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VOLUME:117 No.170, JULY 30TH, 2020

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CLASSIFIED TRADER: CARS, CARS, CARS & MORE CARS

INSIDE

SAXONS CALL HALT TO NEXT JUNKANOO Champions stop all work in anticipation event is abandoned

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net MEMBERS of the Shell Saxons Superstars have stopped work on preparations for Junkanoo in anticipation of an announcement from the government on changes to this year’s parades in light of COVID-19.

Group members said they felt a “profound sense of loss” that they will not get to entertain fans on Bay Street in the traditional fashion – with co-chair Kendenique CampbellMoss telling The Tribune yesterday they had been

looking forward to defending their crowns as the reigning Boxing Day and New Year’s Day champions.

Instead, she said that extensive consultation had been going on with the government, and she and other Junkanoo officials expect an announcement soon that the parades will be different from what Bahamians are accustomed to because of COVID-19.

“All the plans and preparations have come to an end,” she said. “If you see something happening, that’s going to be a virtual thing to keep momentum going but

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar confirmed last night that Bahamians who want to have a vacation and stay in a hotel will be required to have a negative COVID test in just the same fashion as visitors arriving from outside the country.

His statement to The Tribune came as the country recorded 37 additional COVID-19 cases, including five on New Providence

JUST 1,300 ENROL FOR BPL LATE BILL PLAN

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

SOME 90 percent of Bahamas Power & Light customers facing disconnection remain in danger of having their electricity cut-off as the utility seeks to recover a $46m debt.

Data provided to Tribune Business yesterday by the company showed that just 1,311 residential and commercial customers, out of 12,446 threatened with disconnection, have either settled their arrears or worked out a mutuallyacceptable payment plan.

This means some 11,135 customers are now susceptible to having their electricity cut off.

‘INSURANCE PREMIUMS MUST NOT KEEP RISING’

SEE PAGE FIVE

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net LEADING insurer Tom Duff says the industry “simply cannot keep putting broad brush premium increases” on Bahamian households and businesses because this will create an unsustainable business model.

Mr Duff, from the Insurance Company of The Bahamas, said the industry needed to explore the development of an alternative “product” that would provide some degree of hurricane protection and ensure they did not drop coverage altogether.

and 32 on Grand Bahama.

The number of hospitalised cases increased by four for a total of 16.

Earlier yesterday the Ministry of Tourism released a statement saying it was aware of special offers and packages from hotels designed for Bahamian residents during lockdown periods.

It said: “Weekend lockdowns are being implemented for the sole purpose of curbing further spread of COVID-19.

SEE PAGE THREE

L SOUR CE

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

GB CASE COUNT RISES 32 AS NP SLOWS DOWN

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

$1

A YOUNG Saxon in action at last year’s Boxing Day parade

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

POLICE DELAY ON KILLING ‘CONCERNING’ FRONT

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

ENGLERSTON MP Glenys Hanna-Martin wants National Security Minister Marvin Dames to explain why it took three days for authorities to confirm that a police involved killing happened last Friday. In a press statement yesterday she called the late confirmation “totally unacceptable” and “very concerning”.

VICTIM: Jamal Frazer Bodie Police killed 31-yearold Jamal Frazer Bodie on Friday evening. This

newspaper pressed police officials for answers on the matter many times on Sunday and Monday, but it was Mr Dames who finally confirmed the incident when contacted on Monday. Police officials released a statement on the matter on Monday evening.

Police Commissioner Paul Rolle told The Tribune he thought a statement had

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE THREE

PORCH

BY SIMON SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Thursday, July 30, 2020 THE TRIBUNE

THE TRIBUNE TUESDAY, MARCH 24TH, 2020, PAGE 15

BAHAMAS AVIATION, CLIMATE & SEVERE WEATHER TROPICAL CYCLONE PROJECTED TRACK

6AM Monday 50 MPH

Freeport

Abaco

6PM Friday

45 MPH

6AM Sunday 50 MPH

Andros

6AM Friday

45 MPH

6PM Thursday 45 MPH

6PM Saturday 50 MPH

Inagua

6AM Thursday 60 MPH

Nassau

RESIDENTS GET READY FOR STORMY WEATHER

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net GRAND Bahama residents headed out to hardware and grocery stores to stock up in preparation for a tropical storm expected to affect the island this weekend.

People lined up at Dolly Madison and the Hardware Centre yesterday morning after government announced hardware stores were permitted to open during the lockdown due to the threat of the storm.

Some people wasted no time in getting supplies and hardware items to secure their homes. The storm is expected to bring lots of rain, which could not only cause flooding in low-lying areas but also affect many homes still under repair for roof damage from Dorian.

James Rolle, general manager at Dolly, said people came out early to shop. “We had a good number of persons here first thing this morning; we had quite a bit of people lined up outside, but we expect the numbers will pick up later in the week as people monitor the storm, he said.

We will remain open… until the Prime Minister tells us to close our doors again.”

Mr Rolle said they have stocks of hurricane supplies on hand, such as batteries, flashlight, propane gas stoves, and rope, etc.

Carolyn Fox, operation manager at the Hardware

Centre, said they had a large turnout around 8am on Wednesday. “We were very busy, we had a large crowd here this morning,” Fox said.

There was also a queue of shoppers at Sawyers Fresh Market waiting to get inside to purchase essential food items. According to a male customer, a woman almost passed out while waiting in the line outside.

“I came here to get a few items because of the storm and this lady was standing in front of me and all of sudden she fell back and I caught her,” he said.

In a statement, Minister of State for Grand Bahama Senator Kwasi Thompson said the announcement by the Office of Prime Minister in Grand Bahama of the opening of hardware stores is to allow Grand Bahamians the opportunity to purchase needed supplies in preparation for a storm.

“We want the public to monitor the possible storm and we also want the public to be in a position to make all of the necessary preparations,” he said in a statement.

“We know that in Grand Bahama, we are under a lockdown and only certain businesses were allowed to open, namely food stores, gas stations, and pharmacies, but the Prime Minister has announced he would allow hardware stores to be opened the same time as our grocery stores and our pharmacies.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, July 30, 2020, PAGE 3

HOPE TOWN RESIDENTS’ FEARS OVER BURGLARIES

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net SOME Hope Town second homeowners are reconsidering their investments amid fears over burglaries and a decline in police presence.

The manager of Elbow Cay Properties, Hilary Thompson, who oversees 60 properties, told The Tribune: “It’s not like the same place it used to be where you didn’t have to worry about theft. It’s already making some homeowners

question how much they want to put back into getting their house back up to rent. We have a homeowners chat so I’ve heard the homeowners go back and forth proposing to get security cameras, proposing to take matters into their own hands.

“We just had a homeowner that had three small gas generators taken from his house but we have no one to report it to so he has all the information that he needed to report it but unfortunately I contacted the police officer in

Marsh Harbour, he sent me to somebody else and it kinda was just dropped.

There’s just no presence on the island. Normally you’ll file a police report and they would come and check it out, we just don’t have any of that. These generators, the homeowner is still there and we don’t know what the next step is.”

Chief Superintendent Wendell Smith said Hurricane Dorian destroyed Hope Town’s police station.

He said since then officers have been sent to the area on a rotational basis. He

insisted complaints made by residents are addressed in a timely manner when brought to the attention of police.

Long-time resident Junior Mernard, however, said he is concerned about security, noting Hope Town has a huge second home owner market that drives the island’s economy in direct and indirect ways.

“The whole life investment of these people is basically in the hands of property managers and caretakers that can only do so much and their homes

are being burglarised and expensive items are being taken away from their houses,” he said.

Mr Mernard said he reached out to a top Ministry of National Security official on July 21 but has received no response.

“In one instance, we actually had a young man caught with stolen property in his possession which was a portable generator and the next day he was back on the island,” he claimed.

Chief Superintendent Smith said: “If somebody is

taken in custody for questioning for any offence and we have no grounds to charge that person based on the information that we have that person is released. We can only hold a person during the time of our investigation. It does not mean that even if someone is taken into custody for question and released.

If additional information comes in that merits that person arrested again and put before the court that happens.”

Editorial View - Page 6

No visitors to PMH, all wards closed to public GB COUNT RISES AS NP SLOWS DOWN from page one

By AGATHA INGRAHAM NO visitors will be allowed into the Princess Margaret Hospital and all wards are now closed to the public, it was announced yesterday.

Access to entrances to the hospital and to the wards within have been restricted in an attempt to “ensure the safety of patients and staff during the COVID-19 crisis”.

With a number of medical staff already in quarantine and the numbers of positive cases rising in the country, the Public Hospital Authority (PHA) and PMH released a press statement yesterday indicating that “only emergency cases will be managed during this period”.

The health authority said “all visitations remain suspended at the hospital until further notice”. Members of the public are advised to “contact their personal physicians or community clinics for non emergencies during the day and accident and emergency after hours”. Specialty clinics have been suspended at the hospital until further notice. The Eye Care Centre on Soldier Road

and Family Medicine Clinic at 4th Terrace Centerville are still open for service.

It was reported yesterday that roughly 50 patients were potentially exposed to COVID-19 across three wards, including the male and female surgical wards, none of which were accepting new admissions.

Patients may have been exposed by a healthcare provider working on one of the wards.

Neither PMH or PHA officials would directly address the reported ward exposures. PHA Managing Director Katherine Weech was tight-lipped, informing only that a press release would be issued.

That release indicated only emergency surgeries will be conducted; all elective surgeries have been suspended with the exception of oncology, vascular and Ceaserean section procedures. Patients will only be allowed to enter through the Critical Care block entrance.

Even PMH staff will only be allowed to enter the hospital via the main entrance at the critical care block.

They will only be allowed on property with proper hospital staff identification

and personal protective equipment.

Bahamas Nurses Union President Amancha Williams is reported to have said that up to 50 nurses could have been exposed to COVID-19. Some of them are under quarantine. This does not mean these nurses are sick; but as a preventative measure, they will undergo a two-week quarantine period. For persons who live alone or have access to their own bedroom and bathroom, they have been allowed to quarantine at home. For those who live with other family members in the home and cannot self isolate, arrangements have been made for them at government-appointed quarantine facilities.

Maternity patients including Maternity-Day cases can enter PMH through the maternity entrance only.

Dialysis patients will be the only people permitted to use the medical block entrance. Patients with appointments are asked to contact the patient appointment and scheduling unit at the hospital at 808-9972, or via email at: appointments@pmh.phabahamas. org.

POLICE DELAY ON KILLING ‘CONCERNING’ from page one

been released earlier. “It was miscommunication in regards to that,” he said.

“I apologise for the miscommunication.

There was no attempt to hide anything.”

Nonetheless, Ms HannaMartin noted the recent uptick in police-involved killings that she said is

“causing much disquiet in the public domain”.

“We face a grave risk that community confidence and trust are being eroded and compromised,” she said.

“These are essential components to maintaining the peace, social balance and a healthy democracy.

“We demand transparency and accountability in the exercise of police powers; we insist on

the protection of the law for the security of all citizens.

“It is now therefore critical that an independent body be immediately established to investigate allegations of excessive force and alleged abuses by police. It may very well be necessary to review existing policies and practices and explore alternative strategies. Body cameras must be urgently mandated.”

“All residents, with the exception of essential workers, are required to remain in their place of residence for the duration of the lockdown period, unless for the purpose of seeking emergency medical care or securing groceries, gas, pharmaceuticals or water.”

The statement went on

to say “No hotel or resort is permitted to allow any guest – whether an international traveller or a Bahamian resident – to remain within its property without a negative COVID19 RT-PCR test”.

“That is trying to allow for tourism,” Mr D’Aguilar told this newspaper. “You can’t have a hotel facility that is open to persons coming from

overseas who have had a negative test to co-mingle with guests who have not had a test. Everybody has to have the same status.

