and perhaps points the way to more inclusive events that bring in people who might not otherwise attend a classical recital.

Hertzog is a freelance writer

SAN DIEGO STORIES

Black history & heritage

In honor of Black History Month, the Union-Tribune has partnered with the San Diego History Center to present items each day in February on local Black history.

Nathan Harrison

Tobago Southern California and Hawaii’s Big Island.

Record flash

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that a single lightning flash in April 2020 across the southern United States is the new world record-holder That “megaflash” on April 29 stretched 477 miles over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, beating the old record set in 2018 in Brazil. Both were observed with new satellite sensors that are able to more accurately measure the duration and length of light-

ning. WMO experts say even greater lightning extremes are likely to be discovered in the future. The U.N. agency warns that the record flashes were not isolated events and occur during active and large-scale thunderstorms, making them more dangerous.

Costly floods

Climate change will increase the financial costs of flooding across the United States by more than 25 percent by 2050 according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change Researchers from England’s University of Bristol used advanced modeling to determine that the annual cost of flood damage

will increase from the current $32 billion to $40.6 billion in less than 30 years. “Climate change combined with shifting populations present a double whammy of flood risk danger, and the financial implications are staggering, said lead author Oliver Wing. Orca prey Killer whales, also known as orcas, have for the first time been observed killing and eating the much bigger blue whales the largest animals ever known to exist. Writing in the journal Marine Mammal

SDSU ANTHROPOLOGY DEPT

Nathan Harrison lived on Palomar Mountain.

Few people in the history of the U.S. embody ideals of the American dream more than legendary Black San Diego homesteader Nathan Harrison. Harrison was a freed slave originally from Kentucky who lived in a small cabin on Palomar Mountain from the 1850s to 1920, the year he died. His is a story with prominent themes of overcoming staggering obstacles, forging something from nothing and evincing gritty perseverance In a lifetime of hard-won progress, Harrison survived the horrors of slavery in the Antebellum South, endured the mania of the California Gold Rush, and prospered in the rugged chaos of the Wild West SOURCE: SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER

The center currently features a new exhibit, developed in partnership with San Diego State University, “Nathan Harrison: Born Enslaved, Died a San Diego Legend ”

The exhibit is at the center and offered virtually on the center’s website sandiegohistory.org

It offers recent discoveries from archaeological excavations at the Nathan Harrison cabin site. The team’s indepth research of historical accounts offers new insights and perspectives into Harrison’s biography, while also providing a fresh glimpse of everyday life in San Diego during the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era.

The History Center is at 1649 El Prado, in Balboa Park. Hours are 11 a.m to 4 p.m. Friday Saturday and Sunday (COVID-19 rules: Face masks must be worn inside regardless of vaccination status.)

Science scientists documented three separate attacks off the coast of western Australia between 2019 and 2021.

Female-led pods of a dozen or more orcas were seen relentlessly pounding adult blue whales until eventually beginning to feed on them, dining first on their nutritious tongues. This also could be a return to a normal ecosystem behavior as blue whales recover from centuries of whaling

Heat and humidity

A new study finds that the combination of higher heat

and humidity is responsible for the more frequent outbreaks of hazardous weather extremes. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say that deadly floods, storms and rainfall events are related to how much moisture is in the atmosphere. Using a specialized scale called the equivalent potential temperature, or theta-e, they measured the amount of moisture “energy” in the atmosphere. Because the warming air now holds more moisture, the resulting stronger energy causes more powerful weather phenomena This is creating more dangerous health and well-being impacts on humans and other living things

Tropical cyclone

Category-4

Cyclone Batsiri lashed the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Réunion while taking aim on Madagascar and the African mainland late in the week

Dist. by: Andrews McMeel Syndication

MMXXII Earth Environment Service

Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher pair up for “Counterpoint.”

COURTESY OF LA JOLLA MUSIC SOCIETY

The Soviet submarine B-39 was part of the Maritime Museum and is now on its way to a scrapyard.

CHARLES RYAN

CIVIC BOOSTERISM

As the Omicron wave subsides nationwide, the COVID-19 pandemic remains daunting by any measure. There are now more than 900,000 Americans dead from the novel coronavirus and its variants with 212.3 million of us fully vaccinated and 89 million of those people also boosted. Many people are still refusing while others are still lining up. Below, three writers explore the status of vaccinations in the U.S.

I STRUGGLED AS A DAD AND DOCTOR WHEN COVID HIT US

BY RAKESH PATEL

On Jan. 25, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors honored my organization, Neighborhood Healthcare, along with our North County Community Partners, for providing 103,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses. It was a moment of great pride and an acknowledgment that we had savedlives by helping protect people against a deadly and highly contagious virus.

But forefront in my mind that day and every day is my own daughter’s difficult struggle through a COVID-19 infection, and the realization that we are far from finished with our outreach and education efforts around the critical importance of vaccination and boosters

Fully vaccinated, Alisha was just a week or so shy of booster eligibility when she caught the virus, apparently from her 17-year-old brother Nikhil.

Already boosted, Nikhil caught COVID-19 from a school friend and one day over the holidays woke up with a headache and stuffy nose. For Nikhil, that was the extent of it.

Alisha became ill about a week later Suddenly my normally healthy, fit 15-year-old could barely climb stairs, was gripped with unrelenting headaches and dizziness, and was so cold that even a pile of blankets couldn’t fully warm her up. Gratefully she didn’t need hospitalization, and we all quarantined to prevent further spread She isolated in her bedroom day after day, passing the time with 2,000-piece puzzles. She missed her friends. She worried about losing her spot on her high school hip hop dance team She felt frantic that her good grades would plummet.

As a physician, I was frustrated that I couldn’t do much to ease her symptoms or otherwise hasten her recovery As a father, seeing her suffer both physically and emotionally was gut-wrenching.

My kids’ dramatically different experiences with COVID-19 proved to be a potent and

very personal example of why people of all ages should get boosted as soon as they’re eligible, regardless of their health status. Vaccine effectiveness wanes over time, and the booster reinvigorates the immune system immediately to fight new infections. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms my family’s experience: Boosters are 90 percent effective in preventing hospitalization from the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, and they reduce the likelihood of emergency room or urgent care clinics.

Unfortunately far too many people remain unconvinced that vaccination and boosters are worth the trouble. In Riverside County, under 60 percent of people are vaccinated and only 27 percent of people 12 and older have received their booster San Diego County is faring better, with nearly 80 percentof the population fully vaccinated and nearly 50 percent boosted. Clearly, we have more to do and cannot let our guard down. Neighborhood Healthcare and the North County Community Partners will soldier on to protect our communities with vaccination and booster clinics. We’ll continue to urge people to upgrade their mask and wear it in public and stay home and get tested if they’re sick. If you haven’t already, please visit myturn.ca.gov to find a clinic or to make a vaccine or booster appointment.

Although she now tests negative for the virus, Alisha is still recovering from the aftereffects of her infection, more tired than usual and with less stamina. But she is back at school, learning alongside her friends, and she kept her spot on the hip hop dancing team. She’s soldiering on, too, and telling anyone who will listen to protect themselves from the misery of COVID-19 by getting vaccinated and then boosted.

Patel is chief executive officer of Neighborhood Healthcare, which operates 19 federally qualified health centers in Riverside and San Diego counties and serves more than 80,000 patients. He lives in Carmel Valley.

TUCKER CARLSON IS A PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT

BY RICHARD E. REDDING

For many months now, night after night, Tucker Carlson has opened his show by questioning the COVID-19 vaccines and attacking vaccine mandates. “Tucker Carlson Tonight does this more frequently with greater passion and with more misinformation than any other show. And Carlson now has one of the highest-rated shows in cable news, with a viewership of close to 4 million, most of whom vote Republican But how many Republicans have died of COVID-19 because they watched Tucker Carlson? Carlson repeatedly draws into the question the safety and efficacy of the vaccines: They are “experimental medicines.” “Many thousands of people appear to have been injured after getting the vaccine.” The vaccines “don’t work. Look at all the breakthrough cases and the many times you need to get vaccinated. The unvaccinated have nothing to fear from the unvaccinated, “that’s the science,” because (even with the original COVID-19 strain) the vaccine does not reduce the spread of COVID-19 Many medical professionals must suspect that the vaccines are ineffective or unsafe, since they have preferred to lose their jobs rather than take the jab. They are health-care workers, so they know more than the politicians and public health bureaucrats who never treat COVID-19 patients.

This is only a small sampling of the font of misinformation that Carlson dishes out.

When making such claims, Carlson does not share with viewers key facts that would sink his narrative, such as that: 1) the COVID-19 vaccines are the most tested vaccine in history, and we know from past experience with vaccine development that if a vaccine is going to produce negative health effects it will do so within the first six weeks, 2) even younger and relatively healthy people have a greater chance of getting seriously ill or suffering longterm health effects from COVID-19 than they do of experiencing a serious or long-term vaccine side effect 3) vaccinations do not eliminate viral transmission but do reduce it, and 4) the voluntary vaccination rate among health-care workers is relatively high, and among those with the most training and expertise practicing physicians it is almost 100 percent. Most importantly, even in breakthrough cases, the vaccines are highly effective in preventing hospitalization and death.

Of course, this celebrated commentator with 30 years of experience is too well-informed not to know these facts. And Carlson has a phalanx of researchers and producers who keep him thoroughly briefed on all things COVID-19 related. Carlson will not say whether he has been vaccinated, likely because he has had the jab, but doesn’t want to antagonize his audience and damage his anti-vaccine narrative by admitting to it.

To be fair, Carlson often makes valid points about our pandemic response that are underreported or ignored by liberal pundits about the unintended health consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns and other mitigation measures, and their devastating effects on people’s mental health, particularly children’s psychosocial and cognitive development.

And to be sure, pundits often spin facts and ignore inconvenient facts to support the narrative that they and their audiences prefer Carlson probably has been no more guilty of this over the course of his career than other pundits including the pro-vaccine pundits on MSNBC or CNN Yet their polemics don’t usually lead to the death of their viewers.

Many of Carlson’s viewers would have been vaccine refuseniks without ever having watched his show. But without question, some fence-sitters ultimately were persuaded to refuse vaccination because of what they heard on “Tucker Carlson Tonight. It may not be a small number given the size of his viewership. Indeed, studies showthat exposure to conservative media, especially Fox News is a key factor contributing to vaccine refusal. Consider the case of Patrick Lane, whose daughter blames his death from COVID-19 on Tucker Carlson, who she says influenced her father not to get vaccinated.

There is no legal recourse available to the families of the deceased victims of Carlson’s misinformation. They could prevail in a lawsuit only if Carlson had a legal duty of care towards his victims. But American law places no duty on journalists or pundits like Carlson to accurately report information to their audience or give them all perspectives on an issue.

Carlson knows he needn’t worry about legal liability. What about his own moral compass? Surely there is a circle in Dante’s hell or purgatory at least reserved for those who spew his kind of lethal demagoguery.

Redding J.D. Ph.D is professor of psychology and the Ronald D. Rotunda Distinguished Professor of Law at Chapman University. He lives in North County.

GETTY IMAGES

HERE’S HOW WE’RE TRYING TO GET MORE PEOPLE VACCINATED

BY JENNIFER CARDENAS

Are you ready for this pandemic to end?

Join me to battle misinformation around the COVID-19 vaccine. I began working against COVID-19 in New York where I saw firsthand the effect of this pandemic on underrepresented communities. My alma mater, Columbia University, was one of the leading research centers on COVID-19. I became involved through my anthropology project where I studied the distribution of health information in highly dense and diverse populations. It became apparent that there was a disparity in the information distribution among non-English speaking and low-income communities

When COVID-19 vaccines started to roll out, I found out that many of these communities did not receive accurate information on the vaccines. Notably among the Black and Latinx communities, many people were and still are reluctant to get vaccinated due to historically unreliable access to resources like information and mistrust of the health-care system, including experiences of racism. That distrust felt by many can easily overpower the benefits of vaccination. Additionally laborers and hourly

workers more often live paycheck to paycheck and getting sick without paid time off is not an option and can have catastrophic financial ramifications.

Last week marked two years since the U.S. declared COVID-19 a public health emergency and I am working on a campaign called Generation Vaxxed. Our work is powered by Young Invincibles, an advocacy organization that focuses on health care, economic opportunity and higher education for young adults.

As the outreach specialist for California, Iam bringing COVID-19 vaccine resources to every part of the state. Through a Young Invincibles listening tour we learned that young adults were another group experiencing issues of vaccine misinformation. In our research we found that 29 percent of young adults surveyed said they were vaccine-hesitant. Further misinformation was the No 1 cause of their hesitancy As a Latina and young adult, I can use lived experiences to become the trusted messenger these communities need to make informed decisions about COVID-19 vaccination. Our goal is to save lives and end this pandemic. Even against the highly trans-

missible Omicron variant the COVID-19 vaccines are still very effective at preventing severe illness and death. In a study conducted in Los Angeles County, unvaccinated people were 23 times more likely to be hospitalized than fully vaccinated people with the booster shot. As more people feel the variants looming, they realize the benefits of vaccination. I saw this at our Lunar New Year event in Riverside where we could have open dialogue with locals and clarify some of the misinformation that had spread through the community.

When you are able to have a one-on-one conversation with vaccine-hesitant people and they tell you that they are willing to get vaccinated because they feel empowered in their decision because of the correct information you provided, you know people can change their minds. Convincing one person may feel like a drop in a bucket, but you know that may be one less person in a hospital bed or one less family that has to say goodbye to a loved one over FaceTime. We are equipped with the correct information and organizing experience to empower people to get vaccinated and then train them to empower someone else We are working in San Diego and cities all over

California to slow the spread of this virus. I started in New York where I saw this virus wreak havoc on underserved communities. Now I am working in my home state on the front lines to safeguard vulnerable people in our health-care system by increasing vaccinations against COVID-19 You can help end this pandemic, too. We need volunteers to help canvass, send text messages and use vaccine stories to empower others. We can train you to utilize your vaccine story or get you involved in our outreach efforts.

Additionally, if you or someone you know needs information on the COVID-19 vaccine, you can reach out to us on our social media or at one of our upcoming events in the San Diego area. We post our upcoming events and informational resources on our website and social media. You can follow us on Twitter @younginvincible and Instagram @younginvincibles. Visit younginvincibles.orgfor more information about Generation Vaxxed and Young Invincibles.

