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DROP IN TOP GRADES AS EXAM RESULTS ARE RELEASED By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net NATIONAL exam results worsened in 2020 compared to 2019, with fewer students achieving A, B and C grades and more students receiving D, E, F and G grades compared to the year before. SEE PAGE THREE
PM says he’s against drilling - but government files legal papers against campaigners By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ENVIRONMENTAL activists yesterday accused the Government of “jumping the gun” after it filed legal papers opposing their bid to halt oil exploration in Bahamian waters. The move comes despite Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and several Cabinet ministers saying publicly they are personally opposed to drilling. Rashema Ingraham, executive director of Waterkeeper Bahamas, said yesterday “it goes against normal legal process for Judicial Reviews” for the Attorney General’s Office to file a “notice of objection” prior to Justice Hanna-Weekes determining whether the activists’ case should proceed.
The Supreme Court is due to make that decision at 11am today, but in its December 22 “notice”, the Attorney General’s Office revealed its intention to seek judicial permission to oppose the Judicial Review challenge on three counts. It cited the “delay” in bringing proceedings, that the case is “devoid of substantive merit”, and urged the Supreme Court not to grant a “stay” that would halt BPC’s Perseverance One well in mid-drilling. Sam Duncombe, reEarth’s president, said: “They are now opposing our Judicial Review application, even though the Prime Minister and several of his ministers have all come out against oil drilling.... It’s just bizarre to me.” FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
‘I CAN’T WALK AFTER I WAS BEATEN BY POLICE’ By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net A MAN from Eleuthera is unable to walk and has had surgery on his right leg after police officers allegedly slammed him to the ground at the Harbour Island Police Station in October.
VICTIM SHOT DEAD OUTSIDE HIS HOME
Demetrius Pyfrom, 21, said he has not been charged with a crime and is calling the incident an act of police brutality. His childhood friend, 25-year-old Alonzo Pinder, said he was finishing up a day’s work on October 27 SEE PAGE FIVE
A BODY is taken from the scene of last night’s shooting in Rupert Dean Lane. Photo: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff A MAN was shot dead shortly after he left his Rupert Dean Lane home after 8pm last night. Police said the victim appeared to be in his early 20s and was shot multiple times about the body. It appeared the man was
accosted in the street and collapsed in a nearby yard. “Police received reports of a shooting incident that occurred on Rupert Dean Lane shortly after 8pm,” Assistant Superintendent Audley Peters, press liaison officer, said at the scene.
“On the arrival of the first responders, they found the body of a male lying on the ground with apparent gunshot wounds. The preliminary facts are that shortly after eight, this SEE PAGE THREE
FLOWERS: FNM TRYING TO SHUT US DOWN By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net THE government’s planned web shop patron tax on lottery winnings was yesterday predicted to deliver a “detrimental” blow to a local gaming house, its owner telling The Tribune he firmly believed the Minnis administration was “dead serious” about closing down the industry. Craig Flowers, FML
CRAIG FLOWERS Group of Companies owner, lamented the January implementation of the tax, saying he faces a 100
percent taxation as his business is the only gaming house in the country that is lottery based and does not offer slot play to patrons. Officials have said the impending tax will be placed “on a specific type of game” offered in gaming houses, ie, “the lottery game; threeball, four-ball, five-ball” and not slot games. Mr Flowers says he is worried about the survival of his business. SEE PAGE TWO
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THE TRIBUNE WISHES A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR READERS OUR NEXT EDITION IS ON TUESDAY
PAGE 2, Thursday, December 24, 2020
THE TRIBUNE
Super Value gives $12,000
SUPER Value president Debra Symonette presents a cheque for $12,000 to Bahamas Feeding Network executive director Philip Smith. Photo: Cay Focus/DPA SUPER Value proved a little change can go a long way as store representatives presented a cheque for $12,000 to the Bahamas Feeding Network yesterday. The presentation came with a plea – urging shoppers to open their hearts and contribute their change at the cash register to make sure no one goes hungry this holiday season. The leading grocery store kicked off its partnership with the Bahamas Feeding Network a little over one month ago with an initial contribution of $100,000. Since then, it has been raising money through its point of sale system throughout New Providence. Yesterday’s brief ceremony took place at its Golden Gates headquarters. “Super Value would like to thank all of our customers for the generous donation to the Feeding
Network. In such a short time the public has donated over $12,000 – just by a few customers donating their change,” said Debra Symonette, Super Value president. “This is the time of the year that’s known for giving and if each customer donates his/her change or just $1 each week during the next three months we will raise over $2m for the Feeding Network. “Super Value and the Roberts’ family that feeds the nation have already donated over a quarter of a million dollars towards feeding the needy. We cannot let anybody go hungry during this holiday season or during this pandemic.” Bahamas Feeding Network Executive Director Philip Smith thanked Super Value and stressed the importance of such partnerships. “Hunger has always been
an issue in the Bahamas when even in good times with nearly full employment, government statistics show nearly one in every seven people lives below the poverty line,” he said. “Since the COVID pandemic we have seen a steady increase in the numbers who need assistance with food and it is even hard for us to fathom though we see it on a daily basis that nearly one in every two households today faces hunger at some level and needs assistance. “We could not do what we do without the support of people like Rubert Roberts and his family and Super Value and our other corporate and individual sponsors. “Our volunteers’ shirts say what they do with their time – give, give, give – and we ask those who can afford to, (to give) when they are checking out at a Super Value line.”
FLOWERS: FNM TRYING TO SHUT US DOWN from page one
“The platforms have been ready, but the problem we (are) having is that it appears to us that the government is dead serious about closing down the gaming industry,” Mr Flowers told The Tribune. “It makes absolutely no sense to think that when the patrons, who are the industry, to impose another tax
on them to — I guess discourage them from playing. “I don’t see any other method or any other reason other than to discourage the patrons from playing the game and to go back to the unregulated means.” Web shop operators have previously expressed concern that customers will gravitate to unregulated rivals such as Bet Vegas, where winnings would go untouched. However, Attorney General Carl Bethel, QC, confirmed yesterday that Bet Vegas was closed down following a court order. He said the government was also consulting on how to shut down illicit “walkabout” men who use handheld devices to sell numbers. Mr Flowers also said: “Why will they come to us? For what reason? It makes absolutely no sense for them unless they can control the industry where they would have insisted that all companies comply with this tax when it relates to customers and then they go to this weird position that they’re only taxing one sector of the gaming industry, only the lottery, not the slot games. “The largest portion of gaming in this country today is slots. Why are they going to impose a tax on the smallest portion of the industry and say that they are intending to do whatever. What is it that they are attempting to achieve?” Asked whether he foresaw having to scale back his staffing levels due to the implementation of this new tax, Mr Flowers said: “I tell you the truth I don’t want to forecast the worst, but I would have said personally in the meetings and I directed my question directly to the Attorney General Mr Carl Bethel saying to him this implication of winning taxes will be detrimental to FML. Reason being is that FML was never a company based by way of slots.” He continued: “It has always been a lottery based, that’s where we came from at inception. It will be unfair for you to impose a tax only on the lottery
sector of the gaming industry and not the slots. “I haven’t been involved with any discussions to reflect such other than now it’s being implemented. “FML is the only company that does not deal with slots and if they are saying that they are only going to tax 100 percent of FML’s business but 40 percent of the other industry and leave the other 60 percent untouched for what reason I don’t know, why are they not taxing slots? I don’t know because it certainly can be taxed. “So, why is this new winning tax only applicable to lottery when all the slots revenue is coming in and going out as it wishes? It just doesn’t make any sense.” Marlon Johnson, the Ministry of Finance’s acting financial secretary, has argued that the imminent web shop patron winnings tax is a levy “on a specific type of game” rather than an attempt to discriminate against Bahamians. He recently pushed back against arguments that the new tax – which is set to be imposed beginning New Year’s Day – is discriminatory because it only applies to Bahamians while foreign casino gamblers pay nothing of this nature at all. “The tax is a tax on a specific type of game. The lottery game; three-ball, four-ball, five-ball,” he said earlier this week, adding that such a tax would also be imposed on casino patron winnings if that industry introduced such a game. “It’s not a tax on Bahamians versus foreigners. It’s a tax on a type of game,” Mr Johnson repeated. The comments directly contradicted those of the attorney general, who told other news media that the casinos were being spared from a patron winningsstyle tax because they are critical to a tourism industry that generates thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity, and is the country’s biggest foreign exchange and tax revenue earner.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, December 24, 2020, PAGE 3
Drop in top grades as exam results are released
from page one
The total percentage of grades awarded at D or higher is lower this year than in any of the previous four years and the overall number of test takers plummeted amid the COVID-19 crisis, according to statistics the Ministry of Education released yesterday. The number of BGCSE candidates that received at least a C grade in five or more subjects declined by 5.8 percent. The number of students that received a minimum grade of D in at least five subjects declined by nine percent and the number of
candidates that received at least a C in mathematics, English language and a science declined by 3.3 percent. Overall, six percent of candidates received at least a C in five or more subjects, 9.85 percent of students received a minimum grade of D in at least five subjects and 4.2 percent of candidates received at least a C in mathematics, English language and a science subject. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Education said in a press statement that of the 27 subjects tested, there was improved performance in 15 of them, including auto mechanics, biology,
bookkeeping and accounts, chemistry, clothing construction, combined science, commerce, economics, electrical installation, food and nutrition, graphical communication, history, music, office procedures and Spanish. Performances in English language and literature remained unchanged, according to the ministry. “It is interesting to note that again this year, even with the large percentage of absenteeism, more than 80 percent of the grades awarded continue to range from A-E, which is now becoming a recurring accomplishment. This percentage is comparable to previous years,” the
ministry said. The number of students sitting the exams declined by 5.9 percent. There were 6,073 candidates in 2020 compared to 6,454 in 2019. “Because there was a significant decrease in candidature with many candidates opting not to sit all of their subjects, the number of awarded grades decreased significantly when compared to last year,” the ministry said. “There were 15,017 grades awarded this year. This number represents a decrease of 36.93 percent when compared to 2019.” Compared to 2019, 29.64 percent fewer students took English language and
12.35 percent fewer took mathematics. Girls continued to outperform boys in the national exams, “receiving higher percentages of A-C (grades) and lower percentages at E-U (grades),” according to the ministry. Performances on the Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) tests also declined, with fewer grades awarded at D and above this year compared to each of the previous four years. However, the ministry said performances improved in English language, mathematics, art, craft study, family and consumer science and literature, with the performance
in general science remaining the same. The number of BJC students receiving a grade of C or higher in five or more subjects declined by 2.7 percent. The number of BJC students achieving a minimum grade of D in at least five subjects declined by 5.6 percent and the number of students receiving a combination of at least grade C in mathematics, English language and science declined by 2.5 percent year-over-year. Overall, 10,753 people sat the BJC exam, a 3.62 percent decrease from 2019. The total number of BJC grades awarded this year declined by 21.68 percent.
A BODY is taken from the scene of last night’s shooting and, right, Assistant Superintendent Audley Peters speaks to the media. Photos: Terrel W Carey Sr/Tribune Staff
VICTIM SHOT DEAD OUTSIDE HIS HOME from page one male would have left his residence and moments later, family members heard gunshots. “When they went outside, they met him lying on the ground.” The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Details around the shooting were minimal last night. “At the moment we’re not able to say whether there was a vehicle involved, however there are a number of persons who are assisting police with their investigations at this time,” ASP Peters said.