We’re not denying Bahamians, you just can’t have a different status from the person in the hotel.”

The ministry reminded hoteliers of their responsibility in ensuring physical distancing and mask wearing requirements.

PAGE 4, Thursday, July 30, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

LEWIS: WE’RE AS READY AS WE CAN BE FOR STORM

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

IRAM Lewis, Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management, and Reconstruction, says Grand Bahama is “ready as can be” and has “more than enough” hurricane shelters based on meteorological advice concerning the storm.

“We are fully aware of the system in the Tropics. It will not be a major system, however, we will… be putting necessary protocols in place to ensure we are ready,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference in Freeport.

“We are working closely with the Met Department, Social Services, the City of Freeport, and my colleagues’ ministers in GB… to ensure that we are in a complete state of readiness. Hurricane shelters are being prepared and

MINISTER: Iram Lewis inspections are being carried out in GB.” Minister Lewis noted that as a result of information received from the Met Department, all the shelters will not be activated on GB. “We have churches and schools that are also ready; we have more than enough to meet our needs,” he said.

The schools identified as shelters on the island include Hugh Campbell Primary, Jack Hayward High, Sister Mary Patricia

Russell Junior High, and the Maurice Moore Primary School for East Grand Bahama. Some churches are expected to be added to an updated shelter list that will be released Thursday.

Following the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian in Grand Bahama and Abaco on September 1-3, the new Disaster Preparedness ministry was created to help focus and coordinate the national response for disasters, recovery, and reconstruction in the Bahamas.

In Abaco, Minister Lewis stated that shelter facilities are being prepared.

He has been assured that facilities are being readied on Sandy Point, Cherokee Sound, and Crossing Rocks, as well as Green Turtle Cay and Guana Cay. The school on Grand Cay and Moore’s Island has been identified as shelters on those islands.

“Moore’s Island school… even though it is not 100

percent it is suitable for the storm, and a church there is also ready to be activated as a shelter should the need arise,” Mr Lewis said.

The minister noted that they are mindful of the need to ensure that all shelters are in compliance with COVID-19 protocols.

COVID-19 is a major driver of how we manage and prepare shelters. I have no major concerns with our team being ready.

As it is now and based on projections, we are ready as we can be, but again our situation is fluid and we have to make necessary adjustments.”

The minister said inspections were conducted at the COVID-19 section at the Rand Memorial Hospital, where teams of contractors are working to complete hospital renovations.

Mr Lewis indicated that sections of the hospital will open in phases, with the entire project completion

in late August to early September.

The minister said that while the system is not expected to become a hurricane, the Emergency Operation Center will be activated by Friday afternoon or no later than Sunday.

The main concern with the system is rainfall. He said that debris removal is still a priority even though the island is not expecting a lot of wind.

“We are in discussions with Troy McIntosh at the City of Freeport on the removal of debris; we do not want debris floating all over our community and so we want to ensure we manage debris collection and containment,” he said.

Orson Nixon, chief Meteorologist at the Department of Meteorology in GB, said the system expects to weaken as it moves over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba.

“Our main concern is rainfall along the western part of GB and Bimini,” he said. We expect it to reach Bimini by Saturday night into Sunday morning.”

Christine Palacious, Administrator of West Grand Bahama, said preparations are underway in West Grand Bahama.

“There are persons on the ground in all the communities assessing persons who would need assistance in terms of evacuation, those staying in their homes, and need tarps for roofs,” she said.

She noted that they have started getting drains cleaned, and have contacted GB Power Company to deal with overhanging trees and power lines.

Administrator Palacious stated that social services are inspecting shelters in the area, and finalizing the official list of shelters for persons wishing to evacuate.

‘THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH WE CAN DO’

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT ts-cartwright @tribunemedia.net

Shelters still open for Dorian victims

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT ts-cartwright @tribunemedia.net NEARLY 11 months after Hurricane Dorian, people were still living in a hurricane shelter in New Providence, according to the director of Social Services, Lillian QuantForbes – although that shelter was due to close yesterday.

Hurricane Dorian changed the lives of many Bahamians for ever when it struck on September 2 last year, packing winds of up to 250mph, and causing millions in damages.

“We have one shelter still open and that shelter has six persons who will be moved from that shelter by the end of today (Wednesday),” said Ms Quant-Forbes. “So one shelter in New Providence only. There are no open shelters on the other islands. My staff at the Department of Social Services and our volunteers have been working. As a matter of fact, we have still been working with dealing with the shelter from Hurricane Dorian and wrapping that up.”

There are currently 20 Hurricane Shelters on New Providence and 115 on the Family Islands. National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) held a press conference via Zoom yesterday to urge Bahamians to prepare themselves for a system that might hit the southern islands of The Bahamas by this weekend and to give an update about readiness for the hurricane season.

Since March of this year, The Bahamas, like the rest of the world, has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, getting people

to practice social distancing and proper sanitisation to keep the virus from spreading. Ms Quant-Forbes said COVID-19 prevention protocols, to include social distancing, will still be in place at the shelters and measures should a person present with COVID-19 symptoms.

“What we have had to do is identify the schools which have smaller classrooms, rather than having a large amount of persons in the various gymnasiums,” Ms Quant-Forbes said. “With the classrooms, we have to limit the amount of persons in each classroom. So the social distancing is still in effect for the three to six feet to accommodate persons in a safe zone. The protocol for social distancing will still be in place.

“At each shelter, there will be medical personnel.

What we require is that when persons will come into the shelter we aim to see how best we can do temperature checks with them and also to answer the question as it relates to designated spots, yes, a designated spot will be identified at each shelter for persons who present with any symptoms of COVID-19.”

Ms Quant-Forbes announced her team is undergoing training for shelter management and data collection. All data collected will be the property of the Government of The Bahamas, channelled through necessary agencies and accessible to those who require it.

Shelters in some of the Abaco cays were noticeably missing from an official list of shelters. Asked about where will those residents go should a storm hit the area, Minister of Disaster Preparedness Management

LILLIAN Quant-Forbes and Reconstruction Iram Lewis said a meeting will take place in Abaco today after which a report will be made to his ministry.

He said: “There is a meeting on Abaco tomorrow (Thursday) led by the administrator and upon presentation of her report to us (Disaster Reconstruction Authority), we will know what areas we need to ramp up to ensure all of the cays are covered. We don’t expect any evacuation from island to island, however, this is a part of the outer section of the communities to inland or in structures that would have been compromised.

“We would expect to move those persons to safe structures. So once again, the updated list will be provided after the meeting in Abaco and the administrator will subsequently have reports from the various Abaco cays.”

Trevor Basden, chief meteorological officer, warned Bahamians to always be prepared when a storm is near, but was hopeful that the looming storm moves more to the west as at 5am Wednesday, it was no longer in the tracking cone. “Do

not drop your guard,” Mr Basden warned. “At 5am Wednesday, the track itself is moving more to the west and so The Bahamas itself is not in the cone. Do not drop your guard because a cyclone is not a point, it is vast. At 8am Wednesday, the track has it to now move just slightly to the west of Puerto Rico and then over Hispaniola but mainly Dominican Republic. They are high mountainous areas so that in itself is a blessing for us. Based on this position we would look rather favourable.”

At the time of the press conference, the storm was about 1,210 miles to the south east of New Providence. Mr Basden said It is moving very rapidly at 23mph and this general motion is expected with some slight decrease in forward speed likely. He said the south-east Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, should receive a warning later on Wednesday.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, both present at the press conference, are set to go into motion as early as today in preparation for the looming storm.

A Tropical Storm Watch for the south-east Bahamas includes the islands of Inagua, Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Acklins, Ragged Island, Long Cay and Summana Cay and also a watch for the Turks and Caicos. Tropical storm force winds likely within 48 hours. As it steers towards us in a westerly direction, localised flooding can be expected. Mr Basden said: “You are looking at one to three inches, but some accumulations and pockets, six to eight inches.”

NO hurricane shelters have been identified for some of the Abaco cays – and yesterday the government admitted the nation has no properly built shelters to withstand another Hurricane Dorian.

Carl Smith, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, made the admissions at a press conference yesterday, held by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) ahead of the possibility of a tropical storm which might make landfall on the south eastern islands by the weekend.

The Tribune asked Mr Smith about a report made by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) after assessing the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco a few months ago.

The report said the islands were not fit to withstand another hurricane and it also mentioned that shelters in The Bahamas were just churches, gymnasiums and school rooms and not properly structured shelters built to a certain code to withstand serious winds and weather conditions.

Mr Smith said the IOM report is not telling Bahamians anything they don’t already know and subsequently went on to speak about immigration matters in The Bahamas.

“The International Organization for Migration simply reminded us of what we already know,” he said. “In The Bahamas, we do not have any purposely built facilities that serve as shelters. And we are not unique in that either. In the great US of A, they don’t have many such facilities.

“The International Organization for Migration’s focus is on providing housing for migrants. So when they make their report and speak to the lack of accommodations to house persons in The Bahamas, protect them from storms, they have built into their consideration the countless number of migrants in The Bahamas.

Part of our preparation needs to be that if you are in The Bahamas illegally, you should make every effort to go home. We are a very humane society. We provide water and food and shelter, but there is only so much that we can do. That

is the reality. We need not try to escape that reality.”

When pressed with regard to the structure of hurricane shelters and their ability to withstand hurricanes, Mr Smith continued: “We have a situation in The Bahamas where we have a number of migrants who live in conditions that cannot withstand systems such as hurricanes. We saw that with Hurricane Dorian and the consequential disaster that followed.

We have to come to the place and realise that that is a situation that has to be addressed.”

Mr Smith said Bahamians have to face the reality of the migrant situation and something has to happen.

He said: “Just as we’ve had an illegal migrant population in the heart of Marsh Harbour, Abaco, which resulted in quite a number of lives being lost, we have such communities here in New Providence, in Eleuthera, in Andros and many of our own people are facilitating them being here under those conditions.”

Focusing on shelters again, Mr Smith gave an overview of new shelter structures that are being planned. He said: “Having said that, we are moving towards the construction of community centres that will be specifically designed to serve as shelters,” he said.

“We have had, for example, contributions from the government of India to the tune of $1m. There are contributions from Rotary International towards the construction of purposely built facilities that will serve as shelters and community centres. In addition to that, we have Bahamas Red Cross and International Red Cross that are moving in that direction as well.”

He said The Bahamas does its best to accommodate all people who are here, but “we are realistic people and there is only so much we can do and only so far that our resources can go”.

MINISTER: Iram Lewis

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, July 30, 2020, PAGE 5

THE SAXON Superstars make their way down Bay Street in the New Year’s Day Junkanoo

Saxons call a halt to this year’s Junkanoo from page one that’s not what Junkanoo is.

The essence of Junkanoo is not virtual, it’s not seen on a computer screen. It’s getting to Bay Street, to George Street, lining up at the entry point and seeing your comrades and saying ‘bey, this what you bring to Bay Street, this how y’all look?’ It’s about waiting for fanfare and saying ‘boy y’all sound stink.’ Or if you see someone breaking down you say ‘help that bey so this don’t fall apart’. That is Junkanoo, not no virtual, 60-odd people dancing, that’s not it. This is a mammoth disappointment for us. Can you imagine that the Saxons have not won in almost seven years? For us to be double champions, we were looking forward to everything.”

Mrs Campbell-Moss said despite COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing protocols, her Junkanoo group managed to “get everything in place for what to bring to Bay Street” but will instead save its theme for later.

“I’m not telling you what the theme was going to be for you to tell the Valley Boys what we doing,” she said. “We are the reigning champions. As the music category champions and overall champions we already started preparing our choreography, we already ordered our materials which we buy early because they come from Germany and we like to be ahead of the game.

Usually we cover 50 percent of costs early and the other 50 percent when materials are delivered.”