Cardenas is the outreach specialist for California working with Young Invincibles to get people vaccinated against COVID-19 She lives in Fontana.

Many viewers would have been vaccine refuseniks without watching his show. But without question, some fencesitters were persuaded to refuse vaccination because of ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’

My two kids’ experiences with COVID-19 proved to be a potent and very personal example of why people of all ages should get boosted.

COMMISSION • Council has not approved request

the commission closed “well over 100 cases.

Hillpert wrote that complaints have “increased tremendously,” explaining during an interview that he believes it’s because people are “much more willing to file complaints” in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020 and the social justice movement it sparked. In their letter, the commissioners asked the City Council to craft a standalone ordinance separate from the overarching one the City Council is currently considering that “gives the City the ability to immediately begin Commissioner nominations and appointments.”

It’s unclear if the City Council will act on that request In an emailed statement, Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said he is “in support of the Commission on Police Practices and implementation of Measure B,” but deferred to the council committee that’s been working on the creation and implementation

SEAL

FROM B1

Mullen is at least the sixth SEAL candidate to die while going through the arduous training program since 1988 All but one of the deaths involved training in water.

In March 1988, John Joseph Tomlinson 22 died of hypothermiaafterswimming for more than 5 miles in the Pacific during training at San Clemente Island.

In March 2001, Lt John Skop Jr., 29, died during a HellWeekswimmingexercise —the first time a SEAL candidate died during Hell Week

The last death during BUD/S occurred in 2016 when 21-year-old Seaman James Lovelace drowned after a SEAL instructor repeatedly dunked him in a pool during the first week of training. The death was later ruled a homicide by the San Diego County medical examiner Staff writer Jeff McDonald and the Associated Press contributed to this report. andrew.dyer@sduniontribune.com

of the commission “As Council President I trust the Chair and members of the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee to thoroughly review and provide recommendations relating to the Commission, Elo-Rivera’s statement said The chair of that committee Council President Pro Tempore Monica Montgomery Steppe, declined to comment.

The Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee is scheduled to hold its monthly meeting Wednesday but the commission’s request for emergency appointments is not listed on the agenda Andrea St Julian, who authored the charter amendment that became Measure B, offered a mixed assessment of the commission’s request. St. Julian, who is co-chair of the community group San Diegans for Justice, said she’s not against City Council appointing new commissioners but she and other community activists in-

FARM

FROM B1

salad dressing company during Salad Wars.

“Being that we had no students for a year and a half, our education team disbanded and we are back with an all new team that is absolutely phenomenal,” said Julie Burton, coordinator of innovation and Farm Lab development during an update at the Jan. 18 school board meeting. “One of the gifts of having an entirely new staff is we have fresh eyes on absolutely everything.”

During the layoff, Burton said Farm Lab staff have made enhancements across the grade-level curriculum to ensure students have deeper levels of understanding, improved engagement and more technology integration. As an example, first-graders used to design a contraption to deter pests from munching school lunch crops but the curriculum has now shifted to have stu-

volved in the push for Measure B did not want the members of the former review board to become commissioners in the first place.

“The community wanted new commissioners,” St. Julian said in a recent phone interview. “They wanted all of the interim commissioners out of there They did not trust the former CRB members.”

Though the former review board members are acting in an interim role, they are considered full commissioners St Julian blamed the commission’s current predicament on the City Council and its Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee She said the committee rejected requests by the commission to draft the governing ordinance in two phases, which likely would have allowed for nominations and appointments as the other rules and procedures for the new commission were ironed out

“It is a created situation,” St. Julian said. “Pub-

dents designing and coding robots to scare away pesky predators.

The farm itself also grew significantly in the yearand-a-half hiatus. “There are now a lot more learning opportunities right at our farm,” said Burton, noting fifthgraders used to have to walk across the street to Coastal Roots Farm to see water-wise irrigation practices and farming, but now those can be seen on-site.

Since 2015, Farm Lab has partnered with The Ecology Center which took aconstruction fill lot and pulled concrete and rebar out of the dirt to convert it into a thriving ecosystem Jonathan Zaidman, director of engagement and impact at The Ecology Center, said they have created a learning lab for the future where students can find owls in owl boxes, check out native landscape and observe over 10,000 pounds of organic fruits and veggies that is produced a year

“It’s our honor and true inspiration to see a school

lic Safety and Livable Neighborhoods preferred to just do it all in one fell swoop. So we’re now in the situation where, 15 or 16 months later, it’s got to be done in a rush. Hilpert said the commissioners back when they were still on the review board foresaw the current situation and tried their best to remedy it In October 2020, as polling made clear that Measure B was likely to pass Hilpert sent a letter to the City Council urging it to move forward with the confirmation of seven new members. That letter made clear that if Measure B passed, the review board members would become “the interim Commission and the City Council would be unable “to make appointments for any vacancies until an implementation ordinance is adopted.

The council filled all but one of the review board’s 23 positions before the election. alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com

DRY, SUNNY WEATHER IN STORE FOR COUNTY

BY GARY ROBBINS

SAN DIEGO MuchofSanDiegoCounty willbe10to15degreeswarmer than normal all week due to drySantaAnawindsandhigh pressure ridges that will keep winter storms from coming anywhere near droughtplagued Southern California.

The National Weather Service also says the Santa Anas will cause the relative humidity to fall to the 10 to 15 percent range across the inlandvalleysandfoothills.Like last week’s winds, that may result in some people experiencing dry skin and sinuses.

The combination of winds, heat and low humidity will significantly increase the risk of wildfires countywide. The first round of Santa Anas really kick in today and are expected to produce gusts to 44 mph in Campo, 43 mph in Ramona and Alpine, 40 mph in Julian, 33 mph in Escondido, 21 mph in El Cajon, 18 mph in Oceanside and 16 mph in San Di-

ego. The second wave which will be weaker, arrives Wednesday and lasts into Thursday

The weather service will evaluate whether it needs to issue fire weather warnings, which are becoming more likely because of the lack of rain. San Diego has only recorded 3.75 inches of precipitation since the rainy season began on Oct. 1. That is 1.51 inches below normal. The airport’s full seasonal average is 9.79 inches. San Diego only got about half that much rain during the previous season.

“(This week) we’ll be getting the opposite of what the country is experiencing east of the Rockies, where there’s cold, snow, ice and strong winds,” said Mark Moede, a forecaster at the weather service office in Rancho Bernardo. The fair weather is expected to last until at least Sunday.

gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com

systems and sometimes Julie is pushing us to meet the district’s expectations and goals.”

Last year The Ecology Center and district built a new barn and community farm stand, open to the public from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and 11 a.m to 3 p.m Saturdays. In 2021 the district was additionally awarded a $20,000 grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture The grant monies are being used to support the Seed to Soil Farm Stand Ambassador program in which students run a small “pay as you can” farm stand once a month after school at Flora Vista Elementary. The district’s partner BCK Programs coordinates the student engagement piece and The Ecology Center grows the produce they sell Farm Lab is at 441 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas To learn more visit farmlab.eusd.net

district really leading in this subject matter, Zaidman said. “We have almost 14 years of experience

VOLUNTEER FROM B1

earning her undergraduate degree in history from SDSU, she began working part time in the optometry industry. After graduation, she earned her ABO (American Board of Optometry) and California State Board of Optometry licenses and now works at the Pearle Vision on Navy Air Station North Island. The organization she volunteers with, OneSight, is a nonprofit that partners with local communities to bring vision care to underserved communities. As of January 2022, the organization has set up close to 200 sustainable centers that provide permanent vision care access and has provided close to 2,000 charitable clinics managed by a core team of volunteers. Mullert has spent time at numerous sites and attended six charitable clinic tours as a core team member “I have had the opportunity to help people as far away as Zambia, and also closer to the U.S. in Puebla, Mexico. During these trips, my teams have been able to address the needs of over

working with schools and really pulling them along the way in the conversation on sustainability and food

About this series

Michael Kurima is a member of the Union-Tribune’s Community Advisory Board. He is president of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Japanese American Citizens League. He works as a management consultant in the health care industry

Someone San Diego

Should Know is a weekly column written by members of the U-T’s Community Advisory Board about local people who are interesting and noteworthy because of their experiences achievements, creativity or credentials

10,000 patients.”

These core teams of up to 50 doctors, optometrists and lab technicians volunteer up to two weeks of their time to provide free eye health checks, conduct vision exams and manufacture glasses on-site. Over just a couple of hours, lives can be changed. For some, the ability to see clearly allows them to return to productive work to support

MISC. SERVICES

Billing writes for the U-T Community Press.

their families. Simply put, vision provides opportunity.

OneSight operates across the globe, from Chile to Indonesia, Thailand to Rwanda. However, there are also underserved communities in the U.S. that struggle with vision care.

“We have international teams, made of up doctors and optometrists from Spain and other parts of Europe, who volunteer their time to come here to America and help some of our own communities, especially our young people,” Mullert said. She has spent time helping inner city youth from New York City through OneSight’s partnership with the Fresh Air Fund in Fishkill, N.Y. She has also volunteered helping migrant worker families in Bakersfield and served the Colorado River Indian Tribes in Parker, Ariz. Locally, she has worked at charitable clinics in Vista and in Chula Vista.

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She sees herself continuing on this long-term mission to help underserved communities with vision care. She hopes OneSight can partner with more businesses and organizations beyond the current list of schools, Lion Clubs and Rotary Clubs. The organization helps more 3,500 people each week around the globe, and with additional partnerships, this number could be even bigger.

“The gift of clear sight has the ability to completely transform a person’s life not only impacting their lives and how they see the world, but providing them the opportunity to make the world a better place,” Mullert said.

It is easy to understand how some communities in developing countries require the help of an organization like OneSight. We can imagine the impact that can be made in rural areas of Tanzania and in the poor neighborhoods of Brazil and Columbia. However, sometimes people overlook the needs of those closest to them. “I have helped people with their vision needs here in Southern California, struggling communities who cannot even drink the water due to fears of arsenic contamination. We do not have to venture to Africa or Asia or South America to find others in need.”

For more information on OneSight, go to https://onesight.org/

JULIE BURTON

DAVID PAUL MORRIS BLOOMBERG

BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS SEEKING CAREER CHANGES

BY ALEX

The pandemic shift to working at home has spurred blue-collar Americans who’ve largely been left out of that trend to seek a career change.

Anew study by the Oliver Wyman Forum found that the desire for more work flexibility was a key motivation for blue-collar employees to make the transition It also said that almost 4out of 5 who tried were successful.

“Despite being front and center during the spread of COVID-19, the well-being of blue-collar workers took a back seat,” the report said. “Most clocked hours in person putting themselves and their loved ones at risk while they watched their white-collar counterparts migrate to comfortable and safe remote setups, with their jobs and pay protected.”

Quitting jobs is contagious, but should you take that leap now?

Iquit. Wait a minute, maybe I got carried away What if the U-T graciously accepts my resignation and in an additional show of good spirit, offers to pack me a tuna fish sandwich and a bag of chips as they show me the way out the door?

What is going on with this apparently broadbased desire to quit? Quitting to do what, to go where? All of a sudden, the workers are in revolt, they can’t get through the revolving door fast enough. Emma Goldberg at the New York Times describes this as “turnover contagion.” In other words, when you see your co-worker hang up her cleats and make for the door, you are inclined to follow suit.

Goldberg says, “quitting begets quitting.” In a recent poll of 21,000 LinkedIn members 59 percent said that seeing a colleague bail encouraged them to consider pulling the ripcord as well. Don’t get me started on lemmings walking off a cliff.

When it comes to heading for the exits, “peer effects are particularly potent.” Goldberg describes the classic case where the employee saves up six months in expenses, tells her boss to stuff it, bails out and then goes to live with her parents, while she tries to find herself and decide what she is going to do next, by surfing social media The blind leading the blind? In my personal case, many of my peers are retired. I am asked frequently if I am going to do the same. I get that look; I feel the need to justify to affirm that I can afford to etc., but for the record, once and for all, my answer is that Iintend to be making my last deals from the coffin. Just put in a

6.5%-8.4% of blue-collar workers from construction, transportation and production who changed their jobs, moving to white-collar professions during September to November of last year

To be sure any such moves are on a small scale when measured against the overall labor force. Still, they can add to the difficulties facing U.S. businesses as they try to fill record numbers of vacant jobs more than 10 million as of November in a rebounding economy Federal Reserve surveys of manufacturing firms continue to highlight the shortfall “Applicants are trickling in,” one firm told the Kansas City Fed. “Not fast enough to satisfy

current demand.” Economists point to lagging pay COVID sickness, a lack of child care facilities and early retirements among the reasons for the squeeze. Career rethinks may be another one.

Research by Brad Hershbein, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, shows that there was a bigger migration last year compared with 2019 from blue-collar jobs in construction or mining to more office-based fields. Using U.S. Census Bureau data for the three months through November, he calculates that between 6.5 percent and 8.4 percent of blue-collar workers from construction, transportation and production who changed their jobs moved to white-collar professions.

The Oliver Wyman Forum study found that the shift from blue- to white-collar work has

SEE CHANGES C2

Sick and tired of your job? Now is agood time to change that

What’s good about a pandemic?

Not much. Except that, peering through my well-worn pair of rose-colored glasses, this continues to be an employee’s job market, with the forecast calling for another year or so of jobs, jobs and more jobs.

People in their 20s and 30s are avid side hustlers. And they have good reasons to be. With the average student debt at $36,510 per borrower recent college grads are starting their adult life in the red. Skyrocketing home prices and the recent spike in inflation are further pinching budgets. Not surprisingly, side hustles for 20- and 30-somethings are considered so necessary to pay the bills that more than half of this generation have one and, often, many side hustles.

KATHY KRISTOF JOHN W BANAGAN GETTY IMAGES

Walking dogs with a service such as Rover is one way millennials can pay down their college debt faster than a day job alone allows.

live the life that I envisioned for myself,” she says. “At first, the little bit of money I earned with Rover was just enough to keep me goBEST SIDE HUSTLES FOR THOSE IN THEIR 20S AND 30S BY

SEE HUSTLES • C2

The labor shortage has been created, in no order of magnitude, by a number of factors: A high level of retirements of boomer-age workers, low immigration quotas, lower birth rates that started years ago, and more stay-at-home parents of small children who choose to stay home for at least a year or so.