He said no suspects were in custody up to press time and added there was no evidence to initially suggest the killing was gang or drug-related. Anyone with information on this incident or any other crime is asked to call police at 502-9991, Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS or the nearest police station.
VIDEO SHOWS ‘BOLD’ ROBBERS IN BUSY STORES By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net VIDEO footage has been making the rounds on social media showing two local businesses being robbed by “bold” culprits with guns while shoppers milled about. McCartney’s Pharmacy and Budget Food Store, both located on East Street and Cordeaux Avenue, confirmed yesterday that they were recently victims of robbery. Police press liaison officer, ASP Audley Peters also confirmed these stores were robbed, but said there have been other incidents of store robberies recently. “We would’ve had several robberies at stores,”
ASP Peters said. “Also, we would’ve also had a number of arrests and even last night (Wednesday) we had an arrest of two persons who attempted a robbery and they’re in custody now along with the firearm. We’ve had a number of other arrests for robberies as well.” ASP Peters estimated that there were about four incidents that he could recall where people were arrested and firearms were confiscated. However, he could not say whether arrests were made for the incidents involving the pharmacy and the food store. McCartney’s Pharmacy Senior Manager Clinton McCartney said the robbery happened two days ago, but nobody was hurt.
“We contacted the police and somebody was looking at the video on camera. That was my camera that they were looking on and apparently that got all over the world,” the manager said yesterday. The footage showed two men calmly standing in front of a female cashier. One of the men gave the woman money. When she opened the cash register, his accomplice directed a gun at the register. The thieves took money from the till before escaping. Mr McCartney said that the cashier is still taken aback by the encounter. “She didn’t come in yesterday and she didn’t come today because she’s still upset…. We’ve had robberies before. I know I’ve had a gun put in my face before,
but you know I think this was the first, so it really upset her.” He could not remember how many robberies the pharmacy has had over the years, but recalled “at least four in the past” when guns were involved. Despite the pharmacy being no stranger to these crimes, the senior manager noted that they haven’t had anything like this lately. “Somebody was bold enough, two young men came in here bold and one had a gun….They just grabbed what they wanted and ran off and other people who were in the pharmacy were not aware of what was happening and neither was I. I was in the back office. I was not aware until the cashier came and told me and then I called
the police.” Regarding the robbery at the food store, a store representative said the incident happened last week Tuesday. Surveillance video shows the cashier taking out money from the register when a man pointed a gun and appeared to be pulling something from her hand. He walks away while his accomplice goes to obtain money from the register. This happened as customers stood by and watched the thieves leave with the cash. ASP Peters indicated that videos shared to the public can help as well as hurt police investigations. “We simply take it as it comes and make use of it. For the most part, persons may say they identify
individuals who are the culprits in the matter and that helps in a sense,” ASP Peters said. “In the other sense, it causes what I would consider a distrust to the system because anyone can put up something and put out a video and that video may not have been a video of a recent robbery or could’ve been a video of a robbery that occurred sometime ago. “We don’t always give credence to videos that are circulating over social media. There are times those videos are old videos and there are times those videos of a recent incident. So we make our decisions based on the matters that are before us and we look into the incident based on a need-to-know basis.”
PAGE 4, Thursday, December 24, 2020
THE TRIBUNE
Rastafarian community to say no to COVID vaccine By TANYA SMITHCARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net
MEMBERS of the local Rastafarian community will reject the COVID-19 vaccine when it is made available in The Bahamas as it is against their religious beliefs, a representative said. According to Empress Nicole, of the Women’s Freedom Liberation, Bahama Branch, Rastafarians would rather a more natural approach to keeping the COVID-19 virus at bay. “Being a mother and a black woman, it would only be natural that one of the main concerns would mostly be with the COVID vaccine that we have been hearing so much about in the media. First, I would like to quote a portion of the Human Rights Article (9) which states that everyone has the freedom of thought, belief and religion and it also goes on, in depth, to talk about one’s preferences in regards to eating and what one would intake,” she told The Tribune. “From the very inception of Rastafari, it is a known fact that the followers of the Rastafarian faith have strong beliefs and practice in the strict use of all-natural remedies in the case of preventing and curing
EMPRESS NICOLE any illnesses. Hence, it will be our God-given right, as well as our human rights, to reject this COVID-19 vaccine, whenever it reaches this part of the world.” The government has made a $250,000 down payment to secure a COVID-19 vaccine through
the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), however Minister of Health Renward Wells has stressed that no one will be forced to take the injection once it becomes available. “No matter what vaccine is recommended by PAHO or any other organisation,
Bahamian residents are to be assured that the vaccines will be subject to all appropriate trials approved by notable agencies and will be available to Bahamians who wish to take the vaccine,” Mr Wells said in October. “I wish to emphasise that
a COVID-19 vaccine will not be forced on anyone who does not wish to take it.” This comes amid scepticism in some quarters about the new COVID-19 vaccines, which were produced in record time by scientists around the globe. The United States and the United Kingdom have both begun vaccinating their citizens against the new coronavirus, however the Bahamas is not expected to receive a vaccine until at least Spring 2021 or later. Amid the vaccine roll out, there have been reports that some people have experienced severe allergic reactions after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. On its website, the US Centre for Disease Control says it “understands some people may be concerned about getting vaccinated” for the disease. However, the CDC has sought to calm these fears. “All COVID-19 vaccines that are in development or being distributed are being carefully evaluated in clinical trials and will be authorised or approved only if they make it substantially less likely you’ll get COVID-19,” the CDC says. “Based on what we know about vaccines for other diseases and early data from clinical trials, experts believe that getting a COVID-19 vaccine may also help keep you from
getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19. “Getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, particularly people at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. “Experts continue to conduct more studies about the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on the severity of illness from COVID-19, as well as its ability to keep people from spreading the virus that causes COVID19,” the CDC says. Shifting gears, Empress Nicole said perhaps Rastafarians are just misunderstood because of their religious beliefs. She said: “As a Rastafarian woman and a healer, this (COVID-19 vaccine) really concerns me. Growing up in Rastafari, as a student I was very involved in various sports and extracurricular activities, I was faced with a lot of discrimination and a lot of misinterpretation of Rastafari and the way that we carry ourselves. There are a lot of things that we don’t deal with like saying the pledge and the national anthem as we pledge our allegiance to Ethiopia, Africa.” The Tribune contacted several health officials to ascertain if there was education available on the vaccine for people like the Rastafarians. However, health officials did not respond up to press time.
NO JUNKANOO - BUT GROUPS WANT SPIRIT TO SHINE ON By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net
DESPITE the 2020 Junkanoo parades being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some groups say they still plan to keep the Junkanoo spirit alive and celebrate through virtual events. Saxons Superstars co-chair Kendenique Campbell-Moss said officials still have some activities planned to honour the Junkanoo culture. “What we’re doing is a virtual collage where we send photos of our past costumes throughout the year and we’re going to look at those and virtually have
conversations like ‘hey, this was one of our best music mornings,’ we’re going to do stuff in that nature,” she said. “So, it’s going to be a combination of photos and then we’re going to do the virtual conversation and looking at past parades we have done and looking at the fact that we won two straight in the best music and relive that through commentary.” The group was named the official winner of the 2019 Boxing Day parade after a penalty reversal, and also went on to claim victory of the 2020 New Year’s Day parade. Mrs Campbell-Moss said while the Saxons will not
get a chance “ to revel” in their double victory on Bay Street this time around, group officials feel hopeful that they will be able to do so next year. She told this newspaper: “The entire group and our fans as well as our sponsors are saddened by the series of events that COVID has brought on and I think even more so, because you’re a double champion and we did not have a chance to revel in that and a chance to outwardly be celebratory in that regard and I think that has put a damper on our spirits. “But we do feel within our group and within ourselves, the interior remains the same and we
would’ve accomplished victory and when Junkanoo is able to return to the boulevard, us and our ancestors…will definitely come alive.” Leader of Music Makers Keith Mason also expressed similar plans to this newspaper yesterday. He said the group will honour Junkanoo culture and remember those members who lost their lives this year by reflecting on past parades. “We’re in the virtual parade that ZNS will be showing and they’re going to be featuring some of our better parades in the last ten years,” he said. “And the steering committee, we plan to have
a Zoom where we could watch them together and have a fun time online. We plan to do that and we’re also encouraging (members) to have a look and to reminisce on the past. “Within the last year, we have lost about 10 to 15 members out of our group and you know, amidst all the joy you have to accept the pain but it’s good times where we could look back at some of our fallen heroes and some who’s not mentioned on a daily or annual basis so, it will be a bittersweet time as we reflect and look back and we see people in these videos who are no longer with us, but at least it will bring some joy to know
that we had a good time with some of them.” In July, the government made the decision to cancel all traditional Junkanoo parades in response to rising COVID cases. Chairman of Junkanoo Corporation of New Providence Dion Miller told The Tribune last month that the organisation had planned several virtual events instead. “You certainly would be seeing junkanooers submitting video testimonials and certainly we will be working with Junkanoo to rebroadcast past parades. It will be shown on TV,” he said. The Junkanoo events will be broadcast on ZNS.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, December 24, 2020, PAGE 5
‘I can’t walk after I was beaten by police’ from page one when six of his co-workers screamed his name to alert him to what was happening on the opposite side of the road at the Harbour Island Police Station. “My team was calling my name to let me be aware of what was going on,” he said. “When I ran out, I heard it clearly, (Demetrius) was screaming my name.” Mr Pinder said there was much commotion inside the station and the sounds troubled him. “If you heard it, you would’ve felt so bad,” he said. “It sounded like someone was getting tortured, like you about to get tied up and someone about to get a machine to cut your hand off.” Mr Pinder said he tried to enter the building, but all the doors were locked. Mr Pyfrom, meanwhile, said police arrested him because of stolen golf cart batteries. “The police station itself has surveillance cameras on the outside and parts of the interior that would have recorded (what happened) as I entered the station,” he said in a statement sent to The Tribune. “But I was moved from that room to the courtroom where there weren’t any cameras.” Mr Pyfrom said after asking him for stolen batteries, police became angry and asked him to lie on the floor. He said: “I asked why lay on the ground, why can’t I just sit in a chair if I’m being interviewed? There were about 12 chairs in the room at the time. “That is when (an officer) began punching me in the stomach and slapping me to the face and pushed me into the main courtroom door causing the door to open and the persons that were on the outside (with Mr Pinder) became aware of what was happening to me
PHOTOGRAPHS supplied to The Tribune showing the injuries. and began to make noise about how I was being treated and abused,” he alleged. Mr Pyfrom said an officer closed the door and accused him of trying to leave the police station. “I was then pushed onto a table,” he said. “(An officer) then grabbed me by the hands as (another officer) grabbed both my legs. It was then when I was placed in the air and
slammed to the floor on my right side where I felt a severe pain to my right hip and leg. I never got back up again after the impact of being slammed to the ground. I cried out in pain for a doctor and both officers began to laugh, taking it for a joke. “The first person to make it to the station was my mother who was in tears after seeing me on the floor and hearing what had
me if I was in a motorcyhappened to me.” Mr Pyfrom said offic- cle accident, stating that I ers eventually contacted a had to take a great amount of force to nurse. The break and nurse, he said, (An officer) then dislocate requested he my bones in be taken to grabbed me by the such a way. Spanish Wells hands as (another I also had for an X-ray. officer) grabbed to undergo He said after the both my legs. It was surgery on my right leg X-ray was then when I was done, a placed in the air and to put my leg back in female doctor at the Spanish slammed to the floor place. I spent a week in Wells clinic on my right side told him his where I felt a severe Accident and Emerpelvic bone and and hip bone pain to my right hip gency was later appeared to and leg. I never got be dislocated back up again after moved to male and broken. He said the impact of being surgical.” Mr Pyfrom he was slammed to the said he was emergency discharged airlifted by Fla- ground. I cried out from the mingo Air to in pain for a doctor Princess New Provi- and both officers Margaret dence and Hospital on rushed to began to laugh, November the Princess taking it for a joke. 13 and was Margaret given a knee immobiliser. Hospital. “The next day,” he said, He said he began therapy “a CT scan and other on November 19. “Almost two months X-rays were done to assess my injuries. After receiving later,” he said, “a statement the results, the doctor asked was never taken by the
arresting officers, nor have I been told that any charges are being brought against me.” Mr Pyfrom said he was released from prison last year after being sentenced to eight months for a housebreaking incident. His friend, Mr Pinder, said he is no stranger to run-ins with the law, but insisted he would do nothing to warrant a brutal attack. Mr Pyfrom has hired a lawyer to represent him. His lawyer said yesterday that he is analysing his client’s medical records as he prepares to build a case. When contacted for comment, Assistant Commissioner of Police Audley Peters said the matter should be in the “purview of the police complaints” unit.