She added: “It’s not that we agreed to (forgoing Junkanoo parades this year), but because of the pandemic and the orders that have been given and sent to us we had no other choice but to conform based on pandemic restrictions in the nation. The utmost feeling among us is a profound sense of loss because in some instances Junkanoo accounts for 100 percent satisfaction. It is not just women and men coming together, this is a life that we live and in

some instance people have made their livelihood around Junkanoo. We are very disheartened but we understand that based now on what’s happening in the country, this is a necessary precaution that we must take. We pray that next year something different would happen and we will get on Bay Street and rush because Junkanoo is the greatest show on earth.”

The Saxons in July typically conducts tests for its brass section and backline while preparing for the Junkanoo Summer festival and Fox Hill Rush, Mrs Campbell-Moss said –– but that’s not happening this year.

“Whatever happens, it won’t be anything competitive,” she said. “We’re not looking at doing anything competitive because we know people are hurting.

Now, if we find a cure (for COVID-19) by tonight we could get to Bay Street in the morning if y’all push us because we don’t play on this road. When we line up it’s a movie.”

STUDENT VISAS FOR US AVAILABLE BAHAMIAN students aspiring to study in the United States for the fall semester but were uncertain of whether or not they would be able to obtain a student visa can breathe a sigh of relief. The Embassy of the United States in Nassau announced late yesterday that a limited number of student visa appointments are now available.

The Embassy is prioritizing students who are starting or continuing for the fall 2020 semester.

However, no firm timeline has been announced for the resumption of other visa services.

“At this time, we are

prioritizing student visas for applicants residing in The Bahamas who are starting or continuing their studies for the 2020 fall semester, so that they can start their studies on time,” read an Embassy statement.

Students are encouraged to start their application process immediately by visiting: https://ais.usvisainfo.com/en-bs/niv.

Once students have their appointment, they will have to follow all COVID-19 protocol in order to be interviewed. Failure to comply will lead to them being turned away.

“Applicants and their families should prepare as best they can for any

eventuality,” the Embassy said.

“The Embassy will make every effort to process student visa applications in time for the start of the fall semester, but cannot make any guarantees. Students and families should be in regular communication with their college or university to explore every option available—including online options, deferred starts, etcetera—in case a student is not able to apply, interview, or receive their student visa before their semester starts.”

Full instructions can be found at: https:// bs.usembassy.gov/visas/ studentvisa2020.

PAGE 6, Thursday, July 30, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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Crime leaving residents still feeling aftermath of hurricane IN the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, crime was a major concern for residents of Abaco. There were fears over looting, fears over inadequate policing with officers not going out at night with no power meaning no lights on the streets.

It is disheartening to say the least to discover that residents are still having problems with burglaries and a lack of police response all these months on.

It is nearly 11 months since Hurricane Dorian passed – yet to hear the residents of Elbow Cay, you would think we were still in the throes of its immediate aftermath.

Homeowners are finding themselves the victims of burglaries – generators taken, and other expensive items – and when they try to report it, there’s no one there.

“We have no one to report it to,” said the manager of Elbow Cay Properties, Hilary Thompson, who oversees 60 properties. “There’s just no presence on the island. Normally you’ll file a police report and they would come and check it out, we just don’t have any of that.”

Chief Superintendent Wendell Smith disagrees, saying complaints from

residents are dealt with in a timely manner – but that’s not the experience of residents.

One of the problems may be that officers are being sent to the area on a rotation basis rather than having officers who know and are based in the area over a period of time, someone who residents can recognise and know who to approach.

Whatever the source of the problem, residents are feeling out in the cold – and they’ve been there for far too long.

Another resident pointed out that the area has a huge second home market – which contributes a lot to the local economy. If owners feel their homes are not secure, they may just pack up and go elsewhere. That’s goodbye to that economic contribution.

Chief Supt Smith could perhaps be a bit more pro-active. Perhaps he could go and meet these residents for themselves, and ensure that their concerns are heard – and addressed.

The survivors of Hurricane Dorian have had quite enough to put up with – let’s not leave them abandoned any longer.

When the price isn’t right THE insurance industry is, it appears, at a crossroads. Hurricane Dorian has put sharply into focus the problems with large swathes of properties completely uninsured and the remainder bearing the cost in premiums for reconstruction.

We all know how the insurance business works – you spread the risk across a wide number of customers to keep the premiums affordable. But in Dorian, half of the properties were uninsured, and the rest? Well, as Tom Duff says in Tribune Business today, you can’t keep on jacking up the rates of those who are insured. The higher the rates go, the fewer that can afford them, and the fewer that can afford them, well… up the rates go again.

It’s a conundrum for the industry, and COVID-19 has been the hammer blow

on top. Mr Duff says the industry has to get creative – we shall see just how easy that is to manage. We suspect it’ll be a tough challenge indeed.

One thing for sure, as we look at the prospect of another tropical storm this weekend, hurricane season isn’t going away. The government cannot afford to bail everyone out every time there is a major storm. We already saw the small size of payouts for uninsured houses from the government compared to the cost to rebuild.

We face a tough time economically ahead, with the shrinkage of the economy due to COVID-19 bringing tourism to a juddering halt. But if the insurance industry does manage to be creative, and can offer ways to help – remember that we all need a safety net from time to time.

A reminder of childhood THE recent predicament of the open travel to USA with unrestricted return within 72 hours reminds me of a childhood rhyme: For the want of a nail a shoe was lost For the want of a shoe a horse was lost For the want of a horse a soldier was lost For the want of a soldier a battle was lost For the want of a battle a War was lost All for the want of a horseshoe nail!

And so we sit in abject subjugation and humility.

God help us in our hour of need.!

MONKEEDOO Nassau, July 28, 2020 WITH COVID-19 cases rising and the government implementing two additional weekend lockdowns, readers are having their say on the situation on tribune242.com.

Honestman had issues with the new curfew time: “The 7pm curfew is unhelpful for the reasons stated by contributors above. Make it begin at 8 or even 9pm - it won’t make much difference to the virus but will help those who are working to manage their lives a bit better.”

ThisIsOurs agreed: “It’s CRAZY. It’s like the Cabinet meets to find new ways to add stress to regular Bahamians’ lives.

The gracious Clarice Granger EDITOR, The Tribune MRS Clarice Granger, an iconic and gracious Bahamian lady, with kind, sparkling eyes, has passed from time into eternity.

Mrs Granger spent a lifetime in public service.

She was born into a family dedicated to serving God and their fellow man. Rev Talmadge Sands, her father, was the first Bahamian Pastor of the historic Zion Baptist Church on Shirley Street. Rev Sands rebuilt Zion after the Great Hurricane of 1929. People who lived in Chippingham in the 1960s still speak about the magnificent garden that was a part of the Sands’ home.

Mrs Sands kept a well run home and raised children who each helped to build The Bahamas.

Mrs Granger was the longest serving Chief Commissioner of Girl Guides.

The work to establish the new Bahamas Girl Guides Headquarters commenced under her tenure.

My first memory of her is at the Princess Margaret Hospital where she was a Radiologist and my late father, Sir Clement Maynard, was the Chief Laboratory Technician and President of the Civil Service Union (now the BPSU). Mrs Granger patiently answered all the questions of a very curious young girl, me. This was the same patience and encouragement that she brought to Guiding. We were all her children. She had boundless patience. She poured her energy into Guiding.

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net But, those who knew her as the wife of Dean William Granger, the first Bahamian Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, would say that she poured her energy into the work of the Cathedral, including as organist and participant in all of the ministries of the Cathedral.

And, those who needed her services as an organist in their church, would say that Mrs Granger gave of herself in their music ministry. Mrs Granger’s knowledge of the hymns and love of liturgical music was legendary. Most organists are aware of the hymns to be sung before the service starts. Whenever Mrs Granger was the organist, the priest knew that he could change the hymn during the service and not miss a beat. Mrs Granger knew the hymn numbers and she knew the various tunes for each hymn. Frequently she played them without the aid of written music.

Yes, those in various sick person visitation ministries would have said that she gave such hope and peace to persons in need of hope and a kind healing word.

Who can forget Mrs Granger’s focus as, after her “second retirement”, she supervised the construction of her home on West Bay Street? And, seeing her in her garden many afternoons tending lovingly to her beautiful plants. Their

abundant blooms made it clear that she brought them as much joy as they gave her.

After her “second retirement” she commenced a stint at Templeton, where she became a part of their family and they were enriched by their wonderful encounters with her.

Any visit with Mrs Granger included tea. Like those of her generation, tea was accompanied by sandwiches and cake, served on lovely china. Those were precious moments to enjoy the moment and each other.

No “troubles of the world” there.

Her friends and family would say, “I could call on Clarice anytime of the day or night and she would be there”.

Throughout her life, Mrs Granger exemplified the graciousness, kindness and generosity that were instilled in her, and her siblings, as children. The Sands siblings have a noble record of national service. The Granger family’s equally strong record of national service would have strengthened Mrs Granger’s resolve to give all that she could for as long as she could. Let the record reflect that is exactly what she did.

Thank you Mrs Clarice Granger for being a stellar role model for a well lived life of service, integrity, kindness and grace.

Rest in Peace.

ALLYSON MAYNARD-GIBSON Nassau, July 29, 2020.

Bahamians don’t follow rules

We get up 5AM to get to work for a 9AM start.

Rush through traffic dropping off kids and spouses.

Now they tell us we have to rush through 5PM traffic too? And stress over whether we can get in by 7PM? Then after that 120 hours of constant stress they lock you in for the weekend then let you out to rush back to work on

Monday. What are they trying to do????”

And there was this from Stillwaters: “Until we realise that the government cannot really help win this COVID battle . . . only if people, each taking personal responsibility, changing our actions, and doing what is sensible . . . only then will we win this battle . . . the government is helpless if the people do not comply. So stop looking for some magical governmental plan to save our lives, it’s in your own power to save our country, people.”

Don’t miss your chance to join the debate on tribune242.com.

EDITOR, The Tribune I WRITE to you with reference to an article that I saw in The Nassau Guardian, written by one Mr William Wong on July 24, 2020, headed: It Ain’t Right.

Dear Mr Wong, I write to you without prejudice, but I totally disagree with you in your statement that the vendors at Arawak Cay and under the bridge were forced to close for a second time, and you see a very different road ahead for these ordinary Bahamians to make an honest living when other restaurants can continue by operating via drive-through and have curb-side service.

Where on Arawak Cay and under the bridge can you have drive-through and curb-side?

You stated that with the help of the police at Arawak Cay they can enforce the protocol of wearing masks and keeping six feet apart. Only some places you see Bahamians doing that! I desire to differ with you, because Bahamian people refuse to obey the law, even with the police presence.

Some of them are not going to wear masks, or stay six feet apart. Bahamians just do not respect authority. Just look and see what happened in Grand Bahama. Bahamians do not follow rules.

This is my first time writing to you.

I would appreciate it if you would publish this in your paper for me.

I also have another question for my Bahamian people.

BLACK LIFE MATTERS

For the white or the black? Does it only matter when a white man kneels on a black man’s neck and kills him? But it does not matter when a black man kills a small child or children in the arms of their mother, or kills other black men every day of the week?

WINSTON MB DAVIS Nassau, July, 2020.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, July 30, 2020, PAGE 7

WOMAN PASSENGER ADMITS MAN JAILED FOR SIX MONTHS SWEARING AT POLICE OFFICERS FOR THREATENING TO KILL

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 25-YEAR-OLD woman who used profanity and punched a police officer who stopped and evacuated a bus she was riding on earlier this week was granted a conditional discharge in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Lucna Severe appeared before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain after she was accused of disorderly behaviour. The prosecution said Severe used obscene language, resisted arrest and assaulted a police officer when the police stopped a bus on which she was ridingon Tuesday morning.