Plus, this grim reality: Nobody knows what percentage of the 800,000-plus Americans who have died from COVID are no longer in the job market, but it’s taken a toll

What’s the percentage of those who’ve been hospitalized because of COVID and now suffer from life-altering conditions and unable to work? Way too many, that’s for sure

Across the country, companies large and small find themselves scrambling to hire, retain and keep their employees healthy Otherwise, they have been forced to shut their doors, either for a few days or much longer

No doubt, you’ve noticed that your favorite restaurant has been getting by with a smaller staff and reduced menu options. Higher prices, too. I love the signs that say, “Be nice to our staff, they showed up today!

On a larger scale, our Manpower operation was recently contracted to find 600 workers for amajor manufacturing company as well as 300 permanent employees for a local educational institution.

companies and others

TANZI

“If they’d let me have some of the flexibility that we see our white-collar counterparts experiencing, I’d gladly stay.”

Oliver Wyman Forum study participant

have turned to staffing firms like ours because they simply aren’t able to hire enough qualified employees fast enough on their own.

It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. But it’s here and it’s happening now.

Now is the time to do something good for yourself

If you’re looking for a job or unhappy with your current situation, read on Because as I’ve said before and will continue to say now is the time to do something good for yourself and your future.

Yes, there is a “great resignation” going on a phenomenon that I prefer to call the “great reshuffle.”

That’s because while many employees are resigning, many others have discovered greener grass elsewhere by accepting jobs with other related companies, or even in other industries. No doubt, the most likely lures are based on higher wages and increased benefits. No surprise there. But the trend has its impetus in something that goes deeper: What I call soft skills.

Simply put, that’s the ability to relate easily to others, the ability to express yourself, being friendly dependable, flexible, and being committed to the greater good.

One more: Having the expressed willingness to learn a new skill or advance the ones you already possess. I’ve long been a strong advocate for lifelong learning, typically through attending classes, either in-person or online

Taking my own advice, I’m currently enrolled in an online course titled Path to CHRO (Chief HR Officer) from UC San Diego Extension. I want to know what up-and-coming HR professionals are learning.

How’s it going? Put it this way: I’ve been amazed at how much I’ve learned, with more to come.

Just might open up opportunities for you to explore

Right now, COVID’s stay-at-home constraints just might open up opportunities for you to explore new horizons in whatever field of study or expertise you choose.

By taking additional classes in your chosen field or interests, earning advanced certificates and degrees will serve to elevate your career expectations to heights you never thought possible.

If you are unhappy or believe you are being unfairly compensated in your current job, or if you have higher expectations for yourself do something about it.

As I’ve said many many times, listen to your career coach you.

If you’re listening carefully you might be lucky enough to hear that the time is now to commit to making the kind of lifechanging decisions you’ll never regret.

Don’t waste one of the few good things that will come out of this pandemic.

Blair is co-founder of Manpower Staffing and author of “Job Won. pblair@manpowersd.com

THE ARAMCO REPORT

REIGNITING A TREND FOR PAY TRANSPARENCY

BY JANAY KINGSBERRY & ANNE BRANIGIN

When Victoria Walker traveled to the Caribbean last week her plan was to unplug. For three days, she’d relax on a beach in Saint Kitts, drinking mimosas and listening to the waves crash against the shore, in part to celebrate a new chapter in her life: The 28-year-old had left her job as a senior travel reporter for the Points Guy, joining millions of people in the “Great Resignation” sweeping the U.S. workforce.

On Wednesday in the midst of her vacation, she hopped on Twitter to impart some advice for applicants vying for her old role. Ask for no less than a $115,000 salary, asigning bonus and a relocation bonus if you’re moving to New York City, where the company is based, she wrote, adding that her own salary for the job was $107,000 “I believe being transparent is one way to achieve equity in media,” she wrote.

Walker didn’t think the tweet’s impact would extend beyond the reach of people working in travel media. But almost instantly, the post went viral reverberating across Twitter and racking up thousands of retweets and reactions from users working across the media industry.

“I was not expecting this at all,” Walker said, adding that her phone’s battery life went into overdrive, dying twice as it lit up with calls and notifications that day “The response was so overwhelming that I was consumed by it for a couple hours. Then I went back to drinking on the beach.”

Across Twitter, supporters have called her a “hero,” a “legend,” a “queen praising her initiative and reigniting conversations about the ongoing push for pay transparency “This is how you stop the cycle of companies underpaying people,” one user wrote. “Thank you for helping the next person.”

Talking about pay has long been considered taboo in American culture. But in recent years, workers and

HUSTLES

worker advocates have pushed for companies to be more transparent about disclosing their pay scales.

Others have taken this call into their own hands, posting their salaries on social media and promoting spreadsheets where users can share their pay anonymously And after reading Walker’s tweet, some were even inspired to disclose their entire pay histories

One person disclosed her salary history from 2009 including the cities she lived in at the time. Another shared her pay history across different jobs and roles. On the legal front, the country has seen an emergence of state pay transparency laws. Maryland, Rhode Island and Washington require employers to disclose pay ranges to applicants upon request. California and Colorado have laws requiring employers to include compensation in job postings. And in New York City, where Walker lives, employers will soon be required to include salary ranges on job listings.

RuchikaTulshyan,author of the book “Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work” said she was “so happy” to see

Walker’s tweet.

“It’s really great that this travel writer’s used the position she was in to make sure the next person would also get compensated fairly,” she said. Tulshyan, an inclusion specialist who writes frequently about workplace equity, had been following discussions over pay transparency in the last week. In a separate controversial viral post the week before a hiring manager shared that they had offered an applicant a much lower salary than had been carved out for the role. “I offered her that because that’s what she asked for and I personally don’t have the bandwidth to give lessons on salary negotiation,” the manager wrote. Tulshyan also noted that while many people have become comfortable sharing more of their lives online, others are still reluctant to talk about how much money they make no matter where they land on the pay scale. There are a few reasons for this, experts say U.S. companies have sometimes discouraged, prohibited or punishedemployeesfortalking about pay even though that is illegal. One Institute for Women’s Policy Research

survey found that between 2017 and 2018 nearly half of full-time workers reported they were either discouraged or prohibited from discussing wages and salaries

Advocates for workers’ and women’s rights say that salary transparency can be an important tool to narrow wage gaps, especially along gender and racial lines. In a 2018 interview with Time, Chandra Childers, a study director at IWPR, cited the case of Lilly Ledbetter, who sued Goodyear after learning that men working the same job as her were making more money “She didn’t know she was being paid less so she couldn’t negotiate for higher pay that’s more common than we might think Childers said.

Personal disclosures are “powerful in the moment,” said Tulshyan and they can help chip away at a broader culture of pay secrecy They can be especially important for people with marginalized identities, who have “more obstacles and barriers to getting paid the same amount,” she added.

But, she said, there are also limits to personal disclosures.

If the job posting doesn’t include a wage or salary

range, personal disclosures —from a person who’s left the job, a hiring manager or a recruiter can benefit some applicants. But without a blanket pay transparency policy said Tulshyan, “not everyone is going to benefit from that.”

What’s more, conversations about pay transparency can be siloed by industry or networks Notably many of those who disclosed their salaries after Walker work in media.

“What would be really amazing is if more jobs posted at least a salary range,” Tulshyan said. Amid the ongoing push for laws that would enforce this kind of transparency, efforts like Walker’s tweet offer abaseline for applicants and prospective employees who worry about lowballing themselves.

“The response was great,” Walker said. “A lot of people [are] reaching out to me saying that the tweet inspired them to go into review season, or go into wherever and ask for more money.”

“Ultimately, I want to be of service to people however Ican,” she said. “I just want people to get paid.” Kingsberry and Branigin write for The Washington Post.

30, graduated college with a mountain of student debt. She earns good money as a project manager for a digital marketing agency She also has a blog that brings in about $60,000 in revenue annually, and she creates and sells digital products, such as e-books and budget worksheets.

ucts. If you want to sell crafts, Etsy is the top choice, allowing craftspeople to cheaply list and sell homemade items.

does has to be completely flexible and generate a good hourly return for his time, he says. That’s because he’s married with a toddler Time is precious.

Katy Roberts, 39, echoes the sentiment. She is also a teacher with young children. She started selling skincare products through Rodan+Fieldsa few years ago because it allowed her to fit her side hustle into “little pockets of time” that she could spare during the day “It’s been a huge blessing,” Roberts says. “It covers all the extracurricular activities for my girls.”

Paying off debt

Debt primarily student debt is also a huge issue with this generation. Like Weir Jazzy Thatch,

Skyhighhomevalues making homeowners equity rich

The number of homeowners in the U.S. who are equity rich is on the rise. As of Q4 2021, 42 percent of Americans with amortgage were considered equity rich. This means that the amount of money they owe on their home is no more than half (50 percent) than the property’smarket value.

ATTOM reported last week that the number of equity rich homeowners is up 12 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Just three percent of homes were considered seriously underwater,

CHANGES

FROM C1

FROM C1 been most pronounced in IT industries, including cyber security, and sales. Respondents to the group’s survey said they quit because they wanted more flexible hours and better benefits.

“I needed extra money to help pay off my debt faster,” she said. But she rejected a number of side hustles, such as Uber and DoorDash, as being too time-consuming for the money

“The side hustle needed to be worth the time I was spending,” she said. “I have done side hustles where you are testing websites and doing surveys and you’re not making enough money to make it worth it.”

Other lucrativehustles

Other great side hustles for people in their 20s and 30s include tutoring virtual assisting, selling art and clothing.

Tutoring

Platforms including Juni Learning and Wyzant pay between $15 and $60 per

SENTURIA

By Mehran Aram,Real Estate and Mortgage Analyst

meaning the mortgage holder owes at least 25 percent more on their loans than what the home is worth. Equity rich homeowners may leverage that equity in acash-out refinance or ahome equity line of credit. These funds can be reinvested in avariety of ways including in home upgrades or to pay off debt.

Meanwhile, conforming no-point 30year fixed mortgage rates are averaging 3.0 percent and 15-year rates are near 2.25 percent.

FROM C1

cellphone with extended battery life.

Now, in fairness, there is aproper and deep desire to find work-life balance to be at a company that values your contribution, that treats you with respect and pays you a proper wage Those are powerful reasons to consider a transition when those are not in play.

But that doesn’t fully explain the 5 million people who quit their job in December And while I celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit, as my co-columnist, Phil Blair has often said, it is always easier to get a new “job” while you still have a job, even if that new job is your individual “startup.”

All right, you’ve walked the plank and are now actively engaged in your new startup. Remember you did not love the previous management, and you are determined to do it better. You decide to go with flat, equal, egalitarian,

hour, depending on the subject. And some tutoring platforms, such as Wize and LessonFace, allow tutors to set their own rates of pay What are the best sites for online tutors? It depends on the subject you want to teach. Some specialize in math, science and coding; others focus on music, art and dance And, of course, many tutoring platforms include a wide spectrum of topics, such as English and SAT prep.

Virtual assisting Another highly flexible side hustle is virtual assisting, which can describe anything from handling a client’s email or scheduling to updating websites and managing social media accounts. Freelance virtual assistants can find work through Boldly, Belayand Time Etc They typically earn between $15 and $50 per hour

Selling art Artistic and creative?

There are a plethora of sites that will allow you to sell crafts, drawings and paintings or license your art for sale on site-produced prod-

no titles, all for one and one for all. And the winner is that doesn’t work Wharton professor Ronnie Lee has done a study about hierarchy in startups and says, “Startups with flat organizational structures often fail.” The initial thrill of the bean bag and the ramen quickly needs to give way to “management structure.” He says that when you pass about 15 to 20 employees, then it is time to create order out of impending chaos.

Another major caution:

“Male employees accumulate influence in a power vacuum, leaving female and minority employees with lesser contributions. This flies directly in the face of the proven truth about diversity and women leaders who clearly make a company better. The “bro” default is dangerous to a company’s economic health. Lee found that startups that advertise a flat structure, thinking that they are sending a message about work-life balance, actually got 25 percent

Illustrators can find jobs through Fiverr; while those who want to sell paintings and license their art for sale on products ranging from puzzles to aprons, can upload their art to a variety of print-on-demand operations including FineArtAmerica, Society6 and RedBubble. With the printon-demand sites, you earn a royalty on each sale.

Selling used clothing Annie Darling, 21 is a fulltime college student who launched a blog called Spectacular Girl to share her love of fashion In between classes, she also sells her used clothing on Poshmark. Poshmark is one of several sites that invite fashionistas to resell good-condition used clothing and accessories Other sites worth checking out include Mercari and eBay.

Kristof is the editor of SideHusl.com an independent site on the gig economy.

fewer female applicants.

As the company grows, the CEO will need to limit “unfettered creativity” in the service of delivering an actual product. With growth will come personal conflicts, and it is likely that some of the earliest employees who followed you into the wilderness will start to leave now that there is more process and structure. They are the ones who need the challenge of a new startup, the next Wild West adventure

And so, in the end, the grass is not always greener, and someone still needs to cut the lawn. And even if you do go home again for a while (with apologies to Thomas Wolfe), your mother will still ask you to take out the trash and do the dishes.

Senturia is a serial entrepreneur who invests in early stage technology companies. You can hear his weekly podcast on innovation and entrepreneurship at imthereforyoubaby.com. Please email ideas to Neil at neil@blackbirdv.com

“If they’d let me have some of the flexibility that we see our white-collar counterparts experiencing,” said one participant, “I’d gladly stay.” Like the option to work from home, benefits such as paid sick leave aren’t evenly distributed. The latter was available to only 59 percent of workers in service occupations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said last March compared with 93 percent in management, professional and related occupations.

The pandemic has boosted demands for a better work environment says Jerry Lee, co-founder of Wonsulting, which helps jobseekers from less advantaged backgrounds find work

He also says firms that are strapped for talent are reconsidering the entry criteria for some types of jobs opening alternative paths to white-collar work Insurer Aon, for example, has dropped a degree requirement for some positions and organized its own specialized training via a local community college. International Business Machines and PwC have also relaxed their credential criteria.

College enrollments are down by almost 1 million in the pandemic, with the biggest drop among men. Lee says that free or low-cost programs have helped lower barriers to entry for some jobs. He cites Google Career Certificates, a program that was initially used by Alphabet to train its own tech support staff, and has since been made public and expanded.