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THE TRIBUNE
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Say one thing, do another on oil IT is fair to say there is some mixed messaging from the government over oil drilling. Activists opposing oil exploration in Bahamian waters were celebrating earlier this month when Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said he was “totally against oil drilling in our waters”. He went on to say: “Unfortunately, we were saddled with an agreement that we met there. When we discussed it with the legal department, we were advised that the commitment and everything was signed and basically we could not get out of it. “But if we could’ve gotten out of it believe me, I am against totally drilling for oil in our waters.” Campaigners were delighted – with Fred Smith, QC, who represents Waterkeepers Bahamas and the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (Save The Bays) in their legal challenge against drilling, calling it “music to our ears”. That music became something of a symphony with other Cabinet members speaking up to agree with Dr Minnis – and Attorney General Carl Bethel making noises about renegotiating the royalties if oil is indeed found. So it is with some confusion that activists find the government weighing in on the legal challenge against oil drilling… but against the activists. The government has revealed its intention to seek judicial permission to oppose the activists’ Judicial Review challenge. In short, the government says the bid for a Judicial Review is too late, without merit and called on the Supreme Court not to grant a “stay” that would halt drilling. As one of those activists, Sam Duncombe, of reEarth, said: “They are now opposing our Judicial Review application, even though the Prime Minister and several of his ministers have all come out against oil drilling… it’s just bizarre to me.” She added: “I think they need to get together and talk with one voice… you have to wonder what they are thinking about when they’re putting the country at risk, and there’s so much confusion in government. It doesn’t leave me with the feeling they have a clue what they’re doing. Everything is suspect now. One
minute it’s something, the next it’s the opposite. Unbelievable. It’s truly bizarre.” Unbelievable, indeed. Will Dr Minnis speak out now against his own government’s actions – or will actions speak louder than his words when it comes to how total his opposition is to oil drilling? Legally, of course, decisions still have to be made – and the Supreme Court is to decide today whether the activists’ case should proceed. But whether it does, or whether it doesn’t, those MPs who raised their voices against oil drilling would do well to raise those same voices again to explain whether they support the government’s action against the activists’ case, or not. And that includes Dr Minnis. This is an issue close to the heart of many Bahamians, given the environment with which we are blessed, and which we do not wish to risk losing. The very least Bahamians deserve is straight talk – that isn’t contradicted by action. This is no time to say one thing and do another.
A Christmas pledge Christmas is upon us. It has seemed such a long year to get us to this point, a year which has seen the country beset by struggles we never thought we would face. We remember those who will not be with us this Christmas, including the 169 people who died from COVID-19. We think of those struggling to get by after job losses and furloughs, our Bahamian brothers and sisters who need our help now, and who will need our help still in the future. We shall perhaps value our Christmas celebration more than ever this year – knowing how so much we had taken for granted has changed. Let us, too, look to the future. COVID-19 will not be going away quickly, but the vaccines are on their way. As 2020 comes towards its end, we can look toward 2021 with determination. Our silent pledge must be to make sure next Christmas is better for all of us, and that truly is something to raise a glass to on Christmas Day.
I want to have my Junkanoo, bro EDITOR, The Tribune. HOW dare they? Talking bout there will be no Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade; talking bout there will be no New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade. Who are these people? Don’t they know that Junkanoo is a Bahamian tradition; and a very rich one at that? Don’t they know that Bahamians have waited 12 months for the biggest entertainment extravaganza of the year? Don’t they know that I had planned to sit in Rawson Square because this is where most of the energy is exuded during the Boxing Day Junkanoo parade? How dare they! Don’t they know the sweetest sounds comes from the goatskin drums? The rhythmic sounds of these drums will literally force you out of your seat and stimulate the blood in your veins. Are they oblivious to the brass section? The music from the brass section can literally raise the dead and heal the incapacitated. Seriously.
Tiredness evaporates. Sadness and depression are emotions that are removed from the body once you hear the sounds of the whistles, goat skin drums, cowbells and that fine brass. Who can forget the beautiful musical renditions of songs like Stagga Lee, City of Gold and Where have all the flowers gone? My body gets filled with goosebumps even as I reminisce. Junkanoo music in my view for a few minutes fixes all. Everything comes into perspective. “Who’s the best? The Saxons. Who’s the best? The Saxons. Who’s the best? The Saxons”. “Orrr, they scared they scared. Orr, they scared, they scared”. I was hot with them from they cancelled The Emancipation Day rush out in August. What am I to do on Boxing Day morning, man? I can’t even go to the Carnival. I was planning to go to one nice party, get some free food and drinks and then head to Bay Street with my family. We can’t
dance on the bleachers. We won’t see the always beautiful costumes from the Valley Boys. We won’t see the tantalizing dancers from the Roots. We won’t hear music from One Family and the Prodigal Sons. We won’t see the Sting. We won’t see the performance of the world’s greatest Junkanoo group, the Shell Saxons Superstars. We the best. Point blank. Period. There will be no weaving and bobbing through the crowd for me this year. There will be no arguments over who sounded the best, who looked the best. There will be no chants saying “They Rob us!” There will be no rowing on the bleachers. There will not be the occasional glimpse of a celebrity or tourist trying to dance in rhythm to our Junkanoo beat. I won’t even hear “They Coming”. Ma boy they better fix this ya know. They round here talking bout COVID19 and Coronavirus. I want my Junkanoo, bro. DEHAVILLAND MOSS Nassau, December 23, 2020.
A proper geopolitical strategy EDITOR, The Tribune. SINCE 70 years ago the arms race between the USA and Soviet Russia began to spread like wildfire. The Cold War’s battlefield was forged by smaller proxy wars funded by either Washington DC or Moscow; but this has resulted in massive genocides that has killed over a hundred million lives, and destroyed dozens of nations. The goals of Cold Warera leaders was simple: They want more power, wealth, industrial and ideological supremacy and nuclear weapons. We’ve seen this when the Korean people had their civil war; but when the US and Soviet forces began to fund opposing factions, things went from bad to worse, and the Korean War ended on a stalemate that resulted in the creation of South Korea and North Korea. The Koreans were split in half senselessly and this was completely avoidable if the Americans and Russians had kept themselves from joining the conflict. Instead of remaining neutral, East Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe chose to join the Warsaw Pact, and since the pact was controlled by the Soviet Union, millions of lives were lost through brutal military campaigns and political witch hunts. The Vietnam War was simply the worst of the Cold War in a variety of ways. Mainly because, not because they nearly destroyed Vietnam while dividing it, but the long lasting effects on how foreign policy was made and how propaganda was greatly encouraged in the 1960s to today. The propaganda piece is parroting the world “Communism” from Karl Marx. In reality, Marx never wanted
LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net this and “Communism” was only a book from fiction. However, the US and Russia pushed this word while tearing apart nations during this time period. Worst of all. The Cold War never ended after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the USSR, but has continued to kill and destroy more lives and homelands. Iran and North Korea continue this legacy while the US thinks that “Communism” remains a threat. Today, Washington, DC, and Beijing are now trying to see who will become the number one dominant superpower. As for The Bahamas, we must come to realise that neither superpower has any of our interests at heart. Our Prime Ministers should have realised this reality because in The Bahamas, both Chinese and Americans are playing a tug of war with us and it’s unsustainable for the long term development of the nation. The best way to combat this geopolitical turmoil is to become purely neutral to the US, Russia and China. They must understand that this political tug-ofwar is putting stress on this small country, and they must work for us to help Bahamians. We can accept normal trade as long as it doesn’t involve undercutting sovereignty or pulling us into further turmoil or wars and it is about doing proper business on a national scale. We must be completely serious with this and set ground rules with real consequences. It’s more
like the Equinox Doctrine for The Bahamas to work with. We must also develop ourselves further and establish more trade relations with normal developed nations that aren’t striving to be global superpowers. The UK, Australia, NZ, South Korea and Japan should be our strongest allies to offset any economic downturns while we grow out of the tourism bubble that we’ve been sitting in since the Stafford Sands days. Many Bahamians believe in a true sovereign Bahamas. Achieving Equinox with the three big superpowers is the only way to ensure that The Bahamas gains more and more sovereignty. For the bigger picture, we must also move away the dark past of the Cold War for the betterment of humanity. AMMAKA RUSSELL Nassau, December 21, 2020.
Simply amazing EDITOR, The Tribune. IN THE very same week that his party announced an outright discriminatory policy, targeting the winnings of poor Bahamian numbers buyers, while exempting foreign gamblers in the casinos (themselves off limits to Bahamians, in another blatant example of discrimination), Hubert Ingraham finally finds his voice on the issue of discrimination – to champion the cause of Dominican fishermen. You just can’t make this stuff up! ANDREW ALLEN Nassau, December 23, 2020.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, December 24, 2020, PAGE 7
A Christmas gift as 147 are granted clemency THE Prerogative of Mercy Committee approved 147 requests for clemency during a meeting yesterday. According to a brief statement released by the Ministry of National Security last night, the committee reviewed 205 requests for clemency and two for record expungement. “As a result, 147 were approved for clemency, six pending additional reports, one record expunged and 59 deferred to the next meeting in January 2021,” the press release said. “The group comprised the largest that the Prerogative of
Mercy Committee has ever considered.” Earlier this month, National Security Minister Marvin Dames spoke about the committee’s work and plans to release those who qualified to have their prison sentences shortened. “When we came into office, this committee was essentially dormant and so over the years we continue to release persons for good behaviour and persons who would have been recommended as low risk and we are grateful for that,” he said at the time, according to published reports. “We’re hoping to review another listing before the
end of the year and give those persons who would be considered a new start to the new year. That’s the objective. “This will probably be the largest list that we will consider, but certainly into 2021 we’ll continue to do that. “This all goes hand in hand with our efforts to transform and rehabilitate, and reform and reintegrate back into our communities our young men and women who are showing good signs of (readiness) to be included and reintegrated back into society,” Mr Dames was quoted as saying.