Yesterday, Severe pleaded guilty to the charges, but said she only committed the offences because she was under a lot of pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court heard officers were conducting patrols at bus stops to inform drivers that they were not allowed to operate under the most recent measures outlined in the emergency orders. It was at this time that they observed the defendant exiting a bus while using obscene language. Prosecutor Kenny Thompson said the officers also overheard Severe saying: “Y’all officers is be joking” among other obscenities. Severe was warned to stop, but continued walking away and shouting she didn’t give a (expletive) and (expletive) the police. She was then informed she would be arrested for using obscene language. Still, when an officer attempted to detain Severe, she resisted violently and punched the officer in the left breast.

When she was eventually apprehended, she was transported to the Central Police Station. During an

interview with police there, she said she was talking to herself when she was cursing and claimed she only punched the officer after she was punched in her head.

Severe told the magistrate she was depressed and under a lot of stress because the pandemic had altered her plans. She also said she only “acted crazy” because she didn’t know how she was going to get to work since the police were shutting down her only means of transportation.

In response, Magistrate Swain said while she understood Severe was stressed, she had to manage her stress levels like everybody else. She also told the defendant the government was trying its best and noted the pandemic was “unchartered territory” that no one had ever dealt with before. As a result, Magistrate Swain granted Severe a conditional discharge.

challenging” to arrange, requiring co-ordination between Cayman and The Bahamas as well as support from the Bahamian authorities to ensure the correct permissions and procedures were followed.

The British High Commissioner in Nassau, Sarah Dickson, said: “We know that this has been a challenging period for British nationals to plan to return home. Border closures, travel restrictions, flight cancellations, and lack of commercial air traffic routes have made it difficult to fly directly from Nassau to London. I would like to thank everyone involved who helped this run smoothly, including the Bahamian government and law enforcement officials who advised us on the rules regarding repatriation flights and especially the team at the airport who managed the process.”

Since the COVID19 outbreak in March, the UK Government has organised charter flights throughout the Caribbean to get thousands of British nationals home. Priority has been given to British travellers who are vulnerable, including those over 70 and others who have medical requirements, those travelling with young children, and those located in more remote or atrisk areas. This flight was organised in collaboration with the Philippines Government, as after transiting in London, it went on to Manila. The British Airways flight was fully booked with passengers from Cayman and Nassau.

The High Commission said that the flight required help from British Airways staff, Nassau Flight Services, the Airport Authority, and the team at Immigration and Customs.

By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 38-YEAR-OLD man was jailed for six months after he admitted threatening to kill a woman, dishonestly receiving stolen appliances and damaging a man’s car.

Sanjay Cooper was accused of dishonestly receiving a fridge, blower, AC unit, microwave and television from Botanical Gardens sometime between March and July of this year.

He was further accused of dishonestly receiving two industrial fans, a box of surgical face masks and three bottles of hand sanitiser from the Animal Control Unit on June 3, as well as a $800 Whirlpool refrigerator from the same establishment on June 8.

During his hearing before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain yesterday, Cooper was also accused

of causing $1,004 worth of damage to a man’s vehicle on January 17 and calling a woman on his cellphone on June 19 to threaten to kill her.

The court was told the managers of Botanical Gardens and the Animal Control Unit told police someone had broken into their offices between March and June. Acting on information, officers checked an abandoned home where they found the stolen items. When the defendant noticed the officers at the scene, he ran into nearby bushes. He was arrested the next day.

The court also heard Cooper vandalised Brian Wells’ vehicle by damaging its rear door lock, throwing paint on it and flattening its tyres. As it related to the threats of death charge, the prosecution said a woman told police she received a phone call from the defendant, who told her he was

going to kill her and her boyfriend because they were going to the police to file a report against him.

After pleading guilty to the charges, Cooper was sentenced to six months in prison. He was also ordered to compensate Mr Wells for the damage.

Yesterday, another man appeared before Magistrate Swain for similar offences.

Leneiko Carey was accused of breaking into Bamboo Shack Wulff Road and stealing $1,450. The prosecution alleged he committed the acts sometime between July 24 and 26.

During his arraignment, Carey denied the allegations and the matter was adjourned to October 1 for trial.

Bail was denied and he was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim.

He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

Repatriation flight takes 75 home

THE PLANE and the British Airways staff involved with carrying more than 75 foreign nationals.

A REPATRIATION flight left The Bahamas on Tuesday, carrying more than 75 foreign nationals.

The flight was a special charter organised by the Cayman Islands, the Philippines and the British High Commission. The flight from Cayman to London stopped in Nassau, allowing more than 75 British and other foreign nationals from ten different countries to board.

A statement from the British High Commission said: “Many of the passengers on this flight arrived in The Bahamas in 2019, and had their original travel plans cancelled because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

This flight allowed passengers able to reunite with family members in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Philippines and other countries.”

The statement said that the flight was “logistically

PAGE 8, Thursday, July 30, 2020

FRONT PORCH

BY SIMON “The life we lead is a sleep; whatever we do, dreams. Only death breaks the sleep and wakes us from dreaming. I wish I could have woken before this.”

- Petrarch THE Italian humanist, scholar and poet Francesco Petrarca, whose anglicised surname is Petrarch, wrote these words at the height of the Plague, which was also known as the Black Death, the Great Mortality and the Pestilence.

The worst recorded pandemic in human history resulted in the death of 75 to 200 million people in Europe, Asia and North Africa. The disease peaked in Europe from 1347 to 1351.

Petrarch’s son Giovanni survived an initial outbreak but died during a recurrence in 1361. With so many people dying, life seemed hyper surreal, an endless nightmare, a hellish existence in which no families were spared, including the very wealthy.

The stench and horror of death pervaded every waking hour.

The plague dramatically upended stratified economies and societies. Because so many patrician families were decimated, those of a lower economic and social stratum found greater social mobility in commerce, society and the church. There

THE TRIBUNE

Chapters and narrative of COVID-19 still being written

DR MERCELINE DAHL REGIS

was an extraordinary demographic shift because of the enormity of the death toll.

The COVID-19 pandemic pales in comparison, but is more global in nature. Because many people are not personally affected by the virus and because it is not as deadly, there is a certain remove by many, who lack a certain empathy or moral imagination and who are still not taking the outbreak seriously even as millions are experiencing its dire health, economic and social consequences.

At the outset of the current global pandemic, Dr Merceline Dahl Regis

reminded others that the story of COVID-19 is still being written.

With a degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University, years of experience and a deep knowledge of pandemics, Dahl Regis realized there was still so much that was unknown about the virus.

She also appreciated that how countries and citizens respond will determine the course and history of the pandemic.

We are still so early in the COVID-19 pandemic that experts are still investigating the origin of the virus, which some believe may have skipped from one

species to another, where it became more pathogenic and transmissible before being contracted by humans.

Character Just as crises and great events reveal individual character, they also reveal the character of societies and nations. The still evolving COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the characters of countries, political leaders, the medical profession, journalists and others.

Even as we are likely living through one of the more compelling periods in the 21st Century, the greed of various corporate pharmaceutical giants is nauseating.

During the Great Recession, former US President Barack Obama and thenUK Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined forces to lead a multilateral response to the global economic crisis.

Today, such leadership is dramatically lacking in the United States during an exceedingly worse health cum economic catastrophe.

In an April 18, 2020, interview with the New Yorker, Brown bemoaned the collapse of global cooperation: “After 2010, we had a defensive nationalism, which was basically about tariffs, closing borders, building walls and immigration controls. More recently, we’ve had a more aggressive nationalism, which is an us-versus-them nationalism.

“It’s unilateral action.

You could argue that America in a unipolar age acted more multilaterally, and in a multipolar age is acting unilaterally.”

If Joe Biden wins the US presidency, he will find a global commons less likely to accede to certain demands of America.

Donald Trump has done excessive and in some cases irreparable damage to America’s global standing.

Even as a more isolationist United States under Trump has receded from promoting global solidarity on critical issues, the European Union has shown the necessity and wisdom of regional and international cooperation with a recent historic $860 billion recovery and reconstruction fund for the 27-member bloc in response to COVID-19.

Writing in Foreign Affairs in May, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, now President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, offered his analysis of a potential post-COVID-19 world: “Yet despite the best efforts of ideological warriors in Beijing and Washington, the uncomfortable truth is that China and the United States are both likely to emerge from this crisis significantly diminished. Neither a new Pax Sinica nor a renewed Pax Americana will rise from the ruins.

“Rather, both powers will be weakened, at home and abroad. And the result will be a continued slow but steady drift toward international anarchy across everything from international security to trade to pandemic management.

“With nobody directing traffic, various forms of rampant nationalism are taking the place of order and cooperation. The chaotic nature of national and global responses to the pandemic thus stands as a warning of what could come on an even broader scale.”

Emergency Given this warning, progress on the global climate emergency may prove even more difficult. Still, we do not know the medium to long-term effects of the pandemic and the potential for cooperation.

The pandemic is also revealing and testing the Bahamian character, inclusive of ordinary citizens, political, business, religious and media leaders, our social fabric and health care infrastructure, our sense of the common good and other areas of civic life.

Here at home and abroad, many are rising to the occasion, offering service and good responsible citizenship. One example is Susan Larson, who has done a stellar job as head of the National Food Distribution Committee, which is feeding thousands weekly.

Sadly, there are also the Icarus-like characters and narcissists, incapable of lifting their narrow vision beyond their navel-gazing and peacock-like egotism, often swallowed by personal agendas and pathologies instead of the greater good.

As in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, there is the gotcha journalism by some, who have little to no sense of historic moment and who history will treat dismissively because, instead of rising to this moment, they remain intellectually paralyzed in their benighted echo chambers.

In the US: “The pandemic has become a metaphor for Trump’s suffocating incompetence, mendacity, and self-absorption”, writes Richard North Patterson, an American political commentator and author.

Larry Summers has been at the heights of American political and economic power.

Currently the Charles W. Eliot Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University, he was Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and the Director of the US National Economic Council under Obama.

Summers has provided deep thinking and insight on the current pandemic, including weekly commentary on Bloomberg Television. On his website, Summers writes:

“The COVID-19 crisis is the third major shock to the global system in the 21st century, following the 2001 terror attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. I suspect it is by far the most significant.

“Although the earlier events will figure in history textbooks, both 9/11 and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy will fade over time from popular memory. By contrast, I believe, the coronavirus crisis will still be considered a seminal event generations from now.

“Students of the future will learn of its direct effects and of the questions it brings into sharp relief much as those of today learn about the 1914 assassination of the Archduke, the 1929 stock market crash, or the 1938 Munich Conference. These events were significant but their ultimate historical importance lies in what followed.”

Dismayed Summers is dismayed, shocked by the response of his country to COVID19. He has gone so far as to describe America as a “failed state” that cannot ensure American children are not drinking lead-poisoned water or that the country can respond adequately to a global pandemic.

This is a breathtaking assertion for someone like Summers, bewildered that a country with America’s extraordinary might and wealth is proving incapable of ensuring the basic health and security of its citizens.

He bemoans that basic tasks such as assuring equipment for health care workers, tests for citizens, medium to long-term planning and “elementary safety protocols” for White House officials are woefully absent. He cannot understand the mindless debate about wearing masks to protect fellow citizens.

Summers contrasts the performance of the United States to that of China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, which at the time of his analysis in May had “death rates well under five percent of American levels”.

He noted that it would have been “inconceivable” even a year ago that the US would be airlifting basic health equipment from China.

Summers warns: “Coronavirus is helping to usher in a world where security depends more on exceeding a threshold of cooperation with allies and adversaries alike than on maintaining a balance of power.