The majority of the program’s 50,000 graduates identify as African American, Hispanic, female, or military veterans without a college degree, according to Google.

Tanzi writes for Bloomberg News

A tweet started a conversation about wage inequities

POLITICALLY MINDED

The Wizard of Id by Brant Parker and Johnny Hart

Marmaduke by Brad & Paul Anderson Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace

Blondie by Dean Young

Beetle Bailey by Mort, Greg & Brian Walker

Fred Basset by Michael Martin

Classic Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

Hagar the Horrible by Chris Browne

B.C. by Mastroianni & Hart

Garfield by Jim Davis

La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau

Pardon My Planet by Vic Lee

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis

Dilbert by Scott Adams

The Fusco Brothers by J.C. Duffy

Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley

Curtis by Ray Billingsley

Bliss by Harry Bliss

Bizarro by Wayno and Piraro

Rhymes with Orange by Hilary Price

Funky Winkerbean by Tom Batiuk

Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan

Mary Worth by Karen Moy and June Brigman

Rex Morgan M.D. by Terry Beatty

Sherman’s Lagoon by J.P. Toomey

Duplex by Glenn McCoy

Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce

Mutts by Patrick McDonnell

Mother Goose & Grimm by Mike Peters

Adam@Home by Brian Basset

For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston

Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Pickles by Brian Crane

Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers

Frazz by Jef Mallett

Drabble by Kevin Fagan

Sally Forth by Francesco Marciuliano and Jim Keefe

Luann by Greg Evans

Pluggers by Rick McKee

Pushysister-in-lawtries to forcecouple to retire

Dear Abby: My sister-inlawisincreasingly overbearing and abusivetome. It has alwaysbeen aproblem, but Iignored her nastycomments. Now, Iamfinally sick of it.

During the last year,she has begun to insist my husband retire. She wants us to close the doorsofa business we have operated for43 years. We arehighly successful. We have morethan 23 employees whodepend on their salaries fortheir livelihood, and the business is valuable Ihavetried to tell her nicely to butt out, but it has only made her moreabusive. Ican’t draw Social Security yet, so Iwouldn’t have an income.Myhusband won’t saymuch about it. Nowshe’s soliciting our friends to call us and harass us about retiring.Help!

Still Working In Virginia

Dear Still Working: If anyone tells youtoretire and sell your business, an appropriate response would be “I knowyou mean well, but when we’re ready to retire, we willlet youknow.

Dear Abby: Ihavebeen involved with someone for morethan ayear,and he has proposed. Being in alongdistancerelationship has been very difficult. In the beginning,hewas very attentive. He lives in Tennessee, and IaminOregon. Ilove him very much and Ithought we were going to have afuturetogether.However, he is very busy with his career so it’s difficult making plans. We have set wedding dates acoupleoftimes, and it’s always getting put on hold. My problem lately is he hasn’t been responding to me by text or email. He

GAMES

Horoscopes BY GEORGIA NICOLS

MoonAlert:Thereare no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today.The Moon is in Taurus

said he lovesme, but Idon’t understand whyhehasn’t gotten ahold of me.Whatdo Idonow?

Hanging In The Balance

Dear Hanging: Iwish you hadmentioned howlong it has been sincehehas communicated with you. Could he be sick, injured or incarcerated?Ifitisnone of those and it has been morethan acouple of weeks, it would be fair to assume his enthusiasm has cooled, and you should reconsider the longdistanceengagement.

Dear Abby: Iamanonbelieverand Ineed advice about howtorespond when people “send prayers, are praying foryou and yours, etc.” Thereare countless “prayer” messagesonsocial media forall occasions. I neverknowwhattosay because Idon’t pray,nor do Isend prayerstoanyone Sending “warm thoughts” seems lame.Whatwould be an appropriate response?

AwkwardInNew Mexico

Dear Awkward: You arenot obligated to mention anything about God or prayers. If prayersare addressed to you, thank the sender fortheir thoughtfulness. If theyare addressed to youand your family,include the word “we.”If, however, the lifechallengeissomeone else’s,some appropriate responses might be,“Iam sorry foryour pain. Iam sending warm thoughts, love,(etc.), with wishes for aspeedy recovery,deepest sympathy, (etc.).”

DearAbbyiswrittenbyAbigail VanBuren,alsoknown as JeannePhillips,and was founded by her mother,Pauline Phillips.WriteDearAbbyat www.DearAbby.com or P.O.Box 69440,LosAngeles,CA90069.

©2016UniversalUclick

HAPPYBIRTHDAY forMonday, Feb. 7, 2022: Youare friendly and interesting,and people like to be around you.Youwant to expand your world, which is whyyou love to learn and travel.Take good care of yourself this year,becauseyou will have to be of servicetoothers.This year is about nurturing your closestrelationships.

ARIES(March 21-April 19) ★★★★ This is a good dayfor financialnegotiations or to ask fora raiseorsee ways to boost your income.Nevertheless,something unexpected will surpriseyou.It might be awonderful boon.Tonight:Asqueeze play.

TAURUS (April 20-May20) ★★★★★ Today the Moon is in your sign dancingwith bothJupiter andVenus,which makes youjoyful and charming. It’sahappyday foryou! It’salsoanexcitingday Youfeel impulsiveand tempted to act rashly.Tonight: Blocked by rules.

GEMINI (May21-June 20) ★★★★ This is a restless day; however,it’salsoahappyday.You might receivea gift or afavor from someone.Your partner might getabonus or some good fortune that reflectsindirectly on you.Tonight:Youmight be discouraged.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) ★★★★★ This is apopular day! Enjoythe companyoffriends,plus clubsand organizations.It’sagoodday to think about your goals becauseyour optimism will help youbeambitious and dreambig.Afriend might surpriseyou todayoryou will meet someone unusual.Tonight: Something difficult.

LEO(July 23-Aug. 22) ★★★★ Todayyou arehigh-viz.People admireyou.Theysee youas affluent,successful and charming.Nevertheless surprisenews from aparent,abossorsomeone in aposition of authoritymight catchyou offguard.

Tonight: Blocked by authority.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept.22) ★★★★★ Travel plansare exciting formanyofyou today.Nevertheless,travelplans might changeorbedelayed,canceled or rescheduled.Somewill be surprised at the opportunitytotravel.Likewise,youmight learn something new.Tonight:Approval is denied.

LIBRA (Sept.23-Oct.22) ★★★★ Asurprise might be related to bank accounts,shared wealth, shared propertyormoneyfromthe government today.Stay on topofthingssoyou’re in theknow. Meanwhile,perhapsyour surpriseisanunexpected gift or an opportunity.Be alert.(The world needsmorelerts.)Tonight: Check your finances.

SCORPIO (Oct.23-Nov. 21) ★★★ This is a charming daytodealwith othersbecauseyou feel warm and friendly.Someone newand unusual might come intoyour world.However,someone close to youalsomight surpriseyou by doing something youleast expect. Tonight: Listento authority.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec.21) ★★★★ Thingsatworkorrelated to your job will go well today. Likewise,youfeel strong and healthy. Something related to apet might pleasebut also surpriseyou.Stay on topofthings,becauseit’s good to knowwhat’shappening.Don’tbecaught offguard.Tonight: Something is worrisome.

CAPRICORN (Dec.22-Jan. 19) ★★★★★ An unexpected invitation might delight youtoday.You alsomightexperienceafun and different social occasion or outing.Meanwhile,parents:Takenote that this is an accident-prone dayfor your kids.Be awareofwheretheyare and what they’re doing.

Tonight: Responsibilitieswith kids

AQUARIUS(Jan. 20-Feb.18) ★★★★ You will enjoyrelaxing at home today.Youmight be involved with afriend or agroup,oryou might entertain someone.Count on the fact that something unusual will happen.Asmall appliance might breakdownorsomething could be suddenly damaged.Tonight: Family responsibilities.

PISCES(Feb. 19-March 20) ★★★★★ This is afeel-good day! Becausepeople areupbeat and optimistic,you will enjoytalking to neighbors, siblingsand relatives.Youmightmeet newfaces or discovernew places becausesomething unexpected will occur.Pay attention to everything you sayand do to avoid an accident.Tonight: Something worrisome ©2016King Features Syndicate

NO.01032/7/22

Completethe grid so that everyrow,columnand 3x3box contains everydigit from 1to9inclusively

Jumble: The Scrambled word game BY DAVID L. HOYT ANDJEFFKNUREK

BETH RUBINAND TRENTH.EVANS

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Bridge WITHBOB JONES

Q1– Neither vulnerable,as South,you hold:

♠ K98 5 ♥ AQ2

♦ Q985 ♣ QJ SOUTHWESTNORTHEAST

1♦ Pass 2♣ Pass

Whatcall would youmake?

A– 2S herewouldnot show extras in themodernstyle,but we think 2NT is amoredescriptivebid. Bid 2NT

Q2 – North-South vulnerable, as South, youhold:

♠ 10 9863 ♥ K98 53

♦ 2 ♣ Q6 Right-handopponentopens1D. Whatcall would youmake?

A–AssumingyouplayMichael’s Cue Bids,where a2Dbid here would show 5-5inthe majors, please don’t useitonthis hand

Thishand is notworth avulnerable bid. Pass

Q3– East-West vulnerable,as South, youhold:

♠ J108 654 ♥ 5 ♦ A107 ♣ J74

As dealer,whatcallwould you make?

A– Whynot put pressureon the opponentsatthis vulnerability? Open 2S

Q4– Both vulnerable,asSouth, youhold:

♠ 76 ♥ Q8

♦ K10873 ♣ AK 64

Right-hand opponent opens 1H. Whatcallwould youmake?

A– Bidding 2D on this suit, with this hand,atthisvulnerability, is very dangerous.Pass

Q5– North-Southvulnerable as South, youhold:

♠ Q1082 ♥ 9 ♦ AK 8 ♣ AKJ 92

SOUTHWESTNORTH EAST

1♣ Pass 1♥ Pass

Whatcallwould youmake?

A– 1S or 2S?Thishandisnot quite good enoughfor 2S based on high cards, and shortness in partner’s suit is notanasset.

Bid 1S

Q6– East-West vulnerable,as South, youhold:

♠ K6 3 ♥ KJ4

♦ Q5 ♣ AKQJ 6

As dealer, what call would you make?

A– Thatclubsuit makes this handwell worth 20 points. Open2NT

ESCAPING WOLF PACK

Rams win would be aSuper rare event

Among the wrinkles to this year’s Super Bowl is a playing surface that wouldn’t interest cows and goats

The Inglewood stadium’s carpeted “field” is a Southern California first for the event. Super Bowls in San Diego (three), Pasadena (five) and Los Angeles (two) were all played on grass.

Will the actual game Sunday —between the Bengals and Rams serve up a bigger trend-buster?

Avictory against Cincinnati would make Los Angeles just the second team based in Southern California to win a Super Bowl.

Rams fans would be allowed to touch the Lombardi Trophy, just to verify it’s not a Disney hologram.

Pay attention to this history because it’s “Jeopardy!”worthy

The Chargers are 0-for-56 in their Super Bowl trophy pursuits launched from San Diego (51 tries) and north of Camp Pendleton (five whiffs).

So, including the Greater Los Angeles tenures of the Rams (0-34) and Raiders (1-13), SoCal teams are 1-for-103 in pursuit of the Super Bowl trophy.

The batting average (.0097) is one that Garth Brooks topped in the Cactus League with the Padres.

“We’re the only one to win one from Southern California; that is surprising,” said Mike Haynes, a Hall of Fame cornerback and Angeleno-turned-San

Diegan

The Los Angeles Raiders won the 18th Super Bowl by overwhelming Washington, 38-9, with leadership from San Diego product Marcus Allen (the game’s MVP) and his friend Haynes, acquired in a late-season November trade with New England.

The lesson is this: a newcomer can make a big difference, despite the hazards of unfamiliarity

Bradley can’t carry offensive load alone, but he’s trying

MARK ZEIGLER

It seems premature to say San Diego State’s season hung in the balance on Feb. 6, a full five weeks before Selection Sunday But it also might not be completely devoid of truth. The Aztecs probably can’t afford another home loss to remain in the conversation for an at-large NCAA Tournament berth, particularly not to the eighth-place team in the Mountain West missing its leading scorer and best big man. And here they were falling behind short-handed Nevada by 13 early and clinging to a onepoint lead inside 20 seconds to go, fingernails desperately gripping the cliff edge, slipping, slipping slipping They survived, barely, pulling themselves up with a 65-63 win at Viejas Arena in a sloppy Sunday

afternoon game between teams that were fatigued, mentally and physically, from playing in other cities barely 40 hours earlier

After Nathan Mensah had the ball stripped and then knocked it out of bounds, giving Nevada possession down two with just over a minute to go, senior Matt Bradley gathered his teammates on the court.

“I said ‘Regardless of what’s going on, whatever turnovers or missed free throws, regardless of the situation, we just need to pull out a win,’ Bradley recounted. “We’re the best defensive team in the country, so we should feel comfortable being on that side of the ball,

You wish Aztecs senior guard Matt Bradley would tuck a Fitbit into his uniform to fully understand the workload he absorbs each game. There he is, darting and driving to create a shot out of situations that stubbornly refuse to provide one. There he is, pounding and banging against the trees to transform contact into critical free throws. There he is, forced to do too much too often. San Diego State needed all of Bradley’s 26 points Sunday to hold off short-handed eighthplace Nevada, 65-63 at Viejas Arena. The whole of it showed March could be brief and deflat-

ing unless the scoring cavalry arrives. “It’s by committee right now, Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said.

“Matt is Matt We’ve got to find someone else that has a good night with him that we can put up enough points to find a way to win agame.” Bradley nearly outscored the other four starters (27-26). As he found ways to will points out of the possessions that mattered most, starters Lamont Butler, Trey Pulliam, Nathan Mensah and Keshad Johnson averaged 6.5 points versus the Wolf Pack. The longer that continues, the harder the plowing gets for Bradley There’s not just a target on his back offensively You can see the bright red rings from the International Space Station “Matt works for everything he

2022 B EIJIN G OLYMPICS

RISK-TAKER GU MAKES CHINA A FORCE

San Francisco-born

freeskier competes for mother’s homeland

BY EDDIE PELLS

ZHANGJIAKOU, China

Eileen Gu was 8 when she started teaching young wannabe daredevils how to do backflips on trampolines during her summer visits to China.