MAN WHO BEAT HIS GIRLFRIEND TOLD TO COMPENSATE HER $350 By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A 29-YEAR-OLD man who was accused of assaulting his former girlfriend was ordered to pay her $350 as compensation. Police said Jason Cooper assaulted the woman at the Golden Gates Plaza on December 17. He admitted to the offence during a hearing before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.
The prosecution said that day, the complainant told police that Cooper beat her about the body during an argument. Officers investigating her complaint arrested the accused a short time later. In an interview with police at the Carmichael Road police station the next day, Cooper denied the allegations. When given an opportunity to speak during the hearing, he told the magistrate that on the day in question that his ex-girlfriend started to punch him.
He claimed he “restrained” her by holding her wrists and pushing her against her car. He also insisted that he did not “pound her against her body” nor did he throw “any punches” at her at the time of the incident. After listening to his explanation, Magistrate McKinney ordered Cooper to compensate his ex-girlfriend by paying her $350. He also told the accused that he would be required to keep the peace for one year.
FRAUD ACCUSED GRANTED BAIL By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A 31-YEAR-OLD man, accused of defrauding three people of nearly $40,000, was yesterday granted bail before his trial. The prosecution said Andre Moncur unlawfully
obtained $12,000 from Derrick Sands on July 21. They further alleged that the accused illegally obtained another $12,000 from Lavancia Palmer on March 12 and defrauded another woman of $15,000 sometime between November 25 and December 6.
During his hearing before Magistrate Samuel McKinney yesterday, Moncur pleaded not guilty to three counts of fraud by false pretences. As a result, the case was adjourned to January 26 for trial. In the interim, Moncur was granted $8,500 bail.
TEEN ROBBERY SUSPECT REMANDED By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A TEENAGER was remanded to prison over allegations that he robbed a woman last week. Carlton Saunders, 19, appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney after he was accused of using a hand
YOUR
gun to rob Jennifer Strachan of $8.85 in cash and $42 worth of clothing on December 16. Due to the nature of the charge, Saunders was not required to enter a plea and the case was adjourned to February 26 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI).
CHOICE FOR THE FAMILY WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/JOYFM1019
In the meantime, the accused was denied bail and remanded into custody. He has a right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.
NATIONAL Security Minister Marvin Dames.
Man denies using fake cheques to defraud businesses By FARRAH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter fjohnson@tribunemedia.net A 32-YEAR-OLD man who denied using fraudulent insurance cheques to defraud three businesses will appear before a magistrate next year to determine whether he will be granted bail before his trial. Another man accused of similar offences was yesterday granted $3,500 bail before his hearing. In the first incident, Brent McPhee appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney after he was accused of using fake JS Johnson cheques to defraud three hardware stores of over $16,000 worth of supplies between November and December. Yesterday, he was charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, five counts of possession of a forged document, five counts of uttering a forged document and five counts of fraud by false pretences. The prosecution alleged that McPhee used a fake
cheque from the insurance company to purchase $4,032 worth of painting supplies from the Paint Place on December 1. They further alleged he used a $5,964.56 JS Johnson cheque to purchase building supplies from City Lumber on November 20. McPhee is also accused of using another forged cheque from the insurance company in the amount of $2,003.96 to purchase a ductless unit from AC Depot on November 18. During his arraignment, McPhee denied all of the allegations. However, before Magistrate McKinney could consider the issue of bail, the prosecution said the Office of the Attorney General feared the accused would interfere with Crown witnesses and potentially put them in fear if he were to be released. The prosecution also urged the court to consider McPhee’s antecedents which consisted of crimes of a similar nature. McPhee’s attorney, Tonique Lewis, assured the magistrate that her client
would return to court on his trial date if he were released. She also argued that mechanisms could be put in place for officials to monitor the accused’s whereabouts to ensure he did nothing to interfere with the proceedings. After listening to arguments from both sides, Magistrate McKinney adjourned the matter to January 4 for a bail hearing. McPhee was remanded into custody until that time. Yesterday, Henry Cartwright also appeared before Magistrate McKinney for fraud related offences. The 31-year-old was accused of using a fake JS Johnson cheque, which he made payable to AC Depot, to buy a $2,395.99 ductless unit on November 18. He denied one count each of possession of a forged document, uttering a forged document and fraud by false pretences and the case was adjourned to January 26, 2021 for trial. Cartwright was granted $3,500 bail.
PAGE 8, Thursday, December 24, 2020
THE TRIBUNE
The light and splendour of Christmas B
ECAUSE of a global pandemic that began about a year ago, 2020 has been one of the most punishing and painful years in the lives of most of humanity. Many have died. Many are dying. Many more will die and millions have become ill, some with dire and long-term physical and psychological ailments. There is widespread suffering at home and around the world. Food insecurity has ballooned. The economic consequences are the worst since the Great Depression. There are many millions of stories of struggle, of loneliness, of despair, of relentless anxiety, of hopelessness. Still, there are just as many examples of transcendence, big and small, from health workers risking their lives for others to neighbours cooking and sharing meals with each other to small niceties and acts of generosity and gratitude.
Lockdown Most of the United Kingdom, where a variant of the virus has exploded, is under severe lockdown and will be for possibly a number of months. In yesterday’s UK Guardian, Frances Ryan, who suffers from a longstanding lung disability, shared her story of struggle and transcendence during the pandemic which has ravaged the United Kingdom. Ryan has spent seven months and 15 days without leaving her parents’ home for fear of contracting COVID-19 and dying. She writes: “I’ve been shielding at my parents’ bungalow since some time in the spring. That means none of us going out, ever, and not letting anyone in. For the owner of low-grade lungs in a respiratory pandemic, this was an easy decision to make, but it is surreal and unfamiliar, too. “Both in their early 60s, my parents are retired and are making the sacrifice with me. They have had the pleasure of my
company before the pandemic, when I’ve been too unwell to live alone, but being locked in together 24/7 is new, a kind of familial house arrest.” Ryan details what such isolation and a perpetual lockdown has been like. She describes what she and her parents have missed (including seeing their new grandchild/ niece), the sacrifices they have made, the emotional toll on the family, the longing for normalcy, the seizing anxiety, the tedium and boredom. But she also writes: “And yet I find myself overwhelmingly grateful. I have felt loved even when alone, safe in a time of fear. My motto is that if you’re alive or employed during a pandemic, you’re winning (double points for both). “I don’t think anyone with a long-term health condition expects that life always goes smoothly; there will be bumps along the way, sometimes large ones. There is no inalienable right to go to the pub. “But human beings have a remarkable ability to cope. We adapt. We make the best of it. I look to the small things. The orange and pinks of £5 supermarket gerberas. Recordings of my niece tentatively taking her first steps.” Ryan’s story is one of extraordinary gratitude, which many here at home and around the world have also expressed. Sadly, too many at home are paralyzed with ingratitude. The extraordinary sacrifice of her parents stands in stark and remarkable
contrast to the selfishness of those who have been sometimes or often cavalier in following public health guidelines and who have endangered the health of others, indifferent to their neighbours or fellow citizens. While much of the world is in a dire situation, with the pandemic readying to take an even greater human and economic toll, we are doing generally well in The Bahamas because of the work of health and other government officials and the compliance of many Bahamians who have followed the health guidelines. Even as restaurants, retail stores and other businesses are closing throughout North and South America, Europe, South Africa and across Asia, there is some level of normalcy in The Bahamas. Numerous aspects of Christmas celebration have been shuttered in many countries, while at
“The light and splendour of Christmas has been resident in the hearts of many Bahamians throughout the pandemic. We have witnessed the extraordinary generosity of those who have donated food to help the tens of thousands of Bahamians and residents facing hunger.” home we are able to enjoy a greater level of celebrations. We should be grateful. This gratitude might extend in a greater appreciation for the deeper splendour and light of Christmas that is the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, full of hope for a weary world in need of rejoicing. This light of Christ has shone throughout the year in thousands of stories of light, of compassion, of generosity.
BOXES of food and supplies being handed out at the IL Cares food drive earlier this month. PHOTOS: Donovan McIntosh
The light and splendour of Christmas has been resident in the hearts of many Bahamians throughout the pandemic. We have witnessed the extraordinary generosity of those who have donated food to help the tens of thousands of Bahamians and residents facing hunger.
Gratitude There is the story of a Family Island nurse who endured and ministered to others in Abaco during and in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, who cared for residents on another island during the pandemic. In gratitude, the residents of that island gave her the gift of a holiday weekend. An adoring grandfather made sure that the Christmas lights in the garden were just as brilliant this year so that he and his sixyear-old granddaughter could enjoy the lights and Christmas carols. This very same grandfather constructed a Christmas backdrop for the grandbaby for ZOOM calls for school online. A landlady forgave several months of rent for a tenant even though she has not worked for most of the year. There is also the example of a prelate who privately offered support and encouragement to others during some of the most difficult and depressing days of the pandemic, when there was little light and when hope was a very distant star. Some are giving gifts of food or money to friends in need this Christmas. Some families are preparing take-away meals for family and friends who cannot be together in person this year. Columnist and author David Brooks once wrote: “Jesus is the person who shows us what giving yourself away looks like.” Think of those in your life who, in the imitation of Christ, continue to give themselves away. If we are fortunate, we might try in our own ways to similarly give ourselves away. During Christmas and as a New Year approaches, such light and self-donation are necessary for healing of myriad wounds and brokenness. In his hymn of healing and light, “Come Healing”, Leonard Cohen invites us: “O, gather up the brokenness Bring it to me now The fragrance of those promises You never dared to vow
“The splinters that you carried The cross you left behind Come healing of the body Come healing of the mind “And let the heavens hear it The penitential hymn Come healing of the spirit Come healing of the limb “Behold the gates of mercy In arbitrary space And none of us deserving Of cruelty or the grace “O, solitude of longing Where love has been confined Come healing of the body Come healing of the mind “O, see the darkness yielding That tore the light apart Come healing of the reason Come healing of the heart “O, troubledness concealing An undivided love The heart beneath is teaching To the broken heart above “And let the heavens falter Let the earth proclaim Come healing…” France Ryan ended her reflection in the UK Guardian: “As I write this, the arrival of a vaccine gives hope. If this last year has been house arrest, perhaps the next will bring probation. I tell myself that the
trees lining my local park are merely waiting. The cool of fresh air and the warmth of a friend’s hug are sensations on pause. In the meantime, there is always home.” Despite the many Bahamians struggling because of the widespread effects of the pandemic, here at “home” we have many blessings and examples of light for which we should be grateful. Let us be grateful also for the “home” we have found in the hearts of others and in the love and generosity we have experienced that is the splendour and love of Christ found in those who imitate and express this love to us in profound generosity. A blessed Christmas.