“If the 21st century turns out to be an Asian century as the 20th was an American one, the pandemic may well be remembered as the turning point. We are living through not just dramatic events but what may be well be a hinge in history.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, July 30, 2020, PAGE 9

LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO BLAME FOR COVID WOES - TRY RON DESANTIS LOOKING for an American to carry the blame for the COVID-19 devastation of the Bahamian tourist industry? A good candidate might be Ron DeSantis. Florida’s governor has mismanaged his state’s response to this public health crisis. The Bahamas is suffering as a result.

At 41, Florida’s Ron DeSantis is the youngest incumbent governor in the United States. His resume is impressive. Born and raised in Florida, he got degrees from Yale and Harvard, did a stint in the US Army which included service in Iraq and a detail to the US Attorney’s Office in Central Florida. He was elected to Congress in 2012 from a district stretching northeast along I-4 from Orlando to the outskirts of Daytona Beach.

In 2016, DeSantis was hopeful of snagging the GOP Senate nomination until Marco Rubio, having been trounced by Donald Trump in the primaries, decided to run again for his own Senate seat after all. Then in 2018, DeSantis parlayed his loud support for Trump in the Robert Mueller investigation into the President’s support for a gubernatorial run. Buoyed

by Trump’s endorsement, DeSantis narrowly won and presides over the Sunshine State today.

DeSantis’ consistent adherence to Trump’s seriously flawed coronavirus playbook is blamed for at least some of Florida’s current woes. According to press reports, DeSantis has met once this month with his top health experts.

Instead, the governor appears to

STATESIDE with Charlie Harper DID you know there were 21 third-party candidates who received votes in the American presidential election of 2016? They were supported by such diverse collections of voters as the Prohibition (no alcohol drinking) Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party and three different versions of the Socialist Workers Party. Together, they collected over six million votes in an election that saw Hillary Clinton lose in the American electoral college despite garnering over three million more votes than Donald Trump.

In states with close elections like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona, if just half of the third-party voters had backed Clinton, we could be castigating her instead of Trump for her handling of COVID-19.

Already for 2020, the Libertarians have nominated Jo Jorgenson; the Greens have selected Howie Hawkins and the Constitution Party has picked disgraced West Virginia ex-coal mine boss Don Blankenship.

We’ll see how they do this year, but Gary Johnson won four million votes for the Libertarians four years ago.

And on July 4, the ranks of third-party candidates for this year added a real headline-grabber: billionaire music mogul and Yeezy sneaker impresario Kanye West who has flirted with Donald Trump and is scaring Democrats who are petrified with fear that they will somehow again underestimate Trump in their residual disbelief that the American people could possibly re-elect him.

But is West’s candidacy real? There are questions, some of which were underscored the other day when

his wife, the TV celebrity Kim Kardashian, acknowledged to CNN that West has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and said it’s “incredibly complicated and painful for many to understand”.

Maybe so, but West has qualified to be on the ballot in Oklahoma. He is already too late to file in a lot of other states, many of which are going to deliver their votes for Biden anyway.

But third-party candidates always scare the big established political Republican and Democratic duopoly in the US, and sometimes with good reason. In 1992, H Ross Perot’s maverick candidacy hurt both Bill Clinton and George H W Bush as Perot won 19 percent of the vote. Here is

rely principally on wife Casey and the former hospital executive who serves as his chief of staff.

The fact that nearly 6,000 Floridians have died from COVID-19 and two percent of the entire state population is now infected shows the governor could have done a better job at protecting his constituents, many of whom in better times would be heading to The Bahamas to spend some dollars.

Instead, DeSantis’ approval ratings have dropped by 25 percent and his state’s own massive tourist industry is slumping.

Trump doesn’t see it. “Ron DeSantis is doing a great job and will go down in history as a great governor of Florida,” the President said.

Not on current evidence. The

The third-party candidates who the big boys don’t like at the party

KANYE West making his first presidential campaign appearance in South Carolina when he delivered a lengthy monologue touching on topics from abortion and religion to international trade and licensing deals.

EUROPE’S RICH TEAMS JUST KEEP ON GETTING RICHER AS American professional sports try to resume some sort of normal activity, the major European soccer leagues have largely completed their business for the year.

In the best and by far most competitive league, Liverpool nevertheless ran away with the English Premier League title. Setting several records and nearly matching a couple of others, the Reds fulfilled the promise of their magnificent early season to win their first EPL title and first top-flight championship in 30 years.

Runners-up and defending champions Manchester City may be the second-best team in Europe. These two power houses were joined at the top by Manchester United and Chelsea.

Further down the table, venerable Aston Villa managed to stay in the top division for another year and will be joined by tradition-rich West Bromwich Albion and Leeds moving up from the second tier.

Wolverhampton Wanderers, once proudly owned

by Freeport’s Sir Jack Hayward, completed another successful first division campaign and are still

FLORIDA’S governor Ron DeSantis

LIVERPOOL captain Jordan Henderson celebrates winning the Premier League contenders for the Europa League title this year.

But the rich do keep getting richer in Europe. It is hardly surprising to find such teams as Liverpool and Man City at the top in England. They are wealthy and powerful. In the top leagues in Italy (Juventus of Turin), Spain (Real Madrid), France (Paris St. Germain) and Germany (Bayern Munich), the champions were all predictable. Except for Spain, where Barcelona often crashes the championship party, these titlists have been winning for years.

Back in the US, baseball

governor has led his state down the same dreary path Trump would take the rest of the country – if other governors were as slavishly devoted to following the President’s often fallacious advice.

The director of the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute told the Washington Post that “in Florida we failed to convince people that as things began to open up there remained a critical need to maintain the basic practices recommended by the CDC, including masks and social distancing.”

A West Palm Beach nurse summed up Florida’s COVID-19 response this way: “The fairy tales about everything being under control are nonsense. Our government has failed us.”

has resumed playing games that count in its 60-game season, after which more than half of all its teams are scheduled to compete in the televised, lucrative playoffs. The most significant opening series was in Washington, where the New York Yankees looked strong in beating the current champion Nationals.

Injuries and COVID absences are continuing to influence this already-weird season, with Houston, the Nationals and Dodgers among teams already suffering significant losses.

And the Marlins have become a highly problematic proposition.

So far, sort of OK for the other big American leagues.

The NBA is following its plan at Disney World in Orlando. The NHL is staging a playoff play-in. And the NFL, having cancelled all its exhibition games, has reopened its training camps around the country. Everyone in pro sports, big-time college sports and at the TV networks who underwrite them all with huge broadcast contracts is holding their breath.

What else can they do?

The virus will have the last word.

some of what West had to say recently: “It is a form of racism and white supremacy and white control to say that all black people need to be Democrat and to assume that me running is me splitting the vote. All of that information is being charged up on social media platforms by Democrats. I was told that if I voted on Trump my music career would be over.

“I was threatened as a celebrity into being in one party. I was threatened as a black man into the Democratic Party. And that’s what the Democrats are doing, emotionally, to my people. Threatening them to the point where this white man (Biden) can tell a black man if you don’t vote for me, you’re not black.”

At the very least, Kanye West is a wild card heading toward November. Both Trump and Biden are sure to keep an eye on him as long as he remains in the race.

PAGE 10, Thursday, July 30, 2020

by EMILIAN KAVALSKI Director of the Global Institute for Silk Roads Studies and the Li Dak Sum Chair Professor in ChinaEurasia Relations and International Studies, University of Nottingham

BULGARIA has become the most recent country from central and eastern Europe (CEE) to show hostility toward China. In the latest sign of relations souring between the region and the Asian superpower, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boïko Borissov, claimed that a series of compromising pictures, appearing to show him sleeping with a gun and wads of cash by his bedside, were acquired by his opponents with a drone supplied by the Chinese government. This was the same Borissov who had hosted a ChinaCEE summit 2018 in Sofia despite persistent EU pressure not to do so.

Bulgaria is not the only country in the region to have qualms about China.

In the Czech Republic, Prague city council ended its sister-city relationship with Beijing in October 2019 in favour of a partnership with Taipei. The president of the senate then announced plans to visit Taiwan in August in defiance of China.

THE TRIBUNE

Friends sometimes fall out - as China’s found with some European states In May, the Lithuanian foreign minister called for Taiwan to be reinstated to the World Health Organization. The same month, CEE officials were among signatories of a protest letter against China’s introduction of national security legislation in Hong Kong.

This falling out comes after a decade of cooperation between China and eastern Europe, under

the banner of the socalled “17+1” initiative.

The cooperation began in April 2012 with a meeting in Warsaw between the then Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, and representatives of 16 CEE countries, including 11 EU members. Wen promised investments and infrastructure development that would boost the regional economies.

For China, the region

promised cheap access to European markets. The initiative was quickly co-opted into China’s wider Belt and Road Initiative, which launched the following year. When Greece joined as the 17th member in 2019, it elevated the political significance of the now 17+1 alliance even further.

In January 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced he would host the annual 17+1 summits in future, rather than the premier, Li Keqiang. But this has done little to heal relations. CEE countries had already begun socially distancing from Beijing and the coronavirus pandemic has only accelerated this process. While there are many reasons for the rift, three stand out.

Just for the photo-op First, China has not fulfilled the lavish promises it made to the region for large-scale investments.

Chinese foreign direct investment in the EU peaked in 2016 at US$43 billion, then plummeted back to 2012 levels in 2019, with the expectation that 2020 would be even lower.

After years of 17+1 summits, eastern European

politicians realised that it was the photo opportunities rather than meaningful discussion that mattered more to their Chinese counterparts. The ornate photo albums from these events were meant to advance careers back home rather than develop initiatives in the CEE region.

The Czech President, Milos Zeman, one of the most pro-Chinese of the region’s politicians, pointed to the lack of actual investments as the reason for shunning the 17+1 summit in April. In the event, the summit was postponed because of the pandemic, and now appears to be deferred indefinitely.

Second, growing frustration with their marginalisation has led CEE countries to reflect on their political identity. In particular, the wave of recent protests in Hong Kong brought back memories of their own fight against Soviet control.

Hongkongers’ use of tactics developed by eastern-European dissidents – such as the Lennon Wall and the Baltic Way – resonated in the region.

In July 2019, the Slovak President, Zuzana Čaputová, criticised the visiting Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, for

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BULGARIA’S Prime Minister, Boïko Borissov his country’s treatment of activists and human rights advocates. A month later, Chinese diplomats in Latvia were censured for attacking a gathering of people showing solidarity with Hong Kong’s protesters. China has not taken this criticism well. In Prague, for instance, a group of self-styled “Chinese patriots” defaced the original Lennon Wall with graffiti celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Growing suspicion Third, CEE countries have grown wary of the political risks associated with their bonhomie with China, amid growing criticism from the EU and US over the past few years. For some, this reassessment has been associated with the tech cold war between the US and China. Following pressure from Washington, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Estonia have indicated they will ban Chinese firm Huawei from the construction of their 5G networks.

In May 2020, Romania cancelled a deal with a Chinese company to build a nuclear power plant. For Latvia, the perception of a “dragonbear” alliance between Moscow and Beijing, led its intelligence agency to declare China a threat to national security.

Such trends do not bode well for China’s relations with the region. A Belt and Road International Cooperation videoconference held in June 2020 might be a harbinger of the future.

Apart from Serbia, Hungary and Greece, the other members of the “17+1” refused to take part. So it seems China’s alliance with the 17 CEE countries could shrink dramatically.

Plus, the Chinese government will find it difficult to sell expensive status projects overseas to a domestic audience reeling from the economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Belt and Road Initiative is likely to become a much leaner project targeting strategic acquisitions (such as infrastructure hubs, energy and technology) and rewarding countries that have proven to be true all-weather friends. The initiative’s “community of shared destiny” will likely be open only to those that side with China.