“Back then, I would meet essentially the entire Chinese ski community at once,” Gu said. “There just weren’t that many people.”

In the tricky, sometimes unpleasant discussion about why this 18-year-old freeskiing force of nature who was born and raised in San Francisco is competing for her mother’s homeland of China at the Beijing Olympics, the most straightforward answer might just be hidden in that vignette Gu’s goal of three Olympic medals nearly blew off in the wind. She risked missing the finals in women’s big air Sunday night (San Diego time) when she lost a ski on her second run and crashed into do-or-die position entering Round 3.

Gu scaled back her plans in the final round and put down a conservative rightside 900 21⁄2 spins while airborne on the 155-foot ramp. She gathered herself for a clean third run, and that score combined with a double cork 1080 on her first turn left Gu in fifth place easily into the 12-skier finals field.

Canadian Megan Oldham narrowly led Tess Ledeux of France for the top spot after Ledeux topped Oldham for gold at last month’s X Games Not that long ago, hardly anybody skied in China.

These days, with the Olympics showcasing a whole new world of winter sports to the country of 1.4 billion, more people do. Girls, long marginalized, including in a sporting sense here, could really use a role model. Gu thinks she could be just the person. “In the U.S., growing up, I had so many amazing idols to look up to,” she said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press last winter “But in China I feel like there are a lot fewer of those. I’d have a much greater impact in China than in

The Raiders were a good team without Haynes With him, they were simply too good Cornerbacks Haynes and Lester Hayes blanketed receivers in “bump and run” coverage, enhancing an explosive Raiders front Hayes, who called the trade “the steal of the decade and a “blessing from God, locked down the left side of the pass defense He was having his fourth Pro Bowl season. Three years earlier his sticky coverage earned him All-Pro honors and abetted the Raiders’ second Super Bowl run in Oakland. Haynes was an even better

SEE NFL D4

Super Bowl LVI

Rams vs Bengals

Sunday: 3:30 p.m., SoFi Stadium Inglewood Line: Rams by 4

On the air: Ch. 7/39

D2 Tom Hoge (right) overtakes Jordan Spieth at Pebble Beach to get his first PGA Tour victory.

HOGE DELIVERS DOWN STRETCH

Jordan Spieth knew what to expect long before he ever saw Tom Hoge play golf.

Hoge had shown him how to play craps in 2015 during the John Deere Classic, and what Spieth took away from that evening was Hoge was not the kind of player who would back down when the stakes were high.

They were plenty high Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as Hoge, one of seven players who had at least a share of the lead in the final round, had another chance to win for the first time on the PGA Tour

At his side was Patrick Cantlay the FedEx Cup champion and No 4 player in the world. Two shots ahead of him with five holes to play was Spieth, a three-time major champion and former No 1 player in the world.

Hoge delivered all the right shots. He made two tough birdie putts on the 11th and 14th to stay in the game. His 9-iron came inches from going in on the 16th. And then the 32-yearold from North Dakota made the biggest putt of his career, a 20-foot birdie on the par-3 17th that carried him to a 4-under 68 and a two-shot victory over Spieth.

“I waited 11 years for that,”

Hoge said, the crystal trophy at his side, still surprised enough to contemplate the win in his 203rd start on tour sends him to the Masters and moved him to No 39 in the world ranking.

He called it “unexpected” for a couple of reasons. With a mad scramble at the start, he thought his double bogey from abunker on the par-3 fifth might be too much to overcome. And when he realized he was still in the game, he still had Spieth to overtake.

“You always expect him to keep making birdies,” Hoge said.

Spieth was expecting it, too, and was surprised he didn’t win. The turning point came at

the 17th with an 8-iron Spieth thought was his best swing of the day It came up short in the bunker, and he missed a 5-foot par putt.

Hoge saw the miss he didn’t know if it was for par or birdie. Only after he made birdie and realized he had a twoshot lead on the par-5 18th did he realize his time had come.

He had been a runner-up twice in his eight years on the PGA Tour, one other time missing a playoff at the Sony Open by one shot. That was the year Spieth first mentioned Hoge and said, “When he gets in contention, he will not back down.” Such was the case on Sunday

“He’s somebody that I knew when he was on the heels I needed to make birdies, he wasn’t going to falter,” Spieth said.

Hoge finished at 19-under 268 and earned $1,566,000 He had only two seasons where he

won more money, his biggest in 2020 with just over $1.85 million.

Spieth looked like a winner when he birdied the 12th and 13th holes, and he reached the 15th tee with a two-shot lead. Only after his bogey on the 17th did he learn he needed eagle to have any chance, and a sandy lie from under the tree in the fairwaykepthimfromreaching the green. He made par for a 69 Hoge had to wait for Beau Hossler one of three players who shared the 54-hole lead, whoneededeagleonthe18thto force a playoff. Hossler sent his fairway metal right into a bunker, blasted out long and threeputted for bogey for a 71 to finish alone in third.

Cantlay opened with two birdies and was still atop the leaderboard until a bogey at the eighth that left the final three hours wide open.

Cantlay didn’t make another birdie until the 18th when it was too late.

OFF THE WALL

We just couldn’t let this stuff go

U.S. diplomat says human rights should be focus

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says China’s selection of a Uyghur athlete to help deliver the Olympic flame in Beijing was an attempt by Chinese officials to “distract” from global attention on its human rights violations.

The United States is staging a diplomatic boycott the Olympics, sending athletes but not the traditional delegation of dignitaries, citing China’s alleged systemic and widespread abuse of ethnic and religious minorities in its western region, especially Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim Uyghurs.

China’s selection of cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang (pictured) for the honor of being a final Olympic torchbearer at the ceremony that opened the Winter Games was a big surprise

Elsewhere Harold Varner III holed a 90-foot putt for eagle on the final hole to go from one shot behind to a stunning victory in the Saudi International. Varner finished with a 1under 69 at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club for his second victory worldwide. His other win was the Australian PGA on the PGA Tour of Australasia. Varner faced a tough task to even two-putt for birdie and force a playoff with Bubba Watson who closed with a 64. He did one better, a putt that went from one end of the 18th green to the other Varner threw his putter to the ground and pumped his arms to celebrate.

• Nicolai Hojgaard, a 20year-old Dane won his second European Tour title when he closed with a 4-under 68 for a four-shot victory over Jordan Smith in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in the United Arab Emirates.

NASCAR, LOGANO SCORE WIN IN CLASH

BY JENNA FRYER

LOS ANGELES

NASCAR was the big winner at its glossy Los Angeles gala held inside Memorial Coliseum.

In need of an energy boost ahead of its upcoming season, NASCAR broke its dated mold and staged an experimental exhibition race inside one of the most iconic venues in sports. The race itself on a temporary quarter-mile asphalt oval was a sideshow in Sunday’s made-forFox Sports spectacular

Just how successful was the Busch Light Clash? Two losing drivers high-fived a pair of NASCAR senior executives as they passed in the USC locker room.

One was Ben Kennedy, the 30-year-old great-grandson of NASCAR’s founder and forward-thinker who pushed The ClashfromitsbirthplaceinDaytonaacrossthecountryandinto the Coliseum.

“Really good day for the entire sport,” Kennedy said.

The name of the race was the same, but everything else about the 44th running of The Clash was different.

Joey Logano was the actual race winner and, like nearly everyone else in the industry, heaped praise on NASCAR for successfully fulfilling Kennedy’s vision

DIGEST

“The hype around this, you watch football games lately, they’re advertising the Clash as much as they’re advertising Daytona 500, Logano said.

“That kind of puts it into perspective a little bit on what this event meant to our sport, how big of a gamble this really was, right? This could have gone awful. It went great.” Added runner-up Busch:

“Ben Kennedy and the guys at NASCAR, if this didn’t work, it was going to be ugly.”

Instead, Busch was one of the drivers who high-fived Kennedy The Coliseum could hold

about 60,000 fans for The Clash, and although it wasn’t a sellout, the crowd was both strong and loud NASCAR said at the start of the week that 70 percent of those who purchased tickets identified as first-time race attendees, and the buildup in Los Angeles for Sunday’s Super Bowl only helped publicize NASCAR’s big party The field was determined by heat races held earlier Sunday and a pair of last chance qualifiers to give drivers one final chance to make the 23-car starting grid. The format made for spirited racing in the final “LCQ” as rookie Austin Cindric

bounced and banged his way through traffictryingtotransfer into the main event.

Cindric fell short but was in good company: NASCAR champions Brad Keselowski andKurtBuschwereamongthe drivers who didn’t make it out of the heats.

Kyle Busch started on the pole for the 150-lap feature that included a planned stop on Lap 75 Busch dominated the first half but was eventually caught by Logano, who never gave Busch a chance to move him out of the way for the win.

LoganowontheClashforthe second time in his career. It was the fifth win for Team Penske, which has won three of the last six runnings of what had traditionally been a warmup for the Daytona 500.

Nothing learned in L.A. will transfer into the Feb. 21 seasonopening Daytona 500, but the race was the first for NASCAR’s new car The Next Gen was a long-planned project that was delayed a season by the pandemic. The car is designed to cut costs to teams, even competition throughout the field and produce a better racing product. The Next Gen didn’t disappointinitsdebutontheshortest trackontheNASCARschedule.

Fryer writes for The Associated Press.

MANE BEATS SALAH AS SENEGAL WINS ITS CUP

To U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield that choice was “an effort by the Chinese to distract us from the real issue here at hand, that Uyghurs are being tortured, and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations by the Chinese.

And she told CNN’s “State of the Union” that “we have to keep that front and center.”

The U.S. says China is committing genocide in its treatment of the Uyghurs. China denies any abuses and says the steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement

The American diplomat says “we have made clear that crimes against humanity are being committed in China.”

She added: “It is important that the audience who participated and witnessed this understand that this does not take away from what we know is happening on the ground there.

Trivia question

What player holds the record for most consecutive Super Bowl appearances?

‘Not my job’

Turkish ski jumper Fatih Arda Ipcioglu refused to say if the crescent and star on his blue skis was a statement in support of China’s Uyghur community.

The design on the skis used Saturday seemingly represented East Turkestan, the region home to Uyghurs.

I don’t want to answer about those questions,” Ipcioglu said Sunday night after jumping in the first round of the Normal Hill competition.

Ipcioglu switched skis on Sunday saying the pair he had were for the competition.

I m a sportsman,” he bristled “I do just my job. The other things, I don’t care about. It’s not my job.”

Trivia answer

Quarterback Gale Gilbert appeared in five straight Super Bowls, four in a row with the Bills (1990-93) and one with Chargers (1994) all loses.

COMPILED BY PHIL LEWIS FROM U-T NEWS SERVICES, ONLINE REPORTS

What to watch

College basketball (men)

UNC-Wilmington at Hofstra, 2 p.m. CBSSN Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech, 4 p.m. ACC Lafayette at Navy 4 p.m. CBSSN Virginia at Duke, 4 p.m. ESPN Furman at East Tennessee St 4 p.m. ESPNU Kansas at Texas, 6 p.m. ESPN

Alabama A&M at Grambling St., 6 p.m. ESPNU Arizona at Arizona St 6 p.m. FS1

College basketball (women)

Rutgers at Ohio St 3 p.m. BTN Georgia Tech at NC State, 3 p.m. ESPN2

LSU at Mississippi, 4 p.m. SEC

College gymnastics (women) Ohio St at Nebraska, 5 p.m. BTN

College hockey (men) Boston U. vs Harvard, 2 p.m. NHL

Boston College vs Northeastern, 5 p.m. NHL

Horse racing Trackside Live, 9 a.m. TVG

Sadio Mane delivered a first African Cup of Nations title for Senegal on Sunday by drilling the decisive penalty in a shootout into the bottom left corner to beat Egypt and his Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah at Yaounde, Cameroon. Mane kept his nerve despite having missed a penalty in the seventh minute of the game with Salah giving his goalkeeper some advice before that firstpenalty andSenegalwon the shootout 4-2 after the final ended 0-0 after extra time Egypt missed twice in the shootout, meaning Salah, who was meant to be his team’s last penalty taker could do nothing but watch his club teammate win it Senegal had lost two finals previously, including against Algeria at the last African Cup inEgyptin2019,whenManewas left inconsolable This time he delivered the winning moment He raced off

to joyously celebrate with teammates but also returned to spend a moment consoling Salah, who was in tears.

More soccer

Sadio Mane

First the FA Cup’s most successful team Now the holders. Nottingham Forest reached the fifth round by ousting Leicester 4-1, building on the second-tier side’s previous elimination of 14-time winner Arsenal. It wasn’t the biggest upset of the fourth round. The last 16 will feature a fifth-tier team after Boreham Wood won 1-0 at Bournemouth, which is 74 placeshigherintheEnglishpyramid. It’s now five matches without conceding stretching back into a qualifying round, for the team based just north of London.

• Lionel Messi had one of his best games for Paris Saint-Germain as the runaway leader profited from bad goalkeeping to win 5-1 at defending champion Lille and move 13 points clear in the French league.

Locally The San Diego Legion opened their Major League

Rugby season with a 31-29 victory over the Utah Warriors at home. The Legion led 5-3 at halftime and scored 26 points during the second half. The Legion tries were made by Joe Pietersen (20th minute), Bjorn Basson (42), Nate Augspurer (48), Pete Malcolm (61) and Ben Mitchell (73).

• Brandon Escoto scored the game-winner 3:19 into sudden-death overtime, as the San Diego Sockers held off the Tacoma Stars (3-5-1) 4-3 at home. The Sockers (10-0-1) won their seventh straight match, a run that includes four wins in overtime.

Horse racing Messier ($3.20), racing with blinkers off a Canadian-bred colt by Empire Maker, demolished four rivals in taking the Grade III $200,000 Robert B. Lewis for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita by a stakes record 15 lengths. Trained by BobBaffert and ridden for the first time by John Velazquez Messier went 11⁄16 miles in 1:42.89 Baffert and Velazquez also teamed up in the 3-year-old filly

race when AdareManor ($2.80) crushed three rivals in winning the Grade III, $200,000 Las Virgenesby13lengths.AdareManor went 1 mile in 1:37.11

Also New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes was placed on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list after participating in the league’s All-Star festivities in Las Vegas. The Chicago Blackhawks interviewed longtime NHL executive Peter Chiarelli for their general manager job. Chiarelli, 57 is the vice president of hockey operations for the St. Louis Blues.