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, December 24, 2020, PAGE 9
What’s next for American news media in the post-Trump era? O
NE day this week, the front page of one of America’s most liberal big-city daily newspapers featured three stories “above the fold” of the paper that is visible when the paper sits fresh in the morning on your desk or breakfast table. The word “Trump” appeared in big bold letters in each story. Now nearly two months after he was pretty soundly defeated in the national election, the US president continues to dominate the news cycle. The name of the man who beat Trump headlined the least visible front-page story, which appeared “below the fold.”
Showman The reasons for Trump’s continued preeminence are not particularly mysterious. He remains a master showman, and he’s a practical genius at garnering attention. Now that his focus appears to be simply limited to further enriching himself and contesting the results of an election he clearly lost, Trump can seemingly make noise to his heart’s content. This begs the question of what the American news media will do to attract readers and viewers once Trump departs the White House.
IN this photo from May, President Donald Trump waits for a segment to start during a Fox News virtual town hall from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) One thinks first of Fox News. Well established as Trump’s favorite network and home to several of his most notorious media enablers, Fox has been the most popular American cable news network since 2002, long before Trump arrived to dominate the national political scene. In October with the US election looming, Fox drew a larger prime-time audience than ABC’s “The Bachelorette” and “Celebrity Family Feud” and NBC’s “The Weakest Link.” Fox prime time punditry stars like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham regularly clobbered their CNN and MSNBC rivals in viewership. Fox ad revenue for this year could top a record $1.15 billion, according to some published estimates. Still controlled by 89-yearold Australian-born and Oxford-educated media mogul and billionaire Rupert Murdoch, Fox News might slip without Trump coverage to draw viewers, according to some observers. Others disagree. They point out that while Fox has doubtless prospered during Trump’s presidency, the network really established itself as the voice of resistance to presidents and powerful politicians with whom its owner currently disagrees ideologically. In other words, liberals.
“Fox thrives when it is in opposition because they have a real-time bad guy to beat up on,” a former CNN president told reporters in October. “A Biden win would be great for Fox’s business.” As the media leader in championing the tea party movement a decade ago as one point of resistance to President Barack Obama, Fox really cemented an identification with American conservatism and the Republican Party that has enriched both entities and should continue throughout the Biden presidency.
Fame Fox owner Murdoch, who became an American citizen in 1985, has long been an international star figure. His fame was such that he was erroneously identified as the model for Jonathan Pryce’s manipulative media baron character in the 1997 James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies.” Murdoch is now married to his fourth wife Jerry Hall, the Texas model and actress who was Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger’s long-time common law wife and mother of four of his eight children. Some speculate that Fox News’ biggest test in the months and years ahead will be to fend off its own
primary challenge from even further right-wing upstart networks like One America News and Newsmax, whose extreme programming sometimes makes Fox look almost staid by comparison. A broader question for the coming years will be whether the current practice of combat interviewing on television will subside or become the norm. Pushed by angry viewers and their own internal watchdogs, liberal TV journalists this year have increasingly engaged with Trump party and campaign surrogates in direct confrontations about their lies and misinformation. It’s uncertain how many voters’ minds were changed as a result. The Hofstra University communications department dean told reporters recently that “there’s a growing feeling among television journalists that they need to be seen as pushing back. You can’t let someone just lie on the air.” And as Trump’s astonishing presidency lurches along to its inevitable conclusion, more “mainstream” publications are taking off the gloves. The Washington Post called Trump “the worst president in American history.” Others have followed. Yet the president continues to dominate every news cycle. We’ll see if that continues after January 20.
A TREMENDOUS SUCCESS FOR MIAMI DOLPHINS
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his past weekend was quite eventful for each team in the eastern division of the NFL’s American Conference, perhaps most especially for the Miami Dolphins. Their gradual ascent past the Patriots toward the top of the division was emphatically affirmed as they defeated New England on Sunday. The Fins may make the playoffs this year, but even if they don’t, their season will have been a tremendous success. The team has a young quarterback who looks like he can really succeed in the NFL with plenty of young talent around him, plus extra draft choices in early rounds of the annual college player draft upcoming this spring. The long-dominant Pats were eliminated from this year’s playoffs as they lost in Miami, and New England faces an uncertain, unresolved future without Tom Brady at quarterback. While Miami was eliminating the Patriots, the Buffalo Bills clinched the division title in dominant fashion over the Broncos in Denver. And while Buffalo seems to be a team also on the rise, the division-rival New York Jets may have ruined their chance to draft much celebrated Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence by winning unexpectedly in Los Angeles against the Rams. Elsewhere, Kansas City and Green
MIAMI Dolphins running back Matt Breida (22) runs with the ball against the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Joel Auerbach) Bay continued their march toward in the NFL’s National Conference, their conferences’ only first-round where Brady’s Buccaneers seem likely playoff byes and the inside track to a to make the post season but there is February Super Bowl showdown in lots of confusion everywhere else. Tampa. It should all add up to plenty of In the AFC, five teams are contend- uncertainty and confusion about ing for four remaining playoff spots. playoff scenarios. That will make the The Dolphins face by far the big- NFL and their television broadcast gest challenge with only road games partners happy in a season where the remaining against the dangerous COVID pandemic has minimized inRaiders and in Buffalo’s snow against person revenue for team owners and the Bills. continues to expose players and staff The playoff picture is much murkier to deadly contagion.
EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM TIGER WOODS
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out there. I loved the fact iger Woods gave us that we got off to such a all, but especially quick start, with him hitting golfers and golf fans among some of those incredible us, an early Christmas gift shots. And he was able to last weekend. The Albany carry his game from the investor and his range to the golf adorable 11-yearcourse. That’s the old son Charlie difference between played in a norplaying at home mally little noticed and playing tourend of year PGA nament golf.’’ event staged for Tiger was winners of major uncharacteristitournaments and cally stoical during members of their most of his Satfamilies. Tiger urday round with played for the first Charlie, but even time, and young TIGER Woods he couldn’t hide Charlie was his shares a laugh with his excitement on playing partner. his son Charlie. (AP) the Par 5 third Observers and hole. Charlie, getcommentators made a huge ting to tee off about 100 fuss over the numerous yards ahead of the adults, Tiger mannerisms Charlie smoked his drive, aced a has adopted. But while he 3-wood approach and sank a hasn’t been stage-managed short putt for an eagle. The by his father onto national Woods team played CharTV before he was old lie’s ball all the way. enough to attend primary In the process of joining school like Tiger was, Char- his son on national televilie has clearly been paying sion, Tiger allowed viewers attention when he and his and fans a rare look into his dad visit the driving range. personal life, largely hidden Reportedly diverted from away since the sordid revhis soccer passion by Tiger’s elations of his adulterous amazing Masters win last profligacy eleven years year, Charlie already hits the ago. It was a welcome sight ball better than most ama- for his millions of fans and teur golfers. should accelerate his reha“Just making sure we had bilitation on the world fun. I think he did,’’ Tiger golfing stage. said of Charlie’s television Meantime, Safe and debut. “He enjoyed being Merry Christmas to all!
PAGE 10, Thursday, December 24, 2020
THE TRIBUNE
FROM left, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner, who are among those receiving pardons from President Donald Trump.
Trump hands out pardons to allies
WASHINGTON Associated Press
PRESIDENT Donald Trump yesterday pardoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, in the latest wave of clemency to benefit longtime associates and supporters. The actions, in Trump’s final weeks at the White House, bring to nearly 50 the number of people whom the president in the last two days has granted clemency. Pardons are common in the final stretch of a president’s tenure, but Trump has proven himself determined
to use his clemency power not only to reward his allies but to support the causes of convicts championed by his friends. The pardons of Manafort and Roger Stone, who months earlier had his sentence commuted by Trump, underscore the president’s desire to chip away at the results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and to come to the aid of associates he feels were wrongly pursued. He has now pardoned four people convicted in that investigation, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and campaign adviser George
Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Manafort, who led Trump’s campaign during a pivotal 2016 period before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for financial crimes related to his work in Ukraine. He was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was released to home confinement last May because of coronavirus concerns in the federal prison system. Though the charges against Manafort did not
concern the central thrust of Mueller’s mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. His close relationship to a man US officials have linked to Russian intelligence, and with whom he shared internal campaign polling data, attracted particular scrutiny during the investigation, though Mueller never charged any Trump associate with conspiring with Russia. Manafort, in a tweet, thanked Trump and lavished praise on the outgoing president, declaring that
history would show he had accomplished more than any of his predecessors. Trump did not pardon Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, who was sentenced last year to 45 days in prison but extensively cooperated with prosecutors, or former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance crimes related to his efforts to buy the silence of women who said they had sexual relationships with Trump. Both were also convicted in the Mueller probe. Kushner is the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a wealthy real estate executive who
pleaded guilty years ago to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009. Trump’s legally troubled allies were not the only recipients of clemency Wednesday night. The long list included people whose pleas for forgiveness have been promoted by people supporting the president throughout his term in office, among them former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy and Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky.
PARDONS IN KILLINGS OF IRAQI CIVILIANS STIR ANGRY RESPONSE WASHINGTON Associated Press
THE courtroom monitors carried the image of a smiling nine-year-old boy as his father pleaded for the punishment of four US government contractors convicted in shootings that killed that child and more than a dozen other Iraqi civilians. “What’s the difference,” Mohammad Kinani al-Razzaq asked a Washington judge at an emotional
2015 sentencing hearing, “between these criminals and terrorists?” The shootings of civilians by Blackwater employees at a crowded Baghdad traffic circle in September 2007 prompted an international outcry, left a reputational black eye on US operations at the height of the Iraq war and put the government on the defensive over its use of private contractors in military zones. The resulting criminal prosecutions spanned years in
Washington but came to an abrupt end on Tuesday when President Donald Trump pardoned the convicted contractors, an act that human rights activists and some Iraqis decried as a miscarriage of justice. “The infamous Blackwater company killed Iraqi citizens at Nisoor Square. Today we heard they were released upon personal order by President Trump, as if they don’t care for the spilled Iraqi blood,” said Saleh Abed, a Baghdad
resident walking in the square. The United Nations’ Human Rights office said Wednesday that it was “deeply concerned” by the pardons, which it said “contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future”. Al-Razzaq, the father of the slain boy, told the BBC that the pardon decision “broke my life again”. Lawyers for the contractors, who had aggressively
defended the men for more than a decade, offered a different take. They have long asserted that the shooting began only after the men were ambushed by gunfire from insurgents and then shot back in defence. They have pointed to problems with the prosecution — the first indictment was dismissed by a judge — and argued that the trial that ended with their convictions was tainted by false testimony and withheld evidence.
Though the circumstances of the shooting have long been contested, there is no question the September 16, 2007, episode — which began after the contractors were ordered to create a safe evacuation route after a car bomb explosion — was a low point for US-Iraqi relations, coming just years after the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. The FBI and Congress opened investigations, and the State Department ordered a review of practices.