Central and eastern European countries used to be buoyant about benefiting from China’s economic largesse, but now – like the EU itself – many view Beijing as a threat. It’s unlikely that a Chinese government that is increasingly preoccupied with its own regime stability will be able to make up, let alone repair, the damage done by the multiple opportunities missed over the past eight years. theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, July 30, 2020, PAGE 11

FOUR BIG TECH CEOS QUIZZED BY CONGRESS ON COMPETITION WASHINGTON Associated Press

FENDING off accusations of stifling competition, four Big Tech CEOs — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple — answered for their companies’ practices before Congress yesterday as a House panel caps its yearlong investigation of market dominance in the industry.

The executives provided bursts of data showing how competitive their markets are, and the value of their innovation and essential services to consumers. But they sometimes struggled to answer pointed questions about their business practices. They also confronted a range of other concerns about alleged political bias, their effect on US democracy and their role in China.

The four CEOs were testifying remotely to lawmakers, most of whom were sitting, in masks, inside the hearing room in Washington.

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

Bezos said in his first testimony to Congress that he couldn’t guarantee that the company had not accessed seller data to make competing products, an allegation that the company and its executives have previously denied.

Regulators in the US and Europe have scrutinised Amazon’s relationship with the businesses that sell on its site and whether the online shopping giant has been using data from the sellers to create its own private-label

products. “We have a policy against using seller specific data to aid our private label business,” Bezos said in a response to a question from Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat. “But I can’t guarantee to you that that policy hasn’t been violated.”

Pichai’s opening remarks touted Google’s value to mom-and-pop businesses in Bristol, Rhode Island and Pewaukee, Wisconsin, in the home districts of the antitrust panel’s Democratic chairman, Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, and its ranking Republican, Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin.

But the Google executive struggled as Cicilline accused the company of leveraging its dominant search engine to steal ideas and information from other websites and manipulating its results to drive people to its own digital services to boost its profits.

JEFF Bezos testifies remotely Pichai repeatedly deflected Cicilline’s attacks by asserting that Google tries to provide the most helpful and relevant information to the hundreds of millions of

people who use its search engine each day in an effort to keep them coming back instead of defecting to a rival service, such as Microsoft’s Bing.

As Democrats largely focused on market competition, several Republicans aired longstanding grievances that the tech companies are censoring conservative voices and questioned their business activities in China. “Big Tech is out to get conservatives,” said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

In a tweet before the hearing, President Donald Trump challenged Congress to crack down on the companies, which he has accused, without evidence, of bias against him and conservatives in general.

“If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders,” Trump tweeted.

GUATEMALA TO BURY DOZENS OF COVID DEAD GUATEMALA CITY Associated Press

MUSLIM pilgrims circle the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, as they observe social distancing in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, yesterday. During the first rites of hajj, Muslims circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise seven times while reciting supplications to God, then walk between two hills where Ibrahim’s wife, Hagar, is believed to have run as she searched for water for her dying son before God brought forth a well that runs to this day.

False virus news causing problems RHODE ISLAND Associated Press AS THE world races to find a vaccine and a treatment for COVID-19, there is seemingly no antidote in sight for the burgeoning outbreak of coronavirus conspiracy theories, hoaxes, anti-mask myths and sham cures.

The phenomenon, unfolding largely on social media, escalated this week when President Donald Trump retweeted a false video about an anti-malaria drug being a cure for the virus and it was revealed that Russian intelligence is spreading disinformation about the crisis through English-language websites.

Experts worry the torrent of bad information is dangerously undermining efforts to slow the virus, whose death toll in the US hit 150,000 yesterday, by far the highest in the world, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Over a half-million people have died in the rest of the world.

Hard-hit Florida reported 216 deaths, breaking the single-day record it set a day earlier. Texas confirmed 313 additional deaths,

PRESIDENT Donald Trump retweeted a false video pushing its total to 6,190, while South Carolina’s death toll passed 1,500 this week, more than doubling over the past month. In Georgia, hospitalizations have more than doubled since July 1.

“It is a real challenge in terms of trying to get the message to the public about what they can really do to protect themselves and what the facts are behind the problem,” said Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

He said the fear is that “people

are putting themselves in harm’s way because they don’t believe the virus is something they have to deal with.”

Rather than fade away in the face of new evidence, the claims have flourished, fed by mixed messages from officials, transmitted by social media, amplified by leaders like Trump and mutating when confronted with contradictory facts.

“You don’t need masks. There is a cure,” Dr Stella Immanuel promised in a video that promoted hydroxychloroquine. “You don’t need people to be locked down.”

The truth: Federal regulators last month revoked their authorisation of the drug as an emergency treatment amid growing evidence it doesn’t work and can have deadly side effects. Even if it were effective, it wouldn’t negate the need for masks and other measures to contain the outbreak.

None of that stopped Trump, who has repeatedly praised the drug, from retweeting the video. Twitter and Facebook began removing the video Monday for violating policies on COVID-19 misinformation, but it had already been seen more than 20 million times.

Many of the claims in Immanuel’s video are widely disputed by medical experts. She has made even more bizarre pronouncements in the past, saying that cysts, fibroids and some other conditions can be caused by having sex with demons, that McDonald’s and Pokemon promote witchcraft, that alien DNA is used in medical treatments, and that half-human “reptilians” work in the government.

Other baseless theories and hoaxes have alleged that the virus isn’t real or that it’s a bioweapon created by the U.S. or its adversaries. One hoax from the outbreak’s early months claimed new 5G towers were spreading the virus through microwaves. Another popular story held that Microsoft founder Bill Gates plans to use COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips in all 7 billion people on the planet.

Social media has amplified the claims and helped believers find each other. The flood of misinformation has posed a challenge for Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, which have found themselves accused of censorship for taking down virus misinformation.

GUATEMALAN hospitals say they have had to bury dozens of COVID-19 victims who have never been identified, and one hospital is creating archives in hopes that once the pandemic passes, their relatives will come looking for them.

Workers at one of the country’s largest public hospitals have started photographing patients who arrive alone and too ill to give their personal details.

Those who die unidentified are placed in body bags with transparent windows over the faces in case relatives finally arrive.

Protocols that call for rapidly burying the dead during a pandemic only make the situation more difficult, officials say. The government has reported more than 47,000 confirmed infections and more 1,800 deaths nationwide.

Byron Fuentes, director of the Public Health Ministry’s Public Cemetery Administration, said that so far no one has come forward seeking any of the 41 men and 22 women they have buried, identified only as “XX.” At Roosevelt Hospital, another of Guatemala’s largest, Dr. Luis Chávez, head of pathology, said staffers have been looking for ways to help relatives eventually identify the dead. They started using body bags with windows with the hope that relatives arriving any time before burial could identify someone, because for health reasons, the bags can’t be opened, Chávez said.

“We had a case some weeks ago of a person who arrived in taxi,” he said. “It was a woman. They admitted her to the hospital and she died. She was taken to the morgue as XX.” He said hospital workers broke protocol to wait two days and fortunately relatives arrived. They were shown a photograph taken through the window in her body bag and identified her, he said.

The hospital started using a refrigerated trailer to hold bodies if relatives can’t arrive in the six hours the protocols allow for claiming a body after death.

SPORTS Restart ready SECTION E

THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2020

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

CONCACAF HAS NEW CALENDAR FOR ITS EVENTS

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

F

ollowing successful debuts in their return to basketball, Deandre Ayton’s Phoenix Suns and Buddy Hield’s Sacramento Kings gear up for a playoff push and a race for the final spot in the Western Conference when the NBA officially restarts its season.

The league will resume regular season play today at the Disney Resort’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, but both the Suns and Kings will make their return to the court tomorrow.

The Suns are scheduled to face the Washington Wizards at 4pm while the Kings will take on the San Antonio Spurs at 8pm.

In three scrimmages, Hield led the Kings in scoring at 18.3 points per game. He also added five rebounds and 2.3 assists per game as the team finished 1-2.

Ayton averaged 10.3 points and seven rebounds per game. He also shot 2-2 from three-point range.

The remainder of the Kings’ schedule includes matchups against the Orlando Magic (August 2), Mavericks (August 4), New Orleans Pelicans (August 6), Brooklyn Nets (August 7), Houston Rockets (August 9), Pelicans (August 11), and Los Angeles Lakers (August 13).

The Suns will go on to face the Dallas Mavericks (August 2), Los Angeles Clippers (August 4), Indiana Pacers (August 6), Miami Heat (August 8), Oklahoma City Thunder (August 10), Philadelphia 76ers (August 11) and the Mavericks for a second time (August 13).

The NBA restart will feature the 16 teams currently in playoff position and six teams (five Western, one Eastern) currently within six games of eighth place in each conference.

Each team will play eight

NBA - PAGES 15, 16

SACRAMENTO Kings guard Buddy Hield (24) in the first half during an NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020, in Phoenix.

SUNS centre Deandre Ayton (22), of the Bahamas, in the first half against the Grizzlies on January 5.

(AP Photos/Rick Scuteri)

“seeding games” followed by the traditional playoff format.

In the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, the Kings are No.10 at 28-36 and 3.5 games behind the No.8 Memphis Grizzlies at 32-33. The Suns are 26-39, six games behind the Grizzlies.

If the No.9 seed is more than four games behind the No.8 seed, No. 8 will make the playoffs. If they are fewer than four games behind, the teams will compete in a play-in tournament for the final spot.

Ayton said the team’s isolation in the bubble at the Disney resort has created a bonding experience.

“I feel like we’re the fastest pace team right now, or one of the fastest paced teams. We have a great

shooting 54 per cent from the field in just 30 games.

According to Basketball Reference, his player efficiency is ranked at No.35 in the league at 20.5. He was suspended 25 games this season due to a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy.

Through 64 games this season, Hield is averaging 19.8 points per game and is shooting 40 per cent from beyond the arc, making 3.8 three-point field goals in about 10 attempts per game. Hield also added 4.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.

He continues his adjustment from COVID-19 recovery but said the entire league has adjustments to make life under the new restrictions.

“Trying to get my legs under me. I was out the last

pace, we’re not slowing down at all. We’re starting out games pretty strong, no matter how our offence is looking we’re playing defence, we’re very active, talking, communicating, very different from the beginning of my second season and when I came back from the suspension.

Very different chemistry as well,” Ayton said.

“Ricky has everybody in their positions on the offensive end and pushing the ball for us. I just feel very comfortable. Being here, we’ve been playing a lot of basketball, we’ve been around each other so it just feels great. On the court, off the court, we’re just a family now.”

In his second NBA season, Ayton is averaging 19 points, 12 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game while

three weeks but I’ve been putting in extra work in the gym back and forth, just trying to find my groove, get right and be comfortable out there,” he said.

“I’m just happy to be able to hoop. Yea, the fans might normally control the momentum of a game but in this environment, I think you have to be more mentally tough, more mentally locked in.

“You can hear yourself on the court, so the more we talk, the more we communicate the better we can be closing out games and be better defensively, better offensively. We have to be locked in each and every play, every play matters and it’s a different element out there playing but you have to adjust, these are new times we live in.”

Rolle: ‘I think the NFL should delay the sport or cancel it this year’

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN Rhodes Scholar, former NFL player, and future neurosurgeon, Myron Rolle offered his unique perspective on the upcoming NFL season.

Rolle appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 yesterday to discuss the way forward for the NFL and its plans to return to the field amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I do not think it’s safe to return right now. I think the NFL should delay the sport or cancel it this year to allow the wonderful women and men on the front lines to really get ahead of this pandemic and make it safe for everyone to come back to the sport,” Rolle said.

“If the NFL wants to be part of the community, I think it needs to be responsible and think about what is actually happening in the community right now. A pandemic happening and infection rates going up and hospitalisations occurring, PPE at high demand.”

For the NFL to have a safe return, Rolle suggested that the numbers of cases would have to dramatically decrease and proper protocols in place for the league to become “a leader at the forefront and put the players’ safety

and their families’ safety as a premium.”