• Miami is hiring Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis to run new coach Mario Cristobal’s offense with the Hurricanes. Gattis won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach this past season.

• Alexander Bublik upset the odds by beating third-ranked Alexander Zverev 6-4 6-3 in the Open Sud de France final at Montpellier, France, for his first career title U-T NEWS SERVICES

Men’s soccer Liga MX Leon vs Cruz Azul, 7 p.m. TUDN, UniMas

NBA Phoenix at Chicago, 5 p.m. NBA

NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, 5 p.m. ESPN2, NFL

Winter Olympics

Women’s luge, 5 a.m. USA

Women’s biathlon 15km individual (delayed), 6:40 a.m. USA

Mixed team ski jumping (delayed), 8 a.m. USA

Curling, mixed doubles semifinals; Women’s speed skating, 1500m; Women’s luge; Women’s biathlon, 15km individual (delayed), 9:30 a.m. USA

Women’s biathlon 15km individual; Mixed team ski jumping, normal hill (delayed), 11 a.m.

7/39

Curling, mixed doubles semifinals (delayed), 2 p.m. CNBC

Curling, mixed doubles semifinals (delayed), 5 p.m. CNBC

Men’s figure skating, short program; Men’s alpine skiing, super-G; Women’s freestyle skiing, big air final; Women’s short track, 500m final; Women’s speed skating, 1500m, 5 p.m. 7/39

Men’s figure skating, short program, 5:15 p.m. USA

Women’s hockey U.S. vs Canada, 8:10 p.m. USA

Men’s short track, 1000m final;

Women’s luge, 10:05 p.m. 7/39

Snowboard, parallel giant slalom finals, 10:30 p.m. USA

Cross-country skiing; Men’s biathlon 20km individual;

Women’s luge, midnight (Tue.) USA

Curling, mixed doubles bronze medal, 2 a.m. (Tue.) CNBC

Women’s soccer Liga MX, Santos Laguna vs Leon, 5 p.m. ESPND Liga MX Monterrey vs Pumas UNAM, 5 p.m. FOXD

Tom Hoge (left) is congratulated by Patrick Cantlay on the 18th green after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his first PGA Tour victory in his 203rd start.

ERIC RISBERG AP

Joey Logano leads the field during the NASCAR Clash at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Sunday

JARED C. TILTON GETTY IMAGES

CO LL EG E BA SKE TB AL L

FRESHMAN STARS FOR HUSKIES IN FIRST START

Freshman Azzi Fudd made the most of her first start with a stellar effort against Tennessee.

She scored a career-high

25 points to help No 10

UConn beat the seventhranked Lady Vols 75-56 on Sunday

“Azzi looked happy playing basketball today,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Sometimes kids that come in with that kind of hype, it’s like an obligation. Today she looked like ahappy kid playing a game she loves.”

Fudd was playing in only her eighth game this season after injuring her foot in late November She just returned a few games ago.

“This is not how I expected my freshman year to go sitting out so many games and getting hurt,” said Fudd, who hit seven of her nine 3-point attempts.

“This game meant a lot and hopefully I can carry it on to our next few games this week.”

This was the 25th meeting in the storied series that

AZTECS

FROM D1

which we did.”

The key play was not a shot but a scramble, after a missed bank shot by Nevada’s Desmond Cambridge Jr (18 points) rolled around the floor and Mensah dove on it and senior Trey Pulliam astutely called timeout.

Lamont Butler was fouled on the ensuing possession and made both free throws on a day that started with a pregame moment of silence for Sasha, his sister who died recently.

Cambridge made a 3 to close within a point, but Bradley made one of two free throws with 9.6 seconds to go and Nevada’s Will Baker stepped on the sideline for the second time in the game —with 1.3 seconds left as he attempted a game-winning 3 from the right corner

Or at least the officials said so. Replays were unclear how much of Baker’s right sneaker touched the line, staying on his toes and not appearing to lower his heel. Ultimately it was moot. Baker’s shot hit the side of the backboard and caromed out of bounds.

So, the Aztecs (13-6 5-3) escape. They moved to fourth place in the Mountain West ahead of Fresno State (6-4) after the Bulldogs lost at home to Wyoming but also remain tied in the loss column with third-place Colorado State (7-3)

The schedule eases now, with three games against teams below them in the standings, beginning Wednesday at 0-10 San Jose State followed by ninth-

was renewed in 2020 after a 13-year hiatus. The teams will play again next year in Knoxville, Tenn. This was the first time since 2007 when both teams were in the top 10 Fudd got the start when it was announced about an hour before the game that the Huskies would be missing her classmate, Caroline Ducharme.

“The last two games we played she took a couple solid hits and she just wasn’t feeling really good yesterday and this morning when she woke up,” Auriemma said. “Precautionary, it was best to just keep her out.”

Ducharme scored in double figures in 10 of the team’s last 11 games.

Fudd, who admitted she was nervous before the game, scored the team’s first basket a 3-pointer and finished the opening half with nine points as UConn (15-4) built a 32-25 lead. Evina Westbrook had 11 points in the first half.

Christyn Williams, who was scoreless in the opening 20 minutes and missed all seven of her shots, helped UConn blow the game open in the third quarter. She scored the first four points to start a 14-0 run that gave the Huskies a 46-25 lead.

Nika Muhl scored the final five points of the spurt, including hitting a 3-pointer

that got Auriemma to pump his fist in celebration Auriemma returned to the bench after missing Wednesday’s game at Creighton with an illness that wasn’t related to COVID-19 Tennessee (19-4), which has now lost three of its last four games, didn’t threaten the rest of the game. Jordan Horston scored 26 to lead

the Lady Vols “I think the biggest thing for us is we have to go back to our Georgia game and lost Keyen Green and we haven’t recovered from that yet,”

Tennessee coach Kellie Harper said. “I think right now the team is still searching and we’re not getting her back. We have to be able to step up and be mature and we have to tweak some things systematically and we got to be able to find confidence in what we’re doing.”

Sunday’s men’s games No 6 Houston 80, Cincinnati 58: Fabian White Jr scored 22 points, Jamal Shead had 17 points and the visiting Cougars (20-2, 9-0 American Athletic Conference) won their 12th straight game by beating the Bearcats (15-7, 5-4) No 15 Providence 71, Georgetown 52: The Hoyas (6-15, 0-10 Big East) set a school record with their 11th straight loss, while Jared Bynum scored a career-high 32 points to lead the visiting Friars (20-2, 10-1) to their seventh straight win. No 16 Ohio State 82,

MILLER

gets,” Dutcher said. “Everybody knows he’s shooting the ball. So, it’s not like he’s asurprise and he’s a guy that pops up and has 26 He does it every game.”

The imbalance has become even more stark in Mountain West games.

Coming into Sunday

Bradley averaged 19.6 per game, with Butler next at 8.5. That gulf will increase on both ends after folding in the Wolf Pack. Mensah’s first points came more than 22 minutes into the game, while Butler’s entry into the scoring column required nearly 24 minutes. San Diego State needed Bradley’s personal 11-5 run midway through the second half, including three straight 3-pointers, to secure a lead they held to the buzzer The Aztecs have won 27 consecutive games when scoring at least 65 points. They must find reinforcements for Bradley to get there. Do that and the trademark defense gets them to the finish line.

“I really have to take accountability on myself,” Bradley said. “If I’m not shooting the ball and if I’m taking as many dribbles as I am, I should find somebody wide open.”

Should, for sure. Does it happen? Not often enough.

Maryland 67: E.J Liddell had 24 points and 11 rebounds to lead the host Buckeyes (14-5 7-3 Big Ten) past the Terrapins (11-12 3-9).

Wyoming 61, Fresno State 59: Hunter Maldonado had 21 points as the Cowboys (19-3 8-1 Mountain West) narrowly beat the host Bulldogs (16-7, 6-4) Stanford 87 Washington 69: Jaiden Delaire had 18 points, Harrison Ingram and James Keefe scored 17 apiece and the Cardinal (14-8, 7-5 Pac-12) breezed past the Huskies (12-9 7-4).

Saturday’s late results No 2 Gonzaga 90 BYU 57: Chet Holmgren had 20 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and five blocks to lead the visiting Bulldogs (19-2, 8-0 West Coast Conference) over the Cougars (17-8, 5-5) Arizona State 87, No 3 UCLA 84 (3OT): Marreon Jackson had a breakout game with 24 points, 16 more than his average, to lead the Sun Devils (7-13, 3-7 Pac-12) over the Bruins (16-4, 8-3), who were swept in the Arizona desert.

not be another 20-point scorer (helping Bradley moving forward).”

The ripples of Bradley’s workload will increase as the season drags on. Later in games the legs and lungs will be tested even more. That’s hardly a good formula for the player with the ball in his hands shooting so many key free throws down the stretch.

Bradley said he positioned himself to be workhorse-ready if needed.

“I knew I needed to work myself into better shape,” Bradley said of his preseason plan. “I’ve been eating healthier In practice

I’ve been doing more reps. There’s a lot of wear and tear on our bodies right now, but I’ve been making sure to do as much as I can in practice. But ultimately, just have better habits on and off the court.

“I stopped eating out.

I’m starting to cook a little bit more. Less late-night eating. I love to eat food so just making better decisions helped.”

San Diego State needed the healthier, sturdier Bradley in a game that should not have been close.

Nevada was missing leading scorer Grant Sherfield and double-digitscoring forward Warren Washington, who were sidelined with injuries. The Wolf Pack had dropped four straight by an average of 16.5 points.

place Air Force at home Saturday They don’t play a topthree team until Feb. 22 at Boise State. Then again, no game might be a lock for this wildly inconsistent, offensively challenged outfit.

“Hard game,” a relieved coach Brian Dutcher said. “I told the team after the game, ‘The Mountain West is no joke Every game.’ This conference has got so much parity, so much toughness I give (Nevada coach Steve Alford) great credit When you lose two or three games in a row, sometimes a team will shut down. They never shut down. They played hard the whole game and darn near had a 3 to win it at the end.

“It was a fight out there, no question.”

Bradley had what is becoming his normal game: 26 points (matching his career high with five made 3s), seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and eight fouls drawn. And no one else was in double figures, which also is becoming the norm. Pulliam had nine points. Joshua Tomaic had eight points and five rebounds spelling the foul-plagued Mensah in maybe his best game of the season. Butler and Keshad Johnson each had seven points as the Aztecs shot 40.4 percent overall and 1 of 12 behind the arc by everyone but Bradley Free throws saved them. The Aztecs were 17 of 23, making 10 more than the Wolf Pack.

Playing without injured leading scorer Grant Sherfield (18.3 points) and Mission Hills High alum Warren

Washington, the Wolf Pack shot 44.2 percent overall and 10 of 19 behind the arc, the second-most 3s this season against the nation’s No 2rated defense. It also won the rebounding battle, 35-28

“If we got to the line a little bit more, who knows?” Alford said “Because I really thought that was the difference in the game.”

Taking the floor again just 41 hours after a crushing one-point loss at Colorado State on a controversial noncall, you might expect there to be a slight hangover And you’d expect right. There was.

The Aztecs sleepwalked through the opening nine minutes, shooting 3 of 11 with four turnovers. That’s not quite as bad as the 2 of 16 with six turnovers that opened Friday’s game, but the other problem was that Nevada wasn’t missing. The Wolf Pack made their first six shots, leading 18-5 and then 22-9 when Dutcher called timeout.

“Sometimes the head coach is mad and the assistants are calm,” Dutcher said. “And sometimes the assistants are mad and the head coach is calm. The assistants were mad, and I just said: ‘If you’re going to have a bad spurt, have it at the start of a game. We’ve got all sorts of time to get back in this game. Just hang in there, don’t get frustrated.’

“It was no time to panic or scream They showed me their character at Colorado State, coming back from down 20 (with 10 minutes left). So being down 12 or 13 at the start of the game wasn’t a huge concern. I wanted to play better, obvi-

ously, but I knew we had all sorts of time to play ourselves back in the game.”

It worked Bradley made maybe his hardest shot of the afternoon, a fallaway, contested jumper from the right side as he drifted out of bounds. That ignited an 18-2 run that put the Aztecs back in the lead.

But not for good. Nevada led by four midway through the second half, then the Aztecs by eight before Nevada closed to one to set up a nervy final five minutes. Or put it this way: The Aztecs didn’t make a basket over the closing 2:59 Big exhale.

“We’re making steps,” Tomaic said. “We’re learning day by day We just have to stay the course. We have to believe, we have to trust and we have to put the pieces together at the end of the day. There’s a lot of basketball left. I think we’re going to get rolling. I feel it coming.”

Notable

It was SDSU’s seventh straight win against Nevada and 10th straight against the Wolf Pack at Viejas Arena

Another streak intact: 21 in a row after a loss when the next game is at home.

• The 13-point deficit represents the biggest comeback this season.

• Aguek Arop did not play, resting his sore hip after going 23 minutes at Colorado State. SDSU compensated for disadvantages in shooting percentage and rebounding with seven fewer turnovers and 10 more fast-break points.

mark.zeigler@sduniontribune.com

Aseason ago, departed scorers Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel each recorded at least 14.4 per game. In 2020-21, Malachi Flynn, Yanni Wetzell, Mitchell and Schakel all averaged double figures. Go back another season and three did. Go another and five scored 10 or more.

Offensively Bradley routinely finds himself on an island.

Pulliam scored nine against Nevada, while Butler chipped in seven. Bradley however, also led the Aztecs in rebounding (7) and steals (3), while tying a team high in assists (3).

“I thought Trey’s offense took a step forward from where it’s been,” Dutcher said. “Lamont is playing good downhill. So, it may

Still, the Wolf Pack roared in front 22-9

In the first half everyone not named Bradley combined for 16 points. The group finished the first 20 minutes 1 for 6 from 3 as Bradley drained two of his four attempts from that distance.

“His comfort level is way higher than it was at the start of the year,” Dutcher said. “I think he’s dribbling less. I think he’s more efficient. Matt was sensational, and we need him to be.

“That’s a lot of pressure, but I think that’s the pressure he wanted when he came here.”