TRUMP VETOES DEFENCE BILL PRESIDENT Donald Trump yesterday vetoed the annual defence policy bill, following through on threats to veto a measure that has broad bipartisan support in Congress and potentially setting up the first override vote of his presidency. The bill affirms three percent pay raises for US troops and authorises more than $740 billion in military programs and construction. The action came while Trump was holed up at the White House, stewing about his election loss and escalating his standoff with Republicans as he pushed fraudulent conspiracy theories and tried to pressure them to back his efforts to overturn the results. The House was poised to return on Monday, and the Senate on Tuesday, to consider votes to override the president’s veto of the National Defense Authorisation Act, or NDAA. Trump’s move provoked swift condemnation, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling it “an act of staggering recklessness that harms our troops, endangers our security and undermines the will of the bipartisan Congress”. Sen Jim Inhofe, R-Okla, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, avoided any criticism of Trump, but called the NDAA “absolutely vital to our national security and our troops. ... Our men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform shouldn’t be denied what they need — ever”. Long before issuing the veto, Trump offered a series of rationales for rejecting
it. He has called for lawmakers to include limits on social media companies he claimed are biased against him — and to strip out language that allows for the renaming of military bases such as Fort Benning and Fort Hood that honor Confederate leaders. Without going into detail, he has claimed the biggest winner from the defense bill would be China. In his veto message to the House, Trump cited those objections and stated that the measure “fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military’s history, and contradicts efforts by my Administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions. It is a ‘gift’ to China and Russia.” He also wrote: “Numerous provisions of the Act directly contradict my Administration’s foreign policy, particularly my efforts to bring our troops home. Both the House and Senate passed the measure by margins large enough to override a veto from the president. Trump had vetoed eight bills previously, but those vetoes were sustained because supporters did not gain the two-thirds vote needed in each chamber for the bill to become law without Trump’s signature. In advance of the veto, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, has said the bill would help deter Chinese aggression.
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020
Hield tips in winning basket in overtime By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
C
havano “Buddy” Hield’s late-game heroics helped the Sacramento Kings open the 2020-21 campaign with a thrilling win in the first overtime game of the season. Hield scored a team high 22 points and tipped in the game winner as time expired to give the Kings a 124-122 win over the Denver Nuggets last night at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. He scored 19 of his 22 in the second half, none bigger than the final field goal in overtime. Harrison Barnes deflected the Nuggets’ inbound pass and had an opportunity to score the go ahead basket but his dunk attempt was blocked by the Nuggets’ Will Barton. Hield was trailing on the fastbreak and was perfectly positioned for the tip in as time expired. Hield shot 7-15 from the field including 5-11 from three-point range. He also added four rebounds and three assists in 41 minutes. Hield scored just three in the first half on 1-6 shooting, 1-4 on three pointers and the Kings trailed 60-53. Out of the break, Hield made his second three of the game, was fouled on another attempt and followed with three free throws as part of a run that saw the Kings take a 72-70 lead. He scored nine points in the third quarter as the Kings outscored the Nuggets by 12 in the period and
SACRAMENTO Kings guard Buddy Hield, right, reacts after putting in the winning basket in overtime against the Denver Nuggets last night in Denver. Sacramento guard De’Aaron Fox is at left. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) took an 89-84 lead into the fourth. Tied at 112 late in regulation, Hield lost the handle on the final possession and the game went into overtime. At the conclusion of the preseason, Hield referenced the unselfish nature of the Kings’ approach to the game. On 47 made field goals last night, 27 came off assists. “Once you make the right play the ball will always find you in this
offence. We just have to go out there, make the ball move and make teams play to our strengths,” Hield said. “It’s basketball. Each team needs to play rhythm, especially when we’re talking about schemes, but I feel like we’re all grown men, once we put our minds to making things happen, giving up ourselves for each other, making the right play, understanding the game, which play we
can make, which shot is a good shot, which shot is a bad shot, I think we should be fine.” Hield was the team’s leading scorer in 201819 and its second leading scorer in 2019-20, but started just 44 of 72 games before he was relegated to a reserve role off the bench in favour of Bogdan Bogdanovic. With Bogdanovic gone in free agency, Hield was second only to Harrison
Barnes (42) on the Kings in minutes played. Hield also referenced his conditioning to be able to accept a greater load this season. “Once you’re stronger and guys can feel you and you can stay active. It helps with durability on offence and defence,” he said. “I’m a guy that likes to run, I’m conditioned well for this. I’m just trying to keep my guy in front of me and use my strength against them.”
PRO PICKS PAGE 14
THUNDER VS ROCKETS POSTPONED, HARDEN OUT AFTER COVID VIOLATION By KRISTIE RIEKEN AP Sports Writer HOUSTON (AP) — The James Harden soap opera in Houston now comes with a cancelled season opener — and a $50,000 fine for the league’s leading scorer. Houston’s opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder last night was scrapped after coronavirus cases and Harden’s violation of the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols left the Rockets without the league-mandated eight players available. It was a dispiriting blow to the NBA on just the second night of an uncertain season launching with the pandemic still raging. The NBA announced the postponement in a release that said three Rockets players had returned tests that were either positive or inconclusive and that four other players were quarantined because of contract tracing. The release also said that Harden was unavailable for the game because of a violation of health and safety protocols after video of the disgruntled star surfaced on social media where he was without a mask at a crowded party in a private event space Monday night. The league later announced the fine for Harden, saying the protocols prohibit attending indoor social gatherings of 15 or more people or entering bars, lounges, clubs or similar establishments. Already a distraction to the team amid months of rumours that he wants to be traded, Harden’s latest move potentially threatened the health and safety
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COVID-19 hits Young Celtics edge Bucks 122-121 on and Cavalry in ABL By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
opening weekend series short as well, underscoring that all clubs and the league still have challenges ahead OPENING weekend in the COVID-19 world,” did not go as planned for Cavalry Director Dan Chavez Young and his Amodio said. “Right now, Canberra Cavalry in the we want to thank you for Australian Baseball League the flexibility, patience, supas COVID-19 restrictions port and understanding you led to another delay for the continue to show us as we already shortened season. CHARGE into our home Young was one of five opener at MIT Ballpark players on the roster next weekend.” in quarantine that Young is ranked did not make the No. 30 on the Blue trip to Perth to take Jays’ prospect list, on the Perth Heat, and joins a Cavbut eventually, alry club that has the entire opening advanced to one weekend series was championship series postponed. and three semifinal According to the appearances in the Cavalry, its roster last four seasons. YOUNG “includes players The ABL is one from New South of baseball’s recogWales – or close contacts of nised winter leagues where people from the state – that minor league prospects would be required to quar- are assigned as an Englishantine in Western Australia speaking alternative to the following a COVID out- primary Spanish-speakbreak in Sydney’s Northern ing Latin America-based Beaches.” winter leagues. This season Young and the other for the ABL features two players in quarantine will conferences (Australian be available when the Cav- and International) with the alry makes its season debut traditional 40 games conat home on December 25 densed to a 24 game regular against the Melbourne season. Aces. Seven former Cavalry “Obviously, this was not players were members of how any of us planned to MLB 60-person taxi-squads start the ABL season, and it last season. The club has was about as far from what active strategic partnerships we at the Cavalry wanted. with two MLB teams, the We know only too well San Diego Padres and the the heartbreak of having Houston Astros. to abandon a series, as we Partner teams have also had to do that last season. included the Blue Jays, CinWe’ve now seen Sydney cinnati Reds and Atlanta and Melbourne cut their Braves.
Giannis’ missed free throw BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum banked in a fallaway, go-ahead 3-pointer in the final second, and Giannis Antetokounmpo missed the potential tying free throw with 0.4 seconds left, allowing the Boston Celtics to escape with a 122-121 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night in the teams’ season opener. Tatum scored 30 points and Jaylen Brown had 33 for Boston, which entered the fourth quarter leading by 17 points. The Celtics trailed 120-119 when Tatum dribbled the clock down from 8.9 seconds before lofting a high-arcing 3 over Antetokounmpo from the left side that kissed the glass on its way down. The ensuing inbounds pass was thrown at the rim and Antetokounmpo tried to tip it in, but he was fouled. The two-time reigning NBA MVP made the first foul shot, but bounced the second off the front of the rim. Antetokounmpo scored 18 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, and Khris Middleton had 27 points and 14 rebounds for Milwaukee. The Bucks had the best record in the NBA in each of the past two seasons but didn’t make it out of the Eastern Conference finals. Milwaukee led by nine points, 48-39, midway through the second quarter before Boston rolled off 10 straight points and 19 of the next 23. Boston led 101-84 after three, but Antetokounmpo outscored the Celtics 10-2 over a two-minute span midway through the fourth to cut a 10-point Celtics lead to 109-107. PELICANS 113, RAPTORS 99 TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — JJ Redick converted a four-point play with just over a minute remaining and
TIMBERWOLVES forward Karl-Anthony Towns dunks in front of Pistons forward Blake Griffin and centre Mason Plumlee, rear, during the first quarter yesterday in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King) finished with 23 points, Brandon Ingram had 24 points, and New Orleans overcame an 11-point deficit and beat Toronto. Because of the current Canadian restrictions on cross-border travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Raptors are scheduled to play their first 17 “home” games at Tampa’s Amalie Arena. The second half of the NBA’s schedule will be released later. Zion Williamson had a big second half for the Pelicans and finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds to help deliver new coach Stan Van Gundy a victory in his New Orleans debut. Pascal Siakam led the Raptors with 20 points. Kyle Lowry finished with 18 points and 10 assists in the opener for both teams.
MAGIC 113, HEAT 107 ORLANDO, Florida (AP) — Evan Fournier gave Orlando the lead with a late 3-pointer, converted a three-point play in the final minute and scored 25 points in the Magic’s victory over Miami. Aaron Gordon had 20 points and seven rebounds for Orlando, Terrence Ross added 19 points, Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Markelle Fultz also had 15 points. Bam Adebayo led Miami with 25 points and 11 rebounds, Goran Dragic added 20 points, and Jimmy Butler had 19 points and seven assists.