He said: “When you have states that are hot beds and players coming from these places, I think it’s very difficult to sort of say, ‘I want to social distance,’ in a sport that’s inherently close. There is a “need to be cohesive in the locker room and in the huddle and walkthroughs close together. It’s very difficult.”

The NFL and its Players’ Association agreed in principle last week on adjustments to make the new collective bargaining agreement official. Training camp commenced earlier this week.

Thus far, 25 NFL players have announced their decision to opt out of the upcoming season - the first to do so was Kansas City Chiefs guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.

Like Rolle, Duvernay-Tardif balanced football and the medical profession and holds a doctor of medicine and master of surgery from McGill University.

Duvernay-Tardif spent the offseason working on the frontlines at a long-term care facility in his native Quebec, Canada.

“Being at the front line during this offseason has given me a different perspective on this pandemic and the stress it puts on individuals and our healthcare system,” he said in a statement.

MYRON ROLLE “I cannot allow myself to potentially transmit the virus to our communities simply to play the sport I love. If I am to take risks, I will do it caring for patients.”

Rolle was also on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He detailed his experience for several major media outlets to bring further awareness and bridge the gap between the worlds of sports and medicine.

In his third-year as a MGH neurosurgery resident, Rolle said the dedication and approach he took to the field has carried over in the field of medicine. “Football has never left me,” Rolle said. “I still wake up in the morning and think of the operating room like a game,

like it’s showtime, let’s perform. I gotta do what I gotta do because people are counting on us right now. This is our time to help very sick people. So that motivation continues to drive me every single day.”

Locally, he was on the ground in Grand Bahama to assist the Hurricane Dorian relief effort with his area of expertise.

Rolle was a team member of the MGH Office of Global Disaster Response (GDR) when they travelled to the Bahamas to provide medical support.

Through his foundation, Rolle previously established his “Play4-Progress” programme in the Bahamas and aimed to introduce three basic principles to its participants – the fundamentals of American Football, education and personal development.

Rolle played three seasons with the Florida State Seminoles and won the Rhodes Scholarship. He was selected by the Tennessee Titans in the 2010 NFL Draft. In 2012, he signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers and announced his retirement from the NFL in 2013.

He went on to graduate from FSU’s College of Medicine in 2017 and was matched to a neurosurgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

CONCACAF has restructured its qualification process for several events and announced a new calendar for its regional events amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organisation revealed a new format for the CONCACAF Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and updated the way forward for both the Nations League and 2021 Gold Cup. The Qatar 2022 qualification will feature three rounds vying for three and a half World Cup spots.

The First Round (30 teams) will feature CONCACAF teams ranked 6-35 based on the FIFA rankings as of July 16, 2020.

The Bahamas is currently ranked No. 30 based on the aforementioned rankings. The draw will feature six groups of five teams.

Each team will play every other team in their group once, playing a total of four matches; two home and two away. These games will be played in the FIFA match windows of October 2020 and November 2020.

At the end of the first round the six group winners will progress to the Second Round. The second round (six teams) will be played between the group winners from the First Round in a home-and-away in a direct elimination format in the FIFA match window of March 2021.

The three winners will progress to the Final Round. The final round (eight teams) of the qualifiers will feature the three winners from round two and teams based 1-5 on the FIFA rankings as of July 16,

SEE PAGE 14

MAJOR TO JOIN ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS IN PAC-12

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net ALLBRY Major will transfer to the West Coast to join PAC-12 powerhouse, the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Major was a standout two way player for the Xavier Musketeers in the Big East for the first few years of his collegiate career where he garnered numerous accolades.

Major has been one of several transfers incoming into the Sun Devils programme , including Kai Murphy (Oregon State), Conor Davis (Auburn) and Jay Baggs (Boise State).

Arizona was off to a 13-4 start to the season before it was preempted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While at Xavier, Major was sidelined. D1 Baseball ranks Major at No. 55 in its 2020 Preseason College Prospects list.

As a freshman in 2018, Major won BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, was Second Team All-BIG

SEE PAGE 14

PAGE 14, Thursday, July 30, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

On Football: NFL opt outs more prevalent than many expected

By BARRY WILNER AP Pro Football Writer NOW we know why a key topic in talks between the NFL and the players’ union focused on opt outs.

Already, more than two dozen players have decided not to play the 2020 season.

It’s certainly not about the money, because those opting out voluntarily are getting a $150,000 stipend, and those walking away due to pre-existing medical conditions get $350,000. In the NFL, that’s hardly a huge payout.

No, it’s all about what it should be about: health and safety. For players and their families.

New England linebacker Dont’a Hightower, maybe the most accomplished player to opt out, described his feelings in a social media statement.

“I do feel that it’s the best decision for my family at this time,” Hightower said.

“I’m so grateful for the support of my teammates and coaches as well, and I will try to continue to lead and help as much as I can.

“2020 has been a challenging year for our world.

I hope you can all continue to be a light in these dark times — more light and great times are ahead.”

For now, in these troubled times, opting out has been more popular in the NFL than anywhere else.

Both MLB and the NBA had about a dozen players opt out of returning, while the NHL had half that.

The biggest names included Buster Posey and David Price in baseball, Avery Bradley in basketball, Travis Hamonic and Mike Green in hockey.

Opt outs in the NFL alone appear headed beyond those numbers combined, which privately

TAGOVAILOA GETS OKAY TO PRACTICE WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS

By STEVEN WINE AP Sports Writer

BRONCOS nose tackle Kyle Peko (90) takes part in drills during the team’s training camp in Englewood, Colo. August 16, 2016.

Peko is opting out of the season because of the coronavirus. (AP) has surprised some league executives.

Yesterday, Chiefs starting running back Damien Williams, a key to their Super Bowl run last season, said he wouldn’t play.

In a sport built around contact, with rosters nearly equalling the size of the other three sports combined, and little to no thought of playing in a bubble, players deciding to skip the upcoming season seems plenty logical.

“We did know this was going to be a possibility,” players’ union vice president Ben Watson told SiriusXM NFL Radio.

“That is why the NFLPA fought so hard to give guys the option. We are in times people don’t have answers for. Everybody has different situations — maybe contractually, maybe who they live with, guys who live out of the area and have to travel back. There are a variety of different reasons why, and I think we are going to find out more about that as time goes on.

“I am always in support of the men having the agency to decide for themselves what is best for them

and their families. And specifically, when it comes to health, they have to make those decisions. I think the great thing is we have these protections in place and the abilities for the guys to say, ‘Look this is not for me and my family right now. I am going to sit this one out.’

And maybe (they) come back next year, and maybe not at all.”

Any player who opts out creates some decision making for team personnel departments. But even if it is a star, an irreplaceable starter, there should be no questioning the move.

“The opt-out option is a player’s choice and a player’s right, and we’ll respect that if a player decides to do that,” Broncos President Joe Ellis says. “That’s absolutely, 100 per cent their right, inherently. I’ve got no objection to that at all and would be supportive of that, if that’s what somebody wants to do. That’s been going on around the league, as you’ve seen. It’s going around and around other sports leagues, as well.

“I had some good conversations ... and they were very, very curious. I don’t

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NEW England Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower (54) watches from the bench during the second half against the Jacksonville Jaguars September 16, 2018. (AP)

SAN Francisco 49ers wide receiver Marquise Goodwin warms up before an NFL divisional playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings in Santa Clara, California, on January 11, 2020. (AP) want to say concerned, but they wanted to know what was going to happen and how it was going to be handled, things like that. It’s at the front of their minds.”

While players always rely on trainers and medical staff when it comes to injuries, the pandemic creates an entirely new set of issues. Recovery and rehab from, say, a knee injury, is a totally different, well, ballgame. “(I) Wasn’t quite sure exactly what number would come in, but the biggest thing to consider is players taking care of both themselves, as well as their

families, and each player has their own unique circumstance,” says Browns team physician Dr James Voos. “We feel that it is our job to help to guide them through it, serve as a trusted healthcare adviser and allow them to ultimately make that decision themselves.

“I don’t think it is an inordinately high number of players, but I’m proud of the way the players and the teams have worked through this together so that we can responsibly make those decisions so that everyone feels good and safe about participating in the season.”

MIAMI (AP) — Rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa passed his physical when he reported to Miami Dolphins training camp and will practice without restrictions as he begins his bid to overtake veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick for the starting job.

The all-clear will allow Tagovailoa to practice for the first time since a career-threatening hip injury ended his Alabama career in mid-November.

“He’s through the physical, and when we do get to practice, you’ll see him out there,” coach Brian Flores said Wednesday.

That will be in midAugust, after a couple of weeks of strength and conditioning workouts and walkthroughs. The usual training camp regimen has been altered because of the coronavirus pandemic, which also forced the cancellation of offseason drills throughout the NFL. As a result, the Dolphins have had little chance to groom Tagovailoa. The No. 5 pick in the April draft is hailed as a potential franchise quarterback, but Flores stressed the need for patience.

“I know there are a lot of people that want to talk about Tua, and I understand it,” Flores said.

“But at the same time, he’s a young player and this is his first NFL training camp. I think he’s got to take it one day at a time and not think about what’s realistic for the season.”

CONCACAF has new calendar for its events FROM PAGE 13 2020. The Final Round will begin June 2021 and continue in the FIFA match windows of September, October, November 2021 and January and March 2022.

The top three teams will advance to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and the fourth placed team will qualify for the FIFA Intercontinental Playoff, scheduled to be played in June 2022.

The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup is now tentatively scheduled to commence July 10, 2021 to August 1, 2021.

The CONCACAF “Road to Gold Cup Qualifiers” were originally scheduled to take place March 2020 and June 2020, however, play was suspended due to COVID-19.

The Bahamas will be one of 12 teams to participate in a centralised Gold Cup preliminary round that will take place in the United States a week prior to the Gold Cup group stages.

Other participating teams

will include Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Montserrat, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Bahamas returned to regional competition last year in the CONCACAF Nations League and emerged as the top group team in League C, Group B. The Bahamas finished as group winners with 10 points, and earned a berth in both League B and the 2021 Gold Cup qualifiers.

They began the series when they defeated Bonaire 2-1 at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium back in September, the first game of the home-and-away series.

The Bahamas topped the British Virgin Islands 4-0 on October 9 at Warner Park in Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis.

The Junkanoo Boyz returned home on November 14 with a 3-0 win over BVI. They closed out the stage with a 1-1 draw against Bonaire at the Ergilio Hato Stadium in Willemstad,

MAJOR from PAGE 13

EAST and was also named Baseball America’s Preseason BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, He hit .291 with a pair of home runs and 21 RBI. Defensively in centrefield, he did not make an error in the outfield all season. On the mound he posted a 4.96 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 16 appearances, including eight starts.

As a sophomore, he started 51 games and hit .281 with seven home runs and 34 RBI. Major told SB Nation that he wants to build closer

Curacao, to solidify the top spot in League C, Group B. “Many communities across the CONCACAF region continue to face very difficult circumstances due to the current public health situation and my thoughts and prayers go out to them,” said CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani.

“Given the suspension of the March, June and September FIFA match windows, and with so many of our member associations unable to complete a full FIFA rankings cycle, the previous CONCACAF Qualifiers were compromised, and a new approach was required.

“We have some great football to look forward to later this year and in 2021,” added Montagliani.

“Our next priorities are to continue progressing plans for the resumption of our club competitions and to ensure we finalise a women’s international calendar for the coming years which supports the continued development of women’s football in our region.” ties with baseball in the Bahamas by participating in the Don’t Blink Home Run Derby In Paradise or participating on a national team.

His father, Ken Major, ran track and field locally before he went on to star for Indiana State. “Yes, I’m always trying to go back,” Major said.

“I haven’t been back since baseball took off, I think I was eight or nine. I was planning on playing for their national team in the Pan American games last summer (2018). They didn’t end up qualifying so it fell through, but I was really looking forward to that experience.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, July 30, 2020, PAGE 15

IN this Tuesday, March 3, 2020, file photo, Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis shoots during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers in Los Angeles.