Not even someone as skilled as Bradley can do it alone, though. bryce.miller@sduniontribune.com

Connecticut’s Azzi Fudd, who had 25 points, shoots as Tennessee’s Rae Burrell defends in second half.

JESSICA HILL AP

Aztecs’ Matt Bradley, who had 26 points and seven rebounds, celebrates one of his five 3-pointers.

K.C. ALFRED U-T

SUPER BOWL CLOSES MICHAELS’ NBC DEAL

BY JOE REEDY

Al Michaels finally gets to call a Super Bowl in Los Angeles and will tie the late Pat Summerall for the most by a lead announcer on television.

The question everyone wants answered, though:

Will this be Michaels’ final assignment for NBC?

Michaels has been the lead announcer on “Sunday Night Football since its start in 2006, but his contract expires after Sunday’s matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams. The 77-year old hasn’t indicated his future plans, but said he does relish becoming a free agent for one of the few times in a career that has spanned more than 50 years.

“I don’t know what I’ll be doing, but I do know I will have the opportunity to continue and I want to,” Michaels said last week in an interview with The Associated Press “I feel great knock on wood, I’m blessed with very good health, and I love what

Ido.

“The time is coming now where after the Super Bowl where I will think about a lot of things. I’ve got a couple of people very close to me who I trust their judgment, insight and what they’ll say in terms of what is next.”

This is Michaels’ 11th Super Bowl, and his fifth for NBC.

NBC signed Mike Tirico in 2016 to take over as Olympics host and eventually succeed Michaels on “Sunday Night Football.” With NBC having the Super Bowl in Los Angeles and Michaels’ contract ending, this upcoming offseason may be a transition point.

Tirico, who has called some NFL games the past couple of seasons will do double duty this weekend hosting NBC’s prime-time coverage of the Beijing Games as well as the Super Bowl pregame show. Cris Collinsworth, Michaels’ broadcast partner since 2009 is expected in the SNF booth.

“Pretty much before the

Al Michaels will call his 11th Super Bowl on Sunday, tying him with the late Pat Summerall for the most.

season began, I knew that I wanted to just enjoy this year because it was the end of this particular deal,” Michaels said. “I knew if I got distracted by other things it would take away from just enjoying the people I work with and just having a hell of atime. And I’ve been able to do that.” If NBC does move on from Michaels, his next des-

tination could be Amazon Prime, which will become the exclusive carrier of “Thursday Night Football” next season. Michaels laughed when asked if a deal with Amazon could include other elements besides “Thursday Night Football,” such as a possible reunion with Bob Costas to do a sequel or remake of the 1998 movie

“BASEketball.”

Cincinnati’s appearance marks only the third time that Michaels has not called agame of one of the participants before they got to the Super Bowl. The Bengals last time on NBC’s Sunday night package was 2018 against Kansas City.

ABC’s Monday Night Football” didn’t have the Rams or Tennessee Titans during the 1999 season and the Arizona Cardinals did not make an NBC appearance in 2008 Michaels said he’s been able to watch enough Bengals games so that he isn’t coming in completely cold, unlike 1999 when streaming games or watching them ondemand remained a fantasy But during his years calling prime-time games, Michaels said the Bengals are pretty low on the list when it comes to how many times he’s seen them over the years.

Ironically, his rise to prominence began in Cincinnati in 1971 when he was the Reds announcer for three seasons.

NFL REPORT

ST. LOUIS TRIO POWER RAMS

Rams moved to Los Angeles.

players who played in St. Louis that remain on the Rams roster

BY GARY KLEIN

ANGELES

LOS

During a 2016 team meeting in a Manhattan Beach hotel ballroom, Rams players glimpsed renderings of a new Inglewood stadium for the first time.

The Rams were two months removed from the NFL approving their move from St. Louis to Los Angeles Their meeting, which preceded a news conference and house-hunting excursions by players, was the first step in the return-toL.A process.

The conceptual drawings of what would eventually become $5-billion SoFi Stadium impressed players in the abstract. Yet veterans, accustomed to the league’s annual roster turnover, were circumspect that they still would be members of the Rams when the stadium was completed.

“Every guy that’s kind of older on the team, you’re elbowing each other thinking, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be great for those young guys to be able to play in in the future,’ punter Johnny Hekker said.

Hekker, star defensive lineman Aaron Donald and starting right tackle Rob Havenstein are the only

NFL FROM D1

defender Hall of Fame voters elected him off his first ballot “Lester has his own style, and it’s effective for him, Raiders safety Vann McElroy told Sports Illustrated in 1983, “but Haynes is unreal. He makes you want to clone him.”

Haynes was a big improvement over a young Raiders corner who may have been better off at safety

The trade for the five-time Pro Bowler created a tactical windfall: opponents weren’t prepared for the blitzes coordinator Charlie Sumner

All three have played pivotal roles for the Rams throughout their careers, and all will be in the starting lineup Sunday when the Rams play the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium. Hekker, Havenstein and Donald occasionally reflect that they are still together “We joke once in a blue moon about it,” Donald said.

“You never know what to expect. You hope to be at this point and have success like this.”

Donald, 30, has enjoyed enormous achievement in Los Angeles. He was voted NFL defensive player of the year in 2017, again in 2018 when he helped lead the Rams to Super Bowl LIII and again in 2020, joining Lawrence Taylor and J.J. Watt as the only three-time winners.

Before coach Sean McVay replaced the fired Jeff Fisher in 2017, the Rams had the then-30-year-old McVay speak with Donald.

“You know that Aaron was a really important factor because part of the interview process entailed me meeting Aaron, and him being like, All right, I guess this little guy can maybe be a head coach for us,’ ” McVay said.

Havenstein, 29 was a second-year pro when the

devised knowing Haynes and Hayes would delete two receivers. One blitz became a staple Haynes, sounding giddy, recalled the play’s four code words. Jet Rip Blue Sky

“Whenever we called it, it seemed to work, he said

Strong safety Mike Davis was the blitzer “The quarterback would step and run right into Lyle Alzado or somebody else,” Haynes said, laughing. In Haynes’ first full game with his new team, the Raiders won by 32 points in San Diego. They went 5-1 in his five full games, prevailing by an average of 24.5 points.

Along with veteran Andrew Whitworth he is a bookend tackle for an offensive line that protected quarterback Jared Goff for five seasons, and now Matthew Stafford.

“Rob has really asserted himself as a great leader,” McVay said.

This season’s team is similar to the 2018 Super Bowl team, Havenstein said.

“One of the biggest things, like 2018, is we’re really connected,” Havenstein said. “Guys genuinely care for each other and that’s something that can’t be faked.

“It’s one of the key strengths of this team.”

Hekker signed with the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2012 and is the team’s longest-tenured player He was a two-time All-Pro before the Rams arrived from St. Louis, and he also earned All-Pro honors in 2016 and 2017

“He was really a great leader from the time that I got here,” McVay said, adding, “Somebody that intentional about doing things the right way, perfecting their craft but also making a positive impact on their teammates, that’s Johnny Hekker.”

Hekker’s future with the Rams appeared in doubt last offseason when the Rams signed punter Corey Bojorquez. Hekker was side-

Haynes said the hardest part of L.A.’s Super Bowl run for him wasn’t the Super Bowl itself or the AFC title game against Seattle but the first-round matchup against Pittsburgh. Not only were the Steelers four-time Super Bowl champions Haynes knew the trade would be viewed critically if the Raiders lost.

He’d never won a playoff game At 30 he was closer to the end of his career than the start.

“I did not want to be the reason we lost that first playoff game for sure I didn’t want it to be on me, he said. “Everybody was feeling confident. But I was a little gun shy I didn’t say

lined for part of training camp after testing positive for COVID-19 But after he agreed to restructure his contract, the Rams traded Bojorquez to the Green Bay Packers and brought back Hekker for a 10th season

Hekker 31 said that his Donald’s and Havenstein’s staying power comes into focus when he attempts to reminisce with other teammates about a funny event or personality from St. Louis.

“You get this blank stare back and you realize, ‘Oh my gosh, I can only talk about this with Rob or A.D.,’ ” said Hekker “It’s a real honor to be considered with those guys, and how long we’ve been able to stay with one organization is a real blessing.” Now they will play together again in another Super Bowl.

In the Rams’ 13-3 defeat by the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII, Hekker punted nine times. “It was pretty disheartening after the game watching the other team’s confetti falling down and them celebrating,” he said “But afterward I was still filled with sense of pride and accomplishment over the season we had.

“I just like I had a belief in my heart we’d be back And here we are.” Klein writes for the L.A. Times.

anything. I played hard and prepared hard. But, inside I was a little concerned. I kept my guard up the whole time.

Haynes held up against Steelers great John Stallworth, and the Raiders cruised at home, 38-10.

Echoes of the Haynes-toL.A trade have reverberated in the Rams’ recent run. Two midseason acquisitions edge rusher Von Miller (trade) and receiver Odell Beckham Jr (free agent) were big contributors to the team winning the NFC West race and three NFC playoff games But it’ll take beating the Bengals for the Rams to avoid joining three other

“It’s kind of like starting with a fresh palette,” he said. “One of the cool things is we get to introduce the Cincinnati Bengals and their players to most of the nation as opposed to a team like Kansas City, where a lot of people know about (Patrick) Mahomes, (Travis) Kelce and (Tyreek) Hill.”

The Hollywood Park stadium complex where the Super Bowl will be held is only 8 miles from Michaels’ home and marks a perfect bookend to the season. NBC’s first game of the season was the Rams hosting the Chicago Bears. “Most of my life has been spent here, even though I grew up in New York,” he said. “I went to the first Super Bowl with my brother in January of 1967 So to go to the first one, and then to broadcast this one is pretty amazing. What can I tell you? I’ve had a hell of a ride. And believe me, nobody appreciates it more than I do.” Reedy writes for The Associated Press.

HERBERT, CROSBY

SPARK AFC TO WIN

ASSOCIATED PRESS

From Darius Leonard’s rambling pick-6 on the opening drive to Mac Jones’ blissfully enthusiastic Griddy dance at the 2-minute warning, the Pro Bowl’s Vegas debut was a messy chaotic show.

AFC 41, NFC 35

And Justin Herbert, Maxx Crosby and the AFC stars all won big.

Herbert hit Mark Andrews with two touchdown passes, leading the AFC to a 41-35 victory over the NFC on Sunday in the return of the Pro Bowl.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to come out here and play some of the best football players this game has to offer,” Herbert said. “What an opportunity to learn more about their game, understand them, get to know them and just have some fun.”

Jones passed for 112 yards and threw a touchdown pass, and the New England rookie also did a memorable rendition of the Griddy in the first Las Vegas edition of the NFL’s annual All-Star game, back from a one-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Herbert won the offensive MVP award after passing for 98 yards and finding the Baltimore tight end for two TDs in the first half of the Chargers star’s first Pro Bowl appearance.

Crosby from the hometown Raiders, won the defensive MVP award with two sacks, three batted passes and three tackles for loss in a pleasingly sloppy game featuring seven interceptions, with at least one thrown by each of the six quarterbacks.

“I didn’t want to injure or hurt anybody, but I still wanted to have some fun and work on my game,” Crosby said. “No matter what it is, we’re still in full pads and want to have a little bit of fun.”

The AFC has won five consecutive Pro Bowls since the league returned to a conference format in the 2016-17 season. Its players took home $80,000 apiece from Vegas, while the NFC got $40,000.

Kyler Murray passed for 160 yards and three touchdowns for the NFC. The Arizona star made it close when

Southern California teams who tasted Super Bowl defeat: the 1979 Rams of coach Ray Malavasi and quarterback Vince Ferragamo who lost to Pittsburgh as a 10-point underdog; the 1994 San Diego Chargers of Bobby Ross and Stan Humphries, who fell to San Francisco as a 19-point underdog; and the 2018 Rams of Sean McVay and Jared Goff, who saw New England a two-point favorite, hold them without a touchdown.

As a boy Haynes cheered for the Rams notably defensive linemen Rosey Grier and Deacon Jones and quarterback Roman Gabriel.

he hit Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook for a TD with 2:36 to play, trimming the AFC’s lead to six points.

Dolphins hire McDaniel

The Miami Dolphins hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as their head coach, making him the first minority candidate to get hired so far this offseason.

McDaniel who is biracial, replaces Brian Flores who was fired despite posting winning records in the final two of his three seasons in Miami. Flores sued the NFL, the Dolphins and two other teams last week over alleged racist hiring practices for coaches and general managers, saying the league remains “rife with racism” even as it publicly condemns it.

McDaniel had worked under 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan for the past 11 seasons and gets his first shot as a head coach after only one year as offensive coordinator McDaniel was credited for his role in developing San Francisco’s creative running game that featured receiver Deebo Samuel as a running back at times, along with other wrinkles. The Yale-educated McDaniel becomes the 10th consecutive hire by the Dolphins to have exactly zero previous games as the person in charge of an NFL sideline, following Jim Bates Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano Todd Bowles Joe Philbin Dan Campbell Adam Gase and Flores. Bates, Bowles and Campbell were all interim hires.

Notable The Texans are in talks with assistant coach Lovie Smith for their head coaching vacancy a person familiar with the meetings told The Associated Press

The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because the team had not announced that Smith had interviewed for the job. The 63-year-old Smith is currently the Texans’ associate head coach and defensive coordinator. He joined the team last offseason after 2016-2020 as the coach at Illinois.

• The Bears hired Richard Hightower as special teams coordinator under new coach Matt Eberflus

Wearing his Cub Scouts uniform he sat in the massive Coliseum Cub Scouts got in free His AFC loyalty, however tugs harder than his childhood ties so he’ll be pulling for the Bengals, a 4-point underdog. Ahistorical footnote to the Haynes trade is Haynes has said he would’ve signed with the USFL if Davis hadn’t brought him to L.A and agreed to pay him “fair salary New England was unwilling to pay The New Jersey Generals owner was willing to meet Haynes price. That owner was Donald J. Trump. tom.krasovic@sduniontribune.com

KEITH SRAKOCIC AP

The Rams’ Aaron Donald has enjoyed much success in Los Angeles, but he began his career in St Louis. MARK J. TERRILL AP

Donald, Havenstein and Hekker made move from Midwest

Disparity dragging down the sport

BEIJING

Brianne Jenner was too polite to gloat after she contributed a hat trick to Canada’s second straight double-digit scoring spree and blowout victory in the women’s Olympic hockey tournament.