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PAGE 12, Thursday, December 24, 2020
THE TRIBUNE
NESBITT, MILLER KEY CONTRIBUTORS IN LATE SEASON PLAYOFF RACE By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net WITH their respective teams in late season playoff races, David Nesbitt and Tavario Miller continue to provide key contributions for their clubs as they conclude the regular season. Nesbitt has helped to lead Minas Belo Horizonte to a 10-1 record, second in Brazil’s Novo Basquete Brasil. Nesbitt finished with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists in a 96-92 win over third ranked Sao Paulo (10-2). He followed with 14 points (4-8 on three pointers) and eight rebounds in an 84-76 win over Pinheiros. After an opening night loss, Minas has reeled off 10 consecutive wins to surge near the top of the standings. Just three games remain in the regular season. In his first year with the club, Nesbitt is averaging 13.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game. The veteran forward is shooting 61 percent from the field and 36 percent from three-point range. Nesbitt came off the bench in the aforementioned season debut, a 102-68 loss to Flamengo, but
since his move into the starting lineup the team has thrived. In his first start, he followed with a double double - 16 points and 11 rebounds - in a 76-54 win over Pato Basquete to begin the winning streak. This season with Minas marks Nesbitt’s third club in as many years in the NBB. He has also won two league championships during his tenure. He spent the 2019-20 season with Sport Club Corinthians Paulista. In 26 games he averaged 12.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and one steal per game. Over the course of the season, Nesbitt was voted to Latinbasket. com’s Brazilian League AllImports Team and League Player of the Week on two separate occasions. In the 2018-19 season, he played 37 games for Flamengo and averaged 7.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in just over 17 minutes per game. Miller and the second-placed Boca Juniors in Argentina’s Liga Nacional de Básquet (9-5) was edged 74-72 on the road by the much lower-ranked Libertad Sunchales (6-11) in the South group. Miller was the top scorer with 15 points (9-9 from the free throw
DAVID NESBITT
TAVARIO MILLER
line) and also grabbed seven rebounds in 21 minutes. Just two games remain in the regular season and Boca Juniors’ next matchup is with 10-8 Olimpico. In 12 games thus far, Miller is averaging 13.4 points and 8.7
rebounds per game. He is shooting 54 percent from the field, 33 percent from three and 70 percent from the free throw line. Miller was an early-season acquisition for Boca Juniors and has had an immediate impact with his new club. He debuted with 14
points and 10 rebounds in a 76-60 win over Ferro just one day after signing with Boca Juniors. This season marks Miller’s second in Argentina. Last season, he played with Quimsa Santiago del Estero and in 21 games he averaged 10.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He played an integral role in Quimsa winning the league’s pennant and finishing as the runners-up in the final. Travis Munnings and Shaquille Cleare helped bring an end to a three-game losing streak for UD Oliveirense in Portugal’s Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (LPB). Munnings finished with 14 points and six rebounds, and Cleare, in just his second game with the club, added four points and three rebounds in just 13 minutes. UD Oliveirense improved to 7-4 on the season. Cleare made his debut last week and finished with eight points in just 16 minutes of a 90-74 loss to Benefica. On the season, Munnings has emerged as a team leader, averaging 12.4 points, a team leading 8.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
NHL SCHEDULE: 868 GAMES IN 116 DAYS, BACK-TO-BACKS AND MORE By JOHN WAWROW AP Sports Writer THE Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning will host the Chicago Blackhawks in one of five games to open the NHL’s coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2021 season on January 13. The league released a first-of-its kind schedule yesterday featuring four realigned divisions based on geography and limited to division play only. Each team will play 56 regularseason games, which will be squeezed into what’s tentatively scheduled as a 116-day stretch ending on May 8. It includes an NHL first: An all-Canadian North
Division made up the nation’s seven teams will play each other nine or 10 times. The three remaining eight-team divisions have all US teams, which will face each division foe eight times. Though the playoffs are set to open May 11, that date could be pushed back in the event the league is required to reschedule games amid the pandemic. Though the schedule is set, much remains undetermined, including game times. A much bigger question is whether the NHL receives approval from Canada’s provincial and federal health officials to allow the nation’s teams to play in their home cities.
GOALS used by the NHL hockey club Nashville Predators are stored in a hallway in Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (AP) The San Jose Sharks, meantime, will open training camp December 31 in Scottsdale, Arizona,
and their season with two games at the Coyotes. Like the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers who are closing out
their season at Arizona, the Sharks are temporarily without a home after Santa Clara County banned contact sports through at least January 8. The NHL took into account the possibility of the ban being extended by having the Sharks open with eight straight road games. Their home opener against Vegas isn’t scheduled until February 1. There are numerous quirks in the schedule, which will feature at least one game a day over an 868-game season, and has teams playing mostly twogame sets against the same opponent in the same city to reduce travel: — The Sharks have three stretches
in which they will play the same opponent four consecutive times, twice at home and twice on the road. — Vancouver will play three-game home sets against Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary, and a threegame set at Toronto. — The Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks will face each other five consecutive times from April 20 to May 1. “The back-to-backs are more like baseball,” Washington Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said. “You are going to do a lot of prep and then going to have a very good knowledge of where that team is at after you play that first game.”
WADA SAYS SWISS COURT OVERTURNS SUN’S DOPING BAN By DENNIS PASSA and GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writers THE World Anti-Doping Agency says a Swiss court has overturned an eight-year doping ban against Chinese swimmer Sun Yang and ordered the case back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a second time but with a different chairman of the judges. In February, CAS found the three-time Olympic champion guilty of refusing to cooperate with sample collectors during a visit to his home in September 2018 that turned confrontational. WADA brought the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after world swimming governing body FINA had issued the now 29-year-old Yang with only a warning. At stake in a second CAS hearing would be Yang’s chance to compete at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics now set for July 2021. The Swiss court ruling appears to have swung on an objection by Sun’s lawyers to the chairman of the three-judge panel, former Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini. Yesterday, WADA said in a statement that it had been informed of a decision by the Swiss Federal Tribunal to uphold an application by Yang and to set aside the original February ruling. “The Swiss Federal Tribunal’s decision upholds a challenge
HARDEN from PAGE 11 of his team and kept the Rockets from beginning their season. Houston has 16 players on its roster; with seven dealing with tests or quarantine and one hurt. That would have left eight eligible players, which is the league minimum to start a game. Harden’s unavailability lowered Houston’s total of available players to seven. Houston’s injury report released yesterday morning that Ben McLemore and rookie KJ Martin were not with the team and were self-isolating and that DeMarcus Cousins was questionable because of a sprained right ankle.
against the chair of the CAS Panel and makes no comment on the substance of this case,” WADA said in the statement. “In the CAS award, WADA clearly prevailed on the substance of the case as it was able to show that there were a number of aspects of the original FINA decision that were incorrect under the World Anti-Doping Code . . . WADA will take steps to present its case robustly again when the matter returns to the CAS Panel, which will be chaired by a different president (chairman). “At this stage, WADA has not received the tribunal’s full reasoned decision and therefore cannot comment further.” A clash between Frattini and Sun was one of the most dramatic moments in a 10-hour CAS hearing in Montreux, Switzerland in November 2019 that was a rare instance of a CAS process held in open court and live-streamed online. The hearing ended with Sun surprising his own legal team by waving his arms and calling another translator from the public seats to better articulate his closing statement. “Who is this guy?” asked an incredulous Frattini. “It is not up to you to appear before the court. There are some rules.” Frattini has upset Yang and his legal team for a series of past tweets, including one from April 23, 2019 that read: “Those horrible sadic chinese are the shame of mankind !! For how they
Harden’s since-deleted Instagram post explaining why he attended the event in question would certainly suggest that he was in violation of those rules. In the post he wrote: “One thing after another. I went to show love to my homegirl at her event (not a strip club) because she is becoming a boss and putting her people in a position of success and now it’s a problem. Everyday it’s something different. No matter how many times people try to drag my name under you can’t. The real people always end up on top.” But for now the eighttime All-Star is on the shelf after admitting to breaking the rules set forth in the protocols. “In light of the serious and highly infectious
torture animals they deserve the evil every day! And the chinese authorities tolerate and encourage.” Sun’s challenge to Frattini at federal court followed a pattern of objecting to lawyers involved in the case. A typical CAS hearing allows each side to select one of the three judges on the panel, and the swimmer’s legal team persistently objected to WADA’s original choice of Michael Beloff from England. Beloff, a veteran and in-demand CAS judge, eventually stepped aside from the case “solely to assist in an expeditious hearing, and not because the challenge had any merit whatsoever,” the CAS ruling in February stated. Sun’s team also tried to have WADA’s lead prosecutor, Colorado-based Richard Young, removed from the case for alleged conflict of interest because he previously worked for swim body FINA. Young, who previously prosecuted doping cases involving Lance Armstrong and Marion Jones, stayed on the case. Very few cases, at a rate of about one per year that includes around 400 arbitration and appeal processes, are successful at the Swiss tribunal. It is even possible to overturn a CAS verdict in the federal court and still lose the re-trial. That happened to tennis player Guillermo Canas of Argentina in 2007.
CHINA’s Sun Yang leaves the pool deck following the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay heats at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, July 26, 2019. (AP) Canas was initially banned for two years by the ATP Tour’s antidoping tribunal, and saw that reduced to 15 months at CAS. When Canas went to federal court, Swiss judges ruled his right to be heard had been breached and sent back the case. A second CAS hearing also applied a 15-month ban. The most vivid detail of the evidence submitted at the Yang’s November 2019 CAS hearing was a blood sample rendered useless for testing by a hammer blow. The hearing was reminded of how a security guard instructed by Sun’s mother broke the casing around the vial to ensure the blood could not be used for antidoping tests.
“The athlete failed to establish that he had a compelling justification to destroy his sample collection containers and forego the doping control when, in his opinion, the collection protocol was not in compliance,” the CAS panel of three judges agreed in an unanimous verdict announced in February. Immediately, Sun said he planned to appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which is Switzerland’s highest court. That move proved to be successful this week, setting the scene for another CAS hearing ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and ensuring the case involving a controversial 2018 doping test continues into at least 2021.
ROCKETS guard James Harden, top centre, joins the huddle during the fourth quarter of a preseason game against the San Antonio Spurs December 17 in Houston. (AP) nature of the coronavirus... individuals must not engage in activities or conduct that a reasonable person
would regard as posing unnecessary risk relative to the significance (or lack thereof) of such activity
or conduct,” the protocols say. Harden, according to the protocols, may now be ordered into quarantine
and could lose about $280,000 for each game missed. Houston’s next scheduled game is Saturday at Portland. Teams have been told by the league that any player who misses games while in quarantine because he broke protocols will miss game checks. Oklahoma City also was involved in the March 11 game that led to the league shutting down for the coronavirus pandemic; the Thunder were to have been the home team that night for a game against Utah, called off when it was learned Jazz centre Rudy Gobert was the NBA’s first player to test positive for COVID-19. The Thunder, unwittingly, now find themselves part of history again.
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THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, December 24, 2020, PAGE 13
Versatile Charisma Taylor to move from PAC-12 to Southeastern Conference
GERMAN CLUB SELLS 72,000 TICKETS FOR GAME IN EMPTY STADIUM
By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net VERSATILE athletics star Charisma Taylor will make a move from the PAC-12 to the Southeastern Conference for her upcoming junior season. Taylor, who spent the last two years with the Washington State Cougars, will transfer to join the Tennessee Lady Volunteers track and field programme for the upcoming season. Taylor will join a Volunteers programme that won three SEC individual championships, eight SEC event medals, set four school records, three freshman records and 24 top-10 programme marks during the indoor season alone in a pandemic shortened NCAA Indoor season. In her shortened sophomore season with the Cougars, she made her biggest impact in several jump events and was named an NCAA Division I Track and Field All-American by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Her season was highlighted by winning the women’s triple jump at the MPSF Indoor Track and Field Championships February 28-29 with a leap of 13.29m (43-7 1/4). She was also fourth in the 60m hurdles in 8.29 seconds. She also produced her lifetime best in the triple jump of 13.48m (44-2 3/4) at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational. She is currently Washington State indoor record holder in the 60-metre
hurdles (8.19), the all-time triple jump leader at 43 feet, 7 1/4 inches (13.29m), and holds two WSU freshman records in the 60m hurdles and in the triple jump. She also ranks 10th all-time in WSU history in the long jump. As a freshman, Taylor burst onto the WSU track and field scene during her first year with the Cougs, posting multiple all-time records. She ranked sixth overall in the NCAA in the triple jump, and also ranked 25th in the nation in the 60-metre hurdles. She also did her personal best of 6.03m (19-9 1/2) in the long jump at the WSU Indoor Track and Field Meet. At the WSU Cougar Indoor last year as well, she did her PR of 7.65 in the 60m; she ran 13.79 for her PR in the 100m hurdles at the Cougar Invite and she posted her PF of 25.34 in the 200m at the Bronco Invite. The former Queen’s College Comet went on to compete for Spire Institute in Ohio before making the transition to the collegiate level.