Davis left his team’s scrimmage against the Orlando Magic on Saturday, July 25, 2020, after being poked in the right eye and is listed as day-to-day.

(AP Photo/Mark J Terrill)

DAVIS, WILLIAMSON SAY THEY’RE READY FOR RE-OPENING NIGHT

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Anthony Davis and Zion Williamson say they are ready for reopening night.

Davis practiced yesterday for the first time since getting poked in an eye during the Los Angeles Lakers’ scrimmage opener last week, and said the plan is for him to play when the Lakers face the Los Angeles Clippers in the first seeding game for both teams today.

And Williamson also said he wants to play, after completing a second consecutive day of practice with New Orleans.

Williamson missed nearly two weeks of work inside the bubble at Walt Disney World because he left for a family emergency and then

had to quarantine for four days upon his return.

New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said Williamson’s availability will be a gametime decision.

“I want to hoop. That’s just how I am. I’m never going to change,” Williamson said.

“I’m going to want to hoop. Simple as that.”

The Pelicans face Utah in the first game tonight, when the NBA returns to real action for the first time in 141 days.

Gentry said the Pelicans will follow the advice of the team’s medical staff before making a final decision on Williamson’s availability.

Davis said he would meet once more with team doctors but indicated that he’s expecting to be in the lineup.

“Eye’s been getting better, way better than

when I initially got hit. ...

Moving in the right direction,” Davis said.

COMMISSIONER COMING NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is planning to attend today’s games at Disney. He won’t be able to be within “the bubble,” because he hasn’t been quarantined and tested daily like players, coaches, staff and reporters in the bubble are.

He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he remains hopeful the bubble will work.

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association said yesterday that the latest rounds of testing for 344 players came back with no positive results — the second consecutive report of all-negatives. “We have confidence in this protocol

that we designed. ... It’s not actually a sealed bubble, but everyone who’s on that campus is tested on a daily basis,” Silver said.

“They’re taking extraordinary precautions. T only time they’re not wearing masks is when they’re actually playing basketball.”

Silver said he and the NBA are closely monitoring the overall situation in Florida, which has been a hotspot for the virus now for months, as well as what’s happening with Major League Baseball — which, not even a week into its season, has already seen some games called off after many members of the Miami Marlins tested positive for the coronavirus.

Silver said should an outbreak happen at Disney, he would have no qualms about halting the restart or shutting it down entirely.

“It’s health and safety first. That’s always been our guideposts going into this,” Silver said.

“We’ve worked very closely with the Players Association and all the teams on this. ... We jokingly have said, but maybe it’s not so funny, that the safest place in the world, may be on this campus at Disney right now. But if it were to turn out to not be the case, we certainly would stop.”

TESTING OFFERED The NBA said it will offer “thousands of nocost” coronavirus tests in both the greater Orlando area and across other team markets nationwide.

The programmes will run through August and are part of the protocols that were worked out with the National Basketball Players

Association during negotiations on how to safely restart the season.

The NBA is working with the National Urban League to try and direct much of those testing resources to marginalised communities of colour where access to testing may otherwise be scarce.

INJURY REPORT Houston guard Eric Gordon could miss the most of the seeding games with a sprained left ankle that he suffered in Tuesday’s scrimmage finale.

Even if Gordon can play in two weeks, it bears noting that the Rockets’ eight seeding games come in a span of 15 days starting Friday.

Memphis said guard Tyus Jones has knee soreness and will be re-evaluated in approximately one week.

FOR THE NBA, IT’S TIME TO PLAY, KNEEL AND DEMAND CHANGE

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Miami centre Bam Adebayo did not know Breonna Taylor.

He never heard of the woman who worked as an emergency room technician and had designs on becoming a nurse, a homeowner, a wife, a mother. Never knew anything about her.

That is, until she died.

Not a day goes by now where he doesn’t say her name.

With the return of NBA basketball, players and coaches are determined to ensure they use this opportunity and their platform to make polarising statements at a time when the demand for racial equality is as loud as it has been in generations.

“What happened to Breonna Taylor could have happened to me because of the colour of our skin,” Adebayo said.

“We want people to understand that Black lives do matter. We’re tired of seeing our brothers and sisters dying at the hand of police brutality for no reason. Put yourselves in our shoes. We just want to be equal. That’s it.”

The NBA shut down on March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Taylor was fatally shot by police in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment two days later. The league officially restarts with two games tonight.

There is great anticipation in the resumption of play, but there is equal anticipation — if not more — in what players and coaches will do beyond playing the games.

None of the 22 teams at Walt Disney World have said specifically what they will do in terms of an oncourt demonstration.

Kneeling during the national anthem, an action that started in the NFL with Colin Kaepernick and has permeated through other sports since, is expected.

Players from some teams,

though none wanted to release details before games begin, said the actions will go beyond kneeling.

But with Black Lives Matter painted on the courts of the three Disney arenas and some players having considered opting out of the restart out of concerns that playing would minimise the demands for change combined with the hundreds of millions of eyeballs around the world set to watch these games, whatever the statements are they will be seen and heard globally.

It has been a constant since teams got to Disney.

Coaches believe they are off to a strong start in trying to spark change and are vowing to continue. And many players have turned their media sessions into opportunities to only call for Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron to order arrests of the three officers who fatally shot the 26-year-old Taylor when they burst into her apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. The warrant to search her home was in connection with a suspect who did not live there and no drugs were found.

“We obviously have an opportunity here to continue the messaging of the social justice movement,” New Orleans guard JJ Redick said. “I know a lot of guys have been very outspoken about Breonna Taylor and about calling attention to Daniel Cameron and what he needs to do to bring her killers to justice. I think that’s been great. The messaging on shirts, the court, it’s all great. I know, I think I’m most proud of the guys who have stepped up and started taking action on some of these things.”

LeBron James, who turned the majority of a post-scrimmage interview session into a plea for justice for Taylor earlier this month, is championing an initiative to get more people to vote in November. The league and the

National Basketball Players Association are putting together a foundation where $300 million will initially be earmarked for economic empowerment in Black communities.

Countless players took to the streets in protests that popped up nationwide following the deaths of Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.

“You know, it’s funny, whenever we talk about justice, people try to change the message,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said.

“Colin Kaepernick kneels; it had nothing to do with the troops. It had to do with social injustice, and everyone tried to change the narrative. How about staying on what we are talking about and dealing with that,

instead of trying to trick us or change or trick your constituents? How about being real?”

The messaging will go beyond whatever happens during the national anthems. And though the NBA has had a rule in place for nearly 40 years saying that players must stand for the national anthems when they are performed before games, no one has expressed fear of repercussions of that rule right now.

“I respect peaceful protest,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said yesterday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

The overwhelming majority of players will wear a social-justice message on their jerseys for the remainder of the season,

along with their names.

Some will bear the word “Equality,” which will be displayed in nine different languages.

Others will say “Black Lives Matter.” A few will simply say “Enough.”

James, the league’s biggest star, opted not to put a message on his jersey.

He’s using his reach in other ways, including donating money to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to help those in the state with felony convictions pay off fines and become eligible to vote.

He also cringes at the notion of calling Black Lives Matter “a movement.” He prefers to call it a lifestyle.

“Unfortunately, in America and society, there ain’t

been no damn movement for us,” James said.

“There ain’t been no movement.”

Adebayo is hoping this moment in the NBA can finally spur some movement.

The league went 20 weeks without games because of the shutdown and pandemic. Basketball fans waited anxiously for games to come back. Adebayo points out players want the world to be reminded that Taylor’s family has waited just as long for justice.

“The scariest thing ever for me was this: I was going somewhere one night, and my mom said to me, ‘Just come back home,’” Adebayo said. “Nobody should have to worry about that.

But that’s how it is for us.”

PAGE 16, Thursday, July 30, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

IN this February 22, 2020, file photo, Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo dunks during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers in Milwaukee. The Bucks believe they can build on the momentum they established while producing the NBA’s best record before the pandemic-imposed hiatus.

GAME ON: NBA FINALLY SET TO SEE GAMES THAT COUNT AGAIN

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) — Games were cancelled. Practice facilities were shuttered. A season ended unceremoniously for eight teams. The draft process was delayed, as was free agency. Some players tested positive for the coronavirus. Many more took to the streets and used their voices to demand justice and equality as racism and police brutality sparked a nationwide conversation.

The world has changed since the NBA stopped on March 11.

For 22 franchises, however, there is a goal that remains in place.

The NBA, at long last, is officially back. A re-opening night doubleheader inside the bubble at Walt Disney World awaits today, when New Orleans takes on Utah before a matchup of the top two teams in the

Western Conference — the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers.

There won’t be any fans in attendance, health and safety protocols that were painstakingly written in response to the coronavirus pandemic will be paramount, and teams can’t even shower in the arena after games. But after 20 weeks of waiting, wondering and worrying, the 2019-20 NBA season is ready to hit the restart button with a champion scheduled to be crowned in October.

“Nobody’s life is pretty much how they planned it to be at this point with the pandemic, so you take it for what it is,” Clippers forward and reigning NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard said. “Everybody is happy that a champion will be crowned this year, and if that’s the 2020 championship, then we want it. You know, that’s how I look at it. This is what the layout is,

as far as to go out there and complete this journey.”

The field for the 16-team playoff bracket that will be finalised next month is already largely filled — 12 of the 22 teams at Disney have clinched spots and Dallas is on the brink of another one. It leaves three teams vying for two spots in the Eastern Conference, and six teams for one spot in the Western Conference.

For the front-runners like the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks and West-leading Lakers, the eight remaining games before the playoffs are about tuning up their games. For most of the other teams that have clinched berths, it’s about securing the best possible playoff seed. And for the hopefuls, it’s about finding a way to get into the field and stay at Disney at least a couple weeks longer than planned.

“We want to get back to work,” said San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich,

(AP Photo/Morry Gash)

whose Spurs will aim to become the first franchise in league history to make 23 consecutive playoff appearances. “We want to do what we’re all used to doing. We want to do as much as we can, safely, to energise the country, to play the games we all love. And as long as we can do that safely, it’s a big win for everybody.”

Starting Friday and running through August 14, there will be at least four and sometimes as many as seven games per day, spread out over a threearena corner of the Disney complex. There will be many instances where three games are happening at once. And there will be days that have games running for more than 10 consecutive hours.

After no basketball for what seemed like forever, a hoops smorgasbord awaits.

“It’s the biggest and best AAU tournament ever,” New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said.

The biggest names are here: reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks, LeBron James of the Lakers, scoring champion James Harden of Houston, plus the reigning Finals MVP and All-Star Game MVP in Leonard.

Of the 25 players on this season’s All-Star rosters, 23 are at Disney and a 24th — Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis — may return if his injured left foot heals.

Also here: the defending champions. Toronto lost Leonard and Danny Green to the Clippers in free agency this past offseason — more than a year ago now. And then the Raptors laughed off suggestions that they wouldn’t be good enough to make the playoffs. They enter the restart holding the No. 2 seed in the East, looking every bit like a team capable of another very deep run.

“We’ve been through it,” Raptors guard Fred VanVleet said. “We never

got the respect before the last couple months of last season. We’re not used to getting pats on the back or flowers, so it’s not really that different.”

There are eight teams not here — Golden State, which went to the NBA Finals in each of the last five seasons before sputtering through an injury-plagued year this season, among them.

The others whose seasons ended March 11: Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta, New York, Charlotte and Chicago.

Ratings for the games at Disney are expected to be big. Every game will be televised, as usual. A sprint to the playoffs is about to begin.

The longest timeout in NBA history is finally over. Game on, again. “The intensity is going to start to pick up with the games just meaning much more,” Philadelphia forward Al Horford said. “This is the position you want to be in.”