“Not every game is going to look like this,” Jenner said after Canada followed its tournament-opening 12-1 victory over Switzerland with an 11-1 rout of Finland.

The problem for women’s hockey is that too many games involving the U.S. or Canada do look exactly like that, affirming that an enormous talent gap still separates the two North American teams from the rest of the world.

The U.S. women emphasized that disparity Sunday by overwhelming Switzerland 8-0 at Wukesong Arena, fueled by two goals each from Hilary Knight, Kelly Pannek and Jesse Compher The U.S. (3-0) has scored 18 goals and allowed two with one game left in preliminary-round play a matchup against Canada on Tuesday

The U.S. and Canada have monopolized all 20 women’s world championships since the first women’s world tournament was held in 1990 The first eight produced identical results: Canada won, followed by the U.S. and Finland

That didn’t change until 2005, when the Americans won, Canada slipped to second and Sweden earned abronze medal. Switzerland (bronze in 2012) and Russia (bronze in 2016) are the only other women’s teams to have cracked the top three The tournament was expanded to 10 in 2021, partly to give up-and-coming teams a chance to experience high-level international play In that tournament, Switzerland scored one goal and gave up 17 in losing all four of its games and Denmark, also winless, scored three goals and gave up 15 In Olympic play either the U.S. or Canada has won the gold medal since women’s hockey was added to the program in 1998 The Americans won the first gold medal and the most recent, at Pyeongchang in 2018 Sweden won a surprising silver medal in 2006 but hasn’t been able to replicate that success. Switzerland, a bronze medalist in 2014, is 0-3 here after scoring three

OLYMPICS

FROM D1

the U.S., and that’s ultimately why I made that decision.” But there are no simple answers to any facet of a discussion involving relations between China and the United States, and why an athlete with options might choose one over the over Meanwhile, a lot has changed in China in the 21⁄2 years since Gu made her decision and in the way the rest of the world perceives it.

China’s human rights record has triggered a diplomatic boycott and become a focal point of the Games themselves. COVID-19 protocols have turned these Olympics into a closed-off affair filled with strict testing protocols Critics say that by competing for China, and not the United States, Gu is, at the minimum, tacitly supporting the Communist government’s policies and turning her back on the team that helped her rise through the ranks.

“There’s something endearing and noble about her interest in promoting her sport to the world’s most populous country, and promoting herself as a strong female role model,” said Chad Carlson, who teaches about sports and society at Hope College in the U.S. “Every action has consequences, as well. This isn’t a usual transnational path. To go from an American athlete to a Chinese athlete just isn’t that common a roadway.

Because of the baggage surrounding that decision, Gu has kept her media availabilities this winter to a minimum, and kept them tightly focused on the mission ahead skiing. On Thursday, she did post an essay on Instagram explaining her decision “I’ve always said my goal is to globally spread the sport I love to kids, especially girls, and to shift sport

SHIFFRIN FALL A ‘DISAPPOINTMENT’

BEIJING Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin’s first trip down the race hill at theBeijingGameslastedjust five turns and mere seconds Sunday night (San Diego time), ending in a disqualificationfromtheopeninglegof the giant slalom that she called “a huge disappointment.”

Olympics, thanks largely to a winningdance program from Madison Chock and Evan Bates, while Japan climbed onto the team podium for the first time.

Kauf delivers silver

goals and allowing 25 The Beijing Olympics tournament also was expanded to 10 teams from eight All of which means that the U.S. and Canada are a lock to meet again in the final. “I don’t think so,” Knight said earlier this week.

Say, what?

“Everyone’s good at this tournament,” she said. “It’s wonderful because I think it’s a testament to the growth of women’s hockey I think that’s why we saw the world championships have more teams in the tournament, and it’s wonderful to see the girls on the world stage. Obviously as a competitor when I’m wearing the U.S. jersey, I want to win every single game and don’t want to give any other team credit but when I take that hat off, it’s wonderful to see.”

Each bit of progress requires patience and, often, a fight. The U.S. women had to threaten to boycott the 2017 world championships to get USA Hockey —the sport’s national governing body to give them better pay and promises that it would more energetically promote the women’s game and expand its efforts at the youth level. Sweden’s women’s team went on strike in 2019 to protest its poor pay lack of insurance and inadequate training conditions.

Old, stale cultural bias against female athletes also

holds back women’s gains in funding, resources and visibility. It’s telling that the women’s under-18 world championships, a key developmental tournament, was canceled each of the last two years but organizers managed to stage the 2021 men’s under-18 tournament in a bubble in Frisco, Texas. The women’s tournament could have been held, too.

The U.S. college system has enabled female players from outside North America to hone their skills and take them back home, producing stars such as goaltender Noora Raty of Finland and the University of Minnesota. But that hasn’t produced the kind of depth that would make those teams competitive against Canada and the U.S. Still, U.S. women’s Olympic coach Joel Johnson contended the blowouts in Beijing don’t reflect the state of women’s hockey

“I think the scores are a little bit deceiving to start the tournament and I say that very confidently, having as much experience as I have coaching at the under-18 level and under-22 level and national team level,” he said. “I think what Isee is a growth and development of women’s hockey and the global pandemic has maybe stalled it a touch, just like it has on the men’s side.

“I think the more resources and the more visibility that women’s hockey gets at the youngest levels,

in particular for the grassroots federations to put money and support into their programs, you’re just going to see it continue. I think we’re just in a little bit of a pause right now for a variety of factors, but I think in the coming days if we continue to support women’s hockey and give it visibility and give it marketing and give it resources, you’re going to see a pretty significant jump in terms of the competitive balance.”

That’s likely to take a while. “I want more money and more eyes on the sport,” Knight said. “In the sport. We need more money we need more marketing, we need more visibility more storytelling. Programming as well, and resources.

“The game’s getting a lot faster and that’s only because we now have more opportunities to train. And especially from the grass roots level all the way up it’s really important to invest in women’s hockey and see other countries doing it as well.”

Until those investments are made and pay off, there will be more of those painful 12-1 and 8-0 routs. Don’t blame the U.S. and Canada for being so good. Blame national governing bodies and the International Ice Hockey Federation for not making the necessary efforts to help the rest of the world catch up.

Elliott writes for the L.A. Times.

in the history of the Winter Olympics but only one of those on snow. No matter how she does over these next two weeks, her future upon heading home from China appears bright. She has had covers on In Style and Vogue magazines. “I love the sound of camera shutters,” she said.

The seventh racer on a course known as The Ice River at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center, and the defending champion, the 26-yearold American lost control coming around a left-turn gate slid and fell on her side. Eventually she got up and stopped on the side of slope, stuck her poles in the snow and put her hands on her hips.

“The day was finished, basically,” Shiffrin said, “before it even started.”

She still could have a handful of chances over the next two weeks to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career. Shiffrin hopes to enter all five individual events in Beijing.

“I’m not going to cry about this, she said, “because that’s just wasting energy.” Shiffrin did not appear overly dejected or emotional by the time she came down the mountain and spoke to reporters. Then she hugged teammate Nina O’Brien and congratulated her on her sixth-place run.

Zhou tests positive

American figure skater Vincent Zhou tested positive as part of regular COVID-19 screening, one day after struggling through a poor free skate for the eventual team silver medalists.

Zhou is undergoing additional testing to confirm his status.Iftheresultsarenegative, he will be allowed to compete in the individual competition, which begins with the men’s short program on Tuesday.

Russia gold, U.S. silver

Kamila Valieva became the first woman to land a quad in the Olympics two of them, in fact and her historic free skate put a stamp on Russia’s dominant run to the gold medal in the team figure skating event.

At the Tetonia Club in Alta, Wyoming, they clung to onesimplephraseasthebedlam gained steam while their daughter, sister and friend, Jaelin Kauf edged closer and closer to the Olympic silver medal: “Deliver the love.”

Kauf delivered the love A spot on the podium was a fitting reward to go with it

Half a world away from Alta, the 25-year-old Kauf finished second Sunday in freestyle moguls, an event her family has set the standard in over decades. Kauf’s mom, Patti, and her dad, Scott, are multiple-time champions in the freestyle discipline from back in the ’80s and ’90s. Patti also won three Winter X Games titles in skicross They gathered at Scott’s bar with around 100 of their closest friends to watch Jaelin make a trip down the hill that will force a bit of rearranging in the family trophy case. The action started at 4:30 a.m. in Wyoming.

“She had the biggest smileontopofthecourseand everyone’s like ‘She’s got it,’ Patti said. “She smiled every run. Her motto was to go out and deliver the love which is to remind her about her love of the sport. And that’s what she did. And I couldn’t be more proud.”

Jakara Anthony of Australia captured the women’s mogulstitle Anthony’sbackflip with a grab at the bottom of the course sewed up the gold medal on the Secret Garden Olympic course The 23-year-old Anthony joins Dale Begg-Smith as the only Aussies to win the Olympic event. Begg-Smith earned his title at the 2006 Turin Games.

Notable Russian skier Alexander Bolshunov pulled away from the pack early to win gold in the 30-kilometer skiathlon. Bolshunov, the World Cup points leader in distance races, crossed the finish line in one hour 16 seconds. Johannes Ludwig of Germany is the champion in men’s luge, adding that to the World Cup overall title he won this season. It’s the 11th time in 16 Olympics that a German man counting the days of East Germany and WestGermanyinthere has won the luge title.

culture toward one motivated by passion,” she wrote, in part.

In the conversation with the AP at last year’s Winter X Games, she also opened up about her choice to compete for China one she started receiving flak for almost the instant she made it.

“I’ve gotten a lot of hate, a lot of people saying ‘It’s a question of loyalty and which country she likes more,’ Gu said. “It’s really not.

It was really a big thing between the impact I would be able to have and what I’d be able to do with skiing.”

Another thing it certainly was not was a search for an easier path to the Olympics.

Gu had a firm spot on the U.S. freestyle team when she made her decision. She won gold medals in halfpipe and slopestyle at the 2021 Winter XGames and a bronze in big air

Since the start of this season, she has won four halfpipe contests, one in big air and finished second in her only slopestyle start. It’s

no reach to think she could be the first action-sports athlete to win Olympic gold in three separate events, starting with the big air finals on Tuesday “She’s unbeatable when she lands even her ‘B’- or ‘C’level run right now,” U.S. coach Mike Riddle said. “If you’re trying to bet against her it’s a bad call.”

All of which has more than put Gu on the map in a country that loves its sports stars

Former NBA center Yao Ming is still a national hero. Hurdler Liu Xiang won a gold medal in 2004 that turned him into the poster child for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

At last count, Gu whose Chinese name is Gu Ailing had 1.34 million followers on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. She is racking up sponsors at least 23 by the AP’s count and is finding support in a country that has captured a grand total of 13 gold medals

She is set to go to Stanford later this year, with a possible major in international studies in the offing. She’s a strong musician and something of a ham at heart. “When you see the piano in the airport, and there’s akid sitting there playing it, that’s me,” she said. She is well-spoken in two languages. Her fluency in Mandarin is the result of being raised in part by her grandmother who does not speak English. She is also, undoubtedly, on her way to being rich, which might be the case regardless of which country’s colors she is wearing this month. That punches a hole in the argument that she made the move simply for the money But the decision was always more complex than that.

“She’s stepping into this because she says she wants to be a role model for young girls, but in terms of the social issues having to do with America criticizing China she’s not stepping in to answer for those particular issues,” Carlson said. “It’s unique because in the current climate we’re in, we have alot of athletes who are stepping into that willingly without even being prompted.”

Instead, the social issue she cares about most is trying to help girls connect with sports. Anyone who thinks she’s just arriving at this party could be pointed to the Adidas commercial that features a speech she gave in seventh grade about women’s equity in sports.

Pells writes for The Associated Press.

The 15-year-old Valieva opened with a huge quad salchow and followed with the difficult triple axel before landing another quad, this time a toe loop in combination with a triple toe loop. The only blemish on her program came when she fell on her quad toe loop late in the program, but by that point her first gold medal in Beijing was assured.

Valieva scored 178.92 points, giving Russia 74 points and their second gold medal in three editions of the team event. The U.S. earned the silver after back-to-back bronze medals at the past two

Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi won Oski jumping gold on the normal hill. Kobayashi jumped last and best, clearing 99.5 meters (326 feet) and had 129.6 points thanks to his graceful style from start to finish that won over the judges. NBC primetime host Mike Tirico will have a shorter stay in Beijing than originally planned. Tirico’s final show from Beijing will be tonight. He will fly from China to NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Conn., to host on Wednesday and Thursday before heading to Los Angeles Friday to anchor Olympics and Super Bowl coverage through Sunday

PENG: ALLEGATION WAS BIG ‘MISUNDERSTANDING’ ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING

Chinese tennis player

Peng Shuai has told a French newspaper that international concern over her well-being is based on “an enormous misunderstanding” and she denied having accused a Chinese official of sexual assault.

L’Equipe, which specializes in sports news, published the interview Monday The publication said it spoke to the tennis player a day earlier in a Beijing hotel in an hourlong interview organized through China’s Olympic committee

Also, the International Olympic Committee released astatement saying IOC President Thomas Bach had dinner with Peng on Saturday and she attended the ChinaNorway curling match with IOC member Kirsty Coventry.

L’Equipe asked Peng about a post in November on herverifiedaccountonaleadingChinesesocialmediaplat-

form, Weibo, which kicked off astorm of international concern about her.

In that post, Peng wrote that Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and member of the ruling Chinese CommunistParty’sall-powerfulPolitburo Standing Committee, had forced her to have sex despite repeated refusals. Her post also said they had sex once seven years ago and she hadfeelingsforhimafterthat.

Peng briefly disappeared from public view, then appeared at some promotional appearances arranged by the government.

Speaking to L’Equipe, Peng denied having accused Zhang of assault.

“Sexual assault? I never said that anyone made me submit to a sexual assault,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.

“This post resulted in an enormous misunderstanding from the outside world,” she also said. “My wish is that the meaning of this post no longer be skewed.”

Mikaela Shiffrin

Eileen Gu wants to show China what women can do in sports and in skiing.

HARRY HOW GETTY IMAGES

Despite being outnumbered, Hilary Knight of the U.S. (21) scores a goal against Swiss goalie Saskia Maurer.

PETR DAVID JOSEK AP