ATHLETICS star Charisma Taylor, who spent the last two years with the Washington State Cougars, is expected to transfer to join the Tennessee Lady Volunteers track and field programme for the upcoming season. The 2018 Under-20 World Championship qualifier in the triple jump recently competed at the event last weekend as track and field returned to the Thomas A Robinson Stadium in the BAAAs Odd Distance meet. She
CAVANI MUSCLES MAN UNITED INTO CUP SEMIS, REMATCH WITH MAN CITY By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer EDINSON Cavani grabbed an opponent’s throat, then grabbed a crucial late goal to send Manchester United into the English League Cup semifinals and a rematch with fierce rival Manchester City. Had VAR been in operation for the competition, the Uruguay striker mightn’t have been on the field to score United’s 88th-minute opener in the 2-0 win over Everton yesterday. That’s because earlier in the half, Cavani was seen putting his right hand around the throat of Everton defender Yerry Mina and throwing the Colombian to the ground following a tussle between the South Americans. The incident apparently wasn’t spotted by match officials, who were unable to review it because no VAR is in place. Anthony Martial then added a second goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time with virtually the last kick of the game at Goodison Park to seal United’s place in the onelegged semifinals, where the team was drawn at home to defending champion City in a repeat of the derby meeting from the same stage last season. Tottenham’s kind reward for beating Stoke 3-1 in the other quarterfinal match yesterday was a home game against another second-tier opponent, Brentford, in the last four. The semifinals will take place in the week beginning January 4, with the final at Wembley Stadium having been pushed back until April. It was another brush with controversy for Cavani, who last week was charged with misconduct by the Football Association for using a Spanish term for Black people that he said was intended as an affectionate greeting.
MANCHESTER United’s Edinson Cavani, left, and Everton’s Tom Davies battle for the ball during their English League Cup quarterfinal soccer match at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, yesterday. (AP) United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer didn’t see much wrong with the incident with Mina. “It’s two South Americans who have had a few battles before not long ago in the Copa America qualification,” Solskjaer said. “So no, no, no. It was a proper game of football.” United reached the semifinals of three competitions last season — the League Cup, the FA Cup and the Europa League — and lost them all. Now, Solskjaer’s side has the chance to end City’s three-year hold on the trophy and move in sight of its first piece of silverware under the Norwegian manager. “It’s the worst game to lose, a semifinal,” Solskjaer said. “At least when you get to a final, you get that feeling, the build-up. “We are going to do everything we can to get to the semifinals in a good state. Of course, we have many league games before that.” The draw couldn’t have been kinder to former United manager Jose Mourinho, who moved within two wins of leading Tottenham to its first major trophy since 2008. Gareth Bale, Ben Davies and Harry Kane scored for Spurs in a routine win at Stoke as Mourinho kept
up his impressive record in the League Cup, which he won with Chelsea on three occasions and also while at United. It is a competition he targets — and has won it each time he reaches the semifinals. “To win other trophies, you need to win more matches,” Mourinho said. “The FA Cup didn’t start for us. The Europa League, we are in the last 32. In the Premier League, I told you already what we are.” Mourinho fielded a strong team at Stoke, which is seventh in the Championship, with Kane playing the full match amid a busy run of games in the Premier League. Bale glanced in a cross from Harry Winks to give Tottenham the lead in the 22nd minute with his third goal since returning to the club in September for a second spell. The winger didn’t come out for the second half because of a calf injury. Jordan Thompson equalised for Stoke in the 53rd in a rare sight of goal for the hosts following a counterattack but Davies put Tottenham back in front with a fierce low drive from 25 yards (meters). Kane clinched victory in the 81st by running onto Moussa Sissoko’s pass and smashing a rising shot into the roof of the net.
won both Open women’s long and triple jumps and placed second in the 150m. In the triple jump, Taylor, representing Leap of Faith, cleared 12.81m (42-0 1/2) and captured the long jump with a leap of 5.59m (18-4 1/4). “On the whole, I think
I did very well. It’s still early. It’s December, but I feel I’m in a good position for the season. There’s still some things I need to work on, but it was a good meet. I still have some things to work on,” Taylor told The Tribune.
NBA CAPSULES, 76ERS 113, WIZARDS 107 PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid scored the go-ahead basket with 1:09 left and had 29 points and 14 rebounds to help Philadelphia spoil Russell Westbrook’s triple-double Washington debut. Westbrook and Bradley Beal were fantastic in the backourt in the openingnight paring that nearly handed 76ers coach Doc Rivers a loss in his Philadelphia debut. Westbrook had 21 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds. Embiid and Shake Milton, who scored 19 points off the bench, were the go-to scorers late, and Ben Simmons sealed the victory with a monster dunk in the waning moments. Simmons had 16 points. SPURS 131, GRIZZLIES 119 MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan had 28 points and nine assists, Dejounte Murray added 21 points and San Antonio overcame Memphis star Ja Morant’s 44-point game. Morant -- the reigning rookie of the year -- had 34 of his points in the second half. While that helped carry the Grizzlies offensively, it wasn’t enough to put a deep dent in San Antonio’s double-digit lead through much of the second half. Morant also had nine assists. LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 points for San Antonio. CAVALIERS 121, HORNETS 114 CLEVELAND (AP) — Collin Sexton scored 27 points, Darius Garland added 22 and Cleveland won its first home game in nearly 300 days, overcoming the hot shooting of Terry Rozier to beat Charlotte. Hyped rookie LaMelo Ball didn’t score in his NBA debut with Charlotte, and Hornets centre Cody Zeller broke his left hand. Ball went 0 for 5 from the floor and had three assists in 16 minutes. Rozier made a career-high 10 3-pointers and scored 42 points to lead the
DRESDEN, Germany (AP) — German thirdtier soccer club Dynamo Dresden has said it sold more than 72,000 tickets for a game played in an empty stadium with no fans. Former East German champion Dynamo offered fans the “ghost tickets” — named for the German habit of dubbing empty-stadium matches “ghost games” — for five euros ($6.10) as a way to raise funds for the club during the coronavirus pandemic. Fans could receive a commemorative ticket to keep. The total of 72,112 tickets sold for Tuesday’s German Cup game against Darmstadt was more than double the capacity of Dresden’s stadium. Only two games in the club’s history, both away games, had more people in attendance, Dresden said. Dresden lost the game 3-0 to Darmstadt, which plays a division above Dynamo in the league. German clubs have pioneered innovative fundraising ideas after the pandemic hurt teams’ incomes. When German soccer shut down in the spring, third-tier club Uerdingen sold “virtual tickets” for a fictional game. Top-division side Borussia Mönchengladbach offered fans the chance to have their photos printed onto cardboard cutouts for home games, an idea quickly copied by sports teams around the world.
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Hornets. Gordon Hayward scored 28 points in his first game for Charlotte. HAWKS 124, BULLS 104 CHICAGO (AP) — Trae Young scored 37 points and revamped Atlanta pounded Chicago, spoiling Billy Donovan’s debut as Bulls coach. Atlanta shot 54 percent from the field. Cam Reddish had 15 points and John Collins finished with 14. Looking for their first playoff berth since 2017, the Hawks signed Bogdan Bogdanovic, Danilo Gallinari, Rajon Rondo and Kris Dunn during free agency. Rondo and Dunn were held out on opening night, but Bogdanovic had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Gallinari scored 13 points. Zach LaVine scored 22 points for the Bulls, and Lauri Markkanen had 21 points and seven rebounds. TIMBERWOLVES 111, PISTONS 101 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Malik Beasley scored 23 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, leading Minnesota past Detroit. D’Angelo Russell pitched in 18 points, and Anthony Edwards — the first overall pick in the NBA draft last month — added 15 points as the Timberwolves overcame a deficit that often reached double digits and was still 12 points midway through the third quarter. Josh Jackson had 19 points for Detroit, and Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose each had 15. PACERS 121, KNICKS 107 INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Domantas Sabonis scored a career-high 32 points and Victor Oladipo added 16 of his 22 in the second half, leading Indiana past New York. Sabonis also had 13 rebounds to help new coach Nate Bjorkgren celebrate his first career victory. RJ Barrett finished with 26 points, and Alec Burks had 22 for New York.
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SPORTS
THE TRIBUNE
Thursday, December 24, 2020, PAGE 15
Jasmine secures athletic scholarship By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WHEN Jasmine Roker joined his Diamond Basketball Development Programme, coach Terrance McSweeney said he knew he could turn her speed as a soccer player into a prime time basketball player. From 2017 when she transferred from HO Nash to St John’s College, McSweeney has been working with Roker, whom he nicknamed ‘Coffee,’ developing her as a point guard. She also utilised her skills as a track athlete. Those combined skills have enabled Roker to secure an athletic scholarship to attend Saint Leo University, a NCAA Division II school where she will enrol in August, 2021. “I am very excited for this opportunity for Jasmine Roker, another participant in the Diamond Basketball Development year-round training programme just for girls,” McSweeney said. “I am expecting Jasmine to fit right into the Saint Leo University women’s basketball programme right away because Jasmine is a very quick learner.” In making her selection after she couldn’t travel for a site visit because of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, Roker said she decided to settle on a school that was in close proximity to home and the warm climate. “Saint Leo really clicked on all of my checked boxes and although they are a division two programme, coach McSweeney always told us that there’s room for improvement,” Roker said. “So I’m not mad about that. I’m honoured by this opportunity.” When she does go, Roker hopes to study biology, but she’s eager to prove to the coaching staff why they selected her for the scholarship.
“They are going to get my best,” Roker said. “This programme has helped me tremendously. Coach played a big role in my development as a player. “He always talks to us and lets us know that we have the talent and we’re capable of doing whatever we put our mind to. We just have to put in the work. I told myself that all the time.”
Roker said she has gotten so much encouragement from being a part of the Diamond Basketball League programme that she could only go on to be successful. McSweeney said he is confident that Roker’s athleticism to play soccer and run track will complement and enhance her skills on the basketball court at Saint Leo. “Chances are Jasmine Roker could very well end
up running track and or playing soccer for the university,” McSweeney said. “While attending my junior girls’ basketball team practice, I realised that Jasmine had other potentials and talents to play basketball as well as run track and now it’s paying off,” he added. Now, only time will tell how well Jasmine succeeds at Saint Leo University in St. Leo, Florida.
FISHER NAMED SPARKS GM
JASMINE Roker at practice.
(AP) — THE Los Angeles Sparks have extended coach Derek Fisher’s contract and appointed him the team’s general manager. Fisher has guided the Sparks to a 37-19 record in his two years with the team and Los Angeles has reached the postseason both years. “I’m honoured to be named general manager of the LA Sparks and continue my role as head coach,” Fisher said.